From: Nona Younis < nonayounis16@hotmail.com > Sent: Tue, Feb 2, 2016 10:14 pm Subject: You will take 30% of the money for your kind assistance Hello my Dearest, My name is Miss Nona Younis, I am (24yrs) but age doesn't matter in a real relationship,I am from Libya in Africa,5.4ft tall, fair in complexion, single, (never married ) and presently i am residing here in Dakar as a result of the civil war that was fought in my country,i am writing you here with full of tears, as i just lost my parents in the hands of Libyan crisis that attacked our house one early morning and killed my father and my mother in cold blood.You can view the website of the war below : http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110319-libyan-war-2011 Dear one, please be honest withme, I am an orphan and for your more information : my late fatherDr. Abdul Fatah Younis was the minister of Interior Services in Tripoli (the capital city of Libya, my country) before the crisis of Gaddafi against rebels that led to the death of father and my mother. This situation left me with no one except me that survived by the help of Red cross team that brought me to Senegal.My Late father deposited $6.4 million us dollars in some banks in my name as the next of kin/inheritance. And I have contacted the bank to claim the money as the next of kin and because of my deplorable condition in Senegal refugee camp and the bank replied that due to my refugee status that I am not qualified to claim the money, that I have to look for a reliable foreign trustee who will stand on my behalf to claim the funds,this is the only condition the bank gave me. The bank refused to transfer the funds directly to me because of my refugee status and they directed me to find a trustee who will stand on my behalf to claim the funds for me and that is why i contacted you now. Please I want to know if you are honest and reliable to help me to claim this funds on my behalf, because if I lose this money I will suffer all my life on this earth and I will not finish my education any more, so be honest to me if you will betray me please tell me ,and I want you to treat this with the absolute confidence and hold it to yourself without anybody knowing it, for my safety. If you are able and honest to help me please reply soon so that I will give you the bank information for you to contact the bank. And i would like you to proved to me that you are a reliable person in whom I can place my confidence on and entrust my inheritance to, really I don't know you in person but hope so much that we will discover ourselves as we go on. If you are a trustworthy person, then, I would like you to help me transfer my late fathers funds to your personal account, pending my arrival to meet with you and plan together how to invest the money in any business you know that will be nice for us, when the money is transferred to you, you shall send me some money from it to enable me clear myself from this camp and prepare my travel document to meet you over their in your country. You will take 30% of the money for your kind assistance. Important notice, please do not disclose this plan with you to any other person (it is my secret with in me and you. I don't want to lose this money to wicked people. So send me your full details, 1. Your full name. . . . . . 2 country name. . . . . . . 3. phone number. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. working place and position in the office. . . . . . . 5. age. . . . . . . so that i can use it to write a nomination letter to the bank so that when you contact the bank, they will know of a truth that you are coming on my behalf and in my next mail i will give you the Bank Email id of the bank transfer department and their phone number if you promise me that you will not take the money all by yourself and leave me here to die of hunger. I will be also happy to speak with you for more information about the deposited funds but i don't have a private phone, My only access to Internet is only through our church computer which i can only use when is free, So now i will give you our church Rev Father's phone number. ( Rev Name, Rev Paschal Leonard ) Phone Number +221- 776670816 please call me on this number, when you call just tell the Reverend that you want to speak with me, then he will send for me to come and speak with you, so please try to call me and let me know if you really want to help me so that i will send you more information of the deposited funds, I am waiting to hear from you. yours sincerely, Nona From: Nona Younis < nonayounis16@hotmail.com > Sent: Fri, Feb 5, 2016 10:03 pm Subject: Please send me your full contact details Good evening and how are you doing ? My dear, I want you to know that God knows why he directed me to you and for you to help me out from these ugly situation that i found myself today, God has a good plan for us to meet. My dear all i need from you now is your full informations so that i will use it and introduce you to the bank where the funds was deposited so that before i will send you the bank information for you to contact them and they will well know you as my trustee/ representative, so kindly send me your full details information as follows in your mail. Please send me your full contact details : 1. Your full name. . . . . . 2 country name. . . . . . . 3. phone number. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. working place and position in the office. . . . . . . 5. age. . . . . . . you can call me through the Reverend father phone anytime from morning to 6 PM that is when he close, i have told the bank my intention for the claim and they told me to look for a trustee who will stand for me and make the claim due to my refugee status because the law will not permit me as a refugee to handle such transaction, I'm waiting to hear from you soonest and take care. Yours sincerely, Nona From: Nona Younis < nonayounis16@hotmail.com > Sent: Sat, Feb 6, 2016 10:57 pm Subject: Greetings, I would like to nominate you to the bank for the transfer Dear Beloved, How are you today? I hope all is well with you, greetings from my heart to you, My dear, i so much thank you tobring peace to my life again since my life has been full of suffering and pains since my parents died, but i thank God for bringing us together. I have been praying for solution to my life to get in touch with someone who will call me back to life again because i am almost dead due to the sufferings here in the camp but since i read your mail it has been singing to my heart that my joy will be restored through you. Well, as i told you before, i am a simple girl who love and wants to be loved but i have nobody to rest on his shoulder. Please it is truth that we have not known each other very well for now but due to my present condition over here in the refugee camp, I personally decided to be open to you because I am truly dying over here and I don't want to die here in pains and suffering and the bank will eat my late parent's hard aim money God forbid, so I have to be open and straight forwards to you and I know that you are God sent to my life to rescue me from here so that I can join you over there in your peace country for my dear life and start a good life with you and your family, N o need to start telling you about my physical appearance since you are having my picture already and one thing i know is that i am trying to have all the good qualities needed in a woman. I love cooking because i want to be a good cook, shares my free times with people or someone that is so dear to me, especially people like you, so i pray to meet with you one day. I love education, listening to people and being listened to, being praised (my parents calls me princess and i will like you to give me a better name, as for me i will be calling you my darling if you will permit me). Apart from the above listed, going for sports and church, i think being with you is the best to my life. My dear, i am tired of being helped because i was not trained like that, life has been so frustrating to me after the death of my parents, i don't know whether to start going up or down. Though my Daddy used to tell me that life is full of ups and downs when he was alive but i never expected to find myself in this kind of condition throughout my life but to God be all the glory because i am still alive. Please my dear, due to the pain and suffering i have passed through, my intention is to relocate to your country where this money will be invested under your care to continue with my education and it will pleas me if you will tell me more about yourself OK, so that we will get to know ourselves the more. that i can send your information to the bank and also nominate you to the bank for the transfer as my trustee. I don't know how to show you that i really appreciate coming in contact with you since distance is separating us so i will be happy if you can call me through ( Rev Paschal Leonard )'s phone number +221-776670816 so that we will talk on the phone for me to feel the reality of this relationship. Thanks for your care and please be remembering me in your prayers. God bless you as i am looking forward to hear from you. Yours truly in pains, From: Nona Younis < nonayounis16@hotmail.com > Sent: Mon, Feb 8, 2016 2:05 pm Subject: Send me your details to nominate you to the bank for the transfer My love, If you truly want to help me to claim this money from the bank, be open and send me your details,i want you to know that i am in pains over here, please if you truly want to help me before i will die here for starvation and hunger and the bank will eat my late parents hard aim money, try to do it please Yours Nona From: Nona Younis < nonayounis16@hotmail.com > Sent: Sun, May 29, 2016 12:50 am Subject: Darling, I told him to send you your cheque of $300.000 Hello I am pleased to inform you about my success in getting those funds transferred under the cooperation of a new partner from London UK.I am currently in the London to continue with my studies here in the London while my partner is busy with his project and investing the money.Friend, I didn't forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me in transferring funds despite that it failed us some how. Now you need to contact the Rev.Father who used to be a good father to me when I was in Dakar, Senegal, his name is Rev.Father Pascal Leonard and his email address is as follows: Rev. Pascal Leonard 108 Rue Nord foire Dakar Senegal +221-776670816 rev.pascalleo78@gmail.com I told him to sendyou yourcheque of $300.000.00 which I prepared and kept for your compensation for all efforts and attempts to assist me in this matter. I appreciate your efforts at that time very much. so feel free to contact the Rev Father and instruct him where to send you the money. Please let me know immediately you receive so that we can share our joy after all the sufferings at that time. At this point, I'm very busy here because of my studies and some project investor that we has at hand now, finally, remember that I had forwarded instruction to the Rev Father on your behalf to receive that money. So do not hesitate to contact him and he will send the amount to you without any delay. Please do not forget to inform me as soon as the money received Take care and God bless you and goodbye for now. Your friend Nona. If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more.... Credit: Andrew EcclesThe Zombies will come creeping back to the U.S. in the coming weeks for a few concerts in Florida that will sandwich their performances on the third installment of The Moody Blues Cruise. The famous British Invasion band will kick off its 2016 stateside itinerary off with shows in Orlando on February 24 and Fort Lauderdale on February 25. The Zombies then will join The Moody Blues and a variety of other acts on the cruise, which embarks from Miami on February 26 and visits Key West and the Bahamas before returning to post on March 1. The band will follow that with two more gigs in the Sunshine State -- on March 2 in Clearwater and March 3 in Ponte Vedra Beach. Meanwhile, Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone has a series of solo shows lined up in the U.K. during the latter half of April, but his band will return to the U.S. in May for another run of tour dates. Those concerts run from a May 13 performance in Uncasville, Connecticut, through a May 29 gig in St. Charles, Illinois. Three of the shows also feature The Rascals' Felix Cavaliere and his current incarnation of the group on the bill. The Zombies continue to promote their latest studio album, Still Got That Hunger, which was released in October. Here are all of The Zombies' confirmed 2016 U.S. tour dates, according to TheZombiesMusic.com: 2/24 -- Orlando, FL, Plaza Live Orlando 2/25 -- Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Parker Playhouse 2/26-3/1 -- Embarks from Miami, FL, The Moody Blues Cruise III 3/2 -- Clearwater, FL, Capitol Theatre 3/3 -- Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, Ponte Vedra Concert Hall 5/13 -- Uncasville, CT, Mohegan Sun 5/14 -- Rockville, MD, Robert E. Parilla PAC at Montgomery College 5/15 -- Phoenixville, PA, The Colonial Theatre 5/16 -- Easton, MD, Avalon Theatre 5/18 -- Annapolis, MD, Rams Head On Stage 5/20 -- Niagara Falls, NY, The Bear's Den at Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel 5/21 -- Montclair, NJ, The Wellmont Theater* 5/22 -- Westbury, NY, NYCB Theatre at Westbury* 5/24 -- Red Bank, NJ, Count Basie Theatre* 5/28 -- Louisville, KY, Abbey Road on the River 5/29 -- St. Charles, IL, The Arcada Theatre * = with Felix Cavaliere's Rascals. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. By Minwoo Park and Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese visitors to South Korea are buying less from global luxury mainstays like Louis Vuitton and Chanel in favour of cheaper homegrown brands, as young, independent travellers make up a bigger share of tourists. Lured by the "Korean Wave" of culture exports, from soap operas and K-pop music to food and fashion, price-conscious younger Chinese visitors are seeking a more authentic and less expensive shopping experience. South Korea trails only Thailand as an overseas destination for Chinese travellers, whose heavy retail spending has helped make South Korea the world's largest duty free shopping market. The emphasis on value will put further pressure on global luxury retailers already grappling with slowing sales in China after years of skyrocketing growth, as a government crackdown on graft and lavish spending bites. "You can buy those big brands everywhere, and it is actually cheaper to buy those brands in other countries compared to the prices in South Korea," said 21-year-old Zhu Xin, who was shopping at the Stylenanda store in Hongdae, a Seoul neighbourhood popular with young adults. "Now that we are here, we should buy local brands," she said. Average prices on best-selling items from global luxury brands in South Korea are cheaper than they are in mainland China, but still cost more than in Europe, Singapore and Dubai, according to HSBC data. At downtown Seoul duty free shops run by Hotel Lotte's Lotte Duty Free and the Samsung Group's Hotel Shilla, LG Household & Healthcare's Whoo and Amorepacific's Sulwhasoo cosmetics were the top-selling brands in 2015, overtaking Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Richemont's Cartier, store data shows. "This doesn't necessarily imply that luxury retailers have to launch cheaper stuff but it does necessarily imply that they have to be more relevant at every price point," said Erwan Rambourg, an analyst at HSBC in Hong Kong. The number of Chinese tourists to South Korea dipped 2.3 percent in 2015 to about 6 million due to the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak. However, brokerage CLSA says Chinese inbound traffic growth rebounded from September and should jump by 28 percent in 2016. The South Korean government expects a record 8 million Chinese visitors this year. Story continues NEW GENERATION Chinese tourists to South Korea are getting younger: the share of those in their 20s and 30s rose to 46.1 percent last year, from 40.9 percent in 2013, according to the government-run Korea Culture and Tourism Institute. While older Chinese tourists typically travel in groups where they are ferried between shops catering to them, Chinese millennials tend to be better-informed about what they want, travel independently and spend less on shopping. "I use my mobile phone to research what products to buy in South Korea," said 20-year-old Chinese tourist Liu Yuting. "Many Chinese girls like South Korean products, because most of them are cheap and cute." At Lotte Department Stores, a chain owned by Lotte Shopping Co Ltd, average spending per Chinese visitor fell to 500,000 won ($412) in 2015 from 900,000 won in 2013, although the surge in overall visitors made up the difference, an official with the chain said. "Whereas past generations blindly purchased luxury goods, the younger generations have a more price-conscious consumption pattern," KB Investment & Securities analyst Yang Ji-hye said. (Additional reporting by Farah Master in HONG KONG; Editing by Tony Munroe and Stephen Coates) ZAGREB, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Croatia is unlikely to go ahead with plans to build a new coal-fired thermal plant in the northern Adriatic for which it entered partnership talks with Japan's Marubeni Corp, the environment minister said on Saturday. "We need a new energy strategy in line with the European Union plans on boosting renewable energy and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Such plants don't fit in," Slaven Dobrovic said at an energy round-table in Zagreb. Croatia agreed early last year to begin talks with Marubeni on construction of a new 500-megawatt block at the Plomin thermal plant in the northern Adriatic Istrian peninsula, a project estimated at 800 million euros. "I don't know if there are some obligations towards Marubeni, but even if there were, it cannot be compared to the potential damage, economic and environmental, from such a plant," the minister said. Croatia's former centre-left government pressed ahead with the project despite protests by local environmentalists, who advocated the use of natural gas instead of coal. However, the centre-right government that took office last month has taken a different line. A junior partner of the conservative HDZ party in the ruling alliance, the reformist Most (Croatian for "bridge") party, said during campaigning that it favoured renewable power. Economy Minister Tomislav Panenic, who belongs to Most, said on Friday that the construction of thermal plants and drilling for oil in the Adriatic would be temporarily suspended until a new national energy strategy has been devised. The former government stopped short of signing concession contracts to explore for natural gas and oil in the Adriatic last year, saying it wanted to leave the decision until after the election. Environmentalists oppose drilling and say it could hit tourism, which accounts for almost 20 percent of gross domestic product. (Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by Helen Popper) NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwired - February 05, 2016) - Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until March 22, 2016 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against HeartWare International Inc. (HTWR), if they purchased the Company's securities between June 10, 2014 and January 11, 2016, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. What You May Do If you purchased shares of HeartWare and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com). If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by March 22, 2016. About the Lawsuit HeartWare and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On September 9, 2015, HeartWare disclosed that it was halting enrollment in the trial for MVAD, a pump that it was developing, because of a manufacturing problem. Thereafter, on October 12, 2015, HeartWare disclosed that patients had suffered adverse events and the trial would be further delayed. Finally, on January 11, 2016, HeartWare revealed that approximately half of the patients implanted with the MVAD experienced serious adverse events and the trial would be delayed indefinitely. Following these announcements, the price of HeartWare's stock plummeted. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. * Magnitude 6.4 quake hits southern Taiwan * Apartment building in Tainan collapses * Twelve confirmed killed; three more pulled out alive (Updates death toll, three more pulled out alive) By Faith Hung and Yimou Lee TAINAN, Taiwan, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan early on Saturday killing at least 12 people, most in a 17-storey apartment building that collapsed, with some people still known to be missing in the ruins of the complex as night fell, government officials said. As rescuers searched for survivors, questions were raised about the construction of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building in the southern city of Tainan, with its floors that pancaked down on each other when the 6.4 magnitude tremor hit at around 4 a.m. (2000 GMT), at the start of a Lunar New Year holiday. Ten of the dead, including a 10-day-old girl, were from the apartment building. The baby was found in her dead father's arms, media reported. Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the ruins, plucking survivors to safety, with hundreds taken to hospital, though many were quickly released. An 18-year old man was found alive and conscious shortly after dark, and rescuers were working to get him free, while a 30-year-old woman, a nine-year old girl and a male toddler were pulled out alive, Taiwan television said. Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles, a government emergency centre said. But a fire department official said rescue efforts were focused on the apartment block, where a child's clothes fluttered from a first-floor laundry line and the smell of leaking gas hung in the air. "I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down," said a 71-year-old neighbour who gave his name as Chang. A plumber, he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prised some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help. Story continues "She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them." The quake was centred 43 km (27 miles) southeast of Tainan, at a depth of 23 km (14 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. Earlier in the day, an elderly woman, wrapped in blankets, was strapped to a board and slowly slid down a ramp to the ground as the cries of those still trapped rang out. Rescuers used dogs and acoustic equipment to pick up signs of life in the rubble. Authorities said there were 96 apartment units in the Golden Dragon Building and 256 registered residents, though more were in the building when it collapsed. Late in the day, city mayor William Lai said 5 people were missing there. Rescuers clad in red and yellow overalls pulled over 240 survivors from the ruins and later inserted huge supports under slabs of leaning concrete to buttress the ruins as they searched for more. SEVERAL BUILDINGS DAMAGED City officials said it was too early to determine if poor construction was a factor in the building's collapse. Liu Shih-chung, city government deputy secretary general, said television footage of the ruins of the commercial-residential building suggested the possibility of structural problems related to poor-quality reinforced steel and cement. The construction and engineering companies that built the complex are no longer operating, records showed. Two neighbours said they had felt nervous about the construction when the building was going up in the early 1990s. "I looked at it and thought, only people from out of town would buy there. We local people would never dare," said one of the neighbours, Yang Shu-mei. A major earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed about 2,400 people and caused damage across the island, which lies in the seismically active "Pacific Ring of Fire". President Ma Ying-jeou visited an emergency centre and hospital in Tainan while President-elect Tsai Ing-wen cancelled appointments to help coordinate rescue efforts. China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which is in charge of Beijing's relations with the self-ruled island, said China was willing to provide help if needed, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. Beijing regards Taiwan as a wayward province. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker and supplier to Apple Inc , said some wafers made in Tainan had been damaged, affecting no more than 1 percent of first-quarter shipments. Other major Apple suppliers in Taiwan reported no impact on operations. (Additional reporting by J.R. Wu, Carol Lee, Pichi Chuang, Eric Walsh, Eric Beech, Elizabeth Dilts, Jeanny Kao and Ben Blanchard; Writing by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Robert Birsel and Elaine Hardcastle) On Sunday, the eve of the Year of the Monkey, a staggering eight billion hong bao were exchanged, eight times the number gifted last year, Internet giant Tencent said (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele) Beijing (AFP) - While hundreds of millions of his Chinese compatriots pack into planes, trains, and automobiles to return to their ancestral homes for the Lunar New Year celebration, Zhang Hao, 30, is getting as far away as he can. "I decided to go abroad this year because my parents are pressuring me to marry," he told AFP. Instead of making the 1,200 kilometre trek from Beijing, where he works as a designer, to his icy northern hometown of Harbin, Zhang booked a 20,000 yuan ($3,000) trip to Thailand for February 6 -- one day before Chinese custom would dictate he ought to be with his parents. The festival, which compares in importance to Christmas in the West, marks a time when far-flung family members return home for merriment and meals -- according to tradition, they must be back by midnight on the eve of the new year. But rising individualism and financial independence are seeing more and more young Chinese choose to defy custom, while at the same time tourism and outbound travel are surging. "There was no choice" but to go abroad, Zhang said. "It's mostly the generation who grew up in the 90s who are taking off because they were by their parents' side the whole time they were growing up." He is not alone. More than 30 percent of Chinese planning a break over the holiday, also known as Spring Festival, say they are doing so because they want to "get far away from relatives" or feel that "spending New Year at home is getting boring", according to a customer survey by Chinese travel planning and booking website Mafengwo. Growing numbers are also seizing the opportunity for tourism, despite slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy. The China Youth Daily devoted its entire opinion page to the issue on Friday, with writer Chen Fang saying that many people now resent going home because of boredom and stress, while children are less excited about customary gifts such as new clothing. Story continues "I prefer to view Spring Festival as a slightly longer holiday," Chen wrote. "Wherever the people are, wherever the family is, that's where the festival is." But Huang Wei argued in a contrasting column that the ancestral hearth was critical. "When I was young and unmarried, going home for Lunar New Year to spend time with my parents was merely a way to carry on an ancient tradition," he said. "Now that I'm over 40 and a husband and father as well as a son, reuniting the family for Spring Festival is a great responsibility." - 'More independent' - The Chinese government estimates that 2.91 billion trips of all kinds will be taken over the holiday's 40-day travel season, in what is thought to be the largest yearly movement of people in the world. Mafengwo said that among its festival season bookings, 40 percent were for tourist travel -- twice the proportion of two years ago, although some were going with relatives. Practicality was increasingly trumping tradition, Hong Kong University sociology professor Gary Wong told AFP. "One of the most important elements is that it's the longest period of holiday for the whole year," he said. But older generations, he added, "still prefer to have the whole family get together". Nearly six million people, the most ever, will pack their bags for a leisure destination during the coming week, China's biggest outbound travel portal Ctrip estimated last month, which said its bookings were up 15 percent from 2015. Over 60 percent were going overseas, it said, with Thailand, Japan, and Korea topping the list. "This year these destination countries and areas will be 'occupied' by Chinese travellers," Ctrip said, adding that the trend was being driven by relaxation of visa policies, increasing international flights from China, and weakening overseas currencies. Chinese travellers are by far the biggest spenders in the world, splashing $165 billion in countries they visited last year, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. For the wealthiest travellers, tour groups to Antarctica have become increasingly popular, despite costing up to 300,000 yuan per person. But even those who choose tourism over tradition -- and state broadcaster CCTV's new year special, the world's most-watched television programme -- are concerned about the loss of customs they are electing to escape. "To be honest, I'm a little worried about it," said Zhang, the Thailand-bound traveller. "Nowadays young people are becoming more and more independent. A lot of my own friends aren't going to watch the Spring Festival Gala, which in the past was unimaginable." The secretary of UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Christophe Peschoux, pictured in May 2011 (AFP Photo/Tang Cchin Sothy) Geneva (AFP) - The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was thrust into the global spotlight Friday with its finding that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain. But while few may until now have been aware of the existence of the obscure panel of independent human rights experts, Friday was not the first time the group has made headlines, having addressed the cases of other prominent figures including Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi and former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed. "Each year, thousands of people are arbitrarily detained," according to the panel, which is flooded with thousands of requests annually to examine the cases of people deprived of their liberty. Made up of only five independent experts, who serve three-year mandates on a voluntary basis and meet just three times a year, the panel issues decisions on just a few dozen cases each year. Set up in 1991 by the UN Human Rights Commission, which has since been replaced by the Human Rights Council, the working group says it has issued more than 1,000 opinions concerning more than 130 countries. States can demand a review of the decision within two months, if they supply new information that challenges the basis for the decision. According to its mandate, "any individual deprived of liberty can submit his/her case for consideration" to the working group. To ensure "discretion, objectivity and independence" in the handling of cases, panel members from countries at the centre of an investigation recuse themselves from the case. An Australian member of the team, Leigh Toomey, therefore did not take part in the deliberations on Assange's case. - No consensus 'very unusual' - Usually, the five experts concur on a ruling. "It is very unusual that there is a decision not based on consensus," working group secretary Christophe Peschoux told reporters in Geneva. But that did not happen in the "very complicated" case of the WikiLeaks founder, with Vladimir Tochilovsky of Ukraine dissenting, Peschoux said. Story continues Since the group first met, it has worked tirelessly to shine a light on obscure cases that receive little media attention but it has also on occasion voiced opinions about prominent cases. In 2001, the experts slammed the "arbitrary detention" of Aung San Suu Kyi, the centrepiece of Myanmar's long democracy struggle, who was kept under house arrest for 15 years before being finally released six years ago. Last November, they weighed in on the case of former Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim, condemning his five-year sentence for sodomy. And in October, they denounced as arbitrary the detention of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, who is serving a 13-year term on controversial terrorism-related charges. People watch a news report on North Korea's planned rocket launch as the TV shows file footage of North Korea's Unha-3 rocket which launched in 2012, at a railway station in Seoul on February 3, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je) (AFP/File) Washington (AFP) - The campaign to win China's backing for deeper sanctions against North Korea gained in intensity Friday, with the US and South Korean presidents making their case directly to Xi Jinping. Presidents Barack Obama and Park Geun-Hye spoke to their Chinese counterpart by phone in separate calls to demand punitive measures following a recent nuclear test. On January 6 Pyongyang detonated what it claimed was a powerful thermonuclear bomb. The unpredictable hermit state has followed up by threatening to launch a satellite-bearing rocket -- an operation widely seen as a covert ballistic missile test. The White House and its allies want to respond with a UN resolution that would slap more sanctions on the North. But they must first win the backing of UN veto power China, which has in the past shielded its neighbor. Despite Beijing's annoyance with North Korea's nuclear ambitions and its young maverick leader Kim Jong-Un its priority has been to prevent chaos on China's border. The White House said that Obama and president Xi agreed on the need for a "strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations," including "through an impactful UN Security Council resolution." But the terse White House statement did not indicate whether that meant agreement on specific steps. The Obama administration has long pressed China to use its influence with its neighbor, which is heavily dependent on aid from Beijing to keep the population alive. Xi received a similar message late Friday from Park, who has spent political capital to improve relations with Beijing. During a 45-minute phone call, "President Park stressed strong and effective resolutions that could force North Korea to change its course must be adopted at the UN Security Council this time," the presidential Blue House said in a press statement. The North's provocative action posed threats to peace in Northeast Asia and the world, Park said, demanding that "the international community's stern message should quickly lead to action." Story continues "In this context, President Park called for active cooperation from China," which has "leverage with various means" over the North, the statement added. China's official Xinhua state news agency said Xi stressed China was firmly committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and insists on a solution through dialogue and consultation which meets the common interests of Northeast Asian countries. He expressed hope that "all parties concerned will... deal with the current situation in a sober-minded way," Xinhua reported. North Korea is already subject to numerous UN sanctions over previous nuclear and rocket tests, but Park said on Thursday its continued provocative behavior showed these had been ineffective. The only solution, she argued, was to impose sanctions harsh enough "to make it realize that it will not survive unless it gives up its nuclear program." 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. Whos the mom? biggest internet mystery since The Dress I'm going to take a guess and say the Mom is the far left... Its the mother of all internet mysteries.An Indianapolis teen posted a selfie with her twin and her mother on Jan. 28 that has the internet asking, Which one is the mom?Kaylan Mahomes uploaded the pic of the three ladies in a car with the caption, Mom, twin and me, but the fresh-faced women look identical.The puzzling pic has been retweeted more than 19,000 times and counting, and received more than 31,000 likes - similar to how the dress took the web by storm just under a year ago, where readers couldnt decide whether a washed-out snap of a striped dress was white and gold, or black and blue. The original Dressgate article on Buzzfeed received more than 37 million hits.Some Twitter users are also sharing this new Whos the mom? snap with the hashtag #blackdontcrack, which refers to some African Americans age-defying smooth skin.The amused family created an Instagram page to share more photos of the indistinguishable trio after seeing all of the attention they were getting.And their second post gives a clue that could crack the case.The video shows the three ladies posing for a picture while one holds the camera - and then they all start laughing after realizing they are actually being videotaped instead of photographed.The lady on the left, who laughs last, takes the longest to get the joke - and the caption reads, When your mom thinks its a picture...lol.This lady looks very similar to the woman wearing the blazer on the far left in the first photo.Meet the mom?Theres also the fact that the original photo is captioned, Mom, twin and me, which would literally translate that from left to right, the women pictured are the mom, the twin, and the photographer.Who's the mom? Biggest internet mystery since "The Dress".......................... The US Consulate is urging American citizens to avoid the march, saying the police estimate a crowd of about 8000 people.It said even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational, and reminded people to exercise caution around large crowds or protests.The consulate said the State Department remained very concerned about the threat of violence against its citizens around the world.Protest rallies against New Zealand signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal will be held in several cities, with the biggest one set to march down Queen St.The US consulate has sent an email to American citizens in New Zealand, urging them to avoid the march.Thousands of people have marched against the Government's controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in rallies around the country.Trade ministers from 12 nations including New Zealand have been negotiating the trade deal, which would stretch from Japan to Chile and cover 40 per cent of the world economy.Talks had stalled however, with New Zealand digging in over dairy trade and Japan and the United States disagreeing over the auto industry.Organizers estimated 10,000 protesters had gathered in Auckland; 5000 in Wellington; 4000 in Christchurch and 2000 in both Dunedin and Hamilton. They put the crowds at 800 in Nelson, 500 in Napier, 300 in New Plymouth, 200 in Tauranga, 250 in Golden Bay and 50 in Featherson .In Auckland the gathered masses ranged from parents with young families to veteran protesters, and came together under banners reading "TPPA Democratic Terrorists", and "TPPA No Way".Documentary filmmaker Bryan Bruce spoke to the crowd on the grounds of Parliament, detailing his opposition to possible Pharmac changes."What's on the table is human misery," he said. "The poor have as much right to health as the rich."Late last month Prime Minister John Key had said the Government would face a higher medicine bill under the TPP, as patents could be in force for "a little bit longer".However Kiwis using the health system would not face higher bills for subsidised drugs, he said.Adaire Hannah said the deal as an attack on the working class."You can't make capitalism nice," she said."It's basically anti-ordinary people having a role in the way the world works."Cathy O'Callaghan, a nurse from Wellington, said it was good to see such a diverse crowd."It's not just a bunch of hippies."She was here with her husband and her daughter, who was 15.Ana Scotney, 20, has never actively protested against anything before."But I feel like this is kind of a big deal right now.""There's this conception of our generation as being apathetic, so I figured I would be kind of a hypocrite if I didn't come.She likened a rejection of the TPP agreement to the nuclear ship ban in the 80s and New Zealand's refusal to join the war in Iraq."The Government is not listening to the people. We are not going to let overseas corporates take over our sovereignty, wealth and freedoms," protester Mischele Rhones said."People have woken up to the fact this deal is sitting there ready to be signed."We just hope the Government walks away from the deal of the farmers are never going to get a fair deal, we already have effective trade deals in place, why do this?" Julian Assange decision by UN panel ridiculous, says Hammond Analysis Is Julian Assange leaving the Ecuadorean embassy? Is Julian Assange leaving the Ecuadorean embassy? By Caroline Hawley, BBC diplomatic correspondent Julian Assange and his supporters will see this as a significant moral victory. The Wikileaks founder, who walked into the Ecuadorean Embassy after losing a series of appeals in British courts, now has an important panel of UN legal experts on his side. Legally binding or not, a UN official said the decision was based on international law. Although both Britain and Sweden are firmly sticking to their guns, they are now in an extremely awkward position. The Swedish government has seized on the dissenting voice in the panel - who argued, as Britain does, that Mr Assange fled bail and was using the Ecuadorean embassy to evade arrest. The call for compensation for Mr Assange is particularly controversial when there is already public anger in the UK over the cost of policing his confinement at the embassy. What does the UN panel do? The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is made up of five legal experts from around the world. Established in 1991, it has made hundreds of rulings on whether imprisonment or detention is lawful. High profile complainants include Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was released in Iran last month. It also offered an opinion on former pro-democracy President Mohamed Nasheed, released in the Maldives last year, and Myanmar party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Julian Assange: Key dates August 2010 - Swedish prosecutors issue an arrest warrant for Mr Assange May 2012 - UK Supreme Court rules he should be extradited to Sweden to face questioning June 2012 - Mr Assange claims asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London September 2014 - Mr Assange submits complaint against Sweden and the UK to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention August 2015 - Swedish prosecutors drop their investigation into two allegations - one of sexual molestation and one of unlawful coercion - but say he still faces the more serious accusation of rape. October 2015 - Met Police announce officers will no longer be stationed outside the Ecuadorean embassy BBC News5 February 2016The Foreign Secretary has branded a UN panel's ruling calling for Julian Assange to be allowed to go free "ridiculous", as the Wikileaks founder demanded the decision be respected.Mr Assange - who faces extradition to Sweden over a rape claim, which he denies - claimed asylum in London's Ecuadorean embassy in 2012. The panel said he had been "arbitrarily detained" and should get compensation.Philip Hammond rejected the decision, accusing Mr Assange of evading justice.Mr Assange hailed it a "significant victory" and called the decision "binding".The UN panel ruled Mr Assange was being "arbitrarily detained" in the UK since he was initially arrested in 2010.Reading a statement via a video link from the embassy, he said the opinion of the panel was "vindication", adding: "The lawfulness of my detention is now a matter of settled law."Mr Assange said it was a "really significant victory that has brought a smile to my face".Mr Hammond said Mr Assange was a "fugitive from justice", adding that he can come out "any time he chooses" but will still have to face justice in Sweden.However, Mr Assange said the comments by Mr Hammond were "beneath" the minister's stature and "insulting" to the UN.The UK Foreign Office said the report "changes nothing" and it will "formally contest the working group's opinion".The Met Police said it will make "every effort" to arrest Mr Assange should he leave the embassy.The government said the panel's ruling was not legally binding in the UK and a European Arrest Warrant remained in place - meaning the UK continued to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange.The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention insisted Mr Assange's detention "should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected".The Wikileaks founder had been subjected to "different forms of deprivation of liberty" it said, initially while he was held in isolation at London's Wandsworth Prison for 10 days in 2010.The deprivation had been "continuous" since he was initially arrested in the UK on 7 December 2010."Mr Assange should be afforded the right to compensation," it added.Three members of the five-person panel found in Mr Assange's favour, while one rejected his claim and another did not take part in the investigation.A Foreign Office spokesman said Mr Assange "has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK", adding: "He is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy.""We are deeply frustrated that this unacceptable situation is still being allowed to continue," the spokesman added.The UK's permanent representative to the UN, Julian Braithwaite, has written to the panel expressing the government's surprise and disappointment with the outcome.The Swedish government said Mr Assange was free to leave the embassy at any point and said he was not being deprived of his liberty.In September 2014, Mr Assange - who has been living in the embassy for more than three years - complained to the UN that he was being "arbitrarily detained" as he could not leave without being arrested.The complaint against the UK and Sweden claimed Mr Assange had been deprived of his liberty for an "unacceptable length of time". In a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday , Mr Assange said his passport should be returned and his arrest warrant dropped if the UN panel ruled in his favour.The Australian had his passport seized by UK authorities during the investigation.Mr Assange was originally arrested in London in 2010 under a European Arrest Warrant issued by Sweden over rape and sexual assault claims.In 2012, while on bail, he claimed asylum inside the Ecuadorean embassy in Knightsbridge after the UK Supreme Court had ruled the extradition against him could go ahead.Swedish prosecutors dropped two sex assault claims against Mr Assange last year. However, he still faces the more serious accusation of rape. Imagine the mess an independent Scotland would be in right now Alex Salmond would be about to deliver his first budget and hed be in a state of blind panic By Fraser Nelson 04 Feb 2016The TelegraphIf an independence referendum ends in a vote to leave, subsequent negotiations can take some time so Alex Salmond was keen to make sure that, in Scotlands case, talks would not drag on too long. He set March 24 2016 as Scotlands Independence Day . History does not record, alas, what celebrations he planned but we do know what kind of a future he promised . More generous pensions, a fairer education system, protection from welfare cuts all bankrolled by huge oil revenues which the SNP expected to come flooding in from the North Sea. Now all that has changed, and changed utterly.Just as the discovery of North Sea oil transformed the prospects for Scottish nationalism in the 1970s, so the collapse of the oil price has destroyed its economic rationale today. America has mastered fracking and doesnt need to import much oil now; this has helped depress the price of a barrel from $110 to $30. Such prices mean less North Sea tax revenue, but the average motorist is also spending about 30 a month less at the pumps. For the UK, the stimulus from cheap petrol generally balances out the effect of lower North Sea receipts: a country of 65 million can absorb such shocks. A separate Scotland could not.Had the referendum gone the other way, Salmond would be preparing his first Budget by now. In all likelihood he would be in a state of blind panic. His White Paper on independence envisaged Scotland enjoying almost 8 billion a year in oil revenue by this stage. But that was before the crash. The forecast today is just 100 million, some 99 per cent less than the SNP imagined. So the first question a newly-independent Scotland would have to answer is how on earth to fill the 7.9 billion black hole.Borrowing it all would not be an option. To prove that an independent Scotland is feasible, Salmond would have to prove it was creditworthy and would not go the way of Iceland in 2008 . The UK has been able to borrow eye-watering sums because HM Treasury has never defaulted on a loan. An independent Scotland would have no reputation to trade on, save for the bankruptcy which led to the Act of Union with much richer England in 1707. The performance of Scotlands flagship company, the Royal Bank of Scotland, hardly inspires investor confidence.So if newly-independent Scotland wanted to trade and borrow like a normal, successful country, it could not start life as an economic basket case. Salmond would also have negotiated his share of UK national debt, perhaps taking a lower sum in exchange for keeping nuclear submarines at Faslane. But this would not help him fill the hole in his day-to-day budget. Hed need to cut spending by 18 per cent, raise taxes by 21 per cent or implement a mixture of the two.The tempting promises made by the SNP in the days where oil was at $100 a barrel more free childcare, a delay in the raising of pension age, cuts in corporation tax would be utterly unaffordable now. Even the little luxuries that the Scottish Parliament has allowed so far free social care for the elderly, free prescriptions would have to go. As things stand, the free tuition fees are already unaffordable . A study this week showed that a Scottish teenager from a poor background is a third less likely to apply for university than a poor English pupil, despite the fact that English pupils have to pay university tuition fees. Sado-austerity, implemented in the name of national liberation, would not help their plight.Indeed, the first Budget of an independent Scotland would have to announce emergency support for the North Sea oil industry. It would be banking on a recovery; it could not afford to let the apparatus disappear or Scottish expertise slip away to the Gulf of Mexico. And things already look awful. Cromarty Firth, near Inverness, now looks like a metallic graveyard full of unused oil rigs, waiting to be dismantled. Even the job of pulling them apart has gone to Turkey. BP recently announced the loss of 6,000 North Sea jobs ; some 70,000 have gone in the last year alone.The SNPs plan for renewable energy to take the place of oil is not going well. This was the scheme for Port of Ardersier, once the largest employer in Nairn, my hometown. The idea was for it to start making offshore wind farms, but it went into administration three months ago another casualty of an energy sector in freefall. All of this is a tragedy for my part of the Highlands, but if Scotland were independent it would be compounded by a national crisis.Both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon are wonderfully talented debaters, capable of inspiring Scots not to think of boring statistics but dream about national destiny. But no amount of dreaming can change the facts. In his inaugural 2016 budget, Salmond could fire every policeman, release every prisoner, dissolve the military, remove every penny of funding for the Scottish arts and still not fill the gap created by the missing oil money. Its hard to think what would work. Taxing the top earners at 60 per cent would risk an exodus of talent to England.And England, looking on, might be sympathetic to Scotlands plight. But it might not. While its likely that there would be demands in Scotland for a second referendum a weve changed our mind! vote, ostensibly to pass verdict on the final settlement its far from clear that England would oblige. After all, Englands politicians, businessmen, even the late David Bowie begged Scotland to stay in 2014 , and repeatedly warned against taking the needless risk of independence. Had Scots chosen to leave anyway, there would not now be much English appetite for a bail-out. And besides, the Chancellor in Westminster would doubtless have already found other uses for the billions not being sent to subsidise Scotland.All this is not a wild exercise in counterfactuals. The argument persists; the same SNP team is making the same case for independence and is still supported by about half the country. Its not that Scotland couldnt be independent; its just that the price would be austerity on scale seldom attempted in Europe. David Cameron should never grow tired of making that point. I want my country BACK Nigel Farage SLAMS politicians for thinking UK can't run itself By Jake Burman Feb 6, 2016The Daily ExpressMr Farage accused Britains political class of not believing that Britain was good enough to run itself.Speaking at the Grassroots Out (GO) rally in Manchester, the Ukip leader demanded: "I want my country back.More than 500 people braved a wet night in the city to attend the second major gathering of the GO alliance consisting of Conservative, Labour, Ukip and DUP MPs who are in the Brexit camp.Mr Farage said: "What we hear all the time is that Britain isn't big enough to stand on her own two feet and govern ourselves.That Britain needs to be part of this bigger club to negotiate trade deals, that unless we are part of this political union we couldn't buy ourselves goods from each other.In fact what our political class believe is that Britain isn't good enough for us to run our own country. Well I believe in Britain and I believe we are good enough to run our own country."He urged that control must be regained over the country's borders and that an Australian-style points-based visa system should be introduced.Mr Farage continued: "Taking back control of our borders, we can protect ourselves from ISIS and terrorism. We must make absolutely sure that the streets of Manchester one day in the future don't resemble the streets of Cologne with that disgusting spectacle witnessed on New Year's Eve."Our politicians have literally given away our birthright, they have given away our ability to govern ourselves, they have given away our nationhood, our passports - it even says European Union on them."I want to trade with Europe. I want to be friendly with Europe but I want us to take back control of our destiny."I want us to trade with the wide world. I want us to re-engage with our friends in the Commonwealth."Mr Farage said taking back control of Britain's borders will help protect the UK from ISIS"I want my country back."Following rapturous applause, he then shouted to the crowd: "Do you want your country back?"After loud replies of "yes", he led them in a chant of "we want our country back". The Queen to be saluted with gun salute to celebrate accession anniversary Sat, Feb 6, 2016The ExpressAccession Day commemorates the start of the Queen's reign, which began on the death of her father, King George VI.As she does most years, the Queen is likely to be reflecting on the anniversary of her father's death in private at Sandringham, where she has been staying for her annual winter break.George VI died in his sleep at Sandringham House on the royal estate in Norfolk on February 6 1952 after suffering from lung cancer.Princess Elizabeth, who was just 25, was thousands of miles away in Kenya on a Commonwealth tour with the Duke of Edinburgh when she learned of his death. She returned home a queen.A 41-gun salute will be fired by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery in London's Green Park and a 62-gun salute by the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London.Soldiers from The King's Troop, the ceremonial saluting battery of the Household Division, will take up positions in Hyde Park later.Before their arrival, the Band of the Royal Artillery will play a selection of celebratory music close to the firing position.Seventy-one horses will pull six First World War-era 13-pounder field guns into position in the park and a 41-gun Royal Salute will be fired at midday.At 1pm at the Tower of London, The Honourable Artillery Company will fire a 62-round Royal Salute from Gun Wharf - with an extra 21 volleys for the citizens of the City of London to show their loyalty to the monarch.Later in the year the Queen has a milestone birthday in April when she will turn 90, and a weekend of national events are planned to coincide with her official birthday celebrations in June. Show threads from the... Last Day Last 2 Days Last Week Last 10 Days Last 2 Weeks Last Month Last 45 Days Last 2 Months Last 75 Days Last 100 Days Last Year Beginning Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame. Sort threads by: Thread Title Last Post Time Thread Start Time Number of Replies Number of Views Thread Starter Thread Rating Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted. When Theron and Caroline Nye build their house on the northwest edge of Fremont in 1874, it was a large, comfortable home. But the house was nothing like the transformation that was to come 25 years later. After Theron and Caroline died, the home passed to his son Ray. Ray and his wife, Annie, wanted something more than large and comfortable. They wanted impressive and elegant. The renovations they made still speak of a time when Victorian was so last year and words such as Georgian and Classical Revival were used to describe the grand houses of the period. Their 1901 renovation included adding a balustrade to the roof. The balustrade defined it, adding another piece of elegance to the building. Decades later, the balustrade was removed after it had deteriorated. Now, the Dodge County Historical Society is raising funds to replace the balustrade and finish restoration on the house. Area residents are invited to become part of that project, estimated to cost $200,000. Years ago, the balustrade, a concourse of turned wooden spindles, encircled the roof perimeter. Every few yards, the wooden spindles were punctuated with posts for more stability and the whole thing was capped with a rail. It could be described as impressive, like a beautiful hat on a lovely lady. When it was removed, a local historian quipped, The building without the railing looks like it has been scalped. Time took its toll. The balustrade was wooden and exposed to every element nature could throw at it. It began to deteriorate until had lost its former elegance and had become a hazard to those standing beneath. It was removed in the 1940s. In the 1970s, it was replaced with a simple wooden posts and a rail. They, too, fell to the ravages of time and Nebraska weather and were removed when the roof was replaced in the 1990s. The historical society believes its time to bring the balustrade back, to crown again the mansion with a new, beautiful hat. Its time to complete the restoration of the exterior of the house and bring it back to its 1901 splendor. The material composition of the balustrade will be of a non-deteriorating composite, capable of resisting the whims of most Nebraska weather. The historical societys board of directors has begun raising funds for the renovation. One of the fundraising plans is to offer shares in a spindle, one of the vertical pieces that define the roofline. Buying a share in a spindle for $25 makes it possible for many people who love the museum to participate in the restoration. There are approximately 350 spindles needed to encircle the roof. Other expenses will be installation, the process of securing the spindles, newel posts and railings permanently to the roof with proper bracing and flashing. The plan is to ask residents of Dodge County to sponsor a spindle. For a gift of $25, donors can help with this renovation. Spindles can be given in memory of a person or to honor a person if so desired. Donors will be awarded a lapel-type pin that says, I Sponsored a Spindle. The Sponsor a Spindle pin was inspired by a lapel pin Judy Ekeler had seen when attending a DAR conference in Las Vegas, N.M. The pin featured a chicken and said, I have a Chicken in France. Ekeler wanted that pin and asked the wearer, Ann Hunter, where to get one. She was informed that the pins are very rare, dating to the post World War I era. After the First World War, the people of France were starving. The war had ruined so much of the farmland with trenches, fortifications and artillery. The population of farm animals large and small had been decimated by both men and machine. DAR members in the United States wanted to help and responded by donating money to send chickens to France. Donors received a pin with a chicken on it saying, I have a Chicken in France. The year following the conference, Ekeler was given a pin by Hunter when again they met at a conference. I have worn my pin proudly for several years and its always a conversation piece. Last summer, the Dodge County Historical Society began the Restore the Top Roofline Balustrade Project and in conjunction with the Sponsor a Spindle fundraiser, it was decided that the historical society would create their own version of the I have a Chicken in France pin, which will say, I Sponsored a Spindle in Fremont, Ekeler said. The May Museum serves all of Dodge County and is considered to be one of the finest county museums in the state of Nebraska. Visitors include not only area residents, but also those from across the nation as well as from abroad, said Jeff Kappeler, museum director. It is estimated that 8,000 to 10,000 individuals visit the building each year. The building serves countywide grade schools with their annual Day in the Past in the spring. Approximately 500 Dodge County fourth-graders visit the museum to see and hear how people lived in Fremont at the time the house was built. It is a venue for weddings and other celebrations and events. Sponsor a Spindle began Monday. Those wishing to help with this project may pick up donation forms at May Museum, Sampters, Krasnes and the North Bend Bank or may write or call the museum to ask for a form. If the spindle share is given in honor of someone, that information can be entered on the form. For those who wish to receive the pin in the mail, a $2 postal fee should be added to the donation amount. The hope is that many of the people who drive by the home will want to be a part of this restoration. There are still old-timers in Austin that remember how it was possible to come here with nothing, and live. Not make a living, but live. That sort of thing creates a mythology that resonates today. Even among game developers. Austin's counter-culture was born in 1970. That's when three things happened at roughly the same time: The Summer of Love came and went in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, and hippie culture couldn't afford the rent anymore. Willie Nelson, who is from Texas (Abbott, a wide spot in the road closer to Waco than to Austin,) but needed to go to Nashville to make his bones as a singer-songwriter, migrated back, and chose Austin to stay. A National Guard armory got renovated and turned into a honky-tonk. Having a half-cylinder roof, the building lent itself to the name, Armadillo World Headquarters. The result: Austin's counter-culture became rooted heavily in live music. People would come to the Armadillo to watch Willie Nelson play. Or Booker T. and the MG's. Or Janis Joplin. This being Texas, the locals were variously known as the cowboys, the rednecks, or Bubba -- and then there were the "hippies," at the time still integrating into Texas culture. That's who you'd see once you got inside the Armadillo, brought together by good shows they both wanted to see. As Molly Ivins described the scene at the time, the cowboys started growin' their hair long, and the hippies started wearin' hats and boots, and pretty soon you couldn't tell 'em apart. Little was going on industry-wise in 1970s Austin. Other than government and the University of Texas at Austin (the yewn-versty, rhyming with thirsty,) there weren't many large employers. Being a college and gummint city, there were lots of service jobs: running the counter at the grocery store, cleaning tables at a cafe, and the like. What there was lots of, was cheap rent. If you didn't mind lots of roommates, Austin was a place to just be. This attracted the sort of dreamer-artist-misdirected-ambitious sort that might not make it in too many other places. What happened next? Well, the Armadillo closed after a 10-year run. The block where it stood at the corner of Barton Springs Road and South 1st Street is now a parking lot for city offices. But there's a plaque by the sidewalk, near where it used to be. Before it closed, the Armadillo helped inspire the local public TV station, now known as KLRU, to create a live music show. Begun in 1974, Austin City Limits is the longest-running live-music show on TV. Its 40th season in 2014 began with Nine Inch Nails and ended with the Foo Fighters. Willie Nelson turned 82 in 2015. In 2012, part of 2nd Avenue was renamed Willie Nelson Boulevard. A statue of Nelson now stands outside the Moody Theater, where Austin City Limits tapes now. A plaque marks its dedication: on April 20, 2012. (It was also at 4:20 in the afternoon. Nelson was on hand and performed an original song, Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die.) Beyond that, Austin has a 45-year history of people going to see shows. Just about every bar where you can buy an alcoholic drink, has a stage. If it's not music, it's comedy, theater, improv, dance or something so experimental there isn't a word for it. Most of the bars are still downtown, though. The old employers, plus titans of finance like Frost Bank and a whole lot of real estate developers, are squeezing available housing space. "Luxury" is a term I read a lot more often than "affordable" on new apartment projects. "Convenient" is an accurate term, but convenient to what? If you had a "gummint" job and needed to go to a building on the Capitol grounds, Travis County's building or the federal courthouse, I'd understand. And if you're the type that likes being able to walk to a bar to sit and watch a band after work, that would also make sense. It's not as though downtown is the only place in Austin with office space. The economics don't work, though. Downtown rents have increased 34 percent between 2011 and 2015 (about 8.5% a year,) so says Mike Kennedy, managing director of the local Avison Young real estate office. Those looking at $2 a square foot per month as a reasonable deal might not realize the wages are slightly lower for Austin than most of America. (Unless you're a dentist or a human resources pro, oddly enough.) If you've followed this column thus far, you probably noticed that it's not about game development. Not much, anyway. I want to thank everyone who's been following it so far, and for the encouragement of Jon Jones, Alexander Brandon, Jill Friedman, Paul Russel, Jennifer Bullard and Frank Coppersmith, along with a lot of folks in and around the Austin area. I'm fascinated by all the things that lead up to people making up pastimes, toys and time-wasters generally referred to as "games." That includes where they live, who they associate with, how they regard themselves and each other, and where their means to live comes from. I believe the degree to which people could feel like part of something larger of themselves is important -- no matter if their team of fellow developers is 1, 5, 50 or 100 people. Real places, therefore, still matter. Even in the age of the Internet. Besides the goal of trying to give Austin a voice that game-dev circles could recognize, I'm trying to write something on a regular basis. Your feedback is very much appreciated, not just for my sake. If there's anything you'd like me to write about that I haven't, please let me know. Helpful Austin link: ATX Urbanists, a Facebook group about people concerned with the political climate surrounding greater Austin and what it means for its near future. More to come. At midday on Friday 5 February, 2016 Julian Assange, John Jones QC, Melinda Taylor, Jennifer Robinson and Baltasar Garzon will be speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club on the decision made by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the Assange case. Human rights are freedoms established by custom or international agreement that impose standards of conduct on all nations. Human rights are distinct from civil liberties, which are freedoms established by the law of a particular state and applied by that state in its own jurisdiction. Ruminations on Life and Pots by Graciela Testa Lynt 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! The Gorilla Radio archive can be found at: www.Gorilla-Radio.com. G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in State and Corporate media. Gorilla Radio airs live Thursdays between 11-12 noon Pacific Time. Airing in Victoria at 101.9FM, and featured on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca and www.pacificfreepress.com. And check out Pacific Free Press on Twitter @Paciffreepress The police believe the same red-haired robber is behind four robberies in Manhattan since Sunday. In some of the incidents, the suspect has slashed or attacked the victim. Here are details from the NYPD: Incident #1: On Sunday, January 31, 2016 at approximately 2030 hours, while on board the northbound C train in the vicinity of St. Nicholas Avenue and West 155th Street, an individual approached the 22-year-old male victim, displayed a knife and demanded his cellphone. The individual cut the victim's right arm causing a laceration to his hand and fled the location empty handed. The victim was treated and released from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Incident #2: On Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at approximately 0300 hours, while on the northbound #4 train in the vicinity of Utica Avenue, a 37-year-old male victim was asleep when he awoke to an individual standing over him with a razor in his hand. The victim noticed a cut in the pocket of his jeans, attempted to restrain the suspect who punched the victim in the face causing swelling to his left eye. The suspect then fled on foot without the victim's property. Incident #3: On Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at approximately 1914 hours, inside of Spring Iconic Sweet Shop located at 203 Spring Street, an individual entered the location, removed two bags of chips and attempted to leave the store without paying. A 39-year-old male employee attempted to stop the individual and struggled with him causing him to fall. The victim sustained pain to his leg and a small laceration to his finger. The suspect fled on foot westbound on Spring Street with the chips. Incident #4: On Wednesday, February 3,2016 at approximately 1950 hours, on the northbound C train, an individual grabbed an iPad from a 28-year-old female's hand and fled outside of the station on foot in an unknown direction. There were no injuries as a result of this incident. The suspect is described as being in his 20s, is 5'10", 150 pounds and has red hair, and was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants, with a chain around his neck. The authorities release a photograph from the third incident. Anyone with information in regards to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. The president of the Psi Upsilon fraternity at Cornell University has been arrested after allegedly raping a female student in a bedroom in his frat house, according to Ithaca police. Wolfgang Ballinger, 21, is accused of bringing the student to his bedroom at 2 a.m. last Saturday, where he allegedly forced her to have oral sex with him, sexually abused her with his hands, and attempted to have forcible sexual intercourse with the victim. Ballinger surrendered to cops on Thursday and is being held on $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond. Ballinger hails from New York, and according to a video he posted on YouTube in December, his father owns Webster Hall: The fraternity, which according to CornellFrat.com is "a very wealthy house with a great reputation on campus" whose brothers "are generally considered to be snobby elitists" had all its activities suspended on Monday after the victim reported the alleged assault. An official with the fraternity issued the following statement: Sexual assault, and any form of sexual harassment, is against our policy and in opposition of the values of Psi Upsilon. Our chapter is cooperating with Cornells investigation into this matter and any members involved will be held accountable. The Chi Chapter at Cornell has a distinguished history with the university and we are committed to continuing to be a benefit to Cornell and the Ithaca community. Ballinger has been charged with attempted rape, criminal sexual assault, and sex abuse. On Friday, one person was killed and three were injured when a giant crane toppled over and crashed onto Worth Street between Church Street and West Broadway in Tribeca. The Police Department and the Buildings Department are both investigating the collapse, trying to understand exactly what went wrong as the 565-feet-tall crane was being lowered to safety during 30 MPH wind gusts. And it seems that the company who owned the crane has been involved in at least two other serious accidents last year. Horrifying NYC Crane Collapse Caught on Camera Caught on camera: Watch as a crane collapses in Lower Manhattan, causing panic inside a nearby building. At least one person was killed. Read more: http://nbcnews.to/23NEVd3 Posted by NBC News on Friday, February 5, 2016 The crane collapse occurred just before 8:30 a.m. yesterday. The crane was stationed outside a building at 60 Hudson, which takes up an entire block between West Broadway and Hudson. The crane was inspected by the Buildings Department Thursday because the operating company, Galasso Trucking & Rigging, had requested permission to extend it to its current height. There are some 376 of this type of crane, called a "crawler crane," in use throughout the NYC, and de Blasio ordered all of them to be lowered and secured in the wake of the incident. Seventy-six taller "tower cranes" have also been ordered secured. "The wind was blowing very strongly from the west down Worth street," Kurt Nelson, who works inside 60 Hudson, told us yesterday. He did not see the crane fall, but tells us, "as soon as I got up to our floor and in the office, the whole building shook violently for a couple seconds, and then I ran back down to the street." Other witnesses told the Times that they could feel the vibration from the crash. I thought it was a bomb, Anatole Kostak, a construction worker, was standing just a block away, told the New Yorker. While de Blasio said Galasso "was doing the right thing" by attempting to lower the crane yesterday, the Post reports that crane owner Bay Crane is being sued over an accident last May in which a crane dropped a massive heating and air-conditioning unit atop a building in Midtown. Its the same crane company? Gregory Welch, one of the people suing the company, told them. "I hadnt realized! Bay Crane worker Timothy Foucher, also suing the company, lost two-thirds of his hand in an accident at La Guardia Airport in March. Altogether, Bay Crane has been sued five times over accidents in the last four years. The News reported on a similar incident involving the company in 2010: In March 28, 2010, a 280-foot crane at 80 Maiden Lane smashed into an office building after hours because a hydraulic pump in the rig failed. DOB investigators learned the crane itself was faulty, and OSHA cited Bay Crane for not complying with manufacturer's specifications and limitations. OSHA hit Bay Crane with a $2,500 fine, but the firm settled without having to pay a dime when OSHA cited Skylift Contracting Corp. of Brooklyn for not instructing workers to recognize unsafe conditions. The deceased was identified as 38-year-old Upper West Side resident David Wichs, who worked at the New York-based financial trading firm Tower Research Capital. Wichs had just exited his parked vehicle and was standing next to it when the crane came down on him. His sister-in-law, Lisa Guttman, described him to the Post as the most brilliant person ever, saying he had immigrated from Prague, Czechoslovakia as a teenager and gone to Harvard University. He was an angel, an absolute angel, a man who identified himself as the family rabbi, told the News. He was a wonderful, wonderful person. He was the best, the absolute best, and that's what makes this tragedy that much greater." One of the other people injured in the incident, Dawn Kojima, was on her way to work at the time of the incident. When she heard the screech of the falling metal, she pressed herself up to the nearest building: I heard something coming down and I looked up, Kojima told the News from her hospital bed. "I don't know what hit me. It could have been parts of the crane that fell, some of the building, I don't know. Its hard to describe, it was really painful." She sustained head and leg wounds in the fall. In a statement, The Historic Districts Council (HDC) sent their condolences to those who were injured in the crash, and said they had long had reservations about the expansions to the building: Thank you for visiting the official website of Going The Distance Adventure Ministry! Make sure you follow our God-awesome mission trips, adventure trips, retreats, & day trips, as well as all the behind-the-scenes efforts & prayer that goes into this exciting ministry. News VIDEO: Sheikh Sultan inspects progress of 'Hanging Gardens' project Sheikh Sultan was briefed on the plans for the remaining stages in the implementation of the project, which extends over an area of one and a half million square feet, listening to the progress of work and the most important completed and remaining stages. 404 Can you believe that Lent begins next week? It seems like we are moving at warp speed, going from "Merry Christmas" to "Remember you are dust" in just 41 days. That's because Easter is earlier than usual this year. March 27 to be exact. During this annual run-up to Easter, many people take on special spiritual disciplines. An especially good Lenten practice is reading a book on how the spiritual life connects with everyday life. Here are a couple of recently published books that you might want to read this Lent. Either of them also makes a good group study. "The Book of Forgiving: The Four-fold Path to Healing Ourselves and Our World" by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu Many Helena residents will remember Desmond Tutu, then the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, who visited Helena in December 1990. A champion of racial equality in South Africa and throughout the world, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. After the end of apartheid, he led South Africa through a Truth and Reconciliation process that helped his country avoid civil war. Archbishop Tutu and his daughter, the Rev. Mpho Tutu, have written a down-to-earth book on one of life's most difficult tasks: becoming a forgiving person. The book is full of personal experiences as well as the stories of others. When any of us is hurt, we face two alternatives: retaliation or forgiveness. When we don't forgive, we stay locked in our anger and, in fact, locked in our own prison. The Tutus explore how forgiveness is the best gift we can give ourselves when others have wronged us. They also deal with self-forgiveness. Each chapter concludes with a meditation and spiritual exercises that are simple yet profound. I recently led a seminar using this book and the response was overwhelmingly positive. People are hungry to discover what forgiveness is and isn't. It isn't, for example, forgetting or wall-papering over a wound. Forgiving is hard work, and we need good spiritual guides like the Tutus to guide us. If your "forgiver" needs a tune-up or an overhaul, this is the book for you. "The Name of God is Mercy" by Pope Francis In December, the Roman Catholic Church began a Jubilee "Year of Mercy" to challenge people to reflect and act on God's call to be more compassionate and merciful. This little book is part of that effort. "The Name of God Is Mercy" is a wide-ranging conversation with Pope Francis by Vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli. The Pope shares personal stories about God's mercy and grace from childhood to his adult, priestly life. Pope Francis tells us that "mercy is the first attribute of God." God's mercy, he says, is "infinitely greater than our sins." In fact, God's name is "Mercy." He goes on to say, "We can say that mercy is God's identity card." In writing this book, the Pope is challenging all of us to be more compassionate and forgiving. Among many topics, this book revisits the Pope's controversial comments on homosexuality in July 2015 when he said, "Who am I to judge?" Expanding on his remarks, Pope Francis says, "I am glad that we are talking about homosexual people' because before all else comes the individual person, in his wholeness and dignity." He goes on to say, "And people should not be defined by their sexual tendencies: let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love." After reading this book, I understand much better why his passion for mercy has become the foundation of his papacy. The book reveals how his ministry among social outcasts in Argentina shaped his theology. Not everybody, however, agrees with Pope Francis. Some conservatives find his strong emphasis on compassion troubling. They would rather lead with doctrine. But for those who wish the church would start with mercy first and doctrine later, the Pope is a breath of fresh air. Indeed, he says, mercy is doctrine. That is evident even when hearing confessions. The Pope says, "I have always tried to find a crack, just a tiny opening so that I can pry open that door and grant forgiveness and mercy." While hardly as elegant (or religious), Billie Holiday once quipped: "You've got to have something to eat, and a little love in your life, before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave." I think Pope Francis would agree. The Very Rev. Stephen Brehe is the retired Dean of St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral in Helena. Prosecutors say a Helena man had his 2-year-old daughter in his lap as he drove drunk. Johnny Lee Winchester faces a felony charge of criminal child endangerment. He is being held on $10,000 bond. A Montana Highway Patrol trooper alleges Winchester was driving in such a manner on U.S. Highway 12 and also Eighth Avenue on Thursday, according to court documents. The trooper wrote he received a report that Winchester nearly hit a guardrail three times, was driving on the shoulder and nearly hit at least three vehicles. Court documents say Winchester was found on the 2200 block of Eighth Avenue sitting cross-legged on the ice. The trooper said he could smell alcohol coming from Winchester, who also had glossy eyes and slurred speech. He refused to perform any field sobriety tests or give a blood or breath sample. Winchester also faces misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence, second offense, obstructing a peace officer and driving while license is suspended or revoked. When James George Stiffler spoke with a detective about 30 minutes after calling 911 to report he had just fatally shot a man in his Canyon Ferry Road home, he was sobbing and shaking. "He was very cooperative," testified Dan O'Malley, a detective with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office. Prosecutors played a recording of the conversation from May 22, 2013, to jurors in Stiffler's ongoing deliberate homicide trial Friday. Stiffler is facing the felony charge for shooting Henry Thomas Johnson, who he says was in the process of burglarizing his home and threatened to hurt him. Friday was the fourth day of testimony from witnesses called by the county attorney's office in the trial, which will continue Monday. The interview played in Helena district court Friday was recorded in a law enforcement vehicle outside Stiffler's home. At the same time, Stiffler signed consent for authorities to search his residence. Stiffler recounted the scenario to O'Malley of stopping at his mailbox and noticing a strange car parked in his driveway. "I thought, 'This is not right.' So, I took out my pistol and put it in my lap," he said. Stiffler said that as he approached his home, he looked into a window and saw a man inside the house. He entered his residence, yelled something and heard a crashing sound. It was then he saw Johnson running for the back door, he said. "I thought he was coming at me in a threatening manner," Stiffler said, adding he then shot to the west at the man. "Then he went out the window," he said. It was this version of events that detectives used as a basis for their initial investigation. Lead investigator Cory Olson said at first the evidence seemed to align with that sequence. Then, he didn't find any blood traces inside the home. The bullet was ultimately found in the driveway. "I started thinking, 'How does that bullet get outside?'" Olson testified. "There would be no way if Mr. Stiffler shot in a westerly direction." Olson said the sewing room window, which Stiffler said Johnson fled out of after being shot in the computer room, was open. The window covering was downed and damaged. The screen was forced off the window. The bullet was found adjacent. "All of those things line up in a straight line," Olson told jurors. The bullet's exit wound in his chest was higher than its entrance in his back, Olson noted. A medical examiner determined the bullet struck the back of Johnson's eighth rib, went through his left lung and exited through the breastbone. This led Olson to believe Johnson was hunched over, climbing out of the window at the time he was shot, he said. Olson then demonstrated for the jury the position he believes Johnson was in. As he did this, his necktie went to one side. Olson pointed this out, reminding jurors that Johnson was wearing a tie, which did not received bullet damage. "But, it doesn't go through the tie," he added. This theory was corroborated by the testimony of the state-hired forensic expert Thursday. William Schneck, of Microvision Northwest Forensic Consulting, used local investigation material along with his own probe to come to the conclusion that Stiffler fatally shot 37-year-old Henry Thomas Johnson in the back as the alleged intruder tried to flee out of a partially opened window. When detectives tried to clarify any inconsistencies about a week after the shooting, Stiffler -- through his attorney at the time -- said he did not remember. The deliberate homicide charge was filed against Stiffler in April 2015, following Schneck's report. Stiffler's attorneys had tried to get the case thrown out, citing the two years it took for the charge and concerns about the quality of the investigation. Judge Kathy Seeley denied the request in October, saying those arguments could be made during the trial. Stiffler's private attorneys told jurors their client had no choice but to shoot and that Johnson brought his death upon himself by trying to burglarize the home. After being shot, Johnson fled the home and died behind the wheel of his girlfriend's car, which was parked in the nearby driveway. Stiffler called 911, alerting dispatchers he had fired at a burglar and asking for an ambulance to be sent. Internal Revenue Service certified volunteers will be at the Lewis and Clark Library Saturday to provide free basic tax preparation services to eligible community members on a first-come first-served basis. The event, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., is part of Free Tax Help Day. Organizations including the IRS, AARP, Montana Credit Union Network, Montana Legal Services Association, Rural Dynamics, Inc., United Way of the Lewis and Clark Area, Good Samaritan and more will also be there to help connect attendees with other programs and services, according to a United Way news release. An Affordable Care Act navigator will also be available to assist clients that have questions regarding enrollment and coverage options. Free tax help programs are available across the state during the entire tax season through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, AARP Tax Aide, and Tax Assistance for the Elderly program. A list of free tax help sites across the state as well as information on eligibility and how to prepare for free tax help services can be found online at www.montanafreefile.org. There is also the option to prepare your own taxes from the comfort of your home for free for those earning less than $62,000 at www.myfreetaxes.com. For many low-to-moderate income Montanans and local community members, tax refunds contribute to financial asset development and income stability. Free tax help services encourage individuals and families to file their taxes and help connect eligible taxpayers to tax credits such as the state of Montanas Elderly Homeowner/Renter Tax Credit (2EC) and the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Last year, about 78,000 Montanans successfully claimed the EITC. These working taxpayers collectively realized $165 million in refunds. More than 19,000 Montanans claimed the states 2EC for a total of $7.9 million. For three years between August 2012 and October 2015, a former top administrator with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry managed to rack up more than $20,000 in bogus travel, training and work purchases on state-issued credit cards and expense accounts, according to charges filed Wednesday in Lewis and Clark County District Court. A six-page motion filed by the Attorney Generals office alleges ex-Job Service Operations Bureau chief Tiffany David successfully bilked the state out of all but $523 of those fake charges, largely by submitting false expense reports and reimbursement claims for everything from books and gift cards to plane tickets and hotel reservations. The motion alleges David -- who used to head up the labor departments workforce development efforts -- would often cancel those transactions before they could be completed, reaping refund proceeds that should have been credited back to a state credit card. Attorneys say thats how the former bureaucrat managed to rake in nearly half of the five-figure total they accuse her of stealing from state coffers -- via just 13 Amazon.com book purchases charged to a personal credit card and later reimbursed by department officials. Court documents say David was placed on administrative leave the day after she emailed departmental investigators a fake receipt for $1,800 in airline tickets she never purchased. The documents, filed by Assistant Attorney General Bryan Light, report she has already admitted to that and more than 20 other alleged instances of theft. Light lists 11 known witnesses to the allegations. David is due in court to face the theft charges on Feb. 24. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. She did not return requests for comment Thursday and Friday. County property records show the deed to a Helena home owned by David was handed over to another party in mid-January. Department of Labor spokesman Jake Troyer said the department initiated its investigation into David immediately after she turned in a suspect receipt at the end of October. She was placed on leave on Oct. 29. Her resignation was effective Nov. 13. Troyer said the department is now interviewing candidates to fill her position. BILLINGS -- U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., out-raised his Democratic challenger, Denise Juneau, 10 to 1 in 2015, according to campaign finance reports released this week. The incumbent raised $2.72 million in 2015 according to Federal Election Commission reports. Juneau who launched her candidacy last November, raised slightly less than $264,000 in two months. The reports offer the first side-by-side funding comparisons between the first-term representative and Juneau, currently Montanas superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction. Ryan Zinke is building record levels of support, with more than 1,500 new supporters in the first month of 2016 alone, said Heather Swift, spokeswoman with the Zinke campaign, Many of whom are low-dollar contributors who donate a couple bucks here and there because they believe in Zinke's service and leadership and just want to get involved any way they can. Republican enthusiasm is high, Swift said. She noted that while Montanans donated more than $600,000 for presidential candidates -- both Republican and Democrat -- Zinke raised $500,000. Lauren Caldwell, Juneaus campaign manager, wasnt buying into Zinkes success. The incumbent also had $1.9 million in net operating expenses. Congressman Zinke has already spent 75 percent of his contributions in 2015, to the tune of $2 million this year on Hollywood image consultants, out-of-state fundraising firms, debt from overspending on his 2014 campaign, and swanky hotel stays, Caldwell said. Thats not an advantage for Zinke; its wasteful spending. Zinke did have rollover debt from his 2014 race against Democrat John Lewis. Spending was high in that race. Zinke spent $4.6 million in the 2014 election cycle to Lewis $1.69 million, according to the FEC. In the past three months of 2015, Zinke paid off the last $33,400 of his 2014 election debt. The campaign did have rollover debt from 2014 that we were consistently paying off, which isn't uncommon with first-time candidates in tough races, said Swift, speaking for the Zinke campaign. If you recall, the Zinke-Lewis race was close until it broke in late October. Second, we have made smart investments in building a solid foundation of grassroots support. Targeted campaign mailing and printing services focused on fundraising topped Zinke's list of expenses, at roughly $600,000. As a result, Zinke received 5,445 individual donations from donors in every state. Juneaus campaign describes the two months of fundraising as record breaking. Only 18 percent of what Congressman Zinke has raised is from Montanans, Caldwell said. Denise Juneau is raising the majority of her money from everyday Montanans who believe in her campaign. In fact, 85 percent of Denises individual donors live right here in Montana. By the numbers, Juneau has 166 individual contributions totaling $166,500 from Montanans to Zinke's 401 in-state contributions totaling $280,000. Juneau managed 226 individual contributions from 16 states in the past two months. As a percentage, Juneau is also taking more of her money from political action committees, known as PACs. Those sources of campaign donations accounted for 17.3 percent of Juneaus funding, with education groups playing a prominent role. PACs represented 11 percent of Zinkes donations, but in dollars they contributed $301,200. Energy and agriculture groups played strong roles in Zinke donations by PACs. Energy, particularly coal energy, promises to be a big political issue in Montana races this year as the state addresses federally mandated cuts to greenhouse gasses under the Clean Power Plan. The EPA has prescribed a 47 percent cut in Montana carbon dioxide emissions by 2035. Zinke contends the EPAs actions are overreaching and damaging to Montanas economy. Juneau is backing Democratic Gov. Steve Bullocks plan to come up with a way to comply with EPA regulations. She had no funding from energy Super PACs in 2015. Caldwell said Juneau will be accepting money from a variety of sectors in the months ahead. Blog Archive Sep 2018 (42) Aug 2018 (67) Jul 2018 (72) Jun 2018 (48) May 2018 (64) Apr 2018 (54) Mar 2018 (52) Feb 2018 (64) Jan 2018 (80) Dec 2017 (51) Nov 2017 (53) Oct 2017 (60) Sep 2017 (55) Aug 2017 (69) Jul 2017 (73) Jun 2017 (72) May 2017 (74) Apr 2017 (85) Mar 2017 (78) Feb 2017 (91) Jan 2017 (94) Dec 2016 (91) Nov 2016 (82) Oct 2016 (105) Sep 2016 (70) Aug 2016 (76) Jul 2016 (111) Jun 2016 (119) May 2016 (111) Apr 2016 (114) Mar 2016 (106) Feb 2016 (104) Jan 2016 (122) Dec 2015 (113) Nov 2015 (111) Oct 2015 (92) Sep 2015 (100) Aug 2015 (96) Jul 2015 (85) Jun 2015 (108) May 2015 (104) Apr 2015 (95) Mar 2015 (107) Feb 2015 (78) Jan 2015 (81) Dec 2014 (87) Nov 2014 (87) Oct 2014 (100) Sep 2014 (84) Aug 2014 (86) Jul 2014 (53) Jun 2014 (99) May 2014 (96) Apr 2014 (96) Mar 2014 (102) Feb 2014 (70) Jan 2014 (78) Dec 2013 (72) Nov 2013 (86) Oct 2013 (104) Sep 2013 (83) Aug 2013 (95) Jul 2013 (44) Jun 2013 (104) May 2013 (107) Apr 2013 (78) Mar 2013 (93) Feb 2013 (81) Jan 2013 (80) Dec 2012 (88) Nov 2012 (81) Oct 2012 (101) Sep 2012 (125) Aug 2012 (116) Jul 2012 (112) Jun 2012 (92) May 2012 (161) Apr 2012 (141) Mar 2012 (156) Feb 2012 (126) Jan 2012 (95) Dec 2011 (81) Nov 2011 (98) Oct 2011 (106) Sep 2011 (103) Aug 2011 (117) Jul 2011 (74) Jun 2011 (88) May 2011 (73) Apr 2011 (53) Mar 2011 (46) Feb 2011 (46) Jan 2011 (41) Dec 2010 (62) Nov 2010 (45) Oct 2010 (39) Sep 2010 (41) Aug 2010 (27) Jul 2010 (23) Jun 2010 (12) May 2010 (15) Apr 2010 (16) Mar 2010 (11) Feb 2010 (7) Jan 2010 (5) Dec 2009 (6) Nov 2009 (3) Oct 2009 (3) Sep 2009 (5) Aug 2009 (5) Jul 2009 (6) Jun 2009 (5) May 2009 (6) Apr 2009 (5) Mar 2009 (5) Feb 2009 (4) Jan 2009 (7) Dec 2008 (5) Nov 2008 (4) Oct 2008 (6) Sep 2008 (10) Aug 2008 (5) Jul 2008 (4) Jun 2008 (7) May 2008 (1) Apr 2008 (1) Mar 2008 (4) Feb 2008 (5) WASHINGTON The National Park Service is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but the system faces a multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog that officials say is no cause for rejoicing. Long-delayed projects range from replacing water works at the Grand Canyon to making sure the Jefferson Memorial doesn't sink into the Tidal Basin to improving roads at Yosemite National Park. The bill for deferred work is nearly $12 billion nationwide, a $440 million increase over last year. Hoping to take advantage of the Park Service's August centennial, President Barack Obama has proposed spending $900 million over three years to reduce the backlog, with another $300 million targeted for restoration projects. Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said the annual bill for maintaining America's national parks is nearly twice as much as appropriated by Congress, with expenses growing every year. Still, Jarvis said, he is encouraged that Congress seems to be getting the message after years of complaints. Lawmakers approved $547 million for maintenance in the current budget year, a $118 million increase over last year. The figure includes spending in the agency' budget and in the five-year transportation Congress approved in December. "We have a lot yet to do, but I think everything is moving in the right direction," Jarvis said Friday, adding: "Congress has pitched in." The Park Service also hopes to tap into a new National Park Centennial Challenge Fund that would match private donations for park projects with federal money. The program would enable the agency to leverage private contributions to complete important projects that improve visitor services in the parks, Jarvis said. Most of the nation's 409 park units have a piece of the backlog. Alcatraz, the former federal prison in California, has crumbling walls and deteriorating windows. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky needs to have dirt trails replaced for safety reasons. And a historic hotel at Montana's Glacier National Park needs a new fire sprinkler system and other work. "Failure to rehabilitate this building will pose serious health and life safety threats to park visitors and park and concession employees," the Park Service said in a report to Congress detailing its budget requests. JOHNSTON CITY The music has not yet ended in Southern Illinois K-12 schools, despite millions of dollars in budget cuts that often put arts programs at risk. Still, educators say there are insufficient opportunities for students to learn the arts. Ive been here for nine years, so Ive watched the programs get cut and Ive watched the kids and teachers that love those programs go through those cuts, said Kathy Clark, Johnston Citys superintendent. Clark and other educators dispute agree with research that music, drama, painting and other creative outlets improves student learning and discipline. When Illinois lawmakers and the governors office began prorating how much money school districts receive in general state aid, to subsidize education dollars for poorer districts, school boards found few options beyond program reductions to make up the revenue shortfall beginning about five years ago. In one year alone, Johnston City school board members cut $900,000 from their budget. Prior to cuts, the district employed a full-time music teacher at the high school and another at the middle school, and the two also taught K-4 students twice a week. The district also employed a full-time arts teacher at the high school, Clark said. Today, one music teacher is working at the high school and middle school and now only teaches third- to fourth-grade students once a week. The arts instructor is down to teaching four periods a day. Despite the cuts, performances at the middle school and high school have been maintained, including band, chorus and musicals, Clark said. The state does require the arts to be taught but at a minimum. For instance, to graduate from high school, students must complete at least one year of either art, music, a foreign language or vocational education, according to Illinois State Board of Education information. Greg Goins, Frankfort Community School District superintendent, said the problem has been created by general state aid cuts that have continued today. Goins and Clark recognize the community will to maintain arts programming. In Johnston City, in Goins' district, fundraisers raised about $30,000 to help pay a teachers salary. Other individuals and groups, including Morthland College, have launched community music programs or invited students into their homes to play music, and arts boosters remain active. But educators are not sitting still. In Johnston City, the district received a $5,000 state grant for fine arts planning and will pursue a follow-up grant for implementation. As a result, students K-4 will participate in monthly arts programs. Also, students at the middle school will participate in an all-day arts day featuring regional artists on April 22. DECATUR Timothy Ware, a former guard at the Decatur women's prison, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 2 years of probation and 50 hours community service, for soliciting the phone numbers of a female inmate and a parolee, contacting them and lying to investigators. Ware, 41, who did not testify at his jury trial, delivered an impassioned plea for mercy to the judge and said he accepted responsibility for his actions. He was convicted of seven felony counts of official misconduct Dec. 8. A 28-year-old woman testified at the sentencing hearing that he sexually assaulted her in a dark closet while she was an inmate. Her testimony was presented as part of the state's case for a lengthier sentence. Ware was not charged in a criminal court for that incident. That woman has a civil suit pending in federal court against Ware, which is scheduled to go to trial March 15 in Urbana. After Assistant Macon County State's Attorney Lindsey Shelton recommended a sentence above the minimum of two years and defense attorney Harvey Welch argued for probation, Circuit Judge Hugh Finson handed down his sentence. He said that Ware was obligated by his position to prevent crime, including incidents such as what happened to the sexual assault victim. In this case, he used his position to take advantage of her, Finson said. The judge said he took into account the testimonial letters from Ware's supporters, which he was presented during the hearing Friday afternoon. But a lot of people have two sides of their personality, Finson said. He has two sides of his definitely. Finson said he considered that Ware had no prior felony convictions, although he had been convicted of three misdemeanors. Shelton told the judge there was no excuse for Ware's criminal behavior, repeatedly taking advantage of very vulnerable women during a period of several years. Welch argued that the state statute prefers probation for probationable offenses. He said he was employed, would comply with probation terms and would not be a threat to the public. Speaking in his own behalf, Ware said he began working for the Department of Corrections as a guard at the Pontiac prison in 1993, when he was 19 years old. He said it was a super-maximum prison, which housed death row inmates and gang leaders. When he came to Decatur in May 2010, he was instructed to refer to inmates as miss and ma'am, to show that correctional officers are human. He made speeches at re-entry events to motivate and mentor inmates. He admitted that he violated department rules and deeply apologized to the court, Ms. Shelton and to the women he was convicted of contacting. Those women were not present. DECATUR -- Two weeks ago, Decatur resident Jacob Jenkins posted on Facebook that he wanted to take a U-Haul full of water to Flint, Mich., where residents face ongoing water contamination. Through the power of social media and the community's proclivity for charitable efforts, the movement dubbed #decaturwaterchallenge grew exponentially. By mid-afternoon Friday, those in charge of a collection drive at the Macon County Sheriff's Office realized they had surpassed their wildest expectations and found themselves scrambling to find more semitrucks. In the end, six trucks left for Flint, with five headed to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and one to a neighborhood Jenkins identified Jan. 31, when he visited the city with an initial truck of water. Jenkins started the challenge by posting videos on Facebook calling on people to donate. Deputy Elgin Hawthorne made his own, encouraging his colleagues at the sheriff's office to participate, and residents began to ask how they could help. That's how the idea came to park a semi across the street from the Macon County Law Enforcement Center from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and let people drop off water. But no one could have foreseen the energy with which Decatur responded. Businesses, schools, government bodies, community groups and individual residents all pitched in. Two moving trucks even arrived shortly after noon with loads of water collected by East St. Louis residents. I'm so proud of this community, and it's an honor to be of service to the people of this community, Hawthorne said. They came through. The Decatur School District collected more than 31,000 bottles of water for Flint, with Durfee Magnet School bringing in roughly 8,400 bottles. Many of the students come from low-income families and know what it's like to do without, Principal Sarah Knuppel said. But they were aghast when they heard that kids in Flint had gotten sick from drinking the water there, and they were immediately motivated to gather donations. Many called their relatives or churches, anyone they thought could help them collect water. I think this time, it was different because the kids really felt like they were helping other kids, Knuppel said. It wasn't some nebulous concept that they were collecting for. It was other kids in schools just like them. That made it really meaningful for them. Durfee students Marshall Luthy, 10, Markayla Flinn, 11, and Cashaun Weatherford, 11, visited the law enforcement center Friday and were excited to see cases of water stacked up high. My parents always told me everyone is equal, Marshall said, and it's important to help the community, even when you don't have a lot to give. It makes me happy because we're donating to others and helping out, because they have lead in their water and their water is brown, Cashaun added. It's good to get them nice and fresh water to drink. Other schools participated too, including Warrensburg-Latham, where students collected 1,100 cases of water. If we needed the water, we would want people to come and bring the water to us, said Connor Henne, a seventh grader at Warrensburg-Latham Middle School who was helping Principal Paul Hoffman and fellow students Brayden Closs, Jackson Cook and Haylee Troike unload donations Friday. In addition to multiple other area schools, a slew of businesses and community organizations also pitched in with cases of water and monetary donations. The Macon County Probation and Court Services Department helped connect people who needed community service hours with the effort, producing an efficient work force that organized cases into pallets and loaded pallets onto the trucks. Just as significant as the larger donations were the countless vehicles that rolled up with a handful of cases. Gary and Penny Vadakin had filled up all the remaining space in a Toyota Rav 4 with 30 cases of water, purchased by donations from some residents at the Oxford House senior living community. We wanted to help in some way. We were concerned, Penny Vadakin said. We wish we could do more. Jack Dungan of Danville was among those who provided some of the most crucial service: transportation. He owns a semitruck and volunteered his services to haul some of the water to Flint. Dungan, 69, said he heard about the effort on the news and contacted the sheriff's office to see if he could help. If individuals don't help individuals, it's not gonna work, he said. No matter what anybody tries, it's just not gonna work. That's the way I was raised, and that's the way I continue. Transportation was also supplied by McLeod Express and Durbin Trucking. Surveying the progress Friday, Jenkins said he was overwhelmed by the community's response to what started as a hashtag and a dream. He recalled, too, the strength of the community in Flint, where people who received Decatur's donated water also made sure to take some to their elderly and disabled neighbors. Just to see how the spirit of the people there, that even though they're facing adversity, they are still coming together as a neighborhood, he said. They're still showing community and the importance of community. DECATUR Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Jim Schultz wants to create a new brand to market the state. Before that can happen, Schultz said structural changes are needed starting with the addition of a privately run and funded organization to work with the DCEO to encourage job growth and economic development. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed an executive order earlier in the week to form the Illinois Business and Economic Development Corporation as a way to attract businesses and investment throughout the state. We have to do a better job, Schultz said Thursday evening during a presentation as part of the Millikin University Institute for Science Entrepreneurship speaker series. We've got to change structurally how we do things. Schultz said 16 other states including Indiana and Ohio have a similar structure in place, which puts Illinois at a competitive disadvantage. They're beating us in job creation, Schultz said. Illinois lost 3,000 jobs last year, he said. The goal of the new organization is to be able to pay those looking to attract business to the state at a higher level and more efficiently pursue economic development through the use of private sector resources and expertise. We want to bring the best and brightest to the state at a pay level they should be making, Schultz said. We can't do that under the current state structure. Schultz plans to work on creating the organization for the next 6 months and have it operational by the third quarter of the year, employing 20 to 30 people. The legislature has taken up the idea of privatization but Democrats have questioned the accountability for the new corporation and criticized the plan after Rauner went ahead without legislative approval. The Governor's office said the corporation will maintain strict standards of transparency and accountability, including a robust conflict of interest policy and public disclosure of donors. It said the DCEO will maintain final authority and oversight of all state grants and incentives. Schultz said a board of volunteers will oversee the corporation, which will be based in Chicago. Schultz, who was a businessman from Effingham, said he took the director's job to address some of the challenges facing the state. I thought we could do better as a state, Schultz said. We have an opportunity to turn the state around. Schultz said the state can improve the way its assets are marketed, including its transportation network and access to water. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close 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. MILWAUKEE As Waukeshas quest for Lake Michigan water reaches the home stretch, so does the debate over the issue and Racines opposition. Racine Mayor John Dickert and Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly traded arguments before about 240 people Thursday at On the Issues with Mike Gousha, a forum held on the campus of Marquette University. Due to problems with its water supply, Waukesha is proposing to divert an average of 10 million gallons of Lake Michigan water per day and returning treated wastewater to the lake through the Root River. The years-long debate figures to intensify with the decision now in the hands of Great Lakes governors. The eight governors, all of whom must sign off for Waukeshas application to be approved, are expected to decide in late May or early June, Reilly said. Dickert reiterated his stance that Waukesha obtaining Lake Michigan water would harm the Root River, pointing to more phosphorous and pharmaceuticals being brought into the water. He didnt offer a prediction on how the governors might come down on the issue, but said there is more nervousness about water following the contamination crisis in Flint, Mich. Flint showed us just how precious and just how fragile our water systems are, Dickert said. Reilly argued the Root River would benefit from more treated water added to it. Waukeshas analysis showed Lake Michigan as the only reasonable option to meet the areas water needs, he said. Racine was previously in negotiations to supply Waukesha with lake water but was eventually beaten out by Oak Creek. Reilly also said the city would explore legal options should the proposal be denied, adding he expects it to ultimately be approved. Region divided Besides the impact on the Root River, Reilly and Dickert differ on several other aspects, including whether Waukesha truly has other options besides Lake Michigan water and the precedent-setting nature of Waukeshas request. Dickert said Waukeshas request could open the floodgates to other communities obtaining water in the Great Lakes region and beyond. He has spoken with officials as far away as Arizona who expressed a desire for Great Lakes water, he said. Candidly, Mother Nature and the glaciers gave us one shot at this. We have one body of water, Dickert said. Im going to be a little parochial about this and say, yall can come to me, because were not going out to you. Dickert said hes also concerned about a long court battle that could follow Waukeshas proposal. Reilly, meanwhile, said the precedent was already set with the 2008 Great Lakes Compact, which set the terms by which communities outside the Great Lakes basin could obtain water. Waukesha meets those terms and has shown why it should be allowed water from the lake, Reilly said. Denying the request out of fear for additional requests actually will cheapen the value of the compact, he said. Because then its like, OK, were going to pick and choose what portions of the compact we like and which ones we dont ... legally that does not work. Waukeshas request has divided southeastern Wisconsin, with city officials in Milwaukee also opposed. Thats frustrating to Reilly, who along with Dickert said the region needs to collaborate better. This does reflect (for) me one of the issues where the southeastern Wisconsin region could have worked together, and unfortunately I dont think they are, Reilly said. The Madison Public Library and library systems in four other cities will be equipped, by the end of the year, to archive the albums of local bands and offer them, free, for library card holders to hear and download if Rabble has its way. Rabble is a Madison startup whose MUSICat software will let libraries solicit songs from local musicians, contract with the artists and save the collection in a way that library users can stream or download the music. The local collections will be integrated with the libraries systems for checking library cards and with their online card catalogs, co-founder Preston Austin said. Founded in 2014, Rabble is an offshoot of Murfie, the local company that lets members sell, swap and stream their CDs and albums. As reported in this column last week, Murfie co-founders Austin and Matt Younkle are stepping aside from their leadership roles and have brought in Chris Wheeler to take Murfies helm. While Younkle is expected to pursue other ventures, Austin says hell focus much of his efforts on Rabble. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is the first city whose library system is using a pilot MUSICat program. Aside from Madison, Austins not saying yet where MUSICat will turn up next. A for-profit company, half-owned by Murfie, Rabble will charge libraries a fee for hosting the music software and for support and development work, Austin said, but the company doesnt want to overcharge. Ultimately, we would love to see the service we offer be as inexpensive as hosting a website has become, and see the licensing fees for artists be funded with parallel community arts dollars and donated dollars so as not to draw directly on libraries general funding, he said. Rabble which has four employees including CEO Kelly Hiser, who works from Massachusetts and Murfie have been housed at Horizon Community Workspace, a co-working space at 7 N. Pinckney St., on the Capitol Square. Murfie expects to move into a bigger location soon, so that will open space at Horizon. Theres room for about 50 members at a time which could mean total membership of 150 or more, Austin said. Were also looking at more offerings to individuals and businesses who have another office but benefit from a pleasant workplace with a quiet, professional vibe when work or meetings bring them Downtown, he said. STARTUP FUNDING: Wicab, a Middleton company whose device helps blind people see, said it has brought in nearly $1 million from existing investors. CEO Robert Beckman says the latest funds are bridge financing to tide the company over until a larger round comes in. Our real goal is to raise additional capital from some Chinese investors, Beckman said. Thats because the potential market for Wicabs BrainPort V100 is much larger in China than in the U.S. There are 250,000 Americans who are profoundly blind while there are more than 5 million in China, said Beckman. Weve gotten some very positive, preliminary indications from the Chinese government that they may be interested in helping people who are profoundly blind to acquire the technology, he said. The BrainPort V100 consists of a video camera mounted on a pair on sunglasses that sends messages to an electrode plate on the users tongue. Black, white and gray images send different signals to the tongue plate, letting the user recognize the size and shape of nearby objects. Approved for use in the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe, sales of the non-surgical device priced at $10,000 have been small, so far, Beckman said. The reality is: most people who are profoundly blind are also impoverished, he said. Without government or insurance support, its hard for them to afford the device, said Beckman. In the U.S., most insurance companies use a Medicare coding system to determine reimbursement. Wicab has not received a Medicare code, Beckman said, because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services require data supporting the cost effectiveness of the technology. Its hard to provide that information when very few people can afford the device, he said. Wicab, which has 10 employees, plans to seek approval to sell the BrainPort device in China, Beckman said. Among other companies that have received recent financing: bluDiagnostics, developing a saliva test for fertility, reports $1.2 million in convertible debt; and Wellbe, with care plans for patients after surgery, reports $1.3 million in debt financing. Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Urban affairs, investigations, consumer help ("SOS") Follow Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal 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. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today The cry from state public school officials had its intended effect Thursday: On ice, for now, is a proposed change to state law that lobbyists for public school boards say would cost public schools some $22 million. An entirely different matter is whether the funding loss, in turn, would actually hurt the education received by Wisconsins 870,000 public school students and 32,000 publicly funded voucher students. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos office says the measure abruptly pulled from committee on Thursday would bring the states voucher programs more in line with its open enrollment program, which allows public school students to transfer into other public districts assuming the receiving districts have enough space. In open enrollment, state money follows a student from his or her home district to the receiving district which makes sense given that the home district no longer has the responsibility for educating the student. In changes to the states voucher program last year, districts losing students to voucher schools got a considerably better deal: Money for the voucher program would be taken from state public school aid, but public schools were given the authority to raise local property taxes to make up for the lost aid. Its as if taxpayers face paying for a voucher student twice once through state taxes for vouchers, and again through district property tax levies for, well, Im not sure what, given that the voucher students are no longer in the districts. Dan Rossmiller, government relations director at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, noted its not always the case where the students are moving from a public school to a voucher school. Thats because some students who have never attended public school are eligible for vouchers, too. Of course, like other voucher students, their families still have to fall below certain income limits. And in the absence of vouchers, taxpayers would probably still be paying for a lot of low-income students education, anyway (just in the public schools, where public schools leaders like to keep them). Rossmillers also right that a district cant simply close a school or lay off a teacher because it loses two or five or 10 students and the taxpayer funding that comes with them to voucher schools. There would have to be bigger losses before districts could find offsetting efficiencies, like closing schools. Still, changes in district enrollments happen all the time for many reasons. Birth rates go up and down, local economies boom or bust, districts provide better or worse education. Students leaving for other public school districts or for voucher-supported private schools are only two of many possibilities. In Janesville, for example, enrollment in the public schools dropped by 253 students in the three years after the General Motors plant shut down. District officials blame at least part of that on families forced to move elsewhere for jobs. To help make up for the associated loss of state aid, the state did, well, nothing special. Its unlikely many of the students were lost to voucher schools, after all. Christopher OKroley told police after his arrest Wednesday that he would have shot Caroline Nosal to death one night earlier, except for one thing: He realized he had never fired the gun he bought on Monday and wanted to practice with it. By the time he had practiced firing and returned to Metro Market, 6010 Cottage Grove Road, where OKroley and Nosal had worked together, he told police, Nosal had already left work and gone home. OKroley went home, ordered pizza, and watched movies, according to a criminal complaint. OKroley, 26, of Madison, was charged Friday with first-degree intentional homicide after he allegedly returned to the Metro Market on Tuesday night and shot Nosal, 24, of Stoughton, in the head and abdomen after she left work for the night. OKroley was also charged with first-degree reckless endangerment for allegedly shooting at Madison Police Officer Michele Walker, as she tried to arrest OKroley near East Towne Mall on Wednesday afternoon. According to the criminal complaint filed Friday, OKroley told police he bought the gun he used to shoot Nosal after Metro Market fired him by phone on Monday afternoon, and he had intended to use it that night. OKroley had worked there with Nosal, and co-workers described a relationship between the two that soured after OKroley wanted more, according to the complaint. Two weeks before the shooting, Nosal had complained to store management that she was being harassed by OKroley, who was then suspended. After he was suspended, OKroley told police, he began planning to kill Nosal and himself if he was also fired. Then on Monday, he was fired. On Friday, OKroley appeared in court, where bail was set at $1 million. He was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair and wore a suicide prevention smock. A former girlfriend told the Wisconsin State Journal that OKroley had tried to commit suicide in 2014, and that he has been seriously mentally ill for the past decade. According to the complaint: OKroley learned from text messages that he exchanged with former co-workers on the pretext of going to collect belongings when Nosal was not at the store that she finished work at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. He told police that he knelt down beside her car with the gun in his hand. When he saw Nosal turn the corner, he stood up, pointed the gun at her and shot her in the chest. When she fell, he told police, he shot her once more in the head. He told police that it was easy to kill Nosal, and that he killed her out of anger because she had ruined my life. He also described himself to police as a sociopath. After the shooting, OKroley wrote in a text message to one co-worker, I killed Caroline and Im about to kill myself. So dont be surprised when I dont respond anymore. After the shooting, he told police, he realized he couldnt kill himself, so his plan was to hijack someones car at gunpoint. A tip alerting police that OKroley had been spotted in the East Towne area brought Officer Walker to the area, and OKroley said he was surprised by her and admitted to firing his gun twice at her. Im glad I didnt hit her, he said. I dont know what else, I guess Im sorry but ... I dont know if I am sorry, Im just glad I didnt hit her. About OKroleys gun, Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said, We believe that he purchased the firearm locally and legally at a store; however, that part of the investigation is still ongoing. Last year, the state Legislature eliminated a 48-hour waiting period to buy a handgun, a measure that was opposed by most Democratic legislators. State Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, recently introduced a bill to reinstate the waiting period, citing as examples a suicide that was carried out without having to wait for a gun, and a homicide elsewhere in Wisconsin, also carried out with a newly purchased gun. These are two examples of what the waiting period was designed to prevent, Taylor said. Nosals death, she said, does illustrate that we need a cooling-off period. While its not certain that a waiting period would have avoided tragedy in this case, Taylor said, anything we can do that makes a difference in avoiding homicides, we must do. INgrooves Founder Robb McDaniels Launches Faction To Disrupt Music Management With labels and the music industry offering less and less support, managers have become the linchpin of most artists' teams. But except for those who give up 50% equity to join mega-management groups like Red Light, most managers are left with no road map and little support. Faction hopes to change all that. ____________________________________________ INgrooves Music Group Founder and former CEO, Robb McDaniels has launched Faction, a technology driven startup that aims to serve and empower music managers. Founding launch partners include Kevin Zinger and Ivory Daniel of Regime Management, the managers of Everlast, Dilated Peoples, Madchild and Common Kings. Faction is designed as a scalable management services company that delivers proprietary technology, centralized infrastructure and a collaborative culture often missing in the music industry. The startup will charge managers a share of commissions for the services. Manager will also participate in an equity pool, further aligning the collective interests of all involved. Artist managers, and talent managers more broadly, are the CEOs for their creative clients but have been lacking the tools and collaborative culture to operate effectively, commented Robb McDaniels. Faction is the first management company to provide managers with a suite of technology tools, services and partners to help them operate their businesses more efficiently and transparently, and all for a fraction of the cost of doing it on their own or joining a larger management company and giving away up to 50% of their income." Faction will offer centralized services to its managers, including digital marketing and social media, tour marketing, business operations, accounting, HR and an idea incubator to help managers and artists develop and commercialize new brands and products. By Q2, Faction managers will be able to create their own factions and invite key business partners like labels, publishers, booking agents, etc to all collaborate and share information. Launch Partners "Faction is the first business model we have seen that combines technology, services and ownership together to create a culture and platform that can actually make a difference in our daily lives, added manager and launch partner Ivory Daniel. Additional partners include Kino Childrey (The Initiative Group), Paul Stepanek (Paul Stepanek Management), Marc Friedenberg (MJF Management), Brian Ross (Elliptic Artist Management) and Anna Axster (Axster Bingham Co.). Collectively the managers represents and broad cross section of talent including , Ryan Bingham, Jamestown Revival, Dilated Peoples, Royce Da 59, Sick Puppies, Everlast, Blackalicious, Trevor Hall, Slaughterhouse, Madchild, Common Kings and Poncho Sanchez. Funding Faction has raised initial capital from angel investors, including some music industry executives along with Manatt Venture Fund and TechInvest. Faction is based in Los Angeles and has plans to open offices in New York and London later in 2016. Share on: The older partner commits criminal sexual abuse if he or she commits an act of sexual penetration or sexual conduct with a victim younger than 17 years of age and the accused was less than 5 years older than the victim. This charge is raised to criminal aggravated sexual abuse if the perpetrator is more than five years older than the victim. 1. The age of consent in Illinois is 17 years old. If any child as young as 12 is concerned that they may have come into contact with an STI, then a crime has been committed. A new administrative rule set into place in late June (see below) added vaccinations to the medical care and counseling children ages 12 and up may give themselves permission to receive if they think they've been in contact with a sexually-transmitted infection (STI): SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Department of Public Health has confirmed to Illinois Review that twelve-year-old children could now be getting Gardasil vaccine shots without their parents' knowledge or permission. There are no "close in age" exemptions or "Romeo and Juliet laws" to Illinois' age of consent. This means that anyone that engages in sexual activity with someone under the age of consent in Illinois is liable for prosecution, including people only a few years older then their sexual partner and even two individuals who are both under the age of consent. 2. Gardasil can have health-endangering side effects. The vaccine most commonly associated with STIs is Gardasil, a vaccine to ward off four strings of the human papillomavirus. There are about 30 to 40 types of HPV that can affect the genital area. And, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are about 6 million new cases of genital HPV infections in the United States each year. An estimated 74% of them occur in 15 to 24 year olds. Merck & Co., the producer of Gardasil, says for most people HPV clears up on its own. But, for others who don't clear certain types, HPV could cause significant consequences: cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers in females. Other types could cause genital warts in both males and females. Gardasil is known to have serious to mild side effects including seizures, strokes, dizziness, fatigue, weakness, headaches, stomach pains, vomiting, muscle pain and weakness, joint pain, auto-immune problems, chest pains, hair loss, appetite loss, personality changes, insomnia, as well as menstrual cycle changes, fainting, swollen lymph nodes, night sweats, nausea, temporary vision/hearing loss. News sources have reported the deaths of nearly 50 young women as the result of the Gardasil 3-series shots. Despite legislative efforts a few years ago to mandate the vaccine for those 11 years and older, Gardasil is not required for school attendance in Illinois. 3. Parents are not being notified about this rule change. Parents are not being told by schools or the state that their children can have this medical care without their parents' knowledge or consent, and federal HIPAA laws will keep parents from ever finding out exactly how their underage children are being treated concerning STIs. Most parents are aware that school nurses can't administer aspirins or pain killers without a parents' consent, but parents are not made aware that Illinois law now allows their children to receive medical care, counseling or vaccinations without any notification - and parents are actually restricted from accessing the information about their children. RELATED STORIES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IR: HPV Education - Virus or Vaccine? IR: HPV = Halvorson is Payment-Vexed ... Big Money in Sex Vaccinations IR: Better Late Than Never: MSM Worries About Gardasil ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Illinois minors are not allowed to receive pain relievers or any other medical treatment without their parents consent. They are not allowed to get their ears pierced or their skin tattooed without responsible adults being in agreement. But now, under Illinois communicable disease code, they can get Gardasil or Hepatitis B shots and keep them a secret from their parents under federal HIPAA laws. At the end of June, Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed, another right was granted to Illinois minors the ability to consent to vaccinations affiliated with STIs. Since 1995, Illinois minors starting at age twelve have had the right to consent to medical treatment and counseling if they thought they had been exposed to an STI. Rezin is referring to a change made in June that allows minors to get vaccinations for sexually transmitted infections (STI) without their parents knowledge that is raising concern among Illinois parents. The rule change slipped through and nobody caught it. Were looking at how we can correct it, she said. SPRINGFIELD Illinois parents concerned about their children getting secret vaccinations against sexually transmitted diseases may get the opportunity to voice their opinion about overseeing their childrens medical care as soon as the fall veto session, State Senator Sue Rezin (R-Morris) said Wednesday. This new public policy in Illinois is stunning and dangerous, said Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccination Information Center in Virginia. Unless parents are informed that their children have been given a vaccine like Gardasil, they cant monitor their children for symptoms or side effects that could cause permanent harm. No twelve year old has the ability to object morally or ethically to a health professional telling them they need a vaccination. Gardasil is a vaccination given as a prevention against the human papillomavirus (HPV), not a treatment if a child thinks she may have been exposed, Fisher said. The July 2013 U.S. federal government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System shows 30,674 adverse reactions reported after Gardasil vaccinations, with 963 recipients being left disabled and 140 dead. How did Illinois children get the right to consent to STI vaccinations such as Gardasil without legislative debate or public comment? In May, the Illinois General Assemblys Joint Committee on Administrative Rules considered a proposal rewriting a section of the Communicable Disease Control and Immunizations Control of Sexually Transmissible Infections Code. The changes were mostly to do with revising language concerning HIV, but the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggested the change adding vaccinations, Vicki Thomas, the executive director of J-CAR said. They said that part of the treatment for STIs now involves vaccinations, and at their recommendation, the words or vaccination against were added. Thomas said no one raised any questions or comments about the change, so the new responsibility for vaccinations and any adverse effects was provided to minors twelve years of age and older when J-CAR voted to accept the section rewrite. Senator Rezin serves on J-CAR and said the addition was one she disagrees with, but Nobody caught it, and literally three words were inserted, making the change. Rezin said legislative staff is looking at what can be done to correct the current policy now in effect. Were looking at it, at how this happened, and hoping to consider legislation that will cause parents of minors twelve and above to consent to vaccinations like Gardasil, Rezin said. However, involving parents in the treatment of children who think they may have been exposed to a sexually transmitted infection may be a challenge in the Illinois legislature. In 2011, California passed into law AB 499, which allows children to receive Gardasil or Hepatitis B vaccination without parents consent. The legislation was controversial and drew outrage from parents that didnt sway state lawmakers. Informed consent should always be a criteria for medical treatment, NVICs director Fisher said. Children at age 12 are unable to process what is needed for informed consent. Illinois has enacted a very dangerous policy. ______ Other Illinois Review stories on the topic: I dont know about that, Ronald Reagan had a pretty nice personality. Even so, tell that to the blue collar worker in the Rust Belt who lost his job to the de-industrialization caused by ideas that he and his fellow travelers have given us the last 40 years. Paul Ryan, an ideas guy he is. But how conservative is Paul Ryan really? Hes pro-life and pro-gun and Im sure hed like lower taxes. But beyond that I sure dont see it. New Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has been quite busy theorizing lately. Viewed as the intellectual type by the Beltway pundits, Ryan gave the world his hypothesis for recent conservative failures when he stated: My theory of the case is this: We win when we have an ideas contest. We lose when we have a personality contest. Consider that Paul Ryan spent quality time discussing the merits of open borders in Chicago with Congressman Luis Gutierrez who just happens to be the poster boy for the movement. And Ryan was not just making happy talk, he has consistently pushed in Congress for various measures to increase green cards and expedite the movement of more cheap labor in to the country for big business. Is this any different than Obamas view on the issue? And how will that help the struggling middle class in this country? By depressing their wages? Isnt that what really creates those jobs that Americans supposedly dont want? How is any of this conservative? Ryan is also a strong supporter of free trade agreements. This appears to be the case even if his own district is negatively affected as it was recently when General Electric announced another round of outsourced jobs from its Waukesha, WI facility. Talk about being an ideas guy! I wonder how his district residents feel about those ideas though? Maybe he can bring to his next townhall meeting those big fancy charts showing the negative effects of deadweight loss on society. I wonder though how those who lost their jobs will feel when he shows them their livelihoods have been reduced to a few shaded areas on a supply-demand graph? But lets give the Speaker due credit. At least Mr. Ryan admitted recently that he is willing to lose his seat in 2018 if he can get the right things done to save the country (my hope is he loses his seat in 2016, but that is probably wishful thinking). But what an ego that viewpoint entails! In other words, he can impose his objectivist philosophy if Republicans control a majority in Congress along with the White House. Then he is willing to be forcibly retired with a nice fat Congressional pension and Im sure an even fatter lobbyist gig while the rest of us deal with the deflationary effects of full-throated supply-sided economics. Lets remember that Ryan was also a backer of the Trade Promotion Authority bill last summer which gave President Obama the ability to negotiate the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal with Asian countries and then present it to Congress for an up or down vote without amendment. The final passage of the TPP hasnt occurred yet but there are rumors it is so unpopular and controversial that it will be done in the lameduck session after the November election. Ryan feels that engaging Asia on this deal will allow the United States to take the lead on writing the rules of trade. Somehow this will strengthen our countrys position in the world in the 21st century. But isnt that the sort of thing that was said about NAFTA, CAFTA, and GATT too? Twenty years of de-industrialization later we all know how those trade deals turned out. The Republican party in general that has zero credibility on this issue. Free trade in a global world as we live has led to economic decline for the middle class in America. Wages in some industries and sectors of the economy have stagnated since the 1970s. This happens to coincide with the era of huge trade deficits and these wonderful free trade deals. I suppose the elite shareholders of our country though got some bigger dividends, which they probably invested in other businesses in the service sector which created those low wage jobs we keep hearing about. But wait, there is even more that the middle class must swallow in the name of principle and Paul Ryans college textbooks. How about a spoonful of entitlement reform? That just means cutting Social Security. Now considering the federal government got the benefit of the time value of the retirees money these last eighty years, I dont think reducing the benefits whether through actual cuts or delaying retirement or other gimmicks is going to help middle class families much. Nor do I think allowing the export of American oil to world markets will help out much either. This will inevitably lead to higher gas prices at some point down the road. So, Who is Paul Ryan? He seems to be a true believer of 18th century classically liberal ideas. This doesnt make him a conservative as what exactly is it that full implementation of those ideas is going to conserve? Yet he seems to think that the ideas of men who lived centuries ago is going to appeal to a Republican electorate that sees its country disintegrating. Sorry Paul, thats just not who we are. The local movieplex, having raised its price by fifty cents a year for the past four years, persuaded the city council of Anytown, USA to punish the residents who used to attend the cinema but no longer do. The new $500/year Economic Avoidance Penalty is designed to dissuade people from the unhealthy choice to stay home. This new trend, usually blamed on the steep prices of tickets and drinks, costs the community important resources, by depressing the employment of ushers and cashiers, and by reducing critical sales tax revenue. Economists, when notified of this new charge for non-attendance at the cinema, laughing hysterically, unanimously said Ha ha, thats a good one, before being notified that it was for real, and then correcting their comments to call it creative and visionary. Residents of Anytown, USA were surprised to receive invoices in the mail from their local county government Friday. The county identified people who used to shop in the local mall but, due to reports of muggings, rapes, and vehicle theft at the mall, switched to shopping at other, safer malls, or just doing it online. The thousand dollar a year fine was based on the estimated amount of revenue the mall says it lost due to their departure. Professional economists, when asked about the new approach, called it creative and visionary. Fiction or Non-Fiction? As you can certainly tell, these are not real news stories, at least not yet. The United States doesnt fine a person for failing to go to the movies because its become too expensive, or for sensibly making the decision to stop shopping in a once-safe neighborhood or mall that has become a severe crime zone. But the United States IS on that path. If you used to receive health insurance from your employer, but you lost that job, or the employer could no longer offer you the benefit, the U.S. government will now fine you for failing to buy your own health insurance, so you must buy incredibly overpriced insurance on your own from the government to avoid the fine. In many states, if you used to be a member of a union, but you choose to drop the union without dropping the job, they fine you often the same amount as the union dues had been as a penalty for having the nerve to quit the union. There seem to be more such approaches every year. The American economy has always been capitalist, at least at its core, if not in every detail. The right of contract is enshrined in our legal system and our culture; if we want to do business with someone, we do; if not, we dont. But recent generations, and in particular, recent years, have begun to reverse that freedom. Today, if the government favors a purchase, a membership, or a vendor, the Leviathan will consider finding some way to force the transaction to occur against your will. Thats not American. Not in the least. But its how more and more people in politics think these days. Corporate Inversion and the January Jobs Report One of the biggest stories of recent years has been the loss of American corporate headquarters to foreign countries, especially as American firms merge with foreign ones, often locating the new joint headquarters (for tax purposes at least) in Ireland, Switzerland, or other more business-friendly locales. Many in Americas chattering class from business reporters to politicians take every such opportunity to make the case that these transformations known as corporate inversions are somehow a terribly unpatriotic move, and the companies should never be allowed to do it though they never seem to identify the reasons for this flight to be unpatriotic. So, the Leviathan in Washington has dreamed up penalties, and built them into the tax code and they want more, ever more. Politicians speak of banning the practice entirely once a US company, always a US company much like the islamic belief that all land that was once part of the caliphate must forever be considered part of the caliphate, even if its been centuries and centuries since the muslims controlled a place. They cant build a physical wall around the country to keep people in, as the East Germans did with Berlin, so theyll build walls into the tax code to accomplish the same result, where corporations are concerned. But what they accomplish instead is a very different result than the one intended: they just add to the reasons WHY a company might want to leave in the first place, on top of so many already present in the marketplace, and add reasons to do so sooner rather than later! The January Jobs Report, issued by the Department of Labor on Friday, February 5 nicknamed #NowHiringBusboys, was chock full of examples worth analyzing. Of the 151,000 new jobs (net) allegedly created in January, 44,000 were in leisure and hospitality, an area with among the lowest potential for career growth in the economy (not zero, but the well-paid jobs in this industry, such as hotel managers and head chefs, are few and far between, compared to busboys and maids). There were 58,000 new jobs allegedly created in the retail sector. Store management can be a good career, but again, there arent a lot of great mid-level careers in that family of specialties if youre aiming to reach the American Dream. The vast majority of these jobs are cashiers without much career growth potential. For most people, this sectors positions ought to be part time jobs en route to a better career, not careers in themselves. The pain point is actually in one of the better numbers; we allegedly saw 29,000 new jobs in manufacturing. Since manufacturing is and must be the core of the economy, its this number that should have everyone terrified. January presented us with the most new manufacturing jobs in a year, and even so, 29,000 is a paltry sum for such a key sector of an economy. Our economy is still stuck in a ten year tailspin that began with Nancy Pelosis takeover of the House of Representatives in 2006. Despite the great gains the GOP has made in most states since then, and even though she only controlled the House for four years, that and the ongoing eight-year mismanagement under Barack Obamas White House has left our economy in a shambles. A decent economy would generate 400,000-plus net new jobs every month, with a good percentage in manufacturing. Manufacturing isnt just important because we like to see US-made goods on the store shelves; its important because manufacturing more than any other single sector creates truly broad career opportunity for everyone. A lawyer or accountant might prosper just as much in an environment of imported goods as in an environment of domestic-made goods. One can go to college, get that CPA or law license, and be almost assured of a decent career and a middle class life. But only manufacturing provides opportunities for virtually everyone to rise in numerous directions. Only in manufacturing can a person start out with only a high school diploma, as an assembler on the line or an inside sales rep in a call center, and find a path on which to rise beyond his or her station. From the plant floor or the customer service department, one can get company-paid training, sometimes even company-paid college, to become a mechanical engineer, a marketing rep, a designer, a graphic artist, a chemical engineer. From the plant floor or the customer service department of a manufacturer, a young person can rise, without a prior degree, to be transportation manager, sales manager, engineering manager, quality manager From the plant floor or the customer service department, a person can stay and climb the ladder, and become a vice president or CEO, or he can strike out on his own as an entrepreneur. But all this only happens if he gets that necessary first start. That factory has to be there, in order for that career ladder to have a first step. And every time that factory succumbs to economic pressures, to move a line, or many lines, or the whole plant to a foreign country, those opportunities disappear and surface overseas. What has happened in America in recent generations? The payroll tax and other corporate taxes have made America a fundamentally costly place to do business, even before considering our income taxes, which are, cumulatively, the highest in the world, with an effective tax rate of about 38%. The regulatory environment, having mushroomed in recent decades, is a millstone around the neck of every company. A guitar maker must fear buying hardwood, or Fish and Wildlife could shut him down. A snack maker must hire labs to determine the calorie and fat counts to populate an ever more complex FDA-mandated label. A proud manufacturer of a US product must hire expensive attorneys to guide him on his markings, because just saying Made in USA even when true! can get you an expensive lawsuit from some state attorney general or a class action filer, because of the restrictions enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. The labor market is ever-more skewed against the employer, with Obama appointees filling the courts and the various labor boards. After years of public opinion finally recognizing the need for fairness in labor relations, the jackboot of government has stomped on the scale to return the unfair advantage to Big Labor. So the result is that manufacturing flees the country, moving abroad at a depressing clip. And many of those that dont flee arent here because they dont even get started. Without getting your start on a production floor, you cant launch out on your own; one needs the experience to learn how. So businesses never get started in the first place. Populist politicians and jabberers blame duty-free programs like NAFTA as if the difference between a 4% tariff and a 0% tariff is substantial enough to make companies relocate abroad. They blame our high salary costs, as if the difference in salary alone would suffice to drive a company to pull up stakes and rebuild in a country 14 hours away by airplane, necessitating a lifetime of 2:00am conference calls and constant airfreight costs and ten week leadtimes. No. The reason that companies move overseas is that the United States is kicking them out. Intentionally, consciously, purposefully, kicking them out. Companies would happily stay here, despite a somewhat higher salary cost than abroad, if that were truly the only challenge. But the challenges faced by American manufacturing are entirely created by the political class: a litigious society, a regulatory state, and a tax code that punishes each employer for his very existence. If we want to bring about a jobs renaissance and yes, we must! then the only way is to engage in a standard conservative program of regulatory reduction, corporate tax cuts, and legal system reforms. We need to stop kicking companies out, and then trying to fine them for understandably fleeing an inhospitable environment. We can prosper again in America, but it wont happen with anti-inversion bills or public shaming. We just need to cease the incessant socialist practice of beating up the goose that lays the golden eggs, and then complaining when it finally dies and stops laying them. Copyright 2016 John F. Di Leo John F. Di Leo is a Chicago-based Customs broker and writer, who has worked in international commerce since childhood and American manufacturing for twenty years. He has seen the Leviathans attack on the factory sector first hand, and regularly writes about the fight in Illinois Review. Permission is hereby granted to forward freely, provided it is uncut, and the IR URL and byline are included. Follow John F. Di Leo on Facebook or LinkedIn, or on Twitter at #johnfdileo. What this means is that Cook County residents would not be able to purchase and own a firearm without first acquiring firearm liability insurance. The Cook County Board of Commissioners has a proposed ordinance before it for consideration that will attempt to restrict the 2nd Amendment rights of all law-abiding citizens in Cook County. Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin of Chicago proposed an ordinance which calls for the prohibitions on the sale of firearm to, and purchase of firearm by, a person not covered by appropriate liability insurance. Now some people may look at this and say, This doesnt sound too bad, until you analyze the actual consequences of the proposal. The sponsor and others would like to compare firearm liability insurance to car insurance, which is like comparing apples to oranges. A right granted by the 2nd Amendment allows United States citizens to possess and own a firearm, period. Driving a motor vehicle is a privilege granted by State law, not a right covered under the United States Constitution. The intention of the ordinances sponsor is to have a major impact on gun violence. An admirable thought, however, if you are intellectually honest you must ask how this ordinance will have any impact on gun-wielding criminals. The honest answer is it wont. Its a patently false and purely emotional notion to think that violent criminals who are already breaking the law will stop and contemplate the purchase of firearm liability insurance before committing their next crime with a gun. Moreover, nearly all insurance policy coverage excludes criminal acts from their insurance coverage obligation. So the liability insurance would serve no purpose in addressing gun violence. Along with this proposed ordinance comes many unintended consequences. Requiring firearm liability insurance will have a negative financial impact on law-abiding citizens; specifically those who live in the higher crime zones, who will pay a more costly premium than the citizens living in low crime zones. Disarming law-abiding citizens or setting them up to break the law are very real consequences. In addition, if this questionable ordinance was to be passed, litigation would certainly follow in opposition to its constitutionality, the consequence yet again, a very long and costly legal defense for the Cook County taxpayers to bear. There are sound reasons why this type of legislation has failed nearly everywhere it has been introduced across the country. This proposed ordinance will not address violent criminal behavior as it is intended to do, but will instead restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. In my opinion, this is another unconstitutional overreach by government, which I strongly oppose. We need to focus our efforts on real preventative measures, those that are truly substantive in nature and that will deter individuals away from crime. We can do so by beginning to promote strong family structure, by supporting the concept of the community members turning in those known criminals who murder our children and murder our neighbors and through increasing educational and employment opportunities. Preventing criminal behavior must be the driving force to addressing violent crime, rather than ineffective legislation place upon the citizen taxpayer without regard to consequence. Sean M. Morrison is Cook County Commissioner for the 17th District By India Today Web Desk: Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, who was miraculously found alive under 25 feet of snow died today in an army hospital. Koppad was found in a critical condition after six days of the avalanche. He was taken to the Army Research and Referral Hospital as he was severely dehydrated and was hypothermic, hypoxic, hypoglycaemic and in shock. Koppad had pneumonia and was suffering from liver, kidney dysfunction and frost bite. A senior official today said, "Lance Naik Hanamanthappa is no more. He breathed his last at 11:45am today." advertisement Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his condolences and tweeted, "He leaves us sad and devastated. RIP Lance Naik Hanumanthappa. The soldier in you remains immortal. Proud that martyrs like you served India." 10 Indian soldiers, including Koppad, had gone missing after the massive avalanche in Siachen and were declared to be dead initially, but the rescue operation is still under process. Lieutenant General DS Hooda, Northern Army Commander had said, "It was a miraculous rescue, all efforts are being made to evacuate Lance Naik Hanaman Thappa to the RR hospital in the morning." The avalanche hit the high altitude post which is situated at 19000 feet in the Siachen Glacier in Ladakh. In January, four Indian soldiers were killed by the avalanche that hit the same area. Siachen is known as the world's highest battlefield and is the second largest glacier in the world's non polar areas. As per reports, more soldiers have died on the glacier because of the weather conditions rather than in battle. Irrespective of the peaceful talks between India and Pakistan, the Siachen Glacier hasn't been demilitarised. --- ENDS --- This Valentine's Day head out for a short break with your partner to one of these five romantic destinations. By Kalyani Prasher: Jaisalmer: Utterly romantic The yellow sandstone takes on a golden hue in the day. Picture courtesy: Good Housekeeping All my life I had heard of Jaisalmer being magical, different, unreal... the golden city, and its golden fort, the only living fort in the world (where about a quarter of city's population resides in the fort) - but it is only when I finally visited Jaisalmer last year, for the first time, that I realised how starkly different it is from the rest of Rajasthan. You don't have to go very far from the city centre to reach isolated areas... amid haunting beauty. Imagine a narrow strip of road cutting across the desert landscape, stretching endlessly into the horizon. All around are the golden sands of Jaisalmer, unfurling away from you on both sides, spreading as far as the eyes can see. advertisement Good to know: Head out to explore the famous yellow sandstone fort, which is a World Heritage Site. At night, ask your hotel to arrange a special dinner for the two of you on the dunes with bonfire and folk songs. Fly to Jodhpur and drive the four hours from there; best to get your hotel to arrange the transfer. Stay: Suryagarh, a charming small luxury resort. www.suryagarh.com Wayanad: Bond again A tea garden in Wayanad. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Sarath Kuchi/Creative Commons Let's admit it, you can pretty much close your eyes and pinpoint any part of Kerala on the map and head there for a romantic break, without a fear in the world that it might go wrong. With lush greenery, meandering waterways, the sea and swaying palms, it's almost as if Kerala comes with a tag "only for romance". However, for something different even within this evergreen pocket of India, try Wayanad. On the north-eastern side of Kerala, Wayanad is set in the higher reaches of the Western Ghats. Driving to it on NH 212, under droopy trees that meet overhead, will seem like you are being welcomed into magical land via a green tunnel. Good to know: A large part of this area is forested and it is also one of the least populated parts of Kerala, so all around you'll have undulating mountains -- and no one else but your partner. Make the moments more special by choosing to stay at a tree house instead of a regular hotel room. Fly to Calicut and take a taxi to Wayanad (70km). Stay: Vyithiri (www. vythiriresort.com/tree_house. html) or Tranquil (www. tranquilresort.com). The Konkan Coast: Love on wheels Part of the Sindhudurg Fort overlooking the sea. Picture courtesy: Good Housekeeping Balmy sea breeze, therapeutic ocean views, green backdrop of the Western Ghats, endless miles of unfrequented beaches? the Konkan coast has all the ingredients that make for a great romantic getaway. Maharashtra has an unbelievable coastline that stretches over 700km along the Arabian Sea - all along you will find patches of untouched scenery. Hire a car at the Mumbai airport and plan a driving holiday for four to five days, stopping at quaint and charming towns such as Ganpatipule, Tarkarli, and Sindhudurg. Each town is more beautiful than the other. Sidhudurg is the location for the Sindhudurg Fort in Malvan, dating back to the 17th century, which was built by Shivaji and which seems to rise out of the sea, making for a dramatic site and enjoyable excursions. Another historical site worth stopping at is the Jaigad Fort, just outside Chiplun in Ganpatipule, from where you can get stunning views of the Konkan coast and experience the simple lives of the Konkan villages. advertisement Good to know: Although lacking in creature comforts, Tarkarli has some of the most pristine beaches in the country. You can hire a car from either Mumbai or Pune. The route will be Ganpatipule-Sindhudurg-Tarkarli. Add a few days and drive down to Goa from Tarkarli and fly back home after spending a couple of nights there. Stay: Stick to the basic hotels of the Maharashtra government. Choose your hotel at www. maharashtratourism.gov.in/properties/mtdc-resort Galle, Sri Lanka: Lose yourselves Step back in time as you discover this heritage city together. Picture courtesy: Good Housekeeping The fact that you are in a city steeped in history is underlined by the fact that none other than Ibn Batuta refers to Galle in his writings, who is believed to have been a guest of the Jaffna kings back in the 14th century. The Portuguese influences are visible in the old buildings standing strong till date, giving the city a quaint romantic feel. The Portuguese came in the 16th century, when it was the main port of Sri Lanka, but it was only with the Dutch in the 18th century that Galle rose to prominence. advertisement Also read: Looking to go on a romantic holiday? You may like to consider this newly-opened island resort in the Maldives Good to know: With historical landmarks such as The Galle Fort and sea views, Galle is one of the most romantic foreign destinations within easy access from India. Fly to Colombo and drive two hours to Galle. You can easily find a taxi at the airport. Stay: At the pretty Lighthouse Hotel designed by famous architect Geoffrey Bawa, www.jetwinghotels.com/jetwinglighthouse Paro, Bhutan: Paradise awaits Enjoy panoramic mountain views right from the airport. Picture courtesy: Good Housekeeping As the flight lands on the narrow airstrip in Paro (make sure you choose to sit on the window seat), you will be gripping each other's hands in fright, as your plane's wings nearly, just nearly, touch the mountains in the middle of which you will be descending into Bhutan. One of the most difficult, hence dramatic landings in the world, your trip to Paro starts with a bang (well, not literally, one hopes) with this unforgettable landing. Once safely on land, you can tumble out of the flight to enjoy panoramic mountain views right from the airport, and all through the drive to your hotel. Paro is one of those Shangri-Las one reads about in storybooks, with prayer flags fluttering in the mountains, rosy-cheeked children gurgling with laughter, their voices only drowned out by the gurgling river snaking through the mountains. For activity, there is the popular trek to Tiger's Nest Monastery, which you should attempt even if you are not used to trekking, as you can do this at your own pace -- and the views are simply breathtaking. Just walking around Paro will be rewarding. The stunning Bhutanese scenery will have you begging for more. advertisement Good to know: The people are friendly and few and far in between. Talking about romance - this is a place you can expect to see double rainbows. Fly to Paro via Kathmandu on Bhutan Airlines. Thimphu, the capital, is worth exploring, and is an hour's drive from Paro. You can return to Paro or stay a couple of nights in Thimphu and explore other pretty places such as Punakha and beyond. Stay: Zhiwaling, www. zhiwaling.com (This article first appeared in the January issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.) --- ENDS --- Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for Friday's deadly attack on a U.N. police base in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu, a statement monitored by the SITE Intelligence group showed on Saturday. By Reuters: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for Friday's deadly attack on a U.N. police base in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu, a statement monitored by the SITE Intelligence group showed on Saturday. Malian troops backed by U.N. helicopters recaptured the base in a former hotel hours after it was taken and a Malian commander and four attackers were killed. The precise number of attackers was unclear. advertisement Militants have expanded their attacks in the region, killing 20 people in a raid on a hotel in Mali's capital in November and 30 more in an attack in the capital of Burkina Faso last month. "Three heroes from the knights of (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) were able to storm the Hotel Palmeraie, located in the centre of the city of Timbuktu, and which was taken as a headquarters by the forces of oppression falsely known as 'peacekeepers', the statement said. Militants drove up to the nearly empty U.N. base in the former Hotel Palmeraie at the entrance to Timbuktu at dawn and detonated a car bomb before holing up inside, security sources said. Islamist militants briefly held Timbuktu, an ancient trade and cultural hub, in 2012 and other northern towns until French forces drove them out a year later. They have launched a series of attacks and last year widened their attacks in Mali. --- ENDS --- Government today rubbished as "false and baseless" the allegation of senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who plumbed new depths to claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during his Christmas Day visit. By Press Trust of India: Government today rubbished as "false and baseless" the allegation of senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who plumbed new depths to claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during his Christmas Day visit. "There are certain statements in a section of press that prime accused in serial blasts in Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim, was also present during Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on December 25, 2015. These statements are baseless, unfounded and totally false," an official spokesman said reacting to Khans claim. advertisement While BJP attacked Khan, even a Congress spokesperson attached no importance to it saying it cannot be believed. "Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan claimed. He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Ministers residence when he went there on December 25 last. BJPs Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to "immediately" dismiss the minister. "If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and bringing shame to the nation. I am shocked," he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. "We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said," he said adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. Also read: Azam Khan strokes controversy, says Dawood was present during Modi-Nawaz meet in Lahore --- ENDS --- Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has stoked a fresh row by saying that India's most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim was present during PM Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's meeting in Lahore last year. By India Today Web Desk: Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has stoked a fresh row by saying that India's most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim was present during PM Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's meeting in Lahore last year. The Samajwadi Party leader, who is known for making controversial remarks, said that he has proof of Dawood's presence at the meeting. advertisement "Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan said. He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Minister's residence when he went there on December 25 last. However, the government today rubbished senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan's remarks by terming it as "false and baseless". "There are certain statements in a section of press that prime accused in serial blasts in Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim, was also present during Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on December 25, 2015. These statements are baseless, unfounded and totally false," an official spokesman said reacting to Khan's claim. In a surprise visit, PM Narendra Modi, had made a quick stopover in Lahore in December last year, to wish his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the occasion of his birthday. The prime minister's unscheduled stopover in Lahore to meet Sharif had surprised many. ALSO READ | PM Modi stuns everyone with unexpected stopover in Lahore to meet Nawaz Sharif Govt dismisses Azam Khan's allegation, calls it baseless, false --- ENDS --- By Jugal R Purohit: By the morning of October 13, 2014, the city of Visakhapatnam had turned from a buzzing port city to a deserted wreck. Not only was it completely denuded of its famous green cover, it was also overflowing with human grief and unending debris, in equal measure. The 'very severe cyclonic storm' Hudhud had arrived, conquered and left. Yet, within 15 months, with the International Fleet Review (IFR) is underway, there are hardly any scars visible. advertisement Hosting the largest ever military congregation on Indian soil has been as much a success at sea, as it has been ashore and unlike the glamorous men in white, this story is of men and women working tirelessly, in the background, to ready their city. It helped that Pravin Kumar had faced the wrath of earlier cyclones like Phailin and Nilam during his previous postings in and around the city. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Bihar's Munger district who speaks Telugu as fluently as any local was asked, in Hudhud's aftermath, by Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu to take over as the municipal commissioner. With over five lakh trees uprooted, roads, power supply, water supply, sanitation and other utilities damaged, Kumar and his team were staring at damages to civic infrastructure of over Rs 1200 crore, across categories. However, reviving the city wasn't the only task. Within weeks of the Narendra Modi government being sworn in, the Indian Navy (IN) sought an approval to host the IFR. By July 2014, it came through and Visakhapatnam was chosen as the destination. However, in the wake of Hudhud, a re-think was but natural. The chief of the city-based Eastern Naval Command, Vice Admiral Satish Soni in a meeting with Naidu, after Hudhud, asked if the venue should be shifted out given how badly the city and citizens had suffered. "Naidu said no. He perhaps saw it as a factor which would propel the resurrection and that is exactly how it turned out," said a source in the Ministry of Defence privy to the planning effort. If all of this was being done inside high offices, things were slowly set in motion on the ground as well. Civic services were slowly restored. Within a month of the cyclone, near normalcy was felt in the city. "Our sanitation workers, our rescue personnel all of them were victims of the cyclone too, let us not forget," said an officer. It is one thing to revive and restore normalcy and quite the other to ready up for an international event of unprecedented scale that the IFR belonged to. Things went into top gear especially in the last three months. "We executed works of upto Rs 85 crore involving city beautification, refurbishment of roads, upgrading pedestrian pathways. Post Hudhud, we also took a decision and today proudly are the only city in India with cent per cent LED street lights," said Kumar. advertisement With cleanliness of the city a top priority, the administration has tasked its army of 8000 sanitation workers, men and women, with ensuring all the dumps and door to door garbage are picked up before 9am, day in and day out. For the IFR, where the famous RK beach will host the International City Parade and operational demonstration for which an audience of nearly 2 lakh people is expected, clear zones have been made. Sanitation inspectors are made in-charge and allotted manpower. The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has hired services of 2000 more contract labourers till the duration of the IFR. Teams, throughout the day, sweep and scan their 'zones' for even a speck, a piece of paper. More teams look at making their jobs difficult by surveying these zones and pointing out errors. Then there are fines for littering. "Surprise checks are a part of this. My days start at 5:30am and ends by 11pm. I go out as much as possible to keep my staff alert," says Kumar. advertisement As the men in white on board their warships bask in the limelight of IFR, Raju and his friends wave at them. Both of them have been hired to keep the RK beach spick and span. Nobody ever thanks them for their job. They never get anyone waving at them. Yet their specially made identity cards for IFR have brought them the respect they'd seldom experienced in their village, on the city's outskirts. At sea and on shore, clearly, heroes have emerged. --- ENDS --- Queen Jetsun Pema announced the birth of the newest royal on her Facebook page today. By India Today Web Desk: Bhutan's royal couple King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema welcomed their first child on Friday, February 5. "Our happiness knows no bounds, as we announce the Royal Birth of His Royal Highness The Gyalsey on 5th February 2016," said a post on the queen's Facebook page today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday extended his greetings to the royal couple of Bhutan on the birth of their first child. advertisement In the post, the royal couple also extended their gratitude to the Bhutanese medical team for their service. The baby's name has yet to be announced. The post continued: "Their Majesties also expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Zhung Dratshang, Rabdeys, and other religious organisations who performed prayer ceremonies in all the Dzongs and Lhakhangs across the country for the wellbeing of His Royal Highness, Their Majesties, and the people of Bhutan." Bhutan which is known as the land of the "last Shangri-La" in the South Asian kingdom, home to just 750,000 people. Bhutan measures its economic progress by the Gross National Happiness index, a scale they claim has worked for them. The royal couple tied the knot in 2011 in an elaborate fairy tale wedding ceremony. Our happiness knows no bounds, as we announce the Royal Birth of His Royal Highness The Gyalsey on 5th February...Posted by Jetsun Pema on Friday, February 5, 2016 --- ENDS --- The incident took place at around 7 pm at Trimurti Society situated in Everard Nagar near Sion-Trombay Road. By India Today Web Desk: Burqa-clad unidentified gunmen on Saturday killed a 30-year-old builder in his office in Chunabhatti area in Mumbai. "Two men reached the Arihant builder's office and opened fire on owner Jignesh Jain. They shot twice at him," an eyewitness said. The incident took place at around 7 pm at Trimurti Society situated in Everard Nagar near Sion-Trombay Road. advertisement The builder, who was admitted in Sion Hospital, succumbed to bullet injuries later. The entire incident has been captured on CCTV cameras. Police officers immediately reached the spot and a probe is underway. No arrest was made. --- ENDS --- The country has passed a law which bans supermarkets from throwing away, spoiling or unsold food. The surplus will instead go to charities and food banks to feed the needy. By India Today Web Desk: The law which forbids supermarkets across France from discarding spoiling and unsold food, also directs the stores to sign a deal with food banks and charities so that it can be given away to the needy. The law was passed unanimously by the French senate on Wednesday. Now Supermarkets across France are no longer authorized to discard food nearing it's expiry date. advertisement Since many homeless and hungry rummage through bins for food, supermarkets were in the habit of pouring bleach or locking the discarded food in ware houses. The newly passed law prevents the stores from doing so. The law came into being after a petition was launched by anti-poverty campaigners led by councillor Arash Derambarsh. Thus, with the new law Supermarkets are bound to make donations to charities and food banks, failing which they face a fine of 75,000 dollars and a jail term of 2 years. Speaking to Guardian , the head of a network of food banks, Jacques Bailet said, "This battle is only just beginning. We now have to fight food waste in restaurants, bakeries, school canteens and company canteens." The video below explains why food is too precious to waste: --- ENDS --- By Sahil Mohan Gupta : Wireless charging is something we associate with modern smartphones. In the truest sense, it is not wireless because the phone has to be almost tethered to the charger, which isn't much of a benefit. Apple is said to be working on a better long range solution for its iPhone. Guess what! Google is also working on a solution that's similar, but the difference is that it wants to use it for its self driving cars. IEE Spectrum is reporting that Google is working on a technology called resonant magnetic induction, which is a type of wireless charging that could use manhole like transmitters that are embedded in the pavement and roads, which could in turn charge the cars. advertisement Google has reportedly filed documents with the FCC in the US, which outlines the work it has done with Hevo Power and Momentum Dynamics. According to the documents filed by Google, it has already installed these manholes with transmitters at its Mountain View campus and also site nearby in Castle where it tests its self driving cars. Google believes that when a car hovers over these transmitters it will start charging and if a car passes over a series of these manholes it could keep charging while on the move. Electric cars don't have a very long range, which in turn means that manufacturers have to stuff the cars with huge batteries, which also are time consuming to charge. If Google comes up with an efficient wireless charging system, car makers could theoretically make vehicles with smaller batteries, which could keep getting charged while they are being used. This would not only make the vehicles cheaper as battery technology is extremely expensive, but also make these vehicles more friendly for elderly people, children and even people with disabilities. --- ENDS --- A day after leading pathology labs and diagnostics chains made announcements of rolling out test kits for the deadly virus, the Union Ministry of Health pulled up private players, saying they cannot cash in on a public health emergency. By Neetu Chandra Sharma: The global Zika scare has put the government on alert. A day after leading pathology labs and diagnostics chains made announcements of rolling out test kits for the deadly virus, the Union Ministry of Health pulled up private players, saying they cannot cash in on a public health emergency. Dr Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services (DGHS), in the Union health ministry, said: "We called upon the private labs making such statements. In the current scenario, all the testing and research has to be done through approval of the government. No firm can cash in on a public health emergency like the Zika virus which has become a sensitive issue across the globe. The health ministry is fully equipped in research and testing of Zika. We are actively working on averting any kind of outbreak in the country." advertisement While Dr Lal Path Labs had reportedly said they were importing test kits for Zika, SRL Diagnostics claimed they are working on new technologies to detect the head-shrinking virus and may come up with tests soon. Quest Diagnostics and Star Imaging are also said to have made similar statements. The private labs reportedly quoted the cost of test around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 and said the test will be available by mid-March this year. The ministry has also summoned Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which claimed that it has world's first Zika vaccine samples. "We have also summoned Bharat Biotech that has claimed to have the first vaccine for Zika virus in the current scenario when there is no vaccine anywhere in the world. We want to check the authenticity of the claim and why they are announcing it without informing the government," Dr Prasad added. Firm's claim In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Dr Krishna Ella from Bharat Biotech said: "The company has two ZikaVac vaccine candidates in development; one is a recombinant vaccine and another inactivated vaccine that has reached the stage of pre-clinical testing in animals." On Friday, however, most of the private players back-tracked. Dr Vandana Lal from Lal Path Labs said: "We don't want to talk on this matter. We don't have any tests for Zika virus and we are also not importing any test kits for the same. If at all we plan to do something, we will take the government's prior permission." Dr BR Das, president (research and innovation) at SRL Diagnostics, too, said the lab currently has no technology for battling Zika. "We however have a robust research and development facility in place, but we will only begin something if the government asks us to. We abide by the government and will only chip into research and technology on Zika if the government tells us," Dr Das told Mail Today. Guidelines in place Earlier this week, the ministry had issued guidelines on Zika along with a comprehensive travel advisory. The ministry also said currently, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune have the capacity to provide laboratory diagnosis of Zika in acute febrile stage. These institutions were marked as the apex laboratories to support the investigation and for confirmation of laboratory diagnosis. advertisement "The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will strengthen 10 additional laboratories to expand the scope of laboratory diagnosis. RT-PCR test is the standard test for the disease. As of now, there is no test available for Zika commercially. And we have not recommended any serological tests. Also, there is no vaccine or drug available to prevent or treat Zika virus disease at present," said Dr Prasad. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on February 1, 2016. Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947. WHO has reported 22 countries and territories in Americas from where local transmission of Zika virus has been reported. The disease has the potential for further international spread given the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito vector, a lack of immunity among population in newly affected areas and the high volume of international travel. As of now, the disease has not been reported in India. However, the mosquito that transmits Zika, namely Aedes aegypti, that also transmits the dengue virus, is widely prevalent in India. advertisement A majority of those infected with Zika either show no symptoms (up to 80 per cent) or just mild symptoms of fever, rash, conjunctivitis, body ache or joint pain. Also Read Tonga declares Zika epidemic after 5 confirmed cases After criticism, Brazil transferring Zika samples to US --- ENDS --- PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Friday hardened her stand by stating that her father always preferred principles over power and it will remain a guiding code for her. By Naseer Ganai: With the Centre not announcing any Confidence Building Measures as sought by the Peoples Democratic Party to create atmosphere for re-alliance with BJP, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Friday hardened her stand stating her father always preferred principles over power and it will remain a guiding code for her. Indicating that she wouldn't mind going back to people, Mehbooba said her father had left no assets in property but the legacy of more than half a century of public service that he established is enough to give democracy its real competitive edge. She added that Mufti's vision was a roadmap for the party. advertisement "We will have to strengthen our roots, go to the masses and carry forward that mission with renewed vigor, zeal and enthusiasm, which will be the biggest tribute to the great leader," she said while announcing in Jammu that her party will soon launch a statewide membership drive. The PDP chief described the three-year rule of Mufti from 2002 to 2005 as golden era in Jammu and Kashmir history. "Mufti sahib remained chief minister for only three years before 2015 but his government outshined all previous regimes. The achievements on political, economic and development fronts during his three-year tenure have no match in the political history of Jammu and Kashmir". "Mufti sahib always preferred principles over power and it will remain a guiding code for us," she further told the workers. The party expects announcement over several economic and political measures as spelled out in the Agenda of Alliance. Member of Parliament and senior party leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig said, "The demise of Mufti Sayeed has no doubt saddened the common people and party workers but at the same time we are fortunate to have a leader like Mehbooba at the driving seat. Her leadership qualities, organisational skills, vision and political understanding are no less." ALSO READ Former J-K legislator doubts circumstances of Mufti's death, seeks probe Mehbooba Mufti wants BJP to step up in re-alliance talks --- ENDS --- Police have arrested one person in West Bengal for posting "defamatory" remarks about a Trinamool Congress councillor on Facebook. Rohit Passi, a small time contractor in Jalpaiguri's Malbazar town was arrested on Friday night after a complaint by local Trinamool councillor Pulin Golder. Police have arrested one person in West Bengal for posting "defamatory" remarks about a Trinamool Congress councillor on Facebook. Rohit Passi, a small time contractor in Jalpaiguri's Malbazar town was arrested on Friday night after a complaint by local Trinamool councillor Pulin Golder. Golder, a Trinamool councillor from ward no.12 of Malbazar municipality had filed a police complaint on Friday stating that Passi's Facebook post was intended to defame him and his party in the area. advertisement "The post said that I was a blot on the face of our area. This was an insult for me and my party. I decided to file the police complaint as it was aimed to tarnish my image," said Golder. It all began with Rohit posting a comment on Facebook about the death of his friend Gurdeep Singh. Singh had died in December last year following a brawl with some locals after a bike accident. Gurdeep's family allege that he died of brain haemorrhage after being hit on the head with a helmet. The main accused, a local Trinamool worker was arrested in the case, while two others are absconding. On Friday, Rohit was accompanying his friend's family for the hearing at Jalpaiguri district court. At the court, Rohit claims he saw Trinamool councillor Pulin Golder escorting the parents of the accused in his own car. Demoralised with the incident, he went home and shared his disappointment on social media. Rohit wrote on Facebook, "Today I saw a local Malbazar leader at the court. Not sure, if we can call him a leader or an actor. One who is such an expert in switching political loyalties. He was escorting the accused's parents in his own car. Such people call themselves leaders. They never felt the urge to stand beside the victim's family but are keen to stand by the accused in court. This is such a shame for our society. We won't tolerate any politics over death." Acting swiftly on the Trinamool councillor's complaint, Rohit was picked up from his residence and arrested within two hours of his comment on social media. Interestingly, he had not named any leader or political party in his post. "Suddenly policemen came to my house and forcefully picked me up. They didn't even give a chance to speak," says Rohit adding that the Trinamool councillor was himself present at police station with his men and openly threatened him infront of the police. "I was taken to the OC's room where Malbazar SDPO was himself present. They refused to listen to me and I was put in the lock up," he adds. The district police has however refuted Rohit's claim. Jalpaiguri superintendent of police Akash Magharia said, "This is not connected to the Facebook post. He was arrested under CrPC Section 107 to maintain peace and tranquillity in the area." advertisement Echoing the police, Trinamool spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien said, "Some local channels distorting news without checking facts. Deliberate distortion? No one in Malbazaar has been arrested for a Facebook post." Though out on bail, Rohit says he is scared after such open intimidation and threat by the ruling party councillor. "I'm scared and I hope the police provides me protection. This is an open attack on my freedom of expression," says Passi adding that he will consider moving an appeal before the Human Rights Commission. Remember, a professor from Kolkata's prestigious Jadavpur University Ambikesh Mahapatra was also arrested in 2012 for circulating a photo spoof on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. --- ENDS --- A Japanese interpreter confirmed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died at a military hospital in Taipei after a plane crash in 1945, according to information released by a UK website set up to catalogue the last days of the nationalist leader. By Press Trust of India: A Japanese interpreter confirmed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died at a military hospital in Taipei after a plane crash in 1945, according to information released by a UK website set up to catalogue the last days of the nationalist leader. Kazunori Kunizuka, who worked as an interpreter with Bose from 1943 to 1945, is still alive and has recorded in graphic detail in his diary the last days of Bose and his death as a result of a plane crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945, said the website bosefiles.info. advertisement The information was conveyed to the website by Noburu Okabe, London correspondent of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, who also handed over a copy of the diary to the website. Ashis Ray, Bose's grandnephew and creator of the website, said "The diary is in Japanese. We will get it translated and post relevant portions from it in due course". According to Okabe, Kanizuka is 98 years old and lives in an old people's home in Kobe in Japan. Okabe has met him and testified the diary unequivocally confirms Bose's demise in a Japanese military hospital in Taipei after the air tragedy. Earlier when Ray visited Taipei, he met Yukichi Arai, son of Captain Keikichi Arai, a Japanese army officer who was one of seven survivors (of an estimated total of 14 passengers and crew, including Bose, on the flight) of the crash. Captain Arai died in 1971. However, he, too, recorded in his diary that Bose succumbed to injuries suffered in the crash. As per his description, soon after take-off from Taipei the Japanese bomber carrying Bose "immediately lost speed, crashed and went up in flames". Of the seven survivors, six deposed before either the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee or the 1974 Justice G D Khosla Commission or both, including Bose's most trusted aide de camp Colonel Habibur Rehman and Captain Arai. All six independently submitted Bose died consequent to the crash. Two Japanese doctors Dr Taneyoshi Yoshimi and Dr Toyoshi Tsuruta - and a Taiwanese nurse Tsan Pi Sha - who treated him at the hospital or were by his bedside when he passed away, another interpreter Juichi Nakamura (who personally knew Bose from previous visits to Taipei) and Colonel Rehman, gave eyewitness evidence of Bose's final moments and of him breathing his last. Also, there are at least three first-hand testimonies of Bose's cremation at Taipei as provided by Tan Ti-Ti, a Taiwanese who worked at the crematorium and personally prepared the body for the last rites, Ko Keng Yuan, a Taiwanese health official, and Colonel Rehman. Bose died in the air crash in Taipei in 1945, according to documents that form part of 100 secret files, comprising 16,600 pages which were made public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Bose's 119th birth anniversary last month. advertisement Also read: Who freed India? Gandhi or Bose? --- ENDS --- The Indian Coastguard has caught a Pakistani fishing boat with 11 persons on board off the Jakhau coast in Kutch district. Pak fishing boat with 11 crew members apprehended by Indian Coast Guard off Jakhau coast, Gujarat By India Today Web Desk: The Indian Coastguard has caught a Pakistani fishing boat with 11 persons on board off the Jakhau coast in Kutch district. A patrol team of the coast-guards noticed the boat in the Indian waters in the Arabian sea off Jakhau coast around mid night. They were seemingly catching fishes. The boat and 11 persons on board were caught immediately and were being interrogated. Fish catching equipments have also been sized. advertisement Earlier last year two abandoned Pakistani fishing boats were found in Sir Creek area of the district bordering neighbouring country. Pakistani Marine Security Agency had nabbed over half a dozen Indian fishing boats along with over 50 fishermen last month from near the International Maritime Border off the Porbandar coast. --- ENDS --- On the 40th death anniversary of filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak, let's take a look at few of the remarkable movies he worked on as a director and writer. By Shreya Biswas: Some remember him as a genius underrated in his lifetime; some as the maverick filmmaker who had his own way of story-telling. Ritwik Kumar Ghatak was one of the forerunners of Parallel Cinema, who in his rather short 50-year lifespan brought to the Indian film industry a range of movies driven by realism and his sociopolitical outlook. Also read: Ritwik Ghatak: Posthumous acclaim advertisement A former principal of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and recipient of a number of awards, including the Padma Shri in 1970, Ghatak's work also earned him widespread international recognition. Although primarily known as a director, with eight full-length feature films, a few short films and documentaries to his credit, Ghatak has also been recognised for writing movies, plays, essays on film making, etc. Also read: The other Ritwik Ghatak's views and commentaries on films, having written more than 50 articles and essays on the subject, are counted as a part of scholarly studies and researches. On his 40th death anniversary, we bring to you a list of his works as a director and writer: 1. Ajantrik (1958) Internationally known as 'The Unmechanical', 'The Mechanical Man' or 'The Pathetic Fallacy', this Bengali comedy-drama film is often counted as India's first sci-fi. Ajantrik, Ghatak's first commercial release as a director, tells the story of a poor taxi driver who owned a 'living' car, making it one of the earliest Indian films to revolve around an inanimate object. The film had received a special entry for screening at the Venice Film Festival in 1959. Ajantrik movie poster 2. Madhumati (1958) Ghatak had worked on this Hindi drama film as a writer along with Rajinder Singh Bedi. Directed by Bimal Roy, Madhumati was one of the earliest films to deal with reincarnation, which went on to inspire a number of movies to come, including Karz and Om Shanti Om. Madhumati also earned Ghatak his first award nomination for the Filmfare Best Story Award. MAdhumati movie poster 3. Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) Ghatak worked on Meghe Dhaka Tara, dubbed as The Cloud-Capped Star, as both the writer and director, basing it on a social novel by Bengali author Shaktipada Rajguru. The movie, a part of a trilogy, dealt with the aftermath of the Partition of Bengal and the tragedy imposed on the refugees. Meghe Dhaka Tara has been listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, praising "the grace of Ghatak's mise en scene, his expressionist sound design, and the enormous sense of loss". advertisement 4. Komal Gandhar (1961) Also known as A Soft Note On A Sharp Scale, Komal Gandhar is the second movie in the Ghatak's trilogy after Meghe Dhaka Tara. Along with revolving around the theme of the Partition, the movie also tells the tale of a star-crossed couple and the rift that divided the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). Komal Gandhar, the title being a translation of the musical notation E-flat, was a commercial failure but is still counted as one of Ghatak's best works. Komal Gandhar movie poster 5. Subarnarekha (1965) The last of Ghatak's Partition Trilogy, Subarnarekha (Golden Lining) revolves around the lives of three refugees in West Bengal: a Hindu man, his little sister, and a low-caste boy that he takes in. Named after the river Subarnarekha, the movie had actually been produced in 1962 but was not released until 1965. Subarnarekha went on to be ranked as number 11 in a critics' poll of all-time greatest films conducted by Asian film magazine Cinemaya in 1998. --- ENDS --- RSS is set to roll out plan under which it will distribute books on its ideology to connect with the youth, children and women. The Sahitya Prasar Abhiyan will be rolled out in Delhi on Sunday. By Siddhartha Rai: The Rashtriya swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is going to kick off its mega literature campaign to connect with the youth, children and women. This is just days after the BJP's national headquarters got a library in the Capital. The Sahitya Prasar Abhiyan, to be rolled out in Delhi on Sunday, will see participation of 10,000 RSS volunteers who plan to sell 1,000 packets of books at 1,000 locations across the city. The total number of books to be sold is 40,000 worth Rs 10 lakh. The organisation has pegged the books at nominal rates-Rs 10-30 for a book. advertisement The theme of the books has been kept in line with the ideology of the RSS and the idea of cultural nationalism. "There are five titles, each with numerous volumes that we will be circulated among children, women and the youth: Hanuman for Students, Gita for Students, Short Stories for Children, Bharat Ki Veer Krantikari Mahilayein or Revolutionary Women of India and a book dedicated to the RSS ideology and ideological allegations ascribed on the organisation. The last will be titled RSS Ek Drishtikona or RSS: A Perspective," Rajiv Tuli, Delhi prant prachar pramukh of the RSS, told Mail Today. Moreover, the RSS has also decided to take another step aiming towards wider reach as the books would be made available not just in Hindi, but in English too. Insiders told Mail Today that the move was aimed at reaching out to conventgoing students from relatively more affluent backgrounds. As an extension of the exercise, the RSS started with many stalls on the campus of the Delhi University from Friday. Countering Opposition RSS functionaries also told Mail Today that it was necessary to "hit the streets" to defeat the Opposition propaganda regarding its ideology and that of the BJP. According to Tuli, this is the third time in a row that the RSS would be organising the drive, the scale though is unprecedented this year. "This campaign happens in different areas at different times of the year. In Delhi, we will be organising this to commemorate Vasant Panchami and Saraswati Puja celebrations. Saraswati is the goddess of learning," said Tuli. The RSS functionary also claimed that the entire exercise was devoid of any political import and that it was a way of proffering 'good books and the right Indian culture' among the youth. "These books are to inculcate and rekindle within the youth and children of the country, a culture of reading and reading the right literature that has progressively denuded over time," Tuli asserted. Interestingly, even as the RSS tried to brush off the suggestion of a subterranean ideological onslaught, the book on RSS ideology, meant to be a reader on the Hindu nationalist organisation, has been authored by longtime ideologue MG Vaidya. "The book clarifies a number of misconceptions regarding the RSS as also tried to clear the air over controversies in which our name has been dragged," said an RSS functionary who did not want to be named. advertisement One of the many questions that have been "answered" in this book is regarding the RSS role in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, an allegation that has stuck for a long time. Another major clarification that appears in the book pertains to MS Golwalkar's controversial assertions in his book We or Our Nationhood Defined. The indoctrinating streak in the literature and the political nature of the exercise are also betrayed by the content of other books too. Inspiring kids Hanuman for Children, for instance, is aimed at 'highlighting the Indian god's singleminded devotion towards Lord Rama to inspire kids to emulate the sentiment for the nation'. "We will now be able to reach the children and the youth to read Gita. We intend that Gita reaches the young generation so that they can get inspired from the idea of equanimity which will help them beat such destructive sentiments as peer-pressure. Suicide among school- and college-goers will surely come down," Tuli claimed. ALSO READ Sangh switches from lathi to laptop as thousands of youngsters join RSS online advertisement Stones being sculpted for Ram temple in Ayodhya, says RSS functionary --- ENDS --- Manish Sisodia has hinted towards a big criminal conspiracy in the case of death of the six-year-old student at Ryan International SchoolDivyansh's parents alleged their child's death was a murder. He said, "I saw the body, there were some red marks and private parts had cotton on them"Divyansh's family has written to the HRD Minister Smirti Irani asking for a CBI probe in the case Divyansh Kakrora who was found dead at a water reservoir in his school. By India Today Web Desk: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today hinted towards a big criminal conspiracy in the case of death of the six-year-old student at Ryan International School. Sisodia, who had earlier met the aggrieved family of Divyansh Kakrora who was found dead in a water reservoir at Ryan International School, said, "Parents allegation of possible sodomy was ignored by the Police. Something is wrong and the case needs to be probed". advertisement The Education Minister had earlier said that the school management should also be held responsible for the child's death since the staff didn't try to rescue the child. "Why there is no action against management? School management is not there to earn huge money without any accountability," he tweeted. In a Delhi government probe report, it has been revealed that when the body of Divyansh was spotted, none of the school authorities responded. Swimming coach, teachers, games instructor, gardeners all were available but no one responded. Instead a class 11 student has to go inside the water tank to try and rescue the body. Letting a class 11 student go inside the pump house or water tank despite the presence of all school authorities is itself a very serious lapse from the school's side. Divyansh's father said that that school authorities are trying to shield the accused and it is clear that someone tried to do something wrong. He said, "I saw the body, there were some red marks and private parts had cotton on them." Divyansh's parents alleged their child's death was a "murder" and the arrest of school principal Sandhya Sabu and 4 others was a mere formality. Three major questions posed by Divyansh's father Why were the school's CCTV cameras not working that day Why did Divyansh take off his shoes before falling How could Divyansh lift 20 kg lid of tank Divyansh's family has written to the HRD Minister Smirti Irani asking for a CBI probe in the case. The family had alleged that the school initially asked them not to speak anything. However, refuting the allegation, the principal said that Divyansh was a special child, who was hyperactive and had a tendency of running away from the classroom. The initial postmortem report of Divyansh suggested he died of drowning and no external injuries were found, police said. According to police, Divyansh's diary has revealed other things as well. "In his diary, the school had once communicated to his parents about Divyansh suffering from fever and asking them to avoid sending him to school when he was ill. Other communications mentioned in the diary will also be examined properly," a police officer said. advertisement Sisodia, also the Education Minister accompanied by District Magistrate and SDM went to the meet the family at their residence in Sultanpur area, and assured them of full support in their pursuit for justice. The family of the deceased child took out a candlelight vigil in Vasant Kunj area on Thursday. Also read: Six-year-old's death: Ryan school principal, others arrested, granted bail REVEALED: Divyansh's school diary shows Ryan International School's negligence --- ENDS --- The court asked questions on the statement of several witnesses to ascertain if the Bombay High Court disbelieved crucial depositions. AG Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the Maharashtra government, told the SC that there was ample evidence that Salman Khan was driving the vehicle. By Harish V Nair: Two months after he walked free, it was time for yet another round of legal battle for Bollywood star Salman Khan with the Supreme Court on Friday commencing hearing of appeal filed by the Maharashtra government against his acquittal in the 2002 hit-and-run case. The court asked questions on the statement of several witnesses to ascertain if the Bombay High Court disbelieved crucial depositions. "The judgment of the high court is a travesty of justice. Statements of injured victims were discarded, police witness disbelieved and a driver who surfaced after 13 years is believed by the high court," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted before a bench headed by justice JS Khehar. advertisement Referring to sequence of events and testimonies of some of the witnesses, Rohatgi said there was ample evidence that Salman was driving the vehicle and introduction of his driver Ashok Singh as the person, who was behind the wheels, was an afterthought that came to light after 13 years of the incident. The AG said the evidence of Ravindra Patil, who was with Salman in the Toyota Land Cruiser as his bodyguard, was very much admissible and its rejection was wrong. Patil had said Salman was driving drunk and had ignored his warnings. He died of tuberculosis in 2007 and when the high court examined his testimonies, it held the evidence was not admissible under law on the ground that he had not made the incriminating statements on the day FIR was lodged but two days later and there could be improvisation. At this stage, Justice Khehar asked the AG: "When other prosecution witnesses were there, were they put to use? What did they say?" to which Rohatgi replied: "It is an important question, a very critical question." AG pointed out the HC had refused to rely on statements of injured victims also. The court also said it was important to know what various witnesses said on who drove the SUV. The bench said for the time being it will not issue notice and since "it is a matter of appeal against acquittal", it would like to hear the state government further on February 12. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Salman, said "the AG has told a very good story on the accident" and he also has a lot to say to counter this. In its appeal, the Maharashtra government urged the SC to set aside the acquittal order. It disputed HC's observation that the investigation was conducted in a careless and faulty manner, claiming that there were many witnesses who corroborated the charges against Salman adequately. While acquitting Salman of all charges, the Bombay HC had on December 10 observed "strong suspicion of guilt cannot be used to hold a person guilty". Overturning the order of a lower court, which had in May convicted the actor under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to a jail term of five years, Justice AR Joshi said this was "not a case where prosecution has successfully established its case of all its charges". advertisement ALSO READ Salman, Shah Rukh in trouble for entering sets of temple with shoes on --- ENDS --- Neerja, now soon to arrive on the big screen, is the story of an ordinary girl with extraordinary courage. And first-time director Ram Madhvani has roped in actor Sonam Kapoor to bring the incredible story of Neerja Bhanot on 70mm. By Charu Thakur : The identity of Neerja Bhanot was just confined to the small tube in the 80s, when she was a model. Her face was plastered on newspapers and TV because of the various commercials she modelled for. But her life took a turn when she boarded the Pan Am Flight 73 to New York in the wee hours of September 5, 1986. advertisement ALSO READ: Was scared to ask Shabana Azmi to do the film, says director Ram Madhvani A model by choice and a flight attendant by profession, Neerja was like any other 22-year-old girl. Little did she know that her extraordinary courage, that made her stand tall between the passengers and terrorists on that fateful flight, will make her a real-life hero and earn her the title of the Hijack Heroine. Neerja, now soon to arrive on the big screen, is the story of an ordinary girl with extraordinary courage. And first-time director Ram Madhvani has roped in actor Sonam Kapoor to bring the incredible story of Neerja Bhanot on 70mm. Ram Madhvani's Neerja is slated for a February 19 release. The filmmaker says there couldn't have been a better choice than Sonam to play the role of Neerja. "Sonam was actually our first choice for the film. Only after she would have said a no, would we have approached some other actor for the titular role. We had Sonam very much in mind while writing the script of the film because Neerja has certain qualities that Sonam also has. Both the women are family-minded. Moreover, there is a certain kind of energy about Sonam. And from all the people that we met, including the family, we sort of understood what her character and nature was. It wasn't that the role was righteous for Sonam. It's not that that you keep in mind while writing the script. You know that you write what you need to write, what that character is. And then, you know at the same time that Sonam is the right person to play this character," says Madhvani. Though a lot had been written about Neerja back in 1986, not many know what that brave girl went through during those gruelling 16 hours on the plane. Despite eyewitness accounts and reading material, it was a tedious and stressful job for Sonam to capture that fear for the screen. But the filmmaker says that the Prem Ratan Dhan Payo actor gave her best to understand the nuances of the character. "Sonam has gone through workshops, air hostess training and she has emotionally given herself off. Of course, we know a lot about Neerja and her character, but eventually we don't know what she felt like when she was on that plane. Because nobody knows. We know what happened, we can find out from other people what they feel she went through, but eventually we don't know. And at the end of the day, we have to go out there and play that part. As a human, she must be scared because that is what we can understand. I cannot understand bravery and courage. I do understand fear," adds the filmmaker. He further says, "Neerja was the last one to get off the plane. She did follow the motto - do your duty, come what may. And she took that responsibility of being the captain. Because she was the captain and she was the head person. And she did many things that saved many lives. And while she did it, she must have been extremely nervous and scared and yet she overcame it. Yes, Sonam gave herself emotionally to the role and she was under stress to play the part." advertisement Neerja Bhanot saved the lives of 360 passengers on that flight. She, posthumously, became the youngest recipient of India's highest civilian award for bravery, the Ashok Chakra, for showing incredible human courage during the hijack. In addition to the Indian government, Pakistan and the US too decorated the girl with their bravery medals. For more updates on Neerja: Click --- ENDS --- The African students alleged that the Bengaluru police viewed them with contempt whenever they approached the cops for assistance. By Aravind Gowda: Hundreds of African students today staged demonstration in Bengaluru demanding better protection and treatment from the police in the wake of attack on Tanzanians and Sudanese last Sunday when a young Tanzanian woman was stripped and paraded naked by the mob. Reacting to the Bengaluru incident where a Sudanese man mowed down a local woman, the angry mob stopped a car of African students, dragged them out and started beating. A woman passenger was assaulted and was stripped of all her clothes. She was then forced to parade naked down the road as the police looked on. advertisement Enraged by this shocking incident, students gathered at the Town Hall under the banner of the Union of African Communities of Bengaluru and staged a silent demonstration. Hundreds of Indian students also joined the protest to express solidarity with the Africans. The African students alleged that the Bengaluru police viewed them with contempt whenever they approached the cops for assistance. They resolved to reduce the cultural differences with the local communities, as it is one of the main reasons for the ugly incidents in recent times in the city. On Friday, Tanzanian High Commissioner to India, John W H Kijazi was in Bengaluru to review the situation in the wake of the attacks on Africans. He suggested the students to make peace with the local communities and adhere to Indian laws. Expressing regret over the incident, External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj tweeted, "We are deeply pained over the shameful incident with a Tanzanian girl in Bengaluru." Police also arrested four people in and suspended one cop. Also read: Tanzanian student stripped, assaulted by locals in Bengaluru Tanzanian woman assault: 4 more arrested, cop suspended --- ENDS --- Twitter condemned the use of its platform to promote terrorism and said the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on its service. By Press Trust of India: Twitter has suspended over 125,000 accounts, most of them linked to the Islamic State militant group, "for threatening or promoting terrorist acts" even as handles of India-centric terrorist organizations and individuals on the micro-blogging site remain untouched. In a blog, the US-based firm said, "As the nature of the terrorist threat has changed, so has our ongoing work in this area. Since the middle of 2015 alone, weve suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS". advertisement Twitter, however, did not respond to questions about the accounts of terrorist organizations operating from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Notably, Hafeez Muhamad Saeed, the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attack, has been openly calling for carrying out brazen attack against India in his latest tweet on February 3. Twitter condemned the use of its platform to promote terrorism and said the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on its service. The Company said it has increased its report reviewing teams to react faster. "We also look into other accounts similar to those reported and leverage proprietary spam-fighting tools to surface other potentially violating accounts for review by our agents. We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter," it said. In a move to intensify its push against extremist posts, Twitter has partnered with respected organizations such as People Against Violent Extremism (PAVE) and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. It also attended government-convened summits on CVE hosted by the White House, the Australian Attorney-Generals Department, the UK government, the French Prime Minister, the European Commission, and the United Nations. As many experts and other companies have noted, there is no magic algorithm for identifying terrorist content on the Internet, so global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgement calls based on very limited information and guidance, the company said. In spite of these challenges, we will continue to aggressively enforce our Rules in this area, and engage with authorities and other relevant organizations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives, Twitter said. Also read: IS had plans to target crucial defence bases in Maharashtra, Goa ISIS warns UK of attack that will turn children's hair white --- ENDS --- Investigative reporting from the inner city to Wall Street to the United Nations This is the blogspot version InnerCityPress.com To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future A few years ago, Southern Illinois University was in the headlines concerning one case of self-plagiarism(involving a strategic plan presented to SIU copied from a plan in Texas, although the same person wrote both plans) and one case of plagiarism in a Ph.D. thesis (of the university president, no less). The self-plagiarism case went away, and the thesis plagiarism case was softly addressed.In 2016, the president of Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, one Mick Starcevich , copied, without attribution,a story he used in a speech made during an annual employee recognition event on Martin Luther King Day Jan. 18, 2016.As seen in the story Kirkwood board to discuss President Mick Starcevich's plagiarism admission , this copying event is being treated as a big deal.One recalls a campaign speech by (now) Vice President Joe Biden, which contained a story copied from Neil Kinnoch. It is argued that sometimes there was attribution, but sometimes not. The bigger issue was that the story, as to Joe Biden, was false.Of SIU, see for examplehttp://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/09/sun-times-runs-quotes-critical-of.htmlANDhttp://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/08/siu-president-poshard-accused-of.htmlwhich includes the text: However, establishing the government upon a thought does not mean to make a military coup and seize the power and establish the government upon the thought, since this will not found a revival, and moreover is unlikely to settle in power. Rather it means to explain to the Ummah or the stronger group of the Ummah the thought upon which it is intended to revive the Ummah, and direct itself in the battle of life on the basis of this thought; then the government is established upon this thought by the Ummah and thus the revival occurs surely. So the essence of the revival is not seizing the power, rather it is unifying the Ummah on the thought and making it direct its life on this thought. Then the power is taken and the government is established upon that thought. Seizing the power is not an aim in itself, and it is incorrect to be an aim. Rather, it is a method for the revival by establishing the government upon the thought. Therefore the ruling is taken to establish it upon the thought, in order that the revival ours. The proper example for that is that which the Prophet (SAW) did. When he was sent by Allah the Supreme with the Message of Islam, he invited the people to the Islamic creed, i.e. to the thought. And when he gathered the people of the Madina, Al Aws and Al Khazraj, on the Islamic creed, i.e. on the thought, and made them direct their life according to it, he took the ruling (power or authority) in the Madina and established upon the Islamic creed and started to say:Thus he started to call for the thought, and accordingly the revival occurred in Madina, then in the Arabs, then in every people who entered Islam, i.e. embraced the thought and had the authority which takes care of its affairs established upon it. 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. [February 05, 2016] U.S. FDA Approves Expanded Use of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Daklinza (daclatasvir) for Additional Challenging-to-treat Patients with Genotype 1 or Genotype 3 Chronic Hepatitis C Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) announced today that Daklinza (daclatasvir, 60 mg), an NS5A replication complex inhibitor, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in combination with sofosbuvir (with or without ribavirin) in genotypes 1 and 3. The expanded label includes data in three additional challenging-to-treat patient populations: chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients with HIV-1 coinfection, advanced cirrhosis, or post-liver transplant recurrence of HCV. The Daklinza plus sofosbuvir regimen is already available for the treatment of chronic HCV genotype 3, and is currently the only 12-week, once-daily all-oral treatment option for these patients. Sustained virologic response (SVR) rates are reduced in genotype 3 patients with cirrhosis receiving Daklinza and sofosbuvir for 12 weeks without ribavirin. The recommended dosage of Daklinza is 60 mg in combination with sofosbuvir with or without (+/-) ribavirin for 12 weeks. "The expanded indication for Daklinza offers an additional treatment option for multiple subsets of patients who have genotype 1 or 3 chronic HCV," said Chris Boerner, Head of U.S. Commercial, Bristol-Myers Squibb. "HCV/HIV-coinfected patients and patients with advanced cirrhosis or post-transplant recurrence of HCV still pose a treatment challenge to physicians. As part of our commitment to the HCV community, we have sought to make new treatment options available for these and other targeted populations that have not yet been able to fully benefit from currently available next-generation medicines." Daklinza is contraindicated in combination with drugs that strongly induce CYP3A and, thus, may lead to lower exposure and loss of efficacy of Daklinza. Daklinza also may be associated with the risk of adverse reactions or loss of virologic response due to drug interactions. In addition, there is a risk of serious symptomatic bradycardia when co-administered with sofosbuvir and amiodarone. Please see full Important Safety Information below for more details. The efficacy and safety of the Daklinza regimens were evaluated in the Phase 3 ALLY-1 and ALLY-2 clinical trials. ALLY-2 (Daklinza + sofosbuvir) The ALLY-2 trial enrolled 153 treatment-naive (n=101) and treatment-experienced (n=52) HCV/HIV-coinfected patients treated with Daklinza plus sofosbuvir for 12 weeks. Sustained virologic response was the primary endpoint and was defined as HCV RNA below the LLOQ at post-treatment week 12 (SVR12) in genotype 1 treatment-naive patients. SVR12 (Genotypes 1 and 3) 12-week treatment duration (n=137) Genotype 1 97% (123/127) No cirrhosis 98% (103/105) Cirrhosis 91% (20/22) Genotype 3 100% (10/10) In ALLY-2, SVR12 rates were high regardless of baseline subgroup, including Black/African-American (98%, n=50 in all genotypes studied), and high baseline viral load (=6,000,000 IU/mL) (97%, n=62 in all genotypes studied). Rates of SVR12 were also similar among the concomitant HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) regimens used, which included protease inhibitors (97%, n=70 in all genotypes), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (100%, n=40 in all genotypes), and integrase inhibitors (95%, n=39 in all genotypes). Among the 153 patients in ALLY-2, there were no treatment-related serious adverse events (SAEs) and no discontinuations due to adverse events (AEs). The most common treatment-related AEs at a frequency of =5% in ALLY-2 were fatigue (15%), nausea (9%), headache (8%) and diarrhea (7%). "The high SVR rates achieved with the daclatasvir-based (Daklinza) regimen in HCV/HIV-coinfected patients are extremely encouraging for potentially helping to address a serious health concern for individuals with HIV," said Kenneth Sherman, M.D., Ph.D., Gould Professor of Medicine and Director, Division of Digestive Diseases, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. "Approximately a quarter of all HIV patients in the U.S. are coinfected with HCV, and have historically been particularly challenging to treat due to the complexities of the overlapping therapeutic regimens used to treat each infection. New options that allow for the treatment of HCV without altering HIV medicines are still a significant need for these patients." The dose of Daklinza may need to be adjusted when used with some antiretroviral regimens. ALLY-1 (Daklinza + sofosbuvir + ribavirin) The ALLY-1 trial enrolled 113 patients with chronic HCV infection and Child-Pugh A, B, or C advanced cirrhosis (n=60) or HCV recurrence after liver transplant (n=53) treated with Daklinza plus sofosbuvir with ribavirin for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was SVR12 in each treatment cohort. SVR12 Child-Pugh A, B or C Cirrhosis (n=45) Post-liver Transplant (n=41) Genotype 1 82% (37/45) 95% (39/41) Child-Pugh A cirrhosis 91% (10/11) N/A Child-Pugh B cirrhosis 92% (22/24) N/A Child-Pugh C cirrhosis 50% (5/10) N/A SVR12 rates were comparable between genotype 3 (5/6 with Child-Pugh B or C cirrhosis and 10/11 post-liver transplant) and genotype 1 subjects with or without decompensated cirrhosis. Among all patients in ALLY-1, there were no treatment-related SAEs. Of the 15 (13%) patients who discontinued study drug for adverse events, 13 (12%) patients discontinued ribavirin only and 2 (2%) patients discontinued all study drugs. The most common treatment-related AEs at a frequency of =5% in either cohort of ALLY-1 were headache (12%, 30%), anemia (20%, 19%), fatigue (15%, 17%), nausea (15%, 6%), rash (8%, 2%), diarrhea (3%, 6%), insomnia (3%, 6%), dizziness (0, 6%), and somnolence (5%, 0) in the advanced cirrhotic and post-transplant treatment groups, respectively. The ALLY-1 and -2 trials demonstrated that Daklinza is able to be administered with the most commonly used medications for the treatment of HIV and post-transplant immunosuppression. Based on the drug-drug interaction profile, there is no need to change or adjust HAART regimens, including darunavir-ritonavir, atazanavir-ritonavir, lopinavir-ritonavir, efavirenz, raltegravir, dolutegravir, nevirapine and rilpivirine. The dose of Daklinza was adjusted for some HAART regimens. Daklinza is also compatible with many immunosuppressive regimens, with no treatment-limiting drug-drug interactions. The ALLY-1 trial studied most immunosuppressants: cyclosporine, tacrolimus, sirolimus, everolimus, corticosteroids, or mycophenolate mofetil. "Post-liver transplant patients with HCV recurrence and patients with advanced cirrhosis can be difficult to manage because of the potential for drug-drug interactions associated with immunosuppressive treatments and the complex conditions of liver disease," said Fred Poordad, M.D., ALLY-1 Lead Investigator and Clinical Professor of Medicine, Chief, Hepatology, University of Texas Health Science Center and VP, Academic and Clinical Affairs, Texas Liver Institute. "Transplant patients need to take a variety of immunosuppressive medications to prevent organ rejection, and treatment with Daklinza plus sofosbuvir and ribavirin allows patients to preserve their new liver by treating HCV before its progression to more severe disease, while still maintaining the critical regimens required to manage immunosuppression." Daklinza Regimens Dosing Regimen Patient Population Daklinza + sofosbuvir 12 weeks Genotype 1 or Genotype 3 without cirrhosis Genotype 1 with compensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh A) Daklinza + sofosbuvir + ribavirin 12 weeks Genotype 3 with compensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh A) Genotype 1 or Genotype 3 with decompensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh B and C) Genotype 1 or Genotype 3 post-transplant For genotype 1a patients with cirrhosis, prior to the initiation of treatment with Daklinza-based regimens, consider screening for the presence of NS5A polymorphisms at amino acid positions M28, Q30, L31, and Y93. About the ALLY-2 Clinical Trial ALLY-2 was an open-label trial that included 153 patients (genotypes 1-4i) with chronic HCV and HIV coinfection. Patients received Daklinza 60 mg (dose-adjusted for concomitant antiretroviral use) plus sofosbuvir 400 mg once daily for 12 weeks and were monitored for 24 weeks post-treatment. The 153 patients had a median age of 53 years (range, 24-71); 88% of the patients were male; 63% were white, 33% were black, and 1% were Asian. Most patients (80%) had baseline HCV RNA levels greater than or equal to 800,000 IU/mL. Sixty-eight percent of patients had HCV genotype 1a, 15% had HCV genotype 1b, 8% had genotype 2, 7% had genotype 3, and 2% had genotype 4. Daklinza is indicated in genotype 1 and genotype 3 only. Sixteen percent of all patients had compensated cirrhosis. Concomitant HIV therapy included PI-based regimens (darunavir + ritonavir, atazanavir + ritonavir, or lopinavir/ritonavir) for 46% of patients, NNRTI-based regimens (efavirenz, nevirapine, or rilpivirine) for 26%, integrase-based regimens (raltegravir or dolutegravir) for 26%, and nucleoside-only regimens (abacavir + emtricitabine + zidovudine) for 1%. Two patients were not receiving treatment for HIV. About the ALLY-1 Clinical Trial ALLY-1 was an open-label trial that included 113 patients (genotypes 1-4, 6i) with chronic HCV infection and Child-Pugh A, B, or C cirrhosis or HCV recurrence after liver transplant. Patients received Daklinza 60 mg plus sofosbuvir 400 mg once daily with ribavirin for 12 weeks and were monitored for 24 weeks post-treatment. The recommended initial dose of ribavirin was 600 mg or less daily with food and could be adjusted up to 1000 mg per day if tolerated. The 113 treated patients in ALLY-1 had a median age of 59 years (range, 19-82); 67% of the patients were male; 96% were white, 4% were black, and 1% were Asian. Most patients (59%) were treatment-experienced, and most (71%) had baseline HCV RNA levels greater than or equal to 800,000 IU/mL. Fifty-eight percent of patients had HCV genotype 1a, 19% had HCV genotype 1b, 4% had genotype 2, 15% had genotype 3, 4% had genotype 4, and 1% had genotype 6. Daklinza is indicated in genotype 1 and genotype 3 only. Among the 60 patients in the cirrhosis cohort, 20% were Child-Pugh class A, 53% were Child-Pugh class B, 27% were Child-Pugh class C, and 35% had a Baseline Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score of 15 or greater. Most (55%) of the 53 patients in the post-transplant cohort had F3 or F4 fibrosis (based on FibroSURE results). About Bristol-Myers Squibb's Patient Support Connect Program Bristol-Myers Squibb is committed to helping patients through treatment with Daklinza. For patient support and financial assistance, patients and physicians may call (844) 44-CONNECT (844-442-6663). This number offers one-stop access to a range of support services for patients and healthcare professionals alike, including benefits investigation by care counselors, comprehensive coverage research and emergency shipment for access-related issues. About Bristol-Myers Squibb in HCV Bristol-Myers Squibb is focused on helping to eradicate hepatitis C around the world, with a primary emphasis on difficult-to-treat patients, including those millions in countries where population-based HCV solutions remain a high unmet need. In July 2014, Japan became the first country in the world to approve the use of a daclatasvir-based regimen for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Since then, daclatasvir-based regimens have been approved in more than 50 countries across Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. Indication and Important Safety Information - Daklinza (daclatasvir) INDICATIONS Daklinza (daclatasvir) is indicated for use with sofosbuvir, with or without ribavirin, for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 or genotype 3 infection. Limitations of Use: Sustained virologic response (SVR12) rates are reduced in HCV genotype 3-infected patients with cirrhosis receiving Daklinza in combination with sofosbuvir for 12 weeks. CONTRAINDICATIONS When used in combination with other agents, the contraindications applicable to those agents are applicable to the combination regimen; refer to the respective prescribing information. Drugs contraindicated with Daklinza: strong inducers of CYP3A that may lead to loss of efficacy of Daklinza include, but are not limited to: -Phenytoin, carbamazepine, rifampin, St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum). WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS Risk of Adverse Reactions or Loss of Virologic Response Due to Drug Interactions (News - Alert): Coadministration of Daklinza and other drugs may result in known or potentially significant drug interactions. Interactions may include the loss of therapeutic effect of Daklinza and possible development of resistance, dosage adjustments for other agents or Daklinza, possible clinically significant adverse events from greater exposure for the other agents or Daklinza. Coadministration of Daklinza and other drugs may result in known or potentially significant drug interactions. Interactions may include the loss of therapeutic effect of Daklinza and possible development of resistance, dosage adjustments for other agents or Daklinza, possible clinically significant adverse events from greater exposure for the other agents or Daklinza. Serious Symptomatic Bradycardia When Coadministered with Sofosbuvir and Amiodarone: Post-marketing cases of symptomatic bradycardia and cases requiring pacemaker intervention have been reported when amiodarone is coadministered with sofosbuvir in combination with another direct-acting antiviral, including Daklinza. A fatal cardiac arrest was reported with ledipasvir/sofosbuvir. - Coadministration of amiodarone with Daklinza in combination with sofosbuvir is not recommended. For patients taking amiodarone who have no alternative treatment options, patients should undergo cardiac monitoring, as outlined in Section 5.2 of the prescribing information. -Patients also taking beta blockers or those with underlying cardiac comorbidities and/or advanced liver disease may be at increased risk for symptomatic bradycardia with coadministration of amiodarone. -Bradycardia generally resolved after discontinuation of HCV treatment. Post-marketing cases of symptomatic bradycardia and cases requiring pacemaker intervention have been reported when amiodarone is coadministered with sofosbuvir in combination with another direct-acting antiviral, including Daklinza. A fatal cardiac arrest was reported with ledipasvir/sofosbuvir. Coadministration of amiodarone with Daklinza in combination with sofosbuvir is not recommended. For patients taking amiodarone who have no alternative treatment options, patients should undergo cardiac monitoring, as outlined in Section 5.2 of the prescribing information. -Patients also taking beta blockers or those with underlying cardiac comorbidities and/or advanced liver disease may be at increased risk for symptomatic bradycardia with coadministration of amiodarone. -Bradycardia generally resolved after discontinuation of HCV treatment. Risks Associated with Ribavirin Combination Treatment: If ribavirin is used as part of the regimen, the warnings and precautions for ribavirin, particularly the pregnancy avoidance warning, apply. See the ribavirin full prescribing information for complete information. ADVERSE REACTIONS In clinical trials (Ally 2, 3) with the Daklinza and sofosbuvir regimen, the most common adverse reactions (= 5%) were, respectively: headache (8%, 14%), fatigue (15%, 14%), nausea (9%, 8%), diarrhea (7%, 5%). In clinical trials (Ally 1) with Daklinza, in combination with sofosbuvir and ribavirin, the most common adverse reactions (= 5%) were, in the cirrhosis cohort and the post-liver transplantation cohort, respectively: headache (12%, 30%) , anemia (20%, 19%), fatigue (15%, 17%), nausea (15%, 6%), rash (8%, 2%), diarrhea (3%, 6%), insomnia (3%, 6%), dizziness (0, 6%), somnolence (5%, 0). DRUG INTERACTIONS CYP3A: Daklinza is a substrate. Moderate or strong inducers may decrease plasma levels and effect of Daklinza. Strong inhibitors (e.g., clarithromycin, itraconazole, ketoconazole, ritonavir) may increase plasma levels of Daklinza. Daklinza is a substrate. Moderate or strong inducers may decrease plasma levels and effect of Daklinza. Strong inhibitors (e.g., clarithromycin, itraconazole, ketoconazole, ritonavir) may increase plasma levels of Daklinza. P-gp, OATP 1B1 and 1B3, and BCRP: Daklinza is an inhibitor, and may increase exposure to substrates, potentially increasing or prolonging their adverse effect. Daklinza is an inhibitor, and may increase exposure to substrates, potentially increasing or prolonging their adverse effect. See Sections 4, 7, and 12.3 of the Daklinza Full Prescribing Information for additional established and other potentially significant drug interactions and related dose modification recommendations. Refer to the prescribing information for other agents in the regimen for drug interaction information. DAKLINZA IN PREGNANCY: No adequate human data are available to determine whether or not DAKLINZA poses a risk to pregnancy outcomes. Animal studies of Daklinza at exposure above the recommended human dose have shown maternal and embryofetal toxicity. If Daklinza and sofosbuvir are administered with ribavirin, the information for ribavirin with regard to pregnancy testing, contraception, and infertility also applies to this combination regimen. Refer to the ribavirin prescribing information. NURSING MOTHERS: It is not known whether DAKLINZA is present in human milk, affects human milk production, or has effects on the breastfed infant. Daklinza was present in the milk of lactating rats. The development and health benefits of breastfeeding should be considered along with the mother's clinical need for DAKLINZA and any potential adverse effects on the breastfed child from DAKLINZA or from the underlying condition. When Daklinza is administered with ribavirin, the nursing mothers' information for ribavirin also applies to this combination regimen. Refer to the nursing mothers' information in the ribavirin prescribing information. Please click here for the Daklinza full prescribing information. i Genotypes 1-6 were eligible to enroll in ALLY-2 and ALLY-1. About Bristol-Myers Squibb Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information, please visit http://www.bms.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) at http://twitter.com/bmsnews. Bristol-Myers Squibb Forward Looking Statement This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect Bristol-Myers Squibb's business, particularly those identified in the cautionary factors discussion in Bristol-Myers Squibb's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014 in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. Bristol-Myers Squibb undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160205005664/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 05, 2016] Alteryx Positioned Highest for Ability to Execute in the Visionaries Quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms Alteryx, Inc., the leader in self-service data analytics, has once again been named a Visionary in Gartner's (News - Alert) Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms1. This year Gartner redefined the annual report to be more focused on the modern business intelligence and analytics market. "There's a self-service analytics movement underway to enable over 260 million underserved data workers with deeper insights in less time without coding," said George Mathew, president and COO of Alteryx, Inc. "Alteryx believes that our position in the Visionaries Section of the latest Magic Quadrant, combined with our over 1,400 customers globally, highlights how we are helping lead the industry with our partners Qlik, Microsoft (News - Alert) and Tableau to address this demand for self-service data analytics." According to Gartner, "A modern BI platform supports IT-enabled analytic content development. It is defined by a self-contained architecture that enables nontechnical users to autonomously execute full-spectrum analytic workflows from data access, ingestion and preparation to interactive analysis and the collaborative sharing of insights."2 The Alteryx platform empowers data analysts to perform their own analytics through better self-service tools to further mainstream the growing category of self-service data analytics. The most recent release from the company, Alteryx Analytics 10.1, delivers Analytic Independence to of line-of-business analysts by providing them with he ability to achieve deeper business insights in hours, not weeks. A free trial is available on the Alteryx website. The get a complimentary copy of the report, visit Alteryx at http://alteryx.com/BIMQ. This Magic Quadrant represents a snapshot of the Business Intelligence and Analytics Platform market at a particular point in time. Gartner's assessments take into account the vendors' current product offerings, direct customer feedback and overall strategies, as well as their future initiatives and product road maps. This Magic Quadrant will help business leaders that are developing their BI strategies to assess whether they have the right products and enterprise platforms to support them. 1Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, Josh Parenteau, Rita L. Sallam, Cindi Howson, Joao Tapadinhas, Kurt Schlegel, and Thomas W. Oestreich. February 4, 2016. 2Gartner, Inc., Technology Insight for Modern Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, Josh Parenteau, Rita L. Sallam, Cindi Howson, Joao Tapadinhas, Thomas W. Oestreich, Kurt Schlegel. October 23, 2015 About the Magic Quadrant Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About Alteryx, Inc. Alteryx is the leader in self-service data analytics. Alteryx Analytics provides analysts with the unique ability to easily prep, blend and analyze all of their data using a repeatable workflow, then deploy and share analytics at scale for deeper insights in hours, not weeks. Analysts love the Alteryx Analytics platform because they can connect to and cleanse data from data warehouses, cloud applications, spreadsheets and other sources, easily join this data together, then perform analytics - predictive, statistical and spatial - using the same intuitive user interface, without writing any code. Thousands of companies and data analysts worldwide rely on Alteryx daily. Visit www.alteryx.com or call 1-888-836-4274. Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160205005668/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [February 06, 2016] Shareholder Rights Law Firm Johnson & Weaver, LLP Files Class Action Suit Against Nimble Storage, Inc. Johnson & Weaver, LLP (Johnson & Weaver) today announced that it has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of purchasers of Nimble (News - Alert) Storage, Inc. ("Nimble Storage") (NYSE:NMBL) securities during the period between May 27, 2015 and November 19, 2015 (the "Class Period"). The complaint charges Nimble Storage and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Nimble Storage provides flash-optimized storage platforms that enable the consolidation of all workloads and eliminate storage silos by providing enterprises with improvements in application performance and storage capacity. The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants issued false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose adverse material information regarding the Company's business and prospects, including that Nimble Storage was being negatively impacted by intense competition from well-entrenched, large competitors who were slashing prices in order to maintain market share, that Nimble Storage had made a conscious decision to focus its sales and marketing efforts towards the large enterprises market and to reduce sales efforts in the U.S. commercial market, and that due to this change in sales strategy and the intense price competition, Nimble Storage was losing sales in both sales channels. As a result of these false statements and/or omissions, the complaint alleges, Nimble Storage securities traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, ad enabling certain Company insiders to collectively sell more than 1.12 million shares of their personally held Nimble Storage securities at artificially inflated prices for gross proceeds in excess of $31.4 million. Then on November 19, 2015, Nimble Storage announced fiscal 2016 third quarter financial results, reporting total revenue of $80.7 million, non-GAAP gross margin of 66.9%, a non-GAAP operating loss of $10.8 million, or negative 13% of revenue, and a GAAP net loss of $28.6 million, or $0.36 per basic and diluted share. The defendants attributed the disappointing results to the shift in the Company's "investment from commercial to enterprise business," which "impacted [the Company's] commercial revenue growth more than . . . anticipated," and its "enterprise investments . . . taking longer to become fully productive." On this news, the price of Nimble Storage securities fell dramatically, with the price of the Company's common stock dropping $10.34 per share, or 51%, to close at $10.05 per share on November 20, 2015. Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Nimble Storage securities during the Class Period (the "Class"). The plaintiff is represented by Johnson & Weaver, which has extensive experience in prosecuting shareholder class and derivative actions nationwide. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from December 17, 2015. If you wish to discuss this action, have any questions concerning this notice, or your rights or interests, or if you would like to request a copy of the complaint as filed, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ([email protected]) by email or by phone at 619-814-4471. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. About Johnson & Weaver, LLP: Johnson & Weaver, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonandweaver.com. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160205005909/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] J/Boats News is a digest of worldwide events, regattas, and news for sailing enthusiasts and members of our J Community. Contributions regarding your racing, cruising or human interest stories on-board J's are welcome- please send to "editor@jboats.com". CHARLESTON -- The drums of war, or, in this case, change, rang from the Eastern Illinois University campus Friday with the goal of getting attention from lawmakers in Springfield. Despite the below freezing temperatures, well over 1,000 students, staff, faculty and many other spectators showed their support and created a united front in calling for an end to the budget impasse. The "Fund EIU" rally crowd, which covered the Doudna Fine Arts Center steps and much of the Library Quad, echoed across campus chanting a theme that has resonated across Eastern since the start of the budget impasse: Fund Us. Several people addressed the gathering, calling out Gov. Bruce Rauner and lawmakers to quit their games, as several signs read, and give Eastern the appropriations it needs to continue moving forward. Give us our money, said Yolanda Williams, Minority Affairs director. Several campus leaders who spoke yelled their frustrations and worries about the state moving forward without a budget. Student Body President Shirmeen Ahmad said she couldn't understand why higher education, Eastern specifically, is held hostage to political party lines. Why is it so hard to understand that we are trying to make ourselves into something? Ahmad said. Williams said that along with being a university, Eastern is a home and family to her, and she doesn't want to see it die. Austin Mejdrich, Eastern student, said he was angered by the political squabbling in Springfield. Our futures are not just special interests to be bartered with, he called out to the crowd. Our voices will be heard. They planned for their voices to be heard in more ways than a few speeches. A multitude of letters were also written and were to be sent to the state legislature and Rauners office. Williams said the voice of the rally should continue with several calls, emails and letters to state leaders. Several faculty and staffed mirrored sentiments of anger toward the state of Illinois and worry about higher education as more cuts loom. Bill Burnside, a Facilities Planning and Management employee, said local representatives like state Rep. Reggie Phillips, R-Charleston, have turned their backs to the community. Were sick and tired of being a pawn in this political game, he said. I have worked here 15 years. I am going to lose my job. I got bills like everybody else. Pat Duzan, Facilities Planning and Management employee, said looking beyond the current cuts, he is worried about summer and fall if no appropriations are given out. The horizon looks even worse, Duzan said. State Sen. Scott Bennett, who called for MAP grants to be funded in full, said the issues facing Eastern are non-partisan. That impasse is strictly on partisan lines, Bennett said. You don't have to be smart as (the professors on campus) to know how stupid that is. This is not a partisan issue. Partisanship was still claimed at the rally. Less than two hours before the event held in the face of coming layoffs and furlough forced by the state budget impasse, Righter said he was prevented from speaking at the event. He issued the following statement in response to being barred from publicly speaking at the event on campus: I am deeply disappointed in the decision made by the organizer of this rally to not allow me to address the rally." Both Righter and Phillips said they appreciated the strong support shown for Eastern at the rally but would have liked to have been given the opportunity to speak there. Organizer Kate Klipp told the JG-TC that the event was focused on the university's students. She said Eastern was not within his Bennetts district and he addressed MAP Grants. "It's not designed to be a campaign stomping ground," Klipp said. She also said Righter's proposed legislation to fund higher education in Illinois "unreasonable." EIU President David Glassman said previously that Righters legislation would require an additional cut of $8.6 million for the university. Whether or not anything comes of the rally, faculty and staff are hopeful something will happen eventually. Duzan said it cant hurt. Omar Solomon, admissions counselor, said if the rally does anything, hopefully it will get Springfield to pay attention. I hope the legislators caught our message, and it is a simple one, Solomon said. Like Yolanda said, Give us our money. Contacted by the JG-TC on Friday, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner blamed the budget impasse on Democrats. The governor cares deeply about the fiscal health of all of state universities," Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement issued Friday afternoon. "The fact remains that EIU could be funded tomorrow if the Democrats in the legislature supported HB 4539/SB 2349. "That bill would fund MAP grants, community colleges and all of Illinois public universities while giving the governor the authority to respond to an unbalanced budget by reallocating funds and reducing spending in a number of ways," Kelly said. In turn, a leading Democrat put the blame on Rauner's doorstep. The Senate approved state support for Eastern Illinois University and other state schools," said Cullerton spokesman John Patterson, referring to a spring budget that Democrats passed and Rauner nixed. "It was Governor Rauner who eliminated that support with his veto and caused this impasse. We would hope he would reconsider his opposition to funding these state schools and make education a priority. MATTOON -- The Lake Land College Board of Trustees is scheduled Monday evening to consider cutting four staff members from the college's workforce due to the state funding shortfall. Lake Land President Josh Bullock said the staffing proposals call for permanently eliminating a special projects technician position and a Web learning specialist position within the Center for Technology and Professional Development. Bullock said the proposals also call for laying off the assistant director of physical plant operations and a custodian. He said these two staff members could be reinstated into the workforce if state funding becomes available. The board is scheduled to consider these personnel proposals when it meets at 6 p.m. Monday in Webb Hall on the main campus in Mattoon. Bullock said all four cuts to the college's workforce would be effective Feb. 26. Bullock said the elimination of the two positions in the Center for Technology and Professional Development is part of Lake Land's efforts to reorganize staffing levels so that the college can maintain a high level of education services for students while dealing with continued reductions in state funding. "We will have to continue to make adjustments as we maintain the academic integrity of the institution and minimize the impact on students," Bullock said. He added, "It won't be easy, but our primary focus is making sure our students get the educational experience they expect here, period." Bullock said Lake Land notified its workforce on Tuesday that the college may have to make further personnel cuts later in the spring semester if the needed state funding is not allocated by then. Lake Land had to cut approximately four staff members from its workforce in 2014 and three from the Adult Education Program recently due to the state's ongoing budget troubles, Bullock said. The college also is leaving several vacant positions unfilled. Bullock said Lake Land has prepared for continuing to offer its current level of academic programs in the long term. However, he said the budget troubles are creating anxiety among students, faculty and staff throughout state-funded higher education in Illinois. Information on other items on the agenda for Monday's Lake Land board meeting will be included in a later article. CHARLESTON -- The crowd that filled the Library Quad for Friday's Eastern Illinois University funding rally included state legislators, EIU alumni, and other concerned community members. State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said attending this event was important for him because he represents his constituents in the Eastern community and he is deeply concerned for the university. "Eastern is a big part of who I am," Righter said. He is an alumnus of Eastern. Righter said he has proposed legislation to provide funding for Eastern and other state universities, as well as community colleges and the Monetary Award Program (MAP). He said this proposal does include funding cuts, but cuts are inevitable given the state's financial troubles. The state senator's office has reported that under Righters legislation, four year colleges/universities would be funded at 80 percent of 2015 funding levels, two-year community colleges would be funded at 90 percent, and MAP grants would be funded at 100 percent. Much of the talk at the rally focused on lobbying Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to resolve the budget impasse. Righter said calls for bringing funding proposals to a vote in the General Assembly need to be directed to the Democratic majorities in the legislature, as well. He added that the budget troubles go much deeper than the current impasse. "The state has been spending more money than it has been taking in for 12-13 years," Righter said. Eastern also has budget challenges of its own after spending down its reserve funds in recent years and experiencing declining enrollment, he said. After the rally, State Rep. Reggie Phillips, R-Charleston, said he has spoken with Rauner multiple times about the need to allocate higher education funding and he has proposed legislation to accomplish this goal. He said Eastern has done everything it can to cut its budget while carrying out its education mission, and should not be penalized by the state. Phillips said he will not support legislation that reduces funding for Eastern and other schools by more than 10 percent, adding that he would prefer an even smaller reduction. Phillips said he also will not support higher education funding legislation that does not have existing funding sources available to pay for it. Rural Toledo businessman Jonathan Kaye, who is running against Phillips for the Republican nomination in the 110th district, said after the rally that he would support higher education funding that is not tied to any unrelated issues in the budget negotiations. Kaye said he is optimistic that the support shown at the rally will help save Eastern's funding. "This is fantastic. This is exactly what we need," Kaye said as he looked out at the crowd. Charleston resident Brooke Banning said she turned out at the rally to show support for her alma mater, which is also the workplace of her husband, Kevin. Banning said she loves Eastern and hopes that her two children will still have the opportunity to attend Eastern in the future. Banning said she and many others in the community are concerned that the state's budget troubles will threaten the long-term viability of Eastern and hurt other organizations, such as Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, that receive state funding. Charleston High School sophomore Kennedy Tozer said she is worried about Eastern's future and the budget cuts that her own school is facing due to the state's financial troubles. She said cuts to academic programs at EIU would cause an exodus of residents from Charleston. EIU alumnus Gary Hennigman of Charleston said there were more people at the rally than he expected, adding that he is proud of the student body. "It's really nice to see all the students come together for a cause," Hennigman said. WELCOME WELCOME TO MY BLOG! Authorities have charged a 59-year-old man with multiple animal cruelty felonies after finding 93 dead cattle at his Furnas County feed yard. Deputy Sheriff Nicholas Vargas was accompanying Omaha-based Producers Livestock Credit Corp. on a trip to repossess cattle from Steven Clason on Jan. 18, according to an affidavit for his arrest. Vargas and others found the bodies of 93 dead cattle and calves left to rot and be trampled by other cattle. Producers Livestock Vice President Joel Petersen had been to the property outside Beaver City a few days earlier to inspect animals that had been used as collateral on a loan, according to documents in a bankruptcy case Clason filed Jan. 18 in the U.S. District Court of Nebraska. Clason still had 900 to 1,000 cattle -- alive but in poor condition, Petersen said in an affidavit. The cattle were malnourished, their bones were visible through their hides and many had died. Dead animals lay in the feed bunks and in the yard, Petersen wrote. It appears Debtor (Clason) was feeding the remaining cattle over the top of carcasses. Water tanks for the animals were dry, documents said. Court documents show Clason borrowed money on Sept. 22 to buy 2,182 head of cattle, of which he sold 919. As of Jan. 15, Clason owed the company $2.27 million. When the deputy sheriff and Producers Livestock officials went to retrieve the remaining animals, Clason had blocked access to the feed yard with machinery, Petersen wrote. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Saladino issued an order on Jan. 20 allowing Producers Livestock to take possession of the remaining cattle, which Clason agreed to. He has been charged with six felony counts of cruel neglect of livestock and six misdemeanor counts of improper disposal of carcasses. Clason is out on $50,000 bond. Neither he nor his attorney could be reached for comment. Groundwater levels in most, but not all, of Nebraska are on the rise after years of decline during the 2012 and 2013 drought, according to an annual report from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. On average, water levels throughout the state rose by just more than half a foot from spring 2014 to spring 2015, according to the Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report released Friday. Experts say higher-than-normal precipitation for much of Nebraska and better water-use practices are responsible for the uptick. More rain and snow means more water to recharge aquifers and farmers pumping out less water to irrigate their crops. Researchers found that 64 percent of 4,973 monitoring wells measured for the report had a rise in water levels from spring 2014 to spring 2015; 35 percent showed a decline; and 1 percent showed no change. Eastern Nebraska had some of the biggest increases, with well levels rising as much as 15 feet. Western Dawson and southern Custer counties saw increases of as much as 10 feet, and parts of the Panhandle and of Chase County saw increases of as many as 5 feet. On the other end of the spectrum, areas of Nebraska that saw declines in groundwater generally were caused by lower-than-normal precipitation, which prompted farmers to pump more water onto crops. Wells in Dundy County in the southwest part of the state saw declines of 5 to 10 feet. Southern Lincoln County wells measured a decline of 25 to 30 feet. The UNL report says wells in the area likely will rebound if the augmentation wells remain off for a time. Report data was collected in late March and early April 2015 and doesn't reflect some of the record-setting precipitation that fell last spring and summer. The 2015 Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report was produced by UNL's School of Natural Resources. Jim Smith believes business is the bus that will carry Nebraska toward prosperity. And that bus needs a road. Last year, the second-term state senator from Papillion championed the push to raise Nebraska's gas tax to boost roads funding, a measure that passed despite a gubernatorial veto. This year, he's working with Gov. Pete Ricketts on another bill that would establish a so-called infrastructure bank to speed completion of the state's expressway system. The goal is laying groundwork for private sector growth, which in turn will benefit everyone in Nebraska, Smith says. The journey starts with an ear to the ground and a mind open to legislative bargaining. "If you believe in no compromise ... if all you're playing is a defensive game, then I think the best you're going to do is hold the line where you are," Smith said last month during an interview in his Capitol office. "I'm listening and trying to understand, is there a path forward?" He's drawn toward transportation and other infrastructure issues because those are topics "we can really wrap our heads around of and our hands around of and say that we have put Nebraska on a better course," he said. His roads measures are Phase One of a two-part plan. Phase Two is already unfolding behind the headlines and will continue in force beginning next year, when Smith, 56, plans to seek a second two-year term as chairman of the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. That's when his focus shifts more to the telecommunications piece of his role, with hopes of tackling big questions like broadband Internet access and the future of 911 service in Nebraska. A measure Smith sponsored this year (LB938) would help the Public Service Commission begin preparing in earnest for a statewide Next Generation 911 system. The new system would replace the state's existing patchwork of county-by-county 911 operators with more centralized call-takers who can easily locate cellphone users and accept text messages, photos and even videos in emergency situations. The commission would report back to the Legislature next year with an eye toward implementation in 2018. As for broadband Internet, Smith wants to protect the private sector's traditional role in that market against potential "over-competition" from government entities in a state where electrical utilities are all publicly owned. "I think that poses some risks for our state," he said of public-sector involvement in the broadband market. "I do think we have to be very careful of how we allow government to compete with private business." Instead, government should work to lure more private investment, he said. Politically, pro-business and pro-life are among the few labels Smith ascribes to absolutely. Aside from infrastructure, his other marquee policy effort has been pushing to cut state income taxes as a member of the Legislature's Revenue Committee. He blames the lack of success so far on the perception that income taxes and property taxes are separate issues. That approach has divided rural and urban conservatives farmers and other small-business owners when they should be collaborating, he said. "We need to not work against each other because we're both businesses and taxes are a common enemy." Smith, whose family owns a garage door business in Omaha, keeps his options open when talking about what's in store once his time in the Legislature is up. He could return to private life, even start a new company or return to the corporate world where he got his start. But part of him is open to continuing his public-sector service, he said. "I'm very blessed to have a lot of options." Corrin Bemis is not the University of Nebraska-Lincoln student who needs the sexual assault prevention funding in a bill introduced this session by Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld. "I know the difference between coercion and consent," she told the Judiciary Committee Friday. "I know how to stand up for my peers and use my bystander intervention training to keep the people around me safe." She is one of the UNL students who has already benefited from an organization called Prevent that works to end relationship violence and sexual assault through peer education, she said. "Unfortunately, there are many, many others who have not," she said. Bemis urged senators thinking about whether to advance the bill (LB1027) from committee to consider the freshman fraternity member in an organization that praises him for how intoxicated he got the night before. A fraternity whose members need to know the difference between safe dating norms and harassment. Or the young mother on campus trying to get through her classes who needs a safe place to go with her son during the day. Or the young woman who is too afraid to tell her friends about her abusive partner. Morfeld would like the state to help fund sexual assault prevention programs on Nebraska college campuses through a grant of $500,000 during each two-year budget cycle. The bill is based on a similar program in Michigan, Morfeld said. The first year, the state had $1.5 million in requests for those grants, which were used for such things as bystander training and drink coasters that can detect whether someone has tampered with a drink. National studies show one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted in college. The majority of the assaults are never reported. Jan Deeds, director of UNL's Women's Center, said that in the past 18 years, UNL initiatives have made a difference for students, staff and faculty. A 2002 federal grant allowed the university to develop a task force so groups could share information and communicate about the programs they were working on, create a victim advocate position with Voices of Hope agency to specialize in working with UNL students, staff and faculty and strengthen the student peer educators' group. The competition for federal funds from the Violence Against Women Act has increased dramatically since 2002, so state funds to support innovative projects to prevent sexual assaults would be important, Deeds said. While there are good programs with the limited resources available, Morfeld said, there is a certain popular culture that promotes unhealthy and violent practices in relationships. "That's the importance of having these types of funds available and ready to go," he said. Nebraska education officials unhappy about widespread technical problems with the statewide writing test for the second time in three years say they are rethinking their $7 million contract with the Minnesota company that delivers the test. The Nebraska Department of Education is in the third year of its contract with Data Recognition Corp. to deliver statewide reading, math, science and writing tests. The board renewed a $7.3 million contract in June, a nearly 29 percent cost increase over the previous years contract. State Board of Education President Rachel Wise said she doesnt know how the board will move forward, either in the long- or short-term, but Data Recognition officials should be on notice that state officials are concerned. As an independent board member it would be pretty hard to convince me (to continue), she said. DRC would need to give pretty strong assurances before Id say DRC should continue to be the one delivering our assessments. Wise said its hard to second-guess the boards June decision to renew the contract, especially when it had been given assurances that problems had been fixed -- and last year there were no problems. We made it clear in our conversations that continued issues are not acceptable, she said. DRC spokesperson Pam Enstad said the company is sorry for the testing disruptions but engineers found and corrected the problems. She noted that despite the interruptions, many of the 42,075 eighth- and 11-graders who completed the tests so far did so without problems. State Assessment Director Valorie Foy outlined what happened in January with the test given to eighth- and 11th-graders. Fourth-graders still use paper and pencil. * 325 students from 18 schools in six districts couldnt get online for one hour and 47 minutes on Jan. 21 because of a bug in the software. * At least 1,488 students from 112 schools in 85 districts couldnt get online when the system went down for 32 minutes statewide on Jan. 27 because the server used to store results was low on hard disk space. * About 5,340 students at 207 schools from 143 districts didnt have access to the online dictionary or spellchecker for four hours and seven minutes on Jan. 28. Some districts had print dictionaries students could use. The problems were different than the ones two years ago, and this year no students lost their work, Foy said. In 2013-14 at least 500 students lost work and another 1,000 were shut out or kicked off the online program during one 40-minute period. The problems convinced state officials not to use the writing results for state and federal accountability requirements. A year earlier, theyd had some problems but not as severe. Lincoln Public Schools also had some problems with multiple-choice math and reading tests two years ago, but most other districts did not. Last year, there were no problems with any assessments, including writing. Foy said it will take months to evaluate the data to decide whether the problems this year invalidate the test results. While no work was lost, having technical problems during testing causes students anxiety and affects performance, she said. Jane Stavem, associate superintendent of instruction for LPS, said the problems in Lincoln were consistent with others in the state, although she was unsure how many schools experienced problems. Significantly more had problems during the second outage, but those glitches didnt alter the schedule, and schools were able to finish their testing within the time frame. It was nothing catastrophic, but its still problematic when kids are in the middle of testing, she said. State Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt said Data Recognition Corp. has been a good company for the short time Nebraska had to launch its online state assessments. Still, he said, he wasnt sure he wants Nebraska to be a guinea pig for the product and he wants school districts to know state officials are taking the problems seriously. Its time to explore a different direction, he told board members Thursday. This pushes me over the top. But just how the department will proceed remains a question. The issues present an opportunity to rethink state testing to make it more effective, useful to teachers and less intrusive, Blomstedt said. Its something the state planned to do in the coming years, when Data Recognition's five-year contract ends, he said. For one thing, the new Every Student Succeeds Act passed by Congress gives states more testing flexibility. Also, the Legislature is considering bills that could affect testing. LB930 would replace statewide tests for 11th-graders with the college preparatory ACT test. Other bills could create more flexibility with the law that requires districts give a national standardized test in addition to statewide tests. Also, the states new accountability system is based on the premise that more than test scores be used to gauge school performance, Blomstedt said. The testing problems may prompt state officials to start that process now. (The Every Student Succeeds Act) gives us an opportunity to look at it. The Legislature gives us an opportunity to look at it and DRC is giving us an opportunity we didnt even think about, Wise said. Still, rethinking the assessment system is a fairly in-depth process and state officials likely will need to find a quicker solution for next year. They say they dont know what that may be, but options include staying with the company for multiple-choice math, science and reading tests and using paper and pencil tests for writing; testing only one grade in writing; or exploring ways to incorporate the national standardized tests. Just as radar warns of approaching storms, so does the flood of migrants entering Europe warn us of a deluge yet to come, not only for Europeans, if they continue to allow unrestricted immigration, but for the United States. Reports that women in Cologne, Germany, have been groped and robbed by men described by authorities as having a North African or Arabic appearance should be warning enough, but there are other and more ominous warnings that suggest worse lies ahead, unless the problem receives immediate attention and action. And its not just Cologne. The Gatestone Institute, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit international policy council and think tank, is in possession of what it describes as a leaked German intelligence document, which says, We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples, as well as a different understanding of society and law. Last October, reports Gatestone, Andrew Parker, the director general of Britains Security Service, said that the scale and tempo of the danger to the UK is now at a level he has not seen in his 32-year career. British police are monitoring over 3,000 homegrown Islamist extremists willing to carry out attacks on the UK. On Wednesday, President Obama visited a Baltimore mosque. According to The Daily Caller, the mosque has deep ties to extremist elements, including the Muslim Brotherhood. That mosque is not alone, as a map on the papers website reveals. Explaining the presidents visit, White House spokesman Keith Maley said, The president believes that one of our nations greatest strengths is our rich diversity. I doubt terrorists believe that. I dont believe that diversity, as practiced in America, exists in any country with a Muslim majority. Benedicte Bjornland, head of the Norwegian Police Security Service, recently warned against further Muslim immigration. When U.S. politicians suggest a similar approach, they are denounced as bigots and Islamophobes, but in Norway and Sweden, two of the most liberal nations in Europe that have welcomed Muslim immigrants, that charge will be difficult to make stick. What we are witnessing is the complete breakdown and failure of multiculturalism. Dictionary.com defines multiculturalism as the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, as a state or nation. That definition contains a glaring contradiction. A society cannot be unified if it preserves different cultures and cultural identities within itself. Thats why our national motto is translated out of many, one. To the multiculturalist it appears to be, Out of one, many. History demonstrates that no nation can long survive if it forgets why it exists. Our failure to inculcate American traditions, beliefs and history, even in the native born, not to mention immigrants, is rapidly destroying the country bequeathed to us by our forebears. Leftists in Europe and the U.S. have promoted multiculturalism, believing that once Muslims experience our freedoms and dedication to equality they will want to be like us. It doesnt appear to be working and anyone familiar with the Koran and its kingdom of this world instructions knows it likely wont. European leaders, from Germanys Angela Merkel, to Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, have deliberately closed their eyes to what they see unfolding in their countries, and in others. President Obama is doing the same thing with his trip to the Baltimore mosque. Our enemies see our weakness and failure to understand their objectives, which include destroying the West and establishing a worldwide caliphate. This is not top secret information. Not all Muslims are terrorists, to be sure, but large numbers of radical Islamists profess allegiance to the faith and they are more than willing to wreak havoc in pursuit of their goals. An ancient proverb reminds us: There are none so blind as those who will not see. In a handful of labs around the world, scientists have quietly invented a new and powerful biotech weapon against disease-carrying mosquitoes. Called gene drive, it goes far beyond ordinary genetic modification, bending the rules of inheritance to spread modified genes through vast populations of organisms. If it works as expected, it could be used to extinguish the population of mosquitoes rapidly spreading the Zika virus through South America. An even more consequential deployment would spread an altered gene through the world's population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, endowing them with resistance against the parasite that now kills more than 400,000 people every year. This is heady stuff to consider for a public that has yet to come to terms with genetic modification. While some scientists allegedly want to "sic" gene drives on Zika-carrying mosquitoes, most biologists involved hope for something less dramatic -- the chance to gradually ramp up testing while encouraging public discussion about the issue. It remains to be seen whether the Zika threat will mushroom into a problem that would justify the risk of rushing a new technology. However, the death and suffering caused by malaria already justifies continued investment in gene drive research, and given enough testing, it might prove safer than spraying insecticides. The power of the technology comes from the way it breaks the rules of normal reproduction. In most species, animals carry two versions of each gene on two matched sets of chromosomes. Each copy passively accepts a 50/50 chance of getting shuffled into an egg or sperm, and from there, to progeny. But with gene drive, a modified gene carries instructions to attack the opposing chromosome, snip it, and insert a second copy of itself. In the face of Zika, gene drive might boost the effectiveness of genetic engineering solutions already being explored by the British company Oxitec. The company was originally looking for ways to control the spread of another mosquito-borne disease, dengue fever. It's experimenting with genetically modified male mosquitoes carrying a gene that's lethal to larvae. Beyond the PR hassles, the company faces a hurdle posed by evolution. If the introduced gene is lethal to offspring, natural selection will weed it out, favoring the healthy version of the gene. But there are tricks -- ways the lethal gene could kill only male offspring or only females, while being carried on through the other sex. Gene drives could accelerate the spread of such a gene so that it might cause a population to crash before evolution would weed it out. Last April, scientists demonstrated an effective gene drive in laboratory fruit flies -- the fast-spreading gene had the striking effect of turning most of the population yellow. They published the results in the journal Science. Last November, the same researchers, collaborating with scientists working on malaria resistance, demonstrated an anti-malaria gene drive could work in mosquitoes. Esvelt's gene drive uses so-called gene editing, or Crispr, which gives modified genes a particularly efficient toolkit for inserting themselves into their partner chromosomes. Endowing genes with special equipment to foil the rules of genetics may sound magical, but biologists have simply co-opted tools that other living things invented through evolution. Human DNA is littered with invasive genes that copied themselves into us with natural gene drives. The question here is what unintended -- and unanticipated - - consequences might arise. Mosquitoes may be hated, but they're part of ecosystems and provide food for birds, bats and some fish. Anthony James, a University of California biologist who has been working on gene drive in mosquitoes, said that in their experiments the insects live on, except that they carry antibodies that make them resistant to the malaria parasite. The potential risks and benefits are profound enough that the National Academy of Sciences has begun an evaluation, expected out later this year. Even if the U.S. scientific community gives a gene drive the green light, say, to eradicate our Zika-carrying mosquitoes, the consequences can't be easily confined to one country. Flying insects don't respect international borders. Last week, a group of church friends held a town hall meeting in Brunswick, Ga. Their purpose is embodied in their name: Justice For Caroline Small. Chances are, youve never heard of her. She was a waitress, a mother of two girls, and a woman with mental health issues who was in and out of drug treatment programs for much of her life until she was killed by police in June of 2010. Her death was every bit as outrageous as those of Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and Tamir Rice, but has received only a fraction of the attention. Indeed, unless you live in Georgia or North Florida, you probably dont know her story. And you should. As told in news reports and a dash cam video, it goes like this: A police officer responds to a call of a woman doing drugs in a parking lot. When he tells her to shut off the car, she takes off instead. A four mile, low-speed chase ensues. It ends when a police car bumps her vehicle, spinning it to a stop. With one police car sitting nose to nose, another on her passenger side, a utility pole behind her, a ditch on her left and all four tires gone, Small has nowhere to go. Still, she shifts into reverse and then forward, banging uselessly against the utility pole and the patrol car. Police yell at her to get out. Instead, she tries again back against the pole, forward, bumping the car. And Sgt. Corey Sasser and Officer Todd Simpson open fire, tattooing her windshield with .45 caliber rounds. Afterward, they discuss their marksmanship. I hit her right in the face right on the bridge of the nose, says Sasser. Simpson waves off a former EMT who approaches to render aid. Shes dead. I shot her in the head. Her head exploded. Small actually died seven days later. Sasser and Simpson were cleared of wrongdoing by a grand jury and by internal affairs. A civil suit was dismissed. Justice for Caroline Small was formed last year after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a local ABC News affiliate investigated the shooting and found that police, seeking to protect their own, interfered with a supposedly independent probe, while the district attorney deferred to them at every step, essentially paving the way for the grand jury to clear the two officers. Perhaps most damning: the investigation concludes police tampered with the crime scene and manufactured misleading evidence. Grand jurors were led to believe Small had room to maneuver her car and could have run the officers down. The dash cam video search it online for yourself proves the unarmed woman was hemmed in and posed no immediate threat. So Justice for Caroline Small is calling for a new investigation of the shooting and a probe of the police department itself. In a nation that has come to think of the police shooting of unarmed people and the protests thereof as a black thing, they are an anomaly. Visit JusticeForCaroline.com and you will find, as one told an AJC reporter, old-time, white, middle-class people. As such, they provide a wordless yet eloquent reminder that, although African Americans bear the brunt of our unwillingness to demand accountability for police misbehavior, unchecked power ultimately has no racial loyalties. The refusal to understand that is a dangerous luxury none of us can afford. As a member named Kay Allen told the AJC, this shooting of a 35-year-old white woman changes in some ways the way that you view the police and just thinking they are there to protect you. And its kind of like, Well, maybe not. Maybe theres another side to things that we dont always know about. It is the kind of dawning realization that often precedes enlightenment. And in that sense, Justice For Caroline Small might be a small step toward justice for us all. Make room on the bandwagon for Sen. Kate Bolzs bill to give employers a tax credit if they help pay an employees student loans; the Journal Star editorial board wants to jump on board. Bolzs bill, LB685, received supportive testimony at a public hearing last week. Now it faces a long road to enactment, with filibusters and other senators priorities consuming large chunks of the 60-day session. Under Bolzs plan an employer would get a credit up to $1,800 toward the businesss state income tax for half of an annual payment made to an employees student loan. Bolz said the plan is aimed at the top concern of the Nebraskas business leaders growing a talented workforce for the state. With a state unemployment rate of 2.9 percent in December the second lowest in the country one of the biggest challenges that Nebraska businesses have is finding and keeping good employees. The bill would give them a new tool. As Evan Fullmer of the Omaha Young Professionals Council told state senators, the plan would alleviate Nebraskas brain drain. About 4,000 students leave the state every year after they graduate. "We really view it as a dual solution and a creative solution and something to entice our young people to stay, Fullmer said. The same theme was echoed by Nick Devine of the Association of Student of the University of Nebraska, who said the program would factor into the decision of students when they look for a job. Bolz pointed out that students in Nebraska have an average of $26,000 in student loans when they leave college. On average students make loan payments of $3,600 a year, or $300 a month, she said. The program is designed with safeguards to ensure that its policy goals are met. The loan payments must be made directly to the student loan provider. To qualify an employee must either have graduated from a college or university located in Nebraska or have graduated from a high school in Nebraska and then graduated from a college or university in another state and returned to Nebraska. Experience has taught that the untrammeled growth of tax credits can be a problem for government. Bolzs bill, however, would cap the program at a cost of $1.5 million a year, which is enough for employers to provide the maximum amount of help to 833 graduates. Passage would be good for graduates, good for businesses and good for the economy. We hope the bill can make it to the finish line. I am writing in support of the Editorial Boards opinion that defending our state legislature's abolition of the death penalty should be our number one priority for 2016 ("Editorial board agenda for 2016," Jan. 16). It's been almost a year since our legislature made the historic vote to repeal the death penalty and override the governor's spiteful veto. In a blatant and desperate attempt to sway the voting, Governor Ricketts spent $54,400 of state funds in an illegal attempt to purchase enough lethal injection drugs to kill 300 people from an overseas supplier. After his veto was overridden, Ricketts spent $200,000 of his personal funds and $100,000 from his wealthy father to mount a crooked campaign to bring the death penalty back. We need to send a message that Nebraska values cannot be bought and sold, despite what our governor may be used to. The system of capital punishment is barbaric and broken beyond repair. It does not deter crime. Most violent crimes aren't committed by people carefully considering the consequences of their actions. It does not provide closure to victims families. The long, drawn out process of appeals can be even more traumatizing to endure than the initial impact of the crime, not to mention extremely expensive for all parties involved, including the state. It isn't even reliable. Since 1973, 144 innocent people sentenced to death have since been exonerated by new evidence. It isn't justified. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, not morally superior. So, when we the people vote on November 8 this year, which I know you all who love this great democracy will do, let the death penalty stay dead. Let's move forward to putting our time and money towards more productive pursuits for the betterment of our state. Audrey Nance, Lincoln State officials are touting advances at ACCESSNebraska as lawmakers consider scaling back oversight of the long-troubled system. On Friday, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services announced the state had once again improved its federal ranking for quickly processing food stamp applications. Nebraska ranked last in the nation in that category as recently as August 2014. The state's position had risen to 27th as of Feb. 1, HHS officials said. "This is another significant accomplishment by ACCESSNebraska in addressing the needs of vulnerable Nebraskans," Gov. Pete Ricketts said in a news release. ACCESSNebraska is the state's system for collecting and processing applications for Medicaid and economic assistance benefits. It was established in 2008 with the goal of modernizing the process but almost immediately became plagued by problems. Ricketts, HHS CEO Courtney Phillips and Felix Davidson, the state's former chief operating officer, made turning the system around a top priority after the governor took office last year. Those efforts paid off, people familiar with past struggles said Friday. "There certainly was a problem with ACCESSNebraska for several years there," said state Ombudsman Marshall Lux, whose office once received almost daily complaints related to the system. "I'm not seeing that anymore." "I think it's fabulous that they're getting numbers to where they need to be," said state Sen. Sara Howard of Omaha, chairwoman of the Legislature's ACCESSNebraska Special Investigative Committee. On Monday, Howard will testify in support of downgrading the committee's role from investigative to simple oversight. The Legislature's Executive Board will hold a public hearing on the proposal (LR418) in the Capitol at noon. The Legislature launched the investigation in 2014 in response to a litany of complaints. Committee members that year called the system "under-funded and largely a failure." More than half of some 650 employees surveyed by the Ombudsman's Office in July 2014 said they felt there was a consistent backlog at ACCESSNebraska, and nearly as many reported not having enough time to complete their work. Delays in processing applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formally food stamps, led to a federal class-action lawsuit. Nebraska's processing rate for SNAP benefits the percentage of applications handled according to federal timelines fell as low as 62.8 percent in early 2014. That rate had risen to 91.7 percent by April through September of 2015, well above a benchmark set by the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service last January. This validates were making positive improvements processing SNAP applications, and, more importantly, were making progress in our efforts to be more efficient, accurate and customer friendly, said Phillips, the HHS CEO. Call-wait times at ACCESSNebraska's four call centers once a major complaint have also improved, averaging less than 5 minutes since September. ACCESSNebraska also recently tested using text messages to remind clients about upcoming interview appointments. The texts, which went to 500 clients, boosted attendance by 20 percent and will become standard practice beginning this summer. HHS leaders continue to hold weekly meetings about ACCESSNebraska, which legislative staff are welcome to attend, and lines of communication with the Legislature remain open, said Doug Weinberg, director of the HHS Children and Family Services Division. He said scaling back the legislative committee's role is appropriate. "I don't think we need that level of structured oversight anymore." This morning I face timed with my son. He lives in Rome. We were digging into thoughts on the immensity and speed of the changes, brought about by the digital age. When he left for college - it was just yesterday, right? - he did not take a cell phone, and this morning in my living room we chatted away face-to-face. Communication has been one of the good things to evolve. The ease, speed and price of communication. Remember when we called on the weekends, after 7 p.m., when rates were lower? We move a lot more today; across town, across country or across the world. Last I checked the average was every 7 years but Im betting that number is even lower. Now that we can keep our cell numbers, and rarely add new landline numbers, it seems we change our address more often than we change our phone numbers. This should have some bearing on the homes we choose to purchase. It should really have bearing on the custom houses we build. As they say The best-laid plans of mice and men." I met a new friend recently. She has lived in the same house since she was 12 years old. Her family moved in, father passed, mother moved with new husband to new home, she stayed through college, brought in roommates, she married, raised a family, divorced, re-married. Through it all, she remained in the same home. What a treasure that home is, and what a treasure of a life, of lives, lived there. So choose your home well; only time will tell how much time you will stay. Your phone number too. My new friend, her phone number has never changed either. In recognition of American Heart Month, Bryan Health will host several events to screen for and educate about cardiovascular health. Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States. Bryan Health offers free, confidential online screenings for the risk of heart disease through its HeartAware program. Participants answer a series of questions about their health through an online evaluation form. Upon completion, they receive a customized report and recommendations for follow-up action. Participants at risk for heart disease will be able to meet with a nurse. To take a screening, visit bryanhealth.org/heartmonth. Other events include: * Atrial Fibrillation Community Education Program, My Racing Heart: What Does It Mean? 6:30 to 8 p.m. Feb. 9, Plaza Conference Center, Bryan East Campus, 1500 S. 48th St. Bryan Heart cardiologist Dr. Robert Percell, Bryan Heart will provide an overview of atrial fibrillation (A-fib), diagnosis and treatment options. Symptoms of a-fib include a feeling of your heart racing or fluttering, chest pain and shortness of breath. To register, go to bryanhealth.org/calendar or call 402-481-8886. Presentation is free. * Cardiovascular Screenings from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 18 at Bryan Medical Center. The screenings are painless and noninvasive and must be scheduled in advance. The four screenings offered are: abdominal aortic aneurysm ultrasound screening, $40; carotid artery ultrasound screening, $40; peripheral arterial disease screening,$20; and atrial fibrillation screening, $10. To register, call 402-481-5121. * Twitter chat, How Does Running Improve Your Heart Health, with Dr. John Stueter, cardiologist, noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 23 at twitter.com/bryan_health. The interactive Twitter chat is just one of the multi-media programs available in February. In addition, Bryan Health has a variety of heart healthy videos featuring Bryan Heart cardiologists available online at bryanhealth.org/heartmonth. On the second Wednesday of each month, a group of local citizens gather at City Hall to discuss ways to promote diplomacy. They form Racines Sister City Planning Council, which for nearly 60 years has devoted its time and energy to creating and strengthening partnerships between the City of Racine and other cities around the world. Their mission is to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation and, while it may seem like a lofty goal, it is a mission they are not alone in pursuing. Racines council is part of Sister Cities International a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded by President Eisenhower in 1956 to help form bonds between people from different cultures. Such relationships, Eisenhower reasoned, would enable people to celebrate and appreciate their differences, and build partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts, according to SCI (www.sister-cities.org). Today, the international network unites tens of thousands of citizen diplomats and volunteers in 545 communities, with more than 2,100 partnerships in 145 countries on six continents. Culture and education Formed in 1957, Racines Sister City Planning Council has forged relationships with six sister cities, four of which are currently active Montelimar, France (since 1957); Aalborg, Denmark (1969); Oiso, Japan (1982); and Zapotlanejo, Mexico (2008). Racines previous sister city ties with Fortaleza, Brazil (1964), and Bluefields, Nicaragua (1973), are currently inactive. Todays council has 12 members who report to the mayor and the City Council, and its main emphasis continues to be on fostering cultural and educational exchanges between Racine and its sister cities, according to Al Guetzlaff, council chairman. Those exchanges often involve local youth, such as the delegation of three high school students who last summer visited Oiso. Council members prepared the students each from a different high school with a series of orientation sessions about Japanese culture and language. And support for their trip was provided by community organizations including the Racine Founders Club Rotary Foundation, the Lions Club and area scout troops, as well as the council and the students families. The council is now planning to host a group of 16 students and teachers from Montelimar in April of this year, Guetzlaff said. The students, who attend Lycee Alain Borne, a general and technological high school, will spend much of their time here at Case High School, and the council is seeking families interested in hosting a French student. Another group of French students, from Montelimars Chabrillan School, visited Racines Prairie School last May, and this year, Prairie students will travel there carrying on an exchange that dates back many years. Widening our view The programs emphasis on youth involvement is one of the things Michele Caskey said she appreciates. Caskey a retired chemist and business owner who has served on the council for about two years said she feels it is important to give kids here the opportunity to meet people from other countries and to experience cultures that might be different from ours. I think it is something that is really needed today, as we seem to get more and more isolated as Americans, Caskey said. Such exchanges help people realize that we are all immigrants, and that there are nice people living in other places, she said. The program is important because it widens Racines world view. Sister City exchanges also allow for sharing of ideas and knowledge between government officials and other community leaders, said Guetzlaff, a retired pastor who has served on the council for more than 20 years. Several years ago when a group from Montelimar visited Racine, for example, the council arranged for people in city offices here to meet with visitors who had similar responsibilities in France. People from both cities were able to sit down and talk about the kinds of problems they face and how they deal with them, Guetzlaff said. It was a great exchange at the leadership level. The way that other cities go about achieving their goals and responsibilities may differ because their governmental structure is different than ours, Guetzlaff said. But we can still learn from each other. When you sit down with someone who has similar responsibilities as you, you start to see them as a person, rather than as a position, he said. When we share our plans and ideas, what ends up happening is that we become friends. And that changes the whole orientation of how we relate to one another. Anniversary celebration Looking ahead to 2017, the council has begun to plan activities in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Sister Cities in Racine. They are inviting citizens of Montelimar to come and celebrate with us, Guetzlaff said. They are also hoping to expand Racines sister city program, and have already made initial contacts with people in the Usa River Region of Tanzania, in Africa, and are looking into the possibility of an Armenian sister city. Racines Sister City program currently receives $10,000 in funding annually from the City of Racine, Guetzlaff said. If any additional funds are needed for special programs, the council usually reaches out to community organizations and resources for donations, he said. More about Racines Sister City Planning Council and what it does can be found on the councils Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SisterCityPlanningCouncilRacineWi/?fref=nf. Workshops & Programs TAGINE COOKING DEMONSTRATION OFFERED CALEDONIA The Eco-Justice Center, 7133 Michna Road, will hold a tagine cooking demonstration at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18. Kay Mackay will teach participants to make fresh tagine, a vegetable stew from northern Africa. Attendees will then share in a meal of tagine and bread. The cost is $25. The registration deadline is Feb. 15. To register or for more information, go to www.ecojusticecenter.org or call 262-681-8527. Scholarships are available. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT CENTER WORKSHOPS RACINE These free workshops will be held the week of Feb. 8-12 at the Racine County Workforce Development Center, 1717 Taylor Ave.: Pro Tech, 9 a.m.-noon Monday. WDC Orientation, 1-3:30 p.m. Monday. Understanding Social Media, 9-11 a.m. Tuesday. Ultimate Job Search 3 Day Series, Day 1, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Tuesday. First Steps to Starting a Small Business, 6-8 p.m. Tuesday. Ultimate Job Search 3 Day Series, Day 2, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Wednesday. First Impressions, 2-3 p.m. Wednesday. The Job Application Process, 9-11 a.m. Thursday. Ultimate Job Search 3 Day Series, Day 3, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Thursday. KeyTrain Orientation, 2-3 p.m. Thursday. Walk In Staff Assisted Resume Lab (first-come), 9-11 a.m. Wednesday or 9:30-11:30 a.m. Friday. Financial Workshop: Guide to Personal Finance, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Friday. For more information or to register for any of the above workshops, call Workshop Instruction at 262-638-6551 or go to www.wdc.racineco.com/jobseekerservices/workshopschedule.aspx. ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS SCHEDULED MOUNT PLEASANT The Mount Pleasant Police Department along with the Racine Literacy Council will host a free English Language class at the Mount Pleasant Police Departments Lakeside COP House, 2237 Mead St. The first class will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 15, and will continue on every Monday until further notice. The classes will be taught by trained Racine Literacy Council tutors and is focused toward the beginner English speaking person so that they may communicate better with local law enforcement. New students are invited to join the class at any point. Attendees will be asked to complete a brief registration form on the first day that will be collected and maintained by Racine Literacy Council. All students must be 18 years old or older. For more information, contact Margarita Fons at mfons@racineliteracy.com, 262-632-9495, or officer Matt Prochaska, mprochaska@mtpleasantwi.gov, 262-664-7946. WOODCARVING CLASS AVAILABLE CALEDONIA Drop-in woodcarving classes for beginners ages 10 and older (including adults) will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on the first and third Saturday of each month at River Bend Nature Center, 3600 N. Green Bay Road. The cost is $3. Materials are provided. For more information, call River Bend at 262-639-1515. INTRODUCTORY MEDITATION CLASS OFFERED RACINE A Meditation Workshop for Spirtual Awareness class is offered at no charge from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays at the Science of Spirituality Center, 3131 Taylor Ave. Participants in the class will learn a simple meditation technique. Participants in the workshop will discuss various spiritual aspects and learn how to apply them in daily life. For more information, call Vivian Williams at 262-620-0058. CIVIL WAR MUSEUM OFFERS FREE EVENTS KENOSHA The Civil War Museum, 5400 First Ave., will offer the following free programs: Second Friday Lunchbox Lecture Series, noon-2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12. The Rev. Robert Miller will present a lecture entitled Confederate Christian Warrior, about the Rev. James Sheeran of the 14th Louisiana. Imagination Studio, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13. Participants will draw, paint, sculpt and more in a free open studio. For more information, go to www.TheCivilWarMuseum.org. RACINE As part of an ongoing effort to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and promote safe sex, the city Health Department is offering a new way to be protected. Mail Me Condoms is an initiative designed to increase the ease in which residents, particularly youths, are able to access condoms, according to a Health Department news release Friday. For no charge, residents can request safer sex supplies online at cityofracine.org/health/condoms and have items mailed to them. The initiative is funded through grant money the city annually receives through the state Department of Health Services, Community Health Director Bobbi Fergus said. The grant money also funds the citys STD clinic and HIV testing. Mail Me Condoms is an extension of the departments Take Control campaign, which has provided free condoms in a variety of venues, including local businesses and at the Health Department offices, 730 Washington Ave. Were just kind of branching off of that and we wanted to go one step further to make it accessible to people, Fergus said. They may not feel comfortable coming into the Health Department to get condoms, or we may be closed when they are looking for condoms. High STD rates Officials are looking to reduce high STD rates in the area. In 2014, Racine County ranked fifth in the state for chlamydia rates and fourth for gonorrhea, according to the news release. The City of Racine has averaged 750 chlamydia cases and 170 gonorrhea cases annually over the past five years, Fergus said. Most of those incidents involve residents between ages 15 to 29. The goal is not to promote sex among young people, Fergus said. We are not encouraging sex, but if residents are going to have sex, we are encouraging that they are being safe and are being proactive to decrease the incident level of STDs in our community as well as unplanned pregnancies, Fergus said. The department has gotten few complaints since the campaign began last summer, Fergus said. Alderman not pleased Fourth District Alderman Jim Kaplan, however, said that while he hadnt read the details on the departments plan, such initiatives are an indictment on our society. If we have to encourage people to do things in a clean way because thats the new norm, I suppose we have to. But it doesnt make me happy, Kaplan said. Mayor John Dickert said STD rates are one area we dont want to be in the top five. The only way you get out of it is you start educating people, Dickert said. We hope that they just dont have sex. But while thats not completely realistic, we hope that they at least are safe about it and stop the spread of the disease. Confidential process Participants are asked to provide their name, mailing address, age, gender and whether they have a latex allergy. Officials noted that personal information is only for statistical purposes and will not be stored or used in conjunction with names or other information, according to the release. The website allows residents to request condoms, which come in packs of 10, as well as latex-free condoms, lubrication, FC2 (female condom), dental dams and finger cots. The other items are offered to accommodate different ways to have safe sex, Fergus said. Participants are also given information about how to properly use the items, STDs, the departments STD clinic and other Health Department services. The program is open to any Racine County resident. Officials say the initiative is modeled after similar programs in cities including Sacramento, Calif., Philadelphia and Los Angeles. RACINE SafeStart is hosting the second annual Teen Dating Violence Awareness Conference, this year titled Beyond All Limits, and to be held Feb. 15 at Gateway Technical College, 1001 S. Main St. More than one in 10 teens who have been on a date have also been abused by a partner in the last year. One of the most important things to do is keep the lines of communication open with our youth, said Olivia Osborne, the Women Resource Center's SafeStart Specialist. The conference will be held at 9 a.m. Feb. 15 at Gateway's Conference Center. Opening the conference will be Miss Racine Haley Schonter, whose platform, "One Big City, One Big Family," focuses on educating the community about domestic violence. Schonter was inspired to pursue her platform after losing her stepsister in the domestic violence-initiated 2012 Azana Spa shooting in Brookfield. Schonter volunteers with the WRC and is a member of Connections for Abused Women and Children's Junior Board in Chicago. The keynote speaker at the conference will be Annika Leonard, a community educator, organizer and youth advocate, from Milwaukee. Breakout sessions will include topics such as teens and human trafficking, healthy LBGT relationships and more. The conference is free, however registration is required. To register go to www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-all-limits-teen-dating-violence-awareness-conference-tickets-20046200726. For more information, contact Osborne by email at oosbornewrc@gmail.com, by phone at (262)633-3274 or visit SafeStarts Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Safe-Start-Racine. For more information about the Womens Resource Center, call (262) 633-3274 or visit www.wrcracine.org. 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... [JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday sent a letter [text] to Guinea Prime Minister Mamady Youla, urging him to ensure that any government oversight on telecommunications respects individual privacy. On January 6, 2016, the Autorite de Regulation des Postes et Telecommunications (APRT) [official website, in French], Guineas telecommunications regulator, sent a letter to the nations four major mobile phone companies informing them of the governments intent to oversee revenues of service traffic. ARPT justified its decision citing tax assessment purposes, but HRW fears the nation may go further. HRW Senior Internet Researcher Cynthia Wong stated [press release], [w]hile governments should be able to enforce tax regulations, they shouldnt do that in a way that impinges on the right to privacy. The ARPT shouldnt put in place any system that gives them access to customers sensitive personal information. The rights group is calling for judicial supervision and specific justification when the government seeks to use its new system to monitor communication. Surveillance and data collection have been worldwide topics of discussion, particularly after Edward Snowden leaked top-secret [JURIST report] US National Security Agency (NSA) documents in 2013. Last month, thousands of people in Poland protested [JURIST report] the governments planned changes to a certain law that would increase its surveillance over Polish citizens. In earlier January, US-based tech companies Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo submitted evidence [JURIST report] of possible conflicts that may arise from the UK governments proposed Investigatory Powers Bill, noting that the bulk data collections required by the bill will have an international impact. In December China passed a new anti-terrorism law [JURIST report] that requires technology companies to provide information to the government obtained from their products and make information systems secure and controllable. In October the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied [JURIST report] a motion by the American Civil Liberties Union to halt the bulk collection of phone records by the NSA. The court ruled that Congress intended for the agency to continue its data collection over the transition period, and the new legislation was to take effect November 29. In August the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed [JURIST report] a ruling that had blocked the NSA from obtaining call detail records from US citizens. Turkey must ensure that fewer refugees enter Greece by the time EU leaders meet later this month, European Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Saturday. Hahn stated [Reuters report] that a reduction was expected when Turkey agreed to an action plan two months ago and that Turkey has a duty to patrol its western coast and cooperate with Greece. Officials in Turkey have reported [BBC report] that the number migrants seeking to cross the border into their country has doubled, with an estimated 35,000 Syrians waiting at the border. Although Turkey has remained open to Syrians for years, Turkey announced on Saturday it was closing the border. Hahn also urged Turkey to open the border crossing for migrants, as required by the Geneva Convention. The EU reportedly promised to give Turkey 3 billion Euros (USD $3.2 Billion) in November to help the country keep refugees within their borders and representatives from 60 countries met on Thursday to pledge additional donations. Hahn warned that if Turkey does not control the migration, it will result in stronger border controls and more fences. The issue of migrant rights has emerged as one of the most significant humanitarian issues around the world, as millions seek asylum from conflict nations. In November UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed [JURIST report] the UN General Assembly and cautioned the international community to avoid discrimination against Muslims, especially refugees and migrants entering Europe, as a result of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris a week earlier. Earlier that month Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] analyzed [JURIST report] the EUs approach to the refugee crisis and recommended changes to ensure international law is followed and human rights are appropriately valued. In October Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] called on [JURIST report] the EU and Western Balkans states to focus on remedying what it characterized as deplorable conditions for asylum-seekers in Europe. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights gave the opening statement [JURIST report] at the 30th session of the Human Rights Council in September in which he addressed, among other pressing human rights issues, the migrant crisis. The UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, Aristide Nononsi, on Friday called for an end [press release] to conflict in Darfur between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid which may have led to human rights abuses and violations of international law. Tens of thousands of civilians have reportedly fled the Jebel Marra area, with 21,338 fleeing to North Darfur State and 15,000 fleeing to Central Darfur State. Nononsi also stated there have been an unspecified number of civilian casualties and destruction of property. The UN is urging that all parties protect unarmed civilians and respect international law and human rights. Nononsi also urged Sudan to provide access to UN-African Union Mission (UNAMID) in Darfur to areas affected by conflict. Also on Friday, the Sudan National Human Rights Commission established [AllAfrica report] a regional office in North Darfur, a move supported by UN Development Program (UNDP) and the government of Japan in hopes of strengthening human rights in the region. The human rights situation throughout Sudan has drawn global condemnation of Sudans political leaders. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] reported in January that shocking crimes have been committed [JURIST report] in the war-torn South Sudan. In October the International Criminal Court (ICC) urged [JURIST report] India to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during his visit to the country that month for alleged genocide and other crimes against humanity. The Office of Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda urged all states to comply because although India is not an ICC signatory, the UN Security Council (UNSC) lifted Bashirs immunity. In September, the ICC requested [JURIST report] that South Africa provide an explanation for the countrys failure to arrest Bashir. Last March, the ICC requested [JURIST report] assistance from the UNSC in the forced extradition of Bashir or else the investigation into Bashir would never achieve its ultimate goal. [JURIST] The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention [official website] on Thursday released a statement [press release] finding that Julian Assange [BBC profile], founder of the controversial website WikiLeaks [website], has been arbitrarily detained in the UK since 2010. Assange was initially arrested in December of 2010 stemming from rape allegations in Sweden. Assange was placed on house arrest in the UK, and in 2012 fled to the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has been hiding out since. Considering his time spent in prison, house arrest and in the embassy, three of the five members of the UN group found his to be detention a deprivation of liberty and arbitrary. In their statement, the group called for Assanges release and compensation, stating [t]he Working Group maintains that the arbitrary detention of Mr. Assange should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected, and that he should be entitled to an enforceable right to WIkiLeaks, and its founder Assange, have created significant controversy since the website began openly publishing government secrets. In May 2015, the Swedish Supreme Court rejected [JURIST report] an appeal by Assange seeking to overturn a 2010 arrest warrant for alleged sexual assault that was reissued [JURIST report] by a lower court in late 2014. The warrant requires Assange to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has found asylum and travel to Sweden in order to be questioned about the allegations. The WikiLeaks trials [JURIST op-ed] have also garnered much debate in the US. Last year US Army Major General Jeffery Buchanan upheld [JURIST report] Private Chelsea Mannings conviction and prison sentence for turning over classified information to WikiLeaks. In September 2013 Manning filed for a presidential pardon of the 35-year sentence [JURIST reports] she received in August. The sentence came a month after she was found guilty [JURIST report] of violating the Espionage Act but was acquitted of the more serious charge of aiding the enemy. Just the daily thoughts and gripes of a guy attempting to survive in America's heartland. 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. Attack on press threat to democracy: Bdesh prez Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid on Friday called upon all newspapers to continue their contributions to the development of the country through responsible journalism. Chaudhary hands Nepal first medal in SAG Weightlifter Devi Kumari Chaudhary of Nepal became the first athlete from the country to win a medal in the 12th South Asian Games on Saturday. Deadly earthquake topples buildings in Taiwan city of Tainan An earthquake has toppled several buildings in the south Taiwan city of Tainan, killing at least three people. Imports of coal, clinker rise through Kakarbhitta The eastern border point of Kakarbhitta has seen a sharp rise in the imports of coal and clinker for the last two months following a relaxation in border restrictions. Over 60 cargo carriers roll into Birgunj after 135 days Frustrated by the prolonged protests, local residents and businessmen on Friday forcefully opened the Birgunj-Raxaul border, allowing cargo trucks and vehicles to cross freely into Nepal from neighbouring India. Pranaya SJB Rana is Features Editor for The Kathmandu Post. He was formerly Op-Ed Editor at the Post from 2012-2015. Rana is the author of a collection of short stories, City of Dreams: Stories, from Rupa Publications India. 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 Mike Dunleavy the governor of the US state of Alaska is intending to introduce legislation that will repeal the two state boards which regu... The United States and China have yet to agree on the details of U.N. sanctions to be imposed on North Korea over its fourth nuclear test, a South Korean official said Friday. The U.S. and China -- two of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council -- effectively hold the key to any new resolution that will punish North Korea for last month's nuclear test, which it claims was of a hydrogen bomb. "There doesn't yet seem to be a kind of key momentum in talks between the U.S. and China," a Foreign Ministry official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. Washington and Seoul have been pushing to slap the toughest sanctions yet on Pyongyang in a bid to curb the communist country's nuclear weapons program. Beijing, however, has been reluctant to push the neighbor too hard out of concerns for its own security interests. "The talks are still ongoing, and it doesn't seem like (the U.S. and China) have found any major common ground or consensus," the official said. "It will have to take some more time." With the North's stated plan to launch a satellite within the month, the Security Council may need to review the contents of the resolution and the date of its adoption, the official added. North Korea's satellite launches are widely seen as disguises to test its ballistic missile technology. The country is banned under previous U.N. resolutions from using such technology. (Yonhap) No Yes, a light case Yes, two or more light cases One serious case Two or more serious bouts Vote View Results The Democratic presidential campaign is most obviously a fight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. It is also a contest over what kind of party Democrats want to have and what level of purity will be required to be part of it. The partys leftward swing this year, made obvious by the surge of support for democratic socialist Sanders and his call for political revolution, marks a direct reversal of the partys shift to the center in the 1990s. That lurch, engineered by Clintons husband Bill and his allies, moderated the party after its loss of five of six presidential campaigns from 1968 through 1988 and ushered in a period of top-of-the-ticket Democratic dominance and, for a time, control of Congress. Clintons response to Sanders strength has been to put forward her own brand of pragmatic liberalism and to insist that her plans are more achievable given Republican strength on Capitol Hill and a deeply divided country. That is a less-than-satisfying response for many Democrats who want to seize on this campaign to pick a nominee who reflects the partys more-liberal present and not its moderate past. Both Sanders and Clinton are riding the impact of increased partisanship and polarization in the country, the same factors that have forced Republicans through internal bloodbaths. A Gallup survey released earlier this year showed the growth of more ideological wings in both parties. Among Democrats, 45 percent identified themselves as liberal, up 6 points since 2011 and 16 points since 2000. The change has been driven in large part by a growing minority vote and the increasing youth of the party. Republicans growing pains were the mirror image, with self-identified conservatives growing to 68 percent of the party, up 6 points since 2000. The fight over what defines a Democrat will spark repercussions throughout the presidential race and into the general election, for the different answers suggest vastly different paths to the presidency. Sanders view is that by drawing enthusiastic support he can expand turnout nationally and in the states to create a mandate for his ideas. Democrats win when there is a large voter turnout, when people are excited, when working people, middle-class people and young people are prepared to engage in the political process, the Vermont senator said Thursday. Clinton portrayed herself as the natural successor to President Barack Obama and someone whose views would find support among both Democrats, independents and moderates who might be put off by Sanders inciting call. I believe that I am the strongest candidate, she said. But what Im concerned about is the views of many Democrats who know their states, who know how hard it is to win a general election. The fight between Clinton and Sanders has become tart and antagonistic in recent days as the two have battled over whether Clinton is a progressive, the self-definition of many of the partys liberal voters. In the debate, Clinton objected that Sanders was setting himself up as the self-proclaimed gatekeeper of the progressive wing. I am a progressive who gets things done, Clinton said. Ive heard Senator Sanders comments, and its really caused me to wonder whos left in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Under his definition, President Obama is not progressive because he took donations from Wall Street; Vice President Biden is not progressive because he supported Keystone; Sen. (Jeanne) Shaheen (of New Hampshire) is not progressive because she supports the trade pact. Even the late, great Senator Paul Wellstone (of Minnesota) would not fit this definition. Asked if he had established a definition of progressivism that was too narrow, Sanders said that a threshold issue was campaign finance and that candidates like Clinton, who has raised vast sums from Wall Street, didnt pass muster. He also illustrated a contradiction when he said that Obama, who also has raised millions from Wall Street, was acceptably progressive. Much of the dispute has taken on a personal cast. Clinton has clearly been irritated that her status in the up-and-coming segment of the Democratic Party was being questioned after she suffered decades of criticism from Republicans and their conservative allies who have accused her of being too liberal. She also noted three times in the two-hour debate that she is the target of new ads paid for by hedge fund financiers a bit of irony given Sanders criticism of her Wall Street ties. Every step along the way, I have stood up and fought and have the scars to prove it, she said. It is her history, however, that gives some Democrats pause. Her husbands push for the North American Free Trade Agreement is still a point of dispute among opponents, particularly in organized labor, which at the time argued that American jobs would be lost. Trade and Clintons more moderate views on the subject have been one of the areas cited by Sanders when he critiques her positions. Sanders reflects the liberal state in which he has spent his political career. Clinton has seen firsthand the national tableau that for years has required a whiff of moderation for a Democratic candidate to succeed. Bill Clintons 1992 campaign was greatly aided by his support for welfare reform, a centrist position that set him apart from the liberal Democratic nominees who had preceded him. Obama had an easier task given overwhelming turnout for his 2008 election, but his trade and environmental views since have led to charges that he, like Clinton, is no progressive. And across the country, nearly all Democrats who have succeeded in winning races for governor have taken more moderate stands than Sanders. (EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) Republicans are watching the Democratic battle with a sense of deja vu, for they have suffered through similar difficulties. The purity challenge bedeviling Clinton has as its GOP corollary this years evisceration of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. From the time he entered the race, he has been hit for his support for legal status for immigrants in the country illegally and for his past backing of the Common Core educational standards. Until the polarizing Donald Trump entered the race, polls showed Bush was often the GOP candidate most disdained by his partys voters. The GOP fight has broadened recently with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio trading shots on immigration, each accusing the other of being too soft on the issue. Clinton had hoped that the Democratic version of the fratricide would be dispensed with in a swift primary season that gave her plenty of time to unite her party against the common enemy: whoever emerges as the Republican nominee. But while Sanders has a rougher road ahead as the campaign moves to more diverse states where Clinton is stronger, he has aroused great enthusiasm among voters. He also has raised giant sums of money with relatively little effort, ensuring that his campaign and the fight over what a Democrat should be will endure. All the human residents made it out of a house fire that broke out just before 8 p.m. Friday at the corner of State and 13th streets in La Crosse. However, a German shepherd mix died in the blaze that displaced five La Crosse college students: Jack Mlacknik, 20; Matt Williams, 23; Mitch Spoerl, 22; Caleb Berlyn, 19, and Austin Manning, 19. Mlacknik, a Western Technical College student, was in the living room with his friends when he heard a sound like a door slamming outside. He looked out and saw flames climbing up the side of his home. He yelled for everyone to get out and for someone to call the fire department. Its kind of surreal right now, said Mlacknik. Division Chief Tom Wallerich said the La Crosse Fire Department responded to the report of a house fire at 7:55 p.m. You could see it from three or four blocks away, Wallerich said. Twenty firefighters were at the scene, and eight more were called in to cover the rest of the city. The whole backside of the structure was on fire, Wallerich said. The department was able to stop the fire from spreading to the property next door, but it was a challenge to find all the hotspots inside the home. The dog didnt make it, Wallerich said. Early reports say there was an explosion; however, Wallerich was unable to confirm that at 10 p.m. The cause of the fire and extent of the damage remains under investigation. Mlacknik was unable to get back into the home after the fire was put out. I lost everything. My room was on the side that went up first, Mlacknik said. Fortunately, Mlacknics family in Muskego, Wis., are supportive, he said, and willing to help them recover. They said everything would be all right, Mlacknik said. The La Crosse Municipal Transit Utility provided a place for the displaced tenants to warm up while American Red Cross and Salvation Army Disaster Relief tended to their immediate needs. Leaders of health agencies, organizations and companies will meet with area legislators at a Public Health Legislative gathering from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Monday in the Port O Call Room on the first floor of the Cartwright Center at the University of La Crosse-Wisconsin at 1741 State St. La Crosse may or may not be playing host to an exchange of seriously questionable ideas Saturday. Daryush Roosh V Valizadeh, a man internet-famous for advocating for the legalization of rape and requiring women to have a male guardian to make their decisions for them, sponsored an International Meetup Day for his website Return of Kings (which is unfortunately affiliated neither with Elvis nor Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, the only kings worth mentioning) to take place from 8 to 8:20 p.m. Feb. 6 in 165 places across 43 countries, including the fountain in Riverside Park. I say it may or may not happen, because Valizadeh set his meet-ups to private on Wednesday after backlash led the self-proclaimed King of Masculinity to fear for his safety. To be clear, while I think Valizadehs ideas are terrible and ridiculous, harassing or attacking Valizadeh or his local followers definitely crosses a line. However, that doesnt make it not funny that someone so obsessed with being an alpha male lets a group of unattractive women and their enablers (his words) chase him off. The now-secret meet-up was designed to encourage male bonding between men who want to show the pesky, childish women who clearly are getting above their station who is really boss, giving them a real life outlet to discuss mens rights, which they insist are being infringed by us women wanting such things as a rape-free environment and the right to make our own decisions, according to Valizadehs website. The idea is for the men to get off the Internet and create tribes of like-minded dudes who can depend on one another if a Wild Feminist appears, or, as Valizadeh says, if a hostile enemy approaches. During times of crisis, however, when members are threatened due to the actions of outsiders or their own government, the tribe will be utilized to offer concrete support and defense, Valizadeh wrote. Hopefully that day will never come, but odds are it will, and you need to establish relationships with men you trust before a threat arrives. As an aside, it seems a pretty racist to me to be calling a group of dudes led by an Armenian-American from Maryland a tribe. Valizadeh, who bills himself as an expert in pick-up artistry, is most known for a February 2015 article that calls for the legalization of rape done in the privacy of your own home, to discourage childish women from following strange men into bedrooms and ease the fears of honest men who now live in fear of imprisonment, he wrote. Valizadeh says the post in which he writes I propose that we make the violent taking of a woman not punishable by law when done off public grounds is satire. The fact that he started saying that after the mayors of Ottawa, Toronto and Winnibeg called his views violent and harmful and said he was not welcome in their cities should in no way tarnish his credibility. Instead, well let him do that himself. For example, a Sept. 21, 2015, post on his personal website derides the advance of personal freedoms for women, saying we obviously cant be trusted to choose what we study, who we date or where we travel. As long as we continue to treat women as equals to men, a biological absurdity that will one day be the butt of many jokes for comedians of the future, women will continue to make horrible decisions that hurt themselves, their families and their reproductive potential, Valizadeh wrote. Valizadeh ends the article by clarifying that it is not satire in any way. I firmly stand behind the recommendations I made, he wrote. In addition, while Valizadeh says hes not a rapist, he has admitted to raping more than one women, as long as you leave the r word out of it. Lest you think Im blowing things out of proportion here, Valizadeh writes in one of his many, many books (this one titled Bang Ukraine) that he used some muscle when a woman told him to stop having sex with her. Its only one of several examples, but this is a family newspaper, so its all Im sharing. After reading his post and a few of his other articles for context, I think maybe he should stop using the word satire before Jonathan Swift shows up and swats him with a rolled up copy of A Modest Proposal. Its not satire if its the logical conclusion of other arguments youve made. If youre a straight male interested in learning more straight from the source (sorry, women and homosexual men are not allowed), Valizadeh called for his followers to identify (their) fellow tribesman using the not-so-secret spy password Do you know where I can find a pet shop? If you answer, I think theres one on the North Side, you would be correct, but unfortunately, not masculine enough to be in their secret club. The answer they are looking for is Yes, its right here, despite the fact that if you leave Riverside Park with a puppy you didnt arrive there with, chances are you just pet-napped someones dog. If you do go, please let me know whether they are serious or if its some sort of terribly thought out performance art, as Im clearly not invited thanks to my vagina, and Valizadeh never answered my email asking to talk about it. Its too bad HeartMath wasnt around when new math was foisted upon students in the 1950s, sending their tickers into spasms, because it could have eased their stress over that new-fangled idea. Now, new math is old hat, dispatched as rudely as Oddjob was when James Bond electrified his bowler in Goldfinger. HeartMath has emerged as one of the next big things in alternative health to control stress, students from the Health Science Academy in La Crosse learned Friday from Dr. Jill McMullen. McMullen, medical director of the Gundersen Tomah Clinic, was an especially fitting tutor because she used the technique in a huge way to relieve stress when sprinkler pipes froze, burst and flooded the clinic Jan. 15. The seniors from several local high schools learned about nontraditional medical treatments during an Alternative Healing Lab at the Gundersen Integrated Center for Education. Sessions featured not only HeartMath but also yoga, aromatherapy, massage therapy and acupuncture, for which some students became pincushions. HeartMath, a registered trademark of the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, Colo., aims to help people cope with the fight-or-flight response. The hearts electrical impulses, which are stronger than those emanating from the brain, trigger the impulse to flee, McMullen said. Teaching the method employs technological devices such as the iPhone and iPad, a handheld device or a computer with a sensor attached to the ear to teach people to tame their hearts. After learning the breathing and focusing technique, they can practice it with or without the technology. HeartMath helps get the thinking part of the brain to think again, when the heart has settled down, she said. It can help anyone cope with stress but is particularly helpful for those in tension-filled professions, such as police officers, first responders, elite athletes and performers, McMullen said. They can use it before, during and after being involved in volatile situations, she told the students. For example, she said, police officers who are involved in a shooting will experience adrenaline rushes that can send their heart rates skyrocketing, she said. If they dont bring the rate under control, it will continue throughout their shifts and beyond, she said. If we dont tend to this part of our physiology, heart stress can last for hours, she said. If you can work on practicing the technique, if you are in a high-stress situation, it is easier to reset, choosing a relaxed approach instead of a frantic one, McMullen said. McMullen used HeartMath to calm herself as water continued to gush out of the Tomah clinic door during the lag after shutting off the water, she said. As police and firefighters told her the situation was grim and getting grimmer, they were taken aback as she repeated her mantra that everything would be OK, she said. The clinic was damaged so severely that the two weeks Gundersen officials expected repairs to take expanded first to a month, and now the clinic isnt expected to open until late April. The fight-or-flight instinct tempted some students to flee from being demonstrators during the acupuncture sessions, but several hesitantly extended their hands for acupuncturist Frank Fusheng Lan, who practices at the Center for Health and Healing at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcares Onalaska Clinic, Anybody want to try, Lan asked a group of six students, after explaining how acupuncture and manipulating pressure points can relieve headaches, facial palsy, back pain, joint pain and other maladies without the use of drugs. Contorted faces and shrinking body language telegraphed their initial responses, as Lan said encouragingly, Its not going to hurt no pain. No pain, echoed Aaron Watt, a senior at Aquinas High School who volunteered, saying, And no fear, either. Lan urged Watt to relax as he prepped the needle. Ow, Watt said at the initial prick, before adding, OK, youre good. Oh, my hands getting numb. A few seconds later, Watt said, It doesnt hurt anymore. This is really relaxing in my hand. As other students peppered him with questions about whether it hurt, he said, Not really. That was cool. I recommend it. Still, a mixed chorus of noooooooo responded to Lans request for another guinea pig until Logan High School senior Kristy Her said, I want to try, but Im really scared. I feel like Id start crying. Nonetheless, she advanced to the hot seat, saying nervously as she covered part of her face, I have really small hands. As Lan lanced the Logan High School senior, Her acknowledged after the first stick, Its not that bad. Its just like pressure. As Lan pushed the needle slightly deeper, Her winced and said, Yeah thats a little hurt. I feel like its gonna go straight through, then, My fingers are definitely numb. Im trying to pick up my hand now, to no avail. After Lan removed the needle, Her said with a relieved sigh, Im alive. Health Science Academy director Annette OHern, who dismissed taunts that she shouldnt let students do anything she wouldnt do, refused to take a hit for the team. The academy, which takes place at the Health Science Center on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus, is a two-year program that prepares high school juniors and seniors for education and careers in the health science industry. The alternative medicine foray was a new experience for the students, who also are studying global issues, OHern said. As we look globally, we see alternative methods of medicine in other countries, she said. We all know doctors and nurses, but we might not think of exercise physiology or acupuncture in health care, OHern said. McMullens advice to the seniors as they ponder higher education was simple: Major in what you love in pursuing a career. You wont have a chance to do that later in life. MADISON Consumers would get two days of sales tax-free spending on school supplies each August if a bill by State Rep. Nancy VanderMeer, R-Tomah, is approved. The sales tax holiday is timed to coincide with the back-to-school shopping season and save consumers 5 percent or more on their shopping bills. The proposal (AB 781) establishes that on the first Saturday and Sunday in August, beginning this year, sales tax would be exempt on: Clothing priced not more than $75; Personal computers priced at $2,000 or less; Personal computer supplies priced not more than $250; Instructional materials priced at $250 or less; School supplies if the sale price of any single item does not exceed $75. VanderMeer said constituents requesting a tax holiday prompted her to sponsor the bill. At that time of year, when kids go back to school, there are fees and expenses involved, and we wanted to make it a little easier on them the expense they have when the school year starts, she said. Previous efforts to set a tax holiday have not succeeded. VanderMeer wanted a simpler bill that focuses on school supplies and provides some relief for families who buy them. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Alliance for Wisconsin Retailers have registered in support of the proposal. AWRs Scott Senger said tax holidays will help western Wisconsin retailers competing against retailers in Minnesota, where clothing is not taxed. Also, it can attract Illinois customers during August. This bill can make Wisconsin a destination for surrounding states like Illinois which has an 8 percent tax (in communities) near the Wisconsin border, Senger said. The Department of Revenue may cancel the sales tax holiday if it determines by May 1 that the states financial situation makes the tax exemption imprudent, according to the bill. The holiday would cost the state an estimated $13.2 million annually in sales tax revenue and cut local sales tax revenue by $952,000, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The Wisconsin Counties Association and the Wisconsin Council on Families and Children have registered in opposition. The WCFC criticized the bill stating that sales tax holidays are an inefficient use of scarce state revenue. It referred to information produced by Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., tax research group, which called such measures, poor tax policy. Despite their political popularity, sales tax holidays distract policymakers and taxpayers from real, permanent, and economically beneficial tax reform. Sales tax holidays introduce unjustifiable government distortions into the economy without providing any significant boost to the economy, according to an article on the Foundations website. Iowa is the nearest of the 18 states which have sales tax holidays. Its sale tax holiday was observed Aug. 7-8 last year. The Wisconsin bill was introduced two weeks ago and was approved this week by the Joint Survey Committee on Tax Exemptions. On Wednesday, it had a public hearing before the Assemblys Ways and Means committee, and VanderMeer anticipates the committee will vote on it within a week. The bill has one Democratic and seven Republican sponsors in the Assembly. The companion bill in the Senate (SB 627) has one Democrat and three Republican sponsors. At that time of year, when kids go back to school, there are fees and expenses involved, and we wanted to make it a little easier on (families). State Rep. Nancy VanderMeer, R-Tomah Department of Justice officials last week said the FBI and other federal criminal investigators would look into whether the water poisoning crisis in Flint, Mich., was the result of criminal wrongdoing. Although Flints lead-contaminated water supply made national news in October, local officials and activists say the crisis roots reach back years or even decades and are a result of steady economic decline along with state and federal government neglect. If Flint were a prosperous city, would the water supply have been cleaned up sooner? Or is this just another case of incompetent government? Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis weigh in. Joel Mathis Was Flint neglected because its poor? Of course it was. Put it this way: Youll never see brown water coming out of the pipes in Beverly Hills. Or in a Manhattan penthouse. Or in any other place you might call rich. And if somehow you do see brown water in those locations, rest assured that government officials would fall all over themselves to fix the problem as soon as possible. Rich people always get the best government money can buy. If youre in Flint? It turns out you and your children are disposable, barely worth a thought. 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, the NAACP said in a statement quoted on CNN. My conservative friends sometimes like to tell me how awesome it is to be poor in America these days. After all, poor people have Xboxes! Poor people have refrigerators! They can even wear pretty nice shoes! Well sure. But theyre often undernourished. And live in struggling school districts. And theyre much more likely to have brown water coming out of their pipes. Here is what is especially tragic about this situation. A growing number of studies show theres a correlation between lead ingestion and crime: A 2013 story in the liberal magazine Mother Jones showed how thats true at the national and neighborhood level. Lead, it seems, causes physical damage to the developing brain that persists into adulthood. Even moderately high levels of lead exposure are associated with aggressivity, impulsivity, ADHD, and lower IQ, the magazine observed. And right there, youve practically defined the profile of a violent young offender. It seems likely then that the poor, troubled children of Flint will grow up to be poor, troubled adults. My conservative friends will probably tut-tut about the pathologies of poverty. And maybe theyll be right. The people of Flint brought it on themselves, after all, by never getting rich enough to ensure their government protected them. Ben Boychuk If what happened in Flint isnt a crime, it ought to be. The criminals are government officials at the local, state and federal levels. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, so far has received the brunt of the criticism about the states response to the crisis. The state was slow to act, its true. But Scott did declare a state of emergency and he did order the National Guard to truck in bottled water for residents. Scott also asked the Legislature for $28 million in emergency funds to address the crisis. But the governor is not the states chief water manager. Michigans Department of Environmental Quality is the state agency responsible for ensuring Flints water supply conforms to state and federal requirements. Nobody there seems to know whats going on. The agencys new director, Keith Creagh, told the U.S. House Oversight Committee this week that the Environmental Protection Agency kept his agency waiting for months for a legal opinion. Turns out, the Obama administration knew of Flints problem for at least a year and barely lifted a finger. Flint is not a great city. Its poor, broke and crime-ridden. And, by the way, Democrats have run the place for decades. Flints Democrats did what Democrats often do: obliterated the tax base and spent the city into oblivion. About 10 years ago, Flint went into state receivership and has had a series of emergency managers ever since. As it happened, Scott appointed the emergency manager another Democrat, but whos counting? who along with the citys Democratic mayor and Democratic city council made the fateful decision to switch Flints water supply from Detroit to Lake Huron as a cost-cutting measure. The city tapped into the Flint River as a stopgap, after the Democrats in Detroit cut off Flints water before a new pipeline from Huron was finished. (Its scheduled for completion this year.) Government exists to perform a few basic functions. Ensuring people have a clean, drinkable water supply is one of them. The party of big government failed in Flint, just as it has failed in Detroit and other cities with one-party rule. It will keep failing. A former Capitol Police officer who worked nights at the governors mansion in Maple Bluff was charged Friday with stealing and selling a state-owned painting by renowned Wisconsin artist Aaron Bohrod. A state employee tracked the stolen painting down on the Internet. The surreal-style painting called Gold Fantasy Box was discovered missing from storage at the residence last month and recovered from a Connecticut art dealer. It was sold in February 2011, according to a criminal complaint and the dealer. Travis Sackett, 32, of Tempe, Arizona, is awaiting a court appearance next week on felony charges of theft and misconduct in public office. Sackett was a Capitol Police officer from March 2, 2009, to Feb. 5, 2011, according to the complaint. He was assigned to the Dignitary Protection Unit at the governors residence, working the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. Though the complaint quotes a state employee, Joan Sample, estimating the artwork to be worth $100,000 or greater, the art dealer who bought the stolen painting paid about $2,000 for it and had it for sale for $3,000. The dealer, Donald Barese, of Don Barese Fine Art and Antiques in Hamden, Connecticut, said he would probably give it an insurance value of $5,000. An art exhibit catalog describes it as 12 inches by 16 inches. Sample, who works for the state Department of Administration, told Capitol Police Det. Christopher Litzkow she was hired to audit and catalog state-owned property at the governors residence in Maple Bluff. All of the artwork was accounted for except a piece by Bohrod, a former UW-Madson artist-in-residence, Monona resident and renowned painter who died in 1992. The painting in its gold and velvet frame was missing from the security room of the residence, according to the complaint. Sample went to the Internet to search for the missing painting and found it for sale by Bareses business. When the detective asked if it was possible I had a receipt I said, Of course, Ive got 22 years worth of records in the basement, Barese said. He had his canceled check for $1,800, dated March 2, 2011. He said the man who sold it to him described buying the painting at an estate sale for $400. He was a good talker, Barese recalled. The painting features a bright gold-colored chest with gold-colored toys and a white glove. It didnt sell, Barese said. I had it up for sale for four years. Capitol Police referred calls on the topic to a supervisor who would not be available until Monday. A spokesman for the Department of Administration, which controls the property, was unaware of the case. Details of Sacketts two years of employment by the Capitol Police were not available Friday, though online court records show numerous convictions for thefts dating to late 2011. The painting is familiar to Patty Elson, a Madison real estate agent and longtime member of the Wisconsin Executive Residence Foundation, which works to preserve the home and four acres of grounds. She said she discovered the Bohrod painting in storage in the middle 2000s, and that led to the groups focus on cataloging what was already there, and acquiring and highlighting the work of Wisconsin artists, she said. Elson identified the painting as a Bohrod piece from 1968, as it was included in a Bohrod exhibit at the Madison Art Center in 1980. Editor's note: This story has been changed to correct Travis Sackett's age. He is 32. It was the link between a Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation emergency grant program and increased graduation rates that got Rep. David Murphy's attention. After learning about the impact of the program that sent small amounts of money to low-income college students struggling with expenses not covered by conventional financial aid, the Outagamie County Republican said he ran the idea of leveraging that impact with public funding past Morna Foy, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System. We didnt have to bring the subject up to her more than once, said Murphy, chair of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities. Murphys bill, which would provide $450,000 for emergency loans to students in state technical and UW System colleges, is headed to the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, having been endorsed by Gov. Scott Walker in the State of the State address last month. Great Lakes, headquartered in Madison, services student loans and has a philanthropic arm that helps under-represented students in college stay in school and graduate. Through that work it became very apparent that for too many students, one more life hurdle, a $300 or $400 bill for car repairs or school materials they cant afford, is one hurdle too many, said Amy Kerwin, vice president of community investments for Great Lakes. After all theyve done to get to college, to have them drop out because the car battery died when a small investment could help them get to the finish line it seems obvious we would want to be in that space. Low-income students at UW-Madison and Madison Area Technical College struggle to meet the costs of basic needs and incidental expenses that make it difficult to become part of the campus community and finish school. Great Lakes has been investing in such students around the state. Its first three-year round of grants delivered $1.3 million to students in Wisconsins 16 technical colleges. A second round is offering $1.5 million to 31 colleges in four states: Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio. The program requires matching funding from the schools on a sliding scale based on size. The results have been promising. School-reported data indicates that, over the three years of the program, 73 percent of emergency grant recipients either graduated or remained enrolled. By comparison, the National Center for Education Statistics reports a 59 percent retention rate at public two-year institutions, said a company spokesperson. The Great Lakes program focused on community colleges because those schools have the greatest number of underrepresented students, part-time students and older students who have families of their own. We wanted to put our money where it would make the most difference, Kerwin said. She said university officials frequently talk about students who say the emergency grants  most $500 or less make the difference between being able to stay in school and dropping out. Murphys bill would provide up to $500 per academic year to economically eligible students for emergency expenses including medical treatment or vehicle repair, but not for textbooks, student fees, or groceries. The bill seeks an 2016 allocation of $320,000 for technical college students and $130,000 for students at the two-year UW Colleges. Foy said technical college students face unique challenges as they prepare for careers in sectors facing worker shortages in Wisconsin. These grants can keep relatively small, temporary setbacks from becoming a far more costly loss for students and our states economy, she said. Murphy said last week he was confident of the bills passage. It was part of a package of college affordability legislation being pushed by Walker that drew opposition from Democrats who said it does not do enough to help struggling students. The package, which includes a tax deduction for student loan interest, is expected to cost about $6.4 million in the current biennium. It is one of several bills with a total net cost of $63 million have been forwarded to the Legislatures Joint Finance Committee for review. Walker, however, has set a $20 million ceiling for spring legislation. Student emergency grants have become increasingly popular in recent years. At Georgia State University, a program begun with a private $40,000 donation from the university president in 2011 has since provided over 4,287 grants averaging $900 to students. Between 2011 and 2013, GSU's overall completion rate rose to 53 percent from 47 percent. The Dreamkeepers program of Scholarship America works with 41 affiliated two-year colleges to provide emergency grants to students to keep them in school. In 2014, the program helped 1,545 students with grants averaging $445. And the Finish Line at the University of Memphis helped 123 students graduate at an average cost of $1,649 since its 2013 founding. Blog Archive Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (3) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (4) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (2) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (3) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (3) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (1) May 26 (4) May 25 (2) May 24 (3) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (3) May 19 (5) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (3) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (3) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (4) May 08 (2) May 07 (3) May 06 (4) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (4) May 01 (1) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (4) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (5) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (3) Mar 12 (3) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (5) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (5) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (7) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (3) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (3) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (4) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (6) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (5) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (2) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (3) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (5) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (4) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (2) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (4) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (4) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (3) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (3) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (2) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (2) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (3) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (4) May 28 (4) May 27 (3) May 26 (5) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (3) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (6) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (5) May 11 (4) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (6) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (5) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (4) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (5) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (8) Mar 11 (6) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (3) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (5) Mar 03 (7) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (4) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (7) Feb 21 (4) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (4) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (7) Feb 03 (9) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (6) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (6) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (6) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (5) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (7) Jan 13 (7) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (8) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (6) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (7) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (5) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (6) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (6) Dec 02 (4) Dec 01 (5) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (4) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (7) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (5) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (6) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (8) Nov 09 (8) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (6) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (2) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (8) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (6) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (4) Sep 24 (1) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (5) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (3) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (3) Sep 11 (3) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (5) Sep 04 (2) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (4) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (5) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (4) Aug 07 (3) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (3) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (4) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (5) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (4) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (5) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (4) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (5) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (3) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (3) May 28 (4) May 27 (5) May 26 (7) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (3) May 19 (5) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (4) May 14 (4) May 13 (5) May 12 (4) May 11 (5) May 10 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (3) May 07 (6) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (6) May 03 (4) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (7) Apr 20 (6) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (4) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (6) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (5) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (7) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (4) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (5) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (5) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (6) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (5) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (3) Feb 29 (4) Feb 28 (4) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (5) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (5) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (2) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (4) Feb 14 (4) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (5) Feb 05 (5) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (2) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (6) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (1) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (4) Dec 01 (5) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (5) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (5) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (1) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (4) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (4) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (4) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (5) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (4) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (4) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (1) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (4) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (3) Jun 06 (4) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (4) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (3) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (4) May 27 (6) May 26 (3) May 25 (3) May 24 (3) May 23 (3) May 22 (5) May 21 (3) May 20 (3) May 19 (3) May 18 (4) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (4) May 13 (4) May 12 (5) May 11 (2) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (3) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (4) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (3) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (4) Apr 11 (5) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (3) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (2) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (6) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (7) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (3) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (5) Feb 21 (5) Feb 20 (5) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (6) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (6) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (6) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (4) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (3) Jan 23 (3) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (5) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (7) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (5) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (4) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (4) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (5) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (6) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (5) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (4) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (4) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (5) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (6) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (4) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (4) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (3) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (5) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (5) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (7) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (7) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (4) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (6) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (5) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (6) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (6) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (4) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (4) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (5) Jun 11 (5) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (5) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (4) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (5) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (5) May 18 (6) May 17 (6) May 16 (4) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (4) May 12 (3) May 11 (4) May 10 (5) May 09 (2) May 08 (4) May 07 (4) May 06 (4) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (6) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (6) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (5) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (7) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (5) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (5) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (7) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (4) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (3) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (6) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (5) Feb 24 (8) Feb 23 (7) Feb 22 (8) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (6) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (5) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (4) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (7) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (6) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (5) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (7) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (5) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (5) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (7) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (6) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (4) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (7) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (6) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (7) Dec 03 (6) Dec 02 (4) Dec 01 (4) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (4) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (5) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (7) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (5) Nov 13 (5) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (7) Nov 10 (6) Nov 09 (7) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (7) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (7) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (6) Oct 23 (10) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (5) Oct 20 (5) Oct 19 (5) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (6) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (5) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (6) Oct 09 (8) Oct 08 (6) Oct 07 (5) Oct 06 (4) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (6) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (6) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (6) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (6) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (7) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (6) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (6) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (5) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (5) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (7) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (4) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (4) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (5) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (6) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (4) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (3) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (5) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (5) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (5) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (4) May 30 (5) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (8) May 26 (7) May 25 (7) May 24 (5) May 23 (2) May 22 (5) May 21 (4) May 20 (5) May 19 (5) May 18 (5) May 17 (5) May 16 (7) May 15 (7) May 14 (7) May 13 (5) May 12 (6) May 11 (8) May 10 (4) May 09 (6) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (5) May 05 (6) May 04 (7) May 03 (7) May 02 (8) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (6) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (8) Apr 22 (6) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (7) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (8) Apr 16 (5) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (9) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (8) Apr 11 (5) Apr 10 (10) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (7) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (7) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (7) Mar 10 (6) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (7) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (7) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (9) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (7) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (5) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (4) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (7) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (5) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (10) Feb 02 (9) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (9) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (6) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (5) Jan 21 (7) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (5) Jan 17 (5) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (5) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (3) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (5) Jan 05 (6) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (5) Dec 25 (6) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (6) Dec 19 (10) Dec 18 (9) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (4) Dec 14 (6) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (6) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (8) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (7) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (9) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (7) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (12) Nov 17 (8) Nov 16 (6) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (11) Nov 13 (11) Nov 12 (9) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (7) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (6) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (7) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (7) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (7) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (7) Oct 22 (7) Oct 21 (6) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (7) Oct 18 (6) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (6) Oct 13 (7) Oct 12 (5) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (8) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (7) Oct 05 (8) Oct 04 (6) Oct 03 (8) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (10) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (10) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (5) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (6) Sep 18 (6) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (6) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (10) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (3) Sep 08 (8) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (6) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (6) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (5) Aug 25 (9) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (9) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (7) Aug 18 (6) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (6) Aug 12 (5) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (9) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (6) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (7) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (8) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (9) Jul 25 (9) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (9) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (7) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (7) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (7) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (5) Jun 22 (7) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (6) Jun 17 (5) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (7) Jun 12 (8) Jun 11 (5) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (7) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (5) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (4) May 29 (5) May 28 (1) May 27 (5) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (8) May 23 (8) May 22 (7) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (9) May 18 (5) May 17 (9) May 16 (7) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (13) May 11 (5) May 10 (7) May 09 (6) May 08 (8) May 07 (9) May 06 (6) May 05 (5) May 04 (2) May 03 (6) May 02 (7) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (6) Apr 26 (10) Apr 25 (7) Apr 24 (5) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (6) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (10) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (5) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (6) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (7) Mar 26 (9) Mar 25 (11) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (6) Mar 22 (8) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (2) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (7) Mar 10 (8) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (6) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (2) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (6) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (9) Feb 23 (12) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (5) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (9) Feb 16 (10) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (9) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (7) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (6) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (6) Jan 31 (10) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (8) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (10) Jan 19 (8) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (7) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (6) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (7) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (2) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (6) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (8) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (8) Dec 16 (7) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (7) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (6) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (7) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (8) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (6) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (5) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (6) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (6) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (5) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (7) Oct 21 (5) Oct 20 (5) Oct 19 (5) Oct 18 (6) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (6) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (6) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (6) Oct 06 (6) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (8) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (4) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (6) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (7) Sep 17 (6) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (8) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (8) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (6) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (5) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (7) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (5) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (7) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (8) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (2) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (8) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (2) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (1) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (2) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (5) May 27 (1) May 26 (1) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (1) May 22 (2) May 21 (2) May 20 (3) May 19 (3) May 18 (2) May 17 (2) May 16 (2) May 15 (3) May 14 (2) May 13 (2) May 12 (2) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (2) May 08 (3) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (2) May 04 (2) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (2) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (2) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (2) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (4) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (2) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (2) Apr 15 (2) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (2) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (2) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (2) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (2) Mar 22 (1) Mar 21 (1) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (2) Mar 18 (2) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (2) Mar 14 (2) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (2) Mar 07 (1) Mar 06 (2) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (2) Mar 01 (1) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (1) Feb 25 (1) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (2) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (2) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (2) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (1) Feb 14 (1) Feb 13 (1) Feb 12 (2) Feb 11 (1) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (1) Feb 08 (1) Feb 07 (1) Feb 06 (1) Feb 05 (5) Feb 03 (1) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (1) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (3) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (1) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (6) Dec 14 (4) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (5) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (6) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (3) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (5) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (6) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (2) Aug 07 (2) Aug 06 (2) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (2) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (2) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (6) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (4) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (2) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (2) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (1) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (2) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (5) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (2) May 23 (4) May 22 (4) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (4) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (4) May 13 (9) May 12 (4) May 11 (5) May 10 (5) May 09 (4) May 08 (3) May 07 (5) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (1) May 02 (5) May 01 (7) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (3) Apr 14 (4) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (1) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (4) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (6) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (4) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (4) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (4) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (5) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (2) Dec 29 (2) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (2) Dec 11 (6) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (6) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (4) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (2) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (4) Nov 15 (6) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (2) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (7) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (2) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (2) May 29 (2) May 28 (2) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (2) May 18 (3) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (3) May 10 (4) May 09 (4) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (2) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (2) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (7) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (6) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (5) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (9) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (3) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (2) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (2) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (2) Jan 04 (2) Jan 03 (2) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (2) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (2) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (2) Nov 21 (2) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (2) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (2) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (2) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (2) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (2) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (2) Aug 25 (2) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (2) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (2) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (2) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (2) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (2) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (2) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (2) Jul 03 (2) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (2) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (2) Jun 15 (2) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (2) May 19 (2) May 18 (4) May 17 (7) May 16 (2) May 15 (2) May 14 (4) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (3) May 08 (2) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (1) May 04 (2) May 03 (4) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (2) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (2) Mar 15 (1) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (1) Mar 07 (1) Mar 04 (2) Mar 02 (2) Feb 28 (1) Feb 24 (1) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (2) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (5) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (5) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (5) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (4) May 19 (3) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (1) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (3) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (3) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (3) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (3) Mar 07 (3) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (3) Mar 01 (3) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (3) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (5) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (3) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (2) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (5) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (5) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (4) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (2) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (2) Oct 07 (2) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (2) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (4) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (2) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (2) Sep 24 (1) Sep 23 (1) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (1) Sep 19 (1) Sep 18 (1) Sep 17 (2) Sep 16 (1) Sep 15 (2) Sep 14 (2) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (1) Sep 11 (2) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (1) Sep 08 (1) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (1) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (2) Sep 03 (1) Sep 02 (1) Sep 01 (1) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (1) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (1) Aug 25 (1) Aug 24 (1) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (2) Aug 19 (1) Aug 18 (1) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (1) Aug 14 (1) Aug 12 (1) Aug 09 (1) Aug 08 (1) Aug 07 (1) Aug 05 (1) Aug 04 (1) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (5) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (6) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (6) Jun 18 (5) Jun 17 (5) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (5) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (4) May 30 (4) May 29 (4) May 28 (5) May 27 (5) May 26 (5) May 25 (4) May 24 (5) May 23 (4) May 22 (4) May 21 (3) May 20 (6) May 19 (4) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (3) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (3) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (3) May 06 (3) May 05 (3) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (4) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (5) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (4) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (4) Apr 04 (6) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (5) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (5) Mar 16 (5) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (7) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (4) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (4) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (5) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (7) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (8) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (3) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (6) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (6) Jan 26 (6) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (5) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (4) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (5) Jan 05 (6) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (7) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (6) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (5) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (4) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (5) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (5) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (4) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (4) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (3) Sep 09 (3) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (2) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (4) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (8) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (2) Jun 21 (1) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (7) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (5) Jun 11 (4) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (4) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (3) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (3) May 25 (4) May 24 (2) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (2) May 20 (3) May 19 (2) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (2) May 14 (6) May 13 (4) May 12 (2) May 11 (3) May 10 (2) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (4) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (2) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (2) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (2) Apr 14 (4) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (5) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (4) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (6) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (5) Mar 16 (2) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (4) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (4) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (5) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (4) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (4) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (2) Jan 15 (2) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (2) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (2) Dec 29 (2) Dec 28 (2) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (1) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (1) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (4) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (1) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (2) Dec 10 (2) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (1) Dec 05 (2) Dec 04 (1) Dec 03 (2) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (2) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (1) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (1) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (2) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (1) Nov 16 (1) Nov 15 (1) Nov 14 (1) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (1) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (1) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (1) Nov 03 (1) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (2) Oct 30 (2) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (2) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (1) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (1) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (1) Oct 03 (2) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (1) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (1) Sep 27 (3) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (2) Sep 24 (1) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (1) Sep 20 (1) Sep 19 (2) Sep 17 (2) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (1) Sep 14 (1) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (3) Sep 11 (1) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (2) Sep 08 (2) Sep 07 (1) Sep 06 (1) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (2) Sep 03 (1) Sep 02 (1) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (1) Aug 25 (1) Aug 24 (2) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (1) Aug 18 (1) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (1) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (1) Aug 13 (1) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (1) Aug 08 (2) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (1) Aug 05 (1) Aug 04 (1) Aug 03 (2) Aug 01 (1) Jul 31 (2) Jul 30 (1) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (1) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (2) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (1) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (2) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (1) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (2) Jul 09 (5) Jul 08 (1) Jul 07 (1) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (1) Jul 03 (2) Jul 01 (1) Jun 30 (1) Jun 29 (2) Jun 28 (2) Jun 27 (2) Jun 25 (2) Jun 24 (1) Jun 23 (2) Jun 22 (2) Jun 20 (1) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (1) Jun 15 (1) Jun 14 (3) Jun 12 (1) Jun 11 (1) Jun 08 (1) Jun 07 (1) Jun 05 (1) Jun 04 (1) Jun 03 (1) Jun 01 (1) May 31 (1) May 27 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (1) May 23 (2) May 22 (1) May 21 (1) May 20 (2) May 19 (1) May 18 (1) May 17 (2) May 14 (1) May 13 (1) May 11 (2) May 10 (2) May 09 (1) May 07 (2) May 06 (1) May 05 (1) May 04 (1) May 03 (3) May 02 (1) May 01 (1) Apr 29 (1) Apr 28 (1) Apr 27 (1) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (1) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (2) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (2) Apr 17 (1) Apr 15 (1) Apr 13 (1) Apr 10 (2) Apr 08 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (1) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 24 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 21 (1) Mar 20 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (1) Mar 14 (2) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (1) Mar 04 (1) Mar 03 (2) Mar 02 (2) Mar 01 (2) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (1) Feb 26 (1) Feb 25 (1) Feb 23 (2) Feb 19 (2) Feb 13 (1) Feb 12 (1) Feb 02 (1) Jan 31 (1) Jan 22 (1) Jan 18 (1) Jan 16 (1) Jan 09 (1) Jan 01 (1) Dec 20 (2) Dec 15 (1) Dec 13 (1) Dec 11 (1) Nov 30 (1) Nov 27 (1) Nov 20 (1) Nov 11 (1) Nov 10 (1) Oct 23 (1) Oct 20 (1) Oct 01 (1) Sep 30 (1) Sep 29 (1) Sep 24 (2) Sep 15 (1) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (1) Sep 08 (1) Sep 02 (2) Aug 31 (1) Aug 28 (1) Aug 27 (2) Aug 24 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (1) Aug 18 (3) Aug 16 (1) Aug 15 (1) Aug 14 (1) Aug 11 (1) Aug 08 (1) Aug 07 (1) Aug 03 (1) Jul 27 (1) Jul 26 (1) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (1) Jul 21 (1) Jul 19 (1) Jul 15 (1) Jul 14 (1) Jul 13 (3) Jul 10 (1) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (1) Jul 06 (1) Jul 03 (1) Jul 01 (1) Jun 28 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 20 (1) Jun 19 (1) Jun 18 (1) Jun 15 (1) Jun 14 (2) Jun 11 (1) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (1) Jun 07 (1) Jun 06 (1) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (1) May 31 (3) May 30 (1) May 29 (1) May 28 (2) May 26 (1) May 25 (1) May 18 (1) May 17 (1) May 15 (1) May 09 (1) May 07 (2) May 02 (1) May 01 (1) Apr 30 (1) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (2) Apr 23 (1) Apr 22 (1) Apr 19 (1) Apr 18 (1) Apr 12 (1) Apr 11 (1) Apr 09 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 05 (1) Apr 01 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 27 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 19 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 16 (1) Mar 15 (2) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1) Blog Archive March 2022 (1) January 2022 (1) November 2021 (2) October 2021 (1) September 2021 (6) August 2021 (1) June 2021 (1) April 2021 (2) February 2021 (2) January 2021 (1) December 2020 (1) November 2020 (7) October 2020 (4) September 2020 (2) August 2020 (4) July 2020 (6) June 2020 (20) May 2020 (9) April 2020 (15) March 2020 (3) February 2020 (5) January 2020 (11) December 2019 (5) November 2019 (9) October 2019 (13) September 2019 (12) August 2019 (13) July 2019 (12) June 2019 (6) May 2019 (11) April 2019 (10) March 2019 (9) February 2019 (6) January 2019 (10) December 2018 (3) November 2018 (15) October 2018 (16) September 2018 (11) August 2018 (15) July 2018 (8) June 2018 (17) May 2018 (20) April 2018 (16) March 2018 (22) February 2018 (14) January 2018 (20) December 2017 (18) November 2017 (27) October 2017 (16) September 2017 (21) August 2017 (27) July 2017 (20) June 2017 (19) May 2017 (21) April 2017 (31) March 2017 (21) February 2017 (20) January 2017 (21) December 2016 (29) November 2016 (31) October 2016 (18) September 2016 (34) August 2016 (37) July 2016 (28) June 2016 (30) May 2016 (32) April 2016 (23) March 2016 (29) February 2016 (28) January 2016 (20) December 2015 (32) November 2015 (29) October 2015 (26) September 2015 (29) August 2015 (28) July 2015 (27) June 2015 (15) May 2015 (7) July 2009 (1) May 2009 (1) March 2009 (7) January 2009 (8) 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 About Me Laura e Jorge Our objective is environmental conscientization regarding all the planet and its many forms of life. We are not alarmists but the situation is really bad, so we need to do something right now. View my complete profile Translate Blog Archive a website dedicated to express views on topical legal issues, thereby generating a cross current of ideas on emerging matters The American commander of the effort to destroy Islamic State says the U.S. military will not use carpet bombing against terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Army Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland told journalists on Monday: Were the United States of America, and we have a set of guiding principles. At the end of the day, it doesnt only matter whether or not you win. It matters how you win. MacFarland dismissed carpet bombing, saying innocent women, children and men could be killed. That is inconsistent with our values, he said about carpet bombing. MacFarland said he plans on taking the moral high ground, meaning he would do what is right to protect others. Carpet bombing drops large numbers of bombs in one area to cause the greatest amount of devastation, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary. U.S. military officials said the campaign to bomb Islamic State areas in Syria and Iraq has been very careful. They called it the most precise in the history of warfare. Critics have accused the United States of carpet bombing during 20th Century warfare. American bombing during World War II and Vietnam were carpet bombings, critics said. U.S. military officials defended the bombings as aimed at military and industrial sites. Im Caty Weaver. Jeff Seldin reported on this story for VOANews.com. Jim Dresbach adapted this story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. How do you think the U.S. military should bomb IS in Iraq and Syria? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page. ___________________________________________________________ Words in This Story carpet bombing n. to drop many bombs in order to cause great destruction over an area journalist n. a person who collects, writes and edits news stories for newspapers, magazines, television or radio principle - n. a moral rule or belief that helps you know what is right and wrong and that influences your actions inconsistent - adj. not in agreement with something devastation n. to destroy much or most of something precise - adj. very accurate and exact Brazilian scientists have detected the Zika virus in urine and saliva samples of two infected patients. But, they said, more study is needed to find out whether the virus can infect by exchanging body fluids. Myrna Bonaldo, one of the scientists who made the discovery, told Reuters that it is not proof" that the virus "can contaminate other people through those fluids. Earlier this week, health officials in Brazil confirmed two cases of Zika virus in blood transfusions. And health officials in the U.S. reported what may be the first case of the virus being transmitted in the United States by sexual contact. The Zika virus gets its name from a forest in Uganda where the virus was first identified in 1947. The virus is known to exist in tropical areas like Africa, the Americas, southern Asia and western Pacific. People can catch the Zika virus after being bitten by an infected Aedes mosquito. This is the same mosquito that can spread dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. In the latest Zika virus outbreak, Brazil reported the first case in May 2015. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Zika virus could be linked to 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly in Brazil. Microcephaly is when babies are born with small heads. It causes severe brain damage. Since then, the virus has spread by mosquitoes and has caused infections in Brazil, many Latin America countries, Europe and the U.S. On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the Pacific islands of Tonga and American Samoa also reported new cases of virus infections. With the spread of the mosquito-borne virus, the WHO declared a global health emergency Monday. The declaration provided more money and resources to fight the virus. But the health agency ruled out a ban on travel or trade in affected areas. At this time, there is no treatment or vaccine for the Zika virus. But drug companies in India, Japan and France announced that they are working to develop possible vaccines. Dr. Anthony Fauci is director of the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He said it would take "a few years" before a vaccine is readily available to the public. For now, Fauci said the way to fight the disease is "mosquito control." I'm Anne Ball. Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with additional materials from VOA News and Reuters. Kathleen Struck was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story contaminate - v. to make something dangerous, dirty, or impure blood transfusion - n. a medical treatment in which someone's blood is put into the body of another person transmitted - v. to give to or pass tropical - adj. of, relating to or used in warmer climates outbreak - n. a sudden increase in the number of reports of a disease global - adj. involving the whole world What you need to know about this blog... This blog, and the postings therein, represents the views of one liberal, i.e. me, and of no other person or organisation. Please don't try to represent my views as those of anyone else. I do moderate comments, rejecting those I deem to be offensive, libellous or otherwise unacceptable. Anonymous commenters can expect to be either ignored or abused unless I agree with them. After all, like any publisher, I maintain the right to uphold certain standards. However, dissent with my views shall not, in itself, cause me to reject a comment. For just my articles, please go to SubStack If you have a, please send your donation directly to linhdinh99@yahoo.com, to save me the fees. Thanks a lot! Cartman: Kyle's mom is the one that started that damn club all because she's a big fat stupid bitch! Kyle: Don't say it Cartman! Cartman and orchestra start: WEEEEELLLLL! Kyle: Don't do it Cartman! Cartman and orchestra: WEEELLLLLL Kyle: I'm warning you! Cartman: OK, OK... Kyle: I'm getting pretty sick of him calling my mom a... (Jazzy Presto orchestral music swells) Cartman: WEEELL Kyle mom's a bitch she's a big fat bitch, she's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world she's a stupid bitch if there ever was a bitch, she's a bitch to all the boys and girls! Kyle: SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, CARTMAN! Cartman: On Monday she's a bitch, on Tuesday she's a bitch, on Wensday though Saturday she's a bitch, then on Sunday just to be different she's a super King Kamehameha beeyotch! Cartman: Have you ever met my friend Kyle's mom she's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world she's a mean old bitch and she has stupid hair she's a bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch she's a stupid bitch! Kyle's mom's a bitch and she's just a dirty bitch! Cartman: Talk to kids around the world and it might go a little bit somethin' like this! La mere de Kyle est une pute, c'est pour ca quon dit la plus grande pute du monde entier. Kyles moeder is een vieze Jood, vieze kutwijf. Mama yake Kyle ni mbwa mkubwa, ndiye ni mbwa mkubwa kuliko wote duniani hii. Cartman: Have you ever met my friend Kyle's mom she's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world she's a mean old bitch and she has stupid hair, she's a bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch! (Crowd gasps) Cartman: Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch, she's a stupid bitch! Stan: Uhh... Cartman...? Cartman: Kyle's mom's a bitch and she's just a dirty bitch! (Tempo slows and music turns into jazzy "finale" mode) I really mean it! (Tempo slows and music turns into jazzy "finale" mode) Kyle's mom... (horns swell) She's a big fat fucking bitch! (orchestra swells at "finale" of song) A big ol' fat fuckin' bitch, right now... chaaaa! (Cartman does "jazz hands" motions with hands) What? (Turns around) New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says the Centre will have to make a provision for about Rs 1.10 lakh crore to implement the pay commission recommendations and the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) decision on former military personnel. He also said here on Friday that the government was still deliberating on the fiscal consolidation road map. And, that more incentives would be given to the farm sector. Addressing the Consultative Committee attached to the Finance Ministry, he also said that India has potential to grow at a much faster pace even as he exuded confidence that fiscal deficit target for current financial year will be within target. "During the financial year 2016-17, the central government has to make provision for about Rs 1.10 lakh crore in order to meet the liabilities on account of implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations and OROP Scheme," Jaitley said. He also said that the agriculture growth in the last two years has suffered mainly due to insufficient monsoons and highest ever amount was given to the states for drought relief during the current financial year, 2015-16. "More incentives will be given to agriculture sector for increasing agriculture production and productivity," he said. India, he said, continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but there is still potential to grow at a much faster pace. "The world economy is passing through an uncertain and fragile situation... The silver lining is low international commodities and oil prices which in turn has helped in better macroeconomic situation of the country," Jaitley said. The 7th Pay Commission in November recommended increase in remuneration of about one crore government employees and pensioners which is estimated to impose an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore in 2016-17. The new pay scales, subject to acceptance by government, will come into effect from January 1, 2016. The government had last year announced that it will implement OROP under which a uniform pension would be given to armed forces personnel retiring at the same rank with the same length of service. The scheme would be implemented from July 1, 2014. PTI J Jayalalithaa has done it again. The Tamil Nadu chief minister definitely knows how to gain publicity and further her brand through a good deed. Amma Jayalalithaa is turning 68 on 24 February and in true Indian politician style, the celebrations have already begun. Her party, the AIADMK, decided to mark her birthday by organising a mass wedding ceremony at Udumalpet in Coimbatore on Friday. That's such a sweet humanitarian gesture, isn't it? But leave it to Amma to brand even that. Sixty-eight couples got married at the ceremony. And practically all of them wore headbands with Jayalalithaas face on them. Yes, you read that right. Amma was right there with the couples, staring at them from their foreheads. The bride and groom couldn't have even looked at each other without seeing the smiling face of the chief minister. And as if that wasnt eerie enough, The NewsMinute reported that even the marriage hall was plastered with posters of Jayalalithaa. It was Amma, Amma everywhere, but not in person. Nah, the TN chief minister was too busy to attend the ceremony IRL. Of course this is not the first time that she has branded a good deed with her mug shot. In December 2015, shortly after the floods situation got better, her party distributed relief packets with her photo pasted on them. She faced a lot of flak for doing so but hey, all publicity is good publicity. Then there are the rice bags that The Hindu reported she sold for the subsidised price of Rs 20 per kg. Each of the bags had her picture on it. Then again, it is her birthday celebrations, after all. If she can't praise herself now, then when? And if she hadn't done this, we wouldn't be writing about some mass wedding ceremony in a small town, right? New Delhi: A self-proclaimed cleric has been arrested by NIA officials for allegedly planning terror attacks in the country. Abdus Sami Qasmi, a resident of Seelampur, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district. He has been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into the conspiracy to form a terror organisation and to launch terror attacks in the country, NIA officials said. Adbus Sami has been delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches in the support of 'Caliphate', they said. He has launched a few websites wherein his speeches have been uploaded. Abdus Sami has been allegedly instigating and motivating youth for anti-national activities and has visited various parts of the country in order to deliver his 'Takreer and Bayaan' (speech and statement), the NIA officials said. He runs a trust and madrassas and some of his financial transactions in this connection have allegedly been found to be of suspicious nature and the same are under investigation, they said. Abdus Sami was arrested on Friday by the NIA with the active support of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad on Friday. A Non-Bailable Warrant against him had earlier been issued by the Special NIA court here. PTI New Delhi: Well-known cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, who was suffering from a brain tumour, passed away on Saturday, his family said. He would have turned 56 on 26 February. Tailang's daughter Aditi told IANS that he breathed his last at 12:30 pm. He would be cremated at 2 pm on Sunday at Lodhi road crematorium. Tailang was under treatment for the last two years. He was in hospital for more than a month before he was brought home after doctors had given up all hope of his recovery. Tailang, who was suffering from GBM-4 stage brain tumour, had undergone two surgeries and chemotherapy during the course of his treatment over two years, Aditi said. He worked with almost all the well-known banners including Hindustan Times, Times of India and Indian Express. His last assignment was with the Asian Age. Late prime minister Indira Gandhi was the first prey of Tailang's pen. Thereafter, there was hardly any known personality in political world or other sphere of life who could escape his brush. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2004 for his contribution to the art of cartooning. Congress president Sonia Gandhi condoled his death. "Saddened at the untimely death of Tailang. His depiction of contemporary events through cartoons and fearless commitment to the right to artistic expression will be forever remembered," Gandhi said in her condolence message. Several eminent personalities took to Twitter to mourn his demise: Shocked to know about the demise of illustrious cartoonist #SudhirTailang. He will be remembered for his creativity. My Condolences. RIP Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) February 6, 2016 RIP Sudhir Tailang. His biting satire came out of his firm grasp over Indian reality. Master of the humane art of cartoon and caricature Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) February 6, 2016 I am sad, very sad: Cartoonist Sudhir Tailang is no more. He drew this 'Bahuroopi Gandhi' for my book on the Mahatma pic.twitter.com/XMpiOcWzeV Sudheendra Kulkarni (@SudheenKulkarni) February 6, 2016 Very sad to hear of Sudhir Tailang's death. Thought we'd be seeing his cartoons for years to come. https://t.co/y8Vltx1oy5 Nilanjana Roy (@nilanjanaroy) February 6, 2016 Very sad to hear that illustrious cartoonist #SudhirTailang passed away today. My heartfelt condolences to his family. May his soul RIP. YS Chowdary (@yschowdary) February 6, 2016 Saddened at the passing away of Sudhir Tailang. My condolences to his friends, colleagues and family Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 6, 2016 Very sorry to hear about cartoonist @sudhirtailang Was a big fan of his tongue in cheek humour. May he rest in peace. Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) February 6, 2016 With inputs from IANS Editor's Note: This article was originally published on 6 February, 2016. It is being republished in view of 23 January being Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary. Firstpost had carried a lengthy exploration of the meaning Subhas Chandra Bose holds to Indians. Given the polarised views such an inquiry normally elicits, we received censure and praise in equal measure. One email was of particular interest, rendered thus by the scholarly nature of its contents, and the measured arguments it offered. We invited the author of the message, Saswati Sarkar, to present a counter to the piece in question. She sent us a response of impressive length and erudition, co-authored by Shanmukh and Dikgaj. Firstpost will reproduce it in two parts, over two days, beginning with this one. With the renewed (and welcome) interest in the history of Subhas Chandra Bose, several myths are being pedalled about him, by political activists and historians alike, of different political persuasions. We seek to rest some of the flagrantly false ones, primarily relying on the protagonists own writing, but also well-documented biographies as also accounts of contemporary politicians and our prior work. Myth I: Subhas Bose was a Communist Subhas Bose was a leftist, but his notion of leftism was quite different from what is commonly understood by the term today. In particular, he was a leftist in the sense that he was an anti-imperialist and believed in attaining undiluted independence, not merely substance thereof. Thus, neither economics nor communism was central to Boses notion of leftism. In his own words, In the present political phase of Indian life, leftism means anti-imperialism. A genuine anti-imperialist is one who believes in undiluted independence (not Mahatma Gandhi's substance of independence) as the political objective and in uncompromising national struggle as the means for attaining it. After the attainment of independence, leftism will mean socialism and the task before the people will then be the reconstruction of national life on a Socialist basis. Socialism or socialist reconstruction before attaining our political emancipation is altogether premature. pp. 27-28. He described rightists as negation of leftists, as those prepared for a deal with imperialism. p. 28, and considered B Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh as leftists (clearly neither was a communist) p. 15 in The Indian Struggle (1920-1942). In fact, Subhas Bose had explicitly and repeatedly disassociated himself from communism he considered himself a socialist, but that was a very different thing from being a communist p. 348, Brothers Against The Raj. A primary distinction between communists and socialists lay in their respective emphasis on internationalism vis a vis nationalism. Bose had ridiculed the internationalism of the communists and had disparaged them for attacking the concept of nationalism: The attack is not only ill advised but unconsciously serves the interests of our alien rulers...before we can endeavour to reconstruct Indian society....we should first secure the right to shape our own destiny...When political freedom has been attained, it will then be time to consider seriously the problem of social and economic reconstruction. As far as I am aware this is also the opinion of prominent communists in other lands. To introduce fresh cleavage within our ranks by talking openly of class war and working for it appears to me at the present moment to be a crime against nationalism. To what straits we may be reduced by a mal-assimilation of Karl Marx and Bakunin becomes manifest when we come across a certain class of Indian labourites (or communists, if you call them so), who openly advocate the use of British or foreign cloth on the plea of internationalism. p. 166, Brothers Against The Raj. In 1927, in a letter from Mandalay jail to his brother, he had disassociated himself from Communism: "If I had the remotest intention of becoming a Bolshevik agent, I would have jumped at the offer made and taken the first available boat to Europe. If I succeeded in recouping my health, I could then have joined the gay band who trot about from Paris to Leningrad talking of world revolution and emitting blood and thunder in their utterances. But I have no such ambition or desire. p. 146, Brothers Against The Raj. In addition, while independence was primary, and unionisation secondary to Bose and other socialists, radicalisation and organisation of the workers was primary to Indian Communists p. 207, Brothers Against The Raj. Bose had predicted that Communism will not be adopted in India, based on its denunciation of religion, among other things: "There are several reasons why Communism will not be adopted in India. Firstly, Communism today has no sympathy with Nationalism in any form and the Indian movement is a Nationalist movement a movement for the national liberation of the Indian people. (Lenins thesis on the relation between Communism and Nationalism seems to have been given the go-by since the failure of the last Chinese Revolution.) Secondly, Russia is now on her defensive and has little interest in provoking a world revolution though the Communist International may still endeavour to keep up appearances. The recent pact between Russia and other capitalist countries and the written or unwritten conditions inherent in such pacts, as also her membership of the League of Nations, have seriously compromised the position of Russia as a revolutionary power. Moreover, Russia is too preoccupied in her internal industrial reorganisation and in her preparations for meeting the Japanese menace on her eastern flank and is too anxious to maintain friendly relations with the Great Powers, to show any active interest in countries like India. Thirdly, while many of the economic ideas of Communism would make a strong appeal to Indians, there are other ideas which will have a contrary effect. Owing to the close association between the Church and the State in Russian history and to the existence of an Organised Church, Communism in Russia has grown to be anti-religious and atheistic. In India, on the contrary, there being no association between the Church and the State, there is no feeling against religion as such. Further, in India a national awakening is in most cases heralded by a religious reformation and a cultural renaissance. Fourthly, the materialistic interpretation of history which seems to be a Cardinal point in Communist theory will not find unqualified acceptance in India, even among those who would be disposed to accept the economic contents of Communism. Fifthly, while Communist theory has made certain remarkable contributions in the domain of economics (for instance the idea of state-planning), it is weak in other aspects. For instance, so far as the monetary problem is concerned, Communism has made no new contribution, but has merely followed traditional economics. Recent experiences, however, indicate that the monetary problem of the world is still far from being satisfactorily solved. pp. 352-353, The Indian Struggle (1920-1942). Incidentally, Bose was not a rarity among contemporary leftists in his denunciation of Communism. The Social Democratic Party of Germany, a Leftist Party, voted in favour of the World War 1 in the Reichstag and expelled its Communists in 1917 and later, under its leader, Fredrich Ebert, supported the Imperial German Army against the Communists leading post war riots. It was still considered a Leftist Party, while its own attitude was anti-Communist. During the lifetime of Bose, the acceptability of socialism, as posited as a new economic concept, was so pervasive that most politicians espoused the same. In Harijan, on 14 April 1940, Gandhi wrote, an article approving the socialistic principles suggested by Jaiprakash Narayan: "I have claimed that I was a socialist long before those I know in India had avowed their creed. But my socialism was natural to me and not adopted from any book. It came out of my unshakable belief in non-violence. No man could be actively non-violent and not rise against social injustice no matter where it occurred. Unfortunately, Western socialists have, so far as I know, believed in the necessity of violence for enforcing socialistic doctrines....Shri Jayaprakashs propositions about land may appear frightful. In reality they are not. No man should have more land than he needs for dignified sustenance. Who can dispute the fact that the grinding poverty of the masses is due to their having no land that they can call their own ?'' pp. 144-145, 'Jayaprakash's Picture', Gandhi's article in Harijan. Then, "This brings me to socialism. Real socialism has been handed down to us by our ancestors who taught: All land belongs to Gopal, where then is the boundary line? Man is the maker of the line and he can therefore unmake it. Gopal literally means shepherd; it also means God. In modern language it means the State, i.e., the people... That the land today does not belong to the people is too true. But the fault is not in the teaching. It is in us who have not lived up to it. I have no doubt that we can make as good an approach to it as is possible for any nation, not excluding Russia, and that without violence. pp. 231-232, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi speech at Faizpur. Nehru had said in a Press Statement issued on 18 December, 1933: "I do believe that fundamentally the choice before the world today is between some form of Communism and some form of Fascism, and I am all for the former, that is Communism. I dislike Fascism intensely and indeed I do not think it is anything more than a crude and brutal effort of the present Capitalist order to preserve itself at any cost. There is no middle road between Fascism and Communism. One has to choose between the two and I choose the Communist ideal. In regards to the methods and approach to this ideal, I may not agree to everything that the orthodox Communists have done. I think that these methods will have to adapt themselves to changing conditions and may vary in different countries. But I do think that the basic ideology of Communism and its scientific interpretation of history is sound. p. 351, The Indian Struggle (1920-1942). Further, even RSS leader BS Moonje was fashioning 'Hindu Socialism with Bhopatkar in 1945-46. They were engaged in building a socialist agenda that 'avoided the evils of capitalism and secured the fruits of socialism. The HMS leader, then, (and later BJS founder) Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, wanted to fashion the Hindu Mahasabha for the 1946 polls based on 'principles of socialism. (The Emergence, Crystallisation and Shattering of a Rightwing Alternative to Congress Nationalism: The All India Hindu Mahasabha 1937-1952 by Keith Meadowcroft) It is of some interest to point out that the the popularity of socialism continued well-beyond the times of Bose. BJP is also a socialist party as evidenced by its own constitution, which swears allegiance to `Socialist principles as mandated by the constitution of the country p. 1, [26]. Further, Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared that his party stood for 'Gandhian Socialism. Speaking at the launch of the book of former Prime Minister S Chandrasekhar, Vajpayee said, "For the Bharatiya Janata Party, Gandhian socialism is what we want to achieve and make society free of exploitation and full of opportunities. So, we need to start this debate again,". In 1976, even a hard-core capitalist as GD Birla said (in Manila): "I am a capitalist but I believe in a socialism which means equal opportunity, more employment and a fairer standard of living for everyone. Socialism should not mean socialising poverty but raising the quality of life. p. 227, The Emissary G. D. Birla, Gandhi And Independence by Alan Ross. Despite the all-pervasive popularity of socialism during his times, Bose did not identify Forward Bloc, the party he formed, with Socialism, when he founded it. Bose set the goals of the Forward Bloc as follows, "Forward Bloc will rally all progressive, radical and anti-imperialist elements in the Congress, whether they be Socialists or not. Through this consolidation, the people will equip themselves for the anti-imperialist struggle that will bring India her birthright of liberty. (The Role of Forward Bloc by Subas Chandra Bose), Banke Bihari Misra, the author of The Indian Political Parties, has summarised Boses views as "In the peculiar colonial situation of the country, his Leftist views did not go beyond being anti-British. From a Socialist point of view, it was no doubt surprising, though perfectly consistent with the tradition of the Indian Revolutionary Movement. p. 475, (The Indian Political Parties) Summarily, Bose was leftist in the sense that he was a fierce, unyielding anti-imperialist, all the rest associated with leftism was non-negotiable as far as he was concerned. Myth II: Subhas Bose was an atheist As Subhas Boses biographer, Leonard Gordon has observed, "Subhas issued no public statements on religion, but his Hinduism was an essential part of his Indianness, p. 263, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. "His mother was devoted to Durga and Kali p. 32, [10] and "his inherited and chosen form to worship the divine was in the form of the Mother Goddess, especially as Durga or Kali. p. 123, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. An even cursory perusal of Boses letters, in particular to his close family members and apolitical friends, as also accounts of his contemporaries who were close to him establishes the same. 1) On 26/12/1925, from Mandalay jail in Burma, he wrote to his sister-in-law, "Who knows how long we shall have to be in prison? But, all our suffering will be bearable if we get the chance of worshipping the Mother once a year. In Durga, we see Mother, Motherland and the Universe all in one. She is at once Mother, Motherland and the Universal spirit., p.170, In Burmese prisons, Subhas Chandra Bose Correspondence May 1923-July 1926,Netaji Collected Works, Volume III. Elaborating further in a letter to his brother, Sarat Bose, a year later on 16/10/1926, he wrote, "It (Durga Puja) is a source of aesthetic enjoyment, intellectual recreation and religious inspiration and affords abiding solace. Today is Bijoya Dasami and throughout Bengal relations, friends and even enemies - children of the same Mother - will be soon embracing one another in fraternal love. p. 84, Netaji Collected Works, Volume IV. Citing this letter, Boses biographer, Leonard Gordon has written: "So Durga Puja was the moment in the round of the year when he (Bose) and his Bengali prison-mates felt united with the Bengali people from whom they had been arbitrarily separated. pp. 135-136, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. 2) On his way to Europe, from the ship called S S Gange, Bose wrote on 5 March, 1933, to his close friend Dilip Kumar Roy, "To be quite frank, I am torn this side and that - between my love for Shiva, Kali and Krishna. Though they are fundamentally one - one does prefer one symbolism to another. I have found that my moods vary - and according to my prevalent mood, I choose one of the three forms - Shiva, Kali and Krishna. Of these three again, the struggle is between Shiva and Shakti. Shiva, the ideal Yogi, has a fascination for me and Kali the Mother also makes an appeal to me. You see, of late (i.e., for the last four or five years) I have become a believer in Mantra Shakti by which I mean that certain Mantras have an inherent Shakti. Prior to that, I had the ordinary rationalistic view, namely that Mantras are like Symbols and they are aids to concentration. But my study of Tantra philosophy gradually convinced me that certain Mantras had an inherent Shakti - and that each mental constitution was fitted for a particular Mantra. Since then, I have tried my best to find out what my mental constitution is like and which Mantra I would be suited for. But so far I have failed to find that out because my moods vary and I am sometimes a Shaiva, sometimes a Shakta and sometimes a Vaishnava. p. 2, Subhas Chandra Bose India's Spokesman Abroad, Subhas Chandra Bose, Letters, Articles, Speeches and Statements 1933-1937 Netaji Collected Works Volume VIII. This actually showed that Bose had delved deep into Hindu philosophy, including Tantra. Worthy of note is, Dilip Roy had been a close friend of Bose since his Presidency College days, both had studied in England simultaneously and had maintained their friendship though their paths diverged in that Roy never joined politics. 3) Years later, when Bose was illegally incarcerated, in Presidency jail, he announced a fast unto death in protest. He announced it on the sacred day of Kali puja (30.9.1940) to affirm his faith. He wrote to the Superintendent of Prison: "I repeat that this letter, written on the sacred day of Kali Puja, should not be treated as a threat or ultimatum. It is merely an affirmation of one's faith, written in all humility. pp. 187-189, The Alternative Leadership. 4) Subhas Boses faith in Hindu spirituality continued until the very end of his known life. As his biographer learned from interviewing Boses INA subordinates, as also Swami Siddhartananda and Swami Stidananda (on July 13, 1979, Singapore), that ,"While Bose was in Singapore, Bose frequently visited the Ramakrishna Mission in Norris Road and spent hours in the shrine room meditating. While bombs were beginning to fall on Berlin, he practised his spiritual exercises late at night in his own home, but in Japanese-occupied Singapore he was able to make a connection to the congenial monks of the Ramakrishna order who spread the teachings of Sri Ramkrishna and Swami Vivekananda which had so moved Bose and were still meaningful to him. It was a haven from the surrounding storm of war and a place where he could make contact for himself with things eternal. p. 502, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. Myth III: Discrimination based on religion and ethnicity was at the heart of Subhas Boses politics: Subhas Bose is said to have appeased Muslims, discriminated against South Indians and was an Islamophile. An analysis of Subhas Boses public stance on Muslims deserves a full-fledged article in itself, a topic which we plan to explore in some depth, within possibly a year. At this point we would limit ourselves to countering a subset of the misconceptions prevalent in social media by positing them in contemporary context. First, Bose was by no means infallible, and his writings on Muslims do reveal his lack of understanding of doctrines of Islam and the history of Muslim atrocities. But, that apart, whether he would or could have acted any different if he had a better understanding of the above is unclear as many of his actions pertaining to Muslims match those of Hindutva doyens like Savarkar, Shyamaprasad Mookerjee, and those termed Hindu heroes (by BJP, RSS eco-system) like Patel, Rajagopalachari, Rajendraprasad, etc. Boses politics, starting from the period he struck out on his own (post CR Das death), was largely based on the principle of equal rights for all religions. In particular, he never shied from publicly taking up the cause of religious discrimination against Hindus, and pointing out appeasement of Muslims and Christians, which would be deemed Hindutva in current political parlance. He had actually stepped into the territory that even current RSS eschews. 1) While being incarcerated in Mandalay, Subhas Bose, and a set of others wrote to the Chief Secretary, of the Govt. of Burma on 2 February 1926, demanding that they receive financial allowance for performing Durga and Saraswati pujas, Holi and Dol Purnima, in the jail, citing allowances for observance of religious practices provided to Christians: "To the Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Burma Mandalay 2.2.26 Re-Allowance for Religious Ceremonies Dear Sir, We submitted to you dated the 16th January, 1926, regarding allowance for the Saraswati Puja to which no reply has yet been received by us. We have already requested the Inspector general of Prisons that there are three important religious ceremonies which we have to perform here (viz the Saraswati Puja, the Holi and Dol Purnima Festival and the Durga Puja) and that we expect Government to sanction the expenditure in connection with those ceremonies. ...It would not be out of place here to mention that in the Alipore Central Jail a sum of Rs. 12000 per annum is spent for the Christian convicts in connection with their religious worship (vide report Indian jail Committee 1919-20 vol III page 744). Yours faithfully, S.C.B., S.C.M., T.C.C., B.B.G., M.M.B., M. M. G., S.S.C., J. L. C pp. 207-208, [20] And when the prayers of the prisoners were ignored, Bose wrote a stinging rejoinder to the Chief Secretary, along with a declaration of intent to fast until their demands were conceded. The contrast to the present politicians, who are basically people of straw, should be starkly apparent. To the Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Burma Through The Superintendent of Jails, Mandalay, Dated, Mandalay, the 16th February, 1926 Dear Sir, We are sorry that we have received no satisfactory reply to our representation of the 16th January and the 2nd February, 1926. Neither has the question of the last Durga Puja been yet settled to our satisfaction, though six months have elapsed. .... By failing to meet our religious demands, your Government have shown a lamentable ignorance of the religious instincts of the Indian people and of their past and present history. To us orientals, religion is neither a social convention nor an intellectual luxury nor a holiday recreation. It is life itself. Religion is woven into the very texture of our daily and social life and it permeates our whole being-individual and national. The pages of Indian history teem with the undying examples of martyrs who suffered and died for the sake of their religious beliefs. They died so that India may live. And in spite of our misery and degradation, India still lives. She lives because of her soul is immortal - her soul is immortal because she believes in religion. We have lost much. Political freedom is no more. Economic independence is a thing of the past - even our national culture is being daily undermined by the subtle policy of peaceful penetration. But we still have our religion. We still claim the right to worship our God after the fashion of our glorious ancestors, and we shall sooner cease to exist than succumb to the religious domination of the West. ...From the ashes of the dead past India is again rising phoenix-like to take her place among the free nations of the world, so that she may deliver her message, the message of the spirit, and thereby fulfill her mission on earth. India lives today because she still has a mission unfulfilled. For no other reason has she survived the onslaughts of time. Civilizations have risen and fallen, empires have grown and have melted away into thin air; Babylon and Nineveh, Carthage and Greece have crumbled into dust. But Indian culture is as potent a factor today as it was thousands of years ago when some of the foremost nations of the modern world were no better than savages. And do you think, Sir, the people who have suffered so much and braved so much throughout their whole history will obsequiously acquiesce in an arbitrary infringement of their religious rights ? We hope against hope that the lessons of the war of 1857 and of the Akali and Tarakeswar Satyagraha movements of yesterday have not been altogether lost on this Govt. The action or rather the inaction of your Government constitutes an unwarranted interference with our religious rights. It militates against the spirit of the Queen's proclamation which promises liberty of worship to the different religions and sections in India. Further - and this is of much greater import - it is a violation of God's Law, as we understand it. Spending Rs. 12000 per annum for the religious worship of a few Christian criminals lodged in the Alipore central jail - and refusing to sanction a pie for the religious ceremonies of the Hindu detenus of high education and culture - is not this, Sir, an outrage on justice and fair play ? The utterly unreasonable and uncompromising attitude of your Government has left us no other alternative and for the vindication of our religious rights as well as the redress of several long-standing grievances, we are being compelled to adopt the only honourable course open to persons in our position. We have accordingly resolved to commence hunger strike on Thursday, the 18th Feb, 1926. ..... Subhas Chandra Bose (and others) pp. 221-226, In Burmese prisons, Subhas Chandra Bose Correspondence May 1923-July 1926, Netaji Collected Works, Volume III So, on 18 February, 1926, in Mandalay jail, Bose had organised a fast in protest against the authorities who denied financial allowances to the prisoners for conducting Durga and Saraswati Puja pp. 221-226, [20]. 2) Throughout the British regime, Hindus were often denied permission to play music in proximity of mosques even during Hindu festivals. In late 1920s Satindra Nath Sen led the Patuakhali Satyagraha in Barisal, Bengal, which was based on the demand of Hindus to be allowed to play music before mosques. We quote the Calcutta High Court judgment on Satindra Nath Sen And Ors. vs Emperor on 14 July, 1930: "The appellants are said to have associated together in what is known as the Satyagraha movement which started at Patuakhali in the Backergunje District in 1926 in connexion with a dispute between the Hindus and Mahomedans because the latter objected to Hindu processions with music passing a certain mosque. The authorities intervened and, in order to prevent breaches of the peace, such processions were prohibited. The members of this movement defied the law and a number of them were sentenced to terms of imprisonment. On 7 July 1928, Government of Bengal withdrew the charges, possibly under public pressure, but rearrested Sen again in March 1929. Subsequently, throughout 1929, Subhas Bose campaigned vociferously against the Government of Bengal's unfair treatment of Satindra Nath Sen of Barisal, and demanded national support, notwithstanding the fact that it appeared to be a narrow Hindu issue for the appeasement politics that was in full swing even then pp. 200-201, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. It is pertinent to note that RSS is yet to have taken up the cause of Kamalesh Tiwari who have been slapped by the UP state government with a charge under the National Security Act for calling the Prophet of Islam a homosexual a characterization which has been deemed offensive by a section practicing Muslims. The BJP government at the centre is yet to seek an explanation for the blatant breach of freedom of expression of the citizen of a supposedly free country. 3) Fourteen years after his first hunger strike demanding the right to perform Durga Puja in British jail, on 20 September 1940, again citing the fact that Muslims and Christians are granted the freedom to observe their religious practices in British jails, Bose demanded that Hindu prisoners be allowed to perform the Durga Puja exactly as prescribed by Hindu religious practices and at the time required by astronomical calculations. He wrote to the Superintendent of the Presidency Jail, "The Superintendent Presidency Jail 20. 9. 40 Dear Sir, ...The following points regarding the Durga Puja have to be noted: (1) It is the great national festival among Hindus in this part of the country. (2) It is a congregational worship. Hence it is called not merely `Puja' but `Utsav' also. (3) Three priests are necessary for Durga Puja - including `Chandi Path' the recital of Chandi. It is physically impossible to do with less than two - and that is possible only by saddling one of the priests with `Chandi Path', which they often refuse as involving too much strain. (4)The hours of Puja are fixed by astronomical calculations. For instance, the most important ceremony is `Sandhi Puja' which is held on the 8th day of the moon - and the Puja hour is often late at night (I do not know yet what the hours for `Sandhi Puja' are this year). Durga Puja in Jail will consequently be possible only if the following extra concessions are being allowed: (1) Since Durga Puja is congregational in character all Hindu prisoners who are so desirous should be permitted to participate. It may be remarked here that similar facilities are given to Muslim prisoners during Id and to Christian prisoners in Alipore Central Jail during Christian festivals. In any case there is no reason why all Hindu political prisoners should not be allowed to participate. (2) At least two priests should be allowed. (3) They should be allowed to perform the ceremony in the hours fixed by astronomical calculations, whatever those hours may be. (4) Minimum music should be allowed. Music is essential for `Arati' ceremony in particular. (The question of Puja allowance should be considered along with the general question of our status which is under consideration). If these concessions are not allowed it will mean virtually that Govt. do not allow Durga Puja in Jail. This will be an unjustifiable cancellation of the concessions we gained after considerable suffering in Jail in the fifteen-day hunger strike in 1926. It will mean, further, that concessions allowed by the bureaucratic regime are being withdrawn by the popular ministry. The consequences of such situation will naturally be serious for us... Yours faithfully Subhas C. Bose pp. 182-183, The Alternative Leadership, Speeches, Articles, Statements and Letters, June 1939-1941 Subhas Chandra Bose, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 10 3) Years later, when Bose was illegally incarcerated, in Presidency jail, he announced at fast unto death in protest. He wrote to the Superintendent of Prison on 30.9.1940: "There is no other alternative for me but to register a moral protest against an unjust act and as a proof of that protest, to undertake a voluntary fast. This fast will have no effect on the `popular' ministry, because I am neither the Maulavi of Murapara, Dacca nor a Muhammadan by faith. Consequently, the fast will, in my case, become a fast unto death. ... Britishers and the British Government have been talking of upholding the sacred principles of freedom and democracy, but their policy nearer home belied these professions. They want our assistance to destroy Nazism, but they have been indulging in super-Nazism. My protest will serve to expose the hypocrisy underlying their policy in this unfortunate country-as also the policy of a Provincial Government that calls itself `popular', but which in reality, can be moved only when there is a Muhammadan in the picture pp. 187-189, The Alternative Leadership, Speeches, Articles, Statements and Letters, June 1939-1941 Subhas Chandra Bose, Netaji Collected Works, Volume 10. Bose is therefore pointing out the Muslim appeasement of the Provincial Government of Bengal, then led by Fazlul Haq. It is important to note that current BJP and RSS rarely if at all points out how their political opponents are partisan in favour of Christians and Muslims, while directly naming the religions concerned. When Durga Puja was recently banned in a village in West Bengal, and restrictions were imposed on immersion processions in both Bihar and West Bengal to ensure that Muharram processions can be conducted on time, neither BJP nor RSS organized any mass protest. Boses actions under very similar circumstances are tales in contrast. Bose motivated Indians towards freedom struggle through Hindu symbolisms as appropriate for the audience. On December 9, 1930, he had called upon the women to participate in liberation struggle, invoking the imagery of asuradalani Durga: "Women had not only duties to their family, but they had also a greater duty to their country. When the gods found their sliver almost vanquished in their fight with the demons, they invoked the help of "sakti" in the form of mother. The country was in a sad plight, therefore the country looked up to the mothers to come forward and inspire the whole nation. p. 238, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose, also here. Next, Bose is often accused of appeasing Muslims because he advocated the use of Hindustani as the national language of Indians. Hindustani is a synthesis of Hindi and Urdu, and the utilization of the latter is considered Muslim appeasement in Hindutva politics. In particular, Bose is castigated for naming Indian National Army as Azad Hind Fauj, the phrase is Hindustani with origin in Urdu. It is right to debate, and perhaps even appropriate to oppose, the selection of Hindustani as the national language. But, does that indicate appeasement of Muslims, or Islamophilia per se? To know this, let us examine who all supported Hindustani and generously used Urdu in their public discourses. Indian National Congress had selected Hindustani as the national language of India in 1925, and it was championed all along by Mohandas Gandhi. In the 1925 Congress session in Kanpur, the Congress adopted the following resolution, "The proceedings of the Congress shall be conducted, as far as possible, in Hindustani. The English language or any provincial language may be used if the speaker is unable to speak Hindustani, or whenever necessary. p. 212, Pilgrimage to Freedom. We quote Brij Kishore Sharma, former chairman, copyright board, former chairman, national book trust, India, and additional secretary in the ministry of law: "The Congress under the leadership of Gandhiji adopted a language policy which was in tune with its method of forging Hindu-Muslim unity. As part of this policy, Gandhiji stated that the Congress supports Hindustani. Hindustani would be neither Hindi nor Urdu, but a mixture of both. It may be written in Dev Nagari or Persian script.It was opposed by others. Prominent among whom were Shri Purushottam Das Tandon, Ravishankar Shukla, Seth Govind Das, Ghanshyam Singh Gupta and Bal Krishna Sharma Navin (Loc. 12887, Kindle edition [2]). We do not have any account of Gandhis right hand men, Vallabhbhai Patel or C. Rajagopalachari, opposing the adoption of Hindustani. Quite to the contrary, as premier of Madras Presidency in1938-39, C. Rajagopalachari introduced "Hindi, or Hindustani, as C.R. preferred to call it p. 185, Rajaji A Life by Rajmohan Gandhi, in standards six to eight in 125 schools. "Students could choose either the Nagari or the Urdu script. p. 186, Rajaji A Life. Violent anti-Hindustani agitation broke out. C. R turned to Section 7 of the Criminal law amendment act, ``offences under which were non-bailable and which the Raj had used to combat Congresss picketing of cloths and toddy shops. p. 186,Rajaji A Life `` By the end of January 1939, 683 persons in all, of whom 36 were women, had been convicted, for terms ranging from six weeks to a year, as a result of the anti-Hindustani agitation, including 173 prosecuted for their activity in front of the Premiers house. p. 188, Rajaji A Life (C. M. Annadurai was arrested as part of this agitation). Satyamurti and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the philosopher educator, urged C. R. to make Hindustani an optional subject or to provide a conscience clause giving parents the right to withdraw their children from Hindustani classes, and Gandhi supported the suggestion. Claiming, however, that no parent had asked for such a right, C. R. turned down the idea.Bombay followed the Southern lead and introduced Hindustani, and Vallabhbhai Patel came out in support of C. R.s policy.. p. 188, Rajaji A Life Next, around the time of independence, a Constituent Assembly was formed to prepare the constitution of India. ``The Rules Committee of the Constituent Assembly had prepared a rule (Rule 29) which laid down that in the Assembly business shall be transacted in Hindustani (Hindi or Urdu) or Englishwith the permission of the President, a member may address the House in his mother-tongue. The Fundamental Right sub-committee had prepared a draft in which the official language was to be Hindustani, written at the option of the citizen either in the Devanagari or the Persian script. The Constituent Assembly had a membership of 298 (after partition) out of which 208 belonged to the Congress. Before a proposal or a draft was brought before the Constituent Assembly it was discussed in the Congress Parliamentary Party. On the 16th July 1947 the Congress Legislative Party discussed which should be the official language Hindi or Hindustani. Supporters of Hindustani included Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and Patel. But when votes were cast 63 were in favour of Hindi and 32 for Hindustani. For Devanagari script 63 were in favour and 18 against. The result of this voting was reflected in the draft Constitution. In February 1948 when the draft Constitution was circulated it contained the word Hindi and not Hindustani (Hindi or Urdu). Loc. 12900-12912, Kindle edition. It is worthwhile to note that Patel supported Rajagopalachari in enforcing Hindustani against Gandhis will. About a decade later, Patel supported Hindustani as national language even when Gandhi was rendered irrelevant in Indian politics. The irrelevance of Gandhi during that time has been testified to by Ram Manohar Lohia, who has described how both Nehru and Patel could insult Gandhi in the meeting of the Congress Working Committee that accepted partition- ``Messrs Nehru and Patel were offensively aggressive to Gandhiji at this meeting. I had a few sharp exchanges with both of them some of which I shall relate. What appeared to be astonishing then as now, though I can today understand it somewhat better, was the exceedingly rough behaviour of these two chosen disciples towards their master. There was something psychopathic about it. They seemed to have set their heart on something and, whenever they scented that Gandhiji was preparing to obstruct them, they barked violently. pp. 21, 24, Ram Manohar Lohia Guilty Men of Indias Partition. It may also be pointed out that Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the man who went on to become the first president of India, began the freedom session at 11 pm on 14 August 1947 addressing the Constituent Assembly and the nation in Hindustani p. 137, Pilgrimage to Freedom. So, Patel supported Hindustani and Dr. Rajendra Prasad used it on a momentous occasion, of their own volition and even after they witnessed how India was partitioned in part due to partition. Equally true, in 1943, Bose also adopted Hindustani per his own judgement as head of the provisional Azad Hind government (though the complete consequences of Muslim separatism were not known to any one at that point). So, on this count, Bose would be as much guilty of appeasement of Muslims or Islamophilia, if that is what adoption of Hindustani meant, as Patel, Rajagopalachari Rajendra Prasad were (Gandhi and Nehru have often been charged of appeasing Muslims, and rightly so, in many different contexts, but Patel, Rajendra Prasad and C. Rajagopalachari are often hailed as Hindu heroes by several advocates of Hindutva). We now cite a few Hindu nationalists who liberally used Urdu in their public discourses. Lala Hardayal who was a committed Hindu nationalist had named the revolutionary party he formed in USA in 1913 as the Ghadar Party. Ghadar is an Urdu word (just as Azad Hind Fauj is) derived from Arabic, which means ``revolt or ``rebellion. Lala Hardayals speeches, which galvanized thousands of Hindus and Sikhs of Punjab to join in the Ghadar revolution, had a generous dose of Urdu words. Incidentally, the Arya Samajis from Punjab, who sought to convert Muslims to Hinduism, also wrote in Urdu, usually in Persian script. Bhai Parmanand, the famous Arya Samaji, revolutionary and later, Hindu Mahasabha ideologue and leader, wrote `Tarikh-i-Hind, a call for revolution, as part of the wider Ghadar revolt, against the British during World War 1, in Urdu. Finally, Pandit Lekh Ram, a committed Arya Samaji (who was murdered by Muslim fundamentalists for being the same), also wrote in Urdu, in Persian script. All his works are in Urdu and the original consolidation of his works was published in Urdu `Kulyaat-e-Arya Musafir by Mahashay Keeshav Dev. He wrote in Urdu his challenge to the Ahmediya leader and founder and criticised Mirza Ahmeds `Baraheen-e-Ahmediya in his own book `Takzeeb-e-Baraheen-e-Ahmediya. His book exposing the Ahmediyas `Khubt-e-Ahmediya was also written in Urdu. Bose actually advocated Hindustani in Roman rather than Persian script, so he should perhaps be accused of Christianophilia or Anglophilia, in the same vein. Next, Bose is accused of Muslim appeasement as he allied with Muslim League in forming the operational body in Calcutta Corporations, post elections, in 1939-40. The demography of Calcutta ensured that Muslim league would get a sizeable chunk of seats in any such election, and no single-party government could be formed. Post election, Bose initiated communication with Hindu Mahasabha led by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (in Bengal), but the talks failed after making significant progress. It is at that point he allied with Muslim League. Within a few years, in early 1940s, Hindu Mahasabha allied with Muslim League to form Provincial Governments in Sind, Bengal (with KPP or Krishak Praja Party led by Fazlul Haq which was essentially a Muslim Party by then and had severely discriminated against Hindus) and NWFP provinces - again the reservation and separate electorate accorded to Muslims by virtue of the Communal Award, which Bose had opposed, had ensured that no government could be formed without Muslim Parties (then Muslim League or KPP) in these provinces. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee of Hindu Mahasabha became a minister in Fazlul Haqs government in Bengal, and Savarkar praised the alliance in all three places citing the necessity of practical politics. In the December 1942 session in Kanpur, Savarkar defended the coalition with the Muslim League, saying, ``in practical politics also, the Mahasabha knows that it must advance through reasonable compromises. Witness the fact that only recently in Sind, the Sind Hindu Sabha on invitation had taken the responsibility of joining with the League itself in running the coalition government. The case of Bengal is well known. Wild Leaguers whom even the Congress with all its submissiveness could not placate grew quite reasonably compromising and sociable as soon as they came in contact with the Hindu Mahasabha and the Coalition Government, under the premiership of Mr Fazlul Huq and the able lead of our esteemed Mahasabha leader Dr Syama Prasad Mookerji, functioned successfully for a year or so to the benefit of both the communities. p. 213, Religious Dimensions of Indian Nationalism: A Study of RSS. So, if Bose can be charged of Muslim appeasement, Islamophilia because of his alliance with Muslim League, the same allegation ought to apply to the two doyens of Hindu Mahasabha, namely, Savarkar and Mookerjee. Finally, it is often suggested, as evidence of Boses Islamophilia/Muslim appeasement that Bose had adopted tiger as the emblem of INA and as the national animal of India, motivated by Tipu Sultans choice of tiger as his emblem. It is a fact that a springing tiger was the emblem of INA, it is also a fact that tiger was the emblem of Tipu, but we are yet to come across any primary source (statements, speeches, writings of Bose) that testify to the motivation. It is important to note that the springing tiger chosen by Bose differed quite a bit from the tiger emblem chosen by Tipu, which displays a tiger devouring a European, prone on the ground [8]. Last, but not the least, India has been one of the ancient homes of tiger, long before the existence of Tipu Sultan, and the Royal Bengal tiger species is endemic to India. Tiger had symbolized strength, ferocity and raw courage in Indic consciousness. The Pandava brother Bhima have repeatedly been referred to as``tiger among men in Ved Vyasas Mahabharata. Similarly, Bharata is routinely referred to as `tiger among men in many places in the Ramayana. It is unclear why we ought not attribute Boses choice of tiger to his Indic civilizational consciousness and his admiration for valour. Disowning tiger as Islamophilia, given Tipus choice is therefore quite akin to rejecting the ancient Hindu symbol of Swastika owing to the association with Hitler. As a clinching evidence of Boses Islamophilia, it is said that he had not reached out to South Indians despite a large number of followers there. If the choice of Boses adoption of Hindustani as national language, is considered an evidence that Bose discriminated against his Tamil following, far worse evidence of such discrimination exists against C. Rajagopalachari who despite being a Tamil himself, had imposed Hindustani, through application of brute force, on a populace that revolted against. In contrast, there is no record of any resentment against Bose, on linguistic grounds, anywhere, perhaps because he accorded significant import to Tamil in the daily operations of his government. It is a matter of record that during the momentous occasion of the proclamation of the Provisional government of free India, led by Bose, the proclamation was read out in Hindustani by Mr AN Sahay, in Tamil by Mr. Chidambaram, in English by Bose himself p. 117, Writings and Speeches 1943-1945, Chalo Delhi. Also, the central office of the provisional government published its newspapers, bulletins, etc. in Romanized Hindustani, Tamil and English. The medium of instruction in the teachers training schools maintained by the provisional government was Tamil or Bengali or Hindustani, according to the mother tongue of the students. South Indians held important positions in Boses provisional government: Ramamurthy, was the head of Indian Independence League (IIL) in Tokyo, and SA Ayer served as the Propaganda Minister of the Provisional Government of Free India, A. C. N. Nambiar was a close friend and colleague of Bose and served as his official representative in Germany and a minister of state in his provisional government. Truth be told, Subhas Chandra Bose has as much or greater hold on Tamil imagination, as anywhere else, including the state he is ethnically associated with. As an article published in Swarajya Magazine has noted, ``Tamil Nadu constantly strives to maintain a sense of cultural separateness from the national narrative. An impressive array of local icons dot the Tamil socio-political landscape. Some of them are even celebrated in response to what is seen as hegemonic attempt to foist pan Indian heroes. However, there is one icon of Indian history who has dominated Tamil imagination as well as anyone from the state Subhas Chandra Bose In the cinema-crazy state, fascination with Bose has been a recurring theme in many Tamil Movies. In the popular 1996 film, Indian, Kamal Haasan played two characters. One of them was of an old man who was a member of the Indian National Army and was enraged at the corruption in independent India. Seemingly inspired by the ideals of Bose he goes on to brutally eliminate petty and corrupt officials. In another Tamil Movie called Thevar Magan, copious adulatory references are made about Bose and how the Mukkalothar caste mobilized in his response to this call..In a society that prides itself as rooted in a valorous and militaristic past, the fascination with Subhas Chandra Bose is easily understandable.(Subhas Chandra Bose in Tamil Imagination, Swarajya Mag). Clearly, Tamils nowhere felt that Subhas Bose was not reaching out to them. Boses connection with Tamils started early, right when Bose struck out on his own in Indian politics. After C R Das death, Bose was closely associated with former Congress President, Srinivasa Iyengar of the Madras Presidency. Bose had strongly denounced the latters mal-treatment by Gandhi: ``When the time came for electing the working Committee for the coming year (after the Lahore Congress in 1930) , the Mahatma came forward with a list of fifteen names, from which the names of Mr. Srinivasa Iyengar, the writer, and other Left Wingers have been deliberately omitted. There was a strong feeling in the All-India Congress Committee that at least the names of Mr. Iyengar and the writer should be retained. But the Mahatma would not listen. He said openly that he wanted a committee that would be completely of one mind and he wanted his list to be passed in its entirety. Once again it became a question of confidence in the Mahatma and as the House did not want to repudiate him, it had no option but to give in to his demand p. 194, The Indian Struggle (1920-1942). ``After the Lahore Congress, Mr. Srinivasa Iyengar had retired from public activity. Along with other Left Wing leaders, he had been treated shabbily by the President of the Lahore Congress and by the Mahatma, who was instrumental in excluding him from the Working Committee, though he was the most outstanding leader from Madras and was an ex-President of the Congress. This insult he had taken to heart so much that he vowed he would have nothing to do with the Congress so long as Mahatma Gandhi remained the leader. p. 224, The Indian Struggle (1920-1942). But, ``If there was one individual instrumental in establishing Boses strong presence in Tamil imagination, it has got to be Muthuramalinga Thevar.Muthuramalinga Thevar was a powerful leader from the Maravar community and a close confidante of Bose. He played an instrumental role in mobilizing huge support for INA and was one of the founding pillars of Forward Bloc. He followed Bose out of Congress and started the Tamil Nadu wing of Forward Bloc.He started a Tamil Weekly Nethaji and gave a clarion call to the members of his community to join the INA. He fought for the denotification of Criminal Tribes Act which stigmatised the Mukkulathor complex of castes -Thevars, Kallars and the Maravars. When the Brahminised leadership of Madras Congress did not show sufficient wherewithal to oppose British attempts to disenfranchise militaristic castes, Thevar began to disengage with it and found common ground with Bose.Across southern Tamil Nadu, Bose continues to prominently feature in Thevar iconography. As part of the new wave of competitive caste belligerence, observance of the birth and death anniversary of caste icons has gained renewed vigour in the state. One such occasion is Thevar Jayanthi. During this day, entire state is plastered with posters of Muthuramalinga Thevar along with Bose clad in his military attire (Subhas Chandra Bose in Tamil Imagination, Swarajya Mag) Next, Bose had founded a woman-only regiment in INA, Rani Jhansi regiment, one of the first of its kind in the world [11]. It was dominated by Tamil women [11]. Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan, who Bose later appointed as minister for womens affairs led the regiment p. 497, [10]. Janaky Thevar and Rasammah Bhupalan `` were members of Rani Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army and later went on to play a part in the Malayasian independence movement..As a 14 year old, Janaky Thevar once attended a rally of Bose and was so enthralled by his idealism that she handed over her expensive diamond earring to INA as a part of fund raising drive. Despite her fathers strident opposition, she signed up with INA and rose up in the ranks to become the second commander of Rani Jhansi Brigade. As Leonard Gordon has noted, "Several of the outstanding recruits of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, who went on to exceptional careers of service after the war, mentioned that Bose acted ``fatherly towards them, and was immensely concerned for their welfare. The man who could not watch his own daughter grow up because of the circumstances of war told the Ranis that he was their ``mother and father. He wrote to one girl of sixteen, `If you want to live, live for others. She applied this lesson to her life and became one of the most noted secondary school principals in her country. To another girl of sixteen, who later became the organizer of girl guides of her country, he wrote, `I hope the confidence Ive placed in you will take you far. Whether it was Boses confidence or simply their own abilities that took them far; I cannot say. But the powerful impact of Bose on these unusual women-witnessed decades later is unmistakable. p. 497, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. Why the young Tamil women of INA connected to Bose so well, can be best understood by reviewing his interactions with them, when the chips were down. INA was in retreat in 1945. ``Several hundred (of the Ranis) had to be sent back to Malaya and Singapore at about this moment. They were scheduled to leave by train, but then the trains were full. They were stranded. Bose was angry and insistent: he would not leave without them. In the end, Bose and his party retreated with the Ranis. It was an arduous and dangerous trip. Allied fighters controlled the air and the Allied forces were pressing ahead rapidly behind them. Initially at least, they had lorries to take them, but when several of these ceased to function, they had to walk. Bose, the solicituous father throughout, trekked along with them. All the walkers developed blisters including the commander-in-chief in his high, tight boots. At the waw river there was a terrible traffic snarl of retreating men, women, and vehicles and the Ranis had to wade across through neck-deep water. They plunged in; they got across. As they walked along the road, they were strafed. Bose again exposed himself, refusing to take cover. He told one of the young women, `Dont worry, the Britishers will never take me, dead or alive. After reaching Moulmein, the party rested briefly and then were put aboard trains for Bangkok. Bose gave a final talk to the group of ranis before they left, telling them that they had set a fine example and braved all dangers like seasoned soldiers. During the retreat several had been killed. The rest returned from Bangkok to their families. Bose made a powerful impression upon them that has lasted with many of them through their whole lives pp. 535-536, Brothers Against the Raj Biography of Indian Nationalists, Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose. In Part 2: The why of myths: Poor scholarship, bias and politicisation of history On a day like any other, a seven-year-old girl was told by her grandmother that they would be going out. Like any other child, excited at the prospect of an outing and probably getting goodies, she went along. In Mumbai's Bhindi Bazaar, which is a cluster of Bohra households, she walked into a dark and fairly dingy building, clutching her grandmother's hand tight, hesitant, and unknowing about what lay in store for her. Masooma Ranalvi, a victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) practiced in the Bohra Muslim community remembers that day, four decades ago with astonishing clarity. "I was taken into a one-room tenement, I was asked to lie down and a stranger told me that I would experience a 'bit' of pain," recalls Ranalvi. Her grandmother held down her hands, while the other woman pulled down her pants and she felt a "sharp piercing pain" in her genitals, the woman applied some black powder and said that it would be "fine." Ranalvi, in pain, was petrified and confused. She did not know what had happened to her and more importantly why. The only comfort in Ranalvi's life at that point was her mother's soothing arms, who consoled her and said that "it would be okay". For the next few days, Ranalvi experienced pain, especially during urination. "No one told me about this, before and after. I was never given an explanation," she says. After she healed, she never spoke about it again. As a seven-year-old, Ranalvi was in the dark about what had happened to her own body. For the past 10 years, 6 February has been observed as International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Firstpost spoke to Ranalvi about this horrific phenomenon and how she's raising awareness about it. Creating awareness through conversation Fast forward to 30 years later, when Ranalvi chanced upon an article on FGM in Africa, it brought back a series of execrable memories for her. "The words are different and the names are different; we do not call it FGM in our community, it is known as female circumcision. The procedure and the way it was done that was described in the article, I knew in my mind what had happened to me was FGM," she says. It is known as khatna in the community. When this awareness seeped into Ranalvi's mind, she felt shattered and angry. "I did not know whom to turn to and where to vent my anger," she says. It was only in 2011 that Ranalvi actively involved herself in the fight against FGM. She connected with those who had started a petition on change.org to stop the practice. Ranalvi signed it and networked with the people who were pressing the Syedna (Bohra community's religious head) to consider stopping the practice. However, the petition did not yield positive outcomes, the religious head "refused to even consider the petition" and "disregarded it". However, last year, Ranalvi took a step forward and decided to speak up because she realised that silence will mean that "young girls will still get cut" in the community. Reading about a case in Australia (where it is illegal to practise FGM) about two girls from the Bohra community who underwent genital mutilation and charges were brought on the parents, Masooma poured her repressed pain into words and wrote a blog, which received tremendous support most importantly, other women broke the silence about what had happened to them and recounted their own personal agony. Ranalvi through her group, Speak Out against FGM has mobilised a mini-revolution that perhaps, one day could lead to larger social change she got people talking. While Ranalvi (fortunately) has not faced any backlash yet, she takes cognisance of the fact that fear is what drives many women into silence. "There is fear that there will be a backlash," she says. Many women are afraid to disclose their identities because there is a "in-built fear" in women, but because FGM is so prevalent in the Bohra community, there are only a few women who are willing to go the extra mile notwithstanding the consequences. FGM is not equivalent to male circumcision Those in support of FGM, usually religious heads and sect heads often claim that the practice is equivalent to male circumcision, however, Ranalvi is vehement that it is a grave misconception. Armed with the extensive research that she has done on the subject, she clearly states that female circumcision causes psychological problems and in some cases, even death. Female genital mutilation or female circumcision is different from male circumcision because female circumcision is damaging to female sexual and psycho-sexual/psychological health. "It is child abuse," says Ranalvi. Female genital mutilation is entirely about curbing the female sexuality and desire, "to maintain a patriarchal hold over a woman's body", she adds. Bohra community and paradoxes The Bohra community (a trading community) is one of the wealthiest; men and women from the community are highly educated and yet FGM is rigidly practiced. Ranalvi says that the Bohra Muslim community has a "paradox". She also believes that the idea that this practice is "religiously ordained" is believed by the community at large "A lot of them do it blindly as they are ordained by the clergy," she says. The Bohra community is very "close knit" and there is a complete "indoctrination" within the community to accept any religious decree. There is a general fear to oppose anything or "step out of line," says Ranalvi. Those who transgress become "very visible" and that 'visibility' brings with it, a set of repercussions (excommunication, ostracism). Secrecy, missing conversations and the need to talk One of the biggest challenges that Ranalvi and her ilk are hoping to overcome is the absolute silence that prevails on this topic. "The manner in which the practice is carried out is secretive and literally clandestine. Pre or post-practice, there is no discussion about how good it is, what are the benefits, how it is going to affect us as women. It is a practice perpetuated by women," she says. According to her, women from non-Bohra communities who marry into a Bohra family have to undergo this "rite of passage". Bohra Muslims are the only Muslim community in India to practice FGM. Through her work, Ranalvi finds a common pattern among all the women who want to speak out against FGM they don't just want to do that, they want speak, share, engage, discuss what happened to them. They want to let out the screams they suppressed as a child and pushed into oblivion. Mothers want to express regret for putting their daughters through the procedure, daughters want to be angry, vent and tell another person their story. The violence that their bodies endured gets a voice of its own in Ranalvi's online forum and group discussions. If you want to join the conversation or were personally affected by FGM, email speakoutonfgm@gmail.com (your identity will not be disclosed), you can also contribute by signing the petition. New Delhi: The Congress leadership is of the view that it has been successful in exposing the real face of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre in the past year and a half. It has conveyed to the state presidents at the Congress headquarters on Friday (and in an informal meeting later that day) that the party had managed to nail the government on various issues such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), MGNREGA and the Land Acquisition Act. People who praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi highly when he was elected, are disillusioned now, was the message. Weve been attacking the government for being anti-poor, anti-farmer, anti-labourer and anti-worker. We are not going to let the BJP run a government that acts only in the interest of three or four crony capitalists. In one-and-a half years, we have exposed the true image of the BJP," sources quoted the top leadership as saying. At the meeting with the PCC presidents, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi sought to get a sense of what was being done with regard to MNREGA, the Right to Food, the Tribal Bill in their respective states and how the BJP has been trying to destroy these. On the passage of the GST Bill in Rajya Sabha and its implementation, the party is of the impression that the BJP would never let GST be implemented, simply because the RSS doesnt want it now. Itll hit their core support base. "The Congress always believed it to be a good initiative, but it has put three conditions that need to be accepted by the government. We want GST to be a mechanism that will benefit people, the source conveyed. It also wants party leaders and workers to attack the Sangh ecosystem by using the irritation that RSS causes through its words and actions. We have to work on that irritation, because whatever RSS is doing is not benefiting the poor and the common man. The students fear losing their freedom of expression they (the Sangh) are alienating everyone. The government wants a single ideology to be implemented in educational institutions and academia in the country. For the RSS, if you dont agree with their views or ideology, then youre an anti-national. Gradually, people are getting irritated by this authoritarian tendency. The Congress wont tolerate it and the prime minister's dream of making Bharat Congress-mukt will never happen, the source added. The Congress that has been accusing the Modi government of centralising power in the hands of only one man the Prime Minister drew a comparison between Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The leadership opined that Kejriwal exhibited the same streak through his functioning as Modi in concentrating power. Right from the beginning, the Congress believed in the decentralisation of power; power that it wants to provide to the states in order to rejuvenate the party. We have new faces as PCC chiefs in many states. The difference in opinions in the party that others allege to be indiscipline, is in fact, the freedom to express different views, the Congress vice-president said. On following the Bihar formula of a grand alliance in other states, the party's leadership did not want to replicate the same model everywhere, because its ultimately the benefit of the Congress that matters. The Congress needs to benefit from the alliances it gets into. In West Bengal, the local Congress leaders have been trying to build an alliance either with the CPI(M) or with the TMC; but it all depends on how it benefits the Congress and works out at the local level. We dont want it to be like the alliance in Jammu and Kashmir where the PDP and the BJP, who have opposite ideologies, are together for political interests. Its the people who are at the receiving end and suffering, the source quoted Rahul as saying. Earlier, while speaking to PCC chiefs, Rahul is reported to have told them to go aggressively against the BJP governments in states and set up committees at state, district and block levels to monitor implementation of the UPAs flagship progammes in the social sector. MNREGA that once was considered a scheme of UPAs corrupt politics, has now turned into a national pride. Earlier, Modi had severely criticised this social scheme, but now Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has praised it, because at present its serving their (the BJP's) purpose, a senior Congress leader said. Los Angeles: Linus Maurer, a cartoonist and illustrator whose old friend and colleague Charles M Schulz borrowed his first name for Charlie Brown's blanket-wielding best friend Linus in his "Peanuts" comic strip and cartoons, has died at age 90. Maurer died on 29 January in Sonoma, California, his longtime partner Mary Jo Starsiak told AP on Friday night. His exact cause of death was not clear, but he had struggled with Parkinson's disease and heart trouble late in life. Around 65 years ago, Maurer and Schulz worked together at Art Instruction Schools Inc in Minneapolis, when Peanuts was getting started. Schulz told the story in a book celebrating Peanuts' 50th anniversary. "Linus came from a drawing that I made one day of a face almost like the one he now has," Schulz wrote. "I experimented with some wild hair, and showed the sketch to a friend of mine who sat near me at art instruction, whose name was Linus Maurer. It seemed appropriate that I should name the character Linus." It was a common practice for Schulz, who named many Peanuts characters, including Charlie Brown, after the people that surrounded him. Schulz, who died in 2000, and Maurer remained lifelong friends, both settling in the same part of Northern California north of San Francisco later in life. There, Maurer drew editorial cartoons for the Sonoma Index-Tribune, which first reported his death. Maurer had a successful run with comics in his own right, with syndicated strips in the 1960s and 1970s called Old Harrigan, Abracadabra and In the Beginning. He also created the "Challenger" puzzle that was syndicated in newspaper crossword sections. Before that, he had worked as an illustrator for IBM and AT&T in New York and as an art director for the McCann Erickson ad agency and Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. AP By Sunil Raman and Rajesh Mehta Prime Minister Narendra Modis much anticipated visit to Israel, a first by an Indian Prime Minister since diplomatic ties were established in 1992, is expected to take place sometime this year. The relationship between the two countries is only set to further transform, according to Israels ambassador to India, Daniel Carmon. With Narendra Modi coming to power, the veil on India-Israel relations is being lifted. What is different and new in how India is dealing with Israel? India and Israel enjoy a strong, deep and meaningful relationship. These relations have grown steadily in the last 24 years since we established full diplomatic relations in 1992. We have been dealing with a very wide range of subjects and fields from agriculture to security, culture to water, trade and technology. Though we do see a change in the visibility of the relations recently. High level visits such as the historic visit by President Pranab Mukherjee just a few months ago and very recently the visit of Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, are good examples of the growing visibility of the relations. But this kind of visibility is not just for the sake of visibility or photo ops. It has a real effect on the ground and it brings with it more cooperation, more fields to partner in and more opportunities under the guidance of the leadership of both sides. Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj urged Israel to be invested in Indias economy, Does Israel plan to be part of the Make In India programme? Which are the sectors where we can expect Israeli investment? We see Make In India as a great opportunity for us to upgrade our relations in a number of fields. Our relations have always been based on three basic foundations: Shared Values, Joint Interests and Common Challenges. We understand that if we want to overcome these challenges, we can do it better together. Our defence minister was in India last year, held extensive talks on the matter and said that we are interested to take part in Make In India. We have proven more than once in the past that we are open to the concept of transfer of advanced high technology and joint development. Both our governments as well as the Israeli companies are ready to engage in this venture, and as a matter of fact, are already practically engaged in very specific projects of Make in India. But its more than just Making in India. Since we have no doubt that R&D serves as a growth engine for the local industry, we are willing to create with India more platforms of joint R&D to pinpoint shared challenges, discuss and plan solutions together, and even manufacture them together. Both sides have a lot to gain from this collaboration. Both sides have already gained from this kind of partnership in defence and in other fields. What are the new areas of co-operation discussed during Swarajs visit? External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj concluded her successful visit to Israel earlier this month. She was warmly received by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon as well as other ministers and legislators. I can tell you that this visit, only three months after the historic visit by President Pranab Mukherjee, is another solid proof of our intimate and close relationship. Many subjects were discussed in depth, like agriculture, water, defence, counterterrorism and more. One of those subjects was education and the need to expand our relations in this field. The potential is huge and we are very far yet from reaching it. Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and External Affairs Minister Swaraj raised a few ideas to expand this cooperation. For example hosting large numbers of Indian mathematics students in Israel, so we will see more Indian students in Israel and more Israeli students in India. It is important that both sides will know each other better. We are confident that expanding relations in education, especially in higher education and in creating more academic connections, will contribute directly to the strength of the relations between people on both sides as well as the two governments. The two countries have co-operated for a long time on counter-terrorism. Can Israel help India with better and innovative technology to secure its borders? The recent terror attack on an Indian Air Force base (in Pathankot) showed the poor status of border infrastructure and India needs innovative solutions. Israel and India signed a landmark agreement almost two years ago, aimed at formalising and creating a sustainable framework for cooperation in the field on Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. This new formation is gradually shaping and becoming meaningful on the basis of mutual interests. A changing world, like the one we live in, requires a flexible and adaptive approach to tackle defence and national security challenges. But most importantly, it should be a joint approach, especially India and Israel are facing similar challenges. Today, terror organisations have become national threats to many countries by being more vigilant and advanced. Israel and India are not the only countries obviously facing terror threats but we have been at the forefront of combating terror in recent years. The challenges that we face today will not fade away; rather they will transform. Our response based on cooperation should aim to develop adaptive capabilities suitable for these times and challenges. I have no doubt in my mind that this cooperation in the past had contributed to the national security of both our countries. Islamist terror has emerged as a major security threat for India and in recent months several Indians have been arrested for being ISIS sympathisers or deported while trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS. How do you see the emerging security situation in South Asia? West Asia has always been a volatile region, more so in the past few years. We see terror activities and terror organisations in different forms and shapes in the region. We also see countries supporting terror activity and regional instability, sometimes by using proxies to execute their plans. Iran is one of those countries that is actively promoting regional instability and supports terror organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The ideology that drives these organisations is not much different than IS, Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda. All of those organisations are fueled by extreme religious ideology that promotes violence and hatred to the other, whether they are Jews, Christians, Hindus or Muslims. In Israel, we have been facing a new wave of terror the past few months. Terror of stabbing and ramming. We have witnessed more than 100 such attacks on Israeli civilians in different parts of the country in a short period of time. Many of the attackers are very young sometimes in their early teens. Just a few days ago, a young Israeli woman was stabbed in her home in front of her children by a 15-year-old Palestinian boy just because she was an Israeli. These attacks are not necessarily planned in advanced or organised by one central command but rather are a result of continuous incitement against Israelis, against Jews in all the Palestinian media channels official and private, television, newspapers and even social media. They are knowingly promoting hatred and support, actually glorify, these kind of terror attacks against civilians. This hateful ideology is what's common to all the terror we see in West Asia and even beyond. The Modi government has recently launched Start Up India campaign. What experiences can Israel share with India? India is the happening place for startups these days, especially after the launch of Start Up India, Stand Up India. For the past few years we have seen an impressive growth in the number of Indian startups, reaching its peak last year. Israel as well, has an extensive startup scene with more than 5,000 start-ups and it is still growing. We attribute great importance to research and development and we hold the highest number of startups per capita. Israel enjoys the highest rate of Governmental investment in R&D (almost 4 percent of GDP) and has a strong viable venture capital industry. All major international companies hold development centres in Israel to tap into Israeli knowledge and capabilities and we see more investment and acquisitions each year in the IT sector. I believe that the uniqueness of the Israeli startup ecosystem stems from the readiness and willingness to take risks, to accept failure, to be curious, to argue, to challenge. We believe Israels experience in creating a thriving ecosystem for innovation can and should be shared. We should create more platforms for ideas and people from Israel and India to meet and interact. We should increase market access and strengthen the academic and education connections. With the launch of the Start Up India, Stand Up India initiative, we have another opportunity to expand our cooperation. You see this tendency of Indians and Israelis to innovate and work together not only in Tel Aviv or in Bangalore but also in Silicon Valley. Prime Minister Netanyahu said last year, "Hindi and Hebrew are the main languages of the Silicon Valley, (although) you sometimes also hear English". It might seem like a joke but the hunger to succeed, to grasp opportunities is something common to Indians and Israelis. WASHINGTON Talks are under way about a ceasefire and humanitarian access for civilians in the five-year-old Syrian civil war and it will be clear within days whether that is possible, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday. "The modalities of a ceasefire itself are also being discussed and the Russians have made some constructive ideas about how a ceasefire in fact could be implemented," Kerry told reporters. "But if its just talks for the sake of talks in order to continue the bombing, nobody is going to accept that, and we will know that in the course of the next days." U.N.-led peace talks in Geneva were halted on Feb. 3 after the Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, advanced against rebel forces north of Aleppo, choking off humanitarian supply lines to civilians. The talks were the first attempt to negotiate an end to Syrian's war in two years. The opposition has said it will not negotiate unless the government stops bombarding civilian areas, lifts blockages on besieged towns and releases detainees. Kerry said Russia and Assad were not in compliance with a U.N. Security Council resolution, which calls for immediate humanitarian access and an end to aerial bombardment of civilians. He said there was evidence that Russia was using "dumb" bombs to kill civilians in "large numbers" in Syria. "This has to stop," Kerry said, "Nobody has any question about that. But it's not going to stop just by whining about it. It's not going to stop by walking away from the table or not engaging," he added. "The next days will tell the story of whether or not people are serious or people are not serious," said Kerry, adding that talks underway were about providing quick humanitarian access to civilians and a ceasefire. Kerry travels to Munich next week for talks with Russia, Iran and other parties involved in the Syrian conflict. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Eric Beech and Alistair Bell) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Colombo: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and discussed a host of regional and international issues. Swaraj, who arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday on a two-day official visit, had an "excellent meeting" with President Sirisena, Indian High Commissioner to Colombo Y K Sinha said. "The President recalled the very warm ties that exist between the two countries build on civilisational links of thousands of years," he said. During an hour-long meeting, the two leaders discussed various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and decisions taken during the previous high-level visits. "They expressed satisfaction at the progress in various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and the President thanked India for its assistance," Sinha said. "President Sirisena briefed the minister on development on regional and international issues. They discussed a host of issues," he said. The two leaders also reviewed the progress made the 9th Joint commission meeting which has held here yesterday. The joint commission was set up in 1992 as a mechanism to address issues of bilateral cooperation. Sirisena recalled with happiness his visit to India in February last year and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip in March. Swaraj later met former president Chandrika Bhandaranaike Kumaratunga and they discussed the state of bilateral ties. PTI By Shreerupa Mitra-Jha A UN panel on 5 February ruled that WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has been arbitrarily detained at the Ecuador Embassy in London and urged the UK and Sweden to ensure his freedom of movement. The panel also ruled that Assange should be accorded an enforceable right to compensation. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) had a majority ruling in this case with three of the five members in the panel one dissented and another recused herself ruled in favour of the decision. The UK vehemently rejected the ruling that the 44-year-old Australian has been arbitrarily detained and said the UN opinion changes nothing. The UK maintains that Assange will be arrested by the Metropolitan Police if he leaves the premises of the Ecuadorean embassy. They also plan to contest the panels ruling. The WGAD which investigates whether cases of deprivation of liberty imposed arbitrarily are inconsistent with the relevant international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or in the relevant international legal instruments accepted by the States concerned, particularly the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the 1951 Refugee Convention has handled many high-profile cases in the past like that of the former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed and of Iranian-American Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. Although the panel cannot order the release of detainees, its judgment puts moral pressure on the governments involved. Christophe Peschoux, the chief of the section that deals with working groups at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, read out the ruling of the WGAD on 5 February to a room packed with journalists at the UN office in Geneva. He spoke to Firstpost on why the panel ruled that Assanges detention is arbitrary, whether the UN opinion is legally binding on countries, and the rape allegation against Assange, among other issues. How can the panel term Assanges lodging at the embassy as arbitrary detention, if he has stationed himself there of his own free will? The gist of the matter is that his right to fair trial has been violated by this prolonged situation or this prolonged deprivation of liberty, which arose from the initial investigation that was launched in Sweden, but was never translated into charges if we are deprived of our freedom, there should be clear charges set by the law. There have never been charges (from the Swedish government). So, effectively he is detained without charges and trial for five years. Thats quite simple in the end. The difficulty of the case is that he was detained by the British authorities in the British prison in secrecy for 10 days. Then he was detained under house arrest for nearly two years. And since then, he has been detained at the Ecuadorean embassy. In the embassy, he is not detained per se, but he is detained indirectly because if he goes out, hes going to be arrested. So its a new case that pushes the traditional boundaries of the definition of 'arbitrariness' a little bit. And that was the subject of heated debate within the working group (WG), and that explains the dissenting view that is more traditional. But what about the allegation of rape against him in Sweden? That is something that is outside of the purview of the WG. The decision of the WG has no bearing on these criminal proceedings. If there are allegations of rape, they have to be investigated, they have to be established on factual basis, charges have to be filed, criminal proceedings have to take place. In this case, that did not take place. Its still at the preliminary investigation stage. What has the (Swedish) prosecutor done in five years? (He is) on very serious charges. It is easy to file charges and then to request Assange be extradited. The British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has called the WGAD judgment on Julian Assange frankly ridiculous and has said, I reject the decision of this working group. It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers. What is your comment on such dismissals of UN rulings by member states? The crux of the matter is the good faith commitment of States to honour their human rights obligations under the treaties that they have ratified in this case, the UK and Sweden have ratified the International Convention on Civil and Political rights. And it is on this base that the WG made its decision. Now you know the weakness of international law there is no enforcement mechanism. So implementation relies upon the goodwill of the states and their good faith commitment. If this is not (the case), then because a decision doesnt coincide with what they see as their interests, they may decide to disregard the decision. But by doing this, they disregard international law and their own obligations, or at least, the interpretation of international law that is made by the WG. The WG is not made of lawyers but they are internationally recognised experts in their fields. They are coming from five parts of the world. They are acting in full independence. And their deliberations are honest, they are fair and (the decision) is based on all the facts and laws that are known to them. The decision is binding to the extent that the law it is based upon is binding on States. It is also binding because the WG was established by the forerunner of Human Rights Council which was the Human Rights Commission because it could not deal with large amount of complaints it was receiving from people who are deprived of their liberty. So they entrusted the WGs to deal with these cases and to provide authoritative opinions because the WG is a conflict-resolution mechanism the dissension between the person detained and the detaining authorities. And you, me, any individual detained can file a complaint and have its situation reviewed by the WG. And all States that are members of the (Human Rights) Council have recognised the authority of the WG. When human rights coincide with their (states) interests, they abide by human rights, when they dont, they tend to discredit decisions. And, in this case, saying that members are not lawyers, that they are lay people, I think, is very disrespectful. (It is) very disrespectful towards the WG, because it is shooting the messenger and ignoring the substance of the opinion. If there is dissension, lets look at the opinion and discuss the merits of the opinion, again, based on facts and law. (It) seems to me that its a reasonable approach. And there is an avenue for appeal. If the governments of the UK and Sweden are not happy with the decision which is understandable and not a surprise; we knew because the WG has received their views they have two months from the date when they were sent the decision (22 January), to appeal for a review. The WG will look at the new information and if the new information is of such nature that it calls into question their decision, then they will review the decision. It is a very transparent process the reasoning of the governments is there, the reasoning of Assanges lawyers is there, and the deliberations are on record in the 18 pages (of the report). The UK has said that it is not a signatory to the Caracas Convention and, therefore, under no legal obligation to recognise the diplomatic asylum provided by Ecuadorean government to Assange. Do you have any comments on that? International law is above domestic or regional law in the accepted hierarchy of norms of the world we live in. The WG did not pronounce itself on the question of asylum seeking, but my view as a human rights officer is that the UK and Sweden may not have ratified that regional convention, but clearly they have ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention on the status of refugees that provides for non-refoulement of individuals who express fear for persecution if they were to be refouled to their country of origin or another country. And this is binding, which is the respect of the Right of Asylum, which is a very important safeguard in todays world, and (which) should be respected. Any of us can become refugees at any time these days. And if this mechanism is going to (be) questioned and is not protected by States, then it is weakened and may disappear. You said earlier today that the decision of the WG panel was adopted by majority rulings not by consensus which is unusual for the WGAD. Why is it unusual? The working methods of the WG provide that cases have to be decided by simple majority so three or four out of five. But successive chairpersons of the WG, to get the strongest possible decisions, have sought consensus. There is a tacit agreement in the WG that it is better to have consensus than decision by majority ruling. And most of the decisions are made on the basis of consensus. In the past, there have been a number of cases where decisions have been made by a majority rule of four or three members. The newness in the case of Assange is that the WG decided to make it (the dissenting view) public out of transparency, and deference and respect for the dissenting view. The appended it to the decision. So thats the new element the publication of the dissenting view. To date, the WGAD has adopted more than 1,000 opinions covering more than 130 countries. How many of those opinions and recommendations have been actually implemented by the States? We dont have complete statistics. We look at the number of cases of which we are aware the individuals who have been released. Last year, 12 individuals who were subjects of opinions were released. Last year, the WGs number of opinions were 55 or 56. Some of the 12 were also subjects of earlier opinions of 2014. Recent cases have involved the former deposed president of the Maldives, Nasheed. He was the subject of an opinion. The opinion found that his detention was arbitrary, the government appealed against the decision, the appeal was declined and in the end, he was released. Thats a famous case. Another case was when the WG contributed to the release of the American journalist who was held in Iran. And the WG was part of the negotiations. So these are well-known cases, but the point I want to make is that although these cases seem to indicate that the WG is dealing with high-profile cases, the vast majority of the cases deals with ordinary folks, like you and me who may be detained in a district jail, who wake up without any recourse. They are in the hands of the detaining authority. It is a very precious mechanism that should be cherished and protected and strengthened. The author is a journalist at the United Nations Office in Geneva Dr Leah Farrall, research associate in counter-terrorism at the US Studies Centre and a former Australian Federal Police counter-terrorism analyst, said airport interventions were one factor contributing to a plateau in the number of Australians joining IS. The death of IS recuiters like Neil Prakash has contributed to the fall in numbers of foreign fighters heading for Syria and Iraq. Dr Farrall said that, in the past six months, IS had also cut back on its internet usage and social media communications for security reasons and recruitment would be forced to become more clandestine. Twitter has reportedly shut down more than 125,000 terrorism-related accounts since the middle of last year, most of them linked to IS in Iraq and Syria. The company posted a blog on Friday announcing it had increased the size of teams monitoring and responding to reports and had decreased its response time significantly. Counter-terrorism experts believe a number of combined factors are driving down the number of foreign fighters travelling to join IS including the death of some high-profile recruiters in Syria like Neil Prakash who was reported to have been killed. The federal government has estimated that about 110 Australians are fighting in the conflicts in Syria or Iraq and about 40 have been killed. Dr Farrall said that Prakash, in the months before he was believed to have been killed, had been redirecting fighters away from Syria and suggesting they try to enter Libya instead. Counter-terrorism expert Professor Anne Aly from Edith Cowan University said a number of factors have been pushing down the number of fighters including tougher laws by some countries introduced to stop the flow of fighters, a growing number of disillusioned fighters who are returning home, weaker capacity to attract fresh recruits, increased foreign involvement on battlefields and waning support for "Daesh" (IS) among Muslims worldwide. "Historically speaking, regimes that rely on terror for survival don't last long and lose public support very quickly," said Professor Aly. "The important thing to note is that Daesh (IS) is suffering a moral defeat. This is as important, if not more important, than a military defeat as it means their support base and their ability to attract fighters will dwindle as will their military capability. No army = no fight." A Sydney drag queen has found himself centre stage in a major police-harassment scandal after a magistrate threw out the case against him, ruling the NSW Police Force failed to follow the law. After an image of a Newtown-based police officer temporarily appeared on a gay dating website under the prank profile of "Captain Moonlight", Aaron Manahan found himself charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend. Aaron Manahan, aka famed Sydney drag queen Ms Aaron Manhattan, found himself centre stage in a major police harassment scandal. Credit:Louise Kennerley But when Sydney Local Court heard of the manner in which police had gathered alleged "admissions", including an acknowledgement from a detective senior constable that he was "unaware" of his professional obligations under the Commonwealth Crimes Act, magistrate Janet Wahlquist excluded all evidence as "inadmissable" and dismissed the case. "'The law is there for a reason. It has to be complied with," she said, adding: "There are special circumstances. But police not knowing the law is not a special circumstance." NSW Premier Mike Baird has supported his Victorian counterpart's call to take in asylum seeker children rather than return them to Nauru, saying Daniel Andrews is "a good man". Mr Baird said NSW was also "prepared to help" but put the onus on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to make a request. "I recognise the humanitarian impulse behind [Mr Andrews'] letter to the Prime Minister," Mr Baird said in a statement on Saturday night. "The same impulse has driven us to work co-operatively with the Commonwealth to resettle an additional intake of refugees in NSW following the recent turmoil in Syria, which is where our focus remains. "The AFP has been advised by the Indonesian National Police of the arrest of Ms Wongso for murder, which attracts the death penalty," a spokesman said. "The AFP can confirm that they have not released any information to the Indonesian National Police in relation to this request and will seek ministerial approval for any such release." Wayan Mirna Salihin was poisoned with cyanide in Jakarta. Credit:Facebook The AFP faced criticism for handing over information to Indonesian authorities about the Bali nine, which led to their arrests for heroin smuggling in 2005. The coordinators of the Bali nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in Indonesia last year. New guidelines for the AFP's role in cases involving the death penalty were introduced in 2009 after a federal court exonerated the AFP from acting unlawfully in the Bali nine case but argued new protocols were needed. The guidelines require senior AFP officials to take into account a series of factors before providing assistance in potential death penalty scenarios. These include whether the information is favourable to the defendant, the nationality of the person involved, the person's age and personal circumstances, the seriousness of the suspected criminal activity and the likelihood the death penalty will be imposed. Beijing: A powerful earthquake has hit the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, killing at least 13 and leaving hundreds more feared trapped. The 6.4 magnitude quake struck before dawn on Saturday, sparking an emergency rescue response which has seen hundreds rescued from the rubble, just one day before the Lunar New Year's Eve, a time of family celebrations. Most of those who lost their lives were in a 17-storey apartment building that collapsed, with some people still known to be missing in the ruins of the complex as night fell, government officials said. An Italian woman could face up to six years in jail after her husband accused her of not doing enough cooking and cleaning at home. Her husband made a formal complaint to the paramilitary Carabinieri police, saying that his wife was slovenly, failed to put meals on the table and left their home in a dreadful mess. Rather than dismissing the case as a domestic dispute, the police referred it to judicial authorities. They decided to send the matter to trial, with the 42-year-old wife facing between two and six years in prison if found guilty of the charge of "mistreatment within the family". The crime, article 572 in the Italian penal code, "punishes whoever mistreats a person in their family or a person entrusted to them for reasons of education, care or custody". Australian woman Jocelyn Elliott has been freed, more than three weeks after she and her surgeon husband Ken were kidnapped in Burkina Faso by al-Qaeda militants. Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou presented Mrs Elliott to journalists at a news conference in Dosso, in southwestern Niger, and said authorities were intensifying efforts to secure Dr Elliott's release. The couple, who have worked in Burkina Faso for more than 40 years, have three children. On Sunday the Elliotts' family released a statement saying they were "deeply grateful for the safe release of our mother Jocelyn". He said that although a link between Zika and birth defects had yet to be proven, taking preventive action as soon as possible was the best strategy. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which can carry the Zika virus. Credit:AP Microcephaly is a neurological condition in which a baby's brain does not develop sufficiently during pregnancy, resulting in a small head. Some babies do not survive; many others suffer severe developmental problems, ranging from movement difficulties to mental impairment. "The causality has not been shown conclusively yet, but it's looking increasingly like it," O'Neill said. "Given the likely large numbers of people that will be infected, it doesn't seem wise to wait for conclusive evidence before acting." Alice Vitoria Gomes Bezerra, 3-months-old, who has microcephaly, is held by her mother. Credit:Getty Images Dr Ian Mackay, one of the world's leading virologists and adjunct associate professor at the University of Queensland's Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, said the WHO's emergency declaration was an understandable precaution that might solve the microcephaly mystery. "What the WHO have tried to do here is bring together all the experts and try to solve, in particular, whether there is a link between Zika virus infection in mums-to-be and the birth of children with microcephaly," he said. A poster with information about the Zika virus hangs on a wall as a pregnant woman undergoes an ultrasound treatment at the Social Security Institute maternity ward in Guatemala. Credit:Bloomberg All we know for sure is that there are two parallel events happening an outbreak of microcephaly, and an outbreak of Zika virus particularly in Brazil. Dr Ian Mackay "At the moment there is just no data to say for sure that it's happening. There is detection of the virus in babies but not much more. That's not enough to say it's causal it's just enough to say it's happening. And, really, all we know for sure is that there are two parallel events happening an outbreak of microcephaly, and an outbreak of Zika virus particularly in Brazil." The discovery of the virus in Brazilian newborns to which Mackay referred illustrates the difficulties being encountered by health authorities in determining just how dangerous Zika may be. Larvae from the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, responsible for the spread of the Zika virus, sit in a bowl of water during lab testing. Credit:Bloomberg This week, the authoritive US medical newsletter Medpage Today reported that genetic material from the virus has been found in just six of the 4000 affected babies raising the possibility that its presence is coincidental rather than related. What is certainly not in doubt is that in recent years the virus has spread explosively around the world, progressively infecting ever-larger populations of its primary host, the Aedes aegypti mosquito. This, too, raises important questions. David Henrique Ferreira, 5 months, who was born with microcephaly, is held by his mother in Recife, Brazil. Credit:Getty Images Zika virus was first identified in 1947 in rhesus monkeys living in Uganda. It was detected in humans in 1952, in the same country. Much of Africa has since experienced periodic outbreaks, but no concurrent rise in microcephaly has ever been identified. Mackay noted that although there have now been Zika cases recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, only Brazil the numerical epicentre of the current pandemic has so far recorded a rise in microcephalic births. Even this statement, however, is open to challenge. Before the Zika outbreak, Brazil's reported rate of microcephaly was about five cases per 100,000 births. The United States, in contrast, had a rate of between 20 and 120 for every 100,000 births implying that Brazil's figures were significantly under-reported. A study published in Nature on December 30 last year raised a different possible explanation for the apparent recent surge in cases. The research, by an academic group called the Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC), noted a big increase in reported cases in the north-eastern regions of Brazil. However, the authors noted, the increase was "probably due to active search and over-diagnosis" along with improved levels of reporting. In other words, the more doctors looked, the more they found and the more often they recorded their findings. The ECLAMC study concluded that the figures were not robust enough to reveal whether a real increase in cases had occurred and, if it had, whether it was attributable to Zika or other causes, including parental alcohol abuse, diabetes, and premature birth. "We're all working off public data, so it's a bit hard to know if there is probably more information within Brazil that hasn't been made public yet because they haven't got around to writing all this stuff up," said Mackay. "But what it looks like on the surface is that, if you take the averages, the total number of cases of microcephaly don't fall that far outside the averages you see in the US or even in Europe to a certain extent." Whatever the uncertainties, however, Mackay and other experts are happy to abide by the precautionary principle and agree with Dr Anthony Costello, the WHO's head of maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, who said in Geneva this week that Zika was "guilty until proven innocent". "There are two things that have got people concerned," said O'Neill. "The first is the speed at which the outbreak is travelling. Second is the microcephaly. It's very emotional to see those images of children. Also, these cases are going to be a burden on healthcare systems because they will need a lot of looking after." Eliminate Dengue has pioneered successful bio-control of the dengue virus, which is also hosted in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and is closely related to the Zika virus. O'Neill and his colleagues have been able to demonstrate that their strategy which involves infecting mosquitoes with a virus-killing bacterium called Wolbachia also works against Zika. The organisation is in talks with South American health authorities that may soon result in the release of swarms of Wolbachia-infected insects as a way of reducing the Zika-carrying population. It is one of several large-scale control efforts likely to be deployed against the mosquitoes in the coming weeks. At the same time research into potential cures and vaccines will be fast-tracked around the world. "Hopefully, getting all these experts around the table will be another way to get hard answers on whether there is a rise in cases or perhaps not," said Mackay. One of those experts is Dr Lawrence Gostin, head of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at the Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington DC. Gostin is a prominent adviser to both the WHO and the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC). "I believe strongly that we should take a precautionary approach," he said. "The link to microcephaly is solid, and we should know within a few months if causation is confirmed. It is better to be over-prepared than to sit and wait for the results of the study. It would be unconscionable if the current Zika epidemic were followed by a wave of microcephaly nine months from now." Despite the seriousness of the pandemic, Gostin, like many others in the field, criticised a statement made this week by UK public health expert Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, that the current Zika outbreak "is worse than the Ebola epidemic of 2014-15". "These two infections are very different and we constantly make the mistake of fighting the last war," he said. Mackay agreed. "I think, frankly, they are two very different beasts. Ebola killed a lot of people and left a lot of people sick. It did a lot of damage in those who survived and continues to do that," he said. Representatives of United States, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan adopted a road map Saturday in Islamabad to facilitate direct peace talks between the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban. A joint press release, issued after a meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group, announced that the four countries were trying to set a date for the talks, which were expected before the end of the month, and called on all Taliban groups to join the talks. The statement indicated that the roadmap has stipulated the stages and steps in the process. The group of four countries stressed that the process should lead to a political settlement and an end to violence in Afghanistan. Afghan Taliban's position Afghan Taliban sources contacted by VOA called this a one sided affair which would not produce any results. Foreigners are continuing their war and killing innocent Afghans, they said, adding that the only solution was for the foreign forces to withdraw from the country. We have no other option but to continue the war under these circumstances, the sources added. Earlier, they had also demanded a release of their prisoners, including those held by the U.S., and removal of their senior leaders from the United Nations sanctions list as preconditions to ending hostilities. Afghanistan claims the top Taliban leadership operates out of Pakistan and wants Pakistan to take stern action against those who refuse to negotiate. Pakistan has pushed back against that idea. Threats of the use of military action against irreconciliables [factions that refuse to enter into peace negotiations] cannot precede the offer of talks to all the groups and their response to such offers," Sartaj Aziz, adviser to Pakistans prime minister on foreign affairs, had said in his opening statement to the first meeting of the QCG. Human rights concerns Meanwhile, Afghan human rights groups, particularly womens rights activists have expressed concerns that the government may ignore the gains made during the last 15 years in favor of making peace with the Taliban. Afghan government has tried to ease some of those concerns. The head of the Afghan delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, in a statement in Germany a few days ago, had promised that Afghanistan would stick to the values enshrined in Afghanistans constitution particularly regarding womens rights once the talks with Taliban commenced, and would have a a woman member in the negotiating team. However, that may not be a deal breaker with the Taliban who have already indicated in a statement after an informal conference on Afghanistan in Qatar last month, organized by a Nobel peace prize winning group called Pugwash, that they are flexible on womens rights. The Islamic Emirate is committed to civil activities; to the freedom of speech and to the womens rights in the light of Islamic rules, national interests and values, their statement said. The QCG group, launched in December in Islamabad on the sidelines of a regional conference on Afghanistan, is comprised of senior diplomats from the US, China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. For this third meeting of the group, the U.S. delegation was led by the U.S. Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Olson, Chinas special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Deng Xijun, Pakistans foreign secretary, Aizaz Chaudhry, and Afghanistans deputy foreign minister, Hekmat Khalil Karzai. The next meeting of the group will be on February 23 in Kabul. A suspected suicide bombing in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta Saturday killed at least eight people and wounded many more, officials said. Baluchistan Provincial Home Secretary Akbar Durrani told reporters a man riding a bicycle approached a truck carrying personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) while it was parked in a busy part of the city and detonated the bomb. He said an investigation has been launched into the attack. Hospital officials have confirmed receiving at least 20 people who were wounded by the powerful blast. They include 10 FC personnel while the rest are said to be civilians. Taliban claim responsibility A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying it was carried out by a member of its special suicide squad. In addition to the extremist violence, separatist ethnic Baloch militants are blamed for assaults on security forces and government installations in Baluchistan. Fighters linked to Afghanistans Taliban insurgency are allegedly sheltering in the natural resource-rich Pakistani province and are directing attacks at targets in the neighboring country and within Pakistan. The Pentagon has released nearly 200 pictures previously withheld from the public that document prisoner abuse in some Iraq and Afghanistan detention centers from 2001 to 2009. The photos come from independent criminal investigations into allegations of misconduct by U.S. personnel, according to a Defense Department spokesman. Fourteen of these investigations substantiated allegations, and 65 service members were disciplined for misconduct. The American Civil Liberties Union, a U.S. human rights group, had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding the government reveal the abuse records. The photographs had been kept from the public under the Protected National Security Documents Act of 2009. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter reviewed the protected items in November 2015 and determined 198 images did not need to be protected from public release. According to a Defense Department spokesman, Carter's review process considered whether disclosure of the sensitive images "would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the U.S. armed forces or employees of the U.S. government deployed outside the United States." President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13491 during his first month in office to ensure the safe, lawful and humane treatment of individuals in U.S. custody. The Department of Defense spokesman said the department has fully complied with the order. Authorities in Afghanistan said Saturday national security forces and U.S. drone strikes have jointly killed at least 28 Islamic State (IS) fighters in a restive eastern region bordering Pakistan. The overnight attacks happened in Achin and Kot districts of the province of Nangarhar, said local officials. Achins chief, Haji Ghalib, told VOA 16 Daesh (Arabic acronym for IS) militants were killed when missiles fired by unmanned American aircraft struck a vehicle and a gathering of the group in a remote part of the mountainous district. He identified the dead as Pakistani militants. Separately, provincial officials say Afghan security forces in the nearby Kot district killed 12 IS fighters and wounded several others in overnight clashes. They say two civilians caught in the crossfire were also killed. Counterterrorism strike confirmed A U.S. military spokesman, Colonel Michael Lawhorn, confirmed American forces conducted a counter-terrorism strike in the Achin district Friday. "For operational security, we will not discuss the details of this event," he told VOA. Achin is where Afghan authorities say Islamic State has established its stronghold for attacks in and around Nangarhar. In recent weeks, the U.S. has carried out frequent airstrikes in the province and used drone attacks to destroy an FM radio station broadcasting Islamic State propaganda. The air raids killed 29 militants, including five staff members at the so-called Voice of Caliphate broadcast facility. The outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, has warned that IS continues to conduct brutal attacks against Afghan civilians. They have focused their efforts on establishing a presence in Nangarhar and recruiting in other areas, General Campbell told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington Thursday. Noting that the U.S. counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan has recently been authorized to launch direct strikes against Islamic State militants, Campbell added: Since then, we have had considerable success in degrading their capabilities. The strikes have been effective in mitigating their growth. A Twin Falls man was arraigned Tuesday in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on seven misdemeanor charges in three separate cases. Its not rare for a persons name to show up in arraignments twice in one day often people are charged with misdemeanors and felonies stemming from the same incident that are separated into their own cases. So when Joey Thomas Trevinos name showed up three times in Tuesdays arraignments, it wasnt all that odd. Except for the fact that the 25-year-old Trevino was being charged for two separate incidents that happened about 20 hours apart. Twin Falls arrested Trevino just before midnight Jan. 28 and again just after 7 p.m. Jan. 29. Police arrested Trevino the first time when they said he was sleeping at the wheel of his 2004 Infinity at the intersection of Lincoln Street and Falls Avenue, court documents said. A man called to report seeing Trevino get out of the car and vomit, and when officers arrived he was asleep with a pipe in his hand and the gear in drive. Officers say when they woke Trevino he tried hiding the pipe, which they later determined was used to smoke spice, court documents said. Trevinos license was also suspended and he was arrested that night and charged Tuesday with possession of spice, possession of paraphernalia and driving without privileges. The very next night police received a call about an Infinity that crashed in the landscaping of a business on Blue Lakes Boulevard North, court documents said. The caller reported the driver of the Infinity was stumbling around as if he was intoxicated. When police arrived, Trevino was identified as the driver of the stuck car and told police he lost control because of road conditions, court documents said. Trevino spoke slowly, was unable to keep his balance and was confused about what happened. Police arrested Trevino on suspicion of driving under the influence, but after a breathalyzer test showed he had no alcohol in his system, they determined he was under the influence of drugs, specifically a central nervous system stimulant, court documents said. Trevino was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence, failure to provide proof of insurance, inhalation of intoxicants and unlawful use of a drivers license. Trevinos bond was set at a combined $2,000 for all three cases and pretrial conferences in each case were scheduled for March 15. TWIN FALLS Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent for Christians around the world. Lent is considered a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for the coming of Easter; the day that marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is also a time that many Christians choose to give up things or habits in their lives. But rather than give up something like chocolate, alcohol or junk food, local pastors encourage their congregation members to do things that benefit other people as well as themselves. Pope Francis has said Lent is a time of conversion and a time to deepen ones faith by demonstrating and sharing it through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. These works remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbors in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them. On such things will we be judged, the pope wrote in the message released at the Vatican Jan. 26. In 2015, the pope echoed a similar Lenten theme. Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience, he wrote. What you give up for Lent really comes down to individual preference, said the Rev. Deb Seles of Ascension Episcopal Church. I like what the pope said about giving up indifference, Seles said. Thats a rather harder thing to give up than chocolate or TV. I also like the idea of taking on a spiritual discipline that you are going to continue after Lent. Sitting quiet in meditation or reaching out to your neighbors. I like to look at Lent as a practice period to practice good spiritual habits. Seles said Lent is usually a well-attended service and Ascension Episcopal Church is planning to hold an Ashes to Go like they did last year. Rather than stand downtown, they may set up inside a public building because of the cold weather. The church is also holding a 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Lent service Wednesday. Giving up a thing like chocolate can be very individualist. We live in an individualistic culture, Seles said. Giving up indifference has more to do with other people, which is what the Christian life is about. Its not about me getting into heaven. Its about how do we engage in Gods transformation of the Word. The ashes that are crossed on peoples foreheads come from palm branches that are used on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, when many Christian churches celebrate Jesus entry into Jerusalem with a procession of palm fronds. Its a reminder to us that Jesus has conquered death, and as a Christian believer, we die with him during Lent and during Easter we rise again with Him, Seles said. Because we know the story of Easter, we can say that death doesnt get the last word. God and eternal life get the final word. Its a reminder that we will one day die, but thats not the final word. The Rev. Kathleen McKevitt of the Unity Spiritual Center of Southern Idaho will observe Lent with meditation at 5 p.m. in the College of Southern Idaho Chapel on the second floor of the Student Union Building. There will be regular meditation meetings every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the same location until Easter. The meditation sessions will last between 30 and 45 minutes. Humans tend to burden ourselves with a lot of things we dont need, in thought, primarily, McKevitt said. All matters of negative thoughts, the purpose of Lent in the Unity style is to unburden the soul, look at those things weve taken on as activities of the mind, that we really dont want anymore. Participants will also write down things they want to let go of on flash paper. McKevitt said once this note touches flame, they will immediately disappear. It kind of has a mental impact, she said. That something that we thought was weighty had no substance at all. Twin Falls First United Methodist Church will offer Ashes on the Corner from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday for those passing by downtown. The Rev. Michael Holloman said its a more proactive way to reach out to the community. As churches, we can get caught up on the inside of our own boxes, Holloman said. For me, and the church, its stepping out the door into the midst of our community that we are in the center of. Not being arrogant thinking that people have to come to me or come inside. We can be open to those beyond our safety zone and our comfort zone. Holloman said he has given up fast food and soda pop in the past in order to be more healthy. While he doesnt tell people what to give up for Lent, he does guide them to think beyond themselves. I encourage people to reflect on who they are in relationship with God and those around them, Holloman said. Lent gives us opportunity to ground ourselves once again within the world that God crafted. We are just part of it and not necessary the center of that. Twin Falls A Twin Falls man struck a police officer after screaming at neighbors and threatening to destroy everything inside a womans house, police said. Paul Richard Ulrich, 49, was arraigned Thursday in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on a felony count of battery on a police officer and misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Neighbors called police about 2 a.m. Thursday to report a noise disturbance on the 1200 block of Valencia Street, and when officers arrived they heard loud music coming from one of the houses, court documents said. When officers knocked on the door, Ulrich answered extremely agitated and took a fighting stance. Ulrich yelled at officers to get off his property and yelled crude names at a neighbor the officers were speaking to, and when more cops arrived he started repeatedly banging the door, court documents said. Police called the owner of the home, a woman who said she was there earlier that night but had left when Ulrich threatened to destroy everything around her, court documents said. She told police Ulrich was violent with her in the past and she left the house to avoid getting hurt again. Officers persuaded the woman to come to the house, but when she tried to go inside with the officers, Ulrich slammed a door and told her he wouldnt let her in if she was with police, court documents said. Twin Falls Police Sgt. Ryan Howe went in a back garage door with the homeowner right behind him. When I opened the door, Ulrich immediately struck me in the chest, Howe wrote in a sworn affidavit. At that point I placed Ulrich on the ground and informed him he was under arrest for battery on an officer. Ulrich was handcuffed and taken to St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center where he was treated for a minor injury to his eyebrow, court documents said. Ulrich is being held in Twin Falls County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 12. TWIN FALLS An 18-year-old Twin Falls man is charged with breaking into a neighbors home and stealing a shotgun. Caleb Joseph Crowley was arraigned Thursday in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court on felony counts of burglary, grand theft and possession of a controlled substance. A woman called police about 1:10 p.m. Wednesday and reported seeing a man breaking a window and crawling inside a home in the 300 block of Madrin Street, court documents said. She told police she watched him go into the house through the window and then leave after stealing several items. Later the woman looked outside again and saw the man, who was now carrying a weapon, in front of a house across the street, court documents said. A weapon, a gun, the woman told police. I could see the stock of the bottom of the gun hanging out of his pants. She could see he had concealed the gun inside of his pants with the barrel sticking up out of his pants towards his head, court documents said. Responding officers found a chair underneath a broken window at the home that was reportedly burglarized, court documents said. They then spoke with a man at the home across the street where the woman reported last seeing the burglar, but he denied knowledge of a break-in and said nobody else was at the house. Police received permission from the homeowner to search the house, and they called for anyone in the basement to come outside, court documents said. After officers yelled into the basement several times, Crowley came up the stairs and was arrested. An officer noticed Crowleys shoe prints matched prints in the snow outside the house that was burglarized, and in the basement officers found the same clothes the woman had described the burglar as wearing, court documents said. In the basement, police also found a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun that residents of the burglarized home identified as belonging to them, court documents said. Those people also said they were missing a PlayStation 3, which police later found in the basement. Police found two baggies with a white substance that tested positive for methamphetamine in Crowleys pockets, court documents said. Crowley is being held in Twin Falls County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bond and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 12. JEROME A Washington state man charged in Jerome County last year with carrying more than five pounds of methamphetamine in his rental car has been indicted by a grand jury on federal drug charges. Police said Sergio Maldonado-Farias, 38, flew from Washington to Texas, picked up two large bricks of meth and was on his way back to Seattle in a rental car when an Idaho State Police trooper discovered the drugs on Interstate 84 in Jerome. The felony trafficking in methamphetamine charge was dismissed last month after a federal grand jury indicted Maldonado-Farias on a federal charge of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Maldonado-Farias faces 10 years to life in prison and a fine up to $10 million if convicted. He would also be forced to forfeit any money or other earnings he made from trafficking or distributing the drugs. County prosecutors said Maldonado Farias had two bricks of methamphetamine in the trunk of his rental car when he pulled off the side of westbound I-84 near milepost 170 about 8:35 p.m. on Dec. 11, court documents said. ISP Trooper Dan Choma pulled behind the car to see what was wrong. I noticed he was extremely nervous looking and his face was glistening with sweat-containing beads, the trooper wrote in his sworn affidavit at the time of the arrest. It looked like he had just finished playing a vigorous game of basketball. It was approximately 30 degrees out. Maldonado-Farias later gave Choma permission to search the car and the trooper found two bricks of methamphetamine inside a Popeyes Chicken bag in the trunk, Choma testified during a preliminary hearing. Each brick weighed more than two pounds, and Maldonado-Farias was arrested and booked in Jerome County Jail on a trafficking charge. The federal indictment came down Jan. 12 and an arrest warrant was issued the next day. Maldonado-Farias was arrested Jan. 15 by a Drug Enforcement Administration officer at the Jerome County Jail, and his charges in Jerome were dismissed that same day. Maldonado-Farias is being detained without bond after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk, and a jury trial is scheduled for March 22. TWIN FALLS College of Southern Idaho trustees voted 4-0 Friday to support the concept of geographic representation on community college boards. But trustees say they oppose an Idaho House bill which passed Thursday as its written. Board members expressed frustration with how quickly the bill is moving through the Legislature and the lack of opportunity to provide input. Board chairman Karl Kleinkopf said to his knowledge, none of the CSI board members were contacted about the bill. And they found out about a hearing the night before it happened. Im very disappointed in the communication process some of our legislators have used, Kleinkopf said. The bill introduced by Caldwell Republican Greg Chaney would require community college trustees to live in designated zones based on population. Its supporters say it would guarantee representation to rural voters who might have different educational and vocational training interests. Republicans Lance Clow and Steve Hartgen, who represent the city of Twin Falls, voted against the bill. Clow who made a motion to hold the bill for a week but ended up withdrawing it said he agrees with the basic concept but voted against it because there hadnt been enough time to get feedback from college trustees and other interested parties. All of the trustees at the meeting agreed they like the concept of the bill, but had concerns about the process. Trustee Jan Mittleider was absent from the meeting. Its a poorly written bill, CSI trustee Laird Stone said, adding it lacks specific definitions. And hes upset about not having a chance to provide input. It was rushed through by politicians in the Treasure Valley, he said. A lot of input is needed from community colleges on how to create trustee zones, Stone added. Trustee Thad Scholes said he supports the concept, but has serious concerns about the legislation. I strongly oppose the bill as written, he said. Scholes also said he is opposed to the timeline in the bill that zones would have to be set up by May 1, 2017, and would apply to elections after that. It would likely lead to a shake-up on the CSI board because Jerome County is big enough to get a zone of its own. Four of the current trustees live in Twin Falls and one in Kimberly. But trustee Bob Keegan said he thinks everyone on the board was hoping someone from Jerome County would be voted in during the last election. The bill affects three Idaho community colleges CSI, College of Western Idaho and North Idaho College with a combined total of 15 trustees. CSI President Jeff Fox said its troubling college boards did not have a voice in this legislation. The bill which was introduced about nine days ago is sailing quickly through the Legislature, he said. CSI board members asked administrators to suggest amendments to the bill when it comes before the Senate next week. I think time is really important here, Kleinkopf said. BOISE The Fish and Game Commission says it opposes a Senate bill that would require it to put more big-game tags up for auction. On Thursday, the commission voted unanimously to oppose the bill, which would require them to designate three elk, deer and antelope tags and one moose, wild sheep and mountain goat tag a year, to auction to raise money for the Access Yes! program, a program to increase hunter access on private property. The commission decided to postpone a decision on offering big-game tags for auction until its meeting March 9-11, to allow more time for public comment. This decision could be preempted if the bill passes before then. Commissioners voted to postpone action because we want more time to visit with sportsmen and better understand how they feel about auction tags before a decision is made, Commission Chairman Mark Doerr, of Twin Falls, said in a statement. This follows longstanding commission process. The Senate Resources and Environment Committee printed the bill Monday, with Sen. Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, voting against it. Heider said he was concerned about mandating the commission issue certain tags rather than allowing them to make the decision based on game counts and other circumstances. Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, said he had similar concerns but voted to print the bill out of respect for Committee Chairman Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot, so it could get a hearing. The tags would come from the non-resident pool, and the bill would raise an estimated up to $200,000 a year for the program depending on the auction prices in a given year. The department has auctioned one bighorn sheep tag each year since 1988. The tag sold for $90,000 this year. The commission recently did a random mail survey of hunters that found 54 percent support auctioning tags to raise money for wildlife management and 51 percent agree with offering more big-game tags for auction, according to a statement from the commission. But about three-quarters of the written comments the commission has gotten have been against the proposal. To comment, go to fishandgame.idaho.gov and click the Public Involvement tag. BOISE The Idaho Senate has passed a bill raising the weight limit for trucks on interstate highways to 129,000 pounds. Sponsored by Senate Transportation Chairman Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, the bill aligns Idaho with its neighboring states which have 129,000-pound limits, making interstate commerce easier. Congress froze states weight limits in 1991, and Idahos at the time was 105,500 pounds, Brackett said. It created a patchwork of different weight limits across the nation, he said. The state conducted a 10-year pilot study raising the weight limit to 129,000 pounds on some state roads, many of them in the Magic Valley, and found they didnt have any significant effect on road safety or structural soundness. In December, Congress authorized Idaho to raise its weight limit as part of the omnibus spending bill. This is a unique situation, Brackett said. Rather than taking power away from the states, this federal legislation ... returns power to the states. The Legislature passed a joint memorial in 2015 calling for the power to raise the weight limit, and Brackett thanked Idahos federal delegation for helping in the effort, singling out U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson for particular praise. Sen. Kelly Anthon, R-Rupert, also spoke in favor of the bill, saying raising truck weight limits would help interstate trade and Idahos economy and would be particularly beneficial for the sugar beet industry. Coming from the district from where I come, this is an important part of our agricultural economy, he said. Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, voted for it, but said she was conflicted and had safety concerns because the state hasnt addressed its backlog of road maintenance. It passed 31-3, with Boise Democrats Grant Burgoyne and Maryanne Jordan and Sandpoint Republican Shawn Keough opposed. Jordan said she was against it because the bill would let heavy trucks on I-184, the four-mile connector road outside of Boise. Keough cited safety worries. We still have safety benchmarks that we have not met, she said. BOISE After Saeed Abedini was released from an Iranian prison on Jan. 16, questions were raised about his treatment and his access to the outside world during his nearly four years there. Details could not be positively confirmed, but reports from a United Nations observer; Facebook posts by his wife, Naghmeh; and news reports from within Iran shed light on the plight of the Boise pastor who was imprisoned for practicing Christianity in Iran. Abedini, 35, grew up Muslim in Iran. He converted to Christianity in 2000 and set up a series of underground house churches where Christians could pray away from the prying eyes of Iranian religious and government leaders. Naghmeh, whose family came to Idaho when she was 9, felt a calling in 2001 to return to Iran to minister to Muslim women. Like Saeed, she grew up Muslim and later became a Christian. The following year, she met Saeed at an underground church in Tehran, where he was leading a worship service. They married in a Christian service in Tehran in 2004 and moved to Idaho the following year. During a family visit to Iran in 2009, Saeed was arrested and later agreed to give up his house church activities. For the next four years, he made repeated trips to Iran to establish a government-sanctioned orphanage. In July 2012, Saeed was removed from a bus and arrested. He was later charged with undermining the national security of Iran for his house church activities and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Q: What kind of abuse did Saeed suffer? An independent observer appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council reported that Saeed suffered internal injuries from beatings he endured and was denied medical care. Doctors who examined him in March 2013 said he needed immediate hospitalization, but it took a month before he was treated. In a January 2013 letter, Saeed said he was held for three months in a room that was constantly lighted and that he suffered intense pain following several beatings by Iranian government officials. In that same letter, Saeed said he was told that he would be hanged for his faith in Jesus. He also reported receiving death threats from other prisoners, who told him he would be killed in his sleep. The U.N. observer also reported that Saeed was taken to a private Tehran hospital in April 2013, where he was forced to wear a uniform reserved for people convicted of murder. When he refused to wear the uniform, he was beaten. After forcing him into the uniform, guards paraded him around the hospital and told him that he couldnt be treated because there were no doctors there, the U.N. said. The American Center for Law and Justice reported last summer that Saeed was beaten by a group of prisoners. The incident took place as he was trying to leave his cell, officials said. Q: Did he have access to a cellphone in prison? Naghmeh Abedini wrote last month on her Facebook page that Saeed was able to use his phone after he had been in prison for six months. Naghmeh said she talked with him six to eight hours a day at times. She also said he used his smartphone to watch movies using Naghmehs Amazon account and viewed pornography on his phone. Saeed has not addressed that accusation, other than to say some public allegations about him are not true. But other sources say access to phones inside prisons in Iran is far from unheard of. In a first-person account for Time magazine, Matthew Trevithick, who was among four other Americans released at the same time as Abedini, said he was able to use his phone during his 41 days at Evin Prison. Saeed spent the first year and a half of his sentence at the same Tehran prison. In a story published online in December on IranWire, which relies on citizen journalists to report on events in Iran, reporter Fereshteh Nasehi said phones were popular among prisoners at Rajaei Shahr Prison outside Tehran, where Abedini spent his final two years. Prisoners who can afford to buy smartphones now spend most of their time online. And the Internet makes access to porn much easier, but, of course, smartphones must remain hidden from prison guards, Nasehi wrote. Cheer Cheers to Senate Health and Welfare Chairman Lee Heider, a Republican from Twin Falls, who this week allowed the first-ever hearing in the Idaho for a bill to expand Medicaid. Backed by Democrats, a full expansion of Medicaid is a longshot in the Republican-controlled Legislature, even though it would provide better insurance and cost far less than Gov. C.L. Butch Otters proposal. In fact, the program stands to save the state millions as long as the federal government continues to fund the program. Many Republicans fear adopting a federal Medicaid expansion to insure 78,000 Idahoans would be seen as support for Obamacare, so even allowing a hearing was a big deal. No vote was taken Heider wants to see Otters plan formally introduced before committees will begin sorting out the plans and their financial impact. But this much is clear, especially after hearing an hour of testimony from Idahoans who must choose between going to the doctor and feeding their families: The Legislature must act this session to ensure everyone has reasonable access to health care. Jeer We can only shake our heads at a proposal from Rep. Clark Kauffman that would bar cities from passing bans on plastic bags. Kauffmans district covers Jerome, where Hilex Poly makes plastic carry-out bags. The company last year announced an impressive expansion project. And good for them this issue isnt really about plastic bags. We havent heard any Magic Valley cities suggest a ban, yet the bill passed the House on Wednesday. Really, this bill is about saying one thing and doing another time and again in the Legislature. The bag bill is one of several this session that would strip power from local lawmakers who know whats best for their communities. Another bill this session would bar cities from setting their own minimum wages. This ban-on-bans blanket approach from the state keeps local communities from being able to make local decisions. Surely we can agree that whats best in Boise isnt always whats best for Jerome. So why not let Jerome residents or residents of any Idaho city govern the way they see fit? Legislators often rail about federal government overreach. Perhaps cities can say the same about state overreach. Cheer This year marks an impressive anniversary for Twin Falls oldest permanent schoolhouse. Bickel Elementary school is celebrating 110 years though not all have been in that same original building. The original was destroyed by fire in the 1930s. But the spirit of the school has lived on in the thousands of students educated at Bickel. The PTA is rounding up alumni to share their memories in a keepsake book. You can join in by calling 208-733-4116, clicking a link to a questionnaire at Magicvalley.com or by checking out the schools anniversary group on Facebook. 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 Credits- Internet image Author- Koh Swee Lean Collin For many years, Vietnam has been steadily accumulating new military capabilities to reinvigorate its antiquated Cold War arsenal, sourcing from mostly Russia but increasingly from other suppliers too. However, military effectiveness clearly does not depend on only kinetic capabilities; the means of detecting, tracking and guiding weapons against the intended targets constitute another essential element. Cognizant of this, besides continuing to acquire new kinetic capabilities Hanoi has undertaken nascent but nonetheless crucial steps in establishing a comprehensive intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) suite. It is through this context that one may interpret recent revelation about the potential military significance of an Indo-Vietnamese deal to establish a satellite tracking station in Ho Chi Minh City, and an earlier report last year about Vietnams new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that will soon patrol the South China Sea (SCS). An ISR Master Plan in the Offing? Vietnams UAV and remote-sensing earth observation satellite programmes have often been emphasized for their utility in agriculture, disaster management and fishery management. At first glance, these initiatives correspond with general patterns observed in Southeast Asia Indonesia (see here and here) and Singapore for example have active UAV programmes. As for earth observation satellites, Singapore launched TeLEOS-1, jointly designed by ST Electronics, Nanyang Technological University and Defence Science Organisation Laboratories in December 2015. The Philippines is also poised to launch the Diwata-1 earth observation microsatellite. But such capabilities clearly have military applications, since they generate data that could be utilized for various purposes. Even though civilian satellites for instance may not possess the sort of capabilities possessed by their military counterparts, they may still fulfill less demanding military peacetime and wartime requirements. And some of such ostensibly civilian-purpose satellites demonstrate performance close to military specifications. TeLEOS-1 for example has a panchromatic resolution of 1 m (at nadir), which may generate militarily useful data. Indeed, the lines between civilian and military applications are often blurred in such dual-use technologies. This is especially true in the maritime domain. In the recent years, there are signs of Vietnam implementing a strategy of establishing what can be deemed maritime domain awareness in the SCS. Notably, in February 2013, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) said that it would gradually modernize existing marine environment and hydrometeorology observation stations as well as build new ones in key maritime zones as part of a master plan to establish a marine resources and environment observation network of 35 such stations in total by 2020. This integrated network, a crucial part of a three-phase project developed by Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands (VASI), will help improve national management of the seas and islands under Vietnams sovereignty and jurisdiction. Among various purposes, this network is designed with national defense in mind, thus giving an obvious strategic context to Vietnams ISR drive. Therefore, it seems very likely that Vietnams ISR advances are at least partly in response to developments to date in the SCS, which has seen recurring tensions. Hanoi appears to also be matching Beijings moves, including the latters vision of creating a new HY-3 constellation of maritime surveillance satellites in 2019 which has, according to Lin Mingsen, deputy director of the National Satellite Ocean Application Service, an important role in reinforcing Chinas marine rights protection, marine law enforcement and supervision, management of its offshore waters and marine disaster relief and reduction. This is not to overlook Chinas steady development of military UAVs such as the Wing Loong I medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drone, said to have entered mass production in 2015, the same year its enhanced successor Wing Loong II was unveiled. With a long 3,444-kilometers coastline (not counting islands) and vast maritime zone including claims in the disputed SCS waters, Vietnam clearly needs a comprehensive ISR strategy to bolster maritime domain awareness and targeting in times of peace and war. Unlike its acquisition of big ticket military kinetic capabilities, such as Su-30MK2 fighter jets and Kilo-class submarines, Vietnams discrete ISR-related projects have until now managed to evade much public attention while progressing steadily in the shadows. Earth Observation Satellites for Civilian Purposes? Space-based ISR capabilities, often couched within the ambit of civilian-sounding earth observation satellite development, constitute a key facet of Vietnams ISR quest. It started with the Strategy for Research and Application of Space Technology of Vietnam until 2020 approved in June 2006 with a $2 billion investment. Less than year later, the Space Technology Institute (STI) was created to undertake space science and technology research, which appeared to focus on innocuously civilian applications. Vice-chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), Nguyen Dinh Cong, said that Strategy called for the indigenous development of small earth observation satellites. But there is clearly a military intent; back in December 2008, Chairman of the National Research Programme on Space Science and Technology Nguyen Khoa Son said that If we have our own satellite, we can respond more promptly to natural disasters and be more active in defence and security activities. Also, the Vietnam Space Committee, established in 2010 and tasked to advise the prime minister on implementing the space strategy, was enhanced in January 2013 to comprise representatives from various national agencies, notably the Defense Ministry. Towards this aim, typical of many emerging satellite aspirants, Vietnam first started out with communications satellites. After some delay, it launched VINASAT-1 in April 2008, followed by VINASAT-2 in May 2012. The Vietnamese proved to be quick learners. Lockheed Martin, contractor for both VINASATs, praised Vietnamese engineers for their ability to master the skills of controlling the satellites. Indeed, Lockheed Martin handed over control of VINASAT-2 to Vietnamese authorities in July 2012, two months after satellite was launched. This was half the time taken for VINASAT-1, the control of which has relinquished to Hanoi in August 2008 thereby demonstrating a certain level of Vietnamese technical mastery. But Vietnam faces a much steeper learning curve as it progresses into the remote-sensing arena. In July 2012, Vietnam launched its first indigenous earth observation satellite, the F-1, designed by the Space Research Division (FSpace) of FPT Technology University. It measures 10 x 10 x 10 cm, weighs just 1 kg and is capable of taking low resolution (640480) pictures. Vu Trong Thu, Head of FSpace, said that Vietnam aims to master space technology for various purposes, including SCS surveillance thus hinting at the F-1s ISR role. But this microsatellite failed to transmit signals back to Earth, possibly because of battery problems. Nonetheless, this setback did not stymie Vietnams ambitions to wean itself of reliance on foreign-sourced remote-sensing data which has to be acquired at a huge cost, according to Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Vietnam National Satellite Center (VNSC). During an interview in March 2015, Pham explained: Currently, to produce a satellite photo, Vietnam has to order it in advance, and will only receive the image two days later. In fact, on several occasions Vietnam has not been able to receive the photos it needed on time. However, if we have our own satellites and a space center, everything can be done within 6-12 hours, including taking photos and processing data. So Vietnams second attempt, VNREDSat-1, which measures 600 x 570 x 500 mm and weighs 120 kg, was put into orbit in May 2013 and successfully transmitted the first images back to Earth two days after launch. VNREDSat-1 was designed by Astrium SAS, a European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) affiliate, and its $70-million project cost bankrolled jointly by the French and Vietnamese governments. Whffen Astrium SAS handed over VNREDSat-1s control to VAST four months later, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan called that a milestone in Vietnams space technology development, claiming full mastery of small satellite technology and the ability to independently process images. Most importantly, according to the National Space Science and Technology Research Programme chairman Nguyen Khoa Son, VNREDSat-1 helps reduce Vietnams reliance on foreign-sourced images. To be sure, the military significance of VNREDSat-1 cannot be overlooked. In February 2014, Nguyen Xuan Lam, Head of MONREs National Remote Sensing Department, said that VNREDSat-1 will used for monitoring Vietnams waters and islands for the purpose of socioeconomic development as well as defense and security purposes, under the project Monitoring Offshore Key Waters and Islands with Remote Sensing Technology. At a conference in May the same year, Deputy Minister of MONRE Nguyen Thai Lai said that VNREDSat-1 serves as an effective tool in managing Vietnams environmental resources and defending national sovereignty over its land, sea, islands and airspace. Vietnam is evidently buoyed by the success of VNREDSat-1 and of Pico Dragon, which has roughly the same dimensions as the ill-fated F-1 and was launched shortly after, managing to transmit its first signals to Earth. By 2016, according to Pham, Vietnam plans to launch the 10 kg NanoDragon, which will be entirely developed locally, to be followed by the 50 kg MicroDragon in 2018, and then LOTUSat-2, a 500-600 kg satellite capable of capturing X-band synthetic aperture radar images with 1-16 m resolution, by 2020. Clearly, Hanoi has adopted an incremental approach, moving from small to bigger and more capable satellites. As it stands, VNREDSat-1 carries a camera that can capture images with a 2.5 m resolution certainly falling short of the high resolution of one meter or less afforded by military satellites. This hampers Vietnams ability to identify and observe with high precision the types of activities taking place in the SCS. VNREDSat-1s limitation and the growing urgency of the SCS situation thus catalyze follow-on initiatives. In October 2014, Hanoi inked a deal with Belgium to develop VNREDSAT-1B, planned for launch in 2017. Unfortunately, however, it later backed out of the deal, following the breakdown of prolonged negotiations over its terms. Hence the deal with India to build a satellite tracking station in Vietnam, allowing Hanoi access to data from Indias constellation of civilian and military remote-sensing satellites. Facing a remote-sensing capability gap until the more capable LOTUSat-2 comes on line, Vietnam possibly views this as a short-term stopgap measure to acquire more precise, militarily useful data generated from sophisticated Indian military satellites such as the radar imaging satellite RISAT-2 which, despite Indian officials insistence that it is used solely for disaster management, is capable of monitoring objects with dimensions as small as 10 cm. In the longer term, Hanoi may have assessed that collaboration with New Delhi may facilitate its ultimate goal of attaining self-sufficiency in its satellite remote-sensing capabilities. Drones Seeing Steadier Progress Compared to satellites, UAVs constitute a field where Vietnam has arguably achieved more success, in no small part attributable to the relative ease of accessing dual-use technologies commonly found in such platforms. Indeed, UAVs have been a critical facet of Hanois quest to develop ISR capabilities, and rightfully so since drones have become a perennial asset in modern warfare. In fact, Vietnam had begun developing UAVs as far back as 1978 when its air forces Institute of Technology launched the TL-1 program. The first dedicated military UAV, HL-1, was based on a French model but financial constraints meant it was only partially completed. In recent years, Hanoi has taken steps to revitalize its UAV program. Since 2010, it has cooperated with the Russian aerospace corporation Irkut to develop UAVs. Russo-Vietnamese UAV cooperation was enhanced in March 2012 with a new agreement signed between Vietnam Aerospace Association (VASA) and Irkut to develop a UAV weighing less than 100 kg with endurance of 16 hours. The deal was reportedly worth $10 million and covers technology transfers to Vietnam. But it is also evident that Hanoi seeks to diversify its sources of UAV technology. Notably, in November 2012, VASA inked a UAV deal with a Swedish firm, with its first phase covering Swedish support to initially build two Magic Eye-1 UAVs, each weighing 40 kg and capable of staying up for six hours. The subsequent two phases cover technical collaboration in associated UAV electronics, such as automatic drive mechanisms and cameras, and joint exports. Hanoi appears to have adopted a double-pronged strategy of acquiring foreign systems while developing them through technology transfers. At least five UAV models had been tested so far, equipped with various specialized payloads. However, not all such effort yielded success. For example, also in February 2014 Vietnams navy reportedly discussed with Austrian firm Schiebel to purchase the Camcopter S-100 rotary-winged UAV, ostensibly for deployment from the Dutch SIGMA corvettes Hanoi was earlier said to be acquiring. But the corvette deal has since fallen through, though it is not implausible for the same UAV to be flown from other types of warships if Vietnam remains keen on it. Undeterred, Hanoi persists with this double-pronged UAV development strategy, starting with tactical systems optimized for short-range battlefield ISR. Following the successful test flight of a prototype AV.UAV.S2 over the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong in May 2013, touted by Vietnams state media as paving the way for follow-on development of UAVs to perform other necessary tasks, in February the following year military-owned Viettel Group unveiled its indigenous Patrol VT tactical UAV, reportedly equipped with a high-definition infra-red sensor capable of taking high-quality images within 600 meters. About seven months later, Vietnam acquired the Orbiter-2 mini-UAV from Israel. It debuted on Vietnamese television in December, supporting a navy coastal defense artillery live-firing exercise featuring an Israeli-made EXTRA rocket system. Hanoi is possibly satisfied with the Orbiter-2 and therefore decided to acquire more of the system, as well as the larger Orbiter-3 that is capable of 7-hour endurance. But such tactical UAVs are typically handicapped by limited endurance and payload. Vietnam clearly seeks more capable UAVs. A senior official responsible for UAV development at Viettels Flight Instrument Center stated in June 2013 that the firms longer-term goal is to develop a UAV capable of 15-24 hours endurance. In this respect, Vietnam seems to have reaped the most out of its military-technical links with Belarus, following a UAV purchase and joint development pact signed in May 2013. It is very plausible that HS-6L, a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) drone reported in December 2015, is developed with Belarussian assistance. Capable of a 4000km-range and 35-hour endurance, this UAV is poised to conduct SCS flight tests during the second quarter of 2016. Clearly, while its scope is dwarfed by Chinas, Vietnam is keen to develop a holistic range of UAVs optimized for various tactical and strategic-operational missions. Within barely a decade, it has made notable progress in no small part due to its access to foreign technologies. In the near future, Hanoi would attain a degree of self-sufficiency in UAVs to complete such an important facet of its envisaged suite of ISR capabilities. Persistent ISR Capability Gaps While the pathway undertaken by Hanoi in building its ISR capabilities has so far been sound and pragmatic, clearly there is still some way to go before a comprehensive, multi-layered suite of ISR capabilities can be established for maritime domain awareness and targeting purposes in the SCS. There is a persistent capability shortfall in manned aerial ISR platforms, and particularly in airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) and maritime patrol aircraft. An AEW&C plane is primarily optimized for aerial surveillance while possessing a secondary maritime surveillance function but such platforms are expensive. Maritime patrol aircraft are the next alternative, being optimized for maritime surveillance roles. At present, Vietnams stable of such planes the Canadian DHC-6 Guardian-400 and Spanish CASA-212 are handicapped by limited endurance, payload and range. Time-sensitive, close-in ISR can be accomplished with only larger MPAs in view of the vast maritime area of responsibility Vietnam has. Ever since Hanoi reportedly expressed a lot of interest in acquiring the P-3C Orion from the United States back in April 2013, thus far no follow-on moves had been made even though Washington partially relaxed its arms export ban on Vietnam in September the following year. A less costly strategy could be to modify Vietnams new C-295 medium airlifters to perform ISR roles. But these planes are intended in the first place to replace the antiquated fleet of Soviet fixed-wing air transports, leaving little or no surplus assets for such conversions. In any case, Vietnams current ISR focus constitutes a logical progression from the previous emphasis on reinvigorating its kinetic military capabilities. Having already invested so much in new fighter jets, missiles, warships and submarines, Hanoi clearly recognizes the need for more attention to ISR. Its ongoing programs are geared towards building space-based remote-sensing and unmanned aerial ISR assets that would augment traditional ISR capabilities found in Vietnams existing aerial, surface, sub-surface and shore-based platforms. Ultimately, the eventual realization of a comprehensive ISR capability suite would allow Vietnam to maximize the potential of its arsenal for the purpose of conducting sea denial and defensive sea control missions, in effect realizing its own version of anti-access and area denial (A2/AD) strategy in the SCS. Considering the relatively small arsenal mustered by Hanoi vis-a-vis Chinas, a comprehensive suite of ISR capabilities would serve as a valuable force multiplier. About the author- Koh Swee Lean Collin is associate research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University based in Singapore. He can be reached at iscollinkoh@ntu.edu.sg THE DIPLOMAT ( ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) While everyone and their dog is getting geared up for the Super Bowl, I'm watching lots of gymnastics!This afternoon, I'm live blogging Utah at UCLA. Will UCLA rebound from their disappointment last week at Cal? Will Utah dominate the Bruins at home? Refresh the page every 10-15 minutes or so for all the juicy gymnastics goodness with this Pac-12 match-up.Here we go.Peng jamming out always makes everyone happy.First rotation UCLA is on vault, Utah is on bars.Opening for UCLA on Vault, Janay Honest - FTY - small leg bend, hop to the side. 9.75Opening for Utah on Bars, Samantha Partyka - jump to hb, kchs, giant 1.1 + jaeger, toe on, bail, DLO, stuck. 9.825Peng Peng Lee VT UCLA - FTY - big hop back, lots of distance and power. beautiful form in air, slightly piked in air. 9.775Sabrina Scwab UB Utah - Tkatchev, bail, stalder + double back. small step. 9.75Angi Cipra VT UCLA - FTY - huge, lots of power, hop back. 9.8Kassandra Lopez Utah UB - jump KCHS, giant 1/1 + taktchev, huge air bail, KCHS, DLO very straight, stuck landing. 9.925Sadiqua Bynum VT UCLA - Y arabian, off to the side, small hop. 9.85Tiffani Lewis UB Utah - Happy Bday! giatn 1/1/ + tkatchev, bail, short HS here and there, DLO stuck. 9.775Madison Preston UCLA VT - FTY - very clean, was it stuck? couldn't quite tell. Nope small hop, replay shows it. 9.85Breanna Hughes UB Utah - jump KCHS giant 1/1 + tkatchev, bail, full in, step back. 9.775Sonya Meraz anchors vault for UCLA - FTY very clean, small step back. 9.9Baely Rowe anchors bars for UTah - giant 1/1 + tkatchev, bail, toe on step down, DLO some piking in the air, but stuck it. 9.8 ->UCLA vault total 49.075Utah bars total 49.200Moving to rotation two, Utah will go to vault and UCLA will go to bars.Leading off vault for Utah, Makenna Merril - FTY - small hop back, otherwise, very clean. 9.725Leading off bars for UCLA, Danusia Francis - glide KCHS + maloney + bail, toe shoot, giant 1/1 + double pike. 9.825Baely Rowe Utah VT - FTY - small shuffle back. good form in the air. 9.775Hallie Mosset UCLA UB - giant 1/1 + jaeger, pak, short hS there, full in dismount. 9.9Tiffani Lewis Utah VT - FTY - flares it out, small shuffle back. 9.825Janay Honest UB UCLA - tkatchev, giant 1/2 + straddle back, full in, step back. 9.8Samantha Partyka Utah VT - FTY very nice. small slide back 9.875Sonya Meraz UB UCLA - jump KCHS, toe on + bail, tkatchev, DLO piked in the air and leg separations. 9.8Breanna Hughes Utah VT - Y 1 & 1/2, short on landing. piked slightly, knee bend. big step on landing. 9.775Melissa Metcalf UCLA UB - glide KCHS, maloney + bail, toe shoot giant 1/2 + double front dismount. 9.9Kailah Delaney VT Utah - FTY - huge in air, small step 9.85Anchoring bars for UCLA, Sophina DeJesus - jump hecht, giant 1/1 + gienger, bail, full in chest down, steps fwd. 9.85Utah total scores after 2 events: 98.30, vault total 49.1UCLA total scores after 2 events:98.25, bars total, 49.175Onto rotation three, Utah will go to floor and UCLA will be on beam.Mikaela Gerber will lead off beam for UCLA - wolf 1/1, fro aerial + beat jump, BHS + LOSO bal check, spl + sw, stag ring, side somi, BHS + gainer 1/1 dismount. 9.825Makenna Merrell leads off floor for Utah - FHS + fro 1/1, sw ring + sw 1/2, 2 1/2 + punch front, rudi. 9.775Sonya Meraz UCLA BB - BHS + BHS + LOSO, sw 1/2, sw + cross straddle, 1/1 turn, round off + 1 1/2 twist dismount. 9.825Tiffani Lewis FX Utah - double pike, fhs + fro lay + fro 1/1, sw 1/4 + side straddle, double back, bounced out a wee bit. 9.825Sophina DeJesus BB UCLA - fro aerial wo +back tuck, connection very slow, front toss + BHS, scale, lovely, sw + side straddle to front support, moonwalking -touche!, 1/1 attitude turn, front gainer 1/1 9.85Kailah Delaney FX Utah - shimmy shimmy, double back, clean, wolf 1/1, sw 1/4 + popa, FHS + fro lay + fro 1/1. 9.875PENG PENG!!! BB UCLA - flares, love it! great flexibility, sw + spl, BHS + lay 2ft (more like back pike, whatevs), 2/1 turn, aerial cartwheel + 1/1 twist, small hop back. Gorgeous routine. 9.875Okay,I'm pissed about Peng Peng's score. I think she should have gotten at least a 9.9 but, whatever! Judges be lame like that. :( Humbug!Sabrina Schwab Utah FX - double pike, 1 1/2 + fro lay, sw 1/4 + popa, 2 1/2 twist stuck. beautiful 9.95Danusia Francis BB UCLA - silivas mt, fro aerial + beat jump, BHS + LOSO, small wobble there for a sec. or not... sw + split (missed it the first time), 1/1 memmel turn, transverse aerial + 1/1 twist. 9.825 - Amanda Borden thought this was generous, I think I agree...even though I love Nush, this was not her best routine.Breanna Hughes Utah FX - double pike, very clean, sw 1/2 + wolf 1/1 jump, 1 1/2 + fro lay, double back. 9.9Madison Preston anchors beam for UCLA - 1st time on beam this season, BHS + LOSO big balance check, sw + cross straddle + straddle 1/4, flexed feet, front tuck, 1/1 turn, punch rudi dismount. 9.725Samantha Partyka anchors floor for Utah - 1 1/2 + rudi, double back, sw 1/2 + tour jete 1/1, fhs + rudi, very nice. 9.875Utah score after 3 rotations: 147.725, floor total: 49.425UCLA score after 3 rotations: 147.450, beam total: 49.2Final rotation, UCLA will end on floor, Utah will end on beam.Samantha Partyka leads of beam for Utah - spl + cross straddle, cat leap + aerial, 1/1 turn, BHS +LOSO - solid, sw + spl, round off + 1 & 1/2 stuck it. Flawless routine. 9.875Leading off floor for UCLA, Mikaela Gerber - double back, short landing, whip + 1 1/2, front aerial, sw ring + sw 1/2, double pike, 9.675Breanna Hughes Utah BB - BHS + LOSO, 1/1 turn, spl + straddle 3/4, dismounts with aerial + 1/1 twist, stuck. 9.85Madison Preston UCLA FX - front tuck + double back opening pass, tour jete 1/1 + popa, double pike, ends well. 9.925Kassandra Lopez Utah BB - sw + sw 1/4, BHS +LOSO, 1/1 turn, front tuck + beat jump, side straddle 1/4, round off + 2/1 twist, small hop back. 9.85Danusia Francis UCLA FX - silivas ankle turn, whip + double back, aerial cartwheel + scale, 2 1/2 twist , tour jete 1/1 + spl leap, double pike, step back, just to the edge... 9.825Kailah Delaney BB utah - BHS + LOSO, cross straddle + tuck 1/1 small balance check, 1/1 turn, gainer loso + wolf jump, round off + gainer 1/1 9.875Sophina DeJesus UCLA FX -, 2/1 front twist, double back, stuck, sw ring + wolf 1/1, 1 1/2 + fro lay + split, very nice. Miss Val should put her on floor more often. 9.925Miss Moonwalk - Baely Rowe Utah BB - sw + cros straddle, balance check, BHS + BHS + LOSO, 1/1 turn, front toss, big balance check, the moonwalk, round off + 1 & 1/2 hop back. 9.7Angi Cipra UCLA FX - be prepared for some "you didn't turn your phone off jokes" ugh, double back, sw ring - feed kicked me off so I missed the rest of the routine. Super lame. 9.975Maddie Stover anchors beam for Utah fro aerial +, bhs + loso, 1/1 turn,, sw + cross straddle, straddle cross, balance check, round off + gainer 1/1 dismount. 9.9?Sadiqua Bynum anchors floor for UCLA - DLO huge, side pass double tuck, sw 1/2 + tour jete, front tuck + double back. 9.95Sadiqua just sealed the win for UCLA by .025.Final scores:UCLA: 197.100, floor total 49.600Utah:197.075, beam total 49.350Wow, that was a close one. UCLA brought it on floor and that sealed the win for them. But it was super close! It could have gone either way.Join me at 5 p.m. mountain time for Utah State at Denver. Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders on Thursday said his country is ready to send a peacekeeping force to Burundi, depending on a UN vote. The African Union this week abandoned its plan to send 5,000 peacekeepers to help restore stability in the country, disclosing that President Pierre Nkurunziza had fiercely opposed the move. Belgium is the first West nation to announce its readiness to participate in an intervention mission in the chaotic country. According to Didier Reynders, after the Rwandan genocide, the idea of not intervening in former colonies or mandated territories is a mistake. Belgium will contribute to the peacekeeping mission not necessarily by military operations but it could be logistical, he said. We have neither the intention nor the ability to act alone in a country like Burundi but we really want the population to be protected, he added. In reaction to the statement, Burundis Foreign Minister Alain-Aime Nyamitwe said that Burundi has no problems with Belgium and would not wish to have any problems let alone going to war with Belgium. We therefore ask Belgium not to interfere with Burundis affairs, he said adding that Burundi wants to maintain cordial relations with its former colonial power. Violence exploded in Burundi in April last year when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he was running for a third term a move the opposition called unconstitutional. Nkurunziza was re-elected in July in a vote the opposition boycotted. Election-related violence has killed scores of people and tens of thousands fled for their lives across the border. Unidentified gunmen carried out simultaneous attacks across Timbuktu in northern Mali at a UN police base and an army checkpoint, leaving at least one injured, local media reports. According to the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, the attackers drove up to the entrance of the citys former Palmeraie hotel, taken over by a Nigerian police acting on behalf of the mission. Simultaneously, a Malian army checkpoint in the Kabara neighborhood near the Timbuktu airport was attacked by gunmen. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties. Malis expansive north has been unstable since 2012, when separatist rebels and jihadists seized the area. Although French forces scattered them from cities the following year, they have stepped up attacks in recent months. In November 2015 AQIM claimed responsibility for a November assault on a Bamako hotel in which gunmen took hostages and killed 20 as well as an attack on January 15 on a Burkina Faso hotel and restaurant in which armed assailants took hostages and killed 30. 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. The mosquito-borne Zika virus sweeping through Latin America has claimed three lives in Colombia, as the United Nations urged increased access to abortion because of fears of severe birth defects. In the first direct statements from government health officials blaming Zika for causing deaths, Colombia's National Health Institute (INS) said Friday that the patients died after contracting the virus and developing a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. Cases of the syndromein which the immune system attacks the nervous system, causing weakness and sometimes paralysishave increased in tandem with the Zika outbreak, fueling suspicions that it is a complication of the otherwise mild tropical fever, which is also blamed for causing brain damage in babies born to infected mothers. "Other cases (of deaths linked to Zika) are going to emerge," said epidemiologist Martha Lucia Ospina, director of the INS. "The world is realizing that Zika can be deadly. The mortality rate is not very high, but it can be deadly." Most Guillain-Barre patients recover, but the syndrome sometimes causes paralysis or even death. Citing the rise in babies born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads and brains, the UN human rights office urged countries hit by Zika to give women access to contraception and abortion. Women's reproductive rights are a touchy subject in largely Catholic Latin America, but the UN human rights office said countries urging women to avoid pregnancya list that comprises Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Panamahad to give them ways to control their fertility. "How can they ask these women not to become pregnant, but not offer... the possibility to stop their pregnancies?" spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told reporters. Many Latin American countries outlaw abortion or allow it only if the mother's life is in danger. In El Salvador, one of those warning against pregnancy, abortion is punishable by up to 40 years in prison. Honduras, which earlier this week declared a state of emergency after tallying some 3,700 cases of Zika since mid-December, said it is planning a full day dedicated to eradicating the mosquitoes that carry the virus. President Juan Orlando Hernandez has allocated an initial tranche of $10 million in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. Safe sex or none at all Health officials in Brazil and the United States meanwhile warned that sex or even kissing could potentially spread the typically mosquito-borne disease. Brazil's top research center, the Fiocruz institute in Rio de Janeiro, said Zika had been detected in urine and saliva. The scientists were careful to clarify that there is no proof the virus can be transmitted through those fluids, but said people should take precautions, especially expecting mothers. "Avoid sharing glasses, silverware, contact with someone who has symptoms of a possible infection. Don't kiss, obviously," said the institute's director Paulo Gadelha. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for their part urged people to use condoms or abstain from having sex if they live in or have traveled to Zika-infected areas. Earlier this week, US health officials confirmed the first case of sexually transmitted Zikaa person who had traveled to Venezuela and infected a sexual partner in Texas upon return. In the US territory of Puerto Rico, officials declared a health emergency over Zika and confirmed a pregnant woman had been infected, bringing the number of cases on the island to 22. The emergency measures included freezing the price of condoms and combatting mosquitoes. Calls for more research The World Health Organization, which has declared the rise in Zika-linked birth defects an international emergency, warns that Zika could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide. The WHO has advised countries against accepting blood donations from people who have traveled to affected regions. The new warnings on intimate contact highlight how little is known about Zika, a virus that was first identified in Africa in 1947 but had been considered relatively mild until the current eruption of apparent complications. Both the US CDC and Fiocruz in Brazil said more research was needed on person-to-person transmission. Brazil has been the country hardest hit by the outbreak, with an estimated 1.5 million cases. Colombia is next on the list, with more than 20,000 cases. Zika often goes unnoticed, and causes a relatively mild fever and rash in those who do develop symptoms. But Brazil sounded the alarm after recording a surge in babies born with microcephaly. It has registered 404 cases since October and 3,670 suspected cases, up from 147 in all of 2014. burs-jhb/sst/sg Explore further Colombia fears 'explosion' of nerve disease from Zika 2016 AFP 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 via @learyreports Bobby Jindal is the second former 2016 presidential candidate to endorse Marco Rubiothis week. "He can unify the party," Jindal said on Fox News. "He can win this election in November." Jindal's endorsement follows Rick Santorum, who failed to name an accomplishment of Rubio's. The fomer Louisiana governor may have to explain this line from October 2015: "We've got a first-term senator in the White House. We need somebody with a proven track record." But is shows how the GOP is beginning to unite around Rubio. --ALEX LEARY, Tampa Bay Times Hillary Clinton's campaign announced it will open a Broward County office in Pompano Beach this month in advance of Florida's March 15 primary. So far, Clinton hasn't spent much time publicly in Broward -- she spoke to the National Urban League in Fort Lauderdale in July and held a public event at Broward College in Davie in October. But she is expected to spend more time in South Florida before the primary. Broward County could play a key role in Clinton's battle with Bernie Sanders next month and if she becomes the nominee in the general election. Broward has about 550,000 registered Democrats -- more than any other county in the state. The office will be located at 50 NE 26th Ave. in Pompano Beach. The exact opening date hasn't been announced yet. (The office opening was reported earlier today by the Sun Sentinel.) Michael-in-Norfolk disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, operability, or availability of information or material displayed on this site and does not claim credit for any images or articles featured on this site, unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyrighted to it's respectful owners. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies, and Michael-in-Norfolk does not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content. If you own rights to any of the images or articles, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact Michael-in-Norfolk via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. Michael-in-Norfolk contains links to other Internet sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience and are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information or content in such site has been endorsed or approved by this blog. Ten years after it was launched, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which promises 100 days of employment to every rural household, is back in the news. More people in rural India are seeking employment through the programme across the country, with job numbers scaling a five-year peak . Although the MGNREGS seems to be reaching many more rural households than before, urban opinion on the programme is sharply divided, both in the mainstream and social media. Even the Narendra Modi government seems divided on the programme, with the ministry of rural development declaring that the 10th anniversary of the programme was a matter of national pride" barely a year after Modi had derided the programme as a ditch-digging exercise on the floor of Parliament. Academic opinion on the MGNREGS, however, appears far more favourable than is evident from the public discourse on the issue. A growing body of research on the MGNREGS suggests that it has helped dent poverty, reduced distress migration and raised the bargaining power of rural labourers, especially among lower castes and women, the biggest beneficiaries of the programme. The latest UN Development Programme report on human development hailed the programme as a milestone", which had raised living standards of the poorest of households by offering them a safety net. In a 2014 paper analysing the impact of the programme, economists Stefan Klonner and Christian Oldiges of the University of Heidelberg found that it had reduced poverty by almost half during the agricultural lean season, by helping smoothen seasonal spikes in the consumption of the poorest families. Using a different data set and a different methodology, a study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) found that the MGNREGS has reduced poverty overall by up to 32% and has prevented 14 million people from falling into poverty". One of the chief attractions of the scheme, according to economists, is the self-selection mechanism of choosing beneficiaries. As Pranab Bardhan, emeritus professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, pointed out in an interview to Mint about a year ago, the MGNREGS is effectively a conditional cash-transfer programme. The condition is that the beneficiary has to work manually, which immediately rules out the rich and the middle class. And in the absence of credible data on poor households, this mechanism seems to be effective in reaching those who need it the most. As the ministrys press release pointed out, the proportion of scheduled castes and tribes (SCs and STs) among those the programme has reached is greater than their share in the overall population of India. The MGNREGS has been instrumental in providing a safety net to the poor because it attracts mainly poor and vulnerable people such as agricultural wage labourers, scheduled tribes, scheduled castes and small, marginal farmers", the NCAER report pointed out. Given that the key objective of the programme was to provide livelihood security (especially during the agricultural lean season) and thereby act as a safety net for the poor, it seems to have met that goal. Nonetheless, the programme continues to face four main criticisms: 1. It is not actually a demand-driven programme, and its success depends on the willingness of the respective state governments and local bodies. 2. It has failed to create durable assets in rural areas. 3. It has contributed significantly to wage growth and stoked the fires of inflation. 4. It has led to a massive leakage of public resources, and led to unintended consequences in rural areas such as on educational outcomes. The first point is perhaps the most potent among the main criticisms of the programme. Although it was launched as a demand-driven workfare" programme, in reality, the MGNREGS remains supply-driven with its reach and impact determined by central, state and local government functionaries, and varying widely across states. Research by Deepta Chopra of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, shows that it is the governments inability or rather unwillingness to award jobs under the MGNREGS that has led to the decline of the programme in Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, the early success of the programme turned out to be its biggest weakness, Chopra argues. She points out that the involvement of grassroots organizations in the implementation of the programme threatened local power brokers, who resented the inability to award jobs according to their discretion. This led them to sabotage the process of demand-driven work schemes, and the frontline workers charged with accepting applications for work refused to accept them. Economists Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay of the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, Himanshu of Jawaharlal Nehru University and M.R. Sharan of Harvard University found significant rationing of work by village headmen in Rajasthan. In many villages, people did not demand work because they were told that they can request work only when it is available". Supply-side issues in the MGNREGS are so important that a group of World Bank economists found that even after mitigating the information asymmetry, participation may not increase. Martin Ravallion and others of the World Bank ran a randomized experiment in Bihar, where they showed a group of villagers an informative video about the MGNREGS. While the perception of the programme certainly improved among those who viewed the video, the impact on seeking and finding work through the programme remain modest. Given the supply-side nature of the programme, better-functioning states such as those in south India have made better use of the programme and received more funds compared to poorer northern states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, an analysis by former bureaucrat N.C. Saxena shows. Saxena suggests that pre-fixing state-wise MGNREGS allocations based on need would have been far more equitable. While creating durable assets was not the main objective of the programme, it became a key aim in later years, and led to convergence with other schemes. The evidence on this count is mixed, but the perception that it has just been an empty ditch-digging exercise may be an urban myth. While there are anecdotal examples of poor assets created under the programme, there is no systematic evidence suggesting that most or even a majority of the assets are useless. A 2014 study by a team led by economist Sudha Narayanan of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) shows that most assets recorded under the programme in Maharashtra exist in reality and not just on paper. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of rural households surveyed found the assets created under the programme such as bunds, ponds, embankments, etc., to be useful for them. Seventy-five per cent of the assets created are directly or indirectly linked to agriculture, the study found. Another criticism that has been prevalent is that MGNREGS wages increase agricultural wages and, hence, the cost of cultivation rises, which has inflationary effects. In a 2012 paper, Mehtabul Azam of Oklahoma State University analysed the impact of the MGNREGS and found that the programme drove up wages of casual female labour by 8%. However, this is indicative of a reduction in the gender-wage gap in Indias labour market more than of a wage-inflation spiral. There is very little macroeconomic evidence to suggest that the MGNREGS has been a key driver of inflation. A 2014 Reserve Bank of India report suggests that MGNREGS may not have had any significant impact on food inflation. A new paper by Manisha Shah of UCLA and Bryce Steinberg of Brown University argues that the MGNREGS has undesirable effects on educational outcomes, particularly for adolescents. Using the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey data, the duo finds that children in districts with more MGNREGS exposure perform worse in math, and are more likely to drop out of school. We examine the effect of MGNREGS, one of the largest workfare programmes in the world, on human capital investment. Since MGNREGS increases labour demand, it could increase the opportunity cost of schooling, lowering human capital investment even as incomes increase. Using a household survey of test scores and schooling outcomes for approximately 2.5 million rural children in India, we show that each year of exposure to MGNREGS decreases school enrolment by 2 percentage points and math scores by 2% of a standard deviation amongst children aged 13-16. In addition, while the impacts of MGNREGS on human capital are similar for boys and girls, adolescent boys are primarily substituting into market work when they leave school while adolescent girls are substituting into unpaid domestic work." However, the negative effects of older children dropping out of school could be compensated for by the greater investment made on younger children in participating households. In a forthcoming paper in the IZA Journal of Labour & Development, economists Farzana Afridi, Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay and Soham Sahoo of the Indian Statistical Institute show that a mothers participation in the MGNREGS not only raises the odds of the child attending school but is also associated with better academic performance. The issue of corruption is not unique to the MGNREGS but afflicts most state-run programmes, including those that provide for health or infrastructure. As Bardhan pointed out, the leakages from the MGNREGS are a small fraction of the subsidies to the better-off sections of society, and it is, therefore, important not to lose a sense of proportion in evaluating the programme. A fundamental issue that plagues all well-intentioned public programmes is the lack of state capacity or political commitment to implement it effectively. So far, the focus has been on building state capacity through technocratic solutions (biometric payment systems, for instance). The evidence on automated payment systems has been mixed. In Andhra Pradesh, a smart card-based payment system has been found to have reduced the problems of delayed payments and helped plug leakages. Karthik Muralidharan of the University of California, San Diego, who along with his colleagues conducted the experiment on smart card payments for MGNREGS wages in Andhra Pradesh found that despite the incomplete implementation, beneficiaries in carded mandals experienced a faster, more reliable, and less corrupt payment experience. The smart card system reduced the lag between working on an MGNREGS project and collecting payment by 29%, and reduced the unpredictability in the lag by 39%. Further, it reduced by 19% the time workers spent collecting MGNREGS payments." While the Andhra Pradesh experiment has been hailed as a success, news from Chhattisgarh, another state that has done well in the implementation of the MGNREGS, does not bode well for biometric payments. Supriya Sharma of Scroll noted that the Aadhaar-based payment system is facing problems in Chhattisgarh, with many enrolment centres charging bribes while enrolling people. In summary, the MGNREGS program seems to have been reasonably successful in meeting its goals. It may not have single-handedly transformed rural India, but then it was never meant to do that. It was meant to be a safety net for the poorest and most marginalized sections of society, whose incomes went through sharp fluctuations across seasons. Although it suffers from implementation challenges and leakages, the MGNREGS has reached the target population more effectively than most other government schemes. This is not to deny that the programme needs reforms to perform better. While better use of technology can solve certain problems, they are not adequate to fix design bugs or issues of political accountability for the programme. Given the regional imbalances in fund allocation for the programme, it may be worth considering allocating resources to states and districts that require this programme the most, based on the levels of poverty and exposure to drought, as Saxena argues. It may also be worthwhile to decentralize decision-making on the implementation of the scheme once the allocation is based on a fair and transparent criterion. Rather than micromanage each aspect of the programme, the central government should perhaps focus more on monitoring key outcomes such as generation of employment and assets, and on publicizing data relating to these aspects to make states and local bodies accountable for the funds they receive. Economics Express runs weekly, and features interesting reads from the world of economics and finance. Comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com Topics Buddhists believe that bodhisattvas reside in heavenly realms but can also appear on Earth disguised as humans, animals or other types of beings. Will or will not Lewis and Clark make it out of Canada and onto your premium cable channel? The fate of HBOs star-crossed miniseries Lewis and Clark, named for those early American explorers and starring Casey Affleck and Matthias Schoenaerts, hangs in limbo. HBO confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter this week it plans to redevelop the six-part program with Michelle Ashford writing a new script. The update is they are rewriting it, trying to make the scripts and the production a little bit more manageable, Affleck told Collider in an interview published last month. It was too unwieldy. They were trying to do so much, cover so many years, and its such a gigantic journey that it was almost impossible. Now theyre sort of regrouping and aiming to just kind of start again knowing what they know, Affleck added. Itll be hard. Ashford wrote the original screenplay with Ed Norton and John Curran, and now works as executive producer for rival Showtimes Masters of Sex. Filming on Lewis and Clark began last June in southern Alberta. The project hit its first big bump when Curran, the director, and Roby Hardy, director of photography, exited stage south over creative differences. That and unspecified weather issues caused shooting to be shut down in August. It was later announced that production would resume this spring. The miniseries was scheduled to premiere in 2016. Once Ashfords rewrite is finished, HBO will have to greenlight the program a second time, Hollywood Reporters Bryn Elise Sandberg reported Wednesday. Then the network will have to evaluate whether itll use footage thats already in the can, and whether roles will be recast. Its unclear if Affleck, Schoenaerts or any of the other cast members will return should the series get a second go, Sandberg wrote. Its worth noting that Affleck is rumored to be fielding multiple pilot offers (though its unclear if hell take any of them). Tanaya Beatty, a Canadian actress who was cast as Sacajawea after a long search that trailed through Montana, recently signed on as a series regular to the NBC medical drama The Night Shift. HBO first gave the go-ahead in January 2015 to the long-discussed show based on Stephen Ambroses book Undaunted Courage. It was championed by a team of illustrious executive producers that included Norton, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt. A casting team for Lewis and Clark visited Missoula, Polson and Browning in November 2014. It sought potential actresses ages 17 to early 20s for the role of Sacajawea, and American Indians from regional tribes who could speak native languages. Its not known if any of the dozens who tried out for the latter positions were selected. HBO announced last March that Beatty would fill the role of Sacajawea. The daughter of a mother of First Nations descent and a Himalayan father who was raised in an Italian family, Beatty grew up in interior British Columbia. Her first major roles were as Rachel Black in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and as Jessica Finch in True Justice, the television series starring Steven Seagal. As home to more footprints of the Lewis and Clark expedition than any other state, Montana had hopes of drawing filmmakers here, but Alberta was selected for the bulk of the location shooting. A number of second-unit and plate shots were expected to be shot along the true Lewis and Clark route. Tom Benz of a Calgary-based stage employees guild that had several of its members work on the Lewis and Clark shoot last summer told Canadian news outlets this week the new development wasnt necessarily bad news for Alberta. Personally, I look at the location and the story, and I think that at all times Alberta will be a top contender no matter what other locations are considered, Benz said. Lewis and Clark never left the boundaries of the current U.S. Capt. Meriwether Lewis and three others came closest in late July 1806 when they traveled on horseback to within 20 miles of Alberta to Camp Disappointment, between Browning and Cut Bank. Sometime in the wee hours of Thursday morning Derek Siemens figures it was between 2 and 4 a.m. someone backed up to his lawn on Dixon Avenue, hooked up a small utility trailer with his 2010 Skidoo Summit snowmobile hanging over the front and back ends, and drove away. Siemens has been looking for the stolen sled ever since, and in his search he has discovered he's not alone. The truth of the matter is, while I was out looking three out of a dozen people I talked to said, Yeah, I lost stuff in the last couple of weeks, too,' Siemens said Friday afternoon. Talking to the cops today, they said two more went missing last night. The Missoula Police Department issued a news release later saying it has received three stolen snowmobile reports involving five sleds from city residents since Wednesday. In all three cases, the machines have been on trailers and either parked on the street or in private parking lots, Sgt. Travis Welsh noted in the release. The first two were reported stolen Wednesday morning from the 1500 block of Phillips Street east of North Russell Street. They were found abandoned in lower Grant Creek about 7:30 p.m. that evening, after Welsh posted their descriptions on the police departments Facebook page. Another post shortly after 2 p.m. Friday said two snowmobiles on a trailer were taken from a parking lot in the 3100 block of Paxson Street near Southgate Mall during the previous 48 hours. The owner reported them missing after apparently seeing the post on social media. Less than an hour later, Welsh said the snowmobiles and trailer had been recovered adjacent to 3500 West Broadway, just west of the Reserve Street overpass. In at least one of the three cases, the trailer had been locked, but the culprits had defeated the locking mechanism, the police release said. I dont know enough about each case to say they are related, but there were certainly similarities that would indicate they might be, Welsh said. This cant just be a random, isolated thing. It seems like people are out there looking for snowmobiles to take, said Jennifer Siemens, who called the Missoulian about the heist as her husband wrote a letter to the editor. Derek Siemens said his is a big ol sled on a small, single-axle utility trailer. Its a black 2010 Ski-doo Summit 800 with an 163-inch track. He values it at around $5,000. A guy I met yesterday also lost his sled the same night. It was an old Yamaha Phazer, maybe worth $500, but it had sentimental value to him. So maybe (the thieves) are not too picky, Siemens said. His utility trailer was not secured by lock, though that doesnt seem to have deterred the culprits in at least one other theft. The trailer was parked right off the driveway, kind of on the lawn in the 600 block of Dixon, Derek Siemens said. No other vehicle was parked in front to block access to the trailer. Im suggesting maybe a game camera would be great for catching these suckers, said Siemens, who has posted notice of the missing sled and trailer on Craigslist and the Missoula police Facebook page. Im just surprised that no one saw anything, Jennifer Siemens said. No one on our block had a camera, and I checked with the church and bar (across Bancroft Street). They dont have cameras facing the right direction. She said a police officer patrolling in the middle of the night must think it odd to see someone pulling a snowmobile on a trailer at that time. Police are urging people with snowmobiles to take precautions to secure your property and to ask citizens to report any suspicious activity. I love Missoula and hope this is a passing phase, or possibly out-of-town crooks traveling through, Derek Siemens wrote in his letter to the editor. I wish I had been more proactive with my security. Please do so yourself. A Missoula woman is facing a minimum two-year prison sentence after she was found guilty this week of a racially motivated assault for accosting her African-American neighbor. Lawrence Blackwell, the victim, said he broke down in tears when the verdict came in. At the end of a trial Thursday in Missoula County District Court, the jury found Susan Ann Lafriniere committed an assault based on the victim's race. Although assault is a misdemeanor charge, an enhancement because it was based on race carries a felony-level punishment. Lafriniere also was found guilty of violating a restraining order. According to court records, Blackwell was outside his house washing his car in September 2013 when he saw Lafriniere yelling at a woman and her daughter walking along the street. This is an elderly neighborhood, all 55 and older, and Im the only African-American that lives here, Blackwell, 63, recalled. A lady came on my lawn and basically accosted another woman that lives in some low-income housing. She felt as though they were second-class citizens. She started screaming at this lady and little girl to get out of here. So I stepped up and said, Look, you can do what you want on your property but this is my property. And she said Im not talking to you, you black n. And she said it four or five times and came over and put her finger in my face and said shes going to make sure I dont live here anymore. Im thinking this is Candid Camera or something. I cant believe whats going on. One of the neighbors, Betty Chrestenson, was outside and shouted at Lafriniere to stop, but Lafriniere continued to yell the word until Blackwell walked away. On at least four other occasions, Lafriniere flipped the bird at Blackwell. Every time she sees me and my wife in our car, she takes her hand off the wheel to give us the finger and yells n at us, even in the middle of town, Blackwell said. Blackwell was able to secure a restraining order against Lafriniere, but she still accosted him again. She saw my car and started on me again with the n thing, and tried to push me out of the neighbors door, Blackwell said. Im 6-foot-6 and shes 5-foot-nothing. She was claiming Im disrespecting this ladys house. I was able to file assault charges. There is an attachment to assault that is the equivalent to a hate crime, and that triples the consequences of it. Blackwell said that Lafriniere also followed him from his house to downtown Missoula. Even in court she called me a pig and a piece of black (expletive), he said. She was even threatening the witnesses outside of the courtroom in the hall. I was afraid for my kids, who are 10 and 14. If she will do this to a 6-foot-6 guy, what would she do to my kids? *** Blackwell said he was shopping in Home Depot when the prosecutor called to tell him the verdict. I literally broke down in tears, he said. The people at Home Depot were trying to call an ambulance for me. I just needed some time to absorb this. I just lost it because Ive been fighting this for two years, and every other day I have to listen to this woman. It seems like a lifetime. Blackwell said he also intends to sue for monetary damages in civil court. He is quick to point out that his feelings about the Missoula community havent been tainted though. I have nothing but upmost respect for the people of Missoula, he said. She had a good lawyer, and I told him that. Her being on the stand, thats what really did her in. There arent many black people in Missoula. Ive only met seven people in the three years Ive been here. Missoula is accepting though. Im a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era. I can live anywhere, including Japan and South Korea. I try to get along and leave people alone. Lafriniere will be sentenced April 22. She will have to undergo a pre-sentence mental health evaluation. Under the hate crime statute 45-2-222, she faces no less than two years and no more than 10 in the Montana State Prison. However, the judge has the discretion to suspend any length of time of the sentence. "I think the Legislature, in its collaborative wisdom, decided that crimes that were committed because of the hate of a protected class should be subject to an increased penalty," Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst said when Lafriniere was charged. "As you can see you, these alleged crimes profoundly affected the victim and his family. And it's that harm that the Legislature is attempting to prevent." The governor, Missoula County commissioners, Missoula City Council and the mayor owe it to every man, woman and child in the state of Montana to conduct a fact-finding trip to the United Kingdom and the European continent to determine the impact that the resettlement of Muslim refugees has made on the local population of these countries. They should be prepared to interview victims, local law enforcement officials and, of course, politicians. This is the least they can do before proceeding with any thoughts of bringing Muslim refugees to Montana. HAMILTON A Florence man is facing 10 felony drug counts after a U.S. Marshals Service-led raid on a Florence home that allegedly turned up a variety of illegal drugs and six weapons, including a pistol with a round in the chamber hidden under a couch cushion. Martin Travis Campbell, 33, appeared Thursday before Ravalli County Justice of the Peace Jennifer Ray on a charge of criminal possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute, eight counts of criminal possession of dangerous drugs and a charge of possession of property subject to criminal forfeiture, all felonies. According to charging documents, a U.S. marshal contacted the Ravalli County Sheriffs Office on Wednesday to ask for assistance in the execution of an arrest warrant for Scott Lynn Porter, who was known to reside on Bow Drive in Florence. Law enforcement officers from the sheriffs office, Montana Highway Patrol, federal wildlife agencies and the Stevensville police responded to the request. The team converged on the residence, took position and announced their presence. When no one inside responded, the team entered the residence and arrested Porter. Campbell also was inside the home. The affidavit said a Smith and Wesson revolver was in plain view in close proximity of Campbell. After Campbell stood up, officers also found a Steyr .40 caliber pistol tucked into a seat cushion on the couch. The firearm was loaded, with a round in the chamber. The affidavit said it was later determined that the Steyr pistol was stolen from someone in Billings. A search of Campbell allegedly yielded three glass pipes with marijuana and methamphetamine residue, as well as three small plastic bindles. The affidavit said Campbell waived his right to remain silent and acknowledged his involvement in the distribution of methamphetamine. Campbell also allegedly admitted to smoking methamphetamine earlier that day. Officers also found seven types on controlled substances, as well as other drug paraphernalia in a backpack that allegedly belonged to Campbell. In addition to the two pistols, officers also found two rifles an Armalite AR-10 and aH7R 1871 Blackout and three shotguns, including a 12-gauge rotary shotgun magazine. Ray set bail at $15,000. HELENA Between August 2012 and October 2015, a former top administrator with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry racked up more than $20,000 in bogus travel, training and work purchases on state-issued credit cards and expense accounts, according to charges filed Wednesday in Lewis and Clark County District Court. A six-page motion filed by the Attorney Generals Office alleges ex-Job Service Operations Bureau chief Tiffany David successfully bilked the state out of all but $523 of those fake charges, largely by submitting false expense reports and reimbursement claims for everything from books and gift cards to plane tickets and hotel reservations. The motion alleges David, who used to lead the Labor Departments workforce development efforts, would often cancel those transactions before they could be completed, reaping refunds that should have been credited back to a state credit card. Attorneys say thats how the former bureaucrat managed to rake in nearly half of the five-figure total they accuse her of stealing from state coffers via just 13 Amazon.com book purchases charged to a personal credit card and later reimbursed by department officials. Court documents say David was placed on administrative leave the day after she emailed departmental investigators a fake receipt for $1,800 in airline tickets she never purchased. The documents, filed by Assistant Attorney General Bryan Light, report she has already admitted to that and more than 20 other alleged instances of theft. Light lists 11 known witnesses to the allegations. David is due in court to face the theft charges on Feb. 24. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. She did not return requests for comment Thursday and Friday. County property records show the deed to a Helena home owned by David was handed over to another party in mid-January. Department of Labor spokesman Jake Troyer said the department initiated its investigation into David immediately after she turned in a suspect receipt at the end of October. She was placed on leave Oct. 29. Her resignation was effective Nov. 13. Troyer said the department is now interviewing candidates to fill her position. In a telephone interview Friday, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne, 56, declined to identify his immediate priorities at Stanford, where he previously served on the faculty, but added, We do have to ensure access, broadly, both in terms of access for people who are disadvantaged socioeconomically and, of course, diversity. He said current financial aid programs at Stanford were already a huge step in ensuring access. Stanford benefits greatly from its relationships in Silicon Valley and also in the biotech industry, a field in which, in addition to his executive role at Genentech, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne has been involved, at several startups. One such startup, Denali Therapeutics, which he helped found, focuses on Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases. The company raised more than $200 million in its initial round of funding, considered a huge amount for a company starting out in drug discovery. The company is based in South San Francisco, Calif. Dr. Tessier-Lavigne also serves on the board of Juno Therapeutics, a Seattle-based company that focuses on treatments that harvest cells from cancer patients, then reprograms them to fight the cancer. Junos chief executive officer, Hans Bishop, said Friday that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne is really demanding about performance, but on the other hand equally focused on people development. In the interview, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne said that before taking the reins at Stanford in September, he will review all his corporate relationships with the board to determine whether any conflicts of interest exist. As voting neared in the Iowa caucuses last week, Mr. Rubios speeches about America at the brink and the perfidy of President Obama suddenly contained a disarming detail about his father: Mario Rubio was a Cuban native, and his English was so poor when he arrived in the United States, his son recalled, that he needed a cousin to write down a phonetic message for him to recite to potential employers: I am looking for work. In New Hampshire a few days ago, Mr. Rubio described his older brothers agonizing experience with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Ive seen this firsthand, he said. To this day, he said, his brother is battling the agency to pay for dental problems that began during his service as a Green Beret. How do we really know it happened in the Army? Mr. Rubio said, mimicking government bureaucrats quizzing his brother. He says, Well, its the only time when I ever jumped out of a plane. The crowd erupted into knowing laughter. Mr. Rubio can still slip into seemingly automated trances on the campaign trail. During a visit not long ago to a college campus in Henniker, N.H., he vowed to tailor his remarks to the young people in the audience and began with a promising snippet of biography. I am an adjunct professor on leave, he told the students. But he then proceeded to deliver his standard stump speech almost word for word, taking the students on a tour of global dictators (There is a lunatic in North Korea with a hydrogen bomb, potentially) and cataloging the misdeeds of the Obama era (We betray our allies like Israel). And even some of the anecdotes and one-liners that he seems to share spontaneously are not quite so. Some of his material like asking, When was the last time that you read about a boatload of American refugees arriving some other place? as a testament to American exceptionalism dates to 2008 or even earlier. But at his rallies and town hall forums across Iowa and now New Hampshire, he keeps finding ways to open up, with personal vignettes and spontaneous humor. The allegations are beyond chilling: two Virginia Tech freshmen charged with the premeditated kidnapping and killing of a 13-year-old girl who, authorities say, communicated with her murderer online. But the way they chatted on a wildly popular messaging app called Kik has increasingly become a source of concern for law enforcement. The death of Nicole Madison Lovell, a liver transplant and cancer survivor from Blacksburg, Va., has put Kik widely used by American teenagers but not as well known to adults as Snapchat or Instagram in the spotlight at a time when law enforcement officials say it has been linked to a growing number of abuse cases. Neighbors say that the day before she died, Nicole showed them Kik messages she had exchanged with an 18-year-old man she was to meet that night. Kik is cooperating in the investigation. Its officials say they responded to multiple emergency requests from the F.B.I. for information that helped lead to the arrests of the students, David Eisenhauer, 18, and Natalie Marie Keepers, 19, both aspiring engineers from Maryland. And experts in Internet crime caution that the app is just one of many digital platforms abused by all manner of criminals, from small-time drug dealers to terrorists. RIO DE JANEIRO Brazilian scientists said Friday that they had detected the presence of the Zika virus in samples of human saliva and urine, a first for Brazil. The Brazilian researchers warned that the virus might have the potential to spread through kissing or urine, but they were quick to point out that this still remains to be proved. Nonetheless, the announcement amplified concern in Brazil with many people pointing out the possible impact to the annual Carnival celebration, which began on Friday. It is something we have to further investigate, said Dr. Myrna Bonaldo, the head of the Flavivirus Molecular Biology Laboratory at Fiocruz, a prominent research institute here. We are not yet sure if Zika can be transmitted to others through saliva or urine, she said. CAIRO The furor surrounding the death of an Italian student whose body was discovered Wednesday on an Egyptian roadside grew Friday as Italian investigators flew to Cairo to help find his killers, and it emerged that the young man had secretly written from Egypt for a left-wing Italian newspaper. The newspaper, Il Manifesto, published an article on Friday that the Italian student, Giulio Regeni, 28, had written under a pseudonym weeks before he was found dead that was sharply critical of the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, while describing faltering attempts by Egyptian unions to organize. There was no indication that Mr. Regenis writing led to his death, but the article contributed to the broader Italian outrage over Mr. Regenis injuries as news outlets pointed an accusatory finger at the Egyptian security forces. Egyptian officials said on Thursday that Mr. Regeni had been tortured extensively and probably died from a brain hemorrhage. Giulio, Egyptian police under accusation, read the headline of La Stampa, a Turin-based daily newspaper. TAINAN, Taiwan Firefighters and other rescue personnel worked through the night and into Sunday morning here in southwestern Taiwan to find survivors of Saturday mornings earthquake after learning that as many as 130 people from a collapsed 17-story apartment tower could not be accounted for. Tainan municipal officials here had said on Saturday evening that all 256 registered occupants of the toppled building had been accounted for. Rescue officials raised the death toll at the collapsed building to 18 on Sunday. Two people died elsewhere in Tainan, a city of 1.9 million. Liu Shih-chung, deputy secretary general of the city, said on Sunday morning that rescue workers had learned that as many as 130 more people, many of them students attending a nearby university, had been subletting rooms in the tower without complying with household registration rules. Pico Cristobal Colon is the highest mountain in Colombia, with an estimated height of 5,700 metres (18,700 ft). Pico Cristobal Co... A new thrift store has opened in Butte the Mission Possible Boutique with 100 percent of its proceeds going directly to the citys homeless shelter. Its the Butte Rescue Missions second thrift store operating in town. The Mission Possible Boutique sells art, antiques, Christian books, and new and gently used clothing including wedding dresses from its 1877 Harrison Ave. location. Store manager Donna Driver has volunteered with the mission since 2014, when the nonprofit needed someone to design its first store the Butte Rescue Mission Bargain Center, 123 E. Park St., Uptown Butte. She is well-suited for those positions. She holds a degree in interior design from Montana State University and previously owned a design company, Donna Driver Designs. She has worked as a designer for over 18 years, helping her clients renovate bathrooms, kitchens and entryways. Donna is an exceptional employee, said Rocky Lyons, the missions executive director. She is able to bring things together with her sense of design. Driver eventually became the manager of the Bargain Center, where she worked until last November, when she was recruited to design and manage the second store on the Flat. Driver said her design philosophy for Mission Possible is based on functionality. She arranged the store to optimize the retail space and create an environment that encourages people to shop. But most of all she designed the store to be a place that people can enjoy. She describes the stores atmosphere as having a positive, boutique-y feel with Christian music playing in the background. Driver said that 100 percent of the stores profits go to the mission. Lyons agreed. Every donation goes to serving the homeless, hurting and hungry in Southwest Montana, Lyons said. As The Montana Standard reported last November, the mission has been increasingly turning to enterprise operations to support its nonprofit operation. Driver said young people tend to donate less than the previous generation, so the mission has had to turn to alternative forms of fund-raising. The store is one of their regular sources of income aside from donors, Driver said. Lyons said most nonprofits these days need enterprise operations. She noted that the current generation of young people likes to be on the front lines of an issue, donating time instead of money. If nonprofits are to stay in business, Lyons said, they need to start looking beyond traditional ways of raising money. People wishing to donate used clothes can drop them off at the Uptown thrift store, 123 E. Park St. However, Driver said that the best way to donate to the mission is by shopping. Lyons agrees. She said that clothing donations help, but that the missions main source of revenue comes from customers who spend money at the stores. When asked about her involvement with the mission, Driver said that she is passionate about the work because she knows what its like to face difficult times. I was a single mom at one point, so I know how scary the thought of being homeless can be, she said. Lyons said that a sudden illness, death of a spouse, or job loss can easily send someone whos barely hanging on to living a life on the street. Were all one step away from homelessness, said Lyons. None of us is immune from it. HELENA The state of Montanas most recent economic development report paints a rosy picture unemployment rates between 3.9 and 4.4 percent, more than 10,000 jobs added, and wages up 3.5 percent in the state last year. But certain segments of the state especially Indian Country arent doing as well, said state Sen. Lea Whitford, D-Cut Bank. Unemployment in Glacier County, which includes the Blackfeet Reservation, last December was 9.3 percent. In Big Horn County, more than half of which is Crow Reservation, its 6.3 percent. Pointing to a map during a presentation on economic development Friday, Whitford asked one of the states top economic development workers: Are you getting out into these communities? How do we close that gap? Whitford asked Friday. We talk about the unemployment rate and how it is dropping, but something is missing in that formula. Gov. Steve Bullock last month touted his offices 2015 Economic Development Report, citing positives like job and income growth and a good business environment. The report included success stories like Boeing buying and expanding a facility in Helena, SeaCast Inc. in Butte's joint venture with GE Aviation, and an expansion at Calumet Montana Refining in Great Falls but made no mention of tribes or reservations. The governors office said the report was intended to provide a statewide overview of economic development as it relates to specific industries the report is organized by industry and not call out specific areas of the state, which is why reservations werent pulled out in their own section. Patrick Barkey, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, has been traveling around the state holding economic outlook seminars and presenting the bureau's inaugural Montana Economic Report. We were presenting our economic outlook, and the same comment was made about our stuff, he said. We're looking at that and plan to react to that by doing better in the future." He noted that BBER has done studies of tribal economies, "but they tended to be specialized reports." And the last big one "is about 10 years old." He said statewide analyses often don't include tribes simply because of the way the data is structured by county. "It doesn't line up with reservation lands." Whitford said at a meeting of the Economic Affairs Interim Committee that she wants to make sure tribes, reservations, and the rural part of the state arent forgotten in these reports. She spoke after John Rogers, chief business developer for the state, gave a condensed presentation of the economic report generated by the governors office. When we are talking about economic development opportunities, where they are spending their time and their effort, its important to tap into those areas, Whitford said. I really think we need to be looking at some of those communities that are very high in poverty rates. Equity and collateral are two of the biggest hurdles to economic development on reservations, Rogers said. Sean Becker, administrator of the Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development, said there is a collateral paradigm in Indian Country. Typically people acquire net worth through investment in their home and borrow against their home or own land and borrow against that. That doesnt work when your business is built on tribal land or your home (is). There is no collateral, and there is no equity. Rogers said the difference in commercial codes on and off the reservation also makes it hard to get loans. Its difficult to finance equipment for a manufacturer or a private individual when you cant go in and legally secure equipment like you could if its off the reservation, he said. He pointed to S&K Electronics Inc., established by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation more than 30 years ago. S&K employs about 95 people and does contract manufacturing. Rogers also said tribal colleges can be the answer to an anticipated drop in the states workforce over the next five years. He said Montana could have 24,000 to 40,000 older employees retiring and leaving the workforce. He also said that Montana is a national leader in people who work from home, an area where he said theres potential for our Native Americans. A lot of Native Americans want to stay close to their land; thats where they want to be. Whitford said part of the problem is people who live on reservations or in rural Montana might not know the opportunities are there. You have to apply, she said. People just dont know they have the opportunity to apply. Whitford said shes asked how the states various economic development agencies get their information out to the public and asked if theyre effective at getting tribal government involved. She said the regional economic development offices could routinely come talk with tribal councils on upcoming opportunities. There needs to be more communication out there for a lot of people, she said. Sometimes people just dont know. I say look at the road map and ask Are you getting this information out into these communities? Becker said theres a four-person team thats part of the states Office of Native American Development, a part of the Department of Commerce, that works on economic development in Indian Country. On Friday that team was traveling as part of a six-week tour to meet with all eight tribal councils in the state the Blackfeet, Chippewa Cree, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Crow, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, Little Shell Chippewa, and Northern Cheyenne tribes. Becker emphasized that all the economic development programs offered by the state apply as much in Indian Country as they do in the rest of Montana. He referenced the Treasure State Endowment Program, a state-funded program open to local governments that helps pay for local infrastructure projects. Tribal councils can apply for money as well, he said There are also specific programs targeted toward improving the economy on reservations administered by the Office of Native American Development. The Indian Equity Fund Small Business Grant is meant to help bridge the equity gap Rogers referred to and provides money to be used by the grant recipient as equity. Up to $40,000 is available under that program. The team will also meet with the banks that serve Indian Country, to make sure when they are considering loans to Indian-owned businesses that there are opportunities for the Montana Department of Commerce to shore up that financing profile. Becker called collateral a fundamental gap in finance for Native American businesses on a reservation. The Native American Collateral Support program can put in a deposit for the bank to hold in place of traditional collateral like land or a home, Becker said. The Big Sky Trust Fund Job Creation Grant can offer reimbursement on new hires so the business can have accounts receivable on their balance sheet. Workforce training programs can guarantee employees with the necessary skills. Though many of the statewide programs have been around for years, some of the programs specific to Indian country are new, Becker said. He said they will help increase the net worth of both businesses and people on the reservation, but its not something that will happen overnight. These programs are small compared to the underemployment epidemic in Indian Country, he said. But they have the full support of chief elected officials, full support of the Montana Legislature, all of the resources of state government. This is the first time weve ever had a collateral support program, the first time weve ever had Native American Business Advisers. Were making tremendous headway. Students from Jane Addams and Lincoln-Irving Elementary Schools in Moline arrived to school by foot by or wheel on Wednesday to celebrate "Illinois Walk and Roll to School Day." Earlier this month, Gov. Pritzker formally proclaimed Oct. 12 as Illinois Walk and Roll to School Day to promote active lifestyles for children and support eco-friendly transportation practices. MUSCATINE, Iowa Eastern Iowa Community Colleges, in association with colleges throughout the state, will be hosting College Goal events in February to help students and their families through the the financial aid process. Financial aid specialists from the college will be available to help students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA is the federally-required form to qualify for federal, state and most colleges financial aid and scholarships. There will be a College Goal event 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, in room 202 of Gaekle Hall at Muscatine Community College, 152 Colorado St. For more information, call 563-288-6060. There is no fee for the event, nor is there a fee for submitting the FAFSA. Participants are asked to call the college nearest them to let us know youre coming or toll free at 1-888-336-3907. Students or parents may attend individually but organizers recommend that students and at least one parent or guardian come together. Those attending are encouraged to bring various documents with them such as their most recent tax return and bank statements. A complete list of the needed information can be found online at www.eicc.edu/whattobring. More information about financial aid at Eastern Iowa Community Colleges is available online at www.eicc.edu/financialaid. MUSCATINE, Iowa Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) works closely with the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, St. Ambrose University, Western Illinois University and others to make transferring a seamless process for students. To learn more about how that works, EICC has scheduled a transfer information events to answer questions prospective students might have at 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 18, at Muscatine Community College, 152 Colorado St. EICC maintains formal Transfer Agreements with all three state universities and many private colleges detailing how credits earned at Clinton, Muscatine and Scott Community Colleges transfer. The colleges also have Joint Admissions Agreements with some colleges. For those students knowing where they will transfer after completing their studies here, they already have the benefits of admission at that university. In effect, they are already students of both the local community college and the university from the first day they begin classes. Students beginning at the community colleges essentially take the same classes they will take during the first two years at the university. Studies have shown that students transferring to the university do just as well as those who began their college education there. For more information, call toll-free at 1-888-336-3907 or go to www.eicc.edu/transfer. MUSCATINE, Iowa More than 4,000 high school students completed college credit classes with Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) this past year and that number continues to grow. Those students can now take advantage of the colleges Connections Scholarship to continue their education after high school graduation. EICC includes Clinton, Muscatine and Scott Community Colleges. The Connections Scholarship is exclusively designed for high school graduates who have previously taken college credit classes with one of the colleges. There are three different levels to the scholarship, with awards ranging from a half tuition scholarship for the first full year the student is enrolled to one three-credit hour class. Deadline for application is March 1. The award is based on a combination of the number of hours a student has completed and their grade point average for those classes. Complete details are available at www.eicc.edu/connections. We began these scholarships last year to recognize all of the hard work these students are putting into their education and their futures, EICC Director of Enrollment Management and Strategic Communications Erin Snyder stated in a press release. We currently have high school students who finish anywhere from a class or two before graduation, to some who are completing the first full two years of college. The classes are the same classes delivered in the EICC classrooms and taught by college-level faculty. Thanks to a special state of Iowa program, these classes are free to the students. We have close relationships with our area school districts that make all of this possible, Snyder stated in the press release. Our thanks go out to all of them for making this wonderful opportunity available for their students. Some students take the additional step of paying for classes they take outside the school year, often during the summer months or online. Regardless of the manner in which the student completed the college classes, the student is eligible for the Connections Scholarship. High school students complete EICC classes in a wide array of subject areas. Most are taking the general classes required by colleges for a four-year degree but there are a significant number in career-related classes as well. Those in the general classes can complete their Associates in Arts Degree with EICC and easily transfer onto a four-year college or university. EICC maintains formal transfer agreements with the state universities and area private colleges that make it easy to transfer credits earned here. Those in the career areas can move into the EICC career programs specifically related to those classes. The colleges offer more than 50 career programs designed to lead into the world of work. For more information about the Connections Scholarship, the colleges partnership with area high schools, or the colleges programs, call 1-888-336-3907 or email eiccinfo@eicc.edu. LETTS, Iowa It all started with one canary. Eighteen years later, Mike Hutchison, the owner of Iowa Parrot Rescue, 2479 Golden Ave., is looking for someone to take over the operation. It is the only bird rescue facility between Chicago and Omaha. "In the long run, finding somebody to take the place over is the main concern. Nobody is immortal. I am not going to be able to do this forever. In the shorter run, I need volunteers and you know donations and people to help us run the thing day to day," said Hutchison, 66. The facility is currently home to 65 birds from 29 different species. The birds hailed from 15 different states. "We have birds that have been loved and cared for and doted on and then we have birds that have been neglected and abused. We have birds that are here because people died or lost their home and then we've got birds that came from drug busts and smugglers," Hutchison explained. Caring for a bird is a lifelong commitment because they can live to a ripe old age. Hutchison has one bird that he has documented its age at 65. "I would hope that I could find somebody to take this over and continue it. In terms of the operation, its a turn-key business," Hutchison said. "If I can find a person, I can hand it over. The problem is it would have to be somebody with a fairly broad skill set and somebody who can do it full time, all the time with no days off for vacations and somebody who doesn't need to get paid." Hutchison said the rescue started 18 years ago when someone gave his wife a canary. "And then somebody else was over and saw the canary and said, 'Oh, you've got a bird. Can you take mine?' And then other people said, 'Oh, you've got a bird. Can you give ours a home?'" The rescue moved from the den to the bedrooms to a remodeled attic. It is now run out of climate-controlled facility next door. Donations paid for the structure and help keep the rescue going. There are several ways people can help out, according to Hutchison. "To volunteer, the easiest thing is to go to website, www.iowaparrotrescue.org, and there's a page on that website that explains just what they would do and how to go about it," he said. Volunteers are needed to help clean the facility, make toys for the birds and play with or socialize the birds. "Thee's a thousand things that have to be done in here every day," Hutchison said. "The volunteers do almost all of them, when there are volunteers." There are only three volunteers right now plus one woman that comes in weekly to care for the plants. A page on the website also explains how one can make donations to Iowa Parrot Rescue and what is needed. "There's a lot of ways people can help us out." Space is an issue. "And in fact, our population density is a lot more than it should be. I've had a hold on new intakes for about six months until I can get the population down," Hutchison said. "In the wild a pair of birds like this would roost in a tree and then there would be another pair in the next tree and so on. But they would be 100 yards apart. I've got 21 Amazons in here right now. Just those 21 amazons should have about five square miles. What they've got is 1,000 square feet." There is no fee for adopting a bird from Iowa Parrot Rescue. 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 [] Warm up the vocal chords. Its time to sing Happy 100th Birthday! to the Napa County Library System during its community party on Tuesday. This centennial extravaganza is in celebration of the Napa County Board of Supervisors unanimous approval of the Napa County Library System formation on Feb. 9, 1916. As a supervisor reportedly said at the time, This will benefit every home and everybody in Napa County. Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate a 100th birthday, said Danis Kreimeier, director of Library Services and Community Outreach. It wont be a typical day at the library, said John Thill, Information Services supervisor. Tuesdays festivities will began with speeches and proclamations by political representatives, with Beclee Wilson, Napa County poet laureate, reciting a poem commemorating the occasion. There will be cupcakes, games and other activities, with a barbershop group, Napa Valley Harmonizers, leading the singing Happy Birthday. The Reference Department is hosting oversized bowling down the center of the library, Thill said. We want the celebration to be a real birthday party, said Breanna Feliciano, the librarian who chairs the Celebration of the Century committee. In 1910, the Legislature passed a bill allowing the 58 counties to establish free public libraries for the first time. Up to then, counties could only establish subscription- or fee-based libraries. The first library in Napa County was also by subscription. Established in 1870, the Napa Library Association was inspired by a Napa youth and avid reader, Charles Burrage, and his like-minded friends. Known as the Excelsior Club, they raised $100, which was matched by community members. In 1885 the city of Napa assumed the Associations responsibilities creating Napas subscription public library. The first free public library locally was established in 1894 at St. Helena. Then, as now, the St. Helena Library is funded and operated by its city. Six years later, 1902, both Calistoga and Napa opened their respective free public libraries. Napas free library opened in the new Goodman building on First Street, now the earthquake-damaged home of the Napa County Historical Society that will be undergoing repairs. In 1924, the Calistoga Library joined the Napa County Library System and moved into its current location. This Myrtle Street building originally served as both the Womens Club and library. There was a curtain that ran down the buildings middle to separate the two spaces and uses, said Thill. This building is being remodeled. In 1919, following World War I, the county library system was restarted with the supervisors levying a 2-cent tax for library support. A year later, the County Library began within the Napa County Courthouse. In 1939, the first bookmobile was put into service. AMERICAN CANYON The American Canyon library began in 1959 within a room at Napa Junction Elementary School. In 1971, the community raised the needed funds to move its library to a bigger and better location. The American Canyon Library is now in a great place the former city hall. American Canyon leases it to us for $1 a year, Thill said. But Im not sure how long well be there as American Canyon is growing so fast! YOUNTVILLE The Yountville Library joined the system in 1977, starting in a small space in a corner of the Yountville post office, then moving to the old Town Hall. I remember that library as a small space with an advisory sign that read, This building does not meet earthquake safety standards. But the current and new Yountville Library is more spacious and safe, Thill said. NAPA The Napa City Library merged with the Napa County Library System in 1963, when the adult library was moved out of the Goodman Building into a location on Franklin street before moving into a home at Pearl and Clay streets. The George E. Goodman Library building continued as the childrens library. In 1974, to accommodate Napas growing population, the new Napa City-County Library was opened at Coombs and Division streets. Im very proud of this library as it was one of the first (libraries) in California to move to computers which happened in 1974, Feliciano said. Also, our literacy program was one of the first in California. In its 30 year history, it has served 5,428 (adult) students. This volunteer-powered program continues to serve as a statewide model. The current library building has evolved over time and is scheduled for another remodel. Beginning is August, the Childrens Room will be remodeled to encourage imagination, Kreimeier said. It will expand upon the existing mural. During the remodel the Community Meeting Room will serve as the Childrens Room. The Friends of the Library area will also be remodeled. With all these projects, it will be a challenging game of musical chairs. Kreimeier said. But it will all be worth it. The library just upgraded to a super-fast 1-gig wireless access system, Kreimeier said. In the spring and summer, a new catalog will begin allowing the Napa County Library System to offer more reference materials. It will connect to 50 libraries in California, Arizona, Nevada, the UC (University of California) system, PUC (Pacific Union College), San Francisco libraries and more, she said. Its going to be a great year of great things, Kreimeier said. 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 Admiral: U.S. should now prepare for Chinese 'invasion' of Taiwan Harutyunyan: I cannot imagine Artsakh's future without presence of Russia Harutyunyan: Without questioning path of our independence, we must meet with Baku Prime Minister of Finland does not think that Hungary and Turkey will block country's application for NATO membership Iranian FM: U.S. made hasty statements in connection with protests Former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim involved in car accident in Karabakh Arayik Harutyunyan: Artsakh people's right to self-determination is non-negotiable Iranian MFA calls it important to form platform with Armenia and India on North-South corridor Details of EU monitoring mission in Armenia are known Foreign Ministry: It seems Ankara is more interested in opening corridor through Armenia than Azerbaijan Mirzoyan: Unexpected third countries support Azerbaijani interpretation of road to Nakhchivan Foreign Ministry: Armenia, Iran and Bulgaria initial agreement on creation of Persian Gulf-Black Sea corridor Israeli Defense Minister to visit Ankara Armenian Foreign Minister names main obstacle to solving problems with Azerbaijan Erdogan once again raises issue of so-called 'Zangezur corridor' Armenian and Iranian FMs to open Iranian Consulate General in Syunik province tomorrow Abdollahian: Aliyev assured that he does not want border changes, Iran will prevent implementation of such idea Iranian Foreign Minister in Yerevan supports '3+3' platform Iranian Foreign Minister recalls Tehran's 'red lines' in regional issues Mirzoyan: We highly appreciate Iran's principled position regarding territorial integrity of Armenia UK imposes sanctions against Iran for alleged delivery of drones to Russia Yerevan hosts meeting of Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in narrow composition Armenian and Iranian Foreign Ministers meet in Yerevan in extended format Charles Michel: EU energy deal possible, but difficult Erdogan says Baku should demand 'compensation' from Yerevan Pashinyan: EEU mechanisms are of great help, trade turnover between Armenia and Belarus has doubled Yair Lapid: Russia-Iran relations are serious problem for Ukraine, Europe, and whole world Amir-Abdollahian: Iran is against presence of foreigners in this region, both in Azerbaijan and Armenia Pashinyan at EAEU meeting: Fundamental principles of world economic system in question Iranian Foreign Minister's official visit to Yerevan begins Macron says Germany should not isolate itself in Europe EU begins deployment of mission on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Trump's son made fun of Zelenskyy's ability to ask West for money EU to provide emergency aid for Armenia residents affected by recent Azerbaijan military aggression Azerbaijan army units fire at Armenia positions Mikhail Mishustin arrives in Yerevan EU approves new sanctions against Iran over alleged drone deliveries to Russia Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting begins in Yerevan Baku calls OSCE mission to assess situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border 'private visit' On fourth day of IRGC military exercises on border with Azerbaijan, artillery destroys planned targets Liz Truss quits as UK Prime Minister Turkey parliament to consider extending Turkish militarys mandate in Azerbaijan Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia Russias Putin ratifies agreement on simplification of payments for goods transit within EEU territory Stoltenberg: Almost all NATO countries have agreed to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance Ombudswoman of Armenia: Azerbaijan prevents removal of remains of fallen soldiers Zakharova: Matter of holding CSTO Collective Security Council meeting being worked out Ombudswoman of Armenia: I received video materials from EU special representative about Azerbaijanis Armenia Security Council chief, UK army general discuss cooperation in security Armenia and Kazakhstan discuss bilateral military cooperation Iran says U.S. and Israel won't be able to split the republic 201 bodies are identified of Armenia soldiers who died as result of September military aggression by Azerbaijan Iran FM to arrive in Armenia today Turkey, Azerbaijan presidents officially open international airport in occupied Artsakh territory Armenia President visits several leading Bulgaria IT companies Ruben Vardanyan: I will assume Artsakh State Minister position at beginning of November Armenia PM on making EU observation mission permanent: I'm not sure about that US State Dept.: Our ultimate goal is peaceful resolution between Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenia, Qatar to collaborate in tourism sector Turkey president travels to Azerbaijan Bandits in Russia cut off Armenian man's hands, shoot him in legs President of Armenia, mayor of Bulgarias Plovdiv discuss avenues for deepening of cooperation Armenia has new customs attache at Upper Lars checkpoint on Russia-Georgia border Karabakh official: Baku goes for gradual escalation, provocation of situation Armenia to get 33mn grant from EU for police, migration service, business development in Syunik Province Lacote: OSCE observation mission deployment will contribute to respect of Armenia territorial integrity World oil prices going up Russia extends flight restrictions at 11 airports Newspaper: Karabakh delegation to head for Moscow, meeting with Putin considered probable Newspaper: Azerbaijan aggression on September 13 paralyzes Armenia public administration for some time Azerbaijan army opens fire towards Armenia positions at midnight Retired US Air Force general is offered consulting job in Azerbaijan at rate of $5,000 a day 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 Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario, Canada, attended the high profile Bollywood style event in Mumbai where two new agreements were announced that will benefit India's film industry. Bollywood star Ranveer Singh attended the signing ceremony in Mumbai. The Maharashtra Film Stage and Cultural Development Corporation and the City of Toronto signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together on common interest in the creative screen industries, including studio production, visual effects and interactive/digital media. The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) and the Toronto International film Festival (TIFF) highlighted their collaboration on a boot camp to help Indian filmmakers bring their work to International film festivals. "The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the worlds most dynamic and prestigious film festivals. I had the good fortune to have my film Dhobi Ghat premiere there and it was a wonderful experience for me. TIFF has always been very generous to MAMI and we are very happy to be growing our association with them. We hope to bring some of the expertise and excellence of TIFF to the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star," Kiran Rao, chairperson, Mumbai Academy of Moving Image, said. These new partnerships will enhance the relationship between India and Ontario's film industries and pave the way for more collaboration between producers, directors, artists from both regions. The Premier also met leaders from India's film industry at the event to promote Ontario as an ideal location for future productions. Ontario is a leading North American film and TV production centre that offers decades of experience, high quality infrastructure and generous tax credits. "Ontario is one of the best locations in the world for film and TV production and today's event has reinforces our provinces reputation as a leader in the creative screen arts," Wynne said. "With almost 700,000 people of Indian descent living in our province, and world class production facilities, the partnership between India and Ontario's film industries is a natural one. The agreements signed at today's event will help bring Ontario and India closer - both on the screen and off," she added. "Toronto is respected as one of the world's premier filming locations due to the depth of production talent we have built over many years of success. We are delighted to share our best practices and experiences and to learn more from the achievements of India's creative screen industries," John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, said. --Indo Asian News Service uma/sku/ ( 418 Words) 2016-02-06-02:18:05 (IANS) The Spanish Ministry for Health and Equality has announced that it is to publish weekly updates informing of the number of cases of the Zika virus in Spain. The Ministry made the decision in the wake of Thursday's revelations that seven cases, including a pregnant woman, of the virus have been detected in Spain, all in people who had visited countries where the virus is prevalent, Xinhua reported. All of those affected are "responding within expectations and do not suppose a risk of the propagation of the virus within Spain," according to the Ministry. Experts said it is unlikely that the Zika virus can spread from person to person in Spain, as only one of the two kinds of mosquitoes known to spread the virus exists in the country. This is the Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) which lives in regions of the south and east coast, the Basque region and Aragon, but is largely inactive over the winter due to the cold. The Zika virus reproduces more slowly in Tiger mosquitoes than in the Aedes aegipty, which is spreading the virus in Latin America. In order for the virus to spread from person to person, a carrier with a sufficient charge of the virus would have to be bitten by a Tiger mosquito, which itself would then have to develop a large enough charge of the virus before biting another victim and thus transmitting the disease. This process has been described as "possible, but highly improbable" by the Spanish Society for Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, especially given the current inactivity of Tiger mosquitoes. Any new cases in Spain are likely to be imported, it said. --Indo-Asian News Service sku/ ( 292 Words) 2016-02-06-05:04:03 (IANS) Tanzanian High Commissioner to India John W.H. Kijazi on Friday said he was impressed by the concrete action taken by the Karnataka Government for punishing the perpetrators. Kijazi visited here to take stock of the situation emerged after the attack on a Tanzanian girl student here on the night of January 31. He said he was explained the entire situation that led to incident, adding that he now has a much clear picture of what had happened. Kijazi stated that the Karnataka Government had assured him on the security measures taken for the safety of African students here. Karnataka Home Minister G. Parmeshwara, however, said the Tanzanian envoy and GEA representatives were convinced by the action taken by the Government. Parmeshwara said the entire incident was explained to Kijazi, and we assured him that such incidents would never happen in the future. He further said the Government would increase the frequency of the meeting with foreign students to assure their safety. The Karnataka Government on Friday suspended three police personnel, including one inspector, for dereliction of duty in connection with the assault on the Tanzanian student. Earlier, the Bengaluru Police arrested four persons in connection with the incident. Yesterday, five people were arrested. A central team from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will meet African students. The victim, a BBM student and three of her friends were allegedly attacked by an angry mob after a 35-year-old female pedestrian was knocked down by a car belonging to Sudan on January 31. The mob beat up the students and set their cars on fire. The incident came to light on Tuesday when the victim approached the All African Students Union following which a complaint was made to the Tanzanian Embassy. The National Women Commission Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam has registered a suo moto case and served a notice on the Karnataka Government. AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi also sought a detail report about the incident from the Chief Minister. (ANI) Participation of 50 Nations in the International Fleet Review (IFR) here is an example of mutual friendship and co-operation, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan today said at the mega maritime meet showing prowess and preparedness of the Indian Navy.Mr Dhowan, in his address to mediapersons, said, "With the cooperation of friendly Naval countries, we can strengthen the security, safety and development of the oceans." "International Fleet Reviews are maritime culture to build cooperation and relations between the Navies of the world. We may be separated geographically but (are) certainly untied through the oceans," he said.This review allows the host nation an occasion to display its maritime capabilities and build bridges of friendship with other maritime nations, he said.IFR aims at assuring the country of the Indian Navy's preparedness, high morale and discipline, he said.President Pranab Mukherjee, the supreme commander of the armed forces, will arrive tomorrow here to review the Naval fleet, a ceremonial and stately inspection of warships.After a 21-gun salute and the ceremonial guard of honour, Mr Mukherjee will embark on the Presidential Yacht INS Sumitra after inspecting the guard of honour to be presented by 150 Navy personnel, Mr Dhowan said.The President will review the international fleet comprising 75 frontline ships and submarines.He will also witness the Indian Naval Air Arm in a display of spectacular fly-past by several fixed wing and rotary aircraft comprising 15 formations, a Navy release said.Other programmes during the five-day event include a two-day International Maritime Conference beginning February 7. The conference, on the theme 'Partnering together for a secure maritime future', would be inaugurated by Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar.Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address the gathering and will release a book on India's maritime heritage.This is the second IFR, in which 50 countries are participating, hosted by India. The first one was held in January 2001 in Mumbai with participation of 29 countries.UNI BSR PY RSA 2334 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0298-576022.Xml Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will also attend the event. During the review, navy will showcase its capability and technical superiority. Around 90 ships of Indian Navy are participating in the event. Over 50 countries are participating in the mega maritime meet. The five-day event began on Thursday with the inauguration of maritime exhibition and IFR village. Navies from 52 countries including China, Russia, USA, Japan, Vietnam, Israel, France, Britain and Australia are participating in the review in the Bay of Bengal. At least 90 ships and vessels of the Indian Navy along with aircraft carrier INS Virat and INS Vikramaditya are the main attractions of review. Along with warships from across the world, Indian navy is displaying its firepower and blue sea capabilities in this event. (ANI) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presented the awards to the best films listed under various competitions as part of the the 8th edition of Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFF) which concluded at a glittering event held in the backdrop of the illuminated Mysuru Palace here last night. The festival which was extended to Mysuru for the first time was attended by many artistes and filmmakers. However, the big stars gave a miss to the event. As many as 175 films from 60 countries was screened at Bengaluru and in the cultural capital of the state Mysuru for a week from January 29. A large number of film enthusiasts watched the valedictory which also had the participation of some foreign filmmakers. Speaking after presenting the awards, the Chief Minister said the film festival turned out to be a big success as over one lakh people watched films at Bengaluru and Mysuru. The films had been judged by panels of jury comprising eminent filmmakers from India and abroad. Kannada film, Thithi, Directed by Ram Reddy, which had won awards in many International film festivals, including Locarno, and Under Heaven, a film from Kyrgyzstan directed by Dalmira Tilepbergen, shared the award in Asian Cinema category.The films received cash prize of Rs 2 lakh each besides citations. Salada Magu, a Kannada film by Umashankar Swamy, won the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPACK) award and received a cash prize of Rs one lakh. In the Indian Cinema competition, The Silence, a Marati film by Gajendra Ahire, bagged the best film award and received a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh. Island City, a Hindi film by Ruchika Oberoi and The Eye, a Malayalam film by Siddhartha Shiva, shared the special jury award and received cash prize of Rs one lakh each. Noted filmmaker P Sheshadri directed Vidaaya bagged the first best film award in Kannada section with a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh. Naanu Avanalla Avalu, a film by B S Lingadevaru, bagged the second best film with a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh. The third best film went to Puta Tirugisi Nodu of Suneel Raghavendra with a cash prize of Rs one lakh. Prominent film actors who attended the event included actor and Minister for Housing M H Ambareesh, B Saroja Devi, Bharati Vishnuvardhan, Ramesh, Ganesh, Doddanna, producer Rockline Venkatesh. Minister for Information, Public Relations and Infrastructure R Roshan Baig, Minister for Cooperation H S Mahadeva Prasad, MLC and actress Jayamala, Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy Chairman S V Rajendra Singh Babu and others were present.UNI BSP CS 1110 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0284-576205.Xml Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today announced a solatium of Rs three lakh each to the families of 14 police personnel who died in various incidents from November 29, 2015 to January two, 2016. In a statement here, Ms Jayalalithaa expressed grief and anguish over the deaths of police personnel and announced the solatium from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund. She also expressed her heartfelt condolences to the family members of the 14 police personnel.UNI GV KSR RSS 1258 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-576345.Xml Hemophilia Federation India (HFI) today requested the Telangana government to allocate necessary funds to treat Hemophilia, a genetic and life-threatening bleeding disorder, in government hospitals in the state. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing Musculoskeletal MSK Southern Region workshop here, HFI Project Lead & Executive Member Dr Pamela Narayan, Vice President-Development Dr Vikas Goyal and Hyderabad Chapter President Dr N Venkatanarayana said even with a minor injury or cut, in Hemophilia, a patients blood does not clot normally due to the absence of clotting pretenis called Factors. In the absence of adequate care, recurrent and prolonged bleeding into joints and muscles can lead to permanent disability and bleeding in the sensitive organs can lead even to death. The only possible treatment is infusion of life saving drugs called Anti-Hemophilic Factors (AHF), which will cost (Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 on an average per factor infusion) and neither produced nor readily available in India. The treatment for Hemophilia was available in Osmania, Gandhi, Niloufer Hospitals in Hyderabad and MGM hospital at Warangal. But due to budget constraints, some of the hospitals were not keeping adequate stock of AHF medicine which is readily available in Central Drug Store. They requested the government to extend necessary budgetary allocations in this regard. To provide quality and affordable treatment to the hemophilia patients in Telangana, the HFI will approach the government with Detail Project Report (DPR) to establish three Hemophilia Treatment Centers (HTC), with an outlay of Rs 11 crore. The Centres will come up at Osmania Hospital, Hyderabad, MGM Hospital, Warangal and another in Mahabubnagar, they said.MORE UNI VV CS 1310 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-576367.Xml The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday questioned the Maharashtra Government delay in granting permission to women to enter the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar. CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat claimed that the Maharashtra Government has no intention of following the democratic path. "After the Chief Minister's statement supporting the right of women to go into the temple, it was assumed that the government would assure entry of the women into the temple. But clearly, there are either second thoughts or it was just sheer hypocrisy, and the government has no intension of following the democratic path. So, women who want to go to mandir must have free access to the mandir," Karat told ANI. In a bid to end the deadlock over allowing women to enter Shani Shingnapur temple, the Ahmednagar District Administration has called for a meeting between protestors and the temple management today. The Ahmednagar District Collectorate has reportedly written a letter to Bhumata Brigade, inviting them to discuss the centuries-old ban on female devotees entering the shrine's sanctum sanctorum. Women members and supporters of the Bhumata Brigade arrived from Pune on January 29 in six buses with an aim to enter the temple's sanctorum where the idol of Lord Shani is placed on an open-air platform. However, a group led by activist Trupti Desai was stopped from marching towards the temple by police near Supa. They were also detained by police for some time, but released later. The temple drew attention in November 2015 after a woman had offered prayers at the popular shrine in "breach" of age-old practice that prohibits entry of women, after which the temple committee had to suspend seven security men and the villagers to perform purification rituals. The temple attracts millions of tourists and devotees from across the country and abroad. (ANI) A youth, notoriously known for criminal activity and narcotic dealing,was today arrested by the Barrackpore police commissionerate for possessing contraband ganja weighing about 22 kilos from Dattabad in the EM Bypass area. The youth in his early 20s, identified as Bhola Sardar, was arrested from a hideout near Dakshinpara under Bidhanagar police station following a specific information. Sardar had been allegedly involved in many criminal activities, including political crime in the region. Police would produce him before the Barrackpore Court later today. UNI PC PL SV RK1315 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0211-576328.Xml Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Prem Nath on Saturday said investigation into the death of Ryan International School student Divyansh Kakora is being done "purely on merit", adding that they would not leave any angle uninvestigated. "An FIR has been lodged following the complaint by the victim's fathers. We are doing investigations purely on merit, and no angle of the investigation will be left. We are still waiting for the post- mortem report of the child," Nath told the media here. "Our investigation so far revealed that there was negligence. The investigation is going on...it is not closed. Notices have been issued to the school, the administration and the higher authorities of the school to know if there is any irregularity there," he added. Earlier today, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said he has asked the officials concerned to seek an explanation from the school with regard to allegations made by the parents of Divyansh . Divyansh's father today alleged that no action had been taken so far, and efforts were on to hush up the matter. "I feel the observation of parents that cotton was found at the anal points of the child is being ignored. This points towards a bigger and unfortunate event, let's see, I will go through the report again and necessary action would be taken," Sisodia told reporters here. The Delhi Government in its magisterial inquiry into the case found that "deliberate" inaction of Ryan International School authorities amounting to "gross criminal negligence" led to the death of six-year-old Divyansh on January 31. So far, the principal and four other staffs of the school located in South Delhi's Vasant Kunj area are out on bail. (ANI) Rs 273 crores has been released as payment for the teachers who have been on a strike since early February and they have been promised that their salaries would be given on time in the future. "After the assurance from Deputy Governor and keeping in view with the benefit of students, we called off the indefinite strike. We take back the support from United Front of MCD employees. From Monday onwards, all teachers will resume working at schools," Ram Nivas Solanki, General Secretary of Municipal Corporation Teachers Association said in a statement. However, the strike by the MCD employees entered its 11th day today as garbage continued to pile up in the national capital. Earlier, the Delhi police on wrote a letter to the state government on the ongoing MCD strike, predicting total breakdown of law and order if the strike continued. The police also expressed fear of the breakout of an epidemic in Delhi. (ANI) Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Prasad Harichandan today claimed that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has actually contributed a lot for the setting up of a world class state of art Oil refinery at Paradip. Talking to newspersons here, Mr Harichandan said Congress has the highest contribution for setting up any industry, including the Oil refinery at Paradip and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no contribution in the setting up of a Oil Refinery at Paradip. He said though the foundation stone for the project was laid in 2000 during the NDA rule but actually the project was implemented during the ten-year rule of UPA. The Congress leader made the statement in the backdrop of a poster war between the ruling BJD in the state and the BJP at the Centre, taking credit of the Paradip Oil Refinery which will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow. Mr Harichandan said the idea to set up an oil refinery at Paradip was made in 1992 and an MoU was signed in 1995 between IOCL and the Kuwait Oil Corporation (KPC) to set up the refinery, when late P V Narasingha Rao was the Prime Minister. Land for the refinery was acquired while late J B Patnaik was Chief Minister of the state. He alleged that the NDA government wanted to scrap the project by saying that the project would not be economically viable despite the fiscal concession and the project was kept in cold storage from 2000 to 2004. Both the BJD and BJP were issuing statements and releasing advertisements in the local dailies to take the credit of having the Oil Refinery at Paradip. While the BJD said former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik had written to the then Prime Minister V P Singh in July 1990 to establish the oil refinery and a petrochemical complex at Paradip, the BJP maintained that former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone for the refinery in May 2000 and Mr Modi would dedicate it to the nationtomorrow. Former Congress Chief Minister Giridhar Gomango, who has joined the BJP said had he not taken interest the project would have been shifted to somewhere else.UNI BD DP KK RJ RSA VN1811 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-576904.Xml Police has arrested two criminals from Pipra village under Rajpur Police Station area of this district. SDPO Gyan Ranjan today said the duo was wanted in connection with a looting incident. A two wheeler have been also recovered from their possession. Police sources said that on February 1, the duo had looted Rs 14,000 from one Abdul Kadir from Dhamania village under Sadar Police Station area of this district. An FIR in this regard was lodged at Sadar Police Station. Police has also managed to recover Rs 5,700 out of the Rs 14,000, which was looted.UNI XC-AK RJ NS1813 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-576908.Xml DCP Dr Boralingaiah said that it was alleged that the arrestedhad rapped the woman who was working in the University for over twoyears and had been threatening her against revealing his crime tothe public. Police said that the mother of the victim in a complaint hasalleged that her daughter was raped by 52 year-old Madhukar J Angursince last two years continuously and was threatening againstrevealing it. The victim was subjected to medical test and the arrest was madeafter rape was confirmed.UNI MSP VV AK1752 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-576912.Xml A historic rally was today taken out, participated by over two lakh people, for a peaceful Manipur and to denounce all move to disintegrate the state. Such was the turnout that though the rally started at 1030 hrs it ended only around 1400 hrs. The exact number of rallyists could not be known but it was estimated that it is almost equal or more than the earlier rallies taken out for integrity of Manipur. It must be around two to three lakhs according to an observer at the starting point. The organisers however said large numbers of people joined the rally midway from every corner of the state and it was estimated that every household was represented by an individual. Starting at Thau ground the rally passed through the main roads of Imphal and culminated at Khuman Lampak where a public meeting was held. Almost every community of Manipur including Naga, Kuki, Muslim, Meitei and other ethnic groups took part in the rally carrying festoons placards . They shouted slogans like Long live Manipur. They shouted slogans denouncing acts of some organisations like NSCN(IM) and some of its frontal organisations which issue statements for disintegration of Manipur. Even though the United Naga Council (UNC) imposed bandh today people from all the hill districts and leaders of all tribal villages came to take part in the rally. The rally is organised by AMUCO, CCSK and UCM and supported by over 300 organisations of the state. The speakers during the public rally said the massive turnout has put a death knell on all those who issue statements for disintegration of Manipur like the NSCN (IM). Village Chiefs and leaders of organisations from all the hill districts specially Kuki and Naga stated that they want to live peacefully as Manipur has been in existence for over 2000 years with a common history and ancestory.It was further stated that for ages all have been living peacefully until talks started between the government and the NSCN(IM) in 1997 and the prolonged talks have created an atmosphere of distrust amongst the people. All resolved to work for a peaceful and united Manipur. Y K Dhiren, Convenor of the Organising Committee said the government should publish a white paper on the agreement with the NSCN(IM). Speaker after speaker appealed to the government of India to resolve the problems with the NSCN(IM) within Nagaland and not to disturb other neighbouring states. Special security arrangements were taken up for the rally. All the roads leading to Khuman Lampak were blocked and only people were allowed to walk upto the venue. As there were more two to three lakhs people it would be have been a chaos if vehicles were allowed according to police official who were on duty. UNI NS KK BL RSA -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-576935.Xml Haryana today urged the Central Government to exempt the Urban Development Authority from the provisions of Income Tax and enhance the capability of the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) to finance infrastructure projects in the NCR. Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu, who was speaking in pre-budget consultations meeting of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with Finance Ministers of States and Union Territories in New Delhi today, said that exemption to Urban Development Authority from the provision of Income Tax would enable it to achieve the objective of House for All, especially for weaker sections of the society. He said the main objective of NCRPB is to develop the infrastructure in the region, at par with the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Although, nearly 50 per cent area of NCR falls in Haryana, the financial assistance by way of loans to Haryana by the NCR Planning Board has declined from Rs 567.34 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 186.97 crore in 2014-15. He also sought higher allocation of funds from the Central Government and requested for faster implementation of projects of Irrigation, rural development and Road Transport in the State.MORE UNI NC VJ RJ RSA BL1851 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-577043.Xml Altogether, 351 candidates were elected unopposed as Block Pramukh in Uttar Pradesh, after withdrawal of the nominations today. Amroha district has the distinction of getting all the six block pramukh elected unopposed. However, now around 1000 candidates are in the fray for tomorrow's elections amid tight security arrangements. State Joint Election Commissioner Ved Prakash Verma told UNI here that 351 block pramukhs have been elected unopposed, while around 1000 candidates are in the fray for remaining 468 block pramukhs. He said elaborate security are in place for tomorrow's polling, which will start at 1100 hrs. The polling would end at 1500 hrs and thereafter, counting of votes would be taken up. He said all the six block pramukhs in Amroha district have been elected unopposed. Meanwhile, the ruling Samajwadi Party has claimed that in 345 blocks, party candidates have been elected unopposed. Yesterday ,Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is also the state SP president, had issued a warning to the rebel candidates to withdraw nominations in block pramukhs elections. SP Spokesman Rajendra Chaudhury already claimed victory in block pramukh polls as he said that 345 out of 775 candidates it had fielded, had been elected unopposed. Polling for the block pramukh would be held in 74 districts of the state, except in Allahabad and Chitrakoot districts, where polling would be held on February 10 because of the ongoing religious festivals there. There are 77576 block panchayat members, who are eligible for voting in the polls. The highest number of block pramukhs would be 22 in Azamgarh district, followed by 21 in Jaunpur and 20 in Allahabad, while the lowest would be four each in Ghaziabad and Mahoba districts. Azamgarh has the maximum number of 2141 voters, followed by Jaunpur 2075, Gorakhpur 1815, Hardoi 1806 and Bahraich 1604 voters. Reports of clashes, firing and abduction of voters were reported from different places, but police officials denied any such incidents. Firing on a block pramukh candidate was reported in Kashiram Nagar district, while abduction of BDC members were reported from Sant Kabirnagar, Sultanpur, Faizabad and other districts. Meanwhile, opposition parties have charged the ruling Samajwadi Party of misusing official machinery to influence the elections. There were also reports of candidates distributing money among voters and in some places, people were forcefully not allowed to file papers. BJP state president Laxmikant Bajpai has alleged rampant misuse of official machinery and police to prevent opposition candidates to file nominations. Similar allegations were also made by BSP, Congress and RLD leaders. However, the SP Spokesman has called these allegations as false. In Panchayat elections, the party had won 60 out of 75 seats and this trend will be replicated in the block pramukh polls, he claimed.UNI MB RJ RSA 1954 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0098-577361.Xml Kannur District Congress Committee (DCC) President K Surdendran today demanded that the Election Commission(EC) should ensure effective election process in Kannur district in the wake of irregularities in the past in voters list. He sent a memorandum today to EC demanding strict use of election ID cards for voting. Mr Surendran also said the EC should ensure this strictly. It should not allow booth level officers to issue slips to voters. Some of them do this with a political motive, he charged. This slips are misused by political parties in Kannur district. He said polling stations should be at select public places and not in any "party controlled libraries or clubs". The EC should prevent "anti people policy reported in Kannur in the name of open votes". In the last local body elections about 250 votes were cast under open vote system. The DCC President also demanded that still photographers should be appointed along with videographers in sensitive booths to avoid bogus voting. .UNI AK VV AK1950 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0324-577303.Xml Khokhrakot in district Rohtak, Rakhigarhi in district Hisar and Adi Badri in district Yamunanagar would be developed as tourist spots. Adi Badri is the point of origin of the Sarasvati river and has been certified by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) organisations. The Chief Minister was addressing a gathering during the 6th 21-Gun Salute International Vintage Car Rally and Concours Show 2016 organised in Delhi. This two-day rally would spread the message of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) in Delhi and adjoining states. He said that Haryana Kanya Kosh has been set up in the state and it would have funds to the tune of Rs 100 crore. The CM urged entrepreneurs and various companies of the state to connect with this campaign by contributing in the Haryana Kanya Kosh. With this Kosh, the state government would help the orphan and needy girls for their upbringing, education and also give them financial help during their marriage. Talking about the Vintage Car Rally, the Chief Minister said that such functions promote tourism. He urged the organisers of vintage car rally to take this rally towards Bahadurgarh and Sonepat of Haryana so as to publicise BBBP in rural areas and people could also get information about old auto culture.UNI NC DJK RSA SB2005 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-577330.Xml Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today expressed her condolencesto the kin of the 13 deceased and enquired about the health of the 33 injured in the collision between a state transport corporation bus and a lorry near Madurai today. In a statement here she also announced a relief of Rs 1 lakh to the kinof the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured. She also annopunced that as soon as she was informed about the accident,she sent Co-operative minister S Rajee , Madurai District Collector and the DistrictSP to rush to the spot of the mishap and help the injured to get the best medicalattention.UNI VV AK2033 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-577495.Xml "If the prime minister asks, I can show photographs as proof," Azam Khan told reporters in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. He said Modi also met Sharif's mother at the Pakistani prime minister's residence in Lahore. He claimed that Sharif sent seekh kabab for Modi. "Our prime minister sends pashmina shawl and Malihabadi mangoes for the Pakistani prime minister and in return, seekh kabab comes here from Pakistan. I have proof of this also...," he said. In December last year, Modi made a brief stopover in Lahore, while returning to Delhi from a visit to Kabul. --Indo-Asian News Service bns/pm/vd ( 147 Words) 2016-02-06-22:57:33 (IANS) A hardcore criminal of an inter state gang involved in more than two dozen cases of murder, kidnapping, robbery and other unlawful activities in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh was nabbed in Kolkata today. Police Superintendent of Buxar Upendra Sharma told UNI here that the outlaw Dhananjay alias Guddu Rai was nabbed from his hideout in Kolkata in a joint operation of Buxar district police and Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh. He said a local court had sentenced the dreaded criminal to life imprisonment in 2009 for his involvement in the murder of a Mukhiya in Buxar district. The criminal who was being taken to Mau in Uttar Pradesh by the police for his production in another case pending in the neighbouring state managed to escape by giving them a slip. Later, a case was registered with Government Railway Police (GRP) at Mau railway station. The outlaw was absconding since then. Bihar Police and Uttar Pradesh Police had announced a reward on the head of the criminal of Rs 50,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively as he had unleashed a reign of terror in various districts of both states.UNI DH BM PY AJ VN2253 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-577557.Xml Himachal Pradesh police today seized about Rs 30 lakh of unaccounted foreign and Indian currency from two people, who were on the way to McLeodganj, the abode of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama. "We seized the cash from a luxury car bearing registration number of Delhi and two occupants of the car, who are Tibetans, have been detained, a police official told UNI. He said, "the recovered foreign currency included Chinese yuan and US dollar. The Indian rupee amounted to Rs 26 lakh," he added. The vehicle was intercepted at Mehatpur in Una district, bordering Punjab. Police believe the money was meant for a monastery in McLeodganj on the outskirts of Dharamshala town, some 250 km from here. In 2011, the police arrested two people from the same spot and seized unaccounted Rs 1 crore from them. On the basis of their interrogation, the police a day later raided the monastery of Tibetan religious head and 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the third most important Tibetan spiritual leader, on the outskirts of Dharamsala and seized about Rs 6 crore of unaccounted foreign and Indian currency.UNI ML DS AJ VN2158 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-577253.Xml Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today urges Punjabis worldwide to rise above petty interests and counter the forces indulging in defaming and denigrating the image of state. During a 90 minute presentation in the peoples court at New Delhi today Mr Badal informed the opinion makers in the capital about the progress and development projects implemented by the Punjab government on this front as well as unmasking the conspiracy of vested interests, who want to make political capital by slandering the State only to score brownie points in the media. Mr Badal informed that during Congress regime from 2002 to 2007 the gross VAT collection was Rs 19,960 crore, which witnessed a significant increase to Rs 44,209 crore in SAD-BJP alliance rule from 2007-12 with further increased in the existing rule of alliance to Rs. 62,706 crore till date.MORE UNI NC PY AJ BL2222 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-577411.Xml Poland is satisfied with the outcome of talks over a proposed EU-Britain deal with British Prime Minister David Cameron who is visiting Warsaw today, head of the Polish ruling Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski said.Speaking to reporters immediately after meeting Cameron in a hotel in central Warsaw, Kaczynski said: "We have gained really very, very much, and we are satisfied.""Poland has ... gained here really very much, full safety, above all, for all those who are in Britain right now, but also that those who have children in Poland will continue to receive benefits, they may be adjusted, but they will get them anyway." REUTERS SA CS1635 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0386-574967.Xml Britain on Friday rejected a UN working group's ruling which calls for an end to the "arbitrary detention" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) announced on Friday that Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain since his arrest in London in 2010, and he should be afforded the right to compensation, Xinhua reported. Speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been taking refuge, Assange said: "How sweet it is. This is a victory that cannot be denied." "It is a victory of historical importance, not just for me, for my family, for my children, but for the independence of the UN system," he added. Holding a copy of the UN ruling, he continued: "What right do the governments of the US, UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years?" However, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described the ruling as "a ridiculous finding" by the working group, and accused Assange of "hiding from justice." "Assange is a fugitive from justice, voluntarily hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy. I reject the report from UNWGAD," Hammond tweeted. Hitting back at Hammond, Assange accused the foreign secretary' s comments of "insulting the UN." "I found those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign secretary should express in this situation," The 44-year-old Australian said. Edward Snowden, a US intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower who has fled the US and taken refugee in Russia, criticised Britain's rejection to abide by the UN ruling. "This writes a pass for every dictatorship to reject UN rulings. Dangerous precedent for UK and Sweden to set," he said on his twitter account. British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) denied that Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Britain, and threatened to formally contest the opinion of the UN Working Group. "This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group's opinion," an FCO spokesperson said. The spokesperson noted that an allegation of rape against Assange is still outstanding with a European Arrest Warrant in place, and Britain "continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden." Assange has infuriated several governments, including the US authorities, by disclosing hundreds of thousands of secret files concerning Iraq, Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world. In June, 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and was granted political asylum by Ecuador two months later. --Indo-Asian News Service sku/ ( 448 Words) 2016-02-06-08:09:09 (IANS) Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has met with lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and offered consular assistance for the Australian, after a UN panel ruled he had been arbitrarily detained for almost four years.Assange, a computer hacker who enraged the United States by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid a rape investigation in Sweden.The Australian citizen called on Britain and Sweden yesterday to let him freely leave the embassy, after the ruling in his favour by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention."I met with members of the legal team for Julian Assange in London on Thursday afternoon, prior to the release of the report of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention," Bishop said in a statement given to Reuters early today."I have now read the Report and I am seeking legal advice on its implications for Mr Assange, as an Australian citizen. I have confirmed with his lawyers that our offer of consular assistance stands should he require it."Assange's Australian lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that the meeting with Bishop had been positive."We have requested they release his passport or immediately issue him a new passport and that Australia take positive steps to help to negotiate the resolution of this case," she said.The decision marks the latest twist in a tumultuous journey for Assange since he incensed Washington with leaks that laid bare often highly critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders from Vladimir Putin to the Saudi royal family.In 2010, WikiLeaks released over 90,000 secret documents on the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan, followed by almost 400,000 US military reports detailing operations in Iraq. Those disclosures were followed by release of millions of diplomatic cables dating back to 1973.The UN Working Group does not have the authority to order the release of a detainee - and Friday's ruling in unlikely to change the legal issues facing Assange - but it has considered many high-profile cases and its backing carries a moral weight that puts pressure on governments.REUTERS KU 0402 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0348-576080.Xml The Pentagon released 198 photographs linked to allegations of abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them showing close-ups of cuts and bruises to arms and legs of prisoners held in US facilities. The Pentagon yesterday said the photos came from criminal investigations into 56 allegations of misconduct by US personnel. It said 14 of those allegations were substantiated and even led to life imprisonment.The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit more than a decade ago for the photos, said the images were part of a larger collection of 2,000 mostly unreleased photographs tied to American detainees. "The still-secret pictures are the best evidence of the serious abuses that took place in military detention centers," said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer in a statement. "The government's selective disclosure risks misleading the public about the true extent of the abuse."The release follows a November decision by US Defense Secretary Ash Carter to not recertify the images under the Protected National Security Documents Act, thus allowing them to be made public subject to request.The photos released on Friday, while graphic, were unlikely to have the same impact as the images depicting abuse of Abu Ghraib detainees that emerged in 2004. Some detainees there claimed they endured physical and sexual abuse, infliction of electric shocks, and mock executions. Still, the Pentagon said the independent criminal investigations tied to the photos released yesterday day led to disciplinary action against 65 US service members, ranging from letters of reprimand to life imprisonment.REUTERS KU GC0521 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0348-576088.Xml The United States and its allies are probably many weeks or even months away from launching a new military campaign against Islamic State in Libya, despite mounting concern about the group's spread there and its attacks on oil infrastructure, U S officials say. The Pentagon has warned in recent weeks of the dangers posed by Islamic State's growth in Libya. The U.S. is developing military options, which were discussed at an inconclusive meeting last week of President Barack Obama and his top security aides, officials said. Those options include increased air strikes, deploying U S special operations forces and training Libyan security forces, officials say. But the U S officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said enormous hurdles stand in the way of increased American military involvement. The largest is the formation of a unified Libyan government strong enough to call for and accommodate foreign military assistance.Getting some allies on board could also require a new mandate from the United Nations, they said. "We're not there yet," said one U S official. He and other officials with knowledge of internal deliberations cautioned that it is too soon to estimate when military action might begin, but cautioned it could take many weeks or even months. "As far as I'm aware, there is no clear intention to go ahead with the military-style action. There is a lot of thinking, a lot of thinking, a lot of planning," said a Western diplomat. U S and European officials describe Islamic State's presence in Libya as increasingly worrisome, although not on the scale of its rule over swaths of Iraq and Syria.Islamic State forces have attacked Libya's oil infrastructure and taken control of the city of Sirte, exploiting a power vacuum in the North African country where two rival governments have been battling for supremacy.Estimates of Islamic State fighters in Libya range from 3,000 to 5,000-6,000. Officials openly worry that the group could use its Libya haven to relieve the pressure from U S air strikes and local forces against its home base in Iraq and Syria.POLITICAL FOCUS FOR NOW Under a U N-backed plan for a political transition, Libya's two warring administrations are expected to form a unity government, but more than a month after the deal was agreed in Morocco, its implementation has been dogged by infighting. Ben Fishman, a former White House aide under Obama who dealt with Libya policy, said there is concern in the Obama administration that military action now could disrupt the government formation process. It might, he said, prompt moderate forces in Libya to back away. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, appeared to reference those concerns last month. "You want to take decisive military action to check ISIL's expansion and at the same time you want to do it such a way that's supportive of a long-term political process," he said. Still, Fishman said, "I think we have to do something on the ground soon, because they (Islamic State) are pretty much acting with impunity." Forming a unified Libyan government could pave the way toward Tripoli formally requesting greater international assistance.But with Libya in chaos, it would likely take a new government some time to get on its feet, officials said, U S Defense Secretary Ash Carter said this week that the focus of the international community on Libya is political, not military. Once a government is in place, "we have indicated a willingness, along with a number of other countries, to help them secure the country," Carter said. He noted that "the Italians have indicated that they would take the lead in that, rather than the United States, which is fine with us." The U S military has been laying the groundwork for greater action, sending U S special forces into Libya to establish contact with local armed groups to get a better picture of who the international community might be able to work with. U S officials also say the amount of intelligence collection about Islamic State's activities in Libya has also increased in recent weeks. They also have not ruled out more precision strikes against top Islamic State leaders like one in November in which American F-15 aircraft killed Islamic State's senior leader in Libya, known as Abu Nabil. REUTERS KU GC0525 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0348-576089.Xml A prominent Democratic donor worried about the party's chances of winning the presidency emailed dozens of fans of Vice President Joe Biden, urging them to remain prepared to donate if Biden jumps into the race. The donor, Bill Bartmann, yesterday cited new polling showing Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont nearly tied with the Hillary Clinton, eroding the 30-point lead the former secretary of state held at the end of last year. Bartmann and other party insiders are concerned that Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, is too far to the left to win against a Republican in the Nov 8 presidential election. "We cannot afford to lose the White House," Bartmann wrote in the email, seen by Reuters. The email drew a string of affirmative responses, also seen by Reuters. Biden announced in October that he would not seek the presidency, despite support from a group of backers under the name "Draft Biden 2016." But whispers have continued among some donors who hope that Biden could be convinced to run after all should Clinton's campaign prove fruitless. "My sitting on the sidelines has a lot to do with my disappointment that the vice president decided not to get in the race," Patrick Baskette, one of the recipients of Bartmann's email, told Reuters. Baskette, a public affairs consultant in Tampa, Florida, was a special assistant to Biden during his time as a senator.Baskette said he was not opposed to either Clinton or Sanders. "I don't think that they offer the solutions to our nation's future that Joe Biden does," he added. Clinton only barely squeaked out a win against Sanders in the Iowa caucus this week, adding to fears that she could lose a nomination that once was thought all but inevitable for her. Clinton is widely expected to lose the New Hampshire primary to Sanders on Tuesday. "Count me in," Gary Hindes, chief executive of the Delaware Bay Company LLC and a former chairman of the Delaware Democratic Party, wrote on the email chain. "I am hoping that the stars line up right and that Joe becomes the nominee," Hindes said to Reuters. "Sanders is too far to the left," he added, saying Clinton could be vulnerable as well."My heart is with Joe," Hindes said. REUTERS KU GC0636 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0348-576099.Xml For years Gui Minhai, a China-born publisher of tabloid books on China's leaders, had believed he could live and work overseas on a Swedish passport without fear of persecution by Chinese authorities, which ban such works on the mainland.His disappearance, however, from Thailand last October and his tearful appearance last month on Chinese state television have undermined confidence among some diplomats in the protections afforded to hundreds of thousands of foreign passport holders in Hong Kong and China.Reuters has confirmed that at least eight governments including Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States have in private raised concerns with Chinese officials, saying detaining Gui and his associates breaches the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China.China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request from Reuters to comment on those diplomatic concerns.Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Hong Kong's autonomy was fully respected, and that as the territory belonged to China, no foreign officials had the right to interfere or offer "not really appropriate" comments about the city.Publishing literature critical of Beijing is not illegal in the former British colony, under the freedoms guaranteed as part of Hong Kong's 1997 handover to China.Three associates of Gui - who specialised in gossipy books on Chinese politics - were reported missing late last year, and were only this week confirmed to be in China and under investigation for unspecified "illegal activities".Another, British passport-holder Lee Bo, surfaced in China last month after vanishing from Hong Kong weeks earlier. Lee's wife told reporters he had left his travel permit for mainland China at home."I used to ask him if it was safe to be doing what he was doing," Gui's daughter, Angela, told Reuters by phone from Britain where she is studying. "And he did mention his Swedish nationality as something that would ensure his safety."While Gui said on Chinese television that he had voluntarily turned himself in, authorities from Thailand have said there was no record of Gui leaving the country.Abductions by Chinese agents in Hong Kong would be illegal. There is no evidence that the five booksellers were abducted.China's Foreign Ministry said this week that its law enforcement officials would never do anything illegal, especially not overseas.DIPLOMATIC CONCERNA number of governments have expressed concern regarding the disappearances, which some diplomats fear were abductions by Chinese agents. On Friday, the European Parliament called for "the immediate safe release" of all five booksellers.Fifteen diplomats from the governments interviewed by Reuters in Hong Kong, Beijing and Guangzhou all showed serious concern. Some of them warned of a diplomatic crisis. They declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.China's reluctance to provide information and its refusal to allow Swedish or British envoys access to Gui or Lee - a breach of international conventions - is fuelling a diplomatic crisis, several senior Western diplomats said."It's another indication that China is not going the right way in behaving responsibly in terms of international norms," said a European diplomat. "But China can do so now because no one can challenge them."British Foreign Office staff told Reuters privately that London is still grappling with how to pressure China on the issue as it seeks to strengthen economic and trade ties.In a separate disappearance, a Chinese journalist and activist, Li Xin, vanished in Thailand last month and has since reappeared in China under police custody."WE ARE NOT SAFE"One key issue arising from the arrests is Hong Kong's large number of ethnic Chinese who carry foreign passports and the apparent inability of foreign governments to get access to them should they get into trouble with China.Unease has spread among some dual nationals in Hong Kong, including financial professionals, who are questioning their future in one of Asia's most international and law-abiding cities."We are not safe," said Sammy Lo, a Hong Kong-born stock broker who holds a Canadian passport. "They can take you away wherever you are."Lo was so unnerved that he said he was speeding up plans to leave Hong Kong.Several hundred thousand ethnic Chinese with dual foreign nationality now live in the city of 7.2 million, led by Canadians, Americans, British and Australians, according to figures provided by around a dozen foreign consulates.China does not recognise dual nationality. Hong Kong does, but requires a specific declaration that you wish to be treated as a foreign national. It is unclear if Gui or Lee had formally asked to be treated as foreigners.China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said last month that Lee was "first and foremost" a Chinese citizen, despite his British passport. Wang did not elaborate.While China does not recognise dual nationality, several countries including the U.S., Canada and Australia say they can provide consular assistance for dual nationals who enter China on their passports, though there may be a limit to that assistance. REUTERS CJ RAI1041 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-576154.Xml Donald Trump and Marco Rubio could be top targets for rivals' fire today when seven Republican White House hopefuls take the stage in New Hampshire for their eighth debate, just days before the state's high-stakes primary.Billionaire Trump held a wide lead in polls in New Hampshire, with US Senator Rubio of Florida second in a rapid rise ahead of Tuesday's primary, part of the series of contests to pick the nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election.Trump and Rubio have taken flak from competitors as candidates launched an all-out offensive across New Hampshire.Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush attacked Trump for using profane language and brought out his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, who accused Trump of misogyny over his criticisms of a Fox News anchor.Bush and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also went after Rubio. All three are vying for the favor of establishment Republicans in New Hampshire.Christie yesterday released videos mocking Rubio for appearing scripted on the campaign trail. And Bush, a former mentor to Rubio, unveiled an ad showing Rick Santorum, who left the race this week and endorsed Rubio, apparently struggling to name any of the senator's accomplishments.Rubio finished third in Iowa on Monday, behind US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Trump. Yesterday, Rubio won the endorsement of another ex-candidate, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.Ohio Governor John Kasich, who will also participate in today's debate, argued that Republicans won't win elections by bashing each other. Kasich has placed much of his White House hopes on New Hampshire, where he held his 100th town hall event yesterday."Part of the campaign is not just about how you trash somebody else. The way you win a campaign is what you're for, your heart and your brain, that's what it's really all about," Kasich said.But it could be a tough message to absorb in a tense week. Trump, Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson have engaged in a three-way stand-off since Cruz's surprise Iowa win. Trump called for the results to be nullified over reports that Cruz supporters told caucus-goers Carson was dropping out.A new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll found Trump leading in New Hampshire with 29 per cent, followed by Rubio and Kasich.Not on stage will be businesswoman Carly Fiorina, who failed to meet host network ABC's requirements to qualify. Fiorina released an open letter excoriating the debate process as "broken." REUTERS DS NS1633 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-576761.Xml Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a UN police base in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu, in a statement monitored by the SITE Intelligence group today. Malian troops backed by UN helicopters recaptured the base hours after it was taken yesterday. Militants have expanded their attacks in the region, killing 20 in a raid on a hotel in Mali's capital in November and 30 in an attack in the capital of Burkina Faso last month. REUTERS DS NS1804 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-576998.Xml At least nine people were killed and 35 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military convoy in Pakistan's western city of Quetta today, police and hospital officials said. Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurasani told Reuters that the group, also known as the TTP, was responsible for the attack in the capital of the province of Baluchistan. The bombing was the latest in a region which is home to the planned route of a 46 billion dollar China-Pakistan economic corridor. "The suicide bomber was riding a bicycle close to a Frontier Corps vehicle," said senior police official Imtiaz Shah, referring to the branch of Pakistan's paramilitary forces targeted in the attack. At least three Frontier Corps personnel were killed and 15 were injured in the attack that occurred in the city centre in the late afternoon, Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey said. A 12-year-old girl was also among the dead, said Ajab Khan, a doctor at the city's Civil Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Rich in resources, Baluchistan is at the heart of the multi-billion-dollar energy and infrastructure projects which China and Pakistan are planning along a corridor stretching from the Arabian Sea to China's Xinjiang region. The province, the poorest and least developed in Pakistan, has seen nearly a decade of separatist violence against the government and non-Baluch ethnic groups. Baluch activists and human rights groups claim the military has carried out a campaign of kidnapping, torture and extrajudicial killing of suspected separatists, and a security crackdown has severely limited freedom of movement. In January, five Pakistani soldiers and two coast guard members were killed in separate attacks in the province, and a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people outside a polio eradication centre in Quetta.REUTERS PY SB2015 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0101-577444.Xml At least eight people were killed and 40 wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military convoy in Pakistan's western city of Quetta today, police and hospital officials said, the latest attack in a region home to the planned route of a 46 billion dollars China-Pakistan economic corridor."The suicide bomber was riding a bicycle and detonated himself close to a Frontier Corps vehicle," said senior police official Imtiaz Shah, referring to the branch of Pakistan's paramilitary forces targeted in the attack.At least three Frontier Corps personnel were killed in the attack that occurred in the city centre in the late afternoon, Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey said.A 12-year-old girl was also amoung the dead, said Ajab Khan, a doctor at the city's Civil Hospital, where the casualties were received.Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurasani told Reuters that the group, also known as the TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan.Rich in resources, Baluchistan is at the heart of the multi-billion-dollar energy and infrastructure projects China and Pakistan are planning along a corridor stretching from the Arabian Sea to China's Xinjiang region.But the province, the poorest and least developed in Pakistan, has seen nearly a decade of separatist violence against the government and non-Baluch ethnic groups.Baluch activists and human rights groups claim the military has carried out a campaign of kidnapping, torture and extrajudicial killing of suspected separatists, and a security crackdown has severely limited freedom of movement in the province.In January, five Pakistani soldiers and two coast guard members were killed in separate attacks in the province, and a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people outside a polio eradication centre in Quetta. REUTERS DS NS1945 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-577333.Xml Employers used to be more hesitant to consider hiring job applicants who earned their degrees online. But that perception has changed in the past few years, recruiters say. "I think employers, generally speaking, are getting more inclined, more receptive to looking at people with online degrees -- especially in experienced roles that they're looking to fill. However, it's still a mixed bag; it's a broad range," says Kip Harrell, vice president of client talent acquisition for Govig & Associates, an executive search firm. "Schools got better at the delivery models, and hiring managers, particularly in the technology industries, became much more comfortable with it," says Nicole Cox, chief recruitment officer at Decision Toolbox, a national recruitment firm. [Understand what employers really think about your online bachelor's degree.] This increasing acceptance is good news for online students, especially as career preparation remains their primary motivation for turning to distance learning in the first place, according to the results of a 2015 survey conducted by Aslanian Market Research and the Learning House. Roughly three-quarters of survey respondents said they chose online learning to change or boost their careers, find a job or keep their skills up to date. As with any hiring process, an employer will consider several other qualities beyond the type of degree an applicant earned. Still, employers who are aware that job candidates completed their degrees online will likely want to verify that the quality of their education is the same as they would have received in person. Recruiters and experts say the following questions are regularly asked of online students during the job interview process. Prospective online students should keep these questions in mind when selecting a program to ensure that they are an appealing candidate to employers once they graduate. 1. Is the online program accredited? An employer will likely be most concerned with whether an online degree comes from a reputable institution with an established brand, says Susan Aldridge, president of Drexel University Online. A major part of a program's legitimacy comes down to whether it's either regionally or nationally accredited. Story continues Accreditation entails an outside, legitimate authority verifying that an institution meets certain educational standards. The accrediting agency should be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. "It provides a credibility to it," Cox says. "And if you go on to continue your education after that, you don't want to have to start over." Students should be aware that credits earned at schools without recognized accreditation may not transfer. [Learn how to tell the good online degree program from the bad.] 2. Why did you choose to pursue a degree online? Some employers may wonder why a job candidate chose to pursue a degree online, says Charles Mitchell, co-founder and CEO of All About People, a recruiting and staffing firm based in Arizona. Answering that question can help reveal the candidate's decision-making skills, he says. "I think from an employer perspective, those are the kinds of things you're looking for someone to share, to explain when it comes to going one route in a traditional setting versus an online setting versus another," he says. This question came up in job interviews for Billy Parsons, who recently completed the FlexPath MBA program with a specialization in human resources offered through Capella University, an online, for-profit school. "I flat-out told them, 'I don't have the time to spend driving to these locations when I'm working full time, with a family, and I'm at the level in my organization that does not allow me to have that much free time,'" the 46-year-old Texas resident says. 3. Did you develop skills in teamwork and group collaboration through the program? One of the perks of taking a class in person is the ability to easily work with peers on group assignments. Many online programs also involve collaborative learning, experts say, but it may take a bit more effort to convince an employer that this was indeed the case. "That is a huge part of what we see employers look for today -- is that ability to work within a team, to be a good team player, to collaborate," Mitchell says. 4. To what extent were you able to interact with the program's other students? Just as important to employers is an online learner's ability to understand and interpret a range of perspectives on different issues, says Cox, of Decision Toolbox. "Employers, if they really understand online education, they can see that it's a smart use of time and can bring a lot of exposure of global ideas, and help their employees develop solutions to problems that they might not have had any exposure to in the past," she says. [Discover ways your online classmates can teach you about different cultures.] These qualities in an online program can help reassure potential employers about its legitimacy, says Harrell, of Govig & Associates. "Those experiences that you get in a full-time, campus-based program, you hope will have been built into an online distance learning degree," he says. Trying to fund your online education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for Online Education center. Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com. By Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan Interior Minister Noor-ul-Haq Olomi has offered his resignation to President Ashraf Ghani after mounting criticism of the worsening security situation over recent months, people familiar with the matter said. The resignation offer, which the sources said had not yet been accepted, deals a further blow to Ghani's struggling government, which is without a permanent defence minister and which recently lost the head of its intelligence service just as the Taliban has stepped up its insurgency. It also highlights the deep fractures in the national unity government which gave Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, the two rival candidates in the disputed election of 2014, a share in power. Three separate government and diplomatic sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Olomi had offered his resignation but that Ghani was still considering a replacement before accepting it. Asked whether Olomi had offered his resignation, Ghani's deputy spokesman Sayed Zafar Hashemi said: "Bringing reform to government entitities, including the ministry of the interior, to increase efficiency has been a government priority." An interior ministry spokesman said he could not confirm the information. One senior official said Ghani was meeting Chief Executive Abdullah, who nominated Olomi to the ministry and who would be consulted before any replacement can be appointed. The move comes as officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China are meeting in Islamabad to try to lay the ground for a resumption of peace talks with the Taliban. Speculation over the future of Olomi had been swirling for months after he survived moves by a group of members of parliament in November to launch a no confidence motion against him over the deteriorating security outlook. The Taliban have stepped up their insurgency since the withdrawal of most foreign troops in 2014, briefly seizing the northern city of Kunduz last year and mounting a series of deadly suicide attacks in the capital Kabul. According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. Congressional oversight body, the Islamist insurgents now control more territory than at any time since 2001, when the Taliban was driven from power by U.S.-led forces in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. At the same time, the government has been hobbled by political infighting, which has prevented the appointment of a permanent defence minister for more than a year. Disagreements over the approach to dealing with the insurgency also prompted the powerful head of the National Directorate for Security, Rahmatullah Nabil to walk out of the job in December. (Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) BAMAKO (Reuters) - Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for Friday's deadly attack on a U.N. police base in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu, a statement monitored by the SITE Intelligence group showed on Saturday. Malian troops backed by U.N. helicopters recaptured the base in a former hotel hours after it was taken and a Malian commander and four attackers were killed. The precise number of attackers was unclear. Militants have expanded their attacks in the region, killing 20 people in a raid on a hotel in Mali's capital in November and 30 more in an attack in the capital of Burkina Faso last month. "Three heroes from the knights of ... (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) were able to storm the Hotel Palmeraie, located in the center of the city of Timbuktu, and which was taken as a headquarters by the forces of oppression falsely known as 'peacekeepers', the statement said. Militants drove up to the nearly empty U.N. base in the former Hotel Palmeraie at the entrance to Timbuktu at dawn and detonated a car bomb before holing up inside, security sources said. Islamist militants briefly held Timbuktu, an ancient trade and cultural hub, in 2012 and other northern towns until French forces drove them out a year later. They have launched a series of attacks and last year widened their attacks in Mali. (Reporting by Souleymane Ag Anara in Niamey; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Helen Popper) Bamako (AFP) - Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Saturday said they carried out Friday's attack on a UN military camp in Timbuktu in Mali's restive north. At least four suspected jihadists and a Malian soldier were killed in the attack which the group said was designed to send "a clear message" of its intention and capacity to target the UN's peacekeeping MINUSMA mission. The group said in a statement that three fighters from the al-Quds Brigade of its Sahara division stormed the former hotel serving as the mission base, one detonating a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at the entrance and the two others entering inside. The attack came three months after a similar strike on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako and one month after a raid on a top hotel in Burkina Faso. The militant group has vowed to continue with a series of operations to cleanse the land of Islam and Muslims from the dens of the Crusader occupiers and their mercenaries. A Malian police source indicated two suspects, who army sources said had been arrested in the aftermath of the attack, were Saturday released. "The people arrested Friday on suspicion of being terrorists or their accomplices have been freed for lack of evidence," the Timbuktu gendarmerie source told AFP without giving further details. Defence Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly had Friday spoken of "half a dozen" fighters carrying out the attack, with three gunned down and one blowing himself up. Three Malian soldiers were also wounded. The assault came just a day after the fabled city celebrated the restoration of its greatest treasures -- earthen mausoleums dating to mediaeval times and destroyed during an Islamist takeover in 2012. In a statement via Mauritanian news agency Al-Akhbar, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said three fighters whose nationalities were not immediately clear carried out the raid and were all killed. The group added that "several soldiers" had also died with others injured. Story continues Army sources reported the situation Saturday afternoon as calm in Timbuktu as Coulibaly attended the funeral of the slain soldier, named as commander Karim Niang. The sources added they had carried out patrols through the night across the city. Sources close to Coulibaly meanwhile said he would be meeting with city officials to discuss boosting security. Northern Mali fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels and jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012. The Islamists sidelined the Tuareg to take sole control. Although largely ousted by a French-led military operation in January 2013 the jihadist groups remain active. CAIRO (Reuters) - The militant group al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two Australians near Burkina Faso's border with Mali on Jan. 15, according to an audio statement on Friday. The recording by the al Mourabitoun branch of AQIM, released on its official Telegram channel, also said the group had decided to release one of the captives - a woman - unconditionally. "The primary motive behind their kidnapping was an attempt to (gain) release of our captives who sit behind bars and suffer the pain of imprisonment, as well as being deprived of their basic rights," the recording stated. Dr Ken Elliott and his wife, Jocelyn, who are in their 80s, have operated a 120-bed clinic in the town of Djibo for more than 40 years. They were abducted from the town as al Qaeda fighters raided a restaurant and hotel across the West African nation in the capital Ouagadougou - an attack that left dozens dead, most of them foreigners. In the recording, AQIM said it was releasing the woman under public pressure and in accordance with what it said was guidance from al Qaeda leaders not to involve women in war. Australia said it was aware of the recording and the government remained in close contact with the Elliott family. "The safety and welfare of Dr and Mrs Elliott are our overriding concern," the Australian foreign ministry said in a statement. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy, additional reporting by Morag MacKinnon in PERTH; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Dominic Evans, Robert Birsel) DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's anti-Islam PEGIDA movement staged rallies in several cities across Europe on Saturday to protest against the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa. The movement, whose name stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, originated in the eastern German city of Dresden in 2014, with supporters seizing on a surge in asylum seekers to warn that Germany risks being overrun by Muslims. After almost fizzling out early last year, the movement has regained momentum amid deepening public unease over whether Germany can cope with the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in the country during 2015. The alleged involvement of migrants in assaults on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve has also spurred PEGIDA, which says it is proof that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance to refugees is flawed. "We must succeed in guarding and controlling Europe's external borders as well as its internal borders once again," PEGIDA member Siegfried Daebritz told a crowd on the banks of the River Elbe who chanted "Merkel must go!". Police in Dresden declined to estimate the number of protesters. German media put the number at up to 8,000, well below the 15,000 originally expected by police. Hundreds of counter-demonstrators also marched through Dresden under the motto "Solidarity instead of exclusion", holding up placards saying "No place for Nazis". Far-right groups see Europe's refugee crisis as an opportunity to broadcast their anti-immigrant message. There were 208 rallies in Germany in the last quarter of 2015, up from 95 a year earlier, Interior Ministry data showed. CALAIS, PRAGUE Protests also took place on Saturday in other cities, including Amsterdam, Prague and the English city of Birmingham. In Calais, in northern France, more than a dozen people were arrested during a protest that was attended by more than a hundred people despite being banned, local authorities said. Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East camp out in Calais, hoping for a chance to make the short trip across the English Channel to Britain. In Prague, an estimated 2,200 people including both supporters and opponents of Pegida held a series of rival demonstrations around the Czech capital. Police had to intervene in one march when supporters of the migrants came under attack from around 20 people who threw bottles and stones. Later, around 20 masked assailants threw Molotov cocktails during an attack on a center that collects donations for refugees, forcing the evacuation of the building and injuring one person who was hit by glass, police said. In Warsaw, hundreds of people waved Polish flags and chanted "England and France are in tears, that's how tolerance ends". "We're demonstrating against the Islamisation of Europe, we're demonstrating against immigration, against an invasion," Robert Winnicki, leader of Poland's far-right Ruch Narodowy (National Movement), told demonstrators. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland have together taken a tough stance on migration and have been largely opposed to taking in significant numbers of refugees. (Reporting Caroline Copley and Reuters TV; Additional reporting by Wiktor Szary in Warsaw, Petra Vodstrcilova and Michael Kahn in Prague, Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris, Estelle Shirbon in London and Pierre Savary in Calais; Editing by Gareth Jones and Toby Chopra) Calais (France) (AFP) - Anti-migrant protesters in the French port city of Calais Saturday clashed with police as they defied a ban and rallied in support of a Europe-wide initiative by the Islamophobic Pegida movement. Around 150 protesters gathered in central Calais carrying signs such as "This is our home," waving the French flag and singing the French national anthem, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported. Police issued warnings for the demonstration to disperse and then fired tear gas to break it up, arresting around 10 people, the correspondent said. Calais has become a hotspot of Europe's refugee crisis. Around 3,700 migrants are living in a camp on the outskirts of the city, nicknamed the "Jungle", hoping to smuggle themselves across the Channel to Britain on lorries or trains. Anti-Islamic group Pegida, which began as a movement in Germany in mid-2014 and has since spread to France and other European countries, has called on members and sympathisers across Europe to join marches on Saturday. Ahead of the protest, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Wednesday called on authorities in Calais to prevent all demonstrations "regardless of the organisers". He said the ban particularly covered "all these groups that create tensions, division and violence" and would last as long as necessary. Pegida, an acronym for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident," has said it expects demonstrations to take place in 14 European countries. Also on Saturday, in a relatively rare attempt to reach England by sea, four migrants were rescued from their sinking boat in the Channel thanks to a fifth migrant who made it to shore and alerted rescuers. Around 20 anti-migrant protesters were arrested in the French port of Calais Saturday after scuffles with police at a banned rally in support of a Europe-wide initiative by the Islamophobic Pegida movement. - Police warnings - Story continues A crowd of around 150 protesters had gathered in central Calais carrying signs such as "This is our home," waving the French flag and singing the national anthem, despite the government issuing a ban on demonstrations earlier this week. "Some groups began to circulate in the city centre, mainly far-right, neo-Nazi types," regional official Etienne Desplanques told AFP. Police issued warnings for the demonstrators to disperse and then fired tear gas to break up the rally. There were several skirmishes with police, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported. "We have had a series of arrests, in all about 20," said Desplanques, adding that the figure could go higher. One of those arrested was Christian Piquemal, a former general with the prestigious French foreign legion from 1994 to 1999, an AFP photographer reported. Calais has become a hotspot of Europe's refugee crisis. Around 3,700 migrants are living in a camp on the outskirts of the city, nicknamed the "Jungle", hoping to smuggle themselves across the Channel to Britain on lorries or trains. Anti-Islamic group Pegida, which began as a movement in Germany in mid-2014 and has since spread to France and other European countries, has called on members and sympathisers across Europe to join marches on Saturday. Ahead of the protest, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Wednesday called on authorities in Calais to prevent all demonstrations "regardless of the organisers". He said the ban particularly covered "all these groups that create tensions, division and violence" and would last as long as necessary. Pegida, an acronym for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident," has said it expects demonstrations to take place in 14 European countries. In France, another anti-migrant rally took place in the southern city of Montepellier. Around 200 people joined the demonstration which organiser Richard Roudier said was aimed at "saving our country... we are against migrants, the islamisation of our country." Also on Saturday, in a relatively rare attempt to reach England by sea, four migrants were rescued from their sinking boat in the Channel thanks to a fifth migrant who made it to shore and alerted rescuers. By Morag MacKinnon PERTH - Australia will intensify testing for the Zika virus in Queensland state where Aedes mosquitoes are found, authorities said on Saturday, adding that two new cases among local residents were the result of travel to affected countries. Queensland's government has earmarked A$400,000 ($283,000) to boost laboratory capacity, particularly in the northeastern city of Townsville, where testing will begin on March 1. A A$1 million public education campaign will also be rolled out in the state, which is on high alert for any entry of the disease from Australia's Asian and Pacific neighbors. Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick said the state had to be prepared for more cases of Zika, linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil. Ten cases of the virus have been reported in the state in the past two years. The mosquitoes that transmit Zika are Aedes mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti, which are present in north Queensland and also transmit Dengue fever. "At this stage, Zika is not in any mosquitoes in Queensland that we're aware of," Dick told a news conference. A woman and a child in Queensland, who separately tested positive for Zika after returning to Australia from El Salvador and Samoa respectively, are recovering well, Queensland's chief medical officer Jeanette Young said. She said they had not traveled to northern Queensland, where a mosquito could bite them and transmit the virus, meaning their infection represented no public health threat. Earlier this week, two Sydney residents who had been diagnosed with the virus after returning from Haiti became the first confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease in Australia this year. A West Australian resident also tested positive after returning from Central America. The World Health Organisation has declared Zika an international public health emergency. There is no vaccine available to combat the virus. Young said it was not surprising that a Queensland child had contracted the virus in Samoa because it had existed in the Pacific region "for decades." "This isn't new to the Pacific. This is new to Brazil," she said. (Editing by Helen Popper) NIAMEY - An elderly Australian woman kidnapped with her husband last month in Burkina Faso by a group affiliated to al Qaeda has been freed, neighboring Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said on Saturday. Issoufou presented the woman, Jocelyn Elliott, at a news conference in Dosso, southwestern Niger, and said authorities were intensifying efforts to secure the release of her husband. The pair, who are in their 80s, were seized on Jan. 15. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said on Friday it had kidnapped the couple and would release the woman unconditionally due to public pressure and guidance from al Qaeda leaders not to involve women in war. The circumstances of her release and how she arrived in Niger were not immediately clear. Australias Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thanked the governments of Niger and Burkina Faso for their assistance and confirmed that his government had spoken with Jocelyn Elliott following her release, in a televised interview early on Sunday. We continue to cooperate with those governments and we thank them for their efforts, Turnbull told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from the capital, Canberra. For over 40 years, Dr. Ken Elliott and his wife have operated a 120-bed clinic in the town of Djibo near Burkina Faso's border with Mali. They were abducted from the town the same day al Qaeda fighters raided a restaurant and hotel in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, and killed 30 people, many of whom were foreigners. (Reporting by Souleymane Ag Anara and Abdoulaye Massalaki; Additional reporting by Morag MacKinnon in Perth, Australia; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Toby Chopra and James Dalgleish) Amsterdam (AFP) - Austria and Hungary on Saturday warned that if Greece cannot control the flood of refugees arriving from Turkey then the EU should consider reinforcing the borders of their Balkan neighbours. Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, whose country has set a refugee cap of 37,500 for this year, said the European Union did not seem to fully realise "how serious the situation is." "I say this very clear -- if we do not manage to control the situation... our only option will be to cooperate with Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia," Kurz said after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Amsterdam. More than a million migrants, mostly Syrians fleeing their war-torn country, landed in the 28-nation European Union last year, most of them crossing into Greece from Turkey, and then making their way through the Balkans to Germany and other northern member states. The influx has exposed sharp differences and called into question the future of the Schengen passport-free zone as several countries -- among them Germany, Austria, Hungary, Sweden -- have re-introduced border controls. Despite repeated efforts to halt the inflow, several thousand people a day still make the dangerous trip from Turkey to Greece and an upsurge in fighting in Syria threatens to make the problem even worse. - Foot the bill - Fanning the controversy, Austria media quoted Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling as demanding Brussels foot a bill Vienna estimates at 600 million euros ($670 million) for Austria taking in some 90,000 asylum seekers last year, saying his country could only afford to pay for 35,000. Kurier daily reproduced part of a letter to that effect which Schelling sent on January 25 to EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The finance ministry was not immediately available for comment. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said separately that the EU was "defenceless from the south." Story continues "If Greece is not ready or able to protect the Schengen zone ... then we need another defence line, which is obviously Macedonia and Bulgaria," Szijjarto said. Hungary has taken the lead in calls for erecting a fence along Greece's northern border in the same way it built a razor-wire barrier along its own southern frontier last year. Athens says it is doing its best but the numbers have overwhelmed the resources of a small country which is also struggling to get its economy back on track after a third debt bailout was agreed last year. Earlier this week, the EU said Greece had to remedy a series of failings in order to re-establish full control over the border with Turkey and so preserve the Schengen area, prized as one of the bloc's greatest achievements. If Greece failed to comply, then Brussels could allow other member states to extend border controls for up to two years, an option officials say they want to avoid at all costs. VIA YOUTUBE Late last month news broke that former Knockouts Champion Awesome Kong had been sent home from TNAs U.K. tour following an alleged assault of Reby Sky. Kong was reportedly upset that Sky who only appears on Impact Wrestling as Matt Hardys wife and occasional valet was dressing in the Knockouts locker room. Conflicting reports say Kong either threatened to attack Sky or outright assaulted her, including grabbing her by the neck. This put Kongs longterm status with the company in question, and on Friday we got an answer: My time this round in TNA was fun. Time for me to move on to other things. #Released #HeadHeldHigh Awesome Kong (@MeanQueenK) February 5, 2016 This isnt the first time Kong (real name Kia Stevens) has been released from TNA, or even the first time shes been released for assault. She was released in 2010 when she beat up radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge, repeatedly punching him in the mouth for making offensive remarks about Haiti. Before resurfacing in TNA, rumors had Stevens retiring from wrestling altogether, so itll be interesting to see if she steps away from the sport, returns to Japan or finds a new promotion in the states. DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain is ready to commit ground troops to Syria as part of a U.-S.-led coalition against Islamic State, the Gulf island state said on Friday, a day after its larger neighbour and close ally Saudi Arabia announced a similar pledge. Bahraini ambassador to Britain Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Khalifa said in a statement that Bahrain would commit troops to operate "in concert with the Saudis" under what he called the international coalition against terrorism. He added that the United Arab Emirates, a fellow member of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), was also ready to commit troops, echoing an assertion made late last year by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash. Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the U.S.-led alliance decides to start such operations, an adviser to the Saudi defence minister said. The Bahraini ambassador said the Saudi initiative in Syria was meant to combat both Islamic State and "the brutal Assad regime", a reference to President Bashar al-Assad, a bitter foe of Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Fawaz also announced the GCC had decided to base a new unified GCC naval operations centre in Bahrain. "The establishment of a joint (Gulf Arab) force shows clearly and unequivocally that under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states are determined to take positive action within the region and globally to combat terrorism and extremism, from whatever quarter they emanate," he said. (This version of the story corrects second paragraph to show Bahrain troops would operate under international coalition, rather than as part of a Gulf Arab command as original statement said) (Reporting by William Maclean; Editing by Mark Potter and Dominic Evans) Bhutan's royal couple on Saturday announced the birth of their first child, a baby prince, delighting the remote Himalayan kingdom where the monarchy is revered. The newest royal, the son of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema, was safely delivered at Lingkana Palace in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu on February 5, the royal media office said. "Their majesties and members of the royal family are filled with profound joy on the birth of His Royal Highness," it said in a statement. "With the blessings of the guardian deities of Bhutan and protectors of the dharma (divine truth), and the prayers of the Bhutanese people, Her Majesty and His Royal Highness The Gyalsey (prince) are both in perfect health." The prince's birth was marked by sacred Bhutanese traditions with the Je Khenpo, the chief abbot and spiritual leader of the majority Buddhist nation, presiding over religious ceremonies, the office said. The baby's name has yet to be announced. Known as the "last Shangri-La" the South Asian kingdom, home to just 750,000 people, famously shuns conventional measures of economic wellbeing, instead compiling a Gross National Happiness index. Britain's own royals, Prince William and his wife Kate, are to visit Bhutan in the spring as part of an official trip that also includes India, British officials announced last month. The hugely popular fifth Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King, studied in Britain and the United States and was officially crowned king in 2008 after his father abdicated two years earlier. He married Queen Pema in 2011 in an elaborate fairytale wedding ceremony that was the biggest media event in Bhutanese history. Bhutan had no roads or currency until the 1960s, and only began admitting foreign tourists in 1974 -- but has since developed rapidly. Nine people were killed and more than 35 injured Saturday when a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up near a security forces truck in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, officials said. Two of the dead were paramilitary soldiers while seven were civilians, police said citing initial reports. The bombing took place outside district courts in Quetta where a truck was picking up soldiers who had been on a routine security patrol. A paramilitary spokesman confirmed the bombing and said that two soldiers had died and 10 others had been wounded. "Two of our soldiers were martyred in the bombing and 10 others were wounded," a paramilitary spokesman told AFP. Senior police official Imtiaz Shah said that the suicide bomber was on a bicycle. Initial reports by bomb disposal experts suggested that the explosives weighed up to 15 kilograms (33 pounds). Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but Taliban militants and separatist groups are active in the region. Quetta is the capital of the restive Balochistan province, which is also home to a separatist insurgency that has been raging since 2004. The province's roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth. Mogadishu (AFP) - A bomb caused the explosion that ripped a hole in the fuselage of a passenger plane shortly after it took off from Somalia's main airport on Tuesday, killing one person, the government said. The security forces have made several arrests in connection with the attack, Transport and Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed Jama told reporters in the capital Mogadishu on Saturday. The authorities had initially attributed the blast to sudden air decompression. "Additional investigations conducted by Somali and international experts have confirmed the explosion that occurred inside the Daallo Airlines (jet) was not a technical problem but was a bomb that was intended to destroy the plane and kill all passengers onboard," the minister said. The blast punched a one-metre (three-foot) hole in the side of the Airbus A321 about 15 minutes after it had taken off from Mogadishu heading for Djibouti. A passenger identified as Abdulahi Abdisalam was killed, probably after being propelled out of the aircraft in the explosion, investigators said. Another two out of around 60 passengers on board were slightly injured. The pilot, a 64-year-old Serb named Vladimir Vodopivec, told a friend that he was convinced the blast had been caused by a bomb, according to the Serbian daily Blic. The explosion did not damage the plane's navigation system, and this is what enabled the pilot to make the emergency landing, the report said. Video footage taken after the blast showed people having moved to the back of the plane with emergency oxygen masks dangling down as wind rushed around the main cabin, although most passengers appeared fairly calm. There has been no claim of responsibility yet for the attack. Daallo Airlines operates out of Djibouti, flying to destinations in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf. In another incident, three people were killed in a car bomb targeting an airport official in Mogadishu on Friday, police said, although it was not immediately clear if there was a link with the plane attack. Story continues Mogadishu airport is heavily fortified and adjoins the capital's main base of the African Union mission to Somalia, the 22,000-strong force backing the government in the battle against Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab insurgents. The insurgents have lost ground since being routed from Mogadishu in 2011 but continue to stage regular shooting and suicide attacks. On Saturday, Somali soldiers backed by African Union troops recaptured the key port of Merka from the Shebab, just one day after the Islamists swept into the city, the army and residents said. Rome (AFP) - The body of a 28-year-old Italian student who had disappeared in Cairo last week and was found dead was repatriated on Saturday to Italy which has launched an investigation into his death. Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student, had gone missing on January 25 while on his way to meet a friend. His half-naked body which showed signs of torture was found in a roadside ditch on the outskirts of Cairo early on Wednesday. Egypt's public prosecutor Hossam Nassar said he had been murdered. Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando was with members of Regeni's family when his body arrived back in Rome Saturday. "I am here to convey the government's condolences... but also to confirm the government's determination to shed light quickly (on Regeni's death) and bring those responsible to justice," Orlando told journalists. Italian investigators have arrived in Cairo, the Rome prosecutor has opened an inquiry and a new autopsy is scheduled. An initial Egyptian prosecution report seen by an AFP reporter said Regeni's body had bruises and injuries, including from apparent cigarette-burn marks near the eyes and on the feet. Italy's ambassador to Egypt, Maurizio Massari, also reported signs of torture after a visit to the Cairo morgue. "I saw wounds, some bruises and burns. There is no doubt that this boy had been violently beaten and tortured," he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Regeni, whose studies included Arabic and Arab literature, was from Fiumicello near Udine in northeastern Italy. He was in Cairo doing research for his doctoral thesis on trade unions in Egypt and was last seen when he left his home with the intention of travelling by metro to meet a friend in the city centre. By Jennifer Ablan and Lawrence Delevingne NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, the world's largest hedge fund, said on Friday that a Wall Street Journal story about a dispute with his heir apparent, Greg Jensen, was overblown. The newspaper reported that Dalio and Jensen had gone as far as to call for a dozen senior employees and stakeholders to vote on their character and conduct in a bid to resolve the dispute. "The article is a sensationalistic mischaracterization of what is going on," Dalio said in response to a query from Reuters. "Greg and I have had lots of disputes over the last 20 years, and what's great is that we have a systematic process for working ourselves through them," he added in a statement. The Wall Street Journal declined to comment. Dalio, who founded Bridgewater in 1975, was specifically questioning whether or not Jensen had "integrity" - defined in a 123-page treatise written by Dalio as never saying something about a person that you wouldn't tell the person directly, the Journal said. Dalio is chairman and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater, which has $154 billion in assets under management. For his part, Jensen, who joined the Westport, Connecticut hedge fund 20 years ago and serves as co-CIO and co-chief executive officer, was questioning if Dalio had fulfilled the succession plan he set forth in 2011. "This particular dispute has already been resolved via our process and Greg and I both expect to work together, probably for the rest of our careers," Dalio said. "I recognize that it's difficult for people who aren't in our culture to understand it, and I understand that distorted gossiping about it is going to occur," he added. Dalio has said in the past that Bridgewater is run according to his management style of encouraging a culture of "radical truth and radical transparency." "Bridgewater has a unique culture, and one of the most successful long-term track records in the history of investing. I suspect those two observations are probably connected," said Michael Rosen, chief investment officer of Angeles Investment Advisors, whose clients include those with money in Bridgewater funds. Story continues Bridgewater encourages employees to air disputes publicly and then try to resolve them, a process that sometimes results in a vote. Dalio is chairman and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater, which has $154 billion in assets under management. Jensen told the Journal that disagreements between the two executives have been "healthy." "It's the way that they can be resolved that keeps us all here and resulted in the incredible working relationships that have made Bridgewater so successful," Jensen added. "I can't imagine working in any other place." In a subsequent statement to Reuters, Jensen said: "This story is getting blown out of proportion. Both Ray and I are committed to Bridgewater. Ray and I have had (and will have) many disagreements. We have a process for handling them and both of us believe that process is working well. It is through this unique culture of open disagreement that we have produced the meaningful work and meaningful relationships that those who work here and our clients have come to expect." (Reporting by David Gaffen, Jennifer Ablan and Lawrence Delevingne; Editing by Andrew Hay and Tom Brown) By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A prominent and outspoken British member of a papal advisory commission on sexual abuse by the clergy on Saturday refused to step down despite a no-confidence vote, and said only Pope Francis could dismiss him. A Vatican statement issued earlier said that "it was decided" at a commission meeting that Peter Saunders would take a leave of absence. Saunders, head of Britain's National Association for People Abused in Childhood, would now "consider how he might best support the commission's work", it said. But Saunders, who as a child was abused by two priests, told a hastily called news conference: "I have not left and I am not leaving my position ... the only person who can remove me is the person who appointed me, the pope." Saunders said he had not been aware of the Vatican's statement until after it was issued. Saunders had been publicly critical of the commission, which was set up in 2014. Made up of clerics and lay people from around the world, its task is to help Pope Francis establish "best practices" in dioceses around the world to root out sex abuse in the Church. Eight of its 17 members are women and two are themselves victims of abuse by clerics. Saunders said that on Saturday morning the commission had taken a near-unanimous vote of no-confidence against him, accusing him of being hard to work with and a "campaigner", and of talking too much to the media. "A DISGRACE" "For me, as a survivor, the commission is a disgrace," Saunders said. "They believe that child abuse is behind us, but it is in no way behind us ... "I made it clear that I would not be a member of a public relations exercise. The protection of our children is much more important than that." Another commission member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was "deeply committed to the protection of children", but that its brief was to advise and not investigate or judge. In a worldwide sex abuse scandal, which first became prominent in Boston in 2001, abusers were shunted from parish to parish instead of being defrocked and handed over to authorities. A year ago, Saunders criticized Francis for appearing to endorse parents who spanked their children in order to discipline them. And in April, Saunders and three other lay commission members met with a top Vatican official to complain about the appointment of a bishop in Chile who had been accused of covering up abuse by a priest. Saunders said on Saturday that the pope should dismiss Juan Barros as bishop of Osorno, as a test of his "seriousness on stopping child sex abuse". Barros denies having known that abuse took place. (Editing by Kevin Liffey) What do Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Mitch McConnell, and Bernie Sanders have in common? (Besides disliking Ted Cruz, of course.) All were among the top villains invokedrepeatedlyat this weeks annual Conservative Policy Summit, hosted by Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation. For seven-plus hours Wednesday (followed by cocktails and dinner schmoozing), die-hard conservatives gathered in Heritages stately Capitol Hill digs to hear Republican lawmakers hold forth on topics ranging from the three-legged stool of conservatism (defense, economy, and social issues), to the state of the movement, to the pros and cons of killing the filibuster. (At least, that was supposed to be the closing panel until anti-filibuster Representative Bob Goodlatte bailed at the last minute, leaving filibuster defender Senator Mike Lee with a half-hour to fill and no one to debatehis own mini-filibuster of sorts.) Recommended: A Person Subject to Government Secrecy Rules Complains About Hillary Clinton's Approach to Them Audience and speakers alike were agitated. President Obama continues to rile up conservatives from the left even as Donald Trump is scaring the crap out of them from his ideologically murky private island of populist demagoguery. No one seemed to know how to feel about Ted Cruzs win at the Iowa caucuses. And every so often, the awkwardness between House Speaker Paul Ryan (who delivered the opening speech) and his Freedom Caucus antagonists (four of whom composed an afternoon panel) bubbled into view. All told, the summit painted the current state of conservatism as more than a little bit twitchy. As for some of the more specific takeaways: 1. Conservative warriors are gleefully feeling the Bern. No, they are not poised to join Bernie Sanderss merry band of revolutionaries. They are delighted, however, that Sanders is providing them a wonderful new talking point about how far left the Democratic Party has slouched in recent years. Forget charging Barack Obama with being a closet socialist. The Dems have a serious presidential contenderhe almost took Iowa!proudly embracing the label. For conservatives, this is the most exciting cudgel to fall into their hands since Obama uttered the phrase cling to guns or religion. It was particularly striking that Hillary Clintontypically a favorite punching bagwas barely mentioned over the course of the summit. Bernie, by contrast, was brought up again and again, even in stories that didnt have anything to do with the presidential race. (Representative David Brat, for instance, felt moved to tell the crowd about how hed bumped into Bernie at last years White House Christmas party.) Freedom Caucus leader Raul Labrador sounded jealous when he noted that GOP leaders are always urging conservatives like himself to be realistic and not engage in fights you cant win, even as the Dems have a socialist telling his party that hes going to give them free health care, hes going to give them free education, hes going to give them all these things. Grumped Labrador, No one is telling him, Hey you need to be a little bit more realistic about your goals. And hes most popular person in the Democratic Party right now! 2. Paul Ryan has officially put Freedom Caucus types on notice: If they go feral and damage the party brand this year like they did last year, he will hold them responsible for destroying the economy if not the entire American Dream. Ryans speech was billed as being about leadership. The 12-minute address, however, was less about leading than about followingspecifically, about how conservatives need to simmer down before they cock things up again and hand the Democrats the White House for another 4 to 8 years. I believe we are one presidency away from losing control of the situation, he warned. The left would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad, so the progressives can win by default. By far the most-cited line of his speech was the Braveheart-inspired plea to unify the clans. Recommended: Who Won the Republican Debate in New Hampshire? 3. Ryan is far from the only conservative aware of the movements image problem. Lawmaker after lawmaker felt moved to mention that conservatives must shed their reputation as a bunch of bomb-throwing, fratricidal legislative nihilists. We need to transition this movement so that were not known for what were against but what we are for, said Representative Barry Loudermilk. As conservatives, we have to push solutions, agreed Senator James Lankford. We cant just gripe and shoot at each other. Most importantly, said Representative Bill Flores, we have to work together. We have to realize that we have a common enemy, which are the purveyors of a liberal ideology. And we have to make sure we focus outward toward them. More than one summit speaker took pains to note that the only team he cares about are the voters back home. Clan unity clearly has its limits. 4. Despite such dire warnings, some members simply cannot help themselves. Thus the Freedom Caucuss panel on Driving a Conservative Agenda got off to a rousing start with Mick Mulvaneys griping about how conservatives are being pressed to vote for a budget that they dont like. Labrador followed with his usual warning that Ryan needs to show that he doesnt just talk a good game. And on it went from there, with Mulvaney at one point ominously noting that, if someone cant find a way to stop the spending madness, well wind up passing another CR [continuing resolution] at the end of the year, which will not be good for anybodymost specifically Mr. Ryan. More than one summit speaker took pains to note that the only team he cares about are the voters back home. Clan unity clearly has its limits. 5. Conservatives really, really hate Mitch McConnell. Multiple House members happily talked smack about the gutlessness of Senate leadership. The audience got carried away as well. Early on, following Senator Joni Ernsts speech on defense, an elderly gent stood up and sweetly inquired: Can you lend about one-tenth of your courage to Mitch McConnellor take him out? It was pretty clear that the questioner was not suggesting that Ernst invite Mitch for dinner and a movie. Recommended: Why Bernie Sanders Can't Govern 6. House conservatives love them some Mike Lee. Seriously. While much about the hoity-toity Senate sets the lower chambers teeth on edge, the Utah senator was praised by a half-dozen or so House colleagues, many of whom said theyd been huddling with him on this or that project. With his three Senate besties out on the presidential trail (Cruz, Rubio, and until recently, Paul), Lee has been clocking some quality time with his ideological brethren in the House. 7. Democrats should keep an eye on Ben Sasse. The freshman senator from Nebraska spoke on conservatisms economic leg, and he was good: young, smart, energetic, and likable. Moreover, he knows how to deliver a dose of tough love without actually sounding critical of his own team. In enumerating four bad ideas he feels are regularly articulated in political discussions, Sasse took a swing at Trumpism: A lot of what is happening in the Republican electorate right now is the downstream effects of the tribalism of race, class, and gender-identity politics on the left. Some on the right have decided, if theyre going to have an identity politics, we need one too. But we already have one post-constitutional party. We dont need another one. The idea that theres a strong man that can save us isnt true, he insisted. We need a constitutional recovery, not a Republican Barack Obama. Sasse may be a smidge pointy-headed for the Sarah Palin base. (He has 3 masters degrees, a Ph.D. in History from Yale, and likes to talk de Tocqueville.) But GOP elites are gonna gobble him up like ice cream. The idea that theres a strong man that can save us isnt true, he insisted. We need a constitutional recovery, not a Republican Barack Obama. 8. Conservatives sales pitch to younger voters still needs some fine-tuning. During the Freedom Caucus Q&A, a young man stood upprompting moderator Fred Barnes to crack, Youre the only one under 60 whos going to ask a questionto say he would soon be graduating with his masters degree and wanted the panelists thoughts on how to improve job prospects for his generation. Mulvaney responded by asking the guy what hed studied. U.S. history, the young man replied. Solid, patriotic, non-multi-culti degree to make the likes of conservative icon and history professor Newt Gingrich proud, right? Not any more. Representative Mark Meadows promptly teased, Thats the problem! Everybody laughed. Mulvaney then launched into a lecture about how, back in his day, banks wouldnt give a guy a student loan unless the applicant offered assurances that he would be able to pay it back some day. But now that the federal government just hands over the money, nobody bothers worrying about whether or not theyre pursuing a worthless degree. This is not to denigrate or demean folks who want to study philosophy or U.S. history or anything, Mulvaney assured the young scholar. But you need to sort of consider job prospects when making those decisions. Its all well and good to go study sub-Saharan African basket weaving, quipped Mulvaney, but afterward dont come looking to us and say, Where are the jobs for sub-Saharan basket-weavers? In a word: Wow. 9. The filibuster will endure. Nowhere are you likely to find greater hostility to the filibuster than among hard-charging, revolution-minded conservatives. (Do not ask a Freedom Caucuser about this topic unless you want your ears singed.) But while House Republicans are itching to blow it up, on the assumption that this will make it easier to get their policies through the upper chamber, few senators from either party (including the handful attending the summit) seem eager to relinquish this juicy bit of power. And since senators are the only ones with a say in the filibuster, dont expect it to go anywhere any time soon, despite all the huffing and puffing. 10. For those who have wondered about the roots of conservatisms antipathy toward experts, this summit was clarifying. More than one speaker made derisive references to the rule of expertsby which he meant that far too many regulations are set, not by elected officials, but by the wonks who make up the fourth branch of government (or fifth branch, depending on who was doing the counting): the federal bureaucracy. As policy specialists inside agencies, wonks do not face the voters every two, four, or six years. This makes them not directly accountable to We the People and so, by definition, dangerous. The particular regulation vexing conservatives at this gathering was the EPAs newish Waters of the U.S. rule. But the problem, as they see it, runs well beyond any one agency, encompassing the entire concept of an expertise insulated from the whims of politics. By days end, as the crowd drifted out of the auditorium in search of the bar, it was tough to tell whether attendees seemed energized, terrified, or ticked off. Most likely a bit of all three. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. Interstellar killjoy scientists had a bummer warning for everyone who ever watched Apollo 13 and drew the NASA logo on a white T-shirt: We probably aren't going to Mars soon. And maybe for good reason. No one said getting to the Red Planet is impossible. But according to John Sommerer, a space scientist who spent time on a panel reviewing NASA's human spaceflight programs, NASA doesn't currently have the budget or the discipline to pull it off. Sommerer has said, "We could maybe get people to Mars in the next 50 years at the cost of half a trillion dollars," according to Rick Skwiot at Washington University in St. Louis. When presented testimony last Wednesday at a House Subcommittee on Space hearing that referenced a 2014 called Pathways to Exploration, he presented a bigger concern than cost: "While sending humans to Mars, and returning them safely to the Earth, may be technically feasible, it is an extraordinarily challenging goal, from physiological, technical and programmatic standpoints," Sommerer said, according to Ars Technica. "Because of this extreme difficulty, it is only with unprecedented cumulative investment and, frankly, unprecedented discipline in development, testing, execution and leadership, that this enterprise is likely to be successful," he said. That testimony is the human spaceflight panel version of telling NASA shape the hell up. His words were harsh, especially in front of Congress, which signs off on NASA's budget every year. Considering the estimated space missions in the next two decades, they need to be stern. "What we do not have is a plan, strategy or architecture with sufficient detail that takes us from today to humans on the surface of Mars," said Tom Young, the former director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, according to Ars Technica. To NASA's credit, it has already fired up the Space Launch System rocket, a massive tool to get to Mars, and had a successful unmanned flight with the Orion crew capsule. But going on those elements alone is like saying someone built a bicycle and it didn't break after a trip around the block, so biking from New York to Florida should be a cakewalk. If the plans from here on out aren't solid, maybe the mission needs reevaluating. Story continues "It might be better to stop talking about Mars if there is no appetite in Congress and the Administration for higher human spaceflight budgets and more disciplined execution by NASA," Sommerer told Congress, according to a press release from the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The nerve-wracking part for NASA is the tight deadline. We'll enter a new presidency at and who knows if the winning candidate will be willing to throw Sommerer's estimated half-trillion dollars at a moonshot or Mars-shot mission into the great unknown. Fortunately for that kid in the homemade NASA T-shirt, we live in an era where private space agencies exist. And while their motivations are probably they mean great things for humanity as a whole. SpaceX, led by the himself, Elon Musk, vows to colonize Mars. Other private companies, like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, have recently teamed up for asteroid-mining ventures, bringing industrialization into space which, given how much money there is in space mining, would probably mean rapid expansion once the footholds are found. Yes, NASA could get its act together and have a viable plan to get humanity onto the surface of Mars, skeptics be damned. But if it doesn't, we shouldn't lose hope for seeing human footprints on Martian soil in our lifetimes. h/t Ars Technica Miami (AFP) - US astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of just 12 people to have walked on the Moon, has died aged 85, his family and NASA said Friday, calling him a "pioneer." NASA paid glowing tribute to Mitchell, who died in Florida after a brief illness late Thursday, the eve of the 45th anniversary of his lunar landing. The late astronaut was a member of the 1971 Apollo 14 mission along with Alan Shepard Jr. and Stuart Roosa. Mitchell was the last Apollo 14 survivor: Roosa died in 1994 and Shepard in 1998. Speaking in a 1997 interview for NASA's oral history program, Mitchell said that he was drawn to spaceflight after president John F. Kennedy's call to send astronauts to the Moon. "That's what I wanted because it was the bear going over the mountain to see what he could see, and what could you learn, and I've been devoted to that, to exploration, education and discovery since my earliest years, and that's what kept me going," Mitchell said. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recalled Mitchell marveling at the stunning view of Earth from space. "Edgar spoke poetically about seeing our home planet from the Moon saying, 'Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. "'It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth... home." Bolden added: "He is one of the pioneers in space exploration on whose shoulders we now stand." Buzz Aldrin, the second person on the Moon, echoed that on Twitter, calling Mitchell a "lunar pioneer." The Apollo 14 mission -- Mitchell's only spaceflight -- began when the trio blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1971. Mitchell was in charge of piloting the Antares lunar module, which landed in the Fra Mauro region of the Moon. Story continues It was the third manned mission to the Moon and Mitchell became the sixth human to walk on the lunar surface. During the mission the astronauts collected 100 pounds (40 kilos) of lunar rock samples and carried out a series of experiments. The mission ended when the astronauts, traveling aboard a space capsule, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on February 9, 1971. In 1972 Mitchell retired from NASA and the following year he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, dedicated to the study of consciousness and paranormal phenomena. He said he believed that extra-terrestrial unidentified flying objects (UFOs) had visited the Earth, but acknowledged that he had never seen one. Mitchell was the author of several books, including his 1996 memoir, "The Way of the Explorer." Two daughters, three adopted sons and nine grandchildren are among family who survive him. The family told The Palm Beach Post newspaper that Mitchell died at a West Palm Beach hospital after a short illness. CAIRO (Reuters) - Dozens of people gathered at the Italian embassy in Cairo on Saturday to mourn the Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found half naked at a roadside with what a senior Egyptian prosecutor has said were cigarette burns and other signs of torture. Regeni, a Cambridge University doctoral student, went missing in Cairo on Jan. 25, the fifth anniversary of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. His body was found on Wednesday. He had disappeared after leaving home in a smart district of Cairo to meet a friend, according to another friend. His research had focused on trade unions in Egypt after the 2011 uprising and he had also written articles critical of the Egyptian government under a pseudonym, according to the Italian newspaper that published them. A group of about 50 people including friends and Egyptian political activists gathered in front of the embassy on Saturday, laying flowers and lighting candles. "Giulio was here fighting for the rights of Egyptian workers, and for the Egyptian revolution. The least we can do is stand here and say that we consider him to be one of us," said activist Sally Toma. "Unfortunately he died the same way Egyptians die every day." Regeni's body had been flown to Rome earlier on Saturday, Egyptian officials at Cairo airport told state news agency MENA. Il Manifesto, a left-wing newspaper based in Rome, published Regeni's final article on Friday, describing difficulties faced by independent unions in Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Tensions had been high in Egypt in the run-up to the anniversary of the anti-Mubarak uprising, with police detaining activists and warning people not to demonstrate. No significant protests took place. Rights groups say Egyptians are often detained by police on little evidence and beaten or coerced. Scores have disappeared since 2013. Egypt denies allegations of police brutality. Last year, Islamic State militants kidnapped a Croatian man on the outskirts of Cairo and later beheaded him, but such incidents are rare and there was a heavy police presence in downtown Cairo when Regeni went missing. On Thursday, the Italian Foreign Ministry summoned the Egyptian ambassador to express concern about the student's death, and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi telephoned Sisi, asking for a joint investigation and the swift return of his body to Italy. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Reuters TV and Mostafa Hashem; Editing by Andrew Bolton) HAMBURG (Reuters) - Egyptian state buyer GASC received four offers in an international wheat purchase tender on Friday despite uncertainty over tough new quality rules which have disrupted its massive wheat import programme, traders said. A wheat purchase tender on Tuesday was cancelled when no offers were received following a trader boycott. Participation by international grain trading houses in Friday's tender was noticeably lower than in past months following problems with Egypt's limits on imports of wheat containing the ergot fungus, traders said. The lowest offer was $186.64 a tonne FOB for wheat sourced from France, they said. No purchase has yet been made and the results are expected later on Friday, traders said. Wheat shipments to Egypt this year have been hindered by uncertainly about regulations covering traces of the ergot fungus. The GASC and the supply ministry have permitted a 0.05 percent ergot tolerance level but the agriculture ministry has previously insisted on zero ergot content. Egypt has rejected a 63,000 tonne wheat shipment for containing traces of ergot. The agriculture ministry, however, said on Wednesday it would allow wheat imports with up to 0.05 percent levels of ergot, a fungus common in wheat worldwide, reversing the zero tolerance policy. Participation in the tender on Friday was lower than the seven trading houses which offered in a tender on Jan. 21 though 16 companies took part in GASC's tender on Dec. 23 before the ergot issue intensified. "We have still not received an official confirmation from the agriculture ministry that it will allow the 0.05 percent ergot tolerance level in wheat imports and this is making it too risky to offer," one European trader said. "There is still great uncertainty among the international trading houses." Traders said these offers were submitted in the tender in dollars a tonne fob: Seller FOB Origin Tonnes Ports Soufflet 186.64 France 60,000 Two ports Union Co. 190.41 Russia 60,000 Novorossiysk Cargill 192.00 France 60,000 Dunkirk, one port Ameropa 193.55 Romania 60,000 Constanta Traders said these offers were made in the separate freight tender to provide ocean shipping for the wheat in dollars per tonne: Freight Offer Port Ameropa 4.33 Constanta NNC 5.99 Constanta NNC 6.79 Novorossiysk Union Co. 5.59 Novorossiysk NNC 8.80 France Traders said that including ocean shipping costs, these were the lowest offers in the tender in c&f terms in dollars per tonne: Seller FOB Freight C&F Origin Tonnes Soufflet 186.64 8.80 195.44 France 60,000 Union Co. 190.41 5.59 196.00 Russia 60,000 Ameropa 193.55 4.33 197.88 Romania 60,000 Cargill 192.00 8.80 200.80 France 60,000 The Friday tender had sought March 2-11 shipment. (Reporting by Michael Hogan, Maha El Dahan, Eric Knecht and Valerie Parent; Editing by David Clarke and Mark Potter) (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is set on Tuesday to unveil his budget proposal for fiscal year 2017, his final year in office. But since the Republican-controlled Congress controls the purse strings, much of Obama's plan likely will be shelved. The following are some of the proposals that will be included: PENTAGON The Pentagon will ask for more than $7 billion for the fight against Islamic State, up about 35 percent from the previous year's budget request to Congress, and wants a fourfold increase for military training and exercises in Europe to support NATO allies. TAX ON OIL In a long-shot bid to raise $20 billion to expand transit systems and research self-driving cars, Obama will propose a $10-a-barrel tax on crude oil. RENEWABLE ENERGY FUNDING Obama will seek a 20-percent boost for renewable energy research funding to a total of $7.7 billion. TAX CREDIT FOR BUSINESSES WORKING WITH COLLEGES Obama will propose a $2.5 billion tax credit over five years for businesses that invest in community college programs and then hire their graduates. PAY RAISE FOR FEDERAL WORKERS The budget will propose a 1.6 percent pay increase for military and civilian federal personnel. OPIOID ADDICTION TREATMENT Obama will ask for $1.1 billion in new funding to expand treatment for people addicted to heroin and prescription pain killers, a growing epidemic. AID TO COLOMBIA Obama pledged more than $450 million in aid to Colombia to help with security and integrating rebel combatants into society under a pending peace deal to end Latin America's longest war. POVERTY AID Obama will propose $12 billion over 10 years to supplement food stamps for poor families when school meal programs are closed in the summer, $2 billion in emergency aid for families in crisis, a combined $328 million in education and housing grants to poor neighborhoods, and a $15 million pilot program to help poor families move to better neighborhoods. MEDICAID EXPANSION The budget will include three years of federal funding to 19 state governments that passed up an earlier offer to expand Medicaid coverage for more than 4 million low-income people. TWEAK TO "CADILLAC TAX" Obama will ask for tweaks to a tax on certain health insurance plans that is unpopular with labor unions. JOBS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE The White House will ask for $5.5 billion in incentives for businesses that hire young people and $200 million for apprenticeship programs. COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION Obama will propose $4 billion for states and $100 million for school districts to expand computer science in schools. COAL COUNTRY The budget will include $1 billion over five years to help coal-mining regions with economic development. CANCER RESEARCH The White House will ask for $755 million for Vice President Joe Biden's "moonshot" effort to find new cancer treatments. AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH The budget will include $700 million in agricultural research grants, double the spending level in 2016. MENTAL HEALTHCARE Obama has proposed $500 million to boost access to mental healthcare as part of his push to address gun violence. NATIONAL BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS BUREAU Obama will propose $95 million for a new office responsible for background checks for federal employees. CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS As part of reforms to the criminal justice system, Obama will ask for $24 million for better housing for inmates with serious mental illnesses. RETIREMENT SAVINGS Obama will propose tax credits for small businesses offering 401(k) plans or expanding access to retirement savings programs. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE Obama will seek to expand unemployment insurance to more types of workers, provide wage insurance for workers moving to lower-paid positions, and provide incentives to states for retraining or relocating workers. BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES (ATF) Obama will ask for funding to hire 200 new ATF staff to enforce gun laws. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Ayesha Rascoe and Jeff Mason; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Bill Trott and Chizu Nomiyama) Vatican City (AFP) - A former paedophilia victim has left the Vatican advisory commission on sexual abuse by the clergy, the Vatican announced Saturday, two days after the British campaigner criticised the body in the press. "It was decided" that Peter Saunders would take a leave of absence, the Vatican said. Saunders, head of Britain's National Association for People Abused in Childhood, and Irish member Marie Collins are the only members of the 17-strong commission to have been abused by priests as children. He did not hesitate during the team's previous meeting to raise his voice against Australian cardinal George Pell, head of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy, whom another child abuse victim has accused of refusing to take their complaint seriously. He has also spoken out against the nomination of Chilean bishop Juan de La Cruz Barros, suspected of having protected a priest accused of child abuse. Before the latest meeting of the Vatican's committee got under way on Thursday, Saunders spoke to the Los Angeles Times about his frustrations. "People in Chile now see the commission as a laughing stock, and I cannot pretend the commission means anything unless he (Pope Francis) sacks Barros," he said. "I was told that Rome was not built in a day, but the problem is that it takes seconds to rape a child." David Clohessy, US director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said: "We share Pete Saunders' justifiable frustration with Vatican officials. "They refuse to take quick, simple, common sense steps to protect kids and deter cover ups by punishing clerics who conceal abuse... No new protocols or policies or procedures will radically undo a centuries-old self-serving structure that rewards clerics who keep a tight lid on child sex crimes and cover-ups." France has become the first country to ban supermarkets from throwing out unsold food. Instead, thanks to a law passed by the French Senate earlier this week, food that has not been bought by customers will be handed to charities or food banks. If they disobey the new law, supermarket bosses could be hit with a fine of up to 75,000 euros (approximately 58,000) or face two years in prison. The law came into force thanks to a grass-roots campaign in France and now protesters in France want to see it enforced across the European Union. It will apply only to those stores which are 400 sq metres or more. It is thought that more and more French people are trying to eat from food discarded by supermarkets in recent times. But this has caused some problems with some supermarkets. There has even been one report of food being doused in bleach to prevent people eating it as there were fears over the sell-by dates of discarded produce. There have been protests for supermarkets in the UK in recent years to reduce the amount of food waste. A survey in The Guardian newspaper last year found that Britain was the biggest waster of food in Europe, throwing out more 12 million tonnes a year. A daredevil German teenager has been handed a lifetime ban from Egypt after he illegally climbed the Great Pyramid of Giza. Andrej Ciesielski, 18, scaled the almost 500 feet-high structure - also known as the Pyramid of Cheops - in January, to take pictures and videos. He uploaded the pictures up onto his Instagram page. A video of him climbing has also been posted on the Internet. Andrej Cieselski perched on top of the Pyramid (andrejcie Instagram) He has almost 25,000 followers on Instagram and they seemed impressed by his exploits. But not so the Egyptian authorities. In climbing the approximately 4,500-year-old structure, the young Bavarian broke Egyptian law and has had a life ban imposed upon him by Cairo. Mamdouh Eldamaty, Egypts Minister of Antiquities, said an official notice of the ban had been sent to the German embassy in Cairo. The German though may have got off lightly as climbing the pyramids can leave you with a three-year jail sentence in Egypt. The view from the top of the pyramid (andrejcie Instagram) Despite the risk to his liberty, Ciesielski said it was worth it. But then he is know to take a few risks. His Instagram page, which is not for the faint-hearted, shows him climbing other high structures he has climbed, including Manhattan Bridge, a building on the edge of Times Square and the worlds highest church, which is in Hong Kong. Egypt has suffered in recent times to attract tourists, mostly for security reasons, but it seems it will not back down on Ciesielski. The Great Pyramid is the oldest of three such structures in Giza and the oldest of the seven ancient Wonders of the World. Frankfurt (AFP) - The German Catholic Church called for a reduction in the influx of refugees arriving in Germany, saying the country cannot take in "all the world's needy," according to an interview published Saturday. Germany has been struggling to cope with 1.1 million asylum seekers that arrived in 2015 and Berlin has not yet given an official estimate for how many it expects this year. "As a church we say that we need a reduction in the number of refugees," Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, told the Passauer Neue Presse daily. Germany cannot "take in all the world's needy," Marx added. The question of how to respond to the migrant crisis, he asserted, should not solely be a matter of "charity but also reason." However, Marx also expressed concern at a rise in xenophobia in Germany amid the worst refugee crisis that Europe has known since World War II. A recent example came when Germany's eurosceptic right-wing populist AfD party suggested last week that police "if need be" should threaten to shoot migrants seeking to enter the country. Border police "should be able if need be to have recourse to their firearms -- as laid down by law," said party chairwoman Frauke Petry. This type of speech is "unacceptable," said Marx, adding "Sadly there has always been a certain potential for right-wing extremism and racism in Germany." "This ideology has evidently been further consolidated," he said, lamenting that the belittling of foreigners had "reached the upper classes." Anti-Islamic group Pegida, which began as a movement in Germany in mid-2014 and has since spread to France and other European countries, called on members and sympathisers from across Europe to march Saturday under the anti-migrant banner of "Fortress Europe". Stacy Brown-Philpot, COO TaskRabbit Yahoo Finance Growing up in Detroit, Brown-Philpot, 40, says every day she encountered hard working people with tangible skills who couldnt find jobs. Its not hard to see why she took on the role of COO at job outsourcing site TaskRabbit in 2013. TaskRabbit is revolutionizing everyday work, and for me, that means helping the company create work opportunities for people who might not otherwise have them, she told Yahoo Finance. Career highlights: Recently named to Forbes 40 under 40 list; spent 9 years at Google leading global operations for flagship products like search and Chrome (she counts Sheryl Sandberg among her mentors); holds a seat on the board of HP (HPQ).; founded the Black Google Network to encourage diversity; earned her M.B.A from Stanford University. On making the decision to move to India to run Googles sales operations without her husband and family: Imagine living your entire life on a balance beam -- stressful, right? Instead, I like to think about life in cycles where at any one point in time, youre prioritizing one thing over another (family, friends, career, etc,) which gives you the power to make a conscious choice on when to change priorities and what happens within each cycle. When I moved to India, I knew I was choosing my career, but it was only for a finite period of time, and my husband and I agreed on that decision. The key takeaway is, don't be afraid to ask for what you need both at home and at work. Favorite quote: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her advice for young minorities who feel unwelcome in the tech industry: We are the generation that those who came before us, have been waiting for. The playing field is more level than you think, so don't hold yourself back. Morgan DeBaun, Founder, Blavity.com Yahoo Finance Morgan DeBaun, 26, noticed something about the cafeteria at her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. Each day at lunch, a steady stream of black students at the predominantly white university would gravitate toward one large circular table in the middle of the room, eager to talk about issues important to them. DeBaun and her friends started calling the phenomenon Blavity, a mash-up of "black" plus "gravity." In 2014, DeBaun and co-founder Aaron Samuels launched Blavity.com, a tech and media company aimed at highlighting news about, and written by, black millennials. They bootstrapped the company themselves, working full-time by day and working on Blavity during the wee morning hours and into the night. Story continues Where she got her business chops: DeBauns first business was literally sweet. With no candy vending machines at her middle school, she mixed together packets of Kool-aid and sugar and sold them for 25 cents to kids at lunch. She also credits her father for getting her interested in investing at age 14. Its always been a part of who I am, trying to figure out how to turn $1 into $1.25, she says. How Blavity merges technology with media: Most of what people see right now is a media company, DeBaun told Yahoo Finance. Content is great for building community and growing a large audience quickly but it's not scalable without technology. Behind the scenes we've scaled up our engineering team and are working day and night to launch the MVP of our first platform play. What its like being a double minority in Silicon Valley: In general, I think VCs tend to steer away from companies that are difficult to understand and don't match patterns. I talk to a lot of investors who are excited about the huge potential of such a large untapped space but are waiting on the sidelines because we don't fit their typical portfolio company. Ultimately these investors will be missing out on getting in early on a once in a lifetime opportunity to monopolize a media play for this demographic. Kortney Ryan Ziegler, founder of Trans*H4CK Yahoo Finance An Oakland, Calif.-based artist and writer, Kortney Ryan Ziegler has been a longtime advocate within the transgender/nonconforming community. But he saw a disconnect in Silicon Valley, where he felt the community needed a place to support one another and connect. In 2013, he launched Trans*H4CK, a nonprofit organization that hosts hackathons and meetups across the country. So far, over 600 transgender developers, designers, and aspiring coders have presented at Trans*H4CK hackathons. Why does Silicon Valley need an organization like Trans*H4CK? Mission driven technology can save lives and I believe that the trans community can benefit greatly from tech creation that centers our experiences, Ziegler told Yahoo Finance. Trans people represent an important demographic already in techso I thought it important to provide visibility for the amazing work already being produced. What are some of the cool apps or products that members have created through Trans*H4CK? We've organized dozens of hackathons and meetups across the country. Apps that help to find comprehensive healthcare to apps that rate trans-friendly employers have emerged out of Trans*H4CK spaces. What's most impressive are the life changing connections that are made where people have secured jobs at startups or have come together to launch their own trans-led and founded startups--it's quite amazing. Career highlights: Ziegler was the first person to hold the Ph.D. of African American Studies from Northwestern University; he directed the award-winning documentary, STILL BLACK: a portrait of black transmen; runs the GLAAD Media Award nominated blog, blac (k) ademic, and was recently named one of the Top 40 Under 40 LGBT activists by The Advocate Magazine and #29 of the most influential African Americans of 2013 by TheRoot100. His advice on improving acceptance of trans/nonconforming communities in tech: Be mindful. Difference is good. Shauntel Poulson, co-founder of education venture capital firm Reach Capital Yahoo Finance After graduating from MIT, Shauntel Poulson, 31, went on to develop products for Procter & Gamble. But it was volunteering at an afterschool program that kindled a desire to pursue education. She earned her MBA/MA of Education at Stanford but her next stop wasnt in a classroom -- it was a gig at venture capital firm NewSchools Venture Fund, where she helped back early stage education technology startups. The firm spun out into Reach Capital to focus solely on edtech investing, putting Poulson at the helm. "The focus is on ensuring all students, no matter their backgrounds, have access to high-quality education to be successful in their lives," she told CNN Money. Whats exciting about Poulson and Reach: She is one of three female partners out of four at the firm. This is extraordinary for a venture capital firm, especially in Silicon Valley. Only 6% of VC firms have women partners on staff, according to a study by the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College. Poulsons advice for young people interested in a career in tech or venture capital: When asked by The SearchLight Project, Poulson said learning how to code, staying current on technology trends and building a strong foundation in STEM courses is paramount to building a successful career in tech. She also cites the importance of working at a startup to get operational experience. This will help you when you are on the other side of the table advising entrepreneurs." Exciting technology Poulsons firm backs: Nearpod, where teachers can create lessons and share them with educators across the country, and SchoolMint, a platform that helps thousands of k-12 schools streamline admissions and communication with families. Maxine Williams, Global Head of Diversity, Facebook Yahoo Finance Maxine Williams is driving Facebooks (FB) efforts to not only improve diversity but decrease the role that unconscious biases play in the companys hiring process. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Williams studied at Yale and went on to earn her law degree as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England. How improv has helped her thrive in her new role: (as told to Forbes.com) What it teaches you in life is this tremendous concept of arriving somewhere, like I did here, where you know nothing, you have no connections, you have no script, but you have to make things work. And, yes, you will fail publicly many times, but youll know how to get up gracefully and try again the next day. Her biggest pet peeve? Tiptoeing around tough discussions about diversity in the workplace. I think sensitivity was holding [Facebook] back from being bold on diversity...They were well intentioned because they didnt want to offend, but in not offending, were not doing what we say we do, which is moving fast, breaking things, failing harder, done is better than perfect all of this, she told Forbes. Just do it, engage it. But to do that, you have to be at the same time creating an atmosphere where people are willing to forgive. Career highlights: She once ran a Caribbean human rights organization in Barbados; practiced law for six years in Trinidad; launched a successful media career in New York, hosting and producing shows for BET cultural programs and becoming an expert guest on Court TV; she was the director of diversity programs for New York law firm White & Case LLP for six years before joining Facebook; headlined Facebooks Be Bold. Move Fast college campus tour in 2014, visiting schools with high numbers of women and minority students. -- Mandi Woodruff is a reporter for Yahoo Finance and host of Brown Ambition, a weekly podcast about life, love and money. Read more: 9 little-known Amazon Prime perks The most inspiring personal finance stories of 2015 The first 3 things you should do after you get engaged London (AFP) - The Channel Island of Guernsey could not take in any of the Syrian refugees flooding Europe due to "Islamophobia" in the British dependency, its chief minister said. "Negativity" would make it difficult to provide them with security, Jonathan Le Tocq said, according to the BBC. "There's certainly a lot of Islamophobia and negativity that's been around and that would entail that it would be difficult for us to ensure that [the refugees] would find the sorts of security and stability here in Guernsey, were they to be resettled here, in the same way as they are, say, in other parts of the UK." Guernsey's policy council -- part of its executive -- announced Thursday that following a review of the island's infrastructure, it could not take part in Britain's relocation scheme for Syrians fleeing the five-year war in their homeland. Guernsey, which lies in the English Channel around 50 kilometres (30 miles) off the north coast of France, has a population of around 65,000. The island is not a part of the United Kingdom but a British crown dependency with its own laws and parliament. "There are a number of legal and practical issues which have been identified recently relating to general refugee rights which must be fully understood and resolved, and certainly before Guernsey could participate in any UK driven refugee resettlement scheme," the policy council said. Guernsey's larger island neighbour Jersey, a fellow crown dependency, said in December it would not take in any Syrian refugees, citing legal issues that could threaten its ability to cope in future if it joined the UK scheme. The Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission has provided 230,000 ($335,000, 300,000 euros) to agencies delivering aid in and around Syria since 2012, the policy council said. Conakry (AFP) - Guinean authorities have opened a murder probe after a journalist was shot and fatally wounded in clashes outside the offices of an opposition party, officials said Saturday. El Hadj Mohamed Diallo, 33, died on Friday after receiving a bullet to the chest in the capital Conakry. "Following this tragic and unfortunate event, the state prosecutor asked the chief investigating judge... to open a criminal investigation against persons unknown for murder," the government said in a statement on Friday. Prosecutor Sidy Souleymane N'Diaye on Saturday told reporters that "all light will be shed on the journalist's death". Diallo, who according to relatives was married and had a young daughter, worked for the private Guinee7 news website and the weekly L'Independant. He was standing outside the headquarters of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) when violence broke out over the recent removal of the party's vice president, Amadou Oury Bah. Bah had gone to the headquarters intending to challenge the decision to expel him from the party leadership but his presence sparked clashes between supporters and the building's security guards during which shots were fired. One of the bullets struck Diallo, who later died in hospital. Both the UFDG and Bah blamed each other for the unrest in separate statements on Saturday. "Bah was armed with a gun and accompanied by hooligans" when he arrived, the UFDG said. Bah for his part said one of the guards had "fired three shots" in his direction and that he suffered a blow to the head with an iron bar during the scuffles. Four Guinean press associations issued a joint statement strongly condemning the journalist's death, calling it a "despicable act". They also called on all media organisations in the west African country to suspend coverage of UFDG activities until the circumstances surrounding the reporter's death have been clarified. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists also denounced the shooting and urged the Guinean authorities "to hold those responsible to account". "We welcome the government's commitment to investigate his murder and call on it to ensure a thorough and transparent process," CPJ Africa Research Associate Kerry Paterson said Friday. Los Angeles (AFP) - James Hahn fired a bogey-free six-under par 66 to grab the lead in the second round of the US PGA Tour Phoenix Open ahead of Rickie Fowler and Danny Lee. Korean-American Hahn had a 10-under total of 132 after 36 holes at TPC Scottsdale. World number four Fowler fired a 68 while New Zealand's lee carded a 66 for 133. Japan's Hideki Matsuyama and Ireland's Shane Lowry -- who shared the first-round lead with Fowler -- both posted 70s for 135, where they were joined by Harris English, who signed for a 67. The event known for its raucous atmosphere drew a record 160,415 people to the course, breaking the previous Friday record of 123,674 set in 2014. They were treated to not one but two holes-in-one. Jack Maguire, in his first professional start on the US PGA Tour, aced the 12th hole with a seven-iron from 206 yards. A short time later, Chad Campbell aced the seventh hole with a six-iron from 194 yards. Hahn, who won his first tour title at Riviera in Los Angeles last year, has long enjoyed the atmosphere in Phoenix, where in 2013 he celebrated a birdie at the 16th with a "Gangnam Style" dance. His six birdies didn't include the famously festive 16th on Friday -- so after missing the green at the par-three he punished himself with 10 pushups instead. "It's good for golf, good for the game, good for the fans that come out here," Hahn said. "They support the golf tournament, so might as well give them a show." Hahn put on quite a show with his game as well, chipping in for birdie at his first hole -- the par-four 10th. He birdied both of the par-fives on the back nine and birdied three more coming in. He drained a 10-footer at the sixth to take the outright lead. "I'm having fun out there," he said. "Making a lot of putts, hitting a lot of fairways, giving myself many opportunities to make birdie." With the tournament still a bit behind after a first-round fog delay on Thursday morning, play was halted by darkness with a handful of players yet to finish. Story continues Fowler, who moved up in the world rankings with his win in Abu Dhabi a fortnight ago then missed the cut at Torrey Pines last week, had four birdies and one bogey, recovering from a bogey at the 17th with a birdie at the last. Lee got off to a hot start with birdies at five of his first eight holes -- including a 20-footer at 16. "Wind was definitely in play today," said Lee, who won his first US Tour title last year at the Greenbrier Classic. "It was a little bit different than yesterday. The greens being so firm, you're kind of forced to hit driver." Five-time major winner Phil Mickelson carded a 71 for two-under 140. By Joseph Guyler Delva PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti slipped deeper into unrest on Friday as former fighters roamed the capital and a mob of protesters stoned one of them to death, days before President Michel Martelly is due to leave office with no elected successor. Reuters witnesses said a crowd attacked an unarmed man wearing green military-style clothes, who was among the retired paramilitary fighters in the streets on Friday. Such fighters toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a 2004 coup. "We are ready to fight the former military, they killed us in 2004, we will never let that happen again," said opposition protester Wesner Morin, 37, from the Bel Aire slum. Martelly is due to leave office on Sunday but squabbling politicians have failed to organize an interim government to replace him, after the runoff election to choose his replacement was scrapped last month amid violence and fraud allegations. The crisis has reopened old divisions in Haitian society, with mainly poor opposition protesters calling for the leftist Aristide to be brought back as an interim leader and the former fighters appearing in support of Martelly's camp. The Caribbean nation, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, has been trying since the 1980s to build a stable democracy in the wake of the decades-long rule of the Duvalier family. Aristide disbanded the army in 1995 in an attempt to end military dominance over Haitian politics stretching back to independence two centuries earlier. Martelly last year energized former fighters by taking steps to revive the army. The groups of aging former gunmen drove through the capital in convoys on Friday, some waving weapons and firing into the air. Until police took away his body, the dead veteran lay on the street in a pool of blood, his boots removed by protesters. A small card bearing the image of ruling-party candidate Jovenel Moise was stuck to the back of his crushed head. The latest political crisis has distracted from ongoing efforts to rebuild a nation shattered by an earthquake six years ago that killed an estimated 200,000 people. Haiti held the first round of the presidential election in October, but opposition candidates have since claimed it was tainted by major fraud. An independent commission that investigated the election cited serious irregularities. A runoff vote scheduled for January was scrapped when the opposition candidate, Jude Celestin, threatened to boycott the process and sporadic violent protests swept the country. With no solution to the impasse, protests have intensified in recent days in the lead up to Martelly's expected departure. Politicians are discussing a range of options, including appointing a supreme court judge or a new prime minister to run an interim government. Martelly said in a statement on Friday that he would soon choose one of the options. The United States, which spent some $33 million on the election, fears an interim government might linger for years, leaving Haiti without a democratically elected president, a situation the country suffered after Aristide was toppled. (Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Sandra Maler) PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's outgoing President Michel Martelly has reached an agreement with parliament to form a caretaker government when he leaves power this weekend without an elected successor, in a step that could calm violent protests rocking the capital. Under the agreement due to be signed later on Saturday, parliament will elect an interim president for a four-month term, said the Organisation of American States, which helped broker the deal among deeply divided politicians in the Caribbean nation. A presidential runoff due to be held last month was scrapped after opposition candidate Jude Celestin threatened to boycott the vote over allegations of fraud in the first round, and protesters took to the streets in force. Martelly is set to leave office on Sunday. The interim president's primary job will be to quickly hold a presidential election, which under the deal, should happen on April 24, with the new elected leader taking power in May. Port-au-Prince has seen almost daily protests by both opposition and government supporters since January, culminating in the lynching of a former soldier during a march on Friday. Any caretaker government will have to overcome deep disagreements about how the election should be organized and which candidates can participate, since many opposition politicians are convinced the first round vote was riddled with fraud that favored ruling party candidate Jovenel Moise. The government denies the allegations. Haiti has struggled to build a stable democracy since the end of the brutal Duvalier family regime in the 1980s. The impoverished country has had a chequered experience with caretaker governments, which in the past have lingered longer than expected. When Haiti was left without an elected president after Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled in a 2004 coup, it took the transitional administration two years to organize elections. (Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel) Concord (United States) (AFP) - In a state whose motto is "Live Free or Die," New Hampshire's primary Tuesday is do or die for Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush. "I don't really follow the pundits because it's not good for my health," joked the former Florida governor in a question and answer session with voters in a school cafeteria Friday. "I know I've been written off," said Bush, who must beat his establishment rivals next week or consider giving up. "You know what gives me confidence? New Hampshire," he added to huge applause. Bush's campaign sees the state as critical to his path to the nomination. Finishing strong after the Iowa caucuses, where he placed a disappointing sixth with 2.8 percent of the vote, is imperative. The son and brother of two US presidents, Bush cracked jokes at the expense of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and delighted a friendly crowd drawn by his pedigree, moderate conservatism and experience. He admitted he may not be the best debater, but said he has the best temperament, experience and knowledge to be commander-in-chief. If he falters, experts warn, Bush would confirm the narrative painted by critics: that he is a tarnished candidate unable to generate enthusiasm for yet another Bush presidency amid the current appetite for outsiders like Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. To bounce back after stumbles in the first two states would be a herculean task for the 62-year-old. "This is a big deal folks. New Hampshire has a chance to reset this race," Lindsey Graham, Republican former senator for South Carolina, told the standing-room-only crowd in the Concord school. "I hope you will take the chance to give Jeb some momentum because we need it." - 'No killer instinct' - Senator and Florida rival Marco Rubio has tagged Bush "desperate," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called him "fake" and Trump infamously labeled Bush a "low-energy" loser whose supporters are spending mountains of money to no avail. Story continues "I wouldn't say desperation, but there's serious concern" in the Bush camp, professor Linda Fowler of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, an expert on US elections, told AFP. Mired in single-digit support, squeezed into a crowded establishment lane with two governors including Christie and Ohio's John Kasich, and his measured tone overwhelmed by the loud rhetoric of the 2016 presidential race, Bush faces a steep climb out of irrelevance. He is running fifth in New Hampshire, at 9.7 percent, but polls at just half that nationally, according to the latest RealClearPolitics poll averages. "I think the press in a way have almost killed Jeb's campaign," said David Stotler, a teacher from Sutton, New Hampshire. "I think on the news he plays well to these small audiences," he said. "But for the debate stage and the television audience, I don't think he has the killer instinct." Bush steps back onto the stage Saturday for the last Republican debate before the primary -- potentially crucial when the latest Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll says a third of likely Republican voters could still change their mind. Deep-pocketed supporters have poured $100 million into the Bush machinery, but their investment is under severe threat. Rumors have swirled of donors bailing on Bush and switching to the more telegenic Rubio, who beat expectations in Iowa and finished third, one point behind Trump. - Too polite, says mom - At least one Bush backer, Nevada assemblyman David Gardner, has publicly switched his endorsement to Rubio. Eager to stop the bleeding, the popular family matriarch Barbara Bush, 90, campaigned Friday with her second son in New Hampshire. In an interview on CBS News with Jeb at her side, she said her son was "almost too polite," suggesting he needed to toughen up. "I don't advise him, but if I gave him advise, I would say: 'Why don't you interrupt like the other people do'" during the debates, she said. "I've gotten better at interrupting, mom. Come on," Jeb responded. It was a telling moment for Bush, who has been singled out for appearing awkward on the campaign trail. Bush is under intense pressure to up his game, but the immediate challenge is to outperform establishment rivals Christie and Kasich in New Hampshire -- in which case his campaign has every chance of remaining viable heading into the next contest, in South Carolina. "I think I might vote for Jeb," Kevin Malvey, a radio DJ, told AFP after attending Concord's town hall. "I think for Jeb Bush to move on he has to be in the top three in New Hampshire," he said. "I think he can. I sense some momentum." Quebec City (AFP) - Hundreds of family, friends and dignitaries including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended funerals Saturday for the six Quebecers killed during attacks in Burkina Faso's capital. A funeral service was held in the morning for Suzanne Bernier, a retired school director, at a church in Quebec City. At a packed afternoon service, four members of the Carrier family and Louis Chabot were laid to rest in the provincial capital. The six Canadians were killed in Ouagadougou on January 15 while enjoying a last meal after their flight home was delayed. A total of 30 people -- around half of them foreigners -- were killed and 70 others hurt in the attack on a cafe and the four-star Splendid claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Yves Carrier, his wife Gladys and two of their children had been in the West African nation with two friends helping build a school when they were killed. Carrier and his family had been coming to Burkina Faso for years on humanitarian missions to help the country of 18 million people, 40 percent of them living below the poverty line. The country for some was seen as an NGO "paradise" because it was safe and largely stable in contrast to other nations on the southern edge of the Sahara facing violence and instability. Just two days before the attack in Ouagadougou, a Canadian citizen from the Montreal suburbs was killed in Jakarta when suicide attackers linked to the so-called Islamic State group struck the Indonesian capital. Combined, the attacks made for the worst death toll for Canadians in attacks since September 11, 2001. By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) - The family of an Iranian-British former BBC journalist who was detained last week in Tehran were told on Saturday that he was in the capital's Evin prison, a friend told Reuters. Bahman Daroshafaei, 34, a translator and former BBC Persian service reporter, was detained on Wednesday at his home, according to the opposition website Kaleme.com. "His family went to Evin prison today. They managed to talk to someone on the phone who said Bahman was in Evin but he would not be able to contact his family for another week or so," said the friend, who was in direct touch with the family but declined to be named. Daroshafaei's family said they had not been informed what the charges against him might be. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in London on Thursday that he did not know about the case. Some opposition activists have suggested that Daroshafaei's arrest, on the eve of the first visit to Britain by an Iranian foreign minister in 12 years, might have been orchestrated by hardliners to thwart an improvement in relations as Iran emerges from international isolation under the moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani. After living in London for several years, Daroshafaei returned to Iran in 2014 to be near his family. His friend said six plain-clothed officers had arrested Daroshafaei at his home and confiscated his computer, hard drives and mobile phone. A few of Daroshafaei's friends in Tehran and London said they had received messages on social media in the last few days purporting to come from him. One said that she had been hacked after clicking on a link she received from Daroshafaei's account. Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran last year after Iran agreed with world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions. It has made no comment about Daroshafaei's detention. Another Iranian-British citizen, Kamal Foroughi, remains in detention after being arrested in 2011 while working in Tehran as a business consultant. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Jerusalem (AFP) - The Israeli army Saturday said it was lifting a blockade imposed on the West Bank town of Qabatiya, from where Palestinians carried out a Jerusalem attack that killed a policewoman. "Based on an assessment of the situation, it was decided to lift the blockade of Qabatiya," a military spokeswoman told AFP. Three men from Qabatiya, near Jenin, on Wednesday attacked police with guns and knives outside Jerusalem's Old City, killing a female officer and wounding another before being shot dead. Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met top security officials, who decided to bolster forces in the northern West Bank. The army also cut access to the northern West Bank town of 15,000 people and began a security sweep of the area. It arrested 10 people, relatives and acquaintances of the three young people believed to be 19 to 20 years old who killed the Israeli border policewoman. During the operation, the army also measured up the houses of the assailants for later demolition, a common practice after deadly attacks on Israelis. There were also clashes between soldiers and residents during the sweep of Qabatiya. Several people from the town, which was turbulent during the first and second intifadas, have been killed in the violence that has rocked the Palestinian Territories and Israel for four months. The unrest has claimed the lives of 165 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean since it erupted last October 1. Although most of the Palestinians were killed carrying out attacks, others died during clashes and demonstrations. Jerusalem (AFP) - An Israeli woman was stabbed and wounded in a majority-Bedouin town in the south on Saturday by an attacker who fled the scene, a police spokeswoman said. The woman, who is in her sixties, was stabbed at a market in Rahat. The spokeswoman said the attack was "apparently committed for nationalistic reasons", but was unable to specify whether the attacker was Bedouin or Palestinian. "Police have launched a huge search operation in the area where the attack took place, and have set up checkpoints," she said. Since October 1, 165 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have been killed in a wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel. Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest. Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the unrest. Most of the Palestinians were killed carrying out attacks, but others died during clashes and demonstrations. The Fondation Cartier for Contemporary Art in Paris is opening a new exhibition on Saturday presenting the work of Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. The artist's first exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in 12 years, "Daido Tokyo" will focus on his recent work -- a selection of both black and white and color photography. The Fondation Cartier has also commissioned a new work from the photographer in conjunction with the exhibition. Daido Moriyama's photography focuses on the urban landscape and street life with images that are often out of focus, vertiginously tilted or invasively cropped to reflect the disjunctive nature of the contemporary urban experience. Moriyama's work has frequently centered around Tokyo and in particular his neighborhood in the Shinjuku district. Intended to defamiliarize everyday life, Moriyama's photographs portray items such as faded posters, reflections in shop windows, odd-shaped pipes and the faces of passersby. The artist has revealed that he doesn't look into the viewfinder when shooting and tends to use his body more than his eyes to capture reality. The result is characterized by a hasty "snapshot aesthetic" that captures a sense of a disordered urban reality. In the 1970s Moriyama began to experiment with color photography, and since the early 2000s a lot of his work has been shot in color. A large number of these are featured in the exhibition. Moriyama uses color to complement the black and white work. "The black and white tells about my inner worlds, my emotions and deep feelings that I feel every day walking through the streets of Tokyo or other cities as a vagabond aimlessly. The color describes what I meet without any filters and I like to record the instant for the way it looks," says Moriyama. Fondation Cartier has commissioned the work "Dog and Mesh Tights" specifically for the exhibition. The photographs cover a nine-month period from July 2014 to March 2015 and explore obscure corners of the urban environment. The images were captured during Moriyama's wanderings in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Arles, Houston and Los Angeles. The result resembles an unfinished jigsaw puzzle that conveys the "confusing interaction of people and things" in the urban landscape. The Daido Moriyama exhibition will run from February 6 until June 5, 2016. For more information visit: http://fondation.cartier.com/#/en/home/ San Jose (AFP) - Thousands of US-bound Cubans stranded in Costa Rica and Panama will be able to take direct flights to Mexico, if they can afford the cost, the governments of the Central American countries said Friday. The flights are aimed at accelerating a transfer of more than 9,000 Cuban migrants through Central America to Mexico past Nicaragua, a Cuban ally which closed its border to them in November. Most of the Cubans are in Costa Rica, which last month began flying them out to El Salvador, where they were put on buses that carried them across Guatemala to the Mexican border. From there they were to make their own way to the border with the United States, which has a longstanding policy dating back to the Cold War of accepting Cubans fleeing their Communist-ruled island. The new direct flights from Costa Rica to northern Mexico cost $790 per adult and can carry 118 passengers each time, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez told reporters. The other flights to El Salvador and then the bus trip cost $555 and will continue. The migrants have to bear the cost of the trips themselves. Costa Rica predicts all will have been flown out within five weeks. Panama announced it had struck a similar deal with Mexico for direct flights for the 1,300 Cubans on its territory wanting to head to the US, but gave no details of the ticket prices. Mexico's government said it would give the arriving Cubans a humanitarian entry visa valid for 20 days to give them time to make it to the United States. By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two former officials indicted in New Jersey's so-called Bridgegate scandal won court approval on Friday to subpoena a law firm for emails and other documents it gathered during an investigation commissioned by Governor Chris Christie, according to media reports. Christie, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, saw his reputation tarnished by the scandal, which involved the politically motivated closure of several lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013. Prosecutors say the closures were political payback for a local New Jersey mayor who refused to endorse Christies re-election bid. The stunt caused massive rush-hour traffic delays for days on the heavily traveled bridge, which connects northern New Jersey to Manhattan. The governor has denied any role or knowledge, blaming it on rogue aides, and he has not been accused of wrongdoing. Christie is campaigning in New Hampshire ahead of that state's crucial primary election on Tuesday. Only two people have been criminally charged in the scandal: Bill Baroni, a former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive appointed by Christie, and Bridget Kelly, the governor's former deputy chief of staff. U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark said on Friday that attorneys for Baroni and Kelly could subpoena Gibson Dunn & Crutcher for what they contend are thousands of pages of relevant documents, the Record of Bergen County newspaper and other news outlets reported. In 2014, at Christie's request, Gibson Dunn undertook a taxpayer-funded investigative report that eventually found the governor had no knowledge of the scheme. Critics of Christie dismissed the report as biased. The lead author, former federal prosecutor Randy Mastro, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Lawyers for Baroni and Kelly did not respond to requests for comment. Prosecutors have accused Baroni and Kelly of orchestrating the lane closures. David Wildstein, who like Baroni was a Christie appointee to the Port Authority, has pleaded guilty to taking part in the closures and agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorneys office in Newark against Baroni and Kelly. Baroni and Kelly are scheduled to face trial on May 16. (Editing by Matthew Lewis) By Krista Mahr and Asad Hashim ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Officials from the four nations seeking to end Afghanistan's 15-year-old war agreed on Saturday to press for direct talks between Taliban groups and the U.S.-backed government in Kabul by the end of the month. Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China have for weeks been trying to lay the groundwork for talks with the Taliban, which has made gains since the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2014. Rival factions competing for leadership of the Islamist movement have expressed different views on whether to join the process, but officials appeared hopeful that at least some groups would be willing to participate. In a statement following the meeting in Islamabad, officials said the countries "agreed to continue joint efforts for setting a date for direct peace talks between the representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban groups expected to take place by the end of February 2016". Senior members of the Afghan Taliban said they had decided not to participate in Saturday's four-way talks in Islamabad, citing objections to the presence of both the United States and the current Afghan government. "We believe in dialogue and feel that all the issues can be resolved through negotiations, but we don't have any trust in the U.S. and puppet Afghan government," said a senior member aligned with Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, leader of the largest Taliban faction. In an interview with Reuters this week, Afghan government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said elements of the Taliban could join talks within six months, but the latest statement suggests officials are looking at a more ambitious timetable. Despite widespread scepticism, officials say the talks offer the only immediate prospect of ending the fighting. A further meeting is scheduled for Feb. 23 in Kabul. "We have to exert all our efforts and energies for keeping the process on track," Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani prime minister's foreign affairs adviser, said in opening remarks in the Pakistani capital. Peace efforts broke down last year after it became known the Taliban movement's founder and leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who sanctioned the talks, had been dead for two years, exposing deep fissures within the insurgency. In January, the group made a raft of demands as a pre-condition to joining talks, including that it be removed from a U.N. blacklist, formal recognition of a political office for the group and the release of political prisoners. (Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar and James Mackenzie in Kabul; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) Politics New Hampshire victory at stake: Candidates face pressure to out perform in Republican debate Saturdays Republican presidential debate comes three days before New Hampshires primary, a contest that will likely determine whether some candidates in an already shrinking field will move on or be forced to abandon their White House hopes. While Trump, a billionaire who is largely self-funding his campaign, has enough money to stay in the race, anything short of a win in New Hampshire would be a blow to his White House bid. Rubios third-place finish in Iowa gave him the edge in the crowded field of candidates viewed as more mainstream alternatives to the bombastic Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the fiery conservative who won the caucuses. I think we should have come in first, to be honest with you, a lot of things happened there. Trump said Friday during a rally in South Carolina about the Iowa caucuses As a result, Rubio has faced a flurry of criticism in recent days, with his rivals questioning his experience and casting him as overly scripted. Bush, Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have largely staked their presidential hopes on New Hampshire. Also fighting to stay relevant Saturday will be retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. After a disappointing showing in Iowa, he took time off the campaign trail and hasnt been a major presence in New Hampshire. Those who dont have a standout finish in New Hampshire will face swift pressure from within the Republican Party to step aside. LONDON (Reuters) - Sellers of Nigerian crude oil started lowering offers on differential levels, traders said on Friday, as a heavy backlog of cargoes for March export stayed on their books. Well over half of the 68 cargoes for March loading were still available, about two weeks before April export cargoes come to market. A lower margin for gasoline and naphtha refineries globally was also seen as denting demand for Nigerian oil as its light, sweet composition However, while sales of Nigerian oil were not as rapid as for recent months, a lower premium of Brent oil to Dubai and lower freight costs made cargoes of West African more attractive to Asian buyers. Nigerian sales were not as slow as for much of last year, and Chinese buyers quickly ate into the available Angolan cargoes, and there were only a handful left. Demand for cargoes from the United States eased. This was because Brent's premium to U.S. crude returned after it had been reversed last month, making it less attractive to U.S. buyers. A tender by Indian refiner IOC helped eat into the store of Nigerian vessels for March loading. NIGERIA * Qua Iboe was last heard offered by Exxon at dated Brent plus $1.50. Traders said levels near $1 were more realistic. * Around 25 March-loading cargoes have found buyers. The March programme, with just over 2 million barrels per day, is the largest since at least October. * Traders said there were delays of around six to seven days for the Escravos grade of crude oil due to production problems. Chevron declined to comment. ANGOLA * Most of the March-loading Angolan cargoes have sold two weeks into the monthly trading cycle, but more cargoes have become available as traders are looking to re-sell. * P66 is re-offering a mid-month Dalia and Vitol an end-March Nemba, a trader said. ASIAN TENDERS * Indian refiner IOC bought a cargo of Escravos from Chevron, A VLCC containing a Bonny Light and Kole from Shell and a second VLCC consisting of an Okwuibome and a Usan from Glencore. * Indonesia's Pertamina did not take West African oil via a tender, a trader said, but an Azeri cargo and another cargo from the region. Thailand's PTT also had a buying tender, but traders had not seen the results. (Reporting by Simon Falush; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) LONDON (Reuters) - Nigerians have an image problem abroad which makes it difficult to emigrate to the West, but they can stay at home where their services are needed, President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as saying by a British newspaper on Saturday. A former army ruler from the 1980s who returned to power as a civilian after winning an election in March last year, Buhari has the image of an ascetic disciplinarian keen to tackle his country's persistent problems with crime and corruption. "Some Nigerians' claim is that life is too difficult back home," he was quoted as telling the Daily Telegraph newspaper. "But they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons around the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking," he said. This is a contrast to some other Nigerian politicians, who often argue that their countrymen are unfairly victimised in foreign countries. "I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home, where their services are required to rebuild the country," Buhari was quoted as saying. The newspaper said Buhari thought a minority of his countrymen could do with improving their behaviour. "We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way to salvage that," he said. Buhari first came to power when he led a military coup in 1983, ousting an elected government. He ruled for 18 months, during which he imprisoned journalists and opposition activists without trial, executed drug traffickers by firing squad and ordered soldiers to thrash those who failed to queue in an orderly fashion at bus stops. Buhari was himself ousted in the next military coup. In the years following Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999, he reinvented himself as a democrat, culminating in his victory against incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in last year's presidential election. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haitian politicians inked a last-minute agreement to install a transitional government Saturday, just hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down with no replacement in line. The agreement, signed by the presidents of both chambers of the National Assembly, keeps the country from plunging into an immediate power vacuum on Martelly's exit, after an election to choose his replacement was postponed over fears of violence. "It wasn't easy, but like I said, I wasn't going to leave this country on uncertain terms come February 7, so we worked non-stop these past three weeks," Martelly said during an official ceremony to sign the document. In light of the annulled vote, which would have occurred on January 24 and given the country time to put a new leader in power, Parliament will elect an interim president, with a term of up to 120 days, the four-page agreement said. The January vote, a runoff between Martelly's favored candidate, Jovenel Moise, and opposition flag-bearer Jude Celestin, was called off following violence and opposition protests by demonstrators alleging that foul play had helped the government candidate take the first round. "On Sunday morning, we will hold a joint (legislative) session ... to note the end of President Martelly's term and to ask the prime minister and government to remain in office to settle current affairs," Senate President Jocelerme Privert told AFP. "The election of the interim president will take place later." The country's runoff election is now scheduled for April 24, with the new, permanent leader to take power on May 14, but Privert stressed those were only proposed dates. "We are pleased that the stakeholders have all committed themselves to democracy, peace and stability, amid a constitutional vacuum created by the absence of an elected president to replace Mr Martelly," said Ronald Sanders, head of the special Haiti mission of the Organization of American States. Story continues While consensus was reached in a "brotherly atmosphere," Martelly stressed that this did not mean the political crisis had been resolved. "We must remain vigilant... I am asking for all those responsible to help maintain stability in Haiti," the president said hours before the end of his mandate. "I ask the various actors, especially those who resort to violence, to understand that each time there is violence, Haiti takes a step backward." On Friday, a man was killed during clashes in Port-au-Prince between hundreds of opponents of those in power and former soldiers and youths seeking to restore the army, which was dismantled in the 1990s. Since 1986, when president-for-life Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier fled a revolt, the Caribbean island nation has struggled repeatedly to hold credible elections. Haiti is also wracked by poverty and the aftereffects of a devastating 2010 earthquake. TAIPEI (Reuters) - There was no sign of life in two people taken to a Taiwan hospital from a 17-story collapsed building on Saturday after a strong earthquake rocked the region, Taiwan television ETtoday reported. Another television station reported that there was no sign of life from an infant girl found at the collapsed building in the city of Tainan. Taiwan media often use the term "out-of-hospital cardiac arrest", or no sign of life, to refer to fatalities before they are officially pronounced dead. (Reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Robert Birsel) O reader, hear my plea: I am the victim of semantic drift. Four months ago, I coined the term Berniebro to describe a phenomenon I saw on Facebook: Men, mostly my age, mostly of my background, mostly with my political beliefs, were hectoring their friends about how great Bernie was even when their friends wanted to do something else, like talk about the NBA. In the post, I tried to gently suggest that maybe there were other ways to advance Sanderss beliefs, many of which I share. I hinted, too, that I was not talking about every Sanders supporter. I did this subtly, by writing: The Berniebro is not every Sanders supporter. Then, 28,000 people shared the story on Facebook. The Berniebro was alive! Immediately, I started getting emails: Why did I hate progressivism? Why did I joke about politics? And how dare I generalize about every Bernie Sanders supporter? But the worst was yet to come. For now that the Berniebro lived in the world, it started to grow and change, and I remained its Dr. Frankenstein. In November, Rebecca Traister used Berniebro to refer to leftist writers who expressed their grievances with Hillary Clinton in sexist ways. Then other writers employed it to other ends. Berniebro came to imply that some men only supported Sanders because he was male. Then it stood in for the roving horde of Twitter users who respond to any sufficiently prominent skepticism about Bernie with outrage, alarm, and hate. Recommended: Why Bernie Sanders Can't Govern By last weekend, I could not log in without seeing some mention of Berniebroand, with it, a dispute about its meaning. The Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman deployed the Berniebro label, then econbloggers fought about it. After a Sanders campaign director asked supporters to tone it down online, Mashable and BuzzFeed and the British Actual Broadcasting Corporation ran stories about the terror of Berniebros. Eventually the Pulitzer-winning Glenn Greenwald waded into the pool, declaring that the Berniebro narrative was a blatant, manipulative scam, a journalistic disgrace, and a campaign tactic masquerading as journalism. Everyone was mean on the Internet, he said. Suck it up. Story continues My little coinage was all grown up, and it had spawned a full-on intraleft crisis. Cue the thinkpieces. Amanda Hess at Slate said that everyone is wrong about the Berniebros, pointing out that online harassment (which is real) should be framed as a tech story, not a campaign-horserace story. Vox argued that the Berniebro debate really isnt about Bernie at all. And poor Gawker appeared less concerned than confused as it asked: What Is a Berniebro? It is not an idle question. So here I am: The prodigal father has returned. And I think I have a solution to all thisor, at least, to the Berniebro problem. The Berniebrosplosion doesnt betray a unique crisis in civility, nor a long-term problem for the Democratic base. It signifies, rather, something much simpler: category collapse. Recommended: Who Won the Democratic Debate in Durham? The Internet is impoverished of vocabulary. People want to describe the emerging Sanders coalition, yet when they reach their hands behind the veil of language, they come out grasping only Berniebro. The republic clearly needs a new terminology to describe all the varied elements of Sanderss support. And until such a time as a permanent solution can be found, I have some provisional candidates. Once, Berniebros seemed to make up a sizable chunk of the candidates base. But now many more voters have joined the fold. For instance, the parents of Berniebros who are slowly coming around to their childs enthusiasmI propose that these are the Bernieboomers. Meanwhile, the girlfriends and boyfriends of Berniebros who allow themselves to be dragged to Sanders events are, of course, Bernieboos. But be careful not to confuse them with a Berniebeau: Theres only one of those, and her name is Jane Sanders. Campaign staffers who ferry equipment and banners from rally to rally earn the title of Bernieburro. They have to take special care when lugging the expensive speaker system, the BernieBose. After events, they complain to each other about Clinton supporters who show up only to ask impertinently about guns and socialismthey call them the Berniefauxs. And when they find themselves sweating on 60-degree afternoonseven in New Hampshire, in Februarythey discuss this years remarkable Bernino. Recommended: Of Course Hillary Clinton Exemplifies the Establishment Some Sanders volunteers like the candidate for his long-time support for childrens public television. On second reference, call these the Barneybros. (You may be tempted to call them an Erniebro, but dont. Thats Bert.) Police officers who find themselves drifting left are Bernieblues. The Sanders supporter who wanted to give more than the $27 average donation, but who only had $30 in their bank account, is Berniebroke. Other staffers made greater commitments: Some traveled from the United Kingdom to work for the candidate. When these volunteers hail from Scotland, theyre Berniebrogues, but when theyre tall, high-cheek-boned thespians from England, Berniedict Caucusbatch is preferred. BernieOs contain eight essential vitamins and minerals and theyre part of this balanced breakfast. After a day of healthy eating, splurge on Berniefroyo. Or for the more carnivorous progressive, go for some Bernieback Ribs and maybe a night in front of the Great British Bern Off. The Burlingtonian who cant stop playing Germanic lullabies is a Berniebrahms. The Resistances best democratic-socialist pilot is BerniePoe. And last but not least, the only minimalist Japanese clothing retailer that supports real progressivism is Berniqlo. * * * Phew. Hopefully all that may do some good. (Credit for at least half of those puns goes to my friend, Matt Connolly, a true and loyal BernieBard.) But before I close, I want to address one final issue: Some commentators have tried to invent similar slang for Clinton supporters. Often this slang is gendered female (think Hillaryharpies) to demonstrate how arbitrary and hurtful the Berniebro label is. But these attempts, first, miss that bro is not really an epithet, nor particularly hurtfuland, second, they do not understand the central trait of the Berniebro. The Berniebro, as originally conceived, was a tragic figure; his loyalty and dudeish certainty made him a poor proxy for his favorite candidate. But whats tragic about some Hillary voters is not really gendered in the same way or at all. The tragic Hillary voter, the truly pitiable figure, is the Democrat who would love to line up behind Bernies sunny ideals but knows that he just isnt electable. I speak, of course, of the Hillarealist. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will propose a $2.5 billion tax credit over five years for businesses that invest in programs at local community colleges and hire their graduates, administration officials said on Friday. The proposal, dubbed the Community College Partnership Tax Credit, would require businesses to donate funds for equipment, instruction, or internships related to programs in areas such as healthcare, energy and information technology. Employers that hire students from such programs would get a one-time, $5,000 tax credit per individual brought aboard. The programme, to be proposed formally in the president's fiscal 2017 budget on Tuesday, is meant to shore up community colleges' educational offerings, while helping businesses find high-skilled workers in certain fields. Employers can define those skills and help colleges develop the curriculum that teaches them, said James Kvaal, White House deputy director of domestic policy. He estimated the initiative would produce 500,000 highly skilled graduates over five years. Obama's budget requires congressional approval, which is unlikely. Administration officials expressed confidence, however, that the proposal would garner bipartisan support and the idea could gain traction. "The idea of ... bringing together community colleges and the local employer base is a very powerful one and really doesnt break along party lines," said Ted Mitchell, under secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. Obama's final budget is likely to garner less attention than in previous years. Washington's focus is moving to the 2016 presidential campaign and the Republican-controlled Congress does not want to hand legislative victories to the White House. Administration officials are aware similar proposals by the president have had limited success. Though his proposals to raise the minimum wage and make community college tuition free have not been enacted nationally, they say his championing of such ideas has spurred action on the state and local level. Under his latest proposal, states would get part of the tax credit money and be responsible for selecting businesses and community colleges based on a competition for applications. Employers could be involved in designing curriculums on advanced manufacturing, for example, or donating instruction time and equipment. Community colleges would get needed capital investment and businesses would recoup their investments through the tax credits gleaned from hiring graduates. (This version of the story corrects spelling of surname in fifth paragraph) (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Andrew Hay) Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama on Saturday proposed doubling US funding over the next five years for clean energy research and development, as part of his ongoing effort to tackle climate change. In his weekly media address, Obama announced that he will send a budget to Congress on Tuesday which hits twice the current spending levels for clean energy research and development by 2020, declaring that "rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future." The president next week sends to Congress the final spending blueprint of his presidency -- a guidepost to his policy priorities -- including proposals in the coming fiscal year to raise taxes and boost spending. "One of the greatest challenges of our time is climate change," the US leader said. "Over the last seven years, we've made historic investments in clean energy that helped private sector companies create tens of thousands of good jobs. And today, clean power from the wind or the sun is actually cheaper in many communities than dirtier, conventional power." The increased spending, Obama said, "will include new investments to help the private sector create more jobs faster, lower the cost of clean energy faster, and help clean, renewable power outcompete dirty fuels in every state." Obama's call for greater investment in clean energy echoes one he made in last month's annual State of the Union address, and dovetails with the ambitious global climate change accord concluded last year in Paris. By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - In an escape worthy of popular cartoon monkey "Curious George," police in Minerva Park, Ohio, have alerted the public to a simian on the loose. First spotted by a police officer on Thursday in the heavily wooded Columbus suburb in central Ohio, the suspected "medium sized" howler monkey has evoked chuckles in the community while local and state officials search for an animal they suspect may have been someone's pet. A Facebook post by the Minerva Park Police Department included a photo of a howler monkey with the explanation "the below photo has been picked by the witness as the monkey they saw." One person responded with what he said was a sketch of the suspected owner, posting a cartoon picture of "the Man with the Yellow Hat," the anonymous owner of the popular monkey in the "Curious George" children's book series. Another person expressed relief that the police had posted the monkey picture so he could "differentiate it from all the other monkeys on the loose in Minerva Park." The monkey was seen again on Friday morning by a newspaper delivery man, Minerva Park Police Chief Kim Nuesse said. He flagged down an officer and told him he had just almost run down a monkey. Female howler monkeys can reach up to 20 pounds (9 kg) and males up to 40 pounds and they eat mostly leaves and live in the rain forests of South and Central America, said Tad Schoffner, curator of animals at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which has seven howler monkeys. Schoffner worries about the monkey's survival given the cold weather, and even wonders if it is actually a spider monkey. (Reporting by Kim Palmer; Writing by Ben Klayman; Editing by Matthew Lewis) Multan (Pakistan) (AFP) - Police have arrested six people accused of arranging the marriage of a seven-year-old boy and six-year-old girl in eastern Pakistan, officials said Saturday. The fathers of both children, the cleric performing the ceremony, and three witnesses were charged under the Child Marriage Restraint Act on Saturday after being arrested in Punjab province on Friday, senior police official Saifullah Khan told AFP. They face six months imprisonment and/or a fine of 50,000 rupees ($500). Local police chief Mehr Riaz Hussain said the accused have denied that the wedding took place, but police have it on video. Pakistani lawmakers last month withdrew a proposal to impose harsher penalties on those who arrange child marriages after it was scuttled by a religious body which branded it "blasphemous" and against Islam. The proposal, which would also have raised the legal age of marriages for females from 16 to 18, called for "rigorous" punishment of up to two years in prison for those who organise child marriages, still common in some parts of Pakistan. The original law stipulates the age of marriage to be 16 for women and 18 for men but Pakistani religious scholars at the Council of Islamic Ideology, believe it is not in accordance with Islamic teachings. They say there is no specific age limit for marriage in Sharia as an individual can marry when he or she reaches puberty and puberty cannot be defined by age. Rights activists strongly criticised the rejection of bill. Dresden (Germany) (AFP) - A march by Germany's anti-Islamic organisation Pegida drew thousands to the eastern city of Dresden on Saturday with rallies in support of the movement also held in a string of other European cities. In Prague, around 5,000 people turned out for a Pegida-inspired march organised by two far-right groups, while in Amsterdam mounted police charged pro- and anti-Pegida groups and arrested at least a dozen people. Another rally in the northern French port of Calais, home to the infamous "Jungle" refugee camp for migrants seeking passage across the Channel to Britain, brought about 20 arrests, local authorities said. Police there responded with tear gas after scuffles broke out. The Pegida group had called for the Saturday rallies, urging supporters to march under the anti-migrant banner of "Fortress Europe". The group began as a movement in Germany in mid-2014 and has spread to other countries as Europe grapples with its worst refugee crisis since World War II. Several thousand Pegida supporters turned up in Dresden under clear blue skies to march along the banks of the River Elbe to protest against mass immigration and what they call the "Islamisation" of Europe. - 'We have to help' - Absent was Lutz Bachmann, the movement's founder, owing to illness, organisers said. Police deployed around 1,000 officers. Many held aloft banners criticising German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in the firing line for her liberal stance towards refugees after Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers last year. Around 2,000 people -- less than the 10,000 expected by police -- meanwhile joined an anti-Pegida rally at which participants urged tolerance towards migrants. Anti-Pegida marchers chanted slogans such as "no place for Nazis" and "we don't need xenophobia, demagoguery or Pegida". Pegida supporters countered that they were "European patriots against the Islamisation of the west." Story continues In Prague, an AFP journalist put the crowd at around 5,000 although police did not give an official estimate of the demo or its counter-rally. Police arrested four people. "Ban Islam in Czech Republic", "Shut the border", "Don't let Brussels destroy our society", read placards carried by the pro-Pegida demonstrators who were also draped in the Czech flag. A counter-rally was organised by the non-parliamentary Green party and several leftist groups. "Migrants are people like us which is why we have to help them, in a reasonable way," said president of the Greens Matej Stropnicky. "But we have to help them in their own countries," he said, adding that it would be impossible for vast numbers to be integrated in Europe. In Dublin, scuffles broke out between people who had gathered to protest against the launch of Pegida in Ireland, and those who attended the launch of the group. "We are standing together... to show that there is no place in Ireland today for racism and Islamaphobia -- there is no place for hate," counter demonstrator and MEP Lynn Boylan from the Sinn Fein party said. - 'People are afraid' - In Amsterdam, rival groups numbering a few hundred each waved banners with slogans such as "Refugees Welcome" and "Islamists not Welcome". "We are demonstrating because we are very worried about our country and Islam," said 51-year-old Yvette from Utrecht, who carried a white banner saying "Pegida is Love" in Dutch. The two sides were kept apart by dozens of mounted and riot police while a military helicopter hovered overhead. An AFP reporter witnessed at least a dozen arrests and mounted police charging the crowd to separate the rival groups. Anti-Pegida demonstrator Tommy Morelli, 32, told AFP: "I cannot believe that these guys (pro-Pegida supporters) can still think the way they do in this day and age. It's shameful." In Birmingham in central England, meanwhile, police said about 150 Pegida supporters and 60 counter-demonstrators turned out. Demonstrations also took place in Bratislava, Warsaw, the French city of Montpellier, Graz in southern Austria and Brno in eastern Czech Republic. Aden (AFP) - Al-Qaeda overran a police headquarters in a south Yemen provincial capital on Saturday, strengthening their grip on the coast road overlooking the Gulf of Aden, security sources said. The jihadists, who hold parts of the lawless south of the war-torn country, seized the headquarters in Zinjibar unopposed by pro-government forces who fled the capital of Abyan province, the sources told AFP. The militants have controlled other government buildings in Zinjibar for weeks and also have a large presence in the nearby town of Jaar. Earlier this week, they seized the town of Azzan in neighbouring Shabwa province. They have also seized the towns of Shoqra and Ahwar, giving them complete control of the coast road between their stronghold city of Mukalla in the southeast and Zinjibar. Zinjibar is only about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Yemen's key southern city Aden, the government's temporary home after the capital Sanaa fell to Shiite rebels in September 2014. The security sources also said that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has named Tawfiq Belaidi, brother of Jalal Belaidi who was killed in a suspected US drone strike on Thursday, as the "emir (ruler) of Zinjibar". The US State Department said Jalal Belaidi was a regional AQAP emir responsible for multiple provinces in Yemen. The United States had offered a $5-million reward for information on Belaidi over his alleged involvement in plotting bomb attacks on Western diplomatic officials and facilities in Sanaa in 2013. Born in Abyan, the slain AQAP commander served in the past as Al-Qaeda chief in Zinjibar, but he is said to have climbed the ranks of the jihadist group to became a top military commander. AQAP is seen by Washington as the extremist network's deadliest branch. The US has kept up strikes on jihadists during months of fighting between pro-government forces and the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who control large parts of Yemen. Loyalists backed by a Saudi-led coalition have recaptured Aden, Lahj, Abyan, Shabwa, and Daleh from the rebels since July. But the Saudi-led coalition has so far not targeted jihadists including AQAP and the Islamic State group, who have gained ground in the south, attacking government officials and clashing with loyalist forces. London (AFP) - Oscar-winning British actress Vanessa Redgrave and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood joined more than a thousand junior doctors protesting in London on Saturday against proposed new working conditions and pay rates. The veteran political campaigners spoke at the march, which rallied outside Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office. The demonstration comes ahead of a 24-hour walkout due to begin on Wednesday, when junior doctors across the country will only provide emergency care. It was the third time junior doctors have protested against the government's proposals, which it says aim to improve care over weekends. Talks between the Department of Health the British Medical Association doctors' trade union have reached an impasse over weekend pay rates. Westwood told the crowd: "Junior doctors are the future and you will win. You are fighting to protect the National Health Service. To protect it from government cuts. "We need more doctors not less doctors. Doctors who get enough sleep so they can give their best care to patients." Emma Gordon, a junior urologist of five years at the West Suffolk Hospital in eastern England, told AFP: "Compared against other healthcare systems around the world, we consistently do more with less, and fewer doctors than almost any other country in the world, and still provide the single best healthcare available. "What we need is greater funding, greater infrastructure, more nurses, more support staff. We need more, not less." Julia Prague, who works in general medicine at a London hospital, said: "It's not fair for doctors, because it wants us to work up until one in two weekends. "We want to spend time with our families, see our friends and rest. It's exhausting being a doctor, both mentally and physically. So we need to have time to kind of readjust. And being in the hospital all the time is not good." Craig Leaper, a junior doctor for six years in general medicine and clinical pharmacology at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, told AFP: "Because we work on a limited budget, we can't provide all of our services seven days a week. We don't have the staff, we don't have the money, we don't have the resources. "If you want it fully seven days a week, we need the stuff, we need the money, we need the resources. We can't miraculously change five days into seven." Manchester (United States) (AFP) - Surging Republican hopeful Marco Rubio wilted under sustained attack in the latest US presidential debate, denting his stature going into Tuesday's New Hampshire primary dominated by frontrunner Donald Trump. The telegenic, 44-year-old Florida senator -- who polls suggest has the best change of winning the White House for the Republicans -- was savaged by his rivals late Saturday for his lack of experience, floundering on a debate stage where he often shines. A strong showing in New Hampshire would confirm Rubio as the establishment candidate-of-choice for the nomination after his strong third-place finish in Iowa, behind Trump and evangelical US senator Ted Cruz. Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and John Kasich, meanwhile, need to wrest some of the momentum away from Rubio if they are to keep their presidential dreams alive as the voting schedule shifts south and west. The most sustained attack was waged by New Jersey governor Christie, a no-nonsense former federal prosecutor who has campaigned hard in New Hampshire and denigrated Rubio for being controlled by his team. "Marco, the thing is this. When you're president of the United States... the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn't solve one problem," Christie said. The senator was mocked for repeating the same rehearsed line over and over again -- doing exactly what Christie criticized him for. "Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing," Rubio said on a loop. "There it is: The memorized 25-second speech," Christie interjected. - 'Leadership' - The usually-poised Rubio was booed for accusing the governor of dragging his feet in leaving the campaign trail when his state was hit by a deadly East Coast snowstorm last month. "They had to shame you into going back. You stayed there for 36 hours and then he left and came back," Rubio said. Story continues Meanwhile former Florida governor Bush -- whose dream of following his father and brother into the White House will likely live or die after Tuesday's primary -- stepped up his game, questioning Rubio's experience and butting heads with Trump. "Leadership. You learn this, you learn it by doing it," he declared "It's not something that you just go up, and on the job do it." In New Hampshire, Trump commands 35 percent of support among likely Republican voters, a 21-point lead over closest rival Rubio, according to the latest 7News/University of Massachusetts Lowell poll. Texas Senator Cruz, who won the Iowa caucus but is expected to do less well in New Hampshire, had 13 percent voter support. With nine percent undecided, there is everything to play for. Even if Trump wins, the party establishment, appalled by his insults, incendiary rhetoric and lack of political experience, is expected to rally behind his potential runner-up. Bush, whose mother has fondly chastised him for being too polite, laid into Trump for allegedly trying to take the property of an elderly woman in Atlantic City. "That is downright wrong," said Bush. "Jeb wants to be a tough guy tonight," shot back Trump, whose message of being a winner will take a significant knock if he finishes anything other than first after coming second in Iowa. "Let me talk. Quiet," added Trump to boos. Kasich, a Republican governor from the swing state of Ohio, who is on the lookout to tap New Hampshire's independent voters, also made a spirited pitch. "If I get elected president, head out tomorrow and buy a seat belt, because there's going to be so much happening in the first 100 days, it's going to make your head spin," he told the audience. The debate got off to a chaotic start when retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, flagging in the polls, was filmed waiting in the wings as the announcers called him to the stage in vain. "The acoustics back stage were horrible and there was too much noise out front so you just couldn't hear," he told AFP. "I kept listening for my name, I didn't hear it." - Trump claims debate victory - Trump, who boycotted the previous debate, told reporters backstage that he had won the debate, even if a Quinnipiac University poll says 30 percent of the party would not support him. "I actually think I have the best temperament," he said on stage, when asked about criticism from Cruz that is too hot-headed. The real estate tycoon has whipped up a passionate following among white blue collar Americans fed-up with career politicians and increasingly frustrated by struggling to make ends meet. "We have galvanized and created a movement," he added when asked how he would counter Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton's quest to make history by becoming the first woman president of the United States. By Melissa Fares (Reuters) - Stumping for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Tinder is getting some women banned from the online dating app after sending campaign messages to prospective matches. Two women - one from Iowa and the other from New Jersey - confirmed to Reuters on Friday that they received notices from Tinder in the previous 24 hours that their accounts were locked because they had been reported too many times for peppering men on the site with messages promoting Sanders' candidacy. Robyn Gedrich, 23, said she sent messages to 60 people a day for the past two weeks trying to convince them to support the U.S. senator from Vermont in his race for the Democratic nomination against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Do you feel the bern?" her message to other Tinder users read, parroting a Sanders campaign slogan. "Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks." Gedrich, an assistant store manager at retailer Elie Tahari who lives in Brick, New Jersey, said a text would prompt people to start receiving updates from the Sanders campaign, as well as a link where they could sign up and volunteer. She has been unable to sign back into Tinder since logging off on Thursday. Haley Lent, 22, a photographer from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, told Reuters in a Twitter message that she also got locked out of the app on Thursday night after sending messages trying to convince people to vote for Sanders the previous night. Lent, who is married, said she talked to 50 to 100 people on the app. She had even bought a Tinder premium membership, which allows users to change their location, for a month so that she could reach people in New Hampshire and promote Sanders. "I would ask them if they were going to vote in their upcoming primaries," she said. "If they said no or were on the fence, I would try to talk to them and persuade them to vote." A spokeswoman for Tinder, which is part of Match Group Inc, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp , did not respond immediately to a request for comment. SWIPE RIGHT FOR BERNIE? The two women are not the only ones making unusual use of Tinder, better known as a "hook-up" app, as a campaign tool. A Facebook group "Bernie Sanders Dank Tinder Convos" has 782 members. On Yahoo's Tumblr microblogging site, a thread titled "Tinder Campaigning, The adventures of a perpetual right-swiper in the efforts of electing Bernie Sanders" has dozens of conversations referencing Sanders pulled from Tinder. "Swiping right" is a colloquial reference to approving of a potential match on Tinder. Gedrich said she got mixed responses from the 300 Tinder users who replied. "Some people would ask what is this for, and I would kind of explain," she said. "Some of them would unmatch me or report me as a bot." A bot (or robot) account is a scam profile used to send spam messages. Some responses simply read, "Trump2016," expressing support for Republican candidate Donald Trump, the real estate tycoon. "It was really alarming to see that a lot of people don't know what's going on in the world," she said. None of her matches resulted in an actual date, she said. (This version of the story was refiled to correct typographical error in paragraph 11) (Editing by Anjali Athavaley, Dan Burns and Dan Grebler) Seoul (AFP) - Fuel trucks were spotted at North Korea's main satellite centre, according to a US think tank, however the group says it is unlikely Pyongyang has begun fuelling the rocket it plans to launch in the coming weeks. The satellite images of the North's Sohae complex on Wednesday and Thursday showed the trucks at fuel and oxidizer bunkers, the US-Korea Institute said on its closely watched website, 38 North. "Contrary to recent reports, the presence of these tankers more likely indicates the filling of fuel/oxidizer tanks within the bunkers than the fuelling of the space launch vehicle", the group said on Friday. "In the past, such activity has occurred 1-2 weeks prior to a launch event and would be consistent with North Korea's announced launch window of February 8 through 24," it added. Pyongyang has announced it will launch a satellite-bearing rocket sometime between February 8-25, which is around the time of the birthday on February 16 of late leader Kim Jong-Il, father of current supremo Kim Jong-Un. Citing an unidentified US Defence Department official, Japan's Asahi Shimbun said Friday that US satellite data suggested North Korea may have already begun fuelling the rocket in the face of wide-spread international condemnation. The North insists its space programme is purely scientific in nature, but the United States and allies, including South Korea, say its rocket launches are aimed at developing an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of striking the US mainland. UN sanctions prohibit North Korea from any launch using ballistic missile technology. The imminent launch would constitute another major violation of UN Security Council resolutions following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test last month. Tehran (AFP) - Saudi Arabia wouldn't dare send ground troops to war-torn Syria, the chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said Saturday, after Riyadh opened up the possibility of such a deployment. The Sunni-ruled kingdom, Iran's regional rival, has said it could "contribute positively" if the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria decided on ground action. But Major General Ali Jafari, commander of the Guards, said such a move would amount to suicide for Saudi Arabia. "I don't think they would dare do that... If they do, they will inflict a coup de grace on themselves," he said, according to Fars news agency, a media outlet close to the Guards. "They thought that through support and financial aid they could make gains in Syria but the recent victories by the resistance front have disrupted all of their calculations," Jafari said. Iran, the strongest regional ally of President Bashar al-Assad, openly provides financial and military support to the Damascus government but denies having troops on the ground in Syria. Tehran provides military advisers to Assad's army, as well as organising Iranian, Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani "volunteers" to fight rebels in Syria. Jafari was speaking in Tehran at a funeral ceremony of Brigadier General Mohsen Ghajarian and five other Guards members killed Wednesday in Aleppo province of northern Syria. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Expediency Council and a former chief of the Guards, also poured scorn on Saudi Arabia's possible presence on the ground in Syria. "In such a situation, the clash of Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria together, and then the entrance of America... eventually a large regional war is possible," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. If the Saudi government, known for "madly taking action", embarked on such a move the entire region other than Iran but "including Saudi Arabia, will be consumed by fire". Iran, the Middle East's main Shiite power, and Saudi Arabia have long been at odds over the conflict in Syria. The Gulf kingdom severed all ties with Iran last month after demonstrators stormed its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second city, following Riyadh's execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric and activist. BELGRADE (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Serbia voted on Friday to dismiss the defense minister over a remark he made to a female journalist that critics of the government said illustrated its lack of respect for the media. Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic was caught on camera in December remarking to a female journalist who had crouched to avoid getting in the way of cameras: "I love these journalists who kneel so easily." Journalists and politicians condemned the comment and Gasic's friend and party ally, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, said he would be dismissed. "I am asking you to support a decision (to dismiss Gasic) because of courtesy, moral decency and respect we all need to show for others," Vucic told lawmakers on Friday. In the 250-seat parliament 195 deputies voted in favor, a move unlikely to have any impact on the ruling coalition with an early parliamentary election likely to take place in late April or early May. Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic was given the defense ministry too until a new government is formed after the election. Vucic, who as information minister in the late 1990s presided over legislation designed to muzzle dissent against late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, has been accused of stifling media freedoms since becoming prime minister almost two years ago. He has denied the accusations, having shaken off his ultranationalist past and rebranded himself as a pro-Western reformer. (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Matt Robinson/Ruth Pitchford) There's a new conspiracy theory out there, but instead of invoking big government or aliens, it questions whether there's a laptop carved into an ancient Greek statue. That's right there's a theory out there saying that a funerary statue of a woman, dated to about 100 B.C., shows her looking at a modern laptop or a handheld digital device. The theory, proposed by the anonymous YouTube user StillSpeakingOut, ventures that the ancient Oracle of Delphi may have foreseen the invention of laptops, and told people about it. "Just so we are clear, I'm not saying that this relief was depicting an ancient laptop computer," StillSpeakingOut said in the 100-second-long video. [Supernatural Powers? Tales of 10 Historical Predictions] But "Greek tales about the Oracle of Delphi, which was supposed to allow the priests to quote-unquote connect with the gods and retrieve advanced information of various aspects," made him wonder whether the statue represented a prediction, StillSpeakingOut said. In fact, the object depicted on the statue does look something like a laptop, said Jeffrey Spier, the senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California, which owns the statue. But, of course, it's not, Spier said. Instead, the object may be a jewelry box, a shallow chest or possibly a hinged mirror, as "we have hinged mirrors from this time period," Spier said. Perhaps it's a box containing incense, although there's no incense burner in the scene, so that may be a stretch, he added. Another historian debunked StillSpeakingOut's idea that the so-called laptop has USB ports in its side. "The 'USB ports' are drill holes for the attachment of a bronze object, or perhaps a separate piece of marble," said Jeff Hurwit, a professor of art history and classics at the University of Oregon. Grave artwork The statue, officially called "Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant," depicts a well-dressed woman lounging on a cushioned armchair and reaching out "to touch the lid of a shallow chest held by a servant girl," according to the J. Paul Getty Museum. Story continues Funerary reliefs, fashioned out of marble like this one, were common in ancient Greece, going in and out of style over the years, Spier told Live Science. Such reliefs start occurring in the archaeological record in the sixth century B.C. and continue until about the first century B.C. These funerary statues would have sat above graves of the deceased, and are called naiskos, which are small temples dedicated to the deceased, Spier said. This one would have likely had a triangular top, and probably had the departed woman's name painted on top, he said. "We have a number [of naiskos] in the museum," Spier said. "They show young girls with their toys or with pets. They are very nostalgic and sympathetic." However, guests won't see the "enthroned woman" naiskos anytime soon at the Getty. The museum lent the statue to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where it will go on display April 18 for an exhibit called, "Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World." Guests visiting the Met can decide for themselves whether they think the statue shows a laptop, but the experts have already made up their minds. "Seriously?" Hurwit said. "The 'laptop' is in fact a shallow box or lidded tray from which the woman is about to select a piece of jewelry, as is commonly shown in grave reliefs like this one." However, this isn't the only conspiracy about modern technology showing up in yesteryear. In 2010, a similar flurry arose concerning a woman in a 1928 Charlie Chaplin film holding an object that looked like a cellphone. But that mystery object was likely an ear trumpet, used to help the woman hear, experts said. Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. (AFP file photo of a Maersk container. A Singapore-registered vessel managed by Maersk Line was hijacked while on its way to Nigeria, and was later released) Nigerian authorities have secured the release of a Singapore-registered container vessel that was hijacked off the Nigerian Coast. All crew members are reported to be safe. According to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Saturday (6 February, it received a report at approximately 2006 hrs on Friday (5 Feb) that the SAFMARINE KURAMO (24488 GT) had been hijacked. At the time of the incident, the vessel was on its way from Pointe Noire, Congo to Port Onne, Nigeria with 25 crew. They comprised nationals from the Philippines, South Africa, India, United Kingdom, and Thailand. There were no Singaporeans on board. At 0120 hrs (Singapore time), it was reported that Nigerian authorities had secured the release of all the crew and the vessel. The vessel is managed by Maersk Line A/S. It is currently anchored in the waters off the Bonny River delta, where the waterway leads to Port Onne. MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A blast that punched a hole in the fuselage of a plane this week was caused by a bomb meant to kill everyone on board, Somalia's minister for transport and aviation said on Saturday. One passenger died and two were injured in the explosion on the Airbus A321, operated by Somali company Daallo Airlines. It was forced to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu airport on Tuesday. United States investigators believe the attack was carried out by Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab, but there has been no comment from the organization. "We have confirmed that it was a bomb that exploded in the Daallo Airlines flight. It was meant to kill all aboard," the minister, Ali Ahmed Jamac, told a news conference. He said authorities were pursuing suspects, without going into further detail. (Reporting by Abdirahman Hussein; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Andrew Heavens) MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab militants took control of the southern port town of Marka on Friday hours after African Union troops and the Somalia National Army left, the rebels and witnesses said. "We now control Marka police station and the entire town. AMISOM left the town early this morning," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters on Friday. Residents said the militant Islamist group raised its flags inside the town, which is situated 100 kilometers (60 miles)southwest of Mogadishu, and started to preach to residents using loudspeakers. Local police officer Hussein Elmi said they had moved out of the town to the outskirts without giving a reason for the move. Kenyan troops, part of an African Union (AU) force in Somalia (AMISOM), took heavy losses when al Shabaab launched a dawn raid on their camp near the Kenyan border on Jan. 15, prompting the Kenyan and Somali forces to abandon some positions. (Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Writing by Duncan Miriri; editing by Katharine Houreld) By Emily Stephenson and Doina Chiacu MANCHESTER, N.H./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jeb Bush brought out his famous family four days before the crucial U.S. presidential primary in New Hampshire, tapping his mother on Friday to scold Republican front-runner Donald Trump over his use of profanity and treatment of women. In a last ditch attempt to make a mark on a Republican primary campaign he was supposed to own, Bush lashed out at both Trump and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, the one-time protege who has eclipsed Bush as the party's establishment candidate in the 2016 White House race. New opinion polls following Monday's Iowa caucuses showed Trump maintaining a wide lead in New Hampshire's primary next Tuesday with Rubio rising into second place in the state as Republicans battle for the nomination in November's presidential election. Bush, the former governor of Florida, leaned on his well-known family for support. While former President George W. Bush appeared in a new ad praising his brother as having "a good heart and a strong backbone," Jeb Bush sat with his mother for an interview with CBS show "This Morning." The two attacked Trump as misogynistic and vulgar after he used a four-letter word in a recent campaign appearance. "I don't think a president would have ever shouted profanities in a speech in front of thousands of people with kids in the crowd," Jeb Bush said. "He does it all the time." His mother lambasted Trump for criticizing Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly after she quizzed him at a Republican debate in August. Trump made comments widely interpreted as referring to her menstrual cycle. "I don't know how women can vote for someone who said what he said about Megyn Kelly," Mrs. Bush said. "It's terrible. And we knew what he meant, too." Much loved by today's Republicans, the former first lady herself raised eyebrows in 1984 when she reportedly made a derogatory reference to Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman on a major party ticket, saying, "I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich." "ALMOST TOO POLITE" Trump has dismissed Jeb Bush as a "low-energy" loser. The son and brother of U.S. presidents who was expected to glide to the Republican nomination, Bush trails in the single digits in many national polls. Mrs. Bush, who was campaigning for her younger son in New Hampshire, said "America needs" Jeb and drew an implicit contrast to the brash swagger of Trump. "He's got the same values that America seems to have lost. He's almost too polite." While rivals took aim at him, Trump was forced to miss a rally on Friday in Londonderry, New Hampshire because of a snow storm and was stuck in New York, a spokesman said. Trump has eschewed much of the one-on-one retail politicking of typical campaigns in favour of large rallies. But in New Hampshire, where voters are used to having candidates' close attention, the strategy could hurt. Jeb Bush seized the opportunity to make fun of Trump on Twitter, pointing out that even his mother was able make it out despite the weather. "My 90 year old mother made it out to campaign, he wrote in response to Trump's tweet that he was moving a campaign event to Monday due to a "big storm." The Bushes chatted with people at a diner in Derry, New Hampshire, according to a pool report sent to news outlets. "Vote for my boy," Barbara Bush told one table. "I haven't seen snow in 1,000 years," she said. The snow did not stop Ohio Governor John Kasich either. His campaign sent reporters a video of the candidate in a snowball fight after a town hall. Jeb Bush also stepped up attacks on Rubio as lacking in experience and accomplishments, saying on MSNBC the first-term Florida lawmaker had done "nothing" in the U.S. Senate. He was not the only one piling on Rubio. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie released satirical videos slamming the Floridian as "scripted" for repeating himself in interviews and speeches. And the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper's publisher criticized Rubio in an editorial for presenting himself as a Washington outsider, saying Rubio "must think New Hampshire a bunch of rubes." On the positive side for Rubio, he picked up the endorsement of former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who dropped out of the Republican race in November. "I think he's a principled conservative. I think he's the right guy to lead us forward," Jindal said on Fox News. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released on Friday found that about one-third of likely Republican voters said they could still change their minds. The poll showed Rubio with 19 percent, behind Trump's 29 percent. Kasich came in third with 13 percent, followed by Bush and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. For the Democrats, opinion polls show U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont with a double-digit lead in New Hampshire over rival Hillary Clinton. Clinton went on the attack against Sanders on Thursday in their most contentious debate yet. (Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in New Hampshire, Amy Tennery in New York, Mohammad Zargham and Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott, Alistair Bell and Bernard Orr; For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, Tales from the Trail; http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/) By Zandi Shabalala and David Brough JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) - Sub-Saharan African sugar producers will shift sales to growing regional and domestic markets when exports to the European Union become less attractive after production quotas are dismantled in 2017, industry sources and analysts said on Friday. EU sugar production is forecast to expand when quotas are lifted after Sept. 30, 2017, diminishing import needs. Gavin Dalgleish, managing director of Africa's biggest producer Illovo Sugar, part of Associated British Foods, said that while the reform process had reduced the attractiveness of the EU market, it will have limited impact on the companys growth strategy due to expectations of rising regional consumption. "The groups ability to maximise capacity, and our strong sugar brands, enable access to the high-value preferential markets in the East African region on preferential terms established through various regional free trade arrangements," he said. "We are also well placed to grow both our downstream production capacity of furfural (and its derivatives), ethyl alcohol and co-generated electricity and to further diversify into other higher-margin downstream products." Rabobank estimates sugar production in sub-Saharan Africa in 2014 at 7.5 million tonnes, noting an average of 18 percent of output had been exported to the EU in recent years. The key exporters to the EU include Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mauritius. "With a growing population and continuing urbanisation, Sub-Saharan Africa is set to see a significant rise in sugar consumption in the coming years," Rabobank said in a report. "Any decline in future import demand from the EU may not, therefore, necessarily be bad news, although the preferential access terms and generally higher prices in the EU market have made it an attractive destination for sales." (Reporting by Zandi Shabalala and David Brough; editing by Katharine Houreld) Riyadh (AFP) - With rebel forces facing the prospect of a crushing defeat by Syria's Russian-backed regime, their allies Saudi Arabia and Turkey may send in limited numbers of ground troops, analysts say. Riyadh has left open the possibility of deploying soldiers, saying it would "contribute positively" if the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria decides on ground action. The fate of Saudi-backed Syrian armed opposition groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad is also a major concern for Riyadh. "I think Saudi Arabia is desperate to do something in Syria," said Andreas Krieg of the Department of Defence Studies at King's College London. Krieg said the "moderate" opposition is in danger of being routed if Aleppo falls to the regime, whose forces have closed in on Syria's second city, backed by intense Russian air strikes. "This is a problem for Saudi and Qatar as they have massively invested into Syria via the moderate opposition as their surrogate on the ground," said Krieg, who is also a consultant to Qatar's armed forces. Russia, which along with Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran is a major Assad ally, has meanwhile accused Turkey of "preparations for an armed invasion" of Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the claims "laughable". On Saturday, Damascus issued a grim warning to both Riyadh and Ankara against any military intervention on the ground. "Let no one think they can attack Syria or violate its sovereignty because I assure you any aggressor will return to their country in a wooden coffin, whether they be Saudis or Turks," Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said. - Iran warning - The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard mockingly said Saudi Arabia wouldn't dare send ground troops, and that any such intervention would be suicidal. "I don't think they would dare do that... If they do, they will inflict a coup de grace on themselves," Major General Ali Jafari said. Story continues Aleppo province is among the main strongholds of Syria's armed opposition, which is facing possibly its worst moment since the beginning of the nearly five-year war, at a time when peace efforts have stalled. The Saudi-backed opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, says it will not return to peace talks which recently collapsed in Geneva unless its humanitarian demands are met. "The Saudis believe that the chance of a peaceful solution for the Syrian crisis is very limited," said Mustafa Alani of the independent Gulf Research Centre. "They don't see that there is a real pressure on the regime to give major concessions... They think eventually it will have to end in the battlefield. "Turkey is enthusiastic about this option (of ground troops) since the Russians started their air operation and tried to push Turkey outside the equation," Alani added. He said the Saudis are serious about committing troops "as part of a coalition, especially if the Turkish forces are going to be involved". But he and other analysts said Saudi involvement would be limited, given its leadership of a separate Arab coalition fighting in Yemen for almost a year and guarding the kingdom's southern border from attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels. - Saudis 'overstretched' - "They are overstretched. But in principle I think they will not hesitate to send a certain number of their fighters to fight in Syria," Alani said, adding that this would probably include Saudi special forces. Turkey and Saudi already belong to a US-led coalition which officially has 65 members. It has been bombing IS in Syria and Iraq, as well as training local forces to fight the extremists. Krieg said that with Saudi and other Gulf kingdoms "bogged down" in Yemen, he could only foresee a possible expansion of "train and equip" missions involving Gulf special forces to help rebels in Syria. "Saudi and Qatar have already networks on the ground," he said, viewing Doha as a link between Riyadh and Ankara as relations improve. On Friday, US Central Command spokesman Pat Ryder welcomed Saudi Arabia's willingness to send soldiers against IS. The United States has been calling on coalition members to do more. In November, the United Arab Emirates said it was also ready to commit ground troops against jihadists in Syria. Jane Kinninmont, senior research fellow at London's Chatham House, said Riyadh is more interested in the Yemen war than battling IS. "But what you might see is small numbers of ground troops and perhaps also special forces which would be there partly to make a symbolic point that Saudi Arabia is supporting the fight against ISIS," she said, using another acronym for IS. She declared herself "a bit sceptical" about potential Turkish army involvement in Syria, "but we might see them having some kind of interest in containing Kurdish influence". BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces have tightened a three-year siege on two rebel-held suburbs southwest of Damascus by capturing land between the two and choking off their supply route, state media, a monitoring group and a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. The suburbs of Daraya and Mouadamiya were linked by a strip of land that served as a supply route. Syrian and allied forces took control of this strip on Friday, having fought for it since December, the sources said. Daraya borders a military airport used by Russian planes - which have been conducting air strikes for President Bashar al-Assad since September - and the Syrian government is keen to wrest back control of the area. "The Islamist groups which control Daraya have been launching rockets into the military airport zone," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for rebel group Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, part of a rebel group alliance called the Southern Front, said he expected the government would try to attack each area separately now they were completely besieged. "The attempts (to storm Mouadamiya and Daraya) are continuous, they don't stop. It is a guerrilla war in Mouadamiya and Daraya," Shami said. "The regime advances by one or two points, we attack it in other places." The Red Cross said on Thursday it had delivered food for more than 12,000 people to besieged Mouadamiya, enough for only three weeks and that regular access was needed. Shami said there were around 6,000 people living in Daraya, and 45,000 in Mouadamiya, and he said the government was now trying to starve the population out. "They are under siege with no food, no water, no electricity, no medicine," he said. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) Qamishli (Syria) (AFP) - Syrian Kurdish separatists have announced plans to open "representation" offices in several capitals, starting next week with Damascus regime ally Moscow, an official told AFP on Saturday. "The autonomous Syrian Kurdish region will open an office in Moscow on February 10 and is preparing to open another in Berlin, with Washington, Paris and Arab countries coming later," said Amina Oussi, deputy head of the Hasakeh committee for external relations. "These representation offices aim to secure recognition for the autonomous Kurdish region" in Syria, she said. In November 2013, Kurdish groups in the northeast of the war-ravaged country announced the establishment of a transitional autonomous administration after making key territorial gains against jihadists. The administration is split into three regions: Hasakeh in the east, Kobane in the centre and Afrin in the west. Kurdish separatists are insisting on the creation of a federal system in Syria. Last year, they opened their first such representation office in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. Oussi said several foreign delegations have already visited Kurdish-controlled areas, among them Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama special envoy for the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. He visited Kobane in late January, accompanied by senior French and British officials. A US official said that McGurk's visit was to take stock of the campaign against IS. The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) was not invited to the Syria peace talks in Geneva which collapsed this week. Damascus ally Russia believed that no negotiations could yield results without it, but Turkey considered its presence unacceptable, given the Kurdish desire for independence. The PYD is a leader in the fight against IS in northern Syria but is considered by Ankara to be an offshoot of its arch-foe the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). By Eric M. Johnson (Reuters) - A 11-year-old Tennessee boy has been found guilty of fatally shooting an 8-year-old neighbor girl with a shotgun in a fight over puppies, and will spend the rest of his childhood in state custody, court documents showed on Saturday. Benjamin Tiller was found guilty early last week of first-degree murder in the October slaying of McKayla Dyer in a trailer park in White Pine, a small town about 42 miles (68 km) east of Knoxville, according to a court order from Tuesday. "Mr. Tiller is in desperate need of help, and our society has a great need for Mr. Tiller to receive it," Judge Dennis "Will" Roach wrote in ordering Tiller placed into the custody of the Department of Children's Services until he turns 19. The October incident stems from a chat Tiller was having with three girls who were outside the window of his mobile home in October, authorities and court documents said. Tiller asked one of them if he could see her new puppies, but Dyer, a third-grader who attended school with Tiller, refused, authorities said. Then the boy retrieved his father's 12-gauge shotgun, shot the girl in the chest from the window, and then threw the weapon outside by the girl's body, authorities said. An attorney for Tiller could not immediately be reached for comment, though local media reported that Tiller's family plans to appeal the decision. According to the court documents, posted online by local media, Tiller had been trained in firearm safety and had gone hunting with his grandfather and father. After being blocked from the puppies, Tiller returned with the shotgun and the victim laughed at him, doubting the firearms were real, the documents said. "Tiller then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the hammer of the gun, and shot the victim just above the heart," the documents said. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Nick Zieminski) Pakistani police will investigate five officials, including a former adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, for murder after two airline employees were shot dead during a protest against privatisation. The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) employees were killed and several more wounded at Karachi's international airport on Tuesday when clashes broke out between security forces and staff, though authorities denied opening fire. Police on Saturday registered a case against one federal cabinet minister, a senator, a former advisor to Sharif and two airline officials on the complaint of PIA employees' Joint Action Committee, accusing them of murder and torture, senior police official Rao Anwar told AFP. "An investigation team is being constituted to take further action," he added. The five are accused of plotting to kill the protesters, although not of opening fire themselves. The authorities claim the victims were shot by gunmen in the crowd. The strike continues despite Sharif's warning the demonstration was illegal and those taking part could face up to a year in prison under a law that restricts union activity in state-administered sectors. All of PIA's foreign and domestic flights remained grounded Saturday with thousands of passengers, including Pakistani domestic workers trying to fly to the Middle East, stranded at airports. In December, Islamabad announced it would complete the partial sale of the carrier by July, following years of crushing losses and mismanagement that have battered the airline's reputation. PIA suffers from frequent cancellations and delays and has been involved in numerous controversies over the years, including the jailing of a drunk pilot in Britain in 2013. By Emily Stephenson MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Donald Trump and Marco Rubio could be top targets for rivals' fire on Saturday when seven Republican White House hopefuls take the stage in New Hampshire for their eighth debate, just days before the state's high-stakes primary. Billionaire Trump held a wide lead in polls in New Hampshire, with U.S. Senator Rubio of Florida second in a rapid rise ahead of Tuesday's primary, part of the series of contests to pick the nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Trump and Rubio have taken flak from competitors as candidates launched an all-out offensive across New Hampshire. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush attacked Trump for using profane language and brought out his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, who accused Trump of misogyny over his criticisms of a Fox News anchor. Bush and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also went after Rubio. All three are vying for the favor of establishment Republicans in New Hampshire. Christie on Friday released videos mocking Rubio for appearing scripted on the campaign trail. And Bush, a former mentor to Rubio, unveiled an ad showing Rick Santorum, who left the race this week and endorsed Rubio, apparently struggling to name any of the senator's accomplishments. Rubio finished third in Iowa on Monday, behind U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Trump. On Friday, Rubio won the endorsement of another ex-candidate, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Trump, Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson also have engaged in a three-way stand-off since Cruz's surprise Iowa win. Trump called for the results to be nullified over reports that Cruz supporters told caucus-goers Carson was dropping out. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll on Friday found Trump leading with 29 percent, followed by Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich. Kasich told reporters on Saturday the debate wasn't a make-or-break moment in New Hampshire, according to audio shared by his campaign. "We're making a sprint to Tuesday. This is where the ground game takes over," Kasich said. "There's no Hail Marys coming out of me. Maybe there's some coming out of others." He shook hands and took photos at a Manchester restaurant, including with a pair who said they had family in Ohio. The governor held his 100th town hall meeting in the state on Friday. Not on stage will be businesswoman Carly Fiorina, who failed to meet host ABC's qualification requirements. Fiorina released an open letter excoriating the debate process as "broken." (Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish) Ras Jedir (Tunisia) (AFP) - Tunisia on Saturday completed the construction of a barrier along its border with Libya, months after attacks on its national museum and a beach resort that killed dozens of tourists. Defence Minister Farhat Horchani told reporters that the construction of berms and water-filled trenches marks "an important day" for Tunisia in its struggle against "terrorism". Two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group last year killed 59 foreign tourists, with Tunisian officials saying the assailants had trained in conflict-ridden Libya where IS is active. "Tunisia is capable of fighting against terrorism in an active and efficient way," Horchani said during a tour of the barrier. It stretches some 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Ras Jedir on the Mediterranean coast to Dhiba further southwest, across about half the length of the frontier between the two neighbours. Horchani said a second phase of the project will include installing electronic equipment with the help of Germany and the United States. He said the barrier, which Tunisia calls a "system of obstacles", has already "proven its efficiency". "On several occasions we have stopped and arrested people who were trying to smuggle weapons," he said. In March last year, 21 tourists and a policeman were killed in a gun attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, and in June an attack at a beach resort near Sousse killed 38 holidaymakers. IS also claimed a suicide bombing in Tunis in November that killed 12 presidential guards. At the time, the interior ministry said the explosive used in the attack was the same used to make suicide belts illegally brought from Libya and seized last year. After November's attack, Tunisia shut its border with Libya for a fortnight and in December it closed its main Tunis-Carthage international airport to Libyan aircraft as part of increased security measures. Official sources estimate that as many as 6,000 Tunisians have travelled to fight in Iraq, Syria and Libya, with many opting to join extremist militant groups including IS. By Tarek Amara SABKEHT ALYUN, Tunisia (Reuters) - Tunisia has completed a 200-km (125 mile) barrier along its frontier with Libya to try to keep out Islamist militants, and will soon install electronic monitoring systems, Defense Minister Farhat Hachani said on Saturday. Libya's chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 has allowed Islamic State to gain a foothold there, and officials say militants who carried out two major attacks in Tunisia last year had trained in jihadist camps in Libya. Troops have raised an earth wall and dug trenches 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Libyan border, and European and American military trainers will soon train Tunisian forces to improve electronic surveillance with cameras and radar, Hachani told reporters on a visit to the border. "Today we finished closing it off, and this will help us protect our border, and stop the threat," he said. Security forces said the defenses had already helped to reduce smuggling. Islamic State controls the Libyan city of Sirte and has attacked key oil installations as it expands beyond its heartland in Iraq and Syria. More than 3,000 Tunisians have left to fight for Islamic State and other Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq, but Hachani said many had now returned to North Africa to join the group in Libya. Since its own democratic revolution in 2011, Tunisia has been praised as a model of democratic transition, with free elections, a new constitution and a politics of compromise between secular and Islamist parties. But last year's two major attacks, on a museum in Tunis and a beach hotel in Sousse, dealt heavy blows to its tourist industry, a mainstay of the economy. (Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish police seized almost 50 unsafe boats destined for migrants wanting to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece, in the latest crackdown on businesses exploiting refugees in western Turkey, reports said Saturday. Police simultaneously raided three underground workshops in the port city of Izmir on Friday, seizing 49 boats that failed to meet safety standards, the official Anatolia news agency said. The boats were destroyed by the police, it said, adding that the workshops now faced closure. Turkey is home to at least 2.2 million refugees from Syria's civil war. It has become a hub for migrants seeking to move to Europe, many of whom pay smugglers thousands of dollars for the risky crossing to Greece. Ankara reached an agreement with the EU in November to stem the flow of refugees heading to Europe in return for financial assistance of three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in cash. After the deal, Turkey appears to have stepped up efforts, stopping boats, rounding up scores of suspected smugglers and seizing hundreds of sub-standard life jackets given to the refugees. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to visit Ankara on Monday to discuss implementation of the deal. Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey has tightened its visa rules for Iraqi citizens as a sign of its "determination to fight illegal immigration," the foreign ministry said Saturday. Under previous rules, Iraqi citizens were able to enter Turkey by obtaining sticker type visas at Turkish borders, valid for 30 days. Now Iraqi nationals will have to pre-apply for either an electronic or a paper visa to enter the country, the ministry said in a statement. "The said changes have been made in line with our country's determination to fight illegal immigration," it said. Those who hold a valid visa or residence permit issued by the US, UK, Ireland or a Schengen country will be able to travel to Turkey with only an electronic visa. But those who don't will now have to apply for a visa online and then obtain it from a Turkish diplomatic consular mission, the ministry said. "With the new regulation, sticker rules have been abolished," it added. Turkey, which is sheltering 2.7 million refugees from Syria's civil war, has become a hub for migrants seeking to move to Europe. The country is hosting another 300,000 Iraqi refugees. Ankara reached an agreement with the European Union in November to stem the flow of migrants bound for Europe in return for three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in financial assistance. But the agreement has so far failed to check the tide of arrivals. "Turkey needs to adopt the same visa policy as EU otherwise it won't be possible to decrease the flow of migrants," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Thursday in Greece. Beirut (AFP) - Thousands of Syrians braved the freezing cold at Turkey's border after fleeing a regime assault that threatens a new humanitarian disaster, as Damascus warned Riyadh and Ankara not to send in troops. The government said any uninvited foreign soldiers who enter Syria would go home "in a wooden coffin", following reports that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which support rebel forces, could deploy troops. Tens of thousands of people have fled fierce fighting as government forces backed by Russian air strikes advanced this week against rebels, severing the opposition's main supply route into the northern metropolis of Aleppo. Turkey's Oncupinar border crossing, which faces Bab al-Salama inside Syria, remained closed Saturday, an AFP correspondent said. The United Nations said some 20,000 people had gathered at Bab al-Salama but the governor of Turkey's Kilis border province, Suleyman Tapsiz, said at least 70,000 may head for the frontier. Tapsiz said the displaced were being accommodated in eight camps on the Syrian side and that Turkey -- already home to 2-2.5 million Syrians -- was also able to take care of 30-35,000 refugees inside Syria. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country would keep its "open border policy" for Syrian refugees. "We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression, from the regime as well as air strikes of Russia," he said. "We have received already 5,000 of them; another 50,000 to 55,000 are on their way and we cannot leave them there." According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 40,000 Syrian civilians have fled the regime offensive. - 435 killed - "Thousands have been sleeping in the open, in fields and on roads," on the border and in the nearby Syrian city of Azaz, said Mamun al-Khatib, director of the Aleppo-based pro-rebel Shahba Press news agency. "And because the main rebel supply route between Aleppo and Turkey has been cut, the price of oil, foodstuffs and baby milk has shot up in the north of Aleppo province," he added. Story continues The Observatory said 435 people have been killed since the regime offensive began on Monday, including 71 civilians, most of whom had died in Russian air strikes. Also killed were 124 regime forces, 90 jihadists from Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front and 150 other rebels, it said. Riyadh on Thursday said it would "contribute positively" if the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria decides on ground action. Russia, a key ally of the Damascus government, accused Turkey of "preparations for an armed invasion" of Syria, a claim that Ankara dismissed. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem issued a stiff warning against any such move. "Any ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorisation would amount to an aggression that must be resisted," he said. "Let no one think they can attack Syria or violate its sovereignty because I assure you any aggressor will return to their country in a wooden coffin, whether they be Saudis or Turks," he added. - Iran warning - The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards of Iran, another key Syrian regime ally, mockingly said Saudi Arabia would not dare send in ground forces. "I don't think they would dare do that... If they do, they will inflict a coup de grace on themselves," Major General Ali Jafari said. Turkey last faced such an influx in 2014 when 200,000 refugees fled the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane over three days as IS and Kurdish fighters battled for control of it. Trucks were seen on Friday carrying tent parts to the refugee camp near the border gate on the Turkish side, and at least four more were seen returning to Turkey after delivering food in Syria. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced. Also on Saturday, the mother of President Bashar al-Assad, Anissa Makhlouf al-Assad, died at the age of 86, state media reported. She was the widow of president Hafez al-Assad, who ruled the country with an iron fist, but she kept a low profile and was rarely mentioned in the media when her husband was in power or during the country's nearly five-year war. By Mehmet Emin Caliskan, Lisa Barrington and Humeyra Pamuk BAB AL SALAMA, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian and Syrian government forces on Saturday intensified an assault on rebel-held areas around the Syrian city of Aleppo that has prompted tens of thousands to flee to the Turkish border to seek refuge. The assault around Aleppo, which aid workers have said could soon fall to government forces, helped torpedo Syrian peace talks in Geneva this week. Russia's intervention has tipped the balance of the war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad, reversing gains the rebels made last year. Any hopes of a ceasefire were dampened by Assad's foreign minister, who said it would be all but impossible to stop the fighting while rebels were able to pass freely across the borders with Turkey and Jordan. Advances by the Syrian army and allied militias, including Iranian fighters, are threatening to cut off rebel-held zones of Aleppo, still home to around 350,000 people, while more than a million live in government-controlled areas. Further complicating the tangle of belligerents that has characterized the civil war, Syrian opposition officials accused the Kurdish YPG militia of coordinating attacks on rebels with Syrian and allied forces in the latest assault. Taking full control of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the civil war erupted five years ago, would be a huge strategic prize for Assad's government in a conflict that has killed at least 250,000 people across the country and driven 11 million from their homes. Mevlut Cavusoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, which has already taken in 2.5 million Syrians, said up to 55,000 were now fleeing to the frontier. CAMPS ON SYRIAN SIDE Cavusoglu said the border was open, but at the Oncupinar crossing near the Turkish city of Kilis, which has been largely shut for nearly a year, refugees were being shepherded into camps on the Syrian side. The local governor on the Turkish side of the border, Suleyman Tapsiz, said around 35,000 Syrians had reached Oncupinar in the space of 48 hours. "Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders," he said. A Turkish aid official said the refugees on the Syrian side were safe and being given food. One camp was teeming with women and small children, some of whom carried bottles of water or played in the mud. Some of the tents were ripped and dirty while others, provided by a Turkish aid organization, appeared new. One refugee, Muhammed Idris, said he had fled from the nearby Syrian town of Azaz, counting on the open-door policy touted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. After four days, he was still waiting to get in. "Before, Tayyip Erdogan was saying on TV that Syria and Turkey are brothers, but now he is not opening the doors," he told Reuters. "Our houses are destroyed and we came to his house. Where else should we go?" A Reuters reporter at Oncupinar could hear occasional shelling and saw several Turkish ambulances cross the border. On the Turkish side, dozens of refugees who had already made it in queued up to beg the authorities to allow their relatives in, or to cross the border in the hope of bringing them back. "THOUSANDS WAITING" Sitting in his car with his four children just inside Turkey, Ahmet Sadul, 43, was hoping to get back into Syria to look for relatives from Azaz. "Now there are thousands of people from Azaz all waiting on the other side. They escaped from the Russians. I want to go and get my relatives. They are bombing Syrians all the time." Russia denies targeting civilians and says its actions are aimed at shoring up Syria's legitimate government and combating terrorism. The West and Turkey, which want Assad to step down, accuse Moscow of using indiscriminate force. The United States has been a major backer of the Syrian Kurdish YPG in the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria. But now the opposition said it was being targeted by the Kurds. "What is going on (north of Aleppo) is the regime advances with Russian air cover and support by Kurdish forces. They are trying to impose a new reality," said a rebel commander. The Syrian Kurds have consistently denied opposition claims that they cooperate with Damascus. What is clear is that Syria has been emboldened by Russia's intervention. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told a news conference on Saturday that Damascus would resist anyone who launched a ground incursion into its territory. "Those (who do so) will return to their countries in coffins," he said, adding that no ceasefire would be possible unless borders were sealed. The comments appeared to be aimed at Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which said this week they were ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria that the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq decided to mount. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collates witness reports, said fighting continued in areas north of Aleppo, and that government and allied forces were also attacking villages to the east of the city and to the southwest, around the main highway to Damascus. (Additional reporting by Tom Perry in BEIRUT and Robin Emmott and Tom Koerkemeier in AMSTERDAM; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Toby Chopra) Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) (AFP) - Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has sacked his administration chief, complaining of corruption and mismanagement, state television said Saturday, as economic troubles begin to mount in the isolated Central Asian state. Berdymukhamedov indicated "a weakening of discipline in the trade sector, the identification of cases of bribery among managers... a lack of attention to training and non-compliance with instructions provided" as justifications for sacking Palvan Taganov, 37, state media said. He had served in the post for more than two years. A former mayor of the capital Ashgabat, Shamukhammet Durdylyev, 53, will replace him as administration head. The head of the presidential administration serves as the deputy chairman of the cabinet of ministers, which is chaired by the president. The position of head of presidential administration is the third most senior in the isolated state after the president and speaker of parliament, although there are few checks on Berdymukhamedov's all-pervading powers in practice. Last month Turkmenistan further tightened restrictions on the exchange of foreign currencies as pressure grows on the ex-Soviet republic's manat currency roiled by low hydrocarbon prices. Berdymukhamedov took charge of the country with the world's fourth largest gas reserves in 2006, after the death of his eccentric predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov. Niyazov, who styled himself "Father of the Turkmen," was famous for haranguing his ministers in televised government meetings widely likened to soap operas. Both the current and former presidents are honoured with golden statues in Ashgabat, a city with the world's highest density of buildings made from white marble, according to Guinness World Records. By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken this week of North Korea's Sohae rocket launch site show apparent fueling activity seen in the past shortly before a rocket launch, a U.S. think-tank said, as U.S government officials signaled that a launch could occur as early as Monday. North Korea has told U.N. agencies it will launch a rocket carrying what it called an earth observation satellite some time between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25, triggering international opposition from governments that see it as a long-range missile test. On Friday, U.S. government sources said U.S. intelligence agencies believed North Korea could be ready by the U.S. Super Bowl kickoff on Sunday, which will be Monday in Korea. Activity at the site was consistent with a launch in the time frame given by Pyongyang, U.S. officials said. U.S. Pacific Command said it was closely monitoring the situation and had many missile defense assets in the region that would provide "a robust defense." "No one should doubt that U.S. Pacific Command forces are prepared to protect the American homeland and defend our allies in South Korea and Japan," said Pacific Command spokesman U.S. Air Force Captain Cody Chiles. Commercial satellite images from Wednesday and Thursday show the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad, said Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea-monitoring project. It said the presence of the trucks likely indicated the filling of tanks within bunkers at the site rather than a rocket itself. "In the past, such activity has occurred one to two weeks prior to a launch event and would be consistent with North Koreas announced launch window," the group said. On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with President Xi Jinping of China, North Korea's main ally and neighbor, and agreed that a North Korean launch would represent a "provocative and destabilizing action," the White House said. Obama and Xi also said they would coordinate efforts to respond to North Korea's nuclear test last month and said they would not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. "The leaders emphasized the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through an impactful UN Security Council Resolution," the White House said. Washington and Beijing have appeared divided over how to respond to North Korea, with the United States urging tougher sanctions and China stressing the need for dialogue. Earlier on Friday, Xi told South Korea's president that China was dedicated to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. The 38 North report said activity could also be seen around a building at the launch site used in the past to receive and assemble rocket stages. It said the imagery showed vehicles including one or two buses and a crane, a level of activity similar to that seen before the previous launch in 2012. The group said the images indicated no significant changes at the launch pad itself, where work platforms on the gantry towers remained folded forward. It said coverings obscured whether a space-launch vehicle was present on the pad. North Korea says it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program. But it is barred under U.N. Security Council resolutions from using ballistic missile technology. Coming so soon after North Korea's fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, a rocket launch would raise concern that it plans to fit nuclear warheads on its missiles, giving it the capability to strike South Korea, Japan and possibly the U.S. West Coast. U.S. Pacific Command said it had Aegis ballistic missile defense systems, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries and the Sea-Based X-Band Radar in the region, which would work with Japanese and South Korean militaries to detect the launch. The USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived on Friday in Otaru, Japan, one of five U.S. destroyers equipped with Aegis ballistic missile defense systems that are girding for the potential launch, according to several sources. The ships are spread out around the region to protect installations in Japan, Guam and South Korea, and to track the first and second stages rocket boosters as they fall to earth after the launch. (This story corrects fifth paragraph to show spokesman in Air Force, not Navy) (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Ayesha Rascoe and Mark Hosenball in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by David Alexander and James Dalgleish) By Yasin Kakande KAMPALA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ugandan women's rights groups are setting up a control centre to monitor any violence against women in the East African nation's elections this month and to act quickly on any reports. The move comes after the United States voiced concern that the electoral environment in Uganda was deteriorating in the run-up to the Feb. 18 elections. Violence during an election cycle is common in many African countries where it may be triggered by political or ethnic tensions, or flawed electoral processes, with women and children the most likely to be affected. Jessica Nkuuhe, the National Coordinator of the Uganda Women's Situation Room, said the control centre will be launched on Feb. 15 at a hotel in Kampala and run until Feb. 20. Nkuuhe said there had not been reports of electoral violence targeting women in Uganda before but women did face more types of psychological violence, whether they are voters or candidates, and efforts to prevent them from voting. "Incidences of domestic violence resulting from differences in the choice of party or candidates have also been reported," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. President Yoweri Museveni has governed Uganda for three decades since coming to power after waging a five-year guerrilla war. He is heavily favoured to win another five-year term but the election is expected to be his toughest yet. The U.S. State Department last month said there had been numerous reports of police using "excessive force, obstruction and dispersal of opposition rallies, and intimidation and arrest of journalists", adding to "an electoral climate of fear and intimidation". Patricia Munaabi Babiiha, the executive director of Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), said the control room would employ women and youth and also involve police representatives and officials from the Electoral Commission. She said 450 women and youth observers have been trained and deployed in 15 districts considered as hotspots to observe and report on the elections from a gender and violence perspective. Also 10 youth volunteers have been trained to work as call operators to receive and record incidents from the field for processing and intervention when necessary. "We shall have lawyers, communication specialists, data analysts, who will be able to decipher the information and call the necessary officials to go and resolve the issues wherever the incidents are reported," she said. The Women's Situation Room is a concept that was first implemented under the Angie Brooks International Centre (ABIC) during elections in Liberia in 2011. It started amid growing awareness that violence had become a norm of African elections and women needed to find ways to counter this. The Women's Situation Room has been successfully replicated during elections in Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Kenya. (Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; 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.news.trust.org) London (AFP) - Britain's opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Saturday that staying in the European Union was in the country's best interests. The left-wing veteran, who has displayed a eurosceptic streak throughout his political life, said his party would make the case for a "social Europe" during the referendum campaign. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron wants to finalise a renegotiation of Britain's terms of membership at an EU summit on February 18 and 19. He has committed to stage an in-or-out referendum on the outcome of his attempt, by the end of 2017. Newspapers expect the referendum could come as soon as late June. Corbyn said Labour wanted Britain to stay in the 28-country bloc. "Our party is committed to keeping Britain in the EU because we believe it is the best framework for European trade and cooperation and in the best interests of the people of Britain," he told activists in Nottingham, central England. "But we also want to see progressive reform in Europe: democratisation, stronger workers' rights, sustainable growth and jobs at the heart of the economic policy and an end to the pressure to privatise and deregulate public services. "And we will be pressing the case for a real social Europe during the coming referendum campaign." He said Labour would be standing up for "public ownership" during the campaign and resisting "potential threats" to public services posed by a trans-Atlantic free trade pact being negotiated between the EU and the United States. The Leave.EU campaign group claimed Corbyn was a "lifelong opponent" of the EU but had been "gagged" by moderate, centrist figures within his party. "Jeremy Corbyn voted to leave the EEC (European Economic Community) in 1975 and against the Maastricht Treaty which transformed it into the EU, saying it took powers to set economic policy away from parliament and handed them 'to an unelected set of bankers'," said spokesman Jack Montgomery. Story continues "No one really believes his private opinion has changed." Cameron's proposed changes include a four-year "emergency brake" limiting welfare payments to migrants, as well as a "red card" system for national parliaments to overrule draft EU laws. A draft deal "shows real progress" but "more work" is still needed, Cameron said Tuesday. A poll published Friday showed 45 percent of Britons now wanted to leave the EU, ahead of 36 percent who wanted Britain to stay in the bloc. The survey of 1,675 adults was conducted by pollsters YouGov on February 3-4 for The Times newspaper. London (AFP) - British newspaper columnists on Saturday took aim at Julian Assange and the UN panel that found the anti-secrecy campaigner had been "arbitrarily detained". The WikiLeaks founder, who faces a rape allegation in Sweden, urged Britain to let him walk free from Ecuador's London embassy following the panel's findings Friday. The 44-year-old Australian, who has been in the embassy for approaching four years, has refused to go to Sweden, fearing deportation to the United States over WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files. "So that settles it then -- everyone's to blame except Julian Assange," wrote Marina Hyde in The Guardian. "It is notable with Assange that the higher he has gone in his 'quest for justice', the smaller he has looked," she wrote. "For my money he looks more and more like just another guy failing to face up to a rape allegation. "Given the UN panel is made up entirely of academics, seemingly devoid of judicial experience, nor any in either public international law or asylum/refugee law, its institutional competence verges on the intriguing." Siobhan Fenton wrote in The Independent: "We have no idea if Julian Assange is a rapist -- so why are we are so opposed to finding out?" "For many, it seems that his work with WikiLeaks makes him above the law -- and makes it impossible for him to have committed sexual assault," she wrote. "The dramatic charade of the last five years perfectly illustrates how, when it comes to sexual violence allegations, our society and some of our most important international institutions are still skewed in favour of privileged men." The newspaper's main story on Assange said it had seemed for a few hours that he might leave the embassy in the hope that British police would not arrest him. "Instead, the 44-year-old Australian was faded into vision via a videolink," it said. Story continues The Daily Telegraph's story said the United Nations had been ridiculed over the findings of its experts. The Times said the UN panel had also accused Ecuador of routine torture and arbitrary detention. "The 2006 mission recorded evidence of torture and violence by police and the absence of records showing how many people were being held by authorities," it said. The Sun's headline said: "How dare they? Fury as UN panel demands Britain pay Julian Assange compo (compensation) after he hid from justice for three years." The Daily Mail's headline read: "Gloating Assange blasts UK government's 'insulting' response to UN report." United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN officials are demanding the Chadian government explain why a Central African rebel leader was able to travel freely to Chad in defiance of Security Council sanctions against him. Nourredine Adam, the second-in-command of the ex-Seleka band of mostly Muslim rebels, was able to fly to Chad despite an assets freeze and a travel ban imposed by the UN in May 2014, the world body's sanctions committee said in a report obtained Friday by AFP. Adam also seems able to continue to travel freely to countries like Kenya, Chad and Ethiopia said the group, which is in charge of monitoring sanctions imposed on the Central African Republic. Adam declared he had met Dr. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, Special Envoy of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General in the Chadian capital on December 21, 2015, according to the report. The OIC is the world's largest inter-governmental Muslim body, representing 57 states. The sanctions panel "intends to request Chadian authorities for further information on Adam's travels to Chad during the latter half of 2015, it said. However, the committee had previously requested information dating to December 2014 and April 2015 "concerning Adam's previous travel ban violations," without a response, it noted. In contrast, following a UN request, Ethiopian Airlines in December 2015 added Adam to its list of people banned from flying the airline. One of the poorest and most unstable countries in Africa, the Central African Republic plunged into chaos after president Francois Bozize, a Christian, was ousted in a coup in March 2013. The mainly Muslim Seleka rebels behind the coup went on a rampage that triggered the emergence of equally dangerous anti-balaka (anti-machete) militias in mostly Christian communities. The transition authority established after the Seleka were chased from power in a French-led military intervention in 2014 is struggling to get the country back on its feet after decades of unrest and oppression. The Security Council has sanctioned the heads of the rival Seleka and anti-balaka militias, as well as former president Bozize. The United Nations' human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein began his first visit to Sri Lanka Saturday to gauge the island's progress in investigating atrocities committed by both sides during its prolonged civil war. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said he was hoping for "constructive discussions" during his four-day visit, which will take him to the former warzones of Jaffna and Trincomalee as well as the capital Colombo. In addition to meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena, Zeid will meet with war victims as he prepares to make a report to the UN Human Rights Council in March on the nation's progress in probing war crimes. "I have been looking forward to coming and I am looking forward to meeting both the highest officials of the state as well as representatives of all communities," Zeid said soon after landing in Colombo. Hundreds of Sri Lankan nationalists who oppose any investigation into the conduct of their country's troops during the war staged a demonstration outside the UN offices in Colombo Saturday in protest at Zeid's visit. "Al Hussein. Turn back. Go home," stated one placard left outside the UN compound, which was being guarded by a squad of anti-riot police. The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution late last year calling for credible investigations into wartime atrocities committed by the government-backed military as well as Tamil Tiger separatists during the island's 37-year civil war. Zeid went a step further calling for "hybrid courts" involving foreign judges, a demand Colombo rejected. However, President Sirisena has agreed to a domestic investigation into allegations that troops killed at least 40,000 ethnic Tamils while defeating the separatists in the final stages of the war which ended in May 2009. In contrast, his predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse had resisted calls for a probe after maintaining that not a single civilian had been killed by troops under his command. A UN report in September described horrific wartime atrocities committed by both the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tiger rebels whose leadership has since been wiped out. An estimated 100,000 people died in Sri Lanka's ethnic war between 1972 and 2009. Mild-mannered Ben Carson doesnt seem inclined to turn the other cheek to Ted Cruz, now that voicemail messages have been uncovered that appear to show Cruz campaign staff in Iowa falsely telling precinct captains that Carson was planning to suspend his presidential campaign. Carson, who came in fourth in Iowa with 9.3 percent of the vote, has shown increasing public anger with Cruz over the last few days, as details about what happened on Monday night have emerged. At the same time, reports that Carsons campaign is on the rocks financially, and is laying off large numbers of staff, are beginning to circulate. Related: Trump Losing Iowa Wasnt My Fault The combination could have some toxic consequences for Ted Cruz, who is trying to follow up his win in Iowa Monday with strong performances in other early voting states. Both men have built campaigns that rest in large part on their repeated outward demonstrations of Christian faith, which has made them popular with evangelical Christians that make up much of the GOP base. While Carson has faded considerably since the brief moment he led the polls a few months ago, his 9.3 percent showing in Iowa demonstrates that he still has a considerable following, and many of those followers are the same evangelicals that Cruz has his eye on as he looks to consolidate any support he can to challenge frontrunner Donald Trump. The general assumption is that Carson voters second choice would be another evangelical or at least a candidate who leans heavily on religious themes. That seemed to be Cruz-backing Iowa Rep. Steve Kings thinking Monday night when he sent out a tweet suggesting that Carsons departure was imminent. Related: Rubio Vs. Cruz? The Real GOP Battle Shaping Up in New Hampshire Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope. https://t.co/lW5Js50EMA Steve King (@SteveKingIA) February 2, 2016 As the media discovers more facts surrounding Ted Cruz's campaign resorting to dirty tricks, even they are appalled.https://t.co/sOieTvJy8o Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) February 5, 2016 All things equal, the fallout from the Iowa results would have seemed to support that theory. With former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum out of the race, that left Cruz as the last candidate standing for voters to whom displays of Christian faith were important. Story continues But in Carsons mind, things are far from equal. The tweet from King was just the beginning. On Thursday, the website Breitbart.com, which is unabashed in its support for Trump, obtained and published what it said were two voicemails left for Cruz precinct captains. The messages, left shortly before Iowa Republicans gathered to caucus for presidential candidates, urged the Cruz organizers to tell Carson supporters at Monday nights caucuses that their man was getting out of the race, and that they would be wasting a vote on the retired neurosurgeon. Related: Huckabee Quits and Carson Heads Home: The GOP Shake-Up After Iowa On Tuesday, Carson accused the Cruz campaign of employing dirty tricks in Iowa. On Wednesday, speaking to reporters, Carson himself got Biblical on Cruz. I make no bones about the fact that I am a person of faith, and I believe what it says in Matthew 7:20: 'By their fruit you will know them. The verse, as Carson undoubtedly knows, refers to false prophets and is the source of the saying, a wolf in sheeps clothing. When Breitbart released the audio recordings Thursday, the Cruz campaign posted them online and sent out a fundraising pitch in the form of an email from Carson himself to his supporters. Related: Donald Trump Rolls Snake Eyes in Iowa This kind of deceitful behavior is why the American people don't trust politicians and don't trust Washington, D.C., it read. If Senator Cruz does not act, then he clearly represents D.C. values I call on Senator Cruz to take decisive action at a senior level within his campaign or I fear this culture of destructive behavior will only continue. For its part, the Cruz campaign has denied any wrongdoing, and said that its messages to supporters were just accurately reporting what was already in the news. In fact, what had been reported was that Carson was briefly returning home to Florida before heading on to the next primary state of New Hampshire. There was no suggestion that he was suspending his campaign the technical term candidates use when they drop out of a race. However, one of the voicemails specifically used the word suspending to describe what Carson was doing. Related: Sanders Closes the Gap on Clinton and Cleans Up Against the GOP By Friday, Carson was still plainly furious, not just about the events Monday night, but about the Cruz camps response to it. Not to take corrective action is tacitly saying its okay, or its sort of like, as Hillary Clinton said after Benghazi, what difference does it make, he said in an interview Friday. Im not saying that it rises to the level up Benghazi, Im saying its the same kind of attitudeThe attitude being, its water under the bridge, its gone by, lets not deal with it. Its not clear when, or even if, Carson will drop out of the campaign, but right now, he doesnt sound like a guy ready to throw his support, and his influence with evangelicals, behind Cruz. In fact, if he keeps warning about false prophets, he may have exactly the opposite effect. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Everett) Rumors about William Shatner returning to the 23rd Century in this summers Star Trek Beyond may have turned out to be false, but the actor is more than willing to reprise his role as the captain of the USS Enterprise in a future incarnation of the franchise if the story is worthwhile, hes revealed. Talking to The Hollywood Reporters Scott Feinberg on the latest episode of the Awards Chatter podcast, Shatner said that even his fictional death in 1994s Star Trek: Generations couldnt keep him from coming back if a good idea presented itself. When we finished our movies the six movies I made we were putting Kirk into glasses, graying hair, a little old. I wrote a series of novels [in which] they allowed me to tell my story of Captain Kirk. So in a series of Star Trek novels, half a dozen of them, I taking from my own life, of life and death and love and loss I created this whole world of Star Trek for Captain Kirk, he said. (Starting with 1995s Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, the Shatner co-authored Kirk books brought the character back to life in the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation.) I would have loved to have done them [as movies], he said. Although he met with Star Trek executive producer J.J. Abrams to discuss an appearance in 2009s franchise reboot, it ended up not happening. Shatner asked, How would they handle it, in science-fiction terms? Im older, Im heavier, Im all the problems of age. So what did Captain Kirk do? Die and age? Doesnt sound science-fictiony enough. Or maybe you make him really old. I dont know. It seems to have beggared Abrams imagination. That doesnt mean hes not prepared for a return if and when someone figures it out, however. I would play an old Captain Kirk, absolutely, he said. You would have [to have] an interesting character, not a cameo, like Here I am, arent I interesting? Its the ongoing world, its the world within science-fiction. Yes, you age within the universe. Time goes on, but time bends, as well. Theres so many things you could do. Story continues Shatner talks about his experience making the original Trek which debuted 50 years ago this September and more during the podcast, including attempting to settle a long-term fan argument. Is Star Wars better than Star Trek, who the hell cares? he joked. Theyre both entertaining vehicles and theyre both well done. Listen to the full episode here. Watch Yahoos breakdown of the Star Trek Beyond: (Reuters) - A nuclear power plant north of New York City has leaked water contaminated with radioactive tritium into the groundwater below the facility, sparking an investigation by state officials, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday. Cuomo said he learned on Friday of "alarming" levels of radioactivity at three monitoring wells at the Indian Point plant in Buchanan, about 40 miles (65 km) north of New York City on the east bank of the Hudson River. The governor has previously asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to shut down the plant because of doubts over the safe evacuation of the area in the event of an accident. Cuomo said in a statement the plant's operator, Entergy Corp, has informed him the contaminated water has not migrated off the site and poses no public health risk. The governor said he has directed the state departments for the environment and health to investigate the leak. "Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not pose a threat," Cuomo said. Entergy in a statement said the tritium likely reached the ground at Indian Point during recent work at the site. "While elevated tritium in the ground onsite is not in accordance with our standards, there is no health or safety consequence to the public, and releases are more than a thousand times below federal permissible limits," the company said. Cuomo, in his letter ordering the state investigation, said Indian Point has previously had a problem with the release of radioactive water, and this time the levels of radioactivity reported by the company are worse than in past incidents. One monitoring well showed a nearly 65,000 percent spike in radioactivity, from 12,300 picocuries per liter to more than 8 million picocuries per liter, the governor said. On May 9, 2015, a unit at the Indian Point nuclear plant was shut down following a transformer failure and fire, in an incident that sent smoke spewing from the plant. Story continues But the plant remained stable and the NRC that day said there was no threat to the public. The company is seeking to relicense the two reactors at Indian Point for another 20 years, but Cuomo has asked the NRC to deny Entergy's application for relicensing. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Nick Zieminski) Dad of 14 on ganja charge The magistrate presiding in the San Fernando Magistrates court, saved Rawle Kingsale from going to jail, owing to the fact that his common-law wife was seated in court in an advanced state of pregnancy, almost ready to give birth to his 15th child . Kingsale was charged with possession and magistrate Brahmanand Dubay fined the 41-year-old father of Pleasantville, $5,000 . Magistrate Dubay heard from the prosecutor Sgt Gordon Maharaj, that on a day last week, Cpl Harrypersad and others went to a bar in San Fernando, where they saw Kingsale conducting sales . They searched the premises and found a Lite Beer can which they opened . What they took out from the can, the court heard, were 37 plastic packets which contained marijuana . Prosecutor Maharaj said that when confronted about the contents in the can, Kingsale replied, That weed is mines. On December 6, 2013, Kingsale was fined $3,000 for trafficking in weed. But attorney Sasha Singh mitigated on behalf of the defendant and told magistrate Dubay that he (Kingsale) was the father of 14 children. However, the attorney submitted that Kingsale was responsible for only four of them. The attorney then said in further mitigation, that Kingsales common-law wife was seated in court and she was pregnant with his 15th child . Magistrate Dubay pointed out to Kingsale that he had been fined before, for trafficking in weed. Kingsales wife sat in the public gallery in the second row of benches, her advanced state of pregnancy quite visibly. Dubay granted her common-law husband 60 days to pay the fine or serve 18 months in jail . Four in court for murder The charge of murder was laid indictably and the men were not called upon to enter pleas. Guerra was murdered on January 18. He was shot and killed at his Iere Village Main Road, Princes Town home. The case was adjourned to March 3. In another incident a 29-year-old man was expected to appear before a Sangre Grande Magistrates court to answer to the charge of the murder of Christian De Craney. He was killed on Tuesday September, 29, 2015, at the corner of Graham Trace and Foster Road, Sangre Grande. He was also charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition. The charges were laid by PC George Lopez of the Homicide Bureau of Investigation Region Two. UNC activist granted leave Justice Mira Dean-Armorer yesterday gave her decision, granting leave to Balgobin- Maharaj, famous for his parallel hunger strike with environmentalist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh. The UNC activist is asking the court to declare that the EBC had overstepped its legal parameters when it granted the extension. He also wants the decision quashed. At the last hearing of the matter in November, of last year, Justice Dean-Armorer requested of the parties written submissions on whether leave ought to be granted having regard to the alternative remedy available under Section 52 of the Constitution and whether the application for leave would amount to an abuse of process having regard to the specific procedure provided for by Section 52 of the Constitution. At a hearing on Wednesday last, lead counsel for the EBC Russell Martineau SC, requested that Balgobin Maharajs application for leave be stayed pending the outcome of the Election Petition matters, which comes up later this month. Balgobin- Maharajs lawyer Anand Ramlogan SC objected and insisted that this procedure was separate and apart from Section 52 and further the test for the grant of leave was whether there was a serious issue to be tried. Last year, the UNC scored a major legal victory as the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from the Election and Boundaries Commission (EBC) and the Peoples National Movement (PNM), challenging Dean-Armourers decision to grant the political party leave to pursue their petitions in six marginal constituencies. The disputed constituencies are La Horquetta/ Talparo, Tunapuna, Moruga/Tableland, St Joseph, Toco/Sangre Grande and San Fernando West. Dean-Armourer has also been assigned a third case challenging the EBCs decision on September 7 to extend the polls. In that case, two Tobagonians -Irwin Layne and Melissa Sylvan are claiming they were discriminated against when the extension was not extended to the sister-isle. They say the decision to give a one-hour extension to Trinidadian voters for last Septembers general election was unfair. Also representing the EBC are Deborah Peake SC, Ravi Heffes-Doon and Alana Bissessar while Kent Samlal and Jayanti Lutchmedial also appear for Balgobin- Maharaj. PREDATOR DEAD Callenders last known address was St Julien Village in Princes Town. Police believe he hanged himself sometime yesterday knowing that a police dragnet was fast closing in on him. It brings to an end a sordid, despicable tale of a man who while out on bail for a rape charge, preyed repeatedly on an innocent child unknown to her mother, with whom he was involved in a relationship. According to reports, at about 2 pm yesterday, a man who was walking near the cemetery in hians Road, Princes Town when he saw a rope attached to the branch of a mango tree in the cemetery. On closer scrutiny, the man saw Callenders body hanging from a length of rope. Officers of Princes Town Police Station were contact- ed along with the District Medical Officer and the body was cut down from the tree by undertakers. A small group of persons gathered at the scene to view the body, but no one knew at that point in time that it was a person wanted in connection with the sexual assault of the girl. However, when detective Inspector Don Gajadhar of Southern Division arrived at the scene, he himself confirmed Callenders identity as it was he (the Inspector) who arrested and charged Callender in 2011, for the rape and robbery of a woman. That matter was pending in the Princes Town Magistrates Court. The body was viewed by the DMO who ordered it removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for an autopsy. Relatives of the dead man were contacted and informed. Officers found a cell phone, a small amount of cash and sweets in the mans pants pockets. THANK GOD, HE DEAD Police sources told Newsday that when the girls mother was contact- ed and told that her ex-boyfriend was found dead, she exclaimed thank God he dead!, while others in the family cried tears of relief. Counselling for both the child and her mother continued yesterday by trained counsellors from the Police Services Victims of Crime Support Unit and the Child Protection Unit (CPU). Last Sunday, the childs mother discovered a video of her engaging in oral sex with Callender whom she (the child) affectionately and trustingly referred to as uncle. The hysterical woman confronted Cal- lender and showed him the video. He ran out of the womans house in Rio Claro and escaped. Until he was discovered hanging, Callender was on the run from police. Newsday was told that the wom- an immediately contacted the Rio Claro police and told them of the discovery. The child was taken to a health centre where she was medical examined. Questioned by police and CPU officials in her mothers presence, the child became agitated, saying she was told by her uncle not to tell anyone what he was doing to her or else she would get into deep trouble. Comforted and assured by her mother, the child then told investigators all that had been taking place between her and uncle. Callenders cellular phone was handed over to investigators of the Police Cyber Crimes Unit who on examining the phones sim card contents, they discovered more video and pho- to images of the child naked with Callender. Another video showed him over her as he tried to sexually penetrate her. Sources said that the childs mother is an emotional wreck, being overtaken by deep feelings of guilt in trusting a man who would later assault her child. Sources add- ed that it would take a prolonged period of counselling for both mother and child to get over this traumatic period of their lives. Po- lice sources said that when next the rape and robbery charges are called in court, Insp Gajadhar would then produce the death certificate to the court following which, the case would come to an end. Indias High Commissioner to TT says, farewell The High Commissioner held a farewell reception at his residence at Trinidad Crescent, Federation Park, Port-of-Spain, on Thursday night. Guests included Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses, former government minister Vasant Bharat, and former Congress of the People political leader, Winston Dookeran. The relationship between India and Trinidad and Tobago started on May 30, 1845, when the first ship Fatel Razack, carrying 225 indentured workers from India reached the shores of Trinidad, then a British colony. Their numbers increased with subsequent arrival of more ships from India. After several years in this country, Gupta felt he had experienced enough of the culture of this country and the similarities of India. This great culture that you have...there is just a fusion of culture and ethnicities. I enjoyed my stay here, and I saw how harmoniously you live with your culture and religion. I am taking back this harmonious relationship to my country so that we can carry it to the world around. This is a global village in which we have to live in the future, Gupta said. The High Commissioner would not be leaving TTs shores without gaining information about this countrys background, and also giving back to the various communities, many similar to Indias. We sent experts in rice and coconut cultivation, and how to reduce diseases, and how to increase the yield. This has been our assistance to this country, he said. Gupta said India was one of the fastest growing populations in the world, with 200 million living under the poverty line. Gupta said while he left TT, he hoped that he left a part of India here. Of course, I will be visiting once in a while in the Victims counting their losses We lost everything, said Goordath Ramoutar, owner of Small Engine Services. Im going to have to look for a place to relocate, and deal with all the other problems. Ramoutar, along with other business owners were seen yesterday looking over the rubble, in the aftermath of the explosion. Ramoutar told reporters that his business had been on Mucurapo Road for 15 years, but it only took moments for his business to go up in flames. His company repaired small engines for power washers and lawn mowers. I saw the girls from the dry cleaners come out to the front, and they were frantic, said Ramoutar as he recalled the incident. I just decided to macco a little bit, and they told me to get out of the building. As soon as we walked out of the building ... BOOM! The place exploded. I saw one of the girls get thrown into the street. I was in such a confused state that I just got into my car and left The owner of the building which housed Sherwin Williams told reporters that assessing the cost of the damage would be the first step in repairing and rebuilding. The owner however noted that fire investigators would have to process the scene of the explosion before they could have an estimate. At about 1.15 pm, LPG workers were refuelling a tank behind the dry cleaning business on the Foreshore when they noticed that a pump was on fire. One of the workers ran in the building and alerted everyone inside. Minutes later there was a massive explosion which shattered glass from the windows of the business. Three employees were taken to the St James Medical Facility as they suffered cuts about their body from the shattered glass. These include Sabina Ali, who is the wife of the owner of Kleen Rite, Ann Marie Corbin, Nirmala Jagdeo and Shinelle Noel. Jagdeo, Corbin and Noel were treated and discharged, while Ali was taken to the St Clair Medical Facility as she received deep cuts on her face. The explosion occurred a day before the anniversary of a gas explosion at El Pecos Restaurant at Royal Palm Plaza, Maraval, which killed one man, and injured ten people Muslim cleric: Carnival breeding sex predators This was the advice yesterday by a Muslim cleric who said sexual predators become emboldened when they see women, half or almost naked, playing mas during the annual Carnival celebrations. Speaking at the weekly Juma prayers, at the ASJA mosque on Mucurapo Street in San Fernando, Mushtaq Sulaimani, warned worshippers, many of them women, that they must keep their children away from Carnival activities as obtains currently in the country He blamed mothers of children, for taking to the streets in Carnival bands in skimpy outfits which he said was nothing short of nudity. This behaviour he said was the root cause of sex predators roaming the land. The Imam said publicly sanctioned freedom to display oneself in the nude or almost naked, albeit once a year, is the genesis for sexual predators and all kinds of crimes being committed against children and women. Sulaimani said women are the gatekeepers of society and ought to be setting the correct example both at home and in public. He quoted Chapter Seven of the Quran, which states that Allah told Adam, Oh Adam, I bestowed on you clothes, so you shall cover your shame. Sulaimani told the congregation that both followers of the Christian, Jewish and Hindu faiths, believe in the injunction that men and women must not display their bodies publicly so as to incur shame. By way of analogy, Sulaimani said the optimum functioning of any machine would not be achieved, if guidelines laid down in the respective manual are not adhered too. Would you put petrol where water is needed? That is why the very fabric of society is being destroyed. So many murders, so many rapes, so many sexual abuse...our hospitals cannot cope. Are we under siege or are we in a war zone? No we are not. We enjoy so much luxury and so much to eat and drink that God has granted us. But look at our ingratitude. We jump up on the streets half-naked, without the thought that it breeds sexual predators he said. Maharaj blasts NGC over SIS In a press conference held at his office yesterday, Maharaj explained that seven companies Phoenix Welding and Fabricating Limited; Quality Refractory and Insulation Services Limited; Point Lisas Construction Limited; JaniKing Limited; Scaffold Professionals Limited; Professional Coatings Limited and Prime Equipment Rentals Limited will soon go out of business, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed, because of NGCs claim that all were subsidiaries of Super Industrial Services Limited (SIS), and therefore included in the recent interlocutory order in favor of NGC (against SIS and Rain- Forest Resorts Limited), which stipulated that SIS could not remove any of its assets from Trinidad and Tobago totaling $180 million. Maharaj told reporters that NGCs policy is in direct contravention of the countrys constitution, specifically Section 4(a), 4(b) and Section 14, and has resulted in the companies being unable to pay their employees, suppliers and sell their goods. Although the companies have sufficient funds in the bank for the bank to pay their salaries and the companies cannot get supplies from their suppliers because the bank is not paying the cheques of the companies which are made in favour of the suppliers, although the companies have more than sufficient funds in the bank to honour those cheques. Maharaj further noted that some of the workers of those companies have been unable to access their own personal bank accounts because they are refused access by the bank to their bank accounts. Maharaj charged that new administrative requirements requested by the banks are frustrating the proper administration and operation of these companies. A meeting has been scheduled for 10.30 am at Gaston Couirts on Wednesday 17 February, 2016 Lange Park, Chaguanas. What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames news Share This week the Next Generation Communications Community had a decidedly futuristic focus ,with upgrades, automation and virtualization dominating not just the news but the features as well. However, before going over the community news I also wanted to point out an item readers will want to spend some time with. Cisco (News - Alert) released its Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020) which is on our sister site and is worth a read. News As to the news, there were a few wireless items that were noteworthy: Viavi Solutions enhanced its CellAdvisor Base Station Analyzer which allows technicians to drastically reduce the time and effort of testing and installing cellular base stations. A recent report from ABI Research (News - Alert) shows that Wi-Fi access points based on 802.11ac gained steady momentum over the past year, making up 39 percent of total Wi-Fi access points shipped in 2015. In other news, as frequent visitors to the community are aware G.fast is a hot topic as service providers around the world look to leverage their existing copper to provide broadband connectivity quickly and at reasonable cost. In fact, rural areas of the U.S. are a target market as well as G.fast modem manufacturer Sckipio noted in the announcement of its intent to go after the opportunity. Community host Nokia (News - Alert) made news this week with the announcement that it will be helping Bell Canada bring ultra-broadband to the provinces of Quebec and Ontario with the deployment of its powerful IP core network router, the 7950 XRS (Extensible Routing System). Features As noted at the top, transformations were a focus this week in terms of enterprises and service providers. On the enterprise side of things TMC (News - Alert) Executive Editor Paula Bernier discussed the findings in a recent white paper on the need for insurance companies to undergo a digital transformation and do so with some sense of urgency. Speaking of enterprise network transformations, while the headlines would make one believe we are well on the way, my colleague Peter Scott notes that as explained in a recent TechZine article by Gilbert Marciano, CMO Strategic Marketing - Customer & Market Insight Senior Manager Nokia, in many ways most organizations are just getting started and there is a lot of work yet to be done for a host of reasons. Part of transformation is obviously all about the virtualization of data centers and various network functions. In the first of a two-part series, I took a look at an interesting posting by Nuage Networks Dimitri Stilliadis on overlay networks and why they are so critical. This week was a look at the history of overlay network and why they are important, and in the next installment we will examine how. I you missed the first in special guest Steve Blackshaws article on the complexity of managing large IP transformation change programs be sure to use the link in part two to get fully caught up on Steves valuable suggestions. Weekend Reading With so much great content to review, the weekend is a great time to get caught up. The community home to link to constantly up-dated news, whitepapers, videos, podcasts and case studies. For example, TechZine recommendations on the hot topic of Internet of Things (IoT) include: The 3 "musts" of metro network transport platforms The IoT: The network can make or break it Plus, a gentle reminder that the home page also has links to outstanding resources as the Digital Ideas section which contains a series of informative podcasts, along with links to eBooks and blogs. Gryphen's Blog Perhaps my favorite title for a blog that Ive seen so far. Now why didnt I think of it. Bad Old Boys From Huck's Free Pass: Why are the media ignoring Mike Huckabee's remarks about the Confederate flag? By Christopher Hitchens: But ... Mr. Limbaugh, Please Help Me!!! The sun is shining. I don't know what that means. I need Rush Limbaugh to tell me what to think . I trust Rush on this because he has no... Trump - The Failure, Trump - The Huckster, Trump - The Weasel All of the quotes cited are from: Losses, regrets and questions at companies Trump endorsed . Failure Number One, The Trump Network : ... I'm Giddy Too Why all the hate? Let us get beyond the hate. As Mr. Amato wisely surmises, John McCain must hate all the right wing bloggers as well. Will ... King Mohammed VI who arrived in the Saharan city of Laayoune Thursday coming from Ouarzazate, where he had dedicated the first plant of the Noor solar complex, spent Friday launching a number of development projects in the city. The projects, dealing with industrial development, the promotion of education and academic research, and the improvement of innovation and environment protection, are part of the specific development model for Moroccos southern provinces as it was detailed by the sovereign during his latest visit to Laayoune, last November. The King has thus launched, in the town of Foum El Oued, the construction works of a technology park, meant to be a center of knowledge and innovation that will contribute to the economic development of the southern provinces according to their specificities. The project, requiring an investment of around $80 million, will support the Phosboucraa integrated industrial complex of fertilizer production, whose construction works were also launched by the Sovereign on Friday. The future technology park will include teaching and research departments that will focus on the Sahara environment, a support pole in the economic development of the South, a cultural center and social facilities. The high-tech Foum El Oued-Laayoune center will create nearly 1.8 million working days during its construction and will provide 1,200 permanent jobs when completed by 2022. The high-tech park will include the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, a high school of excellence and an industrial competence center, all institutions that will reinforce and diversify the training offer in the southern provinces, meet the needs of the region population in matters of higher education and academic research and make of the center a reference institution in Morocco and in the sub-Sahara region. As to the Phosboucraa integrated industrial complex of fertilizer production, it also falls in the framework of the implementation of the new development model of the southern provinces. The complex is designed to create wealth locally by processing phosphate on the spot. It will help upgrade the competitiveness of the region, particularly through the development of an industrial fabric of SMEs and SMIs, and the promotion of new professions associated with phosphate fertilizer processing activities (engineering, construction, maintenance, management projects etc.) Covering the entire value chain of phosphate, this mega-project, which will eventually generate nearly 1,270 jobs, includes the construction of a fertilizer production platform, a washing and flotation plant, a drying unit of the mineral destined to be exported, and a 500,000 ton capacity stockyard in addition to a seawater desalination plant and a thermal power plant of 62 MW. The complex will have an annual production capacity of half a million tons of phosphoric acid and one million tons of fertilizer. In order to adapt to the citys maritime, meteorological and coastal specificities and to develop import and export logistics, the construction a new port is also planned, part of this project. All these projects reflect the Kings keenness on ensuring a sustainable and integrated development of the Southern provinces, encouraging investment and private initiative, strengthening the skills and potential of local youths and promoting the protection of local heritage. These projects also evidence that Morocco is not attached to the Sahara for the sake of the natural resources it harbors. As the sovereign had made it clear in one of his speeches, revenue from natural resources (of the Sahara) will continue to be invested in the region, for the benefit of the local populations and in consultation and coordination with them. . "If we remain silent, we kill freedom, justice and the possibility that a society armed with information may have power to change the situation that has brought us to this point." - Anabel Hernandez ------------------------------------------- By Steve Holland, Emily Stephenson and James Oliphant By Steve Holland, Emily Stephenson and James Oliphant MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Republican White House contender Marco Rubio struggled at a debate on Saturday at the worst possible time, potentially confounding his bid to emerge as Donald Trump's chief rival in New Hampshire and giving hope to three rivals desperate for a strong showing. Under assault from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie over his level of experience as a first-term U.S. senator from Florida, Rubio retreated time and again to canned statements from his stump speech and looked uncomfortably rattled for the first time after seamless performances at seven prior debates. "Marco, the thing is this," Christie said during one heated exchange early in the night, "when you're president of the United States, when you're a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn't solve one problem for one person." While Rubio recovered later in the debate, the timing of his performance was terrible, coming three days before New Hampshire Republicans register their choices on Tuesday in the nation's second nominating contest. The debate at St. Anselm College was the last face-off of the candidates before the vote. Rubio's tough moments may breathe new life into the campaigns of Christie, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Governor John Kasich, three experienced politicians who, like Rubio, represent establishment Republicans. All three have suffered from the dominance of front-runner Trump in the Republican race. They are badly in need of a breakout moment to change the trajectory of the battle in New Hampshire, where the polls show Trump in the lead, Rubio in second and Texas Senator Ted Cruz in third place. Trump did not have his best debate. He looked flustered in a fight with Bush over the use of eminent domain in advancing the interests of public use projects and private industry. But he seemed to do well enough to possibly win on Tuesday in what would represent his first victory of the 2016 race, erasing the pain from a loss in the Iowa caucus last week, where he finished second to Cruz and just ahead of the surging Rubio. A victory in New Hampshire could put Trump on track for more wins in South Carolina on Feb. 20 and beyond on the way to the Nov. 8 election. APPEALING TO ESTABLISHMENT For the second debate in a row, Bush looked polished and sounded like the candidate many establishment Republicans had pinned their hopes on. His problem is it may be too late. Kasich, likely to end his candidacy if he does not do well on Tuesday, delivered a positive message that could appeal to New Hampshire Republican voters, who famously make up their minds late and never seem in the mood to follow the lead of the Iowa caucuses, won by Cruz. The trouble for Rubio began soon after the debate started when the ABC News moderators asked Christie about Rubio's experience in the U.S. Senate, and Christie pressed his case. Rubio critics have made much of the fact that his experience is akin to that of much-derided Democratic President Barack Obama, elected in 2008 when a first-term senator. Rubio's defense was that his and Obama's world views are different, not that Obama has simply led the country down the path it is on because of inexperience. "Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing," Rubio said. When Rubio repeated the same line again, Christie sought to reinforce the charge that Rubio is so inexperienced that he relies on well-worn talking points and cannot think on his feet. "There it is. There it is. The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody," Christie said. Rubio repeated the line enough that someone created a Twitter profile called @RubioGlitch that repeated his line about Obama. BUSH TUSSLES WITH TRUMP Bush attacked Trump for using eminent domain, which allows governments to seize private lands for projects for the public good, to help him build casino complexes in Atlantic City. Eminent domain is a frequent target of criticism from conservative and anti-government groups. "What Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City. That is not public purpose. That is downright wrong, he said. Trump said eminent domain was a good thing and was necessary to building roads, bridges, schools and hospitals. Certainly, its a necessity for our country, he said. He wants to be a tough guy, and it doesnt work very well, Trump said of Bush, telling the son and brother of former presidents to be quiet. When the crowd booed, Trump said, thats all his donors and special interests out there. Trump, known for his tough stances with calls to ban Muslims from visiting the United States and deport immigrants without the proper documents, also called for a more empathetic view of the Republican call to repeal Obamacare insurance coverage for Americans. "There will be a certain number of people who will be on the street dying, and as a Republican I dont want that to happen, he said. Trump captured the biggest share of the conversation on Twitter during the debate, winning 33 percent of the conversation followed by Rubio at 20 percent and Cruz at 15 percent. (Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson and Alana Wise in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland and John Whitesides; Editing by Mary Milliken, Paul Simao and Robert Birsel) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters' editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage. Swipe right for free healthcare. Photo-Illustration: Daily Intelligencer; Photos: Courtesy of Tinder; Jim Watson/Getty Images If you drew a Venn diagram of the people who support Bernie Sanders and the people who use Tinder, youd probably end up with a circle. Sure, thered be a few aged-hippie outliers, but its a fair bet that most of Sanderss millennial supporters have at least downloaded the dating app, and some are using it to campaign on his behalf. Robyn Gedrich, 23, told Reuters shed sent the message Do you feel the bern? Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks to up to 60 users a day for the past two weeks until her account was locked. In fact, many of the people whove been flooding Tinder chats with pro-Bernie messages have found themselves unable to log back in. A 23-year-old says she was banned from Tinder after using it to campaign for Bernie Sanders https://t.co/otcZ6581Rf pic.twitter.com/f0jSuCiJir Madison M. K. (@4evrmalone) February 4, 2016 Haley Lent, 22, said Tinder locked her out Thursday night after she talked to between 50 and 100 people on the app, and several people have posted to the Facebook group Bernie Sanders Dank Tinder Convos saying their profiles have been deleted or locked as well. Gedrich said this was because her matches reported her as a bot, or a fake profile designed to send advertising spam. People are reporting the pages as spam, wrote Taylor Marie in the Facebook group. But the Bern isnt spam oh no. The Bern is serious. Bush 43 will return to the scene of one of his most famous victories if Jeb survives New Hampshire. Photo: Larry Downing/Reuters When I heard Jeb Bush do a shout-out to his father and brother (the most popular Republican alive today!) at his get-out-of-town-before-the-votes-come-in event in Des Moines on caucus day, I wasnt surprised; he decided some time ago to stop fighting his Bushiness and get what he could out of the dynasty (mostly lots and lots of super-pac donations). Nor was it surprising that Barbara Bush the doting mother whom no one holds responsible for the mistakes the men in her family made came into New Hampshire from nearby Kennebunkport to campaign for him. She and Poppy are a living link to the old, more moderate Bush family tradition with strong roots in New England. But this is unsettling news: Former president George W. Bush cut an ad for brother Jebs super PAC, and now the candidate himself says the ex-White House occupant will stump for him this month in a key primary state. Hes going to campaign for me in South Carolina, Jeb Bush said of George W. on MSNBCs Morning Joe. Im excited about that. Yeah, we can all feel the excitement, cant we? But why not bring W. out right away, when, you know, you are for sure still in the race? Apparently saving him for South Carolina was a matter of strategery, according to Scott Conroy and Sam Stein of Huffington Post: In Bushs camp, the thinking goes that Jeb has to save himself in New Hampshire, finishing ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, if he wants to remain a viable candidate heading into the South Carolina primary. Then and only then will the time come to deploy the nations 43rd president, who famously lost the 2000 New Hampshire primary by 19 points to John McCain but then came back for a campaign-saving victory in the Palmetto State. Nothing quite like bringing back memories of that South Carolina primary, when a panicked party and conservative movement Establishment helped Bush run one of the nastiest campaigns in that states nasty history. Reckon Ralph Reed, who played an especially unsavory role in 2000, could come back for a star turn? But its probably a waste of time to fantasize about all that, assuming Conroy and Stein know what theyre talking about. Jeb might beat out fellow Establishment bravos Kasich and Christie in the Granite State, but hes about as likely to beat Rubio there (unless something weird happens in Saturday nights debate) as he is to endorse Bernie Sanders and start railing against his own donors. And that means well never know if W. might have turned the tide. A closely divided Court could go in very different directions after the next few appointments. Photo: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images During Thursday nights Democratic candidates debate in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders made an interesting admission when asked how he would prioritize his agenda if elected president: [Y]oure not going to accomplish what has to be done for working families and the middle class unless there is campaign-finance reform. So long as big-money interests control the United States Congress, it is gonna be very hard to do what has to be done for working families. So let me be very clear. No nominee of mine, if Im elected president, to the United States Supreme Court will get that nomination unless he or she is loud and clear and says they will vote to overturn Citizens United. Aside from the problematic nature of an explicit litmus test for Supreme Court nominees (which conservatives have danced around for years in their efforts to get a Court that will overturn Roe v. Wade), Sanders is implicitly saying the big bold political revolution he wants to lead will bring millions of people to march on Washington to wait for a conservative SCOTUS Justice to retire or die. Only then can Sanders begin vetting candidates for the opening, make an appointment, fight for confirmation against a certain Republican filibuster, and then hope a case comes up soon enough to create an opportunity to reconsider Citizens United v. FEC in order to get the revolution actually rolling. This sounds, in fact, like the work of an entire presidential term. But Sanders is right: Theres a lot at stake for both parties in the future shape of a currently closely divided Court. Of the four justices over the age of 75, two are considered liberal (Ginsburg and Breyer), one is a staunch conservative (Scalia), and one (Kennedy) is the swing vote, considered conservative on many issues involving corporate power but famously liberal on same-sex marriage (he is a highly ambivalent figure on one hot-button issue, abortion). So the next president, particularly if she or he has a second term, could have appointments that entirely move the Court in one direction or its opposite. The issues the Court could resolve in the next decade in one way or another are immense in their significance: everything from the scope of executive powers, to federal regulation of corporations, to voting rights, to surveillance, to religious freedom, to racial and gender preferences, to criminal-justice reform. And yes, a Democratic president could produce a Court willing to reconsider the whole chain of decisions leading up to and including Citizens United that have made political donations a form of constitutionally protected speech, while a Republican president could all but guarantee a reversal or major revision of Roe. Depending on the president and the appointments available, a Republican could even push for a revolutionary return to the pre-FDR Lochner era of jurisprudence in which social programs or federal interference with business prerogatives were frequently held to be unconstitutional. One reason its hard to plot the judicial future is that partisan polarization is rapidly bringing to an end the old tradition of senatorial deference to the presidents picks for the Court (within reasonable limits). So if the Senate is controlled by the opposing party, SCOTUS nominees will have to be negotiated carefully, and even if the presidents party controls the Senate, filibusters can and will be deployed routinely. This means, for example, that if a President Bernie Sanders does appoint a justice who is publicly committed to overturning Citizens United, hed better hope a 60-vote Democratic Senate gets elected with him (virtually an impossibility, of course). As it happens, Senate Republicans are currently toying with the idea of building on Harry Reids abolition of filibusters for lower-court (and Executive-branch) appointments to ban SCOTUS filibusters, too, but that may well depend on how confident they are of victory in November. Important as SCOTUS appointments would be to Sanders or Clinton or to the large field of anti-choicers in the GOP presidential field, this has never become a significant issue in a presidential general election. Could this be the year that changes? It could if either Sanders (who, again, views campaign-finance reform as a condition precedent for much of his agenda) or Ted Cruz (the self-proclaimed constitutional conservative) wins a nomination. Its also possible a Hillary Clinton presidential candidacy would make defense of Roe v. Wade or reestablishment of voting rights a public priority. More likely, SCOTUS will continue to be an underground issue of immense importance to constituency and interest groups but only discussed by the candidates indirectly or via dog whistles to the initiated. With so many key issues before the Court, at the same time that so many are gridlocked in Congress, SCOTUS appointments deserve to be treated as something much bigger than a personnel or process issue. Deleted. Twitter has thrown some serious shade at ISIS and other violent extremists. According to a tweet from its @Policy account, the company has banished 125,000 terrorist-related accounts since the middle of 2015. The company is also expanding its team that reviews reports of suspicious user activity. This is the first time that Twitter is revealing the scale of its attempts to shut down extremist sites, though its been known to do so for some time. This also comes less than a year after the Brookings Institute said that in 2014 it found just 46,000 Twitter accounts associated with ISIS. Friday night out with the guys. Dancing with women is haram.pic.twitter.com/rW8samprsL Islamic State Media (@ISIS_Med) January 29, 2016 Twitter, it turns out, has teams of specialists in the U.S. and Ireland that scour accounts, looking for those linked to extremist groups or just spewing 140-character calls to violence. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism, and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service, the company wrote in a statement on Friday. As the nature of the terrorist threat has changed, so has our ongoing work in this area. This announcement comes a month after President Barack Obama held a meeting with Silicon Valley leaders in an attempt to see how they could collectively troll ISIS. But this is a tricky situation for a company that wishes to be seen as a haven for free speech. In 2014, then-CEO Dick Costolo received death threats from ISIS for deleting accounts. Steven Joyce, New Zealands economic development minister, got a bit more than he expected this week when a protester hurled a dildo at him to signal her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. After throwing the sex toy, the protester, Josie Butler, said, Thats for raping our sovereignty. She was taken away by police and later released without charges. Much of New Zealands Maori population opposed the trade deal, which was signed in Auckland earlier this week. [You have] new experiences in politics every day. Its the privilege of serving, Joyce told reporters. He later acknowledged the inherent virality of flying dildos, hoping to expedite the process. Alexander Solzhenitsyn on Lying Ayn Rand Francisco, whats the most depraved type of human being? The man without a purpose. Ronald Reagan "We need a government that is confident not of what it can do, but of what the people can do." The People are the Sovereign Power "The People are the government, administering it by their agents; They are the government, the sovereign power." Andrew Jackson Tyranny Exercised for the Good of its Victims Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be cured against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. C. S. Lewis Mignon: Bust of Rose Beuret by Rodin Legitimate Government A government that serves as a palladium for the many and broad rights of the sovereign individual is legitimate. Unequal things are not equal Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand In any hour and issue of your life, you are free to think or to evade that effort. But you are not free to escape from your nature, from the fact that reason is your means of survivalso that for you, who are a human being, the question to be or not to be is the question to think or not to think. Ayn Rand The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed, or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. Alexander Solzhenitsyn on Socialist Liars We know they are lying. They know they are lying. They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie. Freedom and Safety Ben Franklin: "Those that give up their freedom for safety deserve neither." Joe Biden: "This is not about freedom, this is for your safety." Sam Zell "I simply don't buy into many of the made-up rules of social convention. The bottom line is: If you're really good at what you do, you have the freedom to be who you are." Ayn Rand Quote Albert Einstein "Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." Patrick Henry H.L. Mencken Both Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming and Covid-19 have become such false fronts. "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." Constitution and Chris Cuomo Thomas Sowell on Racism Eisenhower on Party Legitimacy Ayn Rand Search This Blog Howard Roark The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand "Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value .... There is no substitute for personal dignity." Robert Bidinotto ... the *main* target of individualists' moral proselytizing ought to be the Zero-Sum Narrative, i.e., the belief in inherent conflicts of interest among people -- and not altruism per se, which is mainly an emotionally driven *reaction* to the zero-sum worldview. We need to teach people that economic relationships in a free society are "win/win," not "win/lose." We need to teach what 19th-century thinker Frederic Bastiat labeled "Economic Harmonies." Ralph Waldo Emerson "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind." G. K. Chesterton "Even the tyrant never rules by force alone; but mostly by fairy tales." Ayn Rand "Serenity comes from the ability to say 'Yes' to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say 'No' to the wrong choices of others." The Atlas Society "You were born an original. Don't die a copy." "Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often." John Wooden "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." Seneca "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." Peter Diamandis "The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself." Howard Roark - The Fountainhead Democracy is Tyranny Thomas Paine: "A democracy is the vilest form of Government there is." John Adams: "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." John Adams: "You have rights antecedent to all earthy governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws;...." This is why our government is a Republic and not a democracy. James Madison: In a pure democracy "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." Mikhail Baryshnikov Cronyism and Socialism Advocates of Equality Ayn Rand "Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind." David Kelley "It is the act of creating value that reflects the best within us, and is the center of a happy life." Calvin Coolidge "It is much more important to kill bad bills, than to pass good ones." The Welfare State Becomes the Totalitarian State Rights are not a Gift of Government Thomas Jefferson, 1774 "A free people claim their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." The Creative Man "A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others." Ayn Rand To Fill the World with Fools "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools." Herbert Spencer Ben Franklin "Democracy ... is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty ... is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Francisco speaking to Dagny -"...there's nothing of any importance in life - except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It's the only measure of human value. All the codes of ethics They'll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system of morality that's on a gold standard. " Charles R. Anderson Wishing that the provision of a good or service were free is not an idea of great merit. If the good or service can be made free without harming others, then it has negligible value. If it has value, then the harm done to others by making it "free" will be substantial. Is not harm a cost in itself? So can there be a free good or service of any value? Clearly no. Ayn Rand on Collectivism Milton Friedman "A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both." Once Surrendering His Reason "Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck." Thomas Jefferson (1822) Winston Churchill Governments create nothing, but what they give they have first taken away you may put money in the pockets of Englishmen, but it will be money taken from the pockets of another set of Englishman, and the greater part will be spilled on the way. Speech 11 November 1903 [HT Tom Anderson] Name-Calling is Indicative of a Weak Argument Isabel Paterson "Poverty can be brought about by law; it cannot be forbidden by law." Reagan on Government's Place John Stuart Mill "The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it." Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc. Frederick Douglass "To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker." Brutality is not Idealistic "Do not ever consider Collectivists as 'sincere but deluded idealists.' The proposal to enslave some men for the sake of others is not an ideal; brutality is not 'idealistic,' no matter what its purpose." Ayn Rand, textbook of americanism.com Work is an Act of Creating "Whether it's a symphony or a coal mine, all work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: from an inviolate capacity to see through one's own eyes." Ayn Rand Charles R. Anderson "Government is legitimate only to the extent that it protects the exercise of everyone's broad, many, and sovereign individual rights. Such limited-purpose government, often called Capitalism, is the only government system which allows individuals to make their own moral choices and live their lives in accordance with their choices. Capitalism minimizes the use of force and maximizes the freedom of cooperation and association within a society. It is in such a society that a rational man chooses to live and produce." George Washington "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. It is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Thomas Jefferson "A wise and frugal government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry -- this is the sum of good government." Ayn Rand "Your life belongs to you and the good is to live it." "He who speaks of sacrifice speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master." "He who speaks of sacrifice speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master." Ayn Rand on Theft, Murder, and Collectivism "Many men now believe that it is evil to rob, murder and torture for one's own sake, but virtuous to do so for the sake of others. You may not indulge in brutality for your own gain, they say, but go right ahead if its for the gain of others. Perhaps the most revolting statement one can ever hear is: "Sure Stalin has butchered millions, but its justifiable, since it's for the benefit of the masses." Collectivism is the last stand of savagery in men's minds." from Textbook of Americanism Thomas Paine "It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry." Dr. Thomas Sowell "I have never understood why it is greed to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take someone else's money." Calvin Coolidge "Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong." Thomas Jefferson "I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others." David Kelley "If we are right, we have nothing to fear; if we are wrong, we have something to learn." Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc. Eric Hoffer "Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength." E-mail Address Charles.R.Anderson@gmail.com Private correspondence is welcome from interested, rational individualists. There are few enough of us that we should highly value one another and any friendships that might grow from contact. Blog Archive Ayn Rand on Morality "The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live." Anthem by Ayn Rand Man the individualist, not men the collectivists. "For the battle they lost can never be lost. For that which they died to save can never perish. Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through. And man will go on. Man, not men." Dr. Edwin Lewis, A First Book in Writing English "To gain new words and new ideas, the student must compel himself to read slowly. Impatient to hurry on and learn how the tale or poem ends, many a youth is accustomed to read so rapidly as to miss the best part of what the author is trying to say. Thoughts cannot be read so rapidly as words. To get at the thoughts and really to retain the valuable expressions, the student must scrutinize and ponder as he reads. Each word must be thoroughly understood; its exact value in the given sentence must be grasped." A high school textbook for freshmen and sophomores used around 1900. James Madison "Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent ancroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations: but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism." General George S. Patton "If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking." H. L. Mencken "The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face to rule it." George Orwell "The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." National Park Scientist David Graber People have become "a cancer ... a plague upon the Earth. Until such time as Homo sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along." H. L. Mencken "If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner." Thomas H. Huxley "The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin." Thomas Jefferson on Democracy "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." Prince Philip of the United Kingdom I bet he would like to concentrate his human eradication efforts on the Deplorables and not on the Aristocracy or the Progressive Elitists. "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation." Henry Ford "Genius is seldom recognized for what it is: a great capacity for hard work." Thomas Jefferson on Truth Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them." " Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Niccolo Machiavelli "One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived." Sherlock Holmes "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle if you prefer. Mary McCarthy "Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism." Sen. Tim Wirth, Democrat, Colorado "We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory is wrong, we will be doing the right thing." Bismarck "Fools learn by experience, the wise man learns by the experience of others." Albert Einstein As Albert Einstein once said about the book "One Hundred Authors Against Einstein": Why one hundred? If I were wrong, one would be enough. Governments are Never Sovereign Only individuals are sovereign. Governments are either legitimate or illegitimate. They are legitimate only to the extent that they protect the exercise of every individual's right to life; liberty; the ownership of their own mind, body, and labor; their property; their freedom of conscience and association, and the pursuit of their own happiness. No government on Earth is highly legitimate. Most are highly illegitimate. So sayeth Charles R. Anderson. Dr. Thomas Sowell is Retiring "The real minimum wage is zero." "The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best." "People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do." "The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses, it is about the egos of the elites." "If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism." "Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." Prof. Walter E. Williams on Democracy "... one of the primary dangers of majority rule is that it confers an aura of legitimacy and respectability to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyrannical." Ayn Rand on Minorities "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights, cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." Hillary Clinton on Job Creation Socialists never want anyone to credit individuals with a productive purpose as the source of their jobs. When the government piles on such heavy taxes and regulations as to prevent job formation, they are always trying to misdirect the people's attention. Hillary has been vigorous in promising more taxes and more major regulations which will make the Obama record of 0.5% annual increases in real per capita GDP look good in comparison. "Don't let anybody tell you that, you know, its corporations and businesses that create jobs." Frederic Bastiat "It's impossible to introduce into society a greater evil than this, the conversion of Law into an instrument of PLUNDER." Ayn Rand "The number of its adherents is irrelevant to the truth or falsehood of an idea. A majority is as fallible as a minority or as an individual man. A majority vote is not an epistemological validation of an idea." ... "it is important to note the epistemological significance of a free society. In a free society, the pursuit of truth is protected by the free access of any individual to any field of endeavor he may choose to enter." ... "This prevents the formation of any coercive "elite" in any profession -- it prevents the legalized enforcement of a "monopoly on truth" by any gang of power seekers -- it protects the free market place of ideas -- it keeps all doors open to man's inquiring mind." The catastrophic man-made global warming hypothesis is no exception to these general truths about the right of every individual to examine and evaluate any idea. significance of a free society. In a free society, the pursuit of truth is protected by the free access of any individual to any field of endeavor he may choose to enter." ... "This prevents the formation of any coercive "elite" in any profession -- it prevents the legalized enforcement of a "monopoly on truth" by any gang of power seekers -- it protects the free market place of ideas -- it keeps all doors open to man's inquiring mind." Charles at Naval Surface Warfare Center Do Not Subordinate Your Mind to the Mind of Another The vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence. John Galt in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand UN Agenda 21, Principle 15 The real operating principle: Neither shall total lack of scientific certainty delay taking action with catastrophic economic effects if one can imagine some environmental degradation. "In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation." Dr. Thomas Sowell "What 'multiculturalism' boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture -- and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture." "It is so easy to be wrong -- and to persist in being wrong -- when the costs of being wrong are paid by others." "Intellectuals have trouble remembering that they are not God." "If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today." Saul Alinsky It is good to understand what the nihilists think, especially since such politicians as Obama and Hillary admire this man and use his principles for damaging the private sector and Capitalism. "To say that corrupt means corrupt the ends is to believe in the immaculate conception of ends and principles. The real arena is corrupt and bloody. Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life." Ronald Reagan A democratic society that needs a much-controlling government to manage the affairs of its People has a People so lacking in character and ability that there is no hope the People can democratically elect leaders of good character and adequate capability. That society is doomed by a self-contradiction. The escape from doom is the development in the People of such character and ability that they shun a much-controlling government. "If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" Aesop "We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." Examples: Obama, both Clintons, Kerry, Sanders, Biden, Reid, and Pelosi. Christine Stewart, Canadian Minister of the Environment What a sad thing is attempted justice without truth. "No matter if the science of global warming is all phony.... climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world." Aldous Huxley "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Ayn Rand "'There are no evil thoughts, Mr. Rearden,' Francisco said softly, 'except one: the refusal to think.'" Francisco D'Anconia to Hank Rearden in Atlas Shrugged Frederic Bastiat on the Law "It has been used to destroy its own objective. It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense. Louis L'Amour in High Lonesome "Nor were they free of the images their own minds held of themselves. The man on horseback, the lone-riding man, the lone-thinking man, possessed an image of himself that was in part his own, in part a piece of all the dime novels he had read, for no man is free of the image his literature imposes on him. And the dime novel made the western hero a knight-errant, a man on horseback rescuing the weak and helpless." "Folks talk a lot about the maternal feeling in women, but they say nothing about man's need to protect and care for someone; yet the one feeling is as basic as the other." Dr. Thomas Sowell "Even liberal professors can be adversely affected by the narrow groupthink that prevails. Without an opposition to keep them on their toes, they can develop sloppy habits of dismissing or even demonizing differing viewpoints, instead of practicing and teaching their students how to come to grips with opposing beliefs." From Dry Rot in Academia "Today one can literally go from kindergarten to becoming a graduate student seeking a Ph.D., without ever hearing a vision of the world that conflicts with the vision of the left." John Stuart Mill "In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character was abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time." Josepth Stalin "We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?" Robert Tracinski "The way we view the naked human body reflects our view of human nature itself. We portray our bodies in ways that are crude or refined depending on whether we view our souls as crude or refined. And we do the same with the sensuality and the sexual capacity of our bodies. We can view sex and the nude body as a dangerous temptation that draws us away from higher ideals and down into the muckor we can make it part of those higher ideals. We can make it an expression of a wider lust for life, an expression of the same spirit of aspiration that drives all of our other achievements." The Three Graces by Antonio Canova David by Michelangelo Frederic Bastiat "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." "But how is this legal plunder to be to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime." Ayn Rand on Excellence "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing." Ayn Rand "The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see." Patrick Henry "No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." H. L. Mencken "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Catastrophic man-made global warming is a great example of such alarmism to justify more power for the politicians and bureaucrats. Thomas Jefferson "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add, `within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrants will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Ayn Rand "Serenity comes from the ability to say 'Yes' to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say 'No' to the wrong choices made by others." Galileo Galilei "In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." "By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox." Henry Ford "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Samuel Adams "The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks." The Constitution itself remains a strong defense of our individual rights, but those who want power over our lives have long claimed ridiculous interpretations of the powers it grants to the federal government which they have cemented in irrational precedents. Time after time, the fact that our individual rights are broad and must allow each of us to manage our own lives while we pursue our own chosen values, so long as we do not violate the equal rights of others, is a context ignored. Thomas Jefferson, 1816 "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." When the government controls the education system, you can be sure the education system will guarantee the ignorance of the people so they may be ruled without the impediment of the people demanding their individual rights. John C. Goodman "Closing Off Consumption Opportunities. Just as low-income individuals in their role as producers are increasing[ly] regulated out of income earning opportunities, in their role as consumers they are increasingly regulated out of the market for essential services. In addition to education and housing, they have been regulated out of the market for medical care, transportation and even police protection. For all these essential services, the wealthy turn to the private marketplace. They even employ police officers as off-duty, private guards for their gated communities. The poor are left with public housing, public schools, public transportation, government-provided health care, etc. The well-off get all the benefits of capitalism. The poor are left with socialism." Averroes "An army of philosophers would not be sufficient to change the nature of error and to make it truth." An army of scientist mercenaries at the service of All-Controlling Government is not sufficient to make the catastrophic man-made global warming hypothesis true either. Ayn Rand on the Creative Man "A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others." Lawrence W. Reed "It constantly amazes me that defenders of the free market are expected to offer certainty and perfection while government has only to make promises and express good intentions." Patrick Henry "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government lest it come to dominate our lives and our interests." Prof. Walter E. Williams "That initial premise is that each of us owns himself. Stated another way: I am my private property and you are yours. The institution of private property is the right held by the owner of property to keep, acquire, dispose, and exclude from use. The premise of self-ownership determines which human acts are moral or immoral and consistent with that premise. For example, rape, murder, slavery, fraud, and theft are immoral because they violate private property." Thomas Jefferson The "sum of good government" is one "which shall restrain men from injuring one another" and "shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement." The presumption is maximum liberty limited not by the welfare of others, but only by the injunction to do no harm to others. H. L. Mencken "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." Madison Versus Hitler "(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation... (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." James Madison "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so." Adolf Hitler Frederic Bastiat "The most urgent necessity is, not that the State should teach, but that it should allow education. All monopolies are detestable, but the worst of all is the monopoly of education." Mark Twain "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." This certainly applies to those who believe in the catastrophic man-made global warming alarmists, minimum wage laws, ObamaCare, the ethanol in gasoline mandate, and tying solar and wind power in high percentages to the electric grid. Prof. Walter E. Williams on White Privilege "The concept of white privilege, along with diversity and multiculturalism, is part of today's campus craze. ..... The bottom line to this campus nonsense is that "privilege" has become the new word for "personal achievement." .... Are those who work hard, take risks, make life better for others and become wealthy in the process the people who should be held up to ridicule and scorn? And should we make mascots out of social parasites?" Albert Einstein "A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth." Prof. John Christy, Climate Scientist If its not economically sustainable, its not sustainable. Ayn Rand on Human Progress "Man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress." George Orwell "The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it." Abbot of Arbroath, Chancellor of Robert the Bruce "For so long as one hundred of us shall remain alive we shall never in any wise consent to submit to the rule of the English. For it is not for glory we fight, for riches, or for honours, but for freedom alone, which no good man loses but with his life." April 1320, Six years after the Battle of Bannockburn Jean-Jacques Rousseau "whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body; this means merely that he will be forced to be free." If one is told " 'it is expedient for the state that you should die,' he should die." From The Social Contract, a most emphatic statement of authoritarian collectivism by a profound misanthropist. Patrick Henry "The Constitution is NOT an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the PEOPLE to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interest." Dwight D. Eisenhower "If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government." Alexander Hamilton "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." "If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government." Milton Friedman A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it ... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. John Quincy Adams "Muhammad declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind... The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Muhammad is the prophet of God." Justice Robert H. Jackson "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." This applies to the government-run education system, as well as every other act of government, including its procurements. Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead "Don't bother to examine a folly, ask only what it accomplishes." Ayn Rand's villain giving us insight into the beliefs of the Progressive Elitists and others with beliefs too divorced from reality to be creditable, yet widely believed or propagated. Thomas Jefferson "let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution." Of course this belief implies those great constraints on democracy imposed by the Constitution. Robert Tracinski "The real minimum wage is zero. Actually, its less than zero: the real minimum wage is going into debt just to have a shot at doing the work you love." I went hugely into debt to set up my materials analysis laboratory and paid myself only $10,000 in the first year and even less in the Obama Recession years of 2010 - 2016. Obama When what youre doing doesnt work for 50 years, its time to try something new. 2015 State of the Union Address So, we should ditch Big Government, government health care, The War on Poverty, The War on Drugs, Social Security, the Federal Reserve, government-run education, the Davis-Bacon Act, the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (the Jones Act), and all expansionist interpretations of the Interstate Commerce and the Taxation Clauses of the Constitution upon this Obama Principle of Failure. Louis L'Amour "If he starts anything with me I'll just cloud up and rain all over him." Conagher "You better ride out of here, Staples. An' leave that gun alone. You ain't fit to handle one. And don't you cross my trail again. I don't like bein' braced by no tin-horn." Conagher "To be a man was to be responsible. It was as simple as that. To be a man was to build something, to try to make the world about him a bit easier to live in for himself and those who followed." Conagher "it was the man who planted a tree, dug a well, or graded a road who mattered." "Conagher had worked too hard too many times to like a thief or a vandal who would steal or destroy the efforts of other men." "when in doubt, sit down and think. It is only the mind of man that has lifted him above the animals." Evie's Dad"If he starts anything with me I'll just cloud up and rain all over him." Conagher"You better ride out of here, Staples. An' leave that gun alone. You ain't fit to handle one. And don't you cross my trail again. I don't like bein' braced by no tin-horn." Conagher"To be a man was to be responsible. It was as simple as that. To be a man was to build something, to try to make the world about him a bit easier to live in for himself and those who followed." Conagher"it was the man who planted a tree, dug a well, or graded a road who mattered.""Conagher had worked too hard too many times to like a thief or a vandal who would steal or destroy the efforts of other men." Big Bill Knudsen on Progress "Progress is only made when fear is overcome by curiosity. If you are curious enough, you will not have any fear." William S. Knudsen Elbert Hubbard "Prison is a Socialist's Paradise, where equality prevails, everything is supplied, and competition is eliminated." Charles R. Anderson "Every law mandates more guns. Most laws now outlaw individual value choices and more voluntary cooperation among individuals." Bad Deeds by Robert Bidinotto Charles Anderson on Hope ".... hope is contingent upon having the freedom to make your own value choices and make their achievement your personal dream. Without the dream, there is no hope. Without the value choice, there is no dream." A Collapsing Predation, a Plea for Salvation "These are just plain, ordinary people, Mr. Galt, " said Chick Morrison in a tone intended to project their abject humility. "They can't tell you what to do. They wouldn't know. They're merely begging you. They may be weak, helpless, blind, ignorant. But you, who are so intelligent and strong, can't you take pity on them? Can't you help them?" "By dropping my intelligence and following their blindness?" "They may be wrong, but they don't know any better!" "But I, who do, should obey them?" From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Sen. Tom Coburn Addressing the Senate "Your whole goal is to protect the United States of America, its Constitution and its liberties. It's not to provide benefits for your state. That's where we differ -- that's where my conflict with my colleagues has come. It's nice to be able to do things for your state, but that isn't our charge. Our charge is to protect the future of our country by upholding the Constitution." December 2014 James Madison on Laws "It will be of little avail to the people ... if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." Yet this is exactly the sorry state of law in America today. Even the legislators whose full-time job is to make laws cannot read them before voting on them. How can it even be imagined that a small businessman can know the law and the voluminous regulations applied most especially and most vigorously to commercial endeavors? It cannot be so imagined, which makes it clear that the intent is to make every businessman a criminal precariously dependent upon the goodwill of those with power in the government. Charles R. Anderson on Argument "Observe which side resorts to the most vociferous name-calling and you are likely to have identified the side with the weaker argument and they know it." From my statement in the Senate Minority Report of 2008 on Man-Made Global Warming Claims. Ben Franklin " Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." Ayn Rand on Force and Morality From Atlas Shrugged "Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins." The Neverending Battle for Freedom Winston Churchill "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy." Ludwig von Mises "A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings." Ayn Rand on Truth Seeking "The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it." Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D. Benno Schmidt, President of Yale, March 1991 "The most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on our campuses ... The assumption seems to be that the purpose of education is to induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom and to liberate the mind." Tacitus, 56 - 120 A.D. "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. " The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state. The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state. George Eliot "The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "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's right." Is that not all times? Public Servant Tyrants "The people must remain ever vigilant against tyrants masquerading as public servants." George Washington Aristotle on Inequality "The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." Claiming unequal things equal in mathematics is obviously wrong, but so is claiming the equality of an individual with good character to an individual of bad character fraught with deleterious consequences. Mencken on Public Education "The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all: It is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality." Henry Louis Mencken (1880 - 1956) Thomas Edison "From his neck down, a man is worth a couple of dollars a day; from his neck up, he is worth anything his brain can invent." Ayn Rand on Self-Assurance "But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself." From The Fountainhead Frederick Douglass A mans rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. William S. Knudsen "A conference is a gathering of guys that singly can do nothing and together decide nothing can be done." Big Bill Knudsen was the manufacturing genius from the automotive industry who decided that U.S. WWII warfare production should be performed in the private sector with as little government interference as possible. U.S. production overwhelmed that of the Axis Powers as a result and the transition back to peace-time production was vastly eased. He is a little-recognized American Hero. Margaret Thatcher "Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy." Pajama Boy for ObamaCare Ayn Rand on Lack of Self-Direction "The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap." From The Fountainhead Bastiat on Socialism "Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a wholewith their common aim of legal plunderconstitute socialism." Frederic Bastiat, 1801-1850 James Madison Property is "every thing to which a man may attach a value and have a right; and which leaves to every one else the like advantage." "He has a property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person. He has equal property in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them." "Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own." "That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where arbitrary restrictions, exemptions, and monopolies deny to part of its citizens that free use of their faculties, and free choice of their occupations, which not only constitute their property in the general sense of the word; but are the means of acquiring property so called." "If there be a government then which prides itself in maintaining the inviolability of property: which provides that none shall be taken directly even for public use without indemnification to the owner, and yet directly violates the property which individuals have in their opinions, their religion, their persons, and their faculties; nay more, which indirectly violates their property, in their actual possessions, in the labor that acquires their daily subsistence, and in the hallowed remnant of time which ought to relieve their fatigues and soothe their cares, ... such a government is not a pattern for the United States." [Yet such a property violating government we now have.] Obama According to Ron Pisaturo "My opponents dont have a plan for the economy, for education, for training, for retirement, for health care, for energy, for jobs, for wages, for investments, for diets. What kind of dictators are they?" Ron Pisaturo's paraphrase of Obama's State of the Union Address in January 2014. Starve the Kleptocracy and Tyranny John Galt on the Battle John Galt says in Galt's Speech in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence of that which is man: for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the Morality of Life and that yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth. Groucho Marx "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." Charles in Pensacola, FL Andrew Jackson "Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society -- the farmers, mechanics, and laborers -- who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government .... If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, [government] would be an unqualified blessing." Jay Leno "The White House admitted President Obamas chief of staff had advance warning that the IRS was targeting conservative groups. President Obama says the first time he heard about the IRS and AP scandals was from the media. See, thats why President Obama holds press conferences. Its not to explain whats going on. Its to find out whats going on." Government is too big to be well-managed even by a competent manager. It is now apparent what happens when the chief executive is incompetent, but is convinced he is the chief Progressive Elitist. Thomas Jefferson "The democracy will cease when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." James I, King of Great Britain "The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth, for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods." There is historical precedent for the level of hubris of the Progressive Elitist rulers of our time. Just as James I tried to rule independently of Parliament with a claim of god-like knowledge, so does Obama rule independently of our Congress, secure in the belief that he too has a god-like knowledge of what is best for the People. 2nd Amendment Right Calvin Coolidge Reduced top income tax rate to 25%. Reduced the national debt. Balanced and reduced the budget. Vetoed 50 bills. "I am for economy, and after that I am for more economy. It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. A Novel by Gen LaGreca Jean Jacques Burlamaqui "Natural liberty is the right, which nature gives to all mankind, of disposing of their persons and property, after the manner they judge most convenient to their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, and their not abusing it to the prejudice of their fellow men. To this right of liberty there is a reciprocal obligation corresponding, by which the law of nature binds all mankind to respect the liberty of other men, and not to disturb them in the use they make of it, so long as they do not abuse it." Frederick Douglass Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. Pamela Geller In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, Defeat Jihad Roger Scruton, 2006 The English law existed not to control the individual but to free him. Laurence J. Peter Against logic there is no armor like ignorance. Ben Franklin - 2nd Amendment This is why every individual has the right to defend himself, as recognized in the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights. "Democracy... Is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty... Is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." John Milton "Where there is much desire to learn, here of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making." Cato's Letters "the power which every Man has over his own Actions, and his Right to enjoy the Fruits of his own Labour, Art, and Industry, as far as by it he hurts not the Society, or any Members of it, by taking from any Member, or by hindering him from enjoying what he himself enjoys." They Would Rule the People Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged, Part II Democracy -- The Suicide "Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814 Thomas Jefferson "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Praise the Constitution Ayn Rand: Philosophical Detection Alan MacFarlane, 1978 The majority of ordinary people in England from at least the thirteenth century were rampant individualists, highly mobile both geographically and socially, economically rational, market-oriented and acquisitive, ego-centered in kinship and social life. Perhaps this is no surprise, for it makes them very like their descendants. On Error and Judgment by Ayn Rand An error made on your own is safer than ten truths accepted on faith, because the first leaves you the means to correct it, but the second destroys your capacity to distinguish truth from error. Howard Roark at his trial: "I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need." ..... "I wished to come and say that the integrity of a man's creative work is of greater importance than any charitable endeavor. Those of you who do not understand this are the men who're destroying the world." ... "I recognize no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to take no part in a slave society." Thomas Jefferson "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." Support Science, Reason Atlas Shrugged Part I - The Movie Thomas Paine on Reason California Venus George Bernard Shaw "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." Paul's immorality is soon characteristic of the entire society, contributing evermore to strife and conflict and the discouragement of productive labor. Fight Big Government Thomas Paine on Principle "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." Limited Government Capitalism is the only system that allows Individuals to make their own moral choices and to act upon them. Without individual moral choice, there is no morality and society is mean, brutal, envious, and depressing. The Homage of Reason "Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson Tocqueville a mans admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him. First ObamaCare Stole Your Body In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours. But to win it requires your total dedication and a total break with the world of your past, with the doctrine that man is a sacrificial animal who exists for the pleasure of others. Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence of that which is man: for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the Morality of Life and that yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, and grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth. John Galt in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Hunter -- A Thriller by Robert Bidinotto Socialized Medicine Immoral Government Health Care Barack Hussein Obama A Compass that almost always points to the South Pole. Consensus Consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually"- Abba Eban Obama's Socialism Rose Robbins - Singer/Songwriter Who is John Galt? From John Galt's Speech to Americans in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: "I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values." "Man's mind is his basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is given to him, its sustenance is not. His mind is given to him, its content is not. To remain alive, he must act, and before he can act, he must know the nature and purpose of his action." "But to think is an act of choice." ..... "In any hour and issue of your life, you are free to think or to evade that effort. But you are not free to escape from your nature, from the fact that reason is your means of survival -- so that for you , who are a human being, the question 'to be or not to be" is the question 'to think or not to think.' "A being of volitional consciousness has no automatic course of behavior. He needs a code of values to guide his actions. 'Value' is that which one acts to gain and keep, 'virtue' is the action by which one gains and keeps it. 'Value' presupposes an answer to the question: of value to whom and for what? 'Value' presupposes a standard, a purpose and the necessity of action in the face of an alternative. Where there are no alternatives, no values are possible." "There is only one fundamental alternative in the universe: existence or non-existence -- and it pertains to a single class of entities: to living organisms." "Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice -- and the alternative his nature offers is: rational being or suicidal animal. Man has to be man -- by choice; he has to hold his life as a value -- by choice; he has to learn to sustain it -- by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues -- by choice." "A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality." "Man's life is the standard of morality, but your own life is its purpose . If existence on earth is your goal, you must choose your actions and values by the standard of that which is proper to man -- for the purpose of preserving, fulfilling and enjoying the irreplaceable value which is your life." "Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death. Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values. A morality that dares to tell you to find happiness in the renunciation of your happiness -- to value the failure of your values -- is an insolent negation of morality. A doctrine that gives you, as an ideal, the role of sacrificial animal seeking slaughter on the altar of others, is giving you death as your standard. By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man -- every man -- is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose." Thus said John Galt, or shall we say Ayn Rand, the great novelist, philosopher, moralist, and Capitalism's greatest moral defender. The quoted sections above are an abridgment of John Galt's speech in the novel Atlas Shrugged . Between the quotes, no changes were made. A Call to the Sons of Liberty John Paul Jones Charles R. Anderson, Ph. D. The First Known Use of the Concept Freedom The Rational Mind Seeks Truth in the critical observation and understanding of reality. Reality is primary, not man's wishes and whims. Followers Elizabeth Zanzinger Total Pageviews They're doing the most about it in the Franch media Like ok he quit his job ??? Less than 1% of the population know who he is and 1% of those care lmao Edited at 2016-02-06 10:35 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link When I read the first two points, I thought he was cool... then my opinion of him shrunk after that. Dancers are dancers, they're not liasons between sponsors and the ballet company -- that's HIS job. IDK the whole story of the body double in Black Swan, but from what I've heard and based on the video clips of the CGI process I totally believe the dancer that she did the majority of Natalie's dancing. Reply Thread Link i saw the first vfx reel for Black Swan before it got taken down and they clearly showed how they put Natalie's head on another dancer that part was suspiciously missing in the new reel ha, ofc yt has a video: Reply Parent Thread Link Yes this was it ! I believe Natalie did some dancing -- it just wasn't as good as Sarah's and IIRC most of the dancing WAS full body or focused on the feet. Reply Parent Thread Link This is such a non story. The actress was not going to be a prima Ballerina with three months training, so the producers hired a pro, with the full expectation that they would use her moves in the film. That is what she got paid for...Helloooo...that was the expectation and the contract...was the movie going to be about Natalie Portmans character and then switch to the character of Sarah Lane? Welcome to how movies are made (and completely paid for and credited I might add).... Let me be the first to line up for Sarah Lane's next big feature about Buffalo Women of the Wild West. Reply Parent Thread Link Honestly, I don't know about Europe but in North America, the dancers really have to participate in networking with the sponsors and donors. Ticket sales and govt support are not enough to support the arts and people are more likely to give if they feel a connection to the artists than a professional fundraiser. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link they're not liasons between sponsors and the ballet company Yes, Yes totally Reply Parent Thread Link the closer it got to the oscar's the more they downplayed the stunt dancer's involvement, it was pretty messed up tbh. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I like his tat. Other than that Idc. Reply Thread Link it looks like a Victorian pull-chain toilet Reply Parent Thread Link It's a Bauhaus album. Reply Parent Thread Link Rumors that Natalie is unhappy living in Paris i find that one hard to believe, she is all about living the pretentious ~Parisian~ life Edited at 2016-02-06 10:38 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link Chic Parisian are probably the only group of people who can out-snob her. Reply Parent Thread Link was she the one who commented about Parisian dinner party conversation? Or was the GOOP? Reply Parent Thread Link It was both. Reply Parent Thread Link lol, the Parisian life in anything but prestigious, unless you're wealthy. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i'm not surprised about this tbh. she was always seen flying back and forth between paris and la, like a ridiculous amount. i just don't see her willing to take off a few years and disappear living there for a while. Reply Parent Thread Link she's probably pissed because Parisians aren't impressed with her "I looove you guys & I'm one of you" act Reply Parent Thread Link He wanted dancers to find rich patrons I dry-heaved. This shit is actually evil, not to mention very 19th century. I thought we were over this thing where ballet is just a classy form of prostitution. Reply Thread Link I was thinking the same thing. :( Reply Parent Thread Link mte how vile Reply Parent Thread Link Pretty much my interpretation too Reply Parent Thread Link When I read that I figured he's either trying to have his dancers sleep with patrons OR have them try to create personal relationships which may or may not be sexual, but either way that is not a dancer's fucking job. Reply Parent Thread Link Aurelie dupont is queen. That is all. Reply Thread Link I'm surprised they're still together Reply Thread Link after reading this... yeah he seems like someone natalie portman would marry Reply Thread Link My friend does ballet and she taught me a lot about it. But, anyway, I would go online and look up videos just when I was bored at night and there would be some 13 year old dancing and a TON of people would be in the comments shredding everything that she did. Like, some of the nastiest, pickiest comments I have ever seen on youtube were from the ballet community. No matter the video-child who has recently picked it up or someone considered the best ballerina in the world-still nasty, aggressive commentary. It is really weird because I would have thought "ballet culture" would be above that? Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah, even at "fun" studios, the pressure is always there. It's part of the art form to have beautiful lines and having "extra weight" doesn't let the lines of positions stand out as nicely. Reply Parent Thread Link When I was like 11 I was already like a C-cup, and I remember trying on costumes for the Nutcracker. I was playing a soldier and we had these really form fitting jackets we had to wear, and the costume lady said in front of like two dozen other dancers, "You'd better tape down your boobs for the shows, we don't make costumes for people as big as you." And people wonder why I have body image issues. Reply Parent Thread Link A friend of mine went to a ballet high school and one of the teachers told them that they should always save half a banana from their meal so that they'd have something with potassium when they purged after the meal. That's messed up to tell anyone, much less a teenage girl. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This makes me so happy for the combination of my Kentucky school and my complete obliviousness. Reply Parent Thread Link Did you find this to be true with the male dancers? I always empathize with girls who do certain sports and their future is determined by how puberty treats them. I know guys don't have it 100% easy but I always think that professions like ballet doesn't lend itself to the same strictness to men as it does women. Reply Parent Thread Link Saw them a couple of times in Paris. She always looked miserable af and he looked douchetastic. Reply Thread Link Wanted to make the company more contemporary. This alone is enough to put ballet aficionados backs up. Operation: destroy Reply Thread Link "Tried to make the dancers hustle for more money. He wanted dancers to find rich patrons and corporate sponsors to raise money. The dancers feel they are there to dance, not pimp themselves out. A lot of people considered this a very tacky, sleazy move." Like in Flesh and Bone. 0_0 Reply Thread Link My thought too, he's like the head guy in Flesh and Bone. Reply Parent Thread Link He and Natalie seem like the world's most pretentious couple. Reply Thread Link He should get with Joshua Jackson & John Krasinski and watch the Superbowl together. Reply Thread Link wait, what John Krasinski did? D: Reply Parent Thread Link What did Joshua Jackson and John Krasinski say? Reply Parent Thread Link Call it the new era of reverse negatives. Its not that the Alberta government did something good as much as it didnt do something bad. The NDPs long-awaited royalty review was released January 29 and depending upon where the final royalty curves end up (the future royalty rates for oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids were not released and have yet to be determined), the outcome for the oilfield services sector (OFS) could be neutral to positive. Again, its not so much this is good news. It was already announced the royalty regime would not change in 2016. Nor is it bad news which, in this market, is positive. The oil industry and the investors who support it had every reason to be nervous. In the 2015 election campaign, aspiring premier Rachel Notleys platform contained the following confidence-shattering nuggets; The PCs haverefused to implement realistic oil royalties that the people who own the resources all of us deserve. The reason for this refusal is clear: Jim Prentice and the PCs are too close, much too close, to a small minority of Albertans who benefit from the status quo under the PCs, while the people of Alberta as a whole are deprived of much of the benefit of our own resources. That hundreds of thousands of Albertans directly and indirectly benefit from internationally competitive royalties was either not understood or not sufficiently attractive to the NDP voter base. After election the NDP moved quickly to raise corporate taxes, large emitter carbon taxes, income taxes on high earners, minimum wages and unveiled a $3 billion-per-year carbon tax program, all the while calling Alberta the embarrassing cousin of Confederation. Industry managers, workers and investors can be forgiven for being apprehensive about what the NDP had planned for royalties. The review panel included business leaders but so did the much-reviled 2007 process. That didnt change the outcome in 2007. However, the dismal state of oil prices, Albertas economy and changing world oil markets most certainly created an undeniable economic case that it was impossible to expect Albertas battered oilpatch to contribute even more revenue to the province. The title of the 209-page report on the Energy Alberta website read, Alberta at a Crossroads. The opening line of the executive summary goes, The future of Albertas energy industry is not going to be like the past Our panel found that, overall, Albertas royalties are comparable with other jurisdictions. Related: U.S. Rig Count In Free Fall: Plunges By 48 In One Week Therefore, the focus was on transparency and modernizing the regime as opposed to collecting more money. As Premier Notley said when the package was announced, It is not the time to reach out and make a big money grab, because that is not going to help Albertans. The fact the largest historical customer for Albertas oil and gas United States is now a major competitor was not lost on the reviewing panel nor the government. Historically, OFS has been roadkill when it came to governments deciding on appropriate economic rent from oil and gas production. When PC leader Peter Lougheed became premier in 1971, he set a new target royalty of 19 percent to 23 percent after the marginal (maximum) rate had been 16 2/3 percent for the previous decade. When oil prices started rising in 1973 and a battle for wellhead production windfalls between Ottawa and Edmonton began, the result was a process which saw Albertas marginal royalty rate rise beyond 50 percent. Fortunately, oil prices were rising enough that governments were able to have an epic federal / provincial battle culminating in the National Energy Program (NEP) in 1980 without materially impairing capital spending and drilling activity. It was only after the NEP was introduced that OFS realized that it had to get on the public policy map when big oil and big governments fought over oil money. The downturn in the 1980s has largely been blamed on low oil prices. What is seldom discussed is Albertas higher royalty rates (three to four times higher than they were in the 1950s and 1960s) remained in place, offset periodically by royalty deductions in the form of drilling incentives to keep OFS alive. By 1991, the Alberta government realized its royalty regime was not competitive and introduced a major reduction which was the foundation of many years of growth and prosperity. This lasted until the PC leadership race to replace then Premier Ralph Klein in 2006 when royalties again became a public policy issue. The New Royalty Framework introduced in 2007 was widely regarded as a disaster because it raised royalties significantly. Then oil prices began falling within a year and collapsed by late 2008 making the new policy worse. In 2010, the government undertook a competitiveness review and reduced royalties, plus added incentives in the form of reduced front-end royalties for horizontal drilling. This system will remain in place until the so-called Modern Royalty Framework recommended by the review panel takes effect January 1, 2017. The current regime has been grandfathered for 10 years for wells drilled through to the end of 2016. In the past, royalties have been increased during times of rising or high oil prices and aggressive capital spending. This has disguised the impact on OFS. Since that time, OFS trade associations have been active in explaining the size and depth of the upstream oil and gas supply chain and how taking more cash out of the system at the wellhead through higher royalties negatively affects OFS. People are finally listening. Governments and producers have for several years been trumpeting the importance of this supply chain nationally as a justification for continued oilsands development. The oilsands royalty regime is considered to be acceptable in its current form. The reports authors do not foresee any major investments in greenfield oilsands mines in the near future, a factor of low commodity prices, high development costs, a lack of lower-cost pipeline access to tidewater and competitive investments with faster payouts in light tight oil and shale gas. The regime for conventional drilling for light tight oil and shale gas will change probably for the better depending on where the royalty curves are finally set. Presently on horizontal wells a 5 percent royalty is levied on the first 30,000 to 50,000 barrels produced or a certain time has transpired varying for wellbore depth and length. When prices were higher, a good well could pay out under this regime before a higher royalty rate was charged. However, at current prices this formula is acting as a disincentive. With oil prices down 60 percent few if any prospects can achieve invested capital payout based on barrels produced at the 5 percent rate, even with greatly reduced service prices. Related: Obama Proposes $10 Tax On Each Barrel Of Oil Starting January 1 next year, the 5 percent royalty rate will be paid until the capital cost of drilling and completion is recovered. This will be based on a well cost schedule for various prospects in different parts of Albertas basin. This formula is similar to that employed in the oilsands and many other regimes around the world where the government leases mineral rights. The report also recommended a specialized program for enhanced oil recovery from existing wells in fields and for experimental wells that may lead to recovery from different producing horizons or technological improvements which can be employed industrywide. While this should make the economics work for more prospects it is in the Alberta governments best interests to reduce drilling and completion costs, which will accelerate payout resulting in higher royalties. This caused the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) to comment; CAODC is concerned about the Alberta Governments objective to incentivize oil and gas producers to reduce costs through the Drilling and Completion Cost Allowance at the same time Edmonton is driving up costs through higher fuel taxes, increased corporate taxes, carbon levies and a higher minimum wage. The CAODC also noted the report says the royalty regimes are more attractive in Saskatchewan and British Columbia than Alberta. The panel and government ignored the CAODCs request to reduce royalties to encourage drilling and offset higher provincial tax rates. Although the general response by industry and media has been positive, there is a critical element missing; the post-2016 royalty curves. Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) president Tim McMillan told the media, The numbers werent laid out today, and those are going to matter. Apparently this information will be released by March 31, 2016. So, before OFS breaks out the no-brand beer (nobody can afford champagne this year) and toasts to better days ahead, the shape of the as-yet unknown royalty curves are extremely important. The graphic above is from the Energy Alberta website. These are the royalty curves which are sensitive to volume and prices. The top graph shows the marginal royalty rate at 40 percent. Introduced in 2010, this replaced the 2009 royalty curves introduced in the New Royalty Framework of 2007 which raised the marginal royalty rate to 50 percent on January 1, 2009 (lower chart). Related: Despite Bold Predictions, T. Boone Pickens Sells All Oil Holdings That Albertas royalties on conventional production (light tight oil and shale gas are still classified as conventional) are sensitive to both price and volume works well for developers and the Crown. When things are going well, the Crown prospers. When prices and individual well productivity decline, the royalty system acts as an incentive to keep wells on stream. The general reaction to the royalty review has been positive, conditional, of course, on the final royalty curves and rates. It is remarkable how much positive press the program received considering one of the most important elements of the long-term rate of return on investment was missing. Many who speculated on the outcome of the review felt the status quo would prevail when prices were low, but if prices spiked again, the marginal rate would be higher than it is now. This may still be the case. Dissent over the royalty review within the NDPs historic support base has already begun. Alberta Federation of Labor president Gil McGowan and federal NDP candidate in the last federal election has already publicly criticized Premier Notley when he told the Edmonton Journal February 1, We think the government got it wrong on royalties. While McGowan said he accepts not charging higher royalties when prices are very low, he wants higher royalties with higher oil prices. Specifically we argued that one of the big problems with Albertas current royalty system is that it has failed to collect a reasonable share for the public at high prices. Again, nobody should call this file closed until the final royalty curves are revealed. In the meantime, for OFS this could be one less problem to deal with during extremely difficult business conditions. If the royalty curves dont end up too onerous, perhaps this will be a signal to domestic and international investors Albertas NDP government will listen to markets and industry as it moves forward. By David Yager for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: This is the blog of David J. Olson, a global development consultant with 20+ years experience on five continents, and covers global development, related policy and communications and non-profit use of social media. I welcome comments, quips and musings. To document, from published articles, suicides of registered and former sex offenders, as well as persons accused of sex offenses. For more see Blog Overview Syrian, US and Russians in deadly confrontations: (There's no way there's only 50 US military in Syria, as was initially reported by the Defense Department .....no way. Maybe, the number are 50, with a few zeros added...) "Mass population displacement also appears part of the Kremlins strategy. Seventy thousand Syrian civilians have fled Aleppos countryside for the Turkish border since Russias sorties intensified in the last few days. (I have long wondered if the massive Syrian refugee humanitarian crisis, now swarming into Europe, are part of the to take over Syria.) American politicians are obsessed with the 2016, election, with many executive and legislative positions on the ballot for voter approval (or disapproval). Indeed, the world is in a fragile state, transcending the political labels and personal attacks. As one New Hampshire primary voter acknowledged, "the world is a tinder box right now". In fact, the posturing of dangerous world leaders like Bashar al-Assad of Syria, President Vladimir Putin in Russia and Kim Jong-un of North Korea, to name a few evil leaders, are chilling. Although these three world leaders are lurking in the shadows, while directing henious power politics, the United States may be involved in overt actions against Russian forces in Syria. This agressive situation, if reports about it are correct, puts the US military in public face-to-face confrontation with Russians. In the past, war games were "fought" between Russians and Americans, but they were largely "secretly" ignored. It's even likely that clandistine operations may have put Americans and Russians frignteningly closer to an Armageddon than we need to know. Now, secret operations, apparentlay directed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are reported happening in Syria. But, they aren't so clandistine anymore. Nevertheless, they're every bit as dangerous and deadly. The Daily Beast Reports: A CIA-backed anti-Assad militia reportedly killed at least one senior Russian military official this week with an American TOW anti-tank missile. Is this a Soviet-Afghan replay? Evidence has emerged strongly suggesting that U.S.-armed rebels have used an American-supplied weapons system to kill a handful of senior Russian military officials in Video footage, circulated by a k nown CIA-backed Free Syrian Army militia, shows a laser-guided BGM-71 TOWs anti-tank missile fired at a rooftop where unidentified uniformed personnel had gathered. The location of the building under attack is likely Latakia province , where the rebels have lately suffered setbacks as a result of intensified Everything is based on open-source intelligence and reporting from Syrian opposition, Turkish, and Russian sources, all of which agree that at least one high-ranking Russian was killed in action in Syria. As of Thursday evening, U.S. officials would neither confirm nor deny to The Daily Beast whether an increase in resupplies to U.S.-backed rebel militias was in the offing as a result of the complete and utter Evidence has emerged strongly suggesting that U.S.-armed rebels have used an American-supplied weapons system to kill a handful of senior Russian military officials in Syria Video footage, circulated by a k, where the rebels have lately suffered setbacks as a result of intensified Russian airstrikes and artillery shelling aiding forces loyal to Bashar al-Assads regime. Everything is based onand reporting from Syrian opposition, Turkish, and Russian sources, all of which agree that at least one high-ranking Russian was killed in action in Syria. As of Thursday evening, U.S. officials would neither confirm nor deny to The Daily Beast whether an increase in resupplies to U.S.-backed rebel militias was in the offing as a result of the complete and utter breakdown of Syrian peace negotiations in Geneva taking out Russian commanders with American materiel, then two former Cold War adversaries would find themselves in a miniature replay of the Soviet-Afghan proxy warexactly the sort of geopolitical brinkmanship that President Obama has repeatedly forsworn. More significantly, such a contingency could derail any creeping efforts at diplomatic reconciliation between Washington and Moscow after a severe breakdown of relations following Russias invasion and annexation of Ukraine in 2014. On Wednesday, the FSAs Northern Division, one of the 39 anti-Assad militias backed by the CIA, About an hour later, Russias state-owned By 7:23 p.m. Wednesday, an opposition group known as the Revolutionary Forces of Syria , Aleksandr Kots and Dmitry Steshin, two reporters from the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravdaboth of whom gained notoriety for their propagandistic dispatches from the war in Ukrainecited unofficial reports that a Russian officer acting as a military adviser to the Syrian regime had died from multiple shrapnel wounds sustained during a mortar attack outside Salma. But if the FSA is indeedMore significantly, such a contingency could derail any creeping efforts at diplomatic reconciliation between Washington and Moscow after a severe breakdown of relations following Russias invasion and annexation of Ukraine in 2014.On Wednesday, the FSAs Northern Division, one of the 39 anti-Assad militias backed by the CIA, uploaded a video showing one of its soldiers firing a TOW missile at half a dozen or so unidentified uniformed men gathered on a rooftop of a building. The video, uploaded at 5:57 GMT, named the targets as Russian officers but gave no details about the exact location of the attack apart from noting that it was somewhere near Syrias coastthe region of the country where Russia has recently constructed forward operating bases and airfields. There was little doubt that whoever was on that roof didnt survive the resulting blast.About an hour later, Russias state-owned TASS news agency reported that a Russian officer who had been advising the Assads army had indeed been killed in Syrianot by U.S.-backed rebels but by ISIS, which allegedly hit a military garrison with mortars on Monday. No location for this attack was given.By 7:23 p.m. Wednesday, an opposition group known as the Revolutionary Forces of Syria appeared to corroborate the Northern Divisions claim and isolated the rooftop blast to the Jabal al-Akrad mountain region of northern Latakia, Assads ancestral home where pro-regime forceshelped considerably by Russian airpower and artillery recently scored a major victory in pushing the rebels out of their main provincial stronghold of Salma. By 8:19, a precise coordinate arrived by way of the pro-opposition Local Coordination Committees, which reported that 15 militants, including 3 Russian officers and 4 Assads forces officers [sic] had been killed by a TOW in Marj Khawkha. This is a village just outside of Salma, where the presence of Russian troops has been confirmed by independent media . Turkeys Anadolu Agency then picked up the story , specifying that four Russian generals were among 15 officials killed in the Jabal al-Akrad hit. One of the generals was identified only as Yuri. All of Anadolus claims were attributed to anonymous Syrian opposition sources. At 8:30 p.m. , Aleksandr Kots and Dmitry Steshin, two reporters from theThis article, however, attributed the attack to Turkish armed forces, relying on what the Syrian Foreign Ministry had evidently told Kots and Steshin. Another Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist gave the unnamed dead Russians rank as lieutenant colonel and added that hed been working in Syria since 2012, training the Syrian military in the use of heavy equipment. Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber that had briefly entered Turkish airspace on Nov. 24, Moscow has retaliated with information warfare (Putin has accused the NATO member of buying oil from ISIS, something his client in Damascus continues to do Ever since), sanctions canceled pipeline talks, and a high-octane form of deterrence. Russias most sophisticated air defense system, the S-400 , arrived in Syria not long thereafter. Part of the impetus for retaking Salma was to deliver a hammer-blow to Ankaras preferred proxy, ethnic Turkmen rebels who have operated in mountain ranges of Latakia and Idlib provinces. This week, Russia Mass population displacement also appears part of the Kremlins strategy. Seventy thousand Syrian civilians have fled Aleppos countryside for the Turkish border since Russias sorties intensified in the last few days. The Komsomolskaya Pravdaaccusation seems consistent with a coordinated anti-Turkish messaging campaign. Complicating matters further, however, was a report in Russias independent newspaper This isnt the first time a Russian serviceman has been killed in combat in Syria. Following the downing of the Russian Su-24 (the pilot of which was killed), a Russian military helicopter, searching for the surviving navigator, was brought down in the mountains of Latakia. The final piece of evidence was furnished again on Thursday by the Northern Division, which posted a The Anti-Aircraft Battalion affiliated with the Northern Division got information from the battalion commander that some Russians were scouting in the Turkmen Mountains. We took the [TOW] base and, following the reconnaissance mission, we found a number of Russian soldiers gathered on the rooftop of a building. I dealt with them and one of the dead was a high-ranking Russian officer, alongside some Russian officers and Syrian officers. This appeared to conform to what the Local Coordination Committees and Anadolu Agency had earlier published. Qalaat al-Mudiq, a pseudonymous military analyst who studies the Syria conflict, told The Daily Beast that videographic evidence of TOW use on the battlefield had trickled off in the last months of 2015 and totally vanished in the first two weeks of 2016. The decrease happened after the record number of 115 TOWs recorded in October, al-Mudiq said. There were 73 in November and 49 in December. There were no recorded TOW launches in January until the 12th, and that entire month saw only 22 in total. February has already been a return to prior use frequency. In the first three days of this month, al-Mudiq has already found videos of 16 TOW launchesincluding the one that purportedly killed one or more Russians in Latakia. The provision of this munition is both limited and highly regulated. The TOWs are supplied directly by Saudi Arabia, from stocks purchased from the United States, and with an end-user agreement that allows a U.S. veto on where they are used and by whom. According to multiple FSA sources, who spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, rebels are trained in teams of 50 in Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia, but mainly in the first two countries. After this training, they get back to the border, they get inside Syria, and then they get their gear, one Jordan-based rebel liaison familiar with the TOW supply chain said. With the TOW, each 50-man team gets one launcher and five missiles. Theyre told to make a video verifying the missiles use and bring the spent missile casings to show they havent sold them or whatever. Part of the impetus for retaking Salma was to deliver a hammer-blow to Ankaras preferred proxy, ethnic Turkmen rebels who have operated in mountain ranges of Latakia and Idlib provinces. This week, Russia accused Turkey of preparing a military incursion into northern Syria.The Komsomolskaya Pravdaaccusation seems consistent with a coordinated anti-Turkish messaging campaign.Complicating matters further, however, was a report in Russias independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta that Igor Konashenkov, the chief spokesman for Russias Ministry of Defense, said the officer had died in a hospital Monday from ISIS mortar fire, which also killed four Syrian military trainees. Konashenkov gave no date for the attack, but unnamed sources told the paper that it occurred over a week ago, on Jan. 26. Also, it was at a training center nowhere near Latakia but in Homs City. (There is no known ISIS presence in that city, or within striking mortar range of it.)This Rebel fighters claimed that they had used a TOW missile to strike the helicopter. One Russian marine was killed The final piece of evidence was furnished again on Thursday by the Northern Division, which posted a follow-up video interspersing statements from the TOW gunner seen in the original with the raw footage of the attack. An officer from the Northern Division stated on camera:alongside some Russian officers and Syrian officers. This appeared to conform to what the Local Coordination Committees and Anadolu Agency had earlier published.Qalaat al-Mudiq, a pseudonymous military analyst who studies the Syria conflict, told The Daily Beast that videographic evidence of TOW use on the battlefield had trickled off in the last months of 2015 and totally vanished in the first two weeks of 2016. The decrease happened after the record number of 115 TOWs recorded in October, al-Mudiq said. There were 73 in November and 49 in December. There were no recorded TOW launches in January until the 12th, and that entire month saw only 22 in total. February has already been a return to prior use frequency. In the first three days of this month, al-Mudiq has already found videos of 16 TOW launchesincluding the one that purportedly killed one or more Russians in Latakia.The provision of this munition is both limited and highly regulated. The TOWs are supplied directly by Saudi Arabia, from stocks purchased from the United States, and with an end-user agreement that allows a U.S. veto on where they are used and by whom. According to multiple FSA sources, who spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, rebels are trained in teams of 50 in Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia, but mainly in the first two countries. After this training, they get back to the border, they get inside Syria, and then they get their gear, one Jordan-based rebel liaison familiar with the TOW supply chain said. With the TOW, each 50-man team gets one launcher and five missiles. Theyre told to make a video verifying the missiles use and bring the spent missile casings to show they havent sold them or whatever. TOW recipients are part of a CIA-spearheaded program, featuring intelligence agencies of several Western and regional countries . TOWs have been shown to render the regimes dwindling stock of Soviet-era armored vehicles into fiery gnarls of metal. Recently, however, these vehicles have been Rebel recipients of the laser-guided munition have also killed generals and lower-ranking officers from Irans Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hezbollah, and Assads National Defense Forces, an Iranian-built militia of Shia and Alawite loyalists, under as-yet-undetermined circumstances. Forty IRGC officers were killed in Aleppo in a single month during the regimes first offensive last November. Yet the recent influx of Russian military advisers and now, reportedly, Spetsnaz commandos, has made it all but certain that American proxies would eventually rack up Russian casualties with American-made hardware. There are an estimated The CIA program predates and was always distinct from the now-defunct Pentagon-run train and equip mission, which, at a price of $500 million, envisaged a strictly anti-ISIS counterterrorism squad made up of Sunni Arabs and Sunni Turkmen fighters, collectively known as the New Syrian Forces. Train and equips recruits all came from U.S.-approved FSA groups, but the program ended in calamity last October after The Daily Beast While the TOW is a signature of Americas involvement in the anti-Assad rebellion, its value to rebels on the battlefield is considered secondary to other known anti-tank systemsall of them, ironically, Russian-made. The TOW missiles are not a big deal, said Isam El Rayyes, the spokesman for the FSAs Southern Front, a umbrella organization of 35,000 fighters, many of whom are TOW recipients. Its less sophisticated than other weapons we have, but its gotten a lot of media attention because its American. The TOWs, El Rayyes noted, are mostly used in Syrias rural areas against tanks and BMPs parked on country roads, the reason being their limited range. The TOWs given to rebels can travel a maximum of 3.7 kilometers. The fighters consider the Russian Konkur and Kornet missile more effective because missile resupplies for these systems are more readily availableeasily seized from regime stockpilesand they fly farther. The Konkurs rebels have confiscated from Syrian army warehouses can reach up to 5 kilometers. The Southern Front is supplied by several Western and regional intelligence agencies, all coordinating in the Military Operations Command, or MOC, in Amman. El Rayyes denies that the groups stream of armaments has dwindled to a trickle as a result of renewed diplomatic pressure to cajole the Southern Front into attending peace talks in Switzerland, as has been reported mainly in the pro-Assad media. Rather, he says, MOC-licensed resupplies have remained as low as they ever were. The Southern Front has never been adequately equipped by its backers for fear that it might actually succeed in achieving a military solution to a conflict that Washington insists has only a political terminus. But the fronts constituent militias have suffered heavily from Russian airstrikes in the last two months. Since Nov. 28, the Russians have carried out more than 800 sorties in Deraa province alone, forcing the rebels loss of the town of Sheikh al-Maskeen. The indiscriminate bombing campaign, analyzed and denounced by human-rights monitors, has These airstrikes are like hell, El Rayyes said, adding that theres now a new pro-regime offensive being pressed in Atman, a town just north of Deraa City. Weve had 60 Russian bombing raids in 24 hours. The FSA controls Atman exclusively. There is no Nusra or Islamist groups here. The last 48 hours has seen one of the worst setbacks for the Free Syrian Army since the armed uprising against Assad began almost five years ago. Backed by Russian airpower, loyalist forces On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters that a mere 10 percent of all Russian airstrikes have gone after ISIS targetsand then only when ISIS has come into direct confrontation with pro-regime forces. Approximately 4,000 anti-Assad rebels have gone through this ostensibly clandestine program, the source added, meaning that the total number of TOWs that have already circulated throughout Syria is roughly 400.TOW recipients are part of afeaturing 39 select rebel groups , dedicated to fighting the Assad regime and its manifold proxies. The program is coordinated in two joint operations centers, based in Turkey and Jordan, and administered by the. TOWs have been shown to render the regimes dwindling stock of Soviet-era armored vehicles into fiery gnarls of metal. Recently, however, these vehicles have been photographed outfitted with a panoramic turret that many observers believe is a missile detection mechanism, which would itself be an indicator of the high toll the weapon has taken on the Syrian Arab Army. Russian T-90 tanks equipped with active anti-missile protection systems also have appeared lately on the frontlines with both Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah paramilitaries.Rebel recipients of the laser-guided munition have also killed generals and lower-ranking officers from Irans Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hezbollah, and Assads National Defense Forces, an Iranian-built militia of Shia and Alawite loyalists, under as-yet-undetermined circumstances. Forty IRGC officers were killed in Aleppo in a single month during the regimes first offensive last November. Yet the recent influx of Russian military advisers and now, reportedly, Spetsnaz commandos, has made it all but certain that American proxies would eventually rack up Russian casualties with American-made hardware. There are an estimated 4,000 Russian military personnel stationed in Syria.The CIA program predates and was always distinct from the now-defunct Pentagon-run train and equip mission, which, at a price of $500 million, envisaged a strictly anti-ISIS counterterrorism squad made up of Sunni Arabs and Sunni Turkmen fighters, collectively known as the New Syrian Forces. Train and equips recruits all came from U.S.-approved FSA groups, but the program ended in calamity last October after The Daily Beast reported that American military gear including M4 rifles and gun-mounted pickup trucks supplied to the New Syrian Forces second graduating class had been passed along to al Qaedas Syria franchise Jabhat al Nusra. The commander responsible, Abu Zayd, from the Division 30 rebel group, had himself been vetted but not trained by the Pentagon, as U.S. Central Command confirmed.While the TOW is a signature of Americas involvement in the anti-Assad rebellion, its value to rebels on the battlefield is considered secondary to other known anti-tank systemsall of them, ironically, Russian-made.The TOW missiles are not a big deal, said Isam El Rayyes, the spokesman for the FSAs Southern Front, a umbrella organization of 35,000 fighters, many of whom are TOW recipients. Its less sophisticated than other weapons we have, but its gotten a lot of media attention because its American.The TOWs, El Rayyes noted, are mostly used in Syrias rural areas against tanks and BMPs parked on country roads, the reason being their limited range. The TOWs given to rebels can travel a maximum of 3.7 kilometers. The fighters consider the Russian Konkur and Kornet missile more effective because missile resupplies for these systems are more readily availableeasily seized from regime stockpilesand they fly farther. The Konkurs rebels have confiscated from Syrian army warehouses can reach up to 5 kilometers.The Southern Front is supplied by several Western and regional intelligence agencies, all coordinating in the Military Operations Command, or MOC, in Amman. El Rayyes denies that the groups stream of armaments has dwindled to a trickle as a result of renewed diplomatic pressure to cajole the Southern Front into attending peace talks in Switzerland, as has been reported mainly in the pro-Assad media. Rather, he says, MOC-licensed resupplies have remained as low as they ever were.The Southern Front has never been adequately equipped by its backers for fear that it might actually succeed in achieving a military solution to a conflict that Washington insists has only a political terminus. But the fronts constituent militias have suffered heavily from Russian airstrikes in the last two months. Since Nov. 28, the Russians have carried out more than 800 sorties in Deraa province alone, forcing the rebels loss of the town of Sheikh al-Maskeen. The indiscriminate bombing campaign, analyzed and denounced by human-rights monitors, has displaced an estimated 150,000 civilians.Theseadding that theres now a new pro-regime offensive being pressed in Atman, a town just north of Deraa City. Weve had 60 Russian bombing raids in 24 hours. The FSA controls Atman exclusively. There is no Nusra or Islamist groups here.The last 48 hours has seen one of the worst setbacks for the Free Syrian Army since the armed uprising against Assad began almost five years ago. Backed by Russian airpower, loyalist forces led by Hezbollah and Shia militias have managed to sack several strategically crucial settlements in northern Aleppo province, including Hardatnin, Bashkoy, and Mayer, thereby cutting off FSA supply lines from southern Turkey to Syrias industrial heartland. Aleppo City is all but encircled. They have not stopped bombing, a rebel leader withdrawing from Hardatnin told the Guardian on Thursday. All the hospitals have been destroyed. We have around seven attacks an hour every day for a week. There were more than 120 on Tuesday alone.On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters that a mereThe Russians at this point have made it very clear that their offensive operations are in support of Bashar al-Assad and his regime. So when the regime is fighting, whoever the regime is fighting, thats who gets struck.(But those launching the "stucks" could very quickly ignite a Russian-US conflagration.) Labels: Central Intelligence Agency Two major lies are at the root of the Republican presidential primary's negativity campaign- (a) Repbulicans have been in charge of the "do nothing Congress", yet they criticize President Obama; and (b) America's economy has grown in spite of Republican obstructionism. Let's face it, if the Republicans didn't pay plenty to spread lies and negativity, there would be no campaigning at all. People are more or less being asked to vote for the most convincing negative candidate. Only Governor John Kasich-R of Ohio, is trying to counter the Republican negativity tsunami of commercials and stump speeches. Yet, even Kasich's positive stump speech isn't truthful about Ohio rejecting "Obamacare", when he went against his state legislature to pass the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Negativity among the 2016 Presidential candidates flows like volcanic lava. If Americans are to believe the Republican candidates, there hasn't been one moment during the past 7 years of the President Obama administration when our nation has been well served. Nevertheless, what Republicans fail to acknowledge is how their political party have obstructed progressive policies while being in charge of both houses of the US Congress. Copious amounts of money is being spent for the purpose of politically taking candidates down and dismantling the President Obama administration. Being in Maine, watching the New Hampshire news coverage is difficult to watch. In fact, if all the advertisements and stump speeches are to be believed, none of the candidates should be considered qualified to be elected "leader of the free world". Even worse, if Republican candidates are believable, the nation hasn't prospered under President Obama, even though his administration saved the nation from experiencing an economic crises, parellel to the Great Depression. Republican political ads and stump speeches resonate like a reinvented "elephant" logo, ie like they are really the scary and extinct wooly mammoth. Regardless of who among the GOP line-up eventually becomes the Republican presidential nominee 2016, the remainder of this political year will be saturated with negative campaign ads like mud left behind after a storm surge. In my opinion, the Democrats can present voters with a clear and convincing image to establish a positive vision for America. Making this clear distinction between "positive" (Democrat) and "negative" (Republican), should perculate throughout all the political campaigns. Most importantly, an upbeat message should resonate at the top, with the presidential nominee. In fact, the Republican logo, being the elephant, should probably be the extinct "wooly mammoth"; while the Democatic logo, the donkey, should be redesigned as a triple crown winning stallion. Labels: Johnn Kasich, New Hampshire primary The UN legal ruling concerning the unlawful detention of Julian Assange has embarrassed the UK by placing it alongside Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and Egypt as an abuser of human rights. Aside from undermining the UK's already wafer-thin moral reputation, which has been eroded by a catalogue of misdemeanours including its assistance with the US's "Rendition" programme, it has presented the UK with a new problem: it can no longer claim to be simply following the rule of international law when its actions have been declared unlawful by an authority which it has been at pains to support. Assange on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has been ruled by the UN to be unlawfully detained by the UK (Image by dreamstime free images) Details DMCA There are moments in any age which come to define its preoccupations, which act as a weathervane for political currents and for the relationships between governments and those they represent. This is such a moment in our time. When the State becomes larger than the sum of its citizens, and the avarice and personal needs of the few threaten to swamp the general interest and equality of the populace, we commonly see the emergence of awkward, non-compliant figures who challenge the status quo - and pay a heavy price as a consequence. It is in this context we see Martin Luther King's resistance as a challenge to an oppressive white dominance in the US. We see the same struggle, in parallel, in the long imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. The struggle for liberty amongst economically, politically or culturally oppressed peoples in all its varying shades, seems to focus on a few individuals, who are condemned by those they challenge as terrorists, sexual offenders or criminals. It is a situation that MLK would recognise as readily as Mandela or Ghandi. The ad hominem attack is the weapon of choice for those seeking to preserve the status quo and it is - at least temporarily - an effective weapon that resonates with large numbers of the populace, diminishing support for those it is used against. Accusations of sexual misconduct are a popular means of discrediting individuals because they appeal to powerful social taboos that are present in us all. Those who have followed the Assange case sympathetically for the past 6 years will recognise the symptoms of willful State malice against any individual who exposes political, military or administrative wrongdoing by the US and its allies. The Assange affair fits into this context and along with the Edward Snowden case and a host of less well publicised ones represents a challenge to government control of the public narrative - after all, Assange's offence, like Snowden's, has been to tell the people what their governments are doing. Assange has made it the driving principle of his Wikileaks organisation to expose wrongdoing by governments to the glare of public scrutiny - in effect, to the people whose right it is to know what those who purport to act on their behalf are doing in their name. He has paid a heavy price - 6 years in detention and counting: so did Mandela; so did Dr King: many more have and will continue to do so in their attempts to expose incompetent, corrupt or malign government. That is why the stakes in the Assange affair are high and why he is being pursued in such an extraordinary way by the US, UK and Sweden. The facts of the case are not really in dispute and do not seem to provide the locus of the issue: Assange was accused of sexual misdemeanours which were subsequently dropped. The complainants and the Swedish Government changed their minds regarding the matter, for reasons never clarified. In both these critical circumstances, minds were changed on fundamental issues with far-reaching effects. Without recourse to new evidence and with a good deal of obfuscation in the matter, the focus of attention is naturally diverted from the alleged offence to its narrative and context - and to the actions of the Swedish and UK governments. Assange has argued that the matter is a thinly disguised attempt to extradite him to the US. Assange's concerns seem reasonable: the US has a history of subverting governments to its will: 2 years ago the Austrian government grounded a plane carrying the Bolivian President at the US's behest, so that it could search for Edward Snowden - also seeking asylum from US political wrath. It seems entirely plausible to suppose that if the US could persuade Spain to refuse the Bolivian President the use of its airspace and Austria to detain its President - then it would have little difficulty in persuading the Swedish government to change their minds. If we can entertain such ideas, then it is a short leap to accept the notion that the real objective here is not to make a charge against Assange stick, but to provide a route by which he can be extradited to the US - to an uncertain fate. The Assange affair is a seminal moment in the present struggle between government's right to govern and the people's right to know. The UN's legal ruling may have no direct effect in British law but it hardly matters: its moral effect carries weight: the UK is in no position to criticise the human rights of other nations when it is in defiance of a body whom it routinely supports as a legal arbiter on matters of detention. The UK is exposed to charges of hypocrisy today and if it continues to detain Mr Assange unlawfully, then it exposes itself to further damage. Should Ecuador, strengthened by the UN's ruling, submit the matter of his denial of safe passage to the International Criminal Court, then the UK's situation will become an unhappy one indeed. It is imperative now, that the steps necessary to unpick this situation be taken in concert with the Swedish authorities to bring this embarrassing saga to an end. It is a sorry spectacle, figuratively speaking, to see the UK in the same Dock as Saudi Arabia as a co-defendent on human rights abuses. (Article changed on February 6, 2016 at 10:35) (Article changed on February 6, 2016 at 10:51) As Julian Assange stood Friday in front of the Ecuadoran Embassy where he has been living for the last four years in order to avoid deportation to the US via Sweden for launching the era of international whistle-blowing that started the Empire's descent, he talked about his children being deprived of their father, but this day also signals a watershed in the life of the United Nations. Watch What will happen if Assange leaves Ecuador's Embassy... It's been two years since Julian Assange's gained asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. During the time of his refuge there he's grown a beard, given a ... (Image by IN THE NOW, Channel: InTheNowRT) Details DMCA Neither the United Kingdom nor Sweden availed themselves of the opportunity to appeal the decision of the UN's Commission on Human Rights' that Julian Assange was being detained illegally because, as Assange noted, "they knew they would lose". Yet Britain's Foreign Secretary declared that "the decision changes nothing", in a perfect illustration of the way the US and its allies have come to view the UN. Who would have thought, in 1944, as the US, Great Britain and Stalin's Soviet Union finalized plans for the international institution that was to do better than Wilson's League of Nations at making the world a peaceful place, that the UN would so quickly lose the backing of Washington, while the successor to Khruschev's shoe-tapping Soviet Union would campaign to return it to its founding principles? (Principles that would, among others, require heads of state and foreign affairs to respect UN decisions.) When the US realized it could no longer control either the Security Council or the General Assembly, whose members have gone from a founding 51 to almost 200, it turned to disparage-ment, while keeping a firm hand on the choice of the Secretary General. This year promises to be different. Nobody is talking about it yet, the year is newborn and the presidential caucuses are what matter, but we're due to get a new UN Secretary General before it's over and President Putin has several times alluded to the need for the UN to be able to can carry out its peace-preserving mission. We can be pretty certain that the next Secretary General will come from the ranks of the 140-some Non-Aligned countries, perhaps even from one of the BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa. Brazil's President Dilma Roussef is among the declared candidates. European candidates include German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the much younger Federica Mogherini, the EU's Italian Foreign Affairs representative, either of which would probably win President Putin's backing. Much less likely to do so areDalia Grybauskaite President of LithuaniaorKevin Rudd former Prime Minister of Australia, both stridently anti-Russian. Several Eastern European candidates might be acceptable to Moscow, including Vuk Jeremic, former Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former President of the United Nations General Assembly, or Ja'nos Ader, President of Hungary, whose Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has loudly sided with Putin. The unexpected convergence of social views between the European far-right, represented most vociferously by Orban and France's Marine Le Pen, and Russian President Vladimir Putin points to the civilizational divide that overlays the left/right divide, and is likely to play a prominent role in the selection of the next UN Secretary General. The twentieth century was consumed in a knock-down drag -out battle between fascism and one form or another of socialism. But in the seventies, a prominent American political scientist, Samuel Huntington penned an essay that became a meme. "A Clash of Civilizations? is suggestive of what we're seeing today. At the time, I was among its detractors, but now I must admit that Huntington mainly got his time-frame wrong. Also, he viewed the world from a 'colonial' point of view, making the coming clash all about the difference between whites and non-whites, which he referred to as the Confucian/Muslim civilizations. Actually, the Islamic world took the stage even before the fall of Communism (for example, against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan), to oppose the societal model that has grown out of capitalism, in which 1) 'anything goes' and 2) everything can be monetized. People do not only aspire to greater equity, they believe it should be accompanied by a lesser emphasis on 'things' and stronger families. The Western press has made occasional snide references to Vladimir Putin's derogatory assessment of Western culture and his call for Russia to protect its Christian identity and traditional values. Yet when a thousand men believed to be of North African origin sexually molested dozens of women on New Year's Eve in Cologne, Germany, it began to pay attention. One witness heard that the men had entered the EU as part of the summer's migrant wave with the deliberate plan to challenge Western culture. This is even more troubling than reports of arson against refugee accommodations, for although Huntington alludes to it only indirectly, his focus being almost exclusively on the danger of nuclear war and economic issues, gender is largely what the clash of civilizations is about. Most recently, the mayor of a small German town advised local women to dress less provocatively, raising indignation. This was inevitable: religious fervor ensures that as their numbers rise, immigrants are unlikely to conform to local mores, and history shows that 'intruders' invariably transform their hosts instead of conforming to their culture. Since the publication of Huntington's essay twenty years ago, declining traditional values in the West have led, as Vladimir Putin declared in 2015 "to the degradation and primitivization of culture." And while mindful of sweeping generalizations, I am con-vinced that the current standoff between neo-liberal 'freedom' and 'tradition' is as fundamental and meaningful as the economic antagonism between the many and the few. In ninety-four episodes over six years, the television series Sex and the City took its revenge on the Puritan dogma that held sway over American culture for over three hundred years, giving rise to Prohibition and Freud: sex is now 'good for you' and the more the better. As with most cultural memes, this one impacts even distant populations, recently spawning a version in Ghana, even though genital mutilation is still practiced in many parts of Africa the Middle East. While women worldwide are demanding sexual equality, Muslim men in particular resent not only having to submit to the Prophet's injunctions, but to those of the women in their lives. While at its best the West's definition of sexual equality implies that respect and complicity are inseparable from pleasure, the culture of more, which led to the notion that everything in life can be denominated in coin, which in turn led to the no holds barred commercialization and trivialization of sex - is a far cry from that. The same people who defend the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists' right to mock Muhammad defend the Russian group that performed 'sacrilegiously' in a church. The real problem is that the West's primacy of external freedom (freedom to act) culminated in the denigration of internal freedom, which includes moral certainties and religion. And that is where, on a world level, the rubber hits the road. If First Amendment defenders of 'free speech' think back to the Founders, they will realize that the universe those (men) inhabited, far from being similar to ours, would be more easily recognized in Vladimir Putin's Russia and most of the rest of the world. And for those who may wonder about traditional morality's incompatibility with the socialist ethos, the Russian President recently pointed out that the Bible anticipated socialism - as does Islam. Reprinted from Campaign For America's Future The face-off between Senator Bernie Sanders and Secretary Hillary Clinton last night in New Hampshire highlighted the strengths and vulnerabilities of both. Both put in impressive, strong performances. Both got their message out. Voters are left to decide whom they choose to believe. Populism Wins The clear victor of the night was populism. Sanders, of course, drove that subject, with his core message of a rigged economy and a corrupted politics. Clinton chose once more to compete as a progressive populist, both rhetorically and with stronger rhetoric about breaking up banks, and taking on the drug and insurance companies. Populism sets the terms of the debate in the Democratic Party. Sanders champions it; Clinton has chosen to embrace it. It is amazing to watch a debate in which the two Democratic candidates argue about who is the real progressive. The Sanders Challenge Sanders dominated the early portion of the debate, repeating his core message about the rigged economy and corrupted politics. In response to moderators quoting Clinton saying "It's very hard to see how any of his proposals could ever be achievable," Sanders reminded voters that "these are not radical ideas." He took on Clinton's "No, We Can't" refrain directly: Every major country in the world "has managed to provide health care to all people as a right and they are spending significantly less per capita on health care than we are. So I do not accept the belief that the United States of America can't do that." The same is true, he said, with tuition-free college and standing up to the ripoff of the drug companies. Sanders' argument is that our politics are corrupted and the rules are rigged to block these and other reforms. So we need a political revolution -- millions of Americans standing up and demanding change -- if we are to break the hold of big money and entrenched interests. The Clinton Response Clinton's response to this is that Sanders is overpromising. She claimed to be a "progressive who gets things done," and won't "make promises I can't keep." She shared Sanders big goals, she said, but she knows how to fight and make progress. The chattering classes generally scorn Sanders' political revolution and paint as realistic Clinton's call for "working with committees"; reaching out to Republicans, Democrats and independents; and unearthing, as she put it in an earlier town hall, "slivers" of common ground. But we all witnessed Republican scorched-earth obstruction of anything President Obama proposed. No one expects Republicans to lose control of the Congress in 2016. If Republicans dislike Obama, they loathe Clinton. It's hardly plausible that she could get more done. That reality gives the lie to her statement that she's not making promises she can't keep. Sanders' political revolution may be the only way even Clinton's promises could see the light of day. The Sanders Indictment: Money and Corruption Last night, Sanders continued to highlight the contrast between his decision to fund his campaign with small donations and forgo building a super PAC, and Clinton raking in big donations from Wall Street, insurance companies and others. These banks and companies aren't making their contributions for nothing. They are seeking and often get a remarkable return on their dollar. When asked why Clinton enjoyed the most endorsements, even from Democrats in his home state, Sanders said that was not surprising since Clinton was part of the "establishment." Reprinted from Consortium News After nearly 15 years of Mideast war -- with those conflicts growing ever grimmer -- you might expect that peace would be a major topic of the 2016 presidential race. Instead, there has been a mix of warmongering bluster from most candidates and some confused mutterings against endless war from a few. No one, it seems, wants to risk offending Official Washington's neocon-dominated foreign policy establishment that is ready to castigate any candidate who suggests that there are other strategies -- besides more and more "regime changes" -- that might extricate the United States from the Middle East quicksand. Late in Thursday's Democratic debate -- when the topic of war finally came up -- former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued toeing the neocon line, calling Iran the chief sponsor of terrorism in the world, when that title might objectively go to U.S. "allies," such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, all of whom have been aiding Sunni jihadists fighting to overthrow Syria's secular regime. Israel also has provided help to Al Qaeda's Nusra Front, which has been battling Syrian troops and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters near the Golan Heights -- and Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians has played a key role in stirring up hatred and violence in the Middle East. But Clinton has fully bought into the neocon narrative, not especially a surprise since she voted for the Iraq War, pushed the disastrous Libyan "regime change" and has sought a limited U.S. military invasion of Syria (to prevent the Syrian army from securing its border with Turkey and reclaiming territory from jihadists and other rebels). Blasting Iran In Thursday's debate -- coming off her razor-thin victory in the Iowa caucuses -- Clinton painted Iran as the big regional threat, putting herself fully in line with the neocon position. "We have to figure out how to deal with Iran as the principal state sponsor of terrorism in the world," Clinton said. "They are destabilizing governments in the region. They continue to support Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon against Israel. ... "If we were to normalize relations right now [with Iran], we would remove one of the biggest pieces of leverage we have to try to influence and change Iranian behavior. ... I believe we have to take this step by step to try to rein in Iranian aggression, their support for terrorism and the other bad behavior that can come back and haunt us." Iran, of course, has been a longtime neocon target for "regime change" along with Syria (and before that Iraq). Many neocons were disappointed when President Barack Obama negotiated an agreement to ensure that Iran's nuclear program remained peaceful (an accord reached after John Kerry replaced Clinton as Secretary of State). The neocons had been hoping that the U.S. military would join Israel in an air war to "bomb-bomb-bomb Iran" -- as Sen. John McCain once famously declared. Yet, there were other distortions in Clinton's statement. While it's true that Iran has aided Hezbollah and Hamas in their resistance to Israel, Clinton ignored other factors, such as Israeli acts of aggression against both Lebanon, where Hezbollah emerged as resistance to an Israeli invasion and occupation in the 1980s, and the Palestinians who have faced Israeli oppression for generations. Silence on the "Allies" In the debate, Clinton also avoided criticism of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey for their military and financial assistance to radical jihadists, including Al Qaeda's Nusra Front and Al Qaeda's spinoff, the Islamic State. At the urging of Clinton, the Obama administration also approved military shipments to Syrian rebels who then either turned over or sold U.S. weapons to the extremists. Iran's role in Syria has been to help support the internationally recognized government of Bashar al-Assad, whose military remains the principal bulwark protecting Syria's Christian, Alawite, Shiite and other minorities from possible genocide if Al Qaeda-connected jihadists prevailed. Clinton also ignored her own role in creating a haven for these terror groups across the Middle East because of her support for the Iraq War and her instigation of the 2011 "regime change" in Libya which created another failed state where Islamic State and various extremists have found a home and started chopping of the heads of "infidels." It's Super Bowl week on the Left Coast but the number one topic of conversation is not the Broncos or the Panthers, it's Hillary versus Bernie. That's a big change from three months ago, when we talked about the Warriors and the awfulness of Donald Trump. But now we have a real contest for the Democratic nomination. The Hillary versus Bernie controversy divides Berkeley households. While there are many females who argue that Clinton deserves a shot because "It's time the US elected a woman President," there are others plenty of others who support Sanders. Many Berkeley residents knew Hillary, in 1971, when she did a legal internship at the liberal Oakland law firm of Truehaft, Walker, and Burnstein. From that and other contacts, Berkeleyites like Clinton but many believe she is not as liberal as she once was. In contrast, Bernie Sanders never lived here but some activists knew him when he was involved in organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Students for a Democratic Society. Almost without exception, Berkeleyites accept Bernie as a liberal. There are two lines of argument: whether major social change can happen suddenly or must occur incrementally. The other is whether Clinton or Sanders has the best chance of beating the Republican nominee. Many Berkeley Democrats ask, "How is Bernie going to accomplish his agenda?" They accept the legitimacy of leveling the playing field and getting big money out of politics, but doubt that Bernie can accomplish this. Clinton leads with voters who value her experience. At the January 17th Democratic debate, when asked what she would do in her first 100 days in office, Clinton replied, "I would work quickly to present to the Congress my plans for creating more good jobs in manufacturing, infrastructure, clean and renewable energy, raising the minimum wage, and guaranteeing, finally, equal pay for women's work" I would also be presenting my plans to build on the Affordable Care Act." In contrast, Sanders said, "So, what my first days are about is bringing America together, to end the decline of the middle class, to tell the wealthiest people in this country that yes, they are going to start paying their fair share of taxes, and that we are going to have a government that works for all of us, and not just big campaign contributors." University of California Economics Professor Robert Reich observed the two candidates have contrasting views about how Presidents make decisions. He described Clinton's perspective as the president as "deal-maker-in-chief"by which presidents buy off or threaten powerful opponents." Reich described Sanders' perspective as a kind of "agitator-in-chief, " where the president mobilizes "the public to demand [big things] and penalize(s) politicians who don't heed those demands." Clinton is running as an extension of President Obama. At the January 17th debate she said, "I want to be a president who takes care of the big problems and the problems that are affecting the people of our country everyday." At the same debate Sanders said, "Very little is going to be done to transform our economy and to create the kind of middle class we need unless we end a corrupt campaign finance system which is undermining American democracy".And what we have got to do is create a political revolution which revitalizes American democracy, which brings millions of young people and working people into the political process.' While some liberals question Sanders' "political revolution" notion, other remember that in the hardest slogging of the civil-rights era, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called for "a revolution of values": "We must rapidly begin " the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered." This inevitably leads to the concern about electability: Who has the best chance of defeating the republican nominee? Many Berkeley residents feel that Hillary has the best shot at beating Trump or Rubio or whomever. But in the latest Huffington Post ratings, Sanders beats Trump by 5.5 percent while Clinton beats Trump by 6.4 percent; Sanders beats Rubio by 4.5 percent, Clinton beats Rubio by .9 percent. The "elephant in the room" is Hillary's unfavorability ratings. In a recent Gallup article, pollster Frank Newport observed that Donald Trump has a 60 percent unfavorable rating, "He has a higher unfavorable rating than any nominated candidate from either of the two major parties going back to the 1992 election." Newport noted that Hillary Clinton has a 52 percent unfavorability rating compared to Bernie Sanders 31 percent. (Among Democrats Sanders "net favorable rating" is 4 points higher than Clintons. 53 percent to 49 percent.) The good news is that we have a real contest for the Democratic nomination and we will have lots of opportunity to talk about this between now and the July Democratic convention. Reprinted from Counterpunch "This is the beginning of the end of jihadi presence in Aleppo. After 4 years of war and terror, people can finally see the end in sight."-- Edward Dark, Twitter, Moon of Alabama A last ditch effort to stop a Russian-led military offensive in northern Syria ended in failure on Wednesday when the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) backed by the National Defense Forces (NDF) and heavy Russian air cover broke a 40-month siege on the villages of Nubl and al-Zahra in northwestern Aleppo province. The Obama administration had hoped that it could forestall the onslaught by cobbling together an eleventh-hour ceasefire agreement at the Geneva peace talks. But when the news that Syrian armored units had crashed through al Nusra's defenses and forced the jihadists to retreat, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura suspended the negotiations, tacitly acknowledging that the mission had failed. "I have indicated from the first day that I won't talk for the sake of talking," the envoy told reporters, saying he needed immediate help from international backers led by the United States and Russia, which are supporting opposite sides of a war that has also drawn in regional powers." (Reuters) De Mistura then announced a "temporary pause" in the stillborn negotiations which had only formally begun just hours earlier. Developments on the battlefield had convinced the Italian-Swedish diplomat that it was pointless to continue while government forces were effecting a solution through military means. After months of grinding away at enemy positions across the country, the Russian strategy has begun to bear fruit. Loyalist ground forces have made great strides on the battlefield rolling back the war-weary insurgents on virtually all fronts. A broad swathe of the Turkish border is now under SAA control while the ubiquitous Russian bombers continue to inflict heavy losses on demoralized anti-regime militants. Wednesday's lightening attack on the strategic towns of Nubl and Zahraa was just the icing on the cake. The bold maneuver severed critical supply-lines to Turkey while tightening the military noose around the country's largest city, leaving hundreds of terrorists stranded in a battered cauldron with no way out. For the last two weeks, the Obama team has been following developments on the ground with growing concern. This is why Secretary of State John Kerry hurriedly assembled a diplomatic mission to convene emergency peace talks in Geneva despite the fact that the various participants had not even agreed to attend. A sense of urgency bordering on panic was palpable from the onset. The goal was never to achieve a negotiated settlement or an honorable peace, but (as Foreign Policy magazine noted) to implement "a broad 'freeze' over the whole province of Aleppo, which would then be replicated in other regions later." This was the real objective, to stop the bleeding any way possible and prevent the inevitable encirclement of Aleppo. The recapturing of Nubl and Zahraa leaves the jihadists with just one route for transporting weapons, food and fuel to their urban stronghold. When loyalist forces break the blockade at Bab al Hawa to the northeast, the loop will be closed, the perimeter will tighten, the cauldron will be split into smaller enclaves within the city, and the terrorists will either surrender or face certain annihilation. Wednesday's triumph by the Russian-led coalition is a sign that that day may be approaching sooner than anyone had anticipated. It's worth noting, that a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Michael O'Hanlon -- whose plan to "deconstruct Syria" by using "moderate elements" to "produce autonomous zones" -- advised Obama and Kerry "not to pursue the failed logic of the current Syria peace talks but to explore a confederal model and seek buy-in from as many key players and allies as possible." In other words, the main architect of the US plan to break up Syria into smaller areas, (controlled by local militias, warlords and jihadists) thought the peace talks were "doomed" from the very beginning. According to O'Hanlon the US needs to commit "20,000 combat troops" with "the right political model for maintaining occupation." The Brookings analyst says that "Any ceasefire that Kerry could negotiate...would be built on a foundation of sand" for the mere fact that the "moderate" forces it would support would be much weaker than either the SAA or ISIS. That means there would be no way to enforce the final settlement and no army strong enough to establish the authority of the new "unity" government. O'Hanlon's comments suggest western elites are deeply divided over Syria. The hawks are still pushing for more intervention, greater US, EU, and NATO involvement, and American and allied "boots on the ground" to occupy the country for an undetermined amount of time. In contrast, the Obama administration wants to minimize its commitment while trying desperately to placate its critics. That means Syria's troubles could resurface again in the future when Obama steps down and a new president pursues a more muscular strategy. A number of powerful people in the ruling establishment are as determined-as-ever to partition Syria and install a US puppet in Damascus. That's not going to change. The Russian-led coalition has a small window for concluding its operations, eliminating the terrorists, and reestablishing security across the country. Ending the war as soon as possible, while creating a safe environment for Syrian refugees to return home, is the best way to reduce the threat of escalation and discourage future US adventurism. But Putin will have to move fast for the plan to work. If you came away from last night's debate not sure what the differences were between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, then there is no hope for you. If you want real change in the system, then Bernie Sanders is your man. If you want to try to improve things within the current system, then Hillary Clinton is the candidate for you. I have always said that any candidate the Democrats had running is better than any Republican, and I will vote for Hillary if she is the nominee. I have regularly commented that the whole pledge to write in Bernie if he is not the nominee is a counterproductive effort that Bernie will not support. However, one thing we have to face is that Bernie Sanders has brought people back into the Democratic Party process who would either be voting Green or another alternative party ... or not voting at all. You cannot expect those people to vote for Hillary in November if they wouldn't have voted Democrat before Bernie energized them. I do think they should vote for the Democratic nominee while the alternative parties build themselves up in local elections. I think Hillary Clinton had strong moments in this debate, and as Bernie said, she would be a million times better than any of the candidates in the GOP clown car. I agree with her on gun control, and I think she scored points in the "progressive" debate -- even though I agree with Bernie, you can't vote for the Iraq War and be progressive. While the poli-sci major in me thinks her performance was good, the activist in me saw just that, a performance. She lost the debate in my opinion on a few issues. I find her attack on Bernie Sanders' healthcare plan disingenuous. She knows that Bernie Sanders wouldn't rip up Obamacare without first passing a bill that brings us closer to Universal Health Care. I also wonder why she keeps saying she doesn't want another national debate on healthcare. Should we not debate a way to lower prescription drug costs? Should we not debate a way to lower premiums, deductibles and co-pays? Does she think her proposals will not generate a national debate? As I have said before, I believe we should start the healthcare debate asking for what we really want, and if we don't get it, then we should start negotiating. That is what Bernie did with veteran's healthcare. Click Here to Read Whole Article Picture sleepless nights at "Sultan" Erdogan's palace in Ankara. Imagine him livid when he learns the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), backed by Russian air power, started a preemptive Battle of Aleppo -- through the Bayirbucak region - cutting off Ankara's top weaponizing corridor and Jihadi highway. Who controls this corridor will control the final outcome of the war in Syria. Meanwhile, in Geneva, the remote-controlled Syrian opposition, a.k.a. High Negotiations Committee, graphically demonstrated they never wanted to meet with the Damascus delegation in the first place -- "proximity" talks or otherwise, even after Washington and Moscow roughly agreed on a two-year transition plan leading to a theoretically secular, nonsectarian Syria. The Saudi front wanted no less than Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam and all Jabhat al-Nusra, a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria, collaborators at the table in Geneva. So the Geneva charade, quicker than one can say "Road to Aleppo!" was exposed for what it is. Notorious Saudi intel mastermind Prince Turki, a former mentor of one Osama bin Laden, has been to Paris on a PR offensive; all he could muster was an avalanche of non-denial denials -- and blaming the whole Syria tragedy on Bashar al-Assad. The bulk of the Syrian "opposition" used to be armchair warriors co-opted by the CIA for years, as well as CIA Muslim Brotherhood patsies/vassals. Many of these characters preferred the joys of Paris to a hard slog on Syrian ground. Now the "opposition" is basically warlords answering to the House of Saud even for bottles of water -- regardless of the suit-and-tie former Ba'ath Party ministers handpicked to be the face of the opposition for the gullible Western corporate media. Meanwhile, the "4+1" -- Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah -- is now winning decisive facts on the ground. The break down; there won't be regime change in Damascus. Yet no one broke the news to the Turks and Saudis. "Sultan" Erdogan is wallowing in a sea of desperation. He continues to divert the gravely serious issues at stake to his own war against the PYD -- the umbrella organization of the Syrian Kurds -- and the YPG (People's Protection Units, their military wing). Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu wanted the PYD not only banned from Geneva but they want it smashed on the ground, as they see the PYD/YPG as "terrorists" allied to the PKK. Forces may apprehend the odd trespasser (always released). We're talking about a monster smuggler/soldier scam; as much as $300 change hands for each night crossing and a noncommissioned Turkish officer may earn as much as $2,500 to look the other way for a few minutes. The real question is why Gaziantep is not under a curfew imposed from Ankara, with thousands of Turkish Special Forces actually fighting a "war on terra" on the spot. That's because Ankara and provincial authorities couldn't give a damn; the real priority is Erdogan's war on the Kurds. This brings us to the only leverage the "Sultan" may enjoy at the moment. From Brussels to Berlin, sound minds are terrified that the EU is now actually hostage to Erdogan's Kurd "priority," while Ankara is doing next to nothing to fight massive migrant smuggling. When Davutoglu went to Berlin recently not only did he make no promises; he re-stressed Erdogan's vow to "annihilate" the Syrian Kurds. And that explains German Chancellor Angela Merkel's own desperation. How could the alleged most powerful politician in Europe falls for such a crude extortion racket? The "Sultan" wants a lot of cash, a lot of concessions, and even a further shot at entering the EU. Otherwise, he won't turn off the tap on the grim refugee flood. No wonder the regime change rumor mill is frantic. In Ankara? No; in Berlin. Articles Listed By Date List By Popularity Search Title Date Between Any 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Any 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 and Any 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Any 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Page 1 of 2 First Last Back Next 2 View All (7 comments) SHARE I Don't Know What The Weather Is Like In Moscow - A Case For Respect in 2019 Mark John Maguire argues that mutual respect in discussing and arguing about such polarising issues as Donald Trump's Presidency and Brexit, is essential if a healthy, free, democratic society is to remain as the cornerstone of our society. Monday, December 31, 2018Mark John Maguire argues that mutual respect in discussing and arguing about such polarising issues as Donald Trump's Presidency and Brexit, is essential if a healthy, free, democratic society is to remain as the cornerstone of our society. (3 comments) SHARE Salisbury Poisoning: The Questions That Won't Go Away Mark John Maguire argues that the UK Government's highly improbable - and evidence-free - narrative concerning the "Salisbury poisoning" needs to be challenged if we are to establish 1) what kind of poisoning took place in Salisbury and 2) who - if anyone - was responsible for it. To date, the only victims appear to be 2 guinea pigs and cat, which were the victims of neglect and starvation by the authorities. Monday, April 9, 2018Mark John Maguire argues that the UK Government's highly improbable - and evidence-free - narrative concerning the "Salisbury poisoning" needs to be challenged if we are to establish 1) what kind of poisoning took place in Salisbury and 2) who - if anyone - was responsible for it. To date, the only victims appear to be 2 guinea pigs and cat, which were the victims of neglect and starvation by the authorities. (86 comments) SHARE Murder in the Cathedral City and other Cautionary Tales Mark John Maguire argues that the British Government must provide evidence of its claims with regard to Russia and its alleged involvement in the poisoning of 2 people in Salisbury. This is in line with natural justice and with due process. Following the British Government's recent history in respect of making wild and untruthful claims in respect of Iraq, Libya and Syria it is vital that proper tests be applied to its claims. Thursday, March 15, 2018Mark John Maguire argues that the British Government must provide evidence of its claims with regard to Russia and its alleged involvement in the poisoning of 2 people in Salisbury. This is in line with natural justice and with due process. Following the British Government's recent history in respect of making wild and untruthful claims in respect of Iraq, Libya and Syria it is vital that proper tests be applied to its claims. (29 comments) SHARE Why the ICC should Prosecute a Western Leader The jailing of Ratko Mladic last week for war crimes committed during the Yugloslav wars of the 1990s has brought to book one of those reviled by the West - but it has yet again highlighted the absence of Western figures from the international-justice process. Mark John Maguire argues that the broad auspices of the ICC was intended to remedy this inequality and that if the ICC is to survive it must address this criticism. Tuesday, November 28, 2017The jailing of Ratko Mladic last week for war crimes committed during the Yugloslav wars of the 1990s has brought to book one of those reviled by the West - but it has yet again highlighted the absence of Western figures from the international-justice process. Mark John Maguire argues that the broad auspices of the ICC was intended to remedy this inequality and that if the ICC is to survive it must address this criticism. (14 comments) SHARE Under Sentence of Death: Charlie Gard and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charlie Gard is expected to have his life ended in Great Ormond Street Hospital despite the wishes of his parents and offers of help from institutions and medical facilities around the world - including the Vatican. The appeals process has run out and he will die within a couple of days. The decisions and processes involved have raised concerns about the UK's medical system and especially Great Ormond Street Hospital itself. Thursday, July 27, 2017Charlie Gard is expected to have his life ended in Great Ormond Street Hospital despite the wishes of his parents and offers of help from institutions and medical facilities around the world - including the Vatican. The appeals process has run out and he will die within a couple of days. The decisions and processes involved have raised concerns about the UK's medical system and especially Great Ormond Street Hospital itself. (13 comments) SHARE The Lesser of Two Evils: why Noam Chomsky is wrong in advocating this principle in the 2016 US Presidential Election Mark John Maguire offers a rebuttal of Noam Chomsky's argument in support of the "Lesser of Two Evils" principle in the 2016 US Presidential Election. He argues that LEV can only be applied to circumstances where there is no other moral option, where the exigency is great and where the choice is clear. He further delivers a detailed critique of Chomsky's 8-point argument which exhorts the left to vote for Hillary Clinton. Sunday, October 30, 2016Mark John Maguire offers a rebuttal of Noam Chomsky's argument in support of the "Lesser of Two Evils" principle in the 2016 US Presidential Election. He argues that LEV can only be applied to circumstances where there is no other moral option, where the exigency is great and where the choice is clear. He further delivers a detailed critique of Chomsky's 8-point argument which exhorts the left to vote for Hillary Clinton. (31 comments) SHARE Tony Blair, War Crimes and the Plot to Remove Jeremy Corbyn Mark John Maguire argues that the imminent publication of the Chilcott Inquiry Report into the conduct of the Iraq War is the reason that so many Blairite Labour MPs and establishment figures are desperate to remove Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Opposition. If Corbyn calls for the investigation of Blair for War Crimes, it will be an unprecedented moment in British History. Thursday, June 30, 2016Mark John Maguire argues that the imminent publication of the Chilcott Inquiry Report into the conduct of the Iraq War is the reason that so many Blairite Labour MPs and establishment figures are desperate to remove Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Opposition. If Corbyn calls for the investigation of Blair for War Crimes, it will be an unprecedented moment in British History. (1 comments) SHARE Should I Stay or Should I Go? Why A Vote To Leave The EU Will Make No Difference, by Mark John Maguire Mark John Maguire argues that the outcome of the UK referendum on whether to remain in the EU or leave will have no impact on the UK's Membership of the EU and that the drive for European unity is part of an old and expansionist strategy that has dominated European history for the past 2000 years . Tuesday, June 21, 2016Mark John Maguire argues that the outcome of the UK referendum on whether to remain in the EU or leave will have no impact on the UK's Membership of the EU and that the drive for European unity is part of an old and expansionist strategy that has dominated European history for the past 2000 years . (46 comments) SHARE Who Leaked the Panama Papers? Mark John Maguire argues that the true intention behind the release of the Panama Papers is an attack on Western opponents and signifies a new departure in information warfare techniques. Tuesday, April 5, 2016Mark John Maguire argues that the true intention behind the release of the Panama Papers is an attack on Western opponents and signifies a new departure in information warfare techniques. (17 comments) SHARE Assange's Unlawful Detention Ruling Puts UK in the Dock, by Mark John Maguire Mark John Maguire argues the UN's legal ruling on the unlawful detention of Julian Assange puts the UK in an untenable position, where it finds itself in the same Dock as Saudi Arabia and Myanmar for unlawful detention. He further argues that the Assange case provides a seminal moment in the on-going struggle between a Government's right to govern and a People's right to know. Saturday, February 6, 2016Mark John Maguire argues the UN's legal ruling on the unlawful detention of Julian Assange puts the UK in an untenable position, where it finds itself in the same Dock as Saudi Arabia and Myanmar for unlawful detention. He further argues that the Assange case provides a seminal moment in the on-going struggle between a Government's right to govern and a People's right to know. (3 comments) SHARE UK Airstrikes in Syria:a display of National Virility Mark John Maguire argues that the UK's decision to join airstrikes against Syria is counterproductive, without moral justification and represents an attempt to stem its loss of international status as a world power. Thursday, December 3, 2015Mark John Maguire argues that the UK's decision to join airstrikes against Syria is counterproductive, without moral justification and represents an attempt to stem its loss of international status as a world power. (5 comments) SHARE Flying the French Flag and other mischiefs The specific outpouring of public grief over the tragic events in Paris ignore much worse events that occur daily throughout the Middle East and thereby value some lives over others. He also sees this as something that plays into the strategies of Western governments in terms of justifying further military adventures in the Muslim world. Sunday, November 15, 2015The specific outpouring of public grief over the tragic events in Paris ignore much worse events that occur daily throughout the Middle East and thereby value some lives over others. He also sees this as something that plays into the strategies of Western governments in terms of justifying further military adventures in the Muslim world. (1 comments) SHARE The United States' and Europe's Debt To Refugees Mark John Maguire argues that the US and Europe must take full responsibility for the refugee crisis and make redress for the policies and aggressive military actions which have produced it. Tuesday, September 15, 2015Mark John Maguire argues that the US and Europe must take full responsibility for the refugee crisis and make redress for the policies and aggressive military actions which have produced it. (38 comments) SHARE Je Suis NOT Charlie Mark Maguire argues that supporting press freedom by identifying with an Islamaphobic publication is a bad principle. Wednesday, January 7, 2015Mark Maguire argues that supporting press freedom by identifying with an Islamaphobic publication is a bad principle. (1 comments) SHARE A New Year's Resolution for Palestine The vote of the UN Security Council to deny the Palestinian people their own State was an affront to the world. It was, however a moral victory for the Palestinian cause and increases the inexorable progress of the Palestinians to securing statehood. Wednesday, December 31, 2014The vote of the UN Security Council to deny the Palestinian people their own State was an affront to the world. It was, however a moral victory for the Palestinian cause and increases the inexorable progress of the Palestinians to securing statehood. (7 comments) SHARE United We Fall, Divided We Stand. Ukraine: the Narrative of Dissent Ukraine is divided along ethnic and geographical lines over its future and latent hostilities have emerged between the east and west of the country. These have been stirred up by the US, EU and Russia. Mark John Maguire examines their role in the crisis and the historical traditions within Europe that have led to this debacle. He argues that division of the country is the only realistic solution to the crisis. Sunday, May 4, 2014Ukraine is divided along ethnic and geographical lines over its future and latent hostilities have emerged between the east and west of the country. These have been stirred up by the US, EU and Russia. Mark John Maguire examines their role in the crisis and the historical traditions within Europe that have led to this debacle. He argues that division of the country is the only realistic solution to the crisis. (93 comments) SHARE Obama v Hitler: a shocking depiction and a shocking truth A doctored photograph of Obama showing him with a Hitler moustache has appeared in Indiana, inviting comparisons between the Nazi dictator and Obama. Amidst howls of indignation from his supporters and many Americans who instinctively recoil from the comparison, there may be a serious point to be made about the state of US society and the conduct of the US, both in the world and at home. Thursday, October 17, 2013A doctored photograph of Obama showing him with a Hitler moustache has appeared in Indiana, inviting comparisons between the Nazi dictator and Obama. Amidst howls of indignation from his supporters and many Americans who instinctively recoil from the comparison, there may be a serious point to be made about the state of US society and the conduct of the US, both in the world and at home. (1 comments) SHARE The People v the President: a dilemma for democracy As the US Congress gears up for its debate on intervention in Syria in the face of widespread domestic and international scepticism, the stakes are high for Obama, but much higher for democracy and for the principle of representation that underpins democracy. Congress's role, as that of any legislative body, is to act as a check on absolute power, not as an endorsement to it. Monday, September 9, 2013As the US Congress gears up for its debate on intervention in Syria in the face of widespread domestic and international scepticism, the stakes are high for Obama, but much higher for democracy and for the principle of representation that underpins democracy. Congress's role, as that of any legislative body, is to act as a check on absolute power, not as an endorsement to it. (16 comments) SHARE Syria, chemical attacks and other lies The recent chemical-weapons attacks in Syria are too reminiscent of the WMD claims prior to the Iraq war. No one seems able to prevent the gradual destruction of the Middle East at the hands of the US and its accomplices. Mark Maguire argues that the attack is a false-flag operation, that Iran is the next candidate for destruction, and that a new civilian catastrophe is about to unfold in the Middle East. Wednesday, August 28, 2013The recent chemical-weapons attacks in Syria are too reminiscent of the WMD claims prior to the Iraq war. No one seems able to prevent the gradual destruction of the Middle East at the hands of the US and its accomplices. Mark Maguire argues that the attack is a false-flag operation, that Iran is the next candidate for destruction, and that a new civilian catastrophe is about to unfold in the Middle East. (1 comments) SHARE Fatah's negotiation positions exposed Documents leaked to AL Jazeera concerning the Palestinian Authority's negotiations have all the hallmarks of authenticity about them and expose President Mahmoud Abbas as a ruthless and self-serving man. Wednesday, January 26, 2011Documents leaked to AL Jazeera concerning the Palestinian Authority's negotiations have all the hallmarks of authenticity about them and expose President Mahmoud Abbas as a ruthless and self-serving man. Page 1 of 2 First Last Back Next 2 View All Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121 "In Bottom-Up, Rob Kall offers a blueprint for human surviving and thriving that everyone can follow. Using personal stories from his many famous contacts (from Capra to Quinn), he shows how in every aspect of life we can reconnect with that which is in our DNA by replacing our artificial and oppressive hierarchical priorities via a return to a consciousness based on the kind of egalitarian relationships that we honored for most of human history." Four Arrows, aka Don Trent Jacobs, PhD, EdD, author of Unlearning the Language of Conquest and Teaching Truly: A Curriculum to Indigenize Mainstream Education Colm for Congress Legislative leaders from across the state endorse Colm Willis for Congress Stayton, OR Colm Willis bid for the Republican nomination for Congress in Oregons 5th Congressional District was bolstered Thursday when the campaign announced the endorsements of 8 local lawmakers. The Colm for Congress legislative leadership team will play an instrumental role in providing policy background and support for Willis campaign for Congress. Members will be added as the campaign progresses. I am honored by the support I have received from state lawmakers who represent hundreds of thousands of working Oregonians across the state, said Willis. The needs of the hardworking people in Oregon will continue to be my primary focus every day. Colm for Congress Legislative Leadership Team Senator Doug Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls) Representative Jodi Hack (R-Salem) Representative John Huffman (R-The Dalles) Representative Mike Nearman (R-Dallas) Representative Cedric Hayden (R-Roseburg) Representative Greg Barreto (R-Cove) Representative Bill Post (R-Keizer) Representative Gail Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls) Colm Willis was born and raised in Oregon. He is a husband, father of two daughters, and a small business attorney in Stayton. Willis previously served as the political director of Oregon Right to Life and as an aide to the Joint Economic Committee in the U.S. Senate. He attended Willamette University College of Law where he earned the Civil Rights Award and graduated first in his class as valedictorian. Willis is a Republican candidate for Congress in Oregons 5th Congressional District. The primary will be held on May 17, 2016. The Republican nominee will face incumbent Rep. Kurt Schrader in the general election. Rob Taylor Warning, the Oregon legislature is in the 35-day short session, and even though the procedure limits legislators to introduce two bills each your money and freedom is still in serious risk from the overreach of overbearing politicians. How do you stop the onslaught of these tyrannical hacks without having to occupy a desolate national refuge only to face certain death in a shootout with law enforcement? One way to defend yourself is to go on the offensive by becoming a government watchdog and using the existing system to defeat, or at least stifle your opponents agenda. The Oregon Citizens Lobby is a nonprofit organization, which uses to their advantage the information provided on the Oregon Legislative Information System, located on the net at www.olis.leg.state.or.us. The group monitors and even analyzes the bills introduced by State Senators and State Representatives. Legislation on topics such as, the right to bear arms, economic devolvement and land use laws, plus many other issues that should be of concern for any citizen worried about the growth of Big Government. Want to learn more about how you can keep OR Legislators accountable, visit the interactive website at www.OregonCitizenLobby.org and complete a Volunteer Form, or update your records at oregoncitizenslobby.org/volunteer. The best thing about being a virtual activist is that you do not have to drive to Salem to participate in any long drawn out meetings talking with self-absorbed political blowhards. You can work from home, taking as much time as you can offer. If you are not comfortable as an analyst then select the Volunteer Activity best suited to your skillset and time available. You may select the areas that you are interested and please share in the space provided any special abilities or expertise, and the organizers at OCL will match you with the appropriate area. The Mission of the Oregon Citizens Lobby: Our mission is to help empower Oregonians by monitoring the legislative process in this state. We analyze bills and track them throughout their life cycle. We also track the actions of state representatives and senators as they work through and vote on these bills. The bills and legislators receive a grade based upon the five core principles of the OCL. We leave the politics to the politicians. We post the results of our work at www.tracktheirvote.org for the public to review. The Oregon Citizens Lobby interactive website provides information on how you can get involved and posts Alert bills for review and feedback. The Five Core Principles FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY Government should have a limited budget that reflects the vitality of the states economy. LOCAL CONTROL Governmental power and functions should be as close to the citizens as possible for maximum oversight, control, and responsiveness. FREE MARKETS Production and prices should be dictated by the laws of supply and demand without the interference of government in the way of subsidies, price controls, or over-burdensome regulation. LIMITED GOVERNMENT Our government should be charged with administering only those functions essential to society and that cannot be performed by private entities. PERSONAL CHOICE AND RESPONSIBILITY Citizens must be free to pursue life, liberty, and property without undue government interference and to reap the rewards or bear the consequences of their decisions. Their hope is that this information will help citizens better understand proposed legislation, which will in turn allow them to give relevant testimony on bills, lobby their legislators, and hold these politicians accountable for their actions. Contact the Oregon Citizens lobby at [email protected] Rob Taylor is the founder of a virtual network of local activist at CoosCountyWatchdog.com. In the last blog post I spoke about how the demographic of our industry is changing as Baby Boomers are retiring. ORLA needs to rem... Pakistan calls on world to combat Islamophobia UNITED NATIONS: Decrying the rise of Islamophobia worldwide, Pakistan called on Thursday for action to combat the forces of xenophobia and warned that if timely steps were not taken to check this disturbing trend, it could threaten regional and global peace and security. Speaking at an event organised at the UN by Pakistan Mission and the OIC on Countering Xenophobia through Interfaith Cooperation, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said that Islamophobic acts were unfortunately taking place in countries known as traditional champions of human rights and humanitarianism. She regretted that some unprincipled politicians in the West had sought to build their political fortunes by spreading fear and xenophobia promising to build walls against migrants; barring refugees, even widows and orphans; threatening to ban the adherents of a specific religion from entry to their countries shores. Unfortunately, she said, this campaign of hate and prejudice had received a fillip from ignorant Western media portrayals of Muslims. Initiating the discussion Ambassador Lodhi said the purpose of the event during a week at the UN, devoted to interfaith harmony was to highlight the concern of Pakistan and OIC countries over certain recent developments which were posing a danger to such harmony, to social cohesion and to the observance of human rights and humanitarian norms. The instances of insults against Islam and Muslims were now legion, she said. Islam has been called unspeakable names; minarets have been portrayed as missiles. These have not been empty insults. Expressions of such hate and prejudice have provoked physical and psychological violence against Muslims and their businesses, mosques and community centres in some countries. Almost all Muslim communities have been subjected to such intolerance. Many live in fear. Their alienation expands the divide between faiths and cultures within and among nations. Ms Lodhi quoted President Obama who acknowledged during his visit to a mosque earlier this week that an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths. And when any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up. She also highlighted the plight of refugees and migrants pouring into Europe. While initially this evoked many heart-warming acts of generosity, humanity and solidarity, the purveyors of hate have sought to turn the tide against the advocates of openness and humanitarianism, especially after the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris. She added: They have equated helpless refugees and migrants with violent extremists in order to generate political support for the forces of hate, prejudice, intolerance and xenophobia. Terming such xenophobia and discrimination a dangerous trend, she warned that such profiling of entire peoples and communities by religion or ethnicity, has grave antecedents. Seventy-five years ago, this led to the Holocaust. Ambassador Lodhi said those who had declared the denial of the Holocaust a crime should hardly argue that the freedom of expression allowed insults against Islam and hate speech and incitement to violence against Muslims. As hate inevitably breeds hate, Islamophobia will breed its antithesis. It is a recipe for a clash of cultures a clash we must avoid if the world is to have any hope of collective action to end the chaos in the Middle East and eliminate all forms of terrorism, she added. QCG on Afghan peace to adopt roadmap for peace talks ISLAMABAD: The Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) on Afghan peace and reconciliation is expected to adopt a roadmap for peace talks when it meets today (Saturday). However, the formal start of dialogue between the Afghan government and Taliban still looks like it is months away. This would be the third meeting of the group comprising officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, US and China. The four countries agreed to work together last December on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference to revive the Afghan reconciliation process. The previous two meetings were held in Islamabad and Kabul in January. The roadmap which is intended to guide the efforts of starting a peace dialogue between the Afghan government and militants was Chinas idea. They insisted on a plan for the effort and documenting the process, said a source. The roadmap is one thing that distinguishes this initiative from the process that started in Murree and was disrupted weeks later when it transpired that Mullah Omar was dead, the source claimed. Afghanistan proposed the draft of the roadmap at the first QCG meeting in Islamabad. Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, who is leading his side at the four-way talks, had said after the first round that the draft envisaged a three stage process the pre-negotiation period, direct peace talks with Taliban groups and the implementation phase. Pakistan gave its input on the draft later. The four countries have discussed the blueprint section by section and it is now at a point where it can be adopted. The plan is said to have evolved since the Afghan government made the initial proposal. There is almost an agreement on adopting the roadmap and moving forward. It is settled that it would be an Afghan-owned initiative, which would progress at a pace they desire, said the source, adding that the roadmap would take the four countries to the beginning of the talks. According to the source, it would be a three-phase roadmap, but interprets the stages differently from what Mr Karzai had initially said. He claimed that in the first stage the quadrilateral group would formulate a strategy on messaging the Taliban, ascertain which factions were interested in talking, and delineate the responsibilities of the partners and the action they would be required to take. In the second stage, he said, it would be decided as to how negotiations with the Taliban would be carried out and on what terms, including the confidence-building measures that the Afghan government would undertake. These two stages are expected to be completed by the end of March. This would be followed by the third stage in which the Afghan government would extend a public invitation to the warring factions. It may happen sometime in April, a bit earlier or later, the source said, adding that the final stage would depend on the Talibans response to the dialogue offer and could be fine-tuned or modified. Afghanistan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had said in an interview with the press that the reconciliation dialogue could start in six months. Some informal meetings between the Afghan government and Taliban factions could also happen before the direct talks begin. *T*his is yet another example of the corruption of the mainstream media. If you like this blog's content please subscribe to our mailing at upper right c... 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... A determined effort brings seals, fish and penguins back to South Georgia Island, near Antarctica A male elephant seal. Populations of whales, fish and birds have also made a comeback. Justin Hofman/Barcroft Media/Getty Images The explorers began coming on Jan. 17, 1775, and they continued to come for the fur seals, elephant seals and whales. Here, a whale in Grytviken, South Georgia, during the 1914-17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Sir ... The monument to Shackleton on South Georgia. He died of a heart attack and was buried on the island in 1922, having returned to the spot six years after his famous Antarctic expedition. Hulton Archive/Getty Images A group of king penguins on South Georgia. King penguins have rebounded: One colony has gone from 350 pairs in 1912 to 60,000 pairs today. David Schultz/Mint Images/ZUMA PRESS King penguins with their young and elephant seals on a beach. The elephant seals, once taken for their blubber, now snooze and belch in heaps on every beach. Andre Schumacher/laif/Redux A male elephant seal. Populations of whales, fish and birds have also made a comeback. Justin Hofman/Barcroft Media/Getty Images The explorers began coming on Jan. 17, 1775, and they continued to come for the fur seals, elephant seals and whales. Here, a whale in Grytviken, South Georgia, during the 1914-17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Frank Hurley/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images A southern elephant seal pup surrounded by penguins at Gold Harbour, South Georgia, Antarctic Peninsula Photo: Justin Hofman/Barcroft Media/Getty Images When you tell people that youre going to South Georgia, some will ask if youre changing planes in Atlanta. In fact, the name belongs to an island near Antarctica. Its about the size of Rhode Island but with mountains rising to over 9,000 feet. It is a wilderness, uninhabited except for two small scientific stations and teeming with spectacular wildlife.But dont be fooled: The apparently pristine natural beauty of South Georgia is new. Like an old master painting that was badly damaged but has since been painstakingly restored, South Georgia was once utterly desecrated and is now gloriously refurbished.The island was uninhabited when, on Jan. 17, 1775, HMS Resolution dropped anchor in what is now called Possession Bay, and Captain Cook claimed it on behalf of King George III. His men discharged their weapons to the utter amazement of the seals and the penguins, wrote the naturalist George Forster.This Jan. 17, exactly 241 years later, as dusk was falling, the fishery protection vessel Pharos SG, carrying Princess Annea direct descendant of George IIIentered Possession Bay flying the royal standard, and I had the good fortune to be on board. It was snowing gently, and the clouds hung low over the glaciers and black cliffs. Fur seals and penguins were once again the only audience.A century ago, however, when the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his five companions landed here, after bringing a small boat through 800 miles of stormy seas following the sinking of their ship Endurance, there were no fur seals and few penguins to greet him. The reason Shackleton came to South Georgia for help was precisely because it wasnt wilderness but was inhabited, indeed industrialized. He was heading for one of islands four small towns, in which lived nearly 2,000 people, mostly Norwegians and Scots.The people had come first for the fur seals (to make felt hats), but they soon took elephant seals for their blubber and penguin eggs for food. In the first half of the 20th century, it was the turn of the whales, which were all but wiped out in the surrounding ocean by 1960.Yet today the island looks again much more like it was in Cooks day than in Shackletons. The total human population is about 25 in summer (though some 8,000 tourists visit each summer on cruise ships and sleep on board). There are now some four million fur seals. They are everywhere, growling and moaning in crowds on the beaches, in the tussock grass and in the ruins of the towns. Elephant seals snooze and belch in heaps on every beach. King penguins abound: One colony has gone from 350 pairs in 1912 to 60,000 pairs today. Even the whales are back: Humpbacks and right whales were blowing regularly off the coast last month.The plunder of South Georgias seas has also been halted. Fisheries regulation arrived with the declaration of a 200-mile limit around the island in 1993. In exchange for a hefty fee a handful of licensed vessels fish these waters for krill, ice fish and Patagonian toothfish (known on menus as Chilean sea bass). Each boat has a beacon transmitting an automatic identification system and carries an observer on board. No boat may fish in water shallower than 700 meters or in certain closed boxes, where the young toothfish live. Illegal fishing has almost entirely ceased.In the 1990s, the long lines of baited hooks used to catch toothfish had begun catching albatrosses as well. Soon the populations of black-browed, gray-headed and wandering albatross were in free fall.Today simple devices for preventing albatrosses getting hooked have completely solved that problem locally. The toothfish fishery has won coveted accreditation as sustainable from the Marine Stewardship Council. Far from boycotting Chilean sea bass in restaurants, as some marine preservationists advocate, you should go for it, so long as it comes with MSC certification.Today, the fishermen have a new problem: Orcas and sperm whales have learned to steal their catch. Orcas bite the toothfish off the hooks as they are retrieved. Sperm whales find the lines on the sea floor and strip them of fish, apparently not bothered that this leaves hooks pierced into their own skin. Devices that transmit deafening sounds to deter the orcas proved counterproductive: The whales soon realized that the unpleasant sound was a dinner bell.Most remarkable of all, the island is now free of rats. Between 2011 and 2015, the South Georgia Heritage Trust raised and spent more than $10 million to buy helicopters and spread poisoned bait over all the rat-infested parts of the island. This was a unique logistical achievement on a large mountainous island, accessible only by ship through the worlds stormiest seas. Even a few years ago, many people thought it was a mad plan. But it worked, and petrels and pipits can breed freely again here.Like the rats, the reindeer that were introduced here a century ago to provide food for the whalers have also been exterminated. The last one was tracked down while I was on the island. This will allow the native vegetation to recover, and scientists are now hard at work spraying the invasive plants that humankind has introduced.A spectacular ecological restoration has occurred, a wilderness replenishedon a scale probably unmatched anywhere else in the world. Last month, as I sat at the dining table of Pat Lurcock (one of three government officers for the whole island) at King Edward Point, eating potted krill and watching the light fade on the glaciers, I surveyed a wondrous scene: Stormy petrels flitted up the bay to feed their young, fur seals porpoised through the water, king penguins cooled their feet on the snow, and plump elephant seal pups snoozed on the steps of the laboratory.Of course, challenges remain for South Georgias ecology. Rats or other pests may yet escape from ships that dock here (one rat jumped ship last year, but it was soon spotted and dispatched). So all cargo is minutely inspected and all visitors must wear clean, preferably new, clothing and thoroughly clean out their backpacks. Gentoo penguins have failed to breed at all this year, for lack of krill nearby. This may or may not be a symptom of climate change, which is responsible for the retreat of many of South Georgias glaciers since the time of Cook and Shackleton.But after centuries of foolish plunder, pause to reflect what an astonishing transformation has been achieved by wise management. We can now see what Captain Cook saw: an ice-capped island looming over verdant bays teeming with wildlife. There is a lesson here for the whole planet: With prosperity and technology and determination, we can restore wilderness.The most recent of Mr. Ridleys many books is The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge. He is a member of the British House of Lords. Jillian Kestler-D'Amours More than 70 percent of the guests had their visa applications denied [Marc Braibant/AFP] T... Media Report : During a stormy session at the Scottish Parliament , former top judge Lord Brian Gill - who twice refused to face a Holyrood probe on judges secret wealth, connections & links to big business - demanded MSPs close proposals to require judges to register their interests as called for in Petition PE1458: Register of Interests for members of Scotland's judiciary . Video footage of Lord Gills stormy evidence session with MSPs can be viewed here: Evidence of Lord Gill before the Scottish Parliament 10 November 2015 The proposals, backed by cross party MSPs during a debate in the Parliaments main chamber on 9 October 2014 - Debating the Judges - call for the creation of a publicly available register of judicial interests containing information on judges backgrounds, their personal wealth, undeclared earnings, business & family connections inside & outside of the legal profession, offshore investments, hospitality, details on recusals and other information routinely lodged in registers of interest across all walks of public life in the UK and around the world. Fans of jewellery, contemporary art and wine can enjoy all three at once when Andara Resort & Villas, Phuket, hosts a dual exhibition from February 5th-8th for Austrias AENEA Jewellery and acclaimed Belgian-born painter Christian Develter. The opening cocktail on February 5th features fine wines presented by Fin Wine, Thailands pioneering importer of artisanal vintages. The event marks the first appearance in Asia by the Travelling Atelier of AENEA, a stylish new Salzburg-based jeweller bringing elite quality and Austrianmodern flair to an in-the-know clientele around the world. Backed by a top workshop, AENEA offers irresistibly wearable pieces as well as art jewellery for collectors. Co-founder and creative director Costan Eghiazarian will be on hand for the opening and exhibition. Exhibited and collected widely in Asia and Europe, Christian Develter is a Thailand-based painter born in Belgium. Mr. Develter is acclaimed for his large, iconic portraits glowing with colour, allure and intrigue. He will be present at the cocktail to introduce his latest series of lithographs created in Singapore in close collaboration with his gallery The Frame Society in the Lion State Thailands exclusive distributor for artisanal and handcrafted wines from small boutique wineries around the world, Fin Wine was founded by one of the nations most well-travelled and passionate oenophiles, Benjawan Wisootsat. In a nod to AENEAs country of origin, the wines to be served will be selected from a few of Austrias moist renowned vineyards. Ms. Benjawan will join guests at the cocktail. Hosting the opening event is Daniel Meury, general manager of Adara Resort & Villas, a five-star resort created by the Paradise Group, under the umbrella of Allan Zemans Lan Kwai Fong Group. The LKF Group gave birth to Hong Kongs leading destination for dining and drinking, the Lan Kwai Fong district. The opening cocktail takes place on Friday, February 5th, The art and jewellery will be on exhibition during February 6th-8th, 12:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. For further information please contact: atelier@aenea.com or visit www.aenea.com www.develterart.com Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF), a protein consisting of about 175 amino acids (colors), stimulates the bone marrow to produce neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. Filgrastim is the recombinant DNA analog of GCSF. It is used to ward off infection and anemia in cancer patients. Credit: Protein Data Bank A first-ever interlaboratory study of four versions of a therapeutic protein drugall manufactured from living cellsreports that an established analytical tool akin to magnetic resonance imaging reliably assessed the atomic structures of the biologically similar products, yielding the equivalent of a fingerprint for each. The findings, described today in Nature Biotechnology, demonstrate that the methodknown as two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, or 2D-NMR"can be a robust and powerful complementary technique for companies and regulators" when assessing these biosimilars, said Robert Brinson, a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This type of assessment is part of a set of comparisons required to determine whether a follow-on biological product is highly similar to an existing product, so that there is no "clinically meaningful" difference between the two. "Other analytical methods provide useful information, but 2D-NMR is one of the few approaches that can yield complete assignment of three-dimensional structure across the entire molecule in solution at atomic-level resolution," Brinson explains. "Our study indicates that 2D-NMR data can yield a precise and unique 'fingerprint' of structural information in a biological product," he said. Results were reported for measurements of four independently manufactured versions of filgrastim, a biological drug used to help ward off infection and anemia in cancer patients. At four laboratories, researchers used 2D-NMR to map the atomic structures of the originalor referencefilgrastim product licensed in the U.S. and three unapproved biosimilar versions. A biosimilar, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is a biological product shown to be "highly similar to an FDA-approved biological product, and has no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety and effectiveness." Only minor differences in clinically inactive components are allowable in biosimilar products. Biosimilar versions of approved biological drugs at the end of their patent life are expected to cost less but be as safe and effective for licensed clinical uses. To date, the FDA has approved one biosimilar (a version of filgrastim), while the European Union has approved about 20 biosimilars over the last 10 years. Unlike chemically synthesized drugsaspirin, for examplebiological drugs usually are composed of large, complex protein molecules and are produced by living systems. This makes producing exact duplicates impossible, even from batch to batch in the same biomanufacturing process. For specified health conditions and symptoms, the nearly exact copies that result must be shown to achieve the same clinical effects as the already-licensed biological product. Samples of the four filgrastim products were measured on six NMR instruments made by two manufacturers and distributed across laboratories at NIST, FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the Medical Products Agency of Sweden, and Health Canada's Center for Biologics Evaluation. Each sample of filgrastima chain of 175 protein building-blocks known as amino acidswas independently measured in each participating laboratory. Rendered as a complex pattern of peaks corresponding to signals from hydrogen and nitrogen in the sample, the data were gathered on each instrument and then analyzed together. Statistical analyses determined how tightly the signals were clustered when data from all six instruments were superimposed. Across all samples on all six instruments, measurements hardly varied. The experimentally determined precision limit of 8 parts per billion for the interlaboratory comparison, the researchers write, is "well below" the threshold beyond which structural differences due to mutations, changes in three-dimensional shape, or other causes might be obscured. The atomic structures of all four filgrastim versions were determined to be the same within the tight precision limits of the NMR data. Separately, NIST researchers repeated measurements on all four samples one year after the interlaboratory comparison to assess their stability. Using the same 2D-NMR method, they did not find significant structural changes in any of the four biologics. NIST's Brinson stresses the importance of proper instrument calibration and control of laboratory conditions to ensure that results are reliable. Early on in the interlaboratory study, the research team identified deviations in data gathered with two instruments. Variations in temperatures were subsequently determined as the cause of the differences, and recalibrated measurements largely eliminated the deviations. In addition to reporting on the utility of 2D-NMR for high-precision measurement of the detailed atomic structure of biosimilars, the new paper describes statistical methods used to assess biosimilarity. They include one for rapid analysis of many datasets, which can be generated, for example, when monitoring batch-to-batch variation during production. In the next phase of the work, Brinson says, NIST and collaborators will compare 2D-NMR measurements of a monoclonal antibodymolecules able to bind to specific targets such as cancer cellsthat NIST is developing as a reference material. Monoclonal antibodies are the largest class of approved protein therapeutics in the world, and the ability to extend 2D-NMR methods to this class of therapeutic would represent an important landmark in their analytical characterization. Thirty laboratories on five continents will participate in the upcoming project. Beyond ascertaining the precision of 2D-NMR across a large network of laboratories, the effort is expected to yield a catalog of best practices to ensure the reliability and repeatability of results. Explore further NMR 'fingerprinting' for monoclonal antibodies More information: Houman Ghasriani et al. Precision and robustness of 2D-NMR for structure assessment of filgrastim biosimilars, Nature Biotechnology (2016). Journal information: Nature Biotechnology Houman Ghasriani et al. Precision and robustness of 2D-NMR for structure assessment of filgrastim biosimilars,(2016). DOI: 10.1038/nbt.3474 White-tailed deer in the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park. Credit: Ellen Martinsen Two years ago, Ellen Martinsen, was collecting mosquitoes at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, looking for malaria that might infect birdswhen she discovered something strange: a DNA profile, from parasites in the mosquitoes, that she couldn't identify. By chance, she had discovered a malaria parasite, Plasmodium odocoileithat infects white-tailed deer. It's the first-ever malaria parasite known to live in a deer species and the only native malaria parasite found in any mammal in North or South America. Though white-tailed deer diseases have been heavily studiedscientist hadn't noticed that many have malaria parasites. Martinsen and her colleagues estimate that the parasite infects up to twenty-five percent of white-tailed deer along the East Coast of the United States. Their results were published February 5 in Science Advances. In hiding "You never know what you're going to find when you're out in natureand you look," says Martinsen, a research associate at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute and adjunct faculty in the University of Vermont's biology department. "It's a parasite that has been hidden in the most iconic game animal in the United States. I just stumbled across it." The new study, led by Martinsen, was a collaboration with scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Park Service, the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukeeand UVM biologist and malaria expert Joseph Schall. Though Martinsen and Schall are quick to note that they anticipate little danger to people from this newly discovered deer malaria, it does underline the fact that many human health concerns are connected to wider ecological systemsand that understanding the biology of other species is a foundation to both conservation and public health management. Zika virus is recently making worrisome headlines and "there's a sudden surge in interest in mosquito biology across the United States," says Schall. "This is a reminder of the importance of parasite surveys and basic natural history." In 1967, a renowned malaria researcher reported he'd discovered malaria in a single deer in Texas. But the received understanding was that "malaria wasn't supposed to be in mammals in the New World," says Schall, who has studied malaria for decades. "It was like the guy was reporting he saw Big Foot," and no other discoveries were made after that. But now Martinsen and her colleagues have discovered that the deer malaria is widespreadthough it's "cryptic" she says, because the parasites occur in very low levels in many of the infected deer. "Ellen spent days and days looking through a microscope at slides that were mostly empty," Schall says, but eventually found the parasites. Combined with sensitive molecular PCR techniques to understand the genetics, the team confirmed a high prevalence of the diseasebetween eighteen and twenty-five percentin sites ranging from New York to West Virginia to Louisiana. In the lab of University of Vermont biologist and malaria expert Joseph Schall (back), Ellen Martinsen, a researcher at the Smithsonian and adjunct at UVM, helped confirm a discovery she and colleagues made: a malaria parasite that infects white-tailed deer. It's the first-ever malaria parasite known to live in a deer species and the only native malaria parasite found in any mammal in North or South America. Their results were published in the journal Science Advances. Credit: Joshua Brown Native species The new discovery fundamentally changes our understanding of the distribution and evolutionary history of malaria parasites in mammals, Martinsen says. Some scientists wondered if the deer malaria could have jumped from people or zoo animals in the recent past. But the new study suggests otherwise. The team's data shows that the deer actually carry two genetic lineages of the malaria parasites"probably different species," she saysand that the two lineages are substantially different from each other. This divergence between the two forms of malaria was used by the scientists as a kind of molecular clock. "We can date the evolutionary split between those two lineages," Martinsen saysto 2.3 to 6 million years ago. Which probably means that when the ancient evolutionary ancestors to white-tailed deer traveled from Eurasia across the Bering Land Bridge to North America in the Miocene, some 4.2 to 5.7 million years agomalaria came along for the ride. "We think malaria is native to the Americas," Martinsen says, "that it's been here for millions of years." Malaria is a major problem for people in many parts of the worldand for many species of wildlife too. It has been devastating bird species in Hawaii and Bermuda, among many epidemics. Whether it is hurting white-tailed deer in America is an open question. Martinsen suspects not, because she'd expect to see more obviously sick animals. But Schall wonders if, like some human malaria infections, the disease causes a low-level burden that hurts deer populations. They both agree that it is an area that calls for more researchand that the new study raises many other questions, including whether the parasite might infect dairy cows or other hoofed species. Ellen Martinsen completed her undergraduate and doctoral training at UVM in Joe Schall's lab and went on to do her postdoctoral research at the Smithonian Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Conservation Genetics. The new discovery drew on a team of scientists and veterinarians at the Smithsonian and other institutions, who studied samples from both live and necropsied deer as well as mosquitoes. Additionally, Martinsen returned to Schall's lab for some of the new research. "Malaria is a top parasitic disease in humans and wildlife," Ellen Martinsen says. "It's important that we gain a better understanding of its diversity and distribution not just across humans but across other species too." More information: Hidden in plain sight: Cryptic and endemic malaria parasites in North American white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), , advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/2/e1501486 Journal information: Science Advances Hidden in plain sight: Cryptic and endemic malaria parasites in North American white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501486 Zimbabwe has blamed low farm yields on erratic rains due to climate change, as well as crippling Western sanctions Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Friday declared a "state of disaster" in many rural areas hit by a severe drought, with more than a quarter of the population facing food shortages. A regional drought worsened by the El Nino weather phenomenon has affected South Africa, Malawi and Zambia as well as Zimbabwe, leaving tens of thousands of cattle dead, dams depleted and crops written off. Formerly known as the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe has suffered perennial shortages in recent years and has relied on importing grain from neighbouring countries to meet its needs. "Initial indications were that 1.5 million people were food insecure with all the 60 rural districts being affected," Public Works Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said in a statement. "Overall, the food insecure population has since risen to 2.44 million26 percent of the population. "(With) the continued threat of the El Nino-induced drought, his excellency the president has declared a state of disaster in regard to severely affected areas." Mugabe has blamed low farm yields on erratic rains due to climate change, as well as sanctions imposed by Western countries over the government's tainted human rights record. Critics say the food shortages have been partially caused by the president's land reforms enacted since 2000 when the government oversaw the often violent eviction of white farmers. Zimbabwe was once known as the breadbasket of Africa, but perennial shortages now mean that many villagers rely on food aid from the World Food Programme Many farms are underutilised, and the government has vowed to hold an audit to ensure agriculture land is put into production. 'Bring us food' "The rains came too late to save the crops. Most of the maize wilted," Enos Janhi, a farmer in Masvingo, one of the worst affected districts, told AFP by telephone. "Farmers are driving their cattle into the fields to graze on the drying stalks. The government must act urgently to bring us food." Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms have been blamed for contributing to a spate of food shortages since 2000 Kasukuwere said at least 16,500 cattle have died in Zimbabwe, while as much as 75 percent of crops have been abandoned in the worst-hit areas. The minister said the Zimbabwean government would take measures to minimise the impact of the drought on both humans and livestock. But he gave few details, and the country has scarce resources to tackle the food shortages due to years of international isolation and its stagnant economy. "The April (2015) harvest in Zimbabwe was 50 percent lower than the previous year," said David Orr, spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). More than 2.44 million people are facing hunger in Zimbabwe "With the drought continuing, it looks like the lean season is going to continue beyond the harvest time this year. "The number of food insecure people is likely to rise and continue rising." 'No money' Last month the WFP said 14 million people across southern Africa faced going hungry due to the prolonged drought, with the cost of maizethe regional staplein Malawi 73 percent higher than average. "People have no money in their pocketsa situation exacerbated by food shortages," Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told a news conference in Harare. "We are facing a very serious national crisis." South Africa has recorded its worst drought since records began more than a century ago, and will have to import half its average maize crop. Last year was the hottest worldwide in modern times, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2016 AFP Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Disclaimer All material on this website is provided for your information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action or inaction should be taken based solely on the contents of this information; instead, readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Nuclear energy programmes do not give any net energy to society and their adverse health effects last into the far future(500 generations and more). The ECRR 2010 Recommendations which take into account latest research into effects of ionising radiation after the discovery of the DNA must be heeded in preference to ICRP recommendations which are unsound pre-DNA era stuff. For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser Former U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, who retired at the end of 2014, contributed $2,500 of his leftover campaign funds in the 4th quarter of 2015 to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and $1,000 to the campaign of Steve Williams, one of three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican John Katko in New York's 24th Congressional District, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Williams, a lawyer from Syracuse, is running against Colleen Deacon, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Eric Kingson, a Syracuse University professor. Gillibrand and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. have endorsed Deacon, while Rep. Steve Israel, D-Long Island, raised funds for Williams in December, according to a report by Mark Weiner in The Post-Standard of Syracuse. Owens made the following other political contributions from his campaign fund in the 4th quarter: $500 to Rep. Don Byer, D-Va. $500 to the U.S. Senate campaign of Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md, who is running in a Democratic primary $1,000 to Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif. $1,000 to the U.S. Senate campaign of Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is running in a 3-way Democratic primary Owens had $80,306 left in his campaign fund, as of Dec. 31. A Queensbury man who alleges he was targeted by local police officers who included his ex-wifes boyfriend has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against two local police agencies, a prosecutors office and two police officers, accusing them of malicious prosecution. David J. Lanning filed the lawsuit this week in U.S. District Court in Albany, naming the city of Glens Falls and Warren County, the Glens Falls Police Department, Warren County Sheriffs Office and Warren County District Attorneys Office and police officers Ryan Ashe and Kevin Conine Jr. as defendants. It alleges the police agencies wrongfully arrested Lanning, and the district attorneys office prosecuted the charges knowing that they were baseless. The complaint does not seek specific damages, but does seek punitive damages against Ashe, the former Glens Falls Police officer at the center of the confrontations that led to Lanning being charged with felony criminal contempt and jailed for allegedly violating orders of protection. All criminal charges were ultimately dropped against Lanning after a protracted legal battle in Glens Falls and Queensbury courts that the lawsuit says cost him $50,000 in legal fees and two jobs. The lawsuit alleges that Conine, then a Warren County sheriffs officer, wrongfully arrested Lanning in May 2012 based on a false criminal complaint filed by Jamie Lanning, his estranged wife and Ashes then-girlfriend. She accused him of threatening her in violation of an order of protection. Conine and Ashe worked together at the Glens Falls Police Department before Conine took a job with the Warren County Sheriffs Office. Ashe was with Mrs. Lanning when Mr. Lanning was arrested by Glens Falls Police in September 2012 for allegedly making a threatening glance toward his estranged wife in violation of an order of protection. Ashe also pulled over a car Mr. Lanning was driving in 2013 and issued him numerous tickets, which were also dismissed. Throughout the year of 2012 and continuing into 2013 and 2014, Ryan Ashe, while on duty and off duty, harassed, surveilled, targeted and prosecuted Mr. Lanning based on his relationship with Jamie Lanning and her divorce from Mr. Lanning, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit was filed on Lannings behalf by lawyer Margaret Vijayan of Albany. Warren County Sheriff Bud York said his agency had not been served with the lawsuit as of Friday morning. He said he does not believe his officers did anything wrong. Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan said her office also had not been served, and she could not comment before reviewing the lawsuit. A phone message for acting Glens Falls Police Chief Michelle Arnold was not returned Friday. The agency has previously defended its efforts in the arrest of Mr. Lanning, with the chief at the time saying there was probable cause to arrest him. Ashe left the Glens Falls Police Department in 2014 after the Glens Falls Police Department tried to fire him for disciplinary issues not related to the Lanning situation. He now works for the Rutland, Vermont Police Department. He could not be reached Friday. Conine has since left the Sheriffs Office, and is in training to become an FBI agent. Efforts to reach him Friday were unsuccessful. The case has been assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Stewart. SOUTH GLENS FALLS An unusual request may change the way the village charges for lawn sprinklers in the future. The owner of an apartment building asked for permission to attach a water meter to his sprinkler, allowing him to pay for the amount of water he actually uses, rather than a flat fee. Currently, anyone who uses a sprinkler is charged $40 a year as a flat fee. The water meters attached to each house do not track water from exterior faucets. While paying for metered water would likely be cheaper than the $40 flat rate, it would hike the owners sewer bill. Those bills are calculated by determining how much water the property has used, on the theory that all water used went into the sewer pipes. That wouldnt be fair for the sprinkler water usage, which goes into the lawn and doesnt enter the sewer system. Village board members said theyd like to see sprinklers metered, and agreed to consider changing the sewer rate calculation so that it doesnt include sprinkler water usage. Were going to work on changing that so we have better rules, said Mayor Joe Orlow. Theres no grass growing now but property owners will get charged for their sprinkler systems on April 1, at the first of the two water bill cycles. So board members are hoping to get the rules changed quickly. Village Attorney Mike Muller plans to write a code amendment for the Feb. 17 meeting. If the board members like the wording, they will schedule a public hearing for Mar. 2. That schedule could allow them to approve the change in time for the next bill. Property owners would still have to connect their sprinklers to meters to avoid the flat fee. LAKE GEORGE The village is hoping a $25,000 bet will yield a $3.5 million payout. The Village Board unanimously approved hiring one of the top 10 lobbying firms in the state to act on its behalf to seek grant funding for the wastewater treatment plant project. Weve never done this before. Weve never needed this amount of money before, Mayor Robert Blais said. The plants outdated treatment process has had trouble for years completing the nitrogen cycle when treating wastewater, which is why daily levels of nitrate in the plants discharge have tested higher than what the state allows. The village is under a consent order, with a timeline, from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to fix the problem, and the village is looking at building a new plant that uses a sequencing batch reactor, that treats wastewater in batches. Oxygen would be bubbled through the mixture of waste in batches to reduce organic matter. The village agreed to pay $5,000 a month from February to June to the lobbying firm Park Strategies, whose lobbyists will bend the ears of those who hold the purse strings to millions of dollars available this year for waste water projects. There are many different funding streams. For instance, the state Water Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2015 provides $200 million in grant funding over three years, including $75 million this year. The village did not receive anything for the project in the Regional Economic Development Council awards announced last December. They (the firm) are basically going to work to raise our project from the bottom to the top of the pile, federal, state, whatever. We found thats where we failed to have the level of awareness we thought wed automatically get with this project. People told us afterward they didnt know about the project, said village Department of Public Works Superintendent Dave Harrington. The firm, Park Strategies, was founded by Sen. Al DAmato. It has offices in Manhattan, Albany, Long Island, Buffalo, Washington, D.C. and Taiwan. The lobbying services agreement given to the village was signed by DAmato, a Republican who was a U.S. senator representing New York from 1981 to 1999. According to a report by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which regulates lobbying, the firm was No. 2 in the state in 2014, based on compensation, and number three in terms of number of clients (143 at the time). Some of the clients include The Walt Disney Company, Verizon and the town of Hempstead, according to the joint commission database. The $3.5 million is an estimate for the engineering to overhaul the plant, Blais said, adding that the strategy is to go after just the engineering cost at this point. The construction costs are estimated at $12 million. They like to fund things that are ready to go. Were not ready to go, but we are ready to go for engineering. So they felt we would be much more successful if we ask for a lot less. Usually if you get that, then you get a better shot at getting money for construction, Blais said. He said the village sought proposals from two other lobbying firms but Park Strategies was the only one that was not already representing another entity vying for money for a water or wastewater infrastructure project. There are a lot of different opportunities out there, and I dont know we have anyone on our staff that has the time, the effort, the energy, to reach out to all these, Blais said. It seems like a lot of money for a village to spend, but on the other hand, this is so important to the future of the village and the town and the lake that I suppose its a reasonable amount. Although Blais called the contract a gamble, he said the village can come up with the money and should take the opportunity. It just looks like we dont have much of a choice, said Board member John Root. It seems like if it works, itll be money well spent, Board member Ray Perry said. Deputy Mayor John Earl asked facetiously if they could get a grant to pay the lobbying firms bill. Because the work falls under professional services, it is an exception to the competitive bidding process. June will be billed to the next fiscal year, so the board shuffled $20,000 $5,000 for each remaining month of this fiscal year from other places in the budget, such as road salt, which hasnt been needed much this year. Editor: Surcharges on a restaurant bill for dining out? Duh? I can't be the only one who thinks the concept is genetically flawed and is an extremely poor attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the waitstaff and customers. My best assessment is the waitstaff need their jobs and for all practical purposes can't leave, however, the general public, the diners, can choose to dine elsewhere. A mandatory 18 percent surcharge that apparently successfully attempts to circumvent a legal increase of $2.50 an hour in the minimum wage for servers amounts to nothing more than taking advantage of a loophole at the expense of the servers at the hands of astute business operators. The servers never got a raise. They are making the same money that they made before the increase in the minimum wage went into effect. The astute business operators argue that tipped workers don't need a raise and in the end the 18 percent surcharge is best for the employees and the restaurants patrons. I get enough surcharges on my cellphone bill, my satellite TV bill and my electrical bill. I'll simply dine at the new steak house in town that has exceptionally tasty burgers and to-die-for steaks at highly competitive prices for exceptional quality cuisine where I have the freedom to tip the waitstaff accordingly. WILLIAM RUDENKO Hartford In the news, Peter Saunders, a clergy sex abuse survivor and a member of the pope's sex abuse commission, was told to leave (see below). I'm not really surprised .... Pope Francis has done pretty much nothing for the victims of clerical sex abuse and Saunders is not the type to quietly wait for hypothetical change in the distant future. Abuse survivor disputes removal from Vatican commission, seeks papal meeting ...- More: Fr. Thomas Doyle in 2014: Pope's new abuse commission is another promise waiting to be broken M WAQAR..... "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --Albert Einstein !!! NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.'' On the first of January, Ringier Africa and Asia have implemented various changes further supporting the strong growth of its international markets, with additional personnel and international support. After a successful 2015 with strong growth across all core businesses and countries on both continents, the accomplishment of important milestones, including the new market entry in Myanmar, Ringier introduced a new international setup which will ensure further growth in quality and efficiency for future expansions. To facilitate this, Leonard Stiegeler, former General Manager Ringier Nigeria & Head of Ringier West Africa has been appointed to the new position of General Manager Ringier Africa. Former Head of New Business Implementation Ringier AG, Florent de Rocca-Serra will take the new position of General Manager Ringier Asia Pacific. Jessica List, formerly part of Ringier's M&A and Business Development team will take the new position of CFO Africa. Jessica Stiles, former Head of Marketing International Markets becomes CMO Africa & Asia. All of these positions will be reporting into the current CEO of Asia & Africa, Robin Lingg, who has been elected to the Group Executive Board of Ringier AG in December. Julian Artope, current Director Ringier's Africa will pursue an MBA by the end of March after four years of building Ringier's African business on the continent. Mark Slade, former Head of the Digital Marketing Agency RDM in Nigeria, will take over the position as General Manager Ringier Nigeria. To further support the risen complexity in Ringiers fast scaling operations, four dedicated teams were established for each of the African business models Classifieds, Content, eCommerce and Digital Marketing. Each will consist of a dedicated team supporting their field in Marketing, Business & Operations and Product Development. Robin Lingg, CEO Ringier Africa & Asia: With the high speed and growth of our digital business in Africa and Asia, we were in need of stronger support structures to facilitate further aggressive scaling of our business. Through this evolution of the organisation Im convinced well be able to further boost and expand our leading market positions in Classifieds, Content, eCommerce and Digital Marketing across all our markets. We have a proven and highly experienced team of which I'm very happy to see so much internally promoted leadership emerge. I also would like to thank Julian Artope, who has been essential for building this organisation on the ground and has been a key part for the success of Ringier. This media release and pictures are available for download on:www.ringier.com => Media => Press Releases Ringier Africa is the leading diversified digital media company in Africa. It operates more than ten content, classifieds and eCommerce platforms, as well as a digital marketing agency across Africa. Launched on the continent in 2011, Ringier Africa represents the most recent international expansion of the Swiss media enterprise Ringier, which established successful operations in emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia since 1989. With a hyper local approach and supported by the Swiss technology, which is running some of Europe's largest content and classifieds sites, Ringier Africas 300 employees focus on bringing tai lormade mobile first experiences to the African consumer. This follows last years attempted jailbreak in which two prison inmates were shot dead by the police whiles some security officials sustained severe injures following clashes. The Deputy Director of Prisons, Mr Lord Nii Boye Tagoe, said in Kumasi that the mobile phones facilitated the jailbreak plans as the inmates were able to communicate with friends outside the prison. Some prison officers are suspected of aiding the inmates by smuggling the phones and other prohibited items to them in their cells. Mr Tagoe made this known at a memorial service held by the Kumasi Central Prison to commemorate the first anniversary of the attempted jailbreak in Kumasi. Former President John Kufuor, Vice President Kwesi Amissah Arthur, Inspector General of Police (IGP) John Kudalor and some prominent chiefs all payed their last respect to the late paramount chief Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III. Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu and Togbe Afede XIV also graced the final funeral rites of the Paramount chief of the area. The burial rites, which began last Sunday with the observance of some rights at the Okuapeman palace by the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, will today move to the Presbyterian College of Education School Park to accommodate the large number of mourners who will throng Akropong. See also: Mahama mourns Okuapehene Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III There will also be a thanksgiving service on Sunday, February 7, and final burial rites on Monday, February 8, at the forecourt of the Okuapehenes Palace in Akropong. The Deputy Minister was speaking when she performed the ceremony for construction works to start on the 26-kilometre Techiman-Derma-Asuoso road in the Tano South District. The GH15.5 million project, is expected to be completed within 15 months and involves bitumen surfacing. The job has been awarded to PMC Construction Limited, an Accra-based construction company. Dr. Bisiw, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, gave high marks to the government for its achievements and warned that it would be a mistake to vote it down. She said she had had personally facilitated the digging of 69 bore holes in the constituency to provide the people with access to potable water, adding that, work on additional 18 was steadily progressing. She also gave assurance that everything would be done to complete the GH200,000.00 market project started at Techimantia. The Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr. Eric Opoku, urged the contractors to make sure that they worked hard to meet the deadline. They should again see to it that there was value for money by doing quality job, he added. Alhaji Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Construction Company, pledged to finish the road within the contract period. The extension is to last from January 31 to June 30, 2016 to allow Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora to obtain their BVN and link it with their respective bank accounts. A circular, signed by the Director, Banking and Payments System, CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, stated that the CBN had also increased the number of BVN registration centres overseas to allow more bank customers to register. The CBN has observed, through a recent survey, the low percentage of registration of Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora, which may be attributed to lack of accessibility to registration centres and unavailability of registration centres in some cities where Nigerian population is high. Consequently, all the Deposit Money Banks are hereby requested to note that the BVN enrolment for Nigerian bank customers in the Diaspora is hereby extended to June 30, 2016. This is to enable such customers to complete the enrolment and link the BVN with their bank accounts. 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! 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! 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! Mrs Ajimobi stated this on Saturday in Ibadan at an event to commemorate the international day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilation. The governors wife who was addressing a group of women in the state said that the law prohibits female genital mutilation and other unwholesome practices against women. Mrs Ajimobi noted that it was the duty of everyone to ensure that the traditional harmful practice of genital mutilation stopped. She explained that victims of the harmful practice suffered a great deal ``socially, psychologically, physically emotionally and sexually. According to her, eradicating female genital mutilation and other related practices is one of the key elements of the fifth United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals She called for continuous education and adequate information dissemination on the dangers inherent in the practice. Mrs Ajimobi stressed that all hands must be on deck to ensure that perpetrators of the prohibited practice were brought to book. ``We must speak and make our voices heard, that we no longer want our women to suffer in the hands of traditional surgeons with their scalpel of death. Commending the President for his non interference with the judgement of the Supreme Court on the election tribunals cases of River State Governor, Nyesom Wike; Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel and Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, Arisekola said Buhari has shown that his administration is clear and transparent. 'This has shown that he respects the rule of law and gives hope to the common man. He has also proven that he allows the judicial arm of government to function smoothly without any hindrance unlike other government who would influence the judiciary,' Arisekola said. Galadima gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. Galadima said that lack of self confidence had made the youths vulnerable, adding that their vulnerability has led most of them to indulge in anti-social vices. ``The inability of young people to make right decisions often hinders their proper growth. ``Young persons in the country as a whole must imbibe the culture of self-confidence, take positive action and search for knowledge in order to improve their productive values. ``They should also engage themselves in useful ventures such as reading and sporting activities, he said. The Youth leader said that the youth must believe in themselves in order to unleash their potential. ``That is the only way they could prevent themselves from being used by agents of vices in the society. ``The aggregate of these positive steps would lead to national rebirth and consciousness, he said. The residents, some of who are civil servants who are yet to receive their four months salaries made the statement on Saturday in Lokoja in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Alhaji Ocholi Aku, who lives in Adankolo area in Lokoja, said that some consumers who did not have pre-paid metres were compelled to pay electricity bill amounting to N7, 000 each month. ``How will such consumers be able to cope with the new tariff? As I am speaking I cannot boast of electricity for four hours in a day yet my bill is constant. ``I support other Nigerians who are calling on the electricity distribution companies to install pre-paid meters so that arbitrary billings will be a thing of the past. ``We want the government to take appropriate measures to enable consumers get value for their money, Aku told NAN. In his remark, Mr Williams Aliwo, a legal practitioner in the state, said that any hike in electricity tariff without corresponding increase in the income of workers is additional financial burden on the people. Yekini Jimoh, who resides in Felele area, said that installation of pre-paid meters would check epileptic power supply. He described arbitrary billing which does not take into account epileptic power supply as `criminal. The former governor of the state Capt. Idris Wada had condemned estimated billing of electricity consumers in an address he read at the inauguration of 160 transformers. He said that the call was necessary because youths were the future leaders of the country and have significant role to play to ensure the sustenance of peace and unity. ``The main issue before you is to ensure that Nigeria is a country of peace because the future is yours. ``In the next 20 years nobody will talk about Sule Lamido or Buhari even if we are alive, but the legacies we leave behind. So, the future is yours, he said. The former governor said that as a social media group, members of the forum had the capacity to enlighten people on the need for peace and unity in the country. Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the Forum, Alhaji Yusuf Dingyadi, said that they were in Kano to pledge their solidarity to the former governor. ``No governor has put Jigawa State on the right track like Sule Lamido, hence our decision to come and pay him the solidarity visit, he said. The ICPC boss said the war against corruption by the present administration has made so much progress and gaining momentum because the president had been leading by example. According to a statement released by the commission on Friday, February 5, 2016, Nta said the success of the internal war against corruption has seen the international community reckoning with the anti-corruption drive of the government. The seriousness with which the war is being fought in Nigeria has been eliciting responses from countries that have been promising to offer assistance to Nigeria in its fight against corruption," the statement reads in part. China's constitution proclaims freedom of belief, but in reality the officially atheist ruling Communist Party keeps a tight rein over religious activities and officials who are party members are not supposed to practise religion. In an explanation of new rules published by major state newspapers, the party's powerful Organisation Department, which oversees personnel decisions, said retired officials who were also party members had to follow these rules too. "There are clear rules that retired officials who are party members cannot believe in religion and cannot attend religious activities, and must resolutely struggle against evil cults," an unnamed official said in the lengthy explanation. Malian troops backed by U.N. helicopters recaptured the base in a former hotel hours after it was taken and a Malian commander and four attackers were killed. The precise number of attackers was unclear. "Three heroes from the knights of ... (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) were able to storm the Hotel Palmeraie, located in the centre of the city of Timbuktu, and which was taken as a headquarters by the forces of oppression falsely known as 'peacekeepers', the statement said. Militants drove up to the nearly empty U.N. base in the former Hotel Palmeraie at the entrance to Timbuktu at dawn and detonated a car bomb before holing up inside, security sources said. "We now control Marka police station and the entire town. AMISOM left the town early this morning," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters on Friday. Residents said the militant Islamist group raised its flags inside the town, which is situated 100 kilometers (60 miles)southwest of Mogadishu, and started to preach to residents using loudspeakers. Local police officer Hussein Elmi said they had moved out of the town to the outskirts without giving a reason for the move. Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg The school district is not backing down on an administration move at J.G. Johnson Elementary School that caused an uproar with some parents this week. On Monday, the Nye County School District appointed former Tonopah High School principal Alvin Eiseman as the acting principal at JG Johnson, replacing principal Charles OConnor. Parents of students at J.G. Johnson were informed about the change on Monday by letter. Some parents expressed outrage with Eiseman being named despite the fact that the District Attorneys office declined to file charges on an incident that saw him removed from Tonopah High last year. Eiseman was arrested on preliminary charges of open and gross lewdness and child abuse in separate incidents that allegedly occurred while he was principal at Tonopah. The decision came down at the end of 2015 after the district attorney found the allegations against Eiseman to be unfounded. Over the course of nearly a year, my office explored leads, conducted telephonic interviews and made repeated efforts to set up face-to-face meetings with those related to the alleged incident, said Angela Bello, Nye County district attorney. In the end, we were simply not able to corroborate the allegations to the extent needed to justify bringing charges for which we would have to provide proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, we made the decision to deny the request for prosecution late last year. The school district stood by its decision to place Eiseman as the acting principal of JG Johnson, as Nye County School District Superintendent Dale Norton highlighted the new principals lengthy education career and the fact that charges werent brought against him. Mr. Eiseman was placed as the acting principal at J.G. Johnson Elementary School. Mr. Eiseman brought 23 years of educational experience with him to Nye County School District when hired in July 2007. Mr. Eiseman taught in the classroom for 15 years before becoming a principal. He currently has more than 30 years of educational experience, with 15 years as a school principal, Norton said in a statement. As an administrator at Tonopah High School, false and malicious allegations were made against him in an attempt to discredit his character. Mr. Eiseman was arrested due to these baseless and spiteful allegations. The district attorneys office denied charges and Mr. Eiseman has been cleared of any wrongdoing. The Nye County Sheriffs Office arrested Eiseman in March after they found probable cause in the original complaint that he touched a female students breasts and punched another one in the arm during a conversation in February 2015. The additional preliminary charge came while the sheriffs office further investigated the original incidents and another female student came forward saying that Eiseman made crude and sexually suggestive remarks to her. While the Nye County District Attorneys office conducted their own investigation to decide whether or not to formally press charges against Eiseman, the school district transferred him out of Tonopah High School to the school districts southern district office where he served as principal on special assignment pending the findings of the investigation. His role there didnt involve him working with any students while the DA completed its investigation. Although charges werent brought against Eiseman, some parents of students at JG Johnson still dont trust him being around their children at the elementary school. Some parents took to social media to air their displeasure about Eiseman being at the school, while others took the chance to argue in favor of Eiseman. I have two students at J.G. and my sister has two there and we kept our kids home, said one concerned parent on the Pahrump Valley Times Facebook page. One person who was in support of Eiseman on the newspapers Facebook page stated that he isnt the criminal the dismissed charge made him out to be. Hes not a bad guy. He was my principal and nothing that was said happened, the Facebook poster said. Hes a good guy and for people to judge him by the things they heard is wrong. Concerned parents showed up to the Nye County School District office to file complaints about Eiseman being the acting principal Wednesday and the Nye County Sheriffs Office was called out as a precautionary measure at one point during the day. Despite the pressure from the public, the school district is staying put with its decision to have Eiseman as the acting principal as of press time Thursday afternoon. The school district didnt give a reason behind OConnors sudden departure other than stating, This is a personal matter which by its nature is private and confidential. Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Find him on Twitter: @mickakers The Iowa state Auditor's Office said Friday it has identified more than $4,000 in improper or undocumented spending between 2009 and 2014 in two accounts set up years ago by members of the Davenport Fire Department. The auditor, Mary Mosiman, said her office identified $1,493 in improper payments. The funds came from an account set up to support the purchase of clothing and the sale of T-shirts with the fire department's logo, as well as an account to provide training and educational events related to the department's Fire Safety House. The audit said the accounts, along with 11 others, were funded by donations, fundraising events and collections from members of the fire department. The city of Davenport issued a statement Friday saying no public funds were unaccounted for or disbursed to the accounts. The auditor's report, citing a state law, said, however, that because no auxiliary or nonprofit organization was set up to receive donations or fundraising proceeds, all money received should be considered city funds. Davenport Finance Director Brandon Wright said fire department employees started the accounts prior to 2000 when there used to be a Davenport Fire Department Credit Union, which is now the Family Credit Union. He said many of the employees have since left. "This has been going on a long time," he said. Wright said employees started the accounts with their personal Social Security numbers. "How the city taxpayer ID got on those accounts is not clear," he said. Questions about the accounts arose in October 2014 when an attorney sought records related to one of the accounts. As a result, the audit said, the city conducted its own review and announced three weeks later it had found 13 accounts were improperly using the city's federal employee identification number. In December 2014, an employee of the fire department asked the auditor and then-Mayor Bill Gluba for an investigation. Gluba then sent his own request. Among the improper expenditures identified was reimbursement of $300 to Fire Chief Lynn Washburn for two $150 Amazon gift cards she gave to two people who helped interview job candidates. Another $248 was for reimbursement of a fishing pole presented to another person who had helped with interviews, the audit said. The audit said the payments were improper if they weren't related to the purposes of the accounts and appeared to be personal in nature. Washburn declined comment. Another $461 in improper disbursements were reported, mostly for food, including three withdrawals for $335 that included a notation saying the money paid for lunch for four or five people, including County Attorney Mike Walton, related to an ongoing trial. The audit said the other improper spending was for using the wrong account to buy fire prevention promotional items. The auditor also identified $2,684 in expenditures that weren't properly documented. The report said it was not possible to tell if there were other improper expenditures or if all donations and proceeds from fundraising events were properly deposited in the accounts because of inadequate documentation. As is its practice, the auditor forwarded copies of its report to state law enforcement officials and the county attorney's office. Walton said Friday he has referred the case to the Clinton County Attorneys Office to avoid a conflict of interest because he works with the fire department on a regular basis on criminal investigations. Walton said he did not remember the specific case or trial indicated in the auditor's report. The audit did not examine the 11 other accounts set up because, it said, there would be "no significant benefit." Many of those accounts were set up to purchase food for firefighters working various shifts. It's customary for firefighters to pool money for the purchase of food and clothing. The city of Davenport provides firefighters with a $700 annual uniform allowance and $500 for food. The audit said nearly all the accounts have now been closed. Remaining funds in the clothing account went to the fire department's union. The money left in the fire house account went to the city. At an historic gathering in Marrakesh, Morocco on January 27, more than 300 Muslim leaders including many of the world's most eminent Islamic scholars and clerics declared that the religious freedom of minority faiths must be protected in Muslim majority nations. The Marrakesh Declaration comes at a time of unprecedented persecution of Christians and other minority groups by extremists acting in the name of Islam in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Pushing back against false and dangerous narratives about Islam, the Muslim leaders called on the entire Muslim world to reaffirm the principles of the Charter of Medina, a constitutional contract between the Prophet Muhammad and the people of Medina, "which guaranteed the religious liberty of all, regardless of faith" 1,400 years ago. To counter extremism and promote freedom, the declaration calls for a "broad movement for the just treatment of religious minorities in Muslim countries and to raise awareness as to their rights." Morocco, the host country for the conference, is often cited as an example of an Islamic state that protects the rights of Christians, Jews and other religious minorities. Some of the other Muslim majority nations, however, are badly in need of the reforms called for in the declaration: Citizenship that is "inclusive of diverse groups" and initiatives, including education, that promote understanding across religions. By sending a message to government leaders who ignore the true teachings of Islam as well as to terrorist groups that pervert the meaning of the faith, the Marrakesh Declaration stakes out an authentically Muslim position in support of religious freedom. "Enough bloodshed," said Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, a key organizer of the conference and president of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies. "There is a sickness right now in the world but we have treatments for it within Islam." In other words, Islam is not the cause of extremism; Islam offers an answer to it. Now the challenge facing Muslim scholars and religious leaders will be to translate the declaration into societal reforms and peace efforts that effectively counter extremist movements, especially among the young. The Marrakesh Declaration has received scant media attention in the United States. Positive news about Islam including the many earlier statements and actions of Islamic leaders to fight extremism rarely makes headlines. But Americans should take heed of the message coming out of Morocco. At a time when Islam is coopted by terrorists and demonized by anti-Muslim groups, Americans need to hear the true voice of Islam. To understand why this matters, consider that hate crimes against Muslim Americans and mosques across the U.S. have tripled since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California last fall, according to a study conducted by researchers at California State University. Ignorance and fear of Islam breed anger, hate and violence. In recent months, a young girl wearing an hijab was attacked by classmates, a Muslim cab driver was shot by a passenger who was angry about ISIS, a Muslim woman at a carwash was threatened by a man at knifepoint and the list goes on. Just as the KKK and White Supremacist groups which claim to be based on "Christian principles" are not labeled "Christian extremists" by most Americans, so ISIS and other terrorist groups who act in the name of Islam should not be given the label "Islamic." If we can tell the difference between authentic Christianity and perverted versions of the Gospel, so we should learn to tell the difference when it comes to Islam. Our ability to work with one another, defeat our common enemy, and uphold religious freedom hangs in the balance. Charles C. Haynes is vice president of the Newseum Institute and founding director of the Religious Freedom Center. Readers can email him at chaynes@newseum.org. Twitter is now using spam-fighting technology to seek out accounts that might be promoting "terrorist" activity, and is examining other accounts related to those flagged for possible removal, the company announced Friday. The effort signaled efforts by Twitter to automatically identify tweets supporting "terrorism," reflecting increased pressure from the U.S. government for social media companies to respond to abuse more proactively. Child pornography has previously been the only abuse that was automatically flagged for human review on social media, using a different kind of technology that sources a database of known images. Twitter also said Friday it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting "terrorist" acts, mainly related to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the last eight months. Social media outlets have long been a tool for recruitment and radicalization by ISIL and its supporters, who by some reports send tens of thousands of tweets per day. Under pressure from the U.S. government to crack down on the abuse of such platforms by groups like ISIL, tech companies are dedicating increasingly more resources to tracking reports of violent threats. Twitter said Friday that it has increased the size of its team reviewing reports to reduce their response time "significantly." The San Francisco-based company also changed its policy in April, adding language to make clear that "threatening or promoting terrorism" specifically counted as abusive behavior and violated its terms of use. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called Twitter's announcement "a very positive development." In January, the White House made good on President Barack Obama's promise to reach out to Silicon Valley to tackle the use of social media by violent groups. Those include ISIL, which reportedly inspired attackers who killed 14 in San Bernardino, California, last December. A post on one of the killers' Facebook pages that appeared around the time of the attack included a pledge of allegiance to the leader of ISIL. Facebook found the post which was under an alias the day after the attack. The company removed the profile from public view and informed law enforcement. But such a proactive effort is fairly uncommon. The Obama administration recently sent several top officials to San Jose, California, including FBI Director James Comey, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. Among the issues they discussed was how to use technology to help speed the identification of "terrorist content," according to a copy of the White House briefing memo obtained by The Associated Press. "We recognize that identifying terrorist content that violates terms of service is far more difficult than identifying images of child pornography, but is there a way to use technology to quickly identify terrorist content? For example, are there technologies used for the prevention of spam that could be useful?" the memo said. Free speech advocates have expressed concerns about these efforts, arguing that it should not be up to tech companies to determine what passes the bar for "terrorist" content. Of particular concern is that different countries have differing lists of designated terrorist groups, and that accusations of terrorism are often subjective and political. Others argue that wiping pro-ISIL accounts off the Internet deprives intelligence agencies of valuable intelligence and prevents anti-ISIL voices from confronting the group's ideology head-on. Nevertheless, in late 2015 Twitter began using "proprietary spam-fighting tools" to find accounts that might be violating their terms of service by promoting "terrorism," sending them to be reviewed by a team at Twitter. That group also now looks into other accounts similar to those reported to them by other users. Twitter said it has already had seen results, "including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter." But it also noted that there is no "magic algorithm" for identifying terrorist content, which is why even humans reviewing the material are ultimately making judgment calls "based on very limited information and guidance." "Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism," Twitter said in a statement released Friday. It said it would continue to "engage with authorities and other relevant organizations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives." Al Jazeera and The Associated Press Thumbs up to leaks, too often the only defense against government secrecy. A University of Iowa employee, this week, leaked a poll to The Associated Press conducted by a GOP-insider awarded a no-bid contract. The university has, for months, declined AP's requests for access to the poll, which cost more than $300,000. The poll concluded that the university's "party school" reputation threatened its viability. But the results, while interesting, are less interesting than potentially political gift-giving at a public institution. Thumbs down to Scott County Planning and Zoning Commission, which on Tuesday chose the mystical promise of jobs over right-headed land-use planning. The commission approved spot zoning by a 6-1 vote after farmers decried the proposal. We've said it before: Spot zoning is a bad idea, one that threatens the long-term viability of the county's farmland. It's up to county supervisors to kill this once and for all. Thumbs up to a life well lived. Minister Alan Egly spent his life running philanthropic organizations in the Quad-Cities. He was a vocal champion of the underclass. He called for acceptance of gays. He was an avid letter writer, always hoping to give voice to those with the least clout. Egly was instrumental in creating a homeless shelter for teens. He pushed for the decriminalization of suicide. He fought riverfront gambling. Agree or disagree with his politics, Egly was a fighter And that's the measure of a citizen. Egly died this week. He was 85. I wonder if we're getting closer to a point down the road, where people in government, business and, heck, even at home, would decide it's not worth using email at all. Not when we see how suddenly an unexpected spotlight can shine on anyone at any given moment. A bunch of questions get asked and people do their best to recall and give answers. But then the cry comes that we must have their emails. And all of sudden, stern eyes, many just looking to get someone in trouble, begin picking the emails apart, word by word from a computer. Those same eyes then compare them to the answers that had been given, looking for anything that can be said to look like a lie; answers given by a human-being, with a very human memory. views and poetry from an anarchist perspective. Belle Fourche High School actors, actresses and crew are heading to Sioux Falls later this week for the state competition after finishing in the top two places at the regional competition here at the Belle Fourche Area Community Center. Six schools attended the regional competition in Belle Fourche. Local performers had 45 minutes from set-up to tear-down to complete the show "A Slice of Life," an original show written by director Derek Olson. Olson wrote the drama along with Robert Soderstrom. The play takes place in a diner where the devil tries to tempt a small-town reporter. Olson is in his eighth year directing for the high school. At the state competition, schools will perform to receive a superior award and will be judged by three judges. Individual acting awards will also be give. At the regional competition in Belle Fourche, Miles Amende and Nick Pope each received individual awards. Only one student had experience acting in a one-act play prior to this year. "They all were very new to it, which is cool," Olson said of his cast. "The kids were great as always. We had a lot of young kids this year." ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. | Every year, Air Force dining facilities and food service programs compete against fellow DFACs across the organization for the coveted John L. Hennessy trophy. The annual award, given to the best of the best dining facility for the last 60 years, covers the entire scope of an installation's food service program that exhibits excellence in categories such as management effectiveness, force readiness support, food quality and safety awareness. The Raider Cafe, the sustenance behind Ellsworth AFB's bomber Airmen, competed against seven DFACs in Air Force Global Strike Command for the Hennessy award in 2015 and emerged victorious. "When we compete, we're being graded on everything from production logs, menus and how we take our orders to using recipe cards, food storage and how we clean the facility," said Senior Airman Brittany Edgmon, 28th Force Support Squadron food services journeyman. "This is to show off the best food (service) in the Air Force." Created in 1956, its purposes are to promote excellence in customer service and meal quality by recognizing outstanding DFAC operations; inspire high morale, motivation and a professional image through pride and spirited competition; and to improve management concepts and practices. "(The evaluation team) looks at how the Airmen interact with each other, how they interact with our (civilian team), our training records and how (personnel) talk with customers," said 2nd Lt. Corey Hayes, 28th FSS food service officer. During the major command competition, programs were judged based on an award nomination package, Hayes said. When competing at the Air Force level, the Raider Cafe will be evaluated Feb. 11 by a three-person team who will do a hands-on evaluation on what was submitted in the package. "The team includes a master sergeant from the Services Activity, and two civilian professionals who are either owners of restaurants or culinary schools," Hayes continued. "After the evaluation, they'll sit down and go over each base, how they scored and then announce the winners at a final ceremony in Chicago." The Services Activity is like the Air Force Personnel Center, but for the services career field. AFPC creates guidance and regulations for Air Force personnel, whereas the activity builds the career's policies and regulations, said Tech. Sgt. Rojelio Valenzuela, 28th FSS assistant dining facility manager. It also coordinates all services activities throughout the major commands so all programs are on the same page. According to Edgmon, the Hennessy trophy is that reminder the cafe is on point. "It shows that we've been working hard, we're doing our job right and we're going above and beyond. We've come a long way since legacy, since the renovation," Edgmon said. "Before, it was simple and easy. It was a main line and snack line, and now we have expanded so much. We have so many different options, a better menu selection and it's not just for the Airmen, it's for the whole base." Hayes adds Hennessy gives the perspective that can be lost during day-to-day operations. "...these Airmen are some of the best (services Airmen) in the Air Force, and we try to recognize them through awards and on their evaluations," Hayes explained. "But I think Hennessy's that one universal thing that showcases, saying 'hey, you guys are awesome and here is how we tell others you're awesome.'" Additionally, Hayes stressed the importance as a leader to ensure Airmen are recognized for their hard work. "It's one of those things where, day in and day out you lose perspective on how much the base depends on you, and Hennessy is that way to bring it all back," Hayes stated. After a proposed statewide ballot measure failed on a technicality this week, backers of medical marijuana in South Dakota found new life in the form of a bill offered by a West River senator. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 7-0 in favor of registering Senate Bill 171 on Friday. The bill would allow the state to permit and regulate the compassionate use of cannabis (marijuana) and provide penalties therefor. On Friday, the bill had its first reading in the Senate and was referred back to the same committee where it originated for a hearing next week. Committee chairman Sen. Bruce Rampelberg, R-Rapid City, sees the bill as a way to start a conversation about how cannabis could be used as medicine. He said he became intrigued about the possibility of marijuana as a medicine after receiving several emails this year, and in years past, from people who say they have found relief from serious medical issues by using marijuana. "People with cancer or other problems write to me and say they have found relief from this (marijuana), so I think it is worth looking into," Rampelberg said, adding that he would not support legalizing recreational use of the drug. Roxanne Hammond of the Legislative Research Council said because the deadline had passed for a bill to be sponsored by an organization or a legislator, this bill needed to be brought by a legislative committee in order to be heard. Though the Health and Human Services Committee shows up as the sponsor of the bill, Hammond said that doesnt necessarily mean the members support it, but rather that the members simply want it to be heard. Melissa Mentele, of New Approach South Dakota, the group that spearhead the statewide ballot effort that failed due to improper signatures this week, said Friday she was "cautiously optimistic" now that a legislative measure had been filed. She said the group will now begin working to spread the word about the bill and asking for anyone who finds medical relief from marijuana to share their story with legislators before the committee hearing next week. As the bill is written now, it is an exact copy of what petitioners were circulating in hopes of getting it on the ballot for the November election. Within its 38 pages, the bill outlines how medical cannabis would be available to patients in the state and sets up regulations for the drug. The Senate bill would allow for possession of up to three ounces of marijuana for persons with a medical marijuana card. That card would be obtained through a recommendation by a doctor with whom the patient has a bona-fide practitioner-patient relationship. Cards could only be given to people with debilitating medical conditions, including but not limited to cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, epilepsy and a list of several others. Another medical marijuana bill, Senate Bill 167, was introduced on Thursday but gave no parameters for the use or regulation of the drug. It simply states "the compassionate use of medical cannabis is permitted and the use shall be regulated." Rampelberg was also a sponsor on that bill which has been assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee but has not been heard. I want to elevate the discussion and begin to see how we could use this as medicine, Rampelberg said. If we start treating this as a drug that doctors can prescribe, I think it could help a lot of people." Rampelberg admits he has not read the entirety of Senate Bill 171, but said it will likely need to be amended if it has a chance at passage. He said the bill faces an uphill battle in the legislature. Its going to be a push, its going to be a tough one, but you never know what might strike a chord with people. Mentele said the group is willing to give on some cultivation issues, but really hopes that the qualifying conditions for medical marijuana laid out in the bill stay. "We are more than willing to give and take, and completely understand the whole thing isn't going to be handed to us on a silver platter," she said. Gov. Dennis Daugaard said in an earlier interview with the Rapid City Journal that he would be opposed to medical marijuana in the state. "I understand the wishes of those who have medical conditions to have medical marijuana as an option for their treatment," Daugaard said in January. "At the same time, I also believe that medical marijuana is also the first step toward recreational marijuana and that in some states, medical marijuana and access to medical marijuana has become more than it should be, and in fact, giving opportunities to those who want to use for recreational use, to mimic or falsify a physical condition to give them the privilege of recreational use when their medical condition doesnt really support it." Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City, has supported the concept of allowing medical marijuana in the past through a bill he sponsored in 2013. He said during a phone interview Friday that he had not yet read Senate Bill 171, but said he would not support a bill similar to the ballot measure that failed. Tiezen felt that measure left too many loopholes for people to exploit the system and get medical marijuana when they didn't need it. In contrast, Tieszen's 2013 bill would have allowed medical necessity as a defense in court for those who were arrested for using marijuana. That bill died in committee. Senate Bill 171 will likely be heard at the Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 10 according to Rampelberg. Morris Hallock was always proud of his service in World War II, but the medals he earned were slow in coming. "They weren't automatic," Hallock, a retired local businessman, said. "You had to apply. Most people said that they'd never want them. Most people are naive." Hallock, 89, finally received his medals Friday afternoon from U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who had lunch with the veteran in the dining room at Holiday Hills Estates. He described the medal ceremony as "wonderful." Hallock, who served as a signalman in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946, earned the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the last of which Thune pinned on him. "Probably the most fun part of my job is to recognize an American hero like Morris," Thune said. "I'm blessed to be in his company." Hallock, a lifelong Republican, was equally enthusiastic about Thune's presence, referring to him as "our champion." Hallock's time in the service was eventful. After joining the Navy at the age of 17, he served on a ship in the South Pacific, and his service included some of the famous names of battles in that theater of war: Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and most vividly, Guadalcanal. "We were shooting down a plane a day there," Hallock said. "It wasn't much different from what I expected: It was a nasty deal. But this is a wild world. A strong military is a must." Hallock also spoke of the Navy ships "running a ring" around Iwo Jima and shelling the island for three days, then firing their guns as the forces landed. "Every ship known to man was blazing away," Hallock said. "It was a brutal thing." But the signalman wasn't alone. Along with a band of brothers, Hallock's actual brothers, Marvin and Merrill, served, as well as his sister. What's more, Merrill, known as "Red," and Morris had an encounter overseas. "I was a signalman, and I turned the light to a passing ship to ask, 'Do you have a Red Hallock aboard,'" Hallock said. "The signal back: 'I am Red Hallock.' I said we'd have lunch, and we did." Hallock returned home and married his sweetheart, Miriam, "in 30 days," but he never stopped battling, albeit in a gentler pursuit known as a career, according to friends present at the medal-pinning. He was the founder, owner and publisher of many newspapers including the Sturgis Tribune, the Tri-State Livestock News and the Rapid City Guide. He also served as the secretary of finance for South Dakota, as well as the state highway director, and he had a successful career in real estate. "I was a paperboy for him from sixth through 11th grade," said longtime friend David Super. "He hired me later when I was 25 to be the editor of the Rapid City Guide, and when I started, the Black Hills flood happened." Super said the flood damaged the Rapid City Guide's building, but anyone who knew Hallock and co-owner Bob Lee knew, "They weren't going to quit." "It was skimpy, but he kept it chugging along," Super said. "He just charged ahead, and he kept it in business until the late 1980s." Hallock greeted his old friend with enthusiasm. "This is one of the best newsmen who ever trudged this side of the earth," Hallock said. "You're the last Democrat I ever hired." He added that his time overseas made the challenges he faced at home less daunting. An inspiration came at the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and the signing of Japan's surrender, both of which he was present for. "It's a feeling in your heart like no other kind," Hallock said. "Your heart goes, 'Thump thump thump thump thump thump,' and your head spins to things you think you should have done. But you give it your best." I haven't found much in the way of objective sources to support the feasibility or practicality of Donald Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. You might have better luck finding agreeable analyses, and I invite you to share your sources here. In the meantime, my research came up with conclusions and professional opinions that uniformly pan the idea as unwieldy and technically implausible. I listened to Trump's speech at Liberty University and got his usual (and typically unsupported with details) claim that as a builder he has vast experience with such projects, implying that we should trust him to get the job done. His insistence that he'll get Mexico to pay for it (by blocking transfer payments from here to Mexico) seems doubtful in this age of electronic commerce and legal obstacles, but his followers apparently don't care much about how he intends to get the thing built at Mexico's expense. Their enthusiastic fealty has propelled Trump into serious contention for the presidency, a prospect that business-oriented South Dakotans should consider before buying into this election cycle's Trump-O-Rama. Mexico is South Dakota's second largest export market. We annually sell about $1.6 billion worth of goods offshore, most of it to Canada (about $700 million) and Mexico (about $350 million). For some perspective, that $350 million to Mexico represents the value (using today's prices at the Chicago Board of Trade) of about 70 percent of South Dakota's 2015 wheat harvest. Building a Berlin-style wall isn't the way to foster better relations with one of our best customers. On the contrary, it sets an adversarial tone that doesn't do anybody any good, especially South Dakota farmers who depend on Mexican business as a market for their products. And we're just one among many states that depend on Mexico as a customer, many of them even more so than South Dakota does. There are 26 other states that call Mexico their leading trading partner, and seven million American jobs depend on trade with Mexico. The implications of building a wall between symbiotically dependent countries like ours lead me to one conclusion: it would be a disaster. Does this mean that the U.S., in our zeal to preserve good customer relations, needs to roll over and acquiesce to Mexico when it comes to its immigration relationship with us? Of course not. Some things bear changing, particularly in the way of enforcing immigration laws that are already on our books. But going the Trump route with that draconian fantasy of his? No way. As most of us know, we're better off trying to make friends than make enemies and considering the way that our relationship with Mexico has evolved into so many business and cultural ties, abruptly walling ourselves off from each other will only encourage Mexico to look elsewhere for products that they're now buying from South Dakota. Germany's anti-Islam PEGIDA movement staged rallies in several cities across Europe on Saturday to protest against the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa. The movement, whose name stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, originated in the eastern German city of Dresden in 2014, with supporters seizing on a surge in asylum seekers to warn that Germany risks being overrun by Muslims. After almost fizzling out early last year, the movement has regained momentum amid deepening public unease over whether Germany can cope with the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in the country during 2015. The alleged involvement of migrants in assaults on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve has also spurred PEGIDA, which says it is proof that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance to refugees is flawed. "We must succeed in guarding and controlling Europe's external borders as well as its internal borders once again," PEGIDA member Siegfried Daebritz told a crowd on the banks of the River Elbe who chanted "Merkel must go!". Police in Dresden declined to estimate the number of protesters. German media put the number at up to 8,000, well below the 15,000 originally expected by police. Hundreds of counterdemonstrators also marched through Dresden under the motto "Solidarity instead of exclusion," holding up placards saying "No place for Nazis." Far-right groups see Europe's refugee crisis as an opportunity to broadcast their anti-immigrant message. There were 208 rallies in Germany in the last quarter of 2015, up from 95 a year earlier, Interior Ministry data showed. Protests also took place on Saturday in other cities, including Amsterdam, Prague and the English city of Birmingham. In Calais, in northern France, more than a dozen people were arrested during a protest that was attended by more than a hundred people despite being banned, local authorities said. Thousands of refugees fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East camp out in Calais, hoping for a chance to make the short trip across the English Channel to Britain. In Prague, an estimated 2,200 people including both supporters and opponents of Pegida held a series of rival demonstrations around the Czech capital. Police had to intervene in one march when supporters of refugees came under attack from around 20 people who threw bottles and stones. In Warsaw, hundreds of people waved Polish flags and chanted "England and France are in tears, that's how tolerance ends." "We're demonstrating against the Islamization of Europe, we're demonstrating against immigration, against an invasion," Robert Winnicki, leader of Poland's far-right Ruch Narodowy (National Movement), told demonstrators. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland have together taken a tough stance, largely opposing taking in any significant numbers of refugees. Reuters It's about time some progress has been made to help South Dakota's ambulance crews. South Dakota's senators voted unanimously last to soften the state's standards for ambulance crews because of shortages of emergency responders in many rural areas. The proposed bill, which now heads to the House of Representatives, allows crews to be operated with an EMT and a trained driver, rather than two EMTs, which is the current requirement. A lack of fully operational ambulance crews has been an issue for some time in South Dakota, where a good portion of the population lives in rural areas and can be forced to wait too long should a medical emergency arise. Ambulance crews around the state have held voluntary classes to get those interested in becoming an EMT certified. But becoming an EMT takes a lot of work, and that's why this proposal is a no-brainer. Last year, an EMT training class in Corsica consisted of 176 hours inside a classroom and 10 hours observing either advanced life support ambulance services, like Mitchell, or in an emergency room scenario at a hospital. After that, an exam and 24 hours of continuing education every two years was required. Because it is hard to get people to commit to that much training, many ambulance crews are forced to file for a hardship waiver, which means instead of operating with two certified EMTs at all times, as state law mandates, the exemption allows an ambulance service to operate with one EMT, and a driver who is certified to operate the ambulance but not perform medical care. According to Sen. Corey Brown, R-Gettysburg, 33 of the roughly 120 statewide ambulance services are on a hardship exemption. Brown explained that dozens more should be on an exemption. And while many crews as a whole are struggling, the workload is taking a toll every day on individual EMTs, many of whom work long hours on a volunteer basis and only get paid when they respond to a medical call. That's another reason this legislation should pass: We believe it will entice more people to help ambulance crews by becoming a trained driver and, in turn, give more support to the overworked EMTs. Currently, there's no formal training requirements to be an ambulance driver. With the proposed bill, ambulance drivers would have to undergo some training, including a required emergency vehicle operation course. So, this bill is clearly a win-win for EMTs and those in rural areas who need medical services. There are too few EMTs in South Dakota, so this will at least help give more assistance to those who are on the job. We hope lawmakers realize the importance of helping our emergency crews in any way possible, and this is a great step to do that. Mitchell Daily Republic With the Vermont GMO labeling law set to take effect July 1, 2016 and legislation prohibiting state-by-state GMO legislation and promoting voluntary labeling tied up in the U.S. Senate, Campbell Soup Companys Jan. 7, 2016 announcement that it support[s]the enactment of federal legislation to establish a single mandatory labeling standard for foods derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (http://tinyurl.com/henuxbm) is a major development.Campbell is the first major food maker to make a break with the multi-year campaign of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) to defeat state-level GMO labeling initiatives and promote voluntary labeling legislation at the national level. As a result of its decision to support mandatory national GMO labeling, Campbell will withdraw from all efforts led by coalitions and groups opposing such measures.While Campbell has called for mandatory national legislation to establish uniform standards for GMO labeling, it has said that it would label all of its products even in the absence of Congressional action. Before it announced this latest action Campbell had begun to respond to consumers concern for information about the ingredients in the food that they eat.It had established a website (www.whatsinmyfood.com) to provide consumers with more information than can be found on a label. On that site they provide consumers with information about products that have GMO ingredients and products that do not contain GMOs. They also indicate the use of high fructose corn syrup as well as artificial flavors and colors, monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium, and gluten in the companys products. Campbell is also targeting the use of 100 percent certified sustainable sourced palm oil and the movement away from the use of BPA as a liner for their cans.The labeling of products that are produced with ingredients that come from corn, soy, beet sugar, and canola grown with genetically modified seed is relatively straight forward. What is still not clear is how meat ingredients from animals fed with GMO grains and oilseeds will be labeled.When asked if the labeling would be accompanied with higher prices for their soups and other products, Campbell indicated that there would be no price increase. The higher cost of labeling was cited by the GMA as part of its rationale for opposing mandatory labeling of GMOs. As Campbell CEO, Denise Morrison told the New York Times, the addition of product nutrition labels in the 1990s was not accompanied by significant additional costs.As we reflect on the Campbell decision, three questions come to mind. How did this shift in position come about? What does it mean for consumers? What does it mean for farmers?The movement to label food product containing GMO ingredients clearly includes those who believe that GMOs are dangerous. But, if the appeal for labeling had not spread beyond that group, it is likely we would not be talking about Campbells decision.What captured widespread consumer support was the question, do you want to know what is in the food you eat? And when that broader group was stymied at the national level, they adopted a state by state campaign that has been successful for other issues. Even though most of those state campaigns did not result in legislation, public awareness and support has continued to grow. A recent Consumer Report survey found that 92 percent of the U.S. population wants to know what is in the food it eats.Economists call this consumer preference. But consumer presence has also forced changes that took place outside the political arena. Natural and non-GMO foods first began to be featured in food cooperatives and organic specialty stores.As that economic sector began to grow, major grocery retailers began to take notice and create small organic sections in their stores. Over time these small sections began to grow with new independent brands. Today they are a prominent part of the stores of major national grocery retailers.These retailers also began to develop house brands that included labels with simple, easy to pronounce ingredients. As a result, large food makers began to experience slowed growth and a loss of market share. Even with the inclusion of some of the independent natural food brands within their portfolios, the major food makers experienced stagnating revenues. At that point, it was simply a matter of time before one of the majors made the shift on the labeling issue.For consumers, the decision by Campbell, certainly to be followed by others, means the availability of more information about the ingredients in the foods they purchase and eat. The immediate result will be more information about GMOs, but as other ingredient concerns appear, we are likely to see food makers providing that information as well. It has been a long road from the 1960s when parents first raised concerns about FD&C colors that were in the food their children were eating to today when companies like Campbell are working to eliminate artificial coloring from their foods along with all of the other changes.If followed by other food makers and if consumers show an increased preference for non-GMO ingredients, this decision will provide market opportunities for farmers who are willing to provide source-verified grains and oilseeds that they segregate from usual commodity channels. In the short run, the increased cost of segregation will make some non-GMO products more costly. Non-GMO activists envision a time when market competition will force GMO producers to share the cost of maintaining a segregated distribution channel.(Harwood D. Schaffer is a Research Assistant Professor in the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee. Daryll E. Ray is Emeritus Professor, Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee, and is the former Director of the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center (APAC). (865) 974-3666; Fax: (865) 974-7298; hdschaffer@utk.edu and dray@utk.edu; http://www.agpolicy.org.) Darby Community Public Library is hosting a Life-Long Learning Series by presenters from Humanities Montana to teach about past and present cultures. Darby Community Public Library Director Wendy Campbell said the library is a community resource. Our mission at the Darby Community Public Library is to provide programs and resources that address the educational, cultural, and recreational needs of the south valley community, Campbell said. It has always been our goal to focus on the needs of the children in our community providing opportunities for fun activities that educate and plant the seeds for lifelong learning. We also recognize that many of our adult residents seek opportunities for life-long learning through the library. We look to meet that need by providing programs that engage the entire community in fun educational, cultural, and recreational activities. The first speaker will be Philip Burgess on Feb. 10. Burgess is a Montana poet who will speak on A Black Homesteaders Struggle. Burgess describes himself as an ex-gypsy, ex-therapist and ex-cabdriver who still nourishes and honors his eastern Montana roots. We are really excited to bring Philip Burgess to start this cultural series with music and stories to teach us about challenges faced in the early 1900s, Campbell said. Burgess said he will use his poetry and storytelling skills to describe a black familys experience as early settlers in the Missouri River valley of eastern Montana. I stumbled into the graveyard where my parents were buried. It is like visiting the neighborhood. I knew everyone, Burgess said. But I found three graves in the back with three name tags I didnt know. I found out this black family lived down the road from us for a while and was close friends of my grandmother. This discovery started Burgesss research on what it was like to be a black family in an extremely white environment. I started to realize I was an innocent as far as racism was concerned. I started realizing that people I thought were tolerant werent, Burgess said. This family came from the Deep South and was accustomed to violence against blacks and the mother was born into slavery. They come to Montana and got away from the violence and into racism not being discussed directly. Burgess said his presentation is a conversation-starter. I didnt know the word racism when I was 18 years old, Burgess said. Im 71 years old and I can see that Ive become less tolerant over the years. Be brutally honest with yourself. I have stood where the black family had their cabin and they built an escape tunnel. Its in a beautifully isolated spot where no one would mess with them. On March 9, Samir Bitar, from the University of Montana and Humanities Montana, will present his program, Perspectives on Islam. He will provide us with a unique and timely educational opportunity to learn more about this contemporary culture, Campbell said. On April 6, Ellen Baumler will present, Chinese in Montana: Our Forgotten Pioneers. The library is traditionally a place to build knowledge and foster community, Campbell said. We hope that this Life-Long Learning Series will be the first of an ongoing community partnership with events that engage us and motivate us while improving the quality of life in our small town. The community programs begin at 6 p.m. and are each presented during the day at Darby Public Schools. All community events are free and open to the public. Partial funding for the programs comes from a legislative grant from Montanas Cultural Trust and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Darby Community Public Library is currently displaying the Montana Historical Societys traveling footlocker, Immigrants to Montana. Darby Community Public Library is located at 101 1/2 South Marshall St. in Darby. For more information call (406)821-4771, or email at librarian@darbylibrary.net. Masters Of War Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build all the bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks. You that never done nothin' But build to destroy You play with my world Like it's your little toy You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly. Like Judas of old You lie and deceive A world war can be won You want me to believe But I see through your eyes And I see through your brain Like I see through the water That runs down my drain. You fasten all the triggers For the others to fire Then you set back and watch When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion' As young people's blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in the mud. You've thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world For threatening my baby Unborn and unnamed You ain't worth the blood That runs in your veins. How much do I know To talk out of turn You might say that I'm young You might say I'm unlearned But there's one thing I know Though I'm younger than you That even Jesus would never Forgive what you do. Let me ask you one question Is your money that good Will it buy you forgiveness Do you think that it could I think you will find When your death takes its toll All the money you made Will never buy back your soul. And I hope that you die And your death'll come soon I will follow your casket In the pale afternoon And I'll watch while you're lowered Down to your deathbed And I'll stand over your grave 'Til I'm sure that you're dead.------- Bob Dylan 1963 MALMO, Sweden On paper, Jeta and her sons, Ardian and Dardan, dont exist. Swedens Migration Agency denied them asylum status two years ago, and the Albanian natives have been hiding here ever since. Im scared all the time, says Dardan, 16. I dont dare to talk to the other kids in my class, because I dont know if theyll report me to the police. The three, who asked that their real names be withheld, are among at least 10,000 rejected asylum seekers living without papers in Sweden. Their numbers are expected to grow. The Migration Agency, which initially struggled last year to cope with the volume of asylum applications, is now working its way through that paperwork. Of the record 163,000 asylum seekers who arrived in Sweden in 2015, up to 80,000 will be required to leave, Swedens interior minister, Anders Ygeman, said last week. While Syrians receive automatic asylum, most migrants from countries deemed safe such as the Balkans nations, Algeria and Morocco are turned down. Jeta, who applied for asylum in 2013, said she told immigration officials she feared for her safety because her husband was part of a criminal gang trafficking in women and drugs. But, she says, the Migration Agency official she spoke with told her, Thats something your country has to sort out, not us. Like all unsuccessful asylum applicants, Jeta and her sons received plane tickets back to their home country. But she was determined to stay. An Albanian woman living legally in Sweden took them in, then drove them about two hours from the small Swedish city where theyd been living to Malmo, a larger city, where they were more likely to go undetected. The friend dropped them at a church shed heard was assisting undocumented immigrants. According to the Migration Agencys 2015 figures, of 22,494 unsuccessful asylum applicants, 9,718 left voluntarily while 3,336 refused and were referred to the police. Some of those individuals are from countries reluctant to take them back, such as Afghanistan and Morocco. As a result, the Migration Agency continues to house them until the Swedish government can negotiate a solution. At least 1,606 began asylum processes in other European nations. Another 7,590 simply vanished. We have no idea where they are, says Sverker Spaak, who oversees the Migration Agencys refugee returns program. Some may leave the country and apply for asylum in another country under a different name. And some go into hiding. The police lack the resources to scour the country for refugees. Still, many of those who stay live in fear of arrest. I know I can trust the teachers, says Dardan. But I dont dare be with the other students, so Im usually just by myself in a corner. Like his mother and brother, he uses a fake name outside their home. Its a complicated existence, says Jeta, but its better for the boys to have two identities and live than having one identity and be dead. The Malmo church helped Jeta enroll her sons in school and obtain health coverage. An Albanian woman living legally in Sweden found them an apartment. (Swedish law guarantees underage undocumented immigrants the same right to education and health care as other children, while adults have a right to emergency health care, as well as abortions and treatment of contagious diseases. A few cities, such as Malmo, even provide rent subsidies.) Jeta and the boys are among 18 undocumented migrants assisted by the church in recent years, says Lena, a church social worker, who asked that her real name be withheld. Government officials consider such assistance subversive, but not illegal, unless its carried out for financial gain, says Michael Williams, vice chairman of FARR, the Swedish Network of Refugee Support Groups. Immigration officials rarely conduct raids on religious institutions. That said, most churches and charities that assist refugees do so quietly, although the convent Alsike, outside Stockholm, has become known for its nuns vocal pro-immigrant activism. Some individuals also take in rejected asylum seekers. Christina and her husband, who asked that their last names be withheld, have housed two refugees in the last few years. One stayed for a year-and-a-half. The way I see it, we dont hide them, she says. They hide in our house. Few undocumented immigrants, however, completely curtail their movements. Jeta takes Ardian to school each weekday and collects him each afternoon. Once a week, she visits the church for Swedish classes and social activities for immigrants. The Swedish government says its confident that the 60,000 to 80,000 asylum seekers who face expulsion will cooperate. It even plans to charter flights for them. But based on the Migration Agencys own estimates, up to 40,000 will instead choose a life in legal limbo, and vanish. For those refugees, there are few economic prospects. Jeta cant work legally, and when her sons reach 18, they will have no right to schooling or routine health care. Day and night, every second, I think about the future, says Dardan. But I cant figure out what its supposed to be like. 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. Constructor: David Steinberg Relative difficulty: Medium THEME: no ne Word of the Day: LOCARNO SELFIE STICK LONGING EYES WAWA LONGING EYES "Jesus, Thy Church with Longing Eyes" by William H. Bathurst, 1796-1877." I doubt those were the kind of eyes the clue was going for. Anyway, that one prompted a squint-eyed suspicious glare from me. But all the other longer stuff seemed nice. I do hate DO TO A TEEEEEEEE (both that spelling and that phrase in general) and crossing it with HES ? (8D: Drones and such). Ick. But there just aren't many moments like that. Mostly it's all ROSE CEREMONY s and MOONROOF s. I had DISTRESS instead of ACID WASH right out of the gate (1A: Make look old, in a way). Same material (denim!), different words. I guess you can DISTRESS lots of stuff, but you probably don't ACID WASH anything but denim, right? Early '90s denim? So I was wrong there, but knew I was wrong when no Downs worked. Then I hit onto what is probably the weirdest opening solving pattern I've ever had on a Saturday. If I'd known RABIN Square (9D: ___ Square, center of Tel Aviv), I'd've had an impressively symmetrical, grid-spanning creature of some sort written into my grid: LOCARNO GASOL ROSANNE LEBON BOWSER BOWSER ) A very Saturday Saturday. I had to struggle a good deal, but not in ways that I ended up resenting (the way I will when the fill is hyper-obscure or downright awful, or the cluing is suspect or downright awful, etc.). This one's got a nice variety of answers, from a broad cross-section of knowledge bases, and it feels very modern, which I always like (OK I don't *like*s, but I like that this puzzle *sees* them, knows they're there, and, I assume, sneers at them the same way I do).felt wibbly-wobbly (-wobbly) to me. That is borderline Green Paint[adjective] + EYES. Is there a famous instance of that exact phrase?EYES, I've definitely heard of. Also BLUE, LYIN', SNAKE, ITCHY WATERY, BEADY, CROSS, and BETTE DAVIS. When I google [""] roughly half the hits are for some hymn:It's like a one-armed guy waving hello. After this opening play, I figured the puzzle would be Easy. If I could cross the grid with virtually no effort, what could stop me!? (Plenty, it turns out). I know LUCERNE, but not, and they're both in Switzerland, and so, yeah, with C and R in there, I went with LUCERNE, and that screwed things up. Otherwise, it was just tough. Normal tough. Saturday tough, with a few nice gimmes thrown in for me (PauCash, Simon). If I have a relative named, I am unaware of it ()., call me.Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook The EU Google says the EU requires a notice of cookie use (by Google) and says they have posted a notice. I don't see it. If cookies bother you, go elsewhere. If the EU bothers you, emigrate. If you live outside the EU, don't go there. Click pics to follow us on Twitter WARNING for European visitors European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. 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 FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida Mitch and Kathy Stein have kept only a few of the 40 tortoises and turtles that used to belong to their son, Josh. He loved reptiles, Kathy Stein recalled. And he knew everything about them. This fondness, however, eventually got him into trouble with the law. The Steins said their son, diagnosed as bipolar, became caught in a mental health court system that was set up to help people like him. But ultimately, they said, it set off a series of events that led to his death. In 2012, Josh, then 35, disguised himself in a wide-brimmed hat, entered a restricted area in the nearby South Florida Wildlife Center, and stole a red-footed tortoise. His parents said he returned it six months later. He took it back in better health than he got it, Mitch Stein said. End of story. Within days, however, the police called to say Josh was under arrest. He turned himself in, and prosecutors charged him with felony grand theft and burglary, before releasing him the same day. They said the turtle was more than $300, so it was a felony, Mitch Stein explained. The turtle was worth between $100 and $200 pushing it, $300. Joshs case ended up at the Broward County Felony Mental Health Court, created in 2003 to treat mentally ill defendants while holding them accountable for their alleged crimes. The idea was to bring mental health specialists, judges and attorneys together to move mentally ill people quickly through the system while being sensitive to their specific needs. Special courts for the mentally ill are spreading across the United States and numbered around 350 in 2013, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. The courts have helped many defendants get treatment and prevented them from committing new crimes. But in Floridas Broward County, critics say the felony mental health court is harming defendants more than helping them. When we started, people seemed to be on the same page, explained one of the courts founders, Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein. Over time the court morphed and it became this difficult journey for the mentally ill. Today the courts cases, ranging from car break-ins and minor drug offenses to sexual battery and kidnappings, are piling up. Ari Porth, one of two judges presiding over it, said low-level felony cases take an average of three years to wind their way through the system. Thats compared to about six months for similar cases in regular court. Nationwide, mental health court programs take an average of 18 months to complete, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. The result is that the court is now dealing with a backlog of 1,200 cases, Porth said, adding, Its certainly a full days work. One of the reasons for the backlog, he explained, is that 10 to 15 percent of his cases should never be filed in the first place. I see it on a daily basis, Porth said, referring to nonviolent offenders he believes should be sent to treatment, not jail. Ex-officer was a churchgoer, family man. Police say he may be a serial rapist. The Allen family lived on the northwest side of Hutchinson, less than two miles from Rice Park, where several women said they were accosted. When he gets the call at sundown, Pastor James Sizemore of Fayetteville, North Carolina, grabs a package of syringes and heads out the door. Half of the needles will be used for shooting up heroin; the rest are filled with an overdose reversal medication. Pulling up in a dark parking lot on the west side of town, Sizemore meets the representative of a heroin user group of about 10 people. The rest hang back, waiting for him to return with the needles. He hands the man a bag with syringes, sterile wipes and other items and collects used needles for safe disposal. Before the pastor leaves, he says a prayer for their safety. For the past 10 years, encounters like this have been Sizemores life running an underground, illegal syringe exchange for his community. He said he distributes about 1,000 to 2,000 needles each month. I try to give them enough syringes to get through a week or two, Sizemore said. They call about every two weeks. So I load up my truck, drive into town and do the handoff. Along with the syringes, he also offers health checks and advice on how to safely quit heroin. I do offer HIV and Hepatitis C testing, and referrals to drug treatment if they decide to, Sizemore said. The pastor said that he has a good relationship with treatment centers in the state, and that he's often able to get people in when they ask. The problem is that Fayetteville a city of 400,000 people doesnt have a single residential drug treatment program within 60 miles. Fayetteville was actually kind of typical for all of North Carolina with the lack of treatment options available locally, Sizemore said. He said his syringe-exchange program fills the gap in state policies amid an explosion of heroin use in North Carolina and other parts of the southern United States. The epidemic is getting so bad it is actually putting general public health at risk, particularly through the spread of diseases including Hepatitis C and HIV, the pastor said. Thats why the local police department has an informal arrangement with Sizemore to allow him to continue his work without fear of arrest, he said. Fayetteville's police department did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment. Sizemore knows what can happen without harm reduction measures like providing clean needles or similarly, condoms, which he has also distributed in Fayetteville. As a student of clinical pastoral education in Miami in the late 1990s, Sizemore was assigned to a hospitals HIV ward during the peak of the AIDs crisis in the city. The total family destruction, and seeing people die from HIV and AIDS, it really stuck with me to the point where I realized if Jesus were here today that he would do everything he could to ensure that people lived, Sizemore said. Because Jesus was, in all intents and practice, a practitioner of harm reduction spiritually and physically to keep them alive and safe and secure in this world. But in North Carolina and across the southern United States, lawmakers have been slow to enact harm reduction policies and create more treatment centers for drug users, even as a tightening of laws on opioid painkillers has contributed to a rapid rise in heroin use. Once the state started to regulate pain medication, everyone switched over to heroin, Sizemore said. The heroin moving into North Carolina these days even looks like crushed pills, said Robert Childs, executive director of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition. This familiar appearance has made it easier for people already addicted to pills to transition to heroin, Childs said. Rather than ingest the pills, some users snort crushed painkillers to get a more intense effect. And some people who get addicted to heroin begin by snorting it before moving on to inject the drug, which gives the person a stronger high. Rates of prescription opioid overdose deaths had begun to fall in the state from around 2008. But by 2010, deaths caused by heroin overdoses had started to rise at an even faster rate, data from the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition showed. Heroin deaths in North Carolina have increased by 402 percent during the period from 2010-2014, and the rate of Hepatitis C infection is up 700 percent in 10 years, the coalition said. This rise in threats to public health, along with gaps in state policies, make programs like Sizemore's increasingly important, Childs said. We havent see an increase in support with social services with the rise of the problem of heroin use, Childs said. He runs the Souths largest center for distributing naloxone, an overdose reversal medication, and has given out more than 20,000 naloxone administration kits in North Carolina since 2013. That was made possible by the passage the same year of the states Good Samaritan/Nalaxone Access law, which protects them from prosecution for possession of drug paraphernalia and liability to those distributing the medication, as well as overdose victims and the people who call for help on their behalf. The group helped rescue 1,500 people in 2015, up from 189 in 2014, he said. That increase was both because were getting better and the need is increasing, Childs said. The lack of harm reduction education given to the public is contributing to the problem, Childs said. People dont know enough about it. If they want to start or reduce use, theres a lack of information on how to do that, Childs said. But that may be starting to change, said Corey Davis, deputy director at the Network for Public Health Law in Los Angeles. Davis said the south has seen a rapid spread of naloxone access and Good Samaritan laws, most of them been passed in the last year, he added. However, syringe exchange has not been made legal in any southern state. 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. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Turkey came under mounting pressure to open its border Saturday as tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing a government onslaught sought entry and the European Union called on Ankara to grant them refuge. As many as 35,000 Syrians have amassed along the closed border, according to Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of the Turkish border province of Kilis. He said Turkey would provide aid to the displaced within Syria, but would only open the gates in the event of an "extraordinary crisis." The Norwegian Refugee Council said thousands of Syrians have arrived at seven of the main informal camps close to the Turkish border. The group said the camps were already at capacity before the latest influx, and that aid groups are working around the clock to deliver tents and essential items to the displaced. Filip Lozinski, a refugee council supervisor in the area, told The Associated Press that many refugee families were forced to sleep out in the open, some under trees, because they could not find shelter. At a meeting in Amsterdam between EU foreign ministers and their Turkish counterpart, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged Turkey to open its borders to "Syrians in need for international protection," and said the EU is providing aid to Ankara for that purpose. EU nations have committed $3.3 billion to Turkey for helping refugees as part of incentives aimed at persuading it to do more to stop thousands of migrants from leaving for Greece. Turkey already hosts some 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday that his country maintains an "open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression of the [Syrian] regime as well as airstrikes of Russia." He said Turkey had already allowed in more than 5,000 recently displaced Syrians, but did not address the restrictions along the border. Some of the refugees found shelter in Afrin, a Kurdish enclave to Aleppo's north controlled by a militia known as the YPG, said a Kurdish official, Idris Naasan. The militia hoped to prevent a humanitarian disaster and help those stuck at the border, he said. Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have been advancing across the north in recent days behind a curtain of heavy Russian airstrikes, and could soon encircle rebel strongholds in Aleppo, once the country's largest city and commercial hub. This week alone, Russian warplanes hit close to 900 targets across Syria, including near Aleppo. Those living in parts of the city held by the rebels since 2012 fear they could be the next victims of siege tactics used across Syria by all sides in the war, which have caused widespread malnourishment and starvation. "There is a big wave of people leaving Aleppo City because they are scared Al-Castello Highway the only way out will be cut off," said Osaid Pasha, an Aleppo-based activist who recently fled to Turkey. "There are still a large number of civilians inside the city," he said. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem meanwhile said government forces were "on track to end the conflict" following the recent gains around Aleppo. "Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed toward the end of the crisis," he told a press conference in Damascus. He called on rebel fighters to "come to their senses" and lay down their weapons. The advance of Syrian troops and the blistering Russian airstrikes in Aleppo and elsewhere led to the breakdown of indirect peace talks launched earlier this week in Geneva, with the opposition saying there was no point in negotiating under fire. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to resume the talks by Feb. 25, but it's unclear if either delegation will return. Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the opposition, meanwhile said it is ready, in principle, to send ground troops to Syria, albeit in the context of the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. But al-Moallem warned that Saudi or other foreign troops entering his country would "return home in wooden coffins," a line he repeated three times during the one-hour press conference. Russia's Defense Ministry has said it has "reasonable grounds" to suspect that Turkey, another opposition ally, is preparing for a military invasion of Syria. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking during a visit to Senegal on Friday, dismissed the Russian claim as "laughable" and blamed Moscow for the deaths of civilians in Syria. Iran, another military ally of Syria, ridiculed Saudi Arabia. The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as saying he didn't think the Saudis were "brave enough" to send ground troops. "They talk big," Jafari said. "But even if it happens, it won't be bad because they would be definitely defeated." Iran on Saturday held funerals for six soldiers, including a senior Guard commander, Gen. Mohsen Ghajarian, who were killed in northern Syria while fighting alongside government troops. Iran has said it has dispatched military advisers to Syria, but denies sending combat troops. A number of Iranians have been killed in recent months, including several high-ranking commanders. The Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Syria, has also sent reinforcements to Syria. The Syrian state news agency SANA reported Saturday that a member of Hezbollah's "war media" department, which films military battles for the group, was among those killed in fighting north of Aleppo. The Associated Press 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. 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." This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world. A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan early on Saturday killing at least 12 people, most in a 17-story apartment building that collapsed, with some people still known to be missing in the ruins of the complex as night fell, government officials said. As rescuers searched for survivors, questions were raised about the construction of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building in the southern city of Tainan, with its floors that pancaked down on each other when the 6.4 magnitude tremor hit at around 4 a.m. local time, at the start of a Lunar New Year holiday. Ten of the dead, including a 10-day-old girl, were from the apartment building. The baby was found in her dead father's arms, media reported. Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the ruins, plucking survivors to safety, with hundreds taken to hospital, though many were quickly released. An 18-year old man was found alive and conscious shortly after dark, and rescuers were working to get him free, while a 30-year-old woman, a nine-year old girl and a male toddler were pulled out alive, Taiwan television said. Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles, a government emergency center said. But a fire department official said rescue efforts were focused on the apartment block, where a child's clothes fluttered from a first-floor laundry line and the smell of leaking gas hung in the air. "I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down," said a 71-year-old neighbor who gave his name as Chang. A plumber, he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prized some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help. "She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them." The quake was centered 27 miles southeast of Tainan, at a depth of 14 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Earlier in the day, an elderly woman, wrapped in blankets, was strapped to a board and slowly slid down a ramp to the ground as the cries of those still trapped rang out. Rescuers used dogs and acoustic equipment to pick up signs of life in the rubble. Authorities said there were 96 apartment units in the Golden Dragon Building and 256 registered residents, though more were in the building when it collapsed. Late in the day, city mayor William Lai said 5 people were missing there. Rescuers clad in red and yellow overalls pulled over 240 survivors from the ruins and later inserted huge supports under slabs of leaning concrete to buttress the ruins as they searched for more. City officials said it was too early to determine if poor construction was a factor in the building's collapse. Liu Shih-chung, city government deputy secretary general, said television footage of the ruins of the commercial-residential building suggested the possibility of structural problems related to poor-quality reinforced steel and cement. The construction and engineering companies that built the complex are no longer operating, records showed. Two neighbors said they had felt nervous about the construction when the building was going up in the early 1990s. "I looked at it and thought, only people from out of town would buy there. We local people would never dare," said one of the neighbors, Yang Shu-mei. A major earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed about 2,400 people and caused damage across the island, which lies in the seismically active "Pacific Ring of Fire". President Ma Ying-jeou visited an emergency center and hospital in Tainan while President-elect Tsai Ing-wen canceled appointments to help coordinate rescue efforts. China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which is in charge of Beijing's relations with the self-ruled island, said China was willing to provide help if needed, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. Beijing regards Taiwan as a wayward province. Reuters SFMOMA is finally getting close to reopening with its brand new expansion, after a three-year hiatus that had us all wishing we had our only really major museum back. (The deYoung, Legion of Honor, and Asian Art Museums are nice and everything, but let's be real.) SFist took a hard-hat tour of the new museum, the expansion of which was designed by Norwegian firm Snhetta, back in October, at which points things were still pretty well tarped and scaffolded As the Chronicle reports, in preparation for the May 14 reopening events which will not include another 24-hour free event like when they closed in 2013, despite previous reports to that effect* art is returning to the building and being hung, and there is now triple the amount of gallery space in the museum. Also, SFMOMA will now have 20,000 more square feet of gallery space than its New York counterpart, MoMA. Filling a lot of this new wall and floor space will be works from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection some will recall that the Gap founder pulled out of a plan to build a museum for the family collection in the Presidio back in 2009, which led to the Fishers deciding to essentially give it all to SFMOMA, on loan for 99 years. Some 1,100 pieces from the Fisher collection will join SFMOMA's already impressive collection, 260 of which will be immediately on view, including a monumental steel sculpture by Richard Serra that got moved into the ground-floor lobby on the Howard Street side last year. The Fishers have also been big collectors of the sculptures of Alexander Calder, and there will now be a dedicated Calder gallery with adjacent outdoor sculpture terraces. The first year back for the museum will focus on the collection, with exhibits by California artists like Beat-era assemblage artist Bruce Connor, whose retrospective will travel from New York's MoMa here in late October, and a retrospective of by Los Angeles photographer Anthony Hernandez that will open in September. Things kick off with the 2016 Modern Ball, on May 12, the gala dinner portion of which is already sold out. The dance party, however, will begin selling tickets in March. Below, the Chron's rundown of the floor-by-floor galleries and highlights from what you'll find in them come May. First Floor Richard Serras Sequence (2006): Already visible through the museums glass wall on Howard Street, Serras monumental steel sculpture occupies its own gallery, which will be open to the public free of charge. Second Floor The Campaign for Art: Drawings, Part I (through Sept. 18): The museum will have its first exhibition space specifically designed for the special viewing requirements of works on paper (low light levels, intimate spaces). The first of a two-part show, it will highlight new gifts of works made between 1914 and the 1970s. Open Ended: Painting and Sculpture Since 1900: A primarily geographic reinstallation of the permanent collection will feel familiar to SFMOMA fans, Garrels says, starting with the beloved Femme au Chapeau (Woman With a Hat) (1905) by Henri Matisse. Paul Klee in Color (through September): Sixteen paintings and watercolors, the museums 45th exhibition of Klee works draws upon an extensive 1980 gift from Carl Djerassi. Art of Northern California: Three Stories (through November): To launch a gallery where the museum plans to regularly present Bay Area and California works, a concise exhibition will deal with Conceptual art (Lynn Hershman Leeson, Tom Marioni, et al.); the UC Davis group including Robert Arneson, Wayne Thiebaud and William T. Wiley; and personal approaches of Joan Brown, Jess and Lee Mullican. Learning to Love You More (through Aug. 21): In the new Koret Education Center, San Francisco artists Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan (founders of The Thing Quarterly) will curate a presentation of a Miranda July/Harrell Fletcher project begun in 2002. Third Floor About Time: Photography in a Moment of Change (through Sept. 25): Most of the third floor is devoted to the new Pritzker Center for Photography, a 15,000-square-foot series of galleries and collection spaces. Effectively a museum within the museum, the center opens with a broad collection survey spanning 180 years of the mediums history. California and the West: Photography From the Collection Campaign (through Sept. 5): Some 200 newly donated works landscape photographs, broadly defined made between 1856 and 2014. Alexander Calder: Motion Lab (through Sept. 10): A dedicated Calder gallery, with adjacent outdoor sculpture terraces, will regularly present the witty and inventive works of the much-loved artist. The Fisher Collection, with something like 40 sculptures, is particularly rich in Calder works, greatly enhancing strong existing SFMOMA holdings. Model Behavior: Snhettas First Concepts for SFMOMA (through Jan. 16, 2017): A look at the models and drawings used in planning the new building. Fourth floor The Campaign for Art: Modern and Contemporary (through Sept. 18): Selections from the approximately 3,000 new works donated in anticipation of the new building, including a gallery full of Joseph Beuys works and paintings by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Jackson Pollock. Approaching American Abstraction: The Fisher Collection: Among the highlights are 26 extraordinary paintings and sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly. The entire progression of a visit to the fourth floor dead-ends at an octagonal gallery (chapel-like, Garrels calls it) devoted to seven major Minimalist works by Agnes Martin. New Work: Leonor Antunes (through Oct. 2): The Portuguese artist, currently looking great in a group exhibition at San Franciscos Jessica Silverman Gallery, is designing a site-specific installation that will make reference to design works by such historically significant women as Anni Albers and Ruth Asawa. Fifth Floor Pop, Minimal, and Figurative Art: The Fisher Collection: Strong holdings in the work of Philip Guston and a tantalizing mini-survey of Chuck Close stand out, along with a crop of the biggest names in Pop (Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol) and Minimalism (Donald Judd). British Sculptors: The Fisher Collection (through fall 2017): From Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore to Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor, this is a promising selection to inaugurate an annual sculpture rotation in a sunlit gallery. Claudy Jongstra: Aarde: A big, site-specific, wool and mixed natural media mural by the Dutch designer. Sixth Floor Typeface to Interface: Graphic Design From the Collection (through Nov. 27): Some 250 works from the collection, looking at the changes in design from the analog era to the digital. German Art After 1960: The Fisher Collection: Strong ties to the late SFMOMA curator John Caldwell, a specialist in contemporary German art, led the Fishers to invest deeply in Georg Baselitz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter, each of whom will be presented in galleries dedicated to their work. Seventh Floor The Campaign for Art: Contemporary (through Oct. 30): An array of gifts of art made to the museum since 1980 Film as Place (through Oct. 30): The museums ability to exhibit media arts such as video, electronic and sound works will be greatly enhanced in the new building. This exhibition will combine long-term installations with a rotating program of projections. Among the highlights is sure to be Beryl Korots influential Dachau 1974 (1974), an early example of multi-channel video as art. Previously: Step Inside The Almost, Not-Quite-Finished SFMOMA, Open Next May VC Guy Incites Twitter Ire By Saying There Is Nothing To Do Or See In San Francisco An El Salvadoran national, Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, went to SF's Southern Station in December in order to report his car stolen. He ended up getting turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and arrested by them, and as the Examiner reports, federal documents show that the SFPD reached out directly to ICE to arrange for Figueroa-Zarceno's arrest on December 2, 2015. Both the SFPD and ICE had previously denied this cooperation, which is in violation of SF's Sanctuary City ordinance, protecting immigrants like Figueroa-Zarceno from deportation. He's not being deported yet, though proceedings are ongoing, and he now has a hearing scheduled for 2019 an outcry from the public and Figueroa-Zarceno's attorneys led to his release. The story broke last month, but now, as we hear from the Chron, SFPD Chief Greg Suhr did a press conference today and afterward acknowledged the incident. In a written statement, SFPD spokesperson Sgt. Michael Andraychak said that an internal investigation had been launched to see if anyone should be disciplined, and said, "It is the policy of the San Francisco Police Department to foster trust and cooperation with all people of the city and to encourage them to communicate with SFPD officers without fear of inquiry regarding their immigration status. We are aware of concerns this incident has raised with some members of our community. The earlier story was that there was only communication between the SFPD and the Sheriffs Department, which then acted as a liaison between the SFPD and ICE. Figueroa-Zarceno came up as having an outstanding warrant when the SFPD ran his name the day he came to report the stolen vehicle, and they were not able at the time to figure out the details of the warrant. This apparently stemmed from his failure to appear at an immigration hearing in San Antonio in December 2005, and from a 2012 conviction for drunken driving, according to the Chron. Figueroa-Zarceno, who is engaged and has an eight-year-old daughter, says he fully cooperated with ICE when he entered the country, saying that he planned to file for asylum status, and gave his aunt's address in San Francisco, but he never heard from authorities after that. Below, parts of an internal ICE document via the Examiner: SFPD contacted duty officer and stated Zarceno is at the Southern Police Station located at 1245 3rd St., according to the Department of Homeland Security file on Figueroa-Zarceno, whose last name is given as only Zarceno in the file. The document went on to point out the duty officer and another immigration officer arrested Zarceno in front of a side door to the Southern Police Station. Supervisor John Avalos reiterated today that the sanctuary policy was important in cases like this where victims of crimes can feel comfortable going to the police without fear of deportation. "We want to make sure that as the sanctuary policy is politicized by whats happening on a national level," Avalos says, "that we can protect it and make it stronger and make sure that people like Pedro do not get impacted." Previously: SF's Sanctuary City Status Safe In Unanimous Vote, Rebuffing Conservative Media The San Francisco Police Department says they've caught the man who allegedly stabbed a popular local DJ outside a downtown nightclub, just a day after the stabbing victim died at the hospital. As previously reported, 29-year-old Joseph Razo was stabbed early in the morning of January 25 during an altercation with at least seven other people outside The Cellar, a nightclub at Sutter and Taylor Streets. He was still at San Francisco General Hospital being treated for his injuries when he died Tuesday night. He was stabbed in the aorta and he had severe internal bleeding, Razos girlfriend of two years told the Chron. His lungs collapsed. They got those functioning again, and he had daily surgeries for different things. Razo went into a severe decline on Tuesday, and after he lost brain activity, his family had his life support removed. He died shortly thereafter. According to SFPD spokesperson Officer Gordon Shyy, investigators with SFPD's homicide unit had "developed information" identifying 22-year-old San Francisco resident Nester Conchola as the suspect in the crime. By 6 p.m., they'd pulled Conchola over near Burrrows and Madison Street, and served a search warrant at a home on the first block of Linda Street, in the Mission District. During the search, "evidence was seized," Shyy says. The Ex reports that "Canchola cannot be charged at this time, but the case remains under investigation." He has, however, been booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm. Both the Chron and the Ex have spoken extensively with Razo's family and friends, painting a picture of a well-loved man. A bilingual data analyst who'd been contracting with Apple since April 2014, by night Razo was a DJ who had played across California and in Seattle and Atlanta, NBC Bay Area reports. The night of the attack, reports the Chron, Razo had been out with three friends when the club shut down around 1:45 a.m...He and a friend started to head off, but noticed their other buddies were being attacked by a mob of at least seven people in front of the nightclub." "Razo and his friend ran to help and were immediately pulled into the violent fracas. Someone in the crowd then pulled out a knife and began stabbing Razo and his friend before the group of attackers ran off," the Chron reports. We dont know what happened, but I think its pretty clear that this was a random act of violence that could have been avoided, one of Razo's friends told the Ex. We miss him. Previously: Man Stabbed During Tenderloin Brawl Dies In Hospital Marijuana policy is often a sticky subject in California, but that may change with the nomination of the state's first ever Marijuana Czar. Governor Jerry Brown yesterday tapped the current Republican head of California's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Lori Ajax, to lead what will be a brand new agency assuming the state Senate votes to confirm her in the role. The agency Ajax has been tasked to lead will be known as the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation, reports the San Francisco Business Times. The position's official title is "Chief," and we wrote about the then-unfilled job listing late last year. "Applicants must demonstrate the ability to perform high level administrative and policy functions effectively," the job posting read. "The ability to plan, develop, organize and direct the work of the multidisciplinary professional and administrative staff" is considered crucial to the role. Assuming everything goes well with the confirmation vote, the Chronicle reports that Ajax will essentially be creating a government agency from the ground up, and that she will need to hire 40 to 50 people to staff it. Growers around the state, of course, will be watching Ajax closely. Lori comes to us as a relative unknown, which is a good thing from our perspective, Hezekiah Allen, the executive director of the California Growers Association, told the Chronicle. She is a very skilled bureaucrat." The owner of Californias largest medical cannabis dispensary, Steve DeAngelo, told the Chronicle that Ajax's 2014 visit to his dispensary is, in his mind, a good sign. For me, thats reassuring because it showed me that she has an interest in learning about the industry, he explained. And shes a woman, which is great, because the cannabis industry needs some more diversity. Ajax's previous work at the ABC means she has experience dealing with the complicated licensing systems that will likely be necessary as the state's marijuana industry continues to grow. The position pays $150,636, and it's unclear if it drug tests. Previously: Here's Your Opportunity To Become The State's Official Weed Czar My musings, reflections on life here in Shiloh, Israel. Original, personal, spiritual and political. Peace, security and Israeli sovereignty. While not a "group blog," Shiloh Musings includes the voices of other Jews in The Land of Israel. **Copyright(C)BatyaMedad ** For permission to use these in publications of any sort, please contact me directly. Private accredited distribution encouraged. Thank you. This site was created by Larry Shively who is researching the history of the Shively families. The goal is to have a site where all Shively researchers can share and ask questions in regards to their Shively lines. The largest majority of the Shively family records are located in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. There are early records of Shively's also in Virginia and Kentucky. There are not many established Shively lineages back to Europe. There are documented lineages to Switzerland and Germany. Through the sharing of information from all of our research it is desired that all can learn about our Shively families. Motley found that in general there are several things that impeded most Afghans in the justice system: They dont know what the laws are, laws are ignored in favor of illegal customs and there are not enough people working to enforce the law. I find that the biggest problem is that people do not know the laws, and in large part it is because the laws are not readily accessible to the people, she said. Motley has represented businessmen and ambassadors as well. Her only lucrative cases mostly involve foreigners. "Human rights work does not pay the bills, she said, but offers free legal advice to imprisoned women. Initially, Motley shied away from human rights abuse cases for several reasons, including a real concern that her involvement could make matters worse for victims. She also worried that if she was successful legally, the floodgates of clients coming for representation would open. But as Motley continued to work in the country, she met many people stuck in a very confusing, archaic, and corrupt system of justice who did not have the legal representation they needed and deserved, Motley said. Due to this legal morass, some of her clients have suffered tremendous torture and cruelty in their young lives. In one case, a father sold his young daughter, Naghma, to pay off a debt. When one of her brothers died and her mother fell ill, Naghmas dad borrowed $2,500 a debt he was then unable to pay back. A local meeting of elders called a jirga decided the best way to settle the unpaid debt was to marry off six-year-old Naghma to the neighbor who was in his 20s. Motley notes this is not only morally objectionable, but also illegal according to the country's own laws. She presided over another jirga that covened, resulting in the nullification of the engagement and the return of the child a novelty for a foreigner to have done so. In another case, Gulnaz, an 18-year-old woman, was raped by her cousins husband, then imprisoned for adultery. Motley was able to help Gulnaz, who became pregnant as a result of the attack, receive a presidential pardon from Hamid Karzai for her and her daughter. It was the first pardon issued for a moral crimes case in Afghanistan ... a monumental victory, said Motley. However, Gulnaz ended up marrying her rapist because she was pressured from her community including the womens shelter where she was staying and the Ministry of Womens Affairs. Many Afghan close-minded conservative women pushed and pressured her to marry, said Motley. Another client, Sahar just 11 years old was tortured in her in-laws' house; she was imprisoned in their basement for refusing to become a prostitute. By the time the child bride was rescued, she had been starved, burned by cigarettes and had her fingernails ripped out. The Supreme Court sentenced some of Sahars abusers to five years in prison. This case of Motleys was the first in which such a victim was being-represented by an attorney. It was also novel, because Sahar was suing for civil compensatory damages both laws that had been on the books for years but no one had ever used, according to Motley. Hers is not a job without risk. Motley has been personally targeted a grenade was thrown in her office and residence in Afghanistan. She has also been temporarily detained, accused of running a brothel and being a spy. But Motley is not one to be cowed into backing down. Ridiculous accusations and failed attempts of intimidation, she said. Alabama is NOT without its own carpetbaggers & scalawags. We are certainly ashamed of gov robert bentley. He is the epitomy of a traitor for he DOES have Confederate lineage. However, nikki haley has not betrayed her roots, her lineage, her history, heritage or her culture....only the PEOPLE of South Carolina who DO have a bloodline in the founding of this country! nikki haley has remained TRUE to her Sikh roots and culture! We, our Alabama grassroots effort, have put together a campaign in an effort to derail the continued political career of nikki haley. She not only betrayed the good people of South Carolina, but like robert bentley, she betrayed the people of the entire South who love liberty and they both have insulted our families by taking down our precious symbol of a Christian nation (we ARE a people!) and also a symbol of resistence to tyranny! They both have sold their souls to the devil for personal political gain! They both, in concert, have unleashed an avalanche of cultural genocide against the entire Southland that is ravaging the Southland faster than the winds of Sherman's fires! We must show these dastardly politicians, leftists, progressives, liberals, socialists, communists...whatever you want to call them...that CONFEDERATE SOUTHERN LIVES MATTER, too! WE are the TRUE PATRIOTS! This blog is about the political struggle I am engaging in Singapore. The title "Singapore Alternatives" is chosen because my only political dream is to build a true alternative in Singapore. Alternative to PAP government, of course. As the Alternative, the political party must be able to have the visions and policy insights to lead Singapore. I will write on various policy views and personal beliefs that I think is crucial in building up the Alternative. All constructive comments are welcome. LOS ANGELES | Debuting at No. 1 is certainly an accomplishment, but bumping artists like David Bowie and Adele down the music charts has Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie simply gobsmacked. "That's insane. I mean, to be in same sentence as anyone like that I'm not worthy," Urie said. "I was just floored!" "Death of a Bachelor," released last month, topped the Billboard 200 chart and sold 190,000 equivalent albums in its first week, according to Nielsen Music. It's the fifth album and first No. 1 for Panic!, of which Urie is the only remaining original member after his band mates decided to leave the group over the years. But the 28-year-old vocalist is loving life as a solo act. He co-wrote the album's songs and plays most of the instruments on the pop-rock project. "It's amazing because I don't have to compromise or I don't have to argue as much," he said. In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Urie discussed doing things his way on "Death of a Bachelor," touring with Weezer and his eclectic inspirations, from Beyonce to Frank Sinatra. AP: What did you think when you heard you knocked Bowie's album from the top spot? Urie: I'm conflicted about it. I'm happy, but man, just losing a legend, yeah, I mean, that's unreal but I'm glad that at least I had a chance to pop in there, get on people's radar. David Bowie had so many hits, too; it's not like I'm hurting his career by any means. AP: How confident were you about your solo debut? Urie: There's always nerves when you're releasing something. These are all very personal to me. Every song is autobiographical. It's about something I experienced or want to experience, so it's all very close to my heart. AP: Who were some of your inspirations on the album? Urie: Queen, Bruce Springsteen. ...There's a pretty good, in my opinion, a good mash up of Beyonce and Sinatra on the title track. ...I wrote the song actually trying to make a Sinatra song ...and then I hit this wall, just writing-wise, where I was getting so frustrated. ...So I took a break from it and went back to this beat I had worked on like months before and it kind of had this 'Drunk in Love,' Beyonce-kind of feel. ...It was just like a happy accident. AP: Has Beyonce heard the track? Urie: I wonder. I doubt it, but I would love to show her (and say), 'You inspired this, Queen B!' AP: What can fans expect from your summer tour with Weezer? Urie: That is really crazy to say. Anytime I say it, it doesn't feel real. I don't think it's gonna feel real until the first week of the tour where we've established set times and hang out. ...But knowing that we're going to be touring together was just like my childhood fantasies come true. ...Ten-year-old me would just be crying right now, flipping out, ecstatic. I might cry (onstage). No promises, but maybe. MOVILLE, Iowa | Grace Bennett, a Woodbury Central sixth-grader, finds herself many days looking with anticipation when traveling midway from home to school. Bennett is scanning the status of a gigantic snowman on a main street corner, about a block from the Woodbury County Fairgrounds in Moville. Did warmer temperatures melt him down? Is the creator out working on the snowman? What new clothing adorns Mega Man? "It is pretty cool. No one has done that in Moville, ever, that I've seen. Wow, it is so big," Bennett said. Surviving a few winter thaws -- including a five-day December thaw when highs ranged from 53 to 58 degrees and a three-day warm spell last week in advance of Tuesday's blizzard -- the size of a massive snowman never seems to shrink. There was green grass all around the yard Monday, hours before last week's winter blast struck, but snow guy, who doesn't have a name, lived into the start of a third month. "It looks like a pregnant snowman now. It is big and fat," creator Mike Robley said Thursday. Robley, who lives at 603 Main St., takes great pride in keeping the snowman growing, which was started after three substantial snows that hit Siouxland before Dec. 1. Robley said there was no hand-to-forehead genesis for starting and maintaining colossus man, other than he needed an exercise outlet to offset his diabetes. "My doctor told me I needed to get a hobby. That's why I do it. It gives me something to do, instead of walking up and down the streets. I'm an old guy, 65, it gives me exercise," said Robley, who has lived in Moville for two years. OK, but why a snowman for exercise? Robley says he got competitive with two kids just west across the street after they built a 6-foot-high snowman. He's roughly doubled that height. "I thought, 'Well, I'll show them I could build a bigger one,' and I just kept going," he said. Bennett has enjoyed seeing the hats and other outfits Robley has thrown on the snowman. A skirt was on it once, raising the possibility it may be a "snow woman." "He put a wig one day on him. It was really funny," Bennett said. Lots of people stop by to take photos, including once when about 10 children were there, Robley reports. Some people have never seen him work on it, since Robley often uses the overnight hours to plumpify the attraction. Tuesday's blizzard dumped a foot of snow in Moville, and on Wednesday Robley said he thought the new snow was too soft and not sticky enough to add to his creation. Yet he couldn't sleep that night, and from midnight to 3:30 a.m. Thursday Robley really added to its girth. "If you throw a shovel (of snow) real hard, it was sticking. It grew a lot," he said. As the snowman has grown, Robley has used ladders, wheelbarrows and most recently scaffolding for his work. "I got tired of walking up and down the ladder," he said of the scaffolding. Robley shared his secret that prevents melting in warm periods, which involves throwing tarps over the snowman. His goal is to keep his snow creation going well into spring. "It will probably be there in May ... It is big, it is solid, it will last a long time," Robley said. Woodbury Central student Bennett hopes there is a long life. "I want it to stay, because it is really an attraction to Moville," she said. SIOUX CITY | Mayor Bob Scott on Friday said he supports using emergency powers to limit parking by motorists on alternating sides of a street during and after major snowstorms. As the city crews continue to dig out from the foot-deep Tuesday snow, Scott told the Journal that he favors moving at times to the so-called odd-even parking restrictions. The system, which is used by a number of cities, means that one side of the street would have to be clear of cars on odd-numbered days and the other side vehicle-free on even-numbered days. "I am all for it," Scott said. The mayor said too many snowbound cars hamper snow removal. "Drive up and down any side street and you'll see that," he said. The mayor said he will discus the topic on Monday with city officials during the council's regular weekly meeting. Moving to odd/even parking may not require passage of a city resolution, he said, contending that existing snow-emergency rules may allow that through an announcement by the mayor. "I do want to get to where we get to odd-even during the working days," Scott said. City officials give people some time to scoop out after snows, but eventually the time for enforcement arrives. The Police Department on Thursday began placing orange tags on snowbound vehicles in the way as streets are cleared. Owners of tagged vehicles then had 24 hours to move them. Police will issue tickets to vehicles that haven't been moved. Sgt. Todd Sassman said about 250 vehicles had been tagged as of early Friday afternoon, with more likely on the way. "The problem seems to be that most are just north of the downtown area," Sassman said, referencing older neighborhoods where there are a lot of rental units without garages and limited off-street parking. Those that pose an immediate hazard to emergency crews could be towed instantly, and the others will be towed beginning Monday, or five days after snow stopped. The snow piled up in roughly one day on Tuesday, when a heavy-hitting blizzard dropped 12.4 inches in Sioux City and more fell in other nearby towns. Todays top picks from our online calendar. Find more events at siouxcityjournal.com/calendar. Snow Scamper 5K: Dust off your running shoes, dig out your snowshoes and join the 3rd annual Snow Scamper 5k trail run/walk/snowshoe event. Check in closes at 9:45 a.m., race begins at 10 a.m at Hillview Recreation Area, 25601 C60, Hinton, Iowa. Pre-registration is required. Registration fee is $35. For more information call Diana at 712-947-4270. L&C Junior Explorers Sacagawea program: Explore Sacagawea, one of American history's most celebrated women 1-2 p.m. at Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, 900 Larsen Park. Visit siouxcitylcic.com or call 712-224-5242 for more information. 1st Saturday Family Storytime: Celebrate "Take Your Child to the Library Day" at the Sioux City Public Library with three fun puppet plays that will entertain the whole family 11-11:45 a.m. at Sioux City Public Library, 529 Pierce St. After the show, children can create their own puppet to take home. Free parking on weekends. Visit www.siouxcitylibrary.org or call 712-255-2933 for more information. 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. Marco Rubio headed into the latest Republican debate ready for an onslaught of attacks about his experience and preparedness from a trio of rivals whose performance in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday will be critical to their White House hopes. Donald Trump also was rejoining his competitors in the debate arena Saturday night after having skipped the previous faceoff in Iowa. He finished second in the Iowa caucuses and has spent the past week complaining bitterly about the result. While Iowa shook Trump's grip on the Republican field, he has led New Hampshire preference polls for months and the state is still seen as his to lose in Tuesday's voting. However, Rubio appears to be gaining steam following his stronger-than-expected third-place finish in Iowa, drawing big crowds across New Hampshire as well as a flurry of criticism from other contenders who say the first-term Florida senator lacks accomplishments. "He's a great guy, but he's not a leader," said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly derided Rubio as a "bubble boy" whose staff protects him from having to answer tough questions about his record and what he would do as president. Bush, Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have largely staked their presidential hopes on New Hampshire. Those falling short of a standout finish in New Hampshire will face party pressure to quit the race, particularly if Rubio has another strong night. Bush in particular has struggled in many of the previous GOP debates. While many of his rivals spent Saturday huddled in debate preparations, Bush spoke to an overflow crowd in Bedford, where he thanked people for asking substantive questions. "The questions on the debate stage will probably be really stupid," he said. "I'm not very optimistic." Rubio and the trio of current and former governors are fighting to emerge as the more mainstream alternative to Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the fiery conservative who won Iowa. Cruz is so loathed by GOP leaders that some have openly said they would rather see Trump win the nomination despite his inflammatory comments and sometimes erratic behavior. For Cruz, New Hampshire is less of a natural fit than Iowa, where he had strong support from the state's many evangelical voters. Still, he sees an opportunity for a strong showing that could send him into the coming Southern primaries in a commanding position. The Republican field was for months a large and unwieldly collection of candidates seeking to put the party back in the White House for the first time in eight years. But the pack has already started to narrow following the Iowa caucuses, with Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum all ending their campaigns. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is fighting to avoid joining that group. After a disappointing showing in Iowa, he took time off from campaigning and hasn't been a major presence in New Hampshire this week. With fewer candidates, debate host ABC News scrapped an undercard debate for low-polling hopefuls. But their rules for the main event left businesswoman Carly Fiorina as the only candidate without a spot on stage. Fiorina, the only Republican woman running for president, has protested her exclusion, and party leaders such as 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney have come to her defense. The Associated Press A prominent British member of a papal advisory commission on sexual abuse by the clergy who has been outspokenly critical of the Vatican has left the group, the Vatican said on Saturday. A statement said that at a commission meeting "it was decided" that Peter Saunders would take a leave of absence. Saunders, head of Britain's National Association for People Abused in Childhood, would now "consider how he might best support the commission's work". In a separate statement, commission president Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston said Saunders had been asked to advise the commission on the possible establishment of a victim survivor panel. Saunders, a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, did not immediately reply to a telephone message requesting a comment. His departure leaves only one victim of sexual abuse by a cleric, Marie Collins of Ireland, sitting on the commission, which has been slowed down by internal disputes. Saunders had been increasingly critical of the commission, which was set up in 2014. Made up of clerics and lay people from around the world, its task is to help Pope Francis establish "best practices" in dioceses around the world to root out sex abuse in the Church. Eight of the commission's 17 members are women. The U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said it shared Saunders' frustration with Vatican officials. "Pete has been a brave, honest and tireless voice for kids and victims," it said in a statement. On the eve of the current meeting, Saunders was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that the previous meeting last year was a "non-event," and demanded that the pope attend the current meeting. "It will be outrageous if he doesnt attend, and I will say so it will be the end of the honeymoon for Pope Francis," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying. In the worldwide sex abuse scandal, which first became prominent in Boston in 2001, abusers were shunted from parish to parish instead of being defrocked and handed over to authorities. Saunders has been outspoken on several issues in the past few months. Last year, he criticized Francis for appearing to endorse parents who spanked their children in order to discipline them. He also made waves when he said that Australian Cardinal George Pell should be dismissed over allegations he failed to take action to protect children years ago. Pell is now the Vatican's economy minister. Last April, Saunders and three other lay commission members met with O'Malley to complain over the appointment of a bishop in Chile accused of covering up abuse. The Vatican says that as part of an advisory body, the commission's members should not comment on individual cases of abuse and leave these up to investigators. Reuters 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 On Feb. 1, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the Iowa Republican caucuses with a four percent edge over businessman-turned presidential candidate Donald Trump. The loss by the GOP frontrunner may come as a relief for some. Trump is not the only Republican contender spouting anti-immigrant rhetoric, but hes been one of the most vocal and vitriolic. The New York billionaire does not even attempt to shroud his racism. For example, announcing his presidential bid in June, Trump said of Mexican immigrants, whom he referred to as rapists, that they bring drugs and they bring crime. At the time, I promised myself that I wouldnt write about him. Not only did I want to avoid expending energy on such a pitiful and detestable candidate, as a daughter of formerly undocumented Mexican immigrants, it hurt me to fully examine what his presence signified for us in this country. My parents immigrated to the United States in 1978. They crossed the Tijuana border through the desert with a coyote, then passed the Border Patrol check points by riding in the trunk of a Cadillac. Like many immigrants, they were escaping the bleak economic realities of their birthplace. They have now lived in the United States much longer than they ever lived in Mexico and are as American as anyone else in this country. I grew up in Chicago, and though I often felt I had two conflicting cultural identities, I too am very much American. In fact, I would argue that this experience is quintessentially American. Except for Native Americans, we are either immigrants or descend from them. That should be obvious, but it seems as if many politicians forget this fact. My parents, along with 3 million other immigrants, were fortunate to be granted amnesty in 1986, thanks to Ronald Reagan, who ironically is the patron saint of many conservatives. Reagans immigration reform allowed my parents to work legally, so they no longer had to live in fear of deportation. Although they experienced poverty, exploitation and discrimination, they were, and continue to be, grateful to be here. One moment in which I understood our status in this country was when I was at a diner with my mother. I was 15 or so, and as usual, I was in charge of ordering because of my mothers limited English. The waitress scowled at us and then turned around and gleefully chatted with the white patrons at the next table. I was both enraged and dumbfounded, and left a note that said, Mexicans are people, too. Clearly, we were different; we were not welcome. And these kinds of experiences were not infrequent. People in public spaces would glare at us when we spoke Spanish to each other, as if this somehow offended them. Fast forward nearly three decades and, I would argue that the general sentiment toward immigrants is worse than it was then. Conservatives, looking for the scapegoat for all of Americas ills, from the economy to crime, have pointed their finger at this already vulnerable group of people. The lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has sparked public outrage over depraved indifference to the lives and health of the citys majority African-American residents. The catastrophe, emblematic of environmental racism that exists within a broader context of structural discrimination, has not escaped international attention. On Jan. 29, the United Nations Working Group of Experts on people of African Descent issued its preliminary findings after an 11-day visit to the U.S., expressing grave concern for the human rights of African- Americans. While it acknowledged some positive strides toward achieving racial justice, including criminal justice reforms on the federal and state level and passage of the Affordable Care Act, the group decried the systemic impediments to equality, noting, the persistent gap in almost all the human development indicators, such as life expectancy, income and wealth, level of education and even food security reflects the level of structural discrimination that creates de facto barriers for people of African descent to fully exercise their human rights. Environmental injustices affect poor white communities, too. But the U.N. experts observed that African-Americans are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards impacting their health and standard of living. Where one lives has a significant effect on public health. Geographic location is not a matter of happenstance and ZIP codes matter. According to a new report from the Center for Effective Government, people of color make up nearly half the 11.4 million people living in zones adjacent to dangerous facilities, and have nearly double the risk whites face of living near those sites. A recent NAACP report also found that 78 percent of all African-Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, which is associated with serious health complications, such as heart and respiratory disease and lung cancer. The crisis in Flint is far from isolated. The highest polluting industrial facilities, across a range of sectors from farming, mining to manufacturing, are more likely to be situated in poor and minority neighborhoods, according to the U.N. experts. Louisianas Cancer Alley, an area with significant concentration of industrial pollutants near low income and minority neighborhoods so named because of its high rates of cancer, is another high profile example. And Detroits predominantly black Boynton neighborhood has been described as a sacrifice zone, where authorities continue to ignore complains by the areas predominantly black residents about air pollution from a local oil refinery. People of color are exposed to nearly 40 percent more harmful airborne toxins than their white counterparts. Approximately two-thirds of the 5.7 million children living within a mile of a high-risk chemical facility are from communities of color. This is further compounded by the prevalence of food deserts, in which minority communities lack options for healthy and affordable food, racial disparities in access to and quality of medical care, and fewer economic opportunities. Renters, especially those in blighted urban communities, are more vulnerable to exposure to lead or other harms disregarded by landlords more concerned with profit than livability. Marginalized communities lack the political capital necessary to demand enforcement of health and environmental codes. They are also less able to mobilize against toxic facilities in their neighborhoods and often lack the resources to move. This site is based on my daily practice of Shotokan Karate-Do here in Oita City, Japan. More than anything else, unlike the majority of other karate websites, this page is primarily dedicated to Budo Karate training itself; that is, Karate-Do as a vehicle for holistic development. 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. 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. LEONARDTOWN, Md. Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: http://so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at http://so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at http://so.md/expungeme. (Feb. 5, 2016)The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office today released the following incident and arrest reports.01-29-2016 POSSESSION: Deputy J. Kerns responded to the 23000 block of Three Notch Road in California for the report of an accident that occurred in the parking lot of Outback Steakhouse. A strong odor of suspected marijuana was emitting from the vehicle. Further investigation revealed the suspect, Lauren Ashley Mahon, age 22, of Charlotte Hall, appeared to under the influence of alcohol. A search of Mahon's car revealed paraphernalia consistent with marijuana use. Mahon was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. She was charged with Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol and Two Counts of CDS PossessionParaphernalia. CASE# 4806-1601-30-2016 DISORDERLY CONDUCT: Deputy D. Mcclure responded to the 21000 block of Three Notch Road in Lexington Park for crowd control due to a large gathering. The suspect, Troy Markel Hebb, age 31, of Lexington Park, was observed attempting to fight another male. Hebb was asked several times to calm down and stop yelling. He refused to comply and continued to yell and push towards the victim. Hebb was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. He was charged with Disorderly Conduct. CASE# 4864-1601-31-2016 THEFT: Deputy T. Siciliano responded to the 45000 block of Alton Lane (Food Lion) in California for a reported theft. The suspect, Tammy Nannette Mcginnis, age 47, of No Fixed Address, attempted to conceal merchandise and exit the store without paying. Mcginnis was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. She was charged with Theft less than $100 and served an active Bench Warrant. CASE# 5254-1602-1-2016 TRESPASS: Deputy A. Manns responded to the 30000 block of Three Notch Road (Exxon) in Charlotte Hall for a welfare check. The suspect, Joseph Aubrey Dement, age 41, of No Fixed Address, was observed laying on the sidewalk. Dement was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. He was charged with Trespass(ing). CASE# 5517-1602-1-2016 THEFT: Corporal M. Smolarsky responded to the 40000 block of Merchants Lane (Family Dollar) in Leonardtown for the report of a theft in progress. The suspect, Stacey Ann Murphy, age 29, of Mechanicsville, was observed concealing merchandise and attempting to leave the store without paying. She was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. Murphy was charged with Two Counts of Theft less than $1000 and Theft Scheme Less Than $1000. CASE# 5472-1602-3-2016 TRESPASS: Deputy T. Siciliano responded to the 45000 block of Bolden Court in Lexington Park for the report of a civil dispute. While the deputies were assisting with the dispute the suspect, Sharaine Marie Francis Wood, age 23, of Lexington Park, became very disorderly. She created a public disturbance, screamed, and used foul language several times. Deputies asked Wood several times to calm down. Wood was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. She was charged with Failure to Obey Lawful and Reasonable Order and Trespass(ing) Private Property. CASE# 5938-1602-4-2016 ASSAULT: Deputy D. Mcclure responded to the 48000 block of Park Pines Road in Lexington Park for the report of a disturbance. The victim alleged the suspect, Shandelle Topaz Henson, age 24, of Lexington Park, struck the victim several times with a closed fist, retrieved a knife, and then attempted to stab the victim. Henson was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. She was charged with First Degree Assault and Second Degree Assault. CASE# 5953-16 "The Saudi statement made clear that they would be willing to consider deploying its forces only as part of a coalition and I am not aware that there is likely to be such a coalition at all. Who would be in it?" Lippman asked. US Department of State spokesman John Kirby acknowledged on Thursday that US policymakers were not clear what the Saudis were actually proposing and required more details from them. Lippman said the Saudi offer should be understood as an expression of support for the United States and its allies rather than as a firm commitment to send military forces into Syria. "I understand the statement as a policy announcement. It is a reflection of the more muscular and bolder foreign policy stands the Saudi government has taken in the year since King Salman took power." The new king had already abandoned the refusal of his predecessors to get directly involved militarily in conflicts outside the Desert Kingdoms borders, Lippman noted. "It is no longer inconceivable after the Saudi air war in Yemen that the Kingdom could use its military forces outside its own borders." However, Lippman warned that the Saudis would be constrained by the limited size and experience of their own army from sending significant forces to fight Daesh on the ground in Syria. "The Saudis have zero troops, zero officers with training or experience in the kind of combat were talking about in Syria, which involves intense ground fighting, often street by street in cities." Dinges, who is Area Director for Religion and Culture at Catholic University of Americas School of Theology and Religious Studies, linked the meeting to the upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism that has targeted Christian communities. "[The reason for the meeting is] fueled in large part by what has been happening in the Middle East," Dinges added. Archpriest Dr. Alexander F. C. Webster of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia also welcomed the meeting and its focus on persecution. "The focus on persecuted Christians around the world in the unprecedented encounter between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill augurs well for all of us," Webster said. Webster, who is a parish priest in Stafford, Virginia, also expressed hope that the two church leaders would succeed in bringing global attention to the suffering of Christians across the Middle East as well as to the systematic extinction of ancient communities of faith there. He noted the concern of the Pope and Patriarch was particularly needed to highlight the crisis "especially in light of the rather muted official response to the crisis from the United States." The Christian Church split into a Catholic and Orthodox Church in 1054 in what has become known as the East-West or Great Schism. According to the ministry the new outpost is essential to implement highly effective logistical support. Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf told Reuters, We understand that some Western countries have worries about China's willingness to have military outposts outside of China. He said that Western countries should not be concerned. He further said that the country is vital in the Horn of Africa situated between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It is a key transfer stop for international humanitarian missions, including those of the United Nations. Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said Djibouti is one of the closest major ports to Somalia. Its peaceful environment is suitable to China's support facility. Zhang said the station that China plans to build there is designed to provide food, water and oil. It would be totally different from US military bases, which supply weaponry, Zhang added. Djibouti's strategic importance was emphasized last year when Chinese citizens evacuated from Yemen transited there. A few days prior, Rukundo and Kalala traveled to East Africa for a friends funeral. Shortly afterward, Rukundo was snatched by armed men outside the Bujumbura hotel and tossed into a van. You woman, what did you do for this man to pay us to kill you? asked one of the men. My husband cant send anyone to kill me, she replied. The men called her a fool and let her listen in on a phone call revealing her husband had ordered a hit on her. However, the men told her they didnt believe in killing women and they knew her brother. They then let her go with a phone and evidence on her husbands plot. Back home, Kalala told friends and family Rukundo had died in an accident. But she made it back home with help from the Kenyan and Belgian embassies as well as her home-town pastor. Kalala denied his scheme, but later confessed on a call recorded by police. Hes now serving a nine year jail sentence. But, the struggle isnt over for Rukndo. Members of the African community have criticized her for turning in her husband. Shes received threatening messages and had her backdoor broken. Every night, I see what was happening in those two days with the kidnappers, Rukundo said. (But) I will stand up like a strong woman. In our conversations at a diplomatic level with the Chinese in particular, we encouraged them to work with us and develop potential options, said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. They have unique influence over the North Korean regime. Historically, China has been the real ally and has become a quintessential trading partner to the pariah nation and appears reluctant to threaten unilateral sanctions. The US, however, is considering a number of options the White House says it has available to them under the UN resolutions. In addition to the nuclear test last month, the UN International Maritime Organization also announced North Korean authorities notified them of an upcoming missile launch to put a satellite into orbit. The combination of nuclear tests and such rocket capabilities has Washington concerned. Beijing, however, has expressed a greater desire for dialog with Pyongyang. Its unlikely that hell be able to secure Washingtons support for a conventional invasion because the US does not want to predictably end up going to blows against Russia on Turkeys behalf, but if such an act of aggression does in fact take place, its very probable that the US purposefully misled Erdogan because it wants to see Moscow take him out. The author wrote about the strategic underpinnings of this Machiavellian strategy back in November for an online journal article entitled Whys The US Hanging Turkey Out To Dry? and strongly recommends that interested readers check it out for further background context. If Turkey does in fact invade Syria, then itll likely just be an escalation of the unconventional aggression that its been waging against its neighbor for five years now. This would allow it to sidestep a direct confrontation with Russia (which the US wants no part of) while inserting a number of special forces and non-uniformed soldiers in a despairing attempt to hold on to the little bit of on-the-ground influence that its proxies still have left at this point. Theyll obviously be targeted by Russia airpower, but the crafty intermingling of US special forces or military advisors into this invading mix (revealed to Moscow via diplomatic back channels and/or manufactured media leaks) could present a serious dilemma in dealing with the aggressors and further complicate an already complex situation. Saudi Arabia: Riyadh is not expected to divert any of its military forces that are partaking in the failed War on Yemen to the prospective Invasion of Syria, but it could muster up some of its reserve units and elements of the National Guard for this purpose. The presidential draft won preliminary approval in August 2015 but political discussions about the need to turn Ukraine into a federative state rage on. Failure to decentralize may put the very future of Ukraine as a state on the line, especially given the centrifugal forces existing between the regional elites and the central government, Oleg Bondarenko, a Moscow-based political analyst said during a recent roundtable organized by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. Rostislav Ishchenko, the head of the Center for Systemic Analysis and Forecasts, said that federalization of Ukraine was an objective process, which has been going on for quite some time now. There is no way you can stop it. You could try to slow it down, but this will exacerbate even further the frictions that already exist between the regions and the federal center. This will eventually bring the situation to a head and precipitate the breakup of Ukraine as a single state, Ishchenko warned. He added that if President Poroshenko attempted to greenlight the federalization process he would antagonize the parliament, the government and even his own team. On the other hand, he is under foreign and regional pressure to do exactly this. Both agreed, however, that the process of de facto federalization was already on. This is part of an objective process Poroshenko can neither stop nor reverse no matter what he says, Rostislav Ishchenko noted. The militants suffered heavy losses, leaving scores of their fighters dead and wounded, informed sources on the ground were cited as saying by the agency. In Hama province around a dozen members of the Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union militant group were killed as the Army and popular forces renewed their attacks on their positions in Kafr Zita town, north of Hama city. One of the groups top commanders was identified among the dead. The Syrisn Armed Forces have also made similar gains in central Homs province, killing a number of al-Nusra Front terrorists and severely degrading their military infrastructure and destroying much of their hardware. In Aleppo province the Syrian Army, popular forces and allied Hezbollah units delivered food and medical supplies to the liberated Shiite towns of Nubl and al-Zahra. After Syrian Armed Forces and their allies entered the two towns, a convoy of humanitarian aid arrived there. Meanwhile, militant groups active north of Aleppo said that they were ready to fight alongside the government forces, Al Mayadeen television reported. In 2005, Erdogan was the first Turkish leader to acknowledge the Kurdish question and agree a plan to settle the conflict. However, soon Erdogan disowned the agreement and launched a crackdown against Kurds. A series of anti-Kurdish attacks hit the country, and the government was suspected of having a hand in the attacks. The situation was further aggravated when the PKKs youth wing, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, declared autonomy in a number of towns in Turkey. The response from the government led to a great number of refugees and civilian casualties in besieged towns. The Human Rights Watch has termed it "the abusive and disproportionate use of force." Nevertheless, there is a zero sum game for Erdogan until Kurdish militants are finally destroyed. During the November elections, Erdogan called on the Turkish people to unite against terrorism and won the support of half of the electorate. "The losers are the Turkish people, as Erdogan has cracked down on every form of dissent, calling critics and political opponents 'traitors' and 'terrorists'," the author wrote. "The AKP now has 317 out of the Turkish parliaments 550 seats, and a new election could be held to gain the 330 seats needed to hold a referendum on a change to the constitution, giving Erdogan the ultimate power he has so long hankered after." Crackdowns against politicians, scholars and journalists have become a worrying trend of the domestic policy conducted by the AKP. Talking about who would invite Saudis and the Turks to Syria, Doyle said that if this would happen it would be agreed by an anti-ISIS coalition which is a coalition of 60 countries. I think there is a long way to go between what are very weak statements at the moment. We have the United Arab Emirates in November saying that they might be prepared to put forward ground forces and its actually happening on the ground because the Saudis know very well that it would be highly risky to put ground forces on the ground due to killings and kidnappings, if their forces are executed publically that would be massively damaging to them so there is a long way to go for them in all of this. However, the expert also noted that the pressure for Saudi Arabia to do something is growing as more and more nations are joining the anti-Daesh fight despite the fact that according to Doyle the bombing and fighting is not doing well in alleviating the pressure. There is a need to address the underlining political issues in order to really have a united front against ISIS. One of the challenges we see not only with Saudi and Turkey but with other countries also is that while nominally most of these countries are opposed to ISIS nearly all of them have in their own view a bigger threat. So for Saudi Arabia whilst it doesnt like ISIS, it sees Iran as a bigger threat. For Turkey the bigger threat is the Kurds, so in that way you see that ISIS is not always the number one priority, Doyle said. The expert further spoke about how Turkey has turned a blind eye to some of Daeshs dealings through the border and how conflict with the Kurds has taken a priority. The Kurdish issue is a bigger threat to them therefore; Turkey has allowed weapons and arms, money, funds and fighters to cross its border all too willing until more recent times, so they are very much responsible for the growth of that group and some other extremist groups as well, Doyle concluded. Their goal is to bring to power Sunni forces in Syria. This aim remains in politics of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. In addition, Turkey has an aim of annexing the territory in Syria, home to the Turkmen, which was a part of the Ottoman Empire once. Dolgov further said, There is also the financial interests of Turkey which is the oil business captured by Daesh. This is also the reason as to why the Turkish leadership right now is supporting radical Islamists, the expert told Sputnik. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry provided the international community with irrefutable video evidence of Turkish self-propelled artillery units shelling Syrian settlements in the northern part of Latakia province. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov pointed out that the Russian Defense Ministry has intensified all types of surveillance activity in the Middle East. So if someone in Ankara thinks that cancelling a Russian observation flight would help conceal something, that is just the mark of an amateur, Konashenkov said. Boris Dolgov stressing this point said that, I believe that Turkey's likelihood of military intervention in Syria is very high. The Turkish leadership has long been saying that the Turkish troops need to protect Syrian civilians. Added to this statement there are allegations suggesting that Russia has bombed civilian objects, which is absolute nonsense. But it can be a pretext for an invasion, the expert concluded. Les Johnson, the Technical Advisor for NASAs Advanced Concepts Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, tells National Geographic the suns energy could dwarf power provided by chemical fuel. Since the sail doesn't use any fuel, we can keep thrusting as long as the sun is shining, Johnson said. NASA expects the probe to reach the asteroid in about 2.5 years after launch. It will take pictures of the rock while measuring its chemical composition, size, and motion. NASA says this reconnaissance work will let it know if the asteroid is fit for humans to walk on. The idea of solar powered sails emerged in 1924, when Soviet rocket scientists Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Friedrick Tsander dabbled with the concept of spacecraft "using tremendous mirrors of very thin sheets." In the 90s, the U.S. began funding such technology. But recent advances could be accounted to something in your pocket. Back 25 or 30 years ago, electronics were not so lightweight, Johnson says. You couldn't imagine building a small enough spacecraft that didn't require a generous sail. With the advent of smart phones and the miniaturization of components, we're now able to make really lightweight, small spacecraft, which makes the size of the sail more reasonable. The social media giant also says it has reduced response time in shutting down suspicious accounts. Twitter has been leading these efforts with help from law-enforcement agencies and online organizations throughout the country. U.S. government officials and representatives of leading technology companies met in Silicon Valley last month to plan a counterattack on the Islamic States online-recruitment efforts. The government is urging social media sites to block posts, photos and videos encouraging terrorist activity. Obama has called on tech companies to develop techniques to detect and measure radicalization. Companies like Facebook, Apple, and LinkedIn have pledged support. Nonetheless, the war against Daesh on the social media front is far from over. According to Twitters post, "Global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgment calls based on very limited information and guidance." Twitter says there is no magic algorithm to detect terrorist activity online and its formula is not an exact science. The company has also detected a growth in terror-related activity on other online forums as it steps up its pressure against Daesh online. He said the meeting fitted into the pattern of bold and innovative initiatives the Pope had taken since assuming office nearly three years, ago and described the upcoming meeting as one of the pontiffs "Franciscan firsts." The two church leaders are scheduled to meet at the airport in Havana, and the main topic of their meeting will reportedly be the persecution of Christians. Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia Archpriest Victor Potapov of the Washington Cathedral said the Pope had shown himself willing to cooperate in key areas that Russian Christians had long recognized to be of crucial importance. "I welcome this meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis. The Russian Orthodox Church has long held that churches should work together for the defense of persecuted Christians and social justice," Potapov said. He too emphasized the importance of the meeting taking place when Christians around the world, especially in the Middle East, faced huge and growing dangers to their faith and physical survival. "This is especially important in our times, when the plight of our brothers and sisters barely garners any mention in the mainline Western media," Potapov noted. The meeting, Potapov added, would give hope an encouragement to hundreds of millions of believers. "May their historic encounter bear fruit," Potapov concluded. The Christian Church split into a Catholic Church and an Orthodox Church in 1054, an event that is known as the East-West or Great Schism. Kadi's concerns are justified: the Russian Ministry of Defense has recently reported that it "registers a growing number of signs of hidden preparation of the Turkish Armed Forces for active actions on the territory of Syria." Despite Washington's guarantees to Russia that the US-led coalition forces would follow the terms of Memorandum on Air Safety in Syria, inked on October 20, 2015, Turkey refused to confirm its commitment to the agreement, Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense Anatoly Antonov noted in an official statement. #Antonov: Turkish military, who are formally included in the US-led Coalition, refused to confirm their commitment to the Memorandum (@mod_russia) 5 2016 Previously, the Turkish Ministry of Defense refused to allow Russian specialists to carry out an observation flight over the territory of Turkey in accordance with Treaty on Open Skies, apparently to conceal illegal military activity on the Turkish-Syrian border. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Saudi Arabia signaled its willingness to unleash a ground military operation in Syria, followed by statements from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates supporting the initiative. In response, Damascus announced that any ground intervention in Syria without the official agreement of the Syrian legitimate democratically-elected government would be seen as an act of military aggression. The 100th Anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement US hawks are pressuring the Obama administration into launching an all-out military campaign in Syria and Iraq, and to open a "third" front in the war against Daesh (Islamic State/ISIL) in Libya. "In a recent article I wrote which has not been published yet, I am predicting that the US will not help Erdogan if he decides to invade Syria and Iraq. If the US is indeed foolish enough to take this step with Russia on the scene, it would be risking a war between the superpowers, a war that will not only have effects on Baghdad and Damascus, but the entire world," Kadi told Sputnik. "On the other hand, and going back to your first question here, if hopefully such a serious development does not eventuate and Syria and Iraq rise victorious, then it will be entirely up to them to decide their own destiny," the expert underscored. Indeed, a hundred years ago the destiny of the Arab world was decided in London and Paris: under the notorious Sykes-Picot agreement the Middle Eastern borders were redefined by Europeans against Arabs' will. Radical Islam or, rather, pseudo-Islam, is a challenge by those who are ready to kill innocent people, including women and children, for allegedly insulting their religious motivation. These people have nothing to do with religion, Kipshidze emphasized. He quoted Patriarch Kirill who had earlier described religious fanaticism as a form of atheism, when someone believes he is God Almighty and has the right to decide the fate of individual people and entire nations. This is a perverted form of human pride, Vakhtang Kipshidze said in conclusion. The vast exodus of Christians from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East highlights the very real possibility that Christianity could soon all but disappear from much of its ancient homeland, UK-based charity Aid to the Church in Need said in a report released late last year. Prior to the civil war, which began in Syria four years ago, around ten percent of Syria's prior population of 22 million were believed to be Christians.. Opulent Yankee ($5.40) is finding his best stride again, capturing Friday (Feb. 5) evening's featured $25,000 Open Handicap Trot at The Meadowlands in pillar-to-post fashion, digging deep to hold sway for a 1:53 triumph in the night's second of 14 races. Andy Miller sent the five-year-old Muscles Yankee gelding immediately to the fore, stretched out a bit by Uva Hanover (Tim Tetrick) on approach to the first turn. Upon clearing, Opulent Yankee set uncontested splits of :27.4, :56.2, and 1:24.3, leading the septet throughout. Just above the eighth pole, Uva Hanover angled off the pegs to give chase, and Opulent Yankee sternly fought him off for the remainder of the stretch for a three-quarter length victory. A Little More Love (Joe Bongiorno) stayed on for third at 39-1 off a close and clear tracking trip, while Bourbon Bay (Corey Callahan) rallied mildly up the inside to save fourth. Julie Miller trains 10-time winner Opulent Yankee for the partnership of Little E LLC, Arthur Geiger, Jason Settlemoir, and David Stolz. The sub-featured seventh event was a $16,000 top-level distaff pace, and one of four driving wins on the program for Tim Tetrick. "The Bionic Man" teamed up with Clear View Hanover ($8.40), and the pair bobbed and weaved through traffic at head-stretch before finding clearance up the pegs in the final 150 yards. Clear View Hanover had just enough to nose out Gweneeee J (Scott Zeron) -- who had the aid of a textbook second-over trip -- in 1:52.2. Henrik Lundell trains the seven-year-old Clear View Hanover for Joie de Vie Farm and Guidetti Racing. Tetrick's other winners on the evening were Mr Lover ($5.80, 1:56), Sheer Flex ($5.40, 1:55.1), and Andovers Touch ($2.40, 1:56.2). With a carryover of $18,653 enticing over $140,000 in new money to Friday evening's 50-cent Pick 5 at The Meadowlands, a hefty dividend was a near certainty. Thanks to two significant longshots prevailing in the sequence, just one punter was able to select all five winners, and that player from Maine was rewarded with a dividend of $109,966.10. In addition to Mr Lover ($5.80), Sheer Flex ($5.40), and Clear View Hanover ($8.40) giving Tetrick a hat trick in the Pick 5 sequence, longshots Sherkin Hanover ($35.80, Anthony Napolitano) and Never Ever Clever ($86.80, Corey Callahan) took their respective races and perplexed all but that one player from the Pine Tree State. Punters who selected four of five winners correctly earned a consolation dividend of $255.70. Both Jackpot High 5s will carry over to Saturday's 14-race program. The seventh race High 5 will feature $16,452 in added money, while the finale will boast a $77,928 carryover. Friday's program saw a third consecutive handle of over $3 million, with $3,132,380 in total handle representing a $397,990 increase over the corresponding Friday card in 2015. Live racing returns Saturday (Feb. 6), with the first of 14 races due off at 6:35 p.m. Eastern time. (With files from Meadowlands Racetrack) Randy Tharps became the 103rd harness driver in North American history to reach 5,000 career victories on Friday night (Feb. 5) at Miami Valley Raceway. The winningest African-American driver in history, by a wide margin, 52-year-old Tharps scored a hat trick to reach the coveted plateau. Jessies Field got Tharps' string of successes going with a 1:57.4 score in a $10,000 conditioned trot. Alibi Seelster captured a $12,000 mares condition pace in 1:54.3 to put Tharps one win away, and then Boy Meets Girl K trotted to a 1:55.4 tally in the very next race, another $10,000 condition trot. Randy Tharps hails from a harness racing family with deep roots in Lebanon, Ohio. His father Thomas, who passed away three years ago, and mother Carol began racing harness horses shortly after moving to Lebanon from Tennessee and Tom was introduced to the sport by friends Omar Hiteman and George Williams. Tom was a leading driver at both Lebanon and Latonia in the 1960s and 70s, competing with the likes of Herb Coven Jr. and Ray Paver Sr. The Tharpss raised five sons and two daughters with all five boys taking an active interest in racing. Since there have been a number of grandchildren who have followed in the family hoofprints as well, including five of Randys nephews who are currently active as provisional drivers or second trainers. Randy Tharps is undoubtedly the family standardbearer in terms of accomplishments and statistical achievements. Cleaning the familys stalls since he was old enough to pick up a pitchfork, and jogging their horses since big enough to sit upright in the cart, Tharps always had his sights set on being a top driver. After graduating from Lebanon High School, where he studied in the Career Center to become an electrician, Tharps began devoting full-time to the horses and his illustrious career took off before he ever made a nickel with his electrical knowledge. His dad always had 20-30 horses in his stable, but Tharps eventually accepted work in the Chet Dewbre Stable and began picking up drives slowly but surely. Back then I let it be known I would drive any horse for anybody, anytime and anywhere, laughed Tharps. I wasnt exactly an overnight success, but I did see a promising future and I have no regrets. Racing has provided a good life. But Im not done...Good Lord willing, I plan to do this as long as I possibly can! Tharps won just four races in his inaugural 1982 season, but did sport a .444 UDRS. He spent another three years toiling at the fairs and picking up occasional commercial track mounts at Lebanon or Latonia. In 1986, things began to click, and by 1990, he was ready to move his tack to Northfield Park in Cleveland. Following a successful stint there, he relocated to The Meadows to begin a very satisfying decade-long run. From 1989 to 2008, Tharps had over 100 wins in 19 out of 20 seasons, including three 300-plus wins campaigns. When VLT legislation passed in Ohio, Tharps returned to his roots in Lebanon, Ohio, where he continues to compete on the highest level. Tharps credits Western Ace for giving him his biggest thrill, winning the Jug Preview at Scioto Downs in 1:50.2 for trainer George Teague Jr. in 2006. As far as a favourite horse? Tharps quickly answers, Martys Charm at The Meadows. I won races every year from 2008 to 2013 with [trainer] Paul Coreys great horse. He had to have time off occasionally, but when he could race, he was fantastic. A check of the records reinforces Tharps enthusiasm for Martys Charm. He won 27 races with Tharps in the sulky during that span -- 21 of them in Preferred company. Although Tharps never purposely fashioned himself after any other driver, some have said he reminds them of the late, great Lew Williams the way he sits in the sulky. Williams is believed to be the second winningest African-American driver of all time with 2,023 wins, followed by Cedric Washington with 1,832. Tharps has three children and two granddaughters (a third grandchild on the way). A son Ryan works for local trainer Kayne Kauffman, his daughter Randi (Peaches) has been an outstanding caretaker since graduating from Trinity High School in Pennsylvania, and daughter Amanda also lives nearby, although she isnt actively interested in horses. Matriarch Carol Tharps joined Randy in the jubilant winners circle following her sons 5,000th win. (Miami Valley Raceway) In this week's edition of Rewind, Robert Smith takes a look back at some of the personalities and events from the decade of the 1940's in the ongoing feature Years Ago. 1942 - New Liskeard Horseman Purchases Promising Colt Mr. James Brown, a New Liskeard, Ont.-based sportsman has purchased The Count, a two-year-old colt that he hopes will fulfill his early promise. Based on an advertisement in the Canadian Sportsman magazine, Mr. Brown and his trainer Cliff "Chappy" Chapman recently visited the Wallaceburg track to view the youngster being offered by owner Joseph Saint. Wet weather conditions which made the track unusable and prevented them watching a regular training mile but they did see the young roan in action. The owner's son Fred Saint drove him down a nearby side road and apparently the prospective buyers liked what they saw. The deal was made and the horse was shipped to the Chapman training base at Weston. The Count is sired By Corporal Lee and out of the Saint-owned broodmare Countess Jane. He was unraced at two but did make an impressive appearance at the 1942 race day at Saints Park in Wallaceburg. In rein to the aforementioned Fred Saint, he went an exhibition mile in 2:25 all by himself. This may have been a determining factor. Note: This horse went on to be perhaps the most impressive and successful horse of the decade and won The Canadian Pacing Derby four times in five years (1944-1948), finishing second on the other occasion. A series named after The Count B is held each year on the WEG Circuit. 1943 - Ice Races Held At Charlottetown February 1943: A series of 1/4 mile ice races have been held this month on the speedway off Victoria Park. Large crowds have braved the elements to watch the best horses in the area compete as they vie for local honours. A number of the participants are well known to the fans from their performances during the summer months. One of the highlights of these race days was a series of inter-province events between horses from the Eastern Driving Club of Dartmouth and the Victoria Driving Club of Charlottetown. Emerging as stars of the events were the great trotter Millie Kalmuck, owned trained and driven by Willard Kelly of Southport. She recorded a 1/4 mile time of :29 1/4. On the pacing side Tracey Hanover owned by the Eastern Driving Club turned a time of :29 1/2 with Mr. Scott handling the reins. On one of the afternoons at least a half dozen horses fell during the contests, most as a result of throwing a shoe on what has been described as the 'glib' ice. According to news reports one horse fell and slid for a hundred yards before finally coming to a halt, thankfully uninjured. Veteran reinsman Tom Holmes, who is well past his 80th birthday, drew a huge ovation from the crowd when called by announcer W.H. Beaton. He now makes only infrequent visits having suffered a broken leg twice in recent years. 1947 - Dutton, Ont. Owner Makes Futurity History Russell Miller, a Dutton, Ont. farmer and recently turned horseman, established a new record in the C.S.H.S. Futurity program held this year at Toronto's Dufferin Park. He became the first owner in the Society's nearly 20 year history to win both divisions of the annual event. After co-owning the 1946 two-year-old winner Minda Dillon, Mr. Miller purchased this year's three-year-old winner Dividend who was last year's runner up. Finishing second to Dividend was Lee Grattan Bars with third place status going to Mr. Herbert. With a purse of $3,000 it was the richest event of the year for sophomore pacers. Miller's victory in the two-year-old event was taken by another Dillon Mc sired colt named David Dillon who has gone unbeaten by any two-year-olds this season. In both events the driver was Joe Hodgins, a young up-and-coming reinsman who hails from Lucan, Ont. The two thrilling Futurity wins came exactly one week apart in late August. David Dillon won all three heats thus taking the lion's share of the $1,200 purse. The Futurity program which was introduced in 1929 was held for many years at Toronto's Exhibition grounds until that facility removed its track in 1939. Since that time the annual colt classics have been offered by tender each year and held at various locations, most recently Stratford and Strathroy. 1948 - Canadians Enjoying Bay State Raceway A number of Quebec-based stables seem to be enjoying the surroundings at the brand new Bay State Raceway in Foxboro, Mass. This beautifully appointed track opened for a 30-night meeting in the fall of 1947 and became an immediate success. This year with all of the barns and other necessary buildings completed, things are moving along smoothly on and off the track. The new starting gate has been well accepted by all of the horsemen. Race Secretary Edwin Keller always runs a first class meeting. Quebec horsemen including Honorat LaRochelle, Eph L'Heureux, Louis Praught, Pat Paquin and Georges Giguere have been frequent visitors to the winner's circle. Undoubtedly the honour of top horse on the grounds belongs to the gelding Guy H owned by Elzear Cournoyer of Sorel, Quebec. He recently stepped to a new track record for driver Honorat LaRochelle. A few others in the stable include Blackout Pointer, Chuck Worthy, Max Bingen, Fionne Hanover and Miss Stars. LaRochelle has also won a couple of Handicap Trots with Duke Volo in races where each horse starts at a different spot. The wins were achieved despite being handicapped by as much as 265 feet. Note: Bay State (later Foxboro) was located between Boston and Providence, R.I. It was closed and later demolished. Guy H and driver Honorat LaRochelle are joined in the Bay State winner's circle by Track co-owner and Manager Paul Bowser (Harness Horse) Guy H and driver Honorat LaRochelle are joined in the Bay State winner's circle by Track co-owner and Manager Paul Bowser (Harness Horse) 1949 - Strathroy's Dominion Day Picnic Turns 30 July 1, 1949 - A huge crowd was on hand to celebrate Dominion Day at the Strathroy fairgrounds, a tradition that dates back to July 1, 1919. While numerous attractions were held throughout the day including several numbers by the local band, the afternoon of harness racing held centre stage. Under the direction of local farmer and horseman Harold Currie, a total of 15 heats of harness action thrilled the large crowd. Many fans and horse owners gather prior to noon to enjoy a picnic lunch brought from home. This year's Free For All, which attracts the best pacers available to vie for the $1000 purse, was won by Dixie Lee Hy. The black Bob Lee mare owned by Moore Bros. of Sarnia was driven by Marshall Moore with the fastest heat clocked in 2:10 4/5. Marshall won a total of four heats during the afternoon also scoring with Dora Baldwin, thus sharing driving honours with Lloyd Turvey of Exeter who also made four trips to the winner's circle. Duncan Campbell of nearby Ailsa Craig, accompanied by his twelve-year-old daughter Margaret (partially hidden) and son Ray (behind Mrs. Oliver), receives a trophy from Mrs. Oliver. The presentation followed a three-heat winning effort by the Campbell-owned Little Bill, a three-year-old gelding sired by Corporal Lee. The race called "The Corporal Lee Stake" has been staged for a number of years to honour the fine stallion by the same name who stands at Mr. Currie's farm in Adelaide Township. As part of the afternoon's proceedings the now 21-year-old sire was led out on the track and introduced to the crowd. (London Free Press) Er is iets heel griezeligs aan de gang in Nederland. Dat wij geleidelijk aan in een totalitaire 'democratie' wegzinken wordt steeds ... I have ceased to post on this blog as I am now at steadyaku47.com All that is here have been included in that website and, where possibl... Nicht Ihr Computer? Dann konnen Sie fur die Anmeldung ein Fenster zum privaten Surfen offnen. Weitere Informationen The Mustangs go into their 'warrior zone' to defeat fifth-seeded Lakewood in the first game of pool play in the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs. Jerrus Storm Lumijarvi, a 20-year-old Clatskanie man tied to a notorious sextortion case that divided the small Columbia County community in 2013, was arrested Friday on multiple sexual abuse and other charges stemming from a lengthy investigation involving multiple agencies. A grand jury indicted Lumijarvi Thursday, and he turned himself in to sheriffs deputies Friday. He was held on 12 charges, including burglary, unlawful sexual penetration, sexual abuse and possession of material depicting sexually explicit conduct of a child. According to a news release, in December 2013 Lumijarvi was contacted by Columbia County investigators and Homeland Security ICE agents during a sting operation. Lumijarvi had been communicating with undercover investigators leading up to that date by text messages. The messages were an attempt to obtain sexual favors in return for providing sexually explicit photographs of under-age females. Columbia County District Attorney Steve Atchison decided not to prosecute Lumijarvi, pending further investigation. In July 2013, three girls and their families filed suit against several boys, including Lumijarvi, and their parents. They would later file suit against the school district as well. The district settled the suit in April 2015, paying out $75,000 to each of the girls. Last fall, a Columbia County deputy took a report from a juvenile female who reported that Lumijarvi had conducted lewd acts in front of a 13-year-old boy and had committed a number of criminal acts of sexually explicit conduct with a juvenile female between March 2013 and June 2013. During the course of the investigation, computers and cell phones were sent to the FBI for analysis. Bail is currently set at $390,000, pending additional counts expected to be charged as the investigation continues. Keep doing what youre doing, Gov. Jay Inslee told staff and students at Lower Columbia College on Friday. The governor toured the college to learn about how its shortening the path between high school and college degrees. He commended LCCs University Center, through which LCC students have access to more than 10 bachelors degree and two masters degree programs. Inslee said the center, opened in 2013, is a way to discourage brain drain by providing higher education that keeps workers close to home. Theres no better way to get people up the ladder than this, he said. According to the latest U.S. Census data, only about 15 percent of Cowlitz County residents over 25 have bachelors degrees, half the state average. LCC President Chris Bailey hopes the University Center will change that. Students earning bachelors and masters degrees at the University Center generally do so in the same amount of time as students who earn them at the four participating four-year schools. By eliminating the need to move, some students can cut the total cost of higher education in half. Through the University Center, Eastern Washington University offers LCC students degrees in interdisciplinary studies, business and childrens studies. It started a masters in business administration program this year. This is not my generations education, Eastern Washington University assistant professor Heidi Connole told Inslee about the MBA program. Were a buy-local, think-global kind of program. Five students from the University Center spoke to Inslee about their experiences. Among them was Mindy Leasure, a mother of two who finished her bachelors degree 10 years ago and who is now getting her masters in organizational leadership from Warner Pacific College at LCC. I just couldnt figure out how to do that (go back to school), Leasure told Inslee. Inslee also praised the colleges Running Start program, through which high school students get college credit for classes taken at LCC. Five Running Start students met with Inslee in the recently built Health & Science Building and spoke about how the program has benefited them. Inslee was pleasantly shocked to hear that before they graduated high school, the students will have earned their associates degrees through the Running Start program. Its hard, yes, but its manageable, R.A. Long student Ashley Hall told Inslee. You have to be committed, R.A. Long student Rose Wilson said. Inslee said the state needs more programs like Running Start and the University Center. The more we can replicate your experience, the better, he told the Running Start students. Jackie Kelly Evans remembers the days of her youth when shed walk with her friends near Lake Sacajawea and see the house at the corner of Kessler Boulevard and Larch Street that she now calls home. As youngsters, we would walk along Kessler Boulevard and say, I like that home, and I like that home. This one was probably my favorite, Evans said Tuesday afternoon. Evans, 73, the granddaughter of JH Kelly founder Jack H. Kelly Sr., bought the Craftsman/Mediterranean style stucco home in 2012. For decades it had been in the Berwind family, who, like the Kellys, was one of Longviews old and original families. The home built in 1923 by architect Archibald N. Torbitt had its fair share of maintenance problems, including dry rot. And it needed extensive renovations to its floor plan to make it suitable for modern living. After three years of intense renovation, Evans moved in early last year. It was an investment that, at times, Evans said felt like a money pit, but she saw potential in the homes history. She feels that way about Longview as well. I do think theres more potential, said Evans, who is this years president of the 23 club. In order to be a better community, we have to respect our past and work hard in our present time to make way for a more bountiful future. Evans was born and raised in Longview, spending her teens in the 1950s living with her parents and younger sister at her 19th Avenue home, where her niece and nephew live now. Back then, Longview was a nearly idyllic small town where everyone knew each other, she remembers. Evans spent many times hanging out with her neighborhood friends downtown or going on trips to Spirit Lake. The neighborhoods were a special part of our lives, she said. When she graduated from Mark Morris High School in 1960 and ventured to the University of Washington in Seattle to study nursing, she never thought shed come back. She worked in Seattle and California before her family moved back to town in 1971. Her then-husband, Dan Evans, was taking over the family contracting business, and she was pregnant with the first of her three sons, Mason Evans, who now runs JH Kelly. Even at that point in time, Im not too sure what I thought about coming back. I dont think anybody goes away and thinks theyre going to be back in their home town, she said. I thought itd be a great place to raise kids. Evans said Longview maintained its charm, and raising her kids in town was similar to how she grew up. Longview started shifting when big-box stores started moving in and the local industries became stagnant, closed or downsized. Many families were lured to bigger cities. Some of the mom-and-pop stores that worked hard have died out. You just cant compete with big-box stores or going to Portland, Evans said. It was a huge trip to go to Portland (before). If I went shopping with my mother, maybe once or twice a year, we rode the Greyhound bus, and we got dressed up in hats and gloves. But, Evans said, Portland and other big cities have nothing on Longviews community spirit from grassroots efforts for solving the towns problems to simply saying hello to strangers on the street. Evans said she sees that spirit in Longview residents who devote themselves to bettering the town, whether its keeping the streets clean or keeping historic homes intact. Longviews a very pretty town, and people who come here often mention that it takes their breath away, she said. We know our problems of some situations, like with health and well-being. We can see that, and we can do something about it. Interstate 5 northbound was closed for an hour Friday afternoon following a high-speed chase that ended north of Kalama with the arrest of a man linked to a Portland homicide, according several sources. In all, three men were arrested following the chase, which began in Portland. According to Portland-area media accounts, Gresham officers responded to reported shooting at Southeast 174 Avenue and Stark Street around 2:30 p.m. Friday, and they found one person dead. One of the people in custody near Kalama reportedly is a suspect in the Gresham homicide case, according to Cowlitz County dispatch. Trooper Will Finn of the Washington State Patrol said officers put down spike strips on the freeway, which flattened the tires of the eluding vehicle. After it slowed down, a trooper was able to strike it and force it to spin out. He said the road had to be kept closed while the car was examined as a crime scene. None of the suspects nor law enforcement personnel was injured, Finn said. Further details were unavailable. The Cowlitz County Republican Central Committee will hold precinct caucuses on Feb. 20. The precinct caucuses are held in various locations around the county for the convenience of the voters. Voters can find their location at http://www.wsrp.org/caucus or at http://cowlitzcountyrepublicanparty.nationbuilder.com/2016_caucus . Registered voters who attend their precinct caucus are eligible to be elected as delegates to the Cowlitz County Republican Convention, which will be held at the Cowlitz County Event Center on March 12. At the precinct caucus, Republicans will be able to express their preference for a presidential candidate as well as discuss issues for the upcoming elections. "We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844 You can fund my journalism blog by making a donation via this link: www.gofundme.com/team-uzunov-blog Help fund the TEAM UZUNOV war chest to keep on fighting to provide top investigative reports and videos. Any donation is welcome. Between January 2003 and September 2006, out of 138 letters to the editor that I sent to the Financial Times before I placed them on this blog they published these 15 . Not bad! Thank you FT!Unfortunately, since then and until the very last day of the decade, out of some 1.000 letters that you can find here, FT published none, zero, zilch. Of course FT is under no obligation whatsoever to publish any of my letters and of course one should not exclude the possibilities that my letters might have quite dramatically gone from bad to worse yet one wonders.My usual suspects are:1. Someone in FT with a delicate ego feels his or her importance diminished by giving voice to a lowly non PhD from a developing country daring to opine on many issues of developed countries.2. That FT has some sort of conflict of interest with the credit rating agencies that makes it hard for them to give too much relevance to someone who considers they have been given too much powers.3. The FT establishment had perhaps decided there were only macro economic problems and not any financial regulation problems, and wanted to hear no monothematic contradictions on that.4. That FT feels slightly embarrassed when someone repeatedly asks the emperor-is-naked type question of what is the purpose of the banks and realizing this was something FT should have itself asked a long time ago.5. It is way too much oversight for FT to handle.6. Or am I just supposed to be a living example of one half of the Financial Times motto, namely that of "without favour"Which one do you believe is closest to the truth? tech2 News Staff First spotted on Apple support forums and later reported by The Guardian; if the TouchID sensor on your iPhone has been repaired or replaced by a third-party technician, your phone will be rendered useless come the next software update (or maybe even sooner). Why? This is apparently a security feature meant to ensure that your TouchID is kept as secure as possible. After all, Apple envisions a future where your fingerprint is the key to your life (your phone, Apple Pay, passwords vault, etc.) and keeping your fingerprint secure is paramount. While we agree with the sentiments behind the design, the move does seem a bit overzealous, to say the least. Googles approach to the problem is far more sensible and we can only hope that Apple takes the trouble to implement something like that in the future. Googles SafetyNet API ensures the security of GooglePay by running a compatibility test, a test that if failed (if, say, you have a rooted phone), renders GooglePay useless, but NOT your entire device. Should you be worried? YES! TouchID works by scanning your fingers via the sensor, encrypting that data and storing it on a chip embedded within the TouchID sensor circuit. Any damage to the home button means that your TouchID sensor will need to be replaced and any damage to the screen means that the entire front panel will need to be replaced (though not necessarily your TouchID). The problem here is that while Apple knows how to replace the home button and reprogram the OS to accept the new button, its keeping that knowhow a closely guarded secret. So far so good, but Apple took this security a step further by ensuring that a repaired or replaced TouchID (by, and we cant stress this enough, a third-party technician) would completely brick your phone. Getting your iPhone repaired by a third-party technician is, in some cases, inescapable, and in others, a much cheaper option (a third-party screen repair job would cost Rs 11,000, an official repair job would be Rs 25,000). Apple has now eliminated that option completely. The solution? If your phones TouchID has been tampered with, your phone will be bricked. There is no recourse. Your phone will have to be replaced (Youre really kicking yourself on missing out on AppleCare+ now, arent you?). If youre still unsure as to the status of your phone, heres a simple cheat sheet for you: TouchID repaired by a third-party technician: Buy a new iPhone TouchID replaced by a third-party technician: Buy a new iPhone TouchID replaced/repaired by an Apple technician at an Apple certified service centre: Youre in the green. If you did get your TouchID replaced by a third-party technician and your phone is still working fine, dont update your phone, backup all your data (over WiFi if possible) and take it to the nearest Apple store and pray that something can be done about it. What Apple is effectively saying is, "Get your phone repaired at an Apple Certified Service Centre, or else..." hidden Telecom operators will approach the Department of Telecom (DoT) to contest sectoral regulator TRAI's recommendations on spectrum auctions, especially on pricing of the premium 700 Mhz band. "We will write to DoT by the end of next week for deferring auction of 700 Mhz band and on possible errors in calculation of price of 700 Mhz band (spectrum). TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has fixed priced based on formula given in 2012. Lot of things in the industry have changed since then," COAI director general Rajan S Mathews told PTI. Leading operators had requested the regulator to defer sale of 700 MHz spectrum, saying that ecosystem for providing services in this band was not developed and sale would lead to under-utilization of the spectrum for several years and block industry's crucial fund. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended a record high base price of Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz for 700 Mhz. If all the available frequencies gets sold at Trai suggested price then it alone will yield a whopping Rs 4 lakh crore. As per TRAI's paper, the cost of delivering mobile services in 700 Mhz band is approximately 70 per cent lower than 2100 Mhz band, which is widely used for 3G services. The auction plan, which suggested total potential revenue of Rs 5.36 lakh crore from the spectrum sale, expected to be held during May-June this year, is more than the double of gross revenues of telecom services industry. Telecom service providers had gross revenue of Rs 2.54 lakh crore in 2014-15 financial year. Telecom regulator TRAI has used its old formula given in April 2012 spectrum price recommendation to fix price of 700 Mhz at four times of 1800 Mhz band spectrum price -- widely known as 2G spectrum. Most of telecom operators who have purchased 1800 Mhz band in 2012 or later are using it for 4G services. Mathews said that Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) also has objections on TRAI's suggestion to reduce block size in 2300 Mhz band and 2500 Mhz band to 10 Mhz while in 2010 telecom operators like Infotel Broadband (now Reliance Jio), Airtel and Aircel were allowed to buy block of 20 Mhz. "Government should give everyone equal opportunity. Across the world 20 Mhz block is a standard so it should be same in India," Mr Mathews said. Telecom operators will also raise issue of contiguous spectrum frequency in 1800 Mhz band. "A contiguous spectrum will not only bring value for industry but also fetch good price in auctions," Mathews said. While DoT has proposed to auction 21 Mhz of radiowave frequencies in 1800 Mhz band, TRAI has suggested that on completion of harmonisation with defence, it can increase to 201 Mhz spectrum in the same band. PTI hidden U.S. and UK spy agencies and police may soon be allowed to directly ask media companies in each others' countries for email and online chat data for people being investigated, under a tentative bilateral deal, officials said on Friday. As governments worldwide and online companies struggle to strike a balance between privacy rights and law enforcement imperatives, three U.S. officials confirmed a pact is in the works, although it would require congressional approval. "The proposed agreement, which remains under discussion, would be reciprocal and would require legislation to take effect," said a U.S. Justice Department official. First reported by The Washington Post, the talks were focused on letting UK agencies, such as counter-intelligence unit MI5, serve "production orders" on U.S. firms demanding data for live intercepts in inquiries involving UK citizens. UK agencies might also be able to ask U.S. companies to turn over stored data, such as emails. The Post quoted a U.S. official saying that British nationals, including criminals, are using U.S. data providers such as Google, Facebook and Hotmail, making it hard for foreign agencies to get legal access to data for criminal and counter-terrorism inquiries. The agreement's main goal is to clear up legal conflicts faced by U.S. communications service providers when Britain issues an order seeking electronic data on users abroad, a request that may run afoul of U.S. law, the official said. A U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity on sensitive legal issues, said U.S. law generally bars companies from complying with foreign data requests, even though criminal inquiries often hinge on cross-border communications. As a result, U.S. firms can face a tough choice: cooperate with a request and break U.S. law or ignore it and comply with the law. A spokesperson for Britain's Foreign Office said Britain was "not going to comment on confidential discussions." But the official noted big international technology companies had called for a "robust, principled and transparent framework" on data requests "across jurisdictions." The official said British Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary (internal security minister) Theresa May were in preliminary discussions with other governments on the matter. Representative Adam Schiff, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Congress should monitor any privacy and civil liberties issues, "including making sure these British orders do not cover U.S. persons or individuals within the U.S., do not permit bulk collection, and have due process protections." Reuters Every now and then you find yourself in your home without the Wi-Fi signal. It sucks. You actually have to make changes to your rooms se... , an online compendium Feel free to leave comments and ask questions. You can also reach me by email at: info@hoosiercartoonists.com Welcome toof the men and women, writers and artists, stories and ideas that appeared inand other weird fiction and science fiction magazines of the pulp era. One of the most important elements of the Baye Fall is dedicated work. Many followers have dedicated their lives to the land, often working the fields of their daara, a rural Mouride community. Ndindy, Senegal. 2014 (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) The Grand Mosque of Touba, one of the largest mosques in sub-Saharan Africa, was completed in 1963 and is the final resting place of Amadou Bamba Mbacke, the founder of the Mouride brotherhood and settler of the city itself. Touba, Senegal. 2013. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) Fifteen years ago, while on a trip to Senegal, photojournalist Laylah Amatullah Barrayn first encountered the Baye Fall, men and women of the Islamic Sufi order who walked through the capital, Dakar, dressed in brightly colored patchwork clothing, wearing long, distinctly locked hair, and often with amulets of their spiritual leader laced around their necks. A brotherhood, as it is known. I lived in the capital city of Dakar, right in the heart of the bustling municipal downtown district, Plateau, Amatullah Barrayn tells In Sight. Like any city center, Plateau was a dynamic melange of commerce, traffic and culture. Each day the Baye Fall would greet me. They were men and women (ladies were Yaye Fall) who possessed a distinct aesthetic; they were immediately noticeable. Their clothes were often made of patchwork fabric. Their hair was locked in a style similar to that of Rastafarians. They wore thick, black leather amulets stacked around their necks. Some of the younger Baye Fall were panhandlers that would request cash or that I buy them rice or sugar for their Cafe Touba. They were Sufis, or mystics, in West Africa, a fascinating side of Islam that doesnt receive much attention, except for the Turkish Whirling Dervishes and the renown Sufi poet, Rumi. In 1883, Amadou Bamba Mbacke founded the Mouride brotherhood, and his disciple Ibrahima Fall would later become the namesake of the suborder, the Baye Fall, as well as the architect of a system of sustainable economics that continues to benefit Senegal to the present day. Fall stressed the importance of a humble lifestyle and manual labor. The Baye Fall considers physical labor often expressed by farming and the construction of homes and mosques to be an act of prayer and devotion. In 2013 and 2014 I retraced my footsteps in Dakar, Amatullah Barrayn says,and created portraits of the members of this community in their natural environments. I also ventured to Touba, the holy city of the Mourides and the Baye Fall. There in Touba are the final resting places of founder Amadou Bamba and Ibrahima Fall. It is also a major learning center and one of the largest mosques in Africa. Additionally, I traveled to other cities in Senegal. I saw the influence of Bamba and Ibrahima Fall all over the nation: from the countless murals of these two men, to the the fashion that was clearly influenced by this community. I became more acquainted with their customs, such as khassida: a unique repertoire of exquisite religious phrases that are chanted in Baye Fall mosques after evening prayers. I learned the extreme importance of physical labor with regard to their allegiance to their marabout, or spiritual leaders. Amatullah Barrayns series will be on exhibition as part of the exhibit ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana ReStagings at this years Black Portraiture[s] II, in Florence this May. The Baye Fall styled locks called ndiange use a distinct hair-locking technique to achieve its flatness. It is noted that Ibrahima Falls hair was matted in a manner similar to todays dreadlocks. Dnindy, Senegal. 2014 Muhammad poses for a portrait near Avenue Pompidou, one of the main streets that runs through Plateau, Dakars downtown commercial center. Dakar, Senegal. 2014. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) Thousands of members of the Mouride Brotherhood or tariqa (Sufi order) and tourists alike visit Touba each year. The city sees hundreds of thousands of devotees on this holiday. Here a young man and his son exit the Grand Mosque. Touba, Senegal. 2014. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) Sowrou and Mustapha greet each other with a traditional handshake where one taps his forehead with the hand of the other. Dnindy, Senegal. 2014 (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) A Yaye Fall woman wears an image of Serigne Falilou Mbacke as an amulet known as a marabout around her neck. It isnt uncommon for followers of the Mouride Sufi order to wear amulets with pictures of the spiritual leaders of their communities. Dakar, Senegal. 2014. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) Sokhna Khady Ba, a prominent Yaye Fall praise singer and community healer, poses for a portrait near her home. She passed away a week after this photo was taken. Guediawaye, Senegal. 2014. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) Elements of Baye Fall style: a man wears niahaas patchwork socks and thiaya, loose fitting pants that are popular among Baye Fall farm workers. Dakar, Senegal. 2013. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) A man wears a patchwork-style tunic. The patchwork, or niahaas in Wolof, is inspired by the humble lifestyle that was encouraged by Ibrahima Fall, the most distinguished disciple of Amadou Bamba. Touba, Senegal. 2013. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) Seynabou stands in front of an illustration of Amadou Bamba. The image is ubiquitous in Senegal. This drawing is based on one of the only known photographs taken of Bamba in 1913. Thies, Senegal. 2014. (Laylah Amatullah Barrayn) Owing to an overwhelming amount of Spam, we have had to disable Comments. The History Girls are a group of best-selling, award-winning writers of historical fiction and non-fiction. Some of us write for young adults, some for fully fledged adults.Among us, we cover every period from Classical times to World War II.Individual, entertaining, sometimes provocative: on this weekly blog on Fridays we'll share our thoughts on writing, research, reviews, and all aspects of our work. We love what we do and we want to talk about it. We hope you'll want to follow usIf you want a History Girl to appear at an event or write an article or review, please contact her via her website (links are all given on the About Us page) Contact: Mary Hoffman at readers@maryhoffman.co.uk Twitter: @history_girls Facebook Page: The History Girls The Republic of South Africa is positioned at the southern tip of the continent of Africa and it has one of the most diverse ethnic societi... Ajay Devgn to sing in Shivaay Ajay Devgn springs yet another surprise on his fans. Not only will he be donning the director's hat for his upcoming film Shivaay, word is that he will also croon the title track for the film, which is the actor's home production. The music of the film is being composed by Mithoon, who asked Ajay to lend his voice for the title track. Apparently, the actor agreed to sing the track before he left for Bulgaria to shoot the first schedule. "Ajay has a great ear for music and this song is the heart of the film. "He loved the concept and agreed to sing," said Mithoon, who has been working on the film's music for over a year now. He adds that since the film's inspiration comes from Lord Shiva, the title track required a voice that exuded a certain degree of power and intensity and no one fit the bill better than Ajay himself. GJM demands trial of Pak Armymen involved in war crimes A procession demanding the trial of Pak war criminals and execution of all war criminals of the country was brought out in Chittagong city on Friday afternoon. Ganojagaron Mancha, Chittagong Unit demanded trial of Pak army officials those are involved with the war crimes during liberation war of Bangladesh and committed crimes against humanity. A huge procession demanding the trial Pak war criminals and execution of all war criminals of the country was brought out in Chittagong from Chergi Pear Square on Friday afternoon. In observation of three years founding anniversary of GJM, protest procession, rally and other cultural programs were arranged at Cheragipahar Square. The anniversary programs begin through presenting the National anthem and paying tributes to the war martyrs with one-minute silence. The protest procession brought out from the venue of cheragipahar which paraded Jamal khan and Anderkilla area in participation of all people irrespective of caste and creed. In the rally, Shahidjaya Begum Mustari Shafi told that until or unless the execution of the war criminals ae completed, the activities of GJM will continue and they will not leave throughfares. The speakers in the rally demanded snapping of ties with Pakistan and prohibition of Jamaat-shibir politics in the country. Convenor of GJM , chittagong Dr.AQM Sirajul Islam presided over the rally. Among others, Coordinator of GJM Sharif Chowhan, General Secretary of South District AL Mofizur Rahman, FF Kazi Nurul Afsar, women personalityNurjahan Khan, FF Panchanon chowdhury, Tapan Dastidar, AnupBiswas, student leaders Nahid al Mostafa, Rabiul Islam, Al Kadery Joy spoke on the occasion among others. US -Bangla Air to operate overseas flights soon Senior officials of US- Bangla Airlines including Managing Director Abdullah Al Mamun attended the Recognition Carnival of UBA at Foy\'s Sea World Park in Chittagong on Friday. US -Bangla Airlines will operate international flights very shortly and the Dhaka-Kathmandu route will be opened from May next. UBA is also carrying 60 percent passengers within the country from Dhaka Shahjalal International Airport. Managing Director of USA Abdullah Al Mamun disclosed it at the colourful Recognition Carnival of UBA arranged at Foy's Lake Seaworld in Chittagong on Friday. He also disclosed that in every hour, one domestic flights leaving from Dhaka Airport towards destinations. He also hoped to introduce more one flight in between Dhaka-Chittagong route very shortly. UBA sources said owners and officials of Chittagong & Sylhet based travel agents attended the carnival among others. The UBA chief told that at present 7 flights are being operated between Dhaka and Chittagong and the management is also thinking to introduce more one flight within the time from 11 am to 3 pm to ease the traveling of the passengers as demanded. He said at present UBA is operating flights with Dash-8-Q400 aircraft having 76 seats and now operating flights from Dhaka to Chittagong, sylhet, Coxsbazar, Jessore, Syedpur, Rajshahai and Barisal. Mr. Mamun also told that UBA is the only airlines of Bangladesh who attained ISO certificate and enlisted with New York City Division of Corporation authority. On average, UBA is carrying about2,200 domestic passengers daily and hoped for achieving top ranking airlines of the country as well as internationally, he added. BSF sends back 22 Bangladeshis Jessore Correspondent : Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has sent back a total of 22 Bangladeshis including 7 women, 11 children and 4 men through Benapole land port on Thursday night. Subedar Ahmed Hossain, Putkhali camp, Border Guard Bangladesh, told New Nation that the BSF handed the Bangladeshis to the BGB on Thursday night. 'The Bangladeshis were picked up by the BSF earlier on the day from Bangaon Railway Station in India for illegally entering into the country,' the BGB official added. The returnees were handed over to Benapole port police. Brickfield worker found dead in Habiganj UNB, Habiganj : Police recovered the body of a worker from a brickfield in Sonai Bridge area of Madhabpur upazila on Friday night. Officer-in-charge of Madhabpur Police Station Molla Manir Hossain said workers of Sonai Brickfield spotted the body of Ratan Bepari,24, son of Afzal Bepari, a resident of Pashchim Machhuakandi village in Gosaihat upazila of Shariatpur district, lying inside the brickfield at about 8:30pm and informed police. Police recovered the body that bore several injury marks and sent it to Habiganj Sadar Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The reason behind the death would be known after getting the autopsy report, the OC added. Rough seas, harsh winter, border limits add to migrant woes A family of refugees walks towards the border with Serbia from the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce on Friday. AP file photo AP, Presevo :Rasul Orwani thought he had faced the worst after braving cold, rough seas in a rickety wooden boat to travel from Turkey to Greece, then came the Balkans.After arriving in Macedonia with dozens of other migrants, the group crossed into Serbia on foot in the middle of the night, icy snow stinging their eyes and lacing the children's faces with tears.Their heads bent low to protect from the cold, the migrants trudged slowly through the snow, carrying babies, small children and belongings along the 2-kilometer (1.2 mile) stretch of the road over the so-called green boundary between the two Balkan nations. A 10-year-old boy took a blanket from his shoulders to wrap it around his younger sister as they walked across the frozen landscape hand in hand.Even as winter bears down on Europe and European Union countries set up new administrative hurdles for their entry, tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have been desperate enough to embark on the weeks-long journey across the Aegean Sea and along the so-called Balkan migrant corridor where frigid weather and stricter border controls have turned an already tough journey into an even more treacherous one.Safe in the Serbian town of Presevo on the border with Macedonia, Orwani said there was no turning back."Our trip is very dangerous and risky," the 20-year-old Orwani said. "We crossed the sea, we were in a boat, and the waves in the sea could easily sink us in the water."While Europe took in more than 1 million people in 2015, EU countries have been struggling to limit the biggest migration to the continent since World War II. Some countries along the migrant route have said they want to slow the influx or even completely block it. Some of the nations imposed new, stricter regulations for those transiting toward their ultimate goal, Germany or other rich west European countries.As a result, dozens of refugees have been turned back from the borders amid freezing winter temperatures, while others have faced border closures and long hours in registration centers and refugee camps. Experts say the measures are unlikely to stop the flow, but could instead prompt the refugees to again start using illegal routes over razor-wire border fences and through forests, pushing them into the hands of ruthless smugglers.Aid groups say migrants passing through the Balkans have faced difficulty traveling in the snow and ice, and there has been a surge in cold-related illnesses.Women, children and babies, in particular, are in danger of hypothermia, according to the Save the Children aid group. It said migrants have been arriving in Serbia with blue lips, distressed and shaking from the cold. Exhausted mothers have told the group's aid workers they are unable to keep their babies warm and dry, and are stumbling while carrying them on the icy roads.Saymira, from Afghanistan, crossed into Serbia with her husband and two young children just days before Orwani. Two months before her father and young sister died in the sea trying to reach a Greek Island from Turkey."Now I am very sad, I cannot tolerate this situation," she said while pushing a baby stroller through the snow on the border path between Macedonia and Serbia.Saymira said she was on her way to Germany because she has relatives there.Most refugees are not used to winter conditions, and many set off from home countries without warm clothing. Mirjana Milenkovski, the spokeswoman for the U.N. Refugee Agency in Serbia, said refugees are being provided heated shelter, bus transfers, warm drinks and clothes as they pass through Serbia and other countries. When your child refuses to go to school Amanda Morin : Every day, all across the nation, as many as 1 in 4 children refuse to go to school. But while the reasons can range from a looming test to an ill-placed pimple, "school refusal," formerly known as school phobia, is an actual anxiety-based disorder. Surprisingly, school refusal is more prevalent than some better known child disorders like ADHD, but, because many children are vague in their complaints and unable to verbalize what's making them anxious, it's sometimes dismissed as typical childhood willfulness. However, the effects of recurring school refusal can be far-reaching for your child's education. So, where's the line between what's normal and what's not? "You need to look at whether it's affecting the child or family's daily functioning," explains Christopher Kearney, Ph.D., director of the UNLV Child School Refusal and Anxiety Disorders Clinic. In other words, if a child's grades are suffering or a parent's job is in jeopardy from frequent absences, it's time to look closely at the issue. Kearney adds that parents should be listening carefully to children who say they can't go to school because of "vague, untestable kinds of things like stomaches or headaches." While these somatic complaints alone don't necessarily indicate school refusal, there may be deeper problems if combined with general complaints about school, talks of threats at school and chronic absenteeism. According to Kearney, "there is a subtle difference between school refusal and school refusal behavior." The kid who ditches school to hang out with her friends is exhibiting school refusal behavior, which can be nothing more than a phase brought on by peer attitudes or a sense of rebellion. But the child who clings to her mother's leg, screaming at the thought of having to enter the school building, is showing signs of school refusal, or "anxiety-based absenteeism." However, the label doesn't matter nearly as much as getting a child back into the classroom. According to Maryann Roth, CAS, a school psychologist and guidance counselor, it's about "making sure the kid gets to school no matter how hard it is." Working closely with school officials and possibly a therapist to create a plan is a necessary step. Here are some key components to creating a successful plan: Investigate what's going on at school. As Roth says, if "it's an issue of bullying you need to find out what's really going on." Once you know whether your child's complaint is a valid one, it's easier to work with your child around the issue, both in and outside of school. Coordinate with the school. You can't do it alone. Whether it's arranging to have someone meet you on the playground to escort your child into school or trying, as Kearney suggests, "to ease the amount of makeup work," it's crucial that the school plays a role in integrating your child into the classroom. Set a baseline expectation. Roth and Kearney agree that having a child in school for any amount of time is better than having him at home. Though a child may only come to school for only an hour, or sit in the lobby all day, "it's a lot easier to get them back into the regular classroom from that point," says Kearney. Make it less fun to be at home. If your child knows he can sit at home and play video games during the school day, the incentive to stay home is greater than the incentive to be at school. Create a contract, set some boundaries and make it more worth his while to go to school. Your bottom line? Identify the issue, make a plan and stick to your guns. Once your child has overcome her fear of school, she'll probably thank you. Extreme inequality is a symptom of a broken society Mulyani Indrawati : Inequality is a problem all countries face, whether they are poor, rich, or in-between. Some inequality can be a temporary byproduct of economic growth when not everyone is moving at the same speed and at the same time. But when the majority of people suffer economic and social stagnation, inequality poses a real threat to the progress of individuals and whole countries. This is why high and persistent inequality is not only morally wrong, but also a symptom of a broken society. It can lead to entrenched poverty, stifled growth, and social conflict. This is also why the goals of the World Bank are not just to end poverty but also to promote shared prosperity. The inequality discussion often centers on the income gap. But there are other aspects of inequality that are equally important. The first is inequality of opportunity, which comes at a high cost and with serious implications. It means that children start off with a disadvantage from the day they are born. For example, recent evidence from my own country, Indonesia, shows that about one-third of all inequality today is due to circumstances which people are born into. In fact, in many areas, if a child is born a girl - say, in a rural area - and if her parents are poor, or belong to a marginalized group or ethnicity, she will have fewer opportunities and is more likely to be poor. Limited opportunity restricts economic mobility, perpetuates poverty across generations, and can repress growth by limiting the potential of large groups. This is why we help countries to provide basic services that are reaching all people, particularly the poorest 40% of the population. The second issue critical to addressing inequality is exclusion, both real and perceived. In the Middle East and some parts of Eastern Europe for example, people are less satisfied and more pessimistic about their future even compared to regions with similar levels of income inequality, suggesting widespread perception of worsening economic mobility, a growing sense of unfairness, and lack of social justice. This is why our development assistance in the region goes beyond classic "aid'' and aims at building a new social contract, while promoting inclusive growth and job creation. In Tunisia, for example, our work supports the goals of the transition following the Arab Spring. So what works best to address inequality? It requires the right mix of good policies, good governance, and good institutions. Countries as different as Ukraine, Indonesia, Peru, Egypt, and Ethiopia have asked us to work with them in these areas. Often this means removing obstacles, like untargeted and wasteful energy subsidies, inefficient public spending or poor service delivery. But possibly the most important issue to address inequality is good leadership. To start with, leaders need to understand that promoting growth while sharing prosperity makes both economic and political sense. Closing gender gaps, for example, could increase growth in Brazil by 14% and in Egypt by an impressive 25%. Similar benefits can be found if the needs of children and youth are met, most importantly, through access to good health services and education. Ultimately the world's leaders need to be willing to challenge the status quo and tackle the common challenges of limited capacity, corruption, lack of accountability, and elite capture. Addressing inequality will require leaders who are prepared to make necessary but sometimes unpopular decisions that can take time to show effect. It comes down to leaders who have the courage and political will to measure their success not by how a small margin of cronies and well-connected groups are doing but by how the lives of the majority are improving. (This post was first published in the Boston Globe.) Weeding out corruption needs strong social commitment PEOPLE should get united and speak up against unfair practices and corruption to build a society in line with the core values of independence, a conference of Transparency International Bangladesh's (TIB) citizen group was told last week. Rights activist Sultana Kamal, who spoke at the event, added it was the responsibility of every citizen to create and uphold moral and ethical values in society, as per a report of a local daily. She made the remarks at the inaugural session of the "Sonak-YES Jatiyo Sommelon 2016", the Eighth National Conference of TIB's citizen members, who work towards good governance in their localities. Sultana, Chairperson of TIB, talked about the lack of accountability existing in the country. Even the organisations, responsible for bringing these criminals to book, do not carry out their duty responsibly and sincerely, she alleged. About 3,000 members of the Committee of Concerned Citizens (CCC), Youth Engagement Support (YES), Shojon, and YES Friends, all working for TIB, from all over the country joined the daylong conference at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital. Noted writer Selina Hossain, also General Secretary of the Trustee Board of TIB, called upon people to create a social movement against corruption in education and health sectors. She said any blow against the country's culture and tradition including the Ekushey Book Fair should be resisted. In his welcome speech, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of TIB, said criticisms from powerful quarters must be considered part of the profession. At an open discussion on the theme of the conference "Jagroto Bibek, Durjoy Tarunnya Durniti Rukhbei" (conscience and the invincible youth will resist corruption), the citizen members said TIB should introduce the "honesty" prize to award less-corrupt individuals and organisations. While it is true that corruption and a lack of accountability have reached epidemic proportions it is the responsibility of civil society to point out the flaws inherent in the system of governance. There can be many flaws inherent in our administrative organisations which can be corrected through electing a government through an impartial election so that they can correct the system from within. This is the only way, with the exception of open revolution or mass civil protests, such as that which took place in 1990, by which the way in which we are governed can be changed . Creating a social movement against the social ills such as corruption can start with the individual who decides to contribute to society by earning a honest income for an honest days work. This simple axiom, if followed by most people in our public service sector, can do the most to reduce or eliminate corruption. For this, however, merely creating awareness is not enough. Strengthening our economy is also a must - because people only indulge in corruption when they can't maintain a certain standard of living. So adequate remuneration along with awareness is also a must. The practice has become so entrenched within society that tremendous effort is needed to weed it out completely. Zero tolerance to police crimes: IGP UNB, Sylhet : Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque on Saturday warned that they will show zero tolerance to those police members who commit crimes. "All are equal in the eyes of law. If anyone commits crimes, he must face punishmentno mercy for them," said the IGP while talking to reporters after attending a seminar organised by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) in Sylhet. He also said, they have suspended those policemen whose involvement in some recent crimes has been found primarily. "We've also formed probe committeeswhen allegations brought against them have been proved right, we filed departmental cases against them," the IGP added. "If any police member is found involved in any criminal offence, then a criminal case will be filed against them. We never show mercy to any police member as they're not above the country's law," he told the journalists. Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe . 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 If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs. 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! Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes. What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection? Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were. Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly. Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection: You get to see exactly what will happen to your money When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor. Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on. A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with. You find out about potential major repairs Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing. If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately. You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home. Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly. You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best. This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit. Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home. You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home. You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price. You can sell your home faster and for more money If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are. In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price. Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for. Your home will hold its value longer As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property. When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home. You can make smart decisions about property investments Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property. If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal. There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about. If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing. They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit. You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for. For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money. You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building. You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure. Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so. As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process. 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. MURPHYSBORO When the Christian school that Edward and Alexis Stallman's daughter attended closed, the couple went searching for another faith-based school. Edward, who is Lutheran, and Alexis, who is Baptist, were looking for a place that reinforced their faith but that also had the best focus on academics. Their search led them to Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Murphysboro, where they enrolled their daughter Coreynne. Now 6, she is in first grade. So for us, being Christian, we didnt see a problem with that," Alexis said. "We are amazed at what weve seen." Alexis said her husband attended Lutheran church schools when he was a child, enrolling in public schools for high school. Not all parents make that leap of faith, but there are quite a few people who are not Catholic, or are of another religion, who attend Catholic schools, not so much for the religion as for the academics. According to a 2014-2015 report from the National Catholic Educational Association, the non-Catholic enrollment is 16.9 percent of the 1.9 million students enrolled at the nation's Catholic schools. Locally, those numbers are a bit higher. At St. Andrew, 29 percent of its student body is non-Catholic, according to principal Jenny Martin. At St. Bruno Catholic Church in Pinckneyville, 23 percent of its kindergarten through eighth-graders 28 of the 121 students are non-Catholic; those non-Catholics come from 17 families. Non-Catholics are about 30 percent of the enrollment at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in West Frankfort. St. John principal Kevin Spiller said the school has 74 students in pre-K to eighth grade. He said the non-Catholics who enroll their children in the school do so largely because they are attracted to its low teacher-student ratio and its high focus on academics. The school has a 1:11 teacher-student ratio and graduates students who are frequently in the top of their high-school classes. The 2006 graduating class from St. John went on to produce one of the three valedictorians at Benton High School and a valedictorian and a salutatorian at West Frankfort High School, he said; his daughter was one of the three valedictorians at Benton High School. In the past 20 years, the school has produced 18 valedictorians and salutatorians at high schools, he said. "We have a high graduation rate," Spiller said. "I always talk with the teachers at the high schools to see just how our kids are doing. Overall, they say, 'we know who the St. John students are, they come in, theyre prepared, theyre ready'." "We do push our students," he said. "We do encourage our students to do their best in everything." He said the non-Catholics at the school are allowed opportunities to share with their peers about their faiths and traditions in church and other religious institutions. "So our other students get to learn what they do at their church," Spiller said, "and they are able to see the similarities and the differences." The Stallmans have done more, though, than be impressed by the education and religious reaffirmation their daughter is receiving. Alexis, who volunteers two days a week at the school, said she never thought she'd be any faith other than a Baptist. "From what weve actually seen through the school, through the faculty, through what our daughter was bringing home through religious books were actually looking at joining the Catholic faith ourselves," Alexis said. "We are that impressed with what weve seen." Tessa Ratajczyk has found patience. And Patience, her 8-year-old daughter. After Ratajczyk and her then-husband divorced in 2011, the now 25-year-old woman disappeared into a world of alcohol, drugs and a relationship that almost killed her, losing the once-a-week visitation rights she had with Patience while unable to cope with the failed marriage. For a few months, I didnt see her once because of my addiction, Ratajczyk remembered. That was like living in hell. Its a self-inflicted thing, but once you are there you cant get out. She saw her daughter just once over the course of six months, during which she and her then-boyfriend, Christopher Rollins, lived together in a West Frankfort home. Hell In November 2014, Rollins was sentenced to 30 years in prison for dousing Ratajczyk with a flammable liquid on Aug. 20, 2012. Shortly after, the liquid ignited. Ratajczyk suffered severe burns over nearly 60 percent of her body that day. Her ears melted. Her fingers on both hands have been removed down to the middle joint. A medically induced coma kept her unaware for almost two months, shielding her from surgery after surgery, the raw pain of seared skin and exposed nerves, and the eyes of loved ones looking over her. Patience was not allowed in the burn unit when Ratajczyk was there. Ratajczyk remained in the hospital for another month, then began outpatient care that continues today. But she survived. God gave me another chance, and Im going to have an amazing life, Ratajczyk recalled thinking, after the tears upon waking from the coma, after the trial when testimony suggested she lit herself on fire she says she did not and would not have her hands if she did and even today as she continues to endure some physical pain. Rollins sentenced to 30 years for lighting girlfriend on fire A West Frankfort man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday for throwing a flammable li Promise This is not the first time Ratajczyk has told her story of recovery and her path to a changed life. Three months after the assault, Ratajczyk talked with The Southern Illinoisans Becky Malkovich and pledged then to become a different person. In fact, her statement above about a second chance is one she also promised Malkovich. She said she's been sober ever since. So here she sat on a stool in a busy Marion restaurant, her auburn hair flowing past shoulders covered in a sleeveless blouse, experiencing a range of emotions from fighting back tears of a past recalled to sudden smiles as she joked about her wounds. The jokes and the smiles have all served to fulfill her promise of four years ago. She learned of their importance from another woman, who, at nearly the same age as Ratajczyk, was severely burned almost 30 years ago, costing her part of one arm. It made me feel a whole lot better. It gave me hope to come to terms with everything. All that woman did was smile the entire time, Ratajczyk said of her meeting with another survivor. Just about every burn survivor Ive met so far just smile. Reasons to smile One reason Ratajczyk found her smile is a certificate she received in October from the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors at the organizations World Burn Congress. The certificate was for Ratajczyks completion of the groups advocacy training program, designed to increase awareness, improve burn prevention efforts and reach more survivors, according to the Phoenix website. At the Congress, Ratajczyk once again shared her story before hundreds. Ratajczyk plans to go to this years Congress as she prepares to one day be an advocate on a regular basis for survivors and against domestic violence and substance abuse. As it turns out, this is National Burn Awareness Week. I want to advocate before big groups, Ratajczyk said. I want to make that big of a difference. I feel like if I can do something like that, then its all worth it, like there was a reason it all happened. As strange as it sounds, Ratajczyk acknowledged, she would not change anything from that fateful day her life, and perhaps others, was altered forever. Ill never be proud of it, but I wouldnt change it, she said. I would love not to have gotten burned, but if I hadnt, who is to say I wouldnt have gone right back. I love who I am today. Im better for it in a lot of ways. A moms patience In January 2013, Ratajczyk returned from outpatient care in Georgia, and she and her ex-husband reconciled a relationship for a brief time. During that time, she and Patience were reunited on a daily basis. Though the relationship with her ex-husband did not last, Ratajczyk was permitted afterward to spend more and more time with Patience. Thats the best thing, ever. I take her to school, I pick her up, we do our homework. You dont get that in that life even if you want that, Ratajczyk said of her previous downward spiral. Now that is all my life is about. Now my number one thing is being a really good mom everyday. You did ask me what got me through it, and I would have to say Patience, knowing that I had another chance to just be the best mom that I could and see her everyday. She was just the best medicine that there was out of any of it. Ratajczyk and her former husband are preparing for mediation as she seeks to become the primary custodian for Patience, Ratajczyk said. Through her daughter, Ratajczyk found motivation and patience in her recovery. I knew I just had to get here, I just need to get to here, and I could get back to where I was supposed to be the whole time, she said. On March 22, Ratajczyk will celebrate her first year of marriage with Randy Ratajczyk, an engineer with Canadian National Railway. The couple lives in Coulterville. Their hands will likely be full. Ratajczyk can still hear despite melted ears. She can still feel. And, she can still be a mom to Patience and to Jude, due to be born next week. She considers herself fortunate. My daughter could not have a mom. I could not be able to be a mom. And this one that I am ready to hold. I am very ready to just hold him, she said. With a little patience. "Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men." - St. Augustine "A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." - William James "This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." -- Ronald Reagan A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." -- Edward Abbey "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANONA nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,Congressman Steve King (R-IA),Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be cured against ones will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis She grew up in Holly Hill and graduated from Holly Hill High School in 1971. Jane attended Coker College and in 1975 graduated with a degree in special education. Following graduation, Jane and a girlfriend embarked on a cross-the-continent road trip. The eight-week adventure took them as far north as Canada, through the Dakotas and as far west as the California coast. She would return to Charleston and soon begin her lifes work of helping others. While working as a social worker at Charleston County Hospital, Jane began volunteering for People Against Rape (PAR), the organization she would lead not too many years later. In 1983, Jane became PARs administrator and over the next 13 years she would create a legacy advocating for victims' rights. Even after stepping down as administrator in 1996, she continued her work with PAR as the organizations grants administrator until retirement. A devoted mother, Janes proudest achievement was her three children. She was happiest when her family was together and cherished the little things in life. She always looked forward to the Wiggins family beach vacation and the tradition of hot dogs for lunch on the family farm at Thanksgiving. Jane loved all animals but kept a special place in her heart for Satchmo, her beloved dog that often rode around Charleston in the basket on Janes bike. As evidenced by the many people who loved her, Janes kindness and gentle spirit was infectious. Her eternal optimism and selflessness impacted all those who knew her. Jane's guestbook may be signed online at CharlestonFunerals.com. WASHINGTON -- In the earliest Republican presidential debates, one of the most frightening moments came when Carly Fiorina described her "memory" of seeing a "fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.'" Many American hearts stopped beating momentarily at the vile description. Anti-abortionists applauded as they recognized the attack on Planned Parenthood for "harvesting" infant body parts and selling them. In November, three people were killed at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic, the accused gunman supposedly "explaining": "No more baby parts." It was a particularly vicious scenario in American life today, where abortion is seen to be as heinous as murder to some, but as a necessary element of control over one's own body to others. We know now that the entire drama was not only palpably false, but deliberately falsified so that, as rather rapidly occurred, the Republican Congress would shut off funds to Planned Parenthood and the venerable organization's reputation seemed forever sullied. But it is now Planned Parenthood that has been cleared of any wrongdoing; instead, two anti-abortionists from a group called the Center for Medical Progress have been charged with felony counts in the case. The historically important organization providing birth control, female medical advice and some abortions has been totally exonerated and it is the anti-abortion activists who stand before their fellow citizens in shame. It might well seem at this point that the entire disgraceful case is closed and that many activists should have learned a good lesson when it comes to truth-challenged gamesmanship in public life. One hopes this can be the case. But the fact is that, when it comes to birth and contraception, even though this is an era of sophistication and knowledge, we remain at a loss when facing the large issues of an increasingly overcrowded world. It has been a long time since the English scholar Thomas Malthus published "An Essay on the Principle of Population" in 1798, when the population of the world was nearing 1 billion. His proposition was simple: If the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man was less than the power of population, then man was in trouble. For a long time, his warnings seemed overdone. But by 1968, the world's population had risen to around 3.5 billion, with the annual rate of growth peaking at 2.1 percent. By 2015, the global population was an estimated 7.3 billion, according to the United Nations, and now, many scientists are beginning to share in Malthus' predictions and worries. Eighty-two percent of the U.S.-based members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science now say that the growing world population will strain the planet's natural resources, while 59 percent of Americans in general agree with that proposition, according to Pew Research Center studies. But if we begin to trace the population growth in specific Third World countries, the problem can often be looked upon as potentially tragic. Egypt's population has doubled since 1975, to more than 80 million today; Nigeria's population of 50 million in 1960 is now more than 180 million; Haiti is so overpopulated that its people have chopped down virtually every tree on their part of the island they share, leaving a barren moon of a place. In 1995, I interviewed the American ambassador in the Sultanate of Oman, at the bottom of the Saudi peninsula. Discussing causes for worry in the region, he told me: "The Middle East receives 4 percent of the investment money in the world, yet every year millions of Arab boys are coming out of the universities with no place for them to go. It is the story that everyone talks about -- but nobody does anything about." The outcome has been the staggering numbers of jobless, purposeless boys going into terrorist militias, fighting wars and overrunning Europe with intentions we dare not think of. Yet, we do very little to put into worldwide practice the principles of Planned Parenthood, thereby allowing the births of children who cannot be cared for, boys who cannot find work and girls who are denied birth control. This is cause for serious concern -- for our families and for our planet. On public television recently, I saw an official from Bangladesh, one of the most overpopulated and miserable lands in the world, now also threatened with inundation from rising sea levels, talking about who in Europe would be watching to see his countrymen coming when the sea takes over his land. "Those countries will have to take people -- big time" was the way he put it. I listened -- big time. ----- Georgie Anne Geyer has been a foreign correspondent and commentator on international affairs for more than 40 years. She can be reached at gigi_geyer@juno.com. CAYCE -- South Carolina Electric & Gas urges business and residential customers to be aware that scam artists are posing as SCE&G employees on telephone calls. Customers have reported instances of individuals portraying themselves as SCE&G employees over the phone, warning of a late utility bill. Scammers will often threaten to turn a customers service off if the customer doesnt make a payment immediately. In some cases, the scammer instructs the customer to purchase a prepaid debit card, or the scammer may ask for the customers credit card information. Other common elements of these scams may include: The scammer often targets small businesses, such as restaurants, hoping to create a higher sense of urgency. The scammer suggests a specific store from which the customer can purchase a prepaid card. Scammers like prepaid debit cards because they can obtain the money on the card without showing a photo ID. The scammer uses the practice of caller ID "spoofing," which causes the customer's phone to display a false caller ID. Often, the scammer will "spoof" a local number, perhaps even using the utility's standard customer service number. SCE&G may call a customer about an overdue account balance, but we will ask the customer to provide information that only the customer and SCE&G would know, to validate that the call is legitimate, said Sam Dozier, vice president of customer service for SCE&G. "If customers have any doubt whatsoever about the legitimacy of a caller, they should hang up and call our customer service line at 1-800-251-7234." Dozier said bill payments are accepted at SCE&G business offices, by mail, authorized payment agencies, online or through SCE&G's phone payment provider, BillMatrix, by calling 1-800-450-9160. If you think you may be a victim of a scam, notify your local law enforcement agency immediately, Dozier said. The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs also has a phone line for reporting consumer scams: 800-922-1594 or 803-734-4200. For more information about how to safeguard against scams, watch the SCE&G video at http://ow.ly/yuyou. Follow the company's social media channels: Twitter.com/@scegnews; Facebook.com/scegnews; and YouTube.com/scegnews for the latest updates regarding this issue. A 23-year-old Orangeburg man is accused of trying to kill an Orangeburg County deputy in Santee. Gino Shakir Brown of 211 Leisure Street is charged with attempted murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime, State Law Enforcement Division spokesman Thom Berry said. Officers apprehended Brown on Friday night and an Orangeburg County magistrate denied his bond on Saturday morning. "Our work is continuing," Berry said. Both SLED and the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office are investigating the incident which took place at about 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 16 in the parking lot of Coaster's, located at 9135 Old Number Six Highway in Santee. According to arrest warrants, Brown allegedly used a rifle when he shot multiple times at Deputy Carl James "C.J." Quinlan, who was responding to a call for service at Coasters. Quinlan observed a group of girls yelling and pointing toward two men who were running across the parking lot, the warrant states. The men entered a 1993 green Honda Accord and began to move in the deputys direction. The passenger of the vehicle, Gino Shakir Brown, did open the passenger door and fire multiple rounds at Deputy Quinlan who was in a fully-marked uniform," the warrant continues. The warrant also says, "Deputy Quinlan observed a conical shaped muzzle flash and heard a distinct crack off high and to the left of his head as a round passed his head." At some point, the deputy returned fire and the two men in the Honda sped away from the scene. It was South Carolina's first officer-involved shooting of 2016. Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said Saturday he is thankful bond was denied on Brown. "Although a charge has been made in this incident, it would be inappropriate to comment further since the investigation is ongoing," Ravenell said. "Our officer remains on paid administrative leave until this investigation is concluded, he said. The sheriff said the officer will not return to service until all issues have been dealt with, including emotional struggles connected to the shooting. Christine McFadden arrived early to John Hurst Adams Gym, neon H placard in hand, snagging a front row seat to see her favorite former President and hear about the woman she wants to see as her next president. McFadden didnt need to be persuaded to cast her vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the upcoming Feb. 27 South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary. I love everything Clinton, McFadden said. And Bill still has it. The former President took to the stage at Allen University with a round of applause and a wave, flashing a smile that looked energetic and charismatic. With the approach of South Carolinas primary, Clinton came to Columbia to assure his wifes supporters and lock in votes. Hillary Clinton aims to lock down South Carolina after a narrow victory in the Iowa caucus against her closest competitor, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. She lost the state in 2008 to Barack Obama, a key win on his way to capturing the White House. The former president known for his confident, emotional speeches addressed the crowd in a more mature, storyteller way Wednesday night. And the crowd loved it. McFadden, a woman who says she prospered under Bill, cheered as President Clinton wove his way from his early days in Arkansas to the tragedy in San Bernardino. Economically and educationally I did well, said McFadden, who was a young, single mom raising a child on her own during Clintons two-term presidency. James Page, who described Clinton as a white Obama, appreciated the fact that Clinton came from a modest background. He also thinks President Clinton never lost his touch. He made people who thought they didnt matter, matter, Page said. Today, he still has that magic. President Clinton has been campaigning across the country to shore up support for his wife. Although Hillary Clinton is currently the South Carolina front-runner, Bill made sure to reinforce base voters. Dr. Lonnie Randolph Jr., president of the South Carolina NAACP, praised President Clinton and his stage presence. Comparing Clinton to a popular soda, Randolph said President Clinton is, and always has been, energetic. Caffeine Canada Dry never had that and never will, he said. Bills the opposite. I make it a point of not missing the annual Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, and this year was/is no different as it's a street pho... 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. You won't see me coming.... Nothing better to wish Happy New Year 2022 , if not the use of images to share on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Funny, funny, original Happy New Year 2022 images, which represent a different way to celebrate the New Year by sending a Happy New Year message to all friends and relatives. There are many people who share phrases, images, photographs, videos and many other types of content with relatives and friends at the end of the year. We always point out that the Happy New Year 2022 images to share on WhatsApp collected here are totally free and can be sent with any instant messaging platform and social network. The best images Happy New Year 2022 For Happy New Year 2022 messages, phrases, letters, cards, postcards and even images are shared. With latest generation smartphones and tablets it has become extremely easy to share images on smartphones and tablets on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram. We remind you that to save the Happy New Year 2022 images present you need to perform some extremely simple operations. Press and hold your finger on the image for a few seconds, until a new dialog box appears on the screen. Within the latter, click on the Save image item . The image will be saved in the roll of iOS devices , such as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, while on Android it will be stored in the browser's Downloads folder . By doing so, you can easily share humorous images with other third-party applications and social networks, including WhatsApp. Among the best Happy New Year images for WhatsApp we start with this one dedicated to 2022 with very accurate and really beautiful graphics to use with friends and relatives. The best phrases to wish happy new year 2021 We all know that a new year brings new experiences, joys, opportunities, people, love, stories, challenges. Let's use a few phrases to wish happy new year 2021 to our dear friend, friend, boyfriend or girlfriend. Why not to loved ones who are far away and who probably in this damned 2020 we could not embrace. Here are some suggestions: My wishes for you are not limited to just next year but to all the years you will experience in your life. Happy New Year full of fun, awesome, rocking and eventful! " Don't worry when others are unable to understand you. Only worry when you are unable to understand yourself. May you have a happy new year! ". Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, yippee! It's a new year! Happy New Year, my beloved friend! " I am lucky to have friends who bring so much joy and madness to this life. I can't imagine what it would be like without you encouraging me. Happy New Year! " The new years come and the new years go by, but our friendship has stood the test of time. I wish you the best for next year! " On the road to success, the rule is to always look ahead. May you reach your destination and may your journey be wonderful. Happy New Year! ". I would just like to express how much joy you have given me and wish your joy and happiness in return. Goodbye 2020 Welcome 2021 Happy New Year! " May each day of the next year be vibrant and new bringing with it many reasons to celebrate and rejoice. Happy New Year! " I wish you a great year that starts with happiness and ends with that too. Happy New Year! ". I wish you a bright, prosperous and glorious new year. Happy New Year! ". Happy New year wishes and images in various Languages Why Politics Matter Politics, the crooked timber of our communal lives, dominates everything because, in the end, everything high and low and, most especially, high lives or dies by politics. You can have the most advanced and efflorescent of cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. This is not ancient history. This is Germany 1933. Charles Krauthammer Socialism is a Form of Slavery Socialism is a system in which the government owns or controls the means of production, and allocates resources and rewards. Sen. Bernie Sanders proudly proclaims himself a democratic socialist. Many in the Democratic Party seem to have no problem with this and, in fact, are embracing him and his ideas. Listening to all of this, one gets the feeling that for a significant portion of the population, history began in the year 2000. Where have been the great socialist success stories? Much of the worlds population greatly suffered under various forms of socialism in the 20th century. Not one of the various socialist models proved to be a success. There was the communist socialism in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China and Cambodia, which resulted in tens of millions of deaths from starvation and from the gulags. There was the national socialism (Nazi) model in Germany and fascist socialism in Italy, which, like the communist version, resulted in tens of millions of deaths. Somewhat more benign, but still coercive, versions of socialism were prevalent in India, many places in Africa and South America, and all resulted in economic stagnation because productive effort was separated from reward. The two most socialist countries today are North Korea and Cuba both being very poor and repressive. The average Cuban government worker has a monthly wage which is less than what the average American worker makes in an hour. It is true that every country has some socialist enterprises at the federal, state or local levels. For instance, the U.S. government owns Amtrak, and the city of Flint, Michigan owns its water department. Arguably, both would do much better in private hands. France has many more government-owned enterprises than neighboring Switzerland. Even France is still basically a capitalistic free-market economy but with far less freedom and prosperity than Switzerland. Why does socialism always fail, and why will Bernie Sanders schemes and, to a lesser extent, Hillarys Obamacare version, also fail? Under a capitalist free-market system, the business person seeks to produce goods and services that the consumer wants at the lowest possible cost which includes having the smallest and most productive work force possible in order to maximize profits. Under the socialist model, the political leaders decide what the consumers should have (which is often very different from what they want or need). Productivity and innovation are given short shrift, needless workers are hired and few are fired. In almost all cases, costs soon outrun revenues, and the losses are made up by ever higher taxes or more debt eventually causing an economic collapse. As economic stagnation increases, the citizens become more restless and either throw off the yoke of government through the ballot box, as was done in 1979 in the United Kingdom with the election of Margaret Thatcher, or the protesters are imprisoned until often a bloody revolt occurs. Now back to Bernie Sanders who has proposed Medicare for all as one of his many schemes. Economics Professor Gerald Friedman of the University of Massachusetts has examined the Sanders plan (and has no political ax to grind). He estimates it would cost $40.9 trillion ($40,942 billion) between 2017 and 2026. The entire GDP of the United States in 2014 was just $17.4 trillion. Hospitals and doctors would be forced to take huge cuts, driving many out of the medical profession, and reducing innovation and standards in health care. Patients would be forced to wait in long queues. It would be like the present failed Veterans Administration health system for all. Back in 2003, Joshua Muravchik wrote a classic book on the history of socialism, Heaven on Earth: What is most disturbing is the idea that America and its unique success as a nation was built around individual liberty and opportunity, not collective coercion. All too many no longer understand what the American Founders were trying to, and largely did, achieve. It is a tragedy that too few Americans understand the dangers of unlimited government. The young people who support Mr. Sanders, and even Hillary, seem to be generally ignorant of why America worked. Many do not want the government to restrict unfettered abortions or their right to smoke pot, but seem to be oblivious that socialism and big government makes everyone into an economic slave. Many workers in the Soviet Union, as is true of North Korea and Cuba today, could not even choose their own profession, or what town or apartment block they lived in. Such restrictions are the logical and necessary outcomes of socialism, unless it is thrown off before it reaches that stage. Those in the news media who have an opportunity to quiz the presidential candidates would do the citizens a great favor if they could discern what the candidates really know about the Constitution and the arguments made in the Federalist Papers. ------------------ Rod D. Martin, writes at RodMartn.org which shared this article which was originally published at To The Point News. He is founder and CEO of The Martin Organization, a technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author and conservative activist. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Council for National Policy, a Past President of the National Federation Republican Assemblies. and a contributing author to the ARRA News Service. Tags: Rod Martin, RodMartin.org, Richard W. Rahn, Socialism, Form of Slavery To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks! by Richard W. Rahn : Do you know what socialism is? Hillary Clinton struggled to find an answer when recently asked.Socialism is a system in which the government owns or controls the means of production, and allocates resources and rewards.Sen. Bernie Sanders proudly proclaims himself a democratic socialist. Many in the Democratic Party seem to have no problem with this and, in fact, are embracing him and his ideas.Listening to all of this, one gets the feeling that for a significant portion of the population, history began in the year 2000. Where have been the great socialist success stories? Much of the worlds population greatly suffered under various forms of socialism in the 20th century. Not one of the various socialist models proved to be a success.There was the communist socialism in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China and Cambodia, which resulted in tens of millions of deaths from starvation and from the gulags.There was the national socialism (Nazi) model in Germany and fascist socialism in Italy, which, like the communist version, resulted in tens of millions of deaths.Somewhat more benign, but still coercive, versions of socialism were prevalent in India, many places in Africa and South America, and all resulted in economic stagnation because productive effort was separated from reward.The two most socialist countries today are North Korea and Cuba both being very poor and repressive. The average Cuban government worker has a monthly wage which is less than what the average American worker makes in an hour.It is true that every country has some socialist enterprises at the federal, state or local levels. For instance, the U.S. government owns Amtrak, and the city of Flint, Michigan owns its water department. Arguably, both would do much better in private hands.France has many more government-owned enterprises than neighboring Switzerland. Even France is still basically a capitalistic free-market economy but with far less freedom and prosperity than Switzerland.Why does socialism always fail, and why will Bernie Sanders schemes and, to a lesser extent, Hillarys Obamacare version, also fail?Under a capitalist free-market system, the business person seeks to produce goods and services that the consumer wants at the lowest possible cost which includes having the smallest and most productive work force possible in order to maximize profits.Under the socialist model, the political leaders decide what the consumers should have (which is often very different from what they want or need). Productivity and innovation are given short shrift, needless workers are hired and few are fired.In almost all cases, costs soon outrun revenues, and the losses are made up by ever higher taxes or more debt eventually causing an economic collapse. As economic stagnation increases, the citizens become more restless and either throw off the yoke of government through the ballot box, as was done in 1979 in the United Kingdom with the election of Margaret Thatcher, or the protesters are imprisoned until often a bloody revolt occurs.Now back to Bernie Sanders who has proposed Medicare for all as one of his many schemes. Economics Professor Gerald Friedman of the University of Massachusetts has examined the Sanders plan (and has no political ax to grind). He estimates it would cost $40.9 trillion ($40,942 billion) between 2017 and 2026. The entire GDP of the United States in 2014 was just $17.4 trillion.Hospitals and doctors would be forced to take huge cuts, driving many out of the medical profession, and reducing innovation and standards in health care. Patients would be forced to wait in long queues. It would be like the present failed Veterans Administration health system for all.Back in 2003, Joshua Muravchik wrote a classic book on the history of socialism, Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism . Perhaps it is time for the political class, including the commentators, to go back and read it and realize again that the next time the socialists will not get it right, because the model is fatally flawed.What is most disturbing is the idea that America and its unique success as a nation was built around individual liberty and opportunity, not collective coercion. All too many no longer understand what the American Founders were trying to, and largely did, achieve. It is a tragedy that too few Americans understand the dangers of unlimited government.The young people who support Mr. Sanders, and even Hillary, seem to be generally ignorant of why America worked. Many do not want the government to restrict unfettered abortions or their right to smoke pot, but seem to be oblivious that socialism and big government makes everyone into an economic slave.Many workers in the Soviet Union, as is true of North Korea and Cuba today, could not even choose their own profession, or what town or apartment block they lived in. Such restrictions are the logical and necessary outcomes of socialism, unless it is thrown off before it reaches that stage.Those in the news media who have an opportunity to quiz the presidential candidates would do the citizens a great favor if they could discern what the candidates really know about the Constitution and the arguments made in the Federalist Papers.------------------ Posted by Bill Smith at 4:04 PM - Post Link Iran exported more than 76 tonnes of saffron worth $110 million in the 10 months to January 20, said a report. The amount of saffron exports has experienced a 35 per cent drop compared to the same period last year due to fluctuations in prices, Gholamreza Miri, deputy head of Iran's Union of Sellers and Exporters of Saffron, was quoted as saying in an Iran Daily report. He added that if the volatility continued, Iran will face an eventual lack of demand for the product leading to stagnation. Miri noted that in order to boost exports the stabilisation of market conditions is necessary. He said that we are now able to export saffron to countries like the US though the process was banned over the past years due to international sanctions. The iTECH 2016 Awards, which look to celebrate regional and international ICT (information and communications technology) sector achievements in Bahrain, have been announced. The winners of the iTECH Awards 2016 have been announced by Bahrain-based Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE), the organisers of the upcoming Gulf Industry Fair. These include: Leading Software Solutions Provider - Amthal Group Security Enablers - IPIFI (founded by Ahmed Hussain) Hardware Solutions Provider - Dell Itech Woman Achiever - Linda Rae, IT manager of Ahmed Mansoor Aali Group Leading CIO - Dr Jassim Haji, the director of Information Technology, Gulf Air Zayed Al Zayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, will be presenting the awards at the Innovation for Industry Forum which will be held on February 10 at the Gulf Industry Fair. The iTech Awards have become much valued by companies as they recognise the business value of investing in the IT and ICT aspects of a companys business strategy and organisation, remarked Jubran Abdulrahman, the managing director of HCE. Gulf Industry Fair takes place from February 9 to 11 under the patronage of HRH Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain. The show is endorsed by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and Alba.-TradeArabia News Service Oman Air, the sultanate's national carrier, has chosen Air France Industries KLM Engineering and Maintenance to provide flight hour support for the CFM56-7 power plants that equip the airlines Boeing 737NG aircraft. The long-term contract was formally signed in Amstelveen, The Netherlands, by Oman Air chief executive Paul Gregorowitsch and Ton Dortmans, the executive VP at KLM Engineering and Maintenance in the presence of Mohammed bin Harub bin Abdullah Al Said and KLM president and chief executive Dr Ing Pieter Elbers. Air France Industries KLM Engineering and Maintenance is a major multi-product maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider. On the deal, Gregorowitsch, said Air France Industries KLM Engineering and Maintenance has a well-deserved, outstanding reputation for maintaining CF M56-7 power plants and we are pleased to be signing this new contract with the company. "Oman Airs over-riding priorities are the safety of its passengers and crew, the reliability of its aircraft and an excellent on-time performance. The Air France KLM's expertise and professionalism will help us to maintain our unblemished record in each of these vital areas," he noted. Franck Terner, the executive VP said the MRO has been working regularly with Oman Air for several years. "I am very pleased that the airline has now shown us this mark of trust by opting for our engine know-how," he added. The new partnership has been sealed even as Oman Air continues its ambitious programme of fleet and network expansion. This will see the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman increase its fleet size from 30 aircraft at the start of the programme to 70 aircraft by 2020.-TradeArabia News Service Russian and Syrian government forces gained ground north of Aleppo on Saturday, intensifying an assault on rebel-held areas that has prompted tens of thousands more Syrians to seek refuge across the border in Turkey. The assault around Aleppo, which aid workers have said could soon fall to government forces, helped to torpedo Syrian peace talks in Geneva this week. Russia's intervention has tipped the war President Bashar Al Assad's way, reversing gains the rebels made last year. Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the civil war erupted five years ago, would be a huge strategic prize for Assad's government in a conflict that has killed at least 250,000 people and driven 11 million from their homes. Advances by the Syrian army and allied militias, including Iranian fighters, threaten to besiege opposition-held areas of the divided city. Government-controlled parts of Aleppo are home to more than a million people, while around 350,000 live in opposition-held areas. On Saturday about 15,000 Syrians were waiting on the Syrian side of Turkey's Oncupinar border crossing and up to 50,000 more were on their way, an official with the Turkish disaster agency AFAD told Reuters. "At the moment there isn't an emergency situation in terms of security where the crowd is waiting. The first priority for them was to be in a secure place and the other (Syrian) side of the border is secure," the AFAD official said. "Food and aid is being distributed. For now there isn't an imminent risk to their lives." Oncupinar has been officially shut for nearly a year due to security concerns and remained closed on Saturday, but it is opened from time to time to allow refugees into Turkey, which has already taken in some 2.5 million Syrians. A Reuters reporter at Oncupinar could hear infrequent shelling and witnessed a few Turkish ambulances cross the border at one point. Dozens of Syrian refugees already in Turkey queued up on the Turkish side at Oncupinar to beg the authorities to allow in their relatives fleeing the latest bombardments in Syria. Sitting in his car with his four children just inside Turkey, Ahmet Sadul, 43, was hoping to get back into Syria to look for his relatives. A native of Azaz, over the border in Syria, he now lives in the nearby Turkish town of Kilis. "Now there are thousands of people from Azaz all waiting on the other side. They escaped from the Russians. I want to go and get my relatives. They are bombing Syrians all the time." "Many people have left Aleppo. But still there are many civilians there. If Russia is successful, we are all dead." Russia denies targeting civilians and says its actions are aimed at shoring up Syria's legitimate government and combating terrorism. The West and Turkey, which want Assad to step down, accuse Moscow of using indiscriminate force in the conflict. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Kurdish and Syrian rebel factions in the countryside north of Aleppo had agreed to open a humanitarian corridor from Azaz into Kurdish-controlled Afrin for those fleeing the bombing but unable to cross into Turkey. The United Nations said up to 10,000 people had been displaced to Azaz from areas under attack north of Aleppo and that 10,000 had been displaced to Afrin, where there are plans to expand an existing camp for internally displaced persons. But the fighting is making access to populations in need "increasingly difficult", a UN official said. Abdulkerim Hannura, a 32-year-old customs police officer who works on the Syrian side of the border, said Russian warplanes had been bombing Syrian villages for 15 days. "People are coming to the border and want to cross into Syria with the hope that they can sneak their relatives back into Turkey," he said.-Reuters Syria will see any incursion on its territory as an act of aggression, Foreign Minister Walid Al Moualem said on Saturday, days after Saudi Arabia announced it was ready to send in ground troops. Foreign Minister Walid Al Moualem also told a news conference a ceasefire in the Syria conflict would be virtually impossible while rebels opposed to President Bashar Al Assad's government were able to pass freely across the borders with Turkey and Jordan. "Any ground intervention onto Syrian land without the agreement of the Syrian government is an act of aggression ...and we regret that those (who do so) will return to their countries in coffins," he stated. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said this week they were ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq decides to start such operations. "I don't think they will do what they say about using ground forces, but at the same time, when I look at their crazy decisions made not just in Yemen but in other areas nothing can be ruled out," Moualem said, alluding to a Saudi-led military campaign against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen. Moualem also cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who recently said a ceasefire in Syria was very unlikely until the borders with Turkey and Jordan have been sealed. Rebel groups fighting Assad have received supplies via both Turkey and Jordan. Russia's military intervention in the Syrian conflict in support of Assad has helped Damascus to reclaim territory previously lost to rebels.-Reuters Twitter Inc has shut down more than 125,000 terrorism-related accounts since the middle of 2015, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, the company said in a blog post on Friday. Twitter has said it only takes down accounts when they are reported by other users, but said that it has increased the size of teams monitoring and responding to reports and has decreased its response time "significantly. Twitter's announcement comes as many tech companies - led by Facebook - have taken stronger steps to police controversial content online in the face of threats from legislators to force the companies to report "terrorist activity" on their sites to law enforcement. Silicon Valley has been wary of engaging with government officials, concerned about endless demands for similar action from countries around the world as well as fears about being perceived by consumers as tools of government. The announcement was also notable because Twitter has said little about its efforts to combat Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and similar groups even though it has been criticized for not doing enough. Islamic State, which controls last swathes of Iraq and Syria, has heavily relied on the 300 million-person site, as well as others, to recruit fighters and propagate violent messages. Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University's program on extremism, said Friday's report showcased an "impressive number" of takedowns, but said that Twitter still appears to police extremist content in a mostly "episodic" way. Many extremists have migrated toward smaller, less monitored platforms in recent months in response to major Silicon Valley firms stepping up their content policing, Hughes added. In January, a delegation of top national security officials met tech industry leaders from Twitter, Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Google parent Alphabet Inc, but most companies, including Twitter, did not send their chief executive officers. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, called Twitter's announcement a "very positive development," but said more was needed. "Addressing the use of social media by terrorists will require a sustained and cooperative effort between the technology sector, the Intelligence Community, and law enforcement," he said. Still, Twitter said in a blog post that it has cooperated with law enforcement when appropriate. It said that it tries to strike a balance between enforcing its rules on prohibited behaviours, the needs of law enforcement and the desire by users to share their views - including offensive ones. Reuters Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled an intensifying Russian assault around Aleppo and aid workers said they feared the major city could soon fall under a full government siege. Iran reported one of its generals had been killed on the front line, giving direct confirmation of the role Tehran is playing along with Moscow in what appears to be one of the most determined offensives in five years of civil war. The government assault around Aleppo, and advances in the south and northwest, helped to torpedo Geneva peace talks this week. Russia's intervention has tipped the war President Bashar Al Assad's way, reversing gains rebels made last year. The last two days saw government troops and their Lebanese and Iranian allies fully encircle the countryside north of Aleppo and cut off the main supply route linking the city - Syria's largest before the war - to Turkey. Ankara said it suspected the aim was to starve the population into submission. Aleppo would be the biggest strategic prize in years for Assad's government in a conflict that has killed at least 250,000 people and driven 11 million from their homes. Video footage showed thousands of people massing at the Bab Al Salam crossing on the Turkish border. Men carried luggage on their heads, and the elderly and those unable to walk were brought in wheelchairs. Women sat on the side of the road holding babies and waiting to be allowed into Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said 15,000 people fleeing Aleppo had arrived at Turkey's border. Rights group Amnesty International urged the country to let in those fleeing the latest violence. "It feels like a siege of Aleppo is about to begin," said David Evans, Middle East program director for the US aid agency Mercy Corps, which said the most direct humanitarian route to Aleppo had been severed. "The situation in Aleppo is a humanitarian catastrophe, said an opposition spokesman still in Geneva after the ill-fated peace talks. "The international community must take urgent, concrete steps to address it." "The Russian (air) cover continues night and day, there were more than 250 air strikes on this area in one day," Hassan Haj Ali, head of Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, a rebel group fighting in northwest Syria, told Reuters. "The regime is now trying to expand the area it has taken control of," he added. "Now the northern countryside (of Aleppo) is totally encircled, and the humanitarian situation is very difficult." Syrian state TV and a monitoring group said the army and its allies had seized the town of Ratyan north of Aleppo. Haj Ali said the town had not yet fallen, but that there were "very heavy battles". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said some 120 fighters on all sides had been killed around Ratyan. Hezbollah's Al Manar TV and Syrian state TV later on Friday said forces had taken another nearby town, Mayer. The Syrian army and its allies broke a years-long rebel blockade of two Shi'ite towns in Aleppo province on Wednesday, cutting off a major supply line from Turkey to Aleppo. Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, has been divided for years between a section under government control and areas in the grip of rebels. Much of the Unesco heritage old city is in ruins. Any government siege would target the rebel-held parts, where more than 350,000 people live. Well over a million live in the areas under government control. Haj Ali said most of the fighters on the government side were "Iranian and from Hezbollah, or Afghan". A non-Syrian senior security source close to Damascus told Reuters on Thursday that Qassem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, was overseeing operations in the Aleppo area. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said Revolutionary Guard Corps Brigadier-General Mohsen Ghajarian had been killed in Aleppo province, as had six Iranian volunteer militiamen. The five-year-old civil war pits the government led by Assad, a member of the Alawite sect derived from Shi'ite Islam, against a range of insurgents who are mainly Sunni Muslims, backed by Saudi Arabia, other Arab states and Turkey. Western countries have lined up in opposition to Assad. Since 2014, the Sunni jihadist group Islamic State has run a self-proclaimed caliphate in eastern Syria and Iraq, under air assault from a U.S.-led coalition. Russia launched its own separate air campaign four months ago to aid its ally Assad, transforming the battlefield. But swathes of the country are still in the hands of armed rebels, including Islamic State in the east, Kurdish militia in the north, and a mosaic of groups in the west who have been the target of many of the Russian air strikes. Asked whether there were any plans to assist US-backed rebels in Aleppo or provide humanitarian aid drops, Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for US Central Command said: Our fight right now is against ISIL (Islamic State) in Iraq and Syria. We are continuing to stay focused on that operation." Syria's government forces and allies have made further gains in the southern province of Deraa, recapturing a town just outside Deraa city. It has been backed by some of the heaviest Russian air strikes since it began its bombing campaign in September, a rebel spokesman in the area said. The talks convened this week in Geneva were the first diplomatic attempt to end the war in two years but collapsed before they began in earnest. The opposition refused to negotiate while Russia was escalating its bombing and government troops were advancing. Nato said Moscow's intensified bombing campaign undermined the peace efforts and warned Russia was creating tensions by violating the airspace of Syria's neighbor Turkey, a NATO member which shot down a Russian warplane in November. Russia has accused Turkey of preparing a military incursion into northern Syria. Ankara dismissed this as propaganda intended to conceal Russia's own "crimes". Aleppo was threatened with a "siege of starvation", and Turkey had the right to take any measures to protect its security, it said. Moscow says its targets in Syria are restricted to Islamic State and al Qaeda's Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, both of which were excluded from peace talks and unacceptable to the countries supporting the insurgents against Assad. "Why did the opposition that left Geneva complain about the offensive in Aleppo, which is actually targeted against Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) and other radical extremist groups?" said Russia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Alexey Borodavkin. That position is rejected by Western and Arab countries, which say most Russian strikes are against other opponents of Assad, not the banned groups. Nusra Front said in a statement on Friday it had killed 25 Iranian fighters and Shi'ite militiamen in fighting in Aleppo. "The intense Russia air strikes, mainly targeting opposition groups in Syria, is undermining the efforts to find a political solution to the conflict," said Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Russian violations of Turkish airspace were "causing increased tensions and ... create risks". Saudi Arabia said it was ready to participate in separate U.S. ground operations against Islamic State. The United States welcomed the Saudi offer, although Washington so far has committed only to small-scale operations by special forces units on the ground in Syria.-Reuters London-based Simmons & Simmons is the latest in a wave of Western law firms to shut their offices in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in the last year as low oil prices put a damper on business. The company plans to close its office in the UAE capital by the end of April, a spokeswoman said. It follows US-based law firms Latham & Watkins and Baker Botts, as well as London and Sydney co-headquartered Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) in announcing plans to close offices in Abu Dhabi over the past 12 months. Many international law firms had piled into the capital in the past five years, hoping to bag lucrative contracts linked to the government, in particular the energy sector and the launch of a new financial free zone. "That hasn't happened as planned and adding to that is the uncertain times we are in now with oil prices around $30," said a source familiar with the matter. The retreat underscores growing pressure on international law firms for billable hours, prompting a review of their need to have a presence in the capital. Simmons & Simmons, which decided to close its Abu Dhabi office after a review, said in an emailed statement it would serve its clients through its office in Dubai, moving its Abu Dhabi-based partners to Dubai or London. Abu Dhabi has cut back or slowed spending on non-essential projects and has lifted subsidies on petrol to ease finances as state revenues decline due to cheap oil. The International Monetary Fund has cut its growth forecast for the UAE to 2.6 per cent in 2016. Abu Dhabi is more reliant on the energy sector and government contracts, whereas Dubai has a more diversified economy propelled by a larger private sector. HSF said it closed its Abu Dhabi office in the middle of last year and transferred its five resident lawyers to its offices in Dubai or Doha. Latham & Watkins said in March 2015 it was closing its Abu Dhabi and Doha offices, consolidating the Abu Dhabi office with its office in Dubai. Baker Botts said it closed its Abu Dhabi office in January 2015.-Reuters YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Russian flights to Egypt may be resumed after the security measures in Egyptian airports are strengthened, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said on February 6, Armenpress reports, citing Sputniknews website. "It depends on the Egyptian side. When they create necessary conditions that will meet the safety requirements, we will check them, make sure and then resume the flights immediately," Sokolov told reporters. On October 31, 2015, Russia's Airbus A321 crashed en route from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. All 224 people on board the plane were killed. The crash has become the largest civil aviation disaster in Russian history. The Daesh terrorist group, which is outlawed in Russia, claimed responsibility for the crash. Several days after the catastrophe, Moscow suspended all passenger flights to and from Egypt to ensure the Russian passengers safety. We went out Tuesday morning for a half-day interior 4x4 tour of the island. We rode in a Land Rover Defender with Sebastian. Manimal rode in his car seat installed in the front (and quickly decided to nap), Hamish rode on a booster in the back with us. We drove through Papeete around the North side of the island to the valley that runs through the interior. Then we turned inland and drove up through the hills, stopping to see breadfruit, candle nut, and pomelo trees and a few varieties of ginger. We saw several of the permanent waterfalls and a couple of new ones for the rainy season. This is how you cross the river: Near the top of our route we saw two of the six hydroelectric dams that help provide 25% of the island's power needs. We stopped to swim in the river. The kids loved jumping off rocks and I did flips and cannonballs to everyone's delight. Quite quite sadly, we left the cameras in the jeep so we could play in the river, but it was a lovely spot. A group of Tahitians were at the swimming spot at well, kids playing in the water and the adults cooking up lunch. Near the top of our route we saw two of the six hydroelectric dams that help provide 25% of the island's power needs. We stopped to swim in the river. The kids loved jumping off rocks and I did flips and cannonballs to everyone's delight. Quite quite sadly, we left the cameras in the jeep so we could play in the river, but it was a lovely spot. A group of Tahitians were at the swimming spot at well, kids playing in the water and the adults cooking up lunch. While we were playing in the river the drizzle that had accompanied our drive up turned to driving rain. We climbed back into the truck--all four of us in the back--and carried on with the tour. In just a few minutes we reached the overlook into the crater of Tahiti 's extinct volcano, but the rain and clouds kept us from seeing the other peaks that make up what's left of the crater rim. (I asked Sebastian how they could be sure the volcano was extinct and not just dormant. He said there were four "hot points" that created the Society Islands. The points are still there, but the tectonic plates on which the islands sit have shifted. Now the hot points are about 40 miles east of the islands in the middle of the ocean.) We drove home in hard rain--Sebastian zipped down the plastic walls of our truck--watching many new waterfalls that hadn't been there earlier. Thankfully, there were no landslides, and we made it home safely. This video is not taken from a boat: We made it safely home, and Hamish took a much-needed nap, but Manimal was done. When Hamish woke up there was a little playing with dress up clothes:Then we headed into Papeete. We wandered around downtown, shopping the market and the vanilla shop.Then we went to the roulette park to find dinner. They didn't open until 6, so we walked around and found our way to the tourism office. Alli and Hamish went in and were asking about going to see a dance show. This was something on our list-- these elaborate dance shows complete with buffet, but they are very expensive, long, and we could not find one that started before 8 p.m. We just didn't think we could make that work with the kids. But Alli was asking about this at the tourism office, and they were super helpful and just said "hey, we have dance shows on DVD". They popped one in, and all 4 of us sat in the lobby of the tourism office until after they were closed watching (not until the show was over). It was interesting, but I think this was the right speed. We proceeded out into the Place Vaiete to wait a little longer for the roulottes to open. There was an unused stage, so we decided to have some dancing of our own. Finally we ate dinner at the roulottes, poisson cru for me again, pasta for Alli. Dark clouds blew in with the Paul Gaugin (cruise ship), and the bottom fell out on us as we were finishing out une glace. But it was short, we hid under the roulotte "wings" and then we were able to stroll back to our car dry. WEDNESDAY We got up without a firm plan, but made it to the car. We stopped at the drive through restaurant at the bottom of the hill and bought a half dozen Beard Papas (yum!) and a 10-piece of fried chicken. We planned to go to the Cosmetic Laboratory of the South Pacific to learn about Monoi oil. Sadly when we got there they were closed until January 13th :-( We came back toward home and stopped on the road for bananas and at a Super U for some Brie. We added those to our baguette and drove to the PK18 beach for lunch. It was hot when we got there and our little beach tent didn't make a huge difference, but we ate chicken and cheese and bread in its shade. All in a five minute span the Manimal sat on the sunscreen, Hamish bit into her Beard Papa and lost most of its gooey goodness filling, and it started pouring. But we hung in there. Soon the rain stopped, the sand was considerably cooled, and we had a lovely morning at the beach. The kids had a great time with the beach toys and were comfortable enough in the lagoon than Alli and I each went snorkeling. There was some coral bleaching, but we saw beautiful fish that easily rivaled things we've seen on dives. It's the only time I remember walking out from a beach, snorkeling, and seeing anything worth seeing. We packed up our things and got in the car just before the rains came and stayed all afternoon. But after a long morning at the beach the kids both napped well. And Alli and I discovered some pretty serious sunburn on our backs, guess we had too much fun snorkeling. We ended the day with a trip to Carrefour and then--after missing an easier turn around--drive-through dinner at McDonalds. THURSDAY The rain decided to stay for the rest of our visit. We got up late, then drove around the whole island. We had a couple of stops in mind but the Hall house was still closed, and we couldn't find the lava tubes. I had yummy poisson cry again that was only mildly tarnished by the andouillette aroma. I could definitely eat this stuff with regularity. We had lunch in Taravao, where we fed our children pretty questionable meat. Andouillettes. We both speak a little French, and based on best guesses, we just figured this was little sausages. Sounded like a nice option. But I think when the meal came out I checked the Manimal's diaper. Andouillettes, it turns out, are coarse-grained sausages made with pork, intestines, pepper, wine, onions, and seasoning. I'm pretty sure these were mostly intestine. Oddly enough, neither child liked them much. I ate a couple of bites, thinking there must be some redeeming quality, but no. They are an acquired taste, and one that I have no care to acquire. The worst thing is they were the most expensive item from our lunch.I had yummy poisson cry again that was only mildly tarnished by the andouillette aroma. I could definitely eat this stuff with regularity.We stopped at the grotte de maraa on the way home, but falling rock signs everywhere and rain kept us from spending too much time or getting quality photos. They are little grottos- small caves filled with water that are supposed to always be cool. Well we got this one photo of Hamish on our stroll anyway: We came home and took long naps while it rained. While Hamish was sleeping, I decided to try to tighten the legs/joints on our host family's coffee table. It was just a little loose and seemed like an easy thing to improve, so why not? I put the table up on its side to work on it, and the Manimal came to investigate. It did not immediately occur to me that this could be a problem (I was preventing the table from falling over in any way). There was a glass insert in the table, but it was inset such that I didn't really consider it might fall out. Manimal pushed it right out and it shattered into a million pieces. Praise the Lord it was shatter-proof glass (so it broke in chunks, not shards and splinters) and everyone was fine. I also did not get the table tightened... We swept up and had to email the host family, hoping we could find a way to make amends, like by replacing their coffee table. They were amazingly gracious about it and said not to worry about it at all. In the end, we left some cash that would have at least covered replacing the glass in the U.S. There, we have no idea, it's just not the kind of place you can go online and order replacement glass. But we told our hosts worst case they don't fix it and they have a nice dinner or two- or they fix it with something else cheaper and this more than covers that cost. Thursday night--in order to get out of the house--we brought our popsicles and ice cream to the beach and ate our treats and walked on the rocks. This is that place.Then we went home and had pizza. Friday we wanted to go kayaking, so we got up and got ready to go to the park at PK18.5 and rent kayaks. Unfortunately, the rain had scared everyone off and no one had kayaks for rent there. We drove up and down the road through Punaauia again and again looking first for signs about kayaks, then at a guesthouse that was supposed to have kayaks, and finally to Le Meriden and the Intercontinental. The kayak rentals at the Intercontinental were the best, so we finally got out on the water for about an hour. Manimal rode with me and Hamish rode with Alli. They both did beautifully. When we were done, we went home for naps and again a quiet dinner. And we stopped for a few more local mangoes and pineapple.We meant to spend our last morning at the beach, but the car wouldn't start when we got down there. We were tired of breaking things, so we didn't push it. Instead we went to the condo's pool for a while. We spent the rest of the day cleaning and napping, trying to get the house in great shape to leave. We didn't get all of the sheets dried--it's hard to finish the laundry on move-out day with no dryer, but otherwise did a decent job. Using iOS The Natrona County Library will offer a Using iOS computer class Thursday at 2 p.m. in the Crawford Room. Learn everything you could ever want to know about iOS 9 Apples operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch including how to use iCloud, Siri, the camera, and the App store. Well also cover general settings and navigation. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information. Technology Buying Guide The Natrona County Library will offer a Technology Buying Guide computer class on Saturday, February 13 at 2 p.m. in the Crawford Room. Well cover cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and everything in between. Well also discuss the uses and features of a variety of devices as well as how to determine what type of device is best for you. An array of technologies will be available for attendees to learn about, use, and touch. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information. 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: 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! Marriage Live to come to Casper The Art of Marriage Live featuring Family Lifes Weekend to Remember speakers Bruce and Julie Boyd is coming Casper on February 19 and 20 at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church, 4100 Casper Mountain Road. Through teaching, stories, and humor, the Boyds will address the challenges and beauty of Gods design. The event begins on Friday, February 19, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. and continues on Saturday, February 20, from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Cost is $50 per couple which includes the seminar, workbooks, and refreshments. Child care will be provided. For more information and to register call 235-6363 or visit www.cornerstonefree.org. Workshop at Art 321 ART 321 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 19 and 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. 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. Its not too late to receive the Early Bird registration discount! For complete registrations received on or before Jan. 31, $105. Price is $130. For more information or to register, visit www.cathyhazeladams.com or call 307-797-9677. Free tax help offered The Wyoming Free Tax Service (VITA) runs 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 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. 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 Parent conference on disAbilities 4th Annual Parent Conference on DisAbilities- Expectations: Open Doors, is Friday, Feb. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 28 at noon at the Parkway Plaza, sponsored by the Parent Information Center. $50 for Wyoming families of children with disabilities, $100 for educators, child care providers and others. NCSD #1 is covering the cost of registration for Natrona County families of school-aged students on IEPs. Featured keynote speaker Friday, Feb. 26, will be Paula Kluth, nationally renowned speaker and author on Inclusion and Autism. Other topics over the weekend will include IEPs without conflict, practical assistive technology for everyday use, sensory disorder, studentdirected IEPs; transition to employment and more! Limited number of travel stipends available. Respite available separately through Arc of Natrona County. PTSB and STARS credit available. For more information, contact Teri Dawson at (307) 684-2277 or tdawson@wpic.org Parents Helping Parents The 25th Anniversary Banquet Celebration & Silent Auction for Parents Helping Parents of Wyoming, Inc., is 6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Parkway Plaza. Cost is $35/person or $60/couple; tickets available online at www.wpic.org PHP is celebrating 25 years of helping raise families expectations and opening doors for children with disabilities by increasing family engagement and meaningful partnerships with schools through its projects, the Parent Information Center and the Parent Education Network. We want to say thank you to the families who have honored us with their trust in supporting the ups and downs of their journey. Join us as we celebrate 25 years of educational milestones! No host cash bar begins at 6. For more information, contact Teri Dawson at (307) 684-2277 or tdawson@wpic.org Vendors wanted for spring craft fair Eagles Lodge, 306 N. Durbin, will host a first Spring Craft and Vendors Fair on Friday, March 4, from 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, March 5, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. We are now taking vendor applications. Please call the Lodge at 235-5130. Vendor space is filling fast, reserve yours today. GILLETTE -- Contemporary Christian bands, a group known locally as 5th Sunday Worship Bands, will perform free this Sunday at the Cam-Plex Heritage Center as part of the community's Winter Fest. The Rev. Gordon Harper with music by Pardon Me will begin things with a church service from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The bands will follow, including Roadway Alliance Church, noon to 12:40 p.m.; Gillette Christian Center, 12:50 to 1:30 p.m.; Calvary Community Church, 1:40 to 2:20 p.m.; Eyes to Heaven, 2:30 to 3:10 p.m.; and Journey Church, 3:20 to 4 p.m. Students at Southridge Elementary School beat a drumroll on the gym floor while they waited for the blue cloth to be pulled off a giant poster. Google representative Ryan Brown had traveled there to unveil the Wyoming winner for the national Doodle 4 Google Competition. Daisy Maynard thought her Google doodle was pretty good, but so were a lot of others, she said. When the fifth-grader saw her entry framed by Googles red, green, blue and yellow colors, both her hands flew to her mouth. The principal called her to the front of the gymnasium at the assembly Friday afternoon. She didnt even see her dad and seven other family members at the edge of the gym as she walked by. I actually almost cried, Daisy said later. I was very surprised and very happy. Daisy won an e-reader and $2,500 in playground gear for her school, including balls, jump ropes and hula hoops, because of her passion for sports. Shes also in the running now for the national award, which is up for public vote to determine five national finalists, one from each age group. Her entry is one of 53 winners selected from around 100,000 in the eighth annual contest for kindergarten through 12th-grade students across 50 states and three territories. The finalists and winner will be announced March 21, when the winners doodle will go live on Google.com, according to a press release from Google. I think its incredible and it couldnt happen to a better kid, said Southridge Principal Doug Smith. She did a great job ... with what she drew. Shes got what shes interested in and some wildlife in there. Im really proud of her. Maynard spent an art class and two nights at home creating her take on the Google logo, she said. The students were tasked to redesign the Google logos letters inspired by the theme, What makes me...me. The hardest part was figuring out what to do with the capital G, she said. But she thought about it and decided an eagle to represent her country would be the perfect start. The first O, a volleyball, was easier. Its her favorite sport. The other O is a buffalo for Wyoming and Casper, where she plans to go to college and live when she grows up. The second G becomes a daisy with a stem curling beneath for her name. An L became a picture of her doing a rising kick as a Tae Kwon Do black belt, a goal for the current blue belt in the martial art. The E finishing the word Google is an artist pallet, for her artistic talent she used to create her winning doodle, titled Part of Me. Art is her favorite subject in school, she said. She reached up to meet a bear hug from her dad, Brennan Capellas, after finding out shed won. Hed kept her win a secret for two days so she could be surprised at the unveiling, he said. I think its amazing, and Im very proud of her, he said. But he already was. He doesnt know where she gets her artistic knack, but shes always pursued her own interests, he said. The national winner and finalists will travel to Mountain View, California, to meet and workshop with Googles professional doodlers. Theyll see what it takes to launch a Doodle on the search engines homepage. The winner will take home a $30,000 college scholarship and the students school will receive a $50,000 Google for Education grant establish or improve a computer lab or technology program. Maynard hopes to make it that far, but shes already happy with representing her home state at the national level, she said. The poster of her winning artwork will hang in the school lobby for the rest of the year. I do want to take it home at the end of the year, Maynard said. Ill put it in my room to always remember. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The format of cooperation between the Republican Part of Armenia (RPA) and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) will be clear during the upcoming discussions, Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, NA RPA party MP Gagik Minasyan mentioned during the interview. The discussions are still underway. I think it is not still worth talking about what cooperation it may be. I think the cooperation with ARF can be both long term and short term which will be clear in the near future, Minasyan said, Armenpress reports. He did not detail the directions of the discussions in terms of the distribution of portfolios. At the same time, referring to the "Prosperous Armenia" (PAP) partys head Naira Zohrabyan, who said that PAP is not going to be part of the coalition government till the 2017 parliamentary elections, Minasyan said. "I respect her position and point of view." The site of a historic Tucson restaurant will go from serving steaks and fine wines to closing real estate deals. Work is underway to convert the former McMahons Prime Steakhouse at 2959 N. Swan Road into a one-stop real estate-centric office complex, where you can close on a home, get a mortgage or financing and buy an insurance policy all under one roof. Tenants will include the partners behind Synergy Plaza LLC, which bought the restaurant and adjacent McMahon Plaza for $5 million in October. All of them work in the real estate industry, from property sales to private financing. The whole concept is to be very synergetic to real estates basic needs, said Kristian Gose, a private financing specialist who is partners in the plaza with his wife, Tucson CPA Wendy Alexonis; real estate salesman K Watanabe of Realty Executives; Derrick Polder of Summit Funding; and Matt Uhler, who works with Northern Arizonas leading business brokerage firm, WCI Brokers of Prescott. In all, Synergy Plaza has nearly 47,000 square feet of office space taking up the corner of North Swan and East Fort Lowell roads. When it bought the property five months ago, only 40 percent of the space had been leased. Watanabe said it is now 90 percent leased, including the historic 2,700-square-foot adobe house across the courtyard from the restaurant. The home was once the corporate offices for Bob McMahon, who lost the plaza and restaurant and a second restaurant, Old Pueblo Grille at 60 N. Alvernon Way, in a bankruptcy dispute in May. Stewart Title will move into the house, which is being renovated by Bradley Hoge, VP and co-founder of Rio West Development & Construction. On Thursday, Hoge went through the house with Gose, pointing out the remnants of an original adobe wall jutting out between the drywall. Hoge suggested that they install glass over the adobe so that it wouldnt be hidden from view, which was an idea that Gose had also entertained. It will be one of many steps Synergy takes to preserve the history of the restaurant and house, which they were told dates to the early 1900s. The restaurant goes back to the early 1960s, a reincarnation of a restaurant that burned down on the spot, according to Star archives. The building has been home to three restaurants since then, beginning with The Palomino in the mid-1960s. When it closed in 1994, the Sevilla family opened an outpost of their popular Euro-Spanish restaurant Encore-Med and a second restaurant, Cafe Triana, in the cavernous 14,000-square-foot space that includes four distinct dining rooms. McMahon opened his namesake steakhouse in the spot in late 1998. Thats what people remember, Watanabe said, recalling stories he had heard from people who were patrons of the restaurants. Its a really cool landmark and we dont want to change it. Ive lived here my whole life and everybody knows what this used to be before McMahons, Gose added. Gose said artwork from McMahons will be rehung throughout the former restaurant, including a large Native American painting that greeted diners at the entryway. They also will re-create McMahons Wall of Fame, where the longtime Tucson businessman hung photographs documenting the history of the Palmonio, Encore-Med, his restaurant and other aspects of Tucsons history. On a tour of the restaurant Thursday, Gose noted the flagstone floor at the entryway. It will stay, he said, as will the molding throughout the building. The dining room behind the glass wall where McMahon displayed hundreds of bottles of wine will be Watanabes office. The back dining room with a fireplace will be home to Adam Dellos Adam D. Technologies, an information and technology firm. Polder will take the back banquet room and Gose and Alexonis will set up shop in the former wine cellar, at the end of the Wall of Fame hallway that flowed into the bar. A private dining room at the center of the restaurant will become a conference room, and the center dining area will be common space. The bar area and kitchen will be home to Savaya Coffee, which will operate a small cafe with a menu of organic, locally sourced breakfast and lunch items. Its going to be a little different concept, Savaya owner Burc Maruflu said. We want to expand the offerings. Right now we offer everything on the sweet side, but were going to get more into the salads and comfort foods to go with the coffee. Maruflu said he will hire a trained chef to oversee the kitchen and plans to add a kitchen studio, where Savaya can create videos and conduct cooking classes. The Swan Road location is one of two that Maruflu will open this year. The other is at 2837 N. Campbell Ave. Gose said Stewart Title will move in in mid-March, but it could be early May before the restaurant is finished and the other businesses open. Teamsters Local 104 members are striking against US Foods in Tucson and Phoenix over what they call unfair labor practices. Thirty union employees at the US Foods distribution center at East 18th Street in Tucson have been picketing in shifts since 5 p.m. Thursday. Workers said they plan to have a presence there 24/7 until the company agrees to renew negotiations. In Phoenix, more than 200 warehouse workers, drivers and mechanics are part of the strike, according to a news release. The union is accusing the countrys second-largest food service provider of bargaining in bad faith and discriminating against its union workforce. It has several cases pending against US Foods before the Labor Relations Board. In a statement, US Foods said it was disappointed members had chosen to strike despite ongoing efforts to work with the union to reach an agreement. Our priority right now is on ensuring that we can continue to serve our customers with minimal disruption, the company said. US Foods distributes food to restaurants, hospitals, schools and government institutions. The Tucson distribution center covers a large part of Southern Arizona, including Nogales, Yuma, Green Valley, Sierra Vista and Sells, workers said. The company provides orange and apple juice to Tucson Unified School District, officials said. If the strike is not resolved by the next scheduled delivery, the district will contract with another vendor or make a menu substitution. Local restaurant owners echoed the districts response, saying they use a variety of distributors for their food and the strike would have little noticeable effect on their menus. Union members have been working without a contract since October, when the companys final offer was rejected by the membership, said Kevin Thomas, local teamster representative. Thomas said that while economic issues are significant, it is what the union considers unfair practices that has led to the strike. The language in the contract that the company is not agreeing with is just as important as the pension, health and welfare and the wages, he said. Although US Foods said it remains open to having negotiations with the union, Thomas, who was part of the negotiating committee, said this hasnt been the case. Dear Jeanne & Leonard: A friends father moved into an independent-living facility a few years ago, a facility to which Id like to move my mother. This friend has mentioned that she got a great deal for her father. But when I recently asked her exactly how much he is paying, she wouldnt tell me. The reason, she said, is that in giving her father such a low rate, the facility insisted that she and her father promise not to tell anyone how much hes paying. Im furious. Isnt my friend being disloyal to put some greedy corporation ahead of our friendship? Betrayed, Missouri Dear Betrayed: Take a deep breath and relax. Your friend is not putting a greedy corporation ahead of you; shes putting keeping her word ahead of helping you negotiate with the independent-living facility. She is, in other words, being principled. While one could argue that she neednt feel quite so duty-bound, in no way has your friend betrayed you. She is simply honoring a pledge a pledge she made in order to secure a good deal for her dad and you are wrong to imagine that her friendship with you obligates her to break her word. Dear Jeanne & Leonard: I used to have two roommates, and each of us paid different house bills utilities, cable, etc. The idea was that wed settle with one another at the end of the month and make things square. But one guy would never get around to telling the other two of us how much we owed him, no matter how often we asked. This guy moved out a year ago, but now hes sent me an email asking for over $500 for my share of bills he says he paid. How do I handle this? He didnt include any documentation, and $500 is a huge amount of money for me. I dont want to skip out on a debt. But isnt it a little crazy for him to expect that much money so long after the fact? Also, I never agreed to run a tab; I agreed to pay him monthly. K.C., Los Angeles Dear K.C.: Does he also want interest? Seriously, since this guy waited so long to ask for his money, youre right to want documentation right to want an explanation of where the $500 number came from. If youre not satisfied with his accounting if you honestly believe he spent less than hes telling you the benefit of the doubt goes to you. After all, thered be no uncertainty had he presented a bill when he should have. But you do need to repay the guy. The fact that the debt is stale doesnt erase it. About the books C. J. Box, Off the Grid In this new Joe Pickett novel, Nate Romanowski is off the grid, recuperating from wounds and trying to deal with past crimes. A team of elite professional special operators who say it needs help destroying a domestic terror cell in Wyomings Red Desert surrounds Romanowski. But the operators are not what they seem, as Romanowski's friend Joe Pickett discovers. Douglas Brinkley, "Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America Brinkleys The Wilderness Warrior shared Theodore Roosevelts spirit of outdoor exploration and vision to protect wild America. In Rightful Heritage Brinkley moves to another environmental leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and chronicles his legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps and protector of Americas public lands. Jeffery Deaver, "The Steel Kiss" (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) Although I'm a thriller writer, I believe novels should be about something more not to sell an agenda, but simply to give readers a bit of substance so that the story stays with them after they finish the last page, says Deaver. 'The Steel Kiss is a fast-paced crime story (taking place over just a few days), and features, typically of my books, three surprise endings," Deaver says. But it's also about the responsibility of manufacturing companies to balance profits with consumer safety. (After you read it, you may never get on an escalator or use a microwave again!)," he says. Amy Hatvany, Somewhere Out There I was inspired to write the book because of my cousin, a wonderful, single man who has fostered and adopted several children over the years, and a couple of summers ago, he told me the story of his latest foster child, a young boy who had spent much of his short life in car with his mother, says Hatvany. My cousin's description of this undernourished child's reaction to seeing a pantry full of food 'Is this all ours?' the boy asked as he sat down and began to touch the cans of peaches and boxes of rice. "Do we really get to eat it?" was an image that my heart couldn't shake, and it was from there that the premise for Somewhere Out There was born. J. A. Jance,Clawback Former TV anchor Ali Reynolds sets out to solve the murder of a man whose Ponzi scheme bankrupted hundreds of people including her parents. When Alis parents lose their life savings, her father goes to confront his long-time friend and financial advisor, and walks into the scene of a bloody double homicide. Reynolds has Tucson roots. Jance based the character on popular-with-viewers Patty Weiss, who was ousted from her anchor chair in 2004 as she approached her 30th anniversary of reading the news at a Tucson station. Lisa Lutz, The Passenger Ive been accused of being a crime writer for years, but The Passenger is in fact my first real crime novel, says Lutz. Im incredibly proud of it. Ill leave the rest of my sales pitch for the festival. Heres what weve heard about The Passenger: Its about a woman who creates and sheds new identities as she crisscrosses the country to escape her past. Forty-eight hours after leaving her husbands body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair, demands a new identity over the phone, flees town and hops from city to city with heart-stopping escapes and devious deceptions. John Nichols, "People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy Nichols, who co-authored the book with Robert W. McChesney, explores a brave new post-technology world that threatens to dislocate human workers, causing massive unemployment, and rip the social fabric. Publishers Weekly says the authors argue digital revolution has been world-shaking and ruthlessly efficient, it has fallen short of ushering in the utopia some have predicted, because the ability to determine the future has been concentrated among just a few powerful people. McChesney and Nichols warn of a citizen-less democracy, says Publishers Weekly. This necessary if unsettling read is not an attack on tech, but on dangerous, unchecked capitalism. T. Jefferson Parker, Crazy Blood " Crazy Blood is about two half-brothers who are born and raised with bad blood, and who are ferociously competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic ski team, says Parker. It takes place in the California ski town of Mammoth Lakes, where I've spent quite a bit of time. The novel is about ski racing, but more largely it deals with ambition versus destiny, gifts versus curses, and why some find favor in this life and others don't. Shades of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Parker says. The funny part is Tucson is in the desert (which I love) and the new book, Crazy Blood, is about ski-racing, he says. So all those folks in Tucson for the sun can read my book and shiver again! Chris Pavone, The Travelers" This novel looks like the story of normal guy a travel writer who becomes a spy, says Pavone. But it's really a book about work: about what it is that we do for a living, and for whom, and why. And what do we do if we discover that we've been wrong about all those questions? Bio-Touch: Healing with the Power in our Fingertips by Debra Schildhouse (SelectBooks, Inc., $16.99) In this book, Tucsonan Debra Schildhouse describes how she went from a big-haired blond with a fondness for cosmetics to a Bio-Touch healer, a follower of one-time-hippie, Paul Bucky, who promotes Bio-Magnetic Touch Healing the practice of relieving pain through light, finger-tip touch. Schildhouse relates Buckys story, from a 1970s commune leader to a 21st century alternative medical practitioner, and weaves in her own. After a series of epiphanies, Bucky determined that love and light physical contact could be curative, and he established a healing and teaching practice. In her own story, Schildhouse sought spiritual solace through such practices as astral projection and previous-life regression, but she discovered Bio-Touch after her daughter incurred debilitating pain. She took Buckys course to become a certified practitioner, and now writes for the organization. The book includes anecdotes of patient success and a foreword by UA Heath Sciences Professor Gary E. Schwartz, supporting the efficacy of energy healing. Christine Wald-Hopkins The Cloud Forest by Gail Bornfield (Gail Bornfield, $12) The Three-Wattled Bellbird shows up in this childrens book set in Costa Rica, as do howler monkeys, epiphytes (plants that live on other plants), and the history of Brahman cattle in the country. In The Cloud Forest, long-time Arizona educator Gail Bornfield tells the fictional story of how a group of children organizes to replant fields that had been clear cut, to establish a biological corridor to protect endangered species in their area. She includes color photographs to support her considerable information on the geology, biology, and environmental history of Costa Rica. Christine Wald-Hopkins Quartet for the End of Time by Johanna Skibsrud (Norton, $15.95 paper) A central theme in this haunting, cerebral, enigmatic historical novel is the fluidity of time, often expressed through music. First published in 2014, now issued in paper, the book quotes composer Olivier Messiaen (after whose WW II work its titled) that musical rhythm is a perpetual conversion of the future into the past. UA professor Johanna Skibsrud places four characters in a deliberate miscarriage of justice, and then follows the characters as they deal with its consequences. She takes readers through lesser-known events in U.S. and world history (the most significant, the 1932 Bonus Army March on Washington to pay First World War veterans promised monies). In Quartet for the End of Time, characters struggle with economics and class; with international revolution, religion and spirituality, perceptions of identity and time, and personal responsibility. Though not a simple read, its lyrical, informative, thought-provoking, and affectingparticularly when supplemented by a listen to Messiaens exquisite labor-camp Quartet. Christine Wald-Hopkins A Teachers Tale by Joe Gilliland (True Directions, $ 33.95) It could be called Portrait of an English Teacher as a Young Man. This nicely written memoir chronicles the childhood through early adulthood of retired Cochise College English instructor Joseph Gilliland, from his modest Texas background to his completing a graduate degree and signing of his first contract to teach college English. Gillilands life is representative of 20th century experience and values: his father died during the Great Depression, and his mother opened a boarding house to support her four children. Young Joe peddled magazine subscriptions and did afterschool jobs. He entered the University of Texas intending to become a physician, but his intellect and interests were sparked by his introduction to the humanities. Remarkably specific about teachers, assignments, and teaching styles, this book is a study in effective instruction, and a tribute to teachers who inspired him. Christine Wald-Hopkins Wisdom by Patrick Tylee (Camel Needle and Associates, $16.95) In this sci-fi allegorical tale, Planet Earthor, as the Jovians know it, LittleNoisyBlueBallfeatures in negotiations between the aggressive, hydrogen-scooping Praw-Tangs and the peaceable Knowers of Jupiter. Earth has tribalized itself and incurred nuclear bomb attacks, so its dangerous to itself and to others in the Sol System, but its still rich in resources, so the Jovians are willing to give it up to the rapacious Praw-Tangs. So they send a cloneJove (after all, it comes from the god Jupiter)on a duplicitous savior mission to Earth. Good and Evil, Knowledge and Wisdom all play a role in the action, which is cluttered with many strange-sounding, bizarre-looking beings; and busy starship battles. The central voiceJovesprovides a clarifying home base for the reader, though, and Tylee spices the text with pinches of humor. Christine Wald-Hopkins Hoofprints on the Moon by Patricia Duncan (Good Oak Press, $14.95) Tornado, a rare, white Thoroughbred, and his young rider, Amanda, cant be beat in the show jumping circuit clearing the fences as if imbued with magical powers. The press proclaims the big colt a future world champion. But culprits sabotage Amandas success, including tampering with her tack and poisoning Tornado. Now, the duo is on course to find the villains before its too late. Vicki Ann Duraine Harry Pond Looks Homeward: the Spiritual Adventures of an Ohio Farm Boy By Jay Allan Luboff (All Things that Matter Press, $15.98) Harry Pond returns from Vietnam to find his parents dead and unscrupulous strangers determined to buy up the local propertiesincluding the family farm. With the help of his sister, Harry turns to the Brotherhood of the Light for celestial guidance in saving the land he loves. Vicki Ann Duraine Sonoran Storm: a Wally Webb Mystery by H. Edward Mitchell (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, $12.95) After a car bomb incinerates her estranged husband, Lucinda Vargas hires Private Investigator Wally Webb to solve the case. Before the smoke settles, the crime points to the mafia and drug cartels. Tucson readers will recognize references to local streets and landmarks (including the La Paloma Resort parking lot). Q: We bought a fixer-upper that has 2,300 square feet of Saltillo tile flooring that were going to replace. After remodelers removed the kitchen tile, we realized what a disaster this would be dusty and messy. So how should we go about removing the rest some thats on our concrete slab and some on an underlay? Some people say keep chipping away with a cold chisel; others say theres a machine that will do the job. We plan to remove the rest of the tile ourselves, but well have an expert put in the new flooring. A: Saltillo tile is the messiest tile to remove of all. Id suggest renting an electric chipping hammer from a rental outlet. It will take you some practice though to figure out just how to hold the blade of this machine onto the floor so you will not chip up the concrete when you work on the tile. However, if you do chip up some of the concrete slab, it can be fixed with a concrete patch. Be sure to tell the rental company that you are removing Saltillo tile so that they give you the right type of equipment. While youre working, wear protective knee pads and dust masks, and protect your personal belongings and electronics from the dust that is created. Q: What would cause a house to creak and pop when it is only two years old? We have tried to stop this problem by putting air vents into the roofing; we have had the AC and heating system checked; we had roofing and truss companies out to take a look. It only used to pop when the air conditioning and furnace heat came on, but now it seems to do it at random, especially during warmer weather. A: Your problem is probably related to thermal and humidity issues. This type of popping tends to decrease as the lumber dries out and comes to rest in its final location; that might not have happened yet in your relatively new home. Another possibility is that this noise is due to having the roof sheathing laid so tightly that it creates this sound. If thats true, and the roof is covered with asphalt shingles, you might begin to see small visible ridges in the shingles along the plywood sheathing joint lines. Keep us posted on whether the situation improves. Q: I live in a 1970s-era house retrofitted with can lights in the ceiling. Now Id like to blow insulation into my attic, but Im worried that those can lights might not be thermal-protected and could cause a fire in the attic if I go ahead with the insulation. Can that happen? A: Yes, adding insulation could create a hazard if the can lights are not rated insulation compatible. Heres how to check: Remove the light bulb and look up inside the housing. There should be a label attached to the sheet metal with the rating of the fixture. If you see that IC rating, then the housing is approved for direct contact with insulation. But we like to err on the side of caution. So its best to build mesh cones as a protecting shroud around each fixture as well. Then leave an opening at the top of each cone so the heat can vent. Q: I have a 5-year-old electrically powered air conditioner on my roof as well as having an electrically powered, forced-air furnace. Lately, the blower motor for this system seems to kick on and off 24 hours a day every five minutes. I have the fan set on auto. So whats causing this? A: It could be that you have wiring that is shorting out or you could have a bad fan control. You need an HVAC contractor to find and correct the problem. Miki Odawa dreads the idea of an assisted living facility. Extended care scares the death out of me, says Odawa, 72 and in good health. Its not that she is frightened of growing older and needing help. Its that the help she receives may not embrace who she is: A transgender woman. The thought that I am going to have people who refuse to accept my identity , says the Tucsonan, who cares for her 99-year-old mother. How do I fight that when I am weak and incapable? How do I deal with people who have never seen a trans before? If I come up with a situation like that, it will tear me apart. Odawa isnt alone in her concern. As the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community across the country reaches and creeps past retirement age, many have chosen to climb back into the closet. The fear of being mistreated because of who they are is that great. Thats something Serena Worthington wants to change. Worthington is with the New York City-based organization SAGE (Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders), which advocates on behalf of LGBT seniors. She is in Tucson on Sunday, Feb. 7 speaking at a community forum organized by several local groups intent on building a strong, visible network for LGBT seniors. It is essential to build that support she said, pointing out that without it there is an increased risk of depression, substance abuse, early institutionalization and premature death. Its our shared responsibility to make sure all communities are served, she said in an interview late last month. The community needs to take on that challenge. The numbers are dramatic there are 2.5 million LGBT seniors 65 and older, and thats going to grow because of boomers. It isnt just the fear of mistreatment thats facing that aging population. There are health issues, as well: A major need is getting health care providers and medical institutions to have more welcoming care, said Lavina Tomer, 66, chair of Southern Arizona Senior Pride, one of the forums sponsors. For example, she said, Lesbians have a high incidence of breast cancer, but they dont always feel comfortable coming out to their doctors. Its changing, but its nowhere near where it needs to be. We are still a hidden population of people. We need all sorts of health care, and people are still prejudiced against us. Health issues are compounded for transgender people. Transgender people really struggle with this, said Worthington. They need competent health care, but also somebody who is understanding of diverse bodies. A trans woman, for instance, might need a prostate exam. If extended care is necessary for someone like Odawa, there can be threatening moments. I have male body parts, she said. You dont know that when Im walking down the street, but youll find out when you have to change my diaper. LGBT seniors also face increasing isolation. Many people lost groups of friends that they should have been growing old with, said Worthington. They may not have children, which provide a layer of care, or may be disenfranchised from their families. Safe housing is another issue, added Tomer. I just met a woman who lives in subsidized housing, she said. The woman is lesbian and proud. She puts out things on her door, rainbow colors or some kind of statement that says Im a lesbian, and people tear them down and make snide remarks. She doesnt feel safe. Our families have rejected us, our church has rejected us, and we dont have the same kind of network, said Tomer. We rely on friends and resources, and if they are not visible, we will not pursue them. Even for out and proud elders, there can be hesitation. Dea Brasgalla is 82 and has been out since 1955, when she told a fellow nurse she was a lesbian and was promptly fired. She lives alone in a cozy central Tucson home. She has osteoporosis and looks frail, but Brasgalla has an inner strength that has allowed her to care for herself while she actively volunteers in political campaigns and reaches out to others with advice and spiritual guidance (she is an ordained minister). She understands that transparency about your sexuality isnt for everyone. It takes a long time for people to get where I am, she said. Those in the closet are so fearful. Still, she says, she has a pulmonologist who doesnt know her sexual orientation. And there are others she hasnt told. I wouldnt come out unless asked, she said. They would just shun you. While more and more resources are available to LGBT seniors, they wont do much good unless they reach those who need them. A network of Southern Arizona organizations is actively trying to change things for the aging LGBT community. Two years ago, the Pima Council on Aging launched its Project Visibility program, a training program for the staffs of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home care agencies. It encompasses terminology, history, personal stories and suggestions on how to provide a welcoming environment to LGBT people. Tucsonan Robert Bell, vice chair of Senior Pride, is a volunteer in the program and regularly conducts training to sensitize staff to LGBT issues. Its important that we get people trained and understanding us before we need it, he said. The response from caretakers is often confusion, the 68-year-old said. They say We treat everyone the same, so its not an issue. Well, it is an issue. Others dont have the same fear of being who they are found out, and being rejected and abused because of it. He recently addressed a staff of 60 at a 200-bed elderly care facility in Tucson. I asked how many LGBT people are here. We dont have any, they said. I said, Well, you do. That you dont know is the problem, and thats one of the reasons Im here. He doesnt believe its willful ignorance. Its the classical definition of now knowing, says Bell, a retired lawyer. To explain to them what the issues are, their eyes open. Its something they hadnt thought of before. When the training is complete, the facility is given a pink triangle door sticker indicating a sensitivity toward LGBT people. I tell you, if I had to go into an extended care facility and saw that on the door, my shoulders would drop. I would be much more relaxed. Odawa, too, works to reach out and sensitize people through her volunteer work with the Arizona Gender Alliance, of which she is president. Its important that we get people trained and understanding us before we need it, Odawa said. When Im at my most vulnerable is not the time I want to educate someone. Tomer said activities such as todays forum, and the outreach done by organizations like Senior Pride and PCOA, are working to up the understanding of and accessibility for LGBT seniors. In the end, said Odawa, what LGBT seniors want is nothing extraordinary: We want what everyone else does, she said. Dignity, care, respect. What everyone wants. A female University of Arizona student reported being assaulted by an unknown man near a student union. The woman told UA police she was walking near the Park Student Union, 615 N. Park Ave., around 5:40 a.m. Friday when a man approached her and touched her breast with his hand through her clothing, UA police said in a news release Friday. She described the man as about six feet tall with a blanket draped over his shoulders, police said. Congressman Raul Grijalva might have something to worry about if you could elect a breakfast staple to Congress. An anonymous group has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Committee in Congressional District 3, calling itself Eat Bacon. Unfortunately, before you get your cardiologist on board to support the new candidate, know that the address used on the FEC filings are for an empty lot in a gate community in CD3 and none of the names associated with the campaign could be independently verified. A person claiming to represent the campaign acknowledged the campaign was a viral prank and was the same group that fabricated the Mr. Bean campaign in neighboring Congressional District 2. The spokesperson, described the campaigns as political statements, both as a prank as well as an actual test to see how informed voters are in Tucson. For those wondering, Eat Bacon is neither a Democrat or Republican, the pranksters told the FEC that they were an independent. Unfortunately, the whole campaign is just hogwash. As the midterm elections come ever closer, it can feel as if were stewing in a cauldron of tribalism, of our side vs. their side with no middle ground and little agreement on much of anything. That makes it a good time to take a breath and realize the consensus weve reached on some issues that were incredibly contentious not long ago. It gives us hope in the angry days ahead. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. US congressman Adam Schiff, in an exclusive interview with Asbarez Editor Ara Khachatourian for Horizon Live on February 5 condemned Azerbaijani aggression against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and called out OSCE Minsk Group US Co-Chairman James Warlicks false parity in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenpress reports. Schiff emphasized that while Warlick announced during his speeches as if the 2 sides make violence and thus violate the ceasefire regime but the reality is that Azerbaijan is the party responsible for all this. I wrote the ambassador in September 2015, expressing my concern about this equality policy, as the mentioned actions are not equivalent. Azerbaijan fires from mortars, has snipers who kill soldiers in Nagorno Karabakh which is too dangerous, Schiff said adding that it is extremely significant for Warlick to make clearer statements. In the interview, Schiff also discussed the increasing evidence proving Turkeys role in the proliferation of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. As for President Obamas pledge to call the events of 1915 Genocide, the Congressman said that despite Armenian-Americans frustration with the administration, it was still important for the president to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and articulate US policy. Speaking on the promises of the candidates on recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the frames of US presidential election campaign, Schiff mentioned that, taking into account the experience of previous years, he has skeptical approach to such promises. You dont have to fight the crowds at the gem show tents to see specimens of gold, azurite, pink morganite, beryl, tourmaline, fluorapatite, babingtonite, wulfenite, bornite and exceedingly rare spangolite. Specimens from the Harvard Collection are on display at Flandrau Science Center, beginning Saturday and continuing to the end of the year. The amazing minerals were collected by the Mineral and Geological Museum at Harvard University over a span of 232 years, beginning in 1784 at the direction of John Adams. As a result of its longevity, it has one of the best, if not the best, collection of minerals from the Northeast of any museum in the world. Kevin Czaja, the research and curatorial assistant who accompanied the collection to Tucson, said he thinks Harvards is the best, though the folks at the Smithsonian would disagree. Czaja visits Tucson yearly to do some specimen hunting for the museum and usually brings a small display of its riches to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. This is Herculean compared to what we normally do, he said. Instead of personally escorting the gems, this time he shipped them with Brinks security company. Among the Northeastern treasures on display at Flandrau are fluorescent minerals from the zinc and manganese mines of Franklin, New Jersey, where more than 300 varieties of mineral have been unearthed over the centuries. Manganese activates the fluorescence of the rocks and they are displayed in a case that can be illuminated in ultraviolet light, which reveals their brilliant and varied colors. The biggest specimen in the display, weighing in at 150 pounds, is the Fleur de Lis a deep-red elbaite (tourmaline) crystal, cradled by giant crystal specimens of albite and quartz. A historical display features the transcript of the trial of Harvard chemistry Prof. John W. Webster for the murder of Dr. George Parkman. Czaja said Webster was the first American to be convicted of murder using circumstantial evidence. He and Parkman had quarreled over the museums finances. Some of Parkmans remains were later found in the buildings furnace; some bones were found in specimen drawers. The special exhibit and the permanent University of Arizona Mineral Museum exhibit are included in the price of admission. Democratic candidate for Arizona governor Katie Hobbs has gotten her wish for separate televised interviews of herself and her Republican opponent Kari Lake, but only after a media circus last week orchestrated by the Lake campaign. Hobbs had pitched the separate interviews as an alternative to participating in the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate, [] The post Cronkite: Avoid campus during Katie Hobbs interview appeared first on Arizona Mirror. PHOENIX Nearly two decades after voters blocked state lawmakers from tinkering with ballot measures, the Legislature is trying to take the power back. A measure crafted by Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, would allow lawmakers to update, alter and even repeal what voters enact as long as they do it by the same margin the measure was enacted. So if a proposal gets the approval of 60 percent of voters, it could be repealed by 18 of the 30 senators and 36 of 60 representatives. What it also means, said Mesnard, is if something was approved at the ballot by a bare majority, it then could be undone by a simple majority of lawmakers. Now it requires the consent of three-fourths of both chambers, meaning 23 senators and 45 representatives. Potentially more significant, what would allow that to happen is the other half of what is in HCR 2043: It would remove the constitutional requirement that lawmakers can only make changes that further the purpose of what voters approved in the first place. Mesnard is not alone in his bid to undo some of the rights in the Voter Protection Act. Rep. Bob Thorpe, R-Flagstaff, has a similar measure. His HCR 2023 would both repeal the further the purpose language and allow changes or repeal with a three-fifths margin instead of three-fourths. Thorpe also proposes to put new hurdles in the path of those who want to propose their own laws. HCR 2047 would allow measures on the ballot only if at least 25 percent of the signatures came from the 13 rural counties. Thorpe said its not right that initiative backers can get all the signatures they need to propose changes in the law from the two urban counties. And Thorpe is throwing a specific roadblock in the path of those now out gathering signatures to allow Arizonans to use marijuana for recreational purposes. HCR 2024 would say that a simple majority of those who go to the polls in November would not be good enough to make that change. Instead, drugs considered illegal by federal law would be allowed in Arizona only if the measure gets a three-fifths vote, which the 2010 medical marijuana law did not get. The safeguard in all this is that all four measures, if they survive the legislative process, could take effect only if approved by voters in November. At issue is the ongoing tension between the century-old right of voters to make their own laws and some legislators contention that they need better control over the laws. That tension came into focus in 1996 when voters approved the first medical marijuana law. But the next year, the Legislature, contending voters may not have understood the implications, effectively repealed it. That so angered supporters of the law they got voters in 1998 to overturn the 1997 legislative repeal. More significant, they put another measure on the ballot to say that changes of voter-approved measure can be made only if they further the purpose, and only with that three-fourths vote. That became known as the Voter Protection Act. Mesnard said thats not workable. He said hes not against direct democracy that allows voters to propose their own laws when the Legislature refuses to act. But there has to be an acknowledgement that times change, he said. The current system under the Voter Protection Act means if lawmakers believe an initiative is no longer workable, the only way to alter or repeal it is to take it back to voters. Mesnard said thats not practical. Our ballot is often one of the longest in the country, he said. Mesnard also contends that many voters who support some change may not be aware that the Voter Protection Act means what they approve is locked in stone for all practical purposes. His measure does retain the requirement for changes to further the purpose of an original measure but only if that was approved in the first place by two-thirds of the voters. That almost never happens. In 2006, for example, voters overwhelmingly approved laws making it illegal to confine a pig during pregnancy or any calf raised for veal for the majority of the day in any manner that precludes it from lying down, fully extending limbs or turning around freely. It got close to 62 percent of the vote. That same year voters created a state minimum wage higher than what federal law requires. But it got 65.4 percent of the vote. Thorpes parallel proposal says lawmakers can ignore the furthers the purpose language even if something is approved overwhelmingly at the ballot. But he would keep the requirement for a supermajority vote, albeit just three-fifths of the Legislature versus the current three-fourths hurdle. Thorpes proposal is more far-reaching in one respect: What Mesnard wants would affect only future measures; Thorpes is retroactive, allowing lawmakers to alter anything approved by voters in the past. Like Mesnard, Thorpe says lawmakers need more leeway to make changes. We are the legislative branch of the government, he said. Thats our job to deal with legislation. And Thorpe contends its far too easy for bad law to slip through. You could have a kid in sixth grade write a referendum. And if its marketed correctly to the voters it could get passed without any kind of oversight, any kind of vetting, Thorpe said. That ease of getting things approved is whats behind Thorpes measure, which is aimed squarely at the recreational marijuana initiative. He said anything that allows Arizonans to use drugs the federal government thinks have no useful purpose should require more than a simple majority. That hurdle could be impossible to overcome: The 2010 medical marijuana initiative passed with just a 50.1 percent margin. It was defeated in 13 of the states 15 counties but carried only because of a large pro-marijuana vote in Pima and Coconino counties. Authorities say a World War II-era plane has crashed near the town of Maricopa, about 35 miles south of Phoenix. Mark Clark of the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said authorities initially confirmed that one person died in the crash of the vintage airplane. Hours later, the office clarified that although the plane was listed as a single-seat aircraft, "when the wreckage was recovered, a second victim was found. There are now two deceased persons in this crash," Clark said in a news release Friday night. Victims' identities will be released after family notifications are made, he said. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said preliminary information on the crash indicated the plane was a P-51D Mustang, a type of single-engine American fighter used during World War II. Gregor said the preliminary information indicated the plane caught fire after crashing. The spokesman said the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash. Help India! In the third of the five personal stories of half widows, Raqib Hameed Naik narrates the story of Rafiqa Mushtaq. Tengpora (Srinagar): On the late evening of Sunday, April 13 1997, Rafiqa Mushtaq, then 23, was feeling exhausted after spending the day cleaning her house in Tengpora locality of Srinagar for Eid-Al-Adha which was due to be celebrated after four days. After serving an early dinner, she put her infant son to sleep while two other sons had already slept beside their father, Mushtaq Ahmed Khan. Support TwoCircles Mushtaq Ahmed Khan Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, 25 was working as a daily wage employee in Jammu and Kashmir forest department. Even as insurgency and subsequent government forces crackdowns in valley rose to its peak in 1990s, he was quite optimistic that it wont affect the people leading normal lives. Destiny, however, had planned something far more sinister. At around 10 PM, when all the family members had gone to sleep, army men from 20th Grenadiers Rashtriya Rifle under the command of its officer, Nazar Mohammad arrived in Tengpora and drove straight towards his house. The moment they entered the house, the whole neighborhood woke up to the cries of Khans. The army men thrashed the entire family. They didnt even spare the women and my four-year-old son. After taking my husband to a separate room, they locked me and my kids in one room and my in-laws in other room, recalls Rafiqa. The army men took his husband to another room where the brutal torture began, with neighboring alleys reverberating with his cries. To stop him from crying out loud, they stuffed dining spread into his mouth and then poured water on it, says Rafiqa. After two hours of interrogation, the army men took Mushtaq to the neighboring house of his close friend Mushtaq Ahmed Dar, 19. Both had the same first names, and both faced the same questions: Samaan Kahan hai (Where is the ammunition?), to which they replied negatively thus irking the soldiers leading to continuous excruciating physical torture. The interrogation continued unabated till early morning until the call for morning prayers (Azaan), following which they were taken to their camp in Boatmen Colony in Bemina, Srinagar. We were locked in the rooms. when soldiers left, our neighbors came to unlock us but unfortunately my husband was taken by them, says Rafiqa as her face turns pale. After a sleepless night, she along with her parents and in-laws went early morning to meet the army officer Nazar Mohammad in their camp in Boatmen Colony, When we went there, he acknowledged picking him up and he said that he will release him soon. As days turned into weeks, her husband didnt return, prompting her to once again knock the gates of army camp but to her utter shock, the concerned army officer was transferred whereas the new officer, in a repeat of what we saw in Part One and Part Two , the officers denied the presence of her husband in custody. The day marked the beginning of intense search for him across the torture centers, camps and police stations across Kashmir. Rafiqa Mushtaq I am not able to understand what they did to my husband. Is human life so cheap in this part of the globe? asks Rafiqa. After months of intense search refused to yield any result, she decided to knock the doors of judiciary. Nineteen years later, her husbands involuntary and enforced disappearance the case in court stays in limbo. She was left with three sons and a daughter, who was born a few months after her fathers disappearance. We were/are poor people and the little salary which my husband used to earn was the only source of income for us which sustained us. But after he went missing, we were left at the mercy of God as my father-in-law was a poor farmer who could barely sustain us, she said. A decade after her husbands disappearance, Rafiqa was paid an ex-gratia amount of Rs 1 lakh and a promise of the lowest rank of nongazetted job for her son under the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) 43 notified by J&K government in 1994. However, these turned out to be fake promises. These cases are screened by district screening-cum-coordination committees (DSCCC) constituted at district level by the government. The amount has to be refunded back if the victim turns out to be alive. Rs 1 lakh was a big prank played on us. The government divides amount into many parts. One part is paid to the parents of victims, some part is kept fixed in bank account for children and the remaining is left for the wife. They did not even provide a job to my son, Rafiqa says. The struggle after disappearance With almost zero money and three children to feed, Rafiqa sought help of her father who was a farmer in Batamaloo. He single-handedly took care of their expenses all through these years, besides taking whole responsibility of financing the education of her children. I am indebted to my father who helped me when I was in dire need. Her in-laws tried to undermine the property rights of her children as they asked her to leave the house after Mushtaq went missing. However, Rafiqa was adamant that her receive their right over the property and put a brave face and continuously struggled for 14 years. The future of my children was our (Rafiqa and Mushtaqs) first preference and we both used to talk about it when he was with us. After he went missing, my in-laws tried to snatch away the rights of my children over the property, but I fought because I didnt want my children to suffer like me, says Rafiqa. Rafiqa and her daugther Farzana It was usual for them to ask me and my children to vacate their place over minor issues, she adds. In 2014, Rafiqa asked the Mohallah Panchayat to intervene in the matter, after which the Panchayat directed the in-laws to pay the decided amount so that she could construct a new house. The amount was later given to her and presently, the construction of a new house, though slow, is in progress. I didnt relent and I was adamant in my stand which finally led them to admit our rights. Two of her sons, Amir Khan, 23 and Sameer, 21, dropped out after finishing their Class 12 exams to help construct their new house, so as to save labour costs. They expect to get jobs soon so as to better the financial condition of their family. Meanwhile, Rafiqas younger son Faisal and daughter Farzana are still studying in 10thstandard and are hopeful of getting admission in some professional college in Kashmir after finishing their senior secondary. I grew up without the shadow of my father. This reality pinches me whenever I think about it, but fortunately time is a good healer so things are getting better than before. But the question always resonates in my mind: what did they do to my father? asks Rafiqas daughter Farzana. I want him to come back and I am hopeful he will come back, she adds. For Rafiqa, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) co-founder Parveen Ahangar, whom she lovingly calls Jiji is everything. Jiji is more than my mother, my sister. She is my friend with whom I share my pain. Whenever I am in dire need of anything, she comes to my rescue. She is like a messenger for me, Like other half widows, every month on the 10th, Rafiqa travels 10 kms from her home in Mahrajapur, Batamaloo to Pratap Park near Lal Chowk to take part in the silent sit in with relatives of the other missing persons. I have never missed a month when I havent visited the park. It is a place where I came across cases similar to me. We all share and grieve our pains together which somehow reduces the pain of longing from our hearts. Rafiqa, her three sons and a daughter are still affirmative that one day Mushtaq will return back to home in good health but they are aware of the reality that he might never come, We have left everything on God, all we can do now is hope, Farzana adds. Read Part-I here: Armed with a pictures that tell a thousand words: The protestors of Pratap Park Read Part-II here: The half widows of Kashmir: A story of endless wait and hardships Watch Short Film here: Half Widows of Kashmir Read Part-III here: Married at 17, Half widowed at 18: Safiya Azad continues to wait even after 23 years Read Part-III (2) here: 19 years and counting: the tale of Naseema Begums wait for her missing husband YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. President Serzh Sargsyan paid a working visit to Syunik Province on February 6. As Armenpress was informed from the Department of Public Relations and Mass Media of Republic of Armenia Presidents Office, the President attended the opening ceremony of the 14th provincial medical center in Meghri, which was constructed within the framework of the Presidents assignment aimed at proportional development of provinces. Regional medical center of Meghri came into existence as a result of merging of Meghri medical center and Agarak hospital CJSC, while preserving the entire medical staff. The modernized and newly opened medical center will give the residents of Meghri region and opportunity to receive modern, high-quality and affordable medical service. Nearly 1.62 billion drams was invested in this medical center by the Government of Armenia and World Bank. Afterwards, the President of the Republic left for Kajaran, where he attended the opening ceremony of a newly reconstructed kindergarten funded by Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine. The reconstruction was worth 190 million drams. According to relevant officials, the operation of the kindergarten will solve the primary school attendance problem for 90 children, as well as will create 40 jobs. The President also visited Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine, where the development projects of the Combine, investments, as well as the conditions created for the employees of the Combine were introduced to him. Serzh Sargsyan toured in the Combine, got acquainted to the works implemented recently for raising the productivity of the company and effectiveness of management, as well as to urban, environmental and charity projects carried out by the Combine. Serzh Sargsyan chaired a consultation at Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine, during which he expressed satisfaction with works carried out by the Combine. He stated that without those works the company would have faced much more hardships under the light of decline in metal prices. President Sargsyan drew parallels between today and 2008-2009, when similar hardships had occurred, expressing conviction that current hardships will also be overcome. We have great mining potentials and the companies operating today must continue their works, even if they have to work without profits or below cost-price, comprehending that doing it they not only solve social issues, but, lets say, prepare to gain back the benefits of their tomorrows activities. The President added that the state has always tried to assist major companies, as they are the ground of our state budget. Within the framework of the visit to Syunik Province, the President also attended the opening ceremony of Kapan territorial tax inspectorates new branch. The Lunar New Year is just around the corner, and Singapore is always abuzz with lively festivals, thrilling parades and larger-than-life lanterns during this multi-day festival. Still figuring out how to usher in the Year of the Monkey in 2016? Check out Skyscanner s list of things to do this Chinese New Year for inspiration! 1. Visit River Hongbao This iconic riverside festival is an annual staple in Singapore's calendar of events and to celebrate the event's 30th anniversary, it's going to be an extravaganza of fireworks and performances for 9 consecutive days! Get ready for amusement rides and mouth-watering food at every turn. The legendary Monkey King himself will even be making an appearance, as performed by the highly acclaimed Song and Dance Theater in Nanjing City. With a fantastic line up that changes nightly, its the perfect way to usher in the Lunar New Year for locals and tourists alike. And of course, no River Hongbao experience is complete without catching your lucky numbers from the God of Fortune, who'll be standing at an impressive 18 meters this year! Where: Marina Bay Floating Platform When: 6 - 14 February; fireworks at 12 midnight on the eve of Chinese New Year, 9pm on all other days Website: here Admission is free Marina Bay Floating Platform6 - 14 February; fireworks at 12 midnight on the eve of Chinese New Year, 9pm on all other days Usher in the Lunar New Year at River Hongbao. Photo credit: River Hongbao 2. Watch the Chingay Parade Soak up the festive spirit at Singapores biggest street parade! With over 11,000 performers, eye-popping costumes and exuberantly colourful floats, this joyous multicultural celebration is sure to be a feast for all the senses. Where else could you find fiery dragon dancers, intrepid acrobats and impossibly graceful wushu masters? This brilliant spectacle of music, dance and pyrotechnics makes for the perfect family outing. Where: F1 Pit Building, 1 Republic Boulevard When: 19 20 February 2016 Timing: 8pm (Pre-Parade: 7pm) Tickets: $28.50 $60 Get your tickets here F1 Pit Building, 1 Republic Boulevard19 20 February 20168pm (Pre-Parade: 7pm)$28.50 $60 Get ready for epic lion dances at Chingay Parade. Photo credit: YourSingapore 3. Indulge in a Chinese New Year feast Not in the mood to cook up a storm for your reunion dinner? With so many tantalizing Chinese New Year buffets around town, you dont have to! Our top pick? The lunar new year buffet at Carlton Hotel Singapore's Cafe Mosaic. The buffet includes fresh seafood such as oysters, half shell queen scallops, and barbecued favourites such as suckling pig and roasted crispy belly pork. Other traditional dishes on the menu include Peking duck, longevity buns, and sweet treats like pineapple tarts and nian gao! If that isn't enough, you'll even be provided with a complimentary platter of Yu Sheng to celebrate the festivities! Let the feasting begin! Where: Carlton Hotel Singapore, 76 Bras Basah Road Singapore 189558 When: 7 - 9 February, lunch buffet 12pm - 2:30pm and dinner buffet from 6:30pm - 10:30pm Prices: $68 - $88 (adult), $34 - $44 (child) Early bird special: 15% off Lunar New Year Buffet Lunch & Dinner from 7 9 February 2016 with reservations and full payment by 31 January 2016 For reservations: call Cafe Mosaic at 6311 8195 or email cafe.mosaic@carltonhotel.sg Website here Carlton Hotel Singapore, 76 Bras Basah Road Singapore 1895587 - 9 February, lunch buffet 12pm - 2:30pm and dinner buffet from 6:30pm - 10:30pm$68 - $88 (adult), $34 - $44 (child)15% off Lunar New Year Buffet Lunch & Dinner from 7 9 February 2016 with reservations and full payment by 31 January 2016call Cafe Mosaic at 6311 8195 or email cafe.mosaic@carltonhotel.sg Dig into a delicious Chinese New Year feast. Photo Credit: Carlton Hotel Singapore 4. Explore a bustling Chinatown Chinatown truly comes alive during the Lunar New Year festivities. Dive into Chinatowns bustling streets for a one-stop shopping experience at the Festive Street Bazaar, the best place to buy all your Chinese New Year goodies from pineapple tarts and peanut cookies to waxed duck meat. But theres loads more to explore besides food! Get lost in a sea of handmade lanterns, bright lights and unique decorations as you wander through the hundreds of vibrant, rowdy stalls. Be sure not to miss out on the official opening and light up ceremony, held on the evening of 16 January, as well as the Chinese New Year countdown party on 7 February! Festive Bazaar : Where: Pagoda Street, Smith Street, Sago Street, Temple Street and Trengganu Street When: 15 January 7 February, 6:00pm - 10:30pm (daily), 6:00pm - 1:00am (Chinese New Year's Eve) Official opening and light up ceremony: Where: New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street When: 16 January, 6:00pm - 10:00pm Countdown party: Where: New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street When: 7 February, 9:30pm - 12:30am Website here : Where: Pagoda Street, Smith Street, Sago Street, Temple Street and Trengganu Street When: 15 January 7 February, 6:00pm - 10:30pm (daily), 6:00pm - 1:00am (Chinese New Year's Eve)Where: New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street When: 16 January, 6:00pm - 10:00pmWhere: New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street When: 7 February, 9:30pm - 12:30am Shop till you drop at the Chinatown Festive Bazaar! Photo Credit: Akuppa John Wigham 5. Catch a show at Esplanade's Huayi Festival If youre feeling artsy, grab a ticket to Huayi Festival, which showcases traditional and cutting-edge works by Chinese artists. With dozens of theatre, music and dance performances to choose from, its every culture buffs dream. Highlights include Beyond Time, by Taiwanese group U-Theatre, which combines drumming and dance for a performance that is both exciting and meditative. Theres even an interactive theatre piece for kids. What better way to usher in the new year? Where: The Esplanade When: 12 21 February 2016 See the full lineup and get tickets here The Esplanade12 21 February 2016 Usher in the New Year with Beyond Time's contemplative drum and dance piece, a treat for the senses. Photo Credit: Esplanade These are the worst people in Britain It's Official: These Are The Worst People In Britain If youre a white man in your twenties reading this, weve got some bad news for you: the rest of the country thinks that youre an awful human being. While this might seem a little harsh, its borne out by the latest research from YouGov. As part of the polling organisations Prejudice In Britain report, they quizzed a variety of socio-economic groups about how they viewed other distinct groups within British society, and asked them to score how likely they thought they were to display various attributes (intelligence, honesty, good manners) or indulge in anti-social activities (violence, taking drugs, being promiscuous, frequently getting drunk, bunking their fare on public transport etc). The full scoring system and charts are explained on the YouGov site, but the table makes grim reading for the UKs young white men. Overall, they come a full 11 points ahead of their nearest rival in the bad citizen league, coming in first place specifically for drug taking, promiscuity (miles ahead), frequent binge drinking (the only people even slightly near them here are "white women in their twenties"). For "being hard working", theyre only saved from coming bottom of the league by the perception that Muslim women in their sixties do even less graft (which, given that theyre over the age of retirement, seems fair enough). So how fair, or realistic is this data? YouGov claim that they corrected their research methods to allow for respondents giving what they felt was a politically correct or expected answer to each question, so the results should accurately reflect what people really think. And drilling down into the numbers, its clear that some element of racism is likely to be present in these stereotypes (Ukip voters imagine there to be a much larger gulf between the intelligence of Muslims and Chinese people than Conservative or Labour voters think there is, for example). And there are certain findings which are clearly out of touch with reality those who scored white women in their sixties as top of the tree for good manners and helping others have clearly never tried to board a bus or sit in a doctors waiting room during working hours. But there are other perceptions that whether fair or not have strongly taken root and impact on the real world. For instance, a side-by-side comparison of young Polish men with young white British men, shows them to be level pegging on honesty and intelligence, but with the Poles scoring significantly higher for being polite and helpful, and a whopping 100% ahead for being hardworking. "Maybe its a myth that young Poles coming to Britain work harder than white Britons who are born here," writes YouGov head Peter Kellner. "But if it is a myth, it is one that seems to have put down deep roots. If, as seems likely, it is one that is believed not just by the general public but by employers from company executives to householders looking for a plumber then the lesson is clear. Changing the welfare rules is unlikely to stem the phenomenon of Polish men 'taking' jobs from white Britons. The reputation of young white men must improve substantially." Kellner also points out that the variations in how we view each other in this country are "not just big, but complex". The UK has largely proven resistant to the kind of far-right populism that is rising across mainland Europe (groups like the Front National in France, and Jobbik in Hungary are serious electoral forces), many relatively recent migrant groups like the Chinese and certain Pakistani demographics are viewed extremely positively, and when we do hold a negative perception of another group, gender seems to be as much of a factor as race, ethnicity or religion. But the fact remains that young white men are lagging behind many come from families and areas that have been hit disproportionately hard by changes in the workplace and industry, and a concerted effort is needed at the earliest possible point to improve their lot (better teachers and longer days, according to this article). There is some cause for hope Kellner points out that had the survey been run in previous decades, the gap between ethnic groups would have been even larger, and more traditionally racist. "But it is still too wide for comfort. Perhaps the starting point for narrowing it further is an honest debate about the extent to which we need to change perceptions and the extent to which we need to change reality." RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL THE president of Bougainville, John Momis, says he doesn't mind the Papua New Guinea prime minister, Peter O'Neill, assuming the Bougainville Affairs portfolio in the PNG government. Mr O'Neill stepped in last month replacing Steven Kama who is recovering from an illness. The PNG prime minister has promised to honour the role and Mr Momis, who leads the autonomous Bougainville government, said the advantage is that the buck stops with Mr O'Neill, so there can be no excuses. But he said the PNG leader already has a heavy workload. It was a shockfor many after former half term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin decided to endorse Donald Trump for president. Most political pundits thought Palin would side with the conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, but it appears there is no love lost between the two. When Palin threw her support to Trump just two weeks ago, many questions were raised as to whether or not her endorsement would help his campaign. Just hours after her announcement, news broke out of Wasilla, Alaska of her son's arrest on charges of domestic violence against a female. Palin has since been widely criticized, with some wondering if she was part of the reason for Trump's second place finish at the Iowa caucus. The big winner was Cruz, and as expected, the Trump campaign is firing back, as witnessed on Palin's official Facebook page on Feb. 3. Palin on the attack "Thank heavens Donald Trump opened so many eyes to the lies, corruption and total lack of accountability that come so naturally to the permanent political class," Palin wrote on Facebook Wednesday afternoon. The failed 2008 vice presidential candidate went on tocite an old quote by Cruz, who had demanded for the "accountability and truth" in government. Palin went on to say that it "saddens" conservatives to witness the "lack of accountability" and "lies" that she believes are coming from the Cruz campaign. Palin then turned her attention to Cruz's campaign chairman Rep. Steve King, who she accused of "lying" about a reported incident involving the Cruz campaign allegedly spreading rumors of Carson's exit from the race in an attempt to get votes during the caucus. "Cruz. That's a dirty trick," Palin said, "The voters deserved better!" In closing, Palin insulted Cruz in the worst way possible in the eyes of conservative voters; she compared him to President Obama. "The Cruz Campaign's actions to destroy a good man's efforts to serve are no different than Obama's practice of not holding anyone accountable," she said of Cruz, stating, "Typical politics. Typical politicians." Looking ahead Cruz's win in Iowa didn't come as a surprise to many as Hawkeye State Republicans often swing to more Tea Party and Evanleglical conservatives. Following Trump's defeat in Iowa, Palin appeared to be critical of the former host of "The Apprentice," stating that he needed to be more conservative to win the state. The New Hampshire primary, which takes place this Tuesday, is expected to be a good night for Trump as recent polls show he has a lead of over 20 points against his GOP rivals. We use cookies and similar technologies to personalize contents and ads, to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. We also share some information about the way you use our site with our partners who deal with web analytics, advertising and social media content: our partners may combine it with other information that you have provided them or that they have collected from the use of their services. To find out in detail which cookies we use on the site, read our Cookie Policy . You can consent to the use of these technologies by clicking the "Accept" button on this banner or you can close it by clicking on the "X", in this case the default settings will be maintained and that does not allow the use of cookies or other tracking tools other than technologycal ones. To change your choices at any time, click on Tracking Management. A good and effective law to fight terrorism Updated: 2016-02-06 08:34 By Hu Aimin(China Daily) Border police officers conduct an anti-terror drill in Bortala, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, this month. The top legislature passed the country's first anti-terrorism law on Sunday, together with several other laws. ZHANG JIA/XINHUA China is a victim of terrorism, and to fight the menace and better protect its national interests, it has been strengthening its security measures. And with security concerns intensifying within and outside the country, China has enacted a law to fight terrorism. Chinese lawmakers should be applauded for having worked tirelessly to draft the country's first counter-terrorism law, which was passed by the National People's Congress Standing Committee late last year and took effect on Jan 1 this year. This highly anticipated law will provide legal support to China's fight against terrorism, including cooperation with the international community. Although a recent poll showed most Chinese people support the law, some countries and their media outlets have voiced "concerns", alleging the law is "controversial", "will do more harm than good against the threat of terrorism", and claiming it could restrict freedom of expression and association, and constrict some country's trade with and investments in China. Needless to say, such remarks and allegations are groundless. The new law, inspired by some foreign laws, clearly defines "terrorism" as any proposition or activity that "infringes on personal and property rights, and menaces government organs and international organizations". It tells the world that taking measures to prevent the spread of and cracking down on terrorism amounts to safeguarding human rights. The Chinese lawmakers have been reiterating that the principle of this law is to regulate the process of carrying out the law and preventing people's legal rights from being violated. So any worry about human rights violation is unnecessary. 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. He turned around and replied, Olsem Matthew 7:7 tok ask and you shall receive olsem na mi askim tasol. Matthew 7.7 says ask and you shall receive and I was just asking. On our way out with our Ice creams, we were approached by a scruffy looking young man. He asked if we could help him with a kina. We said, Mipla nogat mani ya, mipla no wokmeri and we walked passed him. We dont have money, were not working women. The sun was hot so we decided to stop for Ice cream at Bintangor Trading, just opposite the Bird of Paradise Hotel. TWO weeks ago, I travelled to Goroka from Kainantu. I caught up with friends and we hung out in town doing mostly just what straight out of Uni job hunting young girls would do - eye shopping and people-watching. Doesnt the same Bible also teach that one has to sweat in order to survive? When you sweat, thats when Matthew 7:7 comes in. You sweat first, then you ask the Lord and He will bless you with more. The sad truth is that it is not only scruffy looking people on the streets who use the Bible to beg. I know of a strong Christian family, who faithfully attends church, who go from house to house asking for money and food, each time quoting a bible text or two. Ive also come across many families in Papua New Guinea who think they can quote the bible and be given things on a golden bowl. People think they can easily make someone feel obligated to the Bible. It is a common misunderstanding that only encourages nothing but laziness. Obligation to the Bible is an individual choice. You shouldnt be forced to feel or think that its compulsory. Beggars sit on the street, enter peoples houses or approach shoppers expecting to be given hand-outs based upon this misinterpretation. Yes, the Bible teaches us to share and help those in need but it also teaches against laziness. Its all in the Proverbs. The Bible also gives us the power of choice. So sharing and helping those in need is ones own choice to make. You can choose either to help others or not. The choice is in your hands and not in the hands of those who wrongly perceive the teachings of the Bible. The most remarkable thing about them is that they were taken using a Kodak Box Brownie and the produced using river water in the wilds of New Guinea. I have tried over the past eight months to bring them back to their original condition using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Over the past 95 years, these negatives remained in the bottom of suitcases and storage boxes and were not stored in ideal conditions. In recent times, I have spent a considerable amount of time scanning photographic negatives taken by my grandfather, Ivan Champion OBE, in the 1920s. FOR the first 13 years of my life I lived in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. My family the Champions - had a very long association with the country. My great-grandfather, Herbert William Champion, arrived in Port Moresby in 1898 at the age of 18 aboard Burns Philp & Company's first steamship, the Moresby. His job was to supervise unloading the company's vessels. His character and ability were soon noticed by Governor George Le Hunte, who offered him a position with the Administration at the Government Store. His boss, Henry Chester died after an accidental fall, and Herbert was given his position. Some years later he married Chester's widow and brought up her children. They subsequently had three sons of their own, Ivan, Claude and Alan. In 1916 he was promoted to the position of Government Secretary and in 1940 he was appointed Acting-Lieutenant Governor of Papua. He was awarded a CBE and his three sons carried the family name with great distinction through the war years and into the new civil administration that followed. Ivan, my grandfather, was born in Port Moresby in 1904 and at the age of 10 attended Manly Public School in NSW. He finished his schooling at Southport School in Queensland before returning to Papua in 1923 as a Patrol Officer. In 1926, Administrator Sir Hubert Murray asked two patrol officers to try to cross New Guinea at its widest point from the source of the Fly River in the south to the head of the Sepik in the north and follow this river to its mouth. The patrol officers were Charles Karius and Ivan Champion. They took with them 12 Papuan policeman and 40 carriers. Each carrier carried a load of 40 pounds which included bags of rice, axes, knives, tobacco and salt for trading. In December 1926 they were transported 500 miles upstream by the government ketch Elevala - from the mouth of the Fly River to the Alice River from where they would set out. Two days later 27 of the carriers deserted, terrified by the eerie surroundings and the thought of being eaten by cannibals. Several of the police intercepted them and brought them back. The party penetrated the jungle for 100 miles before they were confronted by a limestone barrier rising to over 2,000 feet. They built two rafts and drifted back down the river taking them just thirty minutes to return to camp whereas the journey on foot had taken them two days. At this point Karius decided he would take half the police and head in a north east direction to try and find the Sepik and that my grandfather should take the remaining police and carriers back to Daru at the mouth of the Fly River. However, my grandfather decided he would explore the mountains to the north-west before returning. He had taught himself navigation and always carried a sextant with him. He told Karius he was heading in the wrong direction. This decision was the turning point for the expedition. My grandfather met friendly natives who led him beneath the limestone walls to the Bol River which was a tributary of the Fly, and then to a native village called Bolovip at an altitude of over 6,500 feet. In those days altitude was measured by boiling water in a hypsometer. My grandfather became very friendly with these natives and picked up on their vocabulary by holding up items, saying their names and having them say their name in return. The chief, Tamsimara, using sign language, described a river that flowed to the north. It was the Takin, one of the headwaters of the Sepik. These natives had never seen steel before so my grandfather presented them with a tomahawk and axe and then showed them how to use them. They were taro eaters and used stone adzes to ring bark the trees so they could plant their crops. This was the first encounter that they had with white men so they were truly amazed when my grandfather took of his hat because they thought it was part of his body. My grandfather returned to the base-camp to gather supplies but none of the carriers were fit to continue, so he built rafts for the 500 mile journey back to Daru at the mouth of the Fly River. A second attempt began in September 1927. They made their way back to Bolivip, and the chief led them over ridges of needle -pointed limestone, through moss covered scrub and across bridges made of vines that were over 40 feet above rapids and bottomless chasms. At an altitude of over 9,000 feet Tamsimara pointed out a great basin surrounded by mountains. In the valley they could make out a wide, muddy and slow moving river. They started their descent and the countryside echoed with the peculiar frog-croaking warning of the Telefomin people. Armed natives confronted them with drawn bows and arrows, with both men speaking all the peace words they knew and raising their arms in a token of goodwill. The last part of their journey was a nightmare. Their only way forward was to wade through swamps infested by scorpions, lizards and biting insects. To pitch camp they had to build platforms several feet above the stinking swamps bubbling with gases from rotting vegetation infested by scorpions and snakes. Eventually they found trees suitable for making rafts, and drifted towards the mouth of the river. Early one morning they were startled by a rifle shot and as the rafts drifted around a bend in the river here was the Elevala which had navigated 500 miles upriver to rescue them. After many months of incredible hardships, New Guinea had now been crossed at its widest point. Ivan Francis Champion OBE left the PNG Administration in 1964 as Chief Commissioner of the Land Titles Commission, commanded the motor yacht Laurabada for private owners before retiring to Australia. The photograph shows him in 1961, when a TAA DC3 was named in his honour. He died in Canberra on 12 August 1989. I recommend you visit Rosss blog here for the full article and many outstanding photographs that he has resurrected KJ The most-regretted (and lowest-paying) college majors https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/02/college-major-regrets/ Will that ... Boko Haram, al-Shabaab and other ruthless groups threaten to turn the continent into global jihads deadliest front By Yaroslav Trofimov, WSJFeb. 5, 2016 12:23 p.m. ET Africas Muslim belt is getting bloodier.Boko Haramthe regional affiliate of Islamic State and one of the worlds deadliest terrorist groupshas accelerated its campaign of almost daily suicide bombings. Just last month, the group massacred 86 people, many of them children, in the Nigerian village of Dalori and 32 others in the Cameroonian village of Bodo.To the west, al Qaedas regional franchise has been waging war on the government of Mali and expanded its reach last month to the previously peaceful country of Burkina Faso, slaying at least 30 peoplemany of them Westernersin an assault on a luxury hotel . In the east, another al Qaeda affiliate, Somalias al-Shabaab, overran an African Union military base three weeks ago and slaughtered more than 100 Kenyan troops.Sub-Saharan Africa was long seen as relatively immune to the call of Islamist militancy because of its unorthodox religious practicesrooted in Sufism , a more mystical mode of Islam that focuses on individual spiritualityand its traditional cultures, which are far removed from strict Middle Eastern ways. Today the area has become the fastest-growing front of global jihadand perhaps its deadliest. As you may have noticed if you are a partner or VAR, VMware decided last year to dis-continue its annual Partner Exchange (PEX) conference that it has held annually in Feburary. PEX was a partner and VAR only event, no customers allowed and was mostly aimed at providing partners and VARs with the training and information they needed to better sell VMware solutions. It followed the same basic outline as VMworld just on a much smaller scale (i.e. 5,000 attendees). PEX was a bit of a tricky event for VMware as it was split into 2 audiences, partners that sold products and solutions into the VMware ecosystem and VARs that sell both VMware and partner products. The tricky part comes from VMware directly competing with many (most?) of its partners in just about every area from storage to networking to management to cloud to data protection. This caused VMware to actually ban some companies from the event in prior years. Because of the competitive angle the conference prevented VMware from being able to have the full attention of resellers who could also learn about competitor products at the event. Because PEX mostly duplicated the formula of VMworld and was still a fairly technical show, VMware decided last year to roll it into VMworld and not have PEX this year. The rolling in part was pretty hasty and not very well executed, the technical part was simple as VMworld is already very technically focused. The partner part not so well, partners didnt get the opportunity to do boot camps which were a big part of PEX and the partner offerings were very limited and not presented well enough in advance to be able to plan for them. The one nice thing about PEX was that it gave VMware another window in the year to do new product launches in front of a big audience outside of the yearly VMworld window. VMware has broken this out lately into special internet broadcast events like the one coming up next week. Hopefully they will do a better job with the execution next year as they have more time to plan for it. What replaced PEX this year is what VMwares calls a Partner Leadership Summit which is an invitation only event that is focused on c-level business audiences within the companys partner ecosystem. The event is being held March 6th-9th In Scottsdale, AZ, I didnt get an invite so I must not be very important ;-( Im not sure if many partners even received invites, I asked around at HP with our alliance teams and nobody has heard of the conference. I think it is more aimed at VARs then VMware technology partners, that way VMware can pitch VSAN and other products without any distractions from competitors. VMware mentioned the conference once last year in this blog post. vExpert meets the Hit King at PEX 2013: I for one wont shed too many tears at the loss of PEX as in the later years it started to conflict with an even bigger annual event, the Super Bowl. Last year totally sucked for me as I was set to fly from Phoenix to San Francisco Sunday morning to get in early enough to watch the big game. The Super Bowl was held in Phoenix last year and that Sunday was literally the one day in years that the whole city got hit with heavy fog (Phoenix almost never gets fog). As a result planes couldnt land for hours, pilots timed out, my flight got canceled and I literally spent 12 hours at the airport having to watch the Super Bowl at a small crappy airport bar. I finally flew out on one of the last flights of the night that had one seat left. That wasnt my worst PEX travel experience though, a few years before that when PEX was in Vegas I was set to fly out from Denver to Vegas on Sunday when a huge snowstorm hit the Denver area that weekend. Of course most of the flights got canceled and the earliest re-bookings were late Monday or Tuesday which meant missing the boot camp and half the show. Well that didnt deter me, I took a taxi to the airport, rented a Jeep Cherokee and hit the road Sunday evening to get to Vegas by morning. The Jeep was great in the snow and once you got outside of the Denver area into the mountains it wasnt that bad. Late that night while driving through Utah, conditions were clear, roads were good but it was very cold out I rounded a corner on I-70 and there was a herd of moose blocking the entire highway. The chances of stopping or avoiding them were zero, even with my lightning reflexes we hit at least one of them which smashed up the front fender pretty good. They all scattered and the one that was hit limped off, at that hour in the middle of nowhere there was no traffic, and of course no cell service. Thankfully the car was still drive-able, the airbag had not deployed and the cooling system seemed to be intact, the Jeep was like a tank. Jeep vs big ass moose: We drove for a while longer finally got cell service, called the rental car company, since the car was still driving OK they said to bring it to them in Vegas and they would swap it out. As they needed a police report I called the Utah Highway Patrol, they wouldnt come out for it they just took a report and gave me a case #. We continued on to Vegas, I was constantly nervous the car might overheat in the freezing cold and wed get stranded but it made it just fine. Took the car to them, they didnt say much and just exchanged cars with me. Despite that ordeal I ended up getting there just in the knick of time about an hour before the boot camp started on Monday at 8:00am. So I for one wont miss PEX all that much, having to plan for our presence at PEX each year was a lot of duplicated effort. So goodbye PEX and hello VMworld. With Pakistan and Taliban hedging their bets on the planned withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, a top US commander has pushed for a long-term commitment to the war-torn country arguing that it would send "a message" to both Islamabad and the militant group. "It (the long-term US commitment) sends a message to Pakistan, it sends a message to the Taliban, and it sends a message to NATO," said General John Campbell, the outgoing commander of the US forces in Afghanistan. Campbell, who is reaching the end of an 18-month tour in Afghanistan and is expected to retire soon, said plans to draw the current US presence of 9,800 troops down to 5,500 would leave "very limited" capacity to support local forces. "If we talk in terms of a long-term commitment, it does a couple things. It gives confidence to the Afghan government, to the National Unity Government, to the Afghan people, to the Afghan Security Forces," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. Campbell said that publicly revealing the troop cuts could allow the enemy to "wait us out." "So again, long-term commitment, talking those kind of terms, conditions based on the ground, is the way we need to move forward to enable the Afghans to have a predictability and stability," he said. "A lot of reason you see a lot of the refugees leaving out of Afghanistan this year is because of that instability," he said. "We have to continue to work with Pakistan. Pakistan, Afghanistan have got to work together. They've got to talk military-to-military on how they can get after a common enemy that knows no border, knows no boundaries. Transnational terrorism does that," Campbell added. Afghan forces have just completed their first full-year leading the fight against militants, including the Taliban. US and NATO forces remained in "train, advise and assist" role. But the Afghan forces also suffered major setbacks, including a brief Taliban capture of the city of Kunduz. The fragile security situation in Afghanistan is further complicated by the emergence of Islamic State (ISIS). The militant group is trying to establish a base in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. "Pakistan, Afghanistan have a lot of ungoverned space. This is going to be a problem for years and years and years... The one way that we can get after it is to continue to build upon the capability of the Afghan forces to fight this enemy," he said. President Barack Obama had said he would trim the US force in Afghanistan to 5,500 troops by the end of last year, and then further cut the presence to 1,000 by the end of 2016. But he backtracked, saying the situation remained too fragile for such a rapid withdrawal. 06:56 Meghan Markle seems to be distancing herself from Netflix docuseries TalkTV Royal Editor Sarah Hewson says Meghan Markle seems to be distancing herself from her and Prince Harrys delayed Netflix docuseries following... 06:06 Inexcusable: Kanye Wests comments regarding George Floyd were stupid Fox News contributor Tyrus says Kanye West is a genius in the music studio but his fame is his worst enemy, as the American rapper... 02:26 Concerning: Americans trust in the media at near record lows The Australians Media Writer Sophie Elsworth says Americans trust in the media being near record lows is a real concern. Required disclaimer: "The views and opinions expressed in this blog are mine alone and do not reflect those of Peace Corps." NEW YORK -- As Bernie Sanders prepares to take the legendary stage of "Saturday Night Live," he is undoubtedly hoping to come off as likable, self-aware and, most importantly, funny. And it's safe to assume that the Democratic presidential candidate would also like his appearance to translate into actual votes. But has the "SNL" strategy worked in the past? Well. . .. The annals of the sketch comedy show's history reveal a pretty mixed bag. And that the less the candidate actually says at 30 Rock, the better. Gerald Ford showed up in 1976 as he was preparing to run against Jimmy Carter. And while he won points for playing along with Chevy Chase's impersonation of him as a bumbling butterfingers -- even closing the cold opening with "Live from New York, Gerald R. Ford!" -- he ultimately lost the election to Jimmy Carter. Steve Forbes hosted in 1996, which was, perhaps, a gross miscalculation on the part of his advisers. Because, you see, he was Steve Forbes: good with numbers, not so good with punchlines. The Atlantic recently ranked Forbes one of the "Most Awkward/Unfunny" hosts in the show's history. Of course, he lost his bid for the Republican nomination to Bob Dole. (Dole also appeared on the show, but not until after he lost the election to Bill Clinton.) Comedically speaking, Al Sharpton fared better when he hosted during his bid to be the 2004 Democratic nominee. As he said in his opening monologue, "Maybe tonight, people can finally get to know the real Al Sharpton. President Al Sharpton." Although he got laughs playing off of Tracey Morgan, he withdrew from the race several months later. John McCain is an old friend to "SNL," first hosting the show in 2002. By the time he ran for president in 2008, he was almost a regular. McCain did a cold opening during the primaries, coming back just days before the general election to hawk campaign swag on a QVC sketch, opposite Tina Fey's glorious Sarah Palin. While it may have helped him with the Republican nod, it wasn't enough to win the general election. That same year Hillary Clinton was praised for showing up in matching pantsuits with her impressionist, Amy Poehler, asking "Do I really laugh like that?" While it may have humanized Clinton, it wasn't enough to beat her Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, who made a much briefer cameo on the show. (Of course, it didn't stop Clinton from coming back to "SNL" during the current election, showing up as a bartender to console Kate McKinnon's version of herself.) Several 2012 Republican candidates, including Jon Huntsman and Chris Christie, made stops at 30 Rock during their run. But Mitt Romney, who won the nomination, took a pass, despite a widely reported personal invitation from Lorne Michaels. And obviously Donald Trump's turn at hosting SNL in November didn't sway a majority of Iowa Republicans to vote his way. But Sanders is probably in good hands with doppleganger/comic genius Larry David hosting the show. He just shouldn't say too much. Because on "SNL," it seems, candidates do best when they let the real comedians do most of the talking. CEDAR FALLS The Prairie Rapids Audubon Society will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 at First Presbyterian Church, Ninth and Main streets. Dr. Donald Lewis will present the program, Gardening for Butterflies and Pollinators: Whats the Buzz? Lewis is an ISU Extension and Outreach entomologist. The society also has been awarded a collaboration grant from the National Audubon Society to support of a bird feeding station project at the new Orange Elementary School in Waterloo. Mike Tompkins and Candace Havely have been going to the school to assist the students in learning bird identification and about bird friendly habitats. Last year PRAS provided funding for Orange to build a chimney swift tower, which has attracted a nesting pair and numerous other swifts using the tower as a roost site. Item No "x x x. The elements of the crime of theft as provided for in Article 308 9 of the Revised Penal Code are as follows: (1) t... By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 05, 2016 | 04:46 PM | PADUCAH, KY The owner of a local furniture store has been arrested on several felony charges. Paducah police arrested 68-year-old Danny N. Kelley of Paducah Friday morning after a six-month investigation. He is charged with seven counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of property over $500, one count of theft by failure to make required disposition of property over $10,000, one count of theft of services over $500 and one count of theft by deception over $500. He was also served two summonses for theft by failure to make required disposition of property under $500. Kelley was booked into the McCracken County Regional Jail on a $21,000 bond. McCracken County Attorney Sam Clymer said the charges stem from customers allegedly not receiving furniture they paid for. The theft by deception charge stems from a cold check written for merchandise at a local tire business, and the theft of services charge is related to avoiding payment for heating and air conditioning services performed at Fleming Furniture. Anyone having paid for furniture that was not received is being asked to contact the McCracken County Attorneys office. I defy you not to get emotional watching this film today, its like something out of a fairytale. Sinthya and Adam decided to get married in the park where Adam spent a lot of time as a little boy with his family. They then hosted their classic and opulent reception at The Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. Beautiful attire, rich red roses and dreamy portraits all round. WOW. Thanks so much to Hdmoments for allowing me to share their film today and to Smallpigart Photography for providing the fabulous imagery. To my wife. 29th November. It was the day that changed my life. When I woke up that morning, I had never even imagined what would happen. In a full conference set a completely stunning beautiful princess who shone like the sun! When our eyes met well, I felt a warmth in my chest and a tingling in my stomach that I never thought you could feel. It was love at first sight. Never would I have thought that there could be such a fantastic person, who then would become my best friend, my great love and my beloved wife. We have such a short time experienced great love, travels and experiences. I still can not believe I get to spend every day by your side. I am so incredibly lucky to have found my soul mate. I will probably never be able to put into words how much you mean to me and how much I love you but I will show you that as long as I live. I love you boundlessly Sinthya! / Your Adam FROM Hdmoments | A girl looks the most beautiful on her wedding day. One can actually understand the fact of this phrase by looking at this beautiful Swedish bride Sinthya. Sinthya and Adams wedding took place on 27th September at Grand Hotel in Stockholm. It was a beautiful and grand wedding in Sweden. A band of violinists added a sweet flavour with their music to this destination wedding. Sinthya was looking stunning in her white gown and a beautiful smile and Adam completely complemented her. One can easily feel the love in both of their eyes while we hear the emotional vows from groom. As this Swedish groom expresses his love for his bride the beautiful words made her emotional. After exchanging the vows as well as the rings, they seal them with a kiss. Sinthya and Adam had fun dancing along with their friends and made the most of the moment. The guests also enjoyed the entire ceremony followed by cutting the cake, drinks and lunch. It was an amazing party in the Grand Hotel. Hdmoments wedding videographers captured all the moments of the bride and groom along with the guests and the couple was showered with blessings, wishes and gifts from the friends and family. CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE | Film | Hdmoments Photography | Smallpigart Photography Ceremony Venue | Hagaparken Stockholm Prep Hotel | Gorvalns Slott Venue | Grand Hotel Groom Attire | Suit including vest from Tiger of Sweden (A swedish brand) Cufflinks/Shoes | Hugo Boss Bridal dress and matching veil | Pronovias, Glamour collection 2013. The dress is a lace trumpet model, and the veil had the same lace as the dress. Waist band of the dress | Crystal stones embedded with white pearls, from Mori Lee Shoes | Pronovias Earrings | Vintage Bracelet | Lily & Rose, in silver/nude pink matching the bridesmaids dresses Bridesmaids dresses | Elise Ryan, V Back Maxi Dress in nude-pink colour Oh me oh my, so very wonderful. Thank you so so much for sharing guys xo Lou past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) May 03 (9) May 02 (1) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (8) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (10) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (7) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (8) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (12) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (8) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (1) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (2) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (2) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (1) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (2) Jan 20 (2) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (2) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (2) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (1) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (5) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (10) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (2) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (5) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (9) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (6) Oct 22 (4) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (1) Oct 06 (10) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (1) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (6) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (8) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (5) Aug 31 (8) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (8) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (8) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (8) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (10) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (1) Jul 16 (10) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (7) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (8) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (10) Jun 05 (14) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (6) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (2) May 29 (7) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (4) May 25 (5) May 24 (4) May 23 (5) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (3) May 19 (10) May 18 (6) May 17 (3) May 16 (6) May 15 (2) May 14 (3) May 13 (5) May 11 (1) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (2) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (5) May 03 (5) May 02 (1) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (8) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (14) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (1) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (1) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (9) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (9) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (13) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (6) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (9) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (9) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (2) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (5) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (12) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (7) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (10) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (12) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (6) Dec 08 (7) Dec 07 (12) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (13) Dec 04 (6) Dec 02 (8) Dec 01 (8) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (8) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (11) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (14) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (11) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (10) Nov 01 (8) Oct 31 (12) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (13) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (8) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (11) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (10) Oct 12 (11) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (10) Oct 09 (7) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (14) Oct 04 (9) Oct 03 (12) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (9) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (10) Sep 21 (12) Sep 20 (12) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (11) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (8) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (10) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (9) Sep 07 (8) Sep 06 (11) Sep 05 (2) Sep 04 (8) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (9) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (2) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (6) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (7) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (11) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (9) Jul 31 (11) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (11) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (7) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (5) Jul 06 (6) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (3) Jun 30 (8) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (7) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (7) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (9) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (8) May 30 (7) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (3) May 23 (5) May 22 (2) May 21 (3) May 20 (7) May 19 (11) May 18 (1) May 17 (7) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (4) May 11 (11) May 10 (2) May 09 (6) May 08 (6) May 07 (2) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (8) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (13) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (9) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (2) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (9) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (6) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (9) Feb 24 (11) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (6) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (2) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (10) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (2) Feb 05 (9) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (7) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (14) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (10) Jan 18 (11) Jan 17 (9) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (10) Jan 06 (8) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (5) Jan 01 (14) Dec 30 (13) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (5) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (7) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (9) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (17) Dec 09 (8) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (10) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (9) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (15) Nov 24 (7) Nov 23 (15) Nov 22 (9) Nov 21 (6) Nov 20 (11) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (13) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (7) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (13) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (8) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (8) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (15) Oct 26 (10) Oct 25 (10) Oct 24 (13) Oct 23 (9) Oct 21 (8) Oct 20 (13) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (8) Oct 16 (14) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (13) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (15) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (11) Oct 05 (18) Oct 04 (14) Oct 03 (1) Oct 02 (10) Sep 30 (11) Sep 29 (11) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (15) Sep 26 (7) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (17) Sep 20 (20) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (11) Sep 16 (10) Sep 15 (12) Sep 14 (9) Sep 13 (12) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (8) Sep 09 (9) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (13) Sep 06 (15) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (10) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (12) Aug 31 (14) Aug 30 (14) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (8) Aug 27 (9) Aug 26 (12) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (11) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (9) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (8) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (6) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (6) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (15) Jul 15 (14) Jul 14 (5) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (12) Jul 11 (8) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (10) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (10) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (7) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (11) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (14) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (8) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (11) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (16) Jun 03 (8) Jun 02 (12) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (7) May 30 (15) May 28 (7) May 27 (5) May 26 (21) May 25 (14) May 24 (10) May 23 (7) May 22 (8) May 21 (11) May 20 (5) May 19 (4) May 18 (10) May 17 (11) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (7) May 13 (12) May 12 (10) May 11 (7) May 10 (13) May 09 (4) May 08 (7) May 07 (3) May 06 (6) May 05 (9) May 04 (14) May 03 (7) May 02 (10) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (14) Apr 22 (16) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (16) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (8) Apr 10 (12) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (13) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (15) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (15) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (11) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (10) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (12) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (8) Mar 24 (7) Mar 23 (15) Mar 22 (17) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (8) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (19) Mar 15 (13) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (20) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (13) Mar 08 (13) Mar 07 (7) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (16) Mar 02 (16) Mar 01 (13) Feb 29 (8) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (16) Feb 26 (10) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (12) Feb 23 (14) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (12) Feb 18 (12) Feb 17 (11) Feb 16 (8) Feb 15 (9) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (10) Feb 12 (11) Feb 11 (13) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (13) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (19) Jan 31 (21) Jan 29 (11) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (13) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (2) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (13) Jan 21 (11) Jan 20 (9) Jan 19 (13) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (11) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (13) Jan 13 (9) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (5) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (13) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (11) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (9) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (10) Dec 08 (13) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (8) Dec 04 (11) Dec 03 (12) Dec 02 (16) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (11) Nov 28 (15) Nov 27 (16) Nov 26 (11) Nov 25 (9) Nov 24 (13) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (10) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (10) Nov 13 (14) Nov 12 (8) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (12) Nov 05 (17) Nov 04 (12) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (12) Oct 31 (11) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (10) Oct 28 (18) Oct 27 (16) Oct 26 (11) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (12) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (12) Oct 20 (17) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (15) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (10) Oct 14 (16) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (12) Oct 09 (21) Oct 08 (22) Oct 07 (19) Oct 06 (18) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (17) Oct 03 (13) Oct 02 (14) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (14) Sep 29 (15) Sep 28 (12) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (15) Sep 25 (13) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (10) Sep 22 (12) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (12) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (16) Sep 16 (21) Sep 15 (14) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (10) Sep 11 (16) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (8) Sep 08 (10) Sep 07 (7) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (9) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (10) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (14) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (13) Aug 20 (9) Aug 19 (13) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (12) Aug 11 (9) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (14) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (6) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (6) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (9) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (13) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (7) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (9) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (7) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (11) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (8) Jun 03 (9) Jun 02 (6) Jun 01 (4) May 30 (7) May 29 (9) May 28 (13) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (2) May 23 (8) May 22 (9) May 21 (7) May 20 (4) May 19 (6) May 18 (7) May 17 (8) May 15 (9) May 14 (5) May 13 (8) May 12 (6) May 11 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (6) May 07 (11) May 06 (7) May 05 (4) May 04 (11) May 03 (5) May 02 (4) May 01 (9) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (10) Apr 22 (8) Apr 21 (9) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (6) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (2) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (7) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (9) Mar 19 (9) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (9) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (11) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (12) Mar 11 (9) Mar 10 (12) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (11) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (8) Feb 27 (9) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (10) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (7) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (2) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (12) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (10) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (12) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (8) Jan 26 (13) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (12) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (10) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (11) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (8) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (9) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (10) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (10) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (9) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (10) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (1) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (9) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (12) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (6) Nov 18 (10) Nov 17 (12) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (12) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (7) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (9) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (14) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (9) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (8) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (11) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (7) Oct 15 (7) Oct 14 (8) Oct 13 (5) Oct 12 (8) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (11) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (8) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (10) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (7) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (8) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (11) Sep 24 (15) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (10) Sep 17 (10) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (7) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (9) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (12) Aug 19 (8) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (8) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (12) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (12) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (8) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (8) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (8) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (9) Jul 13 (10) Jul 11 (9) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (7) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (7) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (15) Jun 26 (10) Jun 25 (9) Jun 24 (16) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (12) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (13) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (14) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (16) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (18) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (8) May 31 (3) May 30 (6) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (8) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (2) May 18 (9) May 17 (1) May 16 (5) May 15 (5) May 14 (7) May 13 (7) May 12 (7) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (5) May 08 (10) May 07 (4) May 06 (13) May 05 (4) May 04 (10) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (9) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (9) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (7) Apr 14 (11) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (9) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (10) Apr 03 (9) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (8) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (7) Mar 21 (14) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (11) Mar 17 (12) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (8) Mar 14 (13) Mar 13 (8) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (8) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (15) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (12) Mar 02 (20) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (11) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (14) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (8) Feb 16 (11) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (2) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (2) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (7) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (1) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 27 (1) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (8) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (1) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (9) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (8) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (12) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (12) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (9) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (11) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (7) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (2) Oct 21 (7) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (7) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (20) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (21) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (34) Oct 04 (24) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (7) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (6) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (2) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (9) Sep 19 (11) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (6) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (11) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (10) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (8) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (7) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (7) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (10) Jul 22 (8) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (7) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (10) Jul 16 (11) Jul 15 (5) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (12) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (12) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (23) Jun 27 (18) Jun 26 (12) Jun 25 (14) Jun 24 (15) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (15) Jun 20 (9) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (11) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (6) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (9) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (8) May 24 (7) May 23 (6) May 22 (9) May 21 (6) May 20 (5) May 19 (6) May 18 (9) May 17 (10) May 16 (11) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (7) May 11 (7) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (11) May 05 (5) May 04 (9) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (8) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (10) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (8) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (11) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (9) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (10) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (2) Mar 10 (1) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (1) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (2) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (5) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (9) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (10) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (8) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (1) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (1) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (8) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (8) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (7) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (1) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (16) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (5) Nov 25 (2) Nov 24 (6) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (15) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (5) Nov 08 (8) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (9) Nov 05 (1) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (8) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (1) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (1) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (10) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (15) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (1) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (8) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (8) Sep 24 (8) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (9) Sep 20 (7) Sep 19 (8) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (7) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (9) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (10) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (15) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (7) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (11) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (15) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (7) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (9) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (7) Aug 07 (9) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (11) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (6) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (8) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (14) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (8) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (14) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (12) Jun 15 (12) Jun 14 (10) Jun 13 (10) Jun 12 (9) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (12) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (12) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (3) May 25 (5) May 24 (9) May 23 (16) May 22 (12) May 21 (11) May 20 (7) May 19 (10) May 18 (8) May 17 (8) May 16 (10) May 15 (8) May 14 (5) May 13 (1) May 12 (6) May 11 (9) May 10 (9) May 09 (10) May 08 (9) May 07 (6) May 06 (5) May 05 (7) May 04 (10) May 03 (7) May 02 (9) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (12) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (9) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (10) Apr 14 (7) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (8) Apr 05 (8) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (11) Mar 30 (12) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (9) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (12) Mar 20 (14) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (12) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (8) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (13) Feb 25 (10) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (10) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (18) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (9) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (8) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (10) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (12) Jan 30 (7) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (7) Jan 27 (12) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (11) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (12) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (11) Jan 16 (9) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (9) Jan 10 (10) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (10) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (10) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (9) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (8) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (1) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (6) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (13) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (7) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (7) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (9) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (7) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (8) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (10) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (10) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (8) Nov 17 (9) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (12) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (8) Nov 06 (10) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (11) Nov 01 (10) Oct 31 (5) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (8) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (11) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (7) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (9) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (9) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (12) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (13) Oct 04 (11) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (14) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (12) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (10) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (8) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (7) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (14) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (11) Sep 14 (13) Sep 13 (11) Sep 12 (9) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (13) Sep 08 (11) Sep 07 (11) Sep 06 (16) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (8) Sep 01 (7) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (12) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (13) Jul 28 (10) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (12) Jul 22 (14) Jul 21 (6) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (12) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (8) Jul 14 (15) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (6) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (9) Jul 06 (15) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (10) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (11) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (11) Jun 24 (9) Jun 23 (10) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (8) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (15) Jun 17 (8) Jun 16 (13) Jun 15 (15) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (6) Jun 12 (15) Jun 11 (7) Jun 10 (7) Jun 09 (18) Jun 08 (20) Jun 07 (17) Jun 06 (9) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (12) Jun 03 (13) Jun 02 (14) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (13) May 30 (8) May 29 (6) May 28 (8) May 27 (17) May 26 (8) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (9) May 22 (4) May 21 (4) May 20 (11) May 19 (14) May 18 (6) May 17 (10) May 16 (4) May 15 (5) May 14 (28) May 12 (9) May 11 (17) May 10 (15) May 09 (12) May 08 (5) May 07 (4) May 06 (10) May 05 (8) May 04 (10) May 03 (5) May 02 (6) May 01 (8) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (12) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (10) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (13) Apr 19 (11) Apr 18 (11) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (11) Apr 14 (17) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (16) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (18) Apr 08 (14) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (21) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (13) Apr 01 (8) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (11) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (12) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (8) Mar 20 (4) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (9) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (14) Mar 11 (13) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (17) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (13) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (14) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (18) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (2) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (13) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (13) Feb 22 (12) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (16) Feb 18 (17) Feb 17 (15) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (15) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (15) Feb 10 (11) Feb 09 (13) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (15) Feb 04 (15) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (14) Feb 01 (15) Jan 31 (11) Jan 30 (9) Jan 29 (19) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (9) Jan 26 (16) Jan 25 (19) Jan 24 (17) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (15) Jan 21 (9) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (12) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (14) Jan 12 (11) Jan 11 (13) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (20) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (14) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (14) Dec 30 (15) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (10) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (11) Dec 24 (9) Dec 23 (9) Dec 22 (15) Dec 21 (12) Dec 20 (11) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (12) Dec 15 (14) Dec 14 (11) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (17) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (12) Dec 07 (16) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (12) Dec 03 (15) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (12) Nov 30 (16) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (13) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (15) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (8) Nov 19 (9) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (9) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (10) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (14) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (13) Nov 01 (9) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (18) Oct 28 (13) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (12) Oct 25 (14) Oct 24 (20) Oct 22 (18) Oct 21 (18) Oct 20 (19) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (18) Oct 15 (8) Oct 14 (11) Oct 13 (9) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (27) Oct 08 (14) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (10) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (9) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (13) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (14) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (14) Sep 22 (20) Sep 21 (11) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (14) Sep 17 (8) Sep 16 (17) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (11) Sep 13 (9) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (14) Sep 09 (12) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (9) Sep 04 (20) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (16) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (13) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (11) Aug 25 (10) Aug 24 (14) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (13) Aug 21 (10) Aug 20 (13) Aug 19 (15) Aug 18 (8) Aug 17 (10) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (11) Aug 13 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (10) Aug 10 (17) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (13) Aug 07 (11) Aug 06 (13) Aug 05 (11) Aug 04 (11) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (10) Jul 30 (21) Jul 29 (14) Jul 28 (13) Jul 27 (16) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (15) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (15) Jul 21 (19) Jul 20 (17) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (26) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (20) Jul 14 (16) Jul 13 (19) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (13) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (16) Jul 05 (9) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (15) Jul 02 (11) Jul 01 (14) Jun 30 (13) Jun 29 (19) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (9) Jun 26 (16) Jun 25 (22) Jun 24 (17) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (15) Jun 21 (14) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (17) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (10) Jun 16 (17) Jun 15 (13) Jun 14 (14) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (13) Jun 11 (15) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (10) Jun 08 (23) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (20) Jun 05 (10) Jun 04 (11) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (21) Jun 01 (14) May 31 (10) May 30 (14) May 29 (8) May 28 (23) May 27 (20) May 26 (16) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (10) May 22 (18) May 21 (14) May 20 (12) May 19 (18) May 18 (14) May 17 (13) May 16 (4) May 15 (7) May 14 (16) May 13 (13) May 12 (8) May 11 (18) May 10 (8) May 09 (7) May 08 (13) May 07 (11) May 06 (15) May 05 (18) May 04 (17) May 03 (7) May 02 (5) May 01 (11) Apr 30 (19) Apr 29 (21) Apr 28 (18) Apr 27 (16) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (20) Apr 22 (23) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (16) Apr 19 (13) Apr 18 (6) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (16) Apr 15 (18) Apr 14 (13) Apr 13 (14) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (14) Apr 08 (12) Apr 07 (18) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (11) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (16) Mar 31 (16) Mar 30 (22) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (19) Mar 26 (31) Mar 25 (25) Mar 24 (26) Mar 23 (27) Mar 22 (22) Mar 21 (22) Mar 20 (13) Mar 19 (21) Mar 18 (20) Mar 17 (24) Mar 16 (18) Mar 15 (9) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (29) Mar 12 (15) Mar 11 (11) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (20) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (21) Mar 05 (22) Mar 04 (19) Mar 03 (9) Mar 02 (20) Mar 01 (11) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (27) Feb 26 (15) Feb 25 (18) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (19) Feb 22 (24) Feb 21 (10) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (25) Feb 18 (16) Feb 17 (19) Feb 16 (23) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (16) Feb 11 (12) Feb 10 (18) Feb 09 (12) Feb 08 (14) Feb 07 (8) Feb 06 (27) Feb 05 (28) Feb 04 (24) Feb 03 (17) Feb 02 (20) Feb 01 (23) Jan 31 (16) Jan 30 (20) Jan 29 (26) Jan 28 (17) Jan 27 (21) Jan 26 (24) Jan 25 (16) Jan 24 (14) Jan 23 (16) Jan 22 (17) Jan 21 (19) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (17) Jan 18 (13) Jan 17 (14) Jan 16 (10) Jan 15 (21) Jan 14 (16) Jan 13 (19) Jan 12 (30) Jan 11 (14) Jan 10 (11) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (23) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (21) Jan 05 (15) Jan 04 (18) Jan 03 (9) Jan 02 (12) Jan 01 (15) Dec 31 (18) Dec 30 (7) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (6) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (28) Dec 23 (12) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (17) Dec 20 (19) Dec 19 (19) Dec 18 (22) Dec 17 (24) Dec 16 (17) Dec 15 (29) Dec 14 (22) Dec 13 (12) Dec 12 (22) Dec 11 (24) Dec 10 (25) Dec 09 (18) Dec 08 (15) Dec 07 (21) Dec 06 (24) Dec 05 (30) Dec 04 (28) Dec 03 (26) Dec 02 (22) Dec 01 (33) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (18) Nov 27 (25) Nov 26 (17) Nov 25 (23) Nov 24 (27) Nov 23 (12) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (15) Nov 20 (23) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (24) Nov 17 (21) Nov 16 (20) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (15) Nov 13 (27) Nov 12 (23) Nov 11 (19) Nov 10 (21) Nov 09 (13) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (16) Nov 06 (32) Nov 05 (24) Nov 04 (20) Nov 03 (29) Nov 02 (12) Nov 01 (15) Oct 31 (20) Oct 30 (22) Oct 29 (27) Oct 28 (20) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (21) Oct 25 (15) Oct 24 (23) Oct 23 (26) Oct 22 (27) Oct 21 (28) Oct 20 (24) Oct 19 (13) Oct 18 (9) Oct 17 (30) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (20) Oct 14 (14) Oct 13 (17) Oct 12 (16) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (19) Oct 09 (22) Oct 08 (16) Oct 07 (18) Oct 06 (23) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (15) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (22) Sep 30 (25) Sep 29 (20) Sep 28 (17) Sep 27 (13) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (15) Sep 24 (24) Sep 23 (23) Sep 22 (18) Sep 21 (20) Sep 20 (11) Sep 19 (24) Sep 18 (25) Sep 17 (25) Sep 16 (19) Sep 15 (21) Sep 14 (15) Sep 13 (10) Sep 12 (23) Sep 11 (23) Sep 10 (25) Sep 09 (25) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (17) Sep 05 (14) Sep 04 (24) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (19) Aug 31 (20) Aug 30 (11) Aug 29 (24) Aug 28 (24) Aug 27 (16) Aug 26 (26) Aug 25 (21) Aug 24 (15) Aug 23 (19) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (25) Aug 20 (27) Aug 19 (19) Aug 18 (24) Aug 17 (14) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (15) Aug 14 (16) Aug 13 (21) Aug 12 (30) Aug 11 (19) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (12) Aug 08 (17) Aug 07 (21) Aug 06 (26) Aug 05 (23) Aug 04 (21) Aug 03 (12) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (19) Jul 31 (21) Jul 30 (25) Jul 29 (29) Jul 28 (23) Jul 27 (17) Jul 26 (11) Jul 25 (21) Jul 24 (14) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (19) Jul 21 (15) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (10) Jul 18 (15) Jul 17 (22) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (21) Jul 14 (20) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (29) Jul 10 (19) Jul 09 (17) Jul 08 (26) Jul 07 (21) Jul 06 (18) Jul 05 (14) Jul 04 (20) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (24) Jul 01 (23) Jun 30 (23) Jun 29 (18) Jun 28 (16) Jun 27 (16) Jun 26 (17) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (32) Jun 23 (29) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (17) Jun 20 (25) Jun 19 (28) Jun 18 (19) Jun 17 (25) Jun 16 (23) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (14) Jun 12 (22) Jun 11 (19) Jun 10 (17) Jun 09 (15) Jun 08 (16) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (29) Jun 05 (27) Jun 04 (24) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (22) Jun 01 (13) May 31 (9) May 30 (26) May 29 (19) May 28 (15) May 27 (15) May 26 (23) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (24) May 22 (13) May 21 (21) May 20 (18) May 19 (16) May 18 (7) May 17 (12) May 16 (25) May 15 (24) May 14 (23) May 13 (19) May 12 (17) May 11 (8) May 10 (6) May 09 (14) May 08 (21) May 07 (26) May 06 (14) May 05 (14) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (24) May 01 (13) Apr 30 (15) Apr 29 (24) Apr 28 (24) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (13) Apr 24 (27) Apr 23 (15) Apr 22 (21) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (17) Apr 19 (8) Apr 18 (20) Apr 17 (27) Apr 16 (27) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (8) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (22) Apr 09 (15) Apr 08 (15) Apr 07 (17) Apr 06 (14) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (19) Mar 31 (25) Mar 30 (13) Mar 29 (9) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (23) Mar 26 (22) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (25) Mar 23 (16) Mar 22 (13) Mar 21 (24) Mar 20 (27) Mar 19 (20) Mar 18 (24) Mar 17 (17) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (20) Mar 13 (28) Mar 12 (30) Mar 11 (20) Mar 10 (21) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (8) Mar 07 (17) Mar 06 (20) Mar 05 (19) Mar 04 (15) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (12) Feb 28 (16) Feb 27 (17) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (23) Feb 24 (15) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (24) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (24) Feb 18 (19) Feb 17 (27) Feb 16 (13) Feb 15 (11) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (13) Feb 12 (13) Feb 11 (21) Feb 10 (16) Feb 09 (15) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (17) Feb 06 (21) Feb 05 (17) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (23) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (8) Jan 31 (17) Jan 30 (22) Jan 29 (23) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (24) Jan 26 (12) Jan 25 (9) Jan 24 (12) Jan 23 (19) Jan 22 (19) Jan 21 (14) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (12) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (20) Jan 16 (14) Jan 15 (23) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (20) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (18) Jan 09 (11) Jan 08 (18) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (12) Jan 05 (12) Jan 04 (11) Jan 03 (10) Jan 02 (9) Jan 01 (9) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (13) Dec 26 (15) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (8) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (14) Dec 19 (17) Dec 18 (14) Dec 17 (14) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (9) Dec 13 (11) Dec 12 (16) Dec 11 (18) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (24) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (19) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (26) Dec 04 (15) Dec 03 (20) Dec 02 (17) Dec 01 (11) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (18) Nov 28 (21) Nov 27 (10) Nov 26 (22) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (18) Nov 21 (9) Nov 20 (17) Nov 19 (16) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (21) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (20) Nov 12 (16) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (15) Nov 06 (18) Nov 05 (19) Nov 04 (16) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (17) Oct 31 (17) Oct 30 (21) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (16) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (16) Oct 24 (18) Oct 23 (14) Oct 22 (17) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (8) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (12) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (19) Oct 14 (15) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (10) Oct 10 (23) Oct 09 (13) Oct 08 (15) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (13) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (16) Oct 03 (17) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (20) Sep 30 (17) Sep 29 (9) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (14) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (19) Sep 24 (13) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (21) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (20) Sep 16 (16) Sep 15 (10) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (18) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (24) Sep 10 (17) Sep 09 (16) Sep 08 (16) Sep 07 (10) Sep 06 (20) Sep 05 (13) Sep 04 (23) Sep 03 (14) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (11) Aug 31 (11) Aug 30 (13) Aug 29 (18) Aug 28 (14) Aug 27 (21) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (10) Aug 23 (17) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (14) Aug 20 (20) Aug 19 (20) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (9) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (12) Aug 14 (14) Aug 13 (19) Aug 12 (14) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (12) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (18) Aug 07 (16) Aug 06 (16) Aug 05 (20) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (12) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (16) Jul 30 (16) Jul 29 (11) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (9) Jul 26 (17) Jul 25 (20) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (11) Jul 22 (18) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (14) Jul 18 (11) Jul 17 (15) Jul 16 (12) Jul 15 (10) Jul 14 (8) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (17) Jul 11 (18) Jul 10 (16) Jul 09 (13) Jul 08 (10) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (8) Jul 05 (16) Jul 04 (14) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (13) Jul 01 (16) Jun 30 (19) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (19) Jun 27 (21) Jun 26 (27) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (23) Jun 23 (12) Jun 22 (9) Jun 21 (18) Jun 20 (15) Jun 19 (24) Jun 18 (21) Jun 17 (13) Jun 16 (9) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (18) Jun 13 (24) Jun 12 (18) Jun 11 (23) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (24) Jun 08 (27) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (25) Jun 05 (30) Jun 04 (23) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (16) Jun 01 (17) May 31 (18) May 30 (19) May 29 (17) May 28 (23) May 27 (15) May 26 (10) May 25 (19) May 24 (16) May 23 (16) May 22 (27) May 21 (20) May 20 (26) May 19 (6) May 18 (8) May 17 (20) May 16 (8) May 15 (18) May 14 (5) May 13 (21) May 12 (9) May 11 (8) May 10 (12) May 09 (18) May 08 (11) May 07 (27) May 06 (12) May 05 (16) May 04 (19) May 03 (14) May 02 (18) May 01 (18) Apr 30 (25) Apr 29 (27) Apr 28 (11) Apr 27 (10) Apr 26 (18) Apr 25 (10) Apr 24 (29) Apr 23 (29) Apr 22 (14) Apr 21 (15) Apr 20 (20) Apr 19 (22) Apr 18 (16) Apr 17 (32) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (21) Apr 13 (15) Apr 12 (13) Apr 11 (14) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (20) Apr 08 (36) Apr 07 (22) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (28) Apr 04 (20) Apr 03 (29) Apr 02 (32) Apr 01 (18) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (15) Mar 28 (22) Mar 27 (24) Mar 26 (17) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (13) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (15) Mar 20 (18) Mar 19 (19) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (10) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (18) Mar 14 (24) Mar 13 (18) Mar 12 (18) Mar 11 (17) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (18) Mar 07 (25) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (16) Mar 04 (22) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (23) Feb 29 (19) Feb 28 (25) Feb 27 (26) Feb 26 (23) Feb 25 (12) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (15) Feb 22 (26) Feb 21 (31) Feb 20 (12) Feb 19 (21) Feb 18 (15) Feb 17 (10) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (19) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (20) Feb 11 (9) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (28) Feb 08 (20) Feb 07 (22) Feb 06 (20) Feb 05 (19) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (16) Feb 02 (28) Feb 01 (37) Jan 31 (27) Jan 30 (31) Jan 29 (18) Jan 28 (14) Jan 27 (10) Jan 26 (18) Jan 25 (26) Jan 24 (34) Jan 23 (21) Jan 22 (21) Jan 21 (18) Jan 20 (18) Jan 19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1) This is a Flickr badge showing public photos and videos from Helen de madison . Make your own badge here But living in Asia and having spent years travelling this majestic region, Ive had to confront this demon. The sniffing, snorting, clearing of throats, and the oh-so-lovely hurling up of a dockyard-oyster anywhere you like. Ugh! The worst was my adventures backpacking in China in 1995. I wore white pants once (yeah, I know, who backpacks with white pants? I learnt that lesson) only to come back to the hostel in the evening to see that my thongs (flip flops) had been flicking slag up the back of my pants all day long. Revolting! If youre looking to try out an online casino, there are several things that will help you make a decision. Heres what you should look for when choosing an online casino Are they regulated? A lot of the larger ones have licenses issued by the authorities in their respective regions, so its worth checking this first. Do they offer games from different software providers? Some casinos just use one software provider and limit your selection. This is fine if you like playing those types of games but you may want to check other casinos as well. What does their payout percentage look like? The payout rate refers to how much money you can expect to win after every bet. A high payout rate means youll be able to play more often without having to worry about losing all your money. Its also important to know the minimum and maximum bets allowed on each game. If youre going to play roulette, for example, then you probably dont want a casino with a minimum bet of less than $2.50 or even lower than that. The players used to play the game slot online in the land based casinos in the past time. But now with time after the invention of the online casinos players play the game slot online. Online platform provide the players with the convenience in playing and even better winning. Even after keeping a good percentage of the profits, they distribute good funds to players. How many games do they offer? There are lots of different types of games to choose from. Roulette, blackjack and poker are some of the most popular options, but you might find slots, video pokers, video bingo and others as well. You can usually filter these games down to only show the ones that interest you best, so make sure that your list isnt too long! Is there a bonus offer? Many online casinos offer free bonuses as part of their welcome package which includes new players being awarded 100% up to $10 instantly, for example. These offers are great but not everyone has access to them all the time (and some require you to deposit real money). If youd prefer to avoid paying a fee, some casinos offer no-deposit bonuses where you can get a certain amount of funds before you need to put any actual money into the account. These are usually offered alongside welcome bonuses, so make sure you read both parts of the terms and conditions carefully before signing up. Does it offer live dealer games? Live dealers are much preferred by many over regular virtual versions, so it pays to check this option out too. Most online casinos now offer live dealer games in addition to their regular offerings, allowing you to experience the thrill of the real thing without needing to leave home. Now that youve got an idea of what to look for when choosing an online casino, heres some tips for making the right choice It really comes down to personal preference. No two people are exactly alike, so everyone has an opinion on what they like and dislike about each casino. That said, here are some things to consider in order to narrow down your choices Popularity. Check out reviews, forums and Facebook pages to see what other people think of the casino. Also, ask around at work or friends houses who they would recommend to you. You could always take a look at the casinos website too, to see what kind of information they provide about themselves. Reputation. Find out what the general public thinks about the casino. Check out any customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Amazon and Google Play to find out more. As far as gaming goes, you can also check out the Better Business Bureau to see whether there have been any complaints against the casino. Security. Make sure the casino uses SSL encryption to secure its transactions, meaning that your private data stays safe during transactions. Other than that, look for security seals on the site itself and verify that theyre legitimate. You can also check out the casinos privacy policy to see how they handle confidential information. Payment methods. Its good to have multiple payment options available, especially if you plan to play frequently. Its also nice to find a casino that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. If youre worried about safety, you can always opt for a credit card or PayPal instead. With all those criteria in mind, heres our top picks Betway: Betway is a relatively new UK casino offering online gambling to residents of the United Kingdom and European Union. They offer hundreds of games across both land based and digital platforms, with plenty of top software providers like Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Yggdrasil Gaming Network. With a generous welcome offer that gives players 100% up to 100, you really cant go wrong with Betway. Coral Casino: Coral Casino is operated by the same company that runs the famous Caribbean casino, Grand Reef. Like many casinos, Coral Casino offers a wide variety of games, including plenty of video slots and table games. New players can benefit from a huge 100% match bonus up to 1000, while existing customers enjoy 25% cash back on deposits made within 48 hours of opening an account. Ladbrokes Casino: Ladbrokes Casino is owned by the same company as the famous bookmaker that started life in 1921. With more than 500 games from leading software providers such as Amaya, NetEnt and Microgaming, you wont be disappointed by the quality of the games here. New players get a 200% match bonus up to 500, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits. Paddy Power Casino: Paddy Power is another Irish-owned casino that operates throughout Europe. Not only does Paddy Power Casino offer traditional casino games like blackjack, roulette and slots, but it also provides a full range of sports betting, including football, tennis, boxing and horse racing. New players can receive a massive 100% match bonus up to 200, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits. William Hill Casino: William Hill Casino is one of the biggest names in the industry, operating in Europe, Asia and North America. Founded in 1984, this online casino has more than 400 games to choose from, including slots and table games, with a wide array of software providers like WagerLogic, Big Time Gaming and Rival. Bonus: 100% Match Bonus up to 100 Register Now Betway: 100% Match Bonus up to 100 Claim Now Coral Casino: 25% Cash Back on Deposits Claim Now Ladbrokes Casino: 35% Cash Back on First 3 Deposits Claim Now Paddy Power Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200 Claim Now William Hill Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200 Claim Now If youre interested in trying out an online casino but arent quite ready to commit to one, why not try out one of the many no deposit casinos weve reviewed? You can test drive various casinos completely risk-free, so you can feel confident about your choice before you make a single penny deposit. U.S. Rep. John Katko used a national platform Saturday to call on President Barack Obama's administration to fully enforce new rules for the visa waiver program. In the weekly Republican address, Katko, R-Camillus, accused the Obama administration of creating loopholes in the law to waive the visa requirement for individuals engaged in humanitarian work, journalists and those who have traveled to Iran or Iraq for business. The visa waiver reforms were approved by Congress in December and signed into law by Obama. The legislation was based, in part, on recommendations from the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel. Katko chairs the bipartisan panel. "In today's interconnected world, hundreds of thousands of people enter and leave our country every day," Katko said. "One of the greatest security challenges we face is eliminating vulnerabilities in our visa system so terrorists can't slip into our country." The purpose of the changes was to boost security and prevent terrorists from taking advantage of the visa waiver program. Citizens of certain countries are eligible, but the new law prevents anyone who has traveled to Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria since 2011 from obtaining a waiver. Shortly after the provision was signed into law, Iranian leaders spoke out against the new visa waiver rules. They said it could jeopardize a nuclear deal reached between Iran and a group of other nations, including the U.S. Katko hinted that Iran was the reason why the Obama administration established exemptions for certain classes of travelers. "I'm a former federal prosecutor and I can tell you a law is only as good as how you enforce it," he said. "This is not a time to start lowering our guard and we should not put Iran's feelings before America's security interests." Congress has requested a report from the Obama administration on who's receiving the waivers, Katko said. Lawmakers are seeking specific information, including the names and nationalities of the travelers and the justification for granting the waiver. "This law is a commonsense measure we need to keep us safe and we House Republicans will do all we can to make sure the administration enforces it in full," he said. Andrew Dennison has some advice for bowling amateurs. "Don't think about it too much," Dennison said. "If you look at the pins, look at where you want to hit, and throw it. Standing there forever drives me nuts." He's kind of taken the same approach with his new job as Cayuga County legislator. Dennison was elected unopposed to represent the towns of Ira, Cato and Conquest this year, replacing former Chairman of the Legislature Michael Chapman. In the past month Dennison has met with many of the county department heads to learn about their responsibilities, gone to several committee meetings, and talked with county officials about bringing in new businesses to Auburn. He's hit the ground running, and he's enjoying it. "I like where I live, in a rural area, and I like the county," he said. "I'm not so sure I'm a big fan of the state anymore, and that's one of the reasons I ran, because I care about our small, rural communities." Dennison may be a Republican who sits in the chamber's front row between two Democrats, but that doesn't bother him at all. "We can all work together whether we have a donkey or an elephant in front of our name," he said. "You're not going to get anything done if you don't work together, and I actually think we have a pretty good group of people this first month that I've seen." This isn't the first time Dennison has run for Legislature. "The last Democrat to run in my district was me," he said. He ran back in 2003 against Republican Paul Dudley of Cato. While Dennison lost, he said he lost 2-1 in a 3-1 Republican district. He'd only been a Democrat because his mother was, but he switched party lines after realizing he aligned with more conservative values. Still, he doesn't think parties should determine who gets elected. "I'd rather hear what you got, see what you're going to do, and I'm going to vote for the person," Dennison said. Now that he is a part of the 15-member group, Dennison wants to see the county bring in more industry and more people, and he's started work on doing just that. He's working with Superintendent of Parks and Trails Gary Duckett on a trail in Cato-Brutus for hiking, horseback riding, snowmobiling and the like. The project has been at a near standstill for years, but in the last month or so, Dennison and Duckett got a request for proposals out. Dennison said bringing attractions to the county will bring in more business. People stop for gas or lunch, he said. "It all boils down to one thing: making this a place people want to live," Dennison said. "When you look at a map of New York state, where's Cayuga County? Right dab smack in the middle. We got the Thruway. We're in a perfect spot to bring people. It's just getting them here and getting the businesses and keeping them, that's the thing." In his first weeks as a legislator, he's a bit discouraged by state government after going to the New York State Association of Counties conference in Albany and learning that the 2017 tax cap may be close to zero. He'd like to see the state cut back on its many mandates, at least, so the county can have a better outcome when balancing the budget. For now, he's getting up to speed and has plenty to keep him busy. He's the sitting legislator on the Ward O'Hara Agricultural Museum board and the Cornell Cooperative Extension in addition to serving on the Government Operations, Public Works and Planning and Economic Development committees. And when he's not immersed in his legislative duties, Dennison is a crop farmer, growing soybeans and corn on his farm in the Town of Ira. "I'm just a small fish in a big pond, but I got a loud voice," he said. "I'm going to vote for whatever's right for not just the people I'm representing, but for the county as a whole." On Friday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey once again, threatened cities and counties that are looking to create their own minimum wages with a reduction in state-shared revenue. Ducey was speaking at the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerces 9th annual Athena Awards and the annual Chamber meeting. The awards honor local women leaders. Flagstaff is one of a handful of cities in the state that are considering laws that would allow them to set their own minimum wage within their city limits. The laws come after the state Supreme Court, citing a 2006 citizens initiative, upheld that right over the objections of the Legislature. All it will do is bring California-style chaos, Ducey said, echoing a line from his State of State address in early January. He promised to use the powers of his office to thwart local wage laws, including reducing the amount of state shared revenue a local community might get. Flagstaff Councilmember Coral Evans, who attended the event, said she was absolutely appalled at the governors remarks (about cities setting their own wages). I felt they were highly inappropriate. Evans is one of three members of the Flagstaff City Council who support the right of cities to set minimum wages. Vice Mayor Celia Barotz and Councilmember Eva Putzova, who were not at the event, also support local control of minimum wages. Evans also pointed out that Ducey didnt really mention women at all in his speech, except to say that he was setting aside money in his budget to make sure that extended family members, such as grandparents, adult siblings or uncles or aunts, who wanted to foster the child of a family member would be paid an equal amount to a complete stranger who fostered a child. He also talked about setting aside money to make sure that all of the states rape kits were tested and the perpetrators arrested. While Ducey didnt specifically mention women in business, he did speak about how small business owners are the lifeblood of the state. He pointed out that Forbes magazine listed Arizona as one of the best states in the union for creating new jobs. Business leaders, he said, are an integral part of how well the state runs. He pledged to work with the Arizona Legislature to eliminate some of the 10,000 pages of state regulations that businesses have to deal with on a daily basis. As an example he pointed to the many jobs for which the state requires a license before a business can open its doors. The state requires licenses for too many jobs, he said. These licenses are designed to keep out the little guy. He also said he wanted to make Arizona a home for start-up businesses that take advantage of the sharing economy, such as ride-sharing programs Uber and Lyft. We should stop shackling innovation, he said. I want start-ups who are struggling in California to know that California may not want them, but Arizona does. The most recent jobless statistics show both states have unemployment rates of 5.8 percent. The median household income is California is $61,000 vs. $49,000 in Arizona. Ducey pledged to put more of a focus on advertising the state as a place that welcomed businesses and helped them to succeed, especially in the rural areas outside of Maricopa County. I want to grow Arizona's total economy and better meet the needs of businesses that are already here, he said. Ducey also said his structurally balanced budget would finally restore fiscal sanity to Arizona in 2017 and would become a new tradition for the state. He said his budget was based on Arizona values of fiscal responsibility, education, economic innovation and public safety. And he was able to do it without raising taxes. According to the Government Finance Officers Association, a structurally balanced budget is one that supports financial sustainability for multiple years into the future. The governors budget includes additional funding between 2016 and 2017 for various projects such as K-12 education, drug patrols along the Arizona border with Mexico, Joint Technical Education Districts, an increase in funding for child safety and a 100-bed intensive drug treatment center for inmates in Maricopa County. He also plans to add to the states rainy day fund. But critics of his budget say that the state is looking at a possible $620 million cash surplus at the end of fiscal year 2017 in addition to a rainy day fund topping $400 million. Ducey didnt address that in his speech. He did speak about the $106 million in additional funding his budget set aside for K-12 education. He also said he would boost funding to schools that provided college-ready advanced placement classes to students. He also pledged to put all of his energy into getting Proposition 123 passed. If passed by voters, the proposition would add $3.5 billion for education funding over 10 years, an increase of about 8 percent. About $1.4 billion would come from the states general fund and the remaining $2 billion would come from increasing the amount money distributed to schools from the state land trust fund. The fund is designed to funnel the proceeds of the sale of state land into education. The proposition would raise that distribution level from 2.5 percent of the average value of the funds to 6.9 percent for the next 10 years. Ducey also pointed out that his budget included an additional $8 million for state universities. Last year's budget cut university appropriations by $99 million. He acknowledged some high school students were not interested in attending college. K through 12 education needs to prepare those students for finding a job after graduation, he said. He was willing to work with the Legislature on a plan to restore funding to the states JTEDs. Duceys original budget called for the restoration of $30 million to JTEDs over three years with some strings attached. The money would only be offered to districts that had matching funding from local businesses. State lawmakers recently introduced two bills, one in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate, that would restore $28 million this year to the JTEDs. The districts would have to prove that the funding went to equipment that was necessary for classes that were designed to give students the skills they need to get a job after graduation. It couldnt be used to support programs that would require students to get additional training at community colleges or universities. He also said he had zero tolerance for fathers who failed to pay child support. His office has already started a program that puts the names, photos and the amount owed by delinquent fathers on the states social media pages. Positive things can happen, he said. We can aim high and think big. Hundreds of people milled around the Coconino High School gym, dressed as astronauts, chefs, minions, elderly people and tombstones as music blared and disco lights shined throughout the room. Despite looking like a strangely themed nightclub, the attendees were there with one thing on their minds: leadership. About 1,800 high school students and 300 faculty advisers from across the state arrived in Flagstaff Thursday for the annual Arizona Association of Student Councils statewide convention. Members of the student councils vote on which school will host the convention two years in advance, and CHS was chosen to host it this year. The theme of the convention was Picture the Future of Leadership, and featured theme days, which included dressing up as Pixar characters, dressing up as future careers and a school spirit day. At the first general session Thursday night, CHS Principal Stacie Zanzucchi and Flagstaff Mayor Jerry Nabours spoke to the group, welcoming them to Flagstaff and encouraging them to continue in leadership at their schools. Tomorrows leaders are in this room tonight, Zanzucchi said to the group. Its humbling that I am in front of our nations future, and it makes my heart smile. Zanzucchi encouraged the group to promote positive changes at their schools through their attitude and behavior, and said as leaders they had the responsibility to guide their schools in the right direction. Nabours told the group that while many people may want to make change, the catalyst is usually one person or a small group that gets the effort moving. Usually its one person or a small handful of people that makes things happen, he said. Nabours said people in leadership positions have to get used to being criticized. He said the students need to remain focused on doing what is right despite facing judgment or criticism from peers. When something good happens, you made it happen, he said. Im so glad you are taking a position that you want to be someone who makes things happen. Each school could bring up to 12 members of its student council to the convention, which featured guest speakers, seminars about leadership, school spirit activities and service opportunities. CHS, the host school, got to choose a local charity where the visiting schools would give donations. This years convention benefited Hope Cottage, and students donated toiletries for the residents. On Friday morning, the second day of the convention, Flagstaff Unified School District Superintendent Barbara Hickman addressed the group, and talked about lessons learned from her recent trip to Washington, D.C. Hickman said she visited the Lincoln Memorial, which she said was a somber reflection about how difficult it can be to be a strong leader. You can see the weight of his decisions on his face, Hickman said to the group of the memorial statue. Sometimes being the guy in charge, or the girl in charge isnt easy. His decision-making was very difficult, but he did it anyway, and he was right. Hickman contrasted the Lincoln Memorial with the Jefferson Memorial, where Thomas Jefferson is standing, looking hopeful. Hickman said Jefferson, as the author of many important founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, had to think of the long-term results of his actions, and look with hope into the future. This is equally important, she said. The decisions you make cannot be short-term. It matters what you say and what you do. Representatives from the Coconino Community College Financial Aid Department and the Arizona Community Foundation will guide students through the process of applying for college scholarships at CCC and from external donors at an upcoming seminar. The seminar will be held Feb. 23, from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at the CCC Lone Tree Campus Board Room, 2800 S. Lone Tree Road. The seminar will also be broadcast to the Page Instructional Site. The event is free and open to prospective and current students and their parents. According to Scott Talboom, executive director of the CCC Foundation, there are scholarships at CCC that go unawarded because of a lack of applicants. Last academic year, CCC disbursed more than $100,000 in scholarships to students. The application period for scholarships for the 2016-17 academic year has begun, and runs through March 21. For more information, call Rachel Edelstein at 226-4384, or visit coconinofoundation.org. For information on scholarships available statewide, visit azfoundation.org. Bond was set Friday at $2 million for 24-year-old Mark Mays, a metro day care worker facing eight counts of sexually assaulting children. It's horrific," said Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine. We're talking about very young children. Any childs terrible, these are like 2-year-olds. Kleine said the disturbing details surrounding the charges against Mays speak for themselves. He said there are currently eight known victims. Its an ongoing investigation. There's a lot of work being done checking on places he worked, young children he was involved with and I would anticipate other charges once the investigations is completed." Kleine said authorities have searched Mays' house and there is a warrant to search his cell phone. The case initially came to light when police got word on January 12th of a report made at the day care where Mays worked. Prosecutors said Friday that on January 12th, two employees of the Little Hands at Work and play day care near 120th and Blondo walked in on Mays with a 2-year-old girl on his lap. She was straddling him, allegedly naked from the waist down. Mays was booked on Thursday. Prosecutors said he admitted to penetration with a finger. He also admitted to sexual contact with several other girls, some at a different day care where he had worked until the end of last summer. Prosecutors said Mays also admitted to having child porn and to have taken sexual photos of some of the kids at the day care. Mays also worked at a La Petite Academy location in the metro that has not been identified. La Petite Academy Director of Communication Lydia Cisaruk released the following statement: "This person was employed as an assistant teacher with the company for less than three months, ending in August last year. We were made aware that he was arrested as a result of incidents reported at a different childcare provider. We will cooperate with the authorities as needed to assist their investigation. Our focus remains on providing a safe and nurturing learning environment for the children in our care. We take our responsibility as caregivers very seriously." Mays is facing a variety of charges, including eight counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child. Conviction on that charge carries a potential penalty of 20 years to life in prison. Mays would need to post 10 percent of the $2 million or $200,000 to make bail. Should he do so, he has been ordered not to have contact with anyone under the age of 18. Mays' public defender told the judge his client did graduate from high school, but is intellectually impaired. The debate about federal public lands control that fueled the armed standoff at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was at the center of a conference of wildlife scientists and managers in Flagstaff on Friday. Who Will Manage the Future of Our Public Lands? was the subject of the plenary session of the annual meeting of the Arizona and New Mexico chapters of The Wildlife Society, hosted at Little America Hotel. The event brought out more than 400 attendees as well as a group of speakers that included State Rep. Brenda Barton, Coconino County Supervisor Mandy Metzger, Montana State Sen. Jennifer Fielder and U.S. Forest Service regional director Steve Hattenbach. The discussion jumped between revenue generation on public lands, what it takes to manage those acres and the legal foundations of the current ownership system. While the concept of transferring millions of acres of federally owned lands into state hands faces a mountain of legal and constitutional hurdles and has repeatedly been shot down in Arizona, its a topic that cant be ignored, many at the session said. Politically its still an issue, obviously, said Katherine Davis, public lands campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity. And regardless of whether they have legal ground to stand on, state takeover advocates have inspired action by some citizens, armed or otherwise, that end up affecting public lands and access to public lands, Davis said There is a need for discussion about how collaboration on public lands issues can be improved, but the current debate over transferring federal lands is "freezing federal agencies in terms of their ability to move forward on land management, said Ethan Aumack, conservation director with the Grand Canyon Trust. A vision for state control Barton is the chair of the Legislature's transfer of federal lands study committee, created last spring after Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed two bills that required the federal government to turn over public lands to the state. The committee is charged with studying the feasibility of putting federal lands into state control, identifying concerns and risks associated with that concept and coming up with a structure for how it would work. The group must come up with a final report of its findings by 2019, Barton said. State ownership of federal lands would allow the state to generate more revenue, enable more efficient decision-making about those lands and give the state more flexibility in determining how those lands are used, Barton said. The goal would be for the state to manage the lands for multiple use, which is how most federal lands are currently managed, she said. Fielder, another advocate of public lands transfers, also pointed to studies and testimony from Montana that concluded federal land management agencies lack the resources to adequately oversee public lands. That, she said, has resulted in massive wildfires and unhealthy forests, among other impacts. Fielder said supporters of a federal public lands transfer are advocating both legislation and litigation, centered on the property clause in Article 4 of the Constitution, to further their cause. But it is exactly the same constitutional clause, as well as the supremacy clause in Article 6 of the Constitution, that conservation attorney Cyndi Tuell said solidly refutes any argument that the states have unilateral authority to transfer lands into their control. If we want to ignore 200 years of jurisprudence, we should probably give the land back to the original owners who have the best claim to that land, Tuell said, pointing to a map showing the original territories of the country's Native American tribes. Another problem with the arguments of federal land transfer proponents, said Todd Leahy, director of conservation with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, is there are too many ifs. They believe that a state's revenue might exceed management costs if large-scale transfer occurred, if the feds yield all current and future revenue, if the states maximally exploit those resources, if petroleum mineral and timber prices remain high, if they can find markets if they can compete in a global marketplace, Leahy said. All those ifs arent exactly reassuring. Benefits of the system Leahy and several other presenters advocated for collaboration among various agencies as the best, most rational way to resolve public lands issues. Hattenbach, regional director of rangeland management with the Forest Services Southwestern region, gave several examples of that collaboration such as the Four Forest Restoration Initiative and the Southwest Jemez Collaborative Landscape Restoration Project. This debate over what entities should own public lands and how they should be protected or used for economic benefit has been going on for well over a century, Hattenbach said. He didnt take a position on the transfer concept, but outlined potential liabilities and considerations related to federal lands that states taking on that property would have to consider, such as legacy contamination and restrictions on land use related to things like critical habitat for endangered species. He also addressed the federal money that flows into states because of their public lands. Each year, the Forest Service spends about $115 million managing Arizonas national forests, while the federal government pays states millions of dollars annually to compensate them for tax-exempt federal acreage, which would disappear if those lands were transferred. Arizona has received about $45 million annually in recent years under those payment programs. Hattenbach reviewed the federal dollars spent on fighting wildfires in Arizona as well, which have ranged from $18 million to $206 million per year over the past five years. The cost to put out the Slide fire alone was $10.1 million. Theres also the public comment process that is in place for decisions made about public lands that wouldnt apply to state lands, said Alicyn Gitlin, the Sierra Clubs Grand Canyon Program coordinator. Im not always happy with the job that is done (by the federal government) but at least I have confidence that public input is accepted, Gitlin said. Gitlin also made the point that public opinion polls have consistently shown that people support public lands and don't want to see them go under state control. Last month, Colorado Colleges Conservation in the West poll found 65 percent of Arizonans oppose the transfer of federal public lands to state control. Barton brushed off the results of the poll, suggesting that the public misunderstands the mechanisms and benefits of such a land changeover. They tend to overreact, Barton said. They don't know what they don't know. Matt Gallagher in The Paris Review: As a young man of a certain kind, I read a lot of Hemingway growing up. My sixteen-year-old self, full of angst and emo aches, found a kindred spirit in Jake Barnes, even if Jakes brooding was much deeper, darker, and more significant than my own. The northern Michigan of the Nick Adams stories bore a passing resemblance to the Tahoe Basin, where I grew up, and my earliest attempts at creative work were pale imitations of The End of Something and The Three-Day Blow. The Old Man and the Sea bored me to video games the first time I tried it, but that didnt stop me from extolling Santiagos badassness at the dinner table. This was pre-9/11 America, in a suburban, white-collar community far removed from battle or turmoil. My parents were both children of World War II veterans, and both had protested the Vietnam War; as a result, my brother and I had been raised with a healthy respect for the military, mixed with a healthy skepticism toward the application of military force. While my Hemingway obsession did confuse my mom a bit, she later told me she figured at least it wasnt drugs, or French philosophy. Its embarrassing to admit now, but For Whom the Bell Tolls had a lot to do with my joining the Army ROTC program in college. I wrote my history thesis on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the American volunteers who fought Franco and fascism in Spain over our governments objections. The dark, awful romance of it all was like a siren songthe fact that theyd been dismissed as premature antifascists, like it was a bad thing, became a common rant of mine during beer-pong games. We were in the Bush era now: my worldview was being shaped by politicians whod spent their youths doing everything they could to avoid military service, but who couldnt be more eager to send me and my peers into combat. For freedom, they said. But it felt like something else to me. At the beer-pong table, I began to replace my talk of premature antifascists with a rant about chicken hawks. One weekend in early 2003, my roommate traveled to DC to protest the looming invasion of Iraq. I went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for a ROTC field-training exercise held in a swamp. Hemingways books stayed with me during all of this, though I referred to him as Papa now, because Id learned the power of reverence. I held deep misgivings about the Iraq invasion. Preemptive war (even ironically reactionary preemptive war) seemed counter to our republics spirit, somehow, or at least to its idealized spirit. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade had reacted to a coup, to defend an idea. Whatever Iraq was going to be, it was never going to be that. Was Iraq inevitable? Of course not. More here. John Reed at the New York Times: When Michael Peppiatt, at 21, met Francis Bacon, the 53-year-old artist was already all artifice, well spoken when well rehearsed, his bistro doctrines applauded by clinking glasses. Peppiatt, having taken over a student arts journal at Cambridge, had shown up in Londons Soho. It was 1963, and Peppiatt laid claim to but a tenuous introduction to the renowned painter he sought. At the bar of the French House, the youth was handled by the photographer John Deakin, who loudly advised: My dear, you should consider that the maestro you mention has as of late become sofamous that she no longer talks to the flotsam and jetsam. . . . I fear shewouldnt even consider meeting a mere student like you! Deakins proclamation turned the heads of the patronage, and a man called back, offering Peppiatt a chair. It was Bacon; Deakin had made an artful introduction, and Peppiatt, however accidentally, had found his apprenticeship. Over the next 30 years, Peppiatt would emerge as a critic, curator and publisher, and ultimately Bacons biographer. Joining Bacon for his nightly rounds, from restaurants to clubs, Peppiatt would ply Bacon with interview questions a writer challenging the bromides of his celebrity subject. Francis Bacon in Your Blood, arriving some 20 years after Peppiatts seminal biography, Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma, is the result, a gouache decoupe of a friend, against a background of art history. more here. South Dakota high school football playoffs scores and schedule: Oct. 20 The South Dakota high school football playoffs start tonight with the Class 11B and 9-man teams facing off in the first round. LOS ANGELES (TNS) A judge on Friday sentenced a Rowland Heights doctor to 30 years to life in prison for the murders of three of her patients who fatally overdosed, ending a landmark case that some medical experts say could reshape how doctors nationwide handle prescriptions. The sentence came after a Los Angeles jury last year found Dr. Hsiu-Ying Lisa Tseng guilty of second-degree murder, the first time a doctor had been convicted of murder in the U.S. for overprescribing drugs, the district attorneys office said. Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli said before sentencing Tseng that she had attempted to blame patients, pharmacists and other doctors rather than take responsibility for her own actions. It seems to be an attempt to put the blame on someone else, he said. Very irresponsible. Tseng, wearing blue jail scrubs, apologized to the victims families, her family and medical society. Im really terribly sorry, she said, before addressing the courtroom audience, which was crowded with victims relatives. I have been and forever will be praying for you. May God bless all of you and grant comfort to all who have been affected by my actions. April Rovero, whose son, Joey, died after mixing alcohol with Xanax and oxycodone he had obtained from Tseng, sat expressionless, listening to Tsengs first public show of remorse. It feels too late, Rovero said outside the courtroom. But it was better to hear something than nothing. Rovero, who founded the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse after her sons death, praised the judges decision. Justice has been served, she said. The 46-year-old former general practitioner is among a small but growing number of doctors charged with murder for prescribing painkillers that killed patients. A Florida doctor was acquitted of first-degree murder in September. Some experts fear Tsengs conviction will usher in a precarious new reality a scenario in which doctors fearful of prosecution are hesitant to prescribe potent painkillers to patients who need them. Attorney Peter Osinoff, who represented Tseng before the state medical board, told the judge during Fridays hearing that the doctor no longer represents a danger to society since she surrendered her medical license in 2012. The trial had already had a deterrent effect on other doctors and has captured the medical communitys attention. More primary care physicians no longer accept or treat chronic pain patients in their practice, he told the judge. Outside the courtroom, Osinoff said Tsengs prosecution has had a negative impact on physicians and patients. The doctors are scared out of their minds, he said. The pendulum has swung so far. The people who need (pain medication) cant get it now. Other medical experts have echoed his concerns since Tseng was charged in 2012. When you use the word murder, said Dr. Peter Staats, president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, of course its going to have a chilling effect. Staats said he believes an aggressive medical board not prosecutors should go after reckless doctors. But, he added, any doctor who is prescribing pills knowing that they are being abused or diverted shouldnt be called a doctor. Thats not the practice of medicine, Staats said. Dr. Francis Riegler, a pain specialist who works in Palmdale, Calif., said he has followed Tsengs case and talked about the prosecution with fellow doctors across the country. We agree, he said, that if youre doing the right thing if youre one of the good guys, if you will you dont need to worry about being prosecuted for murder. During Tsengs trial, Deputy District Attorney John Niedermann told jurors that there were red flags in her prescribing habits. More than a dozen times, the prosecutor said, a coroners or law enforcement official called with the same stark message: Your patient has died. Her prescribing habits, Niedermann said, remained unchanged. The prosecutor told jurors that Tseng wrote a mans name on prescriptions so his wife could get twice as many pills, openly referred to her patients as druggies and sometimes made up medical records. Her motivation, Niedermann said, was financial. Between 2007, when Tseng joined the Rowland Heights clinic where her husband worked, and 2010, tax returns show that their office made $5 million, he said. Please Donate In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation. Racist PayPal Tries to Close Down My Blog As you can see from this article PayPal have removed my blog. I would therefore ask people to make any future donations to the following: Name of Account: Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre Account No: 04094107 Sort Code: 09-01-50 Reference: Web donations (This feature is part of the "Through Airmen's Eyes" series. These stories focus on individual Airmen, highlighting their Air Force story.)Stopping for a moment to catch his breath, the Airman realized he was nearing the limit of his willpower.He placed his rucksack on the ground for a brief moment of rest and glanced toward the mountain peak ahead. He could hear the rain dripping from the tree branches above, soaking his gear and clothes.Exhausted, craving sleep, food and a warm bed, he played with the idea of giving up. Deep down, however, he knew this wasnt an option. He took a deep breath, forced himself to take another step and continued with his squad up the ridge.Staff Sgt. Robert Keefe, the 736th Security Forces Squadron NCO in charge of training, was in the middle of the U.S. Army Ranger School. It was his chance to prove his mettle as a combat-ready Airman among some of the militarys toughest warriors.Rangers are uniquely skilled service members who specialize in conducting airborne and air assault operations, seizing key terrain such as airfields, destroying strategic facilities and capturing or killing enemies of the nation. Only a few Airmen are given the opportunity to attempt to join this elite brotherhood.Located in Fort Benning, Georgia, the school prepares volunteers in combat arms related functional skills. With a 40 percent graduation rate from 2011-15, Ranger school is one of the most grueling training courses a military member can attend.Ranger school is what I would consider the Department of Defenses premier leadership course, Keefe said. It exists only to build the best leaders in combat for whatever branch you're in.At Andersen Air Force Base, Keefe usually trains security forces Airmen to be proficient for contingency operations around the world. With 11 years of experience under his belt, the battlefield expert has sharpened his skillset with sniper training; learned how to survive and return with honor through evasion and conduct after capture training; and spent time as an investigator with a security forces unit at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota.Early 2015, while providing security support for the president, Capt. Nathaniel Lesher, Keefes executive officer at the time, approached him and asked if he was interested in the opportunity of becoming a Ranger.I selected Keefe to attend Ranger school, because it was apparent that he was both physically and mentally tough enough to finish the course, Lesher said. He is the guy who subordinates look up to and peers respect. Additionally, Keefe excelled at all core tasks and physical requirements in order to attend the school and with a short notice completed another physically and mentally challenging school -- the Close Precision Engagement Course -- earlier in the year.At first, the Airman shrugged it off thinking his captain was only joking. After all, only a handful of Airmen get the chance to join Soldiers each year.When he first asked me, I told him, Sure Ill go if you send me, Keefe said. At first I didn't think he was serious, but he asked me again a few more times over the course of the next couple days. Then I thought that he might actually be serious.After returning to Andersen AFB from a security mission in India in mid-2015, Keefes leaders decided he was ready to represent his unit at Ranger school and succeeded in securing his place on the class roster.Used to him being gone for months at a time due to contingency response missions or deployments, Keefe said his wife, Ayesha, and their two sons Nicholas and Tighe, were very supportive with his decision to attend the school. Knowing how important it was to his boys, however, he made a promise to be home for Halloween. This commitment put Keefe on a tight timeline. To be back on Guam by that date required him to go straight through the course and pass all challenges without being recycled or phased back.To prepare Keefe for his imminent struggle, he attended the Ranger Training Assessment Course -- an evaluation split up into two weeklong phases. During the Ranger Assessment Phase, Keefe persevered through unique tasks such as the Ranger Physical Fitness Test, a combat water survival assessment and various other physical fitness events. In addition, he learned troop leading procedures, patrolling techniques and small unit operations. In order to continue to the second phase, Keefe had to pass all RAP events.During the second phase, Keefe and other students rotated into leadership positions and proved their ability to successfully accomplish small unit combat operations from planning through execution. In addition, the instructors evaluated Keefe on his ability to lead squad-sized patrols.Once he successfully completed RTAC, Keefe gained passage into the Ranger course.Pulling up to the training center at 7 a.m., Keefe noticed he was the first one to arrive. He anxiously stepped out of the taxi and collected his baggage.After passing under a large Ranger tab suspended above him, he knew it was go-time. Seconds later, a Ranger instructor stopped Keefe and asked, Air Force, what are you doing here?Without hesitation, the Airman replied confidently, I'm here for Ranger school.The instructor chuckled and told him to go sit down. Listening to his instruction, Keefe placed his gear down beside him and took a seat on the training pad. While waiting for other trainees to arrive, he said he first questioned himself on what he was even doing there.As time passed and more students arrived, Keefe noticed the operational camouflage pattern uniforms. As he observed operators pulling off their patches, leaving only their name and service branch signifiers, he noticed he was surrounded by some of the Armys most elite Soldiers as the only Airman among his peers.I overheard some of the men talking and heard some say they were with special forces, Keefe recalled. I started to think, These are some real guys I'm sitting here with right now. These guys are going to dominate this course and I'm going to have a tough time.Then I thought, These guys aren't better than me, they're just like me. Theyre probably thinking the same thing I'm thinking right now -- who is that kid and why is he in the Air Force? Why is he here, he must be something special, he added.The Benning phase kicked off the 61 days of hell for Keefe and the other students. In the first week, Keefe demonstrated his physical stamina and mental toughness by exceeding the minimum of 49 pushups and 59 sit-ups in a two-minute span, six chin-ups and by running five miles in 40 minutes or less. Nearly 40 percent of failures occur during the first few days of this phase. Seeing trainees drop out motivated Keefe to push through the physical pain and mental strain.Here, he was introduced to the instructors disciplinary measures. As often as they deemed necessary, the students were ordered to execute pushups, sit-ups, squats, and burpees until they were told to stop.The instructors are pretty much holding your hand throughout that phase, Keefe said of the frequent pressure. They beat you into the ground all day long. They worked us till we didnt want to breathe anymore, but they showed us exactly how to do everything. They wanted us to perform, so they were very critical on the way they graded us.Keefe quickly realized how little sleep he was receiving during this experience. Sleep deprivation is part of the course and requires Ranger candidates to dig deep. Some nights he only slept for little more than 15 minutes or not at all. Keefe noted the most sleep he got during the training was a trifling two hours.One thing I learned about Ranger school is that I could literally sleep doing anything, Keefe said. I would sleep during conversations and at times, I would sleep walk. There was an instance when I woke up walking in the woods not knowing how I got there.After learning the tactical fundamentals during the Benning phase, Keefe found himself in the northern Georgia Mountain Range for the stage of challenges. Here, he learned about knots, belays, anchor points, rope management, and the basic fundamentals of climbing and rappelling. In addition, he trained on how to properly evacuate simulated injured personnel and perform raids in a mountainous environment. Since Keefe had very little previous mountaineering experience up to this point, this segment proved to be difficult.Between hiking through the mountains ambushing training sites, Keefe found himself exhausted and pushed to his limits. Mother Nature didnt make things any easier for Keefe, either.It rained on us the whole time we were there, Keefe said. It was terrible, our ruck sacks were already heavy enough and the rain just made it even heavier. There were times where my ruck would weigh in excess of 80-100 pounds.Battling exhaustion and hunger, Keefe knew he only had a few weeks left during the final stretch of the school. The finish line inched close, yet Keefe needed to survive the swamps of Florida. With his fellow classmates, he received instruction on waterborne operations, small boat movements and stream crossings upon arrival.By this time, we were expected to operate without help from the instructors, Keefe recalled. Youve got it all figured out at this point and the missions should go well. It was hot, humid and the mosquitoes were like dinosaurs. You live in a swamp and you're always soaking wet with mud. It wasnt easy.After braving some of the harshest environments of the continental U.S., from mountain elevation to the humid heat of Florida, Keefe had proven that he met demanding requirements of the curriculum.Without delay and recycle, Keefe graduated from the school on Oct. 16, and became the 266th Airman to earn the black and yellow Ranger tab. Not only did this enable to keep his promise to his sons, but according to Keefe, only 8 percent of students can say they accomplished this feat.(I didnt make it straight through) because I was (exceptional) or anything like that, Keefe said. It was because I had a bunch of people around me who helped me get to through it.Not a day passed when Keefe didnt experience a trial, but he knew he was never going to be presented this opportunity again. Dreading the thought of returning to his unit and being known as a failure, the Airman fought tooth and nail to earn the title of a Ranger school alumnus.Every single day I wanted to quit, Keefe said. I kept telling myself tomorrow youre going to quit, then tomorrow came and I kept saying the same thing. I kept telling myself, if you quit then you're going to be that guy who says they made it to the second phase of Ranger school then quit.Sporting the Ranger tab on his left shoulder, Keefe said he takes pride in knowing he is one of a few select Airmen whos persevered through the grueling training and can now consider themselves a Ranger.I wanted my kids to be proud, I wanted my wife to be proud and I wanted to do it not only for myself, but for everyone who is important to me, he said. The Libyan rivals who endorsed the Political Dialogue Agreement are meeting Thursday in Skhirat, Morocco, to form a new cabinet after the previous cabinet was rejected by Libyas internationally-recognized law body; the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR.) The first cabinet proposed by Prime Minister-designate Faiez Serraj was rejected last month by a majority of HoR members who deemed the 32-member cabinet too large and called on Serrajs team to cut it down. The HoR also criticized an article of the Dialogue agreement which vests the Presidency Council with the authority to name countrys top security and military officials. Head of the UN mission in Libya Martin Kobler warned however that HoR has no authority to make changes to the agreement. Formation of the unity government is highly expected. Members of Global Coalition against the Islamic State that held a meeting in Rome this week called on Libyans to facilitate the formation of the Government of National Accord (GNA); the sole solution for Libya to tackle its numerous challenges and more importantly to fight IS group which is expanding and sowing havoc across the country. The EU also urged on Wednesday the protagonists to support a broad-based unity government or face the prospect of more chaos. Besides, in face of the IS groups growing expansion and threats, Libyas friends led by the US are seriously considering military intervention against the terrorist group. However Frances Laurent Fabius Tuesday indicated that France will not take part in a military intervention in Libya adding that for the moment Paris is only concerned about how to help Libyans form a unity government. British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond also ruled out at the Rome gathering sending British troops to Libya to combat the spread of the Islamic State, saying he does not think that putting combat troops on the ground is a helpful contribution. According to him, What the Libyans need is strategic organization, command and control, and air-gathered intelligence. IS made giant advances last year, seizing in June late Col. Gaddafis hometown Sirte and conquering other vast regions including the Libyan coastal territories enabling it to indulge more into migrant trafficking. The first day of his visit to Laayoune, southern Morocco, King Mohammed VI launched on Friday the construction of the Foum El Oued-Laayoune technology park. This high-tech center of knowledge and innovation to cost about 2 billion dirhams is designed to support the Phosboucraa integrated industrial complex of fertilizer production, whose construction works were also launched by the Sovereign on Friday. King Mohammed VI arrived in Laayoune Thursday late afternoon coming from the city of Ouarazate, where he had chaired a ceremony marking the entry into service of the first of the four plants of the mega solar project Noor (Light) that is to generate by 2018 nearly 500 megawatts of electricity from solar energy. The Foum El Oued-Laayoune technopark, to be built in the small town of Foum El Oued, 18 km from Laayoune, will include teaching and research clusters that will focus on the Sahara environment and the economic development of the Southern provinces. The park also includes a cultural center, as well as social facilities. The other major project launched by the sovereign, the Phosboucraa integrated industrial complex of fertilizer production, will require an investment of 16.8 billion dirhams. This project aims to create wealth locally through the processing of phosphate and production of fertilizer on the Phosboucraa site. It also seeks to encourage SMEs and SMIs in the region and promote new professions associated with phosphate and fertilizer processing activities (engineering, construction, maintenance, project management ) The future complex is also expected to eventually generate nearly 1,270 jobs. The fertilizer production platform is worth 8.3 billion dirhams and will produce half a million ton of phosphoric acid and one million ton of fertilizer. Besides the fertilizer production platform, the complex will include a washing and flotation plant, a drying unit, and a stockyard in addition to a seawater desalination plant and a thermal power plant. To facilitate exports, a new port will be constructed part of this project. The port will require an investment worth 4.2 billion dirhams. The industrial complex will reinforce Moroccos leadership on the global market of phosphates and derivatives. The two projects illustrate the strong will of King Mohammed VI to boost the integrated development of the southern provinces and to raise the living standards and welfare of the inhabitants. Further he said I have no ego, else I would have tweeted in the same manner, by posting screen shorts and abuses, and I respect her as girl and care for the privacy. I never insisted her to meet me, it is she who approached me and I agreed to meet her. I went to her house for lunch met her parents and some volunteers who support BJP. We were normal friends and I didnt even know what cast she belongs, I respect everyone equally. My only mistake is that in two womans fight, I was asked to defend Jwala and that I refused. Whereas Jwala said she is undergoing lot of stress and she wants Bagga to be punished for harassing her. When asked about kind of harassment, she said Bagga wanted to sleep with her and when she denied him entry at home, he kept on calling her whole night. (As date and time she did not mentioned to me) . There is on-going confrontation between two BJP supporters and Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows both on twitter. They knew each other through twitter as BJP supporters then became friends and then rifted on bad notes dragging each other to legal clutches and social embracement. Jwala Gurunath is doctor, passed out MBBS in 2007 from R.G.U.H.S University; she is daughter of Gurunath C and Chandrama. C.Gurunath, former minister, who had identified himself with the All-India Janata Dal (AIJD) later on he, planned to joined Janata Dal (S), but due to the death of his brother in Saudi the decision (on his joining the JD-S) was postponed. later on he Joined B.S. Yeddyurappa & contested on his party ticket. Jwala supports BJP and Narendra Modi and she claims that she is on twitter for him. Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga is New Delhi-based nationalist who supports right-wing organizations, a twitter celebrity and staunch Narendra Modi fan. He is the one who physically attacked Prashant Bhushan due to his controversial statement on the Kashmir issue. Those days Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, praised Bagga and group. Thackeray issued statement saying No mercy should be shown to the people who advocate the division of the country. Bagga was also involved in a violent protest against Arundhati Roy during the release of her collection of essays, named as Broken Republic. Bagga came to limelight with violence and attacks on various leftists celebrities. He formed a group called Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, and gradually became campaigner for BJP leaders in LokSabha elections; he came up with various innovative brandings for Modi, and became one of the celebrity figures on social network. Personally I know him for years now but he was always humble and respectful. We spoke to some Netizens over this on-going fight heres what they had to say: @nayanchandra: When I not agreed for something, Jwala accused me of doing conspiracy against her. It is really difficult to understand some people on Social Network so I always refrain getting dragged into unwanted politics. She should have mutually settled this issue. When we fighting for single cause & for a change India, this kind of silly accusing & taking benefit of outdated weak laws to falsely implement someone is really disgusting, but in this particular case I stand with Tajinder Bagga. Some Netizen on Anonymity said, The rival used Jwala to their benefit and created a monster in her which is uncontrollable. Issue was not that big but now situation got out of hand. @BJPLucknowBJP: Stupid ego issues, which turned into political hashtag war. Never mix personal life with politics. Congress is pouring fuel in the fire by making it worst. @Rajput_Ramesh: It is really sad that two good friends and Namo supporters are fighting publicly. The fight was started with misunderstanding and fueling by morons. When there is a common goal and ideology such ugly fights are disheartening and it gives opponents to wag their tongues and have fun at our expense. In-short very sad with the happenings. @SureshNakua: This is a Textbook example of misuse of SC/ST Act. Just because Tajinder refused to take her side in a Twitter fight, Jwala is doing all this drama. I have known Tajinder for years and stand by him. Excerpts from telephonic interview with Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga. How you look at the entire scenario? Things would be sorted out soon and my innocence would be proven as I have not done any wrong, but Congress members should stop instigating her by playing dirty to their political advantage. She is a girl and also a BJP supporter, I care for her dignity the most. What kind of relation you shared with Jwala? There was nothing as such any relation, we were just normal friends or rather acquaint. When did you both met first and what was it all about? On my visit to Bangalore, Jwala knew I was visiting the city and she insisted me to meet up with the volunteers to whom I agreed, we met the volunteers there, and further she took me to her home where we had lunch and then I returned to the airport very same day. Since then we were in touch on phone calls, WhatsApp chat, like I chat with all other people usually. How did the whole matter start? We last had telephonic conversation on 24-25 December 2015, in which Jwala said, she has sent me some screenshots of her twitter fight happening between her and Jhunjunwala, and asked me to defend her. I repudiate on defending her looking at her language and it did not seem right for me to intervene into someone elses fight. Since then, Jwala took onto twitter to defame me on all manners, from calling me a goon of prashant bhushan, to characterless person. What will be your further steps now? On 5th Feb, some police officers came to my house, I told them I have been co-operating with the authorities why was the need to visit my house? The officer told me nothing is in our hand; our commissioner has received orders from Home Ministry to intervene in this matter. I am clear on my stands and would co-operate with the official handling the case in every manner. I have provided them with the all my screenshot and data with text messages. I have clarified my side to police and also assured them needed cooperation, even if needed I dont mind to travel to Bangalore. What has Jwala written into her FIR? She has stated in her FIR that, while we met in Bangalore, Bagga asked me to spend one night with me, to which I refused. Further she has stated, Arvind Kejriwal insulted PM Modi, I wanted to trend against Kejriwal, BJP IT cell did not support me. And Nupur Jhunjunwala trolled me on twitter. I was not in touch with Bagga regarding this case, hence I called him but Bagga on phone abused me calling, a lower class and schedule cast person. She has also mentioned that, I have forgiven Bagga for all his earlier mistakes, but I will not tolerate someone abusing me on my cast. To which Bagga explained, Why will I abuse her cast? Moreover I was really unaware of her cast until she filed an FIR against me. I never publicized the screenshots of our chats because that was personal and I believe if someone puts her trust on me and tells something very personal, I should not make it public and that is what exactly what Jwala did. To conclude with Tajender Pal Bagga said, I am ready to face every legal battle, I believe the justice system and I will come out clean, I dont want twitter justice or any sympathy on twitter. I have lot of follower they barge into conversation uninvitedly because they all love me, but Jwala thinks it is me who is asking everyone to troll her, which I never did. The day I come out clean things will unfold. Those who are supporting me will be there till the end; those accusing me on twitter wont care even if I publish evidences, hence I am refraining from doing so. I do not render any explanation to such people because I am waiting for the law to deliver justice. Twitter is now using spam-fighting technology to seek out accounts that might be promoting terrorist activity, and is examining other accounts related to those flagged for possible removal, the company announced Friday. The effort signaled efforts by Twitter to automatically identify tweets supporting terrorism, reflecting increased pressure from the U.S. government for social media companies to respond to abuse more proactively. Child pornography has previously been the only abuse that was automatically flagged for human review on social media, using a different kind of technology that sources a database of known images. Twitter also said Friday it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, mainly related to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the last eight months. Social media outlets have long been a tool for recruitment and radicalization by ISIL and its supporters, who by some reports send tens of thousands of tweets per day. Under pressure from the U.S. government to crack down on the abuse of such platforms by groups like ISIL, tech companies are dedicating increasingly more resources to tracking reports of violent threats. Twitter said Friday that it has increased the size of its team reviewing reports to reduce their response time significantly. The San Francisco-based company also changed its policy in April, adding language to make clear that threatening or promoting terrorism specifically counted as abusive behavior and violated its terms of use. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called Twitters announcement a very positive development. In January, the White House made good on President Barack Obamas promise to reach out to Silicon Valley to tackle the use of social media by violent groups. Those include ISIL, which reportedly inspired attackers who killed 14 in San Bernardino, California, last December. A post on one of the killers Facebook pages that appeared around the time of the attack included a pledge of allegiance to the leader of ISIL. Facebook found the post which was under an alias the day after the attack. The company removed the profile from public view and informed law enforcement. But such a proactive effort is fairly uncommon. The Obama administration recently sent several top officials to San Jose, California, including FBI Director James Comey, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. Among the issues they discussed was how to use technology to help speed the identification of terrorist content, according to a copy of the White House briefing memo obtained by The Associated Press. We recognize that identifying terrorist content that violates terms of service is far more difficult than identifying images of child pornography, but is there a way to use technology to quickly identify terrorist content? For example, are there technologies used for the prevention of spam that could be useful? the memo said. Free speech advocates have expressed concerns about these efforts, arguing that it should not be up to tech companies to determine what passes the bar for terrorist content. Of particular concern is that different countries have differing lists of designated terrorist groups, and that accusations of terrorism are often subjective and political. Others argue that wiping pro-ISIL accounts off the Internet deprives intelligence agencies of valuable intelligence and prevents anti-ISIL voices from confronting the groups ideology head-on. Nevertheless, in late 2015 Twitter began using proprietary spam-fighting tools to find accounts that might be violating their terms of service by promoting terrorism, sending them to be reviewed by a team at Twitter. That group also now looks into other accounts similar to those reported to them by other users. Twitter said it has already had seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter. But it also noted that there is no magic algorithm for identifying terrorist content, which is why even humans reviewing the material are ultimately making judgment calls based on very limited information and guidance. Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism, Twitter said in a statement released Friday. It said it would continue to engage with authorities and other relevant organizations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives. Min. Tony talked about reaching out to African American members of Congress who should be especially concerned about Thompson's claims. By Anne Dachel This past November I did a series of interviews with Minister Tony Muhammad on the failure of Congress to investigate the claims of CDC scientist, Dr. William Thompson, that his agency had destroyed evidence of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, including what was specifically found in a population of African American males under the age of 36 months. Min. Tony: "Then I went to a friend of mine that I knew when I lived in Baltimore years back, Congressman Elijah Cummings. Bobby Kennedy knew him as well. I gave him a call, and I was talking to him about the MMR vaccine and I said, Are you aware that Dr. William Thompson, who is the senior lead scientist for the Center for Disease Control, works in the vaccine division, he has admitted that he lied. And Mr. Cummings said, Wait a minute, we just had him here. I said, Yeah, and he has hired the number one whistleblower attorney in this country. And he was like, Really? Elijah, we need you to look into this. And the Hon. Min. Louis Farrakhan and those of us who are concerned about whats happening with these vaccines and our children. The American public deserves to know what lies Dr. William Thompson [told] in front of you and your committee. And he said, Oh brother, Im going to get right on this. Two days later, he called me back with a crackling sound in his voice, saying, Ah, ah, ah, Minister Tony, look, Im pro-vaccine. I said, Okay, so what does that have to do with Dr. William Thompson and the lie he told? [Cummings:] Well, I dont know if I want to deal with that. Theres science out there thats debunking what he said. I said, No, no onethere is no science out there against what Dr. Thompson has said. Dr. Thompson needs to talk himself, since theyre using what he's saying. [Cummings:] I dont know if I want to deal with this. Min. Tony asked Rep Cummings if he was a sellout. Im not a sellout. And he hung up the phone. Min. Tony said that he had someone investigating Cummings' ties to the pharmaceutical industry. He was astonished at the response from Cummings. These people are so powerful. He ran into something thats backing him down from even bringing Dr. Thompson who lied to his committee. I said, Then weve got to move the people.... I tell you, not just African American politicians. There are many white politicians, Latino politicians, who are bought and paid for, and this needs to be brought to the American peoples attention.... Min. Tony went on to describe the liability protection given to the vaccine makers as heinous. He said, That is a crime against the American people. If these vaccines are so safe, why doesnt the vaccine maker whos making billions of dollars stand behind his product? Min. Tony ended by saying that our elected officials are selling us out to special interest groups. He called for truth and transparency. Here's what Minister Tony Muhammad said about Cummings in Atlanta in Oct. Oct 24, 2015, CDC rally, Minister Tony Muhammad will also be appearing in Atlanta at the CDCs doorstep "And when I went to Congress, Elijah Cummings, I gotta tell you the truth. Elijah Cummings is over the Oversight Committee and both Bobby Kennedy and myself went to this Negro and this Negro...excuse me I'm getting a little touched...I have him the information from the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and said, 'Brother Elijah we need you to look into this.' He said, 'Brother I'll look into that, we just had him [William Thompson] up here ten years ago.' And I said, 'Yeah Dr. Thompson lied to you.' He said, 'Well I'm going to look into this.' I said, 'If you look into this Brother we will stand behind you, the whole Nation will stand with you.' "Two days later, I did not know that in two days he learned how to moonwalk. He called me back with a crackling sound in his voice. He said, 'Brother Tony look I...I...I just want you to know I'm pro-vaccine.' I said, 'I don't care about you being pro-vaccine I asked you to call Dr. Thompson and subpoena him.' 'I don't know if I can do that...I just think you hooked up with some crazy people I think your information is wrong.' I said, 'Brother are you punking out?' 'I'm not a punk Brother I'm just telling you [unintelligible] I ain't got time to talk.' I said, 'That's okay, Minister Farrakhan likes bad news fast.' And he hung up. Guess who I called? Minister Farrakhan. He said, 'That's all right Brother. I told you Pharaoh has some magicians.' He said, 'Not only have our Black politicians been bought but over 95% of our White politicians have been bought.'" Here's the big disconnect in the ethics of Rep Cummings. On Feb 2, 2016, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a story involving Rep Cummings and the drug industry. Congress: drugmakers planned price hikes to boost profits Two drugmakers have made a practice of buying and then dramatically hiking the prices of low-cost drugs given to patients with life-threatening conditions including heart disease, AIDS and cancer, according to excerpts from thousands of documents released by federal lawmakers. A congressional review of more than 300,000 pages from Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals reveals how executives planned to maximize profits while fending off negative publicity over the price hikes. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, released the information Tuesday ahead of a hearing Thursday to examine exorbitant price spikes. Cummings has used his position atop the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate several companies that have bought previously low-cost drugs and jacked up their prices many times over. The Democrat said in a statement that the documents show "that many drug companies are lining their pockets at the expense of some of the most vulnerable families in our nation." The same Elijah Cummings who went after drug makers for illegal price gouging by the pharmaceutical industry does not have the same concern over actions by the vaccine division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This egregious double standard needs to be exposed for what it is. The idea that the government's vaccination program could be behind massive damage to a generation of children is the unthinkable to many of our politicians. The consequences are too terrible to consider. Elected officials like Cummings seem to lack any courage when it comes protecting the most vulnerable among us. Most recently Cummings went on the record expressing his outrage over the officials who allowed the people of Flint, MI to be exposed to lead in their drinking water. Feb 3, 2016, C-Span: Rep. Elijah Cummings' Passionate Remarks About Flint Water Crisis http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4578881/rep-elijah-cummings-passionate-remarks-flint-water-crisis Cummings: "...I want everybody who is responsible for this fiasco to be held accountable. I'm not protecting anybody, because that's not our job. We are the last line of defense. And if we don't do it, nobody's going to do it." It left me speechless. He is not willing to hold anyone responsible for harming children through a mandated vaccination program. He is protecting everyone involved in the controversy at the CDC. He's right. Congress is the last defense for our children, and it obvious that nobody's going to do it. FOOTNOTE--Here is Rep Cummings questioning vaccine safety four years ago. Nov 29, 2012 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Hearing on vaccines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiQX0dRejz8 8:45 Elijah Cummings: "I'm sitting here and I'm listening to all of this. There's something wrong with this picture. ...When you've got this combination of shots, and you go from one in 10,000 to one in 88, it seems to me, somebody would say, wait a minute, let's put the brakes on this and at least let's try to figure out whether if I'm giving a baby nine shots in a day, ...how much impact that's having. ...It just seems logical. If they gave me nine shots, ...It just seems to me somebody oughta say, wait a minute, let's put some brakes on this. ...I wish you could see the people behind you. There are grown men that have been crying behind you. And women, crying. ...You can feel the frustration coming from here. ...Is there something maybe there's an issue here? And if we're going to err, let's err on the side of keeping children safe, even if we have to do a pause and give one shot a day. ..." Back four years ago, Cummings expressed disbelief and frustration over what he had learned about the vaccine schedule. He was worried that there were too many shots, too soon. He was not happy with the assurances from health officials. So what has changed? The latest 2016 childhood schedule has added two new vaccines to the recommended list. The autism rate is now one in every 45 children in the U.S., including one in every 28 boys. In 2012 Cummings wanted answers. That was BEFORE he learned about a whistleblower at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who had been ordered to destroy evidence of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism---especially if the child was African American. Now Cummings hangs up the phone on people who bring him uncomfortable information about the ever-expanding vaccination schedule. It's clear from the what was said by lawmakers who expressed serious concerns about vaccine safety in 2012, that our government will do nothing when faced with the power and control of the pharmaceutical industry. The vaccine makers have bought the legislators along with the regulators. Published by an old curmudgeon who came to America in 1936 as a refugee from Nazi Germany and proudly served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He is a former law enforcement officer and a retired professor of criminal justice who, in 1970, founded the Texas Narcotic Officers Association. BarkGrowlBite refuses to be politically correct. (Copyrighted articles are reproduced in accordance with the copyright laws of the U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 107.) WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2016 -- Anne Alonzo, who recently stepped down as administrator of USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service, has been selected as the new president and CEO of the American Egg Board, Agri-Pulse has learned. Alonzo, who had held the top job at AMS since May 2013, will replace Joanne Ivy, who retired at the end of 2015 after 40 years of service to the egg industry. Prior to joining USDA, Alonzo served as vice president of global public policy at Kraft Foods for six years. Serena Schaffner, AEB's director of marketing communications, did not respond directly to inquiries about Alonzo. "We'd be happy to provide you with a formal announcement of new AEB leadership in early March following our upcoming board meeting," she said. According to the egg industry publication, EGG-CITE.com , Alonzo will be presenting AEBs Vision for the Future at the 8 th Annual Egg Industry Issues Forum in Chicago in April. Like what you see on the Agri-Pulse website? See even more ag and rural policy news when you sign up for a four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription. Headquartered in Park Ridge, Illinois, the AEB oversees research, education and promotion efforts -- think of the Incredible, Edible Egg -- funded by a national legislative checkoff on egg production from companies with more than 75,000 hens in the continental U.S. The Board itself consists of 18 members and 18 alternates from all regions of the country who are appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture.T ( This story was updated at 8:45 p.m. to include AEB statement.) #30 For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com Turkish Party Says YPG Kurdish Militia Crossed West of Euphrates ISTANBUL -- Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesman Omer Celik has said that the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party's (PYD) armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), has crossed west of the Euphrates River, a move that Turkey considers a national security threat. In a news conference on Thursday (Feb. 4), Celik told the press that, as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a number of YPG forces have crossed west of the Euphrates and are advancing further. The Syrian Democratic Forces were created in October of last year and consist of mostly Kurdish PYD and YPG, as well as Arabs, Assyrians and others to fight against the Islamic State (IS). Turkey considers the PYD, along with its armed wing the YPG, a terrorist organization due to its ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PYD is not considered a terrorist organization by the United States, although the PKK is. The PYD has emerged as one of the leading ground forces in the battle against IS. Ankara has warned the PYD against any move into territory west of the Euphrates, amid concerns that Syrian Kurds, who currently control an uninterrupted 400-kilometer-long part of the Syrian border with Turkey, will expand their control after uniting with the Afrin canton and other cantons in the east. That would amount to more than 500 kilometers of border with Syria being under PYD control, a point that has been viewed by Ankara as a threat to national security. Turkey is concerned that the PYD may fuel separatist ambitions in Turkey. But the US supports the PYD in the context of its fight against IS and it has air-dropped weapons and ammunition to the PYD in Syria. Last year in October, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said during a TV program on A Haber that Ankara has repeatedly warned the PYD not to cross west of the Euphrates in Syria, as Turkey would hit it the moment it does. He said Turkey struck the PYD twice, but did not elaborate on when or where. February 5, 2016 The airport road camp, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of Tripoli, is home to 355 families totaling more than 1,800 people a third of whom are children. Of these people, 350 are from the stricken town of Tawergha and the rest are families displaced from the capital as their homes were damaged in the 2011 civil war and are still not repaired. The overwhelming majority of the camp residents are black Libyans who used to live in the coastal town of Tawergha, less than 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Misrata. The town of an estimated 35,000 residents was almost completely destroyed during the war, and in the final days of the regime, its entire population accused of supporting regime forces was forced to flee. Mabruk Eswesi, founder and chairman of al-Saber (Patience) Association, told Al-Monitor, We had to leave because we were fired at indiscriminately. Anyone captured could be killed on the spot or taken into detention. Misrata militias were seeking brutal revenge, accusing the entire population of supporting the former regime. Sensing the troubles ahead for his community, one already tagged as Moammar Gadhafi supporters, Eswesi and his friends set up al-Saber to keep people together and give them a voice in dealing with the situation they have found themselves in. Accompanied by some 10 families, Eswesi first arrived in the camp on Aug. 23, 2011. Tearfully, he said friends in Tripoli told me about this place, which used to be a site for a Turkish construction company that left Libya in the earlier days of the unrest in February 2011. Today the Airport Road camp, as it is known, is the largest of three scattered around the capital. The entire place is no more than a huge hanger crudely divided into small living places and other rooms. Cardboard, sheet metal and wood are used to make what looks like small apartments of two and three bedrooms. Local charities and businesses provided some of the material, while volunteers did the work. International charities also help from time to time with donations through a multilingual website. The camp is situated on some nearly 2 square kilometers (0.7 square miles), and rubbish dots its entrance. Quick to adjust to their new lives as refugees in their own land, the people of Tawergha try to live normal day-to-day lives. Using whatever means available, they have built a small school, a prayer room and a larger room they call the events room, where, Eswesi said, "We receive visitors and organize weddings, birthday parties and occasional small gatherings. The school is small, intended for younger school-age children and lacks almost everything, forcing older children to attend nearby schools, making the daily trip in the freezing Tripoli winter. The nearest such school is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) away. Inside the events room, half a dozen men gathered around a small fire to stay warm while watching TV and sipping strong Libyan green tea. They welcomed us for a small chat. One of the old men told us, As you see, we are refugees in our own country. Who could have thought that Libyans like us could live in refugee camps depending on charity and handouts?" The portion of displaced Libyans inside and outside the country has grown to almost a third of the population since the revolt and civil war erupted in 2011, leading to NATO intervention to topple the former regime and plunging the country into chaos. While political factions struggle over power and the UN struggles to bring about some kind of government, displaced Libyans like the people of Tawergha remain a side issue. As the representative of his people, Eswesi tries to work with different government departments and has to visit Tripoli almost every day, risking his life. Today, Libya is still divided, with two different governments. The Tripoli-based, Islamist-backed, Misrata-dominated government does not recognize the refugees and provides no help at all. Eswesi has been picked up five times by armed militias and jailed for different periods for no reason other than the color of his skin. Three years ago, When I would be in the city, people would call me names and swear at me for no reason. Checkpoints which I had to go through used to be a nightmare. Now its much better than before, and I can go everywhere with little trouble but not at night, Eswesi said. His colleague Aida, who refused to disclose her full name for security reasons, handles relations with local and foreign civil organizations. Over the last five years, many local and international organizations have visited the camp, including the UN. But little has been done to help us return home to Tawergha, Aida told Al-Monitor, sobbing. Amid the chaos in early 2012 and later in 2013, militants kidnapped some 30 refugees from the camp. Not all of them have been released. Eswesi preferred not to share their names for security reasons and was also hesitant to give their exact number. As the fifth anniversary of the Libyan uprising, known as the February 17 Revolution, draws closer, many Libyans are preparing to celebrate. Tawerghans will certainly have nothing to celebrate. What they really want is to be able to go home and resume their normal lives in Tawergha in peace and harmony. However, they are not hopeful that such a dream will be realized anytime soon. February 5, 2016 WASHINGTON The seemingly doomed Syria peace talks, suspended by the UN envoy in Geneva on Feb. 3, may get a boost if world powers can agree on humanitarian aid deliverables at a meeting in Munich next week, diplomats hope. The United States wont stand for talk for the sake of talk in order to continue the bombing in Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Feb. 5. He added that it would be known in the course of the next days whether or not Russia was serious. Diplomats said they would try to resurrect efforts to negotiate humanitarian aid access to 18 besieged areas and toward a Syria cease-fire at a meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) foreign ministers in Munich on Feb. 11. This is happening just as Russian-backed Syrian army troops made advances on Aleppo that could soon cut Syrian rebels off from their supply routes to Turkey. Kerry said Russia was obliged to use its leverage with the Syrian government to get it to provide the humanitarian access called for in a UN Security Council resolution unanimously agreed to on Dec. 18. This is a point Kerry said he pressed in a robust phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Feb. 4, a day after the Geneva talks broke down. The UN Resolution 2254 on which these talks are based, paragraph 12, I quote, calls on the parties to immediately allow humanitarian agencies rapid, safe, and unfettered access throughout Syria by the most direct routes; allow immediate humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need, Kerry said at a meeting with UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond on the sidelines of a Syria aid summit in London on Feb. 4. Russia voted for that, Kerry said. Russia has a responsibility, as do all parties, to live up to it. He added, We discussed, and [Lavrov] agreed that we need to discuss, how to implement the cease-fire and also how to get access by both parties for humanitarian assistance. The Russian bombardment around Aleppo has plainly undermined the Geneva talks and dealt a significant setback to UN efforts toward much-needed peace in Syria, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said in a statement Feb. 5. At the same time they urge a return to peace talks, Russia and the Bashar al-Assad regime are escalating their indiscriminate bombing of populated areas and civilian infrastructure. UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura called for the pause in the first proximity talks between the Syrian regime and opposition delegations in two years only hours after the arrival of the head of the Syrian opposition High Negotiating Committee (HNC) in Geneva on Feb. 3 just as Russian-backed Syrian army forces made substantial gains in their battle to retake Aleppo, while driving thousands of civilians to flee toward Turkey. The Syrian opposition HNC has demanded that key humanitarian measures called for in UN Resolution 2254 be fulfilled to continue with the Geneva talks. Specifically, they want agreement to lift the blockades on all Syrian towns (16 out of 19 are besieged by the Syrian government, two by the opposition and a third by the Islamic State, which is not a party to the talks), an end to shelling civilians and the release of prisoners, particularly women and children. Despite the positive efforts of countries, the murder of Syrians continues, Syria opposition HNC leader Riad Hijab told journalists in Geneva after meeting with de Mistura on Feb. 3. You witnessed attacks on Aleppo, 215 airstrikes barrel bombs and gas. The siege on the Syrian people causing death by airstrikes and starvation. He who wants a political solution wouldn't do such things, Hijab said. We came to Geneva to show we are serious and to make a success, but [President] Assad is not serious. His group, the HNC will not return unless we see progress in these areas, Hijab said. The US administration may have hoped that Russia could deliver the Syrian government to make concessions, but Assad may thwart any such pressure, especially on the political front, former US Syria envoy Robert Ford said. American officials hope that the Russians would deliver enough change in the Syrian government via the talks process that the Americans could deliver the Syrian opposition to accept a national unity government, Ford, now a fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Al-Monitor by email. But Syrian army gains on the battlefield, quite sizeable now, give Assad more scope to stall [or] decline any unwelcome Russian advice, Ford said, adding that the support of Iran gives Assad further ability to decline that Russian advice if it were ever to come. However, Syrian government gains on the ground in recent days are likely to be met by an escalation backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, Ford suggested. I would be surprised if Turkey [and] Saudi roll over, Ford said. Wait for the next few acts in this thoroughly tragic horror show. If it is not willing to overthrow him militarily, the West may have to accept that Assad has won, said Fabrice Balanche, a French Syria scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Assad has shown he is ready to destroy half of Syria, ready to send 10 million people out of the country, Balanche told Al-Monitor in an interview Feb. 5. He doesnt joke. What can we do against him? Balanche said. If we dont want to send troops in Syria, if we dont want to bomb Damascus what can we do? We have to accept the situation. Nevertheless, it is not certain that Turkey and Saudi Arabia [will] remain passive in front of the Russian-Iranian progress in Syria, Balanche wrote in a forthcoming paper shared with Al-Monitor. It warns about the possibility that anti-aircraft missiles could end up in the hands of rebels, or that anti-Assad factions could open a new front in northern Lebanon. This would directly threaten Tartus, Homs and the motorway to Damascus, Balanche wrote. The army of Assad would be outflanked and Hezbollah blocked in Lebanon. Does Saudi Arabia have the means for such action? Could [Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin] Salman take the initiative to destabilize Lebanon? Without such a black swan, it is difficult to see how the rebels could resist the Russian steamroller. While prospects for a Syria political process seem premature as facts on the ground change, there may be merit in trying, Syria analyst Aron Lund said. A talk while you fight arrangement won't end the war, but it can perhaps limit the human suffering, allow for constructive engagement across the front lines on isolated issues, and pave the way for more meaningful political exchanges later on, Lund wrote in an analysis previewing the Geneva talks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Of course, any number of things could go wrong along the way, and what happens on the battlefield will, at the end of the day, be more important. A Calhoun County judge has acquitted a former school principal accused of striking a student. The incident occurred at Ohatchee Elementary School on Oct. 6, 2015. The school principal, Julie Hood, was accused of striking a special needs child, said her attorney, Jim Sturdivant. Hood was placed on paid leave the next day. She was not arrested until Oct. 30, when she was charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. At Friday's bench trial, the defense filed a motion for acquittal upon conclusion of the state's case. The acquittal was granted by District Judge Chris McIntyre. Sturdivant explained the basis for the motion was based on two things. One was that the state's primary witness was an assistant principal who had a "long history of difficulty with Hood," making her a biased witness. "There was a long history of, shall we say, tension," Sturdivant said. "That was brought out during the trial." He said the other basis was that the state did not prove the student suffered physical injury. After her arrest, Hood was late transferred to a new position as head of Calhoun County Schools' P.A.S.S. Program. Sturdivant said he hopes her acquittal will allow her to work in an elementary environment again. "Certainly I would like to see her put back in a position to best serve the students in Calhoun County now that she's been vindicated in court," he said. Hood, who Sturdivant called a "lifelong educator" has had a lot of support from the community and former students, he said. The case warranted a bench trial because it was a misdemeanor charge, Sturdivant said. A joint operation to reduce methamphetamine in the Limestone County area has landed an Athens man behind bars. Oscar Romero Roman (Limestone County Sheriff's Office) According to court records, an Athens police officer pulled over a vehicle driven Oscar Romero Roman, 30, at about 7 p.m. Wednesday. Police say they found an amount of meth in the vehicle consistent with distribution. Prior to the traffic stop, drug agents surveilling Roman followed him to a residence in the 16000 block of Alabama 251. Lawmen say previous surveillance indicted they were "likely storing large amounts" of meth inside. During the traffic stop, agents with the Athens Police Department and Limestone County Sheriff's Office with assistance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration executed a search warrant on the home. They reported finding a plastic container with 17.5 ounces of meth in a hallway. They said they also found a lockbox under a bed that had seven mags of meth weighing a total of 77 grams, a small amount of cocaine and digital scales. They said there were two other sets of digital scales in the home. Agents also executed a search warrant at Roman's home on Quinn Road and found an AK-47 rifle, a pistol, and bags containing residue that appeared to be methamphetamine. Roman was arrested and charged with drug trafficking, possession of controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bonds at the county jail total $6,000 for the possession charges. Bond has not yet been set for the trafficking charge, according to the sheriff's office. Dr. Casey Wardynski Huntsville School Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski giving an annual "State of the Schools" update to area business leaders Feb. 5, 2016. (Lee Roop/lroop@al.com) Huntsville School Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski said Friday that his nearly 24,000-student system isn't shrinking from white flight, but growing, getting better and meeting challenges like a federal desegregation order and brawling Grissom High School students. "There is always somebody in the crowd who wants to tell me how everybody is leaving. A few of those people are still around," Wardynski told a breakfast of Huntsville area business leaders. " Any time there's a fight in school or a news story on Channel 19, everybody's leaving. Well, we had fights in school when I was a kid and they dealt with it in a very serious fashion, and so do we." What's going on in the city system is "excellent education," Wardynski said, "notwithstanding kids who can't live by our rules. We'll deal with them, but our focus is excellent education and people see that." The school system expelled one Grissom student this week for hitting a teacher and suspended three others for a brawl in a hallway of the south Huntsville school. Wardynski spoke at the annual "State of the Schools" update sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County & The Schools Foundation. Also speaking were Madison County School Superintendent Matt Massey and Madison City School Superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler. Wardynski said city enrollments "are again up strongly this year, and we're growing by about an elementary school every year and a half." "We believe we educate about 80 percent of the children who are school age in Huntsville," Wardynski said. "We're very proud of that." Huntsville's system is one of 44 in Alabama still under a federal court desegregation order, Wardynski said, agreeing "we have a lot of work to do." There are elements of a "two-city picture" in the system, Wardynski said, and "it does break out a bit by racial lines, which is also highly correlated with resources in the household." Wardynski said his percentage of students on the "free and reduced lunch program" - an indicator of lower household income - is "fairly high." But he rejected the numbers on the printed breakfast program that said 9,346 of Huntsville's 23,827 students - or 39 percent - is getting free or reduced price lunches. "I know (that) is wrong," Wardynski said, "so I've got to find out where that came from." Wardynski showed a series of slides showing high graduation rates and improvement across a range of measures. "You can see the progress that's being made," he said. "Every subgroup is making progress in the key areas...." State officials, law enforcement, social work organizations and others gathered at Embassy Suites in Montgomery on Friday for the 2nd annual Alabama Human Trafficking Summit. State Rep. Jack Williams, R-Vestavia Hills, said there's a lack of awareness about the prevalence of the sex trade in Alabama and how it ensnares girls and women into prostitution and drug addiction. "Folks don't operate in that world, so they don't see it," said Williams, who has spoken out against human trafficking for years and is chairman of the Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force. Williams is working on "safe harbor" legislation, which is intended to recognize that minors caught in the sex trade are victims, not criminals. Attorney General Luther Strange, who spoke at the summit, said he supports the legislation because it would encourage more women and girls to escape what is essentially enslavement by a trafficker, or pimp. "They're already being abused and trafficked. We don't want to abuse them again by arresting them for something they've been forced into doing," Strange said. Strange said trafficking is a major problem in Alabama, although it's hard to quantify. "Because these victims are so vulnerable, because they find themselves in such tough situations, it's one of the most complicated crime situations we have," Strange said. Tajuan McCarty, founder of The WellHouse, a faith-based nonprofit organization based in Birmingham that offers shelter, transitional housing and other help for women who are victims of trafficking, said the key is to reduce the demand. McCarty said the penalty for purchasing sex should be raised to a felony. "If we can get rid of the demand, supply will go away and the pimps won't have a job," McCarty said. Linus Maurer FILE - In a Sept. 23, 2003 file photo, the real Linus, artist Linus Maurer, cuts a ribbon after unveiling a statue of Linus of "Peanuts" comic strip fame during a ceremony at his hometown of Sleepy Eye, Minn. Maurer, a cartoonist and illustrator whose old friend Charles Schulz borrowed his first name for Charlie Brown's sidekick in his "Peanuts" comic strip, has died. Maurer's longtime partner Mary Jo Starsiak said Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, that Maurer died Jan. 29 in Sonoma, California. He was 90. (John Cross/The Free Press via AP) (John Cross) The man who gave a name to Charles Schulz's beloved "Peanuts" character Linus died on Jan. 29 at the age of 90. Linus Maurer was a cartoonist in his own right and worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Sonoma Index-Tribune later in his life, for more than 25 years, the newspaper reported. His cartoons and puzzles were also featured in newspapers nationwide. Maurer, who later suffered from Parkinson's disease, attended the Minneapolis School of Art and Design with Schulz. They were lifelong friends. Maurer composed syndicated comics like "Old Harrigan" in the 1960s, "Abracadabra" in the '70s, followed by "In the Beginning." He also created the "Challenger" numbers puzzle 20 times a month for King Features syndicate. He worked as an illustrator for IBM and AT&T in New York. He moved to San Francisco in 1962 and worked as an art director for the McCann Erickson ad agency and Wells Fargo before his cartooning career began. Fans of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders are wearing their support for him on their sleeves -- and on their rib cages, calves, necks and backs. Several dozen people have flocked to Aartistic Tattoo in Montpelier, Vermont, to get a free tattoo of the senator, complete with his unkempt hair and thick-rimmed glasses. The Burlington Free Press reports that the promotion began a week ago. Tattoo artist Chad Fay says it will run as long as Sanders does. Tattoo artist Jessica Andrew tells the newspaper she inked Sanders' image on eight people in two days. Fay says he's done at least 15 tattoos of Sanders in the past week. Gov. Robert Bentley toured the tornado ravaged areas of Pickens County on Saturday morning and saw the Sapp community safe room that's responsible for saving many lives during the Feb. 2 storms. The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes hit Pickens County on Feb. 2. Alabama Emergency Management Agency personnel are working closely with local officials to support the needs of the affected resident, according to the governor's office. Volunteers are currently working to help storm victims. This report will be updated. The Wilkins family told me how blessed they are to be alive after their home took a direct hit during the tornado. pic.twitter.com/rEeV4ew6FR Governor Robert Bentley (@GovRBentley) February 6, 2016 Today I toured the Sapp community safe room that's responsible for saving so many lives during the Feb. 2nd storm. pic.twitter.com/trbB2wC5ix Governor Robert Bentley (@GovRBentley) February 6, 2016 GOP 2016 Debate Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) (Chuck Burton) The last debate before New Hampshire voters head to the primary polls is set for Saturday night on ABC. The debate will start at 7 p.m. CST. You can watch on the network or on a live stream at ABCNews.go.com. The debate will be moderated by "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir and Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and co-anchor of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Martha Raddatz. ABC News will be hosting the debate with the Independent Journal Review, and in partnership with the Republican National Committee. Additional questions will come from WMUR political director Josh McElveen and conservative journalist Mary Katharine Ham. Participants will be businessman Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, former Gov. Jeb Bush, Gov. Chris Christie and Gov. John Kasich. Businesswoman Carly Fiorina did not meet the ABC qualifications for the debate and despite her appeals to the Republican National Committee, it does not appear she will be among the attendees. Unlike previous debates, there is no early showdown for lower-polling candidates. The New Hampshire primary is set for Tuesday. Cruz won last week's Iowa caucuses but recent polling has him in third in New Hampshire. Trump is first but recent indications are that Rubio is closing the gap. In a University of Massachusetts-Lowell tracking poll released Thursday, Trump sat on top of the pack with 36 percent support, but Rubio had 15 percent support -- up from 8 percent in the same poll released on Monday. Candidates had three ways to qualify for the debate: they placed among the top three finishers in the Iowa caucuses; placed among the top six in an average of national polls; or placed among the top six in an average of New Hampshire polls. One Oklahoma school system is encouraging its employees to carry loaded firearms to help provide security since the police department where it's located disbanded more than a year ago. The Okay (Okla.) Public Schools Board of Education passed an "Armed School Employees" policy in August. The signs notifying students, parents and others of the policy went up on Monday. "The signs are more or less a deterrent," Superintendent Charles McMahan told Muskogeephoenix.com. "We don't want to be a soft target." He said it is "seconds, not minutes, that matter" in trying to keep students safe when an emergency occurs. So far, only one Okay employee is approved to carry a firearm into the schools. Employees must qualify with a Council on Law Enforcement Education Training certification or license; possess an Oklahoma Self Defense Act License; and be CLEET qualified with the firearm, according to the policy. A school shooting occurred about 15 minutes away in Fort Gibson, Okla. In 1999. Middle school honor-roll student Seth Trickey shot five of his classmates with a 9-milimeter pistol. What hurt me the most was the indifference of the people around me, says Assita Kanko. She is sitting in an elegant tearoom in Brussels, Belgium, having tea and cake. But she is talking about the worst experience of her life the day she was forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). I was screaming out in pain and fear, but nobody bothered to comfort me, she remembers. That was the worst thing: that people just didnt seem to care. Pain and betrayal Kanko was five years old and lived in a small village in Burkina Faso when her mother took her by the hand one morning and said she was going to play at a friends house. But she was not taken to the friend and she was not going to play. Instead, she brought me to a dirty, derelict house where three or four other girls were sitting on the ground with their legs spread. They were screaming, and soon I was screaming too because I was so scared, she remembers. Nobody explained anything to her. She had no idea what was going to happen. There were these old women who pushed me to the ground, who took off my underwear and forced me to spread my legs. And then there was this excruciating pain. Worse than the pain, Kanko says, was the feeling that her mother had betrayed her. I started looking at her with different eyes. I started to distrust her. And I felt guilty that I distrusted her because I wanted to love my mother. Her eyes turn darker as she talks about the loneliness that comes after a girl has been cut. I was told not to talk about it to anyone. So I was alone with my pain and I had no idea what had happened to me. A new kind of feminism Nowadays, Kanko lives in a trendy, multicultural neighbourhood in Elsene, a district of Brussels. At 35, she is a local politician and a writer of two feminist books. In her latest, titled The Second Half, she calls out for a new kind of feminism. She takes a sip of her red-fruit tea and explains: What we need is a feminism in which all women sustain each other. We need total solidarity among women. Because without the collaboration of women, no society in this world would be able to suppress one single woman. There were no men in that dirty house to assist at my mutilation. Its often the women themselves that help to organise and maintain their own submission. Her experience as a victim of female genital mutilation was a crucial moment in becoming a feminist, she says. Because you are a girl But even before that, I knew something was wrong in the balance of power between men and women. At a very young age, I was told to help my mother in the kitchen while my brothers were playing outside. I had to wash my brothers clothes. I had to carry water from the well while my brothers were free to do as they pleased. I thought this was very strange. This scared me. If something as terrible as this could happen to me because I was a girl, what else would be in store for me, simply because I was a girl? by Assita Kanko, victim of FGM And then, when she finally had the nerve to ask why she had been cut, her uncle told her: because you are a girl. This scared me. If something as terrible as this could happen to me because I was a girl, what else would be in store for me, simply because I was a girl? As young as she was, Kanko rebelled against the rules of a society where the women were subservient to men. Already at a young age, Kanko felt ambition burning inside of her. In school I was head of the class, and I always had good notes. I remember one time my teacher said: Assita, you are doing so well, you will certainly become a teacher one day. I turned to her and I said: Teacher? I want to become president of Burkina Faso one day!' She laughs as she remembers it, but clearly her ambitions have not changed much. Kanko is now a council member in Elsene for the liberal Mouvement Reformateur, but she is planning to run for election to the Belgian parliament in 2019. Her ultimate goal is to become a minister. I think defence would be good, she smiles, but there is no doubt that she is serious. A letter to my polygamous father Later, during dinner at one of the many lively restaurants in the neighbourhood, she talks about her father. Coming from an extremely poor background, his great dream was to become a teacher. He was 10 years old when he finally got a chance to go to school. But he was determined to reach his goal. And he did, she says. Her father loved books and reading, and he introduced his clever daughter to the great French novelists and the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. Among his books, I also found the work of the French feminist Simone de Beauvoir, she says. I have read all her books. Through her I realised I didnt have to accept the fact that I was a second-class citizen. Her father was proud of his ambitious daughter. Whenever I had written a good story in school, he would read it to his friends, she says. But although he read the works of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, he nevertheless conformed to the rules of the community, which demanded that a real man marry more than one woman. I was sixteen when his second wife came to live with us. She was pregnant. It was a devastating experience for all of us, she says. My father had told us that this new woman would come to help my mother in the house. But she didnt. She spent her days on the couch. She was aggressive towards my mother. I quarrelled with her from the very moment she arrived. From that day on, there was a continuous atmosphere of conflict in the house. She confronted her father in a letter because she felt it too intimidating to do so in person. In my letter I quoted writers who wrote about the problems of children of polygamous fathers. I wrote: What you have done is totally scandalous. He did answer my letter. But only to tell me not to meddle with his private life. She wrote back to tell him that, as his daughter, she was part of his private life. He never replied. READ MORE: A witness to FGM Now that I am older, I realise it was not only a tragedy for my mother and for us, but also for his second wife. Maybe she was pressured by her family into this marriage because she was pregnant. If she wouldnt have married, she would have shamed her parents. In a way, it was also hard for my father. Something was irrevocably destroyed in our family. FGM kills your self-esteem Kanko went on to study journalism in Ouagadougou for a short time. She was active in the Burkinese student movement for freedom of speech, demonstrating for justice for journalist Norbert Zongo, who was assassinated while investigating the murder of a driver who had worked for the presidents brother. When she was 20 years old, she travelled to Europe on the invitation of a friend, met a Belgian man and fell in love. He had read Stendhal, my favourite French writer, she says. I thought that was really amazing. He was clever and we could talk. There are so many men who never read a book, you know. They married three years later, in 2004. Kanko came to live in Brussels, became fluent in Flemish and studied economics and international politics. At first it was hard. I was homesick. I felt torn between Africa and Europe. But gradually I started to feel at home. She worked her way up to become a commercial finance manager at an international company. She also became mother to a daughter who is now eight years old. But she never told her husband that she had undergone FGM. I just didnt know how to deal with it. I was always living with this secret. I was afraid men would not consider me a complete woman if they knew. I didnt undergo the worst type of FGM. When I was pregnant I did tell the gynaecologist I was circumcised. She said she knew already because she had noticed my scar. But she also told me that for somebody without a medical training, it would probably be difficult to see that I was circumcised. Her husband found out only years later, when Kanko gave an interview to the womens magazine Elle in which she talked about her experience with FGM for the first time. But even after that, they never discussed it. He has never said anything about it. He is a very shy person. We have discussed the topic in general, but never on a personal level, she says. FGM kills your self-esteem, she continues. You think you are not worthy of respect because of what happened to you. Because you are incomplete. Many women who have undergone FGM struggle with this. I was insecure about myself in relationships with men. But this has changed. It was a slow process, but it has changed. From [being] a victim of FGM, I have become a woman who speaks out against it. The power to change things In 2012, she decided to try her luck in politics, because, she says, I dont want to be a person who only calls out for change; I really want to do something. She was elected as a council member of Elsene. She now moves through the neighbourhood as though she has lived here all her life, greeting the owners of local bars and restaurants, while continuously answering her phone. My main priority as a politician are womens rights, she says. I want to see more women in influential positions, more women in politics. We can only change things when we have power. It is my ambition that our daughters dont have to fight the same battles as we did. Two years ago, she wrote a book about her experience with FGM and her quest to find freedom as a woman. Her mother read it and called her, crying. It was the first time we ever talked about it. She said: What do you need? Do you want me to say I am sorry? I said: No, its OK. Because I understood how vulnerable she was at the time. She was just part of the system. Some of my readers said to me: FGM is terrible, but apart from that, women are free to live the life they like. And I thought: This is not true. Women are simply not equal to men in this world. Even in modern countries like Belgium, women earn only 91 percent of the wage of a man. People say to me: Thats not as serious as FGM. But if you are fighting malaria, it doesnt mean you can leave influenza untreated. In The Second Half, which was published recently, she elaborates on other human rights violations women face in this world, from polygamy to honour violence, domestic violence to rape. I decided long ago I would never be indifferent to other womens suffering. So with this book, I try to open peoples eyes to what women have to deal with from the cradle to the grave just because they are women. I wrote it both out of curiosity and out of anger. But mostly, because I am hopeful because I really believe we have the power to change things. A key figure, often identified with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), has issued a video statement congratulating the faction of the Pakistan Taliban responsible for attacking a university in Charsadda, Pakistan, on January 20. The seven-minute video, released by the media arm of the Pakistan Taliban, shows Mufti Abu Zar al-Burmi standing alongside Pakistan Taliban commander Umar Mansoor and embracing him, suggesting a close alliance between the two leaders. Al-Burmi made headlines in 2012 when he issued a statement condemning Western hypocrisy for decrying the Talibans attack on Malala Yousafzai while killing Pakistanis themselves. Mansoor also authored that assault. It is unclear whether al-Burmi still identifies with IMU or has shifted allegiances entirely to Umar Mansoors Pakistan Taliban faction. The latter say that he is serving as a senior religious scholar to Mansoor, but Al-Burmis links with IMU further solidify long-standing alliances between the two networks. Pakistan attack: My son died protecting his guests The IMU has a history of aligning itself with local opposition fighters since the movements members shifted to Pakistans tribal areas following the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2002. To maintain its sanctuary in the tribal region, IMU has backed the most hardline elements of the Pakistani Taliban and supported strengthening those positions within the Taliban network, explained the regional analyst Simbal Khan. For them its important that Pakistan Taliban does not cut a deal with the state because that will compromise their sanctuaries. IMU received a boost in 2013 when a US drone attack killed Maulvi Nazir, an opposition fighter based in South Waziristan, Pakistan, who had developed differences with the Pakistan Taliban after he cut a deal with the Pakistani state. Nazir had also accused the IMU of stealing from locals and forcing the Uzbek fighters out of Wana, the largest town in South Waziristan. Hardening the Pakistani Taliban Al-Burmi thanked the gunmen who raided Bacha Khan University. He said that the philosophy of non-violence advocated by the universitys namesake, Bacha Khan, who led a movement against the British, was un-Islamic. Islam calls for force towards disbelievers, compassion towards believers, claimed al-Burmi. Bacha Khan was no helper of Muslims, he said. He declared that the fight was against Pakistans un-Islamic structures that included the court system, democracy, the health system and education. Recently, however, Umar Mansoor gave a different motive for the attack. In a clip released on January 22, Mansoor said that schools and universities were nurseries for lawyers, military officers and parliament members, all of whom challenge the sovereignty of God. He reiterated that message in a second video calling on Pakistani Muslims to withdraw their children from schools and universities. Like al-Burmi, he drew on religious rhetoric alleging that education at these schools turned children away from Islam. But, the Pakistan Taliban fighter also provided more material reasons for his attack, pointing a finger at the governments sweeping operations and arrests under the governments counterterrorism strategy codified in the National Action Plan. Mansoor cited governmental figures that showed thousands had been arrested and 332 people executed. The government alleges that these people are mujahideen who aid Islam, said Mansoor. Implying that those arrested were his supporters because they were believing Muslims a tendentious claim Mansoor declared: If you hang those who support us, and you imprison those who support us, do you expect that we will allow those who favour you to rest? Such claims are predictable for propaganda purposes, said Khan, but there are issues with government strategy, especially the establishment of secret military courts and indefinite detention. Amina Masood Janjua, a human rights activist who advocates for the detained and the forcibly disappeared, noted: The people who are being picked up include activists. They also include Muslim religious scholars, there are practising Muslims, and some are just ordinary people. These indefinite detentions can compound the problem, said Khan. Extended circles of the same people who get picked up by the state who actually in the end or who have grievances against the state where illegal or coercive means were used against them join [these groups], she explained. So, issues of justice are very, very central in this, but it doesnt really mean that you are per se supporting the militants. School security whose responsibility? For parents, the question now is just who is responsible for providing security for school-going children. The largest, registered federation of Pakistani private schools and the Punjab government have been in a tussle over security obligations. Following the attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, the federation and others shuttered schools in various cities including the capital, Islamabad. A statement by the federation said that its schools had complied with the security regulations that were put in place after the Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar and killed more than 130 students and staff members in December 2014. Additional requirements, mostly verbal, are now being imposed in an ad hoc and unlawful manner, it said. The state is responsible for the safety and security of its citizens and of our children. It cannot pass on the entire responsibility for security to educational institutions. Although schools reopened this week after a round of negotiations between the government and the association, parents still fear sending their children to school. Anybody with school-going children feels this threat, rich or poor, said Sadaf Aziz, whose daughter attends primary school in Islamabad. Its heart-stopping. But, parents from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas say that the Taliban are not the only problem. Bombing during the Pakistani military operation in the region has destroyed many schools, and security forces are using schoolhouses for military purposes. READ MORE: No end to Pakistan schools trauma, one year on For those in the cities, however, the Pakistan Taliban loom as the primary threat. Gunmen stormed Bacha Khan University in the early hours of January 20 and opened fire on students and faculty. The victims included several students as well as a chemistry professor, Syed Hamid Hussain, who, eyewitnesses say, fought against the assailants to protect his students. While the Pakistan Talibans spokesman Umar Khorasani condemned the attack, Mansoor, a key leader from the Pakistan Talibans Dara Adam Khel network, accepted responsibility for it. The raid occurred as 600 guests gathered at the university for a poetry recital to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Bacha Khan. A towering historical figure also known as Frontier Gandhi, Bacha Khan has become the symbol of non-violent resistance, especially among secular Pashtun ethno-nationalists. But he worked closely with religiously inflected anti-colonial movements of the time, including the Faqir of Ipi, a religiously inspired leader of the armed resistance against the British in Waziristan. Publicly, there should be more questions, said Khan. But I dont think there is a neat solution that a state like Pakistan can come up with to deal with this issue. Activists celebrate case allowing transgender man to change official papers and hope it will help ease discrimination. A landmark ruling in Lebanon in favour of a transgender man is being celebrated as a leap towards equality, with hopes that discrimination against the transgender community will ease given the subsequent positive media attention the case has received. In the mid-January ruling at the Court of Appeals in Beirut, Judge Janet Hanna confirmed the right of a transgender man to change his official papers, granting him access to necessary treatment and, importantly, privacy. The decision marked the first time a Lebanese appeals court has ruled specifically in support of transgender rights to treatment. Sometimes you find judges that surprise you and make you believe that there is an independent judiciary in Lebanon; it's something that is worth protecting. by Tarek Zeidan, Helem spokesman The operation was a medical necessity to relieve him [the appellant] from his suffering that had been present throughout his life, the court said in its ruling. It argued that a persons right to receive the necessary treatment for any physical and psychological illness is a fundamental and natural one. When the details were announced, some media outlets welcomed the ruling as the first time a Lebanese was able to change gender. But changing ones gender was already legal in Lebanon, as in Iran, Egypt and many other countries. Where the ruling was ground-breaking, however, was in acknowledging the psychological considerations of the appellant, who remains anonymous. Hanna, the judge, has been hailed by activists and the transgender community, as the court recognised when a person does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. Until now, granting papers that would officially change ones gender depended on a set of stringent rules: the man or woman must not be married, have any children, and should be able to prove that gender realignment surgery is complete and irreversible. Because this recent case happened in an appeals court, it now means that those judged in a lower court can now go back to this ruling as a precedent, Tarek Zeidan, spokesman for the LGBT advocacy group Helem, told Al Jazeera. First, the court recognised the appellants request to reflect their personal status in accordance with their gender. The second aspect was that it [the court] affirmed the appellants right to correct the discrepancy between their reality and their gender identity, and affirmed their right to privacy in this matter. The third achievement of this ruling was that it said the appellants documents needed to be updated to reflect the new [appellants] reality, said Zeidan. There are no statistics relating to Lebanons transgender community, but members and activists estimate the minority to be at least in the low thousands. Sometimes you find judges that surprise you and make you believe that there is an independent judiciary in Lebanon; its something that is worth protecting, said Zeidan. Discrimination and fear The main barrier for transgender men and women in Lebanon is that their identification documents do not match their gender. Getting a job and renting property become tasks of immeasurable difficulty, and so, many turn to sex work to make ends meet, said Zeidan. Social stigma is rife, even within medical and law enforcement professions. Coupled with high levels of family rejection, many suffer from feelings of abandonment, isolation, anxiety and low self-esteem. The whole system in Lebanon is set up based on a binary gender system, including prison and police stations. If [for example] a trans woman is arrested, she will frequently be placed in a holding cell for men. READ MORE: In America, doors often closed to transgender tenants searching for housing Yara (not her real name) presents as male and is transitioning to female. She spoke to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity. She said that there is widespread fear of Lebanons Internal Security Forces, which are responsible for maintaining public order. We fear that someone might call security and accuse us of perversion; this creates a lot of anxiety, Yara said. When they drag an LGBT person to jail and torture and abuse them, they believe they are doing something right, removing something bad from society. Yara confirmed that mismatched identification records makes access to employment a monumental barrier, forcing many to leave the country once gender realignment surgery is completed. Once her transition is complete, she too will try and leave Lebanon. As for surgery, trans men and women elect to have the procedure in North America, Europe and Thailand as there are few facilities in Lebanon which perform the surgery, and they are not only considered inferior quality but also pose a risk. Some doctors object to the procedure, and it is not unheard of for deeply religious psychiatrists to attempt to persuade patients not to go ahead with it, Yara said. Access to healthcare relating to gender realignment is difficult and expensive, she added, and is not covered sufficiently by social security or most insurers. Cautious optimism The recent ruling, Yara added, came as a bit of a surprise and was a positive development. When the law recognises a certain minority, it empowers themThis was an authority saying that these people exist and they need our care, she said, speaking from Beirut. When the law recognises a certain minority, it empowers themThis was an authority saying that these people exist and they need our car by 'Yara' Aside from the case, a sense of cautious optimism is growing elsewhere. In terms of LGBT support from activists and non-government organisations, a network is growing. As well as Helem, there is the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality and Marsa centre for sexual health, among others. But at the state level, an incredible amount needs to be done, Zeidan, Yara and Youmna Makhlouf, an attorney with Legal Agenda, a local non-profit advocacy group, all agree. Seeing judges recognise the complexity of the issue thats something very positiveand because of this decision, the media is interested. There has been positive coverage of the transgender communitys situation, which in turn puts them in a better position in society, Makhlouf told Al Jazeera. [But] of course [the ruling] is not enough. It doesnt mean all of the problems regarding transgenders in Lebanon are solved. Makhlouf has around 20 transgender clients who seek her legal advice. There are much bigger problems, like not having a job, turning to prostitution, encountering physical violence and not having access to a legal system when you are in sex work. In the criminal code, there is no incrimination of transgender the problem is that some people would be rejected. After this ruling from a court of appeal, maybe things can evolve, Makhlouf pondered. It should also involve the coverage of medical treatment Its too soon to say about these things. This will be built upon. Follow Anealla Safdar on Twitter: @anealla The US-led international communitys stability-first approach has neglected establishment of the rule of law. Three global watchdog reports came out last week highlighting Afghanistans scornful predicament in 2015. Their findings reveal a rise in corruption and human rights violations and a consistent failure in political freedom and civil liberties. Transparency Internationals annual Corruption Perception Index placed Afghanistan at 166th among 168 nations. World Report 2015, published by Human Rights Watch, criticised the war-ravaged country for failure to effectively tackle abuses in key areas. Freedom Houses annual Freedom in the World 2016 Report ranked Afghanistan among countries that are Not Free. While it is true that the Afghan government and its international supporters must be alarmed by these findings, rankings and scores in such global annual reports must be contextualised if they are to inform policy. In the case of Afghanistan, these scorecards only describe symptoms of more fundamental problems. The ongoing conflict that expanded and became more brutal in 2015 has contributed greatly to the bleak human rights situation as well as to the shrinking of civil liberties and political freedoms in restive areas. International community Another factor, which is often omitted from such reports, is the heavy hand of the international community, especially the United States, in shaping events in Afghanistan from 2001 onwards. But above all, endemic corruption, continued rights violations and restricted civil liberties are symptoms of weakness in the implementation of the rule of law. READ MORE: Afghanistans tough year, but optimism persists From denying information to journalists to beating of traffic police to the impossibility of winning a contract in a tender process sans association with influential people, liberties, rights and transparency are impeded because rule of law has hitherto been ignored. Afghanistan's political and social culture was deeply rooted in the concept of justice. In fact, the concept of 'just ruler' is a cornerstone of Islamic theories of governance... by Rule of law is generally defined as the system that renders governments, institutions and individuals accountable to and governed by laws and regulations and prevents arbitrary action. It has to be applied equally and without favouritism to any individual, group or power holder. Afghanistans political and social culture was deeply rooted in the concept of justice. In fact, the concept of just ruler is a cornerstone of Islamic theories of governance and arguably the most important legitimising factor of the state. In the new political culture, living above the law has become one of the distinguishing privileges of the influential elite. One must not underestimate the depth and breadth of the damage that three decades of conflict and lawlessness have inflicted on Afghanistan. Added to that was the irresponsible behaviour of the international community and the Afghan political leadership since 2001, which squandered the opportunity to establish good governance and rule of law in the country. Stability at all cost The US and its coalition partners went into Afghanistan in 2001, hand-picking some of the most unsavoury characters from the former mujahideen leaders and commanders as their allies. The international communitys Afghan policy was founded on maintenance of stability at all cost. Good governance, rule of law and justice were peripheral topics that only decorated official documents and speeches. As foreign aid began to pour in, most contracts for infrastructure construction, military supplies, fuel, logistics and security were awarded to the same dubious personalities who, thanks to US patronage, had become the new political elite. The US largesse to its Afghan allies also entailed turning a blind eye to illegal trade, monopoly of markets, land grabbing, million-dollar commissions on large contracts and even percentages from the lucrative narcotics business. READ MORE: Afghanistan: Its the economy, stupid Political influence, along with millions of dollars into their bank accounts, empowered the new Afghan elite to command placement of their kin and cronies in key positions in all state institutions, including the parliament and the judiciary. In other words, foreign assistance gave Afghanistan all the right structures and legal instruments required in a democratic system, but establishing and monitoring processes were mostly ignored. The absence of political will, both on the part of former president Hamid Karzais government and donor countries to curb corruption, not only prevented the establishment of lawful conduct in the public sector, but also impaired the flourishing of a genuine domestic economy. US taxpayer money Lack of oversight and accountability in the Afghan security sector, intentional or otherwise, has caused an utter waste of US taxpayer money. The US has been contributing billions of dollars to build and maintain Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANSDF). Similar to the lucrative contracts of the earlier stages of war, allocation of funding for militia forces ... went to the same influential people... by Yet, the staggering scale of ghost personnel, fuel cost and disappearing ammunitions have gone entirely unchecked. Along with the decision to end the US war in Afghanistan, Washington opted to create local militia forces to fill the gaps in the developing ANSDF. Similar to the lucrative contracts of the earlier stages of war, allocation of funding for militia forces (under the sobriquet of Afghan Local Police) went to the same influential people, giving them further impetus to behave above the law. President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah took the reins of power over a year ago, assuring Afghans and international donors that they had the will to establish rule of law and good governance. Ghani further asserted that he has specific plans for accomplishing these colossal goals. Among Ghanis first efforts are the creation of the National Procurements Commission to review big government contracts, the reopening of the messy Kabul Bank case, the firing of a number of central as well as provincial high officials suspected of corruption or incompetence, and improved communications with provincial officials. Recently, the Afghan president elevated the role of governors in decision-making and monitoring of provincial affairs and started a process of budgetary devolution. In turn, he has placed more responsibility on his governors to curb local corruption. In the past year, some progress has been made towards establishing effective processes, but earnest action against major instigators of corruption remains to be taken. To establish rule of law requires tackling the political elite and their well-entrenched patronage networks. This task, in turn, requires a full, honest and sustained partnership between the Afghan government and its international supporters. Helena Malikyar is an Afghan political analyst and historian. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. The threat that toxic gas or nerve agents will be deployed in a conflict between countries has been all but eliminated. The international communitys failure to bring the Syrian civil war to an end is a tragedy especially for the countrys long-suffering people. In one respect, multilateral action has had a clearly positive impact: the elimination of the Syrian governments chemical-weapons programme. And yet, there are persistent reports that chemical weapons, including sulphur mustard (commonly known as mustard gas) and chlorine bombs deployed against civilians, continue to be used in Syria. The stakes could not be higher. The perpetrators of these attacks must be identified and brought to justice. Allowing the use of chemical weapons to go unpunished not only could reverse one of the few promising developments in the Syrian conflict; it also threatens to undermine international norms on the use of toxic gas and nerve agents, increasing the possibility that they will be used in terrorist attacks. In August 2013, rockets containing deadly sarin gas struck Ghouta, a rebel-controlled suburb near Damascus. Horrific images of women and children dying in agony mobilised international consensus against the use of these types of weapons. In October 2013, following Syrias accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention, a joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations was made responsible for eliminating the countrys chemical arsenal and production facilities. Less than a year later, the mission accomplished what no military intervention could have achieved; the strategic threat from Syrias chemical weapons was effectively eliminated. Work to clarify certain aspects of the governments initial declaration about its weapons programme is continuing; but 1,300 metric tonnes of chemical weapons, including sulphur mustard and precursors for deadly nerve agents, have been accounted for and destroyed under the watchful eyes of OPCW inspectors. It is crucial that political leaders express confidence in their impartiality, allow them to carry out their work unobstructed, and not second-guess their conclusions. Once those responsible for the use of chemical weapons have been identified, the international community must ensure that they are prosecuted, in order to send a clear signal about the inviolability of the global ban. by This achievement must not be allowed to be rolled back. The Chemical Weapons Convention is one of mankinds most successful disarmament efforts. Since 1997, 192 countries have agreed to be bound by its provisions, and 91 percent of the worlds declared chemical weapons have been destroyed. The continued use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict is not only causing terrible suffering among the countrys civilian population; it also risks eroding the conventions credibility. A fact-finding mission established by the OPCW in April 2014 found compelling confirmation that a toxic chemical most likely chlorine gas was used systematically and repeatedly as a weapon in villages in northern Syria. It was on the basis of these findings that the UN Security Council agreed in August 2015 to create a joint investigative mechanism of the OPCW and the UN and give it responsibility for identifying those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the conflict. The fog of war cannot be allowed to create a fog of responsibility. The perpetrators of chemical attacks must be held to account, whoever they are. International investigators deployed in Syria bring vital expertise to this important mission. It is crucial that political leaders express confidence in their impartiality, allow them to carry out their work unobstructed, and not second-guess their conclusions. Once those responsible for the use of chemical weapons have been identified, the international community must ensure that they are prosecuted, in order to send a clear signal about the inviolability of the global ban. OPINION: Ghouta chemical attack: Two years onward Persistent allegations that non-state actors are using chemical weapons in Syria and northern Iraq are of particular concern, as they raise the possibility of toxic chemicals being used in terrorist attacks. Manufacturing nerve agents is a complex process, but extremists can easily deploy toxic industrial chemicals such as chlorine gas if they have them in their possession. A conventional attack against a chemical facility is another potentially devastating risk one that is not beyond the capabilities of a well-funded terrorist group. Nearly two decades after the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force, the treaty is facing a major test. The threat that toxic gas or nerve agents will be deployed in a conflict between countries has been all but eliminated. Failure to punish their use in the Syrian civil war risks undermining the regime that has brought us to the threshold of a chemical weapons-free world. Ahmet Uzumcu is Director-General at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Copyright: Project Syndicate 2016 Syrias Continuing Chemical Fallout Palestinians can earn more by working in Israel, but their days are extremely long because of movement restrictions. Bethlehem, occupied West Bank During the day, the Bethlehem Checkpoint 300 tells only half the story. A few lone travellers make the crossing in mere minutes, passing through multiple electronic turnstiles and a warehouse-like compound, and undergoing a quick passport check before leaving the occupied West Bank and entering Israel. For Palestinian workers making their way through the terminal during the dead of night, however, the same crossing can take hours. About 2am is the best time to get through the checkpoint, before it gets too crowded. By 3am, hundreds of men are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in the terminal. Clouds of white breath rise from the crowd and disappear. Bundled in thick, worn coats, the men are patient but anxious. READ MORE: Israel bans Palestinian settlement labourers from work Talib Ahmed, 49, has been doing building work in Israel for more than 30 years. I woke up at 1:30 in the morning to get here by 3am, Ahmed told Al Jazeera, nursing a small paper cup of spiced Arabic coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Its cold and dark when I wake up, and the rest of my family is asleep. I do this every morning, five days a week, so I can cross through to work in Israel and make some money to feed my eight children. I make enough to give them an OK life, even though I cant give them a really good life. Ahmed, who lays tiles in houses, says the work requires a precision that his arthritic hands struggle to achieve. His back is sore from crouching, and he seldom has time to play with his children or spend time with his wife. I leave when my family is sleeping, and when I get back, I have an hour or two before I have to sleep, so I can repeat the whole day again, Ahmed explained. But I thank God. My job pays better than I could make in the West Bank. Unemployment in the occupied West Bank was around 15 percent during the second quarter of 2015, while the average daily wage sits at $25 half of those who work in Israel, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. More than 30,000 Palestinians legally make the journey through checkpoints between the occupied West Bank and Israel each morning, while thousands more are estimated to make the trek illegally, as only a small percentage of permit requests are approved. Mohammed Sabah, 55, began working in Israel when he was 20. Back then, permits were not needed for Palestinians to work in Israeli markets, he said. Sabah had to get his first permit during the first Intifada, but restrictions tightened further after the second Intifada ended in 2005. Working without a permit became more difficult, as did conditions for workers travelling back and forth, he said. I used to drive my car to work in Israel, Sabah told Al Jazeera. I am too old for this now, having to come to this checkpoint so early in the morning and standing here for hours. I wish the old days could come back. READ MORE: Death and humiliation A tale of a Palestinian village The relationship between Israeli and Palestinian co-workers has also changed since Sabah was a young man. Before we worked in Israel to make a living, but we also had friends there, he said. Our Israeli co-workers would invite us to their house, or after work some of us could go swimming in Tel Aviv. We had a life. Now there is no life; just work and sleep. If by Ahmad wage in the West Bank, I would never think for a moment to work in Israel.] Since the start of October, when violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel began to spike, Sabah said he has grown increasingly scared of being attacked or mistaken for an attacker while en route to and from work. Many workers told Al Jazeera that they are careful not to reach into their pockets for their phones in crowded areas, and they no longer bring eating utensils to work in their packed lunches for fear of being accused of carrying or reaching for a weapon. Allaa Atwan, a 29-year-old carpenter who is a married father of three, believes that he was given a permit because he has an established family in the West Bank, noting that young, single Palestinian men are looked upon with more suspicion by Israeli authorities. When I was single, I applied and was denied, and after I was married and had one child, I applied again and was denied, Atwan told Al Jazeera. Two years later, I applied after having had three kids, and I was approved. After two years of working inside Israel, however, he is now considering giving up his job. I dont see my children, Atwan said. I am awake way before anyone else is, and when I get home its late and I am exhausted, like an old man. More importantly, I am the only one providing for my family, and things are different now. It is dangerous for me to walk the streets in Israel. I am terrified of being arrested or hurt or killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What would happen to my family? I have been asking myself every day if the better wages are worth it. READ MORE: Artbitrary permit laws for West Bank workers in Israel During the first week of December, Atwan said the checkpoint got so backed up with workers trying to get through that Israeli soldiers came out with guns drawn. If one person would have gotten scared and moved to run, I cant even imagine what could have happened, we were all packed so tightly, Atwan said. They treat us like animals at this checkpoint, when all anyone is trying to do is work so they dont have to hold their hand out for food. Ahmad Hirzat, 23, from the West Bank town of Yatta, got his first permit only a few weeks ago. Because of his age, Hirzat said he has been tackling rumours in his neighborhood. People in my area are confused as to how I got my work permit People are saying I must be a spy, working for Israel. Some of them are joking, but a lot of others are serious, Hirzat told Al Jazeera. While he hopes to quell that distrust, he is pleased at the chance to make better wages. I am literally making around five or six times more for the same amount of construction work in Israel, Hirzat said. Yes, I have to wake up at 1am to get to work at 7am, but I have a chance for a life now. I can start to build a house now; I can send my little brothers to school now; I can start thinking about getting married now. I didnt have that before. Despite the increased dangers that many workers have felt lately, Hirzat has not considered giving up his job. I have a future now, he said. The Palestinian government couldnt give me that, but in Israel I make $75 a day. If I could make that wage in the West Bank, I would never think for a moment about working in Israel. I can already see from the old men here at the checkpoint, this is my future. CORTLAND An all-terrain vehicle shop and dealership in Cortland is preparing to celebrate its one-year anniversary. E.T.s Lawn & Leisure opened last year, with the goal of providing a needed service for the area. Co-owner Mike Bietz said the business serves everywhere from Lincoln to beyond the Kansas border, largely because there isnt another nearby business for Polaris ATVs. Its been a learning and growing experience for all of us in that business, he said. That area just doesnt have a lot of different kinds or makes of units, and so Polaris is kind of into that market place, but a dealer is a long way away. Our business has been growing because of the need for small engine repair. Bietz elaborated that in addition to new sales, theres been a high demand for all types of smaller engines. We offer full-time small engine repair, he said. Our mechanic works on ATVs and UTVs, and also chainsaws, weed eaters, mowers, blowers and anything that pertains to small engines.... What we notice about that is when people bring in their polaris unit, theyre assured its a fully-certified mechanic that can handle any of their needs. The business is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. Located at 230 W. Fourth St. in Cortland, E.T.s Lawn & Leisure borders Highway 77. In addition to the two owners, a mechanic and showroom worker are employed at the business. Jan Ruhge oversees the showroom, and said the high-visibility location has been a major asset to the business. Its really good, she said. Theyre still finding us and are like, Wow, I didnt know this was here, but the highway has been really good. Theres nothing for Polaris dealers from here to Kansas. E.T.s Lawn & Leisure features both recreational and farming vehicles for sale, though Bietz said to date, the majority of the business has been farm related. Right now, we pertain very much to the farming community because of where were located with it, he said. As we continue to grow, well serve both side of that. One of the big benefits of our geography is the ability to serve that southern part of Lincoln and the farming community all the way into Kansas. Bietz added a popular service is delivery and pickup offerings. He also said the company tries to make the buying process as straightforward as possible and eliminates any hidden fees or docking costs. Were very much a black-and-white transactional store, Bietz said. Heres the price, this is what we stand behind. There are no other fees. We feel like were a small store but with big service. Release follows mediation efforts and continuing talks to secure release of second hostage, Niger government says. An elderly Australian woman kidnapped last month along with her husband in northern Burkina Faso by a group affiliated to al-Qaeda has been freed, a spokesman for the president of neighbouring Niger has said. Jocelyn Elliott was freed following mediation led by the president of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, and presented to the press this afternoon in Dosso, presidential spokesman Abdourahmane Alilou said on Saturday. He added Burkina Fasos intelligence services had also been involved in securing her release and that efforts were ongoing to free her husband, Ken Elliott. The two Australians, both in their 80s, were kidnapped on January 15 near the Burkina Faso town of Djibo, where they have run a medical clinic for four decades. Mali attack explainer: Who, why and whats next? Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping on Friday, saying the operation was part of an effort to secure the release of its imprisoned fighters, according to an audio recording translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. In a purported audio message released on Friday, AQIMs al-Mourabitoun group said it had decided to release the wife unconditionally. It is our religious duty to respect the civilians, based on the Prophets Hadith on not harming women, the elderly and the children, and based on the guidance by our commanders, the audio statement released on AQIMs official Telegram channel said. The groups also said it was willing to exchange the Australian hostage once they secured the release of their own fighters in custody. The Australian couple have lived in Djibo since 1972, where they operated a 120-bed clinic treating the local population. They were abducted as AQIM fighters raided a hotel and a restaurant in the capital Ouagadougou in an attack that killed at least 27 people. On November 23, al-Mourabitoun claimed responsibility for a nine-hour hostage-taking siege at a five-star hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako. The group said it had carried out the attack, during which 21 people were killed, in coordination with Imarat al-Sahra group and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Two creditors accept and four are yet to reply to proposal, which includes a 25 percent discount on their $9bn claims. Argentina has offered $6.5bn to settle a battle with creditors suing the country over defaulted bonds, seeking to end a long-running row that has hampered the countrys access to international capital. Fridays offer was made after talks in New York with hedge funds and other creditors who had previously demanded full repayment of about $9bn worth of bonds the country defaulted on 15 years ago. Two out of six major holdout creditors have already accepted the deal, which includes about a 25 percent haircut on their claims, while four have not done so yet, according to the government. Daniel Pollack, the US court-appointed mediator, hailed Argentinas proposal as an historic breakthrough. He said that if the offer is accepted and all the conditions are met, Argentina will be able to return to the global financial markets to raise much-needed capital. READ MORE: Conservative Macri sworn in as Argentinas president The latest twist in a fight stemming from Argentinas record default on around $100bn in 2002 came less than two months after President Mauricio Macri took office and expressed his commitment to a deal. If Macri manages to clinch an agreement, Argentina will be able to emerge from default and return to global capital markets to finance badly-needed infrastructure projects such as new roads and railways. The agreement was awesome, Argentinas finance minister, Luis Caputo, told reporters in New York. We have had a good reception of the proposals and I feel optimistic. This is a big step in the right direction but this is not the end of it. Until the main holdouts accept a deal it is not over, Diego Ferro, co-chief investment officer at Greylock Capital Management in New York, told the Reuters news agency. Vulture funds On Wednesday, the Argentinian government agreed to pay Italian bondholders $1.35bn to settle $2.5bn in claims dating back to the default. Macris predecessor Cristina Kirchner had refused to pay the holdouts. She insisted that they should have joined in with the 93 percent of the countrys creditors that accepted a significant reduction in what they were owed to help the country restructure its finances. Kirchner branded the hedge funds which led the holdout claims, NML Capital, a unit of Elliott Management, and Aurelius Capital Management as vultures, saying they bought up Argentine debt cheaply around the time of the default and then refused to take part in the restructuring so that they could pocket huge profits. Both hedge funds had yet to say whether they accept or reject the new offer by Buenos Aires. The funds which accepted the offer were Montreux Partners and Dart Management, according to the government. Subject to conditions Al Jazeeras Daniel Schweimler, reporting from Buenos Aires, said: The dispute is not yet over but certainly with this latest agreement in New York, after five days of very intense negotiations, huge steps forward have been made. Theres been a definite move on both sides to change the whole mood of the negotiations to try to reach some kind of resolution. Schweimler said Macri was keen to end the dispute and open the economy to much-needed foreign investment. Reserves are very low, investment isnt coming in, so theyre hoping here in Buenos Aires that theyre on the way to solving this long-running dispute. Pollack said more work remains to be done on the proposal, which was subject to two conditions: firstly, that it gains approval by Argentinas Congress; and secondly, that it also brings the release of the New York federal courts injunction, which prevents Buenos Aires from paying any other creditors outside the so-called holdout group. Macri took power in December without a majority in the legislature, and Kirchners bloc remains powerful, though it showed signs of fragmenting this week. Republic of Congo launches investigation after UN sends troops home following new allegations of sex abuse in CAR. The Republic of Congo has launched an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse involving its troops serving as UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR). Under a memorandum of understanding between the Congolese government and the office of the UN secretary general it has been decided that an administrative inquiry will be carried out, Communications Minister Thierry Moungalla said on Friday. The defence ministry will lead the investigation and verify the veracity of the allegations, after Human Rights Watch (HRW) brought the cases to the attention of MINUSCA, the UNs stabilisation mission in CAR. MINUSCA said it had identified seven new possible victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in Bambari, in the centre of the country, involving soldiers from the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A UN probe found sufficient initial evidence that five of the victims were minors and had been sexually abused and that one adult had been sexually exploited, MINUSCA said in a statement. Following the claims, the UN said it would repatriate 120 peacekeepers from the Republic of Congo, a month after asking DRC to send home its contingent. On Thursday, HRW released a statement documenting eight new allegations of rape or sexual exploitation by UN troops in the same region of Bambari. All eight survivors said that they believed the peacekeepers responsible were from the Republic of Congo or the DRC, according to HRW, which alleged the abuse took place between October and December 2015. MINUSCA said one of the allegations passed on by HRW had been previously reported and is currently under investigation. Among the survivors are a 14-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman who said peacekeepers gang-raped them near Bambari airport in the center of the country, HRW said. #CARcrisis Peacekeepers should be protectors not predators https://t.co/CXtolSEyjT 8 women raped, sexually exploited pic.twitter.com/7YeD7H5tQw Human Rights Watch (@hrw) February 4, 2016 CAR is struggling to recover from a cycle of violence that began after a 2013 coup, pitting mainly Muslim rebels against Christian militias, but international peacekeeping efforts have been undermined by a string of sex abuse claims. Moungalla said Brazzaville had a zero tolerance policy on rights abuses and would roundly condemn the abuse if proven by the investigation. The allegations are the latest in a barrage of claims of troops assaulting civilians they are supposed to protect in CAR. While most of the cases concern UN peacekeepers, Frances Sangaris force and the EUs EUFOR mission have also been accused of similar crimes. Pakistani, Afghan, Chinese and US officials meet in a bid to kickstart talks between Taliban and the Kabul government. Officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States have launched their third round of talks aiming to chart a roadmap for peace negotiations between the Taliban and the government in Kabul. Saturdays talks, held in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, are part of the latest effort to finalise a peace plan in Afghanistan, emphasising the need for a direct dialogue between the two sides. READ MORE: Afghanistan peace talks held in Pakistan We are confident that the process would lead to a significant reduction in violence (in Afghanistan), said Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani prime ministers foreign affairs adviser. We have to exert all our efforts and energies for keeping the process on track. Preconditions to negotiations Peace efforts broke down in July after it became known the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who sanctioned the talks, had been dead for two years. The announcement led the Taliban to pull out of the talks after just one meeting hosted by Islamabad. Last month, representatives of the Afghan Taliban said they will participate in the ongoing peace talks only if their conditions, which include the removal of their members from a UN blacklist, are met. Some preliminary steps should be taken prior to starting peace because without that, progress towards peace is not feasible, the Taliban said in a statement after an unofficial two-day meeting with people close to the Afghan government was held in Qatars capital Doha. The conditions as set by the Taliban included the establishment of official venue for the Islamic Emirate; removal of blacklist and prize list; release of prisoners and ending poisonous propaganda. Individuals on the UN blacklist are subject to asset freeze, travel and arms bans. READ MORE: Afghan Taliban want UN sanctions removed Yet, at the start of the quadrilateral meetings on Saturday, Pakistans Aziz said there should be no preconditions to negotiations. Some observers were also skeptical those demands would be met and there have also been doubts about whether competing factions of the Taliban that have been fighting for control of the movement will be willing to join. Nevertheless, the Afghan government has said it expects at least parts of the Taliban to agree to peace talks within six months, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah told the Reuters news agency in New Delhi last week. There might be groups among the Taliban who might be willing to talk and give up violence, Abdullah said, declining to give further details. He added the countries involved in the four-way talks were discussing where to hold Afghan-led peace talks once some Taliban groups decide to come to the table, and how to address the problem of the groups who do not. The nearly 15-year conflict has killed thousands of people and profoundly strained the countrys economy. The US military has released 198 photographs of alleged abuse in army facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, with many of the images showing close-ups of cuts and bruises to arms and legs of prisoners. The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit more than a decade ago for the photos, said the images were part of a larger collection of 2,000 mostly unreleased photographs. The Pentagon has refused to release additional images, citing national security concerns. The still-secret pictures are the best evidence of the serious abuses that took place in military detention centres, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. The governments selective disclosure risks misleading the public about the true extent of the abuse. The Pentagon said the photos that were released came from criminal investigations into 56 allegations of misconduct by US personnel more than a decade ago. It said 14 of those allegations were substantiated and at least one service member was sentenced to life in prison as a result of investigations. The identities of men in photos are concealed and there is little or no context to suggest exactly how they might have been injured. Officials declined to provide more information and it was unclear which images were connected to that case, or whether the detainee involved had survived. None of the images are thought to originate from Iraqs notorious Abu Ghraib prison, where US soldiers were implicated in physical and sexual abuse, infliction of electric shocks, and mock executions. That scandal first broke when photos showing soldiers abusing detainees were published in US media in 2004. Between 2004 and 2006, 11 soldiers, including Lynndie England who smiled beside naked prisoners being subjected to sexual abuse, were convicted in court martials. South Korea defence ministry says North Koreas planned long-range rocket launch could come as soon as Sunday. North Korea has moved up the window of its planned long-range rocket launch, South Koreas defence ministry said, adding that it believes the launch could come as soon as Sunday. The launch, which the North says is an effort to send a satellite into orbit, would be in defiance of repeated warnings by outside governments that suspect it is a banned test of ballistic missile technology. North Korea did not inform international organisations of any changes in its plan, and the rockets expected flight path remains the same, said South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun, adding that the South believes the launch window now spans from February 7 until 14. Satellite images taken this week of North Koreas Sohae rocket launch site showed apparent fuelling activity seen in the past shortly before a rocket launch, a US think-tank said, as US government officials signalled that the new launch could occur as early as Monday. North Korea has told UN agencies it will launch a rocket carrying what it called an earth observation satellite sometime between February 8 and 25, triggering international opposition. US government sources said on Friday that US intelligence agencies believed North Korea could be ready by Sunday evening, which will be Monday in Korea. Activity at the site was consistent with a launch in the timeframe given by Pyongyang, US officials said. Robust defence US Pacific Command said it was closely monitoring the situation and had many missile defence assets in the region that would provide a robust defence. No one should doubt that US Pacific Command forces are prepared to protect the American homeland and defend our allies in South Korea and Japan, said Pacific Command spokesman US Navy Captain Cody Chiles. Commercial satellite images from Wednesday and Thursday showed the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad, said Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea-monitoring project. It said the presence of the trucks likely indicated the filling of tanks within bunkers at the site rather than a rocket itself. In the past, such activity has occurred one to two weeks prior to a launch event and would be consistent with North Koreas announced launch window, the group said. Provocation On Friday, US President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with President Xi Jinping of China, North Koreas main ally and neighbour, and agreed that a North Korean launch would represent a provocative and destabilising action as the White House said. Obama and Xi also said they would coordinate efforts to respond to North Koreas nuclear test last month and said they would not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. The leaders emphasised the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocations, including through an impactful UN Security Council resolution, the White House said. Washington and Beijing have appeared divided over how to respond to North Korea, with the US urging tougher sanctions and China stressing the need for dialogue. Earlier on Friday, Xi told South Koreas president that China was dedicated to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. North Korea says it has a sovereign right to pursue a space programme. But it is barred under UN Security Council resolutions from using ballistic missile technology. Coming so soon after North Koreas fourth nuclear test on January 6, a rocket launch would raise concern that it plans to fit nuclear warheads on its missiles. UN official to examine progress of countrys probe into atrocities amid concerns of lack of push for accountability. Colombo The United Nations human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein has begun his first visit to Sri Lanka to gauge the islands progress in investigating atrocities committed by both sides during its prolonged civil war. Here to listen to all communities and hold very constructive discussions in the days to come, Hussein described the agenda at the start of his four-day visit on Saturday. Husseins visit at the invitation of the new government came amid concerns that Colombo is backtracking on promises to set up a credible probe into allegations of war crimes and human rights violations during the final stages of a brutal 26-year-long conflict. In a brief statement outside his Colombo hotel, Hussein told the media: I am looking forward to meeting both the highest officials of the state as well as representatives from the all communities. I will be listening to everything they have to say and look forward to very constructive discussions in the days to come. During his visit the UN official will review implementation of recommendations Hussain made in his report to the UN Human Rights Council. These include recommendations on justice, the right to know and institutional reform. He will also look into progress on Resolution 30/1, on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. The resolution called for the setting up of a domestic judicial mechanism with foreign and commonwealth experts playing a role. No foreign involvement Husseins visit has been a year in the making, but recent comments by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena rejecting any foreign involvement in a judicial probe caused concerns. In an interview with Al Jazeera, after completing a year in office, the president said: We dont need foreigners for the judiciary or for investigations. Sirisena said the domestic mechanism outlined in the UN resolution would be set up in accordance with the constitution of the country, while protecting its sovereignty. But protestors who marched to the UN compound in Colombo on Saturday were not buying that story. Shouting slogans and carrying placards, hundreds of protestors gathered at the compound to denounce the UNs attempt to investigate Sri Lankan troops. Led by Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front and a close ally of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, they carried placards and banners saying no war crimes investigation, and dont take revenge on troops who saved the country. Weerawansa addressed the crowd with a megaphone standing on a truck outside the heavily guarded UN compound. Whipping up nationalist fervour, he said: We will fight to our last breath against the treason being committed by allowing this probe. The UN human rights chief will make a quick tour of Jaffna and Trincomalee and Kandy before he returns to Colombo for meetings with government representatives. Sirisena has said in order to free the country, there must be decisive action towards accountability. Hussein is sure to be looking for evidence of that action. Syrian foreign minister warns against ground intervention after Saudi Arabia offers to send troops to fight ISIL. Foreign army soldiers who enter Syria without government consent would return home in wooden coffins, Syrias Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said, in a warning to Saudi Arabia. Muallems statement at a news conference on Saturday came two days after Riyadh said it would send troops to Syria if the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) rebel group would approve of it. When asked about the possibility of Saudi ground troops entering Syria, he said although it was unlikely, with the crazy Saudi leadership nothing is far-fetched. Any ground intervention in Syria, without the consent of the Syrian government, will be considered an aggression that should be resisted by every Syrian citizen, he said. I regret to say that they will return home in wooden coffins. He repeated the line three times during the one-hour press conference, saying it applies to anyone who attacks Syria with ground troops. Muallem also appeared to indicate a boosted confidence that the governments recent military advances against opposition fighters put it on track towards winning the five-year war. Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed towards the end of the crisis, he said, before calling on rebel fighters to come to their senses and lay down their weapons. Muallems comments follow the collapse of the latest UN-led Syria peace efforts and a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive near the city of Aleppo that sent thousands of residents fleeing towards Turkey. Meanwhile, Iran, which is backing the Syrian government militarily, also criticised Saudi Arabia over its offer to deploy troops to Syria. The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Ali Jafari, a commander of Irans Revolutionary Guards, as saying he did not think the Saudis were brave enough to send ground troops. They talk big, Jafari said. But even if it happens, it wont be bad because they would be definitely defeated. Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have gathered near a border crossing with Turkey after fleeing a major government offensive on rebel-held areas in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Turkeys Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday that his country would keep its open border policy for the refugees, adding that 5,000 of them have already been allowed into Turkey. Another 50,000 to 55,000 are on their way and we cannot leave them there, he said from the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, after holding talks with EU counterparts. Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders. by Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of Kilis province However, the governor of the Turkish province of Kilis, on the border with Syria, said thousands of Syrian refugees arrived at the Turkish border near Kilis City in the last 48 hours and were being accommodated at camps on the Syrian side of the border. Suleyman Tapsiz also told reporters at the Oncupinar border crossing near Kilis that another 70,000 Syrians could be expected if Russian air strikes and military advances by the Syrian government continued. Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders, he told Associated Press news agency, adding that the refugees had been given food, blankets and tents. Government offensive The Syrian army, backed by Russian military support, is carrying out a major offensive that has sparked a severe humanitarian crisis in rebel-held areas of Aleppo. The advance is the most significant outcome yet of the Russian intervention that began on September 30, that has targeted armed opposition groups. Syria says any foreign troops would return in coffins Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr, reporting from Kilis, said the number of refugees at the border was likely to increase. Already, thousands of people from the countryside have fled towards the Turkish border. Inside Aleppo City, what we understand from people we have been speaking to is that families are starting to pack up and leave. There is still no mass exodus, but people are scared. Some families are choosing to leave, Khodr said. People are saying that prices are on the rise and that fuel is scarce. They are worried because the government has employed such tactics in the past; they lay sieges to towns and villages. Civilians and fighters starve, and in the end they have to surrender. We do not know the exact number of people who live in the rebel-controlled eastern districts of Aleppo City but some figures estimate between 200,000 and 300,000 people, our correspondent added. International obligations EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said foreign ministers had reminded Cavusoglu of Ankaras international obligations towards refugees. We discussed this with our Turkish colleague remembering the fact that there is first a moral if not a legal duty to protect those in need of international protection, Mogherini told a news conference Saturday. The UN said that a massive number of Syrian refugees were camped outside the Bab al-Salam border crossing, hoping to reach Turkey, which already hosts more than two million Syrian refugees. Turkeys Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said it was finalising preparations for an influx. READ MORE: Analysis: Is Turkeys open-door policy an illusion? Yet another attempt to bring the two groups together after years of deep division. Almost ten years of talks, aimed at bridging the differences between Hamas and Fatah, have had little success. Representatives of the two groups are meeting yet again, this time in Qatar, to try and resolve their differences. The two have been at odds since 2006, when Hamas won parliamentary elections. It then forcibly took control of Gaza in June 2007, after battling with security units loyal to Fatah. Now, however, political expediency might just bring the two together to present a united front against Israeli occupation. But what are the chances of success this time around? And can they work together? Presenter: Peter Dobbie Guests: Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas offcial Anshel Pfeffer, an Israeli journalist working for The Economist magazine and a regular contributor to Haaretz Husam Zomlot, a Fatah official It's time to conduct audits to measure the performance of Nebraska's business development tax incentive program and the tax increment financing program used by cities to help encourage investment in development projects, a legislative committee was told Friday. Two bills presented to the Legislative Council's Executive Board attracted opposition centered on potential damage to the economic development programs. State Tax Commissioner Tony Fulton expressed concern about the need to "protect the confidentiality" of records filed by corporate taxpayers who may have qualified for tax incentive benefits under the state's primary business investment and job growth program. And a representative of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, who spoke also for the Lincoln and Omaha chambers, raised a warning flag not only about the protection of confidentiality, but also about the danger of placing a sunset date on the tax incentive program. Dave Landis, director of Lincoln's Urban Development Department, and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert submitted written testimony opposing an examination of the TIF program. Landis said the state auditor already has the power to review community redevelopment authorities and traditionally holds the responsibility for auditing political subdivisions. Legislative auditor Martha Carter assured the committee that confidentially would be respected in a performance audit of the business development tax incentive program. "We're not interested in looking at individual companies," she said. "We're looking at the effectiveness of the programs." Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha, chairman of the Executive Board, told Fulton and business representatives that "we're not in this to steal anybody's data" and that, in fact, senators would have no access to that information. Asked by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha whether the bill would "remove an impediment" to acquiring the needed information for a performance audit despite the legislative auditor's access to the Department of Revenue's database, Carter said: "Yes." Sen. Dan Watermeier of Syracuse, sponsor of the proposal (LB1022), has been meeting with Fulton to see if they can reach some agreement on the bill. Chad Denton, speaking for the chambers of commerce, said "we need these programs" to succeed in a highly competitive economic development environment. Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis proposed the performance audit of the TIF program (LB1102), suggesting "there is no oversight now" of a program that has an impact on school budgets by forgiving property taxes on designated new developments for a period of 15 years. Davis said there also has been "abuse of the 'blighted area' definition" used to justify TIF funding. Tom Houston, speaking for the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the Nebraska Chamber, said TIF is a vital tool in encouraging investment in Nebraska communities. The White House race candidates the media like to cover and those the people vote for. Plus, Venezuelas media battle. After months of breathless build-up, anticipation and analysis, the race for the White House officially began with the Iowa caucuses last week. The results told us as much about the media as they did about the politics. Donald Trump, a candidate whose soundbites dominated the pre-caucus coverage, came second after leading almost every opinion poll and trouncing his Republican opponents when it came to media exposure. Bernie Sanders forced a photo finish with Hillary Clinton despite long-accepted assumptions among many in the media that the former first lady is the Democratic heir apparent. What does this say about how journalists have covered the campaign and the candidates so far? We spoke to: James Warren, the chief media correspondent at Poynter Institute; Zaid Jilani, a reporter at The Intercept; Hadas Gold, a media reporter at Politico; and Associate Professor at Penn State College of Communications, Russell Frank. Other stories on our radar this week: An official report by the United Nations panel rules that the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained and should be freed immediately, as well as compensated; in Afghanistan, another journalist has been killed by unknown assailants in the eastern province of Nangarhar; and in Moscow, a magazine critical of the Kremlin is facing severe fines after publishing a story on the private life and wealth of Vladimir Putins daughter. Stop the press: Venezuelas media battle How can a newspaper cover stories without paper? Thats a dilemma faced by newspapers in Venezuela at least those who are opposed to the government of Nicolas Maduro. Government control of paper imports means that it is the state who can judge what news is fit to print. The opposition calls it a form of media censorship. The Listening Posts Marcela Pizarro takes a look at the politics of paper and populism in the Venezuelan news media. Finally, observing the US presidential campaign from not too far away, Canada would like to teach its unruly southern neighbour a thing or two about how to run a country. Thats the view of Canadian comedian Brian Calvert and his American colleague Chris Cannon whose America But Better campaign is a pitch for Canada (yes, the whole country) as US president. Republicans and Democrats across the border may not agree with the message of this video but at least one Canadian the host of The Listening Post approves. We travel to Chile to meet a group of young scientists determined to develop smart plant-based food to save the planet. With the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, a whole new concept of food may soon radically change what we eat. And at the same time, some experts believe it could reduce global warming. Highlights According to the UN, livestock contributes to climate change and is a major driver of deforestation and desertification. Scientists in Chile are working on alternatives for a sustainable and meatless future. The Not Company uses artificial intelligence to create animal product substitutes. NotCos software,Giuseppe, breaks down foods into their basic molecular compositions, and then combines vegetables to imitate that structure. The aim is to deliver tasty and affordable nutrition while using less water, less land, less energy, and without the need to cultivate harmful bio systems like animals. No longer based on animal ingredients, this is a food entirely based on plants although it looks and tastes like the classic food. This is not a new idea. It has been around for about 10 years. But the breakthrough has been delayed. Perhaps one of the reasons is that many consumers still prefer locally produced food. They want to trust the supply chain, and not simply depend on big manufacturers. However, a group of young scientists in Chile are working on alternatives for a sustainable and meatless future. Plant-based food to combat climate change Commercial engineer Matias Muchnick and Harvard research associate Karim Pichara are two of the founders of the Not Company (NotCo). Together with biochemist Isidora Silva, they are developing new plant-based food and are determined to bring it to people in their local market. Part of what motivates them is what they consider to be the biggest drawback of classic animal farming: It requires massive amounts of land and it affects global warming. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock contributes both directly and indirectly to climate change through the emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Livestock is also a major driver of deforestation and desertification, as well as the release of carbon from cultivated soils. Overall the livestock sector is contributing 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2 emission, according to the UN. If we were to start from scratch, and we want to figure out the most efficient way to deliver nutrition to the 7.1 billion people on this planet, the answer wouldn't be animals. Science would tell you to do something different. by Matias Muchnick When you get behind the scenes of the food industry, you dont like what you see. There is a lot of things that we should be knowing but we are blindsided by a whole industry that is making it really hard for us to see what we are really eating, says Matias Muchnick. The worlds smartest food scientist The main scientist of the Not Company team is a computer, an artificial intelligence algorithm programmed to become the smartest food scientist in the world. They call it Guiseppe. It uses deep learning parameters to understand food at a molecular level, helping the team to deliver tasty and affordable nutrition while using less water, less land, less energy, and without the need to cultivate harmful bio systems like animals. Its a complicated process but its designed to understand human perception of taste and texture which allows it to suggest clever recipes for sustainable and tasty plant-based foods. And it even understands the availability and use of resources for every single plant in the companys database. We want people to eat better, but without even knowing. Thats the main objective of the Not Company, Muchnick says. He believes that in about 30 years from now, at least 50 percent of the world will be eating plant-based products. Its a win-win situation. Well have a better world, well improve climate change. Climate change will determine our lives in 30 years from now if we keep doing the same things that were doing now. And that involves the production and breeding of livestock. The answer is just there: its plants. And I really think the world will change. But does the new model of food production really work? Will it be popular among consumers? What does it mean for the future of food? Are we at the tipping point of a food revolution? The team behind the Not Company talks to Al Jazeera to discuss their work, their goals and their vision for the future of the food industry. This episode of Talk to Al Jazeera first aired in February 2016. You can talk to Al Jazeera too. Join our Twitter conversation as we talk to world leaders and alternative voices shaping our times. You can also share your views and keep up to date with our latest interviews on Facebook. You cut yourself badly, you get yourself a nice red angry wound, you reach for the Mederma Scar Gel and apply diligently until it slowly fades away. But is there something else you could be using to make that scar disappear faster? A Reddit user named kallybear posted photos this week of a scar she had on her ring finger, the legacy of an engagement tattoo she had removed in March 2015. It should be noted that she asked her plastic surgeon to remove the tattoo surgicallyyes, with a knifeinstead of getting laser removal, because she wanted it gone immediately. (Note to everyone: ouch. Also, maybe engagement tattoos aren't always the best idea.) Here's what her finger looked like three weeks after the procedure: Her plastic surgeon suggested she use Mederma to heal her scar. But since it looked especially red and angry (also known as hyperpigmentation), she thought she should try something else. "When my acne hyperpigmentation was bad, I tried Mederma out of desperation and was not impressed," she wrote on Reddit. "However, vitamin C serum faded them almost completely, so I decided to try that on my finger instead." Here's what her scar looked like after six months of massaging just three drops of Original Pure Vitamin C20 Serum on it at night: 2005 .. Minister of Youth, Sport and Child Development Vincent Mwale has called for the provision of entrepreneurship skills and startup capital to youths to create employment and wealth. The minister was addressing African youths during the breakout session on key regional priorities for youth development in Sub-Saharan Africa during the just-concluded United Nations Economic and Social []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... The United Nations Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, Aristide Nononsi, today called for an immediate end to hostilities that have triggered new protection and humanitarian concerns in Darfur. He warned that, in the last two weeks, tens of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes in []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... ACTUALITES United States of Democratic Federal Western Sunni Caliphate is the need of the hour.. Alwihda Info | Par Hem Raj Jain - 6 Fevrier 2016 Bengaluru, India United States of Democratic Federal Western Sunni Caliphate is the need of the hour Dear Editor Sub:- Human Rights friendly United States of Democratic Federal Western Sunni Caliphate is the need of the hour. -- This refers to failed Geneva talks about Syria. No doubt Turkey and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and some countries of Middle East have been hobnobbing with violent / terrorist Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Al-Qaeda, ISIS etc and their affiliates (even with the tacit approval of Obama who allegedly shares the love of the Muslim Brotherhood). But it is neither an ideologically feasible nor coherent & concerted endeavor hence it will lead nowhere in changing the political reality of North Africa and Middle East (NAME) region where millions of Muslims are bleeding and weeping profusely (hence no support for it from Muslims all over the world). Moreover Russian military intervention since September, 2015 would have brought stability and peace to Syria but Russia has lost the track. Instead of going for election (even without removing Assad which even USA agreed to) under UN peacekeeping force (UNPKF) as generally mentioned at - http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/detail.php?articleid=2536 Russia (with the ground support of Shia Iran, Iraq, Lebanon of Hezbollah) now seems to be working (with the complicity of USA) to safeguard its military bases in Syria by partitioning Syria where Western Syria will be Shia ruled and remaining Syria may go to Sunnis Since Russian military intervention in September, 2015 the USA is playing sinister game in Syria. Everyone knows that Russia can not support democracy in Syria for the simple reason that Sunni majority Syria if becomes democracy then sooner that later it will ask Russia to remove all its military bases from Syria. But Russia (which in September, 2015 end intervened militarily in Syria next day after talking to US President Obama) will never tolerate its military bases to be removed from Syria. By mid 2015 it was clear that Syrian regime was losing ground to Syrian rebels which had put not only Assad regime but military bases of Russia too in the danger of being wiped out from Syria. Hence Christian USA & Christian Russia are now working for the partition of Syria (as suggested by an insider in prominent US newspaper NYT with unnecessary bloodshed of Sunni rebels and civilians by Russia with tacit approval of USA) where western Syria will remain with Shias which will allow military bases of Russia to remain in Syria [Even the timing of this week Syria-Aid London meet is suspect which is a way to accommodate more refugees from Syria in view of increased military attacks by Assad & Russia in Aleppo etc of North-West Syria]. One need not be a Muslim to know the majesty of Islam. Only few months of reading and more importantly practice of basic teachings of Quran Sharif are enough to know it. But present day Muslims have made the Islam (the most powerful and modern religion due to worship of abstract and keeping temporal power under the authority of religion, the peoples power hence nearer to democracy) full of contradictions. On one hand there are Muslims (so-called Jihadis) who do not bother about their lives and offer martyrdom for the cause of Islam (as they perceive it, mostly wrongly where they kill even civilians including women, children and old people and minorities) on other hand entire Sunni Muslim world (~ 85% of ~ 2 billion global Muslim population) is watching Sunni-nationalism being allowed by Syrian opposition to be humiliated and trampled upon at just concluded / failed Geneva meet (by Christian USA & Russia with the support of short-sighted & fratricidal policies of Shias led by Iran). Therefore the way USA & Allies have betrayed Syrian opposition (who were supported by West to go for armed rebellion resulting in Syria of ~ 22 millions people over two hundred seventy thousand Syrians killed, ~ 11 millions displaced including ~ 4 millions in other countries as refugee etc.) the Sunni Islam, before depending heavily on USA & its Allies (including Turkey, KSA etc), should rather first rely on its own strength (formidable, if basics of Islam are followed) and should establish HR friendly United States of Democratic Federal Western Sunni Caliphate (USDFWSC) in the interest of bringing succor to tens of millions of beleaguered Muslims (both Shias and Sunnis) of NAME region [USDFWSC in western Sunni world west of Iran and Iraq (upto Baghdad) leaving Eastern half of Sunni majority Muslim countries (beyond geographical barrier of Shia Iran) from Afghanistan to Indonesia and Malaysia]. This HR friendly USDFWSC [which is as per basics of Islam which combines State (military) power and religious authority, in other words warrior and saint, in one person, the Caliph] is imperative because :- (i)- Despite all the efforts of various powers [under western (led by Christians) political model] tens of millions of Muslims are bleeding and weeping profusely in NAME region. (ii)- Unlike Hindus and Chinese the Muslims are the only economically developing people who are divided in many countries hence are economically and militarily powerless. Developed Christians are predominant military and economic power hence their many countries do not matter. Moreover Christians are not that divided. Powerful Christian USA & Europe are united militarily through NATO and USA goes to any length (even illegally) to support economic interests of European Union [as evident from the case of Ukraine where USA, despite Budapest Memorandum, allowed its dismemberment through a deal (as conceded by insider on US media) where Russia got Crimea and EU got business with Ukraine]. This USDFWSC can be formed by dissolving all the armed rebels in NAME (including MB, various Syrian opposition / rebel groups, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Al-Shabab, Boko-haram etc and their affiliates like Al-Nusra etc) and by coming under the banner of HR friendly USDFWSC (as far war crimes by the members and leaders of these outfits the law can take its own course once peace returns to Syria etc). The USDFWSC should start from Syria (which later can be emulated in other countries of NAME) where it can declare itself as the legitimate government of Syria which is bound to be supported by overwhelming majority of Sunnis from all over the world who will persuade other countries of the world (first Sunni majority countries) to (A)- Recognize USDFWSC as legitimate government of Syria and (B)- To support USDFWSC in every way even in waging war (if necessary) in order to bring stability and peace in Syria (through elections under HR friendly constitution with enforceable human rights as per ICCPR of UN with mandatory protocol MP-1 instead of OP-1). Regards Hem Raj Jain (Author of Betrayal of Americanism) Bengaluru, Indiabr / Dans la meme rubrique : < > Le rugby a Madagascar : le pays fou du rugby TeslaCoin : plateforme de trading ou cryptomonnaie ? Tchad : un projet dassistance et de protection en faveur des migrants au Batha Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena) 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] Nebraska will shed its unique ban on meatpacking corporations owning hogs following a contentious vote Friday in the Legislature. Supporters of a measure to eliminate the ban (LB176), sponsored by state Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala, said opening Nebraskas hog market to companies like Smithfield and Tyson Foods should make the state more competitive with its neighbors and allow new pig farmers to enter the business without assuming the financial risks of ownership. Opponents warned the change could have a devastating effect on the states existing pork producers and harm the environment by leading to more big hog confinement facilities. They also accused lawmakers of buckling under influence from lobbyists backed by corporate agriculture. Money wins over the will of the people, John Hansen of the Nebraska Farmers Union said after the vote. Money won this. Lawmakers overwhelmingly supported the bill following two hours of debate Friday, first ending a filibuster of the measure, then passing it, both on 34-14 votes. The bill had already advanced through two rounds of debate. When it takes effect, the change will undo the pig portion of a 1998 law that makes it illegal for packers to own swine or cattle in Nebraska for more than five days before slaughter. Other Midwestern states had adopted similar bans but have since eliminated them. Nebraska will now join those states in allowing meat processors like Chinese-owned Smithfield to contract with farmers to raise pigs in large, concentrated operations. That helps the packers control product consistency, minimize costs and squeeze out more profit. Schilz, a third-generation rancher, said his family lost a $1.5 million cattle-feeding contract basically within the blink of an eye when the 1998 law passed. A Colorado feedlot built specifically because of the law took 4,000 head from his operation, along with cows from 10 other Nebraska yards, he said. There is not one other person in this body that has experienced this law like I have, he said. Im glad it passed, he said of the repeal. Its the right thing to have happen. Groups opposed to the bill had waged a publicity war in the weeks leading up to Fridays vote. Hansen said an overwhelming majority of those who wrote letters, sent emails and called lawmakers about the bill asked them to oppose it. The Center for Rural Affairs accused lawmakers of choosing meatpackers over family farmers and ranchers. Bold Nebraska, which gathered 1,100 petition signatures against the bill, began a tweet with SHAME after the vote. But senators bristled at the suggestion that campaign contributions, especially from Smithfield, had affected their votes. Dont demonize someone who is on a different side, said Omaha Sen. Bob Krist, who supported the bill. The 104th Legislature Second Session doesnt seem to be having daily bill discussions anymore. But it is having the daily filibuster. One senses that Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley knew this was coming early on when he decided to shorten by 2 hours the length of time a bill could be discussed before a vote is taken. His decision to allow for a cloture vote sooner may be the saving grace of this years gathering at the House of Babble. It all started last year with a freshman class that included some independent thinkers and a few people who just seem to like to hear themselves talk. Never mind that a lot of that chatter is nothing new. This is a direct result of term limits nobody remembers that a topic was discussed at length years ago. As I discovered in years of daily coverage of the Legislature, a stupid idea 10 years ago is probably still a stupid idea. But some people just feel the need to talk about it again, and again. At times, such jabber is also accompanied by some unbelievable occurrence off the floor. Take a recent weekend of robo calls from some anonymous source trying to strong-arm senators on a gun control measure. Appropriations Committee Chairman Senator Heath Mello of Omaha characterized the incident as Reasonable people trying to solve a problem are falling victim to outside political influence and divisive rhetoric. That incivility, that kind of desire to win at all costs, to try and use every ounce of political activity they can to make someone take a vote instead of trying to work and negotiate while protecting reasonable gun owners rights colleagues, Im concerned thats the mentality that some of us have in this body right now, the Lincoln Journal Star quoted him as saying. Fellow Omaha lawmaker John McCollister said the calls were a strong-arm tactic, a bare-knuckle approach more common to campaigns than to the everyday working of the Unicameral. The calls, paid for by Save Our State Nebraska, went to residents in 10 senators legislative districts. In most cases, the calls accused the lawmakers of aligning themselves with Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, a lead opponent of the gun measure who also championed last years death penalty repeal. McCollister, a member of the National Rifle Association, said the call accused him of going after Second Amendment rights. The bill, sponsored by Senator Laura Ebke of Crete, would create one set of gun laws for the entire state. She said she worried that someone from another town might be carrying a legally registered weapon but fall victim to tougher gun control laws in Lincoln and Omaha and get in trouble. The proposal, which would eliminate cities ability to restrict firearms beyond what is included under state law, failed to overcome a days-long filibuster, falling short by a single vote. Thats nearly six hours of time the Legislature will never get back. It was an exceedingly sweeping bill, said Hadley of Kearney, who joined opponents in voting to block the measure. As written, the bill would have pre-empted local ordinances in Lincoln that ban guns from domestic violence shelters and drug abuse treatment centers, and prohibit a wider range of offenders from possessing firearms than is covered under state law. In Omaha, the measure would have dashed a local law aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of juvenile gang members and a registration requirement that allows police to deny handguns for those who are mentally ill or involved in documented gang activity. Ebke says those local ordinances encroach on Nebraskans constitutional right to bear arms and threaten responsible gun owners who might unknowingly break the law while traveling throughout the state. Senator Mike Groene of North Platte called the local laws feel-good attempts that have been ineffective. To her credit, Ebke and colleagues from Lincoln and Omaha worked unsuccessfully to the 11th hour to find a compromise to preserve the local ordinances while allowing gun owners from elsewhere to travel freely without fear of prosecution. But, it was a failed vote for cloture that effectively killed the bill for the rest of the session. Now its on to the next filibuster, er topic. And there are plenty of them left to discuss. The bottom line, there is just no room left for pointless palaver. Chop, chop senators. Get something done! PhD programs advance research in nursing NEW PhD PATHWAYS THE FUTURE OF NURSING Left to right, Dr. Patricia Crane, associate dean for research and creative activities in the College of Nursing, speaks with PhD program Director Dr. Elaine Scott and Dr. Candace Harrington, a DNP to PhD student. (Contributed photo) College of Nursing student Dr. Amy Jnah, a neonatal nurse practitioner, is among those benefiting from three new academic options intended to help more nurses earn PhDs. (Photo by Cliff Hollis) Many people have a fixed mental image of what modern nursing looks like one that's based on countless trips to physicians' offices, clinics and hospitals across a lifetime.explained East Carolina University nursing professor Dr. Elaine Scott.But Scott, director of ECU's PhD program in nursing, wants to expand the collective perception of this storied health care profession. She wants it to include the concept of nurses as scholars.Scott explained.As the College of Nursing approaches 60 graduates from their 12-year-old PhD program, administrators have added three new academic options intended to facilitate nurses' transition to the role of scientific thought leader.This past August, three students enrolled in the newly formed DNP to PhD program, making the ECU College of Nursing one of only six schools in the country who offer this opportunity.The DNP, or Doctor of Nursing Practice, targets nurses who want the highest level of education for clinical practice. This degree also equips nurses to solve problems and advance health by testing ideas for best nursing practice and implementing evidence generated by PhD-prepared nurses.Scott said.Graduates of ECU's PhD in nursing program are prepared to serve as tenure-track faculty members and deans of nursing, coordinate research and quality improvement at major hospitals, and analyze and set policy by working for organizations such as the North Carolina Board of Nursing and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Dr. Amy Jnah, a neonatal nurse practitioner at two different hospitals and director of the neonatal nurse practitioner program at ECU, decided she wanted to obtain her PhD while in the middle of earning her DNP. The newly established DNP to PhD program is allowing her to pursue her research interests, which center on mentoring, self-efficacy and self-confidence in inpatient, acute care nurse practitioners.said Jnah.All three students in the DNP to PhD program, including Jnah, were able to transfer at least 18 hours from their DNP program into their PhD coursework. All are expected to graduate within five semesters.Though the DNP to PhD program is the newest addition to the College of Nursing, it's not the first bridge program instituted to help nurses earn a PhD. Administrators previously established a program where nurses with a BSN, a Bachelor of Science in nursing, could seamlessly obtain a PhD. The three members of this program's first cohort are close to the end of their PhD journey.said Albert Anderson, a registered nurse at Vidant Medical Center who is a dissertation away from graduation.Anderson whose research focuses on the safety culture of a nursing unit and the relationship the leader of the unit forms with a team hopes to use his PhD to continue creating new knowledge for the discipline.While these programs may further the reputation of ECU's College of Nursing, they also address a need to prepare younger nurses for the future of the field. In most disciplines, the average age someone obtains a PhD is late 20s or early 30s. But the average age nurses obtain a PhD is mid- to late-40s.College of Nursing administrators understand this issue and are doing their part to help the cause. In addition to varied paths for receiving a doctorate, they established a competitive program where incoming ECU Honors College freshmen can apply for early assurance of acceptance in the BSN to PhD program.said Scott.Scott added. RALEIGH Teen geniuses and word wizards just lost their competitive edge with the nation's most established college admissions exam. There's a new SAT in town, and this one favors the mundane over the arcane.Debuting in March, this latest version of the SAT represents the test's most substantive revision in decades. Proponents say it assesses the skills necessary for college and career more accurately. Detractors say it has been dumbed down following years of declining scores.One thing is clear: The SAT has drifted far from its early moorings as an aptitude test. The focus of the new SAT, like everything else in education right now, is on "the real world." High schoolers are tested on vocabulary they'll use "long after test day," according to the SAT's publisher, the College Board. Reading requires analysis of mostly nonfiction texts and is "about the everyday."I slogged through a sample reading passage and infographic about the time costs of commuting. The College Board isn't kidding. Welcome, kids, to the tedium of the workaday world.Deep, not broad, the SAT's new math section hones in on three areas: linear equations and systems; problem solving and data analysis; and complex equations, according to the College Board. Expect multiple steps and loads of word problems about real world scenarios. Gary Gruber, an expert on standardized testing and founder of Gruber Prep, says the new SAT focuses less on critical thinking; many questions, especially in math, are "either very easy or very tedious," he says.Students are likely to cheer, not bemoan, other changes. The guessing penalty - a quarter-point deduction for each wrong answer - is gone. Multiple-choice answer options have been trimmed from five to four, bumping up the odds of choosing correctly. The essay is optional. Scoring reverts to a 1,600-point scale for two sections: Math and the renamed Evidence-Based Reading and Writing.Why change the once venerable SAT? The adoption of Common Core by most states has played a pivotal role, as testing companies have raced to ensure assessments are aligned with the standards. The chief architect of Common Core, David Coleman, is the man behind the new SAT: Coleman became the College Board's president in 2012. If you don't like Common Core, you probably won't like this test.What else is fueling the shift? Economics, plain and simple. Facing dwindling market share, the College Board has created a test that resembles the ACT, students' now-preferred college admissions exam nationally.The ACT also enjoys market dominance in North Carolina, a trend fueled in part by the fact that the state began requiring all public school 11th graders to take the test in 2012 as part of its accountability program.Students elsewhere may find themselves locked into the new SAT as some states - previously committed to end-of-year Common Core exams developed by national consortia - defect in favor of the redesigned admissions exam. Already, a number of states have indicated they will use the SAT or ACT instead of consortium tests.Perhaps most fundamentally, this SAT will deepen education's divide over the following question: What do we want students to know and how should we test whether they know it? Of course, this issue is far bigger than the SAT. But the new test says much about where we're headed. Think China, for rote learning patterns.If tedium continues to trump critical thinking and creativity, we'll incentivize and reward a different kind of student. This new SAT, says Gruber, "is not going to tap the smarter kids, the real creative kids." That's a shame. The real world needs them. Superintendent grilled at committee meeting about implications of legislation signed in December by President Obama RALEIGH Members of a state legislative panel are concerned that a new federal education law could keep in place controversial Common Core educational standards that dictate to states how students are taught and what they must learn.Lawmakers quizzed state Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson on Tuesday during a meeting of the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee about the Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law in December by President Obama."I think there is an ongoing concern that there is an effort, perhaps, starting at the federal level to kind of rebrand [Common Core], or continue it," despite heavy public opposition, said Rep. Bert Jones, R-Rockingham.The new 1,059-page law, scheduled to take effect in the 2017-18 school year, is an update of the former Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as the No Child Left Behind Act.The ESSA law provides "tremendous flexibility to the state while maintaining some of the requirements of No Child Left Behind," Atkinson said.The U.S. Department of Education has not released final regulations, so writing specific provisions in the state's plan is difficult. The plan, which must align with the federal law, is scheduled for submission in December.The law "severely curtails the authority of the U.S. secretary of education" in mandating testing policies, said Lou Fabrizio, director of the Department of Public Instruction's Division of Data, Research, and Federal Policy.Teacher evaluations also are "one of the biggest changes," Fabrizio said. "It returns that authority of teacher evaluations back to the states."Rep. Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, initiated the Common Core discussion.Pittman said.That review commission in October rejected the recommendations of a 15-month-long study, leaving Common Core standards in place.Pittman asked.DPI has gotten feedback from teachers, universities, and community colleges,Atkinson said."As a part of that process we are reviewing standards from other states, we have comparisons of the differences and similarities of the states," she said.She warned committee members that when standards are changed,State Rep. Bert Jones, R-Rockingham, asked Atkinson for a clarification."You are referring of course to Common Core standards, is that fair to say? You never spoke about Common Core in particular," Jones said.Atkinson said she was referring to the Standard Course of Study as required by the General Assembly, which covers mathematics, English/language arts, social studies, healthful living, world languages, and career technical education.When pressed by Jones, she agreed that Common Core standards apply to the English/language arts and mathematics courses.Jones said some critics have argued that the new law "heavily incentivizes states to maintain the Common Core state standards."The law requires states to demonstrateJones said. North Carolina is one of eight states receiving waivers.Atkinson said there are no incentives in the legislation, which "makes it emphatic that the federal government cannot dictate to states what standards are adopted."The General Assembly required DPI to align its standards with what is required for students to succeed at the university or community college level, she said.Atkinson said. It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios? Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything. No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now, unending. Your RSS feed from RSSFWD.com. Update your RSS... HELENA The state of Montanas most recent economic development report paints a rosy picture unemployment rates between 3.9 and 4.4 percent, more than 10,000 jobs added, wages up 3.5 percent in the state last year. But certain segments of the state especially American Indian reservations arent doing as well, said state Sen. Lea Whitford, D-Cut Bank. Unemployment in Glacier County, which includes the Blackfeet Reservation, last December was 9.3 percent. In Big Horn County, more than half of which is Crow Reservation, its 6.3 percent. Pointing to a map during a presentation on economic development Friday, Whitford asked one of the states top economic development workers: Are you getting out into these communities? How do we close that gap? Whitford asked Friday. We talk about the unemployment rate and how it is dropping, but something is missing in that formula. Gov. Steve Bullock last month touted his offices 2015 Economic Development Report, citing positives like job and income growth and a good business environment. The report included success stories like Boeing buying and expanding a facility in Helena, SeaCast Inc., in Butte's joint venture with GE Aviation and an expansion at Calumet Montana Refining in Great Falls, but made no mention of tribes or reservations. The governors office said the report was intended to provide a statewide overview of economic development as it relates to specific industries the report is organized by industry and not call out specific areas of the state, which is why reservations werent pulled out in their own section. Patrick Barkey, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, has been traveling around the state holding economic outlook seminars and presenting the bureau's Montana Economic Report. We were presenting our economic outlook and the same comment was made about our stuff, he said. We're looking at that and plan to react to that by doing better in the future." He noted that BBER has done studies of tribal economies, "but they tended to be specialized reports." And the last big one "is about 10 years old." He said statewide analyses often don't include tribes simply because of the way the data is structured by county. "It doesn't line up with reservation lands." Whitford said at a meeting of the Economic Affairs Interim Committee that she wants to make sure tribes, reservations and the rural part of the state arent left out in these reports. She spoke after John Rogers, chief business developer for the state, gave a condensed presentation of the economic report generated by the governors office. When we are talking about economic development opportunities, where they are spending their time and their effort, its important to tap into those areas, Whitford said. I really think we need to be looking at some of those communities that are very high in poverty rates. Equity and collateral are two of the biggest hurdles to economic development on reservations, Rogers said. Sean Becker, administrator of the Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development, said there is a collateral paradigm in Indian Country. Typically people acquire net worth through investment in their home and borrow against their home, or own land and borrow against that. That doesnt work when your business is built on tribal land or your home (is). There is no collateral and there is no equity. Rogers said the difference in commercial codes on and off the reservation also makes it difficult to get loans. Its difficult to finance equipment for a manufacturer or a private individual when you cant go in and legally secure equipment like you could if its off the reservation, he said. He pointed to S&K Electronics, Inc., established by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation more than 30 years ago, as a success story. S&K employs about 95 people and does contract manufacturing. Tribal colleges also could help with an anticipated drop in the states workforce over the next five years, Rogers said, as Montana could see as many as 24,000 to 40,000 older employees retire and leave the workforce. He also said that Montana is a national leader in people who work from home, an area where he said theres potential for our Native Americans. A lot of Native Americans want to stay close to their land, thats where they want to be. Whitford said part of the problem is people who live on reservations or in rural Montana might not know the opportunities are there. You have to apply, she said. People just dont know they have the opportunity to apply. Whitford said shes asked how the states various economic development agencies get their information out the public and asked if theyre effective at getting tribal government involved. She said the regional economic development offices could routinely come talk with tribal councils on upcoming opportunities. There needs to be more communication out there for a lot of people, she said. Sometimes people just dont know. I say look at the roadmap and ask Are you getting this information out into these communities? Becker said theres a four-person team thats part of the states Office of Native American Development, a part of the Department of Commerce, that works on economic development in Indian Country. On Friday that team was traveling as part of a six-week tour to meet with all eight tribal councils in the state the Blackfeet, Chippewa Cree, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Crow, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, Little Shell Chippewa and Northern Cheyenne tribes. Becker emphasized that all the economic development programs offered by the state apply as much in Indian Country as they do in the rest of Montana. He referenced the Treasure State Endowment Program, a state-funded program open to local governments that helps pay for local infrastructure projects. Tribal councils can apply for money as well, he said There are also specific programs targeted toward improving the economy on reservations administered by the Office of Native American Development. The Indian Equity Fund Small Business Grant is meant to help bridge the equity gap Rogers referred to, and provides money to be used by the grant recipient as equity. Up to $40,000 is available under that program. The team will also meet with the banks that serve Indian Country, to make sure when they are considering loans to Indian-owned businesses that there are opportunities for the Montana Department of Commerce to shore up that financing profile. Becker called collateral a fundamental gap in finance for Native American businesses on a reservation. The Native American Collateral Support Program can put a deposit for the bank to hold in place of traditional collateral like land or a home, Becker said. The Big Sky Trust Fund Job Creation Grant can offer reimbursement on new hires so the business can have accounts receivable on their balance sheet. Workforce training programs can guarantee employees with the necessary skills. Though many of the statewide programs have been around for years, some of the programs specific to Indian Country are new, Becker said. He said they will help increase the net worth of both businesses and people on the reservation, but its not something that will happen overnight. These programs are small compared to the underemployment epidemic in Indian Country, he said. But they have the full support of chief elected officials, full support of the Montana Legislature, all of the resources of state government. This is the first time weve ever had a collateral support program, the first time weve ever had Native American business advisers. Were making tremendous headway. Bishop Eliudi Issangya was 22 in 1979 when he traveled from Tanzania to a Bible school in San Diego. He was one of just a few people from his country chosen for the six-month course, which was paid for with a scholarship. But he had to sell his farm to come up with the cash for a one-way airline ticket. Thats all he could afford. Now, more than 35 years later, the 66-year-old African cleric heads a burgeoning nondenominational ministry in his native country, called the International Evangelism Church. I really felt that God wants us to be fruitful and not just live our own life of selfish, said Issangya, a man with a ready smile, said. Instead, live a life that can bear fruit and also touch lives. He is in Billings to give a talk about his ministry Saturday night at Bethany Church. Issangya has visited the Rev. Jordan Works congregation probably eight or nine times, Work said, sitting next to Issangya, and the congregation has partnered with him in his work. It gives you a whole different perspective of the world and a larger understanding of the kingdom of God, Work said, hearing about the African ministry. Bishop Issangya has stirred my faith with his stories. The bishop spends about three months each year in the United States visiting the cities where churches and individuals support the ministry. Billings was his first Montana stop, and he will also travel to Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Missoula and Kalispell during his month in the state. Issangyas own story goes back to the late 1970s when he was farming about two acres of land, raising corn and beans. During that time he heard a message preached that tugged at his heart. They said If you accept Jesus as your personal savior, you will receive a new life, he said. He ignored the words at first. But then, not longer afterward, he was waiting on the highway for a bus saw the bus crash. A man not much older than he was killed, and it shook him to his core. God spoke to me and said Life can be shortened at any time. What if you die and you didnt get that new life? Issangya said. I was really scared. So he tracked down the men who preached the message and asked them to pray for him. I really felt the joy and excitement of life and hope of life and I started now saying Jesus and God and believing God is real, Issangya said. After that, he went to a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, conducted by a man named Morris Cerullo from San Diego who leads a world evangelism ministry. Issangya filled out an application and was one of two people from Tanzania chosen to go the Bible school, his $2,000 tuition covered by a sponsor. When he was done with the course, a woman from Montana offered to pay for his return ticket home. I had a vision to go back and do the same thing that I learned in San Diego, to train men and women to plant churches, he said. In 1983, Issangya started his school in a mud hut on two acres of land. His first six-month session, Issangya had 20 students, which grew to 100 in six months and 200 in a year. Since then, nearly 10,000 men and women have been trained and have planted more than 1,800 churches. They have come from several African countries, including Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. The Sakila ministry has expanded to include 22 buildings on more than 50 acres, which house the Bible school and church, a trade school, an orphanage for 53 children and a K-12 school that educates about 1,000 students. The trade school offers training in such specialties as masonry, carpentry, sewing and welding. Last year, we opened a radio station, Issangya said. So its still growing. He admits that he had no idea so many years ago that his decision to say yes to God would lead him to begin a ministry and let him travel around the world on its behalf. He gives the credit to God, pointing back to the Old Testament where God parted the waters of the Red Sea to allow Moses and his people safe passage. One thing about God, he doesnt want us to stop and think that he cannot, Issangya said. We have to keep moving and believe hes going to do it. The Montana Board of Public Education approved a plan for high school juniors to take the ACT in place of Smarter Balanced exams to fulfill national testing mandates this spring, but not without debate. Board members criticized Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau at the boards January meeting for not informing them of the change. She announced the change at the same time results from glitch-plagued Smarter Balanced results were released. The board still backed up the move for this school year at its meeting Thursday. Rather than just getting information from the newspapers, I think it would be good that Denise could tell us what was going on, board member Paul Andersen said in January. At that meeting, Juneau chalked up the situation to a timing issue. It happened in between your November board meeting and this (January) meeting, she said. Schools had to be notified. Board chairwoman Sharon Carroll wasnt convinced. We have emails and phones, she said. There are other ways of communicating. Juneau maintained that meetings were typically used for official communication. The issues seemed to be less between board members and Juneau than indicative of concerns over uncertainty about the boards role and authority over superintendent decisions. Board members also raised concerns after Juneau decided to allow schools to opt out of glitch-plagued Smarter Balanced testing last spring, as first reported by the Missoula Independent. Im just worried that this decision just gets made, and theres no discussion, Andersen said in January. Is that your decision to make? Or do you make a recommendation to the board, and then the board decides on that? No one attending Januarys conference call meeting seemed to have a definitive answer, although Juneau noted that the Board had previously approved the ACT for assessment. I trust Superintendent Juneau with my life, but Im worried about the precedent we set, Andersen said. Juneau said that there were extensive discussions about the change within OPI and with school administrators. There were also academic concerns. The ACT, while considered a reliable indicator of college readiness, isnt aligned to Montana standards. Smarter Balanced tests are. Montana has offered the ACT to all juniors since 2014. The alignment piece, I think, is key, said Angela McLean, a former board member who recently took an Indian education position after stepping down as lieutenant governor. She represented Commissioner of Higher Education Clay Christians office during the meeting. Several board members emphasized the need to provide clarity to school districts about what test juniors will take this spring. Im a teacher. I want to know, said Carroll, who teaches at Carter County High School in Ekalaka. The board will examine testing rules and its authority at subsequent meetings, Carroll said Thursday. Rims residents got to hear for themselves Friday just how disruptive a Chinook helicopter might be in their neighborhood. Most residents were either absent or listened from inside their homes, but roughly half a dozen gathered along a gravel road near the airport to test the decibel levels of the massive helicopter as it landed. Gary Blain, part-owner of Billings Flying Service, flew the Chinook north to the Rims from the helicopter contracting and repair business Blue Creek area facilities in hopes of assuaging the concerns of residents opposed to the business opening up shop along the back third of a 60-acre piece of land along Highway 3 west of the airport's boundaries. Blain communicated via walkie-talkie with his brother and the president of BFS, Al Blain, as he touched down, circled the area and flew over a neighborhood before departing southward in a display that lasted less than 30 minutes. Al Blain said that the direct operating cost is $6,000 for every hour a Chinook is in operation. He estimated that between getting the helicopter prepared, taking off and departing, BFS had incurred 45 minutes worth of direct operating cost Friday about $4,500. The demonstration was suggested by Dave Kinnard, a resident of the Sky Ranch neighborhood on the Rims. On Wednesday, BFS' attorney Ken Tolliver told Kinnard the demonstration was set. Testing the impact While some residents observed from much nearer to the land than their homes, Al Blain and Tolliver watched from 3382 Skyranch, a home adjacent to the highway that sits closest to the land, believing that site would offer the most accurate representation of the effect the facility might have on a home. As the Chinook approached, circled and departed, Blain recorded the decibel readings using a sound measuring device. Jim Beley, a Sky Ranch resident for three and a half years, stood next to him, doing the same with his iPhone. Blains decibel readings reached 62 for the Chinook 20 decibels below the 82 a passing truck registered. Kinnard and neighbor Jim Grubbs both noted that the westbound winds could have played a role in muting the aircrafts noise. While Blain acknowledged wind could have affected the sound, he maintained it was a good average day" and fairly representative of what youre going to see. "It's about what I expected," Kinnard said. "The biggest problem I have with them flying in this vicinity is that they won't always fly in that line they did today. Oftentimes the airport, as they do with private planes, will divert them for traffic reasons." BFS' purchase of the land is contingent on the Yellowstone County Commission approving rezoning of the land as controlled industrial. The land is currently owned by members of the Longan and Crippen families. A commission meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday at the Billings Public Library, where the county zoning committees planning division will decide what it will recommend to the county commissioners. The atmosphere near Beleys home was easygoing, even friendly, but disagreements over the future of the land clearly persist. Beley and other residents, some a part of the Rimrock Neighborhood Task Force, fear more than loud noises will come with re-zoning of the land. In BFS hands, Beley fears the dusty horse pasture will disappear altogether, giving way to gravel lots, steel buildings and cyclone fences. This is the last beautiful corridor going into Billings, Beley said. Wed rather see something more suitable. Another fear is dust kicked up by whirling helicopter blades, but Gary Blain echoed previous comments from his brother, saying that its in BFS interests to avoid dust as much as possible because it causes problems with their machines. Al Blain said that they have agreed to leave the front third of the property zoned agricultural in order to help ease the transition, but he said he could not guarantee it permanently. Bruce Crippen watched the display along the gravel road from the seat of his truck, having arrived in part to make sure the horses on his land had been corralled. Crippen said he was skeptical when the Blains first approached him wanting to buy the land, which has been in his family for decades. After some research, Crippen concluded the Blains were trustworthy and that their business would be preferable to something else. The land had been farmed for wheat in the past, but Crippen said it was a disaster. Theres a point in time where it cant just lay fallow, Crippen said. I cant see some rancher that wants 60 acres to come and want this. Its gonna get developed sooner or later. It might as well be done right. BFS expanding Billings Flying Service began in essence the 1950s when Al and Garys father, Gerhart Blain, started a one-man crop-dusting business. His children have since taken over the business, expanding to their current size of 35 full-time employees, of which Gary Blain estimates more than half are veterans. The first two Chinooks ever available for civilian purchase sit in an 8,000-square-foot warehouse with 21-foot ceilings south of Billings. The business is nestled among the rolling hills and winding roads of the Blue Creek area. Drivers entering the property are advised to stop at a point where a paved runway crosses the road. Guys show up from the U.K., and they expect to go to the airport, Gary Blain said. They dont expect to go to your horse pasture south of town. Its hard to find civilians with the engineering expertise to maintain and repair repurposed military aircraft like the seven Chinooks BFS owns. The Blains said the opportunity to work on their machines has drawn employees from across the country to the Billings business, where salaries start at $65,000 and range into six figures. These are highly skilled individuals, Gary Blain said. You cant just grab any Joe off the street. Gary Blain said they are only one of two civilian businesses in the world overhauling Chinook helicopter transmissions. Its a big deal to be overhauling transmissions in Montana, Blain said, adding that the amount of work needed to create tooling and parts spreads hundreds of thousands of dollars in business throughout Billings and requires the work of just about every machine shop in town. The Blains own 13 helicopters total, including Vietnam-era UH-1 Hueys and a Cold War-era Sikorsky, and their business is only growing, Gary Blain said. He estimated its value at $50 million. "There's a shortage of heavy-lifting helicopters in the universe," Al Blain said. "People are looking for (businesses) that are easier to work with. We've got a really great crew put together, and it's going to get better and better." Employees want to live close to where they work, Al Blain said, and he argued any new jobs the expanding business will bring will increase interest and value in Rims real estate rather than decrease it as residents fear. But Kinnard is still concerned. "I don't see at all that it can help our (property) values," Kinnard said. "I think it's a question of how much it will hurt them." Kinnard's concerns, like those of Beley, revolve around the visual impact of controlled industrial development. Kinnard, who has lived on the Rims for 15 years, described the Highway 3 corridor as one of the few picturesque gateways to the city and said he fears BFS will open the door for more development. Moving the business to the Rims would put BFS closer to Billings Logan International Airport, where it already has two hangars. Currently, if parts need to be moved from the airport to Blue Creek or vice versa, employees have to make the nearly half-hour drive. In a business where cost is calculated in $6,000-an-hour increments, half an hour is expensive. Another issue with BFS current facility is a lack of space. Their main hangar fits only two Chinooks inside at one time. Cramped quarters can create choke points when equipment is set up near parallel spots on side-by-side helicopters. BFS stores extra helicopters outside on the grass. If their location change is approved, the Blains seek a facility that could house five Chinooks inside at once, with two machines' rotating blades still attached. Thats what I envision, Al Blain said. Something with a really nice sign, an A-1 facility, a really cool building. Itll be a point of pride in Billings. Community interest On average, the Blains said their Chinooks make 6 departures a month, with fewer during the winter. BFS has sent vehicles to a variety of continents and countries including Australia, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Africa, Europe and Antarctica. Recently their helicopters helped install 20 light poles weighing 17,000 pounds and standing 165 feet tall along an Alaskan highway between Anchorage and Wasilla. On Friday morning Gary said hed already fielded calls that day from parties in Israel and Ireland interested in BFS services. Locally, Gary Blain said they work with the Crow Tribe, NorthWestern Energy and various fire services in Montana. Al Blain flew a Chinook in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, rescuing people off hospital rooftops and other flights have gone to tsunami ravaged regions. The Chinooks weigh 50,000 pounds and can tow up to 26,000 pounds, topping out at speeds of 170 knots. Were just talking about location right now, Gary Blain said, referring to airport land for lease. The bottom line is we want to build one really nice facility, and we want to make the community comfortable with it to the best of our abilities. "But you know, somebody's always going to be unhappy," he said. CASPER, Wyo. A judge sentenced a Casper man to 25 years in prison Friday for stabbing his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend 13 times. Robert Allen Snyder's 22- to 25-year sentence is also punishment for stalking and repeatedly violating a protection order filed by his ex-girlfriend, JoAnna Mannarino. Prosecutor Mike Schafer said the stabbing victim, Kevin Simmons, is reminded every day of the scars on his body and that Mr. Snyder tried to take his life. Schafer called the case aggravating and said Snyder has refused to take responsibility for what happened. It has always been his belief that his actions were caused by everybody else, the prosecutor said. Schafer said Snyder has a vast criminal history that is rooted in family violence. For this reason, the prosecutor requested a lengthy prison sentence, which was imposed by Natrona County District Judge Daniel Forgey. The defendant has a violent past and his violence is escalating, Schafer said. Snyder and his attorney, Rob Oldham, have maintained Snyder acted in self-defense when he stabbed Simmons. Snyder said the other man had a stun gun. Snyders case went to trial in October. However, he requested to change his plea on the trials second day. Oldham said Friday that Snyder decided to forego the trial after seeing his ex-girlfriend was pregnant. The defendant said the time he's already spent in jail while his case proceeded had been fruitful. I forgive Mr. Simmons, Snyder told the judge before he handed down a sentence. I dont hate him or JoAnna at all. I do feel horrible, and I want to serve time, he said. Snyder pleaded guilty to attempted-second degree murder as part of a deal with state prosecutors. The agreement stipulated Snyder would not be sentenced to more than 25 years behind bars. Attempted second-degree murder carries a penalty of at least 20 years and up to life in prison Oldham requested the judge sentence Snyder to two to three years in prison and then place Snyder on 20 years of probation. The stabbing took place March 8 after Snyder went to his ex-girlfriends home on Countryside Court to see his son. However, Mannarino had a restraining order against Snyder, which stipulated Snyder could see his son only if Mannarino allowed the visit, Schafer said during the first day of Snyders trial. Mannarino and Simmons, who lived together, asked Snyder to leave. Snyder left but returned a short time later. Snyder argued with Mannarino and Simmons in front of the home before pulling a knife from his pocket and stabbing Simmons, Schafer said during the trial. Simmons was able to get free after shocking Snyder in the groin with a Taser. Simmons ran into the home and Snyder left in his car. Many of Simmons wounds were on the back of his neck, his back and his sides, Schafer said. Simmons has since recovered. Snyder turned himself in at the Natrona County Detention Center just minutes after deputies responded to the home. He had blood on his clothing, Schafer said. Snyder was out on bond at the time of the stabbing for violating the protection order against Mannarino. Snyder was also on probation for an earlier violation of the order. Judge Forgey recommended Snyder participate in substance abuse counseling while in prison. Snyder may also be required to pay restitution to Simmons in the future. CASPER, Wyo. Shaun Kenneth Hamilton stood with his hands behind his back as four courthouse guards surrounded him. His attorney faced him and removed the tie from Hamilton's neck. Guards then escorted Hamilton from the Casper courtroom where he'd spent the past four days. A jury found Hamilton guilty on Thursday of five child sexual abuse charges. Following the verdict, prosecutor Kevin Taheri asked that Hamilton be jailed without bond pending his sentencing hearing. Taheri said Hamilton, 30, was now a convicted felon who posed a danger to the community. Natrona County District Judge Daniel Forgey, who oversaw the trial, granted Taheris request. Taheri proved during the trial that Hamilton raped a 14-year-old girl last January and had sexually abused a much younger girl about six years earlier. The defendant sexually assaulted two young girls, Taheri said during his closing arguments. He thought he could get away with it. But hes been caught. DNA evidence collected by detectives in the January 2014 case linked Hamilton to the rape, Taheri said during the trial. The physical, scientific evidence in this case supports the victim, Taheri said. That victim reported the assault to a school employee the day after it occurred. The employee contacted police, and the girl was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Project. A rape kit was later performed at Wyoming Medical Center. After looking into her case, police reopened a 2009 investigation in which Hamilton was accused of raping another girl, then about 8 years old. She told police Hamilton touched her inappropriately on several occasions and raped her, with the abuse beginning in 2007. Both girls, now 15 and 14 respectively, took the stand Monday. Taheri and defense attorney Hampton Young asked the girls questions about their lives and the alleged abuse. Though the attorneys spoke to the alleged victims by name, the Star-Tribune is not identifying the girls. Young argued during the trial there were inconsistencies in the victims statements. He also downplayed the DNA evidence and implied the victims were framing Hamilton. Hamilton was the last witness to take the stand Thursday. He began crying when his attorney asked if he had raped the victims. Hamilton insisted he hadn't. Its devastating, he said. However, he didnt deny the DNA evidence linking him to the case. I wouldnt know how to dispute the DNA, Hamilton said. Before the jury left the courtroom to deliberate, Young asked the jurors to look at the case dispassionately and not consider the emotions involved in the case. Eight men and four women made up the jury. The group deliberated for about two hours before finding Hamilton guilty on one count of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. Hamilton could essentially face life in prison. Forgey will hand down a sentence at a later date. Following Thursday's verdict, one of the victims and her family members stood outside the front doors of the courthouse. Some cried as they hugged one another. Students at Southridge Elementary School beat a drumroll on the gym floor while they waited for the blue cloth to be pulled off a giant poster. Google representative Ryan Brown had traveled there to unveil the Wyoming winner for the national Doodle 4 Google Competition. Daisy Maynard thought her Google doodle was pretty good, but so were a lot of others, she said. When the fifth-grader saw her entry framed by Google's red, green, blue and yellow colors, both her hands flew to her mouth. The principal called her to the front of the gymnasium at the assembly Friday afternoon. She didn't even see her dad and seven other family members at the edge of the gym as she walked by. "I actually almost cried," Daisy said later. "I was very surprised and very happy." Daisy won an e-reader and $2,500 in playground gear for her school, including balls, jump ropes and hula hoops, because of her passion for sports. She's also in the running now for the national award, which is up for public vote to determine five national finalists, one from each age group. Her entry is one of 53 winners selected from around 100,000 in the eighth annual contest for kindergarten through 12th-grade students across 50 states and three territories. The finalists and winner will be announced March 21, when the winners doodle will go live on Google.com, according to a press release from Google. "I think it's incredible and it couldn't happen to a better kid," said Southridge Principal Doug Smith. "She did a great job ... with what she drew. She's got what she's interested in and some wildlife in there. I'm really proud of her." Maynard spent an art class and two nights at home creating her take on the Google logo, she said. The students were tasked to redesign the Google logo's letters inspired by the theme, What makes me...me. The hardest part was figuring out what to do with the capital G," she said. But she thought about it and decided an eagle to represent her country would be the perfect start. The first "O," a volleyball, was easier. It's her favorite sport. The other "O" is a buffalo for Wyoming and Casper, where she plans to go to college and live when she grows up. The second G becomes a daisy with a stem curling beneath for her name. An L became a picture of her doing a rising kick as a Tae Kwon Do black belt, a goal for the current blue belt in the martial art. The "E" finishing the word Google is an artist pallet, for her artistic talent she used to create her winning doodle, titled Part of Me. Art is her favorite subject in school, she said. She reached up to meet a bear hug from her dad, Brennan Capellas, after finding out she'd won. He'd kept her win a secret for two days so she could be surprised at the unveiling, he said. "I think it's amazing, and I'm very proud of her," he said. But he already was. He doesn't know where she gets her artistic knack, but she's always pursued her own interests, he said. The national winner and finalists will travel to Mountain View, California, to meet and workshop with Googles professional doodlers. They'll see what it takes to launch a Doodle on the search engine's homepage. The winner will take home a $30,000 college scholarship and the student's school will receive a $50,000 Google for Education grant establish or improve a computer lab or technology program. Maynard hopes to make it that far, but she's already happy with representing her home state at the national level, she said. The poster of her winning artwork will hang in the school lobby for the rest of the year. "I do want to take it home at the end of the year," Maynard said. "I'll put it in my room to always remember." The event was over before it started. Minutes before the Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws planned to talk to the press about internal leadership changes, the group was told it couldn't hold its press conference at the Western Grill in Casper. They hadn't cleared the Friday afternoon event with the restaurant's management. After some confusion, the handful of supporters gathered their belongings, paid their bill and left. The event was meant to combat bad publicity supporters felt they had received after failing to place the Peggy A. Kelley Wyoming Cannabis Act of 2016 on Novembers ballot. If passed, it would have allowed Wyoming residents to grow hemp and legalized medical marijuana. The group fell far short of the roughly 25,600 signatures from registered voters needed to get on Novembers ballot. Theyve now focused on collecting enough signatures by February 2017 to get on the ballot in 2018. The internal turmoil is gone, new Wyoming NORML Deputy Director Scott Sidman said. Were actually working really well as a group and going in the right direction with this and getting it stabilized to where it should have been in the first place. There was a lack of organization and structure in the effort before the leadership change, Sidman said. Wyoming NORML has also joined with the political action committee 420 Wyoming in the legalization effort. This is still alive. Its not dead. Its not over, 420 Wyoming PAC public relations director Amber Sparks said. Wyoming NORMLs leadership faced some upheaval during the petition process. Chris Christian announced late last year that she would no longer be the groups executive director. Sparks said Christian was also not involved with the organization or the PAC. Christian told the Star-Tribune in November that her work had been thwarted by people against the petition, including some in the pro-cannabis community. The goal of Friday afternoons event, Sparks said, was to show the public that the movement is more organized and going in the right direction. Were not a bunch of pot smokers standing on the corner, he said. Over the last few years weve been treated to a number of Facebook revolutions, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to the squares of Istanbul, Kiev and Hong Kong, all fueled by social media. But once the smoke cleared, most of these revolutions failed to build any sustainable new political order, in part because as so many voices got amplified, consensus-building became impossible. Question: Does it turn out that social media is better at breaking things than at making things? An important voice recently answered this question with a big yes. That voice was Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian Google employee whose anonymous Facebook page helped to launch the Tahrir Square revolution in early 2011 that toppled President Hosni Mubarak but then failed to give birth to a true democratic alternative. In December, Ghonim, who has since moved to Silicon Valley, posted a TED talk about what went wrong. It is worth watching and begins like this: I once said, If you want to liberate a society, all you need is the Internet. I was wrong. I said those words back in 2011, when a Facebook page I anonymously created helped spark the Egyptian revolution. The Arab Spring revealed social medias greatest potential, but it also exposed its greatest shortcomings. The same tool that united us to topple dictators eventually tore us apart. In the early 2000s, Arabs were flocking to the Web, Ghonim explained: Thirsty for knowledge, for opportunities, for connecting with the rest of the people around the globe, we escaped our frustrating political realities and lived a virtual, alternative life. And then in June 2010, he noted, the Internet changed my life forever. While browsing Facebook, I saw a photo ... of a tortured, dead body of a young Egyptian guy. His name was Khaled Said. Khaled was a 29-year-old Alexandrian who was killed by police. I saw myself in his picture. ... I anonymously created a Facebook page and called it We Are All Khaled Said. In just three days, the page had over 100,000 people, fellow Egyptians who shared the same concern. Soon Ghonim and his friends used Facebook to crowdsource ideas, and the page became the most followed page in the Arab world. ... Social media was crucial for this campaign. It helped a decentralized movement arise. It made people realize that they were not alone. And it made it impossible for the regime to stop it. Ghonim was eventually tracked down in Cairo by Egyptian security services, beaten and then held incommunicado for 11 days. But three days after he was freed, the millions of protesters his Facebook posts helped to galvanize brought down Mubaraks regime. Alas, the euphoria soon faded, said Ghonim, because we failed to build consensus, and the political struggle led to intense polarization. Social media, he noted, only amplified the polarization by facilitating the spread of misinformation, rumors, echo chambers and hate speech. The environment was purely toxic. My online world became a battleground filled with trolls, lies, hate speech. Supporters of the army and the Islamists used social media to smear each other, while the democratic center, which Ghonim and so many others occupied, was marginalized. Their revolution was stolen by the Muslim Brotherhood and, when it failed, by the army, which then arrested many of the secular youths who first powered the revolution. The army has its own Facebook page to defend itself. It was a moment of defeat, said Ghonim. I stayed silent for more than two years, and I used the time to reflect on everything that happened. Here is what he concluded about social media today: First, we dont know how to deal with rumors. Rumors that confirm peoples biases are now believed and spread among millions of people. Second, We tend to only communicate with people that we agree with, and thanks to social media, we can mute, unfollow and block everybody else. Third, online discussions quickly descend into angry mobs. ... Its as if we forget that the people behind screens are actually real people and not just avatars. And fourth, it became really hard to change our opinions. Because of the speed and brevity of social media, we are forced to jump to conclusions and write sharp opinions in 140 characters about complex world affairs. And once we do that, it lives forever on the Internet. Fifth, and most crucial, he said, today, our social media experiences are designed in a way that favors broadcasting over engagements, posts over discussions, shallow comments over deep conversations. ... Its as if we agreed that we are here to talk at each other instead of talking with each other. Ghonim has not given up. He and a few friends recently started a website, Parlio.com, to host intelligent, civil conversations about controversial and often heated issues, with the aim of narrowing gaps, not widening them. (I participated in a debate on Parlio and found it engaging and substantive.) Five years ago, concluded Ghonim, I said, If you want to liberate society, all you need is the Internet. Today I believe if we want to liberate society, we first need to liberate the Internet. (Thomas L. Friedman writes a syndicated column for the New York Times.) Fortunately, we took into account in the last session the possibility that commodity prices could fall without warning. As a result, the legislative assembly wisely set aside excellent cash reserves to deal with this very situation." Gov. Jack Dalrymple, after ordering state agencies to cut 4.05 percent from their budgets Monday in an effort to fix a projected shortfall of $1.074 billion for the biennium. q q q Its certainly not the end of the world. We were criticized for a long time for putting all those dollars away. Thank God we did. Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, on the announcement this week that the governor would order 4.05 percent cuts from state agency budgets because of falling state revenues. q q q I believe that it is imperative that we start at the top and not start at the program and/or service level. Bismarck State College President Larry Skogen, on the schools approach to budget cuts to deal with the states revenue shortfall. q q q The people here deserve this. Were building something the town needs. I havent felt that way before, that when the dust settles, theres a real feeling of satisfaction for whats been given back to the community. Bill Blair, field manager for Construction Engineers, on the new Watford City high school his company is building. q q q Were not unused to having the federal government come in and push things down our throat. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, voicing concern that the federal government could take advantage of a proposed drilling 16,000 feet down into crystalline rock to learn whether the rock could suitably store spent nuclear fuels. q q q "In my mind, it would be more traumatic and difficult to build a fourth middle school." Christi Stonecipher, who has three kids in Bismarck's public schools, commenting during a forum last week on how Bismarck should accommodate a growing number of students. She said constructing additions would cost less and avoid the hassle of creating new attendance boundaries. q q q The party is certainly disappointed in Sarahs decision. Youre asking a lot of someone when you ask them to run for governor. Dem-NPL Party Chairwoman Kylie Oversen, after Sarah Vogel announced last week that she wouldnt run for governor. q q q We shouldnt have large spills anymore. Thats my goal. Kevin Connors, pipeline program supervisor for the Department of Mineral Resources, on how new regulations developed by the state should reduce pipeline spills. q q q "It was so exciting because we were raising money until the final hour. We are just so happy to meet the needs of the community and so appreciative. Jenna Gullo, of the Missouri Slope Areawide United Way, after the organization exceeded its 2015 campaign goal of goal of $2.6 million $2,601,888 was raised. Last spring, we traveled to Washington, D.C., to talk with our representatives about the important issue of school nutrition. We were fortunate to visit with members of our North Dakota delegation and their staff about our concerns. Our nation is in the midst of a child obesity epidemic, with nearly one-third of our children obese or overweight. Since many kids spend most of their day at school, its no surprise thats where they can consume up to 50 percent or more of their daily calories. Shouldnt that food be healthy with more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and less salt, sugar and fat? Fortunately, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee thinks so and voted unanimously to pass the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016 recently. The legislation preserves nutrition standards for school meals, which includes moving sodium reduction forward and keeping the majority of the whole grains standard intact. One hundred percent of schools in our state are already successfully meeting nutrition standards for the food they serve students daily an A+. Thats important because 8 in 10 parents in North Dakota report that their child eats a school lunch four or five days a week. We want to thank Sen. John Hoeven for listening to our concerns and leading the charge on this important bill that builds on the strong progress thats been made in the last several years, and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for leading the effort to help schools modernize their kitchen equipment to serve our kids better. We urge Rep. Kevin Cramer to follow this committees lead and support this bill that makes childrens health a priority when it comes before the House. A 185-foot-long housing unit that once provided temporary space for workers in North Dakotas oil patch is getting a fresh start as living quarters for minimum-security inmates at a transitional facility south of Bismarck. Inmates on work release were scheduled to start moving into the modular unit this week at the Missouri River Correctional Center. Leann Bertsch, director of the state Department of Corrections of Rehabilitation, said the unit being leased from Target Logistics will provide an additional 36 beds to help address a lack of capacity at Missouri River, where all 155 beds currently are full. The units single-bed rooms will offer more privacy for inmates who have to work in the morning and may find it difficult to get a good nights sleep in Missouri Rivers dormitory-style housing, she said. Each pair of rooms is connected by a shared bathroom and shower. Theyre small rooms, but theyll have their own rooms, so privacy is a big factor, she said. A smaller, adjacent unit will serve as a commons area and dayroom with a kitchenette. The state spent $60,000 to transport and put the units together and is paying Target Logistics $35 per bed per day, or $1,260 daily, for the housing unit, corrections officials said. Bertsch said the department had been considering shipping some inmates to Colorado to alleviate capacity issues. But that posed the likely and undesirable scenario of minimum security inmates landing in a medium- or maximum-security facility, she said. It also would have cost more than temporary housing at a time when most state agencies, including corrections, have been ordered to cut 4 percent from their 2015-17 budgets to help cover a $1 billion revenue shortfall. It really makes sense to avoid excess costs, she said. Gov. Jack Dalrymple proposed $30 million in his 2015-17 executive budget to replace the Missouri River Correctional Center with an expanded facility because of flood damage, mold and ongoing maintenance concerns. But state lawmakers cut the project from the budget as falling oil prices clouded the states revenue picture. With the budget situation having worsened since then, Bertsch said its highly unlikely the 2017 Legislature will fund the project, and the modular unit could become a longer-term solution. Target Logistics spokesman Randy Pruett said the 36-bed unit was part of a crew camp near Tioga that housed workers for a specific construction project, and the intent was always to move the units elsewhere when the project was completed. These things are being put to use, and were always looking for other opportunities and other ways to do that, he said. Don Redmann, director of facility operations for the corrections department, said the setup will give work-release inmates a little more normal as they prepare to transition to life on the outside. One of the goals is to get them ready to live in the community again, and this is an important first step, he said. The single-room housing also provides another management tool for corrections staff when dealing with inmates, Redmann said. It gives them an incentive to behave and earn a room, he said. (Reach Nowatzki at 701-255-5607 or by email at mnowatzki@forumcomm.com.) Comentarios y reflexiones sobre la actualidad politica y economica de Espana y del mundo The Birmingham Public Library is hosting a workshop designed to help blacks connect to their Alabama slave ancestry as part of its Black History Month activities. The Ties That Bind: Connecting to your Alabama Slave and Slaveholder Ancestors, a part of the Central Library downtown's Beyond the Basics of Genealogy series, begins at 10 a.m. on Feb. 6. A number of readily available sources from 1860 to 1870 may enable you to find and to follow your slave and slaveholder ancestors within that critical period of transition. Knowing the best way to build a bridge to that era and how to utilize and assess its records will greatly increase your chances for success in this research. Genealogy, the study of family history, is one of the most popular hobbies in the United States, said Mary Beth Newbill, head of the Southern History and Government Documents Departments at the Birmingham Public Library. "The Birmingham Public Library has one of the best genealogy collections in the country," Newbill said. "We love being able to offer classes and resources to patrons from all over the world who visit us and want to explore their family history." Beyond the Genealogy workshops are free of charge, but registration is requested. To register, contact the Southern History Department at (205) 226-3665 or askgenlocal@bham.lib.al.us. The Central Library is located in downtown Birmingham at 2100 Park Place. On Saturday, Feb. 13 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., the Birmingham African-American Genealogy Group will host its Black Heritage Expo at the Central Library. At the expo, you can experience black history displays, African dance, music, youth in genealogy, and various vendors. The expo will be in the Arrington Auditorium located on the fourth floor of the Linn-Henley building. For more information, contact Birmingham African American Genealogy Group at baagginc@gmail.com. Throughout February, nearly 70 Black History Month programs and activities are being held at many of BPL's 19 library locations. See a listing online at www.bplonline.org. For additional information about the programs and services of the Birmingham Public Library, visit our website at www.bplonline.org and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter @BPL. The mission of Birmingham Public Library is to provide the highest quality library service to our citizens for life-long learning, cultural enrichment, and enjoyment. This system, with 19 locations and serving the community for 129 years, is one of the largest library systems in the southeast. ST. MARTIN, Mississippi -- A man is in stable condition in Ocean Springs Hospital after he was struck by a vehicle as he walked along Big Ridge Road in the St. Martin community late Friday night. According to Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell, deputies responded to the scene of the accident about 10:40 p.m. Friday night in the 1400 block of Big Ridge Road. The located the victim lying in the roadway, with the vehicle which struck him -- a 2004 Cadillac Escalade -- nearby. The driver of the vehicle, 47-year-old Calvin Earl Buchanan of Lexington, Miss., told the officers he was traveling westbound when he saw the man walking down the middle of the road and was unable to avoid striking him with his SUV. Once police determined Buchanan was driving with a suspended driver's license and had no proof of insurance, he was taken into custody and transported to the Jackson County Adult Detention Center. Investigation of the accident continues, Ezell said. An element of the rule proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would not allow hunters to spot bears from an airplane, land close-by, and shoot them. Instead, the hunter would have to wait 24 hours. Photo by Alamy 1.2K shares Something very anti-American has been happening in our nation. The bonds that have traditionally held us together are popping loose here and there. To my way of thinking, not enough of us particularly those who claim social leadership have been speaking out in alarm. Id like to. Im referring to the foundational covenants of our country. Specifically, the idea of We the People, and our collective deed to parks and rivers and refuges these public-land holdings that are a cornerstone of the American experience that we all share, that we hold in trust for future generations. Let me focus on National Wildlife Refuges, because, for the first time in a long time, theyve been on the front page albeit for the wrong reasons. Who owns these 100 million acres of wildlife habitat? Thats easy. They teach it everywhere from grade school to grad school. We all do. We the people. But now, if you listen to a few outlaw cowboys in Idaho, Nevada, and other points West, theyll tell you, No. It belongs to them, whoever they are. Not you. Them. To do as they please. There shouldnt be much fuss about this matter, really. The so-called sagebrush rebellion has been an episodic and overblown phenomenon in the West for 40 years. But Ive been growing more concerned. I think we should worry when much of our news media and too much of our political leadership takes these criminals at least partly seriously. Their recent occupation of Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon was seldom characterized correctly as an act of protest against the conviction of arsonists covering up their poaching, but rather portrayed as the narrative of righteous lads with big belt buckles and fancy hats standing up, Alamo-style, to speak out against a villainous federal government. The Malheur uprising seems to have finally fizzled, and the lads with the big hats are facing some unhappy days in the courthouse. But the anti-government sentiment still simmers. And too often the We the People part of these stories is left for grade-school teachers. Right now, the battleground over your national wildlife refuges has shifted to Alaska. There, its not a matter of a dozen cowboys with sugar-plum fantasies of John Wayne in their little heads; its the state government that proposes to take your deed to these refuges and flush it down the toilet. I was fascinated, not to say dismayed, this week to read a news story about a bill moving through the state legislature in Juneau that demands the U.S. government relinquish all deed to all of the states federally owned land to Alaska. Including National Wildlife Refuges. The news story further reported that lawmakers know full well that such a land-grab would be unconstitutional. But pandering to special interests knows no bounds in some places. And Alaskas federal lawmakers are getting in on the act, too. They dont much like a recent proposed rulemaking by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, developed by managers of Alaskas refuges, to manage animals within refuge boundaries in the interests of wildlife and with concern for those who enjoy or appreciate them on our collective lands. The idea behind the proposed federal rule is not to stop hunting, but merely to curb some truly awful abuses of wildlife and to state some common-sense rules that really shouldnt provide much argument when it comes to the rights and wrongs of hunting. This rule would prohibit the killing of brown bears with bait. Good lord, no Alaska hunter worthy of the name should argue on behalf of money-hungry guides who want to set out bait so they can promise busy millionaire outsiders a quick, easy weekend kill for the trophy room. Another element of the rule would bar hunters from spotting bears from an airplane, landing close-by, and shooting them. Instead, the hunter would have to wait 24 hours. Most Alaska hunters, Ill wager, and certainly a majority of us Americans who hold deed to these refuges, dont think we need to deploy air strikes on bears. And mind you, these are behaviors in question on a national wildlife refuge? If we dont protect these creatures on a refuge from these unsporting and indeed sickening behaviors, where would we provide some safeguards? Alaskas junior U.S. Senator, Dan Sullivan, recently pushed through an amendment to a Sportsmens package in Congress to block any final action from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make this rule final a rule grounded in the idea of the common good and sportsmanship and fair use and most basic protections for wildlife. Hes not speaking for all Alaskans in pushing this action, since we know that many Alaskans oppose land-and-shoot hunting, baiting, and denning of wolves. Ill be writing more about these rules and Alaskas pandering response. But for now, I want to make the case as strongly as I can that the we in We the People are you, me, our neighbors, and our friends. The millions of us who work, pay taxes, and honor our responsibilities. We would not tolerate some band of thugs deciding to appropriate Central Park from public ownership, or Yosemite, or LAX airport. We wouldnt entertain a debate over whether the Bundys should be grazing cattle on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. And we need to stop accepting the idea that these Bundy-esque contests, these Alaska showdowns, are between people and some vague oppressor institution. Unfortunately, thats too often where we find ourselves now after 35 years of political mau-mauing about government as something apart from the we. Its not. Read the first three words of the Constitution. The refuges are ours. Its un-American to say, or think, otherwise. How government manages public resources in the public interest thats a legitimate subject for debate. In that vein, I could offer 20 good arguments for conservative management of national wildlife refuges but the most important two are (a) for the wildlife who live there and (b) for those of us who care about them. And when it comes to the specifics of management, Ill take the word of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the ravings of the Bundy folks, or the Alaska pols who too conveniently forget about our noble tradition of federal land protection as a unique element of the American experience and character. What if one of the largest problems facing the US economy isnt even being discussed by anyone? What if there is a solution, right under our noses that hasnt been thought about? We tend to think of IPOs as something that happens in waves. the 1990s and the then in the past five years or so. The challenge is, there just arent as many IPOs lately as there have been in the past. Thanks to increased regulatory and other government-created issues, startups are opting to sell to larger companies instead of going public. As a result, current, large public companies need to spend far less on R&D and can nab new companies with exciting technology, just when they start to get interesting. Best of all, they can pay lower prices than they might have to when competing with public investors. Increased regulation of Wall Street in other words has decreased the desire of companies to access public markets and as a result, Americans working at these companies have lost access to potentially 1.5 billion dollars of liquid net worth! And here is the final tragedy The acquiring company can pay for the transaction by firing people! Mark Cuban penned an eye-opening piece about this very concept and he is dead on. In it he says: As a point of reference, here is an article that says that more than half of America has a net worth of less than 25k. So by working for a company that goes public, you immediately increase your chances of having a net-worth greater than half the country. To me, that is a big deal. Replicate the wealth impact each year and we can do more for the net-worth of hard-working Americans than any government policy or tax change. Nothing else can add thousands of people a year to the roles of the Top 50pcters like a revitalized IPO market. Sometimes, it seems like the tech industry creates wealth even faster than the Federal Reserve can print money. So many people have become millionaires thanks to companies like Microsoft, Facebook and others. The challenge is these companies are effectively becoming monopolies (Scott Galloway video). Google in search, Amazon in cloud and ecommerce. Apple in devices. Facebook in social. You get the idea. Waze would have dramatically reduced the need for Google Maps and was on track to become a force in local advertising so Google purchased the company. Instagram was on target to become a Facebook light so they were acquired by Facebook. As we head into election season a record number of people especially college educated are unemployed or under-employed. One political party wants to increase Wall Street regulation which has been shown to favor the large companies who are able to cope with the regulation by hiring armies of lawyers. The other side at least some of the candidates, wants to unleash free markets in order to drive the tremendous growth weve seen in past decades. the end result could be more growth and IPOs. It will be very interesting to see which vision the country will embrace. Of course timing is everything. Today, a day after Cuban penned his piece, USA Today wrote Bye-Bye Internet bubble 2.0. In other words, it may take some time before what Mark has observed will change for the better. copyrighted Dredd Blog Dredd Blog Dredd Blog Dredd Blog Dredd Blog for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include --the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; --the nature of the copyrighted work; --the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; --and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors All original material isby. You may quote or use the material so long as there is a link back tofor every post you use. This is, among other things, to verify that notext was changed. It must remain the same, no editing. Note thathas no commercial purpose. If it so happens thatmay quote copyrighted material from other writers, it is only." (17 U.S. Code 107) UPDATED Lisa Epstein left Flint about two decades ago, but when news that the citys drinking water had been contaminated by lead started making national headlines , she knew she had to do something to help her hometown. Epstein, the principal of Richard Henry Lee Elementary School in Chicagos West Lawn area, launched an effort to collect bottled water for Flints children and families. In less than a week, Epstein, her staff, and students collected more than 1,000 cases of bottled water, with pledges from others that could boost the final tally to more than 1,500 cases. She expected people to rise to the challenge, but the outpouring of generosity from community residents whose economic circumstances are similar to those in Flint made her emotional, she said. Their willingness to make a difference in the lives of others when they themselves have challenges and struggles was among the most touching thing shed ever seen, she said. Many of them dont have the money to survive on their own, yet they are willing to give back, she said. Parents, staff, and students at other schools have also donated, she said. Epstein and Alexandra Escobar, the schools assistant principal, will make the trip to Flint and set up shop on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Childrens Dream Center, a homeless shelter in the citys north side. From there, they will hand out the water to children and families. A Detroit disaster-recovery company, Interstate Restoration, volunteered to ferry the water to Flint. The decision to help her hometown was a no-brainer. Though she last lived in the city decades ago and has no immediate family left in Flint, Epstein still feels deeply connected to the struggling town. Her father and uncle, both deceased, worked as doctors in Flint, and during their careers they delivered, or helped to deliver and care for many parents and grandparents of the children whose lives are affected by this crisis, she said. When it comes to children, my belief is that what you do for one you do for all, Epstein said. The work that I do every day is about children. So whether the child is here in Chicago or elsewhere, a child in need is a child in need. Epstein and her teachers believe that learning doesnt only take place in the classroom, and they see this as an opportunity for their students to learn about a real-life problem and take action to make a difference, she said. They will be able to see how they have impacted the lives of other children, she said. Thats really significant. It is still unclear how many of Flints children have been affected by the lead-tainted water, and there are various investigations underway to determine who bears responsibility and to figure out the ultimate impact on those affected. Epstein knows that what they are doing is a small drop in the bucket of a what is likely to be a years-long, sustained response. But, she said, every little bit helps, and she will be willing to mount another drive to ensure that Flints children continue to receive safe drinking water if donations continue to pour in. The crisis isnt going away anytime soon, Epstein said. Its going to take years to replace the pipes and for families and the community to get fresh water again. I think its the beginning, and its just a way to start helping the community. Above: Students at Richard Henry Lee Elementary School in Chicago helped collect more than 1,000 cases of bottled water for children in Flint, Mich. Courtesy of Lisa Epstein. Left: Lisa Epstein, principal of Richard Henry Lee Elementary School in Chicago, and Alexandra Escobar, the schools assistant principal, will hand out bottled water to Flint children and families. The school held a water drive to collect bottled water for Flint residents. Courtesy of Lisa Epstein. Small Biz Need to Know: The Zika Virus According to the World Health Organization, the Zika virus is now a global health emergency. The virus has turned up in the United States, and researchers are learning more each day about how the virus is spread and its potential effects on infected people and fetuses. Here's what you need to know about the Zika virus and its potential impact on your small business and employees: Travel Restrictions The Centers for Disease Control has warned that pregnant woman should avoid travel to Cape Verde, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, the Pacific Islands, and South America where transmission of the Zika virus is ongoing. While you can refrain from sending employees to these areas for work, employers can't restrict the personal travel of employees. So you can't prevent an employee's Jamaican vacation. Work Restrictions Similarly, you may not be able to prevent an employee who has already traveled to a Zika hotspot from returning to work. Because no health agencies have imposed any quarantine on people returning from Zika transmission zones, you could be opening your business up to privacy, disability, or wage and hour lawsuits by banning an employee from working. Medical Restrictions And you can't require returning employees to undergo medical examinations, either. Although there are exceptions for food service workers, the Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits employers from requiring medical examinations. OSHA Restrictions The Occupational Safety and Health Administration allows employee to refuse to work if there is an objectively "reasonable belief that there is imminent death or serious injury," and the Department of Labor has been cracking down on worker endangerment cases. So be wary of employees refusing to work or travel based on Zika concerns. OSHA also requires employers with employees who are exposed to blood or bodily fluids as a part of their job to have a specific program, protections, and training in place to protect those employees. The Zika virus could expose your small business to increased legal liability. Make sure you're prepared by talking to an experienced employment attorney today. Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Google+. Related Resources: How to Document Your Personal Injury Expenses Before Filing a Claim One of the essential elements of a personal injury claim is proving your injury and your damages. If you can't prove how much the injury cost you, you may not win your lawsuit. So how do you do that? By documenting all of your injury costs and expenses right away, maintaining careful records, and providing everything you have to a good attorney. The absolute first thing you should do after an accident or injury is to take care of yourself -- make sure you receive any required medical attention right away. Once you're safe, here's how to document your injury expenses before you file a personal injury claim: Take Your Own Notes You should begin taking notes about the incident and your injuries as soon as possible, as your memory will be the freshest right after an accident. Along with documenting exactly what happened so that you can later prove whose fault it was, you can begin to document the extent of your injuries and your costs. Your own notes will be good for two reasons. First, you can cross check your own notes against hospital bills and medical records to make sure you have complete documentation of any treatment you received. You can always request your medical history and receipts, but this way you know you received everything. Second, your personal experiences can help to demonstrate non-physical injuries. Writing about the effect of your injuries on every aspect of your life (including doctor visits, physical therapy, missed work, missed vacations, and the effect on your close personal relationships) can establish damages beyond a medical bill. Keep Everything You'll likely be given copious amounts of paperwork concerning your medical treatment and possible insurance coverage. And you may need to request certain documentation regarding lost wages and police reports. You'll want to keep everything, and as organized as possible, so that you can provide these documents to your attorney. Personal injury claims can be legally complex and you'll want an experienced injury lawyer on your side. Related Resources: Liberal Politics from the Heart of Bluegrass Country NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell has died. He was 85 years old. Mitchell was the sixth human to walk on the moon. He died Thursday night after a short illness. It was exactly one day before the 45th anniversary of the day he landed in the Moon's hilly Fra Mauro region, with crewmate Alan Shepard. Mitchell was into the paranormal, and the possibility that ESP (psychic communication) could help humans stay connected out in space. From Bill Harwood at CBS News: Famous for attempting an experiment in extra-sensory perception on his way back from the moon, Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973 "to support consciousness research and promote awareness of evolving human consciousness," the family said in a statement released by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Andrew Chaikin, author of "A Man On The Moon The Voyages Of The Apollo Astronauts," said in a recent interview with CBS News that Mitchell was "super bright" and "an intellectual." "Just a real lover of ideas," Chaikin said. "It shows in his post-NASA career because he pursued this question of consciousness and the nature of consciousness. On his flight, he had kind of a mountain-top experience where on the flight home, looking at the Earth, he felt that he was experiencing the universe as an intelligent entity, almost an organism. And that really changed him." Here are NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's remarks on his death: "On behalf of the entire NASA family, I would like to express my condolences to the family and friends of NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell. As a member of the Apollo 14 crew, Edgar is one of only 12 men to walk on the moon and he helped to change how we view our place in the universe. "Edgar spoke poetically about seeing our home planet from the moon saying: 'Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth home.' "He believed in exploration, having been drawn to NASA by President Kennedy's call to send humans to the moon. He is one of the pioneers in space exploration on whose shoulders we now stand." About the photograph above: Pussy Riot's leader, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, spoke with the Daily Beast about their new music video, which makes fun of the Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Y. Chaika. "My American friend [Dave Sitek, who produced the video song] suggested that this time we do hip-hop, the genre originally rooted in gangster culture," said NT. "So in the film we have a criminal, the biggest gangster there is in Russia: Prosecutor General Yuri Y. Chaika." [Tolokonnikova] plays a rather special version of Chaika. She wears a tight uniform, fishnet stockings, and patent pink high heels that sharpen her long legs. Over and over she sings Chaika's rules: "Be loyal to those in power, because power is a gift from God, son. I love Russia. I'm a patriot." The words come straight from Chaika's declarations after members of the Russian opposition investigated him and leveled against him allegations of massive corruption and connections with organized crime. Maryland attorney general Brian E Frosh has filed a brief appealing a decision in the case of Kerron Andrews, who was tracked by a Stingray cell-phone surveillance device. In the brief, Frosh argued that in not turning off his cellphone, Andrews had consented to warrantless government surveillance, because phones' locations can be derived by an examination of phone company records. "The government has indeed repeatedly argued that there is no [reasonable expectation of privacy] in cell phone location information, in court and out," Nathan Wessler, a staff attorney with the ACLU's speech, privacy and technology project, told Motherboard in an email. "In cases involving historical cell site location information, the government has danced around this argument, arguing that phone users give up their expectation of privacy in their location information merely by making and receiving calls." Now the state of Maryland is saying that simply having a cell phone switched on is enough to nullify that protection, something which police, prosecutors and courts have hinted at before. "Andrews was quite aware that he was bringing his own cell phone into the house. And he was quite capable of turning it off," the state wrote. "The issue is whether Andrews can claim an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in information which he was voluntarily broadcasting to third parties at all times." Maryland Attorney General: If You Don't Want To Be Tracked, Turn Off Your Phone [Joshua Kopstein/Motherboard] (Image: OpenClipartVectors, EFF) Retired Marietta Police Officer Matt Hickey thought it'd be simple to retire and take his partner, Ajax home with him. Policy said retired dogs could be bought by their handlers for $1. The wrinkle in his plan? Hickey was retiring and Ajax still had some time left to as "valuable" on community books. With the help of Marietta's mayor, and $70,000 in crowd funded donations, Ajax is going home. Via NCB4i Colombus: State Representative Andy Thompson told NBC affiliate WTAP-TV that the state is now working on an amendment to House Bill 60 to include a provision for police dogs and their handlers. The updated language would make it clear for future handlers to acquire the animal for one dollar upon leaving the force. "We do really want to address this issue, no doubt about it. These animals are unique and they have a special bond with the officers that they work with, so we want to make sure we have a common sense approach that makes it easier for villages, cities and political subdivisions to resolve this issue," says Thompson. Social media exploded this past weekend with more than $70,000 being raised via GoFundMe.com to help the pair stay together. Officer Hickey says that money will instead go to a group called Vested Interest, which helps provide bullet proof vests to K9 dogs. Tinder is for romantic love, not political. TPM reports Tinder has banned two young women using the service to court voters in early primary states. Imagine the disappointment when you find out that 22 year old woman you liked is actually a 74 year old man! Via TPM: Tinder locked the two womens' accounts after getting several complaints with men who received messages urging them to support Sanders. "Do you feel the bern?" Robyn Gedrich wrote in Tinder messages, according to Buzzfeed News. "Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks." Gedrich, a 23-year-old New Jersey resident, sent messages to 60 people per day, according to Reuters. If people sent a text message to the number she provided, they start receiving updates from the Sanders campaign and a link where they would sign up to volunteer. "Some people would ask what is this for, and I would kind of explain," she told Reuters. "Some of them would unmatch me or report me as a bot." If you've ever locked yourself out of your home and googled for a locksmith, you've seen that it's virtually impossible to reach a real local locksmith. Instead, nearly every locksmith that appears on Google Maps is a fake business that redirects to a call center sometimes offshore that dispatches a scammy, distant, barely trained locksmith who'll come and charge you 5-10 times more than you were quoted (and sometimes break your lock/door/heart). The locksmith scam combines "search engine optimization," scamming, and a pipeline of unskilled workers who come to the US mostly from Israel and get roped into serving as the frontmen for operations largely run by Israeli expats. It's not just locksmiths, either garage door repair, carpet cleaning, home security and moving are also all totally colonized by scam-artists who play Google Maps like a fiddle. The New York Times's David Segal gets into all the angles on the con: the armies of Google volunteers who seek out and destroy the fake businesses in Maps (and sometimes get fired from their unpaid jobs when they complain too bitterly about Google's indifference to the con artists), the failed attempts to criminally or civilly prosecute the cons, the con artists themselves, and the devastation of the legit locksmith industry, whose customers can no longer find them. For years, security researchers have been raising alarms about the massive scam and spam problem in Google Maps, but the situation shows no sign of improving. In a search for locksmiths in Mountain View, Calif., home to Google's headquarters, the first AdWords listing was 24hourlocksmithsanjose.net, which offered $19 service. Research into the company's domain name revealed that it is owned by Yossi Assraf of Locksmith Advertising, in Portland, Ore. Mr. Assraf also owns more than 800 other domain names, according to the website Whoisology, including 247westpalmbeach.com, 247locksmithlouisville.com, 247-locksmithcleveland.com, 247-locksmithjerseycity.com and so on. Those have all the trappings of a lead gen. And, 247 Locksmith Advertising has an F rating from the Better Business Bureau, along with a list of nearly identical complaints. "Over all the cost was $200!!" wrote one unhappy customer, who had been expecting to pay $19. "This was a complete bait and switch!" Messages left for Yossi Assraf were not returned. Recently, I sent Google the ad for 24hourlocksmithsanjose, as well as a screen shot of the fake Locksmith Force building and the names of about 20 other locksmiths that appeared to be lead gens. The company asked for a few days to look into the matter. Fake Online Locksmiths May Be Out to Pick Your Pocket, Too [David Segal/New York Times] (via Super Punch) (Image: Deviant/Toool) Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web A discussion of photography, politics, or whatever strikes my fancy. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 While same-day payments might still be a ways away, Frandsen Financial in Arden Hills, Minn., is ready. When the banking industry last year adopted a plan to allow same-day payments, Frandsen executives knew they were in trouble the bank could barely keeping up with the existing payments framework. Balancing ACH payments was a cumbersome, time-consuming process. Bank employees spent almost two hours each day manually downloading and copying large batches of files. The process was slow and "very much prone to error," said Dave Buggeln, director of information systems at the $1.5 billion-asset company. Executives decided they needed a faster, more efficient method to keep up with "where the payments industry was going," Buggeln said. So it invested in automation software. The bank chose SMA OpCon, a program produced by SMA Solutions in Kingwood, Texas. The software automatically processes ACH payments and loads files to the bank's core system. Since installing the program in October, the bank's IT department has shifted its focus away from "mundane, repeatable" tasks. Employees who once spent their days downloading and copying files now focus, instead, on monitoring ACH payments for problems. "Along with faster payments, there's a lot more risk," Buggeln said. The bank has not cut its IT staff since installing the automation software which cost the bank less than the salary of a full-time employee, according to Buggeln. The ACH project was part of a broader initiative at Frandsden to organize and automate the processes that power the bank's computer systems. Like most IT departments, Buggeln and his team are responsible for "hundreds, if not thousands" of computer scripts, written in several different languages, located on a number of different servers. Many of the commands also run on different schedules. For instance, some processes run when the Fed is closed, while others require the Fed to be open. "Running our enterprise was becoming unmanageable," Buggeln said. SMA OpCon allows the bank to monitor most of those processes on a centralized dashboard. When an error occurs, Buggeln and his staff can quickly diagnose and troubleshoot the problem. Since installing the software, Frandsen has automated a variety of tasks, including regularly scheduled SQL database commands and core systems updates. Overall, the automation projects have required bank executives to adopt a new attitude toward technology, Buggeln said. "There's a certain kind of courage" that comes along with adopting automation, he said. After doing a process manually and the same way for several years, it can be hard to switch gears. "There's an element of fear in letting go of that control," Buggeln said. "But the proof is in the pudding." Bank of Missouri knew it wasn't just battling inefficiencies with its recent IT project it was also waging a war against complacency. Two years ago, the Perryville, Mo., company's chief executive, R. David Crader, asked the information technology department for the one initiative it would like to complete. With the company's rapid growth its assets have grown by roughly 50% and branches have doubled in the last six years a way to save time and reduce errors in its business processes was at the top of the division's wish list. It embarked on a project to simplify how staff completes a variety of tasks ranging from onboarding new employees to handling certain customer requests. The $1.2 billion-asset company selected Jack Henry's jhaEnterprise Workflow to automate both internal and customer-facing multistep processes. "This is a big focus for us going forward," said Christopher Congiardo, systems analyst manager at Bank of Missouri. "A lot of time has been spent developing and analyzing how we free up our own time. What are the processes that tie us up?" Utilizing technology was just one piece of the initiative, Congiardo said. He also needed to get the bank's employees on board, since they would be the ones actually completing the various tasks he was looking to make more efficient. The bank created a focus group of various division leaders to discuss the need for the improvements and the importance of consistency. The group was dubbed The Hopper Project in honor of Grace Hopper, noted computer scientist and rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. In the 1970s Hopper called "We've always done it this way" the most dangerous phrase in language. "The buy-in was very critical," Congiardo said. "We wanted to create a culture of questioning processes and asking, 'Why are we doing things this way?' " Most employees were receptive once they understood why the changes were being made and how it would make their jobs easier, Congiardo said. Bank of Missouri has improved almost a dozen processes through its initiative so far, including automating parts of the processing of requests from customers for refunds on deposit fees. That was a particularly error-prone process, as employees were supposed to enter the branch where the account was opened in the request, but they often listed the branch where the request was made. Now staff members just enter the account number and the correct branch is automatically identified. The bank estimates that bringing automation to this process has saved it roughly 54 hours each month, equaling about $1,000 in savings a month. The bank plans to review another 10 to 15 processes this year. "When you get a new workflow, it is really just the first version and you will revisit that time and time again," Congiardo said. "Some of it is just people leveraging the [Jack Henry] product more." Park Sterling in Charlotte, N.C., has hired Donald Truslow as its next chief financial officer. The $3.1 billion-asset Park Sterling said in a press release Friday that Truslow will succeed David Gaines, who had been the company's CFO since its 2010 initial public offering. Gaines will remain with the company through March to assist with transition. Truslow, who had recently been a senior adviser to the regulatory and compliance practice of Deloitte Advisory, was the chief risk officer at Wachovia in Charlotte prior to the financial crisis. He also served as chief risk officer at M&T Bank in Buffalo, N.Y., before retiring in September 2014. The hiring reunites Truslow with James Cherry, Park Sterling's chief executive. Cherry once was a regional CEO for Wachovia and president of its Virginia operations. Park Sterling would only say that Gaines was pursuing "other interests." A call to Cherry was not immediately returned. Drown the police in paperwork if they make a street stop, and what do you get? Fewer stops and more violent crime, including a near doubling of the murder rate. At least that seems to be the case in Chicago, where violence has gone viral over the past few weeks. Plagued with allegations of excessive police shootings, the police department cut a deal last August with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to submit two full pages of information for each stop of a suspect instead of a two-sided, three-by-five-inch "contact card." The long form contains at least 50 more boxes to be checked off, including various racial categories, plus several lines each for "narratives" concerning the reason for the stop, whether the suspect was patted down, and "all the reasons that led to the search" if a search "beyond a protective pat down" was conducted. The aggregate information will be assessed by former U.S. magistrate Judge Arlander Keys, who will determine, among other things, whether the stops show "an impermissible racially disparate impact." Apparently, the police on the beat were not thrilled, submitting 79 percent fewer contact forms in January 2016 than in January 2015. Less policing means less safe neighborhoods. If an officer in a minority neighborhood racks up too many stops of minority suspected offenders, the cop might be inclined to back off to avoid allegations of discrimination. So instead, the "disparate impact" falls on crime victims, most of whom are minorities. The city racked up 52 murders, making it the "deadliest first month of the year since 2001," according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which conducted interviews with numerous officers, some of whom pointed a finger at the ACLU-brokered agreement. By way of comparison, Chicago had 28 murders in January 2015 and 20 in 2014. A couple more telling stats: there were 242 shooting incidents last month, contrasted with January 2015, when there were 119, according to the CPD news affairs officer, Jose Estrada. More than 270 people in Chicago were victims of gun violence last month, contrasted with 133 the year before. Many cities are reeling from the "Ferguson Effect," which is a pullback by police fearful of becoming the targets of orchestrated campaigns charging them with "hate," "racism," and police brutality. On August 9, 2014, Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed black robbery suspect and police assailant Michael Brown, triggering days of rioting. Witnesses whom forensics later discredited claimed that Brown had his hands up as he approached the officer. "Hands up, don't shoot" became a rallying cry for anti-police protesters even after the officer was exonerated and some of the witnesses were found to have been lying. In Chicago, protests erupted last November after a police dash-cam video surfaced that showed a police officer shooting and killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald with 17 bullets, some of them after Laquan was lying on the ground. City officials had kept the video under wraps for more than a year since the Oct. 24, 2014 incident and were forced by a judge to release it. Shortly thereafter, Officer Jason van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has been under fire since by groups seeking his resignation, and the police have been on the defensive as well. Making sure that police don't violate basic rights and treat everyone with as much care and courtesy as can be expected in difficult situations is one thing. Discouraging even basic neighborhood policing by quadrupling their paperwork, as the ACLU policy has done, is another. In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake last April gave police an order to stand down during riots over the death in police custody of Freddie Gray. Discussing the city's response in keeping protesters safe, she said, "We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well." Since then, crime has soared in Baltimore as police have been reluctant to engage. Arrests in Baltimore were down 56 percent in May 2015 compared to the year before. As the Manhattan Institute's Heather MacDonald has chronicled, America's major cities have seen a noticeable drop in police encounters and arrests and a corresponding increase in crime. Following the Ferguson protests in August 2014, police made one third fewer arrests in St. Louis County and city through November 2014. "Not surprisingly, homicides in the city surged 47% by early November and robberies in the county were up 82%," Ms. MacDonald writes. "Any cop who uses his gun now has to worry about being indicted and losing his job and family," a New York City cop told Ms. MacDonald. "Everything has the potential to be recorded. A lot of cops feel that the climate for the next couple of years is going to be nonstop protests." How much more crime will it take for protesters to start agitating for more policing, not less? It might annoy the ACLU, but it could make for safer streets. Robert Knight is a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union. The September, 2015 photo of a three-year-old Syrian child lying dead on a Turkish beach next to his mother and five-year-old brother who had all drowned, as had over 2,000 others, was a poignant picture. Everyone recognizes the need for humanitarian assistance to a reasonable degree for those trying to escape from the horrors of the brutality of the war in Syria and the barbarous Islamist terrorism. While recognizing the moral problem involved, the countries of Europe are confronted with the pragmatic problem of responding in the context of 4.6 million Middle East refugees seeking asylum and 13.5 million people needing assistance inside Syria. The numbers will grow as the civil war in Syria continues and ISIS, the Islamic State, still exists. There are three factors involved. The first is the unwelcome straightforward issue of the number of would-be migrants, genuine refugees, from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somali, and Eritrea, who can realistically be accepted by European countries and, to a lesser extent, by the United States. A second is whether those migrants, mostly Muslim, can be satisfactorily integrated into Western democratic societies. Already in 2015 more than 1 million people came to Europe by sea, and another 34,000 by land. A third problem is the fear that some of them may be Islamists or jihadists prepared to cause harm, rather than genuine refugees. By coincidence, these factors received attention on successive days, February 3 and February 4, 2016. On the first day, the President of Finland Sauli Niinisto said that migration into European by people, almost all Muslims, was a serious threat to Western values, culture, and identity. It is now clear that a considerable number of those seeking asylum are not genuine refugees fleeing war. Tougher laws are needed to prevent migrants from entering Europe simply because they are in search of a better life. The West should try to some extent to help those refugees who are in distress or who are being persecuted but not those people who are not really in need. On February 4, 2016 a conference in London attended by representatives of 60 countries was held to raise funds to assist in the humanitarian crisis and to provide jobs and schools for refugees. Held one day after peace talks in Geneva on Syria had failed and been suspended, the London Conference agreed to raise more than $10 billion, the largest amount raised in one day in response to a humanitarian crisis. The sum of $6 billion was raised for 2016, and almost $5 billion for future years. Germany is to provide $2.5 billion, the UK $1.75 billion, the European Union 2.6 billion euros, and the U.S. $925 million. This aid, however, does not resolve Europe's underlying dilemma and disagreements about admitting migrants, and their numbers, a dilemma that also faces the United States. The heated debate among the Republican presidential candidates continues on the various related issues: amnesty for illegal immigrants, temporary visas, green cards, the banning of all Muslims from entering the country, and the need to secure the U.S. border. Already, thirty governors have declared their states would not accept any of the 10,000 Syrians that President Barack Obama had suggested could enter the country, while some of the presidential candidates have suggested admitting only Christian Syrians. The debate is even more heated among the European countries, facing the largest migration crisis since World War II. Many European citizens regard immigration as the major political concern and one that for two reasons calls for strict limitation on numbers that should be admitted. One is that it is simply not feasible for European societies now encountering economic difficulties, to manage to incorporate a large influx of foreigners that would be a burden on resources. The other is the reasonable expectation that the nature of their society would be changed for the worse. That concern has a number of practical dimensions. The countries of the European Union, more concerned with their own interests than with collective EU solidarity, have difficulty in agreeing on a solution on admitting migrants. In September 2015 European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker declared that the 160,000 asylum seekers would be divided according to quotas based on country size, and economic output among the 28 countries of the EU. Germany, which has taken disproportionate numbers, was to take 17,000, and France 12,000, but the UK opted out of this quota proposal. The UK did not join the earlier plan in 2015 to relocate 40,000 migrants from Greece and Italy more evenly. Instead it built walls around the entrance of the Channel Tunnel to prevent migrants camped in Calais from entering it to get to Britain. One fear has been that refugee camps in European countries may become breeding grounds for jihadists. That has come true according to new reports about young people in the Traiskirchen migrant camp in Austria that holds 1500 individuals. Those young people have apparently become radicalized because of immigration difficulties and their unwillingness to become integrated into Austrian society. Austria, with a population of 9 million, received 90,000 asylum claims, but many of the claims were by economic, not political, migrants. The Austrian government deported 12,500, and argued that the European Union should stop giving aid to those Middle East countries that refuse to take back nationals whose asylum claims were rejected. All the European countries recognize that the influx of migrants has caused difficulties in their social, economic, and political systems. They face increasing burdens on social welfare programs. Those countries where unemployment is nearly 11 per cent have cut benefits. Politically, many of the countries have witnessed the rise of far right and nationalist political parties who call for limits on immigration, especially by those of Muslim culture and religion, who they argue are difficult to integrate into the existing system or even worse may be hostile to it as has been shown by the Islamist violence in Malmo, Sweden. Among these parties are the French National Front, the Dutch Party of Freedom, UKIP in the UK, the Italian Lega Nord, the Swedish Democrats, Pergida and Alternative for Germany in Germany, the Austrian Freedom Party, the Danish Peoples Party, the Progressive party in Norway, the Finns in Finland, the Golden Dawn in Greece, the Flemish Interest in Belgium, the PVV in the Netherlands, and Jobik and Fidesz in Hungary. They have changed the landscape in European politics. Some of these parties are virulent in their opposition to immigration and their fear of the challenge to Western values. Nevertheless, two factors are relevant. It is not racist to suggest that for practical reasons reasonable limits be put on those attempting to immigrate. Considering the millions desiring to leave not only the Middle East but also Africa, Europe faces the possibility of an enormous increase in scale and an uncontrollable pressure. That pressure becomes even more potent since the native population of Europe is aging and declining. More important is the perceived threat of Muslim migrants to Western values and the possibility of social, cultural, and religious conflicts, and especially Islamist terrorism, they may bring. The question is not one of discrimination, but of real differences: educational levels, cultural behavior, religious, and political views. The Finnish president Niinisto on February 3, 2016 asked the question, We have to ask ourselves whether we aim to protect European values and people or inflexibly stick to the letter of our international obligation with no regard for the consequences. If Western democracies are to survive the answer is obvious. The establishment leaders of both major political parties are being unseated, or at least knocked down several pegs, by anger and frustration with Washington business as usual. Voters are sick and tired of a massive and seemingly insurmountable gridlock that has raised questions as to whether Capitol Hill and the White House can ever again work together, creatively, constructively and graciously. Yet one individual with establishment experience and credentials adheres to principle, speaks straight talk and does not mince words or make idle promises, and still has a track record of working well with others on both sides of the aisle and in his home state. I refer to two-term Governor John Kasich of Ohio, who has been at the moral center of the Republican debates -- whether the audiences have appreciated it or not. Kasich cannot but catch the attention of every voter who is looking for a straight shooter. The biggest proof of his integrity and courage is that he has received some of the biggest boos as well as many major cheers. In the November debate, Kasich, who as Ohio congressman for 18 years played the chief architect role (the Associated Press phrase) on the House Budget Committee in the iconic 1990s balanced budget, received loud boos when he said that had he been president in 2008, he would have bailed out certain banks because he would not have let hard working people lose their life-savings, though he might have considered limiting to some extent what the very wealthy could have reclaimed. His overall goal, in any case, would have been to protect all depositors to every possible extent. That sounded reasonable to me, as did his ensuing statement of principle and achievement -- namely, that when it comes to such economic crisis, the best strategy is to focus on preparedness, as did Kasich himself in Ohio by not intervening between a financially hemorrhaging aluminum plant and its utility company. Kasich has also been booed for observing that it is cruel and impractical to ship out the eleven million illegal immigrants in America, but far more workable to put the law-abiding among them on the path to legalization. He has made no secret of his refusal to summarily and cruelly end Obamacare, especially if this means destroying Medicaid options for the poor, though he is determined to revamp Obamacare with reforms rather than tweaks. As at the first January debate, Kasich always speaks sensibly about the healing effects on the economy that common sense regulation, certain tax cuts, open trade that is fair to American workers, and fiscal discipline can have. He has always been a respected advocate of Pentagon reform -- namely, seeing that taxpayers get their moneys worth on items purchased by the military. He has been consistent in his stance that government subsidies should not be necessary for marketable, world-improving ideas. Such timely and practical truth telling illustrates the dependability of Kasichs promise, I actually want to be president, and I want to actually fix the country. On foreign policy, as well, Kasich, who contributed to the House Armed Services Committee, has a lot to say that is worth hearing and can win willing ears on both sides of the aisle. In the debates he has observed that in the battle against ISIS, America must find a way to build a coalition with Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds alike, and that breaking Iraq into three states may be a strategy to achieve this, and demands that Saudi Arabia step up with integrity in the Middle East. Kasich is also the only candidate in memory to have spoken about a 21st century version of Radio Free Europe, the broadcast (now, webcast) of American values once aimed at Communist lands, to counter the internet strides made by ISIS and other vile terrorist recruiters. Kasich has learned a lot of things from being an observant governor and congressman, and has done thoughtful and good things because of that experience. In the debates, his illustrations of concerns and policies are valuable and on point. On the topic of immigration, for example, he has pointed out that some of the newcomers who were minors were targeted from the start by sex traffickers. He therefore signed into law a bill increasing penalties for human trafficking and allowing victims to sue those who coerced and forced them through drugs, threats and guile. Kasich has a long and impressive history of legislating against any abuses he has found. Of all the candidates in all the debates of both parties, Kasich has been the most highly rated by the various fact-checker services, which allow him to claim credit for major roles in balancing the national budget as a congressman and for bringing a surplus to Ohios treasury -- that same Ohio, by the way, which is key to winning any national election. A September editorial in the Chicago Tribune aptly and foresightedly described Kasich as a grown-up who has spent decades proving how capable he is at working the levers of government to deliver solutions. Among Republican Party members, there are, of course and understandably, those who demand as their presidential candidate an orthodox conservative -- what they call a principled conservative -- who will toe a certain line and who will refuse to compromise, even if this means government shutdowns. But the Republican Party must recognize, for the sake of its principles, that current American demographics and attitudes are such that any candidate in any party must appeal to individuals who do not share his or her principles. A Republican in the White House is no longer assured, let alone an ideologue of the right or the left. The only prayer of the nation opening up to the possibility of a staunch conservative as chief executive is for the Republican Party to establish a track record of cooperation and accomplishment. Kasich most embodies such a path of cooperation, and can give the most effective and sincere -- and tested -- voice to it. When late night talk show host Stephen Colbert asked Kasich what values he is bringing to the Republican message that others may not be providing, he responded, without missing a beat: Just because someone thinks differently than you, doesnt mean you demonize them. I have been involved in welfare reform, in balancing the budget, in improving Ohio, and I do it because I want to work with other people. And what I try to tell my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, [is] Youre here for a short period of time, make a difference, serve the country, use your talents, give people a chance to be hopeful again, and to believe that Americas best days are ahead. Within the Republican Party and before the nation as a whole, John Kasich has demonstrated a rare courage of conviction that encompasses an even more rare courage of cooperation. I write these words from Illinois, where the deadlock between a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature has been toxic. Yet even in this seemingly hopeless situation, one Democratic state representative has shown a Kasich-like courage, which is the only way to a workable and working government. Ken Dunkin decided that compromise and restoring child-care and eldercare and disability subsidies immediately were more important than teaching the governor a lesson. Voters across the nation need to be very careful that they do not enable an Illinois scenario to go federal. Americas executive leadership must inspire elected officials with Dunkins kind of courage. Visiting The View, a daytime talk show known to be inhospitable to those who depart from certain leftist platitudes, Kasich bravely observed that if Planned Parenthood is indeed guilty of imposing abortions and selling fetus parts, Federal support should go to more worthy womens health and early childhood venues. He also managed to get in enough words edgewise to declare: I balanced the budget. I turned Ohio around. In the November debate he put it even more pithily: Ive done it twice, Ill do it thrice. The more I hear Kasich, the more I think he would live up to a campaign motto I would propose: Can Do. Has done. Will do. Kasich will find a way to do what works, and in that way to advocate best for his conservative principles. Kasich is best equipped in temperament (even in occasional testiness), ability and experience to fulfill Benjamin Franklins maxim: Well done is better than well said. Kasich also happens to speak well and to have a lot of valuable insights and strategies to share. As a 62-year-old independent voter who has, after careful deliberation, chosen Republican candidates for president, governor, congressman and senator in most (but not all) elections since I started voting, I believe that I have earned the right to a couple of observations on how the current debates reflect on the Republican Party. First, it is a shame that Kasich always has to toot his own horn (and yes, that he has to come across as boastful while doing so), but someone has to declare his -- and the other candidates -- impressive credentials. It just so happens, in my opinion, that Kasichs credentials are by far the most impressive. Secondly, Republican audiences at these debates need to realize that they are under as much scrutiny as the candidates, that their conduct and reactions can determine the choices of independents. Kasich has steadfastly refused to play the fear and Democrat-bashing cards, urging both parties to put America first. He has refused to guide his campaign with the presumption that Americans will choose defiance over experience in a future president. As he told Neil Cavuto in an after-debate interview on January 14: If you go into a town hall and you want to get people down, you can do it. ButI want people to get up, and so I dont see the anger. I saywe have problems and they can be fixed. Elliot B. Gertel is a retired rabbi living in Chicago. CNN has performed a very useful service by compiling a searchable list of the speaking engagements through which Hillary and Bill Clinton received $153 million, almost exclusively from moneyed interests with business affected by the federal government. In total, the two gave 729 speeches from February 2001 until May, receiving an average payday of $210,795 for each address. The two also reported at least $7.7 million for at least 39 speeches to big banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, collecting at least $1.8 million for at least eight speeches to big banks. While some may point out that Bill Clinton can be an amusing and engaging speaker in his lucid moments, when the jaw is not slackened, it is comparatively rare to find people who can honestly describe a speech by Hillary as more pleasant than chalk being dragged on a slate board at the wrong angle. And, as Ed Lasky points out: Hey..don't forget Bill said he had to pay the bills and Hillary sure went from dead broke to filthy rich...all by capitalizing on their service "for the people" and "the little guy"? For the serachable list, click on the CNN link. Here is a screen grab: We know that Germans love to think of themselves as tolerant and multicultural. But what if those attributes collide with reality? German parents are yanking their children from so-called "diverse" schools with large refugee populations because they fear that their kids are not getting a decent education. Breitbart: According to a detailed report in Sueddeutsche, more and more German families are switching their childs schooling because of the presence of more and more migrant children who often disrupt class and bully native Germans. The article tells the story of a typical German family (names have been changed) and a typical German father who like many is eager to prove how tolerant and multicultural he and his family are. His daughter is placed in a school with a majority of the pupils being non Germans. Yet by the end of his daughters first year in the school the father starts getting concerned the school is giving his daughter special treatment. It is not until he investigates that he realizes she is special because she is the last native German left, the others having one by one transferred to different schools. The German school system assigns places in schools by location. This method is meant to ensure that within each school district children are able to go to a school close to where they live. The problem has now arisen in neighbourhoods with high migrant populations that more and more parents are transfering their children out of assigned schools because the allocation of resources is going toward things like German language courses and integration and their children are being left out. German Federal Interior Minister Thomas Maiziere did nothing to calm these fears when back in November he said current school standards would need to be dropped to help integrate more migrants. Previously only wealthy and gifted children transfered to different schools and only 10 percent of the total pupils would even request a transfer. The trend has been growing in recent years as German school children mirror the white flight phenomenon in which native peoples move to escape the migrant fueled transformation of their historical neighbourhoods. One of the effects of the migrant crisis has been to cause rents and property prices to rise in places like Frankfurt and having much the same effect as white flight. It was a decision of head against heart, said the father in the story and also told the paper he would be fine for his daughter to go to a more mixed school but not if she was the only German there. This is only the beginning. The German people are only now waking up to the reality that the Germany they grew up in is being radically altered. They will soon be strangers in their own land, bullied by refugees the government is forcing to assimilate. Of course, not many want to assimilate: A video that came out last year shows the attitudes school age migrants often have toward their native German peers and after viewing makes parents choices to move schools seem much more reasonable. The children in the video say Germans, eat pig meat. I feel disgusted by them to be honest, and that if all the native Germans would just disappear, no one would notice. It's hard to be tolerant of those who hate you. I wrote back in May that Jeb Bush would tumble in the polls for denying his brother George W. three times, as Peter denied Jesus, with equivocations rather than firm answers either way about the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Jeb fell like a rock, exacerbated by Donald Trump calling him weak and devoid of energy. Poor Jeb has been trying to gain back interest from Republican voters in the primary horse race since to no avail: He came in sixth in the Iowa caucus, an archaic event signifying pretty much whatever the media invent. But now it's time for the storied New Hampshire primary, considered to be the legitimate kick-off of the every four-year presidential sweepstakes. And who is the centerpiece of Jeb's media campaign? Good old Brother George W. one of the most maligned presidents since Ulysses Grant and Warren Harding. Perhaps Jeb detected that Republicans and unaffiliated voters actually didn't fall for the fake criticism of the Iraq War and commander-in-chief George W. by lefty Democrat activists. The activists tried to stain the war effort but failed to achieve traction. So they organized an ex post facto character assassination campaign, apparently coordinated with British leftists, who forced a parliamentary tribunal to malign the war. Called the Chilcot Inquiry, the tribunal's purpose was transparent: crucify former prime minister Tony Blair for British support of the Iraq War. The odor of Soviet and Chinese communist regimes wafted around the Blair auto da fe like the purge trials in the 1930s, or Mao's "struggle sessions" in Red China. The purpose, like the Russian and Chinese trials, was to convict Blair of posthumous crimes in order to malign his legacy. American anti-war activists were not able to impanel an official Iraq War Inquiry, but they were not deterred in organizing media slanders to attempt to relegate George W. Bush to the dustbin of history, a term coined by Leon Trotsky to describe where irrelevant people and events go to die. Thus, the leftists wished to obscure the accomplishments of the Iraq War, once described in glowing terms of success. Remember U.S. forces tracking down Saddam Hussein; rebuilding the country's infrastructure; creating safe zones; and, most memorably, witnessing on television Iraqis of all faiths proudly displaying purple ink on their thumbs, signifying that they had voted for the first time in their lives? Instead, the reality of success was contorted, and America and George W. Bush were packaged for historical ignominy by the radical left in league with the ever compliant MSM. Jeb learned the hard way that the wall of negative noise erected by the anti-American activists and the media did not fool the people. During the first Republican debate, George W. and the Iraq War elicited applause, not jeers. Obviously, he saw the light: his TV campaign in New Hampshire features a full-screen shot of a smiling brother George, ironically restoring the official image of the man he betrayed nine months ago. Did Jeb dump some smarmy political consultant, who can only read superficial MSM tea leaves and who turned him against his brother? Maybe his replacement suggested his mother join him and W. on the campaign trail, too. Bernie Reeves, editor & publisher, columnist; founder, Raleigh Spy Conference. For those of you who are very young, or who have spent your days so glued to your cellphones that you havent noticed the trashy newspapers in supermarket checkout lanes, Bat Boy was a monster half boy and half bat and the creation of the Weekly World News. Bat Boy was supposed to have been discovered in a West Virginia cave in 1992. He was two feet tall at the time of his discovery, but he grew as most kids do. He did all sorts of interesting things, including fighting terrorism with the Army on some occasions. He had what might be described as a love-hate relationship with the U.S. government. A perceptive boy if ever there was one. The institution of the supermarket tabloid goes back as far as I can personally remember. In the 1970s, their pages were about evenly populated with fictitious monsters, UFO sightings, the wild discoveries of Soviet scientists, and assorted celebrity gossip. Stuck in line with your mom and the groceries, you couldnt help but look. Sensible people never took the pre-PhotoShop creations of these vulgar newspapers very seriously, but they have always had a certain appeal to the high school sophomore who lives on quietly in most of us. When I was young, whether a kids family actually bought the National Enquirer amounted to a kind of rough IQ test. If they not only bought it, but actually believed it, one could assume they were not exactly overachievers. If you are thinking I am going to tell you how Bill and Hillary kidnapped Bat Boy, and how he subsequently died during salacious activities on Jeffrey Epsteins orgy island, I will have to disappoint you. Bat Boy died a more humdrum, more pedestrian death. He was simply upstaged by the increasing circus-like condition of the real world. The Clintons were accessories to the crime, of course, but Bat Boys murder was committed by progressives and their culture en masse and, as usual, no indictment has ever been filed. Even at the time of Bat Boys discovery, Michael Jackson was well on the way supplanting him in the tabloid press. Fake freaks do not compete well against real ones. Bat Boys pointy ears and pointy teeth were no match for Jacksons pointy nose and hideously angular face. Simply escaping from one captor after another didnt compare with the sensationalism of Jacksons real life. When faced with a half-black, half-white celebrity pedophile wearing a single white glove, whats a half-boy, half-bat to do? The Weekly World News stopped printing physical papers in 2007, following their readers into the netherworld of cyberspace a couple of years later. Bat Boy faded away, his final resting place unknown. Bat Boys less patriotic successor is the equally bizarre but sadly less fictitious monster Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn, we all know, is half-man and half-woman. She was popularized on another well-known supermarket magazine, Vanity Fair. Jenner, then named Bruce, was also a feature of my childhood grocery memories appearing on Wheaties cereal boxes as the greatest of Americas Olympic heroes. The 66-year-old self-made hermaphrodite is still a hero to some, winning the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. The problem is not that you cannot make these things up. The problem is that you no longer have to. Pretty soon, if we dont change the cultures direction, all forms of satire from the crudest to the most refined will follow the late Bat Boy into the abyss. As people have begun to turn their cellphone cameras on themselves, the job of freak has far more applicants than available positions. Freakishness used to be something I could pick up or leave in the rack like a pack of chewing gum. Now I live in a thoroughly freakish world. Open YouTube and click the Trending button if you feel that my assessment has been unduly harsh. The shrinking list of traditional tabloids must struggle to think of anything shocking left to print. They are now overwhelmingly populated with pictures of celebrities turned fat and ugly something to make supermarket customers feel a little less bad about the eight packages of Oreos and two gallons of ice cream nestled in their carts. If you cannot entertain the public with the bizarre, a bit of schadenfreude will have to do. At the bitter end, if the trend continues, perhaps the tabloids will start showing normal people on their covers. People with any sort of lasting standards are rapidly becoming the monsters of tomorrow. For as long as Nexus has been a thing in the smartphone industry, Google has always had a partner to help them produce the handsets and push them out to the world. While there have been some changes here and there with each subsequent generation of device, much has stayed the same. Google always has a hardware partner to manufacture the devices, they are usually available at an affordable cost with the exception of a couple, and they always display the best of what Android as an operating system has to offer in its purest form. Over the last week or two it has been suggested that Google wants to take control of the Nexus program or that they want to make the Nexus line more like Apples line of iOS devices. What exactly that means if the rumors are true is anyones guess as nothing can be confirmed at this point, but some good guesses would point towards Google having complete control over the Nexus devices from the ground up, including the hardware manufactured exactly as they design it, while cutting out any brand affiliation from the company that actually builds the device. This is certainly something Google is capable of as weve seen this from the Pixel line of Chromebooks as well as the Pixel C tablet. Advertisement The question is whether or not it would be a good thing for the Nexus line, and if theyll actually dump Nexus brand partners? With Google shutting out hardware partners, it potentially leaves consumers with no option for an affordable device. While phones like the Motorola-made Nexus 6 and the Huawei Nexus 6P can be spendy, most other Nexus models have been extremely affordable, something which just cant be said for either of the three Pixel products. If Google takes control of the Nexus program completely in this way, chances are there that the finished product could be more expensive. Then again, so were two of the last three Nexus smartphones, so would that really matter? Theres also the question of whether or not its a realistic move for Google to put all the time and effort it would take into producing a Nexus device on their own short of actually building the device by putting the pieces together. As it stands now, Nexus hardware partners have some say in how the device is designed, taking some of that work off of Google. Do you think Google would dump Nexus hardware partners? [socialpoll id=2330031] Were only in the second month of the new year and BlackBerry isnt experiencing any good luck thus far. While the BlackBerry Priv was perceived as a possible company saver being their first Android-powered device, new information today points to a less positive reality for the Canadian-based company, as BlackBerry has announced they would be laying off a number of employees in the Waterloo region. These layoffs were thought to amount to around 35 percent of the employees that work at the Waterloo offices, which has a total of about 2,700 employees altogether. According to an updated statement from BlackBerry, though, approximately 200 employees have been hit with layoffs across both the Waterloo and Florida offices for the company, with about 75 employees coming from the Florida area. According to the source, the team that works on the BlackBerry 10 operating system was the hardest hit, which is odd due to the fact that BlackBerrys CEO John Chen recently focused on the companys commitment to their own operating system in a recent blog post. The true reality of it all is that the BlackBerry PRIV will be the device the company places all of their efforts in because Android will be the future operating system of use. Also, to really place the stamp on the end of BlackBerry 10 is the shutdown of the companys Built for BlackBerry certification program. From the looks of things, BlackBerry will soon get rid of BlackBerry 10 entirely while pouring the energy in Android powered devices. With the loss of three cents per share and bringing in $557 million, BlackBerry needs to continue with their turnaround. Advertisement In a statement the company released, BlackBerry has plans to continue their company turnaround while maintaining focus on different growth opportunities while bringing in more profit across the entire company. Unfortunately, as a result, a small number of employees in Canada and Florida have been impacted as they try to fix up the company. BlackBerry thanks the hard work those employees gave to the company and are grateful for their efforts. Hopefully BlackBerry can get the ball rolling again as the company makes its transition to devices running Android. The so-called Google Doodles are illustrations that not only make the Google Search website look better, but sometimes they feature fun interactions or just clicking on them provide some relevant information about specific dates. Doodle 4 Google is a contest for students K-12 so they get a chance to see their artwork featured in the Google homepage as well as a scholarship, a Google for Education grant for the students school, a trip to the Google Headquarters so they can meet the team behind the Google Doodles, a Chromebook, an Android tablet and a t-shirt with their doodle printed on it. National Finalists and State and Territory Winners will also get a few prizes. Advertisement The theme for 2015 was What makes me me, and contestants could use many resources to depict what makes them unique. Of course, the Google logo must be part of the illustration, and the doodles would be chosen based on their artistic merit, creativity and the theme communication. Starting today, February 5th and until February 22, U.S. internet voters can vote for their favorite doodle from the 53 State and Territory Winners, choosing one from each of the five grade groups. There are at least 10 different doodle options to choose from each group and the voting will narrow down the competition to determine the National Finalists, 5 total finalists will be chosen, one for each group. The National Winner will then be chosen by a panel of Google employees and the results will be published on March 28, 2016. Google has been doing this contest for eight years now, and it is available in many regions around the world throughout the year. The theme for last years contest was chosen to know more about what kids are currently passionate about, what dreams do they have and what gets them excited. The doodle will obviously be displayed as a 2D picture, but contestants might use a variety of materials and techniques from colors or crayons to digitally created illustrations, even 3D sculptures or shapes are accepted to create their artwork, but those would have to be photographed or scanned into a 2D form. Google has been testing self-driving or autonomous cars in a few States here in the US. Including California, Washington and Texas, other manufacturers namely Ford and General Motors have been testing out autonomous cars in Michigan as well. It looks like officials in London are wanting some of the self-driving trials to take place across the pond as well. According to a report coming out of The Guardian, officials have supposedly met with Google regarding bringing autonomous cars on over to the UK. Londons Deputy Mayor of Transport, Isabel Dedring, stated that self-driving cars are going to need to work in big cities, so why dont we start trialling it now? Dedring also mentioned that Google has been thinking about moving their self-driving car trials outside of the US. Which, up until this point, they have been focusing only on the US. And that she has been in active discussions with the search giant. Dedring noted that she met with Google a few weeks ago regarding the trials, and that while its still in the very early days, she would love to see the trials taking place in London. Dedring, like many of us, is still a bit skeptical of self-driving cars. While noting that they are much safer as the computer controls the distance at which driverless cars drive and their speed and that accidents would decrease. Thats something that Google has been noting quite often in regards to their self-driving cars. Advertisement As of the writing of this, Google has not confirmed nor denied whether they are looking to bring their self-driving cars on over to London and the UK. Google has been going pretty slow in regards to their autonomous cars and only recently opened it in their third city (Mountain View, CA; Kirklington, WA and Austin, TX). While Google does want to make these cars go mainstream, it might not go international just yet. While Dedrings logic is correct that these cars are going to need to do well in big cities Google does expand projects like this pretty slowly, and is expected to continue that pace. Smartwatches are literally everywhere now. It was not too long ago that it seemed to be quite a niche market, however more recently, it does seem to be a market which is finally gaining some notable traction. While in reality, adoption levels are still low, the number of manufacturers who are invested in smartwatches easily highlights how important they view the market going forward. One of the benefits of this high and multiple investment is that there is going to be a lot of smartwatches coming through in the future. As a result though, companies seem to be looking to adopt some very peculiar methods to bring to market a product which is different to the rest. This was most recently noted yesterday when a patent was spotted filed by Nikon for what was essentially, a smartwatch which emits fragrances. Today, another patent has been spotted being filed and this time by Samsung on what can only be described as an equally interesting smartwatch. The new patent filed by Samsung is for a watch which uses the wearers veins as a means of identification. Making use of the same logic behind fingerprint recognition, the watch is said to have the ability to take a picture of the wearers veins and which can then be used as a identification control image. From then on, once the wearers veins are processed again and matched against the control image, the smartwatch is unlocked. By unlocked, this refers to access to the users profile, their settings, playlists, contacts and so on. The patent highlights that the smartwatch will come with two lights and a camera on the side which will be used to capture the wearers veins. Advertisement In reality, it does seem that the identification for access element might be overkill, as a smartwatch is not really (comparatively speaking) a device which needs greater levels of security due to the constant attachment to the person. Therefore, the assumption being made about this technology is that it has more far-reaching implications for the future and could possibly be used an aspect which plays better with the IoT and other connected services. Of course, as this is only at the patent stage, it could also never materialize into anything substantial and remain just a patent filing. Either way though, those interested in finding out more about how Samsung plans to use veins as a means of identification, can check out the patent in full by heading through the source link below. Samsung are the largest Android device manufacturer in the world and have a broad portfolio of smartphones and tablets that run a variant of Googles operating system. Unfortunately, despite their large size and teams of software engineers, many Samsung customers are still waiting for Android 6.0 Marshmallow to be released for their devices. One of the reasons for the delay is that Samsung often have several variants of the one device released across many different markets, another is that these devices use Android running under a custom software interface called TouchWiz. We have seen previously leaked Samsung update schedules appearing on various websites plus a small number of customers appear to have accidently received Marshmallow before an official launch. Today we bring you the story of an update arriving for Samsungs mobile payment service, Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay is available for selected Samsung smartphone devices across certain markets as a means for customers to pay for goods and services direct from their smartphone rather than having to reach for their wallet. Samsung Pay has not been without its detractors: its currently only being made available on high end Samsung devices and whilst the business is adding more smartphones as they are released, not all new smartphones are compatible with the service. Weve also seen some security issues whereby the application will not add a new card should the host device be encrypted. Samsung have today released an updated version of the Samsung Pay application in the Google Play Store and the release notes are simple enough: this version, up to 1.6.61, will enhance the user interface and performance, plus makes the device M OS compatible. Advertisement By M OS, we are taking this to mean that Samsung Pay will be compatible with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Furthermore, Samsungs notes state that customers should update the application by the 16 February 2016 to avoid any service interruptions. This is a clue that points to Android Marshmallow could be being released in the next few days for at least one Samsung device in one market. Customers will be reminded of the update via either the Google Play Store or when using the application, as it runs a check upon launch. However, as to what device and where in the world we might be seeing Android 6.0 Marshmallow appearing, we wont know until this arrives or until Samsung let us know. According to Reuters, on Thursday, a Russian defense ministry spokesman said that Russia would in fact be reducing its troop numbers in Tajikistan as it reorganized its troops there from a division into a brigade. By phone, he told Reuters, "In plain language, its headcount will decline slightly, but its mobility and ability to react quickly to any situations will improve." Russia's detachment in Tajikistan remain its largest foreign-based force. The troops, collectively referred to as the 201st Motorized Rifle Division, are stationed in two locations in the country: Dushanbe and Qurgonteppa. Until December, a regiment was stationed in Kulob but according to Reuters it was withdrawn to Dushanbe. The Reuters story came a few days after Asia-Plus, an independent Tajik news source, ran a story noting that TASS, the Russian news agency, had reported that Russia's Central Military District said it was reorganizing its base in Tajikistan, leading to a numerical reduction but a mobility increase. The motivation behind the reversal is unknown. "The move could point to tensions between Moscow and Dushanbe," writes Reuters, but it's perhaps simpler to point to economics and local tensions. Russia's economy, battered by sanctions and low oil prices, contracted an estimated 3.8 in 2015, according to the World Bank. In Central Asia this has meant that Russia has been unable to fulfill funding promises. For example, Kyrgyzstan this month revoked an agreement with Russia, freeing Moscow of obligations to fund several hydropower projects and freeing Bishkek to find funders who can pay up. Reorganizing its military presence in Tajikistan may be nothing more than a cost-saving measure. The company a joint venture between Chromalloy of the USA and Arabian Qudra of Saudi Arabia says the workshop is part of its Middle East expansion strategy which saw it launch the company in Jeddah last year followed by the opening of a sales and customer support office in the Dubai Airport Free Zone. We are looking at beginning workshop operations and to be operating at full capacity in 2018, said Hani Shehata, CEO (pictured right) . Chromalloy Arabia already has a service centre within Saudi Aerospace Engineering Industries at King Abdulaziz International Airport, following a 17-year relationship between Chromalloy and the Saudi Arabian Airlines subsidiary. The workshop will fulfill needs from both the aerospace commercial and military and industrial sectors which Shehata says will come from a step-change towards cost-effectiveness prompted by prevailing, post oil price down turn economics, and from an increasing desire by operators for the promotion of workforce localization. Shehata said the move into the Gulf, after 15 years of servicing clients in the region from overseas, was made because of changing requirements emanating out of the area. Operating remotely on business trips to the region is no longer feasible, he said. The move towards using nationals within the workforce has now become much more imperative and we are increasingly seeing preferential procedures on this coming into place for business. By moving into the region we are providing economic benefit and jobs as well as ensuring Chromalloys efficiency, quality and order execution at the customers doorstep. Shehata says the new workshop will play a role in developing Saudi nationals through training and career progression opportunities. We are looking to operate at double the workforce localization quota of Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI), which reflects our commitment to the Saudi market, he says. Shehata says the company is remaining pragmatic about its Gulf investments. We are all bracing for a tough financial year here for sure but we see this as an opportunity. For many years Saudi and the GCC operators have been very loyal to original equipment manufacturers regardless of the cost of maintenance of plane and land turbines, but we believe cost pressure from lower oil prices may provide us with opportunities. Chromalloy is globally known for the highest yield on repairs which saves significant cost for operators, with demonstrated savings of up to US $500,000 per shop visit. From its new Dubai sales and customer support base which operates with a 10-strong team, Chromalloy Arabia is looking to expand its GCC and MENA reach to complement our support services office in Jeddah and further ease the expansion and reach across these key markets, explained Shehata, who says business from Iran is on the companys radar. From the UAE perspective we see demand from the Iranian market. Chromalloy, which is headquartered in Florida, has annual sales of US $1 billion, in innovative gas turbine engine solutions including component repair, engineering services, castings, machining, protective barrier coatings, manufacturing and supply chain management. It operates in 23 locations in 11 countries and has a workforce of over 4,000 personnel. Arabian Qudra is part of Saudi Arabias Abunayyan Holding. Le CBD, cette molecule active du cannabis a aujourdhui le vent en poupe. Et cela est en grande partie du au fait quil permet... Best Travel Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Travel category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. Best Home Improvement Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Home Improvement category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. by Vladimir Rozanskij The meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill has been eagerly desired for quite some time. Expected under John Paul II; hoped for with Benedict XVI, it has taken time to realize. Catholics and Orthodox face the same challenges of persecution and relativism. Orthodox nationalism, backed by Putin, causes some reticence. The Middle East crisis and risk of Russias isolation fosters collaboration. Moscow (AsiaNews) - The long wait is finally over: on February 12th the Third Rome reconciled with the First Rome, to save the Second, the persecuted Churches of the East. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow wanted to take advantage of Pope Francis visit to Mexico, to mark in Cuba a historic step that he has no intention of leaving to his eventual successor. Become patriarch of the Kirill (Gundjaev), who became Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church seven years ago, began preparing for this event in the 1970s. As a young monk, and then young bishop of the last phase of the Soviet era, he was catapulted into the world of political and ecclesiastical diplomacy by his mentor, the Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad who had astonished the world by being present, as the only Orthodox bishop, at the opening of Vatican Council II. He then joined the other representatives of the various patriarchates of the East, to take part in the terrific ecumenical season that saw the Russians lead the Christian world to a new level of mutual understanding, in the audacious Ostpolitik that brought together the enemies of the Cold War. That phase ended, in a sense, with Nikodims death on September 3, 1978 in the arms of Pope John Paul I, elected for only three days and who, in turn, passed away a few days later. The thirty year old Kirill became bishop that year and led the Metropolitan on that last trip, well understanding the mission which was entrusted by the mysterious divine plan: to go back to that meeting as the star of a new era for Christianity. This destiny has been fulfilled today, with the Universal Church of the East and West facing a real litmus test: the great offensive of Islamic radicalism and other forces of evil, to the extreme secularization and the loss of ' historic identity of Christianity. This demands a new beginning of the Gospel proclamation or it will result in the definitive marginalization of Christians to twenty-first century catacombs. The Patriarch of Moscow feels the full weight of this apocalyptic challenge upon himself and perceives in the unusual personality of Pope Francis a similar tension, a desire for re-establishment of the lost faith that propels the souls of those whom the Holy Spirit put in charge of the largest churches in the Christian world today. The meeting between the two leaders of the First and Third Rome was a step away from being made almost 20 years ago, at the Assembly of European Churches in Graz in 1997, when the Patriarch Alexy II had agreed to meet with Pope John Paul II in the Austrian land. The historical context was very different: the Russian Church in the nineties was still suffering from the embarrassment of having to free itself from the past of collaborating with the late Soviet regime, and feared the widespread proselytizing by Western Churches and sects on its territory. The refusal of the Polish Pope was the beginning of a new awareness of Russian Orthodoxy, that he would not be servant of the Pope who defeated communism, laying the foundations for Putin's Orthodox nationalist pride which has risen from the ashes of Yeltsin revolution. Since then, the Moscow Patriarchate has unfailingly repeated its grievances towards Catholics, guilty of proselytism and anti-uniatism, and Kirill himself became an advocate of opposition to close relations with the West, standing up as the prophet of the new Russia, the only salvation a wayward world devoid of its Christian soul. Yet when at last the parable of the young bishop and metropolitan of the Soviet school, in January 2009, ended with the conquest of the coveted patriarchal throne, it became clear that, if such a meeting between the two would take place, it could only be under Patriarch Kirill. Moreover, as Metropolitan and Foreign Minister of the Russian Church, Kirill had come to Rome in 2006 to embrace the Pope Benedict XVI, as a theologian and teacher of wisdom who had also provided the Orthodox with great arguments of opposition to contemporary relativism. It was impossible to imagine a rapprochement under Ratzinger, chiefly because Kirill did not want to appear to the disciple of a Pontiff who was so obviously his theological and political superior, while in Bergoglio providence could not have made a better choice: a non-European Pope without doctrinal pretensions, of great and open pastoral humility, just like John XXIII, the friend of Nikodim, head of an uncertain and divided Catholicism. The Patriarch of Moscow, as a friend of Cuba with the scent of Soviet Communism emanating from presidential cigars, will be well situated to appear the master of the situation, calling the Argentine Pope, in turn son of the popular religion of the land, and ally of a new universal Christian rebirth. In statements to the press issued by Metropolitan Hilarion, Kirill's heir in patriarchal diplomacy, these eschatological intentions have been unequivocally spoken: the Moscow Patriarchate wants 2016 to become the year that marks a watershed in the persecution of Christians around the world, and this is why the Russian Church - in the words of Metropolitan - has decided to put in brackets aside the motives for the rift with Catholics, who also remain intact as the division of the Uniates in Ukraine, to unite in defense of the faith in all countries. Do not forget that in June this year all the Orthodox Churches will meet in Crete, in a Council of epochal importance, in which the Russian Church will be great protagonist. The Third Rome will make sure of its favors with the first, before it settles accounts with the Second. There are also good reasons of political expediency in the face of ongoing Ukrainian conflict, in which the Moscow Patriarchate has everything to lose, and does not want to leave at the mercy of nationalist extremism. Added to this is the deep economic crisis in Russia itself, prostrate by plummeting oil prices and by Western sanctions. There is no doubt that Putin himself, in turn, having recently visited Pope Francis, is in great need of western banks to avoid being strangled by the embrace of China and economic irrelevance. Especially as the weakness in the markets is matched by the hegemonic pretension of Russia in the Middle East, which does not want to give into America or Europe, or much less hated Turkey, at any price: it is in those very lands that the Russians future is being played out. The protection of Christians in Syria and Iraq from Isis is a smoke screen and the perfect setting for the new Holy Alliance with Catholics, in turn, eager to find in the outskirts of the world the opportunity to announce the era of a new Christianity, during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. by Ieromonaco Ioann Good relations until the fifteenth century. The Council of Florence, the Union of Brest and the birth of the Catholic Churches of the Eastern rite. The anti-Christian persecution of the Soviet Union and the conflict between Catholics and Orthodox in Ukraine. The Catholic mission in Russia. Rome (AsiaNews) Below, we publish the opinion of a religious of the Russian Orthodox Church on the forthcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, who also offers our readers a historical overview of relations between Rome and Moscow. Moscow. The announcement was made: February 5, in a press conference after the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, officially announced the upcoming meeting of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' Kirill with Pope Francis. As part of his apostolic trip to Mexico (12-18 February), Pope Francis will make a detour to Cuba where he will meet Patriarch Kirill, who will be visiting the Caribbean island at the invitation of Raul Castro, first made at the beginning May. The news was in the air for some time, but in recent days the rumors had become more insistent, despite the two Churches maintaining total secrecy on the matter. Last week the Italian Vatican expert Sandro Magister had made clear reference to a possible meeting in Cuba of the two religious leaders, but soon there was an official denial on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate. Today, however, the official announcement came. The meeting is unprecedented: no head of the Russian Church has never met the Pope. The Russian Orthodox Church has had far less turbulent relations with Rome that the Mother Church of Constantinople. The Churches of the two ancient imperial capital, before and after the break in 1054, have experienced countless clashes, conflicts, excommunications. As for the "Third Rome", Moscow, things are different. After the baptism of Grand Prince of Kiev at the end of the tenth century, in ancient Rus' there ensued a virulent Byzantine anti-Latin sentiment. However, the geographical distance did not offer opportunities for conflict, and at least in the first five centuries of its history, the Russian Church had no serious clashes with Rome. Western merchants and travelers, Catholics, were well received in the medieval Russia, Russian pilgrims, as well as in Jerusalem and Constantinople, also gathered in Rome, to the tombs of the apostles. In the fifteenth century, when the Council of Florence set union with the Rome for the Orthodox as a precondition for aid to Constantinople, besieged by the Ottoman Turks, the Russian Church simultaneously severed links with Rome and Constantinople, who had accepted the Union. The representative of the Russian Church at the Council of Florence, the Greek Isidoro, whom the Patriarch of Constantinople had appointed Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus', but whose see was located in Moscow, was a staunch supporter of the Union with Rome. In 1441, on his return from the Council, he came to Moscow in procession, preceded by a large Latin cross, and during his first liturgy in the Cathedral of the Ascension of the Kremlin, he explicitly named the Pope during liturgical prayers and proclaimed aloud the decree of union. Three days later he was arrested by the Grand Prince of Moscow, condemned and deposed by the Russian clergy, and had to flee to Rome. Since then, Moscow declared its autocephaly and the Russian metropolitans were no longer appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, but chosen by the Grand Prince of Moscow. A little later, the new Russian capital declared itself the "Third Rome." Russian history then underwent the painful split of its Church, the schism of "Old Believers", followed by wars with Catholics: Polish, French, German. At the end of the sixteenth century, the Rzeczpospolita, or the state born of the confederation between the kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, prescribed the Orthodox Russian lands that had time to submit to Rome, while retaining their own rite: the so-called Union of Brest , which gave birth to the phenomenon of Uniatism. Today for almost every Orthodox or ancient Eastern Church there is an analogous "Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite", separated from the Eastern Church of origin and subject to Rome. After the Bolshevik Revolution all the churches in Russia and then the Soviet Union, were ruthlessly persecuted and were in a state of agony at the outbreak of World War II. During the German advance in the territories of Ukraine, the Ukrainian nationalists often, mostly Greek-Catholic, welcomed the occupants with joy. After the war ended in these same territories, the Soviets again took control and the Greek-catholic church was totally destroyed by the state, her faithful suffered terrible violence, places of worship were given to the Orthodox. After Stalin's death the Christians in the Soviet Union suffered fresh persecutions under Khrushchev, then the gray years of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko. Since 1988, the millennium of the baptism of the Rus', the Soviet state policy toward religion changes radically and the Churches can resume a normal existence. In the early nineties, amidst the chaos of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Greek-Catholic Ukrainians have resumed their original places of worship, taken them over by force and in some places leaving no church to the Orthodox. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church of Latin rite has set its mission in Russia with little attention to the Orthodox sensitivity: zealous priests Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians, Ukrainians preached the "conversion of Russia", often trying to make converts among the Orthodox, which only irritated the Patriarchate. At the same time in Ukraine schismatic groups proclaimed themselves independent from the canonical Orthodox Church, part of the Russian Church. Finally, in the last few years, the political disturbances in Ukraine, with the political change, the civil war and the rift within the country, have created tension not only between Russia and the West, but also among the churches, particularly among Greek-Orthodox and Catholics. This is the complex historical canvas that serves as background to the meeting in Cuba. Will the charism of Francis and Kirill be able to overcome historical offenses and the meeting become a founding moment in the history of relations between the two Churches, or will it just be a ceremonial gesture of ecclesiastical diplomacy? Greeting the Padre Pio Prayer Groups Francis says that prayer "is not a good practice for peace of heart, neither a pious way to obtain from God what we need. If it were so, it would be moved by a subtle selfishness: I pray to feel good, like taking an aspirin. No, it is not this. I pray to get this thing. That is just making a deal. Neither is it this. Prayer is something else. Prayer, is a work of spiritual mercy". " In a word, it means entrusting: entrust the Church, people, situations to the Father, so that He may care for them". Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Prayer "works miracles", it is "a key that opens Gods heart. A simple key, the heart of God is not shielded by many padlocks". Prayer was the focus of the Popes audience this morning in St Peter's Square with 60 thousand people belonging to the Padre Pio Prayer Groups, employees of the Hospice for the suffering and faithful of the Archdiocese of Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo , who came to Rome on the occasion of the translation of the body of St. Pio of Pietrelcina for the Jubilee of Mercy. "We can really say - Francis told them - that Padre Pio was a servant of mercy. He practiced 'the apostolate of listening' full time, sometimes to exhaustion. He became, through the ministry of Confession, a living embodiment of the Father's caress, that heals the wounds of sin and refreshes the heart with peace. Saint Pio was never tired of welcoming people and listening to them, spending time and emanating the scent of the Lord's forgiveness. He could do it because he was always attached to the source: continuously quenched by Jesus Crucified, and so became a channel of mercy. He carried so many people and so much suffering in his heart, combining all the love of Christ who gave himself "to the end" (Jn 13,1). He lived the great mystery of suffering offered out of love. In this way his small drop become a great river of mercy, which has irrigated many deserts in hearts and created an oasis of life in many parts of the world. I think in prayer groups, that St. Pius termed "nurseries of faith, well springs of love"; not only of the community centers to meet with friends and find some comfort ', but of divine love. And these are the prayer groups. Prayer, in fact, is a real mission, which brings the fire of love to all humanity. Padre Pio said that prayer is "a force that moves the world"; prayer is a force that moves the world. But do we believe this? But it is so, just try and see. The Pope added - "it is spreading the smile and the blessing of God on every languor and weakness" (2nd International Conference of prayer groups, May 5, 1966). "Prayer, then, is not a good practice for peace of heart, neither a pious way to obtain from God what we need. If it were so, it would be moved by a subtle selfishness: I pray to feel good, like taking an aspirin. No, it is not this. I pray to get this thing. That is just making a deal. Neither is it this. Prayer is something else. Prayer, is a work of spiritual mercy". "It is a gift of faith and love, intercession is needed as much as bread. In a word, it means entrusting: entrust the Church, people, situations to the Father, so that He may care for them. For this prayer, as Padre Pio he liked to say, is "the best weapon we have, a key that opens the heart of God." A key that opens the heart of God. It is a simple key, the heart of God is not shielded by so many padlocks. It is the greatest strength of the Church, that we must never leave, because the Church bears fruit if it's like Our Lady and the Apostles, who "persevered with one mind in prayer" (Acts 1:14) when waiting for the Holy Spirit. Otherwise there is the risk of seeking support elsewhere: on material means, money, power; then evangelism vanishes and the joy leaves and the heart grows bored. Do you want to have a joyful heart? Pray, this is the recipe". "While I thank you for your commitment, I encourage you, so that the prayer groups are the 'core of mercy': always open and active, that with the humble power of prayer providing the light of God to the world and the energy of 'love for the Church. Padre Pio, who called himself only "a poor friar who prays", wrote that prayer is "the highest apostolate that a soul can exercise in the Church of God" (Letters II, 70). Always be joyful apostles of prayer! Prayer does miracles, the apostolate of prayer works miracles! ". "In addition to the work of spiritual mercy of prayer groups, Padre Pio wanted an extraordinary work of corporal mercy: the 'Home for the Relief of Suffering', inaugurated sixty years ago. He wished not only for an excellent hospital, but a "temple of science and prayer." Indeed, "human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern "(Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus Caritas Est, 31). This is so important: treat the disease, but most of all take care of the sick. They are two different things, both important, treat the disease and take care of the sick. It may happen that while you medicate the wounds of the body, wounds of the soul fester, which are slower and often more difficult to heal. Only proximity and prayer can help heal them. Even the dying, sometimes seemingly unconscious, participate in the prayer of faith close to them, and rely on God, His mercy ","they need help to trust in the Lord. " "I am so grateful to you and to those who serve the sick with competence, love and living faith. Let us ask for the grace to recognize the presence of Christ in the infirm and those who suffer; Padre Pio as he repeated, "the sick man is Jesus." The sick person is Jesus, he is the flesh of Christ. "May all who visit your beautiful land - said Francis - and I want to go there, find the light of heaven! I thank you, and I ask you please not to forget to pray for me. " The Importance Of Walking While You Travel Next Time You Travel, Plan To Walk As Much As Possible - Here's Why Page 1 of 2 Just walk: You'll be tempted to hop a cab or even just take transit to get the most out of a city you don't have much time in, but as a recent 11-hour day in Budapest proved, you'll have a way better time if you just go where your feet will take you. We only had a day in Budapest. Its one of the worlds great cities, but we were on a 10-day, 9-country binge, and my buddy Will and I realized we werent going to see everything everywhere. We were going to get tastes, nibbles of cities. And Budapest was going to be more of a morsel than most. We were getting in on the train in the morning and taking the overnight train out. There are a lot of museums in Budapest. The House of Terror is a great one. Theres also an old fort, some great churches, a few famous goulash places and a big old market. It wouldnt have been too tough to sketch out a route and see it all in the 11 or so hours we had. And Budapest, like most big European cities, has those double-decker city tours that are often a good way to get a quick overview. We decided to go another way. We wandered. If you dont have a lot of time in a place, walking can be a counterintuitive way to spend it. Youve paid a lot of money to be there, you dont know when (or if) youll ever be back. You want to maximize, find efficiencies, get the most out of your trip. Another word for that sort of thing is sightseeing. You see the sights, you move on, you have pictures to share and can give friends and family a satisfying shorthand version of the place in question. But walking around a city, preferably with no particular agenda, gets you past sightseeing into something more like experiencing the place youre in. That day in Budapest, for instance, we walked around the main core of the old city, then stopped by a tourist booth to ask whether there were any residential neighborhoods nearby. Turns out there was one, with its own bars and cafes, just behind the parliament, with buildings that made me think the architects behind Londons and Ottawas neighborhoods were just phoning it in. On the way, we passed by what looked like an underground bar, though the sign was giving up none of its Hungarian secrets. We went down the steps, opened the door, went down even more steps, and found a fantastic place, with walls of roughly carved wood, a few old men hanging around drinking small glasses of not-quite-white-wine-coloured stuff. We asked for a couple of glasses of whatever they were having. It was a sweet Hungarian wine called Tokaji (pronounced toke-eye). The stuff is actually mentioned in the Hungarian national anthem. It was good. We ordered a pitcher. It was better. From there, after passing a statue of Colombo scratching his head looking at a basset hound (also in bronze) no idea we walked towards the parliament buildings, and down some side streets, where we came across what looked like it might be a pinball museum it was called the Flipper Muzeum but turned out to be an actual, functioning, enormous hall of pinballery. The place was pretty busy, and there were machines from every era, Happy Days to movie tie-ins of the '80s and '90s. Two well-known international law firms are reported to be in merger talks . UK-based Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Greenberg Traurig based in the US would both reap benefits from a tie-up with BLP having lower international coverage while the Americans have limited capacity in Londons financial centre. BLP has been seeking a merger partner since Lisa Mayhew succeeded Neville Eisenberg as managing partner.Global partners of DLA Piper have voted in favour of changing the firms remuneration structure. Partners from Asia-Pacific together with those in Europe, the Middle East and Africa said yes to a points-based system and an increased bonus pool. The change also means that new partners would need to build their practice before enjoying the same remuneration as longer-term partners. There is also a new mini-lockstep. The moves were approved by 94 per cent of the international LLP partners. has attracted praise from the LGBTIQ community after becoming the first corporate partner to support the MELT Festival in Brisbane.Our colleagues at the firm are enlightened thinkers, passionate citizens and wonderful collaborators, said performing arts producer and artistic director of MELT Queer Fest Adam Gardnier.This partnership is very special for both Brisbane Powerhouse and Herbert Smith Freehills.It shows how interesting corporate sponsorship can really be, with face to face connections between artists, partners, employees and clients. Australian workplaces are failing to provide older workers with opportunities to transfer their skills to younger staff, according to the new Wasted Potential survey. The survey involved the input of 1671 members of Professionals Australia, an organisation which includes engineers, managers, pharmacists, scientists, veterinarians and information technology professionals. The results found that 67.7% of professionals aged over 45 do not get the opportunity to actively mentor younger staff. The TS040 hybrid Le Mans race car and new Toyota Innova also on display. Also unveils Toyota Connect telematic services. Toyota has unveiled the new edition of Prius at the ongoing 2016 Auto Expo. The fourth-generation Prius is all-new and is the first model to be developed on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform a modular set of components designed to offer quicker, cost-efficient development of new front and rear-wheel-drive models. The Japanese carmaker claims improved handling characteristics for models to be built on this platform, thanks to a lower-mounted powertrain, resulting in a lower centre of gravity. The Prius borrows styling cues from the fuel-celled Mirai, with the front getting a more dramatic boomerang-like headlights and complex surfacing on the bumper. The blacked-out C-pillar creates a floating-roof effect, with the rear featuring tall LED tail-lights. A spoiler has been incorporated into the hatchback's glass. The longer front and rear overhangs result in an increase in overall length of the car. An updated version of the current 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine powers the new Prius, in combination with a more compact nickel-metal battery-powered electric motor. The Prius comes with three driving modes; Eco, Power, Normal, regenerative braking system, ABS, EBD and brake assist, front power seats and LED headlamps with DRLs. Speaking at the unveil, Naomi Ishii, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor outlined the carmakers ambitious plan to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent worldwide from new vehicles by 2050 as compared to 2010. "India being a crucial market for us, we believe there is more to the market beyond just the numbers. We want to address other critical issues associated with energy, environment and safety with our hybrid technology. Considering the rising oil imports, road safety and increased pollution, we believe that environment-friendly vehicles will go a long way to remedy this, Ishii added. The introduction of the Prius was significant since the theme of the 2016 Auto Expo is electric and hybrid cars. The hybrid theme will be further highlighted by the presence of the TS040 hybrid Le Mans race car. The 1,000bhp monster derives half its power from electricity, and signifies three decades of Toyotas evolution at Le Mans. Also on stand is the new Toyota Innova in a more stylish, powerful and luxurious avatar. A big step-up from the current car, as we discovered in our exclusive drive report, the new Innova will hit the Indian markets in the second half of 2016. Toyota also unveiled the Toyota Connect app at the expo. Customers can access a host of services such as 24X7 roadside assistance, online maintenance appointment booking, live check of service progress and even e-payment through the application. The service platform is supported by a dedicated call centre as well. Auto Expo 2016 Photo Gallery NHTSA With new age come new problems. If cars of a few decades ago didnt offer the same level of protection, lacking the numerous airbags, crumple zones and smart seat belts our current vehicles have, accidents these days are all about distraction. Driving has become such a drab, that most people feel its a waste of time, so they decide to try and do something else at the same time.We can imagine there were people reading the newspaper during the 80s as well, but certainly not as many as those who use their smartphones while at the wheel today. The main accident causes in the US are drunk driving and distractions, while another explanation for the large number of casualties is some peoples reluctance to wearing the seat belt.The statistics show that during the first three-quarters of 2015, an estimate of 26,000 people lost their lives in accidents on the US roads. Thats a 9.3 percent increase over the same period of the previous year, and the highest value since 2008. It was only the second time in the past decade that the number of accidents increased, the last time happening in 2012 but only by a 5.3 percent margin.While these numbers dont cover the whole year, the worrying tendency is expected to be maintained over the course of the 12 months as well, with the release of the official figures following this spring.As a result,is taking upon itself to address the situation, starting with a safety summit held in Sacramento, California, that is to be replicated in other parts of the country as well, culminating with one held right in the capital, in Washington DC.Speaking on the matter, Dr. Mark Rosekind, NHTSA Administrator said in a statement released today, Were seeing red flags across the U.S. and were not waiting for the situation to develop further. Its time to drive behavioral changes in traffic safety and that means taking on new initiatives and addressing persistent issues like drunk driving and failure to wear seat belts.Had it been any other cause than human nature, a solution could have been found more easily and addressed more quickly. But since the NHTSA will have to deal with us, its probably going to take a while until we have some clear results. Photo via Wikimedia. The average fuel economy for new vehicles sold in January reached 25.1 mpg for an increase of 0.2 mpg from December, according to the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). This increase likely reflects the month-to-month seasonal decrease in sales of pickup trucks and SUVs, according to UMTRI researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle. Fuel economy has fallen 0.7 mpg from the peak reached in August of 2014, but remains 5 mpg higher than October of 2007, when UMTRI began tracking the data. The University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index (EDI) an index that estimates the average monthly emissions of greenhouse gases generated by an individual U.S. driver decreased to 0.82 in November, a 0.01 decline from the revised value for October. The lower the value, the better. The value indicates that the average new-vehicle driver produced 18% less emissions in November than in October 2007, but 4% higher emissions than the record low reached in August of 2014. Vung Tau is a common tourist spot in Vietnam. Photo via Wikimedia/Hoangvantoanajc During the Tet holiday or Lunar New Year in Vietnam, car rental prices are expected to increase between 30% and 50%, according to a report by Tuoi Tre News. The Tet holiday occurs between Feb. 8 and Feb. 22. A common rental car, including Innova, Vios and Laceti, costs between $35.88USD and $44.86 per day during the Tet holiday. These cars generally cost about $29.15 per day, according to the report. Most visitors in Vietnam rent cars to travel to Vung Tau, Nha Trang and Da Lat, Hoang Ngoc Quang, a director of a travel transport cooperative in Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre News. Click here for the full Tuoi Tre News report. Honda fans in America will be happy about a new Odyssey Hybrid arriving this week, but no so much about the vehicle currently only being available in its home country of Japan. The new Odyssey, which hasn't been redesigned since 2013, will come with same powertrain as the Accord Hybrid, and it is the Japanese automaker's first minivan to have what it refers to as its Sport Hybrid i-MMD (Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive) system, according to Hybrid Cars. The Japanese-market Odyssey is much smaller than U.S. models, fitting up to 7-8 occupants. However, it may have a greater mileage than the older Hybrid Odyssey, the Toyota Sienna and other six-cylinder minivans in the U.S., as there's a possibility that it will be in the 30s, maybe even in the 40s. Features of the front-wheel drive minivan include a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, dual motors and a lithium-ion battery mounted under the first-row seats, Green Car Reports noted. Honda said that the drive motor is 23 percent smaller than previous versions thanks to a new winding method and other improvements. The i-MMD powertrain uses one electric motor as a generator to collect power from the gasoline engine and no transmission, Autoblog reported. Honda is making the hybrid Odyssey available in a standard and "Absolute" version, and the minivan starts at $31,235 and has a top price of $34,725, which the automaker refers to as "affordably-price." The company has yet to confirm if it would ever make the 2016 hybrid Odyssey available in the U.S. In the meantime, Americans will have to wait until the Accord Hybrid returns in an updated version in 2017 if they want a Honda vehicle with an advanced full-hybrid powertrain. 6 February 2016 11:00 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijan and Malaysia have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in fighting against corruption as a delegation led by Deputy Prosecutor General, head of Anti-Corruption Department under the Prosecutor-General Kamran Aliyev visited Kuala Lumpur. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Aliyev expressed his confidence that the agreement would play an important role in developing the bilateral cooperation in combating corruption. The memorandum will also contribute to the expansion of cooperation in exchanging experience and information and training specialists. The signing ceremony was followed by the first round of bilateral meetings between the Azerbaijani and Malaysian anti-corruption authorities chaired by Dato 'Sri Mohd Shukri Bin Abdull, Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. At the meeting, Aliyev highlighted the activities and international relations of Azerbaijans Anti-Corruption Department, and also provided an insight into what the Azerbaijani government has done to combat corruption. Aliyev was also interviewed by "MACC FM" radio of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 6 February 2016 11:30 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijani Interior Minister, colonel-general Ramil Usubov met the newly appointed Afghan Ambassador in Baku Mohammad Taghi Khalili, AzerTac state news agency reported. The Minister congratulated the Ambassador on his appointment, highlighted historical relations between the two countries. The Minister said relations of both countries have rich historical and deep roots. Mr. Usubov said thanks to political will of Presidents of Azerbaijan and Afghanistan overall relations developed even further across the last years. The Minister said last visit of President of Afghanistan would serve to further boosting cooperation between the two countries. Usubov highlighted the socio-political developments after the country gained its state independence, the enormous efforts the national leader of Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev made for construction of legal-democratic state, the socio-economic reforms conducted under his leadership, as well as the reforms in the legal-enforcement bodies to establish stability in the country. The Minister also highlighted the activity of the Ministry, as well as its bodies and structure. The Minister also provided an insight into cause and consequences of Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Mohammad Taghi Khalili, in turn, applauded cooperation between the states and nations of both countries. The Diplomat also said he eye-witnessed with the development of the country. The Ambassador said Azerbaijan should be an example to the world countries in terms of ensuring stability and security. The Ambassador also said he would try his best for further deepening the bilateral ties between the two countries. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 6 February 2016 15:00 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy and European Commission Energy Union will sign a protocol. This was decided during a meeting between Minister Natig Aliyev and director of the Energy Community Secretariat Janez Kopac, AzerTac state news agency reported. They also discussed the current level of and prospects for energy cooperation. They stressed the importance of Azerbaijan for European energy security, and also touched upon the Southern Gas Corridor. Aliyev highlighted Azerbaijan`s exporting natural gas and electrical power. On priorities in the energy sector, the Minister said our goal is to reduce the loses and achieve energy effectiveness. Kopac expressed readiness to assist in Azerbaijan in laying a legal framework in the field of energy effectiveness. --- Follow us on Twitter: @Azernews 6 February 2016 10:30 (UTC+04:00) Iranian economy minister and Japan's foreign minister hours ago on Friday evening in an official ceremony sign the Japan-Iran Investment Agreement, IRNA reported. Iran's Minister of Economy and Treasure and Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida signed the agreement which reiterates both governments' agreement to support each other's investments in the other country. Foreign Minister Kishida in the ceremony on the occasion referred to his recent visit of Iran at the top of an economic delegation in fall season, arguing: Ever since the implementation of the JCPOA a serious will to strengthen economic ties with Iran has emerged in Japan. 'That is because Iran has high economic potentials and I hope this Japan-Iran Investment Agreement will lead to ever more strengthening of bilateral ties,' he added. The Iranian economy minister, too, referred to the positive background of Tehran-Tokyo relations, arguing: There are no black points in Iran-Japan relations and the two countries' capabilities and potentials have paved the path for the smooth progress of our relations. 'We are hopeful that the termination of the anti-Iranian sanctions has provided the ideal opportunity for expansion of relations to secure both nations' interests,' he said. 'The agreement signed by the countries today can play an important role in that respect. In the past there were two agreements signed between Iran and Japan and this Japan-Iran Investment Agreement, the third between the two countries, is the first economic agreement between Iran and Japan ever since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran,' added Ali Tayyebnia. He said that all the rights of the Japanese investors in Iran will in accordance with this agreement be safeguarded by the Iranian government and even the non-commercial threats that might emerge against the foreign investors are covered in this agreement, adding that the same is true about the Iranian investors in Japan. Tayyebnia on the sidelines of the meeting in the presence of the two countries' private sector activists also focused on the perspective of Tehran-Tokyo relations in the post-sanctions era. Kishida, too, said in the ceremony that in addition to economic cooperation, nuclear safety will be among axes the two countries' future cooperation. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 6 February 2016 12:00 (UTC+04:00) The European Commission sees Iran as potential gas source for the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries. The EU spokesperson told Trend that the Energy Union Strategy identifies the Southern Gas Corridor as a key project for diversifying the EU's external sources of energy by bringing gas from Azerbaijan to the EU market. The European Commission is also endeavouring to expand the Southern Gas Corridor to access the vast gas resources of the Central Asian countries, including potentially Iran, the source said. The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijans Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage. As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. On Jan. 16, the US and the EU announced that they lifted their nuclear-related sanctions against Iran. The removal of the sanctions allows Iranian oil and gas enter the global markets. BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015 shows that Iran possesses the worlds largest proven natural gas reserves, at 34 trillion cubic meters - or 18.2 percent of the worlds total proven reserves. Despite having the worlds biggest gas reserves it only shared 5 percent of global natural gas production, at 172.6 billion cubic meters in 2014 (excluding recycled and flared gas), according to the report. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 6 February 2016 13:30 (UTC+04:00) The oil deal between French oil and gas company Total and Iran will come into force on Feb. 16, Irans Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said. Total will purchase 160,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude oil under the signed contract, Zanganeh said, Irans Mehr news agency reported Feb. 6. Before sanctions were imposed in 2012 on Iran, EU was importing about 800,000 barrels of Iranian oil and condensate. On Jan. 16, the US and the EU announced that they lifted their nuclear-related sanctions against Iran as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal) came into force. The removal of the sanctions allows Iranian oil and gas enter the global markets. Zanganeh further said that Iran and Total have reached a preliminary agreement on participation of the company in Iranian oil and gas projects. The French company has expressed readiness to participate in the development of Irans South Azadegan oil field, as well as the Iran LNG project, Zanganeh said, adding Iran will provide the needed information for the company to study the projects and submit its proposals. The Iranian minister further said that in the coming days Tehran will also sign a contract with Italian Eni to sell its crude oil. The companys representatives will visit Tehran in the near future to sign the contract, Zanganeh said, adding Eni has requested to purchase 100,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude oil. He further said that Italys Saras SpA refinery wants to buy 60,000-70,000 barrels per day of crude from Iran as well. The refinery was one of Irans crude costumers before toughening of the international sanctions against Iran in 2012. Zanganeh underlined that Irans crude oil sales to Europe will surpass 300,000 barrels per day once the aforementioned contracts come into force. Last month, Greeces biggest oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum also agreed to buy crude oil from Iran. Hellenic Petroleum was a major buyer of Iranian crude, which accounted for about 20 percent of the southeast European countrys annual crude oil imports before the sanctions were imposed in 2011.- -- Follow us on Twitter: @Azernews 6 February 2016 15:30 (UTC+04:00) Iran World Trade Center (IWTC) is going to open export centers in 44 countries, the organizations president Mohammad Reza Sabzalipur said. The target markets have been under study in the past year and now the executive measures for launching the centers are about to begin, he told Trend February 6. According to Sabzalipur, IWTC has signed MoUs with World Trade Centers in 19 countries, which concern the launch of trade centers in the countries of respective signatories. Accordingly, Iran is going to launch trade centers in Russia, Canada, France, Turkey, Qatar, Algeria, Brazil, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Malaysia, Iraq, and Afghanistan for now, after which they will also launch similar centers in Iran, he further noted. Irans global trade was hampered for over one decade under strict international sanctions. On July 16, Iran and the group 5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) announced the implementation of a comprehensive deal that would lift the sanctions. Following the announcement, Iranian banks and companies are getting free of the sanctions and finding new hopes of doing international trade. --- Follow us on Twitter: @Azernews 6 February 2016 16:57 (UTC+04:00) Iran wants to receive its oil money in euro rather than US dollar, Safar Ali Keramati, deputy head of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for crude oil marketing, said. Recovering oil debts as well as new crude sales money in euro is Tehrans priority, Keramati said, the oil ministrys SHANA news agency reported Feb. 6. The European consumers will not face any problem for euro payments, he added. Earlier Reuters quoted a source in NIOC that Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief. Iran was allowed to recover some of the funds frozen under US-led sanctions in currencies other than dollars, such as the Omani rial and UAE dhiram. The US officials estimate about $100 billion of Iranian assets were frozen abroad, around half of which Tehran could access as a result of sanctions relief. It is not clear how much of those funds are oil dues that Iran would want back in euros. Last month, NIOC's director general for international affairs told Reuters that Iran "would prefer to receive (oil money owed) in some foreign currency, which for the time being is going to be euro." Indian government sources confirmed Iran is looking to be paid in euros. --- Follow us on Twitter: @Azernews 6 February 2016 10:44 (UTC+04:00) The Kuwaiti Co-Chairman of Iran-Kuwait Friendship Association Abdurahman Al-Ewazi said relations between the two countries are impregnable considering their deep cultural and human relations, IRNA reported. In a meeting with Iran's Cultural Attache to Kuwait Reza Shahrivar, he said that bilateral ties between Tehran and Kuwait are based on mutual respect and trust. 'Culture is the best bridge to strengthen the neighboring countries' bonds which is manifested in Persian words in the local dialects of Kuwaiti people,' said al Ewazi. He also said that recent regional tensions are temporary and hoped that they will be settled by prudence. 6 February 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli Picturesque Baku led Top 10 foreign cities for weekend travel, according to the Russia tourist service Travel.ru, which determined the most popular Russian and foreign cities for a romantic weekend. The City of Winds became the best in the category of the most economical city for tourism in weekend, with the average cost of hotel accommodation of $20. Due to its location and developing infrastructure, Azerbaijan, well considering the harmony of the East and the West, is one of the most attractive countries in the region. Land of Fire reached significant promotions in tourism sector, improving the image of the country in the international arena thanks to the policy on boosting the tourism flow. Currently, Azerbaijan is able to accommodate some 2.5 million people visiting the country a year in 530 both luxury and 2-3 stars hotels. Secretary General of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association Muzaffar Agakarimov told Milli.az that now the prices in the local hotels are very affordable. The monitoring showed that the devaluation of the national currency in fact decreased the cost of a room for two people to $25-30, he noted, adding that the prices refer only to the national hotels. The prices at luxury 5-star brand hotels have changed significantly, since they are determined by the head offices. Agakarimov noted that the prices differ depending on whether it is an individual or group tour. It is a bit costly when traveling on your own, while traveling in a group allows travel companies to make discounts. Therefore, the mass tourism can lead to decrease in hotel prices, he explained. The secretary general noted favorable conditions created for both domestic and inbound tourism in the country, emphasizing that licensing has been canceled for tourism and hotels. Development of mass tourism was recently discussed at a round table on further development of tourism and hospitality industry of Azerbaijan, where Chairman of the Board of the DAIR Hotels and Restaurants Association Samir Dubendi assessed this as "very important step". Our goal is to develop mass tourism, which include the expansion and improvement of services provided to tourists. The development of mass tourism will lead to opening of new jobs, upgrade of the countrys regions in terms of tourism opportunities and mark a significant contribution to the economy, he said. The blue Caspian Sea, unique nature of Absheron, Gobustans rock paintings and mud volcanoes included in the UNESCOs Cultural Heritage List, the unique Goygol lake, considering the most impressive in the East, as well as the pearl of the architectural heritage of Azerbaijan -- Shirvanshakhs Palace, and the most majestic and the most mysterious monument of Baku -- Maiden Tower and many others are the beauties that a tourist may experience in the Land of Fire. Board Member of the Big Odessa Tourism Development Association Fazil Askerov told local media that the tourism potential of Azerbaijan is huge thanks to its geography from desert to ski tourism locating in the three-hour availability. Askerov stressed Azerbaijan attracts many tourists for its historical, religious, ethnic, eco-tourism and culinary tourism, adding that Azerbaijani cuisine is a well-established brand, at least in the post-Soviet area. The expert also proposes to adopt the experience of neighboring countries, where this field has succeeded considerably, voicing that with due attention and hard work Azerbaijan may host 5-7 million tourists by 2025. -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 3.0 ( - - ): editor [at] bahrainmirror.com As Florida lawmakers cast a skeptical eye on the gaming compact negotiated by Gov. Rick Scott and the Seminole Tribe, tribal leaders are deploying casino workers to get the Legislature to ratify the deal. Dozens of employees of the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa traveled to Tallahassee this week in a bid to convince lawmakers the benefits of the compact outweigh its downsides. Under the terms of the compact, the tribe would pay the state $3 billion over seven years in exchange for the exclusive right to offer Las Vegas-style games. Craps and Roulette would join Blackjack and Baccarat, which have been played on tribal casino floors since 2007, when former Gov. Charlie Crist signed a previous compact. The tribe is also promising to create 4,800 new jobs and preserve existing positions. If the compact is rejected by the Legislature, however, the tribe said increased gaming competition from parimutuels could threaten jobs at tribal casinos like the Hard Rock. "If this compact doesn't go through, we can't go down the street and do this someplace else," said Caroline Higginbotham, a Hard Rock dealer since 2008. "We have to actually leave the state, which we don't want to do because we're happy where we're at and we want to keep our jobs." While the Legislature has been largely supportive of job creation efforts, many of Scott's fellow Republicans are taking issue with his plan to use much of the compact's revenue to pay for his contentious $1 billion corporate tax cut package. "What could happen here, conceivably, if we pass this compact, is we would generate this revenue, but then this revenue could conceivably then immediately go out in a tax cut for, you know, C corporations," Sen. Jack Latvala (R-Clearwater) noted during a recent hearing. In addition, social conservatives are concerned about the potential for new tribal games to lead to problem gambling, thereby hurting Florida's family-friendly image. The Senate's Republican leaders plan to roll out legislation to approve the compact next week but are already downplaying expectations, warning passing the bills could prove difficult. Science Pub and Birding Adventures on Oregon Coast Published 02/05/2016 at 10:51 PM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Newport, Oregon) The central Oregon coast town of Newport hosts two engaging birding events this month, including a field trip. Then, Pacific City brings a fascinating talk to town with a Science Pub event. (Photo above: Black-faced Spoonbill by Roy W. Lowe). The nature-oriented fun starts in mid February with two events in the Newport area centering around birds. On Thursday, February 18, Roy Lowe will present "The Precipitous Loss of China's Coastal Wetlands and Impacts to Birds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway." As a result of the economic growth in China large areas of coastal wetlands are being filled and converted for development purposes. Loss of mudflat habitat is impacting migratory shorebirds and other birds that depend on these wetlands. As a member of Global Parks, Roy traveled to Hong Kong three time this past summer/fall to assist in providing training to Chinese coastal wetlands managers. Roy will discuss the current coastal wetland situation in China and his presentation will include numerous photos of Asian birds. This Yaquina Birders & Naturalists meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Public Meeting Room of Central Lincoln PUD (2129 North Coast Highway) in north Newport. Free. Call 541-265-2965. Then comes a guided field trip on February 20: Birding Field Trip through Toledo. Dawn Harris will lead this Yaquina Birders & Naturalists field trip. Toledo has many types of habitat from freshwater sloughs to shrubby woodlands. During this trip they will make stops along Olalla Slough and Toledo's historic waterfront to search for wintering waterfowl including Hooded Merganser, Wood Duck, Northern Pintail, and Green-winged Teal. You'll scan the woodlands for hawks, eagles, and a variety of sparrows. Free. Dress for variable weather and meet at 9 a.m. at the Toledo Dairy Queen parking lot along HWY 20. The field trip will last two hours. For more information call 541-961-1307. The Nestucca, Neskowin and Sand Lake Watersheds Council will be hosting a science pub on March 1 at the Pelican Pub in Pacific City. The Council will provide a few appetizers. Dinner and drinks will be available for purchase. The talk asks the question Where will our future tidal marshes be? It features Laura Brophy, who is a certified Professional Wetland Scientist with over 25 years of field experience in habitats ranging from the Pacific NW coastal forests and estuaries to tropical rainforests and high deserts. Brophy is working to ensure we will have tidal marshes into the future. Her talk will be on a project the Estuary Technical Group is conducting for the MidCoast Watersheds Council. This endeavor analyzes how sea level rise may affect tidal wetlands in estuaries along Oregon's coast - and where the tidal wetlands of the future may be. Brophy will describe early draft results of mapping these areas and how they can be used, and she will seek the audience's feedback and questions. The talk starts at 6 p.m. at the Pelican Pub, 33180 Cape Kiwanda Drive. Pacific City, Oregon. Call 503-965-2200 for more information. Oregon Coast Hotels for these events - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours More about Newport and Pacific City below, and at the Newport Virtual Tour and the Pacfic City Virtual Tour. More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted A move to reform Georgia's medical malpractice system has garnered the support of Charles R. Evans, retired president of Hospital Corporation of America, Eastern Group, and current president of International Health Services Group a social enterprise Mr. Evans founded to support health services development in underserved areas of the world. A proposal before the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee calls for repealing Georgia's medical malpractice system and replacing it with an administrative model. Under the proposed Patients' Compensation System, medical malpractice cases would be brought before an administrative panel of healthcare experts and an administrative law judge rather than the court. "During my 40 years of leading hospitals, I can say that the majority of physicians I met have been sued many under frivolous circumstances. As a result, doctors have changed their behavior to practice wasteful defensive medicine to protect themselves," wrote Mr. Evans in a recent Gwinnnett Daily Post opinion piece. Mr. Evans argues physicians would no longer need to practice defensive medicine under the PCS model. "Patients would be compensated in an amount similar to what they would receive after years in the legal system. This no-blame, administrative model would eliminate the adversarial relationship between patient and doctor and allow physicians to acknowledge their errors without fear of litigation," wrote Mr. Evans. According to a Medscape poll, the threat or malpractice influences physician decision-making. The survey of roughly 4,000 primary care physicians and specialists found physicians who had been previously named in a malpractice lawsuit were more likely to practice defensive medicine. Other states, including Florida and Tennessee, are considering similar proposals to the one in Georgia. More articles on healthcare finance: Goal of focusing 30% of Medicare dollars on value-based models within reach Financial updates from 6 hospitals, health systems 5 healthcare CFOs in the headlines The New Jersey State Health Planning Board has recommended Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare Services be allowed to purchase bankrupt Saint Michael's Medical Center in Newark, N.J., according NJ.com. Financially troubled Saint Michael's filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy last August. The state has been considering the sale of the hospital to Prime since December 2012, and Saint Michael's said the extended consideration of the transaction is the chief reason it filed for bankruptcy. Prime has agreed to buy Saint Michael's for $62 million and invest $50 million to modernize the hospital. In addition, Prime has committed to keep "substantially all" of the hospital's 1,400 employees, according to the report. With the green light from the state health planning board, the state's acting health commissioner, Cathleen D. Bennett, has 120 days to decide whether the transaction should move forward. The deal must also be approved by the attorney general and a judge. "We still have several steps ahead of us before the sale to Prime is completed but are encouraged by this latest development and hope that Commissioner Bennett will render her decision quickly," Saint Michael's President and CEO David Ricci told NJ.com. More articles on healthcare industry transactions: Prime Healthcare completes purchase of hospitals in 4 states: 5 things to know Larkin Community Hospital expands reach with $40M acquisition 26 hospital transactions and partnerships in January From a surgeon in Kentucky being charged with making a terrorist threat to Blue Cross being hit with an antitrust lawsuit, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits and settlements making headlines. 1. Federal appeals court: Hospitals can be 'rural' and 'urban' at the same time The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit struck down a federal regulation that made it difficult for hospitals to claim they were "rural" for some purposes and "urban" for others. 2. Battle over Illinois hospital tax exemptions heads back to court Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., intends to appeal a court ruling issued earlier this month that deemed part of a law that allows nonprofit hospitals to avoid paying property taxes unconstitutional. 3. Lawsuit claims Prospect Medical violated FCC medical debt collection law with robo-dialing Santa Ana, Calif.-based hospital chain Prospect Medical Group is facing a class-action lawsuit concerning its use of patient cell phone numbers in medical debt collection practices. 4. Kentucky surgeon faces terroristic threat charge A surgeon at Baptist Health Paducah (Ky.) was arrested after having a melt down during surgery. He was arrested on terroristic threatening and disorderly conduct charges. 5. Rose Radiology settles false claims allegations for $8.7M Rose Radiology Centers, Inc., in Tampa, Fla., agreed to pay the federal government $8.71 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act. 6. Workers slap Anthem with lawsuit over 401(k) fees Anthem workers filed a lawsuit claiming the Indianapolis-based health insurer loaded its 401(k) plan with high-fee mutual funds. 7. Blue Cross hit with $40M antitrust lawsuit: 8 things to know Bristow Endeavor Healthcare the operator of three medical facilities in Oklahoma, including 30-bed Bristow (Okla.) Medical Center filed a lawsuit against the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, accusing the health insurer of conspiring with rivals to steer patients away from its facilities. 8. Georgia hospital CEO arrested for prescription drug fraud Michael Gowder, DDS, CEO of 45-bed Union General Hospital in Blairsville, Ga., was one of six arrested by federal agents as part of a multi-state prescription drug sting. 9. Legionnaires' victims sue McLaren hospital amid Flint water crisis Four individuals affected by the Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Flint, Mich., filed a lawsuit against McLaren Flint hospital and six state workers, arguing the illness could be attributed to the water crisis. 10. Land of Lincoln Health faces class-action lawsuit from U of C Medicine patients Two Land of Lincoln policy holders filed a class-action lawsuit against the Chicago-based insurer, accusing the company of fraud after it failed to notify customers it dropped University of Chicago's hospital and physicians from its network for 2016. More articles on health law: Physicians sued for malpractice once are likely to get sued again AHA weighs in on implied certification theory in False Claims Act case 14 recent legislative developments affecting healthcare The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has struck down a federal regulation that made it difficult for hospitals to claim they were "rural" for some purposes and "urban" for others, according to Reuters. Medicare allows some hospitals to be simultaneously classified as "rural" and "urban." The "rural" classification allows hospitals to get lower drug pricing and the "urban" classification ensures they can attract and pay qualified staff, according to the report. However, under HHS' "reclassification rule," implemented in 2000, hospitals could not be deemed urban by the agency's Medicare Geographic Classification Review Board if they have a rural classification to reduce drug prices. In December 2014, a judge dismissed a challenge to the rule, holding it was vital to clarify ambiguous Medicare regulations. But the plaintiff in the case, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn., was issued a win on Thursday when Judge Jed Rakoff, writing for the appeals court, said HHS lacked authority to pass the regulation and that the rule conflicted with the plain meaning of the federal Medicare statute. The hospital's lawyer, Joseph Glazer, said his client is pleased with the decision. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly in Connecticut, who defended the HHS regulation, told Reuters, "The Justice Department and HHS are reviewing the decision to determine how best to proceed." More articles on health law: 9 latest healthcare industry lawsuits, settlements Battle over Illinois hospital tax exemptions heads back to court Kentucky surgeon faces terroristic threat charge To continue following the latest news and information for Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, simply enter your full postcode below Arlene Foster has slammed republican leaders, claiming they are "attempting to rewrite the history of terrorism". The First Minister made the comments after the Northern Ireland Office said it won't be handing out any new funding for investigating crimes of the past. Mrs Foster had called for extra money for legacy investigations, such as those into the army agent known as Stakeknife. But she said republicans were asking for too much focus to be placed on the role of security forces, while ignoring the actions of paramilitary gangs. She added it was unreasonable to expect the Government to fully disclose all its actions during the Troubles when "terrorists will not provide even partial disclosure about their activities". She added: "It would place a near complete focus on 10% of the deaths during the Troubles, whilst the 90% of murders carried out by various illegal terrorist gangs are virtually ignored. Such a blatant attempt to rewrite history should be obvious for anyone to see." "The demand by republicans to have full disclosure from the government is a completely unreasonable one," she said. "But it has a clear and obvious political purpose. It is simply not credible to consider that any sovereign government would hand over decisions about its national security to a third party." Meanwhile, Alex Attwood, the SDLP MLA for west Belfast, said funding for investigating crimes of the past in Northern Ireland should be "non-negotiable". He also fears the truth for victims of the Troubles is slipping away as the Government and paramilitary groups are resisting telling the whole story. "The London government must guarantee the funds, not only for the Stakeknife investigation, but also for inquests and other legacy needs," he said. "Stakeknife is about an army/MI5 agent in the IRA, multiple killings and counter-insurgency. This makes London's obligations even more self-evident." The Stakeknife inquiry is expected to cost up to 35m. It centres around an army double agent placed at the heart of the Provisional IRA who is believed to have executed up to 24 people. West Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci has strongly denied being the man behind the codename. A former US Congressman has said the British Government effectively buckled after the IRA bombing of Canary Wharf, freeing the way for republicans to take their place at the negotiating table. The revelation by Bruce Morrison comes in a new documentary to be shown on BBC One on Monday. In The Docklands Bomb: Executing Peace, the authorities also tell of the "very, very good teamwork" that led to the capture of the bombers, who were also part of a notorious Provo sniper unit in south Armagh. Two people - Inam Bashir and John Jeffries - were killed and 250 injured on February 9, 1996 when the IRA exploded the massive lorry bomb in London's Docklands. It spectacularly ended the ceasefire, but Mr Morrison said it also sparked the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement. He said: "The great irony to me was that Canary Wharf got republicans to the table... the actions (of the British) said: 'Yes, you can bomb your way to the conference table'. "That's really what Canary Wharf was. It was a moment of truth; it was the moment that sent the message peace and war are both options, and neither one is a given." And John Grieve, who led the Metropolitan Police investigation, said the successful prosecution of the bombers was down to a collaborative effort between his force, RUC, MI5, Royal Navy and RAF. Mr Grieve detailed tracing the terrorists' tracks back to River Road in London where the bomb was primed, a truck stop in Carlisle and the ferry. Officers obtained three thumbprints from the locations, but these did not match any in police records. Retired RUC detective Alan Mains, who led the local effort to find the bombers, revealed that as soon as news broke he "instinctively knew" it had a south Armagh link. The RUC was also hunting for a sniper who had killed six soldiers, including Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick (23), the last soldier to be killed by the IRA. In 1997 it had a breakthrough. The programme reveals the security forces had loosened the nuts on a sheep trailer the sniper hid in, which came off the road and was unable to transport the IRA team across the border. When the terrorists returned to retrieve it the next morning, they were arrested. One of the men - James McArdle - had a thumbprint matching one found by the Met, and was charged with the bombing. Mr Mains added that catching McArdle was "in the policing world, like winning the Lottery". Mr Grieve said: "It was very, very good teamwork, and it includes the RUC, MI5, the intelligence people, it includes the British Army, not to mention elements of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. This was the United Kingdom anti-terrorism plc." However, despite McArdle, along with the remaining three - Martin Mines, Michael Caraher and Bernard McGinn - each receiving long sentences over the sniper shootings, and McGinn also for the bomb, they served between just 16 months and two years before being released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The programme also explores the political context and reveals that even as US President Bill Clinton made his historic visit to Belfast in 1995 to encourage the peace process, the IRA was planning to devastate London. Also, Sinn Fein was frustrated that decommissioning had been added as a precondition for talks. The Docklands Bomb: Executing Peace will be shown on BBC One Northern Ireland, Monday, February 8, at 9pm New rules will enable people to hail private taxis in Belfast, but only at certain times and within a two-mile radius of the city centre New rules that allow people to hail any Belfast taxi after midnight at weekends will lead to a free-for-all, it has been claimed. Concerns have also been raised over safety after the Department of the Environment (DoE) said taxis could be flagged down on the streets of the city between midnight on Friday and Saturday nights and 6am the following mornings. The regulations, which come into effect in June, represent a change in the long-standing policy in Northern Ireland where only so-called 'black cabs' can be hailed, and all private hire taxis must be pre-booked. Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said he was "modernising and improving" taxi laws by making the change, which will apply within a two-mile radius of the city centre. "In effect, these changes will mean that people will get a much better taxi service," he added. But black taxi driver Kieran Reilly said his colleagues are "very angry" about the "ridiculous" changes. "They're turning Belfast into a free-for-all with this new rule; it will be open season in the city centre," he said. "And, in certain areas, Belfast will be like a great big car park on Friday and Saturday nights. "This change was made because of safety concerns but it will be a magnet for any Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to come into town and pretend to be a taxi." Mr Reilly feared the new rules could also breed discrimination. "If you go to a taxi rank it's on a first come first served basis. But under the new rules, drivers don't have to do that; they can pick and choose their jobs for bigger fares. "There's also going to be a problem with local taxis heading into the city centre for the so-called rich pickings and leaving the public in the outer areas with no taxis." Mr Reilly added: "We have nothing against private taxi drivers, but a fair system must be in place." A private hire cab driver, who asked not to be named, said Belfast was "finally moving with the times". "The public want taxis on demand so this is a good thing from their point of view," he said. Kieran Harte, general manager for Uber Belfast, which enables customers to book a taxi using a mobile app, said the company was "currently assessing the impact" on its business. "Fundamentally, we do not believe that this new regulation will help to address the need for a more reliable means of transport," he said. "It will raise prices for consumers through a lack of competition and make it harder for new technology to thrive in Belfast." Belfast High Sheriff Jim Rodgers said he was concerned about the safety of individuals, particularly women. "Intoxicated individuals don't look for the plates which legitimate taxis should have," he said. "I'd be worried that a young woman on her own would get into a vehicle and then discover that it's not a taxi at all and come to a bad end. "I'm not sure if this is the right road to go down. On Friday and Saturday nights it's absolute bedlam, particularly around the Odyssey, and I also worry that the city centre could become a car park." Alliance Party MLA Anna Lo said the move was long overdue, but added that the two-mile Belfast zone "could be confusing". "In any big cities where taxis are an essential means of transport, people take it for granted they can hail them anywhere without having to book in advance or walk to a taxi rank," Ms Lo said. The property in Dill Avenue in Lurgan which was targeted yesterday The property in Dill Avenue in Lurgan which was targeted yesterday Two children and a teenage boy have escaped injury after a volley of shots were fired at a house. The sinister attack took place at a home on Dill Avenue in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in the early hours of yesterday morning. Five people - including the two children and teenager - were in the property when the shots were fired. Detectives believe that the attack took place between 2am and 6am on Friday. They confirmed none of the five were hurt. However, damage was caused to a window and door, with bullet holes visible in the glass in a downstairs room. Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon deputy mayor Catherine Seeley led the condemnation, saying there could be no justification for it. The Sinn Fein councillor and Upper Bann Assembly candidate also urged anyone with information about the attack to speak to the police. "Whatever the motivation behind this incident, there is no justification for taking guns onto our streets," she said. "I condemn this outright." Ms Seeley said those responsible for the shooting could have killed. "This no doubt echoes the voice of the local community. Those responsible have endangered life in a built-up residential area," she said. "I would call on anyone with any information or who saw anything suspicious to bring it to the PSNI. Those behind this attack need to be taken off our streets." Detectives are probing the incident and have appealed for anyone with information to contact them on 101. Theo Paphitis with the models at the Boux Avenue grand launch in Belfast There was a touch of lace-led sultry and seductive glamour in Belfast yesterday with the official unveiling of the latest lingerie brand to land in Northern Ireland. Former Dragons Den star Theo Paphitis officially unveiled his first branch of bra and lingerie business Boux Avenue - flanked by a host of models, and current Miss Northern Ireland Leanne McDowell. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph inside the glam and glossy, mid-priced boutique, the 56-year-old mogul said he was confident that the "affordable" classy range would blossom in the city. "It's very affordable. The whole point of Boux is to give the unaffordable, affordability," he said. "You don't have to go into a store that looks like a village rag and bone sale, you can give quality. It's all about service, and making the person that buys the product feel special." Boux Avenue sells a range of lingerie, nightwear and swimwear - with some items going for less than a tenner. But it's got its work cut out as it will be competing with some of the world's top brands at its new Victoria Square home. That includes US fashion giant Calvin Klein's own specialist underwear store, while a host of other top names are also sold at department store House of Fraser. And aside from his foray into the frilly and fancy, he also revealed he'll be returning to TV screens in a new business series. "I still do The One Show and that's good fun. I've got a couple of other projects on the go which aren't announced at the moment, so I'm going back into (regular) television," he said. "I did (Dragons Den) for eight years; when you do something for eight years, you need to move on." Theo also blasted Belfast's "high business rates", after claiming they are a "barrier" to doing business here. "It's the 28th Boux store (in the UK). It's taken us an age to get here. It's taken a lot of time to get the right site, and when we did, it took us a long time to get through the deal," he said. "Belfast is quite tight, and there are very few retail opportunities. You have got incredibly expensive business rates, some of the highest in the country, which makes it very difficult to be economically viable." Despite the difficulties getting started, Theo has not been entirely put off, and says he'll bring other brands here. "For us, the hardest thing of all was dipping our toe in. We are here now. It's been tough, but we got here because we believe in Belfast." But despite many in the business community already setting out their stall in favour of the UK remaining part of the EU, Mr Paphitis says his decision is "on a knife-edge". Police have to trawl through nearly 10 million intelligence records to disclose documents for a legal action over the SAS killings of eight IRA men, the High Court heard. The extent of the task was revealed as a judge warned unacceptable further delay in providing sensitive material on the Loughgall ambush could leave the force with no answer to the lawsuit. The father of one of those shot dead nearly 30 years ago had been seeking to have the PSNI's defence to his action dismissed at this stage for failing to hand over the requested material. Although Master Bell refused to make a strike out order, he cautioned that such an outcome may yet happen if satisfactory progress is not made. He said: "While neither of the parties wish, for different reasons, to see that remedy being granted, it is the ultimate sanction in the event that there is continuing delay in making proper discovery once it reaches the point which the court concludes is unacceptable." Proceedings were first issued against the Ministry of Defence over the ambush which inflicted the greatest loss of life on the IRA during the conflict. Undercover soldiers killed eight members of the Provisionals' East Tyrone unit in May 1987 as they approached Loughgall RUC station in Co Armagh with a bomb in a hijacked digger. The IRA men shot were Jim Lynagh, Padraig McKearney, Gerard O'Callaghan, Tony Gormley, Eugene Kelly, Patrick Kelly, Seamus Donnelly and Declan Arthurs. A civilian, Anthony Hughes, was also killed, and his brother badly wounded, when they were caught up in the gunfire. Lawyers representing the families of some of the IRA men who died claim the killings were unlawful. With the RUC's Mobile Support Unit also believed to have played a role in the operation, the PSNI was joined to the action in 2014 as the force's successor. Proceedings brought in the name of Declan Arthurs' father, Patrick, sought to have the police defence dismissed due to the delay in producing documents for the damages claim. The PSNI provided a list of non-sensitive material to the plaintiff in October last year. It said the delay in disclosing sensitive files was because of difficulties in going through the volume of information to decide what was relevant. Issues with servicing forthcoming coroners' inquests in the so-called legacy cases, and the number of available staff, were also cited. Lawyers for Mr Arthurs argued that the Article 2 obligation within European Human Rights law for the State to act with diligence and promptness had been breached. But the PSNI stressed the scale of the task involved. In an affidavit setting out the difficulties in fulfilling its discovery obligations, Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr stated searches will be required of electronic, microfiche and hard copy material in stores holding more than 9.5 million intelligence records. That exercise must also be conducted in line with the force's statutory obligation to protect life and prevent crime, the court heard. Master Bell declined to throw out the police defence or to declare he will strike it out unless disclosure obligations are fulfilled within a specified time period. Recognising the PSNI is experiencing "significant difficulties" in complying with the legacy inquests and related civil proceedings, he added: "The task is extensive and must be carefully managed so as to balance the rights of all involved. However, the second defendant must recognise that the remedy that lies in the hands of the court hearing these civil proceedings, namely the striking out of its defence and marking judgment in favour of the plaintiff, is a remedy which is not available to a coroner's court." A Co Down student said she is gutted after thieves broke into her new car and stole a laptop containing months of irreplaceable university work. Victoria Alexander, from Holywood, has made a desperate plea to have the stolen laptop returned to her as well as expensive equipment that was taken with it. The 22-year-old, who studies interior design at the University of Ulster, was staying at a friend's house in the Stranmillis area of south Belfast on Wednesday night. Her car was broken into some time between 11.30pm that night and 4.30pm the following day. The second year student believes that 'professional' thieves snatched the items, which included a 2015 MacBook Pro, its Cath Kidston case, an expensive bag, a laser measuring tool and specialised pens and a measuring tape. The laptop contains months of irreplaceable work and as the student prepares to apply for her work placement, the missing work may hamper her chances of landing her dream job in Abu Dhabi. "I only bought the laptop at the start of the year and the majority of work I have done since then is on the laptop. This has set me back so much," she said. "I'm 100% sure I locked the car, because I'm really OCD about things like that. However, when she returned home and opened the boot she discovered the laptop was missing. "I just stared into the boot for 15 minutes because I thought 'where is my bag'," she said. "I didn't know what to do when I realised it was gone. I am gutted. I can't believe it has happened." The stolen items have an estimated cost of 1,400. Victoria explained the importance of the stolen university work and how it contributes towards her placement abroad. If it is not returned, Victoria will have to start her work from the beginning, which will set her back months. "It contains hours of work and I need to apply for placements very soon," she said. Victoria is urging anyone who may come across it for sale to contact her. "If anyone sees it up for sale please let me know. It's more so for the amount of university work that I have on it which is simply irreplaceable." Victoria has offered a reward for the return of the items. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made a rare appearance on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy after launching an attack against the Government for its "insulting" response to a UN working group report on his detention. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond branded the working group's findings on the "arbitrary detention" of Mr Assange as "frankly ridiculous" and said the Australian was "hiding from justice". He spoke out after the UN panel had ruled Mr Assange was being "arbitrarily detained" in the embassy in London - and called for him to be paid compensation. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the Swedish and British authorities should end Mr Assange's "deprivation of liberty" and respect his physical integrity and freedom of movement. Mr Assange spoke via Skype to a press conference in London, saying the UN report had brought a smile to his face, and insisting his detention had now been formally ruled as unlawful. He said comments by Mr Hammond were "beneath" the minister's stature and insulting to the UN. He later spoke to a crowd of his supporters from the embassy's balcony, holding up a copy of the UN report and saying he had won a "sweet victory" which the UK and Swedish authorities could not deny. "What right do the governments of the US, UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years," he said to cheers from a small crowd of supporters. He said he had become "tough" through what had happened to him over the past few years, but spoke of his children, saying they had nothing to do with the case. "It is time they had their father back. That will happen, one way or another." He is wanted for questioning in Sweden over a sex allegation, which he has always denied. He believes he will be taken to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he is extradited. He told the news conference that the UN Working Group's decision was legally binding, insisting there was no higher authority on whether detentions were lawful. "It is insulting for the UN to call the decision ridiculous. Those comments were beneath the stature of a foreign minister." Mr Assange said Sweden and the UK had opportunities in the past few weeks to appeal against the decision but had not taken any action, so the matter was now a "settled law". Mr Assange said: "It is the end of the road for legal arguments by the UK and Sweden. Those arguments lost and the time for an appeal is over. "It is now the task of the states of the UK and Sweden to implement the verdict. They cannot pretend to look tough." He finished his comments by saying he missed his family, adding: "We have a really strong victory that has brought a smile to my face and I hope many others as well." Melinda Taylor, part of Mr Assange's legal team, said the UN report made clear that the WikiLeaks founder was neither a fugitive from justice, nor could he just walk out of the embassy. She called it a "damning indictment" of the way Mr Assange has been treated and showed his willingness to co-operate with the Swedish investigation. Baltasar Garzon, another member of the legal team, told the news conference: "It is imperative they (UK and Sweden) respect the decision", adding that it was "mandatory to comply". But Mr Hammond said: "I reject the decision of this Working Group. It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers. "Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy. "He can come out any time he chooses ... But he will have to face justice in Sweden if he chooses to do so. "This is, frankly, a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it." Two British students have broken the record for the youngest pair to row across an ocean. Jack Galsworthy, from Truro in Cornwall, and Freddie Wright, from Stroud in Gloucestershire, took 47 days, 14 hours and 46 minutes to complete the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, rowing their names into the record books in the process. The 21-year-olds, racing as team Atlantic Castaways, set off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 20, arriving into English Harbour in Antigua - a distance of some 3,000 miles - in the early hours of Saturday (GMT). Skipper Wright said: "We've had such an amazing time. We're proud of the record, but it wasn't what we set out to do - it's really just a bonus on top of what has been an awesome experience. "We would definitely do this again." Atlantic Castaways took on the arduous challenge - dubbed the world's toughest rowing race - to raise money for the Brain Research Trust. They had raised around 40,000 by the time of their arrival in the Caribbean. The team rowed in shifts of two hours on and two hours off, battling tropical storms, 40ft waves, sleep deprivation, seasickness and excruciating body sores. As well as the harsh conditions, the 2015/16 fleet of 26 teams also faced the first tropical storm to form on the crossing in January since 1978. Wright is currently reading mechanical engineering at Bristol University, while Galsworthy is an aspiring medic studying bio-medical sciences at University College London. The team came in ten days after overall winners, the foursome Ocean Reunion, who set a new race record. They were followed three days later by Row Like A Girl, who became the fastest women's team to complete the challenge. Under the new rules, 'taxpayers won't be made to foot the bill for political campaigning and political lobbying' A Government crackdown on charities using taxpayers' money to lobby ministers has been branded "draconian" and led to claims it was an attempt to gag organisations raising concerns about policies. A clause inserted into new and renewed grant agreements is aimed at making sure that taxpayers' money is spent on improving people's lives and good causes, rather than lobbying for new regulation or increased funding, the Cabinet Office said. The Government insisted the clause will not prevent charities and other organisations in receipt of Government grants from using privately-raised funds for lobbying campaigns. Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock said: "Taxpayers' money must be spent on improving people's lives and spreading opportunities, not wasted on the farce of Government lobbying Government. "The public sector never lobbies for lower taxes and less state spending, and it's a zero sum game if Peter is robbed to pay Paul. "These common sense rules will protect freedom of speech - but taxpayers won't be made to foot the bill for political campaigning and political lobbying. "This Government is standing up for value for money, so we can keep taxes down and support better services that people can rely on." The system has been trialled in grants provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government and ministers insisted it had not curtailed the ability of charities such as Shelter from lobbying on housing legislation. But Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, warned the new rules could force charities to take a "vow of silence" and urged ministers to reconsider the plan. He said: " Charities provide vital insights and expertise which improve policy-making and often help save or better target taxpayers' money. Charities are already subject to charity law and guidance on campaigning that does not permit party-political campaigning. "The new rules attached to grant income would appear to prevent charities from suggesting improvements or efficiencies to civil servants or ministers, or even from raising concerns with MPs, for example about the treatment of vulnerable people. "Indeed, several Government departments have developed 'strategic partner' grant programmes specifically to enable them to access the expertise of charities to inform their policy development and delivery for these reasons. "This is tantamount to making charities take a vow of silence and goes against the spirit of open policy-making that this Government has hitherto championed. "We call on ministers to reconsider this draconian move that could have significant consequences for the charity sector's relationship with Government. I trust Government will consult further on this." Shadow minister for civil society Anna Turley said: " This is an outrageous attempt to further curb the independence of charities and restrict their ability to speak out on issues of failing government policy. It has not even been put before Parliament so that it can be debated properly. "Yet again we are seeing the actions of an illiberal Government who are scared to debate their record or be open to scrutiny." She called on ministers to perform a U-turn on the "gagging clauses", adding: "T hey should be open to the legitimate views and ideas of civil society, who are the ones who have to deal with the failings of Government policy, not ride roughshod over them. "For the sake of a decent and transparent democracy I urge them to reconsider." Right-of-centre think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has repeatedly raised the issue of charities and organisations using public funds to lobby the Government. Christopher Snowdon, the IEA's head of lifestyle economics, said: "This is very good news for taxpayers who will no longer be forced to pay for the Government to lobby itself. "At every level - local, national and European - people have been subsidising political campaigns that they may not know about and might disagree with. "Campaigning is an important part of a thriving democracy but charities and pressure groups should not be doing it with taxpayers' money." Charity leaders' group the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (Acevo) said it was "shocked and disappointed" by the move and called on Mr Hancock to withdraw the clause. A spokesman said: "Charities by their very nature are best placed to know what is needed by the people and causes they serve. To restrict the sector from drawing the Government's attention to gaps or failures of service is not only draconian but self-defeating. "Charities' daily experience gathers vital intelligence and a profound understanding of society's needs, intelligence and understanding which are crucial to the formulation and delivery of responsible and meaningful policy. "Acevo urges the Government immediately to reconsider this proposal and withdraw it." The Health Select Committee's Tory chairwoman Sarah Wollaston expressed her concern about the measure. In a message on Twitter she said ending charities' ability to lobby ministers would have "serious consequences" for public health. Dr Wollaston warned that the "balance (is) already distorted in favour of industry". Ellie Goulding claims David Cameron snubbed her after she asked to discuss women's issues with him Pop star Ellie Goulding said she was snubbed by the Prime Minister after asking to discuss women's issues with him. The Starry Eyed singer wanted to meet with David Cameron in her role as patron for the Marylebone Project, which is dedicated to helping homeless women in London. But the 29-year-old, who has campaigned for vulnerable people since rising to fame, said she and project chief executive Mark Russell were told the PM didn't have the time to meet with them. She told The Mirror: "We genuinely just wanted a chat to see what his view was on it. We're not trying to confront him. "Mark reached out to talk about the recent housing bills and received one of those standard letters, so I don't know whether he even saw it or not. "I can't say at this point that he's not interested, as I don't know if that's the case. It might be that he's looking for an opportunity to do something." A spokesman for the Prime Minister declined to comment. British helicopter pilot Roger Gower was helping to track ivory poachers when he was shot dead A total of five people have been arrested in connection with the killing of British helicopter pilot Roger Gower who was shot dead by elephant poachers in Tanzania. A suspected gunman and accomplices plus members of a network providing illegal weapons and smuggling ivory are among those who have been arrested, according to the Friedkin Conservation Fund. The Texas-based Friedkin group, which operates in Tanzania, suggested that more arrests could follow. Mr Gower, 37, was helping authorities in the African country track the criminals when they fired on his aircraft on January 29. He managed to bring the helicopter down in the Maswa Game Reserve, near Serengeti National Park in the north of the country, but died from his wounds before he could be rescued. Tanzania is fighting a bitter struggle to stop ivory poachers - a report last year stated 60% of its elephant population had been lost in the previous five years. China is the world's largest market for illegal ivory, which has been thriving under the cover of legal ivory sales. Tanzania also last year charged a Chinese woman, Yang Feng Clan, 66, with smuggling 1.9 tons of ivory from the country between 2000 and 2014. Mr Gower qualified as a pilot in 2004 and moved to Africa around two years later, according to a profile with his former employer Tropic Air Kenya. Mr Gower's brother Max said he was proud of him and how he had managed to land the helicopter and allow his passenger, a friend and colleague, to get out. He said that his sibling did not want to sit behind a desk, and quit as an accountant the day he qualified so he could go to work with the two things he enjoyed the most, flying and animals. Dan Friedkin, the Friedkin Conservation Fund chairman, said in a statement: "We are confident that the Tanzanian authorities will investigate and prosecute those involved to the absolute full extent of the law. "By bringing these individuals to justice, it will honour Roger's memory. We also fervently hope that it will mark the turning point in Tanzania in the fight to protect elephants and our wildlife heritage." Jeremy Corbyn will say he wants councils to become 'public entrepreneurs' Jeremy Corbyn has called on Labour to "pull together" to fight elections in England, Wales and Scotland in May as he put an anti-austerity message at the centre of his pitch to voters. The Labour leader said he would support councils to reverse the "forced privatisation" of local services and accused the Government of inflicting "brutal" cuts. May's elections will be a crucial test for Mr Corbyn, whose leadership has been the subject of sustained criticism from MPs in his own party opposed to the left-winger's policies. In an address to Labour's local government conference, Mr Corbyn called for the party to unite and step up its campaigning effort. The party faces a stiff test in Scotland, where it is in danger of being pushed into third place behind the SNP and Conservatives, while in Wales the party could suffer if Ukip makes expected inroads. He told activists in Nottingham: "We have important elections in Scotland and Wales, and mayoral elections in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Salford - as well as the EU referendum on the horizon ... In all those ballots, and in local elections across England, we are standing up for people, defending their rights and services, and protecting their communities. "The party must pull together to take our campaign to every part of the country and I'll be encouraging every Labour MP in Westminster to get out of Westminster, do the campaigning and be involved and to be focused on preventing the Tories devastating our communities and destroying our local services. That is what brought us in to the Labour Party." Alongside the election effort, Mr Corbyn said Labour would "also be launching a targeted campaign against the Tory cuts". He also proposed a "national public services day" when "everybody comes together to highlight the importance of our public services and their incredible value to our communities". Setting out the challenge facing Labour, he said: " We cannot take for granted any part of our communities. We need to secure our party's traditional vote as well as reaching out to new people in every part of the country." Mr Corbyn said there was a "new era of Labour innovation and public action in local government" and vowed that if he was in Number 10 town halls would be given greater powers to "roll back the tide of forced privatisation". He said: " Despite the pressure from Tory cuts and dictats, we are demonstrating that there is an alternative to outsourcing, privatisation and the running down of local services. "Privatisation isn't just about who runs a service, it's about who services are accountable to, about who shares the rewards, about protecting the workforce and getting a good deal for local people who use the services. "After a generation of forced privatisation and outsourcing of public services, the evidence has built up that handing services over to private companies routinely delivers poorer quality, higher cost, worse terms and conditions for the workforce, less transparency and less say for the public." He added: " We want local councils to have the freedom to develop their local economies and communities to become the public entrepreneurs of the 21st century - directly providing cutting edge public services and utilities in the economy of the future." Mr Corbyn said in Europe " scores of cities across our continent have been taking water, energy and other services back into local public ownership". He told activists how when he was in charge of public works at Haringey Council any firm seeking a contract had to recognise trade unions and train apprentices. "Those powers are very important and ought to reside there with local authorities so they can be a force for good in the community, a force for good in the economy." Mr Corbyn highlighted cuts to subsidies for local buses in the Prime Minister's constituency in Oxfordshire and joked that he expected a letter in protest from t he "chair of the Chipping Norton anti-cuts alliance, Mr David Cameron". "I'm waiting for a question to the Prime Minister from Mr David Cameron," he said. He said Labour's message for the local government campaign was clear: "L abour is standing up for you. A Labour council is the best protection for your community and local services against the onslaught of Tory cuts. People are better off with Labour. "The Tories' austerity is political choice not an economic necessity - these cuts are brutal and unnecessary and it is a Labour council that is the best protection for communities." The CBI warned Mr Corbyn against ruling out private sector firms providing public services. Neil Carberry, CBI director for public services, said: "As government rightly tackles the deficit, business innovation and investment has been vital to making public services more effective and efficient. "With much of the low hanging fruit of making savings picked, it will be even more important for the public sector to work with the very best from the public, private and charity sectors to improve services over this Parliament. "Ruling out private sector involvement would restrict access to the best ideas need to transform public services to ensure they remain high quality and within spending limits." David Cameron suffered a setback when an opinion poll found a rise in the number of people who want Britain to leave the EU David Cameron faced a Tory grassroots revolt over the European Union referendum, with local party chiefs complaining about his direction to MPs not to worry about their views on Brussels. The Prime Minister was accused of showing "disrespect" to party activists in a letter signed by representatives from more than 40 local Conservative associations. But in a boost to Mr Cameron, one of Margaret Thatcher's closest advisers suggested the former prime minister would have backed his proposed deal for a new relationship with Brussels. Lord Powell of Bayswater, Mrs Thatcher's former private secretary and foreign affairs adviser, used a Sunday Times article to say that although the so-called Iron Lady might have "raged more mightily" at Brussels than Mr Cameron "she would have gone along with what is on offer, indeed negotiated something similar herself". Europe has long been a source of division with the Tory ranks and the approaching referendum has threatened to deepen the splits. The letter by local party chiefs to The Sunday Telegraph came in response to Mr Cameron's plea in the Commons for his MPs to ignore the views of their constituency associations when deciding on the EU question. "Don't take a view because of what your constituency association might say, or you're worried about a boundary review, or you think it might be advantageous this way or that way," he told MPs on Wednesday. In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, the Conservative associations say Mr Cameron has "undermined" the goodwill that existed among loyal members and warned him: "No prime minister has a divine right to rule." The missive is signed by 44 chairmen, executives, former chairmen and Tory activists, representing 43 local party associations across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A Downing Street spokesman told the newspaper: " The PM has the greatest of respect for Conservative associations across the country. He was simply making the point that everyone should ultimately vote with their conscience." Meanwhile, speculation continued to surround the likely positions of Cabinet ministers when the referendum campaign finally gets under way. Reports suggested that employment minister Priti Patel is likely to back a Brexit, while The Sunday Telegraph claimed Mr Cameron had personally appealed to Justice Secretary Michael Gove not to join the campaign for the UK to sever ties with Brussels. The Sunday Times reported that Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, a prominent Eurosceptic expected to campaign for Brexit, had told friends Mr Cameron's deal was a "load of rubbish" which would be challenged in the European courts. The confusion in the Brexit camp deepened as a third group indicated it was considering applying to be officially designated as the main Leave campaign. Grassroots Out (Go) said it could seek the Electoral Commission designation, potentially fighting it out with Vote Leave and Leave.EU - although it has close links with that campaign. Tory MP Tom Pursglove, co-founder of Go, said: " If we are going to win this crucial referendum for the future of our country, it is imperative that the current impasse, which is serving as an enormous distraction, must come to an end and it seems that there is a growing mood that GO could well be the vehicle to achieve this - indeed, we have been approached by many people in many parties, enquiring as to whether this might be possible." Vanessa Redgrave paid a personal tribute to NHS staff who saved her life after she suffered a heart attack last year and cared for her sick father and brother towards the end of their lives. The actress, 79, has been hit by personal tragedy many times. Her daughter Natasha Richardson died in 2009 aged 45 after a skiing accident, and the following year she lost her brother Corin and sister Lynn to cancer. Last April Mrs Redgrave had to be rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack while she was alone in her flat in Chiswick, west London. Addressing crowds at a rally in central London to support junior doctors in their dispute with the Government, she said: "My life was saved at the end of April last year by NHS consultants, NHS junior doctors and nurses in Hammersmith Hospital, thank you." She said NHS doctors and nurses had provided her family with care and compassion in hospital, but they were being overstretched and under-resourced. And she told the crowd that her father, the great actor Sir Michael Redgrave who died in 1985 after suffering from Parkinson's disease for 12 years, had his care undermined by Margaret Thatcher's government. She said: "My father died aged 70 in 1985. The hospital doctors told me and my brother that they'd got rid of the trouble he was in hospital for - Parkinson's disease had blocked his bowels. "But they said next time it gets blocked don't bring him back, we haven't got enough beds. "That was Mrs Thatcher's government, and my father was just one of the fathers." Recalling her brother's care, she added: "My brother had a cardiac arrest in 2005, that meant short term memory loss. That meant that he could read, he was still a wonderful person, but he couldn't act anymore." She said he needed support for his mental health, but this is "at the bottom of the rung of the whole system which this Government leads". Mrs Redgrave added: "He was given some help freely, under the counter as it were, by an NHS consultant who kept his spirits up because the NHS psychiatric consultant knew what Corin needed. "But my brother didn't get everything he needed. He did get 10 weeks and that was all that was allowed. "She was great, but she could only give 10 weeks and she was in such a rush with the workload she'd got she could hardly speak a straight sentence. "I thank her for what she put in for my brother, but I know what overwork means, as you do." Several hundred demonstrators gathered at the rally, which comes ahead of a 24-hour walkout due to begin on Wednesday, when junior doctors will provide emergency care only from 8am. Mrs Redgrave was joined at the rally by her friend and fellow long term political activist Dame Vivienne Westwood. The fashion designer told the crowd: "Junior doctors are the future and you will win. You are fighting to protect the National Health Service, the NHS. To protect it from Government cuts. "We need more doctors not less doctors. Doctors who get enough sleep so they can give their best care to patients." The scene in Benenden, Kent, following the death of supply teacher Caroline Andrews Detectives are still waiting to question a man arrested in connection with the murder of a mother-of-four as he remains in hospital with injuries. Kent Police made "extensive searches" to locate the 54-year-old suspect after they discovered the body of Caroline Andrews, 52, at a property in The Street in Benenden on Thursday. The man was located in the London area on Friday afternoon and taken to hospital for treatment to his injuries. A Kent Police spokesman confirmed that the suspect remained in hospital and said his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. The arrest follows a manhunt involving armed officers, which saw police carry out searches throughout the county, including the rail network. Neighbour Derek Catlin said Mrs Andrews lived at the property with her husband Stuart and their four children aged from around early to late teens, along with their two dogs. Retired chartered surveyor Mr Catlin, 71, said: "They were very normal, very pleasant people. This makes us all feel very odd." Another local, Karen Callaghan, 49, said: "It's very sad for the village. Everyone knows everyone round here. The locals have been here a long time." A police cordon was put in place outside the large property - a bungalow called Greenacres - on a sprawling private estate opposite the village green. The scene is down the road from the exclusive Benenden School and off the village's main street. A post-mortem examination took place on Friday and the death is being treated as a murder inquiry. As part of the investigation, armed police boarded a train on Thursday night in Gillingham, in the north of the county. The police spokesman said a search was launched after officers were called about the woman's death earlier in the day, at 4.20pm. Armed police held the train at Gillingham station from around 9pm on Thursday for more than an hour and a half. Footage shows officers walking down the train carriage holding guns, with one distressed passenger demanding to be let off because he was claustrophobic. Mrs Andrews was a "well-respected" supply teacher at Benenden C of E Primary School, based a short distance from her home. Headteacher Gill Knox said: "The tragic death of Caroline Andrews has left the staff at Benenden C of E School shocked and saddened. "Caroline and her family live in the village and are well known at the school. Caroline has been a loved and well-respected supply teacher for a number of years who has enriched the lives of the many children she taught. "At the present time we cannot comment on what has happened but our thoughts and prayers are with her family and all who knew her and will miss her." A man is being treated in hospital with serious injuries after he was shot through his bedroom door by armed intruders as he fled to safety. The victim, a man in his 40s, has a gunshot wound to his leg following the raid on his home, in Sible Hedingham, Essex, at around 4.40am on Saturday. The suspects, two men, fled the scene and remain on the run. Detective Sergeant Mark Cadd, said: "Two men forced entry to the house in the early of hours of the morning and threatened the householder, a man in his 40s. "He locked himself in a bedroom and it is believed a gun was then fired through the door injuring him. "The two men have then fled from the property and at this time it is not believed that anything has been taken. "This was an extremely distressing incident for the victim and he has suffered life-changing injuries which have left him in great pain." The suspects are both white, aged in their 20s, of slim build and wearing dark clothing. One of them is described as being bald. Essex Police are carrying out house-to-house inquiries. Anyone with information is asked to contact detectives. Transport bosses in London are in "active discussions" with Google in a bid to bring trials of its driverless cars to the UK. Deputy mayor for transport Isabel Dedring said officials met with the technology giant recently to encourage it to extend its pilot scheme to the capital. It would be the first time Google's autonomous cars have been tested extensively outside of the US. Ms Dedring said: " It's going to have to work in big cities so why don't we start trialling it now? "Google have said they are focused on the States, b ut they're starting to think about going elsewhere so we're in active discussions. "We met them a few weeks ago to see whether they would do trials here. "It is still very early days but we would be keen for trials to happen in London whenever Google are ready to move them into other countries." Google's fleet of prototype driverless cars rely on sensors and software to complete journeys. Their shape is more rounded than normal cars to allow the l asers, radars and cameras to detect objects in all directions. They are powered by electric batteries and have an interior that is "d esigned for riding, not for driving". The project has been ongoing since 2009 and more than 1.4 million miles of autonomous driving have been clocked up. Trials have been limited to Mountain View, California - where Google is based - and Austin, Texas, but it was recently a nnounced that testing will be carried out in Kirkland, Washington, to allow more examination of how the vehicles perform in wet weather. One of the biggest challenges for developers is to improve how driverless cars interact with other road users. A report published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles detailed a collision which occurred after a Google test driver took control of a car "out of an abundance of caution" when a pedestrian began walking across the road. After the brakes were initiated, another vehicle crashed into the back of the car. The Google driver was taken to hospital with minor back pain. Ms Dedring said officials from the mayor's office have spoken with Google "at least half a dozen times" over the past three years about bringing the scheme to London. Speaking at an event in central London to discuss the capital's future roads policy, she admitted she is "personally a bit sceptical about the technology" and noted that "if you've got a traffic jam full of driverless cars, that is not better than a traffic jam full of drivers". But she said the rise of autonomous vehicles could enable cost reductions for two proposed east to west road tunnels in the city - one of which has an estimated budget of 15 billion. She explained: "One of the interesting benefits of driverless vehicles is we can construct a much smaller tunnel because you don't have to have the same safety requirements. "They're much safer as the computer controls the distance at which driverless cars drive, and their speed. The likelihood of accidents goes down very substantially and therefore the size of the tunnel becomes substantially smaller." Earlier this week the Government announced it will invest 20 million in eight driverless car projects in the UK Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the technology would "profoundly change the way we travel within years" by reducing accidents, helping traffic flow and making it easier to travel by car. Akhtar Javeed, 56, was shot dead during an attempted armed robbery at Direct Source 3 Ltd in the Digbeth area of Birmingham Detectives investigating the murder of a company boss shot dead in Birmingham are trying to track down a taxi driver spotted near the scene. Akhtar Javeed, 56, was gunned down on Wednesday evening as masked men tried to rob his drinks distributor Direct Source 3 at a warehouse in Birmingham. Relatives have described him as a "loving" family man and pleaded for anyone with information to contact police. In a statement released through West Midlands Police, the family said he was "an honest man who valued his family more than anything else". They added: "Please help bring closure to our family and justice for him. He was cruelly taken away from us and his young children who will now have to grow up without their father. Please help us." Bullets found at the scene have been analysed by experts at the National Ballistics Intelligence Service who found the weapon that fired them is not linked to any other crime. Acting Detective Chief Inspector Martin Slevin, from Force CID, said: "This is a fast-paced inquiry as we continue to piece together the circumstances that led to Mr Javeed's death. "We are keen to trace the driver of a private hire vehicle believed to be a saloon which followed a vehicle with no lights on from Rea Street South turning left into MacDonald street at around 6.40pm. "We believe this was a targeted robbery attempt at the business premises in Rea Street South, near to the junction with MacDonald Street. "It happened at a time when other people may have been leaving work for the day and someone may have seen what happened or have important information about the suspects. "If you have any information that could help our investigation, please get in touch as soon as possible." Any witnesses should contact police on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Kuoni has recruited LGBT holiday experts after a spike in bookings for same-sex honeymoons Stonewall urged tour operators to take "more responsibility" for ensuring holidaymakers have as much information as possible before they book Travel firms should do more to inform customers about whether holiday destinations are safe for the LGBT community, a gay rights group has said. Stonewall urged tour operators to take "more responsibility" for ensuring holidaymakers have as much information as possible before they book. It made the comments after holiday company Kuoni announced it has recruited 10 LGBT experts to give advice on the tolerance levels and cultural attitudes of destinations following a spike in bookings for same-sex honeymoons. Vicky Constance of Stonewall said: " We are really pleased to see travel companies like Kuoni take clear steps to recognise and act upon the needs of their diverse customer base. "LGBT customers have an equal right to travel safely and enjoy their holiday, and we would welcome further action from the travel industry to take more responsibility in communicating these key messages to their staff and customers." Kuoni has seen a 76% rise in same-sex honeymoons since March 2014 when gay and lesbian weddings became legal in England and Wales. Previously couples of the same gender could only form civil partnerships, which were introduced in December 2005. Mark Duguid of Kuoni said: "There is a difference between exploring a sought-after destination where some discretion is required and a progressive destination where LGBT travellers are truly welcome. "Increasingly parts of the world are embracing LGBT rights so the situation is evolving." A hole in a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP) A suicide bomber is suspected to have set off the explosive that blew a hole in a jetliner, sucked the man out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing on Tuesday in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, Somali officials said on Saturday. "Experts who were investigating the cause of the blast in the plane concluded that a bomb was the cause," said Ali Jama Jangali, Somalia's transport minister at a press conference in Mogadishu. "The bomb aimed to kill all onboard the plane. Al Shabab (Somalia's Islamic extremist rebel group) was behind it," he said of the explosion on a Daallo Airlines Airbus 321. He said the findings are preliminary and the investigation is continuing. One passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, died, according to Somali officials who did not give any details. A man's body was found in the town of Balad, about 18 miles north of Mogadishu, according to police who said he might have been blown from the plane. The man killed in the incident is suspected to have been a suicide bomber, The Associated Press was told by a senior Somali intelligence official. "The reason the investigation is focusing on him now is because of the suspicion that he might have detonated the bomb, but it's too early to say if the bomb was planted in a laptop or not," he said. Six people have been arrested in connection with the blast after examinations of CCTV images in the airport, a senior Somali intelligence official told the Associated Press. Al Shabab have not claimed responsibility for the incident. All other 74 passengers on the plane were safe after the pilot returned the plane safely to Mogadishu airport. The explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane took off and it was still ascending. Captain Vlatko Vodopivec, the pilot, said he and others were told the explosion was caused by a bomb. "It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last," Mr Vodopivec said by phone from Mogadishu. He said the blast happened when the plane was at around 11,000 feet and still climbing to its cruising altitude of 30,000 feet. "It would have been much worse if we were higher," he added. Had the blast occurred at a higher altitude, it could have led to explosive decompression on the plane, which might have caused more severe structural damage, and would have forced a more rapid descent because of limited supplies of oxygen to the passengers. After the explosion, passengers put on oxygen masks and air could be heard rushing thought the hole in the fuselage, according to a video taken by a passenger. Somalia's government said it will tighten security at the airport to prevent other threats. Somalia faces an insurgency from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has carried out deadly attacks in Somalia and neighbouring countries. Daallo Airlines, which is based in Dubai, has temporarily suspended its operations in Somalia's capital following the incident but hopes to restart them soon, said Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, the airline's chief executive. He described security at Mogadishu airport as "good" and multilayered, and "much better than it used to be." Daallo typically operates around 15 flights a week to Mogadishu from Somali and nearby international destinations. Its flight Tuesday was operated by Hermes Airlines, which is based in Athens, Greece, under a lease agreement. Hermes officials have not commented on the incident. Experts from Somalia and Greece are involved in the investigation into the blast. Refugees in a rubber dinghy arrive on the beach at Psalidi near Kos Town, Kos, Greece European Union foreign ministers anxious to stem the flow of migrants coming through the Balkans are meeting counterparts from the region to find better ways to protect borders. With Greece unable to control the thousands of migrants making the crossing from Turkey, some EU nations are now looking to help non-member Macedonia stop them at its southern border before they get to the European Schengen zone of border-free travel. Hungarian foreign affairs minister Peter Szijjarto said: "If Greece is not ready or able to protect the Schengen zone and doesn't accept any assistance from the EU, then we need another defence line, which is obviously Macedonia and Bulgaria." An estimated 850,000 migrants arrived in Greece in 2015, overwhelming the coast guard and reception facilities. Aid groups say cash-strapped Greece has shelter for only about 10,000 people. Most travel on via land across the Balkans and into the EU's heartland of Germany and beyond. Mr Szijjarto said that the EU nations are "defenceless from the south", adding: "There are thousands of irregular migrants entering the territory of the EU on a daily basis." Because of this, several member states have re-imposed border crossings to manage the flow into their nations better, but EU officials are doing their utmost to keep the Schengen zone as open as possible and want member states to focus on reinforcing the external borders only. Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz said during the two-day meeting in Amsterdam that if the flow of migrants is not stopped at external borders like in Greece, "we will find other ways". Austria has suggested sending its military to help Balkan countries such as Macedonia or Serbia secure their borders so that effectively, the migrant flow through the Balkans would be slowed with people kept in Greece. The EU is also looking at Turkey to make a better effort to make sure refugees from the Syrian war do not make the dangerous crossing. EU nations have committed three billion euro (2.3 billion) towards dealing with refugees in Turkey as part of a package of incentives aimed at persuading Ankara to do more to stop thousands of migrants leaving for Greece. The Syrian foreign minister spoke out after attempts to set up peace talks broke down (AP) Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem has warned that foreign ground troops entering Syria would "return home in wooden coffins". His comments came after Saudi Arabia said earlier this week it would be willing to send troops as part of a US-led military campaign against Islamic State (IS) extremists, who control large parts of Syria and Iraq. Mr al-Moallem said conventional wisdom and logic would suggest the idea of Saudi troops in Syria is far-fetched, but that "with the crazy Saudi leadership, nothing is far-fetched". He told a news conference in Damascus: "Any ground intervention in Syria, without the consent of the Syrian government, will be considered an aggression that should be resisted by every Syrian citizen. "I regret to say that they will return home in wooden coffins." Mr al-Moallem's comments capped a week that saw the collapse of UN-led efforts to launch indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and an opposition delegation in Geneva. The talks broke down in large part because of Syrian government offensives, including on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo. The offensive, aimed at encircling rebel strongholds in Aleppo, was backed by intense Russian air strikes and sent thousands of residents fleeing toward a closed Turkish border. Mr al-Moallem said the government advances signalled that the five-year-old Syria war is nearing its end. "I can say, from the achievements for our armed forces ... that we are now on track to end the conflict," he said. "Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed toward the end of the crisis." Opposition representatives have said they cannot be expected to negotiate in Geneva at a time when the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, are escalating attacks on rebel strongholds. Mr al-Moallem dismissed the representatives of the Saudi-backed opposition in Geneva, suggesting they followed orders from Saudi Arabia and were "not real Syrians". He alleged the opposition had never intended to negotiate seriously. "They did not come to have dialogue, they did not have such orders," he said. Mr al-Moallem said the Syrian government was ready to have dialogue with Syrians, but without preconditions. The murder of the priests is seen as one of the most notorious episodes in El Salvador's civil war Salvadoran police say they have arrested four former soldiers wanted in Spain for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests in the Central American country. Five of the priests were Spanish. The national police force says in a Twitter post that the four were arrested at the behest of Interpol. They are named as Colonel Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno and soldiers Antonio Ramiro Avalos Vargas, Angel Perez Vasquez and Tomas Zarpate Castillo. It is up to El Salvador's Supreme Court to rule on the extraditions. The killing was among the most notorious incidents of El Salvador's civil war. Military authorities apparently saw the priests as leftist sympathisers. On Friday, a US judge cleared the way for another former Salvadoran colonel to be extradited to face charges in Spain in the case. Reformists had been worst-affected by the ban Iran has reversed a ban on 1,500 candidates who had registered to run in parliamentary elections later this month, according to reports. Iranian state TV said a list of approved candidates has been conveyed to the interior ministry by the constitutional watchdog, the hardline Guardian Council. The report said more than 6,200 candidates have been approved to run for the 290-seat parliament. The Guardian Council, which is responsible for vetting candidates, had disqualified a large number of moderates, but it is not clear how many of the approved candidates are considered to be reformists. More than 12,000 hopefuls had initially registered for the election. While some hardliners and conservatives have also been barred, reformists were worst-affected. Many were disqualified because they were not seen to be sufficiently loyal to the ruling system, as defined by Guardian Council members. Nine moderate parties issued a statement last month complaining that only 30 of the 3,000 reformist candidates fielded across the country were allowed to run. The upcoming vote is seen as a showdown between hardliners and moderates, who hope for a boost in the wake of the newly implemented nuclear deal and the lifting of international sanctions. Reformists had registered in large numbers, hoping that many of them would survive the screening process even if their best-known figures were disqualified. But they expressed shock at the size of the initial mass disqualifications. Prominent reformist Hossein Marashi said moderates intend to strongly contest the vote, seeking to curb the power of parliamentary hardliners. "We won't boycott the elections despite the difficulties we have faced. In districts where we don't have candidates, we may support moderate conservatives to defeat extremists," he said. Police officers prevent protesters from getting to the parliament building in Port-au-Prince (AP) A band of former Haitian soldiers clashed with a far larger gathering of anti-government demonstrators in the troubled country's capital, resulting in the killing of an ex-member of the abolished military. Amid a political crisis a bout 100 veterans of Haiti's disbanded military and some younger supporters paraded through the centre of Port-au-Prince. A number wore faded green uniforms and carried rifles and pistols. When the ragtag group of ex-soldiers in pick-up trucks passed near an anti-government protest with a couple of thousand participants the two sides shouted insults. Some protesters hurled rocks at them, prompting a few former soldiers to fire their weapons. It was not clear if any protesters were wounded. A group of young men rushed the ex-soldiers, who sped off. But one veteran, identified as former army captain Neroce Ciceron, was caught and battered repeatedly with rocks. As he lay dying on the street, Associated Press journalists saw a couple of anti-government protesters remove his boots, lace them together and throw them up on a utility line. They also took his rusty .38 calibre pistol. The deadly protest comes as President Michel Martelly is scheduled to leave office on Sunday. He has no successor since elections were postponed indefinitely amid violent opposition demonstrations and suspicions of electoral fraud. Politicians have been trying to negotiate an interim government to replace him, but nothing has been agreed so far. Groups of excited young men lingered around the blood-stained pavement for up to an hour after an ambulance took the ex-soldier's body away. "This soldier got what he deserved. They used to kill the people. Today, it was him," said Wilsen Bell, a protester who had a card with a photo of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide stuck to his forehead. Haiti's military was abolished in 1995 under Mr Aristide because of its history of toppling governments and crushing dissent. Small groups of veterans have long complained that they are owed money in pensions and lost wages and have occasionally taken to the streets in protest in recent years. Mr Martelly repeatedly pledged to revive Haiti's military to protect the border, coastlines and the country's few remaining forests. It would require a vote by parliament to officially reconstitute an army. The Zika virus announcement came at the start of Carnival (AP) Pregnant women in Brazil were warned of measures to take to avoid the Zika virus (AP) Pregnant women should not kiss anyone other than a regular partner, Brazil health officials warned in a sign of growing concern over the Zika virus. They were also told to avoid sharing cutlery, glasses and plates with people who have symptoms of the virus, while men were warned to use condoms with pregnant partners if they have visited countries where the virus is present. UN officials called on many Catholic-majority countries in Latin America to loosen their abortion laws to allow women to terminate pregnancies if they fear the foetus may be at risk of a rare birth defect that causes brain damage and an abnormally small head, which may be linked to the virus. In Brazil, Paulo Gadelha, president of the Fiocruz research institute, said that scientists have found live virus in saliva and urine samples, and the possibility it could be spread by the two body fluids requires further study. He urged pregnant women to take special precautions, stressing both the seriousness of the discovery and the reality that it was too soon to say how it could impact on the epidemic. "This is not a generalised public health measure, for the love of God," he said. Friday's announcement coincided with the start of Carnival, a five-day event that sees millions of people take part in alcohol-fuelled parties where kissing as many people as possible is a popular pastime. Mr Gadelha said the discovery need not alter Carnival plans for anyone but pregnant women. He also stressed that the Aedes aegpyti mosquito, which spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever as well as Zika, remains the virus' main vector and said the fight against the mosquito should be a top priority. Romance seems to be the main feature of Valentines Day all over the world or at least the most eagerly publicized. Flowers and roses, caramel chocolates in boxes with bow-ties, and candy centered heart-shaped chocolate. Then there are the kisses and sweet words. For such a perfect world, I hear you cry. Far From the Madding Crowd, (2015, UK), based on the Thomas Hardy novel (which was also adapted for the screen in the late 1960s), is about amour and passion, in rural Dorset, England, circa 1870, but is also about the deeper stuff of commitment. Gabriel (Matthias Schoenaerts) approaches Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) for the hand of marriage with a forthright proposal. Offering such a straight-forward marriage proposal, before a relationship was deeply established, was the culture and how life turned around then. And if a woman married Gabriel, she would be marrying up which is better financially. Gabriel would provide for her and by having children the land continues to thrive. However, he loses his cattle and then the nature of their relationship changesshe is in the position of power rather than him and this reversal of fortune may prevent them getting together, considering she is already provided for. He comes under Bathshebas authority in an arrangement that means marrying her would be socially unacceptable. Besides, this independent lady may not want a marriage relationship. Though a wealthier, respected suitor pines for her. Bathsheba could marry William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) whose proposals are bold by name and game. Francis Troy (Tom Sturridge) offers something more romantic and amorous for the curious Bathsheba, but will this romance turn out to be genuine? Sometimes, romance may hide the truth. We can only wonder what Gabriel is really thinking. Despite marriage being based on cultural norms, there may be some love in there, too. He never voices a bad word to her and endures through heartache, perhaps. He could conceal love that is not jealous or proud or boastful, but genuine. That is the kind of love that, in the main, seems to have made a comeback at the cinemaalthough it has always been present in some ways. Far From the Madding Crowd may sound like a pulpy romance, but the storytelling is strictly literary in style, adapted from a classic novel with a reputation of good literature. In this film version, the characters are convincing and not soppy, the situations believable for the time, the plot not as predictable as one would think from the opening scenes. The music, production design, costumes are all good. The script is well thought out and the story is always engaging. The lead performances are appealing. Thats the kind of film we have here. The handsome mounting of the film just points to the tidiness and handsomeness of its central idea, that when love and commitment works, it can take a couple through trials and tribulations and even transcends romance. ein Google-Unternehmen Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern. neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke. Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten. Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen. The Kathmandu Post 5 February 2016 SPITTING VENOM It was not encouraging to read the news that CPN-UML leaders are not happy with the PM (Rival faction meets in Capital 3 February, Page 3). PM Oli has been facing criticism from every corner for his egoistic political behaviour, populist speeches and false promises. Even his own party members have started publicly accusing him of running the party in an autocratic manner. It is crystal clear that he has even failed to convince his own party members about his way of leading the government and his party. How can someone efficiently run the government if he is not able to manage his own party? It is, however, a bit surprising that UML leaders are publicly criticising their party chief rather than doing so in their internal deliberations. This clearly shows that the practice of factional politics is prevalent in all the major political parties of Nepal which has always been a hurdle in the smooth functioning of the parties. On the other side, the people, who have been hit hard by Madhes unrest and unofficial Indian trade embargo, are completely frustrated with the Oli led government for its poor performance in these last three months. So the time has come for the rival faction to sit with their boss and suggest him to correct his way of running the government and the party rather than publicly criticizing him. In the meantime, it is also unfortunate to hear from the members of coalition partners talking about the need of a national government (Thapa hits out at coalition leaders 3 February, Page 3). Does that mean that the days of this coalition government are over? Like Kamal Thapa said, is the current government anti-national? If that is so, then the Oli led government should be immediately replaced by a national government. Is it possible and necessary in Nepal to form a national government? What is meant by a national government? Whoever is talking about this should come forward with suggestions. Rai Biren Bangdel (Cartoonist - David Horsey) In other news, Ben Carson says Ted Cruz's campaign spread rumors about him because Benghazi. Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says Latin America countries must allow access to birth control and abortion in areas hit by the Zika virus. Good, but why now? It should always be available, virus or not. And finally, this is the shittiest shit I've read in a while. Former inmates in Flint, Michigan says they were arrested by deputies handing out clean water. [Former inmate Jody Cramer] told Democracy Now! that multiple inmates landed behind bars because they were tricked by deputies who came to their homes under the guise of passing out water filtration systems. When people opened the door, the deputies would ask them to confirm their names and serve warrants to the people on the spot. Heres your water filtration system. By the way, you have a warrant for your arrest, Cramer said. The Washington state Senate Law and Justice Committee has approved a bill along party lines -- with Republicans voting for it and Democrats voting against it -- that would criminal transgender bathroom use. Senate Bill 6548 would make it illegal for transgender people to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender they identify as. Republicans on the Senate Law and Justice Committee approved a bill designed to set aside rules by the Human Rights Commission allowing transgender people to use facilities based on the gender with which they identify. Minority Democrats said it was removing important protections for people in the transgender community. Senate Bill 6548 says people cannot use a restroom, bathroom, locker room or sauna if they have genitalia of a different gender from that for which the facility is segregated. Bill 6548 will be voted on by the full Washington state Senate after it passes through the Rules Committee, but even if this bill fails the state legislature has a similar bill in the pipeline. As you may recall, Washington state Representative Graham Hunt (R) introduced a similar bill (HB 2589) several weeks ago because, as he sees it, if you have a penis you're probably a predator. Ive tried to make this about genitalia, Hunt admitted to the Heritage Foundations Daily Signal. If you dont have the parts if you dont have the plumbing, then you dont go in. In an interview earlier this month, Hunt made clear he sees male genitals as a security concern in and of themselves. If youre non-operative or pre-operative, having access to a facility that is different from the genitalia that you have, thats where the security concerns come in. "The parts." I guess we can't expect Neanderthals like Representative Graham Hunt (R) or Law and Justice Committee Chairman Mike Padden (R) to understand that "the parts" are not what determine the identify of a transgender person nor does possessing different parts make them a "security concern" any more than anyone else. These lawmakers are the real security concern. These men are far more preoccupied by the genitalia of children than anyone should be. This is Big Republican Government squeezing into your pants. Gay Prayer in Uhuru Park, or Christianity and LGBT Empowerment in Kenya By ADRIAAN VAN KLINKEN FEB 4, 2016 Credit: meaduva / flickr While doing preliminary research for a project on religion, homosexuality and LGBT rights in Kenya, July-August 2015, I discovered a different side of the gay debate in Africaone that so far has received very little attention. Where religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is often presented as a key force fueling homophobia and legitimizing anti-LGBT attitudes and politics, I found it also to be employed as a counter-force. When President Obama visited Kenya in July of last year, there was excitement and controversy. People were excited because he was the first US President to visit the country, and also because Obama whose father was Kenyan could be welcomed as a son of Africa returning home. At the same time, controversy emerged about Obama coming to preach gay rights since his visit occurred shortly after the US Supreme Court had legalized same-sex marriage. In Kenya, the colonial anti-sodomy laws are still in place, and not one political party advocates abolishing them. Yet one marginal Kenyan political party, the Republican Liberty Party, seized the Obama visit as an opportunity to profile themselves. Party operatives made global headlines by announcing a mass nude protest in Uhuru Park in Nairobi so that Obama could see and understand the physiological differences between the two genders. I went to Uhuru Park the morning scheduled for the protest. However, there werent any protesters. The Republican Liberty Party had already reached its aim: it had received media attention, and at his joint press conference with Obama, Kenyan President Kenyatta had to openly dissociate himself from his American counterpart and declare publicly that Kenya wasnt ready for gay rights. Instead of nude protesters, I encountered a small group of gay, Christian men meeting in the parknot to cruise for sexbut to pray for each other and to support each other in their entrepreneurial activities, for which they had set up a system of savings and loans. Out of sight of the media, these men gathered in a highly symbolic place in Nairobis public space: the park of independence (Uhuru), situated in the former White zone of the town, under the trees planted by political activist Wangari Maathai in a part of the park that she baptized Freedom Corner in opposition to the oppressive regime of Daniel Arap Moi. Making jokes about the cancelled nude protest, the men met to talk, share, and empower each other spiritually, emotionally, socially and economically. This small informal support-group of gay men gathered in full daylight in Nairobis central park might be more significant than the announced nude mass protest that received so much attention. The men opened their meeting with a prayer, asking God to bless their plans and activities. Their prayer demonstrates the integration of their Christian faith in their lives, apparently not hindered by their sexuality. It challenges two dominant narratives: the first is the claim, by Kenyas political and religious elite, that homosexuality is un-Kenyan and un-African; the second is the assumption, by the international media, that Africa is thoroughly and relentlessly homophobic. I found another visible sign of similar integration, when I discovered a small church community in Nairobi, established, led and attended by LGBT Kenyans. Its aim is to provide an affirming and empowering space for LGBT people who are marginalized and stigmatized as extraordinary sinners in the mainstream Christian denominations. In this church they worship God and express their faith together, without any fear of being preached against or demonized. More explicitly political, I found some interesting initiatives by organizations working to empower LGBT people and promote acceptance in church and society, on a Christian basis. One such organization is Other Sheep Kenya which promotes the full inclusion of LGBT people within their respective religious traditions. To achieve this goal, it organizes workshops with pastors and church leaders. Under the leadership of Rev. Michael Kimundu, a former Anglican priest expelled by his bishop because of his pro-gay views, a number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have been trained to share personal storiesof their sexuality and faithat these workshops. A Nairobi, faith-based advocacy organization, Pembizo Christian Council, seeks to build an all-inclusive Church in Africa. Founded by Rev. Solomon Gichira in 2013, the organization so far has manifested itself publicly and politically. It issued a critical response to President Kenyattas anti-gay statement during his press conference with President Obama, and it petitioned the High Court of Kenya for recognition of a third gender. In September 2015 it organized its first conference for Christian leaders from several African countries to discuss the theme of moving towards a just and inclusive church. These examples demonstrate the growing visibility of LGBT people and their allies in Kenya, a development that was stimulated by the public coming out of one prominent Kenyan, literary writer, Binyavanga Wainaina, in January 2014, and his subsequent fight against homophobic forces in the country. They also show that Christianity is not responsible only for fueling anti-homosexual discourses and politics in Africa; it is alsoand increasingly soinspiring alternative mobilizations of power. Kenyan LGBT Christians have begun to organize themselves and develop a form of Christian faith that is affirming of their sexuality. LGBT allies have launched faith-based initiatives to bring about change in churches and society. It is too early to tell what the socio-cultural and political impact of these developments will be. Yet they open up a new line of thinking, about Christianity as a source of LGBT empowerment, advocacy and politics in Kenya and potentially elsewhere in Africa, and about the strategies and effects of an African, queer form of Christian faith. Resources : Hensley, Nicole. Kenyan anti-gay groups ready to protest Obama during summit if he pushes LGBT rights. New York Daily News, July 22, 2015, Politics. Other Sheep: Multicultural Ministries with Sexual Minorities.http://www.othersheep.org. Kuchu Times Kenyan correspondent George Barasats interview with Solomon Gichira of the Pembizo Christian Council. YouTube.com, September 30, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFKCUzuircI. Chitando, Ezra, and Adriaan van Klinken, eds. Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa. Farnham: Ashgate 2016 (forthcoming). Ekine, Sokari, and Hakima Abbas, eds. Queer African Reader. Dakar, Nairobi and Oxford: Pambazuka Press, 2013. Epprecht, Marc. Sexuality and Social Justice in Africa: Rethinking Homophobia and Forging Resistance. London: Zed Books, 2013. Gifford, Paul. Christianity, Politics and Public Life in Kenya. London: Hurst, 2009. Van Klinken, Adriaan. Christianity and Same-sex Relations in Africa, in Elias K. Bongmba (ed.), Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa, London and New York: Routledge 2016, 487-501. Image: meaduva / flickr creative commons. To comment: Email the Managing Editor, Myriam Renaud, at DivSightings@gmail.com. To request that your comment appear with this article on the Marty Center's website, provide your full name in the body of your email and indicate in the subject line: POST COMMENT TO [title of Sightings piece]. Author, Adriaan Van Klinken, Author, Share Tweet +1 Forward to Friend Sightings Home Page | Submission Guidelines | Reprint Policy Facebook Twitter Divinity School Email us WASHINGTON Representatives for Puerto Rico on Friday said the cash-strapped commonwealth plans to pursue its recently proposed debt exchange with holders of tax-supported debt even if it eventually gets access to bankruptcy or some other type of restructuring process. "This is the deal we're prepared to do and we're trying very hard to get done," said Jim Millstein, who, along with his firm Millstein & Co., has been advising Puerto Rico as it deals with about $70 billion in debt. "The legal structure would help us enforce the deal, help us make it binding on all creditors, but we wouldn't change the [deal's] economics," he added. "This is a sensible plan in our view and brings debt service to a revenue level that is manageable." The commonwealth has repeatedly asked Congress to provide it or its authorities with restructuring capabilities, like those under Chapter 9 bankruptcy. But Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on this issue. A bill sponsored by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., that would make Chapter 9 bankruptcy protections for authorities contingent on the imposition of a federal oversight authority is the only current bill that joins Democrats' calls for bankruptcy protection and Republicans' request on an oversight authority. Millstein said the restructuring in that bill would be useful for some of the Puerto Rico's entities, but that the entire territory will need Chapter 9 protections for the situation to be fully addressed. Millstein spoke at a briefing here held to update congressional staff and the press on the commonwealth's financial situation. Melba Acosta Febo, president of Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank, and Richard Cooper, a partner with the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York, joined Millstein as the representatives for Puerto Rico at the briefing. The restructuring plan, which Puerto Rico announced last week, asks creditors holding $49.2 billion of tax-supported debt to exchange it for $26.5 billion of new mandatorily payable Base Bonds and $22.7 billion of Growth Bonds. There would be no interest payments on the Base Bonds until fiscal year 2018 and no principal payments until fiscal year 2021. The Growth Bonds would only be payable if the commonwealth surpasses conservative revenue growth projections through real economic growth, Millstein said. The first payments on the Growth Bonds, if they can be made, would begin in the tenth year after the close of the exchange offer. If Puerto Rico sees growth in line with the projected growth of the United States over the next 30 years, the creditors would be able to recover the full amount of their principal investments. Annual payments on the Growth Bonds would be capped at 15% of the commonwealth's revenue. Puerto Rico's debt service-to-revenue ratio on tax-supported debt would fall to about 15% under the plan compared to its current 36% level. The highest state ratio is Hawaii's 13%. This is a good comparison, Millstein said, because like Puerto Rico most of the Hawaii's government services happen at the state level instead of at the municipal level. The deal, which some analysts said did not even give a starting point for restructuring discussions, could only move forward if creditors participate in very high numbers and the federal government maintains at least its current percentage levels of programmatic support for the commonwealth. Acosta Febo said she and other commonwealth officials have had more conversations with creditors after last week's meeting when the idea was proposed. Most of the subsequent discussions have been to help creditors better understand the numbers in the deal, she added. Millstein said the plan lays out a broad allocation of how much each class of creditor would get but will rely on the creditors having discussions with the commonwealth and amongst themselves to find an equitable way to allocate the debt. The commonwealth has also been trying to finalize a separate deal with creditors for about $9 billion of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority debt. A previously missed deadline for Puerto Rico's lawmakers to pass legislation required under the deal has been extended to Feb. 16. Moody's Investors Service said Friday that the extension of negotiations "suggest a consensual debt restructuring is still possible." However, it warns that the deal with PREPA still faces additional obstacles like getting enough creditors to sign on to the deal. The negotiations with creditors for tax-supported and PREPA debt are increasingly important to the commonwealth as Puerto Rico officials have said that without solutions from those negotiations or congressional action, the territory will default on its next major round of bond payments due July 1. Real Estate News What is it like to live in Abington? Housing prices are reasonable, compared with some South Shore towns, and errands are easy to run in this small community. Island Grove Park in Abington. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Nancy Reids home was a local haunt when she bought it and after. Reid and her husband, Curtis, purchased what used to be Bensons general store on Plymouth Street in Abington more than 50 years ago. To make the space more livable, they removed shelving, put down new flooring, and replaced the front door but locals didnt forget the homes previous incarnation. Weve had lots of fun with some of the old-timers who have come into the living room and said, I remember the dog food was here and the penny candy was there, Nancy Reid says with a laugh. Advertisement: In the mid-1970s, the Reids raised money for muscular dystrophy research by hosting haunted houses and giving hay rides in nearby Mount Vernon Cemetery. They continued the tradition for a few years, Reid says, until the crowds simply got too big. Reids dedication to her community is obvious: She was employed by the town for 33 years, first as a teaching assistant in the kindergarten, then as an assistant librarian at the public library. She fondly remembers the fund-raising efforts that enabled the town to build a freestanding library nearly 20 years ago. The town has always had a wonderful community spirit. If anybodys in trouble or has a big problem, the next thing you know, theres a fund-raiser to help them out, she says. Reid, chairwoman of the Abington Summer Concerts Committee, proudly points out that the Millennium Memorial Complex, which opened in 2005, was built with donations and hosted 10 free summer concerts at its bandstand last summer. Abington voters also recently approved funding for building a new middle/high school, which will cost $96.4 million (the Massachusetts School Building Authority will pay for just over half). Compared with some South Shore towns, Abington enables you to get a decent house for much less money, Reid says. She also appreciates that there are quite a few restaurants in town and that its fairly simple to run errands. The town is so small, you can get anyplace in five minutes, she says. Advertisement: BY THE NUMBERS 303 The towns age. Abington, incorporated on June 10, 1712, was named in honor of the countess of Abingdon, England, who helped the royal governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony secure his position. 1 million The estimated gallons of water in Island Grove Parks sand-bottom pool. The 11-acre park offers swimming, day camps, picnicking, fishing, and walking trails. 36 The number of boot and/or shoe manufacturers operating in Abington in 1850, according to census records. In 1858, Lyman R. Blake, an Abington shoemaker, patented the first machine capable of sewing the soles of shoes to the uppers with satisfactory results, the towns Dyer Memorial Library reports on its website. PROS & CONS Pro Commuter rail The train can whisk riders from Abington to Bostons South Station in just over half an hour. Con Rush-hour traffic Dont take the train? Abington is largely considered a bedroom community, and traffic can back up along Routes 18, 123, and 139. Pro Infrastructure The town is building a middle/high school on the current high school property on Gliniewicz Way. The school is scheduled to be completed in 2018. Fans cheer on Abington High School. Jonathan Wiggs/ globe staff Jacky Capilla and her daughter, Mila, shop at The Christmas Place. Craig F. Walker/ globe staff Dyer Memorial Library Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff A basketball is stuck behind a board on a home. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff A historic marker notes an abolitionist meeting spot. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Rachel Lebeaux can be reached at [email protected] The Chinese New Year festival is underway in Dublin. The ninth of its kind celebrates the year of the monkey. The spring fair will provide music, food, film and crafts for all of the family and will continue for two weeks at the CHQ building in the city centre. Sandra Rodriguez is head of the events programme; We have a Tai Chi demonstration and a class, then we have a clay making workshop. They will be teaching children how to make monkey figures, because it is the year of the monkey and also we have an artist coming from Beijing, he does sugar paintings with hot sugar. With Valentine's Day around the corner, protesters will be taking to the streets of the capital today to remind shoppers of the dangers of 'blood diamonds'. Demonstrators are due to gather on Grafton Street this morning calling for a boycott of so-called 'conflict diamonds', the name for gems that are exploited to finance wars. By Paul Keane Ruairi Og, Cushendall (Antrim) 3-12 Sarsfields (Galway) 1-6 Antrim ace Neil McManus was the hero with an impressive 1-7 as Ruairi Og, Cushendall pulled off a shock AIB All-Ireland club hurling semi-final win in Navan. The Antrim and Ulster champions were long odds outsiders to reach the March 17 All-Ireland decider at Croke Park but dominated their opponents throughout. McManus gave them the perfect start with an early goal and they hit the net twice in the second-half through the excellent Sean McAfee and veteran substitute Karl McKeegan. Ryan McCambridge was their key man in defence though it was a terrific all round display in difficult conditions at Pairc Tailteann. Cushendall came to the contest seeking to arrest a dismal semi-final record which read; played eight, lost eight. They were considerable outsiders as a result but showed no signs of an inferiority complex and edged the first-half, taking a two-point lead into the interval, 1-4 to 0-5. In a low scoring game, played in windy and rain sodden conditions, it was a significant advantage though, in truth, Cushendall should have been further ahead. Their will to win overwhelmed Sarsfields at times and full-forward McAfee got through a tonne of good work early on for the northerners. The powerful attacker won the fourth minute penalty that county ace Neil McManus dispatched to open up an early three-point lead. Paddy McGill helped himself to a brace of points also while McManus took his tally for the half to 1-1 with a converted free. At the other end, Cushendall corner-back McCambridge cleared lots of ball and Sarsfields were held to just one point from open play in the entire first-half. The rest of Sars' tally came from placed balls with Niall Morrissey splitting the posts four times. Cushendall kicked themselves that they didn't make more of their early advantage though, drilling five wides in the first 15 minutes. Pic: Sportsfile They weren't made to pay for the profligacy though and stretched their lead with a thrilling start to the second-half. McManus drilled over two more frees either side of an excellent 32nd minute goal from McAfee when he shrugged off a clutch of defenders before firing past the advancing 'keeper. Sars went for goals in the final 20 minutes and Joseph Cooney pulled one back when he flicked in from a 65 in the 41st minute. But they only managed one more point, from a Morrissey free, after that and against side in Cushendall's form it wasn't going to be enough. The northerners continued to ram home their advantage with timely points and McKeegan poked home their third goal in injury-time from close range. ----- Ruairi Og, Cushendall scorers: N McManus 1-7 (1-0 pen, 0-5f), S McAfee 1-0, K McKeegan 1-0, P McGill 0-3, C Carson 0-1, A Delargy 0-1. Sarsfields scorers: N Morrissey 0-5 (0-5f), J Cooney 1-0, A Ward 0-1. Ruairi Og, Cushendall: E Gillan; R McCambridge, M Burke, A Graffin; D Kearney, E Campbell, S Delargy; S McNaughton, A Delargy; C Carson, N McManus, S McAfee; P McGill, D McNaughton, C McNaughton. Subs: K McKeegan for C McNaughton (44), C McAllister for D McNaughton (59). Sarsfields: C Dolan; E Cleary, D Skehill, C Murray; N Quinn, K Hynes, R Quinn; J Cooney, I Fox; A Ward, K Wade, N Morrissey; I Skehill, N Kelly, K Cooney. Subs: I Kenny for I Skehill (45), J Burke for Wade (50), S Kelly for Morrissey (52), E Spellman for K Cooney (60). Referee: P O'Dwyer (Carlow). Thousands of Syrians are gathering at the border with Turkey after fleeing airstrikes in Aleppo. The city has been split between rebel and government control over the last few years - with intense battles in recent weeks. Three people have died in Colombia after contracting the Zika virus and developing a rare nerve disorder. It is the first time authorities have linked the disease to causing deaths. The US Mint will feature an Asian American on its currency for the first time when it issues a coin next week... LAHORE: While there is no let up in the spread of dengue, the Punjab government has increased the number of beds for... LONDON: Liz Truss said on Thursday she would resign as British prime minister, brought down just six weeks into the... Two people will appear in court on Monday on charges related to a bomb hoax call made at a school at Calamvale last week. A 22-year-old man and a 17-year-old woman, both from West End, have been charged with one count each of using a carriage service for a hoax threat, falsely stating a bomb was present and wilful disturbance. Two men have been charged with torture and other offences. It will be alleged a threatening phone call was made to the school around 12.40pm on Wednesday. The school subsequently activated an evacuation plan before police were able to determine the threat to be unsubstantiated. A 27-year-old Canberra man who allegedly supplied cocaine and MDMA to an undercover police officer has been refused bail. Rory Coghlan was arrested on Friday night after he allegedly supplied 40 capsules believed to contain MDMA to the officer in a Kingston car park in exchange for $600. A police search of the defendant shortly after 8.40pm allegedly found another four capsules, court documents said. The defendant also allegedly supplied the officer, via a clip seal bag with a Ned Kelly motif, about 1 gram of a white powder purported to be cocaine in Petrie Plaza in Civic late on Thursday. The defendant, who received $370 for the earlier supply, had been under telecommunications surveillance by police for about a week after a warrant was issued by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on January 29, court documents said. The front-page photo, depicting a bloodied, unconscious boy carried out of a suburban Canberra house with a breathing mask, generated horror and more than a few outraged letters to the editor in early 1986. The 16-year-old pictured was the sole survivor of a domestic violence attack at the hands of his sister's former partner that left her, their mother and father dead. The Canberra Times' next-day coverage of the February 12, 1986 shootings. Credit:Fairfax The murder of three members of the Oliver family and suicide of their suspected killer, Carl Williams, 30 years ago this week, set in motion the rapid adoption of tougher domestic violence laws in the ACT after years of perceived indifference. Although an Australian Law Reform Commission report into ACT domestic violence had been launched in 1984, reform campaigner and later Domestic Violence Crisis Service manager Dennise Simpson said the murders were a "shocking eye-opener" to the wider Canberra community. Advocates for principals and parents said there was no call for extra security measures after threats were made to eight Canberra schools last week. Thousands of students and staff were temporarily evacuated after the threats made on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a teen was arrested on Thursday in relation to the hoax threat made to Calwell High School. Police investigations were continuing into the source of the other threats, although they were understood to be part of an international hoax. ACT police outside Canberra's Lanyon High School on Tuesday after a bomb threat. Credit:Rohan Thomson ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations vice-president Vivienne Pearce said there had been a general view the threats had been handled well by schools, police and the education directorate, and anecdotally parents had no criticism of security measures in place. "There's been an annoyance that an important start to the year, especially for kids starting primary school or high school, has had the disruption and the waste of time on what was essentially a prank, a joke," she said. A Royalla resident whose new home is hit by glare for hours each night has warned those in Williamsdale not to expect approval conditions to stop solar farm reflection. The warnings came just weeks after the Spanish energy giant behind the Royalla solar station near Tuggeranong revealed they had sold their interest to investment management company Dutch Infrastructure Fund. The Royalla solar farm as seen from Jennifer Howlett's property, across the Monaro Highway, in March 2014. Credit:Karleen Minney Jennifer Howlett has lived at Royalla for 37 years and said the glare problems from the 20-megawatt farm, which impact on views from both her heritage-listed and nearby new home, had not improved since she first spoke out nearly two years ago. "I won't be moving to the new house I was planning to, basically I just didn't want to have to look at the glare every day," she said. "Crown Melbourne has a long standing and close working relationship with Victoria Police and other law enforcement agencies, who value Crown's work in identifying criminals and bringing them to justice," she said. Crown said its security unit received a citation from Victoria Police for its assistance and "substantial contribution" to a major drug operation in 2015. But the ABC's Four Corners program recently revealed Crown had hosted Wei Seng "Paul" Phua, a Malaysian high-roller and gambling industry magnate with links to Asian crime syndicate the 14K Triad, as recently as last month. In another major incident, high roller Peter Tan Hoang was murdered in 2014 in the wake of an investigation into an international drug and money laundering syndicate that saw more than $1 billion in suspect cash pass through Crown Casino over a 10-year period to 2012. An investigation by The Sunday Age has also found that large quantities of Crown's gaming chips are being seized during drug trafficking investigations, pointing to a strong, long-term link between organised crime, money laundering and legalised gambling. Police raids on a major drug syndicate uncovered more than $4 million in proceeds of crime, including at least $600,000 in casino chips "derived from the sale of heroin", a court was told last year. In 2014, Victoria Police's Operation Volante seized another $600,000 in chips after smashing a 26-person drug ring that had amassed more than $10 million in property assets, cash and luxury goods. A dealer pulled over during a traffic stop was also found carrying heroin, ice, $5365 in cash and $5300 in chips. Another drug raid uncovered two chips worth $5000 each. Sources say that gaming chips are used like a de facto currency that is very hard for police to trace but widely accepted among underworld figures. "Chips are basically cash," a source said. "You can carry around a huge stack of bills to make up $25,000 or you can put a handful of chips in your pocket." "Which one do you think is easier to hide or explain to the police or tax office why you have it?" The chips can be used to conceal illicit income, trade for drugs, make loans and pay debts. In one case, an offender transferred $300,000 into a Crown betting account in defiance of a court freezing order and had the sum converted to chips. "He said that he used about 80 per cent of the $300,000 to pay debts, apparently for drugs and gambling, and that he used the rest for living expenses and $5000 for personal gambling," the Supreme Court of Victoria heard last year. A man once even attempted to hire a hitman using a $1000 casino chip as a deposit on the contract killing of his wife. Loan sharking operations linked to and based at the casino are often cited as a reason problem gamblers become criminals. In the case heard by Judge McInerney, the court was told that one of the offenders had visited Crown on 529 days in less than three years, where her gambling problems led to a $50,000 debt to loan sharks and then involvement in the drug trade. A $31,000 casino debt has also been attributed to a man's decision to become a "crop sitter" for a marijuana operation. A Swinburne University study found gambling debts incurred via loan sharks operating at Crown has been a major influence in driving a spike in drug-trafficking crimes for Vietnamese women in Melbourne. Despite these kinds of incidents, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation gave Crown a clean bill of health in the latest review of the casino's operations, in 2013. "The VCGLR is of the view that since 2008 Crown Melbourne Limited has managed the issues arising from criminal activity at the Melbourne Casino well," the agency said. Government regulations that classify gambling winnings as legitimate, tax-free income is also being exploited by underworld figures to launder money. Illicit cash exchanged for chips on gaming tables can be, ultimately, claimed back in the form of a cheque or bank transfer, making it "clean" money. Crown Casino provides cheques upon request for gambling winnings valued at more than $5000. As to Kim Beazley, who has just returned from six years as our man in Washington, TFF dined with him and our wives on Tuesday at Machiavelli and he is in fine form, considering his next step. At 67 he has declined an approach from several people in WA to re-enter federal politics, and will put his considerable energies into academe, various boards, and perhaps, the speaking circuit. His major passion remains the Australian-American alliance. The equaliser Too long for quotes, but too strong to leave out, here is Senator Penny Wong, in an essay on how Australia's attitudes towards gay marriage and gay parents have changed for the better. "I can sense change ... in the thoughtful messages my partner, Sophie, and I received on the birth of our daughters; in the kindness of strangers stopping me in the street to ask after our family; in the attitudes of a man in work gear, extending a calloused hand, telling me how wonderful it is to be a parent, and a woman in the market handing our four-year old another biscotti ..." She also took direct aim, however, at those who still don't get it. "The 'think of the children' argument is among the most hurtful in the marriage equality debate. It posits that gay and lesbian relationships harm children, that gay and lesbian parents are bad parents." Bravo. They said it... "I went off the rails." Nene King, giving evidence in the County Court trial of her former friend, Colin Hahne, who she accuses of taking more than $40,000 from her in 2009, about her life after her husband was killed. "Sending 90 children to dangers of Nauru is child abuse. This is a big test for Malcolm Turnbull, will he authorise it or do the right thing?" Tweet from Senator Sarah Hanson-Young about the refugees, including babies and children, being sent back to Nauru. "That is this huge cloud hanging over him. That he will be returned to an absolutely traumatic and devastating environment for him." Paediatrician Karen Zwi, risking prison time to reveal the traumatic case of a five-year-old boy threatened with being sent back to Nauru, where his alleged rapist is still being held. "We hardly ever see young children and adolescents so traumatised by life that they would want to take their own life. But in Nauru and in detention centres where kids have been kept, sometimes for most of their life, we see very young children who just can't take it any more and try to kill themselves or wanting to hurt themselves, or saying things like, 'I may as well just jump off the roof'." Paediatrician Hasantha Gunasekera, also in contravention of the Border Force Act, which stipulates that anyone working in an immigration facility faces up to two years imprisonment for publicly revealing the goings on inside the centres. "Quite frankly, I was shocked and surprised." Sussan Ley, Minister for Sports, about finding out that in many sports, female athletes travel economy class and stay in lower cost accommodation than male athletes, who travel in business class. "[A double-dissolution is a] live option." Malcolm Turnbull to Coalition MPs. "And the Prime Minister is considering a double disillusion . . ." The admirable Carrie Bickmore, on The Project. "You know, if it gets a little boring, if I see people starting to sort of, maybe thinking about leaving, I can sort of tell the audience, I just say, 'We will build the wall!' and they go nuts!" Donald Trump on what gets his supporters going. "He's on a horse that's bolted and he might need to perform an awkward dismount." A Liberal MP, feeling that Scott Morrison is stuck on increasing the GST and will have to back down soon. "Many of us are at the end of our tether as a result of what seems like the government's intention to send children to Nauru. So we're reinventing, or rediscovering, or reintroducing, the ancient concept of sanctuary as a last-ditch effort to offer some sense of hope to those who must be feeling incredibly hopeless." The Anglican Dean of Brisbane, the Reverend Dr Peter Catt, saying he was opening up St John's Cathedral in Brisbane to the asylum seekers faced with being sent back to Nauru this week. "Let's drop the bull shit not allowing deaths at sea = compassion. Slowly driving refugees to insanity and suicide also = compassion. OMG" Veteran political journalist Paul Bongiorno tweets. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has asked for legal advice on the implications of a United Nations report that found Julian Assange had been "arbitrarily detained" since his arrest in 2010. A UN panel has called on the Swedish and British authorities to end the "deprivation of liberty" of the Australian-born Wikileaks founder who has spent 44 months living in a single room in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Mr Assange's lawyers met Ms Bishop a day before the UN working group's decision was released and later called on Australia to release his passport or immediately issue him a new passport. NSW school children are facing unprecedented hurdles to get into ethics classes in schools, the state's provider of ethics classes has warned. For the first time this year parents of kindergarten students do not have to be informed of the availability of ethics classes by the school principals until after they have been through at least four different steps. "It's blatant discrimination based on religious grounds," said the chairman of Primary Ethics, Bruce Hogan. New department guidelines say parents who leave their child's religious persuasion blank on the enrolment form should first be sent a letter by the principal advising them of all the religious education options available at the school. If parents choose not to select a religious denomination, their child will then be engaged in "meaningful activities" such as sitting in the library. Only then will they be informed of the availability of ethics classes and formally able to enroll. Queensland has now confirmed two cases of Zika virus as health officials in some infected countries advise women to delay falling pregnant. A child who recently returned to Brisbane from Samoa with its family after a holiday is the second confirmed case of the virus in 24 hours. Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young said the child had presented to a Brisbane hospital and the result had come through on Saturday morning. A woman is recovering from Zika on the Gold Coast after returning from El Salvador in Central America where the mosquito-borne virus is spreading quickly. Tattoo licence refusals and revocations for aspiring and established ink artists have more than doubled as NSW Police use the sector as a tool to crack down on bikie gangs. Workers in other industries declared vulnerable to bikie infiltration including tow truck and security have also been denied the opportunity to work because of deemed links to outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs). A patched Rebels member who was among riders protesting bikie laws at Parliament House in Canberra in December 2014. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Between 2014 and last year, the number of tattoo licences, for both operators and artists, increased twofold. It comes as police continue their assault on the OMCGs, including the Rebels bikie fraternity. Its long-time leader was exiled in Malta in 2014 as a result. The sign on the stairs as you walk into the Gold Coast Surfing History Museum at Currumbin tells you a lot. "The clique became a cult and the cult became a culture." Gold Coast surfing legend Cheyne Horan at the official endorsement and release of the Gold Coast Surf Management Plan. Credit:Michelle Smith But it doesn't tell you everything it should. It doesn't tell you that the Gold Coast community as stewards of the waves that roll ashore each day and every night - has done something that no one else in the world has ever achieved. The ratings war is only just beginning between Seven and Nine news, and the troops on at least one side of the battle are already becoming fatigued. While those at Nine still seem happy doing the victory dance, reports from inside the newsroom at Seven reveal frosty relationships and a team worried about the future. Bill McDonald and Sharyn Ghidella of Seven News Brisbane. Credit:Seven Network Once able to boast of being South-east Queensland's most watched television news service, Seven News has slowly seen the audience slip away. After eight years of dominating the ratings, 2013 saw Seven slip behind in the Monday to Friday ratings race against Nine while still winning the timeslot across seven days. Black Saturday victims say they feel left in the dark by law firm Maurice Blackburn after it confirmed payouts from the record $494 million class-action settlement would be delayed until next year. Victorians affected by the 2009 disaster, which claimed the lives of 173 people, were supposed to receive compensation by July this year, but due to the complexity of the case may now have to wait until early 2017. Suzi Kerr and Denis Spooner on the track that Denis used to escape the fire that claimed the life of his wife and son. Credit:Josh Robenstone Strathewen man Denis Spooner, who lost wife Marilyn and son Damien in the fires, said the news was a huge blow to him and his partner, Suzi Kerr, a fellow bushfire survivor. Four people have been injured, two seriously, following a hit-and-run in Melbourne's west on Friday night. Victoria Police spokeswoman Lee Thomson said it was believed a group of two men and two women had a fight with a man driving a white SUV in Main Road West about 11.30pm. "Police have been told the four St Albans residents were struck by the vehicle as the man left," Leading Senior Constable Thomson said. "He was last seen fleeing east along Main Road West." Leading Senior Constable Thomson said a 52-year-old man and a 38-year-old man were taken to hospital with serious injuries. A 57-year-old woman and a 28-year-old woman were treated by paramedics at the scene for minor injuries. Police "Brimbank Highway Patrol members are appealing for witnesses following an incident in St Albans last night," she said. Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said emergency services were called to the scene about 11pm. But it was far too late for apologies; Rukundo called the police. The husband, Balenga Kalala, ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for incitement to murder. Balenga Kalala is facing nine years behind bars. Credit:Facebook: Balenga Kalala The happy ending - or, as happy as can be expected to a saga in which a man tries to have his wife killed - was made possible by three unusually principled hit men, a helpful pastor and one incredibly gutsy woman: Rukundo herself. Here is how she pulled it off. Noela Rukundo Credit:Washington Post Rukundo's ordeal began almost exactly a year ago, when she flew from her home in Melbourne with her husband, Kalala, to attend a funeral in her native Burundi. Her stepmother had died and the service left her saddened and stressed. She retreated to her hotel room in Bujumbura, the capital, early in the evening; despondent after the events of the day, she lay down in bed. Then her husband called. "He told me to go outside for fresh air," she told the BBC. But the minute Rukundo stepped out of her hotel, a man charged forward, pointing a gun right at her. "Don't scream," she recalled him saying. "If you start screaming, I will shoot you. They're going to catch me, but you? You will already be dead." Rukundo, terrified, did as she was told. She was ushered into a car and blindfolded so she couldn't see where she was being taken. After 30 or 40 minutes, the car came to a stop, and Rukundo was pushed into a building and tied to a chair. She could hear male voices, she told the ABC. One asked her, "You woman, what did you do for this man to pay us to kill you?" "What are you talking about?" Rukundo demanded. "Balenga sent us to kill you." They were lying. She told them so. And they laughed. "You're a fool," they told her. There was the sound of a dial tone, and a male voice coming through a speakerphone. It was her husband's voice. "Kill her," he said. And Rukundo fainted. Rukundo had met her husband 11 years earlier, right after she arrived in Australia from Burundi, according to the BBC. He was a recent refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and they had the same social worker at the resettlement agency that helped them get on their feet. Since Kalala already knew English, their social worker often recruited him to translate for Rukundo, who spoke Swahili. They fell in love, moved in together in the Melbourne suburb of Kings Park, and had three children (Rukundo also had five kids from a previous relationship). She learned more about her husband's past - he had fled a rebel army that had ransacked his village, killing his wife and young son. She also learned more about his character. "I knew he was a violent man," Rukundo told the BBC. "But I didn't believe he can kill me." But, it appeared, he could. Rukundo came to in the strange building somewhere near Bujumbura. The kidnappers were still there, she told the ABC. They weren't going to kill her, the men then explained - they didn't believe in killing women, and they knew her brother. But they would keep her husband's money and tell him that she was dead. After two days, they set her free on the side of a road, but not before giving her a mobile phone, recordings of their phone conversations with Kalala, and receipts for the $7,000 in Australian dollars they allegedly received in payment. "We just want you to go back, to tell other stupid women like you what happened," Rukundo said she was told before the gang members drove away. Shaken, but alive and doggedly determined, Rukundo began plotting her next move. She sought help from the Kenyan and Belgian embassies to return to Australia. Then she called the pastor of her church in Melbourne, she told the BBC, and explained to him what had happened. Without alerting Kalala, the pastor helped her get back home to her neighbourhood near Melbourne. Meanwhile, her husband had told everyone she had died in a tragic accident and the entire community mourned her at her funeral at the family home. On the night of February 22, 2015, just as the widower Kalala waved goodbye to neighbours who had come to comfort him, Rukundo approached him, the very man whose voice she'd heard over the phone five days earlier, ordering that she be killed. "I felt like somebody who had risen again," she told the BBC. Though Kalala initially denied all involvement, Rukundo got him to confess to the crime during a phone conversation that was secretly recorded by police. "Sometimes Devil can come into someone, to do something, but after they do it they start thinking, 'Why I did that thing?' later," he said, as he begged her to forgive him. Kalala eventually pleaded guilty to the scheme. He was sentenced to nine years in prison by a judge in Melbourne. "Had Ms Rukundo's kidnappers completed the job, eight children would have lost their mother," Chief Justice Marilyn Warren said, according to the ABC. "It was premeditated and motivated by unfounded jealousy, anger and a desire to punish Ms. Rukundo." Rukundo said that Kalala tried to kill her because he thought she was going to leave him for another man - an accusation she denies. But her trials are not yet over. Rukundo told the ABC she's gotten backlash from Melbourne's Congolese community for reporting Kalala to the police. Someone left threatening messages for her, and she returned home one day to find her back door broken. She now has eight children to raise alone, and has asked the Department of Human Services to help her find a new place to live. It seems the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will now take place on TripAdvisor as well as at the UN Security Council. A Jewish man running past the commercial centre of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Eli this week. Credit:Washington Post A few weeks ago, Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, sent a terse letter to Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky in San Francisco, warning that his company was "effectively promoting the illegal Israeli colonisation of occupied land". Airbnb said in a statement to the Associated Press that it "follows law and regulations where it can do business". The West Bank Jewish settlement of Eli last week. Credit:Washington Post So what did some Jewish settlers with an extra bedroom do? "Ever since the Palestinians starting complaining, our people took this as a challenge and have been rushing to Airbnb to list their properties," said Miri Maoz-Ovadia, a spokeswoman for the Binyamin Regional Council. Eliana Passentin with her children Yael (bottom) and Eitan (top) in the living room of her bed and breakfast 'Warm Home with a Breathtaking View' which is advertised on Airbnb international home-sharing site and rental listings service. Credit:Washington Post She represents the municipal body for 42 Jewish settlements and outposts in the hills of the West Bank north of Jerusalem - communities that the PLO says violate the Geneva Conventions. There are about 400,000 Jewish settlers today in the West Bank and more than 200 Israeli bed and breakfast operations registered in what Israel calls "Judea and Samaria". The Jewish settlements had 500,000 tourists last year, Maoz-Ovadia said. About 80 per cent were Israelis, the rest were international visitors, many evangelical pilgrims and biblical tourists, she said. "You can't boycott 4000 years of Judeo-Christian history," she said, although the current wave of stabbings and shootings by Palestinians - and lethal live-fire countermeasures by Israeli armed forces - has had an impact. Tourism in Jewish settlements in the West Bank is down. Erekat charged that Airbnb was propping up the "Israeli settlement-industrial complex". The Palestinians also say the Airbnb advertisements can be misleading, failing to warn potential guests the properties are not inside Israel but in the occupied West Bank. The listings are accompanied by a Google map, but critics wonder if foreign visitors realise that those dashes on the map are the Green Line, marking Israel's pre-1967 borders and the land the Palestinians want for a future state. "The majority don't ask," said Canaan, the host with the view, who offers his visitors dates and almonds. "They either know, or they say, 'Ah, so these are the settlements!'" In the reviews left by Airbnb guests, only a few grouse about the properties being in settlements - although some raise an eyebrow. At a place near the Dead Sea rented by a person called Gila, famous for her cute little dog and fruit salad, the guest Maria wrote: "I was a little taken aback at having to go through a security checkpoint to get here, but I shouldn't have worried." Canaan believes the whole thing is the work of the global campaign known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a movement to isolate Israel to pressure it to end the occupation, among other things. "I don't think the Palestinians really care. It's a campaign by ultra-leftists from abroad fighting for the Palestinians," he said. "They don't have a case." Canaan conceded business has been a bit slow, but he blamed winter weather and the recent stabbings. "But not here," he was quick to add. "There's no Palestinians here. Just Bedouins and Israelis." (Palestinians are generally not allowed by the Israelis to build in Area C of the West Bank, where Canaan lives). He called his community "safer than Jerusalem". Scrolling through Airbnb listings in the Jewish settlements of the West Bank, a potential guest can choose among stunning vacation villas set in the wine country and caravans perched on muddy hilltops. Some of the offerings are in Jewish settlements that are apolitical suburbs; others are hardcore. Included in the mix are some apartments in Shilo, where tradition says the Ark of the Covenant once rested, and Ofra, one of the first Jewish settlements built in the early 1970s, home to Yehuda Etzion, who plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock, one of Islam's most famous shrines in Jerusalem. Up north in the settlement of Esh Kodesh, reached by Vineyard View Road (mostly off-limits to Palestinians), Inbal Zeev was tidying up her family's rental cottage overlooking a valley of grape vines slumbering in the winter chill. "We've had just one foreign visitor, a gentleman from South Africa, about a month ago. Before, we rented through word of mouth. We never thought of advertising," she said. "But when someone told me that BDS was pressuring Airbnb, we decided to register." Their cabin is all warm wood and plasma-screen TVs, with a Jacuzzi for mom and dad and a second bedroom with bunks and cribs, enough to sleep eight kids at least. (Settlers and Orthodox Jews have big families.) Her Airbnb listing describes its location as "Shilo, Jerusalem District, Israel", which is a bit of a stretch. But not to Zeev. "I don't see this as Palestinian land. It's Israel," she said. Esh Kodesh sits uneasily alongside the Palestinian village of Qusra, where farmers, shopkeepers and construction workers have instituted civilian night patrols, with clubs and flashlights, to defend themselves against settlers. In nearby Duma, Jewish extremists are alleged to have killed a Palestinian infant and his parents in a nighttime arson attack. "We throw stones. They throw stones. Then the army comes out and fires flares and tells us to go home," said Mohammad Hassan, a young Palestinian farmer. In the past few weeks, Palestinians have attacked inside Jewish settlements for the first time since 2011, when five members of the Fogel family were killed in nearby Itamar. Zeev said her family now locks doors and windows at night. She recommends that guests who really want to understand the beauty, the spirituality and the reality of this place come and spend a few nights. When Jabiry left last summer, he said, "I was thinking, 'I have no job here, and I never finished school'. I thought of a better future there - that I would find a better job, that I could continue my studies, earn more money." Muntadher Tareef, left, and Hosham Hassen want to return to Iraq after about five months in Finland. Credit:New York Times He added: "I was crying the first day I arrived in Finland. Crying of happiness". As the days stretched into months - time he said he mostly spent working out at the gym, or aimlessly hanging out with other Iraqis in the refugee centre - he realised it would be a long time before he could get a job or a home of his own. Iraqi forensic team members at the site of a mass grave in Ramadi last week. Credit:AP Last summer, Facebook was filled with posts about making the trip. Now, some Iraqis in Europe are turning to social media to warn their countrymen away. One video posted recently shows an Iraqi man complaining of the food in Europe and saying, "I'm just waiting for my flight to Baghdad, and I will be back soon. I would advise everyone not to take the risk and come to Europe". The International Organisation for Migration said it helped almost 3500 Iraqis return home last year - just a portion of the overall number coming back, as many do so with the assistance of local governments or Iraqi embassies in European countries. Iraqi refugees in Macedonia walking towards the Serbian border last week. Credit:AP "Since early 2016, requests for more assistance are increasing," said Thomas Weiss, the organisation's chief of mission in Iraq. The Iraqi government recently sent a delegation to Europe to organise the return of Iraqis, and it may send chartered airplanes to bring them back. "There are large numbers of Iraqi migrants who want to return from Europe," said Satar Nawrooz, the spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Migration and Displacement. "Some want to return for personal reasons, others because their applications for residency have been refused or because of the expensive living conditions. We are not able to count them all because a lot return on their own expense and not that of the ministry." Many of those returning to Iraq are also broke, having sold most of their belongings to pay smugglers to get them out of Turkey, on a dangerous sea voyage, to Greece. "Our dream was to leave the country," said Haitham Abdulatif, 48, who sold his Mercedes for $US8000 ($11,100) to pay for the trip he took with his 10-year-old daughter. "It was the talk everywhere - on TV, on social media." Abdulatif was an officer in Saddam Hussein's army, but after the invasion by the United States in 2003, and the subsequent policy of de-Baathification, he was left without a pension. Then he was caught up in tragedy, like most Iraqis: Three brothers were killed during the sectarian civil war. But he has an aunt and cousin who live in the US, and their stories motivated him to think of life elsewhere. "They would always describe to me how living outside the country was different from living in Iraq," he said. "They are comfortable. They are safe. There are job opportunities." He arrived in Belgium with this in mind: "I was expecting them to give me a house, a good job, so I could have a better life. This is what I was dreaming about." The reality, he said, was very different. He quickly spent the $US8000 he brought, mostly paying smugglers, and found himself almost broke. He hated the food (milk and toast for breakfast, he said, and cheese sandwiches for lunch). And obtaining residency and finding a decent job would take months, he said. Finally, he went to the camp authorities and said, "I want to go to Iraq". "They were surprised," he said. "But I told them I'd rather die in my country than die outside in a strange country." Many Iraqis, too, did not count on the difficulty of landing in a liberal, European society from a conservative Arab culture. "I felt like I couldn't live in an open society," said Aqeed Hassan, 26, who plays the clarinet and, back in Baghdad after going to Finland, is trying to get a job in a military band. "My wife has her head covered, and I didn't feel like they liked Arabs." Still, Jabiry said that at first he was treated warmly, though also as a curiosity. "In the early days when we arrived, the people were impressed with us," he said. "They were taking pictures of us, inviting us into their homes. They liked our brown skin and our dark hair." After the attacks in Paris, though, many Europeans began to regard the migrants as a security threat. "They turned their faces away from us," he said. "I felt like the Finnish people really didn't want us anymore." He said he was not pushed to leave by the Finnish authorities, but he did notice signs that went up in the refugee centre where he lived saying that Finland would pay for plane tickets to go home. Some Iraqis who returned had fond memories of their brush with European culture, and few regrets for at least trying a new life. "It was very green and clean," Abdulatif said. "It was beautiful. Even the people's morals - they all respected us. Everyone said 'bonjour' to me every morning. Marco Rubio, with back to camera, autographs a Time magazine with his image on the cover. Credit:Reuters Indeed swoon is a term you often hear associated with Rubio. "When Marco Rubio speaks, young women swoon, old women faint and toilets flush themselves," Dan Gelber, a prominent Democratic politician in Rubio's home state of Florida once told colleagues, The New Yorker recently reported. Marco Rubio holds up his son Anthony while his wife Jeanette looks on after announcing his run for the Republican presidential nomination. He is in many ways a traditional Republican. Credit:AP Three nights later Senator Ted Cruz beat the favourite Trump, but the story of the night was Rubio's surge. He smashed all expectations to secure 23 per cent of the vote, just a single percentage point behind Trump. And so the swooning broke out again. This time it was the Republican establishment and sympathetic media. For months the GOP and its donor class have stood by helpless as Trump and Cruz hijacked their primary election, sweeping aside all the candidates they had expected to dominate the race men like Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, John Kasich and Chris Christie. Marco Rubio waits to speak at a caucus site in Clive, Iowa, on Monday. Credit:Paul Sancya Fear and loathing turned to outright panic after Christmas when it started to dawn on them that one of these two outsiders might win the nomination and stuff up their plans for the presidential election. Finally though Rubio appeared to have broken away from the pack of second-tier candidates and taken the fight to Cruz and Trump. This was a man they could work with, a man who could even beat Hillary Clinton the candidate they expect to face in the November presidential election. Marco Rubio acknowledges the crowd after addressing supporters at a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday. Credit:Getty Images The party elders did not fall in behind Rubio when he launched his campaign last year because it was not his turn. Rubio, now 44, was a freshman senator from Florida who had been mentored by Jeb Bush, and this was Bush's year. Everyone said so. The party elders said so and so did donors, who poured $US100 million ($140 million) into Bush's campaign in the opening weeks in a bid to warn off other challengers. Marco Rubio speaks as Jeb Bush, left, listens during a debate of Republican presidential hopefuls at the University of Colorado in Boulder in October. Credit:New York Times But outside the party dispassionate observers always thought Rubio was a likely contender. All last year PredictWise, which aggregates polling and betting market data, considered Rubio to be the eventual Republican nominee. And it is not so hard to see why, especially when you compare Rubio's perceived strengths and weaknesses with Jeb Bush's and Clinton's. By simply appearing on stage he makes the case for generational change. As a Cuban American he is a rebuke to those who claim that the Republican Party has become the last redoubt for angry white America. He is articulate and charismatic in public, smart and nimble in debate, engaged and compelling in his Senate committee work. And where Bush seems to sometimes bore even himself on the hustings, pure ambition shivers about Rubio's person. He might not enjoy the benefits of the Bush family's enormous political machine, but nor is he encumbered by the legacy of George W. Bush's disastrous invasion of Iraq. Unlike both Bush and Clinton, Rubio is free of the taint of dynasty. Rubio by inclination, by resume and by circumstance, appears to straddle the divides that have torn apart his party. He is a product of both the Tea Party revolution that swept the nation after the election of Barack Obama and the Republican establishment of Florida. There are those though who worry that he might too easily shift from one shape to the next. As he moves onto the centre stage of the Republican campaign, this mercurial quality of Rubio's is coming into sharper focus. Rubio burst onto the national political stage in 2010 when he won a Senate seat that party elders had set aside for a former governor. In his victory speech he declared: "No matter where I go or what title I may achieve, I will always be the son of exiles." Rubio understood America's greatness, he said, because the nation had given a home to millions of Cubans who fled Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba and let them prosper in freedom. It was a year or so before investigative reporters discovered this was not quite true, even though it was the story that Rubio had always told as he made his way up through the ranks in Florida. The Washington Post managed to dig up the Rubio family's naturalisation papers. It turned out his family had arrived in the US two years before Castro took power. This meant the family had fled the Batista regime, not Castro's. To understand the significance about this you need to know a little about Florida politics. Cuba's exile community settled around Miami after the revolution and soon dominated local politics. After that the community spread its reach and took power in the State House in Tallahassee. This gave them outsized power in Washington DC, because Florida is the largest swing state in the nation. Their significance was amplified by Cuba's central role in the Cold War. But the Cubans who shaped Miami's politics were exiles of Castro, rather than economic refugees of Batista's Cuba. This had political and class implications. The exiles tended to be richer, whiter, more reliably conservative. When this contradiction was revealed Rubio said he had simply misunderstood the family's oral history. "I don't buy that and no one buys that," Alfredo Jose Estrada, editor of Latino magazine, told Politico recently. "We know when we left and why. To the day and to the minute and what we took with us and what fit into that suitcase. It's part of the Cuban exile mythology. It defines us as Cuban exiles." In America Rubio's parents worked hard in low-paid jobs and eventually prospered. Rubio himself recalls being an indifferent high school student, but he became politically active early. As a 21-year old student he volunteered in the office of the Cuban-American state senator Lincoln Diaz-Balart during his first Congressional race and in 1996 as a law graduate Rubio found work in a law firm run by Bush ally Al Cardenas, a central figure in the Cuban-American political scene. By 2000 Rubio landed a seat in the Florida House of Representatives and graduated, in Gelber's words, from being a foot soldier to a lieutenant in the army of then governor Jeb Bush. As a representative Rubio became known for his efforts to soften tough state anti-immigration legislation, and for his energetic and creative gerrymandering while serving on a boundaries committee. He built on his close relationship with Bush, who in 2005 presented him with a ceremonial sword and anointed him as the next Speaker of the House, the first Cuban American to hold that position. "I'm going to bestow to you the sword of a great conservative warrior," he said, as a crowd of Republican faithful cheered. In 2010 he fought the former Florida governor for a vacant Senate seat. During this contest Rubio abandoned his progressive immigration stances to fall in line with the prevailing hardline mood among the nascent far-right Tea Party movement. It worked, and upon his victory the Weekly Standard, the journal of the neoconservative movement, anointed him as the important incoming conservative. A recent New Yorker profile of him entitled The Opportunist notes that one Latino activist group ran a campaign the motto "No Somos Rubios" (We're not Rubios). But even this position was to change again. Shocked by the party's second loss to Obama in the 2012 presidential race Republican strategists identified the party's poor standing among America's Latino community as a long-term existential threat. For the first time in a generation it appeared there was significant bipartisan support for sweeping immigration reform that would include a "pathway to citizenship" for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US. Rubio spied a way to attach his name to significant legislation and joined the so-called "gang of eight" Congress members championing the package. It didn't work out. A wave of unaccompanied children driven from their homes due to gang violence in central America hit the southern border fuelling right-wing fears of a tide of unregulated immigration, even though statistics showed undocumented movement across the border to be at near record lows. Ted Cruz harnessed the anger and led a campaign against the reform that swept up the angry Republican base. Rubio dropped the reform and has been distancing himself from it ever since. In matters of faith though Rubio has found himself more in line with the insurgent right. Baptised a Catholic; Rubio abandoned the Church as a teenager to become a Mormon when his family moved for a time to Nevada, before returning to it as a young man. These days he attends an evangelical Protestant service on Saturdays and a Catholic Mass on Sundays. He has been an outspoken opponent of abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, Though he presents himself as an agent of generational change, Rubio's politics in Congress have proved to be more in line with the recent past. His policies are largely in line with George W. Bush's, but more to the right. Rubio soon secured a seat on the Senate foreign relations committee a plum post for a man wanting to establish himself as a presidential contender. On the committee he has been a consistent voice in support of Israel's Likud government and for aggressive US military action in both the Middle East and Ukraine, positions that place him firmly within the neoconservative movement. He has taken policy advice from champions of the Iraq War, including the Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and another leading neocon intellectual, Robert Kagan. Rubio advocates cutting the number of tax brackets from seven to two and reducing the tax rate for those in the higher tier. According to Politifact the effect would be to direct 55 per cent of all new income gains to the top 20 per cent of Americans. In keeping with current Republican orthodoxy he would abolish the Affordable Care Act, rejects action on climate change and is steadfastly opposed to any form of gun control. Despite the clear evidence of his overwhelming ambition, Rubio's announcement last April that he was standing for president raised eyebrows. Bush had been his mentor, and now the Cuban-American political machine in Florida was going to have to take sides. "Marco was a bright young man, at a time when no Cuban Americans had been elected, Jeb was our ambassador. Jeb was our ombudsman with Washington from early on. People don't forget that ... You could say that anyone in office in Florida today from their 30s to their 60s has a debt to Jeb Bush," the regional kingmaker Al Cardenas told Politico. Many stuck by Bush at first, but Jeb's campaign has caused despondency. In the early debates the two were wary of attacking one another. Rubio stuck to constant reminders that he was the future rather than direct assaults on his mentor. That time has passed, and when they have tussled recently, Rubio has won. In one recent debate exchange Bush limply condemned Rubio for failing to attend key Senate votes while campaigning for the presidential nomination. Bush watched awkwardly as Rubio demolished him before a cheering audience. "The only reason you're [attacking me] is because we're running for the same position. Someone convinced you attacking me is going to help you," he said. As Trump began to surge in polls last summer Republican elders reassured themselves that the infatuation with the showman would blow itself out. It never did. Trump continued to soar through autumn and winter and Bush's numbers slipped from low double to single digits. He failed to crack 3 per cent support in Iowa. As the decline continued serious attention began to quietly shift to Rubio. He assiduously courted big donors like Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate concerned with smashing union power and entrenching support for Israel, and the Koch brothers, the industrialists who champion deregulation and shackling of the Environmental Protection Agency. Rubio is now said to be winning what are known as the Adelson and Koch primaries. He has secured more endorsements from fellow members of Congress than any other candidate a measure that is often a telling predictor of the eventual nomination outcome. The Clinton camp is watching with trepidation. "There is no question that Rubio is the Republican that Democrats fear most," the former White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote for CNN. "He is a skilled messenger and could very credibly run a change v more of the same campaign against Clinton. "Rubio is also the most broadly appealing GOP candidate and would have the best shot to close the non-white vote gap with the Democrats." A December MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll found that Clinton led when matched against all the Republican candidates, but her margin against Rubio three points among all voters, 19 points among Latinos was the lowest. Tuesday's New Hampshire primary has become critical. Trump is still streets ahead in the polls and is expected to win. Rubio is now leading Cruz though. And if the party's establishment candidates Bush, Kasich and Christie are to survive to fight on into the spring, they are going to have to do far better than they did in Iowa. If they don't pressure will begin to mount for them to fall in behind Rubio. It is hard to imagine how Bush feels about his former protege, but it is clear that Rubio is wasting little time thinking of the feelings of his political godfather. Washington: The Obama administration is preparing for possible air drops of humanitarian relief over besieged areas of Syria, where hundreds of thousands of people have been cut off for months from food and medicine and are at risk of starvation. Administration officials emphasised that air-dropped relief is only in the planning stages and has not yet been approved. But US forces, who have conducted similar operations in northern Iraq and Syria, could move within days to implement a decision. Syrians walk towards the Turkish border crossing, after fleeing the bombing in Aleppo. Credit:AP US and coalition aircraft began bombing Islamic State-held areas elsewhere in Syria 18 months ago. But approval of the air-drop plan, while a non-combat operation, would mark the first time American planes have flown directly into the contested areas of Syria's civil war. Consideration of the effort comes as a blizzard of Russian air strikes in and around the city of Aleppo this week have cut rebel and humanitarian supply lines from Turkey. United Nations efforts to deliver relief on the ground to besieged areas have been slowed to a trickle. UN-led peace talks, including a ceasefire, were suspended Wednesday in Geneva. Ressurection walked the line between metal, noise, and hardcore in the 90s, carving out a distinct path before succumbing to the success of vocalist Rob Fish's (then) new project 108. The band's catalog has been given a once over by the venerable Kurt Ballou for the previously discussed I Am Not: The Discography and the results are astonishing. Stream "Culture" below and "Build" at Deathwish who breathe new life (get it?) into the I Refuse material that first surfaced via New Age Records. Deathwish says "A release date and Pre-ordering information will be announced shortly." A former member of the hard-core punk band the Cro-Mags attacked two of the group's current members with a hunting knife in a dressing room before a show at Webster Hall yesterday -- biting one and slashing both. The band was about to take the stage about 8:15 p.m. when tattooed rocker Harley Flanagan, 42, barreled through the East Village venue's VIP section toward the Cro-Mags' dressing room, sending nearly 30 guests on the balcony into a frenzy, law enforcement sources and witnesses said. "Someone was yelling, 'Get his hands, get his hands, he's got a knife!' " witness Dave Gustav said. "Everything went nuts." Several beefy security guards rushed to contain Flanagan, who seemed about to boil over before he entered the East Village venue. ...Flanagan, the band's former bassist and founder, suffered a broken leg by the time security finally pinned him down, witnesses said. Cops handcuffed him to a chair and took him out. "People started booing him and throwing stuff at him," eyewitness Justin Brannan said. "His hands were handcuffed but he still gave everyone the finger." William Berario, 45, was slashed above the eye and bitten on his cheek. Michael Couls, 33, -- the band's current bassist, who is known in the hardcore world as "The Gook" -- was cut on his arm and stomach. - [NY Post] by Dominick Mastrangelo The Acorn / Emilie & Ogden / Patchostars @ Megaphono 2/2/2016 The second annual Megaphono music festival kicked off earlier this week in Ottawa, Canada. Focusing on the Ottawa music scene, the industry event has brought delegates from North America and abroad in a large swath of capacities from booking agents to publicists, managers to music publishers. And even a photographer from New York. I'll be filing dispatches from the four-day festival here in Canada's capital and we get started with the first day of the festival from Tuesday (2/2). The opening night of Megaphono began in the gorgeous St. Alban's Church and a keynote speech by rock critic Jessica Hopper. Her book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, was released last year. Hopper's keynote address was brief, 20 maybe 25 minutes tops and touched on the state of women, and their treatment, in a male-dominated music industry. Disappointing was the lack of Q&A after the address. The forum to have a conversation was an opportunity lost - especially in the wake of last month's flashpoint and fallout over the Heathcliff Berru allegations - and would have dovetailed nicely with the Safe Spaces panel taking place the next day. The evening's showcase was headlined by The Acorn. Rolf Klausener returned with last year's Vieux Loup and he and his band performed a dreamy set of electro-folk pop numbers and, being the only full band of the night, their sound filled the church as holiday lights adorned the stage at their feet and lights projected overhead danced and into the chapel behind them. The first two bands of the night - both solo artists - were a contrast in styles: the thumping sampled-beats-over-airy-vocals of Pipahauntas (Sam Pippa) and the sparse, lovely melodies of Emilie Khan and her harp, Ogden - together making up the duo Emilie & Ogden. On record Khan's voice and harp playing are complemented by multiple instruments, but at St. Alban's she held the sold-out crowd's attention with just her her voice and instrument. From the church we headed to the later showcases at two venues next door to each other - Black Squirrel Books and The House of Targ - a subterranean dive bar complete with pinball machines and noted for their pierogi (which were excellent.) At Black Squirrel I caught November, the solo project by Gregory-Yves Fenelon, and Heavy Bedroom, a project by Alex Maltby. Heavy Bedroom was tipped as one to see by the locals I had chatted with earlier in the day. I enjoyed their brief set of lo-fi rock with songs that structurally seemed to teeter on the brink of collapse. This was heightened by the slightly rough around the edges performance and the revelation that he had rounded up his drummer and bass player to learn the songs in just three weeks. I finished the evening at House of Targ where I saw solid set by Montreal's Congo-born francophone rapper Patchostars before calling it an early night with panels to attend early the next morning. Stay tuned for more coverage of Megaphono. More pictures from Day 1 are below... --- Jessica Hopper Pipahantas Emilie & Ogden The Acorn November Heavy Bedroom Home bakers are making South Jersey a butter place New Jersey residents are pursuing their cottage food dreams following a year since the state removed its restrictions on selling home-baked goods. State-run BSNL is seeking partnerships with private sector rivals to generate revenue and return to profitability in a couple of years. To improve earnings and cut losses, BSNL has drawn up a strategy to use its underused network and forge agreements with private telecom players. This will also mean minimal capital expenditure, according to a senior BSNL executive. An official of the department of telecommunications said, BSNL wanted to use its network, which is lying vacant at several places, optimally. The latest partnership being planned is with direct-to-home firm Tata Sky to offer BSNL's broadband subscribers video-on-demand. BSNL is also in preliminary discussions with Hathway and Den Cable for similar arrangements. "This has the potential of giving us revenue of Rs 300-400 crore annually," Anupam Shrivastava, chairman and managing director, BSNL, told Business Standard. Experts said the best way out for the loss-making government undertaking was to allow private players to use its nationwide infrastructure and network. Private operators need not set up infrastructure all over again in rural areas. The company will mainly be investing in technology upgrades of its network and in more towers. It is also trying to come up with an attractive voluntary retirement scheme for employees. BSNL is close to signing an agreement with Reliance Jio Infocomm, wherein the Mukesh Ambani company will use BSNL's network and infrastructure for voice services through intra-circle roaming arrangements. "We have done some testing with Reliance Jio. They will use our 2G and 3G networks to offer services to their customers and we are looking to offer 4G services to BSNL customers using their network," Shrivastava said. BSNL is also in talks with Aircel, Airtel and Telenor for similar intra-circle roaming agreements. To share its network for intra-circle roaming, BSNL has fixed charges at 25 paise a minute for voice, 25 paise a megabyte for data and 5 paise per SMS for any telecom operator. Intra-circle roaming could potentially create a revenue stream of Rs 3,000 crore in three years, Shrivastava added. BSNL will come out with expressions of interest next month for a revenue-sharing model to launch 4G services. The services will be launched by the end of this year through partnerships with private network equipment providers, in a deal estimated at about Rs 1,200 crore. BSNL holds spectrum in the 2,500 MHz band in 14 circles, where it will launch 4G services. It has spectrum across India, except in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kolkata, and does not operate in Delhi and Mumbai, where MTNL operates. Recently, the company announced a soft launch of 4G services from Chandigarh with speeds of up to 100 Mbps. The service in Chandigarh is available only to employees, while customers can visit the 4G centre to experience it. After a successful pilot, BSNL aims to get into partnerships with equipment providers. "We will not incur any capital expenditure on launching 4G services. We will go for a revenue sharing model with private equipment players and they will install equipment required for 4G, while we will offer spectrum," Shrivastava said. The focus is now on offering 4G services through Wi-Fi hotspots. "We have set up 620 hotspots, which will be increased to 2,500 by the end of this financial year. By end of the next financial year, we will take the number to 40,000 on a revenue share and capital expenditure model," he added. For BSNL, mobile services contribute Rs 13,500 crore, out of which 10 per cent comes from the data segment. "Data is going to be focus for BSNL and this will enable the revival of the company," he said. "We earn Rs 7,500 crore from broadband services. Going forward, the company expects revenue from combined data and broadband services to at least double to Rs 15,000-16,000 crore in the next two-three years." NEWER AVENUES Coal India Ltd (CIL) subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) has unveiled a Rs 20,000 crore capital expenditure (Capex) plan to reach the envisaged output of 250 million tonne (mt) by 2020. MCL is tipped to be CILs biggest producer, overshooting South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) and accounting for a fourth of CILs estimated production of one billion tonne by 2020. MCL has been given a target to produce 250 mt of coal by 2019-20. For realisation of that target, we are going to open some new mines Garjanbahal and Siarmal in Basundhara area (in Sundargarh district) and Gopalprasad. MCL has an ambitious target of investing Rs 15,000-20,000 crore. Most of the money would be invested on infrastructure creation- on rail network, road network and coal loading systems, MCLs chairman and managing director A K Jha told Business Standard. Siarmal in Sundargarh district will have a production capacity of 50 mnt per year, making it the second biggest coal mine in Asia. The Garjanbahal coal mine would produce 10 mnt. The MCL website informs that there are 18 ongoing coal projects of 151.33 mnt capacity and involving a capital investment of Rs 8315.11 crore. Ananta, Bharatpur, Balaram, Bhubaneswar, Gopalprasad, Hingula, Siarmal, Basundhara and Kulda are some of the ongoing coal mining projects. The key requirement for scaling up production are new railway lines, switching over to full mechanisation and full technology adoption, large scale contract mining, upgrading skills of employees, speedy acquisition of land and expeditious environment and forest clearances. Coal evacuation and land acquisition are two serious issues. Day by day, land acquisition is getting difficult and this needs to be sorted out. Presently, the rail network is not equipped to handle coal of the order of 250 mt, said Jha. To cater to the requirement of enhanced coal handling, MCL in partnership with the Railways, is developing the crucial Jharsuguda-Sardega line and Talcher-Angul rail link. Total expenditure on the rail network would be Rs 2500 crore. MCL has forged a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Mahanadi Coal Railway Ltd with Ircon International Ltd and the Odisha government for evacuation of coal. MCL would have the major stake in the SPV with 64 per cent, Ircon will hold 26 per cent and the rest 10 per cent by state owned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). This SPV would take care of rail infrastructure projects, said the MCL CMD. This SPV will not only cater to the current evacuation need of the company but it will also identify the evacuation constraints, which impede the growth of MCL and accordingly, it will implement the evacuation plans. Debt burden of the firm had mounted to Rs 2,916 crore in March 2015. Net sales stood at Rs 3,111 crore. The sixth of a 10-part series on corporate debt looks at the company's prospects The power, energy and mining sectors seem to have got the short end of the new strategic debt restructuring (SDR) stick that allows lenders to take control of a defaulting company and find new investors to revive the ailing firm. Joining this list in August 2015 was Mumbai-based energy, power and construction company Jyoti Structures, one of the earliest to be brought under the programme. Lead promoters K R Thakur and P K Thakur - who are also directors of the firm - and others who are part of the promoter group had to have debt converted to equity, which meant their shareholding would fall to 23.78 per cent. Of the remaining 76.21 per cent, comprising institutions held 23.57 per cent, while non-institutions held 52.64 per cent. At the time, bankers decided to convert Rs 307.6 crore of loans into shares at Rs 26.90 a share at a premium to the market prices. Under SDR norms, such equity cannot be reflected on the bank's balance sheet as mark-to-market gains. The stock, which had fallen to a two-year low of Rs 10.8 in September 2015, is now trading at Rs 15.39 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The board is scheduled to meet next week to review the post-SDR status. Emails sent to the company remained unanswered. The reasons for Jyoti Structures' travails are much the same that bedevil the rest of the energy sector: a lack of raw material linkages; stalled projects; lack of approvals and clearances; and a creeping slowdown in demand. Officials associated with the SDR told Business Standard that the company's liquidity problems, too, stem from an ongoing struggle to procure raw material for manufacturing power transmission lines and towers. As a result, its plants are running well below capacity, resulting in missed delivery schedules. In the quarter ended September 2015, Jyoti Structures reported a loss of Rs 157.24 crore, against Rs 151.97 crore in the preceding quarter and Rs 69 crore in the year-ago quarter. The company's revenues fell a steep 37.60 per cent to Rs 394 crore in the quarter ended September 2015 from Rs 631 crore during the quarter ended September 2014. Long-term borrowings, on a standalone basis, at the end of September 2015 were Rs 1,023.9 crore, against Rs 1301.4 crore in Q2-FY15. But the increase in its liabilities gives a more accurate snapshot of the financial distress that pushed the firm into the SDR scheme. For the financial year ended March 2015, its consolidated debt stood at Rs 2,355.97 crore, almost double the Rs 1,266.12 crore debt in 2014. While SDR provided partial relief, the company's operational performance could not support its growing debt levels. Just eight months into FY16, at the end of November 2015, Jyoti Structures' debt had risen to Rs 5,291.32 crore, an increase of more than 100 per cent from March 2015. The first warning signs of deterioration came in September 2014 when credit rating agency CARE suspended the company's ratings assigned to bank facilities and non-convertible debentures due to deterioration in the firm's liquidity profile, following severe decline in profitability. In a recent report, Religare said Jyoti Structures' current order backlog stands at Rs 4,610 crore; assuming an average execution period of three-and-a-half years, it would generate revenue of Rs 1,300 crore annually. However, this would translate into earnings before, interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITDA, margins of a mere seven per cent, far from enough for a significant turnaround. Analysts said there could be more bad in store. Jyoti Structures had issued corporate guarantees of Rs 860 crore on behalf of its subsidiaries; if even 60 per cent of those guarantees are invoked, it would only add to the company's already bloated debt. An addition of 500 beds with the launch of a new hospital in Jammu and a paediatrics hospital in Mumbai are part of Bengaluru-based Narayana Hrudayalayas expansion plans in 2016-17. Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of an HR summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, vice-chairman, managing director and Group chief executive officer, Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, said, Almost 60 per cent of the population is in the mass market of affordable health care. We would target the health care schemes of the state governments to address this market. Our focus will always be the working class. The health care service provider, which was recently listed in BSE, would look at opening a 250-bed hospital at the shrine complex in Vaishno Devi, Jammu, by June and a 250-bed childrens hospital in Mumbai. For the Vaisho Devi temple plan, the shrines board is providing the facility and the equipment, while for the childrens super speciality hospital in Mumbai Narayana Hrudayalaya is partnering with the Society for Rehabilitation of Crippled Children. The company would invest around Rs 45 crore in the facility for equipping it for operations. At present, it has around 6,200 beds, of which around 5,480 are in use. With the addition, the company would have around 6,700 beds by the end of 2016-17. A major share of our beds is young, and it would take a few years for them to mature and really contribute to the growth, said Raghuvanshi. Along with this, the company would later look at brownfield developments that could include partnerships or acquisition. It would not be looking at too many greenfield projects, he added. Naryana Hrudayalaya has recently completed its Initial Public offering (IPO), and has seen a 36-per cent premium against the issue price of Rs 250 per share on the exchanges, on the day of listing. The private health care service provider raised Rs 613 crore with the IPO. After the dismal performance of Tata Steel in the December quarter, the companys new plant at Kalinganagar has been placed under the lens. Brokerages unanimously placing a sell or reduce call on Tata Steel have not only iterated the countrys largest steel producer would continue to witness challenging business times ahead but also signalled that the advent of the Kalinganagar plant will come with its own set of problems. Scheduled to be operational by the end of this financial year, Tata Steels three-million tonne (mt) plant in Odisha will be infusing 1.0-1.5 mt of primary steel into the market in 2016-17. Kalinganagar being a new plant will have start-up costs and could bring in negative surprises for the company, keeping expenses on the higher side in 2016-17, said Abhisar Jain, senior analyst with Centrum Broking. Centrum has cut its Ebitda/tonne estimates for Tata Steel's domestic operations by 15 per cent to Rs 6,952 for 2015-16 and by 14 per cent to Rs 7,539 for 2016-17. In the nine-month period ended December, the company's Indian operations reported an underlying Ebitda/tonne of Rs 7,619. Overall, the company's performance for the quarter ended December was dismal as it reported a higher-than-expected loss of over Rs 2,000 crore because of lower realisations and restructuring and write-down on operations in Europe. The new capacity will enhance the companys portfolio by producing high-grade flat products catering to lifting and excavation, shipbuilding, defence equipment, energy and power, and infrastructure. Domestic demand for steel is up by about 5 per cent but most of it is being eaten up by cheap Chinese imports. Despite several rounds of duties having being placed by the government, the business scenario has not changed much for Indian steel producers. The Kalinganagar product is a basic one and hence we think it should find buyers. Since the company is selling in phases (1-1.5 million in 2016-17), the market should be able to absorb it. Of course, selling at a low price will help, said Pritesh Jani, analyst with Religare Securities. The EBITDA for Kalinganagar is seen at Rs 700-800 crore in 2016-17, which is in line with market expectations, he added. The EBITDA of Tata Steel's domestic operations is crucial from the consolidated earnings point of view because the heavily indebted company has been using earnings from its India operations to serve the majority debt placed on European operations. Tata Steel's consolidated EBITDA in the nine months ended December halved to Rs 5,622 crore from the same period in the prior year with European operations adding Rs 241 crore in loss, followed by South East Asia, which yielded a meagre Rs 155 crore. Domestic operations, on the other hand, contributed the majority at Rs 5,200 crore. China, the world's largest producer and consumer of steel, has held the entire global steel industry at ransack by dumping cheaply priced steel, hurting not just the domestic operations of Tata Steel along with the small South East Asia business, but also its troubled European operations since the company's first non-cash write-down in 2012-13. Though the current business environment compels brokerages to see lower profitability for the company in the coming quarters, none sees the company defaulting on its loans. On March 31, 2015, Tata Steel's consolidated net debt stood at Rs 80,700 crore with nearly 65 per cent of it on account of the European operations. The company has refinanced the majority of its debt and as a result there is no major repayment for Tata Steel for the next three years, said Sudarshan Srinivasan, analyst with Fitch Ratings. So there is temporary relief for the company. Moreover, if the business cycle turns around within this period then nothing like it, he added. In the year gone by, Tata Steel's finance cost stood at Rs 4,847.75 crore, an average outgo of Rs 1,200 crore per quarter. The company can continue to service its interest cost via EBITDA generated at domestic operations and sale of non-core assets could also help it offload the interest burden. Due to this, the chances of the company defaulting on loans looks very low, said an analyst with a local brokerage. Tata Steel has taken several steps to restructure its European operations. Most analysts were of the view that the measures taken would not deliver any benefits immediately since the business conditions remained grim. The cost reduction steps at European operations have been done taking into consideration a change in the business climate. This would have benefits only in the long run and the business climate needs to improve materially for any short term relief, said Centrum Broking. Analysts said in the domestic market if some protection through non-tariff barriers could help the domestic steel industry in a big way. In anticipation of imposition of minimum import price on steel imports, today, shares of Tata Steel rose 4 per cent, JSW Steel was up 2 per cent, state-owned Steel Authority of India up 6 per cent and Jindal Steel & Power up 10 per cent. Pune-based Kalyani family maybe fighting a court battle for family assets, but the younger generation is equally focused on business growth. The 25-year-old executive director of Kalyani Forge (KFL) brother of Sheetal Kalyani, who has filed a civil suit against uncle Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director of Bharat Forge is busy shaping expansion plans for his company. Kalyani, who joined the company as executive vice-president in 2012, refrained from commenting on the feud. In an interview, he tells Hrishikesh Joshi about KFLs growth strategy. Edited excerpts:There is a strong need for transformation because of changing market conditions at the global level and in India as well. And we have consistently managed to be a globally-competitive company taking a lead in quality and technology. But, at the same time, we don't want KFL to be a mass producer of components or just a supplier company. We are setting up new benchmarks for quality of products. We are looking to achieve a turnover of Rs 500 crore through organic growth in the next two to three years, from the current Rs 250 crore, by entering into new product ranges. We are expanding our machined components capacity by 25 per cent, apart from concentrating on process improvements and removal of non-value adding activities through Lean Management Systems as a strategy to grow aggressively. You were planning to invest Rs 200 for expansion, what is the status? We have already invested around Rs 25-30 crore in the first phase. This is mainly for the modernisation of our manufacturing facilities in Pune. We are focusing on organisation architecture, system enhancement, culture development, strategic decision-making and customer orientation. We have a very low debt-equity ratio and have improved cash flow significantly. Bharat Forge has been diversifying into other sectors, would KFL also diversify into non-automotive sectors? We are not going to follow this trend. Diversifying the business is definitely a part of the strategy. We see lot of strength in automotive sector. Different markets will behave differently. It does not mean that we will swing from one to another. At the same time, we continue to leverage our expertise and experience in the auto sector as it has tremendous long-term potential in India and lots of headroom for growth, notwithstanding the current slowdown. At the same time, we are exploring new emerging sectors of our economy such as mining, construction, infrastructure and railways. How much does the automotive sector contribute to your business? What about exports? More than 70 per cent of our business comes from the automobile sector. We are also growing the industrial segment. We have had a presence in the railways sector for the past 15 years and have been supplying components for metro rail projects around the world. As of now, we are not very keen on the defence sector. At present, exports are 25 per cent of the total business. What is your strategy for international markets? We are setting up a new company called Kalyani Europe in Germany to cater to the European market. Currently, KFL has a marginal presence there, but with this new entity, we will be putting more efforts for overseas markets. Our effort is to improve export contribution in future. Leading researchers in Brazil are borrowing techniques used to accelerate the fight against Ebola in the hope of developing a Zika virus treatment that could be tested in humans in a year. Professor Jorge Kalil, head of the state-run Butantan Institute, told Reuters this week that scientists there planned to use animals to produce antibodies to tackle the virus, which is suspected of causing brain damage in more than 4,000 infants in the South American country. A similar research path was used in the hunt for an Ebola treatment. There is no cure or vaccine for the virus, which was discovered in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947. It was detected in Brazil for the first time last year and has since spread to at least 26 countries in the Americas. The virus has mild effects - red eyes, fever, joint pains and a rash - and nearly 80 per cent of people who are infected experience no symptoms. ALSO READ: CDC widens Zika virus guidelines for pregnant women The World Organization (WHO) recently declared an emergency over Zika, lending urgency to research into whether Zika infection in pregnancy does in fact cause microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small heads, in newborns. Brazil is investigating 4,074 suspected cases of microcephaly. Kalil, an immunologist, said the institute was cultivating the virus in quantities sufficient to start tests in isolating antibodies in rodents. Researchers would then attempt to produce them in larger quantities in horses and purify the antibodies in the laboratory before starting tests on humans. "The antibodies ... could be injected into women with Zika to neutralise the virus," Kalil told Reuters in an interview. "I think we can reach that point in a year." Researchers do not have a clear model of how the virus operates in animals or humans. Several organisations are working on the problem in rodents and primates because of the urgency, Kalil said. Scientists generally prefer to use human antibodies in drugs because the immune system might react to them, but it has been done. Such was the case of early versions of Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc's ZMapp antiviral treatment for Ebola, which was developed in mouse blood cells that were exposed to samples containing Ebola virus fragments. Left arm spinner Pawan Negi, who earlier played for the Chennai Super Kings, was the second costliest pick of the players in the 2016 Vivo Indian Premier League player auctions. Pune opened the bid for Negi ( base price Rs 30 lakh) and was challenged by Delhi Daredevils. The two teams faced off in a tough bid war, with the Daredevils finally snapping up Negi for Rs 8.5 crore. Negi, who has recently made his entry to India's World Twenty20 squad, is well known for his lower order batting skills and left-arm orthodox spin bowling. The eight teams participating in the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction 2016 finished the first half of the days proceedings with a little more than half the money intact for the post lunch session. Of the total Rs 198 crore that the teams had at their disposal collectively, Rs 96.43 crore was spent on capped Indian and international players. This leaves a total of Rs 101 .8 crore for the rest of the auction. The second half of the bidding will include not only the uncapped Indian and international players, but also include players from the first half (capped) who went unsold in the first round. Proceedings started on a good note with the first name to be pulled up Sachin Baby went to the Royal Challengers Bangalore at base price. Karun Nair (Rs 10 lakh) saw Pune Super Giants and Delhi Daredevils fight it out for a while before Pune bowed out and the Gujarat Lions entered the bidding. Gujarat Lions however gave up pursuit at Rs 1.5 crore at which point Sunrisers Hyderabad entered the race. The Daredevils persisted and picked him up at Rs 4 crore. The Gujarat Lions placed the opening bid for Paras Dogra (Rs 10 lakh), and acquired him at base price. ALSO READ: IPL auctions: RCB snaps up Shane Watson for Rs 9.5 cr, Yuvi goes for Rs 7 cr Mithun Manhar (Rs 30 lakh), Ankeet Bawane (Rs 10 lakh), Himanshu Rana (Rs 10 lakh), Debabrata Das (Rs 10 lakh), Tirumalasetti Suman (Rs 10 lakh) and Aiden Blizzard (RS 30 lakh) went unsold from the set of batsmen. Ishan Kishan (Rs 10 lakh) was bid for by Gujarat Lions and Pune Super Giants and was sold to the former at Rs 35 lakhs. Rishabh Pant (Rs 10 lakh), wicketkeeper batsman, was also sought after as Pune and Mumbai Indians bid for him aggressively. Pune however bowed out after a point, only to be replaced by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Mumbai team also bowed out at Rs 1.8 crore, when the Delhi Daredevils entered the race who picked him up for Rs 1.9 crore. Next in line was Eklavya Dwivedi (Rs 20 lakh) with Gujarat Lions placing the opening bid which was raised by the Sunrisers. The Lions finally picked up the wicketkeeper for Rs 1 crore. The Sunrisers opened bidding for Aditya Tare (Rs 20 lakh) and were raised by the Mumbai Indians. The latter bowed out at Rs 1.2 crore, and the Sunrisers acquired the player for that amount. Pinal Shah (Rs 10 lakh), CM Gautam (Rs 20 lakh), Ankush Bains (Rs 10 lakh), Dishant Yagnik (Rs 10 lakh) and Manvinder Bisla (Rs 10 lakh) remained unsold. Among the uncapped all-rounders, Iqbal Abdullah (Rs 10 lakh) was the first to be auctioned and was picked up by the RCB at base price. Deepak Hooda (Rs 10 lakh) was bid for by both Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Lions. The Lions left the bid to be replaced by the Sunrisers at the Rs 1 crore mark. Both KKR and the Sunrisers continued to pursue the player till KKR threw in the towel, allowing the Sunrisers to pick up Hooda at Rs 4.2 crore. Ankit Sharma (Rs 10 lakh) went to Pune at the base price. Rajat Bhatias (Rs 30 lakh) auction saw Pune Super Giants and the Daredevils face off once again. However, the match was a short one with Pune picking up the player at Rs 60 lakh. Pradeep Sangwan (Rs 20 lakh) went to the Gujarat Lions at base price. RCB and Delhi Daredevils challenged each other while bidding for Nathu Singh (Rs 10 lakh). The Mumbai Indians also joined the race for Singh, picking up at Rs 3.2 crore. Pune opened the bid for Ishwar Pandey and managed to acquire the bowler at base price. Pune and KKR bid competitively for Ankit Singh Rajpoot, with KKR picking him up at Rs 1.5 crore. The first uncapped spin bowler to be sold was Parvin Tambe (Rs 10 lakh), picked up by Gujarat Lions for Rs 20 lakh, after a shot challenge by the Daredevils. The Lions also picked up Shivil Kaushik (Rs 10 lakh) and Sarabjit Ladda (Rs 10 lakh) at base price. Pune and RCB seemed equally keen on getting M Ashwin (Rs 10 lakh) on their side as the two bid aggressively for the spinner. The Pune team picked him up finally at Rs 4.5 crore. KXIP opened the bid for KC Cariappa, one of the most sought after uncapped players from the 2015 auction. Vijay Mallaya led RCB KXIPs bid, but the Kings managed to snap up the player for Rs 85 lakh. Recently, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi suggested that child sex determination during pregnancy be made mandatory and that the birth should be tracked in an effort to curb female foeticide. Jashodhara Dasgupta, convener, National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights, tells Shivam Saini whether the idea holds promise What do you think of Maneka Gandhi's recent suggestion that prenatal sex-determination be made compulsory? First, it is unacceptable from a legal point of view. The existing Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act makes the act of disclosure the main offence. What Gandhi is saying, therefore, is in complete contravention of the law. Currently, 25 million to 27 million women in India get pregnant every year. If we want to do ultrasound tests for each one of them, we need to first see whether we are even able to provide basic antenatal care and ensure registration for all these women. What would such a proposal, if enacted, mean for an expectant mother? If this were to be tried out as a pilot, the disclosure of the gender of the foetus, apart from being a criminal act, might also create a lot of pressure on the woman. In some cases, if it is a girl child, the family might want to push the expectant mother to get rid of it in some underhand or even unsafe fashion. It's going to lead to a lot of families feeling uneasy and women pressured because now it would be known. Once it is known that it is a girl, it might become an enormous issue in the family that the woman is not being able to give birth to a boy. The idea, therefore, is not grounded in reality - it doesn't take into account the challenges women face in terms of the expectations to produce a male child. These are short-term methods that encourage vigilantism and control over women's reproductive capacities. Policing pregnancies is never going to promote women's rights. It is important to go into the root causes - why society devalues daughters; why sons are preferred; how families can be made to understand that daughters are as valuable. We need to work towards such gender equality-enhancing measures rather than policing women's pregnancies. Right now, some people don't value daughters because they don't think girls have an economic contribution to make. They see girls as a liability because of factors such as dowry. So, we need to work on those attitudes if we are to create a gender-equal society. Do you think the current system of penalising ultrasound facilities is effective? I've been a member of the PCPNDT state appropriate authority for Uttar Pradesh. I could see the deterrent effect. There was a sense of tension among the fraternity that carries out these diagnostic tests. The PCPNDT Act, in its own purview, is adequate. But if we look at the overall problem of sex selection, the Act is only trying to handle the diagnostic facilities; it is not trying to address the gender imbalance in society. Now, the point is if the Act is not properly implemented, that's problematic. How do you see Gandhi's suggestion in the context of the reproductive rights of women? The fact is that a woman may have conceived but she may not want the pregnancy at all. In a lot of cases in India, women do not even have autonomy when it comes to sex, to choose whether they want to have protected sex or if they want to conceive. The men, in those cases, don't bother to ask whether they should use contraceptives. For many women in India, the reality is that they don't even have the right to choose whether or not to become pregnant. Therefore, given that even the basic reproductive rights of women are not respected in India, to say that women are going to be policed and later criminalised because of the disclosure of their pregnancies is completely unacceptable. They may not have become pregnant out of choice, to begin with. If, at some point, the woman chooses not to carry the pregnancy to its full term - and it is legal under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act - you cannot say that she is bound to carry the pregnancy to full term. So, the proposal made by the minister could have devastating implications for women's reproductive rights. The right to abortion is guaranteed in India under certain circumstances. As it is, abortion services are not freely available everywhere in the country; they are more readily available in cities. Therefore, some women go for unsafe abortions. Once you start policing pregnancies, women are going to have even more unsafe abortions, which would aggravate the country's already-high maternal mortality. In telling its version of one of the biggest air evacuation exercises ever undertaken in the world, Airlift portrays the Indian government and bureaucracy in a poor light and chooses to ignore the crucial behind-the-scenes negotiations that made the feat possible. The author contrasts the first-hand account of the actual narrative as it unfolded with the plot in the movie "Where is India?" "Must be watching the tamasha." A few minutes into Airlift, the film on the largest human evacuation by air in world history by India during the Iraq-Kuwait war, this is the conversation you hear between some Indian businessmen in Kuwait. Among them is Ranjit Katyal (played by Akshay Kumar) who sees himself as more Kuwaiti than Indian and is openly contemptuous of India. It is August 1990. Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, has attacked Kuwait. And over 170,000 Indians (an actual figure) are stuck. The film then goes on to show a deserted Indian embassy in Kuwait. All officials have fled, leaving Indian nationals in Kuwait to their own devices. Desperate to help himself, his family and the over one lakh fellow Indians, Katyal dials the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi. The phone keeps ringing; no one bothers to respond. Finally, a tired looking joint secretary, Sanjeev Kohli, answers the call but tells Katyal that he is not in the West Asian division, so he cannot help. After several phone calls and much begging from Katyal, he reluctantly agrees to take the plight of the Indians in Kuwait to the external affairs minister who tells Kohli that West Asia is not priority. It is a sorry portrayal of Indian diplomats, bureaucracy and the government. So there is a good reason that the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the scores of officials associated with that phenomenal evacuation, which could be pulled off only after tremendous coordination between the MEA, civil aviation ministry, Air India and the governments of Iraq and Jordan, are upset. K P Fabian, then the joint secretary in charge of MEA's West Asia division, remembers the morning of August 2, 1990, when Iraqi troops marched into Kuwait, as though it happened yesterday. He got a call from a friend whose husband was a UN official to say she could see the soldiers on the streets from her apartment. In less than an hour, India's ambassador in Kuwait confirmed the news to him. "We had two concerns: to urge Iraq to withdraw peacefully and the safety of our people in Kuwait, Iraq and in the larger region because once something like this starts, you don't know where it will stop," says Fabian. "We recognised that the Iraqi army in Kuwait was not harming Indians in any way. So if Iraq pulled back, there would be no need for an evacuation." First moves To seek a peaceful resolution, (then) foreign minister Inder Kumar Gujral went to the United States to meet his counterpart, UN secretary general and others. (In the film, the minister is shown as dismissive of the crises.) "It soon became clear that the US was keen on having a war, so the evacuation was necessary," says Fabian. For that to happen, Iraq's cooperation was critical, so Gujral now flew to Baghdad where he met Hussein who offered all facilitation. Meanwhile, the Indians stranded in Kuwait were getting restless. Gujral then went to Kuwait. "We got a call asking us to come to the Indian embassy in Kuwait," recalls Anil Wadhwa, who, then 40, was on deputation with Petroleum India International in Kuwait. "The embassy was packed with people who had come with their luggage," he says. "Gujral was there and he said, 'You all can write down any number of letters you want to send to your families back home and I will personally have them delivered'." Wadhwa's family - father, mother, sister, wife and two small children - were in Delhi. "We all wrote three-four letters each. And they reached our homes with this note, 'With compliments from I K Gujral'," Wadhwa recounts. When Gujral flew out of Kuwait, he brought home with him some Indians who could be accommodated in his aircraft. This was not the time to waste resources. This was the time before mobile phones and the internet. "There was no way of calling home for those 20 days," says Wadhwa. So he dialled the Indian embassy in Kuwait. "One chap picked up and I asked him if he could send a message, a one-line telegram to the chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) saying that all engineers of Petroleum India International were safe." That message reached the IOC chairman and through him to the families, says Wadhwa. "I never felt India did not do enough; I think it did a lot." In the film, Kohli, a key character, has been portrayed as a helpless bureaucrat in Delhi. The real Kohli was, in fact, then a young third secretary in the Indian mission in Kuwait. "We had orders from Delhi not to leave till the last Indian had left, and we did it despite limited resources," he recently told NewsMobile. Back in India, MEA had a mammoth task at hand - safely bringing back 170,000 Indians. A Cabinet sub-committee, headed by Gujral, was set up with civil aviation, finance and home ministers as its members. It was decided that Air India would be pressed into service for the evacuation. Bring the aircraft Air India was running commercial services. "So we had to plan which flights to divert without drastically disturbing the regular flight schedule," says Jitender Bhargava, former executive director of Air India who was one year and two months old in the airline then. The flights could not be taken to Kuwait or Baghdad. The airlift, it was decided, would happen from Amman in Jordan to Mumbai. Indian Airlines and Indian Air Force too pitched in. "Amman was an offline station - Air India did not operate flights there. So airport staff had to be posted there," says Bhargava. Subhash Raghunath Gupte had taken over as managing director and acting chairman of Air India for barely a fortnight when Iraq attacked Kuwait. He was suddenly expected to meet a massive challenge. "We knew the Jordanian Airlines managing director and were able to get two slots for our planes," he recalls. "We started mounting two flights every day." Instead of the usual paraphernalia of cheese, the flights to Amman carried Indian food like biryani, sweets and a lot of water. "We knew people were extremely hungry and this would give them relief," he says. Over the next 59 days, starting August 13, 488 flights ferried back and forth bringing back about 120,000 people. Some others came by ship. It wasn't all smooth though. Initially, Air India pilots were reluctant to risk flying over Dubai to Amman. This bit is shown in the movie. What isn't depicted is what it took to convince the pilots to fly. "Some aircraft - not ours - had faced problem over Dubai and the pilots felt it was dangerous," says Gupte. So he, along with Bhargava and operations manager D S Mathur, flew to Dubai on a "proving flight". "We were there for about two-and-half hours, addressed a press conference and flew back," says Bhargava. "We did this to give confidence to the pilots and also assure the Indian nationals that Air India was lining up aircraft to bring them back." Another problem arose in Amman. People were travelling long distances through several checkpoints to reach the airport, so the flight crew would sometimes have to wait for hours and put in longer than permitted duty hours. "One morning in Amman, the Air India manager came to me," says Fabian. "He said the crew was unwilling to fly because of passenger delays." Instead of taking the matter up with the crew, Fabian telephoned Firdaus Khergamwala, a former diplomat who had joined The Hindu as its special correspondent at Bahrain. Fabian asked him to carry a news report lauding the remarkable work being done by Air India and its crew in the evacuation. "I asked Khergamwala to quote me verbatim," says Fabian. "He asked me if this was true and I told him, 'Publish the story and tomorrow it will be true'." Sure enough, he says, the Air India manager came to him the next day and said the crew was raring to go the extra mile. The other help Many Indians did not have their passports. Those were quickly arranged. Many had no money, so they flew home for free. Those who could afford it paid for the journey home. "Initially, we were not even sure if Air India would be reimbursed but we decided to take it as a national duty and carry on doing it," says Gupte. "Later on, of course, I must say that MEA and civil aviation ministry reimbursed us." The 1,200-km road journey people had to make from Kuwait to Amman was also assisted by Indian officials, says MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup. In the film, the character of Katyal, who safely leads all Indians to the Amman airport, is inspired by two community leaders from Kuwait back then - Mathunny Mathews and H S Vedi. Wadhwa does not recall any individual playing such a crucial role in the rescue. Neither does Bhargava. Swarup, who was in the frontline at the Turkey-Syria border helping Indians coming from Kuwait via Syria, too questions it. The film's writer-director Raja Krishna Menon does not agree. "I take umbrage that people are making a counterpoint into a fact. I don't think anyone has celebrated the Indian bureaucracy the way Airlift has," he says. That, however, is not what comes through in the movie, the success of which has earned Akshay Kumar the credit of being called Bollywood's most bankable actor. Menon says he spoke to hundreds of people who were stuck in Kuwait and were evacuated, and to the pilots and the air staff that carried out the rescue. Ask him if, while researching the film, he got in touch with the MEA, civil aviation ministry, Air India or any of the diplomats who spearheaded the rescue and he says, "Not with the officials because it was just too hard to find them." That too is not the case. The officials are all just a phone call away and eager to tell the story as it really happened. Dr Jitendra Singh asks DoNER officials to keep DCs in loop . . The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER),MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh has asked the DoNER Ministry officials to keep in the loop, the various Deputy Commissioners or District Development Commissioners in North-Eastern States by way of regular interaction with them through different means including video conference. This, he said, will ensure a better coordination at the ground level and overcome the missing gaps in carrying forward the DoNER projects at the miocro level. . . Addressing a meeting of Administration in Dibrugarh, Assam , Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the last one year, he has experienced that many of the DoNER projects fall short of achieving their fixed targets partly also because the Union DoNER Ministry tends to liaison at the State Secretariat level, as a result of which, sometimes the District Development Commissioners are not in the loop. In order to rise to the aspirations of the common masses and make the various DoNER related development projects optimum for public welfare, he said, it is essential to take cognizance of the ground facts at the district and block level for which the District Administration can prove to be of immense help. . . Even in the exercise of preparing the priority list of projects to be proposed to the State Government by the Union DoNER Ministry, Dr Jitendra Singh said, he would suggest to the State Governments to develop a mechanism wherein the Deputy Commissioner of the district along with local MLA and local MP, has a say. Since the DoNER Ministry takes up the projects on the basis of priority fixed by the State Government, he said, sometimes a certain project recommended for a certain area, later appears to be different from the project which the local population desires and this contradiction can be overcome by devising a suitable mechanism. . . The officers of the Dibrugarh Administration placed before Dr Jitendra Singh the requirement to initiate a sewage and drainage project for the city for which he suggested that the matter may be taken up with the State Government and the support from the DoNER Ministry may be sought in whatever capacity feasible. . . Dr Jitendra Singh also discussed with Administration the issue of release of DoNER funds for various projects vis-?-vis the submission of the timely submission of Utilization Certificates by State Government. . . Senior officials of the DoNER Ministry and District Administration of Dibrugarh were also present in the meeting. . . Sh Dharmendra Pradhan holds bilateral meeting with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on energy issues; Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to dedicate Paradip Refinery to the nation on 7th February, 2016 . . The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan held bilateral meetings with Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, BB, Energy Adviser to PM of Bangladesh and Dr Anoma Gamage, Deputy Minister of Petroleum Resources Development of Sri Lanka in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Both dignitaries are in India at the invitation of Sh. Pradhan to participate in the ceremony at Paradip where Honble Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be dedicating to the nation the Indian Oil refinery tomorrow. . . During his meeting with the Energy Adviser of Bangladesh, Shri Pradhan conveyed Indias commitment to work with Bangladesh to further bilateral cooperation in the energy sector. He informed on the investment proposals of Indian Oil Companies in Bangladesh and said that their early implementation would create win win situation for both countries and sought cooperation from Govt. of Bangladesh. With the commissioning of the Paradip refinery, he added that India would be once again in a position to export petroleum products to Bangladesh. He also expressed keenness of India in setting up of marketing infrastructure in Bangladesh. He also sought favourable consideration for transit of LPG to Indias North Eastern region through territory of Bangladesh. Sh Pradhan noted that Indian PSUs were interested in participating in petroleum sector of Bangladesh, including in exploration, refinery expansion and related PMC works. Sh Pradhan also expressed his appreciation for the valuable support of Bangladesh in implementation of Indian projects. . . Sh Pradhan during his meeting with the Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of Petroleum Resources Development discussed the issues such as expansion of activities of Lanka IOC, in Sri Lanka, including in the retail business, bunkering and marketing of ATF and LPG. Lanka IOC is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation. He reiterated the commitment made by Honble Prime Minister to work with Sri Lanka to make Trincomalee a regional energy hub. He expressed Indias interest in establishing refinery and bunkering operations in Sri Lanka. He expressed confidence that both Sri Lanka and India will work in a spirit of partnership in the hydrocarbon sector. . . Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will be dedicating the state of the art Paradip Refinery, Indian Oil's most ambitious project on 7th February, 2016. The foundation stone of this ambitious project was laid by former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 24th May, 2000. Set up at an estimated cost of Rs. 34,555 crore, this grassroots Refinery will further augment Indian Oil's refining capacity by 15 MMTPA. . . Indian Oils 11th Refinery at Paradip, will help in meeting the burgeoning energy demands of the country. For better profitability, the refinery has been designed to process 100% high sulphur, including 40% heavy crude oil of low cost to produce various petroleum products like Petrol, diesel, kerosene, Aviation Turbine fuel, Propylene, Sulphur and Petroleum Coke. . . Presently, Paradip Refinery will produce Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel of BS-IV quality and later will switch to BS-VI quality to comply with the Auto Fuel Policy of the Government of India. The refinery is also designed to produce Euro-V premium quality Motor Spirit and other green auto fuel variants for export to advanced countries. Paradip Refinery has a unique INDMAX Unit technology, which is indigenously been developed by Indian Oil's R&D Centre. The INDMAX Unit is designed to produce 44% LPG, the highest from such plants. . . Shri Rajnath Singh reviews the security and development related issues pertaining to Lakshadweep Islands . . The Union Home Minister Shri. Rajnath Singh visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep on 05th and 06th February, 2016. He was accompanied by senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs during his visit. . . During the visit, Shri Rajnath Singh had a detailed discussion with senior officers of the Lakshadweep Administration and reviewed the security and development related issues pertaining to Lakshadweep Islands. . . The Home Minister also highlighted the initiatives taken by the Government of India for development of islands of Lakshadweep. To address the transportation bottlenecks and physical connectivity from main land to island, the Home Minister informed that the 15-year perspective plan covering the period 2016-30 has been approved by the Government of India. The plan provides for acquisition of three passenger ships, four cargo barges, one oil tanker and one LPG carrier. To address the issue of telecom connectivity and to bridge the digital gap, Minister assured that 216 Mbps of additional bandwidth would be provided to Lakshadweep apart from the existing 102 Mbps along with augmentation of communication infrastructure. He also assured that drinking water problems of the islands would be resolved by establishing Desalination Plants in remaining six islands. . . While appreciating the high level of literacy in Lakshadweep (92 %), the Home Minister exhorted people and administration to work for achieving 100 % literacy in near feature. He also observed that the GoI is providing 70 % subsidy for implementation of solar roof top plants in private households which should be utilized by the people so as to transform Lakshadweep into a 100 % renewable energy/solar powered union territory. . . The Minister emphasized that fishing and coconut cultivation are the major economic activities for the people of the islands which can improve the economic status of the people of Lakshadweep. The Minister appreciated the organic farming initiatives taken up by the farmers for coconut cultivation. He also desired that the organic certification should be expanded from the present 30 % of the cropped area to 100 % of the cropped area. The Minister also assured that GoI will provide all the assistance to increase the fish production from 15000 Mt to 30000 MT by adopting integrated sustainable approach. . . During his visit Shri Rajnath Singh also inaugurated new block for Government Junior Basic School (East), Kavaratti constructed at a cost of Rs. 2.5 Crore which will help in augmenting the educational infrastructure in the island. He also inaugurated the new directorate building for the Department of Information and Public Relations constructed at a cost of Rs.1.25 Crore. . . Workshop Organized to Discuss Matters Regarding Environmental Court Cases . . Need to Present Government Perspective in its True Spirit before Various Courts: Environment Minister . . A day-long workshop was organized by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change here today, to discuss matters relating to the handling of court cases. The workshop was attended by empanelled lawyers of the Ministry from across the country, including those of Supreme Court, High Courts, NGT and CAT. . . Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar said that protection of environment is a joint responsibility of all the organs of State. The Minister highlighted the need for presenting the perspective of the Ministry in its true spirit before various courts, which will largely obviate many of the problems encountered in handling of cases. He said that the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change truly believes in transparency and development without destruction". He called for greater coordination between the counsels and the officers of Ministry, so that the rationale of various decisions of the Ministry is brought to the notice of Courts in time and cases are decided expeditiously. He exhorted both the counsels and officers to handle cases with passion and efficiency. . . Shri P.K. Malhotra, Law Secretary highlighted the need for avoiding unnecessary litigations and need for efficient handling of cases at the notice stage itself. He also highlighted various steps being taken by Government to reduce litigation and use of technology for improving coordination and efficiency in the matter. . . Addl. Solicitor General Ms. Pinky Anand lauded the Ministry for moving towards specialized cadre of environmental lawyers which was the need of the hour, in view of the growing importance of environment in the society. . . The workshop considered a wide range of issues and its recommendations are expected to improve the handling of matters relating to litigation significantly. . . As Aung San Suu Kyi's lawmakers smiled for the cameras at the first sessions of Myanmar's parliament, a summit of generals convened at a base just minutes from the chamber. On every mind was the same question: who will be the country's next president? The parallel events summed up the complex nature of the political transition: a much-publicised election of parliament speakers at which former foes from Suu Kyi's party and the military shook hands, while behind closed doors the country's top power brokers met to hammer out how they will run Myanmar. After a quiet period following Suu Kyi's massive election win in November, negotiations have entered a critical stage since a meeting between army chief Min Aung Hlaing and Suu Kyi on January 26, law makers and diplomats close to the process say. With its huge mandate Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) can chose the next president but, under the constitution written by the army before it ceded power in 2011, she herself cannot take the job. The NLD wants that changed. "Our first priority includes amending laws which are out of date and not in harmony with the present situation," Tun Tun Hein, a member of the NLD's governing council, told reporters after being appointed chairman of the key lower house bill committee. "The constitution also needs amending since it's one of the laws." The army has so far insisted it wants no change to the constitution and would not countenance Suu Kyi's presidency. She has struck a defiant note, saying she would lead the country "standing above the president". Now, some Yangon-based diplomats say Min Aung Hlaing might be tempted to compromise in return for a pledge from Suu Kyi that she would not infringe on the military's vast economic interests nor seek revenge for abuses under years of junta rule. As well as burnishing his legacy, such a move would also put responsibility for fixing an impoverished country riven by decades of ethnic conflict squarely on Suu Kyi, they say. "If you keep her without any official title she is free to strategise without the day-to-day burden of running the country," said a Western diplomat, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. The New York Times on Friday cited two senior members of the NLD as saying that talks with the military have included a possible deal that would allow Suu Kyi to be president in exchange for senior government posts. It did not name the party leaders and said details of the negotiations were murky. It is not known what was discussed at this week's meeting at army headquarters, which sits close to the sprawling parliament complex in Myanmar's remote capital Naypyitaw. Confirming the gathering coincided with the opening week of the newly elected legislature, two sources familiar with the matter said senior commanders from across the country gather a few times a year to discuss military matters. But was likely high on the agenda - the military retains a central role in the former Burma, with a quarter of seats in parliament reserved for it, along with control of the security forces and the civil service. Moreover, with its block of seats in parliament the military wields a veto over any changes to the constitution, which requires a super-majority of more than 75 percent. Asked about the chances that the constitution could be amended to allow Suu Kyi to be president, Major General Tauk Tun, the most senior military lawmaker in the lower house, did not entirely rule it out, while at the same time sticking to the military's line on the sanctity of the 2008 charter. "We'll do it according to the constitutional provisions," he said. Even if the two sides were to agree to change the constitution, it would still require a nationwide referendum. To circumvent that lengthy process, article 59 (f), which bars anyone with a foreign spouse or children from the presidency and so disqualifies Suu Kyi, whose sons are British citizens, could be suspended, according to Aung Ko, a former general and Suu Kyi ally, and NLD legal experts. Whether that would be lawful remains open to debate, and even some Suu Kyi supporters worry about the precedent it could set. The NLD has until the end of March to organise the presidential vote in the parliament, but top leaders said they may carry it out next week or towards the end of February, suggesting the two sides could be close to striking a deal. "They are trying to find a solution that doesn't step on everyone's red lines," said Kelly Currie, senior fellow at the Washington-based Asia-focused think tank Project 2049 Institute. People are scrambling as the scary, mosquito-borne virus Zika winds its way through 26 (and counting) countries and territories in the Americas.The commotion is understandable: The virus may be linked to an alarming spike in microcephaly, a birth defect, in Brazil, and a neurological disorderelsewhere,and there's nothing like the prospect of a generation maimed to trigger panic. But amid alarm over the public-health emergency is a quieter menace - economic loss and hardship. There's an important, albeit still crude, question underlying Zika's spead: how much will the virus ... A fall in average issue size from Rs 7.69 crore in the calendar year 2014 to Rs 6.32 crore in 2015 has resulted in fund raising by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on equity market decline by 16 per cent for the period. However, the number of companies filing draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) increased from 49 in 2014 to 58 in 2015, a trend which lead managers expect to continue in 2016. A total of 36 companies, who have already filed their draft prospectus with the SME Exchanges, are expected to get listed during the year 2016. In 2015, 42 companies got listed, raising Rs 265.26 crore from equity . In 2014, Rs 315.37 crore of capital was raised by 41 SMEs in both BSE SME Exchange and Emerge of National Stock Exchange (NSE). Statistically, the average issue size has reduced in 2015 but smaller companies are increasingly coming forward to tap capital . Small scale units which were hesitant earlier are now finding confidence over SME capital . "Overall amount of fund raised by SMEs was down as many micro level companies entered in the market during the time. However, trust on this new concept of SME Exchanges has increased among small companies. This is quite a positive signal from market deepening perspective," said Mahavir Lunawat, group managing director of Pantomath Advisory Services Group. Geographically, out of 42 companies, Maharashtra and Gujarat contributed 13 and 12 companies, respectively, during the year 2015, whereas in terms of cities, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi contributed 24 companies collectively. A total of 36 companies have already filed their draft prospectus with the SME Exchanges and are expected to get listed during the year 2016. Last year in the corresponding period about 21 companies had filed draft prospectus. Lunawat said, "Increasing number of companies coming up on to SME bourses lend a lot of confidence and send positive signals. It's heartening to note small units from various clusters from Tier III and IIII cities coming up and tapping capital markets." However, even as some companies of BSE SME Exchange migrated to the main board on BSE, market cap of the exchange has decreased from Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore in past few months. Gaurav Jain, director of Hem Securities Limited said, "Only 16 companies have migrated so far to the main board, resulting in a fall in overall market cap." As on date, 107 companies are listed on BSE SME Exchange and 17 companies on NSE Emerge. Talking about fall in value, Jain said, "Now most of the companies IPO size is below Rs 5 crore, thereby reducing the average size of the issue. However, interest of SMEs for raising funds is still there and market will surely witness uptrend as numbers of companies considering for an IPO to raise fund continue to increase." Following the brutal assault on the Tanzanian girl, Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Aswathnarayan P. of Yeshwanthpur has been suspended for not supervising the probe effectively. Earlier, the Karnataka Government had suspended three police personnel, including one inspector, for dereliction of duty in connection with the assault. The Bengaluru Police had arrested nine persons in connection with the incident. The victim, a BBM student, and three of her friends, were allegedly attacked by an angry mob after a 35-year-old female pedestrian was knocked down by a car belonging to Sudan on January 31. The mob beat up the students and set their cars on fire. The incident came to light on Tuesday when the victim approached the All African Students Union following which a complaint was made to the Tanzanian Embassy. The Women Commission Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam has registered a suo moto case and served a notice on the Karnataka Government. AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi also sought a detail report about the incident from the Chief Minister. A special Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) court will on February 12 pronounce order on former media honcho Peter Mukerjea's bail plea, who has been arrested in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case. The judicial custody of Peter was earlier extended till February 8. On January 11, a Mumbai Esplanade court had extended the judicial custody of Peter till January 25. Mukerjea was arrested on November 19 and his wife Indrani Mukerjea is in prison for allegedly murdering Sheena, who is Indrani's daughter from an earlier relationship. The Congress Party on Saturday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the Gujarat land alloacations involving Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and her daughter Anar jayesh Patel Interacting with the media here, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said Anandiben Patel, during her tenure as the Revenue Minister in the Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi, had allotted land near the Gir Lion Sanctuary at a throwaway price to business associates of her daughter. "Around 250 acres of forest land in an eco-sensitive zone was by the Gujarat Government, and even at that time the valuation was Rs. 60, 000 per acre and it was given for Rs. 15 per meter square. So, land worth Rs. 125 crores was given for Rs. 1.5 crores," Sharma told reporters here. He said that there was a 'deliberate' and 'conscious' promotion of vested interests at the cost of state exchequer. "Prime Minister must come clean in this matter. There cannot be a different set of rules for Prime Minister of India or for the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The PM has spoken about his commitment to zero tolerance when it comes to corruption, nepotism and also form on fixing accountability. Prime Minister, we ask you, offer yourself to a fair probe so that accountability can be fixed," he added. Sharma also demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the matter. Anandiben was Gujarat's revenue minister at the time of the allocation of land. The revenue department is the nodal authority for such land allotments. She retained the revenue portfolio when she became the chief minister of the state. Reports suggest a company run by business associates of Anandiben's daughter reportedly owns 400 acres, of which 250 acre was allotted to the company purportedly at an official rate of Rs 15 per square metre. The Disciplinary Action Committee of Congress has sought an explanation from former chief minister Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi over the alleged "fixing" of a by-poll in Antagarh assembly seat. The grand old party's top state panel in Chhattisgarh had recommended that the former chief minister Jogi should be suspended, about a week after leaked audio clips suggested that Jogi and his son tried to broker a deal for the BJP so the Congress candidate would withdraw from the fray. The Pradesh Congress Committee of Chhattisgarh (PCC) had expelled MLA Amit Jogi for six years over his alleged role in fixing a by-election that led to a BJP win. Congress's disciplinary committee, headed by former defence minister AK Antony, was to review the recommendations about the former chief minister. Last year, Congress candidate Manturam Pawar had abruptly pulled out of the contest at the Antagarh assembly seat a day before the final date of withdrawal of names. The election was won by the BJP. Pawar was expelled from the Congress and he joined the BJP in March. The tapes sparked a huge political storm in Chhattisgarh with state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel serving a show-cause notice to Amit Jogi last month, while the Jogis and Chief Minister Raman Singh have denied any involvement. There is an imminent need of judges well versed in economics to man the judicial system in India said Justice B.N. Srikrishna, former Supreme Court judge. He gave the opening remarks at a lecture organised by CUTS International and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) titled Lonely Journey: from Economics to Law and Back. The lecture was delivered by Frederic Jenny, a professor of economics and international competition law expert having served eight years as a judge on the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation). Jenny is also Chairman, OECD's Committee on Competition among other such positions. Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International welcomed the dignitaries and underlined the role of economics in competition law and economic regulation. He emphasised that capacity building is required to fill the void in Indian legal and judicial system. "Now that we will have exclusive courts to deal with commercial disputes, it is an imperative to impart training on micro economics to judges who will be manning these courts". He further underlined the capacity building efforts of CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition in this interface amongst other efforts in the field of economics, competition law and regulation. In his lecture, Jenny gave interesting instances and cases while sharing his personal experience of being first ever economist judge in the French Supreme Court. He deliberated upon the apparent conflict, the divergence in approaches and the perspectives of economists and judges. Highlighting the challenges and solutions, Jenny asserted that economists need to understand the law as much as judges need to understand economics. Justice G. S. Singhvi, Chairman, Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) commented that the judicial system is averse to having economists. He further added that Indian judiciary is new to competition law and till now about 15 competition law cases have reached the Supreme Court. He shared his concerns about lack of staff and infrastructure at the COMPAT. D. K. Sikri, the new Chairman of Competition Commission of India (CCI) said that legal and economic side need to intertwine for best outcomes. He added that application of economics is very relevant to competition law and internally we are trying to build the capacity and a suitable ecosystem for this. He emphasised the critical role of the DG investigation and commented that the DG is also required to make more use of economic analysis. While focusing on the competition law, Mr Mehta highlighted the increased role of regulatory state after liberalisation and noted that the role of economics is pivotal in the application of the regulatory laws in India. As a result of deregulation, the development of competition law and trade liberalisation, there is an increasing number of economic issues being dealt with by the judiciary. Legal decisions need not only to be well founded from the legal perspective but also to be economically relevant. Yet in many countries judges are rarely trained in economic matters, just like many economists are not trained in legal matters. Former Chairman of US FTC and Director of UK's Competition and Markets Authority, Professor William Kovacic emphasised on training lawyers in the field of economics and developing interdisciplinary courses to fill this void. He noted that most lawyers and judges in the USA have developed a good understanding of economics and thus a critical mass has been built up over the last 40 years. Justice Singhvi remarked that now a days our new law universities are teaching inter disciplinary courses to law students, thus over time we will have better lawyers with better understanding of economics etc. The event witnessed the participation of senior academicians, legal professionals, research organisations, consumer organisations and other senior experts. Economic analysis of law can help in predicting what effect particular legal rules will have and deciding what legal rules should exist. There was interactive discussion towards the end and the panellists responded to interesting queries raised from the floor. Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Saturday stoked yet another controversy by claiming that he has proof of India's most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim being present during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore last year. "It is impossible for a head of any nation to go anywhere without getting clearance from the intelligence department. The Prime Minister of the largest democracy went to his enemy nation without telling anyone. Breaking all international laws he went to Pakistan and also met Dawood there," Khan said. Khan asserted that he is ready to provide evidence if Prime Minister Modi denies or challenges his claims. "If anyone wants to challenge it, they can but I have the evidence. Prime Minister Modi should tell about the people he met there in the closed room. There was Nawaz Sharif, his daughter, wife and Dawood," he added. However, Indian Government spokesperson Frank Noronha told ANI that Azam Khan's allegations are totally unfounded, baseless and false. Earlier in December, Prime Minister Modi surprised everyone by making a quick stopover in Lahore to wish Sharif on the occasion of his birthday. The two prime ministers held an hour and a half long meeting at Prime Minister Nawaz's personal residence in Lahore at Jati Umra on December 25. The parties in the petition are Federal government, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airport Security Force (ASF). Chelsea's misfiring striker Eden Hazard, who failed to replicate his rich vein of form from last season, has revealed that he had apologised to Jose Mourinho via a text message in the aftermath of the sacking of the former manager. Mourinho was axed by Chelsea in December after guiding them to the Premier League title, with the defending champions languishing near the relegation zone in the wake of his strained relationship with several members of the squad. Hazard said that he had texted Mourinho to say sorry after the Portuguese manager parted ways with the Stamford Bridge club, adding that he felt a little bit guilty as he underperformed despite being the player of the year, the Mirror reported. The Belgian international, however, lamented the shocking collapse of the reigning champions saying, "For a team of champions to go through what we have this year even I can't explain." Chelsea are 13th in the league standings and host Manchester United on Sunday in their bid to continue their slow ascent up the Premier League table. After injuring her head in an accident on the set of her new movie, Salma Hayek was recently rushed to a hospital in a T-shirt that made her look naked. Taking to her Instagram page, the 49-year-old actress shared a picture, wherein she is seen wearing NSFW top while sandwiched between her two doctors, TMZ.com reports. The 'Everly' actress wrote: "I had to be rushed from set to the ER for a minor head injury. Unfortunately my wardrobe for the scene was completely inappropriate for the hospital." She added, "Thank you to doctors Foster and Ellspermann for taking such good care of me! And don't worry it didn't make me any crazier than I was! #hospital #emergency #doctors #nude #wardrobe" Salma was filming scenes for her upcoming movie 'Drunk Parents' in upstate New York. Commander of Sri Lankan Navy Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne is representing Sri Lanka at the International Fleet Review (IFR) 2016 being held in India from 4th to 8th February 2016. The Lanka Page website reported that over 24 foreign naval chiefs are attending the mega event conducted at Visakhapatnam with the participation of vessels from more than 50 nations, including China, Britain and France in Visakhapatnam. A 275 member Sri Lankan delegation, led by Vice Admiral Wijegunaratne, and Sri Lanka Navy's Flag Ship SLNS Sayura are taking part in the second IFR organized by the Indian Navy and hosted by the Eastern Naval Command in the Bay of Bengal off Andhra Pradesh. International Fleet Review 2016 is an international military exercise hosted and conducted by Indian Navy on behalf of the President of India. Its objective is to enhance mutual trust and confidence with neighboring navies by inviting their ships to participate in the event. The exercise will run through Monday with the participation of ninety ships, including 24 warships. Over 75 helicopters of various types, including hawk jet fighters will also exhibit their talent in the Bay of Bengal during the 2nd IFR. The first IFR was held on India's west coast in Mumbai in 2001. The IFR-16 is proposed to be done at a much larger scale than ever done before and the Indian Navy is to display its maritime capabilities. The events on Saturday includes ceremonial fleet review by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and a parade of ships to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Sunday, India's Defense Minister Manohar Parikkar will inaugurate a two day International Maritime Conference on the theme 'Partnering Together for a Secure Maritime Future'. As Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung made a unilateral offer of Rs. 300 crores as loan to the North and East Corporations from the DDA, the forum of Municipal Corporation of Delhi Engineers Association called off their strike on Saturday. The offer would help pay the workers till March 31. Jung has also assured the three mayors of the MCD that he would speak to the government for implementation of the recommendations of the Fourth Finance Commission to find a long-term solution to the problems of the workers. He also requested the MCD workers to get back to work for the sake of the people of Delhi. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had issued notices to all unions to explain why they continued to remain on strike. The court observed that common people in the city are suffering owing to the ongoing tussle between the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled MCD and the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Delhi Government. The 47th annual NAACP Image Awards has arrived with Anthony Anderson hosting the ceremony for the third year. The award ceremony witnessed the members of the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People honoring outstanding people of colour in films, music, books and television shows, E! Online reports. Several Hollywood celebrities have been given the high honour this year, from Creed's Michael B. Jordan to Empire's Jussie Smollet and films 'Straight Outta Compton' and 'Beasts of No Nation' were also praised with nominations. Here's the list of the winners - Outstanding Comedy Series: Black-ish Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Terrence Howard, Empire Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Taraji P. Henson, Empire Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series: Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish President's Award: John Legend Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Mike Epps, Survivor's Remorse Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Marsai Martin, Black-ish Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Joe Morton, Scandal Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Regina King, American Crime Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series: Don Cheadle, House of Lies, The Urge to Save Humanity is Almost Always a False Front for the Urge to Rule Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series: John Ridley, American Crime Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television): Dee Rees, Bessie Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Television or Film): Loretta Devine, Doc McStuffins Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series: Anthony Anderson, Black-ish Outstanding Host in a News, Talk, Reality, or Variety Program (Series or Special) - Individual or Ensemble: Steve Harvey, Family Feud Outstanding Talk Series: The Talk Outstanding Reality Program/Reality Competition Series: Welcome to Sweetie Pie's Outstanding Variety (Series or Special): Family Feud Outstanding Children's Program: Doc McStuffins Outstanding TV-Movie, Miniseries or Dramatic Special: The Wiz Live! . Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi has said that Islamophobic acts were unfortunately taking place in countries known as traditional champions of human rights and humanitarianism. She was participating in an event organised at the United Nations by the Pakistan mission and the OIC on 'Countering Xenophobia through Interfaith Cooperation'. Array Decrying the rise of Islamophobia worldwide, Pakistan called for action to combat the forces of xenophobia and warned that if timely steps were not taken to check this disturbing trend, it could threaten regional and global peace and security. Array Ambassador Lodhi said the purpose of the event during a week at the UN was devoted to interfaith harmony and to highlight the concern of Pakistan and OIC countries over certain recent developments which were posing a danger to social cohesion and to the observance of human rights. Array The Dawn reported that Islam has been called by unspeakable names and minarets have been portrayed as missiles, she added. Array Lodhi quoted President Obama who acknowledged during his visit to a mosque earlier this week that 'an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths'. She further said that 'if any religious group is targeted, we all have a responsibility to speak up.' Array Lodhi also highlighted the plight of refugees and migrants pouring into Europe. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have claimed responsibility for the explosion on Saturday in Quetta's Multan Chowk area in which at least 10 people were killed. "The TTP's TSG unity carried out the attack that targeted the convoy of security forces," Taliban spokesperson, Mohammad Khorasani said in a statement. According to The Express Tribune, four officials of the Frontier Corps (FC) were killed in the blast, while the identities of the other five are yet to be ascertained. "Four members of the FC have been killed in the blast, while the remaining five are locals," Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani confirmed while speaking to The Express Tribune. Initial reports show that 25 people have also been injured in the blast and further injuries and deaths are yet to be ascertained Rescue teams rushed the blast site, while an emergency has been declared in all nearby hospitals including Civil Hospital Quetta. International Fleet Review (IFR) of the Indian Navy was held in Vishakhapatnam on Saturday morning. President Pranab Mukherjee was given 21-gun salute and the ceremonial Guard of Honour by 150 Navy personnel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu were also present on the occasion. The Naval Fleet review is a ceremonial and stately inspection of the Naval Warships by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces - the President. The last International Fleet Review held off Mumbai coast in 2001, was a hugely acclaimed event. Since then, the President has also reviewed the Indian Naval Fleet in 2006 and 2011. President Pranab Mukherjee, the supreme commander of the three defence forces, will inspect the International Fleet Review (IFR) here on Saturday. Array Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will also attend the event. During the review, navy will showcase its capability and technical superiority. Around 90 ships of Indian Navy are participating in the event. Over 50 countries are participating in the mega maritime meet. Array The five-day event began on Thursday with the inauguration of maritime exhibition and IFR village. Array Navies from 52 countries including China, Russia, USA, Japan, Vietnam, Israel, France, Britain and Australia are participating in the review in the Bay of Bengal. Array At least 90 ships and vessels of the Indian Navy along with aircraft carrier INS Virat and INS Vikramaditya are the main attractions of review. Array Along with warships from across the world, Indian navy is displaying its firepower and blue sea capabilities in this event. India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today at the President's House in Colombo. Array Swaraj also inaugurated the 'Rise of Digital India' exhibition as part of 'Sangam -The Festival of India in Sri Lanka 2015-16'. Array The exhibition reportedly will showcase the phenomenal rise of the computing sector and digital technologies in India which is positively impacting the everyday lives of people. Array Addressing the event, she was quoted by the Lanka Page website, as remarking that digital technology has positively impacted the lives of millions of Indians in all areas such as agriculture, space and e-governance and pledged to set up an IT park in Sri Lanka that would attract investments in the sector. Array The visiting minister also called on former president Chandrika Kumaratunga at her residence. Array Swaraj, who arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday for a two-day visit, briefed President Sirisena on the outcomes of the 9th India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting held in Colombo on Friday, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Twitter. Array Swaraj is scheduled to conclude her visit to Sri Lanka this afternoon. Addressing the matters of Telecom and Broadcasting services, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said adjudication in matters needs to be expedited as technology is fast changing in these sectors. Addressing a seminar on Telecom and Broadcasting in New Delhi, the Finance Minister said since the country is moving towards age of convergence that is why broadcasting and telecom services brought under common regulatory authority. Jaitley asked the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to have an alternate mechanism to deal with small cases pertaining to broadcasting disputes. He said, cases are getting delayed in civil courts therefore TDSAT should take steps so that there can be a quick disposal. "Technology based solutions have transformed the whole world and can create numerous jobs. There is a need to keep pace with the latest technology," said FM Arun Jaitley. "The world is talking about fourth industrial revolution and India has a chance to be its part fully as it has inherent advantage of human resources," added Jaitley. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has arrived in Sri Lanka amid concerns that the country's President Maithripala Sirisena is backtracking on promises to investigate war crimes. Sri Lanka had committed to allow foreign judges to investigate allegations against Sri Lankan forces but last month Sirisena said that no foreign judges would be allowed in the investigation. Sri Lankan troops are accused of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the civil war in 2009. Al Hussein who is on a four day visit will travel to the former war zone and will meet victims of human rights violations reported Lanka Page website. He will also talk to top government officials, civil activists and religious leaders. President Sirisena has said Sri Lanka does not need to 'import' specialists for an investigation. In October 2015, Sri Lanka co sponsored a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for a special judicial mechanism to prosecute war crimes. Both the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels have been accused of atrocities in the civil war that ended in 2009. The United Nations on Friday called on the Swedish and British authorities to end the captivity of Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website. Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Sweden and the United Kingdom since his arrest in London in December 2010, as a result of the legal action against him by both Governments. In a public statement the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said, "The Working Group therefore requested Sweden and the United Kingdom to assess the situation of Mr. Assange to ensure his safety and physical integrity, to facilitate the exercise of his right to freedom of movement in an expedient manner, and to ensure the full enjoyment of his rights guaranteed by the international norms on detention. The Working Group also considered that the detention should be brought to an end and that Mr. Assange should be afforded the right to compensation." The UK said it will formally contest the opinion, while Sweden said the panel had no right to 'interfere'. The computer hacker, who founded the WikiLeaks, released 500,000 secret US military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables. Closure of transaction extended upto 29 February 2016 Ballarpur Industries' step down subsidiary Ballarpur Paper Holdings B.V. (BPH) and holding company of Sabah Forest Industries Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia (SFI), had signed a Share Sale Agreement (SSA) dated 23 September 2015, for sale of its entire equity stake of 98.08% in SFI. Ballarpur Industries now announced that at the request of Pandawa Sakti (Sabah) Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia (Purchaser), the long stop date for closure of the aforesaid transaction has been extended upto 29 February 2016. Further, the Purchaser is in the process of issuing an additional performance guarantee for USD 10 Million, over and above the USD 12.50 Million performance guarantee issued earlier, as further commitment for the aforesaid transaction. Powered by Capital Market - Live News At meeting held on 05 February 2016 Steelco Gujarat announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 05 February 2016, has transacted the following: - Approval to CAPEX amounting to Rs. 74 crore which will be funded by infusion of funds from promoters as well as various credit facilities from banks, as may be approved by Corporate Debt Restructuring. Powered by Capital Market - Live News On 13 February 2016 Indian Infotech and Software will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company on 13 February 2016, to consider and approve Un-audited Quarterly Financial Result for Quarter ended on 31 December 2015. To Re-allotment/Re-issue of Equity Shares which was forfeited earlier to CRB Trustee Limited in A/c of CRB Mutual Fund as per order of High Court Delhi. To take on record the Resignation of Company Secretary which has accepted by Company. Powered by Capital Market - Live News At least 11 people were killed and 462 others injured in a powerful quake that hit Taiwan early on Saturday, just two days ahead of the traditional lunar New Year. Over 170 people were still unaccounted for after the 6.7-magnitude quake hit Kaohsiung city at 3.57 a.m. (Beijing Time), Xinhua quoted China Earthquake Networks Centre as saying. The epicentre was measured at a depth of 15 km. Local monitoring authorities put the quake at 6.4 on the Richter Scale. In the historic city of Tainan, which bore the brunt of the quake, eight buildings collapsed and five were partially damaged. Altogether, over 240 survivors were pulled from the rubble, rescuers said. The Wei Guan building, left on its side with twisted metal girders exposed, was said to be home to 256 people in 92 households. Firefighters and soldiers used ladders, excavators and other equipment to pull survivors out of rubble and through twisted windows. So far, 172 people, including 120 adults and 52 children, were still missing. Rescuers on site said they could hear calls for help from inside the collapsed building, but have to consolidate the collapsed building parts first before saving the rest. They were also not sure exactly how many people were still trapped under the debris, fearing there may be more people in the building than usual as families may have housed guests to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday next week. A lady surnamed Cheng said her brother, sister-in-law and their two daughters were still trapped. "Their mobile phones are disconnected," she said. "Their landline rings but no one answers." Apart from firefighters, the island has dispatched about 850 soldiers for the rescue, said Chen Wei-zen, head of the island's interior affairs authority. Tainan is the main focus of their rescue efforts, according to Chen. While addressing a Chinese New Year gathering on Saturday morning, Premier Li Keqiang sent condolences to the victims of the disaster. Japenese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe also sent condolences to Taiwan following the quake. Earthquakes frequently hit Taiwan. Most of them are minor, but a 7.3-magnitude quake, the strongest to hit Taiwan in about 100 years, shook the island on September 21, 1999, leaving more than 2,000 people dead. The strike by municipal workers continued for the 11th day on Saturday as employees of Delhi's civic bodies burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over non-payment of salaries. The protestors, in north Delhi's Burari area, said the city and central governments were not taking their demands seriously. Hundreds of employees of the municipal corporations staged a noisy demonstration and dumped garbage at various place,s including the camp office of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in Khichripur and Shyam Lal College in Burari. The protestors staged a march and also burnt an effigy of Transport Minister Gopal Rai near his office at Babarpur in east Delhi. "We will continue to dump garbage on the streets of Delhi till our demands are met," Sanjay Gehlot, president of the Mazdoor Vikas Sanyukta Morcha, told IANS. Gahlot said workers will visit Delhi High Court on Monday and apprise it of the whole issue. United Front of MCD Employees president Rajesh Mishra said a section of doctors and engineers called off their strike but it will not affect their ongoing protest. "The strike is on," he maintained. "We will not call off our strike till our demands of reaching a permanent solution to the crisis and merger of municipal corporations are considered," he added. Employees of Delhi's civic bodies have been protesting over the non-payment of salaries for the past few months, and directing their ire at both the Delhi and central governments for the last 11 days. Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday announced a loan of Rs.300 crore to two municipal corporations for payment of salaries to striking workers, but they refused to heed to his appeal to return to work. Earlier this week, the Kejriwal government had also announced Rs.551 crore to the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations for paying salaries. At least 12 militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) were killed in a clash with security personnel in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province on Saturday, the media reported. The clash flared up in Kot district, leaving 10 militants injured, Xinhua reported. There were no casualties on security personnel, Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government, said. The IS fighters from the mountainous districts of Achin and Kot in the province, have been challenging Afghan security forces over the past several months. A total of 15 Iraqi security members were killed and 21 injured on Saturday in suicide car bomb attacks by Islamic State (IS) militants and a blast in a booby-trapped house in Iraq's Anbar province, a source said. An IS suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a military convoy on the main road leading to the military airbase of Ain al-Asad airbase destroying three military vehicles, killing nine soldiers aboard and injuring 16 others, Xinhua quoted a provincial official as saying. Ain al-Asad military base is used by Iraqi military forces and houses hundreds of US Marines as military trainers and advisers. In a separate incident, US-led coalition warplanes bombarded two suicide truck bombs in Huseiba al-Shrqiyah area as the two vehicles were said to have been on their way to attack the positions of the security forces in Sajjariyah district of Ramadi, the source said. Sajjariyah district has been freed recently by security forces from IS militants and allied Sunni tribal fighters, but clearing operations continued as the militants densely planted bombs in buildings, whilst small groups of IS militants were still carrying out sporadic attacks against the troops using the buildings as hideouts. Also on Saturday, a booby-trapped house detonated during a search operation in the district of Soufiyah in eastern Ramadi, leaving six security members dead and five others injured, the source added. In an earlier report on Saturday, a provincial security source said Iraqi security forces backed by US-led coalition aircraft repelled an attack by IS militants with three suicide truck bombs on a military base in Nadhem al-Tharthar area of Ramadi. He said the troops fought back the attackers and destroyed two truck bombs with anti-tank guided missiles before reaching their target, while aircraft of the US-led coalition pounded the IS militants and destroyed the third truck bomb at the desert area outside the targeted military base. According to the source, seven security members were reportedly injured in the clashes with the IS, while at least four IS militants and the three suicide bombers were killed. Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months now in order to regain control of key cities from IS militants in the towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, as IS militants had previously seized most of Anbar and attempted to advance towards Baghdad. Iraq currently witnesses a massive wave of violence since the IS gained control of sections of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014, when surprisingly Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and posts and fled. At least 28 militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) terror group were killed and 10 others injured when a pilot-less plane pounded their hideouts in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday. The air strikes targeted IS fighters in Achin and Kot districts on Friday night, Xinhua quoted an official statement as saying. Two cars of IS fighters were also destroyed during the strikes, the statement added. The statement also said two civilians, including a woman, had also sustained injuries during the air raid. IS fighters active in parts of Nangarhar province are yet to make any comment about the incident. India's future as a technology powerhouse and its plans to connect India's 600,000 villages to the Internet through the Digital India programme were the focus of a roundtable of top American and Indian companies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Startup India initiative also came up at the roundtable with Indian Minister for Communications & IT Ravi Shankar Prasad hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday. The roundtable was attended by USIBC President Mukesh Aghi and senior executives of American and Indian companies that included Google, AT&T, MasterCard, Facebook, American Tower Corporation, UST Global and iTech. USIBC comprises 350 top-tier US and Indian companies advancing US-India commercial ties. "Digital India provides an enormous investment opportunity for both global technology companies and startups from tech hubs like Boston and Silicon Valley," Prasad said. "India is sitting on the cusp of a digital revolution," he said. "Whether it is big metropolitan cities or small towns, a well-connected India has the potential to not only usher in economic and welfare opportunities for its citizens, but also the global economic order." The Indian "government is taking every policy decision in a transparent, predictable and reasonable manner," Prasad said encouraging "American businesses to take advantage of the Digital India programme, and the growth opportunities in India." Prasad also outlined the progress that has already been made to implement Digital India programme and his priorities for the future. Aghi said, "Prime Minister Modi's directive to connect Indians across the country is a tremendous opportunity for both Indian and US companies alike." Noting that 85 percent of Indians still do not have access to the Internet, he said "the government could make it easier to obtain clearances to install cell phone towers." "IT infrastructure can be further expanded by lifting the ban on foreign satellite operators so they can provide spectrum in hard-to-reach areas." Dan Gupta of UST Global commented on the economic growth that can be spurred by the Digital India initiative and adoption of key technologies across sectors. "By some estimations, the Digital India initiative could help boost India's gross domestic product (GDP) by around $550 billion - upping its GDP by $1 trillion by 2025," he said. Sonny Khurana, CEO of iTech, praised the rapid strides in connectivity and the startup ecosystem under the current government. (Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in) Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Saturday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore in December last year. The government termed it as baseless, unfounded and totally false. "If the prime minister asks, I can show photographs as proof," Azam Khan told reporters in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. The senior leader of the state's ruling Samajwadi Party said Modi also met Sharif's mother at the Pakistani prime minister's residence in Lahore. He claimed that Sharif sent seekh kabab for Modi. "Our prime minister sends pashmina shawl and Malihabadi mangoes for the Pakistani prime minister and in return, seekh kabab comes here from Pakistan. I have proof of this also...," he said. The government denied the claims. "There are reports in a section of the press that the prime accused of the serial Mumbai blasts Dawood Ibrahim was also present during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on 25th December 2015. These statements are baseless, unfounded and totally false," an official statement said. In December last year, Modi made a brief stopover in Lahore, while returning to Delhi from a visit to Kabul. The vice chancellor of a private university here has been arrested for allegedly raping a 33-year-old woman, the police said on Saturday. "We have arrested Madhukar G. Angur on Friday night on a complaint by the victim's mother, who charged him with sexually abusing her daughter over a period, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) M.B. Boraingaiah told IANS. Angur (55), a divorcee, is the vice-chancellor of Alliance University, set up in 2010 at Anekal on the city's southern outskirts. "The victim is the accused's niece, who has been working in the university's administrative office since 2011. As the complaint is filed by her mother, who is his sister, we are interrogating them and others in the family," Boralingaiah said. Based on the written complaint, a first information report (FIR) has been registered against the accused under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to the complaint, the victim and the accused have been in relationship for a couple of years as Angur had promised to marry her but betrayed. "The victim's mother said her daughter went into depression and is under counselling to recover from the trauma of betrayal and deceit by the accused," the IPS officer added. The accused also threatened the victim against complaining to the police or anyone else and blackmailed her mother with threats to "expose" their family. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, an active user of social networking sites, is thrilled to get 23 million likes on his Facebook page. The 73-year-old is right behind superstar Salman Khan, whose page has been liked by 29,434,865 fans on the social networking site. But the "Piku" star, whose page has received 23,032,439 likes, is ahead of superstars Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan. "On Facebook 23 MILLION followers!! BAAADUMMBAAA! 23!! THATS 2+3=5 ..5TH OF FEB ..Abhisheks birthday!," Amitabh, who was last seen on the big screen in Bejoy Nambiar's directorial "Wazir", tweeted on Friday night. The cinematic icon uses the platform to share his thoughts and information related to his projects as well as personal life. On the film front, he has completed filming "TE3N", which also stars Vidya Balan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. -*- Vir Das presents 'something new' Actor-comedian Vir Das, who will be seen playing a Punjabi engineer in the film "31st October", has shared his "something new" look from the Shivaji Lotan Patil directorial. He had earlier shared that he had to work hard for achieving the right look for his character in the film, and that he had to put on weight to look like a healthy Punjabi. Vir tweeted a photograph in which he is seen sporting a Sikh look. He can be seen donning a light blue turban and a long salt and pepper beard. "Here's something new! Presenting Devender Singh from @31stOctFilm. My next role/film. Survivor of the 1984 violence," Vir captioned the image which he shared on Saturday. "31st October" is based on the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the events that followed. Also starring Soha Ali Khan, the movie has been screened at fests like Sikh International Film Festival Toronto and London Indian Film Festival. -*- Omung Kumar thanks Randeep for taking his 'vision ahead' "Mary Kom" fame director Omung Kumar has thanked actor Randeep Hooda, who lost 28 kg in just 28 days for the upcoming film "Sarbjit". "Sarbjit" is a biopic on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian farmer who was convicted for terrorism and spying in Pakistan and was sentenced to death. He was attacked by inmates at a prison in Lahore in April 2013 and died a few days later. Kumar thanked the "Highway" star, who will essay the role of Sarabjit, for taking Kumar's "vision" of the character "ahead". "@RandeepHooda thank you for taking my vision ahead. #Sarbjit releasing 19th May 2016," the director tweeted on Saturday. The film, which also stars actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Richa Chadha, is slated to hit the screens on May 19, a day before it was scheduled to hit the screens. Louisiana's former Indian-American Governor Bobby Jindal has endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio, giving the surging Republican presidential candidate a boost ahead of Tuesday's primary in New Hamnpshire. "Marco can unify our party. His optimistic message is bringing voters from across the party lines, from across different demographic groups," Jindal told Fox News on Friday. "He can unify our party. He can win this election in November." "I think he's a principled conservative. I think he is the right guy to lead us forward," he added. Jindal, who himself made a long shot run for president until he dropped his campaign in November in the face of low poll numbers, also said he was impressed by Rubio's foreign policy. "Marco's been consistent about strengthening America's foreign policy," Jindal said. "Marco's consistently stood up to the threat of ISIS and radical Islam." Rubio responded by calling Jindal "one of the smartest people in American ." "He's going to be a huge asset to our campaign," Rubio said in a statement. "I think he has a very promising future in American . One of the best governors in America." "We're really excited to have him on board. This is going to be a good boost to our campaign," he added. Jindal is the second former 2016 rival to endorse Rubio this week, as former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum threw his support behind the Florida senator on Wednesday. Rubio, who made a surprisingly strong third place finish in Iowa caucuses after Texas Senator Ted Cruz and frontrunner Donald Trump took a dig at his rivals saying running a country is not like being a real estate developer or being a governor. "Again, being president of the United States is not like being a real estate developer, it's not like being a governor, it is about being commander in chief," he told NBC News. "And on the most important issues before this country on national security, I have shown better judgment and a better understanding than anyone else running for president." Brushing aside concerns that he is "too scripted" Rubio argued that he gives the party the best chance to unify and expand the party and defeat Democratic frrontrunner Hillary Clinton in the general election. Trump, as also New Jersey Governor Christopher Christie and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, have hammered Rubio for not being experienced enough. (Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in) Britain on Friday rejected a UN working group's ruling which calls for an end to the "arbitrary detention" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) announced on Friday that Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain since his arrest in London in 2010, and he should be afforded the right to compensation, Xinhua reported. Speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been taking refuge, Assange said: "How sweet it is. This is a victory that cannot be denied." "It is a victory of historical importance, not just for me, for my family, for my children, but for the independence of the UN system," he added. Holding a copy of the UN ruling, he continued: "What right do the governments of the US, UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years?" However, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described the ruling as "a ridiculous finding" by the working group, and accused Assange of "hiding from justice." "Assange is a fugitive from justice, voluntarily hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy. I reject the report from UNWGAD," Hammond tweeted. Hitting back at Hammond, Assange accused the foreign secretary' s comments of "insulting the UN." "I found those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign secretary should express in this situation," The 44-year-old Australian said. Edward Snowden, a US intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower who has fled the US and taken refugee in Russia, criticised Britain's rejection to abide by the UN ruling. "This writes a pass for every dictatorship to reject UN rulings. Dangerous precedent for UK and Sweden to set," he said on his twitter account. British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) denied that Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Britain, and threatened to formally contest the opinion of the UN Working Group. "This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group's opinion," an FCO spokesperson said. The spokesperson noted that an allegation of rape against Assange is still outstanding with a European Arrest Warrant in place, and Britain "continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden." Assange has infuriated several governments, including the US authorities, by disclosing hundreds of thousands of secret files concerning Iraq, Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world. In June, 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and was granted political asylum by Ecuador two months later. Well known cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, who was suffering from a brain tumour passed away on Saturday, his family said. He would have turned 56 on February 26. Tailang's daughter Aditi told IANS that he breathed his last at 12.30 pm. He would be cremated at 2 pm on Sunday at Lodhi road crematorium. Tailang was under treatment for the last two years. He was in hospital for more than a month before he was brought home after doctors had given up all hopes of his recovery. Tailang, who was suffering from GBM-4 stage brain tumour, had undergone two surgeries and chemotherapy during the course of his treatment over two years, Aditi said. He worked with almost all the well-known banners including Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express. His last assignment was with the Asian Age. Late prime minister Indira Gandhi was the first prey of Tailang's pen. Thereafter, there was hardly any known personality in political world or other sphere of life who could escape his brush. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2004 for his contribution to the art of cartooning. The Oommen Chandy government in Kerala will retain power in the assembly elections scheduled later this year, former defence minister A.K. Antony said on Saturday -- a hope contrary to the state's history so far. "There has been no government that has done so much for the state, like the present one and hence there will be continuity of governance and Chandy government will retain power," Antony told reporters here. The Congress leader's confidence runs contrary to Kerala's electoral history. No government in the state has been able to retain power in the assembly elections. It has always alternated between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). "Yes, there might have been some issues now, but people of Kerala know what is happening and when they decide to finally cast their vote, they will vote for the Chandy government," added Antony, alluding to the solar scam and the bar bribery scam that have bruised the UDF government in the last few weeks. Antony has been a three time chief minister of Kerala, but has not got a full five year term. Chandy, despite having a tough ride, is all set to become the second Congress chief minister after K. Karunakaran to have a full five year term. The elections to the 140-member Kerala Assembly are expected to take place in April/May. A special court, hearing coal block allocation case, here has issued summons to a company Himachal EMTA Power Ltd. (HEPL), its two directors and a senior official, sources said on Friday. Special Judge Bharat Parashar on Thursday issued summons to HEPL, its two directors Ujjal Kumar Upadhaya and Bikash Mukherjee, and its senior official N.C. Chakraborty, directing them to appear before court on February 29. The court issued order following the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case and after observing that sufficient evidence exists against the accused for the offence of cheating and criminal conspiracy. The CBI in its charge sheet said that accused directors Upadhaya and Mukherjee had submitted false information to the Ministry of Coal (MoC) to secure allocation of Gourangdih ABC coal block in West Bengal in the favour of their company. The CBI has not charge sheeted Chakraborty but the court issued summons to him too. Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Saturday greeted people on the occasion of Losar, the Tibetan New Year, and passed on information about his health. Speaking from a hospital in the US where he's undergoing precautionary prostate treatment, the Dalai Lama offered a video message on the occasion of fortnight-long Losar, beginning February 8. Assuring his friends and followers that he's in good health, the Buddhist monk said: "I want to tell you that I am doing very well. The treatment only takes a few minutes every day, but it will take time to complete the treatment. It's nothing complicated, it's not serious, there's nothing to worry about." Wishing all 'Losar tashi delek' (Tibetan greeting on Losar), the Nobel Peace Laureate requested that all "please try to live up to what it means". The Losar festival marks sacred and secular practices like prayers, ceremonies, rituals and folk dancing and merrymaking. The Dalai Lama has undergone treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for a prostate problem, his office here said. Revered as a spiritual leader across the world, he favours "greater autonomy" for people in Tibet rather than complete independence. Chinese leaders have, in fact, called him a separatist -- one who wants Tibet to secede from China. The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland Tibet in 1959. The Tibetan administration-in-exile is based here. Kazunori Kunizuka, who worked as an interpreter with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from 1943 to 1945, is still alive and has recorded in graphic detail in his diary the last days of Bose and his death as a result of a plane crash at Taipei on 18 August 1945, claims a website. The London-based site www.bosefiles.info, which has been coming out with serialised "revelations" backing the theory that the Indian revolutionary leader died in a plane crash, said it received information about the diary from the London correspondent of the Japanese Daily Sankei Shimbun. The correspondent Noburu Okabe also handed over a copy of the diary to the website created by London-based journalist and Netaji's grand nephew Ashish Ray. "The diary is in Japanese. We will get it translated and post relevant portions from it in due course," Ray said. The site claimed that according to Okabe, Kanizuka is 98-years-old and lives in an old people's home in Kobe city in Japan. Okabe met Kanizuka and testified the diary unequivocally confirms Bose's demise in a Japanese military hospital in Taipei after the air tragedy, according to the site. It said Ray had met in Taipei Yukichi Arai, son of Captain Keikichi Arai, a Japanese army officer who was one of seven survivors of the crash. An estimated total 14 passengers and crew, including Bose, were on the flight. Captain Arai died in 1971. However, he, too, recorded in his diary that Bose succumbed to injuries suffered in the crash. As per his description, soon after take-off from Taipei the Japanese bomber carrying Bose "immediately lost speed, crashed and went up in flames". Of the seven survivors, six deposed before either the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee or the 1974 Justice G.D. Khosla Commission or both, including Bose's most trusted aide de camp Colonel Habibur Rehman and Captain Arai. All six independently submitted Bose died consequent to the crash, said www.bosefiles.info. Public health experts have welcomed India's commitment to tobacco control made in the first South Asian Speakers' Summit on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that concluded in Bangladesh last week. India has endorsed the 'Dhaka Declaration on SDG Action in South Asia' that has set the agenda for making the region tobacco free by 2030. "As the country is grappling with shrinking health budgets, India's strategy to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases through controlling tobacco use is a welcome step," said K.R. Thankappan, the head of Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies here. He said the need of the hour was to make "multi-sectoral efforts" to reduce tobacco use which killed one million Indians a year. Endorsement of Dhaka Declaration has committed India to developing, strengthening and enforcing tobacco-control policies, legislation and regulations in line with the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). India has also agreed to work towards decreasing the affordability of all tobacco products by increasing tobacco taxes and endeavour to set aside revenue generated from tobacco taxes to support tobacco control efforts. The Dhaka Declaration emerged after two days of deliberations by the parliament speakers of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka on January 30 and 31, 2016. C.P.John, member, Kerala State Planning Board said tobacco use in different forms was a major threat to public health and development. "The state should come forward in controlling tobacco use by strong enforcement and regular monitoring while the responsible citizenry should take the lead in educating the masses through wide public awareness programmes," he added. Tobacco control has been included as a target under Goal 3 - Health and Well-being - of SDGs 2015-30. It's notable that Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had termed tobacco as an "epidemic" in her address to the speakers' summit. She had observed that in South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka) the estimated total number of tobacco users is 384 million, which accounts for over a third (34.8 percent) of the total tobacco users in the world (about 1.1 billion). India will host the second meeting of South Asian Speakers' Forum in 2017. At least five people were killed and two were missing after a landslide hit the Central Java province of Indonesia, rescuers said on Saturday. Heavy downpours triggered the landslide in Purworejo district on Friday, Xinhua quoted Marsudi, spokesman of the National Search and Rescue Office, as saying. At least two houses were hit, he said. A rescue team from Central Java office along with soldiers, police and volunteers were searching for the missing, he said. The disaster badly injured one villager and forced 75 others to take shelter at safer places, said Budi Harjono, operational head in disaster management agency in Purworejo district. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency, said over 250 personnel including those from local search and rescue office, disaster management agency and Red Cross, soldiers, police and volunteers were involved in the search and rescue operation. Landslide is frequent in Indonesia during heavy rain that often leaves scores of casualties and damage. Facing "unprecedented, global and lasting terrorism threats," the French government is proposing changing the constitution to allow for easier implementation of a state of emergency and to limit its duration to four months, French Prime Minister Manual Valls said on Friday. Addressing lawmakers, Valls said the government was "ready to restrict the extension of the state of emergency to a maximum of four months, and make it renewable." Valls defended the "effective and indispensable" state of emergency imposed in the wake of a series of shootings and suicide bombings in November 2015, where a total of 130 people were killed, Xinhua reported. "The terrorist menace is here and it will last," warned Valls, adding the proposed constitutional reforms aimed "to adapt the constitution to the reality of the terrorist threat." Imposed the first time during the Algerian war in 1955, the state of emergency allows police to conduct searches without judicial warrants, put people under house arrest, close the country's borders and ban public gatherings. According to Valls, the state of emergency helped to foil 11 terrorist assaults done through 3,289 raids. Police seized 560 arms with 341 people were placed into custody. Speaking about the draft law to revoke citizenship of all dual nationals, including those who were born in France and convicted on terrorism charges, Valls argued that it was a "collective response of the French to the French who chose to wear to severely undermine the nation. It's a way to affirm what unites us." More than 1,000 French nationals joined the Syrian civil war with 597 of them still in the conflict-torn Arab country, he added. Senators will discuss the government's proposed draft laws to fight terrorism next Tuesday before presenting them to the National Assembly on February 16. Recent satellite imagery shows the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad of North Korea's rocket site, indicating that the nation is forging ahead with a planned launch, the media reported on Saturday. The imagery taken of Dongchang-ri site on Wednesday and Thursday showed the tanker trucks at the old fuel and oxidizer bunkers, a website that monitors North Korea said in a report on Friday, adding that the trucks' presence more likely indicates the filling of tanks within the bunkers than the fueling of the rocket, The Korea Herald reported. "In the past, such activity has occurred one to two weeks prior to a launch event and would be consistent with North Korea's announced launch window," the website said. North Korea has informed international organisations it will launch an earth observation satellite between February 8-25, confirming widespread concern it is readying for a banned long-range rocket launch just weeks after its fourth nuclear test. Pyongyang has long argued its rocket launches are aimed at putting satellites into orbit, claiming it has the right to the peaceful use of space. But the country is banned from such launches under UN Security Council resolutions as it has been accused of using them as a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. The toll in Friday's bus accident in Gujarat rose to 42, as five more bodies were pulled out from the wreckage on Saturday. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel paid a visit to the injured people in hospitals and families of the deceased and offered all help from the state government. The government has declared a compensation of Rs.4 lakh each to the kin of those killed. The chief minister personally handed over compensation cheques to the families. The bus from Navsari to Ukai, carrying more than 60 passengers, fell into the Purna river some 40 feet below, after breaking the sidewalls of a bridge on the Navsari-Bardoli highway on Friday evening. The driver and conductor of the state-run Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation bus were among those killed. Many schools and colleges in Navsari town remained closed for the day after paying condolences to the students killed in the accident. Among the deceased were eight students of three schools and colleges in the town who were returning home after attending classes in the evening. At least four other students are undergoing treatment in hospitals. Meanwhile, a large number of students on Saturday turned up at various hospitals to donate blood to the injured. Even as the exact reason for the driver losing control over the bus was still not known on Saturday, Anandiben Patel said she would order an inquiry into the incident to enable the authorities to take necessary preventive measures to avoid such accidents in future. Coming to the aid of a destitute woman, who was allegedly denied free treatment of total hip replacement surgery by the AIIMS, the Delhi High Court has sought response from the Central government and the premier hospital. Asha Devi, 35, a resident of Bihar, moved the high court after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) asked her to deposit in advance Rs.1,27,000 for the treatment. Justice Manmohan also issued notice to the Bihar government as to why the poor patients were not getting free treatment in Bihar itself and were forced to seek medical help in Delhi. The court also directed the medical superintendent/director of AIIMS to get Asha Devi examined and file a status report on or before the next date of hearing, February 19. AIIMS refused to perform a total hip replacement surgery on Asha Devi for Reiter's Disease, on account of her inability to pay the hefty cost of the surgery, said the plea. Asha Devi belongs to the lower strata of the society and said the Centre refused to bear the expenses of the treatment required by her, thereby, violating her human and fundamental right to life as guaranteed to her under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, advocate Ashok Agarwal, appearing for Devi, told the court. "Every person is entitled to equality before law and equal protection of law. Also, no person can be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. Thus, the state is bound to protect life and liberty of every human being," he further contended. Asha Devi is an illiterate married woman and her husband is 100 percent hearing-impaired and unemployed. They have four children -- three of whom are attending government school in Bihar. Her father-in-law works as an agriculture labourer and earns an average of Rs.5-6 thousand a month. The family has no other source of income, said the plea. Around six months back, she was advised by a doctor in Bihar to approach AIIMS for treatment. Accordingly, she approached AIIMS on December 16, 2015, where doctors advised total hip replacement surgery for her. AIIMS asked her to deposit the hefty amount towards the cost of implants. Thereafter, she made a written representation on January 19 to the hospital and the central government requesting that she be provided totally free treatment as she belongs to the economically-weaker section and lives in abject poverty. The plea added that she possesses income certificate dated December 19, 2015 from the government of Bihar indicating annual income of Rs.70,000, and National Food Security Card which is issued to a person having less than Rs.1 lakh annual income. The hospital refused to provide her free treatment saying she should have an income certificate below Rs.4,000 per month income or a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card -- Devi does not possess either. She said her condition was continuing to deteriorate each day and she needed immediate surgery. Aggression can lead to generation of new nerve cells in the brain and also change the activity of existing cells, new research has found. A team of neurobiologists from the US and Russia studied the changes that occurred in the brains of mice demonstrating aggressive behaviour, which attacked other mice and won in fights. After a win, these mice became even more aggressive, and new neurons appeared in their hippocampus - one of the key structures of the brain, the researchers found. In addition to this, in mice that were allowed to continue fighting certain changes were observed in the activity of their nerve cells. The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. The scientists hope that the new information on the neurobiological bases of aggression will not only help in understanding this important phenomenon, but will also encourage research in other areas -- and even help in finding causes of autism and other similar disorders in humans. Increased anxiety, stereotypical repetitive behaviour, impaired ability to communicate with others - symptoms partially similar to autism -- were observed in the mice with more new neurons in the hippocampus. "Once again I am amazed at how the basic building blocks that make up complex behaviour are similar in different organisms and it is truly fascinating how they can be combined with other blocks to create an enormous variety of behavioural reactions in animals and humans," said corresponding author of the study Grigori Enikolopov from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in Russia. The International Fleet Review (IFR) can change the dynamics in the Indian Ocean, Indian Navy chief Admiral R.K. Dhowan said on Friday, stressing on the need for global naval collaboration to safeguard international waters. "The dynamics will change (in the Indian Ocean)... a large number of navies participating, there will be interactions, it will enhance coordination," Admiral Dhowan told IANS here after a press conference that was also attended by chiefs and officers from several navies, including the US, Japan and China. The naval chief said the IFR theme of 'United through Oceans' signifies that the global navies need to come together to guard international waters. "Security and safety of global commons is the collective responsibility of navies around the world. No single navy is robust enough to provide security and safety to the global commons on its own," Admiral Dhowan said. "Maritime medium lends itself to cooperation; that is where it is the responsibility of men in white uniform, the navies, and coast guards to come up with cooperative mechanisms so that we can provide that safety and security," he said. Around 50 navies from across the world are participating in the IFR, the second of its kind and the largest military exercise by India. "As we sail out, we will have the opportunity for exercises where crew of various ships will have opportunities to display their skills and this will increase our aspects of mutual cooperation and inter-operability," the navy chief said at the press conference earlier. "The seas around us are gaining more importance with each day passing by due to their linkagaes with the blue economy. Global maritime partnership and networking among navies is therefore emerging as the new order," he said. "The challenges in the maritime domain are wide and various, but we are confident to deal with them in collaboration with fellow maritime nations. International Fleet Reviews are maritime culture to build co-operation and relations between the navies of the world over," he said. Admiral Dhowan also stressed on indigenisation. "Blueprint of future navy is anchored in indigenisation," the navy chief said, adding that 46 ships are currently under construction in different yards. The IFR is set to see the participation of 90 ships, including 24 warships and over 70 aircraft. In addition, ships of the Indian Coast Guard and mercantile marine would also participate. The event that will take place here on Saturday will see columns of ships lined up in the review anchorage, and President Pranab Mukherjee will review the fleet. "We look forward to showcase some aspects of our maritime capabilities," he said. Along with the fleet review, also showcased will be a flypast, a parade of sails with Yatches, two sail training ships of the Indian Navy, sailing vessel INS Mhadei with all women crew, marine commandos (MARCOS), the special force of Indian Navy, mobile columns of ships and submarine, 'green force' the fast interceptor crafts run on solar power, along with several other attractions. India on Saturday held discussions with Sri Lanka to strengthen bilateral relations in the petroleum sector. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan held a meeting here with Anoma Gamage, deputy minister of petroleum resources development of Sri Lanka. Pradhan discussed issues like expansion of activities of Lanka IOC, including in the retail business, bunkering and marketing of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and cooking gas. Lanka IOC is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. and one of the major retail players in the Sri Lankan market and has been highly active there for several years. He reiterated the commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work with Sri Lanka to make Trincomalee a regional energy hub. He expressed India's interest in establishing refinery and bunkering operations in Sri Lanka. "We assure you that India is committed to help Sri Lanka emerge as petroleum hub," Pradhan told the visiting minister. He expressed confidence that both Sri Lanka and India will work in a spirit of partnership in the hydrocarbon sector. "We hope this visit will benefit our bilateral relationship and economy of Sri Lanka and benefit Lanka IOC," Gamange said. Officials from Sri Lanka's oil and gas sector as well as from India's petroleum ministry were also present at the meeting. India and Sri Lanka on Friday signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) here - one in the health sector and another on renovation of schools. Under the MoU on health, India will construct a surgical unit at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital in the island nation's Eastern province and supply medical equipment, according to a tweet posted by external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup. According to the second MoU, India will aid in the renovation of 27 schools in the Northern Province, Swarup said in a separate tweet. The MoUs were signed after the ninth session of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission here that was co-chaired by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera. The India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission was established in 1992 as an effective mechanism to address matters pertaining to bilateral cooperation. Earlier on Fiday, after arriving here on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, Sushma Swaraj called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. During the course of her visit, she will also call on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and former president Chandrika Kumaratunga. On Saturday, the Indian minister will inaugurate a "Rise of Digital India" exhibition as part of "Sangam - Festival of India in Sri Lanka 2015-16". The exhibition will showcase the rise of the computing sector and digital technologies in India. India would export diesel from Assam-based Numaligarh refinery to Bangladesh, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday. "India will export diesel from Numaligarh Refinery in Assam to Parbatipur in north Bangladesh. First we will export diesel by train on experimental basis before connecting through pipelines," said Pradhan after discussions on bilateral cooperation in the energy sector with Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, energy adviser to the Bangladesh prime minister. Eyeing the Bangladesh market in a big way for exporting petroleum products, he said a 200-km-long pipeline would be laid to export the products to the neighbouring country. The minister said Chennai and Paradip ports of India would be interconnected with Chittagong and Mongla ports of Bangladesh for export of the petroleum products. He said petroleum products can also be exported to Bangladesh from Paradip oil refinery scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday. "There is also preliminary discussion over to lay gas pipeline to Bangladesh from Odisha as LNG terminal is being set up here," said Pradhan. Informing that Bangladesh has allocated to oil blocks for oil exploration, he said there had been discussions on carrying out a preliminary survey soon and initiate drilling in the blocks after the rainy season. With the commissioning of the Paradip refinery, Pradhan said that India would be once again in a position to export petroleum products to Bangladesh. In this regard, he expressed keenness of India in setting up of marketing infrastructure in Bangladesh. He said the officials of oil corporations had recently visited Bangladesh to discuss various energy sector projects of mutual interest to both nations. Chowdhury said both the countries discussed to fix a timeline over oil exportation from Numaligarh refinery and other emerging issues including laying gas pipeline from Dhamra in Odisha. Iran prefers to receive euro for its oil exports, an official in the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said on Saturday. "Our priority is to receive cash for oil payments in euro" following the removal of sanctions on oil exports and lifting the ban on Iran's banking transactions, Xinhua quoted Safar-Ali Karamati as saying. "European customers have no problem to pay for crude oil deals in euro," however, "It depends on the mutual agreement. But Iran would prefer euro," Karamati said. In the past, Iranian officials voiced interests for the use of national currencies, instead of US dollars, in its transactions with its trade partners, berating the US for exerting economic and financial pressures on the country over its nuclear programme. Iraqi security forces backed by the US-led coalition aircraft on Saturday repelled an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants with three suicide truck bombs near the city of Ramadi, a provincial security source said. The troops fought back the attackers and destroyed two truck bombs with anti-tank guided missiles before reaching their target at a military base in Nadhem al-Tharthar area of Ramadi, Xinhua quoted a source as saying. Aircraft of the US-led coalition pounded the IS militants and destroyed the third suicide truck bomb at the desert area outside the military base, the source said. A total of seven security members were injured due to clashes with the IS militants, while at least four IS militants were killed in addition to the three suicide bombers. Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months now in order to regain control of key cities from IS militants in the towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, as IS militants had previously seized most of Anbar and attempted to advance towards Baghdad. Iraq currently witnesses a massive wave of violence since the IS gained control of sections of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014, when surprisingly Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and posts and fled. The Karnataka government on Friday assured Africans, especially students, living in the city of their safety following a brutal assault on a Tanzanian woman by a mob in the suburbs last week. "We assure all Africans living here of their safety. We will not allow repeat of such an unfortunate incident again," Home Minister G. Parameshwara told reporters after briefing visiting Tanzanian High Commissioner John W.H. Kijazi on action taken against the culprits who assaulted and molested the 21-year-old victim on Sunday night in a case of mistaken identity. The minister and senior police officers also made the assurance to Kijazi and the ministry of external affairs (MEA) team who flew into the city for taking stock of the situation arising out of the shocking incident. "We have also submitted an inquiry report to Kijazi and the MEA team detailing the sequence of events leading to the assault, arrest of nine accused and suspension of three policemen for failing to handle the situation and help the victim," said Parameshwara. Appreciating the action of the central and state governments in bringing the situation under control and ensuring the safety of Africans in the city, Kijazi advised African students not to misbehave with the local citizens and abide by the law of the land. "Our students, those who have been victimised have met the highest level of leadership in this state and made their position clear for protection. We are convinced that they will get back their protection with the support of the government of Karnataka," Kijazi told reporters after an hour-long meeting. Four more accused were taken into custody on Thursday night, 12 hours after five suspects were arrested early Thursday for being part of the mob and allegedly assaulting the victim and her Tanzanian male friend. "An inspector (Praveen Babu) and two constables (Manjunath and Rajshekar) have been suspended for dereliction of duty - Babu for not following up the case a day after the incident and the constables for not protecting the victim from the mob attack despite being present at the spot," city Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh told reporters earlier in the day. An angry mob had assaulted the 21-year-old victim, suspecting her to be a friend of a drunk Sudanese student, Mohammad Ahad Ismail, 20, whose car ran over woman pedestrian Shabana Taz, 35 fatally on Sunday night and injuring her husband K. Sanaullah. The Sudanese national, a MBA college student, was arrested for Shabana's death and drunken driving after police came and rescued him from a mob. Outraged by Shabana's death in the mishap by a Sudanese, another violent mob mistakenly targetted the victim and burnt the car in which she was with three male friends, assuming her to be Ismail's friend. In her statement, the victim denied being stripped or paraded naked but admitted that she was assaulted and molested by the mob when her top (T-shirt) got torn off in the scuffle. When the victim's Tanzanian friend (Junail Ibrahim who was at the wheel) tried to stop the angry mob from assaulting her, he was also thrashed. About 12,000 foreign students from various countries are studying in colleges across the city. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said Pakistan wants peace in the region and does not want confrontation with India, and reiterated that the Kashmir issue "be resolved" through dialogue. Sharif was addressing a joint sitting of the legislature of the Pakistani side of Jammu and Kashmir on Kashmir Day. "It is not possible that one part of the region should be prosperous and the other part in trouble (Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir). Peaceful solution of Kashmir is indispensable." "We want peace in the region. We are prepared to do each and every thing to this effect. We don't want confrontation with India. Kashmir issue (should) be resolved through talks," Sharif said. The Kashmir issue is a test for current leadership of India, Pakistan and people of both the countries cannot prosper and progress until the lingering issue is resolved, the prime minister said. "Difference of opinion between two countries is not unheard of," Sharif said, referring to Pakistan's differences with India over Kashmir. "What is unusual is that for 6-7 decades, we have not been able to get rid of these differences," he told the joint session. "Unless we sit together and talk about these issues, they won't be resolved," Sharif said, expressing hope that the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue between Pakistan and India would see progress in days to come. He said Pakistan has assured Indian leadership of cooperation on every issue, including terrorism. "Pakistan is most affected by terrorism. Who wants eradication of terrorism more than Pakistan?" Welcoming Nawaz Sharif, Speaker of assembly Ghulam Sadiq said the visit of prime minister of Pakistan to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir will further strengthen "our struggle against Indian occupation". Speaking on the occasion, 'azad' Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhary Abdul Majid lauded Sharif for taking a clear stance on Kashmir in the UN. Sharif also announced assistance of 250 million Pakistani rupees (nearly $2.4 million) for development of the Pakistani side of Kashmir. Michael Moore, known for films like "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Bowling for Columbine", has been undergoing treatment for pneumonia at an intensive care unit here since the past one week. He was admitted in a hospital here on Sunday night and shared the news over his health status through a post on Facebook, reports dailymail.co.uk. He blamed his illness on an exhausting schedule promoting his forthcoming film "Where to Invade Next", supporting Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and trying to draw attention to the poisoned water scandal in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. The director also expressed concern over "Where to Invade Next", and urged his fans and followers to help get the word out about his movie. The post read: "I'm writing this to all of you today (Thursday) from the Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in New York City. Unfortunately, I've come down with pneumonia. Between running all over the place lately promoting my new movie ('Where To Invade Next), plus going to Flint to help the people of my hometown, plus jumping in to support Senator Sanders, plus doing a dozen other things. "Well, I read somewhere you can't burn it at both ends, and if you do, it's best not to do so in the winter nor anywhere near a place full of toxic water". Moore had to cancel all of his appearances promoting "Where To Invade". Moore held a rally in Flint mid-January, claiming Governor Rick Snyder knew that the city's water was contaminated. The post further read: "The truth is, I've actually been in the ICU since Sunday night. Let's just say things didn't look good Sunday night. But thanks to a combination of good doctors, decent hospital food and 2nd-term Obamacare, I'm doing much better the last couple of days -- so much so that I'm being discharged later today. I'm to return home and rest for the coming days. All appearances for the rest of this week have been canceled." Talking about the film, he said: "Needless to say, in addition to being a bummer health-wise (and I'm trying out a new thing this week by putting that, my health, first), this is a huge loss to my efforts in leading up to the release of my new movie next Friday. "I'm now worried about my film's release. I can't fly, I have to recover, and in one week (February 12th) this great movie I've put so much of my life into is going to open in theaters -- with little or no assistance from me." Three Hong Kong booksellers who were reported missing since October 2015, part of a group of five who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, are being held in China, accused of "illegal activities". The Public security Department of Guangdong province in southern China, bordering Hong Kong, confirmed this in a letter on Thursday, EFE news reported on Friday. The letter explains that the three booksellers -- Lui Por, Cheung Chi Ping, and Lam Ala Kee -- were suspects in a case relating to a person surnamed Gui, and that the police have decided to take measures against them while investigation is underway. Lui Por, Cheung Chi Ping and Lam Wing Kee are employees and editors of the Hong Kong-based bookstore, Causeway Bay Books, and publishing house, Mighty Current, which sells and publishes books critical of the Chinese communist regime. The notification sent by China also includes a letter by Lee Bo, another bookseller who also surfaced in mainland China under unknown circumstances. Hong Kong authorities were investigating how Lee Bo reached the Chinese mainland without a corresponding entry of his cross-border passage in official immigration records, when his wife had reported him missing on January 2. After the Chinese police confirmed the whereabouts of the missing booksellers, Hong Kong police had asked to participate in follow-up investigations involving Lui Por, Cheung Chi Ping and Lam Wing Kee, and insisted on meeting Lee Bo as soon as possible. The current confirmation raises suspicions that all the five editors were being held prisoner or taken to China against their will. Meanwhile, Gui Minhai, a Hong Kong resident, who holds a Swedish passport and the first of the five booksellers who disappeared in October, appeared on Chinese state television on January 17 confessing he had voluntarily handed himself over to Beijing last year for a crime committed in 2003. A day after this televised statement, Chinese authorities confirmed Lee Bo, the fifth bookseller missing from Hong Kong since December 30, 2015, was being held in China. Action star Akshay Kumar had his 'proud moment', thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recently pulled the actor's son Aarav's ear and called him a "good boy". The "Khiladi" star on Saturday took to Twitter, where he shared a photograph of Modi pulling his 13-year-old son's ear. He captioned the image: "Proud moment in a father's life, when the Prime Minister pulls your son's ear in jest and calls him a good boy." Aarav is the son of Akshay and former Bollywood actress Twinkle Khanna, who is now an entrepreneur and a columnist. The star couple also has a daughter named Nitara, who was born in 2012. On the film front, Akshay is being lauded for his latest release "Airlift", which revolves around the evacuation of Indians from Kuwait during the 1990 Iraq-Kuwait war. Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario, Canada, attended the high profile Bollywood style event in Mumbai where two new agreements were announced that will benefit India's film industry. Bollywood star Ranveer Singh attended the signing ceremony in Mumbai. The Maharashtra Film Stage and Cultural Development Corporation and the City of Toronto signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together on common interest in the creative screen industries, including studio production, visual effects and interactive/digital media. The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) and the Toronto International film Festival (TIFF) highlighted their collaboration on a boot camp to help Indian filmmakers bring their work to International film festivals. "The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the worlds most dynamic and prestigious film festivals. I had the good fortune to have my film Dhobi Ghat premiere there and it was a wonderful experience for me. TIFF has always been very generous to MAMI and we are very happy to be growing our association with them. We hope to bring some of the expertise and excellence of TIFF to the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star," Kiran Rao, chairperson, Mumbai Academy of Moving Image, said. These new partnerships will enhance the relationship between India and Ontario's film industries and pave the way for more collaboration between producers, directors, artists from both regions. The Premier also met leaders from India's film industry at the event to promote Ontario as an ideal location for future productions. Ontario is a leading North American film and TV production centre that offers decades of experience, high quality infrastructure and generous tax credits. "Ontario is one of the best locations in the world for film and TV production and today's event has reinforces our provinces reputation as a leader in the creative screen arts," Wynne said. "With almost 700,000 people of Indian descent living in our province, and world class production facilities, the partnership between India and Ontario's film industries is a natural one. The agreements signed at today's event will help bring Ontario and India closer - both on the screen and off," she added. "Toronto is respected as one of the world's premier filming locations due to the depth of production talent we have built over many years of success. We are delighted to share our best practices and experiences and to learn more from the achievements of India's creative screen industries," John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, said. North Korea has moved forward its launch-window for a test rocket by a day besides considerably narrowing the period, the Japanese government said on Saturday. Pyongyang now plans to conduct the launch -- which has drawn condemnation from neighbours South Korea and Japan -- between February 7 and 14, Kyodo news agency reported. The earlier launch-window was from February 8 to 25. The areas where debris would fall remain unchanged. Though North Korea says it is putting a satellite into orbit, the launch is viewed by others as a front for a ballistic missile test. The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed an AAP government notification that fixed upper age for admission to schools for entry level at four years, and said children above the age of four years can apply for admission till Tuesday next. Justice Manmohan stayed the December 18 notification of Delhi government, saying it has curtailed the fundamental right of a child seeking admission. "All children above the age of four years desirous of seeking admission in pre-school/nursery can apply for admissions for the academic year 2016-17 on or before February 9 by 4 p.m.," said the court directing schools to accept the admission. The court posted the matter for April 18 for further hearing. By the December 18 notification, the Delhi government fixed the upper age limit for pre-school (nursery), pre-primary (KG) and class 1. The court's order came while hearing a bunch of pleas filed by parents against the December 18, 2015 notification that fixed upper age limit for admission for entry level . The court on February 2 had exempted three kids from cap of upper age limit and said other aggrieved parents can approach it too. On February 4, Justice Manmohan had also stayed the Aam Aadmi Party's circular that scrapped 62 quota, including management quota for nursery admissions in private unaided schools. US President Barack Obama has angered China after warmly acknowledging Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and calling him "a good friend" at a national prayer breakfast in Washington, media reports said on Saturday. Obama did not directly meet the Dalai Lama who was seated among the audience at the annual White House National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, but bowed to the Tibetan Buddhist leader and called him a "good friend", The Guardian reported. The Dalai Lama is "a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion and who inspires us to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings", Obama said during his speech. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Friday said that Beijing is "against foreign countries interfering in China's domestic affairs under the pretext of Tibet-related issues". "The Dalai Lama is seeking support from foreign counties to realise his political end, but he cannot succeed," Hong added, calling the spiritual leader "a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the pretext of religion". It was the first time Obama and the Dalai Lama were seen together in public. Three previous encounters have been held behind closed doors relations with China. China has long opposed any meetings between the Dalai Lama and foreign heads of state. South Africa has refused three times to grant the Dalai Lama visas to visit the country, including one to attend a summit of Nobel peace laureates in October 2015. In December, Pope Francis declined to meet with the Dalai Lama amid a push by the Vatican to improve ties with Beijing. Describing the chemistry between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama as a "good thing" for the two countries, White House says Obama will keep working to strengthen their ties during his final year in office. The last time Modi and Obama met was in Paris, in the context of the climate talks, Press Secretary Josh Earnest noted Friday when asked about the future of India-US relations a year after the President's visit to India as the chief guest at Republic Day in 2015. "And there was a sense at the time that the Indian government might be the chief impediment to the successful completion of an ambitious climate agreement," Earnest noted. "And that ambitious climate agreement was completed less than two weeks after that meeting," "I think that should be a pretty good indication to you that while obviously Prime Minister Modi takes very seriously the responsibility that he has to advocate for the citizens of his country, he can advance the interests of the people of India by working effectively with President Obama," he said. "And that's a good thing. It's a good thing for our two countries. It's a good thing for the citizens of our two countries," Earnest said. "And I would expect the President will continue to look for ways to strengthen the relationship not just between the two leaders, but between our two countries during his final year in office," he said. Earnest said Modi had been invited to participate in the National Security Summit here on March 31-April 1. But he was not aware whether the Prime Minister was planning to attend. In response to another question about an Indian American Sikh carrying a "Stop Hate" placard being asked to leave a rally of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in Iowa last month, Earnest drew attention to Obama's recent comments decrying the hate rhetoric on the campaign trail. Obama's comment during his first visit to a mosque in Baltimore, Maryland and at the national prayer breakfast here, he said, "were a pretty clear indication that it is a core American value that people should not be targeted or marginalized or ridiculed because of the way they choose to worship God." "And that right to do so, unimpeded by anybody -- let alone somebody who aspires to the highest political office in the United States, as a direct contradiction of a core American value," Earnest said. "And the President I think spoke out quite forcefully about his commitment to defending that value for everybody," he added. In response to a question about the fate of 11 million undocumented immigrants, including about 300,000 Indians, Earnest said Obama has been a leading advocate of immigration reform. He favoured "common-sense immigration reform that would bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows that would require them to undergo a background check, to pay taxes." "And we know this would have a positive impact not just on the lives of those immigrants, many of whom are American in every way but their papers," Earnest said. "It would also have a positive impact on our economy, because you obviously have a larger pool of people paying taxes," he said. "That's good for the economy, it's good for the country, and it certainly would make a difference in the lives of so many of these immigrants," Earnest said. (Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in) Pakistan and Afghanistan have reported the first cases of polio for the year 2016, a media report said on Saturday. In Pakistan, the case was confirmed by Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, Dawn online reported. An official of the ministry of National Health Services said the sample collected from a 34-month-old in January confirmed that the child had the onset of polio. Resident of Gadap town in Karachi, he had received two doses during routine immunisation and seven during different polio campaigns. "Malnutrition was the major reason of the disease because immunity level of the child was very low," the official said. A total of 54 cases of polio were reported in Pakistan in 2015. The official said the affected child in Afghanistan was 60 months old. He had received only two polio vaccines. "The child belongs to Kandahar. According to reports at least 80,000 children in Afghanistan were missed during last few campaigns," he said. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world which have been transferring the polio virus to each other. The main reason is that the two countries share a 2,500km long border. Children are vaccinated at legal entry points of the border but since Pakistan is hosting 1.6 million Afghan refugees, a large number of people cross the border illegally from different routes and it is not possible to vaccinate them at the border. Pakistan on Saturday assured its full support to the Afghan peace and reconciliation process and asserted that it fully supports stability in Kabul. Addressing a meeting here of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group on Afghanistan -- which aims to devise a road map for peace and reconciliation in the strife-torn nation, a top Pakistani prime ministerial aide hoped that a roadmap for peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban would soon be finalised. Senior officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US are attending the meeting -- the third since the formation of the four-nation group in December. Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai is leading the seven-member delegation at the meeting. Chinese Special Envoy to Kabul Deng Xijun, US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard G. Olsan and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry were leading their respective delegations. Member-countries of the Heart of Asia Process on the sidelines of the conference on Afghanistan, hosted by Pakistan in December last year, formed the Quadrilateral Group to strive to steer out Afghanistan from the decades of violence and establish peace through peaceful means. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Nawaz Sharif were present in that meeting, which was also attended by senior officials from China and the US. A consensus has emerged during the previous meetings that there should be no pre-conditions attached to the possible peace talks. But the participants want some confidence building measures to encourage the Taliban to come to the negotiation table. The Taliban have refused so far to hold talks with the Afghan government in the presence of foreign forces in the country, even though the main faction of Taliban, led by Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, has hinted at joining it at an appropriate time. The Taliban political negotiators listed some steps ahead of the talks at an unofficial meeting in Qatar last month that include opening of their political office in Doha, removal of travel curbs on their leaders and release of prisoners. The Taliban office in Qatar was closed days after its opening in 2013 after then Afghan President Hamid Karzai raised objections at the use of the white flag and the plaque of "Islamic Emirate". The Taliban had used both the signs during their rule (1996-2001). The Taliban also want to talk first to the Americans to discuss withdrawal of the foreign forces. Political observers and analysts believe that peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan will not bear fruits until the Afghan government offers some attractive incentives to the insurgents to come to the negotiation table. Vatican City, Feb 6 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis will hold the first meeting in history with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, next Friday in Cuba, the Vatican said in a statement. Kirill was already expected to visit the Caribbean island and the Pope will stop there for the meeting on his way to an official visit to Mexico, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said. "This meeting of the Primates of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church... will be the first in history and will mark an important stage in relations between the two Churches," said a joint statement of the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow. The statement urged Christians "to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits". The Eastern and Western Churches split in the Great Schism of 1054, primarily over the issue of papal authority. --IANS/AKI py/vm Senior Afghan, Chinese, Pakistani and US officials are scheduled to meet in Islamabad on Saturday to "finalise" a roadmap that will enable stakeholders to play their role and bring the Taliban to the negotiation table. Afghanistan tabled the roadmap in the first quadrilateral meeting in Islamabad in early January that will determine "parameters of shared responsibilities" of all those involved in the process, a Pakistani official privy to the process said on Friday. "The second meeting in Kabul on January 18 completed deliberations on almost half of the plan and the focus of the Islamabad meeting would be to complete the discussions and come up with a good and realistic document," he said. Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai would lead his country's delegation at the meeting. Diplomatic sources said Karzai will arrive in Islamabad Saturday morning. Chinese special envoy for Afghanistan Deng Xijun, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olsan and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry will lead their sides. The quadrilateral process was launched in December during a meeting on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Conference held in Islamabad. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif were present at that meeting which was also attended by senior officials of China and the United States. The four-nation mechanism is very important because of the participation of the United States and China - both are key stakeholders in peace and stability in Afghanistan. A consensus has emerged during the previous meetings that there should be no preconditions attached to the possible peace talks. However, the participants want some confidence-building measures to encourage the Taliban come to the negotiations table. The Taliban political negotiators listed some steps ahead of the talks at a unofficial meeting in Qatar last month that include opening of their political office in Doha, removal of travel ban on their leaders and release of prisoners. The Taliban office in Qatar was closed days after its opening in 2013 after then President Hamid Karzai raised objections at the use of the white flag and the plaque of "Islamic Emirate." The Taliban had used both the signs during their rule 1996-2001. Leading smartphone and consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung Electronics on Thursday launched the new versions of its popular Galaxy A-series smartphones in an all "glass and metal" design and with improved selfie features. The new versions of the dual-SIM A-7 and A-5 phones have been launched with slight improvements in certain features than the previous versions. The new devices boast of 25 percent more battery power and advanced features for a perfect selfie. "The new Galaxy A7 and the Galaxy A5 come with a stunning glass-and-metal design and new features such as enhanced camera, long lasting battery space with fast charging capability and a powerful octa-core processor that can tackle heavy usage,"said Manu Sharma, director, mobiles business, Samsung India Electronics. "Clicking the perfect selfie has also been made easy. The front camera incorporates features such as 'palm gesture selfie', 'wide angle selfie' and beautifying effects to help people take great looking selfies or groupfies," he added. Both Galaxy A7 and A5 are equipped with a 13MP rear and 5MP front camera (both cameras with f1.9 aperture) that allows users to capture bright and clear photos even in low light conditions. The camera also comes with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) to ensure blur free photographs. "The design of these smartphones is a perfect fusion of glass and metal, which renders a stylish look and feel to the devices that adds to the consumer's style quotient. The smartphones provide an immersive viewing experience with a large full HD sAMOLED screen while the narrow 2.7mm bezel ensures the overall size of the phone is very comfortable to hold," Sharma added. The new A7 now boasts of a powerful 3,300mAh battery, while the new A5 has 2,900mAh power storage. In addition to the increased battery capacity, the new versions also have a fast-charging feature. The enhanced LTE Cat6 network capability can make downlink (with speed upto 300 Mbps) and uplink (upto 50 Mbps) quite fast. In addition, the phones also have fingerprint sensor technology for secure access. However, good things come at a price, and the A7 and A5 are no exception. While the new Galaxy A7 is priced at Rs.33,400, the A5 model flaunts a Rs.29,400 price tag. The phones are available both online and offline, Sharma informed. (Mohd Asim Khan is visiting Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of Samsung. He can be contacted at mohd.a@ians.in) Scientists have discovered that an ancient hoofed mammal had very unusual features similar only to the nasal crests of lambeosaurine hadrosaur dinosaurs, showing a convergent evolution across millions of years between two very distantly related species. Tyler Faith of University of Queensland, one of the study's corresponding authors, and his colleagues started collecting fossils of ancient wildebeest-like animals in 2009 from a site called Bovid Hill in Australia's New South Wales state. "After several years of collecting fossils from Bovid Hill, it became very clear that most of the fossils belonged to the poorly known species Rusingoryx atopocranion, described from the same site in 1983, and that we may be dealing with an entire herd that was somehow wiped out and buried at the site," Faith said. In 2011, study co-author Kirsten Jenkins of the University of Minnesota found several intact skulls of the ancient animal during excavations at the site to establish why so many skeletons had ended up in that spot. "I was astonished to see that (the skulls) looked unlike any antelope that I had ever seen - the only thing more surprising would have been fossil zebras with horns growing from their heads!" Faith said. The similarity to hadrosaurs was immediately clear to the researchers when they opened CT scan files revealing the inner structures of those bones. "We were expecting the inside of the dome to have something closer to normal mammalian anatomy, but once we took a look at the CT scans, we were pretty shocked," said Haley O'Brien of Ohio University in Athens city in Ohio. Based on their anatomical investigations together with acoustical modelling, researchers think the trumpet-like nasal tube may have allowed Rusingoryx to deepen its normal vocal calls. In fact, their calculations suggest that the animals might have been able to call at levels very close to infrasound, such that other animals may not have been able to hear individuals in the herd calling back and forth to each other across fairly large distances. The study findings were published on February 4 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology. A senior police officer was suspended for dereliction of duty and two more people arrested for being part of a mob that assaulted a Tanzanian woman in the city last week, a top police official said on Saturday. "Assistant Commissioner of Police A.N. Pise has been suspended for failing to supervise the case and trace occupants of the second car before it was burnt in a mob attack," Bengaluru Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh told reporters here. Two more people were taken into custody on Saturday, taking the number of accused arrested to 11. Five policemen - an inspector and four constables - were suspended on Friday for various acts of omission and commission in the case that triggered a national outrage and international condemnation. As part of the inquiry being conducted by Additional Police Commissioner (Law and Order) K.S.R. Charan Reddy, the suspended policemen were also quizzed and their statements recorded to ascertain the sequence of events and lapses. Meanwhile, Megharikh said that the situation in Soladevanahall is under control. "More policemen have been deployed in the area to maintain peace and law and order. Peace groups have been formed to sort out any issue between the local residents and all foreign nationals, including African students residing in the locality," he said. In a related development, about 200 African students staged a protest demo at Town Hall, condemning the assault on the 21-year-old victim by a mob vigilantism and seeking protection for all foreign nationals in the city. Holding placards and banners with messages of peace and friendship, members of the Association of African Students in India appealed to citizens of Bengaluru for harmony, mutual respect and co-existence. "As we have come here for higher studies, allow us to do it in peace. We are also like you and others. The world is a family. Don't discriminate and ill-treat on the basis of colour or race," an association member told reporters. State Home Minister G. Parameshwara had on Friday assured the African students living in the city of their safety after briefing visiting Tanzanian High Commissioner J.H John W.H. Kijazi on steps against the guilty and restore normalcy. An angry mob had assaulted the 21-year-old victim, suspecting her to be a friend of a drunk Sudanese student, Mohammad Ahad Ismail, 20, whose car ran over woman pedestrian Shabana Taz, 35 fatally on Sunday night and injured her husband K. Sanaullah. The Sudanese national, a MBA college student, was arrested for Shabana's death and drunken driving after police came and rescued him from a mob. Outraged by Shabana's death, another mob mistakenly targetted the victim and burnt the car in which she was with three male friends, assuming her to be Ismail's friend. In her statement, the victim denied being stripped or paraded naked but admitted that she was assaulted and molested by the mob when her top (T-shirt) got torn off in the scuffle. South Korea's military has seen North Korea complete all of preparations necessary for a planned launch of a long-range rocket after Pyongyang's revised notification of the launch window. A Defence Ministry official said on Saturday that in consideration of various situations, North Korea seemed to have completed preparations for the launch that include erecting and assembling missile boosters at a launch pad and filling fuel and oxidiser, Xinhua reported. Pyongyang is highly likely to fire a long-range missile on Sunday, the official estimated, saying the military is preparing for the launch. Expectations emerged for the Sunday launch as North Korea moved up its rocket launch window to February 7-14 from the previous February 8-25. Pyongyang informed the International Maritime Organisation on Saturday of the revised plan, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. North Korea rocket, which Seoul has denounced as a banned test of ballistic missile technology, would be launched at the main Tongchang-ri rocket launch station on the country's west coast. According to weather forecast, it was expected to have cloudy sky on Monday and snow on Tuesday at the rocket base. On Thursday and next Saturday, rain or snow was expected. On Sunday and Wednesday, it was forecast to have sunny skies in the region. To track a North Korean rocket after the launch, South Korea has deployed surveillance assets, including Aegis-equipped destroyer, ground-based Green Pine radar and Peace Eye airborne early warning and control aircraft. Two Aegis destroyers, which the Seoul military mobilised, are equipped with the SPY-1D multifunctional phased array radars that can detect and track ballistic missiles flying as far as 1,000 km. The Green Pine radar with a detecting range of about 500 km can oversee missiles all over North Korean territory for 24 hours a day. The E-737 Peace Eye is mobilised to track Pyongyang rocket from the sky. South Korea has warned of shooting down debris that fall on its territory or territorial waters from a North Korean rocket, which was estimated by the Seoul military to fly over the western border island of Baengnyeong at an altitude of about 180 km. The military regards its airspace as an area below an altitude of 100 km. The Seoul military has deployed PAC-2 missiles to intercept Pyongyang rocket that may infringe on its territory, but skepticism remained over the interceptors'capability as the Patriot missiles have an interception range of some 15 km. Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday presented recommendations of the city government for the union budget at a pre-budget consultation with union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and demanded at least Rs.2,000 crore as grant for the capital's civic bodies. "Delhi should get at least Rs.2,000 crore as basic and performance grants for local bodies similar to that of neighbouring states. This will facilitate in tiding over the financial crisis in the East and North municipal corporations," said Sisodia, who is also Delhi's finance minister. Highlighting the peculiar problems faced by the capital, Sisodia said the city government in active collaboration with citizens conducted the odd-even vehicle restriction scheme for the first time in the country, in an effort to control air pollution. He said that to augment public transport in Delhi, a special package of Rs.4,000 crore from the central government was required to purchase 5,000 additional buses, which will encourage citizens to shift to public transport. Sisodia said Delhi was being deprived of resources required for investment. "Land is a valuable resource, which we don't have. We don't control land use," he said. "We don't have a share in central taxes. Our tax base is narrow because 87.5 percent of gross state domestic product is from services." He also demanded that Delhi be treated at par with other states for share in central taxes, which has remained stagnant at Rs.325 crore since 2001-02. This will enable Delhi to get at least Rs.5,000 crore per annum, he said. He said excise duty on diesel vehicles may be increased because of the adverse effect on air pollution. The central government should formulate a scheme to address the agrarian crisis. Compensation for crop damage of Rs.50,000 per hectare on the lines of the Delhi model should be implemented at the national level, he said. Sisodia also said the Delhi government fully supports introduction of Goods and Services Tax at the earliest. The striking employees of Delhi's civic bodies on Saturday burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the non-payment of their salaries. The protesters, in north Delhi's Burari area, said that the Delhi and the central governments were playing with the employees of the civic bodies as they were not considering their demands. United Front of MCD Employees president Rajesh Mishra refuted the claims of the doctors calling off the strike. "The strike is on," he maintained. "Every worker of civic bodies including sanitation workers, doctors, engineers and teachers, is on strike. Few elements are trying to spread confusion by saying doctors have called off the strike, which is wrong," Mishra said. "We will not call off our strike till our demands of reaching a permanent solution to the crisis and merger of municipal corporations are considered," he added. Employees of Delhi's civic bodies have been protesting over the non-payment of salaries for the past few months, and directing their ire at both the Delhi and central governments for the last 11 days. Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday had announced a loan of Rs.300 crore to two municipal corporations of the city for payment of salaries to striking workers, but they refused to heed to his appeal to return to work. Earlier this week, the Kejriwal government had also announced Rs.551 crore to the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations for paying salaries. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena here and briefed him on the India-Sri Lanka joint commission meeting held on Friday. "EAM @SushmaSwaraj briefed President @MaithripalaS on the outcomes of the 9th Indo-SL JCM held in Colombo on Feb 5,"external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. The ninth session of the India-Sri Lanka was held here co-chaired by Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera following which two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed. According to one MoU, India will construct a surgical unit at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital in the island nation's Eastern Province and supply medical equipment. Under the second MoU, India will aid in the renovation of 27 schools in the Northern Province. The India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission was established in 1992 as an effective mechanism to address matters pertaining to bilateral cooperation. After arriving here on Friday on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, Sushma Swaraj also called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The ninth session of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission was held here on Friday, co-chaired by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera. "Reviewing a multi-faceted partnership. EAM @SushmaSwaraj & FM Samaraweera Co-Chair 9th India-Sri Lanka Jt Commissio"," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. The India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission was established in 1992 as an effective mechanism to address matters pertaining to bilateral cooperation. Ahead of Swaraj's visit, Swarup told the media in New Delhi on Thursday that the discussions in Friday's joint commission meeting would cover the entire gamut of the relationship between the two countries. Included in these would be economic cooperation, trade, power and energy, technical and maritime cooperation, social, cultural and educational matters, science and technology, defence cooperation, health, civil aviation, tourism and people-to-people contacts. Earlier on Monday, after arriving here on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, Sushma Swaraj called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. During the course of her visit, Sushma Swaraj will also call on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and former president Chandrika Kumaratunga. On Saturday, the Indian minister will inaugurate a "Rise of Digital India" exhibition as part of "Sangam - Festival of India in Sri Lanka 2015-16". The exhibition will showcase the rise of the computing sector and digital technologies in India. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday called on former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga and Leader of Opposition R. Sampathan of the Tamil National Alliance here. "Renewing ties with an old friend. EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets former president Chandrika Kumaratunga at her residence," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup, who is accompanying the minister, tweeted. "Engaging across the political spectrum. Leader of the Opposition, TNA's R. Sampathan calls on EAM @SushmaSwaraj," he stated in another tweet. Earlier on Saturday, the second and final day of her visit to this island nation, Sushma Swaraj called on President Maithripala Sirisena and briefed him on the India -Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting held here on Friday. She also inaugurated a "Rise of Digital India" exhibition here as part of the ongoing "Sangam", a festival of India in Sri Lanka. On Friday, after her arrival here, she called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and co-chaired the ninth session of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera following which two memorandums of understanding - one in the health sector and another on renovation of schools - were signed by both the sides. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met with delegations of three Sri Lankan political parties here on Saturday, the second and last day of her visit to this island nation. "Engagements continue post lunch. Tamil Progressive Alliance leaders meet with EAM @SushmaSwaraj," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. This meeting came after another meeting with a delegation of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. Both the Tamil Progressive Alliance and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress are part of the ruling United National Front for Good Governance coalition. A delegation of the Ceylon Workers Congress, an Indian origin Tamil party, also later called on Sushma Swaraj, according to Swarup. Earlier on Saturday, the Indian minister called on President Maithripala Sirisena and briefed him on the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting held here on Friday. She later met former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga at the latter's residence here. Leader of the Opposition, R. Sampathan, who belongs to the Tamil National Alliance, also called on Sushma Swaraj. ' Another major engagement of the external affairs minister on Saturday was the inauguration of a "Rise of Digital India" exhibition, being held as part of the ongoing a festival of India in Sri Lanka, "Sangam". On Friday, after her arrival here, Sushma Swaraj called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and co-chaired the ninth session of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera following which two memorandums of understanding - one in the health sector and another on renovation of schools - were signed by both the sides. India and Sri Lanka reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral issues, including defence and economic cooperation and the contentious fishermen's issue, besides signing two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj concluded a two-day visit to this island nation on Saturday. Sushma Swaraj, who led an inter-ministerial delegation and co-chaired the ninth session of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera on Friday, also held a series of meetings with Sri Lankan leaders, including President Maithripala Sirisena, and delegations of political parties. "The joint commission acknowledged the depth, intensity and uniqueness of the multifaceted India-Sri Lanka relations encompassing all spheres and founded upon civilisational and close people-to-people linkages," a statement issued by the Indian high commission here on Saturday said. Both sides took stock of the preparations underway to begin negotiations on the economic and technology cooperation agreement, according to the statement. "India will be holding a workshop in early March in Colombo on non-tariff barriers (NTB) and phytosanitary barriers (PTB), regulations and procedures," it stated. Cognizance was taken of the reconstitution of the CEOs Forum on either side and the The two sides discussed ways for further collaboration in various projects that have been under discussion, including the upgrade of Palali airport, infrastructure development at Kankesanturai port, Sampur power plant and a special economic zone in Trincomalee. Defence being a key area of cooperation, the joint commission encouraged further intensification of cooperation through the several defence-related mechanisms already in place. The two sides also agreed on the need to work together in the area of counter-terrorism . Both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in the aviation sector and called for early signing of the revised air services agreement that has been pending since September 2013. Renewable energy cooperation was identified as a promising area for further cooperation India thanked Sri Lanka for having endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi-initiated International Solar Alliance. The Indian housing project for construction and repair of 50,000 houses was reviewed with the joint commission expressing satisfaction over the completion of 44,000 houses. In the tourism sector, the two sides discussed collaboration on establishing the Ramayana Trail in Sri Lanka and the Buddhist Circuit in South Asia. The joint commission felt that the small development projects (SDP) scheme had been an excellent model for the development partnership. Projects under the SDP model include establishment of Civil and Mechanical Engineering complex and Skill Development Centre of the Faculty of Agriculture, both in Kilinochchi campus of University of Jaffna, and construction of Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Auditorium at the University of Ruhuna. "The joint commission also reviewed prominent non-SDP projects such as the construction of the Jaffna Cultural Centre on grant basis and the water supply projects amounting to nearly $475 million to be undertaken by Indian companies under the Buyers' Credit Scheme of EXIM Bank of India," the statement said. Cooperation in the sector of education was also assessed, including the scholarships available to Sri Lankan students to pursue under-graduate, masters, Ph.d degrees in Indian universities, Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) scholarships, and the potential to set up campuses in Sri Lanka by Indian institutions of excellence. Both sides also agreed to encourage and facilitate collaboration and interaction in the agriculture sector and expedite implementation of the work plan agreed to under the MoU signed in 2015. Both sides called for early convening of the joint committee for science and technology-related cooperation and the extension of the programme of cooperation which had expired in 2014. Both sides agreed to find a permanent solution to the fishermen issue for which the Sri Lankan fisheries minister was invited to visit India. Two MoUs were signed following the meeting - one on construction of a surgical unit and supply of medical equipment at Batticaloa Teaching Hospital and another on renovation of 27 school buildings in the island nation's Northern Province. On Saturday, Sushma Swaraj inaugurated a "Rise of Digital India" exhibition, being held as part of the ongoing a festival of India in Sri Lanka, "Sangam". She started the day by first calling on President Sirisena whom she briefed on Friday's joint commission meeting. She later met former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga at the latter's residence here. Leader of the Opposition, R. Sampathan, who belongs to the Tamil National Alliance, also called on the visiting Indian minister. Before leaving for New Delhi on Saturday, Sushma Swaraj also met with delegations of the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress and Indian origin Tamil political parties. On Friday, she had called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Senior Afghan, Pakistani, Chinese and US officials opened key discussions here on Saturday in an effort to "finalise" a reconciliation roadmap in Afghanistan. The roadmap, introduced in the first quadrilateral meeting held in Islamabad in early January, aims to determine "parameters of shared responsibilities" of all those involved in the process, Xinhua quoted an official, who is part of the discussions, as saying. Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's foreign affairs adviser, said the meeting will approve the roadmap that could help to facilitate the beginning of direct negotiation between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Pakistan fully shares Afghanistan's concern that increase in violence in Afghanistan is a key challenge, Aziz said. Reduction of violence should be an important objective of the consultations, Aziz added. The second meeting, held in Kabul on January 18, had completed deliberations on almost half of the plan and the focus of the Islamabad meeting would be to complete the discussions and come up with a good and realistic document, he said. Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai is leading a seven-member delegation in the meeting. Diplomatic sources said Zeerak Yousafi, a High Peace Council member is also part of the delegation. Chinese Special Envoy for Afghanistan Deng Xijun, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard G. Olsan and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry are leading their delegations. The quadrilateral process was launched in December during a meeting on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Conference held in Islamabad. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were present in that meeting, which was also attended by senior officials from China and the US. A consensus has emerged during the previous meetings that there should be no pre-conditions attached to the possible peace talks. However, the participants want some confidence building measures to encourage the Taliban to come to the negotiation table. The Taliban have refused so far to hold talks with the Afghan government in the presence of foreign forces in the country. The Taliban political negotiators listed some steps ahead of the talks at an unofficial meeting in Qatar last month that include opening of their political office in Doha, removal of travel curbs on their leaders and release of prisoners. The Taliban office in Qatar was closed days after its opening in 2013 after then Afghan President Hamid Karzai raised objections at the use of the white flag and the plaque of "Islamic Emirate." The Taliban had used both the signs during their rule (1996-2001). The Taliban also want to talk first to the Americans to discuss withdrawal of the foreign forces. The Taliban have not officially commented on the quadrilateral process. The random test drive for call drops by the Indian telecom regulator shows that most of the telecom service providers (TSP) are not meeting the prescribed benchmark. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has laid down the quality of services benchmarks for call drop rate to be less than 2 percent. Most telecom operators missed this benchmark. The regulator conducted drive tests during December-January period. Tests were conducted on both 2G and 3G networks of service providers, including state-run MTNL and BSNL. During December 2015-January 2016 drive tests were repeated in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Surat and Bhubaneswar and in addition drive tests were also carried out in Indore. "In all the cities drive tests were carried out earlier, the same route was followed during the latest drive (around 300 km). For Delhi and Mumbai, the route length was increased to 600 Km after taking inputs from the TSPs about the additional route. In other cities also, the route has been increased wherever possible," the report said. In Pune, the regulator said, none of the operators has shown improvements. The highest rate of call drops was shown by Tata 3G at 42.93 percent, followed by Idea 3G 20.96 percent, BSNL 3G 11.64 percent and Airtel 3G 7.91 percent. In Bhubaneswar, all the operators have failed to meet the benchmark. In Delhi, the regulator said some of the operators had shown improvements. The operators who complied with the benchmark are - Airtel 2G, 3G, Idea 2G, 3G and Vodafone 3G. In Kolkata, CDMA network of MTS, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications were compliant to call drop benchmark. In Mumbai, the regulator said results for most of the operators were found to be satisfactory. In Surat, TRAI said none of the operators were meeting the prescribed benchmark, though there was a marginal improvement in voice quality for some operators. Regarding Indore, the regulator said some of the operators were meeting the prescribed benchmark. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) polled 43.85 percent votes to win a record 99 seats in the 150-member Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Contesting all divisions on its own, Telangana's ruling party secured 14,68,618 votes out of 33,49,379 polled. In the elections held on Tuesday, 45.27 percent of 74,23,980 voters had exercised their franchise. The TRS, which had stayed away from 2009 GHMC polls, registered a historic win, wiping out the Telugu Desam Party-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and the Congress. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), which retained its strongholds in the face of TRS onslaught, won 44 seats with 15.85 percent of the votes polled in 61 divisions it contested. Emerging second largest party in the municipal body, MIM was far ahead of runners up TRS in majority of the 44 divisions. MIM had bagged 43 seats in 2009 elections. The TDP, which contested 90 seats, polled 13.11 percent votes but won just one seat. Its alliance partner BJP, which fielded candidates in 60 divisions, garnered 10.34 percent votes and four seats. The TDP-BJP alliance had 50 seats in the previous body. The Congress, which had 52 seats in the previous body and shared power with MIM, could win just one seat, polling 10.40 votes in 149 divisions it contested. The results show that the votes polled by Congress and TDP-BJP alliance in 2009 were transferred to TRS, giving it a landslide victory. In its bid to curb the spread of terrorism-related tweets on its platform, the micro-blogging site has suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to the Islamic State (IS). "Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service," Twitter said in a blog post. According to a latest study by the US-based Brookings Institution, IS supporters may be operating over 46,000 active Twitter accounts. "As the nature of the terrorist threat has changed, so has our ongoing work in this area. Since the middle of 2015 alone, we've suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to IS," the post added. In the recent past, Twitter has partnered with organisations working to counter extremist content online globally. "We partnered with People Against Violent Extremism (PAVE) and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue to empower credible non-governmental voices against violent extremism. We also attended summits hosted by the White House, the Australian Attorney-General's Department, the UK government, the French Prime Minister, the European Commission, and the United Nations," the blog posts said. Twitter also highlighted its cooperation with law enforcement, citing comments made by FBI Director James Comey last year.. "In July 2015, Comey recognised Twitter's commitment to blocking terrorist content, praising us as "very good and thoughtful and hardworking at trying to shut down [terrorism-related] accounts," it added. The San Francisco-based company has increased the size of its teams that review terror-related accounts and leverage proprietary spam-fighting tools to surface other potentially violating accounts for review. As many experts and other companies have noted, there is no "magic algorithm" for identifying terrorist content on the internet, so global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgement calls based on very limited information and guidance. "In spite of these challenges, we will continue to aggressively enforce our Rules in this area, and engage with authorities and other relevant organisations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives," Twitter noted. Himachal Pradesh Police on Saturday seized about Rs.30 lakh in unaccounted foreign and Indian currency and detained two people who were on the way to McLeodganj, the abode of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, police said. "We seized the cash from a luxury car bearing a registration number of Delhi and two occupants of the car, who are Tibetans, have been detained," a police official told IANS. He said the foreign currency included Chinese yuan and US dollar. "The Indian rupees amounted to Rs.26 lakh," he added. The vehicle was intercepted in Mehatpur in Una district, bordering Punjab. Police believe the money was meant for a monastery in McLeodganj on the outskirts of Dharamsala town, some 250 km from here. In 2011, police arrested two people from the same spot and seized unaccounted Rs.1 crore from them. On the basis of their interrogation, police a day later raided the monastery of Tibetan religious head and 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the third most important Tibetan spiritual leader, on the outskirts of Dharamsala and seized about Rs.6 crore in unaccounted foreign and Indian currency. Disappointment over the status-quoist stance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), coupled with a weak rupee and volatile crude oil prices, depressed the Indian equity markets during the just concluded weekly trade. The Indian equity markets ended the week under review marginally in the red, as heavy losses at the start of the week offset the gains made during the last two sessions. Investors during the first three sessions were cautious largely on account of global headwinds. The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (S&P Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed lower by 253.72 points or 1.02 percent to 24,616.97 points. Similarly, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 74.45 points or 0.98 percent to 7,489.10 points. "Continued slump in crude oil prices, worries of further slowdown of the Chinese economy and dismal earnings of key corporate dragged indices lower by about one percent in the week gone by," Gaurav Jain, director with Hem Securities told IANS. "However, buying interest from lower levels, bounce back in crude oil prices and hopes of passing GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill in the upcoming budget session of parliament supported the indices cut the losses to some extent." Besides, investors were seen disappointed after the RBI decided to keep key lending rates unchanged during its bi-monthly monetary policy review held on February 2. "Disappointment from the RBI's monetary policy review, a weak rupee and concerns over the government's ability to perk-up investments subdued markets in the initial sessions of last week," Anand James, co-head, technical research desk with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS. "Global markets were rattled by weak oil prices, earlier in the week, this provoked central banks' monetary policy measures to ease volatility." Vaibhav Agarwal, vice president and research head at Angel Broking, said: "Energy and realty index took a beating this week, while telecom and FMCG stocks witnessed some buying." "BSE metal recouped its losses after reports that the government is considering a minimum import price for steel products." Nitasha Shankar, vice president for research with YES Securities, specifically cited that banking index came under severe pressure as PSU banks continued to slide southwards. "IT indices were gainers for the week, while pharma, metal, media and auto indices ended with deep cuts." Sector-wise, investors were unnerved by pharma industry which reacted negatively to rumours on US curbs on Indian pharma companies. "But, Lupin results and smart recovery in the stock was one of the key highlights of the week as such," pointed-out Pankaj Sharma, head of equities for Equirus Securities. Metal and mining stocks pared their losses as copper prices rose in global commodities markets. In addition, volatile crude oil prices flared volatility through-out the week under review. "Crude prices continued to see extremely volatile -- ups and downs -- which influenced the market sentiment," Sharma told IANS. Dhruv Desai, director and chief operating officer at Tradebulls, noted that crude oil's re-conquering of the $30 mark on short covering later in the week gave a boost to the domestic market sentiments. Furthermore, the rupee's continuous slide prompted by foreign investors' selling frenzy kept investors cautious. "Global events from China, US, and the Middle-East have affected our domestic equities and rupee," Hiren Sharma, senior vice president, currency advisory at Anand Rathi Financial Services, told IANS. "FPI (Foreign Portfolio Investors) outflows especially from January 2016 has led to equity corrections in which we witnessed a new low at 68.25 (lowest since Aug 2013)." On a weekly basis, the rupee strengthened by 14 paise at 67.64-65 (February 5) to a US dollar from its previous close of 67.78-79 to a greenback (January 29). Nevertheless, the Indian rupee remained weak through-out the period under review. The weakness in the India rupee's value indicates the massive outflow of foreign funds from the equity and debt markets. The National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) figures showed that the FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) bought Rs.2,568.58 crore or $379.87 million in the equity and debt markets from February 1-5. In contrast, data with stock exchanges disclosed that the FPIs sold stocks worth Rs.940.71 crore in the week under review. Conversely, the data showed that DIIs bought stocks worth Rs.232.75 crore. However, markets made some gains at the fag-end of the week on account of short-covering and value buying. Reversal in crude oil and rupee's downward trajectory supported the relief rally. (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in) The US has welcomed India's ratification of an international convention on nuclear energy accident liability, removing the last hurdle for the landmark India-US nuclear deal and paving the way for US firms to build nuclear plants in India. "The United States welcomes the action by India to join the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC)," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters here Friday. "Indian membership in the CSC marks another important step towards creating the global nuclear liability regime called for by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Nuclear Safety Action Plan." He said. It will "also facilitate participation by companies from the United States in the construction of nuclear reactors in India, which will mean more reliable electricity for Indians," Kirby said. It will also reduce "India's reliance on carbon-intensive sources, that will benefit the environment, and will offer India greater energy security for its large and growing economy," he said. Kirby suggested the ratification would help the implementation of the India-US nuclear deal which has been stalled over India's tough 2010 nuclear liability law that holds the plant supplier liable for damages in the event of an accident. "We believe it's an important step toward creating a global nuclear liability regime and it'll facilitate international cooperation in expanding the use of nuclear power in India," he said. But only the Department of Energy could spell out the next steps. Ratification of the convention which will come into force for India on May 4 marks the conclusive step in the addressing of issues related to civil nuclear liability in India, according to Indian officials. Other steps included the launch in June 2015of the India Nuclear Insurance Pool (INIP) with a liability cap of 15 billion rupees ($222 million) to assuage suppliers' concerns. According to a media report Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric hopes to clinch a deal to build six nuclear reactors in India by end-March in time for a possible visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington to attend a global nuclear summit. Westinghouse which is negotiating with the state-run operator Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) hopes to make a "commercially significant announcement" during Modi's expected US visit in March and sign a final contract later in the year, the report said. The contract would give a big boost to India's $150 billion nuclear power programme, and a broader push to curb greenhouse gas emissions. (Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in) Critically-ill All India Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh on Saturday continued to be on ventilator support in a city hospital, doctors said. "He continues to be on ventilator support, but haemodynamically stable. He still remains critical and prognosis-guarded," hospital superintendent Partho Bhattacharya said. "The first session of haemodialysis was done on Friday and he continues to be on broad spectrum antibiotics, in line nebulisation with nutrition maintained by ryles tube feeding," added the doctor. The 94-year-old Ghosh, the senior-most Left Front leader in West Bengal, was on Tuesday rushed to the hospital following lower respiratory tract infection. Ghosh has for decades been the secretary of the West Bengal unit of the party, which was founded by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Few companies have received as much attention in recent weeks as Oxitec, a British biotechnology company that breeds genetically modified (GM) insects to combat the spread of diseases such as dengue and the Zika virus. Oxitec releases GM male mosquitoes with a self-limiting gene, essentially rendering them sterile and causing any offspring to die before they reach adulthood, XInhua reported. In trials around the world, including the Brazilian city of Piracicaba, Oxitec claims to have wiped out over 90 percent of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Given that this pesky critter is the main carrier and transmitter of Zika, chikungunya and dengue, this has led to a spike in interest in Oxitec's methods. Hadyn Parry, CEO of Oxitec, said: "Our mosquitoes do not impact the disease; we just reduce the number of mosquitoes. You get Zika, dengue or chikungunya by being bitten by a mosquito carrying that disease. No mosquito means no disease, less mosquitoes means less disease," he said. Both the US and Brazil confirmed that the Zika virus had been propagated by sexual transmission and blood transfusion. According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Zika virus only remains in the bloodstream for a few weeks, meaning that eradicating mosquito populations would remove the threat of other types of transmission. Despite this seemingly positive impact, the rollout of Oxitec's GM mosquitoes in Latin America to date has been limited. The city of Piracicaba, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, which saw a trial release of Oxitec's mosquitoes in 2015, is expanding the project to cover about 60,000 people. According to statistics provided by Oxitec, the city saw 133 cases of dengue in 2014 and the beginning of 2015. This was cut down to just one for the rest of 2015 after the Oxitec trial began. However, the release of further Oxitec GM mosquitoes across the country faces a major obstacle. While Brazil's regulator for GM organisms has stated Oxitec's product poses no risk, final approval is needed by the Health Ministry before commercialisation can begin. "But to market and sell our product, we need an authorisation from the Ministry of Health. We think we are very close to getting that authorisation," said Parry. That decision would not just impact Oxitec's operations in Brazil but would determine if and when its GM mosquitoes could be released in other countries. "Once Brazil approves us, I do not think we will see a similar time frame in other Latin American countries," the executive said. "This mosquito is the same species all around the world, our product is exactly the same, and a lot of Latin American cities are very similar." However, should a country decide that certain differentiating factors warrant extra processes, Oxitec said it will be happy to carry out extra studies. Parry said many countries and private companies are collaborating to develop a vaccine but such a solution may be slow. A final hurdle for Oxitec has been the controversies that have grown around their methods. A cursory search on the internet turns up a number of articles, questioning or outright blaming Oxitec and its GM mosquitoes. While thorough questioning of scientific practices is welcome, especially for as important a topic as GM organisms, Parry said some of the circulating accusations are false and can affect lives. "The WHO and Brazilian regulators have examined our technology and found no significant risk," he said. "However, if anyone has real evidence, or even a hypothesis to test out, they should come forward as that will be good for the debate." Veteran Australian all-rounder Shane Watson commanded the highest bid of Rs.9 crore from Royal Challengers Bengaluru while star batsman Yuvraj Singh was snapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs.7 crore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction here on Saturday. Watson, who has represented Rajasthan Royals (RR) every year since joining them in the inaugural edition in 2008, was bought by Vijay Mallay-owned RCB for Rs.9.5 crore from a base price of Rs.2 crore. This is first time that Watson has featured in the IPL auction since the inaugural editon in 2008. He is the only player to win the player of the tournament award twice. But his deal was annulled after the Rajasthan and Chennai franchises were suspended for two years after the IPL was hit by a match fixing corruption scandal. Yuvraj on the other hand, will make the move to Hyderabad from the Delhi Daredevils, who had bought him last year for Rs.16 crore. The veteran southpaw has been bought for a much reduced price this year, with the Sunrisers shelling out Rs.7 crore for his services. Yuvraj had a base price of Rs.2 crore. The Daredevils have replaced Yuvraj with South all-rounder Christopher Morris, who has been bought for the same price as the Indian star. The 28-year-old had a base price of Rs.50 lakhs. Among other big buys, medium pacer Mohit Sharma went for Rs.6.5 crore to Kings XI Punjab, while Hyderabad splurged Rs.5.5 crore for veteran left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra. Delhi bought young Kerala wicketkeeper Sanju Samson and West Indian batsman Carlos Brathwaite for Rs.4.2 crore each. Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh went to new franchise Rising Pune Supergiants for Rs.4.8 crore. Mitchell joined England star Kevin Pietersen, who was picked up for Rs.3.5 crore. The duo will join India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni at Pune. A nationwide uniform tax policy is the most crucial need for Indian wine industry to grow, said the chief executive of a leading Indian wine maker on Saturday. "Every Indian state has its own taxes and duties policy which is a challenge as rules change from state to state. The Indian wine industry needs a uniform policy across the country," said Grover Zampa CEO Sumedh Singh Mandla at "The Great Grover Wine Festival" here. Also noting that state governments club spirits - whisky, rum, gin, brandy and others - and wine together for tax policies, he said this is working in the disadvantage of the wine industry which should have its own separate policy. "Wine and spirits are different; the content of alcohol is lesser in wine than spirits. They need different policies," he stressed. Grover Zampa sells two lakh wines cases in India and considers Karnataka to be its biggest market where its produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Clairette and Chardonnay grape varieties for making red, white, rose and sparkling wines. The company's Karnataka vineyard started production in 1998 and is located 40 km northeast of Bengaluru in Nandi Hills while its first vineyard was planted in Maharashtra's Nashik. Grover Zampa will very soon launch its sparkling wine produced from Karnataka vineyard. "Karnataka has many MNCs and young professionals coming from across the country and the number of people willing to learn about wine is incredible. I consider Karnataka as our home base," said Karishma Grover, the grand daughter of Kanwal Grover, the company's founder. Grover, the company's associate wine maker, said the Kerala government's ban on selling liquor in bars and restaurants below five star category has bolstered and tripled the company's entry level wine sales in that state. The company produces grapes in nearly 700 plus acres and is focusing to expand the market share of its premium wine varieties priced in the range of Rs.600-1,850, said Mandla. "In the last three years we achieved a growth rate of 50 percent year-on-year," he said, noting Indian wine industry's market value is just Rs.1,000 crore with a volume of 2.5 million cases compared to 300 million cases market of spirits with a huge potential to grow. Aimed at promoting wine culture in India, the second edition of the wine festival organised wine appreciation sessions, grape stomping and a concert featuring Lagori, Aabha Hanjura, Sufistication, Karthick Iyer, Ananth Menon and trio and Sabrian among others. Vijay Shanker Sharma, founder of mobile wallet brand Paytm, on Saturday said that after getting an engineering degree, he had a hard time finding a job and struggled for food due to lack of money. After receiving an honorary doctorate degree from Amity University Gurgaon, Sharma said he faced many troubles during his studies and after completing his engineering but never gave up. Sharma said his parents tried to force him to get married. "I was facing a hard time without job. I was not in position to explain the situation to my family. I had to travel 14 km from Priya Cinema in Vasant Kunj to Kashmere Gate, my college campus, for a meal." Coming from a Hindi background, he said he faced many challenges after taking admission in an English medium engineering course in electronics and communication in Delhi in 1998. "I was nervous as I could not understand what was taught in class. I was always worried how I would pass my examinations," Sharma said. He said when he thought of the idea of Paytm and discussed it with a few people, they termed it stupid and tried to demoralise him saying if it was effective, someone else would have done it long ago. Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Bharti Enterprises, was also conferred an honorary doctorate degree. Aditi Phadnis: The curious case of Maihar Assembly seat The by-election to the constituency to be held on February 13 is of interest not only because of what its result may be, but also because it may usher in a new trend in the politics of the state There has been much talk in recent years of the flourishing defence cooperation between India and the USA and future possibilities. Examples of the undoubtedly professional Malabar series of exercises at sea, as also of similar interfaces among the two armies and air forces, are quoted in support of the growing engagement, as well as the purchase of military hardware from American companies now crossing $9 billion. That this has come about through a larger strategic congruence between the two countries is also a given. Add to this the increasingly close interaction in exchange of intelligence relating to terrorism, which is not unrelated to security, and the picture gets bigger. Two visits of the American president to New Delhi in as many years and his bilateral exchanges with our own prime minister in Washington add to this synergy. Positive interactions at Track II levels have further facilitated this process, and the sky would appear to be the limit. Wisdom, however, lies in recognising the ground realities. Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app. Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006. Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more. Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them. 26 years of website archives. At least 13 people, including 4 women and a child, were killed and 14 others injured today in separate road mishaps in Nepal. The first accident took place at Pasang Lhamu highway in Madanpur in Nuwakot district when a passenger bus carrying army personnel veered off a highway and fell into a ravine. Five men and four women were killed in the accident. The microbus carrying army personnel undergoing training at the Trishuli Army Training Centre, Maithali fell around 500 feet off the road, DSP Siddhi Bikram Shah was quoted as saying by 'The Kathmandu Post'. The deceased are yet to be identified and the injured have been rushed to capital Kathmandu for further treatment. Three others were killed in separate incidents of road accident on Saturday. A ten-year-old boy died when he was hit by a bus in Chitawan district in southern Nepal. A motorcycle rider was killed when he was hit by a tractor in jhapa district. A 35-year-old man was killed when he was hit by a vehicle in saptari district in eastern Nepal. In Siraha, another 50 year-old person died when a pick up van hit a hand pulling cart. Poor road infrastructure and reckless driving are the leading causes of accidents in Nepal. According to the WHO, road accidents are the world's eighth leading cause of death. About 70 per cent of the deaths from road accidents occur in developing countries. As per the Nepal's traffic police data, on an average five to seven people are killed in road accidents every day in the country. The third round of four-country talks aimed at ending Afghanistan's nearly 15-year war today concluded here with a call for direct talks between the Afghan government and the warring Taliban by the end of this month. A statement issued at the end of the meeting, attended by delegates from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US, said a roadmap for peace had been agreed upon but provided no further details. "The QCG (Quadrilateral Coordination Group) countries agreed to continue joint efforts for setting a date for direct peace talks between the representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban groups expected to take place by the end of February 2016," the statement said. It said that building on the progress made in the last two meetings, the Group explored ways for holding direct peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban groups. "In this regard, the Group also adopted a roadmap stipulating the stages and steps in the process," it said. The four-nation grouping called on the Taliban, who were not present at the meeting, to join the peace process. They agreed to hold a fourth meeting in Kabul on February 23. The Group stressed that the outcome of the reconciliation process "should be a political settlement that results in the cessation of violence, and durable peace in Afghanistan." Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry hosted the meeting. Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard G Olson and China's Special Envoy for Afghanistan Ambassador Deng Xijun were also present. Earlier today, Pakistan said maximum number of Taliban groups must be persuaded to join the peace talks. "We believe our collective efforts at this stage, including through supportive CBMs (Confidence building measures) have to be aimed at persuading maximum number of Taliban groups to join the peace talks," Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said. The peace talks are part of efforts to find a negotiated end to nearly 15 years of war in Afghanistan. But the Taliban, who were ousted in 2001, have said they would not hold direct talks with the Afghan government until they first held talks with US officials. Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US convened here over the weekend for the peace talks even as the insurgents continued their winter campaign across Afghanistan. Aziz, in his opening remarks, said that their efforts to persuade as many as Taliban groups to join the process "will contribute to imparting a momentum to the process, offering incentive of political mainstreaming to the insurgent groups, and gradually shrink the space for the irreconcilables." "We are confident that the process would lead to a significant reduction in violence (in Afghanistan)," he said, adding the group was working to adopt a roadmap for talks. The Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) was set up in December last year to facilitate the reconciliation process. Aziz said the meeting will have useful deliberations aimed at advancing the work of the Group in a "meaningful manner." He said he was "hopeful that continuing with this spirit and resolve, the Group will now focus on the early adoption of a roadmap for the reconciliation process" and identify the way forward for direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. "A clear, well-defined and actionable roadmap for the peace process between the Afghan Government and Taliban groups is important" and should stipulate various stages of the process while measuring progress made at each stage, he said. "It should also serve to convey positive signals about unflinching commitment of the parties to the peace process." Aziz said Pakistan fully shares Afghanistan's concern that increasing violence is a challenge and its reduction should be an important objective of peace talks. "We are confident that the (QCG) process would lead to a significant reduction of violence," he said. Previous rounds of the four-country talks have ended with a promise to meet again. The first round was held in July but it was suspended the same month after Taliban chief Mullah Omar's death was announced. The second was held in January. The process will be a test for all parties due to strong opposition within Afghanistan towards any peace with Taliban. Some analysts however believe the presence of China and the US may help overcome mistrust between Kabul and Islamabad. A total of five people have been arrested for the shooting death of a British pilot who was flying a helicopter on an anti-poaching mission in Tanzania, a conservation group said. More arrests are expected following the killing of Roger Gower, who was on a joint operation with Tanzanian wildlife authorities when he was shot, the Friedkin Conservation Fund said Friday. Those detained include the suspected gunman and accomplices, as well as "members of a criminal network providing illegal firearms and facilitating the transport and sale of ivory," the Texas-based Friedkin group said in a statement. Two days after Gower's death, the group announced three arrests in an ongoing security operation. Gower died Jan. 29 in Maswa wildlife reserve, near Serengeti National Park. The Friedkin group oversees conservation projects in Maswa and some other wildlife areas in Tanzania. Maswa's rangers encounter poachers on a regular basis, according to the Friedkin group. Tanzania has been identified as a key hotspot for elephant poachers. The elephant population declined by 60 percent to about 40,000 since 2009, according to a census announced last year. At least eight people, including two security personnel, were killed and 25 injured today when a powerful blast targeted a Frontier Corps convoy in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province. The attack was carried out in civil lines area near district courts of the city. At least eight people were killed, including six civilians and two security personnel, a police official said. The official said it was apparently a suicide attack but there was no confirmation as the investigation was ongoing. Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, local media reports said. The security forces surrounded the nearby areas and started a search operation. Initial reports said 25 people have also been injured in the blast, the Express Tribune reported. The blast targeted a Frontier Corps convoy, sources were quoted as saying. In January, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polio vaccination centre in Quetta, killing at least 15 people, mainly police personnel. At least nine people, including four security personnel and an eight-year-old girl, were killed and about 40 others injured today in a Taliban suicide attack that targeted a Frontier Corps vehicle in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province. A powerful blast rocked the congested Kachari area of Quetta near the premises of the heavily guarded city district courts. At least nine people were killed and about 40 others injured when the Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle was targeted, officials said. DIG Imtiaz Shah was quoted by Dawn as saying that it was a suicide attack and the attacker blew himself up near a vehicle belonging to the FC. Anwar-ul-Haq, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, said the injured were shifted to hospitals and among them the condition of eight was critical. The Kachari area that houses the district and sessions courts, a market and a hospital, is usually packed with people and Haq said it was congested as usual when the blast took place near Liaquat park. "Those killed included an eight-year-old girl, FC personnel and women," he said. Haq said around eight kilogrammes of explosives was used in the attack and the blast shattered and damaged nearby buildings and the security vehicle. "Four members of the FC have been killed in the blast, while the remaining five are locals," Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told The Express Tribune. The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack, media reports said. Television footage showed several wounded FC personnel being shifted from the blast site to hospitals. "We didn't have any advance threat but in the last few months, the operation against militants and insurgents has been stepped up and this is a retaliation," IG police Balochistan Mahboob Ahsan said. The troubled Balochistan province has been hit by violence for the last few years with sectarian, militant groups routinely targeting government and security installations along with security personnel. An RTI activist has alleged that the registrar of the Central Information Commission is allegedly using government vehicles and taxis in violation of service rules and has complained to the Department of Personnel and Training and the Chief Information Commissioner. Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra through his RTI application found that between October 1, 2015 and December, 2015, Registrar M K Sharma used government vehicle and taxi service which was a violation of terms of contract on which he was hired. Batra alleged that the RTI reply shows that Sharma used government vehicles on which Rs 24,374 were incurred while Rs 21,720 were spent on taxi. He also alleged that former Additional Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs was hired as consultant Registrar for six months from October 1, 2015 onwards. The terms of his employment with the Central Information Commission clearly say that he will not be entitled to any perquisites such as HRA, CCA, TA, residential accommodation, and transport facilities, Batra alleged citing the order of Joint Secretary (admin) at CIC, S P Beck. Batra had sent the complaint along with his RTI response and the order of Beck. An SMS sent to Sharma seeking his reaction remained undelivered as he is purportedly out of station. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Saturday said they carried out Friday's attack on a UN military camp in Timbuktu in Mali's restive north. At least four suspected jihadists and a Malian soldier were killed in the attack which the group said was designed to send "a clear message" of its intention and capacity to target the UN's peacekeeping MINUSMA mission. The group said in a statement that three fighters from the al-Quds Brigade of its Sahara division stormed the former hotel serving as the mission base, one detonating a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at the entrance and the two others entering inside. The attack came three months after a similar strike on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako and one month after a raid on a top hotel in Burkina Faso. The militant group has vowed to continue with a "series of operations to cleanse the land of Islam and Muslims from the dens of the Crusader occupiers and their mercenaries". A Malian police source indicated two suspects, who army sources said had been arrested in the aftermath of the attack, were Saturday released. "The people arrested Friday on suspicion of being terrorists or their accomplices have been freed for lack of evidence," the Timbuktu gendarmerie source told AFP without giving further details. Defence Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly had Friday spoken of "half a dozen" fighters carrying out the attack, with three gunned down and one blowing himself up. Three Malian soldiers were also wounded. The assault came just a day after the fabled city celebrated the restoration of its greatest treasures -- earthen mausoleums dating to mediaeval times and destroyed during an Islamist takeover in 2012. In a statement via Mauritanian agency Al-Akhbar, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said three fighters whose nationalities were not immediately clear carried out the raid and were all killed. The group added that "several soldiers" had also died with others injured. Army sources reported the situation Saturday afternoon as calm in Timbuktu as Coulibaly attended the funeral of the slain soldier, named as commander Karim Niang. The sources added they had carried out patrols through the night across the city. Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) in its pre-budget proposals has urged the government to consider additional tax benefits for the investors. The industry body has sought more tax incentives on ELSS, pension products and infrastructure debt mutual funds. "We have asked for an equal treatment of pension products of mutual funds and NPS. At the moment, under section 80CCD of the Income Tax Act, NPS is given a priority. We have also sought separate tax exemption for ELSS, which is currently within the 80C limit of Rs 1.5 lakh," AMFI Chief Executive C V R Rajendran said. "There is also need for more infrastructure financing. So we also proposed investment of capital gains in infrastructure mutual funds. The 54EC bonds (used to save capital gains) should be exclusively invested in infrastructure mutual funds," he said this on the sidelines of an Indian Chamber of Commerce summit here. Rajendran further said there is a target to increase the size of the mutual fund industry to Rs 30 lakh crore within three years from the current Rs 13 lakh crore. "But this would require all mutual fund companies to expand their reach. Narrow margins have prevented a rapid expansion. That is what keeping us from moving into smaller markets," he noted. Bajaj Capital Director and Group CEO Anil Chopra said new products will help increasing AUM of the industry. Clarity on REITs is awaited and a notification on target date debt funds is due from markets regulator Sebi. More than two lakh Anganwadi workers in Maharashtra are agitating to press for their demands including increasing their wages, since the government is yet to address their grievances, an Anganwadis' union official said today. "The workers of one lakh Anganwadis across the state began their agitation on January 20 against the faulty decisions of both the Central and the state government, that have adversely affected the functioning of Anganwadis," Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Karmachari Sangh president M A Patil said. He said the government did a "grave" mistake by bringing down the budgetary provisions under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme from the earlier Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crore. "As a result, the salary of Rs 5,000 being paid to the workers and Rs 2,500 to the assistants is very less. Even that is not paid regularly. Sometimes the workers are not paid salaries for months altogether," he said. The rent for Anganwadi centres is also paid irregularly, leading to harassment of the workers and students by landlords, he further said. He said the government wants them to provide nutritious food to the students, but does not provide them the required facilities. "The students coming to the Anganwadis are only being given food and escorted back to their homes, he said, adding no teaching work is being carried out for many days now," he said. An Arjuna awardee Assistant Commandant, who was under suspension, allegedly committed suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan here, police said today. 45-year-old Narinder Singh, who had been suspended for the last two years, allegedly committed suicide last night at his official residence in Punjab Armed Police headquarters, upset over an ongoing criminal case against him, Additional Deputy Commissioner (City I) in Jalandhar J Ellenchejian said. "The deceased was a part of the fifth India reserve Battalion as an Assistant Commandant and was under suspension. It seems as if he has taken this step under depression," Ellenchejian said. Police recovered the body last night and it was sent for postmortem this morning. They also recovered the wire with which the officer hung himself. A case under CrPC 174 has been registered. "Preliminary investigation suggests that this is a case of suicide, however it cannot be confirmed until the postmortem report comes out. Further investigation will proceed on that basis," Ellenchejian said. The incident came to light when Narinder's wife discovered his body hanging from the ceiling fan upon entering his room last night, they said. Senior police sources said a case was pending against Narinder Singh for allegedly killing a man when he was posted at Punjab Bhawan in New Delhi. The sources said Narinder shot at a man, who had asked him the way, killing him. Narinder was transferred to the India Reserve Batallion and later suspended, the source added. Another official said there were allegations of eve-teasing levelled against the deceased by woman police officers. At that time, he was posted as the DCP. The official said since a criminal case was pending against Narinder, his suspension was not revoked, which might have prompted him to take the drastic step. Singh was a Judo champion and had been awarded the Arjuna award in 1998 for his commendable performances in the Commonwealth and Asian games, police said. Two local youths have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a Nigerian student this week even as police today asserted that the allegation that the foreigner was "racially abused" has not been established. Expressing solidarity with the Nigerian student and seeking justice for a Tanzanian girl student (who was allegedly attacked in Bengaluru), a group of around 70 students under the banner of African Students Association and other organisations held a peaceful protest at Indira Park here, holding banners demanding "to stop discrimination and humiliation of African students" in Indian cities. "Two local youths-Shoaib Ali and Faizal Ali have been arrested following the complaint lodged by the Nigerian student. However, with regard to the allegation that the local youths passed racial comments against the Nigerian student has not been established," Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Zone) A Venkateshwera Rao told PTI. The DCP said it was a road-side brawl between the Nigerian student Orolabe Ibidola and local youths on Thursday night after the Nigerian student "put" his face inside the window of a woman's car when she was in conversation with the locals for an address. "The local youths said that after the lady raised objection then only they asked the Nigerian student on why he was interfering," the DCP said quoting the local youths. However, Orolabe Ibidola, said when he was returning home from a religious place on Thursday night around 10 local youths allegedly passed "racist" comments against him and beat him up along with two other Nigerian nationals after which he lodged a complaint with Banjara Hills Police, who registered a case under IPC Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) against the local youth. A counter complaint from local residents was lodged against the Nigerian, alleging assault by the latter, the senior police officer said adding, "we are inquiring into the complaint." Mohd Ahmed, a leader of World Organisation of Students and Youths, who was among those who participated in the sit-in demonstration said, "It was peaceful. We just wanted to convey not to humiliate African students. Accept us...We have come here for studies. Those who are violating rules then punish them but don't humiliate and discriminate the innocent." Alleging that "racist comments" were passed against the Nigerian, students from around 15 different countries demanded for ending racism and also sought for taking action against all those responsible in connection with the assault on the Tanzanian woman student in Bengaluru. An Australian national, suspected to be a supporter of ISIS, has been deported back home from IGI Airport here soon after his arrival. Ahmad Fahim Bin Hamad Awang, a Malay-origin Australian youth, was first detained by security agencies when he landed at the Indira Gandhi International airport Thursday night. After sustained questioning for a few hours at the airport, Awang was deported to Perth, official sources said. Some jihadi literature, including ISIS propaganda materials, were allegedly recovered on his laptop, the sources said, adding photographs of him posing with firearms were also allegedly found on the laptop. Among the photos found by security agencies was one of a bare-chested Awang brandishing an assault rifle. Another showed him sitting with a pistol on his lap, the sources claimed. During questioning, Awang said he had come to attend a meeting in Delhi's Nizamuddin area but his replies were suspicious, the sources said. After questioning for a few hours and scouring through the contents of Awang's laptop, security agencies decided against allowing him to enter the country and deported him to Australia in the next available flight. The threat of 'lone wolf' attacks by ISIS supporters has been a matter of concern for security agencies in India. 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. Awang's deportation comes amid a nationwide crackdown on ISIS supporters. 15 youths have been held from various cities for allegedly forming an ISIS-affiliate, called the Junood-Al-Khilafa-e-Hind, and planning terror attacks. Austria wants the EU's border agency Frontex to send directly back to Turkey the migrants it picks trying to reach Greece, media today quoted Chancellor Werner Faymann as saying. "Frontex must pick up the people fleeing to Greece. We have to save all of them, but then these people should be sent directly to Turkey," Social Democrat Faymann said on Austrian tabloid Oesterreich's website. He said he had proposed this as an "optimum solution" to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at Thursday's Syrian donor conference in London. Faymann said this approach was "the only totally effective measure to break the human trafficking" of migrants, Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung reported. Austria's APA news agency quoted chancellery sources as saying that in return Turkey would receive swifter payment of $3.3 billion of EU aid to enable it to cope with the ongoing migrant influx. Relative to its population size of 8.7 million, Austria was one of the countries taking in the most migrants last year amid the worst refugee crisis that Europe has known since World War II. The number of arrivals in Austria hit 90,000 in 2015, more than triple the 28,000 for 2014. The Austrian proposal comes on the back of a similar plan floated by the Netherlands last month to return migrants to Turkey in exchange for giving asylum to up to 250,000 already hosted by Turkey. Under the plan, all migrants arriving through the Greek islands would be returned to Turkey, Diederik Samsom, parliamentary leader of the coalition Labour Party (PvdA), told a Dutch newspaper. Known for making controversial remarks, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Mohd Azam Khan today plumbed new depths when he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. While BJP attacked him, even a Congress spokesperson said attached no importance to it saying it cannot be believed. "Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan said. He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Minister's residence when he went there on December 25 last. BJP's Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to "immediately" dismiss the minister. "If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and brining shame to the nation. I am shocked," he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. "We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said," he said adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. Government today dismissed as "false and baseless" the allegation of senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who plumbed new depths to claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. "There are some statements alleging that the Prime Minister met Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of PM Nawaz Sharif. It is unfounded, baseless and false," an official spokesman said reacting to Khan's statement. While BJP attacked Khan, even a Congress spokesperson said attached no importance to it saying it cannot be believed. "Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan said. He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Minister's residence when he went there on December 25 last. BJP's Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to "immediately" dismiss the minister. "If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and brining shame to the nation. I am shocked," he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. "We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said," he said adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. Raking up the issue of alleged non-release of stipend to Dalit students from Bihar, BJP today termed the Nitish Kumar government as 'anti-Dalit'. The party also questioned Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's silence for not raising the issue with its ally. "Bihar government is insensitive to Dalits as it has stopped scholarships of Dailt students. Nitish Kumar government has not released a single penny for their stipend. Is this the harmony they are talking about? "BJP wants to ask Rahul Gandhi why are you silent as you are also part of the grand alliance which is in power in Bihar?" BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. He alleged that Bihar government has stopped the scholarship of 60 dalit students studying in an engineering college in Bhubaneswar and they are on the verge of being terminated from their studies. Patra said the students, 18 from East Champaran district and 42 from West Champaran, are in the second year in Rajdhani Engineering College, Bhubaneswar, and were recently sent back due to non-payment of fees and hostel charges for the past one and a half years. They now face early termination of their studies, he added. BJP said that the state government had promised to pay Rs 7,000 annual fee and Rs 10,000 as hostel charges to these students under the Dalit Stipend Scheme had but discontinued it. The Bombay High Court has reserved order on the bail plea of alleged ISIS recruit Areeb Majeed who was arrested on the charge of waging war against the country. The order was reserved yesterday by a bench headed by Justice Ranjit More who heard arguments of the accused and the prosecution. Areeb, along with three other youths from Kalyan --- Shaheen Tanki, Fahad Shaikh and Aman Tandel--were part of a pilgrims group from India to Iraq in May, 2014 when they went missing. According to the prosecution, Areeb and his accomplices were suspected to have joined the Syria-based international terror group ISIS. Areeb was deported to India and arrested by Investigation Agency (NIA) on November 28, 2014. In May, 2015, NIA filed an 8,000-page charge-sheet against Areeb under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code for waging a war against the country. Seeking bail, Areeb's lawyer Mobin Solkar argued that the sessions court had extended the time of filing the charge-sheet in this case. This was in violation of rules as it should have been done by a special NIA court and the sessions court had exceeded its jurisdiction and hence its order was per se was illegal, he added. In May, 2015, a special court had rejected the bail plea of Areeb on similar grounds. In the High Court, NIA defended its decision to get Majeed's custody extended by a sessions court saying the NIA court was unavailable on February 25, 2015 and thus, it had approached the special MCOCA sessions court. Areeb has sought bail saying it was his "right under the criminal procedure code", considering that he had been in custody since November 2014 and the investigating authorities have already filed a charge-sheet in the case. Areeb was a student in a college at Panvel in Navi Mumbai before he allegedly decided to join ISIS along with three of his friends. Delhi Police has sent notices to two top officials of Ryan Group, querying them on the underground reservoir in its school where Devansh's body was found and guidelines for handling any emergency, even as it ruled out the possibility of sexual assault on the boy. "Notices have been sent under relevant CrPC provisions... We have sought information on the charter of duty and construction of the underground water reservoir where the boy was found dead," DCP (South) Prem Nath said today. The notices were sent yesterday to Ryan International Group's Chief Administrative Officer Ryan Pinto and northern zone head Francis Thomas, a senior officer said. He also ruled out the possibility of sexual assault on the basis of the initial post-mortem report and investigation so far. Earlier in the day, Devansh's father alleged that there were injury marks on his body including private parts. "The case was registered based on the statement of the child's father. The matter is being probed from all possible angles. Negligence has come to fore, on the basis of which we have arrested five persons so far. Further investigation is underway," Prem Nath said, adding the final post-mortem report is still awaited. On Thursday, the police had arrested the principal, a class teacher and three non-teaching staff of Ryan International School in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj under charges of negligence causing the death of Class 1 student Devansh Kakrora at a water reservoir under the school's amphitheatre on January 30. An official privy to the investigation said the questions on the "charter of duty" are related to responsibilities of the staff members employed by the school's management and the protocol to be followed at times of emergency. Renewing his demand for a CBI probe, Devansh's father Ramheet Meena said, "I saw the body. There were some injury marks and cotton on his private parts. The principal has been threatening me since the beginning saying that keeping quiet will be good for me." The senior officer said the boy's body apparently had no external injuries. Central forensic teams and senior police officials conducted detailed inspection of the spot thrice. During investigation it also came to light that children often went near the water reservoir, which had no cautionary signages nearby but no untoward incidents had taken place place until Devansh's case, he said. Meanwhile, it also emerged that the school was yet to obtain a completion certificate from the authorities concerned for its alleged deviance from the approved plan in connection with the Vasant Kunj building. "We have also sought information from the Delhi Development Authority regarding the matter," the officer said, adding the police are also investigating whether evidences were tampered with. "If something like that arises, relevant sections will be added in the existing FIR," he added. Delhi Government today said, the magisterial probe into the death of Devansh indicates towards a "heinous crime" and the investigations so far have "ignored" the observations of the child's parents. "The observation of the parents are being ignored that the private parts of the child had cotton on them. The report is indicating towards a heinous crime. And saying that he had a disorder amounts to running away from responsibilities," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters. Sisodia also termed as conspiratorial the alleged attempts on the part of the school management to betray an impression that the six-year-old was a "special child". A 34-year-old builder from Nallasopara in the district was allegedly abducted and assaulted by unidentified persons, police said today. The builder was kidnapped from his house on February 1 and was forced to give in writing that he would hand over three tenements to his abductors, police stated in a release here. In his complaint filed with police last night after his release, the builder, whose name is withheld by police, said one of his attackers held a revolver to his head and warned him of dire consequences if he disclosed the matter. Tulinj police registered a case under various sections of IPC and are probing the motive behind the crime. The Centre today agreed to Jharkhand's proposal to set up a Sanskrit University in the state's Deoghar district. The approval came during a meeting between Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani in New Delhi, an official release said here. The Ministry also assured to help improve the education level in the state, it said. Jharkhand education minister Neera Yadav was also present during the meeting. The United States has welcomed the Indian government's move to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CS) for Nuclear Damages, stating that the "important step" will facilitate participation by American companies in the construction of nuclear reactors in India. "The United States welcomes the action by India to join the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, otherwise known as CSC," the State Department Spokesman John Kirby yesterday told reporters. Indian membership in the CSC marks another important step towards creating the global nuclear liability regime called for by the IAEA Nuclear Safety Action Plan, he said. "It will also facilitate participation by companies from the US in the construction of nuclear reactors in India, which will mean more reliable electricity for Indians, will reduce India's reliance on carbon-intensive sources, that will benefit the environment, and will offer India greater energy security for its large and growing economy," Kirby said. When asked if it would help the implementation of Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Kirby said, "We believe it's an important step toward creating a global nuclear liability regime, and it will facilitate international cooperation in expanding the use of nuclear power in India". Meanwhile an eminent Indian American expert from the private sector, who has been closely involved in various aspects of Indo-US civil nuclear deal described this as a milestone. "This is a big accomplishment. This was the pledge that India made. This important step would facilitate the commercial suppliers to close their nuclear deals with India that would end up in generating at least 12,000 MW if both the US companies go ahead," Vijay Sazawal, an expert on US India nuclear agreement said. Without specifically mentioning the name, Sazawal said a leading American nuclear reactor vendor is planning to submit its proposal by the end of February to NPCIL with an objective of having some kind of agreement with that can be signed at the time of Nuclear Security Summit on April 1. Currently, only one vendor - Westing House -- is fully engaged with NPCIL. In a significant move aimed at putting an end to the contentious nuclear liability issue and assuage suppliers concerns, India on Thursday ratified the Convention of Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, marking an important step in addressing matters related to civil nuclear liabilities. The move will help establish a worldwide liability regime of enhanced compensation for nuclear damages. "The contract that NPCIL and the American nuclear vendor are negotiating has many parts. They have to agree on who would be responsible for doing what work, who would provide financing and when, the contract terms and conditions, which would include the supplier liability as per the Indian nuclear liability law," Sazawal said. "And finally TCO - technical commercial offer -- how much the reactor would cost and what would be tariff that can be charged to the consumer to ensure that the vendor and the operator both make reasonable profit while providing a requisite tariff goals consistent with the region where the plant will be located and supply electricity," Sazawal said. Sazawal, who has been actively involved in promoting the nuclear cooperation between the two countries since 2005, said "the last step in all these negotiations is the most complex and time consuming". The expected April agreement would mostly likely touch on the fact that the two sides would have an understanding of various aspects of the offer that India is looking for, which would cover a sale of six reactors as against two that were originally being discussed with each American nuclear reactor supplier. The six reactors will generate between 6000 to 6500 MW. It is learnt that General Electrics has proposed a larger size reactor potentially generating about 1600 MW. However, current detailed negotiations involve only with Westinghouse. General Electrics has said that they would negotiate with India only after India ratifies CSC. Westinghouse has said they are willing to take General Electric site in Andhra Pradesh if the latter is not interested. After the deal is signed hopefully this year, expectations are that it will take 6-7 years to complete construction of the first reactor, but so far no reactor recently has been built in the West in this time frame. "I expect this year that US nuclear supplier will sign a preliminary agreement with India when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is here in April, but the details of the actual contract will take time and would not be formalized by then. Both sides are expecting this to be signed by this fall. India is keen that the full contract be signed during President's Obama's tenure," Sazawal said. One of the thing that India has to still decide - is the implementation of the Indian Nuclear Insurance Pool, he noted. Because of two reasons, first because it is required under Indian nuclear liability law and both the operator and supplier and must subscribe to their policy before actual work can be initiated. Secondly, the financial institutions that would finance the loan must have a good understanding of the liability exposure and premium to be paid by the American nuclear vendor before they would offer their terms for the loan, he said. A criminal complaint was today filed against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a court here seeking filing of an FIR against him, alleging he has misled the people of Delhi by stating that municipal corporations are not under the AAP government's control. The complainant, Brijesh Shukla of Swaraj Janta Party, sought direction to the SHO of Karawal Nagar police station in north east Delhi to register an FIR against Kejriwal under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC. The plea, filed in Karkardooma court, would come up for hearing on February 10. Kejriwal had come out with a full-page advertisement in newspapers in October last saying there were misunderstandings regarding a strike by MCD employees and he wanted to make it clear that it was wrong to say that the corporations come under the Delhi government, Shukla claimed. "In November, 2015, I filed an RTI with Delhi government which in its reply, has said that the corporations are under its control. Action should be initiated against him for misleading people and spending public money for spreading lies," the complainant said. He said he had also filed complaints to the Deputy Commissioner of Police of north east district and the LG seeking registration of FIR against Kejriwal for allegedly misappropriating public fund. He claimed that no action was taken by the police on his complaint. Advocate Kislay Pandey, who filed the plea on behalf of the complainant, has alleged "deep-rooted corruption" and said the documents showed no material was actually purchased for completing the work here. The complainant claimed the documents showed no materials were actually purchased and papers in this connection were "concocted and forged", causing a loss of over Rs 10 crore to the public exchequer. The plea has alleged that the role of the chief minister must be investigated as he had allegedly caused substantive gains to Bansal and others by using his influence. It has also sought prosecution of P K Kathuria, the then executive engineer in PWD, claiming he had connived with other government officials and abused his position to obtain huge money for himself, Bansal and others. It has alleged that Bansal operated through several dummy firms to obtain government contracts in connivance with several senior officials of PWD, which never got executed "whereas shockingly all the payments have been cleared under the pressure of Kejriwal". Besides lodging of FIR, the complaint has also sought the court's direction to call for a status report from the police, monitoring of the probe and a status report from CBI on a complaint given to it on January 9. BJP today latched on to a Dalit UP Congress leader's reported charges against its Ghaziabad party chief of publicly berating him over his caste to hit out at the opposition party, saying it reflected its "anti-Dalit" mindset and asked why Rahul Gandhi was "silent" on the issue. BJP accused the Congress vice-president of only raising Dalit issues for doing and asked why no case was registered under SC/ST Act in the matter. "This incident reflects the Congress mindset and its 'anti-Dalit' thought. Congress can do drama by sitting on a dharna in Hyderabad over the Dalit student suicide issue only to do politics, but this incident reflects the thought prevalent in Congress mindset as to how Dalits cannot be equal to them and their place is in their feet," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters. BJP's SC Morcha chief Dushyant Kumar Gautam also asked the Congress why an FIR under the SC/ST Act was not registered and asked what the SC/ST Commission led by Congress leader P L Punia was doing in the case. Attacking the Congress vice-president over the incident, Patra said, "When a Dalit is being berated and dishonoured in his own party, why is Rahul Gandhi silent and has not initiated any action even when its Ghaziabad district SC Morcha chief has written to him and threatened suicide for his public humiliation." He asked if Rahul even visited him once or even talked to him even after three days of the incident and after Congress Dalit leader Jitender Kumar wrote to him. Gautam said, "Congress is double-faced" and adopts double-standards" while dealing with Dalits. He also accused Congress of humiliating Dalit icon B R Ambedkar and said successive Congress governments for decades have not bothered to make a memorial out of the Alipur Road residence here, where Ambedkar breathed his last. Gautam said Rahul Gandhi should ask his Ghaziabad district chief to resign or suspend him. "This is a serious cause of concern. Congress does such discrimination and ill-treatment to Dalits. It is its duty to answer on this incident," Patra said. Ghaziabad Congress SC Morcha chief Jatinder Kumar has reportedly alleged that on February 3 at a party meeting he was berated and humiliated over his caste by the party's district president who has denied the charges. Jatinder has written to the Congress president, demanding action against the culprits. The AICC's SC department has asked the state unit to probe the incident, according to a media report. Gautam also highlighted the rape of a Dalit girl in Bareli. A couple allegedly committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance in east Delhi's Mayur Vihar area today. They have been identified as Sudhanshu Raja (24) and Jyoti Thakur (22), both natives of Uttarakhand. However, the police haven't yet been able to ascertain whether they were married, a senior police official said. The police have so far found no suicide note in the house or in possession of the deceased, the official said. The incident came to light around 2.20 PM today when a neighbour went to their house and nobody opened the door for a long time. The cleaner in the area was called and with his help the neighbours entered the house and found the couple lying on the floor, the senior official said. The police were informed following which the couple were rushed to a hospital, where they were declared brought dead, he said. "An inquest has been initiated. Preliminary investigation suggests that they consumed some poisonous substance," DCP (East) B S Gurjar said. According to the police, Raja and Thakur worked at private firms in Noida and they rented the room at Chilla village in Mayur Vihar area in late December. Neighbours have also told the police that the couple were under some financial burden. They went somewhere around a week ago and returned home yesterday. Neighbours also claimed that they did not hear any noise suggesting any argument between the two, police added. Police, along with Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force, arrested four members of a Delhi-based telecaller gang who allegedly duped a retired engineer here of Rs 18 lakh by promising lucrative "insurance policies". Those arrested have been identified as Vinay Kumar Indaura, Ravi Daulat, Akash Deep and Rakesh Verma and were sent to jail today, Sub-Inspector Manoj Singh said. Singh said the four made calls to junior engineer Chandra Shekhar of Idgah locality here and persuaded him to deposit the sum in their bank account in Delhi in installments. Singh said the police managed to identify the accused by probing their bank account. The accused were brought to Lakhimpur and sent to jail today. A 45-year-old sub-inspector with the Delhi Police allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service revolver at his residence in Harpal Enclave here. The official, identified as Yashpal Singh, was posted as a sub-inspector with the Anti Auto-theft Squad office in Amar Colony under Delhi Police's south east district jurisdiction, a senior official said. Singh is survived by his wife and three children. The officer allegedly had his dinner late last night and around an hour later a gunshot was heard. He was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. "His body was found in the room with bullet injuries on right side of his head," Badalpur SHO Manoj Yadav said. The matter was reported to the DCP (southeast) office, the official said. Police said although no suicide note was recovered from the deceased's house, his relatives claimed that he was under severe work pressure and depression. Beside suicide other possible angles too are being investigated, they said. The investigation is being done by local police at Greater Noida. We shall help them with all necessary information, the senior official added. The father of the six-year-old boy, found dead in Ryan International School, today alleged injury marks were seen on his body including on private parts which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said indicated towards a "heinous crime" as he promised action against the guilty. However, a senior police officer, handling the probe, ruled out sexual assault on the basis of the initial post- mortem report and investigation so far. Ramheet Meena, father of Devansh Kakora who was a class I student at Ryan, said he saw cotton swabs on the child's private parts and alleged that the principal of the school has threatened the family to keep quiet over the issue. He reiterated his demand for a CBI probe into the case. "I saw the body. There were some injury marks and cotton on his private parts. The principal has been threatening me since the beginning saying that keeping quiet will be good for me," he said, demanding cancellation of the school's license. Police sent notices to Ryan International Group's Chief Administrative Officer Ryan Pinto and northern zone head Francis Thomas seeking details about the underground reservoir of the school where Devansh's body was found floating on January 30. School's principal Sandhya Sabu and four other staff were arrested by the police in the case. But all of them had got bail earlier this week. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who has the education portfolio, said the magisterial probe into Devansh's death indicated towards a "heinous crime" and that the investigation so far has "ignored" the observations of the child's parents. "The observations of the parents are being ignored that the private parts of the child had cotton on them. The report is indicating towards a heinous crime. And saying that he had a disorder amounts to running away from responsibilities," Sisodia told reporters. Sisodia termed as "conspiratorial" the alleged attempts on the part of the school management to give an impression that the six-year-old was a "special child". A magisterial probe ordered by the Delhi Government into the case said the "deliberate" inaction by the school authorities amounted to "gross criminal negligence" which led to the death of the child. It slammed the authorities for "insinuating" that he was a special kid. The school principal had claimed that Devansh was a "hyperactive" child who had "tendency" of running away from the classroom. The probe report said that on January 30, the teachers and other staff at Ryan International School risked the life of a class XI student, Prajwal Sehrawat, as he had jumped into the reservoir to pull out the body of Devansh. The SDM who conducted the probe recommended Prajwal's name for bravery award. Promising action against the school authorities, Sisodia said the findings of the report raise a "lot of questions" as to how the school could be so "careless". The government is studying its contents and would take appropriate action, he said. The father of the six-year-old boy, who was found dead in Ryan International School, today alleged that he was sexually assaulted before being done to death and that there were injury marks on his private parts, a charge discounted by the police citing preliminary reports. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who said that there were enough indications to suggest that it was a "heinous crime", promised action against the guilty. Ramheet Meena, father of Devansh Kakora who was a class I student at Ryan in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj, said he saw cotton swabs on the child's private parts and alleged that the principal of the school has warned the family that they should remain quiet over the issue. He renewed his demand for a CBI probe into the case. "There was sexual assault. He was done to death," he alleged. "I saw the body. There were some injury marks and cotton on his private parts. The principal has been threatening me since the beginning saying that keeping quiet will be good for me," he said, demanding cancellation of the school's license. However, a senior police officer, handling the probe, ruled out sexual assault on the basis of the initial post- mortem report and investigation so far. Police sent notices to Ryan International Group's Chief Administrative Officer Ryan Pinto and northern zone head Francis Thomas seeking details about the underground reservoir of the school where Devansh's body was found floating on January 30. An official privy to the investigation said they have also been queried on "charter of duty" related to responsibilities of the staff members employed by the school's management and the protocol to be followed at times of emergency. School's principal Sandhya Sabu and four other staff were arrested by the police in the case. But all of them had got bail earlier this week. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who has the education portfolio, said the magisterial probe into Devansh's death indicated towards a "heinous crime" and that the investigation so far has "ignored" the observations of the child's parents. "The observations of the parents are being ignored that the private parts of the child had cotton on them. The report is indicating towards a heinous crime. And saying that he had a disorder amounts to running away from responsibilities," Sisodia told reporters. Sisodia termed as "conspiratorial" the alleged attempts on the part of the school management to give an impression that the six-year-old was a "special child". A magisterial probe ordered by the Delhi Government into the case said the "deliberate" inaction by the school authorities amounted to "gross criminal negligence" which led to the death of the child. It slammed the authorities for "insinuating" that he was a special kid. The school principal had claimed that Devansh was a "hyperactive" child who had "tendency" of running away from the classroom. The probe report said that on January 30, the teachers and other staff at Ryan International School risked the life of a class XI student, Prajwal Sehrawat, as he had jumped into the reservoir to pull out the body of Devansh. The SDM who conducted the probe recommended Prajwal's name for bravery award. Promising action against the school authorities, Sisodia said the findings of the report raise a "lot of questions" as to how the school could be so "careless". The government is studying its contents and would take appropriate action, he said. Aam Aadmi Party today fired a fresh salvo against Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat asking him to reveal details of the companies which allegedly struck deals worth Rs 3,300 crore with the state government. The AAP, which had alleged that these companies could be fake as they had "no digital footprints" and may be a front for money laundering, rejected the government's clarification and threatened to continue its "battle against corruption till the very end". Reacting to the allegations, Chief Minister's media in charge Surendra Kumar had said, "The MoU is in initial stage and no money transaction has taken place. So there is no need of making a fuss, which could affect the investment climate in the state." He said the pact was part of state government's efforts to find possibilities in the state. Dissatisfied with Uttarakhand government's response, senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Anoop Nautiyal posed a series of counter questions to the CM. "Rawat is yet to disclose the name and address of the companies with whom the deal was signed, the identities of their directors and promoters," the AAP leader said. The basic questions regarding the credentialsof the foreign firms still remain unanswered. On the state government's contention that the MoU was in a preliminary stage, he said MoUs are never executed in a phased manner. Asking the Chief Minister why he was becoming a votary of MoUs with "fraud" companies, Nautiyal wondered when would IT giants like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Accenture, Mindtree and Adobe get a chance to come and invest in Uttarakhand. Nautiyal had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha polls on an AAP ticket from Tehri. Citing official documents, Nautiyal had claimed an MoU was signed between the Uttarakhand government and International Oil Corporation (IOC), UAE and Kabul and Hong Kong Based Nuwam Limitedfor an investment worth USD 500 million on December 9 at Uttarakhand Sadan, New Delhi in the presence of Rawat. Producing copy of an official release informing the media about the signing of the MoU, Nautiyal had alleged that the existence of these companies is suspect as they have no "digital footprint. "If the allegations are proved true, the Chief Minister should immediately resign on moral grounds and the MoU with the so called companies be cancelled," he said. President Rafael Correa says he has fired Ecuador's military high command for refusing to pay back to the state USD41 million from an overvalued land deal. Correa announced via Twitter the sacking of the heads of the army, navy and air force, as well as joint chiefs boss General Luis Garzon. Garzon had just told a conference the funds in question could not be returned because they were dedicated to military pensions. Correa said the military chiefs had until April to leave office. The dispute stems from the 2010 sale of 220 hectares that were converted into the Guayaquil park where Pope Francis said Mass during his July visit. It was valued at USD48 million at the time. The government later said the valuation should have been USD7.3 million. US astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of just 12 people to have walked on the Moon, has died aged 85, his family and NASA said, calling him a "pioneer." NASA paid glowing tribute to Mitchell, who died in Florida after a brief illness late Thursday, the eve of the 45th anniversary of his lunar landing. The late astronaut was a member of the 1971 Apollo 14 mission along with Alan Shepard Jr. And Stuart Roosa. Mitchell was the last Apollo 14 survivor: Roosa died in 1994 and Shepard in 1998. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recalled Mitchell marveling at the stunning view of Earth from space. "Edgar spoke poetically about seeing our home planet from the Moon saying, 'Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. "'It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth... Home.' "He believed in exploration, having been drawn to NASA by President Kennedy's call to send humans to the Moon. He is one of the pioneers in space exploration on whose shoulders we now stand." The Apollo 14 mission began when the trio blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1971. Mitchell was in charge of piloting the Antares lunar module, which landed in the Fra Mauro region of the Moon. It was the third manned mission to the Moon and Mitchell became the sixth human to walk on the lunar surface. During the mission the astronauts collected 100 pounds (40 kilos) of lunar rock samples and carried out a series of experiments. The mission ended when the astronauts, traveling aboard a space capsule, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on February 9, 1971. In 1972 Mitchell retired from NASA and the following year he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, dedicated to the study of conciousness and paranormal phenomenona. He said he believed that extra-terrestrial unidentified flying objects (UFOs) had visited the Earth, but acknowledged that he had never seen one. Mitchell was the author of several books, including his 1996 memoir, "The Way of the Explorer." Two daughters, three adopted sons and nine grandchildren are among family who survive him. The family told The Palm Beach Post newspaper that Mitchell died at a West Palm Beach hospital after a short illness. At least eight persons were killed and six others injured today when a passenger bus carrying army personnel veered off a highway and fell into a ravine in central Nepal. The accident took place at Pasang Lhamu highway in Madanpur in Nuwakot district when the bus was on its way to Trishuli from Kathmandu. The microbus carrying army personnel undergoing training at the Trishuli Army Training Centre, Maithali fell around 500 feet off the road, DSP Siddhi Bikram Shah was quoted as saying by 'The Kathmandu Post'. The deceased are yet to be identified and the injured have been rushed to capital Kathmandu for further treatment. Poor road infrastructure and reckless driving are the leading causes of accidents in Nepal. According to the WHO, road accidents are the world's eighth leading cause of death. About 70 per cent of the deaths from road accidents occur in developing countries. As per the Nepal's traffic police data, on an average five to seven people are killed in road accidents every day in the country. Health and development experts in Kerala have applauded the country's commitment to tobacco control reflected in the first 'South Asian Speakers' Summit on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals' that concluded in Dhaka, Bangladesh last week. The Dhaka Declaration emerged after two days of deliberations by Parliament Speakers of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka on January 30 and 31. India has endorsed the 'Dhaka Declaration on SDG Action in South Asia' that envisions making the region tobacco free by 2030. With this, the country has agreed to 'develop, strengthen and enforce tobacco-control policies, legislation and regulations' in line with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a release said here. C P John, member of Kerala State Planning Board, said "Addressing public health issues has become a challenge in emerging economies.Tobacco use in different forms is a major threat to public health and development." "Unfortunately, tobacco abuse found in marginal communities is wrongly conceived as a tradition. So the state should come forward in controlling tobacco use by strong enforcement and regular monitoring while the responsible citizenry should take the lead in educating the masses through wide public awareness programmes," he said. Dr K R Thankappan, Professor and Head, Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies here, said "As the country is grappling with shrinking health budgets, India's strategy to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases through controlling tobacco use is a welcome step. Multi-sectoral efforts to reduce tobacco use which kills one million Indians a year are the need-of-the-hour." The South Asian Speakers' Summit also announced the establishment of South Asian Speakers' Forum that will meet at least once a year. India will host the second meeting of South Asian Speakers' Forum in 2017, the release added. The mosquito-borne Zika virus sweeping through Latin America has claimed three lives in Colombia, as the United Nations urged increased access to abortion because of fears of severe birth defects. In the first direct statements from government health officials blaming Zika for causing deaths, Colombia's National Health Institute (INS) said yesterday that the patients died after contracting the virus and developing a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. Cases of the syndrome in which the immune system attacks the nervous system, causing weakness and sometimes paralysis have increased in tandem with the Zika outbreak, fueling suspicions that it is a complication of the otherwise mild tropical fever, which is also blamed for causing brain damage in babies born to infected mothers. "Other cases (of deaths linked to Zika) are going to emerge," said epidemiologist Martha Lucia Ospina, director of the INS. "The world is realising that Zika can be deadly. The mortality rate is not very high, but it can be deadly." Most Guillain-Barre patients recover, but the syndrome sometimes causes paralysis or even death. Citing the rise in babies born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads and brains, the UN human rights office urged countries hit by Zika to give women access to contraception and abortion. Women's reproductive rights are a touchy subject in largely Catholic Latin America, but the UN human rights office said countries urging women to avoid pregnancy a list that comprises Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Panama had to give them ways to control their fertility. "How can they ask these women not to become pregnant, but not offer... The possibility to stop their pregnancies?" spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told reporters. Many Latin American countries outlaw abortion or allow it only if the mother's life is in danger. In El Salvador, one of those warning against pregnancy, abortion is punishable by up to 40 years in prison. Honduras, which earlier this week declared a state of emergency after tallying some 3,700 cases of Zika since mid-December, said it is planning a full day dedicated to eradicating the mosquitoes that carry the virus. President Juan Orlando Hernandez has allocated an initial tranche of $10 million in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem warned today that foreign ground troops entering Syria would "return home in wooden coffins." His comments came after Saudi Arabia said earlier this week it would be willing to send troops as part of a US-led military campaign against Islamic State extremists. The group controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. Al-Moallem said conventional wisdom and logic would suggest the idea of Saudi troops in Syria is far-fetched, but that "with the crazy Saudi leadership nothing is far-fetched." "Any ground intervention in Syria, without the consent of the Syrian government, will be considered an aggression that should be resisted by every Syrian citizen," he told a conference in Damascus. "I regret to say that they will return home in wooden coffins." Al-Moallem's comments capped a week that saw the collapse of UN-led efforts to launch indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and an opposition delegation in Geneva. The talks broke down in large part because of Syrian government offensives, including on the outskirts of Aleppo, once the country's largest city. The offensive, aimed at encircling rebel strongholds in Aleppo, was backed by intense Russian airstrikes and sent thousands of area residents fleeing toward a closed Turkish border. Al-Moallem said the government advances signaled that the five-year-old Syria war is nearing its end. "I can say, from the achievements for our armed forces ... That we are now on track to end the conflict," he said. "Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed toward the end of the crisis." Opposition representatives have said they cannot be expected to negotiate in Geneva at a time when the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, are escalating attacks on rebel strongholds. Al-Moallem dismissed the representatives of the Saudi-backed opposition in Geneva, suggesting they followed orders from Saudi Arabia and were "not real Syrians." He alleged the opposition never intended to negotiate seriously. "They did not come to have dialogue, they did not have such orders," he said. Al-Moallem said the Syrian government was ready to have dialogue with Syrians, but without preconditions. As spring sets in, Delhiites have yet another chance to enjoy the last leg of the winters with food, arts and crafts. The GIG carnival being held here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium brings an amalgamation of street food from various cities apart from cuisine from some of the best restaurants in the city. The 3-day carnival, curated by Gourmet Planet and part of the Incredible India campaign kick started yesterday offering street food of over 14 cities and 47 restaurants of the city including the Turkish Embassy which offers authentic Turkish cuisine. Festival curator Sonny Walia says it is his passion for food that drew him to organise such a festival. A street food corner titled 'Gol Bazaar' is one of the highlights of the carnival. "Food is my passion and I am doing this for passion. For for these stalls I had to go to each and every place individually and meet chefs and restaurant owners personally. Be it the Old Delhi area or places in Kolkata or the North East, I went to each and every place and it was difficult to convince them to come here," says Walia. Street food including Club Kachori, Puchka with three different types of water (Meetha, Khatta and hing water), Jhal Muri, Ghugni Samosa chaat from Kolkata, Litti Chokha, Khaja and Kachori from Bihar, Sevpuri, Panipuri, Pav Bhaji, Vada Pav and Bhel puri from Mumbai, Palak (Spinach) and Tomato Chaats from Benaras are on offer. Street food also includes Raj Kachori from Allahabad, Aloo Tikki with Dum aloo from Haridwar, Delhi's very own Chhole Kulche, Bhalla Papri, Dahi Gujiya Papdi, Chhole Bhature from the famed Nand Bhature shop in Sadar Bazar. The Carnival is also a treat for the non-vegetarians with dishes like Biryani and Tikkas being offered to the customers to give them a gastronomical experience. Aslam Chicken Tikka, Mutton Lahori, Chapli Kebab (made of mutton, Anjeer and walnuts) by the famed Chajju stall hailing from Amritsar is a real treat while Aslam Chicken Catering from Jama Masjid lays down the Mughlai tradition with Chicken Tikka, Chicken Seekh kebab and Rumali roti. The idea, as the organizers say, was to offer Delhiites a complete treat that can be enjoyed with the family. The festival is an initiative in collaboration of the Culture and Tourism Ministry. North-eastern delicacies including brown rice, pork and chicken momos, chicken bamboo shoot, steamed fish in banana leaves comprise a slice of the platter laid out by representatives of the seven sisters. 47 restaurants including Khan Chacha, Kunafa, Soda Bottle Opener Wala, Olive Bar and Kitchen, The Claridges, ITC Maurya, Zambar, Punjab Grill, Fio Cafe, Smokeys, Shangri La etc are participants at the carnival. One such restaurant, Ammi's Kitchen, having origins in Rampur served dishes made of authentic recipes of their grandmother including Khichda, Yakhni Pulao etc. "We only deliver and have our origins from Rampur. The recipes used to make the dishes are all given by my grandmother and so we have named it 'Ammi's Kitchen'. Our specialty is Yakhni Pulao which is lightly fragrant pulao with less spices and mutton pieces. Also our 'Khichda' which is made of various Dals, and mutton is a favourite among the customers," says owner of Ammi's Kitchen. The Turkish embassy has a pool of authentic dishes with dishes like cigarette borek (cheese), meat ball, dal kofte, and yaprak sarmosi which is wine leaves stuffed with rice and spices. The stall also had Turkish bracelets, a Coffee Set, Nazar Bonsieur etc for the customers. "We are offering authentic Turkish cuisines to customers which include many vegetarian dishes as well," says Arzu, secretary at Turkish Embassy. "It is a celebration of various aspects of modern Indian living. It is completely in sync with our philosophy of spreading happiness through varied flavours," says Viraj Bahl, Founder and Managing Director, Veeba Food Services. The festival also includes dishes from across the globe such as Japanese sushi, offering Chinese cuisines, Thai Crafte to name a few. With food being the major highlight of the festival, music, art and crafts are also given equal emphasis with artisans from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Manipur, Assam, Gujarat being called upon to showcase their skills and talent. Wood carving from Andhra Pradesh used for decorations, mugs, tea set, smoking pipes, frying pans made of serpentine stone from Manipur, 16 variety of natural flower perfumes or Itar from Kannauj, Madhubani paintings on stoles, saree, shawls etc are on exhibit. Three different types of silk items from Assam namely Paat, Nuni Paat, Mulbery along with handwoven cotton stuffs and jackets attracted customers to the stalls. "We have items made of three kind of silk namely Paat, Nuni paat and Mulbery which are found only in Assam. We have used Nuni Paat to make jackets because it is slightly warm and suited for winters," says the owner, Bihu Bazar. Rogan Art from Gujarat which is an oil base without tracing was also one of the main attractions with the art being carved on wall hangings, stoles and jackets. "One of the unique attribute about this art is that it does not follow any design or drawing. It is done stepwise and no tracing is used in this art," says Abdul Gaffar Khatri, a Rogan art artist. Music acts lined up include Coke Studio performing with Medieval Punditz, Hamza and Mannu, Prateek Kuhad. Organnisers of the three day extravaganza, which ends on Sunday say they now plan to take it to different cities like Lucknow, Amritsar, Chandigarh, etc with an aim to establish this inaugural edition an annual affair. Four members of a family, including two minors, were killed as their motorcycle was hit by a tanker near Batbandhuri village here today. Nanku Lal (28), his wife Manisha Devi (25), niece Gudia (5) and sister Anjali (8) were killed on the spot after being hit by the tanker, police said. The tanker driver fled with his vehicle after the accident and efforts were on to nab him, they said, adding the bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The promise of double-bed room houses for the poor, wooing influential leaders from other parties and giving tickets to Seemandhra natives are among the key factors that led to the clean sweep of TRS in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections. The ruling TRS in Telangana scored a thumping victory by bagging 99 in the 150 wards in the polls results of which were declared late last night. Opposition Congress (2) and TDP-BJP (1-4) combine suffered a humiliating defeat having been reduced to single digit scores. The largely old city-based MIM, led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, is the only party that withstood the onslaught of the ruling party by winning 44 wards. The victory completes the domination of TRS in Telangana politics as the party has, hitherto, been considered weak in the GHMC limits. The results show that the TRS has come a long way from not even contesting the last GHMC elections in 2009. It won just a couple of seats among the 24 assembly segments that come under the GHMC limits. The GHMC win also gives TRS the means to sustain its strength in the long run in Telangana politics as 24 assembly segments in the state come under the GHMC limits. Any major defeat in the GHMC polls would have been an embarrassment to the TRS though it runs the state government. Determined to wrest the GHMC, TRS appears to have begun its preparations long ago. Four TDP MLAs, including T Srinivas Yadav who was later made Minister, also joined TRS in recent months, helping it to strengthen the base in segments under GHMC. Several ward-level leaders from opposition parties had also joined the TRS ranks in the run up to GHMC polls and emerged victorious. It is now widely acknowledged that the promise of double-bed room houses for poor worked wonders for the TRS, whose government built them in a city residential colony as a first step. The February 2 GHMC election recorded over 45 per cent voter turn out, mainly from the poorer sections. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced yesterday that one lakh double bed room houses would be built in the city in the coming months. He also said Hyderabad would have uninterrupted power supply like Mumbai. In the wake of opposition's allegation that the TRS had intimidated Seemandhra natives (those from Andhra Pradesh settled in Hyderabad), who form a sizable part of the GHMC electorate, during the separate statehood stir, the ruling party put up a spirited campaign to woo them and seemed to have succeeded in their endeavour. State IT and Panchayat Raj Minister K T Rama Rao, son of the chief minister, who led the campaign, repeatedly asserted that Hyderabad stands for all. The party gave tickets to those from Seemandhra in localities where they are in domination. Chief Minister Rao had also asserted yesterday that all those living in Hyderabad have equal status. The total rout in the GHMC polls lay the opposition Congress, TDP and BJP in tatters as they sought to salvage prestige following their failure in the Warangal Lok Sabha bypoll. Congress was plagued by problems like alleged lack of enthusiasm by its Greater Hyderabad president and former minister D Nagender. In the wake of speculation that he would join TRS, Nagender had to clarify that he would remain with the Congress. The dismal performance is a big disappointment to the TDP though its President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his son N Lokesh, who is TDP General Secretary, campaigned in the polls. TDP harped on the efforts of Naidu in transforming Hyderabad into a IT hub when he was the chief minister of undivided AP, but it is the TRS which is in power now. TDP too allegedly had problems of internal bickerings and its alliance with BJP did not go on smoothly at some places. The results are a major let down for BJP as well as it could win only four wards despite the campaign by Union Ministers, including Nitin Gadkari, M Venkaiah Naidu, Radha Mohan Singh and Hansraj Gangaram Ahir. (Reopens BES13) TRS secured 43.85 per cent of votes, followed by MIM (15.85 per cent), TDP (13.11 per cent), INC (10.40 per cent) and BJP (10.34 per cent), according to official data. Meanwhile, Telangana BJP President and MLA G Kishan Reddy told reporters that his party accepts the people's verdict in GHMC elections with humility. Hoping that the ruling TRS would fulfill all the promises it made to people of the city, he said the BJP would continue to work for people's welfare. Ahead of the Union budget, Gujarat has demanded establishment of a Special Notified Zone for diamond industry in Surat while Maharashtra has asked Rs 4,000 crore for various projects. At a pre-budget consultative meeting, Gujarat's Finance Minister Saurabh Patel also requested the Centre to reduce the income tax on Milk Cooperative Societies. He said there is a need to consider the dairy sector at par with agriculture and banks should consider lending a priority. "The establishment of Special Notified Zone in Surat for diamond industries will give the industry a distinctively enhanced competitive edge against other diamond centres of the world. This step would undoubtedly prove to further enable in making India the world's largest rough diamond trading hub as well," Patel said. He also raised issues of imposition of anti-dumping duty on ceramics. Speaking at the meeting, Deepak Kesarkar, Minister of State for Finance of Maharashtra, asked for Rs 400 crore to make Aurangabad a tourist spot and Rs 250 core for Mahatma Gandhi's Sevagram Ashram. He said his state has lost over Rs 3,000 crore for non-implementation of GST. "Mahrashtra has always supported the introduction of GST. The state's fiscal position is quite stressed on account of relief measures because of widespread drought. The government has substantially abolished local body tax levied by municipalities," Kesarkar said and requested a compensatory grant of Rs 3,382 crores for the state this fiscal in order to make up for the loss in revenue. Noting that Maharashtra has seen a sharp decline of funds of Rs 12,970 crore centrally sponsored schemes under the new ration, he said the Centre should stick to the earlier ratio. The Haryana government has implemented 'One Roof System' at district level for registration of industrial units with an aim to provide all facilities related to investment at a single place. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said this today as he pitched for more investment into the state during a round table conference here in which Ambassadors, High Commissioners and representatives of 40 countries participated. Haryana is an ideal state for investment in terms of its transportation facilities, social and infrastructural resources, Khattar was quoted as saying in an official statement here. He said that 57 per cent of the total area of the state falls in National Capital Region (NCR) and its infrastructure facilities have been increased considerably. Stressing that there were ample opportunities of investment in the state, the CM said the process of issuing (Change of Land Use) CLU permissions has been simplified. Now, Deputy Commissioner concerned has been delegated the power to grant CLU permissions to industrial projects being set up at a cost of upto Rs 10 crore and over an area of one acre, he said. Khattar invited the investors attending the conference to the 'Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit 2016' to be held in Gurgaon on March 7 and 8. Haryana Industries Minister Capt Abhimanyu said Haryana is the number one state in the country in terms of expenditure in urban areas. He said mega investment scheme has been started for ultra mega projects of manufacturing, tourism, logistics and wholesale market. Under this scheme, a special package of Rs 6000 crore would be given for investment over an area of 500 acres, he said in the statement. The Madras High Court has restrained two advocates from putting out any message or material "scandalizing the institution" and anyone who is part of it, including women lawyers, in any manner through postings on social media or applications on their mobile phones. A division bench comprising justices V Ramasubramanian and K Ravichandrabaabu also passed restraining orders to Communicationsand Information Technology Ministry, Facebook and YouTube Google India Pvt Ltd against publication, distribution and circulation of such material. A group of six women lawyers, including Sudha Ramalingam and Anna Mathew, have filed a writ petition, seeking a direction to evolve certain guidelines and protocol for protecting women engaged as part of the justice delivery system in various capacities from scandalous attacks through electronic means of communication. The matter relates to Whatsapp messages and Facebook postings allegedly made by the two Advocates Peter Ramesh Kumar and Manikandan Vathan Chettiar. The bench directed the managements of Facebook and YouTube at Hyderabad to take steps to block the objectionable material, particularly against women lawyers, which originated from mobile phones, 9344131170 and 9944114499, and being circulated through Whatsapp, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. It also directed the Superintendent of Police, Cyber Cell of the Commissioner of Police to render necessary assistance to Facebook and YouTube managements in this regard. The petitioners have also prayed for an interim injunction to remove such material from social media portals or any Internet blog besides messages, written/audio/video communicated through SMS/MMS emanating from these mobile phones or any other mobile and all other methods of electronic communications or print and broadcast media. The division bench, which passed the restraining order posted the matter for further hearing to February 26. The Madurai branch of the Madras High Court Bar Association has already suspended its member Peter Ramesh Kumar for making allegedly defamatory statements against some judges and women lawyers through his postings on Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp. The Madras High Court bench had already initiated suo motu criminal contempt of court proceedings against Peter, former president of the Madurai unit of the High Court Advocates Association, for allegedly disrupting the court proceedings on September 16 last and challenging the court to act against him. Two-wheeler pillion riders too will now have to wear helmets in Maharashtra with the state Transport department today issuing a circular to this effect as per the orders of the Bombay High Court. "The Bombay High Court had made it compulsory for bike riders and those riding pillion to compulsorily wear a helmet. It's the government's responsibility to ensure that HC's orders are implemented," stated the circular issued by Transport department. "To ensure that the order is implemented effectively, those wanting a new license will have to submit in writing that the two-wheeler rider as well as the pillion rider will wear helmets," it added. The circular also directed all two-wheeler dealers to sell not one but two helmets to customers. Regional Transport Offices (RTO) have been directed to ask dealers to produce the proof of supplying two helmets to the rider at the time of registration, besides other documents. However, the decision by the Shiv Sena-led Transport Department has evoked a sharp reaction from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. "Instead of issuing such orders, the government should first concentrate on improving the existing condition of roads. "Issuing such guidelines to make both rider and the person riding pillion to wear helmets means the government wants helmet selling companies to make more profits,especially when basic facilities are not being provided to citizens," Thackeray said. However, Transport Minister Diwakar Raote said that if anybody has a problem with the government's order they can approach the court. Himachal Pradesh Kaushal Vikas Nigam (HPKVN) will sign a pact with 17 industrial organisations on Monday for improving the skills of the workers and enhance their employability. The agreement will be signed here on February 8, in the presence of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, HPKVN Managing Director Rajesh Sharma said today. Under the pact, the organisations would prepare training modules, keeping in view the needs of the industry, emerging trends in various employment sectors and impart it to workers, he added. HPKVN has already started collaborating with different central ministries, appropriate organisations, designated skill development missions in other states, sectorskill councils to establish appropriate national/international linkages to optimise resources for rapid and sustainedskill development of the youth in the state, Sharma said. The Nigam will chalk out a roadmap for skill development, training and employment for students, school dropouts, unskilled workers, unemployed youth, informal sector, differently-abled women and disadvantaged and marginalised groups, he added. The airport in Leh will be vacated by the Air Force which will develop its base at an alternate site in the strategically-located district of Jammu and Kashmir bordering Pakistan and China under an agreement intended to be finalised by this month end. Similarly, the Army has agreed to vacate a large tract of land presently under its control in Kargil district, adjoining Leh, in Ladakh, which will be used for the expansion of the town. Army will be given alternate land in lieu. A meeting held by Divisional Commissioner (Kashmir) Asgar Hassan Samoon yesterday was told that IAF has agreed to vacate the Leh airport which will be handed over to the Airports Authority of India for expansion as part of efforts to encourage tourism in Ladakh region, an official spokesman said here today. The meeting, also attended by officials of IAF, Airports Authority of India and civil administration, was informed that the state government has identified land in lieu of the existing IAF airbase in Leh. The IAF officials, who attended the meeting, said the alternate site offered by the state government in Leh has been examined by experts and they are ready to take over if the state government finalises the deal. The Divisional Commissioner was informed that the modalities are being worked out to shift the existing airbase in Leh to Airports Authority of India which will expand it for civilian purposes, the spokesman said. Samoon said the paperwork to finalise the deals should be done on priority so that it is transferred to the civil government by the end of February. He said that the transfer agreements should be taken up on priority to fully exploit the huge tourism potential of Leh and Kargil which in turn would generate much needed employment opportunities for local youth, the spokesman said. Samoon also directed the Airports Authority to explore possibility of starting night operations at Srinagar airport. The Air Force officials informed Samoon that they have already given in writing that they have no issues if the airport hosts flights during night. The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Budgam Mir Altaf Ahmad, Senior Manager Airport Authority of India Manjeet Singh, Air Commodore AOC 21 wing, AOC Srinagar and other officers of civil administration and Air Force. India is keen to establish refinery and bunkering operations in Sri Lanka, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today and hoped the country will once again be in a position to export petroleum products to Bangladesh with the commissioning of Paradip refinery. The minister stated this during bilateral meetings with Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Energy Adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Anoma Gamage, Deputy Minister of Petroleum Resources Development of Sri Lanka here today. Both were here to participate in a ceremony at Paradip where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be dedicating the Indian Oil refinery to the nation tomorrow. During his meeting with the Energy Adviser of Bangladesh, Pradhan conveyed India's commitment to work with the neighbouring country to further advance bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, an official release said. On investment proposals of Indian oil companies in Bangladesh, he said their early implementation would create a win-win situation for both countries and sought cooperation from the Bangladesh government. With the commissioning of Paradip refinery, Pradhan said India would be once again in a position to export petroleum products to Bangladesh. In this regard, he expressed India's keenness in setting up marketing infrastructure in Bangladesh, the release said. He also sought favourable consideration for transit of LPG to India's Northeastern region through Bangladesh and noted that Indian PSUs were interested in participating in Bangladesh's petroleum sector, including exploration, refinery expansion and related PMC works. Pradhan also appreciated Bangladesh's support in implementation of Indian projects. During his meeting with the Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of Petroleum Resources Development, Pradhan discussed issues such as expansion activities of Lanka IOC, in Sri Lanka, including in the retail business, bunkering and marketing of ATF and LPG, according to the release. Lanka IOC is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). Pradhan reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to work with Sri Lanka to make Trincomalee a regional energy hub. Expressing India's interest in establishing refinery and bunkering operations in Sri Lanka, Pradhan exuded confidence that both Sri Lanka and India would work in a spirit of partnership in the hydrocarbon sector. During the meetings, senior officials from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka dealing with oil and gas sector were present. India is sitting on the cusp of a digital revolution, Union Minister for Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad has told leading IT firms, asking them to take advantage of the Digital India initiative and tap the growth opportunities in the country. Speaking at the roundtable for top US and Indian IT firms, hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) in Massachusetts yesterday, Prasad said that there are tremendous growth opportunities in India. India is sitting on the cusp of a digital revolution. Whether it is big metropolitan cities or small towns, a well-connected India has the potential to not only usher in economic and welfare opportunities for its citizens, but also for the global economic order, Prasad said at the round table attended by senior executives of Google, AT&T, MasterCard, Facebook, American Tower Corporation, UST Global and iTech. Our government is taking every policy decision in a transparent, predictable and reasonable manner. Therefore, I encourage American businesses to take advantage of the Digital India program, and the growth opportunities in India, said Prasad, who is here to attend the annual India Conference at the prestigious Harvard University. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directive to connect Indian diaspora across the country is a tremendous opportunity for both Indian and US companies alike, said Mukesh Aghi, president USIBC, which comprises 350 top-tier US and Indian companies advancing US-India commercial ties. We encourage the development of policies that clear bureaucratic hurdles which may delay the implementation of achieving last-mile connectivity, he said. Noting that 85 per cent Indians still do not have access to the Internet, Aghi said therefore, to fill this gap the government could make it easier to obtain clearances to install cell phone towers. IT infrastructure can be further expanded by lifting the ban on foreign satellite operators so they can provide spectrum in hard-to-reach areas, Aghi said. Dan Gupta of UST Global estimated that the Digital India initiative could help boost Indias gross domestic product (GDP) by around USD 550 billion upping its GDP by USD 1 trillion by 2025 a historic growth that can only be fostered by encouraging cooperation between the two nations. Industry commends the government's continued efforts on the passage of important economic reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill that will simplify the indirect tax regime and allow an individual to start a business with ease, Khurana said. India is sitting on the cusp of a "digital revolution", Union Minister for Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad has told leading IT firms, asking them to take advantage of the 'Digital India' initiative and tap the growth opportunities in the country. Speaking at the roundtable for top US and Indian IT firms, hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) at Massachusetts yesterday, Prasad said that there are tremendous growth opportunities in India. "India is sitting on the cusp of a digital revolution. Whether it is big metropolitan cities or small towns, a well-connected India has the potential to not only usher in economic and welfare opportunities for its citizens, but also for the global economic order," Prasad said at the round table attended by senior executives of Google, AT&T, MasterCard, Facebook, American Tower Corporation, UST Global and iTech. "Our government is taking every policy decision in a transparent, predictable and reasonable manner. Therefore, I encourage American businesses to take advantage of the Digital India program, and the growth opportunities in India," said Prasad, who is here to attend the annual India Conference at the prestigious Harvard University. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directive to connect Indian diaspora across the country is a tremendous opportunity for both Indian and US companies alike, said Mukesh Aghi, president USIBC, which comprises 350 top-tier US and Indian companies advancing US-India commercial ties. "We encourage the development of policies that clear bureaucratic hurdles which may delay the implementation of achieving last-mile connectivity," he said. Noting that 85 per cent Indians still do not have access to the Internet, Aghi said therefore, to fill this gap the government could make it easier to obtain clearances to install cell phone towers. "IT infrastructure can be further expanded by lifting the ban on foreign satellite operators so they can provide spectrum in hard-to-reach areas," Aghi said. Dan Gupta of UST Global estimated that the Digital India initiative could help boost India's gross domestic product (GDP) by around USD 550 billion - upping its GDP by USD 1 trillion by 2025 - a historic growth that can only be fostered by encouraging cooperation between the two nations. "Industry commends the government's continued efforts on the passage of important economic reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill that will simplify the indirect tax regime and allow an individual to start a business with ease," Khurana said. Leading industrialists in the US have attended a 'Make in India Week' seminar in Chicago, during which several American companies showed interest in reaping benefits of the opportunity to invest in India. 'Make in India' is one of the flagship schemes of the Indian government which is aimed at transforming Indian economy from services driven growth model to intensive manufacturing-driven growth not only to increase productivity but also to promote India as an international manufacturing hub, Consul General of Indian Consulate in Chicago Ausaf Sayeed said yesterday. There are at least 30 key economic sectors which international companies can consider for setting up manufacturing bases in India, Sayeed said, adding that the manufacturing sector in India offers investments worth USD1 trillion. "There is considerable synergy between states in India and those in the US Midwest and this could be effectively utilized to boost the manufacturing sectors in both countries," he said. The Illinois Chief Information Officer Hardik Bhatt has termed Illinois as one of the most important business partners of India as he expressed desire to collaborate with India in developing smart cities. Bhatt recently held interactions with the visiting high-level trade missions from the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. "Prime Minister Modi's government has made steady progress to deliver on its promise of economic reforms," Director and Legal Policy Counsel of US-India Business Council (USIBC) Amy Hariani said. "Efforts such as lifting of FDI caps in several sectors, reducing red tape, implementing a transparent tax environment, improving the country's intellectual property regime have sent a crystal clear message to the global investment community that India is ready and open for serious business," she said. Hariani further added that the results of these efforts are also visible in India's rise in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index. The Indian Consulate in Chicago has mobilised four major business delegations, one each from the states of Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri to participate in the 'Make in India Week', to be held Mumbai from February 13th to 18th. Iran has approved an extra 1,500 candidates to contest this month's parliamentary election, raising the total number of hopefuls by around a third, an electoral official said today. The increase came after previously rejected candidates presented new evidence of their credentials, allowing a partial reversal of the mass disqualification of thousands last month. Those seeking to become one of Iran's 290 lawmakers must first be screened by the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated committee of clerics and jurists. The vetting procedure is contentious because the February 26 poll is an opportunity for reformists and moderate politicians to make gains against a currently conservative majority in parliament. On January 18, officials said 4,700 prospective candidates had been approved from more than 12,000 original applications. But 6,180 are now eligible, said interior ministry spokesman Hossein Ali Amiri on Saturday, according to official IRNA agency. "In no other elections have we had so many approved candidates, which is partly due to the increased number of registrations," he said. Among those excluded last month were thousands from Iran's reformist movement, a group with little parliamentary representation. On hearing of the rejections, reformists asked President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric with close ties to the reform movement, to intervene and seek changes. Reformists largely stayed away from legislative polls four years ago in protest at the disputed re-election as president of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2009. Rouhani is hoping his allies can capitalise in the elections after last month's implementation of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers lifted longstanding sanctions. Reformists have yet to announce how many of their candidates were re-approved. One official said last month that only one percent of its applicants -- 30 from 3,000 -- were deemed eligible but others have said many more would be allowed to stand. The 6,180 number could rise again, as a number of initially approved candidates were subsequently rejected by the Guardian Council. They have three days to appeal. "147 people were barred by the Guardian Council" but if they have documents proving their qualification they can object, Amiri said. "The Guardian Council's opinion is absolute and final except for these 147." A final list of candidates is to be published on February 16. Suspected ISIS sympathiser Abdus Sami Qasmi, arrested for allegedly motivating youths to join the dreaded terror outfit, was today remanded in 10 days NIA custody by a Delhi court. Qasmi was produced before District Judge Amar Nath during in-camera proceedings and according to sources, the NIA sought his custodial interrogation for unearthing the entire conspiracy. A resident of Selampur here, Qasmi was arrested yesterday by NIA during a joint operation with the Uttar Pradesh ATS. The sources said that NIA told the court that Qasmi was allegedly delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches and was motivating the youths to commit terror strikes across the country. The NIA had earlier arrested various alleged ISIS sympathisers in connection with the case. The probe agency has claimed that the accused were involved in recruiting and financing persons willing to join the so called "Caliphate" of ISIS. It had also said that they were found to be in communication with some active members through chatting applications 'Signal', 'Trillion' and 'Skype' in order to motivate them to join ISIS in furtherance of activities of its ideologies, thereby luring youths to join this proscribed terrorist organisation. The agency had said that laptops, external hard disks, mobile phones and SIM cards which were recovered from the possession of these accused have been sent for forensic examination and the results are awaited. The Israeli army today said it was lifting a blockade imposed on the West Bank town of Qabatiya, from where Palestinians carried out a Jerusalem attack that killed a policewoman. "Based on an assessment of the situation, it was decided to lift the blockade of Qabatiya," a military spokeswoman told AFP. Three men from Qabatiya, near Jenin, on Wednesday attacked police with guns and knives outside Jerusalem's Old City, killing a female officer and wounding another before being shot dead. Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met top security officials, who decided to bolster forces in the northern West Bank. The army also cut access to the northern West Bank town of 15,000 people and began a security sweep of the area. It arrested 10 people, relatives and acquaintances of the three young people believed to be 19 to 20 years old who killed the Israeli border policewoman. During the operation, the army also measured up the houses of the assailants for later demolition, a common practice after deadly attacks on Israelis. There were also clashes between soldiers and residents during the sweep of Qabatiya. Several people from the town, which was turbulent during the first and second intifadas, have been killed in the violence that has rocked the Palestinian Territories and Israel for four months. The unrest has claimed the lives of 165 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean since it erupted last October 1. Although most of the Palestinians were killed carrying out attacks, others died during clashes and demonstrations. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar today suggested asked for greater coordination between lawyers and ministry officials for faster disposal of environment related cases in various courts of the country. Javadekar, while addressing a workshop of empaneled lawyers of Environment Ministry from across the country, also asked them to present the ministry's perspective in its true spirit before courts. "There is a need for presenting the perspective of the Ministry in its true spirit before various courts, which will largely obviate many of the problems encountered in handling of cases," he said. The workshop was held on efficient handling of cases, particularly litigations, by encouraging better coordination between the counsel and the government. The Minister also called for greater coordination between the counsel and the ministry officials so that the rationale behind various decisions of the Ministry was brought to the notice of the courts in time and cases were decided expeditiously. There are approximately 2400 environment related cases in different courts in the country. Law Secretary P K Malhotra highlighted the need for avoiding unnecessary litigations and the need for efficient handling of cases at the notice stage itself. "The workshop considered a wide range of issues and its recommendations are expected to improve the handling of matters relating to litigation significantly," a senior Ministry official said. The ruling JD(U) today asked party workers to improve the image of the state government in Bihar by highlighting its good works. At a meeting of party district presidents and office bearers at the residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, emphasis was also laid on establishing better connect between the workers and the government, a party statement said. The meeting was presided over by state party chief Basistha Narayan Singh but the Chief Minister was not present.The meeting was presided over by state party chief Basistha Narayan Singh but the Chief Minister was not present. Election strategist Prashant Kishor, who was recently appointed as advisor to the CM on planning and programme implementation, particularly the "seven resolves" of Kumar, was also present at the meeting. Former speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary and ex-minister P K Shahi, both vice president of the JD(U), attended the meet. The state chief told the district presidents to locate venues for opening party offices at district level. The district presidents have been entrusted with the task of hearing problems of the workers at grassroots level and communicate it to the state unit for better connect with the government. Small-scale manufacturers at the 'Kerala Business-to-Business 2016' meet received enquiries worth Rs 300 crore on the last day of the three-day event here today. The meet, organised by the Department of Industries and Commerce at CIAL Trade Fair and Exhibition Centre, witnessed a total of 7,200 business interactions during the three days. As many as 469 buyers, including 77 delegates from 28 countries, participated in the meet, the organisers said in a release here. In addition, 75 business visitors registered on the spot and participated in the event which generated over 3,530 business enquiries in three days. As many as 253 enquiries received by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at the meet are in the final stages of confirmation, the statement added. Food processing sector, which had the largest representation at the event, received the most number of enquiries. A total of 200 SMEs from across Kerala participated. The highest number of international delegates were from Sri Lanka. K-BIP is the nodal agency for the event, which is organised in association with the Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The Kerala government has told the Supreme Court that banning entry of women of menstrual age in historic Sabarimala temple in the state, is a "matter of religion" and it is duty bound to "protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees". In an affidavit, the state government said administration of the temple vests with the Travancore Devaswom Board under the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act and the decision of the priests is final in the matter of worship. "In the context of Sabarimala, the administration vests with the Travancore Devaswom Board under the provisions of the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950. "Under the Act, there is a statutory duty cast on the Board to arrange worship in temples in accordance with the usage. Therefore, in matters of religion, it is the opinion of the priests that is final," the affidavit filed by state chief secretary Jiji Thomson said. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and N V Ramana would take up the matter on February 8. The Congress-led UDF government, while withdrawing the affidavit filed earlier in the apex court by the previous LDF government in November 2007 supporting entry of women into this temple, said, "the restriction on women between the age of 10 and 50 has been prevailing in Sabarimala from time immemorial. This is in keeping with the unique 'pratishta sangalp' or idol concept of the temple." "The same is an essential and integral part of the right of practice of religion of a devotee and comes under the protective guarantee of the Constitution under Articles 25 and 26 which have been held to contain guarantee for rituals, observances, ceremonies and modes of worship which are an integral part of religion," it said. Urging the court to dismiss the PIL filed by Indian Young Lawyers' Association, the affidavit said, "the present petition which seeks to change the beliefs and customs of crores of devotees by judicial process is wholly misplaced and liable to be dismissed". It added that the state government is "duty bound to protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees". The government also said "the right to exclude persons who are not allowed to participate in worship according to the tenets of the religious institution in question is a matter of religion" and such essential or integral parts of religion are "immune" from challenge under Article 14 (right to equality). "Since the deity is in the form of Naisthik Brahmachari, it is believed that young women should not offer worship in the temple so that even the slightest deviation from celibacy and austerity observed by the deity is not caused in the presence of such women," the affidavit said. The previous government had supported entry of women in the hilltop shrine saying, "it is not fair to deny a section of women from entering Sabarimala temple". It had also favoured appointment of a commission of scholars to facilitate the change. The present government, however, said the previous stand favouring a change had no legal basis and that it wanted to rectify the "mistakes" by withdrawing the stand taken in 2007. The affidavit was filed on a PIL by the association seeking 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. However, women, who have crossed menopause, are allowed. On January 11, the bench had questioned the tradition of banning entry of women of menstrual age group in the temple, saying it cannot be done under the Constitution. The bench had also asked why women cannot be allowed inside and whether the government was sure that women have not entered the temple premises in the last 1,500 years. It had observed that it was a public temple and everyone needed to have "the right to access". Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today asked party workers to desist from infighting and spread the developmental work by the state government. The West Bengal Chief Minister asked the workers not to create confusion about distribution of party tickets for the upcoming Assembly elections as the final call on distribution of tickets would be taken by her and the party leadership. She was presiding over an organisational evaluation meeting of South 24 Parganas district, which was attended by senior party leaders, MPs and MLAs. "Mamata, during the meeting, asked us to work hard for the party. She also asked us to work unitedly and stay away from factionalism. She said factionalism at certain places is hampering developmental work. She has asked us to spread the developmental work done by the government among the people," said a party leader requesting anonymity. During her address, Banerjee underscored the need for highlighting development work undertaken by the government and not to be provoked by Opposition ahead of the elections. The TMC supremo is conducting organisational evaluation meetings of different districts every week in the poll-bound state. Echoing Tyagi, SP General Secretary Amar Singh said, "We welcome her (Banerjee's) statement. Whatever she has said is absolutely right. We share a very cordial relationship with her. "The time has come for secular minded parties to unite against the communal politics of love jihad, cow protection, Ghar Wapsi," he said. An AAP spokesperson said, "Our leader Arvind Kejriwal and TMC supremo Mamata di share a very cordial relationship but the policy decision will be taken by our party leadership." BJP, however, ridiculed any such move and said Banerjee should look after her own state before "dreaming" about national politics. "She should stop dreaming about playing a role in national politics and concentrate in her own state. She should first manage her own state. "Under TMC and Banerjee's appeasement politics, West Bengal has turned into a safe heaven for Jihadis. Law and order has completely failed in 12 districts," BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is in-charge of Bengal, said. Banerjee's outbursts against the Modi government has taken the political community by surprise as the party had been maintaining a stoic silence on various issues for the past one year like Lalitgate, Vyapyam scam, political crises in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh and the killing of Mohammed Akalaq in Uttar Pradesh. A senior TMC leader said the move was not sudden and has been done with an eye on 2019 Lok Sabha election. "Whatever our supremo has said is a proposal. It is for other like-minded secular parties to take their call. We want to unite the secular forces and parties across the country. TMC will play a pivotal role and act as a glue to hold the secular forces together," he said. He said the political posturing of the party would be more aggressive after the outcome of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election next year. A 23-year-old man was arrested for flying a drone having a camera attached to it in central Delhi's Karol Bagh area, police said today. The man, identified as Rahul, is a freelance videographer. He was arrested after being booked under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of IPC, DCP (Central) Parmaditya said. The incident took place on Thursday evening when Rahul was spotted flying the drone at a private function at a park in Karol Bagh. The quadricopter having a camera, was also being operated at a very low height, following which some locals informed the police, a police official said. Rahul allegedly refused to cooperate with the police, following which the device was seized and later he was arrested, the official added. A man murdered the wife of his younger brother to death over land dispute and kidnapped her two children in Bihar's Jehanabad district last night, police said today. Lallan Sao allegedy attacked the wife of his younger brother Shambhu Sao, killing her in Sohani Bigha village last night, Deputy Superintendentof Police Ashfaq Ansari said. The victim's husband works in Kolkata. He was not at home at the time of the incident. After killing the woman, the man kidnapped her son and a daughter, the DSP said. Later, the police arrested the killer and rescued the abducted children, the DSP said. The children told police that their uncle sprinkled chilly powder in the eyes of their mother and then beat her to death, the DSP said. Replicating actor Dharmendra's famous way of protesting on a tank top in the iconic film 'Sholay', some villagers in Aurangabad district of Marathwada adopted the same route to demand release of water from Jaikwadi Dam. Several residents of villages in Paithan tehsil climbed atop a water tank to press for their demand of water supply to their village that has been facing water crisis for a long time. They demanded that water supply to the villages, which was shut due to non availability of water stock on the dam, be restored. The summer is months away but the water situation in Maharashtra, particularly in Marathwada, is already a cause of concern. The demand for tankers has shot up and the state is staring at an acute water shortage for the third consecutive year, worse than even 2015. In Marathwada, the water level in dams has dropped to 8 per cent. The Water Supply and Sanitation Department has recorded a five-fold rise compared to 2015 in the number of water tankers supplied to provide water in villages and hamlets. The water situation in other parts of the state such as North Maharashtra, Amaravati and Nagpur division is also bad. The current storage level in dams in these divisions is 31, 35 and 37 per cent respectively. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said metro rail service would be extended up to Greater Faridabad after its expansion from YMCA Chowk to Ballabgarh is done. An official release quoting the Chief Minister said people who have constructed houses on government land would not be made homeless, rather they would be given ownership after charging them the current market rate of the land. Unauthorised colonies would be regularised after charging a development fee, it said. Addressing a rally here, Khattar said, "Everyone is aware of the system that used to be in the state and the country. Corruption was at peak but BJP soon controlled it after coming to power. So far, in our tenure, no one has levelled any allegation of corruption against any BJP leader." BJP government had put a check on graft with the help of information technology. Today, there are more than 50 services which are accessible online in Haryana and people can avail its benefit anytime, the Chief Minister said, claiming graft in tehsils has been eliminated by introducing e-registration. Speaking about reforms in police administration, he said the state government has introduced such a system that FIR could be registered in any police station irrespective of the place of crime. Stating that development works amounting to Rs 133 crore would be undertaken in Ballabgarh Assembly constituency, Khattar said the developmental suggestions by local MP and Union MoS Krishan Pal Gujjar and MLA Mool Chand Sharma would be completed on the basis of feasibility. Earlier, the Chief Minister laid foundation stones of four new development projects and dedicated one project to the people in Sector 15-A. Odisha is all set to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to arrive here later today as part of his two-day visit to the state. "The Prime Minister will arrive here late evening today. Tomorrow he will attend two programmes, besides visiting the Lord Jagannath temple at Puri," said home secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy. Modi would stay overnight at the Raj Bhavan and will inaugurate the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) at Jatni on the outskirts of the state capital at 9 AM tomorrow. The Prime Minister is scheduled to interact with students and faculty members of NISER and will leave for Puri to pay his obeisance to Lord Jagannath at around 11 AM. "Will offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple in Puri during my Odisha visit on the 7th," Modi had tweeted. Later, the Prime Minister will leave for Paradip to inaugurate IOCL's refinery project at around 1 PM and will address a public meeting there. "In Odisha, I will dedicate the National Institute of Science Education and Research and Indian Oil Refinery, Paradip to the nation," Modi said in his tweet. DGP K B Singh reviewed security arrangements at Paradip, while other senior officers are camping at Puri and NISER to ensure full security of the Prime Minister. "All arrangements are made as per the rule book," Singh said, adding about one lakh people are expected at Paradip. For the PM's visit, the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration has decided to keep the temple doors closed for one hour. The Archaeological Survey of India, which is repairing the temple complex, will suspend the work to facilitate entry of Modi into the sanctum sanctorum. The Special Protection Group (SPG) also reviewed the security arrangements at Paradip, Puri and NISER ahead of Modi's visit. A group of 50 female genital mutilation (FGM) survivors of a particular community today launched a month-long campaign here to sensitise the people about the gruesome practice. The advocacy group known as 'Speak Out on FGM' launched the campaign 'Each One Reach One' on the occasion of International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, in tandem with an online petition they had initiated on website Change.Org in a bid to reach out to the global audience on the issue. Till this morning, the group claimed to have received over 45,000 signatures in support of the online petition. Sahiyo, an NGO that brings together survivors of FGM and other supporters, is partnering with 'Speak Out on FGM' in this awareness campaign. Preethi Herman, Country Lead, Change.Org said, "This hushed up cultural practice is no longer hidden because these brave women decided to open up about their experiences and have already got almost 50,000 people supporting them." Explaining the regressive ritual that she underwent at a tender age, a survivor from Mumbai said, "At seven, I was subjected to FGM in Mumbai in an unhygienic condition and in a clandestine manner. The shock, the physical and psychological trauma of that day is still fresh in my mind." She said that the motto of the campaign is to wipe out this custom from the community. "I am happy that thousands of survivors are joining this campaign not only from India, but also from Canada, Australia, South Africa, Britain etc," she said. Another survivor from Delhi said, "There are over 50 women in our group who have survived FGM. Each one of us will reach out to a member of the community to share stories about this ancient practice. This month-long awareness campaign can be done in person or digitally." 'Each One, Reach One' campaign will reach out to men and women alike and share experiences openly and expects to engage more people to break their silence on FGM, she said. Female genital mutilation refers to several harmful practices involving the cutting of the female genitals for non-medical reasons. In December 2012, the UN General Assembly unanimously voted to work for the elimination of FGM, reckoned as a violation of human rights. Survivors maintained the reason for the tradition of FGM was to curb sexual drive of women and control them. They claimed FGM has nothing to do with religion and is more of a cultural practice. According to the World Health Organisation, between 100 to 140 million women and girls across the world are thought to be living with the consequences of FGM. A group of Muslim clerics will hold a day-long meeting on Monday to discuss the issue of terrorism including alleged use of petrodollars in stoking it and ways to tackle the growing menace. "While terror activities are on surge, members of several terror groups claim to be Sunnis. They are not. They are not related to us in anyway. "Such people have brought infamy to Islam. We condemn them," All India Tanzeem Ulema-e-Islam (AITUI) president Mufti Mohammed Ashfaq Hussain Qadri told reporters here today. AITUI is an umbrella body of groups representing Sufi Sunnis. Qadri said that the AITUI conference aims to highlight alleged contribution of petro dollars in stroking terrorism globally. The conference is expected to be attended by nearly 10,000 members attached to AITUI, he said. Qadri expressed concerns over imparting of "extremist" content to children across madrassas and sought its removal to guide children on the right path. He also questioned qualification of majority of Waqf Board members saying those who have not contributed "an inch of land" for community welfare are being appointed as chairman and members of the boards. Joining the league of other Muslim bodies, the AITUI also demanded that Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Milia Islamia are declared "minority institutions" forever. A Japanese interpreter confirmed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died at a military hospital in Taipei after a plane crash in 1945, according to information released by a UK website set up to catalogue the last days of the nationalist leader. Kazunori Kunizuka, who worked as an interpreter with Bose from 1943 to 1945, is still alive and has recorded in graphic detail in his diary the last days of Bose and his death as a result of a plane crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945, said the website bosefiles.Info. The information was conveyed tothe websiteby Noburu Okabe, London correspondent of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, who also handed over a copy of the diary to the website. Ashis Ray, Bose's grandnephew and creator of the website, said "The diary is in Japanese. We will get it translated and post relevant portions from it in due course". According to Okabe, Kanizuka is 98 years old and lives in an old people's home in Kobe in Japan. Okabe has met him and testified the diary unequivocally confirms Bose's demise in a Japanese military hospital in Taipei after the air tragedy. Earlier when Ray visited Taipei, he met Yukichi Arai, son of Captain Keikichi Arai, a Japanese army officer who was one of seven survivors (of an estimated total of 14 passengers and crew, including Bose, on the flight) of the crash. Captain Arai died in 1971. However, he, too, recorded in his diary that Bose succumbed to injuries suffered in the crash. As per his description, soon after take-off from Taipei the Japanese bomber carrying Bose "immediately lost speed, crashed and went up in flames". Of the seven survivors, six deposed before either the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee or the 1974 Justice G D Khosla Commission or both, including Bose's most trustedaide de camp Colonel Habibur Rehman and Captain Arai. All six independently submitted Bose died consequent to the crash. Two Japanese doctors - Dr Taneyoshi Yoshimi and Dr Toyoshi Tsuruta - and a Taiwanese nurse - Tsan Pi Sha - who treated him at the hospital or were by his bedside when he passed away, another interpreter Juichi Nakamura (who personally knew Bose from previous visits to Taipei) and Colonel Rehman, gave eyewitness evidence of Bose's final moments and of him breathing his last. Also, there are at least three first-hand testimonies of Bose's cremation at Taipei as provided by Tan Ti-Ti, a Taiwanese who worked at the crematorium and personally prepared the body for the last rites, Ko Keng Yuan, a Taiwanese health official, and Colonel Rehman. Bose died in the air crash in Taipei in 1945, according to documents that form part of 100 secret files, comprising 16,600 pages which were made public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Bose's 119th birth anniversary last month. While hundreds of millions of his Chinese compatriots pack into planes, trains, and automobiles to return to their ancestral homes for the Lunar New Year celebration, Zhang Hao, 30, is getting as far away as he can. "I decided to go abroad this year because my parents are pressuring me to marry," he told AFP. Instead of making the 1,200 kilometre trek from Beijing, where he works as a designer, to his icy northern hometown of Harbin, Zhang booked a 20,000 yuan ($3,000) trip to Thailand for February 6 -- one day before Chinese custom would dictate he ought to be with his parents. The festival, which compares in importance to Christmas in the West, marks a time when far-flung family members return home for merriment and meals -- according to tradition, they must be back by midnight on the eve of the new year. But rising individualism and financial independence are seeing more and more young Chinese choose to defy custom, while at the same time tourism and outbound travel are surging. "There was no choice" but to go abroad, Zhang said. "It's mostly the generation who grew up in the 90s who are taking off because they were by their parents' side the whole time they were growing up." He is not alone. More than 30 percent of Chinese planning a break over the holiday, also known as Spring Festival, say they are doing so because they want to "get far away from relatives" or feel that "spending New Year at home is getting boring", according to a customer survey by Chinese travel planning and booking website Mafengwo. Growing numbers are also seizing the opportunity for tourism, despite slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy. The China Youth Daily devoted its entire opinion page to the issue on Friday, with writer Chen Fang saying that many people now resent going home because of boredom and stress, while children are less excited about customary gifts such as new clothing. Terror outfit ISIS does not have "very large footprint" in Jammu and Kashmir but care needs to be taken to ensure it does not make inroads, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen D S Hooda said today and advocated an "Intelligence Operation" to prevent spreading of its ideology. Islamic State has been talking about South Asia and India region but "right now we don't see a very large footprint of Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir. But I think we have to be careful," the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GoC-in-C) told reporters here while responding to a question. "We need to study the the situation properly (with regard to ISIS). We need to make sure that Islamic State does not make inroads. So it is more of an 'intelligence operation' that we need to look at and make sure this ideology of Islamic State is not allowed to spread in India," he added. He was replying to a question about footprints of ISIS in J&K and its spread in India. When referred to a threat issued by ISIS that it would launch its operations in J&K, Lt Gen Hooda said "We need to study the situation properly. We need to make sure that they do not make inroads." The Army Commander played down the threat issued by Lashkar-e-Taiba Chief Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed about more attacks on the Indian soil by terming them as "nothing new". "See we know that there is a threat from Lashkar. They have been talking about it every time. So frankly I don't find anything new unless there is some kind of control on his activities by the Pakistan State and the Pakistan government. Otherwise we see it as part of his normal routine and he keeps on talking about it," Lt Gen Hooda said. With regard to infiltration, he said a "better fence" is coming up along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan which will be equipped with better sensors and other equipments. "It is something (cross border infiltration) that we deal with, year in and year out, and it is nothing new for us. As the snow melts, our measures are in place. You are aware we are trying to build a better fence now so that with good sensors and equipments and have a much more credible counter infiltration posture," he said. "We have in the recent past moved additional troops along the LoC and I think we are confident of how our posture is," the top commander said. (Reopen DEL39) Lt Gen Hooda said the army is taking steps to deal with the threat posed by use of Improvised Explosive Devices. "IED threat is there everywhere. It is a credible threat and in the Mendhar area (of J&K), in the last three-four months, five to six IEDs have been recovered. We are on our guard and we know what has to be done," the Northern Army Commander said. He said even though security of vital installations is a cause of concern, there is no credible threat of a Pathankot-type terror attack. "There is no specific information, but we have to be worried about our vital installations and make sure that security is ok," he said. Asked whether the army had any plans to avert the damage caused by snow avalanches in Siachen Glacier area like the death of 10 soldiers earlier this week. "It was actually an ice slab that came on the post... These are natural calamities. So as much as we try, we have a good system of avalanche warnings and that is the time we actually stop all movement whenever the warning comes. But there are some times and occasions...," he said. "Somehow these are the forces of nature we cannot control, but you know rescue measures rescue teams, rescue dogs equipment is all in place," he said. On Pakistan's offer of help after 10 Indian soldiers were buried in avalanche snow at Siachen, Lt Gen Hooda said the Indian Army did not reject it but instead thanked Pakistan for extending the help. "It was not rejected. Pakistanis did make an offer and we have thanked them for the offer. But frankly speaking, everything was in place as far as we were concerned, the rescue teams, the people who are to do the rescue, the equipments and our own familiarity with our own terrain and we just thought that it was not necessary to take assistance. "I won't use the word rejected but we thanked them for the offer," the Army Commander said. To a question regarding the arrest of men in uniform for allegedly spying for Pakistan's ISI, Lt Gen Hooda said, "... yes there have been some people who have been in uniform and have been arrested. It is an attempt which is being made by Pakistan. Again I am saying that it is not something new. They always try to get hold of some people in uniform and we have to be careful about that." Replying to a question regarding "profiling" being done in the Kashmir valley, he said army was not involved in any "profiling" and it was a routine exercise being carried out by the police and the state government. "I think the police and the state government can answer better this... But every time you want to gather some information, my sense is don't give it a twist of some racial profile or something," he said. Congress and NCP have again raised objection to the Maharashtra government's proposed amendments to the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act. The Maharashtra government had tabled an Amendment Bill in both Houses of the state Legislature in the Winter session that was held at Nagpur in December last year. The Opposition parties, Congress and NCP, had opposed the Bill then stating that farmers should be allowed to exercise their right to sell their produce to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC). The state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had last week called an all-party meeting to convince the Opposition on the proposed amendments. The Opposition parties contended that the amendments favour traders and the corporate sector, and alleged that the government wants to give a "backdoor entry to the BJP and RSS workers in APMC", that is currently controlled by the Congress and NCP. State PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil said the proposed amendments would keep the rights of farmers intact and the farmers would get an opportunity to directly sell their produce to any trader or the corporate sector. "Opposition has doubts over payment of money to the farmers once they sell off their agriculture produce. I want to assure them, there will not be any risk while selling their goods in the open market. On the contrary, they will get a good rate for their produce," he said. A Pakistani national has been arrested for overstaying in India after the expiry of his visa, police said today. Irshad, a resident of Saudabad area in Karachi had come here to attend a wedding on November 11 last year with a 28-day visa but continued to stay beyond the expiry period, police said. Based on a tip off, the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) team gathered information about the Pakistani national and apprehended him yesterday from Sheetalkhan Road, they said. The Pakistan High Commission has been informed about the arrest, SP (City) Udayshankar Singh said. Pakistani security forces have claimed to have foiled a major terror bid in the country's restive nortwest tribal region by seizing over 100 bags full of explosives from a vehicle. The Bajaur Agency political administration seized the explosives soon after it entered the agency near the border with Lower Dir district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Assistant political agent Khar Muhammad Ali Khan told reporters that security officials stopped the truck near a border checkpost and seized 100 bags filled with explosives. He said the bags contained different sorts of explosives. The official claimed that the explosives were being smuggled from Lower Dir to Bajaur to carry out terror attacks. He said the driver of the truck managed to escape. Efforts were underway to arrest those responsible for shipping the explosives to the agency. Security in the province has been tightened since the attack on Bacha Khan University (BKU) near provincial capital Peshawar on January 20, when Taliban militants breached the varsity complex and shot dead 21 people, including students. Pakistan today called for collective efforts to persuade maximum number of Taliban groups to join Afghan peace dialogue, as the US, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan launched third round of talks here aimed at adopting a roadmap for reconciliation in the war-torn country. "We believe our collective efforts at this stage, including through supportive CBMs have to be aimed at persuading maximum number of Taliban groups to join the peace talks," Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said at the four-nation meeting. "This will contribute to imparting a momentum to the process offering incentive of political mainstreaming to the insurgent groups, and gradually shrink the space for the irreconcilables," he said. The Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) was set up in December last year to facilitate the reconciliation process in the war-torn country. Aziz said the meeting will have useful deliberations aimed at further advancing the work of the Group in a meaningful manner. He also said that the group was working to adopt a roadmap for talks. "I am hopeful that continuing with this spirit and resolve, the Group will now focus on the early adoption of a roadmap for the reconciliation process and identify the way forward for holding direct peace talks between the representatives of the Government of Afghanistan and Taliban groups as early as possible," he said. He said "a clear, well-defined and actionable roadmap for the peace process between the Afghan Government and Taliban groups is important" and should identify and stipulate various stages of the process while measuring the progress being made at each stage. "It should also serve to convey positive signals about unflinching commitment of the parties to the peace process," he said. Aziz said Pakistan fully shared Afghanistan's concern that increasing violence is a key challenge and its reduction should be an important objective of peace talks. "We are confident that the (QCG) process would lead to a significant reduction of violence," he said, adding that peace in Afghanistan is very important for regional peace and stability. "We firmly believe that a politically negotiated settlement through an all inclusive intra-Afghan reconciliation process will contribute towards accomplishing our shared goal of lasting peace in Afghanistan," he said. The first round of talks was held in July but the process was suspended in the same month after of Taliban chief Mullah Omar's death was announced. The second round of talks was held in January this year. It is believed that the process of peace in Afghanistan will be a test for all parties due to strong opposition within Afghanistan towards any peace with the Taliban. Some analysts believe that the added presence of China and the US may help overcome mistrust between Kabul and Islamabad, though it remains unclear when the Taliban themselves will return to the negotiating table. They are not part of this week's talks. The Taliban, who were ousted in 2001, remain split on whether to take part in talks. The outfit has stepped up attacks since the US and NATO formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan a year ago, and the fighters are battling local Afghan security forces on several fronts. The expansion of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has fuelled regional and international concerns that the upcoming spring fighting season may lead to even more bloodshed and instability in the war-shattered country. Pakistani Police have arrested 10 persons for allegedly arranging the marriage of two minor girls, including a seven-year-old, in two separate incidents in the Punjab province. In the first, police arrested six people, including a cleric, for arranging the marriage of six-year-old girl with a seven-year-old boy in Multan district of Punjab. District Police Officer Multan Mehr Riaz Hussain said the accused - fathers of both children, three witnesses and the cleric - have been booked under the Child Marriage Restraint Act which carries maximum six months imprisonment or a fine of Rs 50,000 or both. Fraz Aziz, a witness in the marriage, denied that such a ceremony was held but Hussain said the police has a video of the ceremony. In the second incident in Rawalpindi, four men, including a cleric, have been arrested for marrying an eight-year-old girl to a 40-year-old man. A raid was conducted at a house, where the minor girl was found. She was forcibly married to a rival of her elder brother to settle a dispute. They were subsequently produced before a magistrate who sent them to Adaila Jail Rawalpindi for 14 days judicial remand. In Pakistan, the law stipulates the age of marriage to be 16 for women and 18 for men but religious scholars at the Council of Islamic Ideology say it is not in accordance with Islamic teachings. Actor Nana Paterkar's NGO Naam Foundation has donated Rs12.75 lakh to 85 families of drought-hit farmers of the district who allegedly committed suicide last year. A cheque of Rs 15,000 each was handed over to the family members of 85 farmers who ended their lives due to crop failure and debt burden. Narrating her ordeal at the function here yesterday, Sujata Bachchav, a young widow from Malegaon, said her husband ended his life unable to bear the huge debt and that she now has responsibility of looking after her in-laws and a daughter with no proper means of income to which Patekar assured her help. The noted Hindi and Marathi actor urged people to help such families by contributing for the education of their children and assisting them through various means. He informed that NAAM has started a medical card facility under which free medical services will be rendered to those who hold NAAM medical card. Patekar urged hospitals to come forward and contribute in the cause. MVP Samaj's Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College & Hospital on the occasion expressed its willingness to help by giving free medical aid to the beneficiaries. Speaking on future plans of the foundation, Patekar said a programme of deepening of 350 kms of river in the state will be undertaken and many big projects are in the offing for farmers to over come the crisis caused due to natural calamities. Marathi actor Makarand Anaspure, who is also associated with the foundation, was also present at the function. A march by Germany's anti-Islamic organisation Pegida drew thousands to the eastern city of Dresden today on a day that saw rallies across Europe in support of the movement. Pegida supporters took to the streets of a number of other European cities, including Prague and the northern French port of Calais, home to the infamous "Jungle" refugee camp for migrants seeking passage across the Channel to Britain. Pegida and fellow anti-Muslim groups called the rallies following last month's signing of an agreement to create a "Fortress Europe" coalition against a backdrop of Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II. Several thousand Pegida supporters turned up in Dresden under clear blue skies in the early afternoon to march along the banks of the River Elbe, which flows through the city, to protest against mass immigration and the "islamisation" of Europe. Absent was Lutz Bachmann, the movement's founder, owing to illness, organisers said. Police, who deployed around 1,000 officers for the occasion, said Thursday they expected some 15,000 marchers to show up. An AFP reporter said several thousand had answered the rallying call an hour after the event began at 1400 GMT. Many held aloft banners criticising German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in the firing line for her liberal stance towards refugees, now increasingly coming in for criticism after Germany took in more than a million migrants last year. Around 2,000 people -- less than the 10,000 expected by police -- meanwhile joined an anti-Pegida rally at which participants urged tolerance towards migrants. Anti-Pegida marchers chanted slogans including "no place for Nazis" and "we don't need xenophobia, demagoguery or Pegida. Flight operations of Pakistan's ailing flag carrier PIA remained suspended for the fourth day today due to a countrywide strike by its employees against the planned privatisation of the airline. The protest was launched on January 26 but it turned violent on Tuesday when at least two PIA workers were shot dead in clashes with security forces outside the Jinnah International Airport here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here late this evening on a two-day tour of Odisha during which he will dedicate IOCL's oil refinery at Paradip to the nation and inaugurate the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) near here tomorrow. Modi was received at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here by Odisha Governor S C Jamir, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan. Besides two inauguration programmes, the Prime Minister will visit the 12th Century Lord Jagannath Temple at Puri, state Home Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy said. This will be Modi's first visit to Puri temple and second visit to the state after becoming the Prime Minister. The PM would stay at the Raj Bhavan tonight and inaugurate the NISER at Jatni on the outskirts of the state capital at 9 AM tomorrow. He is scheduled to interact with students and faculty members of NISER and will leave for Puri to pay his obeisance to Lord Jagannath at 11 AM. "Will offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple in Puri during my Odisha visit on the 7th," Modi had tweeted. Later, the Prime Minister will leave for Paradip to inaugurate IOCL's Rs 35,000 crore refinery at 1 PM and will address a public meeting there. DGP K B Singh reviewed security arrangements at Paradip, while other senior officers are camping at Puri and NISER to ensure security of the Prime Minister. "All arrangements are made as per the rule book," Singh said, adding about one lakh people are expected at Paradip. For the PM's visit, the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration has decided to keep the temple doors closed for one hour. The Archaeological Survey of India, which is repairing the temple complex, will suspend work to facilitate entry of Modi into the sanctum sanctorum. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest at the International City Parade to be held here tomorrow on the lines of the Republic Day Parade, as part of the ongoing International Fleet Review 2016. The picturesque Ramakrishna Beach here will witness two events -- Operational Demonstration and International City Parade -- tomorrow evening, a defence release said. The 30-minute long Operational Demonstration will showcase multidimensional operational tasks undertaken by the various arms of the Indian Navy. Several warships, submarines, aircraft as well as Marine Commandos will present an action-packed display of the capabilities of the Indian Navy. The demonstration will culminate with the address by Prime Minister, who would also release a book on 'Maritime Heritage' during the event. This event will be followed by the International City Parade to be held between 5.30 PM and 7 PM. "The marching contingents of Army, Air Force, Andhra Pradesh Police, NCC, foreign navies and marching bands from the three services and visiting countries will participate in the parade along with the host, the Indian Navy," the release added. A hornpipe dance will be performed by the Sea Cadet Corps and tableaux will also be presented. The parade will be conducted after sunset, which will be followed by illumination of ships, pyrotechnics culminating with a light and sound show, it added. The parade will end with a reception hosted by Chief of the Naval Staff R K Dhowan in honour of the Prime Minister. "The R K Beach road, which will be decked up for the show, will have a semi-formal festive parade, with each participating foreign navy also showcasing its cultural heritage and marching under their respective national colours," the release said. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will also inaugurate a two-day maritime conference here as part of IFR. "Parrikar will be the chief guest and deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session of the conference," the defence release said. (Reopens BOM12) The theme for the conference is 'Partnering Together for a Secure Maritime Future', wherein contemporary issues of "maritime salience to world" will be discussed. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan will deliver the 'theme address'. Experts and intellectuals on maritime business and security studies would be attending the conference. Formal Navy chief admiral DK Joshi (retd), presently the chairman of National Maritime Foundation, will be among the speakers to address the conference. The valedictory address will be delivered by Vice Admiral Satish Soni, the Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Eastern Naval Command on February 8, the release stated. Union Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh, National Security Adviser Ajit Kumar Doval, his deputy Arvind Gupta, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, General Dalbir Singh Suhag and senior officials from those nations participating in IFR will attend the conference. While 'Importance of Oceans and Navies in Global Geo-Strategic Matrix' is the first sub-theme of the high-profile gathering tomorrow, the topic for discussion on Monday will be 'Regional Perceptions and Approaches for Maritime Cooperative Engagements'. Unaccounted cash worth about Rs 30 lakh including 25.40 lakh in Indian rupee, 40,420 Chinese Yaun (Rs 4,13,000) an 16 US dollars was seized from fourTibetan monks at Mehatpur border by Una police today. "A vehicle coming from Nangal sidewas stopped for routine checking by the police at Mehatpur border and unaccounted cash was found which was seized," police said. The four occupants of the vehicle identified as Hu Tuk Tuk Kirti Lobsang (74), Tsundu (46), Sherab Tashi (45) and Kunhok Top (47), driver of the vehicle are being quizzed by the police to know the source of money. The police said the Income Tax authorities have been informed as the occupants of the vehicle failed to give some convincing explanation about the money seized and senior IT officers from Panchkula are expected to reach Una by tomorrow. An acting prinicpal of Raj College here was today allegedly assaulted by a Trinamool Congress councillor, prompting the TMC leadership to expel him from the party. Tarakeshwar Mondal, acting principal of Raj college, had lodged an FIR with Burdwan police station alleging Basir Ahmed alias Badshah, the councillor of ward no 27, had slapped him in the face, rained blows on him, pinned him to the ground, kicked him and threatened him with a gun at a picnic organised at Lakurddi Jalkal ground by TMC councillor of ward no 23, Khokon Das, a police officer said. Mondal was admitted to Burdwan Medical College and hospital, he said. Mondal alleged that Badshah together with outsiders was trying to create unrest inside the college. "As he had protested against outside interference in the college, the assault was launched on him," the Principal added. Badshah, who has since been absconding, has denied assaulting the principal although he did admit there was a face-off, the police officer said. Meanwhile, Minister of Youth Services and Housing, Arup Biswas, who is also observer for Burdwan, has announced that Badshah had been suspended from the party. Trinamool Chhatra Parishad today gheraoed the Burdwan police station protesting against the attack on the principal. (REOPEN CES17) In a later development, the acting principal wrote to Burdwan police station seeking to withdraw the complaint against Badshah, police said. Mondal, however, could not be contacted to know why he wants to withdraw the complaint against the Trinamool leader. Earlier, when asked why he, being the acting principal of a college, had gone to the picnic organised by a political party, he said he is a supporter of the Trinamool Congress and he can go there. The magisterial probe into the death of Ryan School student Devansh Kakora indicates towards a "heinous crime" and the investigations so far have "ignored" the observations of the child's parents, Delhi Government today said. "The observation of the parents are being ignored that the private parts of the child had cotton on them. The report is indicating towards a heinous crime. And saying that he had a disorder amounts to running away from responsibilities," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters. Sisodia termed as "conspiratorial" the alleged attempts on the part of the school management to betray an impression that the six-year-old, who was found dead in a water tank inside its campus, was a "special child". The "deliberate" inaction of Ryan International School authorities that amounts to "gross criminal negligence" led to the death of the child, the report produced by SDM Sonal Swaroop has said. It slammed the authorities for "insinuating" him to be special kid. Sisodia said the foundings of the report raises a "lot of questions" as to how the school could be so "careless". The government is studying its contents and would take appropriate action, he said. "The time that elapsed due to deliberate inaction by the school staff in rescuing Devansh amounts to gross criminal negligence. Had the time essentially wasted in discussion, calling for a particular person and denial, been utilised in rescuing the drowned child it would have been pivotal in saving his life," the report has observed. Devansh was found dead last Saturday, in the reservoir under the amphitheatre of the school located in South Delhi. The initial postmortem report of Devansh suggested he died of drowning and no external injuries were found, police had said. Ahead of its IPO, which opens on Monday, software provider Quick Heal Technologies has raised Rs 133.9 crore through issue of shares to 10 anchor investors, including BNP Paribas Advantage and Reliance MF. Quick Heal has alloted 41.70 lakh equity shares at Rs 321 apiece, the upper end of the price band, to 10 anchor investors. The anchor investors include foreign investors -- Driehaus Emerging Markets Smallcap Growth Fund, Nomura India Stock Mother Fund, BNP Paribas Advantage and Jupiter India Fund. Besides, ICICI Prudential MF, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Reliance MF, Sundaram MF, Axis MF and Reliance Life Insurance are among the domestic investors. Quick Heal has fixed the price band at Rs 311-321 for its initial public offer (IPO), which will hit the market on February 8. The IPO, which would close on February 10, involves a fresh issue of equity shares by the company. Besides, the issue consists of an offer for sale of about 62.70 lakh equity shares by promoters Kailash Sahebrao Katkar and Sanjay Sahebrao Katkar, as well as Sequoia Capital India Investment Holdings III. ICICI Securities, Jefferies India and JPMorgan India are the book running lead managers while Link Intime India is the registrar to the public issue. While the proceeds from the offer of sale would not go to Quick Heal Technologies, the Rs 250 crore funds raised from fresh issue of equity shares would be used by the company for advertising and sales promotion and capital expenditure for research and development. The proceeds would also be invested to purchase, develop and renovate its office premises in Kolkata, Pune and New Delhi, as well as general corporate needs. The company is a provider of security software products and solutions in India. Quick Heal's equity shares are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE. Rajasthan Rural Development minister Surendra Goyal today asked BJP party workers to motivate people to participate in the 'Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyaan' to tackle the problem of water shortage. Speaking at a workshop, Goyal said this scheme has been launched to face the challenge of water shortage, which is the "main problem" in Rajasthan. "In Rajasthan, water shortage is the main problem. Most of the underground water blocks are under dark zone and quality of water is also deteriorating. To face this challenge, the state government launched the Jal Swavalamban abhiyan," he said. The state minister, who also holds the Panchayati Raj portfolio said that the scheme will make villages self-reliant in water supplies. "Chief minister launched this ambitious scheme to resolve the water crisis. The scheme has been launched in 3 villages in the first phase and 21,000 villages will be covered with it in next three years," he said. On January 27, Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje had launched this scheme from Jhalawar, which will carry out work of water conservation and harvesting in the state. He asked party workers to approach donors in their respective areas to gather resources for this programme at the local level. "The state government has sanctioned money, but donors could be approached for donation for this noble work," he added. Goyal also asked party workers to create awareness amongst farmers about various schemes and plans of the state and the central government including MNREGA. "Farmers are the backbone of the country and the government at the state and the centre are focusing on their welfare," he said. Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju today assured the administration of Arunachal Pradesh, now under President's Rule, smooth fund flows from the Centre but with a caution that all funds for development should be utilised judiciously. "My dream is to make Arunachal Pradesh the number one state in the country. Arunachal is blessed with abundant natural resources and what we need is planned development and concerted efforts from all the sections of the people cutting across political lines to realise the dream," an official release quoted him as saying. On learning that Raga constituency had not received any fund under State Infrastructure Development Fund, the Minister said the state government had to ensure uniform distribution of funds to all constituencies. He asked Raga MLA Tamar Murtem to prepare estimates for infrastructural development for Raga. Addressing a function on the occasion of Boori Boot Yullo festival at Raga in Lower Subansiri district, he assured the people that road connectivity would be provide to all the villages of the constituency by 2019. For better protection of people from the region in the national capital, he said Delhi Police would recruit more people from Arunachal Pradesh and other NE states. Advocating preservation of tribal culture and tradition, Rijiju said, "Our culture is our identity and we should actively preserve it in all possible manner. Our students studying outside Arunachal and abroad have a special responsibility to practice and preserve our traditions and culture. Let us be modern in our thoughts, but still be rooted to our traditions. The 'commander-in-chief' of outlawed Rabha National Liberation Army, Deepak Rabha, was apprehended by a joint Army and Assam Police team today from Chirang district of Assam. The Army and police launched an operation on specific intelligence inputs from the Military Intelligence agencies and nabbed the RNLA self-styled commander-in-chief, also known as Poko, Defence officials said. One 7.65 mm pistol, ammunition and a hand grenade were recovered from him. He was wanted in several cases including for planting an improvised explosive devise (IED) on railway tracks near Krishnai in February last year and a suspected attack on an Army convoy in 2013 and for various extortion and other subversive activities, they said. Deepak was also known to have links with ULFA (Independent) leader Drishti Rajkhowa and has been trained with the fourth batch of ULFA(I), the officials added. US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Russia to implement a ceasefire in Syria, saying its bombing campaign was killing women and children in large numbers and "has to stop." "Russia has indicated to me very directly they are prepared to do a ceasefire," Kerry told reporters, fresh from a trip to Europe focused on resolving the five-year Syrian conflict. "The Iranians confirmed in London just a day and a half ago they will support a ceasefire now." "We will have a much better sense in the next few days of how serious each party is," added Kerry yesterday, a day after he implicitly blamed Russia's bombing campaign against the Syrian opposition for the collapse of peace talks in Geneva this week. Moscow, Damascus's main ally, has stepped up bombing around the Syrian city of Aleppo in recent days, facilitating a government offensive that has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee to the Turkish border. Kerry accused the Russian military of using "dumb bombs." "They are not precision bombs, and there are civilians, including women and children, being killed in large numbers as a consequence," he said, during a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Russian planes are also targeting hospitals and returning to bomb people rescuing those wounded in earlier air strikes, he added. "This has to stop", Kerry said. "The Russians have made some constructive ideas about how a ceasefire in fact could be implemented," he added. "But if it's just talk for the sake of talk in order to continue the bombing, nobody is going to accept that." Kerry's comments represent a clear shift in tone following a months-long attempt to cooperate with Russia over a way out of the Syrian crisis. Washington has accused Moscow of being "partly" responsible for torpedoing peace talks in Geneva on Wednesday that had barely begun. The US and Russia were chiefly responsible for the resumption of diplomatic efforts to end the war. After meetings in Vienna and New York in late 2015, regional and global powers within the Syria Support Group - including Washington, Moscow, Riyadh and Tehran - are to meet in Munich next week to discuss a ceasefire in a war that has killed some 260,000 people and generated millions of refugees. The diplomatic process was set in motion in December by a UN Security Council resolution passed by its 15 members, including Moscow. Facing Western criticism over the halt to Syria peace talks, Russia has said it plans to present new ideas on how to restart peace efforts at a meeting of nearly 20 key nations on February 11. Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin yesterday said Moscow hopes other members of the Syria Support Group meeting in Munich will also "shoulder responsibility" in restarting talks between the government and opposition. Tensions were high during and after a closed Security Council briefing by Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, over who was to blame for this week's suspension of the Syria talks. Britain and France blamed the halt on the government's current offensive, backed by Russian airstrikes, against Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city. Churkin accused unidentified Western nations of encouraging an opposition walkout from the talks, saying they have "no moral or formal ground to criticize us." But France's UN Ambassador Francois Delatte said the opposition couldn't be expected to negotiate "with a gun to their heads." And British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Churkin "needs to look in the mirror and understand where the responsibility lies." After years of deadlock, foreign ministers from key nations supporting different sides in the Syria conflict spurred by the United States and Russia met in Vienna in November and called for a cease-fire and the start of negotiations in early January. The previously divided Security Council endorsed the peace process in a unanimous resolution in mid-December that calls for "credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance" in Syria within six months and UN-supervised elections within 18 months under a new constitution. De Mistura said when talks were suspended on Wednesday that they would resume by February 25 and Churkin said Russia is "encouraged" that the UN envoy reiterated this yesterday. But the government's new offensive against opposition strongholds has raised serious questions about opposition participation. France's Delattre stressed that negotiations "cannot be a smoke screen allowing the regime to continue quietly its massacres." Britain's Rycroft said a strong package of confidence-building measures is needed "to help rebuild the faith of the Syrian opposition that is being bombarded" so the talks can resume by February 25. Churkin said Russia cannot stop unilaterally bombing. "What about the terrorists and the opposition groups? Are they going to stop too? What about this American-led coalition? Are they going to stop too?" he asked. Refusing to end their stir, the sanitation workers unions today said they will seek a "permanent solution" for their grievances from the court, even as municipal authorities claimed that the strike has been called off by other employees of the civic bodies. The Delhi High Court, while hearing a PIL for calling off the strike yesterday, had sought responses of the corporations and the sanitation workers unions in the matter. "We have gone on strike for the fourth time in last one year because the corporations due to their financial crises have failed to pay our salaries and dues. We will urge the court for a permanent solution of our grievances," said Rajendra Mewati, general secretary of United Front of MCD Employees. "The municipal corporations lack funds to pay salaries and pending dues of their employees. Even if the strike is called off now, it will take place again as there are no funds with the corporations," said Delhi Pradesh Safai Karmchari Sangh president Moolchand. "We have got the High Court notice and we will appear before the court to get ourselves heard," said Sanjay Gehlot, president of Swatantra Mazdoor Vikas Sanyukt Morcha. Except for sanitation workers, the strike has been called off by other employees of the civic bodies, claimed the municipal authorities. "The doctors, nurses and para medical staff had called off their strike last night and now teachers and engineers too have ended it," said Harshdeep Malhotra and Ravinder Gupta, mayors of East and North Delhi Municipal Corporations. However, the United Front of MCD Employees in a press statement claimed that the strike is still continuing. "The strike started on January 27 is still continuing and has not been called off till date," said president of the association Rajesh Mishra. "Some employees of Health and Engineering department have dissociated themselves due to fear or favour but they are not authorised to give any statement or to call off this strike," he said. The Health Services employees including senior doctors, resident doctors, nurses and para medical staff have communicated their decision to call off strike, said a senior municipal corporation officer. "The sanitation workers unions have been given notices to appear before the High Court to explain themselves for continuing the strike," he said. The association of municipal corporation teachers too said that it ended its agitation following payment of salaries. "We have received our salaries following which we have decided to call off the strike," said Ram Niwas Solanki, general secretary of Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh. The commissioners of two civic bodies have directed the zonal deputy commissioners and heads of department to ensure that their staff performed duties as salaries have been disbursed. List of the employees not performing their duties will be forwarded by the officials to the Additional Commissioner (Labour) so that it could be submitted before the High Court, officials said. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has come under attack from Islamist parties and groups supporting militancy in Kashmir that accused him of being soft on India and advocating peace. The groups led by Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed held a conference outside National Press Club here to mark 'Solidarity Day' with Kashmiris yesterday. It was Saeed's first major public appearance in the capital after three years, showing defiance towards government. While taking to task the government, Saeed praised army chief General Raheel Sharif. "The Prime Minister is bound to follow the path of Quaid-i-Azam (Mohammad Ali Jinnah), Liaquat Ali Khan and the founding fathers. He should not betray the Kashmir cause," Saeed said. He asked Sharif to own the "Kashmir cause" and praised the United Jihad Council (UJC) which had claimed the Pathankot attack. "They (UJC) came to the rescue of Pakistan after the Pathankot attack and it is time that we too own the Kashmiris," Saeed said. He also stated that the army chief was right when he said "Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition". Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil of Ansarul Ummah, Mian Aslam of Jamaat-i-Islami, Senate Deputy Chairman and central leader of JUI-F Abdul Ghafoor Haidary and a former legal aide of former president general Parvez Musharraf -- Ahmad Raza Kasuri -- also participated in the conference. Haidary said there could be no peace in the region without resolution of the Kashmir issue. "Both India and Pakistan are pitching their resources in defence while hundreds and thousands of citizens do not have food and shelter," he said. Criticising Pakistan, Kasuri said the country had confined the Kashmir cause to a ceremonial day only. "We need to look ahead and after developing a consensus among political parties there should be a full-fledged assault by Foreign Office against India," he said. Dawn reported that not only was the conference heavily attended by workers and followers of JuD, it also showcased the high degree of technical advancements made by the group. JuD security personnel stationed at various positions wore jackets of different colours -- clearly defining their duties. Last year, only a few rallies were organised to mark the Kashmir Day and JuD held a rally from Zero Point to Aabpara chowk led by its leader Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki who criticised the UN and the US for their indifferent attitude towards alleged Indian human rights violations in Kashmir. City-based social organisations Prabha Khaitan Foundation (PKF) and Bharat Relief Society (BRS) today distributed text books among the needy children to fulfil their basic right. Lauding the initiative, chief guest of the function Baishali Dalmia said "Education is the basic right of a child and it is good that organisations like Bharat Relief Society and Prabha Khaitan Foundation have come forward to help the disadvantaged children." Speaking on the occasion, social activist Sundeep Bhutoria lauded such activities, which would benefit the needy and downtrodden in the society. Giving away the books among the needy at the function, identified as 'Gyan Yagna Vidya Dan Samaroh,' Dalmia and Bhutoria encouraged the recipients to carry on with their education. Bishambhar Newar, general secretary, Bharat Relief Society, conducted the programme in which over 1,500 needy students were benefited. Bharat Relief Society has been doing many social activities by generating its own finances for the past many years, Newar said adding, over 65,000 students have been benefited from the initiative till date. Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today urged Punjabis to rise above petty interests and counter the forces indulging in defaming and denigrating the image of the state and its people by dubbing Punjab as 'bankrupt' and Punjabis as 'drug addicts'. At a 90-minute presentation at a programme organised at a local hotel, Badal gave details of progress and development initiated by his government in Punjab and asked opinion makers in the national capital to see and unmask the "conspiracy of vested interests who want to make political capital by slandering the state only to score brownie points". Appealing to the people to be proud of being Punjabis and Sikhs, he claimed it was Shiromani Akali Dal that struggled for the rights and interests of Punjabis and Sikhs. Sikhs, he said, were appreciated world over for their laborious nature and were now inducted even as ministers in the Canadian government. On the smear campaign by the opponents on social media as well as national channels, the SAD chief said these elements were acting at the "behest of forces inimical to Punjab." He said it was his duty to present the right picture of Punjab as a lot of MNCs want to invest in the state. "I then realized that repeated wrong perceptions created by some ill informed political leaders had been twisted by the media and Punjab was being projected as a State facing a serious crisis of drug addiction," he said. Badal said "we should not let anyone to defame Punjab and Punjabis as in reality we were putting new milestones in the field of prosperity, growth, development and progress." The SAD leader said "No drug is produced in Punjab. In fact, synthetic drugs and narcotics are produced in Pakistan and Afghanistan and are being transited through Punjab", as he hit out at Congress for "launching a nefarious campaign to malign Punjab and brand its entire youth as drug addicts." "This is being done even though it was the laxity during the 10-years old Congress led UPA rule that narco-terrorism had reared its ugly head in the country," he said, adding that porous and riverine tracts alongside the Pak border and deficient manpower were impacting Punjab and the nation. "What we have promised has fulfilled. I announced to make Punjab a power surplus state which had been accomplished. Now Punjab will be the first state having 4/6 lane highways connecting all the major towns," he said, adding RBI has also declared Punjab as third best state for investment. He said compared to Congress rule from 2002 to 2007, gross VAT collection and excise collection was encouraging and categorically said Punjab was not debt-ridden state and it has reduced 1.8 per cent in debt growth. He said that Punjab had also improved in Debt GSDP ratio from 47.1 percent in 2006-07 to 32 percent in 2013-14. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today wound-up her two-day visit to Sri Lanka with a call on President Maithripala Sirisena and a meeting with TNA leaders when they discussed the reconciliation process. A day after Swaraj co-chaired the 9th Indo-Lanka Joint Commission meeting here along with her Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera, she had an "excellent meeting" with President Sirisena. "The President recalled the very warm ties that exist between the two countries build on civilisational links of thousands of years," Indian High Commissioner to Colombo Y K Sinha said. During an hour-long meeting, the two leaders discussed various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and decisions taken during the previous high-level visits. "They expressed satisfaction at the progress in various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and the President thanked India for its assistance," Sinha said. "President Sirisena briefed the minister on development on regional and international issues. They discussed a host of issues," he said. The two leaders also reviewed the progress made at the joint commission meeting. The joint commission was set up in 1992 as a mechanism to address issues of bilateral cooperation. Swaraj later met former president Chandrika Bhandaranaike Kumaratunga and discussed the state of bilateral ties. She also inaugurated the 'Rise of Digital India Exhibition' here as part of the first Festival of India in Sri Lanka, which is aptly titled -- 'Sangam: a confluence of cultures'. At the inauguration ceremony, Swaraj said India was ready to set up an IT park in the country that could attract investments in this growing sector. She later also met leaders of Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA led by its chief R Sampanthan, who briefed her about the efforts made by the government in moving forward the reconciliation process with the minority community. The Tamil Alliance leaders apprised the minister on the "various efforts that have been made by the government since January last year in moving forward the reconciliation process, the political process and expressed readiness to work with the government in fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Sri Lanka," Sinha said. Swaraj also met Eastern Province chief minister Nazir Ahmad and leaders of Sri Lankan Muslim Congress and discussed various issues. Later, she met leaders of Tamil Progressive Alliance and Ceylon Workers Congress, an Indian-origin Tamil party, before heading home. Sri Lankan government has made efforts for reconciliation since taking over power last year. It has also begun drafting a new Constitution aimed at resolving the ethnic conflict and achieving reconciliation with Tamils so that there is no repeat of the nearly three decades-long civil war which ended in 2009 and claimed 100,000 lives. The Karnataka government has suspended another senior police official in connection with the alleged assault and stripping of a Tanzanian woman student here, even as African students staged a rally over the incident today. Assistant Commissioner of Police A N Pise of Yeshwanthpur Division has been suspended for dereliction of duty, Police Commissioner N S Megharikh said, a day after a team of Tanzanian High Commissioner John W H Kijazi, also the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps, and External Affairs Ministry officials flew in here and met state officials and African students. With this, six policemen-an ACP, an Inspector and four constables-- have been suspended, Megharikh said. On a mission to get a first hand account and build confidence among African students here, the Tanzanian envoy had backed the steps taken by the government in connection with the incident on Sunday. "We are very much impressed with the action already taken," Kijazi had said, dismissing the talk about racism. Nine persons have been arrested in connection with the incident in which the 21-year old Tanzanian student faced mob fury in vigilante justice after a Sudanese driving a car in an alleged drunken state struck a couple, killing a woman on the spot. Police have maintained it was a case of "mistaken identity" and racism was not involved. Meanwhile, the African students in Bengaluru are planning to conduct a blood donation drive in a show of solidarity to their Indian counterparts and citizens. "The Same Blood Campaign" is an initiative of FISAB (Federation of International Students Association Bangalore) and Just Practicals - a skill development start-up offering practical, job-relevant training in technical and management courses to African and international students in Bangalore. FISAB is a confluence of international students from 42 countries, who are currently pursuing academic and research disciplines in and around Bengaluru. The event, planned in March is aimed at sensitizing the local populace to African students and to drive a sense of harmony and togetherness, 'Just Practicals" said in a statement. A rally attended by over two hundred African students at Town Hall in the nucleus of the city here saw expressions of grief mixed with a call for togetherness and inclusion. Prince Nkita, a student from the Republic of Congo studying here said, "People need to understand the differences and the similarities as it is the same blood and the same race that is donating this blood. Thousands of Syrians were braving cold and rain at the Turkish border today after fleeing a Russian-backed regime offensive on Aleppo that threatens a fresh humanitarian disaster in the country's second city. Tens of thousands have escaped fierce fighting as government forces unleashed an advance this week against rebels, severing the opposition's main supply route into Aleppo. This morning, Turkey's Oncupinar border crossing -- which faces Bab al-Salama on Syrian soil -- remained closed, an AFP correspondent said, as Turkish authorities said they were working to free up space within existing camps to accommodate the new arrivals. "Our teams are ready to provide them with water and food as soon as they arrive," Turkish Red Crescent head Ahmet Lutfi Akar said. Around 40,000 civilians have fled their homes over the regime offensive, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. "The situation of the displaced is tragic," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. "Families have been sleeping outside in the cold in fields and tents with no international NGO there to help them. They're helping each other." EU officials today reminded Turkey of its international obligations to keep its frontiers open to refugees camped on its southern border. "The Geneva convention is still valid which states that you have to take in refugees," EU Enlargement and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn said as he went into talks with European foreign ministers. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said yesterday it estimated "up to 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salama border crossing and another 5,000 to 10,000 people have been displaced to Azaz city" nearby. Turkey is already home to between two and 2.5 million Syrians who have fled their country's five-year civil war. Aleppo province is one of the main strongholds of Syria's opposition, which is facing possibly its worst moment since the country's brutal conflict began. Three persons, who allegedly robbed a 86-year-old man of cash and articles worth around Rs 35 lakh from his residence in northwest Delhi's Ashok Vihar area, have been arrested, police said today. The accused were identified as Dinesh Bahadur (22), who worked as a domestic help at the victim's house, Kamal Singh (55), Hikmat Khadka(31) and Dharma, who was a watchman in the locality, DCP (Northwest) Vijay Singh said. While the first three have been arrested, Dharma is still at large. All accused are natives of Nepal, Singh said. According to police, the incident took place on the wee hours of January 26 when Dinesh, along with his associates, allegedly locked his 86-year-old employer inside the washroom and robbed him of cash, jewellery and other expensive articles, including several designer watches and smartphones. Dinesh had tipped off his associates that the elderly man was alone at home as his son had gone for a vacation to Bangkok with his family. The accused took the opportunity and struck at around 3 AM. Before they entered the house, the gang also tied the security guard Ashok Kumar with a rope and put a duct tape on his mouth. A case was registered, following which the police conducted extensive search operation in Nepal-bound buses and the border area in Uttar Pradesh. They also questioned around 200 persons in connection with the case. The police finally tracked down three of the accused yesterday and arrested them from their hideout in west Delhi's Uttam Nagar area. The police have recovered foreign currency notes, several smartphones, as many as 10 designer watches and other articles worth around Rs 35 lakh from their possession, police said. The top UN human rights official arrived today in Sri Lanka on a four-day visit aimed at reviewing the measures taken by the island-nation to investigate alleged atrocities committed during the long civil war that left tens of thousands dead. The visit by Zeid Raad al-Hussein follows last year's resolution at the UN human rights body that required foreign judges to assist Sri Lanka in the investigation. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009, after the government forces crushed the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Both sides were accused of committing grave human rights abuses such as killing civilians and recruiting child soldiers. Since the end of the war, Sri Lanka has been facing heavy criticism for failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes by its forces. Victims' families have been futile in their attempts to seek justice. According to UN estimates, at least 80,000 people were killed, and possibly many more, including up to 40,000 civilians in the last month of the war. Zeid last year presented a report focusing on the period from 2002 to 2011, in which he pointed out horrific abuses, including torture, executions, and sexual abuse by security forces, as well as suicide attacks, assassinations and recruitment of child soldiers by rebels. He called for the creation of a "hybrid special court" that would include foreign judges and investigators, saying Sri Lanka's own courts are not yet ready to carry out a fair judicial process on the atrocities. However, Sri Lankan officials have previously said they would only accept foreign technical expertise and assistance. During his visit, Zeid will travel to the former war zoneand meet victims of human rights violations. He will also talk with top government officials, civil activists and religious leaders. Union Minister Giriraj Singh today said "Tripura has Sarkar, but no governance" and accused Chief Minister Manik Sarkar of failing to visit a tribal minor rape victim. He also slammed Sarkar for not submitting data on crime against women in the state. "Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar may be known for his clean image and 'non-corrupt' tag, but he has failed miserably in providing good governance to the people," the Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises was quoted as saying, during his visit to the state, in a release. BJP Tripura in-charge Sunil Deodhar, stating this in a release, said that Singh visited the 14-year-old tribal rape victim at G B hospital accompanied by BJP state president Biplab Deb who provided the victim's family financial assistance of Rs 50,000 from the party. "The tribal girl was raped in the North Eastern state of Tripura. On that evening the girl was returning home with her brother when two accused Sudhir Debbarma and Athens Debbarma attacked them in Chachu Bazar area in Mohanpur. After locking the brother in one room, the accused tied the girl to a mobile tower and raped her," the release said. "Shocked and ashamed by the incidence, the victim duo consumed poison and tried to commit suicide. They were later admitted in the government hospital and the girl is still critical. "The accused are absconding and the police or the government is not keen in tracing the accused who are booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act," Deodhar alleged. He said the Chief Minister can fly all the away to Hyderabad to show solidarity towards students in the Rohit Vemula case. "But, he or none of his colleagues in the government and party had time to do the same towards the little rape victim and her family," he regretted. Even leaders of local political parties like INPT and IPFT, who claim to be protagonists of tribals, have not taken cognisance of this incidence, he alleged. "Ironically, this is not the first incidence of such crime in Tripura. The Chief Minister and the government are hiding facts about rising crimes in the state. "During winter session of the Parliament, Haribhai Chaudhary, MoS Home Affairs, had revealed that Tripura was the only state that had not submitted any data on crimes against women," Deodhar added. The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly and senior Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman today ruled out possibility of alliance with the Left Front in West Bengal for the coming Assembly elections. "There is no chance of forging an alliance between CPI(M) and Congress in West Bengal. A section of Congress leaders in West Bengal are spreading rumours. "We have already sent a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi requesting her to take action against those leaders. We hope AICC will reject the proposal of alliance because it will destroy the party's prospects in Tripura and West Bengal forever," Barman said. He said the the CPI(M) and the BJP are the main rivals of Congress both in the state and at the Centre. "In fact, Sonia Gandhi asked us to strengthen movement against the misrule of Left Front here. Congress is a national political party and we don't believe it can have separate polices for separate states," he said. Barman said the Congress leaders who were enthusiastic about a tie-up with the CPI(M) were doing so for their personal and not party's benefit and they could leave the party. Senior Congress leader and former MLA Tapas Dey said the president of Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee, Birajit Sinha, is now camping in Delhi and has taken up the matter with the AICC leadership. Sinha has told the leadership an alliance with CPI(M) in any state would be disastrous for the party, Dey said. Turkish police seized almost 50 unsafe boats destined for migrants wanting to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece, in the latest crackdown on businesses exploiting refugees in western Turkey, reports said today. Police simultaneously raided three underground workshops in the port city of Izmir on Friday, seizing 49 boats that failed to meet safety standards, the official Anatolia agency said. The boats were destroyed by the police, it said, adding that the workshops now faced closure. Turkey is home to at least 2.2 million refugees from Syria's civil war. It has become a hub for migrants seeking to move to Europe, many of whom pay smugglers thousands of dollars for the risky crossing to Greece. Ankara reached an agreement with the EU in November to stem the flow of refugees heading to Europe in return for financial assistance of three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in cash. After the deal, Turkey appears to have stepped up efforts, stopping boats, rounding up scores of suspected smugglers and seizing hundreds of sub-standard life jackets given to the refugees. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to visit Ankara on Monday to discuss implementation of the deal. Turkey was preparing today for a new influx of refugees fleeing a major offensive by Syria's Russian-backed regime, with tens of thousands of Syrians camped out near a closed border crossing. The United Nations said some 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salam crossing, hoping to reach Turkey, which already hosts more than two million refugees from the bloody conflict. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights for its part estimated some 40,000 people had been forced to leave their homes since last Monday. Turkish authorities were working to free up space within the existing camps along the Syrian border to accommodate the new arrivals. Opposition forces and some 350,000 civilians were inside the rebel-held Aleppo city, which was targeted in the government offensive. An AFP correspondent saw trucks carrying parts for tents yesterday to the refugee camp close to the border gate on the Turkish side which faces the Bab al-Salam crossing on Syrian soil. At least four Turkish aid trucks were also seen returning to Turkey after making deliveries of food to the Syrian side of the border. Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said in a statement that it had finalised preparations for a possible influx. Turkey faced a similar experience in 2014 when 200,000 refugees fled the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane over three days as the Islamic State group and Syrian Kurdish fighters battled for control. AFAD said a registration system that complies with international standards was set up to receive refugees, which includes a health scan, food and shelter. The government offensive is targeting the Aleppo province, which was once a rebel stronghold, providing easy access to neighbouring Turkey, a key opposition backer. The city itself has been divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012. But government forces have steadily chipped away at rebel-held territory around the city and their advances this week leave the opposition there virtually surrounded. The advance is the most significant outcome yet of the Russian intervention that began on September 30, ostensibly targeting the Islamic State group and other "terrorists". Analysts and activists say Russia's strikes have always disproportionately targeted non-jihadist rebels in an attempt to bolster President Bashar al-Assad's government. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reaffirmed today his country would keep its "open border policy" for Syrian refugees, saying as many as 55,000 people fleeing a new regime offensive were heading toward the frontier. Cavusoglu told reporters after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Amsterdam that there had been no change in Turkish policy. "We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression, from the regime as well as air strikes of Russia," he said. "We have received already 5,000 of them; another 50,000 to 55,000 are on their way and we cannot leave them there," he said. Reports from the border today said Turkey was preparing for a new influx, trying to find space in existing refugee camps for new arrivals as loyalist forces close in on rebels in Aleppo, Syria's second largest city. Turkey already hosts more than two million people who have fled the war in Syria. EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said foreign ministers had reminded Cavusoglu of Ankara's obligations towards refugees and of the help Brussels was providing to help cope with the problem. "We discussed this with our Turkish colleague remembering the fact that there is first a moral if not a legal duty ... to protect those in need of protection," Mogherini told a closing news conference. "It's unquestionable... That the people coming from inside Syria are Syrians in need for protection." "On top of that, this support that the EU is providing to Turkey... Is aimed exactly at guaranteeing that Turkey has the means, the instruments, the resources to protect and to host people seeking asylum," Mogherini said. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a Syria donors' conference in London on Thursday that Ankara would allow the refugees into the country. More than a million migrants landed in the 28-nation European Union last year, most of them crossing into Greece from Turkey, and then making their way through the Balkans to Germany and other northern member states. Such numbers have put huge strains on the bloc and the Schengen passport-free zone, with several countries among them Germany, Austria, Hungary, Sweden re-introducing border controls while Brussels struggles to find a comprehensive solution. Twitter has suspended over 125,000 accounts, most of them linked to the Islamic State militant group, "for threatening or promoting terrorist acts" even as handles of India-centric terrorist organizations and individuals on the micro-blogging site remain untouched. In a blog, the US-based firm said, "As the nature of the terrorist threat has changed, so has our ongoing work in this area. Since the middle of 2015 alone, we've suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS". Twitter, however, did not respond to questions about the accounts of terrorist organizations operating from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Notably, Hafeez Muhamad Saeed, the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attack, has been openly calling for carrying out brazen attack against India in his latest tweet on February 3. Twitter condemned the use of its platform to promote terrorism and said the 'Twitter Rules' make it clear that this type of behaviour, or any violent threat, is not permitted on its service. The company said it has increased its report reviewing teams to react faster. "We also look into other accounts similar to those reported and leverage proprietary spam-fighting tools to surface other potentially violating accounts for review by our agents. We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter," it said. In a move to intensify its push against extremist posts, Twitter has partnered with respected organizations such as People Against Violent Extremism (PAVE) and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. It also attended government-convened summits on CVE hosted by the White House, the Australian Attorney-General's Department, the UK government, the French Prime Minister, the European Commission, and the United Nations. As many experts and other companies have noted, there is no magic algorithm for identifying terrorist content on the Internet, so global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgement calls based on very limited information and guidance, the company said. In spite of these challenges, we will continue to aggressively enforce our Rules in this area, and engage with authorities and other relevant organizations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives, Twitter said. Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti will chair the eighth meeting of Centre's special committee on interlinking of rivers to review progress of various projects here on Monday. During the day-long meeting, to be attended by Water Resources Ministers and senior officials from various states, issues such as status of Ken-Betwa (Phase-I and II), Damanganga-Pinjal and Par-Tapi-Narmada link projects; intra-state link proposals and restructuring of National Water Development Agency are expected to be discussed. "Interlinking of River (ILR) programme is of national importance and has been taken up by Government on high priority. The mission of this programme is to ensure greater equity in the distribution of water by enhancing availability of water in drought-prone and rainfed areas through interlinking of rivers," the Ministry said in a statement. The Ministry has already identified 14 links under Himalayan Rivers component and 16 links under Peninsular Rivers component for inter-basin transfer of water-based on field surveys and investigation and detailed studies. Union Cabinet had in its meeting held on July 24, 2014 approved the constitution of special committee on ILR and the panel was floated formally on September 23, 2014. The committee met first on October 17, 2014, while the last meeting was held on November 18 last year. The UN human rights chief today arrived here for talks with the Sri Lankan government over its probe into allegations of war crimes during the country's brutal civil war. The four-day visit of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein is significant following a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution last October which mandated an investigation into alleged human rights abuses during the final phase of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict that ended in 2009. Hussein, on his first visit to Sri Lanka after succeeding Navi Pillay as UN rights chief, said he hoped for "constructive discussions" with President Maithripala Sirisena. He was met at the airport by foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera with whom he later held talks. In a hard hitting report at the UNHRC, Hussein had criticised Sri Lanka's failure to deliver justice to the victims of the conflict. He had prescribed an international "hybrid court" with foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators. However the current Sirisena government, which has a softer attitude towards the minority communities than the nationalist hawkish regime of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, has cited constitutional difficulties in allowing foreign judges to operate in the island. But Sirisena agreed to a domestic probe on allegations that 40,000 people were killed in the last phase of the war between government troops and the LTTE rebels. Hussein is also due to visit the northern Tamil capital of Jaffna tomorrowand the eastern port city of Trincomalee on Monday. He will also meet victims of the armed conflict in addition to meeting with government officials. In Jaffna, Tamil rights groups have organised a demonstration to highlight the plight of relatives of disappeared persons of the 37-year civil war that killed an estimated 100,000 people. While in Colombo, the Sinhala majority nationalist National Freedom Front was to protest Hussein's visit claiming that it would lead to concessions being granted to Tamils through a political deal eventually leading to the separation of the country's Tamil-dominated north and east. A Fortune 500 energy company in the US has been accused of replacing American employees with low-wage H-1B workers, including Indians. In a letter to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that 'Eversource Energy' abused foreign worker visa programmes. In another letter to the CEO of Eversource Energy, which is headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, Blumenthal called for a full accounting of how and why the company decided to fire 200 American employees, and whether those employees were forced to train future foreign replacements and sign non-disparagement agreements. "Eversource seems to be just the latest example of American companies abusing non-immigrant worker visa programs and harming American workers by outsourcing jobs," Blumenthal said in the letter to Lynch. In his letter dated February 3, which was released to the press yesterday, the Senator said the use of foreign outsourcing firms has been the subject of major concern among a bipartisan group of lawmakers for some time, as has the disproportionate displacement of American IT workers by H-1B and other non-immigrant worker visa holders generally. "Such apparent abuses are the reason I have helped lead the fight to reform the H-1B and L-1B programs by co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation that would prohibit companies from replacing American workers with non-immigrant visa holders," Blumenthal said. According to Computer World, the IT firms Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services that Eversource uses for outsourcing are major beneficiaries of the H-1B visa. In 2014, Eversource had fired 200 American information technology workers in Connecticut and Massachusetts in order to replace them with similarly skilled, lower-paid non-immigrant worker visa holders. "I strongly encourage you to investigate this matter," the Senator said in his letter to Lynch. Blumenthal wrote the letters after a recent news report in this regard. According to this report, Eversource contracted with two offshore outsourcing firms to bring in foreign workers through a non-immigrant worker visa program to replace their American IT staff. Then, the company forced the American workers - under threat of losing severance pay - to train their replacements and to refrain from making any "statements to anyone, spoken or written, that would tend to disparage or discredit [Eversource] or any of [its] officers". "The attempt to coerce the laid-off employees into remaining silent about their treatment is deeply troubling," the Senator said. In another letter to Thomas J May, CEO of Eversource Energy, Blumenthal expressed his outrage at reports of the company lay offing of hundreds of contracted American IT workers at Northeast Utilities (now Eversource Energy), accomplished through apparent abuses of multiple non-immigrant worker visa programmes, including the H-1B programme. The 19th National Space Science Symposium (NSSS), a biennial convention of researchers working in the realms of atmospheric, space and planetary sciences and astronomy, will begin at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre here on February 9. NSSS is an event where scientists working in the research fields of atmospheric, space and planetary sciences, astronomy and astrophysics, solar system bodies and their exploration will get together to discuss their new findings. Former ISRO Chairman Prof. U R Rao will inaugurate the four-day symposium, according to a Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) statement here. VSSC Director Dr K Sivan will deliver the presidential address during the event, in which M Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), will be the Guest of Honour, it said. The scientific sessions during the programme will provide a forum for discussing the new results on recent developments in the areas of space research being pursued at various research institutions and universities across India, it said. Dr M Annadurai, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bengaluru, S Somanath, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiamala and Dr P Kunhikrishnan, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota are among the speakers. The symposium is sponsored by ISRO to foster and encourage fundamental and application oriented research in these fields. More than 700 researchers are expected to participate in the event, which will conclude on February 14, the statement added. Australia, propped up by 98 from David Warner, held their nerve for four wickets in the second ODI here today to send the series to a decider. After Warner's dismissal, Australia were still 90 runs short of their target with an unbeaten 69 from Mitchell Marsh and John Hastings not out 48, getting them over the line. Warner was nudging his sixth ODI century when he was undone by New Zealand's match ace Mitchell Santner, but by then he had done enough to ensure the world champions were in a dominant position. Australia lost six wickets as they chased down New Zealand's 281-9 with 21 balls to spare. After New Zealand won the first match by 159 runs the series will now go to a decider in Hamilton on Monday. Both sides suffered middle-order batting blues, but Australia had better padding with Warner and Usman Khawaja in a 122-run opening stand. Warner's 98 came off 79 deliveries and included eight fours and four sixes, while Khawaja batted at a run-a-ball for his 50. They made it clear at the start of the innings they would attack New Zealand's strike bowlers Trent Boult and Matt Henry. Khawaja hit the first and fourth balls he faced in Boult's opening over to the boundary while at the other end, Warner also smacked Henry's first delivery for four. By the end of the sixth over Australia had 50 on the board and Boult and Henry were pulled from the attack. Brendon McCullum worked through a range of bowling options to upset the batsmen and was eventually rewarded when Santner had Khawaja caught and bowled. The breakthrough signalled a return for Henry and Boult. Henry removed Steve Smith and George Bailey with successive deliveries and Boult claimed Glenn Maxwell as Australia lost four wickets for 22 runs. Mitchell Marsh joined Warner to stop the slide and they added 47 for the fifth wicket before McCullum turned once more to Santner and was again rewarded by the left-arm spinner who had Warner lbw. It was originally given not out, but New Zealand's appeal proved successful when the ball-tracker technology showed the delivery would have hit the middle stump. Australia's ageing all-rounder Shane Watson today emerged as the biggest draw going for a whopping Rs 9.50 crore, while Yuvraj Singh was the costliest buy among the Indians with a bid of Rs 7 crore in a rather low-key IPL players' auction here today. The 34-year-old Watson, who marked his return to form with a blazing century against India in the last T20, triggered an intense bidding war among three franchises before Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) clinched the deal with the highest package so far. Watson thus became the first million dollar buy of the auction with his package translating into USD 1.39 million. He was joined by Yuvraj soon after even though today's bid was far less than the Rs 16 crore he had garnered in the last auction. Another veteran Indian pacer, Ashish Nehra (Rs 5.5 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad), Ishant Sharma (Rs 3.8 crore to Rising Pune Super Giants), Kevin Pietersen (Rs 3.5 crore to RPSG), and Dwayne Smith (Rs 2.3 crore to Gujarat Lions) were the other top draws among the marquee players in the auction which was beamed live to millions of viewers. Unheralded West Indian batsman Carlos Brathwaite was a surprise gainer fetching a whopping Rs 4.2 crore fee from the Delhi Daredevils, a huge jump from his base price of Rs 30 lakh. Another top pick was Indian pacer Mohit Sharma, who was taken by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 6.5 crore. Young Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson, who had a base price of rs 2 crore, was expectedly a sought after player with Delhi Daredevils buying him for Rs 4.2 crore. The auction saw celebrity owners like Nita Ambani (Mumbai Indians), Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab) and Vijay Mallya (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and former players such as Ricky Ponting, Stephen Fleming, VVS Laxman, Tom Moody, Brad Hodge and Daniel Vettori actively involved in the bidding process for their respective franchises. After the marquee players were sold out in the very first batch, the auction lacked fizz with several players going unsold. Surprisingly, Australia's T20 captain Aaron Finch, New Zealand's big-hitting batsman Martin Guptill, Australia's former captain George Bailey, South African Hashim Amla, and retired players like Mahela Jayawardene, Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin went unsold. West Indian Darren Sammy, Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan, in-form Australian Usman Khawaja, David Hussey, Adam Voges and Munaf Patel also failed to find any takers. However, unsold players can come back for re-bidding once the process is over. Yuvraj wasn't third-time lucky in terms of being the biggest buy but Sunrisers Hyderabad entered late into the fray to buy him. "I don't agree (that Yuvraj did not evoke interest among bidders). If you look at the bidding we were very interested, but issues of bidding and price ceiling issues, did not allow us to go for him. He is really a marquee player and hope he plays for us sometime in the future," RCB Director Amrit Thomas told reporters here. Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh fetched a good deal from the Pune franchise, which bid Rs 4.8 crore for the enterprising player. Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who had got a stunning deal of over Rs 12 crore from the Delhi Daredevils the last time, went for a much lower Rs 2.3 crore this time with Gujarat Lions. Gujarat also bought South African pacer Dale Steyn and West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Smith for the same price. Pune also got Pietersen for Rs 3.5 crore (USD 515,000), the first player to go under the hammer, even though Gujarat Lions also bid intensely for the dashing England batsman. However, the player to hit the pay dirt was definitely Watson, who recently hit a smashing century in the third T20 International against India recently. Also, he has been an ever-present player for the now banned Rajasthan Royals being the 'Player of the Tournament' in the league's first season. Watson has retired from the longer format but his 130-135 kmph seam-up stuff has also turned out to be handy on Indian pitches. Mumbai Indians loosened their purse strings for a couple of unexpected players, buying English stumper Jos Buttler (Rs 3.8 crore) and New Zealand pacer Tim Southee (2.5 crore ). The Indian pace duo of Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan, both of whom have been out of reckoning from the national side, also found buyers. While Irfan fetched a Rs 1 crore package from Pune, Praveen managed to pull off a bid of rs 3.5 crore from Gujarat. Gujarat also picked Indian medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni for Rs 2 crore. South African pacer Kyle Abbott went to Kings XI Punjab for 2.10 crore. Indian all-rounder Stuart Binny was sold for his base price of Rs 2 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Another Indian pacer Barinder Sran, who made an impression during the recent ODI series against Australia, was bought for Rs 1.2 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad. In a grim reminder of the Ambikesh Mahapatra incident, a youth of Malbazar in Jalpaiguri district was today detained by the police for criticising a Trinamool Congress councillor in a Facebook post. Rohit Pashi, the youth, was detained at Mal police station after TMC councillor Pulin Goldar complained to the police that the youth had wrote that that he had links with criminals. District Superintendent of Police Akash Meghariya said Pashi was detained and ordered to execute a bond under Section 107 of the CrPC as the police had information that he might create trouble. The Section 107 of the CrPC is executed to prevent someone from committing breach of the peace or disturb public tranquillity. The incident created a political war of words between the ruling TMC and the opposition CPI(M). "The incident of cartoon-arrest repeats itself. #RohitPashi arrested for speaking against d autocratic CM!! Its a complete reign of terror!!!" CPI(M) state secretary Surjyakanta Mishra tweeted. It was, however, denied by TMC. "Some local channels distorting without checking facts. Deliberate distortion? No one has been arrested in Malbazar for a Facebook post," TMC national spokesperson Derek O'Brien said in a statement. The incident brought back memories of the arrest of Jadavpur university professor Ambikesh Mahapatra who was arrested in 2012 for circulating a cartoon of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on internet. Haitian politicians today inked a last-minute agreement to install a transitional government, just hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down with no replacement in line. The agreement, signed by the presidents of both chambers of Parliament, keeps the country from plunging into an immediate power vacuum upon Martelly's exit, after an election to choose his replacement was postponed because of fears of violence, among other problems. In light of the annulled vote, which would have occurred on January 24 and given the country time to put a new leader in power, Parliament will elect an interim president, with a term of up to 120 days, the four-page agreement said. The January vote, a runoff between Martelly's favored candidate, Jovenel Moise, and opposition flag-bearer Jude Celestin, was called off following violence and opposition protests by demonstrators alleging that foul play had helped the government candidate take the first round. "On Sunday morning we will hold a joint session of Parliament to note the end of President Martelly's term and to ask the prime minister and government to remain in office to settle current affairs," Senate President Jocelerme Privert told AFP. "The election of the interim president will take place later," he said, without giving a date. The country's runoff election is now scheduled for April 24, with the new, permanent leader to take power on May 14. "We are pleased that the stakeholders have all committed themselves to democracy, peace and stability, amid a constitutional vacuum created by the absence of an elected president to replace Mr Martelly," said Ronald Sanders, head of the Organization of American States' special mission dealing with Haiti. Since 1986, when president-for-life Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier fled a revolt, the Caribbean island nation, which is wracked by poverty and the after effects of a devastating 2010 earthquake, has struggled repeatedly to hold credible elections. A 35-year-old woman and her two minor children were charred to death when a fire broke out in their two-storey building located in Park Site area in suburban Vikhroli this afternoon, police said. The deceased were identified as Salma and her children Mehraj (10) and Mohammed (15). The incident took place at Anandgargh Naka around 3.30 pm. "Salma's husband Salim runs a mattress and quilt shop on the ground floor of the building and the family used to stay on the upper floor," police said. The blaze broke out at Salim's shop this afternoon and soon spread to other parts of the building, including the upper floor. Due to the fire, an LPG cylinder kept in their house also exploded, they said. Salim was in the shop when the incident occurred and managed to escape the flames. But his family members were trapped in the house and were charred to death, police said. Preliminary investigation revealed that the fire was caused due to short circuit, they said. Meanwhile, local residents complained that fire brigade team reached almost 45 minutes after the incident was reported to them. "When I called the fire station second time, they told me that they were unable to trace the place. Then, I rushed to the fire station, which is 250-300 metres way, and guided them to the spot," local resident Shiraz Sheikh said. Further investigation into the case is on. Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham, whose fast-until death entered the second day today, in support of the demand for inclusion of the community in Backward Classes category, said he is determined to continue with the stir. "My two major demands were conveyed to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu by some mediators but the response was negative," Padmanabham told reporters here tonight. "My demands are fixing up three months deadline for announcing BC status and release of Rs 2,000 crore to Kapu Corporation for the past two years. The government rejected (these demands). I did not come down even a single step. Hence I am firm on continuing the stir, the question of calling off (the stir) does not arise," he added. Padmanabham whose agitation in support of the demand had turned violent a few days back, began the indefinite fast at his native Kirlampudi village yesterday along with his wife, Padmavathi. Kirlampudi circle inspector Prasad Rao said a team of doctors visited the leader and his wife and advised them to take complete rest. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana said the state government would allocate Rs 1,000 crore in the coming Budget for the benefit of Kapu community and appealed to Padmanabham to call off his indefinite fast. Prime Minister Narendra Modi can advance the interest of Indian people by working "effectively" with US President Barack Obama, who will continue to look for ways to strengthen the bilateral relationship, the White House has said. In the last year of his administration, Obama would continue working to strengthen India-US relationship, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. "I think that should be a good indication to you that, while obviously Prime Minister Modi takes seriously the responsibility that he has to advocate for the citizens of his country, he can advance the interest of the people of India by working effectively with President Obama," Earnest said. "And that's a good thing. It's a good thing for our two countries. It's a good thing for the citizens of our two countries," Earnest said, adding "I would expect the president will continue to look for ways to strengthen the relationship." "I think the best thing to point you to is the last opportunity that President Obama had to meet with Prime Minister Modi was in Paris in the context of the climate talks," Earnest said in response to a question. He said that there was a sense, at the time, that the Indian government might be the chief impediment to the successful completion of an ambitious climate agreement. "And that ambitious climate agreement was completed less than two weeks after that meeting," he added. Obama has also invited Modi to participate in the National Security Summit on March 31-April 1, he said. President Obama was the chief guest at Republic Day in 2015 and Prime Minister Modi has also visited the US in September last year. Appreciating the outcome of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Phase-I activities in Odisha, the World Bank has offered its support for extension of the project in the state. A three-member expert team of the World Bank under the leadership of Paula Caballero, Senior Director Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice, expressed its satisfaction over implementation of the Phase-I of the ICZMP in the state, an official release issued by the Chief Secretary's office said. "Caballero said the outcomes of the ICZM interventions taken up during Phase-I in Odisha has been quite impressive and encouraging. She offered to extend further World Bank support for the interventions like capacity building, scientific management of fishery resources, eco-management in coastal industrial sites like Paradip," the release said. Odisha Chief Secretary A P Padhi said the state would like to have World Bank support in development of infrastructure for fishery, eco-tourism and livelihood promotion activities. He said the best practices developed during Phase-I interventions should be replicated and scaled up during Phase-II of the project. Odisha was among the three states like Gujarat and West Bengal, which were implementing the ICZMP project. In the performance outcome of World Bank so far, Odisha was the leading state. Coastal Zone Management Society of Odisha has been formed under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary for monitoring the implementation of the project. In Phase-I, near about 180 km of coastal area has been covered. The state government has proposed to extend the project to another 300 km of coastal zone in the second phase. The Phase-II proposal has been submitted to the Centre. Senior officers present in the meeting also raised concerns about delay in release of funds from the Centre for implantation of Phase-I activities. The Phase-I project period has been scheduled up to 2017 with a revised financial outlay of Rs 334 crore. Major interventions taken up in the project include strengthening of Wetland Research and Training Centre at Chilika, Protection Measures for control of coastal erosion at Pentha in Kendrapara district, conservation of Biodiversity and Livelihood Security through eco-tourism, Alternative Livelihood for coastal fishermen, development of Participatory Eco-tourism at Chilika and Tampara, establishment of Coastal Mitigation Laboratory at Paradip and Solid Waste Management Project at Paradip. This apart, construction of multipurpose cyclone centres along the coastline, conservation and improvement of Coastal Archaeological and Cultural assets, Regional Coastal Process Study and Choir Training-cum-Production Centre along the Chilika coast and livelihood enhancement support to people through SHGs were part of the ICZM. The activities were being implemented through 14 departments, urban local bodies and special agencies. So far Rs 160 crore have been utilised, the officials said adding the annual action plan of Rs 7,853.91 lakh has been prepared for the 2015-16 fiscal. Other members in the World Bank team who attended the meeting chaired by Odisha Chief Secretary were Kseniya Lvosky, Practice Manager of World Bank and Task Team Leader A Ramkrishna. The team, after visiting project areas during its two-day visit to the state, held discussions with the Chief Secretary today. A youth was detained by police for criticising a councillor belonging to the ruling Trinamool Congress in a post in Facebook today, a police officer said. Rohit Pashi (23) was detained at Mal police station after the TMC councillor of ward number 12, Pulin Goldar, complained to the police that the youth had posted an adverse comment about him alleging that he had links with criminals. Jalpaiguri Superintendent of Police, Akash Megharia said that Pashi was detained under Section 107 IPC for abetment and was later released on furnishing a bond to maintain peace. Mahindra Asset Management Company has received markets regulator Sebi's approval to set up mutual fund business, becoming the latest Indian conglomerate to enter this segment. Mahindra AMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services (MMFS), got the regulator's nod on February 4. In a BSE filing, MMFS said: "Mahindra Asset Management Company Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, on February 4 received the approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to act as the asset management company to the Mahindra Mutual Fund." Mahindra AMC also named Ashutosh Bishnoi as its CEO and MD. "Our customer base of nearly 4 million and over 1,200 branches of Mahindra Finance will play a critical role in ensuring success in the mutual fund business through best-in-class customer service," Mahindra Group Financial Services President and MMFS MD Ramesh Iyer said. The company said it will mainly focus on semi-urban and rural markets with its offerings. "We believe that investors in these markets have an even greater savings potential than urban markets, but they do not have either access or awareness of market-related financial instruments such as mutual funds. So, our task will be to create access and awareness," the company's newly-appointed CEO said. Bishnoi added, "With the proven success and strength of the relationships that Mahindra Finance already has, we believe that we are well-poised to take this business forward in same markets." At present, there are over 40 mutual fund houses operating in the country. While the Indian mutual fund industry has been growing steadily, a number of foreign fund houses have exited the country's mutual market in the recent past and in most cases, the businesses were acquired by Indian entities. In October last year, Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM) announced takeover of global giant Goldman Sachs' mutual fund business in India for Rs 243 crore. Standard Chartered sold its mutual fund business in India to IDFC in 2008 and L&T Finance bought mutual fund operations from Fidelity in 2012, while in 2014, HDFC MF acquired Morgan Stanley's fund business here. Besides, Birla Sunlife has acquired ING Mutual Fund, Kotak MF has bought PineBridge Mutual Fund and Pramerica has taken over Deutsche Bank's mutual fund business in India. MMFS is part of the Anand Mahindra-led Mahindra group. The financial services arm has more than 1,200 branches across the country with over 16,000 employees. From left to right: EVP of Marketing and Communications Rob Brough, Debbie Simpson, Brigitta Borrego, Lesa Wilson, Brandon Despain, Sally Sears, President and CEO Scott Anderson, and Speaking on Business host Chris Redgrave Logan company, Caffe Ibis Coffee Roasting Company, was honored as a Top Business at the Zions Bank Speaking on Business luncheon on Feb. 5. Caffe Ibis was among 15 companies recognized by Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson for its example of entrepreneurship in Utah. In business for 40 years, Randy Wirth and Sally Sears were among the first in Utah to start an artisan custom coffee roasting house. They developed a strong business ethic to contribute to their community while making sustainable business decisions. Setting a high standard for their offerings, many of their coffees are triple-certified as organic, fair trade and shade grown. Caffe Ibis has been recognized for its contributions with awards from the Utah Society for Environmental Education, Specialty Coffee Association of America and Cache Humane Society. We commend businesses like Caffe Ibis for their commitment to sustainability and customer satisfaction, and use of best business practices, said Chris Redgrave, host of the KVNU 610 AM radio program Speaking on Business. Since 1997, Speaking on Business has highlighted more than 4,000 diverse businesses throughout Idaho and Utah. The show, which airs Monday through Friday between 7 and 8 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m., features a wide variety of businesses. Other award winners for 2015 include those in industries such as outdoor outfitting, online job training, food and retail, language translation and construction. Small businesses are integral to the engine that powers our state economy, said Anderson. Zions Bank is committed to supporting the entrepreneurial spirit that leads to job creation and enriches our communities. Members of the South Texas Youth Congress gathered Jan. 23 at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, where they were welcomed by the universitys Michelle Duran and were visited by state Rep. J.M. Lozano. The group consists of members selected from high schools in 14 counties from Nueces to Webb and is part of the Dream Forward foundation, which initiates and supports programs that promote and encourage civic participation in South Texas. It provides opportunities for young people to learn and experience firsthand public policy-making. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Juan Jose De La Cerda (from left), Nidia De La Cerda and Samantha Mendoza SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Magesh Thiyagarajan (from left), Uma Venkat and Jaime Nodarse Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Russell Wagner (from left), Dr. Nicholas Nilest, Russell Jackson and Curtis Clark Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Derek Chang (from left), Marjorie Boudreaux and Mike Munoz Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times David Pena (left) and Mari Marlow Pena Corpus Christi Under 40 honored 40 professionals who live in the city and are under age 40 at a breakfast with Mayor Nelda Martinez on Jan. 26 at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Anchor Ballroom. The annual event recognized the accomplishments of residents who have made significant contributions to their professional field and also have given outstanding service to the community. A portion of the proceeds from this year's event benefited Corpus Christi Metro Ministries. The event is organized by the university, in partnership with Young Business Professionals and Corpus Christi Under 40. SHARE The KEDT team pulled off another fantastic Food and Wine Classic on Jan. 28. The fun began at the Art Museum of South Texas, which hosted the VIP party before the event. The Venetian Hot Plate catered delicious hors d'oeuvres that paired perfectly with the wine selection, which ranged from bubbly Prosecco to oaky and bold pinot noir. KEDT supporters cruised the room enjoying bites and sips while chatting, so I got a chance to visit with Scott Humpal, Caitlyn Chupe and Roetta Rock before cruising over to the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History for the main event. There, some of the city's most delicious restaurants were serving up tasty bites, paired with wine carefully chosen by H-E-B. I spoke to Leanne Winkler from KEDT about the exciting things going on at the station, including their new, fantastic digs at the Del Mar College building across from Ray High School, before I began tasting in earnest. My favorite pairing was the tomato bisque from Harrison's Landing with a smooth cabernet from California, which I topped off with a bite-of-heaven chocolate truffle from GLOW, located in Rockport, paired with a sip or two of Perrier Jouet Champagne. It was fun to see other foodie friends there enjoying the scene. The best moment for me was when I found Omar Lopez, Robert Coy, Scott Elliff, and Mike Briones all clustered in the center of the room discussing the macaroons from Hester's. It was also fun to see representatives from the sponsors working as "corkers," serving the wine to folks. The Navy Army Community Credit Union folks especially looked spiffy in their aprons! It was a night of joie de vivre, but what else do you expect from the folks who bring us "Downton Abbey?" LULAC to honor community leaders LULAC Council No. 1's Outstanding Community Leaders Banquet is at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Omni Corpus Christi Hotel. The Honorable Todd Hunter will serve as the keynote speaker and Steve Arnold is the event's master of ceremonies. The 2016 Honorees are: Humanitarian of the Year, CHRISTUS Spohn Health System; Legal Advocate of the Year, County Attorney Laura Garza Jimenez; Educational Innovator of the Year, Dr. Maria Gonzalez; Law Enforcement of the Year, Police Chief Michael Markle; Advocate of the Year, Dr. Olivia Lopez; Educator of the Year, Dr. Anthony Quiroz; Community Responder of the Year, Chief Robert Rocha; Businessman of the Year, Ricardo Rodriguez. Cost: table sponsorships range from $850 to $5,000. Information: 361-241-4535. Ahuja Casa is Su Casa The Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will host Mi Casa Es Su Casa Women's only mixer at 5 p.m. Feb. 25 at the home of Peggy and Avinash Ahuja. The event will welcome Annette Medlin, the new president and CEO of the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce. One of the night's highlights is an array of local male "celebrity" waiters. All proceeds of the event are allocated to the Mano-A-Mano Scholarship Foundation. The Mano-A-Mano Scholarship program was developed in 2007 by Flint Hills Resources and the Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to encourage students to continue their education in the Coastal Bend while promoting the growth of a local educated workforce. Since its inception, the Mano-A-Mano Scholarship Foundation has awarded over 300 local students with over $300,000 in scholarships. Cost: $10/ members, $20/ nonmembers. Information: 537-9486. Groups team to host heart-health event Methodist Healthcare Ministries, Bay Ltd., and Citgo, along with the American Heart Association, will host Vestido Rojo from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 19 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center. The event will feature lunch, health screenings, and informational seminars educating guests about the signs, symptoms, treatment, and prevention for heart disease, the No. 1 killer of Hispanic women. Cost: free. Information: 210-810-3085. SHARE By Esther Hackleman A brush fire erupted Saturday near Saratoga Boulevard and Greenwood Drive, forcing Corpus Christi police to temporarily shut down traffic near the intersection. Police blocked off traffic near Saratoga and Greenwood around 2 p.m. as crews from the Corpus Christi Fire Department fought the fire, which started in an open field off Saratoga between Greenwood and Calle Las Colonias. Smoke billowed from the area, making it a potential hazard for drivers. Traffic was restored by 3:10 p.m. No injuries were reported. The National Weather Service in Corpus Christi issued a red flag warning from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. throughout South Texas. Winds from the northwest blew at 25 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph. The advisory meant that any fires that developed have a high risk of spreading rapidly due to the gusting winds and dry conditions, Meteorologist Rob Hart said. Twitter:@Caller_Esther SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Uber screenshot COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh turns off his meter after reaching his fares destination on Thursday. Cab company officials say they are losing business to Uber, whose drivers arent required to pay the same costs to operate. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh walks to the front of his cab after helping a fare in to the back on Thursday. Several cabdrivers have told City Council Uber is killing their business because Uber drivers arent paying the same fees cabdrivers have to pay, allowing them to offer cheaper rides. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Uber By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times Cecilia Cruz loves driving the streets of Corpus Christi. As a bus driver, she deals with kids on a daily basis and knows how important it is to make sure people get home safely. Last year, Cruz decided to keep driving in her free time too as an Uber driver. "I thought I could make a little extra money on the side," she said. "I have a regular job but I don't work during the summer. It's a good way to keep me busy." The transportation network company has been offering rides in the city since 2014, according to Sarfraz Maredia, the company's general manager in south and east Texas. Since then, the company has been the people's choice for transportation, offering tens of thousands of rides in the area. "We continue to see that demand increase," Maredia said. The company's growth hasn't been without controversy, however. At a City Council meeting Jan. 12, several cabdrivers aired their grievances to city council during public comment, claiming Uber was killing their business. They're not paying the same fees cabdrivers have to pay, allowing them to offer cheaper rides, the drivers said. In the second half of 2015, Green N Go Cab Operations Manager Julie Tandy said they made $220,000 less than the year before. "Every cab company here has lost business because of Uber," she said. "People use them because they're less expensive, but Uber doesn't have to pay all the things my drivers have to pay." After each comment, Mayor Nelda Martinez stressed that Uber was currently operating illegally in Corpus Christi. Police recently cited two drivers, according to Capt. Billy Breedlove. A new ordinance the council is considering on Tuesday may confirm that. The ordinance will clarify the definition of a taxi cab to include transportation network companies or TNCs. Currently, the ordinance regulates all vehicles for hire, but doesn't specifically mention TNCs. If the council includes the term, it will leave no room for interpretation. "Anytime a person pays an individual to take them for a ride, it's a vehicle for hire," Breedlove said. "We believe that also covers the transportation network companies." Breedlove said his main concern is safety. Uber's background checks involve running the driver's license number and insurance information, but Breedlove said it isn't enough. "The only way to do it is to start with fingerprints," he said. "It's run through a state database and an FBI database." Maredia defended Uber's safety standards, calling the background checks "rigorous" before pointing to other safety features, like a GPS tracker. "You can share your location in real-time with family and friends," he said. Tandy said her cabs can guarantee more safety than Uber with surveillance cameras that monitor both inside the vehicle and out. Maredia said the company will have a presence at Tuesday's meeting to explain why they shouldn't fall under the taxi cab ordinance. If the council votes to include TNCs, however, it may be the end of Uber in Corpus Christi. "If they do, we would likely be forced to cease our operations in Corpus Christi," he said. "Hopefully people feel strongly about it and reach out to city hall." Twitter: @Caller_Fares When is hurricane season? Here's what you need to know in South Texas | BY Lynchy | CB Exclusive ANZ is the principal partner of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2014, and to show their support for diversity, theyve transformed central Sydney ATMs into dazzling GAYTMs turning the day-to-day activity of withdrawing money into a fabulous experience. Created by Whybin\TBWA Group Melbourne, each unique GAYTM has been inspired by gay and lesbian culture. The designs see each ATM being bejewelled by hand in rhinestones, sequins, studs, leather, denim and fur. From unicorns and drag queens to rainbows and tattoos, each GAYTM is a riot of colour and textures to celebrate the festival and show ANZs support for diversity. As well as looking fabulous on the outside, selected ANZ GAYTM screens themselves have been given a makeover to carry messages and well-wishes such as Hello gorgeous, Cash out and proud, and of course Happy Mardi Gras!. And to complete the experience, the GAYTMs will dispense rainbow coloured receipts. Beyond simply joining the party, ANZ is donating the ATM operator fees for non-ANZ cardholders from the GAYTMs to non-profit organisation Twenty10 for the duration of the campaign. ANZs GAYTMs are a fun and colourful way of bringing our ATMs out to celebrate diversity and show our support for one of Australias largest festivals, says Carolyn Bendall, Head of Australia Marketing ANZ. ANZ has been a major sponsor of and participant in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras since 2007, recently announcing a further three year commitment as inaugural Principal Partner. Client: ANZ Creative Agency: Whybin\TBWA Group Melbourne Creative: Executive Creative Director: Paul Reardon Creative Director: Damian Royce Creatives: Tara Ford, Daniel Pizzato, Andy Lish Digital Designer: Frieda Handoko Production: Executive Producer: Margot Ger Production Assistant: Lauren Pell Digital Producer: Mish Fabok Production Company Will ORourke: Project & Artistic Director: The Glue Society (James Dive & Pete Baker) Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie Head of Projects: Josh Mullens Project Manager: Mel Reardon Account Service & Planning: Regional Group Head: Mim Haysom Group Account Director: Claire Tenzer Account Manager: Alice McCormack Head of Digital: Kimberlee Wells Digital Planner: Scott Woodhouse PR: PR Agency: Eleven PR PR Director: Rob Lowe Account Director: Fiona Milliken | BY Ricki Green | Following a brilliant result in 2013 with revenues doubling, a string of new clients and the addition of new people in both creative and account management, Engine restructured its creative department and appointed Merrin McCormick (far left) as co-creative director to team up with fellow co-creative director, Kory Mcavoy (near left). Says Mcavoy: Im really excited about what Merrin and I can do together at Engine. We have a really clear vision of where we want to take the agency creatively these are exciting times for us for us here at Engine. This partnership has already started paying dividends with new clients including Brisbane Racing Club and Holy Spirit Care Services joining Engines group. McCormick joins the agency following a stint working in New York. Shes one of Brisbanes most highly awarded creatives (principally for Tourism Queenslands Best job in the world campaign) and has worked on numerous major brands throughout her career including LOreal Paris USA, Foot Locker, Mars (Dove), Virgin Blue & Tourism Queensland. Says McCormick: Weve had a massive start to the year and Kory and myself are determined to keep up the momentum. This restructure is a continued investment in Engines creative product and our desire to develop standout ideas that are recognised internationally. [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 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. 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 Following up its strong comeback in Europe, the Blue Oval is cutting back on employees and certain models to become even more profitable. The target is to save around $200 million a year in administrative costs by launching a voluntary separation program thats aiming to reduce the 10,330 employees working in administrative roles. Their number has not been disclosed, but Ford of Europe vice president Jim Farley told AutoNews he expects the staff taking up the offer to be in the hundreds. In the past three years, Ford of Europe has improved its business in all areas and moved from deep losses to a $259 million profit in 2015. This is a good first step, he commented. We are absolutely committed to accelerating our transformation, taking the necessary actions to create a vibrant business thats solidly profitable in both good times and down cycles. The manufacturer has already closed three factories in Western Europe since 2013 while they reached an innovative cost-saving agreement with labor unions in Germany. We are creating a far more lean and efficient business that can deliver healthy returns and earn future investment, said Farley. Our job is to make our vehicles as efficiently as possible, spending every dollar in a way that serves customers needs and desires, and creating a truly sustainable, customer-focused business. The plan also includes the elimination of less-profitable models over time without specifying which models will bite the dust. Reports are suggesting that the new Ka city car is among the first to go, despite the fact that the car has already been spied being tested in a prototype form. Building a more efficient business includes a shift of focus to crossovers, with two new compact models scheduled for launch in the next three years. The upmarket Vignale badge will expand from just one model (the Mondeo) to at least five by 2017, while the overhaul will also introduce 13 new PHEVs, hybrids and full electric models by 2020. PHOTO GALLERY General Motors is gearing up a very extensive overhaul of its vehicle development process. In order to remain relevant and, eventually, thrive in this day and age, GM apparently has to rethink its approach in the business. Long gone are the days when the company could afford to launch new and redesigned vehicles in compressed periods of time. The American colossus intends to double the lifespan of its vehicles platforms as part of a broader effort to slash and redirect capital spending. President Dan Ammann told the Reuters that, starting with the new Cruze compact, the basic underpinnings of the vehicle lines could last a dozen years more. GMs goal is to design a global line-up with as much common components as possible, thus spreading engineering and research cost over more vehicles. Mark Reuss, global product development chief, said the company aims for up to 2.5 million sales a year from a variety of models built on the Cruze platform, including the mechanically similar European Opel Astra. Exterior styling will change more often, while electronic features could be upgraded with software updates via the internet. Before it starts paying off, though, this new strategy requires GM to increase capital spending in order to achieve the desired results. Whats more, not everyone is quite sure it will have the desired outcome. The advantage could be short-lived, cautioned Jeff Schuster, senior vice president at LMC Automotive, because theres a danger GM could end up with platforms that are outdated and products that fall behind the competition, falling short of the projected sales target. PHOTO GALLERY A mid-2000s Honda Accord crashed into a house in Lauderhill, Florida on Wednesday leaving a couple with minor injuries and police searching for the missing driver. Just before midnight on Wednesday, the sedan smashed through the home owners bedroom before careening through a hallway and into a bathroom. Once police and fire crews arrived, the couple were taken to a nearby hospital with their 14-year-old daughter suffering from minor injuries, including a gash to the mans skull and lacerations across his wifes body. By the time police arrived however, the Honda driver had fled the scene and was nowhere to be found, prompting an unsuccessful search. Describing the scene, next door neighbour Terrance Gaines said: I heard a boom, came outside, saw clouds of smoke and my neighbors were frantic, in a panic. All the neighbors came outside and tried to help, then cops arrived and fire rescue showed up. His skull was bleeding, his wife had lacerations all over her body, she was covered in blood and [their daughters] eye was swelling up a little bit. They were scared, panicked a lot. Bizarrely, this is actually the second time a car has run into the house with a police chase about a year ago resulting in a similar crash. Video After sanctions against Iran were removed Peugeot announced that, from late 2017, it will begin producing cars in the Middle Eastern country. The company will work with local ally Iran Khodro, investing some 400 million euros over five years on upgrading and improving its 50-year-old factory near Tehran. When production at the plant commences, it will build 100,000 vehicles annually consisting of the 208, 301 sedan and 2008 crossover. Eventually, production at the plant will double. Peugeot has worked with Iran Khodro since 1962, and while they were previously 51-49 per cent partners in the joint venture, the refreshed partnership will be an equal 50-50 split. Alongside collaborating with Peugeot, Iran Khodro has had alliances with Renault and Mercedes-Benz. Story references: Bloomberg PHOTO GALLERY Indian automaker Tata Motors could rename its latest small car because of a global health threat. Heavily marketed locally, the Zica, short for zippy car, sounds like the a mosquito-borne virus linked to a rare birth defect that gives babies abnormally small heads. The large Zika outbreak was linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly, mostly in Brazil, and has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, a classification only used on three previous incidents that included the Ebola and a resurgence of polio in 2014 and the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. In view of the recent developments, we are now evaluating the situation. We do not currently have a timeframe about when we will announce the decision, head of corporate communications Minari Shah told TheGuardian in an e-mail. Shah added that the cars name was chosen last year when we could not have foreseen any of the recent events. Zicas likely rebranding comes only a few months after the carmaker launched a big marketing campaign with adverts featuring Barcelonas star Lionel Messi, who is Tatas global ambassador. PHOTO GALLERY VIDEOS To celebrate the launch of the all-electric Tesla Model X SUV in China and Chinese New Year, the Californian automaker has released the special Signature Red limited edition model. Tesla opted to paint the special edition model red as its the color used in China to symbolize celebrations. The Signature Red paint scheme is complemented with every available option for the range-topping P90D meaning it comes complete with the Ludicrous speed upgrade, red brake calipers, an active rear spoiler, air suspension, 20-inch wheels, Autopilot and black Nappa leather and alcantara inside. While the Signature Red model is exclusive to China, the paint scheme is available worldwide. Nevertheless, Chinese customers will have to part ways with 1.48 million yuan (about $225,000) to own a Model X Signature Red Limited Edition. By comparison, the entry-level 90D starts at 1.17 million yuan (~$178,155). PHOTO GALLERY While most people outside Japan think that the Lexus LS is the Toyota groups most luxurious model, thats not entirely true, as in their home market, that distinction goes to the Toyota Century. The folks over at BAT found one of them for sale on Craigslist in Vancouver, BC, Canada for the affordable price of CA$11,500, which comes to just shy of $8,300 at todays exchange rates. Its claimed to be only one of two second-generation Toyota Centurys to have ever crossed the Pacific Ocean and enter North America. Up for sale is my 2000 Toyota Century V12. 131,900km. Car was recently imported just a month ago from Japan. I have decided to go a different route and no longer need the Century. This is currently the only RHD Gen 2 Century in North America. No accidents and all services are up to date. Vehicle was purchased from AutoBell Shizuoka after a huge search for the perfect Century says the seller. Due to the low production numbers of this car in 2000, and its perfect condition, it is currently eligible for ICBC Collector status. Toyota introduced the Century nameplate back in 1967 with a V8 engine keeping it in production for 30 years, before it introduced the second iteration in 1997. While visually similar to the previous model, the Century Mk2 was a new car and notably, the first and only front-engine, rear-wheel drive production sedan from Japan with a V12 mill. Up until 2004, the twelve-cylinder powerplant was hooked up to a 4-speed automatic, with Toyota upgrading it to a 6-speed automatic in 2005. In Japan, the 2016 Century, which is virtually undistinguishable from the car pictured here sans some very subtle upgrades made over the years, starts from 12,538,286 Yen, or about $107,000. Theres an even a more special version of the Century named Royal, which is a one-off custom creation for the Emperor of Japan, believed to have cost over half a million dollars. Photo Gallery Photo: Contributed - Shuswap Trail Alliance. Two technical support specialists from the Shuswap Trail Alliance are heading south this month to help their counterparts in Patagonia, Chile. Torres del Paine, Patagonia is recognized as one of the top trekking and climbing destinations on the planet. It is visited annually by travellers from around the world. A group known as the AMA Torres del Paine works with the Chilean National Parks service to provide conservation and educational programs. Part of its work includes maintaining the trail system. "We have an internationally known trail system," said Mauricio Kusanovic, AMA president. "But many of the trails originate from old cattle trails, so we have significant issues with erosion and a need for restoration. We don't have the technical trail building knowledge," said Kusanovic. This is where the Shuswap Trail Alliance comes in. Veda Roberge and Jacob (Sutra) Brett have volunteered two weeks of their time in February to visit Patagonia and share technical knowledge. "We are super excited to be able to experience this beautiful part of the planet and also share with others who are trying to do similar work to the Trail Alliance," said Roberge. Upon their return, the two will share insights from the visit at the Trail Alliance's annual general meeting on March 2, 7 pm, at Okanagan College Salmon Arm. Photo: Contributed The driver of the BMW from Thursday nights crash on McCurdy has been issued a violation ticket. According to Const. Kris Clark, the BMW was traveling south on Friesen Road and slid through the intersection at McCurdy Road, colliding with a GM truck. The truck then crashed through a neighbours fence. The driver of the truck was taken to hospital with a soft tissue injury. Both vehicles suffered extensive damage in the incident. Its unclear if the roads were wet at the time of the crash. From the moment we called Blair Mechanical to the moment they were finished in our home, we received the absolute best service we have had from any company in a very long time. Our furnace quit on the coldest day of this year. Not only did they come out immediately, they supplied us with space heaters until the parts came in to fix our furnace. I would like to thank Scott for the initial visit, Stephanie for her very pleasant and patient phone manner, Erin for bringing the heaters so quickly and Tyler for fixing, cleaning and making sure our furnace is up and running. Also Chantelle (reception) for her pleasant phone manner, and Blair for having such a great company and staff. I really recommend that anyone who needs furnace repairs to call this company. Patricia Cameron & Victor Hakanson Photo: Contributed - Google Maps The you know what literally hit the fan or, in this case, the pavement resulting in a massive spill of human waste. Emergency response crews worked through the night and are said to be close to cleaning up biosolids being trucked from the Westside Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in West Kelowna. The semi, operated by an RDCO contractor, overturned on the Riley Dam portion of Big Bar Road near Jesmond, about 1 p.m. Thursday, after hitting a patch of ice. The spill happened about 10 kilometres from the truck's final destination, OK Ranch, in the Cariboo. Bruce Smith with the regional district said the Ministry of Environment was contacted and the site secured. He said crews, working in co-ordination with the ministry, are taking the necessary steps to remove the spilled materials and soil from the site. "The trailer contained approximately 20 cubic metres of biosolid material. Emergency services and spill response crews worked through the night to remove the remaining biosolids from the trailer and remove the truck from the accident site," said Smith. "Since this morning, the response team has been cleaning up the approximately five cubic metres of biosolids that spilled from the trailer." While media are just being notified of the spill some 26 hours after the fact, Smith said residents of the affected area were notified last night by Interior Health. Engine oil, hydraulic oil and coolant also leaked as a result of the rollover. The vehicle's fuel tanks remained intact. The driver was pinned inside the cab. He was freed by emergency crews and taken to hospital in 100 Mile House with minor injuries. He has since been released. Smith said Class B biosolids are a treated, nutrient rich byproduct of the wastewater treatment process used to enrich soils and stimulate plant growth. "Biosolids are non-toxic and not considered to be a hazardous material under transport regulations in B.C. "Because a very small percentage of pathogens may still be present in treated biosolids, the public is advised to keep themselves and pets away from the area until the Ministry of Environment and Interior Health Authority are able to rule out any potential health risks." During the next week, the regional district will work with health and environment regulatory agencies to monitor the cleanup and water quality in Big Bar Creek. Photo: The Canadian Press British Columbia is Canada's only economic bright spot and the federal government needs to financially back mega-projects in the province that are good for the country, says Premier Christy Clark Clark met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday in Ottawa, where she said she pitched federal support for Metro Vancouver transit projects and a proposed billion-dollar upgrade of the hydro grid between B.C. and Alberta as a way to shut down Alberta's use of coal-fired power plants. The province needs federal dollars to keep the engine running, Clark said. "When you look at the map of the country, the only bright spot you see is British Columbia because we're strong, we're diverse and we're growing," she said in a telephone interview. "We really are the only bright spot in the country right now. There's so much uncertainty, such debt. So many people unemployed." Trudeau was in Alberta this week meeting with government, industry, labour and social service groups to find ways to blunt the economic downturn caused by falling oil prices. The Royal Bank forecasts B.C.'s economy to lead Canada's growth rate this year at 3.1 per cent and 2.9 per cent in 2017. The B.C. government, which is set to table its fourth consecutive surplus budget, has forecast growth at 2.4 per cent this year. Clark said B.C. plans to apply for federal funding of the B.C.-Alberta hydro project to upgrade the grid between the provinces. She estimated the plan would cost about $1 billion. "Alberta has promised to get off coal, finally. We can help them with energy so they can find a way to shut those coal plants." Alberta Premier Rachel Notley's climate-change strategy calls for the mandatory end of emissions from Alberta coal-fired electrical plants by 2030. Clark said she told Trudeau the power line would cut harmful greenhouse-gas emissions in Alberta. "For us, it's great," she said. "That's profit for BC Hydro, which means it's good for ratepayers. It's also great for Canada because it means we are supplying Alberta with our clean energy so they can get off their coal habit." B.C. announced plans in December 2014 to build the Site C dam, a $9 billion hydroelectric project in the province's northeast. A delegation about 100 people from B.C., including business leaders and members of her cabinet, were in Ottawa meeting the federal government. Clark said she and Trudeau also discussed much-needed infrastructure transit projects for Metro Vancouver, including the George Massey Tunnel replacement project, a key route to and from port facilities. "Ending that (traffic) bottleneck in the George Massey Tunnel is just as important to Ontario as it is to the people in Tsawwassen," Clark said. "That's how they get their goods to market." Photo: Contributed - N. Shuswap Tribal Council The Northern Shuswap Tribal Council says it is encouraged with Fridays signing of an incremental treaty deal with the province. Four Northern Shuswap First Nation bands, represented by a council treaty group, are currently negotiating a treaty with the federal and provincial governments. Members from all four communities will vote in a referendum Feb. 11 on an agreement in principle. The interim deals provide for the transfer of up to 3,760 hectares of Crown land to the Canim Lake Band, the Canoe Creek/Dog Creek band, the Soda Creek band and the Williams Lake band. The council believes the deal will offer increased economic opportunities in forestry, tourism, commercial and industrial sectors. The agreements also include funding for the construction of fencing to address the interests of area cattle ranchers affected by the deals. If the agreement is endorsed by the bands' members, the treaty group will move on to final agreement negotiations. Photo: Contributed A Vancouver bride to be got more than she bargained for when she tried to book a limo for her upcoming wedding. Its become quite clear that your marriage probably wont last, because I really cant see how anybody can tolerate being married to you, a Vancouver Prestige Limos employee wrote in an email to Heather Oliver. Ive known you for all of an hour, and Id sooner cover myself in paper cuts and take a lemon juice bath than have anything else to do with you. A shocked Oliver went public with her story after the exchange. Oliver had tried to line up a limo to drop her off at the July nuptials, then pick her up seven hours later. Prestige responded that it books cars for a minimum of three hours. Oliver replied that she had quotes on hourly service from two other companies. And then things went south. Good for you. I hope your marriage lasts. Thank you, Prestige responded. How dare you. You must be a pretty miserable person to be so cruel, Oliver emailed. And then the venom came out. The exchange left her feeling disappointed and hurt, Oliver told CTV. You cant help but take those kinds of words personally, she said. Prestige refused to comment on the matter. with files from CTV Vancouver In his historic address to Congress last September, Pope Francis spoke of four people who had shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people. One of them was Dorothy Day a reminder that she continues to demand our attention some 35 years after her death at the age of 83 on Nov. 29, 1980. Now we have the journalist Patrick Jordans concise, crisply written, deeply knowledgeable biography to help us get to know this inspiring but somewhat elusive woman in all her saintly contradictions. Jordan, former managing editor of Commonweal and editor of a collection of Days writings, was associated with her from 1968 until her death. He and his wife, Kathleen, took part in the Catholic Worker movement, living and working with Day at the St. Joseph House on Manhattans Lower East Side when she was in her 70s. That lived reality of who Day was permeates the book. This reflection will convey a glimpse of what was singular about Dorothy Day, while not losing sight of her humanity, Jordan writes in the introduction. She was delightfully down-to-earth and a pleasure to be with most of the time. Despite the authors personal recollections, the book is not a memoir. Rather, it is a carefully documented account that relies heavily on quotes from Days writings. Jordan seems to know just where to turn to illustrate a point about some facet of Day that he may have observed, using such sources as her four autobiographical memoirs, columns in The Catholic Worker newspaper, her diaries and letters. The opening chapter gives a chronology of Days life, which is especially useful for those who may not know her story well. Subsequent chapters reflect on the roots of her radicalism; the process of conversion in her life; her principles and devotion to voluntary poverty; her penchant for peacemaking; the melancholy and times of depression in her life; her personalist philosophy; and the question of her sainthood. The book traces Days life as a radical, liberal writer in New York who went to jail for 18 days after picketing for womens right to vote. She became part of a heady Greenwich Village literary scene before finding her way to Catholicism. An abortion, two suicide attempts, the birth of a daughter, the dissolution of her marriage and the quick rise of the Catholic Worker newspaper during the Great Depression were all part of her story. She was a demanding editor and, according to muckraking reporter I.F. Stone, the best writer among all the journalists of their generation. She dove into the political currents of her time, and had strong opinions that were based in Gospel principles, not partisanship or ideology. She also spoke up for freedom of religion. Jordan notes that she picketed the Mexican embassy for that countrys persecution of Catholics; the German embassy for Nazi persecution of Jews and Catholics; and the Russian consulate because of her opposition to atheistic communism. As Jordan writes, Day managed to both love the Catholic Church intensely and to criticize its human flaws intensely. In a 1967 Catholic Worker column that assailed New Yorks Cardinal Francis Spellman for supporting the Vietnam War, she wrote, As to the church, where else shall we go, except to the bride of Christ, one flesh with Christ? Though she is a harlot at times, she is our Mother. Jordans chapter on personalism may be the most important in the book because it gets to the heart of her vision. She had an idea of how important each person is, and in practice she approached each person as unique and revelatory of Gods love, Jordan writes. Dorothys attention to others was the fruit of her hours of prayer. In other words, Days life is the antidote to the lament of Linus, the Charles Schulz character in the Peanuts cartoon who declares, I love mankind, its people I cant stand. Day was at once radical and traditional: her outlook was based on the Gospel call for a radical love of each individual, the outgrowth of her prayer and devotion. It was a call that led her to the people on the periphery. This is indeed traditional Catholicism and also as contemporary as the latest words from Pope Francis, who praised Day before Congress for, among other reasons, her commitment to the rights of persons. This book can be recommended to a wide readership. Reader-friendly and inspiring, it would be a good choice for high-school students. It reads quickly enough so that everyone in the parish book club would find time to finish it. Its thoroughly documented, making it appropriate for a college course. Its an overview for those who dont know much about Day and would like to learn. And it has reflections that would please those who already know Days writings well but want to experience her again through the perspective of a keen observer. In short, its a wonderful book and a fine addition to this Liturgical Press series of concise and inspiring biographies for the general reader. Missed Delivery? If missed delivery or wet paper please call our office 909-628-5501 ext 110 Leave a detailed message with name, address, and phone number. Readers must call before 1 p.m. on Saturday. Re-deliveries are available for Chino residents until 1 p.m. Saturdays. Click Here Perhaps companies should be a bit more explicit in explaining that what you do in your personal time can matter just as much. (Gillespie noted that companies have to walk a fine line there, as the National Labor Relations Board is very protective of a worker's ability to voice opinions about an employer. But I'm not talking about work gripes in a chat room with colleagues. I'm talking about the aggressive and profane harassment of individuals often strangers with whom a person disagrees.) Edelman's findings are not surprising. After all, people discovered in the financial crisis that every major institution failed them and put the world in danger of a global depression. Congress, President George W. Bush's administration, and the Federal Reserve failed to police financial institutions despite loads of warnings from consumer groups. Wall Street went wild turning mortgages, and even imaginary pieces of mortgages, into securities and made a fortune selling them around the world to large institutions that should have been doing their homework. As the poison infected the world's financial system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured Americans that the problem was contained and soon afterward begged for an emergency $700 billion bank bailout. PARK CITY, Utah John Foley felt a complicated set of emotions when he viewed the now infamous video of his son, the journalist James Wright Foley, being executed 18 months ago by masked soldiers of Islamic State. "Despite the world watching, I felt so bad he was alone and none of us were there," John said in an interview with his wife, Diane, last week. "I only pray that, even though he was physically alone, he died with the memories of all those who loved him." Advertisement A tear then came to John's eye. "It was horrific," he said, his voice wavering. "But seeing Jimmy's lips like that in the video, I could see his courage. I could feel his courage." To many Americans, James Foley is a piece of shorthand, a symbol, the orange-jumpsuited man in the grotesque footage that drove home the danger of Islamic State. To the Foleys, he represented something else: Jimmy, a brave and pure-hearted idealist, the son who made them proud, if more than a little anxious, with every new adventure he embarked upon. Foley had been held prisoner for nearly two years before his death, in Syria, at age 40, and his parents had come to embrace their son's pursuit of the stories beyond the headlines. Advertisement The rest of America might start to feel a little more like the Foleys upon watching "Jim." Directed by Brian Oakes, a film-graphics veteran and the subject's childhood friend, the documentary is an intimate homage to a deeply likable man and a reminder that, for all its high-level policy wrangling, the war on terror is just as often about a confused and heartbroken family next door. After premiering last week at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won a major audience prize, "Jim" will debut on HBO Saturday night. The film paints the native of small-town New Hampshire as a rich human being, one innately driven to take risks in the name of truth. "I remember as I became more aware of the dangers, asking him, 'Why are you doing this?' You have two master's degrees why?' Diane said, sitting near her husband, with a mix of resolute and questioning tones. "And he said, 'Mom, you have to understand my passion.' He became more excited just talking about it. And that's when I began to understand." The Marquette University- and Medill-Northwestern University-educated Foley was a free spirit so caught up was he in the moment he often came hours late to appointments and frequently forgot to pack a toothbrush, the film recalled. Foley took some time in early adulthood figuring out his life purpose. He volunteered with Teach for America; he taught writing to prison inmates in the Chicago area. As the Iraq war progressed, however, Foley felt the need to be closer to, and communicate from, intense global conflicts. He embedded with the Indiana National Guard as a broadcast journalist, then shortly afterward, he traveled as a freelancer with a small group of international reporter friends to chronicle the 2011 revolution in Libya. Foley was captured there and survived more than 40 days as a hostage before being freed in a negotiated release. The journalist returned home to his tightknit family he is the eldest of five siblings and was especially close to his more pragmatic brother Michael, a key voice in the film but found himself bored with a desk-editing job. He soon returned to a combat zone. In late 2012, he was captured while working in war-torn northern Syria. The second half of "Jim" is devoted to showing what Foley's life was like in a harsh prison setting. More than a dozen European journalists were held captive with him at various points; apart from the British nationals, all were released. Their voices here offer a detailed look at life as a Westerner behind Islamic State lines. There were the board games the prisoners invented out of little raw material. The oranges they coveted like candy. And, of course, the torture sessions. As one former captive says in the movie, it wasn't the physical pain as much as the psychological uncertainty. Advertisement A perennial optimist, Foley was a steady presence throughout. He was frequently helpful and supportive, even if it meant pushing down his own pain. "The most poignant moment, and the one that drove home Jimmy's spirit to me watching the film, was when some people weren't certain about whether they would be released, and Jimmy put his arm around them and supported them even though he knew he would never be released," said John Foley, a soft-spoken doctor with a New Hampshire accent. "That was the essence of Jim," he added, beginning to choke up once more. Oakes, who knew Jim Foley well from their shared New Hampshire town, said, "He was just that guy you always wanted around. Whenever Jim entered that room, he didn't have to say anything. He just changed the environment." If the movie mostly evades the question of whether there was a more traditional way for Foley to be practicing overseas journalism, it also makes clear the benefits that came from his fearlessness. Foley and his colleagues were among the first to transmit horrific images and stories from the region where few dared to travel because it was simply too dangerous. (One of the goals of the foundation that Diane and John formed after their son's death is to provide a better safety net for the growing number of freelance journalists in conflict areas.) Hovering above the movie are several what-ifs, particularly with regard to the strict hostage-negotiation policy of the U.S. Though John and Diane Foley decline to speak of it these days, there is a palpable sense of frustration in the film about the government's efforts. As Foley's editor notes, the Europeans were all released. Picture of James Foley in Syria 2012,from the film "Jim: The James Foley Story." (Nicole Tung / HBO) Some viewers might also ask why a civilian was in a hot zone like Syria, especially after cheating death in Libya just a short time before. But this was never a question for Foley, and the film argues it shouldn't be for us either. As a friend says, in an analogy befitting cinema's current "Spotlight" moment, you would never question a fireman who rushes into a burning building to do his job. Why would you do the same for a journalist? Advertisement For his parents, this is, understandably, a more delicate issue. "It was so hard to have Jimmy home from Libya," John said. "We didn't want to push him. But I still feel like sometimes maybe we should have laid more guilt, like that might have stopped him from going back overseas." "We could have laid more guilt," Diane said quietly. The moment that will emotionally wreck the most steely soul comes in the movie's conclusion, when Jim's brother Michael reads a kind of farewell letter written just before Foley was executed. In it, the journalist offers a poignant reminder to each of his close family members of what he loves and remembers about them the hug he gave one brother outside a comedy club, his wishes to his grandmother. "You realize you don't know your children when they become adults," said Diane, taking a deep breath as she recounted some of the textured details in "Jim." "They go off and have their jobs and their friends, and a lot of that is a mystery to parents." "We came to know Jimmy from the film," said John. steve.zeitchik@latimes.com Well, Mr. Morgan, some of the material the part expressing a personal desire for acts of sexual violence was over the line. I suspect Morgan is surrounded by people saying, great, go for it, get back, and all well and good. But he needs a little of the opposite advice. No need for some of this. Given the energy of the show and the defiant assertiveness of the deliverer an energy he can't and shouldn't change at the moment the underpinning of the material shifts. He's not in a place to leaven, to mitigate, to compensate, to protect comedically. To pick up the pieces sometimes means ripping up the Scotch tape that reassembles the segments in a nasty way. "You consider yourself a 'badass' investigative journalist yet, you report that 'Emmanuel (sic) saw the Laquan McDonald video' while I'm not a big fan of Emmanuel, investigation into what Emmanuel knew has resulted in ZERO emails pointing to this fact. Be mindful of data in what you report so definitively! Police officers investigate a shooting in the 7100 block of South Calumet Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood where a 21-year-old man was shot and killed late on Feb. 5, 2016. (Alexandra Chachkevitch / Chicago Tribune) A man died and at least five other people, including two boys, have been wounded since Friday evening in separate shootings on the West, South and Southwest sides. A 21-year-old man died after he was shot around 11:30 p.m. through the window of a residence in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side, police said. Advertisement The man, identified as Matthew M. Williams of the 1000 block of East 46th Street, was inside a home in the 7100 block of South Calumet Avenue when someone outside fired shots, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. Bullets came through the window and struck the man in the back, police said. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead there at 12:08 a.m., police and the examiner's office said. Advertisement No one was in custody as a result of the shooting early Saturday, and police were still investigating the incident. Police could not immediately confirm whether Williams was an unintended target. Early Saturday, police officers used yellow crime scene tape to cordon off the sidewalk in front of a four-story red brick building on the eastern side of Calumet Avenue, just south of 71th Street. The front door of the building was shattered, and broken glass lay on the ground surrounding it. As police officers investigated the crime scene, one officer noticed a couple of shell casings lying in the middle of Calumet, outside of the cordoned-off crime scene. The officer then stopped a man walking north on Calumet from stepping on the newly found evidence. "Sorry, sir, we just found more stuff here," she said, pointing to the ground. The man walked around the spot on the road. Another officer pulled out a roll of yellow tape and expanded the crime scene to include a section of Calumet. Advertisement St. Columbanus Catholic Church and Augustus Tolton Catholic Academy lined the other side of Calumet, right across from where the shooting happened. A pastor from the church walked outside and lingered next to yellow crime scene tape until a pair of detectives came up to talk to him. At the northern edge of the crime scene, police officers interviewed a group of men, some of whom were inside the building when the gunfire erupted outside. Tony Marshall, 29, said he and a group of his friends, including Williams, were hanging out in the first-floor apartment of the building Friday evening when the shooting happened. Marshall described the apartment as "a man cave" where a group of his friends would gather almost every weekend. Minutes before the shooting, Marshall said, he went out of the apartment to get cigarettes at the nearby Citgo gas station. He heard several gunshots and returned to find Williams shot. Advertisement Marshall said Williams was playing an NBA video game on an Xbox console when he was shot through the window. Marshall, dressed in a black hoodie and faded jeans, stood with a pair of other men next to the crime scene early Saturday. He started weeping when he found that Williams did not make it. "He dead?" he said loudly. "He dead. He dead." Marshall took a drag of his cigarette and shook his head. "Welcome to Chicago, right?" he said as tears streamed down his face. Marshall said Williams was originally from Virginia and was a student at Columbia College, but officials at the school said he was not. He described Williams as an uplifting, fun-loving person who loved making music. Advertisement "He didn't deserve it," Marshall said. In other shootings: Most recently, about 2 a.m. Saturday, a 15-year-old boy was wounded in a shooting in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side, said Officer Veejay Zala, a Chicago police spokesman. The boy was walking in the 4500 block of South Whipple Street when someone in a passing car fired shots at him, Zala said. The boy was shot in the right leg and left foot. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, Zala said. About 8:30 p.m., a 23-year-old man was critically wounded after getting shot in the face near the Illinois Institute of Technology campus in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, Zala said. Advertisement The man was shot in the first block of West 31st Street. He was taken in critical condition to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Zala said. No other information was immediately available about the shooting. About 7:25 p.m., a 25-year-old woman was critically wounded after getting shot in the head in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood on the West Side, said Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago police spokeswoman. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > The woman's roommate found her unresponsive inside a vehicle in the 2000 block of West 21st Street, Sedevic said. She was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition, Sedevic said. Two other shootings happened about 5:26 p.m. in the city's Lawndale and Grand Crossing neighborhoods, said Officer Thomas Sweeney, a Chicago police spokesman. Advertisement One shooting happened in the 1600 block of South Lawndale Avenue, and the other in the 7600 block of South Dorchester Avenue, he said. In the Lawndale Avenue shooting, a boy, whose exact age was not given, was on the sidewalk when someone opened fire, striking him in the abdomen and arm. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was listed in fair condition. In the Dorchester Avenue shooting, a 25-year-old man suffered a leg wound, and took himself to Jackson Park Hospital. Police were investigating. Esmeralda Rosas, and her children Santiago Guevara, 6, and Anaya Santiago, 10, visit a memorial on May 19, 2016, in front of the Gage Park house where six family members were killed in February. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) The Cook County medical examiner's office on Saturday officially released information on the identities of the six people found killed inside a Gage Park home this week. The six family members were found dead a little after 1 p.m. Thursday when police were called to a home in the 5700 block of South California Avenue because a man who lived there had not shown up for work. Advertisement Those killed were identified as Rosaura Martinez, 58; her husband, Noe Martinez Sr., 62; their son Noe Martinez Jr., 38; their daughter Maria Herminia Martinez, 32; and children identified by family as her two sons, Leonardo Cruz, 13, and Alexis Cruz, 10. The medical examiner's office had released information on the causes of death Friday but not released the identities officially, saying in a release that "in all homicides, official identification must be done visually by next-of-kin or by scientific means, for example using fingerprint matches." Advertisement Martinez Sr. and the children died from "multiple sharp-force injuries," according to the the medical examiner's office release Friday. His wife died from "multiple sharp- and blunt-force injuries," while their son died from "multiple blunt- and multiple sharp-force injuries," according to the office. Their daughter died from "multiple gunshot wounds." Police had said Thursday that they could not rule out the possibility that one of those found dead may have committed suicide, but the medical examiner's office ruled all of the deaths homicides. Earlier on Friday, Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy said at a news conference that there was no sign of gunfire in the home. Roy said the doors were locked, there was no sign of forced entry and the home was not ransacked. He said the six were killed between late Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning. Asked about a motive, Roy said it was too early in the investigation to say. He would also not comment on whether police had any suspects in mind. Police are not ruling out any possible scenario at this point, Roy added. "Everything from a domestic incident, possible robbery or even possibly something nefarious that could have targeted the family is being explored," said Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi in an email Saturday morning. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > However, "We don't believe there are any threats to the community based on the physical state of scene and lack of intelligence to support that this was a random incident," Guglielmi said in the email. "Also, at thia point in the investigation detectives are working very hard to do thorough background on our victims and try to identify a potential conflict that could have caused this unspeakable tragedy." Advertisement The bodies of the family members were found about 1 p.m. Thursday after police were asked by a co-worker of one of the residents to check on him because he had not shown up the last few days. Police were told it was "out of character" for him. The family of the victims has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover funeral expenses. So far, they've raised nearly $23,000 more than double the page's $11,000 goal. "This has shocked and left their family, relatives and loved ones speechless and heartbroken as the household was nothing but a loving and gentle family that was always quiet," the family says on the website. "In the time of need the family asks for help in both prayers and donations to help send the bodies back to Mexico, where they would've wished to be buried. "The donations given will help send the bodies to Mexico and help with the funerals and burying ceremonies of all six members," it adds. "God bless everyone, every little bit helps and is appreciated greatly." In a statement, the Mexican consulate in Chicago said all four adults will be transferred to Guanajuato, in central Mexico, and the two children will go to Morelos, a little further south. The consulate is helping make arrangements. A cat injured when a man poured scalding water on him was rescued by two animal rescue enthusiasts on Feb. 5, 2016. Leon Teague, 18, faces a felony animal torture charge and an animal cruelty depiction charge after police say he posted on Facebook a video of injuring the cat. (Courtesy of Heather Weidmann) Heather Weidmann was horrified Friday morning when she saw footage on Facebook of a South Side cat getting scalded with boiling water. "I cried my eyes out, it's horrible," the construction worker said Friday night. "Who's going to help this cat?" Advertisement The Humboldt Park resident said she has under her belt 16 years' worth of rescuing cats and decided to pounce. As the man charged with injuring the cat sat in jail, she rounded up a fellow rescue enthusiast and headed to the Park Manor neighborhood Friday afternoon. Advertisement "We sort of have crazy cat powers," Weidmann, 43, said. "We always find them." Leon Teague, 18, of the 6900 block of South King Drive, faces a felony animal torture charge after police say he doused the cat with the scalding hot water, as well as a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty depiction. He was ordered held without bail Friday in Cook County Central Bond Court. The video shows someone behind the camera holding a black pot with hot water. He lures the cat with enticing noises and throws the water, sending the cat scurrying away in tortured howls. Weidmann and her friend, Melissa Belice, searched the alley behind Teague's residence to no avail all Friday afternoon before deciding to come back at night. "There's a lot of cats in that alley," she said. They made arrangements to have police and Chicago Animal Care and Control officers meet them at the scene about 7 p.m. "We showed up in the alley, and the cat was there," Weidmann said. "We called him over. He was friendly. We set up a trap and the cat went in." Advertisement Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Weidmann said the cat's injuries were apparent but his spirit appeared indefatigable. "His fur is singed and he has burns on him," she said. "He's got scabbing, but he's very friendly and he's in great spirits." The cat will stay in the city's animal shelter on medical hold until Monday, when Weidmann said she will meet with police and then take it to Felines and Canines animal shelter in Edgewater. Heather Weidmann, right, and her friend Melissa Belice tracked down a cat on the South Side on Feb. 5, 2016, after the animal was shown in a Facebook video being scalded by hot water. The rescued cat is in a trap covered by the towel the two are holding. (Courtesy of Heather Weidmann) Weidmann, who said she has three dogs and a couple of cats and regularly feeds feral cat colonies, said she is in the midst of figuring out a name for her latest charge. "He's got to have a pretty damn special name," she said. "For everything that he's been through, to still come up and let us touch him and pet him, he's pretty damn special." geoffz@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @JournoGeoffZ Mayor Rahm Emanuel hugs supporters after receiving the endorsement of several members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus on April 1, 2015. (Phil Velasquez, Chicago Tribune) African-American voters helped rescue Rahm Emanuel's re-election bid last year, but now that same group is among the most dissatisfied with the mayor, a comprehensive review of the results of the latest Chicago Tribune polling reveals. Last April, Emanuel got nearly 60 percent of the vote in the city's 18 majority African-American wards on the South and West sides as he defeated Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia in Chicago's first-ever runoff election for mayor. Advertisement Ten months later, more than 60 percent of the voters in those wards disapprove of Emanuel's overall job performance, more than 70 percent don't like the way he's handled crime or schools, and more than 80 percent don't think his police department treats all citizens fairly. While those figures roughly track with the attitudes of all Chicago voters, black voters have a deeper level of distrust with the police department. The numbers also represent a decline for Emanuel among a community he worked so hard to win over. Advertisement Just as African-American voters were key to deciding Emanuel's political fate a year ago, it is their attitudes, fueled in part by reaction to revelations about the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, that could end up determining success or failure for Emanuel for the rest of his second term. The question is whether aldermen in those wards will continue to stick by a mayor they have largely supported, given the attitudes of their residents. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 5 (Tribune Graphics) "We are hearing the exact same thing from people in coffee shops and at McDonald's, talking about the same issues: They don't trust the mayor, they don't believe the mayor," said South Side Ald. Howard Brookins, whose 21st Ward is more than 90 percent African-American. "It is with rare exception that you will hear someone speak up and defend him." Ald. Roderick Sawyer, chairman of the City Council's Black Caucus, said Emanuel's lagging popularity has emboldened some aldermen, and he predicted more initiatives will start in the City Council in the years ahead. He pointed to 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin's push for more Tasers in the Police Department, which Sawyer said the mayor immediately picked up on, as well as an ordinance to place the City Council under the inspector general's purview. "I've always wanted to see all of us to be aggressive in our dealings with the mayor's office," said Sawyer, whose South Side 6th Ward is 90 percent black. "We as aldermen should be driving policy and the mayor should be responding to us, and we're starting to see it lean that way a little more." In perhaps a sign of their uncertain support for Emanuel, several black City Council members who typically are available to discuss such matters did not respond to interview requests for this story. If there is one slight positive for Emanuel, voters in predominantly African-American wards aren't unified in wanting him gone. Instead, they're equally split 45 percent want him to resign and 45 percent said he should stay. Some aldermen in those wards believe Emanuel can regain the trust of voters, but only by making transformational moves, from changes in the police department to bringing jobs and an improved economy to black neighborhoods suffering from crime. Advertisement Asked how the mayor would rebuild trust with African-American voters, Emanuel spokeswoman Kelley Quinn emailed a general statement that sought to cast the recent controversies as issues that have been brewing for decades. "Ultimately, in the months and years ahead, the mayor will be judged on how we confront these longstanding challenges, how we move Chicago forward and we work to improve the lives of every resident," Quinn said. If there's an advantage for Emanuel, it's that he's been down this road before. The mayor's support among black voters dropped substantially after Chicago suffered a sharp spike in crime in 2012 and he pushed to close nearly 50 schools, most of them in African-American neighborhoods, the following year. As Emanuel prepared his re-election bid in August 2014, only about a quarter of black voters approved of his job performance. At the same time, about 6 in 10 disapproved of the way he ran the city and how he handled Chicago's crime problem, and 77 percent opposed the way he operated Chicago Public Schools. By the time he was battling Garcia in a runoff campaign in March 2015, Emanuel's job approval rating among African-Americans had shot up to about 50 percent. And 44 percent of black voters said they viewed the often abrasive and aggressive mayor as in touch with people such as themselves. Advertisement Emanuel recovered, in large part by spending millions of dollars to try to repair his image, running a TV ad during the runoff campaign in which he donned a sweater and acknowledged that he "can rub people the wrong way or talk when I should listen. I own that." In another ad, he told voters Chicago could be better "and yes, I hear ya, so can I." Those gains have dissipated in subsequent months, the poll showed. Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, center, along with other Chicago aldermen who are members of the Black Caucus, hold a news conference Oct. 5, 2015, to call for the firing of police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) "The African-American community is angry, they're frustrated, they feel disenfranchised and I do not think no matter how much he spends, no matter how many gray sweaters he puts on and talks about he's going to be a softer, gentler mayor I don't think he's going to survive this," said Clarice Berry, a 68-year-old African-American poll respondent who lives in University Village. "He is not going to be re-elected. Enough sharks in Chicago smell the blood in the water." Berry, who is union president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, said she believes Emanuel should resign because "it looks like there was a cover-up situation to benefit the mayor's re-election." Sawyer said many of his 6th Ward constituents remain frustrated with the mayor over continued high crime, and the handling of the McDonald shooting case helped fan those flames. White police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot black teen McDonald 16 times in October 2014. But Van Dyke wasn't charged until 13 months later, just before the release of a police dashboard camera video that showed McDonald walking away from officers. In between, the Emanuel administration fought the release of the footage, contending it could interfere with an investigation into the shooting. Advertisement In addition, the city reached a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family that was approved a week after Emanuel won re-election. The mayor has said he did not know about the gravity of the shooting until six months after it happened, shortly before the settlement. And Emanuel has said he was not aware police reports contradicted the video until about 13 months after the shooting, when the reports were released to the public. Amid weeks of protests, Emanuel fired his police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, in early December. Sawyer said he blames McCarthy more than Emanuel on the McDonald case, saying the top cop should have spoken out forcefully and publicly as soon as he saw the video and done a better job conveying how unacceptable the shooting was to aldermen and Emanuel. The mayor eventually acknowledged his police department has serious problems, including a lack of proper discipline and a code of silence. Sawyer said it's not lost on his constituents that Emanuel did not recognize or address those issues during his first four years in office. "He bears some responsibility in this. As chief executive, he understands it stops with him and he has to take responsibility for that," Sawyer said. "I think he's made attempts to own up to it, and time will tell if he's really going to do the things that are necessary to try to regain the public's trust. That's going to depend on his actions going forward, not lip service." But the McDonald controversy was too much for James R. White, an 89-year-old African-American poll respondent who lives in the Loop. "The mayor has not made explicit what he knew about the McDonald shooting and the video, and it seems he was trying to protect the police officer whether it was justified or not," White said. "He definitely was protecting his re-election, and the fact that here was a payoff to the family through a settlement also suggests he was looking out for himself." Advertisement White believes Emanuel should resign. "He may have the smarts and the political sense to do a number of things, but when it comes down to it, I just don't trust him anymore," White said. "Everything he does now just seems he's trying to make up for the mistakes he's made." But Brookins said he thinks Emanuel can regain the trust of black voters first by choosing a "transformational person" to take over as Chicago police superintendent, to "show the world and the rest of society that we're not playing with the stuff anymore in Chicago." "And he's going to have to start tackling neighborhoods, creating jobs, employment and opportunities in our wards," said Brookins, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in a Democratic bid for Congress. "He's going to have to spend some focus and use his clout, if he has some elsewhere, to put some industries within those communities." Brookins said the McDonald controversy exposed just how little of an effort Emanuel had made to cultivate real relationships with African-American community organizations. The mayor called on church leaders and young activists in an effort to head off any violent protests after the release of the shooting video, and some of those who sat down with Emanuel noted later that they'd been trying to meet with the mayor for years. "It's hands on, it's grimy, it's in the trenches. You have to meet with people and work with people, and he's not used to doing that," Brookins said of Emanuel's failure to develop community relationships. Advertisement "He just can't send people. It has to be him," the alderman said. "They have to see what some of us have seen his genuine concern for the city." Activists protest outside the Mayor's office on the fifth floor of City Hall. Dec. 1, 2015. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune) To regain the confidence of African-American voters, Sawyer said the mayor needs to create jobs in black neighborhoods, which he predicts will alleviate some of the crime issues. "I think the mayor gets that now," Sawyer said. "A lot of people just want an opportunity. They want a job, they want to see businesses, they want to be part of the mainstream." Many of the neighborhoods Sawyer is referring to have been economically depressed for decades, but the alderman said he's still optimistic Emanuel and his business ties can make a difference if he puts his energy into the cause. "Now it's time for him to exercise that bully pulpit to convince the philanthropists and businessmen to start making investments in these neighborhoods," Sawyer said. More than just the black community is souring on Emanuel, however. In the city's six North Side and downtown lakefront wards, Emanuel got slightly more than 70 percent of the vote in the runoff. It was his most supportive area. Advertisement Today, only a quarter of the voters in those lakefront wards say they think the city is better off under Emanuel. Yet half don't think he's honest and trustworthy, 56 percent don't like the way he's running the city, 58 percent disapprove of his handling of the schools and 65 percent disapprove of his handling of crime. Despite the mistrust, nearly two-thirds of lakefront ward voters don't think Emanuel should resign. Far North Side Ald. Joe Moore, a reliable Emanuel council ally, said the McDonald controversy has created suspicion among some of his constituents. But Moore said he still hears more from voters about neighborhood needs and the lack of action in Springfield than he does about complaints concerning Emanuel. "There's a fair amount of skepticism about the mayor's account of how everything rolled out," said Moore, whose 49th Ward is among the city's most diverse. "I think there is a general consensus across the board that he did not handle this (McDonald) matter as well as he could have, but I also think people are willing to give him a chance to make the changes that need to be made in the Police Department." Still, Moore said, "three years is three lifetimes in politics." "Polls are but a snapshot in time, and I have no doubt that the poll is accurate and it is measuring the public sentiments at the time it was taken, but there is plenty of time for him to recover. I'm not saying he will, but there's plenty of time for him to do so," said Moore, a white alderman whose ward narrowly backed Garcia in the runoff election. Advertisement "The African-American community in particular, they as a whole believe in redemption," he said. "They believe in second chances, they believe in third chances, and I think the mayor still has time to restore that trust with that community in particular." rap30@aol.com bruthhart@tribpub.com Supporters from Save the Illinois State Museum rally outside the Illinois Capitol on July 21, 2015, in Springfield. The protesters oppose Gov. Bruce Rauners threatened shuttering of the museum in Springfield and its four satellite locations statewide. (Seth Perlman / AP) Gov. Bruce Rauner rejected legislation Friday to reopen the Illinois State Museum, using his veto power to say the 138-year-old facility and its satellite locations may operate again only if the museum can find its own funding through entry fees, donations and partnerships. In a letter to lawmakers, the Republican governor said he supports "the good the museum does," but that it's not financially sustainable. He noted the state spends more than $6 million per year on the site, which has about 200,000 annual visitors. Advertisement "I propose not merely re-opening the Museum while continuing its status quo, but re-energizing its operations and partnering it with other public and private entities to make it truly self-supporting and to relieve the fiscal burden to taxpayers," Rauner wrote. But the chairman of the museum's board of directors said raising about $6 million per year would be an almost impossible task. Advertisement "If this goes through I don't see the time when the museum is reopened," Guerry Suggs said. "That's an awfully tall order." The Republican governor closed the museum, the Dickson Mounds archaeological site in Lewistown and art galleries in Chicago, Lockport and Whittington in October as a way to manage funds during a stalemate with the Democrat-controlled Legislature over the state budget. Rauner's administration originally sent layoff notices to about 100 employees at the museum sites and at a shooting complex in Southern Illinois that he also closed. But state-worker unions sued, saying the move violated their contracts with the state. Rauner then agreed to postpone the layoffs, instead assigning most employees to other duties while the facilities remain closed. Lawmakers in December passed legislation with bipartisan support to reopen the facilities. In addition to asking that the museum be financially self-sustaining, Rauner changed the bill to allow the Department of Natural Resources to determine the location of branch sites, in collaboration with local governments and other public and private groups. The Legislature must vote to approve Rauner's changes. Lawmakers also could choose to try to override the governor, which would require the support of three-fifth of both chambers a threshold legislators exceeded when they first approved the measure. The bill's sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Andy Manar, didn't immediately return a phone message Friday. Advertisement Associated Press A Libyan firefighter stands in front of a burning oil storage tank Jan. 23, 2016, at a facility in northern Libya, set ablaze by Islamic State forces. (AFP/Getty Images) WASHINGTON As Islamic State forces lose ground in Iraq and Syria, fighters loyal to the group have seized territory in oil-rich Libya, levying taxes at gunpoint and creating sanctuaries to launch possible attacks in North Africa and Europe, U.S. officials say. The Pentagon has sent special operations teams to gather intelligence and launched at least one airstrike. But the White House so far has resisted calls from some senior aides to escalate the U.S. military role in another Muslim country to counter the potential threat. Advertisement Spy satellites and reconnaissance drones have shown the militants building fortifications around Sirte, on the central Mediterranean coast, and training bases for foreign fighters farther inland, the officials said. A U.S. intelligence estimate last week concluded Islamic State has attracted more than 5,000 fighters in Libya, double the official estimate last fall, making it the extremist group's largest and most potent affiliate outside Syria and Iraq. Advertisement Islamic State threatens to gain a "stranglehold" in Libya and "access to billions of dollars of oil revenue," Secretary of State John Kerry said, one of several alarms the administration has raised in recent days. He spoke at a conference last week in Rome where the U.S. and 22 other nations agreed to support the formation of a unity government in Tripoli, the capital, in an effort to restore stability and take on the militants. Libya has had no functioning central government since the NATO bombing campaign helped a popular uprising oust ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. It has faced political chaos and a civil war ever since, with two rival governments battling for power and squabbling militias exploiting the power vacuum. "In the absence of a true government, (militant groups) have grown unchecked," said a U.S. defense official, not authorized to speak publicly. "It's like Syria all over again." Islamic State "has a bad habit of growing in places that are ungoverned," Tina Kaidanow, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator said last week at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. She cited an urgency at the White House and its allies to move quickly before the group expands beyond its current foothold, which extends about 100 miles east and west of Sirte. "We don't want to see the growth of (Islamic State) outpace what will be a long-term effort to build out a successful Libyan government," she said. Advertisement The group's rise comes as foreign fighters from Tunisia and elsewhere in Africa have moved to Sirte and other strongholds in Libya, rather than to the war zones in Syria and Iraq, where the militants have suffered several military setbacks in recent months from the U.S.-led coalition. The Pentagon wants to ensure "Libya not get on a glide slope" where it "gathers a piece of territory from which it's able to tyrannize people and plot operations elsewhere," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said last week at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Any military intervention probably would be led by France and Italy, the former colonial powers. Options include sending troops from Italy to help protect the new government, using U.S. and French advisers to train Libyan counterterror forces and launching airstrikes. British and U.S. special operations teams and intelligence services have focused on identifying Islamic State leaders, assessing their networks and strongholds, and reaching out to local militias willing to fight against them, officials said. But intelligence officials said the militias are unreliable, poorly organized and divided by region and tribe, as well as by outside support, the same complex problem that has crippled U.S. attempts to unify opposition groups in Syria. Islamist and Berber militias in the west, assisted by Qatar, have engaged in brutal clashes with more secular forces in the east apparently led by former Gadhafi loyalists and supported by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Advertisement Islamic State fighters have attacked oil fields and installations in some cases, hobbling a major source of income for the fledgling government. Oil production has fallen in half from a year ago, according to the state-run National Oil Corp. The only known U.S. airstrike was in November, when F-15 fighter jets killed a senior Islamic State commander known as Abu Nabil near the eastern city of Derna. Officials said the Iraqi national narrated a video released last year that showed militants beheading 21 Egyptian workers, all Coptic Christians, in Libya. Some national security experts warn that Islamic State is quietly taking root in Libya much as it did in Syria prior to the militants' blitz across Iraq in early 2014, seizing cities, oil fields, military bases and banks. "I think its increasingly a national security priority for us to limit the spread of (Islamic State) in Libya given the expansion that's been seen recently," said Ben Fishman, former top National Security Council official on North Africa affairs. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, urged the White House to launch airstrikes against the militants' leaders. He warned that Islamic State could use Libya "as a gateway into southern Europe." bbennett@tribpub.com Advertisement whennigan@tribpub.com SEOUL, South Korea For North Korea's propaganda machine, the long-range rocket launch Sunday carved a glorious trail of "fascinating vapor" through the clear blue sky. For South Korea's president, and other world leaders, it was a banned test of dangerous ballistic missile technology and yet another "intolerable provocation." The rocket launched from North Korea's west coast only two hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning, its path tracked separately by the United States, Japan and South Korea. No damage from debris was reported. Advertisement North Korea, which calls its launches part of a peaceful space program, said it had successfully put a new Earth observation satellite, the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Shining Star 4, into orbit less than 10 minutes after liftoff. It vowed more such launches. A U.S. official said it might take days to assess whether the launch was a success. The launch follows North Korea's widely disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb. Washington and its allies will consider the rocket launch a further provocation and push for more tough sanctions. The United States and Japan quickly requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday morning, saying Pyongyang violated a council ban on ballistic missile launches. Advertisement North Korean rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North's ultimate goal of a nuclear armed missile that could hit the U.S. mainland. North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse Kim's government. Diplomats are also pushing to tighten U.N. sanctions because of the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test. In a development that will worry both Pyongyang and Beijing, a senior South Korean Defense Ministry official, Yoo Jeh Seung, told reporters that Seoul and Washington have agreed to begin talks on a possible deployment of the THADD missile defense system in South Korea. North Korea has long decried the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, and Beijing would see a South Korean deployment of THAAD, which is one of the world's most advanced missile defense systems, as a threat to its interests in the region. In a statement, North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration, in typical propaganda-laden language, praised "the fascinating vapor of Juche satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February on the threshold of the Day of the Shining Star." Juche is a North Korean philosophy focusing on self-reliance; the Day of the Shining Star refers to the Feb. 16 birthday of former dictator Kim Jong Il. North Korea has previously staged rocket launches to mark important anniversaries. South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer detected the North Korean launch at 9:31 a.m. The rocket's first stage fell off North Korea's west coast at 9:32 a.m. and the rocket disappeared from South Korean radars at 9:36 a.m. off the southwestern coast. There was no reported damage in South Korea. The U.S. Strategic Command issued a statement saying it detected and tracked a missile launched on a southern trajectory but it did not pose a threat to the United States or its allies. Japan's NHK broadcaster showed footage of an object visible in the skies from the southern island of Okinawa that was believed to be the rocket. South Korea's Yonhap news agency later backed away, without elaborating, from a report that said the rocket might have failed. The global condemnation began almost immediately. South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch an "intolerable provocation." She said the North's efforts to advance its missile capabilities were "all about maintaining the regime" in Pyongyang and criticized the North Korean leadership for ignoring the hardships of ordinary North Koreans. Advertisement Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to "take action to totally protect the safety and well-being of our people." U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice called the North's missile and nuclear weapons programs a "serious threats to our interests including the security of some of our closest allies." The Foreign Ministry in China, the North's only major ally and its protector in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing wields veto power, expressed "regret that, disregarding the opposition from the international community, the (North) side obstinately insisted in carrying out a launch by using ballistic missile technologies." Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the North's four nuclear tests and three long-range rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. The U.N. Security Council prohibits North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity. Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology. "If North Korea has only nuclear weapons, that's not that intimidating. If they have only rockets, that's not that intimidating, either. But if they have both of them, that means they can attack any target on Earth. So it becomes a global issue," said Kwon Sejin, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. North Korea in 2013 also did a nuclear test and then unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast, including threats to fire nuclear missiles at the U.S. and Seoul. North Korea has spent decades trying to develop operational nuclear weapons. Advertisement North Korea has said that plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex are in operation. The North is thought to have a small arsenal of crude atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles. But it has yet to demonstrate that it can produce nuclear bombs small enough to place on a missile, or missiles that can reliably deliver its bombs to faraway targets. After several failures testing a multistage, long-range rocket, it put its first satellite into space with a long-range rocket launched in December 2012. The North's recent activity comes amid a long-standing diplomatic stalemate. Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009. Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia A suicide bomber is suspected to have set off the explosive that blew a hole in a jetliner, sucked the man out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing on Tuesday in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, Somali officials said Saturday. "Experts who were investigating the cause of the blast in the plane concluded that a bomb was the cause," said Ali Jama Jangali, Somalia's transport minister at a press conference in Mogadishu. Advertisement "The bomb aimed to kill all onboard the plane. Al-Shabab (Somalia's Islamic extremist rebel group) was behind it," he said of the explosion on a Daallo Airlines Airbus 321. He said the findings are preliminary and the investigation is continuing. One passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, died, according to Somali officials who did not give any details. A man's body was found in the town of Balad, 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu, according to police who said he might have been blown from the plane. Advertisement The man killed in the incident is suspected to have been a suicide bomber, The Associated Press was told by a senior Somali civila aviation official, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. "The reason the investigation is focusing on him now is because of the suspicion that he might have detonated the bomb, but it's too early to say if the bomb was planted in a laptop or not," he said. Six people have been arrested in connection with the blast after examinations of CCTV images in the airport, a senior Somali intelligence official told the Associated Press. Al-Shabab have not claimed responsibility for the incident. All other 74 passengers on the plane were safe after the pilot returned the plane safely to Mogadishu airport. The explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane took off and it was still ascending. Capt. Vlatko Vodopivec, the pilot, said he and others were told the explosion was caused by a bomb. "It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last," Vodopivec told AP by phone from Mogadishu. He said the blast happened when the plane was at around 11,000 feet (3,350 meters) and still climbing to its cruising altitude of 30,000 feet. "It would have been much worse if we were higher," he added. Advertisement Had the blast occurred at a higher altitude, it could have led to explosive decompression on the plane, which might have caused more severe structural damage, and would have forced a more rapid descent because of limited supplies of oxygen to the passengers. After the explosion, passengers put on oxygen masks and air could be heard rushing thought the hole in the fuselage, according to a video taken by a passenger. Somalia's government said it will tighten security at the airport to prevent other threats. Somalia faces an insurgency from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has carried out deadly attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries. Daallo Airlines, which is based in Dubai, has temporarily suspended its operations in Somalia's capital following the incident but hopes to restart them soon, said Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, the airline's chief executive. He described security at Mogadishu airport as "good" and multilayered, and "much better than it used to be." Daallo typically operates around 15 flights a week to Mogadishu from Somali and nearby international destinations. Its flight Tuesday was operated by Hermes Airlines, which is based in Athens, Greece, under a lease agreement. Hermes officials have not commented on the incident. Advertisement Experts from Somalia and Greece are involved in the investigation into the blast. Associated Press SCOTTSBURG, Ind. Ten people were arrested Friday on charges alleging they distributed drugs that helped fuel the worst HIV outbreak in Indiana history, authorities said. They were indicted earlier in the week on charges that include conspiracy to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance, U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler said. Minkler said those individuals allegedly targeted Scott County, a southeastern Indiana county at the heart of Indiana's HIV outbreak, "with the goal of infesting that community with drugs, including the powerful prescription painkiller Opana." Among those arrested are a Scottsburg couple, 38-year-old Bennito L. Rodriguez, and his 29-year-old wife, Brooklynn G. Mack. Authorities allege the couple orchestrated the movement of the Opana and methamphetamine in the Scott County city of Austin. State health officials say Indiana's HIV outbreak has been driven by needle-sharing among people injecting a liquefied form of Opana. That outbreak has risen to 188 cases, nearly all have been in Scott County, about 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky, and centered in the small city of Austin. Minkler's office said Opana typically sells for up to $160 per pill and can be dissolved and injected by up to four people. U.S. Attorney's office spokesman Tim Horty said all 10 people made initial court appearances Friday afternoon. It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez or Mack had an attorney. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating in June with Scott County law enforcement to determine the source of the Opana and also methamphetamine which were prevalent in Austin and other parts of Scott County. That county obtained state approval in April 2015 to implement a needle exchange to help slow the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users. That came after Indiana lawmakers passed a law in response to the outbreak that allows counties to request approval for the programs that provide IV drug users with clean syringes to prevent needle-sharing that spreads HIV, hepatitis C and other diseases. Associated Press MANCHESTER, N.H. Hillary Clinton told voters in the latest Democratic debate there's "hardly anything you don't know about me." Just minutes later, she got tangled in a question about a part of her resume that is an enduring mystery. In the 18 months before launching her second presidential bid, Clinton gave nearly 100 paid speeches at banks, trade associations, charitable groups and private corporations. The appearances netted her $21.7 million and voters very little information about what she was telling top corporations as she prepared for her 2016 campaign. What she said or didn't say to Wall Street banks in particular has become a significant problem for her presidential campaign, as she tries to counter the unexpected rise of Democratic rival Bernie Sanders. He's put her in awkward position of squaring her financial windfall with a frustrated electorate. Asked in the debate and not for the first time about releasing transcripts of those speeches, she said: "I will look into it. I don't know the status, but I will certainly look into it." She added, "My view on this is, look at my record." Clinton addressed a broad swath of industries, speaking to supermarket companies in Colorado, clinical pathologists in Illinois and travel agents in California, to name several. Many of the companies and trade organizations that she addressed are lobbying Congress over a variety of interests. She typically delivered an address, then answered questions from a pre-vetted interviewer. Her standard fee was $225,000, though occasionally it could range up to $400,000. "That's what they offered," said Clinton, when asked this week whether her fees were too high. Clinton defended her appearances Friday, saying she thought the speeches were "a good way to communicate" and answer questions about her experience as secretary of state. "It was a useful exercise for me, because it also enabled me to think through, kind of, where I was in the assessment of what I would do next," Clinton told MSNBC. Other than her fees, which her campaign disclosed in response to media inquiries, details about most of her closed speeches are nearly impossible to find. The Associated Press and other news organizations have asked repeatedly for transcripts, and did so again Friday after her promise to review the issue. Last month, she laughed and turned away when a reporter specifically asked for transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs. "I don't think voters are interested in the transcripts of her speeches," Joel Benenson, Clinton's pollster, told reporters Friday. But it was a voter who asked about her transcripts at a town-hall event on CNN on Wednesday. AP's inquiries to the campaign about her appearances before several Wall Street banks went unanswered. Deutsche Bank, which paid Clinton $475,000 for addresses in New York and Washington, declined to comment, as did Goldman Sachs. Although many of her remarks were given to large groups, they were frequently barred to media coverage and few recordings are available online. In many instances, Clinton's contract prohibited her comments from being broadcast, transcribed or "otherwise reproduced," according a copy of one such agreement with the University of Buffalo. In a few cases, details trickled out through company blogs and trade publications. At the time, and increasingly as the months wore on, she was considered a likely prospect to run for president, despite the fact she said little to tip her hand publicly on whether she would. When she addressed the National Multifamily Housing Council in April 2013, she focused on foreign affairs, including the Arab Spring and North Korea, and domestic issues like the federal debt, and answered questions from the chairman. She deflected questions about whether she was considering a presidential run. "That is certainly a question I haven't been asked in all of 12 minutes," she cracked, according to a post on the organization's website. "I'm just returning to civilian life and getting reacquainted with something called normal life." That post has since been taken down. A reporter from the real estate blog The Real Deal was at her October 2014 speech to the annual convention of a commercial real estate women's network in Miami Beach. Clinton focused on boosting the number of women in the field and achieving parity with men. "It's so important for women like us to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to fail," she said, according to the blog. "I've done that, too, on a very large stage." Speaking to a private crowd of 10,000 real estate people in San Francisco in November 2013, Clinton "affirmed the role realty places in American culture," according to another blog post. Press was banned but participants at the conference, hosted by the National Association of Realtors, tweeted photos of her on stage. Many organizations she addressed were reluctant to share details or even confirm her attendance, in part because contracts for those kinds of speakers typically prohibit sharing that information. "I made speeches to lots of groups," Clinton said this week. "I told them what I thought. I answered questions." Associated Press Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is a decent human being and a passionate politician. He is also a grave threat to the Democratic Party. Because the Democratic Party is currently the only major U.S. party devoted to moderation and rational empiricism, Sanders' robust campaign for president is consequently a threat to the U.S. as well. The Republican Party has been debilitated, as a source of policies and as a governing party, by the ever more stringent ideological demands that the party's powerful and adamant fringe imposes on its diminished and enfeebled center. It has succumbed so thoroughly to the paranoid style of politics that the leading Republican presidential candidate from the so-called establishment wing routinely suggests that President Barack Obama is a nefarious agent of the nation's doom. Delusional, rancid talk has become so commonplace on the right that it rarely merits notice anymore. Advertisement Sanders lacks the talent for sneering contempt that animates the candidacies of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businessman Donald Trump and, often enough, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. But he shares other unwelcome attributes. The American economy, a sprawling, $18 trillion behemoth stretching and contracting in more directions at once than anyone can possibly comprehend, much less control, is "rigged," Sanders says. This claim, too, owes much to a paranoid style. Who has rigged this giganotosaurus of disparate goods and endlessly varied services? Perhaps "Wall Street." Or maybe "corporations." Advertisement In politics, any force too spectral to wear a proper name is too elusive to be contained by government or law. Sanders all but admits as much. He posits that his election to the White House, where he would command the vast levers of the executive branch, would be insufficient to unrig things. A majority of electoral votes might suffice for a "moderate" like Hillary Clinton; Sanders, however, requires a "revolution." In Thursday's MSNBC debate in New Hampshire, Sanders exposed other troubling signs reminiscent of some of his right-wing counterparts. His preoccupation with who is and is not a true "progressive" is the mirror image of the right-wing obsession with doctrinal purity and the tedious, narcissistic battle over who is a "true conservative" and who is a compromising RINO. More surprising, Sanders exhibited a lazy contempt for the rigors of the job he seeks. Confronted with actual policy questions, Ben Carson and Donald Trump stumble in the darkness, knocking over lamps and bumping into unfamiliar furniture. They want to be president but can't be bothered to learn information essential to the job. "ISIS" is not the answer to every question about the Middle East. Sanders is no Carson or Trump; he lacks their preening self-regard (in the form of false humility in Carson's case) and their casual contempt for voters. But Sanders is almost exclusively animated by economic inequality and injustice. His lack of preparation and mental agility on foreign policy, apparent in the MSNBC debate, is alarming. A president is the nation's commander in chief and lead diplomat. Sanders' failure to wrap his head around those responsibilities, nine months after he announced his bid for president, is inexcusable. "ISIS" is not the answer to every question about the Middle East. And there is more to foreign policy acumen than a vote against the Iraq War 14 years ago. None of these problems is a hindrance to Sanders in the Senate, where he is one of 100. But Sanders is no longer content there. He is trying to build a movement to dominate the Democratic Party and go on to win the White House. Democrats can ill afford either outcome. For more than two decades the GOP has veered deeper into disaster. Unable to adapt to the rapid cultural, technological, economic and global changes thrust upon it, the party has fomented backlash and reaction. The national Democratic Party, meanwhile, has left its 1970s dysfunction behind. Flexible and functional, it has displayed pragmatism (how much did Nancy Pelosi NOT want to bail out Wall Street in 2008?) and moderation (basing its health-care reform on the plan of a conservative think tank) and knowing, most of the time, more or less, when to take half, or quarter, of a policy loaf when the whole is unobtainable. Sanders threatens that. Should he wrench a sizable part of the party in his direction, and keep it, Democrats risk resembling Republicans in all their sorry ideological fixations, infighting and incompetence. If a large, radicalized faction emerges on the Democratic side, as it has within the GOP, the nation could truly become ungovernable, paralyzed by two fractured parties equally incapable of reconciling themselves to complex realities. Advertisement This is not the promise of Sanders' vision. But it is a potential consequence of it. Like others, Democrats have a lot of pent-up frustration. Many, no doubt, are eager to stick it to the man. But the man, and even the stick, are metaphors, and pretty shallow ones at that. The Democratic Party's hard-won successes on health care, climate, financial regulation and more are, by contrast, both real and profound. Which is the sturdier political foundation for a just future? Bloomberg View Francis Wilkinson writes on politics and domestic policy for Bloomberg View. Long before Donald Trump started bad-mouthing Mexicans and Muslims, Chicago had a mayor who could match the most narrow-minded politicians of any era in chest-thumping xenophobia. Over three terms as Chicago mayor between 1915 and 1931, William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson maintained a swagger that secured his spot in history as possibly the city's most colorful mayor. Thompson promised voters he'd "crack King George one in the snoot" if the British king dared set foot in Chicago. Thompson's attack on the royal house was no mere war of words. In 1927 he appointed a buddy, Urbine J. Herrmann, a special commissioner with a mandate not unlike a Soviet commisar's: rooting subversive literature out of the Chicago Public Library. Advertisement "Sport," as Herrmann was known, pledged to vigorously discharge his duties, as the Tribune Editorial Board noted: "And if he finds a pro-British book, he declares, he will take it out to the lake front and have it burned by the public hangman." Thompson was convinced that King George had given the library a collection of books, some being propaganda intended to make unwary readers regret that the U.S. had broken with England. Thompson was a little shaky on his Georges, sometimes faulting his contemporary, George V, and other times blaming George III, who wore the crown during the American Revolution. Advertisement Yet there was a kernel of truth in Thompson's paranoia. The Chicago Public Library's initial collection was a gift from a British monarch Queen Victoria, granddaughter to George III and grandmother to George V. That little detail didn't impede Thompson. A parallel witch hunt for subversive literature in Chicago's schools was a moderate success. "The final, smashing cracks were planted on the snoots of the respective Georges by the School Board, which today notified 'Big Bill' that it had thrown out all public school textbooks complained of by the Mayor," the Trib reported, noting that six books were banned. www.trbimg.com/img-57598680/turbine/chi-william-hale-thompson-vert-photo-20160128/600 width="100%"/> www.trbimg.com/img-57598680/turbine/chi-william-hale-thompson-vert-photo-20160128/600 width="100%"/> Mayor William Hale Thompson in an undated photo. (Chicago Tribune) There was a certain political logic to Thompson's feud with King George. Chicago was a collection of ethnic neighborhoods where the British royal house was detested, feelings magnified by World War I, and Thompson saw the potential of that as he was seeking his third term. Yet Big Bill didn't mince words when caution dictated he should have. When he ran in 1931 against Anton Cermak, a Czech immigrant, Thompson spouted doggerel like: "I won't take a back seat to that Bohunk, Chairmock. Chermack or whatever his name is. Tony, Tony, where's your pushcart at? Can you picture a World's Fair mayor with a name like that?" Thompson lost the election and didn't get to cut the ribbon at the 1933 Century of Progress. Cermak won, having met Thompson's slur with a riposte that resonated with ethnic voters: "It's true I didn't come over on the Mayflower, but I came over as soon as I could." Thompson served as mayor in two stretches: from 1915 to 1923 and from 1927 to 1931. He was fairly rational during his first term, perhaps because he had presidential ambitions. But returning to the fray in 1927, he abandoned all restraint. During that year's primary season, Thompson carried two rats in a bird cage to his campaign appearances. The Trib reported: "The caged rodents are introduced to 'Big Bill's' audiences as 'Dill' and 'Fred,' which is short for Dr. John Dill Robertson and Fred Lundin." Robertson was running for mayor; Lundin was a ward boss in Robertson's corner. Advertisement As the rats shtick demonstrates, Thompson loved stage props, his favorites being horses and boats. The horses came first. When he was 12, Thompson was arrested with a group of friends, all on horses galloping across the State Street bridge chasing imaginary Indians. His father, a man of means, intended Thompson to have an Ivy League education, but he yielded to his son's fascination with the Wild West and bought a ranch in western Nebraska for Thompson to manage. A broad-brimmed hat was a fixture on Thompson's head when he returned to Chicago and entered politics. Newspapers across the country narrated his career with headlines like: "The Saga of the Cowboy Mayor" and "Big Bill Launches Campaign with Rope-Throwing Display." He rode a horse into the City Council's chambers. He retained the Western motif even when a nautical theme would have been more appropriate, as the Tribune noted with a 1927 headline: "Big Bill's Cowboys To Whoop it Up On River Voyage." The accompanying story noted that the New Orleans mayor promised a rousing welcome when Thompson and a "party of 500 in cowboy hats, arrives at the dock with the cow puncher's symbol of victory, a coonskin nailed to a cabin door." The occasion was a goodwill voyage down the Mississippi River promoting economic ties between the two cities. It was Thompson's second voyage down the Mississippi. In 1924 he departed from Riverview Park on a scientific expedition to search for a tree-climbing fish that supposedly inhabited the South Seas. Critics called it a publicity stunt to keep his name in the papers while he was out of office. That theory got traction when Thompson jumped ship in New Orleans and returned to Chicago. One of Big Bill's favorite ships never left Belmont Harbor. Tied to a dock, it carried the colors of the Fish Fans' Club. Ostensibly it was a place for anglers to relax, maybe drop a fishing line. But the feds thought its real purpose was to provide Thompson and his drinking buddies an opportunity to discreetly imbibe during Prohibition an allegation Thompson denied in court. Of his testimony, the Trib reported: "The former mayor opined that the Fish Fans always has been one of the driest clubs of his acquaintance and insisted that he never had seen a violation of the Volstead Act aboard the boat." The boat was seized by the club's creditors, and Thompson returned to a more relaxed attitude toward alcohol. He perennially promised that the cops wouldn't peek through windows looking to catch Chicagoans having a nip. But his antics had lost their magic by 1931 when Cermak defeated him. The voters were fed up with the bootleggers' violence and Thompson's reported connection to Al Capone's gang. He ran again for political office a number of times, each unsuccessfully. Advertisement He became increasingly reclusive, seldom leaving a suite he rented, first at the Congress Hotel, then at the Blackstone Hotel. Old friends rarely came to visit, and his wife had died. At the time of his own death in 1944, Thompson's only companion was Estabelle Green, who had been his secretary during the 1931 campaign. Yet Thompson made headlines one more time, after his death, when safe deposit boxes of his were discovered stuffed with $1.84 million in cash and securities. Green put in a claim for half of Thompson's estate, which totaled $2.1 million. She settled for $250,000. rgrossman@tribpub.com President Barack Obama shakes hand with students of the Al-Rahmah School during his visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. (Kenneth K. Lam, TNS) Both President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush can say they have visited a mosque as president. Can you guess which one has gotten slammed for it by today's presidential candidates? Need a hint? "Maybe he feels comfortable there," Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday. Advertisement Ha. Ha. Yes, the Donald is implying that the president is a Muslim, a myth that is so absurd yet so widely believed that even the president pokes fun at it. Humor can be an effective rejoinder to such idiocy, except to those who suffer from irony deficit disorder, a common malady on the extreme edges of politics. They can't take a joke. Throughout his presidency, Obama, a Christian, has pushed back against that Muslim myth and the equally false claim that he is not a natural-born American citizen. That claim was famously advanced without evidence by Trump, among others. Advertisement Asked more recently about it, Trump scoffed, saying he doesn't "talk about that anymore." Sure. He doesn't have to. Polls suggest a substantial number of Republicans and even a few Democrats think one or both of these canards is true. Some people believe what they want to believe with a rigor that no hard evidence to the contrary can penetrate. Obama acknowledged that tangle of lies in good humor during his speech Wednesday at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, a major house of worship and community service center in the town that calls itself "Charm City." Even Thomas Jefferson, Obama noted, had been accused of being a Muslim back in the polarized political atmosphere of his day. Obama can relate. Calling Obama a Muslim has become a lifestyle choice for many folks, a way of announcing where you stand on today's political spectrum. We have come to expect that sort of cynical birther fraud from Trump, who seldom allows facts to get in the way of his cheap shots. But it was deeply disappointing to hear Sen. Marco Rubio, who usually is a classier act, deliver a blow just as low as Trump's with higher-minded language. Without going full birther, Rubio on the evening after Obama spoke simply misrepresented what Obama said. "He gave a speech at a mosque," Rubio said during a town hall meeting in Dover, N.H., "basically implying that America is discriminating against Muslims. Of course there's discrimination in America, of every kind. But the bigger issue is radical Islam. This constant pitting people against each other, I can't stand that. It's hurting our country badly." Say what? That wasn't what Obama said at all. Quite the opposite. Only in today's goofy political atmosphere can the president's call for unity be viewed as an instrument for division. Advertisement Yet, as much as Obama has been criticized by some for doing too much for Muslims, he has been slammed by others for doing too little. The hashtag #TooLateObama streams with accusations of hypocrisy against Obama for "anti-Muslim policies" including his escalation of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, even though media reports describe the identification of drone targets as "an imperfect best guess." Still it is striking to compare the blowback President Obama has received for visiting a mosque in his eighth year of office with the visit President Bush paid to a Washington mosque six days after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001. Standing with Islamic holy men, Bush spoke passionately against the harassment of Arabs, Muslims and Sikhs, who often are mistaken for Muslims. He also spoke about the need to respect Islam and fight those who try to hijack Islam for violent purposes. Many Muslims and others have called on Obama to make a similarly public act of leadership and statesmanship. But Bush's speech came during a moment of unusual national unity, the aftermath of the biggest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. Members of both parties in Congress stood together that week and sang "God Bless America" on the U.S. Capitol steps. A similar attack today would probably bring an impeachment bill from the president's right wing opponents. Advertisement Sure, Obama should have stood up sooner against anti-Muslim discrimination. Still his voice of reason is welcome, even when it's late. Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at chicagotribune.com/pagespage. cpage@tribpub.com Twitter @cptime "Well I think what we see now today, what we certainly didn't see 15 or 20 years ago, is the existence of video. And I think technology is ahead of policy right now for those of us in law enforcement. And now that we have video, the public is demanding to know. And, you know, we didn't have those issues before and we were able to wait to announce our charges. Now I think we all have to look internally. I welcome the (U.S.) Department of Justice's (investigation) into the Chicago Police Department because I think there are many unanswered questions there that I've seen through our investigations that CPD has to answer to. And I think we have to come up with new policies when it comes to videotapes and the release of these videotapes. As prosecutors we're bound by rules that we're not supposed to release evidence prior to the investigation being completed. That's why you don't hear about statements of officers or defendants." Cathy Ferrel, director of the Marie Wilkinson East Side Food Pantry, helps volunteer workers sort food Saturday, the day the agency celebrated its first anniversary. (David Sharos / The Beacon-News) The Marie Wilkinson East Side Food Pantry opened its doors a year ago, and Saturday was a day to celebrate its one-year anniversary. From 9:30 to 11 a.m., as visitors picked up free groceries, volunteers from Flowing Grace Church, the organization that helped launch the 901 E. Galena St. pantry in 2015, served hot chocolate and cookies. Advertisement Pantry Director Diane Renner said more than a half dozen church and service organizations help every week, and the first year of operations has exceeded her expectations. "We thought when we opened that we'd be seeing about 40 families a week, but the total has actually increased to about 75 a week now," Renner said. "It feels good to see so many people being helped and we already need more space." Advertisement Ron DeBaun, director of discipleship for Flowing Grace, said the past year "has been an amazing experience serving the community this way." "We've been serving a lot but there is a lot to serve," DeBaun said. "We're here to show people there is love and hope for those that are in a tough situation." A bus from Maddie's Mitten March was on hand Saturday to provide free clothing as part of the Marie Wilkinson East Side Food Pantry's one-year anniversary celebration. (David Sharos / The Beacon-News) Saturday's anniversary also included a visit from Maddie's Mitten March, with a bus arriving at 9 a.m. to give away winter clothing throughout the morning. The line to get in when the pantry opened Saturday morning was at least 20 people deep; customers waited patiently as volunteers carted in crates of vegetables, canned goods, bread and more. Mary Smith, an Aurora resident and mother of a 3-month-old son, said she has come to the pantry every week since it opened. "The people here have really helped me, and I'm grateful," she said. "I've received clothes as well as food, and it's really been a blessing. The volunteers here are great they're always sweet and nice." Alisha Clark, also from Aurora, said Saturday was only her second trip to the food pantry, which she found out about from her father-in-law. "I have two babies at home and I come to get meat, vegetables and snacks for the kids," she said. "For me, it's truly been a blessing." Advertisement Pastor Jeffry Bross, who oversees Flowing Grace, described the pantry effort as "sad" even though it provides people with one of their most basic needs. "I'd rather this place go out of business because that would mean everyone had enough," he said. "It feels good to see that we're making a difference. But I'd rather we not have to do this and I think all the people here volunteering today feel the same way." People line up outside the Marie Wilkinson East Side Food Pantry in Aurora Saturday morning, waiting to pick up groceries that will help tide them over for the week. (David Sharos / The Beacon-News) Cathy Ferrel, who serves on the pantry's board, said the demand for food is "exploding" and that despite being stretched at times for donations, "we're making it work." "Diane Renner is one of these people that can squeeze a dime out of a nickel, and we basically beg, borrow or steal to get what we need," Ferrel said. "We get support from the Northern Illinois Food Bank and local church group donations. People don't have to prove their need here, but we also feel they don't abuse it. "You see single people especially take only what they need each week," Ferrel said, as she began tearing up. "For me this is filling a void I didn't even know I had. These people have filled it." David Sharos is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun. The Hobbs Building, also known as the Crosby Building, could be ripe for redevelopment with help from the River Edge Redevelopment Zone program. (Steve Lord / The Beacon-News) It was big news when developers broke ground on a $25 million renovation of the former St. Charles Hospital building in Aurora. The project, spearheaded by VeriGreen Residential Development of Chicago, will provide independent senior living apartments in a restored historic building, situated well between Aurora's downtown, bus and train transportation, parks and a grocery store. Advertisement The project includes $18 million in private funding, but could not have been done without federal and state historic tax credits and loans from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, and the city of Aurora, using the city's authority provided by another federal program. And the state tax credits were available because the St. Charles property built in 1932 and on the National Register of Historic Places is included in Aurora's River Edge Redevelopment Zone. A state program, the River Edge Redevelopment Zone provides tax credits for historic renovations or rehabilitation within designated zones in five cities along rivers. It benefits Aurora, Elgin, Rockford, East St. Louis and Peoria, which have downtowns, as well as old industrial areas, along rivers. Advertisement Aurora was one of the first cities to take advantage of the River Edge program, and was the first city to seek and receive an expansion of its original zone. It was that expansion that put the St. Charles property inside the zone. But the project in Aurora came to pass in large part because a respected, experienced developer like VeriGreen was in charge, and was able to convince people to push deadlines to make the development happen, city officials said. The time frame was tight because the River Edge Redevelopment Zone program is set to expire at the end of 2016, and despite widespread support in the river towns that can benefit from it, and even bipartisan support in Springfield, the future of the program and the ability to do more projects like the St. Charles one is in doubt. "Unfortunately, in this atmosphere, nothing's going anywhere," said state Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, who supported River Edge legislation the first time around and supports its reauthorization. "Even pieces of good legislation that would get bipartisan support are going nowhere." And from all indications, the River Edge Redevelopment program has bipartisan support. Both Democrats and Republicans have signed onto SB 1642, which would reauthorize the program. From this area, Holmes has signed onto the bill, as has state Sen. Karen McConnaughay, R-St. Charles. All Aurora area legislators have said they would support the legislation. The extension bill would extend the program until January 2022. But the bill continues to stagnate. Introduced late last year, it made it out of the Assignments Committee to the Revenue Committee, and then was assigned to the Sub-Committee on Tax Credits. Because the calendar turned over, the bill landed back in Assignments at the beginning of this year. So, the bill has to be reassigned, probably back to the Revenue Committee. Holmes said she will try to do that as soon as possible. Holmes pointed out that the St. Charles Hospital success was "a perfect storm." "The question is, how many projects will not get done because the of the deadline," she said. Last year, when Holmes and other legislators convened a hearing in Rockford on the River Edge Zone program, Elgin and Rockford officials talked about projects that could use it. Aurora officials also talked about the possibility of buildings like the Hobbs Building, also known as the Crosby Building, at Galena Boulevard and River Street, being prime for the River Edge program. Advertisement slord@tribpub.com Crestwood's water tower, which is next to a polluted well the village used for more than 20 years to supplement its Lake Michigan water supply. (Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune 2013) Crestwood has completed a $9 million bond sale needed for a multimillion-dollar settlement of lawsuits filed by hundreds of current and former residents over the village's use of contaminated well water in its drinking supply for more than 20 years. A judge overseeing the cases still needs to sign off on the settlement, according to Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta, which could happen before the end of this month. But the 350 people who sued will still have to wait several more months before seeing their share of the $15 million payout. Advertisement "We've got the money in the bank," the mayor said. Attorneys for Crestwood have been in settlement talks with lawyers representing the plaintiffs, and the Village Board in the fall approved moving ahead with the bond sale to fund an out-of-court settlement. Advertisement Going to trial would have likely been a lengthy and expensive proposition because each case would need to be tried separately since the plaintiffs previously were denied class certification. A Chicago attorney who represents 279 of the plaintiffs, Jay Paul Deratany, said Friday it was a "satisfactory resolution" of the case, and credited Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lorna Propes with being "instrumental in attempting to push both sides" to reach a settlement. In agreeing to a settlement rather than arguing their cases before a judge or jury, Deratany said his clients "wanted to move on with their lives." Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Further hearings before Propes will be held to determine individual payout amounts, the lawyer said of a process that might not be completed until the end of this year. Lawsuits were filed after the village's use of the well came to light in 2009. The well water was tainted with chemicals including vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen, and it was being mixed with Lake Michigan water. Village officials told residents and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that it was using only Lake Michigan water after 1985, when the contaminated well was discovered, but regulators later learned that Crestwood continued to use the well for as much as 20 percent of its water supply from 1985 to 2007. Village officials have steadfastly denied that residents' health was in jeopardy, although many of the lawsuits have blamed the use of the well water for illnesses including kidney problems, tumors, different types of cancer and immune system disorders. After the well's use was revealed, the IEPA said the public's health was never at risk, but the U.S. EPA has said there is no such thing as a safe exposure level to vinyl chloride, a chemical used in dry cleaning. Advertisement Crestwood plans to use a portion of the revenue generated by its local sales tax, or about $800,000 annually, to pay the principal and interest on the bonds that were sold. The balance of the $15 million settlement pool is being financed through available village funds and an insurance payment. mnolan@tribpub.com "One day we took her to get an MRI (to see if the tumor had shrunk) and when we came back down about midnight, they reversed the sedation medication and all of sudden she went into cardiac arrest. Even though we'd already discussed that we weren't going to go to great measures to revive her, because of her age and her condition, they worked on her for like two hours," he said. Kane County Court Services is providing judges with a new tool to use in bond court that will also enhance the administration of pretrial justice, officials said. The county was chosen for a pilot program, New Model Bond Call, using a Public Safety Assessment, or PSA, tool to provide judges with information to consider while setting bonds, said Lisa Aust, executive director of Kane County Court Services. Advertisement The PSA was developed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and is being incorporated into bond courts located in St. Charles, Elgin and Aurora. A PSA will be administered to anyone charged with a felony. The assessment weighs factors, like criminal history, to determine whether someone is likely to reoffend in the near future or would be a flight risk, Aust said. "This is just to help a judge but all their experience and tenure on the bench all comes into play," she said. Advertisement Court services hired nine staff members, based in the Kane County Judicial Center, to administer the PSA. Every morning, local police departments send in paperwork to the State's Attorney's office, the Kane County Circuit Court clerk and Aust's staff about everyone arrested and charged with a felony, she said. Staff then uses the risk assessment tool, a formula that includes looking at criminal histories, to determine a recommended bond amount, she said. The paperwork is presented to judges in bond courts located in St. Charles, Elgin and Aurora, she said. All assessments must be done by 8:30 a.m. in time for bond call, she said. Judges have discretion and the assessment does not override that authority, Aust said. A judge's mission in setting bond is to protect the public, but there are other considerations like the nature of the crime and prosecutors' input which can be taken into account, she said. Kane County Sheriff Don Kramer's office has been working with Court Services on the bond court pilot program. He is supportive of the program and hopeful it can soon make an impact on the jail population by lowering it. Kramer said it is important to remember bond is not meant to punish defendants, but to ensure they return to court. "Everyone is innocent until they go through the trial phase. These people are charged but haven't been convicted," Aust said. A goal is to not interrupt a defendant's life during the pretrial stage of a case because a defendant is presumed innocent until found guilty, she said. For example, it is better to have a defendant continue working, paying taxes and caring for their family than sitting in jail awaiting trial, Aust said. "It's really where community corrections is headed," she said. It's an evidence based practice, looking at what causes each person to commit a crime and using those practices as a way to reduce crime, she said. "People commit crimes for different reasons. Our goal is to figure out the root cause and address it as best as we can." Advertisement Kane County learned about the PSA and the Arnold Foundation's work after it was used in Kentucky courts. A key finding in Kentucky was the recidivism rate of people released on bond using the PSA went down, Aust said. But people who stayed in jail or had high bonds ended up being a higher risk later, she said. Aust is compiling statistics of the pilot program and will meet with everyone involved in three months to review trends and make sure things are working well. She is also monitoring the program to make sure there is no adverse effect on the court system, she said. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Opponents of the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor project will be passing out information to explain a Dundee Township referendum question. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News) Jo Ann Fritz worked steadily to put a flier reading "Stop Longmeadow: Vote 'Yes' " into a plastic bag, repeating the process as she listened to a speaker. An older man stepped up to the front of the conference room to explain that the group opposed to the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor is in a new phase until the March 15 election, when voters will get a chance to speak out through a nonbinding referendum question. Advertisement "What we are aiming to do is canvass around town, door to door," the speaker said. "People who canvass win, in my opinion. I think we need a big victory in this to send a message to the county." The group has been working on the message since last spring when Dundee Township voters agreed to place the advisory referendum question on the ballot. Members of the group, Stop Longmeadow, vow to continue voicing opposition and are knocking on doors to explain the referendum to residents. Advertisement "Stop Longmeadow" group members look to map out a plan to go door to door to encourage Dundee Township voters to express their opposition to the project that would build a toll bridge over the Fox River. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News) The Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor is a $120 million, 5.6-mile roadway and bridge over the Fox River. It would begin on the west at Huntley and Boyer roads, connect to Randall Road to Longmeadow Parkway and onto a toll bridge across the river and meet up to Bolz Road and Route 25, where a roundabout would take motorists to Algonquin Road. Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen has said the road is needed to address regional traffic issues. Officials have cited a Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning study that, by the year 2040, Kane County is projected to have 270,000 new residents and 144,000 new jobs, which agency officials said will have a great impact on travel demands and the county's overall transit system. It has been in the planning stages for more than 20 years, but the project has been moving forward in the last year and a half to the dismay of opponents who argue it will cause air, noise and water pollution, as well as irreparable damage to the environment. "We have a significant number of people," Fritz said as she glanced around the room in a West Dundee public building. The turnout at a recent organizing meeting was because people are talking about the Longmeadow Parkway project and the group's effort to get the word out, she said. "We are operating on the belief this is not a done deal," Fritz said. "As we've delved into it and found out more, it is not a done deal." A message from the ballot box could "send a clear message how local people feel about the project," said Ed Fagan, a member of the Stop Longmeadow group. The Kane County Board has shown nothing but contempt to those who oppose the project, he said. "People are angry at out-of-control government agencies who ignore the wishes of the people and waste money," said Fagan, citing the rise of the tea party and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the national political stage. While Kane County has spent $30 million on the project, "it is not an excuse to spend $100 million more," Fagan said. Advertisement "We are not against investing in infrastructure," he said, but are against investing in "useless roads." There are concerns about how the corridor will affect neighborhoods in its path and the environmental impact, specifically the loss of 5,000 trees, he said. It would also damage wetlands and open spaces, Fagan said. The Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Sierra Club's Illinois chapter outlined those concerns in a letter to the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers asking the agency not to issue Kane County permits for the project. "We are not lunatic, fringe people," Fagan said. "We have studied everything. We will stand and debate them on all the facts and figures." Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor has been a contentious issue for years. Opponents are gearing up to spread the word about an advisory referendum on the March ballot. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News) Volunteers will be bringing those facts and figures to Dundee Township voters as they go door to door this campaign season. Opponents also are meeting with people to explain the wording of the March 15 referendum, which they believe is confusing. They want voters to know a "yes" vote will show they oppose the project. The group gathered voter lists with names listed by precinct and broken down street by street, said Laura Brehmer, a member of the group who guided the recent meeting a day before canvassing began. Advertisement The best time to canvass is on weekends between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. because, any later, people get busy with dinner and don't want to see anyone, organizers said. Volunteers will pass out a plastic bag with the flier explaining the issues, but, Brehmer said, it is illegal to put the plastic bags in mailboxes. Also, do not hang the bags from the mailbox, she said. Knocking on someone's door may seem intimidating at first, but it gets easier, she said. "Basically, you have two minutes, not any longer, That's all the time you'll get," she said. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Nicole Romany and William Jerard stand in Waukegan's Karcher 405 gallery discussing paintings submitted for an exhibit titled "BLACK (N) (V) (ADJ)," which opens Saturday at 7 p.m. and is scheduled to run on Saturday evenings through February. (Dan Moran, Lake County News-Sun) A question began to roll around William Jerard's head as global travels took him to places like France and India, where the North Chicago native would inevitably be asked about his ethnicity. "When I would describe myself to certain people, I would use the term 'black,'" he said, "and it wasn't really clear enough for a large amount of people, because when you're from the United States, most people speak regionally when they describe their background. Advertisement "And so it started this really amazing self-discovery within myself where it was like, 'What is black?'" Jerard continued. "I was saying that so many times: 'I'm black, I'm black.' And the people and friends and families that I met would just ask me to go deeper, and say, 'Well, what does that mean? What is that?'" Jerard started digging into that question when he came back to the U.S. and settled in Waukegan's Karcher Artspace Lofts, a nine-story community of working artists on Washington Street. Advertisement "Let's ask that question: 'What is black?'" said Jerard, sharing the question that launched a project. The resulting 48 hours of interviews were condensed into a 90-minute documentary set to premiere this weekend as the centerpiece of "BLACK (N) (V) (ADJ)," a multi-media exhibit commemorating Black History Month at the Karcher 405 gallery in Waukegan. Exhibit co-chair Nicole Romany said Jerard's film will be complemented by paintings submitted by eight artists, some of whom are also residents in one of the Karcher's work/live spaces or live in Waukegan, including William Coleman, Rhonda Gray and Shelly Johnson. The roster also includes John Petersen from McHenry; Yvonne Pitts of North Chicago, who created three paintings specifically for the event; and Waukegan native Myrna Migliulo, who sent paintings from her current home in Buffalo, N.Y. Also featured are two artists from the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago named Badu and Noyd. Romany said she was inspired to start assembling the exhibit last September when she worked on the Waukegan ArtWise series, "Those Who Serve." "I wanted a show that was unconventional to the traditional Black History Month themes with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights leaders, because everybody does that," she said. "I wanted every artist to answer the question, 'What is black?' "And I wanted a show that wasn't just a gallery symposium, but also place for discussion." Along with curating the exhibit, Romany a native of Trinidad who moved to the U.S. at age 11 was one of the 40-plus subjects who sat for one of Jerard's hourlong documentary interviews. Unlike many of the participants, Romany knew ahead of time what would be asked, but she admitted she still struggled with laying her life experience on the table. Advertisement "Even though I knew the question, I didn't know how to talk about it," she said, describing how she came to America "from an island where I never really thought my color or my race was an issue." Romay added that "it was nerve-racking at first, because you're forced to look at your experiences, and how that word identifies with you. I had to pull out a lot of things I suppressed and didn't really want to think about or talk about, (so) there was a lot of complexities and different emotions." The title of the film and exhibit is intended to reflect how the word "black" evolved in grammatical meaning as it was applied to ethnicity. Jerard, who story-boarded and edited the film in collaboration with fellow Karcher resident Jimmy Spidle, said he hopes that the result "can connect with someone who is not of that term" along with those who identify directly with the subject. "It led to some brilliant conversations," he said. "Quite a spectrum of thought, because the human experience is so multi-faceted and so multi-layered, and I think that's what makes the film beautiful, because so many people are speaking from so many different angles on a similar life experience. "I think it goes from complexity to hilarity to sorrow to wonder," he added, "and for me it was transformative to be behind the camera and watch people go behind their own psyche and find the words." "BLACK (N) (V) (ADJ)" is set to premiere at 7 p.m Saturday in the lobby and adjoining spaces of the Karcher Artspace Lofts, 405 W. Washington St. It will then be open to the general public on Saturday evenings through February, including during the Feb. 20 ArtWauk in downtown Waukegan, before a closing reception on Feb. 28. Admission is free. For more information, call (224) 829-9986. Advertisement danmoran@tribpub.com Twitter @NewsSunDanMoran A Lisle resident who has been conducting a one-man protest against what he says is racism throughout the Naperville Police Department has been jailed for falsely accusing a police officer of trying to run him down with his car, Naperville police said. Donald L. Pritchard, 49, of 500 block of Maple Avenue, is in DuPage County Jail on a combined bail of $115,000. He is charged with felony disorderly conduct/filing a false crime report and two misdemeanors, according to DuPage County Circuit Court records. Advertisement Pritchard in recent months has become something of a fixture in downtown Naperville and other prominent locations in the city. He carries a large, black and white, hand-lettered sign that charges Police Chief Robert W. Marshall and the department's rank-and-file officers with being racists. Police reports said Pritchard was standing with his sign outside police headquarters, 1350 Aurora Ave., at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 2. A short time later, he entered the station and filed a sworn affidavit with police Cmdr. Jason Arres. Advertisement Arres on Friday would only say the affidavit contained "an allegation of misconduct" on the part of a police officer. "A thorough investigation was conducted, which included collection of (Pritchard's) statement, a statement from a witness, an interview (with) the accused officer, and the video evidence from the officer's squad car," Arres wrote in an email. "Review of the evidence showed that the complaint was unfounded, and appeared to be false in nature. The contents of the investigative file were brought for review to the DuPage County state's attorney's office, (and) after their review, they approved one count of disorderly conduct, for the filing of a false police report." Arres would not identify the officer named in Pritchard's complaint, and referred further questions to DuPage County State's Attorney Robert B. Berlin. Berlin spokesman Paul Darrah on Friday confirmed Pritchard had been protesting outside the police station that afternoon when he "claimed a Naperville police car tried to run him over." "The allegations were thoroughly investigated by the Naperville Police Department, which included pulling video from the police car" in question, Darrah said. "Once the video was viewed, it completely disproved Mr. Pritchard's claims," he said. Pritchard allegedly added to his troubles on Jan. 27, when he surrendered at the police station. Arres said Pritchard that evening "resisted the arrest by pulling away from the officers, refusing to be handcuffed. Furthermore, he attempted to grab the officers' hands while they tried to handcuff him, refused to walk (to a holding cell) and refused to comply with the booking process." Advertisement That resulted in Pritchard being charged with misdemeanor resisting or obstructing a police officer, court records showed. Pritchard also faces trial on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, stemming from a recent incident at the Goodwill Industries resale store at 539 Fort Hill Drive on Naperville's far west side. Details of that incident could not be immediately learned. Records indicated Pritchard is scheduled to appear Monday in court in connection with all three matters. wbird@tribpub.com Homicide victim's brother missing The older brother of a Gary man found stabbed to death Jan. 31 has not been seen since then. Advertisement Gary police are seeking the public's help to locate Carlos Verduzco, 46, who was reported missing by his father, police said. Fernando Verduzco, 26, was stabbed and left in his car, which was parked outside his home in the 200 block of Hobart Street. His body was discovered about 9 p.m. Jan. 31. A short time later, a 26-year-old Bridgeview, Ill., man was found stabbed in the throat at Chicago and Cline avenues at Gary's far western border. Advertisement He told police he was asked to drive two men who wanted to collect on a debt. When they arrived at what he believed was the destination, he was assaulted with a knife and stuffed in the trunk of his own car. He jumped out on Chicago Avenue, and told police he was unfamiliar with the area and couldn't say exactly where the attack occurred. The man's car, and the dead man's brother have not been located. Police declined to say whether he is considered a victim, a witness or a suspect because the investigation is continuing. Anyone with information on his whereabouts can call Gary Detective Alexander Jones at 219-755-3855 or Gary police department's crime tip hotline at 1-866-274-6347. Spivey charged in fourth robbery case Stephen Spivey, 21, of Gary, was charged Friday as one of three men who robbed the manager at a cellphone store at gunpoint on New Year's Day. An employee at the Boost Mobile store in the 2400 block of Broadway told Sgt. Dan Callahan that Spivey was the gunman who pointed the weapon at the manager and said, "If you move, you will die," the probable cause affidavit states. The other two men covered their faces with bandannas and walked behind the counter. One of the men took cash from the register and the other took items from the victim's pockets, the affidavit states. The victim saw a photo of the gunman on Facebook and compared it to store surveillance video, the affidavit states. He identified Spivey as the man who threatened him with the weapon. Advertisement "The other suspects have yet to be identified," Gary police spokeswoman Lt. Dawn Westerfield said Friday. Spivey was charged with the Jan. 26 attempted armed robbery and shooting at ABC Cellular at 4242 Broadway, just two blocks from his home. A search warrant executed at his home last week led to his arrest, police said. He is also charged with robbery of King Gyros at 55th Avenue and Broadway in Merrillville and the One Stop Mart at 45th and Harrison St. in Gary, both reported on Dec. 30. Lake Station man sentenced to community corrections A Lake Station man was sentenced to four years for criminal confinement and 448 days he served in the Lake County Jail in a separate residential entry case. Isiah Lee Rodriguez, 22, will serve three years in Lake County Community Corrections day-reporting program and the remaining year on probation for confining a woman. In October, Rodriguez admitted in court that on June 3, 2013, he was walking with the victim and other individuals in an alley east of New York Street in Lake Station. Rodriguez pushed the woman to the ground, climbed on top of her and held her down by her wrists and put his knee on her chest while he tried to remove her pants. The woman tried to fight off Rodriguez but couldn't get up from the ground until a friend who had been walking near them helped her up. The woman had bruises as a result of the incident. Advertisement Rodriguez also admitted that on July 20, 2014, he walked through a woman's yard in the 2800 block of Cass Street in Lake Station, where she and her family members had gathered. Shortly after he cut through the yard, he was found inside the woman's home. Deputy prosecutor Kathleen Kurowski argued for the maximum four-year sentence outlined in his plea agreement in the confinement case and two years for residential entry, served consecutively. She cited Rodriguez' extensive juvenile history and the fact he was on bond in the confinement case when he committed the residential entry as aggravating factors. Defense attorney Matthew Fech said his client is working full-time and has no convictions as an adult. Rodriguez said the 18 months he spent in custody gave him time to think about the direction his life is headed. "I am really trying. I need to better myself," Rodriguez said. Mother charged with neglect after dad reports her A woman has been charged with neglect of a dependent after authorities said she left her two young children at their father's workplace without telling him or any other adult. Advertisement Amber Michelle Sherrod, 24, of Elkhart, was charged in Lake Superior Court after the father reported the incident on Jan. 10. The man said he was working in the kitchen at a Dyer transitional care and rehabilitation center when he saw through an opening in the wall his two daughters, ages 6 months and 2, sitting on the floor at about 5 p.m. He called Sherrod, who said she'd left the children there just before he called her, the probable cause affidavit states. The man had been scheduled to work from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. The man called police and asked them to document the incident. The man told police he is in the process of attempting to obtain custody of the children, the affidavit states. The woman was charged with knowingly or intentionally placing the children in a situation that endangered their lives or health. Core innovation capability of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone has been largely enhanced since the municipal government released a framework plan to link the FTZ with Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone in late November last year. Officially launched in 2013, Shanghai FTZ expanded in April 2014. By then, Zhangjiang was already a link. As a manufacturing base of biological medicine for Shanghai and an industry leader in China, Zhangjiang has played an important role in shaping the FTZ's technological innovation against the backdrop of the joint development framework plan. Its role in the pilot program as a marketing authorization holder system of drugs is significant. Under the marketing authorization holder system, which is widely adopted in developed markets, drug companies' marketing and production processes are separated. A marketing authorization holder can outsource the production process to different pharmaceutical companies. However, under China's current Drug Administration Law, marketing authorization and production are combined. This means, a pharmaceutical company should be in charge of the research and development of drugs as well as production. The R&D ability and production capability thus remained underdeveloped or contained. From August last year, 10 provinces and cities started their trial programs of the holder system. German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim in Shanghai was one of the first companies to implement it. The firm is China's first contract manufacturing organization or CMO to produce a tumor immunity biomedicine for Beijing-based BeiGene Ltd. Becoming a CMO is an important part of initializing the holder system. The tumor immunity medicine will be produced at a production base to be jointly built by Boehringer Ingelheim and State Bio-tech & Pharmaceutical Industrial Base in Zhangjiang. The facility is expected to start operations in 2017. "The start of the CMO program in China is an important milestone for the Chinese biomedicine industry. We will be able to de-bottleneck the biomedicine industry chain and help with the marketing of more medicines developed by Chinese domestic companies," said Luo Jiali, general manager of Boehringer IngelheimChina. Since its expansion, the Shanghai FTZ, which takes up only one-tenth of Pudong New Area, contributed nearly 75 percent of the area's gross economic volume in 2015. Shanghai FTZ's manufacturing sector has witnessed slower growth in the past few years due to overcapacity amid the national economic slowdown. But its services sector has been catching up and showing a more vibrant annual growth rate of 3 percent. Economic vitality in Pudong has been largely enhanced since the FTZ expanded in early 2014. In 2015 alone, more than 18,000 new companies registered in Pudong. Some 180,000 companies set up shop in the area since its expansion 25 years ago. About half of the companies with foreign investors that registered in Pudong last year were set up in the FTZ. Their average capital value is $15 million each, much larger than the average 50-million yuan ($7.6 million) of domestic companies in the FTZ. "The (larger) size of these foreign-invested companies has dispelled the misconception that the majority of the companies set up in the FTZ are smaller ones," said Shen Xiaoming, director of the administration of Shanghai FTZ. Filipina maids in China are struggling to make a living while suffering homesickness because they cannot go home freely due to their illegal status in the country. Lisa cooks Chinese food for her employer. [Beijing Youth Daily] Although China bans individuals from hiring overseas maids, it is not rare to see foreign faces in Beijing's domestic service market, many from the Philippines, the Beijing Youth Daily reported. They managed to get round the regulations by obtaining a business visa instead of a work visa with the help of agencies. Filipina maid, a synonym for high-end service In the domestic service market, Filipina maids are quite popular for being better trained and more professional. Many agencies demand that most of their contracted Filipina maids have a bachelor degree or above, and are able to provide high-quality service after receiving professional domestic service training. Thus, "Filipina maid" has become a synonym for high-end service. A one-time fee of 79,000 yuan (US$12,008) has to be paid to employ a Filipina maid, covering brokerage and fees for transportation, visa application and custom clearance. The agencies usually take a brokerage fee from both the maid and the employer, and get commissions via receiving payment on behalf of the maid in the first six months of the contract. The total brokerage amount can range from 7,500 yuan (US$1,140) to 40,000 yuan(US$6,080), according to industry insiders. In Beijing, a common Filipina maid can get 6,000 yuan (US$912) per month; those well experienced or being bilingual can get 7,500 yuan (US$1,140). And the ones dubbed "golden maids" can receive up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,216) every month. Lisa, a 56-year-old maid from the Philippines, had been working in Beijing for five years. Sadly, she couldn't go home these years because she didn't possess a valid visa. "Back at home, I have my mother, my husband, and two sons. Both are unmarried yet, one is 30 years old, and the other is 29," She told Beijing Youth Daily. Her husband didn't have a job and the whole family was dependent on her. Homesick, Lisa calls them every day while off duty and sends most of her salary back home. Specialized in nursing puerperae and infants, Lisa majored in "maid services" at a Filipina college. She ranks high due to her 14 years of working experience in Hong Kong where she could get a legal work visa. Lisa said she used to return to the Philippines during holidays and the transportation charges were covered by her employers. But she decided to come to Beijing after hearing her friends were earning a much higher salary in the metropolis. However, the laws in the Chinese mainland don't allow foreign low-end labor to work as nannies or maids. In the first two years, domestic service agency got Lisa a business visa and renewed it every half year. Then, she suffered an accident and was not able to get it renewed, becoming "black" or unregistered since then. "Black" maids favored, rights risked Filipina maids in the Chinese mainland usually hold a business visa which requires to be renewed every six months. Most of them are registered as translators or foreign language teachers in foreign enterprises. Unregistered and inexperienced Filipina maids are very popular because without a valid visa, the employer can pay her less without worrying she may run away. As for the rights of the maids, the contracts usually only stipulate that the employer should not open the employee's letter, withhold her personal items or show disrespect for her religious beliefs; the employee can ask the agency for help if abused by the employer. Thirty-eight-year-old Mary is a "black" Filipina maid. She used to make 3,380 yuan (US$513) per month in Hong Kong. When she came to Beijing, her employer promised to pay her 6,000 yuan (US$912) per month after she had worked satisfactorily for one year. "But the employer didn't keep the promise. Then, I threatened to leave and work for others," recalled Mary. "My employer got angry and drove me away without giving me my visa. That's how I became 'black'," she said. Filipina maids cannot leave China without a valid visa. Even the ones holding a business visa must not refer themselves as a nanny or maid while checking out. "Once found out, they would be sent back to the Philippines, and the Chinese employer would be fined 20,000 yuan (US$3,040)," an agent explained. Lisa didn't gossip - like the Chinese nannies previously hired by her employer Wang Fang, a stay-at-home mother, who said the maid was quite capable and diligent. "But no matter how reassuring she is, I have to pay a close attention to her whereabouts in case she goes back to the Philippines without notice." She kept Lisa's passport and visa and only hands them over temporarily when they were needed for business visa application. Han Xiao, a lawyer from Beijing Jingrun & Partners Law Firm, noted that the contract between a foreigner domestic worker and a Chinese employer is illegal and invalid in the Chinese mainland, which means both sides' rights and interests are unprotected. Due to homesickness, Lisa finally made her mind up to return to the Philippines and spend some time with her family, despite the dim prospect that she would be jobless in her own country. A State Council investigatory team has identified 123 people responsible for the Tianjin warehouse explosions in August that killed at least 165 people and put direct economic losses at 6.87 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion dollars). Previously, another 49 people, including 13 from Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics Co. Ltd (Ruihai Logistics), owner of the warehouse, have been put under "coercive measures" in line with the law, the team said in a report on Friday. "Coercive measures" may include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention and arrest. After five months of investigation, the team has concluded that the disaster, "an extraordinarily serious production safety accident," was caused by ignition of hazardous materials, improperly or illegally stored at the site. The fire started in a container through auto-ignition of nitro-cotton, due to vaporization of the wetting agent during hot weather. The fire spread, igniting other chemicals, including ammonium nitrate, the report said. It said Ruihai Logistics had "illegally built a freight yard of hazardous materials, conducted illegal operations, illegally stored hazardous material and their safety management procedures were inept." The company's executives were found to have exploited their connections and bribed local officials to get approvals. The probe suggests 74 officials be subject to Communist Party of China disciplinary procedures, 48 be admonished by their local discipline inspection commissions. One other culpable person died of natural causes during the course of the investigation. The report also recommends that Ruihai Logistics' licenses be revoked and company executives be banned from any other executive posts in the sector. On Aug. 12, two explosions ripped through a Ruihai Logistics' warehouse in Tianjin Port, killing 165 people, including 99 firefighters. Another eight people are still unaccounted for. The explosions damaged 304 buildings, 12,428 cars and 7,533 containers. Authorities are continuing to monitor and control pollution nearly six months after the explosions rocked Tianjin Port, which is about 160 km from Beijing. With a large amount of toxic chemicals like ammonium nitrate and sodium cyanide stored at the site, the explosions have caused air, water and soil pollution in the core zone and surrounding areas, but did not affect the marine environment in Bohai Bay, where Tianjin is located, the report said. "No people were poisoned or killed by the pollution. The negative impact on the air has basically been neutralized, while the polluted surface water has been appropriately disposed of," the team wrote in a statement delivered to Xinhua. Authorities are still dealing with underground water and soil pollution in the core zone of the explosions, it said. The fatal blasts have exposed slack Chinese safety management of hazardous chemicals, and the investigatory team made suggestions for improving government supervision to prevent more such tragedies. "China should give more priority to production safety," the report said, advising that the central government streamline port safety management, delimit responsibilities clearly, strictly implement city planning and tighten safety requirements. The team urged more government scrutiny of intermediary organizations responsible for safety and environmental evaluations. Fraudulent safety evaluation reports issued by appraisal firms involved in this case allowed Ruihai Logistics to get government permits to operate. China should also improve its emergency disposal protocols and equip rescue forces with specialist devices for this, the report said. You are here: Home An angry smoker in Beijing attacked two volunteers responsible for supervising the anti-smoking law and then escaped, Chinese language newspaper The Mirror reported. A man was found smoking inside Beijing Fortune Center, a landmark office building in the capital's central business area, breaching the local anti-smoking law. The conflict occured while two volunteers tried to persuade the smoker to put out his cigarette. One volunteer had his finger bone fractured during the scuffle. The smoker escaped after the conflict and was found working for a company using a fake ID. Beijing Association on Tobacco Control has strongly denounced the violence and called for the rule-breaker to be brought to justice. A police investigation remains ongoing. Beijing introduced its toughest anti-smoking measures on June 1, 2015. As part of the campaign, volunteers distribute leaflets on smoking and check public venues for potential smokers on Wednesdays. The new ban, the country's toughest to date, prohibits smoking in all the city's indoor public spaces, workplaces, and on public transportation. You are here: Home A Chinese naval fleet of three warships returned home on Friday after escort missions in Somalian waters and a circumnavigation of the world that took them 309 days. A naval officer kisses his child as he gets off board in a military port in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 5, 2016.[Photo/Xinhua] Comprised of destroyer Jinan, frigate Yiyang and supply ship Qiandaohu, the 152 Naval Fleet visited 18 ports in 16 countries, crossing three oceans and five continents and sailing 52,300 nautical miles. It set a number of records in the history of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in terms of mission duration, distance covered, numbers of countries visited, and drills held with foreign navies, said PLA Navy Commander Wu Shengli at the welcome ceremony. The fleet's achievements showed the modernization of the PLA Navy and the quality of its staff, and the voyage also deepened mutual understanding and friendship, Wu added. The 152 Naval Fleet weighed anchor on April 3, 2015. It escorted 90 Chinese and foreign ships sailing through the Gulf of Aden. After the escort mission, it crossed the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, holding drills with navies from Egypt, Denmark, France, the United States, Australia and Indonesia. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Giant panda cubs play together at the Bifeng Gorge base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP), in Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 31, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] As millions of Chinese head home for the Spring Festival, a dozen of panda babies have already celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year at a breeding center in southwest China. The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP), the world's largest artificial breeding center for the rare species, held a special new year greeting ceremony on Friday at its base in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, with baby pandas born in 2015 attending. At a panda kindergarten at the Bifeng Gorge base, panda cubs between five to seven months were released from their dorm to a playground with a wooden stand decorated with traditional new year blessing items like red Chinese knots for good luck and gold ingots for wealth. The panda babies climbed up on the stand and played with monkey dolls too. "On behalf of the panda population, we wish all the people a happy Year of the Monkey," said Heng Yi, the center's publicity officer, adding the ceremony aims to improve public awareness of environmental protection too. Luo Bo, deputy chief of the center's animal management department, said the ceremony is also a sort of physical training for the cubs. "They grow very fast at their age now and need more physical practice to improve their strength and fitness. Apparently, they love the dolls," said Luo. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Flash Greece is honoring its commitments regarding the handling of the refugee crisis and requests that all sides do the same, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (R) welcomes Interior Minister of France Bernard Caseneuve (L) and Interior Minister of Germany Thomas de Maiziere (C) during their meeting in Athens, Greece, on Feb. 5, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] Tsipras said so while receiving French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and his German counterpart Thomas De Maiziere, with the refugee crisis being on the top of the agenda of discussions. The Greek leader stressed once again that the crisis concerned all European partners and neighboring countries and should be addressed with common efforts rather than leaving the burden on one country. In 2015, more than 800,000 people reached Greece's shores from Turkey on their way to other European countries. Greece is under escalating pressure to provide more help to refugees and guard its borders more efficiently. Faced with calls of temporary expulsion from the Schengen zone unless it takes action to correct gaps soon, Athens is requesting more assistance from European partners. The Greek government requested Turkey fulfill its commitments under the agreement reached in late 2015 with the EU on the management of the crisis. The foreign officials stressed the need for more efficient border management in Greece, pledging immediate support. Greece must do its share, De Maiziere said. "The EU can't tolerate the same refugees' inflow as in 2015," Cazeneuve added, noting the European border protection force Frontex should be upgraded. Greece will be supported with experts on the checking of fake documents in this context, the two officials said, calling on Athens to complete the construction of reception centers for refugees on the islands that meet basic humanitarian needs. Greece has undertaken the commitment to create five hot spots on five Aegean Sea islands by mid-February. So far only one operates on Lesvos island. The Greek government assured everything would be ready on time, but the project has met strong resistance by local authorities and communities in several cases who protest the camps are being planned with no prior consultation with locals. On Friday, residents of Kos island scuffled with police outside an old military camp which is being turned into a hot spot. Three people were slightly injured and a journalist was detained, according to AMNA's correspondent. On Wednesday, protestors prevented a helicopter carrying Defense Minister Panos Kammenos from landing on the island's heliport. Flash British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday said a reformed European Union (EU) would be good not only for Britain but also for Poland and the rest of Europe. Speaking after an official visit to Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, Cameron said: "I think that the United Kingdom will be in a better situation when it is in a reformed European Union. If we can attain it, it will be not only good for the UK, for Europe, but also for Poland." "We want to make sure that our cooperation with Poland will be as close as possible in coming months and coming years," he added. High on the agenda of the meeting were Britain's ongoing negotiations concerning its EU membership and the situation of Polish migrant workers in Britain. Szydlo told the press conference "I want to emphasize that for Poland, the UK is a very important strategic partner and it is crucial for us that the UK remains in the EU. The UK is one of the EU's pillars." She indicated that Poland agreed with some of the British proposals concerning EU reform, such as improving EU competitiveness, strengthening the role of national parliaments and simplifying bureaucracy. Another important point of bilateral talks included rights and privileges of migrant workers in Britain, a great share of which are Polish. "There are over a million Poles living and working in the UK. I would like to thank PM Cameron that they found a good environment to live and work there," said Szydlo. She emphasized that Poles in Britain, who contribute to the growth of British GDP, should have "the same conditions and chances for professional career growth as the British." Szydlo's remark pertained to British government suggestions to implement a prolonged transition period for new migrants applying for social welfare benefits in Britain. Both Szydlo and Cameron agreed Poland and Britain faced the same security challenges and tasks emanating from the migrants inflow to the EU, war in Syria and strengthening of the NATO east flank. Cameron said it was in the UK's best interests to see a successful NATO summit in July 2016 in Poland. On Friday, Cameron also met with the leader of the Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Flash Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Friday that his entire government is ready to resign if parliament decides to lay off at least one of the ministers. "We came to the cabinet as a single team and we will continue to work as a single team. If a decision is made that this team needs to be reshuffled, we will quit all together," Yatsenyuk said, while speaking in the parliament. He said that the Ukrainian government is ready to face a vote of confidence in the parliament and requested the lawmakers to prepare the motion. Yatsenyuk's statements came amid an embroilment in Ukraine's ruling elite, which erupted after Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius tendered his resignation, accusing senior parliament members of corruption and blocking his reforms. The resignation of Abromavicius was due to be considered in the parliament on Thursday, but the lawmakers have not put it on the vote, without giving an explanation. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had earlier suggested that Abromavicius should retain his post, but the cabinet should be reshuffled. Flash Britain on Friday rejected a UN working group's ruling which calls for an end to the "arbitrary detention" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) announced Friday that Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain since his arrest in London in 2010, and he should be afforded the right to compensation. Speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been taking refuge, Assange said: "How sweet it is. This is a victory that cannot be denied." "It is a victory of historical importance, not just for me, for my family, for my children, but for the independence of the UN system," he added. Holding a copy of the UN ruling, he continued: "What right do the governments of the U.S., UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years?" However, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described the ruling as "a ridiculous finding" by the working group, and accused Assange of "hiding from justice." "Assange is a fugitive from justice, voluntarily hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy. I reject the report from UNWGAD," Hammond tweeted. Hitting back at Hammond, Assange accused the foreign secretary's comments of "insulting the UN." "I found those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign secretary should express in this situation," The 44-year-old Australian said. Edward Snowden, a U.S. intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower who has fled the U.S. and taken refugee in Russia, criticized Britain's rejection to abide by the UN ruling. "This writes a pass for every dictatorship to reject UN rulings. Dangerous precedent for UK and Sweden to set," he said on his twitter account. British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) denied that Assange has been arbitrarily detained by the UK, and threatened to formally contest the opinion of the UN Working Group. "This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group's opinion," an FCO spokesperson said. The spokesperson noted that an allegation of rape against Assange is still outstanding with a European Arrest Warrant in place, and Britain "continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden." Assange has infuriated several governments, including the U.S. authorities, by disclosing hundreds of thousands of secret files concerning Iraq, Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies around the world. In June, 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and was granted political asylum by Ecuador two months later. Flash The European Union (EU) is to partner with the newly formed Libyan government to fight the Islamic State (IS) in Libya, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced on Friday. "The best condition to fight against Daesh (Islamic State) in Libya is to count on the government of National Accord to be in place and to work in partnership with them," Mogherini told the press after an informal meeting of the EU's foreign affairs council. A new unity government under a plan backed by the United Nations was formed in Libya mid January. Headed by Fayez Al-Serraj, the new government comprises 32 ministers and four deputies to the prime minister. It will assume its powers after the House of Representatives' approval. "The 28 member states of the EU all stated very clearly that we are ready to provide all the potential possible support to the (Libyan) government including in the security sector," said Mogherini, adding "This is going to be discussed, debated and decided together with the Libyans." The EU has also started to discuss the possibility of reviewing the mandate of "Operation Sophia" with the Libyans, she added. "Operation Sophia" is the EU anti-migrant smuggling operation in the Mediterranean Sea. It aims to seize vessels on the high seas suspected of being used for human smuggling and trafficking. Its operations could take place in the territorial waters of Libya and coercive actions against the smugglers could take place on Libyan soil. "Operation Sophia could move to the next phase -- phase 3 -- in the moment when the Libyan authorities might find it useful to go into this cooperation," said Mogherini. Also on Friday, EU foreign affairs ministers had a joint working lunch with their defense colleagues in Amsterdam where most of the Dutch EU presidency activities take place. The Netherlands holds the rotating presidency of the EU from January to June 2016. Flash The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will bring forward its planned satellite launch to as early as Sunday, Japanese officials said Saturday. According to government sources, Pyongyang will bring forward the launch date, initially slated for between Feb. 8-25, to between Feb. 7-14. Japan has maintained that such a launch would be in clear violation of UN resolutions, adding that it would continue to work closely with the United States to strongly demand that the DPRK refrains from its planned launch. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the plans were a provocative act that threatens Japan's national security and along with the U.S. and South Korea, his government would step up pressure on the DPRK to abandon its planned launch. The DPRK said it plans to launch a rocket carrying an earth observation satellite with Pyongyang making the notification to the UN's London-based International Maritime Organization last week. Japan and the United States, however, believe the DPRK could be testing a long-range ballistic missile, with the imminent test coming on the heels of its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, which may lead to the UN Security Council slapping fresh sanctions on Pyongyang. The DPRK is banned from test-firing any rockets based on a ballistic missile technology under UN Security Council resolutions. Discussions on the matter are still underway, with some stakeholders calling for the resumption of six-party talks, stalled since 2008, which involve the South Korea, the DPRK, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The potential launch has rattled the nerves of Japan's defense ministry, which has unrolled anti-missile interceptors on both land and sea to shoot down any inbound rocket or missile headed toward Japan's territory. Huang Yizi (left) just following his release from a black jail. (Photo: China Aid) China Aid By Ava Collins (Wenzhou, ZhejiangFeb. 5, 2016) China Aid received confirmation today that authorities have released a church pastor in Chinas coastal Zhejiang, detained since Sept. 12 in a black jail. Pastor Huang Yizi was accused of stealing, spying, buying or illegally providing state secrets for institutions and people outside the country. During his detention, authorities did not allow him to meet with lawyers or speak with his family. China Aid will continue to update this story as more information becomes available. 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 Premier pledges to continue reform, rules out hard landing of the economy Premier Li Keqiang meets with foreign experts in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY China will continue its financial reform and will not seek to boost its economy through currency depreciation, Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday. He made the remarks when meeting with a group of foreign experts in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. "I can assure you that so long as China keeps up with its reform and opening-up policy, the economy will not take a hard landing, and the Chinese currency will not depreciate greatly," he said, adding there is no foundation for a long-term decline in the value of the yuan. He said this as Ted Tokuchi, economist and former managing director of CITIC Securities, raised concerns over the yuan's exchange rate. The People's Bank of China, the central bank, adjusted the exchange rate of the yuan against the US dollar on Aug 11, lowering the yuan's value by nearly 2 percent, the most in the past decade. This caused concerns the move was intended to boost Chinese exports. China's economic growth, as well as its restructuring, were among hot topics during the meeting, which was attended by 68 foreign experts and has become a regular event prior to the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Monday this year. Christopher A. Pissarides, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and co-winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, also suggested improving the labor market and urbanization process to boost the economy, which grew by 6.9 percent last year, the slowest rate in about two decades. The premier blamed the world markets for China's slower growth. If it were not for the sluggish foreign trade, "our growth rate should be above 7 percent", Li said. Last year China saw its exports decline by 1.8 percent year-on-year, and imports drop by 13.2 percent. Pissarides brushed aside voices questioning China's economic health. "I don't really buy such kind of cynicism, because they do not have a grounded argument to prove their questioning," he said. Falk Hoehn, a German expert on industrial design and visting professor at Hefei University, shared his views on education and innovation. Hoehn met with the premier in October when Li and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the university. "The premier has very good ideas on innovation, as it will be the new driving force for China's economy," he said. An exhibition featuring the achievements of Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone opens in Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. [Photo/CFP] Free Trade Zone now known for pharma manufacture and as mainstay of Pudong New Area's economy Core innovation capability of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone has been largely enhanced since the municipal government released a framework plan to link the FTZ with Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone in late November last year. Officially launched in 2013, Shanghai FTZ expanded in April 2014. By then, Zhangjiang was already a link. As a manufacturing base of biological medicine for Shanghai and an industry leader in China, Zhangjiang has played an important role in shaping the FTZ's technological innovation against the backdrop of the joint development framework plan. Its role in the pilot program as a marketing authorization holder system of drugs is significant. Under the marketing authorization holder system, which is widely adopted in developed markets, drug companies' marketing and production processes are separated. A marketing authorization holder can outsource the production process to different pharmaceutical companies. However, under China's current Drug Administration Law, marketing authorization and production are combined. This means, a pharmaceutical company should be in charge of the research and development of drugs as well as production. The R&D ability and production capability thus remained underdeveloped or contained. From August last year, 10 provinces and cities started their trial programs of the holder system. German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim in Shanghai was one of the first companies to implement it. The firm is China's first contract manufacturing organization or CMO to produce a tumor immunity biomedicine for Beijing-based BeiGene Ltd. Becoming a CMO is an important part of initializing the holder system. The tumor immunity medicine will be produced at a production base to be jointly built by Boehringer Ingelheim and State Bio-tech & Pharmaceutical Industrial Base in Zhangjiang. The facility is expected to start operations in 2017. "The start of the CMO program in China is an important milestone for the Chinese biomedicine industry. We will be able to de-bottleneck the biomedicine industry chain and help with the marketing of more medicines developed by Chinese domestic companies," said Luo Jiali, general manager of Boehringer IngelheimChina. Since its expansion, the Shanghai FTZ, which takes up only one-tenth of Pudong New Area, contributed nearly 75 percent of the area's gross economic volume in 2015. Shanghai FTZ's manufacturing sector has witnessed slower growth in the past few years due to overcapacity amid the national economic slowdown. But its services sector has been catching up and showing a more vibrant annual growth rate of 3 percent. Economic vitality in Pudong has been largely enhanced since the FTZ expanded in early 2014. In 2015 alone, more than 18,000 new companies registered in Pudong. Some 180,000 companies set up shop in the area since its expansion 25 years ago. About half of the companies with foreign investors that registered in Pudong last year were set up in the FTZ. Their average capital value is $15 million each, much larger than the average 50-million yuan ($7.6 million) of domestic companies in the FTZ. "The (larger) size of these foreign-invested companies has dispelled the misconception that the majority of the companies set up in the FTZ are smaller ones," said Shen Xiaoming, director of the administration of Shanghai FTZ. KUALA LUMPUR - China retained its position as Malaysia's largest trading partner for the 7th consecutive year in 2015, despite dropping commodities prices, according to statistics released by Malaysia on Friday. In 2015, Malaysia's trade with China expanded by 11.1 percent to 230.89 billion ringgit ($55.67 billion), according to Malaysia's international trade and industry ministry. Exports to China recorded a double-digit growth of 10 percent to 101.53 billion ringgit ($24.48 billion). Higher exports were registered for manufactured goods which saw an increase of 10.2 percent. Malaysia's export of petroleum products, manufactures of metal, chemicals and chemical products as well as optical and scientific equipment to China had contributed to the higher trade figure. Exports of electric and electronic (E&E) products accounted for 42.6 percent of Malaysia's total exports to China. Exports of mining goods increased by 53.6 percent in 2015, mainly thanks to significant increase in exports of aluminium ores. China remained as Malaysia's largest import source with 18.9 percent of total share, expanded by 12 percent to 129.36 billion ringgit ($31.19 billion) with higher imports recorded for apparel and clothing accessories, machinery, appliances and parts, as well as transport equipment. China has been Malaysia's largest trading partner since 2009, and Malaysia is China's largest trading partner among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In total, Malaysia's trade grew by 1.2 percent to reach 1.466 trillion ringgit ($353 billion) in 2015, compared to 1.448 trillion ringgit ($349 billion) in the previous year, thanks to the rebound in the second half of the year. Malaysia recorded higher trade with its major trading partners, including China, ASEAN, United States and the European Union. Exports grew by 1.9 percent despite the challenging economic environment, to reach a value of 779.95 billion ringgit ($188.04 billion). Exports during the second half of the year were resilient and turned around sharply to record a 6.8 percent growth from a 3.1 percent contraction in the first six months. Decline in exports were reported in Malaysia's major commodities, including palm oil, natural rubber, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude petroleum, due to tumbling prices. Exports of palm oil declined by 6.2 percent, while exports of natural rubber dropped by 11.9 percent. Exports of crude petroleum and LNG saw declines of 20.3 percent and 26.2 percent respectively. Total imports recorded a marginal growth of 0.4 percent to 685.65 billion ringgit ($165.3 billion). Faster growth of exports in 2015 resulted in a double-digit growth of 14.3 percent in trade surplus to 94.29 billion ringgit ($22.73 billion), representing Malaysia's 18th consecutive year of trade surplus. BEIJING - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday that China will continue to deepen reforms by streamlining administration, delegating powers, improving regulation and providing better services. "This will trigger market vitality and ingenuity, and will create a level playing field for all market players," said Li when holding discussions with foreign experts working in China at the Great Hall of the People. Li extended New Year greetings to foreign experts and their families, as well as sincere thanks to friends from other countries that have given support to China's reform, opening-up and modernization drive. During the meeting, Li listened advices from four experts on issues concerning China's economic competitiveness, the "Made in China 2025" strategy, the training of applied talents, China's industrial transformation, and how the world could hear more of the China story. The four experts are Christopher Pissarides, holder of the Nobel Prize in Economics and professor at the London School of Economics, Falk Hoehn, German expert on industrial design and guest professor at Hefei University, Jongseong Lim, Canadian expert from China's 1000 Talent Plan for High-Level Foreign Experts and deputy head of the Geely Automobile Research Institute, and John Lydon, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and US expert with China Daily. Li also responded to questions raised by Daniel Dudek, US expert on environment protection, and Tatsuhito Tokuchi, a Japanese financial expert, about the Chinese economy and the yuan exchange rate. Li said that last year, despite a sluggish world economy and prominent structural problems facing the domestic economy, China's GDP realized medium-high growth on the basis of $10 trillion. New economic sectors and new business models have been growing fast, he said, noting the Chinese economy is growing in a more balanced fashion, and is being driven more and more by domestic demand, innovation, as well as the service sector and the green economy. Although we are facing some difficulties and challenges, China's new type of industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization will unleash enormous development potential and give impetus to drive world economic growth, he said. He said China is pushing ahead with structural reform, especially reform on the supply side. "It is in the process of implementing the strategy to develop through innovation and of encouraging mass enterpreneurship and innovation," he said. Efforts are being stepped up to foster new development drivers while traditional drivers are being upgraded and improved, he said. Li said China's basic state policy of opening up will remain unchanged. "China will bring in more talents in an all-round way, and will provide them with services that are more convenient and up to international standards," he said. Intellectual property will be better protected according to law, he said, adding that pooling together collective wisdom and strength would help the Chinese economy move away from over-dependence on natural resources and become increasingly driven by human resources and talents. Li also hoped that foreign experts working in China will continue to share their ideas and insights with China for the benefit of common development of the Chinese economy and the global economy. Chinese tourists ask a sales assistant for directions at a Lotte department store in central Seoul, South Korea, February 2, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] BEIJING - China's outbound tourists are expected to spend at least 10,000 yuan ($1,590) per capita during the Feb. 7-22 Spring Festival holiday season of 2016, which will once again make them the most powerful group of buyers around the world this winter. Ctrip -- a major online travel agency in China -- anticipated that the total number of visits conducted by Chinese tourist overseas would reach a high of 6 million during the busy holiday season. That's perfectly good news for places which are high on the list of Chinese tourists' favorite winter destinations, with the Top Ten including Seoul, Bangkok, Phuket Island, Singapore, Hong Kong of China etc, according to Ctrip. They and others, which also want a share, have prepared with standard Chinese speaking shopping guides, hot drinking water services and discounts for holders of Chinese passports or Unionpay cards. The break of the first seven days of the Spring Festival for most Chinese in the holiday season, traditionally a period of time for family reunions, now sees a new fashion of people spending time and money overseas. Global retailers have found that the enormous purchasing power of Chinese shoppers may stem from needs behind every single customer, who buy for their families and friends as many brands have wide pricing discrepancies in different countries. Li Fu, a Shanghai girl, who spent around 20,000 yuan ($3,180) in her trip to Japan, stuffed 30 kg of cosmetics, watches and small appliances into her luggage back to China. "Many of my family members and friends heard my plan to travel and asked me to buy goods for them overseas," she said. According to Japan's tourism agency, Chinese tourists' visits to Japan topped 4.3 million in the first 10 months of 2015 and their per capita consumption increased to $2,490 in 2015 from $1,878 in 2014. Chen Xi, a young business woman from Beijing, rushed to Ginza after landing at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport Thursday, joining in numerous Chinese tourists shuttling between department stores and specialty shops in the well-known commercial zone. Although a majority of Chinese visitors in Japan spent their money mainly in shopping, an increasing number are becoming keener than others to spend more time in self-guided tours experiencing the archipelago country. If it is to emerge as a genuine global company it is essential that large overseas targets are acquired Once again Alibaba, never far away from front page news, is the subject of intense speculation. Right now it is the recent takeover of South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong newspaper, that has set tongues wagging again. The talk appears to center on the latest acquisition and how this fits with Alibaba's overall direction and continued emergence as a potential global corporate brand. But is this particular takeover that significant for Alibaba's future? Or is this focus actually an oversight which misses the real issues and challenges facing Alibaba? If Alibaba is to emerge as a genuine global company capable of dealing with competitive threats from anywhere in the world, it is essential that larger targets are acquired but these targets have to be overseas companies, preferably large, established European and/or US corporate global giants. Such an audacious strike is the only path to sustainable, global expansion and serious international market credibility. In so doing Alibaba will join a growing list of Chinese companies in their quest to internationalize and modernize. It is only recently that China's household appliance giant Haier announced a $5.4 billion takeover of General Electric's appliance business. It is difficult to see how Haier's penetration of the lucrative US market could have followed any other strategy than growth via overseas acquisitions. Alibaba's SCMP takeover, which appears to make sense in this digital media era, does represent advancement and should strengthen the company's reputation but it also begs the question: When is this internationally-aspiring giant going to make an announcement similar to Haier's GE takeover? Haier's announcement is not an isolated case and should Alibaba finally land a major US or European corporate catch it will join a sizeable list of Chinese companies that have leapt to international prominence using the same route. In 2005, computer giant Lenovo announced an agreement to take over IBM's PC division, news that shook the global computer industry at the time. A few years later, Chinese auto industry player Geely bought out the Volvo brand. More recently world-famous overseas brands such as London's toy store Hamleys and UK breakfast cereal brand Weetabix were also the subject of Chinese company takeovers. A similar move by Alibaba will contribute considerably to establish a credible reputation as a global brand. Certainly, listing on the US stock exchange not that long ago represents a major step in the right direction for Alibaba. But the investment community need to witness an audacious overseas takeover in order to be convinced of Alibaba's intent. Should an overseas company takeover occur soon, it is also crucial that Alibaba follow up such an announcement with clear post-acquisition integration plans that involve a genuine mix of managerial talent at the top. Global markets will not be conquered without a suitable mix of talented professionals at the helm from a range of different cultural backgrounds. This will not dilute Alibaba's Chinese identity, nor should it, but will lead to much-needed modernization of Alibaba's corporate culture and a more transparent approach to international business generally. Alibaba's SCMP takeover is news but hardly big news. A multi-billion-dollar overseas company takeover represents the only way forward. The author is a visiting professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and a senior lecturer at Southampton University. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily. A DPRK soldier stands in front of the Unha 3 rocket at the launch site in Tongchang-ri, on April 8, 2012. [Photo/IC] Foreign Minister says Beijing does not want to see actions that raise tensions Beijing has told Pyongyang it does not want to see any moves to further raise tensions, Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said. Wang's remarks, made on Thursday in London, were released on Friday. They came after Pyongyang told UN agencies on Tuesday that it planned to launch a satellite between Feb 8 and 25. Pyongyang has said it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program, although some countries believe such launches are missile tests and have called for Pyongyang to scrap the plans. Wang said it was natural that Beijing had sent its special envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs, Wu Dawei, to Pyongyang as China is the host country of the Six-Party Talks. Wu began his trip on Feb 2, amid a flurry of diplomatic moves after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea claimed it had successfully tested its first H-bomb on Jan 6. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Wu had returned to Beijing on Feb 4. He said Wu met DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong and First Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, and held talks with Vice-Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho. Wang told Hong Kong's Phoenix Television that China needed "contacts with the DPRK to listen to their opinion" in such a serious situation. "Of course, an important point is to express China's clear position to the DPRK. We don't want to see anything happen that could cause further tensions," he said. "We hope all sides, including the DPRK, can meet each other half way, and work hard together to push the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue onto the track of a negotiated resolution." Shi Yongming, an Asia-Pacific studies research fellow at the China Institute of International Relations, said the key to tackling the Korean Peninsula issue is "whether Pyongyang and Washington can resolve their problems in a peaceful way". "China has not only sent the message to the DPRK, but also to the United States. The impasse on the Korean Peninsula at present is no good for either side." He said that by sending Wu Dawei, China had fulfilled its obligation as a communication channel between Pyongyang and the world. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Wang met in Beijing last week to discuss the Korean Peninsula issue. The meeting went on for much longer than originally planned. The two sides agreed on the need for a new UN Security Council resolution against the DPRK. The US wanted stiffer sanctions, but Beijing said that the aim of the sanctions should not be to further raise tensions but to lead the DPRK back to the negotiating table. "China has done its utmost, and now it depends on whether the DPRK will follow China's suggestions," said Shi Yuanhua, head of the Center for Relations between China and Neighboring Countries at Fudan University in Shanghai. Shi said he did not foresee Pyongyang canceling the rocket launch plan. "The launch is a show of strength by Pyongyang to Washington," Shi said, adding the launch would be canceled only if the US changed its tough stance. Wang also said on Thursday when speaking at the Supporting Syria and the Region conference in London that China would donate 10,000 tons of food to help ease the food shortages among Syrian refugees. He said he had changed his schedule in Africa to fly to London especially for the meeting. Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) and other top leaders attend a reception to extend Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people as they meet with more than 2,000 members of the public in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 6, 2016. Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli were also present. [Photo/Xinhua] BEIJING - President Xi Jinping and other top leaders extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people Saturday as they met more than 2,000 members of the public at a reception in Beijing. Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli were also present. Premier Li Keqiang delivered a speech at the gathering, greeting all Chinese in the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and at abroad. Full text of remarks at the 2016 Spring Festival reception by Premier Li Keqiang Li also sent condolences to Taiwan compatriots for the strong 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit Kaohsiung earlier in the day and has left 11 people dead. Some major natural disasters and public security contingencies in the past year have brought the people's hearts closer together and authorities have put the people's security as top priority all the time, Li said. "Over the past year, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the General Secretary, China's reform and development has braved the storms and maintained medium-to-high growth despite the sluggish world economy," he said. Zivit Sari, a resident of Haifa, Israel, shows a brocade purse made by the Shujiang Brocade Institute in Chengdu, Sichuan province, during a recent visit to her city by a Chengdu media delegation. [Photo by Huang Zhiling/chinadaily.com.cn] Lin Jingting was happy to meet members of a recent media delegation from Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, when they visited the University of Haifa in Israel where she is a master's degree candidate. Lin, 23, comes from Yibin in Sichuan. Before enrolling at the Israeli university as an exchange student in 2014, she was an undergraduate at Chengdu University for three years. Lin, the first exchange student from Chengdu University, said each month now brings visitors from Chengdu to her Israeli university. Her experience showcases the increasing exchanges between Chengdu and Haifa after they established sister city ties in 2013. Haifa, the largest port city and the most important industrial city in Israel, is also its center of scientific research and higher education. Showing documents recording exchanges between the cities in the city hall of Haifa, Hedva Almog, deputy mayor of Haifa Municipality, told the visiting Chengdu delegation her city has closely cooperated with Chengdu in culture, economy and education since 2013. Today, let's look at the winners of the 2015 Richard Freeman Junior Deal of the Year from the International Bridge Press Association. The deal occurred during a four-day training visit to the Czech Republic by two pairs from the England under-20 team, Laura Covill-Stephen Kennedy and Freddie Illingworth-Ben Norton. This auction was produced by Illingworth (North) and Norton. When West opened one diamond, and North sensibly overcalled two clubs (to make a takeout double with only a doubleton spade and such a skewed hand would not have been wise), South's two-heart advance was forcing for one round (an agreement that I like). Then the jump to five diamonds was Exclusion Key Card Black wood. It agreed hearts, indicated a diamond void, and asked for key cards excluding the diamond ace. South's six-club reply (step four) indicated two key cards and the heart queen. A leading American Jewish group promoting therapy it claims could turn gays to heterosexuals was ordered shut in December by a New Jersey court, amid growing efforts in the United States to curb the generally discredited practice. But therapists with ties to the shuttered group say they have found a haven for their work in Israel. Israel's Health Ministry advises against so-called "gay conversion" or "reparative" therapy, calling it scientifically dubious and potentially dangerous, but no law limits it. In Israel, practitioners say their services are in demand, mostly by Orthodox Jewish men trying to reduce their same-sex attractions so they can marry women and raise a traditional family according to their conservative religious values. Clients also include Jewish teenagers from the US and other countries who attend post-high school study programs at Orthodox seminaries in Israel. Half of all such students attend seminaries that require youth who admit to having homosexual feelings to see reparative therapy practitioners, according to the Yeshiva Inclusion Project, a group that counsels gay prospective students. A Japanese actor plays the role of the Monkey King at the cultural show of in Tokyo, Feb 2, 2016. [Photo provided to Culturalink.gov.cn] A Peking opera and Kunqu opera cultural show was held in Tokyo to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year at the China Cultural Center on Tuesday. The event was organized by the center and the Shanghai History Museum. Many Japanese officials and fans of Peking opera and Kunqu opera attended the event. Chinese and Japanese actors performed classic sections of Peking opera and Kunqu opera. This marked the first time that Japanese actors participated in a Peking opera performance staged by the center. The center also prepared traditional Chinese delicacies for visitors, including dumplings and spring rolls. Qiu Jianguo/For China Daily Of all the meals Chinese people have during the year, there is none more significant than the reunion dinner on the eve of the Lunar New Year Weeks ahead of the Spring Festival every year, millions of Chinese migrant workers around China embark on the trip back to their home towns in order to partake in the family reunion dinner. The fact that they do so, regardless of how long and arduous the journey may be, says much about the significance of the occasion. The tradition of sitting around a table to share a meal on the eve of the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 8 this year, is something that has been around for hundreds of years, and it encapsulates the Chinese people's value of family bonds. "The reunion dinner is so important because it signifies the unity and prosperity of the family-every generation, from the great-grand parents to newborns, come together for this event. There is hardly another day in the year when you will find everybody in the family around you," says Qiao Xiaomei, a 66-year-old Shanghai native. Because large extended families have been split into smaller nuclear units these days, the dinner event has taken on an even great-er significance of family reunion."We used to look forward more to the nice food but now it's all about bringing the clan together. It is so hard to be able to get three or four generations together under one roof. This is perhaps the only opportunity in the whole year," says Wang Yongyong, a 57-year-old Shanghai native. Preparation for the big feast begins about a month before the eve of the Chinese New Year. This is the period when markets are swarmed with people fighting to stock up on enough vegetable and poultry before the vendors return to their home provinces to spend the New Year. When most of the ingredients are ready, housewives will list the dishes they need to cook as there is often a comprehensive selection. They include appetizers, hot dishes, soups, rice dumplings and wontons. Qiao says that the total number of dishes must be of an even number as this symbolizes good luck. The dishes cooked vary between local cultures. For Wang Manhua, a 65-year-old Shanxi native who has lived in Shanghai for more than 20 years, the jiaozi, or dumpling, is an indispensable item on her reunion dinner menu as it is a staple for people in Northern China. Claudia Masueger, CEO of Cheers wine shop chain. Photos Provided to China Daily The horror of seeing her business go up in flames fueled a Swiss businesswoman's desire to put wine within reach of the masses Claudia Masueger's great grandmother started the family wine business the hard way, driving a horse-drawn carriage over rugged Swiss mountain passes into Italy. There she bought barrels of wine then hauled them back to Switzerland, running the business even as she raised her two children. One hundred and ten years later, in 2008, Claudia Masueger made a trip with very different logistical challenges. Instead of heading south like her great grandmother, she boarded an aircraft with two suitcases full of wine and headed east. Unlike her widowed great grand-mother, who is likely to have known whom she would be buying her wines from, Masueger says she had had no idea when that aircraft eventually reached China about whom she would be selling her wines to. Instead she traveled the length and breadth of the country finding out how the wine business worked, stopping people on streets to get them to sample her wine. She then set up a company called MQ Wines, a wholesaler. That may have been the easy part, for a little more than two years after she arrived in the country, in November 2010, disaster struck when MQ Wines' warehouse burned to the ground. "As I stood with my driver Mr Li watching the fire, I saw tears in his eyes,"Masueger says. "I consoled him, saying, 'Don't worry. Cheer up. We'll find a way through this.' "But Li stopped me saying, 'No, no, no. These are not tears of sorrow; they are tears of joy.' He explained that in Chinese culture a fire portends very good fortune." Soledad's Mayor Joao Herrera (L) gives a woman, condoms and kits with insect repellent during a campaign to fight the spread of Zika virus in Soledad municipality near Barranquilla, Colombia, in this February 1, 2016 handout photo supplied by the Soledad Municipality. [Photo/Agencies] BOGOTA - More than 3,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday, as the disease continues its rapid spread across the Americas. The virus has been linked to the devastating birth defect microcephaly, which prevents fetus' brains from developing properly. There is no vaccine or treatment. There are so far no recorded cases of Zika-linked microcephaly in Colombia, Santos said. There are 25,645 people infected with the disease in Colombia, Santos said during a TV broadcast with health officials. Among them are 3,177 pregnant women. "The projection is that we could end up having 600,000 cases," Santos said, adding there could be up to 1,000 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare but serious condition that can cause paralysis and which some governments have linked to Zika infection. Santos said the government was now uncertain about a previous projection for up to 500 cases of Zika-linked microcephaly, based on data from other countries battling the disease. Authorities will continue to investigate, he said. The government will be working across the country to fight mosquitoes - fumigating and helping families rid their homes of stagnant water, the president said. Colombian health minister Alejandro Gaviria has said he believes three deaths are connected with Zika. The province of Norte de Santander had nearly 5,000 cases of the virus, more than any other in the country, an epidemiological bulletin from the national health institute published on Saturday showed. Contents of this Article: China NNN Agreements are usually THE key to protecting your IP against China. Done right, they are nearly flawless. Done wrong (which nearly all are) they are worse than nothing at all. In this post, I explain the basics on how to draft a China NNN Agreement that will work. The first step to manufacturing in China is finding a good factory to make your product. To protect your product at this early stage, you must require the Chinese party to execute an appropriate agreement before you reveal any information. This agreement must comply with three basic rules: First, do not use a U.S. style NDA (non-disclosure) agreement. Second, use an NNN (non-disclosure, non-use, non-circumvention) agreement written to deal with the specifics of OEM manufacturing in China. Third, draft the NNN agreement so it is enforceable in China. I. Do Not Use a U.S. Style NDA a. NDA Agreements are for trade secrets. Thats not what you need. NDA agreements focus on protecting trade secrets. For a trade secret to be protectable property, the information must remain a secret. For this reason, NDA agreements are geared to preventing disclosure of a trade secret to the public. NDA agreements therefore focus narrowly on preventing secret information from being revealed to the public. Since U.S. companies generally focus on maintaining their domestic intellectual property portfolio, they have a natural tendency to believe they can rely on a single NDA agreement, written in English, subject to U.S. law, and exclusively enforceable in a U.S. city and state. But for the following two reasons, this kind of NDA is of no value in China. First, the fundamental issue in China is not protection from disclosure to the general public. The Chinese company that steals your idea does not do so to reveal it to the general public. It steals your idea to use for its own benefit. This means that your contract with Chinese companies must make clear that whether the information you provide is a secret or not, the Chinese company agrees not to use the information in competition with you. Now that you know what is really required for China, you can see why US-style NDA agreements are far removed from what is needed to protect your IP from China. b. NDA Agreements are Not Enforceable in China The second fundamental problem with typical NDA agreements is that they are not enforceable in China. Chinese law allows for protecting trade secrets and for contracts that provide NNN protections. But if such a contract is going to be effective in China it usually should be written in Chinese, governed by Chinese law, and exclusively enforceable in a Chinese court. We discuss this issue in more detail in Section III below. II. Use an NNN Agreement Written Specifically for China You need a China-centric NNN agreement to protect your IP in China. The three Ns that make up a China NNN agreement are: non-use, non-disclosure, and non-circumvention. Consider each in turn. a. Non-Use Non-use means the Chinese factory agrees by written contract not to use your idea or concept or product in a way that competes with you, the disclosing party. The key here is that this obligation arises by Chinese contract, not from some abstract property rights arising under intellectual property law. A contractual provision prohibiting use will protect you not because your concept is classified as some form of intellectual property such as trademark, copyright, patent, or trade secret. Rather, it will protect you because the Chinese factory cannot use your work because if it does so it will be in breach of its contract with you. Getting a Chinese factory to sign a contract with a non-use provision means you will not need to look outside that contract for you or for Chinas courts to be able to control the Chinese factory. b. Non-Disclosure The next N in a China NNN agreement is non-disclosure. In most instances, you need not be terribly concerned with your Chinese counter-party making your secrets public. The Chinese factory usually has no interest in letting the general public in on its good thing as it typically wants to use your idea or concept for its own purposes. But as we mentioned above, this is usually all that a standard NDA can accomplish, and it cannot usually even accomplish that in a China context. If you prohibit a Chinese factory from using your protected information, the clever Chinese entity will not directly breach the non-use prohibition; it will instead disclose the concept to someone in its group and then deny having breached the non-use prohibition because it did not directly use the protected information. For this reason, it is important to understand the type of group with which you are dealing and to make clear in writing that: 1) disclosure is specifically prohibited within the group and 2) if there is infringement by any member of the group, the factory that made the disclosure will be fully liable. Usually some education on this issue is required because Chinese companies often do not view disclosure to a member of their group as violating a non-disclosure prohibition. The following are some of the most common situations we see when dealing with Chinese factories: It is common in China for an extended family to own a group of small- to medium-sized companies and for the family to consider all of these companies as the same entity for disclosure purposes. Chinese factories typically use a team of constantly changing subcontractors. Some of these subcontractors are part of the family group, some are related by co-ownership, some are viewed as related due only to their roles or even their physical proximity. Chinese factories often will assert that they must disclose to these subcontractors to provide costing for your product. Many Chinese factories are part of a large and extensive group company arrangement involving numerous subsidiaries owned by a single parent. Members of the group do not see other members as outsiders for disclosure purposes. Chinese state-owned enterprises often do not regard other SOEs as separate competitors. SOEs are all state-owned and so information held by one SOE should be freely shareable with another SOE. This is particularly true in sectors with a public service focus, such as healthcare and aeronautics. Since all SOEs in these sectors are pursuing the public good, there is no reason for them not to share your information with their brother SEOs. c. Non-Circumvention Non-circumvention is the third and last N and its importance varies with the situation. Your Chinese factory knows you are purchasing product from it at the China price and then adding a big margin before you sell the product in a foreign market. How would you be impacted if your Chinese factory seeks to sell your product to your customers at 50% less than you charge? What if your Chinese factory were to start selling your product to the rest of the world? In industries where quality and service are critical, many of your customers would probably stay with you. But in other industries, this is less likely to be the case. The best way to prevent circumvention by your Chinese supplier is by having a China-appropriate non-circumvention provision in your China NNN Agreement. III. Use an NNN Agreement a Chinese Court Will Enforce a. Draft your NNN for China Your NNN agreement should usually be written to be enforceable in a Chinese court with jurisdiction over the Chinese defendant. This means that Chinese law is the governing law, Chinese is the governing language, and exclusive jurisdiction is in a Chinese court with jurisdiction over the defendant. The fundamental reason for this China-focused approach is that in cases of infringement or circumvention, you must be able to move quickly against the Chinese defendant. Most of the time, any other approach will make the agreement unenforceable or delay enforcement for so long as to render the agreement useless. Consider the following basic issues: Most foreign judgments are not enforceable in China. So a provision that provides for local country jurisdiction renders the agreement unenforceable in China and therefore nearly always useless. Foreign arbitration awards are technically enforceable in China, but Chinese courts have a poor record of enforcing foreign arbitration awards. Chinese courts are generally of the view that disputes with Chinese companies should be resolved in China. Arbitration in China is subject to delay and uncertain enforcement. Arbitration panels also have no power to seize assets or take other action to force the infringer to cease its infringing conduct. Though Chinese law allows for a foreign law to govern a contract the Chinese courts will require the parties to prove every element of foreign law. Since interpretation of foreign law is virtually always subject to dispute, this leads to long delays. Though Chinese law technically allows for English as the governing language of a contract, most Chinese courts will not deal with foreign language documents and when they do, they will use a translation done by a court appointed translator Disputes over translation are common, again leading to long delays. This also means that you will essentially not know what your own contract says until you get the court translation of it. Chinese courts do not allow forum shopping. Litigation must occur in the court with jurisdiction over the defendant, usually the city where the defendant is registered or where it normally conducts business. Any provision that provides for jurisdiction in another court will be ignored. For more on what it takes to draft a contract that works for China, check out Contracting in China: A Contract Worth the Paper its Written On. b. Draft your NNN Agreement to Convince your Chinese Counter-party not to Breach it. Second, the NNN Agreement must be written so the Chinese company genuinely fears that its breaching the agreement will have immediate and negative impact. The first step is to make the NNN agreement enforceable, as described above. The second step is to ensure the NNN agreement provides for contract damages in a specific monetary amount for every act of breach. c. Draft your NNN Agreement with an Appropriate Damages Provision A contract damages provision provides two benefits. First, it forces the Chinese party to realize that it will face real and quantifiable consequences if it breaches the NNN agreement. Second, a specific monetary amount provides for a specific minimum level of damages. This sum certain amount then provides a Chinese court with the basis for a pre-judgment seizure of assets. A credible threat of your seizing assets greatly increases the likelihood of the Chinese company abiding by your NNN agreement and of your being able to quickly bring the Chinese company to heel if it does not. An NNN agreement must include a sum certain contract damage provision that a Chinese court can and will enforce by ordering seizure of the defendants assets. Care is required, however, because the Chinese legal system does not allow for punitive damages and it also does not allow for extensive consequential damages. It is therefore important to set the contract damages at an amount that reasonably substitutes for the damages that result from a breach of the agreement. Because Chinese companies know that breaching a well drafted China-centered NNN Agreement, will likely lead a Chinese court to order a freeze on their assets, we encounter the following three responses from Chinese factories to our NNN agreements: 1. Some Chinese companies refuse to sign. These are the companies that planned to steal the foreign technology from the very beginning. This sort of situation has in the last few years become incredibly rare. 2. Some Chinese companies will enter into serious discussion about what they believe should be excluded from the NNN Agreement. This is usually a positive result because it often generates productive discussions regarding technical issues. 3. Most Chinese companies execute the NNN agreement and then treat their NNN obligations seriously. This does not mean every Chinese company will abandon years of bad practice and begin behaving well. But it usually means that when a Chinese company violates the NNN agreement, litigation is not required. In most cases, a reference to the NNN agreement and the credible threat of litigation/asset seizure is enough to induce the Chinese company to step back into line. d. Draft Your NNN Agreement to Avoid Litigation The above illustrates the general approach our China lawyers take when drafting any agreement involving China. We do not want to see our clients have to litigate, but to be able to reduce the likelihood of having to go to court it is essential the Chinese side believe it would be relatively easy for you to sue and prevail. China appropriate NNN agreements do exactly that. IV. Use the Right Lawyer/Law Firm for Your NNN Agreement: There be Con Artists Out There In early 2021, in China Contract Drafting Scams: From Bad to Much Worse, Dan Harris wrote about how our law firms China lawyers have since COVID seen a massive increase in people drafting NNN Agreements for foreign companies that are either deliberately or negligently give Chinese companies a full and free license to steal IP from the foreign company that believes it has an agreement protecting its IP. I am going to borrow liberally from that post because we are seeing even more such tcontracts than ever before and NNN Agreements are by far the most common place where we are seeing them. Since the onset of COVID, our China lawyers have seen a massive increase in websites and independent contractors on sites like fiverr purporting to provide the following China legal services at shockingly low prices: China Trademarks China Patents China Copyrights China NNN Agreements China Manufacturing Agreements China Distribution Agreements China Product Development Agreements These service providers (note that I am not calling them lawyers, though many purport to be lawyers) will (for anywhere from $10 to $250) review or draft your contracts or provide you a template agreement for China. But many (most?) of them seem to have literally no ability to do these things and their results bear this out. Since the start of the pandemic, our China lawyers have had to tell a number of foreign companies that came to us after getting in deep trouble that their contracts were either completely useless or worse than having no contract at all. When we explain why their contracts are so harmful, their response is usually that they could not afford to use a real law firm and they just figured these would be better than nothing at all. The problem is that in most cases they are worse than nothing at all. A few weeks ago, I got an email from someone who had contacted me many months ago regarding a potential litigation matter against a Chinese company. The case was not terribly complicated and I recommended this person secure local Chinese counsel, particularly since this person spoke Mandarin. The new email was an update and the news was not good. Seems this person is convinced his local Chinese attorney passed on secrets to the Chinese company he intended to sue. I cannot say whether this is true or not, but I can tell you this is at least the third time in about a year I have become aware of something similar and I have never heard a story like this involving an American or British lawyer. Frankly, I have never heard a story like this involving a reputable Chinese law firm either. The other two instances involved American companies that had retained (two different) Chinese service providers for their trademark applications, only to have those law firms take forever to file for their trademarks and then report back that a Chinese competitor company had in the meantime beaten the American companies to the trademarks. Both companies were convinced (as was I) that their lawyer (who probably was not even a real lawyer) had given an advance tip-off to their Chinese competitors and, no doubt, been paid nicely for having done so. To put it bluntly, Chinese lawyers are NOT required to maintain your confidences. We wrote about this in The Attorney-Client Privilege Really Matters When Doing Business Internationally, Especially in China, in a section entitled, Be Wary of Hiring Chinese Lawyers and Even More Wary of Revealing Confidences to Them: Brad [Luo] concludes this post by saying if I were a client, Id hesitate talking about certain things with my Chinese lawyer. Brad is dead on with this advice and foreign companies using Chinese lawyers must be cognizant of this and this is something our China lawyers constantly have to explain to our somewhat disbelieving American clients. . . . . In China, for example, lawyers have a general duty of confidentiality (Art. 83, Law on Lawyers), but there is nothing to stop them from bearing witness against their clients in civil cases. And though Chinese criminal defense attorneys can choose to maintain confidentiality (Art. 46, Crim. P. Law) regarding their cases, the same discretion does not legally extend to other lawyers. Under this legal framework, an attorney defending someone accused of tax evasion could choose not to testify against their client, but the defendants tax attorneys would not be similarly protected. In addition to these legal considerations, there are also practical ones. American lawyers are rightfully terrified of disciplinary action. Bar associations take complaints seriously and, for the majority of lawyers, disbarment would be a critical blow, both financially and reputationally. This is not to say that lawyers in China are not subject to disciplinary oversight from the government and bar authorities: they are. However, a study of disciplinary cases in Zhejiang found that only 11 out of 122 cases reviewed involved some aspect of client protection. Political concerns and the protection of law firms interests were usually the driving force. It is hard to see how the average Chinese lawyer would be fearful of the consequences of revealing confidential information, especially if the affected client is a foreigner, even more so these days if it is an American company. This means you are in a vulnerable situation if your Chinese lawyer stands to benefit by revealing information you provide. Perhaps your Chinese lawyer has another client who would just love to take a look at that new patent application of yours. Perhaps your Chinese law firm stands to benefit by tipping off your competitor before it files your trademark application we have many times heard of this happening. Or maybe it will be as simple as revealing that you told them that you would have paid $10 per widget, not just the $8 written in your contract. Worse yet, what if your Chinese lawyer is in hot water with Chinese governmental authorities and reporting the missteps of a foreign company will help them curry favor? All of these nightmare scenarios are real life possibilities. Mindful of all this, savvy clients often take their China work to lawyers bound by the strict confidentiality rules of foreign countries. Of course, on occasion some information may need to be revealed to Chinese co-counsel, but it should always be done in a careful, measured, need-to-know basis. Needless to say, you do not want to find out that your communication is not privileged after you have disclosed confidential information. The best course of action will usually be to talk to your international lawyers in the United States and design appropriate strategies before engaging with lawyers abroad. These lawyer trust issues have been out there for a long time, but with the increasing tensions between China and the United States, they are and will continue coming to the fore and this has spurred us to write about this again. So the risk of your Chinese lawyer using your information for its own profit has always been there, but it was rare for this risk to come to fruition until COVID. Now we are seeing this happen all the time and we think the bulk of this is coming from non-lawyers masquerading as lawyers and from online service providers selling templates. In that post, Dan provided the following statistics regarding these low price contracts: Roughly 40% of the China contracts we have seen done at shockingly low prices were so badly written as to be worse than no contract at all. Around 25% of these contracts appeared to involve a lawyer/fake lawyer who was paid by the Chinese side to throw the contract to the Chinese side. The remaining 25% of these contracts are roughly divided between those that are slightly better than nothing at all and those that are roughly the equivalent of nothing at all. In other words, you paying a really low fee for a Chinese contract gives you about 10-15% chance of doing better than doing nothing at all and about a 75% chance of doing worse. How do you like those odds? In addition to contracts written in way that simply does not work, we also often see issues with the type of contract chosen. We see someone who paid for a bad NNN agreement when they did not even need an NNN agreement at all what they really needed was a Product Development Agreement. And we have seen the reverse of this. We have seen licensing agreements when a distribution agreement was what was actually needed and we have seen the reverse of this. We have seen distribution agreements when a manufacturing agreement was needed. In other words, people are not only paying for contracts so badly drafted as to be worse than no contract at all, they oftentimes are paying for the wrong contract for their specific situation! See China Contracts Templates for $99 Each. I urge you to read the entire post because it is of particular relevance for China NNN Agreements. I say this because for NNN Agreements the statistics are far worse than those set forth above and the results of a bad NNN Agreement are often devastating. As one of our most experienced international manufacturing lawyers always points out: it is stolen IP that breaks a company more than anything else. How can you compete against a company that floods the market with your product and sells it for what it costs you to make it? IV. Conclusion The following are the basic things you should know to draft an effective NNN Agreement for China: (Photo : Getty Images) Chinese tourists contributed around $22 billion to South Korea's economy last year. Advertisement South Korea has started issuing 10-year multiple entry visas to Chinese tourists. This privilege will be offered to specialized professionals, according to China Daily. According to South Korean Ministry of Justice, those eligible for the 10-year visa will be specialized professionals such as lawyers, professors or anyone with Master's degree or above. The application requirements for multiple entry visas will also be lenient reports said. The age restriction will now start at 55, changing the previous standard of 60 and above. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement An estimated 80 million potential applicants are eligible for the new multiple entry visas, according to The Yonhap News Agency. On top of this great news, the length of stay for each visit will be extended from 30 days to 90 days. With this latest development, South Korea becomes the latest country to further open its door to Chinese tourists. Chinese tourists contributed 1.6 percent of South Korean's GDP in 2015, generating around $22 billion of economic benefits in accommodation, transportation and shopping among other things. The number of Chinese tourists in South Korea last year was estimated to reach 6.11 million according to China Central Television. This makes up more than 40 percent of all foreign visitors to South Korea. Most notable though is Chinese tourists' strong spending power. Data from Korea Tourism Organization reveals that Chinese tourists spent $2,200 on average in South Korea last year. That is twice as the average of all foreign tourists. More so, the data reveals that 70 percent of Chinese tourists visit the country mainly for shopping, while 20 percent want to experience Korean Wave or the Korean Pop Culture. The remaining go to South Korea for plastic surgery and sightseeing. Advertisement TagsSouth Korean, South Korea-China Relations, 10-year multiple visa entry, visa, Chinese Tourists, South Korea Tourism (Photo : Reuters) Honda has added 21 million vehicles to the list of its cars affected by faulty Takata airbags. Advertisement Japanese car manufacturer Honda has issued a new recall order involving at least 2.2 million more cars due to faulty Takata air bags. The figure includes the 500,000 cars that was originally recalled on Feb. 3. Honda added that a separate air bag defect will force the company to recall at least 341,000 more cars. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement In total, the Takata air bag problem has forced Honda, along with its luxury brand Acura, to recall at least 8.5 million vehicles. The Takata air bag defect can cause it to over-inflate and spew out shrapnel into the passenger compartment. These metals can cause serious injuries and even lead to death. Reports indicate that the problem has forced the recall of more than 20 million vehicles from at least 10 car manufacturers in the United States alone. However, Honda has recalled the most number of cars. Following Honda's recall, Continental also issued a recall order for five million vehicles due to the same air bag problem cited by the Japanese company, according to New York Times. Honda's second recall involves the highly popular Honda Accord. Older models of the car were reported to experience air bag control failure. This means that the supplemental restraint system (SRS) may not deploy in time during a crash. Several other manufacturers also cited this reason for their respective recall orders. Regulators are still in the process of investigating the root cause of the Takata air bag problem. However, initial speculations indicate that this could be caused by the unstable ammonium nitrate installed in Takata's air bag inflators. Some experts believe that the material starts to break down as the years go by. As of this writing, the following cars have been subject to the recall. 2005 - 2012 Acura RL 2007 - 2011 Honda CR-V 2007 - 2016 Acura RDX 2007 - 2014 Honda Ridgeline 2009 - 2014 Honda Fit 2009 - 2014 Acura TL 2010 - 2014 Honda FCX Clarity 2010 - 2014 Honda Insight 2010 - 2013 Acura ZDX 2011 - 2015 Honda CR-Z 2013 - 2016 Acura ILX Advertisement TagsHonda, Honda recall, Takata airbag, Takata recall, Honda recall (Photo : Reuters) A woman checks her phone at the headquarters of the China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) in Beijing. ChemChina is preparing what is likely to be a lengthy US national security review of its takeover bid for the Swiss pesticides and seeds company Syngenta. Advertisement The state-owned China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) has started preparations for a US national security review of its plans to buy Swiss seeds and pesticide maker Syngenta after the chairman of the US House Committee on Agriculture said he would track the progress of the takeover bid. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement US House Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, a Republican from Texas, is aware of the transaction, and has said that he "will be closely monitoring this as it develops," a spokesperson for the committee said in an-email to Reuters. Conaway also serves on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the US House Armed Services Committee. The Texas lawmaker once gathered support for a bill for an additional carrier for the US Navy by saying, among others, "China represents a continual threat to maritime stability in the South China Seas." Food Security ChemChina and Syngenta announced the $43 billion transaction on Wednesday. The landmark deal -- which many see as China's boldest overseas corporate takeover move -- underscores Beijing's efforts to ensure sufficient food for the country's 1.4-billion-strong population. "This is more than just a company buying another," a source close to the deal told Reuters. "This is a government attempting to address a real problem." Syngenta generates a quarter of its revenues from North America, and commands a majority of the continent's market on pesticides. It is also a major player in the North American market for seeds. Many US agencies regard food supply as critical infrastructure, which is why experts say ChemChina's offer to acquire Syngenta is likely to undergo close scrutiny from the US House Committee on Foreign Investments in the US (CFIUS), a powerful national security watchdog. CFIUS is headed by the US Department of the Treasury, and includes the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Defense. The committee reviews acquisitions of US businesses by foreign investors and can recommend the president to block any transactions that it deems compromising to national security. Due Diligence The committee stunned the international business community last month when it blocked a $3.3 billion sale of Dutch company Philips' lighting unit to a consortium of Asian buyers. Four years ago, the committee stopped Chinese-owned Ralls Corporation from building a wind farm near a naval base in Oregon. Experts familiar with the panel's national security reviews say CFIUS will likely scrutinize the proposed takeover to determine whether it would compromise US food security, and whether the company's combined locations would be too close to US military bases. Bloomberg reports that Syngenta has a crop protection manufacturing facility in Louisiana, a crop genetics research facility in North Carolina, and a diversified chemical formulating facility in Nebraska. The agrochemical company likewise has a presence in California, Delaware, Iowa and Minnesota, among others. Syngenta chief operating officer Davor Pisk said the company performs no classified work for the US government and none of its facilities appear to be near US military bases. "As is best practice in foreign acquisitions involving US businesses, the parties will make a voluntary filing with CFIUS, even though no obvious national security concerns were identified during due diligence," Pisk said in an e-mail to Reuters. Advertisement TagsUS-China relations, food security, ChemChina (Photo : Getty Images) Ties between Buddhist temples and their community are slowly fading in Japan. Advertisement In Japan, many local Buddhist temples are increasingly losing offerings and business with the emergence of online temple services. Now, Amazon Japan offers ritual services online at a cheaper rate compared to temples. The South China Morning Post reports that ties between Buddhist temples and their communities have been fading in Japan as families are now able to go online to find a Buddhist monk to perform funerals and other rituals. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Since Amazon Japan approved a service provider to offer "Obo-san bin" or "Mr. Monk Delivery" on its website, it has highlighted the controversial trend of commercializing religion. One major Buddhist organization has criticized this move. Minrevi is just one of the dozens of emerging small business in Tokyo that provides such services with a basic plan costing 35,000 yen (or HK$2,266). The plan includes transportation and donation for the monk. There are other options available that are more expensive. Basically, the monk will go to the client to perform the ceremony. Akisato Saito, director of the Japan Buddhist Association, has expressed disappointment with Amazon saying that this trend is not happening in other parts of the world. Meanwhile, this unique service offering has been welcomed by many Japanese people. Buddhist rituals have become consumer-friendly, before the cost was often thought of as overpriced. Traditionally, Buddhist-style memorial services offered by temples could cost as much as 100,000 yen. Funerals could be more expensive and can cost over 1 million yen. According to a Minrevi spokesman, Jumpei Masano, the service seems to be popular among those who are uneasy about the cost and are not avid temple-goers. Given the growth of online monk services, some monks have recognized their failure to reach out more in the community and adapt to people's needs. Hanyu Kakubo, the public relations secretary for the Japan Buddhist Association, said that criticisms are taken seriously and they are trying to consider the options they have to address the issue. Surprisingly, around 100 monks have expressed willingness to join the trend, signing up for the delivery service. In the past five years, Minrevi's earnings have reportedly tripled. It is still not known if the services will be available to China, which has one of the biggest populations of Buddhist in the world. Advertisement TagsAmazon Japan, online temple services, Buddhist temples, Obo-san bin, Mr. Monk Delivery, Tokyo, Japan Buddhist Association, Akisato Saito, Jumpei Masano, Hanyu Kakubo, Japan, Buddhists, Buddhism (Photo : Getty Images) Following Hong Kong leader's announcement to ban ivory trade, NGO WildAid Hong Kong found two stores engaged in ivory trade have received approval from the Quality Tourism Services Association (QTSA). Advertisement NGO WildAid Hong Kong revealed last week that at least two stores suspected of dealing ivory products were given memberships by the Quality Tourism Services Association (QTSA). This comes weeks after Hong Kong leader Leung's announced a ban ivory trade in the city. The QTSA has been under fire since Jan. 30 after it approved the membership of two stores, reported Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP). This move is particularly critical as it happens after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's policy address about ivory trade. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Alex Hofford, a member of WildAid Hong Kong expressed his disappointment towards QTSA, saying that it is certainly not appropriate for any Hong Kong government department or agency to promote the local ivory industry now that Hong Kong has agreed to get rid of the local ivory trade. The two stores were identified as Star Company in Central and Foochow Lacquer Company in Kowloon. It is still unknown when the two stores became members of the QTSA or when they started engaging in ivory trade. Memberships are given to stores which represent the QTSA mission statement of "high ethical standards and enhancing customer satisfaction." When HKFP reached out to QTSA for comments, they said that they are already discussing the issue with WildAid Hong Kong. Meanwhile, HKFP asked Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) if they will punish the stores selling illegal ivory products in the future, they answered that investigation will be needed to learn more about the case before any sanction will be imposed. Given this development, WildAid Hong Kong has said it is glad to know that QTSA is looking into the issue. The group said it is looking forward to HKTB's actions to stop endorsing ivory trade. It still unclear where the tourism board will start in targeting ivory trading stores following the chief executive's call to ban ivory sales. Advertisement TagsHong Kong leader Leung, ban ivory trade, Quality Tourism Services Association, WildAid Hong Kong, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, Star Company, Foochow Lacquer Company, Hong Kong Tourism Board (Photo : Reuters) US President Barack Obama chats with China's President Xi Jinping as they walk from the West Wing of the White House, followed by interpreters, to a private dinner in Washington in this photo taken in September. Obama called Xi Jinping on Friday to urge more pressure on North Korea as new evidence indicates that Pyongyang's planned rocket launch could be just days away. Advertisement US President Barack Obama called China's President Xi Jinping on Friday to urge Beijing to pile more pressure on North Korea as new evidence indicates that Pyongyang's planned rocket launch could be just days away. The two leaders agreed that the launch of the North Korean rocket would represent "another provocative and destabilizing action," according to the transcript of the telephone conversation issued by the White House. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Friday's call is the Obama administration's latest effort to push Beijing into imposing more hard line sanctions against Kim Jong Un's government, which last month conducted its fourth nuclear test and more recently announced plans for a long-range rocket launch. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the US is considering a range of options in answer to Pyongyang's continued defiance of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. The US and China have been trying to find common ground on the issue, he said. "Impactful Resolution" "In our conversations at a diplomatic level with the Chinese in particular, we encouraged them to work with us and develop potential options," Earnest said. "They have unique influence over the North Korean regime." While Xi and Obama concurred on the need for "an impactful UNSC resolution," China and the US still appear far apart on how that aim should be achieved. Beijing has opposed Washington's planned unilateral sanctions against North Korea. Obama told Xi he hoped the UNSC "could adopt measures to cope with the situation effectively," adding that the US would cooperate with China toward that end. Xi stressed that the current situation in the Korean Peninsula is complicated and sensitive, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. The telephone conversation between the two heads-of-state came even as the website 38 North published new satellite imagery indicating movement at North Korea's Sohae -- also called Tongching-ra -- launch site, including the presence of fuel trucks within the bunkers. Patience and Dialogue The UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) said this past Tuesday that it received official notice of the launch from North Korean authorities, who claimed that the rocket is intended to put a satellite into orbit. The rocket will require ballistic missile technology. The UNSC has banned North Korea from developing both nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies. US state department assistant secretary Daniel Russel said recently that Pyongyang's launch plans "argue even more strongly for tougher US sanctions on the North." In an apparent reference to China, which has resisted the expansion of sanctions against its neighbor, Russel said the planned rocket launch "would be an unmistakable slap in the face" of those who insist on patience and dialogue in dealing with Kim Jong Un's government. North Korea is said to be preparing for the celebration of Kim Jong-il's birthday on February 16, which will be followed by a large gathering of the country's ruling Worker's Party in May. Some analysts speculate that Kim wants to demonstrate the advances in his nuclear and ballistic missile programs ahead of the two events. Advertisement TagsUS-China relations, China-North Korea relations, UN security council violations (Photo : Getty Images) Xiaomi could debut a drone alongside its Mi 5 smartphone in Barcelone later this month. Advertisement Chinese tech giant Xiaomi Inc. has been working on a new drone technology, which is rumored to be set for launch possibly alongside the much awaited Mi 5 smartphone. The Xiaomi Mi 5 handset is expected to be unveiled on Feb. 24 at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The technology, dubbed as the "Mi Drone", was initially scheduled to be launched sometime back in 2015, according to a report by Android Headlines. However, the company chose not to release it, due to the drone's similarity to DJI's Phantom drone in terms of the design. DJI is a leading quad-copter and drone maker company based in Shenzhen, China, with offices around the world, including the United States, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands. Back in December 2015, a patent document was leaked revealing how Xiaomi's Mi Drone technology will work in combination with the Mi Band fitness tracker. According to the document, the Mi Drone has the ability to follow users by their Mi Band trackers. The technology is rumored to come with an on-board camera, and will be available with a price tag of 699 Yuan (about $106). Rumors have it that the Chinese company is planning to launch around 10,000 Mi Drone units only. In the meantime, market research firms have revealed that despite missing its target sales in 2015, Xiaomi remained China's top smartphone manufacturer, ahead of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Apple Inc. Last year, the Chinese giant sold over 70 million handsets, while Huawei managed to surpass its 100 million mark. Xiaomi currently develops a wide range of products such as smart TVs, smart band fitness trackers, air-purifiers, among others. Advertisement TagsXiaomi Mi Drone February 2016, Xiaomi Mi Drone Patent, Xiaomi Inc. The Chocolate Math of it All - v. 9/30/2022 Number of Days Since This Chocolate Bet Started: 5,860 Number of Chocolate Items Eaten: 5,860+ Number of different items combined with chocolate: 371 - from Absinthe to Zucchini) Weight of Chocolate Eaten: ~ 5,860 oz. (366.25 lbs. or 166.12 kg) Total Number of Chocolate Calories Consumed to date: ~ 879,000 (There are, on average, 150 calories in 1 oz. or 28.3 grams of chocolate.) Number of Companies producing chocolate items I've eaten: Approx. 1,592; Number of bean-to-bar makers: 194 Number of Countries where chocolates were made: 66 Number of Pounds of Chocolate Americans Eat: Approx. 11-12 pounds per year; I eat 27 lbs. (more than 12 kg.)/year. Per capita chocolate consumption in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Ireland: 8-9 kilograms (17-22 pounds)/year. Global demand has stayed high, despite economic fluctuations. Cost of all these Chocolates: A lot of money, but worth every penny. Chocolates range from $1 to $20 each. Occasionally I receive gifts or samples. Copyright Information All other product names, logos, trademarks, and product packaging designs belong to their respective owners. Content and photos are by Corinne C. DeBra unless otherwise noted; all photos are posted in low resolution. Copyright (c) 2006-2021 Corinne C. DeBra, Chocolate Banquet Australia's anti-refugee policy under strain as state governor offers sanctuary Public pressure is growing on the Australian government to rescind its intention to deport 267 asylum seekers, including 80 children, to the Pacific island of Nauru. Ten churches, including Brisbane Cathedral, offered sanctuary to the asylum seekers. The Anglican Dean of Brisbane, Peter Catt, said: "We offer this refuge because there is irrefutable evidence from health and legal experts that the circumstances asylum seekers, including children, would face if sent back to Nauru are tantamount to state sanctioned abuse." Now the premier of the State of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, has called on the federal government not to return the refugees, who had been brought to Australia from Nauru island for medical treatment. "Victoria stands ready to assist and care for the children and their families," Andrews wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that Andrews posted on his Twitter account. His state would take full responsibility for their housing, health and education, he said. "Sending these children and their families to Nauru is not the Australian way... It's wrong. Medical professionals tell us this. Humanitarian agencies tell us this," he said. The detention center on Nauru houses about 500 people and has been widely criticised by human rights activists for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse. Andrews said sending the group, including 37 children born in Australia, to Nauru "will needlessly expose them to a life of physical and emotional trauma". Australia takes a hard line on asylum seekers, saying it prevents deaths at sea by discouraging others from making the journey. Last Wednesday, the High Court rejected a legal test case that challenged Australia's right to deport detained asylum seekers to Nauru, about 3,000 km (1,800 miles) northeast of Australia, a decision that drew outrage from campaigners. Andrews' intervention was praised by refugee rights groups. "This is fantastic wonderful news,"said Pamela Curr, an advocate at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. "First legal, churches, community groups, grandmothers, unions, schools, and now a state premier." Additional reporting by Reuters. British special forces injured fighting in Iraq Three members of Britain's special forces were injured in fighting with Islamic State gunmen in Iraq, the Mirror newspaper reported on Saturday without giving any details about its sources. The Ministry of Defence said it did not comment on special forces operation. The Mirror said the injured men were from the SAS and SBS units and were taking part in a 25-strong allied special forces patrol in northern Iraq when they came under fire by 30 Islamic State fighters in armoured Humvees stolen from the Iraqi army. It said the covert patrol by British, German and US special forces aimed to identify Islamic State positions outside Mosul and spot weak areas in the militant group's defences. The report said the Islamic State fighters involved in the incident were all killed as the special forces fought back with assault weapons and called in an air strike. The three men hit by shrapnel were treated on the ground before being airlifted out by helicopter, it said. Britain is taking part in air strikes on Islamic State-held areas in Iraq and Syria and says it has troops present in Iraq providing training to Iraqi security forces. Pope Francis' meeting with Iran's President Rouhani fulfils end-time prophecy, Jewish scholars say Jewish scholars believe that the 2,000-year-old prophecy of the children of Esau (today's Western nations) and the children of Ishmael (today's Arab nations) uniting against the Jewish people as a precursor of the end of days is already being fulfilled. End-time expert and author Rabbi Pinchas Winston and Breaking Israel News (BIN) Bible and prophecy expert Rivkah Lambert Adler both expressed belief that the end-time prophecy is coming to pass as written in the book of Genesis following the meeting between Pope Francis and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the Vatican last Jan. 26, Charisma News reported. During their meeting, Pope Francis reportedly encouraged Rouhani to find political solutions for the various Middle Eastern conflicts. At the same time, the head of the Roman Catholic Church praised Iran's nuclear agreement with the world's powers. The agreement has already come into effect, with Iran having started to collect an estimated $150 billion of its frozen assets. Critics have warned that the economic windfall Tehran will receive from the deal will bolster its support for the Assad regime in Syria and for its other proxies in the region, like Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Although the deal purportedly curbs Iranian production of nuclear materials, critics said Iran could easily resume nuclear-weapons production after a decade of compliance to the agreement. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu vehemently protested the deal but could do nothing since it had the blessings of six world powers, including the United States. Netanyahu reportedly has stopped complaining about the deal, knowing its futility, and is now focusing on stopping Iranian aggression in the region. "Let's block Iran's other aggression in the region, because they're doing everything. They're trying to encircle Israel with a noose of death," Netanyahu said, according to CNN. "They're sending weapons to the Houthis. They're in Iraq. They're in Afghanistan. They're all over the place. In Yemen, of course. Let's bolster those forces to stand up to Iran's aggression in the region, and none is stronger, none is more reliable than Israel," Netanyahu said. Buoyed by international support and its huge financial windfall, Iran has all the more become belligerent against Israel as it recently threatened to rain down 80,000 missiles on the Jewish nation. With the pope supporting the Iranian nuclear deal and recognising the Palestine State at the same time, Adler and Winston believe that Israel and the world are indeed heading into the end times. Winston said he regrets the action being taken by Israel's supposed allies in the West. "Many in the West, especially in Europe, have overlooked the 'sins' of the Arab world while ignoring the virtues of the Jewish state. They also either make up Israeli flaws or over-exaggerate smaller ones," he said. "In short, they have confused David for Goliath and Goliath for David, with little or no remorse at all. For believers, this is nothing short of a miraculous but disturbing fulfilment of prophecy and a serious wake-up call," he said. Proposed non-discrimination law being pushed in North Carolina targets Christians, warns Franklin Graham Reverend Franklin Graham has expressed concern over the renewed efforts to push for the passage of a "non-discrimination" ordinance in Charlotte, North Carolina, led by new city Mayor Jennifer Roberts of Charlotte, North Carolina and two new City Council members. Last year, in a victory for Christians, the Charlotte City Council voted down the highly controversial proposal which it had considered for years that would have added sexual orientation and gender identity to protected categories. "There's no question, this is a dangerous idea. This literally opens the doors the bathroom doors to predators and sexually perverted people," writes Graham on his Facebook page. The evangelist notes that each section of the proposed ordinance has wording to include "gender identity." To determine gender identity, according to the proposed legislation, all an individual has to do is "feel" what his or her gender is "regardless of the biological reality." "So any man can say they feel like a woman that day and enter the women's restroom at any public facility or the showers at public gyms by mandate of law. That's absurd!" says Graham. He believes that the so-called "non-discrimination" measure is being used to discriminate against Christians. This is exactly what happened to bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, florist Barronelle Stutzman, and many others who were "shut down or face fines for following their faith." "LGBT activists are trying to hook their caboose to the 'freedom train' and drag their immoral agenda into our communities by claiming that this is a civil rights issue. Civil rights issues are very real and important but don't be fooled, this isn't one of them," says Graham. "I heard one African-American minister say recently that 'the freedom train doesn't stop at Sodom and Gomorrah.'" The ordinance will be up for discussion again at the Feb. 8 City Council meeting, according Graham. The council might possibly vote on the ordinance on Feb. 22. Graham is praying fervently that "Charlotteans by the tens of thousands will show up to stand against this." US Navy on alert as North Korea rocket is ready to launch Satellite images taken this week of North Korea's Sohae rocket launch site show apparent fueling activity seen in the past shortly before a rocket launch, a US think-tank said, as US government officials signaled that a launch could occur as early as Monday. North Korea has told UN agencies it will launch a rocket carrying what it called an earth observation satellite some time between February 8 and February 25, triggering international opposition from governments that see it as a long-range missile test. On Friday, US government sources said intelligence agencies believed North Korea could be ready by the US Super Bowl kickoff on Sunday, which will be Monday in Korea. Activity at the site was consistent with a launch in the time frame given by Pyongyang, US officials said. US Pacific Command said it was closely monitoring the situation and had many missile defence assets in the region that would provide "a robust defence". "No one should doubt that US Pacific Command forces are prepared to protect the American homeland and defend our allies in South Korea and Japan," said Pacific Command spokesman, US Navy Captain Cody Chiles. Commercial satellite images from Wednesday and Thursday show the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad, said Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea-monitoring project. It said the presence of the trucks probably indicated the filling of tanks within bunkers at the site rather than a rocket itself. "In the past, such activity has occurred one to two weeks prior to a launch event and would be consistent with North Korea's announced launch window," the group said. On Friday, US President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with President Xi Jinping of China, North Korea's main ally and neighbour, and agreed that a North Korean launch would represent a "provocative and destabilising action," the White House said. Obama and Xi also said they would coordinate efforts to respond to North Korea's nuclear test last month and said they would not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. "The leaders emphasised the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through an impactful UN Security Council Resolution," the White House said. Washington and Beijing have appeared divided over how to respond to North Korea, with the United States urging tougher sanctions and China stressing the need for dialogue. Earlier on Friday, Xi told South Korea's president that China was dedicated to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. The 38 North report said activity could also be seen around a building at the launch site used in the past to receive and assemble rocket stages. It said the imagery showed vehicles including one or two buses and a crane, a level of activity similar to that seen before the previous launch in 2012. The group said the images indicated no significant changes at the launch pad itself, where work platforms on the gantry towers remained folded forward. It said coverings obscured whether a space-launch vehicle was present on the pad. North Korea says it has a sovereign right to pursue a space programme. But it is barred under UN Security Council resolutions from using ballistic missile technology. Coming so soon after North Korea's fourth nuclear test on January 6, a rocket launch would raise concern that it plans to fit nuclear warheads on its missiles, giving it the capability to strike South Korea, Japan and possibly the US West Coast. US Pacific Command said it had Aegis ballistic missile defence systems, Terminal High Altitude Area Defence batteries and the Sea-Based X-Band Radar in the region, which would work with Japanese and South Korean militaries to detect the launch. The USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived on Friday in Otaru, Japan, one of five US destroyers equipped with Aegis ballistic missile defence systems that are girding for the potential launch, according to several sources. The ships are spread out around the region to protect installations in Japan, Guam and South Korea, and to track the first and second stage rocket boosters as they fall to earth after the launch. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Houston rapper Roosh Williams is not repeat, not in favor of legalizing rape. But Google, apparently, thinks he is. The rapper's Twitter account has incorrectly been linked to "legal rape" blogger Daryush Valizadeh, who is also known as Roosh V. The man recently achieved notoriety after attempting to organize a world-wide meetup of like minded misogynists. A Google search for Roosh V pulls up Valizadeh's site, photos and an erroneous link to Williams' Twitter account. READ MORE: Hacktivists Anonymous take aim at 'legal rape' group Return of Kings I've been getting interesting messages," Williams says. "This man has pissed off the entire internet, and Google linked my account to his name." Williams was off Twitter for two months and logged back on a few days ago to a barrage of death threats and hate messages. He's responded patiently to several. He's also pinned a message to the top of his Twitter page. YOU SHOULD KNOW: Houston hip-hop and rap stars "Attention: I am Roosh Williams. I am not @rooshv. His opinions have no affiliation with me. Please keep my name out of this discussion." Williams has tried contacting Twitter, Google and even Valizadeh but has gotten no response. Williams does bear a passing resemblance minus the creepiness. Williams was born in Alief and attended Taylor High School in Katy. He graduated with honors, and a degree in communication studies, from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. His parents came to the U.S. from Iran in the '70s. If there's an upside to any of this, he might earn him some new, embarrassed fans. Williams performs Feb. 27 at Warehouse Live.. Divorce lawyers, mediators, and financial planners get a front-row seat to all sorts of situations from easy-to-navigate, amicable separations to crazy contentious splits. So it's safe to assume they've learned a few things that can help couples between saying, "I do" and "I don't anymore." A man arrested in an assault case in northeast Houston died at a hospital after he was discovered unresponsive at the jail, authorities said late Friday. Shortly before 9 p.m., Houston police officers were sent to investigate reports of an assault at the Salina Food Mart in the 3500 block of Lockwood. A Houston chiropractor has been charged with on two felony charges related to sex with a minor. Stuart White, a Houston-based nutritionist and lecturer, was charged in 2014 of two felonies: indecency with a child and super aggravated sexual assault with a child under the age of six. China has a number of would-be metropolises in the country. These grand cities have sprawling roadways, towering apartments and glimmering government buildings. These same places also lack inhabitants. The spectacle of Chinas ghost cities emits an eerie vibe. Eight-line streets with no cars, stadiums with no teams and parks with no people. A recent article in Wired explained the phenomenon, noting the Asian giant has built hundreds of new cities in the past three decades in an effort to urbanize the enormous country. TRAVEL GUIDE: 12 ghost towns to visit in Texas The goal is to move 250 million rural residents into cities by 2026. The places can look like an imitation of Manhattan, and their enormity turns off potential occupiers. From Wired: Most people dont want to live somewhere that feels dead, and these new cities sometimes lack the jobs and commerce needed to support those who would live there. In Kangbashi, the government used some administrative tricks to address this, relocating bureaucratic buildings and schools, then trying to convince people in surrounding villages to move in. It had minor success. Today, a city designed for at least 500,000 has around 100,000 inhabitants. The hope is that urbanization can fuel economic growth. And its Chinas prosperous growth that fueled the big empty cities in the first place. The BBC wrote in 2012 about how many of these places rose from investment for investments sake. Heres how they described what happened: Investment in infrastructure accounts for much of China's GDP - the country is said to have built the equivalent of Rome every two months in the past decade. And with such a large pool of labour, it is harder to put the brakes on when growth slows and supply outstrips demand. CREEPY: Eerie ghost towns around the world The enormous cities do manage to attract tourists, who want to bear witness to these mammoth dead spaces. Photographers have taken ruin porn of these metropolises that show an uncanny scene that would fit right into the The Twilight Zone. See a few of these strange ghost cities in the gallery above. 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. Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming, by Andreas Malm (Verso, 496 pp., $29.95) Andreas Malm longs for the good old days. In his new book, Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming, Malm, who teaches human ecology at Lund University in Sweden, pines for a time when manufacturing depended on waterwheels instead of steam engines. Indeed, Malm spends more than 300 pagesabout 75 percent of the textdiscussing why English manufacturers abandoned waterwheels and replaced them with coal-fired steam engines. Its worthwhile history. But in the hands of an avowed Marxist like Malm, its tedious sledding. In Malms view, the rise of the steam engine was little more than a ploy by evil capitalists to subjugate workers, and because of that, we are now all going to die from global warming. Yes, thats a simplistic analysis, but Malm has written a simplistic book. He quotes an economist, Richard Jones, who, in the 1830s, wrote that water power is cheap but uncertain. The steam engine is costly but powerful and its action is certain and continuous. Jones goes on to explain why waterwheels had to go. For some reason, Malm prefers the days of yore, when production had to be shut down because of drought, or flood, or frozen rivers. He attempts to explain the complex world of energetics by marrying Marxism with climate-change catastrophism. By doing so, he puts himself squarely in the camp of the climate doomsayersa group that includes Canadian author/activist Naomi Klein and U.S. environmental activist Bill McKibben, who have claimed that the solution to climate change is to abandon modern society and organize a socialist, organic-agriculture economy, where we can all, no doubt, have free yoga classes. In a 2011 essay published in The Nation, Kleinwho provided a blurb for Malms book, calling it the definitive deep history on how our economic system created the climate crisiscalled for nothing less than a new civilizational paradigm, one grounded not in dominance over nature but in respect for natural cycles of renewal. Its not Malms fellow travelers who are the problem, its his blinkered approach to basic physics, and in particular, to the essentiality of power densitythat is, the ability to concentrate the flow of energy from a given area, volume, or mass. Ever since humans began walking upright, we have been trying to corral more energy so that we can turn it into more effective power, whether for farming, heating, or computing. Farmers moved from doing all the planting and hauling themselves to using draft animals, which helped increase production. Over centuries, they perfected their harnesses, going from throat-and-girth harnesses to breastbands and finally to collar harnesses, which allowed animals to pull loads as much as ten times heavier than they could pull with the earlier models. Over the last seven decades or so, we have moved from electricity-hungry computers based on vacuum tubes to ones based on nano circuits millions of times lighter and more efficient. Malm insists that every joule and BTU we use is infected with class struggle. In the first chapter, he writes that fossil fuels necessitate waged or forced laborthe power to direct the labor of othersas conditions of their very existence. Yet, he doesnt provide a single example of any place on the planet where modern workers are being forced to produce oil, coal, or natural gas. Malm decries the steam engine at every turn, but ignores how steam power led to a revolution in transportation that allowed even low-skilled workers to travel and search out better opportunities on railroads and steamships. Malm condemns all hydrocarbons, yet he ignores the creation and perfection of the internal combustion and jet engines. In doing so, he leaves aside discussion of the parallel creation of the global oil and gas sector, which is among the worlds biggest industries. Malm also ignores electrification, though electricity production (the biggest share of which is provided by coal combustion) now accounts for about 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Malm spends 13 of his 16 chapters decrying coal and steam. He notes with approval that in medieval England, coal fields were often controlled by the king or local bishops, and that they often imposed restrictions on output, guaranteeing that the enterprises would be puny. He continues: Thriving on sword and cross, they could afford to stay aloof from subterranean riches. In his fourteenth chapter, China as Chimney of the World: Fossil Capital Today, Malm details the rising concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and denounces the bourgeois ideology of eco-modernism because of its belief that technology can help bring more people out of poverty. In chapter 15, we finally get to Malms solution, which is, wait for it . . . central planning. A few paragraphs after quoting Leon Trotsky, Malm notes that the majority of global greenhouse gases are emitted from four places: the U.S., the E.U., China, and India. The way to cut those emissions is simple, says Malm. We merely need to set up one special ministry in each and we would be on our way. Ah yes, a special ministry. Welcome, comrades, to Professor Malms Climate Gulag. Its for your own good, after all. Photo by Wasserrad/Thinkstock Italian Actor Raphael Schumacher Pronounced Brain Dead After Improperly Staged Hanging A noose is pictured after it was hung oustide Sydney Central Police station during a demonstration that began in the Rocks February 23, 2007 in Sydney, Australia. Several hundred protesters met with a strong police presence as they demonstrated against the United States Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Australia. (Photo : Cameron Spencer/Getty Images) In what is a most tragic turn of events, Raphael Schumacher, a famous Italian actor, has been declared brain dead after an improperly staged hanging during a performance gripped his throat too much. It was only discovered that he was being strangled after a medical student in the audience intervened. The female student, who has yet to be named, along with another audience member ran to loosen the noose tightened around Mr. Schumacher's neck. However, because of oxygen deprivation, Schumacher was declared brain dead later that night. Police have launched an investigation into the mishap to determine if proper safety protocol was followed. Directors of the theater company recollected that Schumacher changed the contents of the scene without alerting them. Unbeknownst to the crew, the hanging came in place of a staged suicide by gunshot. A director said, "The original monologue included a fake gunshot but he eventually decided for the hanging -- without telling us." The actor was performing in an experimental theater production at Pisa's Teatro Lux when the incident occurred on Saturday night. CNN writes that four people are being investigated in light of the events. The charges that will be levied, if found to be appropriate, will be manslaughter. Schumacher's family authorized the harvesting of his internal organs and the procedure to do this has already begun. Mr. Schumacher also underwent a six-hour procedure on Thursday after he failed to respond to any treatment provided. According to the BBC: "The family and the prosecutor's office have both authorized that his organs be donated, but their removal will be subject to a medical assessment to be performed in the course of the night." Our condolences to Mr. Schumacher's family and loved during this tragic and purgatorial time. The actor, who died dedicating himself to his craft, spotlights the need for safety procedures to be monitored closely and at all times when performing dangerous stunts. 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. TagsRaphael Schumacher Martin Guitars Furious After Kurt Russell Smashes 145-Year-Old Instrument in 'Hateful Eight' Kurt Russell arrives ahead of the Australian premiere of The Hateful Eight at Event Cinemas George Street on January 13, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo : Brendon Thorne/Getty Images) Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, the Martin Guitar Museum will no longer lend its priceless antiques to film productions ever again. That is because Kurt Russell, on the set of The Hateful Eight, inadvertently smashed a 145-year-old instrument to prevent Jennifer Jason Leigh's character from singing. The film's sound mixer, Mark Ulano, claims that the scene was to be filmed to a point before guitars would be swapped. If you've seen the movie however, the camera rolls on without edits as Mr. Russell takes the 1870s relic and smashes it on the side of a post. Apparently everyone on set was in on the change--except for Mr. Russell. For Jennifer, she too thought the scene would cut and resume with a prop guitar instead. As she is knowledgeable of the worth of the guitar, Ms. Leigh's reaction to the event, thus, is totally genuine. Dick Boak of the Martin museum remarked on the catastrophe: "We were informed that it was an accident on set. We assumed that a scaffolding or something fell on it. We understand that things happen, but at the same time we can't take this lightly. All this about the guitar being smashed being written into the script and that somebody just didn't tell the actor, this is all new information to us. We didn't know anything about the script or Kurt Russell not being told that it was a priceless, irreplaceable artifact from the Martin Museum." Since the guitar is beyond repair, the trust that the guitar company will put into future endeavors is slim to none as their faith in handling their products with care clearly has been contended by this incident. And as Boak continued, the situation is not rooted in financial concern but rather "the preservation of American musical history and heritage." Nonetheless, check out the event-and reaction-in a clip of the scene below. 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. TagsKurt Russell, The Hateful Eight, Martin Guitars Wiz Live Amber Riley Leads Dreamgirls West End Production with Director Casey Nicholaw Amber Riley (Glee, NBCs The Wiz Live) coming to London West End to lead an all new production of Dreamgirls. The highly acclaimed 1981 musical is turning 35 this year and is heading across the pond to celebrate. Riley will play the Effie the role originated Jennifer Holiday in the original Broadway production and played on the screen by Jennifer Hudson in the 2006 film of the same name. by The show will be directed by Book of Mormon West End Director Casey Nicholaw. Director and Choreographer Casey Nicholaw (The Drowsy Chaperone,Something Rotten!) recently helmed the West End's production of The Book of Mormon. Nicholaw opened up about the opportunity to direct the West End production of this American classic telling press (via Playbill.com) "I am beyond thrilled to be directing and choreographing Dreamgirls in the West End. It was one of the first shows I saw when I moved to New York in 1982 and has been my favourite show ever since. We've begun to assemble a terrific cast of actors here in the UK. We also have a terrific design team lined uP--it's going to be a smart and sexy production. I'm so excited about working with Amber. I loved her on "Glee" and when her name came up for this, I thought--Wow, I think she could be incredible--and then when she came in to audition for us, she blew us away!" Producer Sonia Friedman also made a statement about first ever West End production of Dreamgirls: "This great, now classic American musical is coming to London at long last, and I couldn't be more excited to confirm that Amber Riley will be joining the cast of Dreamgirls for the West End season Having met Amber and having had the privilege of hearing her sing two of the iconic songs from Dreamgirls, 'And I Am Telling You Im Not Going' and 'I Am Changing' - I was left with goosebumps, tingles and tears; I was completely knocked out by this talented performer. London is very lucky to be the first to see her Effie." Dreamgirls original opened on Broadway in 1981 written by Tom Eyen with music by Henry Krieger. Dreamgirls was nominated for 12 Tony Awards in 1982 winning six. The cast album recording also won two Grammy Awards in 1983. Dreamgirls comes to the Savoy Theater this November. Tickets will go on sale in spring 2016. For more information visit the official website for Dreamgirlswestend.com. 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. TagsAmber Riley, Dreamgirls, West End, Production, director, Casey Nicholaw, Wiz, Wiz Live Stadelman human trafficking Akron police said a 16-year-old girl who is suspected of being a victim of human trafficking was found inside a home in the 700 block of Stadelman Avenue. (Adam Ferrise, Northeast Ohio Media Group) AKRON, Ohio -- Masked gunmen who fired shots at a 20-year-old man last month led police to find a 16-year-old suspected human-trafficking victim, according to court records. The incident on Jan. 19 at a home in the 700 block of Stadelman Avenue led police to find a 16-year-old runaway who went missing on Oct. 20. The girl is believed to be a victim of human trafficking, according to court records. An investigator with Cuyahoga County's Human Trafficking Unit tracked the girl's cellphone to the same home, court records say. Investigators also found a backpage.com ad where the girl is advertised as an escort, according to court records. The 20-year-old man told police he visited the girl at the home five times, including on Jan. 19. He was in the home that day when three men, including two who wore masks, showed up at the home and demanded money. The man ran from the home. One of the gunmen fired three or four gunshots at the man, who wasn't injured. Akron police searched the home on Jan. 29 and found the girl. She was unharmed, police said. Police seized two of the girl's cellphones, and cellphones belonging to three other people inside the home. Investigators subpoenaed the phones' records to see if there is any evidence of human trafficking. No arrests have been made in the shooting or the human trafficking investigation. Lake Erie.png According to Cleveland Water Commissioner Alex Margevicius, Lake Erie and the department's sprawling distribution system that delivers water to 1.4 millions is free of lead. (John Deike/special to cleveland.com) BROOK PARK, Ohio -- Since the Flint, Michigan water crisis, Northeast Ohioans have become increasingly curious over the state of the region's H2O quality, but the good news is residents should feel safe to gulp down as much water as they please. Still, the concern lingers, post-Flint, of whether residents could come in contact with lead via large-scale water distribution systems. But according to Cleveland Water Department Commissioner Alex Margevicius, comprehensive steps are taken to ensure toxicity risks remain virtually nonexistent. Margevicius, whose department treats and pumps Lake Erie water to multiple cities in the region - including Brook Park and Middleburg Heights - says the water that's distributed to its 1.4 million customers is tested hundreds of times per day to determine if contaminants, like bacteria, viruses, salts, metals and chemicals, have leached into the drinking supply. His team is also constantly testing the water's pH concentration to ensure that levels remain low to avoid hazardous corrosion within the department's treatment facilities and 5,200-mile underground web of water pipes. Additionally, a chemical known as orthophosphate is pumped into the drinking supply to establish a buffer between the water and metal within the distribution system to further reduce leaching risks. Because of steps like these, the Ohio EPA now only tests the region's water every three years, he said. "We work really hard to make sure that water is in great shape when it gets to folks' homes," said Margevicius. "We're all Clevelanders, so it's important for all of us to be drinking great water." Lead risks However, Margevicius warned that lead could leach into drinking water when it flows through residential plumbing systems. For instance, some pre-1950s homes were built with lead piping systems, and pre-1988 homes may contain lead-based solder, which was used to join copper pipes. Good new is, 90 percent of the at-risk homes Cleveland Water has tested do not pose lead poisoning risks, he said. Throughout the years, Brook Park Service Director Lou Cayet and his staff have been satisfied with the level of service and reliability of Cleveland Water, especially when it comes to water main breaks that can potentially contaminate neighborhood drinking supplies. "When we or a resident report a water main break, (Cleveland Water) categorizes it on how severe it is, and will tell us how long it will take to fix," said Cayet. "They work around the clock, and have been reliable over the years." If residents have further questions or concerns, they're encouraged to peruse Margevicius's 2014 Water Quality report, or contact Cleveland Water at 216-664-2639. , . CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The shorthanded Cleveland Cavaliers -- playing without Matthew Dellavedova and Kevin Love -- snapped their two-game losing streak, beating the New Orleans Pelicans, 99-84. Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 29 points while LeBron James added 27 points. The Cavs (36-14) will return to The Q on Monday night to play the Sacramento Kings. Scoring Summary: End of 3rd Quarter - Cavs lead Pelicans, 74-70. Kyrie Irving leads the way with 21 points. LeBron James has added 18 points. J.R. Smith has chipped in with 15 points -- all coming from three-point range. The Pelicans are led by Norris Cole, who has 24 points. End of 2nd Quarter - Cavs lead Pelicans, 54-43. Kyrie Irving has a game-high 19 points. J.R. Smith has added 12 points. The Pelicans are led by Anthony Davis' 12 points. Norris Cole has added 10 points. End of 1st Quarter - Cavs lead Pelicans, 28-20. J.R. Smith leads the Cavs with nine points. LeBron James has added eight points. The Pelicans are led by Anthony Davis, who has eight points. Danny Santulli's siblings, cousins hold vigil for him in Peace Park An end to hazing was the point of a Wednesday candlelight vigil in Peace Park organized by Danny Santulli's siblings and cousins. SHARE Joshua Thomas By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal Memphis authorities have charged a man with attempted murder for his alleged participation in a coordinated assault in which attackers used vehicles to block off people in a third vehicle, then fired shots into the victims' car. Joshua Thomas, 22, was arrested Thursday and charged in the Nov. 10 assault at Thomas and Millington in Frayser. A police affidavit says three people were driving in a green Dodge Neon when the drivers of a blue car and a white SUV tried to block them in. Thomas and another man are accused of firing several times from the white SUV into the victims' car, then driving off. The affidavit says the three people in the car survived to identify Thomas and the other attackers. The motivation for the attack is unclear. However, an affidavit in an October incident says Thomas and two other people later accused in the shooting were seen beating a person. The person who was allegedly beaten was one of the passengers in the Dodge Neon during the November shooting. Thomas faces charges of assault in the October incident. February 4, 2016 MLGW acting manager of water engineering and operation Chris McCormick walks past the water aeration system at Mallory Pumping Station. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE February 4, 2016 Water falls through the aeration system at Mallory Pumping Station. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal) February 4, 2016 The pump building at Mallory Pumping Station was brought online in 1922. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal) By Tom Charlier of The Commercial Appeal At a time when drinking-water problems are bubbling up across the nation, the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division is getting ready to spend $40 million renovating its aging treatment plants while also launching a new investigation into contamination threats. As part of a multiyear effort, MLGW has earmarked $6.1 million for work at five treatment facilities during 2016, an increase of $2.7 million, or nearly 80 percent, from the $3.4 million budgeted last year for maintenance. The largest chunk, $2.6 million, will be spent at the 92-year-old Mallory Pumping Station at Dunlap and North Parkway, where equipment ranging from valves and control systems to filter media will be replaced. At the same time, MLGW is soliciting proposals to conduct a study at its Allen well field in South Memphis. The utility's request for proposals calls for a "comprehensive, area-wide assessment for contaminants" in the field, where three wells were shut down following the 2009 discovery of minute amounts of cancer-causing benzene in some tap water. The initiatives come as several other cities are dealing with chronic and dangerous water problems. They include Flint, Michigan, where a public health emergency was declared as a result of lead contamination; Toledo, Ohio, whose system has been plagued by toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie; Charleston, West Virginia, where a 2014 chemical spill prompted a do-not-use advisory for the system; and communities in Pennsylvania where contaminants from oil and gas drilling have been detected in the water. But MLGW officials say their initiatives weren't prompted by problems in other cities. The treatment plant upgrades, funded through a water-rate increase that took effect this year, have been planned to deal with long-recognized maintenance concerns, they say. "This is something we do over a number of years ...," said MLGW President Jerry Collins. "It doesn't need to be a can that's kicked down the road." The improvements will ensure that "the best water in the country is treated by plants that are the best in the country," he added. In addition to Mallory, rehabilitation work is slated this year at the 84-year-old Sheahan Pumping Station in East Memphis, the 63-year-old Allen station, the 45-year-old Davis Pumping Station and the 34-year-old Morton Pumping Station. Together, those plants represent about half of MLGW's treatment facilities. Collins said that with the rehab work, even the oldest of the treatment plants can continue to function, eliminating the need for costly new facilities. "I think this station (Mallory) has a lot of life left in it," he said. "That'll save our customers a lot of money." MLGW pumps about 130 million gallons of water daily from a deep, high-quality aquifer known as the Memphis Sand. The aquifer water is sufficiently pure to require relatively little treatment, keeping costs so low that, even with the 22 percent increase that took effect in January, local utility customers enjoy some of the lowest rates of any large city in the nation. But the system is not without contamination threats. Seven years ago, MLGW reported that its routine water-testing detected minute levels of benzene and other compounds in some tap water from Allen. The levels were far below the limits set in federal drinking-water standards and are not considered dangerous, utility officials said. Of the nearly two dozen wells at Allen, MLGW identified one as the primary source of the contaminants. As a precaution, however, three wells were taken out of service. Contamination issues at the Allen field are not new. During the late 1980s, the utility, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state of Tennessee, sampled wells there after the discovery that chemicals from a nearby hazardous waste-processing plant had seeped into a shallow aquifer. Contaminants were detected in three Allen wells, which were eventually abandoned. Testing at the other 10 MLGW pumping stations has not detected any benzene, according to the utility. Brian Waldron, director of the Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research at the University of Memphis, said that in the area near the Allen plant, which is located at 709 Dison, there are possibly two breaches in the dense clay layer that overlays the Memphis Sand throughout most of Shelby County and protects it from surface contaminants. The breaches resulted from erosion scars, or gulleys, in the clay that formed during previous geologic ages and were filled in by porous sand and gravel, he said. The breaches could allow contaminants in the shallow aquifer a legacy of past industrial and chemical-dumping practices in the area to seep into the Memphis Sand, he said. "There's general knowledge that there's significant contamination in the shallow aquifer there," Waldron said. By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal Armed with numbers that show minority- and women-owned contractors receive a fraction of Shelby County's contract dollars, commissioners now have the opportunity to reinvent the county's contracting policies. But the county is not alone in studying the issue. The city of Memphis and Shelby County Schools are in various stages of a disparity study, with the city's results expected to be released this year. Once those reports are in, County Commissioner Steve Basar has proposed uniting all three systems under a single application process that is easier for business owners. "There are certain aspects of how we do things that are ancient and archaic," said Basar, who has spent his career in corporate supply chain management, inventory management and purchasing. Results from the county's disparity study, previewed on Wednesday, show that between 2012 and 2014, 88 percent of contract dollars went to businesses that were owned by white men, with their businesses receiving $168.2 million of a total $190.5 million. African American-owned business secured 6 percent while businesses owned by white women received 5 percent. Oakland, California-based Mason Tillman was contracted by the county to perform the study. "We need to look at best practices across the country because we're not alone in this," Basar said. "I'm a big advocate of city and the county and the schools and each one has their own process and their own way of doing it and their own certifications. And it's ridiculous." School board member Kevin Woods agrees. "We think that it doesn't make sense that every government agency has go through the same process. Wouldn't it be great if we had one list that everyone could pull from and if you were approved by one entity you could do business with the rest?" Woods asked. "But until that's the case we know as a school system we have to do more to make sure that we've giving local and minority owned business a fair shot to do business with the school system." But County Commissioner Heidi Shafer doesn't agree that every component of the county's purchasing policies should mimic corporate America. Lowest bids aren't always the best bids and it is the responsibility of government be both cost effective and fair, she said. "This is taxpayer money that we take by force and I think we should be held to a higher standard in how we disburse it," Shafer said. She believes that contracts have been awarded in the past to companies that are familiar. "Some of it, I think, may be conscious, but I think the greater majority is unconscious," Shafer said. She also hopes that the final report provides more information on women-owned businesses and that it breaks those down by race as well. The county's current policy is race- and gender- neutral and was crafted after the county lost a 1993 lawsuit. The court ruling does not allow the county to change its purchasing policy unless a disparity study is conducted. "We do not have an MWBE (minority women-owned business enterprise) program and I think we all knew that once we completed the disparity study it would provide us with the basis for establishing one," county chief administrative officer Harvey Kennedy said Wednesday. In addition to racial and gender disparities, the study also noted that 47 companies received 70 percent of the county's business, while 42 percent of the contracts got to firms outside of Shelby County. "White guys in general are not getting all the work, a few white guys are getting all the work," Mason Tillman president Eleanor Mason Ramsey said Wednesday. In her presentation, Ramsey noted some recommendations are race- and gender-conscious. Nowhere is the word quota used. Follow more politics and policy coverage from the InforMemphis team on Twitter and Facebook. April 6, 2015 - Carmen Worles tries to catch the attention of her pre-K teacher, Sia Krog, to answer a question Monday morning at St Augustine Catholic School, part of the Jubilee Schools network. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal As public school officials grapple with how many students they could lose if the Tennessee legislature approves a private school voucher bill this session, many private schools in Shelby County are still determining whether it is in their best interest to participate. Many smaller, mostly religious schools in Shelby County have long supported vouchers, seeing an opportunity to grow their programs and offer more choices to families. Some, like the Jubilee Catholic Schools Network, have emphatically expressed desire to accept students through vouchers. But some of the more expensive schools with large donor bases may end up as participants, too. "We would certainly accept the voucher if the student met our admissions standards and if we could supplement the voucher with our own need-based financial aid," Memphis University School Headmaster Ellis L. Haguewood said. The Tennessee House is set to vote on a voucher bill Monday, creating opportunities for low-income students zoned to schools performing in the bottom 5 percent in the state to use public dollars to attend a private school. The program would grow each year until reaching 20,000 students statewide. If any vouchers are unused, they would be open to any low-income student in a district that has schools in the bottom 5 percent. For SCS, the result would be losing even more students, board member Chris Caldwell said. The district already faces student losses to the state-run Achievement School District, which is taking over four schools next year, and to charter schools. "I think there's a possibility that it could have a sizeable impact on the district but I think it's too early to tell and to try and quantify it," Caldwell said. Private schools wouldn't be allowed to charge students anything above the voucher amount about $7,000 but would be allowed to use donors to offset the cost of accepting students with vouchers, just as they would any other need-based student. Concern about a private school accepting public money is a problem for some. At Briarcrest Christian School, director of communications Beth Rooks said the school is unlikely to participate in the program. "Unless the legislation is bulletproof that no government strings will be attached, we will probably not accept vouchers," Rooks said. Mo Eckel, pastor of Faith Heritage Christian Academy, said the school hasn't reached a final decision about accepting students through vouchers, but, "Frankly, we just don't want to get to close to the government and we're concerned about how that bill narrows those lines a little bit." A spokesperson for Maria Montessori School on Mud Island said the school would absolutely accept students through vouchers, but only has room for about three to five students a year and at specific grade entry points. The nine Jubilee schools could accept up to 1,000 students, president David Hill said. The network, which includes Memphis Catholic High School, currently serves 1,600 students, about 30 percent of whom are Catholic. With a large population of low-income students, Hill said the schools rely heavily on donors, and those funds are limited. "The situation is we have more families who want to enroll in our schools today than we're able to admit," Hill said. "Next year, we're certainly going to work really hard to meet the demand for our schools as quickly as we can" if the bill passes, he said. Jan. 20, 2015 - State Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) presents his school voucher bill to the House Finance subcommittee. By Richard Locker of The Commercial Appeal NASHVILLE The state House of Representatives is set to vote Monday on a bill to make Tennessee the 14th state to create a school-voucher program, allowing parents to divert taxpayer funding from public schools to pay private school tuition, including faith-based schools. Lawmakers say that despite the House's 73-26 Republican supermajority, the vote is too close to call. But pro-voucher groups who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2012 in campaign donations and lobbying are mounting a full-court press and the bill is likely to pass. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville), would allow students who attend public schools in the bottom five percent in overall achievement statewide to take the state and local funds required per pupil under the state's school funding formula to private schools. To qualify, the student's annual household income must be low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches under federal law currently up to $37,167 for a three-person household, and higher with additional household members. Legislative fiscal analysts say the voucher would average from $6,800 to $7,000 but vary among school districts. Currently, low-income students in only five districts would qualify: Shelby County Schools, Knox County, Hamilton County, Metro Nashville and Jackson-Madison County Schools. Vouchers would be available to any low-income student in those school districts if there are unused vouchers each year after the initial sign-up deadline. The bill caps the number of vouchers at 5,000 statewide in the 2016-17 school year, 7,500 the second year, 10,000 the third year and 20,000 the fourth and subsequent years. Participation by private schools is voluntary but those who do must agree to charge the student's family no more than the voucher amount, even if the school's tuition rates are higher. Schools may accept whichever students they choose and limit the number of voucher students they accept. Opponents say the program will divert needed money from public schools, while supporters say it gives students in failing schools a choice they've never had before. House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga) said in a House subcommittee he hopes vouchers can be expanded later if the bill becomes law. "The only complaint my constituents have is, the working poor and middle class who pay every dime they make every month for living expenses, there's no way they can ever afford private schools or to have any kind of options and they're not poor enough to get the vouchers," McCormick said. "Hopefully we can change that at some point." While most of the bill's supporters are Republicans, there is bipartisan opposition. When it won Senate approval last year 23-9, five of the nine "no" votes were Republicans. And when the bill won its final House committee vote Tuesday, six of the nine committee members voting "no" votes were Republicans. House Democrats held a news conference Thursday to try to encourage voucher opponents to contact their legislators before the House's floor session opens at 5 p.m. Monday. Rep. Kevin Dunlap (D-Rock Island), a high school social studies teacher and first-term lawmaker, said public schools need every dollar allotted them because Tennessee is already low-tax state. "Our public schools have improved. We're No. 1 in the nation as the fastest improving schools in the country. With all the steps we've taken forward, why should we take three or four steps backward?" Legislative fiscal analysts estimate the program will divert $16.6 million from public to private schools the first year, $25.5 million the second, $34.8 million the third and a minimum of $69.6 million in the fourth and later years. The Tennessee Association of School Boards, representing the state's 141 school districts, Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents, Tennessee Education Association and several county commissions have come out against the bill. On the other side are the state arms of American Federation for Children, Students First and the conservative Beacon Center of Tennessee. Dunn argues that children in failing schools are trapped and that after nearly seven years of debate in the Tennessee legislature, the time has come for passage. "What the governor realized was that at some of these schools that we call failing schools and to be honest, most of these failing schools are so because they are in failing communities we recognize that it may be years to turn them around. And children don't have time," Dunn said. If the House passes the bill, it must return to the Senate for concurrence in House amendments including one required because the version the Senate approved last year would have begun the program with the current school year. But Senate concurrence would be expected. Gov. Bill Haslam says the bill is similar to the limited voucher program he proposed in 2013 and he will sign it into law if it does not change significantly before reaching his desk. Tennessee would become the 14th state, plus the District of Columbia, with a traditional voucher program, according to the National Conference of State Legislature. NCSL includes Arkansas, which approved vouchers in 2015, but does not count Colorado, where a local voucher program was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court and is under appeal. Warren Apartments By Maria Ines Zamudio of The Commercial Appeal Hundreds of tenants living at two troubled Memphis apartment complexes will have to find new homes in the next couple of weeks following an order by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD officials notified Rev. Richard Hamlet that his nonprofit, Global Ministries Foundation, failed to correct violations "to the satisfaction of the Secretary within 60 days" for the Warren and Tulane apartment complexes, and that tenants will have to relocate. The letter also ended subsidies provided to those buildings. "The owner is required to maintain units in a decent, safe and sanitary manner and has failed to do so," the letter stated. HUD will hire a relocation specialist to help tenants look for new housing. Residents will receive a "tenant protection voucher," which they can use at other properties in Memphis. HUD will also help tenants pay for the cost of relocation, spokesman Brian Sullivan said. It is unclear how many families will be relocated but Warren has 248 units and Tulane has 200 units. Warren and Tulane apartments failed federal inspections twice in the past year. GMF received a letter of default in May 2015 and was given 60 days to make necessary repairs. HUD staff visited the properties Jan. 25-26 and found "significant deficiencies at the property, including infestations, emergency and fire exits blocked or unusable, hazards such as broken glass throughout the grounds and sidewalks, missing or inoperable smoke detectors," among other things. Hamlet said in a statement that GMF will try to sell the properties. The properties were bought using bonds issued with the assumption that the HUD contract would expire in 2021. Hamlet also said the nonprofit has spent $300,000 to repair the properties in recent months. "It is our hope to find partners to restore these communities by providing these areas and families with exceptional housing to meet their needs," Hamlet's statement said. Jessica Peterson, who lives at Warren Apartment and is co-president of the tenant association, said she was excited to hear the news. "I'm ecstatic all of our hard work, sweat and tears has finally paid off," she said. GMF has been under scrutiny since April 2015 following an investigation by The Commercial Appeal that found poor living conditions, including bedbugs, mold, leaking plumbing and other problems that make some apartments unlivable. The investigation also found that millions of dollars had been shifted from the GMF-Preservation of Affordability Corp. housing nonprofit to Hamlet's religious nonprofit, although that money did not come from the Memphis properties. According to 2014 tax records, $7.1 million was moved from Hamlet's housing nonprofit to his religious nonprofit. Those tax returns also show Hamlet earned $495,000 plus $40,000, in nontaxable benefits in 2014. Hamlet's family also works for him. His two sons, Hunter and Richard L. Jr. earned $70,000 each; while his wife Ginger and daughter Natalie earned $39,000 each. HUD's Office of Inspector General is investigating the religious nonprofit. The tone of the presidential contests has hardened between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders (top) and Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz (bottom). (Associated Press) SHARE Early voting for primary begins this week By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal WASHINGTONNew Hampshire may be ground zero this week in the race for the White House, but three weeks from Tuesday, Tennessee voters will pick their parties' nominees for president. So far, Republicans in the state have yet to coalesce around a particular candidate. "The state of things is very fluid but also very competitive," said Brent Leatherwood, executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are all competitive in the Volunteer State, and any one of them could emerge the GOP winner when Tennessee holds its presidential primary on March 1, according to political operatives and other experts from across the state. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton continues to dominate despite a robust challenge from Bernie Sanders. "Hillary has got good roots here, and I don't know that Tennessee is quite ready for Bernie," said Marcus Pohlmann, a political scientist at Rhodes College in Memphis. Not much polling has been done on the state of the presidential race in Tennessee. The most recent, released Jan. 28 by Middle Tennessee State University, showed Trump leading the GOP field with 32 percent, but 28 percent of Republicans still undecided. Cruz was favored by 16.5 percent, followed by Ben Carson with 6.6 percent and Rubio with 5.3 percent. Forty-seven percent of Democratic voters preferred Clinton, while nearly 26 percent were undecided. Fifteen percent backed Sanders. The poll was completed nearly two weeks before last Monday's Iowa caucuses in which Cruz defeated Trump, and Rubio made a solid third-place showing. Since then, national polls have shown Trump's once-solid lead falling and Rubio's numbers rising heading into Tuesday's primaries in New Hampshire. If Rubio does well in New Hampshire, the race could turn into a three-man contest between Trump, Cruz and Rubio by the time Tennessee voters make it to the polls. Early voting begins Wednesday in Tennessee. "The Republicans in Tennessee do lean right of the midstream of the party," Pohlmann said, so "if it comes down to a three-way race between Trump, Rubio and Cruz, which it could, then I would say there would be a slight advantage to Cruz." Rubio's showing in Iowa could help him in Tennessee, but "I'm not convinced it helps him as much as people are saying it helps him," said Anthony Nownes, a political scientist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. "A lot of the narrative about how great he did comes from wishful thinking," Nownes said. "A lot of Republicans privately officeholders, Republican leaders, people that are called part of the Republican establishment have been waiting for one person other than Trump or Cruz to assert themselves and show they have some staying power and be able to knock off one or both of those guys." Rubio is seen as that alternative as a result of Iowa, but he still came in third, and "I still think he has an uphill battle," Nownes said. While Clinton is regarded by many as the solid front-runner on the Democratic ticket, "we have Democrats all over the state that are enthusiastic about both candidates," said Mary Mancini, chairwoman of the Tennessee Democratic Party. Sanders has risen in some polls after the Iowa caucuses, which he lost to Clinton by less than 1 percent. "Tennesseans and certainly the Democratic establishment in Tennessee is waking up to find out this is a horse race, and it's a lot closer than anyone ever thought it would be," said Matt Kuhn of Memphis, the chairman of Sanders' campaign in Tennessee. This coming week, Sanders' volunteers plan to open offices in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville and will conduct phone banks on the candidate's behalf in anticipation of the start of early voting, Kuhn said. Clinton is winning the money race in Tennessee. The former first lady and secretary of state has raised more money in the Volunteer State than any other candidate, Democrat or Republican. Clinton raised $819,465 in Tennessee through the end of 2015, the most recent period for which fundraising reports are available. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was second with $763,085. Bush was the top fundraiser in both the Knoxville and Memphis areas, collecting $191,425 in Knoxville and $70,125 in Memphis, according to the Federal Election Commission. By comparison, Clinton raised $44,650 in Knoxville and $69,544 in Memphis. Statewide, Tennesseans have given $2.7 million to Republican presidential candidates and $1.02 million for Democrats. Both parties say they expect several candidates to return to Tennessee before the state's primary, although probably not to the extent as last year. Tennessee is one of 14 states and the American Samoa that will hold primaries or caucuses on March 1, so candidates will have to cast a wider net in search of votes over the next three weeks. "Senator Rubio, he's one of those presidential campaigns who's going to be very active in Tennessee," Leatherwood said. "We're seeing that on the ground." Rubio spokeswoman Micah Johnson said she had no information about the candidate's travel plans for the next three weeks. But volunteers and delegates in Tennessee are working to connect with voters and lay the groundwork for early voting and continue to work to recruit more supporters each day, she said. Presidential campaign contributions from Memphis donors: Jeb Bush, $70,125 Hillary Clinton, $69,544 Ted Cruz, $33,758 Ben Carson, $26,968 Marco Rubio, $16,470 Bernie Sanders, $16,280 Carly Fiorina, $14,497 Mike Huckabee, $11,250 Rand Paul, $9,903 Chris Christie, $5,200 John Kasich, $5,000 Donald Trump, $1,894 Rick Santorum, $850 *Source: Federal Election Commission Follow more politics and policy coverage from the InforMemphis team on Twitter and Facebook. January 8, 2016 Germantown municipal high school students (from left) Vincent Wang, William Qin, and Jonathan Wang explain to judges their concept for a magnetic levitation commuter train during the annual Battle of the Brains competition held at Houston High School. High school students from around the city submitted their projects for the theme Germantown Forward 2030: Using math and science to tackle issues affecting Germantowns future. Projects included proposals for electric car battery changing stations, water resource management, automated speeding ticket cameras, and re-imagined educational models. Winners receive a cash prize and have their names added to the Einstein Trophy. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal) SHARE January 8, 2016 Ninth grade student Allison House, 15, explains her proposal for increasing bicycle safety awareness among children during the annual Battle of the Brains competition held at Houston High School. High school students from around the city submitted their projects for the theme Germantown Forward 2030: Using math and science to tackle issues affecting Germantowns future. Projects included proposals for electric car battery changing stations, water resource management, automated speeding ticket cameras, and re-imagined educational models. Winners receive a cash prize and have their names added to the Einstein Trophy. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal) January 8, 2016 Olivia Wiles (top) looks on as Chase Smith (from left), Kyle Szalay, and Alex Mellinger work at their booth demonstrating a proposed carpool program for the city of Germantown during the annual Battle of the Brains competition held at Houston High School. High school students from around the city submitted their projects for the theme Germantown Forward 2030: Using math and science to tackle issues affecting Germantowns future. Projects included proposals for electric car battery changing stations, water resource management, automated speeding ticket cameras, and re-imagined educational models. Winners receive a cash prize and have their names added to the Einstein Trophy. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal) By Jane Roberts of The Commercial Appeal Cullen Burke's hair was rumpled and barely out of his eyes, but nothing, not even bangs, could hide the glee dancing in his brown eyes Friday. A minute before Battle of the Brains judges arrived, the apparatus he and friend Michael Collins rigged to measure the speed of passing cars and shoot digital images of the speeders, plumb refused to work. "We were extremely stressed. We finally figured out the wires were touching another wire, and because they are not insulated, it didn't work. It was interfering with the readout," Burke said with clarity of purpose. The Einstein Trophy in the annual math and science competition between the public high schools in Germantown went to another team, but Burke, 17, won his own prize for the joy of his own accomplishment, albeit last minute. And that is part of the lesson in Battle of the Brains, an extracurricular competition created six years ago frankly because a handful of Germantown residents with Ph.Ds in science couldn't sit by while the nation's brainpower in math and science withered. "I was reading that we as a country were getting behind and behind in science," said Dr. Dino Palazzolo, the biostatistician who was vice chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. "Why is that? It is shameful. It should not be this way. What can I do about it?" he said Friday while the crowd of students and guests laughed and talked after the awards ceremony. Palazzolo and Dr. Roy Van Arsdale and Dr. Stephanie Van Arsdale have helped sponsor the awards and line up judges for the competition put on by the Germantown Education Commission, a voluntary advisory group to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. "It gives students a wonderful opportunity for them to work with each other, share with other students and be judged by university judges because they will be working with them when they go to college," said Stephanie Van Arsdale, retired professor of critical care nursing. This year, the students were asked to address sustainability issues facing Germantown. The winning team created a sprinkler sensor with a floating ball moved by water building up in PVC pipe that turns off an irrigation system. The display also included a soil-moisture monitor, plus a campaign to plant fescue instead of Bermuda or Zoysia grass. "There's not that much difference in price, and fescue is more beneficial because it has more advantages," said Chae-Yeon Park, 15, pointing out the value of its root system in droughts and its dense growth for weed control. Besides the traveling Einstein Trophy, each member of the winning team received $300 from Iberia Bank. There was a plan to convert schools to solar power (second-place winner) and another to convert the whole city, starting first with businesses and government buildings. One team looked at the value of pervious pavement. The third-place winner created a plan to expand a public transit system similar to one operating in Japan; another team promoted the value of electric vehicles. "I think the Germantown issues got them focused on their own community and their school," said judge Dr. Dorian Burnette, assistant professor of geography and meteorology at the University of Memphis. "I think it increases their involvement." Twelve teams participated, down from 15 expected. All but one was from Houston High, the first time the competition has been so lopsided. The other public high school is Germantown High, run by Shelby County Schools. The district did not return a call about why so few of its students participated. All that was nowhere in the stratosphere for Burke, who wondered why traffic cameras once at several Germantown intersections couldn't also work on straightaway stretches. "Ours does," he said pointing to a tangle of copper wire attached to a 2x4. On top of it, two sensors were taped down with duct tape. They recorded the speed of the toy car Burke sent hurdling by at varying speeds. Nothing happened at slow speeds. But at higher speeds, the camera fired. With a little more tinkering, the images could be sent to a processing station, where a worker could send a ticket to the motorist. Much of the work came together the night before. "The photoresistors we ordered online hadn't come so we had to salvage some from solar lamps in the yard. And then we learned we needed resistors," Burke said. "We didn't have time to buy those, so we found an old radio my brother had taken apart. We salvaged those too. "I can't believe this actually worked. I am in awe that Michael and I got this thing working, just in awe." SHARE Campus Elementary School, a shining star in the Shelby County Schools constellation, is a fitting model for any new school that occupies space at the Crosstown Concourse. If Christian Brothers University's proposal works out, a high school in what used to be a huge Sears distribution center at Watkins and North Parkway would be established. The school would be governed by an independent board chaired by the university president. It would enjoy the same kind of autonomy that helped Campus School produce consistently high test scores and in many other ways motivate parents to clamor for a chance for their kids to enroll. Located on the University of Memphis campus, Campus Elementary and its corps of teachers, educational assistants and education-track students are able to deliver individual attention to students in an environment that encourages learning and develops academic skills, with access to museums, labs and computer science learning experiences. Although a large chunk of its students 30 percent are children of university employees, other students are admitted on the basis of their proximity to the school. A school that would serve about 450 high school students is proposed for Crosstown Concourse, which is undergoing a massive renovation of its 1.1 million-square-foot space. The building will accommodate a wide spectrum of agencies, apartments, retail establishments and the like that students can interact with. Precisely what aspects of Campus School would be incorporated into the CBU plan have not been determined, but SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson has referred to it as a "contract school" that would mimic the agreement SCS has with the U of M at the 329-student Campus School. Ideally, like Campus School it would also serve as a training site for teachers, and it would enjoy a good deal of freedom regarding such issues as curriculum, school hours and selection of its faculty. In other words, in some ways it would operate like a charter school, offering students another option in the growing array of choices, but if the plan progresses in a way that it should in a way that does not damage the economic viability of the county's largest public school district. Because of the school's potential to raise the performance of struggling students, SCS board members have properly urged Hopson to make sure Crosstown High reflects the diversity of the district, with a significant number of slots reserved for children from low-income families. Hopson has said that he would probably encourage charter networks to apply for a chance to operate the school if plans with CBU fall through, but every effort should be made to keep that from happening. The targeted opening date is fall 2017, and the students at Crosstown High would be well served with CBU cutting the ribbon. SHARE By Noah Feldman In an astonishing report, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has accused Sweden and the United Kingdom of arbitrarily detaining Wikileaks founder Julian Assange because of a sexual-assault investigation against him in Sweden. To be sure, it's unknown whether he's guilty of the charges. Likewise, it's impossible to know whether Assange criminally conspired with U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning (then known as Bradley) to steal classified material, or whether Assange and Wikileaks simply published that material in a manner that should be protected by the First Amendment. But what seems highly likely is that Assange's detention is anything but arbitrary it's because of the investigation of serious crimes. The working group, which is under the high commissioner for human rights, only Friday made public the report it wrote in December. It recites the basic facts: Swedish prosecutors began to investigate Assange in 2010 "based on allegations of sexual misconduct," which is a bit of an understatement because the charges were for rape. The prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant. Assange was detained by British authorities in Wandsworth Prison, and apparently held in isolation for 10 days. Then Assange was put under house arrest in the U.K. for 550 days. Given that he was a flight risk, home detention seems like a proportionate and humane response to the situation, not a rights violation. In the meantime, Assange sought asylum from Ecuador not on the grounds that he shouldn't be prosecuted for rape in Sweden, but on the speculative grounds that from Sweden he might be extradited to the U.S., where he would be prosecuted for conspiring with Manning. He has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London ever since. To be sure, Assange isn't under indictment in the U.S., not even a sealed indictment, federal prosecutors have said. A Department of Justice investigation of his conduct is ongoing. His Ecuadorean asylum is thus a way for him to escape the sexual-assault charges in Sweden. So what's arbitrary about all this, according to the working group? Assange spent 10 days in prison, more in house arrest and is now in the Ecuadorian Embassy. But a legally legitimate arrest warrant was issued for him. And he was a flight risk. Under those circumstances, house arrest wasn't arbitrary, and was surely quite reasonable when compared with prison. His "detention" in the embassy is an attempt to avoid a valid warrant. Formally speaking, it probably isn't detention at all and it's certainly not arbitrary. The basis for the working group's conclusion is that "Sweden is obliged by applicable law and Convention obligations to recognize the asylum granted to Mr. Assange, and no exceptions apply." The reason Sweden is supposed to recognize Ecuador's asylum offer is that, in the judgment of the working group, "Mr. Assange faces a serious risk" of being extradited to the U.S. What would happen to Assange in the U.S.? According to the working group, all that matters is that according to Ecuador, Assange faces "a well-founded risk of political persecution and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment." So there's the complete logic of a working group's report: Assange might be charged with a crime in the U.S. Ecuador thinks charging him with violating national security law would amount to "political persecution" or worse. Therefore Sweden must give up on its claims to try him for rape, and the U.K. must ignore the Swedes' arrest warrant and let him leave the country. Sweden responded to inquiries from the working group by explaining, very reasonably, that there was no extradition order before it. And if it had one, it would make sure it could extradite Assange to the U.S. in a way that was consistent with its international obligations before it did so. What's more, Sweden pointed out that international law doesn't recognize a right of diplomatic asylum in an embassy, like the one Assange claims. It added that no one thinks it's a good grounds for asylum for someone charged with a nonpolitical crime like rape. All this is legally correct. So is the British government's explanation to the working group that it doesn't recognize diplomatic asylum, and that Assange's residency in the Ecuadorian Embassy to escape arrest itself violates U.K. law. Somewhat astonishingly, the working group says Sweden is wrong because it cannot "ignore the fact that there has been an elaborate evidential determination that Mr. Assange faces a risk of persecution and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." But there hasn't been any such elaborate determination, unless you count the assertion by Ecuador. From a narrowly American perspective, it's troubling that the working group seems to say that the mere fact of a Justice Department investigation of Assange is grounds for supporting the asylum claim that he's going to be persecuted. Maybe it'll turn out that Assange was just exercising freedom of the press, and maybe it won't. But the working group can't be the proper body to decide that. And neither can the government of Ecuador. Everybody should be highly skeptical of the idea that someone like Assange can avoid being investigated and tried for rape because he might conceivably be charged with a crime in the U.S. The working group report says not one word about the interests of the victims. That's frankly shameful especially for a body that's supposed to be part of the UN office that focuses on human rights. The working group criticized Sweden for not bringing charges against Assange already. But a government should have the capacity to investigate in all lawful ways, including having the opportunity to question suspects. The reason Assange hasn't been charged is surely that he's been evading arrest. It's preposterous to criticize the Swedish prosecutors for not bringing or dismissing charges against him when he's been trying to avoid them. The upshot is that the working group's focus on Assange as some sort of political prisoner is thoroughly unjustified. It cheapens genuine instances of arbitrary detention. Assange should be tried for rape in Sweden. If the U.S. brings charges against him, he should be tried for those, too. If First Amendment protects him against those charges, I'll be the first to argue that they shouldn't sustained. But Ecuador shouldn't be the court of last resort and the UN shouldn't be involved in protecting him, either. Noah Feldman, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard. SHARE By Paul Waldman This week, Paul Ryan gave a fascinating speech at Heritage Action, a tea party-allied organization that has fashioned itself as the guardian of conservative purity. The speech called for unity. "To quote William Wallace in Braveheart," he said, "we have to unite the clans." But his speech was actually a repudiation of everything the tea party has done. Not only that, Ryan also took shots at the congressional Republican leadership, and even the current GOP presidential candidates. He didn't call anyone out by name, but if you understand what's happening now and the conflict that has roiled the Republican Party for the last seven years, the critique was hard to miss. Not surprisingly, for much of the speech he blamed conservatives' own sins on progressives, Democrats, and Barack Obama. That has become a familiar refrain It's their fault that we've become such monsters! but when you say that, you're still acknowledging that the sins exist. Let's start here: "My theory of the case is this: We win when we have an ideas contest. We lose when we have a personality contest. We can't fall into the progressives' trap of acting like angry reactionaries. The left would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad, so the progressives can win by default. "This president is struggling to remain relevant in an election year when he's not on the ballot. He is going to do all he can to elect another progressive by distracting the American people. So he's going to try to get us talking about guns or some other hot-button issue and not about his failures on ISIS or the economy or national security. He's going to try to knock us off our game. We have to understand his distractions for what they are. Otherwise, we're going to have a distraction this week, next week, and the week after that. And that's going to be the Obama playbook all year long." Yes, the party of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, cares not for "personality." And look, nobody "trapped" Republicans into "acting like angry reactionaries." They did that all on their own. But it's interesting that Ryan cites guns as a distracting hot-button issue that is important only because Barack Obama is forcing conservatives to talk about it against their will. Last time I checked, lots of Republicans thought the gun issue is absolutely vital to maintaining liberty. The same is true of any other hot-button issue you could name, whether it's abortion or same-sex marriage or something else: the issue might or might not be advantageous to Democrats, but it's also very important to at least a significant chunk of the Republican electorate. It's hard to tell where Ryan draws the line between real issues and distractions, but every time you define an issue as the latter, you're telling some major Republican constituency to shut its mouth. This is perhaps the most critical part of Ryan's speech: "And so what I want to say to you today is this: Don't take the bait. Don't fight over tactics. And don't impugn people's motives. It's fine if you disagree. And there's a lot that's rotten in Washington. There's no doubt about that. But we can't let how you vote on an amendment to an appropriations bill define what it means to be a conservative. Because, it's setting our sights too low. Frankly, that's letting the president define us. That's what he wants us to do. That's defining ourselves as an opposition party, instead of a proposition party. "So we have to be straight with each other, and more importantly, we have to be straight with the American people. We can't promise that we can repeal Obamacare when a guy with the last name Obama is president. All that does is set us up for failure . . . and disappointment . . . and recriminations. "When voices in the conservative movement demand things that they know we can't achieve with a Democrat in the White House, all that does is depress our base and in turn help Democrats stay in the White House. We can't do that anymore." Again, the idea that President Obama somehow baited Republicans into fighting amongst themselves for the last seven years is laughable, but look at all the things Ryan is criticizing here. First: "Don't fight over tactics." That's just about all Republicans have been fighting about for years. The substantive differences within the party are often minor, and what tends to differentiate a tea partier from an accommodationist squish is just that, tactics. The tea partier and the squish both want to repeal Obamacare; the only difference between them is that the tea partier thinks shutting down the government is an appropriate tactic to make it happen. They both want to reduce the size of government, but the tea partier thinks forcing the United States to default on its debts is a good tactic to bring that about. They both want to defund Planned Parenthood; the only difference is whether they think it's a fight worth having right now. Ryan also says: "We can't let how you vote on an amendment to an appropriations bill define what it means to be a conservative." This, too, is a direct shot at the tea party. The argument they've made over and over is that things like how you vote on an amendment do indeed define what it means to be a conservative. Since ideological differences within the party have been reduced almost to nothing, those kinds of decisions are what supposedly separate the believers from the apostates. Did you vote against Obamacare 50 times, or only 49 times? Did you knuckle under and vote to keep the government open? Have you opposed "amnesty" 100 percent of the time, or only for the last few years? These are the distinctions that have defined the tea party's conception of conservatism. And perhaps most shockingly, Ryan says: "We can't promise that we can repeal Obamacare when a guy with the last name Obama is president. . . . When voices in the conservative movement demand things that they know we can't achieve with a Democrat in the White House, all that does is depress our base and in turn help Democrats stay in the White House." This is the very heart of the battle that has consumed the party and fed the rebellion playing out in the presidential race. Republican base voters are fed up with a congressional leadership that told them that if those voters helped take back the House and then the Senate, that they'd stop Barack Obama in his tracks but then failed to deliver. Ryan is correctly arguing that it was stupid to make promises that couldn't possibly be kept, but he's arguing that it was making the promise that was the problem, while tea partiers and the base still believe it was the not keeping the promise that was the far greater sin. They see Mitch McConnell and Ryan's predecessor, John Boehner, as feckless and weak, lacking the courage to stand up to Barack Obama. In their view, McConnell and Boehner are contemptible not because they lied to them about what could be achieved, but because they didn't achieve the impossible. Near the end of the speech, Ryan gives an implicit critique of his party's presidential candidates: "So we need to be inspirational. We need to be inclusive. We need to show how our principles and policies are universal and how they apply to everybody. We know that the economy is weak. We know that the world is on fire. We know that the future is uncertain. There's a lot of frustration and anger out there. And is it justified? It sure is. "But we should not follow the Democrats and play identity politics. Let's talk to people in ways that unite us and that are unique to America's founding. That's what I think people are hungry for." In case you didn't notice, the GOP presidential candidates are also playing identity politics right now. The frontrunner for the Republican nomination has proposed banning Muslims from the United States and building a wall across our southern border, called Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers, and questioned one of his opponents' standing as an American. Another candidate said that no Muslim should be elected president. The Republican establishment's golden boy could barely open his mouth in the last couple of weeks without invoking Jesus (though maybe now that Iowa is behind him, that'll change). Identity politics has been central to Republican campaigns for the White House for the last half-century, though I guess if it's white identity politics then it doesn't count. In any case, if you had to come up with two words to describe the current GOP presidential campaign, "inspirational" and "inclusive" would be pretty far down the list. And if Republican primary voters are hungry for national unity, they've done a good job of keeping it a secret. So in this speech, Ryan has essentially repudiated the entire last seven years of Republican politics, up to and including what's happening right now. Which is nice to hear. But if you think it'll change the minds of those who have been engaged in these fights, I've got an Obamacare repeal to sell you. Paul Waldman is a contributor to The Washington Post's Plum Line blog, and a senior writer at The American Prospect. Noncompete agreements are becoming boilerplate in employment contracts, and for employees, there's nothing good about them. They create enormous uncertainty about future job options and worry about launching a new business. Their use is spurring legislative fights in leading tech-industry states. Employers see noncompete agreements as a "low-cost measure to bind their workforce," said Massachusetts State Rep. Lori Ehrlich (D-Essex), in an interview. She has been trying to get noncompetes banned in that state for years. The use of noncompete agreements may be increasingly common. One recent survey, with more than 11,500 respondents, that was conducted by three law professors found that about one in five workers have signed noncompete agreements. "They have been controversial forever," said Norman Bishara, a law professor at the University of Michigan, and one of the researchers reporting on the data. "They are clearly anti-competitive, so courts have always looked at them kind of askance because they are on their face designed to restrict competition," he said. But courts do look at competing factors, Bishara said. noncompetes go back many years, and stem from issues where, for instance, a former bakery employee sets up a competing bakery across the street. Bishara, along with fellow law professors Evan Starr at the University of Maryland, and J.J. Prescott also at Michigan, are working on a paper on noncompete agreements, but a final conclusion awaits. The answer, at least to opponents of noncompetes, seems apparent in the case of California, which has long banned them. The state continues to see tech sector growth, for example, in most recently by automakers building connected and self-driving vehicles. But Bishara cautioned that there are many factors, such as access to capital, contributing to California's success. In Washington state, home to Amazon and Microsoft, state Rep. Derek Stanford (D-Bothell) is attacking noncompetes in legislation (HB 1926) that would restrict their use. His bill received a key committee approval this month and faces one more committee vote before advancing to a vote by the full House. Stanford said he has heard from programmers and others in the tech sector -- "quite a few and very loudly," he notes -- who are upset with these agreements. A major problem with noncompetes is the uncertainty they create, Stanford said. "It is essentially unknowable at the time you sign a contract what exactly is the standard you will be held to when you leave," he said, in an interview. Employees, "can't really be sure if they are complying or not." In Massachusetts, opponents of noncompetes have packed hearings to support legislation that would ban the agreements, Ehrlich said. "The strongest argument for reform is the damage it is doing to individuals," Ehrlich said "It derails their careers, it damages them financially, and it creates a situation where they are told they cannot work." Even if an employee is laid off, a noncompete can still apply, the lawmaker said. "The larger implications are economic," Ehrlich said. The agreements are hindering competition, she said, "especially by not allowing people to innovate and start their own business through overuse of these agreements. I think it would really bolster the economy to reform these," she said. "We're hearing stories from all sectors of the economy, where employees are stuck in noncompetes and unable to work in the field they are trained in -- sometimes for years at a time," Ehrlich said. Ehrlich co-authored legislation this session that seeks a ban on noncompetes, but in the last session a compromise bill limited noncompetes to people making at least $150,000, on the presumption that they have the financial wherewithal to hire legal counsel. Stanford, as well, would like a ban, but the bill approved by a key committee this week doesn't go that far. The bill would eliminate noncompetes for temporary workers and independent contractors and in cases where an employee is laid off. It also would make it difficult for a noncompete to extend past a year. One critical aspect of the bill is a restriction it imposes on a court. Stanford said employers will sometimes include a broadly written noncompete agreement and that courts have the ability to change the agreement to make it "whatever they feel is reasonable," he said. If the court changes the agreement, it still leaves employees on a noncompete hook, and the employee may even be responsible for covering the employer's legal fees. Stanford's bill would prevent courts from changing the noncompete. Stanford said the bill's provision will encourage firms to be "much more clear and reasonable" in their noncompetes, and limit them, as well, to high-level employees. The Washington Technology Industry Association, a trade group, opposes Stanford's bill. "Nobody really likes a noncompete until they have intellectual property to protect," said Michael Schutzler, the association's CEO, in an interview. He said state laws in Washington already restrict the use of noncompetes. "For our industry, it is unnecessary to create a piece of legislation that essentially codifies how the state of Washington already works and then takes away the one piece of small protection that still does exist for our industry," Schutzler said. But Stanford's arguments are backed by anecdotal examples of broadly applied noncompetes in Washington. In particular, Amazon required warehouse workers to sign a noncompete agreement, The Verge reported last year. The clause, reportedly removed, underscores the idea that noncompetes are being broadly used as boilerplate in all types of employment agreements. Employees taking a new job will sign what is put in front of them, said Joseph Kroeger, a partner in the labor and employment group at Snell & Wilmer. But for those employees with noncompetes who want to seek a new job, he recommends discussing it with the employer. "Companies appreciate it when employees are upfront and above board and they usually reciprocate," Kroeger said. The employees that may face trouble are those who tell employers, that "I'm leaving, and I haven't thought about what's next" but two days later their LinkedIn profile is updated with the name of their new employer, and it is a competitor, Kroeger said. BAKERS in the Landes have won a legal victory against an order banning them for selling bread to customers seven days a week. A court in Pau ruled that the arrete prefectoral dating back to 1999 which imposed a one-day-a-week closure was illegal. The decision comes after a highly publicised case last autumn when four bakers in Dax and Saint-Paul-les-Dax were fined 500 for opening their boulangeries every day. At the time, one of the bakers said he was "ashamed to be in France" and the enforced closure would mean less VAT and social charges for the French state. The Republicains party campaigned for the bakers to be let off. The Pau court overturned the ban on a legal technicality, as it had been signed by only two of the organisations representing bakers in the department - another five groups acting on a local and national level should also have been consulted. The Landes prefecture has two months in which it can appeal against this latest ruling. Until then, the bakers can resume seven-day working immediately. 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. Aafia Siddiqui's Mother's Moving Letter To Obama By Ismat Siddiqui 06 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org Here is an open letter from political prisoner Aafia Siddiqui's mother to the President of the US. Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui and her mother Ismat live in their family home in Karachi with Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's children who were restored to them when she was brought to the United States for trial and incarceration. They have worked tirelessly for Aafia's release since she was abducted in 2003. The letter was transcribed Judy Bello. Barak Obama The President White House Washington, DC20500 Dear Mr. President, My name is Ismat Siddiqui. I am a mother, a grandmother, a widow, but most importantly I am your fellow human being. As I write this to you I am in failing health, so you will understand my sense of urgency. Aafia Siddiqui could have been anyones daughter. But she is my daughter Mr. President, my daughter Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, is someone about whom you may have already heard something. Most likely something negative. On the internet and in the press there are literally millions of pages of conjecture, praise, innuendo and a blend of fact and fiction woven into a picture of a person who has been raised to sainthood by supporters and vilified as a demon by detractors. The truth of one human being is lost in the midst of this. The truth is that Aafia is a mother of three and a brilliant Muslim woman whose only passion was to bring education to her people. For this she studied at the finest institutions in the world including MIT and Brandeis in the United States. Then somewhere in the blind aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Aafia became a victim of the war on terror. This is not just a sad story told by a sick mother. It is a reality of torture, of abuse, humiliation, deception and barbarism by those who claim to be the most civilized. It is a grave injustice by those who claim to be the most just. It is an epic of prejudice by a nation that claims to be free of it. This is not just one womans ordeal; it is a slur and blackening stigma on the worlds mightiest nation and its rulers. Sir, it is a shameful legacy of two American administrations. I will not go into the horrendous case, its merits or demerits as I am sure the prosecutors with much greater access to you will give you the facts necessary to justify themselves. But I am attaching a fact sheet prepared by the International Justice Network in the hope that you will glance at it and see that there is another side. I am told that you were a brilliant lawyer and among the top of your peers at Harvard so I hope you will be able to recognize fact from fiction. Mr. President, the thought of what my daughter has gone through these past years, being kidnapped, forcibly separated from her children, tortured, shot, beaten, shackled and strip searched tears my heart apart. Even now the conditions of her detention and treatment defy common decency. After arriving in New York City with oozing bullet wounds, she was denied any medical care for a month. Both in New York and at Carswell Medical Facility in Fort Worth her captors have continued a pattern of threatening her if she cooperates with her lawyers and punishing her when she does. She has been placed in a situation where she is effectively denied access to family for fear of brutal retaliation. It is now over 12 years of agony. Five years in secret detention and seven under institutionalized cover. I sent my daughter to your country as a seventeen year old, to get the kind of education she couldnt get anywhere else in the world. I taught her that the values that matter most are kindness and justice, to care for people in need, and to help the helpless. I taught my daughter that this is what America stood for. But I wonder if you have forgotten those values. Her tow US born citizen children ask why they were kidnapped and tortured and why their country did this to them? Can you answer that? Aafia is committed to peace, to justice and to God. She is not a terrorist. With her education and passion for children she would have been a brilliant light in the darkest corners of this world. Her research in early childhood learning could have helped millions of children everywhere. My daughter would have been an asset in the world that needs these values more than ever. I appeal to you to use your Presidential power of pardon and undo one of the gravest injustices of our time. This will be a gesture that will gain you immense goodwill in the Muslim world that millions of dollars in aid will not. This simple gesture on your part will warm the heart of a dying mother and revive the American way of mercy and compassion. I urge you to, for a moment; just think as a father, who can save a daughter from doom. I can assure you regardless of what your intelligence agents may tell you, my daughter is no threat to anyone. Letting her go will only make you more powerful and glorious as an act of mercy is twice blessed. Thank you very much for your time, Ismat Siddiqui Climate Change: We Are All In This Together By Jeff Berg 06 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org The one upside......there actually is one.....is that scarcity alone would have driven us ever further apart. Violence would have become the coin of the realm to an even greater extent than it is today, and both the quality and sacredness of life would be massively devalued. Wealth would have become an even more potent political force. Regions at each others throat in a murderous zero sum competition. Yes, very much like we have today only more so. Scarcity and environmental degradation ramping up as the gap and power differential between the haves and the have nots widened inexorably. Climate change by contrast puts us all in the same boat to a much greater degree. The U.S. thinks the rest of us have weapons of mass destruction? Well in this sense they are right. We will either all pull together to live as simply as necessary to get past this critical moment in human history. Led by the richest countries making the biggest changes. Or we will go forward as we have. Forcing sacrifice on to an ever expanding group of 'others' with the developing world copying us. Assuring that we far exceed 2C, And by developing world yes I do mean the countries with over 5 billion people and climbing. If we want them to do something serious about that we are going to have to give them something serious in exchange. If that does not happen and if the worse of climate change is allowed to take place. The following is James Lovelocke's projection for the future of humanity I.e. "There will be a few breeding pairs left in the north where the climate will be reasonably tolerable." By the by. In case you didn't know. Lovelocke is widely described as the most important life scientist since Darwin. What I take from all of this. There are two things you don't fuck with. Father science and Mother Nature. I think it was about 70,000 years ago when humanity was reduced to a thousand or so breeding pairs in Africa. Is this really the circle we want to complete for our children? Only this time in Iceland? One thing is for certain. For the first time in a very long time. We are all in this together. Jeff Berg is Chair of Post Carbon Toronto www.postcarbontoronto.org The Marxist, The Psychoanalyst, The Literary Critic And The Lonely Storyteller By Gaither Stewart 06 February, 2016 Greanvillepost.com CC BY-NC-ND by drburtoni A LABYRINTH OF MISUNDERSTANDING The unequal relationship between fictional literature and psychoanalysis has always rankled literary critics whose task it is to clarify, interpret, classify, rank and, especially in cases of political literature, bad-faith critics grant themselves the right to brand and censor literature. While the responsibility of literary criticism often fails to perform positively (especially concerning the political novel), it is true that the entire realm of literature has consequently had to bow to the scientific authority of psychoanalysis and its claims of dominion over the mysteries of the writers unconscious, whereby it interprets and informs what the writer, on the deepest level, is really saying with his words crafted in such a manner as to create literature from what would otherwise be just texts of connected words. Today, perhaps, due to a simultaneous tendency of literature and literary criticism to recognize the role of psychoanalysis and the tendency of psychoanalysis to step down a bit from its scientific pedestal from which, because of its special knowledge, it has claimed a monopoly in the realm of meaningful interpretation of the body of language that is literature. the two realms show signs of drawing closer together. Meanwhile, the poor lonely writeryou might sympathizeis still squashed between literary critique on the one hand and scientific interpretation on the other. Just imagine the situation from the writers point of view. The writer, who in a long, arduous and lonely act has created a story from scratch and composed a text that qualifies for the denomination of literature, hopes his genius has produced real art that will appeal to the formidable array facing him consisting of publisher, reader and critic. On the completion of the work, the writers fundamental role ends. The good writer in fact steps aside. The rest is salesmanship and exposure. The responsible publisher who has hovered in the background thus far has nonetheless been performing multiple crucial tasks: at the very start he chose a text he believes will appeal to many readers, a text hopefully favorable to critics and to the media and if possible to academia as well. Literary critics will then translate, approving or sacking the poor writers text for the public, judging it and explaining to readers what the writer says in his work. Up to this point the swimmers in the literary pond comprise elements directly involved in the production and dissemination of the final product. It is herenot a specific point in timethat a fifth component enters the scene like an swashbuckling invaderthe psychoanalystwho will interpret the interpretations of the literary critics, delving into aspects of the facts, events, characters in the text and the persona of the author from which he or she draws conclusions from the unconscious (Freud) of the writer and his characters, conclusions capable of stunning and bewildering the poor unsuspecting creator who naively believed that only his genius had dreamed up and created the whole thing. So how did he do it? As a rule, memory provides the material. Childhood, life experiences with other persons, and with the Other encountered in a full life. Day-dreams and fantasies, even those the writer is ashamed of (the use of which often results in the writer being considered naive and childish) are treasure houses of material, also for the analyst. Many writers use their dreams for ideas and inspiration in their literary creations. Years ago I underwent one year of therapy because of psychological problems resulting from the tragic loss of a loved one. My German therapist, a Freudian , prompted me to begin recording and making a conscious effort to remember parts of my rich and active dream life. Doing that I became aware of how difficult it is to recount even the most vivid dream about which I had even made notes during the night. That difficulty is well-known to creators of the arts. The gap between the vivid, significant dream and the ragged bits and pieces you succeed in assembling and reproducing is a veritable morass of memory and language capacity. The words you manage to save (or liberate, according to Freud) emerge vague, gray and dull, incommensurate with the original. It is the same as the difference between your real-life experiences, what you see or do in reality and the deficient and pale words you find to describe in a literary fashion that experience and what you really felt about the experience at the time. Therefore, the materials, i.e. the emerging words the writer offers analysts, are simply too scant, too untrustworthy for analysis because deformed, distorted, perverted and corrupted in the reporting process, if not simply made up on the spur of the moment, so that the analyst searching for the thus far inaccessible in the unconscious mind of the subject is forced to accept as a given a false image of reality. As a result the analyst too must improvise. Imagine then the difficulty for the writer of political fiction, whose only resource is some kind of compromise between what he feels he must say and the diluted expression of the idea. For, both critic and analyst will respond not with criticism or analysis of the literary text but with a rebuttal based on their own personal political ideas or opinions as to what the writer said or should have said, a criticism or analysis that will be more and more deformed as it passes down from hand to hand, as with, say, the philosophies of Marxism or, to cite the most deformed and maligned, Leninism. To underline the manner in which scientific/academic analysisbecause of the absence of authentic informationdeforms and corrupts instead of clarifying the writers intentions, I will employ again the anecdote related by Socrates in The Republic about the difficulty of ever attaining real truth, which I used in my novel, Time of Exile. For me his metaphor of the three beds will always be emblematic of the problem of the degeneration from the ideal to the banal. According to the Socrates metaphor, the first bed, made by God, is the Platonic ideal; a carpenter then makes a second bed in imitation of that ideal bed; and the artist subsequently paints a third bed in imitation of the carpenters imitation of the ideal bed. Later imitators then capture less and less of the ideal. They might just barely graze the reality of a carpenter making a bed or of an artist painting a carpenter making a bed, but they can never attain the true ideal of the original creation. MARXISM AND EXISTENTIALISM These two philosophies provide a wealth of materials for the contemporary fiction writer, who, if the writer is honest, cannot even conceive of an authentic novel without them. Both Marxism and Existentialism are materialisms close to human existence. Both reveal an area in which human consciousness is not master in his own house. (Frederic Jameson, Marxism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, and the Problem of the Subject, included in the anthology Literature and Psychoanalysis, Johns Hopkins Press, 1982). The two philosophies present a number of common major themes: the relation of theory and practice; the resistance to false consciousness and the problem of its opposite; the role and the risk of the concept of the midwife of truth, whether analyst or vanguard party; the re-appropriation of an alienated history and the function of the narrative; the question of desire and value and of the nature of false desire; the paradox of the end of the revolutionary process, which, like analysis, must surely be considered interminable rather than terminable. (A list composed by Jameson, who adds:) It is therefore not surprising that these two nineteenth century philosophies should be the objects, at the present time and in the present intellectual atmosphere (Cold War), of similar attacks, which focus on their naive semanticism. Jean-Paul Sartre in his Question de Mode sees Marxism as the dominant philosophy of his era (20th century) and existentialism as a reinforcing element. He thought at one time that Marxism was corrupted by the Soviet Union and other Communists who abused the system of thought, making it a tool for policies of the USSR. According to Sartres form of Existentialism existence precedes essence. Existentialists from Soren Kierkegaard to the contemporaries Sartre and Albert Camus believed that philosophical thought begins with the living human subject. Its supreme values are freedom of the individual and authenticity. Other philosophies are too abstract, too remote from the human experience. For Sartre and Camus, for example, the existentialist attitude is one of disorientation in the face of a meaningless or absurd world. For that reason Sartre in general has a low opinion of traditional ethics which he condemns as a tool of the bourgeoisie to control the masses, thus again reinforcing Marxist thought. Nor is he enamored of Freuds unconscious which he considers a scapegoat for the paradox of simultaneously knowing and not knowing (in the conscious and the unconscious minds) the same information. I like to imagine Sartre and Camus sitting at their table in Cafe de Flore on Paris Boulevard St. Germain exchanging experiences and thoughts. In my imagination Sartre might say something like: The bourgeoisies support for liberals has always been and always will be a great mystification to confuse the revolutionary. That is the reason for our mistrust of bien-pensant liberals, yesterday as today. The more liberals turn to the Right, the happier the bourgeoisie and the greater its support for liberal causes. And therefore the marriage of (bourgeois) liberal democracy and market capitalism. And Camus might respond: The gap between the people and what we call bourgeois capitalism is by definition unbridgeable. Meek protest does not count a whit. (Updating Camus several decades, I let him continue): Though the ultimate tremendous effect on the American people of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is unimaginable, popular protest still goes unheeded. It is really quite simple: superpowers should never be confused with democracies. Gaither Stewart, based in Rome is a veteran journalist and essayist on a broad palette of topics from culture to history and politics, he is also the author of the Europe Trilogy, celebrated spy thrillers whose latest volume, Time of Exile, was recently published by Punto Press. U.S. Now Overtly At War Against Russia By Eric Zuesse 06 February, 2016 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on February 2nd that he approves of U.S. Defense' Secretary Ash Carter's proposal to quadruple U.S. armaments and troops in Europe, against Russian aggression.' We are reinforcing our posture in Europe to support our NATO allies in the face of Russia's aggression. In Pentagon parlance, this is called the European Reassurance Initiative and after requesting about $800 million for last year, this year we're more than quadrupling it for a total of $3.4 billion in 2017. That will fund a lot of things: more rotational U.S. forces in Europe, more training and exercising with our allies, more preposition and war-fighting gear and infrastructure improvements to support all this. And when combined with U.S. forces already in and assigned to Europe which are also substantial all of this together by the end of 2017 will let us rapidly form a highly capable combined arms ground force that can respond across that theater, if necessary. However, the truth is: Russia is not expanding to NATO's borders; NATO is expanding to Russia's borders. The baldness of the Western lie to the contrary is an insult to Westerners' intelligence. The U.S. is preparing for an invasion of Russia. By the end of 2017, the U.S. will be prepared to invade Russia. Secretary Carter went on to say: Russia and China are our most stressing competitors. They have developed and are continuing to advance military system[s] that seek to threaten our advantages in specific areas. And in some case[s], they are developing weapons and ways of wars that seek to achieve their objectives rapidly, before they hope, we can respond. Because of this and because of their actions to date, from Ukraine to the South China Sea, DOD has elevated their importance in our defense planning and budgeting. Since he is a Secretary of Defense' instead of a Secretary of Offense, he immediately added: While we do not desire conflict of any kind with either of these nations and let me be clear. That's all there was to the assertion there; he didn't finish the sentence, nor even the thought. He often makes grammatical errors, of which that's an example (and his leaving the ss off the words in the quoted passage there are others). But in this offhanded way, he did at least try to give the impression that the U.S. is never an aggressor for example: that, though the U.S. is expanding NATO right up to Russia's borders, Russia is being the aggressor' to move troops and weapons up to those borders up to Russia's own borders (to counter the U.S. & NATO invasion-threat, of course; but, no: it's to threaten NATO, if you believe the West). In the statements by Ash Carter, Barack Obama, and Jens Stoltenberg, that's Russian aggression.' In the allegory by George Orwell, 1984, America's rhetoric is called simply Newspeak. It's as if during the Soviet Union (i.e., before 1991), when Nikita Khrushchev was the aggressor in 1962 and John Kennedy was the defender (against Soviet missiles in Cuba), Khrushchev had refused to yield and said that Soviet nuclear missiles near the U.S. had only a defensive, no offensive, purpose (no purpose for a blitz nuclear attack against the U.S. too fast for the U.S. to be able to get its missiles launched in retaliation). Kennedy said no to that idea then, and Putin says no to that idea (right on Russia's very borders) now. The U.S, in post-Soviet, post communist, Russia, has turned around and become the aggressor against the now democratic nation of Russia. (And Putin's approval-rating from the Russian people is at least 80% , whereas Obama's approval-rating from the American people is near 50% .) We've switched roles. The U.S. has turned to dictatorship, while Russia has turned to democracy. It's a super-switcheroo. Democracy' in the U.S has become, during recent decades, the election of Presidents and congresspersons who were campaigning on lies, and who then actually delivered more like the opposite, as their actual governmental policies. President Obama, in his second Administration, ceased his previous focus against the Sunni group Al Qaeda, and refocused U.S. policy to be against Russia, even to the extent of his now supporting Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other rabidly anti-Russian Sunni groups, who are driving millions of refugees from Syria, Libya, etc., into Europe. (Of course, Obama's rhetoric remains against those Sunni extremists just as his rhetoric was against Romney's policies that Obama ended up imposing in his second term.) All of those terrorist groups are allied with the Sunni Arab royal families against Shiite-led Iran, and Shiite-allied Syria. The fundamentalist Sunni beliefs of the Arab royal families have, since at least 1744, been committed to exterminating all Shiites . Now that Shiite and Shiite-allied nations are supported by Russia, the United States is more overtly than ever preparing to conquer Russia, for the benefit of the aristocracies of America, and of Arabia. So: the U.S. regime is moving toward a nuclear confrontation against Russia, as a defensive' measure against Russian aggression.' If this cat gets much farther out of the bag, it's not just the cat but the whole world that will be lost. The first priority for a President Bernie Sanders, or for a President Donald Trump, must be to undo the Bush-Obama foreign policy, because it certainly won't be undone by a President Hillary Clinton, nor by a President Ted Cruz, nor by a President Marco Rubio and this is the main thing that's at stake in the current U.S. Presidential contest. What's at stake here is nothing less than whether civilization even survives another few decades. That's now seriously at question, and trillions are being spent right now to bring it to an end This isn't kid's stuff. And it's not really rocket science, either. It's instead a fundamental and stark moral issue, that's staring the entire world in the face right now. And it hasn't got a thing to do with religion (which is always morally irrelevant except for stirring up hatreds, which are immoral religion is just a tool the aristocracy use to control the public to think that the aristocrats deserve' to control the government), but it has a lot to do with restoring democracy where it has been eroded down to virtually nothing. Democracy requires a truthfully informed public. And that's the truth. Let's get with it, before it's too late to do so. The likelihood of a nuclear war has never been higher than it now is, except perhaps for the Cuban Missile Crisis, but the entire world was being informed about that then, and what about the situation now, after democracy's having been eroded away so much in the West? This time around, the situation is perhaps even more serious. The urgency of the situation is critical. must do in order to defend the Russian people themselves from NATO? Is this the type of news' coverage we'll continue to get on the world's top matter that Russia is invading our territory, when we're actually constantly invading (and perpetrating coups ) in theirs, and they're actually doing what theydo in order to defend the Russian people themselves from NATO? End NATO now. Or else it (and its cooperative news' media in the West) will end us all. The whole expansion of NATO up to Russia's borders has been based upon U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush's lie to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, which lie from Bush and his agents induced Gorbachev to end not just the Soviet Union but their equivalent of NATO, the Warsaw Pact all of which Russia did do in 1991. Russia has consistently fulfilled its part of the bargain, but GHWB's vicious violation of his promise has been consistently followed, adhered to, by American Presidents ever since. The deceit goes on, and the U.S. is now heading towards culminating the most dangerous lie in world history. JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Traffic flows along North Green River Road near the Lakeside Commons shopping area in Evansville Thursday. Several new restaurants, businesses have opened and apartments are being developed in the area. SHARE JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Azzip Pizza employee Robert Miller finishes preparing a pizza by adding Sriracha at the restaurant located in North Commons at 2121 N. Green River Road in Evansville Thursday. Several new restaurants and businesses have opened and apartments are still being constructed near the area. JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS A now open sign notifies potential customers at Freddys Frozen Custard & Steakburgers located at 2848 N. Green River Road in Evansville Thursday. Several new restaurants and businesses have opened and apartments are still being constructed in the area JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Construction continues on the new 200,000-square-foot Meijer on N. Green River Road in Evansville Thursday. Several new restaurants have opened and businesses and apartments are still being constructed in the area. JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS North Commons in now home to two new restaurants and two other business located at 2121 N. Green River Road in Evansville Thursday. Several new restaurants and businesses have opened and apartments are still being constructed near the area. Related Coverage New Meijer store will include Bens Soft Pretzels bakery By Shannon Hall of the Courier and Press Fired Up! Joe Shmoe's Art Paint Studio has seen a lot more foot traffic since it moved to North Green River Road last fall. The area has been hopping for some time. But north of Morgan Avenue was usually quiet, until recently. "Ever since McCallister's moved here (north of Morgan Avenue), it's gotten busy," said Christina Mizerak, Fired Up!'s manager. Fired Up! moved from East Virginia Avenue between Burkhardt Road and North Green River Road to 2121 North Green River Road, next to the new Azzip Pizza location. "We're now on a main street now, rather than in between them," she said. "If people want to shop, everyone comes to Green River." Being sandwiched by two eateries helps as well. Since January 2015, at least five restaurants have opened along the strip including the latest Azzip Pizza, Tom and Chee, a new Dairy Queen, Big Bang Mongolian BBQ, and Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. Building Commissioner Ron Beane said he thinks North Green River Road's business growth is to accommodate the city. He said he expects more businesses to pop up along North Green River because of a "snowball effect." "It seems to be that once businesses get started out there, that creates more traffic, which make the properties more valuable and more interesting to potential developers," Beane said. He said he thinks residential construction in Northern Vanderburgh County may have contributed to the developments. Ron London, Evansville-Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission executive director, said the new Meijer may have also encouraged businesses to come to North Green River Road. Meijer will open its store and gas station sometime this year. Even Lynch Road is getting some action. Waterstone Apartments, new luxury apartment complex, is beingthere, also off North Green River Road. London said the recent interest along Green River may scale back with the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Downtown convention hotel being built. But other think the recent trend can continue. Menards opened its store in 2009. Lucas Oil Center and Cheddar's Casual Cafe opened in 2011, and a McAlister's Deli opened in 2014. In February 2015, Pet Food Center ha its grand opening for the new location. Fired Up! opened at its new location in October. It's getting a new neighbor soon, a nail salon. Mizerak said she thinks North Green River Road will continue to get business. "There's a field next to us," she said. "I don't expect that it will stay like that." FILE - Jonathan Weaver watches the large television screen at Ri Ra Irish Pub as votes come in declaring him one of three winners of the City Council At-Large seats Tuesday night, November 3, 2015. The other 2 winners were Michelle Mercer and H. Dan Adams. Weaver was the top vote getter with 11,237 votes. Eleven men and women who are candidates, or are considering candidacies, for local offices invested more than six hours last Saturday asking for and receiving advice on the right way to run and the right way to serve. If they tuned into the Twitter feed of Evansville City Council Vice President Jonathan Weaver on Saturday night, it would have taken only six seconds or so to see the wrong way to represent yourself and your constituents. From 8:30 a.m. to a little after 2:30 p.m. that day, the candidates invested in the Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce's "Candidate School." This year's pitch: "Interested in public service? The Southwest Indiana Chamber is hosting a Candidate School. Hear from elected officials and political professionals on various parts of any campaign. Topics include: should I run for office?, how to organize an effective campaign, media relations, and campaign laws and regulations. At the end of the day, the Chamber, through director of public policy Justin Groenert, presents its policy priorities." So 11 men and women, many already announced candidates for county or state office, gave up much of their days for the event at the University of Southern Indiana, and hopefully came away with a better idea of what to expect, what's expected of them, and what needs to be done. It seemed that all presenters U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon to open the day; City Council attorney and political wonk Josh Claybourn on campaign rules and pitfalls; former State Rep. Sally Rideout and current City Councilwoman Anna Hargis on arriving at the decision to run; and myself, Eyewitness News anchor Brad Byrd and Bucshon communications director Nick McGee on media relations and the use of social media took pains to make it clear that office holders are well served by a thick skin and a civil tone. The discussions were lively and, at times, pointed, but always on a positive plane. Then, that evening, Weaver, who should but doesn't appear to know better, displayed the petty side of politics on Twitter. He had read a Courier & Press story online it appeared in print on Page B1 last Sunday that detailed the longstanding and continuing political disagreements between Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and Vanderburgh County Commission hopeful Cheryl Musgrave. It touched such a nerve that Weaver was obliged to tweet, "She's a has been. She cannot complete a job or term. This shouldn't be a news story." And, later, after another user chimed in, Weaver called her "pathological." Now why, you might ask, would a Democrat office holder care that two Republicans don't get along which, you would think, would be a good thing for the donkey and a bad thing for the elephants. Good question, and probably one that other Democrats should ask. My only guess is that he fears she can win, which would mean she would defeat the Winnecke-backed Alex Schmitt and Tea Party aligned Brenda Bergwitz in a primary and Democratic incumbent Steve Melcher in the general election. The two also have a bit of a history: When Weaver was county assessor, a job that Musgrave also held, she wasn't particularly complimentary about his skill set. But his reasoning aside, the decision to turn to social media and use terms such as "has been" and "pathological" is another example of the immaturity of a man who is in a leadership position with a young council. It certainly isn't the only example, either past and present council members have plenty of bookmarked emails with Weaver spouting vile words at various rivals. Weaver has indicated in the past that he would consider a run for the mayor's office, though if Winnecke chooses to run for a third term in 2019 it's doubtful that a challenge would come from the Councilman. But if Weaver does choose to run for the Evansville's highest office, here's a suggestion: Go back to Candidate School, and learn some manners. Tim Ethridge is editor of the Courier & Press. Contact him at tim.ethridge@courierpress.com and follow him on Twitter at @ECP_TimEthridge. SHARE EVENTS St. John the Baptist Mother to Mother Ministry Spring and Summer Children's Consignment Sale: 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at St. John's, 625 Frame Road in Newburgh. Due to safety, no children younger than 12 are allowed to enter the sale. Babies may be worn in soft carriers. Admission is $1. For more information, call 812-490-1000 or email m2msale@gmail.com. Faith Fest: 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Bethlehem United Church of Christ, 6400 Oak Hill Road. Children age 3 (and potty trained) through grade 5 are invited to enjoy a day of Bible story, crafts, games, drama and music. Class sizes are limited. Register at bethlehemucc.org. Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand Program: "Forgiving What You Cannot Forget," 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Benedictine Hospitality Center at Kordes Hall on the grounds of Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand. Presenters will be Sisters Jane Becker and Jane Will. Cost is $75 and includes lunch. Registration deadline is Wednesday. For more information or to register, call 800-880-2777 or 812-367-1411, ext. 2915, or visit thedome.org/programs. Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand Program: "Jesus' Journey to Jerusalem in the Gospel of Luke," 9:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Monastic Dining Room in Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand. Participants will explore 10 chapters in the Gospel of Luke, learn about discipleship and focus on how Jesus got to the cross physically, theologically and spiritually. Presenter is Father Eugene Hensell. Cost is $70 and includes lunch. Registration deadline is Feb. 17. For more information or to register, call 800-880-2777, or 812-367-1411, ext. 2915, or visit thedome.org/programs. Saint Meinrad Archabbey Library Gallery: St. Meinrad, an exhibit of wall hangings "Healing the Earth" by artist Joanne Weis, through Feb. 28. The exhibit is free. Weis will give a gallery talk Saturday at 10 a.m. For library hours, call 812-357-6401 or 800-987-7311, or visit saintmeinrad.edu/library/hours/. Teaching from the Book of Revelation: 11 a.m. every Sunday until completion at Church of God of Prophecy, 3407 Bellemeade Ave. Speaker is Bishop William Gaddis (free). Call 812-459-2359. The Mighty Acts of God in Zion: The Storyline of the Bible: 7-8 p.m. on Tuesdays in the fellowship hall of St. Ananias Orthodox, 4411 Washington Ave. Old Friendship Church Celebrate Recovery Program: 7 p.m. on Fridays at Oak Hill Christian Center, 4901 Oak Hill Road. Traditional Roman Catholic Latin Mass: 3 p.m. every Sunday at St. Paul's Chapel, 629 E. Louisiana St. music Choir Day: 3:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at McFarland Missionary Baptist Church, 750 Lincoln Ave. meals St. Anthony Catholic Church Buffet Breakfast: 8 a.m. to noon Sunday in the school cafeteria. Cost is $7. Lenten Fish Fries: 4:30-7 p.m. Fridays through March 18 at Nativity Catholic Church, 3635 Pollack Ave. Menu includes fried catfish or baked tilapia dinners. Call 812-476-7186. St. James Fish Dinners: 4:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26 and March 11 at St. James Church Madden Hall, Old Princeton Road, Haubstadt. Menu will consist of fried or baked fish, German potato salad, applesauce, cornbread, dessert, coffee and tea. Carryouts will be available in the old cafeteria. SHARE By Bradie Gray A 63-year-old Posey County man was arrested earlier this week on charges of child molestation. Delbert Wayne McKinney, of New Harmony, was arrested and booked into the Posey County Jail, with no bond, for level 1 child molesting and level 4 sexual misconduct with a minor. The Posey County sheriff's office investigated allegations of child molesting on Feb. 2. The investigation began when the sheriff's office was contacted by the Indiana Department of Child Services. The eight-year-old alleged victim was taken to Holly's House in Evansville, where an interview was conducted. The victim stated in the interview that the alleged abuse began in January 2014 and continued until December 2015 at McKinney's residence in New Harmony. If convicted, McKinney could face 20-40 years in prison for level 1 charge, and two to 12 years for the level 4 charge. Luthier Todd Hubbard of Evansville places a hand-cut piece of wood to make the nut for his newest creation, The Astropoly, a double-cutaway guitar with dark-toned Honduran rosewood and maple, ornate pearl inlays of celestial shapes and crop circle-like designs in the fretboard. SHARE PHOTOS BY DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Todd Hubbard of Evansville cuts the nut for his newest creation, The Astropoly, a double-cutaway guitar with dark-toned Honduran rosewood and maple, ornate pearl inlays of celestial shapes and crop circle-like designs in the fretboard. The Astropoly features ornate pearl inlays of celestial shapes and crop circle-like designs in the fretboard. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS The Astropoly, a double-cutaway guitar with dark-toned Honduran rosewood and maple is nearly completed by luthier Todd Hubbard of Evansville, Ind. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Todd Hubbard of Evansville runs a piece of ebony through his planer to make it the right size to fit in the nut slot on the neck of his newest creation, The Astropoly, a double-cutaway guitar with dark-toned Honduran rosewood and maple, ornate pearl inlays of celestial shapes and crop circle-like designs in the fretboard. Related Photos Evansville guitar maker Todd Hubbard By Zach Evans of the Courier and Press Time spent in his garage carving and shaping wood reminds local guitar luthier Todd Hubbard of his father who died days before Christmas. "My dad's mainly responsible for me doing this," said Hubbard as he stood in his West Side garage surrounded by woodworking tools and partially completed guitars. "He had a guitar that he used to always keep in the closet when I used to visit him my parents were divorced," he said. "About when I was 8, I started getting the guitar out of the closet and playing it." Since laying his hands on his father's guitar nearly four decades ago, 47-year-old Hubbard now uses those hands to create guitars on his own. EVERY GUITAR A JOURNEY "This is scrap now," he said after pointing at a crack in what would be the side of an acoustic guitar body. Hubbard wets and uses a machine to bend and fashion the wood rather than purchasing pre-shaped wood. Hubbard's small, two-car garage is where he crafts his guitars. A commissioned hand-built guitar he makes starts at $4,500 and costs as much as $10,000. In January, Hubbard was putting the final touches on a guitar a customer commissioned him to build: The Astropoly. The double-cutaway style guitar features dark-toned Honduran rosewood and maple, with ornate pearl inlays of celestial shapes and crop circle-like designs in the fretboard. Nearly everything on the guitar was built and honed by hand, from the headstock, with a pearl sun inlaid at the top, to the convex shape of the guitar's rare wood body. Ed Sein, local musician and manager at Moore Music, had the chance Monday to play the Astropoly. "The guitar was a truly unique instrument," Sein said. "It has these features that are really innovative and unique. ... It was beautiful. It was as much a work of art as a playable instrument." What also helped separate it from other guitars was the electronics system, he said. The electronic pickups that turn the string vibrations into an electrical signal that gets pumped through an amplifier were hand-wound and built by Tony Dorris of Volition Amps. Dorris is an Evansville musician who creates, builds and repairs music gear in his home. Uniqueness is what separates a handmade instrument like Hubbard's from a standard-issue manufactured product, Sein said. "That is a one-of-a-kind guitar. All of these guitars that are manufactured or mass produced, they all started as somebody's home garage project," he said. "Guitar building is a great example of the DIY (do it yourself) culture that's a big part of American dream. A guy in a garage that has a vision and sees that vision come to life, sees the fruits of his labor." Hubbard has built guitars off and on over the last 20 years, but now it is a full-time job. "Each guitar is a neat little journey in and of itself," he said, holding an unfinished single-cutaway design. "There's always something different that happens along the way that makes each guitar different from the other. There's no real perfect guitar," he said. His journey building guitars started in the 1990s. 'I CAN DO THIS' Hubbard was attending Virginia Commonwealth University but wasn't satisfied with the art program at the school. So, 24-year-old Hubbard left to see the American West. He ended up in Arizona, where he learned about the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. As a guitarist, he always wanted to have more control over the instrument. "I went and checked it out and my mind was blown," he said. "I went in there midway though the class section to see what it was about. There was guitars mid-build and people that looked just like me building guitars. I said, 'I can do this.' " When he told his parents he was going to attend guitar-making school, they thought he was throwing away his money. "Then I came back with these instruments and blew them away. I remember the, 'Oh my gosh. Wow.' " During the four-month course, students had to build one acoustic and one electric guitar. He graduated with three guitars built and two more halfway done. Since then, he's held several internships under master luthiers, including the late Paul Guedelsky, known to be one of the greatest archtop guitar builders, and served in the Army from 1998 to 2006. He came to Evansville in 2009. People regularly ask Hubbard if he considers himself a master luthier. "I tell people I'm a master apprentice who's ready to learn anything and everything I can get my hands on. "Obviously there's a limit to what you can soak in, but you soak in and use the best parts of what you learn to make a better instrument," he said. Instead of calling himself a master luthier, he strives to master individual parts of the instrument. Innovation and progress is slow coming in the luthier world where the basic design of the guitar hasn't changed much in 60 years. When it comes to his own designs, Hubbard's been building on that skill steadily. "Like my predecessors, you want to always try and do innovations and progress the art forward but sometimes those progressions are an eighth of an inch at a time. "It's not always that I walk into the shop and a miracle with wood happens. But you just, through working more and more, it advances, and creeps forward and advances slowly," he said. SHARE By Staff Report A two-hour standoff between police and a knife-wielding suspect who told officers he wanted them to kill him, ended in an arrest in Henderson, Kentucky, on Friday night. The suspect, whose name hasn't been released, was also "possibly" intoxicated on methamphetamine, according to police. The incident began with a reported hit-and-run with injuries involving a late-model Chrysler 300 on Weinbach Avenue in Evansville, officer said. Officers with the Evansville Police Department spotted the car driving south on U.S. 41 but never attempted to stop the driver because he had already crossed state lines, according to Sgt. Patrick McDonald. McDonald said despite officers driving without lights or sirens, the suspect, whose name has not been released, drove erratically and continued to pull over as they followed him. The driver eventually blew front tire and stopped near Racetrack Road in Henderson with his car smoking. "He just started yelling out the window that the officers were going to have to shoot him," McDonald said. "He wanted them to kill him." Evansville officers and Henderson Police Department officers were both on scene for almost two hours as they negotiated with the suspect to exit his car. Henderson police had a negotiator on scene. McDonald said the suspect threw five "butcher-style knives" out of the car during the standoff and set the backseat of his car on fire. Shotgun shells were also thrown out of the vehicle and found inside after, but no gun was found. McDonald said the driver was on some kind of stimulant, possibly methamphetamine. Eventually the suspect got out of his car. That's when McDonald said he started to look on the ground as if trying to pick up a knife. A Henderson officer tased the suspect, but it was not effective. An Evansville officer then shot the suspect with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with beanbag rounds. He fell to the ground. Henderson police took the suspect into custody and towed the car, which officers believe could be possibly stolen. McDonald said the Evansville Police Department will request a warrant for the hit and run. If the car was stolen, it will impact the possible charges, McDonald said. SHARE A quiet drumbeat regarding Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg has started. Republican campaign operatives who are nervous not just about Mike Pence's political wounds, but also about the governor's seeming determination to both inflict and reopen those wounds himself have started a whispering campaign about Gregg's "evolution" on issues. They say, with some accuracy, that his positions on issues such as same-sex marriage, equal rights for LGBT citizens and education reform are different than they were just a few years ago, when Gregg loved to proclaim himself a conservative Democrat who loved God and guns. The whispering campaign has been successful enough to get a couple of pundits to bite. The Republicans' goal is to create the impression in voters' minds that Gregg is a flip-flopper. In that way, they can divert attention from the fact that their candidate is the most polarizing figure in modern Indiana political history. Most people have made up their minds about Pence, so he and his campaign are not likely to persuade new voters to cast ballots for him. The next best thing is to discourage Gregg voters from going to the polls. It is likely to deprive Indiana of what it needs most a genuine debate about the direction the state has taken. Only in politics is it considered a misstep to say: Yes, I do think differently than I once did because I know more now than I did then. I listened to people, I learned from experience and changed my mind. That's how thoughtful people approach life. They learn from their mistakes. I don't have a whole lot of faith that John Gregg will take that approach. Conventional political wisdom dictates that political candidates never should admit that they might have made an error in judgment or had a change of heart. In other words, they shouldn't acknowledge that politicians are, in fact, human beings. The pity is that refusing to admit mistakes prevents us from engaging in the sort of close examination that would allow us to move forward. Indiana could stand the sort of searching discussion that our governor and our leaders in the state Legislature are determined to avoid. We should be asking ourselves: Have our education reform measures produced anything resembling the promised results in student achievement? Was the campaign to pass a constitutional amendment denying gay and lesbian Hoosiers the right to marry a good idea? Was the donnybrook over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act worth the $60 million and counting in lost business? Is the continuing refusal to add gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers to our civil rights laws worth the damage to the state's reputation? And aren't all these entrenched and bitter battles stopping us from dealing with big problems one in four Hoosier children living in poverty, etc. that could hurt this state and its citizens for generations? If Gregg were to acknowledge he has learned some things and changed his mind over time, then he could prod the state to do so, too. He could force the kind of conversation that we need to have. He could say the most important difference between him and Pence is that he is not trapped by his mistakes because he learns from them. To do so would require Gregg to show some humility, some courage and, yes, some leadership. There is some risk involved, but the payoff could be huge a chance to transform our political dialogue so that we Hoosiers start engaging with essential issues instead of peripheral ones. The late U.S. Rep. Andy Jacobs Jr., D-Indianapolis, once told me there was a good reason not to be afraid to acknowledge error or change one's mind. "You shouldn't lock the steering wheel in life, because the road does bend," he said. Wise man, that Andy. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Kenyon fell into the third category: "I'd been living either on the street or on a couch all summer and part of the fall in Louisville, and I didn't want to face the winter living under an overpass in an upturned shopping buggy. I bit the bullet, sold my Gibson guitar, and flew out to Hawaii. I knew of others who hit rock bottom and stayed on the beach in Hawaii, and I figured if I was going to be homeless this winter, I might as well go to Hawaii." While Mark and Kenyon both figured on staying in Hawaii for a bit, neither have left -- much like thousands of homeless people from the mainland. A few eventually get out on their own, such as actor Chris Pratt, who was homeless and living on a beach in Hawaii for a year. But he was lucky: Statistically, less than 20 percent of homeless people are Chris Pratt. Unlike many homeless in the U.S. who are transient and go from city to city, once in Hawaii, it's hard to leave. You need a costly plane ride to get out, and whatever money the homeless make goes toward things like food (which, by the way, is 66 percent more expensive in Hawaii). It's hard to ride the rails to Tulsa from the shores of Waikiki. Kurt Lubas/Moment/Getty Images Also, it's hard to trade sand for this. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Fortunately, hobos who want to escape paradise aren't helpless. The Hawaiian government has been flying hundreds of homeless people back to where they came from -- literally taking taxpayer money and flinging the bums away. But only the hobos who volunteer. And since "home" for many of them is a place where freezing to death is a regular concern, they opt to stay in Hawaii. Every entrepreneur has to be a decision-maker, even with information overload, emotional employees, angry customers and competitors hovering from every direction. Making a decision without thinking or over-thinking things to the point of no decision are both deadly in business. The challenge is to find the right balance and make good and timely decisions every time. Related: How to Declutter Your Mind and Unleash Your Willpower Its a tough challenge. According to Ohio State researcher Paul Nutt, business decision-makers today fail about half the time on initial decisions for their organizations. Examples often cited include decisions which led to the demise of Pets.com, Excite, and WebVan. Although these cases involved strategic thinking, operational decision mistakes are even more frequent. Much has been written about the thinking process of more successful decision-makers, including Warren Buffett and Elon Musk. Some reserve time daily for reflective thinking despite a busy and hectic schedule, while others use regular sabbaticals away from the office for a mental refresh. Yet they all seem to have similar thinking habits in their day-to-day decision making process. 1. Stop to think before jumping to a decision. Especially in a crisis or under stress, its tempting to make a snap decision based on a gut feeling or prior similar experiences. As leaders, the approach you take to asserting control and making decisions sets the tone for others to follow. Set the model for always thinking first and acting with deliberation. 2. Focus fully but selectively on issues of consequence. Trying to spread your attention across many issues concurrently does not work. First select only those issues which are important to you, and delegate the remainder. Then give the selected matters your full attention for a timely and thoughtful decision. Dont over-think any issue to no decision. 3. Use person-to-person interaction to confirm your thinking. Most business decision issues are complex enough to suggest the need for direct input from a key constituent or to test your understanding. While text messaging and email may seem more expedient, these do not convey the tone or body language you need to make the right decision. Related: Develop These 7 Skills to Become a More Influential Person 4. Allocate contiguous time and process for critical decisions. Many short dialogs in chaotic environments separated by other activities do not facilitate deep thinking or lasting decisions. The cost of recovery from a bad decision can far outweigh the effort of managing the thinking process with the right people, the right place and the right time. 5. Think past a potential decision to a plan for execution. Planning the next steps, before finalizing a decision, will validate your thinking or perhaps clarify that more work is required. Decisions made without proper consideration for execution consequences often lead to more serious and continuing issues. Extrapolate your thinking far into the future. 6. Communicate your thinking as you deliver a decision. Decisions delivered as edicts are never satisfying and may actually cause a backlash that negates a good decision. Respected leaders have no qualms about summarizing their thought process on issues and take the time to effectively communicate the key points to relevant constituents. 7. Manage and monitor the actual resulting implementation. Even the best thinking and a good decision can be undermined by unforeseen events or people misunderstandings. Small course corrections made quickly and follow-up communication can forestall major new issues and make your decision the right one the first time. The ability to make the right decisions on a timely basis is what defines you as an entrepreneur. Its not a skill that anyone is born with, and it is one that you can definitely learn and improve your habits over time. For new entrepreneurs, I recommend that you seek the assistance of a mentor that you trust and not be afraid to ask for assistance from your peers and senior advisors. While new technology allows you to act and react more quickly than ever before, none of these tools are a substitute for thinking, deliberating and making your own decisions. Ultimately, every business is about people interacting with other people. Your challenge is to convince them that they are at the center of your thinking. Related: What Bad Managers, Good Managers and Great Managers Do Related: Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KENT School Board Chairman Paul Cortese said Friday the panel will not consider a school safety proposal recommended by the Board of Selectmen that includes arming teachers and staff with guns. Cortese, in a statement, condemned the selectmens 2-1 vote this week to recommend the FASTER Saves Lives program, which took place before the program was discussed with school district officials. It is disappointing that the Kent Board of Selectmen have not sought to work cooperatively with the Kent Center School Board of Education, but have attempted to circumvent our process for addressing matters and adding items to our agenda for consideration, Cortese said. The Kent Center School Board of Education is not in support of bringing firearms into Kent Center School and should we, in the future, wish to consider such a proposal, we will approach the issue thoughtfully, fully engaging the public, and being sure to follow both the law and the best practices. Selectmen Jeffrey Parkin, who proposed adoption of the program, said Friday the selectmen did not intend to pre-empt the school boards authority, but only to suggest it as a measure that warrants consideration. I find it unusual that they would not put the agenda item in place for some public discussion, Parkin said. There was no attempt to influence their procedures. Its just a subject worthy of public discussion that we proposed be put on their agenda. Parkin and Selectman Michael VanValkenburg voted to present information on the program to the school board, but First Selectman Bruce Adams opposed the measure. The FASTER Saves Lives program was developed by Ohios Buckeye Firearms Association in the aftermath of Sandy Hook and other school shootings. FASTER stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. It pays tuition, and room and board for teachers and other school personnel while they are being trained to carry firearms in schools, and offers help to school districts with legal and other issues involved in implementing the program. School superintendents in two rural Ohio communities contacted Thursday by The News-Times strongly endorsed the program, which they said enhanced the sense of security in their schools. Parkin had said it might also work in Kent, which has no police force of its own and relies on state police to provide security. But the vote sparked a strong objection from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who said the program had no place in Connecticuts schools, and from at least one parent who attended Thursday nights school board meeting. Staff Writer Susan Tuz contributed to this report. BRIDGEPORT What is so important about a belt, anyway? Thats what a group of parents demanded to know. It was a Capital Preparatory Harbor School board meeting, and they were there to vent their frustrations about the kinks they say bedevil the new charter school. So many children are sitting in the hallway about the uniforms, said Brenda Fleming, a parent, referring to discipline meted out to students who dont follow the dress code. But the parents are not being contacted about academics. Jordan Green, a teacher at the 5-month-old school, stepped forward. The belt is a little thing? No, the belt is bigger, said Green, speaking with passion and from experience about the importance for kids to follow the rules, even when it comes to wearing the required belt with their pants. A graduate of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford the model for this new charter school some 50 miles away Green is everything parents in the audience want their children to become: well-spoken, college-educated, an advocate for social justice. He said he has faith in the model because he is a product of it. There is a discipline factor, Green told parents. If you are telling me you cant do something as simple as wear a belt, what does that say for the things where I am asking you to do something even more challenging? That might be calculus, for example, he said. Mushrooming concerns Five months after the charter school opened its doors to more than 200 sixth- through twelfth-graders, it is the small unanswered concerns that seem to be burgeoning into something bigger. Parents say the school needs to do a better job communicating with them, explaining what students are learning and how they are graded. Some sense a lack of respect from school administrators. Others worry that the vision laid out by Steven Perry, the schools founder, is being lost. We dont need a savior, Fleming said. We need someone who is genuinely concerned about our children in getting the best education and working with parents the way Dr. Perry asked us to work with him when he brought the school here. Perry, who listened as Fleming and other parents laid bare their growing frustrations at a recent board meeting, responded by calling the culture of the school strong. In just five months, the school is working to remediate, educate and celebrate, he said. The opportunities for growth are significant. By no means does the room for growth mean anything other than that, Perry added. I think that the administrators at the school level and the (teachers) are to be lauded for what they have done in a short amount of time in Bridgeport to create a real excitement. Weve created a compelling academic experience, he said. Growing pains Perry founded and led Capital Prep in Hartford for a decade before leaving to run a charter management group. He began signing up parents for the new school last spring even as state funding to open it in a brutal fiscal climate remained a large question mark. The strategy paid off. Parents desperate to get their children into a better school picketed at the state capitol to get the school opened. Those same parents now say they will picket again to get the school to do the things that were promised. The citys sixth charter school, Capital Prep opened in a vacant downtown office building opposite the Barnum Museum with the bold mission to send all of its graduates to four-year colleges. The school has a social justice theme, tutoring for students who need it, and requires students to sign up for sports. Some have embraced the school. Ricardo Griffith, who in addition to being co-chairman of the schools board of directors has two sons at the school. He said he is very happy with the way things are going. Weve got students who dont want to leave the school, Griffith said. The atmosphere is different. Two of the schools seniors have already been accepted into four-year colleges, the board was told at its January meeting. Daily attendance averages 97 percent. Truancy fails to be an issue, Perry declared. Xavier Brown, a high school sophomore, who stayed late at the school one night, said he used to go to Harding High School, where he sometimes had issues with bullying. Its better, Brown said of his new school, which is about an hour walk from his East Main Street home. I can actually do my work. He never used to smile, Teresa Wilson, the boards other co-chairman, said of Brown. Wilson has run a popular college preparatory program in the city for years. She said walking through the hallways of Capital Prep, she has seen a whole lot of positive things going on. It was very out of the box, she said of some of the lessons. Students are engaged. The ones Ive talked to absolutely love the school. School officials opened their doors to the media on opening day, but have refused requests from Hearst Connecticut Media to revisit the school. At this time, school visits and local feature pieces are not the main focus of Harbor Capital Prep School, said Yusuf Salaam, a publicist for Perry, in an email response. Work in progress Griffith agrees there is a learning curve. We are birthing this thing, Griffith said of the young school. Over time, I believe the structure and everything will fall into place, Wilson added. Some parents cant wait. I would like my daughter to receive a quality education that prepares her for college and beyond, Domica Skipworth said. I want my daughter to be an addition to Capital Preps success stories. Skipworth wants better communication between home and the school and she wants a parent association to ensure parents are fully incorporated into the school life. Receiving a letter that says your child is struggling academically is meaningless, Skipworth said, without knowing the details. I understand its a new school, but there is a lack of communication, Marie Guerrie, another parent, agreed. Tammy Cassile, the dean of students at the school, listed a number of ways staff communicates with parents, including an online system that gives parents information to student grades. Parents also get communications from student advisers. The advisers, Fleming pointed out, dont always have answers. I asked, What does a zero mean? Does this mean, she failed, she didnt turn something in? The answer to me was I dont know what this means Fleming said. Wanda Simmons, another parent, said she has not yet seen the academic rigor she said she was promised, but is willing give it more time. I advocated for the school to get here. I will do anything and everything to help this school, she said. Officials at the State Department of Education, which oversees the operation of state funded charter schools, said the school is scheduled for a visit in April 2016. The school has until next fall to submit a report detailing its performance, student achievement, emerging best practices and financial condition. All of that will feed into whether the schools charter is renewed after the first five years. If January is the month for resolutions, each successive month is a test of resolve. The big guns of Connecticut Democratic politics are displaying their resolve that they are going to play nicely with returned Bridgeport Democratic Mayor Joe Ganim. It was not all that long ago they were shunning him in favor of their eight-year compadre, former Mayor Bill Finch. First to see the light and accept reality was U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Fourth district, who met with the returned mayor shortly after the November general election. But for Fridays surprise blizzard, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was to have been in Bridgeport to tour a brownfield site with the mayor, and on Saturday, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal was to have been with the mayor at a Fire department recruiting event at the citys fire headquarters. At the end of January, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who withheld his endorsement of Ganim last fall, even after the mayor had vanquished Finch and secured the Democratic nomination in a party primary, appeared with the mayor at an anti-violence event in Bridgeport. It was their first public appearance together. You just knew this freeze out was not going to last. Bridgeport is simply too important to Democratic politicians with ambition. Its Democratic organization churns out the votes needed to put, say, a Malloy over the top in a close gubernatorial election. Mario Testa, the 69-year-old masterful yet easy-to-underestimate chairman of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, was not going to let the freeze continue. The morning after the Democratic primary last September, he sat in his pizzeria at 1023 Brooklawn Avenue, Fairfield, and savored the events of the prior evening. When the savoring was done, he said, he was going to begin calling the Democratic big shots of Connecticut and ask them if they were going to back the partys candidate. My job as party chairman is to bring the party together behind the partys candidate, he said. He didnt have much luck before the election, but after the temporary disturbance Ganims resurgence caused in the the Democratic universe, the planets seem to have fallen back into line. Last week, Testa, accompanied the mayor to Hartford for the opening of the new legislative session and Malloys address to the legislature. The message to Hartford was if you want Marios support in the future, treat his boy, Joe, with respect. Finch did not seek Marios company or guidance on many, if any, occasions. Before the election, these officials found it unpalatable that a man convicted of corruption would have the temerity to seek his old office back. And, of course, over eight years theyd built both personal and political ties with Finch. So everyone has moved on. It was announced last week that the former mayor, whose passion for green living put him in the vanguard among American mayors on that front, has apparently taken a job with a local architectural firm. City Council President and until last September, mayor-in-waiting Tom McCarthy is now out of his city job as Labor Relations director. Last week, he and Adam Wood, Finchs former right-hand man, were campaigning in New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton. Ganim is the mayor now and for the next four years will face mayoral problems. Money, of course, is always an issue. One thing hes going to need to get under control is the Police department payroll and, as always, overtime. In 2015, according to data posted on Lennie Grimaldis Only in Bridgeport website, the top four earners were police officers and detectives. Those four, averaging around $250,000, earned a total of slightly over $1 million. And theres been grumbling from some African-American supporters of Ganim that few blacks are in decision-making positions at City Hall. There are, of course, some African-Americans in decision making roles at City Hall but they came in under the Finch administration and therefore apparently dont count. Michael J. Daly is editor of the editorial page of the Connecticut Post. Email: mdaly@ctpost.com. Last year, we saw terrorism grip the globe, including at home. We no longer can engage in the balm of denial and say terrorism is something over there. It is, sadly, everywhere. Every responsible entrepreneur needs to have a business continuity plan to address not only terrorism but also threats of terrorism. We saw on New Years Eve parts of Europe shut down by the threats alone. In my experience, there are six employment issues often not sufficiently considered. We need to focus on them, not in a moment of a crisis, but rather in relative calm, so here we go. Related: 7 Steps to Keep Employees Safe In The Workplace 1. Temporary shutdown If a temporary shutdown becomes necessary, the question is whether there is any duty to pay. For employee-relations reasons, you may wish to do so for hopefully what will be only a limited period of time. In terms of the law, if the employee is exempt from overtime, he or she must be paid his or her full salary for any work week in which he or she does any work. This is equally true if he or she works from home, discussed below. Conversely, non-exempt employees entitled to overtime under the law do not need to be paid when they are not working. Two primary exceptions here are that they may need to be paid even when not working if they are paid by the fluctuating work week -- alternative way to calculate overtime -- or if they are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. 2. Working at home and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) When we prepare our crisis-management plans, we make lists of who can work at home. And we stretch, because we have no choice. Months later, unrelated to your crisis management plan, an employee requests to work at home as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. You say no based on the factors articulated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The problem is that you previously said yes in your crisis-management plan. In your crisis-management plan, make clear that designating a job as subject to telecommuting in the event of a crisis does not mean that the employee can perform all of the essential functions remotely. Rather, it means only that, in a crisis, for a limited period of time, the ability of the employee to do some essential functions is better than none. 3. Payment while working at home An exempt employee must be paid his or her full salary for any day in which he or she does any work. However, an employer generally can substitute paid time off for unworked time. A non-exempt employee must be paid only for hours worked, except for the possible exceptions noted in the section above on temporary shut downs. You need to be thoughtful how you capture working time. Remember: short breaks generally 20 minutes or less under federal law, but even more strict requirements may apply under some state laws, must be paid. And, if the employee is on call and restricted in what he or she can do, he or she also may need to be paid for the on call time. The legal nuances are complicated. But the business take away is simple: Work with your counsel to develop the compensation guidelines. For example, you may want to require that employees start and stop at specified times or this could happen: An employee who ordinarily works an eight-hour day works at home from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with eight 15-minutes breaks. Because the breaks are short, the employee must be paid 10 hours for the day rather than eight hours. Finally, even if you have fixed start and stop times, you may need to stagger them. Your server may not be able to support a large percentage of your workforce accessing it remotely. 4. Fear of working An employer may not shut down and an employee may refuse to work because of fear. Or, the employer may shut down and then reopen with an employee refusing to return to work because of fear. Is the employees refusal to work protected? Or, can the employee be fired? Under various federal laws, an employee generally cannot be fired for refusing to work in an abnormally dangerous work setting. This is based on what a reasonable person would believe (objective standard) and not the individuals subjective (personal) fears. So before taking any action against employees who refuse to work, consider guidance from public authorities and whatever other employers in the same geographic area are doing. While not determinative, these factors are helpful. You also need to consider whether the refusal may be protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act, even if the employees are non-union. In these cases, you cannot discharge but can replace temporarily or permanently. If permanently, the employee is placed on a priority recall list for when positions become available. In all cases, consider employee relations issues. And those considerations include the feelings of those who are working, even though they rather not. An employee also may claim, even if working is not abnormally dangerous, that his or her anxiety precludes him or her from working. An anxiety disorder may be a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act or the comparable state or local law. Even if an employee is not disabled under the broad definition under the ADA, he or she still may be eligible for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which has an even broader definition of a serious health condition than the definition of disability under the ADA. Under both the ADA and the FMLA, individualized assessments are necessary. When dealing with actual or threatened terrorism, it is hard to imagine these assessments, as important as they are, being triaged to top of the list. So develop a protocol now that you will follow, such as always requiring a doctors note. You also may want to consider, in defined circumstances, the right to have a doctor whom you designate conduct a second opinion, for example, where the employees doctors note is not from a specialist. There are some risks in per se rules on second opinions, but there may be business risks in not having them. Related: Why None of Us Can Afford to Forget 9/11 5. Evacuation of employees with disabilities We know that there may need to be an immediate evacuation. Some individuals with physical or mental conditions may need help. It would include, but not be limited to, an employee in a wheel chair. Do not ask employees whether they have a disability that needs accommodation. Instead, at a time of calm, ask employees who would need help in the event of an emergency evacuation. If someone with a known ambulatory disability, such as Parkinsons, does not respond, it is reasonable to add him or her to the list. Of course, you also need individuals to provide the help. When you ask for volunteers, make clear that this is not a requirement but only an option. If the unthinkable happens, you will need matches. You will want back-ups in case a helper is off that day. You can try to communicate the matches at the moment of the crisis. Expect it to fail. Or, you can introduce the team in advance. I recommend making the match in advance but only with the authorization of the employee who needs the help. In either case, the employees choice should be documented. A related issue is what to do is if there is an active shooter. Does running to safety make you safer or a target? Obtain expert advice on this issue not only to save lives but also to protect yourself in the worst case scenario. Of course, the advice is of value only if shared in advance. Heres a video on what to do in the event of an active shooter. Wont the video make the employees more anxious? To the contrary, in my experience, if the employees know you are focusing on the issue, they are less likely to be as nervous about it. 6. Contingent workforce In some cases, an employer may need or be able to operate with a contingent workforce in an area remote from the risk. Employers should consider whether this is an option now. If you want to go this route, find the source of workers now. Waiting for when the crisis happens is like hitting on 17 at a black jack table. You may consider paying a premium for priority service. Otherwise, the source may be available in name only. During a terrorist threat or attack, focusing on the nuances of the joint employer issue is not realistic. But, at a minimum, make sure there are documents up front that make clear you are not the employer and train your supervisors that they never should fire a contingent worker -- only ask that he or she be replaced. Implicit in the above is another recommendation: You want a simulation, at a minimum with your supervisors. If there is no practice, the full potential of the plan will not be realized. In all cases, if you have a union contract, you must check it. There may be restrictions that need to be accommodated, such as limitations on supervisors performing bargaining unit work. Hopefully, the union will understand that, if they are not flexible, there may not be a business after the crisis to which their workers can return. You are more likely to get to yes if you treat the union as your business partner. If the union is foolishly rigid, then you may need to take the risk of a grievance or unfair labor practice in order to survive. We pay for health insurance hoping we lose money on the deal. I wish all entrepreneurs the same on your crisis-management plan. Related: How Siri Saved a Man's Life Related: Facing Potential Terrorism, Entrepreneurs Need to Think About the Unthinkable 5 Ways to Keep Your Cool, Even When You're Not Feeling It The True Measure of Leadership Is Staying Calm in the Storm Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved NEW HAVEN - Federal authorities have arrested an executive of a Stamford technology engineering and design firm for insider trading. Deirdre Daly, the states top federal prosecutor, announced Saturday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had arrested 45-year-old Dennis Hamilton of Norwalk for improperly trading 17,000 shares in his own company. If theres anything that Gov. Dannel P. Malloys budget is asking, its for charity to begin at home, or else. After tens of millions of dollars in social service cuts made late last year to balance the states wobbly budget, the outline he gave to the General Assembly last week was even more grim. In the nearly $570-million in slashing to the $20-billion budget scheduled to take effect this coming July 1, $61 million would be deducted from the state Department of Social Services; $55 million from the Department of Developmental Services; and $71 million from addiction and mental health services. If approved by the back-to-the-wall General Assembly, the cuts wouldnt exactly help those on the verge of overdosing on that Mexican-brown heroin coming in from Rhode Island. It might mean missing a chance to identify and treat the next suicidal or homicidal teenager as we continue the public-policy discussion in this post-Sandy Hook era. Unless the General Assembly makes major revisions, it will mean more indigent people seeking expensive medical treatment in hospital emergency rooms; and more people with mental-health issues ending up in jail, according to advocates. These cost-cutting proposals are coming at a time when wages are down statewide and with it the projected revenue that lawmakers expected to float state spending. My least-favorite slide in Malloys budget summary illustrates the shedding of high-wage industries jobs. While Connecticut lost 54,000 jobs that paid $80,000 or more during the Great Recession of 2008, only 8,200 have come back. Of the 25,000 mid-range jobs with $50,000 to $80,000 salaries that were lost, 37,000 came back. Of the nearly 40,000 lower-wage jobs, below $50,000 in pay that disappeared in the greed of Wall Street, 61,500 came back. That, combined with the dozens of high earners who have left the state for more tax-advantageous venues, and the decline in revenue is clear. So its probably a good thing that the Connecticut Community Providers Association and the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits have merged to become the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance, with 550 member agencies. The non-profit sector faces the greatest threat to its viability in memory, said Jeffrey Walter, interim CEO of the alliance. For human service providers, for example, cuts of the magnitude that are being proposed will mean that thousands of individuals and families who rely on services such as mental-health clinics, substance-use treatment centers and support and day programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities could lose those services, with nowhere to turn. The extent of the cuts that are proposed by the governor are much-more drastic than can be absorbed without significant impact on core services. Its an exciting time and its a devastating time, said Rep. Cathy Abercromie, D-Meriden, co-chairman of the legislative Human Services Committee, who is opposed to many of the budget cuts. Our providers cannot do it any longer without help from the state. Abercromie will push for a portion of the states federal Medicare reimbursements to go to the non-profits rather than get gobbled up in the General Fund. Sen. Marilyn Moore, the other Human Services Committee co-chair, said she is working on legislation aimed at creatively balancing the needs and funding streams. Shes in a unique position, since her day job is CEO of The Witness Project, a non-profit trying to reduce breast-cancer deaths. So while lawmakers and advocates work to figure out how core social services fit into the new normal of lower tax revenue, its clear that taxpayers are also going to have to dig deeper and write private checks to their favorite charities. Theres a lot on the line. A new report issued last week in Pathways from the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, ranks the United States very low in battling poverty. Although no one should underestimate the magnitude of the U.S. political problem, it is encouraging that the requisite reforms are tractable and incremental and hence conceivably ones that many Americans would find attractive, the report says. We need not, for example, install a safety net of social democratic proportions. Even if the U.S. safety net were only ramped up to the standard of other liberal economies (especially the United Kingdom), much headway would be made in reducing poverty. The Community Nonprofit Alliances tactics over the next few months will be to bring the voices of clients to lawmakers. There are real people behind this and those are the folks that government is in place to serve, said Walter. We need a very, very vibrant discussion in this building on what are core services, what do core services mean and what level of funding is necessary to sustain core services. Ken Dixons Capitol View appears Sundays in the Hearst Connecticut Newspapers. You may reach him in the Capitol at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. Find him at twitter.com/KenDixonCT. His Facebook address is kendixonct.hearst. Dixons Connecticut Blog-o-rama can be seen at blog.ctnews.com/dixon/ This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BRIDGEPORT - It was supposed to be a vacant house. But when members of the Statewide Urban Violence Cooperative Crime Control Task Force raided the building on Wilmot Avenue Friday afternoon police said they found it to be the headquarters and site of an illegal drug operation for an East End gang. Inside police said they found $7,156 in cash, seven guns including two Glocks, a sawed off shotgun, Inner Arms .38-caliber revolver, Phoenix Arms .25-caliber pistol, Rino Calesi .25-caliber pistol, Charter Arms revolver; a high capacity 30 round magazine; fireworks; two scales; 125.5 ounces of crack cocaine; 110.9 ounces of suspected liquid Codeine and 120 grams of marijuana. Yero Walker, 33, who is currently on probation for drug charges, was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of ammunition, possession of a sawed off shotgun, weapons in motor vehicle, possession of high capacity magazine, theft of a firearm, possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of narcotics within 1,500 feet of a school zone and operating a drug factory. He was being held in lieu of $500,000 bond. Police Capt. Armando Perez said the operation was done in conjunction with the FBI Safe Streets Task Force and the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms task force. This joint operation is part of Mayor Ganims, violent crime reduction operation with a goal to identify and target violence within the city of Bridgeport, Perez said. Perez said members of the State Police gang task force began to target the citys East End due to numerous shootings that have occurred over the last year. Gang members associated with the East End began to take control of the residence and run an illegal narcotics operation which encompassed all three floors. Through their illegal narcotic sales they began to receive stolen property for crack cocaine. Addicts would take stolen items to the residence and trade stolen property for illegal narcotics, Perez said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Social media makes its voice heard during Democratic debates. On Thursday night, the University of New Hampshire in Durham hosted Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in their fifth debate, which came five days before that state's presidential primary. More debate news: Clinton, Sanders spew low blows during Democratic debate Although it was Clinton and Sanders on stage, social media joined in on the discussion with a variety of comments and memes. The full story: Fireworks fly as Clinton, Sanders square off before New Hampshire Clinton who was victorious over Sanders by a slim margin in the Iowa caucuses and Sanders spoke on several issues, including national security, the economy and government bailouts and international relations (specifically in the Middle East). During the face-off, social media praised and roasted the commander in chief hopefuls. Click through the gallery above to see the best memes during Thursday's Democratic debate. 'Joe Biden can have them': Mastriano vows to bus migrants to Delaware politics Ian relief: Deadline extended for property tax payments Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order delaying the payment of property taxes across 26 Florida counties struggling from impact of Hurricane Ian. Lifestyle | Daily Life | News | The Sydney Morning Herald Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss Bristol Palin refused to let her ongoing legal battle with ex-fiance Levi Johnston over child support payments stop her from enjoying some quality time with her newborn baby daughter on Friday. The 25-year-old mother-of-two, who is, Daily Mail Online revealed, owed more than $80,000 in unpaid child support from ex Levi Johnston, took her six-week-old daughter to work with her for the day, sharing an image of herself cradling the baby girl at the Alaska dermatologist where she works. Posting the image to Instagram, Bristol captioned the sweet snap: 'It's bring your baby to work day,' before adding a heart-eyed emoji. Scroll down for video Bonding time: Bristol Palin put her custody battle with ex-fiance Levi Johnston aside to enjoy 'bring your baby to work day' with her daughter Sailor Grace on Friday Family photo: The 25-year-old, who revealed at the end of January that she was returning to work after just one month of maternity leave, has a seven-year-old son, Tripp (pictured left), with her ex Levi in the image, Bristol is wearing a casual ensemble, donning a khaki green parka over a black top and blue jeans, while Sailor, appearing to have dressed up for the occasion, is wearing a pair of red trousers, gold-studded moccasin booties and a floral headband. The precious tot is also pictured cuddling her baby blanket and sucking on a pacifier. It was just a couple of weeks ago that Bristol revealed she was returning to work after just one month of maternity leave, having announced the birth of her daughter on December 24. Bristol, who has a seven-year-old son, Tripp, with ex Levi, revealed the news on Instagram a week ago, sharing an image of herself with both of her children, posing alongside Tripp as he prepared to head off for a day of school, while holding on to baby Sailor in a car seat. 'Back to real life today! I was fortunate enough to take the last month off to stay home with my babies, today marks the first time I've left SailorG, but I could not be more thankful she's in the best of hands!! [sic],' she captioned the family photo. The latest snap shared on her Instagram account comes just hours after Daily Mail Online revealed that Bristol's ex Levi, the father of her eldest child, filed court papers on January 26 pleading with the judge to reduce his support payments for their son. In court papers seen exclusively by Daily Mail Online, Levi claimed his earnings have dropped since a temporary child support order was granted in 2010. Battle: Levi, 25, pictured with Bristol in 2008, has asked a judge to reevaluate his child support agreement, claiming that he is unable to keep up with the $1,750-per-month payments he is currently required to make Cafeteria catch-up! Bristol has refused to let her battle with Levi stand in the way of her children spending precious time together; on Thursday, baby Sailor Grace even paid a visit to Tripp at his school during lunch Baby mama: The mother-of-two gave birth to Tripp in December 2008, however she and Levi, who are pictured with her brother Trig in September 2008, split in 2010 That order had been based on his estimated income which was in excess of $100,000 - and now he claims he makes nowhere near six figures. Levi was ordered to pay $1,750 a month for Tripp to a then 20-year-old Bristol. And Bristol's feud with Levi is not the only custody fight that she is currently embroiled in; the Alaska native and daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is also caught up in a battle with her ex Dakota Meyer, the father of her daughter Sailor. Medal of Honor recipient Dakota is now being forced to take a paternity test as part of the former couple's increasingly bitter custody battle over her new baby. Court documents seen by Daily Mail Online reveal that Meyer's bid for joint custody in a suit filed in Kentucky and Alaska has stalled pending the results of the paternity test. A question has also been raised over the actual birth date of Bristol's baby. The Instagram photo posted by Bristol announcing the birth of Sailor on December 24, places the birth date one day earlier. The date of birth on court papers filed in the custody case is also given as December 23. But the same Instagram picture posted by Dakota with the caption 'Best Christmas present ever!!' reveals a detail whited out in Palin's account the date scribbled on her IV line. There, in black and white, is a date that appears to read November 4 placing the birth almost two months before Bristol claimed. Name game! Last weekend, Bristol posted an image of her daughter lounging on a personalized purple blanket Mother's love: There has been some speculation over the date on which Sailor was born - while Bristol announced the birth on December 24, there have been suggestions that she actually gave birth in November Bristol, however, has refused to let this get in the way of her first few months of bonding with her daughter, and she has been happily chronicling the little girl's day-to-day life on her Instagram account, sharing numerous images of her baby - including several with her son Tripp. In one image, posted yesterday, Tripp can be seen cradling his baby sister during his lunch break at school, when it appears his family stopped by the cafeteria to pay him a visit. In the picture, Tripp is seen grinning happily at the camera, while wearing a full camo-printed long-sleeved tee and trousers, while Sailor Grace appears to sleep happily in his arms, cuddled up in a white knitted beanie hat, a blue tee and a pair of animal-print trousers. Bristol did not indicate whether she was the one taking the photo, however last month she revealed that she was returning to work at a dermatologist near her home in Alaska, after just one month of maternity leave. And earlier this week, Bristol and her sisters were on-hand to help their mother Sarah Palin as she publicly supported Donald Trump in Iowa as he continues his presidential campaign. Broken romance: Bristol got engaged to marine Dakota (pictured), 27, in March, but eventually called off their wedding. They are now in a custody battle over Sailor Grace Overjoyed: Bristol announced the birth of her daughter in December by sharing this photo on social media In an image shared on her Instagram account, Bristol captured her mother taking part in a TV interview in Iowa, revealing in the caption that her sister Willow had done their mother's hair, while her sister Piper had been responsible for Sarah's outfit. Luckily for her friends, family - and dedicated social media following - Bristol's travel plans and her decision to return to work haven't stopped her from sharing regular updates of her newborn baby's day-to-day life online. Bristol has been happily sharing images of her daughter on Instagram several times a week, posting another image of Sailor Grace just a few days ago. The image saw the little girl lying on a purple fleecy blanket which was printed with her name in all different fonts and colors. Grinning away while staring at something off camera, the tiny tot was pictured wearing a white babygro and a pair of brown moccasin-style booties, and was happily waving her arms around in the air while her mom snapped the pic. Pores also decreased in size and occurrence by around 6 per cent Results were astonishing: wrinkles around eyes reduced by up to 12 per cent Pop. Glug, glug, glug. Chink. Ahhh. These are a few of my favourite noises, marking as they do the most sacred of my nightly rituals. Wine OClock. The moment I breathe out and enjoy a glass with dinner and perhaps another on the sofa. The moment I know the working day is finally done. Im sure many of you feel just the same. The thing is wine is my work, too. Im a wine critic, writing the Knackered Mothers Wine Club column for this newspaper. Wine fills every corner and crevice of my life. I love drinking, be it for work or pleasure. And after 20 years in the wine industry, vino and I are very old friends. Even when Im not working Ive been known to absent-mindedly swirl and sniff my tea, forgetting it was a mug in my hand and not the stem of a wine glass. Wine critic Helen McGinn has given up alcohol for a month and as a result the wrinkles around her eyes reduced by up to 12 per cent in length and depth. McGinn says the texture of her skin which experts say is the most ageing factor had improved by a whopping 37 per cent after giving up alcohol Skincare specialist Dr Nigma Talib has identified the specific effects drinking wine can have on your skin. She claims she can instantly spot when a woman is drinking too much wine as shes more likely to be puffy and have pronounced lines or redness between the eyes So how on Earth would I cope when I gave up alcohol for a month? Even the most ardent of wine-lovers among you has probably given up the habit for a good stint. Not me. Since my last pregnancy seven years ago, Ive never even had a dry week. So this wasnt a decision I took lightly. And it wasnt even driven by concerns for my health. Ive long been of the opinion that a little drop of wine does more good than harm. Putting the cork back in the bottle was caused by something far more profound: my droopy eyelids. Not to mention the lines around my eyes, which looked worryingly deep all of a sudden. When I first noticed my expression was a little more hangdog than usual, I wrote it off as tiredness. I am, after all, a 43-year-old knackered mother of three and small children would take their toll on any womans complexion. Then, with no small amount of horror, I came across an article about wine face. Apparently, skincare specialist Dr Nigma Talib has identified the specific effects drinking wine can have on your skin. She claims she can instantly spot when a woman is drinking too much wine as shes more likely to be puffy and have pronounced lines or redness between the eyes. As well as this, shes also likely to have enlarged pores, dehydrated skin with feathery lines across the cheeks, redness to the cheeks and nose, deep nasolabial folds (the lines running from the edge of the nose to the corners of your mouth) and hello new friend droopy eyelids. There is one easy cure, according to Dr Talib. Stop drinking wine. The difference to my face would be instantly noticeable. My average drinking day starts early if Im working just after the school run, when my tastebuds are fresh. In my days as a supermarket wine-buyer I would taste at least 40 wines a day. Now it might be anything from a couple of bottles to 30, all lined up on our kitchen table. Thats if Im working from home. If Im at a tasting put on by a supermarket or wine retailer, its more like 100 wines in an afternoon. Obviously not even I could actually drink 100 glasses of wine a day. When tasting professionally, I swirl it around and savour its deliciousness before spitting it all out. I know, what a waste. Ive had a few awkward moments when, forgetting that it isnt entirely normal to be standing in the kitchen with a line of open bottles at 10am, Ive opened the door to someone coming to check the electricity meter or deliver a parcel. They go from looking surprised to slightly relieved when I tell them what I do for a living. 'So was all the pain worth it? In some ways, yes. Im glad Ive at last experienced what its like to live without wine if only to make me appreciate it all the more.' Even when Ive tasted wine all day long, I still look forward to my evening tipple. Most nights Ill have at least one glass, sometimes two. I dont go over this amount on a school night, though. And Ive long kept two nights a week strictly alcohol-free not to give my liver a break, but because sometimes being surrounded by booze all day can drive you to desire nothing more than a cup of weak tea. The weekends are not quite so abstemious. There are usually bubbles before wine if we meet up with friends on a Saturday night. And there are always a few glasses at lunchtime on a Sunday. With wine so woven into the fabric of my life, you can imagine how sad our parting was. On New Years Eve, I raised my glass, filled with particularly lovely pink champagne, and bid it adieu. I had already visited Nick Miedzianowski-Sinclair, founder and CEO of The Cosmetic Imaging Studio in London, to analyse my skin. I wanted scientific evidence as to whether giving up drink would improve my complexion. Nick scanned my skin with a special Visia machine, which measures everything from wrinkles to redness, the size of pores to the texture of my skin. We agreed that he would scan me again at the end of my dry month. What drama for just a few weeks off the sauce, I hear you cry. Well, my task was going to be so much harder because I would still be surrounded by wine. Endless bottles would still arrive at my house, courtesy of all those kind vineyards and shops, and I would still be writing about it. Whats more, I was going to have to keep tasting it how else could I do my job? but I wouldnt be swallowing a drop. I would experience the wonderful taste of wine but none of the wonderful effects. 'Overall, my face had a much healthier hue: less dull, more hydrated. Nick said that, in general, it was cleaner and less congested. It wasnt until I put my before and after pictures side by side that I saw it for myself' Thanks to the excesses of Christmas, the first few days passed relatively easily. I was bloated from festive cheer and wearing elasticated trousers. It was a bit boring to be without wine, but I certainly didnt ache for it. Then, five days in, at 7pm on Friday night, I watched my husband pour out his beer and felt my first pang. Water just didnt compare. Normally Id be enjoying a perfectly chilled glass of white or a G&T. If I was to have any hope of making it through the four, long weeks of January, I was going to have to pep up my soft drink options. By Sunday lunchtime, with a roast on the table, I was sipping a spicy ginger beer rather than a spicy glass of red. It wasnt water but it certainly wasnt wine either. I was surprised to feel a little subdued and more self-conscious than usual. Wine was obviously a much more significant part of my persona than I had realised a fact hammered home when, again and again, I was amused to see just how surprised my friends were to hear I was trying to abstain for a month. For better or worse, wine and I had become one, indelibly associated. It suddenly seemed like a very long road ahead of me. MY NON-ALCOHOLIC SAVIOURS Luscombe Hot Ginger Beer 320ml, 4.12, amazon.co.uk A properly spicy, fiery ginger beer made from root ginger. With a citrus kick and a slight sparkle to it, its so packed with flavour you dont miss the alcohol. Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water 500ml, 1.70, sainsburys.co.uk and tesco.com A floral take on tonic water, its easier to drink than normal tonic if theres no gin to keep it company. Just make sure you add lots of ice and a slice. Seedlip 700ml, 29.99, selfridges.com and honestlyhealthyfood.com This really was a saviour. Its a bit like gin, without the gin: distilled barks, citrus fruits and spice, made to be drunk with tonic. Delicious and beautifully packaged, a little goes a long way. Advertisement My treasured Wine OClock became Green Tea OClock. Or Tonic Water OClock. One time it was Beetroot Juice OClock just the once, though. It was so revolting I had to spit it out. Week two, and the novelty of not drinking had truly worn off. Physically, I felt no different. Emotionally, I felt tired and weary. And professionally, there was a difference. It didnt affect my tastebuds but without the promise of a proper glass to enjoy in the evening, I found tasting wines more of a chore. As for my face, well, I certainly didnt think I looked any different. In fact, two people told me how tired I looked. To top it off, I stepped on the scales (big mistake) and discovered Id put on 4 lb. I put this down to drinking so much tea that I needed more cake than usual. It was only the thought of looking younger that kept me going. Weekends were especially hard without wine, especially when sat round a table with friends, plates of bangers and mash with onion gravy and a juicy, bramble-fruit-scented, warming bottle of red in front of us as happened on the second Saturday of the month. Thankfully my friends had stocked up on non-alcoholic alternatives for me. I sipped a perfectly drinkable alcohol-free beer but dreamed of wine. There was a positive side to all of this: hangovers. Or rather the lack of them. Waking up without any kind of headache on a Sunday morning (something I get after anything more than two large glasses nowadays) was a joy. Two weeks in, and there were other signs, too. I was sleeping better: deeply, with no loo trips required. I felt calm, relaxed and rested due, Im sure, to the much-improved sleep. The morning school run felt less stressful. The childrens constant chatter didnt grate. But my face? It looked no different. Then, in week three, the change came. People started telling me I looked well. And I dont mean those who knew I was booze-free. At last, my skin seemed to be turning a very important corner. I looked fresher. Buoyed by sleep-filled nights and compliments, I pushed myself through the last week wine-free. My energy levels were up and I felt less sluggish. I no longer even registered the fact that it was Wine OClock. After 32 days of not drinking, 32 whole days of forcing myself to spit out every last morsel of luscious wine I had to taste, I returned to Nicks clinic for the follow-up scan. The results were astonishing. The wrinkles around my eyes had reduced by up to 12 per cent in length and depth. My pores had decreased in size and occurrence by around 6 per cent. And the texture of my skin which experts say is the most ageing factor had improved by a whopping 37 per cent. I definitely wasnt as puffy around the nose and mouth. Overall, my face had a much healthier hue: less dull, more hydrated. Nick said that, in general, it was cleaner and less congested. It wasnt until I put my before and after pictures side by side that I saw it for myself. I looked younger. And to top it off, Id lost a couple of pounds from my starting weight. So was all the pain worth it? In some ways, yes. Im glad Ive at last experienced what its like to live without wine if only to make me appreciate it all the more. My first sip after my month off took place last Tuesday evening. It was a glass of Blanquette de Limoux, a gorgeous, crisp sparkling white from France. Paired with a plate of fish and chips, it was absolutely delicious. More than the taste of wine, though, I missed the simple, social pleasure of sharing a bottle with friends, with my husband, with my family. So while Ill continue to have a couple of wine-free nights a week, on the whole Im happy to add to my wrinkles. After all, the whole experiment just goes to show that it takes only a month or so to iron them out. It had been a happy day. Thirty-two weeks pregnant with her first baby, Malorie Bantala parked her car, scooped up her shopping and set off for her mothers home just a short walk away. My pregnancy hadnt been planned it was all a bit of a shock at the beginning but that day, shopping for the baby shower planned for a few days later, I felt radiant, Malorie recalls. I had bought decorations for the party, the birth was looming, I was excited. I knew the baby was a boy and I had chosen the name Joel. A young graduate with a new job as a trainee manager at Marks & Spencer, Malorie had much to look forward to on June 15 last year as she approached her mothers home in South London. Then, suddenly, from behind nearby bushes, two men their faces obscured by motorcycle helmets pounced. They grabbed Malorie and seconds later she was sprawled across the pavement. She raised her hands instantly, not to shield her head but, with the maternal instincts of a mother-to-be, to cover her stomach a desperate bid to protect her baby. As she screamed in horror and pain, she shouted out the name of her attacker. Shockingly, it was Kevin Wilson, the father of her unborn child. A young graduate with a new job as a trainee manager at Marks & Spencer, Malorie (pictured) had much to look forward to on June 15 last year as she approached her mothers home in South London I saw his eyes before I hit the ground, Malorie says. I knew they were Kevins eyes, I knew his body shape. I knew it was him. He hadnt wanted the baby. He had begged me to get rid of it and he had tried everything to get me to have an abortion. But never did I think he would try to kill my baby. But that is what he did. He kicked my little boy to death. The vicious attack shocked the nation. This was no gangland feud, no internecine spat. Instead, this was the premeditated murder of an unborn child by a young man who, although university-educated, turned to violent crime to ensure he controlled his world and those within it even if it meant killing his own child. Speaking seven months after the attack in which the baby died and which left Malorie in intensive care for several days, hovering between life and death and in danger of losing her womb, she reveals the full horror of that day. He threatened suicide if I didn't abort the baby In what an Old Bailey judge described as an abhorrent and vile attack, Malorie suffered broken fingers on her right hand as she fought to protect her unborn child, and a placental abruption, caused by the vicious kicks to her stomach, which meant that her son was starved of oxygen in the womb. Wilson was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm for his vicious attack on Malorie, and of child destruction for the killing of Joel. He was warned by the judge that he faces life when he is sentenced later this month. At present, those accused of deliberately killing a child in the womb which is at least 28 weeks can be charged with only child destruction an antiquated 1929 law that was designed to combat illegal abortions. Though in theory the crime carries a life imprisonment tariff, many including Malorie feel that Wilson should be branded a murderer for the killing of a near-term baby for whom post-mortem reports concluded was otherwise fit and healthy. The news Wilson would not face a murder charge has prompted a nationwide campaign, backed by Malorie, for a change in the law. She wants killers of babies approaching full-term to be charged with murder. Malorie also feels strongly that, morally, Wilson should be publicly branded a baby murderer. Now aged 22, she met Wilson in 2011 when both were in their first year at Bedfordshire University. As new students, they knew little of each others backgrounds, but enjoyed evenings out. Although their relationship was close at first, as is so often the way for first-year students, it fizzled out. It was briefly rekindled some time later, and in late 2014, Malorie became pregnant. A group from university had gone on a trip. It was a difficult time in my life because my five-year-old nephew Cameron had died from a sudden illness, says Malorie. I had taken him to school on the Tuesday, he wasnt well on Wednesday, his condition deteriorated swiftly on Thursday, and by Friday he was dead. It was a horrendous shock. I was heartbroken I adored Cameron. To watch his mother grieving had an enormous effect on me. Her grief was raw and deeply moving. She would sit clutching Camerons coat, calling out his name. It meant I was very emotional and vulnerable. I know now that Wilson played upon my vulnerability. Feigning concern, he showered Malorie with affection and the pair briefly got back together. In her heart, however, Malorie knew that it wouldnt blossom into a meaningful relationship. Wilson, she realised, was immature, and did not hold the same family values instilled in her since childhood. Discovering she was pregnant was a shock, and she weighed up her options, including abortion. But when I thought of Camerons mum and her love for him and grief over losing him, I knew it wasnt something I could do, she says. A mother/child bond is special. I couldnt let my baby down. The law is outdated - it needs to be changed Telling her Congolese parents wasnt easy but, although they were disappointed and feared that she was ruining her life, they readily agreed to stand by her and their grandchild. I was dreading telling Kevin, Malorie admits. We met and when I said I was pregnant I told him there were options. If he wanted, he could be part of the babys life but he said, Not an option. When I said I was having the baby and he didnt need to be involved, that I would manage alone, he said dismissively, Not an option. What Malorie could not have known was that behind a veneer of immaturity, Wilson was really a controlling, manipulative, arrogant young man who was capable of untold savagery if thwarted. Over the next few weeks he tried every way he could to persuade his former girlfriend to have an abortion. He felt that he had made a success of his life. He was a teaching assistant and the apple of his parents eyes. He could not abide the idea that he would be revealed as less than the golden son. He phoned me endlessly threatening suicide, all sorts, if I didnt abort the baby. In the end, just to show willing to listen to all sides, I agreed we would go to an abortion clinic to discuss options. But when Malorie arrived she found to her horror that Wilson had tried to book her in for the procedure. When nurses realised that she wanted to keep the baby they fully supported her decision. Outside in a nearby churchyard, we argued for about two hours, says Malorie. Nothing Kevin could say would change my mind, yet still he kept trying to force me to get rid of the baby. For many young men of our generation, responsibility is not something they are taught to shoulder. They arent educated to deal with pregnancy and want a quick fix: for him that was an abortion. But with Malorie refusing to abort the baby, Wilson was prepared to take matters into his own hands. He was determined the child would not be born. As time went on, Malorie prepared for the birth of her baby, which a scan had revealed was a boy. She bought a selection of baby clothes, a cot and a pram. She even told Wilsons mother that he was the father but his family chose to believe their son when he denied the claim. His mother was burying her head in the sand, says Malorie. Malorie feels strongly that, morally, Wilson (pictured) should be publicly branded a baby murderer On that June day last year, Wilson and a 17-year-old accomplice, who cannot be named for legal reasons, put their monstrous plan into action. For several hours they waited near Malories mothers home. Suddenly they leapt out, one behind me, one in front, Malorie says, her voice trembling. In seconds I was on the ground and they were kicking me. They were targeting my tummy. I yelled, Kevin! I knew it was him. But they didnt stop. Kevin was kicking my baby to death. When neighbours ran out to help, Wilson aimed one final vicious kick before running off. Doubled over in excruciating pain, Malorie could barely walk. Although an ambulance was called, it failed to arrive, so police took her to Kings College Hospital. After half an hour she saw a midwife and then two doctors, who revealed the terrible news that her baby was dead. I remember screaming, No! No! No! Malorie says. I wanted a C-section, but they said I had to be induced and to try to give birth naturally. They didnt know the extent of my injuries and this would be safer. Seven hours into the induced labour, she began bleeding heavily and it was clear the injuries to her womb were more serious than had been thought. Terrified, she begged doctors to intervene. I had lost Joel, I knew that. But now it seemed I was going to lose my chances of ever having a baby. I was overcome with grief for the baby I had lost and those I now might never have. After 27 hours of hell, an emergency caesarean section was performed. When Malorie came round, she discovered she was in intensive care. She had lost ten pints of blood and had undergone several transfusions. Malorie says: I remember the first thing I asked my Dad was, Do I still have my womb? I was in pain and confused. All I felt was an overwhelming feeling of loss. Doctors had performed two life-saving operations and had only just managed to keep her womb intact. They had also operated on her badly broken fingers. I chose not to see Joel but its something I regret, she admits. Part of me was scared he would look like Kevin like the man who had killed him. Malorie had told police she knew the identity of her attacker and though Wilson denied it, the evidence against him was conclusive. When the post-mortem examination was performed on Joel, DNA proved he was the father. The trial was difficult. Kevin looked at me only once and then couldnt look in my direction again. When I was first told the charge would be child destruction, not murder, I was angry and upset. I understand the law cant recognise Joel as a murder victim because he had not breathed independently, but that law is outdated and needs to be changed. When Kevin aimed those kicks, he was aiming them at my baby. Malorie is adamant that even a life sentence will not bring justice for her baby son. I wasnt able to save Joel from his attack, she says softly. I tried to save him but I couldnt. Now, even if Kevin gets life, it will never bring Joel back. At the very least I want to face this man in court and see him branded a murderer because that is what he is. Wilson has taken so much from me, she adds. I almost lost my womb and even now no one can be sure if I will ever conceive again. I will never watch Joel take his first steps, attend his first day at school, dress up for his school prom. I will never see him graduate, bring home his first girlfriend. Not only has Kevin robbed me of those opportunities, but I might never experience them with a child of my own. I want to see him sentenced as a murderer thats what he is. And I want everyone to know. Anyone who deliberately kills an unborn baby, at whatever stage the pregnancy is, should be classed as a murderer. Every day I ask myself what led him to do this? I had made it clear I was willing to bring up the baby on my own. I would have loved and protected my baby. Have GPs totally lost the plot? Have they taken leave of their senses? This is the only explanation I can offer for them voting to axe visits to elderly people in care homes. It happened last week at an emergency meeting of GP leaders. The vote means the British Medical Association the doctors union can now lobby the Government for the right to opt out of caring for some of Britains most vulnerable patients. Words almost fail me. Its an outrageous step. And as a psychiatrist whos specialised in care of the elderly and knows how badly the system already fails them, Im absolutely incandescent. I dont go in for GP-bashing. I think they have an incredibly difficult job and provide an amazing service. Dr Pemberton writes says the vote is a betrayal of everything that GP profession stands for and are trying to turn their backs on the very people who need their help most (file photo) But this vote is a betrayal of everything that their profession stands for. They are trying to turn their backs on the very people who need their help most. I feel so strongly about this because Ive seen first-hand what goes on in some care homes and it has made my blood run cold. Residents of these homes desperately need GPs on their side not just because they have multiple, often complex, medical problems, but because visits by doctors are our best hope of preventing neglect and abuse. Standards in care homes are horrifyingly variable. Some are excellent. At others, the staff are so devoid of empathy or compassion, I wouldnt let them look after my dog, let alone my grandma. GPs stand at the coalface. They can see the tell-tale signs of cruelty and distress. They have the knowledge and status to act as advocates for the victims. Yet, even as things stand, their visits to care homes are few and far between, if they happen at all. It strikes me as insane that if you are an elderly person still living in your own house or flat, and fit enough to get to the surgery, you can see your GP with reassuring regularity. Yet the minute you are frail enough to need to enter a care home, the attention you receive plummets. All too often, the doctor just pops round for a quick check-in with matron and doesnt meet the residents at all. Ive seen this myself. As a medical student, I worked in various care homes, including one where horrendous abuse was going on. Disturbed and distressed residents were locked in their rooms for hours on end, just to make life easier for staff. When we unlocked the doors, wed find them lying helpless on the floor after a fall, or sitting drenched in urine. I reported it to Social Services and was providing regular updates on the abuse I witnessed so they could build a case. A GP visited every week, but never once, in all the months I worked there, did he actually go to see a patient. Instead, he would stand outside the kitchens, smoking a cigarette with matron, before signing a few prescriptions and heading off again. If hed bothered to clap eyes on one of the people supposedly under his care, hed have seen the evidence of abuse: the bruises where elderly women had been roughed up and held down, just because they were difficult. The home was eventually shut down but no thanks to that disgraceful GP, who should hang his head in shame. Then, for many years, I provided cover for a number of nursing homes caring for dementia patients. Care home residents desperately need GPs on their side not just because they have multiple, often complex, medical problems, but because visits by doctors are our best hope of preventing neglect and abuse (file photo) On my rounds, Id stumble across patients with serious physical problems whom the GP hadnt bothered to see. Urinary tract infections, pneumonia and skin infections had gone undiagnosed and untreated. Worrying symptoms of cancer had gone uninvestigated. Now I know that GPs are under pressure, and they only need to have a few nursing homes in their catchment area to face a very heavy burden. But thats not a reason to vote to turn your back on people who depend on you. Its a reason to stand up and shout on behalf of these patients. Its a reason to demand more resources. I think it should be compulsory for every care home resident to be seen by a GP at least monthly. Yes, that will mean there are GPs who do this full-time, and, yes, it will cost money. But the Government has put GPs in charge of NHS budgets, so why cant they prioritise this sort of care now that they hold the purse strings? GPs couldnt turn round and say, ah, were not providing care to a particular ethnic group because they happen to have more health needs. Why is it any different with the elderly? The brutal truth is that GPs feel emboldened to vote for this because they know that the frail and elderly residents of nursing homes arent going to kick up a fuss. They are voiceless and powerless. The doctors wouldnt vote to turn their backs on middle-class mums, would they? They know what a hornets nest theyd stir up. Picking on the vulnerable elderly is as cowardly as it is cruel. Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, made headlines last month with her slightly barmy warning that theres no safe level of alcohol consumption. And this week, she generously revealed how she personally resists temptation. Before deciding to have a glass of wine, Dame Sally always takes a moment to think about breast cancer and how booze slightly increases your risk of it. Which just goes to show there is nothing like a dame when it comes to ruining a party. Dame Sally, red wine or white? Sorry, Im just thinking about cancer Worst. Dinner guest. Ever. WHY THERAPISTS NEED SHRINKS TOO If youre having psychotherapy, a new study suggests theres a 50/50 chance the psychologist you are opening your heart to is as miserable as you are. The research found that half of all NHS psychologists reported being depressed. What a shocking figure. But why? Theres no doubt working in the NHS can be stressful, but theres another deeper reason. Spending your day grappling with other peoples darkest emotional problems is astonishingly gruelling. However strong your own mental defences, you get destabilised. Your patients pain can become your pain, too. When I first started working in mental health, it was routine for staff to be offered psychotherapy either individually or in small groups to help them deal with this. It was an opportunity to be upset, sad or angry; or even to laugh at the cruel absurdities this work can sometimes present. You could reflect on how you had interacted with a patient, and perhaps realise what you could do better next time. The benefits for both staff and patients were immense. But it was also very costly, so was one of the first things to be axed when savings had to be made. Of all the cuts in the NHS, this is one you never hear about. But I fear it may prove to have been one of the most short-sighted. Advertisement There's more to life than being happy Are you happy? Take a moment to think about it. Apparently, if youre between 40 and 59, the answers quite likely to be no. According to the Office for National Statistics, those who are middle-aged are the least happy people in the UK. And while I suspect this is true, I do wonder if its quite as dreadful as it sounds. I have every sympathy for the stress experienced by people in middle age as they try to juggle careers, growing children and ageing parents. There are never-ending calls on their time, money and patience. But Ive got a provocative question: is being happy really the most important thing in life, or do we make too much of it? Deep down, most of us realise that pure hedonism the endless pursuit of pleasure is a pretty unsatisfying way of living. What really matters is that our lives give us meaning and a sense of purpose. Imagine that scientists have invented a machine that can be hooked up to your brain to give you every pleasurable experience you want. It can make you think you are doing anything that makes you happy from meeting a friend to watching a wonderful film or drinking a glass of wine. Happy? Was Michelangelo happy while he was painting the Sistine chapel? These feelings are indistinguishable from those youd get in the real world, so you are blissfully unaware that you are actually floating in a tank with electrodes in your brain, like someone in the sci-fi film The Matrix. And you never, ever, encounter pain or trouble or stress. Now, offered the chance to be hooked up to that machine for the rest of your existence, what would you do? Would you choose fantasy or real life? Surely, the vast majority of us would opt for real life, even though this means some discomfort and sadness. This thought-experiment was put forward by the American philosopher Robert Nozick in the Seventies and was an attempt to show there are things other than happiness that give our lives meaning. Was Michelangelo happy when he was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Id hazard a guess that he was probably quite frustrated and angry at times, as well as bored, lonely and tired. Doubtless he had a crick in his neck, too. But he didnt do it to feel happy, did he? It gave his life meaning: it gave him a tremendous sense of purpose and of accomplishment. We may be frazzled and stressed in our 40s and 50s, but, if were lucky, thats because we, too, are tackling some of the biggest and most important challenges of our lives. Terminally ill patients are to be encouraged by an NHS Trust to write their own end-of-life plan instructing doctors, nurses and family about their wishes for their final months, days and hours. The document is based on birth plans that pregnant women commonly draw up with their midwives, and takes the form of a single-page grid detailing the personal wishes of the patient about every aspect of their care. Subsections include: What will be important to me..., How to support me and those I love..., What MUST happen..., and What MUST NOT happen... when the patient has months, weeks, and then just days to live, at the time of their death, and then afterwards. Max Neill, 49, pictured, who suffers from incurable bowel cancer, developed the scheme The scheme was developed by father of four Max Neill, 49, a former community nurse who is suffering from incurable bowel cancer and is endorsed by UK support service Dying Matters, part of the National Council for Palliative Care, and Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice care. Campaigners hope the form will eventually become available online for anyone to download. To create his plan, Neill worked in conjunction with Helen Sanderson Associates who have pioneered similar so-called one-page profiles for social care, education and healthcare organisations. After showing the plan to his palliative care team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, doctors showed interest in making the template widely available, as did staff at St Catherines Hospice, who are also involved in Neills case. Palliative care nurse Sarah Russell, Head of Research and Clinical Innovation at Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice care, said they were looking at ways to roll the service out nationally. We are going to be taking Maxs concept forward and providing information to health service providers throughout Britain about how to offer this as an option. She explained: The idea [behind one-page profiles] is to help remind healthcare professionals that patient are also people. It also encourages conversations with family members, which is just as important. The 'wish list' that allows terminally ill patients to detail their wishes for their final months Neill, who lives in Preston with his wife Lorraine, 50, an occupational therapist, has blogged about his condition and approached his palliative care team with the end-of-life plan concept last year. He said: We had a similar plan when our son Isaac, who is now 21, was born. Lorraine had a home birth. I thought, why not have something similar for end of life care. I wanted to create something simple that could be filled out at home, something different to the bureaucratic living will forms that patients are given in hospital if they do not wish to be resuscitated under certain circumstances. He saw his plan as a move away from programmes like the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway. This was a document drawn up by medical professionals covering medical care in the final days of life, such as pain relief and whether fluid and foods should be given. It was scrapped in 2014 after allegations that patients were placed on the pathway without consent or their friends or familys knowledge. Neill said: When you are terminally ill, your life can become dominated by the medical side of things. There is also a tendency to panic if there is a crisis and do everything possible to extend life, such as emergency surgery that might only extend life by a few days. My end-of-life plan states that I do not wish for this to happen. I want to die at home. Id like have a glass of red wine to sip, if I can. St Catherine's Hospice, pictured, in Lancashire, is involved in caring for Mr Neill after his cancer diagnosis 'I want the people I love around me, and Lorraine to be able to make important decisions for me if I cant. And I dont want to be in pain. 'These are the things that are important to me, but it will be different for someone else. You can keep adding to and changing the plan, so its entirely flexible and its not legally binding. Neill was diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2014 and had surgery then chemotherapy, but six months later the cancer had spread throughout his body. This plan will give both the professionals involved in my care and my family help in giving me what I need. I want to make something thats very difficult slightly easier for everyone, he said. Dr Claire Capewell, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: When Max shared his concept with me, I thought it was fantastic. 'Its not easy to have discussions about end of life plans but we know that having them increases the likelihood of the wishes being known and respected. Maxs plan is a beautiful example of putting on paper what is important to him and his family and how they can be supported. I have felt inspired by Maxs plan to look at my current practices to see how his ideas can be developed to benefit others. A hip implant made from the same tough plastic used in high-voltage cable insulation is offering an alternative to patients who might be allergic to traditional metal versions. The new material will be used in hip resurfacing procedures, where bone damaged by arthritis is capped rather than fully replaced. Known as Polymotion Hip Resurfacing, this new procedure uses a 3mm-thick cup made with a material known as cross-linked polyethylene, one of the toughest plastics in existence. The new polythene hip implant, pictured, is capped over the bone, which grafts on to a 3mm plastic cup It is commonly used in industrial settings because it is abrasion-resistant and does not melt. It is also thought that used as an implant it will not cause any allergic response. Traditional metal-on-metal hip resurfacing uses cobalt chromium alloy, explains Mr Derek McMinn, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at BMI Edgbaston Hospital in Birmingham, who developed the new procedure. Metal reactions vary in severity, but in the worst cases can lead to necrosis [death] of surrounding hip muscle and permanent disability for the patient, he said. Another benefit of the capping procedure is that less bone is removed, in contrast to total hip replacements when the femoral head (ball joint of the hip) is replaced by a stemmed device and very little of the upper leg bone is retained. Replacement hip joints can also wear out in more active patients. During the two-hour resurfacing procedure, the ball and socket of the hip joint are separated. Worn bone and cartilage is then trimmed from the surfaces of the thigh bone and hip socket. The socket is lined with the anti-allergenic polyethylene cup. The ball of the thigh bone is capped with smooth titanium metal covering, which also does not cause allergic reactions, and then placed back into the socket. Since polyethylene does not bond with bone, a layer of porous titanium is applied to cover the surface of the cup that comes into contact with the bone. This encourages the socket bone to grow into the titanium to ensure the cup is welded to the skeleton. According to Mr McMinn, Polymotion Hip Resurfacing will be especially helpful to women. He says: Not only do they tend to suffer more metal allergy, they also have a higher incidence of a condition known as developmental dysplasia of the hips. Elaine Williams, pictured, had the operation last year after enduring two years of pain in her right hip He added that more women also have shallow sockets, and this makes it a challenge to accurately position a cup in a resurfacing operation. In general, with metal-on-metal procedures, if a cup isnt positioned properly it can cause increased wear of the components, leading to a reaction as particles leach into the blood stream. With the polymotion method, because the inside surface of the cup is made of polyethylene, this risk is reduced. Three patients have already undergone the new procedure. One of them, 54-year-old ballet teacher Elaine Williams had the operation in July after enduring two years of pain in her right hip. Mrs Williams discovered, after taking a blood test, that she was sensitive to chromium, a major constituent of metal-on-metal hip components. I began suffering with hip pain about two years ago which gradually got worse, she said. I started doing research and realised that I may well have a worn-out hip. Being in my early 50s and fit, I felt far too young for a total hip replacement. Elaine had surgery with Mr McMinn at the BMI Edgbaston Hospital as a private patient. The cost is about 13,000. The procedure could eventually be available on the NHS. She added: When I stood on the hip the day after the operation the hip joint pain had gone but the muscles were very painful. No salad as a meal barks the first line of the menu at Brasserie Lipp, that doughty Parisian Grande-Dame. Its an admirable, if tetchy, philosophy, and a stark warning that this old Alsatian eating house is no place for devotees of the body beautiful. Of course it isnt. The tucker of Alsace is famously broad and belly-sticking, just as the waiters at Lipp are legendarily rude. Not just the usual sweat-scented grincheux of your old-school table-hopper. But Premier Cru, slow-simmered Gallic disdain. Bellanger, just off Islington Green in London, seems to have been born fully formed, despite being open for just over a month (pictured: escargots) The food is no match for the decor, although the choucroute garnie is decent enough. And the oeuf en gelee pas mal. But Lipp is one of the worlds oldest brasseries (originally places that brewed their own beer), blessed with true Belle Epoque beauty. Like so many others, it was opened by Alsatian refugees who didnt fancy the prospect of German rule. So fled to France to set up shop. Where they plied the manifestly meaty charms of Alsatian tucker, that porkily ham-fisted love child of a torrid French/German tryst. And its the food of this region, and the decor of those great Parisian brasseries, that inspired Bellanger, the new opening from those legends of London eating, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King. People often ask why theyre so venerated by those of us who care about these sorts of things. The choucroute juggles the sharp and salty with ease, leaving juices that just beg to be slurped The reason is simple absolute control, over every aspect, and sheer hard graft. Theyre old-school restaurateurs, a sort of largely benign dictatorship (well, benign if things are running as they should), where the comfort of the customer is all. Bellanger, just off Islington Green, seems to have been born fully formed, despite being open for just over a month. Subdued, civilised and quietly confident, the room wears its flattering mirrors and old-world wood with elegant aplomb. It feels soothing, but never soporific, a gilded bubble in which the hubbub of north London seems many decades away. As ever with Corbin and King, detail is everything the green-stemmed glasses; the butter, splendidly rich, with its own tiny circle of Bellanger-branded wax paper; the pretty pot of grain mustard on every table. Every mouthful is gloriously light and nimble, yet the flavours sing with the deepest of Teutonic growls. Magnifique (pictured: tarte lalsacienne) Service is slick, but never pushy, smiling without being smug. If this were a car (and the Societe des Automobiles Bellanger Freres was a French car manufacturer) it would, to paraphrase Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, corner on rails. But details mean little if the food is a dud. And its not. Hell no. Tarte flambee is sublime, with joyous pastry, thin as a silken handkerchief, smeared with a smidgen of creme fraiche and topped with smoky lardons and sexily soft onions. Every mouthful is gloriously light and nimble, yet the flavours sing with the deepest of Teutonic growls. Magnifique. Gratin de ravioles du Royans, from Dauphine, down south, are plump pasta pillows stuffed with spinach, herbs and oozing white cheese. Then covered in more cheese, lashings of cream, and blasted under the grill. The result? Exactly what youd expect, lushly lactic and filthily rich. A half dozen of these, and I reckon I could ascend Everest. Naked. Classic winter stodge, all in the best possible taste. Croque Monsieur, the bread golden and ravished with butter, the filling lavishly oozing, sits up there with the crustless beauties at Harrys Bar in Venice. Bellanger is not a place for pious parsimony, rather a room made for eating, drinking, gossiping and lingering long into the afternoon. Like all proper brasseries, its open all day Choucroute a lAlsacienne is the usual orgy of pig and cabbage, but here its somehow more refined, without losing any of its mighty charm charred salt pork is soft and gentle; frankfurters are blessed with smoke and snap; garlic sausage has subtle depth; while ham hock falls apart into lusty shards. As for the choucroute itself, it juggles the sharp and salty with ease, leaving juices that just beg to be slurped. Bellanger 9 Islington Green, London N1 2XH. Tel: 020 7226 2555, bellanger.co.uk Advertisement Chicken schnitzel is the sort of dish every self-respecting chicken breast wants to be when it grows up, a light, crunchy, burnished crust concealing chicken fecund with juice. And none of that strange gravy that comes with the same dish at The Wolseley. This is a very good thing. By now, were moving from comfort to discomfort, as theres only so much winter ballast a man can take. However fine it is. But were talked into Crepes Suzette that, are, well, textbook Suzettes. Melting ice cream, bitter orange, boozy sauce and floppy pancakes. Lots of them, too. Then a couple of glasses of something strong and clear. For strictly medicinal purposes, of course, and a bottle of tip-top Riesling from a tip-top sommelier. Today, we feast like fat Alsatian brewers, but you could just as easily drop in for a beer and roast chicken salad for around a tenner. Bellanger, though, is not a place for pious parsimony, rather a room made for eating, drinking, gossiping and lingering long into the afternoon. Like all proper brasseries, its open all day. In terms of food alone, I think this is my favourite Corbin and King yet. It doesnt yet have the brilliant, heady bustle of The Wolseley, nor the twilight charms of The Colony. But this is a cracker, no doubt about it. A grown up (but resolutely local) restaurant, with the thickest of Alsatian accents. Better still, not a lippy waiter in sight. Lunch for two, minus drinks: 50 FIVE MORE TO TRY Regional French cuisine in the UK LE FLAMMA BATH leflamma.co.uk Eleven different tartes flambees at this excellent Alsatian restaurant in Bath. Plus good charcuterie and an excellent shop. LA PETITE MAISON LONDON lpmlondon.co.uk Food from the sunkissed south. Youll find excellent tapenade, salad nicoise, dauraude au citron and a rather incredible roast chicken. Prices are high but standards very reliable. LA GARRIGUE EDINBURGH lagarrigue.co.uk Hearty, rustic tucker from the Languedoc. So snail and duck gizzard casserole, stuffed rabbit, good fresh fish and proper Roquefort BAR BOULUD LONDON barboulud.com OK, so the great Daniel Bouluds place is not strictly regional (although that piggy burger is one of the greats) but the wonderful charcuterie, from hams to pages and terrines, reflects his Lyonaisse roots. Endlessly reliable and always a joy. RESTAURANT BOSQUET KENILWORTH Tel: 01926 852463 Resolutely old-school cooking from southwest France. Chef Bernard Lignier is a one-man master, and his fish and meat cooking is every bit as fine as his pastry. Pierre Koffmann is a huge fan and its easy to see why. TASTY READS Eat Right by Nick Barnard (Kyle Books) Floral as a springtime rose with oodles of exotic lychee and Turkish Delight Tomorrow is Chinese New Year welcome to the Year of the Monkey! On my recent trip to Beijing and Shanghai joining the Food is GREAT campaign as the UKs drinks ambassador to China I adored experimenting with the hoard of local flavours, pinning down pairings with international wines. For a general steer, with sweet and sour flavours, off-dry Rieslings from Germany are marvellous, such as Dr L Slate Grey Riesling 2014 (10.5 per cent) for 9.99 in Waitrose. With spicy Szechuan dishes, Pinot Gris wines from Alsace make scrumptious pairings thanks to their plump texture and soft mellow fragrance. Im delighted to have found a gem to recommend this week from Stopham Estate. For recipes laden with ginger, Torrontes or Gewurztraminer are both floral whites that fit the bill, but with more subtle seafood Japanese Koshu is ideal. Dim Sum is great with fizz and here you could dive into an English bottle such as Furleigh Estates fizz from Dorset or, for a value option, a quality Spanish Cava such as the example Ive singled out below from The Wine Society. As for reds, with duck Pinot Noir can work. For a good value option, try Aldi Estevez Pinot Noir 2014 (13.5 per cent) at 4.99 imagine a strawberry and a cherry locked in a staring contest. WHERE I'VE SIPPED RECENTLY Chewton Glen, Hampshire 50th anniversary celebrations with Chris Evans, Mary Berry and the worlds greatest chefs sipping Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Advertisement But its actually white Gewurztraminer thats the bullseye for Peking duck, with highly aromatic lychee and Turkish Delight fruitiness to embrace that plum sauce. For further choices of red Id avoid anything too heavy or aged aim instead for a youthful Spanish Garnacha, aka Grenache, or try Argentinas Bonarda, aka Douce Noir, a grape that yields svelte fruity wines that manage to be full of flavour without being too heavy spot on for those sticky rib moments. Heres to the Monkey and a Happy Chinese New Year to one and all! Yadav Singh, former chief engineer of Noida, is now in the custody of the CBI The alleged rip-offs by Yadav Singh, former chief engineer of Noida, continued unabated in Uttar Pradesh irrespective of the government in power. Singh had a free run since 2008 when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was in power and it continued till 2014, even as the Samajwadi Party (SP) formed the government. The tainted official continued to receive kickbacks worth crores for awarding construction contracts. Singh handed out contracts worth Rs 3,500 crore between 2008 and 2014, including a whopping 1,280 contracts worth Rs 950 crore within eight days of being let off by the court in April 2014, as the UP Police failed to press charges against him. After arresting Singh on February 3, the CBI is now probing his political and other high-profile links. Sources said he is being grilled about his well-established network and whether he enjoyed the patronage of higher-ups. His possible nexus with politicians and bureaucrats is also being probed, sources said. Defence lawyer Amit Khemka questioned the CBIs decision to arrest the former Noida engineer. My client has visited the CBI office in Delhi nearly 30 times to answer their queries. He has not given it a miss even once and was cooperating with the probe agency and providing all relevant documents. Except creating sensation, nothing has been achieved (by his arrest), Khemka said. Singh, now in the custody of the CBI, is alleged to have given contracts to some of the contractors without completing the tender formalities. Raminder Singh, a project manager earlier arrested in connection with the case, revealed to investigators that a 5 per cent commission was taken for every contract. Sources said that based on Raminders disclosure, a rough estimate of the swindle will come close to Rs 200 crore as of now. Raminder has revealed to the CBI that he worked closely with Yadav Singh and would always keep him informed about the contracts and kickbacks. The UP Police had filed an FIR against Yadav Singh within months of Akhilesh Yadav taking over as the chief minister on June 13, 2012, to probe tenders awarded by him in 2011 when BSP chief Mayawati was heading the state. Curiously, a few months later, a closure report was filed on January 3, 2013, by the UP Police that was accepted by the court on April 27, 2014. As the allegations surfaced, Yadav Singh was demoted to the position of project manager, but after the UP Polices closure report was accepted, he once again rose to the position of chief engineer. Singh is facing two separate CBI cases alleging amassing disproportionate assets and high-level corruption in awarding contracts. SP leader Azam Khan's claims prompted a full denial from the BJP Known for making controversial remarks, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Saturday plumbed new depths when he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. While the BJP attacked him, even a Congress spokesperson attached no importance to it saying it cannot be believed. Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors? Khan said. He said that besides Sharif, his mother, his wife, and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Ministers residence when he went there on December 25 last. The BJPs Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to immediately dismiss the minister. If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and brining shame to the nation. I am shocked, he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said: Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said, he said, adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. While the Capitals citizens missed out on the trademark Delhi chill over the winter months, the flip-flop winter seems to have baffled its winged guests as well. Some species of migratory ducks, which used to arrive in their thousands, have trickled down to hundreds. Experts said the arrival of these birds was also delayed, and this is being attributed to the lack of snow in their homelands in Europe and central Asia. Delhi's bird watchers have noticed significant changes in the behaviour of migratory birds this season Some of the migratory birds that did arrive this season, apparently, are ready to leave. Adding to all the confusion, a few birds that breed only in summer are nesting and pairing up in January, a phenomenon usually witnessed in April, say experts. However, it may be too soon to press the climate change alarm, some birders caution, adding that any change in migratory behaviour could have resulted from the disturbed habitats in the city. Dr Sumit Dookia, Assistant Professor at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, says: We have barely seen 250-300 Bar-headed geese at the Najafgarh Lake this fall. Traditionally we would get to see 1,500 plus. They also came in pretty late, only around the last week of November.. Dookia also reported confused behaviour among the birds saying that they were frequently flying out to nearby wetlands of Basai and Sultanpur. When it snows heavily in China and Siberia, they escape to India. However, they need constant warm temperatures to stay put. We assume that since both the geological regions displayed unusual winters this time, significant changes in bird behaviour are visible, he explained. Bar-headed geese have been spotted in smaller numbers at Najafgarh Lake, and also arrived later than usual Bird watcher Wing Commander Vijay Sethi noted a surprising find of Ruffs already gathering in thousands at the Dhanauri Kalan wetland in Greater Noida, a sign that they are about to leave. Otherwise, they stay scattered across the waters, he said. JNU zoologist Dr Surya Prakash echoed this view. We have, indeed, seen lesser number of the winter bird Red-crested pochard at the Yamuna Jagatpur Khadar Prakash told Mail Today. On the other hand, some summer birds like the Indian Courser, a local migrant, can already be spotted at the Sultanpur flats. Coppersmith Barbets, which otherwise mate in April, can already be heard making courtship calls at the JNU campus, Bhati mines etc. The case of the Common Hawk Cuckoo is also the same, he added. Faiyaz A Khudsar, scientist in charge at Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP), however, has different views. He said: A few species may be up or down in number, but the usual bird diversity is visible. We have had a large number of Garganeys and Common Teals at YBP. This goes against any argument of weather-related change in bird behaviour. Also, this is a subject of phenology which is studied over at least 30-50 years and cannot be analysed over only a years observation. Another avid birder KB Singh attributed altered bird activity to troubled bird habitats in the city. A 72-year-old principal and director of a Gurgaon-based private school, Aarsa Public School, in Ashok Vihar, was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for allegedly attempting to rape a 9-year-old girl on Saturday. The shocking allegations came to light after the victim refused to go school on Saturday. When her mother asked her the reason behind her refusal, the minor narrated her ordeal. The principal of Aarsa Public School is accused of attempting to rape a Class 2 student in his office (Picture for representation only.) As per the complaint registered in the sector 5 police station by the victims mother, the accused had called the Class 2 student to his office after the lunch hours to commit the crime. My daughter was scared after this incident. She does not want to go school. The principal called her inside his office while he was alone and committed the crime. The accused left her in his office after committing the crime over fear of being getting caught red-handed as my daughter cried after the incident, the victims mother said. We have arrested the accused, Ram Gopal, a retired Air Force personnel, and we are investigating the matter, said Hawa Singh, the PRO of Gurgaon police. Meanwhile, a 44-year-old tantrik (occultist), who allegedly raped a woman and duped her of Rs 35,000 on the pretext of solving her problems has been arrested, police said on Saturday. The accused has been identified as Sanjay Kumar, a resident of southeast Delhi's Ambedkar Nagar area. He is married and has four children, DCP (Central) Parmaditya said. According to the police, the complainant in the case is a resident of central Delhi who had assorted problems, including not having a good relationship with her husband, for which she approached the tantrik. The tantrik allegedly took advantage of her vulnerability and persuaded her into conducting a ceremony which he claimed required the burning of an intoxicating substance. During the ceremony, the woman fainted and when she regained her consciousness, she realised that she had been raped. The tantrik had also charged her Rs 35,000 for the ceremony, claiming that it was the solution to all her problems in life. Based on a tip-off, police laid a trap in Ambedkar Nagar and Sanjay Kumar was arrested on Friday. What a pigs ear this Government is making of our pensions. Heaping mess upon mess. Already waiting in the wings for committed savers is a cutback in the amount they can save before the taxman comes knocking on their door for a slice of the action the so-called lifetime allowance, which is being reduced by 20 per cent to 1 million from the start of the new tax year in April. There is also a looming reduction in the amount additional rate taxpayers can contribute towards a pension. In some instances, this will come crashing down from 40,000 to 10,000 a year. All this horribleness is happening irrespective of what changes (reductions) the Chancellor of the Exchequer makes to the tax relief that savers currently enjoy on pension contributions. Details of this bombshell will be revealed next month when George Osborne delivers his spring Budget. Tin hats at the ready, a la Dads Army, I would say. 'We're doomed': Did Dad's Army stalwart Private Frazer (pictured left) foresee George Osborne's plans? In light of this bad news, it is not surprising to learn that the Governments ongoing assault on pensions is already having an adverse impact on the propensity of people to save and build funds for the time when they work no more. Is that really what the Government wants? More of us saving less, more of us becoming a burden on the State? If so, its a crazy policy. A report on key pension trends issued in the past few days by the Association of Consulting Actuaries makes for depressing reading. If you care to read the report, please dont do so just before you go to bed because it is guaranteed to give you nightmares (I did and woke up at 3am in a cold sweat, convinced Osborne was in my bedroom wielding an axe). The report confirms that nearly one in three companies has witnessed employees on higher incomes leave their schemes because of the reduction in tax relief and the complexities of the pensions regime. According to the association, constant chipping away of tax relief undermines faith in the [pensions] system and erodes the belief that saving for old age is appropriate. There is plenty more in the report that will get you reaching for the valium. For example, one in five employers running defined benefit pension schemes open to future accrual, plans to pull up the drawbridge in the new tax year. Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, defined benefit schemes in the private sector are going the same way as the dodo. Shortly, they will remain the exclusive domain of public sector workers, including those who serve us and ultimately determine pensions policy in this country. I am referring, of course, to MPs. Shameful, to add to the shambolic state of pension affairs we currently find ourselves in through no fault of our own. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ One other acerbic view on pensions (that Osborne nightmare has left me in a bad pensions mood). To deflect its spiteful attack on pension savers, the Government prattles on about the wonders of auto-enrolment. A project designed to ensure more of us in work contribute to a pension. Only a week ago, Baroness Altmann, Minister for Pensions, was waxing lyrical about the fact that 5.8 million workers have been auto-enrolled into a workplace pension. By the time all companies have fulfilled their duties, this figure will leap to nine million. Fine and dandy, but lets not go overboard about the wonder of auto-enrolment. For many it will make little difference. The ACA says as much in its report, indicating that many employees are paying the bare minimum less than one per cent of total earnings into their pension. Employers are topping up by the same meagre amount. One of the reasons why many workers will have no chance of building a half-decent retirement fund is because of the rules governing how contributions are calculated under auto-enrolment. They are based on earnings between 5,824 and 42,385. These lower and upper limits should be scrapped with contributions calculated on an employees full salary. Only then can Ministers talk about auto-enrolment making a real difference. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Experts at uSwitch tell me there are 39 energy deals cheaper than the one that charity Age UK has recently been urging pensioners to sign up to (the Age UK Fixed 2 Year v6 tariff, with energy supplied by E.on) in the interests of filling its own coffers. Small firms across Britain are tearing their hair out as they are forced this year to offer all their staff a pension. The topic of auto-enrolment may seem soporific, but right now it is keeping tens of thousands of bosses awake at night. As my colleague Jeff Prestridge writes this week pension savers are facing a squeeze from the Chancellor. Small company bosses are having to tackle a pensions minefield for their staff too as they are required this year to set up pensions for their employees. One director at a small family firm I spoke to last week is utterly exasperated. Her business employs less than a dozen staff some part-time, some on variable hours and the work involved in getting the pension issue right is taking up hours of management time. Hours that most small or medium-sized company bosses simply do not have. I am terrified of getting it wrong, she declared. In the firing line: George Osborne urgently needs to think long and hard about how in this Budget he can show our small and medium-sized companies that his concern for them is more than just words And thats not surprising. More than 1,000 small firms have already been hit with fines for missing their auto-enrolment deadlines. The scale of this should also not be underestimated. In total, about half a million companies will have to set up a pension arrangement for staff this year, in a series of stages. The first of those involves 100,000 firms which have until the end of March to get it sorted seven weeks. The pained small business boss I chatted to is not reluctant to offer staff a pension. In fact, bosses see plenty of value in loyalty and goodwill if they do so they just cannot find the time or support to get it done right and on time.Recognising the problem, the Pensions Regulator has now launched a YouTube video explaining how to do it. But the real nightmares lie in the detail.Working out which staff are eligible; making sure offers are made to those staff; adjusting payroll systems. That is before the company decides whether and how much it would like to initially contribute to staff pensions. Small businesses are often lauded as the workhorses of the economic recovery, but it seems right now that they are being flogged to death. The National Living Wage which is coming in almost simultaneously for some firms is another administrative burden. Then there are business rates on which The Mail on Sunday has campaigned now for several years. As we report this week, the CBI has launched its clearest demand yet for dramatic change in the forthcoming Budget. It may now be too late to save the half million companies facing the auto-enrolment nightmare. Rolls-Royce, Britains premier aircraft engine and defence supplier, is poised to slash its dividend this week the first time the blue chip giant has cut its payout in almost a quarter of a century. The favourite of small investors, and a major contributor to FTSE 100 dividend earnings, will also report that it expects profits to halve this year. The City believes Rolls-Royce is likely to slice its dividend by more than a quarter from 23.1p per share to 16.97p, cutting total payouts to investors by more than 100 million. Some analysts believe it could axe its 435 million dividend entirely before embarking on a fundraising to shore up its balance sheet. Problems: On Friday, chief executive Warren East (pictured) will unveil annual results for 2015 and he will also issue guidance on likely profits in 2016 The Derby-based manufacturer popular with institutional investors such as pension funds has not reduced its payout to shareholders since the slowdown of 1992. It has an advance order book worth 70 billion, but has issued five profit warnings since the start of 2014. On Friday, chief executive Warren East will unveil annual results for 2015 and he will also issue guidance on likely profits in 2016. The City expects profits for last year to amount to 1.3 billion, but the figure for this year is predicted to fall to just 673 million. East, who took over last summer following the departure of John Rishton, is in the process of restructuring the 9.6 billion company. He aims to cut its cost base by 200 million a year by 2017 and has axed nearly 4,000 jobs. Rolls-Royces problems stem from its decision a few years ago to withdraw from supplying the narrow-bodied passenger jet market, which subsequently grew quickly as low-cost airlines flourished. The firm has instead been concentrating on supplying engines for wide-bodied, long-haul aircraft, a market in which it has a 50 per cent share. More of its older engines, which provide income through maintenance contracts, are being taken out of service while Rolls-Royces newer engines have yet to take up the slack. Rolls-Royce supplies the reactors for nuclear submarines and the Government retains a golden share in the company to prevent its acquisition by a foreign firm. It limits foreign investors to a 15 per cent stake. Last year, the Government reportedly drew up contingency plans to take control of Rolls-Royces nuclear reactor operations if its performance weakened further, allowing its aero-engine arm to be sold or for a foreign investor to take a larger stake. Former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester is on course for a final payout from the bailed-out organisation of up to 500,000 more than two years after he left. RBS will also confirm next month that it awarded Hester 1.7 million in shares last March under a previous incentive plan, taking his total pay for five years at the helm to around 13 million. The payouts come despite an expected eighth year of losses at the Edinburgh-based bank and with the taxpayers stake worth less than half the amount the Treasury paid for it. In the money: RBS will also confirm next month that it awarded Stephen Hester 1.7 million in shares last March under a previous incentive plan Hester is the beneficiary of long-term incentive plans put in place before he was ousted as chief executive in June 2013. RBSs last annual report revealed that Hester had received an 859,000 share award under the 2011 long-term incentive plan. The report also said that executives benefiting from the 2012 plan had met enough performance conditions to be awarded almost two-thirds of the maximum number of shares they had been allocated. For Hester that meant picking up 480,000 shares worth 1.7 million. The bank is expected to confirm the payout in this years annual report due next month. He will receive a final allocation of up to 323,000 shares in March as part of the 2013 plan. Indications from last years annual report suggest that executives benefiting from the 2013 plan will get similar allocations to last year meaning Hester will collect 200,000 shares worth 480,000. Hester left the bank in June 2013, after a disagreement with the Chancellor over the banks strategy. His pay was a long-running sore and Hester who now runs insurer RSA gave up a series of bonuses in the face of public anger. He earned an annual salary of 1.6 million at RBS, took one 2 million bonus and picked up 3 million from the long-term pay plans. The banks pay packages are less controversial than they once were. Top executives are not paid bonuses any longer and chief executive Ross McEwan has given share-based allowances awarded to him by the board and approved by shareholders to charity. The banks bonus pool this year is nevertheless expected to run into hundreds of millions of pounds. Both the bank and Hester declined to comment. Meanwhile, RBS is facing a fresh legal attack in the Far East from Taiwanese shipping magnate Hsin Chi Su widely known as Nobu Su. Su, whose TMT shipping group was a customer of RBS in the years leading up to the crisis, filed a claim last week in the Singaporean High Court alleging that RBS temporarily transferred more than $400 million (276 million) from his company to an account in New York without his permission. Su claims the move was carried out so RBS could use the money as collateral to help access low-cost loans from the New York Federal Reserve. His multi-billion dollar business came close to collapse during the financial crisis. The Oregon occupier who died last month during a confrontation with FBI agents and state police officers was hailed as a hero during his funeral at a Mormon church. The ceremony for Robert LaVoy Finicum, 54, attracted hundreds of supporters from across the country to Kanab, Utah, on Friday. 'My dad was murdered defending the liberties so that we may be free of bondage,' his daughter Brittney Beck said. Finicum's death has become a symbol for those decrying federal oversight on public lands in the West and elsewhere, and has led to protests of what they call an unnecessary use of force. But authorities say the 54-year-old was reaching for a gun during the confrontation. Scroll down for video Dozens of riders on horseback paraded as people lined the streets after the funeral of Robert Lavoy Finicum, 54, who was shot dead during a confrontation with FBI agents and state police officers last month Finicum's funeral took place inside a Mormon church in Kanab, Utah, as hundreds of people traveled across the country to show their support on Friday Greg Whalen, of Las Vegas, carried a sign in favor of the first amendment outside the church in Kanab. Finicum's death has become a symbol against federal oversight on public lands Finicum's supporters have said his death was the result of an unnecessary use of force, but authorities say the 54-year-old was reaching for a gun during the confrontation At the funeral, Finicum's family invoked their faith and quoted scripture as they described him as a man of conviction and courage. One of his daughters, Thara Thenney, said her father was 'defiled, mocked and eventually slain'. 'He had never, not once, abandoned his trust in the Lord,' she said. A man in the crowd shouted out 'murder.' Outside, trucks with American flags filled the parking lot. One had a flier with a picture of Finicum and the words 'Murdered by the FBI.' 'He's a hero to me, honest. His heart is for everybody,' said former occupier Ben Matthews of Port Huron, Michigan. Ammon Bundy's father, Cliven, a Nevada rancher who was at the center of a 2014 armed standoff with federal authorities over grazing rights on government land, also attended the ceremony. The day's events were billed as 'LaVoy Finicum's Stand for Freedom.' After the funeral, people lined the streets as dozens of riders on horseback paraded past, following a riderless horse. Finicum (left) was among a group of occupiers who seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge demanding that the government change federal land policies. His daughter Brittney Beck (right with Finicum's wife Jeanette) said during his funeral: 'My dad was murdered defending the liberties so that we may be free of bondage' People lined the road as horseback riders paraded after Finicum's funeral. 'He's a hero to me, honest. His heart is for everybody,' said former occupier Ben Matthews of Port Huron, Michigan Some of Finicum's followers have called his death an ambush. A man in the crowd shouted out 'murder' during the ceremony inside a Mormon church Cars jammed the back road after Finicum's funeral as hundreds of people traveled to express their support. Vehicles also filled the parking lot Cliven Bundy (pictured), Ammon Bundy's father, attended the funeral in Kanab. He was at the center of a 2014 armed standoff with federal authorities over grazing rights on government land Local law enforcement agencies asked the FBI and other federal agents to stay away due to the crow's anti-government sentiment. Sheriff's officials and the Utah Highway Patrol were in charge of security. Only three of the 16 Bundy followers charged with felony conspiracy have been allowed to leave jail ahead of trial. They include Shawna Cox, who was in Finicum's truck when he was shot. A federal judge in Portland allowed Cox to attend the funeral in her hometown but ordered her not to discuss the standoff, just hours before the ceremony. The funeral was held inside a Mormon church, but national leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denounced the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last month. They said they were 'deeply troubled' by reports the occupiers were using their principles to justify it. Ammon Bundy, a Mormon and the main leader of the refuge occupation, has said he was following divine orders when he and his followers seized the refuge in January. Bundy demanded the government change federal land policies and free two ranchers imprisoned for setting fires. He is among 12 people in custody for their involvement in the ongoing occupation outside Burns, Oregon. Bundy and four others were arrested during the confrontation that left Finicum dead last month. Federal prosecutors say Bundy's group brandished firearms to keep officials from carrying out their duties, threatened violence and intimidated locals. Four occupiers remain holed up at the refuge, refusing to leave without assurances they won't be arrested. They are among 16 people named in a federal grand jury indictment. Cars and trucks bearing messages of support parked all around the church. Ben Matthews (pictured), of Port Huron, Michigan, said he met Finicum during a takeover of federal land in Oregon Kim Hake (left) went to Finicum's funeral with her grandson Jeremiah Cruz (right). Finicum, a ranger from Arizona, acted as a spokesman for the occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon The head of security for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy stood guard outside the Mormon church where Bundy attended Finicum's funeral Finicum's wife Jeanette (center) stood behind his casket as it left the church. National leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denounced the armed takeover of the Oregon refuge and said they were 'deeply troubled' by reports the occupiers were using their principles to justify it Local law enforcement agencies asked the FBI and other federal agents to stay away due to the crow's anti-government sentiment. Sheriff's officials and the Utah Highway Patrol were in charge of security during the funeral Nicole Lovell (pictured), 13, was murdered in North Carolina after she disappeared from her home on January 27 The woman accused of plotting to kill a 13-year-old girl in North Carolina said that she was bullied like the victim. Natalie Keepers told a judge in court Thursday that like seventh-grader Nicole Lovell, the 19-year-old Virginia Tech student had endured health challenges, though Keepers' were of the emotional variety: suicidal thoughts, cutting herself, stress and anxiety that required medication. The similarities emerged in a Blacksburg courtroom as Keepers and her lawyer argued that she should be released on bail while she awaits trial for allegedly helping plan Lovell's slaying and then improperly dumping her body just across the state line in North Carolina, two hours south of Virginia Tech's campus, where she was a student. Bond was denied. Keepers' classmate, 18-year-old David Eisenhauer, is charged with kidnapping and killing Lovell, who survived a liver transplant and other health scares only to have her life ended after apparently climbing out her bedroom window last week. Eisenhauer also is being held without bond. According to ABC News, a source close the investigation said that Eisenhauer had an 'inappropriate relationship' with Lovell. In court, Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettitt described how authorities believe Eisenhauer and Keepers planned Lovell's stabbing death but left key aspects of the crime a mystery. She did not suggest a possible motive nor describe the killing itself. But the prosecutor said messages on the girl's phone led to the suspects and accused the college students of deciding together in a fast-food restaurant that Eisenhauer would cut her throat. Defense lawyers argued that Keepers' mental health could unravel behind bars. 'We understand the allegations are disturbing and serious,' attorney Kristopher Olin said. 'But they are just allegations.' Scroll down for video Prosecutors say David Eisenhauer, 18 (left), and Natalie Keepers, 19 (right), carefully planned the murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, buying cleaning supplies and a shovel at separate Wal-Mart stores to hide the girl's body David Eisenhauer is being jailed without bond on charges of kidnapping and fatally stabbing Lovell. He is a freshman engineering student and distance runner at Virginia Tech Overwhelmed: Tammy Weeks, mother of murdered Virginia teen Nicole Lovell, broke down in tears during a Tuesday afternoon press conference Keepers told the judge that she began cutting her body and had considered suicide 'a few times' after being bullied in school five years ago. She said she's been in therapy and taking Prozac since then. She's also allergic to the gluten in jail food, Olin added. Judge Robert Viars Jr. decided Keepers should remain behind bars after Pettitt said she 'is in the same position as the person who carried out the murder.' This undated photo shows Nicole Lovell, posing when she was 10 in Blacksburg, Virgina. She was found dead just across the state line in Surry County, North Carolina The prosecutor said Eisenhauer initially denied his involvement when police found his messages on Nicole's phone, but eventually he said he drove to the girl's home, watched her climb out her window and greeted her with a 'side hug' before they drove off to pick up Keepers. Keepers insists she was not present at the killing itself but she went along for the ride, Pettitt said. And once Nicole was dead, Keepers helped load her body into Eisenhauer's Lexus, the prosecutor added. Pettitt said Keepers revealed the plot after officers tracked her down but that she first tried to warn Eisenhauer, sending him a one-word text message reading 'Police.' Nicole's parents, David Lovell and Tammy Weeks, attended the bail hearing but made no comments before leaving for their daughter's private funeral, where several hundred mourners paid their respects. Friends and neighbors have described Nicole as a lovely if awkward girl, clinging to childhood ways while exploring older behaviors. A neighbor said she told 8-year-old friends before she vanished that she planned to sneak out to meet her 18-year-old 'boyfriend,' a man she said was named David, whose picture she displayed on her phone. Authorities have not confirmed that this was Eisenhauer's photo. A 911 call on January 27 alerted police that Nicole was missing, Pettitt said. Weeks discovered that the door to her daughter's bedroom had been barricaded, and that her phone and her 'Minions' blanket also were gone. An examination of emails and social media showed that Eisenhauer and Nicole last made contact at 12.39 that morning, shortly before she disappeared, the prosecutor said. Police officers could be seen in attendance as friends and family left the funeral home after Lovell's service on Thursday in Virginia Mourners leave a funeral home after attending the funeral for Lovell in Blacksburg, Virgina, Thursday Like others her age, Nicole was tech savvy, posting on Facebook and chatting using the Kik messenger app. Unlike other young teens, she had to take daily medicine to keep her transplanted liver from failing and endured bullying over a disfiguring tracheotomy scar in her neck, a reminder of the months she spent in a coma. Keepers told the judge that she has problems, too. Shackled, handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit, she said she's not getting her full dosage of anti-anxiety medicine in jail. 'I've learned how to love myself and to take care of myself and deal with any stress that I have,' Keepers said, describing how she had promised a friend that if she stopped cutting herself, she would get a tattoo of a semicolon, representing that her life was not ending, but taking a new path. Above David Eisenhauer runs in the Baltimore area. ABC News reported that a source close with the investigation said Eisenhauer had an 'inappropriate relationship with the victim' Her father, Tim Keepers, said he and his wife, Sara, first heard of Eisenhauer in October. He said the young man had 'dropped everything' last year to rush their daughter to a hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Eisenhauer and Keepers went to high schools five miles apart in Columbia, Maryland. Excelling in the classroom and on the track, Eisenhauer was focused on competing with top college runners while pursuing a career as an engineer. Keepers, for her part, displayed a packed resume on her LinkedIn profile, including a summer internship with NASA, where she made how-to videos for engineers. Her father choked up in court Thursday when he said she had planned to follow his footsteps into aerospace engineering. Angry Facebook users have slammed South Australian police for victim blaming after the force posted a warning to festival-goers to limit their alcohol intake so they don't get sexually assaulted. The post was directed at people intending to go to the St Jerome's Laneway Festival in Port Adelaide, a suburb of the state capital and came after police found 800 ecstasy tablets they believed were destined for the party. The Facebook post included the warning that 'public excessive drinking can lead to someone becoming a victim of serious assault, including sex offences'. St Jerome's Laneway Festival is on its first leg in Harts Mill, Port Adelaide, South Australia Users criticised the police for 'victim blaming' and called on them to apologise for the post. 'Drinking excessively leads to sexual assault? Ummm SAPOL I would argue that rapists cause sexual assault, not drinking', one user wrote on the police page. The SA Police News Facebook post which garnered criticism over its alleged victim blaming The 800 ecstasy pills believed to be intended for the Festival which led to the arrest of two men 'A human being choosing to sexually assault someone is what leads to sexual assault. The amount of drinks that the victim consumed is entirely irrelevant. It seems like a pretty simple concept, yet it hasn't quite sunk in yet,' the user said. Another follower said the police should apologise as it is never the victim's fault in any case of sexual assault whether or not they have been drinking. 'It's attitudes like this that discourage women from reporting rape and make us mistrust police to handle incidences of sexual assault. I think if you really want to be a constructive part of the conversation an apology is due #victimblaming.' Users accused the police of becoming part of the rape culture problem and perpetuating victim blaming The criticisms continued to flow: 'Very disappointed to see this point of view from the SA Police Media Team. By placing the ultimate responsibility on potential victims of sexual assault rather than the perpetrators you are perpetuating the stigma that people acting a certain way caused there own assault rather than being just being a victim. This is extremely irresponsible and outdated thinking! You could have just warned of personal health and injury risks of excessive drinking. Poor form SA Police,' another follower said. The SA Police News page also deleted comments that condemned the victim blaming, according to one user. 'Why is SAPOL deleting comments pointing out that this quote is victim blaming?' Police warning: 'public excessive drinking can lead to someone becoming a victim of serious assault, including sex offences' Two men, aged 18 and 19 from Flinders Park, were arrested over the ecstasy bust by Western Adelaide Operation Mantle last night following a search of properties at Kidman Park and Flinders Park. Both were charged with trafficking in a controlled drug, were granted bail and will appear in Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on February 23. Laneway Festival attracts thousands of music aficionados each year, showcasing new and leading seminal music in unique settings. Two men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested and charged with trafficking in a controlled drug Angry followers were quick to condemn the poor choice of words used by the police Instead of editing the post or apologising, the page admin was allegedly deleting the comments 'Rapists cause sexual assault, not drinking', a social media user said A New York man who said a sleeping aid caused him to sleepwalk and fatally strangle his girlfriend has been sentenced to serve between 20 years and life in prison. Rockland County prosecutors say 38-year-old Nixon Bourguignon was sentenced Friday on a murder charge in connection with the death of Shannon Coleman, the mother of his child. Authorities say Coleman, 29, was killed inside her home in Garnerville in May 2014. 'I am sorry that I took her away from everybody,' Bourguignon said in court Friday. 'I hate myself. I wish every day I could switch places with Shannon. I love Shannon very much.' Justice: Nixon Bourguignon, 38, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering his girlfriend, Shannon Coleman, in May 2014. He said that a sleeping aid caused him to sleepwalk and fatally strangle her Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe says Bourguignon killed Coleman after she broke off their relationship. Bourguignon's attorney had argued at his trial the sleeping aid Ambien caused him to become violent and he didn't remember the killing. During his sentencing, two of the victim's siblings spoke and shared how difficult the situation is for her two children, including the son she had with Bourguignon, The Journal News reported. 'She had the ability to light up a room with her presence,' Lamar Taylor, Shannon's brother, said in court. 'We've been in disarray with the loss of Shannon. It's very difficult to speak to her children, who ask questions about their mother.' Her siblings said that her children wish they could go back in time to be with their loving mother. The victim's younger sister, Sophia Coleman, said that Bourguignon became a citizen and obtained a job through the help of his girlfriend. 'Even if you gave him a million years it will never bring her back,' Sophia Coleman told Supreme Court Justice William Kelly. Authorities say Coleman, 29, was killed inside her home in Garnerville in May 2014. Her brother, Lamar Taylor, said in court that 'she had the ability to light up a room with her presence' According to The Journal News, he faced a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 25 years to life for second-degree murder. At the time of Coleman's murder, her children were sleeping nearby in the home. Zugibe said that Bourguignon 'tortured her to death.' 'He didn't just kill her. He totally dominated and controlled her,' Zugibe said. 'He strangled her, stopped, and, when she regained consciousness, he strangled her again. 'She was aware of what he was doing. He committed the ultimate act of domestic violence.' According to The Journal News, Prosecutor Dominic Crispino told the judge that he used such force that he broke a bone in Coleman's neck. The widow of an American missionary said Friday that she believes it is God's plan for her to return to the African country where al-Qaida fighters killed her husband last month, and she has no hesitation about doing so. Amy Riddering told a news conference she will return this month to Burkina Faso and the orphanage, school, clinic and women's center she ran with Michael Riddering, who was killed along with 29 others in the January 15 attack on a hotel and cafe in the capital Ouagadougou. Riddering, 45, was the only American to die in the attack, which targeted Westerners. Burkina Faso, a former French colony, is a majority Muslim country but has a sizeable Christian minority. Scroll down for video Amy Riddering, center, widow of Michael Riddering, an American missionary killed by al-Qaida fighters in Africa last month, says she will return this month to Burkina Faso and the orphanage and women's center she ran with her husband 45-year-old Michael Riddering died along with 29 others Jan. 15 during an attack on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso He was the only American to die in the attack that targeted Westerners in the former French colony's capital 'God did not only call Mike to Burkina Faso, he called me, too,' she told reporters in a chapel at Hollywood Community Church, where a memorial service for her husband is scheduled for Saturday. Speaking in a calm, relaxed and cheerful voice, she said, 'Our following God's call and our work with orphans and widows is the most rewarding thing I can imagine.' According to CBS Miami, she said 'He would be really excited. I could see him saying, "This is great!"' Michael Riddering had run a yacht outfitting company before he and his 49-year-old wife, a graphic designer, sold their possessions in 2011 to move to Burkina Faso, where their facility 70 miles outside the capital houses about 40 children and 70 widows. He was buried in Burkina Faso. Amy Riddering, NBC Miami reported, said: 'Every single time he would say, "I'm going to be buried on African soil, this is where I will be for the rest of my life" so of course that's where he was going to be buried.' Riddering's older brother, Jeff, had been going to Africa for 13 years when he took him to Burkina Faso. Amy Riddering said her husband had often joked that if God wanted him to dig wells in Africa, that's what he would do. During Michael Riddering's visit to Burkina Faso, the missionary seeking someone to run the facility made a passing comment that they had $40,000 to dig wells. Amy Riddering said they took that as a sign from God they were meant to go. During their four years there, the Ridderings opened the medical clinic and the women's center. They became the Burkina Faso charity for a shoe company, passing out 50,000 pairs a year. Jeff and Amy Riddering both said they have no ill feeling toward the people of Burkina Faso. They noted that last month's terrorist attack was the first of its kind in the country and was likely executed by outsiders. The Ridderings' facility in Burkino 70 miles outside the capital houses about 40 children and 70 widows. Michael Riddering was buried in Burkina Faso According to the Sun-Sentinel, Amy Riddering said: 'I never expected what happened to happen. 'It's not Burkina. It's not the people. 'It's from the outside. They are just as horrified and upset as we have been.' The newspaper reported that the Ridderings have two daughters who are in their 20s, and 'adopted two children from Burkina Faso.' Via the Sun-Sentinel, Amy Riddering said of the killers: 'They're misguided people. 'People have asked also what I would have done to those people. 'In reality, no matter how many troops you send, you're not going to make a difference unless the mindsets change. 'Really the only way to do that is more love.' Jeff Riddering called the people of Burkina Faso 'the meekest, gentlest, kindest people on the Earth.' He said his brother had made Muslim friends, who were saddened by his death and angered by the al-Qaida attack. Amy Riddering said she has given no real thought about increasing security at the facility. 'You can walk out your front door and get hit by a car. You can get cancer. In America, we had 9/11. You have to follow God,' she said. The Australian government has banned British families from attending a planned commemoration ceremony in France for troops killed in the bloody Battle of Fromelles. The Department of Veterans' Affairs, which has organised the service for July 19 near the town of Lille, says a lack of space means only Australian and French citizens will be allowed. 'A decision has been made by the Australian Government to prioritise Australians and French in the seated area,' a spokesman for the Department for Veterans Affairs told Daily Mail Australia. Scroll down for video Australia has banned British families from a centenary service at Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery (pictured) 'This is not to diminish the role of other nations but simply a recognition of the Australian focus of the event we are organising.' The service, which will be held at the Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery, marks one of Australia's bloodiest battles. An estimated 5533 Australians were mowed down by machine-gun fire in a disastrous attack on German troops, which started on July 19, 1916, and finished July 20. The campaign, planned by the British military, also led to the deaths of 1547 British soldiers. An estimated 5533 Australian troops were killed in the Battle of Fromelles, one of Australia's bloodies battles Medics attend to a soldier injured during the Battle of Fromelles in 1916 Australia's decision to ban relatives of British soldiers from the ceremony has angered some British families. Michael Bemrose, whose grandfather Fred died at Fromelles, told the The Times that families felt 'totally insulted' at the way they had been treated by Australian authorities. 'Men from both countries fought together and died together but now the Australians want to airbrush the British out of the battle. The Department of Veterans' Affairs says the Fromelles commemoration is not an international service and its decision to 'manage attendance' is not unique. 'The ceremonial focus will be on the Australian role in the battle and on the Australian soldiers lost,' the spokesman said. Some British families are angry that they have been excluded from the Fromelles commemorative service Peter Corlett's 'Cobbers' sculpture is displayed at V.C. Corner Australian Memorial in Fromelles, France The six family members found dead in their home in Chicago have been identified amid confusion over how they were killed. The bodies of Rosaura Hernandez and Noe Martinez, in their 60s, their son Noe Martinez Jr, in his 40s, Maria Herminia Martinez, in her 30s, and her two sons Alexis and Leonardo, aged 13 and 10, were found inside their house on Thursday. Cook County medical examiner's office said all of the deaths were homicides, with five stabbed and the sixth shot. But Chicago Police said they had not ruled out murder-suicide as they confirmed there were no signs of forced entry and the home had not been ransacked. Scroll down for video The six family members found dead in their home in Chicago have been identified. Pictured, victims Leonardo and Alexis Martinez with their mother, Maria Herminia Martinez Medical examiners said all of the deaths were homicides, but police have not ruled out murder-suicide. Pictured: Leonardo with his father, Noe Martinez Jr., grandmother Rosa Martinez and brother Alexis There were no signs of forced entry at their home, which had not been ransacked. Pictured, Noe Martinez Sr in an undated photo on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay funeral expenses Authorities have not officially confirmed their identities, but family members posted their names on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for the costs of sending their bodies to their native Mexico for their funerals. Crosses placed outside the front of the South Side home by loved ones all bore the names of the six dead. Medical examiners said five of the six died from 'sharp force' or 'blunt force' injuries, the Chicago Tribune reported. A middle-aged woman - thought to be Maria Herminia Martinez - died from multiple gunshot wounds, officials said. Police said on Thursday that they had not ruled out the possibility of one of the six dead committing suicide, but the medical examiner said all the deaths were homicides. Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy said on Friday that there was no sign of gunfire inside the home, going against the word of the medical examiner. Noe Martinez Jr, in his 40s, and Maria Herminia Martinez, in her 30s, were among the six dead, family said Mrs Martinez is believed to be the only member of the family shot, while the other five were said to be stabbed Rosaura Hernandez, who was in her 60s, was also found dead inside the home on Thursday morning He said officers were called to the scene by a colleague of one of the family as they had not shown up to work for days. This family member is believed to Noe Martinez Jr, who was a window cleaner at O'Hare Airport. His last post on Facebook on Tuesday morning: 'Very good morning friends. Happy Tuesday.' Cops found the doors locked and saw a body on the floor through a window. One of the police officers sent a radio message from outside the home, saying: 'Roll ambulance this way. We got people passed out. Don't know if they're dead or what. We'll make a forced entry too.' As they smashed their way through the door, he told the dispatcher: 'Send a sarge over here, it's a bloody mess.' Chief Roy said there was no sign that there was no sign of anyone forcing their way into the home before police, adding that the home had not been 'ransacked'. Police said there was no threat to the wider community and are not looking for anyone else, although they are still chasing up leads. The six are believed to have been killed between late Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning, when their dead bodies were discovered. The bodies were taken away for autopsies on Thursday evening. Forensics investigators are still combing the scene. Medical examiners said five of the six family members died from 'sharp force' or 'blunt force' injuries. Pictured, forensics investigators at the scene Police said on Thursday that they had not ruled out the possibility of one of the six dead committing suicide, but the medical examiner said all the deaths were homicides Crime scene: The six are believed to have been killed between late Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning, when their dead bodies were discovered Writing on the fundraising page, a relative of the six dead wrote: 'This has shocked and left their family, relatives and loved ones speechless and heartbroken as the household was nothing but a loving and gentle family that was always quiet. 'In the time of need the family asks for help in both prayers and donations to help send the bodies back to Mexico, where they would've wished to be buried. 'The donations given will help send the bodies to Mexico and help with the funerals and burying ceremonies of all six members. God bless everyone, every little bit helps and is appreciated greatly.' So far nearly $14,000 has been raised, surpassing the $11,000 target. One woman who donated, Tracy Prescott Sammarco, said she worked with Noe Martinez Jr at the airport. 'He was such a kind person,' she wrote. 'He always stopped me to say hello every time he saw me.' The Victoria Park Hotel is a short walk from the bustling Manchester thoroughfare known locally as the 'Curry Mile.' The establishment offers budget accommodation at cheap prices (45 for a single bed). Standards at the hotel reflect the bargain-basement rates. Several ground-floor windows are boarded up. Guests have complained of mould in bathrooms, marks on walls and ceilings, and dirty bed linen. Room 38 is on the first floor. It is also where, just before midday on August 9, 2013, a young girl found herself trapped and about to be subjected to the most degrading and terrifying ordeal imaginable. She was 16, an A-grade student from a middle-class family, who had just completed her GCSEs at a leading private school. How she came to be in Room 38 of this squalid hotel in Rusholme, on the south side of the city, is not important for now. By the time she emerged 30 minutes later, she had been gang raped at least six times by three different men. As ringleader Mowled Omar Yussaf (pictured) was led away from the dock, after being sentenced to ten years for raping a 16-year-old girl, he stuck his middle finger up at parents of the victim The mothers of Yussaf, and his fellow rapists Bilal Ahmed (left) and Muhyadeen Osman (right), showed their support for the trio by attending court The trio, all aged 20, were jailed for a total of 29 years at Manchester Crown Court this week. But six others were present when she was passed around like a piece of meat. They regarded her as 'easy prey,' to quote the judge. Those who did not violate her were spectators. They watched and did nothing to help. The visceral horror of what happened in Room 38 was conveyed in a single harrowing sentence by the victim now 19 and a university undergraduate when the Mail spoke to her exclusively this week. 'I just stayed quiet because I thought they would kill me if I screamed,' she said. There is something else you should know about her attackers. It is this: they were all from Manchester's Somali community. The harrowing events that unfolded in court were also part of a much wider, and seemingly escalating, Somali crimewave taking place in many cities nationwide. This is why the ethnic background of the rapists is central to this bigger picture. Until recently, the culture of political correctness that undermined the investigations into the Asian sex grooming scandals in Rochdale, Rotherham and elsewhere, would have discouraged the reporting of this fact. Mowled Omar Yussaf was the ring leader. As he was led away from the dock to begin his prison term, he stuck his middle finger up at the parents of his victim, not once but twice. It was just one hate-filled example of the gauntlet of intimidation and abuse the couple have faced from the families and friends of the convicted men during the two-week trial. Bilal Ahmed sarcastically blew a kiss at the victim's parents (pictured, her mother) shortly before sentence was delivered That most of the guilty men's entourage, who crowded round the court house steps to declare their support for the rapists, were women in traditional Somali dress was yet another sickening twist. Before passing sentence, the judge told them: 'You just assumed that you each could do with her as you chose . . . there is a lack of acknowledgment that what you did to this girl was wrong. There's no remorse expressed by any of you.' Nor, shockingly, by their own families, who held banners aloft outside the court, proclaiming, 'No Justice For Somalis.' The mothers of Mowled Yussaf, and his fellow rapists Muhyadeen Osman and Bilal Ahmed, and Yussaf's girlfriend showed their support for the trio by attending court. It was, perhaps, one of the most shameful aspects of this story that has devastated not only the life of a young woman but that of her family, who have bravely decided to break their silence to talk exclusively to the Mail this week. The victim in this case, who is white and whom we shall call Sarah, lives in Cheshire with her parents who run a family business and her brother, who, like her now, is at university. Both attended private school. Back in 2013, she did not wear make-up and had never even been to a nightclub. A gifted musician, she had little experience of boys. Reserved is probably the best way to describe her, and she remains so today. But for a twist of fate, Sarah would never have entered the world of Mowled Yussaf and his fellow Somalians. 'I only had a small group of friends at the time and my best girlfriend was going on holiday for a month so I asked her if she knew anyone I could talk to while she was away,' she told the Mail this week. 'I was bored, it was the summer holidays.' Family members of the Somali trio convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl protest outside Manchester Crown Court H er friend was happy to oblige. Soon, Sarah began exchanging free Blackberry messages with a boy who had known her best friend for two years. She trusted him. Why wouldn't she? On August 8, Sarah was contacted by the boy on her BlackBerry. 'Did she want to meet up in Manchester the next day?' he asked. The next day he messaged her to ask if she was on her way, and Sarah, who was going to see another girlfriend in the city for lunch, agreed to see him ('for just a few minutes') en route. Sarah got off at 'Curry Mile' in Rusholme as arranged. The boy was there to meet her. 'We started walking down the road and three of his mates came round the corner,' she said. Mowled Yussaf was among them. He told me his name was Alex. He seemed to be the ringleader. 'They kind of boxed me in, one behind me, one in front, and one to the side. I started to get frightened. I didn't know how old they were, but I knew they were older than me.' Moments later, they arrived on the steps of the seedy Victoria Park Hotel. Yussaf's group had stayed at the hotel the previous night for Eid celebrations, the religious festival which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. 'I felt I had no choice but to go inside,' Sarah said. She was ushered into a room by Yussaf (Alex). 'He asked me for sex but I told him, 'No', I wasn't that type of girl. 'He said he had never been turned down before and I replied, 'Well, you have now.' He was very arrogant, the way he held himself. He just expected to get whatever he asked for.' At that point the manager arrived and ordered the group to leave because they were past their check-out time. Instead, after the manager had gone, Yussaf and his friends began trying handles of other rooms. Eventually, they did find one which was unlocked. It was Room 38. There is no need to elaborate on what happened next. 'They helped themselves' is how Sarah chillingly described what happened in those 30 minutes she was trapped inside. S he said: 'I just closed my eyes I didn't want to look at them. I couldn't look at them. I didn't scream because I thought they might kill me if I did. 'Any one of them could have had a knife. Nobody else knew I was there. I kept thinking they could kill me and nobody would know.' When they had finished with her, they stole her phone and 40 from her purse. Eventually, Sarah managed to gather herself together and walk to nearby Manchester Metropolitan University where a security guard called police. One ordeal had ended, but another was about to begin. A few months later, Sarah's mother was in Manchester when a Somalian man, whom she later recognised as an associate of the rapists, called out to her in the street. 'Curry Mile,' he said, smirking. It was the start of what can only be described a campaign of intimidation that continued until Yussaf, Osman and Ahmed were sent down. At their trial, before Christmas, Sarah's parents, who are both in their late 40s, had to sit, surrounded by the accused men's supporters. They were blocked in court corridors and stared at. Outside, photos were taken. 'I felt we were being goaded all the time, but the police told us not to react,' Sarah's mother told the Mail. As Yussaf passed them in court, he would make threatening comments out of earshot of court officials. 'What are you f****** looking at?', he asked Sarah's father on one occasion, and 'Have you got a problem, mate?' on another. On the day of the demonstration, Sarah's parents were advised to come into court through a rear entrance. Bilal Ahmed sarcastically blew a kiss at the couple shortly before sentence was delivered (he got nine years while Yussaf and Osman each got ten). As they were led away, someone in the public gallery shouted: 'Hope your daughter enjoys the money.' It was an apparent reference to criminal compensation victims of crime are entitled to. 'Can they not understand what my daughter and ourselves have gone through?' Sarah's mother asked, her eyes welling up. 'By supporting them in this way, they are condoning what happened. No wonder so many people are too scared to go to court in rape cases if this is what you have to go through.' Sarah is now receiving counselling. 'I've not told anyone at university what happened to me, she said. 'I was hoping to make a fresh start but I feel like I can't leave it behind. I keep trying to put it to the back of my mind, but it's always there. If I go home, I hardly ever go out. I don't like to think some of them are still out there. I'm frightened. I've even dyed my hair so no-one will recognise me.' The ongoing terror for Sarah and her family cannot be understated. Yet it is Bilal Ahmed who sees himself and his friends as the real victims. In the pre-sentence report on Ahmed, a student who lived with his mother and three brothers in a housing association property, he described his victim as a . . . 'slut . . .up for anything . . sexually promiscuous and available to be dominated' [all lies, for the record]. It wasn't clear, said his barrister, if the reason for his views was 'immaturity or cultural.' We can only assume from their unquestioning support outside the court house this week that their mothers were happy to accept that narrative, too. Their very public support for their sons which the victim's parents, rightly, viewed as intimidating is particularly difficult to comprehend because they were born in Somalia, where sexual violence is pervasive. The title of a report by the Human Rights Watch organisation in 2014 sums up the reality of life for many women in the failed African state: 'Here, Rape Is Normal.' In Britain, gang rape is not recorded as a separate crime category. But in 2009, a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, Rape In The City, investigated 29 cases in London, from January 2006 to March 2009, in which a total of 92 young people were convicted of involvement in gang rape. Of those convicted, 66 were black or mixed race, 13 were white and the remainder were from other countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Yet police insist it is not a race issue but that most gang rapes take place in the most deprived boroughs, which have disproportionately high ethnic populations. However, documentary-maker, Sorious Samura, himself black, was deeply alarmed by the figures. 'Clearly this is not a crime exclusive to black communities,' he said, 'but I found it impossible to ignore the fact that such a high proportion were committed by black and mixed-race young men.' No statistics were given for the racial profile of victims in the programme. But figures obtained from Scotland Yard by this newspaper in 2008 for gang rapes in that year, and 2006-7, revealed that the majority 60 per cent were white and 28 per cent were black. The overwhelming majority of Somalians living in this country will be as appalled as everyone else by what happened to Sarah in a back-street hotel in Manchester. But with an ever-growing Somali population the most recent census in 2011 identified 101,370 people in England and Wales who were born in the East African country, making them Britain's largest refugee population at the time an increase in crime rates in this demographic is, perhaps, inevitable. That figure does not include second-generation Somalis, like the predators recently sent down for the gang rape, or Somalis who may live here illegally. The migration began in the Nineties, when the territory was plunged into civil war. Where other immigrants have flourished, Somalis have traditionally been among the poorest, worst-educated and least-employed in Britain. In this latest case, all the gang rape thugs were known to police. Mowled Omar Yussaf had 12 previous convictions for 17 offences, mainly for violence, including an assault on a police officer for which he served time in a young offenders' institution. M uhyadeen Osman was only 17 when he was a member of a gang that savagely mugged a man in an alleyway, leaving the victim needing 16 stitches to his head. Bilal Ahmed, meanwhile, had a caution for theft. Somali gangs are now major players in the heroin and crack cocaine trade in London, Birmingham, Sheffield and on the South Coast, often replacing the established underworld order by being prepared to resort to the most extreme levels of violence. In November, a Somalian gangster was locked up for 36 years for the 'cold-blooded' execution of a rival who was shot twice in the chest through the window of his 4x4 when his vehicle pulled up at traffic lights in Sheffield. Earlier, in June, 15 members of a Somalian 'crew' from London were given 70 years for a conspiracy to supply controlled drugs in Devon. The heart of the Somali community in Manchester itself is Moss Side and Greenheys, not far from the Victoria Park Hotel in Rusholme. Two gun-toting Somali gangs, 'Dem Crazy Somalis' and 'Somalian Mandem' operate in south Manchester. Violent, degrading group sex, if not gang rape, is often a rite of passage for members or 'soldiers' as they style themselves. The opposite sex is almost always treated as sexual prey. Yussaf and his associates displayed the same mentality inside 'Room 38' of the Victoria Park Hotel. The US Army's fourth-ever woman to serve in a combat position turned herself in to military authorities Thursday night after going AWOL for a whole month and gaining deserter status. Erika Lopez 'turned herself in to proper military authorities' on the night after she was dropped from the rolls and considered a deserter, a military spokeswoman told Daily Mail Online. 'We will look at the facts and circumstances surrounding the situation and take appropriate action,' said Tiffany Wood, spokesperson for Fort Leonard Wood where Lopez is based. Lopez was in her 11th week of training when she was sent home for convalescent leave in December. She was supposed to return to base on January 4. Scroll down for video Erika Lopez enlisted in the Army last year and went missing in January. She turned herself in on Thursday Erika Lopez during her swearing-in ceremony last year. She returned Thursday after going AWOL for a month Lopez enlisted in the Army last year as a combat engineer and started basic training in October, according to the Army Times. Lopez was scheduled to return from convalescent leave to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri on January 4 but went under the radar. On Thursday, 30 days after she went missing, she was dropped from the rolls and considered a deserter. 'After 30 days in AWOL status, a soldier is considered a deserter, and a federal warrant is issued for his or her arrest,' Wood told the Army Times on Thursday. Lopez was the fourth ever woman, and the first woman from her home state of Tennessee, to enlist in the military in a combat role, WVLT reported. Combat engineers duties include constructing bridges and fighting positions, handling explosives, and clearing paths for soldiers in combat zones, according to an Army website. Women gained access to serve in combat positions after a ban was lifted in 2013. 'Women can do anything they set their mind to just as well as men, I don't really see any difference at all. I hope women will want to join,' Lopez told WVLT in July. Lopez is from Knoxville, Tennessee and is married with two children, the station reported. They say that if you can remember the Sixties you probably werent there and much the same can be said of the opening night of Annabels nightclub in June 1963. I know that I was there there are photographs to prove it but as for the night itself, its all a bit of a delightful blur, Im afraid. I was working for Vogue in New York, but was in London for a holiday. I was invited to the opening night because my elder brother, Michael, had been great friends at Eton with Mark Birley, the man who founded Annabels and named it after his wife, Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart, later married to billionaire Jimmy Goldsmith. Scroll down for video Supermodel Kate Moss enjoys a go on the decks at Annabel's nightclub in Mayfair, London Somehow I just sensed something special was about to happen, so I telephoned Diana Vreeland, my legendary editor at American Vogue, suggesting she commission a photographer to document that first party. And from the moment I walked into the club and marvelled at the beauty of the subterranean rooms, I knew I was right. I recall that Robin Douglas-Home, nephew of a PM and lover of Princess Margaret, was playing the piano. A few weeks before, Annabel herself told me, the space had been little more than interlinked, derelict coal-cellars underneath John Aspinalls Clermont Club casino at 44 Berkeley Square. They had been magically transformed in a way that was sophisticated, comfortable and quietly rather sexy. Mark had always been surrounded by beauty his mother, Rhoda; his sister, the model Maxime de la Falaise; his wife, Annabel, and her sister, Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, were all astonishingly beautiful. And now Mark had created a place where they and everyone else who came looked even better. I believe the point of good decoration is to make the people who live, work or play in that space look prettier. Mark, with instinctive good taste, knew that from the start. The famous nightclub has a long-list of celebrity clientele, such as regular visitor Diana, Princess of Wales The walls of Annabels were precisely hung with exactly the right sort of art (a mix of the exotic, the mildly erotic and the engagingly eccentric), and the lighting was simply perfect, a low golden glow making everyone there look younger and infinitely more attractive. You can go in after the sort of day that has left you feeling no more than a five-out-of-ten, but after a couple of hours in the Bels as the debutants would nickname it you were at least an eight. But on that opening night, there seemed to be a lot of tens around, too; at least to my rather voracious 23-year-old eyes. Lady Annabel Goldsmith, wife of Sir James Goldsmith, who the club was named after The best nightclub in the world had just opened for business, although I wasnt alone in doubting how long it could last. I mean, Mark had to pay the outrageous rent of 8 a week. How was he going to afford that? Of course, my doubts were misplaced and, almost 53 years later, both Annabels and I are still going strong. I no longer hit that famously intimate dance-floor sunk by a few inches so people feel hidden like I used to. I dont mind too much, as all you can do to modern music is shuffle, anyway, but I still love an evening there. A new documentary, on BBC4 tonight, delves into why Annabels has enjoyed the success it has. One key was timing. Mark was almost a decade older than me, which meant hed been a frustrated teenager during World War II before spending his 20s amid the austerity of the Fifties. By the Sixties, his generation were entering their 30s, pre-war family fortunes were recovering and what they wanted more than anything was to have some fun. To become a member, you had to be the right sort of person with the right connections. In 1963, that started with Mark and Annabels 500 closest friends being invited to become founder members those alive now still pay a fixed annual membership of 5.25 a year. The club has since hosted everyone from the Queen (apparently she likes a gin martini no lemon) to Frank Sinatra (he tipped the cloakroom attendant 100 for helping him with his cufflinks), a drunken John Wayne (you can tell your buddies you hung out with John Wayne, he slurred to a surprised man alongside him at the urinals) to, most famously of all, Princess Diana and the Duchess of York disguised as giggling policewomen after failing to gatecrash Prince Andrews stag do. When someone offered them a drink Diana replied, teasingly: Sorry, we never drink on duty. I have fond memories of Diana, when she was young and happy, shoes off, dancing the night away at the club. Lord Lucan finally declared dead this week was a regular, after a night at the gaming tables upstairs at the Clermont. And I once bumped into an unexpectedly charming Marlon Brando. 'The membership is perhaps more meritocratic than aristocratic, and youre now as likely to bump into Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell as some game dowager duchess or past-it playboy' Today, thanks to film producer Charles Finchs pre-Bafta awards parties, its nooks and crannies have played host to A-listers such as Tom Cruise, Bradley Cooper, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Its also had its fair share of offbeat moments. In 2006, for instance, Topshop owner Sir Philip Green paid 60,000 to charity for Jemima Khan, Lady Annabels daughter, and Kate Moss to kiss. People often ask what is the secret of Annabels? How did the son of society portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley create a club that has endured for more than half a century? I believe that somehow magically Mark got everything right. While Elizabeth David, the doyenne of 20th-century food writing, helped create the menu, designer Nina Campbell ensured the look of the whole club was faultless. Even the mens loos are the most beautifully appointed Ive seen. Mark installed a ticker-tape, so businessmen could check their share prices after taking a pee. The actress Joan Collins is pictured arriving at Annabel's nightclub on one of the club's many star-studded nights And in the early days, he insisted on having the latest American dance music sent over every week from Sam Goodys record-store in New York. There was superb live music, too Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and Ike and Tina Turner played there, ane more recently, Lady Gaga played an acoustic set to enthralled members. Hello rich people, is how she insightfully began. I was there, at a table that included Tracey Emin, Bjorn Borg and comedian Michael McIntyre. The combination of good food (the bitter chocolate ice-cream is a personal favourite, with a secret ingredient rumoured to be Bovril) delicious wine and that wonderful lighting has made Annabels very romantic. Im sure hundreds of nervous young men have gone there to ask pretty young girls to marry them. Im equally confident those darkened corners have been put to more nefarious purposes too if a chap was trying to tempt someone elses wife into an affair, a romantic night at Annabels might be the way to swing it. However, in the event a member or guest embarrassed themselves in some way getting horribly drunk or kissing someone they werent supposed to it would never be in the papers the next day. Cameras were rarely allowed, and telling tales would have seen you thrown out of the club for ever. Mind you, if you did want to catch up on gossip, half an hour with Mabel, of the ladies cloakroom, was never wasted. Oh, how gloriously juicy her memoirs would have been! Annabel's nightclub, which has been a regular haunt for the rich and famous for decades, pictured from the outside Ive always thought of the club as more louche than decadent, and certainly never debauched; the sort of place where exciting things are initiated rather than actually take place. It did become rather racier, beginning with Marks decision to run special events fashion and jewellery shows and themed occasions such as Russian week and Brazil nights. Suddenly, the club was full of beautiful models wearing very little, which many of the clubs older regulars thought absolutely splendid. Men no longer have to sport ties (legend has it The Beatles were turned away for not wearing shoes), the membership is perhaps more meritocratic than aristocratic, and youre now as likely to bump into Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell as some game dowager duchess or past-it playboy. But, nine years after Marks death and the acquisition of the club by Richard Caring in a deal said to be worth 90 million, the club continues to dazzle and hes determined for it to be bigger and brighter still. Provided planning applications are signed off, it will move two doors down and gain a new a health club and restaurant terrace. Its a bold step, because the whole point of Annabels is its intimacy. But the club, I am confident, will endure. As long as there are beautiful people with good manners as well as good fortunes, the party goes on. Thank goodness for that. Actresses Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn attend a fundraising dinner at the famous London nightclub Middle-class workers face having 100 stripped from their take-home pay to fund a Government tax raid on pensions, the Mail can reveal. Officials are considering drastic cuts to savers pension tax breaks, and could act in next months Budget. Under the plans, five million higher-rate taxpayers could lose tax relief and would have to pay tax on money they put into a pension pot. Middle-class workers face having 100 stripped from their take-home pay to fund a tax raid on pensions. The plans are part of efforts by George Osborne (pictured) to cut the 34.3bn cost of pensions tax relief Money Mail, which is campaigning against the tax raid, has found employers could be forced to remove this money directly from staff salaries. Experts say the only way savers could avoid losing take-home pay is by cutting the amount they put into their company pensions. Under pension rules, many firms are unable to reduce the amount going into staff pensions without permission, so it will fall to workers to tell bosses. Anyone on more than 42,385 and saving into a stock market-linked workplace scheme would be affected. Someone on a 50,000 salary would see take-home pay fall by 1,350 a year or 112.50 a month unless they acted, calculations showed. Experts warned millions could be left unaware of the pay cut and fail to reduce their savings. Jackie Wells, of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, which represents 1,300 schemes, said: This will be a real shock to savers. They will be faced with a stark choice of less in their pension or less in their take-home pay. Jon Greer, a pensions expert at wealth manager Old Mutual, said: Its going to be difficult for people to understand where this deduction to their take-home pay has come from. The PLSA predicted workers would cut pension contributions by as much as 1billion a year once they learn of the tax blow. The plans are part of efforts by Chancellor George Osborne to cut the 34.3billion cost of pensions tax relief. Under the plans, five million higher-rate taxpayers could lose tax relief and would have to pay tax on money they put into a pension pot Currently, pension savers receive a refund of income tax they have paid into their pension, at their rate of 20 per cent, 40 per cent or 45 per cent. It means it costs a basic-rate taxpayer 80p to put 1 in. The 20p is the refund that goes straight into the pot. It costs a higher-rate taxpayer 60p and a top-rate taxpayer just 55p. But radical Government plans involve replacing this system with a flat rate of tax relief. All savers would effectively get a fixed tax rebate between 20 and 30 per cent of the money going in. This could make basic-rate taxpayers better off, as they may get a bonus for putting money into a pension. But higher-rate taxpayers would lose some perks of retirement saving, and it has emerged these middle-class workers also face hundreds of pounds being stripped from their pay. At present it costs a higher rate taxpayer 1,800 to put away 3,000 for retirement, as the Government applies 40 per cent tax relief, effectively topping up the contributions with a tax refund worth 1,200. But if tax relief was cut to 25 per cent for all, the Government would pay in just 750. Steven Cameron of insurer Aegon said: In some workplace pensions the scheme rules mean pension contributions must be fixed the amount paid into your take-home wages would automatically reduce to make up for the shortfall in the amount going into your pension. In the above example, this would mean an employer would have to ensure the 3,000 still goes into the pension and would have to dip into the workers take-home pay to make up the 450 shortfall. According to Aegon, a worker on 50,000 contributing 6 per cent to a pension each month, with a 12 per cent contribution from their employer, would be 1,350 worse off over a year. Claims: Nicola Dandridge says disclosing pay could be 'damaging' The universities chief campaigning to block the public from finding out how much bosses earn took a secret pay rise of 7,500 last year. Nicola Dandridge now earns 159,500 per year as the head of Universities UK, which represents 133 vice-chancellors and principals. But her wages and pay rise were not fully declared in accounts, with details only emerging after questions from the Daily Mail. Last month Mrs Dandridge told the Freedom of Information Commission a Government body considering whether to reform FoI law that universities should be exempt from the legislation so they can hide details of their bosses six-figure salaries. She argued that disclosing salaries could be damaging and made it harder to recruit staff from around the world. But Mrs Dandridge insisted: Overall, universities who we represent are absolutely committed to the overall aims of the FoI legislation openness and transparency. In a blog posted online the same day, she said universities are already open about finances through annual reports. However, analysis of Universities UKs annual reports show Mrs Dandridges full pay package is not openly disclosed. The body declares the highest earning member of staff received between 130,000 and 140,000 in 2015 but does not give the name or title of the recipient. Accounts from the previous year show the highest earner took home between 120,000 and 130,000. Universities UK has now confirmed that this member of staff is Mrs Dandridge. The figures for individual pay did not include substantial pension contributions. In fact, Mrs Dandridge earned a total package of 159,500 last year up 8,700 from 150,800 in 2013/14. Her salary alone increased by almost 6 per cent 7,500 from 130,000 to 137,500. Last night Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: It is extraordinary that when overall spending per student has been declining, an already well-paid executive is enjoying such a substantial pay hike. The fact that the pay rise was not immediately made clear to the public perhaps suggests an awareness on the part of Universities UK that it will be hard to justify to those of us footing the bill. Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, added: Universities UK is clearly not very transparent itself. This is how universities could operate if they were removed from the Act. Maurice Frankel (pictured), director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, said Universities UK is not very transparent Ministers claim the FoI Act, which allows the public to demand answers from public institutions, is too costly. But using FoI, a Daily Mail investigation with the Taxpayers Alliance last year revealed the extraordinarily high pay of university leaders. This included Malcolm Gillies, the former vice chancellor of London Metropolitan University the worst university in the country who earned 618,000 last year. Universities and colleges receive almost 4billion a year from taxpayers. Universities UK is a charity that is funded primarily by its university members. Last night a Universities UK spokesman said: Universities UK publishes its accounts in accordance with charity financial reporting standards and accounting good practice ... This information is publicly available on our website. As chief executive, Ms Dandridges salary is unsurprisingly the highest ... This salary level is published clearly in our annual accounts. This ought, by rights, to have been David Camerons worst week so far as Prime Minister. It was the week he sold out everything he once professed to believe, the week he turned his back on the voters and became the commander-in-chief of an arrogant political elite, and the week he tore up the Conservative manifesto on which he fought the general election. When David Cameron pledged a referendum in his famous Bloomberg speech three years ago, he promised to deliver fundamental, far-reaching change in Britains relations with Europe. He hasnt achieved this, or anything resembling it, and since he is an intelligent man he most certainly knows this. True, the Prime Minister has been sharply criticised by a tough and independent-minded Press. And voters have been dismayed by his lack of integrity and resolve: polls have shifted sharply in favour of quitting Europe since the squalid details of Mr Camerons pathetic EU deal became known. This ought, by rights, to have been David Camerons worst week so far as Prime Minister, writes Peter Oborne Yet so far he has actually paid a negligible political price and, despite that shift in the polls, seems confident his EU deal will win the day. Part of this is down to the lamentable conduct of Jeremy Corbyn, who culpably has had nothing to say about an issue which will determine the shape of Britain for generations to come. It is simply astonishing that he did not even raise the subject at Prime Ministers Questions last week. Mr Corbyns inertia amounts to the most wretched dereliction of duty by an Opposition leader since Iain Duncan Smith failed to ask penetrating questions about Tony Blairs invasion of Iraq 13 years ago. But there is a second, more troubling reason for David Camerons Teflon-coated week. He has used the power and muscle of his Downing Street machine to bribe, cajole and threaten eurosceptic ministers to stay in line. Conscious that his negotiations cannot withstand scrutiny, the PM has silenced internal critics by ruthlessly enforcing collective Cabinet responsibility. This has led to a grotesque double standard at the heart of the Government. On the one hand, the Prime Minister no longer bothers to hide the fact that he will be leading the Remain In Europe campaign. He has even casually authorised his party chairman, out-and-out europhile Lord Feldman, to raise funds for it. On the other hand, eurosceptic Cabinet ministers have been gagged. Of course they are complicit in this, predominantly for self-interested reasons. Indeed, the conduct of these senior politicians is, in some cases, beneath contempt. At the Tory Party conference last October, Home Secretary Theresa May memorably warned about the dangers of mass immigration, about the threat it poses to social cohesion, and the urgent need to control Britains borders. Yet Mrs May now seems not to mind about mass immigration after all. For last week she indicated she supports the Remain campaign, even though David Cameron has achieved nothing to seriously challenge EU laws allowing the free movement of workers between member states laws which must be tackled if we are to reduce the number of migrants coming to the UK. Mrs May has put her career before her patriotism. This is the kind of selfish and gutless conduct that causes politicians to be despised. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond once claimed that he was a strong critic of the European Union. Today, for nakedly careerist reasons, he has become a leading supporter of the EU. At the Tory Party conference last October, Home Secretary Theresa May warned about the dangers of mass immigration It looks like Business Secretary Sajid Javid is taking the same cynical course. To be fair, we know that a handful of cabinet ministers, led by Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling, will indeed campaign to leave Europe. I also expect Justice Secretary Michael Gove to stick with his principles and join the Leave camp. There is no questioning the honour or integrity of these Cabinet ministers. However they, too, are open to criticism because they have been comprehensively outmanoevred. They should never have allowed the Prime Minister to insist on their silence. By doing so they allowed the Remain campaign to shape the narrative of events, since the Prime Minister and his allies can campaign for Britain to stay in Europe while they cant say a thing. It is, of course, true that other voices are there to fill the anti-EU vacuum. UKIPs Nigel Farage without whom the referendum would never have been held is a powerful spokesman, as are many backbench Tories, among whom John Redwood is especially clear-headed and eloquent. So, too, is David Davis. But the fact is that no mainstream political figure has had the guts to stand up for what he believes, and to resign his frontbench position and join the fight. The ranks of the Leave camp are far more sparse even than during the last referendum under Harold Wilson in 1975, when Tony Benn, Enoch Powell, Labour Cabinet heavyweight Peter Shore and others joined a team with high intellect and experience. Make no mistake, this is a dangerous moment for democracy. Polls suggest that approximately half of all voters have gnawing doubts about the European Union. Yet all the major political parties are strongly in favour. This gulf between politicians and the electorate is especially troubling because the referendum is ultimately about democracy and, thanks to the cowardice of our political class, democracy is precisely what we are not going to get. Perhaps this is not so much of a coincidence. Over the past few decades the European Commission has worked hard to abolish what we in Britain have traditionally regarded as democratic politics. Decision-making has been moved away from national parliaments. On most issues that matter, from the economy to immigration, decisions which viscerally affect the lives of voters are now taken by anonymous, unaccountable bureaucrats rather than politicians who are responsible to their voters. The prime ministers of Greece, Italy and Spain today are effectively branch managers for the European Central Bank and pro-EU Goldman Sachs, which hold their countries purse-strings. We have come very close to the abolition of politics, replacing it with rule by bureaucrats and bankers. And David Cameron, by determinedly crushing debate, is shamelessly going along with this lack of democratic accountability. Just possibly his manoeuvres may come back to haunt him. The smell from them is simply too putrid to be ignored. Already disenchanted voters may yet identify the entire campaign to remain in the EU with a sleazy, incompetent bunch of politicians who have let them down again and again. on the second night of her holiday A teenager's last-minute decision to join high school friends on a South Pacific island trip has left her with a terrifying wait as doctors try to confirm whether she has been infected with the Zika virus. New Zealand student Jen Byrn, 18, decided to join two friends on a trip to Tonga just the day before their flight left on January 22. She told Daily Mail Australia she remembers being severely bitten by mosquitoes on the second night of the week-long holiday. Scroll down for video New Zealand student Jen Byrn is suspected to have Zika virus after she returned home to Auckland after a week long holiday in Tonga Rapidly spreading rash: 'It spread from my stomach to my chest and back, I also started to get sore eyes and headaches,' said Ms Byrn Jen Byrn started to feel 'a bit under the weather' on the third day of her holiday, but she said she was still able to enjoy her time in Tonga (pictured) Ms Bryn (right) enjoyed her time in Tonga with two friends and only noticed the rash on her stomach once she returned to New Zealand - where she sought urgent medical attention 'I got really badly bitten on the first couple of days, the mosquitoes loved me,' Ms Byrn said. On the fourth day of the holiday, Ms Bryn started to feel a 'bit under the weather' but she put her symptoms down to the new tropical environment and continued with the holiday. It was only when she returned home and broke out in ugly red spots that she realised something was seriously wrong. When her mother called a public health line and described her daughter's symptoms, the news was worse than they could have feared. I got really badly bitten on the first couple of days, the mosquitoes loved me. On Friday, Tonga's health officials declared a Zika epidemic after five people tested positive for the virus and another 265 cases were suspected. 'I think this is the first time it happened in Tonga, so surely the disease came from overseas,' Tonga's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Reynold Ofanoa said. There were no immediate plans to introduce travel restrictions in or out of the country, he said. The UN health agency warned that the mosquito-borne disease was 'spreading explosively' in the Americas, with the region expected to see up to four million cases this year. Since it was detected in Brazil in April, the virus has spread to 26 countries in the Americas. The World Health Organization declared Zika an international health emergency this week, citing a 'strongly suspected' relationship between the virus in pregnancy and microcephaly, a condition in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and can suffer developmental problems. Jen Byrn: 'I had never heard of Zika before, there were no health warnings in Tonga or New Zealand before we left' A baby born with microcephaly in Brazil: Since it was detected in Brazil in April, the virus has spread to 26 countries in the Americas. The World Health Organisation cited a 'strongly suspected' relationship between the virus in pregnancy and microcephaly 'I noticed this rash started on my stomach when I got back from Tonga, they weren't itchy it was more like irritated skin and red spots,' Ms Byrn said. 'Over the few days it quickly spread from my stomach to my chest and back, I also started to get sore eyes and headaches.' The rash quickly spread from my stomach to my chest and back, I also started to get sore eyes and headaches. Public health officials advised her to seek urgent medical attention for probable Zika virus infection. 'I had never heard of Zika before, there were no health warnings in Tonga or New Zealand before we left and I think the news of the virus outbreak in Brazil only came out while we were in Tonga, so no one really knew about it,' said Ms Byrn. She said there were no mosquito nets at the holiday accommodation and she didn't wear insect repellent. Doctors told Ms Byrn (right) that her symptoms pointed to a likely Zika infection. Blood samples were sent to Australia for further tests While in hospital Ms Byrn said she googled the virus for more information and was initially quite alarmed. 'The media coverage scared me at first, seeing all of those poor babies in Brazil and the rapid spread across the world was quite freaky.' Doctors told Ms Byrn that her symptoms pointed to a likely Zika infection. Blood samples were sent to Australia for further tests. Doctors say the virus should be out of my system in a few weeks, but obviously they can't be 100 per cent sure. 'Ill get the results back this week and doctors said I'll still have slight symptoms for another week until I start to feel better.' Ms Byrn said she is already starting to feel better and has assured her friends and family that Zika isn't contagious. 'I had an eye exam yesterday and my mum and I told the woman I might have Zika, she was quite freaked out by it because she told us she was trying for a baby. 'So there's a bit of lack of information out there but the doctors said the virus should be out of my system in a few weeks, but obviously they can't be 100 per cent sure until more research is done.' Jen Bryn (pictured) said there's a bit of lack of information out there: 'Doctors say the virus should be out of my system in a few weeks, but obviously they cant be 100 per cent sure until there is more research is done.' Wolfgang Ballinger, the president of Psi Upsilon fraternity at Cornell University, who has been charged with attempted rape The president of a fraternity at Cornell University has been charged with trying to rape a female student. Wolfgang Ballinger, 21, is accused of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a woman he allegedly led to a bedroom at a Psi Upsilon frat house at the Ivy League college. Ballinger, who is originally from upstate New York, is also charged with first-degree sexual abuse following the alleged incident at the Ithaca-based university at around 2am on Monday. The female student identified him and he was arrested on Friday, police said. The chapter has been suspended until further notice. Ballinger posted a video on YouTube in 2014 describing himself as a junior majoring in hotel administration. He claimed to have a humble upbringing in a small town in New York, but his deleted Facebook page suggests he went to $45,000-a-year Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School on the Upper West Side, The Daily Beast reported. Ballinger also said his father runs bars in New York and Canada, and that he helped run part of one of the nightspots bar in the Manhattan, making a $3,000-a-night profit He added that he spent a summer working at the Marriott Edition hotel in New York before going to college. 'I believe that my family life and my small-town nature has given me the tools to strive as an entrepreneur,' he said in the video. Ballinger (seen in a YouTube video) is also charged with first-degree sexual abuse following the alleged incident at the Ithaca-based university at around 2am on Monday Ballinger, 21, is said to have led the woman to a bedroom at a Psi Upsilon frat house (fraternity house pictured) before the alleged assault. Picture courtesy of the Cornell Daily Sun The Psi Upsilon chapter at Cornell (university pictured) has been suspended Cornellfrat.com, which ranks different fraternities at the university, says members are 'for the most part, snobby elitists and not very down to earth at all'. The site describes Psi U as 'very wealthy', with attractive brothers who 'fit the stereotypical boarding school-type persona'. The chapter is said to be particularly exclusive and rarely has open invite event, but has 'great sorority relations'. Psi U Fraternity executive director Thomas Fox said: 'Sexual assault, and any form of sexual harassment, is against our policy and in opposition of the values of Psi Upsilon. 'Our chapter is cooperating with Cornells investigation into this matter and any members involved will be held accountable. 'The Chi Chapter at Cornell has a distinguished history with the university and we are committed to continuing to be a benefit to Cornell and the Ithaca community.' Ballinger is being held on a $25,000 bail or $50,000 bond. An auction room applauded a classic Ferrari after it sold for almost 25 million to become the world's most expensive car. The legendary Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti was capable of doing a staggering 186mph in 1957. It finished second in the Mille Miglia that year before becoming the first car to average 200kph (124mph) on a lap of the Le Mans circuit. Unfortunately it didn't finish the gruelling French race but continued to be campaigned around the world by the likes of Stirling Moss. French auction house Artcurial is set to break the world record for the most expensive car ever sold with one of the most iconic cars in the history of motor racing: the 1957 Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti The stunning machine was bought by French collector and racing driver Pierre Bardinon in 1970 and remained part of the family's staggering collection until this week. Mr Bardinon passed away in 2012 and the family was told to sell the car at a French auction to settle an inheritance tax bill. It went under the hammer at the high profile Artcurial sale in Paris with interest from around the world. Marcel Massini, an esteemed Ferrari historian, had previously described it as the 'top of the top'. Bidding quickly hit 25 million euros (19.2m) and the hammer eventually went down at 28 million euros (21.5 m). With premiums and taxes the final price for the Ferrari was 24.66 million. This made it a record auction sale in Sterling, beating the 22.8 million price paid for a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in 2014. The Ferrari 335 S Spider left the workshop in 1957 and was fitted with a 3..8-litre V12 engine developing 360bhp. It finished sixth in the Sebring 12 Hours race and then came second in the Mille Miglia, a daunting 1,000-mile road race in Italy. The car was then returned to the factory where the engine size was increased to 4.1-litres - boosting power to 400bhp. But its newest members are more likely to be young, urban women As the home of jam, Jerusalem and knitting, the Womens Institute has always been the traditional haunt of a more mature lady. But its newest recruits are more likely to be young, urban women doing yoga and holding their meetings in the pub. Having thrown off its fusty image, WIs are now springing up in towns across the UK and embracing less traditional pursuits. In the last year alone, the organisations centenary, 150 new Womens Institutes have opened and more than 40,000 new members have joined. The Women's Institute's newest recruits are more likely to be young, urban women doing yoga (file photo) and holding their meetings in the pub WI chair Janice Langley said that many of the new branches are in urban places and many of the new members are younger women. There are more than 215,000 members in roughly 6,300 WIs across Britain and nearly every city and town has at least one branch. The first WI in London was opened in 2003 in Fulham and there are now 50 in the capital. Many existing branches have long waiting lists. In south east London, the East Dulwich WI has a long queue to join, while a newly-opened branch in nearby Nunhead filled up within a few months of opening. The East Dulwich branch website states: Unfortunately, we have reached our membership capacity and have had to close membership to new members. In Harrogate, North Yorkshire, recently, a popular WI the Spa Sweethearts WI helped set up a new group in the city because they were so heavily oversubscribed. They were expecting 30 or 40 women to come along, but when more than 100 turned up, they had to set up three new branches in the area. The same thing happened in Chippenham, Wiltshire, recently where two WIs were set up one morning and one evening. Janice Langley, Chair of the NFWI (National Federation of Womens Institute) said: It is always really positive to hear about so many younger women joining the WI and it proves that perceptions are definitely changing, especially as we look towards the next 100 years of inspiring women. The WI really does have something for everyone and members have told us that their WI meeting is the only opportunity they have to mix with women of different ages and they have made really good friends that they otherwise would never have met in their everyday lives. She said many groups chose to meet in pubs or wine bars rather than the traditional village hall and happened in the evening rather than the day. But although less traditional pursuits like yoga are becoming increasingly popular, craft and cooking are still very much on the menu. Princess Anne, Princess Royal helps Queen Elizabeth II cut a Women's Institute Celebrating 100 Years cake at the Centenary Annual Meeting of The National Federation Of Women's Institute at Royal Albert Hall She added that the WIs strong record in campaigning also attracted women. It was formed during First World War to encourage women to tighten their belts and make the most of their household budgets, but she said it was still highly relevant now. Since then the organisations aims have broadened and the WI is now the largest voluntary womens organisation in the UK. The WI will celebrate its centenary in 2015 and currently has 212,000 members in over 6,300 WIs. The WI plays a unique role in providing women with educational opportunities and the chance to build new skills, to take part in a wide variety of activities and to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities. Although the challenges we face now are different to those when the organisation was set up in 1915, the WI still plays a very important role in todays society, which is why women continue to join, she said. The organisation is as relevant today as it has always been because of its continuing aims to campaign on issues that affect women regardless of age, providing women with the opportunity to learn new and traditional skills and enabling women to be at the heart of their community. Last month, the Queen, who is patron of the WI, attended the Sandringham branch for her annual meeting. Well, I hate to say I told you so, but I did. This week, David Cameron returned from his continental tour proudly waving a piece of paper purporting to represent a new deal for Britain in Europe. And just as I predicted in these pages several weeks ago, his much-vaunted renegotiation exercise has turned out to be an utter waste of time. Like Harold Wilsons similarly cynical effort in 1975, it proved to be nothing more than an expensive public relations exercise, designed to mollify the Eurosceptics in his own party and to persuade voters to back Britains membership of the EU. Mr Cameron and his allies did their best to present his appearance in the Commons as a profound national event. In fact, it was more like a magicians appearance at a childrens tea party: a slick feat, certainly, but a long way short of statesmanlike. David Cameron returned from his continental tour proudly waving a piece of paper purporting to represent a new deal for Britain in Europe. Above, he meets Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo As Mr Cameron waxed lyrical about his non-existent victories from a belated and therefore pointless brake on migrant benefits, to a vague and completely meaningless promise to respect British sovereignty you could almost hear the nation laughing with disbelief. Yet Britains future in Europe is no laughing matter, and I doubt I am alone in thinking that we deserve far, far better than the current EU non-debate in which, apart from anything else, Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers have been cynically muzzled. What David Cameron wont dare admit is that the EU he so longs to remain part of is in peril as never before. If you really want to get a sense of Europes future, then forget the embarrassing charade in the House of Commons. And forget Mr Camerons little PR stunt, a mere sideshow compared with the gigantic dramas unfolding on the EUs eastern and southern borders. Our parliamentarians may love to boast about their sense of history. But if you want a genuinely compelling example of how our continents bloody past is shaping our shared future, then turn your eyes instead to the East. In the West, the debate about the future of the EU is naturally coloured by memories of World War II. Indeed, in 2012, the EU was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for having supposedly guaranteed 60 years of peace in Europe. Further east, however, another shadow looms, if anything, even larger. In EU member states such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Baltic nations, memories of another vast multi-national project the Communist empire of the Soviet Union are still red-raw. Great swathes of central and eastern Europe still bear the scars of Communist repression, from the great hulking concrete monoliths that dominate their cities to the widows who still mourn their vanished husbands. And it is precisely because so many of our European neighbours harbour such bitter memories that the collapse of Lenins blood-drenched experiment raises uncomfortable questions about the survival of todays EU questions that Mr Camerons renegotiation exercise has utterly failed to address. On the face of it, of course, the EU and the USSR could hardly appear more different. Brussels is not the Kremlin. There are no EU labour camps, no psychiatric hospitals for political dissidents, no tanks rolling into the streets of occupied capitals. What they do have in common, though, is an over-riding belief in international unity. The Communists dreamed of uniting Europe under the Red Flag. They believed they could erase centuries of history, eradicating national differences, pulling down borders, wiping away the hatreds of the past. Lenin saw himself as the leader of an international workers brotherhood; hence his enthusiasm for the song The Internationale, which became the official worldwide Communist anthem. We are opposed to national enmity and discord, to national exclusiveness, he wrote in 1919. We are internationalists. Read those last words again, and ask yourself how they might sound coming from a senior figure in the EU. The answer is that they would sound perfectly natural, because the principle of internationalism (ever closer union, as the EU puts it) is at the very heart of the European project. The key figure in the foundation of the EU, the French official Jean Monnet a bureaucrat never once elected to a public office made this quite explicit. National sovereignty, he once said, was finished. There is no future for the people of Europe other than in union. EU founding French official Jean Monnet said national sovereignty was finished It goes without saying that Lenins idea of internationalism and the EUs version are very different. All the same, they both represent a utopian attempt to erase the legacy of history and to impose continental uniformity in place of national diversity. In reality, the idea that Europes natural state is a harmonious union has always struck me as complete drivel. Not even the Romans managed to unite all Europe under one banner. Plenty of people despots, usually have tried since, but all have failed. The Habsburg emperor Charles V had a go in the 16th century, picturing himself as the head of a European universal monarchy. He failed. So did Frances dwarfish emperor Napoleon, some 150 years later. Hitler came closest to pulling it off, albeit in a peculiarly bloodthirsty form. But he failed too, in the end. The truth is that for all the high-minded pieties of Brussels officials, and for all their fatuous attempts to promote a common European identity, national differences still run very deep indeed. Most ordinary Europeans feel little loyalty to their continent, and still less to the policy-makers in Brussels. Their primary loyalty is to their family their own immediate family, of course, but also to their wider national family, whether they are Britons or Germans, Spaniards or Hungarians, Poles, Danes or Lithuanians. Nothing bears that out better than the reaction to the migration crisis, which represents an overpowering challenge to the European elites fantasy of a common political identity. For as the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has admitted, the scale of the human tide has left the EU overwhelmed. If Europe is not capable of protecting its own borders, he told the BBC, its the very idea of Europe that will be questioned. EU officials have spent the past few days quivering with rage against the Greeks, whom they blame for letting thousands of refugees cross their borders. Above, Syrians flee Syrian government and Russian airstrikes in Aleppo Denmark has already introduced draconian regulations forcing refugees to hand over a proportion of their assets The problem is not just the sheer number of Middle Eastern and North African migrants clamouring to get into the EU a challenge that Mr Cameron barely mentioned in his Commons statement. It is also the inevitable collision between internationalist idealism and national self-interest. Brussels thinks that all member states ought to do their bit. But most national governments think they ought to look after their own interests first. The result has been the unedifying spectacle of national governments squabbling bitterly about border controls and migrant quotas, pausing only to fire verbal salvos at the EU itself. As it happens, EU officials have spent the past few days quivering with rage against the Greeks, whom they blame for letting thousands of migrants cross their borders, while the Greeks claim that western European states are merely trying to shift the blame for their own failings. Denmark has already introduced draconian regulations forcing refugees to hand over a proportion of their assets, while Sweden has just announced plans to expel up to 80,000 migrants using specially chartered aircraft. At the very least, the Schengen agreement, which guarantees open borders across most of the EU, seems doomed to the scrapheap. Indeed, if you want a symbol of the death of internationalism, then just look at the famous Oresund Bridge, spanning the narrow strait between Denmarks capital Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo. This is the bridge that features in the cult BBC4 crime series The Bridge, itself a collaboration between the Danes and the Swedes. On television, detectives whizz back and forth across the bridge on their way to their next moody crime scene. But in reality, the bridge has come to symbolise the death of utopian idealism. On January 6, responding to the migrant crisis, the Swedes brought in border checks for the first time in the bridges history. In the Guardian newspaper, a Swedish academic bemoaned the fact that what he called short-term national goals had supplanted the European vision of how businesses, civil society and people can integrate across national and cultural divides. But pursuing short-term national goals is precisely what nation-states do. To expect them to behave otherwise is not merely absurdly unrealistic; it is a dangerous fantasy. The real fault-line lies in central and eastern Europe, in precisely those countries that were oppressed by the Soviet jackboot until the revolutions of 1989. In countries such as Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, and especially in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which were once part of the USSR itself, memories of totalitarian imperialism are still all too fresh. Their sense of patriotism and national identity is often intensely strong, as a reaction to the long years of foreign oppression. And since most still see themselves as exclusively Christian countries, there has been a groundswell of popular discontent at the prospect of opening their doors to thousands of Muslim refugees. Not surprisingly, therefore, governments from the Baltic to the Balkans are outraged at the thought of being ordered by the EU to accept mandatory quotas of Middle Eastern migrants. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who rails against what he calls the profiteers, monopolies, cartels and imperial bureaucrats of Brussels Hungary provides the most potent example. This year, the Hungarians are marking the 60th anniversary of the 1956 uprising, when thousands of ordinary people took to the streets to fight for freedom, only to have their national aspirations crushed under the tanks of the Red Army. The legacy of 1956 means that the Hungarians have a particularly intense sense of their own identity. Indeed, in recent years, kicking against the EU, they have been seduced by the xenophobic populism of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who inveighs against what he calls the profiteers, monopolies, cartels and imperial bureaucrats of Brussels. And where Hungary leads, other Eastern European countries now follow. The Polish interior minister announced last week that his government will veto any EU attempt to impose migrant quotas on member states, while Slovakias Prime Minister, Robert Fico, promised that his country would never make a voluntary decision that would lead to the formation of a united Muslim community in Slovakia. The result, he insisted, would be atrocities on the scale of the recent outrages in Paris. Multiculturalism is a fiction. Once you let migrants in, you can face such problems. If the Brussels elite think that Mr Orban and Mr Fico are going to shut up and roll over, then I fear they are deluding themselves. The truth is that the peoples of Eastern Europe waited too long for their freedom to see it swallowed up in the name of continental unity. Despite what the euro-idealists believe, national differences do still matter. It is sheer arrogance to think that, almost overnight, the European elite can rewrite the history of an entire continent. For as the past shows with overwhelming clarity, national patriotism is often a far more powerful force than either utopian idealism or economic self-interest. It is not yet too late for Europes politicians to acknowledge the power of nationalism and to devise a more robust response to the migration crisis one that reconciles our human obligation to those in need with individual nations understandable urge to protect their borders. But if they fail to learn the lessons of the past, then one day, I fear, the EU will go the way of the Soviet Union a discredited vision of utopian internationalism, unceremoniously dumped in the dustbin of history. And if that happens, then who will even remember David Camerons little tour? Skupin, who spent 56 days on Survivor islands, faces up to 29 years in prison if convicted Investigators said they found illegal pictures on Skupin's laptop during an investigation into an alleged Ponzi scheme Michael Skupin, known for falling into a fire pit during Survivor: The Michael Skupin (pictured in Survivor in 2012) was charged Friday with possession of child pornography A former Survivor contestant has been charged with possession of child pornography in Michigan. Michael Skupin, who appeared in two seasons of the reality show Survivor, was jailed Friday after investigators looking into an alleged Ponzi scheme run by him said they found illegal pictures on his computer. Skupin, 54, was booked on 12 felony charges, including six counts of possession of child sexual abusive materials, according to the Michigan Attorney General. He is perhaps best known for falling into a fire pit during Survivor's second season in 2012, which was set in the Australian Outback, and being the first to be removed from the show by medical evacuation. During his two seasons, he spent a total of 56 days on deserted islands. The investigation into Skupin's affairs began after investors who put money into a business run by the reality star complained they'd been tricked, according to the Attorney General Bill Schuette. 'Victims allegedly made $10,000 cash investments in the scheme. Their money would then cycle through a chart in which participants were eventually paid out of other new investors' money,' the Attorney General wrote. 'The scheme was discovered when eventually there were no new investors signing and most people in the scheme lost all of their money.' Michael Skupin during his second Survivor stint. He competed twice on the Emmy-Award winning show Skupin, who lives in Oakland County, had his laptop searched as part of the Ponzi scheme investigation. On the computer, pictures allegedly belonging to Skupin were discovered that depicted 'underage children in sexual situations'. 'Not only did this man rob people of their hard-earned savings with his financial scams but he victimized innocent children every time he looked at a piece of child pornography,' said Schuette. 'This man seems to have no concept or caring for right and wrong and will be prosecuted under the full extent of the law for these horrific crimes.' Skupin was also accused of five counts of larceny by conversion and one count of racketeering. If convicted on all counts, Skupin could face up to 29 years in prison. Even before the curtain went up on the opening night of Harold Pinters play, Betrayal, an air of dramatic tension descended across the packed auditorium at the Nationals Lyttelton Theatre. It was November 15, 1978, and while Pinter fans eagerly awaited the acclaimed playwrights latest work there was also much debate about who, exactly, had inspired it. On paper at least, Pinter was still married, although in a bid to stifle any unnecessary gossip that might detract from his latest creative work he made clear where his affections lay. Joan Bakewell, right, interviewing playwright Harold Pinter, left, in 1968, the year their affair ended Pinter, left, hid the affair with Bakewell from his then wife Vivien and their son Daniel, centre Since 1975 he has lived with Antonia Fraser, read the brief biography included in the theatre programme. But those who believed the betrayal of the plays title referred to Pinters infidelity with Fraser couldnt have been more wrong. Pinters true inspiration, as the lady in question herself reminded us this week, was none other than the writer and broadcaster Joan Bakewell, the original thinking mans crumpet and now a Labour Peer. For, while Pinters scandalous affair with Fraser was no secret in 1978, Bakewells own previous seven-year liaison with the playwright was still very much under wraps. The pair had conducted a clandestine liaison between 1962 and 1969 under the noses of their respective spouses and their infidelity, admits the now 82-year-old Baroness Bakewell in her latest memoir, was a moral cats cradle. Does she regret her affair with one of Britains greatest ever playwrights? Not a jot. Why would I do that? she told Radio 4s Midweek on Wednesday in an interview to publicise her book which went on sale this week. Life is rich. You have to embrace it whatever it brings. Along the way you try to accommodate and not cause pain, but sometimes there are compulsions that have to be heeded. As ever, Baroness Bakewells eloquence is formidable but her words do not take into account the broken souls left behind by Pinters infidelity. And neither do the victims of her errant behaviour share her rose-tinted view of the past. For what twice-married mother-of-two Bakewell failed to mention is the continuing fall-out from Pinters unfaithfulness to his long-suffering first wife, the actress Vivien Merchant, who spiralled into a nervous breakdown after the collapse of her 24-year marriage and, heartbroken, drank herself to death in 1982. In the wilds of the Cambridgeshire Fens this week, Pinters only child was left pondering the release of yet another book by one of his fathers mistresses and the real-life betrayals which saw his family life torn apart 40 years ago. Bakewell, pictured here in 1976, failed to mention in her book that Pinter's first wife drank herself to death Daniel Brand who changed his name from Pinter to his grandmothers maiden name several years ago lives in a remote and rundown cottage opposite a man-made drainage river outside the village of Ramsey Forty Foot near Huntingdon. I havent read the book yet. But I will do, said the 57-year-old, speaking on the doorstep of the isolated property which once belonged to Pinter and was left to Daniel in his will along with 300,000. Privately educated at St Pauls School For Boys in West London, where he won acclaim for his published schoolboy poetry, Daniel suffered a nervous breakdown while at Magdalen College, Oxford, in the mid Seventies and while he is said to be a gifted writer, painter and musician, he has been a reclusive figure ever since. At the time of Pinters death in 2008, the two men were estranged and Daniel refused to reconcile with his father even when Pinter was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and, later, cancer of the liver. Daniel has never spoken publicly about his famous father and told the Mail this week that he probably never will. It is said that he struggled to forgive the Nobel-prize-winning playwright for his extra-marital affairs and his divorce from his mother, Vivien, in 1980, two years before her premature death. Certainly, Pinters son appears to have paid a heavy price for the betrayals that ultimately tore his family apart. The happy family photographs which once captured Pinter, Vivien and their then smiling curly-haired toddler, belie the deception that was simultaneously going on behind closed doors first with Bakewell and later with Fraser. Bakewell, pictured, once wrote that the 1960s was such a great time to have an affair Pinter had married dark-eyed, raven-haired Vivien real name, Ada Thompson in Bournemouth in 1956 when he was a jobbing actor, beginning to turn his hand to writing. Vivien, a child dancer from Manchester, was already an established theatre actress who would go on to appear in many of Pinters plays and win an Oscar nomination for her 1966 role opposite Michael Caine in the film Alfie. At the time Daniel was born in January 1958, the couple were living in a dingy basement flat in Londons Notting Hill and struggling to make ends meet, even though Pinter had already written his first two plays, The Room and The Birthday Party. While his wifes theatrical career went from strength to strength, it was Pinters early writing which brought him into contact with BBC radio producer Michael Bakewell and, at a 1960 party, his pretty, Cambridge-educated wife, Joan. Years later, Bakewell recalled how she and the playwright slipped out for coffee during a rehearsal for a sketch by Pinter being produced by her husband. Something was happening in my head, she said. My mind began racing: everything seemed sharper, louder, brighter, as if Id taken drugs. In her 2003 autobiography, The Centre Of The Bed, one of numerous occasions upon which she has written about her affair with Pinter, she nonchalantly recalled: The Sixties was a good time to have an affair. The mood of the times was relaxed, sunny. On THE surface, perhaps, but even in an era of so-called sexual liberation there is something uncomfortable about the way that Pinter and Bakewell conducted their affair so close to home. While they embarked on their seven-year sexual relationship in 1962 even renting a flat in Kentish Town where they could meet the two lovers and their spouses attended dinner parties at each others homes. Joan and Michaels daughter, Harriet, was a guest at a birthday party for the Pinters son, Daniel. Bakewell has often recalled the magical moment when Pinter playfully threw her daughter up into the air and caught her a scene remembered by his fictional lovers in the play Betrayal. And while Bakewell insists there was never any talk of leaving their marriages, recently published letters reveal that Pinter was privately thinking of doing exactly that. In one, written about Vivien at the height of his affair with Bakewell in February 1967, he wrote: It appears quite possible that we will separate (how?) when we return . . . We certainly cant go on like this. I now feel that Im more at fault than she is and have been. But one cant talk about fault. In the end, as Bakewells own TV presenting career took off, it became increasingly difficult for the pair to meet and they ended their affair by mutual consent in 1969. There was no harshness, no recrimination, Bakewell wrote in her auto-biography. Behind the scenes, however, Pinters marriage to Vivien was already coming apart at the seams. While Vivien is said to have remained completely in the dark about her husbands affair with Bakewell, there is little doubt that it must have helped erode their marriage. Those who visited the couples house in Hanover Terrace in Regents Park remarked on the cold and stifling atmosphere. Having parted with Bakewell, Pinter began seeking refuge in other sexual relationships until 1975 when he embarked on an affair with Lady Antonia Fraser, the authoress daughter of the Earl of Longford. They were seen publicly together for the first time at the opening night of his play No Mans Land in April 1975. Vivien, who had become increasingly insecure about her lack of intellectualism, was at home suffering from a bout of pneumonia. She was left to read about her husbands appearance with the then 42-year-old wife of Tory MP Sir Hugh Fraser and the mother of his six children in the newspapers. Five days after appearing with Fraser at that first night, Pinter walked out. If Bakewell ever felt that she, too, had contributed to the end of the Pinters marriage then she has never said so. Her own marriage ended in 1972 and a second 26-year marriage to theatre producer Jack Emery ended in 2001. But while her first husband, Michael, knew of her affair with Pinter, accepted it and had a mistress of his own, it is clear that Vivien did not share their views on open marriage. The depth of her grief at losing Pinter become clear in several newspaper interviews she gave at the time where she painted a glowing picture of their marriage and pointed the finger at Fraser. Im still numb with all that has happened, she said in one. Ours has always been a legendary marriage in showbusiness circles. We were the happy couple that other actors used to talk about. I promise you he is a wonderful man, but it seems he is possessed by Lady Antonia she has cast a spell over him. How she can do it with six children to look after I dont know. Joan Bakewell became Baroness Bakewell in January 2011, pictured at home in North London Ultimately, a vengeful Vivien filed for divorce, citing Fraser as the other woman and igniting a public scandal. Pinter and Fraser married in 1980, but the venomous fall-out from their affair continued as Vivien spiralled towards complete mental breakdown. In his memoirs, the theatre critic Peter Lewis recalls how Vivien telephoned him to pour her heart out and how he visited their Nash-designed house in Regents Park. Alone with the mirrors, like the Lady of Shalott, Vivien looked back at herself with staring, sleep-deprived eyes. Bottles of white wine, nothing else, stood on the kitchen counter. Nightly she walked the house unsleeping, the house of mirrors where there was no one at home on the upper floors. She wore an almost nun-like brown robe and her hair was openly greying. He also claims that Vivien told him she had asked her doctor for a bottle of pills marked Husband. But while Vivien raged against Pinter and Fraser, she remained entirely unaware of his earlier deception with Joan Bakewell. Like most others, she believed that Fraser was the inspiration behind her cheating husbands play Betrayal when it was first shown in London in 1978. Vivien was to die believing Antonia was the original of Emma [the mistress], admits Bakewell in her new book, Stop The Clocks: Thoughts On What I Leave Behind. Indeed, the unpalatable truth remained a secret until long after Viviens death, when Pinter decided to out his affair with Bakewell in an authorised biography written by Michael Billington in 1996. There it was explained that the betrayal of his plays title referred not to the fact that Pinter and Bakewell had cheated on their respective spouses but that Bakewells cuckolded husband had known of the affair a secret Joan and Michael kept from Pinter. But while Pinter academics have endlessly analysed the nature of the betrayal, the two real victims of this painful saga have been reduced to a mere footnote. In the aftermath of his fathers infidelities, Daniel watched helplessly as his once beautiful mother drank herself to death. He coped by withdrawing from both his parents. In an interview in 1981, a year before her death, Vivien claimed: I have seen him once in two years. He changed his name. He doesnt want to be either a Pinter or a Merchant. I truthfully dont know what he does. Hes a loner. Daniel was just 24 when his mother died in 1982. By that time 53-year-old Vivien, who had performed in so many of her husbands plays, was a shadow of her former self. Her liver was swollen, she was severely jaundiced and was also suffering internal bleeding caused by her out-of-control drinking. Right up until the end when she became bloated and pale-faced she grieved for Pinter, believing that he might one day return to her. Bakewell's affair with Pinter ended in the late 1960s 'by mutual consent' due to the difficult in hiding it He did so only once, at the end of her life, when he and Daniel sat at her bedside during her final moments at Kings College Hospital in London. Although the last time Daniel saw his father is believed to have been in 1993, Pinter wrote to his son in 2002, while fighting cancer, after hearing that Daniel had phoned a mutual friend for an update on his condition. Im glad you called, he wrote. I gather Ill be weak for some months . . . It would be good to hear from you. Love your father (!!!). But clearly the emotional wreckage of Daniels childhood could not be overcome. He did not even attend his fathers funeral. Late in life, Pinter had time to reflect on the consequences of his behaviour. He never expressed remorse for his actions, but he recalled what might be regarded as a premonition of the suffering that lay in wait for his son. Daniel was still a baby, sleeping peacefully in a cot beside his parents bed, when Pinter woke up in the middle of the night. I found myself in tears. My first wife Vivien said to me: What in heavens name is the matter? Daniel, who was about six months old, was in a cot in the room. I didnt know what was the matter or how to explain what was happening to me. But I realised what was happening after half an hour or so. It was simply that I couldnt bear the life that was in front of him. I thought here he is having a good time, quietly asleep at this moment . . . he was actually a very enthusiastic child, too, and I knew that at the time, but I actually looked ahead and thought: My God, what is in store for this infant? Jeremy Corbyn last night faced calls from women activists to launch an inquiry into a campaign of misogyny waged by Muslim men in Labour. Ahead of the party leaders speech to the Association of Labour Councillors today, Muslim women told the BBC they had been shut out of standing for office. They accused the party of turning a blind eye to sexist discrimination. Muslim Womens Network UK sent a letter to Mr Corbyn, demanding an inquiry into what it said was systematic misogyny displayed by significant numbers of Muslim male local councillors. Jeremy Corbyn has faced calls from women activists to launch an inquiry into a campaign of misogyny Shaista Gohir from Muslim Womens Network UK said: These men have a cultural mindset, which theyve brought from India, Pakistan Bangladeshthey operate a braderi male kinship system and theyve brought the system here, what I call an old boys network. They dont want women to be empowered. Why? Because we will then challenge the status quo, challenge misogyny. Muslim women are telling us we have been complaining, we have been raising this as an issue, but we just dont get listened to and theyve given examples of where theyve tried to circumvent local councillors and sidestep them and try to go to more senior politicians and they say we dont get listened to, no-one comes back to us. But obviously, theyre quite scared to come out with their emails because of backlash that they might face. Fozia Parveen, an optician in Birmingham, said her attempt to become a councillor was scuppered by men within the party. She told BBC Newsnight: At the time, I was aware of a smear campaign against me, they said that I was having an affair with one of the existing councillors. I was quite taken aback. People were turning up at my family home trying to intimidate my mum. Shazia Bashir said when her father refused to support her bid to become a councllor in Peterborough, Muslim men from within the party made her stand down. Although she was aged 31 and a mother of two, she said: Because I didnt have my fathers consent and support, I had to step down. I was pressured into stepping down. A sitting Labour councillor in Leicester, Jean Khote, claims good women candidates were barred by the membership in some areas with high Muslim populations and that was kept from people higher up the party. The Labour Party told Newsnight its selection procedures include strong positive action procedures such as All-Women shortlists and rules to ensure women are selected in winnable council seats. We have the best record of any party in selecting women and BAME candidates, and we will continue to do all that we can to make sure candidates are representative of the communities they seek to represent. The Labour Party has a fair, democratic and robust procedure for selecting council candidates. A 15 minute firefight followed by an airstrike wiped out all ISIS insurgents The three soldiers are thought to be first British casualties of the conflict Three British Special Forces soldiers were wounded in a firefight with 30 ISIS militants in Iraq, it has been reported. The SAS and SBS are said to have been on a secret mission deep inside enemy territory when the terrorists opened fire on them with machine guns mounted on American-built Humvees. The men's bravery has not been acknowledged because defence chiefs refuse to confirm the ground war being fought by elite British troops in war ravaged Iraq and Syria, it is claimed. Three British Special Forces soldiers were wounded in a firefight with 30 ISIS militants in Iraq, it has been reported (file photo) It is thought the men injured by bomb blasts during a 25 man patrol in northern Iraq were the first British casualties in the conflict, the Mirror reported. German, American and British soldiers were said to be hunting down ISIS fighters outside the terror group's stronghold of Mosul when the terrorists opened fire with 50 calibre guns and rockets. The elite troops dove from their vehicles and returned fire with their high powered assault rifles. A unit of German commandos is said to have destroyed one ISIS location with an armour piercing missile - killing every extremist inside. All of the fanatics were said to be killed in the 15 minute battle and an airstrike that followed. The wounded soldiers were treated at the scene and are now recovering from 'fragmentation' injuries at a UK facility. The SAS and SBS are said to have been on a secret mission deep inside enemy territory when the terrorists opened fire on them with machine guns mounted on American-built Humvees (SAS cap badge) Their unit is part of a Coalition Joint Special Operations Task Force made up of special forces operating in northern Iraq. Hundreds of British soldiers are officially on the ground training security forces in Iraq but the Mirror claims they are also hunting down ISIS fighters. Under Britain's marriage equality laws, they were able to legally get married Although Australia has yet to legalize gay marriage, a couple have tied the knot thanks to an unfamiliar loophole. James Hanley, 23, and Dan Waknin, 35, got married on Friday afternoon at the British consulate in Sydneys Circular Quay, surrounded by 20 of their closest friends and family. After two-and-a-half years of dating, the Manly couple were able to legalise their relationship under the British marriage equality laws because of Mr Hanleys dual citizenship with Australia and Britain. James Hanley, 23, (left) and Dan Waknin, 35, (right) got married on Friday afternoon at the British consulate in Sydneys Circular Quay The Manly couple were able to legalise their relationship under the British marriage equality laws because of Mr Hanleys (right) dual citizenship with Australia and Britain We're very lucky very fortunate that I have the passport that we had the opportunity, Mr Hanley (right) said It was fantastic it feels quite surreal, Mr Hanley told the Daily Mail on Saturday. We're very lucky very fortunate that I have the passport that we had the opportunity. They had planned on getting married when Mr Waknin, who was born in Spain and became an Australian citizen in 2014, began researching how to take the next step legally, despite Australias laws. Mr Waknin stumbled upon the British loophole and went to the consulate to double check that it was valid. Officials confirmed that for $600, they could get married under British law but their wedding would not be recognised in terms of Australias laws. Mr Waknin (right) was researching how the couple could legally get married despite Australia's lack of legislation Mr Waknin (right) stumbled upon the British loophole but went to the consulate to double check that it was valid After presenting officials with their intention of marriage, they were given 90 days to plan a wedding I was really, really shocked that its legitimate and you can do it and there are so few people that have gone and done it, Mr Hanley said. After presenting officials with their intention of marriage, they were given 90 days to plan a wedding. On exactly the 90th day, the couple headed to the consulate with a handful of guests before taking photos at the quarantine station, along the beach and at Mr Hanleys family home. My family is on the larger side so they were the bulk of the guests there and then the rest was Daniels family his mum and brother and a few close friends, he said. The couple married on the 90th day, surrounded by 20 friends and family members My family is on the larger side so they were the bulk of the guests there and then the rest was Daniels family his mum and brother and a few close friends, Mr Hanley (second from the left) said Mr Hanley (left) said that he hopes Australia will pass the necessary laws to recognise their marriage soon hopefully within the next four years Mr Hanley, his new husband and their guests then headed to Shelly Beach in Manly where they continued to celebrate for the rest of the night. Mr Hanley said that he hopes Australia will pass the necessary laws to recognise their marriage soon hopefully within the next four years. For me, its more just a surprise that it in 2016 and its still a debated issue, he said. After the ceremony, Mr Hanley and his husband and their guests headed to Manly for a celebration on the beach Society and the world if slowly coming around to it a lot more people these days are very open to it and legalizing it will be a big step in eliminating homophobia in the next generation, Mr Hanley said of gay marriage The couple hired photographer Emmanuel Kornijczuk to capture their vows There are so many bigger issues out there than this. Society and the world if slowly coming around to it a lot more people these days are very open to it and legalizing it will be a big step in eliminating homophobia in the next generation. The sons of a wealthy ally of Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie are campaigning for medical examiners to overturn a murder-suicide ruling against their father. Millionaire hospital executive John Sheridan, 72, stabbed his wife and himself to death before setting fire to his grand New Jersey home in 2014, officials ruled last year. But his four sons refuse to believe the authorities' account, insisting a missing murder weapon and a lack of motive show police failed to properly investigate the deaths. They are challenging the medical examiner's ruling that he committed suicide in an attempt to have the case re-opened. Mr Sheridan, who was a close friend of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, was found with five stab wounds to the neck and torso, while his wife, Joyce, had been stabbed 12 times in the head and hands in their home in Skillman, north of Princeton. Millionaire hospital executive John Sheridan, 72, stabbed his wife, Joyce (pictured together), and himself to death before setting fire to his grand New Jersey home in 2014, officials ruled last year Friends in high places: Mr Sheridan (right) was close to Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie (left) Nine days after the couple were found dead, Governor Christie and two of his predecessors, Thomas Kean and Christine Todd Whitman, gave eulogies for John and Joyce Sheridan at a memorial service. The Sheridans' four children, Mark, Matt, Tim and Dan Sheridan, waited six months after their parents' death before prosecutors released a report calling the rich grandfather's death 'suicide'. The change of status from 'undetermined' reflects officials' belief that he killed his wife, whose death was ruled a homicide, in September 2014. The siblings sued the prosecutors but judges ruled they should instead take their fight to the state medical examiner's office, the New York Times reported. They did that in December, requesting a formal change of the manner of death. The brothers are now awaiting an update, and the case could end up being brought before court. If Mr Sheridan's death is changed back to undetermined, then his sons will have solid grounds to call for the case to be reopened. The siblings have campaigned for the evidence surrounding the case to be re-examined after noticing what they feel are a catalog of errors in the initial investigation. Mrs Sheridan, a 69-year-old retired high school teacher, died from a stab wound to her chest which hit her aorta, while her husband suffered 'sharp force injuries' to his carotid artery in his neck, as well as smoke inhalation, before his death. The Sheridans' four children, Mark (pictured), Matt, Tim and Dan Sheridan are challenging the official account of their parents' deaths Mr Sheridan (left, next to George Norcross, Gov. Christie and Dr Paul Katz in 2012) was found with five stab wounds to the neck and torso, while his wife had been stabbed 12 times in the head and hands Investigators said what appear to be defensive wounds on the wife-of-47-years' hands prove she was trying to defend herself before she was murdered. Officials pointed out that Mr Sheridan did not have any serious injuries to his hands, but did have 'hesitation wounds', small, self-inflicted cuts often found on suicide victims. The Sheridan brothers called in their own pathologist, Michael Baden, after disagreeing with the official autopsy verdict. Mr Sheridan (above) did not have any wounds on his hand, but did have 'hesitation wounds', small, self-inflicted cuts often found on suicide victims, officials said After analyzing both Mr and Mrs Sheridan's bodies, he and state medical examiner Eddy Lilavois agreed that three knives were used in the attack. Mysteriously, however, only two knives were found at the scene. A kitchen carving knife was used on Mrs Sheridan and a serrated bread knife was also found, although it is not clear if it caused any of her wounds. Both pathologists said a third knife caused Mr Sheridan's wounds, but it was never located - highly unusual in a murder-suicide. A pool of metal was found next to Mr Sheridan's body by detectives but was disregarded by prosecutors, with Soriano saying 'it could have been anything'. This infuriated Mark Sheridan, who argued it could have been the missing murder weapon. However, it is not clear whether a knife would have melted in a fire which was only intense enough to damage part of the bedroom. The family also discovered a fire poker in an en suite bathroom a month after the deaths, which had not been picked up on by detectives. The Sheridans did not have a fireplace upstairs and Mr Sheridan was found with broken ribs. Officials said these injuries were caused by a falling armoire, but the children are not so sure. Wads of Mr Sheridan's cash were found downstairs, which according to Soriano's report was a sign that no one had broken into the house. Two knives were found at the crime scene (pictured), but a third - used to kill Mr Sheridan - was never located The Sheridans (memorial service pictured) had been married for 47 years and, according to their children, were getting along fine before their deaths But Mark Sheridan told the New York Times that sometimes he dwells on thoughts about whether someone could have sneaked through woods near his parents' home and walked through the unlocked door before killing them, ignoring the money. He calls the current stage in the case his 'shot at the medical examiner'. Governor Christie, who was a close friend of his father's and hired Mark Sheridan as an attorney for his gubernatorial re-election campaign, oversees the state's medical examiner system. 'I am trying my best not to take shots at the governor,' Mark Sheridan said. Questioned about how he expects people to believe that a family so connected to the establishment could be let down by prosecutors, he said he 'totally gets it'. He said: 'I know it sounds offensive, but how do you deal with it if you're not this family? If you don't have the education, the knowledge, the connections, the financial wherewithal to fight the fight? Hillary Clinton is proclaiming her love for New Hampshire at a state Democratic party dinner. Clinton recalled her 2008 win in the New Hampshire primary at the event in Manchester Friday night. 'You lifted me up and gave me back my voice,' Clinton said. Scroll down for video Hillary Clinton reminded New Hampshire Democrats of what they did for her the last time she ran for president: 'You lifted me up and gave me back my voice,' she said in Manchester tonight 'I knew that here in the Granite State a little snow wasn't going to dampen the spirit of Democrats,' Clinton told the massive crowd Clinton had gotten weepy at a campaign event in the Granite State after being bested by now President Obama in the Iowa caucuses and came back to win New Hampshire. Now, having eked out a win in Iowa, it's New Hampshire she could lose. At the New Hampshire Democratic Party McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner dinner, Clinton noted that some question whether she should spend time in the state, given Bernie Sanders' sizable lead in the polls. But Clinton says New Hampshire has never quit on her and she's not going to quit on the state. 'I knew that here in the Granite State a little snow wasn't going to dampen the spirit of Democrats,' Clinton also said. Clinton also made a direct pitch to younger voters, who are more likely to be feeling the Bern. Clinton told the young people in the audience at the event in Manchester Friday that she was glad they were involved, whether or not they supported her. She says they bring energy, ideas and urgency to the process. Bernie Sanders stuck to his stump speech at Friday night's fundraiser for New Hampshire Democrats in Manchester, New Hampshire The former Secretary of State lags far behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with younger voters. Clinton says that she shares the liberal ideals espoused by Sanders, but argued she has more practical plans to get things done. Clinton also offered a new campaign refrain, asking voters to 'imagine a tomorrow' where liberal goals had been achieved, like raising the minimum wage. Clinton and Sanders are giving their closing statements to New Hampshire voters at a dinner hosted by the state Democratic party. Locked in an increasingly combative race, the former secretary of state and Vermont senator are powering toward Tuesday's primary. Sanders leads in the New Hampshire polls, though Clinton has the advantage in national surveys. Sanders stuck to talking points before a massive crowd at an event center in Manchester Friday night. Quantico actress Aunjanue Ellis looked stunning at the NAACP Image Awards on Friday, but she also spread a message with her white dress. The front the the Mississippian's white dress featured the words, 'Take it down Mississippi', along with a red hand print. The dress also featured a red hand print on Ellis's back shoulder. The Help star's message referenced her desire to see the Confederate emblem taken off the flag of Mississippi. Scroll down for video The words "Take It Down Mississippi" are written on actress Aunjanue Ellis' dress as she arrives at the 47th NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, California, on Friday The Help star's message referenced her desire to see the Confederate emblem taken off the flag of Mississippi. Ellis is originally from Mississippi Ellis was nominated at the NAACP Image Awards on Friday in the Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Miniseries or Dramatic Special category for her role in The Book of Negroes. Her statement comes just days after the NAACP asked two Mississippi counties to stop flying the state flag. The request was met resistance from the Sons of Confederate Veterans and some local residents who say it represents history. Local NAACP leaders on Monday asked boards of supervisors in coastal Harrison and Jackson counties to furl the flag, but neither board took immediate action. Jackson County NAACP chairman Curley Clark told supervisors they have 'the opportunity to be on the right side of history', The Mississippi Press reported. 'The history of this state is that it is a racist state and it has been symbolized by the leadership wanting to hold on to the Civil War and what the Confederacy represented,' Clark said. 'That flag perpetuates slavery and white supremacy and it is very insulting, demeaning, and something we want to try to put in our past.' 'We want to feel equal,' he said. 'However, it is very hard to do that with symbols in our face that infer we are inferior and that we do not belong.' Ellis proudly held her dress up so the message covering the front of her dress could be seen clearly by photographers The dress also featured red hand prints on the front and on Ellis's right shoulder blade A Vancleave resident, Frank Wiysel, told Jackson County supervisors he supports the Mississippi flag. 'African-Americans should be thankful for the Confederate flag not ashamed of it because it allowed you to be where you are today,' Wiysel said. 'We bought y'all over here as slaves and you should be thankful because of where y'all are today.' Several Mississippi cities and counties, and some public universities, have stopped flying the state flag in recent months. Debate over the public display of Confederate symbols across the South has intensified since June, when nine black worshippers were massacred at a South Carolina church. The man charged in the slayings had posed for online photos with the Confederate battle flag Mississippi has had the same flag since 1894 and is the last state with a banner that incorporates the Confederate battle emblem - a red field with a blue X dotted with 13 white stars. In a 2001 election, voters chose to keep the flag rather than replace it with Confederate symbol with a blue square topped by 20 white stars to represent Mississippi's admission as the 20th state. James Crowell, the president of the Biloxi NAACP, told Harrison County supervisors that the Confederate emblem is 'racist', the Sun Herald reported. Ellis was nominated at the NAACP Image Awards on Friday in the Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Miniseries or Dramatic Special category for her role in The Book of Negroes 'We will not belabor the basis of our opinion nor argue with the revisionists of history of the Civil War or Southern apologists,' Crowell said. He pointed to Mississippi's secession declaration, which said: 'Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery, the greatest material interest of the world.' A Sons of Confederate Veterans member, Wallace Mason, said in Harrison County that nobody has shown that the flag hurts tourism or other Mississippi businesses. 'They don't have the right to demand the flag be taken down from any public building after it was voted on by the majority,' Mason said. In October, The University of Mississippi quietly pulled down the state flag, deciding that the 121-year-old banner's Confederate battle emblem sends a harmful message in this age of diversity. Acting under the order of Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks, three campus police officers furled the flag before most students were awake, taking it down from a circle of honor between the white-columned administration building and a marble statue of a saluting Confederate soldier. A group of university leaders met a day earlier and agreed to take it down, days after the student and faculty senates urged its removal from the Oxford campus, a bastion for Southern elites since its founding in 1848. Prisoners in Mexico are preparing for the pope's visit in less than two weeks. Inmates at Cereso 3, in Ciudad Juarez, gathered outside to practice their singing on Friday. Some of them also painted wooden church benches. Francis, the first Latin American pope, will travel to Ciudad Juarez on February 17 for the last stop of his tour of Mexico. Cereso 3 was once a center of gang power where inmates acted violently and enacted their own rules, AP reported. But now officials have regained control, making it possible for Pope Francis to meet and pray with several inmates as well as their relatives and some religious workers. He will travel to Cereso 3 from Juarez airport, where he is due to land at 10:30am according to the agenda published by the Catholic diocese of El Paso. Inmates at Cereso 3, a prison in Ciudad Juarez, rehearsed a song they will sing during Pope Francis's visit less than two weeks from now Cereso 3 used to be a center of gang power where inmates acted violently and enacted their own rules. Officials have now regained control and restored discipline even though some shortcomings remain There, Pope Francis will meet several inmates and pray with them. He will then meet more than 3,000 business leaders and workers at Colegio Bachilleres. The pope will celebrate mass at 4pm at El Punto, a large field that can hold about 220,000 people. He will travel across approximately 31 miles across Ciduad Juarez. The shortcomings of the Mexican prison system came to light in July 2015, when drug lord Joaquin Guzman, also known as El Chapo, escaped from a maximum security facility through a tunnel leading to a nearby construction site. He was recaptured about six months later, in January 2016. Issues such as overcrowding, inmate control, corruption and violence remain, the Catholic News Service reported. 'It hasn't improved 100 percent,' Father Melendez, who ministers at the prison, said, 'but it's improved greatly.' Before his visit in Ciudad Juarez, the Pope will also stop by the state of Chiapas, where he will issue a decree authorizing the use of indigenous languages in Mass celebrations - a symbolic gesture in defense of Indian rights in the country. He will also stop by Cuba on his way to Mexico to meet the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill will appeal for an end to persecution and killing of Christians in the Middle East. It will be the first meeting in history between the Pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch. Prisoners also painted wooden church benches to prepare for the Pope's visit. Francis will travel to Cereso 3 from the airport. He will meet and pray with inmates, their relatives, and some religious workers Former teacher Roger Caffrey abused a string of young girls while working at a Nottingham Primary School A primary school deputy headteacher who raped and sexually molested a string of young girls - including some during lessons - has been jailed for 17-and-a-half years. Roger Caffrey, 70, was found guilty of three counts of rape relating to two girls, one aged under 14 and another over 16. He was also convicted of a total of 12 indecent assaults relating to all seven of his victims. He preyed on young girls while working as a deputy headteacher of a Nottingham primary school in the 1980s. Nottingham Crown Court heard Caffrey touched at least two girls in his store cupboard, summoning them after class before trapping them in the storeroom and lifting up their skirts. He would invite young pupils to read to the class at the blackboard, but would grope their bottoms behind his large desk, leaving them 'too petrified' to say anything. The court also heard Caffrey would befriend their mothers and tell them: 'If you say anything, no-one will believe you,' during his time at North Gate Primary School - now the Djanogly Northgate Academy - in New Basford, Nottingham. Caffrey, of Sandesquoy, Tankerness, Orkney, was jailed for 17-and-a-half years at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday. The jury took 24 hours to reach their unanimous guilty verdict and passed a letter to the judge expressing their admiration for the victims. The note ended: 'We hope this verdict brings some closure to the victims.' He was also banned from working with children and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for life. Judge Timothy Spencer said: 'He enjoyed a sense of complete power over the girls he abused. In my judgement you enjoyed that power and exploited it shamelessly. The classroom and school was a place where they must have felt safe or secure, they must have felt anything but.' The police investigation began when a former pupil made a complaint against Caffrey (pictured) in December 2012 Judge Spencer said Caffrey held a particular 'maligned power' over one of his victims, who he would ask to stay behind class, leaving her isolated and helpless. The court heard the well-built, former rugby player would then effectively trap her in the storeroom with him and abuse her. Judge Spencer said the victim's mother would also volunteer her daughter for chores at Caffrey's home in Wollaton, Nottingham, where he would repeatedly rape her. The Judge said Caffrey later raped a 19-year-old woman who visited his home in Stanton-on-the-Wolds, Nottingham, after 'engineering another situation on the pretext of helping him with chores'. The teenager was invited upstairs, overpowered and raped on the marital bed, but when she went to the police 22 years ago no charges were brought. Judge Spencer said: 'She was let down 20 years ago but, in my judgement, she has not been let down again.' He added that Caffrey 'deliberately targeted' victims who he calculated would not tell anyone. Many of his victims were in court to witness his sentence. Prosecutor Abigail Husbands said the police investigation began when a former pupil made a complaint against Caffrey in December 2012. She said: 'He became friends with mothers and almost made it impossible for the girls to say anything. He said 'if you say anything, no-one will believe you'.' During his trial, one victim said: 'I was scared I would not be believed because he was a teacher and I was a child. He was someone in authority who should be respected and parents would find out, so I didn't tell anybody.' She told the court she did not like going up to Caffrey's desk in front of the blackboard. She added: 'I felt sick to the stomach. Sometimes I would rather struggle with the problem than go up there. I could not tell him [to stop touching me] because I was too petrified to move.' The court heard when he was arrested, he said: 'It was all made up' and 'I never touched any pupils sexually.' Caffrey accepted he was a 'womaniser' and had an affair with a dinner lady, but denied all charges. He claimed he would put an encouraging arm around children and pat them on the side of the buttock area and say 'well done'. The 70-year-old was found guilty by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court (pictured) and jailed for 17 and a half years He added: 'There was no sexual intention at all.' He was found not guilty of two further indecent assault charges in the two-week trial. Speaking after the case, Detective Constable Rob Smith, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'Caffrey was in a position of trust and authority, a position which he abused by subjecting a number of young girls to sexual abuse. 'The victims in this case have shown incredible fortitude in coming forward to give their evidence, no doubt Caffrey believed that he would be able to put his past behind him, but as with many similar cases recently it has been shown that passage of time is no hindrance to justice taking its course.' Liz Anderson, executive headteacher of Djanogly Northgate Academy, added: 'This is a deeply distressing and shocking case. We want to offer our heartfelt sympathy to the victims and commend them for their bravery. They have shown immense courage in ensuring that justice has been served. A testy but still front-running Donald Trump will rejoin his Republican presidential rivals on the debate stage Saturday night in hopes of locking down a win in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. But many of his opponents may direct their fire at the surging Florida Sen. Marco Rubio instead. The upcoming first-in-the-nation primary in the Granite State will likely determine whether some contenders in an already shrinking field will move on or abandon their White House hopes. Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, has enough money to stay in the race as long as he likes, but anything short of a first-place finish in New Hampshire would damage his self-made image as a winner steaming through a sea of losers. His comfortable lead in national polls didn't help him win Monday's Iowa caucuses, although The Donald said Friday night in South Carolina that he thinks Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's victory should be discarded as the product of dirty tricks. Scroll down for video UNDER FIRE: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (left) will likely be in the crosshairs on Saturday night during a New Hampshire debate as he surges on the strength of a surprisingly strong third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses AFTERTHOUGHT? Donald Trump is leading in New Hampshire polls but Rubio's surge may sideline him on debate night SECOND PLACE: Ted Cruz is fighting to remain close behind Trump as Rubio threatens to overtake him in Tuesday's primary 'I think we should have come in first to be honest with you,' he told a rally in the mid-state city of Florence. 'A lot of things happened there. A lot of things happened.' That was a reference to the Cruz campaign's apparent strategy of spreading a false rumor on caucus night that retired surgeon Ben Carson was abandoning his candidacy, and cannibalizing votes from another strong evangelical Christian. Cruz's ultimate margin of victory over Trump was the equivalent of poaching just four votes from Carson in each of Iowa's caucus precincts. Trump called Cruz 'a double candidate' on Friday night. 'I don't think I did come in second,' he said. 'I think I came in first.' Chris Christie told a campaign rally in Bedford, New Hampshire on Saturday that Trump would be welcomed back to the stage 'with open arms' after he boycotted the final Iowa debate over a tiff with the Fox News Channel. The New Jersey governor said he was thrilled that 'none of you people made enough fun of Donald Trump to make him not come tonight.' ON THE WAY OUT? If New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie doesn't finish in the top three on Tuesday he could be pressured to quit the presidential race OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Carly Fiorina was excluded from Saturday night's debate because she failed to poll high enough, and she bitterly complained that she was being frozen out as the only woman in the contest third-place finish in Iowa gave him the edge among candidates swimming in what's known as New Hampshire's 'establishment lane.' Cruz and Trump are dominating the more conservative slipstream that has created most of the headlines since the presidential season began last summer. As a result of the young Rubio finding his sea legs and finishing a strong third in Iowa, his fellow moderates including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Christie have buried him in a flurry of criticism in recent days. Rubio, they say, lacks governing experience and is overly scripted on the campaign trail. 'Marco is a talented politician. He's a great guy, but he's not a leader,' Bush said Friday on MSNBC. Bush, once considered the prohibitive favorite to win the GOP's nomination, now finds himself as merely the second most popular Floridian. It didn't help Rubio's case that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the most recent GOP campaign drop-out, stumbled on Friday when a TV interviewer asked him to outline Rubio's top accomplishments in the U.S. Senate. Santorum, who had just endorsed Rubio, was flummoxed and stammered through a non-answer. Christie has repeatedly mocked Rubio as a 'bubble boy' whose staff protects him from having to answer tough questions about his record and what he would do as president. Bush, Christie and Kasich running fifth, sixth and seventh in what is now an eight-candidate Republican field have largely staked their presidential hopes on New Hampshire. Falling short of an expectations-beating finish there will likely produce pressure from the Republican National Committee to quit. Carson is also fighting to stay relevant. After a disappointing showing in Iowa, he took time off from campaigning and hasn't been a major presence in New Hampshire. The Iowa caucuses helped winnow the GOP group, allowing debate host ABC News to scrap Saturday's planned 'undercard' event for low-polling candidates. The debate rules left Carly Fiorina, the lone woman in the GOP contest and the lowest-polling candidate remaining, as the only one without a spot on stage at St. Anselm College in Manchester. Fiorina has bitterly protested her exclusion as a product of sexism, saying hew Iowa finish outperformed those of a few candidates who will debate Saturday night. Republicans including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich have come to her defense. The alleged ringleader of a gang who repeatedly raped a vulnerable 13-year-old schoolgirl in Yorkshire is believed to have fled abroad to Bangladesh before being sentenced. Arif Chowdhury, 20, allegedly left for Bangladesh during the investigation after he was arrested in 2012 in connection to the raping of the schoolgirl, Bradford crown court heard last year. He is also accused of pimping her out to his contacts in Keighley when he was just 15. Bangladesh has never extradited anyone to the UK, leaving West Yorkshire police with an uphill battle to find Chowdhury, according to The Guardian. Suspected paedophile Arif Chowdhury, (pictured) 20, allegedly left for Bangladesh during the investigation after he was arrested in 2012 in connection to the raping of a 13-year-old schoolgirl Louise Blackwell QC described Chowdhury, a convicted drug dealer, as being 'evil' and violent. A jury heard how Chowdhury first raped the girl, who cannot be named, behind a church when he was 15. He had previously got to know her when she was 13 after persuading her to do drug runs in Keighley. She had attempted to stop helping the drugdealer, revealing to police how he had racially abused her and then raped her. Chowdhury subjected her to regular beatings and made her have sex with other men in a year-long ordeal. He allegedly brought her to an underground car park to meet four teenage friends of Chowdhury before they raped her. Chowdhury subjected the girl to regular beatings and made her have sex with other men in a year-long ordeal, Bradford Crown court (pictured) heard Brothers Sufyan and Bilal Ziarab, both 22, were both convicted of two counts of rape along with Yasser Kabir, 25, and his 23-year-old half-brother Tauqeer Hussain. Mohammed Akram, a taxi driver, admitted to having sex with the girl. The prosecution described the girl, who was 14 at the time, as being 'easy prey' to Akram, who was 59 when he had sex with her in his taxi. Five other men were found guilty of raping the schoolgirl on a single afternoon in 2012. Brothers Nazir, 24, and Faisal Khan, 27, were found guilty of raping her along with their cousin Saqib Younis, 29, Zain Ali, 20, and Hussain Sardar, 19. Another man, Israr Ali, 19, forced the girl to perform oral sex and when she refused him, he threatened to call Chowdhury, she revealed to the police. Israr Ali was found guilty of rape. One last man pleaded guilty to five counts of rape on the day the trial was about to start. Khalid Mahmood, 34, gave the girl cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol before raping her in Cliff Castle Park in Keighley. When the trial started Mahmood was already serving an eight-year sentence after being found guilty of raping a 43-year-old woman in a park. He was also found guilty of attempted false imprisonment after trying to grab a child off the street. When they were being sent into custody, the judge, Mr Justice Thomas QC, commented on the men's attitude during the proceedings, criticising their 'contempt and arrogance.' 'In 40 years of practice, I have never seen a dock that has been as insolent and disrespectful as this one,' Mr Justice Thomas QC said. The men laughed and made comments towards female journalists during the trial. The men will be sentenced on Monday. Etienne Alexiou is suing former employers at ANZ for unfair dismissal He is the second high-profile banker to lose his job over a texting scandal A second high-rolling banker has lost his job after a set of lewd and obscene sexual text messages between a group of senior traders were uncovered last month. Commonwealth Bank of Australia trader Garfield Lee is understood to have been stood down on Wednesday for his involvement in the explicit conversations, according to the Weekend Australian. He is one of five bankers to have been brought up by ANZ for involvement in the texts, as part of the bank's defence to a $30 million unfair dismissal suit launched by former worker Etienne Alexiou. Details of crude messages sent via Bloomberg system chat between Mr Alexiou and the traders - who work at the CBA, UBS and HSBC - were presented as evidence in Federal court on Friday. In one conversation, Mr Alexiou tells Mr Lee: 'ud (sic) torpedo a jap chick ... running straight speed up a jap bird.' Scroll down for video Garfield Lee, a trader with Commonwealth Bank, is understood to have lost his job for his involvement in a set of obscene sexual text messages between other high-profile bankers Mr Lee is one of five bankers to have been brought up by ANZ for involvement in the texts, as part of the bank's defence to a $30 million unfair dismissal suit launched by former worker Etienne Alexiou (pictured) He also tells Mr Lee that he has taken 'too many disco biscuits' - slang for the drug ecstasy. In a September 2011 group chat, Mr Lee wrote: 'I can imagine ANZ and CBA compliance guys reading this chat.' 'Mmm, not exactly sackable', Mr Alexiou replied. Mr Alexiou is also alleged to have said 'im so sick of swiggin dom (champagne) out of the bottle at strip clubs anyway.' Most of the conversations took place between 2011 and 2013. Commonwealth Bank released a statement admitting that they had fired an employee for misconduct after an internal investigation. 'Commonwealth Bank is currently conducting an internal investigation of communications that occurred between 2009 and 2013,' the statement read. In ANZ's defence to Mr Alexiou's unfair dismissal suit in Federal Court on Friday, they revealed conversations between the bankers - mostly between 2011 to 2013 Mr Alexiou allegedly wrote to Mr Lee: 'ud (sic) torpedo a jap chick ... running straight speed up a jap bird' 'Part of this investigation has uncovered evidence of non-trading related breaches that has resulted in the dismissal of an employee for offensive language and behaviour.' 'Commonwealth Bank has zero tolerance for conduct that contradicts our core values by any employee and we demand high standards of behaviour and professional conduct from all our employees.' Mr Alexiou was fired for breaching ANZ's code of conduct, but is now suing the Australian bank in the Federal Court for lost bonuses, damages and the loss of future income as a result of his sacking. He said his employer advocated a 'toxic culture' of narcotics, alcohol and sex, shortly after he was sacked for sending 'explicit messages' about strip clubs and drugs. He claimed that when a 'white substance' was found in the toilets on the bank's dealing floor one trader said: 'What a waste, it should have been sprinkled on a birthday cake.' He also alleged in his court statement that he raised concerns about the bank's conduct towards investors and clients on three occasions and claimed drunk traders damaged property at a retreat. The trader, who helped oversee a portfolio worth more than $120 billion, was one of seven traders suspended in mid-November. They were stood down during an investigation by the corporate watchdog into possible manipulation of the bank bill swap rate. Not the only banks involved: Traders from HSBC and UBS are said to have engaged in the lewd conversations A 10-year-old boy was so brutally raped by an Iraqi migrant in a swimming pool cubicle that he had to be hospitalised for his injuries. A lifeguard immediately called an ambulance after the boy went to him in floods of tears, while the Iraqi was entertaining himself by repeatedly jumping off the three-metre diving board. Police arrested him on the spot at the pool in Vienna, and during an interrogation, he told them that it was a 'sexual emergency' as he had not had sex in four months. A 10-year-old boy was so brutally raped by an Iraqi migrant in a cubicle at The Resienbad (pictured) pool in Vienna on December 2 and he had to go to hospital because of his injuries A lifeguard immediately called an ambulance after the boy went to him in floods of tears, while the Iraqi was entertaining himself by repeatedly jumping off the three-metre diving board at the pool (pictured) The Iraqi, who had been working as a taxi driver in Vienna, told police he knew it was 'a mistake' and did not mean to 'scar the boy', reports Kronen Zeitung. But the migrant, who had entered the country through the Balkans on September 5, official records show, said he could not help himself as he had an 'excess sexual energy'. He told police that he knew such an act was 'forbidden in any country of the world', and he was not 'always sick', as he has a wife and a daughter in Iraq. At first, Austrian did not release details of the rape, on December 2 at The Resienbad pool, to protect the victim. The migrant arrived via the Balkans in September. Thousands of people cross into the country from Slovenia to get into Europe (pictured) Reports emerged on Facebook and police said they must be sensitive about cases involving migrants, who have 'been through a lot', but that there would be zero-tolerance. However, police have now officially announced the details of the shocking crime. Austrian media have also been following another case of a 13-year-old girl who is allegedly repeatedly being raped by her 26-year-old husband, who she married in Syria. However, the teenager has not spoken against her husband, who is claiming that he has the right to have sex with her after their marriage was consummated, under Islamic law. Annual mega-bash famed for lavish and skimpily dressed samba parades expected to attract five million people 'the 'best on Earth' The organisers promised a spectacular show and said the huge, dazzling event was Advertisement Rio's five-day festival of dancing, bared flesh and wild costumes got underway in the face of warnings the Zika virus might make even kissing dangerous. Mayor Eduardo Paes handed a big golden key to the carnival's ceremonial King Momo, who promised a spectacular show. 'With great happiness, brotherly love and peace, I declare the best carnival on Earth open - our carnival in the marvelous city,' the dancing king, who is elected ahead of the festivities, said on Friday. The annual mega-bash famed for lavish and skimpily dressed samba parades and all-night street dancing is expected to attract as many as five million people. Scroll down for video In Sao Paulo, carnival celebrations were kicked off under intermittent summer rain, with a tribute to Carlinhos de Jesus, one of Brazil's most famous salon dancers Revelers dressed as Aedes aegypti mosquitos participate in the iGalo da Madrugai or The Dawn Rooster carnival parade, in downtown of Recife, Brazil. The Aedes is a vector for the transmission of the Zika virus Revelers of the Perola Negra and Aguia de Ouro samba schools perform during the first night of carnival parade at the Anhembi Sambadrome in Sao Paulo Carnival Parade at the Anhembi Sambadrome This year's carnival across Brazil starts under the cloud of the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus Rio de Janeiro is struggling with deep recession and the economic hurt has extended to the carnival industry Regal delight: The floats kept on coming at the carnival which went ahead despite the current Zika virus scare which is gripping Brazil Smart outfits: A dancer from the Rosas de Ouro samba school performs (left) while a member of the samba school, Nene de Vila Matilde, (right) has fun on the streets Revellers of the Aguia de Ouro samba school perform during the first night of the carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Sao Paulo, Brazil Dazzling: This year's carnival across Brazil starts under the cloud of the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, which normally provokes few ill effects, but is blamed for an outbreak of serious birth defects in babies born to mothers infected while pregnant Glorious in blue: Performers dazzled on the streets as the annual carnival, which attracts five million people each year, got underway All smiles: Like the rest of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro is struggling with deep recession and the economic hurt has extended to the carnival industry Mayor Eduardo Paes handed a big golden key to Rio's carnival ceremonial King Momo, who promised a spectacular show. With great happiness, brotherly love and peace, I declare the best carnival on Earth open - our carnival in the Marvelous City,' the dancing king, who is elected ahead of the festivities, said on Friday In Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous city and its economic capital, carnival celebrations were kicked off under intermittent summer rain, with a tribute to Carlinhos de Jesus, one of Brazil's most famous salon dancers. This year's carnival across Brazil starts under the cloud of the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, which normally provokes few ill effects, but is blamed for an outbreak of serious birth defects in babies born to mothers infected while pregnant. The scare gripping Latin America took a new twist with the announcement that the virus - so far believed to be transmitted almost exclusively through mosquito bites - can be detected in saliva and urine. There is no proof yet that Zika can spread through bodily fluids, said Paulo Gadelha, head of the Fiocruz institute in Rio de Janeiro. But he still advised pregnant women 'to avoid kissing.' The carnival usually peaks on Sunday and Monday nights with competing samba parades famous for their choreography and extraordinary costumes What a creation: Hundreds of people can be seen watching as the colourful parade continues through the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil Imaginative costumes: The carnival is continuing over the weekend across Brazil as visitors from across the globe arrive to join in the fun The Zika scare gripping Latin America took a new twist with the announcement that the virus - so far believed to be transmitted almost exclusively through mosquito bites - can be detected in saliva and urine Pearly kings and queens: The carnival usually peaks on Sunday and Monday nights with competing samba parades famous for their choreography and extraordinary costumes Colourful character: Big ensembles competing in the Sambadrome say that city funding has dried up and that private sponsors are also running scared Immaculate costumes: As the crowds increased so did the the number of performers who took in all manner of costume and culture Groovy: The hippie-movement looks to be the inspiration for this VW Camper Van and performers part of the carnival's parade Revelers of the Perola Negra samba school perform during the first night of carnival parade at the Anhembi Sambadrome The carnival which peaks on Sunday and Monday nights with the competing samba parades at the Sambadrome, famous for their choreography and extraordinary costumes. But like the rest of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro is struggling with deep recession and the economic hurt has extended to the carnival industry. Big ensembles competing in the Sambadrome say that city funding has dried up and that private sponsors are also running scared, while the plunging value in the national currency means importing mostly Chinese fabrics for costumes has driven up prices. 'The situation has been difficult for four or five years, but this year was worse because everyone is in crisis and prices are rising,' the administrator of the Uniao da Ilha samba school, Marcio Andre Mehry de Souza, said. In Sao Paulo, revelers of the Perola Negra samba school perform during the first night of carnival parade Having fun: The dancing continued way into the night - with millions of people on the streets enjoying themselves with the festival fun Magnificent creatures: The administrator of the Uniao da Ilha samba school, Marcio Andre Mehry de Souza, said the financial situation had been difficult for four or five years Team of dancers: In Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous city and its economic capital, carnival celebrations were kicked off under intermittent summer rain, with a tribute to Carlinhos de Jesus, one of Brazil's most famous salon dancers Scary monsters: The carnival season across Brazil has started up with the organisers in Rio declaring their event the 'best on Earth' Green prickly characters: All manner of different designs were used to create the fabulous floats for the hugely popular carnival Great look: A dancer from the Unidos da Vila Maria samba school performs during a carnival parade in Sao Paulo backed by drummers Super designs: Hours and hours of work would have gone into the design and manufacture of the dozens of colourful carnival floats Get into the groove: Dancers dressed up conjure all manner of poses to get the audience moving at the carnival event in Sao Paulo Electric movers: Lightbulbs were the cue here for someone when dreaming up these wacky costumes for the popular carnival parade This way forward: An arrow-leading float takes centrestage here as the carnival continues in the streets as the crowds look on A woman and a child have become the first Zika cases confirmed in Queensland as authorities warn pregnant women not to travel to areas where they could be infected with the deadly virus. The youngster was diagnosed after being admitted to a Brisbane hospital with symptoms following a family trip to Samoa. It was the second case confirmed within 24 hours after a woman, aged in her 20s, was diagnosed one month after returning home to the Gold Coast from El Salvador in Central America. Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick said both the woman and child are recovering well, the ABC reported. Scroll down for video The virus has been linked to a number of birth defects including microcephaly, a neurological disorder in which infants are born with undersized heads (pictured is a baby born with the disorder) The woman first saw a GP in mid-December and was told she had a Flavivirus, which includes dengue, yellow fever and Zika. But she became ill again and recently presented to a Gold Coast Hospital, which ran further tests that confirmed she had Zika. Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young has urged pregnant women not to travel to places where there have been Zika outbreaks. The virus has been linked to a number of birth defects including microcephaly, a neurological disorder in which infants are born with undersized heads. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the suspected link between the virus and microcephaly appears 'stronger and stronger'. Dr Young said southeast Queensland wasn't at risk of Zika, because the virus is predominantly transmitted to humans through the bites of Aedes mosquitoes. The two people infected have not travelled to north Queensland. 'I'm very confident that the two people we've just confirmed ... are no risk to anyone,' Dr Young said. The virus is transmitted by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti (stock) and A. albopictus It comes after health authorities in Western Australian confirmed an adult who recently returned from Central America had been diagnosed with Zika virus infection. New South Wales Health earlier confirmed a woman and a man in Sydney were infected with Zika virus after travelling to Central America. But the NSW Health director of communicable diseases Vicky Sheppeard said there was no reason to be alarmed. There have been 10 cases of Zika virus reported in Queensland in the past two years, according to a health spokesman. ZIKA LINK WITH BIRTH DEFECT 'STRONGER AND STRONGER' - CDC The suspected link between the Zika virus and a birth defect known as microcephaly appears 'stronger and stronger' as researchers study whether there is a causal connection, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday. Scientists are trying to establish whether infection with the Zika virus during pregnancy causes microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and an underdeveloped brain. Dr Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said the agency is also working with researchers in Brazil to study a potential link between Zika and a wider array of developmental disorders in babies. The CDC upgraded its guidelines for testing pregnant women who have traveled to areas affected by the outbreak on Friday. Advertisement Mr Dick said the cases in Queensland showed the state's Zika detection systems were working and it was likely more people would be infected. 'I expect that there will be more positive tests in Queensland - we need to be ready for that,' he said. Mr Dick said enhanced testing for Zika in Townsville, where the mosquitoes that can carry the virus are found, would begin on March 1. He has also asked the health department to accelerate a $1 million education campaign highlighting the risks of Zika. Queensland recorded three Zika cases last year, down from seven the previous year. Mr Dick said all of those people were infected while overseas, and the virus had not taken hold in mosquitoes in north Queensland. Those infected with Zika are most at risk of spreading the virus in the seven days after infection. They are told not to travel to north Queensland where a mosquito could bite them and begin transmitting the virus. The virus is transmitted by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti and A. albopictus. Any north Queenslanders who became infected will be told to stay in air-conditioned rooms that mosquitoes couldn't access, Dr Young said. Most infected people have no symptoms or experience only a mild illness but the virus has been linked to microcephaly, a neurological disorder in which infants are born with undersized heads. Julian Assange's alleged rape victim has criticised the UN for ruling he has been illegally detained - and called for him to 'take responsibility'. The WikiLeaks founder yesterday lashed out at the British Government for rubbishing a UN decision that he is being unlawfully detained, claiming he has been 'vindicated'. In December, prosecutors in Sweden, where Assange is wanted for questioning over the alleged sexual assault, offered to interview him at the embassy in London, but Ecuador refused access. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, his alleged rape victim described the UN panel's decision as 'offensive' and said she wants 'vindication'. Scroll down for video Julian Assange lashed out at Philip Hammond for rubbishing the UN's decision that he is being unlawfully detained, and claimed that the UN panel's ruling is 'legally binding' 'The panel seems to have a lack of understanding of the fact the alleged rape of a woman is one of the most serious violations and abuses of human rights,' her solicitor Elisabeth Massi Fritz told Ben Glaze and Adam Aspinall of the Mirror. She added: 'That a man who is wanted on an arrest warrant for rape should be awarded compensation for intentionally hide from the judicial system for more than five years is offensive to my client and to the human rights of all victims of crime. 'It is time that Assange packs his bag, steps out of the embassy and begins to cooperate with the Swedish Prosecuting Authority.' The ruling has caused outrage among women's rights groups, particularly in Sweden, where the UN panel has been accused of being rape apologists. 'Evidently the UN thinks that the justice of the women who have been assaulted and raped is less important than the right of a possible offender to walk freely in the streets,' Clara Berglund, General Secretary of the Swedish Women's Lobby, told The Local. Zozan Inci, the chairperson of Roks, a lobby group representing shelters for women affected by male violence, added: 'There is a girl in Sweden who's been [allegedly] raped. He needs to come here and go through the process that everyone else goes through.' 'What disturbs me is that the UN is putting men's human rights before women's human rights - as they always do in these situations. Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond branded the UN panel's report on Assange 'ridiculous' and said the WikiLeaks founder is a 'fugitive from justice' avoiding lawful arrest by hiding out at the embassy. But in a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Assange has declared the UN report a 'victory of historical importance'. Assange holds a copy of the UN report which claimed he was being 'arbitrarily detained' in the embassy, while claiming to assembled media that it proved he had been vindicated In a short speech to those assembled outside, he claimed it was time his children 'had their father back' He told a scrum of journalists and supporters: 'How sweet it is! This is a victory that cannot be denied. It is a victory of historical importance. 'There have been comments by Philip Hammond, the foreign minister of this country and says this changes nothing. Hammond may be a perfectly nice person but his comments are merely rhetoric. Brandishing a hard copy of the panel's opinion, he was dressed in a charcoal suit and tie and squinted in the daylight as he spoke. He paused frequently, apparently overwhelmed. Referring to his children, the 44-year-old Australian said: 'It's time that they had their father back. That will happen one way or the other. 'I'm tough, I'm hardened by this process and I can take it. However, what right does this government or the US government or the Swedish government have to deny my children their right to their father for five years? 'My children are completely innocent parties to what has happened. They are not in the business of holding government to account. They are in the business of being children.' He further claimed he was under an 'illegal, immoral, unethical detention' after British police said they would arrest him as soon as he sets foot outside the embassy onto British soil to extradite him to Sweden. 'It is the end of the road for legal arguments by the UK and Sweden. Those arguments lost and the time for an appeal is over.' Earlier today, speaking via video link, Assange said the U.N. panel's finding that he has been arbitrarily detained is a 'vindication', falsely claiming that the decision is legally binding. 'I've read this morning this comments of Philip Hammond insulting the United Nations, calling the decision ridiculous,' the 44-year-old said. 'I find those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign minister should express in this situation.' Both Sweden and the UK have made it clear that they reject the UN panel's findings, saying they have no legal force, and that the arrest warrant for Assange still stands. Both Sweden and the UK have made it clear that they reject the UN panel's findings, while Philip Hammond today declared it 'ludicrous', and said Assange is a 'fugitive from justice' Prosecutors in Sweden, where Assange is wanted for questioning over an alleged sexual assault, last year offered to interview him at the embassy in London, but he refused Looking extremely pale, Assange made a rare appearance on the Ecuadorian embassy balcony in London today to address the panel's findings Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had stated: 'I reject the decision of this working group. It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers. 'Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy. He can come out any time he chooses... But he will have to face justice in Sweden if he chooses to do so. 'This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it.' The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a statement that it 'considers that the various forms of deprivation of liberty to which Julian Assange has been subjected constitute a form of arbitrary detention'. Seong-Phil Hong, who currently heads the expert panel, added: 'The Working Group maintains that the arbitrary detention of Mr Assange should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected, and that he should be entitled to an enforceable right to compensation.' The panel's decision was not unanimous: Vladimir Tochilovsky, a Ukrainian member, disagreed with the other three voting members because he did not believe the group had a mandate to investigate the case because he did not believe Assange had been detained. The fifth member of the panel recused herself because she is Australian, as is Assange. Earlier today Assange spoke via video link from his refuge-of-three-years, the Ecuadorian embassy in London British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond branded the UN working group's report on Assange 'ridiculous' and said the WikiLeaks founder is a 'fugitive from justice' Statement: Philip Hammond took to Twitter to add to his previous statement on Julian Assange The Swedish government also said it did not agree that Assange's stay in Ecuador's London embassy amounted to 'unlawful detention'. 'The government does not agree with the assessment made by the majority of the Working Group,' the Swedish foreign ministry said in a letter to the panel, adding that the body does not have the right to 'interfere in an ongoing case handled by a Swedish public authority'. 'Mr Assange is free to leave the embassy at any point and Swedish authorities have no control over his decision to stay at the embassy,' the Swedish ministry said. 'Mr Assange can therefore not be regarded as being deprived of his liberty due to any decision or action taken by the Swedish authorities.' Members of the media stand outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London earlier today, where the WikiLeaks founder has been living since June 2012 In addition, the UK Foreign Office has today said the UN's decision 'changes nothing' and that Britain will formally contest the working group's opinion issued earlier in Geneva. 'Assange is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy,' a government spokesman said Friday morning. 'An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European Arrest Warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.' The Swedish Prosecution Authority has said the ruling 'has no formal impact on the ongoing investigation, according to Swedish law.' Former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who is part of Assange's legal team, said Sweden and the UK are bound to abide by a U.N. panel's finding that Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained. He says both countries cooperated with the panel and it is 'absurd' for them to ignore its decision because it went against them. Left, the logo of WikiLeaks, an organisation co-founded by Julian Assange. Right, Assange speaks from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 Showing support: Dame Vivienne Westwood, shows her passport as she visits Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy on Thursday afternoon Mr Assange has endured a self-imposed imprisonment in a single room after being given diplomatic asylum at the embassy in London's Knightsbridge. The embassy - strewn with red, yellow and blue Ecuadorian flags - takes up a single floor of an imposing block behind Harrods. Initially, Assange slept on an inflatable mattress donated by embassy staff, but when it became clear his stay was not going to be temporary, a small room was transformed into his living quarters and a bed installed. He is thought to have stood in direct sunlight for only about 20 minutes during his incarceration, when he emerged on the balcony to address his supporters in August 2012. He has a specially adapted lamp to mimic sunlight in his room - which measures just 15ft by 13ft - and his only exercise taken on a treadmill donated by the Left-wing film-maker Ken Loach. Sources have said his health has suffered ever since he walked in almost four years ago, and there is a suspicion Assange, still unapologetic about his role in leaking government secrets, is pushing to leave because of illness. Holed up: Julian Assange has been living inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, and while the Metropolitan police ended its 24-hour guard last year, the building remains under covert surveillance Mr Assange believes he will be transported to the U.S. to be quizzed over the activities of WikiLeaks if he is extradited to Sweden. There is an espionage case against him in the U.S. He filed a complaint to the UN against Sweden and the UK in September 2014, saying he was a political refugee whose rights had been infringed by being unable to take up asylum in Ecuador. The Metropolitan Police have said they will make 'every effort' to arrest the WikiLeaks founder should he leave the embassy. Police have ended a 24-hour guard outside the embassy, but the building remains under covert surveillance. A controversial 'pro-rape pick-up artist' is posting the personal details of journalists who have criticised him online. Daryush Valizadeh - also known as Roosh V - is infamous for arguing that raping women should be legal on private property. Labelled 'Operation Bullhorn', Roosh has asked his online supporters to 'adopt' a journalist and post their details on his forum. They have been instructed to gather photos, Facebook profiles and have even been told to save addresses for possible future use. Scroll down for video Daryush Valizadeh (pictured) - also known as Roosh V - is infamous for arguing that raping women should be legal on private property. He is now is posting the personal details of journalists who have criticised him online For 'Operation Bullhorn', Roosh V has asked his online supporters to 'adopt' a journalist and post their details on his forum. They have been instructed to gather photos, Facebook profiles and have even been told to save addresses 'for possible future use' One forum user said the backlash was 'because women are scared that they won't be able to get a free lunch anymore by virtue of having a vagina.' The backlash follows criticism of international meetups which included eight UK cities, including Manchester, London, Leeds, and Glasgow. The meet-ups, set to take place today, were cancelled after Roosh claimed he feared for the safety of his supporters. Disheveled: This was the scene this week when, dressed in a t-shirt with sweat-stained armpits, and shorts, Daryush Valizadeh was seen for the first time since the storm erupted over his 'pro-rape' views Valizadeh hired a security guard and refused to emerge from his home this week Student journalist Emma Healey, 21, was featured on the list after writing an article for The Tab Leeds. 'It's really quite scary - all I was doing was writing a news story. I definitely didn't see this coming, but I received a message last night from someone in America letting me know that I was on this list. 'It's really odd because I am the only student journalist on there. I'm unpaid, yet I'm still a target. 'I've spent a lot of today walking around on edge - but if they're reacting like this, then it's clear I'm doing the right thing. 'They wouldn't have reacted like this if it wasn't a threat. It's just a testament to the power of words.' The move follows criticism of international meetups between Roosh V and his followers which were cancelled after he claimed he feared for the safety of his supporters Mr Valizadeh is set to hold a media press conference tonight in Washington DC. The 36-year-old has 15 self-published books, many of which have been widely condemned as 'rape guides' by media, residents and politicians who live in the countries he is writing about. He regularly attacks women on his Twitter account and also runs a YouTube channel that has 19,000 subscribers. His website Return of Kings publishes articles written by Mr Valizadeh and a 'small but vocal' collection of men who hope to bring an end to America's 'politically-correct society that allows women to assert superiority and control over men'. For the BBC documentary, Reggie Yates' Extreme UK, the presenter attended one of Mr Valizadeh's seminars The 36-year-old has 15 self-published books, many of which have been widely condemned as 'rape guides' by media, residents and politicians who live in the countries he is writing about David St Vincent's decomposing body was found in his Bucharest apartment nearly a month ago and police are now treating it as suspicious Police in Bucharest are investigating the suspicious death of an English travel writer and activist who helped bring about the decriminilisation of homosexuality in Romania David St Vincent's decomposing body was found in his Bucharest apartment by his landlady nearly a month ago and it was originally thought that he has died from natural causes. However, police announced today that the case of the death of the 48-year-old has been handed over to the prosecutor's office in Bucharest, spokeswoman Bogdan Ghebaur said yesterday. Eric Gilder, a friend and English teacher in Papua New Guinea, said: 'He was a perfectly British eccentric in the best possible way, like a character in an Evelyn Waugh or Graham Greene novel. He will be sorely missed.' Friends of Mr St Vincent say he was epileptic, suffered from blood pressure problems and labyrinthitis - an inner-ear infection causing dizziness, reports The Independent. They have not ruled out the possibility that his death on January 12 may yet turn out to be from natural causes. Oxford University graduate Mr St Vincent wrote about 350 destinations and topics for the National Geographic Society covering more than 80 countries and territories, according to his CV. He was the sole author of the first travel guide for Iran, but was deported in 1992 while researching his Lonely Planet book, accused of planning to import Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. In his online CV, he says he has visited more than 50 destinations due to his love of writing, traveling, 'wanderlust - or sometimes the pursuit of cheap vodka'. He jokes: 'I am used to matching or exceeding the highest standards in the travel -publishing business. But as I'm terribly British, I am hopeless at telling the world how wonderful I am.' The Oxford University graduate's decomposing body was found by his landlady in his home in Bucharest (pictured) on January 12 but it was originally thought he died due to natural causes Mr St Vincent went to Romania to write a travel book in 1994 ad was a founder of Accept, a group that was instrumental in the 2001 decriminalization of homosexuality. However, the group initially had to hold its meetings in secret because of threats of violence. Mr St Vincent returned to Romania two years ago and was well known for his tweed jackets and Panama hats, reports the He was an active supporter of Syrians opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad, and kept close contact with them. The Syrian Foreign Minister has warned that any foreign ground troops who enter the warzone without official approval would be sent home to their countries 'in coffins.' Syria will see any incursion on its territory as an act of aggression, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said today just days after Saudi Arabia announced it was ready to send in ground troops. 'Any ground intervention on Syrian land without the agreement of the Syrian government is an act of aggression ... we regret that those (who invade) will return to their countries in coffins,' al-Moualem told journalists. Syria will see any incursion on its territory as an act of aggression, said Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem (pictured) Thousands of civilians have felt the city of Aleppo following an upscale in Russian airstrikes and advancing SAA troops on the rebel-held parts of the city The comments come after Bahrain followed Saudi Arabia in announcing that it is ready to commit ground troops to Syria as part of a U.-S.-led coalition against ISIS. Bahraini ambassador to Britain Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Khalifa said in a statement that Bahrain would commit troops to operate 'in concert with the Saudis' under what he called the international coalition against terrorism. He added that the United Arab Emirates, a fellow member of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), was also ready to commit troops. His comments echo an assertion made late last year by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash. One Syrian man tries to comfort a devastated young boy as they stand among the rubble in Aleppo Nearly 40,000 Syrian civilians have fled a regime offensive near Aleppo, a monitor group has said Hundreds of men arrive at the Ba al-Salam border gate which leads from northern Syria into Turkey Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the U.S.-led alliance decides to start such operations, an adviser to the Saudi defence minister said. The Bahraini ambassador said the Saudi initiative in Syria was meant to combat both Islamic State and 'the brutal Assad regime', a reference to President Bashar al-Assad, a bitter foe of Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Fawaz also announced the GCC had decided to base a new unified GCC naval operations centre in Bahrain. 'The establishment of a joint (Gulf Arab) force shows clearly and unequivocally that under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states are determined to take positive action within the region and globally to combat terrorism and extremism, from whatever quarter they emanate,' he said. The Syrian Foreign Minister's comments come after Bahrain followed Saudi Arabia in announcing it is ready to commit ground troops to Syria as part of a U.-S.-led coalition against ISIS. Gina Lollobrigida accuses her former toy boy boyfriend Javier Rigau y Rafols (pictured together in 2006) of tricking her into marriage and using an imposter as her stand-in at the ceremony Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida's Spanish toyboy 'husband' has rubbished her court claims they never consummated the marriage she alleges was fake. Businessman Javier Rigau, 54, said the first words the 88-year-old taught him in Italian translated as: 'Let's be together. Let's f***.' The soldier's son hit out at the ageing screen siren, who ruled Hollywood in the fifties and sixties, after she told his fraud and forgery trial in Rome on Monday: 'Even when we went travelling we slept in separate rooms and we never had intimate relations.' Rigau, who Gina accuses of faking a bizarre proxy November 2010 wedding so he could get his hands on her fortune, told Spanish website Vanitatis: 'It's caused me great pain seeing Gina saying the things she has against our marriage. 'I've seen a person who doesn't resemble physically or mentally the one I had at my side for years.' Recalling an October 2006 interview they gave to Spain's Hola! magazine announcing their engagement where Gina revealed the love between them was followed by passion, he added: 'Although we always spoke in French, the first words she taught me when I was very young in Italian were: 'Siamo in sieme, andiamo a scopare' which means, "let's be together, let's f***". 'If I say how old she was when she went to bed with me, I wouldn't show her in a good light.' Lollobrigida has gone on the attack in Italy after a Spanish court closed its probe into allegations Rigau attempted to swindle his former partner through a proxy marriage at a civil ceremony in Barcelona. She claims he tricked her into signing a power of attorney document following years of dating which Rigau says started when they met at a party in Monte Carlo in 1984 when he was 23 and Lollobrigida was 57. Javier, on trial on charges of forgery and fraud, has denied swindling his former partner and claims she willingly consented to the marriage but wanted to keep it quiet to avoid publicity. If he is found guilty, Gina will be entitled to receive damages from him and to apply for the marriage to be annulled. Rigau, who was in court to hear his ex-partner claim they never had sex, is expected to reveal on Monday if he will give evidence in the ongoing case. He insisted ahead of its resumption he was confident of clearing his name. 'This case will end up being archived in Italy like it was in Spain,' Rigau said. 'I'm not at all worried after it was shown in Spain that the marriage was valid. Actress Gina Lollobrigida arrives at the Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square in this 1955 photograph The screen siren (pictured left and right in the 50s) starred in popular films including Trapeze, Woman of Rome and The Hunchback of Notre Dame 'Gina's testimony was full of contradictions. I was saddened at seeing her so bad.' Rigau has previously claimed the actress denied knowledge of their wedding after coming under the influence of new manager Andrea Piazzolla. In 2008 he was awarded 15,000 in damages after successfully suing Spanish state broadcaster TVE for libel following a programme suggesting he surrounded himself with older women and referring to rumours he was a gigolo. He insisted in a February 2013 UK newspaper interview: 'Gina and I married for love and despite everything I still love her very much.' Lollobrigida, who had a string of film hits with the likes of Errol Flynn, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner, has a fortune estimated at 35 million. Humphrey Bogart, who starred with Gina in her first Hollywood film 'Beat The Devil' in 1953, once said of her: 'She makes Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple.' The AFP has been asked to help in the murder case of a former Australian university student who could face the death penalty after being accused of lacing a friend's iced coffee with cyanide. Jessica Kumala Wongso, 27, has been charged with the premeditated murder of her friend, Wayan Mirna Salihin, who died in Olivier restaurant in Central Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 6. The Indonesian Police has approached the Australian Federal Police for help, but Justice Minister Michael Keenan would have to sign off on any release of information, Fairfax reported. Ms Wongso and Ms Salihin reportedly studied together at Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney and Swinburne University of Technology. Jessica Kumala Wongso (pictured) who is accused of lacing a friend's iced coffee with the deadly substance cyanide has been charged with premeditated murder and could face the death penalty Wayan Mirna Salihin died after consuming a cup of iced coffee that was laced with cyanide on January 6 Police said Ms Wongso arrived at the cafe around an hour before her two friends and ordered three drinks, including the Vietnamese iced coffee that is believed to have killed Ms Salihin. Jakarta Commissioner Edi Hasibuan said the accused was seen on CCTV footage sliding the drink towards the young newlywed before she fell to the ground, started foaming at the mouth and convulsing. He alleges that security footage captured her looking back and forth to see if anyone was around while she handled the coffee before the encounter, Indonesian media reported. Mr Hasibuan said the camera's vision was obstructed when Ms Wongso placed a paper bag on the table. Yudi Wibowo, Ms Wongso's lawyer and uncle, challenged police to released the footage to the public as he believes it will clear his niece's name but authorities declined as it is evidence in an ongoing investigation. Ms Wongso has participated in a re-enactment with police at the restaurant Jakarta Commissioner Edi Hasibuan said the accused was seen on CCTV footage sliding the drink towards the young newlywed before she fell to the ground The Indonesian Police has approached the Australian Federal Police for help, but Justice Minister Michael Keenan (pictured) would have to sign off on any release of information He also denied that cyanide was involved in the murder and questioned an autopsy that allegedly confirmed that Ms Sahlihin had the poison in her system. Head of the Jakarta Police forensic laboratory Brigadier General Alex Mandalika said results indicated that more than a deadly dose of cyanide was found in her stomach. 'Based on our investigation results, the concentration reached 15 grams per litre. Just imagine, 90 milligrams alone is already lethal,' he told the Jakarta Globe. The AFP said it has been informed about the arrest, but it has not yet released any information to the Indonesian National Police. Ms Salihin took a sip and said her drink tasted bitter before dropping to the floor, convulsing and foaming at the mouth MsSalihin had only just married her partner Arief Soemarko, who was left devastated after her death A spokesman said it will seek ministerial approval for any such release, according to Fairfax. But a spokesman for Mr Keenan said the minister has not yet received a formal request. Ministerial approval is needed for international police assistance in any case where a person has been detained, arrested, charged or convicted of an offence that carries the death penalty. Ms Wongso has maintained her innocence since her former study partner's death, telling reporters that she 'does not know where the cyanide came from'. 'I just want to help police and Mirna's family reveal who was behind all of this,' she told the Jakarta Globe. Ms Wongso has maintained her innocence since her former study partner's death, telling reporters that she 'does not know where the cyanide came from' Ms Wongso said she hopes to assist police so that they can find the person behind her friend's death Tests found that she had been poisoned by cyanide, traces of which were found in the coffee she was drinking when she collapsed and died Mr Soemarko is comforted as he walks in front of his new bride's coffin before her burial The 27-year-old has been charged under Article 340 of the Criminal Code on premeditated murder, which carries a jail sentence of 20 years to life or death by firing squad. POLICE TIMELINE The three young women agreed to meet at a coffee shop in the city on January 6. Jessica was the first to arrive and ordered a cocktail for herself and a cold Vietnamese coffee. Minutes later, Mirna and Hani arrived and Mirna proceeded to drink the coffee. 'It's awful - it's bad,' Mirna cried. Shortly afterwards she collapsed with convulsions and began to foam at the mouth. She died as she was being rushed to hospital. Advertisement Indonesian authorities have searched Ms Kumala's home for the pants she was wearing that day to to test them for trace evidence but according to local media outlets she said her maid had discarded them. She said she ripped the pants as she attempted to help carry Ms Sahlihin after she had fallen to the ground. Chief Detective Krishna Murti said officers have collected about 20 witness statements, spoken to six experts and have conducted a re-enactment of the events. He said Ms Wongso's recollection of events is 'highly inconsistent' with the information they have received. Ms Kumala was named a suspect on Friday and arrested at a hotel at around 7am on Saturday. Ms Kumala was named a suspect on Friday and arrested at a hotel at around 7am on Saturday The incident happened at Olivier restaurant in Central Jakarta on January 6, 2016 Local authorities made inquires with the Australian Federal Police about the relationship between the two friends, who had studied together in Sydney and Melbourne before moving to Indonesia. 'We have contacted the Australian Federal Police because we need some information,' the head of Jakarta Police general crime division, Senior Commander Khrisna Murti, told the Jakarta Post. According to the Jakarta Post, the pair had studied together at the Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney before moving on to the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. The paper said that Ms Wongso continued to work in Australia following her graduation in 2008 before finding a job in Indonesia last month. ISIS have unveiled a new jihadi training camp in the Egyptian desert as the group continues to pose a threat in the Sinai peninsula. The images were taken at the Abu Hajr al-Masri training camp, named after a former Egyptian jihadi and is situated in the remote Sinai desert. The small group of recruits are shown practicing with weapons and undergoing fitness training. ISIS have unveiled a new training camp in the Egyptian desert as the group continues to pose a threat in the Sinai peninsula 900,000 British tourists visit Egypt every year although it continues to be dogged by threats of terror and occasional violence All of the fighters appear to be wearing the same matching black robes and beige coloured balaclavas to obscure their identity. They are pictured handling machine guns and practicing military tactics in different formations. Some of the fighters are shown tackling an assault course, including jumping through burning metal hoops and crawling along the ground. Despite concerns over the country's safety, Egypt still remains one of the most popular tourist destinations for Britons. 900,000 British tourists visit Egypt every year although it continues to be dogged by threats of terror and occasional violence. 224 passengers were killed when a bomb was detonated on a Airbus A321 Russian passenger jet in October 2015. The fighters are shown practicing with firearms and working on different military tactics All of the fighters appear to be wearing the same matching black robes and beige coloured balaclavas to obscure their identity One fighter is shown performing an acrobatic back flip as part of the improvised assault course Some of the fighters are pictured carrying out an assault course, including jumping through burning metal hoops and crawling along the ground Two men attacked a hotel in Hurghada last month, with several hotel residents suffering injuries in the attack. Eighty-eight people were also massacred by Islamists at Sharm el-Sheikh in 2005, of whom 11 were Britons while six Britons were among the 62 murdered by Islamists at Luxor at 1997. There has been calls for Egypt to increase security following the rise of violence, particularly with the growing threat of an ISIS franchise in Sinai. 'We need to see what proactive security steps the Egyptians are going to take,' says Will Geddes, the managing director of International Corporate Protection, which advises businesses and individuals on travel security and counter-terrorism. 'However, Sharm as a resort is reasonably well protected,' Mr Geddes said. Although the Foreign Office warns that there is a 'high threat from terrorism', it still does not advise against travel to Red Sea Resorts such as Sharm and Hurghada, as well as the tourist areas along the Nile, such as Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and the Valley of the Kings. There has been calls for Egypt to increase security following the rise of violence, particularly with the growing threat of an ISIS franchise in Sinai The fighters are shown working on their fitness in the desert with a series of stretches The mother of a protester who will be beheaded and crucified in Saudi Arabia claims the regime is punishing him for being the nephew of an outspoken rebel cleric. Ali al-Nimr was just 17 when he was arrested in 2012 after protests in 2011, and is one of three minors who will be beheaded, then have their corpses publicly displayed in the streets any day now. His mother, Umm Bakr, had never even heard of the punishment before her son was sentenced two years ago, and claims police 'tortured him into a confession'. Revenge: There are fears that the Saudi government ordered Ali's (pictured) arrest and killing because they wanted to take revenge on his activist uncle, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr Renowned: ASaudi anti-government protester carries a poster with the image of jailed Shia cleric, and Ali's uncle, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed along with 46 other prisoners last month She told The Times that they tried to use her son, now 21, as 'a card against his uncle,' outspoken Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was executed last month. Ali was arrested after taking part in protests against the Sunni regime's oppression of the Shia minority, a movement led by his firebrand preacher uncle. Police knocked him off his motorcycle, bundled him into a car and told him he would only be released 'if your uncle stops talking', his mother claims. Five months later, Sheikh al-Nimr was shot by police and arrested on an array of terrorism charges, including inciting violence, but a number of human rights groups claim there is no evidence for this. Last month, he was executed, along with 46 other prisoners involved in the 2011 protests, which was the biggest mass execution in Saudi Arabia since 1980. The executions have sparked severe political tensions between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, which regards itself as the true guardian of Islam. Fearless: Ali's (pictured) mother, Umm Bakr, had never even heard of the punishment before her son was sentenced two years ago, and claims police 'tortured him into a confession' Cruelty:She told The Times that they tried to use her son, now 21, as 'a card against his uncle,' outspoken Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was executed last month It prompted demonstrators to storm Saudi's embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran, and tension between the two nations are believed to be at their worst in decades as a result. Umm Bakr said that at the time her son was sentenced, aged 19, her husband was lobbying the royal council and thought that her son might be released, and she was 'stunned' by the sentence. She says that the last time she visited her son, after his final appeal was refused last month, she cried and said: 'My son, you watch science fiction movies, why can't you shrink yourself as small as a toy and I can smuggle you out?' Ali, now 21, was a high school student when he was arrested for taking part in a pro-democracy rally in the eastern governate of Qatif, where police brutally clamped down on demonstrators in 2012. He was charged with attending the protest, teaching first aid to demonstrators, using his Blackberry phone to urge more people to join and possessing a gun - an accusation his family strongly denies. Death penalty: A human rights group told MailOnline that the crucifixion sentence in Saudi Arabia entails beheading, then a public display of the body The country's Specialised Criminal Court - which tries suspected terrorists and human rights activists - sentenced him to death in May 2014. The decision was condemned by activists and human rights groups around the world, who argued he was being put to death for a crime he committed as a child and he was tortured into giving a false confession. Despite facing an agonising wait to be yanked from his cell and beheaded by a state-sanctioned executioner, he remains incredibly stoic. Even in the face of certain death, a source close to his family told MailOnline he 'has not lost hope' of surviving this dreadful situation. Advertisement Christmas Island is home to some of the most unique animals on the planet- and arguably the most spectacular crab migrations you can ever see. The island which is located 2,600 kilometres from Perth borrows its name from the Christian holiday because that was the day it was found in 1643. The spectacular wildlife found on the Australian island is unique to that environment. Perhaps the most spectacular is the Christmas Island Red Crab a species of crustacean that can only be found on select islands in the Indian Ocean. It is estimated that more than 43 million of the crabs inhabit the tiny island, their presence more obvious during breeding season when they head to the waters edge to reproduce. During the migration period the state government closes the roads on the island to ensure the crabs have a safe journey. The Christmas Island Red Crab is only found on a few islands in the Indian Ocean, the crabs are though to number around 43 million on the island The Yellow Crazy Ant is an invasive, introduced species from Africa. The ant is blamed for the decline of many endemic island species During breeding season the crabs travel to the water's edge to breed, creating a wriggling red carpet across the island The crabs range in colour from the spectacular bright red seen in most of the species to orange and even purple. The crabs can grow quite large with the carapace or body reaching 11.6 centimeters in length. The male clubs are generally bigger, with larger claws, than the females. The crabs reach sexual maturity at five years and can live for up to thirty years. An introduced species threatens the crab populations on the island and has wiped out an estimated 10-15 million of the creatures since 1990. Mega colonies of the invasive ant species have been found on the island, and cover an area more than 2000 hectares across the island Christmas Island Red Crabs are no longer found on parts of the island which have been invaded by the yellow ants The crabs can be quite large in size, with their shells spanning 11 centimetres The coconut crab is also native to Christmas Island- but like the red crabs its populations have been effected by things introduced on the island- namely cars - as drivers may hit them as they cross the road Crazy ant populations are also to blame for the decreased cocony crab numbers The pest known as the Yellow Crazy Ant was introduced to the Island in the 1940, however it wasnt until the 90s it began to have a negative effect on the crabs. Since then 90s the ants have developed super colonies which have not only meant the death of many millions of crabs, but displaced up to 20 million more. In fact sections of the island which are rife with the imported pest have no signs of red crab activity. The ants currently infest 2000 hectares of the island, just one of the massive colonies takes over 700 hectares. The ants have lived on the island for seventy years but only became a problem in the 1990s The male crabs often get to the beach earlier than the females and build burrows ready for their mate's eggs The males then leave the beach after mating to allow the females to lay the eggs in the burrows alone Days after the males leave the eggs are ready to be taken to the water's edge where they hatch on contact with the water- turning into larvae Two yellow Crazy Ants greeting each other on Christmas Island, north west of Australia All of the islands native animals are effected by the ants, In fact the Robber crab known also as the coconut crab is one of the species displaced by the ant invasion. The massive crabs can be found in many of the tropical islands which surround Australia and Indonesia. The crabs which can weigh more than four kilos and can grow up to a metre in length are best known for their ability to scale trees and open coconuts. The animals usually survive on vegetable matter but are omnivorous so also eat other crabs, rats and birds. The huge alien-looking crabs are a member of the hermit crab family, but only uses shells as protection until their abdomen hardens. The coconut crab is a relative of the hermit crab, but only requires the use of a found object - like a shell or pieces of coconut until their abdomen hardens The large crabs can be up to a metre long and continue to grow until they're 60 years of age The red crabs come in three shades, however the orange and purple varieties are very rare The exact lifespan of the crab is not known, but it is known that they reach sexual maturity at five years, and continue to grow until theyre between 40 and 60 years of age. Endemic blue crabs, and three kinds of hermit crabs also live on the island. The island was home to five native mammals when it was first settled, however of those two, Maclears Rat and the bulldog rat, are now extinct, and two, the Christmas Island shrew and Murray's pipistrelle bat are critically endangered, with no sightings in recent years. The blue crab is another species found on the island, it takes its name from its sky blue coloured shell Another coconut crab, also known as a robber crab as they are known for scaling trees and 'stealing' coconuts The massive crabs are omnivorous and are known to eat rats, birds, human garbage as well as plant matter and coconuts The remaining mammal, the Christmas Island flying fox has seen a rapid decline in numbers since 2006. The endemic reptiles native to the island have also seen population declines in recent years, this is put down to the threat of the Yellow crazy ant as well as introduced cats and dogs. The island is also home to a number of butterfly and bird species. The red crabs breed between November and January - when the baby crabs return to the land after four weeks at sea they are just 5 millimetres wide The main killer of the coconut crab over the past century has been humans. The crabs were killed for their shells, but are now protected Advertisement A 45-year-old woman who was one of the three people injured when a construction crane crashed more than 200 feet to the ground in Manhattan Friday said that she ducked for cover seconds after hearing the metal falling. Dawn Kojima said that she was grabbing coffee around 8.30am Friday before continuing to work when she walked directly into the path of the crane. 'I heard something coming down and I looked up,' she told The New York Daily News. Kojima, who is married, said that her instincts kicked in and she flattened herself against the nearest building and ducked for cover on Worth Street in TriBeCa. 'I just leaned up against [the wall]. ... I was just trying to cover myself, trying to protect myself,' she told the Daily News. 'I don't know what hit me. It could have been parts of the crane that fell, some of the building, I don't know. It's hard to describe, it was really painful.' Scroll down for video Dawn Kojima, 45, said that she was grabbing coffee around 8.30am Friday before continuing to work when she walked directly into the path of the crane. The married woman said that her instincts kicked in and she flattened herself against the nearest building and ducked for cover as the crane fell The crane, at 57 Worth Street near Church Street and West Broadway in Tribeca, collapsed at 8:24am on Friday killing 38-year-old David Wichs and injuring Kojima and two others David Wichs, 38, was a Harvard graduate with a degree in mathematics. He worked for the financial trading firm Tower Research Capital, based in New York City Wichs, shown far right in both pictures, was born in the Czech Republic and immigrated to the US as a teen. His sister-in-law described him as 'the most special person ever' Kojima said that she was covered in blood and that a police officer saw her and ran to help her. 'She (the police officer) helped me down the street and got me a seat and called EMS. ... She was great,' Kojima told the Daily News. The brunette added that the officer came to New York Presbyterian Hospital later in the day to check on her condition. 'I told her, 'Thank you so much for helping me,' Kojima told the Daily News. She is still recovering at the hospital after suffering head and leg wounds in the shocking accident that left 38-year-old David Wichs dead and two others injured. Two buildings were clipped and more than a half-dozen cars were destroyed when the massive crane suddenly collapsed onto Worth Street between Broadway and Church Streets while being lowered during snow fall and strong winds at 8.24am. Investigators questioned the crane operator, 56-year-old Kevin Reilly, who is said to be cooperating with officials. Reilly appears to have a colorful past as he has been arrested three times in the 1980s for driving under the influence, according to the Daily News. Glenn Zito captured the crane being lowered on his cell phone and can be heard saying: 'It's moving fast now, he's dropping it really quick.' The crane quickly gained momentum and plummeted 20stories as he and other onlookers expressed their horror The crane collapsed about 200 feet, clipping a New York Law School building as it fell on a line of parked cars. It caused a hailstorm of crushed bricks According to the Daily News, he has maintained a clean record ever since and blew a .000 on a breathalyzer test that was administered after the fatal accident. He has not commented or spoken out about the tragic incident, in which Wichs, a Harvard graduate died on scene. Wichs was born in Prague and immigrated to the US as a teenager, graduating from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics. He went on to work at the computerized financial trading firm, Tower Research Capital, and lived in New York's Upper West Side. Friday night friends and coworkers paid tribute to the mathematics genius, with the family rabbi telling the New York Daily News: He was an angel, an absolute angel. 'He was a wonderful, wonderful person. He was the best, the absolute best, and that's what makes this tragedy that much greater.' The man, who would not give his name, spoke to the Post as he left the Wichs' apartment, where he had lived with his wife of three years, Rebecca Guttman. The couple belong to the Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue on East 85th Street on the Upper East Side. Rabbi Elie Weinstock said: 'It's a terrible tragedy to lose such a young man like him. Right now it's just too much to process.' Meanwhile Wichs's sister-in-law Lisa Guttman told the Post: 'He really created a life for himself. He literally took every opportunity he could find.' His co-worker, David Faucon, said Wichs was 'genuinely nice in a way that was really stunning. It was a real tragedy.' Just moments after the crane collapsed, onlookers rushed to the scene to rescue a man trapped in his car (pictured left). The man clutching his head (right) is believed to be 73-year-old Thomas O'Brien, who was sent to Bellevue Hospital with a head laceration. One man can be seen climbing on the roof of the car and using his legs to kick the door open in order to free O'Brien. One victim of the crash was transported on a stretcher with gauze on the top of her head and a leg injury. She was taken to New York Presbyterian / Lower Manhattan Hospital The stability of nearby buildings was checked and ConEdison monitored the area for gas leaks every 15 minutes. The incident also caused a leak to the water main The crane, owned by Bay Crane and operated by Galasso, was in the process of being lowered and secured during heavy snow fall when the incident occurred The married 38-year-old lived on the Upper West Side. Although initial reports said he was sitting in a parked car, Wichs was actually walking on the street. Pictured right, the crane chain made its way inside what appears to be an office building Several witnesses initially thought the sound and vibrations from the impact were caused by a bomb or an earthquake Wichs had been walking on the street as the crane fell, not sitting in a parked car as it was previously stated by de Blasio during a press conference Friday. Wich's sister-in-law Lisa Guttman, who called Wich 'the most special person ever', said: 'He really created a life for himself. He literally took every opportunity he could find.' A man who identified himself as the family's rabbi told the NYDailyNews: 'He was a wonderful, wonderful person. He was the best, the absolute best, and that's what makes this tragedy that much greater.' Thomas O'Brien, 73, was sitting in his car waiting for his daughter to return from an appointment, when the crane fell on top of his car. A video shows first responders rushing to the scene as O'Brien is trapped in his car clutching his head. The rescuer can be seen climbing on the roof and trying to kick open the door in an attempt to free him. The crane had been parked on Worth Street since January 30 and was approved for a boom extension of 565feet, fitted on Thursday The crane, with its caterpillar tracts facing up, has 'Bay Crane' written on the side. Authorities from the Long Island company are on the scene, along with emergency personnel and firefighters Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference while snow continued to fall in New York. The call was initially put in at 40 Worth Street, but it has been adjusted to 57 Worth Street according to a fire department spokesman The crane extends nearly two city blocks and has caused gas leaks around the area. ConEdison was on the scene scanning the area every 15 minutes, and the gas main had been turned off in nearby buildings Subways were bypassing the nearby Franklin and Chambers Street subway stations. Pictured right, the Western Union building at 60 Hudson Street, where the crane had a permit to move generators and air conditioning units. The New York City landmark is a telecommunications building, deemed one of the most important internet hubs in the world O'Brien suffered a head laceration and was being treated at Bellevue Hospital. One firefighter has also suffered minor injuries. Video footage captured by Glenn Zito from a nearby building shows the crane gaining momentum as it was being lowered. The cameraman can be heard saying: 'It's moving fast now, he's dropping it really quick'. The structure then loses control and falls more than 200feet before it lands with a loud thud, while onlookers express their shock and disbelief. It is unclear why the crane fell, but de Blasio said officials are looking into the high winds as a possibility. Officials are also investigating an approved extension with a maximum boom length of 565feet, which was reviewed and added to the crane on Thursday. A permit was issued for it to move generators and air conditioning equipment at the former Wester Union building at 60 Hudson Street, and the crane had been parked on Worth Street since January 30. Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was a sad situation, but added: 'Thank God it was not any worse. It was something of a miracle that there wasn't more impact.' Fire officials helped escort Nesh Pillay, 25, to City Hall in time for her wedding. She was at Blow Bar, a nearby beauty salon getting her hair done with her mother and sister when she felt the impact of the crane collapsing The city requires that all crawlers are secured once winds reach 25mph, so authorities began lowering it Friday morning as a safety precaution. Winds at the time were blowing at about 22mph. Officials had already directed people away from the area as they were lowering the crane, which minimized the number of casualties. Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was a sad situation, but added: 'Thank God it was not any worse. It was something of a miracle that there wasn't more impact.' The NYPD's Sergeants Benevolent Association was across the street, and members of the union rushed out, making them the first on the scene. Vice President Bob Ganley of the association said: 'It was surreal. It was like a war zone when it first happened.' Nesh Pillay, 25, was at a nearby beauty salon getting her hair done with her mother and sister before her wedding at City Hall. Fire officials helped Pillay and her family make it in time for her wedding. Pillay's 21-year-old sister Kuvanya said: 'When it dropped, we could hear the [place] shake. It was just scary, cause things have been scary since 9/11.' Officials had already directed people away from the area as they were lowering the crane. One witness told CBS: 'I couldn't believe it. The other day, I was just thinking I hope this doesn't fall and then it happened. It bounced off two buildings and crushed every single car on that block.' Rubble and broken bricks cover the streets. The NYPD's Sergeants Benevolent Association was across the street, and Vice President Bob Ganley said: 'It was surreal. It was like a war zone when it first happened' Worth Street has been blocked off, and the crane cab can be seen completely flipped over with the street covered in debris According to the NY Daily News, the crane was being operated by Kevin Reilly, 56, who was reportedly arrested three times for driving under the influence in the 1980s, but has maintained a clean record since. He blew a .000 on a Breathalyzer test. Pictured, a trained police dog on the scene One witness told ABC7: 'I could hear the bending of metal.' Pictured, a parking sign has been dramatically bent by the impact, while the roof of one car has been smashed CBS Local reported another witness said: 'I couldn't believe it. The other day, I was just thinking I hope this doesn't fall and then it happened. It bounced off two buildings and crushed every single car on that block.' Blair Stelle, 29, said she was just looking at the crane last night in awe of its size. When she saw it splayed out on the street this morning, she told the NY Daily News: 'I couldn't even see all the way to the other end. Everyone was in shock. Even the police that were here were totally shocked.' Other witnesses said they initially thought the impact was a bomb or an earthquake. The cab of the crane could be seen completely flipped over on Worth Street as ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scene after the accident. The crane is among 375 other crawlers in the city- in addition to 53 tower cranes, they have all been ordered to be secured. The stability of nearby buildings were checked since the crane caused gas and water leaks. Con Edison was on the scene sweeping the area every 15 minutes, in addition to the gas being shut off in buildings around the area. A Manhattan Supreme Court official said the courthouse at 71 Thomas Street was evacuated due to gas odors. Richard Yako, a senior specialist in emergency response for ConEd, said at a press conference Friday: 'The pipe cannot withstand a tremendous impact like that.' Subways bypassed the Franklin Street and Chambers Street stops, while buses and traffic were redirected, with officials advising drivers to avoid roads south of Canal Street. de Blasio added it would take at least several days to get things in the immediate area 'back to normal'. In May, a cable on a construction crane also owned by Bay Crane snapped at a high-rise office building in midtown Manhattan. It was lifting an air conditioning unit when it plunged nearly 30 stories, injuring ten people, including two construction workers. In May, a cable on a construction crane also owned by Bay Crane snapped at a high-rise office building in midtown Manhattan, dropping an air conditioning nearly 30 floors. The accident injured ten people, including two construction workers. More than 100 firefighters were called to the scene and one has been listed among the injured The crawler, mounted on caterpillar tracks, lays sprawled along nearly two city blocks. The 375 other crawler cranes in the city, in addition to 53 tower cranes have been ordered secured Australia lit up in red on Saturday night - representing good luck - as the nation launched a raft of vibrant celebrations to begin welcoming in the Chinese New Year for 2016: The Year of the Monkey. While the official date for the turn of the Chinese calendar isn't until midnight on Sunday, thousands of people lined the streets of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth as the celebrations got underway. In Sydney, iconic landmarks including the Harbour Bridge and Town Hall were illuminated bright red, while the evening was capped off with a spectacular fireworks display across the water. The Sydney Opera House was illuminated red as a spectacular fireworks display lit up the Darling Harbour Melbourne (pictured) had festivities of its own, including this traditional Chinese walkway installation In Melbourne, fiery dragons roamed the streets of Federation Square Over 600,000 visitors are expected to pour through Sydney during the festival - with more than 16,000 already booked on a Mandarin-speaking tour of the Opera house - making it the largest celebration of the Lunar New Year outside of China. Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the festival, now in its 20th year, has grown significantly since it first began due to Australia's ever-increasing relationship with China and Sydney's large Chinese population. 'We're such a multicultural city and here we are celebrating a very important part of our community, learning about it and participating in it,' she told AAP on Thursday. She said a majestic ox, made with 700 mahjong tiles, will take centre stage in Martin Place. 'We asked them (the artists) to think big, and they did,' she said. Pictured is an ox artwork in Sydney - one of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs. It is made of 7,000 mahjong tiles Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the festival, now in its 20th year, has grown significantly since it first began due to Australia's ever-increasing relationship with China Inflatable rabbits performing tai-chi at Customs House near Circular Quay Three wise monkeys: 2016 is the Year of the Monkey for the Chinese Festival curator Claudia Chan Shaw says visitors can follow trails across the city to find the lantern of their zodiac sign or indulge in lunar feasts offered at 40 restaurants. 'It's a time for family and friends - a time to reflect on tradition and a rich heritage that has been part of Sydney's cultural fabric since the early 1900s,' she said. White, gold and blue are considered lucky colours for the Year of the Monkey, which is this year associated with the element of fire. The festival will end with the inaugural dragon boat races in Darling Harbour on February 20 and 21. Visitors in Sydney can follow trails across the city to find the lantern of their zodiac sign (snake and hen pictured) White, gold and blue are considered lucky colours for the Year of the Monkey In Melbourne all the main action on Saturday night took place at Federation Square, with firecrackers, fiery dragons, Chinese lion dances and live music all on display. Perth's Northbridge Piazza and Chinatown precinct were replaced by colourful street festivals - complete with lion dances, multicultural performances and a heap of traditional Chinese food stalls. According to the latest census, there are approximately 865,000 Chinese people living in Australia - about four per cent of the nation's population. Each year the Chinese New Year celebrations are aligned with an animal from the Chinese Zodiac - a selection of animals that repeat over a 12 year cycle. This year's zodiac animal is the 'fire monkey.' In order, the other zodiac signs are: rooster, dog pig, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep/goat and then back to monkey again. The festivities usually begin the day before the New Year and carry through until the Lantern Festival - which falls on the 15th day of the new year. According to the latest census, there are approximately 865,000 Chinese people living in Australia A white nationalist super PAC is behind a robocall that advocates Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and is being made with people in New Hampshire. It's paid for by the American National Super PAC, and includes three voices, according to CNN. 'I am a farmer and white nationalist. Support Donald Trump,' a voice says, according to the news outlet. Scroll down for video In the robocall, American Renaissance editor Jared Taylor can be heard speaking. Taylor (pictured) has said: 'I don't know whether [Trump] wants [my support] or not. I think he wants support from everyone' The voice goes on to say: 'This call is not authorized by Donald Trump.' A different voice says: 'We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated, white people.' In the robocall, American Renaissance editor Jared Taylor can be heard speaking, CNN reported. Taylor said in an interview with the news outlet that he is a 'white advocate' and that: 'I don't know whether [Trump] wants [my support] or not. 'I think he wants support from everyone. 'Whether or not he would agree with me is an entirely other matter. 'Remember, it is I who am supporting Donald Trump, and not Donald Trump who is supporting me.' Taylor also said: 'They will say that I support Donald Trump because he's going to send away all illegal immigrants and build a wall and that he wants to put a moratorium on Islamic immigration, and I will say that what this means is that he wants immigrants who will assimilate to our Western values. 'And I'm all for that, and I think all of the people in New Hampshire are all for that, too.' A Trump spokeswoman has said 'Mr. Trump has disavowed all Super PACs offering their support and continues to do so.' Trump is seen at a South Carolina event on Friday Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told CNN: 'Mr. Trump has disavowed all Super PACs offering their support and continues to do so.' The American National Super PAC made robocalls advocating Trump in Iowa, as well. Trump told CNN in January: 'I would disavow it, but nothing in this country shocks me. 'People in this country are angry. They're angry at what's going on. 'They're angry at the border. They're angry at the crime. 'They're angry at people coming in and shooting Kate [Steinle] in the back in California, in San Francisco. 'They're angry when Jamiel Shaw's shot in the face by an illegal immigrant. 'They're angry when the woman - the veteran, 65 years old - is raped, sodomized and killed by the illegal immigrant. 'And they're very angry about it and, by the way, and thousands of other cases like that.' It came after island said it wouldn't be joining the UK's relocation scheme Claims that Guernsey has an 'amazing reputation' for accepting people Guernsey's decision not to accept Syrian refugees onto the island was because officials could not guarantee the migrants' 'security', claims its chief minister. Jonathan Le Tocq said 'negativity' would make it difficult to guarantee the safety of any migrants. He claimed there was a danger that some residents might be unwelcoming - despite most people showing compassion. Guernsey's chief minister Jonathan Le Tocq said the decision not to accept Syrian refugees onto the island was because he could not guarantee the migrants' 'security' He told the BBC: 'There's certainly a lot of Islamophobia and negativity that's been around and that would entail that it would be difficult for us to ensure that [the refugees] would find the sorts of security and stability here in Guernsey, were they to be resettled here, in the same way as they are, say, in other parts of the UK.' Following the remarks, aid worker Eddie Parks branded the minister's comments 'disgraceful', reported the broadcaster. The former journalist said it was an 'awful awful commentary' on Guernsey and that the island had an 'amazing reputation' for accepting 'other people coming in from outside'. Mr Le Tocq's comments came just two days after the government confirmed the island would not be taking in refugees. The island was looking to participate in the UK governments Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme, which offers temporary resettlement to refugees, but it later confirmed it wouldn't be taking any migrants in. The government said the island lacked the 'supporting infrastructure which meets their specific needs'. They said there was a number of legal and practical issues relating to refugee rights which must be understood and resolved. The government pledged to work on the legal barriers, which would assist in helping the island rehome migrants in the future. Mr Le Tocq's said he was disappointed with the decision. Mr Le Tocq said 'negativity' would make it difficult for the island to guarantee the safety of the migrants. Stock image of refugees in the city of Aleppo The original defense of Adnan Syed, the convicted killer at the center of popular podcast Serial, was crippled by the omission of an alibi witness, it was argued in court on Friday. Asia McClain, now known as Asia Chapman, would have been 'critical' to Syed's first trial if she had been contacted by his original attorney, David Irwin, a legal expert for the defense, said. Syed was 19 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his high school ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, whose body was found in a wooded park in Baltimore. Adnan Syed enters Courthouse East in Baltimore on Wednesday prior to hearing before Baltimore Circuit Judge Martin Welch that is meant to determine whether his conviction will be overturned and case retried Syed was convicted in 2000 when he was 19-years-old in the strangulation death of Hae Min Lee, his former high school sweetheart, and sentenced to life in prison Now 35, Syed is using new evidence uncovered by Serial to prompt the appeals court to grant a hearing on the possibility of a new trial. Syed's attorneys are asking for a new trial on the grounds that his original attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, proved ineffective by failing to contact Chapman. Chapman, a former classmate, testified Wednesday that she had a conversation with Syed at the library during the time prosecutors say Lee was killed. Irwin said Gutierrez's failure to contact Chapman 'was well below the minimum required' for an attorney defending a client and that it was her duty to investigate all possible alibi witnesses. 'If you have a credible alibi witness, that's the best defense you can have,' he said. Just a year after Syed's conviction, Gutierrez was disbarred in connection with other cases and her failing health due to the effects of multiple sclerosis. Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah on Thursday tried to poke holes the testimony of Chapman, who wrote two letters to Syed shortly after he was imprisoned in 1999. 'I'm not sure if you remember talking to me in the library on Jan. 13 but I remembered chatting with you,' she wrote in one. 'I have reason to believe in your innocence.' Chapman wrote that she contacted the library, which is next to their high school campus, and that they had a surveillance system. McClain also told Syed that she was trying to reach his attorney. A Maryland judge agreed to reopen the case of Adnan Syed (left), whose was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee (right), after new evidence was uncovered by the popular podcast 'Serial' 'If you were in the library for a while, tell the police and I'll continue to tell what I know even louder than I am,' she wrote. 'My boyfriend and his best friend remember seeing you there too.' Vignarajah questioned how Chapman knew certain details about Syed's case that she mentions in the letter and whether she had written the second one weeks after she said she did, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Chapman said the information solely came from rumors and information she heard being shared at their high school and not, as suggested by Vignarajah, from a search warrant. She also shot down the claim that Syed had sent her a letter from jail and asked her to type it, saying she had never even heard of the allegation. Irwin called Chapman a 'fabulous' witness who would have 'changed the ballgame' had she testified at Syed's original trial. Also on Friday, an investigator testified that he located 41 possible alibi witnesses for Syed, but only four told him they were contacted by the original defense team for the 2000 trial Sean Gordon testified that out of 83 potential alibi witnesses, he was able to reach 41. Of those, he said, only four said they were contacted by Gutierrez and none were asked to testify. Syed's attorneys are asking for a new trial on the grounds that his original attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, proved ineffective by failing to contact Chapman In 2014, Serial, hosted by radio producer Sarah Koenig (above), drew millions of listeners from all over the world as it explored the case in detail and questioned whether he got a fair trial Testimony also has focused on cellphone tower data that prosecutors used during Syed's first trial, claiming it placed him at the scene where Lee's body was found in 1999. Gerald Grant, a communications forensics expert, testified in Baltimore City Circuit Court that jurors should have been told that AT&T cellphone records used to place Syed at the site were flawed. The AT&T engineer who testified in the original trial was not aware that outgoing phone calls were reliable but incoming calls were not, Grant said. A sheet accompanying the faxed records included that disclaimer but was misplaced or overlooked. Meanwhile FBI Special Agent Chad Fitzgerald testified, the prosecution's first witness, argued that the cover sheet is of no consequence and that testimony given at Syed's trial by AT&T radio frequency engineer Abraham Waranowitz was true. Fitzgerald's testimony contradicted an affidavit that Waranowitz wrote last year that says if he'd known about the cover sheet his testimony would have been different. On Friday afternoon Fitzgerald said he stood by the validity of the original data presented at trial. But during cross-examination Syed's attorney Justin Brown asked how two calls contained in the data - one traced to Dupont Circle in Washington and another traced to Baltimore - could have been made just 27 minutes apart when it would be nearly impossible to travel the distance in that time. Fitzgerald said in order to answer he'd need more information. 'It would cause me to do more research,' he said. She insists she is bipartisan and hasn't decided who she will vote for Since her stepdaughter died from a heroin overdose in 2014, Blevens asks presidential hopefuls where they stand on addiction recovery She learned about makeup as a model and beauty pageant contestant From Barack Obama to Ted Cruz, Kriss Blevens has made up leading politicians since 1992 They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but for New Hampshire's Kriss Blevens, the makeup brush is the most powerful tool of all. The award-winning makeup artist, who has powdered the noses of Barack Obama, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, has worked her magic on the last five presidents and every candidate who has run in New Hampshire's primary since 1992. Blevens famously transformed Hillary Clinton during the 2008 elections, leading viewers to speculate whether the politician had gone under the knife. With clients from both Republican and Democratic parties, Blevens insists she is bipartisan and has yet to decide who she will vote for in 2016. Scroll down for video Makeup artist Kris Blevens, left, has specialized in working with politicians. During her career spanning more than two decades, her clients have included Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Rand Paul. Blevens lost her stepdaughter Amber to heroin addiction in 2014, and now shares her personal story and asks presidential candidates where they stand on rehabilitation and recovery services Blevens insists she is bipartisan and hasn't decided who she'll vote for in the 2016 elections Blevens said Hillary's makeover in 2007 changed her life when customers clamored over the politician's lipstick, which she custom blended from plum, red, and bronze shades. Today, she owns her own cosmetics studio in Manchester, New Hampshire and is slated for a reality TV show based on her techniques. She famously transformed Clinton during a 2007 Democratic debate in a makeover that launched Blevens into the spotlight But it's not just about making people look good, Blevens insists. She said: 'To me, it's about helping them connect with their inner self, their truth, their peace.' That means sharing stories from her personal life, or in the highlight of her 28-year-career, joining hands with Obama and praying together. When her stepdaughter Amber died of a heroin overdose in 2014, the makeup artist began addressing the issue of addiction rehabilitation, especially since New Hampshire ranks second to last among the states when it comes to substance abuse treatment. Now when Blevens is doing her job, she asks politicians where they stand on the issue. She told CNN: 'How many people in my situation have the opportunity to be behind closed doors for 10, 15, 20 minutes one-on-one, touching the candidates that need to talk about this issue? 'It doesn't get any more intimate, it doesn't get any more captive than that.' With just three days left until the New Hampshire primary, experts have been poring over poll figures that show Trump and Bernie Sanders leading. But Blevens remains a neutral party and insists she has not yet decided who she'll vote for. She said: 'I have probably the most intimate connection with all of the presidential candidates on both sides. Im definitely a bipartisan makeup artist because I work for both.' Blevens insists it's not just about making people look good on the outside. She said: 'To me, it's about helping them connect with their inner self, their truth, their peace.' Pictured, with Donald Trump, who was a client even before he launched his presidential run She began learning about makeup when she worked as a model while she studying international marketing and business in London. Pictured, Blevens with Jeb and Barbara Bush While Blevens has found success in her job, the journey has come as a surprise to the former New Hampshire beauty pageant winner. She began learning about makeup when she worked as a model while she studying international marketing and business in London. Upon her return to the states, she entered the Miss New Hampshire pageant in an attempt to win a scholarship for a master's degree. For her talent, she performed a number from the musical, Cats, and practiced doing her own makeup. She won the competition and put off that masters degree when she volunteered to teach other women how to apply makeup and realized that was her calling. Years later, she began specializing in politics when her ex-husband met Pat Buchanan's campaign manager and mentioned Blevens' work. She entered the Miss New Hampshire pageant in an attempt to win a scholarship for a master's degree. In the process, she learned to do her own makeup and began teaching other women. Pictured, with Governor Chris Christie Blevens has worked with the last five presidents and powdered the noses of presidential candidates since 1992. Pictured above with Carly Fiorina Advertisement Thousands of visitors are flocking to see the remains of a sperm whale which became stranded on the beach. The 45ft male sperm whale died on Thursday after washing up on the beach, with rescuers keeping it comfortable. A West Norfolk council spokesman has warned people to stay away from the carcass in Old Hunstanton, Norfolk. He added: 'Visitors are being encouraged to keep their distance from the whale and put their own safety first by making sure they are aware of the tides. Take a closer look: The autopsy on the whale gave people the chance to take photographs of the unsightly insides of the sperm whale earlier today Up close: One man takes a good look at the insides of the whale today after an autopsy had been carried out on the animal which became stranded on Thursday Inspection: Children have a look at the dead sperm whale earlier today, the 24th to wash up on European beaches in recent weeks - all from the same group or pod 'Sperm whales are a species protected under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010. 'Anyone removing, or attempting to remove, parts of the whale could be committing a criminal offence.' Scientists took samples from the whale yesterday in a bid to discover why it had become stranded. In recent weeks 23 other male whales, all from the same group, known as a 'pod', have died by getting beached on shorelines across Europe. Today, a leading expert at a Scottish cetacean organisation has said that the deaths of the whales in the North Sea is probably down to just 'bad luck' Marine biologist Dr Conor Ryan, sightings and strandings officer with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, said the animals in effect became 'trapped' in the relatively shallow sea with little of their normal squid prey available. Rescuers kept the whale comfortable on the Norfolk beach and hoped it would refloat when the tide came in, but it died at about 8pm The total to die off the English coast is the worst since records began in 1913. Marine conservationists said it was possible the male whales, which normally live off the west coast of Norway, could have taken a wrong turn into the North Sea, while heading south to find females or been lured by food. Tragic: The whale washed up on the beach on Thursday which could not be saved Dr Ryan said: 'I think it was bad luck on their part. It has been known for some time that sperm whales entering the North Sea from the north end up into a funnel until they try to go through the Dover Strait. 'Unfortunately they encounter a lot of noise and activity there so they try to avoid it. They then end up back in the North Sea where a lack of their usual prey means they run out of food, dehydrate and become disorientated. It is a bit of a trap for them. 'Sperm whales are polygamous. The females, which are in the tropics, or sub tropics, with their calves will mate with other males. TEST ON TEETH TO SOLVE MYSTERY Specialist scientists from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme cut off the jaw of the Hunstanton whale so that they can take tooth samples. By examining the teeth, they hope to determine the whale's exact cause of death - and find out the links between this whale and the 23 others to have died in the past month. However, the results will not be known for several months, and even then they may not be able to determine precisely what happened. Advertisement 'So in that regard it would have been worse if the whales that have stranded were females. 'There have been mass strandings of sperm whales in the North Sea going back centuries. So it is not a new phenomenon.' Sperm whale strandings in UK waters remained steady at one a year during the 20th century but suddenly leapt to about seven a year in the 1980s, according to Peter Evans, director of the Sea Watch Foundation charity. Since then, they have stabilised at about six a year. Sightings have also increased. Since whaling was banned, the number of large males in their southern Atlantic strongholds may have increased, pushing out juvenile males. These young males head north, enter the North Sea between Scotland and Norway, and unfortunately find the shallow sea a natural trap - difficult to navigate and short of food. More humpback whales have been found stranded in Britain since 1986, when hunting them was banned. Other experts have said it could takes months to try and work out why the sperm whales have come into the North Sea in the first place. But scientist Rob Deaville, from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme - which examines all whale, dolphin and porpoise strandings in the UK - who has examined all six sperm whales that washed up on the east coast, says the answer may never be known. 'We'll be working very closely with our German, Dutch and French colleagues, gathering data about what might have been going on in the north Atlantic to potentially bring them into the North Sea,' he said. There are currently two schools of thought, he says - either these are all part of one larger group of male sperm whales that all came into the North Sea at the same time, or, there have been successive re-entries into the North Sea of different groups of sperm whales The second theory is 'more worrying because that would suggest there's a systemic problem out there in the north Atlantic,' said Mr Deaville. 'If that's the case this isn't the end of what we might see. 'Potentially there'll be more coming in, and that is more concerning. I hope that isn't the case. 'In a way the first is the better outcome because that would suggest there's a finite number of whales in the North Sea.' North Korea has moved forward its planned long-range rocket launch despite repeated warning from South Korea and the West over fears it is a banned test for a ballistic missile. South Korea's Defense Ministry believes Pyongyang is looking test fire its new long range rocket last week as part of a week-long practice run. The North insists the launch is only an effort to send a satellite into orbit and denied any banned test of ballistic missile technology. North Korea did not inform international organizations of any other changes in its plan, and the rocket's expected flight path remains the same, said South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun, adding that the South believes the launch could come as soon as tomorrow. A North Korean soldier stands guard in front of an Unha-3 rocket at the Sohae Satellite Launch Station in Tongchang-Ri on April 8, 2012 Pedro Ugarte (AFP/File) While the timing of the launch will be mainly determined by conditions such as weather, South Korean analysts had speculated that the North might attempt to pull off the launch ahead of Kim Jong Un's (pictured) late father's birthday on 16 February The North informed the International Maritime Organization last Tuesday that it would attempt a satellite launch between 8 and 25 February. No reason was given for the change of dates. North Korea's launch declaration came just weeks after it conducted its fourth nuclear test. Outside experts and officials say that each nuclear test and long-range missile launch brings the North closer to creating a nuclear warhead. South Korea believes that the North has completed all launch preparations, including strapping the rocket onto a launch tower and injecting fuel, and that there is a high possibility the launch will take place on tomorrow, Moon said. He said that a possible explanation for the date change was that Sunday's weather conditions were forecast to be favorable for a launch. Recent commercial satellite imagery analyzed by U.S. researchers showed tanker trucks at the launch pad at North Korea's Sohae facility, which likely indicates the filling of fuel and oxidizer tanks in preparation for the launch. While the timing of the launch will be mainly determined by conditions such as weather, South Korean analysts had speculated that the North might attempt to pull off the launch ahead of the late dictator Kim Jong Il's birthday on 16 February. US soldiers stand guard at Taesungdong Elementary School as a North Korean flag fluttering over the propaganda village of Gijeongdong, seen from the Demilitarized zone in Paju Map showing North Korea's rocket plan, as registered with the International Maritime Organization A North Korean guard stands in front of the Unha-3 rocket at the Sohae Satellite Launch Station in Tongchang-Ri on April 8, 2012 While the timing of the launch will be mainly determined by conditions such as weather, South Korean analysts had speculated that the North might attempt to pull off the launch ahead of the late dictator Kim Jong Il's (pictured left) birthday on 16 February An official from the Korea Meteorological Administration, South Korea's weather agency, said that rain or snow was expected in the North Korean region where the launch pad is located on Monday, Thursday and next Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules. North Korea previously tested nuclear explosive devices in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and claimed it successfully delivered a satellite into orbit in December 2012, the last time it launched a long-range rocket. Following the announcement that the window had been moved up to begin on Sunday, Japan's Foreign Ministry immediately set up an emergency response desk to monitor and prepare for the launch. Japan has already deployed Patriot missile batteries in Tokyo and on the southern island of Okinawa to shoot down any debris from the rocket that might threaten to fall on Japanese territory. The launch will surely amplify calls by the U.S. and South Korea for more stringent trade and financial sanctions against North Korea. However, skeptics question whether sanctions will ever meaningfully influence one of the least trade-dependent economies on the planet. Most importantly, China, North Korea's only major ally, is unlikely to support stronger punishment against Pyongyang over fears of provoking a regime collapse, and potentially a stream of refugees across the border, analysts say. China is also responsible for about 70 percent of the North's trade volume, according to South Korean estimates. Seoul's Defense Ministry said that South Korea and the U.S., which stations more than 28,000 troops in the South as a buttress against any North Korean aggression, are deploying key military assets, including the South's Aegis-equipped destroyers and radar spy planes, to track the North Korean rocket after its launch. A senior bishop in the German Catholic Church has said his country needs fewer refugees because it 'cannot take in all the world's needy'. More than one million asylum seekers arrived in the country during 2015 - with the Government yet to give an estimate for how many it expects this year. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, made his comments in the Passauer Neue Presse in which he also expressed concern at a rise in xenophobia in Germany. Scroll down for video Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, has warned his country cannot take in 'all the world's needy' 'As a church we say that we need a reduction in the number of refugees,' he said. Marx added: 'Germany cannot take in all the world's needy.' The question of how to respond to the migrant crisis, he asserted, should not solely be a matter of 'charity but also reason.' However, Marx also expressed concern at a rise in xenophobia in Germany amid the worst refugee crisis that Europe has known since World War II. A recent example came when Germany's eurosceptic right-wing populist AfD party suggested last week that police 'if need be' should threaten to shoot migrants seeking to enter the country. Border police 'should be able if need be to have recourse to their firearms - as laid down by law,' said party chairwoman Frauke Petry. This type of speech is 'unacceptable,' said Marx, adding: 'Sadly there has always been a certain potential for right-wing extremism and racism in Germany.' 'This ideology has evidently been further consolidated,' he said, lamenting that the belittling of foreigners had 'reached the upper classes.' Anti-Islamic group Pegida, which began as a movement in Germany in mid-2014 and has since spread to France and other European countries, called on members and sympathisers from across Europe to march Saturday under the anti-migrant banner of 'Fortress Europe'. Nigeria is facing a growing outbreak of a deadly virus similar to Ebola which has already killed 101 people since August. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) statistics show that reported cases of the haemorrhagic disease known as Lassa fever stood at 175 with a total of 101 deaths since August. 'As at today, 19 (including Abuja) states are currently following up contacts, or have suspected cases with laboratory results pending or laboratory confirmed cases,' the NCDC said in a statement. Scroll down for video Carried by rats, Lassa fever is usually passed on through contact with their urine or feces, but can also be passed on through contact with bodily fluids of infected people, though this is less common A growing Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 101 people, as West Africa battles to contain a flare up of the virus West Africa has been battling to contain a flare-up of the virus, according to data from the nation's health authorities released Saturday. Deaths from the virus were recorded in the nation's political capital, Abuja, Lagos, and 14 other states, the NCDC said. While health authorities assure Africa's most populous country of more than 170 million that they have the virus under control, there are fears the actual scale of the outbreak is under-reported. The NCDC said officials have distributed large quantities of drugs, including Ribavirin tablets, and bottles of hand sanitizers across the country to tackle the disease. It however reported that logistics support and delayed reporting of cases by states are dogging the fight against Lassa fever. The outbreak was only announced in January -- months after the first case occurred in August -- with subsequent deaths reported in 10 states, including Abuja. Some of the deaths from lassa fever have been in Nigeria's political capital, Abuja A vendor sells bags of rat poison in northern Nigeria's largest city of Kano in January 2016 Last year, 12 people died in Nigeria out of 375 infected, while in 2012 there were 1,723 cases and 112 deaths, according to the NCDC. In neighbouring Benin at least nine people have died in a Lassa outbreak, with a total of 20 suspected cases, health authorities said on Tuesday. The number of Lassa fever infections across West Africa every year is between 100,000 to 300,000, with about 5,000 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease belongs to the same family as Marburg and Ebola, two deadly viruses that lead to infections with fever, vomiting and, in worse case scenarios, haemorrhagic bleeding. Its name is from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969. Endemic to the region, Lassa fever is asymptomatic in 80 percent of cases but for others it can cause internal bleeding, especially when diagnosed late. The virus is spread through contact with food or household items contaminated with rats' urine or faeces or after coming in direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. He then stole Eboni's gun from her purse and biked to the store Eboni Alls, boy's mother, said son told her he was going to the park Boy then said 'Give me the money' before worker took gun from his hand Employees said he went up to the cash register and pointed the gun An eight-year-old Florida boy was taken into custody after he stole his mother's handgun and attempted to rob a local grocery store, police said. Surveillance video at King Foods in West Palm Beach captured the boy, still wearing his bike helmet, entering the store and heading to an aisle. Employees said the boy, whose first name is Jaden, walked around for a minute before he went up to the cash register, pointed the gun and said 'Give me the money'. Scroll down for video An eight-year-old Florida boy (pictured here on surveillance footage) was taken into custody after he stole his mother's handgun and attempted to rob the King Foods grocery store in West Palm Beach, police said Surveillance video captured the boy, still wearing his bike helmet, entering the store and heading to an aisle 'At the moment I didn't know if it was a real gun or fake,' employee Robert Espinal told CBS Miami. 'But I took it seriously.' Another employee immediately sprung into action, twisting the boy's wrist so he could take the gun away. Surveillance footage showed an employee then struggle as he tries to take the boy into the office before the store manager called police. The gun was loaded but there was no bullet in the chamber, a King Foods employee told WPBF. Eboni Alls, the boy's mother, said her son had told him he was going to the park to play and gave her a hug before he left on his bike. Employees said the boy went up to the cash register, pointed the gun and said 'Give me the money' before one worker twisted his arm, grabbed the gun and tried to take him into the office (pictured) The employee struggled as the boy tried to fight back and the general manager called the police Eboni Alls, the boy's mother, said her son had told him he was going to the park to play and gave her a hug before he left on his bike She didn't know anything was amiss until she picked up her purse. 'It was so light. I knew I was missing something. I said, "Where's my gun?"', she told the network. 'The first thing I thought was I hope Jaden don't have my gun.' The state announced Friday that it will not pursue charges against the boy or his mother and that he has been released from home detention. Jaden is undergoing a mental evaluation after he made comments about hurting himself and will also have to enter a diversion program. He has also been banned from the grocery store. The state announced Friday that it will not pursue charges against the boy or his mother and that he has been released from home detention A mother and daughter from Cardiff have both given birth to baby girls in the same hospital on the same day - just three hours apart. Sophie Jenkins, 19, and her mother Kay Henry, 34, from Pentwyn, experienced their nine-month pregnancies together and both gave birth at the University Hospital of Wales, Heath Hospital. Sophie and her partner Adam welcomed Arya Kay Patricia at 8.56pm on Thursday, followed shortly by Kay and her husband Darren's baby girl Tiana Rose at 12.11am yesterday. Together: Sophie Jenkins (right), 19, and her mother Kay Henry (left), 34, from Pentwyn, experienced their nine-month pregnancies together Newborn: Sophie and her partner Adam welcomed Arya Kay Patricia (right) at 8.56pm on Thursday, followed shortly by Kay and her husband Darren's baby girl Tiana Rose (left) at 12.11am yesterday That means that Arya is actually a few hours older than her aunt, Tania. Sophie said: 'It been strange and special at the same time. 'This is mum's fourth child, so it was really good to have her giving me advice along the way.' Kay's aunt Tracey Campbell, 51, said that they already have a big family and want it to continue growing. 'We're all over the moon, we have a big family already so it's lovely to add to it,' she said. 'I think there will be another birth this year, so the family is just getting bigger and bigger.' The new babies have created a fifth living generation for the family and Tracey's father David, who is 84, has 28 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Rare: The strange circumstances mean that Arya is actually a few hours older than her aunt, Tania (pictured) Both women gave birth at the University Hospital of Wales, Heath Hospital (pictured) Big family: Arya is now the youngest of the five-generation family, and the oldest, David, who is 84, has a staggering 28 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild Kay's two children Shanade, 11, and Troy, eight, have just become an aunt and uncle to Arya, as well as older siblings to Tiana. 'We were waiting at home for news of the babies and when I told Shanade and Troy that they'd become an aunt and an uncle, then older siblings hours later, they started crying,' Tracey said. 'It's absolutely amazing and we just want them to come home now,' she added. Sophie said she likes the thought of the two girls growing up together, and that it's comforting knowing her mum is in the same position. 'We'll be doing everything together, it's so much less daunting this way,' she said. Harper now being treated in hospital and will face robbery, kidnapping and theft charges Suspects' journey ended in dawn stand off with police where Fitzgerald was shot dead Fitzgerald and Harper then went back on the run using the Gunnell's truck The two used the Gunnells phone to say bye to their families in Missouri Harper comforted their two-year-old daughter telling her to be calm April and Ian Gunnell were forced at gunpoint to give The Florida family who were the last hostages in a spate of crimes by a Missouri couple dubbed 'Bonnie and Clyde', have spoken out about their terrifying ordeal. April and Ian Gunnell, of Pensacola, gave the now notorious Blake Fitzgerald and Brittany Harper refuge after they forced their way into the Gunnell home with a gun. Mrs Gunnell told WIAT news: 'Am I okay? No. (laughs) No. I'm not okay. I'll be okay.' Scroll down for video Terrified April and Ian Gunnell have spoken out about the traumatic ordeal when they were forced at gunpoint to give Fitzgerald and Harper refuge at their home Following the stop off at the Gunnell's Pensacola home, wanted man Blake Fitzgerald (left) was killed in a shootout with police in the Florida Panhandle early Friday morning. His girlfriend Brittany Harper (right) was wounded in the gun battle Mrs Gunnell described how Harper comforted her two-year-old daughter, telling her to 'calm down' and not be 'frightened', while the family were held hostage at their home in Pensacola (above) They added there was a 'mass amount of anger for them coming into my house and taking us and putting us in that situation'. Their two-year-old daughter was with them at the time. But the Gunnells also paint a very different picture of 'villains' Fitzgerald and Harper - who they immediately recognized - than what has been described in the news. Mrs Gunnell told how Harper comforted her two-year-old daughter, telling her to 'calm down' and not be 'frightened'. And when things did 'calm down' said husband Ian, they began explaining their situation to the terrified couple, saying they were on the run and needed somewhere to stay. The Gunnell's said that there was a 'mass amount of anger for them coming into my house and taking us and putting us in that situation' Fitzgerald and Harper then decided to go back on the run for a further two hours using the Gunnell's red truck (pictured) The fugitives got 'personal' with the Gunnells, confessing the that they were in a 'bad place' and even used the couple's phone to call loved ones back in Missouri to say goodbye. Mrs Gunnell said it almost became a situation where you become 'comfortable with your captive'. Fitzgerald and Harper then decided to go back on the run for a further two hours using the Gunnell's red truck. They made it to Milton, Santa Rosa County before they were cornered by police following a high-speed chase prompted by a shoe store robbery. Upon hearing about their fate, Mrs Gunnel said: 'I don't feel hatred, I feel sorrow. Absolutely' Their incredible journey ended in an early-morning stand-off with Florida deputies, where Fitzgerald is said to have used his girlfriend as a human-shield to protect himself from gunfire. He was shot dead at the scene while Harper was taken to an area hospital where she is being treated for trauma wounds. Upon hearing about their fate, Mrs Gunnel said: 'I don't feel hatred, I feel sorrow. Absolutely.' The state attorney's office is still deciding whether to have a bond hearing for her Saturday at the hospital where she's being treated, according to Wiat News. Harper is charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree theft of property. Both are also charged with first-degree robbery in Hoover. In Tuscaloosa, both face robbery, kidnapping and theft charges. D CLYDE'S' TWO-WEEK CRIME SPREE: Bonnie and Clyde: The Missouri couple were being hunted for a brazen crime spree in Alabama, Georgia and Florida January 22: The couple is suspected of stealing guns from a house in their hometown, the southwest Missouri city of Joplin. Joplin police Cpl. Chuck Niess says police had hoped to speak with them about the robbery, but "they obviously left the area." JANUARY 31: Early Sunday morning, the pair enters the Microtel Inn and Suites in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, saying they'd run out of gas and were trying to get to Panama City, Florida, night clerk Kyle Dease tells Al.com. Moments later, the man pulls a semiautomatic pistol and forces Dease into a car and the three head toward the Birmingham, Alabama, area, he recounts later. Fitzgerald and Harper are charged with kidnapping, theft and robbery in that incident. Later Sunday, the couple tries to rob a McDonald's manager outside her restaurant in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, demanding money and her car keys, Hoover police say. The manager screams and the couple flees, Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector says. Rector said the hotel clerk was still being held in the backseat during that robbery attempt, but was later released unharmed. About 15 minutes later, a family in nearby Vestavia Hills is eating breakfast when a man enters the home through an open garage door, saying he's having car trouble, police said. He pulls a gun, demands the family's SUV and forces the woman to get inside, Vestavia Hills police Lt. Kevin York said. The woman is later released unharmed about 10 miles away. FEBRUARY 1: On Monday night, a gunman holds up a young clerk at a Murphy Express station along Interstate 75 in south Georgia, taking money from the safe and cigarettes before forcing the clerk into an SUV, where his female accomplice is waiting, authorities say. The couple drives about 15 miles before releasing the clerk unharmed, Perry police Lt. Ken Ezell said. FEBRUARY 3: On Wednesday, the couple is suspected in two additional robberies in the Florida panhandle in Walnut Hill, Florida; and in Destin, Florida, U.S. Marshal Martin Keely says in a statement. FEBRUARY 4: The US Marshals announce they are offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to Fitzgerald and Harper's arrest. FEBRUARY 5: Authorities catch up with the couple in the Florida Panhandle and a shootout ensues. Fitzgerald is killed and Harper is wounded and taken into custody. Advertisement Crime spree: The couple were wanted by police after a crime spree in Alabama on Sunday, but authorities say they also struck a gas station in Georgia on Monday, two more targets in Florida on Wednesday and two additional ones on Thursday Former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson joined 200 supporters at a rally in Birmingham The confrontational rallies were held in cities that included Prague, Amsterdam, Dresden, Calais and Canberra Organised by anti-Islam group PEGIDA, cities across Europe and Australia saw thousands take to the streets Protesters have clashed with immigration supporters and police forces during planned far-right demonstrations Advertisement Violent scuffles broke out across Europe today as thousands of people taking part in far-right anti-Islam protests clashed with pro-immigration groups and riot control police. Police in Dresden, Germany, saw about 2,000 protesters at a rally organised by the group Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, making it the biggest of a coordinated series of demonstrations across European cities. Known by its German acronym PEGIDA, the group emerged in Dresden two years ago and has become a magnet for far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment. Scroll down for video Supporters of the Pegida movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) demonstrate in Calais, northern France In Birmingham, placards saying 'Trump is right', 'We will not stay silent as women are raped' and 'Nazism = Islamism' were held up A young Australian protestor poses with a self-made t-shirt displaying the slogan 'Australians say no to the islamisation of our nation!' in Canberra, Australia Members of the Garda Public Order Unit and riot police confront protestors at an anti-racism demonstration against the launch of an Irish branch of PEGIDA in Dublin Policemen arrest General of Army Corps, Christian Piquemal, during a demonstration of the PEGIDA movement in Calais, northern France French Army Corps General Christian Piquemal gestures as he addresses supporters of the PEGIDA movement in Calais, northern France Activists against migrants shout slogans as retired French General Christian Piquemal makes an address during a protest organised by the anti-Islam group PEGIDA, in Calais, northern France, where many migrants have set up camp to seek refuge in Western Europe Around 20 anti-migrant protesters were arrested, including former French Army General Christian Piquemal (holding the megaphone), in Calais, France, after scuffles with police at a banned rally in support of a Europe-wide initiative by the Islamophobic PEGIDA movement Plainclothes police officers wrestle a man to the ground during the PEGIDA demonstration held in Amsterdam, Holland, today The man was detained during at the far-right demonstration, held in the city centre, protesting what they believe is the 'Islamisation of the West' A man sticks his tongue out at the camera as he is led away from the demonstration by plainclothes police officers An estimated 2,000 people marched through Dresden, Germany, today (pictured) - the city where PEGIDA was originally formed A far-right banner showing German Chancellor Angela Merkel's face is captioned with the words: 'We are coming, mommy' The PEGIDA group organised co-ordinated protests across many European cities today, including at its home in Dresden (pictured) Nationalist groups in Europe have been galvanized by the unprecedented influx of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East last year PEGIDA is an acronym given to the group which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident The protesters carried banners showing the face of Chancellor Angela Merkel depicted as, among other things, a pig and a nun The crowds in Dresden gathered outside the city's main hall to protest against what it believes is an overwhelming influx of refugees Thousands of people gathered in front of Prague Castle, in the Czech capital, for a demonstration called 'Together against islamisation' organized by Czech right-wing populist party Usvit (Dawn - National Coalition) Nationalist groups in Europe have been galvanized by the unprecedented influx of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East last year. Today similar, smaller PEGIDA-style protests were planned in France, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. In the Czech capital of Prague, thousands rallied against the influx of refugees and others in support of them and opposing protesters clashed and had to be separated by police. Martin Konvicka, a leader of the anti-Muslim movement, is calling the influx of refugees an 'invasion' that poses a 'huge threat for us all'. Two other anti-migrant groups are rallying in Prague and another in the second-largest Czech city of Brno. In Dublin, scuffles broke out between people who had gathered to protest against the launch of PEGIDA in Ireland, and those who attended the launch of the group. In Birmingham, meanwhile, police said about about 200 PEGIDA supporters and 60 counter demonstrators turned out. Other demonstrations took place in Warsaw and Graz in southern Austria. In Amsterdam, riot police have clashed with PEGIDA demonstrators as they tried to hold their first protest in the Dutch capital. A square near Amsterdam city hall that had been earmarked for the rally had to be shut down shortly before the gathering as police and explosives experts examined what police called a 'suspect package'. Only about 200 PEGIDA supporters were present, where they were heckled by left-wing demonstrators who shouted: 'Refugees are welcome, fascists are not!' Dutch riot police detained several people as officers on horseback intervened to separate the two groups of demonstrators. Other demonstrations took place in Warsaw, Bratislava and in Graz in southern Austria. Protesters light flares, hold up Poland scarves and banners and shout slogans during an anti-immigrant rally in front of the Royal Castle Protesters hold flares and shout slogans during an anti-immigrant rally in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland Counter-demonstrators shout slogans as they are separated by police from a Dutch branch of the Islamophobic PEGIDA movement shout slogans during their rally in central Amsterdam Protesters wearing face masks and holding signs of infamous ISIS executioner Jihadi John walk through Birmingham today A few hundred people attended the rally in Birmingham today as they walked from the city's railway station to a remote business park Police officers in Calais, northern France, detain a man taking party in the demonstrations near the town's railway station The Calais march brought some about 20 arrests, local authorities said, and police responded with tear gas after scuffles broke out Policemen and gendarmes arrest a man wearing a ski mask during the demonstration held in Calais, France, today A group of men demonstrate in Warsaw today as rallies supporting PEGIDA were held across cities throughout Europe A PEGIDA supporter in Warsaw arrives at the rally wearing a face mask featuring a skull design Supporters of the PEGIDA movement demonstrate in front of Royal Castle in Warsaw with a banner reading 'will not give back Poland' PEGIDA demonstrators gather on the riverbank in Dresden, where pro-immigration supporters lined the opposite side of the bank A huge police presence was also at the scene of the protest, where riot police had to separate pro and anti-Islam demonstrators Mounted policeman in Dresden stand guard next to an armoured police vehicle as they watch over the protests in the German city PEGIDA emerged in Dresden two years ago and has become a magnet for far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment Riot police were also needed in Amsterdam today in order to separate the groups. The banner pictured reads: 'Islamists not welcome' Mounted Dutch riot police disperse demonstrators during the PEGIDA rally in the country's capital Amsterdam Thousands also turned out to oppose the PEGIDA supporters. Pictured is an anti-Islamist movement in central Amsterdam Members of the Dutch PEGIDA movement march through the city centre during today's demonstration French police officers use tear gas against the activists in Calais, where a protest went ahead despite being forbidden by authorities Calais saw 20 arrests today, where anti-Islam demonstrators opposing the influx of migrants in Europe gathered for a protest A woman holds a placard during a counter-demonstration to a PEGIDA rally in Dublin, Ireland, this afternoon Protesters wave flags during an anti-Islam rally in front of the Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic Kukiz'15 Movement member Robert Winnicki (centre) and co-founder of German anti-immigration movement Pegida Tatjana Festerling (right), during a demonstration of anti-immigrant activists and nationalists Policemen arrest supporters of the PEGIDA movement during a demonstration in Calais, northern France, where many migrants have fled to In nearby Calais, fighting broke out as more protesters clashed with the police during a banned demonstration. France's Interior Ministry had tried to stop the march by members of PEGIDA. They are particularly angry about the build up of some 5,000 refugees sleeping rough in Calais as they try to get to the UK, where they will claim asylum or disappear into the black economy. 'This is our home - migrants get out,' they chanted today as they gathered by the port town's station. A large force of CRS riot police confronted around 150 of them, as a senior officer announced on a loudspeaker that all were banned from demonstrating. FORMER ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE LEADER TOMMY ROBINSON JOINED 200 PEGIDA SUPPORTERS IN BIRMINGHAM Former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson joined 200 supporters of the controversial PEGIDA organisation today to protest against the 'growing influence Islam has on society'. The far-right anti-Islamic group conducted a silent march from Birmingham International train station to a remote business park outside the city centre. EDL founder Tommy Robinson stood at the front of the group holding a banner which read: 'Protect freedom. Reject hate'. Speaking to reporters before he addressed around 200 supporters from a makeshift stage, he said: 'PEGIDA is exactly what it says, patriotic European citizens opposed to the Islamisation of the England and the rest of the continent. 'We are ordinary people, we are opposed to the Islamisation of not just our country but the rest of Europe. 'We are part of the European Union so it affects us, what decision Angela Merkel makes they affect us here. 'We have got many different races here today, I dont incite any hate, I oppose hate. I would like you to tell me what have I said that is hatred. 'I have never been anti-immigration, my mum was an immigrant to the UK. I have never said I am either. 'I am opposed to Islamisation. I don't care who comes into the country as long as they are not coming in to cause us harm. 'The growing influence Islam has on society is not good for society. The more Islam, the less freedom, that is a reality. 'I don't believe that we should be bringing in last year one-and-a-half million fighting age Muslim men into Germany, 600,000 of them have gone missing, 160,000 have gone missing from Sweden. 'We don't know who they are, we don't know what their motives are in being in Europe. We have already seen 130 people killed by so-called refugees in France. 'We have a big problem. The facts are I didn't rape 800 women, I didn't attack 800 women, Muslims did. I didn't rape 1,400 kids in Rotherham, it's not my fault it happened, I just tell you it happened. 'I didn't make 360 Muslims try and commit acts of terrorism last year, I didn't make 2,000 British Muslims go to fight for ISIS. I didn't do that, they did it... I'm just telling the truth.' Tommy Robinson (second from front left) leads the right-wing Pegida UK march through an area on the outskirts of Birmingham today There was a heavy police presence at the silent march and rally, which took place from 2pm till 3pm, as police also managed a crowd of 60 counter protesters from the Unite Against Facism group. Last night officers confirmed no Pegida members had caused any trouble and said just one counter demonstrator had been arrested for a public order offence. The 39-year-old man, from East London, was detained by officers at 1pm outside Birmingham International train station and is currently in police custody. Chief Superintendent Alex Murray, from West Midlands Police, said: 'We've been planning the operation for months, the collective efforts of our officers, Solihull Council, partner agencies, protest organisers and community groups helped ensure the event passed off without any serious disorder. 'We had a large police presence on the ground, including protest liaison officers, in order to deal effectively with any issues. 'But we were confident the rally would be peaceful, our negotiations with Pegida representatives were positive and they stressed their intentions to express their views lawfully. 'Disruption was kept to a minimum - Bickenhill Lane was closed temporarily to allow for protestors to walk from Birmingham International to the demo point but hopefully it didn't hugely inconvenience motorists or local businesses.' West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson added: 'I would like to thank the police for their thorough, sensible planning which has helped ensure the event remained peaceful. 'Protests like this have a knock-on effect on the force's ability to deliver non-emergency policing. 'I sincerely hope this is the last protest of its sort that we see here for a good long while. 'The West Midlands is a place where people live side by side happily, it is sad when people from outside the region try to undermine that.' A further protest against the group under the Birmingham Unites banner was also held in Victoria Square in Birmingham city centre today. Advertisement This led to fighting, and by 2pm at least 12 arrests had been made, mainly for public order offences and criminal damage. Baton charges and tear gas were used by the police to restore order and counter demonstrators shouted insults at the PEGIDA members. 'We have succeeded in keeping the two sides apart, and are trying to disperse the PEGIDA demonstrators using buses,' said an officer at the scene. PEGIDA, which was founded in Germany in 2014, had announced today's march during the week, but the French government decided it was too big a threat to public order to go ahead. The State of Emergency in France, triggered by last year's terrorist attacks on Paris, allows politicians and police to ban any public gatherings that they consider to be a security threat. Bernard Cazeneuve, France's Interior Ministry, said the ban was also there to protect people from 'all groups that create tensions, division and violence.' The PEGIDA rallies even reached as far as Australia, where a small but vocal group of supporters marched through Canberra Sherman Burgess, known as the Great Aussie Patriot, and Blair Cottrell, leader of the United Patriots Front, were among the speakers Speakers at the anti-Islam rally addressed the crowds in front of the country's Parliament building in the capital Canberra A woman covering herself in Australian flags and wearing the country's colours on her face is pictured at the rally Left, a woman tries to rally women to vote against Islamic immigration. Right, Blair Cottrell, leader of the United Patriots Front, leads the protesters The small but vocal group of demonstrators marched through the nation's capital to protest before its Parliament building Daniel Evans from Reclaim Australia is pictured standing before the demonstrators in the country's capital city, Canberra Laura Hillier (pictured), who had leukemia, died after waiting for a bed to become available in a Canadian hospital for a bone marrow transplant A girl who died of leukemia was given a final send off after her friends signed her casket with loving messages on January 30. Laura Hillier got to experience a few normal childhood milestones like graduating high school and getting her senior year book signed before she died on January 20. Scroll down for video Laura might have experienced a few more milestones if a Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, hospital had been able to accommodate a bone marrow transplant for the young woman. Numerous donors were a match with Laura and ready to donate, but Hamilton's Juravinski Hospital didn't have enough beds in high-air-pressure rooms for the procedure. Hospital staff told her they had about 30 patients with potential donors, but the means to only do about five transplants a month. Laura was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at age 13. She had been completely cancer-free for approximately four years after her first battle with AML, and relapsed this past May. Though Laura was able to achieve remission for a second time, she relapsed again in November 2015. Dr. Ralph Meyer, Juravinski's vice-president of oncology and palliative care, told Ontario's TheStar.com there are plenty of others facing the same situation as Laura in Canada. He said donor registries are growing in size, and technological advances allow transplants to safely happen between people who are less of a match for each other are becoming more and more common. Laura's friends signed her casket in a final good bye at her funeral ten days after she died on January 20 In loving memory: Friends gathered around Laura's signed casket to speak about their experiences with her 'It is crazy to have to be on a wait-list when you have a donor and you are ready to go,' Laura told TheStar.com in July of 2015. Putting off the surgery meant Laura had to endure her fifth round of painstaking chemotherapy. After her death in January, her obituary slammed Canada's bed shortage as having 'deadly wait times': 'In Laura's last year with us, she was determined to bring public attention to the problem of deadly wait times for bone marrow transplants in Ontario and across Canada. 'In July 2015, Laura achieved remission for the second time from acute myeloid leukemia and was blessed to have a perfect donor match. 'However, she found out that she would not be able to receive her life-saving transplant for months as there were many waiting ahead of her and not enough resources to handle the demand.' After her death, the outpouring of love was so great for Laura, her family asked some people to only attend the visitation, rather than the funeral, because they were worried about running out of room. Friends of the musical theater-loving teen came out in droves, signing the casket in marker, talking about her life and singing songs. 'Though Laura's casket was a beautiful sentiment from her friends and family, Laura's fight, and now our fight, is to change the medical system to end the deadly wait times for patients requiring a bone marrow transplant,' a post on the Hope for Laura Hillier Facebook page said. 'Life is a song...Sing 'til your heart's content': Laura's funeral touched on her love for music and singing A Michigan man is accused of being an ISIS supporter after he told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to shoot up a church to show his support for the terrorist group. Khalil Abu-Rayyan was first arrested on gun and drug charges last year, but now he has since been accused of attempting to commit terrorist related offenses by the FBI. He has not been formally charged with terrorism. According to a sworn affidavit from the United States District Court of Michigan, the 22-year-old was allegedly involved in making terror threats on behalf of the terrorist group. The FBI began monitoring Abu-Rayyan starting in May 2015. Authorities say that Abu-Rayyan made threats in monitored phone conversations and electronic communications with the undercover agent, as he was also under surveillance on social media. He also was found to have made numerous comments on ISIS propaganda online, including videos of executions, as well as liking and re-tweeting ISIS related links, WJBK reported. Arrested: Khalil Abu-Rayyan, 22, was first arrested on gun and drug charges last year, but now he has since been accused of attempting to commit terrorist related offenses by the FBI. According to a sworn affidavit from the United States District Court of Michigan, the 22-year-old was allegedly involved in making terror threats on behalf of the terrorist group. Above FBI agents remove items from his home The chilling details about what Abu-Rayyan allegedly planned to do are detailed within the sworn affidavit. While on social media he told an undercover agent that he 'tried to shoot up a church one day. I don't know the name of it but it's close to my job. 'One of the biggest ones in Detroit. I had it planned out. I brought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. 'I practiced reloading and unloading, but my dad searched my car one day and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and the mask I was going to wear.' He never shared which church he planned on allegedly attacking, however, investigators did identify a possible target less than a half mile away from where he worked, WJBK reported. When investigators asked Abu-Rayyan why he allegedly wanted to target a church, he said: 'It's easy, and a lot of people go there, plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. 'Plus it would make the news. Everybody would have heard. Honestly, I regret not doing it. If I can't go do jihad at the Middle East I would do a jihad over here.' Authorities say that Abu-Rayyan made threats in monitored phone conversations and electronic communications with the undercover agent, as he was also under surveillance on social media. Above FBI agents remove items from his home According to WJBK, he had a AK-47 with a 40 round magazine. He reportedly told the undercover FBI agent that the gun he had is 'the kind of gun that ISIL fighters carry.' It is unclear how he became radicalized, however, the FBI says he kept a sword in his car and dreamed of beheading people. 'It is my dream to behead someone,' he told the agent. He is expected to appear in court Monday for a detention hearing and then again on February 16 for the gun and drug possession charges, which stem from a previous arrest in October, WJBK reported. Abu-Rayyan was pulled over October 7, 2015, for speeding when Detroit police discovered a pistol, sleeping pills and marijuana, WDIV reported. He purchased the .22 caliber gun two days prior to being arrested, WXYZ reported. During the traffic stop, the officer saw Abu-Rayyan make suspicious movements and he also smelled a strong odor of marijuana. He is expected to appear in court Monday for a detention hearing and then again on February 16 for the gun and drug possession charges, which stem from a previous arrest in October. Above is the criminal complaint filed against him While being questioned, he told police that he was trying to hide his gun during the traffic stop. He also said that he was open carrying at work, but forgot to put it in the trunk of the car when he left. He pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana on January 15, WXYZ reported. According to the affidavit, a few days after pleading guilty, Abu-Rayyan told the undercover investigator that he wanted to kill the officer who arrested him during the traffic stop. WXYZ reported that the officer was in the hospital after suffering a heart attack. An explosion that blew a hole in the side of a passenger plane in Somalia was caused by a bomb deliberately placed to kill everyone on board, the country's officials have finally confirmed. Explosives hidden inside a laptop blew a hole in the jet's fuselage shortly after take off from Somalia's capital Mogadishu, forcing it to make an emergency landing, investigators said. The country's Aviation Minister Ali Ahmed Jama said: 'Experts have confirmed the explosion that occurred inside the Daallo Airlines [jet] was not a technical problem but was a bomb that was intended to destroy the plane and kill all passengers onboard'. Scroll down for video Horror at 14,000 feet: A explosion ripped a hole in the side of the Airbus A321 just five minutes after it took off from the Somali capital Mogadishu Carnage: In the blast, which ripped open the side of the cabin, one passenger told MailOnline how thick smoke filled the plane and passengers screamed in the chaos The blast punched a three foot wide hole in the side of the jet, killing one and injuring two people on board. The man who was sucked out of the plane and plummeted to his death was believed to be a wheel chair bound suicide bomber. Analysis of the bomb residue suggested it contained 'military grade explosives', a source close to the investigation told CNN. But a US government source warned that such tests have a high false-positive rate and further tests are under way. Analysts said the bomber may have smuggled the bomb on board in his wheelchair before moving to a different seat once on board, a Western diplomat briefed on the investigation told the Wall Street Journal. The flight which took off in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but had stopped off at Mogadishu Airport, was thought to be flying at between 12,000 and 14,000 ft when the bomb went off. Blast: A hole measuring six feet by three feet tore through the Airbus A321 fuselage and an elderly passenger in his 60s was sucked out of the cabin Damage: A blast blew a huge hole in the side of the plane just five minutes after it took off from Mogadishu The man who was sucked out of the Daallo Airlines aircraft - and whose body was found 30km north of Somalian capital Mogadishu - was named by local officials as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, 55, from Somaliland. They did not confirm if he was in fact the suicide bomber. While no claims of responsibility for the attack have been made, experts have named Islamic extremists Al-Shabab as the most likely culprits. The militant group have been behind some of the worst violent attacks in Somalia in recent years. Survivor Hassan Mohamed Nur said the cabin went black and filled with thick smoke as passengers screamed in terror. Mr Nur said the passenger, an elderly man, caught fire before he was sucked from his seat and out of the Airbus A321. I saw the passenger, a man in his early 60s, get sucked out of the plane,' he told MailOnline. 'There was a huge bang. A big hole appeared in the side of the jet and the man disappeared through it. Djibouti-bound Daallo Airlines flight D3159 pictured after a blast blew a hole in the side of the cabin on Tuesday One minute he was sat in his seat, the next it he was gone. Hed been sucked out of the plane. People were screaming. We all thought we were going to die. Advertisement Relatives of more than 132 people still missing after a powerful earthquake struck southern Taiwan are desperately praying for a miracle, as rescue workers warn they are facing 'a race against time'. The death toll has risen to 14 as the national disaster response centre reported 156 people - including at least 41 children, according to one broadcaster - were still out of contact across the city of Tainan and neighbouring counties following the disaster which struck at 4am on Saturday. By the evening, most of the rescue efforts were focused on an apartment complex in the city, where four buildings were toppled by the 6.4 magnitude earthquake. Rescu crews now believe there are more than 130 people trapped beneath the rubble, with just 29 who can be reached eaily. A woman uses her phone as she walks out of an office set up to record numbers of missing persons and successful rescues in Tainan Relatives of the missing have gathered at the buildings which collapsed after the 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck on Saturday morning A woman stands in front of a list of the missing and the rescue in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan There were hundreds of people asleep in the residential complex, which had almost 100 homes, when the quake hit at 4am A woman prays outside a room set up for families and friends of victims at the site of a collapsed residential building Rescue workers have admitted the search is now 'a race against time' and is continuing through the night Chinese lanterns hanging on the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year as rescuers continue to search for survivors Relatives have gathered at the flats, which had been full of families who had gathered together to celebrate the Chinese New Year. So far, 12 people, including a 10-day-old baby girl and two other children, have been confirmed dead at the complex. The other two victims were killed in different parts of the city by falling debris. Eight hundred troops have been drafted in to help with the search at the flats in Wei-Kuan, using sniffer dogs to try to find signs of life in the mangled wreckage of the building. As they worked, groups of people gathered to chant prayers at the site, accompanied by Buddhist monks. Relative Huang Yu-liang, whose brother, sister-in-law and their two children lived in one of the flats, said: 'I was woken up by the quake and called my brother's mobile - no-one answered and I feared something was wrong. 'I rushed here and saw the collapsed building and I was in shock. Their building is at the bottom (of the wreckage). 'I am praying for miracles.' Wang Chien-ming came from Yunlin county to the north of Tainan to find his sister and her family. 'My sister, her husband and their child live on the third floor and I haven't heard any news since I arrived here. I will keep waiting for as long as it takes.' Liang Chuan-shun, deputy fire bureau chief for Tainan, said the search was now 'a race against time' and would continue through the night. 'Some rooms in the building were rented to students who would not register with the census authorities - we're not sure how many others might still be left within,' he said. There are still 20 people trapped in one of the residential blocks, but there are more than 130 people missing across the area Across Tainan and surrounding counties, more than 400 people were injured, with 100 still in hospital Officials said there were 256 people registered as living in the complex, which contained 96 apartments. More than 250 have been rescued so far, with more than 40 hospitalised. TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE BY NUMBERS Dead: 11, including a ten-day-old girl Injured: 378 taken to hospital Saved: 230 pulled from rubble Rescuers: 1,200 firemen and soldiers Trapped: Up to 30 inside apartment block Magnitude: 6.4, striking at 3.57am Advertisement One emergency worker described going from apartment to apartment, drawing red circles near windows of apartments they already had searched. 'I went to the top floors of the middle part of the building, where we found five people, one of whom was in bed and already dead,' said Liu Wen-bin, a rescuer from Taichung. 'Some people were found in the shower, some in the bedroom.' Interior minister Chen Wei-jen said he feared there may have been more people in the building than usual as family members would have returned to celebrate the Lunar New Year holidays next week. Residents told of their horror as the quake hit, with survivors pulled bleeding and crying from the ruins, some just in their underwear. 'The quake was really powerful - it shook up and down, left and right and even in a circle. It was terrifying,' one elderly woman at the scene who was waiting for news of a missing friend said. The spectacular fall of the building immediately raised questions about its construction, and Taiwan's interior minister said there would be an investigation. Fire crews are pictured pulling a stunned infant from the wreckage of a 17-storey apartment building in the city of Tainan, Taiwan, after an earthquake struck this morning killing three and leaving hundreds more trapped While this infant was lucky enough to escape with its life, another ten-day-old baby girl was reported to have been killed along with a 50-year-old man found inside the same apartment Another youngster wrapped in a pink blanket is carried from the ruins of the 17-storey building which is believed to have been home to 256 people living in 92 apartments A young girl stares into the camera after being pulled alive from the remains of a 17-storey apartment block that collapsed in Tainan City Some 11 people are now reported to have died in the disaster - including four in the 17-storey apartment block, while another was killed by a falling water tower at another location (pictured, rescue workers carry the body of a victim out of an apartment) As well as the baby girl and 50-year-old man, another man aged 40 was found dead inside the apartment block, with the body of a 55-year-old woman later discovered among the rubble Emergency workers in Tainan City remove the body of another victim from the apartment block that collapsed this morning A man breaks down in tears after the body of his relative is carried from the rubble after an earthquake in Taiwan killed 11 today Among those injured in the disaster were multiple young children who had been looking forward to the start of the Chinese New Year holidays when the disaster unfolded this morning The ten-day-old girl and 50-year-old man were reported dead at the scene, while another 55-year-old woman died before reaching hospital (pictured, fire crews take another infant from the rubble) More than 200 people have so far been freed from collapsed buildings, though hundreds more could still be trapped after the strong earthquake hit at around 4am today Multiple infants were pictured being pulled from the apartment today, including this child being passed out of a window by fire crews Many of the injured were pictured being taken out on stretchers, while dozens more appeared bloodied and dazed from the wreckage An elderly man with a badly bruised eye winces in pain as rescue workers attempt to lower him out of the rubble of a 17-storey apartment building that collapsed in Tainan this morning Rescuers scramble through the ruins of the collapsed 17-storey building in the Yongkang District following the earthquake This aerial shot shows two collapsed buildings lying across the road, with emergency services' vehicles surrounding them A crane helps lift heavy pieces of concrete during the massive rescue effort currently underway in Taiwan The 17-storey building had several hundred residents but 'pancaked' when the 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck, authorities said A woman who survived the earthquake is hoisted from the rubble in a cage attached to a crane as fire crews look on earlier today At least 230 people have been pulled from the rubble this morning, but up to 30 more people are feared to be trapped Firemen help a young woman to escape the wreckage of her apartment building after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan this morning, causing it to collapse Rescuers climb up the mangled ruins of the apartment block to reach people trapped on the higher floors The initial quake, which struck just before 4am, was very shallow, at depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), which would have amplified its effects, the United States Geographical Survey said. It was followed least five aftershocks of 3.8-magnitude or more, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. Any earthquake which measures above 6 on the Richter scale is considered strong, with the most severe recorded measuring at 8.9. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, speaking to reporters in the capital before leaving for the Tainan, said authorities were not clear on the extent of the disaster. 'The disaster situation is not very clear yet. We will do our utmost to rescue and secure (survivors),' Ma said. China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which in is charge of Beijing's relations with the self-ruled island, said China was willing to provide help if needed, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. Beijing regards Taiwan as a wayward province. Eight shelters have been set up around the city, with over 100 people taking refuge there. Officials said several blocks had collapsed or half collapsed in other parts of the city, with some buildings left leaning at alarming angles. The quake initially cut power to 168,000 households in Tainan. Later, utility Taipower said power had been restored to all but about 900 households. A man covered with dust is helped from the remains of a Taiwan apartment block that collapsed after an hit earthquake this morning Residents help an injured man escape the rubble of this morning's earthquake in Taiwan. More than 350 people were hurt in the disaster Rescue workers carry a woman on a strecher from a collapsed building after an earthquake in Tainan, Taiwan, today A badly injured woman is taken to hospital on a stretcher by rescue workers in Tainan City earlier today Rescuers help a survivor out of a collapsed building following a 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the area in Tainan City, Taiwan A man still dressed in his pyjamas is rescued from a collapsed building after an earthquake in Tainan, Taiwan, this morning A woman is helped out of a collapsed apartment block in the city of Tainan, Taiwan, this morning after a strong earthquake hit An exhausted fireman takes a breather on the pavement outside an apartment block where it is thought up to 30 people could be trapped Up to 1,200 fire crew and soldiers have been deployed in Tainan in order to help deal with the disaster which saw 378 wounded The devastating quake took place just as the country was about to start its Chinese New Year holiday One Tainan resident told MailOnline that the hospitals in the city are full, while water and electricity has largely been cut off The earthquake was followed least five aftershocks of 3.8-magnitude or more, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Burea Rescue crews are seen in front of the collapsed apartment building which folded in on itself after hitting the ground A rescue worker standing in a crane cage is lowered into the collapsed apartment building in Tainan City in order to look for survivors Rescue crews scramble over the side of a collapsed building in Tainan City, southern Taiwan, after it was hit by an earthquake While several apartment buildings in Tainan were reportedly damaged, rescue efforts are now solely focused on the 17-storey building A car left danging among the remains of a building is seen next to construction workers as they search for survivors in Tainan City Hundreds of firemen are at the scene of the earthquake working to pull the injured and missing from the rubble today Rescue personnel work at a damaged building after an earthquake struck at 4am on Saturday south of Tainan, southern Taiwan A 71-year-old neighbour, who gave his name as Chang, revealed he was watching television when the quake struck. 'I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom,' he said. 'I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down.' A plumber, he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prised some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help. 'She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them.' As well as emergency workers, military personnel are also on site helping to rescue hundreds of people who are believed to be trapped Another apartment building that has collapsed on the first floor, completely crushing the cars parked alongside it Emergency workers peer into apartments after a 17-storey building collapsed in the city of Tainan this morning Firemen have been using ladders and cherry-pickers in order to get into the ruined building, before carrying people out Twisted metal cables and shattered concrete filled the street around this toppled apartment building in Tainan City, Taiwan, this morning Cars are pictured buried underneath rubble from one apartment building that collapsed in Tainan city earlier today after an earthquake Rescue personnel work on damaged buildings after an earthquake in Tainan, southern Taiwan Rescuers work at the quake site in Kaohsiung, which was closer to the epicentre of the earthquake One weeping resident told how she tried to smash her way out of her home. 'I used a hammer to break the door of my home which was twisted and locked, and managed to climb out,' she told local channel SET TV, weeping as she spoke. Elsewhere in the city of two million people, several buildings tilted at alarming angles. Dozens have been rescued or safely evacuated from a market and a seven-floor building that was badly damaged, the Central News Agency reported. A bank building also careened, but no injuries were reported, it said. A Tainan resident told MailOnline: 'The water supply has been cut off and the hospitals are full. It's pretty horrendous. Some people are trapped in collapsed buildings.' Rescue personnel work at a damaged building - possibly an office block - in the hours after quake The city has set up an emergency response centre to deal with the disaster Some 221 people were rescued within four hours of the earthquake, 115 needing hospitalisation, and two in critical condition Rescuers are seen entering an office building that collapsed early on Saturday morning While several apartment blocks were damaged in the quake, rescue efforts are now solely focused on the 17-storey block in Tainan A major rescue effort was underway following the 6.9 magnitude quake, which struck at 4am Taiwan time 'This has also taken place just before Chinese New Year, which starts on Sunday.' Liu Shih-chung, an official with the Tainan City Government, said the city had set up an emergency response centre as it tried to cope with the disaster. 'I hugged the wall and put my face to the wall,' Pao-feng Wu, a Tainan resident, said after the quake hit. ARE YOU IN TAINAN? Please get in touch by emailing chris.pleasance@mailonline.co.uk. Advertisement The centre was located some 22 miles (36 kilometres) south-east of Yujing, and was felt as a lengthy, rolling shake in the capital, Taipei, on the other side of the island. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A strong 6.3-magnitude quake which hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides. A 7.6-magnitude quake struck the island in September 1999 and killed around 2,400 people. 'Multiple' buildings - including at least one residential block - are said to have fallen following the quake So far about 30 people have been saved from the rubble and no fatalities have been reported People born in previous year's of the monkey wear red to warn off bad spirits Celebrations are kicking off around the world to mark the new Chinese year - the Year of the Monkey. The new year, which is also known as the Spring Festival, officially begins on Monday, but festivities get going the day before - and will be welcomed in tonight. Fireworks are traditionally used to scare away evil spirits, with parties decked out in red and gold to signify wealth and happiness. The holiday also marks the world's largest period of mass migration as millions of people travel to be with their families for the holiday. Singapore has already had their first of nine consecutive nights of fireworks - with the display set for 9pm each night throughout the festival. Processions and fireworks have unfolded from Sydney to Lisbon, New York and London. Celebrate: Millions of people celebrating will travel to see their families this weekend Monkey: The Year of the Monkey officially begins on Monday and babies born this year are supposed to be playful, mischievous and clever. Above, celebrations begin in Hanoi, Vietnam Year of the Monkey On Monday the zodiac calendar enters the Year of the Monkey - the ninth of 12 animal signs. Plastic monkeys are adorning shopping centers and office buildings, and government departments have been giving out toy monkeys. Those born in the Year of the Monkey are held to be playful, mischievous and clever - much like a monkey. 'Many people say people born in the Year of the Monkey are smart and have a very good imagination, but it is thought that their chances of achieving success are not very good as they are less capable of executing things,' said Beijing resident Wang Jinping, whose zodiac sign is the monkey. Red: People born in the Year of the Monkey traditionally wear red to warn off bad spirits. Above, children give money to performers in Jakarta, Indonesia Happy New Year: Tonight is the first of nine consecutive nights of fireworks during the River Hongbao festival to mark Chinese New Year in Singapore As is customary when it is the year of one's zodiac, Wang, who turns 60 this year, will be wearing red to ward off bad spirits. Ahead of the new lunar year, the museum manager was already wearing a red silk jacket in the style of those worn by officials more than a century ago at formal occasions, bought for him by his daughter-in-law's mother. 'My son and daughter-in-law also bought me four pairs of long red underwear, four red underpants and four pairs of red socks,' he said. 'Actually I don't think these are something people must wear, but, in my year, the Year of the Monkey, I must do things very prudently and cautiously.' Luck: Sydney's night sky was lit up in red to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year of the Monkey Plastic monkeys are adorning shopping centers and office buildings, and government departments have been giving out toy monkeys New Year parade in Bussels Having a baby in the Year of the Monkey is generally thought to better than its predecessor, the sheep. The new lunar year is already boosting a fighting style that imitates the movements of a monkey. It also offers an excuse to cash in on China's most famous monkey - Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King - a fabled demon-slayer. Less happily, feng shui predictions foresee fire, disease and volatile stocks. The Lunar New Year is celebrated on Tuesday - the day after the beginning of the Year of the Monkey Hong Kong feng shui master Louis Wong foresees 'a lot of fires happening around the world, especially in the forest Some people were reluctant to have children last year - the Year of the Sheep as they were reluctant to have children as sheep babies are believed to be more likely followers than leaders This year, not only has China's one-child policy been loosened to a two-child policy, but some superstitious Chinese will be raring to give birth. During the previous 12 months, the Year of the Sheep or Goat (it's the same character in Chinese), some people were reluctant to have children as they considered the year inauspicious and believed sheep babies would be more likely followers than leaders. According to China's national statistics, there were 16.55 million births in 2015, compared with 16.87 million in 2014. Some state media reports have attributed the drop in births last year to the Year of the Sheep. Bad luck is more likely to befall those who are monkeys according to Hong Kong feng shui master Louis Wong Market ups and downs, fires and viruses, the Year of the Monkey is predicted to have them all. Hong Kong feng shui master Louis Wong foresees 'a lot of fires happening around the world, especially in the forests. So we need to watch out for fire hazards,' he said. 'Southeast Asia will see a lot of viruses or disease, so we need to be very careful about the Zika virus now.' To enhance a couple's relationship this year, Wong advises placing a pink crystal on the woman's side of the bedroom and a purple crystal on the man's side. He added: 'And if we want them to have fewer quarrels and arguments, we can put a firecracker behind the door.' While watching out for fire risks, of course. Wong cautioned that bad luck is more likely to befall those who are monkeys - 'they need to be careful about their career and wealth' - and tigers - 'they need to be careful about accidents, especially car accidents.' Lucky signs this year are of the dragon and rat - it will be good for the career and wealth of people born in the year of the dragon, while for the rat it is good for their relationships with people Wong says the lucky signs in the coming year will be the dragon and rat. 'For the people born in the Year of the Dragon it will be good for their career and wealth, while for the rat it is good for their relationships with people,' he said. A Hong Kong brokerage that publishes a tongue-in-cheek annual feng shui report said the Chinese territory's Hang Seng stock index would perform decently until a downward swing mid-year, followed by a recovery. 'Overall, it's a year for slow, considered expansion, not for raucous monkey antics,' it advises. A group of five people have been arrested in connection to the killing of British helicopter pilot Roger Gower who was fatally gunned down by elephant poachers in Tanzania. A suspected gunman and accomplices plus members of a network providing illegal weapons and smuggling ivory are among those who have been arrested, according to the Friedkin Conservation Fund. Mr Gower, 37, was helping authorities in the African country track the criminals when they fired on his aircraft on January 29. Scroll down for video Hero: Roger Gower, pictured, held the controls of the helicopter as it plummeted towards the ground in an attempt to save the life of his South African colleague, Nick Bester, who was injured in the crash but survived Custody: A suspected gunman and accomplices are among those arrested in relation to the killing of British pilot, Mr Gower. Pictured, the wrecked remains of his helicopter after he was shot by the elephant poachers He managed to bring his helicopter down in the Maswa Game Reserve, near Serengeti National Park in the north of the country, but died from his wounds before he could be rescued. The Texas-based Friedkin group, which operates in Tanzania, suggested that more arrests could follow. Tanzania is fighting a bitter struggle to stop ivory poachers - a report last year stated 60% of its elephant population had been lost in the previous five years. China is the world's largest market for illegal ivory, which has been thriving under the cover of legal ivory sales. Tanzania also last year charged a Chinese woman, Yang Feng Clan, 66, with smuggling 1.9 tons of ivory from the country between 2000 and 2014. Mr Gower qualified as a pilot in 2004 and moved to Africa around two years later, according to a profile with his former employer Tropic Air Kenya. Mr Gower's brother Max said he was proud of him and how he had managed to land the helicopter and allow his passenger, a friend and colleague, to get out. Pictured, officials, including Jumanne Maghembe, Tanzania's Minister for Tourism and Natural Resources, walk around the crash site in Maswa Game Reserve, near Serengeti National Park in the north of the country Gory: This shocking picture reveals the blood stained chair, punctured by a bullet, in Mr Gower's helicopter He said that his sibling did not want to sit behind a desk, and quit as an accountant the day he qualified so he could go to work with the two things he enjoyed the most, flying and animals. Dan Friedkin, the Friedkin Conservation Fund chairman, said in a statement: 'We are confident that the Tanzanian authorities will investigate and prosecute those involved to the absolute full extent of the law. A healthy newborn had the skin under his tongue unnecessarily clipped when a doctor confused him for another baby who needed the surgery. Mother Jennifer Melton brought her baby Nate to University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee, for what she thought was a routine checkup. When he was brought back a few hours later, the nurse mentioned the frenectomy, a procedure in which the flap of skin under the tongue is cut in order to free up the muscle's range of motion and allow for easier breastfeeding. Jennifer Melton brought her baby Nate to the University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee for a routine checkup, but a doctor performed an unnecessary surgical procedure on him instead She recalls the horror of realizing Nate had undergone a frenectomy (left). It is unclear whether the newborn (right) will suffer from eating and speaking difficulties in the future Melton, who had described Nate as 'perfect, healthy and beautiful', recalled the horror of realizing her boy had unnecessarily suffered through surgery and said she began to cry hysterically. She told WTVF: 'Essentially they took our child who was one hundred percent healthy and nursing well with no issues at all and just took him out of the nursery and cut his mouth.' Her attorney Clint Kelly said: 'It's recklessness. There's no excuse for cutting on a healthy child. There's no excuse for mixing up babies at the hospital.' Because the doctor had confused Nate for another baby, he had performed the procedure without his parents' signed consent. WTVF reported the doctor admitted to his mistake in a progress report, where he wrote: '...I had asked for the wrong infant. 'I had likely performed the procedure on an infant different than the one I intended to...and I admitted my mistake and apologized.' While Melton acknowledged the doctor was sorry, she is unsure what the long-term effects hold for Nate. She worries whether the child might have difficulties speaking or eating in the future. Kelly added Nate was 'harmed by the hospital', when instead he was supposed to be receiving care. Her attorney Clint Kelly (right) said: 'It's recklessness. There's no excuse for cutting on a healthy child. There's no excuse for mixing up babies at the hospital.' Only the third or fourth time such a crossing was attempted in ten years Men were part of a group that set off from Dunkirk to try and reach the UK The fifth man suffering from hypothermia swam to Sangatte, near Calais Five Iranian migrants were rescued in the English Channel today after their UK-bound boat began sinking off the coast of Calais. Four of them were rescued from the boat but a fifth person abandoned the vessel and swam ashore to Sangatte, near Calais. They were all found to be suffering from severe hypothermia. He told officials the migrants on the boat, which was rocked by 60mph winds en route, were part of a group that set off from Dunkirk. Four Iranian migrants were rescued in the English Channel today after their UK-bound boat (pictured, last week) began sinking off the coast of Calais It was only the second or third time in ten years that someone had tried to attempt such a crossing, said head of a local police union, Gilles Debove. French police said crossing the Channel is very dangerous because of the large number of ships in the waterway, the BBC reported. The migrants were found around three miles from the French coast at around 6am this morning, suffering from hypothermia. A French association that supports migrants said it feared more people may try to reach the UK by boat because of tighter controls at the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel. A local police spokesman said: 'They had got hold of a small boat and filled it up with diesel, but the high winds, rain, and currents put them all in serious danger. 'As the boat got into difficulty, the men started to panic and thought they would drown. One swam to Sangatte beach, and was able to get an emergency call in. 'When we arrived at the boat around 5.30pm, most of the men were in a state of advanced hypothermia, and after being arrested were treated in hospital.' The migrants were found around three miles from the French coast at around 6am this morning, suffering from hypothermia (file photo of migrants approaching a Greek island) A helicopter and a Belgium Navy vessel were able to locate the boat in terrible conditions thanks to homing in on a mobile phone belonging to one of the migrants. The migrants, who have not been named, were described as Iranians who had been sleeping rough in Calais 'for a number of days'. It is not known how they got hold of a boat, although it is suspected that she was hired to them by people smugglers for cash. Bernard Barron, president of the Calais lifeguard service, said a 'full investigation' had been launched into the incident. The new easyFoodstore was forced to hire bouncers and adopt a 'one in, one out' policy after it was swamped by swathes of eager bargain hunters. Shoppers flocked to the discount store - from the man behind the easyJet empire - in Park Royal, north London, after it launched with an introductory promotion of everything on sale for just 25p. Some desperate punters even patiently queued up for six hours to go on a supermarket sweep and the store had to hire the doorman to keep people in an orderly queue, according to a piece in the Sun. Popular: Shoppers are believed to have queued for a whopping six hours outside the easyFoodstore in London High demand: Shoppers queue at the till of the mega-discount store, piling tinned food into their bags There was also a throwback to war-time Britain as bosses introduced rationing at the store in an effort to ensure that groups of savvy shoppers did not snap up all of the most sought-after items. Word has spread across the country of the shop's bargain prices, with punters travelling as far as Brighton and Canterbury to bag up a discount shop. Since the easyFoodstore opened on Tuesday customers have snapped up armfuls of Jaffa Cakes, instant coffee, tinned tuna and chilli con carne, elbowing one another and jostling for the last remaining packets of 25p pitta breads, chips and margherita pizzas. Frozen stock sold out and had to be replenished within two hours of opening. Such was the frenzy at the store on opening day that dozens of bargain hunters who queued outside in the hope of bagging similar deals are said to have been left disappointed. One customer who trekked across the city said that when she arrived the shelves were empty and that a member of staff told her the shop was closing until the stock could be replenished. She said there was a stream of would-be customers who had made the journey to find that the shelves were 90 per cent bare, with only 'a few crates of tinned peas, carrots and tomato soup left'. One customer picks up a tin of cream of tomato soup for just 25p, as part of the store's introductory offer Stacked baskets: One shopper piles tinned goods into their basket as they help clear the shelves Successful shop: One happy couple were fortunate enough to walk away with a giant bag filled with bargains At around 4pm a member of staff said that he was going to have to close, prompting angry customers to 'shout things like 'tell Stelios to get his act together!",' she said. Photographs taken inside the store show rows of cleared shelves - the enticing 25p signs hanging above once-full boxes of biscuits. Those who were fortunate enough to scoop up the last of the remaining 76 items on sale were seen leaving the warehouse-like space with massive bags filled with discount goods. One lucky couple even managed to stuff a large blue Ikea bag with their weekly shop. The Easy shop offers a range of basic items at 'rock-bottom prices', with an introductory promotion this month of just 25p for everything - including sugar, tea, sardines, tomato ketchup, peach slices and Jaffa Cakes. A weekly shop for a family of four costs just 15.75 inside, and a three course dinner, complete with a pasta as a main course and a houmous starter comes in at just 2.75. A weekly shop for a family of four costs just 15.75 inside, and a three course dinner, complete with a pasta as a main course and a houmous starter comes in at just 2.75. Pictured, shoppers browse the store's aisles Money-making idea: An initial estimate placed the required number of sales at 4,000 items per day 400 customers buying ten items each. Pictured, customers queue at the till inside the discount store The goods are unbranded and the sales pitch is 'No expensive brands, just food honestly priced'. The 25p shop is part of a promotional month, but after that bosses say items could rise to around 50p.' Flour, ravioli, noodle snacks, peas and multipacks of crisps are all marked with the same price. The promotion is only set to last for a month and shoppers are rushing to stock up their cupboards. The surroundings are far from appealing: a grim, concrete, warehouse-like space no bigger than a small corner shop, which more recalls a Soviet-era ration store than the glossy aisles of today's supermarkets. Prepared: Shoppers carrying empty boxes and bags pass each other on their way into the discount shop The easyFoodstore concept has been in the pipeline since 2013, when easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, a Cyprus-born British entrepreneur who set up the airline in 1995, decided to expand his sprawling empire of 'easy' branded companies into the supermarket sector. It follows the likes of the easyGym, easyHotel, easyBus and easyMobile. Its aim, according to Sir Stelios, is to provide for less well-off shoppers who 'will either be on benefits or in low-paid jobs' by offering low-budget, non-branded foods that undercut even Aldi and Lidl. There are 76 different items on sale and although these are currently confined to foodstuffs, there are plans to expand the range to household products and pet food. And although the 25p offer only lasts until the end of this month, after that prices won't go higher than 50p, still significantly cheaper than rivals. If successful, more branches are planned in underprivileged areas in the South-East London, the Midlands and the North. Promotion: All goods inside the shop, pictured, are marked at 25p for the first month but prices could rise But Richard Shackleton of easyGroup, the brand's umbrella organisation, yesterday insisted the shop is not a charity. 'We want to make a profit. But with such low prices, the margins are wafer-thin, so we need stuff to be flying off the shelves for it to work.' An initial estimate placed the required number of sales at 4,000 items per day 400 customers buying ten items each. Costs are kept at rock-bottom by keeping overheads low. There is no fresh food milk, bread, cheese, fruit and veg are all off the menu and there are no trolleys; just a stack of ten plastic baskets. There are just two staff members operating a single till. Colombia has confirmed more than 3,100 pregnant women have been infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus. President Juan Manuel Santos said on live TV that a total of 25,645 people were infected with the disease in Colombia. The virus has been linked to the birth defect microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and an underdeveloped brain. Scroll down for video President Juan Manuel Santos said on live TV that a total of 25,645 people were infected with the disease in Colombia Health authorities continue their efforts to eliminate the mosquito, vector of the Zika virus, which might cause microcephaly Colombia's announcement came as health officials in Brazil said they were warning pregnant women to refrain from kissing strangers or sharing cutlery and plates with them amid fears Zika virus could be spread via saliva The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the suspected causal connection between the virus and microcephaly appears 'stronger and stronger'. Santos said the projection 'is that we could end up having 600,000 cases', adding that 3,177 pregnant women are infected with the disease but there are so far no recorded cases of microcephaly in the Colombia. There also could be up to 1,000 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, Santos said, which is a rare but serious condition that can cause paralysis and which some governments have linked to Zika. The president said the government will try to fight mosquitos across the country by fumigating and helping families rid their homes of stagnant water. Pregnant women with Zika will also be eligible to access abortion services in the country, which are usually very restricted. Many women struggle to find abortion providers even when they meet strict legal requirements and illegal abortions are widespread. On Friday, local media reported the first abortion because of Zika infection. The government has urged women to delay pregnancy for six to eight months. Colombia's announcement came as health officials in Brazil said they were warning pregnant women to refrain from kissing strangers or sharing cutlery and plates with them amid fears Zika virus could be spread via saliva. The president of the country's top health research agency Fiocruz said the discovery of active Zika virus in saliva samples for the first time merits special precaution with expectant mothers, given the suggestion the disease can cause serious birth defects. However, world experts in infectious diseases were quick to reassure people, branding the possibility of transmission through salvia 'nigh on impossible'. Professor Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular biology virology at the University of Nottingham, though it is possible for the virus to be detected in saliva and urine, the amount of Zika will be very low. 'Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and there is no evidence that this is changing,' he said. The Colombian president said the government will try to fight mosquitos across the country by fumigating and helping families rid their homes of stagnant water Pregnant women with Zika will also be eligible to access abortion services in the country, which are usually very restricted. It comes as health officials in Brazil are warning pregnant women to refrain from kissing strangers or sharing cutlery and plates with them amid fears Zika virus could be spread via saliva Colombian health minister Alejandro Gaviria has said he believes three deaths are connected with Zika in the country. The province of Norte de Santander had nearly 5,000 cases of the virus, more than any other in the country, an epidemiological bulletin from the national health institute published on Saturday showed. Norte de Santander, along the eastern border with Venezuela, also had the highest number of pregnant women with Zika - nearly 31 percent of total cases. Unreported cases and patients with no symptoms of infection could mean that there are between 80,000 and 100,000 current Zika infections in Colombia, the government has said. An estimated 80 percent of those infected with Zika show no symptoms, and those that do have a mild illness, with a fever, rash and red eyes. There is no vaccine or treatment for the Zika virus, which has so far been reported in 30 countries since it first appeared in the Americas last year. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the current outbreak of Zika virus, predominantly in South America, a global public health emergency. WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan said she was moved to do so, after growing evidence the virus can trigger potentially life-threatening birth defects in newborn babies. Brazil has reported 3,700 suspected cases of microcephaly. Hillary Clinton told voters in the latest Democratic debate there's 'hardly anything you don't know about me.' Just minutes later, she got tangled in a question about a part of her resume that is an enduring mystery. In the 18 months before launching her second presidential bid, Clinton gave nearly 100 paid speeches at banks, trade associations, charitable groups and private corporations. The appearances netted her $21.7 million and voters have been getting very little information about what she was telling top corporations as she prepared for her 2016 campaign. Scroll down for video Hillary has made millions from her Wall Street speeches but what she said or didn't say has become a significant problem for her presidential campaign But Clinton has said: 'You will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation I ever received' What she said or didn't say to Wall Street banks in particular has become a significant problem for her presidential campaign, as she tries to counter the unexpected rise of Democratic rival Bernie Sanders. He's put her in awkward position of squaring her financial windfall with a frustrated electorate. Asked in the debate and not for the first time about releasing transcripts of those speeches, she said: 'I will look into it. I don't know the status, but I will certainly look into it.' She added, 'My view on this is, look at my record.' Combined, Hillary and her husband, former President, Bill Clinton, earned more than $153 million in paid speeches from 2001, reported CNN. Hillary Clinton has been under scrutiny from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for her ties to Wall Street, reported CNN. Hillary Clinton has been under scrutiny from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (above) for her ties to Wall Street He pointed to Clinton's Priorities USA Action, which reported raising $25.3 million in the second half of 2015 including, Sanders said, $15 million attached to Wall Street interests, said CNN. Sanders said on Thursday's debate: 'What being part of the establishment is, is in the last quarter, having a super PAC that raised $15 million from Wall Street, that throughout one's life raised a whole lot of money from the drug companies and other special interests.' But Clinton replied: 'Time and time again, by innuendo, by insinuation, there is this attack that he is putting forth which really comes down to, you know, anybody who ever took donations or speaking fees from any interest group has to be bought. 'And I just absolutely reject that, senator, and I really don't think these kinds of attacks by insinuation are worthy of you. And enough is enough.' She added: 'If you've got something to say, say it directly, but you will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation I ever received.' 'I don't think voters are interested in the transcripts of her speeches,' Joel Benenson, Clinton's pollster, told reporters Friday Clinton has addressed a broad swath of industries, speaking to supermarket companies in Colorado, clinical pathologists in Illinois and travel agents in California, to name several. Many of the companies and trade organizations that she addressed are lobbying Congress over a variety of interests. She typically delivered an address, then answered questions from a pre-vetted interviewer. Her standard fee was $225,000, though occasionally it could range up to $400,000. 'That's what they offered,' said Clinton, when asked this week whether her fees were too high. Clinton defended her appearances Friday, saying she thought the speeches were 'a good way to communicate' and answer questions about her experience as secretary of state. 'It was a useful exercise for me, because it also enabled me to think through, kind of, where I was in the assessment of what I would do next,' Clinton told MSNBC. Other than her fees, which her campaign disclosed in response to media inquiries, details about most of her closed speeches are nearly impossible to find. The Associated Press and other news organizations have asked repeatedly for transcripts, and did so again Friday after her promise to review the issue. Last month, she laughed and turned away when a reporter specifically asked for transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs. 'I don't think voters are interested in the transcripts of her speeches,' Joel Benenson, Clinton's pollster, told reporters Friday. But it was a voter who asked about her transcripts at a town-hall event on CNN on Wednesday. AP's inquiries to the campaign about her appearances before several Wall Street banks went unanswered. Deutsche Bank, which paid Clinton $475,000 for addresses in New York and Washington, declined to comment, as did Goldman Sachs. When Hillary addressed the National Multifamily Housing Council in April 2013, she focused on foreign affairs, including the Arab Spring (right) and North Korea (left) Although many of her remarks were given to large groups, they were frequently barred to media coverage and few recordings are available online. In many instances, Clinton's contract prohibited her comments from being broadcast, transcribed or 'otherwise reproduced,' according a copy of one such agreement with the University of Buffalo. In a few cases, details trickled out through company blogs and trade publications. At the time, and increasingly as the months wore on, she was considered a likely prospect to run for president, despite the fact she said little to tip her hand publicly on whether she would. When she addressed the National Multifamily Housing Council in April 2013, she focused on foreign affairs, including the Arab Spring and North Korea, and domestic issues like the federal debt, and answered questions from the chairman. I don't think voters are interested in the transcripts of her speeches Joel Benenson, Clinton's pollster She deflected questions about whether she was considering a presidential run. 'That is certainly a question I haven't been asked in all of 12 minutes,' she cracked, according to a post on the organization's website. 'I'm just returning to civilian life and getting reacquainted with something called normal life.' That post has since been taken down. A reporter from the real estate blog The Real Deal was at her October 2014 speech to the annual convention of a commercial real estate women's network in Miami Beach. Clinton focused on boosting the number of women in the field and achieving parity with men. 'It's so important for women like us to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to fail,' she said, according to the blog. 'I've done that, too, on a very large stage.' Speaking to a private crowd of 10,000 real estate people in San Francisco in November 2013, Clinton 'affirmed the role realty places in American culture,' according to another blog post. Press was banned but participants at the conference, hosted by the National Association of Realtors, tweeted photos of her on stage. Many organizations she addressed were reluctant to share details or even confirm her attendance, in part because contracts for those kinds of speakers typically prohibit sharing that information. It would house 50,000 people and contain gyms, hotels and health clinics Would be twice the height of world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai Its centre piece would be the 5,577ft high skyscraper, the Sky Mile Tower There are plans to build an extraordinary one mile high (5,577ft) skyscraper in a Japanese 'mega city' being dubbed 'Next Tokyo'. It would be more than twice the height of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 2,717ft high. The structure known as the Sky Mile Tower would be the crowning centre piece in Next Tokyo, a futuristic city which is being built to combat climate change. There are plans to build an extraordinary one mile high (5,577ft) skyscraper in a new Japanese 'mega city' being dubbed 'Next Tokyo' (pictured) The Sky Mile Tower would be more than twice the size as the current tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 2,717ft high The 'mega skyscraper' is expected to house 55,000 people who will have access to its 'sky lobbies' which will hold shopping centres, restaurants, hotels, gyms and even health clinics. It is being built in a hexagonal shape because the shape is the most wind resistant, Architectural Digest reported. Its elevators will not only carry people vertically from floor to floor, but horizontally to their apartments also. Architects developed a special way of distributing water to people one mile high up by creating a facade that collects, treats and stores water at different levels. Next Tokyo's developers believe the sale of its waterfront properties could even hep pay for the project's construction, if the proposal is approved. The city itself, expected to be completed by 2045, will house around 500,000 residents who are looking to leave their high-risk coastal homes and reduce their commute. Next Tokyo (pictured) is expected to be completed by 2045 and will house around 500,000 residents who are looking to leave their high-risk coastal homes and reduce their commute The Burj Khalifa (left and right) in Dubai has been the tallest man made structure in the world since its completion in 2009 It would be made up of several hexagonal, man made islands which will hold farms, homes and solar panels. The city could be connected by Elon Musk's high speed transit system known as Hyperloop, according to an academic study by Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Water filled rings will be used to grow algae, which is said to be a renewable and clean energy source. Their paths crossed for precisely half a second during the evening rush hour at Waterloo Station. Mark Pearson, a 51-year-old artist, was on his way home from work, weaving through a thick tide of London commuters. Walking towards him across the concourse came an award-winning star of film, TV, theatre and radio. She had just been to a yoga class and was heading to a rehearsal. Neither knew the other. What happened next or rather what didnt happen would cast Mr Pearson into what he calls a year-long Kafkaesque nightmare from which he has only just escaped, and for which he squarely blames the Crown Prosecution Service. Scroll down for video CCTV showed Mark Pearson, a 51-year-old artist, walking through Waterloo was on his way home from work, weaving through a thick tide of London commuters and carrying a paper in his left hand It cannot be said with certainty that the artist and the actress made even fleeting physical contact. CCTV images showed only that they walked past each other. Yet the woman, who is in her 60s, claimed Mr Pearson sexually assaulted her penetratively for two or three seconds. This was followed, she insisted, by a violent blow to her left shoulder. Images of the moments before and after they passed were captured from CCTV and shown to a jury during Mr Pearsons three-day trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in London last week. They plainly demonstrated, his lawyer Mark Bagshaw said, that the allegation was not true. How could it be, he asked, given the half-second time frame? Indeed, the images showed his client walking at a normal pace. He never broke stride. Whats more, in his left hand the one which he is supposed to have used to assault the actress Mr Pearson carried a newspaper. His right hand gripped his bag. Mr Pearson told the court: I would have had to crouch down, put my hand up the womans skirt... penetrate her, take my hand out again... all while holding the newspaper and walking along the concourse... Its preposterous... It is against everything I believe in as a human being. I did nothing. There were no witnesses and no forensic evidence. The actress failed to pick out Mr Pearson in an identity parade of video images. Summing up the case, the judge, His Honour Peter Clarke QC, told the jury that to convict Mr Pearson they had to be sure the assault happened as the actress described. There could be no middle ground. Walking towards him across the concourse came an award-winning star of film, TV, theatre and radio It cannot be said with certainty that the artist and the actress made even fleeting physical contact. CCTV images showed only that they walked past each other It came as little surprise to Mr Pearson though he was profoundly relieved and grateful when the jury of nine women and three men unanimously rejected the womans story after deliberating for little more than 90 minutes. What he cannot understand, what still gnaws at him when he wakes up at 4am, his body shaking, is why the case reached court in the first place. One of the many frightening aspects is that this could have happened to anyone, he told The Mail on Sunday yesterday. For me, half a second turned into a year of hell. I feel I have undergone a form of mental torture sanctioned by the state Mark Pearson Every day, some 300,000 people flow through Waterloo in Central London Britains busiest station. I was just one of those commuters in the wrong place at one moment in time, he said. For me, half a second turned into a year of hell. I feel I have undergone a form of mental torture sanctioned by the state. It goes without saying that the actress will remain anonymous. The law doesnt afford the same privilege to Mr Pearson, who has undergone cognitive therapy for anxiety attacks brought on by the stress. But the greater part of his anger is directed at the CPS, which, having assessed the evidence, decided to charge him with sexual assault by penetration. He said: It is just bizarre. Why couldnt the CPS have used common sense? Over the past year and more, the CPS has been repeatedly stung by criticism of its decision-making in a series of high-profile sex cases. At the same time, it has sought to deal with concerns that many women are put off reporting rape and sexual assault because they lack faith in the justice system. Mr Pearson wonders whether he is a victim of the way the CPS is rigorously trying to redress the balance. One of his supporters, author Erin Pizzey, the family care activist who founded the worlds first shelter for victims of domestic violence, certainly believes so. He then walks on, having passed her for no longer than one second. Yet the woman, who is in her 60s, claimed Mr Pearson sexually assaulted her penetratively for two or three seconds The CPS have recently been wrongly targeting men and it has got to stop, she said. The CPS had no business going after him [Mr Pearson] because there wasnt a case there from the very beginning. At the moment, women seem above the law. They can do it in domestic violence cases simply pick up the phone, no evidence required, and have a man removed from his family and his children and they can do it with rape, too. The CPS said: There was sufficient evidence for this case to proceed to court and progress to trial. We respect the decision of the jury. Mr Pearsons ordeal began on February 5 last year, two months after the incident, when he was arrested at his East London home. Police traced him through data retrieved from his Oyster travel card. Mr Pearson (pictured) says he feels as though he has undergone a form of mental torture He was dumbfounded but readily co-operated with police, ignoring advice from the duty solicitor to say nothing. He was happy to answer their questions and clear up this obvious mistake. He said: I was convinced good sense would prevail. He told police that he remembered nothing of that evening on December 3, 2014. The artist was returning home through Waterloo as normal from his work as a picture framer. Four months later, his solicitor rang his mobile to say he was going to be charged. I was on a Tube train and I staggered off in a daze, he recalled. It felt completely bizarre. As the months dragged by this feeling gave way to terror. It is horrible and frightening to contemplate going to prison for a crime you havent committed. Particularly a sex crime. We have all heard about how sex offenders are treated in prison. His partner, Carol Ho, 41, whom he met at the Royal College of Art, said: It was a very stressful time for Mark. None of us believed for a second that he was capable of doing what this woman said. It was all crazy. The actresss interview with police was shown to the court at the start of his trial. The moment she was attacked, she says, came, she said, after he clocked her and smiled, and gestured with his newspaper for her to pass by. The next thing I know, his hand is up me.... and then I felt this enormous blow on my left shoulder. The court heard she was wearing a coat and jacket and a thin dress over training pants. She said: I staggered and yelled... and people just stopped all around me, and I was looking back after him. Then she said he shot off... legging it towards the ticket barriers although the CCTV images shown to the court demonstrated this was not the case. It was only halfway through her interview with police that she described in detail the way in which she claims she was sexually assaulted. In his summing up, the judge said she had seemed coy about this aspect of her account, that she had seemed to dwell more on the alleged blow to her shoulder. Instead of continuous film, the stations cameras record one image per second. Forensic scientist Jacob Blythe, who compared the pictures with the womans statement, told the court that Mr Pearson passed the actress for half a second. In a report prepared for the defence that was not shown to the jury, he said the CCTV footage did not show Mr Pearson touching his accuser in any manner. He added: I consider the imagery unsupportive of her claim that his hand was up me. Mr Pearson told The Mail on Sunday of recently watching a TV programme about the Witchfinder General, who tortured confessions out of suspected witches during the English Civil War. He said: The narrator said, Imagine living in an England where you could be hanged on the hearsay of a neighbour. One positive case of norovirus related to an investigation at restaurant chain operator Buffalo Wild Wings Inc has been confirmed, the Kansas health department's Johnson County office said on Friday. The investigation is related to a gastrointestinal illness that affected at least 10 people who ate at a Buffalo Wild Wings' restaurant in Overland Park in suburban Kansas City. According to Fox 4 KC, the Shawnee Mission South Swim and Dive Team held a fundraiser at the restaurant on January 27. Scroll down for video The investigation is related to a gastrointestinal illness that affected at least 10 people who ate at a Buffalo Wild Wings' restaurant in Overland Park (pictured) in suburban Kansas City One of the swim team's members, Thomas Ott, told Fox 4 KC: 'The day after I woke up with an awful stomach ache and started throwing up half-hour later and continued to throw up for eight or nine hours.' He told the station: 'I was worried about when I could come back and when I could swim and so were my parents, I've worked real hard this season.' Johnson County Department of Health and Environment Director Lougene Marsh said in a statement: 'These types of illness are common this time of year. 'The best thing you can do is wash your hands properly and stay home when you are sick to prevent the spread of these types of illness.' The department said in a press release: 'Additional results are pending lab confirmation. There have been no further reports of illness.' Buffalo Wild Wings' shares fell as much as 13 percent to a 15-month low on Friday, before easing back to close down 8 percent at $142.08. Norovirus is the most common cause of food-borne disease outbreaks in the United States and infections usually occurs in places such as hospitals, cruise ships and universities, where people eat and live in close quarters. Sophie Vogt with the swim team told Fox 4 KC: 'I got up and I checked my phone and everyone in the group chat was like did you get sick? Yeah we all got sick.' Shawnee Mission South Swim and Dive Team's Sophie Vogt (left) said: 'Yeah we all got sick.' Team member Thomas Ott (right) said: 'The day after I woke up with an awful stomach ache and started throwing up half-hour later' Buffalo Wild Wings, whose outlets are known for their chicken wings, said despite the one positive test, there was no confirmation that its Overland Park restaurant was the source. The company voluntarily closed the restaurant for cleaning after it learnt of the illnesses and reopened it the next day after consulting the health department, a company spokesman said in an email. 'We are monitoring the situation and will continue to work closely with the health department until their investigation is complete,' the spokesman said. There recently was a norovirus outbreak at the New Theatre restaurant, which is also located in Overland Park, according to KSHB. Last year, two norovirus outbreaks were reported at the Massachusetts and California outlets of popular burrito chain operator Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. About 19 million to 21 million norovirus cases, with 570 to 800 related deaths are reported in the United States each year, according to the CDC. Norovirus is seen in this file photo About 19 million to 21 million norovirus cases, with 570 to 800 related deaths are reported in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency says on its website: 'Norovirus is a very contagious virus. 'You can get norovirus from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. 'The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed (acute gastroenteritis). 'This leads you to have stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to throw up.' According to the CDC, 'Norovirus is the leading cause of illness and outbreaks from contaminated food in the United States, Most of these outbreaks occur in the food service settings like restaurants. 'Infected food workers are frequently the source of the outbreaks, often by touching ready-to-eat foods, such as raw fruits and vegetables, with their bare hands before serving them. The elderly couple were kidnapped in Burkina Faso, Africa, in January An Australian woman has been freed after she and her husband were kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda affiliated group. Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou presented the freed woman, Jocelyn Elliott, to journalists at a news conference in Dosso, southwestern Niger, and said authorities were intensifying efforts to secure the release of her husband Militant group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two Australians in Burkina Faso on January 15. Scroll down for video An al Qaeda-linked terror group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of Dr Ken Elliot, 80, and his wife Jocelyn in the west African country Burkina Faso Mr and Mrs Elliot's family in Perth are relieved to hear the news, and say their prayers have been answered, a family spokesman told Perth Now. 'As you can imagine, we're very pleased. We regard that as an answer to people's prayers all over the world.' 'We want to thank everyone for their prayers and ask that they keep on praying. Please continue to do exactly that. Mr Turnbull confirmed her release, saying that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had been speaking with the Elliott family in Australia. 'We want to thank the Government of Niger and the Government of Burkina Faso, which of course is where the Elliotts were living when they were kidnapped,' he told the ABC's Insiders program. 'We want to thank them for the work that they're doing, and ... we prefer to say very little about this case publicly other than to say that we obviously continue to cooperate with those Governments and we thank them for their efforts.' Mr Turnbull declined to comment on the prospect of Ms Elliott's husband also being released, only saying the Australian Government would continue to stay in touch with Burkina Faso The terror group, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, said it would release Mrs Elliot (left), due to the al Qaeda policy of not involving women in war Dr Elliot (front) and his wife had operated a hospital in the town of Djibo, in Burkina Faso, for over 40 years The couple 'literally built the hospital with their own hands using Ken's farming skills' and work there together The family has said they will continue to pray for the safe return of Dr Elliot and ask their supporter to continue praying as well. 'The primary motive behind their kidnapping was an attempt to (gain) release of our captives who sit behind bars and suffer the pain of imprisonment, as well as being deprived of their basic rights,' the recording stated. The couple were abducted the same day terrorists attacked a restaurant and hotel in the country's capital, Ouagadougou, an attack that left dozens dead, most of them foreigners. Dr. Elliott, 80, and his wife, had operated a 120-bed clinic in the town of Djibo for over 40 years. Their family earlier said the couple, who were held in high regard by the locals, had 'dedicated their lives' to helping people. Elikia Johnson, who describes herself as the couple's niece although not biologically related, believed the couple were taken as they were 'easy targets' and well known in the small community Dr Ken Elliot (pictured) and his wife Jocelyn were kidnapped in mid January Dr Elliot and his wife travelled to West Africa in 1972 and built the only hospital in Djibo The couple's non-biological 'niece', Elikia Johnson, told Daily Mail Australia she could not 'understand how this can happen to people who've done nothing but good.' The Burkina government said the pair were kidnapped in Baraboule, near the west African country's borders with Niger and Mali. The Elliots moved to Djibo 43 years ago on a 'mission from God' to open the first medical centre in the region and Dr Elliot performs around 150 surgeries each month. Ms Johnson believed the couple were taken as they were 'easy targets' and well known in the small community. There has been an outpouring of love and messages of support as people learn of the couple's kidnapping. Mr and Mrs Elliot both grew up in rural Western Australia. In his early twenties, Dr Elliot worked with Freemantle Hospital and the Kalgoorlie based Royal Flying Doctor Service. Dr Elliot was regarded as the 'Mother Theresa of Djibo' after he and his wife moved to West Africa in 1972 to open a medical centre There has been an outpouring of love and messages of support when people learned of the couple's kidnapping The number of suspected jihadis trying to leave the country to join extremist groups overseas but were pulled off flights from Australia has reportedly doubled in the past seven months. Department of Immigration figures reveal 312 passengers suspected of joining the Islamic State in the Middle East were intercepted in the seven months to February, compared to 336 in the previous 12 months, according to Fairfax Media. The data does not take into account those who were later deemed not to be a risk and allowed to continue on their journeys. The death of notorious recruiter Neil Prakash, who was linked to an alleged ANZAC Day terror plot in Melbourne, may have contributed to the fall in numbers Counter-terrorism experts believe there has been a decrease in the number of fighters joining the battlefields abroad, with airport interventions a contributing factor. The death of notorious recruiter Neil Prakash, who was linked to an alleged ANZAC Day terror plot in Melbourne, is also thought to have contributed to the fall in numbers. This comes after two teenage brothers were allegedly detained at Sydney Airport by counter-terrorism authorities last year. The two siblings, aged 16 and 17, from south west Sydney were suspected of trying to leave Australia to fight in a conflict zone and were reportedly collected by their their mother after they were detained and their luggage searched. The photo of a youthful ISIS fighter posing with a rifle was identified as Melbourne teen Jake Bilardi (centre) Ginger Jihadi Abdullah Elmir gained notoriety when he declared that ISIS will not stop their murderous campaign 'until the black flag is flying high in every single land' in a YouTube video Counter-terrorism authorities accompany the two teenage boys through Sydney Airport after they were stopped from boarding a flight to an undisclosed location in the Middle East Last year, photos emerged online of Jake surrounded by Islamic State fighters armed with assault rifles They joined Sydney jihadists Mohamed Elomar, Khaled Sharrouf, and teenager Abdullah Elmir - dubbed the Ginger Jihadist - in becoming the most high profile Australians to have travelled to the Middle East to fight with Islamic State. Elmir, a former Condell Park High student, was filmed on the banks of the River Tigris in Iraq last October. The 17-year-old gained notoriety when he declared that ISIS will not stop their murderous campaign 'until the black flag is flying high in every single land' in the YouTube video. Elomar and Sharrouf have appeared regularly in Islamic State videos. One of which included a beheading of a prisoner. A 56-year-old driver thought to have been in the cab of a 565ft crane that collapsed in New York on Friday has been pictured for the first time. Kevin Reilly, from Setauket, New York, is reported to have been operating the big rig when it fell in the Tribeca district yesterday, killing Harvard graduate David Wichs, 38, as he walked to work. Reilly was praised by investigators on Saturday after it was revealed he steered the falling big rig into the street rather than allowing it to collapse on top of buildings, the NYDailyNews reports. Scroll down for video Kevin Reilly, 56, the man believed to have been operating the 565ft crane which collapsed in New York's Tribeca neighborhood yesterday morning has been praised by investigators today According to reports, Reilly guided the falling big rig into the street rather than allowing it to hit nearby buildings, likely saving lives in the process According to reports, Reilly stayed in the cab even as it flipped upside down, then he kicked out a window in order to escape. The street was largely empty of pedestrians as officials advised people to find a different route while the crane was being lowered. It is now thought that a sudden 40mph gust of wind that tore through Worth Street as the crane was being lowered to the ground could have caused it to come crashing down. According to anonymous sources who spoke to the Daily News, the strong gust, which was measured on nearby weather instruments, is now the leading explanation for the disaster. As the crane was being lowered, workers were using an immense counterweight in order to keep it balanced and to ensure it lowered slowly. However, the strong wind threw the delicate balance out, causing it to fall, the sources added. The NYPD said today that its investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, confirming that a man, believed to be Reilly, was interviewed by officers yesterday. The spokesman told MailOnline that there is no indication of charges being filed at this stage, but stressed that could change. Yesterday NJ Advance Media reported that Reilly has a history of DUI arrests but has apparently been clean since his last arrest in 1989. The incident killed Harvard graduate David Wichs, 38 (pictured with his wife Rebecca Guttman), as he walked to work after getting off the subway - as well as injuring three others A freak 40mph guest of wind is now thought to be the leading explanation for the disaster after causing the crane to become unbalanced as it was being lowered to the ground, according to reports According to reports, Reilly blew a blank reading when tested by officers following the crash. Workers are still trying to clean up the crash site near Worth and Church Street in New York's financial district today. At a press conference the The Department of Buildings said it inspected the crane on Thursday before an extension was added to the boom and found no fault. A spokesman added that the driver was arguably taking every precaution when he began lowering the boom just as winds were approaching 20mph. The department has also launched its own investigation, which is also ongoing. The crawler crane is capable of lifting 350 tons and was installed at the former Western Union building at 60 Hudson St. last Saturday, CBS News reported. The crane was tasked with replacing generators and air conditioners on the buildings roof. Police confirmed that they had interviewed a man, believed to Reilly, following the accident and that the investigation is still active, with no charges filed Earlier today Dawn Kojima (pictured on Facebook) told how she barely escaped with her life during the accident, and is still recovering in hospital after being hit by falling debris It is owned by Bay Crane of Long Island City, Queens and Hicksville, Long Island, and operated by Galasso Trucking and Rigging. Earlier today Dawn Kojima described how she was lucky to escape from the falling crane as she walked directly into its path on her way to work. She told how she was getting coffee around 8.30am Friday before continuing to work when the accident happened. Kojima, who is married, said that her instincts kicked in and she flattened herself against the nearest building and ducked for cover 'I just leaned up against [the wall]. ... I was just trying to cover myself, trying to protect myself,' she told the Daily News. 'I don't know what hit me. It could have been parts of the crane that fell, some of the building, I don't know. It's hard to describe, it was really painful.' After just 44 disastrous days in No10, Liz Truss took to a lectern outside the famous black door to confirm her departure, sealing her fate as the shortest-serving premier in modern political history. Revealing she had informed the King of her decision, she said: 'I cannot deliver on the mandate.... I will remain as PM until a successor has been chosen.' Ms Truss - who insisted she was a 'fighter not a quitter' barely 24 hours ago - said the Tory leadership contest will be completed over the next week. Giving her valedictory statement, she was watched by husband Hugh. Attention immediately turns to the leadership battle - with Jeremy Hunt ruling himself out within minutes. However, there are claims that Boris Johnson - currently on holiday in the Caribbean - will bid for a shock return just six weeks after he left office. Friends of Rishi Sunak told MailOnline he is almost certain to stand, Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch are likely to run, and Penny Mordaunt's 'grassroots' campaign Twitter account has already fired up. Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis is also considering throwing his hat in the ring, although the number of nominations from MPs needed to appear on the ballot is expected to be very high. One close Sunak ally told MailOnline there would be a 'natural logic' to him facing off against Ms Johnson. 'It will be a battle for the soul of the party,' they added. Advertising expert said she could earn up to 500,000 for a one off advert Nicole Kidman may not be up for any of next week's Oscars, but were there a category for advertising appearances she would surely be in contention. Once the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, the Oscar-winning star of Moulin Rouge and Eyes Wide Shut is now hoovering up TV advertising campaigns in a way she once did A-list roles. The 48-year-old mother of four is currently fronting campaigns for flats, flights and film tickets worth an estimated 1 million to her. Scroll down for video Oscar winning Nicole Kidman, 44, has previously fronted campaigns for big brands including Chanel No. 5, Jimmy Choo (pictured) and Nintendo Last year Kidman agreed to become an ambassador for the Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad (pictured) Miss Kidman has a starring role in the TV adverts for the price comparison website CompareTheMarket.com in which she appears alongside the company's famous meerkats Aleksandr and Sergei. In the commercial for the firm's two-for-one cinema offer, Aleksandr interrupts a romantic meal between Sergei and Miss Kidman and chastises his friend for spending too much time with the star. Although the advert ends with Sergei giving up on Miss Kidman, others have no intention of turning their backs on her. The star is also fronting a campaign for a luxury British property firm called Mayfair Park Residences, and last year she agreed to become an ambassador for the Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad. In an advertisement for the airline, the actress looks delighted to be aboard the carrier's luxury The Residence service, which has been dubbed the 'apartment in the sky'. Her involvement in the advert was subsequently criticised by the American Association of Professional Flight Attendants which said the airline discriminated against its female employees. Miss Kidman has a starring role in the TV adverts for the price comparison website CompareTheMarket.com (pictured) An advertising expert said a starring role in a one-off advert could be worth up to 500,000 to Kidman (pictured) Miss Kidman who divorced her first husband Tom Cruise in 2001 and is now married to musician Keith Urban has previously fronted campaigns for the top brands Chanel No. 5, Jimmy Choo, Nintendo, Omega watches, Schweppes and Swisse Vitamins. An advertising expert, who asked not to be named, last night said a starring role in a one-off advert could be worth up to 500,000 to the star. But he said an ambassadorial role spanning several years could easily be worth at least 1 million. Celebrated advertising executive Trevor Beattie said: 'I have noticed Nicole everywhere and I honestly don't think it's the money. 'It's the way the adverts are produced and put together. She comes over really well in the Meerkat campaign and it gives her a chance to show her personality.' He added: 'These adverts act as calling cards which keep her profile high and give her a chance to show a different side of herself.' Peter York, the cultural commentator, said the star's 'pale Princess look' would be attractive particularly in markets like the Middle East where the look was not typical. He said: 'I do not think these adverts are going to damage Brand Kidman. Kidman is also fronting a campaign for a luxury British property firm called Mayfair Park Residences (pictured) One of her many advertising deals, which are thought to be worth around 1million, was for Swisse Vitamins (pictured) 'The days when a major star would shy away from doing adverts, particularly in their home country, have long gone.' Miss Kidman's films have combined box office gross takings of 2 billion and, in 2006, she was named as the world's highest paid actress. The mystery surrounding the deaths of a family-of-six found murdered in their Chicago home has deepened, with police now believing they were killed in a 'targeted' attack. The bodies of Rosaura Hernandez, 58, and Noe Martinez, 62, their son Noe Martinez Jr, 38, daughter Maria Herminia Martinez, 32, and her two sons Leonardo and Alexis, aged 13 and 10, were found inside their house on Thursday. Police were initially investigating whether their deaths were the result of a murder-suicide, but now think it is possible that someone in the family 'was involved in something that could have targeted them'. The slaughter is the most violent incident in the city since 2003, authorities said. Scroll down for video The six family members found dead in their home in Chicago may have been targeted, police say. Pictured, victims Leonardo and Alexis Martinez with their mother, Maria Herminia Martinez Medical examiners said all of the deaths were homicides. Pictured: Leonardo with his uncle, Noe Martinez Jr., grandmother Rosa Martinez and brother Alexis There were no signs of forced entry at their home, which had not been ransacked. Pictured, Noe Martinez Sr in an undated photo on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay funeral expenses 'This appears certainly centered and targeted on that family, and what we're trying to do is figure out why,' police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Cook County medical examiner's office said on Friday that all of the deaths were homicides, with five stabbed and the sixth shot. But Chicago Police said there were no signs of forced entry and the home had not been ransacked. Authorities officially confirmed the six family members on Saturday. Relatives had earlier posted their names on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for the costs of sending their bodies to their native Mexico for their funerals. Crosses placed outside the front of the South Side home by loved ones all bore the names of the six dead. Medical examiners said five of the six died from 'sharp force' or 'blunt force' injuries, the Chicago Tribune reported. However, Maria Herminia Martinez - known as Maria Hernandez - died from multiple gunshot wounds, officials said. Police said on Thursday that they had not ruled out the possibility of one of the six dead committing suicide, but police are now investigating whether they were slaughtered by someone outside of the family. Noe Martinez Jr, in his 40s, and Maria Herminia Martinez, in her 30s, were among the six dead, family said Mrs Martinez is believed to be the only member of the family shot, while the other five were said to be stabbed Rosaura Hernandez, who was in her 60s, was also found dead inside the home on Thursday morning Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy said officers were called to the scene by a colleague of one of the family as they had not shown up to work for days. This family member is believed to Noe Martinez Jr, who was a window cleaner at O'Hare Airport. His last post on Facebook on Tuesday morning: 'Very good morning friends. Happy Tuesday.' Cops found the doors locked and saw a body on the floor through a window. One of the police officers sent a radio message from outside the home, saying: 'Roll ambulance this way. We got people passed out. Don't know if they're dead or what. We'll make a forced entry too.' As they smashed their way through the door, he told the dispatcher: 'Send a sarge over here, it's a bloody mess.' Chief Roy said there was no sign that there was no sign of anyone forcing their way into the home before police, adding that the home had not been 'ransacked'. Police said there was no threat to the wider community and are not looking for anyone else, although they are still chasing up leads. The six are believed to have been killed between late Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning, when their dead bodies were discovered. The bodies were taken away for autopsies on Thursday evening. Forensics investigators are still combing the scene. Medical examiners said five of the six family members died from 'sharp force' or 'blunt force' injuries. Pictured, forensics investigators at the scene on Thursday Police said on Thursday that they had not ruled out the possibility of one of the six dead committing suicide, but the medical examiner said all the deaths were homicides Crime scene: The six are believed to have been killed between late Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning, when their dead bodies were discovered Writing on the fundraising page, a relative of the six dead wrote: 'This has shocked and left their family, relatives and loved ones speechless and heartbroken as the household was nothing but a loving and gentle family that was always quiet. 'In the time of need the family asks for help in both prayers and donations to help send the bodies back to Mexico, where they would've wished to be buried. 'The donations given will help send the bodies to Mexico and help with the funerals and burying ceremonies of all six members. God bless everyone, every little bit helps and is appreciated greatly.' So far nearly $24,000 has been raised, surpassing the $11,000 target. One woman who donated, Tracy Prescott Sammarco, said she worked with Noe Martinez Jr at the airport. 'He was such a kind person,' she wrote. 'He always stopped me to say hello every time he saw me.' 'His hellos and his positive upbeat personality will be greatly missed. My thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time.' Mourners pay their respects outside of the home on Sunday Identities of the four people killed in the shootout have not been released When shots were fired at Uvalde County Sheriff's Office deputies, a shootout between the deputies and suspects ensued A 19-hour standoff in Uvalde, Texas, ended with a shootout at 1.30pm on Saturday At least four people are dead in south-central Texas following a standoff and shootout with police, officials said. A standoff with Uvalde Police ended at about 1.30pm local time on Saturday, 19 hours after the original call came in about the situation two miles south of the city's downtown. The standoff took place on County Road 369 inside a small mobile home park, the Uvalde Fire Department told KENS 5. The 19-hour standoff and shootout occurred on County Road 369 (pictured) off of Pearsall Road two miles south of the downtown area of Uvalde, Texas The incident occurred on County Road 369 inside a mobile home park. Police were at the scene for hours following the shootout 'It's a mess in there right now,' a Uvalde County Sheriff's Office deputy told News 4 San Antonio. The deputy confirmed that the standoff was over. When shots were fired at Uvalde County Sheriff's Office deputies, a shootout between the deputies and suspects ensued, officials said. Border Patrol agents and the Texas Department of Public Safety were also assisting with the situation. The identities of the four people killed in the shootout have not been released to the public. On Saturday, neighbors in the area were still waiting to be let back in the area. When shots were fired at Uvalde County Sheriff's Office deputies, a shootout between the deputies and suspects ensued A hair dye that can harm a woman's fertility and endanger her unborn child has been banned in Britain. Yesterday Tesco pulled the product from its UK stores following a Europe-wide alert. Sainsbury's said it was also removing the dye from sale. But trading standards officials could not confirm how long the dye has been sold in Britain. Tesco removed Bigen hair dye (pictured) from its UK stores after a banned chemical called sodium perborate, which is 'toxic if inhaled' was discovered in it and two other hair care products The removal order followed the discovery of a banned chemical in three hair-care products: Bigen, Blasol and JR Beauty. The ban came from the EU's Rapid Alert System, Rapex, which warned: 'The list of ingredients indicates that the hair-dye contains sodium perborate. Sodium perborate is toxic if inhaled [and] may damage fertility or the unborn child.' Professor Allan Pacey, former chairman of the British Fertility Society, said last night: 'If women are concerned about using the recalled products they should seek medical advice.' A spokesman for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, which is responsible for recalls, said: 'Sodium perborate is a prohibited substance under the cosmetic products safety regulations because it can cause harm to fertility and unborn children. The ban came from the EU's Rapid Alert System, Rapex, which warned the chemical 'may damage fertility or the unborn child' (file photo) 'As with any recall consumers and retailers should follow the instructions and in this case they should return the product and ask for a refund.' A Tesco spokesman: 'Customer safety is always our top priority, so we have taken the precautionary measure of issuing a product recall for the Bigen hair dye range.' Advertisement The present El Nino is the strongest ever recorded, scientists have confirmed. The weather system, which is triggered by a warming sea surface in the Pacific Ocean, has smashed its 1997 record in past three months. It follows news by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) that water in the Central Pacific Ocean reached 3.1C above its average on November 18. Scroll down for video Jan Null, a meteorologist at Golden Gate Weather Services in California, has found that the past three months score 'a very strong 2.31 on the oceanic Nino index', as shown in the graph. This is one of the primary measures of anomalies in sea surface temperatures and compared to 2.26 for the previous strongest El Nino in 1997 WHAT IS EL NINO? El Nino is caused by a shift in the distribution of warm water in the Pacific Ocean. Usually the wind blows strongly from east to west, due to the rotation of the Earth, causing water to pile up in the western part of the Pacific. This pulls up colder water from the deep ocean in the eastern Pacific. However, in an El Nino, the winds pushing the water get weaker and cause the warmer water to shift back towards the east. This causes the eastern Pacific to get warmer. But as the ocean temperature is linked to the wind currents, this causes the winds to grow weaker still and so the ocean grows warmer, meaning the El Nino grows. This change in air and ocean currents around the equator can have a major impact on the weather patterns around the globe by creating pressure anomalies in the atmosphere Advertisement That is significantly higher than the 2.8C recorded during the 1997-1998 El Nino. Now, a new study by Jan Null, a meteorologist at Golden Gate Weather Services in California, has backed that data. Meteorologists measure El Nino based on how warm parts of the central Pacific for three consecutive months. Records go back to 1950. 'We have pretty much had it nailed since late summer, early fall that this was going to be a very strong El Nino,' Null told the New Scientist. His study found that the past three months score 'a very strong 2.31 on the oceanic Nino index'. This is one of the primary measures of anomalies in sea surface temperatures and compared to 2.26 for the previous strongest El Nino in 1997. Scientists believe the weather phenomenon has reached its peak, and will gradually die out over the next few months. But forecasters have warned that even though they expect the sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Pacific to decrease gradually, 'there is still a lot going on'. For America, they warn the effect is 'just beginning'. 'El Nino put up some pretty impressive numbers in December, and we're favouring a transition to neutral conditions by the late spring or early summer.' Emily Becker of the NOAA said. Australia's typical El Nino impact is dry conditions over most of the continent from about July through December, but through this period there hasn't been a very clear deficit except in portions of eastern Australia. It's possible that a record warm Indian Ocean had a strong effect on the climate in Australia this year, a reminder that the climate system has a lot of moving parts, and impacts from El Nino are expected, but not guaranteed. El Nino around the world: During an episode, areas in green or yellow are likely to become wetter or dryer than normal during the indicated months. Forecasters have warned that even though they expect the sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Pacific to decrease gradually, 'there is still a lot going on' THE 1997 El NINO: A 'WILD RIDE' While scientists still do not know precisely how the current El Nino will affect the United States, the last large El Nino in 1997-98 was a wild ride for most of the nation. The 'Great Ice Storm' of January 1998 crippled northern New England and southeastern Canada, but overall, the northern tier of the United States experienced long periods of mild weather and meager snowfall. Meanwhile, across the southern United States, a steady convoy of storms slammed most of California, moved east into the Southwest, drenched Texas and -- pumped up by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico - wreaked havoc along the Gulf Coast, particularly in Florida. Advertisement That said, in other areas of the world, El Nino impacts were clearer. Much more rain than normal fell in eastern Africa, as their 'short rains' rainy season (OctoberDecember) was enhanced by El Nino, while southern Africa has had continued dry conditions. Uruguay, southern Brazil, and Paraguay also experienced a lot of rain, and northern South America has been dry, as often happens in SeptemberDecember during El Nino. El Ninos are triggered when the steady, westward-blowing trade winds in the Pacific weaken or even reverse direction, triggering a dramatic warming of the upper ocean in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. Clouds and storms follow the warm water, pumping heat and moisture high into the overlying atmosphere. These changes alter jet stream paths and affect storm tracks all over the world. This year's El Nino has caused the warm water layer that is normally piled up around Australia and Indonesia to thin dramatically, while in the eastern tropical Pacific, the normally cool surface waters are blanketed with a thick layer of warm water. This massive redistribution of heat causes ocean temperatures to rise from the central Pacific to the Americas. It has sapped Southeast Asia's rain in the process, reducing rainfall over Indonesia and contributing to the growth of massive wildfires that have blanketed the region in choking smoke. El Nino is also implicated in Indian heat waves caused by delayed monsoon rains, as well as Pacific island sea level drops, widespread coral bleaching that is damaging coral reefs, droughts in South Africa, flooding in South America and a record-breaking hurricane season in the eastern tropical Pacific. This Jason-2 satellite image shows that the amount of extra-warm surface water from the current El Nino (depicted in red and white shades) has continuously increased, especially in the eastern Pacific within 10 degrees latitude north and south of the equator. In the western Pacific, the area of low sea level (blue and purple) has decreased somewhat from late October In the next five years, advanced technology will allow people of different nationalities to sit down and freely converse with just a smartphone between them, instantly translating their language in real-time. So claims the chief envisioning officer of Microsoft UK, who says that while language translators are currently at the level of 'schoolboy French', rapid advancements mean there may be no such thing as a language barrier. Instead, universal, real-time translators will be at our fingertips - avoiding the need for fumbling around in language guide books, or using robotic translator software. Scroll down for video According to Microsoft, advanced technology will allow people of different nationalities to sit down and freely converse with just a smartphone between them, instantly translating their language Leading companies are pushing the barriers of technological innovation, and looking to develop more advanced translation systems that will 'seamlessly' translate conversations in real time Dave Coplin told The Times a number of leading companies were pushing the barriers of technological innovation, and looking to develop more advanced translation systems that would 'seamlessly' translate conversations in real time. 'At the moment we're at schoolboy French,' Mr Coplin told The Times. He added: 'In five years, two people will be able to sit down, put a smartphone between them, and as they're talking, the phone will translate their conversation seamlessly.' Current technology, such as the Microsoft-owned Skype Translator, already allows for near-real-time translation of voice and video calls, in seven languages and instant messages in over 50, from Arabic to Yucatec Maya. Launched last October, it records what the speaker says, uses a speech recognition system to convert the file to text, before relaying it through a robotic voice box. Skype Translator currently works for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Chinese Mandarin. Skype plans to add new languages in the coming months. While modern systems analyse accents, idiosyncrasies, and dialects, over the next five years Skype plans to refine its technology even further, and asks users for feedback online in order to help it do so. Skype says in its blog: 'With the continued adoption of Skype Translator, we are working on rolling out new languages and platformsbringing the translation feature to more Skype apps and implementing an even wider selection of languages. 'We are dedicated to continue the growth of this new chapter in communication which has enabled people to connect globally, for free.' The Google Translate App, launched last year, allows users to use their camera to translate text instantly in 26 languages, and offers two-way automatic speech translation in 40 languages. UNIVERSAL TRANSLATORS MAY NO LONGER BY A THING OF SCIENCE FICTION Would we ever have to take a language class again if technology allows us to be like C-3PO? The universal translator (UT) was a device used in Star Trek to translate alien languages. In the early series of Star Trek, the UTs were shaped like tubes. In Star Trek: Enterprise the UTs looked similar to a flip phone. In Star Trek: Next Generation, UTs are built into the communication pins on Starfleet uniforms. Ferengis, including Quark from Deep Space Nine, have implants in their ear from birth. One exception is the Klingon language, which mostly can't be translated. C-3PO from Stare Wars had the capability to understand millions of languages. High-tech translation devices also include the Babel Fish in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. In the Douglas Adam book a small fish is inserted into the ear of a person, allowing all alien languages to be translated into English. Professor Farnsworth of Futurama also created a similar device - though it translated only French. Advertisement Travel, they say, broadens the mind. But it can also broaden your diary and your contacts book. Escorted tours aimed at solo travellers are a growing part of the travel world - giving people the chance to meet like-minded holidaymakers while enjoying a fine destination. And with Valentine's Day on the horizon, they could just be the way to meet someone special... Set your pulse racing Join The Slow Cyclist on one of its two-wheel breaks to Transylvania. No special fitness required, but expect to cycle up to 25 miles a day in Draculas homeland, visiting villages such as Viscri, where Prince Charles owns a home, and Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad the Impaler. Get to know each other round a big table at mealtimes in local houses and B&Bs, and bond over activities such as wine-tasting. Peal power: The Slow Cyclist offers two-wheel breaks to places like Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad the Impaler Expect live music and a chance to dance to a gipsy troupe in a Transylvanian wildflower meadow. Last year, one cyclist found love with the slowest female in the group, because he waited for her and kept her company. Romance Rating: Details: A five-day break in July and September costs 875 pp (excludes flights, but includes full board, bicycle and helmet hire). Theslowcyclist.co.uk, 020 7060 4487. Embrace Burma Victorian writer Rudyard Kipling was so dazzled by Burma when he visited Rangoon in his 20s that he noted: When I die I will be a Burman . . . Now Myanmar (Burma) is opening up to tourists, its a great time to discover its hinterland on a journey that begins in Mandalay and ends in Yangon (Rangoon). A slow boat: On a trip from Mandalay to Yangon, walk through canal-side villages and take a ride on Inle Lake Walk through stilted Shan villages and boat on Inle Lake with its backdrop of green hills and extraordinary leg-rowing fishermen showing off their acrobatic technique. Its ideal for solos, as you meet fellow travellers and the tour leader before leaving. Nor is there a single room supplement and group meals are taken in local restaurants. Romance Rating: Details: Classic Myanmar Tour departs monthly from February 27 from 1,339pp (excluding flights). Includes a train through the Shan Hills, a boat ride on Inle Lake. Tucantravel.com, 0208 896 1600. Go on a film fling In her memoir-turned-film Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert takes a journey of self-discovery through Italy, India and Bali, where she tries new things and ultimately falls in love. Vidados covers all three destinations on its activity holidays; theyre all about learning together and each starts with a welcome dinner. On the Italian cooking and gelato tour, Rinaldo the fisherman will teach you how to reel in a catch (of fish) as he navigates the coves and reefs along the Trabocchi coast in Abruzzo. Romance Rating: Details: A six-night food-fest of cooking, wine-tasting and gelato-making in Italys Abruzzo region costs 1,084 pp (includes all the food you can eat, but excludes flights). In India, you can nourish your soul with some yoga, partake in ceremonial rituals in the Ganges and visit the Taj Mahal for 1,657 pp (excluding flights) for 14 nights. In Bali, where Elizabeth finally finds the man of her dreams, you can detox, rejuvenate, and learn to love yourself if you dont find your soulmate. Prices: Vidados.com, 020 3750 2455. Cold comforts: A solos-only chalet ski holiday in Val dIsere could be ideal for finding love in a cold climate Its snow or never! If the ice doesnt break over pre-dinner drinks, it will over the four-course meal with lashings of wine, or during breakfast and afternoon tea the following day. The solos-only chalet ski holiday in Val dIsere is ideal for finding love in a cold climate. The resort has some 300km of pistes and youll find one of the liveliest apres-ski scenes in the French Alps. Chalet hosts encourage guests to buddy-up with each other on and off the slopes. Romance Rating: Details: A solo skiers seven-night chalet holiday in Val dIsere costs from 699 pp (including flights, transfers and half board) with no single-room supplement. Next departure April 16. Inghams.co.uk, 01483 791 114. Love is in the stars Camping in Bedouin tents under the stars and learning about the wonders of the universe are ideal conditions for sparks to fly between travellers on this Moroccan adventure. Following an old caravan route from Marrakech across the High Atlas mountains into the vast stretch of the Sahara, the journey includes a night of star-gazing and treading across the dunes on a camel. Romance Rating: Details: Star-gazing in Morocco costs 799pp excluding flights, departing April 30. Intrepidtravel.com, 0808 274 5111 Easy does it If you like a party, head for the Greek island of Zante, where Friendship Travel will be hosting house parties for single travellers aged 25-plus for the first time this summer at the two-star Apollon Hotel and four-star Ionian Hill Hotel. Nervous novices can get to know their fellow mature travellers beforehand via Friendship Travels online chat room. And to put you even more at ease everyone is met by the travel host, whose job is to make sure nobody feels left out. Romance Rating: Details: A seven-night stay costs from 595pp, including flights, transfers and half-board accommodation in your own double room. Friendshiptravel.co.uk, 0871 200 2035. Speed dating Solos Holidays is launching Albania Uncovered, a holiday designed for people who are newly single or never been away on their own before. And if you want to size up who is going, book your place on a Discover Solos Weekends to meet fellow travellers. The next one is on March 18-20 at the Meon Valley Marriott Hotel. Romance Rating: Details: Albania Uncovered! a seven-night tour departing May 6 or October 7 priced from 1,069 pp. Solosholidays.co.uk, 0844 815 0005. Art of romance Creative types cannot fail to fall in love with Florence and they may even meet their very own Michelangelo or Leonardo lurking in a mask-making, fresco painting or paper-marbling class. Penny Howards bespoke courses are designed for solo travellers and can be as short as one day or last a whole week. Everyone cooks and eats together, and if the group is small enough, she invites them to stay in her private apartment. Romance Rating: She's appeared in campaigns for Victoria's Secret wearing nothing but skimpy bikinis. And now model Kelly Gale is flaunting her impressive assets again, this time on the cover of ELLE Greece. In a raunchy image on the magazine's cover, the beauty shows off oodles of underboob as she poses in a crop-top sweater. Scroll down for video Busting out! Victoria's Secret model Kelly Gale graced the cover of Greek Elle Magazine for their February edition, and in a racy outfit choice flashes some serious underboob Holding her hands up to her mouth provocatively, the 20-year-old wears a playful expression in the colourful image. Her brunette locks have been styled into corkscrew curls and the beauty appears to be wearing minimal make-up in favour of a more natural look. Proudly uploading the magazine cover to her Instagram account on Friday, Kelly told followers: 'New Elle Cover'. Bronzed and beautiful: The 20-year-old regularly flashes her incredible figure on social media and posts images of herself in a bikini or lingerie Runway ready: In 2013 the brunette beauty made her debut appearance as she landed a coveted role in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Hard at work: The Victoria's Secret model snapped a behind the scenes selfie in a bright set during a photoshoot for the internationally known lingerie brand Flashing her incredible body is nothing new for the model who is regularly seen sporting a bikini or lingerie for Victoria's Secret. She recently enjoyed a holiday to Bali, with her beau Johannes Jarl, documenting their trip on social media. The loved-up pair shared an intimate moment under a waterfall with Johannes seen cradling his busty girlfriend in his arms in a passionate embrace in one particularly amorous photograph. She's an angel: Kelly walked in the 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show for the second time and and flashed her incredible body in a vibrant outfit Balinese bliss: Kelly and her beau Johannes Jarl recently enjoyed a trip to Bali and the loved-up pair shared an intimate moment under a waterfall Last year Swedish-born Kelly, whose parents are Australian and Indian, was named as number one of the '50 best things in the world' for GQ India. She posted an image from the magazine on her Instagram account at the time, thanking the magazine for the accolade. Her dark tresses were wet and slicked back for the photo shoot and she showed off her curvaceous figure in a black one piece swimsuit as she seductively posed. Number one: Last year Swedish-born Kelly, who is of Australian and Indian descent, took to Instagram to thank GQ India for naming her as one of its 50 'Best Things' Josh Duggar will not have to face off in court with the porn star who alleged he manhandled her after paying for sex on two occasions as the woman has dropped her lawsuit. Danica Dillon, 29, is no longer pursuing her $500,000 sex assault suit against the disgraced reality star and has promised to never refile the case according to legal documents obtained by TMZ. Danica, whose real name is Ashley Stamm-Northup, also acknowledged that documents produced by Josh proved that she lied as part of her settlement. Josh, meanwhile, agreed to not file the documents proving Danica lied as part of the settlement, something that should not be an issue given Dillon's promise to never refile her suit. Shortly after news of the dropped lawsuit and settlement broke, Danica wrote on Twitter: 'Just because something was dropped doesn't mean it was a lie.' Scroll down for video Off the hook: The $500,000 sex assault suit filed against Josh Duggar (above in July with wife Anna and daughter Meredith Grace) by porn star Danica Dillon has been dropped Deal: As part of her settlement Dillon (above in a photo she posted on Instagram after news of the settlement broke flipping off those calling her a liar) agreed to never refile her suit and acknowledged that documents produced by Josh proved that she lied Saying her piece: Dillon tweeted after news broke that she dropped her suit; 'Just because something was dropped doesn't mean it was a lie' Danica also took to Instagram on Friday night posting a photo of herself as she flipped off a camera, writing; 'To everyone who is calling me a liar. And trying to attack me. Your words are nothing. And unless you are me then anything bad you have to say won't affect me. 'I will still continue to exist. I will still be the strong woman I have been. So support me or don't. My life still continues to push forward. And this won't be it for me.' Danica had asked about dismissing her case earlier in the week but with the option of being able to refile at a later date. She said in court documents obtained by TMZ that her lawyers had approached Josh's lawyers with this offer, and that they in turn told her they not only wanted her to drop the suit but also to foot the reality star's legal bills. They also requested that Danica take to social media to retract the allegations she had made against Josh. She refused their request and made note that Josh had been treated for sex addiction, something she believed strengthened her case. Danica's sudden request to drop the case came a few weeks after Josh filed documents claiming he had never met the porn star or been to the strip club she was working at on the nights in question, while also claiming he had an alibi for one of the dates in question. Danica fired back by claiming she had incriminating photos of Josh and had rounded up a group of employees from the strip clubs who could back up her story. His side: Josh (above with his son Michael over the summer) claimed he had never even met Dillon or been to the strip club she claims they met at, saying he had an alibi While she may have dropped her suit, it does not appear that Danica has had to cover any of Josh's legal fees or make any social media retractions as part of her settlement. She got a chance to share all the details of the alleged incident that occurred between her and Josh in the latest issue of Hustler. In her interview with the magazine she claimed that Josh choked her, called her 'worthless' and a 'dirty s***' and even spat in her face when she tried to push him away during rough intercourse last year. She also said that Josh's first words to her once he arrived at her hotel room during their first encounter were: 'Get undressed. Get on your knees.' His behavior was so terrifying that the young mother of two said she began to grow concerned after the incident. 'If he's done this to me, how many other girls has he done this to?' Danica told the magazine. 'Has he murdered anybody?' Danica claims she met Josh in March 2015 at a Philadelphia strip club and invited her up to his room after he paid $600 for lap dances from the adult entertainer. She said there were no 'red flags' when she first met him, but that all changed when they got behind closed doors. 'There was no intimacy, nothing,' claims Danica. 'He grabbed my head and pulled me on to him and was doing a forced bl** j*b. I couldnt breathe.' Danica said after that she pushed him off few times and he began to calm down, but things turned rough again when they began to have actual intercourse. 'Then he picked me up and threw me down on the bed and bent me over and was pulling my hair, calling me a dirty slut, telling me that I deserved it and that I like it,' said Danica. 'During d*ggy, he flipped me over and grabbed my legs, just threw me down and tossed me over. She then said he 'pressed down pretty hard, as if he was trying to push my neck into the bed, almost constricting my airway.' Danica claims this resulted in red marks on her neck which were visible after that night. Josh then forced Danica to give him more oral sex, she claims, this time while telling her she was 'worthless.' Danica said when she pushed him away he spat on her, and soon after he finished and stormed out, leaving her money on a dresser. The entire encounter lasted over an hour and a half according to Danica. She claims Josh did not wear a condom. She also said that Josh had been drinking before, but that 'he didn't smell like he was wasted.' Despite what happened during their first encounter, Danica said she agreed to invite Josh back to her hotel a second time after he cornered her at an event one month later. She said that Josh told her; 'I just want to apologize because I know that you are uneasy around me and I know that I was rough with you last time but I get it. You're an actress and just because you do that in your movies doesn't mean that you like to do that stuff in your personal life.' He came back again Danica claims and this time asked for some alone time, saying; 'I want to show you that I'm a nicer person. I'm not that mean. I'm not rough. I'm sensual. 'You know everybody has their kinks and fetishes and stuff that they like, but I promise you, I've been a fan, and I really like you, and I'm really sincerely sorry.' After this Danica said she invited him to her room where they once again had unprotected sex and her paid her $1,500, a sizable increase from the $1,000 he paid the first time. When he left Danica said he told her; 'I hope to see you again.' Josh's wife Anna was six-months pregnant at this time and home with their three children. No more: The Duggars lost their massively successful reality television show (pictured) because of Josh's molestation scandal This lawsuit came after a summer that began for Josh with the public learning that he molested five minors as a teenager, including four of his sisters. He was never tried or charged for those offenses, and law enforcement was never notified in any official capacity by his parents. In the aftermath of this scandal, the family's popular reality show 19 Kids & Counting was cancelled by TLC. The summer then ended with the news that Josh had an account on the adult cheating website Ashley Madison and had been having sexual encounters with women outside his marriage, including Danica. Josh confessed to having affairs in a letter in August, writing; 'I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife. 'I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.' He entered a faith-based rehab program in Illinois shortly after that revelation to treat his infidelity and addiction to porn. He has been visited by his wife Anna on multiple occasions, who has said she is standing by her husband. The couple wed in 2008, and are parents to five-month-old Meredith Grace, two-year-old Marcus, four-year-old Michael and six-year-old daughter Mackynzie. Anna was able to address her husband's infidelity last year when she appeared on a new TLC series that focused on Josh's two married sisters, Jill and Jessa, who were both victims of his sexual molestation as children. In an episode of Jill & Jessa: Counting On that aired in December, Anna broke down in tears while speaking about her marriage. 'I knew about this long before it hit the press,' said Anna while describing why she decided to stick by Josh during the molestation scandal. Anna explained that she visited Josh and his family in Arkansas before they were officially courting, and that Josh told her family 'his life story' - including his sordid past. 'He was very detailed and honest with my parents because in his heart he knew he wanted to pursue a relationship.' Anna then said that when their daughter Meredith was born in July, the media surrounding her husband's adolescence was calming down and that the baby was a 'ray of sunshine' through all of the chaos. Then, a month later, came the news of his affairs. 'I think it is such a betrayal for a spouse to go through what were walking through,' said Anna as she fought back tears. She then added; 'It was hard to realize that it was such a public thing, and so, not only was it a betrayal against me, but it was also a betrayal for those who call themselves Christian. 'Everyone was able to see us get married and to vow before God to be loyal to each other, and that loyalty was broken. And so, for my heart, it was just broken.' Josh's sisters described rallying around Anna and wanting to be there for her in her time of need and said that she was an example of the power of unconditional love. 'Josh was my first love, my one and only, but I knew that my only hope was to cling to my faith, because I knew if I went off of what I was feeling, I would turn a mess into a disaster,' said Anna. 'In the stun and shock of everything, I was just praying, "God, help me to respond to all of this." 'I didn't know what to do. I knew we needed help, and I was just praying God would give the wisdom and the help that we needed to take the next step.' She also said that her husband's decision to go to a Christian recovery program was a difficult one because she knew was going 'to be alone for an extended period of time' with a newborn. Anna was right too, as Josh has now been in the program for almost six months. As co-anchor of Sunrise, she's the undisputed queen of Aussie breakfast TV. But rumours have circulated Samantha Armytage, 38, fears she'll be put in the shade by younger new recruit Edwina Bartholomew,The Daily Telegraph has reported. A battle of the blondes allegedly kicked off behind the scenes at Channel Seven's morning show after former weather girl Edwina, 32, joined the panel this week. Scroll down for video Rumours: Channel Seven has been forced to rubbish claims Samantha Armytage (left) has been put out by Edwina Bartholomew joining Sunrise (right) It has been mere days since Edwina made her debut on the Sunrise desk after three years reading the weather reports, but there is already talk of a 'power struggle'. The News Corp publication reported that Sam, 38, was worried about the new format - and specifically her pretty co-host's airtime. And she reportedly spoke to executive producer Michael Pell about her concerns this week. Meanwhile, it was claimed 'Eddie' also called a meeting with Michael to discuss her relationship with her co-host. Sneak peek! Channel Seven presenter Samantha Armytage shared a sneak peek of the new Sunrise set before the official unveiling on Monday morning Getting along: Samantha and Edwina will share the spotlight on the popular morning show (above together on camera) However, the producer has 'categorically' denied these claims, insisting neither Sam nor Eddie have asked for changes to the show's new format. Michael told the newspaper: 'I can categorically deny there has been any concern about airtime.' However, he did acknowledge an 'adjustment' was taking place on-set, which was 'to be expected'. The 33-year-old continued: 'I think it's an adjustment for everyone because they work very closely , but that's to be expected with a new format.' 'I can categorically deny there has been any concern about airtime': Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell, pictured here at a 2014 red carpet event, rubbished claims of a feud between Sam and Edwina this week Michael, who started his career at Sky News Australia, previously admitted to The Australian that he had doubts about his decision to change Sunrise hosts. He said: 'All major moves in television are risky. But Id be lying if I said there werent moments when I thought, "Oh, my god, what happens if this doesnt work?" Last Friday, Eddie delivered her last bulletin as a weather reporter for Sunrise, having held the position for three years. Eddie confirmed she would be staying with the show in a different role, telling viewers: 'I can't wait to be back in the studio on Monday.' Farewell: When Edwina appeared on Sunrise last Friday, she couldn't help but shed a tear while announcing she was stepping down from her role as weather presenter after three years She said: 'Look, when I started this job they told me I could write my own ticket to the world and we certainly have done that. Last week, she told News Corp she stepped down from her on-the-road weather job to spend more time with her boyfriend Neil. She said: 'Neil has been the most patient and understanding partner for the past three years. 'We have just bought a farm. That has been something weve wanted to do for ages.' She will be replaced as weather presenter by radio star Sam 'Sam Mac' McMillan. Cindy Crawford revisited her younger self fitting effortlessly back into Daisy Dukes and white vest as she filmed a spot for The Late, Late Show. The 49-year-old slipped back into the iconic ensemble she wore in her 1992 Pepsi Super Bowl commercial to recreate the ad with host James Corden, 37. The ageless supermodel looked incredible in the classic combination, showing off her toned legs and svelte frame. Scroll down for video Having some fun: Cindy Crawford slipped back into the iconic ensemble she wore in her 1992 Pepsi Super Bowl commercial for a recreation with James Corden In the picture, the portly Corden is rocking the exact same look as the model - a white skintight vest and denim cutoffs. Cindy shared the photo to her Instagram, captioning the snap: 'Who wore it best? @Jkcorden and I recreated my iconic Super Bowl commercial - tune into @latelateshow on Sunday after the game to see more!' The icon, who is turning 50 on February 20, looked amazing on set, sporting tousled dark brunette waves and minimal makeup. The dark haired beauty also shared a peek at the playful recreation in a brief clip she posted on her Twitter Friday. A quick break: The fun take of the iconic commercial with the supermodel will air on this Sunday's episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden after the Super Bowl The fun take on the commercial will air on this Sunday's episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden after the Super Bowl. In the nineties ad, Cindy famously steps out of a red car in the fitted look and struts to a soda machine to buy a can of Pepsi. The flawless star made headlines last week after she told United Airlines' Rhapsody magazine she wanted to retire after she turns 50. The legendary model revealed to the publication that she wanted to 'move on' from modelling after her birthday and that she doesn't want to keep 'proving herself.' Blast from the past: The supermodel shot the Super Bowl Pepsi commercial 24 years ago while wearing medium wash distressed denim and a skintight white vest; pictured in 1992 The next day, Cindy backtracked on retirement in a lengthy Instagram statement. The mother of two wrote: 'Every year, I tell my kids I'm retiring. It's a running joke in our family. And yet every year, opportunities pop up that really excite me. While it's true that I'm eager to shift my focus a bit to concentrate on my businesses, friends and family - I'm not making any final statements (not all headlines tell the whole story!).' Adding: 'I have loved being part of the fashion industry for the past 30 years - and if that time has taught me anything, it's this: never say never. Thanks for all the support, I'm so excited for what 2016 hold! xo Cindy.' The stunner is mom to 16-year-old son Presley and 14-year-old Kaia with her husband, Rande Gerber. Wow factor: In the nineties ad, Cindy famously steps out of a red car in the fitted look and struts to a soda machine to buy a can of Pepsi; pictured in 1992 in her Pepsi Super Bowl commercial Showstopper: In an interview with United Airlines' Rhapsody magazine, the legendary model revealed she wanted to 'move on' from modelling after her birthday and that she doesn't want to keep 'proving herself' It's a job most actors would relish. But Ryan Reynolds complained about having to film a year's worth of sex scenes in just one day while shooting his forthcoming film Deadpool. The 39-year-old revealed on The Fix that he and his Brazilian co-star Morena Baccarin captured their characters' entire sexual relationship over the course of one day but described the results as 'horrifying'. Scroll down for video 'Sort of funny': Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds, 39, spoke to The Fix about shooting an all-day sex scene with Brazilian actress Morena Baccarin, 36, for upcoming superhero movie Deadpool, released next week Describing the marathon montage as 'epic', he said: 'It's not as titillating as it is just sort of funny and horrifying at times.' 'It was a year's worth of sex in one day. Which sounds a lot more romantic than it is, trust me.' His co-star, Brazilian actress Morena, however named the shoot as a highlight of filming, according to the interviewer. In the film released on Thursday, Ryan plays cancer-stricken mercenary Wade Wilson who, in an attempt to save his life, is subjected to an experimental treatment which causes mutations. Passionate: Deadpool's steamy 'sex montage' involving Ryan (left) and Morena (right), was shot in one day and was not 'titillating' to film, according to the Canadian actor Hot and heavy:Speaking of filming multiple sex scenes back-to-back, Ryan said: 'It was a year's worth of sex in one day. Which sounds a lot more romantic than it is' Hollywood star: Ryan, from Vancouver, was remarkably candid about the film, which he co-wrote He is inadvertently left with healing superpowers, but also disfigured skin, an unstable mind, and a 'dark, twisted' sense of humor. Deadpool's love interest in the film is Vanessa, a prostitute who falls in love with Wade before his transformation. Their passionate relationship is documented in 'a rather large, grandiose sex montage', as Ryan describes it. Romance: Ryan plays mercenary Wade Wilson, later known by his alter-ego Deadpool, who falls in love with girlfriend Vanessa, portrayed by Morena Baccarin, before gaining superpowers and becoming disfigured The scenes were shot back-to-back in a single day - which the Canadian hunk admits was more hectic than romantic. Later the Green Lantern star reflected on his latest superhero character, noting similarities between himself and the fictional patient. Ryan, who co-wrote the script along with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, said: 'I have a filthy sense of humour that I freely input into the character. 'A lot of the Deadpool humour is self-effacing. He's making fun of himself - and I make fun of myself regularly.' Diagnosis: In the film, Wade transforms into wisecracking superhero Deadpool after a bizarre treatment to cure him of cancer goes awry Earlier this week, Ryan enjoyed a reunion with X-Men Origins: Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman, praising the Australian's new film Eddie The Eagle. He posted a photo of the pair on Instagram with the caption: 'Saw EDDIE THE EAGLE tonight! Probably the best underdog film I've ever seen.' The character of Deadpool made his Marvel debut in the X-Men series, in which Hugh, 47, plays the mutant Wolverine. Meanwhile, Ryan recently spoke about fatherhood on Good Morning Britain and explained his family's decision to call his daughter James. A different breed of superhero: Deadpool, pictured here in a publicity shot, has a twisted sense of humour Old friends: This week, Ryan enjoyed a reunion with X-Men Origins: Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman, praising the Australian's new film Eddie The Eagle When asked about the moniker, Ryan admitted: 'We named her after my father'. Ryan's dad, James C. Reynolds, passed away in October aged 74, following a 20 year battle with Parkinson's. 'In the spectrum of weird celebrity baby names, I feel like we're not really breaking any new ground here,' he added. 'It's not like Summer Squash Meadow Lark, or something.' Gushing over his new role as a father, he added: 'She's teething at the moment. I love being a father. She was crowed Miss World Australia in 2014, finishing in fifth place in the global competition over all. But Brisbane native Courtney Thorpe has revealed that contrary to fellow beauty queen Jesinta Campbell, she's not interested in pursuing her career in modelling further. Speaking with Daily Mail Australia on Saturday, the 25-year-old says that while she will 'always love' fashion, she is keen to make a name for herself in television as a presenter. Scroll down for video 'I'm done with it': Miss World Australia Courtney Thorpe revealed to Daily Mail Australia on Saturday that she's not interested in pursuing a further career in modelling 'I'm done with [fashion] to be honest,' she said when asked if she would be interested in continuing her career as a model. 'It was my life and I will always love it, but it terms of what my main priorities are now, it's more about getting out there...[and] getting to talk to people and interacting with people,' she added. In addition to international travel and an increasingly busy schedule, Courtney is still managing to juggle a full-time study load in law with long-term goals to enter into politics. 'It's all about time management... It's studying on the plane, it's studying in the hotel room after a job,' she said. Looking to bigger things: The 25-year-old says that while she will 'always love' fashion, she is keen to make a name for herself in television as a presenter Still calling Australia home for now: The 25-year-old didn't rule out moving to America to pursue her passions in television While she still calls Australia home between her many travels, she conceded that relocating to America might be on the cards to follow her aspirations. 'I'm all for doing whatever it takes, so if an opportunity came up and it was amazing, I would absolutely, in heartbeat go for it.' The aspiring presenter also revealed she felt under pressure to lose weight in the lead up to Miss World but has since moved on. 'To break out of putting the pressures on myself because of the pressures other people were putting on me was really hard,' she admitted. 'I finally feel I'm on the other side of that now': Courtney said that while she did feel outside pressure to lose weight for the Miss World pageant, she's since moved on from that '[But] I finally feel I'm on the other side of that now.' When it comes to diet and lifestyle, Courtney is refreshingly realistic. 'Staying fit and healthy isn't complicated as far as I'm concerned,' she said, added that she still enjoys chocolate and 'cheat food' from time to time. 'I try to eat well and try to exercise five times a week, even if it's for a walk, I try to keep moving,' she added. He bulked up to go against Hollywood hunk Ben Affleck in Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice - but Henry Cavill is already setting the bar high for his Justice League Part 1 bod. The British actor posted a flashback photo on Friday revealing the fruits of his previous bulking up labours in a shirtless Instagram snap so that he could set the end goal. Henry, 32, who plays the Superman to 43-year-old Ben's Batman in the new film and the next, displayed his rippling torso and bulging biceps as he got back to training. Scroll down for video Bulked up: Henry Cavill displayed his rippling physique in a new shirtless Instagram shot on Friday, after bulking up for Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice He wrote: 'Warm up phase for Superman training started today! Posting this pic to set myself a minimum goal...and force myself to actually keep going haha!' The smouldering shot is captured in moody shadows as the actor poses in just a pair of jogging bottoms. Henry's break out role was in Man Of Steel last summer, where he was no doubt recruited for the role because of his Herculean physique, but he also starred in Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. last year. He returns for Justice League Part 1 in November 2017 and Justice League Part 2 in June 2019, in the same role. Out of character: Henry, 32, as his typically dapper self at a photo call for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in August Henry and US star Ben went head-to-head last month as they kick off the promo for the highly-anticipated superhero film by fronting two magazine covers. The American screen star and the English actor transformed into their superhero alter-egos for special editions of Empire magazine, out this month. Ben, 43, donned his all-black Batman gear while Henry, 32, was reunited with his Superman get-up for the images. Face off: Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill go head-to-head as their superhero alter-egos as they promote Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice on two special covers of Empire magazine 'An unstoppable force': Superman and Batman will come face-to-face with an 'unstoppable force', the film's director has promised fans 'History's two greatest superheroes face off in Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,' the strapline reads. Both issues feature interviews with producer Charles Roven and director Zac Snyder in which they reveal small details about the plot of the upcoming superhero release. 'To go up against heroes like Batman and Superman, we wanted to introduce one of the DC Universes most iconic and powerful villains,' Zac said. Adding: 'He is essentially an unstoppable force. He poses a real threat to the world within the film.' Superhero: The star is certainly the right build to play the action hero in such a suit Ben's turn as Batman marks his first and Charles highlighted the differences between his version of the much-loved DC Comic character and Christian Bale's who played him beforehand. He said: 'Hes older[and] hes seen the worst of what man can do. Hes been darkened by it, hes tougher, hes angrier, I guess.' He added: '[Batman] is not giving people a chance. He is more than a vigilante. He has become not only the cop, if you will, he has also become the jury and executioner.' Lauren Cohan, Diane Lane, Amy Adams, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Laurence Fishburne also star in Zack Snyder's much-awaited release. Empire magazine is available to buy now and Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice is released in the UK on March 2 'He's tougher': The film's producer Charles Roven highlighted the difference between Ben's version of Batman and Christian Bale's in an interview which features inside the magazine His JustGiving page has raised 25,000 from more than 1,500 donations Fictional Helen is trapped in an abusive relationship by her husband Rob He used the disturbing storyline of Helen Titchener from Radio 4 soap It is one of the most disturbing storylines to have ever unfolded in Ambridge, even leaving some fans of The Archers with nightmares. The storyline that has seen the evil Rob Titchener trap his wife Helen into an abusive relationship has become so sinister it has been likened to horror film Rosemarys Baby. But one ardent fan of the usually gentle Radio 4 series has turned the shock among the soaps 4.8million listeners towards more positive ends, raising more than 25,000 for domestic abuse charity Refuge. Rob, who has become the runaway villain of the current cast, is suspected of having raped Helen, possibly after drugging her. The controlling relationship continues to shock listeners, with this weeks instalments seeing the character fly into a fury to find that she was planning on driving, something he had banned her from doing, along with eating certain foods and wearing certain clothes. A fan of Radio 4 soap The Archers has raised 20,000 for domestic abuse charity Refuge after a shocking storyline The Rob and Helen saga is another example of the scandals that have rocked Ambridge over recent years, with some fans fearing it could be reverting back to becoming EastEnders in a field. It was a worry that was raised last year and saw avid listeners urge the BBC to return the show to being the gentle rural drama they had grown to love. BBC director general Tony Hall even had to apologise to the shows editor Sean OConnor after agreeing with this sentiment in an interview. The response to Mr Truemans Helen Titchener Rescue Fund proves how passionate fans of The Archers can be. It took just three days for the 41-year-olds appeal to break the 20,000 mark. He launched the appeal on the JustGiving website with the simple message: Were raising money for Refuge because for every fictional Helen, there are real ones. More than 1,500 donations have been made since, with some moving comments from those donating. An anonymous donor wrote: I remember how it feels to be frightened all the time doesnt have to be physical to be scary. Im fine now. This is a brilliant idea, hope if helps many of the Helens out there now. Another simply wrote: Because I survived. And I want others to survive too. Trueman posted on Twitter that OConnor had promised to streak through The Bull, the fictional pub at the heart of Ambridge, if 20,000 was raised. Listeners have long make clear that they find the behaviour of Rob, a herd manager, increasingly unsettling. In a tense episode earlier this week, he caught Helen secretly planning a trip with her son Henry. His outrage at finding out she had been driving further highlighted his ominous grasp over her. Online fury peaked last year when listeners speculated that Rob had drugged and raped Helen. The suggestion followed an earlier episode when he had put Rohypnol in Kenton Archers drink on his stag night. This led to people listeners sending angry messaged to Timothy Watson, the actor who plays Rob, on Twitter, forcing him to delete his account. It also prompted some listeners to link the plot to 1968 film Rosemarys Baby, in which Rosemary, played by Mia Farrow, is drugged and raped by her husband because he wants her to conceive. Alec Porter wrote on Twitter: Surely #archers cannot be replaying the story of Rosemarys baby? Since the storyline first started brewing last year, viewers have regularly taken to social media to express their loathing for Rob. Nicole Carman wrote: Rob bloody Tichener ....... guaranteed to get my blood boiling every time!!! Fictional character Rob Tichener in The Archers has been controlling his wife Helen, who he forbids to drive and is suspected of drugging and raping her in scenes similar to the plot in film Rosemary's Baby BBC Newsnight journalist Jess Brammar wrote: Oh my god Rob Tichener is going to make me break the radio. While some listeners are still calling for Rob Kitchener to be written out of the programme, others have praised the BBC for tackling serious issues like domestic abuse. Jill Bennett wrote: Excellent cause, excellent storyline, expertly performed. Another, Anna, wrote on the JustGiving page: For all the Helens out there. Thanks Paul for setting this page up and to The Archers for undertaking this story line. Chief executive of Refuge, Sandra Horley CBE, said: Refuge is incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated to the Helen Titchener Rescue Fund. We pay tribute to those who have used this fictional character to help real-life women fleeing domestic violence. Raising this amount for Refuge is an amazing achievement. A Refuge spokesperson added: Controlling behaviour is insidious and can be incredibly subtle, which is why a storyline like Helens is so important. Helens experience is a painful reality for millions of women. It may have been a box office flop, but 2011 film The Rum Diary did succeed in bringing Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard together. However the actor, 52, has revealed that it wasn't until after work on the movie had been completed that he realised he had fallen for the 29-year-old. 'She was in my head, so I tracked her down,' Johnny said on stage on Thursday at the 31st annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, according to People. Scroll down for video 'I tracked her down': Johnny Depp has revealed how he couldn't stop thinking about Amber Heard after they worked together on The Rum Diary. They are pictured here last month He added: 'We tracked each other down. Actually, incidentally, it was amazing.' Johnny then joked: 'It was at the first day of press on The Rum Diary. Then we married that very day!' In actual fact, the couple married in February 2015 at their home in Los Angeles, and celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary a day before Johnny's appearance at the film festival. Following the private nuptials, the two stars then threw a wedding weekend celebration on a remote island in the Bahamas, where they exchanged vows for a second time. Sharing their love story: The actor spoke at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday Special honour: Johnny was being presented with the special Maltin Modern Master Award Johnny and Amber began dating in 2012, after his split from long-term partner Vanessa Paradis in June of that year. The Edward Scissorhands star was in a relationship with the French actress for 14 years before their separation, and they are parents to 16-year-old daughter Lily-Rose and son Jack, 13. Meanwhile Amber had broken up with her girlfriend Tasya van Ree in 2011 after three years of dating. Johnny was at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday to be presented with the special Maltin Modern Master Award. Dressed to impress: The 52-year-old wore a three-piece navy suit with a black wool coat and matching shoes Their first meeting: Johnny realised after they completed work on 2011's The Rum Diary that he couldn't stop thinking about Amber. They are pictured here in a scene from the movie He dressed up for the occasion in a three-piece navy suit with matching shirt, along with a black wool coat and matching shiny shoes. Later this month, Johnny will be attending the Academy Awards, where he is nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Whitey Bulger in Black Mass. The Pirates Of The Caribbean star last month attended the Palm Springs International Film Festival with Amber, and thanked her in his speech as he received the Desert Palm Achievement Award. 'I have to thank my wife Amber for putting up with me': Johnny gushed about his wife at the Palm Springs International Film Festival last month 'I have to thank my wife Amber for putting up with me, for living with all these characters, which can't be easy. It's hard for me - it's got to be hard for her,' he quipped. Johnny supported Amber at the Los Angeles premiere of her movie The Danish Girl in November, and told E! News at the time: 'We connect on a lot of levels. 'But the first thing that really got me was she's an aficionado of the blues. I would play a song, some old obscure blues song, and she knew what it was. 'She's very, very literate. She's a voracious reader as I have been, so we connected on that as well and she's kind of brilliant and beautiful. I'm a lucky man.' One of the stars of the controversial sitcom Here Come The Habibs! has spoken out to defend the show from accusations of racism, insisting he believes the community it seeks to represent will 'love' the comedy when it airs. Speaking with The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, 22-year-old Sam Alhaje urged viewers to watch the show before asserting an opinion on its portrayal of Sydney's Lebanese community. The series, which depicts an Australian-Lebanese family who win $22 million and relocate to the exclusive Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, has been met with mixed reactions since the first teasers aired. Scroll down for video 'They are going to love it': Here Come The Habibs! star Sam Alhaje has defended the show against allegations it is racist towards Sydney's Lebanese community Some likened it to 'black face', accusing Channel Nine producers of poking fun at the community while others labelled it 'casually racist'. Dismissing such accusations on Saturday however, Alhaje told of his confidence in the show's host of characters. 'I genuinely believe they are going to love it,' he said, eschewing concern it may spark outrage among Sydney's Lebanese. The actor, who grew up in the Lebanese-rich suburb of Greenacre in Sydney's west, also disagreed with a petition organised by Australian-Lebanese activist Candy Royalle to take the show off the air. 'I just pretty much deal with it with a smile and say back "Watch the show and hopefully once youve watched it you can make up your mind",' he said. Mixed: The series concept, which depicts an Australian-Lebanese family who win $22 million and relocate to the exclusive Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, has been met with mixed reactions Critics: Social media users were quick to express their disdain with the show when the first teasers were released Candy, a performance artist and poet, wrote a sprawling entry on her blog in early January detailing her umbrage with the show. 'Apparently, Australias humour is that larrikin behaviour of good natured laughing at each other. Well, whos laughing at white people?' she wrote. Twitter users were quick to vent their disdain for the concept when the first trailers were aired, with some likening it to 'black face'. Reactions to the show have not all been negative however, with some viewers commenting to the show's official Facebook page expressing their excitement. 'Cant wait to see this show!,' wrote one user, while another wrote: 'So looking forward to this, can't wait.' Don't judge until you see it: The actor, who plays the character of Toufic (second from right), urged critics to watch the show before making a judgement 'I always see the funny side': Home loan guru and the son of Lebanese migrant fruit shop owners John Symond, is a fan Home loan guru and the son of Lebanese migrant fruit shop owners John Symond, is a fan. 'I think it's fun, I haven't seen it yet but it sounds hilarious,' he told Daily Mail Australia. He dismissed the outcry from other members of the Australian-Lebanese community. 'I always see the funny side, so good on them,' he added. Here Come The Habibs! airs on Tuesday February 9 on Channel 9. He has been working hard on the World War II movie, Hacksaw Ridge. And it seems actor-turned-director Mel Gibson needed some down time after a hectic filming schedule in New South Wales. The 60-year-old Hollywood A-lister was spotted soaking up the sunshine in the exclusive suburb of Double Bay in an ultra casual outfit which included a crinkled button-up shirt and blue shorts. Scroll down for video Dress down Saturdays: Mel Gibson dressed down in a crinkled button-up shirt and shorts on his stroll through Double Bay on Saturday He completed his laid-back weekend outfit with a gold chain around his neck and a pair of black flip-flops. It appears the director had a pen clipped to his front shirt pocket, perhaps hoping to jot down any ideas that came to his mind while on his sunny stroll. The Hollywood star was escorted through the busy streets with the help of two InterContinental Hotel staff who look crisp and professional in their work uniforms. The father-of-eight wouldn't even let some essential paperwork get in the way of his walk, clutching the documents in one hand as he made his way around the picturesque waterside suburb. Great service: The Hollywood star was escorted through the busy streets with the help of two InterContinental Hotel staff who look crisp and professional in their work uniforms But the sun seemed too much for the Hollywood star, who had to lift his shirt off his body to cool down. Apart from his relaxing walk, Mel has been working with a contingent of Australian actors - including Teresa Palmer, Sam Worthington, Firass Dirani, Ben Mingay and Ryan Corr - shooting Hacksaw Ridge in Sydney, including on location in Richmond and Bringelly in the western suburbs. It will also star Andrew Garfield of The Amazing Spider-Man as Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who went to Japan during the bloodiest battle of WWII and saved 75 men without firing a gun. Too hot to handle: The sun seemed too much for the Hollywood star, who had to lift his shirt off his body to cool down He was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon and the only conscientious objector to ever win the US Medal of Honour. Mel lends his Academy Award winning director skills to the action flick. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald last year, the Braveheart actor explained that the story attracted him back to the directors chair nine years after the action film Apocalypto. 'It's about a man who wouldn't touch a weapon yet wanted to be part of saving lives in the worst place on earth,' he said. 'Okinawa was a horrific place, where, I think, more life was lost in that Pacific battle than any other Pacific battle and they were all bad. There were over 300,000 casualties, mostly civilian, which is really sad.' She went on Celebrity Big Brother to make her children proud. And it seems her stint in the most famous house in Britain did just that for Danniella Westbrook, 42, since she was greeted by her teenage son Kai Jenkins after coming fifth in the Friday night final. Scooped up by his mum in a warm embrace, the 19-year-old seemed in good spirits but a bit embarrassed by the attention, following his confession that he had not seen or spoken to his mum in 'a long time'. Scroll down for video Reunited: After coming fifth in the Celebrity Big Brother final on Friday, Danniella Westbrook, 42, was greeted by her 19-year-old son Kai Jenkins, who previously admitted he hadn't seen her in a long time Speaking to the Daily Star ahead of the final, the young rapper revealed: 'I don't speak to my mother, I haven't done in a long time. 'We don't live/see each other so I am not to know what she does in her time.' But it seemed the pair were happy to see each other following Danniella's eviction interview, where the mum-of-two spoke candidly about her troubled past and her goal of making her kids proud. See more of the latest Celebrity Big Brother updates as Scotty T is crowned the winner Golden girl! Danniella Westbrook said she hoped she'd made her children proud during her exit interview, which came after she left the house in a golden glittering fishtail gown Very glamorous! The former EastEnders star made the most of her moment in the spotlight, leaving the house to a mixed reception of mainly cheers, and she didn't seem too concerned with any of the boos Donning a glittering fishtail gown in dazzling gold, the former EastEnders actress - who also has a daughter Jody, 15, with ex-husband Kevin Jenkins - told host Emma Willis: 'I just wanted to make my kids proud of me, I'm sick of them having to defend me. 'Now they can go out and say, "That's my mum, that's who she is, she's ok, she's not some messy drug addict".' She added: 'This whole programme has changed my life. It's been an amazing experience.' Proud son: Kai listened intently during his mum's eviction interview, where she said that she hoped her children would be proud of her and that she was no longer a drug addict Independent: Kai confessed that he didn't have much contact with his mum anymore, but seemed to be happy with his life as he tweeted about his successes Setting the record straight: Kai mad no reference to his mum's eviction, but shut down claims that he was at home during the final as he made sure he attended the show in person Goodbye! Danniella Westbrook was the ninth housemate to be evicted from the compound, coming in fifth Full of love: Danniella showed she held no grudges, seeming in good spirits as she left Kai made no reference to his mum on social media during the evening, except to confirm he had been at the final in person, before posting a series of selfies. 'NO I AM NOT WATCHING @westbrookdanni ON THE TELEVISION everyone f**k off stop crawling up my bottle,' he posted. Meanwhile, Danniella took to social media to thank all of her fans for their support during her time in the house. Reformed: Explaining why she went on the show, Danniella admitted that she didn't want her children to have to defend her any more as she wanted to prove that she's doing much better than previously reported No bad blood: Speaking in her exit interview, Danniella also opened up about her tumultuous relationship with housemate Stephanie Davis and defended their arguments in the house when asked by host Emma Willis Speaking in her exit interview, Danniella also opened up about her tumultuous relationship with housemate Stephanie Davis and defended their arguments in the house. 'I'm proud of her. Steph's my winner she's gone for circle,' she explained, before opening up about the 22-year-old's love triangle. 'We didn't know that she had had such a terrible time with her ex before that. I was more worried about how people would see it on her. She's out! Tiffany Pollard enjoyed her moment, as she left the house on Friday night in fourth place Fan favourite: The American reality star was the tenth Celebrity to be given the boot from the Celebrity Big Brother house on Friday night, leaving behind Stephanie Davis, Scotty T and Darren Day Following Danniella out of the Celebrity Big Brother house, was Tiffany Pollard, who finished in fourth place, despite being the bookies favourite to win the series. But whilst she may not have made it to the final three, she and Danniella certainly enjoyed their moment in the spotlight, not wanting waste their glamorous frocks. The American reality star exited to a sea of cheers, whilst Danniella was met by a medley of cheers and boos as they each made their way down the compound's famous staircase and into the arms of host Emma . Their early exits may not have been a shock to many, given that John was given 80/1 odds by some bookies, and Danniella 100/1. Happy reunion: Scotty was cheered on by past housemates including Nancy Dell'Olio, Megan McKenna, Winston McKenzie and Christopher Maloney Runner-up: Stephanie came in second place despite being one of the show's most controversial housemates regarding her love triangle with boyfriend Sam Reece and Irish model Jeremy Smitten: Gushing about her new romance with Jeremy, 25, she explained: 'He just made me feel like I've never felt before and made me feel that bit of worth. He is the best thing going' She added: 'I couldn't wish for her to be with a better fella than him because they're a lovely couple together.' John also got candid in his departure interview, shutting down accusations of game playing, insisting he is anything but. He dished: 'I took a step back because I couldn't understand and I suddenly thought what is it that they're seeing that I'm not.' Third place: Darren Day was the eleventh housemate to be evicted from the house The 44-year-old's departure follows the announcement that raunchy housemates Scotty T and Tiffany Pollard are the favourites to scoop the crown during tonight's final. Speaking to The Mirror about the cheeky duo and their individual ability to win the show, Unibet spokesperson revealed: 'Betting for the CBB final has exploded over the last 24 hours, with a late surge of money for Scotty T, in what appears to be a two horse race now between the dynamic American Tiffany and the Geordie favourite. 'We have shortened Scotty T from 9/5 to 13/08 and we expect plenty more support throughout the day. He's off! John Partridge was the first to be given the boot during the final 'Tiffany (4/3) and Scotty Ts playful relationship has served both well and the public have been intrigued to see what happens next but ultimately we think the patriotic vote for Scotty T may just see him over the line.' The spokesperson revealed that bets on Stephanie Davis had drastically diminished, now placing her at 10/1, while Darren Day sits at 28/1, John Partridge at 80/1 and Danniella Westbrook at 100/1. Tiffany is in the running with 4/3 bookies odds Scotty has steered cleer of controversial storylines during his time in the house The announcement came the same times as housemates gathered for their final task in the CBB house, a quiz about their time in the residence. As part of the quiz, Big Brother read out quotes that the housemates have said about each other, before asking the contestants to guess who the remark was about. Tiffany is heard calling John a 'game player,' as well as saying: 'I want to bite it' after seeing Scotty T naked in the shower. Scotty T is revealed to have said he cant 'be riding' Tiffany because of Megan. The spokesperson revealed that bets on Stephanie Davis have drastically diminished, now placing her at 10/1, while Darren Day sits at 28/1, John Partridge at 80/1 and Danniella Westbrook at 100/1 For taking part in the quiz, housemates won a final feast to take place later this afternoon. But things took a sour turn between favourites Tiffany and Scotty T as she shuts down his comments from the task. 'I was just having fun. But you made it look like I wanted to f*ck you or something. I dont want to listen to you Scotty. You make it look like Im f*cking hounding you. You didnt have to say it like that.' The 27-year-old then tries to calm her down, responding: 'I dont mean any disrespect to you, I just mean it in a good way if anything. I think youre absolutely sound and I get on mint with you. Its just fun banter.' Her husband Kurt Russell was seen jetting out of Los Angeles just two days prior, leaving her to keep things ticking over back home. And Goldie Hawn looked to be having no trouble taking care of business while her man was away as she checked up on the development of their new house in Los Angeles on Friday. The 70-year-old star appeared to have headed over to their property, which is currently under construction, straight from the gym as she highlighted her svelte physique in some dark workout gear. Scroll down for video Running errands: Goldie Hawn looked to be having no trouble taking care of business while her man was away as she checked up on the development of their new house in Los Angeles on Friday The First Wives Club actress kept her style simple in marble grey sweatpants and walking sandals, while banishing the breeze with a padded jacket. The mother of Hollywood starlet Kate Hudson appeared to go make-up free for her day of errand running, though she partly concealed her face beneath a pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses. Her blonde locks looked slightly disheveled as the wind sent them blowing around her face as she stopped and chatted to the builders on the site. Busy bee! The 70-year-old star appeared to have headed over to their property, which is currently under construction, straight from the gym as she highlighted her svelte physique in some dark workout gear The Overboard star was no doubt keeping herself busy while her long-time partner Kurt is away. The Hateful Eight actor was seen flying out of LA on Wednesday, but not before stopping to sign autographs for fans on his way out. The couple - who share 29-year-old actor Wyatt Russell - have famously never married, with Goldie telling Porter magazine last year that marriage is not the magic ingredient to an enduring love, but rather, intention. He's off! Goldie's long-time partner Kurt Russell was seen flying out of LA on Wednesday, but not before stopping to sign autographs for fans on his way out All smiles! The Hateful Eight actor cut a cheerful figure as he sauntered through the terminal 'A lasting relationship isn't about marriage, she explained. It's about compatibility and communication. And you both need to want it to work. If one person does not want it to work, it isn't going to work. Intention is the key. 'It's also about not losing yourself in each other. Being together, two pillars holding up the house and the roof, and being different, not having to agree on everything, learning how to deal with not agreeing. Everything's a choice.' It was heavily speculated that the lovers were planning on tying the knot in a Western-themed New Year's wedding at the start of the year, though neither party ever confirmed the nuptials. His career was given a new lease of life this week, when he was announced as the surprise new host of British motoring programme Top Gear. But Matt LeBlanc admits that he wasn't always looking to return to the spotlight, telling The Mirror newspaper that he asked his agent to 'lose his number' for a few years after Friends. The actor, 48, was dealing with the breakdown of his marriage to Melissa McKnight, after three years, which coincided with a debilitating diagnosis given to his daughter when she was born. Scroll down for video Getting candid: Matt LeBlanc has admitted that he was headed for a 'nervous breakdown' after Friends ended and he dealt with problems in his family life He said: 'For years and years, I barely left the house. I was burnt out. I wanted to not have a schedule, not be somewhere. I was in a position to do that. My agent was bummed. 'Most actors call their agents and say, "Whats going on?". Id call mine and say, "Please lose my number for a few years. It was a very dark time. I almost had a nervous breakdown.' Matt, who famously starred as Joey Tribbiani in US sitcom Friends, had finished up with the NBC sitcom in 2004 and went on to starred in panned spin-off series Joey. Marriage breakdown: The breakdown of Matt's marriage to Melissa McKnight, here in September 2004, after three years in 2006 coincided with a terrible diagnosis for their daughter Marina That same year, his daughter Marina was born, and began having seizures at eight months leading to a diagnosis of displasia at the age of two. Matt continued: 'My daughter was diagnosed with a problem with her head. It was a very dark period. But I got through it. Don't they say what doesn't kill us makes us stronger?' The actor filed for divorce from his wife in 2006, after three years together, in which they struggled with his career struggles and their daughter's illness. Still friends: Melissa McKnight and actor Matt LeBlanc arrive at the Emmy Awards in August 2014 What came next: Matt, here as Joey with Rachel Green played by Jennifer Aniston in Friends, said he asked his agent to 'lose his number' after Friends ended in 2004 The sun 'rose and set' with his daughter, Melissa once said of Matt's relationship with Marina, and he now says that they like to 'make breakfast, go horseback riding, hiking' and spend time outside. Fortunately, now aged 11, their daughter's ailment has subsided and he says spending time with his daughter is the best thing he's ever done. He has also remained amicable with McKnight, and they have joint custody of their daughter Referencing his love of motors and vehicles, sure to come in handy with the new gig, the actor even said he'd forgive her for crashing his Ferrari. The BBC's decision to appoint the much-loved actor was reportedly designed to boost the programme's popularity with women and American viewers. Delighted: Matt was announced as the surprise presenter of Top Gear last week, on which he'll star with Chris Evans On Thursday, he appeared on his new co-hosts Radio Two show via phone and told Evans he had been 'ducking paparazzi' following the announcement. 'Thanks to Top Gear and the BBC, my day has been ducking paparazzi all day long, and now I'm relaxing with a glass of wine at my bar,' LeBlanc said. 'I can't believe the response. I mean I knew Top Gear was a big show, but, wow, it was on the front page of The New York Times, did you know that?' The DJ, who was appointed to host Top Gear after Jeremy Clarkson's sacking last year, asked his future co-star which double act from the past they would most resemble. LeBlanc rejected the suggestions of Tom and Jerry, Laurel and Hardy, and Friends couple Rachel and Ross, replying instead: 'Joey and Chandler'. Argentina in 'breakthrough' offer to creditors Argentina's new government has offered $6.5 billion to settle its long debt battle with "holdout" creditors, the government and a US mediator said Friday, declaring a breakthrough to the impasse. The dispute and the US court case around it has roiled global sovereign debt markets while deeply hampering Argentina's ability to access international capital to fund its economy. Two of six major holdout creditors have accepted the deal, which includes about a 25 percent "haircut" on their claim, while four have not done so yet, according to the government. Argentina's Finance Secretary Luis Caputo speaks with the media while exiting the office of US mediator Daniel Pollack, in New York on January 13, 2016 Kena Betancur (AFP/File) The offer was made in New York talks with hedge funds and other creditors who had demanded full repayment of about $9 billion on bonds the country defaulted on 15 years ago. "This litigation has gone on for nearly 15 years since the original Argentine default of 2001, and the proposal by Argentina is an historic breakthrough," said mediator Daniel Pollack. If the offer is accepted and all the conditions met, he said, it "will allow Argentina to return to the global financial markets to raise much-needed capital." He said that the proposal was subject to two conditions: That it gains approval by Argentina's Congress and that it also brings the release of the New York federal court's injunction, which prevents Buenos Aires from paying any other creditors outside the so-called holdout group. The holdouts, whose decade-long court battle against Buenos Aires was led by two New York hedge funds, are a minority class of creditors which refused to go along with the restructuring of the country's debt after it defaulted on about $100 billion in 2001. Buenos Aires said it was offering the creditors roughly 75 percent of what they were claiming, covering the face value and accumulated interest on the bonds. - 'Vultures' - The offer comes days after the government of President Mauricio Macri, who took office in December, reached a deal to pay Italian bondholders $1.35 billion to settle their $2.5 billion in claims dating back to the default. Macri's predecessor Cristina Kirchner had refused to pay the holdouts. She insisted that they should have joined in with the 93 percent of the country's creditors which accepted a significant reduction in what they were owed to help the country restructure its finances. Kirchner branded the hedge funds which led the holdout claims, NML Capital, a unit of Elliott Management, and Aurelius Capital Management as "vultures," saying they bought up Argentine debt cheaply around the time of the default and then refused to take part in the restructuring in order to reap huge profits. Both hedge funds had yet to say whether they accept or reject the new offer by Buenos Aires. The funds which accepted the offer were Montreux Partners and Dart Management, according to the government. Pollack said more work "remains to be done" on the proposal and that he hoped that the country would be able to resolve its differences with the other main parties to the case. He said he had spoken to Macri and Argentine Economy Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, who both confirmed they "stand solidly behind this proposal." "Both have shown courage and flexibility in stepping up to and dealing with this long-festering problem which was not of their making," he said. Thousands brave freeze at Turkey border as Syria warns Riyadh, Ankara Thousands of Syrians braved the freezing cold at Turkey's border after fleeing a regime assault that threatens a new humanitarian disaster, as Damascus warned Riyadh and Ankara not to send in troops. The government said any uninvited foreign soldiers who enter Syria would go home "in a wooden coffin", following reports that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which support rebel forces, could deploy troops. Tens of thousands of people have fled fierce fighting as government forces backed by Russian air strikes advanced this week against rebels, severing the opposition's main supply route into the northern metropolis of Aleppo. A boy on a fence in Bab-Al Salam near the Turkish border on February 6, 2016 as Syrians flee Aleppo Bulent Kilic (AFP) Turkey's Oncupinar border crossing, which faces Bab al-Salama inside Syria, remained closed Saturday, an AFP correspondent said. The United Nations said some 20,000 people had gathered at Bab al-Salama but the governor of Turkey's Kilis border province, Suleyman Tapsiz, said at least 70,000 may head for the frontier. Tapsiz said the displaced were being accommodated in eight camps on the Syrian side and that Turkey -- already home to 2-2.5 million Syrians -- was also able to take care of 30-35,000 refugees inside Syria. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country would keep its "open border policy" for Syrian refugees. "We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression, from the regime as well as air strikes of Russia," he said. "We have received already 5,000 of them; another 50,000 to 55,000 are on their way and we cannot leave them there." According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 40,000 Syrian civilians have fled the regime offensive. - 435 killed - "Thousands have been sleeping in the open, in fields and on roads," on the border and in the nearby Syrian city of Azaz, said Mamun al-Khatib, director of the Aleppo-based pro-rebel Shahba Press news agency. "And because the main rebel supply route between Aleppo and Turkey has been cut, the price of oil, foodstuffs and baby milk has shot up in the north of Aleppo province," he added. The Observatory said 435 people have been killed since the regime offensive began on Monday, including 71 civilians, most of whom had died in Russian air strikes. Also killed were 124 regime forces, 90 jihadists from Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front and 150 other rebels, it said. Riyadh on Thursday said it would "contribute positively" if the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria decides on ground action. Russia, a key ally of the Damascus government, accused Turkey of "preparations for an armed invasion" of Syria, a claim that Ankara dismissed. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem issued a stiff warning against any such move. "Any ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorisation would amount to an aggression that must be resisted," he said. "Let no one think they can attack Syria or violate its sovereignty because I assure you any aggressor will return to their country in a wooden coffin, whether they be Saudis or Turks," he added. - Iran warning - The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards of Iran, another key Syrian regime ally, mockingly said Saudi Arabia would not dare send in ground forces. "I don't think they would dare do that... If they do, they will inflict a coup de grace on themselves," Major General Ali Jafari said. Turkey last faced such an influx in 2014 when 200,000 refugees fled the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane over three days as IS and Kurdish fighters battled for control of it. Trucks were seen on Friday carrying tent parts to the refugee camp near the border gate on the Turkish side, and at least four more were seen returning to Turkey after delivering food in Syria. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced. Also on Saturday, the mother of President Bashar al-Assad, Anissa Makhlouf al-Assad, died at the age of 86, state media reported. She was the widow of president Hafez al-Assad, who ruled the country with an iron fist, but she kept a low profile and was rarely mentioned in the media when her husband was in power or during the country's nearly five-year war. The battle for Aleppo Sebastien Casteran (AFP) Refugee children sit in a pickup on February 6, 2016 in Bab-Al Salam Bulent Kilic (AFP) Syrian refugees in a camp on February 6, 2016 in Bab al-Salam Bulent Kilic (AFP) Somali, AU troops retake key port from Shebab: army, witnesses Somali government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers on Saturday recaptured the key port of Merka from Shebab insurgents, just one day after the Islamists swept into the city, the army and residents said. "The Somali forces and AMISOM peacekeepers secured control of Merka again and now the situation has returned to normal," a Somali military official, Abdirisak Mohamed, told AFP by telephone from Mogadishu. "There was brief exchange of gunfire, but the (Shebab) militants have fled." African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) officers patroling around the Gashandhiga academy compound in 2015 Mohamed Abdiwahab (AFP/File) He said "several" Shebab fighters and one Somali soldier were killed in the clashes, and the security forces are now conducting clearing operations inside town." A resident reached by telephone said the AU force, known by its acronym AMISOM, used tanks to recapture the port, and four civilians were killed after they were caught in the fighting. "Four people died in our neighbourhood and two others were wounded, I can see AMISOM and Somali troops returned to the city now and they are conducting security operations", Muhidin Osman said. AU troops had fled the city, the state capital of Lower Shabelle, as heavily armed Shehab fighters swept in with black Islamist flags on Friday, residents and local authorities said, in one of the most dramatic reverses for the multi-national force in its nearly decade-long battle against the Shebab. - Falsehoods in the media' - However the head of AMISOM, Mozambican Francisco Madeira, on Saturday denied that the African Union force had ever lost control of the town. "It is.. a falsehood that Marka has either been captured or re-captured by Al Shebab," he said in an AMISOM statement. Speaking of "falsehoods in the media" he explained that the AMISOM troops in Marka were merely "undertaking a re-adjustment of their position," to Marka Ayub, about a kilometer from their previous position. The decision was taken due to "tactical considerations," Madeira said. Residents said earlier Saturday that the Shebab had begun imposing Sharia law on the city. The Al Qaeda-linked Shebab said on its website that one of its leaders, Sheikh Mohamed Abu-Abdallah, addressed hundreds of people gathered at the regional government headquarters in Merka after the seizure on Friday. The enemy has lost and running away, they are fleeing from the Islamic regions," it quoted him as saying. The historic port, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, was captured in August 2012 by African Union troops after four years under Islamist control. - Bomb brought down plane - Meanwhile the Somalian government said that a bomb caused a deadly explosion that ripped a hole in the fuselage of a passenger plane shortly after it took off from Somalia's main airport on Tuesday. The authorities had initially attributed the blast, which killed one passenger to sudden air decompression. There has been no claim of responsibility yet for the attack. The Shebab are fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, which is protected by 22,000 AU troops. The group has lost ground since being routed from Mogadishu in 2011, but continues to stage regular shooting and suicide attacks, and in recent months has staged a series of brazen raids on AU bases. Last month they stormed a Kenyan army base at El-Adde in southwest Somalia, in the latest incident of an AMISOM base being overrun, before retreating. In September, Shebab fighters stormed a Ugandan AMISOM base in Janale district, southwest of Mogadishu in the Lower Shabelle region. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking at an AU summit last month, called for more "resources for the forces in Somalia so that AMISOM can have robust power on land, air and the sea." AU troops have been hampered by a lack of air power -- including attack helicopters -- leaving their bases often isolated and supply lines vulnerable to attack by Shehab gunmen controlling surrounding rural areas. Shebab attack in Somalia AFP (AFP) A man walking past the old buildings of the southern Somalia port town of Merka Demonstrators hold placards during a protest against Al Shebab insurgents outside Lido beach in the Somali capital Mogadishu, on January 28, 2016 Mohamed Abdiwahab (AFP/File) Turkey prepares for huge refugee wave as Syrians flee govt attack Turkey on Saturday said it was expecting a huge wave of Syrians fleeing a government onslaught on rebel-held territory, with a regional governor saying at least 70,000 people may be heading for the border. The United Nations said some 20,000 people had gathered at Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing with Turkey. An AFP reporter said the crossing was closed but the Syrian side of it was being supplied by aid trucks coming from Turkey. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Amsterdam, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu vowed his country would keep its "open border policy" for Syrian refugees. Refugee children at a camp near the Turkish border crossing on February 6, 2016 in Bab-Al Salam, near Azaz in northern Syria Bulent Kilic (AFP) "We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression, from the regime as well as air strikes of Russia," he said. Cavusoglu said as many as 55,000 people fleeing a new regime offensive were heading toward the frontier. But Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of the Kilis border province, said a wave of at least 70,000 was "a possibility." Turkey is able to take care inside Syria of 30-35,000 refugees, Tapsiz told reporters on the Turkish side after crossing the Syrian frontier to oversee aid distribution for stranded refugees. "New arrivals are currently being accommodated in eight camps on the Syrian side of the border," he said. "There is no need for now" to transfer them to Turkey but added that Turkey was ready for any emergency situation. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights for its part estimated some 40,000 people had been forced to leave their homes since last Monday. - 'Prepared for worst-case scenario'- Turkish authorities were working to free up space within the existing camps along the Syrian border to accommodate the new arrivals. "We are preparing for the worst-case scenario," a Turkish government official told AFP. "We have the capacity to receive fleeing Syrians in the face of a serious bombardment," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Opposition forces and some 350,000 civilians were inside rebel-held Aleppo city, which was targeted in the government offensive. An AFP correspondent saw trucks carrying parts for tents since Friday to the refugee camp close to the border gate on the Turkish side which faces the Bab al-Salam crossing on Syrian soil. Several Turkish aid trucks were also seen returning to Turkey after making deliveries of food to the Syrian side of the border. One of them is trucks of Turkish Islamic charity Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) delivering aid inside Syria. The charity was behind a flotilla that tried to bust the Gaza blockade in 2010. Many civilians carrying backpacks remained stranded at the Bab al-Salam crossing, an AFP photographer reported. Dozens crowded around piles of aid supplies including tents, blankets and food. Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said in a statement that it had finalised preparations for a possible influx. The country already hosts more than 2.7 million refugees from the bloody conflict. Turkey faced a similar experience in 2014 when 200,000 refugees fled the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane over three days as the Islamic State group and Syrian Kurdish fighters battled for control. AFAD said a registration system that complies with international standards was set up to receive refugees, which includes a health scan, food and shelter. The government offensive is targeting the Aleppo province, which was once a rebel stronghold, providing easy access to neighbouring Turkey, a key opposition backer. The city itself has been divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012. But government forces have steadily chipped away at rebel-held territory around the city and their advances this week leave the opposition there virtually surrounded. The advance is the most significant outcome yet of the Russian intervention that began on September 30, ostensibly targeting the Islamic State group and other "terrorists". Analysts and activists say Russia's strikes have always disproportionately targeted non-jihadist rebels in an attempt to bolster President Bashar al-Assad's government. Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu arrives to take part in a EU foreign ministers meeting in Amsterdam, on February 6, 2016 Emmanuel Dunand (AFP) Saudi won't dare send troops to Syria: Iran Saudi Arabia wouldn't dare send ground troops to war-torn Syria, the chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said Saturday, after Riyadh opened up the possibility of such a deployment. The Sunni-ruled kingdom, Iran's regional rival, has said it could "contribute positively" if the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria decided on ground action. But Major General Ali Jafari, commander of the Guards, said such a move would amount to suicide for Saudi Arabia. A member of the Saudi forces stands to attention during a visit by Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah at the Saudi-led coalition military base in Yemen's southern embattled city of Aden on September 28, 2015 Ahmed Farwan (AFP/File) "I don't think they would dare do that... If they do, they will inflict a coup de grace on themselves," he said, according to Fars news agency, a media outlet close to the Guards. "They thought that through support and financial aid they could make gains in Syria but the recent victories by the resistance front have disrupted all of their calculations," Jafari said. Iran, the strongest regional ally of President Bashar al-Assad, openly provides financial and military support to the Damascus government but denies having troops on the ground in Syria. Tehran provides military advisers to Assad's army, as well as organising Iranian, Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani "volunteers" to fight rebels in Syria. Jafari was speaking in Tehran at a funeral ceremony of Brigadier General Mohsen Ghajarian and five other Guards members killed Wednesday in Aleppo province of northern Syria. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Expediency Council and a former chief of the Guards, also poured scorn on Saudi Arabia's possible presence on the ground in Syria. "In such a situation, the clash of Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria together, and then the entrance of America... eventually a large regional war is possible," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. If the Saudi government, known for "madly taking action", embarked on such a move the entire region other than Iran but "including Saudi Arabia, will be consumed by fire". Iran, the Middle East's main Shiite power, and Saudi Arabia have long been at odds over the conflict in Syria. The Gulf kingdom severed all ties with Iran last month after demonstrators stormed its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second city, following Riyadh's execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric and activist. Pakistan officials face murder probe over airline employee deaths Pakistani police will investigate five officials, including a former adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, for murder after two airline employees were shot dead during a protest against privatisation. The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) employees were killed and several more wounded at Karachi's international airport on Tuesday when clashes broke out between security forces and staff, though authorities denied opening fire. Police on Saturday registered a case against one federal cabinet minister, a senator, a former advisor to Sharif and two airline officials on the complaint of PIA employees' Joint Action Committee, accusing them of murder and torture, senior police official Rao Anwar told AFP. Employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) shout slogans as they gather outside Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad on February 5, 2016, during a protest strike against the privatisation of PIA Aamir Qureshi (AFP) "An investigation team is being constituted to take further action," he added. The five are accused of plotting to kill the protesters, although not of opening fire themselves. The authorities claim the victims were shot by gunmen in the crowd. The strike continues despite Sharif's warning the demonstration was illegal and those taking part could face up to a year in prison under a law that restricts union activity in state-administered sectors. All of PIA's foreign and domestic flights remained grounded Saturday with thousands of passengers, including Pakistani domestic workers trying to fly to the Middle East, stranded at airports. In December, Islamabad announced it would complete the partial sale of the carrier by July, following years of crushing losses and mismanagement that have battered the airline's reputation. Al-Qaeda claims Timbuktu attack Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Saturday said they carried out Friday's attack on a UN military camp in Timbuktu in Mali's restive north. At least four suspected jihadists and a Malian soldier were killed in the attack which the group said was designed to send "a clear message" of its intention and capacity to target the UN's peacekeeping MINUSMA mission. The group said in a statement that three fighters from the al-Quds Brigade of its Sahara division stormed the former hotel serving as the mission base, one detonating a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at the entrance and the two others entering inside. UN peacekeepers stand guard near the airport on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali Sebastien Rieussec (AFP/File) The attack came three months after a similar strike on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako and one month after a raid on a top hotel in Burkina Faso. The militant group has vowed to continue with a series of operations to cleanse the land of Islam and Muslims from the dens of the Crusader occupiers and their mercenaries. A Malian police source indicated two suspects, who army sources said had been arrested in the aftermath of the attack, were Saturday released. "The people arrested Friday on suspicion of being terrorists or their accomplices have been freed for lack of evidence," the Timbuktu gendarmerie source told AFP without giving further details. Defence Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly had Friday spoken of "half a dozen" fighters carrying out the attack, with three gunned down and one blowing himself up. Three Malian soldiers were also wounded. The assault came just a day after the fabled city celebrated the restoration of its greatest treasures -- earthen mausoleums dating to mediaeval times and destroyed during an Islamist takeover in 2012. In a statement via Mauritanian news agency Al-Akhbar, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said three fighters whose nationalities were not immediately clear carried out the raid and were all killed. The group added that "several soldiers" had also died with others injured. Army sources reported the situation Saturday afternoon as calm in Timbuktu as Coulibaly attended the funeral of the slain soldier, named as commander Karim Niang. The sources added they had carried out patrols through the night across the city. Sources close to Coulibaly meanwhile said he would be meeting with city officials to discuss boosting security. Northern Mali fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels and jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012. Body of Italian student found in Cairo repatriated to Rome The body of a 28-year-old Italian student who had disappeared in Cairo last week and was found dead was repatriated on Saturday to Italy which has launched an investigation into his death. Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student, had gone missing on January 25 while on his way to meet a friend. His half-naked body which showed signs of torture was found in a roadside ditch on the outskirts of Cairo early on Wednesday. Egypt's public prosecutor Hossam Nassar said he had been murdered. Italian ambassador to Egypt Maurizio Massari arrives on February 4, 2016 to a morgue where the body of Italian student Giulio Regeni was brought after it was found earlier on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital Cairo Mohamed El-Shahed (AFP) Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando was with members of Regeni's family when his body arrived back in Rome Saturday. "I am here to convey the government's condolences... but also to confirm the government's determination to shed light quickly (on Regeni's death) and bring those responsible to justice," Orlando told journalists. Italian investigators have arrived in Cairo, the Rome prosecutor has opened an inquiry and a new autopsy is scheduled. An initial Egyptian prosecution report seen by an AFP reporter said Regeni's body had bruises and injuries, including from apparent cigarette-burn marks near the eyes and on the feet. Italy's ambassador to Egypt, Maurizio Massari, also reported signs of torture after a visit to the Cairo morgue. "I saw wounds, some bruises and burns. There is no doubt that this boy had been violently beaten and tortured," he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Regeni, whose studies included Arabic and Arab literature, was from Fiumicello near Udine in northeastern Italy. Syrian Kurds begin diplomatic push with Moscow office Syrian Kurdish separatists have announced plans to open "representation" offices in several capitals, starting next week with Damascus regime ally Moscow, an official told AFP on Saturday. "The autonomous Syrian Kurdish region will open an office in Moscow on February 10 and is preparing to open another in Berlin, with Washington, Paris and Arab countries coming later," said Amina Oussi, deputy head of the Hasakeh committee for external relations. "These representation offices aim to secure recognition for the autonomous Kurdish region" in Syria, she said. Kurdish children flash the sign for victory next to a flag of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), during a demonstration against the exclusion of Syrian-Kurds from the Geneva talks Delil Souleiman (AFP/File) In November 2013, Kurdish groups in the northeast of the war-ravaged country announced the establishment of a transitional autonomous administration after making key territorial gains against jihadists. The administration is split into three regions: Hasakeh in the east, Kobane in the centre and Afrin in the west. Kurdish separatists are insisting on the creation of a federal system in Syria. Last year, they opened their first such representation office in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. Oussi said several foreign delegations have already visited Kurdish-controlled areas, among them Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama special envoy for the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. He visited Kobane in late January, accompanied by senior French and British officials. A US official said that McGurk's visit was to take stock of the campaign against IS. The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) was not invited to the Syria peace talks in Geneva which collapsed this week. Damascus ally Russia believed that no negotiations could yield results without it, but Turkey considered its presence unacceptable, given the Kurdish desire for independence. The PYD is a leader in the fight against IS in northern Syria but is considered by Ankara to be an offshoot of its arch-foe the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Hales leads England to victory in second one-dayer Alex Hales fell one run short of a century but did enough to set up a five-wicket win for England over South Africa in the second one-day international at St George's Park on Saturday. The victory gave England a two-nil lead in the five-match series after a game where batsmen from both sides struggled to play fluently on a slow pitch. South Africa made 262 for seven and England needed a late flurry of strokes by Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali to reach the target in 46.2 overs. England's batsman Alex Hales plays a shot during the second One Day International match between England and South Africa at Saint George's park on February 6, 2016 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa Gianluigi Guercia (AFP) England captain Eoin Morgan praised his players for adapting to conditions that were much-changed from those in Wednesday's first match at Bloemfontein which they won in a high-scoring clash. "They were completely different conditions," said Morgan. "That is what has impressed me most. The challenge was adapting to conditions. Alex Hales was magnificent." Captain AB de Villiers top-scored for South Africa with an unusually sedate 73, while Hales played a crucial anchor role for England before he was fifth man out for 99. Hales and Joe Root (38) put on 97 for the second wicket and made sure England were always up with the required run rate. "They managed it very well and set it up for Jos Buttler, who played a magnificent knock," said De Villiers. Hales looked set for his second one-day international hundred before he gloved an attempted pull shot against Kyle Abbott to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock with his side still 61 runs away from their target. Buttler, who made a century in Bloemfontein, hit three boundaries in an over from Abbott, who finished with three for 58. Then he put the issue beyond doubt by hitting three sixes off successive balls from leg-spinner Imran Tahir. He made 48 not out off 28 balls, while Ali was unbeaten on 21 off 15 balls. A double strike early in the last ten overs of the South African innings prevented the hosts from making a bigger total. De Villiers and JP Duminy were dismissed in the space of three balls after sharing a 107-run fourth wicket partnership. The pair were threatening to go an all-out assault when De Villiers was superbly caught in the deep by a running, diving Chris Jordan off Ben Stokes. In the next over Duminy was leg before wicket to left-arm opening bowler Reece Topley for 47. "We were about 20 or 30 runs short," said De Villiers. "I tried to pick it up at the end but then I got out and we lost a couple more wickets." De Villiers said his players felt "a little hard done by" after decisions went against Duminy and Rossouw, with South Africa having no more reviews after an earlier failed review by De Kock. The normally free-scoring De Villiers took 72 balls to reach his slowest one-day international half-century in eight years, with just three fours, two of them from reverse sweeps. De Villiers edged another four and seemed finally to be taking control when he pulled Jordan for a six, only to fall in the next over. He faced a total of 91 balls. Duminy hit only two fours in a 66-ball innings. The tall Topley took four for 50, the best figures of his seven-match one-day international career. Stokes took two for 54 but England's two slow bowlers, leg-spinner Adil Rashid and off-spinner Moeen Ali, were mainly responsible for South Africa's innings becoming becalmed in the middle overs. Both bowled their allocation of ten overs in single spells and they conceded a total of only 84 runs. By contrast, England did not allow South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir to settle. He conceded 66 runs in four separate spells. England's bowler Reece Topley (R) celebrates the dismissal of South African batsman Hashim Amla (L) during the second One Day International match between England and S. Africa at St. George's park on February 6, 2016 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa Gianluigi Guercia (AFP) England's bowler Reece Topley (C) celebrates the dismissal of South African batsman JP Duminy (not in picture) during the second One Day International match between England and South Africa at St. George's park on February 6, 2016 in Port Elizabeth Gianluigi Guercia (AFP) Guernsey cannot take in Syrians due to 'Islamophobia': minister The Channel Island of Guernsey could not take in any of the Syrian refugees flooding Europe due to "Islamophobia" in the British dependency, its chief minister said. "Negativity" would make it difficult to provide them with security, Jonathan Le Tocq said, according to the BBC. "There's certainly a lot of Islamophobia and negativity that's been around and that would entail that it would be difficult for us to ensure that [the refugees] would find the sorts of security and stability here in Guernsey, were they to be resettled here, in the same way as they are, say, in other parts of the UK." The Channel Island of Guernsey said it could not take in any of the Syrian refugees flooding Europe, and Guernsey's island neighbour Jersey (pictured here) said in December it would not take in any Alain Jocard (AFP/File) Guernsey's policy council -- part of its executive -- announced Thursday that following a review of the island's infrastructure, it could not take part in Britain's relocation scheme for Syrians fleeing the five-year war in their homeland. Guernsey, which lies in the English Channel around 50 kilometres (30 miles) off the north coast of France, has a population of around 65,000. The island is not a part of the United Kingdom but a British crown dependency with its own laws and parliament. "There are a number of legal and practical issues which have been identified recently relating to general refugee rights which must be fully understood and resolved, and certainly before Guernsey could participate in any UK driven refugee resettlement scheme," the policy council said. Guernsey's larger island neighbour Jersey, a fellow crown dependency, said in December it would not take in any Syrian refugees, citing legal issues that could threaten its ability to cope in future if it joined the UK scheme. Israeli woman stabbed, wounded in market: police An Israeli woman was stabbed and wounded in a majority-Bedouin town in the south on Saturday by an attacker who fled the scene, a police spokeswoman said. The woman, who is in her sixties, was stabbed at a market in Rahat. The spokeswoman said the attack was "apparently committed for nationalistic reasons", but was unable to specify whether the attacker was Bedouin or Palestinian. Security forces stand guard at the site of a stabbing attack in the West Bank on January 25, 2016 - since October, 165 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have been killed in a wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel Ahmad Gharabli (AFP/File) "Police have launched a huge search operation in the area where the attack took place, and have set up checkpoints," she said. Since October 1, 165 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have been killed in a wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel. Some analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest. Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the unrest. Tunisia completes barrier with conflict-hit Libya Tunisia on Saturday completed the construction of a barrier along its border with Libya, months after attacks on its national museum and a beach resort that killed dozens of tourists. Defence Minister Farhat Horchani told reporters that the construction of berms and water-filled trenches marks "an important day" for Tunisia in its struggle against "terrorism". Two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group last year killed 59 foreign tourists, with Tunisian officials saying the assailants had trained in conflict-ridden Libya where IS is active. One of the trenches dug along the Libyan border, near the Ras Jedir crossing point on February 6, 2016 that is part of a "system of obstacles" that stretches some 200 kilometres (124 miles) long Fethi Belaid (AFP) "Tunisia is capable of fighting against terrorism in an active and efficient way," Horchani said during a tour of the barrier. It stretches some 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Ras Jedir on the Mediterranean coast to Dhiba further southwest, across about half the length of the frontier between the two neighbours. Horchani said a second phase of the project will include installing electronic equipment with the help of Germany and the United States. He said the barrier, which Tunisia calls a "system of obstacles", has already "proven its efficiency". "On several occasions we have stopped and arrested people who were trying to smuggle weapons," he said. In March last year, 21 tourists and a policeman were killed in a gun attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, and in June an attack at a beach resort near Sousse killed 38 holidaymakers. IS also claimed a suicide bombing in Tunis in November that killed 12 presidential guards. At the time, the interior ministry said the explosive used in the attack was the same used to make suicide belts illegally brought from Libya and seized last year. After November's attack, Tunisia shut its border with Libya for a fortnight and in December it closed its main Tunis-Carthage international airport to Libyan aircraft as part of increased security measures. States taking action to keep guns out of abusers' hands IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) More than a dozen states have strengthened laws over the past two years to keep firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers, a rare area of consensus in the nation's highly polarized debate over guns. Lawmakers and governors of both parties have supported bills stripping gun rights from those who have been convicted of domestic violence-related crimes or are subject to protective orders. The measures have been backed by victims' advocates, law enforcement groups and gun control supporters who see easy access to firearms as a major contributor to domestic violence killings. Similar proposals are expected to be debated in several states this year. Hollie Ayers poses for a photo while reminiscing about her late son, Michael, 2, at her home in Bedford, Pa., on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Michael was shot and killed in front of her by her abusive ex-husband in 2013. She was shot in the face and the leg. Her ex-husband killed himself after the rampage. (AP Photo/ John Beale) "Domestic violence is definitely an area where there is the most agreement between the gun lobby and gun-violence prevention advocates," said Allison Anderman, staff attorney with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco. The National Rifle Association has taken a cautious approach toward such bills, opposing the farthest-reaching measures but staying neutral or negotiating compromises on others. For example, the NRA has fought provisions that would require people to surrender their guns before they have a chance to contest allegations made in a request for an emergency protective order. "There is no evidence that simply taking away people's guns without a fair hearing makes the victims any safer," NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said. The push in the states is driven by stories of women and children killed or wounded by known abusers, and by statistics showing that hostile relationships often turn deadly when guns are present. An average of 760 Americans were killed with guns annually by spouses, ex-spouses or dating partners between 2006 and 2014, according to an Associated Press analysis of FBI and Florida data. Florida's statistics are not included in the FBI's report, which covers all other states and District of Columbia, but were analyzed separately by AP. The total is an undercount because not all law enforcement agencies report such information, and it doesn't include children and other bystanders who were killed. More than 80 percent of those killed were women. "The system failed my son, and I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens to another child or another woman," said Hollie Ayers, 44, a Pennsylvania woman whose 2-year-old son, Michael, was shot and killed in front of her by her abusive ex-husband in 2013. "Michael's life to me was priceless. If you can at least reduce the amount of homicides, this is a no-brainer to me." Ayers, who was shot in the face and the leg, said she constantly thinks about her son, who loved tractors and puzzles. Her ex-husband killed himself after the rampage. Ayers had warned that he had guns and had said that he, his ex-wife and the child "would be better off dead" before she obtained a permanent protection-from-abuse order, court records show. But the judge did not order her ex-husband to surrender his weapons, even after he violated the protective order. Hollie Ayers is pushing for a Pennsylvania law that would require people to turn over their guns when judges issue protection orders against them. Kim Stolfer, president of the Pennsylvania group Firearms Owners Against Crime, said his organization isn't on board with the idea yet. He said such legislation could be exploited by vindictive ex-spouses who level false allegations of abuse. "We need some balance, and it's rapidly going the wrong way," he said. In announcing executive action on gun control last month, President Barack Obama said protecting domestic abuse victims is one of his goals. His changes include strengthening the federal background check system, which has denied gun sales 120,000 times since 1998 because of domestic violence convictions. Federal law has long prohibited felons, those convicted of misdemeanor domestic abuse crimes and individuals subject to permanent protective orders from buying or owning guns. Critics say the federal law is too weak because it does not apply to dating relationships, does not ban guns during temporary protective orders and does not establish procedures for abusers to surrender firearms. States have been passing their own laws to match or exceed the federal prohibitions, delighting gun control advocates. "We've passed them in blue states, red states and purple states," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. "We believe they are absolutely lifesaving." Some of the strictest state laws create processes for seizing firearms from abusers and extend gun bans to stalkers, abusive dating partners and those who are subject to temporary protective orders. Studies by public health researchers have generally concluded that such laws, when properly implemented, can reduce deaths. Gun rights advocates say some of the laws are applied too broadly. "It encompasses everybody who has a one-time blip in their life, and all of a sudden their gun rights are taken away forever," said Wes Dunbar, an Iowa lawyer who has represented defendants upset over losing their ability to hunt. South Carolina and Wisconsin are two of the states dominated by Republicans and with a strong tradition of gun ownership that have taken steps to restrict abusers' access to guns. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker signed a law in 2014 requiring people subject to domestic abuse restraining orders to turn over their guns within 48 hours. The NRA stayed neutral after negotiating language that allows individuals to seek the return of their weapons once restraining orders are lifted. Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina signed a measure in June that includes a life ban on gun ownership for the most serious domestic violence offenders. "South Carolina is no longer thinking about the convenience of the abuser," Haley said when she signed the bill in June. "South Carolina is thinking about strengthening the survivor." This undated photo provided Hollie Ayers shows her son, Michael, at their former home in Belleville, Pa. In 2013, The two-year-old was shot and killed in front of his mother by his father, Ayers' abusive ex-husband. Hollie Ayers was shot in the face and the leg, and her ex-husband killed himself after the rampage. (Hollie Ayers via AP) Lawyer: New York-born man was mistreated after terror arrest NEW YORK (AP) The lawyer for a New York City-born man serving a 15-year prison sentence for supporting al-Qaida urged a judge Friday to find the U.S. government liable for failing to quickly diagnose a medical condition after his 2010 arrest, but a federal prosecutor said he was treated properly. The attorneys made their arguments regarding treatment of Wesam El-Hanafi in an unusual trial in Manhattan federal court. The case arose after El-Hanafi was arrested April 2010 in Dubai, where he was earning $200,000 annually by working in computer security for a financial firm. He sued the U.S. government in 2013 for $7 million, saying it was liable for malpractice for failing to diagnose his deep vein thrombosis soon after he experienced pain following a 16-hour flight from Dubai to the United States. The condition makes it possible for blood clots to develop. Attorney Jake Harper told Judge Gregory H. Woods during closing arguments Friday at a week-long trial that El-Hanafi is owed damages for medical care and for the loss of future wages. Harper said his client has a severe condition although "he looks just as normal as you and I." He said El-Hanafi's medical condition eliminates his eligibility for manual labor jobs and makes it difficult to sit for the length of time required in desk jobs. El-Hanafi, 40, smiled and waved to a friend seated in the spectator section when he entered the courtroom. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Byars argued that El-Hanafi was predisposed to get the medical condition and did not begin experiencing the symptoms shortly after his arrest. Byars said he likely developed the condition just a few weeks before it was diagnosed in September 2011. He said the biggest obstacle for El-Hanafi's job possibilities after his May 2023 release will be his criminal conviction. "There's no violation of the standard of care," he said of the medical treatment he had received. The judge did not immediately rule. El-Hanafi pleaded guilty to supporting al-Qaida and was sentenced a year ago to the 15-year term after he apologized for making the "worst choices." Prosecutors said he supported al-Qaida from 2007 to late 2009 by contributing tens of thousands of dollars. They also said he sent a remote-control toy car whose components could be used in an explosive device and provided technical advice about computers, including encryption software so information could be transmitted without being detected. Clinton struggles to defend Wall St. links LONDONBERRY, New Hampshire (AP) Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton struggled to defend herself against Bernie Sanders' insinuations that she's beholden to Wall Street, while Sanders faced fresh doubts about his experience on foreign policy, a day after jousting in a feisty debate. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio shouldered intensifying attacks Friday from a herd of moderate-leaning Republicans who fear a strong Rubio showing in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary could spell the end for their frazzled presidential campaigns. As candidates crisscrossed the state, the all-out push for votes despite a snow storm that forced Sanders and Republican candidate Donald Trump, to cancel afternoon events, illustrated the growing stakes. Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. listens to a question from the media after a town hall meeting at the Saint Anselm Institute of Politics in Manchester, N.H., Thursday Feb. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) For Clinton, who revived her campaign here in 2008 after a bruising Iowa loss, the final sprint in New Hampshire offered an unpleasant reckoning with reality: Once again, the former first lady is locked in a bona fide contest for a nomination most Democrats had thought was hers for the taking. A Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll released Friday showed Sanders with an expanded lead over Clinton in New Hampshire, though the two are running neck-and-neck nationally. Sanders and Clinton tussled aggressively in their first one-on-one debate Thursday, their last before the primary, with Clinton accusing the Vermont independent of an "artful smear" for suggesting her speaking fees and donations from Wall Street firms bound her to corporate interests. Sanders countered that Clinton "does represent the establishment." Clinton's campaign tried to flip the script on Sanders by arguing she's the opposite of an establishment contender. But Sanders was sticking to core messages in the final days before the primary: government-run health care, free tuition at public universities and an end to gigantic, all-powerful financial institutions. "I want to see banking become boring again," Sanders said. "Remember boring banking?" On the Republican side, polls showed Rubio on the ascent both in New Hampshire and nationally, raising his hopes that Republican Party leaders would soon unite behind him in a bid to sideline their two polarizing front-runners: Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Jeb Bush accused Rubio of a lackluster set of accomplishments. Bush, campaigning with his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, summed up the Florida senator's achievements in one word: "Nothing." Cruz, the victor of last week's lead-off Iowa caucuses, was struggling to put complaints about his campaign's tactics in the rear view mirror, as new evidence emerged of what challenger Ben Carson has dubbed "dirty tricks." Fueling the dust-up were rumors spread by Cruz's campaign hours before the Iowa caucuses about Carson dropping out of the race. Trump has also cried foul, arguing Cruz "stole" the election by peeling off Carson supporters to surge past Trump. Before New Hampshire votes, the Republicans planned one last debate showdown on Saturday. ___ Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Londonberry, New Hampshire, Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report. Barbara Bush, right, mother of Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, left, introduces her son at a town hall meeting at West Running Brook Middle School in Derry, N.H., Thursday Feb. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign stop at the College for America offices at Southern New Hampshire University Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. is helped over a puddle by Secret Service agents after meeting with supporters outside the Verizon Wireless Center, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) That Iowa couple Christie talks about? They voted for Rubio. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) An Iowa couple whose son is heading to Iraq made such an impression on Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie that he's made them a staple of his New Hampshire campaign speech this week. But while the couple came away from the encounter just as impressed, they supported rival Marco Rubio in the state's caucuses. At nearly every stop in New Hampshire, Christie ends his remarks with a somber story of a couple he met at town hall event in Burlington, Iowa. The way he tells it, the man told him: "Governor, I want to know what kind of commander in chief you'll be, and before you answer, I want you to know this is personal. My wife and I are sending our oldest son to Iraq in four months." Governor Christie has changed the story slightly when he tells it to reflect more on his abilities as a leader According to a video the campaign posted online, however, the question came in Davenport, Iowa, and this is what Jeff Ashcraft actually said: "I've got a boy 23 years old who's going to be deployed to Iraq this May. He's with a unit just out of Burlington. I want to know what your take is on what's going on in the Middle East because, frankly I can't tell I'd really like to hear something specific please I can't tell what the hell our position is in the Middle East and what our position might be in the Middle East from most of the candidates I've heard speak." Reached at his home in Eldridge, Iowa, on Thursday, Ashcraft said "That's crazy!" when told that Christie has been talking about him all week in New Hampshire. He said he wasn't bothered by the dramatic twist Christie has put on the encounter, and that he was extremely satisfied with Christie's answer to his question. "It's flattering. I'm surprised it made that sort of impression," he said. "Both my wife and I were surprised at how much time he gave us. He spoke directly to us for a very long time. I thought it was probably the most detailed answer to a question I've heard from a presidential candidate this cycle." Ashcraft said he was planning to caucus for Christie right up until Monday morning, but in the end, he backed Rubio because he believes the Florida senator would both make a great president and has a better shot at getting elected. Christie re-told the story on Saturday, and his campaign said Friday that Ashcraft's comments don't change the point of the story about the gravity of the situation and the serious responsibilities of the next president. In his speeches, Christie tells voters he'll "rest comfortably" with whatever choice voters make if they make a decision with the Ashcrafts in mind. "When you're about to mark your ballot, imagine you had that mother and father on either side of you, and they were watching when you marked your ballot," he said. "And you had to turn to look at them and say, 'I believe that fill-in-the-blank whoever you're voting for is the very best person to put your son's life in their hands. Because that's the way they're viewing their vote. Their precious son's life will now be in the hands of a new commander in chief, a new personification of America, a new symbol of America and what we stand for and what our values are." Ashcraft, 51, president of a nonprofit organization that supports people with disabilities, has his own advice for New Hampshire voters. Rough seas, harsh winter, border limits add to migrant woes PRESEVO, Serbia (AP) Rasul Orwani thought he had faced the worst after braving cold, rough seas in a rickety wooden boat to travel from Turkey to Greece, then came the Balkans. After arriving in Macedonia with dozens of other migrants, the group crossed into Serbia on foot in the middle of the night, icy snow stinging their eyes and lacing the children's faces with tears. Their heads bent low to protect from the cold, the migrants trudged slowly through the snow, carrying babies, small children and belongings along the 2-kilometer (1.2 mile) stretch of the road over the so-called green boundary between the two Balkan nations. A 10-year-old boy took a blanket from his shoulders to wrap it around his younger sister as they walked across the frozen landscape hand in hand. Refugees walk towards the border with Serbia from the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Macedonia accepts people only from war-affected zones who declare Austria or Germany as their final destination. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Even as winter bears down on Europe and European Union countries set up new administrative hurdles for their entry, tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have been desperate enough to embark on the weeks-long journey across the Aegean Sea and along the so-called Balkan migrant corridor where frigid weather and stricter border controls have turned an already tough journey into an even more treacherous one. Safe in the Serbian town of Presevo on the border with Macedonia, Orwani said there was no turning back. "Our trip is very dangerous and risky," the 20-year-old Orwani said. "We crossed the sea, we were in a boat, and the waves in the sea could easily sink us in the water." While Europe took in more than 1 million people in 2015, EU countries have been struggling to limit the biggest migration to the continent since World War II. Some countries along the migrant route have said they want to slow the influx or even completely block it. Some of the nations imposed new, stricter regulations for those transiting toward their ultimate goal, Germany or other rich west European countries. As a result, dozens of refugees have been turned back from the borders amid freezing winter temperatures, while others have faced border closures and long hours in registration centers and refugee camps. Experts say the measures are unlikely to stop the flow, but could instead prompt the refugees to again start using illegal routes over razor-wire border fences and through forests, pushing them into the hands of ruthless smugglers. Aid groups say migrants passing through the Balkans have faced difficulty traveling in the snow and ice, and there has been a surge in cold-related illnesses. Women, children and babies, in particular, are in danger of hypothermia, according to the Save the Children aid group. It said migrants have been arriving in Serbia with blue lips, distressed and shaking from the cold. Exhausted mothers have told the group's aid workers they are unable to keep their babies warm and dry, and are stumbling while carrying them on the icy roads. Saymira, from Afghanistan, crossed into Serbia with her husband and two young children just days before Orwani. Two months before her father and young sister died in the sea trying to reach a Greek Island from Turkey. "Now I am very sad, I cannot tolerate this situation," she said while pushing a baby stroller through the snow on the border path between Macedonia and Serbia. Saymira said she was on her way to Germany because she has relatives there. Most refugees are not used to winter conditions, and many set off from home countries without warm clothing. Mirjana Milenkovski, the spokeswoman for the U.N. Refugee Agency in Serbia, said refugees are being provided heated shelter, bus transfers, warm drinks and clothes as they pass through Serbia and other countries. From Serbia, migrants pack trains and buses to get to Serbia's border with Croatia. There, they again wait in refugee centers to head to another registration center in Croatia, where authorities go through the lists and check their refugee papers. From Croatia, migrants go on to Slovenia and after more registration and checkups, they move on to Austria and then Germany. Dozens drop out along the way, with authorities in each of the countries conducting their own selection procedures. The International Organization for Migration said 368 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean in January, nearly one in six of them children, as minors make up a growing percentage of those making the treacherous trip. As Orwani made it to the Greek shores last month, dozens of others weren't so lucky. Two other unseaworthy boats carrying migrants sank, killing 46 people many of them children and highlighting the plight of people ready to risk their own lives and those of their children to start a new life somewhere free of war and poverty. Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia first said they were letting in only people from war-ravaged Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. New restrictions were imposed in January with only those seeking asylum in Germany or Austria being let through. This means all others are sent back from the borders, where they often seek smugglers' help to continue through clandestine routes. Macedonia has recently started periodically closing its border with Greece, leaving thousands of desperate migrants stranded for days in a makeshift camp without any official word when they could continue their journey. In addition, anti-immigration sentiment has been on the rise throughout Europe since the terror attacks in Paris in November and the New Year's Eve assaults on women in Germany. Austria said it will take 37,500 refugees this year and a total of 127,500 through 2019. Countries like tiny Slovenia have urged immediate EU action to control the flow or even stop it completely on the Greek-Macedonian border before the expected spring surge of asylum seekers when the weather gets warmer. In the Presevo refugee center, Orwani was waiting patiently for his turn to register. He said he wanted to go to Germany, which since he's from Afghanistan means he might be allowed through. After crossing the Aegean Sea, Orwani said nothing else can be nearly as hard. Orwani said he had never seen the sea until he boarded a small wooden boat in Turkey last month and set off with dozens of other migrants determined to reach Europe. The sea was rough and cold and Orwani's boat had engine trouble, barely making it to a Greek island. But, he says it was worth the risk. "It was very dangerous, and our engine had a problem. We were frightened and it was really risky," Orwani said. "But, because we had such a bad situation (at home), we accept the risk." _____ Gec and Dusan Stojanovic reported from Belgrade, Serbia. N. Korea praises launch, others see as covert missile test SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. The rocket was fired from North Korea's west coast and its path was tracked separately by the United States, Japan and South Korea; no damage from debris was reported. At an emergency national security council meeting in Seoul, the country's president called the firing an "intolerable provocation." North Korea, which calls its launches part of a peaceful space program, trumpeted the beauty of the launch's "fascinating vapor" as the rocket cut through the clear blue sky and said it had successfully put a new Earth observation satellite, the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Shining Star 4, into orbit less than 10 minutes after liftoff. It vowed more such launches. A U.S. official said it might take days to assess whether the launch was a success. In this image released by Japan's Kyodo News agency, an unidentified object is photographed in the sky from Dandong, China, near the North Korean border, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, at the same time a North Korea rocket was allegedly launched. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT The firing came about two hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning. It follows North Korea's widely disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb. Washington and its allies will consider it a further provocation and push for more tough sanctions. The United States and Japan quickly requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday morning, saying Pyongyang violated a council ban on ballistic missile launches. North Korean rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North's ultimate goal of a nuclear armed long-range missile arsenal. North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse Kim's government. North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration, in typical propaganda-laden language, said Sunday that ruling Workers' Party policies were responsible for the rocket's success. The statement praised "the fascinating vapor of Juche satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February on the threshold of the Day of the Shining Star." Juche is a North Korean philosophy focusing on self-reliance; the Day of the Shining Star refers to the Feb. 16 birthday of former dictator Kim Jong Il. North Korea has previously staged rocket launches to mark important anniversaries. Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer detected the North Korean launch at 9:31 a.m. The rocket's first stage fell off North Korea's west coast at 9:32 a.m. and the rocket disappeared from South Korean radars at 9:36 a.m. off the southwestern coast. There was no reported damage in South Korea. The South Korean government couldn't immediately confirm reports by Yonhap news agency and YTN TV that the rocket might have failed. The U.S. Strategic Command issued a statement saying it detected and tracked a missile launched on a southern trajectory but it did not pose a threat to the United States or its allies. Japan's NHK broadcaster showed footage of an object visible in the skies from the southern island of Okinawa that was believed to be the rocket. Japanese chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters that no debris fell on Japanese territory. The global condemnation began almost immediately. South Korean President Park Geun-hye said the launch was an "intolerable provocation." She said the North's efforts to advance its missile capabilities were "all about maintaining the regime" in Pyongyang and criticized the North Korean leadership for ignoring the hardships of ordinary North Koreans. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: "We will take action to totally protect the safety and well-being of our people." U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in a statement that "North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs represent serious threats to our interests including the security of some of our closest allies and undermine peace and security in the broader region." Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the North's four nuclear tests and three long-range rocket tests since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. North Korea says its rocket launches are satellite missions, but the U.S., South Korea and others say they are a covert test of ballistic missile technology. The U.N. Security Council prohibits North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity. Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology. The Jan. 6 nuclear test has led to another push in the U.N. to tighten sanctions. North Korea in 2013 also did a nuclear test and then unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast, including threats to fire nuclear missiles at the U.S. and Seoul. The Korean border is the world's most heavily armed and the rivals' navies occasionally trade gunfire near a disputed boundary in the Yellow Sea. North Korea has spent decades trying to develop operational nuclear weapons. North Korea has said that plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex are in operation. The North is thought to have a small arsenal of crude atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles. But it has yet to demonstrate that it can produce nuclear bombs small enough to place on a missile, or missiles that can reliably deliver its bombs to faraway targets. After several failures testing a multistage, long-range rocket, it put its first satellite into space with a long-range rocket launched in December 2012. The North's recent activity comes amid a long-standing diplomatic stalemate. Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009. Under Kim Jong Un, a February 2012 deal for the United States to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid in exchange for a freeze in nuclear and missile activities collapsed after a rocket launch by the North that April. ___ Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul; Yuri Kageyama and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo; Lolita Baldor in Washington, and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. In this image released by Japan's Kyodo News agency, an unidentified object is photographed in the sky from Dandong, China, near the North Korean border, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, at the same time a North Korea rocket was allegedly launched. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT In this image released by Japan's Kyodo News agency, an unidentified object is photographed in the sky from Dandong, China, near the North Korean border, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, at the same time a North Korea rocket was allegedly launched. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT South Korean army soldiers watch a TV news program with a file footage about North Korea's rocket launch at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) South Koreans watch a TV news program with a file footage about North Korea's rocket launch at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. The letters on the screen read: "The U.N. Security Council will hold a meeting on Feb. 7." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) South Koreans watch a TV news program with a file footage about North Korea's rocket launch at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) South Koreans watch a TV news program with a file footage about North Korea's rocket launch at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. The letters on the screen read: " North Korea launched a long-range missile." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) A South Korean man watches a TV news program with a file footage about North Korea's rocket launch at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. The letters on the screen read: "North Korea launched a long-range rocket." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) A member of the Japan Self-Defense Forces stands near a PAC-3 Patriot missile unit deployed for North Korea's rocket launch at Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) The Latest: Attackers torch refugee center in Prague AMSTERDAM (AP) The Latest on the flow of thousands of would-be refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere to Europe (all times local): 9:10 p.m. Czech police say unknown attackers have set a refugee center on fire in the Czech capital of Prague, injuring one person. People attend a demonstration as part of Europe-wide protests in cooperation with Germany's anti-Islam, anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. The Prague Castle is in the background. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) Spokeswoman Iveta Martinkova says about 20 people attacked the Klinika center in Prague's No. 3 district with Molotov cocktails Saturday about 7:30 p.m. She says it's not clear who was behind the attack and police are investigating. The attack took place just hours after thousands of people rallied in Prague against Muslims and immigration. ___ 7:50 p.m. A French official says the coast guard has rescued four migrants who were attempting to get from the northern French city of Dunkirk across the English Channel to Britain in a small fishing boat. Pas-de-Calais spokesman Gaetan Genel said a fifth person who set off in the boat Saturday managed to swim to shore after the vehicle's motor malfunctioned. Genel said all five were Iranians and have been taken to a local Calais hospital. Dunkirk is at least 17 miles (27 kilometers) from Britain by sea. Genel said the journey was particularly perilous because the sea was rough amid strong winds Saturday and there was a large amount of maritime traffic in the area. ___ 7 p.m. Police in Calais have dispersed a rowdy anti-migrant protest with tear gas after clashes with protesters and detained several far-right demonstrators. Around 150 militants from the anti-Islam, anti-immigration group PEDIGA gathered Saturday at the northern French city chanting slogans like: "We must not let Calais die!" Calais has been a focal point for migrants who want to slip into Britain via the Channel Tunnel. Several thousand have been living there in slums. The protesters Saturday had ignored a ruling by the local prefect to ban such demonstrations. One of them, former soldier Christian Piquemal, said he was "shocked by the behavior of police forces." ___ 4:25 p.m. Thousands of Czechs are rallying in the Czech capital of Prague, some against the influx of refugees and others in support of them. Some opposing protesters clashed briefly before police separated them. The main anti-migrant rally Saturday, part of Europe-wide protests in cooperation with Germany's anti-Islam, anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, is taking place in front of Prague Castle, the presidency seat. Czech President Milos Zeman is known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric. Martin Konvicka, a leader of the anti-Muslim movement, is calling the influx of refugees an "invasion" that poses a "huge threat for us all." Two other anti-migrant groups are rallying in Prague and another in the second-largest Czech city of Brno. Two demonstrations in favor of immigration are also going on in Prague. ___ 4 p.m. Riot police have clashed with demonstrators in Amsterdam as supporters of the anti-Islam, anti-migrant group PEGIDA tried to hold their first protest in the Dutch capital as part of a series of demonstrations in Europe. A square near Amsterdam city hall that had been earmarked for the PEGIDA demonstration had to be shut down shortly before the gathering as police and explosives experts examined what police called a "suspect package." Only about 200 PEGIDA supporters were present, outnumbered by police and left-wing demonstrators who shouted, "Refugees are welcome, fascists are not!" Dutch riot police detained several people as officers on horseback intervened to separate the two groups of demonstrators. ___ 2:30 p.m. The European Union has called on Turkey to open its borders to thousands of Syrians who are fleeing fierce government offensives and intense Russian airstrikes. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says "the support that the EU is providing to Turkey, among others, is aimed exactly at guaranteeing" that Ankara can protect and host people that are seeking asylum. EU foreign ministers met with their Turkish counterpart for informal talks in Amsterdam on Saturday . Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the government was keeping "this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression of the regime as well as air strikes of Russia." "We need to keep this open door policy for them. We have received already more than 5,000 of them. Another 50-55,000 of them are on the way and we cannot leave them there." ___ 1:55 p.m. A senior government official says Turkey is caring for some 30-35,000 displaced Syrians on the Syrian side of the border and has no immediate plans to let them in. Governor Suleyman Tapsiz of the border province of Kilis said Saturday Turkey had the ability to care for the Syrians inside Syria for the time being but had made preparations to allow them in in the event of an "extraordinary crisis." He did not elaborate. Thousands of Syrians rushed toward the Turkish border Friday, fleeing fierce government offensives and intense Russian airstrikes. Turkey kept its Oncupinar border crossing, opposite Syria's Bab al-Salam, closed for a second day Saturday and aid workers said the refugees were being directed to displaced people's camps near the border. Tapsiz said an estimated that 70,000 more Syrian could arrive at the border if the Russian and Syrian strikes don't end. Turkey is already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees ___ 12:55 p.m. Six asylum-seekers have arrived in Latvia, the first of 531 the nation has agreed to accept as part of the European Union's relocation scheme. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Ilze Petersone-Godmane says the two families of two adults and one child each "have expressed willingness to learn Latvian and integrate" in this Baltic country of nearly 2 million inhabitants. Petersone-Godmane told Latvian Public Broadcasting Saturday the families had wanted to come to the country. The Baltic News Service agency said the families from Eritrea and Syria arrived late Friday. They were taken to a refugee center near Riga, the capital, where they had their fingerprints taken and their asylum request was filed. ___ 12:10 p.m. Turkey kept its border with Syria closed for a second day but has let in more than a dozen Syrians who were injured in bombings around Syria's largest city of Aleppo. Thousands of Syrians rushed toward the Turkish border Friday, fleeing fierce government offensives and intense Russian airstrikes. Turkey has promised humanitarian help for the displaced civilians, including food and shelter, but it did not say whether it would let them cross into the country. Turkey is already burdened with some 2.5 million refugees from Syria. The border crossing of Bab al-Salam main crossing point for refugees and humanitarian aid remained closed Saturday. Turkish aid officials said Syrians who has massed at the border were being directed toward a displaced peoples' camp near the border crossing. Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said 15 Syrians injured in bombings near Aleppo crossed into Turkey through the border gate late on Friday. ___ 11:45 a.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says giving refuge to Iraqis and Syrians is part of her country's effort to counter the Islamic State group. Merkel says Germany "considers its support for Iraq against the so-called IS not just as military but also as humanitarian, such as by taking in refugees." Merkel has faced growing criticism in her country for allowing an unprecedented number of asylum seekers almost 1.1 million last year to enter Germany. In her weekly video podcast Saturday, she urged refugees from Iraq and Syria to integrate in the country and learn German. But she also says refugees are being taught transferable skills that will help them rebuild their home countries when peace returns. Merkel backed calls for better protection of the European Union's external borders. ___ 11:40 a.m. Turkish media say police have raided three factories producing unlicensed and poor-quality inflatable boats used to smuggle migrants to Greece. The state-run Anadolu Agency said Saturday police seized 49 boats in the simultaneous raids in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir a day earlier. The agency says the factories' owners were fined for unlicensed production of the boats. According to the private Dogan news agency, they faced administrative action that could lead to the closing the factories. Police in Istanbul and elsewhere have in the past months conducted similar raids on workshops that produce defective lifejackets sold to migrants. Turkey is under intense pressure to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. In November, it agreed to fight the smuggling networks and help curb irregular migration. In return, the European Union pledged 3 billion euros ($3.25 billion) to help improve the refugees' conditions. The International Organization for Migration says 284 migrants have died so far this year trying to make the dangerous crossing from Turkey to Greece. ___ 10 a.m. European Union foreign ministers anxious to stem the flow of migrants coming through the Balkans are discussing with their counterparts from the region better ways to protect borders. With Greece unable to control the thousands of migrants making the crossing from Turkey, some EU nations are now looking to help non-member Macedonia stop them at its southern border before they get to the European Schengen zone of border-free travel. Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto says, "If Greece is not ready or able to protect the Schengen zone and doesn't accept any assistance from the EU then we need another defense line which is obviously Macedonia and Bulgaria." Extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), demonstrate in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) Afghan refugees sit inside a tent as they wait to be allowed to continue their journey to Macedonia, at a refugee camp near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. A European Union official says Greece is making "rapid progress" in overcoming delays in building screening centers for migrants and refugees on islands facing Turkey, after involving the armed forces in the effort. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) A Syrian woman holds her daughter as refugees try to keep themselves warm around a fire at a parking area near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. A European Union official says Greece is making "rapid progress" in overcoming delays in building screening centers for migrants and refugees on islands facing Turkey, after involving the armed forces in the effort. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) Mounted Dutch riot police disperses demonstrators during a Pegida demonstration against islamization in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) Plainclothes police detain a man during a Pegida demonstration against islamization in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) A flag reads "Islamists Not Welcome" as mounted Dutch riot police separates pro and anti Pegida demonstrators during a rally against islamisation in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) Migrants line up as they wait to cross the borderline with Macedonia from the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. European Union foreign ministers anxious to stem the flow of migrants coming through the Balkans are discussing with their counterparts from the region better ways to protect borders. With Greece unable to control the thousands of migrants making the crossing from Turkey, some EU nations are now looking to help non-member Macedonia stop them at its southern border before they get to the European Schengen zone of border-free travel. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) Migrants wait to receive clothing inside a tent near the borderline with Macedonia at the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. European Union foreign ministers anxious to stem the flow of migrants coming through the Balkans are discussing with their counterparts from the region better ways to protect borders. With Greece unable to control the thousands of migrants making the crossing from Turkey, some EU nations are now looking to help non-member Macedonia stop them at its southern border before they get to the European Schengen zone of border-free travel. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) Protesters wave Polish national flags during an anti immigration rally in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz Migrants line up as they wait to cross the borderline with Macedonia from the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. European Union foreign ministers anxious to stem the flow of migrants coming through the Balkans are discussing with their counterparts from the region better ways to protect borders. With Greece unable to control the thousands of migrants making the crossing from Turkey, some EU nations are now looking to help non-member Macedonia stop them at its southern border before they get to the European Schengen zone of border-free travel. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos) A right wing activist shouting slogans shows Poland's emblem The Eagle as another waves a scarf with an inscription reading 'Only Poland' during an anti migrant rally in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz) French police officers use tear gas during a demonstration of extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) Tourists stand nearby as French police officers detain people, during a demonstration of extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) A woman holds her phone as she sits with hundreds of others refugees and migrants inside a passenger terminal at the port of Piraeus near Athens, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. European Union foreign ministers anxious to stem the flow of migrants coming through the Balkans are discussing with their counterparts from the region better ways to protect borders. With Greece unable to control the thousands of migrants making the crossing from Turkey, some EU nations are now looking to help non-member Macedonia stop them at its southern border before they get to the European Schengen zone of border-free travel. (AP Photo/ Yorgos Karahalis) French police officers detain a man during a demonstration of extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) Extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), demonstrate in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) French police officers detain a man during a demonstration of extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) Extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), demonstrate in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) Italy demands answers as student's body flown in from Cairo ROME (AP) Italy demanded Saturday that Egyptian authorities swiftly determine who was responsible for the torture and slaying of an Italian doctoral student researching Egyptian labor movements and other social issues in Cairo. Justice Minister Andrea Orlando spoke Saturday at a Rome airport as the plane carrying the body of Giulio Regeni and his grieving parents from Cairo landed. The body was taken to a Rome university for a second autopsy, following one done in Cairo after Regeni's body was discovered in a suburb of the Egyptian capital. Regeni, 28, disappeared on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations. His body, stabbed repeatedly and exhibiting cigarette burns and other signs of torture, was reported found on Feb. 3 by Egyptian authorities. He had been living in Cairo for the months while doing research as a candidate for a Cambridge University doctorate. Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando, left, Giulio Regeni's parents, Paola Deffendi, center, and Claudio Regeni, stand near the hearse carrying the coffin of the slain doctoral student at Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Regeni, 28, disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations or protests. His body, stabbed repeatedly and exhibiting cigarette burns and other signs of torture, was reported found on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca) "I am here to show my deep condolences and that of the government, and closeness to the Regeni family," Orlando told reporters. "But I am also here to affirm the will of the government that truth and complete clarity emerge as soon as possible and that justice be done." Italy's ambassador in Cairo said he was shocked at the body's condition. "To see it was devastating. It showed evident signs of beating and torture," Ambassador Maurizio Massari told the Corriere della Sera daily. "I took note of the wounds, bruises and burn marks. There is no doubt that the young man was heavily beaten and tortured." In Cairo, prosecutors say they are waiting for a full report from the Egyptian autopsy. Demands for a proper investigation also were voiced outside the Italian embassy in Cairo, where dozens of Egyptian activists, academics and a few foreigners gathered Saturday to pay respects and leave flowers. As police and plainclothes security officers heavily patrolled the area, many said Regeni's case mirrored those of Egyptians who have disappeared during security roundups. "He had a wonderful enthusiasm and personality," said Dina Makram, a labor issues researcher who ran a workshop that Regeni attended and who was holding a candle lit in his remembrance. "When you do academic field work here, it does make people suspicious." She noted that Regeni had also attended independent trade union meetings. "Those conferences are always full of people from the intelligence services," Makram said. Regeni had also been writing occasional pieces for an Italian leftist newspaper, Il Manifesto. The papers' editors said Regeni had insisted on a pseudonym for his byline, a strong indication that he had safety concerns during his time in Cairo. The tensions over Regeni's death and how his disappearance and investigation were handled by the Egyptian authorities come at a delicate time for the Italian government. Worried about the spread of the Islamic State group in Egypt's neighbor Libya, Rome hopes it can count on Cairo as a dependable ally in the fight against violent extremism. Italy is also looking to boost its already strong economic relations with Egypt. Last summer, the Italian energy giant ENI announced the discovery of a "supergiant" gas field offshore Egypt. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, speaking to reporters Saturday in Amsterdam, said Italian investigators were beginning to work with Egyptian authorities on the case. Gentiloni mentioned preliminary arrests, but the deputy head of criminal investigations in Cairo's twin province of Giza, Alaa Azmi, denied Saturday that anyone had been detained. ___ This version corrects the spelling of the victim's last name to Regeni. ___ Maram Mazen and Brian Rohan reported from Cairo. Raf Casert in Amsterdam contributed to this report. The hearse carrying the coffin of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni leaves Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Regeni, 28, disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations or protests. His body, stabbed repeatedly and exhibiting cigarette burns and other signs of torture, was reported found on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca) The hearse carrying the coffin of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni leaves Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Regeni, 28, disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations or protests. His body, stabbed repeatedly and exhibiting cigarette burns and other signs of torture, was reported found on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca) Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando, left, Giulio Regeni's parents, Paola Deffendi, center, and Claudio Regeni, stand near the hearse carrying the coffin of the slain doctoral student at Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Regeni, 28, disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations or protests. His body, stabbed repeatedly and exhibiting cigarette burns and other signs of torture, was reported found on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca) The hearse carrying the coffin of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni leaves Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Regeni, 28, disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations or protests. His body, stabbed repeatedly and exhibiting cigarette burns and other signs of torture, was reported found on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca) Mourners light candles and lay wreaths in memory of slain Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni, in front of the Italian embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Regeni disappeared on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising. He was found this week with multiple stab wounds, cigarette burns and other signs of torture on the outskirts of Cairo, Egyptian officials said. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Claudio Regeni, second from right, holds his wife Paola, as they stand in front of the hearse carrying the coffin of their son Giulio at Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Giulio Regeni, 28, an Italian doctoral student disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations or protests. His body, stabbed repeatedly and exhibiting cigarette burns and other signs of torture, was reported found on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca) After Iowa, Trump showing off effort to win in New Hampshire LONDONDERRY, N.H. (AP) With wet snow already ankle deep and falling fast, Dave Chiokadze and James Radcliffe trekked down one long driveway after another in search of potential votes for Donald Trump. "It's like the Revolutionary War," joked Chiokadze as they made their way house to house along a Londonderry street, knocking on doors that were flagged by a smart-phone app and leaving long lines of footsteps in their wake. The 22 year olds, out-of-state volunteers involved in politics for the first time, are on the front lines of Trump's effort in New Hampshire, where the Republican presidential candidate is hoping for his first victory of the 2016 campaign in the state's primary on Tuesday. James Radcliffe, a volunteer for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, places a sign outside a home while walking through the snow knocking on doors in search of Trump supporters Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. The twenty-two year old, from out-of-state whose never been involved in politics, is on the front lines of Trumps ground war in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman is under intense pressure to win big. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Trump had a disappointing runner-up finish last Monday in leadoff Iowa, which has a byzantine caucus process that puts a premium on organizing supporters to make sure they turn out. Now, he and his team are intent on making a greater push to get out the vote in the opening primary state "Look, I've never done this before. I've been a politician for seven months. I'm against governors and senators. They've done it their whole lives," Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. "It would seem to me that people would just go out and vote." Trump said he "never realized" the need to encourage supporters to actually take part in the caucuses. "Now, I think we're going to have an OK ground game." Or at the very least, one that Trump is willing to show off. His campaign shrouded its Iowa operations in secrecy. In New Hampshire, it has opened the door to what appears to be more robust effort to ensure his legion of supporters becomes an army of voters. At his state headquarters in Manchester, volunteers were hard at work on two recent weekdays. They made calls using an automated phone dial system in a room decorated with black-and-white photographs of the man they're working to elect. Malcolm McGough, 58, a volunteer from West Hartford, Connecticut, said he had been working 13-hour days making calls. "It's really about asking them whether they're going to get out and vote on Tuesday and whether they support Mr. Trump," McGough said. He said he had made 1,150 calls for Trump on Wednesday alone. Kevin Bray, 51, another volunteer, said he had driven more than 20 hours in the rain from Nixa, Missouri, after seeing the results in Iowa. "Iowa happened and I woke up really irritated," he said. "I said, you know, I want to make a difference." He said he arrived on Wednesday morning and told Trump's team to put him to work. In a back room of the office, a white board displays ambitious goals for each day. On Thursday, the team aimed to make 30,000 calls and knock on 2,500 doors. By early afternoon, campaign officials said they were partway to their goals. Their seven teams of volunteers sent to neighborhoods across the state had reported knocking on 823 doors so far. On Friday, campaign staff hoped to boost the number to 5,000, as more than 100 new volunteers arrived from states such as New York and Pennsylvania to help. The team has run out of the 20,000 cards it printed to hand out during visits and was printing 25,000 more. "I think look, we'll take nothing for granted," said Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, a New Hampshire resident overseeing the effort. "We're going to do everything we can to try and talk to every voter possible. So we've made a lot of phone calls and knocked on a lot of doors and we're going to do a lot of stops. "And obviously," Lewandowski said, "Mr. Trump gets the biggest crowds, so he gets to see the most people." He said the outreach was aimed specifically at voters identified as having a high likelihood of being open to supporting Trump. Volunteers said they included many independent voters and those without a history of voting in the primary. Steve Duprey, a political professional in New Hampshire who helped shepherd GOP Sen. John McCain's winning 2008 campaign in the state, described the Trump ground game as "aggressive and sophisticated." "I think they have a first-rate operation in New Hampshire and I think they were under the radar for a couple of months," Duprey said. To be sure, Trump hasn't completely changed his approach in the wake of his Iowa defeat. He skipped town for a rally in South Carolina on Friday and has largely forgone the small-scale town halls and meet-and-greets that are the usual fare for potential presidents in Iowa and New Hampshire. That's something some of his supporters in Iowa said was a hurdle to success there. "It was challenging," said Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, a prominent Trump supporter. "Everybody talks about the 99 county tour. I think if we could have gotten him there more often, it would have increased his numbers. ... I wanted him to do smaller events. We could not get that done." The winner in Iowa, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, did visit all those counties. Cruz also developed and relied on a sophisticated, data-driven approach that targeted specific, individual voters. In New Hampshire this past week, many voters interviewed said they had yet to receive mail or phone calls from Trump's campaign. Even as Trump acknowledged that investing additional time and money in Iowa may have helped win the caucuses, he continued to boast about spending less than the other candidates. Trump spent just $1.2 million on consultants in areas such as field operations in the final four months of the year, along with $235,000 to the data firm L2. Cruz spent more than $3 million on data provider Cambridge Analytica alone in the quarter, and $900,000 on political strategy consulting. Trump also continues to be badly outspent on television by candidates of significantly lesser means, advertising tracker Kantar Media's CMAG shows. The $3 million he's spent so far on TV and radio ads in New Hampshire is eclipsed by groups backing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. In South Carolina, the next state to vote after New Hampshire, he's getting outspent 9 to 1 by Rubio and groups supporting him. Still, Duprey cautioned against betting against Trump and his unorthodox approach. "Just because it hasn't been done this way before, doesn't mean it don't happen this time," Duprey said. ___ Horwitz reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Chad Day in Washington and Kathleen Ronayne in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jill Colvin and Jeff Horwitz on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/colvinj and http://twitter.com/jeffhorwitz Dave Chiokadze, left, and James Radcliffe, volunteers for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, walk through the snow knocking on doors in search of Trump supporters Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. The twenty-two year olds, both from out-of-state whove never been involved in politics, are on the front lines of Trumps ground war in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman is under intense pressure to win big. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Dave Chiokadze, right, and James Radcliffe, volunteers for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, look for an address while walking through the snow knocking on doors in search of Trump supporters Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. The twenty-two year olds, both from out-of-state whove never been involved in politics, are on the front lines of Trumps ground war in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman is under intense pressure to win big. (AP Photo/David Goldman) James Radcliffe, a volunteer for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, places a sign outside a home while walking through the snow knocking on doors in search of Trump supporters Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. The twenty-two year old, from out-of-state whose never been involved in politics, is on the front lines of Trumps ground war in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman is under intense pressure to win big. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Dave Chiokadze, right, and James Radcliffe, volunteers for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, talk to Dan Tamburello in his driveway as they walk through the snow knocking on doors looking for Trump supporters Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. The twenty-two year olds, both from out-of-state whove never been involved in politics, are on the front lines of Trumps ground war in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman is under intense pressure to win big. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Dave Chiokadze, left, and James Radcliffe, center, volunteers for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, talk with Ed Campbell as they walk through the snow knocking on doors in search of Trump supporters Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. The twenty-two year olds, both from out-of-state whove never been involved in politics, are on the front lines of Trumps ground war in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman is under intense pressure to win big. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Dave Chiokadze, left, and James Radcliffe, volunteers for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, walk through the snow knocking on doors in search of Trump supporters Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Londonderry, N.H. The twenty-two year olds, both from out-of-state whove never been involved in politics, are on the front lines of Trumps ground war in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman is under intense pressure to win big. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Clinton's New Hampshire challenge: Winning trust PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) The private email server. The Wall Street ties. The evolving policy positions. The speaking fees. The concerns vary, but Hillary Clinton seems to be having trouble earning the public's trust. Ahead of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, the Democratic presidential candidate is trying to convince voters that she is authentic. Rival Bernie Sanders is stepping up criticism of her financial industry connections and questioning whether she is a true liberal. In this Feb. 3, 2016, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a Democratic primary town hall sponsored by CNN in Derry, N.H. It seems Clinton is having trouble earning the publics trust. As the Democratic presidential contest hurtles toward the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, the former secretary of state is seeking to convince voters of her authenticity as rival Bernie Sanders criticizes her Wall Street ties and questions whether shes really a liberal. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) His message connects with younger people. They seem less interested in Clinton's pitch as a "progressive who gets things done" than in Sanders' call to break up big financial institutions and expand social programs as part of a "political revolution." "I have a harder time believing her sincerity," said Suzanne Roberge, 32, of Rochester, who attended a Sanders rally. "I don't have as much trust." Roberge added: "She's changed her mind on different issues. Bernie Sanders has been so consistent." Added Sheila Kelley, 59, of Manchester, a Sanders supporter: "She doesn't seem truthful. It seems like she's trying to be everything to everyone." Questions about Clinton's authenticity probably hurt her in Iowa, where the former secretary of state squeaked out a narrow victory over the Vermont senator in Monday's leadoff caucuses. Democratic caucus-goers who cared most about candidates who are "honest and trustworthy" or who "care about people like me" overwhelmingly supported Sanders, according to precinct polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks. Clinton performed far better with people who listed experience or electability as a top concern. Eight in 10 young people surveyed in Iowa said honesty or caring about people like them are the top qualities for which they are looking. The surveys of people entering the Democratic caucuses found that Sanders had over 80 percent support from people 29 or younger. Clinton was backed by nearly 70 percent of those 65 and older. In New Hampshire, too, Sanders may have an advantage with the young. "She's the best alternative to Bernie," said Danielle Adcock, 20, of Manchester, who supports Sanders. But she added: "She takes money from Wall Street." In a Quinnipiac University poll in December, Clinton rated highly among all registered voters for her experience and leadership qualities, but 59 percent said she was not honest and trustworthy. Most Democrats in that survey did say Clinton was honest and trustworthy. But a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted in January suggests she may have cause for concerns there, too. That poll found that that while Clinton had a substantial lead over Sanders among Democrats, she lagged behind him on the issue of trust: 48 percent said Sanders was more honest and trustworthy, compared with 36 percent for Clinton. Asked about matters of trust during a CNN town-hall event in New Hampshire, Clinton spoke about the "velocity of attacks" she has endured from Republicans. "They don't give it up," she said. "So I know that I have to really demonstrate as clearly as I can who I am, what I stand for, and what I've always done. I've always been guided by the same values. I have always listened to people. And I've always worked as hard as I could to produce results for people." Clinton later made a direct plea to young people at a party dinner, saying she was glad they were involved, whether or not they supported her. She noted that "you are bringing energy, ideas and urgency to our process." Sanders has fed some people's concerns about trusting Clinton while picking his fights carefully. For example, he gave her a pass on her past email practices. But he has gone after her for taking Wall Street money, letting a political action committee raise millions to help her and for not being liberal enough, in his view. He has called her out for claiming to be a moderate earlier in the campaign, only to joust with him now over who's the true "progressive." The shift in rhetoric may raise questions about who and what Clinton really is. "One of the things we should do is not only talk the talk, but walk the walk," Sanders said in Thursday night's debate. Clinton has accused Sanders of "cherry-picking" from her past comments and said his questions about her Wall Street ties amount to "very artful smear." National polls suggest Clinton has a strong lead over Sanders, despite her lagging position in New Hampshire, and her campaign seems confident she will perform better in South Carolina and elsewhere. While Sanders is laser-focused on income inequality and the behavior of the financial sector, Clinton has struggled to define what her campaign is about at its core. She has criticized Sanders for health care and education proposals that she says are unrealistic. She has released a detailed policy plans and styled herself as the right person to carry on President Barack Obama's legacy. Recently, she has started flavoring her speeches with some of the economic populism for which Sanders is known. "I think she's paid her dues," said Clemence Cote, 54, of Derry. "I think she's a strong person." ___ Associated Press News Survey Specialist Emily Swanson contributed to this report from Washington. In this Feb. 2, 2016, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign event in Nashua, N.H. It seems Clinton is having trouble earning the publics trust. As the Democratic presidential contest hurtles toward the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, the former secretary of state is seeking to convince voters of her authenticity as rival Bernie Sanders criticizes her Wall Street ties and questions whether shes really a liberal. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) In this Feb. 3, 2016, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets with attendees during a campaign stop in Manchester, N.H. It seems Clinton is having trouble earning the publics trust. As the Democratic presidential contest hurtles toward the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, the former secretary of state is seeking to convince voters of her authenticity as rival Bernie Sanders criticizes her Wall Street ties and questions whether shes really a liberal. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) The Latest: GOP candidates offer closing arguments to NH MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) The Latest on the race for president, with candidates focusing on New Hampshire, which holds the first primary in the 2016 race on Tuesday (all times local): 10:40 p.m. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is reminding New Hampshire voters that they've "gotten to know my heart" after the New Jersey governor has campaigned in the state for combined 70 days. Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich shakes hands with Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush after an exchange during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Ted Cruz is trumpeting his Iowa caucus victory in his closing statement in the New Hampshire presidential debate. Candidates gave their closing arguments at the eighth Republican debate to New Hampshire voters ahead of the state's Feb. 9 primary. Marco Rubio says he can unite the Republican Party, "grow the conservative movement" and defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump's closing pitch to New Hampshire voters is familiar: Elect me, and we'll win. Jeb Bush conjured the Republican Party's heralded late President Ronald Reagan, identifying with the "Gipper" in his closing statement of the debate. ___ 10:38 p.m. The picks are in: most Republicans running for president think the Carolina Panthers are going to win the Super Bowl. Four of the seven candidates in Saturday's debate predicted a Carolina victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Ben Carson didn't make a prediction, instead joking that "it will be either Denver or Carolina." Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was the most honest in his pandering, saying "With an eye to Feb. 20, Carolina." That is the day of the South Carolina primary. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are picking Denver. Bush says he is taking Denver because the team's quarterback, Peyton Manning, is supporting his candidacy. ___ 10:35 p.m. Jeb Bush wants Republican presidential primary voters to think of him as "the most pro-life person" on the GOP debate stage. Marco Rubio and Chris Christie want to turn the issue against the Democratic Party during the Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire. Rubio and Christie both say Democrats are "extremists" on the issue, not Republicans. There are some slight distinctions among Republicans on what exceptions candidates would prefer in any abortion ban. All three candidates who spoke on the matter said they would allow an abortion needed to save the life of a pregnant woman. Bush and Christie said they'd both allow women to terminate pregnancies that result from rape or incest. ___ 10:20 p.m. Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio rally around veterans, agreeing that returning soldiers should be able to go to any hospital or doctor to get medical treatment. The three candidates believe that vets should have a range of healthcare choices. Kasich says he would work with the Pentagon to get veterans jobs upon leaving the military. He says "there should be no unemployment among veterans." ___ 10:15 p.m. Chris Christie says he'd quarantine Americans returning from Brazil after the summer Olympics and otherwise to keep the country safe from the spread of the Zika virus. His rival Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, says quarantining people "willy nilly" is not an effective means of stopping the spread of the virus. He says organizations like the Center for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health can play a role in drafting a "rapid response" to the spread of Zika. Christie took heat during the Ebola crisis for quarantining a nurse who returned from West Africa in New Jersey. ___ 10:10 p.m. Marco Rubio says he would visit an Islamic mosque if he were president, but says President Barack Obama has wrongly suggested that Muslims in the U.S. have been the targets of excessive discrimination. He says Obama is spreading a "fiction that there's widespread, systematic discrimination against Muslim-Americans." But he also says mosques ought to be watched not just for hate speech, but for any evidence they are helping violent Islamic extremists plot violence in the U.S. ___ 10:00 p.m. Donald Trump says police in America are "absolutely mistreated and misunderstood," and need to be treated with more respect. But Ohio Gov. John Kasich said in Saturday's Republican presidential debate that community leaders with concerns over police conduct need to be involved to ensure "more win-wins in America." Trump says there will be abuses of police power and other problems, and when that happens, people sue. Trump says police are "really fantastic," ''absolutely amazing people" and have done "an unbelievable job of keeping law and order." Kasich says he also loves the police, but the president also has to be responsive to the concerns of people in communities concerned about abuses of power. ___ 9:55 p.m. Republican presidential candidates are saying they aren't afraid to take on Hillary Clinton if she's the Democratic nominee in the general election. Donald Trump says he would "galvanize" the electorate against Clinton. He promises he would "win by a lot," though he offers few details about just what his argument against her would be. Marco Rubio says he believes the political dynamics nationally already favor the eventual GOP nominee. He says Republicans will be unified after the primary. The November election, he says, will be "a referendum on our identity as a nation and as a people." ___ 9:50 p.m. Republican Ted Cruz has shared the personal story of his sister who died of an overdose of drugs to show his understanding of New Hampshire's heroin problem, the state's second leading cause of death. Speaking at the GOP debate, Cruz says solving the epidemic is best done at a state level and in coordination with local organizations. He says the federal government's role is to secure the border to stop the "Mexican cartels" from flooding the country with drugs. Chris Christie says heroin addiction "is a disease, not a moral failing." He says New Jersey focused on treatment and saw its prison population decrease as a result. ___ 9:45 p.m. Donald Trump says he'd bring back waterboarding and "a hell of a lot worse" methods of interrogation for terrorists. Trump says waterboarding, which simulates drowning, isn't nearly as extreme as tactics used by terrorists in the Middle East, which are in line with "medieval times." Trump is the most direct in promising to use waterboarding if elected president, but Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says he wouldn't rule out using the tactic that simulates drowning. Cruz says he would use "whatever" tactics possible to prevent imminent terrorist attacks. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, says he agrees with the existing ban on waterboarding. Marco Rubio says its inappropriate to discuss interrogation tactics. ___ 9:42 p.m. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he would support airstrikes in Libya but only if there is a plan to help rebuild the country after Islamic State fighters were repelled. Bush says he would bomb Libya to rid it of the Islamic State group, but only with a large coalition from Europe and the Middle East. Bush says the U.S. has to have a plan for the aftermath. Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, was criticized for having an insufficient plan for post-war Iraq. ___ 9:40 p.m. Donald Trump says the way to beat the Islamic State group is through their pocketbook. Trump said in Saturday's Republican debate in New Hampshire that the way to beat terrorists is to take their oil and stop their access to money through the banking system. He says: "You have to knock the hell out of the oil. You have to take the oil." Trump says if the flow of money is stopped, the Islamic States is "going to become a very weakened power, quickly." He predicted the Islamic State could last only about a year with the resources it has currently. ___ 9:30 p.m. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is standing by his call for "carpet bombing" areas controlled by the Islamic State group. Cruz says that could be accomplished without mounting inappropriate levels of civilian casualties. He maintains that President Barack Obama's administration has unnecessarily strict "rules of engagement" because of concerns over civilian deaths. The senator says his previous endorsement of "carpet bombing" does not mean "indiscriminate" bombing. He says he would order "targeted" bombings of oil fields, infrastructure, communications outposts and key locations in Raqqa, Syria, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State group. ___ 9:25 p.m. Donald Trump says cutting the corporate tax rate is a central piece of his plan to bring jobs back to America. Pressed on how he'd create jobs, Trump says it's critical to make sure big corporations remain in America rather than going to China, Mexico and other countries. He also says he'd make better trade deals than the current administration. ___ 9:20 p.m. John Kasich and Donald Trump are defending themselves against accusations that they are not true conservatives. Speaking at the Republican debate in New Hampshire Saturday, Kasich defended endorsements he received by The New York Times and The Boston Globe, newspapers often criticized by Republicans as liberal. Kasich said the Times said "he's not a moderate" and "can solve problems." Trump says he is conservative with regard to fiscal issues, conserving money and "doing the right thing." ___ 9:15 p.m. Donald Trump is once again needling Jeb Bush, saying Bush "wants to be a tough guy." Trump and Bush got in a terse back-and-forth exchange in Saturday's Republican presidential debate over their positions on eminent domain, the process by which the government takes private property for public use. When Bush tried to interject, Trump drew boos when he dismissed him saying, "Let me talk, quiet." Trump quipped the catcalls were coming from "donors and special interests," the only people who could get tickets to the high profile debate. Trump defended the use of eminent domain, saying it's "absolutely necessary" to build roads, schools, bridges and hospitals. But Bush forcefully challenged Trump, asking why he tried to use eminent domain to purchase the home of an elderly woman who lived near one of his Atlantic City casinos. Bush says, "That isn't public purpose. That was downright wrong." ___ 9:10 p.m. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson all agree on at least one thing: They detest the Affordable Care Act. But they are taking different approaches to explain just what they want in its place. Trump promised in Saturday's GOP debate in New Hampshire "to replace Obamacare with something so much better." He says that would include healthcare savings accounts for individuals and allowing insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. Trump implicitly accused his rivals of not backing some kind of safety net care for the poorest Americans. Cruz did not get into the details of a replacement at all, using the discussion to blast "socialized medicine." Carson says he wants to give Americans subsidies for medical savings accounts using money now spent on existing health care. ___ 9:05 p.m. Marco Rubio is defending his role in immigration reform as a member of the Gang of Eight in the Senate. Speaking at the GOP debate Saturday, Rubio says the American people cannot trust Congress until the border is secured and that those here illegally would not be put on a pathway to citizenship. Chris Christie struck back at Rubio's answer, saying "it's abundantly clear that he didn't fight for the legislation." The 2013 Gang of Eight bill passed the Senate, but did not pass the House. ___ 9:00 p.m. Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he "couldn't even imagine" ripping families apart by deporting immigrants living in the country illegally and says doing so doesn't match American values. Kasich says he'd make passing comprehensive immigration reform a priority within the first 100 days of his presidency. An attempt to pass a comprehensive bill in 2013 could not make it through Congress. Kasich is at odds with several of his rivals, including Ted Cruz, on the issue of deportation. Cruz says its possible to deport people living here illegally. The only thing missing, he says, is "political will." ___ 8:58 p.m. Gov. Chris Christie is trying to out-tough his GOP rivals when it comes to dealing with North Korea when addressing how to handle a crisis involving hostages or the rogue nation's nuclear proliferation activities. Former Gov. Jeb Bush is saying the U.S. should reinstate "crippling sanctions" and establish those sanctions "right now." But Christie says the U.S. has to boost its profile on the global stage, but he fell short from saying he supports military action against North Korea. ___ 8:55 p.m. Donald Trump's plan for dealing with North Korea runs through China. Trump said in Saturday's Republican presidential debate that the key to dealing with North Korea is enlisting the help of China. Trump says China should be responsible for addressing problems with North Korea because "they can do it quickly and surgically." The debate began just minutes after news broke that North Korea had fired a rocket that was a covert test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland. The billionaire investor Trump says he believes China has "tremendous control" over North Korea based on conversations he's had with bankers and others he's dealt with. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also says he believes the United States could leverage its relationship with China to keep North Korea in check. ___ 8:50 p.m. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is avoiding saying just how he might respond as president to a long-range rocket launch by North Korea. South Korea said earlier Saturday that North Korea did just that, under the guise that it was launching a satellite. Cruz deflected questions during the GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire Saturday over whether he'd shoot down any such missile or launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea's nuclear infrastructure. He said he could not "speculate" since he has not seen "the intelligence briefings" that President Barack Obama gets. ABC moderator Martha Raddatz noted that Cruz has talked in detail about how he would approach Middle East tensions despite not having access to the same intelligence available to the president. Cruz used the question to criticize the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran. ___ 8:44 p.m. Chris Christie and Marco Rubio are kicking off Saturday's debate with a blistering exchange over experience, with Christie is hitting Rubio for "memorizing" talking points rather than getting actual things done. Christie says, "the memorized 30-second speech doesn't solve one problem." He says Rubio has failed to make a single decision of consequence while in the U.S. Senate, a charge he's been making on the trail in New Hampshire all week. Rubio, meanwhile, is dismissing the argument that experience is necessary to be president, saying if that were the case then Joe Biden would be commander in chief. And he's punching right back at Christie, saying the New Jersey governor showed a lack of leadership when he considered not returning to his home state to manage a snow storm several weeks ago. ___ 8:40 p.m. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says rival Marco Rubio is a "gifted" politician with no experience a point he's been hammering on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. Speaking at the eighth GOP debate Saturday, Bush said being president requires "a steady hand" to handle any number of crises, noting he handled eight hurricanes and four tropical storms that struck Florida when he was governor. Bush says "you learn this by doing it," adding that electing Rubio is the equivalent of electing President Barack Obama who was also a first-term senator when he won the presidency. ___ 8:38 p.m. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is taking the high road when asked to address a statement released by Ted Cruz's campaign that falsely claimed Carson was suspending his campaign. Carson says he wasn't going to use the opportunity to "savage the reputation of Sen. Cruz." But Carson goes on to say that the quick message from Cruz's campaign to Iowa caucus-goers that the retired neurosurgeon was out of the race reflects "very good example of Washington ethics." ___ 8:35 p.m. Republican Donald Trump says he thinks he has the best temperament of those running for president. Speaking at Saturday's GOP debate, Trump noted that he's driving the election conversation by bringing up issues others are afraid to address like his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country. Trump says, "I'm not one with a trigger. Other people up here, believe me, would be a lot faster." ___ 8:30 p.m. Donald Trump says other Republican candidates running for president "would be a lot faster" to use nuclear weapons than he would. Speaking at Saturday's GOP debate in New Hampshire, Trump responded to comments made by rival Ted Cruz who said no one would be comfortable with Trump having his finger on "the button." Cruz dodged a question in the debate asking if he would stand by that comment, instead saying that voters will make the assessment over who has the temperament to be president. Trump hit Cruz for not answering the question, adding "That's what's going to happen with our enemies and the people we compete against. We're going to win with Trump. We're going to win." ___ 8:18 p.m. The Republican presidential debate got off to a bumpy start Saturday when Ben Carson apparently didn't hear his name called by the hosts from ABC News. Carson was to come on stage second, but walked to the edge of the stage and stopped, not hearing his name. He awkwardly remained as several of his rivals walked pass him to the podium. He eventually walked out. ___ 8:15 p.m. Republican candidates are facing off in the season's eighth presidential debate, this time in New Hampshire which will host the nation's first primary on Tuesday. Donald Trump has returned to center stage after boycotting the last debate in Iowa. The billionaire businessman is sandwiched in between his two biggest rivals, Iowa caucus winner Ted Cruz, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who finished a close third behind Trump. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are also debating as they attempt to give their candidacies a boost ahead of the Feb. 9 primary. ___ 6:45 p.m. Former NAACP President Ben Jealous says Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has the best record and platform for black Americans. Campaigning for Sanders in South Carolina on Saturday, Jealous called the Vermont senator "a movement candidate." Jealous said Sanders' opponent, Hillary Clinton, offers a public career that is "complicated" and "contradictory." He said Clinton's continued support of the death penalty, her Wall Street relationships and her vote for the Iraq invasion of 2003 each violated Martin Luther King Jr.'s standard of judging politicians on their fight against "racism, militarism and greed." ___ 6:00 p.m. The daughter of Eric Garner, a black man who died in 2014 after a white New York police officer put him in a choke hold, is campaigning on behalf of Bernie Sanders in South Carolina. Erica Garner, a burgeoning civil rights advocate since her father's death, said Saturday she wants voters to give Sanders a second look because of his ideas to overhaul the criminal justice system, combat institutional racism and expand economic opportunity. Polls suggest Hillary Clinton leads Sanders by a wide margin ahead of the Feb. 27 primary here. The gap comes largely from Clinton's overwhelming advantage among black voters. ___ 5:00 p.m. Hillary Clinton is facing blunt questions in New Hampshire about whether Americans can trust her and her explanations for the 2012 Benghazi attacks while she served as secretary of state. At a town hall meeting at New England College in Henniker, Clinton said Saturday that she had a long history of taking on tough issues under the glare of the public spotlight. Clinton explained that Benghazi happened under the "fog of war" and as the attacks unfolded people worked hard on the ground to get the best understanding of what happened. She said she regretted that it had been used as a "great political issue." ___ 4:00 p.m. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says he will continue his campaign no matter the outcome of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. Bush said in an interview with CNN on his campaign bus Saturday that the presidential race is just getting started and that he's "in it for the long haul." Bush says every election is different but that none are over after the first primary. He will join fellow Republican candidates for a debate Saturday night at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. Sen. Marco Rubio heads into the debate ready for an onslaught of attacks about his experience from a trio of rivals, including Bush, whose performance Tuesday will be critical to their White House hopes. ___ 3:20 p.m. Marco Rubio is heading into the latest Republican debate ready for an onslaught of attacks about his experience from a trio of rivals whose performance in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary will be critical to their White House hopes. Donald Trump will also rejoin his competitors in the debate arena Saturday night after skipping the previous faceoff in Iowa. He finished second in the Iowa caucuses and has spent the past week complaining about the result. Iowa shook Trump's grip on the Republican field, but he has led New Hampshire preference polls for months and the state is still seen as his to lose. But Rubio appears to be gaining steam following his stronger-than-expected third-place Iowa finish. He has drawn big crowds and a flurry of criticism from contenders who say the first-term Florida senator lacks accomplishments. ___ 2:40 p.m. Hillary Clinton says America's history is about rising and knocking down barriers and she's asking New Hampshire voters to bring both their heads and their hearts to Tuesday's primary. Clinton is trailing in the state's primary against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and is asking voters to take another look at her campaign. Clinton was introduced by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker in Concord Saturday. He quoted from Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise." Clinton played off that mantra and told voters that "we will rise once again to more prosperity." She says voters aren't "asking for much" but a "president who knows what it feels like." Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made a special appeal to female voters. Albright says "there's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other." ___ 2 p.m. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is urging dozens of volunteers to not miss knocking on any doors as they fan out across the state for a sunny Saturday of campaigning. Standing outside his Manchester headquarters, Kasich says a quick smile and conversation with a voter can make all the difference in Tuesday's primary. He says his campaign can put things over the top if voters "have a sense of something special." Kasich says his campaign isn't about him, but rather about making a brighter future for his supporters and their families and neighbors. Roughly 250 Kasich volunteers are out campaigning across the state. The campaign says each volunteer has a daily goal of knocking on 100 doors and making 200 phone calls. ___ 1:40 p.m. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is backing one of his campaign donors in Sunday's Super Bowl. Bush said Saturday he's rooting for Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, "because he's for me." Manning has contributed the maximum $2,700 to Bush's presidential campaign. The Broncos face the Carolina Panthers in Sunday's Super Bowl. That's two days before voters go to the polls in New Hampshire. Bush spoke and took questions from town hall participants for 90 minutes and showed energy and emotion in front of the more than 700 people jammed into the Bedford school. He was introduced by former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge, who told voters to choose "George Bush I mean, Jeb Bush." Ridge was appointed by President George W. Bush. ___ 1:30 p.m. Jeb Bush drew one of his largest crowds to a New Hampshire school auditorium hours before debating his Republican rivals ahead of Tuesday's primary. Bush spoke and took questions from town hall participants for 90 minutes Saturday. He showed energy and emotion in front of more than 700 people jammed into the Bedford school. Bush blasted billionaire businessman Donald Trump for what he described as disparaging remarks. He says that Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were gifted speakers, but had no leadership experience. Bush choked up when asked about drug addiction. He says he had not discussed his daughter Noelle's fight with drugs in front of his wife, Columba, who was seated a few feet away. Bush says Noelle has been drug-free for more than 10 years. 12:25 p.m. Bernie Sanders is expressing confidence about his chances in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. The Vermont senator addressed a crowded rally in Rindge, New Hampshire, Saturday. He notes that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the state in 2008, but says he's confident he's going to win if "we can bring out a decent vote" Tuesday. Sanders leads Clinton in state polls. Sanders offered his plans for "political revolution" to the enthusiastic room, including single-payer health care, free tuition at public universities and Wall Street reforms. He says that the eyes of the world will know that the country is about to move in a new direction. ___ 11:50 a.m. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says Donald Trump will be welcomed back to the debate stage "with open arms." At a campaign rally in Bedford Saturday, Christie jokingly thanked the crowd and said that he was thrilled that "none of you people made enough fun of Donald Trump to make him not come tonight." Christie is marking his 70th day in New Hampshire and continued his criticism of Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as first-term senators who aren't ready to be president. He says debate viewers will see a clear difference between those who are prepared to lead and those who are just continuing to talk. The debate is Saturday night at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. ___ 11:45 a.m. Two Republican governors who share New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's experience of leading heavily Democratic states are joining him on the campaign trail. Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts kicked off a rally for Christie in Bedford. Hogan says all three are conservatives getting things done in their states. Baker praised Christie's determination, toughness and ability to advance his agenda by working with people who disagree with him. Baker says the country needs a president who set an agenda on their own terms and has the capacity and ability to work with others to drive the country in the right direction. Christie urged his supporter to work hard in the run up to Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. ___ 11:20 a.m. Iowa didn't turn out the way Donald Trump wanted. So after Trump shrouded his Iowa operations in secrecy, the Republican's presidential campaign has opened the door to what appears to be more robust effort in New Hampshire to ensure that his supporters actually vote for him. Trump finished second to Ted Cruz in last Monday's Iowa caucuses. Next up is the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, and polls put Trump atop the field. Trumps tells The Associated Press that he thinks "we're going to have an OK ground game" in New Hampshire. ___ 11:10 a.m. Hillary Clinton is working hard to try to convince voters that she's authentic. But it seems she's having trouble earning the public's trust. Rival Bernie Sanders is stepping up his criticism of her Wall Street ties and raising questions about whether she's really a liberal. His message is connecting with younger people. They seem less interested in Clinton's pitch as a "progressive who gets things done" than in Sanders' call for a "political revolution." According to surveys of Iowa caucus-goers, it appears that questions about Clinton's authenticity hurt her in the state. ___ 11 a.m. Jeff Ashcraft just wanted to know Chris Christie's take on U.S. policy in the Middle East. So he tossed out the question at an event before last Monday's Iowa caucuses. Ashcraft says his son is set to deploy to Iraq in May. Ashcraft says the Republican presidential contender gave "probably the most detailed answer" he's heard from a candidate so far. But Ashcraft didn't caucus for the New Jersey governor. Instead he backed Marco Rubio saying the Florida senator has a better shot at getting elected and would make a great president. Christie has made the exchange with Ashcraft a staple of his New Hampshire stump speech. The Christie campaign says the point of the story is about the serious responsibilities of the next president. ___ 10:40 a.m. It's the final debate before the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, and Donald Trump is rejoining his Republican presidential rivals on the stage. The debate is Saturday night at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. Trump skipped the last debate in Iowa because of a dispute with host Fox News. He finished second to Ted Cruz in the leadoff caucuses last Monday and some rivals sense weakness even though the billionaire businessman is the favorite in New Hampshire polling. After Iowa, some Republicans dropped out of the race and the New Hampshire results could determine whether more candidates quit the 2016 race. Host ABC has dropped an undercard debate for low-polling candidates, and debate rules have left Carly Fiorina as the only contender without a spot on stage Saturday night Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, spars with Republican presidential candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right as Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Republican presidential candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson listen during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Republican presidential candidate former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks during a campaign stop before next weeks first in the nation presidential primary Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Bedford, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole) Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., gestures as he speaks at a campaign event at Gilbert H. Hood Middle School Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Derry, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Ella Hamel, 4, of Concord, N.H., cries as she and her sister Ava Hamel, 7, are greeted by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a campaign stop at Belmont Hall in Manchester, N.H., Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Her father Steve Hamel says that Ella likes Clinton, supporting her in activities at her school, and was likely feeling "a little overwhelmed." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at the Verizon Wireless Center during the 2016 McIntyre Shaheen 100 Club Celebration, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Supporters listen to a speech by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally at the Great Bay Community College, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton cheer at the Verizon Wireless Center during the 2016 McIntyre Shaheen 100 Club Celebration, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) People hold items for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to sign after a campaign rally Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Florence, S.C. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump shakes hands with Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich walk past after a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump waves as he leaves the stage after a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich answers a question during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Republican presidential candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, left, shakes hands with Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump during a break in the Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich points toward Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by ABC News at the St. Anselm College Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) AP NewsBreak: Deal reached on provisional Haiti government PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, special OAS mission leader Ronald Sanders said the interim president will be elected by Parliament for a term of up to 120 days. He said Prime Minister Evans Paul will remain in his position until lawmakers are able to confirm a prime minister by consensus in upcoming days. The caretaker government will ensure a new Provisional Electoral Council is in place to conclude an election cycle that began last year. The plan calls for a presidential and legislative runoff to be held on April 24, with a newly elected president to be installed on May 14 for a five-year term. An anti-government demonstrator holds up a picture of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide as he demand the president's resignation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) "The country now has an opportunity for a fresh start," Sanders said, adding that Parliament would invite nominations for an interim president soon. The deal, if it holds, will prevent an institutional vacuum when Martelly leaves office on Sunday and creates a roadmap for an elected leader to replace him in a few months. But there was no break in opposition protests in the crowded capital Saturday and recent violence suggests discord is likely to continue. "We have to stay vigilant because certain people disagree with this accord," a somber-looking Martelly said in brief comments after an afternoon signing ceremony with legislative leaders at the National Palace. Just outside, a crowd of anti-government protesters threw rocks at riot police and chanted for the president's immediate ouster as they've done repeatedly in recent days. Sanders said the deal was signed overnight following "very animated" and occasionally heated negotiations on Friday between Martelly, the two leaders of Haiti's bicameral legislature and numerous lawmakers. Sanders, an Antiguan diplomat who is mission leader and chairman of the 35-nation OAS' permanent council, said Martelly remained "cool throughout the process." Lawmakers are scheduled to meet Sunday morning in a joint session to formally ensure Prime Minister Paul stays on to provide stability as plans for the interim government advance. Martelly is also set to give his final speech to the country from their chambers. The special OAS mission had been observing negotiations to resolve a standoff over a disputed round of voting in October that led officials to suspend a runoff election that had been scheduled for Jan. 24. Some opposition figures have repeatedly said Martelly could not be part of the process, but Sanders, who stressed he was a witness and not a participant in the talks, said the deal was reached by elected officials who have the authority to do so. "I don't think that anybody could say that it was a cooked-up agreement because it was done by people who didn't have the right or the authority to do it," Sanders told AP. "Indeed, there are no other two sets of entities in this country that could have signed a legitimate agreement." Senate President Jocelerme Privert, considered one of the top candidates to be the provisional president, told The AP that a new electoral council will ensure that a special commission's recommendations are in place to make sure the April 24 runoff is fair and transparent. Haiti's last Provisional Electoral Council repeatedly rejected opposition demands for an independent review of the election results, fueling suspicions of vote-rigging. Diplomats from the various foreign powers who monitor Haiti gathered at the National Palace to witness the signing ceremony. U.S. Ambassador Peter Mulrean welcomed the accord, saying it offered a "clear path ahead" and Haiti's various political parties have committed to it. OAS officials held more than 25 meetings since they arrived last Sunday, but never talked with opposition presidential candidate Jude Celestin despite numerous invitations to meet him. Celestin did not immediately return a call for comment. Sanders said the OAS, however, did meet with other members of his opposition alliance. Celestin was boycotting the scheduled Jan. 24 runoff despite official returns that showed him coming in second and winning a spot in the runoff against Martelly's preferred successor, Jovenel Moise. ___ David McFadden on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dmcfadd An anti-government demonstrator is detained by the police during a violent demonstration to demand the president's resignation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Demonstrators poses for a picture in front of a burning barricade during a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans during a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A street vendor washes his face after police fired tear gas during a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) An anti-government demonstrator is detained by the police during a violent demonstration to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A demonstrator gets ready to throw a rock towards the police during a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A police water cannon fires a jet of water in an attempt to disperse a crowd during a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Demonstrator throws rocks at the police during a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Demonstrators try to pass a police barricade during a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A human skull and bones are placed on the ground during voodoo ceremony before the start of a protest to demand the president's resignation, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Top Haitian leaders negotiated an agreement to install a short-term provisional government less than 24 hours before President Michel Martelly was scheduled to step down, an official with the Organization of American States and local authorities announced Saturday. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Colombia: 3,177 pregnant women with Zika; no microcephaly BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said Saturday that there's no evidence Zika has caused any cases of the birth defect known as microcephaly in his country, though it has diagnosed 3,177 pregnant women with the virus. Santos also announced that a U.S. medical-scientific team will arrive in Colombia to help investigate the mosquito-borne virus. Brazilian officials say they suspect Zika is behind a seemingly unusual number of microcephaly cases, in which children are born with unusually small heads. The link is not confirmed, but it has helped prompt the World Health Organization to declare an emergency over the virus. An Aedes aegipty female mosquito floats on stagnant water inside a tire at a used tire store in Villavicencio, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The Aedes aegipty is the vector that transmits the Zika virus, and also dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya. The females lay their eggs on damp surfaces where they breed. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Santos says Zika apparently has affected more than 25,600 Colombians overall. Colombian officials said Friday that three people had died of the paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome they attributed to cases of Zika. To date, the mosquito-borne virus has spread to more than 20 countries in the Americas. With global concern over the Zika virus growing, health officials are warning pregnant women to be careful about who they kiss and calling on men to use condoms with pregnant partners if they have visited countries where the virus is present. The flurry of recommendations began in Brazil, where a top health official said that scientists have found live virus in saliva and urine samples, and the possibility it could be spread by the two body fluids requires further study. City workers fumigate from a vehicle, to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito in Villavicencio, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. With more than 20,000 cases confirmed in Colombia and fearing that the virus could affect more than half a million people, the government launched a nationwide prevention campaign. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) El Salvador arrests 4 ex-soldiers in massacre of Jesuits SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) Salvadoran police have arrested four former soldiers wanted in Spain for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests during the Central American country's brutal civil war, officials said Saturday. Five of the priests were Spanish and their killings sparked international outrage. Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren later called on the military officers still fugitive in the case to turn themselves in to authorities. "There are people who have hidden; we don't know if they have left the country, but my recommendation is that they turn themselves in to justice," he said. "We need to know the truth about what happened in the past, but we also need justice as well as pardon." FILE - In this Nov. 16, 1989, file photo, the Archbishop of San Salvador, Mons. Arturo Rivera y Damas and journalists view the bodies of six Jesuit priests murdered in San Salvador. The priests, the leadership of the local Jesuit University and two employees were killed and mutilated by a squad of assassins. They had received death threats the previous day. Salvadoran police said Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, that theyve arrested four former soldiers wanted in Spain for the 1989 murder of the priests. Five of the priests were Spanish. (AP Photo/John Hopper, File) In a Twitter post Saturday, El Salvador's national police said the four ex-soldiers were arrested at the behest of Interpol in an operation that began Friday night. They were identified as Col. Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno and soldiers Antonio Ramiro Avalos Vargas, Angel Perez Vasquez and Tomas Zarpate Castillo. It's now up to El Salvador's Supreme Court to rule on the extraditions. Lawyer Lisandro Quintanilla, who represents 13 of the military suspects indicted by Spanish judge Eloy Velasco, called the arrests of the four "arbitrary" and said authorities have 72 hours to present them to a Supreme Court judge. Salvadoran police said an operation was continuing to locate and arrest the remaining suspects. The arrests in El Salvador came soon after a judge in North Carolina cleared the way for a former Salvadoran colonel to be extradited to face charges in Spain in the case. Federal Magistrate Judge Kimberly Swank ordered that U.S. Marshals take custody of Inocente Orlando Montano Morales so he can be turned over to Spain, pending final approval by State Department. The step is largely seen as a formality because lawyers for the diplomatic agency already reviewed the case before turning it over to federal prosecutors. The unusual extradition fight began in 2011 when the Spanish judge issued an indictment charging Montano with the murder counts. Nineteen others were charged by Spain, with most still living in El Salvador. Montano, 73, has denied involvement in the killings. Court documents say that early on the morning of Nov. 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran military killed the six priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at a university in the country's capital. The priests had been calling for discussions to end the fighting, with one of them serving as an intermediary between the government and a leftist group. The killings helped erode U.S. support for El Salvador's right-wing Salvadoran government. An amnesty that followed the 1992 peace agreement ending El Salvador's conflict hindered prosecutions. While two officers served short sentences in El Salvador, Montano and other high-level officials were never charged by authorities there in the priests' killings. "This is an important step in terms of justice, but we still are not talking about the intellectual authors" of the killings, said Andreu Oliva, rector of the Central American University "Jose Simeon Canas." ''It is a failure for Salvadoran justice and society that justice is only being sought in Spain." New York real estate developer John Tishman dies at age 90 BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) A builder whose company worked on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Century City complex in Los Angeles and Walt Disney's EPCOT center in Florida among other high-profile developments has died. John Tishman was 90. Tishman died Saturday morning at his home in Bedford, about 35 miles north of New York. Family spokesman John Gallagher says he died of respiratory failure. Tishman joined his family's construction business in 1948 after serving in the U.S. Navy and working as a schoolteacher. He later oversaw the construction of some of the nation's largest buildings, including the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and the 1,100-foot John Hancock Center skyscraper in Chicago. FILE - In this May 1, 1995 file photo, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, left, developer John Tishman, center, and Gov. George Pataki, pose with the scale model of the plan for the 42nd Street development project in New York. Tishman, a builder whose company has worked on some of the most high-profile developments in the country, died Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. He was 90 years old. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) Tishman is survived by a son, a daughter and three grandsons. ___ Three members of British special forces 'injured in IS Iraq ambush' Three British special forces personnel were injured in an ambush by Islamic State fighters in Iraq, according to a report. The men from the SAS and its naval counterpart, the SBS, were part of a 25-strong unit of allied troops spying on IS positions near the northern city of Mosul, the Daily Mirror said. They suffered shrapnel injuries when they were fired upon with rocket propelled grenades, the newspaper reported. After receiving treatment on the ground they were given a medical evacuation back to Britain. The SAS was reported to have been involved in the firefight The allied forces are said to have called in an air strike to tackle the fighters, who mounted the attack from captured US Humvee vehicles armed with heavy machine guns. Around 30 IS insurgents were killed in the 15-minute firefight that took place around 10 miles south of the city's airport last week, the newspaper said. Mumbai Indians splash the cash on Jos Buttler in IPL auction England's Jos Buttler will play for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League after being bought for 385,000. The wicketkeeper-batsman, who has decided to play in the tournament after losing his Test spot to Jonny Bairstow, was the subject of a bidding war between Mumbai and Kolkata Knight Riders in Saturday's auction in Bangalore. The reigning champions stumped up the cash, meaning Buttler's first foray into the IPL will be based at the Wankhede Stadium. England's Jos Buttler will represent the Mumbai Indians in the IPL The Mumbai Indians' Twitter feed said: "Jos Buttler is under the hammer and we are in it. Welcome to our fortress Wankhede Stadium @josbuttler." Buttler was in action in the middle on Saturday too, in England's second one-day international against South Africa at Port Elizabeth. He has scored back-to-back ODI hundreds, the latest coming off 73 balls in the series opener in Bloemfontein on Wednesday. Buttler will be joined at the IPL in April and May by fellow England batsman Sam Billings, who was picked up for 30,000 by Delhi Daredevils. England seamer Chris Jordan, like Essex's new limited-overs captain Ravi Bopara, failed to attract a bid. England's white-ball captain Eoin Morgan will be travelling to India, though, because he was already under contract at Sunrisers Hyderabad. Former England international Kevin Pietersen was the first player sold as Rising Pune Supergiants paid 355,000 for his services. The travelling Twenty20 specialist joins the newly-formed side, returning for his fifth IPL season in all. Atlantic Challenge Britons become youngest pair to row across ocean Two British students have broken the record for the youngest pair to row across an ocean. Jack Galsworthy, from Truro in Cornwall, and Freddie Wright, from Stroud in Gloucestershire, took 47 days, 14 hours and 46 minutes to complete the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, rowing their names into the record books in the process. The 21-year-olds, racing as team Atlantic Castaways, set off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 20, arriving into English Harbour in Antigua - a distance of some 3,000 miles - in the early hours of Saturday (GMT). Skipper Wright said: "We've had such an amazing time. We're proud of the record, but it wasn't what we set out to do - it's really just a bonus on top of what has been an awesome experience. "We would definitely do this again." Atlantic Castaways took on the arduous challenge - dubbed the world's toughest rowing race - to raise money for the Brain Research Trust. They had raised around 40,000 by the time of their arrival in the Caribbean. The team rowed in shifts of two hours on and two hours off, battling tropical storms, 40ft waves, sleep deprivation, seasickness and excruciating body sores. As well as the harsh conditions, the 2015/16 fleet of 26 teams also faced the first tropical storm to form on the crossing in January since 1978. Wright is currently reading mechanical engineering at Bristol University, while Galsworthy is an aspiring medic studying bio-medical sciences at University College London. The team came in ten days after overall winners, the foursome Ocean Reunion, who set a new race record. Met chief faces quizzing on force's handling of high-profile child abuse claims The country's most senior police officer faces question marks over his future following Scotland Yard's handling of some high-profile cases. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is due to face the Home Affairs Select Committee later this year where he is expected to be grilled on how the force dealt with child abuse claims against Lord Bramall and Lord Brittan. Allegations against Lord Bramall, 92, were dropped due to a lack of evidence, prompting a chorus of calls for the force to apologise to the former head of the Army and D-Day veteran. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe is to be questioned on how the force dealt with child abuse claims Lord Brittan died a year ago still under suspicion of being part of a VIP paedophile gang. A lack of primary evidence in the case meant he was cleared by the Met, though he died from cancer aged 75 without being notified of the decision. David Burrowes, a Conservative member of the committee, told the Daily Telegraph: "It is inexplicable that these steps were not taken earlier and someone somewhere needs to be held to account for it. "It is doing serious damage to people's lives and it is happening too often. Sir Bernard should be holding to account the person who is responsible, otherwise people will be holding Sir Bernard to account. "The whole thing calls his judgement into question and I will be anxious to hear his answers to these questions when we get him in front of the committee." Sir Bernard's five-year contract is due to expire in September. Legislation allows for an initial extension of up to three years, which can then be followed by unlimited one-year extensions. A final decision on the new deal will be made by Home Secretary Teresa May, although a spokeswoman for London mayor Boris Johnson confirmed he recommended a one-year extension. She added : "The Mayor is a strong supporter of Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and believes he is doing a good job in our efforts to drive down crime. No decisions have yet been made and discussions with the Home Office are ongoing." A Scotland Yard spokesman declined to comment and said he wasn't sure when Sir Bernard would be appearing before the select committee. Mrs May has clashed with Sheffield-born Sir Bernard over high-profile issues. Last summer the Home Secretary refused permission for the Met to deploy water cannon, leaving the force with three they cannot use. Britain pledges extra $1.75 bln for Syria before donor conference By Estelle Shirbon and William James LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Britain pledged on Thursday to spend an additional 1.2 billion pounds ($1.75 billion) on aid for Syrians by 2020, seeking to build momentum for a donor conference that the United Nations hopes will raise more than $7 billion for this year alone. With Syria's five-year-old civil war raging and U.N.-mediated peace talks in Geneva halted after just a few days amid acrimony between government and opposition negotiators, the one-day London conference will try to tackle dire humanitarian needs. The war has killed an estimated 250,000 people and driven millions from their homes, with 6 million Syrians displaced within the country and more than 4 million others having left for Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and beyond. U.N. agencies are appealing for $7.73 billion to cope with the disaster this year, with a further $1.2 billion needed to fund national response plans by countries in the region. For European nations, improving the humanitarian situation in Syria and neighbouring countries is seen as critical to reduce incentives for Syrians to travel to Europe, where a huge refugee crisis has put many countries under severe strain. "We can provide the sense of hope needed to stop people thinking they have no option but to risk their lives on a dangerous journey to Europe," British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement announcing the new pledge. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a strong show of solidarity at the conference, which will be attended by dozens of heads of state and government and ministers, as well as numerous humanitarian organisations. Ban said in a speech on Wednesday that Syrians were being victimised several times over: at home, where life was impossible, by people smugglers during their journeys, and by harsh treatment upon arrival in countries of sanctuary. "GHOSTS OF PAST CRISES" "Razor-wire fences, the confiscation of assets, and the vilification of people seeking safety all summon up ghosts of past crises -- the lessons of which we are meant to have learned already," Ban told an audience at Cambridge University. He was referring to measures adopted by some European countries, including Denmark, which has passed a new law allowing border guards to seize assets from asylum seekers to help pay for their stay. Some Syrian civil society groups attending the London event have expressed concerns that the international community was focused on the plight of refugees, to the detriment of those trapped in desperate circumstances within Syria itself. "Of course those (refugees) need assistance, but there are more than 6 million IDPs (internally displaced persons) inside Syria, living besieged, living under shelling and bombing," said Raed Saleh, head of the White Helmets, a group of about 2,800 Syrian volunteers who carry out search and rescue after attacks. After U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura put the Geneva talks on hold late on Wednesday, he said he would travel to the London conference as the plight of Syrian refugees would provide an incentive to restart negotiations. The conference will focus particularly on the need to provide an education for displaced Syrian children and job opportunities for adults, reflecting growing recognition that the fallout from the Syrian war will be very long-term. In Indonesia, an experiment with bacteria to tackle Zika By Randy Fabi and Kanupriya Kapoor YOGYAKARTA/JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb 5 (Reuters) - A researcher sits in a laboratory in Indonesia, his arms extended over clear plastic boxes buzzing with mosquitoes: over the next 20 minutes, tiny bumps develop on his skin as the insects bite dozens of times. The voluntary "feeding", at which researchers take turns, is part of a programme in the city of Yogyakarta to try to eliminate mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever and - scientists now hope, as concerns mount about its spread across Latin America and the Caribbean - the Zika virus too. The mosquitoes carry a bacteria called Wolbachia, which scientists introduced in earlier generations, and they will eventually be released to breed with wild mosquitoes. The bacteria, as it spreads from one insect to another, reduces the chances of the mosquitoes passing the dengue virus on to humans. Initial findings about the impact of the experiment on the spread of dengue have prompted Indonesian and Australian scientists to scale up this programme to include Zika. "We already have evidence in our labs that the method that impedes the ability of dengue to grow in the mosquito also works with the Zika virus," Scott O'Neill, director of the Eliminate Dengue Program (EDP) told Reuters, adding that the research is pending reviews from peers in the scientific community. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus causes birth defects. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak an international health emergency on Feb. 1, citing a "strongly suspected" relationship between Zika infection in pregnancy to microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size in babies that can result in developmental problems. There is no treatment or vaccine and the WHO has recommended limiting people's exposure to mosquitoes. The number of dengue cases at a test site in Yogyakarta where the bacteria method was used fell from 10 in 2015 to just one this year. However, the method has yet to show conclusive results in the field. "I don't believe there is a single magic bullet," said Adi Utarini, who heads the research in Indonesia. "The new technology that we bring in is not intended to replace all of the existing activities ... prevention is very important." Indonesian President Joko Widodo this week urged officials to step up preventive measures like health awareness campaigns and fogging with insecticide. The health ministry issued a travel warning for those planning to visit Latin America. Funded partially by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, EDP is also testing its methods in Vietnam. It is at the most advanced stage in Indonesia, a tropical country that has the world's second-highest number of annual dengue cases after Brazil. UNDER-REPORTED ZIKA CASES Limited testing capabilities and the usually mild symptoms that accompany the Zika virus have raised concern the number of people infected with the little-known disease may be hugely under-reported in Indonesia, authorities say. The only known case in recent years was that of a man who tested positive in 2015 and is suspected to have contracted the virus locally, on Sumatra island. "Systematic surveillance needs to be done to determine the prevalence of Zika and at the moment we might be underestimating the number of cases," said Herawati Sudoyo, deputy director of the government-funded Eijkman Institute in Jakarta, adding the health community in Indonesia is still investigating any links to birth defects. "The scientific community may have been caught by surprise by this outbreak. We are catching up on learning about this," she added. The Zika virus has been present in Southeast Asia for decades, but there have been no reported outbreaks. Experts say it is possible people in the region have developed an immunity to the virus, though there is no scientific evidence to support that. In Yogyakarta, the EDP scientists hope to expand the project to test for both dengue and Zika viruses among 100,000 people this year, a 25-fold increase from their pilot tests. But challenges remain, they say, including convincing the public the trials are safe and securing funding from the government to take the programme nationwide. It will be at least three years before they see any results in the field. "The challenge is not necessarily including the Zika virus (in the trial)," said Utarini. "The challenge is scaling up ... which will mean much more work in the field, communicating with the public and getting the community to agree." Struggling Republican Bush brings out the big gun: his mom By Emily Stephenson and Doina Chiacu MANCHESTER, N.H./WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Jeb Bush brought out his famous family four days before the crucial U.S. presidential primary in New Hampshire, tapping his mother on Friday to scold Republican front-runner Donald Trump over his use of profanity and treatment of women. In a last ditch attempt to make a mark on a Republican primary campaign he was supposed to own, Bush lashed out at both Trump and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, the one-time protege who has eclipsed Bush as the party's establishment candidate in the 2016 White House race. New opinion polls following Monday's Iowa caucuses showed Trump maintaining a wide lead in New Hampshire's primary next Tuesday with Rubio rising into second place in the state as Republicans battle for the nomination in November's presidential election. Bush, the former governor of Florida, leaned on his well-known family for support. While former President George W. Bush appeared in a new ad praising his brother as having "a good heart and a strong backbone," Jeb Bush sat with his mother for an interview with CBS show "This Morning." The two attacked Trump as misogynistic and vulgar after he used a four-letter word in a recent campaign appearance. "I don't think a president would have ever shouted profanities in a speech in front of thousands of people with kids in the crowd," Jeb Bush said. "He does it all the time." His mother lambasted Trump for criticizing Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly after she quizzed him at a Republican debate in August. Trump made comments widely interpreted as referring to her menstrual cycle. "I don't know how women can vote for someone who said what he said about Megyn Kelly," Mrs. Bush said. "It's terrible. And we knew what he meant, too." Much loved by today's Republicans, the former first lady herself raised eyebrows in 1984 when she reportedly made a derogatory reference to Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman on a major party ticket, saying, "I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich." "ALMOST TOO POLITE" Trump has dismissed Jeb Bush as a "low-energy" loser. The son and brother of U.S. presidents who was expected to glide to the Republican nomination, Bush trails in the single digits in many national polls. Mrs. Bush, who was campaigning for her younger son in New Hampshire, said "America needs" Jeb and drew an implicit contrast to the brash swagger of Trump. "He's got the same values that America seems to have lost. He's almost too polite." While rivals took aim at him, Trump was forced to miss a rally on Friday in Londonderry, New Hampshire because of a snow storm and was stuck in New York, a spokesman said. Trump has eschewed much of the one-on-one retail politicking of typical campaigns in favor of large rallies. But in New Hampshire, where voters are used to having candidates' close attention, the strategy could hurt. Jeb Bush seized the opportunity to make fun of Trump on Twitter, pointing out that even his mother was able make it out despite the weather. "My 90 year old mother made it out to campaign," he wrote in response to Trump's tweet that he was moving a campaign event to Monday due to a "big storm." The Bushes chatted with people at a diner in Derry, New Hampshire, according to a pool report sent to news outlets. "Vote for my boy," Barbara Bush told one table. "I haven't seen snow in 1,000 years," she said. The snow did not stop Ohio Governor John Kasich either. His campaign sent reporters a video of the candidate in a snowball fight after a town hall. Jeb Bush also stepped up attacks on Rubio as lacking in experience and accomplishments, saying on MSNBC the first-term Florida lawmaker had done "nothing" in the U.S. Senate. He was not the only one piling on Rubio. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie released satirical videos slamming the Floridian as "scripted" for repeating himself in interviews and speeches. And the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper's publisher criticized Rubio in an editorial for presenting himself as a Washington outsider, saying Rubio "must think New Hampshire a bunch of rubes." On the positive side for Rubio, he picked up the endorsement of former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who dropped out of the Republican race in November. "I think he's a principled conservative. I think he's the right guy to lead us forward," Jindal said on Fox News. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released on Friday found that about one-third of likely Republican voters said they could still change their minds. The poll showed Rubio with 19 percent, behind Trump's 29 percent. Kasich came in third with 13 percent, followed by Bush and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. 3-Taiwan quake kills at least 12, fells apartment block By Faith Hung and Yimou Lee TAINAN, Taiwan, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan early on Saturday killing at least 12 people, most in a 17-storey apartment building that collapsed, with some people still known to be missing in the ruins of the complex as night fell, government officials said. As rescuers searched for survivors, questions were raised about the construction of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building in the southern city of Tainan, with its floors that pancaked down on each other when the 6.4 magnitude tremor hit at around 4 a.m. (2000 GMT), at the start of a Lunar New Year holiday. Ten of the dead, including a 10-day-old girl, were from the apartment building. The baby was found in her dead father's arms, media reported. Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the ruins, plucking survivors to safety, with hundreds taken to hospital, though many were quickly released. An 18-year old man was found alive and conscious shortly after dark, and rescuers were working to get him free, while a 30-year-old woman, a nine-year old girl and a male toddler were pulled out alive, Taiwan television said. Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles, a government emergency centre said. But a fire department official said rescue efforts were focused on the apartment block, where a child's clothes fluttered from a first-floor laundry line and the smell of leaking gas hung in the air. "I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down," said a 71-year-old neighbour who gave his name as Chang. A plumber, he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prised some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help. "She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them." The quake was centred 43 km (27 miles) southeast of Tainan, at a depth of 23 km (14 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. Earlier in the day, an elderly woman, wrapped in blankets, was strapped to a board and slowly slid down a ramp to the ground as the cries of those still trapped rang out. Rescuers used dogs and acoustic equipment to pick up signs of life in the rubble. Authorities said there were 96 apartment units in the Golden Dragon Building and 256 registered residents, though more were in the building when it collapsed. Late in the day, city mayor William Lai said 5 people were missing there. Rescuers clad in red and yellow overalls pulled over 240 survivors from the ruins and later inserted huge supports under slabs of leaning concrete to buttress the ruins as they searched for more. SEVERAL BUILDINGS DAMAGED City officials said it was too early to determine if poor construction was a factor in the building's collapse. Liu Shih-chung, city government deputy secretary general, said television footage of the ruins of the commercial-residential building suggested the possibility of structural problems related to poor-quality reinforced steel and cement. The construction and engineering companies that built the complex are no longer operating, records showed. Two neighbours said they had felt nervous about the construction when the building was going up in the early 1990s. "I looked at it and thought, only people from out of town would buy there. We local people would never dare," said one of the neighbours, Yang Shu-mei. A major earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed about 2,400 people and caused damage across the island, which lies in the seismically active "Pacific Ring of Fire". President Ma Ying-jeou visited an emergency centre and hospital in Tainan while President-elect Tsai Ing-wen cancelled appointments to help coordinate rescue efforts. China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which is in charge of Beijing's relations with the self-ruled island, said China was willing to provide help if needed, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. Beijing regards Taiwan as a wayward province. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker and supplier to Apple Inc , said some wafers made in Tainan had been damaged, affecting no more than 1 percent of first-quarter shipments. Guinea journalist killed in clashes between opposition factions CONAKRY, Feb 5 (Reuters) - A journalist was shot and killed in Guinea on Friday during clashes between rival factions of the West African nation's main opposition party, witnesses and the government said. El Hadj Mohamed Diallo was killed at the headquarters of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) in the capital Conakry. "He was shot at point-blank range. I'm here next to the body at the morgue right now," said Ibrahima Sory Traore, publishing director of Guinee7.com for which Diallo worked. Violence broke out when Mamadou Oury Bah, a founding member of the UFDG who was excluded from the party earlier in the day, attempted to enter the party headquarters accompanied by his supporters to participate in a leadership meeting. It was not immediately clear who killed Diallo, though some witnesses said the shot was fired by a UFDG member involved in the clashes. In a statement later, the government of Africa's largest bauxite producer confirmed it was opening an investigation for voluntary homicide. Bah, commonly know as Bah Oury, spent four years in exile in France, during which time he was convicted in absentia for a 2011 assassination attempt against President Alpha Conde. Conde pardoned him recently and the UFDG vice president returned to Guinea last month. As Myanmar powerbrokers talk, could Suu Kyi emerge as president? By Antoni Slodkowski and Simon Webb NAYPYITAW/YANGON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - As Aung San Suu Kyi's lawmakers smiled for the cameras at the first sessions of Myanmar's parliament, a summit of generals convened at a base just minutes from the chamber. On every mind was the same question: who will be the country's next president? The parallel events summed up the complex nature of the political transition: a much-publicized election of parliament speakers at which former foes from Suu Kyi's party and the military shook hands, while behind closed doors the country's top power brokers met to hammer out how they will run Myanmar. After a quiet period following Suu Kyi's massive election win in November, negotiations have entered a critical stage since a meeting between army chief Min Aung Hlaing and Suu Kyi on Jan. 26, lawmakers and diplomats close to the process say. With its huge mandate Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) can chose the next president but, under the constitution written by the army before it ceded power in 2011, she herself cannot take the job. The NLD wants that changed. "Our first priority includes amending laws which are out of date and not in harmony with the present situation," Tun Tun Hein, a member of the NLD's governing council, told reporters after being appointed chairman of the key lower house bill committee. "The constitution also needs amending since it's one of the laws." The army has so far insisted it wants no change to the constitution and would not countenance Suu Kyi's presidency. She has struck a defiant note, saying she would lead the country "standing above the president". Now, some Yangon-based diplomats say Min Aung Hlaing might be tempted to compromise in return for a pledge from Suu Kyi that she would not infringe on the military's vast economic interests nor seek revenge for abuses under years of junta rule. As well as burnishing his legacy, such a move would also put responsibility for fixing an impoverished country riven by decades of ethnic conflict squarely on Suu Kyi, they say. "If you keep her without any official title she is free to strategise without the day-to-day burden of running the country," said a Western diplomat, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. The New York Times on Friday cited two senior members of the NLD as saying that talks with the military have included a possible deal that would allow Suu Kyi to be president in exchange for senior government posts. It did not name the party leaders and said details of the negotiations were murky. BLURRED RED LINES It is not known what was discussed at this week's meeting at army headquarters, which sits close to the sprawling parliament complex in Myanmar's remote capital Naypyitaw. Confirming the gathering coincided with the opening week of the newly elected legislature, two sources familiar with the matter said senior commanders from across the country gather a few times a year to discuss military matters. But politics was likely high on the agenda - the military retains a central role in the former Burma, with a quarter of seats in parliament reserved for it, along with control of the security forces and the civil service. Moreover, with its block of seats in parliament the military wields a veto over any changes to the constitution, which requires a super-majority of more than 75 percent. Asked about the chances that the constitution could be amended to allow Suu Kyi to be president, Major General Tauk Tun, the most senior military lawmaker in the lower house, did not entirely rule it out, while at the same time sticking to the military's line on the sanctity of the 2008 charter. "We'll do it according to the constitutional provisions," he said. Even if the two sides were to agree to change the constitution, it would still require a nationwide referendum. To circumvent that lengthy process, article 59 (f), which bars anyone with a foreign spouse or children from the presidency and so disqualifies Suu Kyi, whose sons are British citizens, could be suspended, according to Aung Ko, a former general and Suu Kyi ally, and NLD legal experts. Whether that would be lawful remains open to debate, and even some Suu Kyi supporters worry about the precedent it could set. "Personally I do want Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to become the president, but I honestly don't think the constitution should be suspended since this is not a good tradition to hand down to future parliaments," said lawmaker Ba Shin of the Arakan National Party, a large ethnic party from Rakhine State. The NLD has until the end of March to organise the presidential vote in the parliament, but top leaders said they may carry it out next week or towards the end of February, suggesting the two sides could be close to striking a deal. "They are trying to find a solution that doesn't step on everyone's red lines," said Kelly Currie, senior fellow at the Washington-based Asia-focused think tank Project 2049 Institute. Australian state premier offers 267 asylum seekers refuge By Morag MacKinnon PERTH, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The premier of an Australian state offered on Saturday to look after a group of asylum seekers facing repatriation to a camp on a remote Pacific island, adding to opposition to the federal government's policy of offshore detention. Daniel Andrews, premier of Victoria state, called on the federal government not to return the 267 refugees, including 80 children and their families, who had been brought to Australia from Nauru island for medical treatment. "Victoria stands ready to assist and care for the children and their families," Andrews wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that Andrews posted on his Twitter account. His state would take full responsibility for their housing, health and education, he said. "Sending these children and their families to Nauru is not the Australian way ... It's wrong. Medical professionals tell us this. Humanitarian agencies tell us this," he said. Under Australia's immigration policy, asylum seekers attempting to come by boat are intercepted and sent to camps on Nauru or on Manus island in Papua New Guinea. They are not offered resettlement in Australia. Most people trying to reach Australia by boat are from the Middle East and South Asia. They usually make the voyage through people-smuggling networks via Indonesia, often in rickety vessels. The detention centre on Nauru houses about 500 people and has been widely criticised by human rights activists for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse. Andrews said sending the group, including 37 children born in Australia, to Nauru "will needlessly expose them to a life of physical and emotional trauma". The Australian government says it does not place asylum seekers at risk of harm and offers to return them to their countries. On Wednesday, the High Court rejected a legal test case that challenged Australia's right to deport detained asylum seekers to Nauru, about 3,000 km (1,800 miles) northeast of Australia. The High Court decision sparked protests, drew condemnation from the United Nations and prompted church leaders to offer the asylum seekers sanctuary. Refugee rights groups praised Andrews for his letter. "This is fantastic wonderful news," Pamela Curr, an advocate at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said in an emailed statement. "First legal, churches, community groups, grandmothers, unions, schools, and now a state premier." Australia to step up Zika testing as two new cases reported By Morag MacKinnon PERTH, Feb 6 - Australia will intensify testing for the Zika virus in Queensland state where Aedes mosquitoes are found, authorities said on Saturday, adding that two new cases among local residents were the result of travel to affected countries. Queensland's government has earmarked A$400,000 ($283,000) to boost laboratory capacity, particularly in the northeastern city of Townsville, where testing will begin on March 1. A A$1 million public education campaign will also be rolled out in the state, which is on high alert for any entry of the disease from Australia's Asian and Pacific neighbours. Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick said the state had to be prepared for more cases of Zika, linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil. Ten cases of the virus have been reported in the state in the past two years. The mosquitoes that transmit Zika are Aedes mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti, which are present in north Queensland and also transmit Dengue fever. "At this stage, Zika is not in any mosquitoes in Queensland that we're aware of," Dick told a news conference. A woman and a child in Queensland, who separately tested positive for Zika after returning to Australia from El Salvador and Samoa respectively, are recovering well, Queensland's chief medical officer Jeanette Young said. She said they had not travelled to northern Queensland, where a mosquito could bite them and transmit the virus, meaning their infection represented no public health threat. Earlier this week, two Sydney residents who had been diagnosed with the virus after returning from Haiti became the first confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease in Australia this year. A West Australian resident also tested positive after returning from Central America. The World Health Organisation has declared Zika an international public health emergency. There is no vaccine available to combat the virus. Young said it was not surprising that a Queensland child had contracted the virus in Samoa because it had existed in the Pacific region "for decades." Turkey must cut migrant flows to Europe, top EU official says By Robin Emmott AMSTERDAM, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Europe needs Turkey to dramatically cut the number of migrants reaching Greece within weeks or the pressure for more border closures and fences will grow, the EU's top official in charge of ties with Ankara warned on Saturday. Frustrated that refugees continue to stream into Greece despite a Nov. 29 deal between Ankara and Brussels to slow down the flows, European Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Turkey must show results by the time EU leaders meet for a Feb. 18-19 summit. "This action plan was agreed more than two months ago and we are still not seeing a significant decline in the number of migrants," Hahn, the EU's enlargement commissioner, told Reuters after an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Amsterdam attended by Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu. "Turkey could do more, I have no doubt," Hahn said, adding that Ankara's need to shift forces to curb violence in southeastern Turkey was "no excuse" for not patrolling its western coast and cooperating with Greece. The European Commission, the EU executive, is set to publish on Wednesday a report on Turkey's progress in implementing the migrant deal. While Turkish police targeting people smugglers have made arrests and Turkey has introduced a limited work-permit scheme for Syrian refugees, the Commission report is likely to be critical. "We need results before the EU summit to show leaders that this is working," Hahn said. "I am concerned there's not enough time." More than one million people arrived in Europe last year, fleeing war and failing states in the Middle East and North Africa. Numbers show little sign of falling, despite the winter. Asked to detail the cost of a failed deal with Turkey, Hahn said: "It increases the pressure to find other solutions," referring to border fences that go against EU rules on the freedom of its citizens to move across frontiers to live and work. Hahn's warning of the consequences of inaction was highlighted by a call from Hungary and Austria at the Amsterdam meeting for fences on the Macedonian and Bulgarian borders with Greece and between Austria and Slovenia to stop migrants. Hahn said if such fences were built it would only create a "domino effect" with many EU nations closing their frontiers and putting at risk the bloc's passport-free Schengen zone. Six Schengen members, including Germany and four other EU countries, have resorted to reinstating temporary border checks in the passport-free area. They can stay in place until May. The EU has agreed to give Turkey 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) to keep Syrian refugees on its soil in return for an acceleration of the EU accession talks and speeded-up visa liberalisation for Turks visiting Europe. Suicide bomber kills nine, injures dozens, in Pakistan city of Quetta QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb 6 (Reuters) - At least nine people were killed and 35 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military convoy in Pakistan's western city of Quetta on Saturday, police and hospital officials said. Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurasani told Reuters that the group, also known as the TTP, was responsible for the attack in the capital of the province of Baluchistan. The bombing was the latest in a region which is home to the planned route of a $46 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor. "The suicide bomber was riding a bicycle close to a Frontier Corps vehicle," said senior police official Imtiaz Shah, referring to the branch of Pakistan's paramilitary forces targeted in the attack. At least three Frontier Corps personnel were killed and 15 were injured in the attack that occurred in the city centre in the late afternoon, Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey said. A 12-year-old girl was also among the dead, said Ajab Khan, a doctor at the city's Civil Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Rich in resources, Baluchistan is at the heart of the multi-billion-dollar energy and infrastructure projects which China and Pakistan are planning along a corridor stretching from the Arabian Sea to China's Xinjiang region. The province, the poorest and least developed in Pakistan, has seen nearly a decade of separatist violence against the government and non-Baluch ethnic groups. Baluch activists and human rights groups claim the military has carried out a campaign of kidnapping, torture and extrajudicial killing of suspected separatists, and a security crackdown has severely limited freedom of movement. Sri Lankan nationalists protest U.N. rights chief's visit on war crimes By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Hundreds of hardline nationalists gathered outside the United Nations' office in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Saturday to protest against a visit by the U.N. human rights chief who will assess Sri Lanka's progress in prosecuting alleged war crimes. The U.N. says both Sri Lanka's military and the Tamil Tiger rebels most likely committed war crimes during a 26-year war which ended in 2009. A U.N. resolution calls for post-war reconciliation and that all alleged war crimes be investigated and tried in special courts by international judges. However, many Sri Lankans oppose foreign involvement and supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa believe the U.N. resolution aims to punish the military unfairly despite defeating the Tamil Tigers. Although the coalition of President Maithripala Sirisena has agreed to the resolution, the visit by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein follows comments by Sirisena saying that foreign particiaption was not needed for an impartial inquiry into the war. Al Hussein began his four-day visit to Sri Lanka by visiting the U.N. office in Colombo to meeting U.N. officials. Hours afterwards, protesters outside shouted "Al Hussein, hands off Sri Lanka" and "where were you when people in Afghanistan and Iraq were killed?". Some held banners which read, "no war crime courts, no foreign judges" and "don't send the military to guillotine". They also set posters bearing Zeid's face on fire and threw shoes and slippers at his image. "We will not allow to set up courts to fulfill the need of Western nations. Al Hussein has come here to take our war heroes to guillotine, but we won't allow that to happen," Wimal Weerawansa, the NFF leader told the gathering. Al Hussein said soon after his arrival he would meet Sri Lanka's highest officials as well as representatives of all communities. "I will be listening to everything that they have to say and look forward to a very constructive discussion in the days to come," he told reporters. Iranian-British ex-BBC journalist is in Evin prison, relatives say By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The family of an Iranian-British former BBC journalist who was detained last week in Tehran were told on Saturday that he was in the capital's Evin prison, a friend told Reuters. Bahman Daroshafaei, 34, a translator and former BBC Persian service reporter, was detained on Wednesday at his home, according to the opposition website Kaleme.com. "His family went to Evin prison today. They managed to talk to someone on the phone who said Bahman was in Evin but he would not be able to contact his family for another week or so," said the friend, who was in direct touch with the family but declined to be named. Daroshafaei's family said they had not been informed what the charges against him might be. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in London on Thursday that he did not know about the case. Some opposition activists have suggested that Daroshafaei's arrest, on the eve of the first visit to Britain by an Iranian foreign minister in 12 years, might have been orchestrated by hardliners to thwart an improvement in relations as Iran emerges from international isolation under the moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani. After living in London for several years, Daroshafaei returned to Iran in 2014 to be near his family. His friend said six plain-clothed officers had arrested Daroshafaei at his home and confiscated his computer, hard drives and mobile phone. A few of Daroshafaei's friends in Tehran and London said they had received messages on social media in the last few days purporting to come from him. One said that she had been hacked after clicking on a link she received from Daroshafaei's account. Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran last year after Iran agreed with world powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of sanctions. It has made no comment about Daroshafaei's detention. LYNCHBURG The man whose death is at the center of a Virginia State Police criminal investigation was stunned by Tasers three times and pepper-sprayed twice by law enforcement after a high-speed pursuit through multiple jurisdictions, according to documents obtained Friday by The (Lynchburg) News & Advance. James Paul Bertuglia, 40, of Chatham, was declared brain dead by Lynchburg General Hospital doctors and taken off life support Dec. 14, hospital medical records stated. He was admitted early Dec. 8 after a run-in with authorities. State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller has said the agency is conducting a criminal investigation of Bertuglias death following his arrest at the request of the Amherst commonwealths attorney. So far, prosecutors and police involved in the case have refused to discuss basic facts of the incident because of the state police investigation. The series of events that led to Bertuglias hospital admission is revealed in two search warrants filed in his case. The incident began late Dec. 7, when Nelson County sheriffs deputies pursued Bertuglia into Amherst County, according to a search-warrant affidavit filed Dec. 15 in Amherst County Circuit Court. Amherst police Officer Brandon Payne requested the warrant, which allowed him to seize Bertuglias medical records in reference to driving under the influence and assaulting a police officer. Payne said in the affidavit that he joined Nelson deputies near Temperance Elementary School and was asked to take over the pursuit. Hitting speeds upwards of 60 mph, Payne said in the affidavit, he followed Bertuglias truck as it plowed through a locked gate at the driveway of 2508 Patrick Henry Highway. The truck swerved several times in a field, eventually spinning and hitting Paynes vehicle head-on. Payne and deputies from Amherst and Nelson counties boxed in the truck, exited their vehicles and instructed Bertuglia to raise his hands, according to the affidavit. One officer used a baton to break the trucks driver-side window. The driver of the vehicle began shouting that he was sorry but would not comply with raising his hands, and continued to attempt to accelerate the vehicle, Payne said in the affidavit. After hearing another officers Taser deploy and misfire, Payne said he drew his Taser and deployed a probe that hit Bertuglias chest and stomach area. The driver appeared to not have been phased by the Taser deployment at all and pulled one of the probes from my cartridge out and threw it back at me, Payne said. He got into the truck and drive-stunned or directly shocked Bertuglia, who was swinging his fists, the affidavit said. Payne then pepper-sprayed Bertuglias face twice. Payne said in the affidavit that he pulled Bertuglia out of the truck and onto the ground, at which point two sergeants and two deputies joined him in trying to roll Bertuglia over and handcuff him. The driver continued to resist and was drive-stunned by a Nelson deputy again in an attempt to gain control of his hands, Payne said. Officers eventually handcuffed Bertuglia and shackled his legs. Payne said he heard Amherst sheriffs Sgt. Templeton ask dispatchers for a medic unit while Payne walked back to his vehicle to check his hand, which had been injured in the scuffle. Payne said in the affidavit that he walked back to Bertuglia, who had stopped fighting and was lying on his side and that a medic unit arrived shortly after. Hospital records stated Bertuglia received CPR at the scene. Multiple entries in his medical records said Bertuglia was unresponsive for about 25 minutes before his heart started beating again. He never regained consciousness. After Bertuglias death, state police seized 1,071 pages of his hospital records, according to a search warrant return filed Dec. 22 in Lynchburg Circuit Court. The warrant was issued in relation to eluding police and resisting arrest. The state police probe came at the request of Amherst Commonwealths Attorney Lyle Carver and Nelson Commonwealths Attorney Anthony Martin, Carver confirmed this week. He said the move was part of standard procedure and not because of any suspected criminal conduct by law enforcement. They also requested a special prosecutor be appointed in the case should there be any resulting criminal proceedings. Amherst Police Chief Robert Kimbrel has said he sent a letter Dec. 14 to Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty requesting an investigation, though he had no concerns about law or policy violations by his officers. Kimbrel said his department halted its investigation of the incident when the state police probe began. Its an unfortunate situation all the way around, he said. Eleanor Roy reports for The (Lynchburg) News & Advance. Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court Judge Frank Somerville believed at the start of his career that incarceration was a primary solution to societal ills. One of the things that you thought you could do is jail your way out of the problems. If you just put everybody in jail, everybody would get cured, we wouldnt have any more problems, Culpeper would be safer and wed save money, he said during a panel discussion last week at the State Theatre about the societal impacts of trauma. On the bench since 1994, Somerville soon figured out jail was not the only answer. Then the question was, what works? he said. Its a question of affecting outcomes, but also of being effective stewards of our communitys financial resources. If we are going to spend $100,000 on somebody and not change their behavior then weve wasted our money. Looking beyond incarceration for solutions, Somerville in 2003 locally adopted the Best Practices Courts of Virginia program with a goal of improving the response of the judicial system to children and their families. A few years later, the judge started incorporating the 10-question Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACE, questionnaire that helps assess the level of trauma a child has experienced in the areas of parental abuse, addiction, neglect, divorce, mental illness or incarceration. When a child has a high ACE score, more services become available, Somerville said. Recognition of the impact of trauma on troubled youth is becoming more prevalent, the judge said. He noted that the state department of juvenile justice recently began decreasing the average length of stay in lock-up for young offenders, and that every social history he receives now includes an ACE score. What Somerville has been doing for a while, others in the community are now embracing. About 200 people educators, probation officers, parents, lawyers, social workers, psychologists and concerned citizens attended last weeks free event at the State Theatre hosted by the Greater Piedmont Trauma Informed Community Network. The focus remained on the ongoing discussion about becoming a trauma-informed region building resilience through informed understanding in the schools and the courts, at home and in every segment of society. The conversation was constructive and challenging with various viewpoints shared by the seven-member panel that included Somerville and licensed clinical social worker Jamie Clancey. Instead of putting Band-Aids on issues that continue to snowball, it takes the whole community to step back and look at how we respond to the people we meet, she said. Its not about blaming someone else for their behavior. Its about compassion and understanding why we might be seeing this behavior. Healing takes place within the context of a family, said panelist Jane Probst, a licensed clinical social worker based in Culpeper. A childs No. 1 intervention is helping their parents, she said. This is not about fixing kids. This is not about fixing parents. This is about supporting families within our community. Thats my biggest goal is to see trauma-informed become the fabric of Culpeper. Panelist Russell Houck, director of student services for Culpeper County Public Schools, said schools are an integral part of the solution. Weve long known that traumatized children have been in our schools, its nothing new to us, he said. But what is new are the strategies and programs to help them succeed. Among those strategies, put in place in 2008 in CCPS, is the provision of therapeutic day services for children needing a change of environment, Houck said. The school system also provides alternative education at the secondary level, he said. We need to do more, but it takes funding, Houck said. More day treatment providers, more psychologists, more support systems around these kids so they dont repeat the cycles that their parents may have imposed upon them. Other resiliency-building strategies can include silent mentoring, said Somerville, of assigning teachers to make deliberate connections with otherwise overlooked, or quiet, kids. Asking a student how their weekend was on a Monday morning or how their family is doing. Pediatricians conducting annual check-ups can ask similar questions of parents, added Clancey, noting the correlation between trauma and medical health. Probst recommended reflective listening in dealing with an agitated parent or juvenile mandated by the court for counseling. When they say, I dont want to be here, responding in five words or less, Wow, this is tough. Get them in the window of tolerance where they can actually hear what you are asking of them, she said. Panelist Dan Carlton, pastor at Culpeper Baptist Church, said the faith-based community often thinks it can God our way out of situations without looking at the whole person. The reverend said thats not a healthy approach and often leads to bigger problems. The collaborative nature of this event and this panel is what excites me that we realize there is a place for everybody at this table, Carlton said. Churches can be part of providing the mentors hurting youth need, he said. We need to talk about how to encourage people to smile and have compassion, Carlton said. Panelist Leann Schwake-Roberston, with Culpeper Human Services, said she is excited about the effort. She said the trauma they see in their clients is generational. This happened to grandma, this happened to mom, this happened to me, she said. Its nice to see that theres science and research behind it. That gives me hope for helping our people. Schwake-Roberston said when working with clients who are parents, they focus on their strengths. Renowned physician Dr. Vincent Felitti developed the ACE study, a long-term, in-depth analysis of more than 17,000 adults. The result, he said, showed that life experiences in childhood that are lost in time and then further protected by shame and secrecy and social taboos against inquiry into certain realms of human experience those life experiences play out powerfully and proportionally half century later in terms of emotional state, disease and life expectancy. According to the doctor, featured in a video at the recent forum at the State Theatre, one in every 11 people in a middle-class community has a high ACE score, and are therefore much more likely to be a drug user, commit suicide or die sooner. Audience member Marilyn Dunphy, with the WIC program at the local health department, said Culpeper already has various successful programs like Healthy Families, Families First and early HeadStart, but that they need to be expanded. Karen Brown, acting director of Services to Abused Families, said she was thankful to see the trauma-informed conversation taking place in a small community like Culpeper. A former teacher in the inner city, Brown experienced her own childhood trauma. To still see the cycle going on and on and on, Im just grateful that somethings being done in my lifetime, she said. I like what I see here. The Greater Piedmont Trauma Informed Community Network plans to host similar forums in the future. Brown said she is also working to organize a roundtable of local faith leaders to discuss the topic. The highest peak in Shenandoah National Park is on track for some springtime TLC as part of a nationwide flurry of projects marking a centennial celebration. The National Park Service and a local philanthropic partner will invest $120,000 to improve the historic observation point and access to Hawksbill Mountain, elevation 4,050 feet. The initiative is part of the Centennial Challenge projects celebrating the National Park Services 100th anniversary Aug. 25, 2016. The Shenandoah National Park Trust, based in Charlottesville, will contribute $62,000 toward the Hawksbill project slated to begin in the late spring, said president Susan Sherman. Its an iconic feature of the park, she said. For the people who hike specifically to the peak each year, its got sentimental value. The summit at Hawksbill Mountain and its panoramic views of the Shenandoah Valley is among the parks most popular attractions, said Shenandoah National Park Acting Management Assistant Sally Hurlbert, making the rehabilitation project well worth the investment. This is one of our signature projects associated with the Centennial, she said. Hurlbert said the project contributes to Centennial goals by engaging the crews of Hands-On Preservation Experience, or HOPE, to support and learn the art of masonry repairs. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and The Corps Network launched the HOPE initiative to train young people in preservation crafts. Our park stone masons will be instrumental in teaching these youth the skills necessary to become the next generation of historic preservationists, Hurlbert said. The late U.S. Senator Harry Byrd, a Democrat from Virginia, donated the masonry observation platform at Hawksbill to the park in 1962, she said. It has since been vandalized and fallen into disrepair. Added exposure to the elements has turned the important landmark into a source of embarrassment for the park, according to the SNP Trust, which is still raising money for its rehabilitation. The project will repair its flagstone floor and replace missing mortar and stone in the walls. In addition, the upcoming project at Hawksbill will upgrade the tread of a high use trail to accommodate small equipment access for maintenance and remove an unpaved section of road that is no longer needed, converting it to a trail. An existing bronze plaque at the site will also be repaired and used to fabricate a second sign that went missing five to 10 years ago, Hurlbert said. In rehabilitating the platform, the park hopes to return to it to its former glory, and use its symbolic significance to raise public awareness about what will be needed to continue to protect and enhance Shenandoah National Park for the next century and beyond, she said. We also hope it will be a place to inspire the protection of night skies, natural sounds capes and the preservation of park resources in the face of climate change. The rehabilitation on Hawksbill Mountain is slated to take six weeks and could involve a few short-term day closures, Hurlbert said. In the early years of the 20th century, Stephen Mather and Horace Albright mounted a vigorous public relations campaign to protect the countrys national parks, and in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson approved legislation creating the National Park Service within the Interior Department. In the century since the founding of the National Park Service the number of parks has grown to over 400 units, while the annual number of visitors to our National Parks is now surpassing 300 million, compared to 358,000 in 1916, according to the NPS. Shenandoah National Park was finished under the supervision of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, an enthusiastic supporter of the park and Skyline Drive. He was present at its dedication on July 3, 1936. We seek to pass to our children a richer land a stronger nation. I, therefore, dedicate Shenandoah National Park to this and succeeding generations of Americans for the recreation and for the re-creation which we shall find here, Roosevelt said. As part of the Centennial Challenge, 69 projects will be undertaken at 63 parks in 38 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The program builds on the successes of 2015, when Congress appropriated $10 million that will be matched with more than $12 million by partners such as the Shenandoah National Park Trust. Since forming in 2007, the Charlottesville group has contributed about $750,000 in funding for the Virginia park, according to Sherman. Donations can be made at snptrust.org. As the National Park Service enters its centennial year in 2016, Congress and generous partners across the country are making exceptional investments to improve park facilities, enhance their accessibility and help more visitors especially young people discover our nations inspiring places and stories, said NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis. New Delhi: Under severe pressure from the fallout of the barbaric attack on a young Tanzanian woman by a mob in Bengaluru in which she was allegedly beaten up and stripped, the Narendra Modi government, which has condemned the incident, sought and received a report from the Karnataka government on the incident on Thursday and decided to dispatch a team of senior external affairs ministry officials to Bengaluru on Friday, that will include the Tanzanian high commissioner to India. Sources said the Centre was unhappy with the initial explanation of the Karnataka government and told it clearly that stringent action should be taken to prevent fear and panic from spreading among African students in India. Indicating how seriously the Centre was taking the matter, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj held a high-level meeting on Thursday to discuss all aspects. Anxious to avoid panic, the MEA said it was an isolated incident but added India had assured its African friends strong legal action would be taken, including stringent action against the culprits responsible. Tanzania also urged India to reinforce security in localities where African students live. The Africans are reportedly of the view that it was definitely a racist attack. Voicing concern, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi sought a report from the Congress-run state government immediately. Rahul Gandhi asks Karnataka Government to explain and send report immediately, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said in a series of tweets. Strongly condemn incident with Tanzanian lady in Bangalore. Police must act strongly against the culprits, Mr Singh, who is in-charge of Karnataka affairs, said. In New Delhi, Tanzanian high commissioner John W.H. Kijazi reportedly said he had sent a complaint to the government and sought prompt action against those behind the unfortunate incident. He urged the government to reinforce security in localities where African students live. We request the Government of India to ensure the safety and security of our students in Bengaluru and all other places in India, he was quoted by news agencies as saying. He was also quoted by TV channels as saying such incidents should not happen in the 21st century. Condemning the incident, MoS home Kiren Rijiju urged all Indians to remember their colonial past and become sensitive about racial discrimination. He said it was a serious issue and there was no question of defending it. The MEA has received a report from the Bengaluru police commissioner after Ms Swaraj took up the matter with the Karnataka government. The Congress-ruled Karnataka government had apparently argued the incident took place after a road accident and the situation got out of hand, that resulted in a chain reaction. The Karnataka government told the Centre the police complaint was filed only two days after the incident, but MEA sources said this may have happened as the young Tanzanian woman was obviously traumatised by the incident. The Karnataka government also said five people had been arrested so far. With the Modi government hosting a successful India-Africa Forum Summit just two months back in New Delhi, the government is wary of facing the combined fury of all African nations if it fails to act swiftly. Incidentally, the Tanzanian high commissioner is also the dean of the African diplomatic corps in India. The MEA also said the purpose of the Central teams visit to Bengaluru on Friday was to reassure African students and other Africans living in the country. Over 5,000 Africans are studying in India. The BJP targeted the Congress for its hypocrisy in not initiating action against the culprits in Bengaluru swiftly, and also questioned Rahul Gandhis silence over the matter (a few hours before Mr Gandhi issued a statement). The party accused the Congress government in Karnataka of covering up the incident and said its inaction had brought disrepute to Bengaluru. It demanded immediate action, including the transfer of the DGP and suspension of police officers involved. Refusing to comment on speculation whether it was a racist attack or not, Mr Kiren Rijiju said the police was probing the matter and the government had taken serious note. Whenever such an incident happens, the first thing to do is condemn the attack, not defend it. Whether racist attack or not, whether stripped or not, these are matters to be investigated by officials when they are asked to do it. The police is supposed to act suo moto in such kinds of serious incidents. We should not jump on defending the case whether it is racial discrimination or not. But an incident related to the woman is in itself a serious matter. So there is no question of defending it, he said. Second, during British rule, our country has seen and faced how we were discriminated on the basis of racial profiles. A lot of Indians did face racial abuse in foreign countries. We should be very careful as we were victims of it. So any kind of racial abuse or any discrimination on racial lines has to be taken up with seriousness, he said. Students from different colleges hold protests against the attack on a Tanzanian girl by a mob in Bengaluru. (Photo: PTI) Bengaluru: Four more persons have been arrested and two police officials suspended in connection with the alleged assault and stripping of a Tanzanian student that has triggered a nationwide outrage. With this, nine persons have been arrested so far since the incident happened on Sunday night. Read: Bengaluru: Mob strips Tanzanian girl, torches her car as police watch Deccan Chronicle had exclusively reported on Wednesday that the 21-year-old Tanzanian girl, who is a second year BBA student of Acharya College, had absolutely nothing to do with the car that ran over and killed a 35-year-old Hesaraghatta resident on Sunday night. Yet, while the local police stood by and watched, she was repeatedly beaten and then stripped of all her clothes and made to parade around naked. Read: Bengaluru mob violence: 4 arrested, Sushma asks CM to take strict action Inspector Pravin Babu and Constable Manjunath have been suspended, Bengaluru Police Commissioner N S Megharikh said. Babu has been suspended for dereliction of duty and Manjunath for not taking action even though he was present at the spot, he added. The four accused were arrested last night, Megharkh said and added that they have been booked for assault, unlawful assembly, arson, rioting and outraging a womans modesty. Read: She asked cops for help, they threw her to the mob: Tanzanian girls friend Megharikh said police have been interrogating the suspects and there are chances of arresting some more people. Asked whether one of the arrested is a member of BJP, Megharikh said, He is a panchayat member. A team from Delhi comprising the Tanzanian High Commissioner John W H Kijazi and External Affairs Ministry officials will meet the students here and get the assessment of the state government on the incident. Read: Bengaluru cops rescued drivers, left stripped Tanzanian girl to mobs mercy The Tanzanian woman was reportedly dragged out of a car by few people when she was passing the accident spot with three friends. The mob mistook them to have caused the fatal accident though a Sudanese was involved in it, police said. Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara has denied that the Tanzanian woman was stripped and paraded naked, claiming that it was not a racial attack. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi on Friday said strict action will be taken. "I condemn 100 per cent this type of action," the Congress Vice President told reporters, adding that he spoke to the party General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka to look into the matter and speak to the Chief Minister. Earlier, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara denied that the Tanzanian woman was stripped and paraded naked, claiming that it was not a racial attack. Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrasekhar Rao flanked by Deputy C M Mahmood Ali (left) and K Keshav Rao addressing media on TRS party's win in GHMC elections in Hyderabad. (Photo: PTI) Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the elected 99 corporators from TRS to be corruption-free, people- friendly and execute works quickly. The party chief held a meeting with the corporators on Saturday at the CMs camp office. A two-day training will be conducted for the newly elected representatives to understand the functioning of the corporation. The CM directed the 99 representatives to be accessible to the public, report to the Mayor or the GHMC Commissioner regarding works. The people of Hyderabad has reposed trust in the TRS. Voters have huge expectations. All corporators must be corruption free. Many are first timers, you should seek help from your seniors and it is the duty of those with experience to help their juniors. Every rupee should be used to the maximum extent, all corporators should ensure that the public got all the benefits, report immediately to the corporation for help. One lakh 2BHK houses will be built. The CM said the Opposition tried to create a rift with settlers, All those who stay in Hyderabad are the sons and daughters of the state. The TRS would serve all sections of the society, the CM added. A two day training will be conducted for the elected to understand the functioning of the corporation. New York: A team of biologist travelled to Alaska where from the windows of their truck looked out across the undulating foothills toward the Arctic Ocean. Instead of seeing snow as like we had in years past, they were greeted by a landscape already green with spring. According to The New York Times, sharing their experiences, we flew by helicopter to a remote camp and shed our heavy parkas. The fish we came to study had already disappeared downstream to spawn. We now realise that what we saw last May was historic the hottest May for Alaskas North Slope during what scientists recently concluded was the hottest year on record for the earth. We also saw the future. Last year, the earths temperature passed the mark of 1 degree Celsius above preindustrial levels. Civilisation took 165 years to reach that mark, and now the increase could reach 2 degrees Celsius in just 30 more years, a point at which the risks from sea-level rise, drought and other effects could increase significantly. Despite promises made in Paris to cut greenhouse gas emissions, we will still need to make it through the hottest years of a looming global heat age. Along with the many challenges we face, we must figure out how to protect ecosystems and the benefits they provide. Each spring for the last 30 years, our team of biologists has travelled to remote field camps in Arctic Alaska. The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else in the world as seawater replaces sea ice, painting the Arctic Ocean blue and fueling a dangerous feedback loop. The white sea ice reflects the suns energy back into space through what is known as the albedo effect. But as the ice melts, the dark Arctic seawater is now absorbing that heat, turning up the earths temperature. With the early spring, snow melted roughly two weeks earlier than in the past and plants turned green soon after. Lakes thawed about 10 days earlier, and Arctic grayling, a fish, bred weeks earlier. An early spring has long-term consequences. When grayling breed three weeks earlier, for instance, their offspring get a head start on feeding and grow nine times larger. This might seem like a good thing, until you consider that the same warmer temperatures dry the rivers that enable these grayling to swim to lakes where they spend the winter. As these fish wait in shallow pools for the rivers to flow, bears and birds enjoy a captive feast. If rivers do not flow before winter, the fish freeze. The drying of these rivers could threaten some grayling populations.Last Mays warmth deceived white-crowned sparrows into breeding earlier than usual. When a snowstorm roared in, the sparrows abandoned their ill-timed nests, leaving their eggs behind to perish. Thunderstorms also raged over our camp. These storms used to be rare in the Arctic, but they strike often now. Lightning has set fire to the tundra, releasing into the atmosphere huge stores of ancient carbon from the permafrost. Sinkholes are also opening up in the thawing tundra. Walk up to one, and you will hear the trickle and clatter as heat dissolves permafrost into cascades of ice age mud and stones. We are only just beginning to understand these changes. Ecosystems involve a complex web of connections among species and the physical environment. Climate change alters these connections in ways that can surprise and baffle us. For example, scientists thought they understood Arctic streams until we added nutrients to one to mimic what happens when the tundra thaws. A rare moss materialized and blanketed the streambed. A new set of insects appeared, but they sheltered in the moss instead of drifting into the waiting mouths of hungry grayling. So in a roundabout way, a more productive stream made for skinnier fish. The surprises pose serious risks because we cant prepare for what we dont know. We can no longer be satisfied to watch and document these changes. We must predict and prevent them. Sustaining life through the coming heat age will require tough decisions as we triage the rising number of climate casualties. We cannot hope to save all species when we havent even figured out how many species there are.We might focus initially on protecting those with the greatest importance to other species and ecosystems, the so-called biotic multipliers of climate change. For instance, top predators are often sensitive to climate change and magnify climate effects by yanking hard on the threads that connect them to other species in the food chain. Our current approaches to identifying which species and ecosystems are most at risk are primitive. Most predictions rely on the correlation between a map of an animals range and a few climate factors. As biologists, we need to develop forecasts that rely on causes, not correlations, as our colleagues studying the atmosphere did years ago. This will require an enhanced effort to comprehend how species survive, reproduce, evolve and move across landscapes, and how changes in the climate alter each of these factors. We also need experiments that replicate a warming environment. Scientists know how to heat small plots of tundra with open-topped plastic enclosures and forests with heated cables. But the small size of these efforts limits our ability to understand consequences for larger animals and ecosystems. We need to engineer ways to warm bigger ecosystems experimentally by heating up entire lakes, streams, fields and even forests. We plan to return to the Arctic again in May. This year is predicted to be even hotter than the last. Well be ready this time. We understand now that we have already entered the heat age. "It's appalling because that image has gone around the world and there are now people in countries all over the world saying the way New Zealanders theoretically commemorate or celebrate their national day is with a senior politician having a sex toy thrown at them," Key said. (Photo: YouTube Video Grab) Wellington: Dildo throwing is not a good look for New Zealand and an "appalling way" to behave on the country's national day, Prime Minister John Key said Saturday, angered by an attack on a senior government minister. Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce was hit in the face by a pink dildo thrown at him by a protester during national day celebrations in the northern town of Waitangi on Friday. "It's appalling because that image has gone around the world and there are now people in countries all over the world saying the way New Zealanders theoretically commemorate or celebrate their national day is with a senior politician having a sex toy thrown at them," Key said. "That's the way now that people from overseas are viewing how we have a celebration on our national day. It just isn't the right image for New Zealand." Key added that the protest was "crude and basic" on what should be a family occasion. Waitangi is traditionally the centre of New Zealand's national day as the town where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British Crown and indigenous Maori in 1840, paving the way for European colonisation. However, celebrations are often marred by protests with Key refusing to attend this year because of fears of violence. The accused added that he was not always sick as he had a wife and a daughter back in Iraq (Representational Photo: AP) Vienna: A 20-year-old migrant accused of raping a boy in Austria has reportedly told investigators that though he knew it was a mistake, he committed the act as it was a case of sexual emergency. According to a report in Daily Mail, the migrant, who works as a taxi driver in Vienna told the police that he could not help himself as he had excess sexual energy, and that he did not mean to scar the child. The 10-year-old was brutally raped by the migrant in a swimming pool cubicle at The Resienbad, and was found crying by the lifeguard. He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, while the police found the migrant on the spot, amusing himself by diving into the pool over and over again. On being questioned by the police, he responded saying that though he knew such an act was 'forbidden in any country of the world', it was a sexual emergency as he had not had sex in past four months. He added that he was not always sick as he had a wife and a daughter back home in Iraq. According to official records, the migrant entered Austria through the Balkans last September. The police did not reveal the details of the rape, which took place on December last, to protect the identity of the victim. But information emerged on Facebook, prompting the police to request sensitivity in matters concerning migrants, as they have been through a lot. Berlin: Islamic State militants have slipped into Europe disguised as refugees, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) said on Friday, a day after security forces thwarted a potential IS attack in Berlin. Hans-Georg Maassen said the terrorist attacks in Paris last November had shown that Islamic State was deliberately planting terrorists among the refugees flowing into Europe. Then we have repeatedly seen that terrorists ... have slipped in camouflaged or disguised as refugees. This is a fact that the security agencies are facing, Maassen told ZDF television. We are trying to recognize and identify whether there are still more IS fighters or terrorists from IS that have slipped in, he added. The Berliner Zeitung newspaper cited Maassen on Friday as saying that the BfV had received more than 100 tip-offs that there were Islamic State fighters among the refugees currently staying in Germany. German fears about an attack have risen since the Paris killings. On Thursday, German forces arrested two men suspected of links to Islamic State militants preparing an attack in the German capital. Maassen, however, warned against alarm. Iraqi firemen work at four-star Capitol Hotel in Arbil in northern Iraq on Friday night. (Photo:AFP) Arbil, Iraq: As many as 19 people were killed and dozens were injured in a fire at a hotel in the capital of Iraqs autonomous Kurdish region. Fourteen of the dead were from the Philippines, while three Iraqis, a Palestinian and another person of unknown nationality also died, said Saman Barzanji, director general of the Arbil health department. Dozens more were injured and taken to hospital in Arbil, said Fakher Harki, the departments spokesperson. Nawzad Hadi, the governor of Arbil province, said preliminary information indicated that the cause of the fire was an electrical problem in a sauna. The fire took place at the four-star Capitol Hotel where rooms cost from $100-$240 per night. The hotels website says it has a 740-square-metre (2,580-square-foot) spa that includes saunas and a pool. Photos and video posted on social media showed dark grey smoke pouring from windows on the top floor of the building. A burnt room after a fire at the four-star Capitol Hotel in Arbil, in northern Iraq. (Photo:AFP) The Kurdistan region in north Iraq has largely been spared the deadly violence that plagues other parts of the country. The region is frequently visited by tourists from other areas of Iraq and various countries in the region. A hotel fire in Sulaimaniyah, another city in Iraqi Kurdistan, killed 30 people in July 2010. The citys hospital said people from 12 different nations died in that fire, including some who jumped to their deaths from upper-floor windows while trying to escape the flames. The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind to become a party in a suo motu PIL instituted to deal with various issues including gender bias against Muslim women, with the organisation contending that the court cannot test the validity of personal law. A bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi, which had issued notices to the Attorney General and National Legal Services Authority on the PIL, directed the Centre and the organisation to file reply within six weeks. In its plea, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has contended that the apex court cannot examine the constitutional validity of the practices of marriage, divorce and maintenance in Muslim personal law on the ground that provisions of personal laws cannot be challenged by the reason of fundamental rights. "Personal laws do not derive their validity on the ground that they have been passed or made by a legislature or other competent authority. The foundational sources of personal law are their respective scriptural texts. "The Mohammedan Law is founded essentially on the Holy Koran and thus it cannot fall within the purview of the expression 'laws in force' as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution of India, and hence its validity cannot be tested on a challenge based on Part III of the Constitution,"it said. Last year, the apex court had ordered registration of a PIL and asked the Chief Justice to set up a Special Bench to deal with issues relating to the challenge to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act. It had noted that the issue was not merely a policy matter but concerns the fundamental rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution. The issue had cropped-up during the hearing of a matter related to Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act and the bench had noted that "an important issue of gender discrimination which though not directly involved in this appeal, has been raised by some of the counsel for the parties which concerns rights to Muslim women. Discussions on gender discrimination led to this issue also." "It was pointed out that inspite of guarantee of the Constitution, Muslim women are subjected to discrimination. There is no safeguard against arbitrary divorce and second marriage by her husband during currency of the first marriage, resulting in denial of dignity and security to her," it had noted. Australia's ageing all-rounder Shane Watson today emerged as the biggest draw going for a whopping Rs 9.50 crore, while Yuvraj Singh was the costliest buy among the Indians with a bid of Rs 7 crore in a rather low-key IPL players' auction here today. The 34-year-old Watson, who marked his return to form with a blazing century against India in the last T20, triggered an intense bidding war among three franchises before Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) clinched the deal with the highest package so far. Watson thus became the first million dollar buy of the auction with his package translating into USD 1.39 million. He was joined by Yuvraj soon after even though today's bid was far less than the Rs 16 crore he had garnered in the last auction. Another veteran Indian pacer, Ashish Nehra (Rs 5.5 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad), Ishant Sharma (Rs 3.8 crore to Rising Pune Super Giants), Kevin Pietersen (Rs 3.5 crore to RPSG), and Dwayne Smith (Rs 2.3 crore to Gujarat Lions) were the other top draws among the marquee players in the auction which was beamed live to millions of viewers. Unheralded West Indian batsman Carlos Brathwaite was a surprise gainer fetching a whopping Rs 4.2 crore fee from the Delhi Daredevils, a huge jump from his base price of Rs 30 lakh. Another top pick was Indian pacer Mohit Sharma, who was taken by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 6.5 crore. Young Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson, who had a base price of rs 2 crore, was expectedly a sought after player with Delhi Daredevils buying him for Rs 4.2 crore. Yuvraj wasn't third-time lucky in terms of being the biggest buy but Sunrisers Hyderabad entered late into the fray to buy him. "I don't agree (that Yuvraj did not evoke interest among bidders). If you look at the bidding we were very interested, but issues of bidding and price ceiling issues, did not allow us to go for him. He is really a marquee player and hope he plays for us sometime in the future," RCB Director Amrit Thomas told reporters here. Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh fetched a good deal from the Pune franchise, which bid Rs 4.8 crore for the enterprising player. Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who had got a stunning deal of over Rs 12 crore from the Delhi Daredevils the last time, went for a much lower Rs 2.3 crore this time with Gujarat Lions. Gujarat also bought South African pacer Dale Steyn and West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Smith for the same price. Pune also got Pietersen for Rs 3.5 crore (USD 515,000), the first player to go under the hammer, even though Gujarat Lions also bid intensely for the dashing England batsman. However, the player to hit the pay dirt was definitely Watson, who recently hit a smashing century in the third T20 International against India recently. Also, he has been an ever-present player for the now banned Rajasthan Royals being the 'Player of the Tournament' in the league's first season. Watson has retired from the longer format but his 130-135 kmph seam-up stuff has also turned out to be handy on Indian pitches. Mumbai Indians loosened their purse strings for a couple of unexpected players, buying English stumper Jos Buttler (Rs 3.8 crore) and New Zealand pacer Tim Southee (2.5 crore ). The Indian pace duo of Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan, both of whom have been out of reckoning from the national side, also found buyers. While Irfan fetched a Rs 1 crore package from Pune, Praveen managed to pull off a bid of rs 3.5 crore from Gujarat. Gujarat also picked Indian medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni for Rs 2 crore. South African pacer Kyle Abbott went to Kings XI Punjab for 2.10 crore. Indian all-rounder Stuart Binny was sold for his base price of Rs 2 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Another Indian pacer Barinder Sran, who made an impression during the recent ODI series against Australia, was bought for Rs 1.2 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad. The auction saw celebrity owners like Nita Ambani (Mumbai Indians), Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab) and Vijay Mallya (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and former players such as Ricky Ponting, Stephen Fleming, VVS Laxman, Tom Moody, Brad Hodge and Daniel Vettori actively involved in the bidding process for their respective franchises. After the marquee players were sold out in the very first batch, the auction lacked fizz with several players going unsold. Surprisingly, Australia's T20 captain Aaron Finch, New Zealand's big-hitting batsman Martin Guptill, Australia's former captain George Bailey, South African Hashim Amla, and retired players like Mahela Jayawardene, Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin went unsold. West Indian Darren Sammy, Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan, in-form Australian Usman Khawaja, David Hussey, Adam Voges and Munaf Patel also failed to find any takers. However, unsold players can come back for re-bidding once the process is over. The United States has welcomed Indian government's move to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CS) for Nuclear Damages, stating that the "important step" will facilitate participation by American companies in the construction of nuclear reactors in India. "The United States welcomes the action by India to join the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, otherwise known as CSC," the State Department Spokesman John Kirby yesterday told reporters. Indian membership in the CSC marks another important step towards creating the global nuclear liability regime called for by the IAEA Nuclear Safety Action Plan, he said. "It will also facilitate participation by companies from the US in the construction of nuclear reactors in India, which will mean more reliable electricity for Indians, will reduce India's reliance on carbon-intensive sources, that will benefit the environment, and will offer India greater energy security for its large and growing economy," Kirby said. When asked if it would help the implementation of Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Kirby said, "We believe it's an important step toward creating a global nuclear liability regime, and it will facilitate international cooperation in expanding the use of nuclear power in India". Meanwhile an eminent Indian American expert from the private sector, who has been closely involved in various aspects of Indo-US civil nuclear deal described this as a milestone. "This is a big accomplishment. This was the pledge that India made. This important step would facilitate the commercial suppliers to close their nuclear deals with India that would end up in generating at least 12,000 MW if both the US companies go ahead," Vijay Sazawal, an expert on US India nuclear agreement, told PTI. Without specifically mentioning the name, Sazawal said a leading American nuclear reactor vendor is planning to submit its proposal by the end of February to NPCIL with an objective of having some kind of agreement with that can be signed at the time of Nuclear Security Summit on April 1. Currently, only one vendor Westing House -- is fully engaged with NPCIL. In a significant move aimed at putting an end to the contentious nuclear liability issue and assuage suppliers concerns, India on Thursday ratified the Convention of Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, marking an important step in addressing matters related to civil nuclear liabilities. The move will help establish a worldwide liability regime of enhanced compensation for nuclear damages. "The contract that NPCIL and the American nuclear vendor are negotiating has many parts. They have to agree on who would be responsible for doing what work, who would provide financing and when, the contract terms and conditions, which would include the supplier liability as per the Indian nuclear liability law," Sazawal said. "And finally TCO technical commercial offer -- how much the reactor would cost and what would be tariff that can be charged to the consumer to ensure that the vendor and the operator both make reasonable profit while providing a requisite tariff goals consistent with the region where the plant will be located and supply electricity," Sazawal said. Sazawal, who has been actively involved in promoting the nuclear cooperation between the two countries since 2005, said "the last step in all these negotiations is the most complex and time consuming". The expected April agreement would mostly likely touch on the fact that the two sides would have an understanding of various aspects of the offer that India is looking for, which would cover a sale of six reactors as against two that were originally being discussed with each American nuclear reactor supplier. The six reactors will generate between 6000 to 6500 MW. It is learnt that General Electrics has proposed a larger size reactor potentially generating about 1600 MW. However, current detailed negotiations involve only with Westinghouse. General Electrics has said that they would negotiate with India only after India ratifies CSC. Westinghouse has said they are willing to take General Electric site in Andhra Pradesh if the latter is not interested. After the deal is signed hopefully this year, expectations are that it will take 6-7 years to complete construction of the first reactor, but so far no reactor recently has been built in the West in this time frame. "I expect this year that US nuclear supplier will sign a preliminary agreement with India when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is here in April, but the details of the actual contract will take time and would not be formalized by then. Both sides are expecting this to be signed by this fall. India is keen that the full contract be signed during President's Obama's tenure," Sazawal said. One of the thing that India has to still decide is the implementation of the Indian Nuclear Insurance Pool, he noted. Because of two reasons, first because it is required under Indian nuclear liability law and both the operator and supplier and must subscribe to their policy before actual work can be initiated. Secondly, the financial institutions that would finance the loan must have a good understanding of the liability exposure and premium to be paid by the American nuclear vendor before they would offer their terms for the loan, he said. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) today intercepted a Pakistani fishing boat which illegally entered into Indian maritime boundary off Jakhau coast in Kutch district and arrested 11 fishermen onboard, officials said. "A fishing boat from Pakistan measuring 40 feet in length was intercepted by Indian Coast Guard off Jakhau coast, five nautical miles into Indian waters," Captain Abhishek Matiman, a defence spokesperson told PTI. "Eleven fishermen onboard the fishing boat have also been held," he said. Indian and Pakistan marine security agencies often capture fishing boats for crossing into their respective maritime boundary. Around 440 Indian fishermen are at present languishing in Pakistani jails, most of whom are from Gujarat, and around 860 Indian fishing boats in the custody of Pakistan. Recently, a fishermen's organisation, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had requested him to initiate efforts to bring back jailed Indian fishermen and their boats from Pakistan. The letter was written by president of the Porbandar Fishermen Boat Association Manish Lodhari, who is also the secretary of National Fishworkers' Forum. A woman was found dead and her body stuffed in a sack of potatoes in central Delhis Daryaganj on Friday. She has been identified to be a resident of Nagalands Mokokchung district, police said. Police have not ruled out the possibility of sexual assault before murder. The womans hands and legs were bound with rope, while a pink shawl was tied around her neck, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Parmaditya. Her husband is reported to be associated with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jharkhand. The sack was found on the Parda Bagh footpath on Netaji Subhash Marg in Daryaganj. She was wearing a white t-shirt and black leggings. A security guard had seen the body and made a call to the police control room. A team of local police reached the spot around 12.30 pm, another police officer said. The body was taken to Lok Nayak Hospital for a post-mortem after a crime and forensic team examined the spot. Initial post-mortem suggests that she was strangled. There were injury marks on her neck, face and arms. Initially, nothing was found from her possession which could help establish her identity. We have not ruled out the possibility of sexual assault before murder, but it would be clear only with the help of the victims post-mortem report, the officer added. Robin Hibu, Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police (Training) who is in charge of North-East affairs, said the woman had spoken to her mother on Thursday evening. She had told her mother that she was in Jharkhand. A case of murder under Indian Penal Code has been registered with Daryaganj police station. Police have questioned some security guards and construction labourers in the area, but no significant clue has been unearthed. No arrest has been made so far, the officer said. Two local youths have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a Nigerian student this week even as police today asserted that the allegation that the foreigner was "racially abused" has not been established. Expressing solidarity with the Nigerian student and seeking justice for a Tanzanian girl student (who was allegedly attacked in Bengaluru), a group of around 70 students under the banner of African Students Association and other organisations held a peaceful protest at Indira Park here, holding banners demanding "to stop discrimination and humiliation of African students" in Indian cities. "Two local youthsShoaib Ali and Faizal Ali have been arrested following the complaint lodged by the Nigerian student. However, with regard to the allegation that the local youths passed racial comments against the Nigerian student has not been established," Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Zone) A Venkateshwera Rao told PTI. The DCP said it was a road-side brawl between the Nigerian student Orolabe Ibidola and local youths on Thursday night after the Nigerian student "put" his face inside the window of a woman's car when she was in conversation with the locals for an address. "The local youths said that after the lady raised objection then only they asked the Nigerian student on why he was interfering," the DCP said quoting the local youths. However, Orolabe Ibidola, said when he was returning home from a religious place on Thursday night around 10 local youths allegedly passed "racist" comments against him and beat him up along with two other Nigerian nationals after which he lodged a complaint with Banjara Hills Police, who registered a case under IPC Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) against the local youth. A counter complaint from local residents was lodged against the Nigerian, alleging assault by the latter, the senior police officer said adding, "we are inquiring into the complaint." Mohd Ahmed, a leader of World Organisation of Students and Youths, who was among those who participated in the sit-in demonstration said, "It was peaceful. We just wanted to convey not to humiliate African students. Accept us...we have come here for studies. Those who are violating rules then punish them but don't humiliate and discriminate the innocent." Alleging that "racist comments" were passed against the Nigerian, students from around 15 different countries demanded for ending racism and also sought for taking action against all those responsible in connection with the assault on the Tanzanian woman student in Bengaluru. The Karnataka government has suspended another senior police official in connection with the alleged assault and stripping of a Tanzanian woman student here, even as African students staged a rally over the incident today. Assistant Commissioner of Police A N Pise of Yeshwanthpur Division has been suspended for dereliction of duty, Police Commissioner N S Megharikh said, a day after a team of Tanzanian High Commissioner John W H Kijazi, also the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps, and External Affairs Ministry officials flew in here and met state officials and African students. With this, six policemen-an ACP, an Inspector and four constables-- have been suspended, Megharikh said. On a mission to get a first hand account and build confidence among African students here, the Tanzanian envoy had backed the steps taken by the government in connection with the incident on Sunday. "We are very much impressed with the action already taken," Kijazi had said, dismissing the talk about racism. Nine persons have been arrested in connection with the incident in which the 21-year old Tanzanian student faced mob fury in vigilante justice after a Sudanese driving a car in an alleged drunken state struck a couple, killing a woman on the spot. Police have maintained it was a case of "mistaken identity" and racism was not involved. Meanwhile, the African students in Bengaluru are planning to conduct a blood donation drive in a show of solidarity to their Indian counterparts and citizens. "The Same Blood Campaign" is an initiative of FISAB (Federation of International Students Association Bangalore) and Just Practicals - a skill development start-up offering practical, job-relevant training in technical and management courses to African and international students in Bangalore. FISAB is a confluence of international students from 42 countries, who are currently pursuing academic and research disciplines in and around Bengaluru. The event, planned in March is aimed at sensitizing the local populace to African students and to drive a sense of harmony and togetherness, 'Just Practicals" said in a statement. A rally attended by over two hundred African students at Town Hall in the nucleus of the city here saw expressions of grief mixed with a call for togetherness and inclusion. Prince Nkita, a student from the Republic of Congo studying here said, "People need to understand the differences and the similarities as it is the same blood and the same race that is donating this blood." BJP today latched on to a dalit UP Congress leader's reported charges against its Ghaziabad party chief of publicly berating him over his caste to hit out at the opposition party, saying it reflected its "anti-dalit" mindset and asked why Rahul Gandhi was "silent" on the issue. BJP accused the Congress Vice president of only raising dalit issues for doing politics and asked why no case was registered under SC/ST Act in the matter. "This incident reflects the Congress mindset and its 'anti-dalit' thought. Congress can do drama by sitting on a dharna in Hyderabad over the dalit student suicide issue only to do politics, but this incident reflects the thought prevalent in Congress mindset as to how dalits cannot be equal to them and their place is in their feet," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters. BJP's SC Morcha chief Dushyant Kumar Gautam also asked the Congress why an FIR under the SC/ST Act was not registered and asked what the SC/ST Commission led by Congress leader P L Punia was doing in the case. Attacking the Congress vice president over the incident, Patra said, "When a dalit is being berated and dishonoured in his own party, why is Rahul Gandhi silent and has not initiated any action even when its Ghaziabad district SC Morcha chief has written to him and threatened suicide for his public humiliation." He asked if Rahul even visited him once or even talked to him even after three days of the incident and after Congress dalit leader Jitender Kumar wrote to him. Gautam said, "Congress is double-faced" and adopts double-standards" while dealing with dalits. He also accused Congress of humiliating dalit icon B R Ambedkar and said successive Congress governments for decades have not bothered to make a memorial out of the Alipur Road residence here, where Ambedkar breathed his last. Gautam said Rahul Gandhi should ask his Ghaziabad district chief to resign or suspend him. "This is a serious cause of concern. Congress does such discrimination and ill-treatment to dalits. It is its duty to answer on this incident," Patra said. Ghaziabad Congress SC Morcha chief Jatinder Kumar has reportedly alleged that on February 3 at a party meeting he was berated and humiliated over his caste by the party's district president who has denied the charges. Jatinder has written to the Congress president, demanding action against the culprits. The AICC's SC department has asked the state unit to probe the incident, according to a media report. Gautam also highlighted the rape of a dalit girl in Bareli. As I catch the first glimpse of the sand dunes from my flight, the years peel away and my heart races. The last time I was in Kuwait was in 1989, when I was a just a child and called it home. Ive never returned. But a visit to Oman brought me close to my birthplace, in every sense. As I touched down on Omans capital, Muscat, it was like travelling back in time. Unlike most of the Gulf countries, Oman hasnt given way to high-rises, cramped living quarters, larger-than-life malls etc. There is still the vastness of space, open lots filled with sand, and the charm of days long gone. Rainy retreat Muscat has many attractions the Grand Mosque, one of the most beautiful pieces of Islamic architecture; the Bait al Baranda Museum, which traces the history of Oman; and more. But Muscat was only my port of entry when I visited last July to witness the monsoon or khareef season in Dhofar, a short flight from Muscat. As a child of Mumbaikars, in Kuwait, I craved rain. One year, climate change brought a miracle a drizzle that lasted a day. The Omani region of Dhofar experiences this miracle every year. Legend has it that Omani sailors lost at sea prayed hard to find their way back home. Their prayers were answered as khareef was born and the winds turned their dhows to Dhofar. Little wonder that khareef translates to winds of plenty. Khareef is nothing like the violent monsoons in Mumbai. Its soothing and surreal. Theres the smell of wet sand, palms glowing a deeper shade of green, while a hazy mist fills the air. I catch my first showers in Wadi Darbat. A 20-km drive from my hotel, my guide Rashid takes the coastal road where the topography changes in minutes. We start out looking at intimidating dunes and end up in a lush valley. As we go deeper, the trees get taller until they block out the sun and creepers wrap themselves around barks, making the forest appear enchanted. Suddenly, I hear the sound of roaring falls, and then I see them criss-cross like braids and cascade down several feet. Its hard to believe how a few inches of rain can change the landscape entirely. The peculiar weather patterns have also made this wadi or valley a great spot for bird-watchers, as many winged creatures migrate here. A rich history Just above the Wadi was the once bustling port city of Khor al Rouri. Today, ruins stand in its place. If these dusty ruins could speak, they would tale many a tale. Over 2,000 years ago, Oman was at the centre of the frankincense trade, a gift of nature that was revered by gods and mortals alike. With its abundance of the perfumed trees, exporting frankincense across the border emerged a major trade. Khor al Rouri became an important port. The ravishing Queen of Sheba is rumoured to have loved her frankincense and considered it a fount of youth. Her passion led her to deal in the resin. In order to further her business, she built a palace here. Some scholars believe that it was here that she met with King Solomon and together they reached a trade agreement. As we drive down the highways, we spot a few tents, a pop-up restaurant of sorts where local delicacies are served up hot. A pit is dug in the ground and is used as an earthen oven. It is filled with coals to cook meat. From tender camel meat to chicken, it comes delicately spiced, with khubz (bread), and a side of khaiyar (pickled green chilli, gherkins and carrots). As I savour the delicacies, a local strikes up a conversation. The disdasha-clad, keffiyah-sporting Omani learns of my Indian origins and expounds on the tale on Vishnu and his turtle form koorma. I then learn that Ras al Jinz is a corner of Oman where the endangered green turtles come to nest. And the Ras al Jinz Museum shares these and other religious/cultural stories associated with turtles, breaking the stereotype of an undemocratic Middle East. More cliches of an arid Arab world are broken at Mughsayl Beach in Salalah, the capital of Dhofar. The beach comes with blowholes: on the shores of the beach were limestone rocks. The limestone was essentially deposited from the ocean when the waters once flooded the Arabian Peninsula several million years ago. The deposits extended all the way to the Empty Quarter, where they still sit under multiple layers of sand. In Mughsayl, the limestone formations grew upwards forming caves and giving rise to a shore with a vertical slant. Small hollows at the top of the caves served as blowholes. As the waves get stronger, water gushes in full force, through these natural vents. One could sit here for hours just watching the water shoot up several metres into the air. This serves as my parting image of Oman. Oman allowed me to recapture my childhood with the added bits Id always hoped for rain, greenery, an abundance of nature and a dash of history. Even if you were never a Gulfie, Dhofar during khareef will cast a spell on you. Sweden, a major investor in Karnataka across diverse sectors, is expecting bilateral trade and investment to take off in 2016 backed by the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with European Union. In an interaction with Deccan Herald, Swedish Ambassador to India Harald Sandberg said that bilateral trade between Sweden and India amounted to more than $2 billion in 2014, with exports of goods from the Scandinavian countries, accounting for two thirds of that amount. I expect that the FTA agreement with the EU will further boost our bilateral trade. Also I am having great faith in the growing economic prowess of India, which can withstand any global onslaughts, he said. He said the bilateral trade with India from 2011 to 2013 witnessed a tepid growth, but it witnessed an uptick in 2015. During the first nine months of 2015, Swedish exports to India grew 7 per cent over the same period in 2014. Indias exports to Sweden increased 11 per cent. For the full year in 2015, we do hope that the growth perhaps will be upward 15-20 per cent, he said. Sandberg said India currently hosts more than 160 companies from Sweden, and 80 per cent of them invested as per their commitments in 2015. Majority of the Swedish companies are present in manufacturing, automotive, telecom, IT and retail. Swedish companies employ 1,60,000 people directly, and 1.1 million people indirectly. Here, Karnataka employs over 30,000 people, as our major companies like Volvo, Scania, and ABB, are present here, he said. He said Swedish companies like ABB, Volvo, Ericsson, Sandvik, Scania, Astra Zeneca, Atlas Copco and SKF have invested in manufacturing and R&D in India. As part of the single-brand retail legislation, furniture company IKEA and fashion brand H&M are among the first companies to have received approvals in India. Four years after its launch, the Sakala Mission, which guarantees services to citizens, has been headless for the last six months. According to two NGOs Rashtrotthan Sankalp and Karnataka Sakala Watch, which carried out a detailed analysis on the scheme, there is an impression that a systematic attempt is being made to fail this unique citizen-centric project that can curb corruption substantially. At a press conference on Saturday, Santosh Nargund of Rashtrotthan Sankalp presented a status paper by the two NGOs on Sakala titled 'A mission in jeopardy'. The paper reads, Four years after Sakala was launched, the hopes of citizens at large to avail various services like water connection, building permission, trade licence, driving licence, vehicle registration, various other certificates, licences and permissions and so on from the government without running from pillar to post and without paying a bribe, still remain a dream. It adds, Mission Sakala, the largest and the most ambitious and promising project ever launched in Independent India to directly relieve the citizen of delays and corruption in obtaining services from government establishments is in jeopardy. Reasons for failure The reasons cited by KSW and RS are that 60 per cent of people are not aware of Sakala while hoardings to publicise the scheme in cities, towns and villages have also vanished. Even radio and TV advertisements have been withdrawn while Sakala Mitras to popularise it have not been implemented. As a result, the applications received have just doubled in four years though the number of services offered have increased 15 times. The report adds that the monthly report for the performance of Sakala has not been released since May 2015. A mere 135 out of the 725 services are offered online, which is less than 20%. And what is startling is that not a single service has been added to the online category in 2015, the report observes. Although it is a citizen guarantee scheme offering services in a time-bound manner, the pendency of applications rose to nearly 15,300 by the end of 2015. Further, the number of complaints received under Sakala by the end of 2015 was nearly 40,000, of which nearly 20,000 remain unresolved. Helpdesks were decommissioned as early as 2014 and not a single cyber cafe was added in 2015. Further, no disciplinary action has been initiated against officers who did not provide the service under the Act in its four years of implementation. A mere Rs 68,000 has been paid as compensation to citizens so far in four years of its operation under the Sakala Act against the corpus fund of Rs five crore created by the State government, says the report. Students from various countries, pursuing their education at various colleges in the City, on Saturday joined hands with African students in condoling the death of Shabana Taj, the woman who was fatally knocked down by a car driven by a Sudanese student on Hesaraghatta Main Road on January 31, 2016. The overseas students, at the same time, urged the locals to treat them with dignity and respect. Mubarak Abdullah, a Sudanese student of East Point College at Avalahalli said, We are gathered here to express solidarity with the family of the victim. At the same time one must understand that we need help and support from the locals to live here, he said. A demonstration was staged at Freedom Park on Saturday by around 100 students from various African nations as well as those from Afghanistan, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Nepal to name a few, under the aegis of the World Organisation of Students and Youth. Rabia Mirzaia, an Afghan student pursuing her BSc at Brindivan College, Hebbal, said that while she felt sympathised with the victims family, there should be a rule of law to prevent excesses. Justice should definitely be done to the victims family. However, they should also remember that we are like their guests and people here need to respect us, she said. Mohammed Nahbill of Mauritius, a third year student at Acharya Institute, said, I cannot imagine that in a society that treats its women as a goddess, a woman was stripped and treated badly just because she is a black. This is unfair. People cannot work on the basis of stereotypes. Another student Utsava Dahal from Nepal said: It is utterly unacceptable what has happened to the family, however what happened to the Tanzanian girl is disgraceful and illegal. Both sides deserve justice. Apart from foreign students, there were a few Indian students who were also part of the demonstration. Warisha Faiz, a student from Allahabad said: If I do something wrong why should someone else get punished for it ? It was a similar case with the Tanzanian girl, she said. Earlier in the day, another demonstration took place at Town Hall. DH News Service Hundreds of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activists staged a protest on Hesaraghatta main road on Saturday seeking action against African nationals who violate the law of the land and indulge in crimes. The activists took out a procession and blocked the road demanding that the government revoke the suspension of police officers for dereliction for duty following a mob attack on a Tanzanian girl after a car driven by a Sudanese man mowed down a woman pedestrian in Hesaraghatta on Sunday night. When the protesters began marching towards Acharya College, the police stopped them at Bagalgunte and took 43 of them into preventive custody. Traffic movement was disrupted for a while in the area. President of KRV, Praveen Kumar Shetty, said many African nationals did not respect Indian culture and laws. Many of them are illegally staying here though their visas have expired. They are involved in online cheating, drug abuse, prostitution and other crimes, he alleged. The Tanzanian girl has lodged a false police complaint though she was not assaulted. The entire incident has taken a racist colour damaging the reputation of Bengaluru. The City police and the State government have trusted the victims false complaint and arrested local residents, he said. Demanding that the foreign nationals overstaying in the City be deported, Shetty requested the police to keep an eye on the movement of Africans who have come to Bengaluru for their higher studies. Odishas Excise Minister Damodar Rout has demanded a CBI probe into the huge expenses for publicity before the inauguration of the central public sector undertaking (PSU), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)s new oil refinery at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to dedicate the mega-project to the nation on Sunday. Routs statement just hours before the PMs arrival for the important function has already triggered a controversy in the political circles in the state. Before Rout, who also represents Paradip constituency in the state assembly, made the statement, the BJD had already charged the BJP of using the government-run oil companys funds for its partys own publicity. Like Rout, similar demand for a CBI probe has also been made by senior Congress leader and former union minister Srikanta Jena. BJPs state unit has denied the allegation. Before Modis arrival, a poster war was also on in the state capital Bhubaneswar between the BJD and the BJP. The entire city has been choked with BJP and BJD posters and banners carrying the photos of prime minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, respectively. However, the poster war took an ugly turn on Friday night when some of the BJD posters carrying Patnaiks photo were found damaged. Partys senior leader in the city and Bhubaneswar Mayor, Ananta Jena registered a case in a city police station. The Indian Navy has roped in Bollywood stars to add glitz to its mega maritime show, which brought navies from around the world to the City of Destiny. Superstar Akshay Kumar and top line heroine Kangana Ranaut were present at the inauguration of the event on Friday and the international fleet review on Sunday during which the presidential boat INS Sumitra sails through columns of warships and submarines anchored off Visakhapatnam. Prime Minister Narendra Modi played pranks with Akshay Kumars son Aarav, who accompanied his father. Proud moment in a fathers life, when the prime minister pulls your sons ear in jest and calls him a good boy, Kumar tweeted soon after disembarking. The brand ambassador for international fleet review 2016 recently faced criticism from the Ministry of External Affairs for wrongly depicting some of the facts related to MEAs role during the 1990 evacuation of more than 1.5 lakh Indians from Kuwait during the Gulf war in his film Airlift. The IFRs filmy links did not end with Akshay and Kangana. The Navy had flown in young actor Sundip Ved from Mumbai to give special commentary during the fleet review as well as for the international city parade, scheduled for Sunday. A 17-year-old boy apprehended on charges of killing a 68-year-old woman in central Delhi may be tried as an adult under a new law passed by Parliament in December 2015. If the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) agrees, the teen, who has allegedly killed twice in the last five months, will be the first to be tried under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection Of Children) Act of 2015. According to police, the boy, around 17 years and 11 months old, killed south Delhis BK Dutt Colony resident Mithlesh Jain two months after he was released from a correction home. His parents had applied for bail saying that he had to appear for his class 10 exams. He was earlier nabbed for killing a 13-year-old boy, who was kidnapped to demand Rs 60,000 ransom from his parents. Police have now urged the JJB to treat the boy as an adult. The new law allows people between 16 and 18 years of age to be tried as adults if they are found to be involved in heinous crimes like murder and rape. Earlier, all the accused were tried only by JJB and, if found guilty, sent to correctional homes for not more than three years. The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in the Winter Session and signed by the President into Act on January 4. It allows the JJB to conduct a preliminary inquiry to find out whether the juvenile is indeed guilty of a heinous offence. The boys case can be first transferred to a Childrens Court (Court of Session). As the Indian Navy majestically paraded 70 warships flexing its military muscle in the Bay of Bengal, it was the ageing INS Viraat swansong. INS Viraat has been the symbol of Indias naval might for the past 25 years. The aircraft carrier with its complement Sea Harrier jump jets and helicopters was deployed on a mission for the last time when President Pranab Mukherjee reviewed the fleet. Under the command of Captain Puneet Chadha, the carrier launched four jets of the White Tiger squadron that flew in formation over the audience that included the President and Supreme Commander of the armed forces Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu has taken an initiative to bring the carrier to his state after decommissioning to convert it into a museum in the same way as yesteryear's submarine INS Kursura was converted into a museum on the beach here. After the international fleet review, INS Viraat will go for short refit in Cochin shipyard before returning to Mumbai. Once it reaches Mumbai, the decommissioning process will start, Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, commander in chief of the Western Naval Command told Deccan Herald, adding: We have written to all coastal states proposing to take over INS Viraat as we don't want to scrap it. The Andhra Pradesh government is keen and we had few rounds of discussions with them. The state government is now carrying out an assessment on the costs it would incur and if there could be a public-private partnership, said Vice Admiral Satish Soni, commander in chief of the Eastern Naval Command, which organised the mega maritime show. Naidu has proposed Visakhapatnam and Kakinada as the two resting sites for the carrier, but a final decision is yet to be taken. Bengalurean guard commander A Bengalurean has served as the Guard Commander for International Fleet Review 2016 in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, DHNS reports from Bengaluru. Lieutenant Commander Muckatira Suraja Aiyappa, who studied at the St Joseph Boys School, was inspired to join the forces from early days from his father. He is the son of Lt Colonel (retired) M A Kariappa, formerly of 9 Para Commando, who was awarded the Sena Medal during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is carrying out a discrete parallel inquiry into the January 2 Pathankot terror strikes to identify loopholes and fix accountability in the national security grid response. Though the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is officially handling the investigations over the biggest terror strike on a defence installation, sources said Doval has assembled a special team drafting in officials from the intelligence agencies for his inquiries. The team had been to Pathankot air base where they interacted with local police, National Investigation Agency and Air Force personnel to analyse the terror plot planned and carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad with the help of the ISI, said government sources. The NSAs team suspects an insider job that helped the fidayeen breach the security at the Pathankot Air Force station by scaling through a boundary wall. It questioned air force personnel in charge of security at the base to ascertain the presence of a Pakistani mole who could possibly have helped the JeM meticulously plan and launch the attack, contained after three days of gun battle with the terrorists by NSGs specialised anti-hijacking Black Cat commandos. NSAs exercise would give Doval a third-party assessment of the assault, offering him a clearer idea of glitches in input analysis and response management, government sources explained. Even the NIA suspects leakage of information by an insider at the Western Command Base and has been conducting forensic examination of evidences such as the shoes the five Jaish terrorists wore to the attack and details of calls that may point to the spy. Though Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed warned of more Pathankot style attacks two days ago, strategic military establishments have been audited for enhanced security. Noting that overcrowding in jails persists despite several orders, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Undertrial Review Committee in each district to meet every quarter to ensure release of undertrial prisoners, entitled under the law, and convicts who have undergone their sentence. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and R K Agrawal passed a slew of directions to authorities so that prisoners should not remain in jail for their inability to furnish bail bonds or the convicts granted remission. The prisoners, like all human beings, deserved to be treated with dignity, the bench said, citing National Crime Record Bureau data as on December 31, 2014 indicating overcrowding in the jail of the maximum in Dadra and Nagar Haveli (331.7 per cent), followed by Chhattisgarh (258.9 per cent) and Delhi (221.6 per cent). Overcrowding It is clear that in spite of several orders passed by this court from time to time in various petitions, for one reason or another, the issue of overcrowding in jails continues to persist, the bench said. Just days after the attack on the Tanzanian girl in Bengaluru, a Nigerian student here has claimed that he was racially abused and attacked by a local mob. Police arrested two local youths Shoaib Ali and Faizal Ali for allegedly attacking the Nigerian student at Shaikpet Thursday night. Banjara Hills Station officer C Murali Krishna said theNigerian Orolabe Ibidola, an MBA student at Osmania University, accidentally rode his bike closer to a pedestrian to give way for a vehicle. The enraged pedestrian allegedly made derogatory comments, triggering an argument. A scuffle ensued between the gathering crowd and a few Nigerians who joined the student, prompting police to rush to the area and disperse the crowd. In his complaint, Ibidola said around ten youths passed racist comments on him as he was returning from a religious programme Thursday night. He further alleged that he and two other Nigerian students who came for his support were attacked by the mob. Based on his complaint a case under CrPC 339 for wrongful restraint and 323 for voluntarily causing hurt have been registered against the two accused. Even as the ruling Congress party in Kerala rallies behind Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed against bribery allegations in connection with the solar fraud, details of call records confirmed by key accused Saritha S Nair are likely to leave the ruling coalition cornered during the ongoing Assembly session. After their boycott of the Governors customary policy address on Friday, the Opposition Left Democratic Front is set to return to the House next week, armed with revelations to hound the scam-hit government. According to call lists from years 2012 and 2013 generated during the ongoing judicial probe into the scam, Saritha had telephonic communication with the CM and his office with over 2,800 calls made during the period. More than 130 calls were made between Sarithas two mobile phones and the official residence of Chandy and 1,736 calls to and from the phone of Tenny Joppan, a former member of the CMs staff who was later removed from office in connection with the scam. As per the list, 81 calls were made to and from Power Minister Aryadan Mohammeds phone. Saritha alleges that she paid Rs 1.9 crore and Rs 40 lakh as bribe to Chandy and Mohammed respectively, in return of decisions favourable to Team Solar, the company she led with co-accused Biju Radhakrishnan. Panel to question leader The judicial commission probing into Keralas controversial solar scam will examine a senior Congress party leader over allegations that he tried to tutor key accused Saritha S Nair before her deposition to the commission. The G Sivarajan Commission will examine Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Thampanoor Ravi on February 12. Saritha on January 27 had deposed before the Commission that Ravi, a leader identified with Chief Minister Oommen Chandys camp, told her to repeat what Chandy had earlier told the commission about his links with her. After an audio clip consisting Ravis conversation with Saritha was released, the Congress leader clarified that it was Saritha who called him. He, however, did not disown contents of the clip. State Police Chief T P Senkumar turned down a request by Leader of the Opposition V S Achuthanandan to register a case against Ravi. On Saturday, the commission allowed accused Biju Radhakrishnan to examine Saritha. Speaking with reporters, Saritha said she was approached with a Rs 10-crore offer by a man who claimed he was sent by senior CPM leader E P Jayarajan. The money was offered to me to speak up on the cases, Saritha said. Jayarajan denied having tried to approach Saritha with any offer. DH News Service Pakistani-American terror agent David Headley would depose before a special Mumbai court on Monday and would reveal the sequence of events and planning behind the 26/11 terror attacks. Headley (55) was pardoned on December 10 and made an approver by Additional Sessions Judge G A Sanap who presides over special cases related to terrorism, including those under the now repealed TADA. Headley was originally charged under 11 counts. He would be deposing before the court this week, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told Deccan Herald on Saturday. The deposition would be done through video conferencing and continue for a few days from Monday. "I have received the charging document filed against me in this court. It charges me with same conduct for which I was charged in the US (by the FBI). I had pleaded guilty to the charges in the US (court) and I admitted that I was participant in these charges (role 26/11 attacks, Headley had told the court. I also agree to make myself available as a witness in this court. I appear here ready to answer questions regarding these events if I receive a pardon from this court, he had said. Headleys maps and videos helped ten Pakistani fidayeens land by sea on Mumbais shores and launch one of the audacious attacks on the financial capital, killing over 166 people and injuring 300. Between November 26 and 29, 2008, terrorists rampaged through two five-star hotels Oberoi and Taj Mahal Palace, Jewish outreach centre at Nariman House, Cafe Leopold, all in Colaba, besides Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Cama & Albless Hospital. While nine terrorists were killed during the response operations, a lone gunman Ajmal Kasab was tried and hanged on November 21, 2012 at Punes Yerawada jail. Arrest by FBI The FBI arrested Headley in October 2009 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago while on his way to Pakistan. US District Judge Harry Leinenweber of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago sentenced him to 35 years in prison for his role in Mumbai attacks on January 24, 2013. Reported to have worked for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Headley was a CIA double agent who conspired with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistani intelligence officers and helped them gather ground information for the 26/11 attacks. Headleysevil designs After Lashkar-e-Toiba in 2005 told him to conduct a recce in India, Headley changed his given name, Daood Gilani The plan was to portray himself in India as an American, but neither a Muslim nor a Pakistani. In 2006, Headley and two Lashkar members discussed opening an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his activities Headley visited Mumbai five timesSeptember 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 He made videotapes of various potential targets, including those attacked in November 2008. Before each trip, Lashkar members and associates instructed Headley regarding specific locations for recce After each trip, Headley traveled to Pakistan to meet with Lashkar members and associates Headley and co-conspirators discussed potential landing sites in Mumbai for a team of attackers who would arrive by sea Headley returned to Mumbai with a GPS device and took boat trips around the Mumbai harbor and entered various locations Between November 26-28, 2008, 10 attackers trained by Lashkar carried out multiple attacks in Mumbai In March 2009, Headley made a sixth trip to India to conduct additional recce Candidates meet Citizens organised by Bangalore Political Action committee (BPAC) and Citizens for Sustainability saw 12 of 20 candidates unveil their vision for the poll-bound Hebbal Assembly constituency on Saturday. In the given three-minute time, Congress candidate C K Abdul Rahman Sharief said he would make Hebbal a model constituency with the support of the Congress government and the BBMP. Y A Narayanaswamy, the BJP candidate, promised to provide free wifi and set up a 24x7 call centre, while Ismail Sharieff Nana (JD-S) assured to solve the problems of the poor. Among other candidates who are in the fray, Hunsur K Chandrashekhar (DPP) vowed to start a club for senior citizens and Dr Manjunath Nayak, a human right activist, assured to rejuvenate Hebbal lake and fill up potholes. The lone woman candidate Pavithra vowed to organise health campaigns. Among other independent candidates, Nagesh S found improper sewage and stormwater drains as the major problems in the constituency. B S Manjunath promised to develop slums, Vinay Kumar did not prefer to make any promises before the polls. Dr P K Velladurai batted for free education and Ali Haider spoke about the problems he faced to choose his election symbol. Anil Shetty, a BPAC member, had a different take on the speeches made by candidates. Did it not sound like a tenth students speech? he asked the audience. This is not the traditional politics, he added. When the Congress and the BJP candidate claimed that about corruption, the audience reminded them of the parties they were representing. The event ended even before all the candidates could speak on governance and corruption-free administration. Even after the survey during the inspection of Legislative Assembly Committee on Lake Encroachments, the encroachments on Yelachenahalli Lake near Uttarahalli remains a mystery. A team led by Joint Director of Land Records (JDLR) on Saturday held the fifth survey of the lake area since 2012 to identify the encroachment. A local resident V R Marathe had been fighting for the fixation of the actual boundaries of the lake after apartments came up in the buffer zone. The Yelachenahalli Lake, also known as Annayyappa Kere, is spread over six acres and 32 guntas in two survey numbers. The lake is in two survey numbers - four acres and 39 guntas fall in survey number 6 while one acre and 33 guntas in survey number 14. The lake, which was under the BBMP between 2010 and 2012, was handed over to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in April 2012. First complaint in 2014 Marathe first filed a complaint against encroachment on the lake in October 2014 and requested the tahsildar to conduct a fresh survey. In 2012, an eviction order was issued based on 2011 survey against seven encroachers. However, the eviction never took place. Later, based on my complaint, the tahsildar had sent four reminders, between December 2014 and March 2015, to the surveyor to conduct the survey. He was also directed to issue notices to those who have encroached on the land and to register an FIR against the people who are constructing buildings on the lakebed. The survey did take place but the sketch was submitted to the authorities. Meanwhile, we gave two more representations and one more survey was conducted in July 2015. In this survey, private encroachers were left out from the list of encroachers. The report only had roads as the encroached lake area,'' he said. After this, Legislative Assembly Committee did another survey in November 2015. The survey report could not be released since it was with the committee. Based on our complaint, the JDLR got to know that there were major discrepancies in surveys conducted in the past four years. Among the survey reports that we have on record, major encroachers' names have been left out. Hopefully, Saturday's survey will bring out actual encroachments,'' Marathe said. At a time when the Congress top brass in the State is putting up a massive show of unity ahead of the local body elections, former Union minister Janardhan Poojary struck a discordant note, much to the embarrassment of leaders including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha M Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara. Addressing the gathering during the launch of Gram Swaraj meet at the ground opposite Maharajas College on Saturday, Poojary said, There are complaints from party workers that ministers ignore them when they go to meet them. There is also a feeling among the workers that the ministers have developed a negligent attitude. One should understand that it was due to the efforts of the party workers that the party ascended power in the State. The party top brass were seen muttering among themselves, obviously concurring that it was uncalled-for. Poojary, who remained oblivious to them, continued and called some ministers in the Cabinet dead wood and asked the chief minister to remove them. If such non-performing ministers, who show scant concern even towards workers are allowed to continue, the party may not retain power in the next general elections, he warned. Poojary called on the party workers to rise from their seats and shout slogans to pledge their support to the party, much to the annoyance of the chief minister and other leaders on the dais. A section of the workers and also leaders on the dais heeded to his call. The chief minister and Kharge were seen gesturing at the party workers and leaders to sit. Subsequently, after concluding his speech, Poojary announced that he would be leaving the venue on another engagement. He walked towards Siddaramaiah, flanked by Kharge and Parameshwara, only to be greeted by their cold response. Later, in his address, Kharge took exception to Poojarys call to party workers to rise and pledge their support. Staggered holidays for industries in the Bescom jurisdiction have been withdrawn with immediate effect, following an increase in the generation and availability of power, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar said in Bengaluru on Saturday. Addressing a press conference, he said there had been an increase in the availability of power following the generation of an additional 1,000MW from the hydro reservoirs in Linganamakki, Supa and Mani. Besides, the State had started getting 220MW from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Unit-1. Shivakumar said the Ballari Thermal Plant Unit-3, having an installed capacity of 700MW, will start power generation from March and 800MW was expected from the Yeramarus thermal plant in the next one or two months. It is now possible to meet the demand for power in the Bescom jurisdiction and the staggering of industrial holidays is being withdrawn with immediate effect, Shivakumar said. The minister said the department was gearing up to meet the demand during summer and had chalked out long and short- term plans. Good response He said there was a good response from investors, both domestic and international, towards the energy sector at the Invest Karnataka-2016 which concluded earlier this week. As many as 38 companies have committed themselves to invest Rs 78,553 crore in various sectors, including thermal, solar and wind-power generation and installation of solar panels, he said. The details of the projects and companies are being compiled and would be released in a few days. As many as 16 lakh LED bulbs have been sold across the State under Hosa Belaku, the Energy Departments Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme, he said. Ignition test successful at YTPS The ignition test at the first unit of the Yeramarus Thermal Power Plant (YTPS) near Raichur was successful on Saturday. According to sources, now a test will have to conducted on supplying steam to the turbines. The turbine ignition test was unsuccessful due to a technical snag. The ignition trials at the YTPS began on February 1 by using light diesel oil and heavy fuel oil. However, the trial was not successful due to some technical defects in the cooling tower. Trials are being conducted at the YTPS for the past two months. It is quite natural to encounter technical problems during trials. In fact, the trials are conducted to identify and rectify defects, said P Bhaskar, Technical Director, Karnataka Power Corporation. Meanwhile, the second unit of the Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) stopped functioning on Saturday due to a leakage in the boiler tube. The generation at the first unit too has come a halt as it has been taken up for annual maintenance. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Yeshwantpur sub-division) Ashok Narayan Pise and a constable Prakash attached to Jalahalli Traffic Police Station were suspended for dereliction of duty in the case of assault on a Tanzanian student in Hesaraghatta recently. DG&IGP Om Prakash had directed Additional Commissioner of Police (West) K S R Charan Reddy to conduct a departmental inquiry into the lapses committed by the police in handling the violence following a fatal accident caused by a Sudanese student on the night of January 31. A woman pedestrian was killed and her husband injured in the incident. The Tanzanian student was assaulted in the post-accident violence. Two more people have been taken into custody in the assault case taking the number of arrests to 11. The arrested include Chand Pasha and Mounesh, said the police. The decision to suspend Pise was taken based on the recommendations of Reddy, the police said. Officer not on spot The officer failed to visit the spot of the incident even after violence erupted as he took the incident involving foreign nationals lightly. This earned the wrath of his higher-ups, added the police. City Police Commissioner N S Megharik had called up Pise at 8 pm on the day of the violence. The officer told the commissioner he had taken adequate measures and had brought the situation under control. The commissioner had directed Pise to furnish details of the incident immediately as the DG&IGP wanted updates on the situation, but he neither gave a convincing reply nor furnished the actual facts. Megharik realised that Pise had not gone to the spot and directed him to visit the area immediately and monitor the situation. His inability in handling the unrest and absence on the spot were proved in the investigation, which led to the suspension, the police said. Shane Watson fetched the highest bid but the story of the day belonged to uncapped Indians striking it rich at the ninth IPL Players Auction here on Saturday. Pawan Negi led the way as Delhi Daredevils shelled out Rs 8.5 crore for the left-handed all-rounder from Delhi. Though Watson attracted Rs 9.5 crore from a base price of Rs 2 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore, Negi went almost 29 times more than his base price of Rs 30 lakh as Daredevils and Rising Pune Supergiants pursued the 23-year-old. Negi was with Chennai Super Kings for the last two years. Other players that generated intense bidding were Tamil Nadu leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin (Rs 4.5 crore to Supergiants), Baroda all-rounder Deepak Hooda (Rs 4.2 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad), Karnatakas middle-order batsman Karun Nair (Rs 4 crore to Daredevils) and Rajasthan pacer Nathu Singh (Rs 3.2 crore to Mumbai Indians). All these players base prices ranged from Rs 10 lakh to 30 lakh. The other Indian players to rake in the big moolah were seamer Mohit Sharma, who was paid Rs 6.5 crore by Kings XI Punjab over his base price of Rs 2 crore, and veteran Ashish Nehra who went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 5.5 crore (base price Rs 2 crore). Slow start for Yuvraj Yuvraj Singh had gone for Rs 14 crore and Rs 16 crore in 2014 and 2015 auctions, respectively, but this time there appeared to be no takers for the southpaw as there was a long delay before Mumbai made the first move. The bidding picked up slowly with Royal Challengers and later Sunrisers Hyderabad joining the race. Mumbai pulled out at Rs 5.5 crore, while Challengers stopped at Rs 7 crore as Hyderabad bagged the all-rounder. West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite sprang another surprise after he was hired for Rs 4.2 crore by Daredevils. The two new teams Supergiants and Gujarat Lions went on a shopping spree to complement their core group of five players. While Supergiants bought as many as four all-rounders, including Mitchell Marsh and Irfan Pathan, Lions showed their interest in packing their side with pacers. Daredevils, with a maximum purse of Rs 37.15 crore, too, made some big buys but they exercised much more caution. They didnt attempt to buy any marquee player, while their first bid came only in the third segment (of wicketkeepers) where they bought Sanju Samson for Rs 4.2 crore. Daredevils, who will be mentored by Rahul Dravid for the next two editions, also spent Rs 7 crore for South African Chris Morris (base price Rs 50 lakh) after beating Mumbais challenge. He was previously part of Rajasthan Royals. MI subdued Mumbai Indians were expectedly subdued having retained as many as 19 players and they were more than happy to have Englands wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler for a bargain price of Rs 3.8 crore. Daredevils entered the bid only after Morris value shot up to Rs 6 crore, but teams CEO TA Sekar insisted the all-rounder was always in their scheme of things. Veterans Michael Hussey, David Hussey and Mahela Jayawardene didnt elicit any interest and there were no bids for the in-from Martin Guptill and Usman Khawaja. The magisterial probe into the death of a six-year-old student of Ryan International School in south Delhis Vasant Kunj points to a heinous crime, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Saturday. Devansh Meena, a class 1 student, was found dead in a water tank on the school campus last month. Immediately after the death, Sisodia had ordered a magisterial probe. The report is indicating a heinous crime. Saying that he (the child) had a disorder amounts to running away from responsibility, Sisodia told the media. He added that the investigation so far had ignored the observations of Devanshs parents. Devansh lived with his parents and three-year-old sister in south west Delhis Sultanpur. The school had contended that he was under treatment for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition of the brain that affects a persons ability to pay attention. The deliberate inaction of Ryan International School authorities that amounts to gross criminal negligence led to the death of the child, the report submitted by SDM (Vasant Vihar) Dr Sonal Swaroop has said. It slammed the authorities for insinuating that Devansh was a special child. Sisodia said the report raises questions as to how the school could be so careless. The government is studying its contents and would take appropriate action, he said The time that elapsed due to deliberate inaction by the school staff in rescuing Devansh amounts to gross criminal negligence. Had the time essentially wasted in discussion, calling for a particular person and denial, been utilised to rescue the drowned child, it would have been pivotal in saving his life, the report observed. According to the police, there was delay in the school authorities informing them about Devanshs death. The incident occurred around noon, but the police were informed by staff of Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Vasant Kunj at 2.30 pm. Devansh was declared brought dead at the hospital. Police were told that he was found in a pit near the schools amphitheatre. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. New Mexico has succeeded in a lengthy legal battle aimed at barring a horse slaughter operation from opening in the state. A state District Court judge in Santa Fe granted an order late Thursday that finalizes a settlement reached with the attorney generals office, animal advocates, Valley Meat Co. and other associated businesses. Valley Meat had sought to convert its cattle processing plant in Roswell to the slaughtering of horses, but the state filed a lawsuit in 2013 in hopes of stopping those plans, saying such an operation would violate New Mexicos environmental and food safety laws. Bruce Wagman, an attorney for the horse advocacy group Front Range Equine Rescue, said Friday that the order and previous rulings from the judge effectively end any chance of a horse slaughter operation opening in New Mexico. This is the end, Wagman said. It cant happen here in New Mexico. Blair Dunn, an attorney for Valley Meat, said the closure of the case means his clients will no longer be harassed by the attorney generals office and the others who joined the fight. Still pending is a federal lawsuit and a counter claim in state District Court in which Dunns clients are seeking a jury trial to decide damages for what he called a malicious use of the legal process. These groups used the process to destroy these peoples business, he said. During the legal wrangling, proponents had argued that domestic slaughter was the most humane way to deal with a rising number of abused and abandoned horses. Currently, unwanted horses are shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Former Broncos player Montee Ball was arrested Friday morning in Wisconsin for allegedly battering his girlfriend, police said. Madison police responded around 3:45 a.m. to Hampton Inn & Suites at 440 W. Johnson St., where a 20-year-old woman said her boyfriend, Ball, had thrown her, said Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain. The woman, who has not been identified, said her leg hit the corner of a table during the incident, causing a cut that required stitches, DeSpain said. When officers confronted Ball, he said he pushed her. He was cooperative, DeSpain said. Ball, who played at the University of Wisconsin, was arrested on suspicion of substantial battery and was taken to Dane County Jail. Ball was the Broncos second-round draft pick in 2013, but he never was able to grab the starting running back position. In 2014, his last season with the Broncos, he lost the job to C.J. Anderson and then slid behind Ronnie Hillman on the depth chart. In 2014, he rushed for 172 yards on 55 carries. But Ball was cut from the team in September after his slide placed him as the fourth-team running back. Ball was a star at Wisconsin, where he nearly rushed for 2,000 yards in his junior and senior seasons. He was a finalist for the 2011 Heisman Trophy as a junior. Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-954-1223, ehernandez@denverpost.com or @ehernandez You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site. by Kathleen Gilbert BEIJING, September 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) Escaped Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is leading international opponents of forced abortion in calling upon the worlds largest company to end compliance with the Chinas one-child policy. Family planning police have targeted employees (569) Sign up below to have the hottest Catholic news delivered to your email daily! Close Sign up below to have the hottest Catholic news delivered to your email daily! Church Militant, we need to band together to protect our religious liberties and win the culture war! Youd have to be living under a rock to not be aware of all the hullabaloo surrounding this Free Basics thing. Personally, I dont care whether Facebook wins or loses, because I know India loses no matter what. Neither side really cares about anything but making money or a name for themselves. This is 2016! Too many of us are sitting around planning our technology purchases for the year, making a list of which companies we will throw money at, whilst playing armchair critic by telling those same companies that they shouldnt give reduced connectivity to poor Indians (who we dont know anything about), because that isnt acceptable by our rather high standards. Its against neutrality! we scream at our screens, while we waste more food today than some of these poor people will eat in a week! Well, Im pissed off enough about this to want to pop a few bubbles. Bubble. Meet pin: The net isnt neutral. It never was. * pop * Wake up. Smell the rubber that all of these companies have burnt when zooming ahead while you sit here on your ass in neutral, going nowhere! The net started in the US. It wasnt neutral then because it was geographically locked. Then it spread to more places, but it was locked in by high costs associated with owning a PC to get online. When that ended, it was (more) expensive smartphones, now its differently priced data plans. All barriers that have prevented a poorer section of society than the ones online already are gradually overcome, and thats how it should be. If the net was free to all, a basic right, then it would be neutral. With more than half of the world still without any access to the web whatsoever, theres nothing neutral about it, yet. Poverty isnt going anywhere, so if you think that just by making bandwidth cheaper you can get 100% online, you were probably dropped on your head as a baby. Different countries have different norms. On a visit to Singapore, I got a tourist SIM that had a 100 GB data limit. Yes I read that figure many times too. 100 gigs on a phone, with proper 4G speeds, for a measly Rs 750! You call that neutral? At a friends house I did a speedtest and got 120 Mbps down, 60 Mbps up. He has a very standard plan. Singapore also has Facebook-only, WhatsApp-only, etc., plans for cheap, so not exactly a beacon for neutrality. You search for videos on Google, the search results are predominantly from YouTube. You try and send a Telegram link to someone on WhatsApp doesnt work. Videos from YouTube load so much faster than any other site, because most ISPs have YouTube caching. Google searches are almost instant because they have server farms and hardware all over the world, most probably inside your ISPs data center as well. A process they call peering. This is neutral? I know people like to choose the definition of neutrality that best suits them, so they will start talking about data packets and how we shouldnt discriminate against poor innocent data packets poor innocent people, sure, discriminate away, but dont you dare mess with our data packets from PornHub! Do you think you can compete as a startup in any of the established fields? Really? You think big companies want to change the status quo and risk upsetting the apple cart? This version of the internet that still has cost barriers for adoption of a much poorer section of society actually works well for them. Your search startup is never going to match Google in terms of efficiency or speed, or anything really. You may have a way better algorithm, but your best hope is to be noticed enough to get bought over by Google and assimilated. This is neutrality? Every site, every forum, everything you do online is not neutral. Wikipedia Editors are superior to you or me. On the Digit forum we have moderators who have power, ditto for every site with user interaction. I could disable comments on this piece to stem the hate I presume is coming I wont but the fact that I could means things arent neutral. Last month in our magazines cover story, we told you about disruptions, and how they cause established companies to falter and new startups to blossom this only happens when something fundamental that we take for granted changes. Perhaps the inventor of the Facebook killer will get online using Free Basics. Now wouldnt that be ironic? You need to let go of this notion that the internet is in the best form that it will ever be in. Neutral is relative, like everything else in life. Todays neutral is tomorrows backwardness. The current accepted norm of how we treat our poor will seem savage in a decade. Things change, and there is merit in trying to keep the internet open, or trying to make it free, or a basic right, etc. But if you still think the net is neutral well, it looks like your bubble is pin-proof, but not prick-proof, because theres already one inside it... Everyones beloved (and sometimes feared) Google Search is going on auto-pilot mode soon. With senior VP of Search, Amit Singhal, announcing his retirement, John Giannandrea, who oversees the companys AI research is going to take over, marking what may be the biggest change in Googles Search algorithms yet. What you need to understand is that while Googles Search currently does employ machine learning algorithms, it constitutes a small part. Giannandreas entry suggests that things are going to turn the other way now. What is Machine Learning? Machine Learning in short is how computers can process data on their own, learning as new data is discovered or entered. Its similar to traditional algorithms, in the sense that theyre still algorithms, but the humans control over what the code learns and does is reduced. For example, in Neural Networks are basically mathematics and humans can trace that math, but its still really difficult to understand why a neural network is reacting to data a certain way. This means that if you are to tweak the neural network, you will have to go by a trial and error method. Machine Learning in Google Search You may have heard of an algorithm by Google, called RankBrain, reported by Bloomberg in October, 2015. This is an AI, which, among other things, performs the task of dealing with new search queries. So, while Googles Search algorithms are adept at handling common search queries by users, something new that pops up, will require RankBrains help. Considering the fact that the Search engine deals with millions of queries, the room for a query that it has never encountered before is really high. RankBrain will understand these new queries and learn and more of them keep coming in, reacting intelligently and hence, making Googles Search engine better. According to Bloombergs report, it took Google about half a decade to incorporate RankBrain into its Search algorithms and it is one of the many signals that determine the final search results that you see after inputting a query into the engine. Furthermore, while under Singhal, Googles Search algorithms were primarily based on rules determined by humans, under Giannandrea, it may be driven by decisions made by machine learning algorithms, an Artificial Intelligence. RankBrain accounts for about the 15 percent of Googles search queries, and while that may not seem like a big percentage, the actual number would be really huge. The problem with neural networks though is that while there is no question that they work and are useful, even experts, like Giannandrea, arent absolutely certain as to why some of the decisions that the machines make, are made. So, while Googles Search algorithms may very well be more AI driven from now, one can be reasonably certain that the human-driven algorithms that Singhal built in his tenure, arent going to lose their importance either. For now, imagine an aircraft on auto-pilot. The pilots are right there and can make the tweaks when and where necessary. 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. Circleville Pumpkin Show 2022: What you need to know if you plan to go India has ratified an international convention on nuclear energy accident liability, with the foreign ministry submitting documents ratifying the 'convention of supplementary compensation for nuclear damage', which seeks to establish a uniform global legal regime for the compensation of victims in the event of a nuclear accident. The move that will drastically curtail supplier's responsibility in addressing risks associated with nuclear projects is expected to lure foreign nuclear suppliers and facilitate foreign invest in a market with immense growth potential. "This marks a conclusive step in the addressing of issues related to civil nuclear liability in India," the foreign ministry said after the document was handed to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. The ratification of the convention on nuclear damage will supplement an insurance pool launched last year with a liability cap of Rs1,500 crore ($225 million) to cover the suppliers' risk of potential liability. The ratification comes a week after French utility EDF signed a preliminary agreement with Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) to build six nuclear reactors at Jaitapur, in Maharashtra. EDF is taking over the long-delayed project, which could become the world's biggest nuclear contract, from fellow French state-controlled group Areva, which will sell its reactor arm to EDF later this year. The Jaitapur project is at the preliminary technical studies stage after getting initial environmental clearance in 2010, EDF said in a statement. A contract for pre-engineering studies was signed by Areva and NPCIL last April. Major nuclear reactor suppliers such as General Electric have been reluctant to set up plants in India because of a 2010 liability law that made equipment suppliers potentially accountable for accidents. However, since India wanted to ramp up nuclear power capacity to reduce dependence on polluting fossil fuels and because of pressure from major nuclear supplier nations like the US, the Indian government decided to do away with the original liability clause and instead opt for a softer one. The government has proposed a ramp-up in the share of nuclear power from a mere 3 per cent at present to 25 per cent by 2050. The government proposes to construct about 60 nuclear reactors across the country and has been in talks with Westinghouse Electric Co LLC, GE as well as France's Areva for setting them up at select sites. Separately, Russia is building six reactors in southern India and is in talks for another six. Nuclear suppliers are looking eagerly at the Indian market, which is estimated at $150 billion, making it the second biggest after China's. EDF, meanwhile, has also agreed to a partnership between its EDF Energies Nouvelles unit and India's SITAC to build four onshore wind farms with a total capacity of 142 MW in Gujarat by the end of 2016. UK won't let Assange go, will contest UN finding The United Kingdom on Friday rejected a UN working group's ruling which calls for an end to the "arbitrary detention" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) announced on Thursday that Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain since his arrest in London in 2010, and he should be afforded the right to compensation (See: UN panel exonerates Assange, but cops waiting to pounce). Speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been taking refuge, Assange said, "How sweet it is. This is a victory that cannot be denied." "It is a victory of historical importance, not just for me, for my family, for my children, but for the independence of the UN system," he added. Holding a copy of the UN ruling, he continued, "What right do the governments of the US, UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years?" However, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described the ruling as "a ridiculous finding" by the working group, and accused Assange of "hiding from justice". "Assange is a fugitive from justice, voluntarily hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy. I reject the report from UNWGAD," Hammond tweeted. Hitting back at Hammond, Assange accused the foreign secretary' s comments of ''insulting the UN". "I found those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign secretary should express in this situation," The 44-year-old Australian said. Edward Snowden, a US intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower who has fled the US and taken refugee in Russia, criticised Britain's rejection to abide by the UN ruling. "This writes a pass for every dictatorship to reject UN rulings. Dangerous precedent for UK and Sweden to set," he said on his twitter account. British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) denied that Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Britain, and threatened to formally contest the opinion of the UN Working Group. "This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group's opinion," an FCO spokesperson said. The spokesperson noted that an allegation of rape against Assange is still outstanding with a European Arrest Warrant in place, and Britain "continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden". Assange has infuriated several governments, including the US authorities, by disclosing hundreds of thousands of secret files concerning Iraq, Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world. In June, 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and was granted political asylum by Ecuador two months later. 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. Willie J. Boler Check out East Niagara Post videos on YouTube, Vine and Periscope. TOWN OF LOCKPORT -- A 49-year-old Buffalo man was charged Wednesday with stealing $835 worth of energy drinks from Walmart.According to New York State Police, Walmart reported to NYSP on Dec. 31 that the suspect had stolen the drinks over the course of three visits to the store. The suspect, later identified as Willie J. Boler, was arrested following a lengthy investigation after an arrest warrant for 3 counts of petit larceny was issued out of the Town of Lockport Court.Boler was arraigned in the Town of Lockport Court and remanded to the Niagara County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail. He is scheduled to re-appear in the court on Feb. 25.Boler was charged by the Niagara County Sheriff's Office with a similar crime on Jan 13 Racism must be called by name if we want to undo the damage of conservative policies Call it karma. Call it poetic justice. But definitely dont ignore it. Non-white voters will decide who becomes the Democratic nominee for president. And non-white voters will decide who the next president of the United States will be. Former senior advisor to President Obama Dan Pfeiffer calls this quote from Dan Ballz almost all you need to know about the 2016 election: The Democratic primary has already turned out to be historic. Either the first woman or the first Jewish person ever won the Iowa caucuses. Both candidates are angling to out-progressive each other as Bernie Sanders is making the first full-throated case for single-payer health care by any major candidate in American history. And this is happening as the uninsured rate is at an all-time low with 9 out of 10 Americans insured. Whats most inspiring about Bernie Sanders and what Id argue is the key to his overwhelming appeal of his candidacy to young people is the passion and clarity he speaks to issue of our time: devastating income inequality created intentionally by conservative policies. The very rich are eating up the gains of our economy and using their power to propel us on a path to corporate feudalism. Since he was confronted by #BlackLivesMatters last summer, the Senator has made a noble attempt to offer policies that confront systemic racism. But thus far, his appeal to non-white voters hasnt been as strong as is to white liberals. That could change today. Ian Haney Lopez is the author of Dog-Whistle Politics, which explains how subtle and strategic racism has been essential in the conservative effort to wreck the middle class. This week, he teamed up to Heather McGhee to articulate how Sanders populist appeal fails to tangle with an essential fact: racism enables plutocracy. Lopez and McGhee offer a handy sketch of how Sanders can make this connection: This is the race story that Sanders and every progressive leader ought to be telling every time they step to a microphone. The reactionary economic agenda made possible by dog-whistle politics is responsible not just for the devaluing of black lives but for the declining fortunes of the majority of white families. College costs have soared because anti-government dog whistling has mainstreamed extreme cuts to state budgets. Union busting, which drives down wages and benefits for all workers, has become popular because the image of the union worker has been tarred: now not a white man in a hardhat but a black woman behind a bureaucrats counter. When conservatives vilify every modest public benefit, from healthcare subsidies to unemployment insurance, as handouts to the undeserving, the social contract is shredded for everyone. By exposing how the political manipulation of racial anxiety has hollowed out of the middle class, Sanders can elevate a simple message: When racism wins, everyone loses. Pursuing this line of argument would require remarkable courage given the tremendous effort conservatives have made to using the chimera of colorblindness to paint any attempt to discuss race as discrimination against white people. But for Sanders this kind of risk makes sense, given how much his candidacy depends winning over non-white voters. Hillary Clinton too has sought to address the concerns of #BlackLivesMatter and has been extremely outspoken in what may be the dog whistle issue of our time voting rights. Given her husbands history of appropriating conservative tropes and policies on crime and welfare (in the name accomplishing huge wins for progressives like expanding voter registration, reversing trickle-down economics, the Brady Bill, expanding health insurance and appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court), she has a special obligation or opportunity to make the connection between the right to vote and blatant racial discrimination. The nationwide push to make it harder to vote began in earnest after the 2010 election, when Republicans gained control of an unprecedented number of states, writes Ari Berman, author of essential book on the Voting Rights Act Give Us The Ballot. Their goal was to make the electorate older, whiter and more conservative compared with the younger and more diverse electorate that turned out in record numbers for Barack Obama in 2008. Republicans argue that the laws are about voting integrity, which is obvious bullshit given that America has no history of elections being swung by voter impersonation but 200 years of history of denying people the vote. If you dont think its a dog whistle issue listen to the arguments they make against opponents of the laws, suggesting that people who dont want to get ID are lazy or irresponsible, probably not even worthy of having the right to vote. They sound like the exact arguments mad in favor of poll taxes and literacy tests that denied black people the vote until the mid-sixties because they are. Does 94-year-old Rosanell Eaton sound lazy to you? Berman explains: Eaton, who is African American and grew up in the Jim Crow South, had to recite the preamble to the Constitution from memory to register to vote. She had been participating in elections for 70 years when North Carolina passed its strict voter ID law in 2013. Lawyers for the North Carolina NAACP played a videotaped deposition during the trial of Eaton recounting how the names on her drivers license and voter registration card did not match. To get her paperwork in order, Eaton had to make 11 trips to different state agencies in 2015, totaling more than 200 miles and 20 hours. In Texas, you can easily end up spending more to get voter ID than you would have on a poll tax. Given the Republican Partys reliance on white voters and unpopularity among minority voters, it should come as no surprise that the leading GOP presidential contenders have all supported tough voting restrictions, Berman wrote. These laws are only pursued and only possible because of whom the discriminate against voters Republicans would rather deny the vote than win over. And who loses? Anyone who hopes the government will at least stop feeding power and wealth to those who need it the least. The vilifying of non-white voters make the conservative movement possible. But until Democratic candidates boldly connect these policies to racism, the plight of minorities in America is trivialized and all of us suffer. Non-white voters will decide this election and both candidates should start paying them the respect they deserve. As the U.S. retail industry puts another long holiday shopping season behind it, a few changes appear to be taking place. For one thing, it appears theres a new recipe for success. Growing a business requires more than setting up a fancy website, placing inventory into a warehouse, and engaging a service to make speedy deliveries. Thats in part because customer expectations have changed. There are severe costs and challenges involved in building a successful e-commerce operation, and todays customers have little patience for an online experience that falls short. As more and more retailers roll out mobile payment services, its critically important that they ensure their mobile apps maintain the same digital performance experience that their retail websites offer, or risk losing customers who are trying to make purchases over their mobile devices, Dynatrace analyst David Jones told the E-Commerce Times. Millennials, in particular, are rather unforgiving of mobile shopping sites that fail to deliver, suggest the results of a Dynatrace-commissioned multinational Harris Poll conducted just before Black Friday. Eighty-one percent of millennials shopping with tablets or smartphones said they would walk away from a buggy, slow, or crash-prone mobile site or app. Also 51 percent of them said they would broadcast their bad experiences across social media, which could result in great damage to a retailers reputation. Overall, retailers must be ready to compete for millennial shoppers. Sixty percent of them planned to do more mobile shopping than they did a year ago, and 62 percent planned to use mobile apps in making in-store purchases, according to the survey, which included responses from 5,110 smartphone users in five countries the U.S., UK, France, Germany and Australia. Another key component of the mobile shopping experience is growing demand for retailers to offer a ship-to-store option. That typically involves a customer ordering from a home, office or laptop computer or smartphone app, and then picking up the order directly from the store. Some customers order on behalf of others from a remote location parents for their kids away at college, for example. For traditional stores to have both the proper inventory and the technology available to give customers the right product in a timely manner is often a difficult task, noted Curbside CEO Jarod Waldman. Curbsides mobile app lets customers buy from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, and quickly and efficiently pick up their orders. What weve developed at the core is a very noninvasive way to notify stores that the customer is waiting outside for pickup, said Waldman. Sears, which is facing brutal competition with Target, has been a leader of the trend to let online customers pick up merchandise on the same day. Sears, founded in 1886, started out as a major mail order department store, allowing customers both to buy in-house and order goods from the legendary Sears catalog which, for many rural customers, was the only means of accessing essential goods. Sears offers customers the option of making transactions online and then picking up or returning goods at a store, using the in-vehicle feature of the Sears app. They can drive to a designated parking area and pick up, exchange or return an item in five minutes. Were taking the stress out of shopping and letting them shop with us wherever, whenever and however they choose, said Leena Munjal, senior vice president for customer experience and integrated retail at Sears Holdings. Fulfilling the Order Another problem that plagues e-commerce companies is achieving fast, accurate fulfillment. Many online companies have large regional distribution centers with millions of products stored in large warehouses. To meet that need, Newegg deployed Honeywells Vocollect, which uses a combination of radio frequency and voice recognition-enabled headsets to achieve radical improvement in the performance of its warehouse workers, who process more than 10 million packages per year. The Newegg Memphis distribution center, which processed about 30 percent of its orders, was transformed from one of its lowest-performing facilities to one of the best, as the technology helped reduce errors by 23 percent, according to the company. The devices headsets that pick up SKU orders from warehouse workers helped reduce training time for new employees in an environment that relies heavily on seasonal workers. Were faced with the significant challenge of fulfilling customer orders on time, said Kunal Thakkar, senior vice president of operations at Newegg. Because we receive thousands of orders an hour, we need to invest in technologies to automate and optimize processes. Honeywell has worked with a wide variety of companies to make warehouse operations more efficient using the Vocollect devices. It has been beta-testing the technology with grocers in the U.S. and Europe that want to expand their businesses to process online orders at the store, according to Honeywell spokesperson Eric Krantz. Full versions of the Vocollect systems are expected to roll out during the first half of 2016, he told the E-Commerce Times. Overnight Delivery Delivery of packages to customers is one of the biggest nuts to crack in the e-commerce chain. It is not only costly and time consuming, but also chancy, in that it often requires the retailer give up control of the process to a third party. Amazon most famously fell victim to that pitfall during recent holiday seasons, when millions of packages were delayed due to logistical problems and sheer overload at the U.S. Postal Service, UPS and FedEx. Amazon has been testing various options to take control of its own delivery service. The company last year launched Amazon Flex, a two-hour delivery service that pays local delivery workers up to US$25 to deliver goods for Amazon Prime customers. Flex currently is available in the Seattle, Richmond, Nashville, Austin, Dallas, Baltimore, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis metro areas. The company also has begun looking into buying its own fleet of aircraft. It has begun testing its own truck fleet, and it recently acquired the remaining stake of Colis Prive, a France-based delivery company in which it held a 25 percent stake. UPS enjoys a good working relationship with Amazon, said spokesperson Natalie Norrington, but she declined to get into specific details of their relationship. Amazon is only one of many e-commerce companies that uses UPS services. Overall, UPS remains a massive distributor of e-commerce packages. The company delivered more than 300 million packages in 2014, Norrington told the E-Commerce Times, which averages out to more than 14.3 million per day. Forty-five percent of UPS e-commerce deliveries went to residential addresses in 2014. Residential deliveries as a percentage of total business are expected to grow by 50 percent over the next five years, Norrington noted. The company is aware that peak season delivery requires taking steps to expand capacity. During peak 2015, UPS increased its use of advanced scanning and sorting technology in more facilities to improve processing capacity, said Norrington, and upgraded visibility systems so that we had a more precise knowledge of all transportation assets during the holidays. Google this week reportedly pulled one mobile ad blocker from the Google Play store and prevented another from being updated. The moves come on the heels ofSamsungs announcement this week that it was opening up its mobile Web browser to ad blockers. AdBlock Fast, which was one of the first blockers to take advantage of Samsungs largesse, reportedly was tossed from Google Play. Rocketship Apps, the company that makes AdBlock Fast, did not respond to a request for comment for this story, but CEO Brian Kennish told TechCrunch that Google cited Section 4.4 of the Android Developer Distribution Agreement as the reason for sacking the app. That section bars developers from releasing apps that interfere with the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator. Policy Not Crystal Clear After its release, AdBlock Fast became the top app in the Productivity category in Google Play. That meteoric rise may have been the reason Google quickly removed the app from its online outlet, Kennish told TechCrunch. Another ad blocker for Samsungs browser,Crystal, reportedly also ran afoul of Google. When its development team tried to upload an upgrade for the app, it was rejected. The reason? Section 4.4. Other ad blockers can be found in Google Play. I cant comment on what happened to other apps, said Ben Williams, operations and communications manager atEyeo, maker of AdBlock Plus. I can just say that Adblock Plus for Samsung browser is still in the Play Store, he told the E-Commerce Times. Laconic Google While we dont comment on specific apps, we can confirm that our policies are designed to provide a great experience for users and developers, the company said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Joshua Cruz. Samsung was equally terse on AdBlock Fasts fate. We wouldnt want to comment about the issues another company may be facing, Samsung PR Manager Philip Berne told the E-Commerce Times. While Google is concerned about ad blockers, it has other concerns about the mobile Web, noted Gavin Dunaway, senior editor atAdMonsters. Better Mobile Experience Googles worried about ad blocking on the mobile Web, but theyre more worried about the user experience on the mobile Web, he told the E-Commerce Times. For example, Google in October launched itsAccelerated Mobile Pages program to encourage content providers to create mobile Web pages that load faster and consume less precious data. It will have an effect on ads because it means there are going to be more static placements, rather than anything crazy that will take up a lot of data to download, Dunaway said. The problem with ads on the mobile Web is that theyre not designed for the mobile Web. You end up downloading everything meant for the desktop Web, Dunaway explained. Theyre too big, and theyre just going to suck away your data. In-App Eyeballs While advertising on the mobile Web may be annoying to users, it isnt where most advertising is seen. Ad blockers are for the mobile Web. Users spend most of their time in applications, where there is still no ad blocking, Dunaway said. As long as theres no ad blocking there, I dont think Google is all that concerned, he added. Ad blockers are a problem for more than just Google, noted Greg Sterling, vice president of strategy and insight at theLocal Search Association. The industry as a whole is getting very nervous about this, he told the E-Commerce Times. Google is taking the hard-line position because ultimately it sees ad blockers as destructive to advertiser and publisher interests, Sterling said. Paying the Piper The problem is a simple one from Googles point of view, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. Advertising is how you pay for Android, he told the E-Commerce Times. If you put up an ad blocker, from Googles perspective, youre ripping off Google. When you decided to use Android, whether intentionally or not, youve agreed to consume ads to pay for this free operating system, Enderle noted. This is Google making sure you pay what they think you should pay. Intel this week released a new report showing some major improvements and continued challenges in its effort to achieve workforce diversity, and challenged rival companies to show their cards. The report comes a year after Intel CEO Brian Krzanich pledged to make improvements amid a sea of criticism about the industrys domination by young white males. He announced a plan to spend US$300 million to achieve certain goals in making Intels workforce more diverse, including reaching full representation in hiring by the year 2020. For Intel, that meant reaching 40 percent in diverse hiring, among other changes. Intel exceeded its hiring goal by achieving 43.1 percent in diverse hiring, achieving 100 percent gender pay parity across the country, and reaching parity in retention of diverse employees, this weeks report shows. The company also made improvements in creating a diverse level of corporate management. Unwavering Conviction First, and critically, we are absolutely resolute in our belief that diversity and inclusion are key to Intels evolution and driving forces for our continued relevancy and growth as a company, noted Danielle Brown, chief diversity officer at Intel. Although Intel made progress in some areas, the needle failed to move very far in others, according to the report. Intel increased hiring of underrepresented minorities by 31 percent to a total of 11.8 percent in 2015. The company ended the year with a workforce that was 24.8 percent female, an increase of 5.4 percent over 2014. It also increased hiring of women by 43 percent to a total of 35 percent during the year. Praise for Leadership Mandate Intel has created a top-down mandate to improve diversity at the company and challenged the rest of the technology industry not only to demonstrate some improvement, but also to increase the level of transparency about their efforts, noted Elizabeth Ames, vice president of strategic marketing and alliances at the Anita Borg Institute. However, much work remains to be done to achieve equal representation. Intel certainly is walking the walk in terms of increasing diversity at the company, observed Susan Schreiner, an analyst at C4 Trends. It looks like its investment of $300 million towards that end is showing promise, based on the narrowing of it workforce male-to-female representation, improved supply chain diversity, and efforts to deter harassment of female gamers, she told the E-Commerce Times. Not So Fast However, awarding Intel any pats on the back for its efforts may be premature. The diversity problem is deeply rooted in Silicon Valley culture, suggested independent technology analyst Craig Settles. Many of todays technology leaders came from the same inner circle of elite schools and networks, he told the E-Commerce Times. Many Silicon Valley companies in the 70s and 80s were birthed by entrepreneurs from a limited number of colleges, Settles pointed out. They recruited their good friends to be part of their respective inner circles, and those deemed worthy of venture capital funds had VCs fill out their inner circle ranks. The old boy force was strong. As the industry evolved, it reflected the fact that the leadership in many of those companies was cut from the same cloth, he said, and without changing the culture of C-level executives and high-level managers, the industry will continue to face the same issues going forward. Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5) To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020. Bogota, Feb 6 (EFE).- New competitiveness and development models for Colombia's palm oil industry will be discussed at the inaugural EFE Palm Industry Forum, which will be held Monday in Bogota and bring together government officials, researchers and business leaders from that sector. Participants in the forum, organized by Agencia EFE - Spain's international news agency - as a way to contribute to the development of Colombia's agribusiness sector, will include Agriculture Minister Aurelio Iragorri Valencia and the Trade, Industry and Tourism Ministry's deputy minister for business development, Daniel Arango Angel. These new models are based on the extraction of vitamins and phytonutrients from palm oil - an activity that experts say is 10 times more profitable than farming and refining operations - as well as the production of bio-lubricants. The market for palm oil phytonutrients is growing at an annual rate of 7 percent yet there is still not enough supply, partly because the extraction of this byproduct has always been in the hands of a small group of international companies. The phytonutrient business generates more than $1.7 billion annually and is mainly focused on palm oil's tocotrienols and tocopherols (Vitamin E); its carotenes (Vitamin A), sterols and squalenes, which possess antioxidant, anti-cholesterol and immune-boosting properties that are incorporated into functional foods and beverages; and vitamin supplements and cosmetic products. The guest speakers at the forum will include the executive president of the National Federation of Oil Palm Growers of Colombia, or Fedepalma, Jens Mesa Dishington. Hector Castro, the chief executive officer of Biosa, the first Latin American company to move into the business of extracting and selling palm oil phytonutrients; and Consuelo M. Ferrero, the CEO of Palmvit, a Spanish chemical engineering company that specializes in the extraction of vegetable phytonutrients, also will be among those taking part in the forum. Colombia is Latin America's largest palm oil producer, while Agencia EFE, with this forum, is debuting an activity in the Andean nation that it has already carried out successfully in Spain and Brazil. When you become a parent, you will do anything to keep your baby safe and think whats best for him. Whether it is for the little ones safety, security or health, you just want to make sure everythings seamless. But sometimes things arent the way they should be, and life takes you down an unfortunate path. Thats what happened to a dad in Kansas, where he shared an unfortunate photo of his babys foot to warn other parents against a dangerous condition that they may not be aware of. Just this September, Scott and Jessica Walker welcomed Molly into their family, which includes 3-year-old sister Mya, he told BuzzFeed News. When Scott noticed an irregularity on his daughter's toe. He and his wife took off the little girl's socks and revealed something bizarre. According to Scotts wife, she noticed Molly seemed to be overheating, so she took off the babys socks. Then, she noticed something strange on her babys toe. The baby had wrapped a piece of hair around her toe so tightly, it had cut into her skin. Doctors call the phenomenon toe-tourniquet syndrome or a hair tourniquet. Had a small scare this afternoon with Ms. Molly. What happened was new to me, but apparently not totally uncommon, so I... Posted by Scott Walker on Thursday, January 21, 2016 Dr. Julie L. Gallombardo, a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at New York University Langone Medical Center, told BuzzFeed News the condition is common and can be very serious if not immediately addressed. In Mollys case, her mom quickly removed the hair from her toe with a magnifying glass and tweezers. Walker said the babys foot is healed, but he realized the situation could have been much worse. Parents can learn from the familys story by checking their childs digits for hairs if they are crying for no apparent reason because the condition can pop up out of nowhere, Dr. Gallombardo said. On November 11, 1954, Syuiti Mori turned out the lights on a small group of fruit flies. More than sixty years later, the descendents of those flies have adapted to life without light. These flies--a variety now known as "Dark-fly"--outcompete their light-loving cousins when they live together in constant darkness, according to research reported in the February issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics. This competitive difference allowed the researchers to re-play the evolution of Dark-fly and identify the genomic regions that contribute to its success in the dark. "We hope understanding the genetics behind Dark-fly's adaptations will shed light on how genes are selected during rapid evolution," says study leader Naoyuki Fuse of Kyoto University. The Dark-fly project is the longest-running example of an experimental evolution study where scientists follow a population over many generations. It is also the first to analyze genome evolution in a multicellular organism adapted to a defined condition in the lab. The project was initiated by Mori as part of a series of experiments investigating how the traits of fruit flies are altered in response to changes in their environment. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a heavily studied model organism often used to examine genetic changes during evolution. To keep the flies away from light, they are reared in vials kept in a large pot painted black on the inside and covered with a blackout cloth. When the vials and food need to be changed, the researchers tend to the flies in the pitch dark, then use a feeble red light to check on their work. Fruit flies can't see this light because the species lacks those light receptor proteins that absorb red wavelengths. When Mori retired, he passed on the precious fly stocks to his colleagues at Kyoto University, who have maintained them continuously to this day. The stock of flies has now spent more than 1,500 generations without light. In human terms, that would be like sequestering generations of our ancestors in the dark for 30,000 years. Today, Dark-fly looks almost identical to normal (wild-type) D. melanogaster, but the variety is also subtly different. For example, Dark-fly individuals move around more in response to sudden light exposure, even after spending a generation in normal day/night cycles. They are also more sensitive to certain smells and have longer head bristles, which are sensory organs that serve as the fruit fly version of a cat's whiskers. Dark-fly also produces more offspring when kept in constant darkness than in alternating light and dark. But although Dark-fly does better in the dark than the light, is it more highly adapted than the wild-type to its dim environment? The team tested this hypothesis by housing the two types of fruit flies together, allowing them to mate at random, and then assessing the parentage of the flies that made up the next generations. The results showed that Dark-fly has a competitive advantage in reproduction over the wild-type when bred in the dark. Fuse suggests this might be due to differences in pheromone signaling when the flies select their mates, or to altered circadian rhythms of mating or sleep behaviors. Which genes are responsible for the adaptation to dark conditions? Previously, the team sequenced the Dark-fly genome, identifying mutations that distinguish it from wild-type. But not many of those genetic variants are likely to be responsible for the adaptations that help Dark-fly thrive without light; many of the variants may have no effect, or may affect unrelated traits. To hone in on the dark-adaptation genes, the team performed another kind of experimental evolution study. They first reared Dark-flies and normal flies in mixed colonies, allowing the two types to interbreed freely for 49 generations. These colonies were maintained in constant dark and compared to control colonies with normal 24-hour light/dark cycles. With each generation, those flies that produced the most offspring contributed more of their genes to the colony as a whole. As the genomes of the two types of fly mixed, those genes responsible for Dark-fly's unique adaptations should become more common in the colony kept in the dark. To find those genes, the team sequenced the genomes of flies at the beginning and end of the experiment and looked for genetic variants originating in Dark-fly that became more common only under the dark conditions. Such variants were located in 28 regions of the Dark-fly genome. From these regions, the researchers narrowed down the candidates to 84 genes. Among these candidates are likely the genes associated with dark-adaptive traits. These include genes that encode chemical receptors, and genes involved in pheromone synthesis, the formation of smell memories, and circadian rhythms. In future work, the team will examine the activity and functions of these candidates to link them to specific Dark-fly adaptations. "We will soon have the ability to try my dream experiment: using genome-editing technology to introduce defined mutations into the wild-type to try to reproduce the Dark-fly's traits. This would give us a precise molecular profile of this remarkable example of evolution in the lab," says Fuse. ### CITATION Dynamics of Dark-Fly Genome Under Environmental Selections Minako Izutsu, Atsushi Toyoda, Asao Fujiyama, Kiyokazu Agata, and Naoyuki Fuse G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics February 2016 6: 365-376; doi:10.1534/g3.115.023549 http://www.g3journal.org/content/6/2/365.full FUNDING This work was supported by GCOE program of Kyoto University, NIG Collaborative Research Program, and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science grants. About the Genetics Society of America (GSA) Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is the professional scientific society for genetics researchers and educators. The Societys more than 5,000 members worldwide work to deepen our understanding of the living world by advancing the field of genetics, from the molecular to the population level. GSA promotes research and fosters communication through a number of GSA-sponsored conferences including regular meetings that focus on particular model organisms. GSA publishes two peer-reviewed, peer-edited scholarly journals: GENETICS, which has published high quality original research across the breadth of the field since 1916, and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, an open-access journal launched in 2011 to disseminate high quality foundational research in genetics and genomics. The Society also has a deep commitment to education and fostering the next generation of scholars in the field. For more information about GSA, please visit http://www.genetics-gsa.org. Severe weather moved through the southern U.S. on February 2 and 3, and NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM core satellite examined the violent thunderstorms. On February 3, 2016 at 1851 UTC (1:51 p.m. EST) the GPM core observatory satellite flew over a line of storms extending from the Gulf coast of Florida through New York state. Tornadoes were spotted in Georgia and South Carolina within this area of violent weather. GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments measured the precipitation within the area. As the satellite passed above, GPM's radar (DPR) found that one powerful thunderstorm in North Carolina was dropping rain at the extreme rate of 112.96 mm (4.4 inches) per hour. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, data collected by GPM's Radar (DPR Ku band) were used to create a 3-D cross-section through the precipitation within the line of violent thunderstorms. Strong radar reflectivity values greater than 45dBZ (or decibel relative to Z) indicative of moderate to heavy rain, were returned to the GPM satellite from a few intense thundershowers. The dBz is a technical unit used in weather radar. The radar reflectivity (Z) of a cloud is dependent on the number and size of reflectors (like raindrops, snowflakes, hail or graupel). So, the higher the dBZ, the heavier the precipitation. The 45dBZ reading is equivalent to rain falling at 23.7 mm per hour (0.92 inches per hour). NOAA's National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Oklahoma reported at least 12 reports of tornadoes in parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia over the severe weather outbreak over Tuesday and Wednesday. Feb. 2 and Feb. 3. The SPC website indicated two tornadoes touched down on Feb. 3 in South Carolina and Georgia. SPC also noted many wind damage reports from this system. NOAA SPC said that an EF0 tornado briefly touched down just north of Farmers Market in Lexington, South Carolina. The tornado's path ran for length 0.6 miles and was between 50 and 75 yards wide. Several cars damaged/destroyed in car storage lot. In Liberty, Georgia, the Fort Stewart emergency management reported a tornado touched down near gate 7 in Fort Stewart around 5:01 p.m. EST and remained on the ground for approximately 10 minutes. In addition to these two tornadoes, SPC cited 20 wind reports. On Feb. 4, 2016 the official Facebook page for the Fort Stewart Hunter Army Airfield stated "As the cleanup continues, large dumpsters will be located around the housing areas to make it easier to discard unwanted items and debris. Most roads are open with the exception of Greene Street which will remain closed for several days. Although most of the roads are opened, please be careful; cleanup crews are still working in and around those areas." The Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) creates a merged precipitation product from the GPM constellation of satellites. These satellites include DMSPs from the U.S. Department of Defense, GCOM-W from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Megha-Tropiques from the Centre National D'etudies Spatiales (CNES) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), NOAA series from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Suomi-NPP from NOAA-NASA, and MetOps from the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). All of the instruments (radiometers) onboard the constellation partners are inter-calibrated with information from the GPM Core Observatory's GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and DPR. ### For more information about GPM, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/gpm or pmm.nasa.gov More than 15 years ago, David Warshaw, Ph.D., and coworkers discovered the precise malfunction of a specific protein in the heart that leads to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a common culprit in cases of sudden death in young athletes. Now, a team of scientists has used some of Warshaw's earlier findings to develop a possible treatment to prevent hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), an inherited disease that can cause the heart to thicken and stop pumping blood effectively, leading to heart failure. Warshaw, professor and chair of molecular physiology and biophysics at the University of Vermont (UVM) College of Medicine, wrote about the significance of this potential therapy for a "Perspectives" column in the February 5, 2016 issue of the journal Science. "This may offer a generalized approach to solving hypertrophic cardiomyopathy," says Warshaw, who is also an investigator in the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont at UVM. "I think it's extremely promising." HCM can result from different mutations of many proteins in the heart. One of those proteins, myosin, acts as a tiny molecular motor in every heart muscle cell. It pulls and releases on a rope-like protein, actin, in order to make the heart muscle contract and relax as it pumps blood. A mutation of myosin can "alter the motor's power-generating capacity" and make the heart work improperly, which in turn causes the heart to enlarge, Warshaw says. For many years, scientists assumed that the mutation caused the myosin to lose its motoring power, throwing off the whole heart engine. But in a study Warshaw published in 2000 in Circulation Research, he and colleagues found that the problem wasn't diminished power in the myosin; it was too much power with this mutation. "By analogy, placing the engine of an Indy race car (i.e., mutant myosin) in a stock car chassis (i.e., the heart's connective tissue matrix) could lead to internal stress and structural damage," Warshaw writes in his "Perspectives" article. "For the heart, this amounts to inducing cardiac fibrosis and muscle cell disarray that are characteristic of HCM patients." The team of scientists who found a way to address this problem - which they report in the February 5, 2016 issue of Science - are from Harvard Medical School, Stanford University School of Medicine, University of Colorado, and MyoKardia Inc. in San Francisco, a biotechnology company formed to develop such treatments. Using mice bred with the mutation, the team tested a small molecule inhibitor that dials back the myosin motor's power generation to a more normal level. The mice got the drug containing the molecule as early as eight weeks old, and amazingly it prevented the HCM from surfacing, according to the study. "When they gave the drug to a young mouse with the mutation, the mouse's heart developed normally," Warshaw says. Because HCM runs in families, an infant who tests positive for the genetic mutation could receive the treatment and stave off the disease, Warshaw says. Development of a human drug, however, would require much more extensive testing and many remaining questions to be answered, he says. Nonetheless, Warshaw sees great potential. In previous studies, he has found that mutations to other heart proteins also result in increased heart muscle power generation, in turn leading to HCM. The same molecule, he says, could still be used on the myosin motor to compensate and thus block the disease in those cases as well. ### The United Methodist News Service (the official news service of the denomination) has published an article about the UMCs ban on Discovery Institute from having an information table at its upcoming General Conference. I give a lot of credit to reporter Heather Hahn for being willing to talk with me to get Discovery Institutes side of the story. But there are some rather strange passages in the article. Take the following sentence: Because intelligent design starts with belief in a designer, who as Jesus said should not be put to the test, it doesnt offer testable hypotheses the way evolutionary biology does. There are multiple things wrong with this statement, which Ms. Hahn later told me was a paraphrase of multiple scientists. First and foremost, intelligent design does not start with belief in a designer. It starts with the empirical data of nature, and from this data it infers the existence on an intelligent cause. Second, intelligent design most certainly does offer testable hypotheses. Casey Luskin and William Dembski have both offered good discussions of this issue, as does Stephen Meyer in Appendix A of his book Signature in the Cell. You can read about some of the insights generated by intelligent design scientists in their peer-reviewed technical articles. Ms. Hahn did not ask me about this particular objection during our interview. If she had done so, I would have responded to it. Finally, there is the appeal to the authority of Jesus. The reference is to a passage in the New Testament where Jesus is tempted by Satan to prove himself the Son of God and Jesus responds: Do not put the Lord your God to the test (Luke 4:12). The implication seems to be that intelligent design is not only wrong, its a temptation straight from Satan! Wow. I guess that means Methodist founder John Wesley was Satanic for finding evidence of intelligent design throughout nature. The apostle Paul must have been Satanic for arguing that Gods invisible qualities can be ascertained from the things He has created in nature. King David in the Old Testament must have been inspired by Satan when he claimed that the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. And Jesus himself must have been inspired by Satan when he referred to birds and flowers as providing evidence of Gods care over nature. As weve made clear many times before, the inference to design in nature is not premised on the Bible or Christianity or Judaism (for example, you can find Greek and Roman thinkers who had the same idea). Nevertheless, many Jews and Christians throughout history have without question embraced the idea that nature supplies evidence of purposeful design. It is really over-the-top to imply that intelligent design comes from Satan. Then there are the comments in the article by Duke University immunologist Jory Weintraub. Weintraub is quoted giving effusive praise to the UMC for its stance on intelligent design and evolution: In my opinion, the UMCs stance on this topic reflects an open-minded, progressive, enlightened view that is absolutely necessary if people of faith are going to understand and embrace science without feeling alienated or marginalized, Weintraub said by email. This is exactly what the science community (which, itself, includes many people of faith) wants to see. Praising the UMC for being open-minded when it wont even allow an information table about intelligent design seems rather, well, Orwellian, to me. In fairness to Dr. Weintraub, when I emailed him about this statement, he said that he was only referring to the UMCs view that there is no conflict between faith in God and the study of biological evolution. Fair enough. But he wouldnt respond to my question about whether he supported the UMCs ban on Discovery Institute and that is what the article is about. Dr. Weintraub also wouldnt disclose whether he himself is a United Methodist, or what his own religious affiliation might be. Of course, he has every right to weigh in with his opinion regardless of religious affiliation. But the article makes a point to highlight that Weintraub works for the United Methodist-related Duke University, as if that gave him special authority to speak for the UMC. Given the context, I thought readers might want to know what his own religious views are. As a sidebar, the UMC article supplies a discussion of why natural selection matters to the understanding of things like malaria. Im not sure what this sidebar has to do with the UMC banning an information table by Discovery Institute. After all, no one in the intelligent design movement doubts that natural selection is a real process. It seems to me that the sidebar simply spreads confusion. After reading it, some people might assume (wrongly) that intelligent design proponents dont believe natural selection is a real process. I was never asked about my view of natural selection, and so I wasnt able to respond on this point. If I had been, I would have made clear that intelligent design proponents accept the reality of natural selection. At the same time, it is intriguing to me that the article highlights the role of natural selection in malaria. Malaria does provide good evidence for what natural selection can do. But as biochemist Michael Behe has conclusively shown in his book The Edge of Evolution, malaria also provides compelling evidence for the sharp limits of natural selection. Had Behe been interviewed for the article on this point, the sidebar would have been a lot more informative and relevant. A final point: When I talked with Heather Hahn, I told her I hoped she could clear up the mystery of who actually decided to reject Discovery Institutes application for an information table. The only thing weve been able to discover thus far is that the decision was made by the leadership of a larger group called the Commission on the General Conference. But who exactly are these leaders? Are they two people on the Commission? Three people? What are their names? When we talked, Ms. Hahn was going to try to find out, but from the article, it appears that the UMC hierarchy was no more forthcoming with her than with us on this point. They also wouldnt disclose to her the list of exhibitors who were approved for their General Conference, although Ms. Hahn tells me that this list will eventually be released. If I were a United Methodist, even if I opposed intelligent design, I would wonder why my church officials are being so secretive that they wont even fess up to who actually made the decision to ban Discovery Institute from having an information table. It strikes me that this sort of secrecy and lack of accountability isnt healthy for any organization, least of all a major church. Image: Satan Tried To Tempt Jesus, by James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum, via Wikiart. A.G. Krishnamurthy, the founder of Mudra Communications Limited who passed away yesterday morning after a brief illness is being remembered for his immense contribution in the field of advertising. The ad fraternity paid rich tribute to the founder Chairman and Managing Director of Mudra Communications. Remembering Krishnamurthys iconic persona, Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner, Bang In The Middle said, I worked with AGK closely for almost ten years. Whatever I am today is essentially based on what I learned during the time I spent with him. One incident that happened still stands out very clearly. And possibly changed the way I have always looked at awards. In 1991, my first ever film Ajanta Clocks picked up Commercial of the Year and Campaign of the Year at the CAG in Mumbai. I went down for the function, picked up the trophies and went back to Ahmedabad the next morning. I went to his office directly from the airport, and with a flourish I pulled out the trophies and told him that we had won the best two awards at the CAG. He simply looked at them, smiled, told me 'well done', asked me to keep them on his shelf, and went back to doing what he was doing. For a moment or two, I was taken aback. I mean there just was no thumping of my back, and overt celebration, and glee, and whatever else. It was just matter of fact. Maybe he did that to keep my head on my shoulders. Or maybe that was how he looked at awards. Just another day. Just another spot of brightness. Nothing earth shattering. Nothing to derail everyday focus. He looked at awards as plainly as that. That incident told me a lot and taught me a lot. That in the overall scheme of life and our business, awards are ephemeral. They come. They go. They cannot be the soul of being in this business. That's one lesson I have never forgotten. KV Sridhar, Chief Creative Officer, Sapient Nitro said, I have never personally worked with AGK, around late 86 he offered me a job at Mudra, but at that point of time, I joined JWT Bangalore. I also got to know him a lot through Balki. About four months back, we had a long telephonic chat for an interview which I did with him for my book. The discussion was on all the iconic ads which were done in the early times at Mudra. He shared a lot of interesting anecdotes and was very enthusiastic to come for the book launch. Praising Krishnamurthys contribution, Srinivasan K Swamy, Chairman, RK Swamy BBDO added, We have enormous respect for AGK. He changed the rules of our business, managed to recruit some of the best minds, very successful, but was never known to throw his weight around. Post retirement he was guiding a few companies in Hyderabad with whom we had the privilege of working. His knowledge of marketing and his business acumen earned a lot of respect from our team there. I have met him on a few occasions too and we always shared a warm relationship. He will stay in our memories forever. Subhash Kamath, CEO & Managing Partner, BBH India said, Indeed a sad day. May his soul rest in peace. Never worked with him myself, but have heard from those who did, that he was quite a man. Incredibly honest and straightforward and very very principled. Clients worshipped the ground he walked on, and so did many of his colleagues. I had the privilege of meeting him years after he'd retired from Mudra, when he was consulting with Reliance. I was with Bates at that time and he'd called me to pitch for Vimal. We eventually won that pitch and I remember being asked to fly down to Ahmedabad to meet him. What struck me was his incredible directness. Without wasting a moment, he said, "Kamath, you guys were easily the best, far above the other agencies. Before I award you the business, can you make me one promise? In Mudra, people used to call Vimal and Rasna as "AGK's accounts". Can you make Vimal "Kamath's account" at Bates? If so, you can take the business." But for now, let's silently salute a man who always stood his ground and refused to follow the fads and trends of the industry. Perhaps, in his own way, he was a blacksheep too. R.I.P., AGK. Even social media was abuzz with glowing tributes from industry. Here are some tweets from Sanjeev Kotnala, Naresh Gupta, CreativelandAsia, AmbiParameswaran, Ramakrishna Desiraju : Born on the 28th of April, 1942 in Vinukonda, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, Krishnamurthy graduated in History at the Andhra University. In 1968 he joined the Calico Mills, a big textile name in the 60s and 70s, to assist Smt. Giraben Sarabhai. In 1972, he moved to their Advertising Agency, Shilpi Advertising as an Account Executive and then joined Reliance Industries in 1976 as their Advertising Manager. Four years later, on the 25th of March, 1980, he founded Mudra Communications. In March 1991, he set up Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), the only advertising institute of its kind in Asia. MICA was set up to feed the growing Indian advertising industry with trained talent. He retired from Mudra on 31st March, 2003, and was The Chairman of AGK Brand Consulting. Read more news about (ad news, latest advertising news India, internet advertising, ad agencies updates, media advertising India) Hi, I have a question that I haven't been able to find the answer to. I have received my settlement visa to travel and enter into England between 15 April - 15 May. I am traveling to Europe for a business trip in a couple of weeks and thought it would be nice to go up to England for a few days after my business trip to visit in-laws before heading back to the States. Is it possible to do this? I'm unsure if I can travel to the UK before my Settlement visa says, even as a visitor for a few days. Thank you in advance! In our case, the border official stamped a date stamp without any endorsements or restrictions directly onto the visa / family permit:I don't know how things would work for you specifically, but I think you will probably need to see a border officer this time (and probably fill in a landing card again, though you won't need them anymore when you receive your residence card). If nothing else, it's probably a good idea to have the stamp as a record of the date on which you arrived in the UK. I would also think that your current registered traveller profile will need to be updated to reflect your change in visa status. Again, this is just my guess. It's probably best to check with border officials.I believe you've seen my wife's timeline in the other thread. Generally, the EU regulations call for the permits to be processed within 6 months of submitting the application. Apparently, UK authorities usually use up most of that time. 4-6 months seems to be the norm, at least based on what I've seen.I don't recall the exact timeline for the initial EEA Family Permit, but I think we went to the consulate on a Friday and DHL delivered an envelope with our passports the following Thursday. This was at the British Consulate in Dusseldorf; we were in Germany at the time. I would imagine things would be quick in Toronto as well though. EU regs call for those FPs to be turned around quickly. GraemeA said: Been searching the net 'again'. Found out I can visit a police station while in Spain to get the application form. Click to expand... Local Police - Trafic wardens with guns. Guardia Civil - They shoot first and ask questions later. National Police - like the UK bobbies. Hmmmm - no!There are three 'sets' of Police in Spain;To apply for an NIE or to sign on the list of foreigners, you need to go to an extranjaria. This is sometimes co-located within the National Police station but not always. Google the one for Alicante. Anyone can get an NIE at any time - you don't need a Spanish address,.Most places now require you to make an appointment. You have to turn up at some ungodly hour and get a ticket - only so many are issued each day. You then go back at the allocated time and fill in the forms. In some places, you then have to go back later (some times as long as two weeks) to get your NIE.Alternatively, you can go to your local consulate and get one there. Or, you can give someone power of attorney and get them to do it for you.The form (EX15) is available to download either from this forum or on the web in general. "At this stage we don't have an indication of what the likely fuel cost of running one pump will be, but we should have that within a week and we'll be able to asses that option," said Dr Schelfhout, DAFWA's Woodie Woodie project manager. "You need to go and ask growers what they want, so at meetings I attended in the Kwinana south zone, about 45km was the distance growers felt the trucks they have now, would be able keep up with their headers, bearing in mind we're only allowed to use pocket road trains in this zone. An elderly man was reportedly sucked out of a Daallo Airline passenger plane following a midair blast in Somalia. Man sucked through hole after plane explosion The incident reportedly took place at 14,000ft in the air after the explosion left a gaping hole in the cabin on the Djibouti-bound flight, just five minutes after take-off. U.S government investigators suspect the explosion to be a bomb, but are awaiting further inspection. Survivor Hassan Mohamed Nur told MailOnline: ''I saw the passenger, a man in his early 60s, get sucked out of the plane. There was a huge bang. A big hole appeared in the side of the jet and the man disappeared through it.'' Authorities have since sighted a burnt body 18 miles north of the Mogadishu airport. Elizabeth Hurley wishes she went to the gym "more often". Elizabeth Hurley The 50-year-old star insists she isn't at the stage in life where she can get away with consuming a box of doughnuts whenever she feels like it, but does regularly exercise at her country pad in Gloucestershire, south west England. She said: "I wish I went to the gym more often, but I don't. "When I'm in the country, I go for long walks with my dogs and don't really sit down. "But I can't have a box of doughnuts whenever I feel like it - sadly." Elizabeth - who has 13-year-old son Damian with former boyfriend Steve Bing - admits she tends to indulge in calorific treats now and again but tries not to consume too many sweet offerings because she finds it "exhausting" trying to lose weight. She added to Britain's Star magazine: "Beauty and health are definitely connected. I've been very concerned with healthy eating since I became a mum. "I do eat sweets, but I'm aware that it's exhausting to have to lose weight again if you put it on." Mary Elizabeth Winstead has described working on 10 Cloverfield Lane as an 'intimate experience. Mary Elizabeth Winstead 10 Cloverfield Lane is the much-anticipated sequel to 2008 film Cloverfield but was a project no one knew anything about until a teaser trailer dropped at the end of last month. Producer J.J. Abrams has since launched a viral campaign and the excitement around the movie is growing - I have to admit, it is one that I am really looking forward to. Winstead says that they filmed in a 'bubble' because so few knew about the projects. Speaking to EW, the actress said: "We were making this movie in this little bubble where nobody else knew what we were doing and there's really only three actors in the whole thing, so it kind of felt like this really intimate experience. "Now that it's about to come out, it's sort of crazy - like, 'Oh yeah, people are excited to see this movie.' I forgot that that was going to happen." 10 Cloverfield Lane sees Dan Trachtenberg in the director's chair as he makes his feature film directorial debut and move away from short projects. The movie sees Winstead star alongside John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr and follows the three of them living in a basement and are unable to go outside. 10 Cloverfield Lane is just one of the movies that we are going to see Winstead star in this year as she has also completed work on Swiss Army Man and The Hollars. 10 Cloverfield Lane is released 11th March. by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on The 66th Berlin International Film Festival is almost upon us and it is one of the most prestigious on the festival circuit. While shining a light on German film, the festival also invites filmmakers from around the world to show off their latest film projects. Hail, Caesar! 2016 sees the festival put together another very exciting programme and we take a look at some of the films that we are looking forward to the most. - Hail, Caesar! It is always exciting when a Joel and Ethan Coen movie is on the horizon and it is a while since we have seen the filmmaking brothers in the director's chair; Inside Llewyn Davis was their last feature film in 2014. Hail, Caesar! marks their return and the film will screen out of Competition and open the 2016 festival in fine style. I really am looking forward to seeing what they deliver with their latest comedy. They have brought together a terrific cast as Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Tilda Swinton, and Ralph Fiennes are just some of the names on board. The Coen brothers reunite with Brolin and Clooney, with whom they worked on No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading. The Coen's have always assembled impressive cast lists, but Hail, Caesar! could well be their most impressive yet as some of Hollywood's biggest stars have flocked to work with the Oscar-winning filmmakers. Set in the latter years of Hollywood's Golden Age, the movie follows fixer Eddie Mannix, who tries to keep some of the biggest actors in line. His job is made difficult when Baird Whitlock is kidnapped whilst filming his latest movie. Hail, Caesar! is set to hit the big screen in the UK at the beginning of next month and it is one of the March movies that I am looking forward to the most. - Genius We are huge fans of Colin Firth here at FemaleFirst and he is set to return with this latest film Genius, which will receive its world premiere as it competes for the Golden Bear at the festival. Genius is a biopic about literary editor Max Perkins, played by Firth. The movie will chronicle his time as book editor at Scribner, where he worked with Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The movie is based on the book Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg and sees Michael Grandage make his feature film directorial debut. John Logan in on board the project having penned the film's screenplay. Jude Law, Dominic West, and Guy Peace are on board as Wolfe, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald, while Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, and Vanessa Kirby complete the terrific cast list. Genius is a British/American film project and is loaded with some really great British talent that I cannot wait to see in action. Could this be another Oscar winning performance from Firth? I guess we are going to have to wait and see. - Midnight Special For me, Jeff Nichols is one of the most exciting actors around with Mud and Take Shelter already under his belt. The filmmaker is set to return with Midnight Special, which is another film that will receive its world premiere. Midnight Special will also compete in Competition at the festival and sees Nichols on writing as well as directing duties. Midnight Special sees Nichols and Shannon reunite for their second project together; they did work together on Take Shelter. This is also the first film for Nichols since the success of Mud. Shannon is joined on the cast list by Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton, Sean Bridgers, and Sam Shepard. Shannon will take on the role of a father who goes on the run with his young son after he learns his child possesses special powers. We are going to have to wait until April until Midnight Special hits the big screen here in the UK, but it is promising to be one of the science fiction movies that is not to be missed. - Alone in Berlin Another British actress to watch out for at the Berlin Film Festival comes in the form of Oscar-winner Emma Thompson as she is set to star in war drama Alone in Berlin. Alone in Berlin is based on the book Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada and sees Vincent Perez in the director's chair. Alone In Berlin is the third feature film of Perez's career and comes after Once Upon an Angel and The Secret. As well as being in the director's chair, Perez has also teamed up with Achim and Bettine von Borries to pen the screenplay. Thompson is set to star alongside Brendan Gleeson as they take on the roles of Otto and Anna Quangel, who are based on the real-life couple Otto and Elise Hampel. Set in Berlin in 1940, the movie follows Otto and Anna as they receive word that their son has died on the battlefield in France. The couple decides to resist and fight back against the Nazi regime... only to become Gestapo targets. Daniel Bruhl and Mikael Persbrandt complete the line-up and star alongside Thompson and Gleeson. The movie will screen In Competition at the festival and will battle it out for the prestigious Golden Bear. It has not yet been announced when the film will be released in UK cinemas. - Above and Below Nicolas Steiner is back with his new film Above and Below, which is the second feature film of his directing career to date. Above and Below is one of the documentaries to watch out for as it screens as part of the LOLA at Berlinale section of the festival. This movie follows five people who live on the edges of American society and don't really fit in. Far, far away and out of sight, that's where April, Dave, Cindy, Rick, and the Godfather are creating life on their own terms. From the depths of the flood channels under Sin City, to a reclaimed military bunker in the middle of the dusty, heated Californian nowhere land, to beyond the stratosphere where Mars now lives on earth. Each individual has been flung into periling circumstances on this rollercoaster ride called life. Through the hustle, pain, and laughter, we are whisked away to an unfamiliar world where we discover its inhabitants to be souls not unlike our very own. Above and Below has already been playing well on the festival circuit and is set to be unlike any other film that we will see at Berlin this year. - The Patriarch The Patriarch is a film from New Zealand and is another that will feature in the In Competition section of the Berlin Film Festival this year. The Patriarch is a big screen adaptation of the novel by Witi Ihimaera. Ihimaera is no stranger to the big screen with his book Whale Rider getting a movie makeover back in 2003. Lee Tamahori is in the director's chair this time around and has brought us films such as Mulholland Falls and Die Another Day. The Patriarch is his first film since The Devil's Double back in 2011. Temuera Morrison, Akuhata Keefe, Nancy Brunning, Jim Moriarty, and Regan Taylor make up the film's cast list. 1960s, East Coast of New Zealand. Two Maori sheep-shearing families, the Mahanas and the Poatas, are longstanding enemies and commercial rivals. 14-year-old Simeon Mahana, the youngest son is in conflict with his traditionalist grandfather, Tamihana. As Simeon unravels the truth behind the longstanding family vendetta he risks not just his own future prospects but the cohesion of the entire tight-knit society. - War on Everyone Tessa Thompson has made a name for herself this year with her role in Creed and now she is set to return to the big screen with War on Everyone. Playing in the Panorama section of the festival, War on Everyone sees Thompson as part of a very exciting cast as Alexander Skarsgard, Michael Pena, Theo James, and Caleb Landry Jones are all also on board. War on Everyone is the third feature film for John Michael McDonagh, who has already brought us The Guard and Calvary during his filmmaking career. As well as being in the director's chair for War on Everyone, McDonagh has also penned the film's screenplay. War On Everyone is about two corrupt cops in New Mexico who set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path. Things take a sinister turn, however, when they try to intimidate someone who is more dangerous than they are. Or is he? McDonagh is one of the most exciting filmmakers around and The Guard and Calvary were two great movies to kick off his career. I am looking forward to seeing what he delivers with War On Everyone. Other movies to watch out for include Miles Ahead, Boris Without Beatrice, Letters From War, and The Commune. The 66th Berlin International Film Festival runs from 11th February - 21st February. by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on Cut Capers have performed at Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Boomtown Fair, and toured Belgium, France, Holland and Ireland. Jimmy Cliff described them as "inspiring", and they've also shared stages with ska legends Neville Staple and Jerry Dammers. With their debut album planned for March, the band is bringing their vibrant sound to a wider audience both at home and further afield. Debut album 'Say What' is released March 4 We got the opportunity to chat to the group about their music, future plans and more in a new and exclusive interview - read on to find out what they had to say... For those who may be new to your music, how best would you describe your sound? Festival music! A fresh and energetic take on combining swing, ska, hip-hop and everything in between! What challenges have you faced in the music industry so far? Mmm, not getting beer on the rider... Yup that's got to be the worst! (laughs) How difficult would you say this career path is in terms of making a name for yourself? There's a few parts to that questions really. Within our sphere of festival-going music fans it feels like everyone is so interested in new music that we've all heard of each other! Right now we're just really enjoying ourselves and any recognition is almost a bi-product of that. We are certainly very appreciative of all the support we get on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook etc., and from the crowds around the UK and Europe! How important is it for you to have creative control over the work you produce? Right now it feels pretty important. On the one hand we are always open to good new ideas and suggestions. On the other hand, as a band our music is everything so we'll always aim to retain that spirit we have which is at the centre of all this. Where do you draw influence and inspiration from for your work? Mostly from live bands that we watch. We go to a lot of shows and festivals and always keep an eye out for what works and why it works. We all have favourite bands like Cat Empire and Caravan Palace, but there's always that universal musicality to a good band which you can channel into and get something out of. If you could collaborate with anybody going forward, who would you choose and why? It might be different for each of us, but... Cat Empire feels like the ultimate! Tell us a random, funny fact about you that not many people know. Nick crashed the van once, nearly blowing up a petrol station in the process. Tom is younger than 'Hero' by Mariah Carey, Jane is 67% glitter, Matt has the softest voice in the world. Mark is allergic to peppers. Eloy is from Galizia - the most badass independent community in Spain. Angel is not angelic at all and Dan, our bassist, has four hands. Do you have definitive aims or goals for your career? To continue playing to bigger crowds on bigger stages, hanging out and drinking beer together! What should we expect from you in the coming weeks and months? Our debut album 'Say What' is released on March 4 on Two Wheel Records. The Bristol Launch is February 27 at The Fiddlers. Then we will be touring and promoting it with lots of other shows and festivals later this year! by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on Wearable art is a new art form introduced with the invention of the sewing machine and its practitioners interpreting fashion the way they think it should be. Vince Quevedo discusses about Japanese influences in fashion and the techniques of creating wearable art. Results of these experiments were quite successful, giving women one way to express themselves. The famous designer Elsa Schiaparelli introduced use of unconventional objects and silhouettes as acceptable in high fashion. That's how you may have faces emblazoned on the front of shirts and jackets. Yarn on sleeves has hair for those faces, and plastic bugs for buttons. While couture fashion was out of reach for most women, the outlandish styles they portrayed were art forms worn on the body. It was this freedom that allowed women to be more creative in their clothing choices. Instead of going to a couturier, some people took on the task of creating original fashion using the best technique they could in producing these clothes. Those who can sew well and could interpret their concepts into something wearable, were able to mimic couture quality clothing. Those who did not have the skills still created original art that turned out beautiful or failed at making a successful garment. It is this differentiation that caused the variation of defining wearable art just as it is easy to determine good painting from bad ones. There is another contention among artists whether wearable art is truly an art form. While I believe the wearable art movement is still in its infancy, some of the driving forces that affect its legitimacy are technology, access, concept and skill. While making clothes does take a level of skill, it does not make one an artist. With technology giving people the ability to transfer their ideas into something a machine can interpret, it is almost always a pre-determined selection such as machine embroidery, machine applique, machine long arm quilting, sewing patterns and kits. Access to technology and lack of skills do not prevent anyone from calling themselves an artist. There are many sewing and quilt guilds as well as hundreds of workshops and conferences across America that are open to all. Women wearing vests they've made with flowers and butterflies with machine appliques or sewn by hand are the result of attending such a workshop. Cultural Influence in Fashion The nude, they say, is the naked body clothed in culture, yet fashion is difficult to define. One thing that comes up frequently in defining fashion is its ability to move fast within the confines of culture. Along with fashion, beauty is almost always intertwined in defining it yet culture has more to do with defining beauty. Fashion is a complete reflection of society. It seems, internationally, the western ideal of beauty was adopted and stood as a standard for all to follow beginning from 1760 to 1840. The industrial revolution introduced technology that exposed new scientific inventions and communication around the world. In the late 19th century, the rotary printer was invented and the fashion magazine was created. A good example began with copying naval military uniforms of the British by the Japanese soon after the Franco-Prussian War. In 1872, the Meiji emperor mandated men of the Imperial Court to wear western clothing consisting of a frock coat or hat or military regalia. In 1886, the women had to adopt the same rule by wearing corsets and bustles. It was during this period the Japanese elite realised a near-perfect imitation of western wear. The Mechanism of Change American advertising has helped distribute fashion especially after World War II. Reflections of lifestyles, fashions and trends made consumers aware of what was available. A massive amount of magazines were published just prior to the 20th century and among them was Vogue. In the forefront of American industries were fashion and publishing. The two united made for a unique blend that American women adopted and depended on for fashion news. France has been considered the fashion capital of the world since the country's influence in European fashion towards the end of the 18th century. Even with the world in turmoil and fashion magazines and advertisements terminated during the German Occupation, France withstood the challenges and continued to be the capital for fashion. The introduction of new collections by designers in Paris exposed the country to the worldwide fashion audience while earning high credentials from the world of fashion. In 1981, Yoji Yamamoto persuaded Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo to show their collections. These Japanese designers made an impact that influenced the fashion industry because it demanded female independency which was quite controversial at the time. Japanese Concept Post-Apocalyptic fashion has been part of the fashion scene since the 1980s when Japanese designers received international notoriety for a new perspective on fashion. Asymmetry, architectural shapes, bold textures, Asian nuances and subdued colours were mainstream concepts accepted as Japanese fashion. They questioned conventional attitudes towards fashion and were considered to be subversive to western standards of clothing. The Japanese fashion aesthetic took on complex, multiple and multilayered ideas as part of their normal approach to designing clothes. Segments of cultural pop assisted in the acceptance of the avant-garde lifestyle. The popularity of science fiction movies depicting the end and what life will be like after Armageddon or the Biblical Book of Revelations as concepts for movies have popularised the depiction of post-Apocalyptic life. First introduced in the 1980s, this unconventional design style was called The Day After and Post-Hiroshima. While Issey Miyake may not be the first Japanese designer to introduce Japanese-influenced designs, he was the epitome of Japanese aesthetics rooted in its country's history. Wearable Art Defined Difficult to define, wearable art is controversial among many art enthusiasts. "Serious" artists reject this new art medium that does not seem to fit the realm of fine arts. From painting and sculpture the top echelons of the art world, followed by photography then crafts. Crafts seem to be the best fit for this relatively new art form because it dealt with using textiles. While rejected by the fine arts for not having a concrete definition of what it is, fashion introduced the wearer as part of the work itself. Unlike the realm of dance or the use of space to build installations, wearable art doesn't require a level of intricate dexterity. Most wearable art takes the form of clothing without a sense of real meaning or purpose but rather, more for decoration. The usual materials used are fabrics and textiles of many forms. Sewing is usually the method used in producing these pieces of "art". While couture is the highest level of fashion, couture can also be considered wearable art. But not all wearable art is couture mainly because it may not have been produced using the best techniques and/or materials. The end product is mainly concerned with the concept of the design, rather than quality. There are many levels of wearable artists and some of them may not even consider themselves artists. What defines wearable art is its intentions. And the more serious art with concrete concepts and intentions almost always is considered couture. It is this undefined meaning that helps to cause this art form to be taken seriously by others. Moreover, it is the artists who separate themselves from sewing enthusiasts. Fibre arts, in comparison, are created by artists who specialise in the making of textiles. There are quite a few wearable artists who also consider themselves textile artists or fibre artists. But the two can be very different from each other, mainly based again on intentions. Techniques Used in the Making of Wearable Art Quilting Quilts are technically defined as three layers consisting of the exposed layer, batting, and the back. Quilting has been an American tradition which utilised old clothing to repurpose by cutting into shapes sewn together either at random or in prescribed patterns. This was a good way to recycle fabric into a usable object for warmth as well as decoration on the bed or the wall. The Art Quilt started during Victorian times as a way to use scrap fabric, mostly velvet and velveteen, to put together a quilt using random shapes of fabric. Seams were covered with ornate hand-stitching with thread and/or ribbon. Because these quilts did not resemble the usual symmetrically designed quilts, they were also called crazy quilts. Title: Sherukamaya (Quevedo, 1996) Small pieces of fabric cut and then re-sewn form the first layer of a quilt. This quilted panel garment was influenced by stained glass and liturgical clothing. Title: Susan (Quevedo, 2004) Stippling is the sewing of meandering patterns of stitching to create textures on the surface of the fabric. This design can be interpreted as wearable art or couture because of its conventional style yet unorthodox way of wearing clothes. Fibre/Textiles Arts Fibre/textiles art consists of printing, dyeing, painting, stencilling, discharging (take colour away), weaving, knitting, crocheting, and hand-stitching, among other techniques that can be used to create a wearable art piece. Title: Matrix (Quevedo, 2002) Originally, the fabric used to make this garment was black. Discharging takes colour away like bleach. Strips of fabric were uniformly cut into half-inch strips, tied together and made into a ball of yarn. These strips were then crocheted together to make the scarf and sweater. Digital Textile Printing on Textiles One of the most important technological advancements in the development of textiles is the use of textile printing using dyes. Overall, digital printing on textiles works very much like a regular desktop printer but on a much larger scale. Textile printers can be wide enough to accommodate 60 to 84 inches wide fabric of any length required for the design. Title: On the Seventh Day He Rested (Quevedo, 2003) This quilt was digitally printed on cotton sheeting and quilted using Channel or Shadow or Echo stitching, where one row of stitches follows another row of stitching a quarter of an inch apart from each other. Hand Manipulation Hand manipulation is literally the use of your hands to create special stitches or knots such as crocheting, hand knitting, machine knitting, embroidery, applique, knotting, weaving, ribbon work, felting and many other techniques using specific muscle dexterity. Title: Trebor (Quevedo, 2002) Strips of rayon fabric were cut and crocheted to make this sweater and scarf. The head piece was made from strips of fabric that were dyed, then stitched together again. Untitled (Quevedo, 2001) This vessel was created by cutting strips of thin synthetic fabric wrapped over a metal form that was then melted. Once cooled, the metal form was taken away and the fabric was plasticized. Untitled (Dewey and Quevedo 2011) Repurposing in fashion is about finding another reason to make something into another idea you can still wear. This fifty year old white wedding dress was ruined in many parts including the veil. By cutting out only the useful parts of the wedding dress, a new dress was made to fit the person who owned the wedding dress. Dyed to an aged and feminine look, this former wedding dress is now a vintage evening gown. Design Proposal This design proposal will include salvaging post-consumed textiles found in thrift stores and reclaimed retail depots. The concept for the design will be conceived from a story I wrote years ago that included societies created from having to protect themselves from a failing atmosphere resulting in an apocalyptic event due to war. These societies were conceived based on materials available to them from having to live deep into earth's surface. After centuries living underground, these societies apart and dependent from each other produced unique cultures based exclusively on what was available to them. Not all were successful, but those that failed equally had their own communities dealing with everyday events as well as those that were significant to their situation. From this narrative, a selected community and their fashion will be created. Considered to have succeeded in surviving this horrific event, these people were able to yield from a substantial amount of textile waste. These stories are a collection of communities throughout the planet earth. This unpublished science fiction collection of stories was started as a project to help student's jumpstart a creative and conceptual design process. Because communities based from different locations were used, parameters were created mostly based on environmental impact rather than societal but were not exclusive of each other. Experiential Learning and Interpretation The story selected to introduce this specific project came from a community rich with post-consumer products that were reused from procuring clothing to its most basic element without the assistance of technology. Strips of fabric were used to create new yarn or trims were put together to create fabric or newer trims. For this project, a store was located. It sold only pre-consumed products or things from another era. Many of the items in the store were from the 1970s and the 1980s with original prices as the final sale price. Rayon tapes of various colours were available and two boxfuls were used for this garment. Keeping to the original concept of not using any type of technology to create this garment, several tests were attempted that only used hand techniques such as hand-sewing, hand-knitting and hand-crochet (Figure 1). Hand-crochet was applied due to its ease of use and unique surface texture, when completed. Since each roll of rayon tape was discoloured because of age and dye lot, it was important to camouflage the colour inconsistencies to reveal a newer and coherent textile. Figure 1. Crochet Technique (Quevedo, 2000) Finishing the edges needed a sturdier yarn which the rayon tape could not provide. Instead, a two ply yarn was crocheted at the edges using a smaller crochet needle size for the sturdiness of the garment at the edges like hems and necklines. Style Selection The garment consisted of a dress and a jacket (Figure 2). This outfit was close fitted and seemed translucent owing to the transparency effect of the large crochet stitch used. Lining was not an option because the garment was crocheted. Stretch was an obvious compliment to this design for comfort and ease of care. An undergarment such as a swimsuit was intended for this beach cover-up or poolside hostess dress which has become part of the luxury market these past seasons. Companies are now producing swimwear that is not intended to get wet. They have expanded their textile choices to go beyond the usual spandex. Instead, these poolside garments were specifically designed for warm weather pool parties and cruises. Versace, Dior and Missoni are some of the companies that produced dry-clean only swimwear that is not meant to get wet. Many of the fabrics selected for these don't fare well in water. Sequins that fade in the sun or metals deteriorating from creams are a far cry from the wash and wear care labels. Summary Japanese fashion designers have made an impact in our fashion history. The rich traditions of Japan as well as the translation of the Japanese aesthetics have catapulted The End of Days and Post-Hiroshima fashion into the mainstream globally. The styles of Kawakubo, Miyake and Yamamoto encouraged a non-western visual of the avant-garde. This project has that sense of beauty and did not apply technology in the production of the piece. Crochet and dyeing were the only techniques used in keeping with the story. Creative writing can be a useful tool in fashion design. Stories most often create parameters designers have to stay within to stay true to the story they are helping to depict. Due to the story's environment, choices of materials have already been made for you as well as the style of garment, if the physical ecosystem is important to the story. This project was a good teaching tool to help student's jumpstart to a different approach to conceptual design. Because the results were very successful, this approach to teaching and designing will continue. Finished Garment up-closet titled: Konichiwa (2015) Finished Garment titled: Konichiwa (2015) Finished Garment titled: Konichiwa (2015) The block-printing style called 'ajrakh' is a legacy of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Renu Gupta writes about a craft that is now seeing resurgence. Ajrakh is an ancient block-printing method on textiles that originated in the presentday provinces of Sindh in Pakistan and the neighbouring Indian districts of Kutch in Gujarat and Barmer in Rajasthan. The word 'ajrakh' itself connotes a number of different concepts. According to some, it comes from the Arabic word ajrakh, which means blue, one of the chief colours in ajrakh printing. Other historians say the word has been coined from the two Hindi words- aaj rakh, meaning, keep it today. According to others, it means making beautiful. Although ajrakh printing is a part of the culture of Sindh, its roots extended to the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat in India during the times of the Indus Valley Civilisation, around 3000 BC. The Indus river was an important resource for washing fabric and sustenance of raw materials like indigo dye and cotton, which were copious along the river. Ajrakh printing thrived in India in the 16th century with the migration of Khatris from the Sindh province to Kutch district. The king of Kutch acknowledged and recognized the textile art, and indirectly encouraged the migration of Khatris to uninhabited lands in Kutch. Ultimately, some Khatri printer families migrated to Rajasthan and settled in and around Barmer province of British India, including present-day Gujarat, and excelled at the art of ajrakh printing. At present, the Khatri community is engrossed in consistently producing jrakh printed fabric of supreme quality in Ajrakhpur village in Kutch and also Barmer. Celebration of nature Ajrakh printing celebrates nature amazingly. This is evident in the aesthetics of the unification of its colours as well as motifs. The traditional colours found in ajrakh printing are deep, which symbolise nature. Crimson red symbolizes the earth, and indigo blue symbolises twilight. Black and white are used with a view to outline motifs and define symmetrical designs. Although the use of eco-friendly synthetic dyes is prevalent, the use of traditional natural dyes is being resumed gradually. Indigo is obtained from the indigo plant. Craftsmen used indigo plants growing profusely along the Indus river. Red is acquired from alizarin found in the roots of madder plants. Black is obtained from iron shavings, millet flour and molasses with the addition of ground tamarind seeds to thicken the dye. The contemporary ajrakh prints have intensely vibrant contrasting colours like rust, yellow and orange. The use of traditional elaborate motifs is still prevalent in ajrakh printing, which is the legacy of earlier generations. These are symmetrically-geometric jewellike shapes symbolising natural elements like flowers, leaves and stars. The most common motif found in ajrakh printing is the trefoil which is thought to be made of three sundiscs joined together to represent the cohesive unity of the gods of earth, water and sun. All motifs are stamped around a central point and are repeated across the fabric in a grid forming something akin to web-like design, or the central jaal. This jaal is made of vertical, diagonal and horizontal lines. Besides this web, border designs are also printed. The borders are aligned both horizontally as well as vertically and frame the central portion, distinguishing one ajrakh from another. A wider double margin is used to print the lateral ends with a view to differentiate the layouts of borders. Ajrakh is worn by males of the gypsy, Jat and Meghwal communities. The men wear safa, a shoulder cloth and lungi. People with lower incomes sport the ekpuri ajrakh, printed on one side. People from higher income groups wear bipuri ajrakh, printed on both sides. This is costlier, and is a status symbol. It is worn during ceremonies like weddings. Men carry new ajrakh lungis at weddings as shoulder-wear. On Eid and other special occasions, it is presented to bridegrooms. This craft is prevalent in everyday usage, like bed spreads, hammocks, dupattas, scarves and even gifts given as a token of honour. Processing ajrakh Ajrakh printing is a long and arduous process that requires a number of stages of printing and washing the fabric repeatedly with different natural dyes and mordants. The technique of resist printing is employed. This permits absorption of a dye in the required areas and prohibits absorption on the areas meant not to be coloured. The stages are elaborated below: Saaj: The fabric is washed to remove starch and then dipped in a solution of camel dung, soda ash and castor oil. Next, it is wrung out and kept overnight. The next day, the fabric is partially dried under the sun and then dipped in the solution again. This process of saaj and drying is repeated about eight times until the fabric produces foam when rubbed. Finally, it is washed in plain water. Kasano: The fabric is washed in a solution of myrobalan which is the nut from the harde tree. Myrobalan is used as the first mordant in the dyeing process. Next, the fabric is dried under the sun on both sides. The extra myrobalan on the fabric after drying is brushed off. Khariyanu: A resist of lime and gum Arabic (babool tree resin) is printed on to the fabric to outline the motifs that are required to be white. This outline printing is called rekh. The resist is printed on both sides of fabric using carved wooden blocks. Kat: Scrap iron and jaggery are mixed with water and left for about 20 days. The water becomes ferrous. Next, tamarind seed powder is added and the ferrous water is boiled to a paste known as kat and is printed on to both sides of the fabric. Gach: Clay, alum and gum Arabic are mixed to form a paste which is to be used for the next resist printing. A resist of gum Arabic and lime is also printed at the same time. This combined phase is known as gach. To shield the clay from smudging, saw dust or finely ground cow dung is spread on the printed portion. After this stage, the cloth is dried naturally for about 7-10 days. Indigo dyeing: The fabric is dyed in indigo. Next, it is kept in the sun to dry and then is dyed again in indigo twice to coat it uniformly. Vichcharnu: The fabric is washed thoroughly to remove all the resist print and extra dye. Rang: Next the fabric is put to boil with alizarin, i.e. synthetic madder in order to impart a bright shining red colour to alum residue portion. Alum works as a mordant to fix the red colour. The grey areas from the black printing steps turn into a deeper hue. For other colours, the fabric is boiled with a different dye. Madder root imparts an orange colour, henna adds a light yellowish green colour, and rhubarb root gives a faint brownish colour. In ajrakh printing, the fabric is first printed with a resist paste and then it is dyed. This process is repeated several times with different kinds of dyes with the aim of achieving the final design in the deep blue and red shade. This process consumes a lot of time. The longer the time span before commencing the next stage, the more rich and vibrant the final print becomes. Hence, this process can consume up to two weeks, and consequently results in the formation of exquisitely beautiful and captivating designs of the ajrakh. The role of the industries Water plays a significant role in ajrakh printing. Craftsmen treat the fabric with mordants, dyes, oils, etc. Water impacts everything from the shades and hues of the colours themselves to the success or failure of the complete process. The iron content in water is the decisive factor which determines the quality of the final product. Dhamadka was the chief location of ajrakh printing for a considerable span of time due to the favourable source of water. But after the 2001 earthquake, the iron content in water increased heavily and the water turned to be unusable. Thus, the artisans from Dhamadka village shifted to a new base and named it Ajrakhpur. They have taken initiative in harvesting water keeping in view the fragile eco-system. Ajrakh printing in Sindh, Kutch and Barmer, are almost similar in terms of production technique, motifs and use of colours. This is due to the fact that craftsmen in these areas descend from the same caste-families of the Khatri community who migrated to Kutch and Barmer from Sindh in the 16th century, and who are the descendents of the Indus Valley Civilisation. At present, the Khatri families are distinguished for carrying on with the traditional technique of ajrakh printing. This Khatri community had been involved in ajrakh printing in the village of Dhamadka long before the destructive earthquake of 2001. All Ajrakh printers were shifted to the new village of Ajrakhpur, which was set up primarily to commemorate the art of Ajrakh printing and its highly proficient artisans. It is chiefly the Khatris who have acquired perfection in this craft, and are carrying on the legacy of traditional technique of their ancestors. A plethora of problems Ajrakh craftsperson's today face a number of problems, which hinder work. Use of synthetic dyes and sophisticated machinery: Use of eco-friendly and synthetic dyes and sophisticated machinery which has lessened production time to a great extent is proving to be a threat to the age-old traditions of this textile art. Government loans: It is cumbersome for artisans to get government loans which in turn discourage them from setting up their own printing units. High cost of blocks: The high cost of wooden blocks used in Ajrakh printing imposes a great financial burden on artisans as one block costs as much as Rs 3,000. Crunch of water resources: There is lack of water resources which is a mandatory criterion for ajrakh printing in and around printing hubs. Lack of new craftspersons: Due to the lack of payback and great labour requirement, the upcoming generation is hesitant in adopting this craft as chief occupation. Traditionally, vegetable dyes were used by ajrakh printers, but soon they began to use naphthol dyes and synthetic dyes realising that vegetable dyes were proving to be too expensive. But with the revival of the craft once again, ajrakh printers have reverted to the use of natural dyes. New motifs are being added to the design library day by day. Earlier, the body and the border used to be same, but now complementary borders are in vogue. Thank you. Our team will contact you shortly. In a damning indictment of the apparel industry, a paper published by the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN), a human rights organisation dedicated to improving the lives of the marginalized in South Asia, says young migrant garment workers in Bengaluru live in appalling conditions and face restricted movement.According to the ICN paper, 'Unfree and Unfair' - an increasing number of young migrant women workers are staying in factory-owned hostels with poor living conditions while their movement is severely restricted. The wages of the workers do not add up to a decent living wage. In a damning indictment of the apparel industry, a paper published by the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN), a human rights organisation # The hostels are run by garment factories in Bangalore that produce for leading multinational brands like C&A, H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, Inditex and GAP. These companies have promised a number of specific actions to provide migrant garment workers with better living conditions in Bangalore.Unfree and Unfair explains the conditions for migrant workers in four garment factories K Mohan, Texport Industries, Arvind and Shahi Exports located in Bangalore, the major hub for the garment industry in South India. Arvind Ltd. Exports produces garments for H&M and Shahi Exports is a long term supplier for C&A. The research is based on a mix of desk research and interviews with 110 workers, additional discussions with workers from other factories and interviews with members of the Garment Labour Union (GLU) in Bangalore."Nothing is good. But we are staying here because we have to live and there is no other way," said a worker at Arvind about the conditions at the factory-owned hostels for migrant workers. Women workers are only allowed to leave the hostel once a week, which is usually for two hours on Sundays. They can only leave the hostel after registering with the security guard, who some think has to "... ensure that we do not leave for our villages after taking our salary." Workers also complain that they are not allowed to take leave.The workers are generally unhappy with the available facilities and the lack of provisions for recreation. All hostels run by the garment factories lack basic amenities, such as proper furniture, cupboards, beds and mattresses. In most cases, money is deducted from the workers' salary for accommodation, electricity and water. As reported by workers staying at the Arvind-run hostel, there is no kitchen facility, the hostel is not clean and the water supply is irregular. The migrant workers do not speak or understand the local language, which makes them more vulnerable for exploitation. For example, K Mohan factory had separate hostels for migrant workers from North India, who paid around Rs 2045 for food and accommodation, while local workers paid around Rs 1439 per month for the same in their own hostels.On average the garment workers receive between Rs 7,196 and Rs 8,711 per month, which is just above the official minimum wage in the range between Rs 7,045 to Rs 7,802 with effect from April 1, 2015. However, these wages do not add up to a decent living wage. FESPA has named Kornit Digital as FESPA Textile Corporate Partner and D.Gen as Digital Textile Partner, and expects these partnerships to benefit the FESPA visitor due to the combined knowledge.Quoting Oliver Luedtke, director, marketing EMEA at Kornit Digital, a FESPA press release said, FESPA Textile is the largest event for digital textile printing and we're delighted to be Corporate Textile Partner. FESPA has named Kornit Digital as FESPA Textile Corporate Partner and D.Gen as Digital Textile Partner, and expects these partnerships to benefit the# One area where FESPA excels is in educating other print sectors, be that digital or analogue on the opportunities digital textile printing presents, he added.Andrea Negretti, worldwide business manager at D.Gen too said, Over the years we have worked together, the awareness of digital textile solutions has grown.To be FESPA Digital Textile Partner is very encouraging for us as it highlights the expertise and experience we can bring to the table in answering questions regarding fabrics and their applications, he too added.Roz Mcguinness, FESPA divisional director stated, With the backing and support of both Kornit and D.Gen for FESPA Textile, we are confident that we have experienced and knowledgeable partners on board.They will help us propagate the textile messages to visitors, encouraging them to get the most out of both the exhibition and conference programme and highlighting new opportunities for their businesses, he informed.Both companies have longevity in this industry and can offer printers the benefit of their experiences to help shape the future, Mcguinness observed. (AR) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India In the latest version (3.0) of the Step standard, Oeko-Tex has revised and made modifications to the criteria's which came in to effect from February 1, 2016.Step gives brands, retailers, and manufacturers the opportunity to have each area of their company facilities analysed and assessed according to environmental and social criteria by an independent body. In the latest version (3.0) of the Step standard, Oeko-Tex has revised and made modifications to the criteria's which came in to effect from February # The Step list of excluded harmful substances for textile production like 'Manufacturing Restricted Substances List' (MRSL) now complies with the requirements of the ZDHC initiative.Facilities that have been accorded Step therefore already meet the ZDHC specifications with regard to the use of specific process chemicals that are to be removed from textile production by 2020, it said.Companies already certified in accordance with Step will comply with the MRSL criteria of the ZHDC after the next successful conformity audit at the latest, Oeko-Tex added in a press release.In the 'Environmental Performance' module, the previous requirements have been expanded to include an additional point on handling sludge from waste water treatment.Sludge must be stored by companies with Step certification in a way that rules out any ground contamination.Oeko-Tex has recommended that sludge residues of this type always be disposed of by professionals in accordance with environmental protection regulations.If the sludge is used for agricultural purposes, the new harmful substance limit values defined in appendix G8 must be complied with unless national statutory provisions have stricter requirements for them, it observed.In the new Step standard, the 'Social Responsibility' module contains minor amendments to further improve employee working conditions.For instance, certified companies in the future will have to satisfy statutory regulations relating to a suitable level of maternity protection.If there are no statutory regulations, the companies are encouraged to define their own company guidelines to ensure paid maternity leave in the context of ILO Core Labour Standard 183, the testing institute noted.The overview of third-party certifications accepted by Oeko-Tex, which is included in appendix C of the Step standard, has been expanded to include an additional category for ethical standards.In this, the Responsible Down Standard (RDS) has now been explicitly listed as a reference tool that Step certified companies can use to provide evidence of the responsible procurement of feathers and down. The textile industry in Zamfara, a state in northwestern Nigeria, has urged the federal government to provide improved cotton seeds and modern textile machines to revive the nation's ailing textile industry, according to Nigeria's official news agency. Alhaji Sani Muhammad, the administrative secretary of a textile mill in Zamfara, requested the government to provide quality cotton seeds, since farmers who produced cotton for the mills have now switched to other crops due to the collapse of the sector. Muhammad further requested the government to ban import of foreign fabrics. The import of textile materials had led to the collapse of the nation's textile sector and if the import of textile goods were not stopped, surviving local mills would be operating at a loss, he said. The textile industry in Zamfara, a state in northwestern Nigeria, has urged the federal government to provide improved cotton seeds and modern textile# Welcoming government's plan to improve power and fuel supply, he requested the government to support farmers in order to produce quality fabrics which would compete with the foreign players. The chairman of Ginners Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Sani Dahiru, blamed the negligence of the agricultural sector for poor cotton production and collapse of the textile industries. He advised the government to provide trained agricultural extension workers to assist the cotton farmers to meet the needs of the surviving mills. The director, federal ministry of agriculture in the state, Alhaji Musa Raji, said that the ministry is ready to supply improved seeds and fertilisers to the farmers, and would also offer professional advice to them. On a similar note, the state commissioner for information, Alhaji Umar Jibo, said that the government would provide ready markets to the cotton farmers and other stakeholders. (NA) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India The Cotton Campaign, a global coalition of human rights, labor, investor and business organizations dedicated to eradicating child labor and forced labor in cotton production, has urged the US government downgrade Uzbekistan to its lowest level in its upcoming trafficking report in response to the country 's continued use of forced labour in cotton harvests.According to the Cotton Campaign report, the Uzbek government in 2015 not only failed to comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards of prohibiting, punishing, deterring and taking serious efforts to eliminate trafficking, but also continued to implement a state policy of forced labour. The Cotton Campaign, a global coalition of human rights, labor, investor and business organizations dedicated to eradicating child labor and forced# The only appropriate ranking for Uzbekistan in the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report is Tier 3. The Tier 3 ranking would communicate to the Uzbek government that its policy and practice of forced labor is unacceptable and encourage the Uzbek government to implement the raft of commitments it has made to apply international conventions prohibiting forced labour, Cotton Campaign said in its report.The US apparel and footwear industry has also urged the American government to downgrade Uzbekistan to its lowest level in the trafficking report .The Cotton Campaign's call to downgrade Uzbekistan has been endorsed by a group of 36 industry associations, brands, and labour and retail groups including the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA).Cotton Campaign said the government of Uzbekistan continued to organize, orchestrate and benefit from forced labor on a massive scale in 2015. The government used coercion to mobilize farmers to cultivate cotton for the centralized system of production; those who failed to comply were penalized.The report went on to say that the Uzbek government remained complicit in limited instances of forced child labour for cotton production in 2015.The state forced-labour system resulted in deaths and undermined health care and education services and businesses, the report said.According to Cotton Campaign, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reaffirmed the existence of forced labor in Uzbekistan's cotton sector.The Cotton Campaign report also pointed out that the government of Uzbekistan continued human rights violations in the cotton sector despite its engagement with the ILO in 2015. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India The Prime Minister Hon Voreqe Bainimarama has sent well wishes to the Government and people of New Zealand as they commemorate 176 years since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. In a letter to his New Zealand counterpart, the Rt Hon. John Key, Prime Minister Bainimarama said Fiji values its relations with New Zealand and expressed pleasure at the recent developments in bilateral and multilateral relations between the two countries. "Dear Prime Minister, as you commemorate the 176th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February, I convey to you the warm greetings and best wishes of the Government and the people of Fiji. Fiji values its ties with New Zealand and is pleased with the warming relationship that has evolved in the last fifteen months through various re-engagement opportunities at bilateral, regional and international levels." In his letter, the Prime Minister said that Fiji and New Zealand can work together to address some of the common challenges facing the region - in particular, the issue of Climate Change. "I am confident that the cordial links that now exist between our two countries will continue to strengthen in order to provide the enabling space for collaboration on the common challenges of peace, security, climate change and the protection of our oceans and seas", the Prime Minister said. "We wish you and all the people of New Zealand a joyous celebration in the true spirit of Waitangi Day." (File photo of Prime Minister Bainimarama meeting New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon. John Key at a meeting at the United Nations) HON PM BAINIMARAMA REMARKS AT THE DEVESH AND BHAROS NURSERY Ni sa bula vinaka and good morning to you all.It is a joy for me to be here and see this splendid business, which is the result of one mans vision and one mans sweat and sacrifice. It is a fine example of the ingenuity and drive that we Fijians have, and it is an example for all Fijians to follow.This flourishing Devesh and Bharos Nursery proves that there is opportunity in Fiji, and that the Fijian people know how to seize that opportunity. It is governments job to do three basic things. Government needs to establish economic policies that encourage investment and reward good ideas. It needs to clear away unnecessary obstacles to entrepreneurship and investment. And it needs to develop programs that can provide targeted support to propel small businesses to the next level.That is what has happened here. On the surface, we are here to see how a government grant of a little more than $19,000 has funded materials for a seedling bench, water tank, pressure pump and borehole. But really, we are here to bear witness to how one energetic and intelligent young man has built a thriving business, and how government and non-governmental organisations have had the wisdom to invest in him. I say that because government, banks and other assisting organisations, when providing such assistance, actually invest in people. If a person has good ideas, a good plan and good character, then that persons project will be a good investment.Mr. Devesh Nath, who founded this business, is only 28 years old. He has a diploma in computing and economics, but his vision drew him to agriculture. He started his nursery business in 2008 with the idea of supplying vegetable and fruit seedlings to farmers, and he set up a small nursery beside his house. The next year, thanks to loans from a bank and from family members, he bought a new piece of land and was able to extend the nursery and erect proper structures.He also had help from a well-known NGO, Market Development Facility, and from the Ministry of Agriculture.His business grew steadily, and in 2013, he was named Young Farmer of the Year at the 2013 Crest Agricultural Show in Lautoka.Today, just six years after he took the risk to expand his business, this nursery has the capacity to produce 240,000 potted seedlings and 450,000 seedlings in trays at one time. Some 400 to 500 farmers get seedlings from this nursery, so Mr. Devesh already has a huge impact on Fijian agriculture.Mr. Devesh also has a 38-acre farm where he uses about eight acres to produce vegetables for the export market. Each week, he supplies vegetables to Tropiko and Green Valley exports. He has enough work for 10 permanent employees and five casual labourers, and if the past is any indication, I expect that number to grow.Ladies and gentlemen,It takes a great deal of courage to do what Devesh Nath has done. It fills me with pride and hope when I see a young person who was barely out of school, and who through wise management, sound planning and strong knowledge of the market, build a successful business such as this. How many other Fijians are putting a vision to the test? How many other Fijians have small businesses today that will make people stand up and take notice tomorrow? Many, I am sure.I have had the honour to distribute many grants to small and micro-businesses around the country. When I look into the eyes of the people receiving those grants, I know that many of them have the drive and ingenuity to create something truly important. And I think Devesh Nath and this nursery should be a source of inspiration and encouragement to them all.When I talk about a new Fiji, a Fiji that is focused on the future, a Fiji that does not accept mediocrity or second-class status, this is what I seeforward-looking businesses like this one, in agriculture, in technology, in retail and in manufacturing. We have a bright future, and our young people will take us there.Ladies and gentlemen,Allow me to use that observation to make another: Fiji is not the same country we were at our independence, or even the same country we were ten years ago. We are making our own future, determining what kind of nation we will be, what kind of people we will be. And that is why I am asking the people of Fiji to help us adopt a new flag.I have served under our current flag with pride as a military officer and your Prime Minister, and I love it. But while that flag took us out of the past, I would like us to have a flag that takes us into the futureto where we are going rather than from where we have been. The new flagalways with our beloved Fiji bluecan stand for the kind of people we are, the kind of nation we aspire to be, and the kind of country we will leave to these children. It can stand for people like Devesh Nath and many others who have the drive and commitment to turn a dream into a successful project.We have established a transparent process for choosing a new flag, and I ask you all to participate. We are accepting design submissions until February 29, and then we will select five designs to put before the people. There will be a national consultation during which time you will be able to tell us which design you like best.I believe we will love whichever design we choose as much as we have grown to love our current flagbecause it stands for Fiji. It stands for us. The new flag will tell the world that Fiji is a modern country, a leader in the Pacific, and a country on the move.Devesh, Congratulations to you and we wish you all the best.Vinaka vakalevu. HON PM BAINIMARAMA SPEECH AT OPENING OF NAVUTU GROUNDWATER RETICULATION PROJECT Bula vinaka and a good afternoon to you all.Its a pleasure to be here with you all today to wrap up my tour of the Western Division here in Navutu. The past two weeks that Ive spent in the West have been quite special. Its been a privilege to be among so many hard-working, deserving Fijians as they open new infrastructure projects and receive some services for the first time.Ive seen schools, villages, community centers, fisheries, farms, bridges and a wide variety of other developments and Ive had the chance to meet and speak with Fijians all over the West and hear their dreams and their ideas for the future.There is no better way for me to understand the challenges our people face than to get out and spend time in our communities all over Fiji. My Government can only know whats best for Fiji if we spend less time talking and more time listening. Listening to your stories, listening to your problems and listening to what you believe your communities need.Many of the projects I oversaw were brought to my attention on a personal, one-on-one basis, and now theyve become a reality. Ive come back, not only to see the difference these projects will make, but to keep my ear to the ground, so that we can keep building up the Western Division in ways that are responsive to your needs.My Government has a grand vision for what we believe Fiji can become a modern and thriving economy with quality living standards for all throughout all of our divisions. But if we are to build that new Fiji, we need to make sure we are standing on a solid foundation.Access to clean water is the most important building block for future development. Here in Navutu, consistent and adequate access to water has been a need for many years. Your community has been reliant on your nearby creek to keep hydrated and stay clean. Sourcing water from a creek is not only inconvenient; its unreliable and also extremely unhealthy. When faced with dry spells, the creek can dry up, leaving you helpless. That is a burden you have had to bear for far too long.Water is our most valuable natural resource. It is the fluid of life, and it is something every Fijian is entitled to. Our Constitution has enshrined for all time the right of every Fijian to have clean and safe water in adequate quantities. That is a responsibility of my Government to ensure and it is one we are fully prepared to meet.This Navutu groundwater reticulation project has drilled deep into the ground to provide 24/7 access to water for your community. I understand this is not the first attempt to provide you all with a reticulation system but I can assure you we have provided the right resources and materials to make sure this system will not let you down. The days of poor construction and costly maintenance are over, and my Government will keep a close eye on this project so it fulfils its vital purpose for Navutu.This new reticulation system has been completed at a cost of $39,131 and will serve not only the eleven families nearby, but also two churches in total, benefitting over 100 people. I was happy to see that ten casual workers for Navutu were also involved with the construction of this system, bringing valuable knowledge and expertise to your community as well.I was also happy to be informed that this assistance to your community doesnt end today. The Mineral Resources Department will continue to conduct awareness on the proper usage and management practice of this borehole so that this system can be maintained and properly cared for.Ladies and gentlemen,Developments such as this are taking Fiji in a new direction. Many cries for help that went unanswered by past governments are being addressed as we spread Fijis economic success to every corner of our country. This is truly a new Fiji, a Fiji that moves us forward, united into the future.Our new Fiji deserves a symbol that captures that new energy and ambition, and that is why we are finding a new national flag. Our current flag has flown well and I have proudly served under it for many years but Fiji deserves a flag that represents our rich history and proud people. A flag that represents all weve accomplished and all we have yet to achieve.The deadline for flag submissions has been extended until 29 February. In March, we will announce the final five flag designs and consult the public on their preferences. Then, on Constitution day, which is 7 September, we will raise a new flag that captures all we are as a country. A new flag that our children can look at and say, This is Fiji. This is who we are.Every additional voice that brings ideas or opinions to the table will make our new flag even better. So I encourage all of you to submit designs and participate in our public consultations. This will be a flag for everyone, so it is only right that everyone have the chance to have their say.As I end my tour of the West, I would like to say again how pleased I have been to meet so many members of our Fijian family in the Western Division. These past two weeks have been filled with many moments of gratitude for the developments that have arrived and many moments of excitement for what we as Fijians are capable of accomplishing.Projects, such as this water reticulation project, will allow your hard-work to see even greater returns down the road and all of this will contribute to building a better Fiji for all.Thank you. Vinaka vakalevu. Bipasha Basu, who has found new love with Karan Singh Grover, says a lot of people want her to get engaged or married to Karan Singh Grover as soon as possible. Karan Singh Grover and Bipasha Basu, share a special bond with each other and were seen cozying up in Maldives during the New Year and birthday celebrations. Now Bipasha's mother, friends and relatives want her to get engaged with KSG at the earliest. However, Bipasha Basu says she does not believe in engagements and loves her life to the fullest. Bips was quoted as saying, "Everyone, including my mom wants me to get married! I don't believe in engagements. When I get married the whole world will know. Right now, I am too much in love with life!" Karan Singh Grover, has now become a part of Bipasha's family as well, and the Hate Story 3 actor was seen at Bipasha's younger sister's housewarming ceremony. KSG, was spotted spending time with Bapasha's grandmother, aunts and relatives. Awesome! Katrina Kaif & Aditya Roy Kapoor Kiss Each Other For Three Minutes In Fitoor Shahrukh Khan's upcoming film, Raees is one of the most anticipated films of year 2016, and no doubt in that. We got our hands on the exclusive pictures of Shahrukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, from the sets of Raees. SRK was seen in a traditional attire, portraying his character 'Miyanbhai' and he is looking damn hot. While, Nawazuddin was seen sporting an undercover 'cop' look, which he totally owns. Check out the pictures here: Currently, the shooting of SRK starrer is going on in Bhuj, Gujrat. Recently, Raees was in news, as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad members threatened to disrupt its shooting. Raees In Trouble? Reportedly, the VHP members protested against the shooting of the movie in the district. But producer Ritesh Sidhwani took to Twitter to clarify that the film has received co-operation from government and police force and everything is going well. "No disruption on Raees set in Bhuj shooting on schedule with full co-operation from government & police force...," he tweeted. Around 20-30 VHP activists had handed over a memorandum to district officers and demanded withdrawal of the permission given for the shooting of the film. They protested outside the District Collectors office pressing for the same demand. They shouted slogans against Shah Rukh and also burnt his posters. Directed by Rahul Dholakia, the film also casts Pakistan's popular actress, Mahira Khan, who will debut in Bollywood through this film. Shakti Arora Shakti wrote, "Its a wrap up for meri aashiqui tum se hi ..hav such wonderful memories..wil cherish forever.. Thnks fr all the love and adulation @colorstv @mohitvijayabrol @radhikamadan @smriti_khanna #meriaashiqui #rv #shaktians #memories #willmissitsomuch @ekmainaurektu7 @hardik_thakkar_." Smriti Khanna Smriti Khanna, who played the role of Ritika took to her social networking site. She posted the image (Slide 1) and wrote, "The teary smiles ....and its a wrap up! #TheEnd #AndTheyLivedHappilyEverAfter." Smriti Smriti posted this image and wrote, "The Good, Bad and the Evil! Thoroughly enjoyed playing every bit of it .. @ekmainaurektu7 really can't thank you enough for giving me Ritika and making it what it was .. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for more! Something that is a part of me and will stay with me forever." Smriti Added... "And I wanna thank each one of you for accepting me despite all my flaws, mistakes and weaknesses and showing unconditional love .. You guys are my Happy Ending!" Hardik Aka Prateek Hardik, who plays the role of Prateek posted the above image and wrote, "A journey that taught me a lot ! This experience will always be with me as an integral part of my life #lastday to all who are and were part of the journey & and a big thanks to the creator of the show @ekmainaurektu7." Mohit Abrol Mohit posted the (Slide 5) image and wrote, "Some people soooo much fun to work with , it's been a pleasure @radhikamadan @shaktiarora @hardik_thakkar_ Love you guys and keep spreading love." Mohit Aka Nirbhay Mohit posted this image and wrote, "When we pout and the director smiles , lol Thanks for an awesome shoot today ... Will surely miss you guys Love you all @radhikamadan." Mohit Abrol As Nirbhay Posting this image, Mohit wrote, "A few times when I got to smile on screen as #NIRBHAY #MATSH #balajitelefilms Don't cry because it's over Smile because it happened ." MATSH's Nirbhay Posting this image, Mohit wrote, "What's up ??? #NIRBHAY and his #swag Yes I'm smiling but you are not the reason anymore #MATSH #balajitelefilms." Banks are watching wealthy clients flirt with robo advisors, and that's one reason they're racing to release their own versions of the investing technology, according to a consultant. Indeed, bank chiefs including Morgan Stanley's James Gorman and Wells Fargo's CFO John Shrewsberry have said their firms must develop robos to complement their sales forces. Customers want both the slick technology and the ability to speak to a person, especially in volatile markets like now, Jay Welker, president of Wells Fargo's private bank, said in an interview. "Robo is a positive disruptor," Welker said. "We think of robo in terms of serving multi-generational families." This effort isn't just to attract millennials and small investors, says Kendra Thompson, an Accenture managing director. At Schwab, one example, about 15% of those in automated portfolios have at least $1 million at the company. "It's real money moving," Thompson says. "You're seeing experimentation from people with much larger portfolios, where they're taking a portion of their money and putting them in these offerings to try them out." Traditional brokerages including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are under pressure to justify the fees they charge as the low-cost services gain acceptance. The banks, which collectively employ about 46,000 human advisors, will respond by developing tools based on artificial intelligence for their employees, as well as self- service channels for customers, Thompson said. "Now that they're starting to see the money move, it's not taking very long for them to connect the dots and say, 'Whatever I offer for a fee better be better than what they're offering for almost nothing,"' Thompson says. Technology will "make advisors look smarter, better, stronger and more on top of the ball." Read more: ISTANBUL, Feb. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2016 World Tourism Forum Global Meeting and Awards Ceremony is being held at the International Convention and Exhibition Center in Istanbul, Turkey from February 4-6, 2016. HNA Tourism Group (HNA Tourism) is the first Chinese group to be invited to attend the World Tourism Forum Global Meeting and in its first appearance has been honored with the award for "Best Tourism Investment Group". Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160206/330400 A specially formed international jury board was tasked with selecting award winners and the "Best Tourism Investment Group" category aims to select a winner based on the value, volume and impact on their investments. Receiving this prestigious award is an affirmation of HNA Tourism's diversified global investment strategy and comprehensive management system. Li Tie, Vice Chairman and CEO of HNA Tourism Group, said "HNA Tourism is a modern Chinese tourism group. Since our founding, we have earned recognition in multiple areas, and this award from the World Tourism Forum is a first for a Chinese tourism company, and gives credence to the comprehensive development strengths of HNA Tourism, displaying the global recognition and appreciation we have received as a Chinese tourism group. In 2016 we will continue to consolidate our group's resources, deploying globally, creating a world-class Chinese tourism brand, and a convenient and high-quality travel experience for global tourists." HNA Tourism Investment Portfolio in 2015 Strategic cooperation with government of French Polynesia , building Tahiti into a tourism hub. , building Tahiti into a tourism hub. Investment in US hotel chain, Red Lion Hotel Group. Memorandum of cooperation with Kuoni Group in Switzerland Luxury five-star hotel, Tangla is opening its first international location in Brussels in March 2016 . in . JV company created with NH Hotel group for development of high-end hotels in China as well as increasing footprint in European and global market. as well as increasing footprint in European and global market. Strategic partnership with Pierre et Vacances-Center Parcs Group to bring the center park concept to China. Invested USD 500 million in Tuniu.com in Tuniu.com Strategic investment of RMB 200 million in the overseas short-term rental O2O platform Zhubaijia.com in the overseas short-term rental O2O platform Zhubaijia.com Linked up with Uber China and Uber Global to create a seamless transportation platform. and Uber Global to create a seamless transportation platform. HNA Tourism's subsidiary company, E-Life Financial and Mastercard joined together to promote digital payment and innovation in the consumer tourism sector. The group also joined forces with Guangda Securities and Chang'An Bank, promoting the "Fund+Listed Company" model, a brand new platform for tourism finance. 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. KAMLOOPS, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/06/16 -- iTel Networks Inc. (itel.com), one of the largest network providers in Canada, has announced that they are once again growing their network of networks with a massive rate centre expansion. What is a rate centre? The geographical area that a phone number is assigned to which is linked to your area code, local prefix and other rate centres/cities that your phone number would have local calling to. With this network increase, iTel is bringing flexibility and affordable SIP and hosted PBX services to more businesses in both Canada and the USA. This latest expansion for iTel has increased their serviceable rate centres from 1,400 to over 13,000 (over 2,000 in Canada, and over 11,000 in the USA). Using iTel's hosted PBX and SIP phone services, they can now connect both single and multi-location businesses with more diverse phone networks coast-to-coast. "Many Canadian businesses also operate in the USA, although we specifically focus on the Canadian market, we have recognized our clients' needs to also have USA phone numbers. Because of this, we have taken the steps to expand our phone network into the USA, and ensure that our clientele have the best services available to suit their needs," says Heather Sutherland, Operations Manager of iTel Networks. iTel's key services include high speed fiber optic internet, voice over IP (VoIP), cloud computing and storage, hosted PBX systems and SIP trunking. iTel's hosted PBX and SIP trunking services help businesses by taking away the large upfront and maintenance costs associated with a typical phone system. They are able to shift both single and multi-location businesses away from fixed capacity and location-bound services, to a flexible and feature-rich solution with added redundancy, all while saving companies money and maintaining their current phone network. With this latest growth, iTel can now easily port and order phone numbers (known as DIDs in the world of telecom) for all of a company's locations - including more rural cities. iTel is also able to route phone numbers for companies with more than one location using a hosted PBX system. This means that if a company were to switch over to iTel, they would get to keep their original phone numbers, and increase the number of features available in their phone system - this includes having an IVR, routing all phone numbers from other locations to one central office, and having a redundant network so that their phone system wouldn't be lost in the case of an outage. "We are very excited to announce this major expansion throughout Canada and the USA. iTel is a leader in delivering exceptional communication services that modern businesses demand. Now, we are able to service more businesses than ever before as we continue to expand our network of networks," adds Rink. For a list of all iTel rate centre locations, visit http://itel.com/canadian-footprint/. About iTel Networks Inc.: Changing how Canadian business communicates, iTel, one of the largest telephony networks in Canada, is the first real national carrier alternative, combining true carrier infrastructure with flexible products, reliable service and support. With a network connecting all of Canada's largest telephone and internet systems, iTel serves the networking and communication requirements of large and small businesses, offering internet provider services including fiber optic internet, hosted PBX services, SIP trunking and cloud solutions. Their data network operates in private OpenStack and VMWare clouds across four Canadian data centres, and their telephone network services more than 2,000 Canadian rate centres, and over 11,000 USA rate centres coast-to-coast. To learn more about iTel Networks visit itel.com or call 1-888-899-iTel (4835). Contacts: iTel Networks Inc. Heather Sutherland Operations Manager 1-888-899-iTel (4835) heather@itel.com NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 06, 2016) - Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, reminds investors in KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("KaloBios" or the "Company") (OTC PINK: KBIOQ) of the February 16, 2016 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action lawsuit filed against the Company and certain officers. The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of all those who purchased KaloBios securities between November 19, 2015 and December 17, 2015 (the "Class Period"). The case, Sciabacucchi v. KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al, No. 3:15-cv-05992 was filed on December 23, 2015, and has been assigned to Judge Charles R Breyer. The lawsuit focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, the Company made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that Defendant Martin Shkreli ("Shkreli") was currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation; the Company's CEO was engaged in a scheme involving the illegal use of stock from Retrophin, Inc. to pay off debts associated with other business ventures; the discovery or revelation of the scheme would likely undermine the Company's operations and prospects; and as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' statements about KaloBios' business, operations, and prospects were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times. During pre-market on December 17, 2015, Defendant Shkreli was arrested by federal authorities after a grand jury indicted Shkreli on seven counts of fraud. According to federal prosecutors, Defendant Shkreli allegedly ran his companies like a Ponzi scheme, where he used each subsequent company to pay off defrauded investors in the prior company. On this news, shares of the Company declined $12.56 per share, approximately 53%, during pre-market trading on December 17, 2015. Trading of the Company's shares was halted on December 17, 2015 before the open of the market. KaloBios resumed trading on January 13, 2016. On February 4, 2016, KaloBios stock closed at $2.45 per share. Request more information now by clicking here: www.faruqilaw.com/KBIOQ. There is no cost or obligation to you. Take Action If you invested in KaloBios securities between November 19, 2015 and December 17, 2015 and would like to discuss your legal rights, visit www.faruqilaw.com/KBIOQ. You can also contact us by calling Richard Gonnello toll free at 877-247-4292 or at 212-983-9330 or by sending an e-mail to rgonnello@faruqilaw.com. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding KaloBios' conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others. The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class that is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. FARUQI & FARUQI, LLP 685 Third Avenue, 26th Floor New York, NY 10017 Attn: Richard Gonnello, Esq. Email contact Telephone: (877) 247-4292 or (212) 983-9330 Chubbies, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based e-commerce apparel company, received a credit facility from Square 1 Bank, a division of Pacific Western Bank. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. The proceeds will provide working capital to finance accelerated investments in new growth opportunities. Founded by four Stanford University graduates in 2011, Chubbies is a lifestyle e-commerce brand that offers a line of shorts, swimsuits and shirts built for the weekend. Originally selling short shorts for men, the company has since expanded its offerings to include swim trunks, Hawaiian shirts and half-zip sweatshirts all produced domestically. In addition to clothing, the company focuses on the creation of original content via an active social community of approximately 2.2 million members called chubsters. Chubbies raised a Series Seed round in April 2014 and recently announced a Series A round on February 2nd of this year. FinSMEs 05/02/2016 Hispanicize Media Group, a Miami, Fla.-based company resulted by the merger of Hispanicize, a U.S. Hispanic social media and influencer event platform and DiMe Media, a Hispanic-focused influencer network, secured a round of funding of undisclosed amount. The round was led by Perkin Industries and Suquet Capital Partners with participation from Sean Wolfington, serial entrepreneur and CEO of the Wolfington Companies, and Nico Chereque, founder of petMD.com and formerly with Terra.com. The company intends to use the funds for strategic add-on acquisitions, technology development, content creation and an expansion of its influencer network. In conjunction with the funding, Nic Perkin (Perkin Industries) and Joseph Suquet (Suquet Capital Partners) will join HMGs Board of Directors. Led by CEO Manny Ruiz, Hispanicize Media Group works with brands and advertisers to navigate the U.S. Hispanic market by offering branded media opportunities, brand integrations, digital marketing campaigns and social influencer management through its on and offline platforms that include the annual Hispanicize event and DiMe Media. The company, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, partners with Fortune 1000 brands, agencies and other organizations to connect and collaborate with U.S. Hispanic media and digital influencers and execute a wide variety of content marketing and influencer-focused programs. FinSMEs 05/02/2016 Petcube, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an interactive Wi-Fi Pet camera, raised $2.6m in funding. Backers included Almaz Capital, Y Combinator, and AVentures Capital. The company, which has raised $3.8m to date, will use the funds to accelerate worldwide distribution, advance its product development, scale globally, and ramp up talent acquisition, including the strategic appointment of Vivian Lee as Chief Marketing Officer (1) and Chris Madeiras as Senior Vice President of Sales (2). Led by Yaroslav Azhnyuk, CEO, Petcube provides an interactive Wi-Fi Pet camera that features real-time video and built-in laser pointer to allow owners to watch and play with their pets from their smartphone using the free Petcube app, available for iOS and Android. Petcube Camera retails for $199 and is available on Petcube.com, and at Amazon, Best Buy, Brookstone, B&H Photo Video, Nordstrom, and Frys. The company, which is part of the YC Winter 2016 class, also has offices in Kyiv, Ukraine and Shenzhen, China. (1) Vivian Lee is responsible for overseeing global brand strategy, product marketing and communications. Lee was most recently with Cyanogen, an Android-based mobile operating system where she led marketing and communications. Prior to Cyanogen, Lee held marketing leadership roles at games developer and publisher giant, Electronic Arts. (2) Chris Madeiras is responsible for overseeing and leading global sales. He previously worked for Whistle Labs as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and held several leadership positions at leading global consumer products companies including LOreal, PepsiCo, and Nestle. FinSMEs 06/02/2016 PLEASE REMEMBER TO ORDER FROM AMAZON THOUGH FMF.CLICK ON ANY BOOK WE LIST TO GET TO AMAZON, AND THEN ORDER WHATEVER. thanxxx &amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; 2ND EDITION!!! I hope to have some news soon about the 2nd edition of hole in my heart. Sorry for the delay! THANK YOU AND LEGAL NOTICE As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. THANK YOU TO ALL THE READERS WHO REMEMBER TO GO TO AMAZON VIA FIRST MOTHER FORUM. IT MATTERS NOT WHAT YOU PURCHASE. From the New York Times "Lorraine Dusky, a writer who relinquished a daughter as a young single mother in New York State in 1966, supports opening the records. She reported in her 2015 memoir that in the handful of states that offered women the opportunity to remove their names from original birth certificates, only a small fraction of women fewer than 1 percent chose to do so." -- Dont Keep Adopted People in the Dark by Gabrielle Glaser, June 19, 2018 From the New York Times "On FirstMotherForum.com, a blog that discusses issues among women who had given children up for adoption, Lorraine Dusky, one of the sites authors, praised the series (ABC's 10-episode Find My Family): 'Maybe this will be heard by people who think it is unloyal somehow for a person to search out his or her roots, parents, family, when it is a most natural desire of consciousness.' --Two Reality Shows Stir Publicity and Anger"--Dec. 6, 2009. This blog takes cookies. "It shouldn't take a miracle to find people you are related to by blood."--Jenn Gentlesk EMAIL US AT forumfirstmother@gmail.com Oregon court records available Instructions and forms for accessing adoption records are on the Oregon Judicial Department's website. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Material from First Mother Forum may be quoted as long as FMF is credited and with a link to original source here. Over 350 words, contact for permission: forumfirstmother@gmail.com. Dawn is yet to streak across the horizon but at 4.30 am at The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple at Juhu, the air is thick with the fragrance of flowers, burning incense sticks and the clash of cymbals and drums to the rhythmic loud chants of Hare Krishna, Hare Rama. There is a clutch of devotees who sway and clap their hands as they chant. As the day progresses, one sees silk clad women with diamonds twinkling on their noses and ears and some celebrities of the city joining in the chant during arati. It is not just the swish set that come to the temple at Juhu but also the poor who pay obeisance to the smiling gods. ISKCON is famous for its vegetarian food which is also distributed free on special occasions. Last year ISKCON Juhu distributed more than 10 lakh plates of prasadam meal and 60 lakh cups of halva in and outside the temple premises. The prasadam meals are also distributed to the underprivileged during several festivals, as part of Anna Dan Seva initiative during Makar Sankranti, at temple anniversary celebrations and other occasions. "We are able to give free prasadam meals due to donations that we receive from devotees," says Mukund Madhav Das, vice president, ISKCON, Juhu. Some of its most celebrated devotees offer their services either through dance and music and funds thus raised are donated to the temple. There are generous donations too made by the devout who visit the temple regularly either through cash or kind or by paying for services such as feeding cows, for free meals for the needy, etc. The temple also raises funds through sale of religious books, its restaurant Govinda in the premises, snacks and bakery shop and gift shop. Golden Jubilee celebrations It is the golden jubilee year celebration of ISKCON temples or centres across the globe. ISKCON, also known as the Hare Krishna movement, was founded in New York City by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966. The Society's Mumbai center is celebrating its three-day golden jubilee this weekend (5 to 7 February). Prabhupada was born Abhay Chandra De, who in 1932 became the disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. The Gaudiya Vaishnava Society, in recognition of Des scholarship, bestowed on him the title of Bhaktivedanta -- meaning one who has realized that devotional service to the Supreme Lord is the end of all knowledge. Later, he was known throughout the world as AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It was on Thakuras instructions that Prabhupada went to the US in 1965 to propagate the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Prabhupadas spiritual master wanted the Bhagavad Gita to be known to the world and not to be restricted to India and Hindus, says Das. Prabhupada founded ISKCON in 1966 and since then it has expanded to 600 centres across the globe. The ISKCON Structure The structure of the religious foundation follows the instructions laid down by Prabhupada. All ISKCON centres must fully comply with all local laws of governance that apply in whichever country they are located. Each centre has to be self-sustaining. According to Prabhupadas instructions, no funds received through donations, sale of books, restaurants or gifts and artefacts from one temple can be transferred to another. Each temple has to devise ways to raise funds. Hence the size of the temples depend on the donations from its patrons. Financial irregularities are avoided through the water-tight structure that is followed at ISKCON, says Das. The day to day running of every temple is the sole responsibility of the temple president. He is responsible for all members who work or serve in the temple and is himself accountable to the local Governing Board Commission (GBC), which does not have much involvement in the day to day running of the temple. The local GBC is accountable to the central GBC. There are 95,000 initiators (people who have been taken into the fold after being initiated by senior gurus/meditators) across the globe and over 10 lakh life membership holders. Life membership is given to donors, well-wishers and associates who want to listen to kirtans and satsangs. Governing Body Commission A group of senior devotees take decisions on ISKCON's policy matters. They form the governing body commission (GBC). The GBC consists of 35-40 members. Most of them are senior devotees who are chosen for their leadership skills or fundraising abilities and other such allied skills. No one member can claim to be the sole decision maker in the GBC. Decisions are arrived at by consensus based on the principles laid down by Prabhupada. Praghosha Das, currently the president of ISKCON, in an email interview explains the structure of the Foundation. "The GBC sets the policy and members act as overseers for all of ISKCON's activities and are responsible for all the 600 centres or temples. They are also the final arbiters on any and all issues that may need clarification and decision, says Das. To avoid financial irregularities, most temples have their own methods. At ISKCON Juhu, no petty cash is available on the premises. Every need of the temple is fulfilled through encashing cheques. The hundis or donation boxes are opened when they are full in the presence of the temple committee and also captured on CCTV screens. The cash is then deposited in the temples bank account. If gold or any ornaments or gifts in kind are donated to the temple, they are weighed (in case of gold and silver articles) and the value in current terms noted in a register. The items that are donated are deposited in lockers immediately. We ensure that temple accounts are regularly scrutinised by internal and external auditors, says Madhav Das. The expenses of the executive committee members of the GBC are taken care of by the Foundation. There is a small annual budget for the Executive Committee of the GBC but individual GBC members have to fund their own expenses. Often that is done via help from the temples they oversee, as well as individual members who are inspired to help, says Praghosha Das. Members of each temple are provided maintenance by the temple itself through its own funds. As a general rule, unmarried members are provided their maintenance directly and serving married members via a stipend. Divine intervention Praghosha Das has an interesting response to the query as to what should ISKCON centres do in case of shortage of funds. Some of the most exalted devotees of Krishna have commented on this topic; in essence their advice is that if you sincerely absorb yourself in spreading the message of devotion, the message of selfless service to Krishna, then resources will never be an issue. We would have numerous examples of temples seemingly struggling and under great financial pressure and then unexpectedly from out of nowhere donations come or some other means of funding manifests, he says. ISKCON has been mired in few cases of misappropriation of funds in the past at some of its centres. The fundamental understanding of the devotees of Krishna is that everything belongs to Krishna. That is the main guiding force to ensure that all ISKCON members do not misuse the funds of the organisation, which are in effect Krishna's funds. In addition to that we have systems in place where all are accountable to a higher authority, explains Praghosha Das. Perhaps, the devotees have understood the real call of their inner conscience or as Madhav Das puts it succinctly, We are not here as we failed in life. We are here because we have experienced life and were dissatisfied. Nothing is tempting about leading a religious life than to be disciplined and follow the teachings of the guru one has voluntarily chosen to follow. Perhaps, that is true. The former archaeologist KK Muhammed, who was quoted in this article, has denied having made certain allusions to the Qutb Minar and Taj Mahal during his conversation with Firstpost. He has said: While I fully agree with what you have stated on my behalf about Ayodhya issue, I totally refute whatever has been attributed to me regarding the well known monuments Taj Mahal and Qutb Minar. I have never said in my book that Taj Mahal and Qutb Minar are built on the ruins of temples. In the book, on pages 104 and 105, I have strongly criticised those who are coming out with such ridiculous arguments. It has been further elaborated by stating that such arguments without any rhyme and reason are against the basic principle of the architectural evolution of the Mughal monuments. In fact I had shown courage to demolish part of an extension of a temple which some Hindu extremist groups associated with VHP and Bajrang Dal had made in the proximity of Taj Mahal in 2002-3 while the BJP was in power at the Centre. For this unpardonable act, Hindu extremists had burned my effigy at Purani Mandi in Agra. A few months before this, they had attacked my office and I had a providential escape. Similarly I have not said anything about Qutb Minar; that it was built on the ruins of the temples. My statement about Quwatul Islam, in the proximity of Qutb Minar is true and very well-attested by all experts on the subjects. Still, if any doubt persists a casual visit to Quwatul Islam will prove the veracity of the statement. One has to make a clear distinction between Qutb Minar and Quwatul Islam. My credibility as an archaeologist has suffered a serious damage due to the purported statement that has been attributed to me with regards to Taj Mahal and Qutb Minar. I am neither a spokesperson of Hindu extremists, nor do I contribute to their ideology. But at the same time I strongly feel that the Ayodhya issue could have been resolved amicably if the leftist historians had not interfered on behalf of Muslims with their crusading spirit and pushed them to the point of no return. For any amicable solution, they have to be kept outside the purview of discussions. Firstpost clarifies: KK Muhammeds remarks on the Qutb Minar and Taj Mahal are not contained within the book in question. The author only made passing mention of these two monuments during his interview, and on reviewing the recording of our conversation with Muhammed, we found no assertions to the effect that Qutb Minar and Taj Mahal were built on the debris of Hindu temples. Firstpost would like to issue an unconditional apology to Muhammed, and its readers for this misrepresentation of facts. By Seema Guha The International Fleet Review which is now on in Visakhapatnam can well be termed the Indian Navys coming-out party. The first one held in 2001 in Mumbai was on a much smaller scale. But this edition is bigger and better, perhaps reflecting Indias growing stature in the world and the navys growing interaction with foreign fleets. Fifty countries have sent in their delegations, 24 nations including the US and China have their warships on display and the chiefs of 22 navies are in attendance. 4,000 foreign sailors are also participating in this mega event. Today, the Indian Navy is projecting its presence not just in the Indian Ocean but beyond to the Pacific and the Gulf of Aden. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also paying much more attention to build ties with Indias maritime neighbours, as China aggressively expands its presence in the Indian Ocean. While the UPA was over-cautious in asserting Indias maritime presence, the Modi government is ready to take on a greater responsibility in the neighbourhood. East Asian nations have privately been asking India to be part of the future defence architecture of the Asia-Pacific region. With Modi, it is clear that India will want to play a larger role not just in its vicinity but beyond. But is the Indian Navy in a position to do so? Yes and no. It will take time but the Navy is on the right track. India is on the cusp of becoming a blue water navy, said defence analyst Rahul Bedi. Of the three services, the navy is the most forward-looking, thanks to a succession of good chiefs and the fact that the politicians have somehow not interfered much in naval matters. The navy has operated quietly and used its resources efficiently. An array of ships including Indias aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya were on show when President Pranab Mukherjee, the commander of Indias defence forces, took the salute and reviewed the fleet on Saturday. The President on the INS Sumitra sailed past 75 ships lining up in the waters. Indias geographical location, astride the major shipping routes of the Indian Ocean, gives it a pivotal maritime role. Considering the globalised nature of todays political and economic environment, it is our belief that the present day maritime domain requires navies across the world to re-focus their efforts to counter the rising tide of non-traditional maritime challenges in the brown, green and blue waters across all oceans, Mukherjee said in his address. The Indian Navy, accordingly, has realigned its maritime strategy, to reflect the changes in the evolving global environment, and has established a credible record of cooperative initiatives to promote stability of the oceans, and played a central role in ensuring safety of the vital sea lines of communication, across the Indian Ocean. INS Sumitra is an indigenously built Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel (NOPV). This is where the navy has scored over the army and the air force. It has had a design bureau in place since the 1950s and has over the years succeeded in building a homegrown industry. Many warships and naval patrol boats are being built in several shipyards across the country. India sold its first home grown warship, the Barracuda, to the Mauritius Coast Guard in December 2014. It was commissioned by Modi during his visit to the island state in March last year. The hope is that the sale of the Barracuda will be followed by many more such deals and will give a fillip to Modis Make in India policy. Building defence equipment in the country will not only bring down huge export bills but develop the countrys defence-industrial complex, which can provide hundreds of jobs in the future. India can save up to $50 billion of the over $260 billion on defence equipment in the next 12 years, says an Ernst and Young report. The navy as pointed out earlier is leading the way in indigenisation. The Indian Navy's submarine arm is weak. There have been two major accidents, and one of its submarines blew up a few years ago. India at the moment has just 13 submarines: Four German-built and nine of Russian make. It needs to have a minimum of 24 to be effective. The navy is aiming to get the numbers by 2021-2022. India is also building a nuclear-powered submarine, the Arihant, with Russian help. The Arihant has undergone sea trials and was earlier expected to be a part of the IFR. By 2022, India hopes to have a fleet of 162 ships and medium submarines including three aircraft carriers. Once this is complete, the Indian Navy will be in a better position to play an effective role in protecting the global commons. China however is way ahead of India and remains, with Japan, the most powerful navy in Asia. New Delhi: The Kerala government has told the Supreme Court that banning entry of women of menstrual age in historic Sabarimala temple in the state, is a "matter of religion" and it is duty bound to "protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees". In an affidavit, the state government said administration of the temple vests with the Travancore Devaswom Board under the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act and the decision of the priests is final in the matter of worship. "In the context of Sabarimala, the administration vests with the Travancore Devaswom Board under the provisions of the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950. "Under the Act, there is a statutory duty cast on the Board to arrange worship in temples in accordance with the usage. Therefore, in matters of religion, it is the opinion of the priests that is final," the affidavit filed by state chief secretary Jiji Thomson said. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and NV Ramana would take up the matter on 8 February. The Congress-led UDF government, while withdrawing the affidavit filed earlier in the apex court by the previous LDF government in November 2007 supporting entry of women into this temple, said, "the restriction on women between the age of 10 and 50 has been prevailing in Sabarimala from time immemorial. This is in keeping with the unique 'pratishta sangalp' or idol concept of the temple." "The same is an essential and integral part of the right of practice of religion of a devotee and comes under the protective guarantee of the Constitution under Articles 25 and 26 which have been held to contain guarantee for rituals, observances, ceremonies and modes of worship which are an integral part of religion," it said. Urging the court to dismiss the PIL filed by Indian Young Lawyers' Association, the affidavit said, "the present petition which seeks to change the beliefs and customs of crores of devotees by judicial process is wholly misplaced and liable to be dismissed". It added that the state government is "duty bound to protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees". The government also said "the right to exclude persons who are not allowed to participate in worship according to the tenets of the religious institution in question is a matter of religion" and such essential or integral parts of religion are "immune" from challenge under Article 14 (right to equality). "Since the deity is in the form of Naisthik Brahmachari, it is believed that young women should not offer worship in the temple so that even the slightest deviation from celibacy and austerity observed by the deity is not caused in the presence of such women," the affidavit said. The previous government had supported entry of women in the hilltop shrine saying, "it is not fair to deny a section of women from entering Sabarimala temple". It had also favoured appointment of a commission of scholars to facilitate the change. The present government, however, said the previous stand favouring a change had no legal basis and that it wanted to rectify the "mistakes" by withdrawing the stand taken in 2007. The affidavit was filed on a PIL by the association seeking 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. However, women, who have crossed menopause, are allowed. On 11 January, the bench had questioned the tradition of banning entry of women of menstrual age group in the temple, saying it cannot be done under the Constitution. The bench had also asked why women cannot be allowed inside and whether the government was sure that women have not entered the temple premises in the last 1,500 years. It had observed that it was a public temple and everyone needed to have "the right to access". PTI No campus erupted in shrill protest against the mob that stripped a Tanzanian student in Bengaluru and paraded her. Because she is black. No Womens association called for a dharna and demanded action. Because she is black. The great social platforms of Twitter and Facebook received no trains so to speak. Because she was black. No real-time rallying for the righteous, which is such a popular sport. Of course, we are racist. We have always been racist. It is part of our casteist culture that we need to look down on someone even as we look up to our betters. This attitude confirms our affection for hierarchy. In 1971, when I was a reporter with The Times of India in Delhi, the Commonwealth Youth delegation arrived with 16 white people and two black British delegates. I vividly recall Simon one of them telling me how he found it odd that not one Indian family invited these two to their homes, while happily hosting the other 16. In the two weeks they stayed in India, they never saw the inside of an Indian home. Par for the course. Nothing has changed, Simon, we still wont invite you, mate, you embarrass us. In Mumbai, I had a very close friend from Uganda and whenever we would go out for a movie or into a shop, we would run a gauntlet of leering, sneering men. They would often give me that wink-wink, nod-nod grin as if to say, yaar mazaa le raha hai. It was so mind-bogglingly offensive. And Rona would turn to me and say, you people have a major problem, you actually feel superior. Much of it is the fear of the stereotype. Africans, to us, are either into drugs or selling counterfeit currency or engaged in some scam. The men are horny and dangerous, the women cheap floozies. We dont have to respect them, they are African. We are also deathly afraid of them, physically and sexually. Brainwashed by films and books, we see a black person on a street and we are reflexively scared. Fear is a major element in spurring the contempt. I had gone to South Africa to interview Nelson Mandela and the Indian community there has rightfully earned the wrath of the blacks. Their contempt for their darker brethren is pure bigotry. It is staggering to witness Indian prejudice slosh about in Africa thick as soup. Even Mahatma Gandhi had been accused of showing disdain. For years, the Indians across the continent conned the locals and saw them as inferior. The classic case related is of a shopkeeper who would sell one shoe to the natives and then the second after a week thereby doubling the price. We call them habshis. We do, stop pretending we dont. My friend married an African-American in Houston. Stunning sculpture in ebony and a scientist to boot. Brought her home as a surprise for his family. "Look Mum, your daughter-in-law". Mum rolled into bed, clutched her chest and rocked to the tune of "Woe is me". The neighbours fell over with laughter, "Ah, such comeuppance!". The couple left in two days and never came back again. The state government is pretending it is not such a big deal, mobs are mobs, boys are boys. Union Minister for Law Sadananada Gowda has called for the state to keep a close watch on those shifty foreign students. The public doesnt give a whistle in the wind, they are only Africans. Parading a naked African in public for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, because the equation is simple: Arent they naked half the time anyway? Whats the big deal? This is the mindset in a coloured nation and it is abhorrent. It is for this reason that I refused to shake hands with film star Shah Rukh Khan, not that he cared... for selling fairness cream. Any man who makes money from pigmentation and feels no moral guilt in equating worth with skin colour doesnt get my vote. Part of the same package. The Karnataka government was accused of utter incompetence and insensitivity in the handling of the affair of the attack on the Tanzanian girl. But events on Friday seemed to swiftly turn things around. In what can only be seen as a volte-face, Tanzanian High Commissioner to India John WH Kijazi said in Bengaluru that the attack on the Tanzanian woman last Sunday was not racist. He told the media on Friday, after being briefed by the state government, What has happened is very unfortunate. We had a meaningful discussion with the state government and I am happy with the action taken against the policemenand we were told nine persons have been arrested. I have got a clear picture of what happened prior to the accident and after that. It is not a racist attack. It is a case of friction between the local community and the students. Minister of External Affairs (MEA) joint secretary Partha Sathpathy chipped in: I request the media to refrain from being judgmental while reporting such incidents because the media's projection about the country and Bengaluru would send a wrong message. Without doubt, Kijazi and the MEA have both bought into the state governments story that this is not a racist attack. Even more interesting, Kijazi told the Bangalore Mirror, It is the media that projected it as racist attack. Indeed, national TV channels did go berserk terming this an assault prompted by the fact that the woman was from Africa, which is only partly true. Firstpost discovered while reporting the incident that the attack was fuelled by a combination of road rage, racism, and a clash of rural and city cultures. But why is the Karnataka government denying that the incident had no elements of racism in it? Even more interesting, you would think the opposition parties such as the BJP would do their best to politicise the incident. Instead, audiences of TV debates have, for the first time in many years, been treated to the piquant situation where spokespersons from the Congress, the BJP, and even the RSS are all agreeing with each other and refusing to acknowledge its racist elements. A couple of days after five people were arrested for the incident, some Congressmen on social media announced that one of the arrested persons was a prominent BJP panchayat leader. This, they said, was an attempt to derail the then on-going state governments Global Investors Meet. However, the strategy of trying to blame the BJP was quickly dumped; there were no follow-up posts on this angle. In fact, outside of social media, it never made the news. Meanwhile, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara, city police commissioner NS Megharikh, and BJP local area MP and union law minister DV Sadananda Gowda, have, to the point of insensitivity, denied that the incident was racist, but insisted that it was road-rage. Interestingly, till yesterday, when Kijazi switched his stance, the Tanzanians were not buying the road-rage story. The victims themselves alleged racism in the attack on those in the second car, which arrived on the scene of the accident around 30 minutes later. Although its occupants had nothing to do with the accident, they were attacked, the girl stripped (although there are varying accounts of this, she certainly was not paraded), and their car set on fire. This happened only because the occupants of the second car were African. Back in Tanzania, the incident has understandably created a furor. According to reports appearing in The Citizen, a leading Tanzanian newspaper, the Tanzanian foreign ministry summoned Indian high commissioner Sandeep Arya, who was told in no uncertain terms that Tanzanian students in India need to be fully protected and action must be taken against the offenders. On the floor of the Tanzanian parliament, MP Augustine Olle, who himself had studied in India for four years, said, It is unfortunate that while we encourage diversity in Tanzania and we live in peace with people of various races, the situation is very different in India where Tanzanians are subjected to serious abuse. In the light of all this, the Tanzanian high commissioners about-face is somewhat surprising. The question that needs answering is this: why is there such a staunch denial of the incidents racial overtones? Who, if anyone, is being protected? The police have been cagey of releasing the names of the arrested persons, but some newspapers and channels did carry the names of the first five persons arrested. The Hindu identified the arrested persons as Lokesh Bangaru, Venkatesh, Saleem Pasha, Bhanuprakash, and Rahmatulla. Lokesh reportedly belongs to the BJP. Since then, four more were arrested and three policemen suspended for dereliction of duty, all of which seems to have gone down well with the Tanzanian high commissioner and the MEA, both of whom appreciated the police action. But going back to the list of people arrested, odious as it may seem, it is impossible not break it down to its communal components. Shabana Taj, 35, the unfortunate victim of the accident who has been forgotten in all the brouhaha over the attack on the Tanzanian girl, is Muslim. The Sudanese student driver, allegedly drunk, as well as the Tanzanian girl who was attacked, belong to the same community. But, as can be seen from the list of the arrested, the mob that attacked the Tanzanian girl, beat up her friends, and burnt the car was constituted of people from both majority and minority communities. When Sadananda Gowda visited the site of the incident he was heckled by Hindus and Muslims alleging wrongful arrests and demanding their release. They complained that the African students of the area were known for their loud behavior and rash driving. The attack on the students, following Shabana Tajs death, was a reaction to years of pent-up anger. Gowda was quick to buy it. This was not racist, he declared to the media. Instead, he blamed the state government for failing to protect the interests of the people.The government should also ensure that the foreign students abide the law and also ensure their safety, he told The Hindu. Except for such low-level rebukes, neither political party has come down hard on each other, both preferring to stick to the road-rage theory, which dismisses racism. The liberal elite, which normally feed on such events, has also kept away. With the Tanzanian establishment acquiescing, this incident is doomed to die a natural death. No doubt, the arrested men and the suspended policemen will soon return to status quo. The media will move on and find another event to earn TRPs. There is a saying that the two things that unite all Indians are racism and dowry. The Bengaluru attack will prove half of that statement correct. New Delhi: Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam has got a reprieve with the party accepting his apology over the publication of controversial articles slamming Jawaharlal Nehru and terming Sonia Gandhi's father a "fascist soldier" and asking him "to be careful in the future". "Sanjay Nirupam accepted the responsibility for publication of grossly inaccurate, baseless and malicious article against the Congress leadership in the party magazine Congress Darshan and submitted his unconditional apology for the same. "The Central Disciplinary Action Committee, while accepting his apology, cautioned him to be careful in the future while editing, printing and publishing materials in Congress Darshan so that this type of grave mistake is not repeated," sources in the party said. Left embarrassed by the articles criticising Nehru's policies on Kashmir and China, Congress had in January issued a show-cause notice to the magazine's editor Nirupam. The AICC Disciplinary Action Committee, headed by AK Antony, had issued the notice to Nirupam, a former Lok Sabha member from Mumbai and one of the party's popular faces, in the second week of January. Nirupam, a former Shiv Sena man, had been given "a few days" to respond. Days after the Nirupam responded, the party on Saturday cleared the air. The show-cause notice had come despite an apology from Nirupam, and Congress already having distanced itself from its "defunct" mouthpiece. The show-cause notice to Nirupam was issued just days ahead of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi visited Mumbai on 15 and 16 January. Congress had then said the party had appointed Nirupam as MRCC chief and not editor of any magazine. One of the party spokespersons, Tom Vadakkan, had gone to the extent of even disowning Congress Darshan, saying "we have nothing to do with this publication. This magazine has not been associated with Congress." Sudhir Joshi, the editorial content in-charge of the magazine, was sacked soon after the articles became public. The party was left red-faced on 28 December, the day Congress was celebrating its 131st Foundation Day, when unsigned articles appeared in its mouthpiece blaming Nehru for "the state of affairs in Kashmir, China and Tibet". Another write-up in Congress Darshan had said party president Sonia Gandhi's father Stephano Maino was a former "fascist soldier". Soon after the controversy broke, there had been murmurs questioning Nirupam's "intention". A former Shiv Sainik, Nirupam rose fast through Congress ranks after joining the party. Some Mumbai Congress leaders, including AICC General Secretary Gurudas Kamat, had met Sonia after the controversy and complained about the matter. PTI VayyaveliVayyaveli.Vayyaveli..minnnuminangana midumidukki, nadu kidukkana nanamkunungi. The Malayalam lyrics, if loosely translated, describe a beautiful, coy girl who is now giving sleepless nights to the whole town. The lyrics are from a promotional music video for Sarithas upcoming film Vayyaveli, directed by VV Santosh. In Malayalam, the word Vayyaveli means something that causes vexation or more informally, gives someone a pain in the neck. Saritha S Nair knows her moves. More than anyone else, Keralas embattled Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy and some of his cabinet colleagues, who are fighting to save their ministerial berths in the wake of the multi-crore solar scam, know that too well. Solar Saritha, as she is known in the local media, seems to know a few more moves other than cornering top politicians with serious allegations. She is now trying her luck in Keralas film industry and has already made appearances in a few short films and music videos, to cash in on her new-found stardom. Her YouTube videos already draw millions of views. The Vayyaveli video, released just last week, has so far logged over 260,000 views. Quite arguably, in the history of Kerala politics, rarely has there been an instance when one woman a little-known personality in Keralas political landscape has managed to take on the power centres, even dragging the chief minister to court with a series of corruption allegations and sexual exploitation for which she claims to have video and audio proof. Saritha now certainly commands more popularity in Kerala households, even belittling film stars and public personalities on TV channels. She is a TRP-magnet for channels in prime time news shows. Sarithas public appearances and press interactions are festivals to local reporters, especially those from TV channels. Newspapers compete with each other to cover Solar Saritha. Youths rush to get a glimpse of her and if possible click a selfie with her. Its only logical for Saritha to encash her new-found stardom and transform herself from a controversial figure to a starlet. The lyrics of Sarithas Vayyaveli promo video which has already gone viral are interesting. Often, it sounds like direct references to those politicians targeted by Saritha in the scam: Veli thane vilavu thinnana kalam.vegathayil theernnu pokum kalamVila koduthal enthum kittum kalam.Vazhi maridunnu manavante kolam (A time when the fence eats the crop. When time gets lost in speed A time when money can buy anything and people change). Besides Vayyaveli, Saritha is also rumoured to be acting in a big-budget Malayalam film being made by filmmaker Shaji Kailas, with Suresh Gopi in the lead role. The film, named Thalasthanam (capital), is said to be loosely based on the solar scam. That apart, Saritha has also acted in short films Gulfkarante Bharya and Anthyakoodasha. Saritha continues with her dance moves Pallotti muttai kadala muttai kadikkanu kashtayi As Saritha loses herself in her dance moves, the Congress leadership in Kerala including Chandy and his cabinet colleagues are struggling to wriggle out of the solar scam. Evidently, the whole episode has massively damaged the image of Chandy and his party just a few months ahead of the state Assembly election. The chief minister had to depose before the Solar commission a panel that is investigating the scam. The Opposition is seeking his resignation on the matter and has threatened widespread agitation if Chandy refuses to vacate his post. On Friday, high drama ensued in the Kerala Assembly at the very start of the budget session with Opposition leaders raising slogans against Chandy, prompting Governor P Sathasivam to ask Opposition members to "sit quietly or leave the House" as they tried to disrupt his address on the first day of this year's session. Saritha, deposing before the Solar commission, had alleged that she had paid Rs 1.9 crore to a close aide of Chandy and Rs 40 lakh to Power Minister Aryadan Muhammed in exchange for favourable decisions for their solar company. Both Chandy and Muhammed have denied the allegations. Saritha also alleged that some politicians sexually harassed her. Even as the allegations have dropped the Chandy government into one of the biggest political crises in Kerala's political history, Saritha is unperturbed by the immense media attention on her. Instead, she wants to use this to plan her next step. The Alappuzh-born 38-year old, mother of two, doesnt worry too much about the threats on her life ever since she levelled allegations against Chandy. I will produce more names of people involved in the scam in a sealed envelope to the commission, Saritha said. Solar Saritha is continuing with her dance steps, singing her favourite lines from the Vayyaveli song and planning her next moves, probably, in Keralas film industry. Madhuranaranga kadichu thinnana kalam chila nerangalil kaippanijna kalam chila pambukalkku gajarajayogam New Delhi: Bhutan's royal couple on Saturday announced the birth of their first child, a baby prince, delighting the remote Himalayan kingdom where the monarchy is revered. The newest royal, the son of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema, was safely delivered at Lingkana Palace in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu on 5 February, the royal media office said. "Their majesties and members of the royal family are filled with profound joy on the birth of His Royal Highness," it said in a statement. "With the blessings of the guardian deities of Bhutan and protectors of the dharma (divine truth), and the prayers of the Bhutanese people, Her Majesty and His Royal Highness The Gyalsey (prince) are both in perfect health." The prince's birth was marked by sacred Bhutanese traditions with the Je Khenpo, the chief abbot and spiritual leader of the majority Buddhist nation, presiding over religious ceremonies, the office said. The baby's name has yet to be announced. Known as the "last Shangri-La" the South Asian kingdom, home to just 750,000 people, famously shuns conventional measures of economic wellbeing, instead compiling a Gross National Happiness index. Britain's own royals, Prince William and his wife Kate, are to visit Bhutan in the spring as part of an official trip that also includes India, British officials announced last month. The hugely popular fifth Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King, studied in Britain and the United States and was officially crowned king in 2008 after his father abdicated two years earlier. He married Queen Pema in 2011 in an elaborate fairytale wedding ceremony that was the biggest media event in Bhutanese history. Bhutan had no roads or currency until the 1960s, and only began admitting foreign tourists in 1974, but has since developed rapidly. AFP Twitter Inc has shut down more than 125,000 terrorism-related accounts since the middle of 2015, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, the company said in a blog post on Friday. Twitter has said it only takes down accounts when they are reported by other users, but said that it has increased the size of teams monitoring and responding to reports and has decreased its response time significantly. Twitters announcement comes as many tech companies led by Facebook have taken stronger steps to police controversial content online in the face of threats from legislators to force the companies to report terrorist activity on their sites to law enforcement. Silicon Valley has been wary of engaging with government officials, concerned about endless demands for similar action from countries around the world as well as fears about being perceived by consumers as tools of government. The announcement was also notable because Twitter has said little about its efforts to combat Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and similar groups even though it has been criticized for not doing enough. Islamic State, which controls last swathes of Iraq and Syria, has heavily relied on the 300 million-person site, as well as others, to recruit fighters and propagate violent messages. Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington Universitys programme on extremism, said Fridays report showcased an impressive number of takedowns, but said that Twitter still appears to police extremist content in a mostly episodic way. Many extremists have migrated towards smaller, less monitored platforms in recent months in response to major Silicon Valley firms stepping up their content policing, Hughes added. In January, a delegation of top national security officials met tech industry leaders from Twitter, Facebook Inc (FB.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O), and Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), but most companies, including Twitter, did not send their chief executive officers. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, called Twitters announcement a very positive development, but said more was needed. Addressing the use of social media by terrorists will require a sustained and cooperative effort between the technology sector, the Intelligence Community, and law enforcement, he said. Still, Twitter said in a blog post that it has cooperated with law enforcement when appropriate. It said that it tries to strike a balance between enforcing its rules on prohibited behaviors, the needs of law enforcement and the desire by users to share their views including offensive ones. Reuters Islamabad: Senior Afghan, Chinese, Pakistani and US officials are scheduled to meet in Islamabad on Saturday to "finalise" a roadmap that will enable stakeholders to play their role and bring the Taliban to the negotiation table. Afghanistan tabled the roadmap in the first quadrilateral meeting in Islamabad in early January that will determine "parameters of shared responsibilities" of all those involved in the process, a Pakistani official privy to the process said on Friday. "The second meeting in Kabul on 18 January completed deliberations on almost half of the plan and the focus of the Islamabad meeting would be to complete the discussions and come up with a good and realistic document," he said. Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai would lead his country's delegation at the meeting. Diplomatic sources said Karzai will arrive in Islamabad Saturday morning. Chinese special envoy for Afghanistan Deng Xijun, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry will lead their sides. The quadrilateral process was launched in December during a meeting on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Conference held in Islamabad. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif were present at that meeting which was also attended by senior officials of China and the United States. The four-nation mechanism is very important because of the participation of the United States and China both are key stakeholders in peace and stability in Afghanistan. A consensus has emerged during the previous meetings that there should be no preconditions attached to the possible peace talks. However, the participants want some confidence-building measures to encourage the Taliban come to the negotiations table. The Taliban political negotiators listed some steps ahead of the talks at a unofficial meeting in Qatar last month that include opening of their political office in Doha, removal of travel ban on their leaders and release of prisoners. The Taliban office in Qatar was closed days after its opening in 2013 after then President Hamid Karzai raised objections at the use of the white flag and the plaque of "Islamic Emirate." The Taliban had used both the signs during their rule 1996-2001. IANS Tokyo: North Korea says it has brought forward plans to launch a rocket and the event could now occur as early as Sunday, Japanese media reported. The country will launch the satellite-bearing rocket between 7 February and 14 February, Jiji Press and NHK reported the Japanese government as saying on Saturday. Pyongyang had previously said the launch would take place between 8-25 February , around the time of the birthday on 16 February of late leader Kim Jong-Il, father of current supremo Kim Jong-Un. The Japanese government said North Korea had informed the International Maritime Organisation of the new schedule, according to NHK. Immediate confirmation of the reports was not available. The North insists its space programme is purely scientific in nature, but the United States and allies, including South Korea, say its rocket launches are aimed at developing an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of striking the US mainland. UN sanctions prohibit North Korea from any launch using ballistic missile technology. The imminent launch would constitute another major violation of UN Security Council resolutions following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test last month. AFP BEIRUT Intensifying military offensives show the Syrian government and its allies are not serious about finding a political solution to the five-year-old conflict, the new leader of a major rebel group said on Friday. In his first interview since becoming leader of Syrian insurgent group Jaish al-Islam after the former chief was killed in December, Issam Buwaydani said it was clear "the regime and its allies are not convinced of a political solution." "The biggest proof is that they continue to bomb Syrian cities and impose sieges on hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians," Buwaydani said in the interview with opposition activist news website Syrian Revolution Network. United Nations-sponsored Syrian peace talks stalled this week after the opposition delegation objected to intensified Syrian government offensives supported by Iranian allies and heavy Russian air strikes. Jaish al-Islam (Islam Army) is one of the biggest rebel factions in the Saudi-backed, opposition High Negotiation Committee (HNC) invited to the Geneva peace talks. Buwaydani took over the leadership after predecessor Zahran Alloush -- whose cousin Mohamed Alloush is the HNC's chief negotiator for the Geneva talks -- was killed in an air attack near Damascus in December. Buwaydani also said Russian and Iranian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be stopped. "If the international community was serious about the success of a political solution, they would rein in Russian and Iranian aggression and ask them to leave Syria." "The Syrian government would have been taking its final breath" if it wasn't for Russia's "last minute" entry last September into the conflict, Buwaydani said. Buwaydani said his group is fighting on many fronts in Syria despite a lack of supplies and weapons, especially anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. Jaish al-Islam is viewed as a terrorist group by Russia, although many of Assad's opponents view it as a legitimate part of the opposition. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Dominic Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. RIO DE JANEIRO Zika has been found in the saliva and urine of two patients in Brazil and while it is not known if such body fluids could transmit the virus, the discovery could make pregnant revellers wary of kissing strangers during the country's often uninhibited Carnival festivities. Brazilian scientists announced their discovery on Friday, as U.S. health officials advised more stringent measures for monitoring pregnant women for Zika and for preventing sexual transmission of the virus. The disease that has spread rapidly through the Americas and led to a global health scare over its possible link to severe birth defects, is primarily transmitted by mosquito. The possibility of infection via body fluids could complicate efforts to combat the outbreak. Scientists at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a Brazil federal government biomedical research institution, said they used genetic testing to identify the virus in samples from two patients while they had symptoms and were known to have Zika. They stressed, however, that more studies were needed to determine if those fluids could transmit the infection. It was the first time the virus has been detected in saliva and urine, the scientists told reporters in Rio de Janeiro, where the five-day Carnival began on Friday, a huge event with street parties and a lot of drinking alcohol. The virus was deemed active, meaning that it was able to cause infection. But Myrna Bonaldo, one of the scientists who made the discovery, noted that this "is not proof that it can contaminate other people through those fluids." But the foundation urged pregnant women to take precautions and avoid crowds during Carnival. Some revellers even keep track of the number of complete strangers they kiss. "In light of the possibility of being in contact with someone who is infected, do not kiss, obviously," said Dr. Paulo Gadelha, the foundation's president. The discovery of Zika in urine and saliva added to concern that Zika, which is predominantly spread by the Aedis aegypti mosquito, could also be transmitted by other means. Brazil is particularly concerned to fight an outbreak as the country grapples with a deep economic crisis and prepares to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August. The World Health Organization said that between January 2014 and Feb. 5, 2016, a total of 33 countries have reported indigenous circulation of Zika virus. The WHO said there was evidence of indirect local transmission in six other countries. SEXUAL TRANSMISSION Scientists are researching reports earlier this week that an American had transmitted the virus to a sexual partner in Dallas County, Texas. And Brazilian health officials said on Thursday they had confirmed two cases of transmission through blood transfusions. At the centre of the concern over Zika, until recently viewed as a mild illness, is the possibility that infection with Zika during pregnancy may cause microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can cause permanent brain damage in newborns. One of America's top doctors, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Friday the suspected link appears "stronger and stronger" as researchers study whether there is a causal connection. CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said the agency is also working with researchers in Brazil to study a potential link between Zika and a wider array of developmental disorders in babies. The outbreak of Zika infections, which started in northeastern Brazil, has been linked to more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly in the country. The virus has since spread and been locally transmitted in more than 30 countries according to the World Health Organization, which has declared a global health emergency over Zika. STRONGER GUIDELINES FOR PREGNANT WOMEN Reflecting concern over potential harm to fetuses, the CDC upgraded its guidelines on Friday for testing pregnant women who have traveled to affected areas, saying even those without symptoms should be tested after returning home. The updated guidelines recommend pregnant women be offered testing 2 to 12 weeks after returning home. The agency had earlier suggested tests only for those with symptoms of the illness, which causes a fever, rash and red eyes. In addition to widening its testing guidelines, the CDC noted the possibility of sexual transmission. It said men with a pregnant partner who live in or have traveled to an area of active Zika transmission and their partner should consistently and correctly use condoms during sex or abstain for the duration of the pregnancy. Obstetricians have said that since 80 percent of those infected by the virus show no symptoms, many women have no way of knowing early enough to make an informed choice about their unborn child. Scientists are racing to try to create a vaccine for Zika, but it could be years until that is available to the public. In the meantime, efforts to combat Zika are focussed on protection from mosquito bites and eradication of the insect. Brazilians have been rushing to buy repellant, creating a shortage of some brands on pharmacy shelves and boosting sales for the industry - a trend some producers are preparing for elsewhere as the outbreak spreads. (Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Natalie Grover in Bengaluru, Paulo Prada and Caroline Stauffer in Sao Paulo; Writing by Frances Kerry; editing by Grant McCool) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Matthew Lee chats with Rams writer-director Grimur Hakonarson The winner of last years Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival, Rams continues its success with an abundance of critical praise from across the globe. It tells the story of brothers Gummi and Kiddi, who havent spoken to each other in 40 years, slowly reconcile to prevent the culling of their sheep. The full four star review can be read here. Matthew Lee sat down with Icelandic filmmaker Grimur Hakonarson to discuss the films success, his influences, and where the story originated from. Matthew Lee: So congratulations on winning the Prix Un Certain Regard at last years Cannes film festival, and the subsequent critical acclaim from across the globe. How has it been received in Iceland? Grimur Hakonarson: We actually had the premiere straight after Cannes at the valley where we shot the film. Its been really popular in Iceland so far. This film works both in Iceland and across the world. ML: From watching the film, it looks and feels very cold, and the rural landscape feels, for lack of a better word, isolative. What was production like shooting on location? GH: Yeah, I shot in the valley in north of Iceland. They have harsh winters where people get stuck there for weeks. It can be a bit difficult, at times socially, when you have a group of people who cant go home in the evening, and have to stay there for weeks. We were shooting in the winter with the snow. We just had the snow storm, and sometimes youre filming in minus fifteen degrees; it was pretty tough and not easy. It was also made for only around one million Euros. So I felt like I was running around and pretty stressed all the time. It doesnt look like that though. ML: No, it looks very quiet and calm, yet the actors looked like they went through a lot, too. What was it like directing them under such conditions? GH: We had a good preparation. We took them there before we started to film. I let them stay on the farm, on location, and got them used to sheep herding. There was also a lot of silence in the film. And [the brothers] are kind of stage actors. Theyre used to dialogue scenes, so I had to prepare them to act with their faces and their eyes. Also, its a low-key sort of performance and acting, so it took a while to get them off the stage and to get into characters. ML: So what made you choose this kind of story? GH: My family come from the countryside in the south of Iceland. When I was a kid I would stay at my grandfathers home, so I know a lot about sheep farming. I also know the mentality of these people, and I know some characters who are [like the brothers] a bit stubborn: live alone, but sort of harmless. But the main story is based on a true story of two brothers who didnt talk for forty years. I never met them they died when I was about ten years old but I found the story interesting. It tells a lot about the national character of Iceland and of the people; were an island, were very independent a bit stubborn. But, its also a common and universal story about family conflicts, which may explain why people have liked it. ML: Yeah, it has indeed been well received globally, and one of the recurring praises has been the films mixture of very dry, almost absurdist, humour with the dramatic story of the two brothers reconciling. When you were writing the script, how did you maintain a balance between the two? GH: Ive been working on that cocktail all my life. Its something I like to do. I like to tell serious edgy stories with some kind of message. But I also like to have some humour. Like my first feature, the balance was not right; it was too unbalanced. So I spent a lot of time working in the script, you have to think you cant be too funny or too dramatic. The film comes from something natural. Its not dialogue driven humour, but mainly in the silence. The basic set up of the two brothers opens up for a lot of opportunity for funny moments and situations. Theyre dependent on each other, kind of cooperate, but they dont speak and so they use a dog to deliver messages. ML: I also read somewhere that you credit the sheep as actors. Is that correct? And, if so, whose idea was that? GH: Yeah, it was the producers idea. I mean, theyve got names, and are also actors. They play a very important and big role in the film, and audiences can sympathise with them. It was quite an experience to work with the sheep, also. I had never done it before, and before shooting I had nightmares about all these complicated scenes. But we always made it work. We had some very good, super-calm sheep that stayed on the farm and were used to being around people. ML: And the same level of preparation with the actors as well, no doubt. How involved were the actors with the sheep? GH: The main actor Sigurur Sigurjonsson had experience working on a farm as a teenager. Both the [lead] actors now live in the city, so I took them to the countryside to stay on the farm and to speak to the farmers about scrapie and the culling, to get into character. I think I spent more time on that than actually rehearsing the scenes. ML: So were there certain improvised scenes or moments from this preparation? GH: No-no. You always use some kind of improvisation that comes from these rehearsals; I allow the actors to change the sentences, but its all written. I was not worried about the dialogue because they work in theatre. I spent more energy making sure they looked, from the first minute, like believable farmers. I think in many movies, like in Hollywood, you always see some famous actor in costumes and in the situations but you dont believe the characters. In this I try to make my characters look very authentic, by mixing professional actors with local farmers for the small roles. ML: You mentioned earlier it was largely based on a true story. What other inspirations helped construct your screenplay? GH: One of my favourite books is a famous Icelandic book called Independent People by Halldor Laxness. Its this story of a stubborn sheep farmer who wants to be an independent farmer, he doesnt want help from the people, and sacrifices himself for the sheep. Also filmmakers like Finlands Aki Kaurismaki, Norways Bent Hamer, and The Coen Brothers. But, almost everything that happens in Rams is based on something that has happened before, like the fighting, or trying to save the sheep from the slaughter. Even the tractor scene where the brother lifts him and dumps him in front of the hospital also happened. I spend a lot of time in the countryside, talking to the people and gain influence from them. I just put it together, and spin it out onto the paper. It took me three years to do this script, went through different versions and drafts. ML: Youve had documentary and fictional filmmaking experience in the past. And, after the success of Rams, will you remain in fiction, or shall there be a return to documentary? GH: Im actually finishing a documentary I started before Rams. Its called Little Moscow, and its about a little fishing village in Iceland. Of course, now, my main focus is more on fictional features. Im getting a lot of opportunities, and plenty of doors opening for me. Im not going to quit making documentaries, but for now Im going to focus on making fictional features. But I would like to do both. I get inspired when Im making a documentary. When Im directing my fiction I try to think the actors are real people, and I think I have a good sense of whats right. Im quite a perfectionist; I never quit until it is right. ML: And as a perfectionist, were there particular scenes that were difficult to shoot? GH: The last scene of the film was particularly challenging. It was a risky ending, and could have flopped, so we filmed that multiple times. There was also the fighting scene between the brothers, and when you have particularly old actors fighting, perhaps not in the best physical condition, can be tricky. The snowstorm scene: Ive never filmed an action scene before, and this was like an action movie. The winter scenes were complicated to setup. We were also filming the snowstorm at night, so it was difficult to light. We always managed to get it right. Due to the small budget and small crew, we had to do everything real fast. ML: Finally when people go see Rams what do you want audiences to walk away with? GH: Its a story of reconciliation. Human relationships are important in difficult times, from threats, and in the end people need each other. We can refer to terrorist attacks or the economic crisis, something that brings people together. Rams kind of brings human unity. Even the most stubborn farmers, they can make peace and get together during hard times. The story could happen in any part of the world. People seem to have similar experiences, but whats made this idea radical is that theyre living alone, yet so close to each other. The brothers are from an older generation where people keep their emotions to themselves. People today will go and look for help, but this conflict between the two brothers couldve been solved very easily. And conflicts like this can become trickier as time goes on, and in my film they need an external factor to start to communicate. So, its about reconciliation and the importance of communication. Many thanks to Grimur Hakonarson for taking the time for this interview. Matthew Lee A wide grin spread across my face as i felt the car pull ahead and push me back into the body hugging seats. Inside that practical guise was a car that lived up to the Mini Cooper tradition and was a supremely fun drive. But hey, were a technology website, what the heck are we doing writing about cars? Thats a question i had for the folks over at Mini when they called us over to check out their range of cars. Their answer? Theres more to the Mini than pure driving. We spend a day driving the Mini Cooper D to find out more about the technology that ticks below the surface! With the Auto Expo around the corner, Mini decided to do something different. While the expo is a nice way to get a glimpse at all sorts of vehicles, some cars are just meant to be experienced. With that in mind, we set off on a short drive from Delhi that would take us across expressways, the rural hinterland and even a hillock or two. Theres a huge amount of technology built into the vehicle and a real world driving experience is what it takes to get a better idea. Made in Oxford, theres the quintessential British charm that can be seen in almost every facet of the vehicle. Look it up from the front and the DRLs almost make it appear that the car has gleaming eyes. Add to it the racing stripes and the gorgeous orange color, the car makes heads turn wherever you go. The beautiful chrome grille and the matte black 17 inch alloys just add to the charm. I could wax lyrical about the quirky beauty of the vehicle but im sure youre well aware of that. Theres a reason why vehicles like the Mini dont get revolutionary changes in terms of looks. The retro yet timeless nature of the appearance is a huge part of the appeal here. First things first, the Mini Cooper is a very traditional car in more ways than one. Physical toggles abound. That begins right at the start button which is a toggle switch sitting bang in the center of the console glowing an ominous red in a bid to warn you of the fun that lies ahead! Im a bit of a petrolhead with an affinity towards manual shifting so the automatic, diesel took me back for a few minutes. Slot the car into drive though and it just takes off with a roar. For a car that takes the practical approach versus the Cooper S, it sure does seem like a pocket rocket. From the speedometer, tacho and all the way to the center console, the design choice is an old school round shape which seems to befit the curvy looks of the car. A large display sits bang in the center that serves as the command center of the car. A rotary dial sits by the side of the driver seat that is a breeze to use. This is akin to the iDrive spotted in BMWs and is a much better way to access the system without having to stretch your hand across to the console. Im used to voice control on my Ford and while thats an option here too, the rotary dial just seems like a much more ergonomic way to access the menu without getting distracted. As we set off towards Neemrana while navigating through NCR traffic, I decided to put the navigation system to the test. Interestingly, Mini has tied up with MapMyIndia for the content and you get access to the latest map data for two years. The navigation interface has been completely adapted to the vehicle and makes good use of the rotary dial. My favorite feature though? The split screen view. From a technology standpoint, the likes of Carplay and similar are of huge interest but the fact remains that its still a while before it gets standardized and then too, there is the question of device compatibility at least on the Android side of things. A smarter and well designed in-car system is honestly the best option and the beautifully designed system here just proves the point. The split screen view offers a modicum of multitasking and you can view both the navigation and media displays simultaneously. Switch entirely to the navigation screen and youll get an overhead map with lane guidance on the side. The rotary dial lets you zoom in and out of the map. As we approached our first stop, I imagined that parking the vehicle on a crowded slope with minimal room on the side was going to be quite the issue. In reality though, the multiple parking sensors make it a fantastically easy task. Certainly not something unique to the Mini but the live heat maps generated with the array of sensors around the body piqued the interest of the inner geek in me while making parallel parking a walk in the park. Done with the first stop, we set off again on the highway just as I noticed my phones battery starting to die. If you follow me on twitter, youd probably be aware of my love for heavy metal and really, I find it hard to drive without some hard hitting, head banging tunes. Now this might sound like a shameless plug but I was certainly surprised, pleasantly of course, to find that the car has about 20 gigs or so of storage built into it where you can copy over media files so that you dont really need your phone or a usb drive to play your music. The Harman Kardon speakers all around certainly dont detract from the experience either. As I mentioned earlier, Im partial towards manual shifting and despite the great performance of the vehicle, my hand was always itching to really push the car. The Cooper D does not come with paddle shifts but you do get a semi-manual mode using the electronic gear shifts. Switch to it and man, the car really roars ahead with breathtaking acceleratation. All this enthusiastic driving however had me worried about the fuel efficiency or perhaps the lack of it? Those fears proved to be unfounded though as I was reminded that the car has been rated for a combined mileage of 21.5 Kmpl. Let that sink in for a second! Add to that my 2nd favorite feature of the car. For lack of better words, the car switches off the second it comes to a stand still and switches on the moment you press the accelerator. The entire transition happens so quickly that you just dont notice it. A feature like this should be standard across vehicles given the amount of fuel wastage we observe in the stop-go traffic in city driving. By now we were approaching the lush green fields and the rolling aravali hills signifying the end of our journey. Remember that I mentioned the rapid start stop as my second favorite feature of the vehicle? Well the first is the gorgeous panoramic sunroof on the car. The thrill of driving an almost open-top vehicle is pure luxury yet so much fun that Im almost in a mood to retrofit one on my own car! Of course, my justification for it is that I can do photography during roadtrips straight from the car itself but truth be told, its just way too much fun to feel the wind gushing through the car as you take it down the highway. You mightve noticed that I didnt really focus too much on the engine specs or the driving of the car. Ill leave that to the automobile experts. From a technological perspective, the Mini Cooper is just an amazing vehicle and theres so much to enjoy and discover. I started off the drive with mixed feelings about the vehicle, by the end of the drive i was pretty convinced that i needed one of these in my life. Time to start saving? What: Shares of Esterline Technologies Corp. (ESL) are absolutely getting destroyed, down 31% as of 12:45 p.m. EST, after the company posted weak fourth-quarter results on Thursday evening, and shareholder rights law firm Johnson & Weaver LLP announced on Friday that it would investigate the company. So what: First things first: The company fell short of analysts' estimates on both revenue and earnings in the first quarter. The aerospace and defense supplier recorded revenue of $441.5 million, missing the consensus estimate of $476.6 million. While Esterline managed to post a small net income of $5.1 million -- which was an improvement from the loss it reported during the prior year's Q1 -- the company's adjusted earnings per share of $0.62 still fell far short of estimates of $1 per share. Now what: But that wasn't the end of bad news for Esterline investors. On Friday morning, Johnson & Weaver said it was investigating the company and some of its officers for potential violations of federal securities law. Specifically, the law firm seeks to determine if any of Esterline's statements regarding its business and future prospects were false or misleading when made. Developments like these can be difficult for the public to fully grasp until everything is all said and done, and by then, it's often too late for investors to act. Because of that, it's not surprising the stock is being massively sold off. Given that where there's smoke, there's frequently fire, I'd recommend watching this stock from the sidelines. Americans are heading to the polls this November to elect a new president, and with a still-crowded field of presidential hopefuls, we've recently witnessed some of the leading candidates unveiling the bullet points of their positions on key issues, including Social Security and the state of healthcare in general. One of the front-runners, Ted Cruz, a Senator from Texas vying for the Republican nomination, has bold plans for repealing and replacing what could arguably be described as current President Barack Obama's most important accomplishment while in the Oval Office: the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare). Like any major healthcare reform, Obamacare has had its ups and downs. On one hand, Medicaid expansion in 31 states and enrollment via transparent marketplace exchanges in all 50 states have contributed to more than 23 million gaining health insurance since the law was fully implemented on Jan. 1, 2014. This includes some 13.5 million Medicaid enrollees as of Oct. 2015 and around 9.9 million paying individual marketplace members as of the end of June 2015, according to the most recent figures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. On the flip side, a lack of universal Medicaid expansion -- the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 7-2 that states could choose whether to participate -- has left millions without access to affordable healthcare, big insurers are threatening to pull out of Obamacare's marketplace exchanges due to losses (and a lack of risk corridor funding), and premium prices are rising at a faster pace than they have in about a decade. Ted Cruz's three-point plan Cruz has apparently seen enough. During the Fox News GOP debate prior to the Iowa caucuses last week, he outlined his plan to completely "repeal every word of Obamacare" and implement a three-point plan that he believes would promote interactions between patients and their doctors without the government playing the role of middleman. Let's briefly examine Cruz's plan and take a look at some of the positives and negatives that could arise. 1. Creation of a nationwide marketplace The first component of Cruz's plan involves the creation of a nationwide marketplace that consumers in all 50 states would use to shop for health insurance, instead of each state having their own exchange. The allure of Cruz's plan is pretty simple: competition. If consumers have access to more plans and they can compare those plans across state lines in a very transparent manner, we should see insurers competing with each other on premium cost in order to lure in customers. It would, in theory, remove some of the issues we see with exorbitantly high premiums in Alaska and Wyoming, two sparsely populated states. The primary concern with a national healthcare marketplace is that it may not be feasible for health-benefit providers. There are reasons why premiums in Alaska, Wyoming, and other states cost more -- namely their lack of broad-spectrum medical access. Because certain states are less densely populated, it might not be economically feasible for hospitals to invest in certain state-of-the-art equipment, causing patients to have to drive or fly elsewhere for treatment. Chances are, you could go anywhere in densely populated Southern California and get the latest treatments medicine has to offer, but if you live in the middle of Wyoming, that may not be true. It's unclear how insurers would rectify this pricing difference if a national marketplace were instituted. 2. Expansion of health savings accounts Second, Cruz wants to expand the use of health savings accounts, or HSAs, so people can pay for routine healthcare needs in a tax-advantaged way. An HSA is a tax-advantaged medical savings account for persons covered by high-deductible health plans. There are four huge advantages to an HSA: (1) The money contributed to an HSA is pretax, meaning the federal government can't touch it so it reduces your current-year tax liability; (2) you can earn interest on the money in your HSA and not pay any tax on the interest earned; (3) you can make tax-free withdrawals from your HSA to pay for qualified medical expenses; and (4) you can roll over what's remaining from one year to the next with an HSA, unlike a flexible spending account, which is more or less a use-it-or-lose-it health plan from one year to the next. Despite their many advantages, HSAs also have disadvantages. For example, if you aren't enrolled in a high-deductible health plan, you're not eligible for an HSA. Even with the tax benefits of an HSA, the high deductibles of some plans could be burdensome for some consumers to pay. Fees are another issue. Some HSAs charge monthly maintenance fees or transaction fees that can eat into your medical nest egg. Lastly, the penalty for using HSA funds for a non-qualified expense before the age of 65 is huge. Not only will you owe taxes for an unqualified expense, but you'll pay a 20% penalty to boot. 3. De-linking health insurance from the workplace Last, Cruz wants to remove the current ties most Americans have between their health insurance and their job. A majority of Americans sign up for health insurance in the workplace, meaning if they change jobs or are laid off, they'll lose their coverage. If this point sounds familiar, it's because Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders echoed the same mantra when he unveiled "Medicare for All." One of the biggest points of "Medicare for All" is that insurance shouldn't be linked solely to a person's place of employment. The obvious benefit of doing this (per Cruz and Sanders) would be the removal of the stress tied to staying at a job you're not happy with, or unable to perform. But another potentially overlooked benefit is that de-linking would open the door to a wide swath of plans for consumers. Quite a few employers offer just a handful of health plans for consumers to choose from, occasionally from the same health-benefits provider. De-linking would allow consumers considerably more options when it comes to purchasing health insurance. The downside? For decades, employee-sponsored healthcare has been the norm, but it's also been quite successful at keeping healthcare costs down. Big businesses negotiating on behalf of tens of thousands of employees can be very effective at driving down insurer premiums for their employees. Additionally, it's possible employees could actually see their wages fall if healthcare is de-linked from the workplace. As it stands now, healthcare costs are something akin to intangible compensation for workers. You might think that de-linking healthcare from the workplace might result in wage hikes since employers would no longer be on the hook for covering their employees. However, it's possible some form of health tax could be imposed on corporations (similar to what Sanders has outlined) that could cause them to pass along higher costs to consumers and/or lower wages to employees. To be clear, Cruz hasn't said he would do this, but he didn't exactly lay out specifics of how he'd de-link the two, either. Would this work? The big question, of course, is whether Cruz's Obamacare repeal will work. The unfortunate answer is we just don't know yet, primarily because Cruz hasn't laid out the specifics of de-linking or how expansive he would make HSAs. When we have this plan laid out in better detail, we should be able to make a solid argument for one side or the other. But what I can say is this: Cruz's plan to expand HSAs is the selling point here. Expanding HSAs seems like a smart maneuver, with healthcare costs rising and seniors likely to need as much of a boost as possible come retirement. HSA contribution limits for an individual or a family currently stand at $3,350 and $6,750, respectively, for 2016. Cruz's best bet might be to up these contribution limits substantially, while also moving the catch-up contribution higher than $1,000 for HSA participants ages 55 and up. This "IRA for your health" is really the exciting component of Cruz's plan, and I'd suggest closely monitoring the Cruz campaign for more details on his plans for healthcare reform, especially as it relates to HSAs. Ukraine is locked in an undeclared war with Russia -- and so far, not a successful one. To cite just one statistic, last year, a Flightglobal analysis of Ukraine's military concluded that roughly 65% of Ukraine's air force has ceased to exist since fighting began in March of 2014. Aside from the addition of a few unarmed drones, Ukraine hasn't made much progress in repairing the damage to its air forces. But on the ground, things are starting to look a bit different. U.S. contractors are arriving, weapons in hand -- and leaving with bags of cash. Case in point: Earlier this week, armored vehicle-maker Textron (TXT -1.46%) announced a deal to sell Ukrainian defense firm UkrOboronProm three Survivable Combat Tactical Vehicles (SCTVs). That may not sound like much, but according to a report from Defense Update, this sale is only the first part of a much larger plan to ship to Ukraine 200 U.S. Army surplus Humvees, mate them to Textron-produced up-armor "kits," and thereby transform the humble Army jeeps into Textron-brand SCTVs. Ukraine plans to keep some of the upgraded Humvees for itself, and locally re-manufacture others in a joint venture with Textron for reexport to third parties -- generating funds needed to further finance the rebuilding of its own military. What is an SCTV exactly? As Defense Update explains, Textron's SCTV begins with a basic Humvee, then surrounds it with "a new steel armored monocoque capsule, offering improved ballistic and blast protection, using V-shaped hull, and oblique side armor adding to the vehicle's ballistic and roadside IED protection." Textron notes that to support the added weight of all the new armor, SCTV also features an upgraded engine and improvements to the vehicle's suspension. The result is something like an MRAP -- a vehicle type that Textron has produced for the U.S. military in the past -- and will offer Ukrainian soldiers improved protection from IED attacks as well as small-arms fire. What it means for investors All of which is fascinating from a geopolitical perspective. But here at The Motley Fool, we're most interested in how developments such as these will affect investors' portfolios. So what exactly does this contract mean for Textron? Textron hasn't revealed the price it will charge Ukraine to upgrade its Humvees. We can guess at the number by hypothesizing that an MRAP-like SCTV might cost something like the $500,000 or so that the U.S. was paying for its own MRAPs back when they were in active production -- but that's only a guess. Whatever that number turns out to be, investors can probably multiply it by at least 200, based on the number of Humvees the U.S. government is shipping to Ukraine. Is $500,000 times 200 equals a $100 million contract for Textron the exact right answer? Probably not. But it might be close. What we do know, is that in securing the SCTV deal, Textron has won itself a prime position as supplier to Ukraine's military-industrial complex. Directly translated, you see, Textron's new partner's name -- UkrOboronProm -- means "Ukrainian Defense Industry." Encompassing producers of everything from armored vehicles to rockets to fighter jets, helicopters, and radar systems, UkrOboronProm basically is Ukraine's defense industry. According to the company's 2015 annual report , UkrOboronProm generated 14.4 billion UAH ($563 million) in revenues in the first 9 months of 2015, earning EBITDA of 2.7 billion UAH ($107 million) and net profits of 1.6 billion UAH ($63 million ) thereon. Annualized, that works out to profits of $84 million on revenues of $751 million. And yet, for context, Textron itself did $13.4 billion in business last year (and earned $698 million in profits). Amazingly, from a revenue perspective, that means that Textron is actually 18 times larger than UkrOboronProm. So if you were wondering who is the senior partner in this new joint venture -- now you know. The bottom line for investors, of course, is that while this deal is intriguing it doesn't move the needle for Textron too much. In the stock market's history, Altria Group (MO -2.48%) holds a key place. Even among the many long-lived companies whose shares trade publicly, Altria Group stands out for its long track record of rising share prices and ample dividend income. Yet there's one key reason why 2016 could be a breakout year for Altria, and it doesn't have anything to do with tobacco. Let's take a closer look at why 2016 could be Altria Group's best year yet. Taking tobacco for granted To be clear, tobacco will remain an essential part of Altria's overall success. Consolidation in the industry has helped Altria cement its leadership role atop the domestic tobacco market, and the company has seen market share for its two main brands climb. In the cigarette arena, Marlboro continues to perform well, and the Copenhagen brand of smokeless tobacco has also dramatically increased its share of that market. Although building and maintaining brand awareness takes effort and money, Altria's labors to sustain and build on its most valuable brands have generated huge rewards over the years. In light of falling overall cigarette volume in the U.S. over the past several decades, Altria's ability to raise prices for Marlboro and its other cigarette lines has been the way that the company has generating bigger profits. That game plan has worked well for years, and investors can expect Altria to stick with it for 2016 as well. Raise a glass to growth Yet the real game-changer for Altria in 2016 will come from the beer market. Anheuser-Busch InBev's (BUD -0.83%) anticipated takeover of SABMiller will create a colossus in the industry if it goes through, and both companies are optimistic that they can surpass regulatory hurdles and get a deal closed in the second half of 2016. The result of the deal from Altria's perspective will be transformative. In exchange for its 27% stake in SABMiller, Altria will end up with about a 10.5% stake in the much-larger Anheuser-Busch InBev. Moreover, the tobacco giant expects to end up with $2.5 billion in cash. Perhaps most importantly, Altria will have a hand in the future direction that Anheuser-Busch InBev takes. Altria representatives will have two spots on the beer-maker's board of directors. That will help ensure the continued flow of income from Altria's investment in the company. In Altria CEO Marty Barrington's words, "Altria will continue to participate in the global brewing profit pool as a large and significant shareholder in what will be the industry's largest company." Will the deal go through? Some investors have been nervous that the competitive impact on the beer industry would prompt regulators to block Anheuser-Busch from buying SABMiller. Part of the appeal for Altria is that Anheuser-Busch will become an even bigger global giant in the industry than it is now, so Altria won't want Anheuser-Busch to give up too much to get a deal done. Nevertheless, Anheuser-Busch's plans include divestitures of SABMiller assets in certain countries in which the two companies now have substantial overlapping market share, including the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, and Italy. Still uncertain is whether SABMiller will have to give up its stake in a key Chinese brewing company. At this point, Altria looks like it will get most of the benefits of a full SABMiller/Anheuser-Busch merger without too many obstacles. Barring unforeseen intervention that would require further changes, the current structure of the deal retains plenty of the promise that a combined Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller brings to the table. Altria Group has already rewarded its longtime shareholders with returns that few other stocks can match. Yet even with that legacy behind it, Altria stands a good chance of making 2016 one of its best years ever for those investors willing to see the company's evolution toward a more diversified conglomerate continue. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has something to boast about this week following his Iowa Caucus loss. Trump has been officially nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, according to Kristian Berg Harpviken, Nobel watcher and director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo. Harpviken told FOXBusiness.com that he is committed to not reveal the nominators name but can confirm Trump is on the 2016 nominee list which also includes Pope Francis, actress Susan Sarandon and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, among others. Harpviken says the anonymous U.S. nominator selected the GOP frontrunner for his vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump has vowed to cut the heads off ISIS members and suggested a ban for Muslims entering the U.S., which received international backlash. The Norwegian Nobel Committee selects the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, however a valid nomination is submitted by a person who meets one of the following criteria, according to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation: Members of national assemblies and governments of states Members of international courts University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Board members of organizations that have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Former advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Committee More on this... Complete List of Nobel Peace Prizes and Laureates The mystery surrounding Trumps nomination wont become clear anytime soon as the names of the nominators and other details about nominations cannot be revealed until 50 years later. The winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in October. The president of Colombia said Saturday that more than 3,100 pregnant women in the country are infected with the mosquito-borne virus which has been linked to birth defects and has no vaccine or treatment. Reuters reported that President Jaun Manuel Santos pointed out, however, that there has been no recorded cases of Zika-linked microcephaly, the birth defect that involves the fetus brain. Meanwhile, Brazilian officials will soon decide whether to amend the South American nation's rigid procedures for sharing Zika samples, the Cabinet chief's spokeswoman said Friday, as officials announced that they were sending a set of samples to U.S. researchers amid complaints of hoarding. The developments came on the heels of an Associated Press report earlier this week that revealed that international health officials were frustrated at Brazil's refusal to share enough viral samples and other information to answer the most worrying question about the outbreak: Whether the disease is truly causing a spike in babies born with abnormally small heads? Cabinet chief Jaques Wagner planned to meet with the health minister and science and technology minister next Wednesday to craft a presidential decree to reform Brazil's biosecurity law, Sonia Abranches, a spokeswoman for Cabinet chief's office, told the AP. Abranches said she could not provide more details on what the changes might look like or comment on whether Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff would enact the decree. The Associated Press contributed to this report "Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant, and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. Ronald Reagan, March 8, 1983 Ronald Wilson Reagan, born this week in 1911, was one of Americas most deeply read and thoughtful presidents, and one of its most spiritually grounded. Trained early in life by his evangelical Christian mother, he never forgot the lessons she taught him. And in the Oval Office he became a history-changing champion of religious liberty. In fact, most Americanseven most conservativesdont realize how Ronald Reagans Christianity was a core part of his entire philosophy of government as well as something he lived personally. Reagan viewed all of life, including public life, through a spiritual lens, lacing speeches with references to the practical implications of doctrines such as sin and the fall (part of his case for limited government, law and order, and confronting evil in regimes such as the Soviet Union), and the creation and dignity of every human being in image of God (part of his case for free enterprise and against abortion). After renowned historian Douglas Brinkley spent six months meticulously examining and editing the private diaries Reagan kept while president, he noted: In these writings Ronald Reagans true nature is revealed . . . Like his marriage to Nancy, his strong relationship with God was of paramount importance in Reagans life. In these diaries, you find Reagan: ? Taking time to research evidence for the resurrection of Christ and drawing confidence from what he learned. ? Praying through the night for good weather for a visit from the prime minister of India, whom Reagan was trying to draw away from the influence of the Soviet Union (Today was supposed to be a rainy one & Ive been praying since last night.) The rain held off until just after an important outdoor ceremony that got the meeting off to a good start. Because Reagan the individual understood religious faith, Reagan the statesman understood its value to a free society. Without God, he said, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. For this reason, Reagan rebutted attacks on religious values as attempts to abrogate the original terms of American democracy. He supported both judicial and legislative action to restore prayer and other religious activity to public schools, including the 1984 Equal Access Act. He left a federal judiciary populated with Reagan judges who made key rulings in favor of religious freedom. His Justice Department accelerated the careers of countless champions of religious liberty and freedom. As President, Reagan saw religious freedom as crucial to the moral stability necessary for a society to afford less government and enjoy more political and economic freedom. We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever, Reagan stated in 1984. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions. Today, powerful forces in culture and government are questioning the value of religious liberty. Yet the ideological heirs of Ronald Reagan are battling back in courts, state legislatures, and the U.S. Congress. And somewhere in heaven, Ronald Reagan is cheering them all on. Hillary Clinton used misleading language in Thursday nights Democratic debate to describe the ongoing FBI investigation into her use of a private email server to conduct official government business while she was secretary of state, according to former senior FBI agents. In the New Hampshire debate with Senator Bernie Sanders, which aired on MSNBC, Clinton told moderator Chuck Todd that nothing would come of the FBI probe, I am 100 percent confident. This is a security review that was requested. It is being carried out. Not true says Steve Pomerantz, who spent 28 years at the FBI, and rose from field investigative special agent to the rank of assistant director, the third highest position in the Bureau. They (the FBI) do not do security reviews, Pomerantz said. What they primarily do and what they are clearly doing in this instance is a criminal investigation. Pomerantz emphasized to Fox News, There is no mechanism for her to be briefed and to have information about the conduct, the substance, the direction or the result of any FBI investigation. Separately, an intelligence source familiar with the two prongs of the ongoing FBI probe, stressed to Fox that the criminal and national security elements remain inseparable. The source, not authorized to speak on the record, characterized Clintons statement as a typical Clinton diversion and what is she going to say, Im 95 percent sure that I am going to get away with it? Fox recently learned that one of the FBI's senior agents responsible for counterintelligence matters, Charles H. Kable IV, is working the Clinton case, another indicator the intelligence source said that the FBI probe is extremely serious, and the A-team is handling. Kable, known as "Sandy," was appointed special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division at the Washington field office by Director James Comey in December. He had recently served as the chief of the counterespionage section at FBI headquarters. In that capacity, a bureau press releases says the 15-year, well-respected FBI veteran, "provided leadership and oversight to the field offices engaged in espionage, economic espionage, and insider threat investigations." While his responsibilities are not publicly known, Kable was described to Fox as "tough and no-nonsense FBI." The intelligence source said analysts and agents are exploring whether the mishandling of classified information was "intentional" and who may have benefited. A spokeswoman for the FBI took Fox's questions, but said they would not be providing comment on Kables role or the FBI case. In 2009, Kable led investigations against known and suspected Chinese intelligence officers in the U.S. In January, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, told the Hugh Hewitt radio show that "the odds are pretty high" that then-Secretary of State Clinton's personal email server was hacked by Iran, China and Russia. A separate source told Fox, "it is no less of a violation of espionage statutes if any material was classified secret or top secret....All the statute requires is national defense information or NDI, adding "this is way past accidental spillage(it) is being investigated as intentional mishandlingin this kind of high profile investigation, the most damaging information takes primacy. Investigations into the compromise of classified information include damage assessments. In the recent case of former CIA Director David Petraeus, the damage was deemed to be limited, discreet, and knowable because the highly classified information was shared with his biographer, who also had a security clearance. In Hillary Clinton's case, if the private server was compromised by a third party, the extent of the damage maybe unknowable. The hacker "Guccifer" compromised Clintons adviser Sydney Blumenthal's aol account, and he copied the email exchanges sent to Clinton. The Romanian hacker, whose real name is Marcel Lehel Lazar, has an extradition hearing February 17, and in an interview, indicated he would welcome extradition to the U.S. The amount of classified information, now including 22 top secret emails the State Department withheld from public release last week, stands at more than 15-hundred. At the State Department briefing Thursday, spokesman John Kirby was asked by Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge whether Clinton, as well as aides Huma Abedin, and Cheryl Mills, completed the required classified training that includes the proper storage, handling, and identification of classified information. "Everybody here is trained in how to handle sensitive information. Sometimes that takes place in in-person briefings and I can't comment any further," Kirby said. Asked it was documented, Kirby said he had nothing more to offer, but did confirm Clinton, Abedin, Mills were not exempt from the strict rules that apply to State Department personnel. Fox: So they would not be an exception? Kirby: Everybody that works at the State Department gets trained in how to handle sensitive information. Sometimes that's done in- person briefings. This is important because, on its face, this seems to undercut Clinton's claim she had no way to know it was classified because the emails were not marked. Personnel are briefed on what constitutes classified information and its proper handling. Under the Freedom of Information Act, Judicial Watch sought the records documenting the classification training, but in a letter dated January 22, 2016, exactly seven years after Clinton signed her Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to serve as Secretary of State, the government watchdog was told "no responsive records" could be found. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday he plans to participate the next Fox News Republican debate after skipping the networks previous debate held last week. The billionaire businessman confirmed to Fox News Bill OReilly on The OReilly Factor he will be taking the stage at the March 3 debate in Detroit, despite previous objections to debate moderator Megyn Kelly. The news comes just days after Trump finished second behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and barely held off Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the Iowa caucuses held Monday. Trump admitted that his decision to skip the final debate before the Iowa caucuses could have cost him victory in the Hawkeye State. When asked why he finished second despite leading in the polls Trump told reporters at a rally in Milford, N.H. Tuesday "that could have been with the debate." "I think some people were disappointed that I didn't go into the debate," said Trump. Trump declined to participate in the Jan. 28 Fox News/Google debate in Des Moines due to a dispute with Fox News Channel. He cited the tone of press statements from the network about his possible pulling out of the debate, as well as issues with Kelly. Instead of participating in the debate, Trump held a fundraiser for veterans that raised $6 million. The candidate said that he would make the same decision again, saying he "would never, ever give that up to go between first and second in Iowa." President Obama on Tuesday delivers his annual budget proposal to Congress. And congressional Republicans will immediately excoriate him for the course he charts in the non-binding spending blueprint. It focuses on the wrong things. The priorities are way out of whack. It spends too much. Where are the cuts? Arent we running a $19 trillion debt? In fact, House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, will ignore Obamas budget package. It appears the presidents final budget will continue to focus on new spending proposals instead of confronting our governments massive overspending and debt, Enzi recently said. The duo wont hold the standard hearings questioning administration officials about the presidents budget. Instead, Enzi and Price will skip straight into crafting their own budgets and castigate what the White House engineered. The office of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., published a treatise Friday titled: They Just Dont Care. In the missive, Ryans office declared that nothing will deter (House Republicans) from moving forward with our positive agenda. It said the House wouldnt get bogged down in distractions and fantasy proposals that go nowhere. The release argued that Democrats tried to portray Republicans as the party of no. Congress faces a crushed calendar this year. Two conventions this summer. Weeks on end reserved for campaigning. Of course, it doesnt have to be this way. But the GOP congressional brain trust etched out this docket to accommodate the political season. Thats why House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., hoped to advance the chambers own budget in early March. Then the House could move expeditiously through the 12 appropriations bills that fund the government. A return to regular order was the signature credo conservative House members demanded from Ryan when he first clutched the speakers gavel. But it went deeper than that. Even stalwart supporters of former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, demanded that Congress get back to the proper way of doing things. Pass a budget to establish a topline spending figure for the fiscal year, then approve individual appropriations bills one by one. This prevents the need to glom the bills together in some colossal omnibus or CRomnibus fur ball later this year. Approving the bills separately would eliminate the need for emergency Continuing Resolutions (sometimes called CRs) to avoid a classic Washington crisis and a government shutdown. Guess what? The time squeeze makes it a challenge to knock out those appropriations bills at a breakneck pace. That calls for regular order? Almost everyone on Capitol Hill understands the inherit problem facing House Republicans prior to reaching the appropriations phase: passing a budget. Yes. Not a budget Obama cooked up. A budget crafted by Tom Price. Failing to approve a budget would emerge as an embarrassment for House Republicans clamoring for a return to regular order. Never mind that Ryan was the much-heralded House Budget Committee chairman for many years and authored the fabled Ryan Budget. Heres the other issue: The lack of a budget resolution impedes passage of any of the spending bills. Plus, it robs Republicans of a very special, parliamentary tool called budget reconciliation, which can sidestep Senate filibusters. Budget reconciliation measures are elite packages that can be used as a political weapon against the other party or bypass nettlesome Senate issues to approve controversial policy changes. First, a look at the operations of trying to approve a congressional budget, then a dive into the political realities that complicate passing a budget. +++++++++++++++++++ Its important to understand what constitutes a congressional budget. Its just what it sounds like. A budget lays out all federal expenditures for the coming fiscal year. The entire government spent a total of about $3.6 trillion in fiscal 2015. That includes every dollar spent on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security (which account for close to 70 percent federal spending). It also includes the remaining part for running military programs or the Department of Interior. Congress refers to the former section of spending as mandatory because lawmakers dont adjudicate how that money is spent. It just flows out the door based on what entitlement benefits people are owed. Congress doesnt annually dedicate funds for entitlements. Members of Congress refer to the second section of spending as discretionary. Thats because lawmakers have discretion over how to spend that money. Congress decides to send X dollars to the Pentagon and Y dollars to the Department of Interior and so-on. Just before he left office, then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, cut a deal with the president to avoid an immediate government shutdown. The plan would also raise the debt ceiling and establish a discretionary spending figure of about $1.07 trillion. Congress can then divide the total discretionary figure into 12 unequal parts (representing each of the 12 appropriations bills) to fund each section of government. However, Congress must first adopt an annual budget to dictate the total spending figure for mandatory and discretionary spending. Failing to do so provides House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., scant guidance as to the size of his spending pie. It paralyzes the appropriations process right there -- to say nothing of the quandary facing Republicans who want to restore regular order. However, a parliamentary work-around exists for not passing a budget. The House and Senate can always just deem that it approved a budget in order to start cranking through appropriations. Deeming is a make-believe way for Congress to say it did something -- even if it really didnt. Such an ad hoc-tool usually involves language latched to another legislative measure so Congress doesnt have to deal with the underlying issue at hand. But importantly, deeming falls short of approving an actual budget resolution. Deeming only dictates a discretionary spending number. Appropriators then know the size of their pie and can slice it to comprise the 12 spending bills. Plus, deeming robs lawmakers of any opportunity to use the special budget reconciliation gambit to navigate tricky Senate waters. Deeming resolutions are not unheard of. The House or Senate have initiated nine deeming resolutions in recent years. A provision in the Boehner-Obama pact also stipulates that the Senate can adopt a deeming resolution between April 15 and May 15 to establish appropriations spending levels. You think Freedom Caucus members are upset at the way Boehner ran the show? Imagine the acrimony if the House deems the spending number for this appropriations cycle. But if things go south on a budget, deeming may be the only option available if House Republicans want to approve standalone appropriations bills and not face an omnibus spending bill or CR later. Now, lets evaluate the political roadblocks to passing a budget. House Freedom Caucus members are balking at approving a budget that complies with the Boehner-Obama deal and triggers an appropriations spending level of approximately $1.07 trillion for fiscal 2017 (which starts October 1). Conservatives cant score cuts from the mandatory side of the spending ledger. But they can chop into the discretionary side. Members of the Freedom Caucus are pushing for a discretionary figure ranging between $20 to $70 trillion below the Boehner/Obama floor. Many Freedom Caucus members say their constituents demand additional spending cuts. Moreover, they dont think that Ryan should have to adhere to the deal forged by the former speaker and Obama. Never mind the argument that both bodies of Congress approved the Boehner-Obama legislation. Therefore, sticking to the $1.07 trillion discretionary spending number would be following regular order. The House Freedom Caucus commands 40-plus votes in the 246-member House Republican Conference. Attrition among that group could imperil the GOPs efforts to approve a budget. It would ignite a firestorm if Republicans leaned on Democrats to adopt a budget. Such a maneuver would certainly come at a price for Ryan. Democrats would extract concessions in a budget resolution reflecting their priorities in exchange for their votes. Dont forget what happened to the last speaker when he repeatedly sought Democratic votes on major issues. (That was Boehner, and he was essentially forced out.) And nobody has said anything about the potential duplicity that lurks around the corner if congressional Republicans upbraid Obama for his budget request -- while the GOP cant even strike an agreement on a budget of its own. This reflects the continued dissonance inside the GOP. As more than one lawmaker put it, New Speaker, same members. And the same problems. Ryan propounds a bottom-up approach to governing. As the former Budget Committee chairman, he must resist stage-managing the budget from the speakers office, leaving the heavy lifting to Price. But can that get the job done? Dont forget that McCarthy paid a late-night visit to a meeting to the Budget Committee last year to solve an impasse -- going over the head of Price. Since Ryan moved into the speakers suite, numerous observers characterized various obstacles as his first big test. Could he pass a transportation measure? Could he avoid shuttering the government with an omnibus spending bill? Would he infuriate conservatives if the House renewed the controversial Export-Import Bank? How about drafting a bill to bolster Syrian refugee screening? All were big tests. But passing a budget and working through the appropriations bills truly constitutes the first big test facing the now not-so-new speaker of the House. A number of taxi drivers have reported seeing ghost passengers in Ishinomaki in Japans Miyagi Prefecture, an area that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Asahi Shimbun reports that Yuka Kudo, a senior at Tohoku Gakuin University majoring in sociology, interviewed more than 100 taxi drivers in Ishinomaki for her graduation thesis. Kudo asked the drivers whether they had any unusual experiences after the March 2011 disaster. Related: Scientists solve 50-year-old mystery of Alaska tsunami While many of the drivers ignored her or became angry, seven told the student about their strange experiences in the aftermath of the tsunami. One driver, in his 50s, related a story about a woman who got into his cab near Ishinomaki Station. The woman told him to take her to the Minamihama district. The driver then asked her The area is almost empty. Is it OK? The woman replied, in a shivering voice, Have I died? Related: New Mexico police catch a 'ghost' on camera When the driver looked back at his rear seat, no-one was there, according to the research. Another driver, who was in his 40s, related how a man, apparently in his 20s, got into his cab and pointed toward the front. When the driver repeatedly asked the man for his destination, he replied Hiyoriyama" (mountain). However, when the taxi arrived at the destination, the man had disappeared. Related: The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay in pictures The seven drivers all started their meters for the phantom journeys according to the report. One driver showed Kudo his drivers report, which noted an unpaid fare. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered massive tsunami waves, devastating parts of the country. More than 18,000 people lost their lives in the disaster. Psychiatrists have identified grief hallucinations as a reaction to bereavement. A study published in 2007 by Agneta Grimby, a researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, surveyed 14 men and 36 women during the first year after the death of a spouse. Post-bereavement hallucinations or illusions were very frequent and even considered helpful, according to the research. The Princeton math genius whose life story was the subject of the film A Beautiful Mind died Saturday in a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike. John Forbes Nash Jr. was killed in the 4:30 p.m. crash, along with his wife of nearly 60 years, state police said Sunday. The crash happened in the southbound inner lanes of the highway. Nash was 86. Alicia Nash was 82. The couple were in a taxi that crashed with another vehicle. Actor Russell Crowe, who played Nash in the film, sent his condolences via a tweet Sunday. The paper said the driver of the taxi, a Ford Crown Victoria, lost control as he tried to pass a Chrysler in the center lane and crashed into a guard rail. The Nashes were ejected from the car, a state police spokesman told the Newark Star-Ledger. The person in the Chrysler was transported to a hospital and was expected to survive. Known as brilliant and eccentric, Nash was associated with Princeton University for many years, most recently serving as a senior research mathematician. He won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994 for his work in game theory, which offered insight into the dynamics of human rivalry. It is considered one of the most influential ideas of the 20th century. On May 19, Nash was in Oslo where he received the Abel Prize, a prestigious international math award. The King of Norway presented the award to Nash and a co-recipient, fellow math whiz, Louis Nirenberg. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters called the two "mathematical giants of the 20th century" who made breakthroughs that have become "essential tools for the study of nonlinear partial differential equations. Nirenberg said he'd chatted with the couple for an hour at the airport in Newark before they'd gotten a cab. Nirenberg said Nash was a truly great mathematician and "a kind of genius." "We were all so happy together," Nirenberg said. "It seemed like a dream." "We are stunned and saddened by news of the untimely passing of John Nash and his wife and great champion, Alicia," Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement Sunday. "Both of them were very special members of the Princeton University community. John's remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant, groundbreaking work in game theory, and the story of his life with Alicia moved millions of readers and moviegoers who marveled at their courage in the face of daunting challenges." John David Stier, Nash's son with his first wife, said he learned of the death Sunday morning. "It's very upsetting," he said. In an autobiography written for The Nobel Foundation Web site, Nash said delusions caused him to resign as a faculty member at M.I.T. He also spent several months in New Jersey hospitals on an involuntary basis. However, Nash's schizophrenia diminished through the 1970s and 1980s as he "gradually began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking," he wrote. The 2001 film "A Beautiful Mind" won four Oscars, including best picture and best director, and generated interest in John Nash's life story. The movie was based on an unauthorized biography by Sylvia Nasar, who wrote that Nash's contemporaries found him "immensely strange" and "slightly cold, a bit superior, somewhat secretive." Much of his demeanor likely stemmed from mental illness, which began emerging in 1959 when Alicia was pregnant with a son. The film, though, did not mention Nash older son or to the years that he and Alicia spent living together after divorcing. The couple split in 1963, then resumed living together several years later and finally remarried in 2001. Born in Bluefield, W. Va., to an electrical engineer and a housewife, Nash had read the classic "Men of Mathematics" by E.T. Bell by the time he was in high school. He planned to follow in his father's footsteps and studied for three years at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon University), but instead developed a passion for mathematics. He then went to Princeton, where he worked on his equilibrium theory and, in 1950, received his doctorate with a dissertation on non-cooperative games. The thesis contained the definition and properties of what would later be called the Nash equilibrium. Nash then taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for several years and held a research post at Brandeis University before eventually returning to Princeton. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Coast Guard on Saturday suspended the ocean search for three persons missing after a mid-air collision involving two small planes off Southern California. The search from 3:30 p.m. Friday to 9:15 a.m. Saturday with two 87-foot cutters found no survivors, the Coast Guard said. Searchers were going to turn their attention to a recovery operation, hunting for bodies and wreckage with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department leading the effort with divers and sonar. The collision occurred near the Port of Los Angeles at about 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon. There was no word on what may have caused the accident. Men ages 61 and 81 were believed to be aboard one plane, a Beechcraft. Coast Guard Capt. Jennifer Williams said wreckage and a pilots logbook have been found from that plane. The other plane a Citabria was being flown by a 72-year-old woman. Air traffic controllers saw two aircraft apparently run into each other on radar, leading authorities to believe they may have collided. There forecast for Friday was clear and sunny. "We don't want to give up until we really feel that there's no chance," Williams said, "that we haven't scanned the area, searched the whole area and looked for survivors." The collision occurred about two miles outside the entrance to the port, where water depths were 80 feet to 90 feet. The LA Daily News reported that two identification numbers were recovered. The crash site was near the Angels Gate light, a lighthouse at the San Pedro Breakwater that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The area is popular for flight students. Richard Garnett, chief flight instructor with the Long Beach Flying Club, said the pilots practice in an area that is 10 to 20 square miles and at altitudes ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 feet. On a typical day, there will be three or four planes in the air at the same time. "So with the amount of activity, actually, I think we've been fortunate," he said. "We are really diligent. I don't know why, what happened in this situation." Friday's midair collision was not the first in the area. In 2001, four people died when two Cessna airplanes carrying instructors and students collided 1,000 feet above the harbor. In 1986, two small planes flown by students collided. But the aircraft managed to return to their airports, and the four people on board escaped injury. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A Michigan man allegedly threatened to kill police and churchgoers to show support for Islamic State, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday. Khalil Abu-Rayyan, 21, of Dearborn Heights, was allegedly talking to an undercover FBI agent about his support for the terror group and how he wanted to shoot up a church that has nearly 6,000 parishioners, according to the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper, citing the affidavit, reported Abu-Rayyan planned to shoot up the church one day, but he was stopped by his father. I tried to shoot up a church one day. I dont know the name of it, but its close to my job, Abu-Rayyan told the agent, according to the complaint. Its one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Ya. I had it planned out. I brought a bunch of bullets. I practice a lot with it. But my dad searched my car one day and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask. The man had wanted to shoot up the church because it wouldve been an easy target, the complaint said. Its easy and a lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. Plus, it would make the news. I regret not doing it. If I cant do jihad in the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here. The FBI said he didnt carry out the attack because he didnt have the proper weapon to use for it. The agency said the church has up to 6,000 members and was only a half mile from where Abu-Rayyan worked. The agency had been investigated since May 2015. Agents were tracking him through social media, phone calls and surveillance. The FBI said in the complaint he had two Twitter accounts on which he expressed support for ISIS, according to the Free Press. Abu-Rayyan has not received any terror charges. According to Click On Detroit, hes being held on gun and drug charges. He was stopped on Oct. 7, 205 for speeding when a Detroit police officer found a gun, sleeping pills and marijuana in his car. Hes scheduled for a hearing on Monday. Click for more from the Detroit Free Press. An Oregon police officer was shot and killed late Friday while serving a warrant, police said. The Seaside Police Department said the incident occurred at around 9:25 p.m., according to KATU news. The shooting occurred near a breakfast eatery, according to KPTV. A second officer returned fire and struck the suspect, police said. Seaside police said the unidentified officer is 39-years-old and had been with the department for 13 years. The suspect was taken to a local hospital. The persons condition is unknown. According to KATU news, the Major Crimes Team is investigating the incident. Click for more from KPTV. Click for more from KATU News. At least one person died and seven others were wounded in a shooting at a Florida strip club, police said late Saturday. Tampa police Lt. Ruth Cate said that one person among those shot at Club Rayne had died and also said that another person who was injured in the shooting arrived at a local hospital separately. Police said the 911 call about gunshots at the club came around 2 a.m. Cate said detectives were on the scene investigating what spurred the gunfire. Officer William Copulos but said there may have been a disagreement in the club. Authorities said all victims were believed to have suffered gunshot wounds, but the nature and extent of all their injuries were not immediately available. Police have not released any information about a possible suspect in the shooting. Club owner Roberto Mederos declined to comment on the situation, according to the Associated Press. Cate said its unknown when the club might reopen. Police said the area of the street where the club was located would be closed to traffic until about 7:30 a.m. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The German national security service warned Friday that Islamic State militants are infiltrating Europe under the guise of asylum seekers. The announcement comes after Berlin police arrested three Thursday in an investigation of four Algerian men who are suspected of planning terror attacks in Germany and having ISIS ties. We have seen repeatedly that terrorists are being smuggled in disguised or camouflaged as refugees, said Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, according to the UK Daily Telegraph. German authorities have tried to downplay the threat of Islamic State terrorists disguising themselves as refugees, according to the paper. Around one million asylum-seekers entered the country last year. Maasen reiterated that it was a reality that the security agencies have to face. Maasen told Germanys ZDF TV it was clear from Novembers Paris terror attacks that ISIL consciously infiltrates terrorists among the refugees. A woman, who claimed to have led Abdelhamid Abaaouds cousin to the French encampment where he was staying, told The Wall Street Journal that the Paris attacks leader came into Europe with 90 other militants. German authorities believe the four men who were investigated Thursday had contacts with ISIS and that at least one of them had received military training in Syria. The arrests were made in Berlin at a refugee home and were based on existing warrants in other cases. A woman was arrested on a separate woman and is believed to be the wife of one of the men with possible ISIS ties, according to the UK Daily Telegraph. Maassen said there was concrete evidence there are people planning terror attacks in Germany, but theres no indication of an imminent attack. Both of the men arrested are believed to have entered Germany under false names. Police said two other suspects have been questioned in connection with the case, but have not been arrested. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from the UK Daily Telegraph. An OAS official tells The Associated Press that top Haitian leaders have reached an agreement to install a provisional government less than a day before President Michel Martelly is scheduled to step down. Special mission leader Ronald Sanders said Saturday that the interim president will be elected by Parliament for a term of 120 days. He said Prime Minister Evens Paul will remain in his position until lawmakers confirm a new prime minister in upcoming days. The interim government will continue an electoral process that began last year. It will hold a second round of presidential and legislative elections on April 24. A new president is scheduled to be installed on May 14. The Latest on the movement of refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere to Europe (all times local): 11:40 a.m. Turkish media say police have raided three factories producing unlicensed and poor-quality inflatable boats used to smuggle migrants to Greece. The state-run Anadolu Agency said Saturday police seized 49 boats in the simultaneous raids in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir a day earlier. The agency says the factories' owners were fined for unlicensed production of the boats. According to the private Dogan news agency, they faced administrative action that could lead to the closing the factories. Police in Istanbul and elsewhere have in the past months conducted similar raids on workshops that produce defective lifejackets sold to migrants. Turkey is under intense pressure to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. In November, it agreed to fight the smuggling networks and help curb irregular migration. In return, the European Union pledged 3 billion euros ($3.25 billion) to help improve the refugees' conditions. The International Organization for Migration says 284 migrants have died so far this year trying to make the dangerous crossing from Turkey to Greece. ___ 10 a.m. European Union foreign ministers anxious to stem the flow of migrants coming through the Balkans are discussing with their counterparts from the region better ways to protect borders. With Greece unable to control the thousands of migrants making the crossing from Turkey, some EU nations are now looking to help non-member Macedonia stop them at its southern border before they get to the European Schengen zone of border-free travel. Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto says, "If Greece is not ready or able to protect the Schengen zone and doesn't accept any assistance from the EU then we need another defense line which is obviously Macedonia and Bulgaria." The top U.N. human rights official began discussions with the Sri Lankan government Saturday on the measures taken by the island nation to investigate alleged atrocities committed during its long civil war, as hundreds of protesters marched against the world body's involvement. The visit by Zeid Raad al-Hussein follows last year's resolution at the U.N. human rights body that required foreign judges to assist Sri Lanka in the investigation. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009, after the government forces crushed the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Both sides were accused of committing grave human rights abuses such as killing civilians and recruiting child soldiers. Since the end of the war, Sri Lanka has faced heavy criticism for failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes by its forces. Victims' families have been futile in their attempts to seek justice. Zeid, who arrived early Saturday on a four-day visit, met with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. Details on the talks were not immediately released. During his stay, Zeid will travel to the former war zone and meet victims of human rights violations. He will also talk with top government and military officials, civil activists and religious leaders. "I will be listening to everything that they have to say and look forward to very constructive discussions in the days to come," Zeid told reporters. At least 1,000 protesters marched to the U.N. office in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, criticizing a report by Zeid last year pointing to horrific abuses, including torture, executions and sexual abuse by security forces, as well as suicide attacks, assassinations and recruitment of child soldiers by rebels. The report focused on the period between 2002 and 2011. According to U.N. estimates, at least 80,000 people were killed in the last month of the war, and possibly many more, including up to 40,000 civilians. Protesters said Zeid's call to involve foreigners in the investigations was aimed at penalizing security forces who fought the rebels and could pave the way for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils. "Al-Hussein hands off Sri Lanka; we condemn your report," read a banner carried by the protesters. "No war crimes court, no foreign judges" read another. In his report, Zeid had called for the creation of a "hybrid special court" that would include foreign judges and investigators, saying Sri Lanka's own courts are not yet ready to carry out a fair judicial process on the atrocities. Sri Lanka says that it will get foreign help, but that foreign judges won't decide cases. WASHINGTONThe retrial of the man convicted of killing former intern Chandra Levy now appears to face a nearly three-month delay, as prosecutors cope with extensive defense requests for documents and other evidence. On Friday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin set May 23 as a backup date for the start of the trial, which is currently set to begin March 1. The backup date, which could be confirmed as the official date within a week, was set at the request of federal prosecutors. The government doesnt believe we can go forward on the [original] trial date, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gorman said Friday. Im not sure well be ready. The impediment, Gorman said, has been the necessity of responding to defense discovery requests, which so far have resulted in 19,061 pages of documents being turned over. The material ranges from law enforcement notes of interviews with former California Congressman Gary Condit to photographs taken from Levys cellphone and prison records of former Fresno gang leader Armando Morales. I do observe it to be extraordinary, Morin said of the volume of discovery material being produced, adding that prosecutors request for more time appears reasonable. Defense attorney Eugene Ohm would not commit to accepting the trial postponement until he had consulted with his colleagues and the defendant, Ingmar Guandique. Manacled, wearing a headset and dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, Guandique sat silently through the hearing Friday afternoon while listening to the proceedings through an English-to-Spanish translator. The fact that were up against the trial date is something the government should have known about, Ohm said, adding that its their job to do it, to go through all the documents law enforcement has. A Washington jury convicted Guandique of murder in November 2010, concluding he had killed the 24-year-old Levy in the citys Rock Creek Park. At the time of her 2001 death, Levy had finished a Bureau of Prisons internship and was preparing to return to her familys Modesto, Calif., home. Levys disappearance eventually brought to light her sexual relationship with Condit, a revelation that effectively ended his congressional career in 2002. Sentenced to 60 years in prison, Guandique subsequently challenged the credibility of Morales and the actions of prosecutors based on post-trial revelations about Morales record as a law enforcement informant. Morales trial testimony that Guandique had confessed to him while they were cellmates was the linchpin of the prosecutions case. Last May, the government dropped its objections to defense requests for a new trial. Guandique remains in custody. The new team of prosecutors have said they, too, will call on Morales to testify at the second trial, which is expected to last more than a month. RIO DE JANEIROIn a sign of mounting global concern over the Zika virus, health officials on Friday warned pregnant women to think twice about the lips they kiss and called on men to use condoms with pregnant partners if they have visited countries where the virus is present. U.N. officials also called on many Catholic-majority countries in Latin America to loosen their abortion laws to allow women to terminate pregnancies if they fear the fetus may be at risk for a rare birth defect that causes brain damage and an abnormally small head, which may be linked to the virus. The flurry of recommendations began in Brazil, where a top health official warned pregnant women to be cautious with their kisses. Paulo Gadelha, president of the Fiocruz research institute, told a news conference that scientists have found live virus in saliva and urine samples, and the possibility it could be spread by the two body fluids requires further study. He said that calls for pregnant women to take special precautions, and suggested they avoid kissing people other than a regular partner or sharing cutlery, glasses and plates with people who have symptoms of the virus. This is not a generalized public health measure, for the love of God, he added, stressing both the seriousness of the discovery and reality that it was too soon to say how it could impact the epidemic. Fridays announcement coincided with the start of Carnival, a five-day bacchanalia that sees millions of people take part in alcohol-fueled parties where kissing as many people as possible is a top pastime. Gadelha underscored that the discovery neednt alter Carnival plans for anyone but pregnant women. He also stressed that the Aedes aegpyti mosquito, which spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever as well as Zika, remains the virus main vector and said the fight against the mosquito should be a top priority. The Fiocruz team studied samples from two patients who showed symptoms of Zika and tested positive for the illness. Tests on cell cultures showed the virus in the samples was capable of damaging the cells, meaning it was active. Halo Capital Group Announces the Sponsorship of SCORE ( February 05, 2016 ) New York, NY -- The Halo Group, an established leader in small business loans, today announced that this year it will be sponsoring SCORE. According to Halo Capital Group Director of Operations Barbara Johnson, the company is proud to sponsor SCORE because it provides such a valuable service to small businesses and the local community. "The SCORE team is a talented group of people and we are happy to sponsor their efforts to help businesses across the nation," said Johnson. "Many of our employees are also participating individually in the walk this weekend to raise money for small businesses across the country." About SCORE SCORE is an organization that holds events and workshops locally across the U.S. and its territories, and matches up entrepreneurs with local, volunteer mentors. It's mission is "to help small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship." To learn more, visit the SCORE website at https://www.score.org/about-score. Founded in 2013, Halo Capital Group has helped many businesses with small business loans. The company's mission statement is "to help small businesses grow and prosper by enabling them to receive commercial loans with the best possible rates and terms (Halo Capital Group)". To learn more about Halo Capital Group, you should call 888-892-7939 or visit them online at https://halocapitalgroup.com. For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Matteson Partners Taking On New In-House Legal Recruitment Clients (Mon 29th May 17) Huong Nghiep A Au Vocational Guidance School Launches New Major (Thu 25th May 17) FSP unveils new Industrial and Gaming power solutions at COMPUTEX 2017 (Wed 24th May 17) The Best Free Keylogger of 2017 Has Been Announced by the Official Remote Keylogger (Tue 23rd May 17) The Remote Keylogger Development Team Announces An Update to the Official iPhone Keylogger (Thu 11th May 17) CaptureStream Announces its New Streaming Video Recorder and Downloader (Mon 8th May 17) Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. Mid-Wales farmers have been warned to remain vigilant following a report of rogue traders making the rounds in Ceredigion. It follows the arrest last month of three men, originally from the Liverpool area, on suspicion of fraud offences in the Aberaeron area. The trio were later released on bail pending further police inquiries. Dyfed Powys Police warned that various rogue traders were offering general building work, replacing roofing tiles and plastics, while others were also offering tarmacadaming work. See also: Read the latest rural crime news and features Farmers Union of Wales Ceredigion County Executive Officer Mared Rand Jones said farmers needed to be on the look-out for rogue traders and cold callers. These people offer to do basic work for a small charge and once the job has been completed if at all the costs go up. These people can get quite aggressive, demanding their cash. They will even drive their victims to a bank so they can take the cash out. If you do get cold callers to your door, say no and report the incident to the police immediately. Ceredigion Trading Standards has been working with Dyfed Powys Police to support parish, town councils and neighbourhood watch coordinators to create Cold Calling Control Zones in the county. The objective is to enable residents to look after themselves on their doorsteps and identify vulnerable residents who need support. Cold Calling Control Zones can be effective in deterring unscrupulous cold callers from approaching people living in the zones and giving farmers and residents the confidence to say no. Ceredigion Council added: Cold Calling Control Zones are a low maintenance initiative and, once established, are easily sustained. The zones have been rolled out nationally and have been shown to reduce overall crime in the areas where they now exist. Dyfed Powys Police spokesman Det Sgt Delyth Evans added: Rogue traders, cold callers and distraction burglars have a devastating impact on peoples lives, and often prey on the most vulnerable in society. He urged farmers and householders to stick to the following guidelines: 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 Pinch of Salt: To vote now or to vote later that is the question This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise. Corvallis Police Department FRIDAY, FEB. 5 DUII: 2:13 a.m., Northwest 25th Street and Harrison Boulevard. Jennifer Ollene Smith, 21, of Corvallis was charged with DUII after she allegedly hit a parked car during a traffic stop. Smith reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.14 percent. THURSDAY, FEB. 4 TIBET HOUSE TRESPASS: 4:54 p.m., 301 S.W. Fourth St. Police responded to a report of a man trespassing at Tibet House. Police later arrested and charged Richard Orr, 54, of Corvallis after a foot chase in the area. Officers reported finding methamphetamine on Orr during the arrest. Orr was charged with trespassing, possession of methamphetamine and second-degree disorderly conduct. Benton County Sheriffs Office THURSDAY, FEB. 4 DUII: 5:14 p.m., Northwest Van Buren Avenue and Second Street. Raymond George Swaney, 68, of Corvallis was charged with DUII following a traffic stop. Swaney reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.21 percent. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 3 DUII: 6:45 p.m., 230 S. Fifth St., Monroe. A deputy responding to a report of an intoxicated driver found Holly Marie Smith, 38, no address listed, in the parking lot of the Monroe Darimart. Smith allegedly then backed into a dumpster, then into the deputys patrol car and began to drive away until the deputy broke out the drivers side window of the car in an attempt to get Smith out of the car. Smith then reportedly fled south out of the parking lot at a high speed before the deputy caught up with her on Territorial Highway. Smith was arrested and charged with DUII, reckless driving, attempted assault of a public safety officer, first-degree criminal mischief and attempt to elude. She reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.26 percent. The deputy reportedly received several lacerations to his hand in the incident and required stitches. Here is a look at public meetings coming up next week: Monday The Corvallis Economic Development Advisory Board meets at 3 p.m. at the Madison Avenue Meeting Room, 500 S.W. Madison Ave. The board will receive an update on the Small Business Development Center at Linn-Benton Community College from director Marc Manley and a legislative report from Brian Wall, OSUs assistant vice president for research, commercialization & industry partnering. The Corvallis Community Relations Advisory Group meets at 7 p.m. at the Madison Avenue room. The panel will discuss its upcoming livability survey and best practices of other college towns dealing with loud parties and alcohol issues. The Philomath City Council meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 980 Applegate St. Councilors will consider adoption of the update parks master plan. Following the council meeting, the Urban Renewal Agency will meet and appoint a budget officer. Tuesday The Corvallis Historic Resources Commission meets at 6:30 p.m. at the downtown fire station, 400 N.W Harrison Blvd. The commission will hold a public hearing on an application from Oregon State University to replace the existing concrete, rooftop equipment screening at the Memorial Union with a metal screen system of a different design, height, and footprint. The League of Women Voters is hosting a 7 p.m. session on climate change at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. Panelists are Brett Thomason of Renew Oregon; Ward 3 Corvallis Councilor Zach Baker, chairman of the citys climate action task force; and Kristin Eberhard, an energy policy analyst and senior researcher with the Sightline Institute. Wednesday The Corvallis task force working on the citys sustainable budget goal meets at 8 a.m. at the Madison Avenue room and will discuss transit financing issues. Oregon State University President Ed Ray will discuss university building, programs and enrollment at noon at the Corvallis Country Club, 1850 S.W. Whiteside Drive. The Chamber of Commerce lunch forum is free, but lunch costs $15 for members and $20 for nonmembers. Thursday The Corvallis Civic Beautification and Urban Forestry Department Advisory Committee meets at 9 a.m. at the Parks and Recreation Department, 1310 S.W. Avery Park Drive. Drei Monate nach Wiedereroffnung : Viele Ladenlokale stehen in der Bonner Maximilianpassage noch leer Godesberg Karneval : Storming town hall at Sunday high noon Jecke opjepass! Der Godesberger Zoch startet um 13.11 Uhr nach dem Rathaussturm. Foto: Franz Bad Godesberg Be warned, Bad Godesberg might get a little crazy at noon on Sunday when carnevalists try to take over the town hall. Parade follows at 1:11 p.m. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken You live in Bad Godesberg and you are concerned about the local government? Now is your big chance. If you go to the Rathaus (town hall near the Redoute) on Sunday at high noon, there will be a showdown between carnevalists and the government. Expect a sharp exchange of words, albeit in German or some other weird Karneval dialect. It may calm you to know that the carnevalists always seem to win. This year, it will be Simone Stein-Lucke, the local mayor who is defending her office against a carnevalist invasion, or the storming of the town hall. The Prince and Princess of Karneval will not be able to stay at their newly won town hall, however because they will be needed promptly at 1:11 p.m. Thats when the parade starts rolling through Bad Godesberg. This year, 1200 participants are expected in the parade, including 500 musicians and 20 horses. The biggest walking group is 120 carnevalists from Haus der Familie (House of the family -supporting family education). Dress to stay warm and dry, and dont forget a bag for the Kamelle (goodies thrown out from the parade). Taxi prices : Taxi drivers want to raise fares Bonn If you ride a taxi, you can expect a fare increase sometime after Karneval. The city is expected to approve an increase soon. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken It could get even more expensive to ride a taxi in Bonn. Bonns association of taxi drivers had proposed in December to increase fares by 7.37 percent but this was turned down. Now there are new negotiations underway for an increase in 2016, and it is expected to be a topic at the next City Council meeting. Chair of the local association of taxi drivers, Claus Lenz, says small taxi companies dont generate enough revenue to pay the newly imposed federal minimum wage of 8.50 Euro per hour. Currently, there are 170 independent taxi operators who belong to the association of taxi drivers in Bonn. There are 327 taxis and 60 percent of the drivers own their cars. For those who employ others, they say they cant cover the costs of paying a driver the 8.50 Euro wage because they dont take in enough fares. bohlah at 6-02-2016 07:46 AM (6 years ago) (m) It is a well known fact that Nigerian leaders keep their children away from the limelight partly owing to the saying that politics is a dirty game. It is a well known fact that Nigerian leaders keep their children away from the limelight partly owing to the saying that politics is a dirty game. However some children of a few Nigerian leaders have found a way to make themselves known. Naij.com presents to you 5 of the most visible children of Nigerian presidents who have come out of their parents shadows: 1. Gumsu Abacha Gumsu is one of the daughters of the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha. She is very vocal on social media and defends all her dads policies during his time as Nigerias leader. Gumsu was also one of Goodluck Jonathans biggest critic and a friend to the Buhari family. She describes her father as Nigerias finest Head Of State. Gumsu is married to Mohamadou Bayero Fadil, a businessman and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Group Fadil from Cameroon. They are blessed with five children. 2. Iyabo Obasanjo Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is a daughter to former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Oluremi Obasanjo. She was once a commissioner of health in Ogun state under Otuba Gbenga Daniels government, Iyabo later bacame a senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial district before her public showdown and fall out with her dad when she sent a letter lambasting him in public. She was the de-facto fist lady after the death of Stella Obasanjo. Iyabo was the Chairman of the Senates Health Committee, and a member of the Security & Intelligence, Land Transport, Science & Technology, Education, National Planning, and Inter-Parliamentary Committees. 3. Zahra Buhari Zahra Buhari perhaps contributed in no small measure to her fathers success in the 2015 general elections as her presence on Twitter practically swayed many people to her dads side. She has been visible ever since and contributing her own quota to sthe ervice of mankind through various NGOs she has been identifying with. 4. Faith Sakwe Faith Sakwe is one of the adopted children of former President Goodluck Jonathan who actually came into the picture in year 2000, not long after Jonathan became the deputy governor of Bayelsa state. She and her siblings were adopted by the former president when her father, the then secretary of the PDP in Bayelsa, Engr Ukalizibe Sakwe died in an accident. It was after his burial Jonathan decided to take over the responsibility of the young lady, especially her education. Faith Sakwes wedding became the talk of the town when her dad was overseeing the affairs of Nigeria. Although she is very reserved and hardly in public light, she is the most visible of Jonathans children as her wedding brought to the consciousness of Nigerians. 5. Zainab YarAdua Dakingari Zainab Yaradua Dakingari is a daughter of the late President Umaru YarAdua. Her wedding to the then Kebbi state governor, Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari when her father was Nigerias president raised eyebrows. Very pretty and articulate, she immediately assumed the role of the first lady in the north western state given her dads influence. She is the most popular of the Yaradua girls. For more scintillating and juicy stories, follow the official Naijapals accounts On Twitter - https://twitter.com/Naijapals and Facebook - www.facebook.com/naijapals However some children of a few Nigerian leaders have found a way to make themselves known. Naij.com presents to you 5 of the most visible children of Nigerian presidents who have come out of their parents shadows:Gumsu is one of the daughters of the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha. She is very vocal on social media and defends all her dads policies during his time as Nigerias leader. Gumsu was also one of Goodluck Jonathans biggest critic and a friend to the Buhari family. She describes her father as Nigerias finest Head Of State.Gumsu is married to Mohamadou Bayero Fadil, a businessman and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Group Fadil from Cameroon. They are blessed with five children.Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is a daughter to former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Oluremi Obasanjo.She was once a commissioner of health in Ogun state under Otuba Gbenga Daniels government, Iyabo later bacame a senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial district before her public showdown and fall out with her dad when she sent a letter lambasting him in public. She was the de-facto fist lady after the death of Stella Obasanjo.Iyabo was the Chairman of the Senates Health Committee, and a member of the Security & Intelligence, Land Transport, Science & Technology, Education, National Planning, and Inter-Parliamentary Committees.Zahra Buhari perhaps contributed in no small measure to her fathers success in the 2015 general elections as her presence on Twitter practically swayed many people to her dads side. She has been visible ever since and contributing her own quota to sthe ervice of mankind through various NGOs she has been identifying with.Faith Sakwe is one of the adopted children of former President Goodluck Jonathan who actually came into the picture in year 2000, not long after Jonathan became the deputy governor of Bayelsa state.She and her siblings were adopted by the former president when her father, the then secretary of the PDP in Bayelsa, Engr Ukalizibe Sakwe died in an accident. It was after his burial Jonathan decided to take over the responsibility of the young lady, especially her education.Faith Sakwes wedding became the talk of the town when her dad was overseeing the affairs of Nigeria. Although she is very reserved and hardly in public light, she is the most visible of Jonathans children as her wedding brought to the consciousness of Nigerians.Zainab Yaradua Dakingari is a daughter of the late President Umaru YarAdua.Her wedding to the then Kebbi state governor, Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari when her father was Nigerias president raised eyebrows. Very pretty and articulate, she immediately assumed the role of the first lady in the north western state given her dads influence. She is the most popular of the Yaradua girls. Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 6-02-2016 07:46 AM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero Pushkar-Gayathris Vikram Vedha showcases that a film can be made in any language or for any audience, can be told with the premise & outcome without deviating and keeping the narrative tight. USNA Water Conservation Project Will Save $1.5M Per Year Navy News Service Story Number: NNS160205-10 Release Date: 2/5/2016 2:42:00 PM By Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Tyler Caswell, U.S. Naval Academy Public Affairs ANNAPOLIS, Md. (NNS) -- Naval Support Activity (NSA) Annapolis held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house Feb. 3 celebrating recent upgrades to the U.S. Naval Academy Water Treatment Plant. The event marked the completion of the Utility Energy Service Contract (UESC) water conservation project with Baltimore Gas & Electric at NSA Annapolis. The $7.7 million project will save money by reducing disposal costs, chemicals, electricity and groundwater. 'I'm very excited about the project,' said Paul A. Bianco, water and wastewater plant engineering technician with Public Works Department Annapolis. 'The project will drastically reduce operational costs, $1.5 million annually, through an improved sludge removal process, recapturing of filter backwash, reduced energy consumption and a reduction of chemical treatment. My colleagues and I have been working hard to bring this project to fruition.' In 2016, as part of the Department of the Navy's Great Green Fleet initiative, U.S. Navy shore installations will highlight energy conservation methods that aide the transformation of the Navy's energy culture and enhance energy security. The Navy's goal is to produce 50 percent of its shore-based energy requirements from alternative energies. 'Part of the Great Green Fleet mindset entails a number of energy conservation measures,' said Capt. Logan Jones, commanding officer of Naval Support Activity Annapolis. 'Making better use of our tax payer dollars allows us flexibility and the ability to contribute that money toward our operations and presence overseas.' The project is the first in a series of Naval District Washington's regional contributions toward the Great Green Fleet initiative. Within five years, the facility will have recouped upgrade expenses and will continue to save the U.S. Navy money every year after. 'Often conservation projects like this one are realized by local subject-matter experts who take the initiative,' said Jones. 'The members who worked on this put their best efforts forward with great energy and brilliant ideas. It's an opportunity that was made by their dedication to doing the best work they can.' NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Australian Commander: IS Changing Tactics by Sharon Behn February 05, 2016 As part of VOA's ongoing reporting on Iraq, correspondent Sharon Behn interviewed Air Vice Marshal Tim Innes, national theater commander for all Australian forces deployed to the Middle East region, including Afghanistan. Innes assumed command of Australia's Joint Task Group 633 on January 25, 2016. The following article is based in part on that interview. Islamic State extremists fighting in Iraq and Syria have proven themselves experts in modern warfare. They create diversionary fronts, use suicide bombers with devastating effect, and constantly change their offensive and defensive tactics. Countering and defeating those tactics is one of the main objectives of thousands of U.S. and coalition soldiers currently training Iraqi forces not only in bases, but walking alongside them as they enter the battleground. '[IS militants] are definitely changing tactics,' Air Vice Marshal Tim Innes, the national theater commander for all Australian forces deployed to the Middle East region, told VOA, using an acronym for Islamic State. 'We try to stay inside their adaptation loop.' Despite those efforts, Iraqi and coalition forces have been caught off guard. Training challenges In the recent battle for Ramadi, for example, 'we had been training the Iraqi Security Forces to deal with insurgent threats, but then because of the way IS had prepared its defenses, the counterinsurgency tactics needed to change more to mine-clearing and regular infantry tactics,' said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst for the Institute for the Study of War. 'It can be a short time sometimes between the differences in tactics and training,' Innes acknowledged. But, he said, 'We also have advise-and-assist embedded Australian soldiers that can help closer to the front once we have trained those troops.' The training effort, led by a number of coalition nations including Australia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and France, has its own challenges. 'I think there are two major obstacles to training. The first one would be language, and the second one would be culture,' Innes said. 'We get around the language challenge by the extensive use of interpreters, and the cultural one is one that we are aware of and learn and adapt as we go along.' Cultural differences reach into unexpected areas, like educating Iraqi forces on dealing with IS militants' use of social media across the battle space. 'It becomes quite difficult,' Innes said. 'The basic principles of security, personal security and operational information, et cetera, is a common theme we can teach.' Complex battleground Operating parallel to U.S. and coalition forces who train Iraqi Security Forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga is Iran, which has thrown its considerable military expertise behind the predominantly Shi'ite militias operating in Iraq. Iran, in the opinion of Jonathan Schanzer, VP for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is the country 'most effective in training, fighting and intelligence collection operation.' 'When people talk about what's going on, it is the positive influence exerted by Western countries, [yet] Iran is by far the most effective, but not in a positive way,' Schanzer told VOA. 'It may be helping fight IS with Shia militia, but the deployment of the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] and others to help secure Iraq is effectively turning Iraq into an Iranian proxy,' he said. Many fear that Iran's presence is aggravating the already deep sectarian divide in Iraq that the mainly Sunni-based Islamic State has traded on. Repeated bloodletting between Shi'ite and Sunni communities in Iraq has seeped deep into the roots of the country, poisoning everything from intelligence gathering to attempts at reconciliation. 'It's a complex space, as you know," Innes said. "A myriad of interest groups across Iraq still proliferate. It's a complex battle space that we have got to work through.' Global battle Even as coalition forces battle IS in Iraq and Syria, the extremists, also known as Daesh, have spread their tentacles into Libya, setting up a third stronghold in Sirte in eastern Libya. 'They are a global threat, and that is one of the main reasons why Australia has us in Iraq with the coalition, to try to reduce that threat from its source, but undoubtedly it is a wider organization and a threat to the globe,' Innes said. 'To say that you will totally wipe it out as an ideal, I think most people realize is not possible," he added. "So if you are asking me do I think defeating Daesh would kill off the ideal or the notion of it globally, I think that would be a brave statement.' Created in World War I, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, known as Anzac, has served alongside U.S. and allied forces in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the First Gulf War, the Iraq War, Afghanistan and now again in Iraq, where it is training and advising Iraqi troops in the fight against Islamic State extremists. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan to Host New Afghan Peace Talks Saturday by Ayaz Gul February 05, 2016 Pakistan is hosting a new round of four-party discussions to help advance the Afghanistan government's hope for peace talks with the Taliban. While all sides hope for progress in Saturday's meeting in Islamabad, Taliban insurgents have not yet signaled whether they will cease hostilities and join the process. The so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group, or QCG, is made up of senior Afghan, Pakistani, American and Chinese diplomats. They are reconvening in Islamabad for their third meeting since the group was launched last month. The diplomats are trying to prepare a "road map" for a sustainable and productive peace process, and studying what to do about Taliban factions that oppose the talks and refuse to end hostilities. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's attempts to conduct peace talks with the Taliban could not move beyond a preliminary round last July, after it became known the insurgent group's longtime leader, Mullah Omar, had been dead for two years a revelation that disrupted political unity within the Taliban. Despite the lack of progress in recent months, the Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmad Shakeeb Mustaghani, says he expects a road map for peace negotiations with the Taliban will be finalized at the Islamabad meeting. Critics like Ahmad Rashid, author of several books on Afghanistan, remain skeptical about the chances for progress. "The public needs to know what is happening,' he said. 'We have the secret meetings between these four states; we have all sorts of things going on. The public is totally unaware of what is going on. What is this four-nation grouping that is talking about the Taliban?" The Taliban last week restated its demands for joining the peace process. They include the release of its imprisoned members, removal United Nations travel and financial restrictions on senior insurgent leaders and withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan. The skepticism about success of the four-nation talks also stems from the increase in Taliban attacks across Afghanistan and the group's unprecedented territorial gains over the past year, positioning the insurgents to launch an even stronger spring offensive beginning in April. The outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, acknowledged the insurgent gains during testimony Thursday before the Senate Armed Services committee. "In fact,' he added, 'as of last week, the units we have on the ground throughout the country report that of the 407 district centers, eight or 2 percent are under insurgent control. We assess that another 18 or just under 4 percent [of district centers] are under what we call insurgent influence." General Campbell warned that up to 94 district centers are "at risk" of falling to the Taliban, in his view. He said the Kabul government controls approximately 70 percent of the inhabited parts of Afghanistan. Diplomatic sources say most of the deliberations the four-nation group has held until now have focused on bridging the 'trust deficit' that exists between Pakistan and Afghanistan for a sustainable Afghan peace process. Intelligence agencies of the two countries blame each other for harboring militant groups and sponsoring cross-border terrorist attacks. Pakistani opposition lawmaker Shireen Mazari said both sides need to stop covertly supporting the violence if there is to be a lasting settlement of the Afghan conflict. She said militancy on both sides of the border cannot be tackled unless there is cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan. 'We have to find the means of isolating those [Taliban] who are not prepared to lay down their arms and dialogue,' she said. 'Unless there is some intel sharing, some cooperation between the NDS [Afghanistan's intellligence agency] and the Pakistani equivalent, the problem will continue to haunt us." Despite months of military and intelligence exchanges between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mazari said no formal bilateral agreement exists to tackle terrorism and determine who is violating the terms of such a pact. General Campbell in his testimony this week cited militant sanctuaries on both sides of the border as a major U.S. worry. "I am concerned about what is going across both from Pakistan into Afghanistan and, quite frankly, as [Pakistan Army chief] General Raheel [Sharif] has talked to me about potential stuff going from Afghanistan into Pakistan," said Campbell. The American commander told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. counterterrorism operations are not effective against or aimed at the Taliban: "What I would tell you is that our country has made the decision that we are not at war with the Taliban," he said. Officials with knowledge of the discussions the four-nation group has held so far say that all sides are pushing President Ghani to come up with political and other incentives to encourage the Taliban to come to the table for talks. Ghani said recently that he views the insurgency as a political opposition movement. General Campbell's comments about the Taliban are seen by observers in Islamabad and Kabul as concessions to encourage the insurgent group to join the peace process. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Accelerating the Push Against Islamic State: What Will Work? by Mohamed Elshinnawi February 05, 2016 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at a recent Rome meeting of the coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group that the challenge now is to push ahead with a strategy that will work, giving the militants 'no time to regroup, no place to run, no safe havens in which to hide." Accelerating the military campaign is key to curbing IS's global ambitions, said David DesRoches, an associate professor at the Center for Strategic Studies of the National Defense University in Washington. For one thing, he said, strangling the terrorist group undermines its claim that is always growing. "In military movements, momentum builds on momentum, and once the progress of Daesh is arrested and turned back, people would move away from the tarnished brand," DesRoches said, using a common name for the IS organization, which also goes by ISIS and ISIL. Alberto Fernandez, former director of the State Department's Center for Counterterrorism, said the global strategy has to take into account the aftermath of military acceleration against IS in Syria. "The question is what happens as Daesh is pushed back, who benefits, who replaces them,' he said. The coalition says it has pushed Daesh out of 40 percent of the territory it had gained in Iraq and 20 percent in Syria. Expansion in Libya But Fernandez said consideration must also be given to Libya, 'which is becoming the second option for its recruits if they can't make to Syria or Iraq." DesRoches said Libya has to be taken into account in any anti-IS strategy. "The continued political division in Libya is a real challenge to any global strategy to contain and destroy Daesh," he said. "Without a unified government in Libya, there is no way to build an effective local force to fight Daesh expansion in the country." DesRoches noted that the concluding statement from the Rome meeting ignored some root causes of violent extremism, such as political exclusion and poor governance throughout the region. "What is needed is emphasis on governance, because people join Daesh when they feel desperate and have no other option," he said. 'At the end of the day, poor governance is the magnet for Daesh recruiting." He said that was the case in Syria, Iraq and Libya, and it is looming in Egypt, where a harsh crackdown is becoming counterproductive. Growth claim DesRoches noted that Daesh has been playing a game of expanding to other countries so it can claim the caliphate is growing. The group is adopting a model of taking an existing extremist group like Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, a jihadist group based in Egypt, and getting its members to pledge allegiance to IS. IS has recruited thousands of fighters, relying on its savvy use of propaganda and social media. IS's ideological message sounds the alarm that Muslims are being slaughtered. It tells Muslims that they have a role to play in fighting for a utopian Islamic caliphate. In remarks made during his visit this week to the Islamic Society of Baltimore, President Barack Obama warned young American Muslims about the false claims of the group. "Groups like ISIL are desperate for legitimacy,' Obama said. 'They try to portray themselves as religious leaders and holy warriors who speak for Islam. I refuse to give them legitimacy. We must never give them that." Experts say a global strategy to counter IS's message would require a massive effort by Muslims around the world. "You need Muslims who are people of conviction, who are eloquent people in social media space, challenging the discourse of the extremists," Fernandez said. "There should be professionals who actually engage these people and seek to sway them from the path they have taken," he added. Massive response urged Fernandez noted that volume has value and IS either itself or with its networks still has the advantage in numbers. He recommended a massive response to counter IS propaganda on all sorts of social media platforms. He advocated 'flooding the space with material by others, realizing that one of the most powerful messages is the power of an individual to individuals." But DesRoches argued that there is a need to do more than just challenge the false claims of IS. "People who have been involved with the group and have seen the reality and became disillusioned those are the most powerful voices we can put on social media," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Korea Says North Korea Moving Closer to Rocket Launch by Han Sang Mi February 05, 2016 North Korea appears to be moving quickly on its preparations for a long-range rocket launch, South Koreas Defense Ministry said Friday. The communist country notified the International Maritime Organization and the International Telecommunication Union of its plan to launch an "Earth observation satellite" between February 8 and February 25, prompting neighboring countries to go on alert. On Saturday, Pyongyang changed the dates to between Sunday, February 7, and the following Sunday, February 14. Pyongyang provided the coordinates of the rocket trajectory as a warning to aircraft and ships at sea that debris from the launch would most likely fall back to Earth in the Yellow Sea off the Korean west coast and Pacific waters east of the Philippines. The ITU said Friday that it had asked North Korea to provide additional information regarding the launch, noting that some mandatory information was missing. Nevertheless, Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesperson for South Koreas Defense Ministry, told reporters that with the announced launch window approaching, it was highly possible that North Korea had made considerable progress in the preparations. We believe preparations are underway at its launch site in Tongchang-ri, Moon said without providing details. A Japanese newspaper reported that North Korea might have started fueling a rocket, citing a U.S. defense official, an indication that the launch could come within several days. Citing recent satellite imagery, the 38 North website, which focuses on North Korean issues, said Wednesday that increased vehicle activity had been detected at the launch sites Horizontal Processing Building, a facility used to receive various rocket stages during previous launches. The activity is suggestive of preparations for a space launch and supports North Koreas announced launch window, according to the website. Political considerations Analysts in Seoul said Pyongyangs political interests would play a role in choosing the launch date. North Koreans clearly know the U.N. sanctions are coming in response to their nuclear test [in January]. They may fire the rocket to protest the U.N. action, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies. Kim Jin-moo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a South Korean state-run institute, tied the launch date to the birth anniversary of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Kims birthday is February 16, which falls within the launch window. In April 2012, Pyongyang fired a long-range rocket to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung. South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo presided over an emergency meeting Friday, in which he ordered military officials to maintain tight readiness against the North Korean move. South Korean military officials said they would work with the U.S. and Japanese militaries to track the rocket that North Korea plans to fire. South Koreas Unification Ministry said the government would be on alert during a three-day Lunar New Years holiday that starts Monday. Obama, Xi Say North Korean Actions 'Provocative' The White House said President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday about North Koreas nuclear test last month and the planned launch. They agreed that the planned launch would contravene multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and represent another provocative and destabilizing action, the White House in a statement. The two leaders also emphasized the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocation, including through an impactful U.N. Security Council resolution, according to the statement. The White House said Obama and Xi reaffirmed during their phone call that they were committed to the "complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." North Korea is believed to have over 1,000 Soviet-model missiles that can reach targets in South Korea and Japan. Last year, U.S. military authorities said they thought North Korea had the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to fit on a KN-08 long-range missile, although North Korea has not yet demonstrated this capability. Jee Abbey Lee and Megan Duzor contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Experts: N. Korean Abductions Sought to Halt Brain Drain by Jee Abbey Lee February 05, 2016 American experts on northeast Asia say North Korea's abduction program in the 1970s, which targeted thousands of South Koreans and Japanese, was a way for Pyongyang to address its depletion of intellectuals and visionaries. Robert Boynton, director of New York University's Literary Reportage Concentration, discussed the historical context of Pyongyang's systematic abductions Wednesday at the Washington-based think tank Korea Economic Institute. "I discovered the story was stranger than I had imagined," Boynton said. The veteran journalist has been following the issue since 2002, when five abducted Japanese returned home. They had spent decades in the North's so-called Invitation Only Zone, where foreigners who had either been kidnapped or come voluntarily to the communist country resided. The North abducted an estimated 3,800 South Koreans and more than a dozen Japanese nationals in the late 1970s. Famed South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife, Choi Eun-hee, are the most well-known examples of the North's kidnapping for talents the communist country lacked. The couple was abducted in 1978 by then-leader Kim Il Sung. After two failed attempts, the pair escaped in 1986 while on a trip to Vienna, Austria. In a secretly recorded dialogue with Shin, the enigmatic Kim lamented that he was grappling with the dilemma of teaching North Korean filmmakers new techniques and skills when he could not send them farther than Eastern Europe. Voluntary returns In addition to abduction, Pyongyang actively encouraged ethnic Koreans in Japan to return to the motherland. What ethnic Koreans endured in Japan after World War ll sometimes prompted them to return to North Korea, said Kathy Moon, chair of Korea studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington research-and-policy group. They are referred to as Zainichi in Japan, which means "foreign resident," despite being born and raised there for generations. Sheila Smith, senior fellow in Japanese studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, emphasized the importance of creating a level of activism in Japanese society around the abductee issue. "There has been a long debate since then about the inability or the unwillingness of the government to really take this issue seriously," she said. For years, the Japanese public had dismissed rumors of abductions as right-wing conspiracy theories, Smith said. "Maybe an alien abduction is a close parallel." When the five abductees returned to Japanese soil in 2002, Smith said there was an awakening of Japanese popular consciousness about the behavior and threat of the North. The Japanese government recognizes only that 17 of its citizens were abducted by North Korean agents during the six years beginning with 1977. The North, for its part, officially admitted abducting 13 Japanese citizens. Some historians claim there may have been hundreds of victims from the coastal regions of Japan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Next Few Days Seen Crucial for Syria Peace Talks by Pamela Dockins February 05, 2016 The next few days will "tell the story" on whether parties are serious about implementing a cease-fire in Syria and moving forward with talks on a political transition, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday. His comments came two days after a U.N. envoy suspended fragile proximity talks between the Syrian regime and opposition, following opposition protests against a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive in Aleppo. "We will know in the next few days who is serious and who is not," Kerry said during a news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. He added that a number of "modalities" for a cease-fire and for providing humanitarian aid to besieged areas of Syria were being discussed. "The Russians have made some constructive ideas about how a cease-fire, in fact, could be implemented," said Kerry. However, he added that no one would accept "just talk for the sake of talk." Thursday meeting Russia and the United States are among the countries and world bodies that make up the International Syria Support Group, which has been a catalyst for launching the latest effort to resolve Syria's crisis. The group will focus on efforts to secure a cease-fire in Syria when it meets Thursday in Munich. The group will also discuss the political talks between the government and the opposition, which are set to resume by February 25. Russia has rejected Western claims that its support of President Bashar al-Assad and his military resulted in the breakdown of the talks. "We think that this opinion is incorrect. We cannot agree with it," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. Peskov said Russia had "consistently" tried to promote a peaceful settlement in Syria, while "extending support to the legitimate leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic as part of the fight against terrorism." Who are the 'terrorists'? A sticking point between Assad regime backer Russia and the other members of the International Syria Support Group has been who should be labeled 'terrorists.' A U.S.-led coalition campaign has targeted Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra militants in Syria. Russia has backed the Syrian government's targeting of moderate rebel groups. Russia's current stance in the Syrian conflict could make progress on the political front difficult. "You can't prop up the Assad regime and make it easier for him to kill his own people," said State Department spokesman John Kirby, "and say out of the other side of your mouth that you want to pursue this political transition and peace process." Ultimately, Russia may be focusing on its own interests and stability as it continues to back the Assad regime with assaults on rebels, said David Schenker, a regional analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They have a port in Syria. They have religious connections in Syria," said Schenker, "and they hope to preserve this regime." He said that when Russia talks about supporting Syria, it means keeping the Assad regime, "or at least a facsimile thereof," in power indefinitely. Humanitarian crisis As the two sides mull their next moves, Syria's humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. Russia's intensified bombing campaign has forced tens of thousands of Aleppo residents to flee from their homes in recent days. Kerry said there is "evidence that is clear" that Russia had been using nonprecision "free-fall bombs" in Syria, which have struck such sites such as hospitals and resulted in "large numbers" of civilian deaths. "This has to stop," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Feb 5, 2016) - Further to its news release of December 22, 2015, Starcore International Mines Ltd. (TSX:SAM) (the "Company" or "Starcore") wishes to clarify that, on August 31, 2004, the Company (then known as Starcore International Ventures Ltd.) had filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on Form 20-F under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), to register its common stock. As a result, the Company became subject to filing requirements under the Exchange Act when the registration statement became effective on October 30, 2004. On February 1, 2016, with the consent of the Company, the SEC issued an order revoking the registration of the Company's common stock pursuant to the Exchange Act. The Company consented to this administrative procedure as an amenable solution to address the issues cited in the SEC order. The Company is working diligently to file a new 20-F registration statement so that trading resumes in the United States markets. The Company's common stock continues to trade publicly in Canada on the TSX under the symbol "SAM". For further inquiries, please contact Investor Relations with details listed below. About Starcore Starcore is engaged in exploring, extracting and processing gold and silver through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Compania Minera Pena de Bernal, S.A. de C.V., which owns the San Martin mine in Queretaro, Mexico. The Company is a public reporting issuer on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company is also engaged in owning, acquiring, exploiting, exploring and evaluating mineral properties, and either joint venturing or developing these properties further. The Company has interests in properties located in Mexico, Canada and the United States. For more information concerning Starcore, see documents filed under its profile on SEDAR, or visit its website at www.starcore.com. ON BEHALF OF STARCORE INTERNATIONAL MINES LTD. Robert Eadie, President & Chief Executive Officer The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed nor does it accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Feb. 5, 2016) - Fission Uranium Corp. (the "Company" or "Fission") (TSX:FCU)(OTCQX:FCUUF)(FRANKFURT:2FU) is issuing this news release to clarify certain of its disclosure. Non-compliant disclosure of Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") (February 5, 2016) - The Company disclosed the results of the PEA of its Patterson Lake South Property ("PLS") in its January 27, 2016 Corporate Presentation ("Presentation") and in its September 17, 2015 CEO Corner article ("CEO Article"). Both the Presentation and the CEO Article were previously available on the Company's website and did not include the proximate cautionary language and details required by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). Accordingly: 1. The Company wishes to remind investors that the PEA is considered preliminary in nature, based, in part, on inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves; 2. The Company also notes that the PEA considers the PLS project as a stand-alone mine and mill operation, which includes development and extraction of the R00E and R780E zones (Triple R deposit) and that the PEA study is based on a number of qualifications and assumptions including the following (all values in C$ unless otherwise noted): Physicals: Three years of pre-production and 14 year mine life, processing nominally 1,000 tonnes per day (350,000 tonnes per year) Total Tonnes Processed: 4.8 million tonnes at 1.00% U3O8 average grade; open pit mining of 1.56 million tonnes at 2.21% U3O8 Underground mining of 3.25 million tonnes at 0.42% U3O8 Process recovery of 95%, supported by metallurgical testwork Production of 100.8 million lbs U3O8; an average of 13 million lbs U3O8 per year for 6 years, followed by an average of 3 million lbs U3O8 per year for 8 years Revenue: Long term uranium price of US$65 / lb U3O8 Exchange rate of 0.85 US$ / C$1.00 Gross revenue of $7.71 billion, less Saskatchewan gross revenue royalties of $556 million Less product transportation charges of $34 million Net revenue of $7.12 billion Operating Costs Average OPEX of $16.50/lb (US$14.02/lb) U3O8 over the life of mine Unit Operating Costs of $346 per tonne processed. Combined Mining $154 per tonne processed Processing: $114 per tonne processed Surface and G&A: $78 per tonne processed Operating cash flow of $5.45 billion Capital Costs Pre-Production capital costs of $1.1 billion Open pit mining $363 million (includes dyke, slurry wall, and overburden removal) Process plant $198 million Infrastructure $117 million Indirects $209 million Contingency $208 million Sustaining capital costs of $189 million (includes completion of overburden stripping, all underground mine capital costs, and tailings dam lifts) Reclamation and closure cost of $50 million Cash flow from operations of $4.12 billion Investors are reminded that while these qualifications and assumptions were determined to be reasonable at the time of the PEA report they are based on preliminary information and the actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed in the PEA. 3. reference the comparative post-tax values from the PEA report noted below: base case pre-tax Net Present Value ("NPV") of $1.81 billion, post-tax NPV of $1.02 billion (10% discount rate) base case pre-tax Net Cash Flow over the proposed mine life of $4.12 billion, post-tax Net Cash Flow of $2.53 billion base case pre-tax Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") of 46.7%, post-tax IRR of 34.2% pay back estimated at 1.4 years (pre-tax), pay back at 1.7 year (post-tax). since disclosing pre-tax economics without also including the comparative post-tax values may substantially overstate the value of the project. The Company's September 3, 2015 press release announcing the details of the PEA report (the "PEA Release") included a quotation from Ross McElroy, President COO and Chief Geologist for Fission. That quotation is retracted since it might imply that the Company had a feasibility-level study rather than a PEA. Similar concerns have been identified with certain words used in the CEO Article and on the Company's website content. Given the preliminary nature of a PEA that is based upon inferred mineral resources, these words and statements might be potentially misleading. Accordingly the words and statements have been removed from the Company's website. Investors are reminded that the Company's PEA is preliminary in nature and is based on inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Non-compliant disclosure of Mineral Resources The Presentation also disclosed mineral resources without including the following disclosure: 1. a caution that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability, and there is no certainty that the results presented in the PEA will be achieved; and 2. a reference to the Company's September 14, 2015 PEA report entitled "Technical Report on the Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Paterson Lake South Property, Northern Saskatchewan Canada" which is filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and which includes: a reference to the July 28, 2015 effective date of the mineral resource estimates; key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate the mineral resources; any known legal, political, environmental or other risks that could materially affect the development of the mineral resource. Reporting Gross In-Situ Metal Value Slide 14 of the Presentation disclosed gross in-situ metal value on a gold equivalent basis. This disclosure is hereby retracted and the public should not rely upon such disclosure. Disclosure of gross metal value is restricted under NI 43-101 because it does not take into account the operating and capital costs, recovers, smelter costs and other factors relating to the potential mining extraction and recovery of metals which are described in the full PEA report. The Presentation, CEO Article and certain other disclosure have been removed from the Company's website. The technical information contained in this news release has been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 and has been reviewed by Ross McElroy, P. Geol. President and COO for the Company, a qualified person. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Ross McElroy, President and COO Cautionary Statement: Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information", within the meaning of Canadian legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur", "be achieved" or "has the potential to". Forward looking statements contained in this press release may include statements regarding the future operating or financial performance of Fission including the net present value, metal recoveries, capital costs, operating costs, production, rates of return and payback which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may not prove to be accurate. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: market conditions and other risk factors listed from time to time in our reports filed with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and the Company and Fission Uranium disclaim 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 legislation. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Feb. 5, 2016) - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES Marlin Gold Mining Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:MLN) ("Marlin" or the "Company") announces that it has granted an aggregate of 6,000,000 incentive stock options (the "Options") today to certain directors and/or officers of the Company pursuant to the Company's previously approved Stock Option Plan. The Options will vest over a period of five years from the date of grant at an exercise price of $0.15 per share. Marlin also announces today that the Company has cancelled an aggregate of 1,181,250 restricted share units (the "RSUs") previously granted to certain directors and/or officers of the Company pursuant to the Company's 2015 Share Unit Plan. Please refer to the Company's press release dated October 30, 2015 for more information regarding the previously granted RSUs. About Marlin Gold Marlin is a TSX-V publicly-listed company with properties located in Sinaloa and Arizona, U.S.A. Marlin's priority is to advance its properties toward commercial production and enhance shareholder value through financial optimization, namely through the growth of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sailfish Royalty Corp. The La Trinidad property, which hosts the Taunus gold deposit, declared commercial production on November 1, 2014. An NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment for the Taunus gold deposit can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.marlingold.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel/TNS Mel LaRussa checks on the Fuji Apple trees at Clearview Organic Orchards in Watsonville, Calif., where the drought and lack of frost have caused his trees to fruit a second time this year, but with an unusable crop. (Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel/TNS) SHARE Photos by Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel/TNS Mel LaRussa checks on the Fuji Apple trees at Clearview Organic Orchards in Watsonville, Calif., where the drought and lack of frost have caused his trees to fruit a second time this year, but with an unusable crop. Many varieties of apples dont thrive when winter weather is too warm. Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel/TNS LaRussa checks on his trees. The few apple growers remaining in California must contend with soaring land prices and winter temperatures too warm for their trees to grow fruit. Berries dominate the fields around Watsonville, although a century ago a sign proclaimed it The Apple City. Growers searching for ways to cope By Emily Benson WATSONVILLE, Calif. A century ago, a sign hoisted above Watsonvilles Main Street proclaimed it The Apple City. These days, however, berries dominate the fields around the city, the majority of the countrys apples are supplied by Washington state, and the few apple growers remaining must contend with soaring land prices and winter temperatures too warm for their trees to grow fruit. The farmers who tend the Pajaro Valleys orchards acknowledge that the apple industry is at a crossroads. As the worlds climate changes, though, the apple growers are changing, too. To survive, theyre doing everything from planting apple trees on lawns leased from homeowners to searching for forgotten apple varieties that thrive in warmer weather to spraying their trees white to keep them cool. I dont foresee a bright future for apples in Watsonville I really dont. But well be around, said Mel LaRussa, who with his wife, Carol, owns Clearview Orchards, a 7-acre organic orchard where people can pick their own fruit. The statistics are stark. By the early 1900s, growers had planted apple trees on 14,000 acres around Watsonville, which is about 30 miles south of San Jose. But by the mid-80s, apple orchards had dwindled to 5,000 acres in surrounding Santa Cruz County, and about half that number of acres were dedicated to berries. By 2014, berries were growing on more than 6,600 acres in the county, while apples occupied less than a third of that area. The march of the berries is probably the biggest threat to expanding apple production around the region, said John Martinelli, president of S. Martinelli & Co. The famed Watsonville apple juice company buys more than 90 percent of the apples grown in the region, Martinelli said. Skyrocketing land values are the latest hurdle for apple growers. The U.S. Agriculture Department reports that the price to lease irrigated agricultural land in Santa Cruz County has increased by about 50 percent since the end of the Great Recession. Local growers say the price ranges from $1,500 to $2,800 an acre each year, depending on the quality of the land. As you push land value higher, it becomes less worth it to waste your time trying to get an apple to grow on a tree if it doesnt want to, said Freddy Menge, who owns a small orchard where he grows heirloom apples to sell to specialty food markets and restaurants. Heres why: An acre of strawberries or raspberries earns 10 times the gross revenue an acre of apples produces. Economics is hardly the only obstacle apple growers in the Pajaro Valley face. Simply put: Many varieties of apples dont thrive when winter weather is too warm. Apple trees need a period of winter chill to reset their growth cycle, though the amount of cool weather they need differs by variety. Without enough chilly days, they wont blossom normally or produce apples the following season. Last winter was unusually warm and sunny in Watsonville, with January temperatures about 5.2 degrees higher than the average from 1981 to 2010. Although this winter has been colder, local growers still fear that the global climate is shifting. They worry that balmy winters may become the routine rather than the exception. I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of people just quit if we have another winter like the last one, said Jim Rider, an independent apple grower in Watsonville. Certainly the worst in the 40 years Ive been doing it. Still, amid the changes sweeping the Pajaro Valley, apple growers are finding reason for optimism, sometimes in surprising places. If Californias 4-year-old drought lingers on, Martinelli said, the intense water demands of berries will mean that at some point farmers will have to devote more of their land to less thirsty crops such as apples. When we run out of water, they cant grow berries, he said. At some point the berries are going to have to downsize. To swing the balance of the Pajaro Valleys cropland back toward apples, Martinellis company is embarking on a program to revitalize the valleys aging orchards by replanting apple trees on small parcels of land leased from homeowners, sprinkled throughout the region. The replanting program also provides the company with convenient test kitchens for trying out new techniques and apple varieties. As we plant these orchards, were going to be looking for varieties and farming methods that are more adaptable to what could be a warming environment, Martinelli said. Other growers are also experimenting with ways to help their trees chill out. We have tried spraying a white, clay-like compound on the trees to reflect sunlight, Rider said. Because dark colors absorb heat more readily than light ones, the temperature of dark apple tree bark tends to rise higher than the air temperature on sunny winter afternoons. Giving the trees a white coat should help keep them cool, Rider said. He also plans to experiment with hanging shade cloth above his trees to keep the sun from reaching them in the first place. For Menge, the key to growing apples in the Pajaro Valley is finding varieties that are suited to the regions unique conditions, including the possibility of more warm winters in the future. He said hes constantly looking for a more delicious and productive type of apple. Ive always got 5 to 10 percent of my orchard being switched over to something, he said. A lot of the apples Im getting rid of are decent apples that do pretty well, but Ive found something thats better. Menge said he hunts for forgotten apple varieties in abandoned orchards, in addition to raising new apples from seedlings. Menge and Martinelli both noted that some popular apples, such as the Honeycrisp, are better left to growers in Washington state. The way to avoid competing with Washington, according to Menge, is to focus on apples that do well here but not there, like some red-fleshed varieties. The business of growing apples in the Pajaro Valley may be changing, but at least one thing is still the same. Watsonvilles apples remain flavorful, Martinelli said. And LaRussa couldnt agree more. We believe in the apples, LaRussa said. Theyre delicious when you pick em off the tree. Plaque being placed in honor of Uziyah Garcia at San Angelo Kid's Kingdom A plaque will be placed in the San Angelo Kid's Kingdom in honor of Uziyah Garcia, a San Angeloan who was killed in the mass shooting in Uvalde. Photo courtesy Amy Thomson/TNS Isla Thomson sits in front of her older sister. After an air ambulance flight to Seattle saved Islas life as an infant, shes now a healthy 2-year-old. SHARE Amy Thomson holds 2-month-old Isla at Seattle Childrens Hospital. When the Thomson family learned Islas heart was failing, they took an air ambulance from Butte, Mont., to Seattle to get medical care. Insurance doesnt cover air ambulance By Corin Cates-Carney Butte is an old mining town tucked in the southwest corner of Montana with a population of about 34,000. Locals enjoy many things you cant find elsewhere campgrounds a quick drive from downtown and gorgeous mountain ranges nearby. But in Butte, as in much of rural America, advanced medical care is absent. People in Butte who experience serious trauma or need specialty care rely on flights air ambulances to get them the help they need. There were close to 3,000 air ambulance flights in Montana last year. And Amy Thomson of Butte was on one of them. Last year, she was curled up among the medical bags in the back of a fixed-wing plane. Her 2-month-old daughter, Isla, had a failing heart, and the hospital that could help her was 600 miles away. Thomson watched as Isla was placed in a small box strapped to a gurney inside the air ambulance. They did such wonderful care of her, and they tried to take great care of me, but in that moment I couldnt let go, Thomson said. I was so afraid that if I closed my eyes, that would be my last vision of her. Seattle Childrens Hospital saved Islas life. Her familys health insurance took care of all costs beyond her deductible except for that critical air ambulance ride to Seattle. The way the Thomsons read their insurance plan, they thought any emergency medical transportation was covered. But it turns out, the air ambulance company was out of their network, and they got a bill for $56,000. Coming back and looking at that bill and thinking youve got to be kidding me, Thomson said. Here is the flight that ultimately saved Islas life by getting her to where she needs to be. And yet (it) is going to put us potentially in financial ruin. Or at least kill our future dreams as a family. When patients need an air ambulance, the first priority is getting them the care they need as fast as possible. So, patients dont always know who is going to pick them up or if the ambulance is an in-network provider. That can lead to surprise expenses if the companies ask patients to pay the bill or any balance left after the insurance plans out-of-network coverage is applied. Of all the complaints we have received in our office, not one person was uninsured, said Jesse Laslovich, legal counsel for Montanas insurance commissioner. Theyre all insured. And they are frustrated as heck that theyre still getting $50,000 balance bills. States can regulate some medical aspects of air ambulances, but federal laws prevent states from limiting aviation rates, routes and services. The cost of an air ambulance bill is split into two main parts, according to a study completed by the Montana legislature. First, a liftoff fee, which ranges from $8,500 to $15,200 in Montana, and then a per-mile charge for the flight, which ranges from $26 to $133 a mile. Some air ambulance companies offer membership programs as protection from big bills. For an annual fee of about $60 to $100, patients face no cost beyond what their health insurance pays if they use that companys services. But, Laslovich said, that doesnt always work because a patient cant always know who is going to pick them up. There is a lack of understanding about the costs of running an air ambulance business, said Rick Sherlock, the president of the Association of Air Medical Services. The costs include specialized labor, training, equipment and fuel. So those cost drivers are there and (its necessary) to maintain readiness to respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, Sherlock said. He says some air ambulance companies remain out of insurance networks because they cant always reach in-network deals that allow them to stay profitable. I think what you also have to look at is that negotiations between (air ambulance) companies and insurance companies take place when theres good negotiations on both sides, Sherlock said. In situations where there may be only one or two insurance options in an area, its harder and harder to negotiate on a level playing field. For Laslovich, it comes down to one thing: You want to know what my personal opinion is about what the problem is? Its money. There are three health insurance companies operating in Montana, and at least 14 air ambulance providers. At the time of Isla Thomsons trip to Seattle Childrens Hospital, the Thomsons insurer, PacificSource, had no in-network agreements with any air ambulance company in the Thomsons area. (PacificSource did not return calls seeking comment.) For people with insurance who think theyre protected against crippling health care bills, the cost of an air ambulance ride can be a shock. Amy Thomson ended up not having to pay, but it took repeated appeals. According to Thomson, on the same day her family was arranging to meet with a lawyer, she was notified by her insurance company that it would pay an additional amount of about $30,000, on top of the $13,000 out-of-network fee, to the air ambulance company, and the air ambulance would waive the rest of the fee. Isla Thomson turned 2 in November. Shes a healthy child with big blue eyes, but at times her mom still worries. Nobody takes a lifeflight for a joy ride. Youre not going on kayak.com and booking a lifeflight, she said. Thomson didnt think the flight should be free, yet the huge bill felt wrong, too: I ethically believe this is a part of health care. This is not some separate entity. There is something ethically wrong that these companies are profiteering off of peoples worst moments in their lives. A Montana interim legislative committee is investigating air ambulance companies wide range in pricing within the state. The state of Maryland has undertaken a similar investigation. In North Dakota, an air ambulance is suing the state for adding regulations on the industry. This story is part of a reporting partnership with Montana Public Radio, NPR and Kaiser Health News. Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. SHARE Actions defy ideal of small government By Romy Varghese And Elise Young PHILADELPHIA The Republican refrain is that the best government is a small government, and that it shouldnt meddle in local affairs. Except when cities in Republican-ruled states are in trouble. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is pushing for a takeover of the Chicago school system, which is hemorrhaging cash, and his counterpart in New Jersey, Chris Christie, just reached a deal with a top-ranking Democratic legislator to give Trenton more control over Atlantic City, which could be out of money as soon as April. In Michigan, Rick Snyder was ahead of them: He signed a law in 2012 expanding the authority of state-appointed emergency managers who called the shots in several cities, including Flint, where the water system is contaminated. The governors have said drastic action is necessary, and state intervention the only option after years of failure by local officials in many cases Democrats to protect their citizens. Critics of a state taking command dont like the strategy no matter which partys behind it, but a bigger government seizing power seems not to mesh with the GOP platform. It doesnt fit with the Jeffersonian view of democracy in which you govern at the level closest to the people, said Marick Masters, a business and political science professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. Essentially when the state comes in and takes it over, and when you appoint one person and give them extraordinary power, that reeks of anything but democracy. The three governors are grappling with deep-seated problems in cities. And the states are facing their own tough issues. Illinois and New Jersey are the lowest and second-lowest ranked U.S. states by credit-rating companies, as escalating public- pension obligations pressure their finances. Michigan is trying to rebuild from the sharp decline of its manufacturing base; Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013. The water crisis in Flint which has been in and out of the state emergency-manager system since 2002 is emblematic of Michigans challenges, Standard & Poors said this week. That states oversight program is among the most aggressive in the country, said Eric Scorsone, director of the Center for Local Government Finance and Policy at Michigan State University in East Lansing. In 2011, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill allowing state emergency managers to overturn labor contracts and seize other legal authority in financially troubled cities and school districts. Voters approved a repeal of the law, but it was replaced by a similar one in 2012 that gave local officials some options to challenge the state managers. Flints an example of the drawbacks of intervention, said Scorsone, who is advising the citys elected officials. It was the state that oversaw the decision to change the source of its water to a polluted river supply to save money. Complaints went unheeded for months. The FBI has joined a probe of the contamination. You come in, you balance the budget. You make draconian cuts. Whats your exit strategy? said Wayne States Masters. It often requires a lot more than just rectifying the books to put a city on a path of sustainability. Snyder, who has been in office since 2011, has said the rescue policies provide tools needed to protect the health, safety and welfare of residents and ensure children receive a first-class education. In the wake of Flint, he has pledged a comprehensive effort to improve the citys quality of life for generations. Chicagos school system, the nations third largest, is running out of cash after years of raiding reserves and shortchanging pensions, which has caused the unfunded liability to balloon. The district relies on borrowing to cover budget gaps. Rauner earlier this month called for the state to take over the district and potentially authorize bankruptcy, which currently isnt allowed. The governor who is locked in an impasse with the Democratic-controlled Legislature that has left Illinois without a budget this year has said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants money from the state without reforming the system. Catherine Kelly, a spokeswoman for Rauner, pointed to comments he made Wednesday, where he called the school system a financial disaster. State appointees, and possibility bankruptcy, would keep schools open and teachers in the classrooms, he said. We can protect our children and their education and still protect taxpayers, said Rauner, who last month spoke of the need of empowering local communities in the state to streamline government for savings. State takeovers across the country, particularly with school districts, have yielded little success since little additional resources are ever devoted to the problems, said David Merriman, co-director of the Fiscal Futures Project at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. In New Jersey, Christie, a presidential candidate who has called for less government being intrusive in our lives in every way, appointed an emergency manager last year for Atlantic City. Home to 39,000 on the sea, its been upended by an expansion around the country of legalized gambling. The city could soon be in the red, in the wake of the closure in 2014 of one-third of its betting parlors. The emergency manager left in January, after releasing a report that recommended more spending cuts and consolidating services. That could be more easily done if a state oversight agency wins unprecedented control over the citys decisions, which Christie wants for five years. Mayor Don Guardian and city council members agreed to work on state legislation that would authorize this with Senate President Steve Sweeney. Joelle Farrell, a spokeswoman for Christie, pointed to the governors comments last week, where he said he considered intervention five years ago but decided on just a state-run tourism district. We wanted to give Atlantic City a five year opportunity to have some of these problems work out on their own, they did not, Christie said. So now we need to take those stronger steps to intervene and to work as partners with the mayor going forward. Christie has stepped up the states role in other distressed areas. Camden, whose manufacturing collapse set it on a path to become the most dangerous U.S. city, was already under state oversight dating back to 2002 when Christie took over its school district three years ago. In 2013, he disbanded the citys police department in favor of a regional system. Democracy in the city of Camden has been decimated in Atlantic City, it will be, too, said Raymond Lamboy, a former Camden schools trustee who is a Democrat. Atlantic Citys unique case tests the states commitment to local control, said Carl Golden, who worked in the administrations of two Republican former governors of New Jersey. It may go across the grain ideologically or philosophically with Republicans but at the same time, the alternative was so distasteful let it sink on its own or dump god only knows how much money into it year after year, said Golden, a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University. With assistance from Elizabeth Campbell and Tim Jones. John M. Galloway/Detroit News/Associated Press Environmental Protection Agency On-Scene Coordinator Mark Durno speaks at a new conference discussing water samples at the EPA Command Post in Flint, Michigan, on Thursday. At left is Dr. Eden V. Wells, Chief Medical Executive for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. At right is Dr. Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. SHARE Replacing pipes will take time, money By Ed Felker WASHINGTON The contamination crisis in Flint, Mich., has thrown a harsh national spotlight on the problem of lead in drinking water, especially in poor and minority communities. Yet the issue is hardly new Washington, D.C., had its own infamous lead scandal in 2004, among other communities that have seen lead spikes. Now health advocates are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to quickly toughen the protections that states must require of local water systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Among the mandates on the table is the eventual and costly replacement of all lead pipes in drinking water systems, rather than just those shown to be an immediate threat to health. The EPA has been holding talks since 2010 on long-term revisions to its Lead and Copper Rule, last updated in 2007 after two years of deliberations. The rule requires states to enforce the law by making sure local water systems take precautions to keep lead out of the drinking water supplies, such as treating water to limit the leaching of lead in pipes, a process known as corrosion control. The EPA has said it will propose the revisions in 2017, an action that will take on new importance in light of the exposure of families in Flint to high levels of lead, a strong neurotoxin that can affect child brain development and behavior, and cause illness in adults. One of those who hopes the problems that surfaced in Flint are addressed in the revisions is Hilliard L. Hampton II. Last year, he ended 16 years as mayor of Inkster, Mich., a small majority African-American suburb about 75 miles south of Flint that has had its own share of financial problems. Hampton sits on the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, which advises the EPA on implementation of the law. The council in December sent Administrator Gina McCarthy an eight-point set of recommendations to revise the lead rule. He signed off on the advisory councils recommendations, which came out of a working group that met seven times over 15 months, ending last summer as the Flint crisis was coming to light. The list urged more emphasis on lead water pipe replacement and proper corrosion control measures to prevent leaching of lead. It also urged greater use of test samples from home water taps and action when results show heightened levels. He pointed to a broad recommendation by the council that EPA should use the revised rule to minimize all contact between drinking water and lead pipes, and focus on low-income and vulnerable consumers. It epitomizes where I would like us to be, in terms of making sure there are no loopholes. We want to remove all lead pipes from water, potable water, totally. Hampton sees some parallels between his town and Flint. The state under Republican Gov. Rick Snyder also considered installing an emergency manager in Inkster, but a consent agreement in 2012 requiring spending cuts by the town averted that outcome. Inkster also relies on Detroit for its water, as did Flint, until the Snyder-appointed emergency manager in 2014 switched its source to the Flint River. Still, some areas in Inkster have shown elevated lead levels in drinking water, Hampton said. He also wants rapid action on the flaws that led to the contamination in Flint, such as requirements for a review of corrosion control when a new water source is tapped by a water system. Strengthening protocols addressing leaching and the corrosion control are things that need to be done immediately, they need to be strengthened immediately, Hampton said. States expect to face additional burdens under a revised EPA lead rule, said Jim Taft, executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Officials, whose members were involved in writing the councils recommendations. His group, which represents non-appointed state officials, supports the suggestions to the EPA and wants to see the Flint revelations incorporated into the agencys proposal next year, Taft said. States probably feel that there likely will be some additional requirements of them beyond those that exist now, he said. But I think states also feel we collectively as a drinking water community, as a country, need to improve on the existing regulation. The fundamental thrust of the recommendations from the (council) are to get the lead out. Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor and national water expert credited with uncovering the Flint contamination as well as lead exposure in Washington, has been a vocal critic of the EPAs inaction in Flint despite early warnings from an employee in its Chicago office, Miguel Del Toral. Hes also been a critic of what he says are weaknesses in the Lead and Copper Rule, such as allowing states to sign off on drinking water sampling methods that underestimate lead content in some homes a flaw that led Flint and Michigan officials to say the citys water was safe to drink. Edwards, who was appointed by Snyder on Jan. 27 to an official 17-member committee to address Flints long term health and water infrastructure needs, did not respond to a request for comment. But in a blog post in November, he said the objectives of the rule have never been realized because no tests are required on drinking water that has been sitting in lead pipes. In other words, millions of consumers who are currently being told that their water is safe, are drinking and cooking with water that routinely dispenses high concentrations of lead, he added. The EPA has said that while its long-term revisions to the rule will not come this year, a spokeswoman also noted in a statement to CQ Roll Call that the agency is taking the Flint crisis into account in that process and potential short-term revisions. EPA will carefully evaluate these recommendations, national experience in implementing the rule, and the experience in Flint to develop a proposed revision to the rule, she said, referring to the advisory councils list. But even as the agency considers revisions, it will continue to engage with state and water systems on potential nearer-term steps that could strengthen implementation of the existing rule. EPA officials met with Flint residents in January, as did President Barack Obama, who spoke with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver on Jan. 19. The moves to revise the rule come as the agency works to implement a separate law, the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act, passed in 2011 that lowers the allowable lead in plumbing fixtures and materials to a quarter of 1 percent, down from the current standard of 8 percent. The future of the rule could also be affected by Congress, where legislation indicates how expensive the repairs to the Flint water system could become for taxpayers. Three Michigan Democratic lawmakers Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, and Rep. Dan Kildee have unveiled legislation that would require the EPA to alert the public when lead is detected in drinking water, if local and state officials do not act. The EPA withheld notification of its concerns to Flint residents last year, which was among the factors that led to a public uproar and the resignation of the administrator of Region 5, Susan Hedman, effective Feb. 1. Her departure was announced with an emergency order by McCarthy that requires the state and Flint to take immediate steps to address the crisis, including increased public notice and sampling. They would also direct $400 million to the EPA to repair or replace Flints water infrastructure. The money would require a dollar-for-dollar state match; Snyder estimated in an application for federal disaster assistance that the damages to Flints public and private water lines total more than $767 million. Another $200 million over 10 years would be spent on a new federal center in the Health and Human Services Department to support Flint residents exposed to lead. Snyder, at a news conference on Jan. 27, said any totals for the replacement of lead service lines in Flint are nonetheless speculation until a complete assessment is made, and that the short-term goal is to recoat pipes that were corroded by Flint River water to prevent lead leaching. Regarding replacing the lead pipes, Snyder said, Thats one of the issues we have to look at statewide, and thats a national issue. There are lead pipes in many places, and you have to come up with the proper priorities in terms of how do you replace that infrastructure. SHARE By Rashda Khan The San Angelo police chief race is heating up. As of Friday, three candidates have filed for the position in the May 7 city elections. Mike Hernandez and Jeffery Lee Davis filed their candidacy this week. Incumbent Tim Vasquez filed Jan. 20, the first day of the filing period, which wraps up Feb. 19. Hernandez, a 25-year veteran of the San Angelo Police Department, said "Not only is change needed, I believe change is good." Davis, a retired narcotics detective with more than 22 years with the SAPD, ran against Vasquez in 2012. "We need new leadership," Davis said. "We have had 12 years with the same leadership. I'm willing to do the work." Vasquez defeated Davis in 2012 with 69.5 percent of the vote 3,414 votes to 1,498. "I'm going to do what I always do keep campaigning," the current chief said. "I still love my job and I'm going to work hard to earn every citizen's vote." He was elected in 2004, then re-elected in 2008 and 2012. The elected police chief will serve a four-year term. Council seats for Single Member Districts 1, 3 and 5 also will be on the ballot. The candidates for those races are: District 1 Trinidad Aguirre Jr. and Bill Richardson. District 3 Daniel Cardenas and Harry Thomas. District 5 R.A. Cantrell, Matthew Lane Carter, incumbent Elizabeth Grindstaff and Martin William Guinn. Candidate packets with applications, information and forms about the process are available in the City Clerk's office or at cosatx.us/May2016. Questions can be addressed to City Clerk Bryan Kendrick at 325-657-4405 or at bryan.kendrick@cosatx.us. San Angeloans can access a map of the City Council districts at cosatx.us/council. Determining which district one lives in can be determined by clicking the GIS map viewer on the same page. Voters must be registered to vote by April 7 to be eligible to cast a ballot in the May 7 election. Voter registration information can be found at votetomgreencounty.org. SHARE Sol Mayer rests on a wool sack at shearing time. By Jerry Lackey FORT McKAVETT ? Ferdinand Mayer left Germany for the United States in 1856. After several stops, he settled here as the fort sutler in 1879, serving both military and civilian settlers with supplies along the San Saba River at the southwestern edge of Menard County. The wealth he and his descendents created eventually spilled into Tom Green County, to the benefit of young people and readers for generations to come. Two years after Fort McKavett was closed in 1881, Mayer's opened his own mercantile store. "Money was scarce during those times, so to pay for goods purchased at the Mayer store, people would pay their debts with livestock and land," said great-great grandson Stephen Mayer of San Angelo. "So, Grandfather Ferdinand found himself in the ranching business almost by default." Mayer later purchased a ranch between Fort McKavett and Sonora. After than, his two older sons, Solomon, "Sol," and Abraham, "Abe," joined him as partners. In 1896, they bought the T-Half Circle Ranch, a spread totaling 75,000 acres in Sutton and Schleicher counties. Divided into seven pastures, the ranch had 23 water wells and numerous earthen tanks. After the elder Mayers retired and moved to San Antonio, Sol and Abe formed a ranch partnership. In April 1907, Sol bought Abe's interest in the T-Half Circle. Standard-Times: How did your family get into ranching? Stephen Mayer: My great-great grandfather, Ferdinand Mayer, and his sons, Sol and Abe, purchased the T-Half Circle Ranch as a partnership. My great grandfather, Sol Mayer, bought out his brother, Abe, and it was passed through the generations to us. What keeps you in the business? Our family heritage is the main reason we stay in the ranching business. We have been fortunate to have oil and gas production on the land and therefore don't need to depend on the livestock for income. Yet, I can't imagine us not being in the ranching business. What's the most unique feature of the ranch? Ernie Mayer: We have a place on the south end of the ranch in Sutton County called The Outlaw Cave. It was the hideout for The Hole in the Wall gang lead by Will Carver. Names are carved into the rock walls. The Outlaw Cave is near the Caverns of Sonora, but it is high on a cliff whereas the caverns are underground. How have you diversified the operation? We rely on deer hunting as another source of income. We started a game management program with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 1983 which has resulted in plenty of white-tailed deer and turkey. They recently gave us an award for 20 years of continuous participation. Any new projects? Brush control has been an on-going project for years. Since the oil income came into the picture, we have been able to keep a bulldozer operator working full time for last five years, clearing mesquite and cedar. What's the history of the family brand? Prior to 1886, Ferdinand Mayer branded his cattle with an "F" or "MYR". In 1896 when Mayer & Sons purchased the T-Half Circle Ranch and cattle from Dr. J. B. Taylor of Sonora, they also took up the T-Half Circle brand: "T")". * * * Ferdinand Mayer was born in Baden, Germany in 1832. He first settled in New York in 1852. From there he moved to Philadelphia and then to San Antonio when the Civil War ended. He married Jette "Yette" Steiner in 1866. The couple had six children: Max, Solomon, Fanny, Josphine, Theresa and Abraham. Solomon "Sol" Mayer married Edith Martin in 1891. Although the marriage only lasted a few years, they had one son, Edwin Solomon Mayer, born Aug. 1, 1896. In 1904, Sol married again, this time to Ernestine Elizabeth Bush Somers in Milwaukee, Wis. At the age of 10, Edwin left San Antonio and came to West Texas to live with his father and stepmother. Edwin Mayer married Minnie Hirsh in 1926. They had five children: Edwin Jr., Ralph, Robert, Doris (Rousselot), and Richard. When Sol and Ernestine Mayer divided the ranch in 1936, they had it surveyed and fenced in four separate parcels of 8,991.92 acres and placed in trust for four grandchildren. That was before Richard was born. After he arrived, another ranch owned by Sol Mayer at Barnhart was put in trust for Richard. When Sol Mayer died in 1957, the estate had 75,000 acres divided five ways. "At the time that Ernie and I got out of college, Mayer and Rousselot was operating 58,000 acres of the original 75,000 acres of the T-Half Circle Ranch," Stephen Mayer said. The partnership was between Edwin Mayer Jr., Ralph Mayer and Doris and Norm Rousselot. Ernie Mayer was general manager. A few years later, Ralph Mayer, Doris and Norm Rousselot decided they would operate their individual parcels separately. "My father, Edwin Mayer Jr., Ernie and I retained the T-Half Circle Ranch title in 1961," Stephen said. "We operate 21,000 acres. Although Dad says he is retired, he still has veto privileges." The Sol and Ernestine Mayer story would not be complete without mention of their philanthropy, which remains the foundation of Tom Green and neighboring counties. Sol was a founding member and was president of the San Angelo National Bank from 1931 to 1947. He built the first telephone line from San Angelo to Sonora. Ernestine donated the first library building to Tom Green County, and in 1956, she gave $63,500 for a new addition that almost doubled the floor space. The couple gave the land for the West Texas Boys' Ranch west of San Angelo. A 300-acre portion of a ranch a few miles north of Fort McKavett owned by the Mayers was given to the Boy Scouts. Known as Camp Sol Mayer, thousands of Boy Scouts and Scoutmasters from 26 West Texas counties use the facility every year. In their wills, they left the additional 9,000 acres of the Fort McKavett ranch to the Boy Scouts. Their San Angelo home was sold following their death and the proceeds went to the Girl Scouts. Mayer Ranches *Founded: 1896, by Ferdinand Mayer and sons, Sol and Abe Mayer. *Owners: Edwin Mayer Jr. and sons Stephen and Ernie; Ralph Mayer, Doris Mayer Rousselot; and Richard Mayer. *Location: 20 miles northwest of Sonora. *Livestock: Sheep and cattle. Augmented reality will soon transform how constituents interact with their government and how California's public-sector workforce does its job, says a leading expert on smart cities.Dr. Gregory Curtin, founder and CEO of Civic Resource Group, said during remarks Wednesday, Feb. 3, at the Government Transformation conference in Sacramento that augmented reality software and devices are on the market now in products like HoloLens and Magic Leap, and there are already "profound" use cases for AR in the public sector.Augmented reality is about bringing together powerful data, information and content, and displaying it over real-world objects and the actual world we live in, through smartphones and wearable devices, Curtin said. Augmented reality will utilize the growing network of Internet of Things there are 6.4 billion connected things in 2016 to offer integrated, seamless solutions to citizens, Curtin said.Imagine a citizen being able to visualize in the real world where a government plans to build a new bridge, road or transit station, Curtin said.Furthermore, research has shown that augmented reality can lead to 30 percent productivity gains for workers because manuals, expert advice, maps and diagrams are put directly into a person's peripheral vision."Imagine an augmented world where our mobile workers our workforce, our California workforce can efficiently and safely serve wherever, whenever and however they chose and need to," Curtin said. Habitat for Humanity of Alamance County will hold a Valentines Build from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Feb. 12. Couples are encouraged to begin their Valentine weekend celebration by serving. No construction experience is necessary; a construction supervisor and experienced core crew of volunteers will be on hand to offer guidance. To register and receive location details, email Cathy Lamb at clamb@habitatalamance.org. Hartley Drive YMCA partnering on mural The children in Hartley Drive YMCAs after school program are designing and painting a mural all about the activities they do to improve their physical and mental health. The mural, a partnership between the YMCA, the Theatre Art Galleries and the High Point Arts Council, will be located in the YMCAs Child Watch room near the front lobby. The YMCA will hold a public painting day from noon to 6 p.m. Feb. 13. No prior painting experience required and membership is not required. The murals opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 26. For information, contact Frances Griffith at (336) 878-7850 or frances@tagart.org. The YMCA is at 150 W. Hartley Drive in High Point. Red Cross, restaurants partner for fundraiser The American Red Cross has an emergency need for blood donations and is urging community members to donate at the Dine and Donate Blood Drive, slated for 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Smith Street Diner, 438 Battleground Ave. in Greensboro. Since 2013, the Red Cross has partnered with Smith Street Diner and other local restaurants to encourage blood donation during the challenging winter season. Participating restaurants will donate 10 percent of their daily receipts to the Red Cross. Over the years, the event has generated approximately $5,000 to support Red Cross Disaster Relief, in addition to collecting more than 100 pints of lifesaving blood. This year, participating restaurants include B. Christophers Steakhouse, Fishers Grille, MJs Steak and Seafood, Reel Seafood Grill, Smith Street Diner, Southern Lights Bistro and Bar and Stumble Stilskins. To make an appointment, download the Red Cross Blood Donor App, call (800) 733-27677 or visit redcrossblood.org. Historian to speak on black communities Local historian and author Glenn Chavis will talk about High Points early black communities at 2 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Ave. in Greensboro. Admission is free. For information, call (336) 373-2043. Guilford schools set to host multiple forums The Guilford County Board of Education will hold six public forums in February and March to hear what the community has to say about two different topics: the superintendent search and school resource officers. The board will hold four forums, one in each school region, to discuss what the community would like to see in its next superintendent. All four forums will start at 7 p.m. and are scheduled for: Feb. 15, Andrews High Auditorium, 1920 McGuinn Drive, High Point Feb. 23, Northern High Auditorium, 7101 Spencer Dixon Road, Greensboro March 10, Southeast High Auditorium, 4530 Southeast School Road, Greensboro March 21, Dudley High Auditorium, 1200 Lincoln St., Greensboro The board hopes to have a new superintendent selected before the 2016-17 school year begins. Nora Carr, chief of staff, and Terrence Young, chief information officer, were selected as co-interim superintendents until a permanent replacement is found. The board will also listen to the communitys thoughts on the role of SROs in schools with two separate meetings. Both forums will start at 7 p.m. and are scheduled for: Feb. 29, Penn-Griffin School for the Arts Auditorium, 825 Washington St., High Point; and March 3 at Grimsley High Auditorium, 801 Westover Terrace, Greensboro. All six forums will be held in addition to regularly scheduled board meetings, which are Tuesday, Feb. 25, March 8, and March 24. Anyone wishing to speak at any of the forums is invited to do so and can sign up at the event or by calling (336) 370-8100 any time before 5 p.m. the day of the forum. WCC to hold 3rd annual Father/Daughter Dance The Color of Reason Womens Community Council will hold its third annual Father/Daughter Dance from 6 to 11 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Empire Room, 203 S. Elm St. in Greensboro. Cost for this semi-formal event is $25 per couple and $10 for each additional daughter. Heavy hors doeuvres will be served. To purchase tickets, call (336) 706-2239 or (336) 235-9017. NCCJ of Piedmont Triad has upcoming events The National Conference for Community and Justice of the Piedmont Triad has several upcoming events planned: Not Your Average Lunch and Learn, 6-7:30 p.m. Feb. 9, NCCJ Office, 713 N. Greene St., Greensboro. Will discuss diversity and faith. Dinner provided. Register. Tanaya Suddreth, (336) 272-0359 ortsuddreth@nccjtriad.org. 20th Annual Interfaith Tour, 1:45-5:30 p.m. Feb. 28. Visit Temple Emanuel, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, and The Islamic Center of Greensboro. Register. (336) 272-0359. Lunch and Learn, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. March 3, NCCJ Office, 713 N. Greene St., Greensboro. Learn about ANYTOWN, a summer youth leadership program. Register. (336) 272-0359. Youth Leadership Conference, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. March 8, N.C. A&T. Brings together more than 300 youth. Megan Sappenfield, (336) 272-0359. Two young Japanese knitwear designers have created original works with wonderful textures and great individuality, with one including elements from a brand-name towel in some of her pieces and the other pursuing three-dimensional expressions inspired by a killer technique from a manga. A black sweater produced under Mari Odakas malamute brand bears a motif of roses with a nostalgic feel. I got the idea for this work from a Feiler towel, Odaka, 29, said. My grandmother treasured the German brand towel and always handled it with great care. The roses depicted on the sweater may remind people of a pointillistic painting. Odaka used fluffy chenille yarn to re-create the distinctive towel-like texture. Odaka says she has taken on the challenge of making knitwear that does not look knitted. A thin, nearly transparent summer knit suit made under the brand has a printed pattern based on marble. I wanted to give it a nice and cold feel, which is unusual in knitwear, Odaka said, and she succeeded. Delicate colors and hues in nature, such as the colors of flowers and stones, can be depicted by using different yarns and different knitting methods, she said. I believe knitting has unlimited possibilities. Knitwear designed by Motohiro Tanji for his namesake brand has twisting, winding and undulating elements, such as those seen in manga and contemporary art. Im confident that Ive created knitted fabrics nobody has seen before, Tanji, 36, said. Tanji studied at a knitwear fashion design school in Britain and set up his own brand in 2012. His design process always starts with experiments. His work includes a dress with spiral motifs, which Tanji said he derived from a killer technique featured in the manga Dragon Ball. Another piece has sagging parts that may remind people of internal organs on a human anatomical chart. Tanjis innovative designs are given shape with an ordinary home-use knitting machine. His pieces have surprisingly rich faces, although they are knitted with yarn just in a single color. The three-dimensional textures of knitted fabrics have an appeal you cant achieve with woven fabrics, Tanji said. The number of students in Greenwich schools who are suspended or expelled has dropped sharply in recent years. But minority and special-education students are disciplined at a much higher rate than white and non-special-education students, according to a new district report. The disparity remains a persistent problem that raises questions about bias and whether the school system has adequate support programs available to at-risk students. Educators said the stubborn trend concerns them, but the broader decrease in disciplinary cases shows the district is making headway with its programming focused on students social and emotional development. We need to look at how we are supporting kids with special-education needs and who are black and Hispanic and how we can better support them, Mary Forde, the districts director of pupil personnel services, said this week. We need to be aware of the fact that we are More Information Discipline by the numbers Minority students and students who receive special education services account for a disproportionate percentage of those who are suspended or expelled, 2014-15 Student group % school district enrollment % student incidents leading to suspension or expulsion Receiving special education 10% 45% English language learner 6% 11% Asian 8% 3% Black 3% 14% Hispanic 20% 38% White 65% 42% Two or more races 4% 3% See More Collapse disproportionately disciplining kids of color and kids who receive special-education services. The cause of the problem is not deliberate discrimination, administrators said. I dont believe staff members target kids, Forde said. I do believe sometimes we set up systems that make it more likely kids will engage in behaviors that get them in trouble. But some experts say bias can exist even if educators do not realize it. For some teachers there might be explicit biases, but for others, it could be a lack of cultural awareness or responsiveness that lead to these blind spots in how we perceive students behavior, said Tamika La Salle, an assistant professor in the school psychology program at the University of Connecticuts Neag School of Education. If a student talks out of turn, in some cultures that could be them showing their enthusiasm, so there could be a cultural or generational mismatch. Numbers and causes Between the 2006-07 school year and last year, the percentage of suspensions and expulsions involving special-education students spiked from 27 percent to 45 percent. During the same period, the districts percentage of special-education students stayed steady at about 10 percent. Likewise, Hispanic students accounted for about 30 percent of suspensions and expulsions in 2006-07, a year when they represented 13 percent of the districts students. They now comprise about 20 percent of the school systems population, but 38 percent of the disciplinary cases. For the past decade, black students have made up about 3 percent of the districts student body, but 13 percent of disciplinary cases in 2006-07 and 14 percent last year. Among the potential causes for why those student are disciplined so frequently, educators list the fact that many special-education students have behavioral issues. By providing specialized education and counseling, we can reduce inappropriate behaviors for kids who have emotional and behavioral issues, Forde said. But if they are getting involved in incidents, that is not something were pleased about, and we need to go back in and look at the services. The report does not break out suspensions and expulsions by socio-economic groups, but some see the correlation between minority and low-income households as a factor in the problem as well. Low-income students often have greater challenges and issues that lead to behavioral problems, said Alan Barry, Greenwichs social services commissioner. The report also does not break down recidivism rates into demographic categories. But Greenwich Police Sgt. Mark Zuccerella, who serves on an inter-agency team that provides services to at-risk students and their families, said he thinks recidivism is a major factor in the disparity. Forty-four of the 165 students who were suspended or expelled in the past school year were involved in two or more incidents. I see this as a recidivism issue, and thats what were trying to address through restorative programs like the inter-agency team, Zuccerella said. A lack of engagement at school could be another source of behavior problems, some school officials said. It would be interesting to see the ability level of these students and whether we are challenging them at the appropriate level to cut down on the number of incidents, said Board of Education Vice Chairman Barbara ONeill. The statistics in Greenwich are a microcosm of national trends. In the 2011-12 school year, public-school students with disabilities in the United States were more than twice as likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than their peers without disabilities, according to a 2014 report from the federal Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights. Black students represented 16 percent of the national student population, but accounted for 32 percent to 42 percent of students in suspension and expulsion categories, according to the report. Contrasting with the Greenwich trends, Hispanic students nationwide were suspended and expelled at rates commensurate with their enrollment numbers. Signs of progress Set against the disproportionate rates, administrators said they are encouraged by the sharp drop in the total number of suspensions and expulsions in recent years. About 260 incidents in the past school year led to such discipline suspensions in the vast majority of cases compared with approximately 650 in 2006-07. Recent regulatory changes, such as instituting a more forgiving attendance policy at Greenwich High School, have contributed to the decline. But the decrease also reflects a concerted effort to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students, administrators said. They point, for instance, to the districts focus on its behavioral standards known as norms, which are highlighted during special events throughout the school year. And schools run a number of programs aimed at helping students who are more likely to struggle academically or socially. The Advancement Via Individual Determination college-readiness program at Greenwich High and Central and Western middle schools enrolls mostly minority students. For several years, Greenwich High has used Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, an initiative run in districts throughout the country for modeling and encouraging good behavior among students. At all of the schools, safe school climate committees monitor how students are faring emotionally and socially, and the effectiveness of school support services. We have structures in place that re-evaluate our efforts on a regular basis, Forde said. School officials are also collaborating more frequently with outside organizations to bolster support for students. In early 2014, administrators teamed up with police and nonprofits in town to launch the inter-agency initiative at Greenwich High aimed at helping troubled youth. The program is now being rolled out to the districts three middle schools. More work ahead How Greenwich educators study student discipline continues to change. As much data as they already have, they admit they have not always used the numbers effectively. Tracking students social and emotional development is a key goal in the districts new strategic plan, which educators are still refining. Schools are really good at collecting data, but not so good at integrating this data, said La Salle, the UConn professor. The better job we do of connecting the data to make it meaningful, the more likely we are to get students, parents and staff to participate and share their opinions, especially if they know it will be to drive decision-making. Professional development can also help educators to better understand their students, said Carol Sutton, the districts teachers union president. She praised a recent initiative for staff at Western Middle focusing on the demographics of the schools student body, which is the most diverse among the districts middle schools. To know whos in your classroom and to understand some cultural practices as well as potential unconscious cultural biases is important, Sutton said. Administrators are mulling other ideas aimed at improving support services for at-risk students. In the report, Forde suggests hiring a clinical supervisor, who would provide more support to mental-health professionals in the district. That position would not be created until the 2017-18 school year at the earliest because school officials have already submitted budgets for the next school year. Forde also pitched making social skills a required part of the curriculum in all grades. We believe were on the right path, Forde said. But that doesnt mean were not continually re-evaluating our efforts to make sure were going in the right direction. pschott@scni.com; 203-625-4439; twitter: @paulschott Contributed / Contributed photo Scene New Canaan Library's Second Annual Ladies Night Out took place last Tuesday evening featuring actress and author Ali Wentworth. Wentworth, who is the wife of former political advisor-turned-ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, discussed her best-selling book, Happily Ali After. Her sister, Sissy Yates, whose jewelry collection, Sissy Yates Designs, was on display and for sale, joined the actress at the event. Patrons also enjoyed desserts from Forever Sweet Bakery of Norwalk. Signed copies of Wentworths book were available at the event courtesy of Elm Street books in New Canaan. For more info, visit http://newcanaanlibrary.org/onenightstand#sthash.PKTXUkrn.dpuf. Haiti - Diplomacy : 2 new Ambassadors accredited Friday morning at the National Palace the President Michel Martelly, received the credentials of two new Ambassadors accredited to Haiti. They are Ambassador Oliver D. del Cid of Belize and Ambassador Luis Castillo Campos of the Socialist Republic of Cuba. These new Ambassadors reiterated the commitment of their countries to continue to support Haiti in its efforts to improve the living conditions of its people. For his part, the President Martelly assured them of the will of the Republic of Haiti to work to strengthen the ties of friendship and cooperation between their State and their country. After the presentation of their credentials, the two new diplomats respectively presented a floral offering to the Haitian National Pantheon Museum (MUPANAH) in memory of the Heroes of the Independence of Haiti. After this tribute, Michele G. Frisch, the Museum's Director General invited the two new diplomats to a guided tour through the halls of permanent and temporary exhibition of MUPANAH, to discover the history and culture of Haiti. HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Electoral Zapping... Agreement found for the appointment of the next President ? At the Lower House there is disagreement on the choice of successor to President Michel Martelly, for some deputies, it is to the National Assembly to nominate the next President in order to remain as close as possible to the Constitution, other believe that the opposition has a voice said for having forced him to suspend the holding of elections on 24 January. Anyway, it seems that late Friday night after long hours of talks between President Martelly and President of both Houses, Senator Jocelerme Privert (Senate) and Deputy Cholzer Chancy (Lower House) would have reached en agreement on the appointment of the next interim president. There is talk of a signing ceremony on Saturday afternoon where the details of the agreement would be formally known. Remains to be seen how political actors will react... Haiti - FLASH : Signature to end the crisis https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16532-haiti-flash-signature-to-end-the-crisis.html Edwin Zenny sulks his Senate colleagues The Senator Edwin Zenny who was absent at the meeting in National Assembly Thursday https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16522-haiti-news-electoral-zapping.html , explained that he will not appear to the Senate, as long as his colleagues have not decided to behave as statesmen... Supporters and opponents are gaining streets Friday at yet another opposition demonstration, the crowd demanded Sunday departure of President Martelly, at the end of its constitutional mandate and the establishment of a transitional government to ensure the continuation of the electoral process after verification at vote tabulation center of the ballot on 25 October. In parallel, supporters of Jovenel Moise also were in the streets to demand the continuation of the electoral process, chanting yes to elections and not to the transition. Sandra Honore says that the international community does not interfere Sandra Honore, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said in an interview that the United Nations support the initiatives and efforts of the Haitian government and stakeholders from different sectors of Haitian life to find a quick exit to the crisis and maintain governance in the country pending the conclusion of the electoral process through the adoption of consensual solutions. While the opposition continues to point the finger as the international community responsible for all the problems in Haiti, Sandra Honore reiterated that members of the international community in Haiti, represented in the Core Group, do not interfere in Haitian politics and the Minustah did not participate in the dialogue. "It is a dialogue between Haiti" she said. HL/ HaitiLibre Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up New Ad-free Subscriber Login Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby. 15:19, 20 OCT 2022 Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler! Or, in other words, let the good times roll! Celebrate Mardi Gras in true Louisiana fashion on Fat girl Tuesday, Feb. 9, at the High Countrys favorite Cajun hot spot, the Bayou Smokehouse and Grill in Banner Elk. Restaurant Owners David, Winston and Lee Ammann will bring a little bit of the Big Easy up here to Carolina for a celebration you dont want to miss! True to their New Orleans roots, theyre celebrating on Fat Tuesday, since Ash Wednesday follows and brings the beginning of Lent. The Bayous casual, comfortable atmosphere and authentic Texas-Louisiana recipes will whisk you away to the Crescent City, and you wont even have to leave the table. The Bayou will be decked out with decorations of purple, green and gold beads and doubloons, and the Ammanns hope youll join them in wearing festive Mardis Gras attire and costumes. Naturally, the featured drink of the day will be the NAwlins Hurricane, along with beers from both Abita and Dixie. It wouldnt be Mardi Gras at the Bayou without traditional Deep South dishes like gumbo, etouffee, creole, red beans and rice and so much more. Over dinner and into the night, party along with live music starting at 7 p.m. from the Dave Calvert Collective. No cover charge! Check out the Bayou online for more information. Heres a little Mardi Gras history lesson from Winston: Did you know? Much of what is associated with Mardi Gras today came about because a Russian Grand Duke was visiting New Orleans way back in 1872? It was by sheer chance that Alexis Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia, landed in New Orleans just before Mardi Gras that year. He was in single-minded pursuit of his latest lady love, actress Lydia Thompson. To celebrate his visit, a group of 40 businessmen funded a daytime parade and called it Rex, Latin for king. The first arrival of Rex (both the parade and the organizations masked King Rex) was a surprise to most citizens of the Big Easy. They learned of it on Lundi Gras (the day before Mardi Gras) through an announcement in the local newspapers ordering that normal business be shut down and the city handed over to Rex, King of Carnival. In the dukes honor, the newly formed Rex organization adopted the Romanov family colors of purple, green and gold (which represent justice, faith and power respectively). They commissioned a band to play the Dukes favorite love song, If Ever I Cease to Love, from the play Bluebeard. After Alexis left, the colors stuck for Mardi Gras, the gala day parade continued and a masked ball was added the next year in 1873. The song became the Mardi Gras anthem of Rex, the organization and parade which became King of Carnival and Monarch of Merriment with the motto Pro bono publico, For the common good. Amazingly, Rexs first arrival via riverboat, at the foot of Canal Street, is still repeated every Lundi Gras. The mayor turns the city and its keys over to King Rex in a public ceremony. And thats how Mardi Gras became a legal holiday in New Orleans. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket By Jesse Wood The traffic shift for the U.S. 321 widening project in Blowing Rock that was planned to occur on Monday has been postponed because of the colder temps and chance of snow early next week. Right now, the weather is kind of a factor for us. The cooler temperatures are playing a little havoc with the pavement markings We probably wont get pavement markings that are necessary for the traffic shift done [in time], said Caprice Cheek, NCDOT Engineering Technician and project hotline operator. The pending traffic shift consists of closing the two inside lanes and median in both directions so crews could complete the curb and gutter of the median while opening the outside lanes going both northbound and southbound. The Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce described the now-pending shift as significant in noting that this change would take some adjustment for locals and visitors. The chamber also encouraged folks to continue to support those businesses in the construction zone. This traffic pattern change will be the most significant change that this road widening project has presented, but in the end, we must all remain patient, plan a little extra time in our trips, but most of all, we must not abandon these fine businesses affected, according to the chambers latest newsletter. Blowing Rock Executive Director Tracy Brown echoed a similar sentiment to High Country Press on Friday morning when talking about the excitement of progress on the widening project. I think back to the days when they were four-laning U.S. 421 in Boone and it felt like it would never end, but it did. Thats a beautiful project. It makes it so much easier for folks to get up here, Brown said. The same thing is going to happen here. More traffic will be able to get up here and its going to be gorgeous once its finished. Brown added that once this shift takes place, Well really start to see progress. This project particularly with how long it has taken has been a great concern of the citizens and business owners of Blowing Rock. The portion of the project through Blowing Rock was originally supposed to be complete by April 2014 and the entire project by October 2015 But because of numerous extensions granted to Maymead Inc. by the NCDOT, state transportation officials have said that it would make every attempt to have the portion of the project through Blowing Rock finished by the Fourth of July. The summer of 2017 is the new deadline for the entire project that crosses into Caldwell. As far as the July 4 goal, the weather, which featured record warmth around the Christmas holiday, has certainly helped expedite the project. This is the first winter in four winters that weve been here that weve been able to work this late into the year, Cheeks said. Typically by this time of year, we have been essentially in a waiting pattern since December. Latest NCDOT Update on US 321 Project in Blowing Rock Unfortunately the trending colder weather the later part of this week has resulted in temperatures too cold to install the necessary pavement markings for the next traffic split. The bitter cold temperatures forecast for next week and chances of snow will continue to present a problem for the remaining pavement marking operations and the placement of water filled barrier necessary to complete this shift. Therefore, the traffic split that had been tentatively scheduled for Monday will now be delayed until further notice. Updates to this schedule will be available as our engineers and contractor continue to evaluate the forecast for next week. Paving that had been scheduled for Saturday & Sunday north of West Cornish has also been cancelled due to forecasted overnight temperatures. Cleanup operations will continue tomorrow, Saturday, February 6th, 2016 along future southbound lanes through the business section. No other traffic impacts to #US321 are currently scheduled for this weekend.*** *** Please keep in mind that the future southbound lanes from the Food Lion Shopping Center to US321 Bus/S. Main Street remain CLOSED to the public at this time. Traffic control along this section has been stepped up in order to begin preparations for the next traffic shift. Motorists and pedestrians attempting to travel along this section of the project will be at an even greater risk of coming into conflict with ground crews working on foot, construction equipment/materials and even construction debris, all of which could result in a serious accident. There have already been several incidences where motorists have struck and then become hung up on the new curb & gutter, resulting in vehicles having to be removed from the area by wrecker. If you must travel back and forth across this section of the project in order to access a residence or business, please use extreme caution and remain alert! Help us keep you and our construction crews safe by observing this closure! *** For more details regarding these construction operations or for general project information or if you need assistance in traveling to/through the area, please call 828-964-3260. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket Casting call for 'Anne Frank,' 'Music Man' Flat Rock Playhouse will hold youth performer auditions for the upcoming productions of The Music Man and The Diary of Anne Frank this season. Related Stories The Music Man, with book, music and lyrics by Meredith Willson, is the story of fast talking con artist Harold Hill who plots to swindle the folks of River City Iowa by posing as a band instructor. The long awaited, highly requested musical features the Broadway standards Til There Was You and 76 Trombones. Directed and choreographed by former YouTheatre alumni and Broadway choreographer Chase Brock, The Music Man will utilize a large ensemble of young performers aged 8 through 18. Rehearsal and performances will be from May 23 through July 9, with eight shows a week. Flat Rock Playhouse is specifically seeking young performers for the featured roles of Winthrop Paroo and Amaryllis. Winthrop, aged 10, is the shy introverted little brother of town librarian and piano teacher Marian Paroo. He also speaks with a lisp. Winthrop slowly comes out of his shell when Harold Hill rolls into town and ultimately serves as an instrument of change. Amaryllis, also aged 10, is Marians young piano student who is enamored with Winthrop. Both young actors need to be able to sing and move well. Written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman, The Diary of Anne Frank is based on the diary kept by Frank while she was in hiding with her family in Amsterdam for two years and has become symbolic of the enduring power of the human spirit. The Diary of Anne Frank will be directed by Flat Rock Playhouse Producing Artistic Director Lisa K. Bryant with rehearsal and performances from Aug. 23 through Sept. 25. There will be weekday matinee performances on Wednesday and Thursday during the shows run. Flat Rock Playhouse is specifically seeking young actors for the roles of Anne Frank and Peter Van Daan. Anne Frank, to play early teens, is the lively and curious girl who remains optimistic throughout the months her family is in hiding and makes the best of the situation she is in. Peter Van Daan, the shy quiet teenaged boy also in hiding with the Frank family, is the object of Annes first crush. Auditions will take place on the Flat Rock Playhouse Mainstage Monday, Feb. 29 from 6 to 9 p.m. Those auditioning for The Music Man must prepare 16 bars of a musical theatre song and be prepared to learn a short dance combination. Young boys interested in the role of Winthrop in The Music Man are strongly encouraged to review the song "Gary, Indiana" from the show. Those auditioning for The Diary of Anne Frank will be asked to read from sides provided. Additionally, young actresses interested in auditioning for Anne are encouraged to attend the audition workshop for this role on Sunday, Aug. 28, from 2 to 4 p.m. on the Flat Rock Playhouse Mainstage. There is no charge for the workshop. An Irishman racially abused by a "white immigrant" bus driver has won a legal action for assault in the High Court. Mr Justice Max Barrett said he accepted that Anthony Doran had thought he was about to be hit by a Bus Eireann driver and had instinctively recoiled. Doran had appealed a decision from the Circuit Civil Court, which last year dismissed his claim for assault, battery and false imprisonment. Bus Eireann denied the claim. Judge Barrett said in a reserved judgment, that in February 2014, Doran's car had broken down near Tara Street, in an area where buses park. He had pushed his car back to create the maximum space for buses pulling in and had been waiting inside his car for a recovery vehicle. Doran had alleged that although several buses had manoeuvred around his car without difficulty, one bus came up behind his car and used its horn. He went to the bus to explain his situation but as the driver had not wanted to open the window he returned inside his car. Doran claimed that shortly afterwards the bus driver drove up and blocked him from opening his car door. Window Doran had alleged that as he opened his car window, the bus driver raised his fists and referred to him as a "black boy" before then using crude and obscene language. Bus Eireann had denied the incident happened in that manner or that the bus driver had used racist language. The company denied Doran had been assaulted and falsely imprisoned by the bus driver. The court had heard there was a "heated" exchange between the two men after Mr Doran allegedly showed a disrespectful middle-finger gesture to the bus driver. Judge Barrett said that what most likely happened was that Doran reached his hand out of the car to wave the bus on and this was mistaken as a rude gesture by the bus driver. "A sad irony in this case is that Mr Doran, an Irishman who is black, was racially abused by a white man who has come to this country from abroad and thus might be exposed - unacceptably, were it to occur - to some form of intolerance," the judge said. Judge Barrett said he was satisfied the bus driver had committed an assault on Doran, for which the payment of damages must follow. Bus Eireann came to a financial agreement with Mr Doran, of Charlestown Place, St Margaret's Road, Dublin. Gardai at the scene of the shooting at the Regency Hotel (Collins) Close friends of murdered criminal Gary Hutch are the chief suspects for yesterday's brutal gun attack at the Regency Hotel. Gardai were last night treating the murder of David Byrne (34) as a revenge attack for that fatal shooting in Spain's Costa Del Crime last September. Detectives believe yesterday's savage attack had been planned for many weeks. North inner-city criminal Hutch is believed to have been murdered on the orders of international criminal Christy Kinahan. Byrne's two pals - Sean McGovern (30) from Crumlin and Aaron Bolger (25) from Tallaght - were recovering from their injuries in Beaumont and the Mater Hospitals last night after they were shot in the stomach and leg respectively. "A huge amount of planning went into this. There may be an international dimension to this crime in terms of the sourcing of weapons and other matters linked to it," a source said. Gardai do not believe that the uniforms used by the killers were stolen garda uniforms but were modified uniforms. Sources said that officers believe that the gunmen, who wore bullet-proof vests and helmets, had intended wiping out several friends of Christy Kinahan, aka the Dapper Don, and his son Daniel. Sources said that it was believed that up to six criminals were involved in the gun attack. Two members of the gang had already been identified by gardai last night. Heartbroken Both men were very close to Gary Hutch and were left "heartbroken and very angry" about his brutal death in Spain. Since his murder, they have cut ties with the cartel and have even gone into hiding rather than attend meetings with cartel members. Within an hour of yesterday's shocking attack, armed officers from the Special Detective Unit were checking on properties connected to the criminals. Neither of the suspects have many previous convictions, but the older of the suspects has a fearsome reputation for hits carried out on behalf of his bitter enemies in the Christy Kinahan cartel. These include the gun murders of Eamon 'The Don' Dunne in April 2010, and Paul Kavanagh in March of last year. Gardai believe that there will be revenge attacks for the murder of David Byrne, whose older brother Liam (38) is one of the city's most notorious criminals with convictions for firearms offences and a savage assault. The van used by the killers to get away was found burnt-out at the Charlemont Estate in Marino shortly after the murder. The killers fled through St Vincent's GAA ground and from there to Killester. Tanaiste Joan Burton has been forced to defend her deputy leader's behaviour for fear that it is overshadowing the party's message. The Labour Party leader laughed off suggestions that a vote for Labour was a vote for Alan Kelly as Tanaiste. Ms Burton also reaffirmed her party's commitment to the freedom of the press. It comes after the Herald revealed that Mr Kelly angrily confronted Newstalk presenter Chris Donoghue, alleging that his constituency rival, Independent TD Michael Lowry, was given preferential treatment. Overshadowed Sources said that the Labour Party was now in turmoil after their campaign launch was completely overshadowed by questions about the behaviour of the outgoing minister. The Tipperary TD faced repeated questions about his verbal attack on a radio presenter and his ambitions to succeed Joan Burton as Tanaiste. There has been growing disquiet within the party in recent days over Mr Kelly's seemingly erratic behaviour on the campaign trail and his claim that "power is a drug". The minister denied that he became irate with the presenter. "My only issue was editorial choice and fairness. That was the only issue and I was only raising the fact everyone was given a chance to go on the show and one person was given a choice earlier than everyone else, simple as that." During a fractious press conference Ms Burton was asked if Mr Kelly would be Tanaiste. "I grew up on the northside of Dublin, and a bit like the Dubs when the going gets tough the tough get going - and that's what I'm asking all our candidates to do," she said. Ms Burton became annoyed when pressed about how many social houses the Labour Party planned to build. Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin conceded that the so-called 'fiscal space' of 12bn that he talked about at the party's Ard Fheis last week was actually 10.1bn. Sources within Labour have said there are real concerns that Mr Kelly's actions during the past week are overshadowing the party's message. "He's coming up unprompted on doorsteps," said one senior party source. Another added: "It's the 'Alan Kelly show'. He needs to realise that it's time to be a team player." The latest row comes after Mr Kelly confronted Mr Donoghue over an appearance Mr Lowry made on Newstalk Breakfast on Thursday. The presenter did a one-on-one interview with the ex-minister, while Mr Kelly was asked to take part in a three-way debate with independent TD Mattie McGrath and Fianna Fail councillor Michael Smith. After hearing the Lowry interview Mr Kelly "stormed" into Newstalk's mobile studio and launched what the other two candidates described as a verbal attack. Asked if he verbally abused Chris Donoghue, Mr Kelly said: "I don't think that's a fair question", before adding: "No, obviously I didn't". Comfortable However, Mr Smith, who witnessed part of the altercation, said the language used "was not appropriate" for a public representative. In response to a query about whether he was comfortable with Mr Kelly's actions, Communications Minister Alex White told the Herald: "Editorial independence is paramount and must always be defended. "Of course politicians like other citizens are entitled to criticise but there are established complaint processes in place that people can always use." Ms Burton said her party cherishes the free press ,but there must also be "a robust political debate". "We have come and we have answered your questions and we will continue to do so to the best of our ability." BRISTOL, Va. BVU CEO Don Bowman came under fire Friday for his actions and comments during a Virginia Senate committee meeting earlier this week. Several members of the authority board of directors asked pointed questions and criticized the CEO for not following their directives when he testified Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Local Government. Their criticism came during a called BVU board meeting prior to the board approving a deal to sell off OptiNet. I didnt understand Mr. Bowmans testimony concerning our bill up there, board member Doug Weberling said. I was under the impression we were opposed to the bill and I just wondered why he [Bowman] wanted the entire board to be fired. Senate Bill 329 would replace every member of the current nine-member board with a seven-member body that would include representation from Washington and Scott counties and the town of Abingdon. Last month, the BVU board directed Bowman to draft a letter and convey to lawmakers that the board opposes the bill. Bowman said he conveyed that information to patron Sen. Bill Carrico, R-Galax, but not the committee. On Tuesday, Bowman spoke for about two minutes to the committee, addressing aspects of the federal corruption investigation into BVU that has resulted in a string of guilty pleas from former executives and contractors and the upcoming trial of current Chief Financial Officer Stacey Pomrenke. Board members received a copy of Bowmans remarks during Fridays meeting. So this is a very timely matter, a very urgent matter, a very complicated matter, but it really comes down to failure to have proper governance and honest, trustworthy employees there, Bowman said in concluding his remarks to the committee Tuesday. This bill gives you a platform on which to reshape BVU so that these issues are addressed. After a lengthy silence Friday, Bowman responded to Weberlings query by citing aspects of the bill that coincide with actions taken by the board and aspects of a compromise that city officials had reached with Carrico on city appointees having authority over water and sewer issues. In response to another question, Bowman responded that he wasnt the boards lobbyist and felt rushed to speak and sit down. Weberling also asked Bowman why Doug Fleenor, the only board member who supports the legislation, accompanied Bowman to Richmond. Bowman said he thought Fleenor had been invited by Carrico and they might want to check with the senator. Bowman later said Fleenor asked to ride along with him. The Bristol Herald Courier was shown a video from Tuesdays hearing that shows Bowman briefly standing shoulder to shoulder with Carrico and Fleenor before the 13 members of the Senate committee in Richmond. Each spoke after Carrico presented information about the bill, which was being revised during that meeting. Fleenor expressed his support of the bill in a four-minute address that called the legislation a cry for relief from the General Assembly. Fleenor didnt attend Fridays meeting. The discussion about Bowmans actions was expected to happen in closed session, but Weberling asked to change the agenda and hash it out in open session. Board member Guy Odum, also a City Council member, was among those who voted against the open-session discussion. I think Mr. Bowman did not do what the board instructed him to do and what we wanted to convey to the committee that we were doing everything we could to alleviate any corruption that was going on. We think he [Bowman] failed to do that and we wanted to discuss that in a closed session, Odum said. Board Chairman Jim Clifton offered a different take. He [Bowman] spoke, not in favor of the bill, but in factual-based things. Sen. Carrico actually improved parts of the bill, Clifton said, adding that he is good with Bowmans actions. Following further discussion, board members agreed to formulate their own letter, based on a four-page document composed by Weberling, and urge state lawmakers to take note of the current boards work and possibly delay the legislation. Most of the attention on the proposed legislation has focused on the fact that the entire board will be replaced on July 1, 2016, according to the draft letter. We believe that action is a grave mistake and will only serve to set back the progress that this board has made to fix the problems at BVU and to restore the publics trust in its utility. Clifton said he would compile board input and craft the letter. If we send that letter and that bill gets halted they can see what were doing, Odum said after the meeting. I would appreciate them postponing that bill for a year. If were not clearing up everything then fire everybody and change the whole system. Give us a little time because we have already instituted many, many changes. This weekend might be the last warm one we have in awhile Mystified Outer Banks tourists witnessed a bizarre act of nature Friday, Oct. 14, as fish began flinging themselves onto the beach at Ocracoke Island. Multiple videos shared on social media show the ocean appeared to boil with fish as they tumbled over each other in the surf. The so-called bluefish blitz concluded with thousands of dying fish piled on the sand, flopping up and down as ... A scramble has begun for the Dalit votes in Uttar Pradesh, which many believe are up for grabs. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently at a Ghazipur rally in east UP gave a clarion call for the abolition of caste system to build Ambedkars vision of an egalitarian society, but all other parties--the BJP, Samajwadi Party and the Congress--are invoking BR Ambedkar to cultivate Dalit votes in the state. Even All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi at his first rally in Faizabad chose to drum up the Bahujan Samaj Party war cry of Dalit-Muslim unity to grab power. The BJP and the Congress, however, are eying pan-India build-up as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has failed to expand its vote base outside the UP boundaries. Read | Grand alliance for UP assembly polls? JD(U)-RLD merger on the cards Why? Till the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP was considered the sole proprietor of the Dalit vote bank. But its control on it started weakening from the 2012 assembly polls in UP. Notwithstanding Mayawatis claim of protecting her partys vote base from the Modi wave in the 2014 general election, the exodus of Dalits from the BSP is by now well documented. Taking advantage of the good weather, her political adversaries have now gone hiking. Dalit politics expert Dr Badri Narain from JNU explains, Dalits became soft target after they shifted from the BSP in the last two elections. The political parties are now trying to poach the vulnerable vote bank to augment their already existing base vote--the BJP has the upper caste, the SP has the Yadavs. As of now, the 21% votes in Uttar Pradesh are fragmented. While Jatavs, which form the major chunk, are aligned with Mayawati, especially after the courts rescinded her governments order on quota in promotions in government jobs, the other prominent sub caste Pasis, the opinion makers, are looking at other options. Rajya Sabha member Jugar Kishore, who moved from the BSP to the BJP, insists there has been an exodus of Dalits from the BSPs vote bank since 2009. I was partys coordinator in five divisions in east UP and have data to prove that the BSP lost on booths with heavy Jatav vote bank. He is pinning his hopes on the pace with which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been trying to appropriate the legacy of Ambedkar- his government building memorials of Ambedkar in North London, Delhi and Maharashtra, his visit to Ambedkar University and Ambedkar Mahasabha in Lucknow, the 125th birth anniversary celebrations, his dialogue with Dalit Industrial Chambers of Commerce and Industry(DICCI) et al. Read | SP to go solo in UP Assembly polls, says no to grand alliance Lalji Prasad Nirmal from Ambedkar Mahasabha has a different take. According to him a large chunk of Dalit votes shifted from the BSP as Mayawati failed to empower them economically. The community is more aware now and would support the party that would take up their issues. Dr AK Verma, director of Kanpur-based Centre for the Study of Society and Politics says, The BSPs Dalit support went down by 23% throughout the state in 2012 and 35% in 2014. Mayawati will be the strongest challenger in 2017 if she manages to retrieve her lost Dalit support base. Mayawati has been silently working on consolidating her base vote as she knows only then the surplus vote - like Muslims and Most Backward Castes- would fall in her kitty . Senior BSP leader RK Choudhary mocking at the ongoing political gimmicks says, All their efforts to encash Ambedkars name is going to fall flat as his followers are already aligned with the BSP and can see through their games. However BSPs job gets tougher with onslaught on her vote bank from all political quarters Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani has dismissed filmmakers accusing him of wielding the scissors and curbing their freedom of expression as attention seekers and habitual complainers. Nihalani, whose year-long tenure as CBFC chief has been rocked by controversies, told Hindustan Times in a telephone interview that producers who complain against the censor board do so for getting free publicity. Their motive is clear, they want free publicity. They take their fight to the media to create news, he said. Read: Nihalani says homosexuality not a subject for kids, teens The censor board chief recently locked horns with filmmaker Hansal Mehta over certification of the trailer of his upcoming film Aligarh, based on the life of Ramchandra Siras, a professor of Aligarh Muslim University who lost his job on account of his sexual orientation and who later committed suicide. While Mehta has questioned the A-certification given to Aligarhs trailer, Nihalani has retaliated that filmmakers are failing to adhere to the norms of censorship. Censor board recently gave an A-certification to the trailer of Aligarh based on the life of Ramchandra Siras, a professor of Aligarh Muslim University who lost his job on account of his sexual orientation and who later committed suicide. Film producers who are complaining about certification now have done so in the past as well. They dont follow the guidelines, then create trouble and go to court, he said, without taking names. Slammed for trying to impose a ban on the use of cuss words in films and more recently for shortening the length of kissing scenes in the James Bond movie Spectre, Nihalani said as a filmmaker he had no run-ins with the censor board because he understood the nuances of both filmmaking as well as self-censorship. Read: Films that faced the fury of censor board In my long career, I have never faced problems with the censor board while I was producing films. I fully understood what people wanted and had knowledge of the guidelines. I never created any controversies and all my movies passed smoothly, he said. Allegations against the Censor Board and the perception that it forces filmmakers to toe its line are exaggerated, he said. Indian cinema has turned 100 and all kinds of movies have been made. If 1-2% of the producers face problems, you cannot say the whole industry is facing problems. In the past one year, almost 70% of the movies that came to us were passed without a single cut. Read: How censor board gave James Bond some sanskaar Nihalani also denied that he has written to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to ensure film trailers released on the internet are vetted and certified. There were reports that following his intervention the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) had asked filmmakers of Kya Kool Hai Hum and Mastizaade to remove trailers from the internet, which had not been certified by the censor board. I will make suggestions to the government directly, when I have to, as I dont want to be seen interfering in the work of the Shyam Benegal committee that has been appointed. I have experience and I know what is good for producers, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON On the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival, we interviewed Ayesha Jalal, Saadat Hasan Mantos grandniece and the author of The Pity of Partition: Mantos Life, Times and Work Across the India-Pakistan Divide (HarperCollins India), on why the subcontinent is still in love with the life and works of the short story writer. Which is the kind of reader who likes to read Manto? The critical minded, the one who questions boundaries and wants to go beyond accepted parameters. Why was he such a monster for some people? Because he wrote about things you are not supposed to write about. You are not supposed to write about awkward subjects. He broke a lot of taboos. This sensibility, which was way ahead of its time, appeals to people in the subcontinent. His books were banned a number of times. How does Pakistan perceive Manto today? My book, with a title like Pity of Partition, got three awards in Pakistan. This is an indication of the change in mindsets. Nobody imagined that the Pakistani government would give him the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian honour in the country. But he has won it, albeit posthumously. Why do you think writers and filmmakers in India and Pakistan cannot get over their fascination with Manto? I dont want to be facetious, but one reason could be that he was not appropriated by either of the two states. He is a particular kind of thinker, the non-accepting type, a contrarian. Those of us, who are of that ilk, like Manto and find him and what he represented very interesting. Mantos life has inspired two movies on either side of the border. How do they compare? Nandita Dass film is yet to come. The film made in Pakistan begins with Manto getting electric shocks, which never happened. The film also focuses on a particularly gloomy, dark phase of his life, the fag end. I hope Nanditas film will be a little bit more accurate as a biopic and more comprehensive. She is focusing more on the days he spent in Bombay and Lahore, which are interconnected. The Maximum Chronicler: Manto with his family in Bombay. He wrote that he had many fond memories associated with the metropolis. (Photo courtesy: harpercollins India) He is also remembered as one of the best chroniclers of Bombay. What did the city mean to Manto? In his books he says that Bombay gave him his best friends. He made the most amount of money here. He had his first-born here. So, there were a lot of memories associated with the city and lots of things he loved Bombay for. But he also brought out the underbelly of the city In Mantos stories, Bombay is a microcosm of a much larger global or even a South Asian context. He discusses the prostitute for whom he had a heart and wrote about her with a lot of sympathy. He saw the bazaar as a kind of exchange and he thought it was hypocritical of men who visit the same prostitutes den and then one goes to the mosque and the other goes to a temple. You never met him in person. What did you discover about him while researching your granduncle? My memories of him are all received. But during the course of my book, I discovered things that nobody had told me. For instance, I was always told that Manto didnt like academics, that he was recalcitrant about studies. In a country like Pakistan, where there is rampant anti-intellectualism, it is common to say that Manto ne bhi toh kar liya na. He made it despite not finishing school. But the man I discovered in my research was tremendously well-read. He translated Victor Hugo and Guy de Maupassant and Russian authors. His stories did not come in from nowhere. He was great friends with literary icons such as Ismat Chugtai and Krishan Chander. His relationship with Upendranath Ashk, with whom he fought in the days when they worked with All India Radio, improved in the post-1947 scenario. Why does the character of Bishan Singh from Toba Tek Singh stand out in everybodys memory from Mantos wide body of work? He is a symbol of a person who hasnt reconciled to the idea of Partition. It is a feeling which thousands of people in India and Pakistan still share. Follow @Aasheesh74 on Twitter From HT Brunch, January 31, 2016 Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunch Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The visible aspect of the prolonged fracas between the three BJP-led municipal corporations in Delhi and the AAP-led state government has been the piling up of garbage in parts of the city-state after 60,000 sanitation workers struck work because their salaries and arrears have not been paid. Delhis denizens produce 10,000 tonnes of garbage every day so even a strike by its sanitation workers for a couple of days can make things odorous and messy. The less visible aspect has been its impact on people. The three corporations run 1,860 schools, which are attended by 1.2 million children, mostly poor. The strike by the corporation workers, which includes 18,000 teachers, has meant no school for those kids. And no school for these kids, many of whom come from severely under-privileged and under-nourished families, also means they get no free mid-day meal, often their only source of daily nutrition. The strike also affects badly Delhis poor and the very poor, whose need for healthcare and medical emergencies is met by six hospitals and 500 polyclinics and dispensaries run by the corporations, and whose 20,000 workers, including doctors, nurses and consultants, were also on strike for seven days before resuming work on the weekend. The average monthly salary of a corporation schoolteacher is Rs 30,000; that of a sanitation worker is Rs 20,000. When those salaries or arrears arent paid for three or four months it is easy to understand why you see poignant images of workers blocking traffic by lying on Delhis streets. The spat with the corporations is all about funds the BJP-ruled bodies blame the AAP-led state government for not releasing money to be able to meet their expenditure, including paying their workers salaries; and the state government says it has released funds but the corporations have mismanaged and misused those funds. Read: Civic strike called off but sanitation workers still unrelenting Unsurprisingly, this has got quickly politicised and has become another chapter in the ongoing (and often sordid) war between the Delhi government and the Centre. The state says the Centre doesnt allow it to function; the Centre says the state is trying to exceed its brief and get into areas that are beyond its legal domain. Unlike other states, the Delhi government is not empowered to deal with issues of law and order, land, and the appointment of civil servants areas that are the preserve of either the Centre or the lieutenant governor. It isnt merely adversarial politics that is at the root of the current spat over Delhis civic upkeep. After all, during the 15 years of a Congress-led regime in the state before AAP came to power, the civic bodies had been led by the BJP and although friction between the two wasnt uncommon, a crisis of the current proportion never occurred. There could be other reasons. Till 2011, Delhi had three statutory municipal bodies the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB). The NDMC, funded by the Centre, runs what is commonly known as Lutyens Delhi; and the DCB, in charge of the cantonment area, is under the purview of the defence ministry. In 2011, when the Congress was in power, the MCD was trifurcated into three north, south and east in a move that many think had political motives. After the split, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation emerged as the wealthiest (the revenue is from property taxes, parking lot collections, hoarding space rentals and so on), while the East and North Municipal Corporations werent so lucky. The inability to pay salaries and other dues has hit them the hardest. No longer able to dip into a common pool of revenue, both bodies have been feeling the pinch. Read: Indias cities are faced with a severe waste management crisis What has sharpened the current spat is the fact that elections to the corporations are scheduled for 2017 and both, AAP and the BJP, may be trying to leverage as much political capital out of the crisis. The problem is that the cost of that capital is being borne by Delhi and its citizens. Not so long ago Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal earned plaudits from Delhiites when he piloted an odd-even scheme to manage the citys traffic. Now he could receive their wrath. In a state where Indias capital sits, it may be in the interests of both AAP and the BJP to eschew politics and restore normalcy. For the sake of its citizens. The author is the editor-in-chief of Hindustan Times, and tweets as @sanjoynarayan Views expressed are personal. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON I was a year into journalism when I was packed off to Jodhpur on an assignment. After spending a few days in the blue city much of which was spent inside uninspiring government offices I decided to soak in the glorious winter sun. The first stop was the Umaid Bhawan Palace, an opulent golden-yellow sandstone edifice built between 1929 and 1943. The local contact regaled me with stories about the city, palace and the royal family, but today I remember only one: The palace was a result of an MGNREGS-type royal scheme. The maharaja commissioned it to ensure that farmers dont go hungry because of a long-drawn-out drought, he told me, as we walked up the Chittar Hills, on which the palace is built. I often remember this story when people question the efficacy of public programmes like the MGNREGS, which completed 10 years on February 2. Launched in 2006 by the UPA 1 at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, the scheme has not been an unqualified success. Yet in the 10 years, it has generated 9.86 billion person-days of employment, benefiting 276 million workers. More than half the jobs went to women workers and almost a third to SC/STs. There has been many other downstream effects but more of that later. Its a pity, however, that the NDA initially did not give much support to the scheme and it lost steam in the last two years. Last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the scheme as a living monument of the failure of the successive Congress governments. His vehemence surprised me because political wisdom says that such safety nets are always popular with voters. In the last two Budgets, the NDA did not increase the allocation for the programme. Not much time and effort was spent on improving the wage payments. There was also a lot of criticism of the quality of assets that were being created. But many of us let out a sigh of relief when finance minister Arun Jaitley recently cleared the air on the funding of the scheme and termed it as another engine that will pull the Indian economy towards higher growth. Jaitley said: The NDA has not followed the practice of making higher provisions and later cutting it. I think this would be the first year when the Rs 34,000-35,000 crore which was allocated have not only been spent fully, but also some more resources could be given to MGNREGA. Many have attributed the NDAs sudden change of heart to three developments largely: Rural distress, bad monsoon and the need to improve its pro-poor outreach. Whatever it is, this interest in the scheme has led to a tussle with the Congress on the ownership of the scheme. While Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has taken potshots at the government, the NDA has claimed that it has brought a transformation in the rural job guarantee scheme, which was in a pitiable state under the UPA due to frequent curtailing of funds. While the Congress must be given due recognition for rolling out the scheme, it is true that it did lose steam during UPA2. The reason could be the Congress, at that point of time, was under tremendous political pressure from all sides and started doubting the effectiveness of the scheme that it so carefully nurtured. But the fact that there is a rebound in demand for work is a good sign and the NDA must grab the chance. The coalition must be commended for its positive attitude towards the scheme and the fact that it is putting the welfare of millions, especially marginalised women, ahead of politics. It is now over to the Congress to let the government run the programme the way it wants to but also keep an eye on the implementation of the scheme. Coming back to the positives of the scheme, there are enough of them for the NDA to implement in letter and spirit and then enjoy its political returns. In the last 10 years, the scheme has been credited for pushing up farm wages, productivity and gender empowerment. In fact, for many women, the MGNREGS has been the first opportunity in their lives to earn cash income. One such woman is Bhanumati. I met her during a trip to Bundelkhand, a perpetually drought-stricken area. Despite the drought, we decided to stay back thanks to money coming from the MGNREGS, she told me. Bhanumati, who is illiterate, added that she uses her wages to fund her childrens education and medical emergencies even though she complained bitterly that wages dont reach them on time always. Bhanumatis story the impact of her wages on her childrens future was corroborated in a study conducted by the ministry of rural development and the National Council of Applied Economic Research in 2015. The study, which involved over 26,000 rural households, showed that children from MGNREGS households were likely to obtain higher levels of educational attainment than their non-MGNREGS peers, and were less likely to be working. That puzzle why did the rural poor engage with the MGNREGS despite the knowledge that payments were frequently delayed, and often truncated? motivated Indrajit Roy, research fellow at Wolfson College, Department of International Development, University of Oxford, to research the scheme. His study, based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with 200 labourers, their agricultural employers and bureaucrats in West Bengal, Bihar and Gujarat (none of the three states are exemplary MGNREGS states) revealed that workers opt for the scheme for a number of complex reasons. First, said Roy, MGNREGS provides workers with what they perceive to be dignified employment. I met labourers who choose to work for the MGNREGS instead of for farmers who practise caste discrimination. Second, although labourers continue to migrate to cities and other prosperous rural areas in search of employment, working on the MGNREGS reduces their desperation for cash. Third, the programme allows self-selection rather than being selected through tests. This, Roy said, makes the rural poor confident that the State cares for them. Moreover, they look up to the State, not in the conventional mai-baap sort of way, but as a provider of work. Last, and I think this is a key one, they have a clearly articulated expectation that the MGNREGS is meant for poor people. They are able to demand work and wages because of this widespread expectation. Such expectations enhance poor peoples leverage with politicians, especially at panchayat level. I hope the NDA does not lose sight of these while finalising the financial allocation for the scheme in this Budget. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Yahoo, BlackBerry, Nokia. Names that old spelt magic are today synonyms for trouble and mockery in corporate gossip. Last week, Yahoo said it would close offices in five locations, and consider strategic alternatives for its core internet business (mostly e-mail, some content sites and a doddering search engine). In plain English, that means a sale. This is the same Yahoo that had spurned offers from Microsoft and the like. The web pioneer of the 1990s has fallen on bad days, and its shares are down 36% over the past year. Marissa Mayer, who joined as CEO from Google in 2012, is in trouble. The company makes money from ads, but really has no unique selling proposition left. Let us now turn to BlackBerry, once a status symbol among corporate executives worldwide. It has been eating humble pie after the arrival of the iPhone and its competing Android versions, and above all the policy of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies in companies worldwide. Last week there was news that it laid off 200 employees in Canada and the US. BlackBerry, humbler than Yahoo perhaps, had junked its own operating system last year to launch an Android phone, but it was probably a case of too little, too late. The latest problem is that its Android phone, Priv is priced for the Indian market at Rs 62,990. I do not want to go into its gee-whiz features, because the price seems so disproportionately expensive to so many people. In the US, the Priv is priced at $749, the same as a 64-GB iPhone 6S. Sorry, but a slide-out keyboard and curved screen simply doesnt justify the high price, the respected Fortune.com said in a report. Nokia sold out its mobile business after much wrangle in 2013 to Microsoft that integrated its Lumia brand with the Finnish partners name. Thousands of Nokia employees have been laid off since and the entire purchase amount of $7.6 billion has been written off. The next launch will be of just a Lumia. Nokia as a brand is gone in the mobile business. Yahoo was a search leader but Google beat it, and then it lost the e-mail crown as well. BlackBerrys specialisation was corporate security but it lost the plot in being a consumer brand that has become an also-ran. Nokia was burnt because its Symbian platform was beaten by Android and iOS. Its early leadership lay in it being a platform product. The lessons from these three companies is clear: A brand cannot survive in a position of leadership unless it changes the product underneath not in features but in category itself. This is at least true of the internet era, where businesses can be remodelled and information travels at the speed of a mouse-click or a tweet. Brand arrogance has no place, it seems. Apple, in contrast, cruises ahead because it latches itself on to emerging new categories -- from home computer to music players to smartphones to tablets to what in the emerging future may be smart watches and even electric cars. (The views expressed by the author are personal.) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Wo pareshan karte rahe, hum kaam karte rahe (they kept putting hurdles, we kept performing) the Aam Aadmi Party government plastered this slogan on giant billboards across the Capital a few months back. The catchy phrase summarised one year of the Arvind Kejriwal government that was sworn in on February 14 last year, a roller-coaster 12 months that have seen bitter political wrangling between the city government and the Centre, repeated public spats between the chief minister and the lieutenant governor and a bureaucracy hamstrung between the two. Opponents may have termed the advertisement political and accused the AAP of spending public money for promotions but the slogan mirrored the tone of the Kejriwal government that the Centre was determined to not let the city administration succeed. At the centre of the fight was Delhis unique constitutional position. The city graduated to a partial state from a Union territory in 1993 when it got a legislative assembly. The public showdowns between the Delhi secretariat and the L-Gs office fuelled the biggest political demand in the city full statehood. Read | Delhi needs strong governance model based on clear chain of command But unlike earlier times when the issue would be fanned during elections and be quickly buried afterwards, the AAP government kept the demand alive through its first 12 months in power, its voice only getting shriller with passing time. The constant tug-of-war over administrative jurisdiction, control over police and other civic agencies like the municipal corporations and the Delhi Development Authority bear witness to the prolonged political tussle. The Delhi high court is hearing a bunch of PILs and writ petitions on related issues. However, AAP leaders deny that their actions are aimed at making a case for full statehood a key poll promise. Our sole aim has been to deliver despite the obstacles put up by the central government. The results are for all to see, a senior AAP leader said. Sources said the tension between the Centre and AAP government escalated after the Delhi Police filed a kidnapping case in May last year against a team of the Anti-Corruption Branch Kejriwals flagship project that arrested a Delhi Police head constable on charges of extorting money from a scrap dealer. The incident, as described by a senior party leader, was symbolic of attempts to blunt the anti-corruption resolve of the governmentthe plank on which AAP rode to a crushing victory and wanted to deliver on its promises. Janlokpal Bill However, the ruling party faced criticism for tabling the JanLokpal Bill nearly nine months after sweeping back to power with a brute majority. Arvind Kejriwal had quit during its first stint after 49 days as they were not allowed to table the bill in Delhi assembly on technical grounds. Many political opponents, including former party leaders such as Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, accused the government of diluting the bill as compared to the draft that was prepared during the janlokpal movement, and one that was AAP government tried to table in assembly in 2014. Read | AAP workers raise concerns over disconnect within party, MCD polls The bill was finally cleared in Delhi assembly last year with amendments of clauses dealing with the selection committee of the Janlokpal and impeachment process. But Ashish Talwar, Kejriwals political adviser, insisted the time taken to introduce the bill was a non-issue. When people say that the government tabled the bill in assembly 2014 within 49 days, they conveniently forget we were running against time as the model code of conduct for the general elections could have set in anytime, Talwar said. Swaraj Budget One of the biggest political pitches of the AAP government has been to introduce new models of governance, one among them being to decentralise power and increase peoples participation in decision making. Swaraj Bill, which aimed to do so, is still to be tabled in the assembly. AAP leaders say while the bill will be cleared in Assembly in due course, the state government has already implemented the idea on the ground through successful implementation of the Swaraj Budget participatory budgeting where eligible voters choose development project at mohalla sabhas. Development projects worth Rs 220 crore were decided by citizens last fiscal. This year, participatory budgeting would be done across the 70 assembly seats. Rs 20 crore will be allocated to each assembly seat, an AAP functionary said. Multiply that amount to a period of next four years. It will be area residents who would be taking a call on projects worth hundreds of crores, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Ahead of the assembly elections in Delhi last year, the war cry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) revolved around bijli and paani (electricity and water). After a year in office, the government led by Arvind Kejriwal would have found that slashing power tariff was the easier job than delivering on the promise of providing piped water to lakhs of families across areas that have been living off private and government water tankers for decades. But many believe that the government has at least made a start with the Delhi Jal Board starting the process of laying pipelines in over 20 colonies of the city-state. Not a single election has gone by when politicians have not offered us permanent water connections but this is the first time we are seeing some work done. But we will wait for the water to come to us before we judge the AAP, said Ramhit Mondal, 76, who has been living in J block of Sangam Vihar for the past 20 years. The next big challenge is to provide people with 20 kilolitres of water per household per month, one of AAPs major pre-poll promises. The government is already providing free water to around 7 lakh households. The government had faced severe criticism for the free water scheme when it was notified in March last year and naysayers had predicted a fall in the utilitys revenue because of the `23.3-crore subsidy. The DJB, however, managed to declare an increase in revenue. The DJB has earned Rs 178 crore more in 2015 as compared to the previous year, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said. Among the happy people are residents in several parts of Dwarka which received water from the Munak canal in 2015. The situation on the ground has improved tremendously. 70%-80% of the problem has been resolved because of water from the canal. Water tankers have all but disappeared from Dwarka roads, said Diwan Singh, a Dwarka resident who has been working on water issues in Delhi. The challenge, however, expected to get tougher with more people being brought under the DJB umbrella. The AAPs election manifesto had promised water and sewage connection to lakhs of households in the next four years. Apart from the huge cost involved, the challenge of getting enough water for the entire city is also very big. According to water utility officials, the increasing number of users and plugging water and revenue loss are integral to all the promises being fulfilled. Still, DJB chairperson Kapil Mishra thinks the first year has been a success. Our biggest challenge and achievement was making those water treatment plants functional that had been lying closed for years. Secondly, our tackling of the water situation in summers, Mishra said. The governments focus in the coming two years will be to get water to every household, he said adding that cleaning up the Yamuna is also high on the agenda. Teachers and engineers of Delhis three civic bodies ended their strike on Saturday but the citys woes appeared far from over as sanitation workers vowed to continue their agitation which has seen mounds of garbage pile up by the capitals streets. The decision came a day after doctors had called off their agitation launched on January 27 by workers of the north and east municipal corporations to protest non-payment of salaries. Workers of south corporation later joined the agitation in a show of solidarity. The agitation has turned into a major face-off between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the BJP-ruled civic bodies over the issue of funds. While the civic bodies have accused the state government of releasing less funds, the government had blamed corruption civic bodies as the reason for the fund crisis. Sources said that five of the 30 unions of municipal workers are now ready to get back to work. Classes in nearly 1,800 municipal schools will also resume on Monday after the teachers agreed to rejoin duty. Our main demand was payment of our salaries, which has been assured by the commissioner. Also, the L-G has assured us about constitution of a committee to look into re-unification of the corporations, said Ram Niwas Solanki, general secretary, Municipal Corporation Teachers Association. Officials said the commissioners of north and east civic bodies have directed the zonal deputy commissioners and heads of department to ensure that their staff rejoins duty as salaries have been disbursed. A list of the employees not performing their duties will be forwarded by the officials to the additional commissioner (labour) so that it could be submitted before the high court, the officials said. The Delhi high court, while hearing a PIL for calling off the strike on Friday, had sought responses from the corporations and the workers unions in the matter. All 30 unions representatives have to be present for the hearing. The striking sanitation workers, however, condemned the decision by several unions to withdraw the strike and claimed that they were under political pressure to give up. It has come to our notice that several associations have called off the strike. But we have received support from several members of those associations claiming that their office-bearers have been motivated due to personal reasons. We will continue to protest and even appear before the high court on Monday to put forward our problems, said Rajesh Mishra, president, United Front of MCD Employees. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government is planning to come out with a one-year report card at a public function on February 14 to highlight its performance so far. The government, apart from releasing a booklet of its achievements during the event, will also seek suggestions from the audience on issues related to governance in the national capital. Delhi governments entire cabinet, led by the chief minister himself, will be present at the public interaction. The venue is yet to be decided, but its likely to be held somewhere in central Delhi. The final blueprint of the event will be decided after the chief minister returns from Bengaluru on Sunday, a government official said. The Aam Aadmi Party government had organised a similar event at Central Park in Connaught Place earlier to showcase its achievements after the first 100 days in power in May 2015. Sources said the Delhi government has already directed the information and publicity department to collect information about the achievements and major decisions undertaken from all important departments and print a booklet highlighting the same. The publicity department is also planning to come out with a lot of advertisements in the run up to the governments one-year anniversary on February 15. The police team probing the death of six-year-old Divyansh Kakrora Class I student of Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj is investigating if the child was murdered or accidentally drowned in the water tank. Divyanshs father Ramhet Meena, on Saturday filed a police complaint, copies of which he also forwarded to the Union ministry of human resource development and the home ministry and demanded a CBI probe. Meena has raised 26 unanswered questions related to his sons death in his complaint. Meena has told the police that he had allegedly noticed a cotton swab on his sons private part that he said suggested sexual assault. The father, however, denied having noticed any injuries on the private parts of Divyansh. The father told HT that there were several other loopholes in the events that led to his sons death that needed to be probed. Why was my son carrying his lunch box with him when he accidentally drowned in the water tank? Also, he should have been wearing shoes when his body was fished out, Meena said. The family said that on the first day, the police informed them that they had retrieved Divyanshs lunch box, bag and shoes from the tank after draining out the water. Is it possible for a child to remove his shoes and then accidentally fall into the water? Even if he went for a dip, why would he carry his lunch box inside with him, Meena said. He added that the boys bag was, however, found in the classroom. The police, after fishing out the lunch box, had asked the family what they had packed for the boy on the morning of the incident. We told the police that he had taken stuffed paratha for lunch that morning. Police retrieved the lunch box from the tank along with the food, Divyanshs uncle Rajendra told HT. The family has also not been able to understand why their child would crawl all the way to the water tank. Divyansh, according to his uncle, was about 4 feet tall, while the path leading to the tank is just around 3 feet. Why would he take his lunch box if he wanted to crawl, Rajendra said. Police investigation has also revealed that the construction site plan of the school does not include the amphitheatre area and water tank, where the child was supposedly found dead. DCP (south) Prem Nath, who is monitoring the investigation, said the arrest of five people, including the school principal, did not mean that the probe was complete. Doctors believe that the child died of asphyxia. The doctors also showed the body of the child to his parents and told them that there were no visible external injury marks on the body. We are waiting for the post-mortem report before more sections can be added, Nath said. The government has called a meeting of the vice chancellors of all central universities this month to discuss how to end possible discrimination on campus against socially disadvantaged students. The meeting between education minister Smriti Irani and the heads of 46 universities on February 18 comes after the suicide by Dalit Phd student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad last month, which triggered a national outcry over alleged social discrimination on campus. The Opposition is expected to raise Vemulas death in the Budget session of Parliament beginning February 23, and Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreyas alleged role in prompting Hyderabad university authorities to suspend Vemula, a Dalit students leader. Following Vemulas death, Irani had promised steps to ensure there was no social discrimination in universities. This meeting is a follow-up of the January meeting, a government official said, adding it will discuss the University Grants Commissions 2012 regulation on promotion of equity in higher education institutions. Experts say on-campus discrimination against socially disadvantaged students remains hidden in plain sight. Subtle discrimination is taking place in universities across the country. Students from the deprived section of the society dont get equal treatment from the faculty and fellow students too which alienates them further, said Rahul Sonpimple of the Birsa Phule Ambedkar Student Association at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Many leave mid-way while others dont opt for Masters. The environment in the universities is also not conducive and Dalit students feel uncomfortable. This, in part, may explain the governments struggle to ensure sustained enrolment of socially disadvantaged students in higher education. An analysis of government figures shows a sharp dip in the rate of growth in enrolment of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in higher education over the past four years. A community-wise gross enrolment ratio (GER) the ratio of the youth in universities and colleges compared to the total number of youth in higher education age group of 18 to 23 years reveals how fewer SCs and STs were getting into colleges. Only 18 of every 100 SC youth made it to college in 2014-15 against a national average of 23.6. For scheduled tribes, the ratio was much lower at 13.3, underlining the skewed employment opportunities for the socially and economically disadvantaged. The survey covered 33.3 crore students who had enrolled in colleges and universities, including about 45 lakh SC and 16 lakhs ST youth in 2014-15. Nidhin Shobhana, programme associate of National campaign on Dalit human Rights, said the real picture was much worse since the enrolment ratio did not capture the higher drop-out rate of people from the weaker sections. And it will not improve unless universities take affirmative action to retain them, he said, calling it a big worry since education was the gateway to better job opportunities. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The government, on Saturday, rubbished as false and baseless the allegation of senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during his Christmas day visit. There are certain statements in a section of press that prime accused in serial blasts in Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim, was also present during Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on December 25, 2015. These statements are baseless, unfounded and totally false, an official spokesperson said, reacting to Khans claim. While BJP attacked Khan, even a Congress spokesperson attached no importance to his comment, saying it cannot be believed. Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors? Khan claimed. He said that besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Ministers residence when he went there on December 25 last year. BJPs Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to immediately dismiss the minister. If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and brining shame to the nation. I am shocked, he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said, he said adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. Bengaluru police arrested the vice-chancellor of a private university in Bangalore for allegedly raping a 33-year-old woman. We have arrested Madhukar G Angur on Friday night on a complaint by the victims mother, who charged him with sexually abusing her daughter over a period, deputy commissioner of police (southeast) MB Boraingaiah told IANS. Angur (55), a divorcee, is the vice-chancellor of Alliance University, set up in 2010 at Anekal on the citys southern outskirts. The victim is the accuseds niece, who has been working in the universitys administrative office since 2011. As the complaint is filed by her mother, who is his sister, we are interrogating them and others in the family, Boralingaiah said. Based on the written complaint, a first information report (FIR) has been registered against the accused under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to the complaint, the victim and the accused have been in relationship for a couple of years as Angur had promised to marry her but betrayed. The victims mother said her daughter went into depression and is under counselling to recover from the trauma of betrayal and deceit by the accused, the IPS officer added. The accused also threatened the victim against complaining to the police or anyone else and blackmailed her mother with threats to expose their family. A student of a private school in Ranchi was found murdered on Friday after possibly being subjected to sexual abuse by one of his teachers, police said. The seventh grader at Sapphire International School was found by some teachers at 1:30 am before he succumbed to injuries at a hospital later. The CBSE affiliated residential-cum-day school is located 20 kms from Ranchi and has around 400 students, mostly from well-off families. The police are investigating into every possible angle including a teachers involvement in sexual harassment and murder. We have collected the evidences (that) prima facie suggest that boy might have been subjected to sexual abuse, said Hatia additional superintendent of police Prashant Anand. Police recovered the undergarments of the student from the room of the suspect teacher. The boys father, a businessman at a village near Ranchi, alleged before media persons that his son resisted the teachers sexual advances and was killed. Hang him or hand him over to me, he said. In the first information report (FIR) lodged with the Tupudana police station earlier, the father had alleged that he found his sons body with a large injury marks on his face at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science. He said that school management informed him that his son had fever and sustained injury after he fell. The management also said that he would get well soon. However, when I reached RIMS I found my son dead on a stretcher, Mahto said. School chairperson Rohit Sahu said that the institution was cooperating with the police. We have given the CCTV footage to the police to find out how the boy died, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has planned to develop a comprehensive online database of fingerprints of criminals and convicts from every state by 2017, a project that will help improve investigation and prosecution all over the country. NCRB inspector general Raja Srivastava and deputy inspector general ID Shukla explained that the data will help conduct investigation into inter-state crimes more effectively and accurately, and at a greater speed. Fingerprints gathered from crime scenes have been an integral and effective part of investigation for the past 100 years across the world. In India, its a challenging task for investigators to fish out fingerprints of criminals which often get lost or lay hidden in piles of files in police stations because no attempt has been made to put them in one database. Officials of the NCRB, the central agency responsible for collecting and analyzing crime data, discussed a blueprint for developing a database at the recent annual national conference of directors of fingerprint bureaus in Bhopal. The data will be connected to the Criminal and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), a nationwide integrated online system conceived after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks to track crimes and offenders. An intricate mechanism will be at work to ensure fingerprints of all criminals in the country are just a mouse click away for investigators and prosecutors. Simply put, states will exchange data, modern labs will sort and analyze them, these will then be fed into the automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS) and CCTNS, and the information can be later accessed on computer screens. A working group of states, comprising Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, was formed to carry out the technicalities. Another group will oversee strategic planning and administrative matters, including deployment of staff. Both groups will submit a report by February 29. Fingerprint experts will be sent abroad to study latest techniques in coordination with the Union government. The death toll in the mishap involving a Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) bus at Navsari in South Gujarat has gone up to 41, police said on Saturday. Among the dead are 21 women, five children and 15 men, they said. The Gujarat government announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the next of the kin of each of the deceased. The government will bear the entire cost for the treatment of the injured, Navsari collector Ramiya Mohan told PTI. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel was visiting Navsari on Saturday afternoon to meet the 27 injured, who are admitted in four different hospitals there, the collector said. Death toll has risen to 41 in yesterdays mishap where a Gujarat State Transport bus plunged into Purna river near Supa village, said Navsari rural Police Inspector and investigating officer in the case S B Sheikh. According to police, the accident occurred when the bus took a sharp turn on a bridge with a width of 23 feet while trying to avoid collision with a four-wheeler coming from the opposite side. The bus was running at a high speed when it had to take a sharp turn to avoid collision with a vehicle coming from the other side and the driver lost control over the steering. It hit the railing of the bridge and broke it to plunge into the river, said Sheikh. The bus was on its way to Ukai from Navsari last evening when it fell 20 feet down into the Purna river. A total of 68 persons were travelling in the bus and of most of them were daily commuters on the route, Sheikh said. Read | 37 killed as bus plunges into river in Gujarat An Islamic State sympathiser has been arrested by NIA officials for allegedly planning terror attacks in the country. Abdus Sami Qasmi, a resident of Seelampur in Delhi, was arrested from Uttar Pradeshs Hardoi district on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation into the conspiracy to form a terror organisation and to launch terror attacks in the country, NIA officials said. Qasmi was produced before a NIA court in New Delhi on Saturday which sent him to 10 day police custody. According to the NIA, Abdus Sami has been delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches in the support of Caliphate. He has launched a few websites wherein his speeches have been uploaded. Abdus Sami has been allegedly instigating and motivating youth for anti-national activities and has visited various parts of the country in order to deliver his Takreer and Bayaan (speech and statement), the NIA officials said. He runs a trust and madrassas and some of his financial transactions in this connection have allegedly been found to be of suspicious nature and the same are under investigation, they said. Abdus Sami was arrested on Friday by the NIA with the active support of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad yesterday. A non-bailable warrant against him had earlier been issued by the Special NIA court in New Delhi. A retired army personnel has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his three daughters and making an attempt on his wifes life in Nagla Deepa village of Mathura in 2013. Additional district judge ID Dubey awarded the punishment to the convict on Friday and imposed a fine of Rs 30,000. According to the prosecution, the convict shot his daughters aged seven, five and three years, who were playing outside their house in Nagla Deepa village in 2013. When the mother attempted to save the girls, she was also shot at by the convict. Assistant government counsel Virendra Lavania said two of the girls died on the spot, while the third succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. The convicts wife and mother turned hostile during the course of the trial, Lavania said. But the court convicted the man on the basis of circumstantial evidence. President Pranab Mukherjee conducted a fleet review of the Indian Navy ships amid a glittering ocean off Vizag shore on Saturday. The President, embarked on the INS Sumitra, inspected the fleet along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from INS Sumitra, an off shore patrol vessel. The upper deck of the ship has been modified to accommodate President Muhkerjee , PM Modi and other VVIPs. INS Sunayna, with the media onboard, was fourth in the column of ships behind the presidents yacht. The fleet review was to have 71 of Indian Navys ships lined up, including both aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya and INS Virat. Glimpses from the International Fleet Review. pic.twitter.com/qfimF8XIuT PMO India (@PMOIndia) February 6, 2016 However, INS Virat will be retiring soon. Around 50 navies and 24 foreign ships were participants in the International Fleet Review, the second to be held by India and largest military exercise hosted by the country so far. We shared many things: A Mumbai local train, jokes and mirchi-wali roti. But I am sad that I could not meet Sudhir Tailang in his last year of life, despite his being only a mile away from where I lived. We met in the training room of the Times of India, Mumbai, then Bombay. He had joined six months earlier as a trainee journalist in Hindi, while I was an English language trainee. As it turned out, his cartooning skills were so good that the establishment suggested he become a Trainee Cartoonist. I dont recall there ever being another trainee cartoonist anywhere. He took to the task with delight--and the task of being a Hindi cartoonist (Do cartoons have language?) in the same company and floor as the venerable R K Laxman was a daunting one. But Sudhir took up the challenge with a dedication that never left him. We talked news and cartoons a lot. Myself from Delhi and he from Bikaner were both lost souls in the mangled urban wilderness of Bombay, struggling to put ourselves into its machine-like routines. We both would squeeze into the Harbour Line local train from the Kings Circle station. We simply could not get into the Central Line. Inside the crowd, we would discuss everything under the sun, but his passion for cartooning was often a theme. Later, we both shifted to the Delhi office of the same company. Being a cartoonist for Navbharat Times, he had the luxury of a corner cabin, where we would meet for quiet lunches from our tiffin boxes. It was during those days that he announced he wanted to create a character resembling Laxmans Common Man. Hum usko journalist banate hain, jholewala, he said. So a jhola journalist was born in his cartoons as an observer of the world around him. As it turned out, he fashioned it after Sushil, one of his goatee-bearded journalist friends who used to drop by. Somewhere along his career, the jhola journalist character disappeared, perhaps in keeping with the waning of the stereotype. One day he showed some mirchi-ki-roti, a Bikaner special item that was somewhat crunchy. You could make it a meal or a tea-time snack, he said, but best had with tea. Then he would take me to the Inter State Bus Terminus because thats where you could get a thali that reminded him of home. Then he got married, and I attended his wedding in a far corner of Delhi. The girl was a student-admirer he fell in love with. His passion showed everywhere. (There was one particular incident where he roped in a friend to pose as Mani Shankar Aiyer, who was then a diplomat close to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and rang up to meet me. I thought there was something interesting for a journalist and turned up to meet Mr Aiyer at his home early in the morning only to be told by an annoyed Aiyer that somebody had been playing a prank by sending people to meet him. I caught Sudhir out because someone had told me the internal office extension sounded two rings, and I now knew it was not an external call. I observed Sudhirs movements and the grin on his face and knew it was him). Suddenly, he left Navbharat Times to become an English language cartoonist, and we lost direct touch but his work was everywhere. His works were particularly noticed in the Hindustan Times and then the Asian Age. He prepared to switch to English for a wider audience, and surprised us with his increasingly smooth English captions that were clearly an acquired skill. The boy who would look up with envy to Laxman was suddenly in the same league--certainly for someone so young. We would meet now and then socially but time flew as we moved in different professional orbits. Social media brought us together again, and we were chatting on Twitter decades later, like old times. I had hoped that I would release a book of my political verses with his sketches. Alas, that was not to be. One day, I heard he had a cancerous growth. As I got caught up in some stuff, I tried to raise some help for him by hollering out on Twitter, but clearly, it was time to go. It is my deep regret I could not see him in his last days. I hope his soul somewhere up there forgives me, the way I forgave his prank. Though I never told him I had actually been fooled by him. Tailangs cremation will be held at 2 pm at the Lodhi crematorium, Delhi, on Sunday, February 7. (Narayanan Madhavan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times.) ABVP leader Nandanam Susheel Kumar, who has been accused of abetting suicide of Rohith Vemula, on Friday said that the Dalit scholar could have ended his life over personal issues as his suicide note did not mention a specific reason for the extreme step. Susheel Kumar also said that he was ready to face punishment if found guilty. Rohith was not a weak person, who could have lost his heart at the suspension (by the Hyderabad Central University). There could have been some personal and particular reasons behind his suicide, Susheel Kumar told reporters in a press conference in Mumbai. Let there be a free and fair inquiry...maybe judicial or other. If I am found guilty, then I am ready to face punishment, he said. But I want to ask why there has been so much of over-reaction to this particular suicide case only. HCU witnessed over 12 suicides in the last seven to eight years. Why are people being so selective about this particular case alone, Kumar said. I did not have any personal issues with Rohith, there were only ideological differences, Kumar said in response to a query. Rohith and other members assaulted me and I was grievously injured, following which I landed in a hospital and also underwent an appendicitis surgery, he claimed. Rohith, whose body was found hanging in a hostel room on January 17, was among the five research scholars, who were suspended by the HCU in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of alleged assault on Susheel Kumar. Rohiths suicide note has nowhere mentioned that he was committing suicide for any particular reason...action should be initiated against the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) and Students Federation of India (SFI) leaders as certain lines of the suicide note implicate them, he alleged. Lashing out at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury over their visit to the HCU campus in the wake of suicide, Kumar accused them of fueling Dalit vs non-Dalit atmosphere. They are visiting campus with an attempt to politicise an unfortunate death in university in the name of consoling the bereaved family. But why are they criticising only for the sake of it? Why are they ignoring the core issues? he asked. Replying to a query, Kumar said, (Union minister) Bandaru Dattatreya might have written a letter to university, but AIMIM leaders had also come on the campus and ignited the issue. He said political parties should have limited interference in the day-to-day affairs of academic institutions. With the campaign for allowing women inside the inner sanctum of Shani Shignapur temple in Maharashtra gaining momentum, the shrine authorities and activists held a round of positive talks mediated by the district collector, with both sides expecting chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to take the process forward. After an hour-long dialogue, the campaign leader Trupti Desai of the Bhumata Brigade said the meeting was positive and looked forward to a decision to break the centuries-old gender discrimination at the famous shrine. Desais outfit had led a high-voltage march to the temple in Ahmednagar district on Republic Day but it was halted by authorities at the Supa village, about 70 km from the temple town. Talking to reporters after the meeting attended by district authorities, temple trustees and Bhumata Brigade members; collector Anil Kavade said he appealed to the activists not to disrupt peace by taking law into their hands and urged both the parties to reach an amicable decision. The government is of the opinion that it is in the best interest of the devotees that the activists and the temple authority discuss the matter and arrive at a decision. The chief minister has taken note of the matter and wants it to be resolved at the earliest, Kavade said. The CM is keen to take the matter ahead and whatever suggestion is given by him, it shall be taken into account and a decision could be reached amicably, he added. Keen to avoid a showdown, Fadnavis had favoured a dialogue between temple authorities and activists to find a way out over the ban on entry of women into the inner sanctum of the shrine, maintaining that women have a right to pray. The temple trust had last month appointed a woman as its chairperson. The discussions were positive and we put forward our The discussions were positive and we put forward our views. The collector will be sending report to the chief minister, who we think is with us on the issue, Desai told reporters. The talks have been positive. We had no intention of launching any sort of an agitation. We respect the law. We were compelled to take up the satyagarh (protest of January 26)...and as far as next weeks protest is concerned, we will not carry it as of now and will wait for some solution, she said. Sayaram Bankar, one of the trustees of the temple, also termed the discussions as positive and said now the ball is in the chief ministers court Meanwhile, Shani Shignapur temple trust chairperson Sunita Shete said the issue was not about any personal rivalry but faith. We want the issue to be resolved through talks without hurting religious sentiments, she said. The meeting was attended by 11 trustees, district collector and a couple of members of Bhumata Brigade, including Desai. The Karnataka government has suspended a senior police official in connection with the alleged assault and stripping of a Tanzanian woman student, even as African students staged a rally over the incident in Bengaluru on Saturday. Assistant commissioner of police AN Pise of Yeshwanthpur division has been suspended for dereliction of duty, police commissioner NS Megharikh said, a day after Tanzanian high commissioner John WH Kijazi and external affairs ministry officials flew in to meet state officials and the African students. With this, six policemen an ACP, an inspector and four constables have been suspended, Megharikh said. On a mission to build confidence among African students some 10,000 students from Africa study at the various colleges in the city the Tanzanian envoy had backed the steps taken by the government in connection with the incident on Sunday. We are very much impressed with the action already taken, Kijazi had said, dismissing the talk about racism. Read | Bengaluru Police ask Tanzanian woman to switch off phone, not comment Nine persons have been arrested in connection with the incident in which a 21-year-old Tanzanian woman faced mob fury after a Sudanese man allegedly driving in an inebriated state had struck a couple, killing a woman on the spot. Police, however, have maintained it was a case of mistaken identity and not racism. Meanwhile, in a show of solidarity for the group of students attacked by the mob, around 200 African students stood in silent protest at Town Hall on Saturday morning. A blood donation drive to sensitise Indians to the plight of African students has also been planned in March. The Same Blood Campaign is an initiative of Federation of International Students Association Bangalore and Just Practicals a skill development start-up offering practical, job-relevant training to African and international students in Bengaluru. The event, planned in March, is aimed at sensitising the local populace to African students and to drive a sense of harmony and togetherness, Just Practicals said in a statement. People need to understand the differences and the similarities as it is the same blood and the same race that is donating this blood, said Prince Nkita, a student from the Republic of Congo. Read | Tanzanian woman was not stripped, attack not racist: Karnataka minister It is not known whether chief minister Mamata Banerjee is a skillful chess player, but over the past few weeks, she has been making deft pre-election moves. In September last year, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) heavyweight Harka Bahadur Chettri (MLA from Kalimpong) walked out of Bimal Gurungs outfit and pledged his support to Mamata Banerjee. Abdur Rezzak Mollah, the redoubtable land minister of CPI(M) is also going to join her in a few days and prominent Muslim leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury is dying to fight the elections with support from the Trinamool Congress. And on Friday, Mamata Banerjee staged another coup: eight central committee members of the GJM quit the party, saying that they would support the ruling party in Dooars, Terai and Siliguri areas. All these Trinamool moves come even as the Congress and the Left are talking of an alliance against the Trinamool. In the 2011 Assembly polls the Left secured 41.05% of the votes while the Congress bagged 8.91%. The Trinamool Congress secured 39.08% of the votes and rode to power. It is apparent from this poll arithmetic that Mamata Banerjee has reason to worry if the Congress-Left alliance becomes a reality and hence the lookout for any support that could come the Trinamool way. On Friday, eight central committee members of the GJM formed the Dooars, Siliguri, Terai Bhartiya Nepali Development Forum and held a meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat. Significantly, over the past few years, a number of opposition MLAs and leaders have joined the Trinamool Congress, strengthening the chief ministers hands. From Udayan Guha in Cooch Behar to Rabindranath Chatterjee in Katwa, these leaders will add significant votes to the Trinamool kitty. Last year, the Trinamool orchestrated a coup of sorts when Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chettri left the GJM and formed Jan Andolan Party. Soon after, he began publicly praising the CMs efforts to develop the backward Hills. While the Hills are a prestige issue for the chief minister, she may be scoring some real political points by winning over minority faces such as Siddiqullah Chowdhury and Abdur Rezzak Mollah. On January 11, both Chowdhury and Mollah met the chief minister at the state secretariat. The minorities had stood by the Trinamool Congress in the parivartan vote of 2011. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has at last taken a first step towards creating a gender-friendly development plan for the city, which includes hostels for working women, single women and women in distress, child-care centres, and Aadhar Kendras to help women from poor families develop useful skills. The locations for these social amenities are to be identified in the revised development plan (DP) 2034. While the BMC has released two revisions of the draft, this exercise is for the third phase, which includes revised development control regulations (DCR). At a meeting on Saturday, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta directed officials to look at potential infrastructure development to help women from different walks of life. The BMC has also determined its location preferences and the minimum sizes for these institutions. For instance, the preferred location for the working womens hostel is near a commercial establishment, and its minimum stipulated size is 1,000 square metres. Similarly, the Aadhar Kendras must be built around markets and railway stations, the documents state. Apart from multi-purpose housing for women, Mehta has also directed officials to look at possible locations for old-age homes, student hostels, shelters for the homeless, public toilets and drinking-water facilities. Read: 857 wrongly marked road stretches deleted from Mumbai development plan A senior civic official, who did not wish to be named, said, Ward officials have been given a format to fill the requirements for their areas, mentioning the centres that already exist and the proposed ones. They are expected to submit their reports to the DP department as soon as possible. According to the 2011 census, Mumbai has a population of 1.27 crore, 45% of which are women. Of the 57.41 lakh women, around eight lakh work, while over 20 lakh commute daily to schools, shops and other establishments. Womens groups have been demanding a gender-sensitive blueprint for the city for some time now. However, they were disappointed as the civic body, despite holding several ward-level consultations, failed to include points raised by them. They had also jointly appealed to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to include facilities for women in the DP. Dr Nandita Shah, co-director of Akshara, an NGO that includes a team of womens rights activists, said, This is definitely a welcome move. The BMC has finally heard our demands. We also want them to include gender-friendliness in the preamble for DP 2034. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The special CBI sessions court on Saturday reserved order on the bail application of Peter Mukerjea on February 12. Peter, husband of main accused Indrani Mukerjea-mother of Sheena, was arrested on November 19 for his alleged role in the murder. The agency alleged that he was part of the conspiracy and he knew about Indranis plan against Sheena. Read more: Sheena Bora murder: Indrani applies for bail citing poor health In his bail application filed through lawyer Kushal Mor, on January 4, Peter said that he has been falsely implicated by the agency. It is absurd to suggest that the applicant would conspire with his wifes ex-husband to murder Sheena. The applicant did not stand to gain anything from the murder of Sheena and CBI has miserably failed to even remotely show what would have been the applicants gain. All the allegations of CBI in this regards are baseless, Peter said in his bail application. However, the CBI opposed the bail application saying Indrani had admitted to informing Peter about murdering Sheena Bora a day after she and others murdered Sheena in 2012. The central agency in their reply stated that during the interrogation, Indrani, on December 15 revealed that she informed Peter about the incident and murder of Sheena Bora on the intervening night of April 24, 2012. The central agency alleged that Peter had played a key role in the conspiracy to conceal the murder of Sheena. While opposing the bail, CBI counsel Bharat Badami submitted that further investigation is still in progress and he should not be released on bail. Objecting to such allegations, Peters counsel Amit Desai contended that Peter had no reason to mislead as he only believed his wife who was the one who gave him incorrect information. He also said that Peter was never against Rahuls relationship with Sheena. After hearing both sides, the court has now reserved order on the bail plea on February 12 when the bail plea of Sanjeev Khanna and Indrani is also scheduled for hearing. Three persons made away with an Innova in Vaishali early Saturday morning after subduing its driver but were forced to abandon the vehicle some 14km away as the car owner remotely shut off the engine using GPS technology. The three men allegedly abducted the driver, 65-year-old Narendra Kaushik, from outside the Red Carpet Party Lawns in Vaishali around 2am on Saturday, the police said. The police said the robbers drove the car towards Kavi Nagar but had to abandon the vehicle after the car owner remotely locked the engine through a GPS disabler device. The car and the driver were spotted on the Diamond flyover near Kavi Nagar industrial area, the police said. The car belongs to SN Sharma, a resident of Vivek Vihar in Delhi. His family was attending a party in Red Carpet Party Lawns and the car was parked outside with the driver in it. Although the police said the driver was not harmed, the car owner claimed that the driver was tied and beaten up in the incident. He was beaten up and suffered internal injuries. He was also tied up by the robbers. He is in need of medical assistance, Sharma said. We were saved by the GPS device. I had got the car fitted with all necessary security devices after buying it. I will be filing a police complaint, he said. When the owner saw on his mobile that the car was moving, he shut down the engine through a GPS disabler. But he had no information about the carjacking and the car was already near Kavi Nagar. We seized the vehicle from the spot and handed it to the owner. We are still awaiting a complaint, said Ashish Srivastava, circle officer at Sahibabad police station. In a carjacking incident on January 29, an IT professional was abducted in his XUV from Indirapuram and later dumped around 160km away at Kundarki in Moradabad district. The robbers also withdrew nearly `1 lakh from the ATM card of the victim. On February 2, the police arrested three highway robbers for abducting a bank manager from the NH-58 on pretext of offering him a lift to Hapur and then robbing him of `75,000. On February 3, the police cornered two robbers at Pasonda in Sahibabad and arrested a Mohammad Rahim for stealing a Verna at gunpoint at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border near the Apsara cinema crossing, along with an accomplice Ashu. Rahim was shot and injured during retaliatory fire by the police. The Madhesi blockade at the Nepal-India border point of Birgunj which Nepal had accused India of imposing even as Delhi pointed to the internal nature of the protests ended on Friday afternoon. Trucks chugged along the Friendship Bridge after 135 days. There have been some efforts to block the border again, but it is unlikely to succeed. This phase and this particular mode of the Madhesi agitation may be its final lap. The trajectory of an andolan Here is a brief recap. Nepals Constitution was promulgated on September 20. Madhesis and Tharus, indigenous tribes of Nepals Tarai region, had been protesting in the run up the promulgation, and claimed the constitutional draft had eroded their political representation, compromised the architecture of inclusion, divided up their territory and carved out federal units which would deprive them of self rule, and institutionalised discriminatory citizenship provisions. The government responded with force and killed over 40 protestors. The hill political elite went ahead with the statute. The Madhesi parties decided to change tactic the protest shifted to the border and blocked supplies, generating pressure on Kathmandu. India only noted the Constitution and said its transporters, fearing insecurity, were unwilling to move in to Nepal. It urged the government to address the political problem. Notably, as soon as the blockade was imposed by Madhesis, and India let its displeasure be known, the killings dipped. The Nepal government called it an undeclared Indian blockade; it systematically raised the anti-Indian nationalism sentiment; it tried to cosy up to China and use it as an alternative source of supplies, but with little success. It also lobbied both internationally and with the Indian opposition against the government of India. The anti-Indianism was also a form of invitation to intervene; Nepal wanted India to let up the pressure and tell the Madhesis to give in. The evidence was not hard to find. While Madhesis kept urging Kathmandu to come up with a political package and reach out to the Tarai, the Nepali establishment was keener on reaching out to Delhi. Eventually, the foreign minister of Nepal came to Delhi with a four point proposal this included amending the Constitution to ensure constituencies were demarcated on the basis of population and provided for proportional inclusion in state organs. It committed to clarifying provisions related to citizenship and creating a political mechanism that would revise federal boundaries in three months. India saw potential in the roadmap and welcomed it when it was formalised as a cabinet resolution. The Ministry of External Affairs by then had got a bit wary of the internal political flak the government had received for mismanaging the Nepal relationship; it wanted to show that the policy had yielded results and moved ahead on regularising the state-to-state relationship. The Madhesis initially rebuffed it, wanting an immediate deal on federal boundaries. Eventually, they agreed to the idea of a mechanism but wanted credible guarantees on the mandate and the constitutional validity of the mechanism. They also wanted amendments to reflect as closely as possible the text of the interim Constitution. But the ruling parties, particularly the communist Unified Marxist-Lenin (UML), did not agree to the terms and conditions for the mechanism. It also pushed ahead with amendments which represented a dilution of the interim Constitution. The result was somewhat mixed. On political representation in the lower house, population was now considered the main basis with geography as a secondary basis for constituency demarcation this was positive. But there remain competing interpretations of what this would mean given that the weightage that would be given to population and geography was unclear. Each district would have one seat according to this amendment which again could work against the Tarai where 20 of the countrys 75 districts are home to half the countrys population. A related element of representation has not been addressed at all. The upper house will continue to have an equal number of representatives from each province which again would lead to under representation of the Tarai units. And finally, on affirmative action, an amendment reintroduced the principle of proportional inclusion this was positive. But there remain 15 groups eligible for reservation benefits, which will dilute its essence and meaning for those who need it the most. The biggest drawback of the amendment process was that it was not owned by Madhesis, and thus the Constitution could not widen its legitimacy The blockade dilemma It was in this backdrop that the movement was facing a dilemma. The Madhesi parties had been veering towards a decision to end the blockade in the last few days for a variety of reasons. They had been under pressure from local constituents, fatigued after six months of protests. As a leader said, Earlier, people used to come. Now we have to get people to the bridge. The form of protest seemed to have become ineffective for a parallel supply chain through an illegal network, in which the Nepali state was complicit, had ensured supplies of fuel and other essentials to Kathmandu. All other border points were open and on an average, 1300-1500 trucks were moving to Nepal everyday even though the Kathmandu establishment continued to paint India as the villain imposing a blockade. India too had been nudging the Madhesi leaders to rethink the strategy for this neither seemed sustainable nor was it yielding the desired objectives. Prime minister K P Sharma Oli, who is scheduled to visit Delhi in the third week of February, and the Indian government were probably eager not to let this cast a shadow on the visit. The government, the advocates of a review, could be given a limited period of time. If it did not revise federal boundaries, the movement would be restarted with vigour after using the interlude to prepare. There were skeptics on this point of view. Some argued the withdrawal of the blockade without any tangible achievements on federalism would throw up questions about the efficacy of the instrument and expose vulnerabilities; others pointed to the difficulty in restarting the blockade again for the state would have learnt its lesson and would be better prepared this time around. But the dominant mood was in favour of revising the form of the agitation, even as an understanding on creating a political mechanism on demarcation seemed likely. A meeting on Saturday was supposed to formalise the decision. But there was a twist in the tale on Friday. The blockade eventually ended because a nexus of local officials and businessmen from both sides, who had been resentful and had lost out on enormous legitimate revenues and illegitimate earnings, decided to take matters in their own hands. The traders got tents of protestors burnt, cleared the barriers, and trucks moved along. A little over 150 Madhesi protestors tried to block the path, but they were outnumbered. It did not help from the Madhesi perspective that the rift within the Tarai parties had become so obvious in recent days. Rajendra Mahato -- a Morcha leader who has spent the most time in Birgunj leading the blockade -- suddenly turned against it. He argued that the town had suffered enough and if other border points could not be blocked, the Birgunj point should be opened. This sent conflicting signals to the ground. Other Morcha leaders felt that Mahato should have waited for the Saturday meeting and only then pushed his view in the public domain, and it was deeply opportunistic of someone who has led the blockade to suddenly disown the tactic - without a collective and considered decision of the front. What matters however is the blockade has ended. Now what? Kathmandus current establishment will be tempted to think that it has won, there is little else to do, and the problem was all an Indian plot. This is the understanding that has been internalised by many in the top echelons of the government including the Prime Minister. If it adopts this route, it will attempt to revert to business as usual, enhance state repression in Tarai, do little to address the remaining political concerns of Madhesis, and focus on profiteering from the state like earlier governments. But this could also be a moment for Kathmandu to introspect about what the last few months mean. At the end of this round of protests, there are five clear lessons. For one, Madhesi discontent remains deep and widespread across castes and classes, urban and rural settings in eastern Tarai in particular; Tharus are relatively quiet because of state suppression but are deeply resentful as well and are preparing for an agitation. No andolan could last for six months without the popular support base of a substantial section of the population. Secondly, a generation has got radicalised, and has begun seeing Kathmandu as the enemy. They feel little sense of ownership of Nepals institutions, symbols and this Constitution. Third, the issue has got internationalised and the state will constantly have to face questions about its human rights record in the Tarai and the political alienation. Fourth, the states legitimacy has eroded in the Tarai, and is in fact absent from rural Madhes altogether except in its security avatar. And finally, given these underlying features, and the rise in radicalism, the movement could well assume more strident and violent forms, presenting a long term challenge to the state. If these lessons are indeed drawn and internalised, and Kathmandu recognises that the end of the blockade is a comma and not necessarily a full stop in the struggle for rights, the ruling elite should use this as an opportunity to sincerely relook at the question of political representation, federal boundaries and citizenship and give Madhes a sense of ownership of the Constitution. In specific terms, this means bringing in amendments on the question of representation in the upper house and citizenship (to also make it conform to principles of gender equality as well). It would also mean setting up a political mechanism with the consent of the Madhesi parties, with specifics on the mandate and time frame, with a guarantee that it would meet the timeline and its recommendations would translate into an amendment - to determine federal boundaries in the Tarai. This will be far more productive than triumphalism. Kathmandus media and civil society in particular have a role to play in nudging the government in this direction. And it is precisely this message that India must keep giving to the Oli-led dispensation in Kathmandu. There can be a debate about tactics and timing, but Delhi had a sound policy argument on Nepal which was rooted both in liberalism (its support for inclusion, minority and human rights) and realism (the security implications of troubles, including a secessionist movement right across an open border). India must remember that the fundamental problem persists: That Madhesis still do not feel politically or constitutionally integrated within Nepals current mainstream structure. And it must keep reminding Kathmandu to address this, for as the last few months have shown, the problem can easily assume cross border ramifications. India has to engage with Nepal government, but this must be coupled with strong pressure. As far as the fundamental battle is concerned, it has to be fought within. Madhesis are somewhat demoralised that the blockade ended without firm concessions by the government. But civil rights movements are generational projects. The Tarai parties need to get their act together, use this interlude to cement their unity, build coordination between their central and district structures, politically communicate with their constituents, and strive for broader unity with groups representing other marginalised communities, especially Tharus and hill Janjatis; with Madhesi leaders of mainstream parties; with the more progressive civil society groups and elements of media in Kathmandu. Till there is a constitutional correction which lays the ground for inclusive Nepali political structures and forces it to reflect the enormous social diversity of the country the battle will continue in Nepal. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON HT Correspondent Three members of a migrant family were mowed down to death when a pick-up van ran over the shanty they were sleeping in outside the grain market on the Faridkot-Bathinda road in Kotkapura town of the district. Seven persons were sleeping in the shanty at the time of the incident. The deceased have been identified as Rekha (50), who hailed from Signandpura village of Bhagalpore district in Bihar, her daughter Varuna Kumari (30) and the latters eight-month-old daughter Bandani. The three were killed on the spot. Four children, one of whom is in a critical condition, got injured in the mishap. The injured were first rushed to the local civil hospital, from where they were shifted to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot. The accident took place at about 1:30am on Saturday opposite Hotel Dev Heaven. The Tata 207 (registration number PB-04T 9340) was being driven by Harjeet Singh. The vehicle rammed into an electricity pole before running over the shanty. Some of the family members worked as labourers in the local market. A case has been registered under section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Case against driver Harjeet Singh, a resident of Ferozepur district. We have booked the driver for causing death of three persons. Their post-mortem is yet to be conducted as their relatives were yet to come from Delhi, said Kotkapura station house officer (SHO) Gurdeep Singh Pandher. There are about 100 shanties along the road and their occupants are always under a risk if a vehicle goes out of control. The Union government gave permission to set up the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here around four months ago, but the Centre and the Punjab government are yet to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the state-of-the-art institution. It is only after the MoU is signed that the foundation stone of the institute, to be set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), will be laid. The proposed MoU included details of the project, including cost, ratio of finance-sharing among the state and central governments, number of departments, faculty and other aspects. The premier health institution will give a boost to health facilities across the Malwa region, grappling with cancer. The Punjab government has already acquired around 170 acres land here from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. Presently, PAU is running its regional research station, which dealt with several research projects on cotton and other crops. Meanwhile, the state government has completed the necessary formalities, including allotment of water supply and electricity connections at the site, besides completing formalities on the transfer of land. T he Union gover nment has also accorded sanction to improve the roads leading to the project site. We are only waiting for the MoU to proceed further to make arrangements for laying its foundation stone, said deputy commissioner Basant Garg. On December 9 last year, Punjab chief secretary Sarvesh Kaushal had visited the site and directed the officials concerned to ensure that the project did not get delayed at any cost. Kaushal had also asked the deputy commissioner to chart out a plan for one more route leading to the institute as around one lakh people were expected to visit the institute daily. We have completed all other formalities on priority and paying special attention to the project, Garg said. Being a dream project of the Badal family, the SAD-BJP alliance may go all out to lay its foundation stone well before the 2017 state assembly elections. A controversy had erupted when the state government had decided to set up the AIIMS at Bathinda as Congress and Aam Aadmi party demanded the same institute to come up at some other place. Union minister for social empowerment and Hoshiarpur member of Parliament (MP) Vijay Sampla, proposed the project to be set up in the Doaba region and even identified the land in Kapurthala district for the purpose, but Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal succeeded in bringing the institute to her constituency. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON An eight-year-old boy died on Saturday of injuries he suffered due to a gunshot that was fired at a wedding function in the city on Friday. As per information, Sonu, a resident of Kunde village in the district, had come to the city to attend the wedding at their relatives place. He sustained a gunshot in the head when a man fired as part of the celebration. He was rushed to the local civil hospital from where he was shifted to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot. Then he was referred to Ludhiana where he succumbed to his injuries. The deceaseds family refused to get a first information report (FIR) registered in this connection. The police acting under sector 174 of the Indian Penal Code got the deceaseds post-mortem done, said Ferozepur deputy superintendent of police (DSP rural) Satnam Singh. In order to encourage non-polluting modes of transport such as cycles in the city, the Chandigarh municipal corporation has made a provision of around Rs 5 crore in the budget for construction, repair and re-carpeting of cycle tracks. To ease traffic congestion, the MC will also construct two underpasses at the Sector-17 ISBT and Aroma light point at the cost of Rs 25 crore. The MCs finance and contracts committee (F&CC) on Friday approved a budget of Rs 1,072 crore for the 2016-17 fiscal. A provision of `572 crore has been kept under the plan head and Rs 500 crore under the non-plan head. The budget will get final nod in the MC House meeting to be held on February 12. The plan head includes expenditure that is meant to create new infrastructure and capital assets. A provision of Rs 32 crore has been made for civil works, including re-carpeting of roads, renovation of community centres, repair of streetlights. To improve the solid waste management and allied services in the city, the budget has been increased from `41 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 59 crore in 2016-17. The civic body will upgrade the mechanical transportation of garbage and will replace garbage bins. A provision of Rs 15 crore has been kept for strengthening the sewerage system, as against Rs 14 crore last year. The civic body will also focus on improving basic amenities and services at colonies for the economically weaker sections and has proposed a budget of Rs 17 crore, which was Rs 9 crore last year. Besides, a budget of Rs 7 crore has been proposed for improving infrastructural facilities in villages. The finance committee proposed Rs 5 crore for primary education and Rs 15 crore for primary healthcare. The MC has also proposed a budget of Rs 33 crore for improving fire and emergency services. SURVEY ON STREET VENDORS The MC will also conduct a survey on street vendors. Manimajra will be connected with the tertiary treated water supply, the design of toilet blocks will be approved along with the provision of kitchens for caretakers and the issue of construction of 18 government schools will also be taken up this year. Surprisingly, no proposal has been made to provide facilities to the destitute, afforestation and shelters for stray animals this year. Besides, there has been a cut in the budget for public health, national urban livelihoods mission and roads. Mayor Arun Sood said: We have proposed a realistic budget this time and we are also working to improve the civic bodys income. For the past three years, we have been struggling with primary education and health, as half of the things are managed by the UT administration. During the meeting, it was also decided that the MC will take up these two issues with the UT administration, said BJP councillor Sat Parkash Aggarwal. The meeting was held under chairmanship of mayor Arun Sood and was attended by MC commissioner B Purushartha and other members of the committee, including Aruna Goel, Asha Jaswal, Sat Parkash Aggarwal and Shagufta Parveen, besides MC officials. CHAWLA WALKS OUT OF MEETING The lone Congress member in the finance and contracts committee, Subhash Chawla, staged a walkout from the meeting alleging foul play in counting of votes during the election to the finance committee held on January 29. Chawla left the meeting after an argument with mayor Arun Sood. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, credited for scripting poll-winning strategies for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, on Friday visited Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh here. Amarinder on Wednesday had said Prashant would visit the state for assessment of the ground situation in poll-bound Punjab. During their long discussion, Prashant and Amarinder deliberated on the party strategy for the 2017 state elections, including use of social media, door-to-door campaign and Amarinders ongoing interactions to counter the popularity of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) among young voters. They also spoke on issues the Congress needs to highlight in the run-up to the polls, including boycott of the Khadoor Sahib bypoll by the Congress in protest against the sacrilege incidents. This was the third meeting between Kishor and Amarinder; the two have earlier met in New Delhi after the latters appointment as the state party chief. Though Amarinder is keen to rope in Kishor for scripting a Congress victory in his last election, he has made it clear that the final decision would rest with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, as Punjab goes to polls along with more politically important Uttar Pradesh. Once approved by Rahul, Kishor is likely to camp in Punjab from June-July. Kishor also visited the social media war-room being set up by the party in Chandigarh and discussed Amarinders ongoing campaign to reach out to the youth. Congress sources said that other than Rahuls final nod, his appointment as adviser to the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar would not be an issue as the Congress is an ally in Bihar CMs grand alliance. But Amarinders eagerness to engage Prashant has ruffled the feathers of many in the Congress, including senior leaders such as Partap Bajwa and Jagmeet Brar. Some also claim that the Punjab Congress chief is taking unilateral decisions based on Prashants advice keeping others out of the loop. A ragpicker died as a 35-foot-long wall of the municipal corporation dump near the books market collapsed on Friday morning. Three stray dogs that were sleeping along the wall were also buried under the debris and died. The deceased has been identified as Guddu, 35. He used to pick plastic refuse from the garbage dump. Surinder Kalyan, president of Bhartiya Valmiki Sewa Dal, said that when Guddu was picking plastic around 10.30am, the wall collapsed on him. The books market shopkeepers and other bystanders pulled him out of the debris and rushed him to hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment. Kalyan said Guddu is survived by his wife and five children, including two daughters. Accusing Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) officials and a construction contractor for the incident, Bhartiya Valmiki Sewa Dal also staged a protest and blocked the national highway at Jagraon Bridge for around an hour. The protesters said some construction work was going on at the PSPCL office, and the labourers kept dumping the soil dug from the site along the wall that led to the collapse. Surinder Kalyan said no officer from the municipal corporation, PSPCL or police department turned up at the spot and no proceedings were initiated in the case. Hundreds of vehicles were stuck in the jam and commuters had a tough time during the road blockade. Later, the police managed to pacify the protesters by assuring them that a probe would be conducted and a first information report would be registered in the case. The protesters also demanded financial compensation for the family, before lifting the blockade. different locations in the city this year. As the city lacks public toilets, the civic body plans to place seven new mobile toilet vans at different locations on the lines of one such toilet functioning near the Clock Tower. The finance and contract committee (F&CC) of the municipal corporation (MC) has recently given its green signal. After Lahore-based Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation filed a petition in the Lahore high court seeking re-opening of the execution case of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, Vishal Nayyar, maternal grandson of Sukhdev, too, has come forward seeking reopening of the case by the central and Punjab governments in India as well. Nayyar, president of Amar Shaheed Sukhdev Welfare Society, while addressing a press conference here on Saturday, said, Millions of countrymen revere Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev as their heroes; and Pakistan is concerned for the great freedom fighters, while our country is not. I will go to Supreme Court and will urge to reopen the case, said Nayyar. Notably, last year, chairman of the Pak-based Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation, Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, had met the extended family of Bhagat Singh to gather more information on him. Nayyar also condemned the fact that the trio till date had not been formally declared martyrs. We are living in this country and are independent just because of the sacrifices of these freedom fighters. Is this what they get in return? he said. Sukhdev (1907-1931) was convicted and hanged in the Lahore Conspiracy Case in which his accomplices Bhagat Singh and Rajguru too were also executed for leading to the assassination of British Raj police officer JP Saunders in 1928, reportedly in response to the death of Lala Lajpat Rai. They were hanged on March 23, 1931, and secretly cremated by the river Sutlej. Also read: Plea over Bhagat Singhs innocence referred to Pak CJ again Giving finishing touch to the five dishes before the final whistle, Aditya Kumar Gupta, a professional chef, hoped that he made the grades by pleasing the palates of police officials to get a government job. Gupta, who works in one of the leading restaurants in Jharkhands capital Ranchi, was one among the 4,000 aspirants, including four chefs from the citys gourmet kitchens, who competed with each other for the 78 vacancies for police cooks. I work with Krsna on Main Road, one of the best restaurants in the city for vegetarian buffs, said Gupta. He said if he made the grades he would have a secured future as the Jharkhand police are offering salaries in the pay scales of Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000. Manish, who goes by one name, a curry chef at the popular Capitol group in the city, said: I am just trying out my luck. I made a chicken curry with roti, accompanied by salad and a vegetable curry. RK Chowdhary, deputy superintendent of police and in-charge of the recruitment drive, said there were three aspirants, who claimed they were professional chefs. There was one in the final round, who claimed he cooked at Kaveri, a leading hotel chain. But most of the aspirants came from the heartland and some were road-side food vendors from the city, he said. Sailesh Kumar, a Jamshedpur-based food vendor said, With so many candidates in the fray, it is all about luck. If I dont make the grades, I will go back to Jamshedpur and continue selling Chinese dishes. A woman aspirants displays her delicacy prepared to compete for the post of cook in the state police service. (Diwakar Prasad/ HT Photo) Swargini Marandi, 23, from Sahibganjs Ranurpur village, about 450 km north of Ranchi, who prepared a slow-cooked chicken dish, said: I have spent more than Rs 2,500 on travel, accommodation and buying ingredients but it was worth it and I am happy that I made it to the final round. An examiner, who asked not to be named, said, Aspirants from rural Jharkhand surprised us with dishes that were unknown to many of us. Selected cooks will be posted with police pickets and camps of the Jharkhand Armed Police, Jharkhand Jaguar, Indian Reserve Battalions and the Jharkhand Industrial Security Force in the Naxal-affected zones of the state, he said. This is the first time a tedious process of recruiting cooks has been undertaken, to keep transparency and ensure genuine candidates are selected, said Harinarayan Ram Mahali, chairman of the Jharkhand police recruitment board. The primary parameter of the test is to see if the cooking is good, healthy and tasty, he said. The 10-day long recruitment drive started on January 29 and the final round was held on Thursday. The results will be announced by the end of this fiscal after scrutinizing the documents of the selected candidates. Earlier the Jharkhand police used to hire cooks on contract for police stations, pickets and camps and regularized them later. Cooks were not tested on their proficiencies and most of them learnt their skills from seniors. At least eight people were killed and 40 wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military convoy in Pakistans western city of Quetta on Saturday, police and hospital officials said, the latest attack in a region home to the planned route of a $46 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor. The suicide bomber was riding a bicycle and detonated himself close to a Frontier Corps vehicle, said senior police official Imtiaz Shah, referring to the branch of Pakistans paramilitary forces targeted in the attack. At least three Frontier Corps personnel were killed in the attack that occurred in the city centre in the late afternoon, Frontier Corps spokesperson Khan Wasey said. A 12-year-old girl was also amoung the dead, said Ajab Khan, a doctor at the citys Civil Hospital, where the casualties were received. Pakistani Taliban spokesperson Muhammad Khurasani told Reuters that the group, also known as the TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan. Rich in resources, Baluchistan is at the heart of the multi-billion-dollar energy and infrastructure projects China and Pakistan are planning along a corridor stretching from the Arabian Sea to Chinas Xinjiang region. But the province, the poorest and least developed in Pakistan, has seen nearly a decade of separatist violence against the government and non-Baluch ethnic groups. Baluch activists and human rights groups claim the military has carried out a campaign of kidnapping, torture and extrajudicial killing of suspected separatists, and a security crackdown has severely limited freedom of movement in the province. In January, five Pakistani soldiers and two coast guard members were killed in separate attacks in the province, and a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people outside a polio eradication centre in Quetta. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and discussed a host of regional and international issues. Swaraj, who arrived here on Friday on a two-day official visit, had an excellent meeting with President Sirisena, Indian high commissioner to Colombo YK Sinha said. The President recalled the very warm ties that exist between the two countries build on civilisational links of thousands of years, he said. During an hour-long meeting, the two leaders discussed various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and decisions taken during the previous high-level visits. They expressed satisfaction at the progress in various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and the President thanked India for its assistance, Sinha said. President Sirisena briefed the minister on development on regional and international issues. They discussed a host of issues, he said. The two leaders also reviewed the progress made in the 9th Joint commission meeting which has held here on Friday. The joint commission was set up in 1992 as a mechanism to address issues of bilateral cooperation. Sirisena recalled with happiness his visit to India in February 2015 and Prime Minister Narendra Modis trip here in March. Swaraj later met former president Chandrika Bhandaranaike Kumaratunga and they discussed the state of bilateral ties. Both the leaders expressed happiness that there has been transformative changes in last one year in our bilateral relations, Sinha said. Swaraj also met R Sampanthan, leader of opposition and chief of main Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and other leaders of the party. The TNA leaders apprised the minister on the various efforts that have been made by the government since January last year in moving forward the reconciliation process, the political process and expressed readiness to work with the government in fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Sri Lanka, he said. She also met Eastern Province chief minister Nazir Ahmad and leaders of Sri Lankan Muslim Congress and discussed various issues. Swaraj will meet political leaders of Tamil Progressive Alliance and Ceylon Workers Congress before heading back home. Read: Sushma Swaraj, Sri Lanka PM Wickremesinghe hold talks on investment Pakistan said as many Taliban groups as possible must be persuaded to join any peace process with the Afghan government, as a third round of four-country talks aimed at reviving negotiations with the militant group began on Saturday. Senior officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US met in Islamabad to finalise a roadmap for resuming crucial Afghan peace talks. Sartaj Aziz, the foreign affairs adviser to the Pakistani premier, said a joint effort will help persuade the Taliban to join the process and lead to a significant reduction in violence. We believe our collective efforts at this stage, including through supportive CBMs (confidence-building measures), have to be aimed at persuading a maximum number of Taliban factions to join the peace talks, he said in his opening statement at the talks. In our view, a clear, well-defined and actionable roadmap for the peace process between the Afghan government and Taliban groups is important. Aziz presided over the third meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group established in December last year as part of a renewed push for reviving the Afghan peace process. There have been no contacts with the Taliban since it emerged last year that the groups supreme leader, Mullah Omar, had died in 2013. The people of Afghanistan have been suffering from an unending cycle of violence for decades. They need lasting peace and stability, Aziz said. A roadmap for talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban is of crucial importance, he said. It should identify and stipulate various stages of the process while measuring the progress made at each stage, he added. Afghan deputy foreign minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, Pakistans foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry and senior officials of China and the US are participating in the talks. The roadmap was introduced in the first meeting of the quadrilateral process in Islamabad early last month. It is really encouraging that the group has made steady progress in its first two meetings, demonstrating clarity as well as seriousness of purpose, said Aziz. In the Kabul meeting on January 18, the QCGs call on the Taliban groups to enter into early talks with the Afghan government without preconditions is a reiteration of a strong message by the international community for peace talks in order to find a basis for enduring political settlement in Afghanistan. Referring to Islamabads stance on eliminating terrorism, Aziz said, Pakistan shares Afghanistans concern that increasing violence is a key challenge and its reduction should be an important objective for the peace talks. The explosion that forced a commercial airliner flying over Somalia to make an emergency landing at the Mogadishu airport late Tuesday after it left a gaping hole in the airplane's side is suspected to have been caused by a laptop computer that was concealing military grade explosives, sources familiar with the ongoing investigation said, according to CNN. Based on an initial analysis of leftover residue recovered from the aircraft, investigators have been led to believe that the suspected bomb contained a military grade of TNT, the source added. The blast occurred Tuesday onboard Daallo Airlines Flight 3159 shortly after it set off for Djibouti, forcing it to make an almost immediate emergency landing, Fox News reported. All of the passengers, including two who were injured from the blast, were evacuated after the pilot landed the Airbus A321-111 without incident. Officials believed that those two were the only casualties at the time, but they soon found that one person was missing. The missing person's body was later found in the Balcad region, about 19 miles north of Mogadishu. Authorities said that they believed he was sucked out of the plane when the blast occurred. Witnesses and experts had been under the impression that a bomb was responsible for the blast. John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety and aviation safety expert, shared the sentiment noting that only two things could have caused the blast: a bomb or a pressurization blowout caused by a flaw or fatigue in the plane's skin, according to USA Today. He argued at that time that a pressurization blowout was unlikely since the incident occurred before the plane reached 30,000 feet, where pressurization is at its maximum. His arguments have been credence by the fact that an airport official estimated that the plane was between 12,000 and 14,000 feet in altitude when the explosion hit. A group has yet to take responsibility for the blast, but a U.S. official confirmed that investigators are going forward under the impression that extremist group Al-Shabab are the perpetrators of the act. Al-Shabab have been responsible for a series of attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries. Last month, foreign tourists were targeted when the group attacked a beachside restaurant-hotel complex in Mogadishu. In April, 147 people were killed when the extremists launched an assault on Garissa University in neighboring Kenya. And in 2013, 67 people were killed when the group launched an attack on Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. When it comes to reading for school, old-fashioned paper books are still the king. Though many assumed that e-readers and computers would ruin the paper business forever, textbook producers can rest easy, at least for a while. As Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor at American University, discovered in her research that 92 percent of students prefer hard copy reading to reading on a computer, e-reader or phone. Of the 300 students that were surveyed in the U.S., Slovakia, Japan and Germany, almost all of the students said that for heavy reading, books were the preferable medium. Articles and light reading were fine on a screen, but when it comes to narrative and textbooks, the screen can be a barrier, reported NBC. These findings were pretty shocking to Baron. "The group we assumed would gobble [e-reading] up were teenagers and young adults. But they talked about things I didn't think 18 to 26-year-olds cared about anymore," said Baron, according to New Republic. Firstly, they didn't care for the eye strain and the headaches and distraction that e-readers have been found to cause. Secondly, the je-ne-sais-quoi of reading a physical book seemed to matter to the students. Many talked about the smell, the visual aspect of seeing how much they've read so far, and the sense of accomplishment that comes with seeing a completed book on a shelf, said Baron, on New Republic. It was also discovered that they concentrate best while learning from hard copy text. It appears that only reason that e-textbook sales continue to rise is the fact that they're much cheaper - but many students wish they could afford hard copy books, whose astronomical prices are a problem for most university and high school students. When Scholastic conducted research on reading in children in 2014, it also had a similar finding. "Nearly two-thirds of children (65%)-up from 2012 (60%)-agree that they'll always want to read books in print even though there are ebooks available," reported Scholastic on its website. Good news for book lovers everywhere! @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. China scored a major coup this week when it announced that its engineers successfully created a hydrogen gas that is claimed to be hotter than the sun. The breakthrough is considered a milestone in man's quest to develop fusion power. China's fusion project, called Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), was conducted by using two kinds of hydrogen atoms that are injected in a containment vessel, the Daily Mail reported. Once energy is introduced, the atoms shed their electrons, leading to the creation of ion plasma, which produces massive energy. The experiment was undertaken using a magnetic fusion reactor at the Institute of Physical Science located in China's Jiangsu province, the South China Morning Post reported. Chinese scientists were able to heat the hydrogen gas to 50 million Kelvins. This is lower than the 80 million Kelvins that Germany achieved. However, the Chinese experiment was able to maintain the temperature, which is three times the heat generated by the sun, for 102 seconds. German scientists only reached its highest temperature for a quarter of a second, according to the Daily Mail. To highlight the fusion project recently completed by Chinese and German scientists, one must note that the interior of the sun is estimated to rage at 15 million Kelvins. Chinese scientists are now reportedly aiming for 100 million Kelvins at an impressive 17 minute-period. France is also building the world's largest nuclear fusion machine, which is believed to produce an energy output 10 times hotter than the sun's core, New Scientist reported. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Hospitality Net today Sign up to our free daily newsletter, Young Thug, inspired by his once-mentor, has officially taken flight. The cover to his new mixtape, Im Up, shows a winged Thugger flying above the world, which is melting into an appropriately slimy substance in a pair of giant cupped hands, which presumably also, somehow, belong to Thug. There are only 9 songs on Im Up, including the previously released tracks F Cancer and Hercules. The rest of the tape goes quickly, but it provides an invigorating listen, with production from Mike Will Made-It, 808 Mafia, and four beats from Wheezy, who, at this point, might be the best at inducing the particularly elevated, blissful sound that Thug chases for much of Im Up. Upon first listen, its obvious that Thug is riding a rare (mostly natural) high. Part of the reason he feels so high, though, is that hes come from so low. All of Thugs inspiration comes from the bottom, and as he reaches new heights, hes making sure to levitate his friends and family some of whom guest on Im Up along with him. That motivation, to raise up those closest to him, is distinct throughout his new mixtape, even when hes delving into his usual absurdities. Thus, Im Up includes some of the most inspirational material Thug has put out in his career. Here are the 5 most uplifting tracks on Im Up. F Cancer (Prod. by Mike Will Made-It) F Cancer, which dropped a week ago, is the opener on Im Up. Its also Thugs latest single, looking to embark on a similar path to Slime Seasons Best Friend. Its easily got the most stacked lineup of any track on Im Up, featuring Quavo and produced by Mike Will, and it includes one of the most remarkable stream-of-consciousness-style hooks in Thug history. Its really too easy how each line each one idiosyncratic Thugger connects to the next. His delivery is perfectly timed, though his voice retains a sense of unpredictably. Accordingly, one would think his whole focus would be on his delivery, which is much more important than content when it comes to a Thug song. Even so, while on the fly, the words that happen to arrive at the tip of his tongue are immediately evocative. Of course, none of this has to do with the title of the song Fuck Cancer which was prefaced as a tribute to Boosie, who was diagnosed with the disease in November and prevailed through a successful cancer-removing kidney surgery the next month. The opening line, Fuck Cancer, shout out to Boosie, is the only instance when Thug mentions either the disease or the Baton Rouge rapper. Even so, he raps as though he has what it takes to defeat the illness, and the flows he proceeds to concoct during his maniacal tear showcase the type of inspiration needed to find an actual cure. Though Boosies raps are wildly different than those of Thug, he exhibits a similarly impassioned drive when he gets on the mic. And Boosie, who will appear in the upcoming F Cancer video, recognizes this, and has likely accepted the tribute. Sometimes its takes a real banger to drive home a simple message. For My Boys (Feat. Ralo, Trouble & Lil Durk) (Prod. by Wheezy) The usual Atlanta clique anthem is intense and aggressive. Thugs For My Boys is just the opposite soft and serene, large in part due to Wheezys airy instrumental, laden with barely audible vocal cries. Though Thug adopts a childlike singing voice on For My Boys, theres an undeniable earnestness to his words. As Thug delicately relays his true feelings toward his crewmates, its no wonder theyre so willing to go to war for him. And violence isnt totally absent from the song Thug threatens to light him up like Christmas, if he play with my boys but what makes his sentiments seem so sincere isnt his readiness to kill. Rather, its his deep sense of caring, reflected beautifully on the delicate hook, the most memorable part of For My Boys. For My People (Feat. Duke) (Prod. by Wheezy) For My People, also produced by Wheezy, shows Thugs singing ability in rare form. Hes able to maintain a steady flow, exploring octaves both high and low, while injecting increasing amounts of vigor into each subsequent line. Emotionally, Thug is all over the place, though hes still able to remain in perfect control of the songs tempo. As for the lyrics, theyre all over the place, too, but in a different way. What connects them is that theyre all quirky reflections on his winning lifestyle gettin so fly like a seagull, or Farrakhan me, Im a leader. And it hardly matters that Thug uses the bounds of his imagination to express a simple idea, as everything he raps is underscored by the line, Im ready to die for my people. Also, more credit is due to Wheezy for the futuristic samba-sounding production. The inimitability of the beats Thug raps atop have a strong influence over his singular sense of inspiration. King TROUP (Prod. by Wheezy) I had mentioned that most everybody in Thugs camp is enjoying the Up life right now. Of course, that only goes for those who have been able to survive, and those who have been able to stay out of handcuffs. King TROUP is dedicated to Keith Troup, an Atlanta rapper and industry fixture closely affiliated with T.I.s Bankroll Mafia who was killed on December 12. Thug begins King TROUP by singing something of a eulogy to his deceased friend: I just asked God why he call for Troup / When its time to ride, if you love him, n*gga prove it / You know all your lil n*ggas gon shoot shit up for you / I thought I seen a ghost because your son look like you fool. The rest of the song doesnt reference Troup, though the same energy characterized by wonder, at Gods mysterious ways, and heartbreak remains throughout. He does, however, go on to mention PeeWee Roscoe, whos currently incarcerated for allegedly shooting up Lil Waynes tour bus. Lil Roscoe he sleeps where it nasty / They couldve freed him cuz he grew up with no daddy / But instead they took advantage and did him badly. He ends the same verse with a simple, and thoughtful, damn, before moving on to dance and dab all over the hook. Thugs most exciting turns of phrase are totally spontaneous, though those lyrics are, no doubt, inspired by the moments when hes not rapping. And believe it or not, he likely spends many of those in deep reflection. Family (Feat. Dora and Dolly) (Prod. by London on da Track) The first voice to appear on the final track on Im Up, the aptly titled Family, is Dora, aka Thugs sister. And damn does she go hard. His other sister, Dolly, follows suit in the next verse. Of course, the effects of both sisters contributions are magnified as Thugger finishes the track with one final burst, revealing himself to be the entity through which the dreams and desires of his family are expressed. And finally, theres a beat from London on da Track. Perhaps his sound wasnt suited for the rest of the release, but Family is one of his finest productions, allowing generations worth of blues and gospel to shine through his softly struck keys, while adding a little futuristic bliss using his signature theremin alongside the sounds of faint sirens. To Thug, theres nothing in life that compares to family. Putting himself next to two family members three counting London on the final track is a way to drive that idea home. Its a fitting end to a short project, but one thats brimming with real life inspiration. With John Gilligan now released from prison, we delve into the Hot Press archive for an extraordinary interview conducted by Jason O'Toole in 2008... When Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin was gunned down in cold blood on the Naas Road, the finger of suspicion turned on John Gilligan. This article can only be read with a Premium Account Please Log In or Subscribe to continue reading 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. 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. When Kathy and Cameron Brown moved to Calgary from New York in 2014, they told themselves not to fall in love with their tiny, century-old Inglewood home. For a growing family, it just didn't make sense. About two years later, things are getting a bit crowded. Josephine, age two, has one bedroom, while the other is a small nursery for nine-month-old Violet. The parents' bed is in the living room. Advertisement The couple, however, did fall in love with the home. And now they're hoping to save it from a landfill by offering to give it away for free. The one catch? The owner will have to move it off of the Brown's property, so the family can build a bigger home in its place. In some ways, the house was perfect for the Browns it was in a great location to raise a growing family. The couple moved to Calgary to be closer to Cameron's grandfather. His health was failing and he had gifted the pair some money to put towards a down payment. Advertisement When the couple began looking for a home to buy, they realized that this little home in Inglewood was just blocks away from Colonel Walker School that Cameron's grandfather had attended as a child. "This was meant to be, we need to be here." "Even though we knew the house itself wasn't perfect for us, we thought 'this location is the best.' Literally, as we were leaving the house, we passed Colonel Walker, and Cameron made the connection," Kathy told The Huffington Post Alberta. "To know that our kids would be going to that same school, it just... literally, we just started crying like babies. This was meant to be, we need to be here." Unfortunately, other things about the home weren't quite right. Namely, the size. The Browns had a builder take a look at expanding the house, who said while the home had held up its roof for 100 years, it just couldn't handle a second floor. At that point, we knew it would be temporary for us. Take a peek inside the century-old Inglewood home. Story continues after slideshow: Free Home In Inglewood, Calgary (February 2016) See Gallery Advertisement The Browns knew they wanted to stay in Inglewood, so their kids could continue attending Colonel Walker. The initial plan was to bulldoze the home, but Brown says it just felt wrong, especially with all of the home's charming qualities. "I made the joke to myself at the time, Watch me fall in love with this house.' Here we are, almost two years later, and weve fallen in love with it, of course." But she added, "It's time for it to go." "We thought, you know, if this could benefit someone in some way we'd love to be able to offer it to someone." She said another motivating factor to give the home away was Calgary's economic climate, which has left many families needing affordable housing. Moving a house can be pricey up to $30,000, plus the costs of building a foundation and hooking up utilities but it's a steal compared to the cost of buying a home. Advertisement "We thought, you know, if this could benefit someone in some way we'd love to be able to offer it to someone," Kathy said. Heather Oliver/Facebook Heather Oliver wasn't too stressed out about planning her wedding until she tried to book a limousine for the big day. The Vancouver bride-to-be called several different vendors looking for quotes. She wanted a transfer service to take her from her house to her ceremony, then back home again after the reception ended that night. Advertisement She hoped to pay an hourly rate, but one company Vancouver Prestige Limos told Oliver that they could only be booked for a minimum of three to five hours. Two other companies, however, had offered quotes for hourly rates. She emailed Vancouver Prestige Limos back to let them know she'd be taking her business elsewhere, and was shocked by the company's response. "Good for you. I hope your marriage lasts." "Good for you. I hope your marriage lasts," an unnamed employee said in an email. Oliver responded: "How dare you. You must be a pretty miserable person to be so cruel," adding that she planned to file a complaint. Then the exchange really took a turn. "Looks like you must have a lot of time on your hands to be doing childish things like that. Have fun," the staffer replied. Advertisement "And now it's become quite clear that your marriage probably won't last, because I really can't see how anybody can tolerate being married to you. I've known you for all of an hour and I'd sooner cover myself in paper cuts and take a lemon juice bath than have anything else to do with you. God bless your future spouse for having the patience to deal with you." See the email exchange below. Click for full size. Oliver immediately showed the emails to her fiance, and the pair "laughed it off." But deep down, the comments were hurtful. "When you're planning your wedding, usually vendors want to be a part of your day. So I was just really taken aback by the comments," she told The Huffington Post B.C. on Friday. "I was pretty hurt. As a bride-to-be you don't want to be told you're a nasty person." HuffPost B.C. reached an employee at Vancouver Prestige Limos over the phone on Friday afternoon, but he declined to comment. "Please don't ever call here again," he said. Oliver said she still plans to book a limo for her wedding on July 1, and that a few insults won't put a damper on her planning. Advertisement "It was all just odd," she said. Follow Us On Instagram As the cross-examination of actress Lucy DeCoutere continued on the fourth day of Jian Ghomeshi's sexual assault trial, lawyer Gillian Hnatiw had an important reminder for all of us. Hnatiw, who is representing DeCoutere, read a statement to the media on Friday, after her client finished her second day of a grueling exchange with defence lawyer Marie Henein. Advertisement Gillian Hnatiw, the lawyer for actress Lucy DeCoutere reads a statement on Feb. 5, 2016. (Photo: Graeme Roy/The Canadian Press) "Violence against women is not about the behaviour of the women. It is not about how they cope with an assault or the details they commit to memory in the aftermath," she said, outside Toronto's Old City Hall courthouse, where the trial is taking place. A video of the statement was posted on Twitter by Global News producer Alex Maveal. WATCH: Lawyer for Lucy DeCoutere speaks following cross-examination at Jian Ghomeshi trial. https://t.co/Z6YgaqBUAC Alex Maveal (@AlexMaveal) February 5, 2016 Advertisement Ghomeshi has pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual assault, which carry a maximum 18 months in jail, and a choking charge that has a potential maximum of life in prison. He is being represented by Henein, who is known for an intense cross-examination style that has even been compared to Hannibal Lecter. In reaction to Henein's line of questioning, which largely focused on DeCoutere's behaviour and decision to continue her relationship with Ghomeshi after the alleged assault, Hnatiw said the following: "This is, and remains, a trial about Mr. Ghomeshi's conduct. What Lucy did and how she felt in the aftermath of the assault does not change that essential fact. "It's not about whether [victims of violence] see their abusers again or send flowers, any more than it is about what they wear or how much they had to drink." "It's not about whether [victims of violence] see their abusers again or send flowers, any more than it is about what they wear or how much they had to drink," she continued. Advertisement A copy of a photograph of Lucy DeCoutere released by the court during the trial of Jian Ghomeshi on Feb. 5, 2016. (Courtesy: The Canadian Press) Hnatiw's powerful words garnered praise on Twitter, as many people encouraged others to remember her words as the trial proceeds. Important to remember words @gillianhnatiw - focus remains on #ghomeshi. Issues she raises should be considered by TJ in deciding weight. David M. Tanovich (@dtanovich) February 5, 2016 Advertisement @lucydecoutere is a brave woman for standing up and speaking truth. Thank you @gillianhnatiw for being by her side. https://t.co/C06A9jQHwV laura michalchyshyn (@lmichalch) February 5, 2016 Ghomeshi's trial resumes Monday. With a file from The Canadian Press Also on HuffPost Pregnant women in Brazil are being warned to think twice about kissing, amid mounting global concern over the Zika virus spread. Brazilian scientists announced that they have found the virus in two infected patients' saliva and urine at a Friday press conference Advertisement The mosquito-borne virus is commonly spread through bites, but there have been reports of transmission through sex and blood transfusions, and this discovery has brought on more concerns as it spreads rapidly across the Americas. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it an international emergency this week. President of the Brazilian federal biomedical research institution, Paulo Gadelha, has said transmission via the two bodily fluids requires more research, but he advised caution. "We cannot say today that there is no possibility of transmission," he told reporters Friday. Gadelha warns pregnant women not to kiss strangers, as carnival celebrations get underway across the country, as well as to refrain from sharing cutlery, glasses and plates with others who show symptoms of the virus. Advertisement Paulo Gadelha, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation president, and Myrna Bonaldo, lead researcher, address reporters in a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Friday. Carnival, the five-day festival which marks the beginning of Lent, is widely-known for street parties, drinking and boisterous displays of affection. Possible links between the Zika virus and a rare birth defect, microcephaly, which causes brain damage and an abnormally small head, have been a large concern. Cases of the abnormality have risen sharply in Brazil in correlation with mothers having shown symptoms of the virus in their first trimester. WHO said that the Zika virus has been found originating in 33 countries and indirect transmission has been found in six countries from January 2014 to February 2016. Men have also been encouraged to use condoms with pregnant partners if they've recently been to a country where the virus is present, or abstaining from sex altogether for the duration of the pregnancy. Advertisement OTTAWA Rookie cabinet minister Melanie Joly stood proudly in the House of Commons this week to announce that her department, Canadian Heritage, had launched online consultations on the controversial memorial to the victims of communism. "Our government promised greater involvement with citizens in decision-making," she read aloud from the sheet of paper she held in her hand. Canadians from coast to coast to coast are encouraged to share their vision for the memorial, she said, looking thrilled and excited by the prospect. "Based on these consultations, I will announce next steps," she declared. Advertisement That refrain dominates Parliament these days. From the defence minister to the employment minister to the minister of public safety, nearly every cabinet minister is consulting. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to media at a cabinet retreat in St. Andrews, N.B. (Photo: Andrew Vaughan/CP) There are consultations underway or soon to begin on everything from the pre-budget submissions (the department says there has been a record level of public participation), to CBC's future, to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP), to Canada Post home delivery, to legalizing marijuana, to employment insurance reforms, to a full review of the environmental assessment process, to changes to the electoral system, to ending gender-based violence, to Canada's official languages act, to consultations on what the inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls should look like, to future child care delivery models in Canada, to a pan-Canadian climate change plan, to changes to the Access to Information system, to an open government plan, to the sustainability of fish stocks, and the list goes on. Advertisement Critics say the sheer number of consultations is an attempt by Trudeau to avoid making decisions that will displease some Liberal voters. The government defends the move by saying Canadians are thirsty to be involved in the decision-making process. During a debate on pipeline reviews in the Commons recently, Conservative MP Peter Kent said flatly that he thinks Trudeau and his cabinet "know what the right answer is for the safe transportation of oil. But I fear that with their potential consultations, they are procrastinating unnecessarily." Heritage Minister Melanie Joly responds to a question in the House of Commons Tuesday. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/CP) Advertisement Conservative MP Dan Albas suggested Friday that the Liberals have consulted enough on TPP there have been more than 200 meetings, according to the government's own count and should ratify the deal now. "When will the federal Liberals realize they have hit peak consultation, get off the fence, and support jobs in British Columbia?" he asked during question period. "Sometimes consulting becomes a way to defer a decision," Conservative MP and former Treasury Board president Tony Clement told The Huffington Post Canada. "That will work for a while, but at some point in government, you actually have to decide stuff." There is a cost to not making decisions, the former minister added. "There is a fiscal cost, or a policy cost, or people-will-be-suffering cost. So this can work as a short-term tactical strategy, but it will not work in the long term." Consultations as political cover Donald Savoie, a public administration expert at the Universite de Moncton, agrees. Consultations provide political cover only for a short period of time, he said. "Being against consultations is like being against motherhood we can't be against it, but it doesn't always work out as planned," he said. "You can kick the can down the road as much as you want, but at some point the can is going to catch up to you." Advertisement Consultations are predictable, Savoie said. "Some [people] are going to be for, some will be against, and there will be no consensus, and so decisions have to be made." The political scientist said Trudeau's consultations may be a continuation of his successful electoral strategy of speaking in generalities in order to be all things to all people. The Liberal leader's vagueness on the TransCanada Corp.'s Energy East pipeline, for example, led many Westerners to believe Trudeau would support the project, while he also courted Quebecers who were adamantly opposed. Conservative MP Tony Clement, shown speaking in the House, says being in government means "deciding stuff." (Photo: CP) "That type of political strategy works very well in an election campaign, [but] it remains to be seen whether it can work in governing. I'm not so sure," Savoie said. "I always thought it was better to make tough decisions early in the mandate so that the electorate would have time to turn the page and forget about it." Advertisement To consult on nearly every policy issue you are facing, Savoie added, suggests Trudeau may not have made the wisest promises. "I thinkwe could expect political parties to know of what they speak before they make commitments. It is fairly obvious to me that reverting policy on Canada Post [home delivery] was fraught with new expenses and they ought to have known that," he said. Public Services Minister Judy Foote recently announced she will launch an independent review of Canada Post that will look at home delivery and involve public consultation. During the election campaign, the Grits promised a review, but Trudeau also pledged to reverse the agency's cuts to door-to-door service. "When will the federal Liberals realize they have hit peak consultation?" It is good to be prudent, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Aaron Wudrick said, but when it's happening on every issue, "it suggests that maybe you didn't do your homework enough during the campaign." While some controversial and costly promises involving mail delivery, changes to Bill C-51, employment insurance, environmental review process and the TPP are punted months and years down the line, Wudrick noted that the Liberals were quick to act on other campaign pledges. Advertisement "If they are all about consultations before making decisions, why are they repealing C-377 and C-525 [controversial Conservative legislation that was widely viewed as anti-union] before having consultations? Why did they stop enforcing the First Nations Financial Transparency Act before having consultations? Why did they rule out extending the runway at the Toronto airport without having consultations?" On a few things the Liberals felt strongly about, they have bypassed consultations, he said, but on politically "stickier" files, such as the TPP, they hide behind the "consultation fig leaf." 'We need action right now' University of British Columbia political scientist Kathryn Harrison sees it somewhat differently. She believes public consultations are a good thing when enacting major public policy changes that have long-lasting consequences. "There are lots of people who think that consultations on a trade agreement is a very important thing," she said. "Things like the electoral system and federal-provincial relations with respect to Canada's greenhouse gas emission target, these have potential for really big and far-reaching policy changes. They are important things where it is appropriate to solicit input from the public." Harrison is particularly interested in seeing how the Liberals will come through with a plan to meet ambitious emission targets while maintaining harmony with the provinces. A federal-provincial meeting is set for March. Advertisement "The first thing they did [when they got into office] was sign on to an international climate agreement that will be very challenging. They were elected to lead, how are they going to do it? If they just keep announcing more commitments to keep talking that is the moment where I will be more frustrated." NDP MP Linda Duncan has no problems with consultations up to a point. "Yes, it is good that they want to consult everybody, but we need action right now," she told HuffPost. "There are a number of ideas on the table right now that people are throwing around where they can, in fact, take quick action," she added, referring to environmental regulations that were gutted by the previous Conservative government. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale speaks to reporters in Ottawa. (Photo: CP) Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who is involved in consultations ranging from C-51 and other national security laws to striking a new parliamentary committee on national security oversight, defended the government's penchant for consultations, saying Canadians are eager to voice their opinions. "It is an extraordinary situation, but it is absolutely necessary that we do this," Goodale told HuffPost."We want to have a government and a public policy agenda that genuinely reflects what Canadians want. Advertisement "Canadians have a lot of pent-up desire to be engaged. They felt that they have been shut out of their own democracy for a long time, so you have to give them a chance to re-engage and listen to what they are saying." In his mandate letters to cabinet ministers, Trudeau said he expected them to engage constructively with Canadians, civil society groups, business leaders, organized labour, the not-for-profit sector, as well as other levels of government. "Canadians have a lot of pent-up desire to be engaged. They felt that they have been shut out of their own democracy for a long time." Don Rusnak, a new Liberal MP from the Ontario riding of Thunder BayRainy River, said he doesn't think there is such a thing as too much consultations. "There is never too much consultation or communication," he said. "You need to hear where the mood of the country is at and what the people want. If you don't hear that, then you are not effective government." Advertisement The Conservatives under Stephen Harper took a "top down approach" that Trudeau is committing to reversing, Rusnak added. First Nations chiefs seeing a familiar pattern But at least one group soon to be involved in some of those consultations isn't so sure. Trudeau promised to engage First Nations on a true nation-to-nation basis, said Ghislain Picard, the regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL) but then he ignored a letter that several aboriginal groups sent him in December outlining changes they wanted to see in the pipeline review process. First Nations were not consulted on the Liberal government's announcement regarding the interim pipeline review process for Energy East or Kinder Morgan's TransMountain pipelines, Picard said, and Wednesday, they were also surprised to hear Trudeau seemingly back off from an election pledge to respect First Nations' veto over pipeline projects that cross traditional territories. Ghislain Picard speaks at the Assembly of First Nations elections in Winnipeg in December. (Photo: Trevor Hagan/CP) Advertisement Picard said he and other chiefs fear they are starting to see a familiar pattern. "It raises a lot of concerns from our First Nations leadership," he told HuffPost. "We feel that, on the one hand, they speak about the partnership and renewal of the partnership and the relationship and, on the other hand, what they seem to be doing doesn't reflect that intention." Picard is hopeful the consultations will be meaningful, but he said the signals aren't there so far. "There is so little said, or not enough said, that it leaves anyone the liberty or the opportunity to make interpretations," he said. Scores of people are feared dead after an earthquake hit Taiwan on Saturday. The 6.4-magnitude quake toppled a 17-storey building in the south of the island, leaving at least 12 dead with more fatalities expected. A 10-month-old baby is reportedly among the deceased. Pictures emerging from the disaster show rescuers pulling survivors out from the rubble. In Tainan, a city of two million people, hundreds escaped a crumpled tower block but more are likely trapped under the concrete. Advertisement According to the US Geographical survey, the quake hit at around 4am local time at a depth of 6.2 miles. Five large aftershocks followed. The centre of the quake was located 22 miles southeast of Yujing. "I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom, a 71-year-old man who lives near the pancaked structures told Reuters. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down. Speaking to BBC World News, Tainan resident Emma said, "I felt the quake, it was terrible." The tremor hit as people were preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year. Emergency services and the army were drafted in to help rescue efforts in Tainan. Some buildings remain standing but leaning at unsafe angles. President Ma Ying-jeou told reporters authorities were assessing the tragedy. "The disaster situation is not very clear yet, he said. We will do our utmost to rescue and secure survivors. The president is expected at the disaster site later on Saturday. Earthquakes often strike Taiwan, which sits near the meeting of two tectonic plates. A 7.6 magnitude quake hit the island in 1999, killing more than 2,000 people. Advertisement A female journalist has described how she was groped during a live report from the Cologne carnival on Friday. Esmerelda Labye, a reporter for the Belgian station RTBF, was presenting a report on camera when two or three men approached her from behind, making obscene gestures. The presenter explains that during the broadcast, a man kissed her neck and grabbed her breast. She has since published a piece on the station's website, condemning the "wretched and cowardly" men involved in the incident. Advertisement Esmerelda Labye was groped as she gave a live report on Friday She wrote: "As I started the broadcast, two or three men gathered behind me and attempted to make themselves the centre of my attention." She added: "I was focusing on the broadcast, and then I felt a kiss on my neck." Labye adds that "almost immediately" she heard a German voice say in her ear "do you want to sleep with me?" The reporter tried to ignore the men as she presented the piece to camera. But as the studio thanked her for her report, a man touched her chest. Advertisement She wrote: "It was at that exact moment that one of the men leaned over and touched my breast. At that moment I lost my temper and, knowing we were no longer live, I turned around and warned him, do not touch me again. "They didn't seem to understand why I was angry but they left without saying a word." Labye later told the MailOnline that she believers her attackers were German. Cities across Europe, including Birmingham, Calais, Prague, Dresden, Dublin and Amsterdam, witnessed rallies on Saturday by the German anti-Islam movement Pegida. The marches were organised in protest at the influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa, many fleeing civil war and poverty. Former English Defence League chief Tommy Robinson, now part of Pegidas UK chapter, organised the UK march. "The growing influence Islam has on society is not good for society, he told around protesters at the groups inaugural rally. The more Islam the less freedom, that's a reality." Advertisement According to The Guardian, some of the Birmingham demonstrators held placards lauding Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who in November called for a halt to all Muslim immigration into the US. Robinson said: As we set off at 2pm, people set off in Germany, in Holland, in Bulgaria, in the Czech Republic, in Belgium, in Poland. Our opposition will say you achieved nothing today the whole of Europe is talking about this debate right now thanks to every single person in Europe thats taken part in it. Some 60 anti-fascism activists staged a counter protester, the groups kept separate by local police. Advertisement Pegida, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, grew out of a far right backlash against asylum seekers in Dresden in 2014, and used growing fear over the migrant crisis to expand its membership beyond German shores. The group has gathered particular momentum in Germany, which saw an influx of more than a million migrants last year. Pegida supporters claim German Chancellor Angela Merkels open door policy is folly, highlighting the alleged involvement of migrants in the Cologne attacks on New Years Eve as proof. More than 8,000 demonstrators marched through Dresden on Saturday. Reported by Reuters, Pegida member Siegfried Daebritz told the large crowd on the banks of the River Elbe, We must succeed in guarding and controlling Europe's external borders as well as its internal borders once again" Several hundred counter protesters staged a rally opposing the anti-immigrant message. Trouble flared at a much smaller gathering in Calais, northern France. The city has witnessed rising tensions between the local population and the migrants living in tented camps also know as the jungle. French police said 12 people were arrested after hundreds turned up to a protest that local authorities had banned. In Prague, 2,000 people took part in a similar protest, which was met by anti-Pegida demonstrators. In Warsaw, hundreds marched, many waving Polish flags, while around 200 gathered in the Dutch city of Amsterdam. Advertisement Scuffles broke out in Dublin as the anti-Islamisation group launched in the Republic of Ireland. Several hundred anti-fascist campaigners came out in protest at the launch. Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan told an anti-racism rally: " We are standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity to show that there is no place in Ireland for racism and Islamophobia." British actress Vanessa Redgrave paid glowing tribute to the National Health Service on Saturday, while likening the current dispute over junior doctors to the Thatcher government's undermining of the NHS. Speaking at a rally in Central London in support of the medics, who are currently in dispute with the Tory government, the 79-year-old activist told of being rushed to hospital in 2015 after suffering a heart attack alone in her flat in Chiswick, West London. Advertisement Redgrave and Westwood join demonstrators during a protest in central London on February 6, 2016 "My life was saved at the end of April last year by NHS consultants, NHS junior doctors and nurses in Hammersmith Hospital, thank you," she said. Excoriating the government for overstretching NHS staff, Redgrave told of how her father, Sir Michael Redgrave, had his own care undermined by the Thatcher government during his 12-year battle with Parkinsons disease. "My father died aged 70 in 1985, she said. The hospital doctors told me and my brother that they'd got rid of the trouble he was in hospital for - Parkinson's disease had blocked his bowels. But they said next time it gets blocked don't bring him back, we haven't got enough beds. That was Mrs Thatcher's government, and my father was just one of the fathers." Advertisement NHS supporters wear surgical masks as they take part in a demonstration in central London on February 6, 2016 British fashion designer and activist Dame Vivienne Westwood also addressed the several hundred demonstrators at the rally, which comes ahead of a 24-hour strike on Wednesday. During the industrial action, junior doctors will provide emergency care only. Westwood told the crowd: "Junior doctors are the future and you will win. You are fighting to protect the National Health Service, the NHS. To protect it from Government cuts. We need more doctors not less doctors. Doctors who get enough sleep so they can give their best care to patients," she added. Advertisement The march saw several hundred listen to speeches before heading to Downing Street where they staged a silent protest The action was sparked by reforms by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, including the introduction of a seven-day working week throughout the NHS. The government claims this will result in a better service for patients, however junior doctors contend that the change in contracts will mean they work more hours for less money. Extra shifts in the evenings and at the weekends will also compromise the standard of patient care, they argue. The British Medical Association has called the reform, "bad for patients, bad for junior doctors and bad for the NHS." On Saturday 6th February it will be 13 years since the first International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation was marked in Nigeria. Organisations across the globe are continuing to fight FGM every single day and managing to remove some of the shroud of secrecy surrounding the practice. A recent poll of the UK public* found that more than half the British public say that female genital mutilation is a top women's rights concern above childcare and equal rights. A continuing move in the right direction. We, at ActionAid, weren't surprised that concern for this extreme practice is on the rise, with two in five (41%) saying they are more concerned about the issue than they were five years ago. There's a growing awareness among young people with 52% of 18 to 25 year olds as they are more concerned about FGM now than they were than five years ago. Again as unpleasant as it is to think about this unnecessary practice - we didn't find it surprising that over half of this age group are troubled by this practice. Advertisement This did not surprise us Why were we not surprised? Because we're are seeing more and more people talking openly about these issues, from organisations to the media and people globally are standing up for what they believe in. Increasingly, I have personally seen more stories about women's issues such as FGM being reported in the media, certainly more than when I was a magazine editor, and that there is a collective cry for the abuse of women to stop - now. ActionAid ambassadors in Somaliland fighting to #endFGM ActionAid works in nine countries with communities to end FGM (also known as female circumcision) and we have done for many years as we know that it's an on-going issue and one that affects so many worldwide. In fact it is estimated that over 100 million to 140 million girls and women have gone through some form of FGM globally. The people we work with in communities are not standing quietly by - nor are the women and girls who are directly affected by it. Instead they are taking part in innovative projects like the one in Somaliland - a place where 98% of women and girls have been affected FGM - this is one of the highest rates of prevalence in the world.* Advertisement Types of tools used in Africa to practice FGM. Young men have joined the fight to #endFGM In Somaliland, in a programme that is run by women, young men have joined the fight to end FGM. Both young women and men have been trained to go out into their communities as ambassadors to spread the word to the older generations highlighting the life-threatening dangers so we help girls escape FGM and change their lives for good. Khaalid (above), 19 says, "My younger sister is six years old and after going to the workshops, I felt confident enough to speak to my mum about it. I told her why it's not good for my youngest sister to be 'cut' even though my other sisters have been through it. They discussed it, and even though his mum was surprised she accepted his request." Advertisement Mohamed, (above) 20, gives another point of view, "It's a huge concern because it doesn't just affect the women of today but the next generation of women too. It doesn't just affect the physical body but there's the psychological side too." Hamda, (above) 19, one of the young women who has taken part in the workshop, explains how the attitudes of men her age are so different to those of the previous generation. She says, "Amongst men my age 90% of them are more aware of 'the cut' these days. They are even more aware of the complications - with the birth and everything. I really don't think that it's a problem for younger men if a girl is not cut." This one project has reached over 31,000 people*** in Somaliland through our work in schools, communities and with religious leaders. Plus we have been funded by Comic Relief to do more exciting and impactful projects like this. Surely if this continues and men carry on playing their part in the long-term fight then change will happen. Because when all men of all generations in all countries accept 'uncut' women then the battle will be over. Advertisement * All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2001 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 27th - 28th January 2016. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). **According to DFID Published 16 December 2014 James Devaney via Getty Images NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 03: Snow leopard seen at Bronx Zoo on January 3, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/WireImage) Snow leopard DNA and heavy metals, including arsenic, continue to be found in Chinese medicines in Australia, researchers have found. Research published by a group of scientists from Curtin University, Murdoch University, and the University of Adelaide in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, found nine out of 10 Chinese medicines had a substance in them that wasnt declared on the label. Advertisement The researchers are now studying hundreds of herbal preparations from across Australia to determine exactly how widespread the issue is. Of particular concern to them is the finding that the DNA of an endangered species, snow leopard, was contained in one medicine bought over the counter in Adelaide. You can eat a snow leopard from its nose to its tail and you would still have sore joints, the University of Adelaides Professor Roger Byard, a co-author of the study, told The Huffington Post Australia. He said it was shocking the substance of an endangered animal was included, especially when it was medicinally useless. Advertisement Snow leopards are an endangered species Only 4,000-6,500 snow leopards remain in the wild, with most residing in remote parts of Central Asia. The leopard is hunted for use in traditional medicines because it is believed it can cure arthritis. Professor Byard said it was important Australian authorities look into the trade of Chinese medicines that contain undeclared animal substances like that of the snow leopard. We need to be much more vigilant, and when something like snow leopard has been discovered, it needs to be pursued, he told HuffPost Australia. Half of those herbal medicines analysed by the research group were found to contain undeclared plant and animal species. The medicines purportedly treat a range of ailments, including erectile dysfunction, as an aphrodisiac, asthma, and for allergies. Advertisement Other animal DNA found in the groups research included cat, dog, and rats, though the researchers said those findings were likely the result of contamination as opposed to them being intentionally added. The contaminated medicines were bought over the counter in Adelaide In addition to the animal DNA detected, toxic heavy metals like arsenic and lead were found in more than half the medicines analysed. In one preparation, ten times the upper limit of safe arsenic consumption for humans was detected. Professor Byard said people shouldnt be alarmed about Chinese medicines, but aware of the risks some can pose. Given the number of people taking herbal medicines, most of them are safe. But we have had two cases where people have died, he said. Advertisement One woman developed liver failure, because of a mixture of herbs she was taking. Another fellow died when he injected the traditional Chinese herbal product chan su, which contains toad venom, believing it to be MDMA. Regulating what goes into these medicines is difficult He is also concerned about the impact of the production of such medicines on endangered wildlife like the snow leopard. An overseas study says traditional Chinese medicines are a significant global driver in the illegal wildlife trade, Byard told HuffPost Australia. We tend to focus on ivory and decorative things, we dont tend to think about the traditional medicines side, but there are a lot of people taking traditional medicines, he said. Advertisement Back home, Australias seahorse population is being decimated amid fears that illegal poachers are stealing them from Sydney Harbour and trading them on the black market. Science Photo Library - STEVE GSCHMEISSNER. via Getty Images Colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM) More than 60 people have fallen ill with salmonella thought to be linked to pre-mixed salads purchased in Victoria. The Federal Department of Health said on Saturday it was closely monitoring the outbreak in the state after a meeting on Friday between health and foodborne disease authorities on the emerging situation. Advertisement It said the number of people affected by the outbreak had jumped overnight. Up to a 100 people could be affected by the salmonella outbreak linked to pre-packaged salad https://t.co/zWduA893Kppic.twitter.com/X9SPZmO8pU The Age (@theage) February 6, 2016 "The meeting noted that Victorian health authorities had reported 54 cases of Salmonella Anatum infection linked to the consumption of mixed salad products," it said in a statement. "This figure has, of today, increased to 62 cases of Salmonella Anatum infection although food histories are yet to be conducted to establish any links to the mixed salad products." It said other states and territories were examining up to 30 possible cases of Salmonella Anatum infection. Advertisement "Whether these cases are linked to the outbreak strain in Victoria, or coincidental to it, requires confirmation by the ongoing investigation including laboratory testing," the department added. It said Victorian health authorities were leading the investigation into the source of the salmonella outbreak. 67 people across Australia have fallen ill after eating pre-packaged lettuce from Coles and Woolworths. #9Newshttps://t.co/mOQwZ8FYaH Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) February 5, 2016 Authorities launched a probe after becoming aware of almost 30 cases of the rare infection on Tuesday. According to Fairfax Media, the department is interviewing patients to determine whether they have eaten recalled products, which were sold at Coles, Woolworths, Bi-Lo and other grocers as Coles 4 Leaf Mix, Woolworths salad mix, SupaSalad Supamix and Wash N Toss salad mix. Advertisement Senior lecturer in the Food Science and Technology Group from the University of New South Wales, Dr Jian Zhao, said it was increasingly common for people to become infected through vegetables. MANCHESTER, NH - FEBRUARY 05: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the 2016 McIntyre Shaheen 100 Club Celebration on February 5, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. With less than one week to go before the New Hampshire primaries, Hillary Clinton continues to campaign throughout the state. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The stunning ascent of Bernie Sanders portends far more than a hard-fought Democratic primary. Its greater implication, whether Sanders wins or loses, is that America's crony capitalism will no longer go unchallenged. Thus Hillary Clinton and her husband, along with many others, are increasingly trapped by the wealth, credentials, and insider status they have pursued so fervently - because they derive from a corruption whose nature and consequences can no longer be concealed. America's financial elites are now so corrupt, arrogant, and predatory that political leaders beholden to them can't even pretend to deliver economic or political security, much less fairness or progress. And now, finally, Americans are running out of patience. In addition to Bernie Sanders, there's Elizabeth Warren, Zephyr Teachout, and even movies - The Big Short has (deservedly) grossed $100 million. Everything suggests that American politics is now truly, fundamentally, up for grabs - a hugely exciting but also terrifying prospect. In America, the Great Depression yielded Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal; but in Europe, it created Hitler and Mussolini. America's reaction against its corruption and decline could show us at our best - or our worst. Advertisement Indeed, this is the Democratic establishment's rejoinder to Bernie Sanders: he's a wonderful dreamer, but impractical - he can't get elected, so we'd get Trump or Cruz, and furthermore even if Bernie was elected, he couldn't get anything done. Look at Dodd-Frank and Obamacare, they say - those laws barely passed. No way could Bernie break up the banks. Only a pragmatic, moderate insider can get anywhere. Actually the truth is exactly the opposite. American insider politics is now so corrupt that nobody within it can get anything done. But by stepping outside of the rules, you could do a great deal. Let's take a concrete example - the banks. Start with Hillary Clinton. The sound bite is that Goldman Sachs paid her $675K for three speeches. The full reality is far worse. She, her husband, and their advisers have history with the banks going back decades. Bill Clinton made Robert Rubin, former president of Goldman Sachs, his Treasury secretary, then appointed Larry Summers and Laura Tyson to succeed him, and re-appointed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Fed. Together, they let the banks run amok; in fact, they helped them. They repealed Glass-Steagall, banned the regulation of derivatives, refused to use the Fed's authority to regulate the mortgage industry, and did nothing as massive securities fraud permeated the Internet bubble. Then Rubin became vice-chairman of Citigroup, while Tyson joined the board of Morgan Stanley. Bill Clinton, Rubin, Summers, Tyson, and Greenspan all share major responsibility for the 2008 global financial crisis, and none of them have been remotely honest about it. Advertisement Since leaving office, both Bill and Hillary have made millions of dollars giving speeches to banks while being remarkably quiet about prosecution of financial crime, not to mention the Obama administration's appalling record since the crisis - zero prosecutions, bankers in senior regulatory positions, inviting bank CEOs to state dinners dozens of times, et cetera. Now Hillary says she'll rely on Bill for economic policy. Bad idea. The financial sector became a pervasively criminal and economically destabilizing industry largely through Clinton policies, and now Hillary takes their money. When pressed, Democratic insiders concede all this, but then say, well, OK, the financial sector is just too powerful to rein in, but think of what Hillary could do in, say, education. Let us therefore take a brief tour of the Education Management Corporation (EDMC), one of the most repulsively predatory companies in America. EDMC specialized in exploiting poor people seeking to better themselves educationally. It used fraudulent marketing, luring students into paying high tuition - by taking out student loans signed over to EDMC. EDMC kept all the money, but provided abysmal schooling with high dropout rates. EDMC made huge profits while poor students wasted time, obtained no skills, and dropped out with crushing debts. EDMC raked in $11 billion this way. Assuming, say, $11,000 per student, EDMC screwed one million poor Americans. Eventually the Justice Department sued, but as usual the settlement was a wrist-slap with no criminal prosecutions, no admission of guilt, and no financial relief to victims. But why am I telling you all this? Well, now. Who devised EDMC's strategy, aided by relaxed Federal regulation? Who was EDMC's largest shareholder, buying 41% of the company in 2006? Goldman Sachs. Now, Hillary, when you and Bill have your little cocktail parties for the Clinton Foundation in Goldman Sachs offices, when you give your speeches to Goldman Sachs executives, when you chat them up for donations, when you meet them at White House state dinners, just how frequently do you bring this up? Advertisement OK, Hillary ain't so great. But could Bernie do any better? Well, he could appoint an Attorney General and a head of the DOJ Criminal Division who haven't spent their careers defending corporate criminals, and then invite the Justice Department to put lots of bankers in jail. (There is overwhelming evidence to justify doing so; for details, read this, or chapter 6 of this.) Bernie could also appoint an Antitrust Division head who would actually investigate the cozy, cartel-like arrangements that pervade finance, and bring major cases against the banks. He could appoint a Federal Reserve chair who would require banks to divest assets and operate safely, plus regulating bankers' compensation so that if you caused a disaster, you couldn't profit from it. All this can be done without a single new law, and both Bill Clinton and Obama could have done them too. Indian Prime Minister Modi invited French President Hollande to be the guest of honor at India's Republic Day Celebrations in New Delhi last month. The seat is generally reserved for, and used by the office of the Prime Minister as, a signal of close and important state ties. Last year President Obama was Modi's guest, which served as the start for a banner year of U.S.-India cooperation, on a broad range of economic, climate, and defense issues. Among others, Washington and New Delhi signed agreements aimed at developing India's next generation aircraft carrier -- an overt signal of joint concern about China's emerging power in the Indian Ocean and, by extension, the South China Sea. Hollande's presence is expected to have a similar result, particularly given that it is the world's fourth largest arms exporter. India has demonstrated that it has partners in multiple international camps. Some observers expected this year's guest to be either Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif or perhaps even President Putin, to re-emphasize India's historical orientation toward non-alignment. Thus far, Modi has signaled that India will remained non-aligned, but with the world's most important arms exporters. In choosing Hollande this year, India may be shedding the strategic ambiguity that has long characterized its foreign policy, and starting to take steps that will ultimately result in it becoming a greater power in our G-Zero world. Advertisement As the second-most populous country in the world and its largest democracy, and having a young, energetic and impatient population that yearns to join the ranks of the world's leading economies, India has all the basic prerequisites to become a Great Power, at least in its own region. Yet, for decades it has failed to live up to its potential, the result of a sclerotic government bureaucracy and extremely diverse ethnic, religious and linguistic composition. Having been founded on an anti-colonial platform, its founders' distaste for imperial misadventures led to its membership in the Non-Aligned Movement, and modern India has historically been more interested in scolding Great Powers for hubris or exploitation than joining their ranks. Further, its post-independence poverty and self-defeating statist bureaucracy made it impossible for India to project power beyond its immediate periphery. For decades, the Indian political and military class have remained obsessed (to the point of paranoia) about threats from Pakistan, twisting its entire geo-strategic architecture towards its northwest neighbor, hobbling any inclination to look elsewhere for geopolitical opportunities. Though the Indian government had made small overtures aimed at opening up to the world since the 1990s, its strategic reorientation has accelerated dramatically since the election of Narendra Modi in 2014. New Delhi had, over time, become unnerved by a substantially more powerful and assertive China, which did not share India's democratic values and was eager to make its presence strongly felt in India's backyard. The Indian government began to more fully appreciate its relative lack of strategic options, brought on by years of neglect. Modi swiftly began to patch up relations with India's immediate neighbors, notably Sri Lanka, with Modi becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the island in 28 years. He has been acting with remarkable calm and resolve to improve ties with Pakistan, recently making an unannounced stopover in the country on the occasion of Sharif's birthday. Modi has also made his presence known in Myanmar, where he has made clear India's interest in being 'in the room' as the new democracy evolves. Advertisement This has all afforded Modi the diplomatic space to begin to look farther afield for partnerships with other powers who support the idea of a more regionally-powerful India, and he has done so with enthusiasm. Obama's presence at the Republic Day Parade was the start of a year of intense Indo-U.S. friendship, which saw a reciprocal visit by Modi to the U.S., a renewal of a nuclear agreement between the two states, and a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter to New Delhi, during which the U.S. indicated a willingness to transfer sensitive aircraft carrier technology to the Indian naval program. Coming on the heels of the Bush Administration's 123 Agreement, which enhanced India's civil nuclear program, Indian/U.S. relations have never been stronger. At the same time, India began strengthening regional ties with Australia and Japan, who share India's concern about China's regional ambitions, and formalized procedures for joining them in recurring naval exercises in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, along with the U.S. Think tanks in New Delhi now write openly and regularly of the need to counter China's growing presence, and the threat posed to Indian interests by Beijing. That said, India clearly still desires to keep more options open than closed. It should be remembered that Modi also visited Russia and China last year, which, along with all his other travels, has already made him the most-traveled Indian Prime Minister in history. There was a good deal of speculation that Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin might be Modi's honored guest this year, making clear to the world that India was still a swing player, not beholden to any single camp. Modi is hedging his bets, however -- in essence extending hands of friendship to a wide variety of potential partners while keeping a clenched fist behind his back. India's historical political, economic and military ties to Russia remain firmly intact. Its growing defense budget continues to source a good deal of materiel from Russia, and the two countries have ambitions to achieve a trade relationship worth $30 billion by 2025. Modi used Hollande's visit to very publicly sign a deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (beating a Russian proposal for Sukhoi jets), as well as extend a 2006 defense cooperation agreement, and, in a historic first, invited a French contingent to march with Indian troops in the event. The message was not ambiguous. So while India's strategic architecture remains small for a country of its size, the task of transitioning to Great Power status remains enormous, and the possibility for its derailment remains real. Much remains to be done. Advertisement Modi has, however, made clear by his repeated overtures to a series of strategic potential allies, that India is and wants to remain at the table. India's new strategic thinking is coming into focus. For the first time, it is reasonable to imagine that a contingent of the Indian Brigade of the Guards could march down the Champs Elysees during Bastille Day. Modi's message is clear: the days of strategic ambiguity will remain, but there is no ambiguity about its long-term economic, political, and military ambitions. While India is not Russia or the U.S. in terms of its global reach or strength, it is, apart from China, the emerging country with the most potential to achieve Great Power status this century. It will take a great deal of concerted reform, persistent effort, and devoted financial and military resources to achieve that, but Modi has set India on that path. Naming a business can seem like a daunting task, and it may not be something you want to spend a lot of time doing. But make no mistake - your business name can often be just as important as the quality of the products you make and the price at which you sell them. A good business name gets you noticed and makes you understood. A bad one - well, it can cause problems (just ask "Therapist Finder" what their URL looks like when you type it into your browser - yikes!). With that in mind, here are some things to consider when naming your business: Keyword, unique, or invented? There are three major ways to go when naming your business, and all of them have pros and cons. 1. Keyword: With this method, you use industry keywords to make it very clear what your business does. For example, there's no confusion about what General Electric or General Motors does. On the upside, a potential customer doesn't have to ask questions to learn what your business does, and you theoretically would rank higher in searches than a more obscurely named competitors. Advertisement A good rule regarding whether to go down the keywords route is to determine whether you're one of the first in your particular space. General Electric or General Motors could name based on keywords because they were one of the early ones into their industry. If you're starting car company today, though, you need something else to stand out in a Google search. Otherwise, you'll be buried behind their competitors - even if someone is specifically trying to find you! Another issue with keyword-based names is that they don't adapt well to change. If General Electric decided to start selling bread, it'd be a hard sell - so if your brand is based on keywords, you better be sure that you're not going to change your business model down the road. 2. Unique: This category contains real words or names that aren't industry keywords. For example, Apple qualifies because that's a word not normally associated with computers. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory and definitely not a keyword for shoes. McDonald's also qualifies using the last name of the McDonald brothers who founded the company in 1940. This method presents the opportunity to build a brand identity with a little personality and specificity, whether you're looking to create name recognition or emphasize a benefit of your products or to stand out from the more generic names of your competitors. Advertisement 3. Invented: An offshoot of the unique category, this method relies on creating an entirely new word or phrase for your business. A popular example here is Twitter: now, it's a household name, but before its existence, the word "Twitter" meant very little. Invented names are a trade-off. On one hand, they don't immediately say anything about your brand, which means that you'll have to undergo a familiarization process in which people start associating the name with the brand. If you can manage this, though, invented names are super memorable and, at their best, can even become household names (like Twitter). There's an art to creating invented brand names. Margot Bushnaq, CEO of BrandBucket, notes that a good invented name needs to have a few key attributes. First, it has to be easy to spell - if you poll 10 random people, they should all come up with the same spelling. And it can't be too long (in fact, domain names decrease in value as length increases). "Fitbit" is an example of a great invented name, as it's short and sweet, and has the bonus of including a rhyming syllable, which makes it extra memorable. Does it fit your narrative? Naming a business is mostly an exercise in marketing: don't forget that! The more you can explain or connect with customers using your name, the less you have to do later. Your business name is an opportunity to further your brand story so a person can even more readily understand who you are and what you stand for. For example, the luxury car company Tesla - named after the famous electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla - communicates important things about a brand. One could reasonably assume, for instance, that they make electric cars and that they're forward-thinking for their time. And indeed, Tesla Motors has these qualities in spades. Advertisement Similarly, with many of the computer companies of the '80s and '90s sounding cold and techie, "Apple" sounded friendly and human. With an emphasis on intuitive user interface, this name made total sense for the company. To use another well-known example, "Virgin" might at first appear a little scandalous, but there's the assumption that a person with the gall to name their company Virgin must be bold (and maybe a little nuts). Richard Branson, the zany and wildly successful CEO of Virgin Group, is these things and more in the best possible ways. Plan for the Future It's very costly to make a significant change to your company's name, so make sure you plan for the future. If your dog food company plans on eventually making cat food, too, putting "dog" in the business name is going to be a hurdle down the road. In the same vein, if your business model is to expand from your local market to worldwide, then including your local area in your business name could pose an obstacle later on. Make sure the name (and the domain) is not already taken This seems like a pretty obvious one, but there's nothing more frustrating than putting in a ton of work on a name only to discover that it's taken. And with the internet as crowded as it is, this is a familiar (and frustrating) scenario for people trying to build an online business. Luckily, websites like BrandBucket use linguistic formulas to come up with both keyword and invented brand names - with accompanying domain names that are actually available. Plus, they list thousands and thousands of options to choose from, so if you find yourself stuck, they have available options to spark a little inspiration. COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA - JANUARY 31: People photograph Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with their smart phones as he speaks to guests during a campaign rally at the Gerald W. Kirn Middle School on January 31, 2016 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Trump and other presidential hopefuls are in Iowa trying to gain support and crucial votes for tomorrow's caucuses. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) Living in the Boston area gives me an incredible window into the marketing aspects of the U.S. Presidential election because the candidates with deep pockets advertise on television here and being a political geek, I enjoy attending primary events that are just an hour's drive away. I also poke around the candidates' websites and social media feeds. While each is focused both online and offline, there is a missing element of packaging the physical and the virtual together to generate even more attention. What I've found interesting this cycle is that Donald Trump has done an amazing job with real-time communications. In my analysis back in August, 2015, Donald Trump Winning the Social Networking Primaries in a Landslide, I showed how Trump has a better command of social networking than any other candidate. At that time, he had four times as many followers at @realdonaldtrump on Twitter as any other candidate and he tweeted much more often. He is much more likely to comment in real-time on what was happening in his world. Advertisement Yes, every candidate has a decent website and basic social networking including Facebook and Twitter. But most aren't serious about their social presence. They merely do it as a checkbox because they have to. While the other candidates tweet well-researched positions designed to appeal to as many people as possible, Trump doesn't mind offending while he says what he thinks. In a world where big brands control messages, authenticity wins, and that's part of the reason Trump has been so far out in front in the polls. Meantime, candidates like Hillary Clinton, John Kasich, and Chris Christie are playing a slow and methodical ground game. Kasich, for example, just passed his 100th town hall event in New Hampshire. Their strategy is to meet as many New Hampshire voters as possible. In contrast, Trump has staged a few large rallies and relies on mainstream media to get the word out. Engage with Supporters at Events on Social Networks At every campaign event I've signed up for -- Clinton, Sanders, Kasich, Rubio, and Trump -- I've been asked for my name, phone number, email address, and home address. Once I actually entered the event venue, I was often asked for the same information a second time. Yet, no candidate wanted to know my Twitter ID, @dmscott, where I have more than 120,000 followers. That seems like a missed opportunity. While every candidate urged the audience to "talk to your friends and neighbors" and "help get out the vote" nobody encouraged us to share our thoughts on social media. At a Clinton event, just before the candidate walked onto the stage, there was a message on the big screen saying "Text RALLY to 47246". I was psyched for this because I thought they might be pointing me to a place where I could interact while she was speaking so I texted. Alas, it seemed to just be a way to collect phone numbers. Sure enough, I got an annoying call a few days later. Advertisement Better yet, candidates could have had a social sharing plan unique to each event. This could be a dedicated page on Facebook where a bunch of photos shot by a campaign staffer would be available immediately after the event. Many who are at the event would likely share these "social media ready" photos of the candidate with voters. Or what about a hashtag for each event where people could share what they were seeing live on Twitter? A staffer could live tweet what the candidate was saying and post photos ready for a re-tweet. The cost of this staffer for the entire campaign would be less than one of the dozens of television commercials that the mainstream candidates have been running. Seems like a good investment to me. The closest thing to this kind of link from an offline event to online social networking was an email thank you note from the Trump campaign sent me after I attended a rally. It contained a photo of the event, which was a nice touch. But it was conspicuous in not including social share buttons like "I was here" that could post the photo to social networks. Another missed opportunity. In 2004, the Howard Dean campaign pioneered blogging as a Presidential campaign tool and he rose from nowhere in the early primary states. In 2008 and again in 2012 as social media exploded in popularity in the U.S., Barack Obama was by far the most engaged candidate on social networks and it won him both elections. In this cycle, Donald Trump has extended Obama's focus on social media to become the most engaged in real-time media like Twitter. But nobody has managed to figure out how to take the massive investment in traditional campaign methods like town hall events and television advertising and integrate them with a focus on social networking. For that we've got to wait until the 2020 cycle. This week I spent an awful lot of time talking about the tragic murder of Nicole Lovell. She is the 13-year-old central Virginia girl whose body was found on the side of the road last Saturday. Two Virginia Tech students have been arrested in connection with her death, and it appears that social media played a part in this sad story. Evidence suggests she may have met her suspected killer through a social networking app called Kik. At the end of every conversation about this story--with friends, colleagues, and press--I find myself asking the same question: What if? What if... parents talked to their kids about their online lives? This is harder than in sounds. First off, kids have to be willing to talk, right? So a good time to initiate these conversations is with the gift of a first phone or computer. Ask them what they're doing online, or how to use an app, or even ask for their help with your own phone or computer. This is how you build a bridge to a place called "mutual trust." It's harder to build this bridge if you wait until they already have an online life that doesn't include you. Advertisement What if...every child received Digital Citizenship lessons in school? This way they'd be constantly talking, thinking, and learning about both the perils and possibilities afforded by online interactions. It's being reported that Lovell told friends about her online relationship with the young man who has been charged with her murder, and even shared pictures and texts with friends. What if these friends had learned, in school, what to do in such a situation ("tell a trusted adult")? When I teach Cyber Civics classes we talk about all this and more. Kids love talking about their online lives (current and future) and even end up watching out for each other in these new places, employing strategies they learn in school. It's surprising how a little education can result in a whole lot of online protection and savvy. What if...social media sites took age restrictions seriously? Associated Press reports that Lovell told friends that she met "David" on the Kik Messenger app. The minimum age of use for this app is 13, and Kik also requires that children between 13 and 18 years of age get parental permission before using the service. In a CBS News story Kik Interactive spokesman Rod McLeod acknowledged that "there's no technical way to enforce that or to prevent a child from entering a false birthdate." Maybe this is my technical naivete speaking, but it's hard to believe that my iPhone knows who I am with the touch of my thumb, yet no one can figure out how to keep underage kids off apps like Kik. Really? What if...we made these first three "what if's" a top priority? ALEPPO, SYRIA - FEBRUARY 6: Syrians rest in a camp built by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation near Bab al-Salam border gate on Turkey's border in Azez district of Aleppo as they flee to Turkey to escape heavy Syrian regime and Russian airstrikes, on February 6, 2016. (Photo by Kerem Kocalar/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) While approaching the fifth anniversary of the Syrian civil war on March 15 -- which claimed more than 300,000 lives, approximately 700,000 wounded, 4 million fled the country, and another 6 million displaced within Syria -- the international community has failed to put an end to bloodshed in this war-torn country. During the first days of the conference, the Russian and the regime's air forces have systematically carpeted Aleppo and the besieged towns of southern Damascus with barrels of explosives, killing hundreds of civilians, even before the beginning of the peace talks, where most of them have been killed indiscriminately. It is disgraceful that the international community has successfully concluded an agreement with the regime in a very short period of time to remove its chemical weapons while completely failed to save the lives of millions of innocent children, women, and elderly people throughout Syria in the past five years! Advertisement After five years of mass killing in Syria, and instead of prosecuting and bringing perpetrators to justice, the international community has invited the Syrian regime, which relies heavily on the division of the international community on Syria, and on the unwavering support of Russia, to negotiate peace with the opposition leaders in Geneva. This recalls a cynical statement by Haris Siladzic, at that time the Bosnian foreign minister and head of the Bosnian delegation to the Vance-Owen peace talks in Geneva in October 1992 to negotiate peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, saying: "If you kill one person, you're prosecuted; if you kill 10 people, you're a celebrity; if you kill a quarter of a million people, you're invited to a peace conference." Siladzic was referring to Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian-Serb leader, who was invited together with Slobodan Milosevic, as official guests of the United Nations and the EC. Because of rigidity in the Serb leaders' position, peace talks had failed to stop war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, while killing continued for another three years, claiming the lives of more than three-hundred thousands of Bosnian civilians. The recent failure of Geneva III affirms what has been believed that the international community is doomed to repeat its failure in protecting civilians from mass slaughter. Since the outbreak of the recent violence in Syria, Russia and China have vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, preventing several attempts by the UN Security Council to take a decision that might have put a stop to the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against Syrian civilians by state agents. It is clear that Russia and China are playing the same role played by the United States administration in the UN Security Council during the Rwandan Genocide. The lack of attention paid to the Rwandan catastrophe by the United States government and high-ranking officials was remarkable. On 20 August 2001, seven years after the genocide, the United States National Security Archive (USNSA) released sixteen declassified government documents under the US Freedom of Information Act (USFIA). These documents clarified what US officials in Clinton's administration knew about the genocide, and why they chose to avoid military intervention to stop the slaughter. These documents explicitly indicated that Clinton's administration, in contrast with public statements, had pressured the UN Security Council to withdraw the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) troops after the breakout of violence. It was uncooperative in other areas as well: Warren Christopher, the then Secretary of State, did not authorize the use of the term "genocide" until the first week of June 1994; the administration refused to shut down the Hutu extremist radio station, which was inciting the killings and sexual violence; and finally, the administration received early warning of and was alerted to mass killings that would take place shortly thereafter. Moreover, when General Romeo Dallaire asked an American officer why the United States did not move to halt genocide in Rwanda, the officer said "The lives of 800,000 Rwandans were only worth risking the lives of ten American troops," referring to the ten Belgian troops who were massacred by Hutu militiamen at the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide. Advertisement However, the laxity on the part of the UN Security Council to pass a resolution under chapter VII to stop war and to refer the situation in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, pursuant to Article 13(b) of the Rome Statute, is due to several factors, most importantly, failure of international political will and lack of interest on the part of the major players. Remembering the marginal and negative role of the international community in stopping the Rwandan genocide of 1994, one may recall a statement by an American diplomat who justified the negligent American role by saying: "we didn't have a dog in that fight." It is true that advancing human rights is not, and has never been, the major players' main concern! A case in point is while the Iranian minister of foreign affairs was shaking hands and celebrating the interim six-month nuclear deal in Geneva, a hanged body of a young man was swaying from a crane in a public squire in Tehran, the capital of a country known of having the world's highest per capita rate of executions, as Shirin Ebadi and Payam Akhavan provide. In the same vein, while the US and European governments have utterly failed to condemn the bloody coup d'etat of July 2013 against the first ever democratically-elected civilian president of Egypt, led by the minister of defence, they took firm stances against the Ukrainian government and threatened to impose sanctions, a travel ban, and asset freeze on Ukrainians involved in killing protesters; un acceptable double standard! Bernie Sanders's foreign policy is unclear, lacks clarity, and is ill-defined. He virtually tied Hillary Clinton in Iowa on a platform of left-wing economic populism that derails Wall Street and obscene inequality. However, the extent of Sanders's heavily concentrated focus on social, economic and political justice, has resulted in a profound neglect in effectively clarifying and articulating his foreign policy. Sanders's lack of foreign policy clarity doesn't appear to affect his polling, however, with a recent NBC poll showing that only 16% of Democratic voters call foreign policy and terrorism the most important issue. Conversely, whereas the top issue among Republicans is counter-terrorism, the top issue for Democrats are the economy and healthcare. While an unclear foreign policy may not detrimentally affect Sanders for now, if he does become the nominee, which isn't highly likely, he can't afford to be so vague. Advertisement It is vagueness heavily rested on his opposition to the Iraq war that Hillary Clinton has picked apart recently: "Senator Sanders doesn't talk very much about foreign policy. And when he does, it raises concerns because sometimes it can sound like he hasn't really thought it through." This suspicion of Sanders's foreign policy credentials extend to a public letter released by 10 pro-Clinton foreign policy experts that states, "We are concerned that Senator Sanders has not thought through these crucial national security issues that can have profound consequences for our security." On ambiguity, it's not entirely certain, for example, what direction Sanders would want to take military spending as president, due to his seeming contradictions. His campaign website loosely states, 'Our defence budget must represent our national security interests and the needs of our military, not the reelection of members of Congress or the profits of defence contractors', and ends with an endorsement of President Eisenhower's fears of military industrial complex largesse. Advertisement At the same time, Sanders seemingly contradicts himself by happening to defend the immensely expensive f-35 stealth fighter program. While offering phrases such as 'moving away from unilateralism' towards multilateralism may offer some helpful indication, it spells very little indication of where Sanders would set military spending, what he would do with troop numbers in Germany, for example, or even the fate under a Sanders presidency of the estimated 800 bases around the world. Looking at the War and Peace section on Bernie Sanders's website, when you remove his vote against Iraqi intervention in 2003, one finds little beyond support for the Iran deal and supporting a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, Senator McCaskill correctly notes, "Most Americans are going to want a foreign policy that has more depth to it than, 'I was right about the Iraq war vote' and that seems to be the only thing that Bernie has shown a mastery of." That doesn't diminish the weighting of the Iraq war vote even to this day, nor the importance of fighting ISIS in Iraq. It's that there are clearly other non-Iraq associated big issues and hard choices, hard choices that Clinton confronted and can drawn upon during her time as Secretary of State. Advertisement Beyond ambiguity, Sanders has proven his foreign policy illiteracy by defending a strategy against ISIS that is detached from the reality of Middle East geopolitics. He has called on Iran and Saudi Arabia to work together and build a coalition to defeat ISIS, omitting to acknowledge that contempt and animosity towards both countries couldn't be any higher. Michael Pregent, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, notes that, "Sanders does not understand that Sunni nations are as concerned - if not more - about Iranian hegemonic goals as they are with the threat of ISIS." The Sanders doctrine would be easier to define by judging which foreign policy experts Sanders has called upon for advice. Unlike Clinton, Sanders has called on the advice of very few experts and that adds to questions about what sort of foreign policy he would have. Phyllis Bennis, director of the Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies points out, "I have no idea who Bernie is listening to on security and foreign affairs." Sanders is ambiguous because as a populist, he wants to challenge the status quo, but he largely embraces the Obama administration's decisions. He can't afford to embrace Obama's foreign policy, however, as Obama's foreign policy decisions are associated with Hillary Clinton. Herein lies the issue with Sanders, as Ali Gharib of The Nation precisely highlights that Sanders "is trying to position himself as challenging the status quo while in fact upholding it." Bernie Sanders has built a campaign primarily on a single-minded focus of economic inequality. It may be able to sustain him for now, but if Sanders does become the eventual Democratic nominee, he won't attract independent voters with evident foreign policy ambiguity. LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 04: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at the 'Supporting Syria Conference' at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on February 4, 2016 in London, England. World leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will gather for the 4th annual donor conference in an attempt to raise A6.2bn GBP to those affected by the war in Syria. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Israel doesn't accept criticism. In fact, whether from friend or foe, even mild criticism is viewed as an existential threat prompting Israeli officials to unleash a torrent of abuse in an effort to silence and/or punish critics. And given new initiatives being rolled out in Israel and here is the US, by Congress and some state legislatures, this effort to silence critics is endangering free speech and the search for peace. This worrisome tendency was on display in recent weeks as Israelis reacted with striking vehemence to remarks by United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, and US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro. Advertisement In a speech to the Security Council, the Secretary General decried the "unacceptable levels of violence and polarized public discourse" that has taken hold in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. He condemned the Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and insisted that "the full force of law must be brought to bear on all of those committing crimes--with a system of justice applied equally for Israelis and Palestinians alike". But Ban went further, observing that "security measures alone will not stop the violence. They cannot address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians...Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation...[and] as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism". The Secretary General went on to express his concern with recent Israeli announcements to expand settlements in the occupied lands, urging them to: stop the demolitions of Palestinian homes and confiscation of Palestinian lands; address the humanitarian situation in Gaza; and to take concrete steps to improve the daily lives of the Palestinian people--noting that all of these behaviors made more difficult the achievement of an Israel-Palestinian peace. Ban offered, as well, a series of steps the Palestinians needed to take to end their internal divisions, put their house in order, and end incitement against Israel. Advertisement In an address to an Israeli think tank, Ambassador Shapiro echoed some of Ban's concerns, noting "we are concerned and perplexed by Israel's strategy on settlements. This government and previous Israeli governments have repeatedly expressed their support for a negotiated two-state solution -- a solution that would involve both mutual recognition and separation ... Yet separation will become more and more difficult if Israel plans to continue to expand the footprint of settlements." Shapiro also criticized the way Israel governs in the occupied lands, saying "too much Israeli vigilantism in the West Bank goes on unchecked," he said. "There is a lack of thorough investigations ... at times it seems Israel has two standards of adherence to rule of law in the West Bank -- one for Israelis and one for Palestinians." The Israeli reactions to both Ban and Shapiro were predictably harsh. Ban was accused of demonstrating a "double standard" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the United Nations had "lost its neutrality and moral force" and charging that Ban had given "tail wind to terror". Netanyahu also called Shapiro's observations "unacceptable". The Ambassador was accused demonstrating a "double standard" and was crudely dismissed by a former Netanyahu aide as a "little Jew boy" courting favor. All of this heightened hyper-reaction to criticism plays out against a backdrop of dangerous moves by Israel and its supporters in the US to not only defame and politically punish critics and in some instances to go further by making criticism illegal. In Israel, steps have been taken to punish teachers and artists and the Knesset is considering a series of measures and the passage of a new law that target domestic critics in an effort to blacklist them as "traitors". Meanwhile, here in the US, the Department of State has issued guidelines on anti-Semitism which, in addition, to including examples of displays of "hatred toward Jews...Jewish institutions and religious facilities" also goes down a dangerous path terming as anti-Semitic "applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] behavior not expected of any other democratic nation". And several state governments have passed laws prohibiting efforts that call for boycotting, sanctioning, of divesting from Israel because of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Advertisement The net effect of all these measures will be to silence critics and to deny them not only their right to speak out, but to peacefully organize and act to affect change in Israel's policies in the occupied Palestinian lands. There is a certain irony in all of this because in their hysterical use of charge of "double standard"--i.e. that Israel is being "singled out for criticism"--it is Israel's supporters who are themselves guilty of a "double standard", since, if they were to have their way, it is Israel which would be singled out as the only country that cannot be criticized. In the end, Ban and Shapiro are right. Israel's behavior is doing grave damage to the Palestinian people and to any hope for peace. And their critics are wrong. It is not a double standard to criticize Israel and it is most certainly not anti-Semitic. In fact, the overreaction to criticism harms our political discourse, damages the effort to combat real anti-Semitism, and because it serves to enable destructive Israeli policies, it makes a just peace a near unattainable goal. EXETER, NH - FEBRUARY 5: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks at a rally in the Exeter town hall on February 5, 2016 in Exeter, New Hampshire. Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates are stumping for votes throughout New Hampshire leading up to the Presidential Primary on February 9th.(Photos by Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post via Getty Images) The Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party is in the awkward position of asserting two incompatible claims. First, elite bankers deserve respect and deference -- and probably most of their income -- because they uniquely understand how to design transactions that turn money into more money. Second, when those same bankers paid Hillary Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars in "speaking fees" (plus the vast sums Wall Street donors have paid into the Clinton family's campaigns and other projects over the decades), they didn't expect anything special in return. This is a deliberately simplified way of putting it. Of course candidates have to deny that they listen to Wall Street, and flatter voters into thinking ordinary people's opinions about high finance and economic fairness really matter. But of course most candidates also suppose that ordinary people don't understand banking, that bankers do, and that part of their job as governing elites is to listen to the bankers. Which, of course, the bankers appreciate, appreciation that they express in the language of the super-rich gift economy: "We're all responsible elites here; take some of my money." Bernie Sanders's bad manners and alleged demagoguery lie in his taking the part about flattering voters too seriously, and not recognizing the delicate hypocrisy of grown-up politics. Advertisement This revealing little dispute is a microcosm of the impatience that a certain kind of elite feels for the Sanders campaign. Consider the two major lines of dismissal against Sanders, and the way they come together in more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger condescension toward democracy. If you want to dismiss the Sanders campaign, you can choose between two lines of attack. You can join Paul Krugman at the New York Times, asserting that governing is too hard for an idealistic democratic socialist: Sanders doesn't seem built for compromise, and his proposals lack detail. And governing, as opposed to campaigning, is all about compromise and detail. Endorsing Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, the Times editorial board marveled, "Mrs. Clinton has done her homework on pretty much any issue you care to name." Homework, you see. That's the ticket; not staying out after dark working up the ruffians and messing with other people's property. Grow up! is the bottom line here: as Krugman puts it in High Adult tones, "politics, like life, involves trade-offs." If that seems a little dreary, you can take the line Alexandra Schwartz presses at the New Yorker. Developing themes that have been in the air for months, Schwartz offer a cultural take on Sanders's appeal to young voters (who are supporting him by margins of seventy points or more in early primaries and polling). It must be his air of "purity," and "nostalgia for an imaginary time of simpler, more straightforward politics." Looking back on her own Wordsworthian "very heaven" of imagining young Barack Obama "entirely pure," Schwartz urges Sanders's enthusiasts to find a "passage into political adulthood," where we give up our idle fantasies about candidates. And about time, since Bernie reminds her of "the nutty great-uncle at the Seder table," pungent with "hokiness" and rhetorical "staleness," and of the "false nostalgia for past purity, in fashion or food, for instance." Away with this iceberg lettuce salad of a candidacy, this sweaty vintage dress, this itchy, unkempt lumbersexual beard of a Democratic primary hopeful! Let's grow up, release our grip on childish things, and get back to business, which is to say, compromise. Advertisement Despite their very different tones and concerns, the two lines of dismissal come around to the same point: adults learn not to take campaigns, promises, or political hopes too seriously. They learn that the real work is tedious, often invisible to the public, and highly constrained. They do their homework. Whether the dismissal comes in an eye-roll or a Nobel prize-winner's rank-pulling, the lesson is the same: either political campaigns are festivals of feeling, mosh pits of emotional projection and crude fantasizing - about utopias of free stuff, unblemished leaders, or, more darkly, throwing bankers into jail - or they are a chance to choose responsible elites who will always do their homework. All of this is one version of the lessons of the Obama era. Obama's post-partisan but unmistakably "progressive" speeches thrilled young voters and former idealists who thought they would never feel that way again. His campaign upended a Clinton game-plan that was supposed to be unstoppable as he promised ecstatic throngs, "We are the people we have been waiting for." Upon winning, Obama began displaying enormous deference to the designated adults of the early millennium: economists, bankers, and generals, as well as vicious political professionals like Rahm Emanuel (who was known for his contempt for the idealists who put Obama in office). "Look, I know these guys," President Obama said of the country's leading bankers early in his first term, "and they're very savvy businessmen." Associating himself with grown-up authority, he followed his party's hawks into a disastrous intervention in Libya and dilatory engagement with the Syrian disaster. And, within the limits of official adulthood, he has been a good president: he consistently presented a dignified and inclusive face, from Pete Seeger's presence at the first inauguration to the recent mosque visit, and he appointed many earnest, incorruptible officials who have been pressing forward compromised progress on climate change, criminal justice reform, labor standards, and nearly anything else the government touches. (I know these people; they're very decent and effective public servants.) But although this is the recent story Schwartz and Krugman have in mind, there's something deeper in the dismissal of Sanders, a whole picture of politics that is the admission ticket to elite political adulthood. The Obama presidency is only a minor example. To understand this picture, it helps to go back to its intellectual origins. In the first half of the twentieth century, influential intellectuals such as Walter Lippmann and Joseph Schumpeter pressed an argument that should sound familiar. Political judgment was a disaster. As Schumpeter put it in 1942, "the typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the field of his real interests. He becomes a primitive again. His thinking becomes associative and affective." Schumpeter went on to argue that all of this meant that democratic decisions - majoritarian votes - were terrible and dangerous things: shifting with emotional winds, subject to manipulation, and basically "unintelligent and irresponsible." Taking them seriously, he warned, "may prove fatal" to a country. Advertisement Schumpeter wrote as an Austrian emigre to the US, and these passages are easy to read as the tragic wisdom bequeathed by the twentieth century's totalitarian catastrophes. But that is mostly coincidence. Lippmann had made all the same arguments, somewhat less floridly, in the 1920s and with a mainly American scope of concern. The idea of democratic self-governance was mainly myth, he argued. The motors of politics were emotion and ignorant instinct, organized around symbolic catch-phrases - "socialism," or "the big banks" - which produced electoral majorities somewhat randomly or, worse, under manipulation. The actual business of governing involved much more concrete, constrained, and complicated decisions. There were, basically, two entirely different domains of human judgment in politics: democratic contestation and practical governance. They did not touch. Even the rare citizen who was earnest and worked to be informed, Lippmann wrote, "is trying to steer the boat from the shore." But, tragically, democracies pretended that governing depended on democratic will - something that, considered dispassionately, did not exist. Influenced by logical positivists' efforts to root out meaningless terms from language, both Schumpeter and Lippmann argued that most of democratic politics was as meaningful as a theological debate about the nature of God, as stable and reliable as a dream recalled on an analyst's couch, and as rational as the conversational dynamics of a family holiday dinner. The grown-up task of governing was lashed to this flailing, preening, unmeaning mob that needed to believe it was in charge. This is much too harsh for Krugman or Schwartz to say. I doubt they believe it, certainly not in as many words. But consider the way this picture divides the world. On the one hand, elections and political movements are psychological and symbolic: to understand them, you need the skills of the cultural critic or, just a bit more bleakly, the marketing savant. You need to see how the paradoxical resonance of a supposedly cranky old man from Vermont is tied to the fashion for uncomfortable clothes and unsubtle food, and have the detachment to know that we will all grow out of this fad soon. On the other hand, the real realm of expertise goes on, keeping things going like the investors who maintain university endowments while the undergraduates debate socialism. A sophisticated person understands the difference tacitly (like so much in refined understanding), though expressing it directly would be gauche. The public has to be flattered and cajoled, and one of the pleasures of criticism is remembering when one believed in flattery (like really really believing in the first music you loved, or your first romance) and seeing how that same illusion is achieved today. But adulthood means understanding that politics is emotional theater, while governing is like banking or negotiating a merger. Advertisement The Sanders campaign breaches both sides of this arrangement. It invites people to take politics very seriously indeed. It gives signs that it will not be domesticated as easily as Obama was. And it proposes to invade the realm of expertise with a new agenda: truly universal health care, truly affordable higher education, a serious assault on the political power of concentrated money. Above all, it proposes pressing this agenda forward because, if - mirabile dictu - Sanders won, the people would have chosen it. Breaching the line between majority will and real governance, Schumpeter and Lippmann argued, was like running together matter and anti-matter: the results would be destructive, perhaps fatal. It was a misunderstanding of the whole enterprise of politics. It may sound strange to say we are haunted by the ghosts of old theorists, but Lippmann and Schumpeter were both expressing and helping to form a set of elite understandings that are part of the sensibility of anyone who has gone through fancy institutions, or absorbed some of their assumptions through middle-brow media. Consider that our leading public theorists about politics and public morality are psychologists who explain our disagreements as emotional and even physiological symptoms, such as George Lakoff and Jonathan Haidt, while we take our political homework to Nobel economists to be checked. The residue of the basically anti-democratic worldview that infuses so much of our supposedly democratic politics is everywhere. Both Schumpeter and Lippmann concluded that the most plausible role of elections was to provide a peaceful way for elites to circulate between government and their other posts (such as business, finance, and universities). It is no surprise that our current political, financial, and media elites are attached to a worldview that imparts great power and tragic responsibility to them, the only ones who can see the picture whole. Misgivings about democracy are not groundless slurs. It's easy to point to evidence - people can't identify their senators, don't know what's in the Constitution, don't understand how government works, are choosing between Cruz and Trump. But it's also true that anti-democratic attitudes and condescension masked as respect tend to foster the very kind of polity they presuppose (and worry over): ignorant, resentful of manipulation, but delighted enough when it is flattered. In light of all this, it is remarkable that voters keep coming back to an earnest effort to link democratic mobilization with real changes in policy. Perhaps some of them have been underestimated, and they know it. Advertisement Hope was a quick high: That is political adulthood's story about the last eight years; but fortunately the Obama movement stopped partying once its partisans had a real job. And it's true that the last eight years have shown a great deal about the limits to what any one candidate can achieve, about the deep power of finance, the military, and the expert classes, and the intense mistrust of government in many parts of the electorate. Two possible lessons come from this. The standard elite story is that we go back to business as usual: incremental change plus playing defense. On this view, there is no middle ground between childish emotion and the condescending, basically anti-democratic disenchantment of what passes for political adulthood. Mesopotamia January-February 1916: The Relief of Kut Al Amara British prisoners of war from the surrender at Kut Al Amara At the beginning of January 1916, General Sir John Nixon dispatched a relief force under Lieutenant-General Sir Fenton Aylmer to relieve the British force under General Charles Townshend besieged at Kut Al Amara. The British force made several attempts, between January and March 1916, to lift the siege of Kut; all of which were unsuccessful. Two battles in particular, the Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad and the Battle of the Wadi, while technically British victories, resulted in significant British losses and failed to reach the beleaguered garrison in Kut. The Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad was fought from January 6-8, 1916, along the banks of the Tigris River. Aylmer dispatched the 19th, 28th and 35th Indian Brigades of the Anglo-Indian Tigris Corp under the command of Sir George John Younghusband, a cavalry officer and major general in the British Indian Army. The rest of the British force, under Aylmer, stayed behind in Ali Gharbi awaiting further reinforcements that were in route. Younghusband had been ordered not to engage the Ottoman 6th Army until the rest of the British force arrived. The combined British contingent numbered over 13,000 men, including 9,900 infantry and 1,340 cavalry. The Ottoman Sixth Army numbered 9,000 infantry and included one cavalry brigade. The British had 42 artillery pieces versus 20 for the Ottoman force. Advertisement The battle terrain was flat and featureless. The Ottoman positions were well constructed and camouflaged. The Tigris Corp lacked any aerial reconnaissance and had little idea of what lay ahead of them. Beginning on the morning of January 6, Younghusband's troops began to run into the Ottoman force. Instead of waiting for Aylmer's arrival or concentrating his forces, Younghusband ordered his troops on both sides of the Tigris to press the attack. Although outnumbered by 4 to 1, the Ottoman 35th Division stubbornly held its ground. On January 7, with the arrival of Aylmer's force, the British again pressed the attack. Advancing on both sides of the Tigris the British force came under long-range fire from the Ottoman defenders. Lacking any natural cover the Tigris Corp were forced to dig in and were unable to penetrate the Ottoman lines. By January 8, however, the 26th Brigade, reinforced by the 62nd Punjabis and 92nd Punjabis under Major-General Sir George Kemball, had penetrated Ottoman lines on the right bank of the Tigris. With their flank exposed to British fire, the Ottoman force on the left bank of the Tigris was also forced to withdraw, assuming previously prepared positions some seven miles to the rear. Advertisement Technically, the Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad was a British victory. Militarily it failed to achieve its primary objectives. The Ottoman force was not destroyed nor was the siege of Kut any closer to being lifted. The modest British advance had come at a frightful cost. Of the 13,300 men in Aylmer's force, 1,962 had been killed and 2,300 had been wounded. Roughly 1 of every 3 men in the Tigris Corp was a casualty. Mesopotamian theater showing the initial British advance on Baghdad and the retreat to Kut Al Amara Less than a week later, on January 13, Aylmer launched a second attack against Ottoman defensive lines along the banks of the Wadi River. The valley of the Wadi was on the direct route to Kut and was heavily defended by about 20,000, well entrenched Ottoman troops. The British objective was to outflank the Ottoman force along the Wadi, capture the Hanna Defile and then surround and destroy the Ottoman troops.. Kemball engaged the Ottoman frontline, attempting to pin it in place while Younghusband, commanding the bulk of the British force, attempted to wheel around the Ottoman force in a broad flanking movement. The British force was outnumbered by better than 2 to 1. Poor roads, a lack of reconnaissance, and a persistent fog delayed the British advance. Younghusband's force quickly became lost. The Ottoman force wheeled to face the British flanking movement and was able to repulse the attack inflicting heavy casualties. By the end of the day, Aylmer called off the attack and regrouped his troops on the right bank of the Tigris. The battle had cost Tigris Corp another 1,600 casualties. Medical facilities were proving to be completely inadequate with many of the wounded subsequently dying from a lack of medical care. The two battles had cost Aylmer almost half his force and the British were no closer to the relief of Kut than they had been at the start of the campaign. Advertisement Aylmer continued to attempt the relief of Kut and to break through the Ottoman lines surrounding the city over the next several months. On April 29, abandoning any hope of resupply or rescue, Townshend surrendered his position. A total of 13,164 British and Empire soldiers surrendered and were imprisoned by the Ottomans. The loss came barely four months after the Allied defeat at Gallipoli. It had been many years since such a large force of British soldiers had surrendered to an enemy. Virtually all of the British commanders who had failed in the attempt to relieve the Siege of Kut were removed from command. The Ottoman military may have been considered a second rate force compared to its European counterparts, but it had demonstrated at Gallipoli and now at Kut, that it could hold defensive positions against a superior force. Indian gunner at the siege of Kut Al Amara What had begun as little more than a publicity stunt, a move designed to increase British prestige in the Arab world, now, following the defeat at Kut, took on an importance all of its own. Concerned that a "lack of action" would encourage Muslim unrest in India, Persia and Afghanistan, the War Committee of the British government urged a second attempt to take Baghdad. The defeat at Kut had also underscored the problem of resupply in the Mesopotamian Theater. Port facilities in Basra were inadequate for modern cargo ships. Ships arriving in Basra had to be unloaded into smaller boats that then proceeded into the harbor to unload. There was a shortage of warehouses in which to hold supplies and ships often had to wait for a week or more before they could be unloaded. With plans for a new offensive now looming, the port of Basra was enlarged and modernized, a railroad was built north from Basra and the road network around Basra was improved. Additional and better river steamers were introduced to bring supplies up river. The new British commander, General Fredrick Stanley Maude, was given the command of the newly reinforced Tigris Corps. It consisted primarily of the Third Indian Army and numbered some 50,000 men, organized into two corps. Advertisement This is a "word cloud" from a Berkley Center, Georgetown University, teaching case study on Female Genital Cutting (FGC), also called Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Since 2012, February 6 has been marked each year as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. This reflects a wide global consensus that the ancient practice of cutting female genitals is a patent violation of human rights and human dignity. Indeed, in December 2014 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/69/150 that "urges States to condemn all harmful traditional practices, in particular female genital mutilation". The resolution calls on governments to "develop, support and implement comprehensive and integrated strategies for the prevention of FGM including training of medical personnel, social workers and community and religious leaders to ensure they provide competent, supportive services and care to women and girls who are at risk of or who have undergone FGM." Advertisement Yet figuring prominently among the commentaries this year are reports that the number of girls affected is much higher than previously thought: nearly 70 million girls and women more than estimated in 2014, a total of 200 million women and girls worldwide, in different world regions. Population growth explains some of the higher estimates but so does new reporting, especially from Indonesia. Despite the powerful consensus that FGC abuses children's rights, is a long outmoded patriarchal practice, and has no benefit whatsoever in medical terms, the ritual is stubbornly persistent. Why? Few topics illustrate so well how hard it is to disentangle culture and religion. Historical research and the wisdom of anthropologists demonstrate clearly that FGC has ancient origins. That would argue that culture is what counts since FGC predates even the earliest Christian and Muslim communities. And the issue has clear non-religious justifications: it is worth remembering that the practice was not uncommon as recently as a century ago in the United States and Europe, seen as a cure for women's hysteria or nymphomania. However, many believe that it is religious beliefs and teachings that account for or at least perpetuate a practice that seems so horrifying. Because it has long been associated with Christianity and Islam, countless religious scholars and leaders have taken great pains to argue that it has no religious roots or justifications. However, others do condone it. Most important, the women who actually do the cutting or parents who insist that their daughters be cut often explain the practice in religious as well as cultural terms: it is, they argue, about purity and it is an integral part of a community's traditions. An argument often advanced is that a girl who is not cut is shunned when it comes to marriage if that is what her community expects. Outside intervention on the topic is often greeted with anger, seen as an unwanted imposition. Laws and UN resolutions do not seem to make much difference; far more effective are the patient efforts of advocates within communities who approach the issue with understanding and respect. Advertisement Casting the issue in spiritual and cultural terms can obscure the raw issues of power that are involved: the core argument that FGC is designed to control women's sexuality by curtailing their sexual desire. Men, prominently, serve as religious leaders. Thus FGC is linked to questions about women's rights within religious communities and to their sexuality. An important question is what religious leaders do and could do to speed the end of the practice. And the answer is: a lot. First, religious leaders have shown leadership in condemning the practice. Islamic scholars have roundly condemned the practice, as have Christian leaders. There are many faces of music which cater to the many faces of humans. Founding member of the group the Brand New Heavies, Jim Wellman, is set to release his upcoming solo project titled Dawn to Dusk, a record of dissent. "The album is social commentary but viewed through perspectives of human psychological evolution and analysis of mass communication and propaganda," Wellman describes. "The core of the work is the understanding that Man lives in a world of amazing technological development but is still encumbered with medieval forms of government by representatives who serve mainly the interests of the elite." After leaving the Brand New Heavies, Wellman had no intent of rekindling a career in the music industry. As he lived out his life, he became unsettled by various world events, in particular, the Western support of fascism in the Ukraine as well as the manipulative propaganda constantly spewing from the mainstream media. Like most artists, his musical dormancy was reactivated as he began to write music as a way to express his disdain for our world's dissent. Spending over a year in production, Wellman created a new jazz/funk/disco concept album entitled Dawn to Dusk which he considers to be his magnum opus. Driven by subversive subject matter, Wellman's attempt was to use music as a tool for change, as many other artists have in the past. He digs deep into the the mechanisms of human evolution to show how enormously flawed our society has become. He is an advocate for new forms of direct democracy and examines the very core of society's proverbial knot that is very far from untangling. Advertisement Many seem to fear the rise of China as a challenge to the West. Not Pope Francis.In a remarkable interview published this week in Asia Times, he takes the long view, transcending contemporary geopolitics and embracing the return of the Middle Kingdom's ancient civilization to the global stage as enriching for us all. "For me, China has always been a reference point of greatness," the pontiff was quoted as saying. "A great country. But more than a country, a great culture, with an inexhaustible wisdom." It was the first time in 2,000 years that a pope had extended greetings on the Lunar New Year to a Chinese leader. In the interview, Francis referred to the experience of Matteo Ricci, the 16th century Jesuit missionary who in many ways introduced China to the West. "Ricci's experience teaches us that it is necessary to enter into dialogue with China, because it is an accumulation of wisdom and history." We in the West, he further said, have a "duty to respect it with a capital 'R'." Advertisement Writing from Rome for our "Following Francis" series, Sebastien Maillard explains why the pope is "looking East" to Russia and China, including talk of a possible compromise with Beijing that would allow the Vatican to once again appoint bishops there. Former Hong Kong governor C.H. Tung also invokes history to make his case that China has no desire for world leadership today. "At the height of the Ming Dynasty, when China had 30 percent of the GDP of the world, China remained peaceful and did not make incursions into foreign lands," he writes. Those who aren't concerned about China's rise are concerned about its demise as the rapid growth of past decades slows. Writing from Beijing, Justin Yifu Lin tells us not to worry. With plenty of capital to invest and through a turn toward consumption and services, says Lin, China will be able to reach its 6.5 percent growth target. It "will continue to be the main growth engine in the world, contributing around 30 percent of global growth annually." In a gallery of images from a new book by China Digital Times, Sophie Beach displays the popular protest cartoons of Chinese illustrator Badiucao. In the U.S. presidential primary caucuses in Iowa this week, voters demoted Donald Trump, America's top China-basher, knocking him down to second place just ahead of another China foe, Marco Rubio, both falling behind the first place finish for Republicans of evangelical crusader Ted Cruz. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton squeaked by left-wing populist Bernie Sanders. These results prompted veteran analyst Jeff Greenfield to posit that "anger could prove to be the driving force of the primaries." For Greenfield, the votes ahead will answer these consequential questions: "Just how disaffected is the American electorate? Is disaffection deep and powerful enough to render the traditional assets of a potential president -- experience, temperament, solidity -- an actual liability?" Former Obama adviser Ben LaBolt concurs. "Extreme populism has been on the rise in Europe," he writes, and Sanders and the Republican frontrunners "are attempting to foment a similar sentiment in the U.S.." Advertisement In an interview with WorldPost Managing Editor Farah Mohamed, Islamic scholar Akbar Ahmed weighs in on President Obama's first visit to a U.S. mosque as commander in chief. It may be late in his term, Ahmed says, but for the president to visit a mosque when Donald Trump is calling for a ban on Muslims entering the country is clearly a significant statement of American values. Arturo Sarukhan joins two other diplomats in calling for "a pivot to North America" in the global strategies of Mexico, Canada and the U.S.. In the first of a new series, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees wonders what will happen to a planet populated by 11 billion people. In an interview, Alec Ross outlines his new book on the pros and cons of "The Industries of the Future." "The last trillion-dollar industry was built on computer code," Ross says. "The next will be built on genetic code." He also says that "the weaponization of code is the biggest development in warfare since the invention of the atomic bomb." Writing from Cape Town, Claire van den Heever reports that Facebook is not the only game in town in Africa, where the Chinese WeChat service is set to become the only app Africans need. Writing from Oslo, Jan Egeland scores the dearth of international aid for refugees. Governments closing their borders to Syrian refugees often claim they help Syrians best "in their own region," he writes, but "it is a myth that they provide Syrian war victims with significant aid." In this week's "Forgotten Fact," we also look at the conflict in Syria and the aid that has unfortunately not made its way there. Daniel Marans describes how Greece is being squeezed between the burdens of the refugee influx and its economic downturn. European parliamentarian Miguel Urban writes from Spain that, "the exponential increase of refugees and migrants is tearing at the seams of the European Union, which is neither as united nor as supportive as it has tried to appear." This photo series by Josef Schulz captures Europe's past of closed borders to suggest it could also be the future. UNESCO chief Irina Bokova writes that she's concerned about the lack of education for young refugees as their exile from home drags on. "Six years on," she writes, "it is time to think more long term, because a generation of young Syrians is in danger of being lost to despair, to violent extremism -- the foundations for peace in the future will erode if this reality is neglected." Writing from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Dana Ali laments that, five years after the overthrow of Gaddafi during the Arab Spring, "Libya is still in a state of war." World Reporter Nick Robins-Early explains how Libya is becoming the fallback location for the self-described Islamic State as it loses territory in Syria and Iraq. Writing from Paris, Bernard-Henri Levy reviews a new film by Francois Margolin on "how jihadists are made." Advertisement World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati sees extreme inequality around the globe today as "a symptom of broken society." The U.N. Development Program's Mandeep Dhaliwal examines how the combination of environmental degradation and gender inequality can lead to the rise and spread of diseases, including the Zika virus. World Reporter Charlotte Alfred reviews how the lessons of the Ebola outbreak can help us cope with the Zika virus. In a photo post from our series on everyday entrepreneurs, we profile resilient farmers in Timor-Leste who are rethinking the way food is produced in that country in the face of rising competition from cheap, factory-processed foods. Of significant note, the Berggruen Institute announced this week that the director of the London School of Economics, Craig Calhoun, will take over as president of the Berggruen Institute in the summer of 2016. Announcing the appointment, Nicolas Berggruen, the founder and chairman of the Berggruen Institute, remarked, "Having headed the London School of Economics, Craig brings to us the world-class experience of leadership as well as scholarly achievement in the top ranks of global education. His aspiration over the years to establish 'an institutional location for practical reason in public affairs' is a perfect fit with the mission of the Berggruen Institute." Fusion this week looks at the new ways Uber has developed to monitor bad drivers through their smartphones. Finally, in our Singularity series, we learn that the secret to memory capacity (in humans) may be synapse size. Advertisement WHO WE ARE EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Senior Advisor to the Berggruen Institute on Governance and the long-time editor of NPQ and the Global Viewpoint Network of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate/Tribune Media, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Senior Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is the National Editor at the Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost's editorial coverage. Eline Gordts is HuffPost's Senior World Editor. Charlotte Alfred and Nick Robins-Early are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is Social Media Editor. CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul; Matt Sheehan in Beijing. EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media) Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun). VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large. The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea. Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the "whole mind" way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine. ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council -- as well as regular contributors -- to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail, and Zheng Bijian. From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt. MISSION STATEMENT The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets. Young woman hand on young man bum. It's the oldest political trick in the world: Accuse someone of something so unspeakable that they'll be forced to publicly respond to it, thus ensuring they will be forever associated with whatever heinous act you're alleging. It doesn't have be factual, as long as it sticks. As goes a widely told (and likely embellished) story from Hunter S. Thompson, former president Lyndon B. Johnson -- when running for a Texas Senate seat in 1948 -- suggested that his campaign accuse his pig-farming Republican rival of "having routine carnal knowledge of his sows." Johnson's campaign manager argued that they couldn't do that -- because it simply wasn't true. LBJ allegedly shot back: "Of course it's not! But let's make the bastard deny it!" Last week, Amber Rose took a page out of the Johnson playbook. On Friday, the model, actress and frequent Instagrammer jumped into a Twitter feud between rappers Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West (about the title of Kanye's new album, of course) by publicly alleging that West, her ex-boyfriend, enjoys a little backdoor action. "Are u mad I'm not around to play in ur asshole anymore? #FingersInTheBootyAssBitch," Rose tweeted. Advertisement Kanye took the bait -- denying that he'd ever had sexual relations with that woman (in the butt, at least). "Exes can be mad but just know I never let them play with my ass," West replied. "I don't do that... I stay away from that area all together." What's so scandalous about a straight man liking ass play that he would be forced to issue a statement on the subject to his 18 million followers? While more men than ever before are embracing the anus, publicly acknowledging it remains taboo -- shrouded in homophobia and stigma about what it means to be the receptive partner. This analphobia isn't merely an issue for straight men who enjoy the casual wandering finger but queer men who unconsciously learn to associate anal sex with shame. Our fears about who is on bottom and what it means are as old as sex itself. While societies like the Greeks were more permissive in some ways in regards to anal intercourse, that was only true for the partner "on top." To be in a passive role during sex was considered "feminine" and, therefore, reprehensible. As women were in a subordinate position in Greek society -- often confined to the household -- the receptive partner was conferred to a lower social status. When it comes to gay men, this historical stigma is known as "bottom shame" -- a phenomenon that reared its ugly head during the first season of HBO's recently cancelled gay dramedy Looking. After Richie and Patrick have sex for the first time, Patrick expresses apprehension after Richie expresses a desire to be the one who penetrates him. "You think you'd be embarrassed if your parents thought you were a bottom?" Richie asks. "No!" Patrick responds. "Okay... maybe a little bit." Advertisement As in its Greek context, the shame around bottoming is its association with the "female" position, but the same is true for anal pleasure, in general. While heterosexual anal intercourse has been prevalent in erotic art since the practice made its way into Peruvian pottery in the 4th century CE, it's only been acknowledged as a thing that heterosexuals do, too, in the past few decades. And as New York magazine's Maureen O'Connor matter-of-factly wrote in 2014, "butt stuff is such a thing." Back in 1994, the University of Chicago launched a landmark study on sexual behavior four decades after Alfred P. Kinsey first peered into Americans' bedrooms. The "Sex in America" survey found that within the past 12 months, nine percent of female respondents and 10 percent of men reported engaging in anal sex. Given that gay men -- the group most associated with sodomy -- comprise roughly 5 percent of the male population, those numbers couldn't be explained away by queerness alone. Twenty years later, exploring "butt stuff" is more prevalent among heterosexuals than ever. A 2010 report from the Journal of Sex Research showed that a slim majority of males -- at 51 percent -- had participated "in oral-anal sex, manual-anal sex, or anal sex toy use" in their lifetimes. Unfortunately, that study didn't specify whether men were on the giving or receiving end, but another survey from 2015 sheds light on that particular subject. The sex toy manufacturer LELO found that nearly three-quarters of partnered straight men would be into having their significant other massage their prostate. For those unfamiliar, prostate massage occurs when a partner inserts a finger into your anus, in order to locate the tiny, walnut-sized gland sandwiched between your bladder and penis -- one reachable through the rectum. Often known as the "P-spot," the Telegraph's Mark Simpson says that hitting the prostate just right can stimulate the most "mind-blowing, leg-shaking, eye-rolling, neighbor-panicking pleasure." Clearly a lot of men are more than open to experiencing it. In addition to prostate massage and sodomy, practices like pegging have become a part of the vernacular since sex writer Dan Savage first coined the term -- via a poll of his readership -- in a 2001 Savage Love column. In pegging, the female partner assumes the "dominant" position by using a strap-on or similar device to enter her male partner. You might recall it being prominently featured in an episode of Broad City last year, in which Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) is asked to top her boy-next-door-crush with a dildo. Advertisement Savage writes that it's a topic he's very, very frequently asked about by his male readers. "I've dedicated my life to reassuring panicky straight boys that a little anal stimulation won't make 'em gay," Savage said. "My oft-stated position: If a guy and a girl are doing it during sex -- whatever it is, whatever it looks like -- it's straight sex." If guys clearly really, really like butt play -- so much so that Esquire discovered in 2012 survey that nearly 1 in 6 men complained it was the thing they weren't getting enough of in bed -- it appears our own analphobia is continuing to keep us from getting the great, mind-blowing sex we want. In a 2013 essay for the Huffington Post, Renato Barucco writes that "nerve endings don't really have a gender identity or a sexual orientation," but we also need to challenge why those associations bother us. Why isn't it OK to engage in the same sex practices as gay men and women? According to sex writer Charlie Glickman, all men -- but particularly heterosexual ones -- can learn something from letting go of this sex-role rigidity. "Men who get into anal penetration are among the most secure in their masculinity: because they've examined themselves, faced their fears," Glickman writes in the 2013 book, The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure. In a separate column, he even posited that getting pegged can "help save the world." That sounds like hyperbole, but Glickman has a point. Embracing the act of being a "bend-over boyfriend" (to quote Tristan Taormino's popular X-rated porn series) can lead to a more enlightened view of sexuality, both when it comes to ourselves and others. In particular, learning to view anal pleasure positively could further a culture that no longer treats queer desire as morally objectionable. Despite the fact that a 2003 Supreme Court ruling deemed them unconstitutional, laws prohibiting sodomy remain on the books in 12 states, including Alabama, Kansas, and Louisiana. Thirteen years later, queer people face a disproportionately high rate of violence across the United States. When it comes to gay men, the American Psychological Association suggests that these attacks -- commonly referred to as hate crimes -- are motivated by both sexuality and gender roles. Advertisement "These assailants view themselves as social norm enforcers who are punishing moral transgressions," the APA writes. "They object not so much to homosexuality itself but to visible challenges to gender norms, such as male effeminacy or public flaunting of sexual deviance." If the APA explains that effeminate men are the ones targeted for violence, it's because being "the woman" is still seen as being a punishable act. Straight and gay men have little to fear from exploring all kinds of sexual pleasure -- all the way from the anus to the mouth. Straight men won't become gay from getting pegged. Gays won't become women after bottoming. And if enough of us start being honest about what we like and how we like it, maybe we'll finally stop viewing anal play as either a moral affront or an insult. This post originally appeared on the Frisky and has been reprinted with permission. Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Democratic Party officials in Iowa say they can't do a recount of Monday's razor-thin presidential caucus results between Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, even if they thought it was appropriate. And both candidates, in their debate later Thursday night, said it was no big deal. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Last month as Hillary Clinton was leaving a town meeting in Manchester, Lee Fang of the Intercept asked her if she would release the transcripts of her paid, and very private speeches to Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse historically deep in Washington, D.C., influence-peddling. Mrs. Clinton just laughed. It is probably a good bet that her laugh was masking a deep worry, shared by her husband, that disclosing what she confidentially told big-business conferences and conventions around the country, which paid her about $5,000 a minute, would emerge as a dominant issue in the mainstream media. Advertisement Reporters have taken notice of her $250,000-and-up speeches before trade associations from which they have been excluded. But journalists have not demanded that she tell the voters what she told the executives from Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Golden Tree Asset Management, the National Automotive Dealers Association, Deutsche Bank, the National Association of Realtors, eBay, Cisco, among other plutocracy paymasters seeking to expand their political influence. Until that is, Thursday night's debate in New Hampshire. Chuck Todd of MSNBC asked Hillary Clinton: "Are you willing to release the transcripts of all your paid speeches? We do know, through reporting, that there were transcription services for all those paid speeches. In full disclosure, would you release all of them?" Mrs. Clinton responded: "I will look into it. I don't know the status but I will certainly look into it." Let's see how long it will take for her large staff and contacts with these business groups "to look into it." Advertisement According to the New York Times, her "contracts for such events typically include strict confidentiality agreements, meaning there are no known video recordings of Mrs. Clinton's Wall Street appearances." But why would Clinton, in a heated contest with Sen. Bernie Sanders, maintain this cloak of secrecy and further the speculation it feeds? Could it have something to do with the many deals and entanglements, for political pursuits and self-enrichment, that have enveloped both Clintons over the years, detailed in Peter Schweizer's recent book, Clinton Cash? Were the contents of these meetings with business interests revealed, Hillary Clinton would lose more control of the progressive narrative she has worked hard to fabricate. Reporters, opponents and voters would quickly start to make connections and conclusions, whether rooted in fact or surmise. Her campaign message, recently garnished with progressive language to thwart Sanders, would be overshadowed. What might have Hillary Clinton told these commercial audiences? What did those in attendance want to hear from her in such closed-door sessions? She says she spoke at these corporate gatherings about the state of the world. That is a big umbrella indeed. No doubt she delivered her views of U.S. foreign and military policy - unclassified observations she made in media interviews or public addresses. However, Hillary does her homework for each specific audience she addresses; it's her way of responding to their priority interests and impressing them with her command of the subject matter. For example, Morgan Stanley, one of many major Wall Street supporters of her electoral campaigns, is a strong supporter of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership trade treaty. So was she until recently, when she expediently stepped back with some skepticism about its labor and environmental contents. What did she say to Morgan Stanley's officials when she was with them on the TPP, opposed by many voters? According to Politico, drawing leaks from attendees, she told the Goldman-Sachs financiers that banker-bashing was unproductive and foolish. What these businesspeople want, of course, is access, should she become president, and such meetings generate friendships. They also want to hear Hillary Clinton's views on regulation, tax policies, subsidies, government contracting matters and trade. We won't know what she told those groups, who made her a millionaire many times over (she received in a single speech five times the household median income for a year) until the press and the people demand their right to know and judge her accordingly. Advertisement So far she has been able to dodge disclosing the content of her speeches, while interviewers were focusing on the giant speech fees. But now she is in New Hampshire - the last state of "retail campaigning" and town meetings where voters can put face-to-face to Clinton the demand that she disclose the content of her speeches inside these closed-door business gatherings. Once she leaves New Hampshire, her flaks and screeners will rapidly replace people-to-people dialogue with big-media buys and photo opportunities. The right to know is never more important than when it pertains to the activities of presidential candidates. The White House is a cauldron of excessive secrecy - secret deals, secret memos, secret meetings with special interests on matters of serious public policy. Morbid secrecy breeds recklessness and bad government. If there is ever a time to teach presidential candidates about openness in government, it is when they are desperately seeking our votes. Inquiring voters and Bernie Sanders now have an opportunity to make transparency an important matter of candidate accountability and believability. Otherwise, manipulative and deceptive rhetoric holds sway. In any event, before Hillary Clinton departs from New Hampshire on Tuesday, the voters themselves who meet her can insist that she tell them just what she told those business magnates on Wall Street. She has a large staff and good files for fully and promptly responding to lifting this strange curtain of secrecy around closed speeches for big fees. Her laughing off any such questions is not the way, as I recall, New Hampshirites expect candidates to treat them. My mother always had a way with getting answers from candidates she met. On shaking hands with a candidate, she did not let go of the candidate's hand until she got her answer. If you're planning to do business in China this February, it is important to be aware of the customs of Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. Those unfamiliar with the customs might find they have a difficult time scheduling meetings, finalizing deals or getting much work done, on New Year's Day, February 8, 2016. In 2016, the festival starts the day before, New Year's Eve which is February 7th, and spreads across 15 days, peaking on February 8th, as China welcomes The Year of the Monkey. The festival begins with Chunyun, which is the biggest annual human migration. Over 1 billion Chinese leave densely populated metropolitan areas to return home to their villages. The festivities conclude with Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the new year. Chinese New Year is celebrated by approximately 1/6 of the world's population, making it the largest event on the globe. The holiday originated in China and is celebrated in other Asian countries and economies with significant Chinese populations, including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. The largest Chinese New Year celebration outside Asia occurs in London, and begins on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2016. Advertisement Traditionally, many taboos are associated with the Chinese New Year, but in recent years some of them have been ignored to a certain extent, especially among the modern urban populations in larger cities, and the younger generation. However, many people still take these superstitions seriously. Unless you know your audience well, it is best to be aware of a few of these taboos as you work and negotiate in Chinese economies in February 2016. 1. Don't Say anyone's Name to Wake Them On New Year's Day morning, don't use a person's name to wake them or encourage them to get up--otherwise you will have to urge them to do tasks and projects all year. 2. Don't Awaken A Sleeping Person with "Happy New Year!" On New Year's Day, don't awaken sleeping individuals with New Year greetings. Wait until they rise or they will be sick in bed for 2016. 3. Avoid Washing Hair In Mandarin (Chinese language) hair () has the same pronunciation and is the same character, as fa in facai (), which means 'to become wealthy'. So it is best to wait until after New Year's to avoid 'washing one's fortune away.' Advertisement 4. Avoid Congee, Meat, or Fish for Breakfast You don't want to start the year "poor," by eating Chinese porridge, as this is a bad omen. So eat cooked rice for the first meal of the year to invite prosperity. Meat should not be eaten at this breakfast out of respect for the Buddhist gods, who are believed to be against the killing of animals. 5. Don't Wear Damaged Clothing Buy new clothing and avoid clothes with tears, rips, and damage. Children are especially susceptible to this bad luck in the first lunar month. 6. Avoid Doing Laundry on 1st and 2nd Day Water should be conserved on these special days, which are celebrated as the birthday of Shuishen (, the Water God). 7. Avoid Using a Knife, Scissors, or Sharp Blade It is said that if you use a knife or scissors on the first day of the New Year, quarrels or disputes are inevitable all year long. 8. Avoid Moving the Financial Needle Avoid financial and budgetary discussions on New Year's Day. The saying goes, "If you move the needle on New Year's Day, watch out, you may prick the dragon which will make you grow a stye." This is a play on words, because the character for stye and needle sound the same. "Moving the needle" refers to changing or making progress. Advertisement 9. Avoid Chopping Wood The word for firewood in Chinese is "chai," which sounds a lot like the word for wealth, "cai." Thus, on New Year's Day, one should avoid using an axe to split firewood, because you might be chopping your wealth. 10. Avoid Borrowing Cash Avoid starting the New Year with someone else's money, or legend says you'll need loans all year. If you start the year lending money, you will suffer loss all year. According to tradition, one should pay all debts by New Year's Eve. 11. Don't Nap During New Year Celebrations Lore says one should avoid napping on New Year's Day or you will be lazy all year; it is rude because you should be receiving many guests. 12. Do Not Sweep or Take Out Garbage You shouldn't sweep or take out the garbage on New Year's Day because you will sweep away prosperity, wealth, and good fortune for 2016. 13. Theft & Pick Pockets Avoid pickpockets and people taking objects, including money, from your pocket during the Spring Festival, or all of your wealth will be stolen in the coming year. Advertisement 14. Avoid Debt Collection During the Chinese New Year, it is considered bad luck to be involved in collecting debts. 15. A Married Woman May Not Leave Her Home or Visit Family On New Year's Day, a woman should not leave her home or she will risk bad fortune for the coming year. Instead, as a wife, she should entertain visitors in her home. She must avoid visits on New Year's Day, as this brings bad luck to the parents, causing economic hardship, and poverty. He's been seared, broiled, and filleted just a bit along the way, but, just like the mouth-watering steaks he serves at his five award winning restaurants and one cafe in and around Boston, Nick Varano, has turned out better because of it. The best entrepreneurs are tenderized throughout their journey. Such is the case of this entrepreneur who has ended up stronger, wiser, and totally poised to continue to grow his empire across the country. He is Nick Varano, owner of Strega North End, NICO, Strega Waterfront, Strega Prime, Strip By Strega, and Caffe Strega. He is a self-made restaurateur who purchased his first restaurant in 2003, in the North End of Boston where he grew up. From the beginning, he followed a very simple three part blueprint; (1) Seek out and hire the very best chefs in the industry, (2) Create a remarkable, authentic, and unique atmosphere for the customers, and (3) Hire people who care. This simple template for success has been at the core of his achievements, catapulting Varano from one quaint, classic Italian restaurant in the North End to now controlling 800 highly coveted restaurant seats in and around the city. Each restaurant is different than the other, but all offer a swanky, upscale, atmosphere that diners cannot seem to get enough of. Nick Varano is self-made, humble, and as forthright as they come when asked how a guy who admittedly can barely operate an oven, turned into one of the greatest restaurateurs Boston has ever seen. I recently sat down with Nick Varano and I found out just what it takes to be a cut above the rest. Advertisement It's Our Privilege: "It's our privilege to have customers. It's not their privilege to eat here. It's our privilege that they choose us." This is the most important mantra that the employees of all of his restaurants live by. Varano says that you can teach skills like setting a table and offering impeccable service, but you can't train someone to care. Varano says that he seeks out employees who care about the customer to their core. He says that by hiring people who understand what a big deal it is when any customer chooses their restaurant, everything else falls in place. He says that when you hire people who care, they really listen to what the customer wants, they go out of their way to provide it, and they stop at nothing to serve up an experience that the customer is still talking about a week after they've had dinner at one of their restaurants. Never Say No: They don't serve coffee on the menu at his first restaurant, Strega North End. That being said, if you were to ask for a coffee, they will serve you one. That's the culture at every restaurant in The Varano Group. An employee will go to a nearby store to find a coffee if a customer wants one. Nick Varano says that the success of his empire is a byproduct of his own unwillingness to say no. Ask Nick for anything and he will find a way to make it happen. He has instilled this "Never Say No" urbanity in his employees too. Nick has been working since he was twelve years old and one of his first jobs early on was at his uncle's convenience store. He says that one of the worst jobs was cleaning the meat slicing machine at night. He says that he'd always clean it just a little bit before closing and inevitably a customer would come in and ask for sliced meat. Nick says his uncles instilled the philosophy in him at a very young age that the best companies never say no, regardless of the time and inconvenience it takes to say yes. So, Nick would slice the meat, and serve the customer with a smile, and then re-clean the machine. Nick grew up around a family of entrepreneurs and so he learned at a young age to serve customers well. This is why today, Nick's team of employees will gladly serve whatever you ask for. They realize that what makes their restaurant group great is what's on the menu, but what makes them off-the-charts unbeatable, is that it doesn't have to be. Advertisement The Secret to Success: Becoming one of the greatest restauranteurs Boston has ever seen in 13 years, while having zero restaurant experience coupled with an inability to cook, seems impossible, but Nick Varano has done it. So, I asked him straight out, what his secret to success is. His answer, "The secret to success is that there's no secret to success." He says that some people spend an entire lifetime looking for the secret while others spend an entire lifetime going to the office, making hard decisions, hustling, selling, raising money, paying bills, and executing on the work load all day long. Nick says that if you work hard and you do good by people, you can build any business. He says to stop wasting time looking for secrets because there are none. Just work hard and care, the results will follow. Wake Up Starving: Nick plans on expanding his restaurants into new markets in coming years. He says that he loves the pressure and challenge of his work and he still wakes up every day starving for more. He says that if he ever wakes up for a day of work and he's just hungry to get to the office, he will know he's done growing. He says he is still starving for more. He knows that the best of The Varano Group is yet to come. He loves taking risk, trying new ideas, and infusing each restaurant with its very own unique personality. When asked about the challenges of going into a new city like New York, Miami, Las Vegas, or Los Angeles, he reminded me of his voyage into the Seaport District of Boston when it was a virtual ghost town. There was nobody in the Seaport District when Varano opened Strega Waterfront in 2010. With the encouragement of his friend and mentor Joe Fallon and former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Varano opened a world class restaurant overlooking the water. The diners came, followed by new businesses, new residents, and an entire bustling metropolis of people who helped charter new territory in the Seaport District. Varano says that when you have a reputation for creating an unforgettable dining experience, people will find you, and that's true in any city across the country. Their B-List is Our A-List: To serve your customers well, Nick Varano says you must first totally understand who your customers are. For example, he says that in Los Angeles and New York City, the A-List customers are the celebrity actors, actresses, professional athletes, and movie directors, who visit the best eateries. In Los Angeles and New York City the B-List is made up of all the people working within the buildings that decorate the skyline. In Boston, Nick says that the A-list are the doctors, lawyers, blue collar workers, bankers, and business professionals who keep the economy running. He says that those who would be considered the B-List in New York or LA, he considers the A-List in Boston. He says that the beautiful thing about Boston is that his restaurant is a mix of all different kinds of people from every type of business and every walk of life, and while he's thrilled when Floyd Mayweather, Mark Wahlberg, or David Ortiz come in for a bite, he's even more elated when his regular diners feel like they are the celebrities because of the teamwork of his exceptional employees. SAM PANTHAKY via Getty Images Gujarat's first woman chief minister, Anandiben Patel gets emotional during a meeting at the Town Hall in Gandhinagar, some 30 kms from Ahmedabad on May 21, 2014. Anandiben Patel was termed as the new Gujarat chief minister and will take the oath on May 22 in Gandhinagar. AFP PHOTO / Sam PANTHAKY (Photo credit should read SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images) The business associates of Gujarat chief ministers daughter, Anar Jayesh Patel, were allegedly allotted 250 acres of land near the Gir Lion sanctuary at an official rate of Rs 15 per square metre in 2010-11, according to a report in the Economic Times on Friday. Wildwoods Resorts and Realties, promoted by Dakshesh Shah and Amol Shripal Sheth, business associates of 45-year-old Patel, the daughter of Anandiben Patel, stands on a 400-acre plot near the Gir lion sanctuary in Gujarats Amreli district. Advertisement A number of transactions happened between Patel, who describes herself as a social worker and an entrepreneur, and her associates when the Gujarat government allotted 250 acres at Rs 0.15 per square metre to the company they owned, the ET report said, citing filings with the Registrar of Companies. ET's queries to the government of Gujarat did not elicit any response while Patel, Shah and Sheth insisted that all the transactions were above board. Anandiben is also in charge of the revenue portfolio in her government. The original promoter of Wildwoods, a Dubai-based businessman named Sanjay Dhanak, told the paper that his initial plans of building a tourist resort on the land never took off. Meanwhile, the current promoters claimed they have received all the necessary regulatory clearances for the project and that there was no prohibition on building a resort on the 400-acre tract. Advertisement Wildwoods was owned by Dhanak when the land allotment orders were issued in 2010. It was after this that Shah and Sheth took control of the company. At present, Parshva Texchem and Anil Infraplus, which are entities in which Anar has substantial stakes, own Wildwoods. Dhanak said he did not recollect how much was paid for the 422 acres of land. Dakshesh said he was not aware how much Wildwoods had paid for the land since he took a stake in the firm only in 2011 and was not aware of previous transactions. Advertisement STR via Getty Images Indian rescue workers and villagers try to extract the injured and dead passengers from a Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation's passenger bus which plunged in to river Purna near Navsari, some 315 kms from Ahmedabad on February 5, 2016. packed passenger bus plunged off a bridge into a river in western India Friday killing at least 37 people, an official said, in one of the deadliest road accidents in recent years. / AFP / STR (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images) NAVSARI -- 37 people were killed and 24 injured, four of them seriously, when a state transport bus in which they were travelling plunged from a bridge into Purna river in Navsari district of South Gujarat today, police said. "Thirty seven people have died in the incident, while 24 others are injured when a bus fell from a 20 feet high bridge on Purna river," Navsari Superintendent of Police M S Bharada said. Advertisement Though police are investigating the cause of the mishap, some survivors and eye-witnesses said the bus driver lost control of the vehicle when it was passing the bridge and it hurtled down into the river after breaking iron railings. The SP said the condition of four out of the 24 injured passengers was serious. "The injured have been shifted to four hospitals in Navsari. We are also checking the possibility of shifting those who are seriously injured to hospitals in Surat if needed," the officer said. The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) bus was headed towards Ukai when the accident took place near the village, situated around 12 kms away from the district headquarters. Advertisement "We do not know the exact number of people travelling in the bus, but it is said that it was full (to capacity)," Bharada said. He said the agencies like police, fire brigade, 108 ambulance services were engaged in rescue operation at the spot. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: Bus accident in Gujarat's Navsari is tragic & deeply upsetting. Condolences to families of the deceased. May the injured recover quickly. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 5, 2016 Expressing grief over the incident, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel tweeted: Deeply pained to learn about the unfortunate bus accident on Purna River Bridge in Navsari. My prayers are with victims & their families! Anandiben Patel (@anandibenpatel) February 5, 2016 I have directed Navsari collector & concerned officials to expedite rescue & relief ops and provide required help to victims & their kin. Anandiben Patel (@anandibenpatel) February 5, 2016 Contact HuffPost India Also On HuffPost: PTI AIADMK supporters in Tamil Nadu have already started preparing for Jayalalithaa's 68th birthday which is on 24 February. And the latest offering from the party, which is the brain behind Amma Canteens and Amma Cements, is what we have decided to name 'Amma Tiara'. It's a one-of-a-kind unisex headgear which can give Beyonce's mathapatti in 'Hymn For The Weekend' a run for its money. Advertisement During a recent mass wedding Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa's fans took the business of blessing the newlyweds a little too far. In the absence of their favourite leader, they did the next best thing they could - made the couples wear headbands with Amma's face printed on them. The party, which most recently, ran intro controversy for forcibly sticking Amma stickers on relief material provided by others during the Chennai floods, doesn't seem to have taken the criticism seriously. Advertisement Newsminute reports: "One such event was held on Friday when AIADMK cadre organised a mass marriage ceremony in Udumalaipettai in Coimbatore- 68 marriages were conducted for her 68th birthday. While Amma was not present in person to bless the newly weds, her presence was more than evident at the occasion." That was one Amma-zing wedding for sure! Contact HuffPost India Also see on HuffPost: Yawar Nazir via Getty Images SRINAGAR, KASHMIR, INDIA - DECEMBER 07: Kashmiri Muslim women devotees pray at the shrine of the Sufi saint Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom during a festival on December 07, 2015 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India. Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims make the pilgrimage to the shrine of Sufi Saint Sheikh Hamza Makhdoomi, also known as Makhdoom Sahib, to offer prayers on the anniversary of his birth. (Photo by Yawar Nazir/Getty Images) The Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (JUH) has bitterly opposed the Supreme Court's endeavour to examine Muslim personal laws so that biases against women in the legal system can be eliminated. The organisation, which is a collective of Indian Islamic Scholars, asserted before the SC that courts could not test the validity of Muslim personal law in order to do away with prejudice against women as it was based on the Holy Quran. Advertisement "Mohammedan law is founded essentially on the Holy Quran and this cannot fall within the purview of the expression 'laws in force' as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution, and hence its validity cannot be tested on a challenge based on Part-III of the Constitution (guaranteeing fundamental rights, including right to equality)," said the JUH application filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool, according to The Economic Times. Personal laws do not derive their validity on the ground that they have been passed or made by a legislature or other competent authority. The foundational sources of personal law are their respective scriptural texts," the application added. A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi took up the petition titled 'Muslim Women's Quest for Equality' and agreed to make JUH a party to the proceedings. They have sought responses from the JUH, the attorney general and National Legal Services Authority on the questions posed by the SC in six weeks. Reports added that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board is also expected to request the SC to make it a party in the case. The Indian Express reports, "Last year, a two-judge bench had ordered registration of a PIL and requested the Chief Justice to set up a Special Bench to deal with issues relating to the challenge to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act." Advertisement The Muslim personal laws allow men to arbitrarily end marriages, besides helping perpetrate various forms of discrimination against Muslim women. The Indian society has separate personal laws for different religions that deal with marriage, divorce, maintenance, succession and adoption. A Hindustan Times report has observed that while the Hindu Law overhaul began in the 1950s, any attempt to reform Muslim law has met with stiff resistance from conservative parties. North Carolinas top insurance regulator is publicly blaming the Affordable Care Act for destabilizing the state market and deterring carriers from selling individual policies.Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodman sent a letter this week to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell warning that health reform is driving up insurance costs, reducing consumer options and making it impossible for insurers to sell profitably sell policies in North Carolina.Most recently, he said, all three insurers on the federal insurance exchange have eliminated agent commissions for selling individual policies in the state.Insurers cannot continue to have annual losses in the hundreds of millions and be expected to continue business as usual, Goodwin wrote in his letter to Burwell. I am highly concerned insurers may withdraw from the individual market in North Carolina altogetherif North Carolina continues along this path and we have no carriers, what do we do?Goodwin added that the number of insurers offering individual coverage in the state has decreased from 29 to 8, while those offering small group coverage dropped from 27 to 10. Total plans on the individual market have also dropped, falling from 1,700 to 683.The three-page letter was a follow-up to a conversation between Goodwin, a Democrat, and Burwell that took place in November.The concerns come even as North Carolina reported the third-highest ACA enrollment in the country and insurers have raised rates by an average 27%.Blue Cross, the states largest insurer, lost $123 million on ACA policies in 2014 and is expected to report another, similar loss in 2015. Nationally, UnitedHealthcare expects to lose nearly $1 billion on ACA policies in the first two years and has publicly threatened to leave the market next year.At least one analyst dismissed the concerns expressed in Goodwins letter. Adam Linker, a health policy expert with the North Carolina Justice Center in Raleigh, told the News Observer that despite the troubles occurring in the state, the letter seems unnecessarily alarmist.Having a lower uninsured rate and fewer products is better than having fewer products and more uninsured people, Linker said.Washington & Lee University law professor Tim Jost also stressed that the loss of carriers in the state mostly centered on small, niche players rather than those with real market weight.Frankly they were bottom feeders, offering low-quality plans, he said. The fact that some carriers left the market doesnt mean the market is worse off without them. Putting the final piece on the Lego bridge at the Paresky Center on Martin Luther King Day. Williams professor Steven Miller explains the Lego project, part of his Winter Study course. The suspension bridge holds up a Lego man. It took several hours to building the complex structure. PreviousNext Williams Lego Challenge 'Bridges' Math, MLK, Charity WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Last year it was a sturdy Star Destroyer, this year it was a fragile bridge across the massive fireplace in the Paresky Center. The building of the Lego Bridge on Jan. 18 was one of the focal points of the Williams College Winter Study course "The Mathematics of Lego Bricks," taught by associate math professor Steven Miller. The course often includes a time challenge. In 2015, some 70 students assembled more than 3,000 pieces in less than 10 minutes to create the 4-foot long destroyer. The bridge was a bit on the fly, and it's symbolism far different than the prior construct of imperialism. A few weeks before winter courses began on Jan. 4, the Chaplin's Office and Davis Center asked Miller if he and his class would be interested in building the Lego bridge to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day Jan. 18. For Miller it seemed "exceptionally fitting" that a bridge be chosen over any other structure for that occasion. "When I hear the word bridge I think of the phrase 'bridging our differences,' but I'm also reminded that a bridge must be made of pieces," said Miller. "Lego bricks are wonderful building blocks, showing the strength that can arise when differences are embraced and integrated." So a crowd gathered to watch is construction on that Monday afternoon, after community volunteer efforts undertaken in the morning. "We promised to complete the Lego bridge by 4:30. But for the longest time it didn't look like that would happen," Miller said. With a few minutes to spare, the professor and a student team from Williams and Williamstown Elementary School overcame the problems they had encountered and kept to their promise. The bridge building also had another purpose. Miller was the lead in a fundraiser for the benefit of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He was spurred to undertake running that fundraiser after reading that an annual Braden's Love Lego Drive was in need of donations. Organized by the parents of 7-year-old Braden Berner of Kansas, who died from a form of cancer, the drive collects Lego sets and distributes them to ill children at St. Jude's Hospital. "We have collected $600 for St. Jude's," Miller reported. As the class, which ran from Jan. 4 through Jan. 28, began only two weeks before the "big build" was to be accomplished, there was not enough time to collect as many Lego bricks as needed or wanted. 'Need to Take Clearance From Govt': BCCI President on Whether India Will Travel to Pakistan For Asia Cup Email IC Arizona at azpoliticalintel-at-yahoo.comIC Arizona is a subsidiary of IntellectualConservative.com Imperial Valley News Center Navy Installations Begin Enforcement of REAL ID Act Washington, DC - Navy installations worldwide will no longer authorize base access for individuals who do not have an approved U.S. government-issued credential or state driver's license that is compliant with the REAL ID Act of 2005. Driver's licenses from Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Washington, and American Samoa are not compliant with the congressionally-mandated REAL ID Act of 2005 and therefore personnel seeking base access from these states will require a secondary form of identification. Washington and Minnesota enhanced driver's licenses, however, which do meet the REAL ID Act requirements, will be accepted. Navy installations will require visitors who present a driver's license from a non-compliant state or territory to provide an additional form of identification. Examples include a U.S. passport or passport card; employment authorization document (card); foreign passport with an I-551 stamp; federal, state or local government ID, Social Security card without restrictions; student ID with photo; original or certified copy of a birth certificate issued in the U.S., or a Native American Tribal document U.S. citizen identification card (Form I-179). "Information about the Real ID Act has been shared with our installations and we are working with our security personnel to ensure awareness of base access changes," said Capt. Anthony Calandra, director of public safety for the Navy Installations Command. "We are implementing this process in accordance with the Department of Defense (DoD), which recently announced that all DoD installations would comply with the Act." Installation commanding officers (COs) may waive DoD access control requirements for special situations, such as air shows or other public events. Visitors may also enter Navy installations under a "Trusted Traveler" procedure. This procedure allows a uniformed service member or Government employee with a valid Common Access Card (CAC), a military retiree (with a valid DoD identification credential), or an adult dependent of at least 16 years of age (with a valid DoD identification credential) to present their identification token for verification while simultaneously vouching for any vehicle occupants. A contractor who has been issued a CAC may, with the permission of the CO, be authorized as a Trusted Traveler. The number of people a Trusted Traveler is allowed to vouch for and/or sponsor at any one time is determined by the installation commander or designated representative. Procedures for currently authorized identification cards for access onto Navy installations such as the DoD CAC, DoD uniformed services identification and privileges cards, federal personal identification verification cards or transportation workers' identification credentials will not change. The REAL ID Act grew out of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Congress tightened up issuance processes and documentation needed to get a driver's license. Compliant cards must have specific security features to prevent tampering, counterfeiting or duplication of the document. The licenses also must present data in a common, machine-readable format. Imperial Valley News Center Ambassador Jenkins Promotes Professional Exchange in Support of the Global Health Security Agenda Washington, DC - Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs and the U.S. Representative to the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, will join 18 current and emerging foreign leaders on a visit to Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Seattle to focus on the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). Launched by President Obama in 2014, the GHSA is a partnership of over 50 nations, working with international organizations, and non-governmental stakeholders, which pursues a multi-sectoral approach to strengthening global and state capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to infectious disease threats. From January 31 February 10, leaders who are participants in the Department of States International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) will meet with Federal and non-governmental representatives engaged in Global Health Security Agenda work. The GHSA IVLP promotes the Next Generation of individuals engaged in GHSA. The professional exchange will also foster an understanding of the function of the GHSA, provide a background on the role of the different US actors engaged in GHSA activities, and cultivate a cohort of participants to serve as GHSA ambassadors to their respective countries. Professionals from Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Thailand, and Turkey will meet with the Department of State, Health and Human Services, the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, USAID, the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Affairs Council. California Man Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking Sacramento, California - U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley sentenced Percy Love III, 34, of Sacramento, to 35 years in prison for five counts of sex trafficking related to multiple victims, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. On December 23, 2014, after an 11-day trial, a federal jury found Love guilty of three counts of sex trafficking by force and one count of sex trafficking of a minor. U.S. Attorney Wagner stated: This defendant forced his will upon weaker people for profit using threats and violence. Percy Love should spend the next several decades reflecting on how his abuse and humiliation of his victims has resulted in a life behind bars. He is a dangerous predator and the sentence imposed today will protect society from him. This case was the product of an investigation by the FBIs Child Exploitation Task Force, a multijurisdictional task force composed of representatives from the FBI and the Sacramento Police Department, with assistance from the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Michele Beckwith and Jason Hitt prosecuted the case. Percy Love strategically preyed upon vulnerable young women and underage girls, luring them into a cycle of exploitation, brutal violence, and intimidation for his financial benefit. He exhibited complete disregard for the wellbeing of his victims and the laws. Todays sentence will not erase the physical and emotional scars Love inflicted upon his victims but it will offer them time to heal, said Special Agent in Charge Monica M. Miller of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Sacramento field office. Our Innocence Lost Task Force, which includes officers from the Sacramento Police Department, is committed to identifying men and women who exploit our communitys most vulnerable adults and children. Sacramento Police Chief Sam Somers Jr. stated: Due to a coordinated effort of various dedicated law enforcement detectives, this predator will no longer have the opportunity to exploit or harm young women in our community. The conviction of Mr. Love sends a strong, clear message that this type of criminal conduct will not be tolerated in our communities. Two victims appeared at the sentencing hearing and described the lasting impact that the defendants crimes had on their lives. In sentencing the defendant, Judge Nunley described the defendant as a gorilla pimp who had attempted to beat the spirit out of his victims and, based on the trial evidence, earned every year that he would serve in prison. According to evidence produced at trial, Love targeted vulnerable young women and underage girls to work as prostitutes for him since at least 2007. The testimony of witnesses at trial, including the victims, revealed a pattern of conduct where Love used charm to recruit and brute force to control the women and girls who worked for him. According to court documents, on July 22, 2013, Sacramento police officers were called to a report of domestic violence and found Love asleep in the front seat of a car with a woman, whose sister had called in the report. The woman explained to officers that she was in a working relationship with Love. She reported that Love had beaten her many times, and she had bruises and cigarette burns on her hand, arm and stomach. Love was arrested that night for domestic violence and possession of Ecstasy. On September 12, 2013, a federal grand jury indicted Love, charging him with two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. After further investigation revealed more victims, a superseding indictment was brought on March 13, 2014. Love has been in custody since his arrest and represented himself during trial. Imperial County informed of Three Airline Proposals Submitted to be New EAS Provider Imperial, California - The County of Imperial has been notified by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that three airlines have submitted proposals to provide air travel services for the Imperial County Airport through the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. Due to the emergency nature of the Request for Proposals (RFP) released by DOT just over two weeks ago, the public has until February 25, 2016 to review and submit comments relating to the proposals. It is really dynamic that we have three airlines that are interested in Imperial County, said District 3 Supervisor Michael Kelley. The Countys Essential Air Service is critical to Imperial County transportation and I urge anybody who has any comment or concerns to step forward and share that with the Imperial County Board of Supervisors. We will continue our fervent efforts to make this transition as successful and smooth as possible. Soon after the cancellation of services by Imperial Countys EAS provider SeaPort Airlines, Inc. was issued late on January 15, 2016, the County of Imperial began working with DOT who released an Emergency RFP (Order 2016-1-9) on January 20, 2016 for a replacement EAS provider with a deadline for interested parties to submit a proposal on February 3, 2016. In response to DOTs RFP, Boutique Air, Inc., Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., and Mokulele Airlines submitted proposals for consideration. The proposals are available for review on the County of Imperials website and www.Regulations.gov. The public has an opportunity, and is encouraged, to offer any comments for the formal record before EAS administrators submit a recommendation to DOTs Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs. Comments should be sent via e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or posted on Regulations.gov Comments section by February 25, 2016. For more information on the proposals or those interested in submitting a comment regarding the proposals, visit the County of Imperial Website. Tech Company Settles FTC Charges It Unfairly Installed Apps on Android Mobile Devices Without Users Permission Washington, DC - Technology company Vulcun has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it unfairly replaced a popular web browser game with a program that installed applications on consumers mobile devices without their permission. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Vulcun and its founders, Ali Moiz and Murtaza Hussein, purchased Running Fred, a Google Chrome browser extension game used by more than 200,000 consumers, and replaced it with Vulcuns own extension, which purported to offer users unbiased recommendations of popular Android applications. What Vulcuns extension actually did, the FTC charged, was to install apps directly on the Android devices of consumers, while bypassing the permissions process in the Android operating system. After Vulcun acquired the Running Fred game, they used it to install a different app, commandeer peoples computers, and bombard them with ads, said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection. Were very pleased we were able to stop these practices. Browser extensions are downloadable programs that provide enhancements to a particular web browser. Extensions for the Chrome browser are available to consumers through the Chrome Web Store. The extension installed by Vulcun caused a number of consumers to complain to Google, the owner of both Chrome and Android, according to the FTC. Some complained that the browser extension was opening multiple tabs and windows on their browser advertising various apps. Others complained about the installation of apps on their mobile device without their permission, noting that the apps would reinstall themselves even when deleted. The FTCs complaint charges that Vulcuns actions unfairly put consumers privacy at risk. By bypassing the permissions process in the Android operating system, the apps placed on consumers mobile devices also could have easily accessed users address books, photos, location, and device identifiers. Indeed, once installed, the apps could have gained further access to even more sensitive data by using their own malicious code, according to the complaint. In addition, the complaint alleges that Vulcun misled consumers by saying that their extensions, including Weekly Android Apps and another called Apps By Cindy, provided independent and impartial selections of apps, as well as misrepresenting third-party endorsements received by the extensions. Under the terms of the settlement, the defendants will be required to tell consumers about the types of information a product or service will access and how it will be used, display any built-in permissions notice associated with installing a product or service, and get users express affirmative consent before the installation or material change of a product or service In addition, the settlement prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting to consumers whether their products have been endorsed by a third party or been covered by the media, how consumers personal information is collected and used, the level of control consumers might have over the collection, use or sharing of their data, or the extent to which the defendants maintain the privacy or security of information collected from consumers. The Commission vote to issue the administrative complaint and to accept the consent agreement was 4-0. The FTC will publish a description of the consent agreement package in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through March 8, 2016, after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final. Interested parties can submit comments electronically President Obama's Call with President Xi Jinping of China Washington, DC - The President today spoke by phone with President Xi Jinping of China to coordinate efforts in responding to North Korea's January 6 nuclear test. Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Both leaders also conveyed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. They agreed that North Korea's planned ballistic missile test would contravene multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and represent another provocative and destabilizing action. Finally, the leaders emphasized the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through an impactful UN Security Council Resolution. Grenada Independence Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Grenada on your 42 years of independence. "Grenadas focus on sustainable tourism development allows visitors from across the globe to enjoy the pristine beaches and natural beauty of your country. "St. Georges University is a wonderful multicultural center of international education that draws students from 140 countries, showcasing the welcoming spirit of Grenada and a world class educational institution. "Your participation in the Caribbean Community, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, and the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative demonstrate Grenadas willingness to work closely with neighboring countries to address the regions challenges and harness the regions opportunities. "As you celebrate another year of independence, know that the people of the United States wish you a joyful day and a strengthening of the friendship between our countries." Shashi Tharoor, Cat or Lettuce? UK PM Liz Truss's Resignation Has Twitter Looking for New Contender 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 }} Come the 28th February 2016, the chances are Leonardo DiCaprio will finally have won an Oscar. Its all looking very promising for the actor who has already won at the Screen Actors Guild AWards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Awards and the Golden Globes for his role in The Revenant; surely hes bound to win? If he doesnt win, fret not, as fans in Siberia have gone beyond the call of duty to make sure the 41-year-old gets an Oscar. Female fans from the Yakutia region are reportedly melting down their valuables to create a statuette for DiCaprio as part of an Oscar for Leo campaign. Unlike the real trophy, the Siberian one will be made of both Gold and Silver (therefore not having the same gold colour), it will face upwards rather than downwards and will hold a golden traditional three-legged Yakut goblet. Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Show all 26 1 /26 Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, at one of many outrageous parties in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street AP Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Margot Robbie and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill in a scene from The Wolf of Wall Street Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo-DiCaprio Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey in The Wolf of Wall Street Rex Features Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the famous scene from Titanic Reuters Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures 'I'll never let go, Jack': Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett in Titanic Rex Features Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's hand in his Titanic sex scene with Kate Winslet is iconic in itself Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet 20th Century Fox Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Another scene from Romeo and Juliet 20th Century Fox Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio star and Matt Damon star as an undercover cop and police force mole in crime thriller The Departed IMDB Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio stars as director and aviator Howard Hughes in Scorsese drama The Aviator IMDB Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Miramax Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio and Jim Broadbent in 'Gangs of New York' Rex Features Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Glitter bugs: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton in 'The Great Gatsby' Bazmark Film III Pty Limited Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo Di Caprio playing Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann's 'Great Gatsby' Warner Bros Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio starred as con artist Frank Abagnale in the film Catch Me If You Can Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Virginie Ledoyen and Leonardo DiCaprio starring in 'The Beach' AP Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio in the puny sci-fi thriller Inception Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures ANDREW COOPER Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Sir Ben stars alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio in the Revolutionary Road Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures FRANCOIS DUHAMEL Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Winslet and DiCaprio in the Revolutionary Road AP Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCaprio's career in pictures Leonardo DiCarprio in the documentary 11th Hour (2007) Tatyana Yegorova, the woman behind the campaign, told Russian news agency TASS (via Metro): Yakutia praises high-quality cinema and considers DiCaprio to be an actor who can inspire and delight his audiences." According to the campaign leader, over 1000 people have already donated to the cause. She also argued that this award is just as valid as a real Oscar: Since the movie is a mass art form, aimed at the broad masses, we believe that viewers have a right to give this prize. DiCaprio on Oscar nod In a separate interview with Russian news channel RIA Novosti (via Vanity Fair), a teacher from the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, Tatiana Egorova, estimated that the award is worth 100,000 rubles (around 900). The statue is expected to be around 12 inches tall, but could be much bigger, it all depends on the number of donations they receive. Egorova also explained how some women were only donating half a set of jewellery while keeping the other half in an attempt to feel closer to the actor. She said: Like one half will be with Leonardo DiCaprio and one half with them. To be somehow connected with the actor. Come Oscar night, Dipcario will be competing with Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl, Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs, Bryan Cranston for Trumbo and Matt Damon for The Martian. Read all the latest Oscar coverage here. BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!" 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 militants are digital natives, adept at using social media to inspire their supporters and provoke fear and dismay on behalf of their opponents. They have left tech companies scrambling in their wake, rapidly developing policies and protocols in response to the rapidly-evolving methods of Islamic extremists. Due to security concerns and a desire to maintain their carefully-cultivated image as a bastion of free speech and open debate, companies like Twitter have tended not to reveal the details of their anti-terror protocols. As such, the website's announcement that it has suspended 125,000 accounts with alleged links to Isis provides a rare insight into how the world's top tech companies are battling the world's most effective propaganda machine. How can a computer detect terrorist propaganda? Algorithms are not yet sophisticated enough to accurately identify hate speech or terrorist propaganda. When there is no clear social convention as to the nature of terrorism, a computer can hardly be expected to separate heartfelt political fervour from illegal exhortations to violence. Interestingly, Twitter states it is "leverag[ing] proprietary spam-fighting tools" to combat Isis. The extremists' tech-savvy followers have been known to set up automated accounts, blasting brute amounts of extremist rhetoric into cyberspace. These accounts can be caught using programs normally deployed to take down spam adverts and other online clutter. But automated accounts are far easier to identify than actual terrorist cells. As the UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee noted in 2014, it is much simpler to train a computer to flag up child pornography than it is to set it up to scrape for terrorist chatter online. Twitter has therefore also beefed up its teams that review reports, "reducing [their] response time significantly". Sometimes, people have to do it On the most mundane level, companies like Twitter employ droves of American college students and low-paid workers in the Phillippines to trawl through any content which is flagged as graphic. Burnout is high among these frontline employees, who are paid less than $500 a month to sit in front of screens filled with flickering images of gore, child pornography and Isis beheadings. More senior, specialist teams in the US and Ireland monitor accounts which have been flagged as disseminating terrorist material. However, they are often little better equipped than computer algorithms when judging an account's legality, forced to "make challenging judgement calls based on very limited information and guidance," in the company's own words. And sometimes, they need your help All of these teams rely on the general public of Twitter to provide them with raw materials to work with, by referring potentially harmful accounts, tweets and images. In this sense, the company is effectively crowd-sourcing a social algorithm to determine what is extreme hatespeech and what is legitimate political discourse. In 2015, the US killed British-born Isis hacker Junaid Hussain in a drone strike, partially basing their decision to pull the trigger on his Twitter activity. In 2014, then-CEO of Twitter Dick Costolo received death threats after removing a clutch of Isis-linked accounts. Clearly, the stakes are high. And with Twitter leaning on the help of re-purposed anti-spam software and referrals from concerned members of the public, it seems to be Isis who have the upper hand. 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 }} 125,000 Twitter accounts with alleged links to Isis have been suspended since mid-2015, the social media company announced on Friday. The majority of the accounts were said to be linked to extremist groups such as Isis, al-Qaeda and the Islamist Syrian milita the al-Nusra front, though some had links to other terror organisations. "Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups," the company said in a statement. As well as suspending accounts, they note that they have increased the size of their teams and the power of their algorithms dedicated to reviewing potentially harmful content. Following an update in December 2015, Twitter rules place a blanket ban on "hateful conduct", while their policy on violent threats explicitly states "You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism." But the statement also noted the difficulties in identifying pro-Isis tweets in the absence of a "magic algorithm" capable of pinpointing genuinely terrorist content online. Describing itself as an "open platform for expression", the website further discussed the difficulty of striking a balance between the prohibition of certain behaviours online and their desire to be a forum for free speech and debate. In January, the wife of an American citizen who was killed in an Isis bombing in Jordan filed a court case against Twitter, blaming them for her husband's death. "Without Twitter, the explosive growth of Isis over the last few years into the most-feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible," ran the complaint. As such, the decision to announce the suspension of these accounts is being understood in some quarters as a well-timed PR move. In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work The company has previously been criticised for taking a laissez-faire approach towards improper use of the platform it provides. According to its own internal "transparency report", the website did not honour any of the removal requests it received from the US government between January and June last year. In a memo leaked in February 2015, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo wrote to staff: "We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls. It's no secret and the world talks about it every day." In February of this year, a parody account set up to criticise Twitter's failure to suspend abusive tweets and accounts was itself suspended, while the company has also mistakenly suspended the account of a leading Arab Spring activist. 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 Googles UK staff earned an average wage of 160,000 each last year it has emerged. The wage appears to contradict claims made by the company that its UK branch was a relatively small part of the organisation compared to its US headquarters and other global operations. Margaret Hodge, former head of the Public Accounts committee, claimed the figure proves Googles UK operations are more valuable to the company than previously stated. Ms Hodge said the high average salary suggests Google UK is not a back office support operation. These are clearly people who are paid a lot because they add value selling advertising, closing deals and developing new products. The average salary of the UK staff is revealed following major criticism of Googles UK tax operations. The company has been accused of sending nearly 4.6 billion of UK sales through Ireland, then on through a labyrinth of companies in the Netherlands and Bermuda, the Guardian reports. The UK tax authorities have been criticised for accepting Googles claims its UK employees did not do business with British advertisers. Last month the firm struck a controversial sweetheart deal with the Government to pay only 130m of back taxes on a decades worth of UK profits. Calculations by The Independent suggested Google may owe as much as 700m in UK taxes. Barney Jones, a tax whistle blower who worked for Googles UK sales department and who handed over tens of thousands of emails to investigators revealing infromation about the search engine's UK tax, said: Britain was a key player in generating sales for the tech firms global operations. They do a lot of high-value sales, marketing and engineering all out of London. I find it utter baffling that HMRC accept that these people do almost nothing worthwhile. 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 }} Shell yesterday confirmed plans to cut 10,000 jobs now that its takeover of rival BG Group is set to go through, and raised the prospect of further redundancies, as it reported an 80 per cent slump in profits to a 13-year low. Two days after BP announced its biggest-ever annual loss, Shell revealed that its profits had fallen to $3.8bn (2.6bn) last year, from $19bn in 2014. The industry has been rocked by a sustained slump in the oil price, from $115 a barrel in the summer of 2014 to $35.41 yesterday. However, Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden said he was optimistic about the future for the company after its $47bn takeover of BG cleared the final hurdles last week. The completion of the BG transaction marks the start of a new chapter in Shell, rejuvenating the company and improving shareholder returns, he said. We are making substantial changes... reorganising our upstream [production] and reducing costs and capital investment as we refocus Shell, and respond to lower oil prices. The company confirmed it is cutting more than 10,000 positions of which around 7,500 jobs have already gone and a further 2,800 will be lost as a result of the BG deal. And while Mr van Beurden said there were no more job cuts planned at the moment, he added that the 2,800 figure was an estimate at this point. Shell will take further impactful decisions to manage through the oil price downturn, should conditions warrant that, he said. Shares in Shell soared 87.50p or 6 per cent to 1,525.50p, as investors were encouraged by the cost-cutting plans and questioned whether the share slide may have been overdone. Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Show all 10 1 /10 Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Bill Gates - $75 bn The creator of Microsoft is worth $78 billion. He has topped the list for 17 out of the past 22 years - though his net worth shrank by $4.2bn (3bn) to $75bn (53.7bn). Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Amancio Ortega - $67 bn The Spanish business who set up the Zara chain of high-street shops is worth $67 billion. REUTERS/ AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Warren Buffet - $60.8 bn Warren buffet is the world's most successful investor. Forbes rates him as being worth $60.8 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Carlos Slim Helu - $50 bn Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate, is this years biggest loser with a fortune of $50 billion, down from $77.1 billion last year. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Jeff Bezos - $45.2 bn Amazons Jeff Bezos moved up to the fifth from the fifteenth spot last year; his net worth increased to $45.2 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Mark Zuckerberg - $44.6 bn The biggest gainer on the 2016 list is Mark Zuckerberg , whose fortune is up $11.2 billion for a total net worth of $44.6 billion. He is the sixth richest in the world. Getty Images Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Larry Ellison - $43.6 bn The American entrepreneur has a fortune of $43.6 billion Bloomberg Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Michael Bloomberg - $40 bn Michael Bloomberg, whose media and financial empire has created a personal fortune of $40 bn, is said to be willing to spend up to $1bn on a presidential campaign AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Charles Koch and David Koch - $39.6 bn Charles Koch, along with brother David Koch of Koch Industries are joint sixth and are valued at $39.6 billion. Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Liliane Bettencourt - $36.1 bn Liliane Bettencourt is the heir to the LOreal empire Getty Images They also welcomed Mr van Beurdens decision to hold the annual dividend at $1.88 for 2015 and his comment that it is expected to be at least $1.88 per share in 2016. But some analysts questioned how long Shell would be able to hold its dividend at this level, given the low oil price. There is a high degree of scepticism in the market that Shell can continue to defy [dividend] gravity for the remainder of the year, said Laith Khalaf at Hargreaves Lansdown. Shells full-year profits were hit by $6.8bn of one-off costs, including write-downs for the declining value of its oil and gas assets, and redundancies. Shell also reported fourth-quarter profits of $1.8bn, against $4.2bn the year before. The companys results came two days after BP reported a $6.5bn loss for 2015 and announced a further 3,000 jobs would be cut worldwide. Last week, its investors voted through the takeover of BG by a strong majority, paving the way for the creation of Britains largest public company. The deal is expected to complete by 15 February. 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 }} Aneesa Makhlouf, the mother of Bashar al-Assad, has died at the age of 86. Syrian state run news agency Sana announced the news on Saturday evening. Makhlouf was born in 1930 in the port city of Lattakia. Her family were wealthy followers of the Alawite sect of Shia Islam. She married the father of Bassar al-Assad, Hafez al-Assad in 1957, when he was a lieutenant in the air force. Hafez al-Assad became president of Syria from 1971 following a series of coups. His authoritarian rule continued until his death in 2000. Makhlouf kept a low profile after Hafez became president, but was known for being a matriarchal figure and exerting a strong influence over the male members of her family. "She was to prove a devoted wife and mother and Assad's closest and most trusted confidante, providing him with a domestic environment of unquestioned respectability," wrote Assad's late biographer Patrick Seale. President Bashar al-Assad has been accused of war crimes (Getty Images) Her influence was thought to continue long after Hafez died and Bashar took over the presidency. At the beginning of the uprisings against Assad family rule in March 2011, she was reported to have pushed Bashar to crack down hard on protesters. The harsh government response quickly escalated into a brutal civil war, which has left over 200,000 dead and caused a humanitarian emergency. She was later reported to have left Syria to travel to the United Arab Emirates, joining her only daughter, Bushra, who moved their with her children after her husband was assassinated in a blast in the Syrian capital in July 2012. Makhlouf is survived by her daughter Bushra and her two sons, Bashar and Maher Assad. Two other sons passed away, one of them, Basil, in a car accident in 1994. She gave birth to the current president of Syria in September 1965. Associated Press contributed to this report 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 }} Google could trial its driverless cars in London in the near future. It would be the first time the vehicles would be tested extensively outside the US by Google. Deputy Mayor for Transport Isabel Dedring has been meeting with Google representatives about the proposed scheme. She said: "It's going to have to work in big cities so why don't we start trialling it now? Google have said they are focused on the States, but they're starting to think about going elsewhere so we're in active discussions. Investigating driverless cars in Greenwich - London Live "We met them a few weeks ago to see whether they would do trials here." "It is still very early days but we would be keen for trials to happen in London whenever Google are ready to move them into other countries." Driverless cars have been looked on favourably by the government. Earlier this week, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced that 20 million will be allocated to the development of infrastructure supporting driverless cars. British officials see big potential in driverless cars In addition, in a report from February 2015, Claire Perry MP said that driverless cars had the potential to deliver "major benefits for road safety, social inclusion, emissions and congestion." In the US driverless cars have clocked up over 1.4 million miles in test drives in California and Texas, which have been going on since 2009. As of July 2015, there had only been 14 accidents involving driverless cars, the Telegraph reports, all of them caused by human drivers. 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 }} "Islamophobia" is to blame for Guernsey's decision that they cannot accept a single Syrian refugee, according to its Chief Minister. Jonathan Le Tocq said: "There's certainly a lot of Islamophobia and negativity around. It would be difficult for us to ensure that [refugees] would find the sorts of security and stability here in Guernsey as in other parts of the UK." The decision not to accept any refugees fleeing the Syrian Civil War and associated humanitarian crises was taken behind closed doors in a meeting of Guernsey's Policy Council. Their fellow Channel Islanders in Jersey announced last year that they would not be accepting any refugees, citing concerns that the island would subsequently be swamped by thousands of refugees currently living legally in the UK. When announcing their own decision on Friday, the Guernsey Policy Council outlined practical concerns about the island's "infrastructure and legal framework" being unable to cope with the influx of even the "very limited" number of refugees they were considering taking in. The Council were also at pains to point out that the Gurnsey Overseas Aid Commission has sent 230,000 to Syria-based aid agencies since 2012. In an official statement, Mr Le Tocq described himself as "disappointed" by the council's decision, saying: "It is morally right that where we are able to provide help we seek to do so appropriately. Our forefathers have done so in the past and we should follow their lead." The Chief Minister, who was elected to the highest office on the island as an independent candidate in 2014, added that he feared refugees would be "targeted and excluded" by islanders. There are sizeable Polish, Latvian and Portuguese communities on the island, but the population is overwhelmingly white and European. (Guernsey does not record precise demographic data about the race or nationality of its citizens.) As Mr Le Tocq notes in his statement, almost half the island's population and virtually all its children were housed in England during the German occupation of the Channel Islands in the Second World War, as 17,000 Islanders fled an occupying Nazi force. Thousands of Syrians flee government offensive in Aleppo The Bailwick of Guernsey is technically a crown dependency, acting autonomously on the international stage. It is not a part of the United Kingdom, and nor is it a member of the European Union. Guernsey is bound by UK law with regards to immigration controls, and must grant free movement and residency rights to UK and EEA nationals. However, the island's policy chiefs were free to opt out of the government's Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme. As far as goods, services and finance are concerned, Guernsey has a free trade agreement with the EU, contributing to a GDP of nearly 3,000,000,000. Around 40% of that annual sum is generated via the presence of international financial services, attracted to the island by its reputation as an offshore tax haven. The 65,000 residents of Guernsey therefore enjoy an average income of over 30,000, well over the average UK salary of 26,500. In 2014, Mr Le Tocq described the introduction of race discrimation laws on the island as "years away", while his predecessor attracted controversy after making a joke comparing Barack Obama to a golliwog during a public address. 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 }} Staff shortages at the police force responsible for guarding the UKs nuclear weapons bases and other key military facilities are now so severe that the Ministry of Defence is considering whether to use serving soldiers to plug the gaps. A shortfall in the number of trained frontline officers serving with the MoD Police (MDP) has led to the option of deploying troops being given serious consideration by ministers, the head of the body representing rank-and-file officers told The Independent on Sunday. The move comes after an official report on the force whose officers play a crucial role in protecting the UKs defence infrastructure at more than 120 military sites around the UK warned that current staffing levels were not sustainable without risking security. Eamon Keating, the chairman of the Defence Police Federation, said using soldiers had been discussed by the MoD and senior MDP officials. But he warned that while using military personnel to do the job of police firearms officers sounded quite sensible, the two roles were very different: A police officer is taught from day one to protect life and preserve the law, but soldiers are taught to be soldiers. Theyre two completely different animals .... If a police officer fires their weapon ... we are scrutinised by the law and by independent groups like the Independent Police Complaints Commission. There is a full and proper process. Im not sure that process exists for the military. MDP officers protect some of the UKs most sensitive military sites, including the Faslane naval base, home to the Trident nuclear deterrent, the atomic weapons sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield, and the MoDs Whitehall offices in London. The Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, told the House of Commons last month that some military personnel had the flexibility to perform both armed and unarmed guarding at bases across the UK and that police resources should instead be focused on tasks where civil policing powers can best mitigate crime and security risks. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty 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 Labour has voiced concerns about the apparent change in policy. It is highly inappropriate for the MoD to expect the military to fill in the gaps left by cuts to its civilian workforce, said Emily Thornberry, the shadow Defence Secretary. But with more cuts on the way, adding up to 30 per cent of the MoDs entire civilian workforce, this is a problem which is likely to get worse before it gets better. In this latest report on the force, produced in the summer and published last week, the MoD Police Committee said it was reliant on officers working excessive overtime to maintain security despite a recruitment drive which began three years ago. In 2014/15 the forces headcount only increased by five officers due to retirements and other departures. Mr Keating said he was not confident that security at UK military sites was good enough, due to a lack of police resources. Officers felt incredibly undervalued, he added, and were trying to do their jobs in a very difficult environment. An MoD spokesperson said: As the Defence Secretary has said, it is defence policy to use the MoD Police as part of security arrangements at establishments where there is an essential requirement for constabulary powers. However, the MoD has several security providers and can deploy service personnel in roles where constabulary powers are not deemed essential. 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 }} Boris Johnson has given David Cameron a week to come up with concrete plans to safeguard British sovereignty before Parliament breaks up for half-term ahead of the EU summit in Brussels. The London Mayor has been in regular contact with the Prime Minister but has refused to be bounced, bullied or conned into campaigning for Britain to remain in the European Union until a proposal to formally state Parliaments supremacy over European institutions has been unveiled. Mr Cameron is already facing a race against time to finalise an agreement with the 27 other EU leaders, with at least two disputed areas having the potential to scupper a deal. The Prime Minister has yet to agree the details of a proposed emergency brake on in-work benefits for newly arrived European migrants. He also needs to square-off increasingly outspoken MEPs in the European Parliament who warned their support for the welfare crackdown required under the draft agreement published last week could not be taken for granted. Mr Camerons second major challenge, ahead of the summit on 18 February, is to agree the substance of a mechanism to protect Britain from eurozone countries erecting barriers to the single market. George Osborne sees the measure as the most important element of the entire renegotiation, but it has yet to be agreed amid mounting concern from the French that it could be used to give the UK a veto over the single currencys ability to integrate. British officials will begin a frantic round of diplomacy to iron out the final details of the deal ahead of the meeting in Brussels later this month. But European diplomats have left open the prospect of a second emergency summit to agree the package of reforms if a breakthrough fails to be achieved. What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence. Mr Johnson, the London Mayor, is expecting to be given a full briefing of the finalised deal at a meeting of the political cabinet a body specially created for him to attend while he remains outside the full cabinet on 23 February, following the EU summit the week before. A friend of Mr Johnson told The Independent on Sunday he was still genuinely deliberating and is not concerned about the impact it could have on his future leadership chances. He will be judged on how he makes the decision, not what the decision is. He is one of the few people who could survive picking the wrong side. There is still more work to be done to convince people on the safeguards to British sovereignty. David Cameron knows that, and Boris is waiting to see what Number 10 come up with. The friend added: It will have to be next week if they are going to produce anything. They will probably ring him this week. The PM will ask are you going to back it or not? He wont be bounced, he wont be bullied and he wont be conned. He was given assurances on sovereignty. Mr Cameron is expected to hold talks with Angela Merkel ahead of this months summit. The German Chancellors support is key to winning over the ruling block of centre-right MEPs in the European Parliament which have the power to scupper any deal struck by EU leaders. The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, visited London on 4 February to warn that MEPs could water down any deal to restrict migrant benefits won by Mr Cameron. The claim sparked an angry reaction from the Prime Minister, who insisted a deal signed off by European heads of government would be legally binding and could only be unpicked by the unanimous agreement of the 28 EU countries. According to the draft agreement published by the European Council president, Donald Tusk, the EU will amend freedom of movement for workers within the Union to provide a safeguard mechanism when the flow of migrants into one country is exceptional over an extended period of time. To apply the emergency brake the UK, or any other EU country, would need to notify the European Commission headed by Jean-Claude Juncker and the Council, made up of the heads of all 28 EU countries. It would last for up to four years from when a new migrant starts work. However, the length of time under which a country could restrict benefit payments to migrants has not been signed off. The draft proposal merely states that it would last [X] years, extendable for two successive periods of [Y] years and [Z] years. 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 controversial proposal to hide the identities of MPs who have been arrested has been tabled by the Government, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. Under a motion laid by Chris Grayling, Leader of the House of Commons, the Speaker, John Bercow, will no longer have to announce when an MP has been arrested. Until now, the names of MPs taken into custody by the police were automatically published on the House of Commons order paper. But a review by the Procedure Committee which oversees the rules governing the House of Commons called for names to be kept secret to protect the right of members to privacy, guaranteed under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The recommendation, endorsed by the Government and included in the House of Commons future business listings, published this week, was tabled by Mr Grayling alongside Conservative MPs Charles Walker and Therese Coffey. The motion has to be passed by MPs, but could be nodded through without a vote if no one objects. The debate and a possible vote is scheduled to take place late on 10 February after Prime Ministers Questions. MPs insist there is a need to balance transparency with privacy. The committees report published in December said some arrests may occur in relation to activities which are essentially private where the member has not chosen to make the fact of the arrest public or has not behaved in such a way as to make public knowledge inevitable. It recommended that a protocol be established for the authorities to consult with an arrested MP who would be entitled to indicate that he or she did not wish the notification to be made to the House. The Government insists the change brings MPs into line with the rest of the public. A source said: The anomaly, as far as it exists, is not that MPs are trying to get special treatment rather, its the other way round. At the moment MPs are named but the public arent, so this is just correcting that anomaly. In the last Parliament, the process led to the confirmation that Tory MPs Nigel Evans and David Ruffley had been arrested. Mr Evans was later cleared of rape and sexual assault. Mr Ruffley was cautioned for assault. It was also revealed that former Labour MP Eric Joyce had been arrested four times and Green MP Caroline Lucas was arrested during an anti-fracking protest and later acquitted of obstruction. News / Health by Stephen Jakes imwai mushonga okungasi kufa yikuphi MDC-T MP Ruth Labode has said the treatment for TB patient who is multi-drug-resistant person for minute which is happening quite frequently and is frightening cost $30 000.00.Speaking in parliament Labode thanked Members of Parliament for their 120 signatures that will be sent to Geneva starting on TB related issues."I just wanted to discuss a little bit about multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. This is a TB, we have all known that there is TB in our lives but it has changed because people could not endure long term treatment, they would stop and the TB bacteria became clever and started changing its shape which meant that now it could not be treated with existing drugs," she said.She said when they were treating it for six months, it cost something like $3 000.00, it cost government because TB treatment has always been for free."Now the minute it becomes multi-drug-resistant which is happening quite frequently and it is frightening, we now need $30 000.00 to treat a multi-drug-resistant person, can we afford it?" she said."We cannot, so what is our role? Our role is to ensure that everybody who is diagnosed with TB, we have to urge our relatives and people in the constituencies to say, take your tablets on a daily basis. Why are people defaulting? They are defaulting because TB drugs cause gastritis. You need food to take them and people do not have food but the danger of that is, we cannot afford the other side."Labode said in the past, when they worked at Thorngrove TB Hospital, every time one is diagnosed with TB, was given beans, cooking oil and so on, for you to be able to take your tablets."So, as Members of Parliament, we have to urge our communities to take their drugs once they are diagnosed with TB. The danger is that, it is not only those who work in the mines that will get TB, even among ourselves here, people of my age and those with diabetes; all we need is one of us to have multi-drug resistant TB. Some of us will catch and we will die because only 50% of the people actually are healed," she said."This TB has become more dangerous than HIV by the way, because with HIV if you go on ARVs, you can be treated or maintain it and we are getting to zero zero but with TB we are not getting to zero. This is because TB is changing its shape in our bodies and becoming something else we do not know."Labode said one of the things that create a problem is our TB is 100% funded by donors but our problem is distances. Somebody comes from UMP, Binga or Shurungwi and is diagnosed with TB, gets the first stock."For the next one, he needs about $5 for transport and does not have the money, he stops. By doing that now he is breeding that multi-drug resistance. You normally start feeling better after two months so you think you are okay when you are actually not okay. That is the time you need to finish your course," Labode said."The multi-drug resistant TB takes two years to be treated. Let us say you are working for a company like Delta for example, will they keep treating you for two years because you are now actually a danger to your colleagues within the company. So your job is likely to end. What is worrying also is; for that two years, six months you will be getting injections."Labode said how many people can endure that in addition to that injection of six months, one will take 140 000 tablets in two years."The tablets also have side effects. This is the multi-drug resistant course. One may become deaf, develop blackish itchy rash/spots and this is why people end up saying, let me just die," she said."So, we have an obligation to ensure that we get our people treated. We urge them because the treatment is free. Our only problem is of access and I think that the Ministry of Health and Child Care is really making an effort because these drugs are being moved by the European Union to the rural areas but the challenge maybe from the district to the rural health centre. As Members of Parliament, take it upon yourself that once in a while you go to the health institutions; ask how many TB patients they have and whether they are taking their medication. What they are now doing is that if you are diagnosed with TB, they call the person who lives with you and ask them to supervise the treatment.""So you parliamentarians are going to be the vanguards of this thing because it is a bombshell and as Zimbabwe we cannot afford it," she said."We really cannot afford to go the multi-drug resistant way. Let us implement what is called the Direct Treatment Observation (DOT) strategy which means you the relative are the ones observing that the person is taking his TB medication." 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 leading womens charity have written a letter to Jeremy Corbyn to complain about systematic misogyny which saw female Muslims being blocked from seeking office by male Labour councillors. Muslim Womens Network UK (MWNUK) called on the Labour leader to investigate the systematic misogyny displayed by significant numbers of Muslim male local councillors during the selection process for new election candidates. MWNUKs chairwoman Shaista Gohir said the problem was not limited to Labour and said she had also written to David Cameron but from our experience Muslim women were more affected by Labour councillors due their concentration in certain towns and cities. She wrote: "As this is an open secret and has been going on for decades, we can only assume that the Labour Party has been complicit at the highest levels. She accused senior Labour figures of "deliberately turning a blind eye" to the treatment of Muslim women because "votes [are] more important to them". Speaking to BBCs Newsnight, Ms Gohir said these men had a "certain cultural mindset" and operate a "male, brotherly kinship system". "They dont like women being empowered. Why? Because we are going to challenge the status quo, we are going to challenge the misogyny, we are going to challenge the fact that our rights are being undermined in our communities." UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty 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 One woman who says she was prevented from standing is optician Fozia Parveen from Birmingham. She told the programme her efforts to stand to become a Labour councillor in Birmingham in 2007-8 were sabotaged by Muslim men in the local party. She said: "At the time, I was aware of a smear campaign against me, they said that I was having an affair with one of the existing councillors. I was quite taken aback. "People were turning up at my family home trying to intimidate my mum." She said the Muslim male party members said a woman would never be elected there. Another woman who was selected to stand in Peterborough in 2007, Shazia Bashir, said she was pressurised to stand down because she "didnt have [her] fathers consent and support". One activist said she was told "Islam and feminism arent compatible" and a gay rights activist was told their campaigning was "un-Islamic" and should be "left to white people". A Labour spokesman said: "The Labour Party's selection procedures include strong positive action procedures such as all-women shortlists and rules to ensure women are selected in winnable council seats. "The Labour Party has a fair, democratic and robust procedure for selecting council candidates. Local Labour Party members select their local candidates within the party's rules and guidelines." Additional reporting by PA 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 }} The Liberal Democrats could become the first party to introduce all-ethnic minority, all-gay, and all-disabled candidate shortlists at the next general election. Criticised for a lack of diversity in the House of Commons, the Lib Dems will also impose all-women shortlists on seats currently held by their eight MPs should they choose to step down in 2020. The party has no women MPs after its disastrous election result, but even in the last Parliament only seven out of 57 were female. Recommended Read more Corbyn in secret talks with Farron over voting reform alliance Leader Tim Farron has drawn up a motion that will be taken to the partys spring conference in York next month designed to broaden its representation in Parliament. Local parties will be allowed to vote on whether they want to impose shortlists solely made up of candidates who are women, disabled, LGBT+, or black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame). A document sent to Lib Dem headquarters this weekend states: For far too long our MPs have been too male and too pale. Weve taken a number of initiatives in the background to create greater diversity and despite considerable work and effort, it simply hasnt worked. Talk and goodwill has been well meaning and well intentioned, but has failed to deliver whats needed. Mr Farron wants half of all candidates at the next general election to be women and one in 10 of them to be Bame. In 2015, 9 per cent of Lib Dem candidates were Bame, 6 per cent were LGBT+, and 3 per cent were disabled. Women accounted for only 30 per cent of the partys council candidates. Also, any region that the Lib Dems were particularly successful in last year will have to field at least two candidates from under-represented groups in the constituencies it covers. The party will establish a 2020 Candidate Diversity Task Force to coordinate the plans. Leader Tim Farron arriving at his conference last September (Getty) Lib Dem President Sal Brinton said: Liberal Democrats know we must change the public face of our parliamentary party in the House of Commons, and conference will now vote on the mechanisms to do so. Many members have told us doing nothing was not an option and these proposals show that the Liberal Democrats are serious about encouraging, training, mentoring and supporting candidates from under-represented groups. We want to look like the nation we want to represent. We are the first political party to reserve places on shortlists for Bame, disabled and for LGBT+, in addition to our longer-term work to get more women MPs. The motion concedes that some Lib Dems disagree with such positive discrimination, but states that there is sufficient evidence to show such action can be very effective in bringing about diversity and positive social change. A senior Lib Dem said parts of the strategy had been directly lifted from Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister who successfully reshaped his party. The move comes amid a sexism row in the Labour Party. The Muslim Womens Network UK has written to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanding an investigation into allegations that Muslim women suffered discrimination from Muslim male councillors, including in the selection process to become a Labour candidate. The network claims such sexism is an open secret within the party, and has also asked David Cameron to launch a broader investigation into the problems black and ethnic minority women face to get into politics. 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 }} The Queen was opposed to changing the voting system, according to a Labour peer who breaches protocol to reveal a political opinion expressed in a 20-minute conversation. Joyce Gould, Baroness Gould of Potternewton, says in her memoir that in 1997: We discussed her views on proportional representation; I will not disclose her words but they were not supportive. By convention, the monarch and her family avoid involvement in politics, and discussions with the Queen are supposed to remain private. But in her book, Lady Gould says that, when she was appointed by Tony Blair to the Commission chaired by Roy Jenkins to devise a more proportional voting system, she discussed it with the Queen. Lady Goulds appointment to the Commission meant that she had to resign as a government whip in the House of Lords. Lords whips are, formally, Lords and Baronesses in Waiting in Her Majestys Household, and so I had to explain to the Queen why I was leaving her household. Lady Gould writes: I was summoned to meet her at 11.50am on 15 December 1997. It was an interesting 20 minutes. Despite the Queens opposition, Lady Gould supported the majority view of the Commission, which favoured the Alternative Vote Plus system. This would have elected constituency MPs using the Alternative Vote (marking the ballot paper with numbers in order of preference), with extra MPs elected for regions to top up under-represented parties. But Mr Blair went back on the promise of a referendum, and when one was held in 2011, it was on the Alternative Vote alone, without the proportional top-up element. Lady Gould writes that it resulted in a big fat no. Baroness Gould spent an interesting 20 minutes with the Queen (UPPA/Photoshot) Lady Gould, whose memoir The Witchfinder General came out last month, was Director of Organisation for the Labour Party and led the fight to expel members of the Militant tendency in the 1980s. She was made a peer in 1993, and was a deputy speaker of the House of Lords until 2012. The Queen has always sought to avoid being drawn into political controversy. She was assumed to be opposed to Scottish independence, although her advice to Scottish voters to think very carefully before voting in the 2014 referendum was carefully ambiguous. David Cameron was embarrassed when a microphone picked up his comment to Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, that the Queen had purred down the line when he told her the result. The Queen was also assumed to be offended by Mr Blairs memoir, A Journey, which reported details of barbecues at Balmoral and discussed the response of Princes William and Harry to the death of their mother. On the other hand, Margaret Thatcher was embarrassed by reports that the Queen found her policies uncaring and socially divisive. Charles Moore, in his biography of Baroness Thatcher, named Michael Shea, the Queens press secretary, as the source of the stories, and revealed that the Queen had apologised to her Prime Minister for 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 }} Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe has declared a state of disaster as the country struggles to cope with a prolonged drought. The announcement comes as 26 per cent of the population - 2.4m people - are said to need food aid. Declaring a state of disaster allows international aid agencies to raise money to feed the population faster - it is estimated that Zimbabwe will need to step up imports 700,000 tonnes of maize this year to prevent starvation. The southern African country is still struggling to overcome the collapse of the economy caused by economic mismanagement, hyperinflation and sanctions by Western donors following political violence in 2002. Saviour Kasukuwere, the local government minister, said the country had seen less than three quarters of the usual rains - with some regions seeing 75 per cent of their crop falling. The hydroelectric dams were also in danger of falling as the water level fell. President Robert Mugabe declared a state of disaster to get more food aid from donors (AFP/Getty Images) Zimbabwe's biggest hydro power plant, Kariba, has already cut back electricity generation by 62 percent. Mr Kasukuwere said: "Given the foregoing ... His Excellency, the President has declared a state of disaster to severely affected areas in communal and resettlement lands of Zimbabwe effective from 2 February 2016". It comes as Philippe Van Damme, the European Union ambassador to Zimbabwe, warned last month that delays in declaring the drought a disaster could limit chances of getting international support at a time when donors are swamped with multiple humanitarian crises in other parts of the world. 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 The Zimbabwe Peace Project, a non-governmental group, said reports indicate food is being used as a political weapon to punish the opposition in some cases. It cited 135 cases of "food violations" from September to December. In Gwanda, a town southwest of Harare, the residents' association is encouraging people to buy ruling ZANU-PF party membership cards and attend party meetings to enhance chances of getting government-funded food aid. Farmers in the country have seen less than 75 per cent of typically rains because of the El Nino phenonmenon (AP) In January, dozens of villagers from rural Mutasa district, east of Harare, reportedly stormed a government grain warehouse, demanding an end to the politicization of food aid. Mr Mugabe has been in power for several decades but his government keeps hold of power allegedly using periodic bursts of human rights abuses and voter fraud. The drought is believed to be caused by the El Nino weather pattern which has also brought drought to neighbouring South Africa - the regions largest maize grower. Additional reporting by agencies 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 }} Colombian health officials have suggested there is a connection between the Zika virus, a rare nerve disorder and the deaths of three Colombians, as the disease continues to spread rapidly throughout the Americas. The announcement, made on Friday, is the first time government health officials have directly blamed the mosquito-borne virus for causing deaths. Colombian Health Minister, Alejandro Gaviria, said: "There is a causal connection between Zika, Guillain-Barre and the death of three Colombians, one in San Andres and another two in Turbo, Antioquia." The three patients died last week after being treated at a clinic in Medellin, said the minister, Reuters reports. The head of Colombias National Heath Institute, Martha Lucia Ospina, said: We have confirmed and attributed three deaths to Zika." The Zika virus - in pictures Show all 5 1 /5 The Zika virus - in pictures The Zika virus - in pictures A three-month-old, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil. A rise in microcephaly cases is thought to have been caused by the spread of the Zika virus in affected countries Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A mother holds her baby who has microcephaly Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A five-month-old baby, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A pediatric infectologist examines a two-month-old baby, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A baby affected with microcephaly In this case, the three deaths were preceded by Guillain-Barre syndrome. Guillain-Barre is a rare disorder in which the bodys immune system attacks part of the nervous system. It is not usually fatal but can cause paralysis and muscle weakness. Cases of the syndrome have increased in tandem with the Zika outbreak, sparking suspicions it is a complication of the virus, also blamed for causing microcephaly or brain damage in babies born to infected mothers. Scientists, however, have not yet proved Zika causes either condition. Ms Ospina said a further six deaths were being investigated for possible links to Zika, the BBC reports. Other cases [of deaths linked to Zika] are going to emerge, she said. The world is realising that Zika can be deadly. The mortality rate is not high, but it can be deadly. Experts from the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in the US are urgently investigating its link with Zika alongside officials in Brazil. It was first noticed in French Polynesia during the outbreak of Zika which swept the islands in 2013. Other governments in the region have also drawn connections between the virus and Guillain-Barre. Venezuelan authorities said last week there are around 255 cases of Guillain-Barre that are potentially linked to Zika. In Brazil, doctors have reported rises in cases of Guillain-Barre. Battling the zika virus - in pictures Show all 19 1 /19 Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures A worker of the Salvadorean Ministry of Health fumigates a house in Soyapango, 6 kilometers from San Salvador, El Salvador. Salvadorean authorities have began a three days campaign of fumigation to reduce the presence of the mosquito that transmit the Zika virus. EPA/Oscar Rivera Battling the zika virus - in pictures A Health Ministry employee fumigates a home against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango, six km east of San Salvador. Health authorities have issued a national alert against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, because of the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly and Guillain-BarrE Syndrome in foetuses. AFP PHOTO/Marvin RECINOSMarvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A pediatric infectologist examines a two-months-old baby, who has microcephaly, on 26 January 2016 in Recife, Brazil. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A woman walks through the fumes as Health Ministry employee fumigate against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango. Marvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A health ministry employee sprays to eliminate breeding sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits diseases such as the dengue, chicunguna and Zica viruses, in a Tegucigalpa cemetery on January 21, 2016. The medical school at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) recommended that women in the country avoid getting pregnant for the time being due to the presence of the Zika virus. If a pregnant woman is infected by the virus, the baby could be born with microcephaly. AFP PHOTO/Orlando SIERRA Battling the zika virus - in pictures A man walks away from his home with his son as health workers fumigates the Altos del Cerro neighbourhood as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases in Soyapango, El Salvador REUTERS/Jose Cabezas Battling the zika virus - in pictures A three-months-old, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A pregnant woman waits to be attended at the Maternal and Children's Hospital in Tegucigalpa. The medical school at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) recommended that women in the country avoid getting pregnant for the time being due to the presence of the Zika virus. If a pregnant woman is infected by the virus, the baby could be born with microcephaly. ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures Army soldiers apply insect repellent as they prepare for a clean up operation against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is a vector for transmitting the Zika virus in Sao Paulo, Brazil. AP Photo/Andre Penner Battling the zika virus - in pictures Workers disinfect the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro to fight the spread of the Zika virus Battling the zika virus - in pictures Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, measures the head of a 2-month-old baby with microcephaly in Recife Battling the zika virus - in pictures Mother Mylene Helena Ferreira cares for her son David Henrique Ferreira, 5 months, who has microcephaly, on January 25, 2016 in Recife, Brazil. In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures U.S. women who are pregnant from traveling to many South American countries Battling the zika virus - in pictures In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, examines a two-month-old baby with microcephaly on January 27, 2016 in Recife, Brazil Battling the zika virus - in pictures Washington Post Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures Earlier this month Brazilian scientists said they had detected active samples of Zika in urine and saliva for the first time. However, scientists have said there is no proof the virus can transmitted through those fluids. The governor of Puerto Rico has declared a public health emergency over Zika. The US territory has 22 confirmed cases. 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 }} Ana Carolina Caceres is on her way out to meet friends. Holding her mobile phone at an angle just above her head, the Brazilian youngster takes a quick picture and checks how she looks in the photo before she dashes out of the house. Nothing unusual there. The 24-year-old is part of a generation of selfie-taking addicts. What is unusual is the spotlight in which Ms Caceres now finds herself. Brazil is battling to stem a sharp rise in the number of babies with microcephaly, a condition that means a smaller-than-normal head and likely brain developmental problems something that Ms Caceres was born with. The attention of the world is trained on the microcephaly increase because of a suspected link with the Zika virus, which is currently spreading rapidly against the Americas and has the potential to spread further. Recommended Read more Zika fears push holidaymakers with bookings to US to rethink plans The attention from around Brazil and beyond is bittersweet for Ms Caceres, whose parents were warned by doctors that their newborns skulls 27.4cm circumference was smaller than average and she would never walk or talk, and had a slim chance of survival. An average newborns head is around 33cm. But Im still here and doing more than anyone predicted, said Ms Caceres who graduated with a degree in journalism last year and has penned a book about her life. She says, while the suspected Zika link is awful, the publicity can only help those who have it in the longer term. Im heartbroken at how many children are being diagnosed with microcephaly, but at the same time... its all over the news, she said. Ana Cacares was born with microcephaly The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week declared an international emergency over the spike in cases of microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves, which is also linked with the Zika virus. Brazil recorded 404 babies born with microcephaly and 3,670 suspected cases in the past three months. From 2010 to 2014, an average of 156 Brazilian babies a year were born with the condition. For Ms Caceres, the condition has required a huge amount of medical attention. When she was nine days old, surgeons operated to remove 40 per cent of her skull in the frontal region, corrected a sunken forehead and a blocked nasal passage. She suffered two cardiac arrests on the operating table. After enduring five life-threatening surgeries to reshape and expand her skull and over a decade of breathing difficulties and seizures, Ms Caceres is proud of her normal size head. Her one limitation is to avoid falling over, as the brain mass in her forehead is protected only by skin. Ive been suffering on the side-lines all my life, Ms Caceres said from Mato Grosso do Sul, in southern Brazil. But now Im able to tell millions of people that microcephaly is not the end of your world. As well as looking to make sure the authorities care for at-risk pregnant women, and ensure thorough research is carried out into the virus to establish unequivocally a scientific link with microcephaly, Brazils government has ramped up operations to stamp out Zika and the Aedes aegypti mosquito which carries it. Battling the zika virus - in pictures Show all 19 1 /19 Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures A worker of the Salvadorean Ministry of Health fumigates a house in Soyapango, 6 kilometers from San Salvador, El Salvador. Salvadorean authorities have began a three days campaign of fumigation to reduce the presence of the mosquito that transmit the Zika virus. EPA/Oscar Rivera Battling the zika virus - in pictures A Health Ministry employee fumigates a home against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango, six km east of San Salvador. Health authorities have issued a national alert against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, because of the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly and Guillain-BarrE Syndrome in foetuses. AFP PHOTO/Marvin RECINOSMarvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A pediatric infectologist examines a two-months-old baby, who has microcephaly, on 26 January 2016 in Recife, Brazil. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A woman walks through the fumes as Health Ministry employee fumigate against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango. Marvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A health ministry employee sprays to eliminate breeding sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits diseases such as the dengue, chicunguna and Zica viruses, in a Tegucigalpa cemetery on January 21, 2016. The medical school at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) recommended that women in the country avoid getting pregnant for the time being due to the presence of the Zika virus. If a pregnant woman is infected by the virus, the baby could be born with microcephaly. AFP PHOTO/Orlando SIERRA Battling the zika virus - in pictures A man walks away from his home with his son as health workers fumigates the Altos del Cerro neighbourhood as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases in Soyapango, El Salvador REUTERS/Jose Cabezas Battling the zika virus - in pictures A three-months-old, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A pregnant woman waits to be attended at the Maternal and Children's Hospital in Tegucigalpa. The medical school at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) recommended that women in the country avoid getting pregnant for the time being due to the presence of the Zika virus. If a pregnant woman is infected by the virus, the baby could be born with microcephaly. ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures Army soldiers apply insect repellent as they prepare for a clean up operation against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is a vector for transmitting the Zika virus in Sao Paulo, Brazil. AP Photo/Andre Penner Battling the zika virus - in pictures Workers disinfect the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro to fight the spread of the Zika virus Battling the zika virus - in pictures Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, measures the head of a 2-month-old baby with microcephaly in Recife Battling the zika virus - in pictures Mother Mylene Helena Ferreira cares for her son David Henrique Ferreira, 5 months, who has microcephaly, on January 25, 2016 in Recife, Brazil. In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures U.S. women who are pregnant from traveling to many South American countries Battling the zika virus - in pictures In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, examines a two-month-old baby with microcephaly on January 27, 2016 in Recife, Brazil Battling the zika virus - in pictures Washington Post Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures It is not just Brazil. The WHO has pledged millions of pounds to a global war against the proliferation of mosquitos and the spread of the virus as there are fears the virus could spread to parts of Africa, Asia, the US and even southern Europe. Scientists are in the throes of rushing through a vaccine, as there is no known cure. It will not be easy. The WHOs warning to pregnant women to avoid travel to infected regions has been followed by daily headline-grabbing revelations. Brazil announced the first confirmed case of Zika virus transmitted by blood transfusion; the US reported the first case of a patient infected through sexual contact with someone who had travelled to a country where the virus is present; and on 5 February, 16 young adults in Rio de Janeiro were reported to be seriously ill, with two paralysed, after developing a severe form of Guillain-Barre syndrome. This weekend, with Brazils annual Mardi Gras street carnivals under way, virologists have warned of the possibility of a Zika contagion from urine, saliva and unprotected sex. Brazil has strict abortion laws, but abortion advocates are challenging that in Brazils Supreme Federal Court. However, Dr Debora Diniz, a professor of anthropology at the University of Brasilia, who is leading the campaign to change the law, said the case of Ms Caceres is distinctly different from the Zika-linked microcephaly cases happening now. The Lima family, from left: Ana Vitoria, Viviane, Carlos, Maria Luiza and Julia (Bruno Kelly) It would be wrong to compare foetuses affected by Zika with Ana [Caceres]. Her condition is genetically determined ... Our action in the Supreme Court would be to support the individual rights of women to choose whether to take a pregnancy to full term in the midst of an epidemic whose consequences are unclear. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al-Hussein, has called on countries with cases of the Zika virus to ensure that woman have access to sexual health services that include contraception maternal healthcare and safe abortion services. UN and US health officials have accused Brazil arguably because of its privacy laws of not sharing enough samples and data to determine if Zika is actually behind the cases of microcephaly. I have no faith in this government, says Viviane Lima, 34, a Brazilian mother of three, with two girls born with microcephaly within the space of two years. For the past 17 years, I have struggled to cope. Ministers are promising to support hundreds of women with healthcare and money, but we constantly have to rely on ourselves, complained Ms Lima who lives in Manuas. Both girls, Ana Vitoria, 16 and Maria Luiza, 14, suffer from speech and cognitive problems. Ana Vitoria was born with a head circumference of 30.5cm and Maria Luizas measured 27.5cm. I was 18 when I had Ana Vitoria and didnt realise the full extent of what was ahead of me, Ms Lima said. Doctors told me both my children wouldnt walk, talk or laugh. Today, Ana rollerskates and we are one big happy family on an amazing journey, Ms Lima said. With her years of experience, Ms Lima has set up a Facebook support group called Maes de Anjos Unidas which has more than 300 members. Ms Limas husband Carlos, 34, stepfather to the two elder girls, knows the Zika virus is causing havoc to many, but he offered hope for those affected. Love and patience have pulled us through and every day being father to my daughters is a fantastic experience, he said. One thats changed me for the better. 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 }} Europe has urged Turkey to open its border to tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing an offensive by Syrian government troops backed by Russian bombardment in the northern province of Aleppo. Aid agencies have warned that an estimated 20,000 people are waiting at the Bab al-Salam border crossing near the Turkish town of Kilis, but Turkish officials said the number could be up to 35,000. Many of them are sleeping in the open. Tens of thousands more are said to be on the move after being forced from their homes. The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called on Turkey to open the crossing on 6 February. She said a 3bn (2.3bn) aid deal with Ankara to stem the flow of refugees to Europe was aimed exactly at making sure that Turkey could provide safe asylum for Syrians. However, Turkeys deputy minister for EU affairs, Ali Sahin, told The Independent on Sunday that Turkey was providing every kind of humanitarian aid needed by those who had fled, and added: It will be better to settle them on the Syrian side of the border. He accused Russia of seeking to undermine the integrity of Europe by driving the civilians from their towns and villages. Moscow, he said, targets not only Turkeys security but Europes as well. Turkey, already home to more than two million Syrian refugees, has faced huge pressure from the EU and the US to prevent the transit of jihadists such as those from Islamic State (Isis). In recent months, only limited numbers of Syrians have been allowed to cross. Dalia Al-Awqati, director of the Northern Syria Programme at the charity Mercy Corps, warned that conditions for those waiting at or near the border were highly challenging. Most families were sleeping without shelter, she said, despite temperatures plunging close to zero. Humanitarian agencies are having a difficult time reaching everyone, she said. Because the situation is so fluid, it is very difficult. We have seen tens of thousands on the move in the past few days. She said the situation continued to deteriorate in Syria. In the past year, we have seen an intensification of the fighting and a shrinking of humanitarian spaces that can be considered safe, she said. They are between a rock and a hard place. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 1 /19 In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civil defence members rest amidst rubble 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 Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria 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 Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have made a series of important gains in Aleppo province over the past week. On 3 February, they succeeded in severing the main supply route into the rebel-held Aleppo, Syrias second city. Heavy fighting is continuing in the area to the north of the city. Analysts said that, thanks to help from Russia and Iran, Syrian government forces were within a few miles of totally encircling the city. An estimated 400,000 people live in the half of the city controlled by various rebel factions that include the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. They fear the area will soon become the latest place to be subjected to siege warfare offering the choice of either surrender or being starved into submission. Hundreds of thousands are thought to be subject to the sieges by a mix of regime forces, Isis and rebel opposition groups. While the offensive around Aleppo was one of the issues that helped to stall the peace talks in Geneva in recent days, an end to the sieges and ready access to humanitarian aid was two of the main demands of the main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee. Mahmoud Hassan, a human rights and civil society activist from Aleppo, said that prices in the city had risen dramatically in recent days in anticipation of a siege. Speaking via Facebook from the al-Sakhour district in eastern Aleppo, he said that the area was being subjected to relentless bombardment. He said: We are being bombed by planes, by rocket launchers and by artillery. Of course, people are very frightened. Some have already left, others are planning to do so. Regaining control of the whole of Aleppo, an opposition stronghold since 2012, would be a huge victory for Damascus, both strategically and symbolically. This increasing confidence was highlighted by the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, when he said that Damascus would resist anyone who launched a ground incursion into its territory. Those [who do so] will return to their countries in coffins, he said, adding that no ceasefire would be possible unless borders were sealed. The comments appeared to be aimed at Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, with both states saying they are ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria that the US-led coalition fighting Isis in Syria and Iraq decided to mount. Both supporters and opponents of President Assad believe that government forces talking hold of Aleppo could herald the beginning of the end of the five-year uprising against him. Mr Hassan offered a gloomy prediction for those still hoping to topple the Syrian president: If Aleppo is lost, the revolution will be completely extinguished. 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 }} Denmarks Justice Minister has admitted that the US sent a rendition flight to Copenhagen Airport to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden. Justice Minister Sren Pind told the Danish parliaments Legal Affairs Committee the US was granted permission to use Danish airspace and land a plane at Copenhagen Airport to transport Edward Snowden to America. The purpose of the planes presence at Copenhagen Airport was apparently to have the ability to transport Edward Snowden to the USA in case he was delivered from Russia or another country, Mr Pind said in a written statement seen by the Local. Claims that the US landed a rendition plane in Copenhagen in June 2013 were first reported last month by Danish online media Denfri. Danish officials initially denied the reports and as recently as Wednesday, Mr Pind said that he wasnt aware of the purpose of the aircraft in question, according to the local. Mr Snowden has tweeted about the incident, saying it "seems to confirm Denmark intended to violate principle of non-refoulement as I sought asylum". Mr Snowden is a former employee of the NSA and handed over classified US documents, detailing the extent of electronic surveillance by the CIA, to journalists. 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 The whistleblower has been granted temporary asylum in Russia, which can be extended indefinitely on an annual basis. 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 10-year-old boy has been raped at a public swimming pool in Vienna, according to local media reports. Local newspaper Kronen Zeitung described the assailant as a 20-year-old Iraqi refugee, who was arrested at the scene of the incident in late December. It was reported that the child was taken to hospital for treatment over "severe" injuries. Austrian police did not initially release details of the rape, which took place on 22 December at the Theresienbad pool, in order to protect the victim, according to Kronen Zeitung. When rumours later emerged on Facebook, police said they must be sensitive about cases involving refugees, who they said had "been through a lot" - but stressed there would be zero tolerance for such acts. Support for refugees in Europe has been falling following the New Year's Eve attacks on women in Cologne, research has suggested. Male asylum seekers were banned from a pool in Germany following the attacks. The change in public opinion has led Angela Merkel to suggest refugees only have a "temporary" right to stay in Germany, and should return to Iraq and Syria once Isis have been defeated. 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 }} Media coverage of a tiger and a goat that delighted animal lovers after forming an unexpected friendship is being investigated for a potential violation of Russias ban on gay propaganda. Prosecutors in the Primorsky region are investigating whether coverage of the relationship between Amur the tiger and Timur the goat, who are both male, infringes on laws protecting traditional values following a complaint by a lawyer that the animals friendship could harm children. Alexei Krestyanov, a lawyer from Novosibirsk, wrote to prosecutors asking them to investigate the coverage of the relationship between the two animals at the Far East Safari Park, which have since had a falling out and are now living in separate enclosures. Tiger and goat become friends He wrote on his Facebook page: Recently, the Russian mass media actively discussed the topic of the unconventional coexistence of animals of the male sex in the Seaside Safari Park: Amur the tiger and the goat Timur. I believe that the positive coverage of this topic is nothing but an interference with the privacy of underage Russian citizens, which is a hidden propaganda, as a public, active solicitation of homosexuality and the information on it. Krestyanov added that the contents of the coverage could have a negative impact on the formation of the child's personality, including questioning his sexual identity and generating an interest in non-traditional sexual relations. The animal pals made international news after Amur the tiger refused to eat Timur the goat, instead forming a friendship with what would usually be his prey, although zookeepers warned that this may change at some point. But the extensive coverage prompted Krestyanov to complain that it was promoting non-traditional relationships. Demanding authorities take action, he cited paragraph 1, article 14 of the federal law N 124-FZ, which says state authorities in Russia should take measures to protect children from information, propaganda and agitation that harms their moral and spiritual development. In an earlier Facebook post, he wrote: Need to prohibit the dissemination of information about the Timur the goat and Amur the tiger. Prosecutors are now believed to be investigating the claim, with Krestyanov sharing am official letter from the prosecutor general with his followers. News / Local by Stephen Jakes Magwegwe MP Anele Ndebele has told Parliament that according to his observations in Zimbabwe one has to do something funny in order to be appointed minister.Speaking in the house, Ndebele said each time he gets home he is at pain to explain to his daughter why he is not a Minister because some things may be good and not good for her."But this question keeps cropping up. Every time she wants to know and the answer that I have given her, as I have seen things play out in this House, is that in order to be a minister in this country my daughter, you just have to do something funny and you are appointed," he said.But Speaker of the house Jacob Mudenda said he was at pains again to correct Ndebele."Member who was on the floor. Again, if he can read the Constitution of Zimbabwe it will reveal to him how the appointing authority appoints ministers and that privilege remains the privilege of the appointing authority. I would want the Hon. Member to kindly respect that and not go into the pedantics of trying to go outside the Presidential debate please," Mudenda said.Ndebele said he was fully aware as a Member of Parliament that a ministerial appointment does not make one infallible neither does it translate to the fact that they immediately become the domain of all intelligence."The point I was trying to bring across is that in articulating matters, members of the Executive need to speak from the same dashboard. They need to articulate the same issues regarding how we wish to take our country forward. It is a matter of collective responsibility, I think, when you are in Cabinet," he said."Hon. Speaker, when we look at the President's Speech, a lot of it is centred on boosting economic recovery, but my understanding from what I have observed during question and answer sessions in this House is that his lieutenants may not be economically literate and at this particular moment, Zimbabwe requires stewards that understand the nuts and bolts of how economies run.""For instance, if you read the Auditor General's report, it is littered from page one right up to the end with people stealing from this very Government and the stealing goes on under the very nose and the watch of our ministers. If people are stealing in this manner, what it means is that our ministers do not understand the nuts and bolts of how economies work."He said it is the truth that people are stealing from the public purse."One is tempted you always encourage us to go back to school, one is tempted to advise the University of Zimbabwe to craft some financial literacy courses specifically for our ministers because they leave these things to so called technocrats who are permanent secretaries. The same permanent secretaries who were sitting on those boards that were milking our economy," Ndebele said.But Mudenda mocked at him saying "I do not even know what he is talking about or which speech he is debating. I am lost. I need him to guide us. Which debate is he debating on." 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 }} Cologne police reported 22 sexual assaults on the opening night of the citys annual carnival, an increase in attacks on last years event. Of the offences reported at the Womens Carnival Day, two were described as serious, with a woman believed to have been raped on her way home from the event, Deutsche Welle reported. The other serious incident saw a female news reporter at the carnival being groped live on air. As well as the string of sexual assaults, there were also 30 thefts reported as well as 143 reports of bodily harm, while 11 police officers were reported to be injured defending themselves. The reports of a spike in sexual assaults came amid a heightened police presence at the carnival where the number of officers was doubled on last years event to 2,000 following almost 500 reports of sexual assaults in Cologne on New Years Eve. While the New Years Eve attacks were purportedly carried out by migrants, sparking a rise in anti-immigration sentiment and far right rhetoric in Germany, the BBC reported that the police had refused to state the origin of 190 people arrested in Cologne at the Womens Day Carnival, stating they were a cross section of the general public. 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 It is thought that one of the people being held in custody is there in connection with the reported rape. Fears that the New Years Eve attacks would be repeated had led to Cologne and Bonn handing out information to refugees leaflets that were widely criticised for their approach. Cologne pledges tight security for Carnival celebrations The leaflets were handed out to migrants and included rules to follow, such as no urinating in the street and strict guidelines on appropriate behaviour of men towards women including the statement no means no. 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 Swiss city has banned silent disco events due to concerns about noise. Locals in Lausanne on the shore of Lake Geneva has lodged noise complaints over rooftop events in the city's Flon neighbourhood and the Place de l'Europe. The organiser of these events, Oliver Meylan, had applied to stage a series of silent discos on bistro rooftop terraces in the Flon neighbourhood on June 12 and September 4 running until 5am on both occasions. Despite being backed by the owner of the bistros and the neighbouring municipality of Pully where similar events have been - the application was denied. Florence Nicollier, the head of the city's business regulation department, told 20 minutes: "Since 2014 numerous complaints from neighbours have been lodged "They involve noise problems caused by musical events and other activities taking place on terraces of establishments in the Flon neighbourhood and the Place de lEurope, in particular those on rooftops "During silent discos, the noise caused by the clientele is not negligible." There was concern that people attending silent discos often sing along. Mr Meylan replied to the city's decision: "Given our experience in the neighbouring municipality of Pully, we should have been able to at least try a test in the centre of Lausanne and take stock afterward, but no. "There is now a lack of original events in this city that are, however, popular with young adults." 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 }} Protesters from the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement marched in cities across Europe today. With around 2000 attendees, the largest was in Dresden, the home town of the group, the Daily Mail reported. There were also far right demonstrations in the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Poland, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia and even Australia. In Birmingham, 100 - 300 protesters joined the first PEGIDA demonstration in Britain. A silent march walked through a Birmingham industrial estate, a Guardian journalist reported: Some marchers held signs saying 'Trump is right', referring to the US presidential candidate's anti-Muslim rhetoric. The march was led by Stephen Yaxley Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the far-right English Defence League. In Dublin, there were scuffles as hundreds of counter-protesters came out against PEGIDA demonstrators. Sinn Fein MEP for Dublin Lynn Boylan told said to a counter-rally on O'Connell Street: " We are standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity to show that there is no place in Ireland for racism and Islamophobia." "There is no place in Ireland for hate. We are a welcoming nation because we are no strangers to migration." Known by its German acronym Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident), the group emerged two years ago and has become a magnet for far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment. Pegida supporters gather in Dresden, eastern Germany, on 6 February, 2016 (OBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images) People gather in Dresden to protest against a mass rally of the Pegida movement with a placard reading 'Love for all' on February 6, 2016 (TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images) Nationalist groups in Europe have been galvanized by the unprecedented influx of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East last year. Last month, water cannons and pepper spray were used to push back more than a thousand anti-immigration protesters in Cologne following attacks on New Year's Eve. Associated Press contributed to this report. 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 }} Syrian rebels are fighting for their survival in and around the northern city of Aleppo. An assault by the Syrian army, backed by heavy Russian air power, severed the last rebel supply line from Turkey to Aleppo on Wednesday, in a devastating blow to the Syrian opposition. On Thursday, the government captured several more villages in the surrounding countryside, leading to fears they could encircle the city. Thousands of Syrians flee government offensive in Aleppo The battle for Aleppo has fuelled opposition suspicions that the Syrian regime and its allies are more interested in securing a military victory over the rebels than negotiating a settlement. Who is fighting whom? Pro-government soldiers in the town of Tal Jabin, north of Aleppo, ahead of the assault to recapture Nubul and Zahraa (Getty Images/AFP) Government forces, backed by Russian air support, are engaged in battle with the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the main opposition group. Regime forces are also aided by Iranian advisers and Lebanese Hezbollah militia, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 1 /19 In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civil defence members rest amidst rubble 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 Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria 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 Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis Aleppo is divided between pro-Syrian forces and a range of rebel groups, from the Free Syrian Army to the radical al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra. These rebel groups are not all aligned in their fight against Assad, with the moderates that form the Syrian National Coalition distancing themselves from Islamist designated terror groups such as the al-Nusra front and Isis. In addition, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) control an area of northern Aleppo. Why is Aleppo significant? Syrian pro-government troops hold positions in the Syrian town of Ain al-Hanash near l-Bab in Aleppo's eastern countryside on 26 January, 2016 (GEORGES OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images) Rebels have maintained control of much of Aleppo since they took the city in 2012. The loss of Aleppo to government forces would represent a potentially decisive blow to the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. Such a loss could also significantly weaken Western-backed rebel groups fighting against Isis (which the regime says it is also fighting), further empowering the terror group in Syria. What effect has the fighting had? UN officials have said up to 20,000 Syrians are massing on the border (AFP) As many as 20,000 refugees have fled the city as a result of the fighting, spending the night at the Bab al-Salam border crossing with Turkey. The Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the camp would continue to feed and shelter the refugees, but did not say when or if they would be allowed to enter his country. The battle could also exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, as the UN has found itself unable to deliver aid to towns besieged by government troops. With Aleppo almost surrounded, there is a risk people living there could be cut off from aid deliveries entirely. What will the long-term consequences be? Battle for Aleppo threatens Switzerland peace talks Tentative peace talks in Geneva were "temporarily halted" because of the government's major advance against rebel forces north of Aleppo. The government's attack was condemned by France for "torpedoing" the Syrian peace talks and the US said it was "difficult" to see how the air strikes, which the State Department said were mostly on civilian targets, would help resolve the conflict. US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the assault was mainly focused on opposition forces and urged Moscow to focus instead on its purported aim of fighting Isis. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, who suspended the talks, said they will resume on 25 February. 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 }} Three British special forces operatives have been injured in a firefight with Isis militants in Iraq. The engagement took place during a covert reconnaissance operation near Isis-held Mosul, in the north of the country. The soldiers, believed to be from the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) regiments, suffered bullet and fragmentation injuries, the Mirror said. They are the first reported combat casualties of Britain's involvement in Iraq against Isis, known as Operation Shader. While the Government does not comment on special forces operations, it is believed that the soldiers were part of a mission with German and American soldiers. "The enemy were up to 30 strong and heavily armed," a 'highly placed source' told the Mirror. "An air strike was needed to resolve it." In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work The source also alleged that there was a "secret" war being waged against Isis. Government ministers would "hide behind the claim they cant comment on special forces operations to avoid acknowledging Britain is at war," he told the Mirror. "Publicly to acknowledge these heroic men were injured would be to admit the battle took place and they cannot do that because it is all being done off the radar." Politically no one has an appetite for open war against Isis so its done in secret. The UK's combat engagement as part of Operation Shader so far has been from the air. The RAF have flown over 340 missions, targeting Isis fighters, bases, combat vehicles, ammunition dumps, and communications and training facilities. In December 2015 the number of British troops in Iraq was just 275 and The Independent reported that a visiting Common's defence committee complained about the small number of British troops and how far they were from the frontline. 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 civil war in Syria and Iraq and the rise of Islamic State (Isis) has brought the 30 million Kurds in the Middle East new terrors and fresh opportunities. In Syria, the conflict has led to the creation of a Kurdish quasi-state between the Tigris and Euphrates that fields a powerful army supported by US air power. In northern Iraq, the defeat of the Iraqi army by Isis in 2014 enabled the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to seize territory long in dispute with Baghdad and expand its area of control by 40 per cent. But in Turkey, it is the Kurds who are the losers in a renewed confrontation with the Turkish state that has its roots in war in Syria. It is not a good time to be a minority in the Middle East and, though the Kurds are powerful today in Iraq and Syria, they remain a minority which will always be vulnerable to a change in the political tides. They know that what has happened to the Yazidis and Christians over the past 18 months, as ethnic and sectarian cleansing becomes the norm, could happen to them. Yohanna Toyama, a community leader from the Christian town of Qaraqosh outside Mosul, whose 60,000 people fled when Isis captured it in 2014, has a stark view of the prospects for minority communities. We will all be eaten by the majorities, he says. The Isis frontline is still only 40 minutes drive from Irbil, the Kurdish capital, but fear that its fighters would break through has largely dissipated. But the jihadi onslaught, that reached its peak in the second half of 2014, was only one element in the crisis convulsing the de facto state (controlled by the KRG) that is being devastated by an economic catastrophe. Irbil and Sulaymaniyah, the biggest city of eastern Kurdistan, are full of half-completed building projects. And even when the grandiose hotels and malls are completed, they remain largely empty, monuments to the KRGs failed attempt to become an oil state like Dubai or Kuwait. The ambition was an act of hubris, which assumed that the price of oil would remain high and that KRG could become an oil state acting independently from Baghdad. I was in Kurdistan three years ago at the height of the boom, when delegations of foreign businessmen were packed into luxury hotels as sceptical Kurdish friends were complaining about the absence of good hospitals or schools for their children. A member of the Kurdish Peshmerga walks at the Khubbaz oil field, west of the city of Kirkuk, after their forces and police retook the area from IS (AFP/Getty) The exuberant mood reminded me of Ireland at the height of its Celtic Tiger boom, when much of the population thought they were magically going to become rich. In the event, the death of the Kurdish Tiger economy since 2014 has been far more spectacular and devastating than anything seen in Ireland. Everything depended on the price of a barrel of oil being over $100 while the KRG is now believed to be getting just $21, barely enough to cover a third of its expenditure. Around 740,000 people are on the government payroll and few have received their full salaries over the past six months; many have been paid nothing at all. Some Kurds were always sceptical about the vision of Kurdistan as an oil state, arguing against the creation of a system where people got a cut of the oil revenues without doing much work while the ruling elite received a license to plunder. After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the KRG advertised itself as the other Iraq which was supposedly run in a different and more efficient way than the corrupt and dysfunctional government in Baghdad. In reality, the two political and economic systems were very similar, with authoritarian leaders seeking to monopolise power through control of oil revenues. Oil is like opium in that it fosters dangerous dreams from which the Kurds are now awakening, but the withdrawal symptoms are painful and, on occasion, fatal. There are frequent funerals of people, who, despairing of being paid and with their savings gone, drown in the Aegean trying to make their way to Europe. Aside from oil, the KRG produces very little and almost all the goods in the markets are imported from Turkey and Iran. Kurds remark that we dont even grow our own tomatoes any more. In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Show all 30 1 /30 In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani An explosion rocks Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bomb attack by the militants of Isis group on a People's Protection Unit (YPG) position in the city center of Kobani, as seen from the outskirts of Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani An explosion rocks the Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bomb attack by Isis Getty In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani An explosion in the Syrian city of Kobani set off as fighting continues Getty Images In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Heavy smoke rises following an air strike by the US-led coalition aircraft in Kobani Getty Images In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani An unidentified armed man takes position near a building in the Syrian town of Kobani, as seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Kurdish fighters walk to their positions in Kobani In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Residents of Kobani walk in the streets of the besieged town, as seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani People's Protection Unit (YPG) fighters walk in the Syrian town of Kobani, as seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani People watch the Syrian town of Kobani from near the Mursitpinar border crossing, on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani A Turkish soldier stands on a top of a tank as he watches the Syrian town of Kobani from near the Mursitpinar border crossing, on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc. Kurdish forces defending Kobani urged a U.S.-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Isis fighters who tightened their grip on the Syrian town at the border with Turkey. A group that monitors the Syrian civil war said the Kurdish forces faced inevitable defeat in Kobani if Turkey did not open its border to let through arms, something Ankara has appeared reluctant to do In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Newly arrived People's Protection Unit (YPG) fighters walk in a line in the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Heavy smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Kurdish women mourn at the grave of a relative, who was a Kurdish fighter killed in fighting with the militants of the Islamic State group in Kobani, and was buried at a cemetery in Suruc In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Turkish army tanks mechanized units take position on top of a hill near Mursitpinar border crossing in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Smoke rises after an US-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani. The air strikes pushed Isis fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani A huge plume of smoke rises after an airstrike in eastern Kobani, Syria, behind a hilltop where militants with the Islamic State group had raised their flag on Monday AP In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Turkish Kurds watch as airstrikes hit Kobani AP In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani as Turkish army tanks take position on the Turkish side of the border Reuters In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Military aircraft flies over the Turkey-Syria border as it nears targets in Kobani In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Smoke rises after a US-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani Reuters In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Turkish Kurds, on the Turkey-Syria border, watch over the border at the intensified fighting between Isis and Kurdish forces AP In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Smoke rises during airstrikes on the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobani by the Kurds Getty In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani A huge plume of smoke rises after an airstrike outside west Kobani, Syria AP In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani A militant with the Isis group walks in the town of Kobani In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Militants with the Isis group, bottom, along with a machine gun-fitted pick up truck, partially seen bottom right, hold positions in Kobani, during intensified fighting with Syrian Kurds In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani People watch smoke rising from the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobani by the Kurds, after an air strike Getty In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Smoke rises from a strike at an area of a mosque that destroyed its minaret, in Kobani during heavy fighting between militants with the Isis group and Syrian Kurds In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani Militants with Isis hold positions in Kobani, Syria, during intensified fighting with Syrian Kurds AP In pictures: Fighting between Kurds and Isis intensifies in Kobani Kobani A partial view of Kobani with a mosque's minaret All the villages have emptied since 2003 because people knew they could get well-paid government jobs in the cities where they wouldnt have to do much work, says Falah Shakarm, who runs the Wadi NGO which promotes human rights and civil society. He is a survivor of the poison gas attack by Saddams forces on Halabja in 1988 when an estimated 5,000 people were killed. He recalls that he fled at the age of 14, along with his brother and small sister, into the mountains above Halabja where they hid in a cave: We turned in one direction out of our front door and survived, but our next-door neighbour turned in another along with his wife and 10 children and the gas killed them all. Mr Shakarm regrets the destructive impact of excessive oil revenues and aid money on a Kurdish society unable to use it constructively. He illustrated what he was saying by pointing to the Halabja Treatment Centre, a large new building in Halabja which was designed to treat the thousands of people disabled by the poison gas and was paid for by Japan. He said the centre was finished three years ago, but is empty and has never been used, because there is no money for staff and equipment. He added that Wadi has had difficulty getting funds for a small radio station run for and by displaced people and refugees simply because the project is too small. In the radio station in Halabja, Kurdish and Arab women explain that this is the only place that we can breathe free. Hanin Hassan, a young Arab woman who left Fallujah two years ago, said she had just been accepted at Baghdad University when she and her family had to flee Isis. Here women are respected, but in Fallujah conditions were terrible for us, she said, adding that working at the radio was a rich experience for me. Leila Ahmed, a Kurd from Al-Hasakah in Syria, said her family had fled the fighting, but she was less impressed by the status of women in Halabja, a notoriously conservative city, compared to Syria: We had more freedom there when it came to clothes and the ability to leave the house. It is easy to be critical in retrospect of KRG leaders for becoming over-dependent on oil revenues that relied on good relations with Baghdad and a high price for crude. And, if they did not foresee the rise of Isis, nor did anybody else. For the moment, the Iraqi Kurds are politically and militarily strong because other powers need them as an ally against Isis, but this will not last. The Kurds are discovering, as have others before them, that oil is a poisoned gift that creates a distorted state, economy and society that cannot function when the oil revenues run dry. 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 }} Terrorism, not frustration at Israeli occupation, is responsible for the recent spate of Palestinian attacks, according to Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Tzipi Hotovely told Al Jazeera's UpFront she disagreed with both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Israel's domestic security agency on the source of recent Palestinian attacks. UpFront host Mehdi Hasan asked Ms Hotovely to respond to a report from Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, which suggested Palestinians were carrying out attacks to "escape from a bleak reality which they perceive as unchangeable". "That analysis is absolutely wrong," Ms Hotovely said. "I can give you thousands of other options. "Terrorism is the main problem, is the main issue, not frustration." 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 She also suggested Palestinians are being pushed towards extremism under the influences of Isis. There are many other people that are saying that the Palestinian society today is choosing the extremist side, under the influence of Isis, as the atmosphere of the way the youngsters are being raised, and unfortunately also when theyre raised under the very hard incitement of the Palestinian Authority." In December, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said violence in Israel and the West Bank was the result of "nearly five decades of Israeli occupation". Palestinians have launched almost daily stabbings during the recent cycle of violence, which left more than 190 people dead over the last four months. 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 }} Syrias foreign minister has warned that any ground troops from Saudi Arabia or other countries that enter his country without permission will "return home in wooden coffins". Walid al-Moallems statement came following comments from Saudi Arabian military spokesman Brigardier General Ahmed Asiri, who said earlier in the week that the Kingdom would be willing to send ground troops to Syria as part of a US-led offensive against Isis, AP reported. Saudi Arabia has been involved in air strikes against insurgents in Syria for the past six month but, following its experience sending ground troops into Yemen, now seems ready to see boots on the ground in Syria. There was no commitment made in terms of the number of soldiers Saudi Arabia could potentially commit to a ground assault in Syria, but Al Jazeera reported that the offer would be discussed during a Brussels meeting next week of countries involved in fighting Isis. However, Al-Moallem made his feelings about any potential ground troops perfectly clear, stating that any attacks carried out without the consent of the Syrian government would be considered an act of aggression. More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syrias five-year war, with recent Russian airstrikes reported to have killed at least 150 civilians, with many people still attempting to flee the country and an estimated 70,000 refugees set to reach the countrys border with Turkey by 7 February. 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 }} As health authorities warn of the possible spread of Zika virus throughout the Caribbean and into the US, pregnant British women with confirmed bookings to the region are facing uncertainty and the risk of heavy financial losses if they cancel planned trips. Since the start of 2015, 33 countries have reported locally-spread cases of Zika, which is believed to be linked to a birth defect that hampers brain development. Recommended Read more Zika passed during blood transfusions in Brazil The Caribbean is particularly hard hit, with the infection prevalent in Barbados, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St Martin and the US Virgin Islands. All the countries bordering the Caribbean except Belize and the US have so far reported locally-acquired cases of Zika. UK airlines and holiday companies are allowing pregnant women to switch destinations or postpone planned trips, but only if they are booked to one of the affected countries. Mothers-to-be who have holidays planned in neighbouring locations have no opportunity to change or cancel their trips without penalty. Alexandra Woolmore took to Twitter on behalf of her sister, Georgina, who is pregnant and is booked to travel to Antigua next month. Antigua is 40 miles north of Guadeloupe, one of the destinations to which Pregnant women are advised to reconsider travel by the NHS. Battling the zika virus - in pictures Show all 19 1 /19 Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures A worker of the Salvadorean Ministry of Health fumigates a house in Soyapango, 6 kilometers from San Salvador, El Salvador. Salvadorean authorities have began a three days campaign of fumigation to reduce the presence of the mosquito that transmit the Zika virus. EPA/Oscar Rivera Battling the zika virus - in pictures A Health Ministry employee fumigates a home against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango, six km east of San Salvador. Health authorities have issued a national alert against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, because of the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly and Guillain-BarrE Syndrome in foetuses. AFP PHOTO/Marvin RECINOSMarvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A pediatric infectologist examines a two-months-old baby, who has microcephaly, on 26 January 2016 in Recife, Brazil. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A woman walks through the fumes as Health Ministry employee fumigate against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango. Marvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A health ministry employee sprays to eliminate breeding sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits diseases such as the dengue, chicunguna and Zica viruses, in a Tegucigalpa cemetery on January 21, 2016. The medical school at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) recommended that women in the country avoid getting pregnant for the time being due to the presence of the Zika virus. If a pregnant woman is infected by the virus, the baby could be born with microcephaly. AFP PHOTO/Orlando SIERRA Battling the zika virus - in pictures A man walks away from his home with his son as health workers fumigates the Altos del Cerro neighbourhood as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases in Soyapango, El Salvador REUTERS/Jose Cabezas Battling the zika virus - in pictures A three-months-old, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures A pregnant woman waits to be attended at the Maternal and Children's Hospital in Tegucigalpa. The medical school at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) recommended that women in the country avoid getting pregnant for the time being due to the presence of the Zika virus. If a pregnant woman is infected by the virus, the baby could be born with microcephaly. ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures Army soldiers apply insect repellent as they prepare for a clean up operation against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is a vector for transmitting the Zika virus in Sao Paulo, Brazil. AP Photo/Andre Penner Battling the zika virus - in pictures Workers disinfect the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro to fight the spread of the Zika virus Battling the zika virus - in pictures Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, measures the head of a 2-month-old baby with microcephaly in Recife Battling the zika virus - in pictures Mother Mylene Helena Ferreira cares for her son David Henrique Ferreira, 5 months, who has microcephaly, on January 25, 2016 in Recife, Brazil. In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures U.S. women who are pregnant from traveling to many South American countries Battling the zika virus - in pictures In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. Getty Images Battling the zika virus - in pictures Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, examines a two-month-old baby with microcephaly on January 27, 2016 in Recife, Brazil Battling the zika virus - in pictures Washington Post Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures Battling the zika virus - in pictures The sisters asked British Airways if they could swap tickets, so that Alexandra could travel in place of Georgina. BA refused, a decision that Alexandra described as Needlessly inflexible and hard-hearted. She told The Independent on Sunday: I was stunned to find that their non-transfer policy was so rigid that they were unwilling to make exceptions, even in unusual cases such as this. They have demonstrated a complete lack of sympathy to Georgina's situation. British Airways said: We are keeping the situation under review on a day-by-day basis. While airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and a number of hotels are offering full refunds to women who have a letter confirming pregnancy, tour operators are not obliged to return payments in full. Jean-Louis Gandon and his partner - who is 16 weeks pregnant - were planning a honeymoon in Barbados next month. Having paid 5,180 for the trip, they cancelled when Zika was confirmed on the island. Initially the travel firm offered to refund only 1,950, but later increased the offer to 4,340 - leaving the couple still 840 out of pocket. Mr Gandon said they were extremely disappointed by the attitude of their holiday company. To say that we are deeply upset that we now cannot go on our honeymoon for health reasons, brought about by the Zika virus, is an understatement. The Pan American Health Organization warns the infection could spread everywhere in the Americas except Chile and Canada - including the US, and in particular Florida. On Friday, a case of Zika was reported in central Florida - home to Orlando, the theme-park capital. The Florida Department of Health said the infection had been contracted abroad, and that the victim was not a pregnant woman. 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 senior doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has paid tribute to the network of excellent childrens hospitals across the country. As The Independent on Sundays Give to GOSH appeal for the hospital enters its final week, Dr Vinod Diwakar, the medical director at GOSH, says that the staff and volunteers who made GOSH so extraordinary are proud to be part of a wider network of NHS childrens hospitals, most of whom also rely on the generosity of their supporters. He said: We are very proud to be part of a wider network of excellent childrens hospitals across the UK. Very ill children need a broad package of care, so its vital that paediatric services work closely to share knowledge, expertise and learning only then can we ensure our nations children receive the very best care and the future they deserve. Dr Diwakars comments came as the Give to GOSH appeal, run by The Independent on Sunday along with The Independent, i and the London Evening Standard, announced it has raised more than 3m for GOSH. The appeal has highlighted the vital role that charitable donations play not just at GOSH but across the paediatric care system. Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett, chair of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust, said: At a time when funds to support essential paediatric clinical care are under severe strain, it is hard for many childrens hospitals to provide the additional care and comfort that children and their parents need so critically at the most stressful time in their lives. Alfie Morgan-Connolly, who was born with virtually no hearing, delights at the sight of a shower of blown bubbles Sir Thomas, a City veteran, philanthropist and former chief executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care, added: We are fortunate indeed that the public support these hospitals and charity campaigns, such as the appeal The Independent on Sunday, Independent, i and Evening Standard have run so effectively. The generosity of the public never ceases to amaze me. The network of childrens hospitals includes: Alder Hey Childrens Hospital, Liverpool Working through the Childrens Alliance a strategic group of childrens hospitals Alder Hey works closely with GOSH. It treats around 275,000 patients a year, and last year, thanks to charitable donations, it was able to open a new hospital building. Alongside its clinical work it has built a new research, education and innovation centre. Alder Hey is a national centre for neuro and craniofacial surgery, and is one of only four epilepsy surgical centres in the UK. alderheycharity.org Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Show all 9 1 /9 Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Elliott Livingstone Two-year-old Elliott is a cheeky little boy who has a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker on his Berlin heart machine, which has kept him alive since his own heart failed eight months ago. Elliott has two tubes pumping blood around his tiny body. It keeps him alive but the machine has left him confined to the wards of Great Ormond Street Hospital until a new heart is found Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Melissa Strickland As the ward sister on Koala Ward, Melissa Strickland leads a nursing team with the challenging job of looking after children with craniofacial and neurological conditions. You have to have all the skills and knowledge to do this job but personally for me you cannot do it unless you have passion but also compassion, she said. You dont get used to the sad side of things but you do learn to manage it. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Amy Willis Amy Willis carries a discreet black medical bag everywhere she goes. It contains the cutting-edge HeartWare device that is keeping her alive. A smaller, more advanced version of the Berlin artificial heart, it was fitted in April after she was emergency airlifted to GOSH from Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool. The device means that 14-year-old Amy can be home in Flintshire this Christmas while remaining on the heart transplant waiting list. She is doing well but 15 per cent of patients with a HeartWare device or Berlin heart die while waiting for a new heart, so money raised by the appeal will also go to help researchers identify ways to keep children alive while they await transplant Lucy Young Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Myra Bluebond-Langner Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner represents the vital work of the Louis Dundas Centre for Childrens Palliative Care, GOSHs world-class centre dedicated to research and care for children with life-limiting illnesses. The LDC is named in honour of Louis Dundas, a four-year-old boy who died in unspeakable pain after suffering a brain tumour in April 2008. Its aim is to ensure that no child suffers unnecessarily in their final days. Money raised from The Independents Give to GOSH appeal will go to fund the teams work to manage pain, and also fund vital research into palliative care in children across the whole of the UK. Professor Bluebond-Langner, who heads the research, said: Paediatric palliative care is a relatively new field where practice has outstripped research. We look to change that. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Finella Craig Together with with Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner, Dr Finella Craig represents the vital work of the Louis Dundas Centre for Childrens Palliative Care, GOSHs world-class centre dedicated to research and care for children with life-limiting illnesses. The LDC is named in honour of Louis Dundas, a four-year-old boy who died in unspeakable pain after suffering a brain tumour in April 2008. Its aim is to ensure that no child suffers unnecessarily in their final days. One of the worst experiences for a family is to witness their child in pain and discomfort, and for them to feel totally powerless to do anything about it, said Dr Craig, a consultant in paediatric palliative medicine at GOSH since 2002. Money raised from The Independents Give to GOSH appeal will go to fund the teams work to manage pain, and also fund vital research into palliative care in children across the whole of the UK. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Rowan Pethard Like most little boys, Rowan Pethard loves playing football. At the start of 2015 the seven-year-old Spurs fan baffled his doctors in Hemel Hempstead with a string of coughs, colds, tummy bugs, aches, pains and rashes. It wasnt until quite late on that doctors discovered he had leukaemia. He spent two days in intensive care while he had emergency chemo. He has two years of follow-up treatment ahead. Hes amazing, a little superhero, his mum said. It makes it easier for his father and I and his brother to cope. Joe Plimmer Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Martin Elliott Paediatric heart and lung surgeon Martin Elliott, 64, is one of the longest serving doctors at GOSH, leading groundbreaking research and treating thousands of patients over the past 30 years. His work has bridged the gap between surgery and research with skills ranging from heart-bypass surgery to correcting congenital lung disorders. Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Ralph Frost For Ralph the hardest thing about having to live at GOSH while he waits for a new kidney isnt missing his toys. He has plenty of those and can terrorise the nurses by pushing his little red motorbike down the corridors of Eagle Ward. The hardest thing for the six-year-old is battling not to cry out during his nightly dialysis sessions. It really hurts, he said. But the other kids are sleeping and I dont want to wake them up. Ralph suffers from nephrotic syndrome and is currently waiting for a kidney from his father, Nick. Hes called the kidney Chase and his parents, who have been trained to operate his dialysis machine, hope to be home by Christmas Lucy Young Meet the patients and doctors of GOSH Lynsey Steele The strongest praise for Lynsey Steele, 33, comes from the parents of the children she helps. The children here wouldnt get by without Lynsey, said Ralphs mother Amie Frost. If she wasnt here then wed have cracked up. Lynseys role, which is funded by the Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity and will be supported by The Independents Give to GOSH appeal, is to help children play and relax, but also to have the difficult conversations explaining their treatment Ash Knotek Sheffield Childrens Hospital, South Yorkshire Sheffields childrens hospital provides community and mental health care, as well as acute and specialist services. Unlike GOSH the hospital does have an A&E unit as well as a number of specialisms, including trauma and orthopaedics, paediatric transport, genetics and neurosurgery. It also has national responsibilities for conditions such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and the bone disorder osteogenesis imperfecta. It treated 30,000 in-patients last year, while 161,000 patients were treated as outpatients or in A&E. tchc.org.uk The Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, Northern Ireland With 107 beds, the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children is the only hospital in Northern Ireland dedicated specifically to the care of sick children. As well as caring for children in Belfast, it provides most of the paediatric regional specialities for the whole of Northern Ireland. helpinghandrbhsc.co.uk Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is one of Londons largest providers of childrens services, caring for more than 80,000 children a year. The teaching hospital is the lead centre for specialist paediatric and neonatal surgery in north-west London and carries out the most complex operations on children and babies, said Dr Simon Clarke, the clinical director of Childrens Surgical Services. He added: Services at Chelsea are unique in that we are a childrens hospital within an adult hospital. This is a huge advantage as we are able to tap into a lot of adult expertise and help children transition to adult care. Thanks to charitable support, the hospital has undergone major redevelopment to improve childrens wards, introducing state-of-the-art childrens operating theatres. cwplus.org.uk Great North Childrens Hospital, Newcastle The Great North Childrens Hospital, which opened in 2010, is one of the largest paediatric hospital outside London. One of its partner sites, the Freeman Hospital, is a major cardiac centre, alongside GOSH, carrying out dozens of heart transplants a year. It works alongside the Department of Child Health at Newcastle University. newcastle-hospitals.org.uk Birmingham Childrens Hospital, West Midlands Serving Englands second largest city and beyond, the hospital cares for more than 90,000 children a year. It opened in 1862, is now a world renowned centre, and was named HSJ Trust of the Year in 2015. Dr Fiona Reynolds, the chief medical officer, said: The worlds best healthcare services are joined up, and only by sharing expertise and collaborating can we offer the very best care to every child, young person and family who needs us. Its our duty, and we will never stop looking for new ways to be even greater together. Its 3,700 strong team manages care with 34 specialist services, including the treatment of patients with some of the most complex heart conditions, chronic liver and kidney disease, serious burns, rare diseases and cystic fibrosis. It is home to Europes largest paediatric intensive care unit and houses a revolutionary new mental health service for under-25s. bch.org.uk To Give to GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1Mydxqt To find out more about our appeal and why we're supporting GOSH go to: http://ind.pn/1MycZkr News / National by Stephen Jakes The ruling Zanu PF on Tuesday fired another MP from parliament as the ruling party's purge of suspected members who are linked to former Vice President Joice Mujuru continues.Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda told the house that on 20th January, 2016, he was notified by Zanu PF that with effect from 1st December, 2015, Criswell Mutematsaka ceased to be a member of Zanu PF Party.Accordingly, Section 129 (1) (k) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe applies and it provides as follows."The seat of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant if the member has ceased to belong to the political party of which he/she was a member when elected to Parliament and the political party concerned, by written notice to the Speaker or the President of the Senate as the case may be has declared that the member has ceased to belong to it," said Mudenda.He said the necessary administrative measures have been taken to inform His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of the existence of vacancy in line with Section 39 (1) of the Electoral Act Chapter 213 as amended. 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 }} On Thursday, the musician Van Morrison went to Buckingham Palace to be dubbed knight by the Prince of Wales. We published a picture yesterday. The caption said he had been made a Knight Bachelor of the British Empire. What has the British Empire to do with it? The rank of knight bachelor dates back to the Middle Ages, long before there was a British Empire. A knight bachelor is just an ordinary knight, an everyday medieval warrior, who is not a member of an organised order of chivalry. England has one genuine medieval order of chivalry, the Garter, founded by Edward III in 1348, and a few later ones: the Order of the Bath (1725), the Order of St Michael and St George (1818), the Royal Victorian Order (1896) and the Order of the British Empire (1917). The caption writer seems to have confused a knight bachelor, which Sir Van Morrison is, with a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Last week, I remarked that English has lost almost all its inflections for case, and that the nominative-accusative distinction is found only in personal pronouns I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them. Christopher Skillen writes to remind me that there is also the relative and interrogative pronoun who/whom. Yes, it should have been mentioned, but it is only fair to add that whom is not in good shape these days. Even in writing, To whom shall I give it? is starting to look literary. In speech, we all say: Who shall I give it to? Here is a picture caption published last Saturday: Former Republican Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush on Reagans campaign in 1980. Some people seem to think anything in the past must be labelled former. The caption could be talking about either 1980 or today, but in either case it is wrong to call all three men former presidents. In 1980, Ford was a former president, but Reagan and Bush were future presidents. Today Bush is a former president, but the other two, being dead, are just presidents. Alan Langley writes in to draw attention to a news story published on Monday: In a damming report, Parliaments Public Administration Committee said... The English languages rich mixture of Romance and Germanic vocabulary does tend to throw up homophones. Damn comes by way of French from the Latin condemnare, while dam is from a Teutonic root. Was the report holding something back, asks Mr Langley. Quite. This from an editorial on Thursday about the Syria talks: These blood enemies cannot be bullied into sitting down around a single table this is UN moonshine of a very dubious value. Nothing is risked by labelling it as such. From this toxic maelstrom, peace must somehow be conjured. First we are contemplating the moonlight, then we are transported to a violent Scandinavian whirlpool. Then it gets even worse: the water is poisonous. Arent we getting rather carried away? 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 }} When Egypt makes headlines these days, its usually for the same reasons as Syria and Iraq. Terrorist attacks by Islamic State (Isis) have not been so numerous in Egypt, but the destruction of a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai peninsula, probably by a bomb, dominated the news last autumn. What gets less attention is a state of internal repression at least as relentless some say worse than the bad old days of President Hosni Mubarak. The death of an Italian student, whose battered body was discovered in Cairo on Wednesday night, should challenge that habit of looking the other way. There is no doubt that Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old PhD student at Cambridge University, died a lonely and horrible death. Regeni went missing on his way to a birthday party in the centre of the city almost two weeks ago and his body was eventually found in a ditch in the suburbs. A senior police officer tried to suggest that hed been killed in a car accident, but marks on Regenis body, including what appeared to be cigarette burns, are consistent with torture. The student had cuts to his ears, appeared to have been beaten and was naked from the waist down, according to local reports. The Egyptian prosecutor in charge of the investigation said he suffered a slow death, an observation that has led to speculation that his killer or killers were trying to extract information. The students research on Egyptian trade unions following the Arab Spring sounds inoffensive, but it could have put him in contact with opponents of the present government, which has cracked down on just about every strand of civil society. Even before Regenis murder, an Egyptian post-graduate student told me recently that he might have to change the subject of his PhD just to remain safe. But it emerged on Thursday that Regeni also freelanced for the Italian communist paper Il Manifesto, writing under a pseudonym to protect himself. Now that it appears he was murdered, there are fears for the safety of activists with whom he might have been in touch. 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 While the possibility of a robbery or a botched kidnapping has yet to be ruled out, critics of the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi point out that what happened to Regeni is far from unusual. Sisi is a former head of the army who overthrew his predecessor, President Mohamed Morsi, in a military coup in 2013. He won a huge majority in the following years presidential election, but the government has remained jumpy, especially in the run-up to the anniversary of the popular uprising on 25 January 2011 that forced Mubarak out. That was the evening Regeni disappeared, amid a huge police presence in Cairo. Recommended Read more Condom balloon video could land Egyptians in prison Three days later, an Egyptian news website claimed that police had arrested dozens of Egyptians and foreigners in Giza during an operation against fugitives and violators. What happens to individuals caught up in such round-ups has been widely documented by organisations such as Human Rights Watch and indigenous Egyptian groups that collect testimony about torture, beatings and other abuses. In December, only weeks before Regeni was abducted, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) published a timely and shocking report on enforced disappearances. After talking to victims, families and lawyers, it documented 340 cases in a three-month period between August and November last year, with an average of three per day. Victims who were later released described undergoing various types of torture including electric shocks, hanging by the hands and threats of sexual assault. The ECRF says that the blame for this litany of human rights abuses lies squarely with the Egyptian government, accusing it of allowing state security officers to torture people with impunity. Sisis administration says it is trying to find and arrest terrorists who threaten the security of the state, but many of the people affected have nothing to do with IS or the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Centre for Middle East Policy in Washington, has pointed to unanimous agreement among NGOs that levels of repression are extraordinarily high and perhaps even unprecedented in Egypts modern history. He writes that, far from being targeted on Islamists, repression is directed against all actors and political forces who directly challenge the regime and its interests, including those young, secular revolutionaries who we once saw as the future of a new Egypt. This represents a dreadful reversal for the high hopes created by the daily demonstrations in Cairos Tahrir Square that toppled Mubarak. It also suggest that Egypts Western allies are making the same mistake as they did with other hard-line leaders in the Middle East, putting up with appalling levels of state-sanctioned abuse in the name of stability. During a visit to Cairo last summer, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, warned that human rights abuses could undermine the fight against terrorism. That was just days after Washington announced it would deliver eight F-16 fighter planes to the Egyptian air force as part of a $1.3bn plan to revamp the countrys military capability. A preliminary post-mortem report has established that Regeni died from bleeding to the brain following blows to the head, a finding that does nothing to clear up the mystery around his disappearance. The death of a clever and personable young man is a tragedy for his friends and family, but it has a political dimension which cant be ignored. Suspicions about the role of the security services are a testament to the atmosphere of fear and anxiety that haunts civil society in Egypt, five years after everything was supposed to get better. Twitter.com/@polblonde; politicalblonde.com 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 }} It was a good week for the over-65s. The Noise of Time, the new novel by Julian Barnes (born 1946) soared to the top of the Sunday Times fiction chart. It was scarcely possible to switch on Radio 4 without hearing a reference to or an interview with Joan Bakewell (born 1933) whose autobiography Stop the Clocks is currently crowding out the bookshop shelves. Annie Leibovitzs cover photo for the new Vanity Fair Hollywood issue shows no fewer than four seventysomething actresses Charlotte Rampling, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Helen Mirren. Further confirmation of the advantages of seniority came with the publication of a happiness survey suggesting that while people in middle age were stricken with ennui and anxiety, those in the age-band 65-79 were largely contented with their lot. Sadly, there were a few truculent ingrates determined to buck this trend of senior citizen achievement. One was Jeremy Corbyn (born 1949), criticised in some quarters for his refusal to attend the Oldie of the Year awards, staged by The Oldie magazine, on the grounds that a three-hour lunch-cum-awards ceremony was incompatible with his busy schedule. But the greatest offender by far was the distinguished thespian Robert De Niro (born 1943), slated by practically every critic on the block for what can only be described as conduct unbecoming to a veteran actor. Not having seen Dirty Grandpa, in which De Niro stars as a feisty widower heading off to Florida with his strait-laced grandson, I can only report the opinions of others. These are almost universally awful. Contributors to the Rotten Tomatoes website, for example, have filed an average score of 2.7 out of 10. The BBCs Mark Kermode, who one has always assumed to have a strong stomach, remarked that having seen the film he did feel genuinely unclean. I wanted to go and have a shower, because its just so revolting. Other reviewers have disparaged the careless fumblings of a classic talent that once brought pleasure to millions. Barbara Castle stumped up and harangued the audience on why she refused to die (The Picture Library) But there is a wider complaint lurking beyond this volley of insults, the suspicion that the spectacle of a 72-year-old watching pornography, listening to loud music and chasing women young enough to be his grand-daughters out on the Florida strand is not only a disavowal of De Niros genius, but, for a man of his age, simply undignified. It is not just that the ornament of Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter and Cape Fear has made a film so terrible that even my 15-year-old son declines to watch it, but that he has apparently acted if you will excuse the pun in a manner inappropriate to his years. The dignity that supposedly attends advancing age what the ancient Romans used to call otium cum dignitate is, naturally, a tricky area for those who have not yet reached that generational plateau. What, after all, do we know about what it is like to be old and how we might want to behave when we get there, and why should anyone else feel the need to be prescriptive about it? When, a couple of years ago the distinguished versifier Craig Raine (born 1944) and the literary critic Terry Eagleton (born 1943) embarked on one of their regular spats, several newspaper commentators suggested that, really, it was unseemly for a couple of aging literary gentlemen to be trading abuse in this way. My sympathies were with messrs Raine and Eagleton. Raine, for example, is a critic of almost legendary acerbity. Why should he be expected to change the habits of a lifetime on receipt of a bus pass? Grey hair is no guarantor of suavity. It is the same with the elderly man in the Lewis Carroll poem (You are old, Father William, the young man said/And your hair has become very white/And still you incessantly stand on your head/Do you think, at your age, it is right?) The head-standing, you feel, is up to Father William, entirely his business. Musicians and Actors on Growing Old Disgracefully Show all 5 1 /5 Musicians and Actors on Growing Old Disgracefully Musicians and Actors on Growing Old Disgracefully Lemmy The Motorhead frontman recently revealed his excessive lifestyle - rumoured to involve drinking a bottle of whisky a day - had to be scaled back after he started being unable to stand up during a recent show. Getty Images Musicians and Actors on Growing Old Disgracefully Willie-Nelson 82-year-old Nelson says he started smoking cigarettes when he was just six, and that his love affair with marijuana was the smoothest of all his marriages. He even has his own brand of marijuana called 'Willies Reserve'. Getty Musicians and Actors on Growing Old Disgracefully Shane-MacGowan The Pogues singer was kicked out the band in the nineties for his excessive drinking, and was given just six weeks to live, and is still partial to a G&T after a doctor suggested he stick to clear liquids. Getty Musicians and Actors on Growing Old Disgracefully Keith-Richards The Rolling Stone guitarist is still a fan of marijuana. "I smoke regularly, an early morning joint. Strictly Californian, he told Mojo. Getty Images Musicians and Actors on Growing Old Disgracefully Jack-Nicholson The legendary actor knows his limits, even if they are extreme. Ive woken up in trees, Ive woken up almost hanging off cliffs, but Ive always known how to sort myself out. Getty Images At the same time, it has to be acknowledged that most of the old people who have some claims to be regarded as role models are strong on dignity. The autobiographical works of novelist Diana Athill (born 1917), for example see her current volume, Alive, Alive Oh! preach exemplary lessons of modesty, restraint and placid acceptance of ones lot, while never failing to warn her readers that the most undignified thing an older person can do is to pretend to be younger than you are, a masquerade that is almost certain to end in embarrassment both to yourself and the young people you are attempting to impress. It is all very sensible, but simultaneously a touch anaemic. Which is to say that one would like Athill even more if she ever let her hair down and got cross, if she had, for example, not welcomed the woman for whom her boyfriend left her into the house as a new friend but sneered at her choice of lipstick or thrown her out into the street. A great deal of human emotion, after all, can be quietly anaesthetised by dignity, and the 80-year-old who settles, instead, for a kind of mischievous whimsicality can nearly always be sure of a hearing. It is the spirit that imbues Jenny Josephs much anthologised poem, Warning: When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesnt go, and doesnt suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say weve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when Im tired In the same vein, I once, at one of those Oldie of the Year lunches which Corbyn didnt have time to attend, witnessed his former party colleague Barbara Castle making a speech. Baroness Castle, then well over 80, stumped up to the lectern in a dazzling orange costume that might have been thought injudicious for a woman half her age, waved her stick threateningly then harangued us on the topic of why, as she put it, she refused to die. Helen Mirren is one of four seventysomething actresses to appear on Annie Leibovitzs cover photo for the new Vanity Fair Hollywood issue (Rex) It was a bravura performance, that, far more than many of her political exploits, seemed to reveal Castle as a human being. On the other hand, the line between a mischievous whimsicality and making an exhibition of yourself is not always easily drawn. The theory of Josephs poem is, after all, far more attractive than the reality of having a mother who sat down on the pavement when she was tired and spent her pension on brandy. Doubtless the trick is to combine dignity with sufficient humour to undermine it whenever staidness threatens. In his biography of the literary critic VS Pritchett, Jeremy Treglown records the memories of Claire Tomalin who, while visiting Pritchetts house came upon his wife, Dorothy, laying an elegant table for two: It was my first view of how an old couple can have a good life together in which things are rather carefully thought out. I was impressed by it. And yet Pritchetts sense of mischief kept up. Talking to a friend about a book which urged older couples wanting to refresh their relationship to make love whenever and wherever they felt the need, he is supposed to have remarked Well, we shant be visiting that restaurant again. It is all a far cry from De Niro as Grandpa Dick tail-chasing in Florida. There is, of course, an alternative theory which holds that De Niro, in choosing to appear in US teen comedies, is deliberately subverting and exposing the behavioural gutter in which they repose. Alas, then, that the critics are unanimous in diagnosing the catastrophic loss of a quality valued in young and old alike judgement. 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 }} If Jeremy Corbyn is still Labour leader in 2020, that years election battleground will be clear. There will be no question of voters complaining they cant tell the difference between Corbyn and whoever succeeds David Cameron. Whether the next Conservative leader is a One Nation Tory or a populist Eurosceptic, the 2020 battle will be left vs right, Corbynomics and the Peoples Public Services vs lower taxes, smaller state Conservatism. It should be a straightforward fight, and, considering the non-radical, centre-ground leanings of the British public, one the Tories should win. So why, then, is the Prime Minister trying to crush Labour as an effective opposition altogether? With a double attack on funding, through changes to trade union rules and cuts to statutory money for opposition parties, Cameron and George Osborne are threatening Labours very existence, at the same time as doing nothing to cap donations from wealthy individuals who buy access to Cabinet ministers. The Trade Union Bill begins its committee stage in the House of Lords this week, and is expected to be condemned from all sides. The Bill contains clauses to force union members to opt in, rather than opt out, of paying a political levy, which could cost Labour 6m in affiliated donations every year. The Bill will also end check off for unions, meaning the practice where members subscriptions can be automatically deducted from their pay in the same way workers pay for childcare vouchers or occupational bike schemes will be axed. In addition to the assault on trade union funding, the Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that he was cutting Short Money, which helps opposition parties carry out their parliamentary duties and has been in place for 40 years, by a staggering 19 per cent which will leave Labour 1m a year worse off. Short Money is an essential part of democracy: ministers have the well-funded, well-oiled civil service to support them; in order to challenge, scrutinise and oppose the government, opposition parties need money for research and staff. To undermine this undermines our parliamentary democracy. As the senior Tory MP David Davis told The Independent last week, the planned attacks on Labour funding are mean-spirited and borderline immoral. Davis is one of a number of Conservative MPs and peers who are alarmed at these moves to weaken Labour as effective opposition. They want to fight their opponents on a level playing field. Politics, in its rawest form, should be about winning an argument, a battle of ideas not an underhand attempt to strip your opponents of their weaponry. At a committee hearing on the impact of the Trade Union Bill, Labours general secretary, Iain McNicol, quoted Churchill telling the Commons in 1948: It has become a well-established custom that matters affecting the interests of rival parties should not be settled by the imposition of one side over another. A Conservative leader who finds himself on the wrong side of a Churchill quote should perhaps think again. What are Cameron and Osborne afraid of? That Corbyns Labour Party will defeat the Tories in May 2020 on a tide of 21st-century socialism? Do they not have the confidence in their own record in power without fixing the race before its started? In 2020, voters should judge this Government on a decade of austerity. The one thing Cameron and Osborne should not cut in the name of austerity is democracy. A cruel ruling How much more agony will the family of PC David Rathband, who was left blind in a gunshot attack by Raoul Moat and later killed himself, be forced to cope with? On 5 February, the police officers brother and sister lost a case against Northumbria Police for negligence after the judge ruled that the force could not have prevented Moat going on the rampage. Mr Justice Males said it was an immensely sad case. It seems incomprehensible, then, that the judge has ordered the Rathbands to pay legal costs of 100,000, payable within 21 days. A judges decision to order PC David Rathbands family to pay 100,000 after ruling his death was not a result of police force negligence is a blow to justice (Justin Sutcliffe) I am sure if the family set up a fighting fund to meet this, they would have public support. But the point is they should not have to be penalised in this way for taking on a public institution. This cruel ruling will also, surely, put off other ordinary families from bringing a case against companies or organisations for fear of being bankrupted if they lose. Bridging the differences After a week in which he faced the most humiliating front-page headlines of his decade as Tory leader, David Cameron must have been pathetically grateful to visit Poland and Denmark, two countries where he is unable to read what the newspapers are saying about his troubled EU negotiations. On 5 February, when he was walked through the Danish parliament by Prime Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen, his host reminded him he was in Borgen the name of the building as well as the hit BBC 4 political drama. Cameron said he had seen series 1 but was a bigger fan of the other Nordic noir drama, The Bridge. Its funny, because in 2013, when Scandinavian succour was not high on the British PMs agenda, Cameron said this, when he was asked if he watched Borgen: God no. Its just whether Morgen Schmorgen is health minister or is education minister. It is just as well that Cameron opted for a more diplomatic tack on 5 February, because Rasmussen ended up backing his EU plan. How are your Little Gems, Jem? Last August, when Jeremy Corbyn was merely a frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, the MP told me about his verdant and productive allotment and asked me about mine. We spent five minutes swapping notes on our plots at the start of an interview for this newspaper. Corbyn offered me an invitation to his allotment in East Finchley, north London, but he hasnt been in touch since to let me come and look at his brassicas. Is it because he no longer has time to tend to the plot now hes leader? I am happy to bring my digging fork if he needs help with the weeds. Twitter: @janemerrick23 According to the regulator for the sector, there are 335 active credit unions in this country. A radical shake-up of how credit unions operate is being planned in a bid to turn the movement into a third banking force. The proposal is to pool the assets of the movement, which amount to 13bn, and create a central organisation that would act collectively. This would allow them to take on the banks, but retain their local connections. It may finally clear the way for credit unions to offer mortgages. Leading management guru Eddie Molloy has come up with proposals to radically reform how credit union operate. Dr Molloy, who has advised the likes of Intel, Guinness, Rehab and Ibec, is proposing that credit unions form a federated system, with a strong central structure. This is similar to the model successfully operated in Canada. This would allow them to maximise their strengths, develop new products, and benefit from greater scale and savings from the economies of operating collectively. According to the regulator for the sector, there are 335 active credit unions in this country. But because each one is owned by its members in the community, or workforce where it operates, they are run separately. This means they are unable to harness the collective strength of the movement. There are, for example, a number of different IT and payments systems used across different credit unions. The aim of the new proposals is to see credit unions develop like former humble farmer co-operatives Kerry and Glanbia, which have been transformed into multinational businesses. Dr Molloy was engaged by the Irish League of Credit Unions to come up with a transformation plan, but the aim is to involve credit unions that are members of the rival CUDA body, the Credit Union Development Association. Almost three million people are members of credit unions, with credit unions the brand that Irish customers have the best experience with, according to recent research. They have combined savings of 13.4bn, with combined assets of 14.8bn. Dr Molloy said: "It is a sleeping giant. The strength and weakness of credit unions is that they are locally owned and operated. But being local means they are less alert to the potential of the national aspect." The aim is to have someone who is a member of a credit union in Kerry be able to use the services of one in Donegal. "Credit unions all operate as islands. The idea is to move from an atomised movement to one integrated at the centre, a sort of federal arrangement." The proposals are to be put to a vote in April at the annual general meeting of the league. He said there is strong support from credit unions spoken to at a number of seminars. The league's rules of affiliation will have to change, with huge emphasis on strong management and operational skills being put in place in the new central organisation. Dr Molloy has recommended a two-year timeframe to implement the changes. He said regulator Ann Marie McKiernan was anxious to see a new business model for the movement. 'Poor coverage issues, including dropped calls and a loss of service, drove thousands of people to contact the regulator in the last three months of 2015'. Photo: PA Eir and 3 Ireland have emerged as the most complained about phone and broadband companies in Ireland, according to new figures from telecoms watchdog Comreg. Poor coverage issues, including dropped calls and a loss of service, drove thousands of people to contact the regulator in the last three months of 2015. Comreg now receives 500 complaints per month and a further 1,000 queries related to mobile, landline and broadband services in the country. Overall, Eir was the subject of the most customer complaints and queries. The landline and broadband operator, which is obliged by law to provide a fixed line to every home in the country, also had the highest number of complaints per capita. Eir has encountered difficulties in dealing with storm damage in recent winters. The company with the next highest number of complaints and queries was 3 Ireland, with over a quarter of all issues relating to service coverage. The mobile phone company has had a series of technical challenges in integrating 1.5m O2 customers into its own network following its takeover of the rival mobile network last year. However, despite its high volume of customer issues, 3 Ireland had a slightly lower per-capita rate of complaints than Meteor, the mobile arm of Eir. Vodafone Mobile attracted the smallest number of complaints per capita, but its landline counterpart, Vodafone At Home, had the third highest number of complaints per capita with Comreg. Virgin had the lowest number of complaints per customer, while Sky had the second highest number of queries raised with Comreg, despite its low overall volume of complaints. The regulator did not release figures for rival 'virtual' mobile operators, Tesco Mobile, Lycamobile, Post Mobile, Virgin Mobile or iD, which represent almost 10pc of the Irish mobile market. All except Post Mobile operate off 3 Ireland's mobile network. Some rural TDs say weak mobile phone coverage is a bigger issue among constituents than lack of broadband. "There is a real problem with coverage in large areas of the country," Helen McEntee, a Fine Gael TD for Meath East, told an Oireachtas committee hearing on communications last week. "I can't keep a call without it dropping on routes that I travel," she added. Under Irish telecoms law, mobile operators are required to cover between 70pc and 80pc of the country's population, although there is no legal requirement to cover rural areas. Mobile operators say they face planning objections from local communities, despite the growing outcry over coverage blackspots. One in three applications for masts and other mobile network infrastructure are rejected by rural councils and An Bord Pleanala. "There are places where people were able to use their phone in their homes five years ago and can't now," Jeremy Godfrey, chairman of Comreg, told an Oireachtas committee hearing on communications last week. Two people have been arrested in connection with the murder of Kenneth O'Brien. The two men (aged in their mid 30s and mid 50s) were arrested this morning, and are both detained under Section 50, Criminal Justice Act, 2007 at Leixlip and Naas Garda Stations. Mr O'Brien's dismembered torso was found dumped in a suitcase over a fortnight ago from the Grand Canal, near Ardclough, Co Kildare, while his head and limbs were discovered in follow-up searches at Sallins. The investigation into the brutal murder is continuing, with two garda officers flying to Australia to inquire into Mr O'Brien's life during his three years there before returning home to west Dublin last month. Gardai are probing whether Mr O'Brien had been either laundering their cash or providing them with money for their sophisticated trafficking network when a dispute broke out. Detectives are now satisfied that Mr O'Brien's murder was well planned and his killers did not panic when they dumped his remains at different locations in the Royal and Grand Canals. Dr Fearghal McGarry, historian at Queens University; Dr Emelie Pine, School of English; and Dr Conor Mulvagh, lecturer in Irish History, pictured at UCD. Photo: Arthur Carron The legacy of the 1916 Easter Rising and its modern day relevance will be debated today at a major conference hosted by UCD. 'Globalising the Rising: 1916 in context' will feature renowned national and international speakers. Dr Fearghal McGarry, of Queens University Belfast, will present a keynote address entitled 'A Land Beyond the Wave: Transnational Reflections on Easter 1916'. The conference will conclude with a panel discussion involving three of Ireland's leading history professors Diarmaid Ferriter from UCD, Eunan O'Halpin from Trinity College Dublin and Susan Schreibman from NUI Maynooth. Tickets for the event at Belfield today are free and can be booked on the internet at: http://bit.ly/1odn8eI Five psychiatric nurses at the aras Attracta facility in Co Mayo have been granted injunctions restraining a HSE internal investigation into complaints against them. The High Court orders also restrain the HSE from embarking on any further investigations unless those comply with its "Trust in Care"and disciplinary procedures. The five - Lyndsey Conway, Carmel Doherty, Mary Prendergast, Vidhya Maverly and Marie Kilcoyne - are among 17 aras Attracta staff being investigated arising from complaints concerning matters featured in undercover filming by a reporter with RTE's 'Prime Time Investigates' in 2014 of events at the facility, which caters for adults with intellectual disabilities. Breach The injunctions apply pending the outcome of the full legal challenge by the five alleging the investigations breach their contractual rights. The HSE had displayed a "reprehensible" attitude to the efforts of the nurses' trade union, the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), to resolve internally "serious issues" concerning conduct of the investigations, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy said. Among the issues raised was the HSE's failure to consult with the PNA about the makeup of a four-member investigatory team formally established last March. The nurses had made out a strong case that the right to be consulted was "of real substance" and part of agreed procedures the HSE could not depart from at a "whim". The HSE made clear it would not accept any changes to the membership of the investigation team and refused to participate in procedures before the Labour Relations Commission as sought by the PNA, she also said. The HSE had argued serious claims about the entire service provided at aras Attracta required it to move speedily, she said. The court "fails to understand" why the seriousness of the issue required the HSE to depart from agreed procedures when there should be strict adherence to the procedures in precisely those circumstances. The five will remain suspended on full pay pending the outcome of the full legal challenge. None of the five is subject to any criminal proceedings. News / National by Stephen Jakes Harare Residents have condemned the city council for holding them at ransom by being dishonest on service delivery issues.Harare Residents Trust said Santosa Residents have gone for the past eight years without water."Sometime in 2013 the City of Harare assured them that they would have water by February 2015, given the rehabilitation works that were going on. At a meeting held by the Ward 16 Councillor Peter Manjoro today, residents lambasted the council for being dishonest, and not providing feedback to residents on raised service delivery issues. The question that residents feel is not being answered is why the area no longer receives water yet previously they received municipal water," said the trust. Broadcaster and former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates has described a 1.6m debt judgment secured by AIB against his wife Deirdre Yates as "relentless, fruitless and inexplicable". The 'Newstalk Breakfast' presenter, who said his wife will not be appealing the High Court ruling because of the costs involved, also said that the pursuit against the couple by AIB was a "cautionary tale" for those asked to sign personal guarantees. Mr Yates, who thanked his legal team and said he respected the decision, said he had negotiated in good faith with AIB with a view to settling the debt, adding that he believed that AIB stood little to gain from obtaining the judgment against his wife Deirdre as it already has security over her only asset - a half share in the dormer bungalow his elderly mother lives in over which the bank has a fixed charge. "It [the judgment] does not improve their vice-like grip on any of my family's assets," said Mr Yates, who said at no time before, during or after his "troubles" with Celtic Bookmakers, did he ever transfer personal or business assets to his wife Deirdre or seek to put any assets beyond the reach of creditors. It is not known what action AIB, which says it does not comment on individual cases, will take to satisfy its judgment. Deirdre Yates had asked the court not to order summary judgment and allow the case to go to a full hearing. She claimed she did not realise a guarantee she signed in relation to loans for the family bookie company would give AIB the right to pursue her for her family home at Blackstoops, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. Mr Justice Seamus Noonan ruled she had, to his mind, "no defence" to AIB's case and he granted judgment for 1,648,147. The case arose out of a guarantee she gave on April 13, 2010, towards 6.7m in loans for the expansion of the Celtic Bookmakers chain, which was run by her husband. In January 2011, the bank appointed a receiver over Celtic, which went into liquidation. Bankruptcy proceedings were launched in May 2012 by AIB against both Mr Yates and his wife seeking 3.6m.The case against Mr Yates was dismissed in August 2012 and the summons against Mrs Yates were not proceeded with. Mr Yates was declared bankrupt in the UK in August 2012, having lived for 16 months in Wales to qualify under their more relaxed bankruptcy laws. In June 2014, AIB demanded repayment of 1.6m from Mrs Yates, a primary school teacher, in relation to the guarantee she provided on the loans. Mr Justice Noonan said she had, in opposing the bank's application for judgment, claimed her clear understanding was that she signed documents relating to the guarantee "for administrative purposes only". Mrs Yates claimed she had not received any legal advice before signing and the bank knew she had no realisable assets and no substantive financial experience. However, Judge Noonan said the documentation clearly stated she was "advised to obtain independent legal advice before signing the guarantee". There was also the uncontroverted evidence that Mrs Yates was secretary of Celtic, regularly attended meetings with the bank and was appraised of financial affairs and dealings with the bank, he said. She held 990 of the company's 1,000 shares, said the judge. Taoiseach Enda Kenny meets up with 17-week-old Dorothy OConnell and her mother, Fine Gael candidate for Dublin Bay South Kate OConnell. Photo: Barbara Lindberg Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he rejects "completely" Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams's claim that he was calling the Irish public "stupid" when he said people don't understand "economic jargon". At the launch of Sinn Fein's campaign, Mr Adams noted how earlier this week Mr Kenny said he didn't want to get into what he called "economic jargon which the vast majority of people don't understand" when speaking about how Fine Gael would fund election promises. "So there you have it. According to the Taoiseach, the people are stupid," Mr Adams said. Speaking at a campaign event in Mallow, Co Cork, Mr Kenny hit back at the Sinn Fein leader's remarks, bringing up his repeated denials of having been a member of the IRA. "I would never accuse the Irish people of being in any way stupid. I disregard and reject his allegation completely," he said. "The Sinn Fein party have a tendency to repeat the message all the time. "I understand that I don't like to speak jargon myself but the mantra from Sinn Fein has been to keep saying, irrespective of whether it's right or whether it's wrong: 'Gerry was never a member of the IRA.'" Debates "I look forward to having opportunities to discuss these and other matters with Deputy Adams," Mr Kenny added, referring to the upcoming debates. He also added that he hopes the Green Party will be allowed to participate in the debates. The Green Party was yesterday given leave for a judicial review of RTE's decision to exclude it from a televised leaders' debate. Earlier, Mr Kenny gave an interview to RTE's 'Morning Ireland' where he appeared to be at odds with Health Minister Leo Varadkar, who earlier this week said that a proposal to provide free GP care to the whole population won't be in the Fine Gael manifesto. It has been extended to under-sixes and over-70s. Put to him that Mr Varadkar said the plan would be unlikely to be implemented in the next five years, Mr Kenny initially said: "I think he's being very realistic in the sense [of] the report he has showing that we need 2,000 extra doctors by 2025." "I think the discussions that we're on now to bring it to under-12s will move from that to under-18s. I think that's logical and pragmatic." Mr Kenny was later pressed on when he thought free GP care for all could be achieved. "We failed to deliver it in the lifetime of this government and we hope to deliver it in the lifetime of the next government," Mr Kenny said. But it was later clarified that he meant free GP care for all under-18s. The Taoiseach also indicated that a referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment is likely to take place. "It's 33 years since the Eighth Amendment was introduced. Our society has changed completely. Many brave women have come forward with their stories about the trauma, the hurt and the sensitivities of all of this," he said. The Taoiseach committed to setting up a citizens' assembly on the issue within six months if re-elected. "I think this is an issue where all of the legal, medical and human stories need to be taken into consideration." Gardai at the Regency Hotel in the wake of the gangland shooting attack GardaI are "dangerously under-resourced" to tackle gangland crime, while the closure of garda stations means criminals have little fear of being caught. Fianna Fail's justice spokesman Niall Collins has said a dedicated garda unit is urgently needed to tackle gun crime which is "out of control". The fact that the assailants opened fire in plain view of so many people showed that they had no fear, he warned. "This is an indictment of government policy around crime and policing," he told the Irish Independent. "The Regency Hotel is only 400 yards from what used to be Whitehall garda station. "It's yet another example of how communities have been left unpoliced by Fine Gael and Labour policies." Some 40 homeless families were living in temporary accommodation in the hotel when the gunmen opened fire. Fianna Fail councillor Paul McAuliffe warned that the level of violent crime in the city was now "out of control". The Dublin North West candidate said there were more than 600 crimes involving a firearm in Dublin city last year. He said unless gardai were "adequately resourced", the scourge of violent crime was set to "dramatically increase". "Across our capital, we have seen guns and knives being used, not just in gangland murders, but increasingly in burglaries, muggings and drunken disputes." Referring to yesterday's incident at the hotel, he said: "There were a lot of tourists who had just arrived from the airport." Local councillor Andrew Keegan of the Anti-Austerity Alliance also said the area had lost significant garda resources. "Whitehall garda station has been closed and Santry is now part-time. Ballymun is full-time but the resources are diminished and seem to be shared with north County Dublin," he said. "We have a huge issue here with the lack of a police presence. I am getting calls on a weekly basis. "This situation has been going on for the last three or four years." Independent TD Maureen O'Sullivan pointed out that community policing forums in Dublin central had proved highly effective. She said such initiatives were required in other parts of the city to keep the "lines of communication" open with residents who were concerned about gangland crime. Mr Docampo owned his own vineyard and was founder of the wine company Bodegas Docampo. Antonio Docampo Garcia, who died last week at the grand old age of 107, attributed his longevity to his drinking habits - four bottles of red wine a day, and no water. Mr Docampo liked to have two bottles of wine with lunch, and another two with dinner, his family told reporters. "He could drink a litre and a half all at once," said his son Miguel Docampo Lopez. "When we were both at home we could get through 200 litres of wine a month. He never drank water. Mr Docampo, of Vigo in north west Spain, owned his own vineyard and was founder of the wine company Bodegas Docampo. Mr Docampo's nephew Jeronimo Docampo, who now runs the vineyard, told 'La Voz de Galicia': "He sold the majority of the wine he produced, but still kept a decent amount back for himself. "If he produced 60,000 litres a year he would keep 3,000 litres for himself. He always said that was his secret to living so long. ( Daily Telegraph London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Liam Doran of the INMO called for more beds to be provided. Picture credit: Damien Eagers The threat of hospital strike action by nurses has been lifted - but their union has warned that there can be no slide in agreed measures to reduce emergency department overcrowding. The return of industrial peace came after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) accepted, by a margin of 71pc to 29pc, the revised proposals to trigger a series of measures aimed at easing the trolley crisis when overcrowding reaches a certain level. The proposals were agreed by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last month and involve a range of actions, including cancellation of operations, doctors doing more ward rounds to discharge patients and ultimately placing patients on trolleys in wards in order to make space in the emergency department. INMO chief Liam Doran said yesterday that the union was satisfied that hospitals were following the protocols but that the impact was being undermined by pressures such as the numbers of patients suffering flu. There is also the ongoing problem of insufficient hospital beds and additional beds are essential if there is to be a significant dent in the trolley figures, he warned. Mr Doran said: "The acceptance of these proposals by our members re-affirms their absolute commitment to their patients and to ensuring that they can deliver safe care to the sick and vulnerable. "Our members constantly stated, in all of the information meetings held recently, that this was never about pay and conditions. It was all about ensuring the unacceptable situation in emergency departments was prioritised by management. "We will now demand the full implementation and operation of the agreement in every location. It has the potential to represent a step-change in tackling the issue. Health Minister Leo Varadkar has also welcomed the clear vote for acceptance. He said: "We are making progress in reducing overcrowding. "The number of patients on trollies today is 20pc lower than it was this day last year, in spite of the influenza outbreak. "This shows that our plan is working but there is a long way to go yet. "We will need sustained actions and improvements over the coming years and I am more determined than ever to see that through." Zoe Lonergan will travel to the UK later this year to undergo stem cell treatment for a condition called juvenile arthritis. It's hard to imagine a four-year-old child dealing with the crippling pain of arthritis but that's exactly what little Zoe Lonergan has to face every day. The little girl, from Firhouse in Dublin, hides the struggle of constant pain behind her beaming smile. "She's a happy child, she does her best to get on with things despite the pain," her uncle Aidan said when speaking with Independent.ie. Expand Close Zoe Lonergan will head to the UK for stem cell treatment / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Zoe Lonergan will head to the UK for stem cell treatment "She has all kinds of reactions to the disease, including a turn in her eye. She suffers from flare ups. There are certain days when it will affect her more than others. "Some days she's fantastic. We were up in the house on Sunday and she was running around with all of the other nieces and nephews. "However, there are other days you'll pop up and you can see that she'd love more than anything to be playing with the other kids but she just doesn't have the energy." The Dublin youngster was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis when she was just two-years-old and makes fortnightly visits to Crumlin Children's Hospital where she receives blood tests and an infusion of steroids. Expand Close Zoe Lonergan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Zoe Lonergan "She calls the injections 'Freddie'", said Aidan. "When she heads to the hospital it's because 'Freddie' is thirsty and needs a drink." Juvenile arthritis is a condition that swells the blood and causes loss of motion in the joints. It's a debilitating disease which leaves the sufferer in constant pain, unable to perform some of the most basic tasks. The exact cause of the condition isnt known, but it is thought to be an autoimmune disorder. This means the immune system attacks the body instead of defending the body against infection and other harmful substances. Despite the ongoing treatment, doctors have confirmed that her condition is getting worse and the HSE has partnered with the NHS to send Zoe to Newcastle for stem cell treatment as her current medication is damaging her organs. "They're trying to stop her current immune system from working," said Aidan. "They'll shut that down and insert a new immune system into Zoe. As far as I'm aware, there's only one shot at this. If her body rejects the new immune system... she probably won't come out of it." Around 1,000 Irish children suffer from juvenile arthritis and Zoe's mother Natalie said that doctors told her that her daughter was the youngest case they had seen when she was diagnosed in 2013. Expand Close Zoe (4) with mother Natalie, dad David and sister Ali (1) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Zoe (4) with mother Natalie, dad David and sister Ali (1) Little Zoe will travel with her mother to the UK later in the year for treatment, after a donor is found. Her dad will stay at home in Ireland with the couple's one-year-old daughter Ali. "They'll be apart for six months. The NHS are covering the cost of the treatment but Natalie will need finances to support herself and Zoe when they are in Newcastle," said Aidan. The family have set up an appeal to cover the costs. For For information or to lend your support visit the website or Facebook page. News / National by Stephen Jakes MDC Prosper Chapfiwa Mutseyami has condemned the government for taking some farms which were owned by some Ndau peolple and giving them to individual white farmers."Government also talked about the green fuel which is coming from Chisumbanje and we have cane fields in that area also. The farmer is Billy Rautenbach who works together with the Government. In that programme, Government gets 10% and Billy Rautenbach gets 90%. I remember from 2000, Zanu PF came up with a policy, land to the people and we are the people they were talking about, the black indigenous who were supposed to benefit from that," he said."As I speak about Billy Rautenbach, one white person and I am talking about the farms which were farmed by the Ndau people and these were confiscated from them. This was their livelihood and they are being given to one white man Rautenbach."He said their fields and land were forcibly confiscated from them because there were armed uniformed police who were chasing these people of the Ndau tribe and 42 thousand hectares of land was taken from them and the indigenous were asked to go away."We are paying lip service to the indigenisation of land. These people who were farming in these areas used to grow cotton and maize in the 1980s but some 35 years later, these people are being deprived of their land. They are being encouraged to work for this one white man as cane cutters and as cane crushers and this white man is working together with the Government. The people of the Ndau origin are in problems, they are crammed in small pieces of land that is given to them," he said.He said President Robert Mugabe also discussed corruption in his speech. Regarding corruption, let me look at the aspects which were taken by His Excellency."We know we have established an Anti-Corruption Commission because His Excellency has seen that there are some loopholes and some weaknesses which need to be curbed. We know the former Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Ignatias Chombo; when he was going through his divorce process with his first wife Miriam, we were told that he had lots of residential stands in almost every local authority and township in this country," he said."He has commercial, residential and industrial stands. Hon. members, even if we are Mr. Moneybags, can you afford to buy all those pieces of land in every town? My feeling is that the President was not supposed to talk about anti-corruption but this person was supposed to be arrested and taken to solitary confinement and made to confess where he got all the monies to buy all those properties." Meet two-year-old Zoe Lonergan, the little girl who put the celebrities to shame with her dance moves at Our Ladys Hospital in Crumlin. Zoe is a well-known face at the hospital she visits there twice a week for treatment for juvenile arthritis. But Zoes condition didnt in any way hinder her cool moves on Monday afternoon indeed she took part in a dance-off with Mrs Brown star Brendan OCarroll. It wasnt long before Zoe was dancing beside Brendan to cheery Christmas carols and showing off her star quality. Zoes moves come just a week after her family were told she has juvenile arthritis. The diagnosis came after Zoe developed a limp. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Brendan O'Carroll's wife Jenny Gibney and 2 year old Zoe Lonergan at the celebrity ward walk at our lady's children's hospital, Crumlin Brendan O'Carroll's wife Jenny Gibney and 2 year old Zoe Lonergan at the celebrity ward walk at our lady's children's hospital, Crumlin Brendan O'Carroll's wife Jenny Gibney and Zoe Lonergan (2) at the celebrity ward walk at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin Zoe Lonergan (2) at the celebrity ward walk at our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. Brendan O'Carroll with Zoe Lonergan (2) from Dublin at the celebrity ward walk at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin Brendan O'Carroll with Zoe Lonergan (2) from Dublin at the celebrity ward walk at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin Brendan O'Carroll with Zoe Lonergan (2) from Dublin at the celebrity ward walk at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin Brendan O'Carroll with Zoe Lonergan (2) from Dublin at the celebrity ward walk at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin Brendan O'Carroll's wife Jenny Gibney and Zoe Lonergan (2) at the celebrity ward walk at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. Rossanne Davison at the celebrity ward walk at our lady's children's hospital, Crumlin. Photo: Mark Condren Brian McFadden and his wife Vogue at the celebrity ward walk at our lady's children's hospital, Crumlin. Photo: Mark Condren Brendan O'Carroll with Aoife Duffy from Dublin at the celebrity ward walk at our lady's children's hospital, Crumlin. Photo: Mark Condren / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Brendan O'Carroll's wife Jenny Gibney and 2 year old Zoe Lonergan at the celebrity ward walk at our lady's children's hospital, Crumlin She was admitted to the hospital in November and stayed there for a month as doctors conducted tests. She was discharged last week after the diagnosis, which is a condition that swells the blood and causes loss of motion in the joints. However, there were no signs of this on Monday afternoon as the little girl's love of music made her the star of the day, with plenty of celebrities checking out her moves. ''She had an absolute ball. When it comes to music, she just loves it, even when an ad comes up on TV she will get up and start dancing,'' her mother Natalie Long told independent.ie. ''We were sitting waiting in the hospital for Zoe to get an infusion of steroids when a woman came over and asked if we wanted to go and have a look at the choir,'' she said. Zoe is from Firhouse and her mum is delighted shell be home for Christmas. Zoe must visit the hospital now twice a week to receive blood tests and an infusion of steroids. ''It was touch and go for a while whether she could come home for Christmas but thank God she will','' she said. The hospital was buzzing with excitement as the celebrities' visit had been widely anticipated by children and their families. A string of well-known faces, including Shane Byrne, Keith Barry and Rosanna Davison, visited the hospital to sing carols and greet dozens of young patients. Doctors initially feared that Zoe was suffering from meningitis or leukaemia. Her mother says doctors told her Zoe is one of 70 sufferers in Ireland and was the youngest case they had seen. The scene of a shooting at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road this afternoon... Picture Colin Keegan The burned out van which Gardai suspect was used by the gunmen in the Regency Hotel shooyting this afternoonthis afternoon. Photo: Colin Keegan The scene of a shooting at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road this afternoon... Picture Colin Keegan Emergency services at the scene of the shooting. The body of one of the victim is taken from the scene of a shooting at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road this this evening. The criminal shot dead in yesterday's bloodbath in Dublin's Regency Hotel was a 34-year-old man from Crumlin. David Byrne, from Raleigh Square, has been described as one of the capital's most notorious drug dealers and gangland criminals. A key Dublin-based member of the Christy Kinahan cartel, Byrne had been a target for specialist Garda units for years, He was suspected of involvement in the importation of dozens of large shipments of drugs and was believed to have been involved in attempting to smuggle rocket launchers into the country. Byrne had been arrested numerous times by gardai over the years. However, he was cleared of firearms charges in relation to a shooting incident connected to the Crumlin/Drimnagh feud in August 2008. Officers from the Organised Crime Unit arrested Byrne, who was with the convicted murderer Eugene 'The Devil' Cullen after a 20-year-old man was shot in the lower torso in the incident in Ballyfermot. Byrne was also called to give evidence in the murder trial of his gangland rival Brian Rattigan in February 2009, where he claimed he could not remember anything unusual happening outside Abrakebabra on August 25, 2001, when Rattigan stabbed Declan Gavin to death. The Dubliner's life of crime ended yesterday when he was shot dead by a man who was dressed as a Garda but armed with an AK-47. He was gunned down in the reception area of the hotel, where more than 20 people - including children - had been. However, two of his close friends had more luck when they were hit by the hail of bullets. Sean McGovern (30), who is from Captain's Road in Crumlin, was understood to be in a serious condition in Beaumont Hospital after being shot in the stomach. Another man, Aaron Bolger (25) from Killinarden in Tallaght, was being treated for his wounds after he was shot in the thigh. All three men were known to gardai and were friends with each other. None of the trio are suspected of being involved in the murder of Gary Hutch, which is being looked at as the main motive for yesterday's chaotic attack. However, Bolger is understood to have spent a lot of time in Spain in recent years where he is involved with the MGM gym in Marbella, which Daniel Kinahan, son of Christy, also works in with professional boxer Matthew Macklin. While McGovern has barely any previous criminal convictions, he was a close friend of the murder victim David Byrne and of Byrne's older brother Liam (38) since they were children, according to sources. McGovern, who was said to be clinging to life yesterday, was involved in a car business with Liam Byrne and has often been spotted in his company. In March 2012, it emerged that McGovern, Liam Byrne and another cousin of 'Fat' Freddie Thompson, Liam Roe, were arrested in Liverpool and questioned about making death threats, blackmail and possession of housebreaking implements. However, they were never charged. Roe survived a botched attempt on his life at the Red Cow Hotel last year when the gun jammed. Gardai believe that murder attempt was carried out by a north inner city gang. Tanaiste Joan Burton has hit out at Sinn Fein for calling for the abolition of the Special Criminal Court in light of yesterdays gangland murder inside a Dublin hotel. Ms Burton said that both Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald called for the abolition of the court this week, and she called on them to withdraw these remarks. The Tanaiste was speaking after yesterdays murder of David Byrne (34), from Raleigh Square in Crumlin, who had been a key Dublin-based member of the Christy Kinahan cartel for years. Were living in Ireland, not Mexico. We have to ensure that we can deal with a small number of criminal gangs, and that the courts are able to prosecute and deal with the people who are responsible. Sinn Fein have to account for their call in recent days, again, to abolish the Special Criminal Court, and particularly in light of yesterdays horrific and brutal murder in the Regency Hotel. The Special Criminal Court was established during the Troubles to ensure that witnesses could give evidence free from intimidation and fear. Its also being used in relation to gangland and gun crime and its allowed prosecutions to be achieved against major criminals. Without the availability of the Special Criminal Court you can think back to the murders of people like Veronica Guerin. The courts would have been significantly hampered in bringing really serious criminals to justice. Ms Burton said that Sinn Fein only views the Special Criminal Court from the perspective of Republicans. Sinn Fein sees things differently. They view the criminal justice system only through the perspective of republicans not as normal people view it. Theyre opposed to the Special Criminal Court because it has been effective in dealing with senior republicans whove been involved in crime. I think they should now withdraw the comments they made earlier this week about abolishing the Special Criminal Court and they should make clear that it will not be a clear objective of their manifesto, or of their proposals to be the Government of Ireland. TWO men have been arrested after a garda chase involving a bin lorry in Dublin yesterday morning. The men allegedly stole the bin lorry at Deansrath Green in Clondalkin, Dublin, at around 9am. They then drove the lorry around Dublin narrowly avoiding pedestrians and almost losing control, according to witnesses. The two men were later arrested on Westbrook Drive when the lorry crashed at 9.40am some 40 minutes after the incident started. A video posted by John King to Facebook has been viewed over 50,000 times. A garda spokesman confirmed the two men are currently being detained at Clondalkin Garda Station and inquiries are continuing. Brendan Keenan: 'Better laws and foreign money needed to overcome worrying homes shortage' There is a district in Belfast known as the Holy Land. Not because of its religiosity, but because the streets - Jerusalem Street, Damascus Street and so on - are called after places in that region. Once, there were others; Little Crimea, India, and so on. Seemingly, houses were built so quickly for the city's huge expansion in the 19th century that it was too much trouble to think up original names. They eventually gave up altogether, so far as names were concerned. The Shankill area got First Street, Second Street etc, all the way up to Tenth. Premium John Downing Opinion Pension reforms are dicey territory but grand plan by minister Heather Humphreys just might win through Pension system changes all across the western world have a great propensity to infuriate those most feared by politicians: the grey brigade. And when the oldies take to the streets, they usually play for keeps. In early 2014, as she stood down after seven-and-a-half years as head of Hiqa, the health service watchdog, Dr Tracey Cooper's parting shot was: "We have not yet cracked accountability. Whenever something goes wrong, nothing happens." Since then, little or nothing has happened to enhance the system of accountability in the HSE. This week, we heard the heartbreaking story of 'Grace', who was allegedly savagely abused over a period of 20 years under the noses of HSE managers, some of whom may possibly have been promoted since then and carry responsibility, as we speak, for ensuring a safe service for defenceless people entrusted to their care. Following last year's HIQA report into infant deaths in Portlaoise hospital, there were calls for sanctions against personnel who had failed "to take seriously" the evidence of repeated catastrophic failures that were brought to their attention. The best that the CEO of the HSE, Tony O'Brien, could offer when he was pressed about sanctions was to appoint HR consultants from the UK to advise on how these serious failures by several layers of management could be handled. Here, we have the biggest employer in the country, with over 100,000 staff, which doesn't have an effective performance-management and disciplinary system, one that includes, when required, the legal instruments and industrial relations machinery to impose sanctions on managers guilty of the most egregious lapses. Questioned before the Public Accounts Committee this week, Mr O'Brien explained how he was powerless to take effective action and, turning the spotlight on his interrogators, he then added wryly: "Because of rules set in this place." In this context, Mr O'Brien told a Dail committee before Christmas that there is no consensus around a vision for our health service. A few days later, the Taoiseach said that this lack of clear direction resulted in "haphazard" initiatives. All of this is an indictment of our politics, senior civil service and HSE top brass. While some frontline staff have been found to be in breach of expected standards in certain cases, the main focus has to be on management, from supervisors right up to the most senior executives, civil servants and Government ministers. Nine staff missed 13 opportunities to intervene in the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar, which indicates the absence of a system of rules and procedures that apply along the care pathway, rather than human error or negligence. It is managers and clinical leads who are responsible for ensuring the design, implementation, monitoring and continuous improvement of such systems. It is managers and clinical leads who were responsible for the fact that, two years after an investigation into the death of Tania McCabe in similar circumstances, new procedures specified for the treatment of sepsis had been implemented in only six out of 18 maternity units. The Portlaoise report stated that if the findings of six previous reports into medical failures in other hospitals had been implemented in Portlaoise, the sequence of infant deaths there could have been avoided. Do hospital managers and clinicians even bother to read these reports? When 'adverse incidents' occur, the instinct of those in charge too often appears to be to go into a huddle, close ranks and figure out how to contain the situation. The catalogue of neglect and incompetence testifies to the deep-seated antipathy to accountability in our health and social care system. Tearful parents on the steps of the courts every week testify to the battle that individual citizens have in seeking justice for death and injury to their loved ones. The Irish philosopher, Philip Pettit, says in his book 'Just Freedom: a Moral Compass for a Complex World', that these battles between the citizen and the State are unequal because the State has bottomless pockets, endless patience and, crucially, the cloak of anonymity that pre-empts personal accountability. Anonymity is not confined to the HSE. When proper investigations eventually get to the bottom of various scandals, the names of culpable individuals are redacted, obliterated by a black marker, from the reports. As a society, our systems of accountability are a sham. Even perjury is not treated as a crime. We should not have to rely on whistleblowers, hidden cameras and legal battles to eliminate, or at least reduce, the seemingly endless spate of harrowing stories emanating from our health and social care services. The key is to embed grown-up systems of governance and accountability, that is personal accountability, with implication of consequences arising from unacceptable failure. As the Bible says: "Without a vision the people perish" (Proverbs 28:18). How true of our health and social care service. The priority for the next government must be to work with external experts and senior HSE people to articulate the required comprehensive, coherent vision, including unambiguous structures, processes and legal instruments, that make possible personal accountability at every level. Cracking managerial accountability is ultimately more important than delivering on yet another haphazard list of politically motivated pre-election palliatives. Eddie Molloy is a management consultant. Alan Kelly cast in the role of the gracious Master of Ceremonies, all charm and light chit-chat as he handed over the microphone to the real stars of the event. Seriously, Labour - in what parallel universe was that ever going to pan out? "The Tanaiste will make a keynote address along with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin. Director of Elections and Environment Minister Alan Kelly will MC the event," read the press release, apparently straight-faced, sounding the first of the alarm bells. Abort mission. Man the stations. Iceberg ahead. The formal launch of Labour's General Election campaign at the Bord Gais Theatre in the Dublin Docklands was but a continuation of the 'informal' campaign we had so far seen. So, more hurling of rocks, then, more quiet gnashing of teeth, cloaks, daggers and other unseemly things clad with a thin veneer of smiles and civility. Those who feared a dull GE16 campaign should buckle their safety belts because just a week in and Kelly is the candidate voted most likely to implode. From his tame pussy-cat demeanour during an earlier interview with Sean O'Rourke on RTE Radio One, we had assumed the outgoing Environment Minister had been reined in and there would be no more startling outbursts this side of the ballot box. But no, it appeared AK-47 was merely keeping his powder dry. Arriving at the Bord Gais theatre with his customary swagger, Kelly stood amid the crowd and slowly knotted his tie without any embarrassment. There was an overpowering smell of aftershave in the room as the delegates filed in. Newstalk broadcaster Chris Donoghue slipped quietly into his seat, fresh from his ding dong with the Labour deputy leader in Tipperary the previous day. Alan Kelly congratulated a party worker on her birthday. "Tell the journalists your age," he invited her. Then welcoming everyone to the launch, he said this was a symbolic part of the capital in which to hold it. "When Grand Canal Dock opened over 200 years ago, it was during Dublin's golden period and they were the largest docks in the world." Now it's called 'Silicon Docks', he said. The Minister of State Kevin Humphreys, being a proud local, shook his head vehemently. Labour would run a "strong and determined campaign that will deliver a positive result," said Kelly. He politely handed over to Brendan Howlin, who told us that the sky is not about to fall down anymore and the banks were no longer a systemic threat to the Irish people. And then he turned to Joan, "one of the bravest and most admirable ministers", for a rousing speech which was sung from a Government hymn sheet with a strangely familiar theme of 'a lot done, more to do.' Alan Kelly drummed his fingers on the clear plastic rostrum, gazed out the window and read something from a large buff envelope. His boredom, it seemed, could hardly be contained. Joan became passionate, warning voters against 'Sinn Fein creeping in the night.' Ged Nash raised his eyebrows and gave a mock shiver. Alan Kelly kept his hands in his pockets. And then it was question time. Had he tried to threaten Chris Donoghue before going on air and sought to influence the line-up of guests, a reporter inquired. Kelly rapidly flushed an angry crimson. "That's an astonishing question, to be frank. No is the answer. Was I unhappy with the editorial choice, yes," he rapped out. Joan maintained a bright and polite smile. The situation did not go away. Kelly said he had voiced 'concerns'. But had he verbally abused Chris Donoghue? The minister said he did not think that was a fair question. Joan did what she could to defend him. She cherishes a free press and they deal with people fairly and openly. "He could have ducked maybe appearing on a show altogether," she pointed out. During a question to Brendan Howlin on Fiscal Space, Kelly stood there truculent and fuming, clearly not friends with the room. When Joan grew heated about housing and the need to fix up 'void' social housing, Kelly gazed at her with apparent mild amusement. And then it was back to him again. What did he say to allegations of his arrogance? Kelly shrugged, as if to suggest 'what could he possibly say?' "Look, I don't think that's fair now," he said. "Everyone in this room is a different human being." And he tried his very best to look humble about that. The drop in oil prices over the past 18 months has been nothing short of dizzying, plummeting from $115 a barrel to around $28 at present, the lowest level since 2003. Many analysts predict it has some way to go yet, with some even raising the prospect of an oil price as low as $10 a barrel. The precipitous decline is due to several factors: the growth of fracking in the US has disrupted supply-and-demand patterns, and the faltering of once-booming economies in states like China and Brazil has also had a considerable impact. The reason many expect a further spiralling over the next months is the lifting of sanctions on oil-rich Iran, allowing Tehran to muscle its way back into the global energy market. Given the geopolitics of oil production, a fall in the price of crude has huge ramifications for exporters across the world, from Saudi Arabia to Russia and Nigeria to Venezuela. History shows how much a tumble in prices can shake countries, regions and even the entire global order. From the oil crisis of the 1970s, which brought the Middle East front and centre, to the mid-1980s oil crash which contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union, the lessons are clear. The decline this time comes at one of the most tumultuous periods in the modern history of the Middle East. Five years after the start of the revolutions and uprisings that swept across the Middle East and Africa and collectively became known as the Arab Spring, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen are mired in chaos. Egypt is again locked under the severe repression of a military regime. The tremors from each of these 'sick men' are being felt in neighbouring states and across the region more generally. And in the midst of the blood, upheaval and crackdowns, Isil has embedded itself in Syria, Iraq and, more recently, Libya. The shock of falling oil prices is being felt by economies around the world but they will hit the Middle East, already in turmoil and home to several major oil-producing nations, hardest. Already, many are feeling the economic, social and, in some cases, political ripples. Take Saudi Arabia. The desert kingdom's income from oil dropped by 23pc last year, a significant dent in an economy where over 70pc of total revenues comes from the hydrocarbons sector. According to the government, the budget deficit was close to $100bn. The country's stock exchange has also taken a hit. The kingdom's rulers are mulling some limited reforms to cope with the crunch but also keeping in mind the need to stave off public discontent. Late last year, King Salman reduced the domestic subsidy on petrol by 40pc. There are plans to cut public sector salaries and accelerate long overdue efforts to diversify the economy in order to lessen the dependence on oil. The re-entry of Iran to the international oil market is certain to needle Saudi Arabia in all sorts of ways, not least because Tehran is Riyadh's main regional rival and the two are locked in an increasingly bitter power play. The United Arab Emirates is also experiencing difficulties resulting from the oil price drop. The UAE central bank says revenues have fallen by 23pc and, despite government moves to cut spending on infrastructure and subsidies, the deficit has ballooned. Elsewhere in the Gulf, Qatar is also feeling the pinch: several construction projects have been put on hold and the Doha-headquartered Al Jazeera television network has been forced to scale down dramatically. In north Africa, the dramatic decline in the price of crude could not have come at a worse time for Libya, reeling already from the effects of an almost two-year-old conflict, underpinned by a bitter political power struggle and now made more complicated by the expanding presence of Isil. Home to Africa's largest oil reserves, the country is burdened by one of the largest public payrolls in the world along with massive fuel and food subsidies, all a leftover from the Gaddafi era. Instability has driven oil production down to under 400,000 barrels per day, a fraction of the 1.6 million barrels per day Libya had been pumping before Gaddafi's overthrow. Libya's central bank has been forced to burrow deeply into its foreign reserves to cover the budget, and Western officials have warned that the country faces bankruptcy. Last month, former UN envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon was blunt in his assessment. "Libya is a failed state and will be for a long time," he said. If the price of oil drops even further, it would spell even greater disaster, not only for Libya but its neighbours and Europe. On Friday night I headed for St. Pats GFC Clubrooms where a special dance was taking place as a fundraiser for Temple Street Children's Hospital, Temple Street Foundation and a good crowd had gathered specially for the evening. I was introduced to main organiser and birthday girl on the evening Eilish Joyce from Jenkinstown whom along with husband Sean, Alice and Tom Roddy from Bellurgan, Madeline Hynes from Jenkinstown and Irene Keenan from Ravensdale are the main organisers of the dances in the club. She told me that most of them are fundraisers for the club, but they also host a number of charity nights and this was the first of the year and for an excellent cause too. I then decided to have a look round to see who else were enjoying the night and first couple I met up with were Pat and Una Goss from Carrickarnon who told me they'd be plenty of drinking (soft drinks only) and even more dancing on the night and they were looking forward to it getting going. I then headed for the Ardee contingent who included Joe and Peggy Reilly and Dessie Murray who told me he certainly wouldn't be leaving the floor and his brand new shoes on specially! Meanwhile over at another table I then caught up with Danny and Eithne Keenan from Newry who were up for a night of non-stop dancing with Eugene and Teresa Savage from Ballynahinch who told me the craic was always good but they were only really there to dance. They were also enjoying the company of Brian McKeown from Omeath, Frank Rogan from Ballynahinch and Josie Morgan from Newcastle who all assured me it was going to be a really great night, and for such a great cause too. After this I ventured over for a chat with Larry and Anne McGuigan from Newry who told me they were delighted the night was a fundraiser for Temple Street and they really liked the band Country Pride who were the one in action on the night. Next I made my way over for a chat with Pat Murtagh from Navan who was enjoying a laugh with Anne McCormick from Dundalk who were eager for the band to get going so they could enjoy a bit of dancing. Making my way over to another table I then got talking to Anne Irwin from Newry who was chatting to Peadar Hynes from Ballygoley and the lady who celebrated her 93rd birthday the previous Thursday Ellen McDermott from Jenkinstown who assured me that once she was asked, she'd be on the dancefloor with the best of them all night long. They were enjoying the night with Ann Chambers from Kilkerley, Nancy Ward from Meadow Grove, Patricia Rogers from Knockbridge, Teddy Connolly and Brigid Lee both from Jonesboro who told me that once the band got going they'd be all making their way onto the floor with everyone else, like they always do. Not too long later I then got talking to Marie Marmion from Kilcurry who told me she was there on the night with her 'Toy-boy' Gerry and they were with the likely lads Francie Bergin from Newry and Pat Begley from Silverbridge who told me I'd probably have to get their names okayed with the Gardai before I could print them! Francie was with his wife Brigid who told me he'd be first at the shop on Wednesday to see his name in the paper! They were having a laugh with Pat and Tess Murray from Whitemill and Felix McConnell from Dromiskin who were all in great form when I got a word with them. Making my way through the swelling crowds I then got a word with Pat and Rosemary Conlon from Channonrock who told me they were regulars at the Pats Dances and told me it's a really great night. Not too far away I then got talking to Eileen Kirk from Kilcurry who was with Gerardine and Sean Marmion from Kilcurry and Sean told me they'd be 'keepin her lit' on the dancefloor all night long! Finally, I caught up with a couple who were making their debut at the dances and they were Dermot and Anne Coburn from Ravensdale who were enjoying the company of Olive and Gerry Hearty from Ardee and Margaret and Gerry Callan from Jenkinstown who were all up for making it a great night for the debutantes. News / National by Stephen Jakes The MDC Prosper Chapfiwa Mutseyami has questioned the government over its claims that it has no money yet giving money to buy vehicles and live in government houses."This Parliament has a lot of Members and we have problems which we face as Members of Parliament. Generally, each one of us as a Member of Parliament has a vehicle which he or she uses as a means of moving from point A to point B but the type of cars given to us were not the cars we were expecting but we are able to move," said Mutseyami."We are told there is no money but my main concern is that people should be fed and yet we are told that there is no money. We are saying each Member of Parliament has a vehicle and Ministers are saying there is no money. If you have a new Minister, within a short period of appointment, that Minister is given money so that he buys a very big car and this is over and above the Mercedes Benz which he has."He said the Ministers who will have been removed from their offices will also take their official cars and buy them at book value but this new Minister, not only does he receive a new car, he is also given accommodation and domestic workers who are paid by the State. He said this member will also move from his own personal and private residence to Government residence. Is that a reflection of a country which has no money?"The President also talked about war veterans and he said he has introduced a Ministry of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees and we gladly accepted that ministry. These war veterans are the people who worked hard and sacrificed their lives for this country including my father John Salani Dhliwayo Mutseyami, he died a Major in the Army, he was a war veteran not a fake veteran but a genuine one," he said."When we are saying we have no money, look at the war veterans; we are saying people are paid at the end of the month but what I know is that the war veterans have not received their January allowances and we are in February and still they have not been paid anything."He said these war veterans have families who look up to them and they should be paying fees for their children."We have some war veterans who are of ill health, they are sick and they are supposed to receive treatment in hospital but some of them owe these hospitals lots of monies. They also owe learning institutions monies for fees and we wish these people to be paid so that they can pay the monies that they owe these institutions," he said."When Ministers fall sick, they go out of the country where they receive treatment and we say the country has no money. The war veterans go to Government hospitals and they cannot afford the private practitioners who charge lots of monies for treatment. The war veterans cannot receive monies due to them and their salaries are behind by two months, how does a war veteran survive?"The MP asked the government should give priority to war veterans for the sacrifices which they took in liberating Zimbabwe so that they can live a normal life, take care and pay fees for their families."These war veterans are only taken into consideration when we are going for the elections. That is when they are paraded as a way of show off but when it comes to their needs, they are ignored. I am debating this looking at the Presidential Speech. The people who liberated this country, the war veterans will die and the time they die they will be paupers. Just this past weekend, I attended a funeral of one Gibson Chimhini a war veteran," he said."When he died, the Government failed in all the things which he should have received. When he was ill, he needed treatment, medication and I would have expected this war veteran who went to the war a long time back and was trained in Yugoslavia and Russia to have received such. To my surprise, he was not given a military parade to honour this gallant son of Zimbabwe. They could have come to show the last respect for this war veteran but he was ignored. All his works were not taken into account."The MP said one would have expected that when a war veteran is being buried, mourners should have been taken care of but unfortunately, in the case of this war veteran, people were eating cabbages and vegetables, no meat and yet he should have been respected."So, Government failed in paying for his treatment and paying for his funeral," he said. Author David M. Kiely is launching his new Louth based novel this Sunday, 7th February in Carlingford. Setting a new precedent for the county, 'Eyeless in Cooley' is the first crime novel ever to be set in Carlingford. The year is 2000 and a well-loved retired schoolteacher is found murdered amid the ruins of the old Dominican abbey. His eyes are missing. The Gardai suspect an Ulster Loyalist killing because 'No Surrender' has been spray-painted at the scene of the crime. Two Dublin detectives are called in: DI Blade Macken and DS Orla Sweetman. It's a complex mystery that digs back into recent history and exposes a murky Vatican secret. At the launch in PJ's, Carlingford, beginning at 8pm the author will read extracts from his exciting new novel. Talented Louth artists and designers showcased their creations at the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland Showcase 2016 in the RDS last week. The Showcase, which was officially opened by An Tanaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, T.D. is one of the country's largest international trade fairs, attracting more than 5,000 buyers from Ireland and over 20 other countries, keen to view the latest collections from more than 450 Irish designers, manufacturers and craftspeople across fashion, jewellery and home and giftware. There were 12 Louth exhibitors taking part in the event including many from the Dundalk area including; Sarah McKenna Ceramics located in Bridge Street Studios Dundalk; Orla Barry Art also located in Bridge Street Studios Dundalk; Martina Scott Carlingford; Love Irish Crafts Dundalk; and Garrett Mallon located in Carlingford. Also taking part were Design House; Finca Skin Organics Dundalk; Duinn Designs Carlingford; Corona Silver Readypenny; and Arabella Jewellery Ravensdale. Senator Mary Moran who visited the event highlighted the success of Louth exhibitors. 'I was delighted to once again attend the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland Showcase, and was very impressed with the local talent on display at this year's showcase with work ranging from jewellery, linen, clothing, ceramics, skincare and more. 'There were many exciting items exhibited that were brand new to the market and not yet available in stores.' 'Each of the local businesses at the Showcase are very important to our county in both their economic and community value. It takes determination and long hours to establish a new enterprise and to keep one running. 'I would like to congratulate the local businesses on display this year and wish them well for the year ahead.' Karen Hennessy, Chief Executive of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland added; 'The strength of Showcase lies in offering buyers an unparalleled opportunity to discover the very latest creative work emerging from Ireland. That is what has kept visitors returning each January over the show's 40-year history. Together with our colleagues in Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices, we are committed to supporting talented Irish designers and makers in growing their business at home and internationally. At the recent Carlingford/Omeath Red Cross A.G.M. the outgoing chairman, Tom Maguire, congratulated all the members on yet another very successful year. He congratulated them on the many courses that they completed during the year and on the many duties undertaken throughout the whole of County Louth. He complimented all the members on their hard work and dedication over the year and also noted that new members were always needed and indeed most welcome to share the workload. Tom spoke about the senior citizen's bi-monthly socials which he said ' continue to prove to be very popular but we would like to see more people from throughout the whole peninsula attending. They will be more than welcome'. He thanked all those who helped out at the socials especially the committee of St. Mary's Hall, Cooley, who continue to support the Red Cross by providing the hall and by helping out on the night. He also thanked Fr. Tommy who celebrated their annual Mass, the bands and musicians who entertained during the year and all the people who donated gifts for the raffle. Tom thanked all those who helped with the church gate collections, those who supported our flag day in December and finally all those who help and support us financially and organised funraisers during 2015. He said one of the highlights of the year was the annual holiday to the Abbey Hotel in Donegal in September; 'we had over 50 people with us and they had a very enjoyable time and I would like to thank to all the members who helped out and also our bus driver, Robbie'. He also mentioned the Christmas party which was another great success and for that he was full of praise for Nicholas and his staff for the lovely meal, Cooley Kickhams for the use of the complex, and all who donated gifts for the raffle. Branch Secretary, Zelda Larkin, thanked all the members for their hard work and commitment during the year and hoped that the good work will continue in 2016. Unit Officer, Cormac McGinn also thanked the members for their continued support during 2015. The new committee for 2016 is as follows; Chairman, Tom Maguire; Vice chairperson, Zelda Larkin; Secretary, Niamh Begley; Treasurer, Josephine O'Loughlin; Health & Social care, Maureen Traynor; Youth Officer, Francis Hanlon; Unit Officer, Cormac McGinn. Committee members; Gay O'Loughlin, Bernie McKevitt and Alma Donnelly. Sinead Kennedy, Winning Streak game show co-host; Michael Galligan, the winning player; Declan Harrington, Head of Finance at the National Lottery who made the presentation and Marty Whelan Winning Streak game show co-host. The winning ticket was bought from Centra, Blackrock. Pic: Mac Innes A Dundalk-born builder has scooped 25,000 and a trip to Rome during his appearance on RTE's Winning Streak at the weekend. Michael Galligan, 56, is originally from Priorland but has been living in nearby Haggardstown, for 30 years since marrying his wife, Amy. Michael was one of five players who took part in the second show of the National Lottery's TV game show for 2016, presented by Marty Whelan and Sinead Kennedy, last Saturday . The players from Fermanagh, Laois, Donegal, Dublin and Louth won prizes to the value of 171,000. The biggest winner on the night was Thomas McManus from Fermanagh who won prizes to the value of 61,000. Michael, who won the cash and a 3,000 trip to Rome, told producers he has four children; Rosaleen, 27, Anthony, 25 and 24-year-old Linda. His other daughter, 29-year-old Geraldine, lives in Abu Dhabi. Michael also has six sisters and four brothers - his mother, Mary is 86. Michael is a self-employed builder and has been working in construction for 'as long as he can remember'. He loves travelling and enjoys a bit of walking in his spare time so no doubt will be planning some trips abroad with his winnings. Five players are selected each week to appear on the Winning Streak TV game show and win up to 500,000 instantly on the grand prize wheel. The Youth Council has appealed to young people in Louth to register in time for General Election New figures have shown that 1594 young people in Louth have turned 18 since last year and will have right to vote. The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) is encouraging young people in County Louth to make sure they are registered to vote, given that a General Election is just weeks away. If the election is held at the end of February, as widely expected, the deadline for inclusion on the supplementary register could be as early as the 8th of February. James Doorley, NYCI deputy director explained: 'We are especially anxious to ensure that the 1594* young people who have turned 18 in the last 12 months in Louth are included in the electoral register and can exercise their democratic right.' Any young person who is 18 years of age on or before the date of the election is eligible to vote. If they are not currently registered, they can do so by downloading and filling in the RFA2 form at www.checktheregister.ie. This form must be stamped at a Garda Station and returned to the local authority before close of business on the registration deadline. Likewise, if a young person wishes to change their registration address, they need to complete an RFA3 form, get it stamped and return it to the local authority by the deadline which will be known once the election date is announced. Dundalk is set to scale new heights with a multi-million investment in a new indoor adventure centre. Leading Belfast adventure centre 'We Are Vertigo' confirmed that a second location of the award-winning attraction will open in Dundalk, after planning permission was successfully granted for the enterprise. And in a major employment boost for the town, the company confirmed that more than 120 new full and part time jobs will be created in an investment worth more than 7 million. Construction and fitting out of the new centre is due for completion in early 2017. The privately-funded, 50,000 square foot attraction is being developed by Gareth and Lorna Murphy, the creative team behind the innovative We Are Vertigo Adventure Centre in Belfast which opened in 2013, attracting thrill-seekers from across Ireland. Plans for the new facility were just approved at a Louth County council meeting this week. Gareth says the new venue will be a huge asset to the town, adding that it is not only in terms of the multi-million euro investment and job creation, but also in the increased visitor numbers to the wider area the centre will bring. 'We are delighted that this new project, which we have been planning for over a year, has been granted approval by Louth County Council.' 'We have been working closely to ensure Dundalk will benefit from what looks set to be a major visitor attraction in the Louth area.' 'Belfast's We Are Vertigo has been an enormous success, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and we were keen to replicate the experience for families and businesses in the Republic of Ireland.' Gareth explained why they chose Dundalk to launch their second indoor adventure centre. 'Having assessed a number of locations, Dundalk was a clear winner in terms of location with its proximity to both Belfast and Dublin, the town's infrastructure and the welcome we received. 'We can't wait to get started on the construction of this new project.' 'We want our visitors to have the best experience when they come to We Are Vertigo, and Dundalk will be no exception.' He added that the centre will feature a range of exciting new indoor activities. 'While the trampoline park, adventure centre, spa and restaurant which many visitors to Belfast we be familiar with will be key fixtures in Dundalk, we are also pleased to announce we are introducing indoor ninja assault courses, an indoor skydiving centre and a state-of-the-art gym.' 'More details about the project will be revealed over the coming months,' Gareth added. 'We Are Vertigo's research and development team continue to research new and ground-breaking activities that are fun for the family yet can also accommodate the corporate community across Ireland. In addition to our all-island growth, we are in discussion with several companies across the UK and Europe who are interested in franchise opportunities and as such we are very excited for the future.' We Are Vertigo currently employ 118 staff at its Belfast-based site, which also houses a luxury spa and a licensed ski-themed restaurant. The solicitor representing Traveller families evicted from the Woodland Park site in Dundalk on January 12 says her clients are 'in dire straits' after three weeks of not having proper accommodation. Eleanor Kelly's comments come as many of the families from Woodland Park went to Leinster House earlier today (Tuesday) to attend a protest, organised by Pavee Point, about the issue in Dundalk. The Louth families had also been in Leinster House last Wednesday evening, at the invitation of Louth TD Gerry Adams. Ms Kelly said: 'To be honest, these families are no further on than they were on January 15 when they were evicted from the site at Woodland Park. Commitments made by Louth County Council have not come to pass and a drop-in clinic for the families requiring accommodation was set up by the council, only to be cancelled and it has not been offered again'. The solicitor said many of the Woodland Park families remain at in caravans parked at private land close to KFC off the Inner Relief Road. She said: 'There is no electricity, no running water, nothing and they remain here while this situation persists'. But, she added, the families, including spokesperson Rebecca Quinn, remain steadfast in their request that the council consider refurbishing and re-opening proper facilities at the Woodland Park site, which was a halting site for Dundalk for 25 years before it was closed 'due to lack of demand' by the council in 2008. She said the families are in the process of giving statements about their experience with the council - before, during and after the Woodland Park eviction - with a view to the material gathered being used as part of possible legal proceedings in the future. Ms Kelly said the council's chief executive, Joan Martin, has turned down her offer of a face to face meeting about the Woodland Park issue, which the solicitor had requested with some of the families and Mr Adams in attendance. Ms Kelly said: 'In addition, we are seeking copies of my clients' housing applications, some of which were first made to the council six, seven, eight years ago, but we have not yet received them'. Mr Adams slammed Minister Alan Kelly's refusal to meet Dundalk Travellers last week during their visit to the Dail. He said: 'In his response to my request the minister's Private Secretary claims that the Minister has no 'role in operational matters and the eviction' and places the onus on Louth County Council. 'This is unacceptable. The minister has a responsibility to ensure there are supports to assist the council provide accommodation, including funding. The council has failed to do so and the minister refuses to discuss it'. News / National by Elita Chikwati The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is developing an Agricultural and Rural Credit Policy to boost production while ensuring the country's self-sufficiency. This is also meant to increase exports.Announcing the Monetary Policy Statement on Thursday, RBZ governor Dr John Mangudya said the policy was aimed at making agricultural credit more disciplined, methodical and easily available to all farmers.He said banking institutions were required to scale up their lending support to the agricultural sector."The policy aims to make agricultural credit easily available to all farmers and expand banking services to rural areas and maximising use of agricultural land. It covers the major sectors of agriculture including crop, livestock, and fish production, agri-equipment, irrigation equipment, grain storage and marketing."In complementing Government efforts to revolutionalise agriculture through introduction of modern farm-mechanisation, improvement in production yields, promotion of better market access, and integration of farming with other diverse markets, banking institutions should provide more innovative and sustainable value- chain financing products to small holder farmers and rural farmers," he said.Dr Mangudya urged the banking sector to prioritise lending for the production of maize, cotton, tobacco and horticulture to boost exports."Total lending to agriculture should constitute a minimum of 20 percent of a banking institution's total loan portfolio. Banking institutions are required to report on quarterly basis information on their agricultural portfolios with effect from quarter period ending June," he said.Dr Mangudya encouraged the Agricultural Marketing Authority to identify and promote the development of vibrant markets and linkages.He said it was Government's thrust to make the nation self-sufficient in food through increasing production of all crops; ensure a profitable and sustainable agricultural production system and improve farmers' income generation capacity.Government was also promoting production of several crops to reduce excessive dependence on any single crop to minimize risk."It is Government's thrust to increase cropping intensity, yield and create opportunities for establishing agro-processing and agro-based industries," he said.Farmers have always complained over lack of funding which they said affected production.According to farmers, the available funding is not conducive for agriculture as the banks require collateral and do not accept 99 year leases as security.Agriculture economist, Mr Midway Bhunu said the move taken by the RBZ was noble since farmers were in need of funding but said the institution should understand the real challenges being faced in the sector."The banks should understand farmers' real challenges and capacities so that before the money is released to the banks it is packaged correctly."Because banks are in business, they will administer the funds so as to make money. RBZ should do proper costing that accommodates the farmer and the banks," he said.Mr Bhunu said it was important that RBZ, together with other banks, work with all key agricultural value chain actors and come up with priority areas.Banks have been prioritising funding of tobacco because of the well-organised market which makes it easier for the financial sector to recover its money.Mr Bhunu urged banks to consider other lucrative crops such as sugar, beans, potatoes and ground nuts.Zimbabwe is an agro-economy with agriculture contributing about 12 percent of the country's GDP in 2014 and more than 60 percent of inputs to the manufacturing sector.Access to financial services, particularly by smallholder farmers, however, remains a major bottleneck to agricultural performance in Zimbabwe. A Dundalk publican suffered serious facial and other injuries, after being the victim of a late night assault in the town centre more than three years ago. Evidence was given at the circuit criminal court last week that Cormac O'Carroll sustained a broken left eye socket, jaw, cheekbone and right ankle, at the hands of Stephen McKevitt (31), in Park Street on 7 October, 2012. McKevitt, 85 Church Street, Newry, Co Down, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm; and Judge Michael 0'Shea said he completely over-reacted to a comment passed in Tony's Pizzeria on the night in question. It was stated the accused was disgusted with himself when the incident was played back to him on CCTV. Garda Lisa McCabe gave evidence that at 2am Mr O'Carroll was at the counter of the takeaway when a dispute broke out after the victim said that 'he loved a woman in a black dress' in relation to a female in McKevitt's company. The accused took exception to this, grabbed the other man by the throat and pinned him to the counter. Afterwards, Mr O'Carroll went outside to apologise to McKevitt for any misunderstanding, and wanted to shake hands. Gda McCabe said he had no memory of anything else after being struck with a fist. The injured man did nothing to provoke the assault and offered no resistance. He fell back into the pizzeria unconscious. McKevitt remained in a violent mood at the scene. Garda Keith Ginnity found the victim lying unconscious in a doorway. An ambulance took him to the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda. The court heard CCTV helped to identify McKevitt, and he was subsequently arrested on 4 July, 2014. Investigators showed him footage of the attack, and McKevitt remarked he was disgusted with himself, and also said: 'No one should have to go through that.' Gda McCabe added the defendant has no previous convictions, and had been in England since this, working in the construction industry. A victim impact statement from Mr O'Carroll was read into the record, and detailed his injuries. He was off work for eight weeks as a result. Barrister Irene Sands said her client has an eleven-month-old daughter with his partner, and is in receipt of social welfare. He struggled at school and left without qualifications, and was commended by the PSNI for preventing a robbery. McKevitt's parents separated the month before this incident, and he is anxious not to follow his father down the road to alcoholism. He was shocked by the injuries he caused, and is ashamed and embarrassed. Counsel continued that a positive probation report was before the court, and that McKevitt is at a low risk of re-offending. He had sought help for anger management and alcohol abuse. Judge O'Shea said this 'vicious, violent and savage attack' was a complete over-reaction to a comment that could be taken as complimentary. McKevitt should have accepted the apology and let matters rest, but he was out for retribution. The judge said the punches would appear to have been powerful with regard to the type of injuries. He sentenced Stephen McKevitt to three years imprisonment, suspending the last year. A defibrillator has been installed on the Main Street in Bray, attached to the wall of the Credit Union building. Bray Cardiac First Responders joined forces with the credit union to install the life-saving equipment. Staff of the facility have received training on how to use the defibrillator. The Cardiac First Responders team was founded in 2013 in association with the National Ambulance Service. Their volunteers answer calls for emergencies such as cardiac arrest, chest pain, stroke or collapse. They have been instrumental in installing eight Public Access Defibrillators in Bray in the past year. Many community groups and organisations throughout the county will be busy finalizing their applications for the Cork County Council Municipal Grant Scheme, which closes on this Friday, 5th February, at 4pm. Municipal District funding is available as financial support to community groups and local organisations wishing to undertake development projects in their area, to support festivals, and for local communities to work with Cork County Council on projects that enhance the area in which the group is active. There are three distinct funding schemes:the Capital Fund Scheme; Community Contracts and the Amenity Fund Scheme. A number of heritage projects will in principle fall under these schemes. Past examples of successful projects include PA equipment for heritage groups; cleaning of heritage monuments, restoration of stone walls, conservation works to buildings, heritage/tourist signage and plaques, walking trails, contribution to festivals, erection of memorials, etc. For further information on these grant schemes visit the Cork County Council website - www.corkcoco.ie. While on the subject of funding, it is expected that the Heritage Council will shortly be announcing the 2016 Heritage Council Community Grant Scheme. Visit www.heritagecouncil.ie for updates and details on the application process. Heritage and tourism One thing is for certain that in the County of Cork we are certainly not short on heritage and culture. Such heritage and culture, essentially our people and our places, forms the very backbone of tourism. It has always been noted that visitors to Ireland are captivated by its fascinating history and the wonderful characters of everyday life, the very things that we so often take for granted. As Corkonians, we have a duty to foster this heritage and to do what we can to preserve and promote same. The recent launching of Cork's Tourism Strategy is a huge boost to the county in this regard. As it stands the Cork region receives close to 18% of Ireland's visitors; the intention of the strategy, to be implemented through a variety of different actions, is to grow this percentage to 25% in the coming years, which it is envisaged, will result in a boost of over 200 million to the Cork economy, with tourism currently worth over 600m to the region. An enhanced focus on tourism in the county will undoubtedly have positive spin-offs for its heritage, and this is welcome news indeed. The Strategy was launched jointly in Cork Airport last week by the Mayor of County Cork Cllr. John Paul O' Shea and the Lord Mayor of Cork City, Cllr. Chris O' Leary. Celebrating cork past The County of Cork abounds in heritage and one of the very best days to get a great overview is the Celebrating Cork Past exhibition, which takes place every year in the City Hall. The exhibition is a day for the city and county's hard-working heritage and historical societies to highlight and showcase the heritage they preserve and protect locally to other like-minded groups and indeed to the hundreds of visitors who attend on the day. This year the exhibition will take place on Friday, 30th September, and the committee will be working hard over the coming months to ensure that this will be the best year yet. More information to follow in the coming months but for now, certainly save the date. Revolutionary history In terms of events taking place over the coming days there are two that should be of interest to anyone with an interest in Ireland's Revolutionary Period. On Monday, 8th, there will be a guided tour of the Cork City and County Archives building in Blackpool, with a focus on the Easter Rising of 1916 and the 1912-1922 revolutionary period as a whole. The archives contain a wealth of original documents and other such ephemera concerning many of Cork leading historical figures. The tour is limited to 15 people and booking is required - contact the Archives by emailing archivist@corkcity.ie or by phoning (021) 4505 876. A few days later on Thursday 11th February will be a a fascinating lecture by Tim O' Brien regarding the Irish Volunteers from the East Muskerry area and the Dripsey Ambush. The ill-fated Dripsey Ambush of January 29th, 1921, resulted in the execution of five men and this talk will examine not only the ambush itself in detail but will also look at the formation and growth of the volunteer movement in the Donoughmore, Courtbrack and Inniscarra areas. The talk commences at 8pm in the Community Centre in Stuake, Donoughmore and all are welcome. The heritage map of Charleville, outlining a heritage trail around the town, has gone to print and will be launched in Charleville in the near future. The map was drawn up Ms Mary Sleeman of the Heritage Department of Cork County Council and Ms Pauline Moriarty of Fermoy Municipal District Office in conjunction with Charleville Heritage Society and Charleville Chamber members, who supplied the material for the publication. This is a colourfully illustrated map which folds down to pocket size and copies will be available free of charge to people at local outlets. It is again being produced under the Charleville/Kilmallock Rural Economic Development Zone (REDZ) initiative, through the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government from the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas (CEDRA). It is part funded by Cork County Council and Limerick City & County Council and the REDZ pilot initiative was steered by a committee from Limerick & City County Council, Cork County County Council, Ballyhoura Development Ltd, Charleville Chamber and Kilmallock Partnership The map features drawings of local historic buildings which are numbered on an outline map of the town on one side while the reverse side gives a brief history of Charleville plus a synopsis of each of the numbered buildings plus images of a number of famous people which Charleville has produced. The latter aspect of the map was facilitated by members of Charleville Heritage Society. Cllr. Ian Doyle also told the Corkman that Cork County Heritage archaeologist Ms Mary Sleeman will supervise the repairs to the rear boundary wall of the former St. James Church of Ireland, now the local library, the stones of which have become dislodged in recent times. The wall forms the boundary wall of the town car park, which was, of course, part of the town park until it was acquired by Cork County Council for the provision of the link road between the New Line and Smith's Lane in the early 1980s. The repair work on the wall is expected to commence shortly. Mattock Rangers Active Retirement in Collon have some major stars coming to the club in March. The Army Band of the 2nd Brigade are appearing in Concert, supported by local country singing star Matt Leavy, the renowned Collon School Choir, plus Paddy and Oliver Reilly. The concert is in Mattock Rangers Community Centre on 4th March at 7pm. sharp. Admission Adults 10 and children 5. The army band have a pretty local look to them. A number of the members are from the region and the conductor of the band is Captain John Carpenter. His parents emigrated from Meath and Donegal emigrated to Australia in the 70s and Captain John was born there, but returned to Ireland with huge musical qualifications. John's late father was Nicholas Carpenter who was a member of Mattock Rangers Club, so in many ways he's coming back home. Tickets from committee members. News / National by Thupeyo Muleya THE South African government is expected to deport this weekend 140 Zimbabweans who have finished serving various jail terms for breaking that country's laws. It is understood that the deportees will arrive in the country in two batches of 70 each by road via Beitbridge border post in trucks under police escort.Zimbabwe's Consul General to South Africa, Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro, said: "We've agreed to separate the ex-convicts from those immigrants on self-deportation to avoid unnecessary situations."We've since notified all the stakeholders at Beitbridge border post so that they work on all necessary logistics to receive them. All the repatriation documents have been processed."The Consul General said among the 140 were people who had been in jail for between one month and 18 years.Mukonoweshuro said they were arrested for crimes including murder, armed robberies, theft, fraud, house breaking, poaching, possession of illegal firearms among others.He said they had done their home work to ensure that the group does not escape during deportation in a bid to go back to South Africa.Last December, 49 Zimbabweans jumped off moving buses and vanished during repatriation from the neighbouring country.Mukonoweshuo said those who had violated South Africa's immigration laws would also be deported."In most cases, they are released to Lindela Transit and Holding Centre in Johannesburg after serving their jail terms for repatriation to Zimbabwe.Since the beginning of the year we managed to send 160 people home for violating immigration laws mostly overstaying. At the moment we have identified 950 Zimbabweans at the same centre," said Mukonoweshuro.He said most of the immigrants at the transit camp would be sent home on Wednesday next week.South Africa introduced a self-deportation process in October last year due to financial constrains in that country.Under the self-deportation process the immigrants pay R350 in transport fees for them to be sent to Zimbabwe and those who prefer being deported by air also pay the prescribed rates for airlines.Those without money, are deported mostly on weekends. Clery's worker and campaigner Susie McGowan was in Drogheda on Monday night to launch Ged Nash's re-election campaign. "I am asking the people of Louth & East Meath to give their number one vote to Ged. Ged does what he says he will do. 'He kept his promise to the Clery's workers and he is acting to change the law to protect workers who end up in the dreadful situation we found ourselves in last June. We have campaigned with Ged and he has delivered for us. "Other politicians show up at protests and do nothing. Ged takes real action. Ged has made a real difference to workers since he became a Minister just a year and a half ago. "Bringing in new collective bargaining laws, increasing the National Minimum Wage and his work on a new national Living Wage has made a massive difference to working people. Just imagine the good he can do for jobs and working people of the next five years." Minister Nash said, "Since I was appointed to Cabinet as Employment Minister, my policies have helped to create over 60,000 full time jobs. 'Almost 1,500 people in this area have come off the live register and Drogheda and Louth is very much on the map for IDA and Enterprise Ireland investment. We have seen that with the new Eastcoast Bakehouse, the Boann Distillery and the Mill Enterprise Centre. "The boundary review and the new National Spatial Plan, the review of which I secured and which will be delivered at the end of 2016, represents a massive opportunity for Drogheda. Drogheda needs a Minister in office for the next five years to finish the job and to make sure that the work we have started is completed. "The people of Louth & East Meath want and need someone with a track record who knows how to get things done. 'Sinn Fein don't want to be in government. Fianna Fail has ruled themselves out of government. And the last thing the area needs now is opportunistic independents who only put their own ambitions first and make no difference to anybody whatsoever. When others just make noise, I make a difference." Drogheda's Irish Maritime Festival this week scooped the coveted "Failte Ireland Best Tourism Initiative" at the Local Government Management Awards. The announcement was made at a glittering award ceremony in Dublin on Saturday night. The festival, now entering its fourth year, is hosted by Louth County Council and Drogheda Port Company. It brings together a host of sponsors, community groups, the arts and sporting organisations to stage a weekend spectacular on the River Boyne. Speaking on behalf of the citizens of Drogheda Mayor Cllr. Paul Bell declared "I am thrilled for the Council staff and the Drogheda Port Company and the sponsors of the festival which has grown in stature over the past three years." The judges praised the leadership role of Louth County Council in planning and managing such a dynamic festival, which attracts thousands of visitors every year. Speaking after the event, Mary T. Daly of Louth County Council explained "It is a source of huge pride for us that The Irish Maritime Festival has won the Failte Ireland award for Best Tourism Initiative. We beat off very stiff competition from all across the country. It truly is a team effort between the team at Louth County Council, our partners in Drogheda Port Company, all of our invaluable sponsors and our event management team of Karen H Events and WhiteLight Consulting. The Council and the entire team have made a deep commitment to this annual event as a means of supporting community spirit and driving tourism growth." Chief Executive Officer of Drogheda Port Company Paul Fleming continued "The River Boyne is such an iconic feature of the town. Staging an annual festival on the river is a great way of connecting local people and visitors with our maritime traditions. It is incredible to see 40,000+ visitors flocking to the Port each summer to enjoy the on and off shore activities. Plans are well underway for the 2016 festival and it promises to be bigger and better than ever." "Maxol is lead sponsor of the festival. Following the win Fergal Harrington, Group Brand Development Manager Maxol explained. "Maxol is a family business, 100% Irish owned and we are proud to support the development of Irish festivals and the economic boost they generate for the community. We are delighted to see The Irish Maritime Festival win this award and to be at the heart of this fantastic event." The award winning Irish Maritime Festival will take place from 8-10th July 2016 at Drogheda Port. For more information visit www.maritimefestival.ie or follow it on Facebook or Twitter. Fianna Fail TD Seamus Kirk has thanked the people of Louth and East Meath for their support over the last 34 years. Deputy Kirk made the comments after making his final speech in Dail Eireann. During his career Deputy Kirk served as Minister for State in the Department of Agriculture, was Chairman of the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party and served as Ceann Comhairle. Deputy Kirk commented, "I've been honoured to represent the people of Louth and East Meath for 34 years in Dail Eireann and on Louth County Council for over ten years before that. The county has changed remarkably in those years but one thing that has remained consistent is the good-natured spirit and kindness of the people of Louth. "There has been huge social and economic development in Louth over the last three decades. The upgrade of the M1 motorway has opened up enormous opportunities for the county and has bridged the divide between Dublin and Belfast. The presence of Dundalk Institute of Technology has created new opportunities for future generations of people growing up in Louth. "I've done my best to work hard and represent the people of Louth and East Meath to the best of my ability over the last four decades. However this would not have been possible without the support of the electorate, my staff members, the Fianna Fail organisation in Louth and most importantly my family who have been a constant source of encouragement. "It will be an emotional time leaving Leinster House when the election is called. However I am confident that the Fianna Fail team will pull out all the stops to ensure the party returns at least one TD to Dail Eireann. We have two excellent candidates in Cllr Declan Breathnach and Emma Coffey. I'm certain that they will do the people of Louth proud in the years ahead," said Deputy Kirk. Women living in Swords area who are looking to quit smoking are invited to get involved in a new initiative that is about to start. A 'We Can Quit' programme is set to start later this month and participants are being sought to get involved. It is an initiative of the Irish Cancer Society in partnership with the Blanchardstown Area Partnership, HSE Health Promotion and Improvement and the HSE Primary Care Social Work Service. The programme, which is due to start on Wednesday, February 17, is free of charge and offers the opportunity for women to join forces with other women and to support each other in quitting smoking together. Participants will attend weekly group sessions and will receive one-to-one support. They will also be offered 12 weeks of free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT). Research has shown that smokers who use a combination of group support and two NRT products for a 12 week period are four times more likely to quit and stay smoke-free for good. The programme is open to all women smokers living in Swords who are over the age of 18 years and are interested in quitting smoking. It will take place in Holywell Community Centre, Swords from 10am - 12pm. A separate evening programme will run a few weeks later starting on Wednesday, April 6 in Swords Health Centre on Bridge Street from 7pm - 9pm. Rachel Burke, Community Cancer Prevention Officer at the Irish Cancer Society said: 'We are welcoming all women smokers in the area who would like to take part in 'We Can Quit'. 'This is the first time we are running the programme in Swords and we want women to know that with 'We Can Quit', you are not alone when you embark on your quitting journey. 'You will join a group of women who have a shared goal and together, with our support, you can quit smoking for good. We Can Quit has proved hugely successful in other locations in Dublin and it is fantastic to see the joy and confidence of the participants who have quit with the help of this programme. For further details or to sign up contact Monica Shannon 087-9304535 or 01- 8295047 or register online at www.cancer.ie/we-can-quit. Pictured at the Enterprise Zone are An Tanaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton TD, Tracy Gilbert (Tracy Gilbert Designs), and Fingal County Council chief executive Paul Reid Five Fingal craft and design businesses will represent the county as the national network of Local Enterprise Offices has unveils 97 exhibitors in the field aiming to impress 5,000 buyers visiting the 'Enterprise Zone' at the 'Showcase' exhibition at the RDS. The small craft and design businesses, representing 22 counties around Ireland, have all been supported by their Local Enterprise Office, making it possible for them to sell to international retail buyers from more than twenty countries such as the US, France, Japan, China and Italy. Fingal is represented by five craft and design businesses within the Enterprise Zone, which include: James Joyce Jewellery, Berry Be Beauty, Tracy Gilbert Designs, Fab Cow Design and Michelle Owens Art. Showcase at the RDS runs from January 24 to 27 and is the first major trade event of the year, organised by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland and promoted internationally by Enterprise Ireland. The dedicated Enterprise Zone on the balcony area, co-ordinated by the Local Enterprise Offices, has become known as the home for emerging designers and craftspeople in recent years. A wide range of creative sectors is represented within the Enterprise Zone this month, such as ceramics, knitwear, jewellery, interiors, skincare and giftware. Oisin Geoghegan Head of Enterprise Fingal said: 'Thanks to practical business supports through the Local Enterprise Office in the Local Authority, our craft and design businesses are well-placed to secure substantial international orders during the four days of Showcase, helping them grow and expand into new markets. A key priority for Showcase has been to attract international buyers to the event.' He added: 'On a year-round basis, there are lots of other supports available to the craft and design sector locally. We are also organising a trade mission for the Craft sector to the 'Ireland Show' in Secaucus in April this year and six of our craft businesses will be exhibiting to the US giftware trade.' According to figures from Indecon*, well over 5,000 people work in the craft sector in Ireland with plenty of opportunities for small companies to grow and for new enterprises to start-up. Paul Reid, Chief Executive of Fingal County Council attended the opening of Showcase in the RDS and was very impressed with the quality of the products on display by the Fingal Craft exhibitors. He said: 'In Fingal we have a strong Craft sector which adds huge value to our community, not only in monetary terms but also by keeping alive the cultural and creative heritage of Fingal. 'Our Local Enterprise Office is particularly focused on enabling artisan craft-workers to grow their business through international markets. Initiatives such as Showcase and the Secaucus trade show provide a valuable support to help the sector to achieve this goal.' The Enterprise Zone is located along the Balcony Area of the RDS Main Hall at Showcase, and is open to trade buyers from January 24 to January 27. All the best young scientific minds in Fingal are invited to enter SciFest 2016 and put their knowledge to the test. As well as pushing the boundaries of science, the national final winner of SciFest 2016 will represent Ireland at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Now in its ninth year as a national project, SciFest is an all-inclusive, all-island science competition where second-level students showcase science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects at a series of one day science fairs held locally in schools as well as in DCU. SciFest is funded primarily by Science Foundation Ireland, Intel and Boston Scientific. The winners from each regional science fair go on to compete at a national final in November 2016. Speaking about the success of SciFest in the last year, Sheila Porter, SciFest CEO said: '2015 was a hugely successful year for SciFest with a record number of students taking part. In total 7,200 students exhibited their projects in local and/or regional science fairs across the country. This year we intend to build on that success and have another record year. Dublin was very well represented in 2015 and we expect that even more students from the county will participate in SciFest this year. 'SciFest gives students an excellent opportunity to develop their interest in STEM and inquiry-based approaches to learning, while developing their creative and problem-solving skills and learning to work in a team.' Fingal students wishing to follow in Louis' footsteps can log on to the SciFest website (www.scifest.ie) and enter online or download a paper entry form. Completed entries must be submitted by Friday 11th March. The aim of SciFest is to create a science fair experience that is inclusive, accessible and inspires excellence. It gives students of all abilities the opportunity to develop research skills and associated skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, presentation skills and teamwork. SciFest provides students with an opportunity to study the STEM subjects in an interesting, innovative and hands-on way. The closing date for entries from students is Friday 11th March; entry forms can be downloaded from the SciFest website, www.scifest.ie, and completed forms should be sent to the students' chosen venue. The proposal to establish a new forum for rural dwellers in Fingal has won the political backing of a local senator who is also a candidate for the constituency in the upcoming General Election for Dublin Fingal. Fianna Fail's Dublin spokesperson and Dublin Fingal candidate, Senator Darragh O'Brien is calling for the establishment of a 'Fingal Villages Forum' to protect and enhance the unique aspect of rural villages in the area. The forum should be made up of residents and other relevant stakeholders, he said. Senator O'Brien said: 'It is crucially important that our rural villages and communities are supported so they do not fall into decline and can continue to play a vibrant role in North Dublin. There is no point in bandying about phrases such as social inclusion, high quality design, settlement strategy, necessary infrastructure and developing a sense of place, identity and character, if we don't apply them to all our rural villages and communities, and then ensure that those principles are actually enshrined in the heart of those communities.' Senator O'Brien went on to call for an integrated rural transport system for our rural villages. He said: 'Transport links from our rural villages of Ballyboughal, St Margaret's, Rivermeade, Garristown, Naul, Oldtown, Kilsallaghan, Balscadden, Balrothery and Rolestown need to be vastly improved. There has to be an integrated approach between land use and transport services, such as roads, paths, cycle ways and public transport, rather than just talk about it.' On housing, he said: 'I believe that Fingal county council's rural housing policy is too restrictive and makes it far too difficult for young people from our rural communities to set up home and raise a family in the areas from which they come. Housing policy must reflect people's commitment to live in Fingal, and they must be supported in that. I cannot understand where this notion that local people must be obstructed from living locally came from.' News / Religion by Stephen Jakes The Catholic Church has called for Catholic Journalists to contribute pro-active Catholic stories in areas of education, development and health by the Catholic Church in different parts of the country.In a notice to journalists the Catholic Church said the stories are for publication in the Catholic Church Newspaper produced every month."Those interested are suppose to write stories about the Church's contribution to society and how the church is helping people cope with different situations. Stories should be directed to directorsoccom@zcbc.co.zw. Stories should not be more than 350 words. Those interested can call 0772 971 426 for more information," reads the notice. When Peter Boyd from Balbriggan was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in 2011, his life fell apart as he lost his job, his confidence and his social life and struggled with the pain and fatigue the condition brought with it and the shock that this was happening to him in his late 20s. Now 32, Peter is managing the condition much better and has recently returned to college where he uses an innovative new Irish app to help him take control of his condition and prevent it from taking control of him. Four years ago, it was all very different, as Peter told the Fingal Independent: 'It started to affect me in late 2010 and by the summer of 2011 the diagnosis was made and everything really came to a head. I couldn't really function - I had to leave my job as a barman in Clontarf, which I'd had for seven years.' Explaining how the condition took hold of him, Peter said: 'It was very much a pain and fatigue thing. I couldn't lift anything or carry anything - I could barely carry myself. Everything became difficult and I was getting so fatigued, it was difficult even to stand up for any period of time. If I had a 15 minute break in work, I would go out and sleep in the car for a few minutes and set the alarm.' The fatigue worried the Balbriggan man who began to be concerned that he was not safe driving and his bosses in Clontarf could see his condition deteriorating until one day, the situation came to a head when Peter's head 'dropped onto the taps' as he fell asleep talking to a customer. He took a break to investigate what was wrong and expected to be back to work quickly but he never returned. Much of the life that Peter had then as a young and confident barman, fell asunder and it was only when he made contact with Arthritis Ireland that he began to get on top of the condition and manage it better. He did so by attending classes at the association, classes that he is now qualified to deliver. That is where this new app comes in. It's called RAISE and was developed at St James' Hospital in Dublin and used as a companion for self management courses, it can help the arthritis patient track their condition and learn to manage it better. Peter says he now uses the app all the time to help him get through his day in college and it is particularly useful in figuring out why he may have felt pain at a particular point in the day because he can see what he was doing at that time. The Balbriggan man says the app also helps him keep his doctor informed of how his condition is affecting him. Four years into the condition, Peter is managing his RA much better and has a very much improved quality of life and recently was able to return to full-time education. The RAISE app, is available for free on both iOS and Android platforms and contains tools to help arthritis patients. A new heritage and leisure trail that highlights Wexford's historic Norman links got off on the right track when it was launched by Chairperson of Wexford County Council Tony Dempsey. At a special ceremony in the Irish National Heritage Park, Cllr Dempsey introduced guests to the 'Norman Way Tourism Trail', a plan which will link remains of authentic Norman settlements in Wexford. The initial phase of the trail will extend from Our Lady's Island to Kilmore Quay and includes New Ross town and the Ros Tapestry. Speaking at the launch, Cllr Tony Dempsey said that the trail will help local people to 'reconnect with their origins'. 'I'd say if you looked at the DNA of many Wexford people, they are bound to be of Norman origin,' he said. 'We know about our history around World War II and of course,1916, but we aren't as familiar with our Norman history. This will give people a chance to visit places that are not often recognised and reconnect with the past.' The trail is expected to provide a huge tourism boost to the county. Wexford County Council has received 180,000 from Failte Ireland for the development of the initiative as part of the New Ideas in Ancient Spaces fund under the Ireland's Ancient East programme. Funding will go towards interpretation panels, signage, bicycle racks and access to the sites. Executive Planner with Wexford County Council Sonia Hunt is one of the key people involved in getting the trail off the ground. She said that it will help to resurrect some of Wexford's sites that are currently not in use. 'There are a lot of Norman sites that are just sitting there doing nothing at the moment,' she said. 'A lot of people don't even know the significance of these sites or know that they are there. The trail will help to bring many of these places to life.' Work is already underway on the trail, with the first phase set to be in place by March or April of this year. The aim of it is to create a unique visitor experience which brings people through Our Lady's Island, Tomhaggard, Kilmore Quay, Bannow, Tintern, Fethard, Hookhead and to New Ross. The first phase of the plan will develop the town of New Ross as its tourism centre through utilising the story of William Marshall. Several additional features will boost the trail's tourism potential further. 'There is also going to be a cycle route for European tourists who arrive on the boat in Rosslare,' explained Ms Hunt. 'We will probably advertise this on the boat itself. Hopefully it will give people a reason to stay in Wexford rather than go elsewhere right away.' An app that pinpoints historic sites, cafes and other places of interest in Wexford is also due to be launched. 'It's endless what you can offer on it because Wexford has so much to offer,' said Ms Hunt. Director of Services for Economic Development and Planning Council Tony Larkin said that although they don't expect the trail to create to a huge amount of direct employment in Wexford, it will have a knock-on effect on business in other areas such as hotels and bed and breakfasts. 'The development of the Norman Way will give hotels a hook and lead to expansion for them,' he said. 'It will help them to expand their tourist season outside of the summer.' Although this first phase is not yet completed, Mr Larkin already has his sights set on the next phase which will centre on Ferns. 'We hope to develop Ferns as the next core hub,' he explained. 'We are working with local people and will hold a seminar in February where we will speak with top historians and piece together the most important pieces of Ferns history.' The Ireland's Ancient East programme is geared to maximise the history and heritage in the region and bring it to greater international attention. Speaking at the launch, Client Services Officer with Failte Ireland Eimear Whittle said that the initiative has the potential to deliver an extra 600,000 overseas visitors to the region and increase visitor revenue by almost 25 per cent to 950m by 2020. Senator Michael D'Arcy, who spent the past two years on the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis, has defended criticism of the Report of the Inquiry which was published last week. Responding to claims that the inquiry which cost 6.5 million didn't uncover anything new, Senator D'Arcy said that a lot of new information came out during the hearings. He added that the events of the night of the bank bailout affected every home in the country. 'The socialising of private debt from financial institutions, that was paid for by the people of Ireland, was wrong, and should never have occurred,' he said. 'You can calculate the impact by the amount of money that was lost - about 100 billion - but the social and personal cost to individuals is incalculable.' 'Every day in my offices, I see the effects that that day had on the citizens of the country, so from that aspect, this inquiry gave these people the opportunity to see who made what decisions, and how those decisions have impacted on people's lives.' He said that the inquiry clarified a lot of misinformation. 'There was a lot of incorrect acceptance of certain events, and we clarified that misleading spin,' he said. For those who haven't read the report that amounts to more than 600 pages, Michael said that overall, it laid the blame for the crash at the feet of the bank executives. One major finding was that the commercial real estate sector collapsed the financial institutions. 'This was a small number of people in which the large exposures eventually led to the collapse of the banks,' he said. 'An example quoted was that 29 connections were liable for 34 billion - which wasn't far off the size of the national debt at the time.' The inquiry also found that the bank guarantee wasn't just thought up on the night of September 29, 2008. Evidence showed that planning for the guarantee began the previous January. It also emerged that Anglo Irish Bank had agreed with the Governor of the Central Bank, a letter of comfort. 'Anglo was going to open the doors the next morning without the guarantee,' he said. 'We were told there was a bank about to default, and if it defaulted, it could bring them all down, but Anglo was not going to default. It had agreed the letter of comfort with the Central Bank, so the guarantee wasn't required in the manner and magnitude that it eventually formed.' Asked if any reforms will result from the report, Senator D'Arcy said that a lot of actions have already been taken. 'The failure of regulation is unlikely to occur again,' he said. 'A lot of reform of the financial sector has taken place already.' 'The point of it all was for the main participants to be questioned on their role and action,' he said. He added that Oireachtas inquiries are disallowed from finding of fact against any individual, and they were also constrained by criminal cases under way, so it was, in effect, a partial report. The future of Gorey District Hospital has been secured with the announcement last week of 3.5 million for upgrading works. In January last year, it emerged that the hospital had been given until July to bring its accommodation up to the required standard, or the Health, Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) would attach conditions to the re-registration of the hospital. The same went for 20 other publicly run nursing homes around the country. This led to fears that the hospital would be forced to close, reduce numbers, or not take in new residents, until the work was done. After assurances from the HSE that major infrastructural work would be done, HIQA later extended its deadline to 2021. It had said that major investment was needed in the hospital's main wards to meet modern accommodation standards. Minister Kathleen Lynch last week announced that 3.5 million was allocated for upgrade work to be done by 2018. Welcoming the news, Fine Gael Senator Michael D'Arcy said the investment 'will make a significant difference' for elderly people' in the community. 'This very significant investment reflects the Government's determination to maintain the current numbers of public nursing home beds and to ensure all public nursing homes will be compliant with HIQA standards by 2021,' he said. Staff at the hospital are also understood to be delighted with the announcement, and they hope it will secure the future of the hospital. Deputy Paul Kehoe welcomed the news, alongside a 500,000 allocation for the New Haughton Hospital in New Ross. 'The majority of residents in nursing homes in Wexford receive an excellent quality of care but some of the facilities available are not up to date,' he said. 'This funding will ensure that the best facilities are available for residents and their families in the future.' Cllr Malcolm Byrne, Chair of Gorey Municipal District, welcomed the announcement, saying that it will help to rectify the problems identified by HIQA and to ensure that all facilities are brought up to standard. 'This is great news,' he said. 'Since I brought up this issue last year, I have been very worried about whether or not the HSE could meet the deadlines to ensure all necessary standards in Gorey would be met. I had a commitment in writing, but HIQA still had the power to take action, including possible closure of wards. This is very good news for the hospital and for public health in North Wexford. The whole community is delighted that this hospital can continue at the highest standards.' Councillor Robert Ireton also welcomed the news, saying 'it's long overdue. It will definitely put Gorey Hospital on the map for years to come.' Patricia Masterson of the Friends of Gorey Hospital, a group which has raised hundreds of thousands of euro for projects at the hospital, said they are 'absolutely thrilled to bits' and hoped that some of their hard work might have helped sway the decision to secure the future of the hospital. County Wexford is going to benefit from a share of a 106 million pot to cover the cost of repairing flood-damaged roads. Minister Paul Kehoe, whose Enniscorthy constituency was hard hit by Storm Frank flooding, said news of the government funding will come as a relief to residents in Wexford. 'County Wexford roads are going to benefit from this new 106 million fund for flood damaged roads. This funding allocation is in addition to the 11 million announced for County Wexford earlier this week, to be used for general road improvement and maintenance works on our local and regional roads. 'Recent storms have resulted in massive damage to local and secondary roads, as well as to many bridges across the country. In response the Department of the Environment and the Department of Transport have come together to contact local authorities and to assess the scale of the damage. 'Based on the responses received from local authorities this 106 million has been made available to repair roads and to improve accessibility for local residents, farmers and businesses.' Minister Kehoe said that local authorities will now provide an itemised list of projects and specific funding for each county will be allocated. Preventative works will also take place to protect key roads in the county. Wexford roads are going to improve significantly as a result of the funding to address flood-damaged roads, as well as that for general maintenance. 'It is thanks to our recovering economy that we can make these kinds of investments in our road network which is a hugely important. It is good for tourism, increases efficiencies for businesses and benefits the local people in Wexford who use the roads on a daily basis.' Wexford County Council recently submitted an estimate to the government of more than 2 million in flood damage. Two budding artists from Bunclody are two of Ireland's Best Young Artists. Chafia Flynn and Pavlina Szeliga from Our Lady of Lourdes National School in Bunclody, have been recognised for their entries to the Sightsavers Junior Painters of the Year Awards 2016. Chafia's painting entitled '2030: A world without hunger' and Pavlina's painting entitled 'Imagine 2030: Dictionary' were inspired by this year's theme 'Imagine 2030'. The duo won a Highly Commended Certificate in the 3rd/4th and 5th/6th class categories respectively. Competition was as tough as ever with thousands of children from over 200 primary schools across the country entering this hugely popular annual art competition. The Sightsavers Junior Painter of the Year Awards is designed to inspire Irish children to express their artistic talent through painting whilst developing an appreciation of the importance and value of their sight. The nationwide competition, which was open to primary school students of all ages, has grown over the last seven years, and the 2016 competition has been highly contested with thousands of entries. Through the competition, children learned about Sightsavers' important work in preventing avoidable blindness and restoring sight for millions in the developing world. Drawing inspiration from this year's theme, 'Imagine 2030', which asked students to create an artwork that shows how they think the world they live in will look in the year 2030, there was a high level of sophistication in the entries. Even the infant classes painted their future homes, showing how much thought the children put in to their work. Topics from entrants included: Michael Marren, CEO of Sightsavers Ireland said: 'It's always a delight to see what paintings the children produce each year and they should be very proud of their achievement. It's fantastic to know that all of these children across the country are getting a better understanding of what a gift our sight truly is, and what life is like for children living with visual impairment in developing countries around the world.' Opinion / Columnist Confucius "If you make a mistake and do not correct it, this is called a mistake!" "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall," said Confucius, the Chinese sage who died in 479 BC. Many would argue that it was his teaching and many others like who have laid the foundations of good governance and thus peace and economic prosperity of China.Zimbabwe's history since independence has been one of tragic mistake after another with no corrections. 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption has reduced the nation's economy to a sorry state from what is was in 1980. Life expectancy, the qualitative and quantitative measure of a nation's economic performance and people's wellbeing, has plum-meted from 68 years in 1980 to a misery 34 years in 2004 when the last reliable analysis was done.On the political front all pretence of Zimbabwe being a democracy with the respect of rule of law, freedom and human rights of its people including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life itself were smashed to pieces every early on after independence with the massacre of over 20 000 innocent people in the Gukurahundi operations to pave the way for the creation of the de facto one-party dictatorship."What was achieved by the gun cannot be undone by the pen!" Mugabe ranted and raved in 2008. He barking orders to his Zanu PF thugs and rogue war vets backed and directed by the CIO, Police and Army to harass, beat, rape and murder civilians in operation "Mavhotera pa-pi!" (Who did you vote for!) He was punishing the people for daring to vote for the opposition in the March 2008 election in defence of his no-regime-change mantra.As a country we have fallen flat on our faces a good many times and, sadly, many people gave up the dream of a free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe a long, long time ago. The few who have had the guts to get up have not done themselves any favours because they landed back on their faces time and time again as the nation has latched from one crisis to the next. Why?The answer is simple and straight forward enough; it is not enough to fall and get straight up again, one must endeavour to learn what they did wrong to avoid making the same mistake again."When Confucius offered his wisdom, he was referring to a fundamental law in the universe: that life is a constant battle forward, and we win this battle by getting up each time and strap-ping a new piece of armour on (lessons we have learned)," explained Jake Anderson.Instead of having an open and honesty debate to ascertain where the nation was going wrong the Zanu PF dictatorship has stifled all debate and instead has operated a propaganda system designed to brainwash the people. So instead of seeing the mismanagement and corruption as the root causes of the country's poor economic performance, for example, the regime insisted there was no mismanagement and corruption and blamed the drought or "the illegal sanctions imposed by the evil British imperialists and Western allies".The people of Zimbabwe should have been confronting the tyrant and demand any end to his no-regime-change nonsense because to address the nation's economic problems the nation must address the country's bad governance problem causing it. But because of the brainwash-ing the nation has spent the last 36 years fighting the British and the West."Zimbabwe will never, never, never be a British colony again," Mugabe has often said to stir up the anti-British rhetoric. He has played on the people's fear of the colonial oppression of pre-independence so much so that people are always looking back they are not looking where he is taking them.Instead of strapping ourselves with a new piece of armour to deal with tyranny, mismanagement, etc. the real problems that have dragged the nation these last 36 years; we are still strapped up to fight against these imaginary whites hiding in every bush, at the UN, every-where plotting to recolonize Zimbabwe.What is shocking is that so many Zimbabweans still believe Mugabe's rhetoric and hen's teeth stories and continue to believe his lies of blaming the West for the country's problems even now with the benefit of 36 years of hindsight. It is not just the ordinary Zimbabweans are still naive and gullible enough to believe Mugabe's nonsense even the intellectuals like Vince Musewe are taken in."I am sure that by now most of us have listened to President Mugabe's recent AU speech," wrote Musewe. "I received numerous tweets from the rest of Africa on the issue applauding President Mugabe for providing leadership to Africa and telling it like it is. I choose to re-serve my judgement on these assertions."However, I think it was a relevant speech in that Africa must realise that its fate cannot continue to lie in the hands of others. For far too long we in Africa have been masterminded by the West whose agenda may not necessarily coincide with our national interests, there is no doubt about that. Africans must take their place in the community of nations and shape their future unhindered by international geopolitical interests which seek to keep the advantages of the past."Mugabe was very encouraged by his fellow African leaders' standing ovation to his anti-West rhetoric and is even more pleased to see there are still many Zimbabweans who are still under his devilish spell, especially highly respected intellectuals like Vince Musewe Zimbabwe's answer to China's Confucius!Of course, as long as tyrants like Mugabe continue to get such rapturous applause to their fabricated lies blaming the West for Zimbabwe and Africa's problems, they will be very encouraged not to do anything about their incompetence, corruption and murderous tyranny, are the root causes of the country's economic and political demise.To define a way out of Zimbabwe's economic and political mess one must look at not just the obvious things but also look beyond that, must think outside the box. It is not enough to fix the political chaos due to the incompetent leaders, the walls whose cracks we can see; and the economic collapse due to corruption, the leaking roof with the rusted corrugated sheets we can see too. We need to look at the foundation too because building will stand for long unless it built on solid foundation and so too with governmentsZimbabwe greatest weakness is the lack of sound intellectual thinking, the bedrock on which good, stable, just and prosperous government. For 36 years Mugabe has been able to bamboozle the nation and the continent at will with his bull and no African intellectual has ever stood up and exposed his anti-Western narrative for what it is lies, lies and more lies! If anything the countries' so called intellectual Professor Jonathan Moyo and of late Vince Muse-we have all stripped over each other to praise the lies and propaganda."To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order." advised Confucius. "To put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life."The is no doubt that Zimbabwe is a nation is total disorder; the country has nauseating 90% unemployment rate, has 18 out 24 hours power cuts, most cities and towns have no clean running water, the regime is failing to pay its civil servants let alone buy essentials like medical drugs. These are all a result of 36 years of gross misrule, a man-made problem and that man is Mugabe himself not the West.It all very well to stand up at a world stage and call Westerners "pink nose" as Mugabe did at the AU summit and got cheap applause the tough reality is that 1.5 million Zimbabweans are going to starve if country does not get food aid. It is from the West we can expect to get that help; is Mugabe going to apologize or condemn the people to death to feed his misplaced ego. Tarbert's Community Centre was packed out over three occasions for the first-ever production from the newly-formed Tarbert Theatre Players. A cast of 16 took to the stage bringing a play called Diarmy to vibrant life. From the pen of well-known writer Mary Lavery Carrig, Diarmy - the name of the main character, a diminutive of 'Diarmuid' - told the fictitious tale of a certain bog subject to a new ban on turf-cutting. It was based on the Moanveanlagh controversy with Diarmy taking a respectful, but entertaining look at it in an effort to get to what Mary described as 'the deeper parts of the human story...that did not receive adequate public attention' as the controversy raged. The Tarbert Theatre Players brought it all to life with aplomb, with John Dowling in the lead role as Diarmy. The play now transfers to St John's in Listowel for a three-night run over February 5, 6 and 7. Ballybunion Library sits alone, rather majestically, on the outskirts of the town, perched above a stunning panorama of seemingly endless Atlantic Ocean. The building was once known as St Augustine's, a single-storey, Gothic Revival-style church. What's really interesting is that St Augustine's was originally built at Rattoo, near Ballyduff, in 1879. It stands in Ballybunion today as, in the 1950's, a decision was made to move the entire structure to the resort. In an incredible act of architectural engineering, the building was dismantled stone-by-stone, transported and pieced painstakingly back together again. But this isn't the only extraordinary thing about Ballybunion Library. The welcoming atmosphere as you walk through the impressive arched door really is a thing worth experiencing. Dolores McKenna has been chief librarian here for over 8 years and, as far as she's concerned, there is no place else on earth she would rather work. "I absolutely love it," she said. "And I love working with the public." Dolores, who travels from Lyreacrompane every day, was previously stationed at Listowel library, but admits to having a distinct fondness for this unique old limestone Church. "It certainly is a special place. It has such a warm ambiance, a soul you wouldn't find in a new building." "I'm never bored. I'm just so happy here. You'll find some people come in for the chat and you get to hear a lot. People tell you their stories. I'll offer them coffee and I even bought a box of green tea because one girl who comes in doesn't drink anything else." With a wide variety of books and online resources available, it's no wonder Ballybunion Library is as popular in the winter months as it is in the summer. Locals use the computers all year round to access the internet and for many, especially those looking for work, it is a vital resource. "It's important that unemployed people have access to jobs on-line so the library is very handy in that respect but generally, the computers are used for lots of things. The Kerryman Archives website is extremely popular and a number of people come in to print off boarding passes too." Unlike other librarians, Dolores takes a relaxed approached when it comes to the usual etiquette of silence. "We are a service. I want people to come in and benefit from our facilities. I think it's important not to be too strict and I let folk talk away if they want to." Aside from lending books, the library has hosted several successful events like the Active Retirement Group's Creative Writing Workshop, organised by Marie Holmes, and the Children's Book Festival in October always brings some added excitement. "David Walliams books are a favorite among kids, and The Dark Diaries by Dawne Dominique are very popular too. "Fifty Shades didn't do that well. Head office sent down two copies but to be honest, one would have done." Last August, The Sunday Independent ran a feature asking the public to nominate Ireland's top free attractions and Ballybunion Library got a mention. Delores, unsurprisingly, was pleased. "I was so proud. It just confirmed everything I know about this place already." The General Election is just weeks away and is set to be one of the most important elections in decades. Come polling day, Ireland's younger voters, those aged in their twenties and early thirties, could play a decisive role but it will be fascinating to see just how many of them will cast their ballot. While the entire nation has suffered from the ravages of recession and austerity, it is Ireland's younger voters, many thousands of whom have been forced to emigrate, who have arguably fared worst. Recent polling suggests that many of these more youthful voters, angry and frustrated after years of punishing recession, are awaiting a chance to vent their fury at the ballot box. In that context, several parties and candidates, particularly Sinn Fein and the Independent ranks on the opposition benches, will be hoping that these voters turn out in large numbers. On the flip side, Fine Gael, Labour and to a lesser extent Fianna Fail, a party whose image has improved marginally but which is still widely blamed for Ireland's economic catastrophe, may be hoping the younger section of the electorate stay away. The question is, will this potentially powerful body bother to vote? To answer that question many commentators have pointed to the large youth vote that was, supposedly, key to the success of the 'Yes' side in the Marriage Equality referendum which saw 60 per cent of voters turn out to cast their votes. The turnout dwarfed that seen in most recent referendums, including the abolition of the Seanad, judges' pay and children's rights. In fact, a similarly high turnout hadn't been recorded since the second Lisbon Treaty vote in 2008. In the wake of the 'Yes' victory, many political pundits pointed to the large number of younger voters, and particularly the number Irish voters who had returned from abroad. But was the number of new and returning voters as large as it appeared? Certainly the 'Yes' campaign took social media by storm but it is likely that the social media aspect of the campaign, such as the #hometovote twitter trend, served to artificially inflate true levels of support for the 'Yes' side. While the 'Yes' campaign had enormous backing on social media, there is no way to measure what impact it actually had on the vote. Though huge numbers of those supporting the 'Yes' campaign online no doubt cast a vote, it is almost certain, as has been seen in so many social media viral trends, that a large proportion of people jumped on a popular online bandwagon but never bother making their way to a polling station. Of those who were part of the online campaign and who did vote, a large proportion were first time voters, of widely varying ages, who had never previously felt engaged in the political process. What of these new voters? Will they, having at last seen the power of their vote, return to the polling booths at the General Election or will they go back to their old apathetic habits? The Marriage Equality referendum was an historic moment and the 'Yes' victory has transformed the lives of thousands. However, the General Election will set the agenda for the entire country for the next five years - and beyond - and is likely to completely reshape our nation's political sphere. But it will probably not capture the public's imagination like the referendum. We can only hope that as many voters as possible turn out on polling day and have their say in what will be another defining day for Ireland. Serious fears are being raised over the structure of one of Kerry's most important old abbeys as its western gable wall is bowed-out and already falling apart. It is feared that the next big storm could bring down the entire western wall of Killagha Abbey outside Milltown; a building that celebrated its 800th anniversary last year. However, it has emerged that there is no fund nationally to provide for the vital work. Leading the fight to preserve the historic ruin before it's too late are the local members of the Killagha Abbey Restoration Group. They raised an incredible 29,000 on their formation in 1990 which they used to protect the east wall. "Our priority today is the west outer gable of the Abbey," member Billy Spring informed local county councillors and management at a meeting in Killorglin on Friday. Mr Spring and group colleagues attended the meeting to press home the importance of protecting the structure in a delegation that was facilitated by local Fianna Fail County Councillor Michael O'Shea. "Some of the larger corner stones are beginning to drift outwards and already a number of stones have fallen into an adjacent field. We urgently need funding to carry out repairs to ensure that the gable does not fall into further disrepair," Mr Spring outlined. Killagha Abbey is regarded as one of the most important ecclesiastical sites in the county and a site of national importance. It was built for the Augustinians in 1215, but it was a hugely-important site of learning long before the current building. The Church of St Coleman stood for centuries there prior to the coming of the Normans. Some scholars believe one of the most famous of all early Irish love poems, Comracc Liadain i Cuirithir, was written by a monk there in the ninth century. "It's one of the most important of its kind in the whole country," Cllr Michael O'Shea informed area manager Martin O'Donoghue and colleagues. "The Council will have to assist this group to find the funding to make it safe...the worry they have is that if we get a very strong storm that the gable may not stand up under the pressure and that if it erodes further it will collapse," Cllr O'Shea said, adding that the task of putting it back up 'would be hard fought for'. The group asked Kerry County Council to help them raise funds through the OPW or the 'Structures at Risk' fund. Mr Spring also set out the need for better signs to alert more tourists to the presence of an Abbey that attracts hundreds of visitors as it is each year. Cllr O'Shea also described the Abbey as massively important for Milltown from a tourist point of view. County Archaeologist Michael Connolly, who estimated the gable job would cost 100,000, explained the Abbey is a national monument in Council ownership. "At the moment there is no national funding we can apply for," he said. However, it is anticipated the Structures and Risk fund might be opening again and he said the council would apply. Fianna Fail general election candidate for Kerry John Brassil said his party will increase the rural practice allowance and distance payments for GPs in a bid to maintain medical coverage in rural parts of the country. Up to nine villages in Kerry could be left without a GP within three to four years following years of cuts to allowances that are hitting rurally-based doctors hardest. Cllr John Brassil said this week that one of the first things his party would do if forming part of the next Government would be to reverse much of these cuts to make rural practices viable once more. Killarney doctor Gary Stack has warned of the threat to rural medical cover, estimating that nine villages in Kerry could be without a doctor entirely in a matter of years. "Rural communities across Kerry are suffering from a major lack of GP services, with many in danger of losing their local practice over the coming years," Cllr Brassil said. "One of the first things Fianna Fail would do would be to increase the Rural Practice Allowance to 25,000 and examine the option of restoring the distance allowance. This will make it more viable for GPs to set up in rural Ireland." It is almost impossible to imagine anything other than the air of devastation that must surround Belarus, Western Russia and Ukraine as we approach the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. However, three Kerry students who have returned from Gorodische Orphanage in Belarus, having spent two weeks volunteering to help some of the most unfortunate children of the world, have described how just a little can mean so much to the people there, some 30 years after the disaster. Neasa Sheehy, Castleisland; Niamh Cleary, Tralee and Gary McGowan from Killarney, who volunteered in aid of the Burren Chernobyl Project, explained the uplifting nature of every character they came across on their travels. "I can't even describe how happy they are", says Neasa, adding: "I know it's hard for us to understand how they could be but they are just so delighted with what they have". Although some may consider the victims of Chernobyl as unlucky or unfortunate, Gary notes how every child shows eternal gratitude for the lives that they are living. "These children placed enormous value in a hug. A hug to them is an iPad to most Irish children. They are wealthy - not in money but in happiness." Today, 85 percent of Belarusian children are deemed to be Chernobyl victims, and although they show little signs of negativity or grief, it wasn't easy for the physiotherapy students to forget the effects that the tragedy will have on the area for generations to come. "They were different ages and had different disabilities so what we were doing varied in each group. It was fairly upsetting at times. There was one group of children who were bed bound so we fed them every day and tried to get them out onto mats to let them move around and we gave them massages if we could", said Neasa. The University of Limerick students, who returned from their travels last week, are already planning their next visit to the orphanage and are currently rounding up more recruits for the trip to help rebuild these shattered communities. "I couldn't recommend it enough. We're trying to figure out when we can go again and there are so many more people interested in going too," added Neasa. The group documented the entire experience on video and have shared it on YouTube under the title "Gorodische Orphanage 2016 - Be Happy". Free parking, a pedestrianized main street, less vacant buildings and a revitalised port are among the ambitious plans General Election Fianna Fail candidate Aoife Byrne has for New Ross. Ms Byrne outlined plans to develop New Ross into a hub town in the region at the Horse & Hound, Ballinaboola, last week. Ms Byrne said: 'New Ross town has a strong, historic past. We now need to move to ensure that it has a long-term economic and social future.' Ms Byrne, who attended Our Lady of Lourdes secondary school, before running an auctioneering business in the town with her brother Jim Byrne until 2013, said with the New Ross Bypass about to be built, the time is right to develop a hub in New Ross. She said: 'In the late 12th century William Marshall chose New Ross as the location to link County Wexford with counties Kilkenny and Waterford, making it a hub of economic and social development in the south east of Ireland. This vision needs to be renewed as a matter of urgency.' She said recent job losses have shown how much the town needs to be developed. 'Following the recent loss of jobs locally here in New Ross with the C&C announcement and closure of Xtra-vision, job creation opportunities and retraining options should be at the forefront of all policy decisions. These workers need to be given every opportunity to return to the workplace as a matter of urgency. ' She said the solutions and the offerings of the past no longer work for New Ross. 'Its geographic location has not been maximised by Wexford County Council, nor has a long-term sustainable economic and social plan ever been adopted.' She said the hub would be a unique and new alliance and structure comprising Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford and Carlow local authorities allowing it to implement the plan. Outlining the concept, Byrne added: '50 per cent of the hinterland of New Ross is based in Kilkenny and Carlow. This has an enormous impact on retail, tourism, transport, education, services, housing, in fact every facet our lives. I want to see the commercial heart of New Ross reinvigorated. We need an inventive vacant building initiative which encourages both retail and residential accommodation throughout the town. I want to see the port of New Ross properly developed and strategically included in transport policy locally, regionally and nationally.' Against all odds, the small community of Templeudigan has become nationally recognised as having the best public park in Ireland, having beaten off stiff competition from towns and cities. Representatives from Templeudigan including Joe Fallin, Rose Phelan and Deirdre Fallon, along with Seamus Doran from Wexford Local Developmemt who grant aided Templeudigan Park, attended the LAMA National Comunity & Council awards ceremony, which was hosted by Miriam O'Callaghan, in Dublin on Saturday night. A spokesperson for the group said: 'This is a huge achievement for a small community like Templeudigan. The other award winners were from much larger communities throughout Ireland showing how proactive Templeudigan is.' Templeudigan Park was shortlisted as a finalist in the illustrious awards which recognise and reward work carried out by local community organisations and county councils throughout Ireland. Each year judges adjudicate on entries received in a range of different categories and shortlist a series of finalists who represent the best work carried out in local communities throughout the country. Templeudigan Park's success is highlighted by the fact that it was the only community based project in County Wexford which was shortlisted as a finalist in any category this year. The park is a community owned facility which was built by Templeudigan Parish Council. It includes a children's playground, walking track, adult exercise equipment, picnic area, lawn and bowling green. Templeudigan Park was financed by grant aid from Wexford Local Development under the LEADER fund and an extensive local fundraising campaign which has been ongoing since 2013 and which has received great support from the local community. Templeudigan Park is now the scene of many community activities such as birthday parties, social events and community barbecues. Joe Fallon, who designed and projected managed the construction of Templeudigan Park, said: 'The local community in Templeudigan is delighted that our park won the title of Best Public Park in Ireland. We were up against some huge competition from large parks which were built by city and county Councils in large urban centres.' Thousands of students from across County Wexford are attending an educational tour on the 1916 Rising at the Dunbrody Visitor Centre. The Dunbrody Famine Ship Experience devised an educational module to celebrate the impending centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising that spans Irish historical developments from 1798 up until the present day. This talk aims to inform the audience with a clearly contextualised and interwoven story of Irish history. In doing this, the cause and effect imbedded in each of these events comes alive and visitors not only learn what happened, but why, and what it meant to later generations. The tours are given by education co-ordinator of the 1916 module Karen O Connor who has a Master's degree in Culture and Colonialism and another in Sociology. A number of months of historical research went into the stories. Jim Sutton of the New Ross Historical Society was of particular assistance, along with CBS primary school, and Our Lady of Lourdes secondary school. This educational module uses considerable visual resources and runs at about 45 minutes. It is available for primary school, Junior Cert, and Leaving Cert levels. Ms O'Connor said: 'We have seen over 1,500 students with this project so far, and hope to see many more during the coming months.' The project is also opening up to bookings from local community groups. The general public will be able to choose from two sittings (11 a.m. and 3 p.m.) every Saturday in February and March. Margaret Rossiter, Scoil Mhuire, Horeswood principal attended and said: 'I have never seen such a wide historical period so well contextualised.' Call 051 425239 to book. A new heritage and leisure trail that highlights Wexford's historic Norman links got off on the right track when it was launched by Chairperson of Wexford County Council Tony Dempsey. At a special ceremony in the Irish National Heritage Park, Cllr Dempsey introduced guests to the 'Norman Way Tourism Trail', a plan which will link remains of authentic Norman settlements in Wexford. The initial phase of the trail will extend from Our Lady's Island to Kilmore Quay and includes New Ross town and the Ros Tapestry. Speaking at the launch, Cllr Tony Dempsey said that the trail will help local people to 'reconnect with their origins'. 'I'd say if you looked at the DNA of many Wexford people, they are bound to be of Norman origin,' he said. 'We know about our history around World War II and of course,1916, but we aren't as familiar with our Norman history. This will give people a chance to visit places that are not often recognised and reconnect with the past.' The trail is expected to provide a huge tourism boost to the county. Wexford County Council has received 180,000 from Failte Ireland for the development of the initiative as part of the New Ideas in Ancient Spaces fund under the Ireland's Ancient East programme. Funding will go towards interpretation panels, signage, bicycle racks and access to the sites. Executive Planner with Wexford County Council Sonia Hunt is one of the key people involved in getting the trail off the ground. She said that it will help to resurrect some of Wexford's sites that are curently not in use. 'There are a lot of Norman sites that are just sitting there doing nothing at the moment,' she said. 'A lot of people don't even know the significance of these sites or know that they are there. The trail will help to bring many of these places to life.' Work is already underway on the trail, with the first phase set to be in place by March or April of this year. The aim of it is to create a unique visitor experience which brings people through Our Lady's Island, Tomhaggard, Kilmore Quay, Bannow, Tintern, Fethard, Hookhead and to New Ross. The first phase of the plan will develop the town of New Ross as its tourism centre through utilising the story of William Marshall. Several additional features will boost the trail's tourism potential further. 'There is also going to be a cycle route for European tourists who arrive on the boat in Rosslare,' explained Ms Hunt. 'We will probably advertise this on the boat itself. Hopefully it will give people a reason to stay in Wexford rather than go elsewhere right away.' An app that pinpoints historic sites, cafes and other places of interest in Wexford is also due to be launched. 'It's endless what you can offer on it because Wexford has so much to offer,' said Ms Hunt. Director of Services for Economic Development and Planning Council Tony Larkin said that although they don't expect the trail to create to a huge amount of direct employment in Wexford, it will have a knock-on effect on business in other areas such as hotels and bed and breakfasts. 'The development of the Norman Way will give hotels a hook and lead to expansion for them,' he said. 'It will help them to expand their tourist season outside of the summer.' Although this first phase is not yet completed, Mr Larkin already has his sights set on the next phase which will centre on Ferns. 'We hope to develop Ferns as the next core hub,' he explained. 'We are working with local people and will hold a seminar in February where we will speak with top historians and piece together the most important pieces of Ferns history.' The Ireland's Ancient East programme is geared to maximise the history and heritage in the region and bring it to greater international attention. Speaking at the launch, Client Services Officer with Failte Ireland Eimear Whittle said that the initiative has the potential to deliver an extra 600,000 overseas visitors to the region and increase visitor revenue by almost 25 per cent to 950 mn by 2020. Opinion / Columnist Don Quixote: on a full single cavalry charge! Comrade Vince Musewe set out to tell the President and the nation at large the truth as to why Africa and Zimbabwe in particular was in such a political and economic mess in his article "If the truth be said Mr President". He was responding to President Mugabe's usual bombastic attack of the West at the AU summit. Vince ending up asking irrelevant questions and giving the wrong and equally irrelevant answers; he succeed in mudding the waters and telling a dangerous lie."The questions we therefore need to ask ourselves are why the West has developed so fast and continues to dominate on the international geopolitical agenda and why the East is fast rising in dominance on the economic front and is demanding and rightly entitled to the same political rights as the West," he asked.These questions are irrelevant because they only seek to give mileage to the lie that it is the West and more recently China that are holding back Africa. We are our own worst enemies in having mismanaged our nations economically and politically. Any roles outsiders have played in our downfall have been minor and they did so because we let them.The single most important lesson Africa should have learnt by now is accept we, Africans, have failed ourselves and to stop hiding behind the finger and blame outsiders. President Mugabe has become the self-appointed Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Don Quixote, out to fight for justice Zimbabwe's sovereignty, Africa's permanent seat at the UN Security Council, etc.For the last 20 years President Mugabe has used every international platform lead his one Sir Knight Cavalry charge at the West, like Don Quixote charging at the windmill and all to no consequence. Even those who had supported UN reforms in the past must have dropped the idea like a hot potato; who would want a foul-mouthed President Mugabe on the Security Council wielding a veto?If anything Zimbabwe's knight in shining armour has used his Don Quixote battles to draw attention away from the evil he is has been doing. Corruption is rampant in Africa and when his history is finally uncovered President Mugabe will be one of the most ruthlessly corrupt leaders in the world.In 2012 Africa Partnership Canada reported that President Mugabe pocketed $2 billion in that year alone from the grand theft of Marange diamonds. His looting assumes it full enormity when viewed in the light of the heart breaking poverty and despair gripping the nation; most towns and cities have no clean running water, there is a 18 out 24 hours power cut, etc. because there is a serious shortage of cash!"First, we must stop being a consumption society and move towards being a productive society. Second, we must stop being a continual recipient of international tied aid and developmental loans and create our own capital base while creating environments in Africa, which offer real investment value and then some to the international free market capital sector," Musewe answered his own irrelevant question.Zimbabwe is facing its toughest year yet since independence with the country in a real economic and political mess. After 36 years of mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness the national economic is in total meltdown and still the regime continues blame the West instead of dealing with the underlining problems. The economic meltdown has trigged an all-out fight for power in Zanu PF as the party leaders fight over a piece of the shrinking cake. They are not paying any attention to the dangerous situation the nation is in.The El Nino induce drought is making the situation even worse; 3 millions are facing starvation.President Mugabe was very slow off the mark in declaring the drought a national disaster so the international community can step in a help. He did not want to do so before he had delivered his anti-West speech at the AU summit. Still, he is appealing for help from the West, the very people he rubbished in his speech, calling them "pink face"!What is sad is that even now after 36 years with Zimbabwe in the gutter because of his corrupt and tyrannical misrule, there are still Zimbabweans who fail to see President Mugabe's Don Quixote antics for what they are tactical diversions to draw attention away from his misrule. The Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran, visited The Philippines last week where he gave a homily at the 51st International Eucharistic Congress. This mass was taking place in the Parish of our Lady of Perpetual Help, Cebu, The Philippines. Cebu is the oldest city in The Philippines and is known as the Seat of Christianity in Asia. There are many celebrations and events taking place at the International Eucharistic Congress which sees 26 pilgrims from eleven Irish dioceses travel to the country for the celebration. During his homily, Bishop Doran praised the Philippine people for their efforts back home in Ireland with their religious work. He said: "In many countries, the presence of Filippinos in the Church is making an enormous difference. "I want to thank you for the contribution that so many Filippino people are making in Ireland on a daily basis, as members of our parish communities and, in a particular way, in the care of the sick and the elderly, which is part of the mission of Christ. "It is a joyful presence, which is not always easy when people are far from home and when sometimes they feel the burden of economic responsibility to provide for family members here in the Philippines," he pointed out. Bishop Doran continued that parents in Ireland should be doing more to teach religion to their children. He added: "I believe the mistake we have made in Ireland is to leave it to other people. "Even the best of people are no substitute for the living transmission of faith from parents to their children." A Eucharistic Congress is an international gathering of people aimed at promoting an awareness of the central place of the Eucharist in the life and mission of the Catholic Church. The most recent International Eucharistic Congress before this one was hosted in Dublin in 2012. Fr Doran took over as Bishop of Elphin in summer 2014. He succeeded Bishop Christopher Jones who held the role for twenty year. If you want to follow Bishop Doran's blog from the Eucharistic Congress in Cebu, check out www.catholicbishops.ie/2016/01/25/bishop-kevin-dorans-blog-from-iec2016-in-cebu-philippines Fine Gael Deputy Tony McLoughlin says the Elanco closure was a big surprise as he had been assured last year that the remaining 100 jobs at the plant were safe. He said he will be meeting with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Employment, Richard Bruton this week to impress upon him the importance of investment in Sligo. "The decision comes as a major surprise, as when I visited the Sligo Elanco Site Manager, Grace McArdle in June 2015, soon after the first job loss announcement at Elanco, I was assured, as was Minister Bruton, that the remaining 100 jobs in Sligo were safe, that it was going through a company restructuring process and that they were hopeful for the future in Sligo. "To hear Tuesday's news is disappointing to say the least. "Over the last five years I have continually lobbied Minister Bruton about the urgent need for more jobs in Sligo and the Northwest. "I have been advised by the Minister that the building of the new IDA advanced facility in Sligo town is expected to make Sligo a leading candidate for high grade investment by the end of 2016. "Once this new advance IDA facility in Sligo is complete, the Department and the IDA will begin to market it to clients through IDA's global network of offices. "I am eagerly awaiting the completion of the construction period of this new high-tech facility. "I was also advised that 10 IDA site visits took place in Sligo in 2013, 7 in 2014 and 11 to Q3 in 2015. "This shows that interest is increasing in Sligo as a location for investment. "I believe that the recovery needs to be better spread out and it must reach places like Sligo and the Northwest faster and on more continual bases. "However, it is also important to acknowledge that over 1,700 people are employed in Enterprise Ireland supported companies in Sligo. "This is an increase of 220 (or 15%) in the period 2012-2015 and that since 2012 the number of people on the live register in Sligo has fallen by over 1,000 - compared to an increase of over 3,000 between 2008 and 2011." He also spoke of recent job announcement by Abbvie. Investing in west Sligo will be the main topic of discussion in Dromore West on February 4 next. The event is being organised by Chris MacManus, the Sinn Fein Election candidate for Sligo/Leitrim. The meeting is taking place in the Dromore West community centre on Thursday from 8.30pm. In attendance will be the former Executive Chairperson of Knock Airport, Liam Scollan, who will be giving a speech. Mr Scollan is the former Chief Executive of the Western Development Commission. People and groups from the West Sligo Community will have the opportunity to discuss Sinn Fein's proposals for investing in the West of Ireland. Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy will also be there. Chris MacManus said: "The people of the West of Ireland are sick of being treated as second-class citizens, bearing the brunt of years of austerity, underdevelopment, and emigration. "They are right to demand real investment that will bring sustainable jobs and services into their lives. It's time for change. "This is a plan that can return life and hope to the area, and this meeting will provide a forum where you can share your views and where we can discuss our proposals with you," he added. The meeting is set to take place in the Dromore West community centre, Thursday, 8.30pm. Terry Wogan pictured during his visit to Sligo in 2010 with local photographer, Frances Muldoon The death of legendary broadcaster Terry Wogan at the week-end has evoked memories in Sligo of his visit here in 2010. Terry came to the Yeats' County to film an episode of his popular BBC series, Terry Wogan's Ireland. The second in this special two-part series of Terry Wogan's personal journey around Ireland on BBC1, is believed to have attracted viewership figures of over eight million. The programme featured spectacular aerial footage of the coast and what Wogan described as the "extraordinary peak of Ben Bulben". The programme was filmed during July 2010 and was aired at the beginning of 2011. Amongst the interesting aspects of life in Sligo he featured in the documentary was the Dip in The Nip which took place on Dunmoran Strand. The two-part special had Terry comparing the Ireland he grew up in and the Ireland of today, and his time with the Dippers contrasts sharply with his own experience of swimming in the sea as a child.Local photgrapher, Frances Muldoon, who was engaged to take photographs for the Dip in The Nip, recalled how Terry had thoroughly enjoyed his visit to Sligo. Limerick born Wogan died aged 77 after a short battle with cancer. He had a 50 year career on BBC radio and television.He was also the voice of Eurovision in the UK for many years and had been involved in the Children in Need appeal since it began in 1980. Twenty months on and the banking inquiry report finally arrived. Among its startling revelations was how Europe's banking chiefs blocked Ireland from saving 9.1 billion euro on its crippling bank debts. The investigation also discovered the Central Bank and Financial Regulator gave the country's six main banks a clean bill of health ahead of the bank guarantee - a move which cost us 30 billion, Failure in the Financial Regulator, Central Bank and Government became apparent and many were shocked at the extensive failure involved. Among the local Senators overseeing the Inquiry were Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) and Susan O'Keeffe (Labour). Mr MacSharry warned that it could all happen again if Ireland remains Europe's whipping boys. He added: "Having spent the last 20 months as a member of the banking inquiry, it is clear that failure in the Financial Regulator, Central Bank and in Government is not in doubt. This much we knew, and the inquiry fleshed out these facts and assumptions somewhat more - this was worthwhile. The process of the inquiry was undermined by an inadequate act, inadequate time frame and given the time frame inadequate resources. "Notwithstanding my belief that the report forms a reasonable account of the evidence provided and testimony given and that they informed the findings and recommendations there in, there are very significant issues that warrant further investigation which either were not possible or were resisted. "It would appear that dissenting voices and warnings were frequent within the Central Bank and Financial Regulator, at a time when if these dissenting voices were translated as policy actions and advised to authorities, this could have mitigated against the depth and extent of the crisis in Ireland. "There is substantial evidence to suggest that these concerns were prevented from getting to a level or being accepted at a level where appropriate action could have been taken - this is significant," he added. "As I reflect on the last 20 months I am suspicious of an unhealthy level of attempted or actual influence of other institutions at times, namely the Central Bank, Department Of Finance and perhaps the ECB and the EU Commission. "The reality is Ireland took a bullet for the Eurozone and have been made suffer as a result. "The Protected disclosure made under the protected disclosures act by the individual within the investigation team last summer was dismissed and not sufficiently investigated in anyway by the Houses of the Oireachtas service. This was and remains very troubling. "The most pertinent question asked at the press conference was will this happen again?. "Sadly I feel that it will. The reality, despite a fair and reasonable account within the report of findings and recommendations backed up by evidence and testimony, is we are totally subservient to the will of the ECB in terms of monetary policy. "The people are all that count and I think the story of the crisis is that our people were sacrificed needlessly in favour of a system and a currency. It will all happen again unless we fight our corner and secure the necessary reforms and influence we require and deserve as equals". Its not a perfect report, but Im glad I contributed to it Senator Susan O'Keeffe said the Banking Inquiry report is not perfect, yet despite this, she's glad she could contribute to it. "I said from the start that it wasn't going to be perfect, but given all the challenges and obstacles surrounding it, I'm glad to have made a contribution. "It was obviously an ambitious piece of work and very wide. There was a lot of digging done in a very short space of time and of course a lot of evidence was heard. "There was always the problem of asking did we have everything and could we have had more witnesses, documents and all that so there were constraints there. "It was worthwhile in that we had senior bank officials and senior civil servants facing the Irish people and being questioned by public representatives, who themselves were asking the questions so that was of real significant importance. "The public are making their own minds up, they are not going to be fooled. "I think the first step in the process is that it opened things up, we can learn from this and be better the next time. We need accountability. "For me the most significant finding, and it wasn't widely noted, was when in July 2008 the Government became aware that the tax deficit for the year was going to be around 3billion, it was actually 5billion. "They also knew that share prices were plummeting but instead of holding emergency meetings and emergency cabinets, most of the people went on holiday. "That is why there are barely no documents from the entire period of August 2008. If a person's house was burning down, would they go on holiday?," she asked. Senator O'Keeffe said the inquiry will move Ireland in the right direction. "We need more regulation on banks and penalties on bankers if they are in breach of regulations. Not one penalty was put on any bank. They were managing the nation's finances and had a big responsibility. "Tighter regulation is needed. There were clear breaches and regulations were not heeded and in a lot of ways dismissed. "Given all of the challenges and obstacles, I'm glad to have took time out and contributed," Senator O'Keeffe said. Residents of Blainroe Lodge Nursing Home were treated to a friendly dose of glamour last Thursday with the visit of Wicklow Rose Megan Swart and the Rose of Tralee Elysha Brennan. The two Roses also held a meet and greet session in the Grand Hotel. Last year, Elysha from County Meath, who is studying at the Royal College of Surgeons, was crowned the winner of the annual festival. Megan will be passing on the Wicklow title to the 2016 Rose in May but has thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. 'I had such an amazing time. It has really made me want to work with people. The residents at Blainroe were so grateful to us for showing up. They were so lovely. 'Also I have made some great friends. It's nice to know you have people around different places in the world to visit. All the 2015 Roses are meeting up in New York for St Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, I am too busy but I was part of the group that all went over to Germany together and had a wonderful time.' Megan, who is studying International Hospitality Management, was actually preparing to sit her Leaving Cert when competing in the competition. 'I sat the Leaving Cert in between touring. On the day I got the results I was involved in 14 interviews, was on RTE news and the front of the Irish Independent. Things worked out fine because I ended up pretty happy with my results.' Representatives of Irish Rail came to last week's meeting of Greystones Municipal District. District manager Chris Rafferty, senior timetable planner Stephen King, and PR & Events manager Jane Cleegan addressed some of the members' concerns. Chris Rafferty said that a 20 mile per hour speed limit between Dun Laoghaire and Sandycove is due to curvature on the line. He was responding to a query by Cllr Derek Mitchell. He said that while it could be increased to perhaps 30 miles per hour, that they would only gain seconds on the journey. 'I'm trying to find minutes, not three or four seconds,' he said. They said that the new timetable, which will operate every 10 minutes from Bray, would probably come into operation after Easter but the plans are not yet finalised. The draft timetable showed trains taking 5.5 minutes extra time but they were not able to offer much hope on that. This meant that, to get to work in Dublin at 9 a Greystones person would have to get the 7.30 a.m. Dart instead of the 8 a.m. Also an Arklow person would have to get the 6.04 a.m. instead of the 7 a.m. They hoped to make minor adjustments so that commuters do not have to leave so much earlier. Members sought an ext Dart from Greystones and an extra diesel from Arklow however the deputation said that this is not possible due to a shortage of carriages and track capacity. Cllr Mitchell said that he was not satisfied with their answers. 'I have a major problem with being told by the Government to expand this town when you're telling us you can do nothing,' he said. 'The strategy needs a rethink regarding what to do for Greystones.' 'What people see in this area is efficiency being made elsewhere which won't benefit people here,' said Cllr Jennifer Whitmore. 'People in this district pay more for their service and are being disadvantaged in order to benefit areas north of here.' Stephen King said that Irish Rail will 'juggle things around' to see if the 8.04 a.m. Dart and Rosslare Diesel can go a little earlier. Farmer Shane Langrell and Cllr Shay Cullen with a sheep that survived the Ballinahinch attack but lost an ear Approximately 30 sheep were massacred during two dog attacks in County Wicklow which took place over a matter of days. In one incident at Ballinahinch 15 sheep were killed outright, while two injured sheep will also likely have to be put down because of the injuries they sustained. Two dogs were also shot. Another farmer discovered 12 sheep carcasses on his land at Ballinteskin on Wednesday. All the dead animals appeared to have been mauled by a dog or dogs. Some of the injured sheep may also have to be put down. Farmer Shane Langrell has described the devastation that greeted him when he arrived at his Ballinahinch farm at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday morning. 'The first thing I noticed was some sheep passing me by covered in blood. Then as I got further I just started encountering more and more dead sheep. It was complete carnage.' Two dogs involved in the attack were still at the location and both were shot, one fatally, while the other managed to escape but was most likely suffering from terminal injuries. The dead dog was examined by a vet but wasn't chipped or wasn't wearing a collar. Both dogs were black in colour and have been described as resembling a mix between a German Pointer and a Labrador. Shane estimates that he is more than likely out of pocket by more than 4,000, but insists that money is the last thing on his mind. 'I have lost 15 hoggets out of a herd of 30 and will most likely have to put at least two more down. The other sheep are in shell-shock and seem completely traumatised. It was such a brutal attack and would actually leave you feeling sick.' Cllr Shay Cullen says dog owners have to take responsibility for their pets, especially if they live in rural areas close to livestock. 'Incidents like this can devastate a family and a farm. The dog micro-chipping programme coming into force in March will make the micro-chipping of all dogs mandatory which, hopefully, will have some form of effect on gruesome incidents like these taking place.' Wicklow County Council has made an application for an additional 500,000 in funding so more extensive coastal protection works can be carried out along the Murrough. The popular coastal walk in Wicklow town goes as far as Kilcoole but continuous erosion, along with recent storm damage, has resulted in a large section of the walk being washed away. Council Engineer Declan Murnane has confirmed that Wicklow County Council has applied to the OPW for increased funding. 500,000 is the maximum available through the scheme, with the Local Authority having to provide 10 per cent of the funding itself. Last year Wicklow County Council was allocated 135,000 to carry out coastal protection works which were due to start in January but had to be put on hold because of the damage caused by Storm Frank and emergency works carried out by Irish Rail to protect the railway line running parallel to the Murrough. A preliminary design has been received by the council and tenders are also being sought for the provision of rock armour. So far the Council favour a design which includes pre-cast concrete units which take up less of the beach than rock armour and can be fitted in at a steeper slope. Long-term measures include a review and update of a survey carried out in 2007 by RPS. Mr Murnane said: 'The best option would be off-shore protection units but they come at a high cost. In 2007, 1 km was estimated to cost in the region of 12m. It is a considerable amount of money. It also requires a Part 8, an environmental impact statement and a foreshore license. It will take time, as well as trying to access funding.' There were also presentations by the groups Friends of the Murrough and Save the Murrough. Ned Cussen of Friends of the Murrough said: 'Nature has bestowed us with this beautiful parkland but it seems very little value has been placed on it.' He urged local representatives to lobby Minister Simon Harris for OPW funds, while also calling for a long-term management plan for the Murrough. He pointed out that Wicklow County Council had instructed consultants RPS to carry out a report on coastal erosion at the Murrough in 2007, which outlined a number of solutions to the problem, including the creation of a transition zone. 'However, the transition zone was never put in place and all the erosion was pushed further up.' He concluded by saying: 'Is it too much to expect pour natural and historic heritage to be restored for visitors, ourselves, our children and our grandchildren to enjoy?' Carolann Murphy of Save Our Murrough described the local anger felt over the lack of suitable long term protection at the Murrough. 'People are devastated. Shock has turned to anger. 'It is palpable. If I bottled it then it would explode.' She also stated that Save the Murrough would be opposed to any plans for a marina at the Murrough and would lodge an appeal if such an application was made. 'There was a suggestion made recently that there might be plans for a marina to help out Dublin Port. Any man-made thing like that would completely destroy the area and we would appeal any planning application made.' A Guna indigenous woman lies down during an ultrasound scan given by a health worker in Carti in the region of Guna Yala in this handout taken on February 2, 2016 and provided to Reuters by the Panama Ministry of Health on February 5. Panama's Health Ministry has reached out to an indigenous community to the northeast of the Central American nation following some 50 reported cases of Zika. Reuters/Panama Ministry of Health/Handout via Reuters Pregnant women should not kiss anyone other than a regular partner, Brazil health officials warned in a sign of growing concern over the Zika virus. They were also told to avoid sharing cutlery, glasses and plates with people who have symptoms of the virus, while men were warned to use condoms with pregnant partners if they have visited countries where the virus is present. UN officials called on many Catholic-majority countries in Latin America to loosen their abortion laws to allow women to terminate pregnancies if they fear the foetus may be at risk of a rare birth defect that causes brain damage and an abnormally small head, which may be linked to the virus. In Brazil, Paulo Gadelha, president of the Fiocruz research institute, said that scientists have found live virus in saliva and urine samples, and the possibility it could be spread by the two body fluids requires further study. He urged pregnant women to take special precautions, stressing both the seriousness of the discovery and the reality that it was too soon to say how it could impact on the epidemic. "This is not a generalised public health measure, for the love of God," he said. Friday's announcement coincided with the start of Carnival, a five-day event that sees millions of people take part in alcohol-fuelled parties where kissing as many people as possible is a popular pastime. Mr Gadelha said the discovery need not alter Carnival plans for anyone but pregnant women. He also stressed that the Aedes aegpyti mosquito, which spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever as well as Zika, remains the virus' main vector and said the fight against the mosquito should be a top priority. Noela Rokundo in a wedding photo with her husband, Kalala, who was sentenced to nine years. Photo: ABC Television A Burundian woman living in Australia has told how she shocked her husband by turning up at her own funeral - after he had paid hit men to kill her. Noela Rukundo, a mother of eight, had arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2004 - the same year as the man she was to go on to marry, Balenga Kalala. In January last year she was in Burundi for her stepmother's funeral when Kalala called her from their home in Australia, and suggested that she go for a walk. But moments after stepping outside the hotel compound, Ms Rukundo was approached by a man who pulled out a gun. She was forced into a car and driven to a building where she was tied to a chair and the kidnappers called their boss. "One of the kidnappers told his friend, 'Go call the boss'." "They ask me, 'What did you do to this man? Why has this man asked us to kill you?' "And then I tell them, 'Which man? Because I don't have any problem with anybody.' "They say, 'Your husband!' I say, 'My husband can't kill me, you are lying!' And then they slap me. "After that the boss says, 'You are very stupid, you are fool. Let me call who has paid us to kill you.'" The gang's leader made the call. "I heard his voice. I heard him. I felt like my head was going to blow up. Then they described for him where they were going to chuck the body." The phone was put on loudspeaker for Ms Rukundo to hear the reply. Her husband's voice said: "Kill her." But she was thrown an unlikely lifeline by her kidnappers. They held her for two days, then let her go - having extorted more money from Kalala, and telling him she was dead. They let Ms Rukundo go with instructions to tell other women not to stay with their violent husbands - and even gave her memory cards with recordings of Kalala organising the hit, and Western Union money transfer receipts for the contract killing. "He looks at me and then he says, 'We're not going to kill you. We don't kill women and children,'" she said. "He told me I'd been stupid because my husband paid them the deposit in November. He asked me, 'How stupid can you be, from November, you can't see that something is wrong?'" She said they told her: "'Your husband is serious. Maybe we can spare your life, but other people, they're not going to do the same thing. If God helps you, you'll get to Australia.'" She returned to Melbourne where, as mourners were leaving her funeral, she confronted her husband. "He put his hands on his head and said, 'Is it my eyes? Is it a ghost?'" "He kept talking to himself and when he reached me, he touched me on the shoulder. He jumped. "He did it again. He jumped. Then he said, 'Noela, is it you? Then he start screaming, 'I'm sorry for everything.'" Kalala confessed to his wife, captured on tape by police, begged for forgiveness and revealed he had ordered the murder out of jealousy. "I knew he was a violent man," she said. "But I didn't believe he can kill me. I loved this man with all my heart." Kalala was still unable to offer any explanation for his actions, suggesting only that "sometimes [the] devil can come into someone to do something but after they do it, they start thinking, 'Why I did that thing?'" He was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to incitement to murder. Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill leads an Orthodox service in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow Pope Francis will meet the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in a historic meeting, the Vatican has announced. The private meeting, which marks a major step forward in Catholic-Russian Orthodox relations, will last two hours and take place in Havana on February 12. Speaking in the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi said the encounter has huge significance. "After centuries it is the first time that the Pope will meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is an event of extraordinary importance," he said. It is the first encounter of its kind between the two churches since the 11th century. The Vatican's statement reads: "The Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow are pleased to announce that, by the grace of God, His Holiness Pope Francis and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will meet on February 12 next. "Their meeting will take place in Cuba, where the Pope will make a stop on his way to Mexico, and where the Patriarch will be on an official visit. It will include a personal conversation at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, and will conclude with the signing of a joint declaration. This meeting of the Primates of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, after a long preparation, will be the first in history and will mark an important stage in relations between the two Churches. The Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate hope that it will also be a sign of hope for all people of good will." The statement continued: "They invite all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits." They added that it had taken two years to set up the meeting. The relationship between the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Church has been strained in the past as the latter refuses to accept the Pope's primacy. In the 11th century, a row led to what was then a unified Christian church being split into Eastern and Western branches. "This event has extraordinary importance in the path of ecumenical relations and dialogue among Christian confessions," said Fr Lombardi. Since the two churches split in the Great Schism of 1054, they have remained estranged over a host of issues, including the primacy of the pope and Russian Orthodox accusations that the Catholic Church is poaching converts in former Soviet lands. Tensions Those tensions have prevented previous popes from meeting with the Patriarch, even though the Vatican has long insisted that it was merely ministering to tiny Catholic communities in the overwhelmingly Orthodox region. However, the persecution of Christians - Catholic and Orthodox - in the Middle East and Africa has had the effect of bringing the two churches closer together. Both the Vatican and the Orthodox Church have been outspoken in denouncing attacks on Christians and the destruction of Christian monuments, particularly in Syria. The crackdown by Isil "unites the two churches in defence of a Christian population that is in real danger of extinction through both systematic slaughter at the hands of Isil and emigration from the region," said R. Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Vatican has long nurtured ties with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, who is considered "first among equals" within the Orthodox Church. Starting with Pope Paul VI, various popes have called upon the Ecumenical Patriarch in the hopes of creating closer ties with the Orthodox faithful. But the Russian Orthodox Church, which, with some 200 million followers is the largest church in Orthodoxy and the most powerful, has always kept its distance from Rome. Joint theological commissions have met over the years and the Russian church's foreign minister has made periodic visits to Rome, but a pope-patriarch meeting has never been possible until now. Christopher Bellitto, church history specialist at Kean University in New Jersey, said the meeting was a model for reconciliation: "The two men are trying to heal a millennium of wounds in the Year of Mercy," he said, referring to Francis's jubilee year. "Even if they are not agreeing on everything, they are engaging in respectful dialogue - which is in short supply in our world." Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters yesterday that there are still core disagreements between the Holy See and the Russian Church, in particular on various Orthodox churches in western Ukraine. Territory The conflict centres on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the country's second-largest church, which follows eastern church rites but answers to the Holy See. The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its traditional territory and has resented papal influence there. "Despite the existing ecclesiastical obstacles, a decision has been taken to hold a meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis," he said. "The situation in the Middle East, in northern and central Africa and in other regions where extremists are perpetrating a genocide of Christians requires immediate action and an even closer co-operation between Christian churches," Illarion said. "In this tragic situation, we need to put aside internal disagreements and pool efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subject to most severe persecution." The location of the meeting is significant. It has long been assumed that a 'neutral' third country would be selected for any pope-patriarch encounter, but it had always been assumed that it would be somewhere in Europe. Francis, however, played a crucial role in ending the half-century Cold War estrangement between the United States and Cuba. That the one-time Soviet outpost in the Caribbean will now play a role in helping to heal the 1,000-year schism between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches is a remarkable feat of geopolitical and ecumenical choreography that may have the dual effect of thrusting President Raoul Castro into the spotlight, given that he will greet the Pope upon his arrival and preside over the signing of the joint declaration. Observant The Vatican spokesman, Fr Lombardi, noted that Cuba is well known to the Russian Church as well as the Catholic Church, given that three different popes have travelled to the island in the space of 20 years. About 75pc of Russia's 144 million people call themselves Russian Orthodox, according to the latest polls, although only a fraction of them say they are observant. Under Francis, the Vatican has encouraged continuing ecumenical ties with the Orthodox as well as other Christian denominations. And it has gone out of its way to be solicitous to Russia, especially in shying away from directly criticising Moscow over its role in the Ukraine conflict. Kirill was the church's foreign policy chief before he became patriarch in 2009 and is well known in Vatican circles. In a 2012 interview with a Siberian Catholic newspaper, he dwelt on the dispute around the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, but said the issue of Catholic 'snatching' of churches and flock in Russia was not as pressing as it was a decade ago. Compared to his predecessor Alexei II, Kirill cuts a more militant figure, seeking a greater role for the church in Russia's domestic affairs. His support for President Vladimir Putin and his government is also more pronounced than that of his predecessor, who tried to keep a distance from the Kremlin. Afghanistan's Taliban are closing ranks around their new leader after months of infighting that followed the death of Mullah Mohammad Omar, which could allow the insurgents to speak with one voice in peace talks (AP) Four-nation talks in Pakistan aimed at ending Afghanistan's 15-year war have concluded with a call for direct talks between the government and the Taliban by the end of February. A statement released at the end of the meeting in Islamabad on Saturday, which was attended by representatives of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US, said a roadmap for peace had been agreed upon, but provided no further details. The statement urged the Taliban, who were not present at the meeting, to join the peace process. All four countries agreed to hold a fourth meeting in Kabul on February 23. The last direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban broke down after just one round last year following the announcement of the death of long-time Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. - T. S. Eliot Thoughts After Lambeth "The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide." SHARE By Independent Mail A man who led police on a chase through three states pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon in U.S. District Court in Anderson on Thursday. United States Attorney Bill Nettles said in a news release that U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Cain of Anderson accepted the guilty plea from Mark Stone, age and hometown unknown, and will sentence him at a later date. According to Nettles' release, on June 29, 2015, Macon County, North Carolina, officers attempted to pull Stone over for speeding. Stone fled, beginning a chase through North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Stone was eventually arrested in Oconee County, where he ran from officers on foot. Inside Stone's vehicle officers found a loaded .22-caliber rifle with a round in the chamber. Due to Stone's prior convictions, including burglary, Stone was prohibited from carrying firearms at the time of his arrest. Nettles said the crime is punishable by up to life in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000. The case was investigated by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Macon County Sheriff's Office, the Rabun County (Georgia) Sheriff's Office, and the Oconee County Sheriff's Office. SHARE By Vince Jackson State Sen. Larry Martin introduced legislation Thursday that he said would prevent coal ash from being dumped in Pickens County. Martin, a Pickens Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, filed a bill requiring any coal ash generated from an electric utility be disposed of in a Class 3 landfill. "This legislation has one purpose and that is to keep the disposal of coal ash out of Pickens County," Martin said. The bill has been referred to the judiciary committee and the appropriate subcommittees for review. Martin said Republican Rep. Davy Hiott of Pickens has introduced a similar bill in the House. The bill would add a section to the existing 1976 code regulating toxic coal combustion residuals, or coal ash, resulting from electricity production. There are exceptions built into the bill. Coal ash may be exempted from disposal in a Class 3 landfill if it is located next to an electric generating unit, intended for beneficial reuse or placed in a landfill owned or operated by the entity producing the coal ash. Provisions of the bill will be repealed in five years, unless they are extended by the General Assembly. In recent weeks the Pickens County Council retained Gary Poliakoff, an environmental attorney, to represent the county's interests regarding the dumping of coal ash in a landfill near Liberty owned by MRR, Pickens LLC. The Liberty landfill is a Class 2 landfill but has been approved for a synthetic liner. A liner is necessary when a landfill is reclassified Class 3, allowing coal ash to be deposited. County residents and local officials have voiced opposition to the landfill accepting coal ash. Members of the Pickens County Council said they had no comment on Martin's bill. Beneficial reuse of coal ash is allowed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency if the coal ash is encapsulated in products such as, gypsum wallboard, concrete, roofing materials and brick and block. Coal ash is also used in some fertilizers and agricultural products, and in animal bedding. Currently, state environmental agencies, such as the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, are primarily responsible for regulating beneficial use. Industry experts generally believe encapsulation is the best method of safely disposing of the millions of tons of coal ash generated each year. The use of coal ash in fertilizers and in pet bedding is questioned by environmental groups. Pickens County Planning Commission members, in a Jan. 11 letter to MRR, said they had become aware of "significant deviations" in what would be disposed of in the landfill. As a result, the planning commission voted unanimously to suspend MRR's land use permit for the landfill. The original landfill application indicated only construction debris, not coal ash, would be dumped, according to county records. Attorneys for MRR filed a request at the Greenville County Courthouse this month, before Judge Robin Stilwell, seeking a lifting of the suspension, according to county officials. A hearing about that request is scheduled for Feb. 18. By: Dezan Shira & Associates Editor: Kimberly Momin India benefits from a rich repository of mineral resources that constitute the fundamental raw materials for the mining industry. Presently, there are about 3700 active major mines in the country, which have generated employment for over 500,000 people. In 2012-2013, the value of mineral production in India reached approximately US $44.65 billion 2.4 percent of GDP. Most of the accounted mining industries in the northeastern region are located in the states of Assam and Meghalaya. Assam is known for its petroleum and natural gas reserves, coal, limestone and minor minerals; Meghalaya has established coal and limestone mining industries. Despite their economic importance, the mining industry in the northeast has been systemically plagued by a multitude of challenges. These challenges primarily stem from ambiguous policies and regulatory hurdles that have led to unchecked corruption and environmental degradation. In Meghalaya, this has additionally resulted in the displacement of the indigenous people of the state, culminating in a ban on coal mining by the National Green Tribunal. Considering that coal mining provides seven to eight percent of the states GDP, the ban has adversely impacted Meghalayas finances. Mining Profile of Meghalaya Meghalaya is a small hill state in northeast India and shares an international border with Bangladesh in the south. Its capital is Shillong, once called the Scotland of the East by European settlers. Meghalaya has 11 districts and three main tribes Garo, Khasi and Jaintia. The entire state is under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which contains provisions for the administration of tribal areas in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Under the Sixth Schedule, only the District Autonomous Councils in these states have the power to legislate to protect tribal customary laws, identity and culture. Meghalaya is largely an agricultural state, but has sizeable deposits of minerals like coal, limestone, uranium, granite, kaolin, clay, glass sand, silimanite, and small quantities of feldspar and iron ore, quartz, bauxite, and rock phosphate. Though the hugely lucrative coal mining industry has been banned since April 2014, the Government of Meghalaya has given 16 leases to mine limestone reserves in the state. 68 percent of the limestone mined is used by cement industries and the remaining 32 percent by lime manufacturers. Apart from coal and limestone, the state has the third richest reserves of uranium after Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. A significant amount of it has been discovered in Domiasiat and Porkut-Nongjri in the Wahkynshi area of the west Khasi Hills. The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) proposes to mine the mineral in the state, but operations have been stalled in the exploration phase due to local opposition. As of now, Meghalaya has no proper regulatory regime for mining, and mines and minerals are subject to a cluster of central laws, namely The Mines Act, 1952, The Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957, and The Coal Mines (Nationalization) Act, 1973. A new mining policy, proposed by the state government The Meghalaya Mines and Minerals Policy, 2012 is yet to be implemented. Paragraph nine of the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution gives District Autonomous Councils the final authority to provide licenses and leases for prospecting and extracting minerals. Major Mineral Deposits in Meghalaya Investment opportunities Despite the challenges in some mining sectors, the state government of Meghalaya still has vested interests in the mining industry, as it contributes significantly to the states revenue. In addition, industrial potential in the state is strong based on the indigenous spread and availability of minerals. Cement and lime industries have already set their bases in the state. Other potential mineral and related industries that can be set up include precipitated and activated calcium carbonate, calcium carbide, bleaching powder, acetylene black, thermal power, low-temperature carbonization plant, fire bricks, stone wares, wall/floor tiles, low ash coke, and generation of producer gas to name a few. The proposed Meghalaya Mines and Minerals Policy mentions the participation of private sectors and joint ventures to take part in mining related activities. If this policy is implemented, it could mean a huge investment opportunity for private and foreign players. Under the Make in India Initiative, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been allowed up to 100 percent in exploration, mining, minerals processing and metallurgy. In India, mining leases are usually given for 50 years. 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 india@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. Managing Your Accounting and Bookkeeping in India In this issue of India Briefing Magazine, we spotlight three issues that financial management teams for India should monitor. Firstly, we examine the new Indian Accounting Standards (Ind-AS) system, which is expected to be a boon for foreign companies in India. We then highlight common filing dates for most companies with operations in India, and lastly examine procedures and regulations for remitting profits from India Using Indias Free Trade & Double Tax Agreements In this issue of India Briefing magazine, we take a look at the bilateral and multilateral trade agreements that India currently has in place and highlight the deals that are still in negotiation. We analyze the countrys double tax agreements, and conclude by discussing how foreign businesses can establish a presence in Singapore to access both the Indian and ASEAN markets. Passage to India: Selling to Indias Consumer Market In this issue of India Briefing magazine, we outline the fundamentals of Indias import policies and procedures, as well as provide an introduction to engaging in direct and indirect export, acquiring an Indian company, selling to the government and establishing a local presence in the form of a liaison office, branch office, or wholly owned subsidiary. We conclude by taking a closer look at the strategic potential of joint ventures and the advantages they can provide companies at all stages of market entry and expansion. Actress Nayanthara was detained in the Malaysian airport today and that lead to some cruel rumors intended to defame the leading actress who climbed to the top of the heroine ladder with immense hard work and cleverness in selection of scripts. Nayan had visited Malaysia for the shooting of 'Iru Mugan' directed by Anand Shankar in which she pairs up with Vikram. The film is being produced by Shibu Thameens of SKT Films banner. The makers of the film have issued a clarification statement about the entire fiasco and we bring that to you. The issue has actually happened when Nayanthara entered the Malaysian airport to catch her flight to return back to India. And this was not for the name mismatch in passport as it is being speculated since morning. "Work permit rules in Malaysia are different in the two terminals. Usually travellers to India travel through KL1 terminal. Nayanthara had to catch a flight of the new airline Malindo, which operates from KL2. The immigration officials over there required a few clarifications on work permit and visa stamping for her supporting team. Later Nayanthara herself spoke to the authorities and cleared the issue. Nayanthara and her staff traveled back to India smoothly. The production team and line producers of 'Iru Mugan' have lodged a complaint with the immigration dept for snaps of Nayanthara and her passport copy getting circulated online which lead to false speculations and rumor. They are also planning to take action against those responsible for circulation of such rumors about their film's lead actress. Adani Power will soon sign a deal to set up two coal-based power units in Jharkhand for US$2.2-billion (INR 14,867 crore at Fridays exchange rate), reports a business daily. The company plans to build two power units with a total capacity of 1,600 megawatts (MW) and construction could begin by December, adds the financial newspaper. There is a meeting scheduled in Jharkhand next week and a deal would be sealed this month, an official close to the development has been quoted as saying. A Jharkhand government official told the paper that most government approvals were in place already. The electricity generated from the Jharkhand units would be sold to power-deficient Bangladesh, reports the paper. Adani Enterprises wants to boost its electricity generation capacity in India to 20,000 MW this decade through Adani Power, adds the daily. Zendrive Inc., a mobile technology company, which aims to make roads safer through data and analytics, raised $13.5 million in Series A funding led by Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital with participation from Nyca Partners, Thomvest Ventures (Peter J. Thomson) and existing investors First Round Capital, BMW i Ventures, Fontinalis Partners (Bill Ford) and Tad Montross. The company said the funding will help drive its focus on safety innovation. (MINT)Career counselling too can be an app away now. Thanks to Zapasya. The city based start-up has come up with a mobile app based career counselling service. Christened Talenjaro, the app has been developed by Indus Net Technologies. (ET)The BSE Institute Ltd has announced the launch of a new accelerator for startups. This accelerator is housed in the iconic stock exchange in Mumbai. A statement issued by BSE said that this has been setup as a technology based incubator under the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science & Technology. Zone Startups India is the only stand-alone accelerator program in India to be accredited this support. (TOI)Merchandising and product customization platform Gingercrush has raised $1 million in a pre-series A funding round, which was led by Saha Fund. (ET)Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy is an investor in startups, through his vehicle Catamaran Ventures. He also headed of a 21-member Sebi panel that recently recommended a slew of reforms to make startups more attractive to investors and employees. Murthy is hopeful that a majority of these recommendations will be accepted by the government and be included in the budget. (TOI)Ixigo, the Gurgaon-based online travel aggregator, is set to launch the booking option 'Ixibook' on its mobile app next week. This will allow travellers to make bookings for hotels and flights on the app itself without being directed to the third party. This service will be extended to bus bookings in another month's time, and by early next month, Ixigo will initiate a one-click booking for inter-city cabs, according to Ixigo CEO and co-founder Aloke Bajpai. (ET)Snapdeal owned digital payments firm FreeCharge, which launched its 'Go' virtual card ten days ago claims to have crossed the 'half a million' figure. (ET)Leading taxi aggregator Uber has slashed its fares by up to 25 per cent in Chennai and Kolkata, with an aim to attract more customers. (ET) Coal India Ltd has signed an MOU with Indian Oil Corporation Limited on Feb 5, 2016 at Kolkata for Manufacturing of Bulk Explosives.Stock commentary:Coal India Ltd ended at Rs. 326.2, up by Rs. 4.75 or 1.48% from its previous closing of Rs. 321.45 on the BSE.The scrip opened at Rs. 324 and touched a high and low of Rs. 336.8 and Rs. 318 respectively. A total of 6681814(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 206039.66 crore.The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 touched a 52 week high of Rs. 447.25 on 05-Aug-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 286.9 on 21-Jan-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 336.8 and Rs. 311.8 respectively.The promoters holding in the company stood at 79.65 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 17.44 % and 2.91 % respectively.The stock traded below its 200 DMA. The Finance Minister said that all the major economic organisations including IMF have predicted low growth for the world economy in the coming year. He said that these developments have implications on Indias economy as our exports are also affected .However, he further added that silver lining is low international commodities and oil prices which in turn has helped in better macroeconomic situation of the country.The Finance Minister said that the agriculture growth in the last two years has suffered mainly due to insufficient monsoons. Shri Jaitely said that highest ever amount was given to the States for drought relief during the current financial year 2015-16 and more incentives will be given to agriculture sector for increasing agriculture production and productivity. The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but there is still potential to grow at a much faster pace. He said that the world economy is passing through an uncertain and fragile situation.The Finance Minister said that all the major economic organisations including IMF have predicted low growth for the world economy in the coming year. He said that these developments have implications on Indias economy as our exports are also affected .However, he further added that silver lining is low international commodities and oil prices which in turn has helped in better macroeconomic situation of the country.The Finance Minister said that the agriculture growth in the last two years has suffered mainly due to insufficient monsoons. Shri Jaitely said that highest ever amount was given to the States for drought relief during the current financial year 2015-16 and more incentives will be given to agriculture sector for increasing agriculture production and productivity. The Finance Minister was making the Opening Remarks at the First Meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Finance during inter-session of Parliament held here today. The Subject of the Meeting was Suggestions for Budget. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley further said that loan worth over Rs. 90 crores has been already disbursed in the current financial year so far to more than 2 crore micro, small and medium enterprises under MUDRA Scheme. The Finance Minister said that we will be able to contain the fiscal deficit as per the target fixed for the current financial year 2015-16. The Finance Minister said that this was also the first time that the real expenditure amount was higher than the Budget proposal. He further added that this year we have spent more but still, we will very well manage our deficit targets. He said that during the financial year 2016-17, the Central Government has to make provision for about Rs.1.10 lakh crore in order to meet the liabilities on account of implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations and One Rank One Pension (OROP) Scheme. Thereafter, various suggestions were given by the Members of Consultative Committee who participated in todays Meeting. Some of the major suggestions include more allocation for agriculture sector, setting-up of Indian Council for Veterinary Research (ICVR) at par with ICAR and ICMR in order to give boost to milk production etc. They appreciated the Union Governments new crop insurance scheme but proposed to bring more clarity in the scheme, need to increase the awareness about the scheme and to make it more comprehensive so that it reaches to larger section of population. Another suggestion made was that the forthcoming budget may give relief to industries to set-up sewage and affluent treatment plants in order to keep the environment clean. Other suggestions include more allocation for Drip Irrigation System to save water and promotion for use of improved varieties of seeds for crops to increase productivity. It was also suggested by various members that tax exemption limit for middle and salaried class be raised from existing Rs. 2.5 lakhs to Rs. 4 lakhs as well as more stress be given on widening of tax base and severe punishment for those evading taxes. It was also suggested that threshold limit for mandatory Pan Card requirement for any transaction above Rs. 2.00 lakh be raised to Rs. 5.00 lakhs. It was suggested that service tax exemption limit be raised from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 25 lakhs sale receipts and skill development related education institutions be exempted from service tax. Some members suggested that there should be accountability of assessing officers for passing unreasonably high tax liability orders to harass the assesses which are later on turned down by the Appellate authorities. Another suggestion made was that since Indian economy is agro economy, therefore, agriculture oriented budget be presented this year. Higher allocations should be made to improve the agriculture related irrigation projects in different States which are in bad shape. It was suggested that skill development programmes be implemented effectively at block level in order to penetrate at grass root level and to make the Start-up India and Make in India programmes successful both in reality and spirit. It was also suggested that special package for fluoride affected areas and redesigning of MGNREGA be done in order to make it more effective. There was also suggestion to change the labour ratio in MNERGA such that it can be more productive and used for infrastructure building along with providing jobs. Some members raised that more focus be given for providing employment opportunities in rural areas, increasing agriculture productivity and increase in agriculture credit at cheaper rate; more provision for education, skill development and residential houses for fishing community. It was also suggested that forthcoming budget be poor and common man oriented and should make higher provision for removing child malnutrition among others. There was also suggestion that the funds from CSR must be directed to be used in developing the area where the company is functioning and making profits. There was also suggestion to give tax incentive to MSMEs for their betterment which, in turn, would help in creating more employment opportunities. Along with the Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, the Members of the Consultative Committee who participated in the Meeting include Shri Dilip Kumar Mansukhlal Gandhi, Shri J. Jayasingh Thyagraj Natterjee, Shri P.P. Chaudhary, Smt. Poonam Mahajan, Shri Ram Charitra Nishad, Shri Sharad Kumar Maruti Bansode, Shri Subhash Chandra, Smt. Supriya Sadanand Sule, Dr. Udit Raj (all members of Lok Sabha); Shri Anil Desai, Dr. K.P. Ramalingam and Shri Rajkumar Doot (all members of Rajya Sabha) . Among the officers who attended the Consultative Committee Meeting include Ratan P. Watal, Finance Secretary, Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, DEA, Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Revenue Secretary, Anjuly Chib Dugal, Secretary, Financial Services, Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Secretary, Disinvestment, Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), Chairman, CBEC Najib Shah and other senior officers of the Ministry of Finance. There has been an alarming rise in the number of earthquakes taking place across the world. What happened in Nepal is an example of how scary things can become in the future. The rise in the intensity and the frequency of these earthquakes have even led countries like the United States and Canada to carry out mass evacuation drills in case of a life-threatening incident in the near future. It's worse for a country like Japan where the residents live under the constant fear of a tremor or worse still, a tsunami hitting the island nation. The trauma that these people live in is for real. But why is it that sometimes we feel that an earthquake is happening only to realise later that it was just our mind playing a sick trick on us? Why does it put some of us through such a trauma that we keep feeling it time and again, even when it isn't happening? flipboard.com 'Earthquake Sickness' A term generally used while referring the condition an earthquake survivor goes through. They feel dizzy and unbalanced even after the ground stops trembling. As quoted by AFP, Dr Hideaki from the Mejiro University Clinic calls this sensation a condition that is quite "similar to motion sickness". What's worse, however, is the feeling of a tremor when there isn't one. A psychological fear that constantly looms over our head convinced that the Earth is shaking. A 'Phantom Quake'. publicbroadcasting.net What is a 'phantom quake?' Many people have shared stories on social media or otherwise about how sometimes, right out of the blue, they feel the Earth rumble. Only to later realise that it was the mind playing games. Some doctors say this feeling is very similar to the swaying feeling that lingers on much after the person has gotten off the boat. Or how, even though our phones are kept in the ringer mode, we feel like it is vibrating in our pockets. A phantom quake is most likely to scare people who have already witnessed an earthquake in the recent past. An earthquake survivor commonly worries about a big tremor that has or is about to hit them. Something that's quite understandable when you come out alive of a 7.0 magnitude. Our situation might now be as bad as it is for people living in high-intensity zones like Japan, but noticing the rise in the frequency of quakes, it gets some of us very anxious as well. civildefence.govt.nz So why do we go through phantom quakes? Phantom, or as the scientists call it, Orphan quakes, are nothing more than our mind playing tricks with us. The Earth is continuously shifting, but it is so subtle in nature that we hardly get to feel anything. The little that we do feel is nothing apart from an anxious mind. Many times it's also because of the aftershocks of an actual quake that hit a few minutes back. The people who generally suffer from this syndrome are the ones who have experienced a number of tremors before or live in an area where it's a common occurrence. There are just body image disturbances. Feeling of a quake, and other sensations like levitation, floating, falling or sinking are other types of experiences our mind puts our bodies through. Although there's no cure for such an experience, doctors advise that people going through such a feeling should just focus on calming themselves down. Panicking can, and generally, does make matters worse for everyone. We hope you don't go through such a discomfort. But in case you do, the best option would be to first ask your friends and family if there's actually an earthquake or it's just you feeling it. If it's just you, just calm your nerves and ask someone to talk you through the sensation. Cover image from scpr.org A truckload of honeybees swarming the Churu-Jaipur National Highway threw traffic out of gear for nearly six hours on Friday. The truck carrying hundreds of beehive boxes toppled on the highway triggering the mayhem. Nigerianeye As bees attacked commuters, 22 persons landed in a hospital; however, police officials said that the number of victims could be more since many of those attacked fled the spot. Colonies of bees spread to a nearby residential area also and people had to shut doors and windows to keep them at bay. Policemen and members of a rescue team had to wear safety suits, generally used for tackling law and order situations, when they towed away the truck from the spot. The incident took place around 1 pm on NH-65, nearly six kilometres from Churu town. The truck carrying beehive boxes was on its way to Ludhiana from Tonk. The police are investigating what caused the mishap, but apparently it lost balance and overturned. Bees swarmed the highway and caught commuters by surprise stinging them. The victims included those who had stopped there out of curiosity. Some commuters on bikes slipped and hurt themselves. As the bee attack created panic, the police were informed. Policemen however could do nothing, but watch as mute spectators for nearly six hours. The police cordoned off the highway for one kilometre. "The driver of the truck fled from the scene after the mishap. "We somehow got hold of a man who earns his bread by removing beehives from residential colonies. He and a police constable wore safety gear to approach the truck. They found a diary in it and hence came to know about the owner. We called him up. He is on his way to Churu," said a police officer. After being loose for six hours, the bees started to settle back. The policemen then roped in a crane to tow away the truck from the highway. "Traffic resumed at nearly 7 pm. We will work with the truck owner to remove the beehive boxes safely from the spot," said the officer. Follow us on salman khan slaps his bodyguard. know what happened exactly New Delhi: Superstar Salman Khan has done something again which proves that he is truly controversy's favourite child. Out of his anger, Salman slapped his own bodyguard a few days ago, suggest media reports. The entire incident took place a few days ago when Salman was dining with his friends Preity Zinta and Sussane Khan. After a fine evening with the ladies, as the trio started walking towards their respective cars, media persons started flocking them. In a quest to keep the stars away from the paparazzi, Salman's bodyguard pushed one of the media persons. Seeing this, Salman slapped his bodyguard for misbehaving with media persons. Seems Salman has taken a cue from his past experience. In the past, when one of his bodyguards mishandled a media person, Salman landed in serious trouble. So much so, that the media boycotted him for some time. On the movie front, Salman Khan is busy shooting for his movie, Sultan'. In the movie, he will essay the role of a wrestler. He has undergone through drastic body transformation to perfect the role. Actress Anushka Sharma will play his love interest in the movie. There had been many speculations about the lead actress and finally Anushka bagged the role. She has been sharing pictures from the sets on social media which tell that the movie is surely going to be one-of-its-kind. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on nashik 11 booked for parading a woman semi naked Nasik: Eleven persons, including six members of Kanjarbhat community's jat panchayat (community court) were booked on Friday by the District Rural Police ,after a widow accused the panchayat members of parading her in semi-naked condition. According to police, the 29-year-old woman from Kanjarbhat community, had married Satish Tamaichekar from Nandurbar district in 2000. Her husband died in 2013, after which his brother wanted to marry her. "The woman was allegedly being harassed physically and mentally by her in-laws for the last one year. She had approached the district police, who had asked her to get the matter resolved by the jat panchayat," Ojhar police station in-charge Srihari Bahirat said. The woman, who currently stays with her parents in Ojhar, had written to Nashik Rural Police chief that the jat panchayat in Nandurbar district had paraded her in semi-naked condition and she was hit with sticks. She had also alleged that her 12-year-old son was made to hold hot iron axe in his hands, so as to "prove her character". She said she was asked to pay Rs 50,000 to the panchayat. "After conducting an inquiry into the incident, we registered offences under various sections of IPC against eleven persons - six members of the jat panchayat and five members of the woman's in-laws' family," Bahirat said. (PTI) Latest India News Follow us on isis sympathiser sent to 10 days nia custody New Delhi: Suspected ISIS sympathiser Abdus Sami Qasmi, arrested for allegedly motivating youths to join the dreaded terror outfit, was today remanded in 10 days NIA custody by a Delhi court. Qasmi was produced before District Judge Amar Nath during in-camera proceedings and according to sources, the NIA sought his custodial interrogation for unearthing the entire conspiracy. A resident of Selampur here, Qasmi was arrested yesterday by NIA during a joint operation with the Uttar Pradesh ATS. The sources said that NIA told the court that Qasmi was allegedly delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches and was motivating the youths to commit terror strikes across the country. The NIA had earlier arrested various alleged ISIS sympathisers in connection with the case. The probe agency has claimed that the accused were involved in recruiting and financing persons willing to join the so called "Caliphate" of ISIS. It had also said that they were found to be in communication with some active members through chatting applications 'Signal', 'Trillion' and 'Skype' in order to motivate them to join ISIS in furtherance of activities of its ideologies, thereby luring youths to join this proscribed terrorist organisation. The agency had said that laptops, external hard disks, mobile phones and SIM cards which were recovered from the possession of these accused have been sent for forensic examination and the results are awaited Latest India News Follow us on lg najeeb jung offers 2 civic bodies 300 cr loan to end strike New Delhi: Lt Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday offered Rs 300 crore loan to two cash-strapped civic bodies here to bring an end to the strike by nearly 90,000 municipal employees which entered its 10th day crippling multiple services. Jung's office said money will be given to the East and North Delhi municipal corporations as loan from Delhi Development Authority. On Wednesday, the Delhi government had announced a financial assistance of Rs 693 crore to the civic bodies out of which Rs 551 crore was loan. After the announcement, Jung appealed to the strikers to call off their agitation in the interest of the city. The striking municipal employees had refused to end the strike after the Delhi government's announcement, saying they want "permanent solution" to their problems. The agitators include sanitation workers, doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers. Jung today separately met the three Mayors of the BJP-ruled municipal corporations as also the representatives of the MCD Employee Unions at Raj Niwas. "With a view to resolving the issue at hand and keeping in mind the difficulties being faced by the people of Delhi, the Lt Governor made a unilateral offer of Rs 300 crores loan to the North and East Corporation from DDA," Jung's office said. It said the Delhi government had already released an amount of Rs 693 crore and the additional Rs 300 crore would take the amount to a total of Rs 1000 crore which will take care of the salaries of all employees and officials of three MCDs till March 31, 2016. "In view of this, the Lt Governor has appealed to the MCD Employee Unions to call off their strike and resume work in the interest of the city and the people of Delhi. "The Lt Governor has also assured that he will speak to the Delhi government regarding the implementation of the fourth Finance Commission Report to find a long-term solution," said Jung's office. The strike by the sanitation staff entered 10th day today crippling the garbage disposal system. They were joined by teachers, doctors, nurses and contractors of the civic bodies a few days back. The Delhi government has been maintaining that it has given adequate funds to the three civic bodies and blamed financial mismanagement and graft for the current situation. It had also asked the three MCDs to recover dues to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore from DDA to tide over the situation. Latest India News Follow us on no pmo interference no delay in arms deals manohar parrikar New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said there has been no interference of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in the working of his ministry, nor have there been any "unnecessary delays" in arms acquisitions in the last one year. Replying to queries from Rajat Sharma in the show Aap Ki Adalat, to be telecast tonight on India TV, Parrikar said: "Prime Minister has not given me any direction specifically relating to my ministry. I am reading about interference of PMO in defence only in the press. In inter-ministerial matters, we occasionally take help from the PMO, for example, in the OROP (one rank one pension) issue which involved both the Finance and Defence Ministries. But in other matters, there has been no interference from the PMO." Parrikar refuted media reports about delays in arms acquisitions and blamed "arms dealers" for "floating such stories". "During the previous regime, arms dealers, who were basically agents, had their networks in defence deals, but now they have lost their earnings. Already, we are pressing for lowering prices, and automatically they are a disturbed lot. They float lots of stories," the Defence Minister said. Parrikar said: "There have been no unnecessary delays in defence deals during my tenure. Nearly Rs 1,52,000 crore worth defence contracts have either been signed or letters of intent issued. Out of this, Rs 1,16,000 crore worth deals have been signed, and letters of intent have been issued for Rs 32,000 crore worth deals. "Rs 5,10,000 crore worth deals are in the contract vetting stage. Moreover, Rs 50,000 crore worth deals are in CFS stage, that is, these will either go to the Cabinet Committee on Security, proper explanations sought and then finalized. "So, Rs 2 lakh crore worth defence deals have been cleared during the current NDA government's tenure. There are Rs 75-80,000 crore worth capital acquisitions in defence. If you take still more decisions, then you won't be left with money to pay. I'm quite a good budget planner, and we are planning for acquisitions over the next 10 years. So overall, we are one step ahead, and not behind." Asked about the state of defence preparedness, the Defence Minister said: "If any country attacks us, we will definitely give them back their own medicine. But I have to move a step ahead. There is a proverb goats, not lions, are sacrificed at the altar'. We are no more goats. We have definitely crossed that stage and we are quite strong. But we have to become lions, so that no one dare look at us. "But this does not mean, we will crush others, or do 'dadagiri' against others. We don't need to, but we need to beef up our strength, but that is not done in a single day. One can't acquire six- or eight-pack abs by doing physical exercises in a day." Parrikar disclosed that in his tenure of more than a year as Defence Minister, he spent only one sleepless night, the day when Special Forces conducted their operation against NSCN(K) rebels across Myanmar. "I was not able to sleep. It was quite a tough decision. We had kept helicopters on standby for rescue purpose, but they were not needed," he said. Parrikar described the handling of Pathankot air base attack as "perfect" and added: "I do not think there was any delay. Army was in full control of the defence area. All the terrorists were killed in the joint operation of NSG and the Army. Earlier, terrorists had targeted 42 Army family members in an attack on an army camp in Kashmir. In Pathankot, there were nearly 3,000 family members staying, but the operation took place 100 to 150 metres away from the residential area. Our success lies in the fact that we virtually cornered the attackers. The only technical lapse was how they entered the airbase. Overall, there was good synergy in the entire operation." Parrikar also pointed out that he had recently visited the airbase in Bareilly, UP, where he found a 'basti' (slum) close to the airbase. This raises a question mark on whether there could be ISI sleeper cells there. The state police do not help us in that," Parrikar said. Rajat Sharma's show Aap Ki Adalat featuring Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will be telecast tonight at 10 pm on India TV. Repeat telecasts will take place on Sunday (Feb 7) at 10 am and 10 pm. Latest India News Follow us on netaji s japanese interpreter confirms plane crash uk website London: A Japanese interpreter confirmed that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died at a military hospital in Taipei after a plane crash in 1945, according to information released by a UK website set up to catalogue the last days of the nationalist leader. Kazunori Kunizuka, who worked as an interpreter with Bose from 1943 to 1945, is still alive and has recorded in graphic detail in his diary the last days of Bose and his death as a result of a plane crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945, said the website bosefiles.info. The information was conveyed to the website by Noburu Okabe, London correspondent of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, who also handed over a copy of the diary to the website. Ashis Ray, Bose's grandnephew and creator of the website, said The diary is in Japanese. We will get it translated and post relevant portions from it in due course. According to Okabe, Kanizuka is 98 years old and lives in an old people's home in Kobe in Japan. Okabe has met him and testified the diary unequivocally confirms Bose's demise in a Japanese military hospital in Taipei after the air tragedy. Earlier when Ray visited Taipei, he met Yukichi Arai, son of Captain Keikichi Arai, a Japanese army officer who was one of seven survivors (of an estimated total of 14 passengers and crew, including Bose, on the flight) of the crash. Captain Arai died in 1971. However, he, too, recorded in his diary that Bose succumbed to injuries suffered in the crash. As per his description, soon after take-off from Taipei the Japanese bomber carrying Bose immediately lost speed, crashed and went up in flames. Of the seven survivors, six deposed before either the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee or the 1974 Justice G D Khosla Commission or both, including Bose's most trusted aide de camp Colonel Habibur Rehman and Captain Arai. All six independently submitted Bose died consequent to the crash. Two Japanese doctors Dr Taneyoshi Yoshimi and Dr Toyoshi Tsuruta - and a Taiwanese nurse Tsan Pi Sha - who treated him at the hospital or were by his bedside when he passed away, another interpreter Juichi Nakamura (who personally knew Bose from previous visits to Taipei) and Colonel Rehman, gave eyewitness evidence of Bose's final moments and of him breathing his last. Also, there are at least three first-hand testimonies of Bose's cremation at Taipei as provided by Tan Ti-Ti, a Taiwanese who worked at the crematorium and personally prepared the body for the last rites, Ko Keng Yuan, a Taiwanese health official, and Colonel Rehman. Bose died in the air crash in Taipei in 1945, according to documents that form part of 100 secret files, comprising 16,600 pages which were made public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Bose's 119th birth anniversary last month. Latest India News Follow us on never took any favours from govt claims gujarat cm s daughter Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel's daughter Anar today rubbished Congress' allegations of taking undue favours from the state government afterreports claiming dubious land dealings involving her businessassociates emerged. The state BJP unit also came out in support of Anar accusing the Congress of trying to malign the Chief Minister and her daughter by levelling allegations against them. I, Anar Patel, am neither a director nor a share holder in WWRRPL (Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Private Limited), Anil Infraplus and Parshvatexchem. I don't have anything with WWRRPL, anybody can check with government authority, she wrote in a fresh Facebook post. Indeed, Daksheshbhai (Dakshesh Shah, who owns WWRRPL along with Amol Shripal Seth of Anil Infraplus) is my business partner but that doesn't mean that I am there in all his companies. He is a self-made businessman and is in business since last 22 years, she wrote. We started a company named Anar Projects seven years back with business interest in retails and services. We never took any favour from any government organisation, we strictly followed all rules and regulations in all manners. It's disheartening that my individuality is attacked based on sheer assumptions. I believe in my moral strength not in anyone's favour, she wrote in her latest post. This is her second Facebook post in as many days on the issue amidst demand from Gujarat Congress for the resignation of Anandiben Patel for alleged favour done to her daughter and her business partners over allotting a piece of land worth Rs 122 crore to a private firm at a throw away price of just Rs 1.49 crore in 2010. The Congress alleged that norms were flouted to extend undue benefit to firms owned by CM's daughter Anar Patel and her business partners. In her Facebook post yesterday also, Anar claimed that whatever she did was in righteous manner. I get hurt when people have assumptions and judgments for one's morality. Truth always prevails and I abide by it with humanity, she had stated. My husband and I dedicated more than 22 years in social service. My husband surrendered his life for sanitation. To take care of family needs, in 2008 I did MBA..and entered in business. I strongly believe that to do ethical business with social morality is everyone's right,her previous post had stated. State BJP spokesperson I K Jadeja said that such allegations are a heinous attempt by the Congress to unnecessarily drag the CM and her daughter into the issue and malign their public image. Former state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia had yesterday alleged that, 245.62 acres of government-own land worth Rs 122 crore in Patla village in Dhari taluka of Amreli district (near Gir sanctuary) was alloted to one Wildwoods Resort and Realities Pvt Ltd in 2010 when Narendra Modi was CM and Patel the Revenue Minister in Gujarat. In 2010, that piece of land was worth around Rs 122 crore, as the rate of one acre of land in that area was Rs 50 lakh. However, that was given at a throw away price of just Rs 1.49 crore to the owner of that firm Sanjay Dhanak, who told the government that he wanted to build a resort there, said Modhwadia. Then, Dhanak sold all the shares of his company to three different entities in 2011. 49.5 per cent sold to Anil Infra Plus, 49.5 per cent to Parshwa TexChem and 1 per cent to Dakshesh Shah, owner of Parshwa TexChem. Shah is a friend and business partner of Anandiben's daughter Anar Patel, he alleged. The Congress leader alleged that the entire deal was aimed at giving undue benefits to Anar, who entered into the picture from back door to take the ownership of the precious land. This land falls in the Eco-Sensitive Zone, as it is near the Lion Sanctuary. All kinds of construction is prohibited in the two-kilometre periphery of this zone. However, the state government implemented this law only after the dealing completed in 2011, alleged Modhwadia. Latest India News Follow us on ryan student sodomised sisodia family demand cbi probe New Delhi: Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today lashed out at Ryan International School management and the probe conducted by the city police in the Divyansh Kokrora death case. Speaking to media, Sisodia said he didn't rule out the possibility of a sexual assault angle behind the death as alleged by the parents of the kid, accusing police of overlooking facts. "I feel the observation of parents that cotton was found at the anal points of the child is being ignored. Why is the police ignoring the child's father's allegations of possible sodomy. This points towards a bigger and unfortunate event. Let's see, I will go through the report again and necessary action would be taken," Sisodia said. "And how irresponsible could the school be, by calling the deceased child as mentally unstable?" Sisodia added. Sisodia also said that the probe report raises serious concerns as to how a private school could be lethargic towards its students. "The way this boy reached a place where no normal child can reach and the way the management refused to rescue him and a class 11 student had to rescue him," he said. Sisodia further said that if private school managements and their staff are playing with the security of students, then it obviously raises fears in everyone's mind. Meanwhile, the parents of six-year-old Divyansh wrote to HRD minister Smriti Irani demanding a CBI probe into the death of their child. "I saw the dead body, there were some red marks and private parts had cotton on them. This is why we want a serious investigation in the matter. The police has not even tried to get in touch with me nor even asked us any questions," the child's father told India TV, adding that "no action has been taken in the case, as it was being suppressed". Speaking to India TV, Divyansh's father posed some serious questions on the role of the school in handling the case. "How did the child reach the tank which is almost inaccessible? Even if he did, he could not have opened the lid of the tank on his own as it weighs around 20 kg," he said. The Deputy Chief Minister too supported the demand of a CBI probe saying "observation made by Divyansh's parents of possible sodomy in the case was completely ignored". The Delhi government in its magisterial inquiry into the case found that 'deliberate' inaction of Ryan International School authorities amounting to gross criminal negligence' led to the death of six-year-old Divyansh on January 31. So far, the principal and four other staff members of the school located in South Delhi's Vasant Kunj area are out on bail after being arrested briefly on Thursday. Divyansh, a class I student of Ryan International School in Vasant Kunj area, was found dead in a water tank under the school's amphitheatre on January 30, 2016. Latest India News Follow us on sc can t test validity of muslim personal law jamiat ulama i hind New Delhi: In response to the Supreme Court's order to file a separate PIL to consider the rights of Muslim women, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH), the powerful Muslim body, has contended that the apex Court cannot interfere with Muslim personal law since it amounts to judicial legislation'. "Mohammedan law is founded essentially on the Holy Quran and this cannot fall within the purview of the expression 'laws in force' as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution, and hence its validity cannot be tested on a challenge based on Part-III of the Constitution (guaranteeing fundamental rights, including right to equality)," the JUH application filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool said. The JUH's observation into the matter came after Supreme Court yesterday allowed the Islamic body to become a party in a suo motu PIL instituted to deal with various issues including gender bias against Muslim women. A bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi, which had issued notices to the Attorney General and National Legal Services Authority on the PIL, directed the Centre and the organisation to file reply within six weeks. Last year, the Supreme Court had decided to constitute a bench to examine Islamic personal law to do away with provisions biased against Muslim women. The court had said that the the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 that was passed during the Rajiv Gandhi government needed to be examined by a Constitution Bench. A bench of justices AR Dave and AK Goel had requested Chief Justice of India HL Dattu to form a bench to look into the matter to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. The issue had cropped-up during the hearing of a matter related to Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act and the bench had noted that 'an important issue of gender discrimination which though not directly involved in this appeal, has been raised by some of the counsel for the parties which concerns rights to Muslim women. Discussions on gender discrimination led to this issue also'. "It was pointed out that inspite of guarantee of the Constitution, Muslim women are subjected to discrimination. There is no safeguard against arbitrary divorce and second marriage by her husband during currency of the first marriage, resulting in denial of dignity and security to her." In a recent survey conducted by NGO Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), 92 per cent Muslim women in India favoured that practice of oral, unilateral and triple talaq should be banned. India has separate personal laws for each religion that govern marriage, succession, adoption and maintenance. While the Hindu family laws were modified in the 50s, Muslim personal law remained mostly unchanged. Latest India News Follow us on tanzanian woman attack 2 cops suspended 4 more held Bengaluru: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked Karnataka government to take stringent action against the attackers who have allegedly stripped and paraded naked a young Tanzanian woman in sburban Bengaluru, triggering a nationwide outrage and debate on racism in India. If the contents of the report are true, the incident would amount to a serious violation of human rights, including racism, said the NHRC. Meanwhile, Tanzanian High Commissioner to India has backed the steps taken by the government in connection with the case here even as four more persons were arrested and two police officials suspended. Flying in from Delhi, a team from comprising Tanzanian envoy John W H Kijazi, also the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps, and External Affairs Ministry officials today met state officials to get their account and African students in a confidence building measure. Emerging after meeting state Home Minister G Parameshwara and Home Department officials, Kijazi said,"We are very much impressed with the action already taken." "We must focus on the future. We believe that the local communities and the African community can live in harmony," he said. To a question if he was ruling out racism, the envoy said, "We have not come here to discuss the issues of racism.I am looking at the current situation and the future." If the contents of the report are true, the incident would amount to a serious violation of human rights, including racism, said the NHRC. Nine persons, including four last night, have so far been arrested ever since the Sunday night incident in which the 21-year old Tanzanian student faced mob fury in vigilante justice after a Sudanese driving a car in an alleged drunken state struck a couple, killing a woman on the spot. Inspector Pravin Babu had been suspended for dereliction of duty and Constable Manjunath for not taking action even though he was present at the spot, Bengaluru Police Commissioner N S Megharikh said, as police faced intense heat amidst accusations that they did not act promptly and swiftly. The four accused were arrested last night and booked for assault, unlawful assembly, arson, rioting and outraging a woman's modesty, Megharikh said. Police said they were interrogating the suspects and some more people might be arrested. Asked whether one of the arrested was a member of BJP, Megharikh said, "He is a panchayat member. "We are not here to discuss the issues of racism...I think you media people are very much interested in that. Because each one of us got different definition for racism," Kijazi said. "We went into the facts of the situation, and we are very clear that we are very much impressed by the action of the government. Some confidence (building) measures have already been taken so that such incidents do not happen. Some of the officials have been suspended and action initiated against some others." Asked about his message to the students of his country, he said, "Follow the laws of the country. Live in harmony with local people. Respect in the leadership of the state. Respect in the leadership of local communities. But we have a message for local community as well." Upset over the incident, Tanzania had sent a note verbale to India. Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary (States) Partha Sathpathy said the MEA had mandated the team to come here primarily to assist the Tanzanian High Commissioner in his interactions with state government. He said, "We have two basic objectives one is to interact with the state government and find out and try to impress upon them the necessity to take action against the people who were responsible for this horrendous event." "The second objective was to make sure that the government in collaboration with community and the students take the necessary steps so that such incident does not repeat ever again," he said. Stating that they were here with a larger picture in mind, the MEA official said, "we wanted to convey this image, this impression to the foreign student community here, especially our African friends, that we are concerned about their safety and security." "They are always welcome here," he added. He also thanked Karnataka government and its authorities for the cooperation extended in giving "a clearer picture." He said "there is no conflict at all, this is a process in which we are collaborating and working cooperatively so that this event doesn't ever happen again." The team also included Director Eastern and Southern Africa in MEA and the Regional Director of ICCR. Parameshwara said the entire incident and the action taken by the state government was explained to the Tanzanian envoy and the MEA officials. "We have also explained the long-term action plan to them considering the foreign students, particularly the African students, about their safety, peaceful co-existence along with the community and they are convinced about it." Asked about the overstay of foreign students, he said he had asked officials to make verifications in that regard. "We will keep in touch with MEA and respective consulates and instituitions and inform them and take necessarty steps." Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda asked the Karnataka government to form a special squad to keep a watch on foreign students, in the wake of the Sunday incident. Attacking the Congress-led state government for not acting on locals' complaint regarding the "wrong" behaviour of certain foreign students, he sought the Central government's intervention to find the truth about the assault. He also said that innocent people should not be arrested as was being alleged by the locals. Speaking to reporters after visiting the family of awoman who was mowed down by a car driven by a Sudanese here, which led to the Tanzanian student being attacked, he said, "I have come to know that more than thousands of students are staying here and functioning even after their visa having expired." Facing attack by BJP for being "silent", Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said strict action would be taken in the incident and he had told the Chief Minister that "strict action is to be taken and it will be taken". "I condemn 100 per cent this type of action," Rahul told reporters in New Delhi, adding he spoke to the party General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka to look into the matter and speak to the Chief Minister. Latest India News Follow us on barack obama cites sikhs to talk about strength of faith Washington: US President Barack Obama today cited the humanitarian work done by the Sikh community as he spoke about the strength that comes from uniting all faiths against fear. "When the Earth cleaves in Haiti, Christians, Sikhs, and other faith groups sent volunteers to distribute aid, tend to the wounded, rebuild homes for the homeless," Obama said in his annual address to the national prayer breakfast in the presence of religious and global leaders here. "Whether fighting global poverty or working to end the scourge of human trafficking, you are the leaders of what Pope Francis calls 'this march of living hope'," he said as he mentioned the work done by Sikhs during various natural disasters across the globe. "When Ebola ravaged West Africa, Jewish, Christian, Muslim groups responded to the outbreak to save lives. As the news fanned the flames of fear, churches and mosques responded with a powerful rebuke, welcoming survivors into their pews," Obama said. When nine worshippers were murdered in a Charleston church basement, it was people of all faiths who came together to wrap a shattered community in love and understanding, he said. "When Syrian refugees seek the sanctuary of our shores, it's the faithful from synagogues, mosques, temples, and churches who welcome them, the first to offer blankets and food and open their homes," he said. "Seeing God in others. We are driven to do this because we're driven by the value that so many of our faiths teach us I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper. As Christians, we do this compelled by the Gospel of Jesus the command to love God, and love one another," said the US President. "And so, yes, like every person, there are times where I'm fearful. But my faith and, more importantly, the faith that I've seen in so many of you, the God I see in you, that makes me inevitably hopeful about our future. I have seen so many who know that God has not given us a spirit of fear. He has given us power, and love, and a sound mind," he said. Latest World News Follow us on hopeful of indo pak dialogue moving forward soon nawaz sharif Islamabad: Underlining that "differences" on all outstanding issues, including on Kashmir can be resolved only through talks, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today expressed hope of the comprehensive bilateral dialogue process between Pakistan and India seeing some forward movement in days to come. Addressing a joint session of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's 'assembly' in Muzaffarabad to mark 'Kashmir Solidarity Day', Sharif said that Pakistan is ready to cooperate with India on every matter, including terrorism. "Pakistan is most affected by terrorism. Who wants eradication of terrorism more than Pakistan?" he said. "Difference of opinion between two countries is not unheard of. What is unusual is that for 6-7 decades, we have not been able to get rid of these differences," he said. Sharif said that solution to all outstanding issues with India including Kashmir lies in dialogue. "I brought this up with the Indian leadership and would like to reiterate that the solution to our problems lies in dialogue. Unless we sit together and talk about these issues, they won't be resolved," he said. Ties between India and its neighbour Pakistan have recently witnessed many ups and downs, especially in wake of India's decision to engage in a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue with Pakistan as well as the Patahnakot terror attack. The India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary level talks, scheduled for January 15, were deferred in the wake of the Pathankot air base terror attack, for which India has blamed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and has been seeking action against the terror outfit and its chief Masood Azhar. Sharif said that Pakistan wants peace in entire South Asia, of which Kashmir is an important part. "Pakistan has tried to give a new vision to the region aimed at bringing peace to the area. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a part of these efforts," he was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan. The Prime Minister said that the corridor would benefit the PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan. Announcing 250 million rupees for development projects in PoK, he said many hydro-electricity projects are being initiated in the area and a railway link from Islamabad to Muzaffarabad is in the pipeline. "We want to build a railway link from Islamabad to Muzaffarabad and a highway from Mirpur to Muzaffarabad," Sharif said, adding that a project to construct expressway from Murree to Muzaffarabad is also under consideration. Speaking on the occasion, PoK's 'Prime Minister' Chaudhry Abdul Majeed lauded Sharif for "taking a clear stance on Kashmir in the United Nations." Every year February 5 is observed as 'Kashmir Solidarity Day' in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to pledge support for the people of Kashmir. It is a national holiday in Pakistan. Latest World News Follow us on islamic state looking to spread foothold white house Washington: The Islamic State militant group is trying to capitalize on the political chaos prevailing in certain parts of the world to establish footholds in those areas apart from Iraq and Syria, the US has said. The US has long been mindful of the strategy that ISIL has used to try to capitalize in other areas where there's political chaos to establish a foothold, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Thursday. We saw that that's what they were able to successfully do in Syria. And again, that's why we continue to go back to the failed leadership of Bashar al-Assad as the root cause of this chaos and ISIL's growth, he said. And we saw they capitalized on some weakness and instability inside of Iraq to spread there. So we've been mindful of the fact that they might be looking to spread other places, like Libya and even like Afghanistan, Earnest said. We are going to continue to do that. We're going to continue to watch how the threat in Libya evolves, and we're going to continue to be prepared to take action, he said. As per the latest White House assessment, the number of fighters fighting on behalf of ISIL in Iraq and in Syria has come down from 31,500 to 25,000 fighters now. Now, that means they continue to be a substantial threat, but the potential numbers have declined. And that's a testament to the efforts of our partners on the ground who are taking the fight to ISIL, Earnest said. The United States and our coalition partners have taken a number of air strikes that have taken a number of ISIL fighters off the battlefield. ISIL is having more difficult than they've had before in replenishing their ranks, he said. According to Earnest, ISIL is trying to establish caliphate inside of Iraq and in Syria. As we apply significant pressure on them there, it will make it harder for them to capitalize on political instability in other places. But right now, we know that they do have that capacity, and that's why we are mindful of the threat that is posed by ISIL in places like Afghanistan and Libya. President Barack Obama is also ready to use military action and to take military action where necessary to take ISIL fighters off the battlefield, he said. Ultimately, a political situation that will be required solve the issue. I think that this is a problem that the next President is going to have to deal with from the very beginning, he said. Latest World News Follow us on foreign troops entering country would return in coffins syria Damascus: In a strongly worded warning directed at Saudi Arabia or other foreign troops entering the country, Syria's foreign minister said today that they would "return home in wooden coffins". The minister further asserted that recent military advances had put his government "on track" to end the five-year-old civil war. Walid al-Moallem's comments capped a week that saw the collapse of the latest U.N-led Syria peace efforts and a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive near the city of Aleppo that sent thousands of residents fleeing toward Turkey. A Turkish official said Saturday that as many as 35,000 Syrians had massed along the closed border. Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of the border province of Kilis, said Turkey would send aid to the displaced, but had no immediate plans to let them in. He said Turkey was prepared to open the gates in the event of an "extraordinary crisis." The Norwegian Refugee Council said thousands of Syrians have arrived at seven of the main informal camps close to the Turkish border. The group said the camps were already at capacity before the latest influx, and that aid groups are working around the clock to deliver tents and essential items to the displaced. In Amsterdam, EU foreign ministers held informal talks Saturday with their Turkish counterpart. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged Turkey to open its borders to the Syrians and said the EU is providing aid to Ankara exactly for such purposes. She said the displaced are "Syrians in need for international protection," and that this was the message delivered in the meeting. Some of the refugees found shelter in Afrin, a Kurdish enclave to Aleppo's north controlled by a militia known as the YPG, said a Kurdish official, Idris Naasan. The militia hoped to prevent a humanitarian disaster and help those stuck at the border, he said. The week had begun on a somewhat hopeful note, with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura declaring the launch of indirect talks between a Syrian government delegation and opposition representatives in Geneva. However, he was forced to adjourn by mid-week, after the opposition said there was no point negotiating while pro-government troops backed by Russian airstrikes escalated attacks and gained ground north of Aleppo, once Syria's largest city. The offensive appeared aimed at encircling strongholds rebels have held in the city since 2012. The breakdown of the talks was followed by a warning from opposition backer Saudi Arabia that it is ready, in principle, to send ground troops to Syria, albeit in the context of the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State extremists who control large areas of Syria and Iraq. Russia's Defense Ministry meanwhile said it had "reasonable grounds" to suspect that Turkey, another opposition ally, is making intensive preparations for a military invasion of Syria. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking during a visit to Senegal on Friday, dismissed the Russian claim as "laughable" and blamed Moscow for the deaths of civilians in Syria. In his news conference Saturday, al-Moallem signaled a newfound confidence on the part of the Syrian government, boosted by growing Russian military support. This week alone, Russian warplanes hit close to 900 targets across Syria, including near Aleppo. The foreign minister said recent territorial gains signal that the war is nearing its end. "I can say, from the achievements for our armed forces ... that we are now on track to end the conflict," he said. "Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed toward the end of the crisis." He called on rebel fighters to "come to their senses" and lay down their weapons. Asked about the possibility of Saudi ground troops entering Syria, he said logic would suggest this is unlikely, but that "with the crazy Saudi leadership nothing is far-fetched." "Any ground intervention in Syria, without the consent of the Syrian government, will be considered an aggression that should be resisted by every Syrian citizen," he said. "I regret to say that they will return home in wooden coffins." He repeated the line three times during the one-hour press conference, saying it applies to anyone who attacks Syria with ground troops. Iran, another military ally of Syria, ridiculed Saudi Arabia. The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as saying he didn't think the Saudis were "brave enough" to send ground troops. "They talk big," Jafari said. "But even if it happens, it won't be bad because they would be definitely defeated." Iran on Saturday held funerals for six soldiers, including a senior Guard commander, Gen. Mohsen Ghajarian, who were killed in northern Syria while fighting alongside government troops. Iran has said it has dispatched military advisers to Syria, but denies sending combat troops. A number of Iranians have been killed in recent months, including several high-ranking commanders. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Syria, has also sent reinforcements to Syria. The Syrian state news agency SANA reported Saturday that a member of Hezbollah's "war media" department, which films military battles for the group, was among those killed in fighting north of Aleppo. The U.N. envoy, de Mistura, has said the Geneva talks should resume by Feb. 25, though it's unclear if the delegations will return. The opposition has accused the government of acting in bad faith by launching the Aleppo offensive in parallel to the start of the talks. Al-Moallem said the Saudi-backed opposition never intended to negotiate seriously. "They did not come to have dialogue, they did not have such orders," he said. The main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, accused Russia of crimes against humanity because of the mass displacement of civilians from Aleppo. In a statement Saturday, the group called on the U.N. Security Council to denounce the Russian actions. (With AP) Latest World News Follow us on twitter shuts down 1 25 000 isis linked accounts New Delhi: Twitter Inc has said that it has shut down 125,000 accounts with alleged links to the dreaded terror organisation Islamic State and other terror outfits in 2015, the company said in a blog post on Friday. The move is being seen as a development on part of the company to strike down at the use of its social media platform to spread the message of hate and terror. The majority of the blocked accounts were said to be linked to extremist groups such as Isis, al-Qaeda and the Islamist Syrian militia the al-Nusra front and some had links to other terror organisations. Reportedly, the social networking giant has increased the size of its teams to monitor the accounts related to terror organisation. The Islamic State has heavily relied on the over 300 million-person site, as well others, to recruit fighters and propagate violent messages. Twitter, an open platform for expression, has discussed the difficulty of striking a balance between the prohibition of certain behaviours and their desire to be a forum for free speech and debate. The company has previously been criticized for improper use of the platform that it provides. However, Twitter is now on its toes to act against such accounts. Recent years have seen an exponential growth of ISIS, with Twitter having unwittingly played a key role in its growth. Major Silicon Valley firms are stepping up their content policy in response to miscreant accounts, resulting in many extremists migrating towards smaller or less monitored platforms in recent months to carry out their propaganda. Latest World News Follow us on julian assange detained arbitrarily should be freed rules un panel Geneva: A human rights panel of the United Nations has said that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained by U.K. and Sweden since December 2010 and he should be freed and compensated. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which falls under the offices of the U.N. human rights chief, made the call in an 18-page document made public on Friday after it had notified Assange. "The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considers that the various forms of deprivation of liberty to which Julian Assange has been subjected constitute a form of arbitrary detention," said panel chairman Seong-Phil Hong in a statement. Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange over allegations of rape stemming from a working visit he made to the country in 2010 when WikiLeaks was attracting international attention for its secret-spilling. Assange has consistently denied the allegations but declined to return to Sweden to meet with prosecutors and eventually sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has lived since June 2012. In an indirect swipe at Sweden's judicial system, the panel noted that Assange was never formally charged in Sweden only placed under preliminary investigation. Citing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that has 168 state parties including both Sweden and Britain, the panel said "the adequate remedy would be to ensure the right of free movement of Mr. Assange and accord him an enforceable right to compensation." The panel's decisions are not binding on states, even if they are generally considered a good arbiter of international law. Both countries rejected the findings in the Assange case. "The statement from the Working Group has no formal impact on the ongoing investigation, according to Swedish law," said Karin Rosander, spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority. She said the prosecutor in charge of the case was travelling and not immediately available for comment on the decision. The panel criticized a "disproportionate" reaction by Swedish prosecutors in issuing a European arrest warrant rather than seeking to question Assange using bilateral agreements with Britain, and insisted that the Swedish prosecutor "refused" to consider other ways of interviewing him compatible with his right to asylum which it said was not properly respected. Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement it would formally contest the panel's opinion. "This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "Julian Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the U.K. The opinion of the U.N. Working Group ignores the facts and the well-recognized protections of the British legal system." It countered that Assange was "voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy." The case has also been complicated by uncertainty surrounding Assange's legal status in the United States. The U.S. government has not revealed whether he has been indicted grand jury proceedings are secret there but has indicated that sensitive investigations into Assange and WikiLeaks have been made. The working group said Assange could face "refoulement" to the United States being handed over to a country where he could face violence or prison. The U.N. upholds the principle of non-refoulement prohibiting that practice. (With AP inputs) Latest World News Follow us on barack obama assures pm modi of steps to address visa fee concerns New Delhi: United States President Barack Obama has assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he will look into India's concerns over the recent move to increase H-1B visa fees. Obama told Prime Minister Modi that his administration would be in touch with the Indian government on issues related to H-1B visas, popular among Indian techies. "I think what the President indicated is this is the type of issue (H-1B) that we have approached through the context of comprehensive immigration reform and so, given his ongoing efforts to work with Congress in pursuit of comprehensive immigration reform, we would be incorporating these types of issues in that process and would be in touch with the Indian government as that moved forward," Deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes told US reporters travelling with Obama. According to reports, Modi had a telephonic conversation with Obama after the later signed into law, on December 18 last year, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016. Responding to a question on the bilateral talks held between the two leaders on Monday, Rhodes acknowledged that India's concerns over certain aspects of the immigration reform were raised at the highest level. "They (Modi and Obama) discussed the ongoing discussions around immigration reform in the United States where there are so many Indian-American and Indian immigrants," he said. "The Indian government raised the issue, as they regularly do. It usually does include the H-1B visa issue. Indians are working in the high-tech sector in the United States, as well as broader India presence in the United States, people who are there on a temporary basis working," he added. In November last year, President Obama had bypassed the Congress to announce the most sweeping reform to fix America's "broken" immigration system to protect millions of illegal workers from deportation. The plan would let parents of US citizens and legal permanent residents remain in the country temporarily, without the threat of deportation. The measure would apply to those who have been in the US for last five years. The executive action, said to be one of the largest measure by a US President on immigration, is expected to help a significant number of Indian techies who currently have to undergo a painful and agonising process of H-1B visas to get legal permanent status (LPR), popularly known as Green Card. With PTI Inputs Follow us on congress demands gujarat cm anandiben patel s ouster in land deal involving daughter New Delhi: The Congress has demanded resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel for allegedly favouring her daughter, Anar Patel, with land near the Gir lion sanctuary at cheap rates in the state. Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said that Patel had, during her tenure as the Revenue Minister in the state government headed by Narendra Modi, allotted land near the Gir lion sanctuary at a throwaway price to business associates of her daughter. Demanding a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe and resignation of the Gujarat CM, Sharma asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to 'come clean' on the issue and sought to know from him whether he was aware of 'clear conflict of interest' of the then Revenue Minister while allocating government land. "Was this allocation based on a Cabinet decision and endorsed by (then) Chief Minister (Modi) and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed?" he said on Friday. "We demand that a SIT monitored by the Supreme Court be established for a time-bound probe in the entire matter. For a fair probe, the Gujarat CM must resign," he added. He also said the issue would definitely be raised in the Budget Session of Parliament as it pertained directly to the Prime Minister 'who has claimed that he has zero tolerance towards corruption'. Quoting information available in public domain, he claimed that in 2010, Gujarat government allotted 250 acres of land next to Gir Lion Sanctuary to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Pvt Ltd for setting up a resort which was allotted at a price of Rs 15 per square metre or Rs 60,000 per acre. "Total price of the land, thus, came to only Rs 1.5 crore whereas the estimated market price of this land was to the tune of Rs 50 lakh per acre -- a total of Rs 125 crore for 250 acres. The company then purchased adjoining agricultural land measuring 172 acres taking the total of land owned by it to 422 acres," he said. As non-farmers are not permitted to purchase agricultural land, the company was granted permission to purchase private agricultural land. In March, 2011, the state government permitted conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural as purchased by the company. He said one of the partners of the company transferred Wildwoods to another company. He alleged that two promoters of the two companies are said to be business partners of Anar Patel. With PTI Inputs Follow us on devendra fadnavis defends nod to prosecute ashok chavan Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today defended the Governor's sanction for prosecuting Congress leader Ashok Chavan in Adarsh scam case, stating the step was taken as per the advice of the state's top law officer and rejected the "vendetta" charge. Governor C Vidyasagar Rao today gave sanction to CBI to prosecute former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in the case, days after the BJP-led state government recommended action against the leader, who is also a Lok Sabha MP. Fadnavis said the opinion of Advocate General was sought on the sanction and the law officer clearly said "such permission should be and could be granted." "CBI said after the last Governor rejected permission to prosecute Ashok Chavan, a new set of facts was discovered which clearly proved quid pro quo, that is, he gave permissions (for construction of 'Adarsh' building) and his close relatives got flats (in the housing society). "Thus, CBI once again asked the Governor to permit it to prosecute Chavan," Fadnavis told PTI. He said the Governor had forwarded the CBI's request to the Council of Ministers for aid and advice, which was in turn sent to the Advocate General. "The Council of Ministers, thus, decided to recommend the Governor to act in accordance with the opinion of AG and the Governor in turn gave his consent to CBI to prosecute (Chavan). Hence, there is no question of political vendetta (as alleged by Chavan)," he said. Fadnavis sought to know why would the Governor or the government refuse sanction to proceed against the Lok Sabha MP from Nanded (who is also President of Congress in Maharashtra), when the central agency has stated that it had evidence of his involvement in the case. "Even when the earlier Governor rejected permission and CBI went to the High Court, stating they don't want to file a chargesheet since Governor had denied sanction, the Court did not accept its plea and directed it to file a chargesheet," Fadnavis said. The erstwhile Congress-NCP government had also accepted the Adarsh Commission report which "clearly stated that Ashok Chavan is guilty". They only protected him in ATR (action taken report), saying CBI is already investigating so government does not need to take action, he added. Follow us on sc tells congress mp adhir ranjan chowdhury to have some dignity and vacate govt bungalow New Delhi: Supreme Court today rejected the plea of Congress lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury against the Delhi High Court order asking him to vacate his government bungalow. The apex court told Chowdhury to ''Have Some Dignity'' and vacate the premises. Chowdhury had said he was forcibly evicted from his bungalow earlier this week. But the government justified the move saying he had overstayed. According to the Directorate of Estate, Mr Chowdhury was overstaying at the 14, New Moti Bagh residence for 19 months since the cancellation of his allotment on June 27, 2014 by the Urban Development Ministry after he had ceased to be a Minister in the Union Council of Ministers. According to the government officials, Chowdhury has been warned multiple times to vacate the house but he ignored the warnings. Earlier, Congress lawmaker sought two or three days' time to shift to the new, smaller accommodation allotted to him on Humayun Road in New Delhi after the Delhi High Court refused to stay his eviction from his ministerial bungalow at New Moti Bagh. Authorities had started the eviction process and disconnected the water and electricity connection to the New Moti Bagh bungalow. Chowdhury called the eviction a political vendetta by the BJP. Chowdhury alleged that the authorities snapped the electrical connection to his bungalow without informing him even when he was there. He claimed that the new accommodation given to him was "not in habitable condition". Mr Chowdhury, a former UPA minister, moved court against the eviction order and attempted to get it stayed by Delhi High Court which, however, did not interfere with the disconnection of utilities and ordered status quo till February 3 morning when it was going to hear the matter. "Since his petition has been dismissed, he has written to us seeking two-three days' time for shifting his belongings to his new house on Humayun Road," said a senior Urban Development Ministry official. The Lok Sabha lawmaker from Murshidabad, who is also the chief of West Bengal Congress Committee, has been allotted a type-VI bungalow at C-1/4 Humayun Road. As a Member of Lok Sabha, Mr Chowdhury is entitled to a Type- VI accommodation. He was allotted an alternative accommodation at C-1/99, Moti Bagh, by the House Committee of Lok Sabha in January, 2015. However, the new allotment was not acceptable to him. Subsequently, he was allotted an independent bungalow at C177, Moti Bagh (Type-6B) on June 1, 2015, but that too was not accepted by the lawmaker. Mr Chowdhury was again allotted a bungalow at C-1/4, Humayun Road, on November 3, 2015 and, after inspection and certification by CPWD, was requested on December 23, 2015, to vacate the Type-8 bungalow and move into the Humayun Road bungalow within 15 days to avoid accumulation of damages and contempt of court. A reminder was also issued to NDMC for disconnection of water and electricity connection to the New Moti Bagh house. Mr Chowdhury moved high court against eviction on January 29 this year and the same was dismissed by the High Court on February 1, 2016. Mr Chowdhury yesterday filed an LPA (Letter Patents Appeal) before another bench against the order of a single bench which was dismissed today. (With inputs from PTI) Follow us on sit must probe all land allotments when modi was cm congress New Delhi/Ahmedabad: Keeping up the pressure over the Gujarat land row, Congress today demanded setting up of a Supreme Court-monitored SIT to go into all allotments of government land during the tenure of Narendra Modi as the state chief minister. "The Special Investigative Team monitored by the Supreme Court should cover all the allotments and grants of public land when Anandiben Patel was the Revenue Minister and Modi was the Chief Minister," party's senior spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters in Delhi. He alleged that there was "plunder" of public land and forest land during Modi's tenure as Chief Minister as they were given for a "pittance" to "corporate cronies" and others without following due procedure. In 2010, Gujarat government is believed to have allotted 250 acres of land next to Gir Lion Sanctuary to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Pvt Ltd (WWRRPL)for setting up a resort which was allotted at a price of Rs 15 per square metre or Rs 60,000 per acre. Asking Modi to "come clean" on the issue, Sharma sought to know from him whether he was aware of "clear conflict of interest" of the then Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel while allocating government land near Gir Lion Sanctuary to the company which allegedly has close business links with her daughter Anar Patel. "Was this allocation based on a Cabinet decision and endorsed by (then) Chief Minister (Modi) and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed?" asked Sharma. In her second Facebook post in two days, Anar Patel admitted that owner of the company which purportedly got the land was her "business partner" in another firm but she had nothing to do with WWRRPL. "I, Anar Patel, am neither a director nor a share holder in WWRRPL, Anil Infraplus and Parshvatexchem. I don't have anything with WWRRPL, anybody can check with government authority," she said. "Indeed, Daksheshbhai (Dakshesh Shah, who owns WWRRPL along with Amol Shripal Seth of Anil Infraplus) is my business partner but that doesn't mean that I am there in all his companies. He is a self-made businessman and is in business since last 22 years," she wrote. "We started a company named "Anar Projects" seven years back with business interest in retails and services. We never took any favour from any government organisation, we strictly followed all rules and regulations in all manners," she said. "Mr. Prime Minister, we ask you - offer yourself for a fair probe so that accountability can be fixed. No Government agency of the Central Government or State Government can be trusted to conduct a probe about this matter when the principal player happens to be a Chief Minister and the former Chief Minister who is now the Prime Minister", the Congress spokesman said. Sharma insisted that a probe is needed as "it is very clear that there was a deliberate, conscious promotion of vested interests at the cost of the State exchequer." Besides, he alleged that the Government then facilitated to the same company purchase of agricultural land which is not allowed. "Permission was given and subsequently, the land-use change was also notified. It is not a question of doing business. You have to be correct and ethical in conducting business. Here is the case of conflict of interest", he said. He said the Prime Minster must answer why as Chief Minister he did not question non-disclosures and also non-determination of prices. He said what has happened in Gujarat in this case and "in many other cases we will come out with details." "If she feels, it is okay, then it would be nothing but laughable. Nobody can self certify for his own actions. It can be issued by SIT or the Supreme Court", he snapped back when told about Anar's claim that that she has not committed any wrong and done in a righteous way and it gives pain to her when the Congress alleges such a thing. Follow us on sushma swaraj leaves for sri lanka New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left here on Friday on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka during which she will attend a meeting of the joint commission of the two South Asian neighbours. "Leaving for Sri Lanka! EAM @SushmaSwaraj departs for the 9th India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission Meeting in Colombo," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. The joint commission is co-chaired by Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera. The India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission was established in 1992 as an effective mechanism to address matters pertaining to bilateral cooperation. Ahead of Swaraj's visit, Swarup said on Thursday that the discussions in Friday's joint commission meeting would cover the entire gamut of the relationship between the two countries. Included in these would be economic cooperation, trade, power and energy, technical and maritime cooperation, social, cultural and educational matters, science and technology, defence cooperation, health, civil aviation, tourism and people-to-people contacts. During the course of her visit, Sushma Swaraj will also call on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe, and former president Chandrika Kumaratunga. On Saturday, the Indian minister will inaugurate a "Rise of Digital India" exhibition as part of "Sangam - Festival of India in Sri Lanka 2015-16". The exhibition will showcase the rise of the computing sector and digital technologies in India. The re-framing of the Sri Lankan constitution and the issue of Indian fishermen might also come up during the course of the discussions between the two sides. Follow us on will prefer principle over power mehbooba mufti on govt formation in j k New Delhi: PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti today indirectly hinted that she will not mind charting a separate course from BJP in Jammu and Kashmir if the central government fails to make commitments' that PDP is pushing for. My father spent 55 years in politics and he always believed in healthy politics. Therefore, if I have to chose between principle' and chair' (power) then I'll definitely go for principle', Mehbooba said while addressing party workers in Jammu. Giving a clear signal that PDP under her leadership may not tread the same path that was followed by late Mufi Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba said, PDP-BJP alliance was not popular either in Jammu or Kashmir. Mufi sahib entered into alliance with BJP only for the sake of state's development. We are not as much of a visionary as Mufti sahib was. For forming government in the state, we need some commitments from the central government. It's not about finances. We need to create right atmosphere. It will be good if that atmosphere is created otherwise things will continue as it is, Mehbooba added. Read Also: Mehbooba Mufti talks tough, wants confidence-building measures from Centre before govt formation Mehbooba's statement assumes significance as it comes just 2 days after she met J&K governor to discuss government formation in the state. This was her first address to PDP workers after her father's demise last month. Today's meeting of PDP workers was also attended by Mehbooba's brother Tassaduq Mufti who she is believed to be grooming for a bigger role in Jammu and Kashmir politics. Is Bernie Sanders A Socialist? The Anti-Empire Report #143 By William Blum February 05, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Self-described socialist How many times have we all read that term in regard to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders? But is he really a socialist? Or is he a social democrat, which is what hed be called in Europe? Or is he a democratic socialist, which is the American party he has been a member of (DSA Democratic Socialists of America)? And does it really matter which one he is? Theyre all socialists, are they not? Why does a person raised in a capitalist society become a socialist? It could be because of a parent or parents who are committed socialists and raise their children that way. But its usually because the person has seen capitalism up close for many years, is turned off by it, and is thus receptive to an alternative. All of us know what the ugly side of capitalism looks like. Here are but a few of the countless examples taken from real life: Following an earthquake or other natural disaster, businesses raise their prices for basic necessities such as batteries, generators, water pumps, tree-removal services, etc. In the face of widespread medical needs, drug and health-care prices soar, while new surgical and medical procedures are patented. The cost of rent increases inexorably regardless of tenants income. Ten thousand types of deception to part the citizens from their hard-earned ages. What do these examples have in common? Its their driving force the profit motive; the desire to maximize profit. Any improvement in the system has to begin with a strong commitment to radically restraining, if not completely eliminating, the profit motive. Otherwise nothing of any significance will change in society, and the capitalists who own the society and their liberal apologists can mouth one progressive-sounding platitude after another as their chauffeur drives them to the bank. But social democrats and democratic socialists have no desire to get rid of the profit motive. Last November, Sanders gave a speech at Georgetown University in Washington about his positive view of democratic socialism, including its place in the policies of presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. In defining what democratic socialism means to him, Sanders said: I dont believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production.1 I personally could live with the neighborhood grocery store remaining in private hands, but larger institutions are always a threat; the larger and richer they are the more tempting and easier it is for them to put profit ahead of the publics welfare, and to purchase politicians. The question of socialism is inseparable from the question of public ownership of the means of production. The question thus facing socialists like Sanders is this: When all your idealistic visions for a more humane, more just, more equitable, and more rational society run head-first into the stone wall of the profit motive which of the two gives way? The most commonly proposed alternative to both government or private control is worker-owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives. Sanders has expressed his support for such systems and there is indeed much to be said about them. But the problem I find is that they will still operate within a capitalist society, which means competition, survival of the fittest; which means that if you cant sell more than your competitors, if you cant make a sufficient net profit on your sales, you will likely be forced to go out of business; and to prevent such a fate, at some point you may very well be forced to do illegal or immoral things against the public; which means back to the present. Eliminating the profit motive in American society would run into a lot less opposition than one might expect. Consciously or unconsciously its already looked down upon to a great extent by numerous individuals and institutions of influence. For example, judges frequently impose lighter sentences upon lawbreakers if they havent actually profited monetarily from their acts. And they forbid others from making a profit from their crimes by selling book or film rights, or interviews. The California Senate enshrined this into law in 1994, one which directs that any such income of criminals convicted of serious crimes be placed into a trust fund for the benefit of the victims of their crimes. It must further be kept in mind that the great majority of Americans, like people everywhere, do not labor for profit, but for a salary. The citizenry may have drifted even further away from the system than all this indicates, for American society seems to have more trust and respect for non-profit organizations than for the profit-seeking kind. Would the public be so generous with disaster relief if the Red Cross were a regular profit-making business? Would the Internal Revenue Service allow it to be tax-exempt? Why does the Post Office give cheaper rates to non-profits and lower rates for books and magazines which dont contain advertising? For an AIDS test, do people feel more confident going to the Public Health Service or to a commercial laboratory? Why does educational or public television not have regular commercials? What would Americans think of peace-corps volunteers, elementary and high-school teachers, clergy, nurses, and social workers who demanded well in excess of $100 thousand per year? Would the public like to see churches competing with each other, complete with ad campaigns selling a New and Improved God? Pervading all these attitudes, and frequently voiced, is a strong disapproval of greed and selfishness, in glaring contradiction to the reality that greed and selfishness form the official and ideological basis of our system. Its almost as if no one remembers how the system is supposed to work any more, or they prefer not to dwell on it. It would appear that, at least on a gut level, Americans have had it up to here with free enterprise. The great irony of it all is that the mass of the American people are not aware that their sundry attitudes constitute an anti-free-enterprise philosophy and thus tend to go on believing the conventional wisdom that government is the problem, that big government is the biggest problem, and that their salvation cometh from the private sector, thereby feeding directly into pro-free-enterprise ideology. Thus it is that those activists for social change who believe that American society is faced with problems so daunting that no corporation or entrepreneur is ever going to solve them at a profit carry the burden of convincing the American people that they dont really believe what they think they believe; and that the publics complementary mindset that the government is no match for the private sector in efficiently getting large and important things done is equally fallacious, for the government has built up an incredible military machine (ignoring for the moment what its used for), landed men on the moon, created great dams, marvelous national parks, an interstate highway system, the peace corps, social security, insurance for bank deposits, protection of pension funds against corporate misuse, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the Smithsonian, the G.I. Bill, and much, much more. In short, the government has been quite good at doing what it wanted to do, or what labor and other movements have made it do, like establishing worker health and safety standards and requiring food manufacturers to list detailed information about ingredients. Activists have to remind the American people of what theyve already learned but seem to have forgotten: that they dont want more government, or less government; they dont want big government, or small government; they want government on their side. Period. Sanders has to clarify his views. What exactly does he mean by socialism? What exactly is the role the profit motive will play in his future society? Mark Brzezinski, son of Zbigniew, was a post-Cold War Fulbright Scholar in Warsaw: I asked my students to define democracy. Expecting a discussion on individual liberties and authentically elected institutions, I was surprised to hear my students respond that to them, democracy means a government obligation to maintain a certain standard of living and to provide health care, education and housing for all. In other words, socialism.2 We should never forget The modern, educated, advanced nation of Iraq was reduced to a virtual failed state the United States, beginning in 1991, bombed for much of the following 12 years, with one dubious excuse after another; then, in 2003, invaded, then occupied, overthrew the government, tortured without inhibition, killed wantonly the people of that unhappy land lost everything their homes, their schools, their electricity, their clean water, their environment, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their state-run enterprises, their physical health, their mental health, their health care, their welfare state, their womens rights, their religious tolerance, their safety, their security, their children, their parents, their past, their present, their future, their lives More than half the population either dead, wounded, traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, or in foreign exile The air, soil, water, blood, and genes drenched with depleted uranium the most awful birth defects unexploded cluster bombs lying in wait for children to pick them up a river of blood running alongside the Euphrates and Tigris through a country that may never be put back together again It is a common refrain among war-weary Iraqis, reported the Washington Post in 2007, that things were better before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.3 The United States has not paid any compensation to Iraq. The United States has not made any apology to Iraq. Foreign policy is even more sensitive a subject in the United States than slavery of the black people and genocide of the Native Americans. The US has apologized for these many times, but virtually never for the crimes of American foreign policy.4 In 2014, George W. Bush, the man most responsible for this holocaust, was living a quiet life in Texas, with a focus on his paintings. Im trying to leave something behind, he said.5 Yes, he has certainly done that mountains of rubble for one thing; rubble that once was cities and towns. His legacy also includes the charming Islamic State. Ah, but Georgie Boy is an artiste. We need a trial to judge all those who bear significant responsibility for the past century the most murderous and ecologically destructive in human history. We could call it the war, air and fiscal crimes tribunal and we could put politicians and CEOs and major media owners in the dock with earphones like Eichmann and make them listen to the evidence of how they killed millions of people and almost murdered the planet and made most of us far more miserable than we needed to be. Of course, we wouldnt have time to go after them one by one. Wed have to lump Wall Street investment bankers in one trial, the Council on Foreign Relations in another, and any remaining Harvard Business School or Yale Law graduates in a third. We dont need this for retribution, only for edification. So there would be no capital punishment, but rather banishment to an overseas Nike factory with a vow of perpetual silence.6 On March 2, 2014 US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Russias incredible act of aggression in Ukraine. You just dont in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext. Iraq 2003 was in the 21st century. The pretext was completely trumped up. Senator John Kerry voted for it. Nice moral authority you have there, John. On the same occasion, concerning Ukraine, President Obama spoke of the principle that no country has the right to send in troops to another country unprovoked.7 Do our leaders have no memory or do they think weve all lost ours? Does Obama avoid prosecuting the Bush-Cheney gang because he wants to have the same rights to commit war crimes? The excuse he gives for his inaction is so lame that if George W. had used it people would not hesitate to laugh. On about five occasions, in reply to questions about why his administration has not prosecuted the like of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al. for mass murder, torture and other war crimes, former law professor Obama has stated: I prefer to look forward rather than backwards. Picture a defendant before a judge asking to be found innocent on such grounds. It simply makes laws, law enforcement, crime, justice, and facts irrelevant. Picture Chelsea Manning and other whistleblowers using this argument. Picture the reaction to this by Barack Obama, who has become the leading persecutor of whistleblowers in American history. Noam Chomsky has observed: If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged. It appears that the German and Japanese people only relinquished their imperial culture and mindset when they were bombed back to the stone age during World War II. Something similar may be the only cure for the same pathology that is embedded into the very social fabric of the United States. The US is now a full-blown pathological society. There is no other wonder drug to deal with American-exceptionalism-itis. William Blum is an author, historian, and U.S. foreign policy critic. He is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II and Rogue State: A Guide to the Worlds Only Superpower, among others. Notes - 1) Senator Bernie Sanders on Democratic Socialism in the United States,, November 19, 2015. 2) Los Angeles Times, September 2, 1994. 3) Washington Post, May 5, 2007. 4) William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the Worlds Only Superpower, chapter 25. 5) New York Times, September 16, 2014. 6) Sam Smith of Maine, formerly of Washington, DC. 7) Reuters, March 3, 2014. Peace Talks Paused After Putins Triumph in Aleppo By Mike Whitney This is the beginning of the end of jihadi presence in Aleppo. After 4 years of war and terror, people can finally see the end in sight. Edward Dark, Twitter, Moon of Alabama February 05, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Counterpunch " - A last ditch effort to stop a Russian-led military offensive in northern Syria ended in failure on Wednesday when the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) backed by the National Defense Forces (NDF) and heavy Russian air cover broke a 40-month siege on the villages of Nubl and al-Zahra in northwestern Aleppo province. The Obama administration had hoped that it could forestall the onslaught by cobbling together an eleventh-hour ceasefire agreement at the Geneva peace talks. But when the news that Syrian armored units had crashed through al Nusras defenses and forced the jihadists to retreat, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura suspended the negotiations tacitly acknowledging that the mission had failed. I have indicated from the first day that I wont talk for the sake of talking, the envoy told reporters, saying he needed immediate help from international backers led by the United States and Russia, which are supporting opposite sides of a war that has also drawn in regional powers. (Reuters) De Mistura then announced a temporary pause in the stillborn negotiations which had only formally begun just hours earlier. Developments on the battlefield had convinced the Italian-Swedish diplomat that it was pointless to continue while government forces were effecting a solution through military means. After months of grinding away at enemy positions across the country, the Russian strategy has begun to bear fruit. Loyalist ground forces have made great strides on the battlefield rolling back the war-weary insurgents on virtually all fronts. A broad swathe of the Turkish border is now under SAA control while the ubiquitous Russian bombers continue to inflict heavy losses on demoralized anti-regime militants. Wednesdays lightening attack on the strategic towns of Nubl and Zahraa was just the icing on the cake. The bold maneuver severed critical supply-lines to Turkey while tightening the military noose around the countrys largest city leaving hundreds of terrorists stranded in a battered cauldron with no way out. For the last two weeks, the Obama team has been following developments on the ground with growing concern. This is why Secretary of State John Kerry hurriedly assembled a diplomatic mission to convene emergency peace talks in Geneva despite the fact that the various participants had not even agreed to attend. A sense of urgency bordering on panic was palpable from the onset. The goal was never to achieve a negotiated settlement or an honorable peace, but (as Foreign Policy magazine noted) to implement a broad freeze over the whole province of Aleppo, which would then be replicated in other regions later. This was the real objective, to stop the bleeding any way possible and prevent the inevitable encirclement of Aleppo. The recapturing of Nubl and Zahraa leaves the jihadists with just one route for transporting weapons, food and fuel to their urban stronghold. When loyalist forces break the blockade at Bab al Hawa to the northeast, the loop will be closed, the perimeter will tighten, the cauldron will be split into smaller enclaves within the city, and the terrorists will either surrender or face certain annihilation. Wednesdays triumph by the Russian-led coalition is a sign that that day may be approaching sooner than anyone had anticipated. Its worth noting, that a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Michael OHanlon whose plan to deconstruct Syria by using moderate elements to produce autonomous zonesadvised Obama and Kerry not to pursue the failed logic of the current Syria peace talks but to explore a confederal model and seek buy-in from as many key players and allies as possible. In other words, the main architect of the US plan to break up Syria into smaller areas, (controlled by local militias, warlords and jihadists) thought the peace talks were doomed from the very beginning. According to OHanlon the US needs to commit 20,000 combat troops with the right political model for maintaining occupation. The Brookings analyst says that Any ceasefire that Kerry could negotiatewould be built on a foundation of sand for the mere fact that the moderate forces it would support would be much weaker than either the SAA or ISIS. That means there would be no way to enforce the final settlement and no army strong enough to establish the authority of the new unity government. OHanlons comments suggest western elites are deeply divided over Syria. The hawks are still pushing for more intervention, greater US, EU, and NATO involvement, and American and allied boots on the ground to occupy the country for an undetermined amount of time. In contrast, the Obama administration wants to minimize its commitment while trying desperately to placate its critics. That means Syrias troubles could resurface again in the future when Obama steps down and a new president pursues a more muscular strategy. A number of powerful people in the ruling establishment are as determined-as-ever to partition Syria and install a US puppet in Damascus. Thats not going to change. The Russian-led coalition has a small window for concluding its operations, eliminating the terrorists, and reestablishing security across the country. Ending the war as soon as possible, while creating a safe environment for Syrian refugees to return home, is the best way to reduce the threat of escalation and discourage future US adventurism. But Putin will have to move fast for the plan to work. Excerpts from: Deconstructing Syria: A new strategy for Americas most hopeless war, Michael O Hanlon, Brookings Institute. Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com. Terrifying Ted and his Ultra-Conservative Vision for America By Garry Leech February 05, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Perhaps nothing captures the imperialist arrogance of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz more succinctly than his campaigns statement declaring, What is best for America is best for the world. In addition to the obvious issue that billions of people around the world might disagree with Cruz on this point is the fact that it is not at all clear that the Republican presidential candidates proposed policies are even best for most Americans. But given his victory this past week in the Iowa caucus, Cruzs ultra-conservative views can no longer be ignored while mainstream and progressive pundits busy themselves dissecting the bombastic rhetoric of the far less scary Donald Trump. In contrast to most candidates that run for president, Ted Cruz has a clear vision for the future of the country. The problem for many Americans is that it is a terrifying vision. It is a vision that is imperialist, racist, sexist, classist and homophobic. For instance, Cruz proposes building a giant wall across the US-Mexico border in addition to using high-tech measures to keep out illegal immigrants while allowing corporate labor needs to dictate the flow of legal immigrants into the country. In addition to strengthening the military to ensure US hegemony around the globe, he also vows to boost US military support for Israel and to withhold funding from the United Nations if it continues its anti-Israel bias. On the domestic front, Cruz is calling for a flat tax that will benefit the rich and gut government social spending. He has also vowed to curtail womens rights by stating that he will order the attorney general to investigate Planned Parenthood on his first day as president. And he opposes same-sex marriage, declaring that marriage is a sacrament between one man and one woman. Finally, Cruz would not only fail to address climate change, which he views as a hoax, he would promote expanded oil and gas production. Given that these policy proposals make Cruz one of the most conservative presidential contenders in decades, it would behoove us to take a closer at them. The new Republican frontrunner has proposed a border wall be built along the US-Mexico border to keep out so-called illegal immigrants. To this end he also intends to triple the size of the Border Patrol and put in place a biometric entry-exit system. Additionally, Cruz will scrap Obamas amnesty and seek a five-year minimum prison sentence for those who illegally re-enter the United States. As for legal immigration, foreigners will only be allowed to enter the United States when Corporate America is running short of workers, an approach that is a far cry from the compassionate and humanitarian refrain, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. Ultimately, such a repressive approach is not sustainable because it addresses the symptoms and not the cause of illegal immigration. One of the principal causes of immigrationand terrorismis the global free market economic model, and the Republican candidate has vowed to address this cause by strengthening the US military in order to defend this model. According to Cruz, he will have the right as president to dictate to the rest of the world how they should live because, as his campaign states, The United States of America is the exceptional nation, the nation other countries aspire to be like. We should stand as a shining beacon of what free people enjoying a free market and system of government can achieve. And if the free people of other nations should decide that they dont want to live in a free market under a US-style liberal democratic government then we will just have to force them to because they simply dont know whats best for them. In actuality, Cruz doesnt really care about their freedom anyway. Upon assuming office he intends to prioritize American national security interests in every instance by strengthening the military to ensure the continuation of US imperialism throughout the globe. He also advocates boosting US military ties with Israel, which already receives approximately a quarter of all US foreign aid. According to Cruz, Americas security is significantly enhanced by a strong Israel. It is unclear how a strong Israel enhances the security of the United States given that US support for Israel is one of the principal grievances of not only terrorist groups in the Middle East but of an overwhelming majority of the people in that part of the world. In addition to militarily supporting Israel, Cruz intends to back the Jewish state politically by withholding funding from the United Nations if it continues to condemn Israels illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. He has also pledged to cut federal funding to any US universities that join the global campaign to boycott the Jewish state because of its repeated violations of international law. It is likely his promise to increase military support for Israel is linked to his pledge to throw out Obamas nuclear agreement with Iran as soon as he reaches the Oval Office, which would leave him few options besides the military one for dealing with that country. Meanwhile, domestically, Cruz aims to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by implementing a flat 10 percent income tax. While the IRS is not a loved institution by any means, such a policy would not only eliminate it, but also many social programs. The primary beneficiaries of a flat tax would be wealthy Americans whod see their income tax rate plummet from the current 40 percent to 10 percent. Meanwhile, the average American workers tax rate would only drop by five percent. Clearly, Cruz has not learned from the mistake made by Britains former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was ousted from power after she tried to introduce a flat tax. The resulting loss in government revenues from a flat tax would inevitably lead to cuts in government programs and, given that Cruz intends to increase funding for the military, it would mean that social programs that benefit lower-income Americans would have to be gutted. The first social program that Cruz intends to eliminate is Obamacare. But unlike Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who wants to replace Obamacare with a more comprehensive universal healthcare plan, Cruz simply wants to scrap it and rely on a market-based system that has left fifty million Americans without affordable health coverage. With regard to the economy, Cruz seeks to unleash economic prosperity in the United States through the Great American Energy Renaissance. This renaissance has nothing to do with shifting the country towards renewable energy sources; rather it seeks to reinvigorate the fossil fuel industry by promoting oil and natural gas exploration and production. To this end, Cruz vows to approve the Keystone Pipeline and remove federal impediments to energy exploration. Cruz isnt concerned about the consequences of his energy policies for the environment because he doesnt believe that human activity contributes to climate change. The conservative Southern Baptist claims that global warming alarmists act with a religious fervor that shows how climate change is not science. Its religion. And speaking of religion, it is a driving force of Cruzs policy agenda. He uses his religious views to justify targeting both women and queers. Marriage is a sacrament between one man and one woman, it has strengthened societies for millennia, and we must uphold the truth of marriage, his campaign literature states. It goes on to declare, Extreme leftists are trying to extinguish these most fundamental, God-given rights. Cruz believes that these God-given rights mean that only heterosexual couples can value authentic companionship and intimate connection and that homosexuality is a choice. Accordingly, he has fought against the right of federal judges to rule in favor of same-sex marriage. The Republican frontrunner has also repeatedly sought to restrict womens access to abortion through legislation and through attempts to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood. In fact, he vows that, if elected, one of the first things he will do on his first day in office is order the attorney general to investigate Planned Parenthood. Cruzs religious fervor is also evident in his campaigns declaration that Our rights do not come from government. They come from God. Accordingly, Cruz was instrumental in ensuring that the Supreme Court did not remove the words under God from the Pledge of Allegiance. Cruz is also an opponent of gun control and a staunch defender of his interpretation of the Second Amendment. In reference to his defense of our right to bear arms, Cruzs campaign states, When citizens cease to have the right to defend ourselves, we cease to be free. And now, more than ever, as radical Islamic terrorists seek to attack Americans on our own soil, Americans right to protect our families and communities is all the more critical to our safety and freedom. If Cruz is seriously concerned with the safety of US citizens then it is Americans and not foreign terrorists that he should be worried about. After all, the number of Americans killed on US soil by radical Islamic terrorists is miniscule in comparison to the more than 10,000 Americans who are killed by their gun-wielding fellow Americans every year. The Federal Government has vowed not to relent in its battle against corruption, saying the anti-graft campaign is crucial to the survival of the nation. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the remark yesterday in Lagos when he paid a courtesy visit to the headquarters of Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation newspaper. Debunking allegations that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari does not have respect for the rule of law, the minister said: In this Administrations battle against corruption, we have also been accused of not respecting the rule of law. I make bold to say that this is not true. The mere fact that those who have been accused of corruption are having their day in court is a reflection of our respect for the rule of law. We will continue to ensure a strict adherence to the rule of law in our anti-corruption effort and, indeed in all aspects of governance. But make no mistake about it, this government will not relent in its battle against corruption, and within the confines of the law, irrespective of what anyone may say. This is because for our nation, it is a war of survival. Today, in our country, corruption is on first line charge. Thats how serious it is. The good news is that Nigeria is so fortunate to have at the helm of affairs, at this time, a leader of impeccable character, proven integrity, courage, dedication and love of country. We intend to leverage this in our fight against corruption. We need the support of the media to ensure the success of this fight. As I have said at different fora, we consider the media as our partners. When we launched the National Security Awareness Campaign Against Terrorism, the media were at the vanguard and, thanks to them, we are achieving our objectives of rallying the support of the citizenry for the war. In fact, I can say that Nigerians are now taking ownership of the war, and I must commend the media for partnering with us in this campaign. Some have said that we are dwelling only on corruption to the detriment of other sectors. Our response is that if corruption is not tamed, nothing else we do will work. Imagine fetching buckets and buckets of water and pouring them into a basket. Not a drop of the water will be retained. But the moment the basket is replaced with, say a basin, even one bucket of water will amount to something. Seeking to uplift the economy without fighting corruption is akin to pouring water into a basket. That is why we will not stop talking about corruption. Calling on the media to partner with the Federal Government in executing the National Sensitization Campaign Against Corruption programme, Mr. Mohammed said: Those who have looted our common wealth are powerful. They own newspapers, whether online or offline, they own radio and television stations. They are awash with cash and they have a huge army of supporters. But they are not more than the 170 million Nigerians who have been bearing the brunt of the looting of the treasury in terms of the absence of the dividends of democracy, especially upgraded infrastructure, good education, as well as good and affordable health care. Our strategy in sensitising our people is to dwell on the cost of corruption, rather than talking about it in the abstract. When we release figures of the huge sums of money that have been looted, we did not do that to vilify anyone. Rather, our intention is to give Nigerians a different perspective to the anti-graft battle. Thats why we did not mention names, even though we have all the names. He added: Recall that at the launch of the National Sensitization Campaign against Corruption, I did disclose that 55 Nigerians allegedly stole a total of 1.34 trillion Naira between 2006 and 2013. I also said if only we could recover just one third of the looted funds, we will be able to construct 635 kilometres of dual-carriage way; build 183 schools; educate 3,974 children from primary to tertiary level at the cost of 25.24 million per child, build 20,062 units of 2-bedroom housing units and build one ultra-modern hospital in each of the 36 states of the Federation. Now, because that money was looted and had not been returned to the government coffers, we could not do any of those things enumerated above. That is the cost of corruption. The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has warned the Niger Delta militants and the separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) not to engage in acts capable of threatening the peace and unity of the country, or embark on acts of sabotage against the Nigerian state. In a release signed by its spokesperson, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, the DHQ warned that the military and other security agencies will not condone any acts by individuals or group that is capable of breaching the security and economy of the Niger Delta or in any part of the country. This is because; the nations interest is above that of individual or groups interest, it said. While acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression and association, the DHQ pointed out that the same constitution also frowns against individuals or groups hiding under it to stir up trouble and insecurity in the land. Any individual or groups who have genuine complain or grievances should use the available means of dialogue for amicable resolution but certainly not violence, as it will not be tolerated, the statement said. Eight passengers were rescued when a commercial boat with 10 people onboard capsized in Badagry area of Lagos on Saturday. The incident occurred around 10.30A.M with the boat operator and a woman, still unaccounted for and feared drowned. The latest incident came less than a week after a similar incident occurred at Ibeshi in the Ikorodu area of the state, where seven people drowned. Rescuers from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the marine police and local divers were combing the waterways on Saturday afternoon in search of the missing two persons. The spokesperson of NEMA in the South West region, Ibrahim Farinloye, said the boat ran over a submerged log, causing it to capsize and throw all the 10 persons inside overboard. The boat was said to be heading to Badagry. Farinloye added that only four passengers on board the ill-fated boat wore their life jackets. He said: We have always advised commercial boat operators to ensure that all their passengers put on life jackets before leaving any jetty. The chairman of the jetty has reported at the office of the marine police in Badagry. The boat took off from Idagba in Ojo with ten passengers. The operator dropped them at Iworo and picked eight new passengers to go back. It was on his way back that the boat capsized. General Manager of LASEMA, Michael Akindele disclosed that the boat capsized around Iworo Ajido by Aradagun Bus stop, near Badagry. According to Akindele, the agency received the distressed call through the emergency call number of Lagos State at about 10.47am, adding that the agency immediately activated necessary emergency responders. Tinder Bans Users For Campaigning On Behalf Of Bernie Sanders Trending News: Bernie Sanders Supporters Are Using Tinder As A Campaign Tool Why Is This Important? Because who wouldn't swipe right for the 74-year-old socialist senator from Vermont? Long Story Short Two Tinder users were banned by the app for using it to promote Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign. Long Story Many people go on Tinder to feel something a connection, an attachment, sex but it's hard to imagine many go on to "Feel the Bern". A couple of women in Iowa were reportedly banned from the app for campaigning on behalf of Senator Bernie Sanders, according to Reuters. "Do you feel the bern?" read the message from 23-year-old Robyn Gedrich to 60 Tinder users per day. "Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks." Another banned user, 22-year-old Haley Lent, who so happens to be married, told Reuters she'd try and persuade people to vote in the recent Iowa primaries. Both users said they couldn't sign in on Friday. They also never got a date. I'm not banned from tinder yet. Dank tinder convos for Bernie will continue. #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/IHv8futHB7 Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) February 5, 2016 some of these are pretty amusing https://t.co/fGxEgQTBYD pic.twitter.com/MLdCFoAhdY Elizabeth N. Brown (@enbrown) February 5, 2016 Own The Conversation Ask The Big Question: Has Bernie Sanders even heard of Tinder? Disrupt Your Feed: Lesson here: campaigning on Tinder will not get you laid. Drop This Fact: Technically, Tinder isn't being mean here, it's just obeying its own Terms of Use signed by every user, as pointed out by Engadget. In the rules, one cannot send "'junk mail,' 'chain letters,' or unsolicited mass mailing or 'spamming' (or 'spimming,' 'phishing,' 'trolling' or similar activities)." If they do, they're subject to investigation, suspension and/or termination. In an exclusive interview with Peter Okwoche of the BBC, President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that he is unable to prosecute the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deizani Alison-Madueke and other petroleum workers over what he tagged lack of evidence. Peter Okwoche in a series of tweets quoted the President to have said, To prosecute corruption successfully we need evidence. Thats not easy especially in petroleum sector. Buhari had threatened to prosecute all those who dipped their hand into the nations wealth for private use and among those brandished and suspected to be prosecuted is the immediate past petroleum Minister. Buhari unwilling to give up on his search for evidence has unwittingly admitted that there was no form of evidence privy to his government against Mrs. Madueke and as such vindicated her from diverse alleged corrupt malpractices leveled against her by Nigerians. On the report that she is seeking asylum in some foreign countries, in order to avoid been probed, Mrs. Madueke has reiterated in many fora that the consistent malicious and libelous attacks on her person was due to the reforms she brought to the oil and gas sector which was not favorable to some cabals in the country. Let me state it clearly for the records that Nigeria is my country and am not going anywhere. I love my country and I do think that I have done the best for my country. For everything that has a beginning there is an end and that is not a surprise. What is the surprise is the sort of malevolence bordering on personal malicious libel to my person during this period of time. I do believe that I have done the best for Nigeria in this job and I have attained many firsts in the history of oil and gas, especially in the reforms that we have done. In this period of time, I have stepped on many big toes, particularly the feet of the cabal in the industry when we came in. I have said severally that we will open up the industry to all Nigerians and we have, but that is not to the pleasure of certain cabal. And I have been continuously maligned because of this and we have taken millions and in fact, billions of dollars out of the hands of multinationals and their sub-contractors and put them in the hands of Nigerians through Nigerian content. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have come into the oil and gas industry because of our reforms. She stated. Source: BreakingTimes Meek Mill was sentenced today for violating his probation and according to a report by TMZ, he escaped prison. The report below Meek Mill just got the best possible outcome at his sentencing for probation violation zero time behind bars. A Philadelphia judge gave Meek 6 to 12 months in county jail, BUT he will be allowed to serve the time on house arrest. He will do a minimum of 90 days, and wont be able to do his regular job rapping and performing, he can only do charitable work for the community. That ban from work includes releasing any mixtapes. Translation: No new diss tracks aimed at Drake for a while. The judge will reevaluate after 90 days to determine how much longer hell remain under house arrest. Meek had been on probation for a 2009 drug and gun conviction when he skipped town for the AMAs in November without getting written permission from his probation officer. He also failed a pee test. A judge ruled in December he was in violation, despite heartfelt testimony from gf Nicki Minaj and Meeks own waterworks. Nicki was in court on Friday, and was even brought into chambers with Meek and the judge to discuss what kind of charity work hell be doing. Meek has to turn himself in by March 1st, when hell get his ankle monitoring bracelet. Source: TMZ Nigerians seeking asylum in Europe are doing so purely for economic reasons, not because their lives are in danger as often claimed, President Muhammadu Buhari has said. He, therefore, asked those keen on joining the train of migrants to Europe to desist as some Nigerians have already battered the countrys image through their criminal acts in their host countries. Buhari spoke to The Telegraph of London during his visit to England as one of the worlds leaders to take part in the international conference on the Syrian crisis and the ongoing war on terror. Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking, he was quoted as saying. He added: I dont think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home, where their services are required to rebuild the country. According to The Telegraph, only around one in ten of the 13,000 asylum claims lodged by Nigerians in Britain in the last 15 years have been accepted. President Buhari opined that some Nigerians needed to improve their behavior, saying: We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way to salvage that. He also expressed optimism that the UK would not relent in assisting Nigeria to apprehend Nigerians being sought by government for stealing public funds. The legal process in this country is slow, sometimes a little too slow for my liking, he said of the process of apprehending those wanted on corruption charges and trying them. But we still respect the system because we know it is thorough and fair. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Ibe Kachikwu, has given assurance that staff of the state-owned oil company would not be sacked in the ongoing reforms of the NNPC. Kachikwu, who disclosed this to labour union leaders in the oil and gas sector in Abuja yesterday, explained that the Federal Government will rather than reduce its workforce, expand the operations of the NNPC so as to make it competitive. Speaking in the same vein, Deputy President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Achese Igwe, said some concessions had been reached with the Minister on the issue. We are going to vehemently resist any attempt to sack workers. We have advised service companies and multinational firms that are in the act of outsourcing and contracting that this will portend the loss of jobs for Nigerians. We say no to them because that is not what this government is all about. The government today talks about job creation and not job losses. With the current economic challenge we are having in our country, we need not to lose jobs that are already created, Igwe said. The NLC deputy president further stated that Kachikwu had assured labour union officials that there are no plans to cut jobs in the NNPC and its subsidiaries. He said, One of the concrete assurance he has given is that there will be no job losses. He has said there will be job security and he is thinking of expanding the business of the NNPC to be a profit organisation and to also be a world class oil and gas company like Petrobras, Petronas and the rest of them. If you ask me, what is the staff strength of the NNPC and what is the staff strength of Petrobras, Petronas and the rest of them? We are just an inch of the staff strength of these organisations. Most of them have a staff strength of 34,000 personnel and what is the staff strength of NNPC? The entire staff strength of NNPC today is not up 5,000 as the case maybe, and you are talking about these organisations that came after you or almost the same time with you. We have said clearly and I am speaking as the NUPENGASSAN chairman today that any attempt to cause job losses in the oil and gas sector especially at the NNPC, we will definitely react. We will resist it accordingly and we will do it within the framework of what labour union is known for. Excitement filled the air in the ancient town of Iwo in Osun State as former President Olusegun Obasanjo Friday, visited the newly-crowned monarch, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi. The ex-president was received by a mammoth crowd of residents, who were caught unawares by the visit. The security team attached to the former Nigerian leader reportedly had a hectic time creating way for his convoy to gain entry into the palace due to the heavy presence of residents, who thronged the main gate to receive Mr. Obasanjo. Speaking at the palace, the ex-president, who described his visit to the town as a necessity, said his coming was aimed at paying homage to the new monarch and strengthening the existing peace among the Yoruba. Mr. Obasanjo, who also attributed the existing peace, unity, progress and tranquility in Yoruba land to what he regarded as continuous efforts being exhibited by the peace-loving people in the West, said the time had come for all to be united. The former president hailed Yoruba monarchs for maintaining the peaceful coexistence and mutual relationship among the people, saying the main virtues that can make a nation great are peace and love. Describing the new Oluwo as an experienced man and distinguished technocrat, the elder statesman said his emergence as Oluwo of Iwo was a clear manifestation of his sincerity and passion for development. He, therefore, commended the people of the town for brilliantly and painstakingly choosing a man whose antecedents can key into the desired development of his people. The former Nigerian leader advised the monarch to use his exalted position to reposition the town and foster togetherness among his subjects, Yoruba land and Nigeria as a whole. My visit to Iwo is to pay a due homage to the new monarch and as well strengthen the existing peace among we Yorubas, Mr. Obasanjo said. He continued: I am here today to show that we Yorubas are one and as far as we are concerned we shall continue to be more united and mutually fostered. To me, I believe that nothing is as good as living in peace and I also believe that the existing peace in Yoruba land can only be continually enjoyed if we see the need to be our brothers keepers and extend love to one another. To me, Iwo has chosen a right man as king and I am optimistic that his reign will usher in development, peace, unity, progress and tranquility. In view of this, I want the new Oluwo to prioritize peace, unity and togetherness as veritable instruments to culminate all-round success and transformation. Obasanjo, therefore, prayed for continuous peace and tranquility in all parts of Yoruba land, Nigeria, Africa and the entire world. In his remarks, the Oluwo extolled the virtues of the ex-president in keeping peace among the Yoruba nation. Oba Akanbi, who described Mr. Obasanjo as an agent of peace, promised to continuously maintain the existing peace and place Yorubas image on global pages. The monarch, who expressed delight on the visit, said the presence of the ex-president in the town symbolized the high sense of love, peace and unity reigning among the Yorubas. He, therefore, reassured his subjects of his total commitment to turning around the economy of the ancient town for the greater benefit of all and well-being of the entire indigenes. The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has described the Supreme Court judgment of Friday, which went against Senate President Bukola Saraki, as disappointing, surprising and shocking. Saraki had filed an appeal to stop his trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over 13-count false asset declaration charge brought against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) when he was governor of Kwara State in 2003. The apex court, in a unanimous verdict of a seven-man bench led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, dismissed the Senate presidents appeal to stop the trial and asked him to submit himself for prosecution. It said the appeal lacked merit. Reacting to the ruling in a statement yesterday, the Kwara APC spokesperson, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, urged the partys supporters and members to remain calm. The statement reads in part: Kwara APC, therefore, reiterates its position that the ordeal of the Senate President is not an anti-corruption driven case, but a politically-motivated prosecution aimed at undermining the person and the office of the Senate President. Kwara APC acknowledges and appreciates the resilience, loyalty and support shown thus far by our teeming members and supporters. The party urges its members to embrace calmness, peace and tranquility yas the innocence of the Senate President will be proved in due course and justice will prevail over political shenanigans. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for allegedly obstructing its operatives from picking up a Beninese. The senior lawyer, Mr. Ricky Tarfa, was arrested outside the premises of the Lagos High Court in Igbosere area of Lagos State on Friday evening. He was still in custody at the time of filing this report. It was learnt that Mr. Tarfa was arrested for allegedly trying to prevent the anti-graft agency from arresting his clients a Beninese, Granhoue Sourou Nazaire and his Nigerian lawyer, who were on trial for offenses bordering on forgery and conspiracy. The SAN, according to multiple sources, allegedly hid the accused in his car from 12:00 noon till about 5PM in a bid to prevent the anti-graft operatives from re-arresting them after they were granted bail by the court. An EFCC source said Mr. Tarfa, a lawyer with over two decades of experience at the Bar, was subsequently arrested and is currently undergoing interrogation. The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren confirmed the arrest. He said: The SAN is interacting with our team. By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, February 5 , more here -- While othe r member states in the UN have dodged the bullet of losing their right to vote in the General Assembly for non-payment of dues, it seems Libya has not. And Inner City Press keep hearing challenges have been raised to Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi's accreditation as the country's Ambassador. So on February 5 Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: you often read out the honour roll. I guess I want to ask you about a either a dishonour roll or just factual question. Its widely reported that, while others got exemptions, Libya has lost its vote in the GA (General Assembly). And given that given what an oil-rich country it is and given that the UN has a Mission there, one, can you confirm that thats taken place? And, two, I wanted to ask you, has the Secretariat received any correspondence concerning the the, I guess, credentials of Ambassador [Ibrahim] Dabashi? Deputy Spokesman: I dont have anything to report on Ambassador Dabashi. Regarding Libya, we had provided and youll have seen the list of countries that fall under Article 19 for losing their vote. I believe, in recent days, several of them have paid sufficient dues so that they are no longer on that list. But you might need to check with our colleague Dan [Thomas] in the Office of the General Assembly Spokesperson whether Libya is in that category or not . Back on December 11 b efore the UN Security Council met about Libya , hearing a briefing from new envoy Martin Kobler, Inner City Press a sked UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft about a critique of the pending "foreign-dominated" deal. Rycroft said the deal was not rushed, among other things. Periscope here. After the open meeting, Inner City Press asked Libya's loing time diplomat Ibrahim Dabbashi if the deal would be signed. He said yes, but wondered if it would be endorsed by the GNC. He said the Libyan Army should still be supported. After the Council's closed meeting, US Ambassador Samantha Power as Council president for December read these Press Elements: The members of the Security Council welcomed the announcement by the representative of the Libyan political dialogue on the 16th of December target date for the signature of the Libyan political agreement. The members of the SC underlined their support for Special Representative of the Secretary General Kobler, and the UN-facilitated Libyan-led political process, and the effort to reach a rapid agreement on an inclusive and representative government of national accord. Members of the Security Council expressed their concern over Libyas ongoing political security, humanitarian and institutional crises and urged all Libyan parties to unite around a government of national accord, as it prepares to begin the hard work of restoring stability and enabling Libya to take its rightful place in the international community. The members of the Security Council expressed grave concern about the expansion of ISIL in Libya, and its threat to the country and the region. They stressed that a unity government must be formed swiftly to counter this threat and they called on all Libyans to unite their efforts to this end. The members of the Security Council noted that the Rome ministerial on Sunday 13th December will constitute a further opportunity to demonstrate international support for the Libyan political agreement and the formation of a government of national accord. The members of the Security Council noted that the Council remains prepared to designate those who threaten Libyas peace, stability and security or who undermine the successful completion of its political transition. The members of the Security Council reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya. When Bernardino Leon, set for a $1500 a day job with the United Arab Emirates, came to the UN Security Council for the final time on November 5, Inner City Press asked him if he had sought approval from the UN Ethics Office before pur suing the UAE job, if he acknowle dged the conflict of interest and thought it will impact intra-Libya talks. Video here. Leon did not answ er about the UN Ethics office, but conceded that the optics were bad . Video here. On December 7, AP quoted a Libyan-American group quoting an unnamed UN Office of Internal Oversight Services that the UN has assigned an investigator to l'affaire Leon. Excusing double hearsay for a moment, how much credibility does OIOS have? It helped to cover up rape allegations in the Central African Republic against French and UN peacekeepers. More recently OIOS is supposed to be auditing the UN's interactions with two foundations founded by now indicted lobbyists of the UN, Ng Lap Seng's Sun Kian Ip Group and Sheri Yan's Global Sustainability Foundation. Not only have there been no results: senior UN system officials have, as Inner City Press reported, continued cavorting with special advisers to Yan's GSF. So Libyans shouldn't hold their collective breath, for OIOS at least... Back o n November 6, t he day after Leon said "I have decided to request a full clarification of the issue, including from the United Arab Emirates," Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq to WHOM Leon is seeking the clarification: the UN? The UN Security Council Libya Sanctions Committee? V ideo here. Haq replied that the sentence should be view ed as compr ising the view of the Special Representative: Leon. So the UN, contrary to Reuters ' headline, has not asked the UAE for anything. On November 16, Inner City Pr ess asked the UN's lead spok esman Stephane Du jarric , video here, transcript here: Inner City Press: I want to ask something about Burundi. But, since you mentioned the CEB meeting, I want to ask something first on that. It was said after it was revealed that Bernardino Leon had sought this job with the UAE [United Arab Emirates] that the Secretary-General was going to be informing his other envoys, orally and in writing, reminding them of their ethical duties. And Farhan [Haq] said its supposed to come up at the CEB, nothing about the letter. Number one, is any written reminder or something going out to envoys? And, two, are these envoys part of the CEB meeting? Whats the purpose of raising it at the CEB? Spokesman: Its an issue that will be raised at the CEB. Its an issue that will be raised also at the Secretary-Generals next meeting with his senior management group. Its a message that will be put out through various channels for everyone, not just envoys, to ensure that they abide by the letter and by the spirit of the UNs ethics regulations and guidelines. Inner City Press : And the note to correspondents that was sent out for or by Bernardino Leon saying he sought clarification from the UAE, is there a timeline on that? And is there any connection, given that, I mean, its put out as a UN note to correspondents, is the information that comes back from the UAE supposed to be for some anyone other than Bernardino Leon personally? Spokesman: I dont have I think, obviously, thats something we would hope the UAE shares publicly, but I have nothing to add to that. Inner City Press : And on Burundi? Spokesman: Ill come back to you. Inner City Press asked Haq if Ban has yet to remind his envoys in writing about ethics, as lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban would. Haq replied that the issue will come up at the next UN Chief Exec utives Board and Senior Manag ement Gorup meetings. (AFP asked, what are those?) But that is not putting anything in writing to envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on Yemen, on whose outside interests Inner City Pr r ess has exclusively reported. Nor would Haq answer Inner City Press what USG Feltman did from August 27, when he learned of Leon's dealings with the UAE. Leon's predecessor as UN envoy to Libya Tarek Mitri , however, got a formal "N ote" from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, signed by Ban's chief of staff Susan a Malcorra and cc-ed to Under Secretaries General Jeffrey Feltman (Political Affairs), Yu kio Takasu (Management) and Joan Dubinksy (Et hics Office) approving outside activi ty for Mitri, which Inner City Press is putting online here , and embedded below. Among the continuing out side engagements approv ed by Ban Ki-moon were for Mitri to be on the Board of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, in Beirut and Doha. Did Leon g et, or even seek, such a Note from Ban? The leaked emails show that Feltman knew of Leon's job search with the UAE by August 27, at latest. Now after more leaked emails, of the UAE about embargo / san ctions violations and that the UN's Jeff Feltman knew of Leon's UAE job search as of August 27 at l atest, Leon on the evening of November 12 issued this: "I am aware of the report today in the New York Times about Libya and alleged activities in contravention of United Nations Security Council resolutions. In light of this report, I have decided to request a full clarification of the issue, including from the United Arab Emirate (UAE) authorities, as I take time to reflect on the next steps in my professional career." While Leon said that "I " have decided to requ est clarification from the UAE, Reuters reported that the UN is seeking an explanation. But Leon did not say he will share the UAE's explanation with t he UN, mu ch less with the public. And shouldn't the UN Security Council's Libya sanctions committee be seeking the explanation, or asking for action against the UAE? So is Leon no longer taking the UAE job? W hat about Feltman and what he knew? We'll have more on this. UN Gave Ethics Waiver to Libya Envoy Tarek Mitri, ICP's Ethics Q to Leon UNanswered by Matthew Russell Lee FEBRUARY 5, 2016 LONDON, ON The year 2016 was a record breaking one for the Star Wars franchise and its latest edition, The Force Awakens. The Northern Force drag racing team, which gained its namesake from the quote made famous in the early versions of the franchise, May the force be with you., hopes to draw on some of the latest installments good fortune and have an awakening of its own as it eyes the upcoming race season. A lot of people dont know that the name of the team came from the height of the original Star Wars craze, mentioned team driver Jory Elliott. My dads partner with the first Funny Car, Vince Vanni, wanted to capitalize on the success the movie franchise was experiencing at the time, and thanks to a suggestion by my mom, they ultimately landed on Northern Force as the name, which proved to be a really strong marketing play for years to come, even after the Star Wars buzz had worn off. The team is looking to rebound after a very challenging 2015 season. We suffered through a tough 2015 with mechanical gremlins limiting our season to a July fourth conclusion, at which point we only had one round of racing under our belts, noted Elliott. And while theres no doubt that was a tough season, the team comes into 2016 with a fresh perspective on the nature of the beast that is motorsports competition. If last season taught us anything it was that we have to enjoy the good times when theyre good, which weve had plenty of, and that we can persevere in the face of adversity, concluded Elliott. The team, although not having a definitive schedule mapped out at this point, is armed with a strong engine program from Engine Research and Development (ERD), based in their home province of Ontario. Weve always hoped to find an engine builder close to home that could give us the power and reliability that we need out of our engine program, stated team owner Bob Elliott. We definitely saw the horsepower numbers on the dyno this offseason that should translate to strong performance on the track, and we are confident the reliability that were looking for will follow. Just as the force has awoken in a big way for the Star Wars movie franchise, expect big things from the Northern Force team in 2016 both on and off the track. Northern Force Racing Founded in 1981, when team owners Bob and Gloria Elliott purchased their first Funny Car, the Northern Force name became one of the most popular names in drag racing throughout the 80s and early 90s. With Bob at the wheel, and Crew Chief Vince Vanni making the tuning calls, the team led the NHRA national points standings during two separate seasons on the strength of several divisional wins. In 1989, driving John Rossitters Alcohol Funny Car, Bob set the NHRA world speed record for the class, during an event in Florida, at more than 233 miles per hour. Bob also campaigned one of the most successful Jet Funny Cars of the 80s and 90s, frequently setting the world performance standard for the class and being a part of the quickest and fastest side by side contests in class history. In 1993 Bob qualified his Northern Force Nitro Funny Car in, at the time, the quickest and fastest fields in the history of the sport, including a 15th place qualifying position during the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana that year. Bob Elliott was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2011. Since 2010, second generation driver Jory Elliott has been at the controls of the teams race car, garnering two wins over that time, including the IHRA MOPAR Nitro Jam Nationals in 2012, at his home track in Grand Bend, Ontario. For more information about Northern Force Racing visit www.northernforce.com. Media Contact: Jory Elliott T: 519.852.5679 E: jory@joryelliott.com All featured books listed here can be ordered from Wheelers Books - see content profiles and prices - or from Amazon.com . Information on David Robie's other books can be found at Asia Pacific Nework @mirdrag @NHRA GLENDORA, Calif. (Feb. 5, 2016) NHRA officials announced today that Miramichi Dragway, in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada, has joined the NHRA Member Track Network as part of Division 1, the Northeast Division. Located west of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and just south of the Miramichi Airport, Miramichi Dragway has been operating for the past few years as in independent track. We are very excited to enter into this partnership with NHRA, says facility owner Rodolphe Savoie. We have been working hard on upgrades and improvements over the last several years to ensure the sport of drag racing not only survives, but thrives in Eastern Canada, and this partnership serves to further demonstrate our commitment to that. Sportsman racers are the foundation of our sport, and we are pleased to see NHRAs renewed commitment to getting back to their roots. Highlighting the 2016 season at Miramichi Dragway will be the PCRichard.com Northeast Division National Open Series, July 30-31. The track also offers a full complement of drag racing from May through October serving the community with various special events and weekly programs. We are excited to welcome Miramichi Dragway to the Member Track family, said Dave Mohn, NHRA Division 1 Director. The Eastern Canada area is a hot-bed of drag racing and we look forward to many years of success at this track. As an NHRA-sanctioned track, the facility will be eligible to offer racers a variety of NHRA racing opportunities, including the NHRA Summit Racing Series, the NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League, NHRA Jr. Street and the NHRA Drags: Street Legal Style presented by AAA. Additionally, the track has the opportunity to host NHRAs specialty events including the National DRAGSTER Challenge, NHRA Summit King of the Track, and NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League Challenge, where racers compete for the coveted Wally trophy. NHRAs Division 1, the Northeast Division, features tracks from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ney York, New Hampshire, and the Canadian Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Division 1 facilities host NHRA-sanctioned competitions throughout the year along with countless other events for the heartiest of drag racing competitors and fans. For more information including schedules, point standings and more, go to the Division 1 website: www.nhradiv1.com. For more information on Miramichi Dragway and to view their 2016 schedule, please visit www.miramichidragwaypark.com. ABOUT NHRA: Headquartered in Glendora, Calif., NHRA is the primary sanctioning body for the sport of drag racing in the United States. NHRA presents 24 national events featuring the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. NHRA provides competition opportunities for drivers of all levels in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series, NHRA Summit Racing Series and the NHRA Drags: Street Legal Style presented by AAA. NHRA also offers NHRA Jr. Street for teens and the Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League for youth ages 5 to 17. In addition, NHRA owns and operates five racing facilities: Atlanta Dragway in Georgia; Gainesville Raceway in Florida; National Trail Raceway in Ohio; Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis; and Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California. For more information, log on to NHRA.com, or visit the official NHRA pages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Millions welcome the Year of the Monkey; New Hampshire hosts U.S. presidential primary; New York Fashion Week takes to the runway. Markets across much of Asia, including in China and Korea, will be closed in observance of Lunar New Year this coming week, providing a break for investors concerned over cooling growth in China. Macro watchers wont be left hankering though. Among the data releases for the week is Eurostats release of euro zone GDP data ahead of the March ECB meeting. Monday, February 8: In China, nonconsumer segments of the economy will be all but shut down for a week of celebrations welcoming the Year of the Monkey. Throngs of city dwellers will head to their hometowns for celebrations including the annual family reunion dinner and traditions such as deep housecleaning with the idea of sweeping away bad luck to make room for good fortune. One New Years party that officials in Beijing frown upon, however, is the annual Losar celebration in Tibet, which features veneration of the exiled Dalai Lama. Tuesday, February 9: The New Hampshire primary is the first major primary election in the U.S. that produces delegates who select nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties. The events prominence as a proving ground for national election cycles coincided with the rise of televised coverage in the 1950s. The ascendency of war hero Dwight Eisenhower over presumed frontrunner Robert Taft in 1952 cemented the Granite State primarys reputation for political surprises. Wednesday, February 10: New York Fashion Week kicks off a month-long extravaganza that also spans London, Milan and Paris as the fashion worlds movers and shakers take in the collections for spring/summer 2016. The financial stakes for designers at the shows are massive. According to a report from the Joint Economic Committee of U.S. Congress, total fashion spending in the country is in the ballpark of $250 billion. Thursday, February 11: Days after BNP Paribas, Frances largest financial institution, reported a dramatic decline in earnings, local rival Societe Generale Group will announce results for the final quarter of 2015. With concerns over the impact of diminishing returns from European trading business units mounting among investors, last weeks announcement that Societe Generale withdrew from the status of primary dealer for U.K. government bonds suggests that the firm may plan on joining BNP in scaling back risk. Friday, February 12: Eurostat releases preliminary fourth-quarter 2015 estimates for euro zone GDP levels. On the same day Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland will announce growth levels for Germany, the largest national economy in Europe, for the same period. With debt markets increasingly pricing in an expanded asset purchase facility announcement at the March meeting of the European Central Banks Governing Council, the data may have a significant impact on investor sentiment. E arrivata lufficialita, dopo una giornata di voci rincorrenti: per il triennio 2018-2021 sara lemittente Sky a godere dei diritti televisivi per trasmettere, in esclusiva assoluta, le partite non solo delle prossime edizioni dellEuropa League ma anche quelle della massima competizione continentale, la Champions. Un pacchetto da favola per il quale la tv satellitare di Rupert Murdoch avrebbe messo sul piatto unofferta giudicata piu congrua di quella presentata dalla concorrente Mediaset. A dare lannuncio dellaffare concluso e stata la stessa Sky che, in un comunicato, ha spiegato che il nuovo format sviluppato dalla UEFA ci consentira di portare ai nostri abbonati un prodotto rivoluzionario per il calcio europeo in Italia. Per la prima volta la UEFA Champions League e la UEFA Europa League saranno insieme in unesclusiva offerta integrata, che permettera agli appassionati di seguire fino a 7 squadre italiane, mai cosi tante prima dora, impegnate nelle sfide con i migliori club europei. Sky: Rafforzata leadership Anche il livello tecnico dellofferta sara altissimo ed e ancora lemittente a rivelare i dettagli: Continueremo a fare innovazione, trasmettendo le partite piu importanti anche in 4K HDR. Questofferta senza precedenti rafforza la posizione di Sky come leader della programmazione sportiva in Italia ed e anche un altro passo importante di sostegno al calcio italiano. Insomma, per i prossimi tre anni, sara unegemonia totale quella della satellitare sul calcio europeo, avendo mantenuto il pacchetto Europa League (gia sua esclusiva) e affiancandola a quello ancor piu appetibile della Champions League ad appannaggio Mediaset dal 2015 al 2018. Sfida Serie A Ora la sfida fra i due colossi delle trasmissioni sportive si spostera sui diritti televisivi della prossima Serie A, per la quale si e ancora in attesa di un nuovo bando che, come annunciato dal commissario della Lega, Carlo Tavecchio, avra le stesse caratteristiche del precedente, andato pero a vuoto: solo una delle offerte presentate per i cinque pacchetti, infatti, superava la soglia minima richiesta dalla base dasta. Niente di fatto, quindi, anche in virtu della stessa Mediaset che, in sostanza, ha disertato il bando (giudicato inaccettabile) non presentando alcuna offerta. La battaglia, anche in questo caso, sara sulle esclusive: del resto, dopo essersi vista scivolare via una componente importante come la Champions, sulla Serie A Mediaset dara sicuramente battaglia. Panoramica privacy Questo sito web utilizza i cookies per fornire all'utente la miglior esperienza di navigazione possibile. L'informazione dei cookie e memorizzata nel browser dell' utente, svolge funzioni di riconoscimento quando l' utente ritorna nel sito e permette di sapere quali sezioni del sito sono ritenute piu interessanti e utili. What was the most important document published in 1776? Most Americans would probably say "The Declaration of Independence." However, many would argue that Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations had a bigger and more global impact. On March 9, 1776, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationscommonly referred to simply as The Wealth of Nationswas first published. Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher by trade, wrote the book to describe the industrialized capitalist system that was upending the mercantilist system. Mercantilism held that wealth was fixed and finite. The only way to prosper was to hoard gold and place tariffs on products from abroad. According to this theory, nations should sell their goods to other countries while buying nothing in return. Predictably, countries fell into rounds of retaliatory tariffs that choked off international trade. Key Takeaways The central thesis of Smith's The Wealth of Nations is that our individual need to fulfill self-interest results in societal benefit. He called the force behind this fulfillment the invisible hand. Self-interest and the division of labor in an economy result in mutual interdependencies that promote stability and prosperity through the market mechanism. Smith rejected government interference in market activities. He believed that a government's three functions should be to protect national borders, enforce civil law, and engage in public works (e.g., education). 1:23 Adam Smith: The Father of Economics Smith's Primary Thesis The core of Smith's thesis was that humans' natural tendency for self-interest (or in modern terms, looking out for yourself) results in prosperity. Smith argued that by giving everyone the freedom to produce and exchange goods as they pleased (free trade) and opening the markets up to domestic and foreign competition, people's natural self-interest would promote greater prosperity than could stringent government regulations. Smith believed humans ultimately promote public interest through their everyday economic choices. In The Wealth of Nations he wrote: He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. This free-market force which Adam Smith called the invisible hand needed support to bring about its magic. In particular, the market that emerged from an increasing division of labor, both within production processes and throughout society, created a series of mutual interdependencies. These relationships promoted social welfare through individual profit motives. In other words, if you specialize as a baker and produce only bread, you must rely on somebody else for your clothes, your meat, and your beer. Meanwhile, the people that specialize in clothes must rely on you for their bread, and so on. Prosperity emanates from the market that develops when people need goods and services that they can't create themselves. Adam Smith is generally regarded as the father of modern economics. The Invisible Hand The automatic pricing and distribution mechanisms in the economy (Smith's invisible hand) interact directly and indirectly with centralized, top-down planning authorities. Human Nature vs. Government Policy The invisible hand is not an actual, distinguishable entity. Instead, it is the sum of many phenomena that occur naturally when consumers and producers engage in commerce. Smith's insight was one of the most important in the history of economics. It remains one of the chief justifications for free-market ideologies. Modern interpretations of the invisible hand theorem suggest that the means of production and distribution should be privately owned and that if trade occurs unfettered by regulation, in turn, society will flourish organically. These interpretations compete with the concept and function of government. Government is not serendipitous. It is prescriptive and intentional. Politicians, regulators, and those who exercise legal force (such as the courts, police, and military) pursue defined goals through coercion. In contrast, macroeconomic forcessupply and demand, buying and selling, profit and lossoccur voluntarily until government policy inhibits or overrides them. In this sense, it is accurate to conclude that government affects the invisible hand, not the other way around. Government Interference in Free Markets The absence of market mechanisms frustrates government planning. Some economists refer to this as the economic calculation problem. When people and businesses make decisions based on their willingness to pay money for a good or service, that information is captured dynamically in the price mechanism. This, in turn, allocates resources automatically toward the most valued ends. When governments interfere with this process, unwanted shortages and surpluses tend to occur. Consider the massive gas shortages in the United States during the 1970s. The then newly formed Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut production to raise oil prices. The Nixon and Ford administrations responded by introducing price controls to limit the cost of gasoline to American consumers. The goal was to make cheap gas available to the public. Instead, gas stations had no incentive to stay open for more than a few hours. Oil companies had no incentive to increase production domestically. Consumers had every incentive to buy more gasoline than they needed. Large-scale shortages and gas lines resulted. Those gas lines disappeared almost immediately after controls were eliminated and prices were allowed to rise. While some might be tempted to say that the invisible hand limits government, that wouldn't necessarily be correct. Rather, the forces that guide voluntary economic activity toward large societal benefit are the same forces that limit the effectiveness of government intervention. Enlightened self-interest refers to the concept that regard for one's own good prompts a person to assist in promoting the good of others. Smith's Elements of Prosperity Smith believed a nation needed the following three elements to bring about universal prosperity. 1. Enlightened Self-Interest Smith wanted people to practice thrift, hard work, and enlightened self-interest. He thought the practice of enlightened self-interest was natural for the majority of people. In his famous example, a butcher does not supply meat based on good-hearted intentions, but because he profits by selling meat. If the meat he sells is poor, he will not have repeat customers and, thus, no profit. Therefore, it's in the butcher's interest to sell good meat at a price that customers are willing to pay, so that both parties benefit in every transaction. Smith believed that a long term point of view would keep most businesses from abusing customers. When that wasn't enough, he looked to government to enforce laws. Likewise, Smith saw thrift and savings as important virtues, especially when savings were invested. Through investment, industry would have the capital to buy more labor-saving machinery and encourage innovation. This technological leap forward would increase returns on invested capital and raise the overall standard of living. 2. Limited Government Smith saw the responsibilities of the government as being limited to the defense of the nation, universal education, public works (infrastructure such as roads and bridges), the enforcement of legal rights (property rights and contracts), and the punishment of crime. The government should step in when people acted on their short-term interests. It should make and enforce laws against robbery, fraud, and other, similar crimes. Smith cautioned against larger, bureaucratic governments, writing, "there is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people." Smith believed that the role of universal education was to counteract the negative and dulling effects of the division of labor that was a necessary part of industrialization. 3. Solid Currency and Free-Market Economy The third element Smith proposed was a solid currency twinned with free-market principles. By backing currency with hard metals, Smith hoped to curtail the government's ability to depreciate currency by circulating more of it. In turn, this could curb wasteful expenditures (such as spending on wars). With hard currency acting as a check on spending, Smith wanted the government to follow free-market principles. These included keeping taxes low and eliminating tariffs to allow for free trade across borders. He pointed out that tariffs and other taxes only succeeded in making life more expensive for the people while stifling industry and trade abroad. Smiths Theories Overthrow Mercantilism To drive home his point about the damaging nature of tariffs, Smith used the example of making wine in Scotland. He pointed out that good grapes could be grown in Scotland in hothouses. Yet the extra costs of heating would make Scottish wine 30 times more expensive than French wines. It would be far better, he reasoned, to trade something Scotland had in abundance, such as wool, for French wine. France may have had a competitive advantage in producing wine. However, tariffs aimed at creating and protecting a Scottish wine industry would just waste resources and cost the public money. Faults of "The Wealth of Nations" The Wealth of Nations is a seminal book that represents the birth of free-market economics, but it's not without faults. It lacks proper explanations for pricing or a theory of value. Also, Smith failed to see the importance of the entrepreneur in breaking up inefficiencies and creating new markets. Both the opponents of and believers in Adam Smith's free-market capitalism have added to the thesis of The Wealth of Nations. Like any good theory, free-market capitalism gets stronger with each reformulation, whether prompted by friend or foe. Marginal utility, comparative advantage, entrepreneurship, the time-preference theory of interest, monetary theory, and many other pieces have been added to the whole since 1776. There is still work to be done as the size and interconnectedness of the world's economies spur new and unexpected challenges to free-market capitalism. Who Was Adam Smith? Adam Smith was a philosopher and economic theorist born in Scotland in 1723. He's known primarily for his groundbreaking 1776 book on economics called An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Smith introduced the concept that free trade would benefit individuals and society as a whole. He believed that governments should not impose policies that interfered with free trade, domestically and abroad. What Was Smith's Invisible Hand? Adam Smith referred to the natural forces that guided self-interest to fulfill people's and society's needs on its own, without government intervention, as the invisible hand. What Does Free-Market Capitalism Mean? Free-market capitalism is an economic system that supports the free flow of capital and exchange of goods between individuals and nations without governments intervening to control that flow. In a free market, people in the market will price goods and services more effectively than a government. The Bottom Line The publishing of The Wealth of Nations marked the birth of modern capitalism as well as modern economics. Oddly enough, Adam Smith, the champion of the free market, spent the last years of his life as the Commissioner of Customs, responsible for enforcing all the tariffs. He took his work to heart and burned many of his clothes when he discovered they had been smuggled into shops from abroad. Historical irony aside, his invisible hand continues to be a powerful force today. Smith overturned the miserly view of mercantilism and gave us a vision of plenty and freedom for all. The free market he envisioned, though not yet fully realized, may have done more to raise the global standard of living than any other single idea in history. For Bill Ackman, the billionaire head of Pershing Square Capital Management, the first few months of the new year brought about a significant decrease in overall portfolio value. According to Seeking Alpha, Pershing Square saw its value decline from $5.87 billion to $4.83 billion in the first quarter of the year; this constitutes a decline of about 18%. Ackman's portfolio remained highly concentrated, focusing on just seven positions. Below, we'll explore how those positions changed over the course of the first three months of 2018, according to information available via the fund's 13F filing. Pershing Exits Nike, Buys United Technologies Two major changes to the Pershing Square portfolio this quarter included one liquidation and one new position entered. Ackman sold off Nike Inc. (NKE), exiting the position that formerly occupied about 6.22% of the portfolio. It was sold last quarter at prices ranging from $62.50 to $70, depending upon when in the three-month period Pershing Square sold the shares. Ackman had initially entered the position in the previous quarter, buying the stock at a price somewhere between $51 and $65 per share. The only new stake that Pershing Square took on in Q1 of 2018 was in United Technologies Corp. (UTX). United occupies about 5% of the portfolio, according to the 13F, and Ackman bought shares for somewhere between $122 and $138 per share. Ackman Holds Onto Restaurant Brands, Chipotle and ADP Ackman is known for maintaining a condensed and highly concentrated portfolio. As such, his top three holdings account for about two-thirds of his entire 13F portfolio. These three names did not change from the previous quarter, and they include Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR), Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG) and Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP). QSR occupies about 29% of the portfolio and is the single largest position in the 13F filing. Ackman trimmed his holdings by about 8% over the past quarter. ADP, on the other hand, represents about 19% of the fund's holdings, and Pershing Square sold off about 10% of its position in this stock during Q1. Ackman also sold off portions of his other existing stakes, including Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ), a position accounting for about 14% of the fund's portfolio. Pershing Square trimmed its holdings of MDLZ by about 30%. CMG has long been one of the most controversial holdings in Ackman's portfolio. This past quarter, he began and ended the period with the exact same number of shares of this stock; the fund held about 2.8 million as of the end of Q1. Ackman did not increase his positions in any existing names during the first quarter; his only purchase overall was in UTX during this time period. Carl Icahn is the type of investor that commands a great deal of respect from the broader financial world. Icahn's strategies are so widely followed, in fact, that the term "Icahn Lift" was coined to describe the phenomenon of a company's stock price rising after Icahn announces he is beginning an investment. Thus, even when Icahn makes relatively small adjustments to his portfolio, investors around the country watch carefully. The latest round of 13F filings, due to the SEC earlier this week, shows that Icahn made some changes to his holdings, including trimming his stakes in American International Group (AIG) and Xerox (XRX), among others. Icahn Trims AIG Back in the third quarter of 2015, AIG was a very small part of Carl Icahn's portfolio: it occupied just 0.28% of his holdings at that time, according to Seeking Alpha. Since then, the billionaire investor has added substantially to his holdings. Although he trimmed back slightly for Q2 of this year, AIG still stands as 13.75% of his portfolio. Icahn's position is an activist one, with the billionaire owning about 4% of the company. The trimming this quarter constituted about 6% of Icahn's holdings. PayPal Holdings (PYPL) was another stock that Icahn sold off this quarter. Icahn maintains a position in the payment distribution company that amounts to 2.74% of his assets. He has been selling off his position bit by bit over the past year or so. Finally, Icahn made small adjustments to his position in Xerox Corporation this quarter. It is now a 3.64% portion of his portfolio, and Icahn established his holdings in the final quarter of 2015. Icahn controls about 10% of Xerox as of this time, and the billionaire also secured three board seats last year. Icahn Builds Positions in Icahn Enterprises, Carl Icahn added shares to preexisting positions in at least two companies over the course of the past quarter. First, he bought up additional shares of Icahn Enterprises (IEP), a very long-term position that he has continued to buy into over the years. Back in 2013, he held around 98 million shares. At the end of Q2 2017, by contrast, he owned nearly 150 million. Icahn controls more than 0% of this business. Icahn also increased his stake in Freeport-McMoRan, Inc. (FCX) over the past quarter. As of the end of June, FCX occupied about 5.63% of his portfolio. He established the position in the third quarter of 2013, trimming it back a bit in the final quarter of 2016. As of the end of Q2, Icahn owns about 6.3% of this company. All in all, IEP, AIG, and Herbalife (HLF) are the three largest positions in Icahn's portfolio. Agriculture dividend stocks are equities of companies engaged in some aspect of agribusiness and which pay out regular dividends. Agribusiness includes farmers that raise animals and harvest fruits and vegetables, farm equipment manufacturers, processing plants that clean and package livestock for shipping, and chemical producers that develop crop fertilizers. Companies with a history of paying stable dividends at regular intervals tend to be more established and at a more mature stage of their growth cycle, allowing them to return more of their earnings to shareholders. For investors, these companies can provide a stable source of dividend income even if their stock prices decline sharply with the overall market, which has happened in recent months. However, dividends are not necessarily guaranteed, especially in difficult economic times, such as a bear market or recession. Established companies may cut dividend payments if cash is running low. Below, we look at the top agriculture dividend stocks in the Russell 1000 by forward dividend yield. Companies with payout ratios that are either negative or in excess of 100% were excluded, because the dividends of such companies are likely not sustainable. A payout ratio that exceeds 100% or is negative (meaning net income is negative) indicates the company may be borrowing to pay dividends. In these two cases, the dividends are at a relatively greater risk of being cut. Agriculture dividend stocks do not have their own benchmark index, but they are broadly represented by the VanEck Agribusiness ETF (MOO). MOO has outperformed the broader equity market. The index has provided a total return of -3.5% over the past year, above the Russell 1000's total return of -13.1%. These market performance numbers and all statistics below are as of Sept. 15, 2022. Forward dividend yield: 16.26% Payout ratio: 42.09% Price: $125.93 Market cap: $1.3 billion 1-year total return: 148.2% CVR Partners is a company that manufactures and markets nitrogen fertilizer products, which are used to increase the quality and yield of crops. It sells its products on a wholesale basis. CVR Partners' operations include an ammonia unit, a urea ammonium nitrate unit, and a gasifier complex. CVR's latest cash distribution of $10.05 per common unit was paid on Aug. 22, 2022. Forward dividend yield: 8.83% Payout ratio: 38.23% Price: $8.45 Market cap: $10.9 billion 1-year total return: 26.0% ICL Group is an Israel-based specialty minerals and chemicals company. It produces a variety of fertilizer products, salts, flame retardants, food additives, and ingredients for personal care products. Forward dividend yield: 2.74% Payout ratio: 18.39% Price: $91.20 Market cap: $13.9 billion 1-year total return: 14.9% Bunge is a global agribusiness and food company. It supplies and transports agricultural commodities, including sugar, ethanol, wheat, and corn. The company also processes oilseeds and grains. Bunge announced on Aug. 11 a quarterly cash dividend of $0.625 per common share. The dividend is payable on Dec. 2 to shareholders as of Nov. 18, 2022. Forward dividend yield: 2.55% Payout ratio: 16.03% Price: $72.10 Market cap: $25.9 billion 1-year total return: -3.3% Tyson Foods produces a range of frozen and refrigerated beef, pork, chicken, and other food products. The company's operations include breeding stock, contract farmers, feed production, processing, marketing, and transportation. On Aug. 11, Tyson announced a quarterly dividend of $0.46 per share on Class A common stock and $0.414 per share on Class B common stock. The dividends are payable Dec. 15 to shareholders as of Dec. 1, 2022. Forward dividend yield: 2.44% Payout ratio: 76.82% Price: $24.58 Market cap: $1.2 billion 1-year total return: -18.4% Fresh Del Monte Produce is a producer and distributor of a variety of fresh produce and prepared foods worldwide. The company's offerings include bananas, pineapples, melons, and deciduous fruit, among other similar products. The comments, opinions and analyses expressed herein are for informational purposes only and should not be considered individual investment advice or recommendations to invest in any security or to adopt any investment strategy. While we believe the information provided herein is reliable, we do not warrant its accuracy or completeness. The views and strategies described on our content may not be suitable for all investors. Because market and economic conditions are subject to rapid change, all comments, opinions, and analyses contained within our content are rendered as of the date of the posting and may change without notice. The material is not intended as a complete analysis of every material fact regarding any country, region, market, industry, investment, or strategy. The Irish community in North Carolina is rallying to raise funds for Annie Nice, a beloved Raleigh woman originally from Northern Ireland who was seriously injured in a vicious mugging last Tuesday. Nice, 59, was coming home from a meeting to her downtown Raleigh apartment when three young men attacked her as she was walking out of the parking lot. I think they hit me on the back of the head with something because theres a huge lump, she said. Everything was knocked out of me. It was a total black-out shock. I didnt know if Id been hit by a car or what had happened, she told WRAL. The muggers took her bag, including her wallet, cell phone and green card, which the police report valued at $240. However, the muggers also got away with something much more precious to Nice photos of her two sons, who are both deceased. One son, Andrew Britton, was a prolific spy novelist whose books appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. He passed way in 2008 at the age of 27 from an undiagnosed heart condition. Tragically, his younger brother Christopher struggled with severe depression in the wake of his brothers death and took his own life two years later in 2010. Nice also sustained serious injuries during the mugging, which have left her in severe pain, wearing a surgical neck brace and facing the possibility of surgery to correct the ligament damage she suffered as a result of being dragged. She told WNCN that she hopes her attackers are caught. I want my day in court with them," she said. I want their parents to know what they do at night when theyre out. The local Irish community has rallied around Nice, setting up a Pass the Hat for Annie Nice fund via GoFundMe, which has raised almost $20,000 in 8 days to go towards her medical bills. A fundraising event is also planned for tonight. Nice, who was previously the manager of Tir-Na-Nog, a now closed pub and restaurant, had just begun an exciting new chapter, setting up her own event planning business, Irish Mother Productions. Many who have contributed to her fund have noted that Nice has long been a pillar of the Raleigh Irish community, planning events and fundraisers to support various causes. As Nice told WRAL, she also lost her sense of security during the mugging. That is the thing I feel like they took away from me the other night. They took away that sense of security, that wee bit that was mine. However, she also expressed gratitude and amazement at the kindness of the people of Raleigh. This city is amazing. This city has rallied and come around me and wrapped me in a blanket and carried me through this. Im so grateful, so very, very grateful, she said. You can visit the GoFundMe page for Annie Nice by clicking here. The Ireland Funds have announced they have raised $226,203,685 through their Promising Ireland Campaign to assist Irish charities. At its Annual Rugby Luncheon in Dublin, Kieran McLoughlin, President and CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds, announced that $226, 203,685 had been raised to support the work of over 900 outstanding Irish not for profit organizations. The Campaign, effectively an intensification of fundraising, ran from 2009 to the end of 2015 as a response to the increased demand for services from the Irish nonprofit sector at a time of a major reduction in resources. The Campaign's title - Promising Ireland was chosen to reflect The Ireland Funds' pledge to these groups as well as a belief in Ireland's future. The Promising Ireland Campaign was launched with a goal of raising $100 million. When that initial goal was reached ahead of schedule, the Campaigns goal was doubled to $200 million. All funds raised have come from private philanthropic sources around the world. In total, over 11,000 donors from the 12 countries in which The Ireland Funds are active contributed to support Irish charities and causes worldwide. The Campaign enabled The Ireland Funds to treble their annual income and increase their annual grant by five-fold. Over the last 2 years The Ireland Funds have distributed $2 million per month in grants. Commenting, McLoughlin said It is marvelous to witness the power of private philanthropy and its capacity to achieve lasting impact for the public good. Our donors truly stood up for Ireland at a crucial time when the not for profit sector was, in many ways, maintaining Irelands social fabric. However the story of The Ireland Funds is not told through numbers, it is told through the impact on Ireland. The Ireland Funds will continue to build on the momentum of the Campaign to further increase their support of Irish non-profits that are carrying out programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education, and community development around the world. Reflecting on the Campaign, American Ireland Fund Chairman, John Fitzpatrick, said, Through the Campaign, our donors showed their commitment to and belief in Irish charities. The work these do was crucial in helping people through a very difficult period. We are proud of the projects we support and of our donors. Their generosity demonstrates the difference philanthropy makes. Projects assisted by the Promising Ireland Campaign include: Music Generation, Foroige Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Fighting Words, Women for Election, The Early Learning Initiative (ELI), Playhouse Derry, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland and the Little Museum of Dublin. These organizations represent the 900 not-for-profit groups that have benefitted directly from the philanthropic support of The Ireland Funds Promising Ireland Campaign. The 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 visit www.theirelandfunds.org. As the 2016 New York City St. Patricks Day parade gears up for a record number of marchers and, sources tell the Irish Voice, more advertising and sponsorship support than ever before dissent still exists in the ranks of the parades affiliated organizations over the change in the events leadership structure. The chairman of the parades board of directors, Dr. John Lahey, who was elected last June, has attempted to address the concerns of the affiliates this past week, speaking at the annual United Irish Counties dinner in Queens on Friday night, and appearing at an AOH Metropolitan Conference meeting on Sunday afternoon on Long Island. Lahey spoke of the importance of the affiliate groups at the dinner, and spent more than an hour at the AOH meeting answering questions. There is still misinformation out there, a source told the Irish Voice, specifically concerning the alleged sidelining of the affiliates in the parade. On Monday, John Tully, who the affiliates unanimously elected as chairman of the parade boards Parade and Celebration Committee last November, sent a letter to the groups informing them that he and his fellow committee members have not had a role in organizing the 2016 march. Ordinarily the committee would schedule a meeting to distribute information to you about your position in the line of march. This year is different, Tully wrote. Your elected Parade Committee has not been involved in the preparation and communication of the line of march This work has been done by Hilary Beirne. Please direct any questions or concerns about the line of march to him. Your elected Parade Committee will continue to do its best to work with all involved and represent the interests of the affiliated organizations in producing an excellent 2016 parade. Tully was elected to the chairmanship of the Parade and Celebration Committee after the long-time chair, John Dunleavy, stepped down. Dunleavy filed a lawsuit against Lahey last October over the changes in parade management that resulted in Dunleavys demotion from chief parade spokesperson after a board meeting in June. Dunleavy is also the subject of an investigation by the New York State Attorney Generals office over the alleged misuse of parade finances. Because of the ongoing lawsuit filed by Dunleavy in Bronx Supreme Court a new hearing date has been set for March 24 the parades board of directors hasnt officially recognized the November meeting which elected a new slate of officers led by Tully. However, Tully, an attorney, and Lahey, president of Quinnipiac University and the 1997 parade grand marshal, have met on a number of occasions, and Lahey is intent on moving forward while improving relations with the affiliate groups. The group called Concerned Members of the Affiliated Organizations issued a press release last month stating in part, As we celebrate the centenary of the proclamation of the Irish Republic, one of whose key principles was universal suffrage, it is ironic that Dr. Lahey remains steadfast in his determination to disenfranchise the affiliated organizations and eliminate the Parade Committee. Bloody Sunday occurred in Dublin on November 21, 1920. Beginning at 9 a.m. sharp, agents of Michael Collins Squadthe legendary Twelve Apostlesshot dead fourteen agents of the British Secret Service. Later that morning, in the confines of Dublin Castle, Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy, the Commandant and Vice-Command of the Dublin Brigades, were beaten to death along with Conor Clune, a young Gaelic Leaguer up from County Clare. How McKee and Clancy were apprehended by the British is one of the more sordid stories of Bloody Sunday. Read more Michael Collins and the Bloody Sunday massacre The night before Bloody Sunday, McKee and Clancy were meeting with Michael Collins at Vaughans Hotel on Parnell Square to go over details of the morrows actions. Collins, always the perfect Pimpernel, slipped away unnoticed as McKee and Clancy started back to their bed-for-the-night at #36 Lower Gloucester (now renamed Sean MacDiarmada) Street in Dublins famed Nighttown. Unbeknownst to them, they had been followed by John Shankers Ryan, a top British tout. Nighttown and Becky Cooper NighttownAKA The Kips, or Monto because Montgomery Street ran through itwas Dublins Red Light District, made famous by James Joyce in Ulysses. It ran from the Customs House north to Mountjoy Square and extended out to Amiens Street (now Connolly) Station in the east. It is estimated that by 1900 over 1,600 prostitutes worked the carnal trade, servicing everyone from Joyce himself to the Prince of Wales and every British soldier and sailor who passed through Dublin. One of its most colorful characters, Becky Cooper, is still remembered today in song and verse. Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners raucously recalled herand other well-known madamsin Dicey Reilly: Long years ago when men were men and fancied May Oblong Or lovely Becky Cooper or Maggie`s Mary Wong, One woman put them all to shame, just one was worthy of the name, And the name of the dame was Dicey Reilly Joyce disguised Becky as Bella Cohen in the Circes chapter of Ulysses. He also wrote his friendand later foeOliver St. John Gogarty into literary history as the Stately, plump Buck Mulligan of the opening page. Gogarty had a distinguished career as a physician, wit, poet, writer, and politician. He was a personal friend of Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, W.B. Yeats, and a defiant enemy of Eamon de Valera (Every time de Valera contradicts himself, hes right!"). He even went head-to-head with a young Samuel Beckett in a libel suit before fleeing Ireland to spend the last twenty years of his life in New York City. But before he became one of the most famous faces in Dublin he was a client of Becky Cooper, Madam Extraordinaire, and he remembered her fondly: Italys maids are fair to see And Frances maids are willing, But less expensive, tis to me, Beckys for a shilling. Beckys Brother, Shankers Ryan Becky Cooper was one of the most prominent denizens of Nighttown. Her colorful infamy was well deserved, but in the annals of Irish revolutionary history, she had nothing on her brother, John Shankers Ryan. The only thing sure about Ryan was that he worked for the British. He had been in the British army and by 1920 was possibly working for them (or the Dublin Metropolitan Police) as an informer or tout. On Saturday night, November 20th, he trailed McKee and Clancy back to their residence and duly reported his find to Dublin Castle. Forces of the Crown soon arrived and arrested both men and took them back to Dublin Castle. On Sunday morning, as news flooded into the Castle about the assassination of their Secret Service agents, the British turned on McKee, Clancy, and Clune and beat them to death. Officially, the British reported that they had been killed attempting to escape. Michael Collins was outraged. He personally went to the mortuary chapel at the Pro-Cathedral (ironically, also located in Nighttown) and dressed McKee and Clancy in their Volunteer uniforms for the funeral. With everyone in Dublin looking for him, Collins defied logic and attended the funeral, pinning a note of appreciation on his friends coffins. Early in 1921, Collins intelligence office discovered that Shankers Ryan was responsible for the apprehension of McKee and Clancy. Collins set his Squad on Ryan. He was tagged by intelligence agents who soon found that Ryan liked to start his day with an eye-opener at Hynes pub at the corner of Old Glouchester Place and Corporation Street. At 10:30 a.m. on the morning of February 5, 1921 Squad members Paddy Kennedy, Bill Stapelton, and Eddie Byrne entered Hynes pub as Ryan enjoyed his wake-me-up drink. According to T. Ryle Dwyers excellent book, The Squad, Stapelton and Byrne went up to him and asked: You are Ryan? Yes, he replied, and what about it? He was immediately shot dead and the Squad escaped untouched. Michael Collins had sent the ultimate message to any eager informers who wanted to work for the British and fool with his Squad: SPIES BEWARE! Read more Greatest quotes from and about Michael Collins Nighttown No More The end of British occupation in 1922 also signaled the end of Nighttown. There were no British servicemen to service and the turf fell on hard times. Soon the Legion of Mary would collaborate with the new Free State government in eliminating the prostitutes from Nighttown. Buildings were grazed, new homes were built for its impoverished residents, and respectability became the august theme of the Saorstat Eireann. Censorship, in other forms, would follow. They even went so far as to rename the streets, as if changing names would protect the innocent from the districts notorious past. Montgomery Street morphed into Foley Street. Gloucester Street became Sean MacDiarmada Street. Mecklenburgh Street became Tyrone Street, then Railway Street. Mabbot Street became Corporation Street. Then, as the millennium approached, in the irony of ironies, Corporation Street was renamed for one of Nighttowns most famous clients and publicistsit became James Joyce Street, neatly tucked in between Railway and Foley Streets. Joyce would probably think it the perfect salute from his native city. The one street name you wont find within the confines of the erstwhile Nighttown is Shankers Ryan Place. Michael Collins and the Twelve Apostles made sure of that. *Dermot McEvoy is the author of The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising and Irish Miscellany (Skyhorse Publishing). He may be reached at dermotmcevoy50@gmail.com. Follow him at www.dermotmcevoy.com.* *Originally published in 2015, last updated in February 2022. IrishCentral History Love Irish history? Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group. The 94.7m (124m) purchase from Rocket Internet of online food distributors in Spain, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico adds to Just Eats existing operations in those countries. The company entered Mexico last year as it seeks to broaden its presence. The shares rose as much as 11%. The award caps a remarkable turnaround for the company which returned to Cork in 2014 to establish its global headquarters. Recognition of the firms important role within the city, and the staff it has hired since its return, also came on the day it moved to its new home at One Albert Quay. We in Tyco are thrilled to have won Cork Company of the Year. Its been a hugely significant year for us, establishing a global business services centre in Cork, hiring more than 200 highly talented staff and delivering Irelands smartest building at One Albert Quay. Its a wonderful, happy coincidence that we move in on the same day of the award, said Tyco Ireland general manager, Donal Sullivan. Winning these awards truly reinforces our belief that we are doing something that is significant and transformational for Tyco and for Cork. One Albert Quay will become a cluster of world-class companies in its own right and will serve as a talent magnet, not only for Tyco, but for the region generally. I would like to pay tribute to our wonderful staff and our building project team in particular who have done extraordinary work to deliver this project on time. As well as being named the winner of the overall award, Tyco also saw off stiff competition from Laya Healthcare and Mallow-based EPS Group to take home the large company award. Three other business were also recognised, with the spotlight firstly falling on software company Platform Avenue for their win in the emerging company category. Blackpools Teamwork. com claimed the SME of the year title. In the special category excellence in customer engagement Fota Wildlife Park came out on top after seeing off Cork International Hotel and The River Lee Hotel. The awards, which are run in association with Vodafone and media partners the Irish Examiner, saw a host of business leaders in attendance on the night including keynote speaker and Glen Dimplex CEO, Sean ODriscoll. Mr ODriscoll warned against taking the countrys economic recovery for granted and urged leaders to be wary of external shocks that could hamper growth. Cork Chamber president, Barrie OConnell called for political leaders to adopt a prudent approach to managing the countrys finances that would sustain the recovery. He also called for greater efforts to be made to address the countrys housing crisis and for certainty to be provided around key infrastructural projects such as the proposed Cork-Limerick M20 motorway. The achievement of the bureau means that An Garda Siochana now joins an elite group of police organisations in the EU. Bureau chief Detective Superintendent John Nolan said it was hugely important as the bureau could now share forensic data from ballistics to fingerprints with sister agencies in the EU. The awarding of the accreditation by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) means that evidence gathered and analysed by the bureaus laboratories meet expert levels and are acceptable to police and justice systems across the EU. Its quite an elite group, said Adrienne Duff, director of the Irish National Accreditation Board, which carried out the examination using a team of international assessors. Theres not many police forces that have attained this accreditation within the EU. Dr Duff handed the ISO certification to Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan yesterday. The accreditation applies to three specialist laboratories: Fingerprints, ballistics, and documents and handwriting. Det Supt Nolan said it was a momentous day for the Technical Bureau, which is known throughout Ireland for its presence at crime scenes with its officers dressed in white suits. As well as the gathering of evidence from crime scenes, they are responsible for the scientific analysis, and preservation, of evidence. Its hugely important, because we can share our experience, our expertise, and actually our results, said Det Supt Nolan. By reaching this standard it means our justice system, the UK or the French, are satisfied with the evidence were going to provide, if need be, to them. He said the bureaus fingerprint laboratory was at the forefront of EU agencies. Commissioner OSullivan said it was a milestone for An Garda Siochana and that a very small number of police bureaus have this accreditation. Mr Yates, a broadcaster with Newstalk and TV3 who went bankrupt in Wales several years ago, said the action was pointless as his schoolteacher wife, Deirdre, had no assets to hand over. It was completely unnecessary to seek a judgement against Deirdre because there has never been any suggestion that I transferred any assets out of my name either to Deirdre or any other family member, he said. All the assets that I had have been captured by the bank in bankruptcy and all the proceeds of the receivership, the sale of 35 betting shops, went to the bank. Deirdres only asset is a half-share in a dormer bungalow in Enniscorthy that we built when we got married in 1985, which is worth about 80,000. He said the bank already had a charge on the house, which is where his mother lives, and would be entitled to claim it after her death. So unless they want to bankrupt Deirdre in their relentless vindictive pursuit against my family, theres actually no realisable gain for them in taking this course of action, he said. The High Court granted AIB the judgment after rejecting Ms Yates defence that she did not realise that a guarantee she signed in relation to loans for the family bookie company would give the bank the right to pursue her for her family home at Blackstoops, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. Mr Justice Seamus Noonan ruled she had, to his mind, no defence to AIBs case and he granted judgement for 1,648,147. The case arose out of a guarantee Ms Yates gave on April 13, 2010, towards 6.7m in loans for the expansion of the Celtic Bookmakers chain, which was run by her husband. In January 2011, the bank appointed a receiver over Celtic, which went into liquidation. Mr Justice Noonan said Ms Yates had, in opposing the banks application for judgment, claimed her clear understanding was that she signed documents relating to the guarantee for administrative purposes only. However, he said it was clear that she was secretary of Celtic and a shareholder, that she regularly attended meetings with the bank, and was appraised of financial affairs. The defendant is clearly an educated woman and does not purport to suggest she had any particular difficulty in understanding the document, he said. Mr Yates said he and his wife would not be appealing the ruling because they could not afford to but he said they would seek a stay of execution on it as there were significant proceeds due from the sale of Celtic which would go some way to meeting the 1.6m. He said their experience was a cautionary tale for any self-employed entrepreneur, as personal guarantees were presented as mere formalities when they could be ruinous. A lot of people dont realise just how serious signing a personal guarantee is, he said. Throughout the recession, large firms have restructured their debts for tens and hundreds of millions and nobody has lost their home or gone bankrupt, whereas if you give a personal guarantee it is entirely open-ended and AIB will come after you several years later and pursue you to the end. The reason for their move is unclear, although we quickly learn that Matthew is deeply disturbed by 15-year-old Lilys sexual precociousness. When Lily and Tom go missing one night, local policeman Rae (Hugo Weaving) is baffled by their disappearance. Did the siblings simply wander off into the trackless Outback? Was Lily attacked and abducted? Or is Matthew in some way responsible for his childrens absence? Written by Michael Kinirons and directed by Kim Farrant, Strangerland is on one level an atmospheric thriller as Rae investigates a number of suspects who might have played a part in Lily and Toms disappearance. On a deeper level, however, Farrant exhibiting superb control directing her debut feature explores the consequences of repressed sexuality, and the ways in which the suppression of an instinctively natural human need can manifest itself in an unnatural fashion. Its a strong ensemble piece, with Weaving deftly underplaying his role as the taciturn but compassionate cop, and Brown making a memorable debut in her brief turn as Lily. Kidman and Fiennes shoulder the burden of the drama, however, and their portrayal of a marriage cracking under unbearable strain is so compellingly raw as to be almost unwatchable at times. Meanwhile, cinematographer PJ Dillon is the unsung hero, as he somehow manages to capture both the claustrophobic intensity of a small town marinating in suspicion and the exquisitely bleak emptiness of the vast Outback. Trumbo (15A) stars Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, Hollywoods highest earning screenwriter when the story opens in 1947. Blacklisted shortly afterwards by Hollywood studios for his Communist leanings, Trumbo goes into artistic exile, churning out scripts under a nom de plume whilst publicly campaigning against the post-WWII anti-Communist hysteria that smeared names, destroyed careers, and ruined lives. Cranston plays Trumbo (delightfully described by one of his peers as a swimming-pool Soviet) as a charming old rogue who is nevertheless firm in his political beliefs, although his air of put-upon saintliness does grow wearying after a time (the drama might have been better served if Trumbo wasnt always so secure in his convictions). Indeed, writer John McNamara and director Jay Roach apply some very broad strokes to this biopic, as Trumbo and his colleagues, among them Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg), find themselves ranged against an alliance of Hollywoods finest who are campaigning against the insidious Communist threat, an alliance that includes John Wayne (David James Elliott) and the powerful gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren, who exudes malign mischief and steals every scene shes in). Its a fascinating time and story but the rush to sanctify Trumbo results in a rather overlong and self-involved love letter to Hollywoods principles and importance the claim by one character, for example, that movies are the most powerful influence ever invented is the product of an imagination that simply hasnt read enough books. Dads Army (PG) opens in 1944, with the world anticipating an Allied invasion of Nazi-held France. When word arrives in Walmington-on-Sea that a German spy has landed on the south coast, it falls to the doughty men of the local Home Guard, led by Captain Mainwaring (Toby Jones), to save Britain from the dastardly Hun. Fans of the classic 1970s sitcom will know in advance that things will not run smoothly for Mainwaring and his band of old (and some young) fogies, which includes Sergeant Wilson (Bill Nighy), Corporal Jones (Tom Courtenay), Private Godfrey (Michael Gambon), and Private Pike (Blake Harrison). Matters are complicated by the arrival of glamorous journalist Rose Winters (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who is writing a story about the derring-do of the Home Guard, but who soon finds herself the subject of numerous amorous intentions a development that does not endear Mainwaring & Co to their wives and girlfriends. Oliver Parkers direction leans heavily on nostalgia, as might be expected, but theres an undeniably charming aspect to the old codgers who bumble through proceedings like so many geriatric Boy Scouts. Toby Jones steals the show, maintaining Captain Mainwarings cast-iron sense of destiny despite a succession of pratfalls, assaults on his dignity, and ill-advised impressions of Winston Churchill. Strangerland 4/5 Trumbo 3/5 Dads Army 3/5 While the teenagers and 20 somethings are all testosterone charged and a dither, each and everyone of us need to keep romance alive in our everyday lives and its so worth the little effort it takes. It could be your last Rolo or some teenie treat that your dear one loves. A little tiny unexpected surprise can make your heart skip because its meant to. I dont know any lady of any age who isnt charmed by a bunch of flowers or even a little cyclamen or polyanthus, particularly when it comes out of the blue. Of course Valentines Day is associated with roses but how predictable is that and there are another 364 days in the year when you may well get an even more delighted reaction and set their heart a flutter. Remember it doesnt have to be a special occasion to come up with a little surprise which says hey thought youd love them so I picked it up specially for you. If you are hell-bent on bringing on a proposal then you might want to take to the kitchen the way to everyones heart and all that. Theres nothing quite like gorgeous cooking smells for someone to visualise their life stretching out ahead of them and how enticing it would be come home to those aromas every evening! Here are recipes for a few thoroughly unsubtle heart shaped creations. Best Ever Valentines Day Apple Pie Everyones favourite pudding the pastry is made by the creaming method, so people who suffer from hot hands dont have to worry about rubbing in the butter. Serves 812 Pastry 225g (8oz) butter 55g (2oz) caster sugar 2 eggs, free-range if possible 340g (12oz) plain flour, preferably unbleached Filling 675g (1lb) Bramley seedling cooking apples 140g (5oz) sugar 23 cloves egg wash caster sugar, for sprinkling To serve Softly whipped cream Barbados sugar Equipment 30 x 18cm (12 x 7in) roasting tin Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. First make the pastry. Cream the butter and sugar together by hand or in a food mixer. Add the eggs and beat for several minutes. Reduce the speed and mix in the flour. This pastry needs to be chilled for at least one hour otherwise it is difficult to handle. To make the tart, first roll out the pastry to about 3mm (1/8in) thick and use about two-thirds of it to line your tin. Peel, quarter and slice the apples into the tart. Sprinkle with sugar and add the cloves. Cover with a lid of the remaining pastry, seal the edges and decorate with pastry leaves. Brush with egg wash and bake in the oven until the apples are tender, about 45 minutes to one hour. When cooked cut into squares, sprinkle lightly with caster sugar and serve with softly whipped cream and Barbados sugar. Traditional Roast Stuffed Organic Chicken with Fresh Herb Stuffing and Gravy Serves 6 4 - 5 lbs (1.5 - 2.3kg) free range chicken, preferably organic Giblet Stock Giblets (keep the liver for a chicken liver pate), and wish bone 1 thickly sliced carrot 1 thickly sliced onion 1 stick celery, sliced A few parsley stalks and a sprig of thyme Stuffing 1oz (45g) butter 3oz (75g) chopped onion 3-3oz (75-100g) soft white breadcrumbs 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh herbs eg. parsley, thyme, chives and annual marjoram Salt and freshly ground pepper A little soft butter Gravy 1 1 pints (600-900ml) of stock from giblets or chicken stock Garnish Sprigs of flat parsley First remove the wish bone from the neck end of the chicken, this is easily done by lifting back the loose neck, skin and cutting around the wish bone with a small knife tug to remove, this isnt at all essential but it does make carving much easier later on. Tuck the wing tips underneath the chicken to make a neat shape. Put the wish bone, giblets, carrot, onions, celery and herbs into a saucepan. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil, skin and simmer gently while the chicken is roasting. This is the basis of the gravy. Next make the stuffing, sweat the onions gently in the butter in a covered saucepan until soft, 10 minutes approx, then stir in the white bread crumbs, the freshly chopped herbs, a little salt and pepper to taste. Allow it to get quite cold unless you are going to cook the chicken immediately. If necessary wash and dry the cavity of the bird, then season and half fill with stuffing. Season the breast and legs, smear with a little soft butter. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Weigh the chicken and allow about 20 minutes to the pound and 20 minutes over put on middle shelf in oven. Baste a couple of times during the cooking with the buttery juices. The chicken is done when the juices are running clear. To test prick the thickest part at the base of the thigh, hold a spoon underneath to collect the liquid, examine the juices they should be clear. Remove the chicken to a carving dish, keep it warm and allow to rest while you make the gravy. To make the gravy, tilt the roasting tin to one corner and spoon off the surplus fat from the juices and return the roasting pan to the stove. De-glaze the pan juices with the fat free stock from the giblets and bones (you will need 1-1 pints depending on the size of the chicken). Using a whisk, stir and scrape well to dissolve the caramelized meat juices in the roasting pan. Boil it up well, season, and thicken with a little roux if you like (the gravy should not be thick). Taste and correct seasoning, serve in a hot gravy boat. If possible serve the chicken on a nice carving dish surrounded by crispy roast potatoes and some sprigs of flat parsley then arm yourself with a sharp knife and bring it to the table. Carve as best you can and ignore rude remarks if you are still practicing but do try to organise it so that each person gets some brown and some white meat. Serve with gravy and bread sauce. Use the cooked carcass for stock. Roasted Potatoes There are two kinds of roast potatoes those cooked on their own and those cooked around the joint of meat. The latter cook more slowly, dont look quite so perfect but have a delicious soggy bottom rich with the flavour of the roast meat juices. Old potatoes eg. Golden Wonder, Kerrs Pinks or Skerry Champions salt Peel the potatoes, if they are enormous cut in half or quarters dont attempt to wash or worse still soak them in water or they will be wet and soapy when cooked. If you must prepare them ahead then put them into a bowl lined with damp kitchen paper. Cover the top with more wet paper and store in the fridge, they will keep perfectly well this way for several hours. Dry well otherwise they will stick to the tin and youll loose the lovely crusty bit on the base. Tuck the potatoes around the roast in the roasting tin, toss them in the rendered fat, sprinkle with salt, baste and turn occasionally as they cook they will take about an hour depending on the size. Cook lots and serve very hot. Chocolate Fudge Pudding Chocolate puddings run neck and neck with apple tarts as peoples favourite dessert. This one is wickedly rich with a melting texture. It should be moist in the centre, so dont overcook or it or it will be dull. It is also good cold. Serves 6-8 5oz (150g) best quality chocolate (we use 52% cocoa) 5oz (150g) unsalted butter 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 5fl oz (150ml) warm water 3ozs (100g) castor sugar 4 eggs, preferably free range 1oz (25g) self-raising flour pinch of cream of tartar Bextarter To Serve softly whipped cream or creme fraiche Equipment Pie dish, 2 pint (1.1L/) capacity, well greased with a little butter, or 7 individual 3- inch (7.5cm) ramekins Cut up the chocolate into small pieces and melt with the butter in a very low oven or in a Pyrex bowl over hot but not simmering water. As soon as the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat and add the pure vanilla extract, then stir in the warm water and the castor sugar. Continue to mix until the mixture is smooth. Separate the eggs, whisk the yolks into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the sieved flour making sure there are no lumps. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl with a pinch of cream of tartar until it reaches stiff peaks; fold gently into the chocolate mixture and pour into the greased pie dish. Put the pie dish into a bain-marie of hot water and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 160C\\325F\\Gas Mark 3 for a further 15-20 minutes.* It should be firm on top but still soft and fudgy underneath. Cool a little and dredge with icing sugar. Serve warm or cold with softly whipped cream or creme fraiche. * Individual dishes take 8-12 minutes (depending on the size of the ramekins) approx. at 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6. Note Chocolate fudge pudding is also delicious cooked in a Kilner Jar (7.5cm/3 inches diameter) cook in a preheated oven at 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 for 12 minutes. Hot tips Coeur de Neuschatel: On the Pigs Back in the English Market, Cork, has beautiful heart-shaped, camembert style cheese from Normandy now in stock. Tel: 021-4270232 Ballymaloe Cookery School Alumni: Check out Jack Kirwans Sprout Kitchen, the go to juice and smoothie bar at 63 Dawson Street, Dublin. Theres also his Pop Up juice bar at the Avoca shops in Kilmacanogue, Bray, and Suffolk Street in Dublin. A delicious range of fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies and health shots; sproutfoodco.com Small Plate Ideas: The hottest food trend at present also happens to be my favourite way to eat. I often find myself ordering a selection of starters instead of an entree or main course. This enduring trend coincides with our love affair with snacking and allows the diner to mix and match as they please. An appetiser can be a starter; a trio of little plates can make up a meal and provide the opportunity to try lots of dishes on the menu, something new and tempting, or even something scary that one may not have ordered before. Small plates are also perfect for those who may have a concern about the price point without the potential of a wallet-busting experience. On Friday, February 19, at the Ballymaloe Cookery School you will be inspired by a whole range of multi-ethnic dishes and lots of hot new ideas for small plates meant for sharing. www.cookingisfun.ie The company has conducted autonomous vehicle testing for six years in Mountain View, California, where it is based, and it expanded testing to Austin, Texas, last summer. Google said in a statement that one reason for the new site in Washington is to gain experience in different driving environments, traffic patterns, and road conditions. SPARE a thought for the candidates. They are all, right now and without exception, in the grip of a phobic condition, and it drives them mad. A complete personality disorder, it is. You mightnt see it, but everyone who works with them will be suffering from it. It ought to be called candidatitis. It manifests itself in unreasonable demands, in blaming everyone else for every mistake they make themselves, sometimes in a complete fear of knocking on that first door. Its worst in sitting TDs, and its causes are many. Theres the fear of losing your job, and perhaps of being saddled with a large debt the day you become unemployed. But its deeper than that. Every candidate has to have a streak of narcissism (some have a lot more than others, of course) to put themselves forward for election, and hand-in-hand with that goes a deep-seated dread of rejection. It can scar people for life. Ive even known some who narrowly got elected, and still felt the loss of support more keenly than the victory. In the early stages of a general election, it affects everybody. If youre in the national engine room of a campaign, you despise the candidates. All they have to do, after all, is knock on the doors and answer the questions. For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE They have no understanding of how complex your job is, developing policy, working around the clock to try to deal with their petty concerns. They dont have to face the media, after all. If youre a candidate, you hate the people in the engine room. Theyre always sending you out unprepared; they never have your posters ready on time; they just dont understand how hard you have to work. They dont have to face the public after all not like you do. Its the nature of election campaigns, especially in their early phases. Id bet that right around the country just now there are massive tensions within all the political parties, with people bitching and moaning at each other. Within TDs offices there are harried and over-worked staff, all wishing to God their boss would get out of the way and go off to do what theyre good at (assuming theyre good at anything, the staff will be muttering under their breath). Candidatitis settles down. As the campaign unfolds, it tends to be replaced by hope or by resignation. Relations get restored, at least until the election is over. Then, in some of the parties anyway, the blame game will begin. But in which ones? Well, if the first opinion poll of the campaign is anything to go by, therell be plenty of blame to go around. Thursdays poll (IPSOS-MRBI in the Irish Times) gave us the numbers for the parties, and yesterdays poll told us that the people, by a significant majority, want to change the Government. Surprise, surprise. We always want to change the Government, and in 10 of the last 15 elections weve voted to do just that. Of course poll results change, and events have a huge influence. Especially in an opinion poll that shows a lot of undecided voters, theres still a huge amount to play for. But one of the mistakes party activists make (I plead guilty, your honour) is to believe an opinion poll is wrong just because they dont like it. I know polling has got a bad name after the UK elections and they got it spectacularly wrong for the Republicans in Iowa a few days ago but in Irish elections they have a very good track record, by and large. And this first opinion poll, published in The Irish Timeson Thursday, is raising a lot of unmentionables. First, if any expert had been told five years ago that the Government elected then would be presiding over high economic growth, falling unemployment, a banking sector getting back to health, and pay packets looking a lot healthier even than they did in December, the only possible conclusion would be that the Government would be re-elected with acclamation. Well, IPSOS-MRBI says theyre a million miles away from that. The first election I remember where the unmentionable happened was in 1989, where Charlie Haugheys Fianna Fail dropped enough seats to lose an already shaky majority. On the night of the count the former Labour minister Barry Desmond said the result was plain FF and the PDs would have no choice but to do business together. There were loud guffaws all round, because he had mentioned the unmentionable. But that was exactly what happened. Look at the unmentionable possibilities in this poll. The only combination that has nowhere near a majority is the outgoing Government. But taking the figures at face value, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail combined would have 50% of the vote. Thats more than a working majority. Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein combined would also have a right shot at forming a workable government with 40% of the vote. And what of the left? Im putting that word in inverted commas because it covers an extraordinary amalgam. Sinn Fein, a pretty decimated Labour Party, the Social Democrats, the Greens, Anti-Austerity Alliance, People Before Profit, and (say) half the non-aligned independents would also add up to 40%. I wouldnt want to be involved in those negotiations, but theres a workable majority, or damn close to it, on the figures. Notwithstanding what I said earlier, there is also the possibility of the present Government getting a look-in, but to get to 40% they would need to add on the Social Democrats, Renua, and a couple of other independents. Shane Ross chance of becoming minister for finance might finally be at hand in that scenario. So, and forgive the cliche, its all to play for. If these opinion poll figures pan out (a big if, because its still far too early to know anything really), there would be a significant chance that well see a government the like of which weve never seen before. Even though Enda Kenny must remain the odds-on candidate to be Taoiseach again, these figures make you wonder Taoiseach of what? And it certainly places a huge premium on his performance from start to finish of the election campaign. Fine Gael dont just have a bit of ground to make up, they simply cant afford any more slippage. None of us, I suspect, want to wake up the morning after the election and say Mother of God, what have we done?. However, if the current figures dont change significantly, thats the unmentionable that lies ahead. For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE How easy is it for a powerful financial institution to take out a TD who wont stop highlighting corruption? These unrelated questions deserve pondering as night closes in on the 31st Dail. Both point to a kind of politics more comfortable with suppressing awkward issues rather than addressing them. The former concerns the whistleblower on the abuse in the southeast of a person with an intellectual disability. The social worker in question went round the houses trying to have addressed what she regarded as an appalling failure of the States duty to one of its most vulnerable citizens. On Janaury 24, she told RTE Radios This Week about getting the runaround. Its been about six and a half years that Ive been seeking to have the matters addressed, she told reporter John Burke. Weve had an independent inquiry that wasnt published, reviews, reviews of reviews, it was raised with the director general of the HSE and I still havent been able to get any answers certainly on accountability. In desperation, and having exhausted all the normal channels, she sought out John McGuinness, chairman of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Only then then did the matter receive impetus, speeding towards a commission of inquiry. Only then was the public awakened to a scandal which had heaped State maltreatment on top of sexual abuse of a highly vulnerable citizen. The connection between the scandal and accounting for public money is tenuous. Under a different chairman, it is likely that the woman would have been fobbed off with a recommendation she take her complaint to another forum. Not for the first time, McGuinness did not act according to standard convention. He listened and quickly understood that this was something that had to be aired. In doing so, he pulled a thread that finally led to an independent commission of inquiry poised to investigate a matter of the gravest public importance. For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE This is not the first time McGuinnesss committee turned out to be the last refuge of a despairing whistleblower. In late 2013, he was approached by Sergeant Maurice McCabe about abuse of the penalty points system by senior gardai. On the face of it, this was an issue better examined by bodies primarily concerned with law enforcement agencies or road safety. But McCabe had been around the houses trying to get somebody to pay attention. And every time a door was closed on his face, it was accompanied with a note suggesting that this hornets nest was best explored elsewhere. McGuinness simply saw that which others had averted their eyes from. He proceeded to investigate based on revenue lost to the State a relatively flimsy basis and out tumbled a full-blown scandal that ended with the resignation of a garda commissioner, and ultimately, a minister for justice. Without the intervention of PAC, it is quite likely that the penalty points system may never have been properly reformed and, crucially, that McCabes more serious allegations of malpractice would never have been addressed. The Higgins commission of inquiry set up to investigate those matters is due to report in the next two months. McGuinness isnt everybodys cup of tea. In some quarters of his own party, he is seen as a disrupter who gets high on the elixir of self-promotion. Recently, he has been criticised by other politicians for dragging his committee way beyond the boundaries of its remit. Yet there is little doubt but that two major issues would have remained in the dark corners of State agencies if he hadnt intervened and dragged them out into the public. What is shocking is that it took somebody in his role ostensibly briefed to deal with money to shine a light where other agencies opted to fumble around in the dark. Mick Wallace mightnt be everybodys cup of tea either. The Wexford TD is a latecomer to politics. He was even late declaring his entry at the last election. His previous business problems principally a failure to declare 2m in Vat have been a feature of his first term in the Dail. Wallace has, at times, been fast and loose in using parliamentary privilege. However, he has also used the privilege correctly in highlighting matters of grave public concern. He had a role in the garda whistleblower scandal, reading the transcript of a crucial phone conversation into the record, and thus opening up a new avenue in the story which led to Micheal Martin meeting Sgt McCabe and bringing the gardas concerns directly to Enda Kenny. Even more important was Wallaces intervention on Nama deals. Some of his allegations have not stacked up, but one contribution he made in the House turned out to be jaw-droppingly true. On July 2, 2015, he told the Dail 7m ended up in an Isle of Man account as part of Namas deal to sell off its Northern assets to US outfit Cerebrus. A Belfast law firm confirmed the bones of the story, setting off a major controversy about how some have been feeding off the misery which required Nama to be created. The story was also embarrassing for the big business elements who like to portray themselves as keepers of the highest integrity. Since then, it has emerged that Cerebrus has a hold over their parliamentary tormentor. Apart from diving for assets in the North, the company also bought a portfolio of loans from Ulster Bank for about a quarter of its 6bn value. And among the portfolio was a 2m loan to Wallace. Ten days ago, Cerebrus was awarded a charge against Wallaces assets. The next step, if the honchos in Cerebrus are so minded, is to bankrupt Wallace, which, after his near certain re-election, would require him to resign his seat. Is this what weve come to in crawling out of the economic hole into which the State and its citizens were thrust? A corporate vulture has acquired the capacity to silence a voice to whom the people have granted privilege to speak on their behalf? No concern has been expressed from on high at this development. We are all expected to merely nod and shrug and say the laws the law. Right now, politicians of all hue are traipsing around the country waving promises, most of which involve consideration for voters immediate financial circumstances. The actions of McGuinness and Wallace have demonstrated that perhaps a little greater consideration should be given over to what else prospective members of parliament can bring to the job. For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE Mrs Clinton accused Mr Sanders of subjecting her to an artful smear while he suggested the former secretary of state was a captive of Americas political establishment. The two Democrats embraced a markedly more contentious tone than when they last debated before the years presidential voting began in Iowa. It showed how the race for the nomination has tightened just days ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire next Tuesday. The two argued over ideas, over tactics and over who has the liberal credentials to deliver on an agenda of better access to healthcare, more affordable college, fighting income inequality and more. It was Mrs Clinton who was the main aggressor, saying Mr Sanders could never achieve his ambitious and costly proposals. She went after the Vermont senator for his efforts to cast her as beholden to Wall Street interests because of the campaign donations and speaking fees she has accepted from the financial sector. Its time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out, she said. Mr Sanders, for his part, suggested Mrs Clintons loyalties were coloured by a reliance on big corporate donors. Secretary Clinton does represent the establishment, he said. I represent, I hope, ordinary Americans. Mrs Clinton may say the right things, he suggested, but one of the things we should do is not only talk the talk but walk the walk. Where Mrs Clinton aimed considerable criticism at Mr Sanders, the Vermont senator focused much of his fire on what he says is a political system rigged against ordinary Americans. Mrs Clinton, unwilling to cede the issue to Mr Sanders, said her regulatory policies would be tougher on Wall Street than his. Donald Trump, who finished second in the Republican race in Iowa, stepped up the pace of his campaign and acknowledged he should have had a stronger ground operation in Iowa. Jeb Bush, his campaign lagging, brought in his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, who praised him as decent and honest and everything we need in a president. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond branded the working groups findings on the arbitrary detention of Mr Assange as frankly ridiculous and said the Australian was hiding from justice. He spoke out after the UN panel had ruled Mr Assange was being arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and called for him to be paid compensation. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Swedish and British authorities should end Mr Assanges deprivation of liberty and respect his physical integrity and freedom of movement. Mr Assange spoke via Skype to a press conference in London, saying the UN report had brought a smile to his face, and insisting his detention had now been formally ruled as unlawful. He said comments by Mr Hammond were beneath the ministers stature and insulting to the UN. There had been intense interest in whether Mr Assange would leave the embassy, but it was clear he will remain inside the building as long as there is a threat of arrest. He is wanted for questioning in Sweden over a sex allegation, which he has always denied, and believes he will be taken to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he is extradited. He told the news conference that the UN Working Groups decision was legally binding, insisting there was no higher authority on whether detentions were lawful. It is insulting for the UN to call the decision ridiculous. Those comments were beneath the stature of a foreign minister. Mr Assange said Sweden and the UK had opportunities in the past few weeks to appeal against the decision but had not taken any action, so the matter was now a settled law. He continued: The UK and Sweden had their opportunities to lodge appeals in the last two weeks. They did not lodge an appeal. You cannot take part in a process and then at the end of it come out with press statements saying you disagree. Comments such as those made by the Foreign Secretary were for domestic consumption. Mr Assange said: It is the end of the road for legal arguments by the UK and Sweden. Those arguments lost and the time for an appeal is over. It is now the task of the states of the UK and Sweden to implement the verdict. They cannot pretend to look tough. He finished his comments by saying he missed his family, adding: We have a really strong victory that has brought a smile to my face and I hope many others as well. Melinda Taylor, part of Mr Assanges legal team, said the UN report made clear that the WikiLeaks founder was neither a fugitive from justice, nor could he just walk out of the embassy. She called it a damning indictment of the way Mr Assange has been treated and showed his willingness to co-operate with the Swedish investigation. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We need the UK to step up to the plate so Julian can finally come out into the light. Former UN judge Jeffery Robertson QC said Sweden must now withdraw the warrant for things to proceed. He said: He could stay in there unless the stalemate is broken. Hopefully this judgment will require Sweden and the United Kingdom to put their heads together to comply to it and that will lead to the cancellation of the arrest warrant. The meeting between Francis and Patriarch Kirill will be the first ever between the leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches. Francis is due to travel to Mexico from February 12-18. Italy: An man accused of groping female colleagues is not guilty of sexual harassment because he was driven by an immature sense of humour rather than a desire for sexual gratification, a court in Sicily has ruled. The ruling drew condemnation in a country where the national statistics bureau says around a third of women between 16 and 70 years old have suffered physical or sexual violence. A junior colleague accused the 65-year-old of touching her sexually. A second woman said he treated her as if I were a little girl ... as if he were giving me a light slap on the behind, according to a document explaining the reasons for the ruling. The court in Palermo said it was proven he had behaved as the women alleged but acquitted him nonetheless. The judges said the contact was not lascivious and the boss, who was described as being severe in his workplace dealings, was not touching his staff for sexual pleasure. Objectively, it was brought on by an immature and inappropriate sense of humour, mixed in with a veiled abuse of power and an albeit improper way of establishing hierarchical relationships in the office, they said. Commentators and a trade union lambasted the ruling. The Palermo courts sentence is worthy of lawmakers in Saudi Arabia, well-known commentator Massimo Gramellini wrote in a front-page opinion piece in La Stampa newspaper. The august assembly seems to suggest that the women who were felt up caused the real offence. The UIL trade unions Sicilian branch said it was amazed and puzzled by the decision. Hungry? Go to a restaurant USA: A starving sea lion has been rescued after finding its way into a fancy San Diego restaurant. Experts at SeaWorld were called to the Marine Room, an ocean-front restaurant where they found an eight-month-old female pup asleep in a dining booth. The pup, which was severely underweight and dehydrated, was taken back to SeaWorlds Animal Rescue Centre and experts are cautiously optimistic about her recovery. There has been a surge in sea lion mortality over the past year. Scientists say the animals food supply has been affected by higher-than-normal ocean temperatures linked to El Nino. Gold digger Germany: A teenager who found a 500g gold bar in an Alpine lake in Germany last year and handed it in to police has been told she can keep it. The girl, who has not been identified, was on holiday at Koenigssee lake in south-east Germany in August when she found the gold bar about 6ft under the surface. Police in Berchtesgaden confirmed that authorities had been unable to find an owner for the bar so, six months after the find, the 16-year-old girl gets to keep it. The bar is worth about 14,000 (18,219), but it is still not clear how it ended up in the lake. Snapped in the act USA: If you are going to rob a photo booth, a mask might be a good idea. A photo booth snapped several photos of a man who allegedly stole $75 out of the booth at the Funway Amusements arcade and bowling alley in Batavia, Illinois, a town west of Chicago. Police distributed the photos and asked the public if they recognise the suspect. With this machine, if you try to manipulate or damage it in any way, it snaps a picture of you, said Batavia police detective Kevin Bretz. I dont think he paid for the pictures. The detective said the alleged theft occurred in November, but the police department was just able to recover the photos this week after the machine was repaired. The fed-up 47-year-old Italian from Sonnino, has had his wife charged with mistreatment of the family on account of her poor management of household chores. According to The Local Italy, the husband has felt insulted by his wifes negligence for more than two years, and has decided to hold her to account for her tardiness. Not only has he been forced to live in conditions of poor hygiene, but Il Fatto Quotidiano reports that hes also been on occasion kicked out of the bedroom. His wife, 40, will stand trial for these grave offences on October 12. The accusation against her mistreatment of the family reportedly carries a potential jail sentence of up to six years. The man said that his wife would sometimes kick him out of bed at night, and rarely cooked a good meal. He also says he keeps buying food for her to use, but that the produce ends up in the bin as his wife rarely cooks. Campaigners in Italy have called for women who work in the home and their male counterparts to receive a salary in an effort to improve equality. However, the proposal has not been widely supported. Daniela Del Boca, an economics professor at the University of Turin, noted the salary would be a disincentive to look for a job. In a 2013 survey, it was found that Italian women on average do 21 more hours of unpaid housework than their male counterparts a discrepancy that was the most lopsided in the developed world. Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (Feb. 6, 2016) Ooredoo doubles down in Burma; IFC to finance Rangoon port with junta ties; outgoing minister makes final push to prioritize Chinese hydropower. Ooredoo Chief Says Burma Commitment Pretty Much Intact Having invested a massive $1.7 billion in Burma since 2014, Qatari telecommunications firm Ooredoo has pledged to double down on its investment, despite lagging behind its rivals in the battle for subscribers, Reuters reports. The newswire this week published an interview with Ooredoo Myanmar CEO Rene Meza, who took the helm at the company last year. According to figures published on its website, Ooredoo had 4.8 million subscribers in Burma by September last year. Reuters said market leader MPT, the part state-owned former monopoly holder, now claims 18 million subscribers. Telenor of Norway, which entered the market just after Ooredoo, has raced to 12 million. The figures for Telenor and MPT may be more up to date than Ooredoos, which are the most recent the firm has published. The interview attributed Ooredoos slow progress to an initial focus on higher-value data services, with Meza declaring that the new approach would be mass market, meaning a lowering of data tariffs and more focus on distribution. The initial approach when we launched services was not a mass market approach, Meza told Reuters. As you can imagine, it is a fast moving market. One year of delay, in terms of the right commercial execution, basically means the gap that you see in the market today. The report made no mention of whether a boycott against Ooredoo called by Burmas Buddhist monk-led nationalist movement had an impact on the company, which comes from Muslim-majority Qatar. Meza dismissed the notion of an Ooredoo pullout, adding that another $350 million would be invested in 2016. We dont see any slowdown in investment, any slowdown in executing our strategic initial plans for Myanmar, he was quoted saying. Our commitment to continue investing remains pretty much intact. IFC Could Fund Rangoon Container Port The World Banks International Finance Corporation (IFC) is considering loaning a total of $200 million to a company operating a container port in Rangoon, according to a filing on the organizations website. IFCs summary of the proposal said it would involve funding capital investment in the port and refinancing bridge loans already taken by MyanmaAnnwa Swan A Shin Group, a local family-owned company that operates the Myanmar Industrial Port on the Rangoon River. The proposed IFC investment consists of a US$40 million IFC A Loan, a US$40 million convertible C loan and a US$120 million in parallel loans, it said. A justification of the potential investment said the funding would help to expand the port, which already handles 278,000 containers annually and holds a 40 percent market share, according to IFC. The port will help to unlock the potential of the international trade, and thus will directly and indirectly support job creation and economic development in the region, it said, adding that government revenues would also be increased by rising trade. The Project will be among IFCs first investment[s] in the transport sector in Myanmar. It will have a demonstration effect and will encourage private sector investors to develop more infrastructure projects in the country. The filing named the owners of MyanmaAnnwa Swan A Shin Group (MAS) as Captain Ko Ko Htoo and his wife and son, Sandar Aung and Min Thiha, respectively. The IFC described Captain KoKoHtoo as a Myanmar national with over 15 years of international shipping experience. The Myanmar Industrial Ports website states that the privately owned port has been in operation since 2003, when it was founded with the guidance and assistance of the Head of State, which at the time was the now retired junta leader Sen-Gen Than Shwe. According to a state media report from the time, the port was officially opened by Khin Nyunt, then Secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development Council, in a ceremony that involved Captain Ko Ko Htoo presenting gifts to the juntas former spy chief. The ministry had permitted private entrepreneurs to undertake port services in cooperation with local and foreign investors, as long as the services are in accord with the Myanmar Investment Law, the ports website says. MIP was built with MAS as the sole investor, with MAS funding and overseeing the port construction and operations 100%. Hong Kong Garment Investor Talks Political Uncertainty The CEO of Hong Kong textile conglomerate Lawsgroup has said the Burmese business environment remains uncertain due to ongoing political machinations. In an interview with the Financial Times, published this week, CEO Bosco Law said the companywhich also operates in Bangladesh, Vietnam and mainland Chinahad set up a factory close to Rangoon last year. Lawsgroup employs more than 2,000 workers in a t-shirt factory north of the commercial capital, the report said. The CEO, whose grandfather founded Lawsgroup in Hong Kong, said local politics and inexperienced government officials made doing business difficult. Opening a new factory is always tough, Law was quoted saying. Everything is new in Myanmar. Even if you talk to the [governments] commerce department, they dont really know the policyeverything is a guess, everything is grey. Although the National League for Democracy is now the largest party in parliament, it is still unclear who will be the next president. Who knows what will happen? But still, if we have a 70 per cent chance [of success] we will go for it, Law was quoted saying. Outgoing Electric Power Minister Meets Chinese on Hydro Projects The outgoing Burmese government, which runs the country only until the end of March, met with a Chinese hydropower industry representative this week, and reportedly pledged to prioritize Chinese-backed dam projects. The state-run Myanmar International Television (MITV) reported the meeting Tuesday between Minister for Electric Power Khin Maung Soe and Liu Qi, the chairman of the China-Myanmar Electric Power Cooperation Commission. Deputy Minister for Electric Power Maw Thar Htwe was also present, it said. The commission was established following an agreement signed by Burmese President Thein Sein and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in November 2014. MITV said the meeting this week was the commissions third. China has invested in Myanmars electric power sector especially in hydropower generation, the report said. 18 hydropower projects have been agreed to be implemented as priority at the second commission meeting. The report did not go into the recent history of Chinese-backed hydropower in Burma. One of the first acts of the new Thein Sein administration in 2011 was to suspend the Chinese-backed Myitsone hydropower project, with the president declaring that work on the dam would not move ahead under his watch. Since then, the China Power Investment Corporation, the firm that was behind the $3.6 billion plan to dam the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River, has been lobbying to get the project restarted. However, it is unclear what approach an NLD-led government will take to an inheritedand highly unpopularproject like Myitsone. Singapore Firm Announces Work on Rangoon Shopping Center Singapore-based Solibuild Construction Group has won $9.4 million worth of work in Burma in connection with a shopping center refit. The company said it had been awarded a design and build contract for the addition and alteration works of St John Shopping Center in Rangoon. The Jan. 26 statement gave little details about the shopping center or its location, and did not name the local partners with whom Solibuild will work. The Project is awarded by a joint venture between 2 reputable companies in Myanmar, which have activities in retail and real estate development, it said. The Project is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2016 and is to be completed within 8.5 months from the commencement. Economy Dateline Irrawaddy: When NLD Lawmakers Deal with Ethnic Issues, They Need to Use Their Heart and Their Brain This week, the panel discusses Burmas new Parliament and how, going forward, it will handle the countrys important political and ethnic issues. Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! We are at the Upper House building. Well discuss how the Parliament has been progressing since its commencement on Monday, the differences between the old and new parliaments and how the new Parliament will handle Burmas important political and ethnic issues. Ma Htoot May, an Upper House lawmaker from the Arakan National Party [ANP], and Irrawaddy Burmese editor Ko Thalun Zaung Htet will join me for the discussion. Im Irrawaddy English editor Kyaw Zwa Moe. Ma Htoot May, you were elected to the Upper House for the Arakan National Party [ANP]. The Upper House session convenes on Wednesday. First of all, what do you think of the Parliament as a young lawmaker? Htoot May: I dont find anything interesting in terms of essence, by which I mean that I have no idea how Parliament made it through those five years. But according to the cause of building the Union with national people for which we have come to Parliament, I will try to bring about change while I am serving. We can learn lots of lessons from the past. But for the future, we have to work on the interests of the people. Drawing a comparison between this building [Parliament] and the livelihood of [the general public], its clear that power is very centralized. This building is proof that government expenditure is centralized. The [previous governments] expenditure on education and health was the lowest. There was a huge gap. KZM: The previous Parliament was dominated by the Union Solidarity and Development Party [USDP]. And the military is still guaranteed 25 percent of parliamentary seats. But this Parliament is dominated by the NLD. The color has changed to dusky orange [from green]. Ma Htoot May, you were elected to represent an ethnic party. Do you see differences or similarities between your party and the NLD? HM: In a democracy, there is no absolute similarity. There are differences. But our campaign slogan was to establish a federal Union with self-determination through a mandate for state governments. The NLD won election in a landslide and also won in many ethnic regions. It is above suspicion [that NLD secured a thumping victory] because the NLD has struggled for democracy for ages. But I have my concerns. Lawmakers who won in ethnic regions are from the NLD, and because they are not from ethnic parties, they will more or less have to respect the policies of their party. When NLD lawmakers deal with ethnic issues, they need to use their heart and brain. As they try to respect their partys policies, they should not forget ethnic aspirations. It would be better if they could work together with us on any law that leads to federalism for the interests of people. KZM: The NLD has selected the speaker and deputy speaker of the Lower House, and the deputy speaker is an ethnic man. The speaker and deputy speaker of the Upper House nominated by the NLD are ethnic persons. It indicates that the party gives consideration to ethnic groups. What is your impression of U Mann Win Khaing Than and ANP leader U Aye Tha Aung? Thalun Zaung Htet: Some ethnic voices seem to be satisfied. Yesterday, U T Khun Myat, who is ethnic Kachin, was given the deputy speaker position, though he is from the USDP. U Mann Win Khaing Than, who is ethnic Karen and from the NLD, has been earmarked for speaker of the Upper House and U Aye Tha Aung, from the ANP, for deputy speaker. KZM: U Aye Tha Aung has considerable experience in politics. TZH: I heard ethnic parties such as the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy [SNLD] say that they are satisfied with the NLD giving positions to ethnic lawmakers. But at the same time, ethnic parties are saying that they want to play a greater role in administration- and Union -level positions, as well as greater representation among division and state chief minister positions, which are to be appointed by the NLD. For example, the ANP has demanded that the Arakan State chief minister position be given to the ANP, which won the largest number of seats in the state parliament. At present, ethnic parties have a certain share in the legislature. If they are also given positions in Union-level agencies, the executive branch will become more interesting. KZM: Ethnic person make up three of the four speaker and deputy speaker positions. But it will be more important for them to get positions in the administration. Ma Htoot May, you have continuously studied the 2008 Constitution and will have to take the oath of office according to that Constitution tomorrow. The Constitution was criticized as being undemocratic. What do you want to say about the provisions in the Constitution regarding federalism and ethnic issues? HM: Even ordinary people who have read the 2008 Constitution know that it cant lead Burma to development. The [Parliament] should be democratically elected, not be appointed. How we can convince [the military] that appointment is unacceptable is key to solving this problem. Regarding the oath, it is about vowing to abide by the existing laws. But it does not mean we wont change them. It is common across the world for a law to be amended if it is against the interests of the people. So well try to amend or rewrite it. There are laws in Burma that are not compatible with modern times and that are weak, for example, the Constitution that reserves 25 percent of seats for the military, therefore making it undemocratic. KZM: Changing the Constitution largely depends on the military representatives sitting in Parliament. They are there to make sure the Constitution is not changed. How do you feel about sitting together with them in Parliament? Do you think they are not needed? How do you anticipate negotiating with them? HM: I have no feelings about their involvement in Parliament. But there is one thing I care abouttheir role. The duty they have to carry out is gigantic. If they were elected by the people, things would be democratic, and if they entered Parliament to enact legislation, we would welcome them. In every country, the military has to carry out its huge duty of national defense, and the duty of legislatures is to enact legislation. I dont see them sitting in Parliament for fear that a Constitution or a law might be annulled [in their absence]. They are sitting there because of the 2008 Constitution. But if they [the military] do want to do something good for the people, they have the chance. For example, if an amendment needs more than 75 percent of affirmative votes to pass, the good, brave military men who are also trying to introduce change to our country can take part. We will be a better democracy if there are more lawmakers who really want us to be this. KZM: Not only the military representatives sitting in Parliament, but also the military leadership play a key part in this countrys politics. Frankly, for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to become president, she will need the approval of the military leadership. Though her party has won the election, she is barred from the presidency by Article 59(f). She can be president only if the military agrees. Ko Thalun, what have you heard about this in Naypyidaw? There have been so many wild guesses. TZH: We havent gotten any on-the-record information from NLD lawmakers. They are not allowed [according to Suu Kyis orders] to speak to the media. But Ive heard from them off the record that they are holding talks with the military for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to become the president, and it sounds like the NLD will have to give lots of positions in the government, including Union-level positions, to the military in return for a change to the Constitution. KZM: So the presidency is still very much up in the air. Again, regarding NLD lawmakers, people, especially international scholars, are saying that they do not have experience in administration and running the country. Ma Htoot May, you are a young, elected lawmaker. How much do you believe you will be able to serve your state and your people? What capacity do you think will be needed? HM: Indeed, we cant buy experience. But it has only been five years since Burma started moving toward democracy. Those who served in Parliament for the past five years also did not have experience at the start. Everyone faces difficulties at the beginning. This is true in any part of the world. But at the same time, late-comers have an advantage, in that we can learn the pros and cons of a law or of technology from developed countries. We can learn their experiences. KZM: To profit from the folly of others? HM: Yes. I view Naypyidaw as a university. I have things to learn, and well be able to serve the people best by gaining experience. I vow to do the best I can. KZM: Parliament will be in full swing in the next two, three weeks. Are you prepared to submit any proposals yet? HM: There are four standing committees in the Union Parliament [e.g., the bill committee, public accounts committee, etc.]. I will submit proposals depending on the actions of these committees. For now, I have not yet prepared a specific proposal. But there is one thing. Ive come here to amend the Constitution. So I will restudy which provisions go against democratic norms and which should be amended in the next five years. Again, in addition to power-sharing, resource-sharing plays a big part [in development]. Most of the infrastructure, including in Naypyidaw, is built with the [government] budget. Im interested in the budget for the next five years. I will do my best to manage budgets according to resource-sharing for the people. KZM: Ma Htoot May, Ko Thalun Zaung Htet, thank you for your contributions. Well see what laws Parliament will pass for the interests of the country in the coming weeks. Thanks, all. [gallery type="slideshow" ids="106104,106105,106106,106107,106108,106109,106110,106111,106112,106113,106114,106115,106116,106117,106118"] THANLYIN TOWNSHIP, Rangoon Division Just 20 miles from the commercial capital Rangoon lies a safe haven for stray and sick cats, in Thanlyin Townships Kunchangon village. The shelter has taken in more than 200 cats, many abandoned by their owners at pagodas in and around Rangoon, said Aye Aye Maw, who runs the shelter. I feel very sorry for them [the cats]. I have pity for them. Thats why Ive saved them. People tend to abandon them if they get sick or something happens to them, Aye Aye Maw said. Some cats are bitten by dogs. But there are also cruel people who sell cats to liquor shops as appetizer [to go along with their liquor]. This motivated me to talk with a sister in Japan about this and set up the shelter. The shelter was established last October, at first welcoming some 50 abandoned cats from Sule, Kyaik Waing and other pagodas across Rangoon. Over the next four months, the shelter has managed to save 150 more cats. Before I started running this shelter, I would feed cats and dogs wandering around pagodas. There would sometimes be arguments with people who dont love animals. But I feel sad at the sight of cats in trouble. Because it wasnt convenient for me to bring them home, I decided to open this shelter, Aye Aye Maw explained. Some people have called me to come and get stray cats, others have brought them to our shelter. Apart from more than 230 cats, the shelter is also home to four stray dogs. I also feel sorry for dogs. So I keep them. Some puppies need to be fed with a particular milk powder like Dumex because they might suffer stomach problems if theyre fed generic milk. Aye Aye Maw lives in Rangoon, arriving at the shelter in Thanlyin by 7 am each morning to feed the cats. We humans feel hungry as soon as we get up, dont we? So cats will feel hungry, too. I feed them three times a day. But theyre lucky, because once their feed runs out, donors always come, Aye Aye Maw said, laughing. She feeds them again at noon and 5 pm, before she heads home for the day. She has hired a watchman to take care of the cats at night and every Tuesday, doctors from volunteer medical groups give the cats a check-up. Aye Aye Maw keeps the sick cats in separate cages, and she treats the injured ones herself. Previously in Burma, a compassionate soul would struggle to find a shelter for stray dogs and cats in need. In recent years, however, the number of shelters, as well as volunteer groups and doctors to support them, has been on the rise in Rangoon and elsewhere in the country. This trend could continue, or reverse, but Aye Aye Maw vows that regardless, shes in it for the long haul. Ill save and take care of these animals till my last breath. Thats my goal, Aye Aye Maw said. 4 Enterprise Technology Trends to Be Mindful of in 2016 Gartner released research this week that predicts that 274.59 million wearable devices will be sold this year. That is a significant jump from the firms belief that 232 million units were sold in 2015. Next year, the firm believes that there will be an even larger jump, with 322.7 million units sold. Commentary in the story credits Apple with driving the increases, which will total 48 percent from last year through 2017. Smartwatches, the story says, have the greatest revenue potential and will be worth $17.5 billion in 2019. The story says that the head-mounted device category will grow exponentially. Last year, only 140,000 units were sold. That number will rise to 6.3 million next year. Canonical Unveils Aquaris Canonical, the commercial side of the Ubuntu open source operating system, this week unveiled the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet. The project emerged from the unsuccessful attempt to create an open source operating system (OS) spanning the mobile and desktop worlds. It is, according to Network Worlds Ben Kepes, the first of a planned series. He used the device for a year and says that it is significantly different from the established mobile OSes: Rather than being completely application-centric, as is the case for the other platforms, Ubuntu introduced Scopes mobile pages, which are essentially aggregation destinations for web content. As an example, a nearby scope might show local weather, local foreign exchange rates, and local sightseeing options. Scopes are a great way for a new player, without an existing mobile customer base or application ecosystem, to more rapidly build up functionality for their users. AT&T to FCC: Let Us Try 5G in Austin WirelessWeek working off a tweet from consultant Steve Crowley says that AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant it experimental licenses to test 5G in four bands. The story points out that AT&T is doing so despite its stated skepticism over claims by Verizon Wireless that it is ready to test the technology. In general, experts peg 2020 as the likely date for 5Gs arrival. Either the carriers really are ready to test at least some elements this early or are saying so for public relations sake. The bands AT&T is asking access to are 3.4-3.6 GHz; 3.7-4.2 GHz; 14.5-15.35 GHz and 27.5-28.5 GHz, according to the story. Bluetooth Bulks Up The Bluetooth Special Internet Group (SIG) is upping the functionality of the ubiquitous wireless protocol. Computerworld reports that the upgraded standard, which may show up in products next year, will transmit faster and over longer distances. The story says that the approximate range will increase from about the size of a room to a house and that the speed will double to 2 Megabits per second (Mbps). The numbers of Bluetooth are staggering: Analysts say that about 3 billion devices with the protocol shipped in 2015 and that 50 million will ship by 2020, according to the story. Deutsche Telekom Testing XG.FAST Lightreading reports that Deutsche Telekom and Alcatel-Lucent tested XG.FAST, a next-generation digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. The goal of the protocol is to achieve very high data rates over copper for very short distances. The tests reached data rates of 11 Gbit/s on two bonded pairs of copper for about 50 meters, according to Nokia, which now owns Alcatel-Lucent. The company reported that the tests also trafficked data at 8 Gigabits per second (Gbps) for 50 meters and 1 Gbps for 70 meters over standard drop cable. Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk. The FCC last week granted Verizon and Qualcomm permission to conduct limited tests of LTE-U technology in Raleigh, North Carolina and Oklahoma City, ahead of a planned summit meeting next week. The commissions grant of a special temporary authority, or STA, will allow Qualcomm to perform performance testing in those two areas through the end of June 2016, according to the official document. + MORE: LTE-U: A quick explainer | U.S. carriers stay tight-lipped on LTE-U deployments + Next weeks Wi-Fi Alliance summit, which is set for Wednesday in San Jose, could be an important first step towards reconciliation between LTE-Us creators and advocates who say that the technology will harmlessly share spectrum with existing Wi-Fi networks and its doubters and critics, who say that LTE-U will substantially interfere with those networks. Qualcomm and the major U.S. mobile carriers have argued that LTE-U is a better neighbor to Wi-Fi than Wi-Fi is to itself, while the detractors who include the cable industry and Google, among others insist that independent testing shows that the opposite, in fact, is true. The Wi-Fi Alliance, which is a non-profit industry group that certifies Wi-Fi products, will bring both sides together to discuss a framework for real-world testing at next weeks event. The group promises only an update on progress toward an industry agreed test, but even that would be a change from the status quo, in which there are few commonly agreed facts about LTE-Us coexistence with Wi-Fi. WiFiForward, a broad-based advocacy organization dedicated to the stewardship of Wi-Fi technology, praised the FCC for remaining involved with the ongoing LTE-U debate. We are encouraged that the FCC still expects that Qualcomm and other LTE-U supporters work closely with the Wi-Fi community on coexistence testing in the future, said Save our Wi-Fi campaign executive director Bill Maguire in a statement. But Ellen Satterwhite, a spokesperson for the group, said that its much too early in the process to know what the testing will signify. Were at the beginning of the beginning here, she said. Qualcomm, for its part, pronounced itself pleased that the FCC had accepted its testing proposal by issuing the STA and that the Wi-Fi Alliance had agreed to back the test protocols. Along with the other proponents of LTE-U, we have a substantial vested interest in Wi-Fi. Thats why we are collaborating with all stakeholders to ensure that LTE-U and Wi-Fi coexist successfully, the company said through a spokesperson. Reduce / Reuse / Recycle Keywords: Reduce / Reuse / Recycle Renewable Energy Portal site for Sustainable City Development in Kansai The Global Environment Forum KANSAI released its English web portal for Kansai's Sustainable City Development in November 2015. The forum, comprising businesses, local governments and academics, was established to raise environmental awareness of citizens through workshop discussions, research and policy recommendations. The portal site publishes Kansai's best practices for developing a sustainable city, inviting local governments and businesses in Asian countries to use the portal. Kansai is the name of a region in western Japan that includes the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto. Portal site for Sustainable City Development in Kansai, Japan: http://www.global-kansai.or.jp/portal-site-e/index.html In order to help tackle environmental issues facing Asia, the following were selected as areas where Kansai can offer valuable information: 1) waste management; 2) energy in cities; and 3) Kansai's cultural background. The portal site introduces national and municipal policies, initiatives and technologies developed by Kansai-based companies by linking them to relevant pages in each company's website. The portal site was set up to help solve Asian issues by disseminating Kansai's initiatives on developing sustainable cities overseas, particularly in fast-growing Asian countries. At the same time, it is expected that promoting visits, investments and new businesses to Kansai through the portal will contribute to the region's medium- to long-term growth. What is a Jew? Israeli museum attempts an answer JERUSALEMI was on a short visit to Israel and spent time with a friend with whom I have been engaged in a 30-year argument. Elli... When anti-Semitism rears its head, we must be ready to fight it Anti-Semitism is a force that is persistent as well as pernicious. When it occurs, it must be fought both by being confronted in real time... Microsoft has immersed its experimental underwater data centers under the sea to determine their long-term prospects of operation. The software giant has conducted these experiments in its effort to improve service, reduce latencies, and cash-in on the ocean's beneficial qualities. It is a well-known fact that electronics and seawater do not blend well, but as the results show, the prototype units of the software developer have performed quite well. The three-month experiment was just completed by the software giant. It consisted of a server rack that has the equivalent of around 300 PCs housed in a water-tight cylinder which was dropped into the ocean just off the central California coast line. Microsoft felt the need to conduct this experiment because it apparently found out that existing data centers are very inefficient. Although they are constructed where land and energy are cheap, they nevertheless waste excessive energy in cooling their huge computers. This is where the company thought the ocean can come in. Microsoft believes that sea currents are able to generate enough energy to run sub-sea data centers. The ocean floor's cold temperature is able to cool the computer components inside the pod sufficiently. Considering that around one half of the world's population live approximately 52 kilometers from the ocean, locating the data centers under the sea could possibly boost the speed by which they can access the information from Microsoft's cloud services. According to Microsoft, the experiment with the codename Project Natick was a complete success that it encouraged the company to do it for 75 days, which is longer than what was planned. According to Peter Lee, the data centers even ran actual workloads of its customers. He is the corporate vice president of Microsoft Research NExT. "Our first experiment was like dipping our pinkie toe in the water, and now we're going for the big toe," Lee said. Syngenta, a global Swiss agribusiness company, was offered a huge $43 billion by the state-owned China National Chemical Corp. last Wednesday. This Syngenta China deal will be the largest-ever acquisition made by a Chinese company overseas. ChemChina, the largest chemical company in China negotiated this deal as one of its latest series of investments abroad and as a part of the country's effort to persuade its businesses to 'go out' and expand. The board at Syngenta recommended to its shareholders the sale of $465 per share, together with a special dividend. "...the proposed transaction respects the interests of all stakeholders," the board said in a company statement. "It will enable further expansion of Syngenta's presence in emerging markets and notably in China," the statement added. Before the Syngenta China deal was finalized, the Swiss company is reported to have rejected a higher bid of $47 billion from its competitor Monsanto, in August 2015. In November, Bloomberg News reported that the U.S.-based company is thinking of offering a higher bid. This deal highlights China's intention of securing its food supply for its 1.4 billion citizens. In almost every deal this country makes, it has shown its willingness to raise larger sums of money to obtain overseas agricultural partners together with their expertise. "The background here is that China is very sensitive to dependency on foreign food," Derek M. Scissors said. He is an economic policy fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington studying the overseas investments China is engaging in. This latest Syngenta China deal falls in line with the other large deals that this country has consummated lately. It has purchased a 12 percent stake in Mercuria, another Swiss company that deals with energy and commodities. In addition, China also inked mergers and acquisitions with Pirelli, an Italian tire maker, famous for its Formula One equipment which it acquired at 7.4 billion. Dede Koswara, dubbed in international media as the 'Tree Man' died on the morning of Jan. 30 in Badung, Indonesia at the Hasan Sadikin hospital. Koswara had the extremely rare disease Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, which leads to uncontrolled human papilloma virus (HPV) infections, and growth of scaly warts, or cutaneous horns, resembling tree bark. Koswara's disease gave him international fame. Several documentaries were made about his conditions. His disease was brutal. The warts, weighing around 13 lbs, were severely incapacitating. His hands and feet were notably devoured by them, and he had to let go of his job as a carpenter. His wife and children also left him after he couldn't provide for them, and Koswara remained estranged from them till he died. His nurse said, reported the Daily Mail UK, that he never gave up hope for a cure, and of returning to carpentry again. He also thought about starting a home business. In 2008, he had a successful surgery for the removal of the warts. It was a success - he could wear flip flops and play Sudoku. But the growths continued to return and he needed two surgeries a year to keep the infections at bay. His medical condition was locally believed to be the product of a curse. One of his doctors acknowledged how tough Koswara must have been to endure the insults over the years. Koswara's cause of death was reportedly health complications, including hepatitis, liver and gastric disorders. His nurse said that he was bored from resting in bed at the hospital and smoked to pass the time. Koswara had been in a coma for three days at the hospital in west Java before he died. His sister said he had been so weak he couldn't speak or feed himself. Those treating Koswara said he never gave up hope. Lowcountry residents were forced to evacuate their houses as severe weather brought about by a tornado and strong thunderstorms passed through Bryan, Effingham and Chatham counties in Georgia, Wednesday evening. A tornado warning was issued by the National Weather Service at around 5 p.m. Shortly thereafter, a report from Fort Stewart said that a tornado is heading northeast at a speed of 35 mph. Structural damages to houses lay in the tornado's path. Power was cut off because power lines were downed by the strong winds. Kevin Larson, Fort Stewart spokesman said trees were downed and vehicles were damaged by the tornado. Some buildings were destroyed as well. The extent of the damage was not immediately assessed, but Larson said no injuries were reported by the residents. Fort Stewart is the biggest Army post located in the east of Mississippi River. Most of the land area it occupies is uninhabited forestland. Tornado warnings were issued for the three counties located west of Savannah. The storm and tornado that went through Georgia were part of a weather system extending from the Gulf Coast up to the Great Lakes. Larson reported that the tornado lashed around the Army installation, but luckily there were no reported injuries. But there are damages that were sustained by around 40 to 50 people in Hinesville who are now living in emergency housing facilities. Soldiers took shelter on the on-base hotel, as well as civilians whose homes were destroyed. Officials at Fort Stewart said that the Diamond Elementary School will be closed on Thursday. The rest of the installation will be opened at normal operating hours. "Most of the power has been restored," said Larson on Wednesday. "No injuries were reported and we're very thankful. We're going to continue to assess the damage in the daylight and we're (looking) at two to three days of a recovery operation," he added. Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, stated that he could surrender to the British police on Friday after over three years of seeking asylum in the embassy of Ecuador in London. The founder and operator of the website that exposes secret deals and activities of governments around the world said that if his UN appeal falls through, he will finally turn himself over to the British authorities. On the other hand, Assange also said that if his UN panel appeal is successful, he expects to be allowed to go out of the embassy as a free man. "Should the UN announce tomorrow that I have lost my case against the United Kingdom and Sweden I shall exit the embassy at noon on Friday to accept arrest by British police as there is no meaningful prospect of further appeal," Assange stated in a statement issued Thursday. "However, should I prevail and the state parties be found to have acted unlawfully, I expect the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me," he added. A recent update on this event was released stating that the UN panel has allegedly ruled that Julian Assange has been detained arbitrarily. This working group is tasked with the investigation of arbitrary detentions. It is set to announce the results of their examinations regarding Assange's case on Friday, but the BBC seems to have reported that the panel has ruled in his (Assange's) favor. There were sexual assault claims against Julian Assange in Sweden and he is wanted for questioning. This has led him to seek asylum in the embassy of Ecuador in London starting in 2012. But the British government and the Swiss government can choose to ignore the UN panel ruling and should Julian Assange fulfill his promise to leave the embassy, he can be arrested by police authorities. "The warrant is still in place. If he leaves the embassy we will make every effort to arrest him," a British police spokesman said. After Credit Suisse has posted a net loss of $5.83 billion Swiss francs or $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter, the bank announced that it will be pruning around 4,000 jobs to reduce its operating costs. The financial institution, in a statement issued on Thursday also clarified that the reported loss includes "substantial charges which are not reflective of our underlying business performance." The net loss of the giant Swiss bank is significant considering that it only posted a net profit of 691 million Swiss francs one year ago. Credit Suisse also reported pretax quarterly loss of 6.4 billion francs This pretax loss includes a 4.8 billion-franc impairment charged incurred by the bank when it acquired the investment bank of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in 2000. The net loss is the bank's first full-year loss since 2008 and caused its share price to fall exerting additional pressure to Tidjane Thiam, Credit Suisse Chief Executive. On Thursday, the bank's share price dropped over 12 percent and hit their lowest level since 1992. CS stock price has gone down 32 percent at the start of the year. Thiam, who took the helms of the bank in July, stated that he would continue with his plans to concentrate more on wealth management in developing economies and reduce costs (mainly jobs) in the investment bank, even with the uneasy start of the year. "We have a clear strategy, clearly we are implementing it in difficult markets and our outlook for the first quarter remains very cautious," said Thiam. "(We have) very unique market conditions and they are challenging, but fundamentally we are maintaining the objectives and the targets we have presented," he added. Thiam also said that the job cuts will mean a saving of 1.2 billion Swiss francs per year. Credit Suisse outlines its plans in October for job reductions as part of its efforts to save the bank 3.5 billion Swiss francs in operating costs. Features of the Apple's iPhone 7 are circulating the web in forms of rumors. One of the most famous ones is that the iPhone7 might let you type in thin air, based off of a patent design Apple applied for. The patent, filed in March of 2015, has specifications that have led to speculation of virtual touch screens. The specifications of the patent depict a use of infrared LEDs and photodiodes. These detect light, and conjecture has been widely used to suggest that if integrated into an iPhone, this could mean a display that would dim visibly when a user brings it close to his/her face, lessening the distress of a dazzlingly bright screen The new development might also mean that users would be able to type on their Apple devices without actually touching the screen. Trackpad gestures could potentially be made. Another rumor circulating about the iPhone 7 is about its headphone jack - or lack thereof. It has been reported on Japanese tech blog Mac Otakara, by allegedly reliable sources that users will be able to use Bluetooth headphones with the new device. Also, it is being said that headphones will be plugged into the lighting conductor itself. If older EarPod headphones want to be used, users will need a Digital to Analog (DA) convertor. This will make the new iPhone's design visibly sleeker, something Apple has been progressively working on since a few iPhones ago. The third rumor about the iPhone is that it may come in a thinner, waterproof design. Blog Mac Otakara quoting from China's Weibo claims the iPhone 7 to be waterproof as well as dustproof. It further says that Apple will use a metal frame as opposed to the the all-aluminum framework currently being used. The result will be a phone on the lighter side. The tech giant based in California is currently constructing a huge structure, its Campus 2, and shaped like a spaceship as its headquarters in Cupertino, California. Footage of this construction's progress has been revealed. The building is reportedly a mile in circumference. Lloyds Banking Group has recently announced that it is closing 29 branches and slashing 1,755 jobs effectively delaying the sale of its remaining shares to the public. The move is part of the chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio's plan to reduce costs as the privatization of the Lloyds Bank is being prepared. Bank employees were already informed about the job cuts on Wednesday as most of them will be largely affected. However, union officials expressed their hopes that the job cuts will be accomplished through voluntary means. Employees were shocked when the announcement that 1,700 plus jobs will be cut. They called the work cut a 'body blow' considering the considerable job cuts that hit 45,000 employees that the company has made since the taxpayer bailout in 2008. "Staff at Lloyds Banking Group have been living with this worry since 2009 and the job losses aren't over," Ged Nichols, a member of the banking union said. "This is a kick in the teeth," stated another worker. He added that there were employees who were forced to re-apply just to get their jobs back. "Any impacted staff must be offered genuine and suitable alternative roles. There is absolutely no case for compulsory redundancies," Rob MacGregor, the national officer for finance at Unite said. Of the job cuts, about 700 will be in several Halifax branches which are also owned by Lloyds Bank. Some of the jobs will be routed to 'back office roles, consumer finance and business banking.' In addition to the job cuts, Lloyds Banking Group will close 29 branches in June. Of those, 19 will be Lloyds Bank, 7 will be Bank of Scotland and 3 will be Halifax. According to the company, some of the job losses will be offset partly by 170 fresh positions, which were originally part of the 9,000 redundant positions in October 2014. Next week, voters in New Hampshire will cast their ballots in two hotly contested presidential primaries that could determine the direction of the rest of the election. But this year, thanks to a new state voter ID law, many New Hampshire voters voices may not be heard at all. In presidential election years, particularly when there are open contests for both parties, voter excitement is at an all-time high. If past is precedent, more than three times as many New Hampshire voters may go to the polls as in regular, non-presidential state primary years. But this year, for the first time in the New Hampshire presidential primary, voters must show photo identification before they can cast a ballot. If voters cant produce the ID, they will have to sign an affidavit and then mail a letter back to elections officials confirming their voter eligibility. This sounds simple enough in theory, but the heaviest burden of such laws falls on new voters, infrequent voters and voters without access to the information and identification they need to cast a ballot: primarily young people, people of color, low-income voters and seniors. The Granite State isnt the only place where voters ability to fully participate in this years presidential election is at risk. Voter ID and other restrictive voting laws passed after Republicans made historic gains in taking over state legislative chambers in 2010 in North Carolina and other states have made it increasingly harder for voters to cast a vote and know it will be counted. In Wisconsin, for instance, strict voter ID laws mean that out-of-state drivers licenses, technical college student IDs and even veterans identification arent acceptable forms of voter identification. As many as 300,000 Wisconsinites largely Hispanic and African American voters may not be able to vote because of these laws. Meanwhile, Kansas has purged thousands of voters from the rolls for being unable to provide citizenship documents documents that young voters, low-income voters and seniors are less likely to have access to. Alabama passed its own voter ID requirement in 2011, then proceeded to close 31 department of motor vehicles across the state, largely in counties with the highest percentage of African American voters. With these closures, voters living in the affected regions will have long drive times some up to 45 miles one way, an insurmountable barrier for those without access to reliable transportation to get the ID necessary to vote. Fortunately, despite the failures of several states, others are expanding access to the ballot through common-sense reforms. Oregon and California, for instance, have adopted whats known as automatic voter registration (AVR), where anyone interacting with a states department of motor vehicles is added to the voter rolls unless they opt out. Studies have shown that, if every state adopted AVR, as many as 55.8 million new voters could be added to the rolls nationwide. In other states, cross-partisan coalitions have restored voting rights for ex-offenders who have completed their sentences and deserve a stake in their community through voting. Nationwide, 1 out of 13 African Americans cannot vote due to felony disenfranchisement laws. Not only will these reforms begin to adjust this imbalance, they will save taxpayer dollars by reducing recidivism: a study by the Florida Parole Commission found that, when ex-offenders voting rights were restored, they re-offended at one-third the rate of those who were not re-enfranchised. And in several states, the courts have played a major role in blocking gerrymandering where elected officials essentially pick their voters instead of the other way around and in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Arizonans right to have a nonpartisan redistricting commission to take redistricting decisions out of the hands of politicians. Presidential elections arent decided nationally; theyre won state-by-state. But right now, voters in states with new and worsening restrictions are having a very different voting experience than voters in states that are working to expand voting rights. Thats why its so critical that states look for every opportunity to make voting and civic participation more accessible for every eligible voter. The ballot box is where Americans can make their voices heard. No person, not an elected official or a Supreme Court justice, should stand in the way of any eligible voter and the ballot box. This is why we need to fight these restrictive laws across the country and support those who will restore key policies that protect our sacred right. Further, every American should exercise their right and vote. The health of our democracy depends on it. A projected state budget cushion of $135 million might seem like a lot of money (and it is) until it's measured against total state spending of roughly $68 billion for the two years ending in mid-2017. With that total in mind, $135million looks more like a rounding error ... about two-tenths of 1%. So it shouldn't be surprising that Gov. Scott Walker asked the Legislature to limit additional spending requests to about $20million during the current legislative session. It wouldn't take much of a drop in state revenue to take the state budget from a small surplus to a small but noticeable deficit. Bills that would help people and families cope with the ravages of dementia are among those likely to win approval, along with others aimed at enhancing mental health services and combating heroin addiction. Also high on the priority list are measures to help make college debt more affordable for students and families. There's still headroom, however, for a few proposals that could enhance Wisconsin's economic growth and thus create additional tax revenue to keep this budget and future spending plans in balance. Here are a few cost-effective examples: Assembly Bill 636 is the Creative Economy Development Initiative, a public-private partnership that would establish a matching grant program through the Wisconsin Arts Board. It's designed to encourage communities to plug into arts and cultural activities while encouraging entrepreneurs. Attracting and retaining millennials is an economic must for Wisconsin, which faces a demographic slide as the baby boom generation retires. Millennials value a sense of place and a "live, work, play" spirit the arts often capture. By the way, the arts are big business. A recent survey noted that Wisconsin's arts and cultural sector is a $535 million industry, producing $65 million in local and state tax revenue, 22,872 full-time equivalent jobs and $479 million in resident income. Speaker after speaker during a recent hearing of the Assembly Jobs and the Economy Committee described projects in Neillsville, Manitowoc, Superior, Milwaukee and other cities that will help those communities compete for talent and keep young people home. Senate Bill 525 and its companion, Assembly Bill 757, would create an industry cluster tax credit. Industry clusters are groups of similar and related firms in a defined geographic area that share common markets, technologies, worker skill needs, and which are often linked by buyer-seller relationships. The idea of clusters isn't all that new. In fact, it was a leading topic in the Wisconsin Economic Summits nearly 15 years ago. What's new is that some Wisconsin clusters are emerging. The Water Council in Milwaukee is one example, with its emphasis on connecting major companies, start-ups and researchers in freshwater science. The bills would support industry clusters through state matching funds to help get ideas from the lab bench to the marketplace. That would include a tax credit for research expenses incurred as part of a specific industry cluster support strategy. Assembly Bill 718 would build on one of Wisconsin's most successful tax credits, its 11-year-old program to encourage angel and venture capital investments. Investors in "qualified new business ventures," or young Wisconsin companies that meet standards set by state law, can qualify for a 25% state tax credit. That means $4 in private money must be invested for every $1 in state tax credit. The program has worked well so much so that other states have essentially copied it. Assembly Bill 718 is a bipartisan effort to update the law by lifting a cap on credit-eligible investments in any one company. That cap has stood at $8 million since the law took effect in 2005. Meanwhile, just as costs have climbed in other sectors of the economy, so has the cost of growing early stage companies. The bill would raise the company cap to $12 million, a threshold that would help about 40 Wisconsin companies in varying technology sectors without depleting the overall pool of tax credits or making it harder for start-ups to obtain those credits. The rationale for the $8 million cap has long since passed. When the Legislature created the program, some feared credits wouldn't be spread over enough companies or claimed by a few major investors. Time has proved those concerns wrong, as scores of young companies have benefited and Wisconsin has built a deeper bench of investors. Assembly Bill 486 would essentially make it clear that private investors in the Badger Fund of Funds are eligible for the same credits investors in other funds can now receive. It's a way to enhance private interest in a fund that already includes the state as a limited partner. There's only so much money to go around, of course, but if some of those dollars can be put to work leveraging economic activity, so much the better. Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. Its Wisconsin Innovation Network meets in Wauwatosa. Contact him at news@wisconsintechnologycouncil.com. SHARE By of the Fueled by an increase in lending, Wisconsin's biggest credit unions saw earnings grow in 2015. At the same time, credit unions added new members even as the number of credit unions in the state continued to shrink. Regulatory data shows the state's top 10 credit unions all saw net income rise last year, with the largest, New Berlin-based Landmark, boosting earnings by 26.5%. Overall data for the approximately 150 state-chartered credit unions in 2015 wasn't available last week from the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, but an industry spokesman called it an "extremely strong" year. "Credit unions had a very strong, robust year," said Brett Thompson, chief executive of the Wisconsin Credit Union League. Loan growth occurred in all categories in 2015, said Rebecca Gerothanas, senior vice president of operations at Madison-based Summit Credit Union, which is Wisconsin's second-largest credit union. "People started borrowing to buy homes, refinance their homes. Equity lending was strong. Lending was strong across the board. We remained Dane County's No. 1 mortgage lender," she said. Credit union membership continued climbing even though there are fewer credit unions. When the year began, the state had almost 2.5 million members. "Membership growth and loan growth were both very vigorous," Thompson said. "We have over 2.7 million members in the state of Wisconsin." Thompson said that in recent years, consumers have become more aware of the services credit unions provide, leading to the increase in membership. Credit unions are like banks in many ways, but they are not-for-profit cooperatives owned by their members instead of stockholders. The financial industry in general is consolidating, and credit union brand names that have existed for decades are disappearing as they merge into bigger, stronger credit unions. Wisconsin has been losing about 14 individual credit unions per year since 2001. The trend is expected to continue, especially as smaller credit unions consider the additional costs of new regulations coming out of Washington, D.C. "This consolidation trend, it really comes from the very deep regulatory burden on credit unions and other small financial institutions today," Thompson said. But other factors figure into mergers as well, such as the demand by consumers for mobile banking and other technology, which is a considerable cost for small credit unions. In one merger from 2015, Educational Employees Credit Union in Janesville joined Summit Credit Union. Summit has assets of almost $2.4 billion. Educational had assets of $14.1 million. "We looked at that as a great opportunity to improve services for their members as well as ours because now we have a location in Janesville and we can more easily serve that market," said Gerothanas. In the deal, former Educational members now have access to investment services, more products, improved technology, more branches and other offerings. Among milestones in 2015, Madison-based UW Credit Union became the state's fourth credit union with more than $2 billion in assets, while Connexus Credit Union, headquartered in Wausau, became Wisconsin's 11th $1 billion-asset credit union. Landmark appears positioned to become the state's first $3 billion credit union this year. In 2015, UW Credit Union posted earnings of $30.9 million a year after being a victim in alleged fraud that led to a $15.2 million loss. UW Credit Union was among institutions nationally that had invested in what authorities say turned out to be nonexistent USDA loans part of a multiple-victim fraud case that led to criminal charges against the alleged mastermind of the scheme. Mayberrys offers sleigh rides through the 100-acre Orchard Country Winery property in Door County. Credit: Mike Roemer By , When Tom and Kelly Glatch married 23 years ago in Milwaukee, they rented a 100-year-old, restored Phaeton carriage to carry them away after they finished reciting their wedding vows. The Elm Grove couple enjoyed the ride so much that in the years since, they've gone on other carriage rides on trips around the country. But during much of that time, Tom a 60-year-old automotive historian and author said what they really wanted to do was go on a sleigh ride. Frequent visitors to Door County in recent decades, they made plans to do that last year. But that horse-drawn jaunt never happened because of cold, lack of snow or other complications, Tom said. So last month, the couple drove up to the peninsula, where they own a condominium, and went for a 30-minute tour in a 150-year-old former logging sleigh driven by John Mayberry of Mayberry's Carriage and Sleigh Rides in Jacksonport. "This was something we'd been wanting to do for a long time and it was great," Tom Glatch said. "We're not 'horse people,' but we really got a kick out of watching John work with his animals. He was masterful. "We both love Door County, so we really enjoyed the historical side of the outing, too. It wasn't just a fun ride, it was educational because as we went through the Lautenbach orchards, John told us about the apple and other fruit trees and how difficult it is to grow cherries, which are a big part of the peninsula's economy." The couple, who were the only customers in the 12-person sleigh that day, also got a primer on the region's logging history, he said. "We learned a lot from him," Glatch said. "Horses and sleighs are a neat connection to the past. It was sort of like being part of a living museum. I'm sure we'll do it again in his other, smaller sleigh when we go up there for our next visit." Mayberry, who grew up near Rockford, Ill., said he began working with horses about 26 years ago "on a whim." "It started as a hobby and a way to get away from people," he said. "Now I use my horses to make connections with people and tell them about the Door County landscape, agriculture and way of life in days gone by." Mayberry, who lives in Jacksonport, worked in the construction trades when he lived in Illinois, but tired of that way of life. "I'd never heard of Door County when a friend told me about it," he said with a chuckle. "So I came up to check it out, liked it a lot and 30 days later had moved here and started my business." In addition to the logging sleigh which he rebuilt using the runners and base Mayberry has a shiny black vis-a-vis (face-to-face) sleigh that he purchased in Iowa. It was made in Canada and can carry four passengers. Both the sleighs are pulled by big draft horses, of which he has eight. They are a mixture of Percherons, Clydesdales, Shires and Belgians. "They weigh between 1,800 and 1,900 pounds, stand about six feet tall at the shoulder and eat as much as they can," he said while preparing Barney, a Percheron, and Bailey, a Clydesdale, for a sleigh ride. "That usually comes out to a bale of hay and two to five gallons of grain a day, depending on how much they are working." He said the normal tour lasts about 30 minutes and goes through stands of fruit trees and hardwoods in the 100-acre Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery property, which is about a mile south of Fish Creek on Highway 42. Mayberry, who offers carriage rides out of Ephraim during the summer, said he recommends that customers bundle up for winter rides with warm clothes, hats and gloves. Most people don't realize how chilled they can get sitting still outside in the winter for 30 minutes. Fortunately, he also provides blankets for the outings. More information: Mayberry offers sleigh rides from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by appointment only, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday. Rates are $8 per person for a 30-minute ride in the logging sleigh and $55 for a group of four in the smaller, vis-a-vis sleigh. For more information, call (920) 421-1152 or see mayberryscarriages.com. For details on other things to see and do in Door County, go to doorcounty.com. Other sleigh operators in Wisconsin include: Apple Holler Sleigh Rides, Sturtevant (appleholler.com); Harrison Hills Sleigh Rides, Merrill (harrisonhillssleighrides.com); Northwoods Sleigh & Carriage, Ashland (northwoodscarriage.com); Paradise Ranch, Cedarburg (paradiseranchwi.com); Rocking L Acres, McFarland (rockinglacres.com); and Twin Lake Trails, Birchwood (ontwinlakes.com). Getting there: Orchard Country Winery, 9197 Highway 42 in Door County, is about 180 miles north of Milwaukee via I-43 and Highways 57 and 42. Brian E. Clark is a Madison writer and photographer. Members of the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin Higher Education Council gather Friday before the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents at Union South at UW-Madison. The rally was aimed to draw attention to the need for a strong tenure policy and academic freedom. Credit: Mark Hoffman By of the Madison The outcome of a highly charged debate over changes in faculty tenure protections within the University of Wisconsin System is a matter of opinion. A committee of the UW System Board of Regents with little public discussion unanimously approved three separate policies pertaining to tenure on Friday, forwarding them to the full board for a final vote March 10. There still could be some tweaking of wording. But the parameters are set, and regents declared the new policies comparable and competitive with those at peer universities such as University of Michigan and University of Maryland. Faculty opinion ranges from deep disappointment to reluctant acceptance. One policy defines awarding of tenure essentially as it was in state law before Republican lawmakers removed it last summer and directed the regents to craft new tenure policy. Another adds new requirements for post-tenure reviews every five years and would make it possible to fire underperforming tenured faculty if they don't meet remediation plans within three semesters, or up to four semesters if it's a research-related issue. A third would allow layoffs of tenured faculty if academic programs are cut after all other feasible alternatives are considered. Currently, faculty can only be dismissed in a campuswide financial emergency or for just cause. When programs are cut now, which is not unusual, faculty are either absorbed into other programs or they leave campus on their own. Regents Vice President John Behling, who led the UW System task force that wrote the policies, said they give faculty tenure protections comparable with peer universities while ensuring professors are held accountable for their performance. "These policies will help us demonstrate accountability, which is what the public wants to see from the system," Behling said. "Without the demonstration of accountability, our budget prospects in future years will not improve." The Legislature inserted broader layoff flexibilities in state statute to allow layoffs if academic programs are curtailed, modified, redirected or discontinued. The new regent policy would only allow layoffs for program discontinuation. Board policy would have to be changed before approving layoffs for other program changes, according to UW System general counsel Tom Stafford. The regent policy on post-tenure review adopted in 1992 wasn't "a tight policy," said regent Gerald Whitburn, chairman of the education committee. "It did not facilitate accountability and result in an even playing field across our institutions. Frankly, I think that's why the Legislature did what they did." Before the regents meeting at Union South started Friday, 60-some faculty members from half a dozen UW campuses across the state rallied outside to protest the greater latitude university officials will have under the new policies to dismiss faculty. Faculty clearly are unhappy that the Legislature forced changes "when tenure wasn't broken." "I don't personally believe tenure has been eliminated in the University of Wisconsin," said Dorothy Farrar Edwards, a UW-Madison professor of kinesiology and member of the university's faculty governing committee. She has had a front-row seat to the debate, serving on the systemwide task force that wrote the tenure policies, and chairing campus committees that drafted policy for program discontinuation and post-tenure review. Farrar Edwards said "real changes" are being made, but at the same time, she is hopeful separate tenure policies to "tailor proceedings" on the state's flagship campus will be approved by the regents in March, once systemwide policies are in place. "I still believe our tenure is fundamentally strong, though a lot of it rests on the relationship between the chancellor and governing groups," Farrar Edwards added. "I think we'll be OK," said Tom Broman, a UW-Madison history of science professor who's also on the faculty governing committee. "It's a real loss for Wisconsin. We were a model of linking tenure and shared governance, and people are incredibly loyal to that. To say our tenure is as good as Michigan's down the road will be OK, but it doesn't help at all now. We are grieving a loss." James Hartwick, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at UW-Whitewater, said he was "deeply disappointed in the lack of discussion of legitimate issues." It seemed like a closed process, he said. Faculty are concerned about mixing financial factors into educational considerations in deciding academic programs should be cut because it opens the door to "mere budget prioritization." Tenured faculty could be fired from programs of high educational quality that aren't considered as important or popular as others, said David Vanness, a UW-Madison associate professor of population health sciences and president of the campus American Association of University Professors chapter. UW System President Ray Cross said after the meeting that the regents are still open to suggestions for wording changes. "It's frustrating to me that the emotional reaction on the part of some folks failed to realize the substance of tenure was simply moved from statute to board policy," Cross said. "We had to have a solid tenure policy similar to others around the country. It also had to honor language in new legislation concerned about accountability with reasonable timelines and processes to deal with underperforming faculty, and to reward faculty who exceed expectations." Arlene Patterson holds a photograph of her with her son, Nehemiah, a homicide victim of years past, during the Milwaukee Lights a Candle for Change candle light vigil for 2015 homicide victims at St. Martin DePorres Catholic Church in December. Credit: Gary Porter / for the Journal Sentinel SHARE Milwaukee candidates for mayor and Common Council need to focus on one issue as they run for office this spring: the spike in homicides that last year took 145 lives, the highest annual total since 1993. The same applies to candidates running for the Legislature this fall, because this is not just Milwaukee's problem. An issue that affects the largest community in the state affects all of Wisconsin. What voters need to hear is a serious discussion of causes and solutions to curb this enormous and tragic waste of lives. Not sound bites and quick snarky ads. Not pounding on the table, demanding that some vague "something" needs to be done (no matter how much table-pounding may be warranted). Not wailing and gnashing of teeth. But a serious, thoughtful and full debate on how the community can deal with this tragedy. It's much easier to pound the table. The causes are complex and nettlesome. They undoubtedly go to poverty and segregation and education and unemployment and foreclosed homes. They go to too many guns being carried by youths and criminals who shouldn't have access to guns. They go to too many young people seeing those guns as the way to settle their disputes. They go to a criminal justice system that is often too lax on youthful criminals. They go to a Legislature that is largely unwilling to sufficiently toughen laws regarding the criminal use of guns, as Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has frequently noted. Determining the causes is indeed the "million-dollar" question, as Mallory O'Brien, an epidemiologist who leads the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission, put it to the Journal Sentinel in last Sunday's article, "Toll of homicide" by Ashley Luthern. The commission analyzes homicides and nonfatal shootings in the city looking for causes and possible solutions. Milwaukee is not alone. Something is happening across the country to cause a rise in homicides, including in Baltimore, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. Chicago reported 51 homicides last month alone. Maybe it's demographics, maybe it's guns, maybe it's an economy that has left some people behind, maybe there's just a lot of anger out there. It also is noteworthy that the spike in Milwaukee follows several years of relatively low homicide numbers: the annual average from 2005 to 2015 was 96 homicides. The Milwaukee Police Department's annual report on homicides and nonfatal shootings for 2015 notes that the violence in Milwaukee is "overwhelmingly concentrated in disadvantaged neighborhoods characterized by high rates of intergenerational poverty" and the "increase in homicides is related to Argument/Fights between individuals or groups unrelated to other criminal activity." It also quotes Police Chief Edward Flynn as saying, "What I can report is that our robbery-related homicides are down significantly compared to last year, but those homicides that derived from arguments, fights, and retaliation among those people that have significant criminal records is up over 100%. That by itself is driving this homicide total." Several trends have remained constant, Luthern reported: Some families have multiple victims, some people could be a perpetrator one day and a victim the next, most of the victims are African-American men and most victims die from gunfire. Some of the killings on average 1 in 3 go unsolved. Flynn argues that more data is needed, and he has called for rigorous study into what happened in Milwaukee and cities with similar demographics that saw similar spikes in homicides in 2015. He's right to do that, especially when it comes to more data from the court system and the district attorney's office in terms of charging and sentencing. It also would be good to know how that data compares to data from elsewhere in the state. And the clamp on information regarding concealed carry permits and their relation to shootings needs to be lifted by the Legislature. Law enforcement and communities plagued by this spike need all the tools available, and information is a critical tool. But those voices calling for changes in police practices and levels of policing also deserve to be heard. As do those who demand better education and educational opportunities, more workforce training programs, better housing and a host of other issues. Everyone needs to be a part of this discussion. And what better platform than an election campaign? So let's get to it. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) questions a witness during a hearing on the frontline response to terrorism on Feb. 2, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Credit: Associated Press Back when Ron Johnson first ran for the Senate against then-incumbent Russ Feingold, I called him a "blank slate." No one knew very much about the guy, save that he identified as a Republican and seemed to passively toe the party line pretty well. He also had (and has) a lot of money, thanks to his work with his wife's family's packaging and extrusion company. "Blank slate" ended up being the perfect identity in the year of the tea party wave, when backlash against President Barack Obama's victory in 2008 and lackluster Democratic turnout at the polls combined to see a number of candidates of dubious qualifications vaulted into office across the country. Disaffected conservative voters could paint whatever picture they wanted on Johnson. He was happy to play the role of mirror, with little substance of his own, if it meant winning. Even still, Johnson ended up contributing more than $8.2 million of his own money to his campaign, which amounted to 64% of the total contributions. Not even his own party seemed particularly excited about him as a candidate, but waves are powerful things. One need only place oneself at the right place at the right time to get swept along in it. Since then, Johnson has done little to distinguish himself on the home front. A recent poll from Marquette University Law School found that a whopping 4 in 10 registered voters in Wisconsin "lacked an opinion" about whether they had favorable or unfavorable views of him. In comparison, only 1 in 4 said the same of Feingold, who's up for the rematch. It doesn't hurt that Feingold made a habit of holding regular town hall meetings across the state and has remained visible and active in key causes since leaving office. Johnson, on the other hand, holds most of his "town halls" by phone, when he holds them at all. Out in Washington, of course, Johnson has kept himself just busy enough to have made a name in the never-ending windmill tilt of the Benghazi trials. Johnson also has found himself gifted with the gavel for a high-profile homeland security and government affairs committee. What else do you know about him, though? The list of his notable positions reads like a far-right manifesto: He opposed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, instead arguing that we should have let the Great Recession run its course naturally (easy enough to say when it hasn't touched you personally). Johnson also is a climate change denier, calling the overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus "crazy" and "lunacy." He opposes Obamacare, is anti-choice and has worked against even the most common sense gun control laws. Basically, we know what he's against, but not so much what he's for. I may have just made the case for re-election for a fringe minority of Wisconsin voters, but I strongly suspect that Johnson does not represent the moderate conservatives that do still exist in the state. Certainly, it would not be difficult to be to the left of the man. It also would not be difficult to accomplish more than he has in his time in office. So let's take a look at Feingold, who returns to the political fray after what must have been a comparatively peaceful five years in the private sector. Already, he's off to a better start than in 2010, given that he's running in a presidential election year, which generally bodes better for Democrats. Feingold previously served as a Wisconsin senator from 1993 to 2010, and before that he was a state senator for 10 years. You can't call this guy a blank slate. His record is long and very public, and even if you oppose everything Feingold stands for, you have to allow that he's proven himself a dedicated public servant. Feingold introduced major bipartisan campaign finance reform at the federal level, was the lone oppositional vote on the insidious Patriot Act, voted against the boondoggle that has been the Iraq war and has been a staunch supporter of health care reform, environmental protections and civil liberties. No candidate is perfect. And I'm not arguing that one vote for the "lesser of two evils" in this case, either. Simply that we all do a better job of assessing the actual qualifications of the candidates, their connection and willingness to listen to their constituents, and their demonstrated ability to do the hard work of governing. Emily Mills is a freelance writer who lives in Madison. Twitter: @millbot; Email: emily.mills@outlook.com Brazilian Army soldiers distribute flyers with information on how to combat the yellow fever mosquito during the Burial of the Mosquito carnival block parade in Olinda, Pernambuco state, Brazil, on Feb. 5. Credit: Associated Press SHARE By We live in extraordinary times. On the whole, basic public health measures, advances in biomedical research and technological innovation have afforded us the ability to lead longer and healthier lives than ever before. Yet, despite all of the progress that we have made, glaring disparities in health outcomes persist by some estimates, one out of every three deaths globally is related to health inequity. Chances are if you are reading this, you have heard of the Zika virus. It's a disease, transmitted by a particular kind of mosquito that inhabits most of the Americas. Generally, people infected with Zika suffer mild symptoms rash, fever but what has been dominating the news cycle and terrifying the general public for the past several weeks is Zika's potential link to microcephaly in infants. Microcephaly is a debilitating malformation of the brain in utero, which can lead to severe developmental disabilities and stillbirth or premature death. At this time, there is no way to prevent or treat microcephaly. For that matter, there is no rapid test, vaccine or treatment for Zika. Brazil reported a significant upsurge in cases of microcephaly in the past year nearly 4,000 cases and the potential link to Zika has been alarming enough for the World Health Organization (WHO), the world's health agency, to declare these cases of microcephaly a global public health emergency. Based on what we currently know about the disease, if you are reading this from Milwaukee or Madison, or really anywhere in the United States, you are at limited risk of contracting Zika. Geography is one safeguard it is too cold in many northern states for the particular species of mosquito to survive. In states that are vulnerable, existing infrastructure provides other essential protections. The U.S. has comprehensive sanitation, deploys environmental protective measures such as chemical sprays to kill off mosquito populations, and most individual households have air conditioning and screens on doors and windows. It is why we do not read about too many vector-borne disease outbreaks such as dengue fever or chikungunya in Florida or Mississippi. But, if you are reading this from cities in Central and South America, you probably have legitimate reason to be alarmed. Many of your cities have neither the benefit of geography nor infrastructure. The risk of being infected with Zika is high, and the potential consequences stemming from infection grave, especially to pregnant women and children. The current narrative of Zika is not unique. It also is not just a story of health disparities between rich and poor countries. With any disease (infectious or chronic) and in any community, those most at risk are those who are most vulnerable and marginalized the poor, women, children and minority communities (including indigenous populations, LGBTI, prisoners and sex workers). Misguided stereotypes about these communities typically mean they also are given the least voice in raising concerns and developing solutions to health challenges. Flint, Mich., is one of the poorest cities in the country, with over 40% of its population living in poverty. It is currently dealing with a debilitating public health crisis with dangerous levels of lead polluting its drinking water. The water had been testing at more than twice the level considered to be toxic waste for over a year, but local officials have only recently declared a state of emergency and providing alternatives for safe drinking water. Among the many symptoms of lead poisoning include developmental delays in children and high blood pressure and mood disorders in adults. Local authorities repeatedly dismissed calls from the community that something was wrong with their water and that it was negatively impacting their children. If the people of Flint were not predominantly poor, uneducated and communities of color, would their concerns have been taken more seriously? Practically, health disparities lead to wasted resources and wasted potential. Health risks stymie development and pose threats to our national security. But more fundamentally, these disparities diminish us as a civilized, ordered and interconnected society. One important way forward requires a cultural shift in how we view health. So much of what makes and keeps populations healthy is contingent on circumstances beyond our individual control, and, so often, those who suffer the most are those who have the least. Moreover, health cannot be seen merely as an add-on to progress prosperity does not lead to healthier societies, but rather healthier societies lead to lasting prosperity. National and global priorities need to better reflect these realities. Enormous progress has been made, and continues to be made, in health. But there is still much to be done in the long march toward health equity. Susan C. Kim is the deputy director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Twitter: @lousysusan FIRESIDE FORUM Topic: Inequality and Health With Susan Kim, deputy director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Local Respondent: Geoffrey Swain, medical director and chief medical officer, City of Milwaukee Details:7 p.m. Tuesday, UWM Student Union, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., Wisconsin Room. The series is free; sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Institute of World Affairs and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. More information:www.iwa.uwm.edu Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. addresses the first graduating class of Milwaukee County sheriffs deputies since 2003 Tuesday, January 12. Credit: Michael McLoone SHARE By Nobody gets to choose their race. Whatever your race, it is what our creator intended it to be, and all are equally beautiful. For a while now, we have seen and heard Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on the airwaves of Fox News denouncing "everything black" and the causes espoused by our community. "The members of Black Lives Matter Movement are 'subhuman creeps,'" he has said. He also has refused to do the customary protocol when the president visits the area, which shows respect for the office, even if you disagree with the politics, and he has made a most extreme untrue statement to shamelessly pander to his base: "There is no police brutality." That statement deserves no commentary because it is so ridiculous. Even Bill O'Reilly of Fox News conceded that while most of America's cops are good people, some are bad ones. Several years ago, a Canadian journalist, Orville Lloyd Douglas, wrote an article called "Why I Hate Being a Black Man." He discussed how he hated his full lips and broad nose. The anger at who he was a black man was crystal clear. His self-hatred was such that our own anger at him was tempered with pity. He was a victim of the social pathology called self-hatred. Douglas is hardly an aberration. Many African-Americans have the same disease. The only difference is that it is not spewed television like Clarke's is. What Clarke spews says more about his self-hatred than it does about the victims of his diatribes. All people have a right to their opinions, but public officials have the professional responsibility to state them in ways that do not dehumanize. Until Clarke learns to love himself, the skin in which God placed him, our demand is that he cease working out his issue of self-hatred on television. But that may be only wishful thinking. Let's be clear: His views in no way reflect our community. Nor are they reflective of every person who believes in the inherent dignity of every human. Clarke should give us the respect to come talk to us in a place where his views can be challenged in an environment of civil discourse. The Rev. Darryl Williams is pastor of St. Mark AME Church, Milwaukee; the Rev. Steve Jerbi is pastor of All Peoples Church of Milwaukee. By of the Madison Political appointees at the state Department of Natural Resources are screening some requests made under the state's open records law by journalists and environmentalists, keeping watch over these sensitive requests that deal with figures in politics, big livestock farms and oversight of Wisconsin's land and water. The DNR's practice of looping in top appointees on records marked as "sensitive" by agency staff isn't necessarily illegal or unethical. But with the DNR already facing a public records lawsuit from an environmental group, there'll be close scrutiny of the cases in which political appointees have given additional sign off on document releases that had already been vetted by agency staff. The examples turned up in an open records request by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In one case, the DNR delayed for three weeks while staff waited in large part for former assistant deputy secretary Mike Bruhn to weigh in on responding to an Appleton Post-Crescent reporter's request for any hunting licenses taken out by U.S. Senate candidates Russ Feingold, a Democrat, and Ron Johnson, a Republican. As it turns out, there aren't any records. The agency eventually released that benign piece of information and no story was written. Under state law, public officials must respond to records requests "as soon as practicable and without delay." Joel Christopher, the vice president of news for the USA Today Network-Wisconsin, which includes the Post-Crescent, said the handling of the request caught his attention. "Certainly as a media organization and as a citizen of Wisconsin you have some concern when you see that politics is potentially a factor in how an open records request is handled because clearly it should not be," Christopher said. The DNR says it's following the law in all cases. "The practice of notifying agency leadership about the impending release of sensitive open records requests is intended to ensure that DNR's open records process has been followed and that the documents have undergone proper internal legal review," spokesman George Althoff said. "DNR's goal is to handle all open records requests in a timely and efficient manner and in compliance with the open records law." An attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, a law firm that handles natural resources cases, isn't convinced. Midwest Environmental is suing the DNR for delays of months in responding to its own records requests for documents on the regulation of microscopic air particles, wetland permits and information on large-scale dairy farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). "(Hunting) licenses are certainly public records and there does not appear to be any legitimate reason to withhold these records or any basis for sending the request to the secretary's office for review," Sarah Geers, an attorney with Midwest Environmental, said of the Post-Crescent request. Althoff didn't directly address why agency appointees are signing off on some requests but said it's important for top DNR officials to know about "sensitive open records requests that could result in news coverage, could result in litigation involving the agency, or could be about high-profile topics of interest to the agency." This latest disclosure follows a string of separate efforts by state officials over the past year to limit citizen access to public documents. Faced with a fierce backlash, state officials at an obscure board rescinded a recent move that had been used to limit access to some records by defining them to be of only transitory significance and allowing them to be destroyed. And in July, just before Independence Day weekend, Republicans on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee unexpectedly amended the state budget to put sweeping limits on open records. Under withering bipartisan criticism, GOP leaders quickly retreated and undid their action. Gov. Scott Walker's office also has withheld some records that include internal deliberations, saying that releasing them could inhibit the free exchange of ideas within his administration. State law doesn't specifically recognize that as a reason for withholding records. Walker says his office and his administration follow the state's open records law. Within just several weeks last fall, Bruhn, the former No. 3 official at the DNR, and Secretary Cathy Stepp answered multiple questions from staff about whether to respond to records requests some of which had already been vetted. In one case, the DNR's open records coordinator, Kathleen Patten, sent Bruhn a records request on a Jackson County sand mining operation. "The records for this request are ready to go out, and they have already been reviewed by legal," Patten said. In another case, Bruhn told staff to do only the minimum for an open records request relating to perch in Lake Michigan by Steven Alt of Glendale, saying he was on an agency "do not respond list." "Please ensure we do NOT create anything for Steven Alt. Also make sure we charge him appropriately. He is one person on our do not respond to list due to the sheer volume of contacts and correspondences," Bruhn wrote to Patten and a former agency spokesman in a Sept. 18 email. Alt, an angler who has been concerned for years about losses in Lake Michigan's yellow perch population, said he has probably had hundreds of contacts over the past decade with the DNR as he looked into the perch problem and related issues such as commercial fishing. "I suspected that, but it's nice to know," Alt said of the do not respond list. Alt said he does continue to get some information from the DNR, but only through records requests. In the case of the U.S. Senate candidate, reporter Madeleine Behr requested the hunting license records from the DNR on Aug. 17. On Aug. 26, Patten, the agency records coordinator, asked about the request in an email to other agency officials. "It is in my court," Bruhn responded. On Sept. 9, Behr asked again about her request and Patten immediately asked Bruhn about it, noting that there were no hunting licenses but that there were other licenses held by one of the two candidates. "So what was the consensus on this request? (If I'm) supposed to respond with the fishing licenses (and one boat registration), or I'm I supposed to respond that we located no records responsive to their request (since there were no hunting licenses)?" Patten asked. "The latter. There were no records responsive to the request," Bruhn emailed back. Patten responded to Behr that same day, saying that the agency had no records of any hunting licenses and making no mention of the other licenses. SHARE By of the Madison Friday evening, the Wisconsin Supreme Court allowed three district attorneys to go to the U.S. Supreme Court over a secret closed investigation into Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and conservative groups. But the state Supreme Court denied the prosecutors help from a national law firm that had won a similar case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 4-1 unsigned decision, the state's high court found that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and two other Democratic district attorneys, Ismael Ozanne of Dane County and Larry Nelson of Iowa County, cannot share sealed documents with three outside counsels. The three private attorneys in question work for the firm Reed Smith LLP, which handled the U.S. Supreme Court case Caperton vs. A.T. Massey Coal Co. That decision dealt with whether state supreme court justices could sit on cases involving major political benefactors. A similar issue is at play in Wisconsin. The appeal attempt to the U.S. Supreme Court by the district attorneys is likely to hinge on whether Justices Michael Gableman and David Prosser should have ruled on the investigation because their campaigns benefited from heavy spending by groups that were caught up in the probe. The Reed Smith attorneys had been willing to represent the prosecutors for free. This latest order follows a recent action by the Wisconsin Supreme Court declining to reconsider an earlier ruling ending the investigation. Special prosecutor Francis Schmitz, who hoped to see the nation's high court take the case, had made that request for reconsideration last year. The state Supreme Court rejected that and clarified that going forward only district attorneys also involved in the so-called John Doe probe could work on the case. The district attorneys had sought permission for the Reed Smith attorneys to review sealed documents for the purposes of helping to make the appeal. We Energies doubles rate increase sought for residential customers We Energies is seeking a 13% increase in residential electric rates in 2023, about twice the increase it is seeking for large industrial energy users. Reddit Email 2 Shares TeleSur | The inauguration comes weeks after Brazil rejected Israels ambassador, a former leader of West Bank settlers. The Palestinian Authority inaugurated its first embassy in the Western Hemisphere in Brasilia Wednesday amid a diplomatic row between Brazil and Israel. Representatives of Arab countries and Arab Brazilians attended the event, hosted on land donated to the PA by former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. This is the conclusion of a dream of mine that was also a dream of colleagues that came before me in this mission in the last four decades, said Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Alzeben. I hope that this is the beginning of a new phase in relations between Brazil and Palestine, that they can be closer and more diversified. The Brazilian government long openly supportive of Palestine last month rejected Israels appointment for envoy, a former leader of West Bank settlers who are illegally occupying Palestinian land. The announcement came a year after the previous envoy was sent and without prior communication with the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Palestinian diplomats lobbied against Israels pick and Israel has refused to select another, chilling relations with Brazil. The Palestine Liberation Organization has sent representatives to Brazil since 1975, and a special delegation has served as de facto embassy staff since 1998. Alzeben expressed his hope for a Brazilian embassy in Jerusalem during the ceremony; it already has one in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Alzeben said he also hopes to secure a free-trade agreement with countries of Mercosur, the South American trade bloc. Israel signed a Free Trade Zone Agreement with Mercosur in 2007 and Brazil is its largest partner in Latin America. Via TeleSur Reddit Email 0 Shares By Neil Pyper | (the Conversation) | The body of Giulio Regeni was discovered in a ditch in Cairo on February 2, showing evidence of torture, and a slow and horrific death. Giulio was studying for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, and was carrying out research on the formation of independent trade unions in post-Mubarak Egypt. There is little doubt that his work would have been extremely important in his field, and he had a career ahead of him as an important scholar of the region. Giulio, originally from Fiumicello in north-east Italy, had a strong international background and outlook. As a teenager, he won a scholarship that allowed him to spend two formative years studying at the United World College in New Mexico. He was especially passionate about Egypt. Before beginning his doctoral research, he spent time in Cairo working for the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). At the age of 28, he stood out with his big hopes and dreams, and he was committed to pursuing a career that would allow him to make an impact on the world, which is a poorer place for his passing. Those of us who worked and spent time with him are grieving but above all, we are furious about the manner of his death. While murder and torture are inherently of concern, Giulios case also has much broader implications for higher education in the UK and beyond. British universities have long fostered an outward-looking and international perspective. This has been evident in the consistent strength of area studies since the middle of the 20th century. The fact that academics from British universities have produced cutting-edge research on so many areas of the world is an important factor in the impact and esteem that the higher education system there enjoys. EPA/Mohamed Hossam In order to carry out this research, generations of scholars have carried out fieldwork in other countries, often with authoritarian political systems or social unrest that made them dangerous places in which to study. I carried out such research in Peru in the 1990s, working there while the country was ruled by the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori. Alongside this research tradition, universities are becoming increasingly international in their outlook and make up. Large numbers of international students attend the classes, and their presence is crucial for making campuses more vibrant and diverse. Giulios murder is a clear and direct challenge to this culture, and it demands a response. If our scholars especially our social scientists are to continue producing research with an international perspective, they will need to carry out international fieldwork. By its nature, this will sometimes involve work on challenging issues in volatile and unstable countries. Universities clearly have a duty of care to their students and staff. This is generally exercised through ethics committees, whose work means that much greater care is taken than in the past to ensure that risks are managed appropriately. However, there is the danger that overly zealous risk management could affect researchers ability to carry out their work, making some important and high-impact research simply impossible. Time for action We cannot protect against all risks, but no scholar should face the risk of extrajudicial violence from the authorities. If universities are to remain internationally focused and outward-looking, we must exercise our duty of care towards our students and colleagues when they are working in other countries. But there are limits to what academic institutions can do on their own. It is vital that governments raise cases such as Giulios, and push strongly for full investigations and for those responsible to be held to account. The Italian and Egyptian authorities have announced a joint investigation into what happened to Giulio, but the British government also has a responsibility to make representations to this effect. That would send the message that any abuse by authorities of students and researchers from British universities will not be tolerated. A petition will be circulated to this effect, and Giulios friends and colleagues will be campaigning on the issue in the days and weeks ahead. Giulio Regenis murder is a direct challenge to the academic freedom that is a pillar of our higher education system. He is only one of many scholars to find themselves in grave danger. While its still not clear what happened to him, we know that others have been arbitrarily detained and abused in Egypt. As a scholarly community and as a society, we have a duty to strike to protect them and their colleagues who study in dangerous places the world over. Neil Pyper, Associate Head of School, Coventry University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | On Friday, the Syrian Arab Army and its Hizbullah and Iranian/ Afghan allies made further progress in taking the area just north of Aleppo. They were apparently mainly fighting al-Qaeda, which had a stronghold in the city of Ratyan. The Russians subjected it to intensive bombing and the SAA and allies ultimately took it. Al-Qaeda (the Nusrah Front) said it had killed 25 of its attackers. Via Google maps (click) In New York, as the Syrian peace talks collapsed, the Russian envoy asked out loud why even the opposition was not happy at the defeat and rollback of al-Qaeda. The answer is, of course, that the Nusra Front has a long history of winning battles against the Baath regime of Bashar al-Assad, and so it is useful to the opposition, even if it is, like, al-Qaeda. Moreover, they dont take its ties to Ayman al-Zawahiri, now the leader of the organization, very seriously. Unfortunately for us, I think the US is more or less indirectly backing al-Qaeda in Syria (not ISIL but the Nusra Front). Jenane Moussa, who has reported from inside Syria, pointed out that government troops still hadnt surrounded Aleppo to the east, and made us a map of what she thinks the situation looks like. There is confusion if #Syria rebels/civilians r encircled in &near #Aleppo. No, but situation difficult. I made map: pic.twitter.com/9QYxnTP9Pv Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) February 5, 2016 AFP interviews experts who concur that the Syrian regime is now likely to subject the 360,000 people in eastern Aleppo to a blockade and siege, as it had done successfully to Homs, until it can kill off the guerrillas opposing it. The Syrian Human Rights observatory maintains that some 20,000 Syrians have fled the villages and small towns just north of Aleppo. Several thousand are stuck on the Syria side at the main Turkish border checkpoint, in cold weather, and they face exposure. Turkey, which already has 2.5 million Syrian refugees, has closed the border to them. related video: 20,000 Syrian refugees stuck on Turkish border after fleeing Aleppo Reddit Email 0 Shares By Joris Leverink | (Inter Press Service) | ISTANBUL, Turkey, (IPS) The latest footage to come out of Sur, the historical district in Diyarbakir that has been under total lock down by Turkish armed forces for the past sixty days, shows a level of devastation one would sooner expect in Syria. In more ways than one empty streets lined with debris, bombed-out buildings, tanks and soldiers shooting at invisible assailants the situation in Turkeys predominantly Kurdish southeastern regions resembles a war zone. The bullet-ridden Fatih Pasa Mosque in the heart of Diyarbakirs historical Sur district, which was heavily damaged in clashes between Turkish armed forces and local militant youths. Credit: Joris Leverink/IPS The Turkish government maintains that it is engaged in a fight against terror. However, the security operations are characterized by a disproportionate use of violence, whereby entire towns and neighborhoods are cut off from the outside world with civilians trapped inside their homes for weeks on end. This has led to calls by international human rights organizations to end the collective punishment of an entire population for the acts of a small minority. At its second general congress in late January, the key political representative of the Kurdish population in Turkey, the Peoples Democratic Party, or HDP, stressed its determination to seek a peaceful solution to the violent conflict. If politics can play a role, weapons are not necessary. Where theres no politics, there will be weapons, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the party summarized the situation. From autonomy to conflict In the spring of 2013 hopes were high for a political solution to the decades-old violent conflict between the Turkish state and its Kurdish minority, represented on the battlefield by the leftist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. After years of fighting and tens of thousands deaths, both parties appeared determined to bring the war to an end and engage in peace talks. For almost 2.5 years the fighting ceased. The precarious peace came to an end in the summer of 2015. As a spillover from the war in Syria, tensions between the Kurds in Turkey and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, reached a boiling point. In Syria, local Kurds had been fighting off a number of Turkey-backed jihadist and Syrian opposition groups most prominently the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS. When Kurdish groups in Turkey became the target of two ISIS-linked suicide attacks in Diyarbakir in June, and Suruc in July it was the AKP that was held responsible for the onslaught. The ceasefire broke down and violence escalated quickly. Turkey launched air raids against PKK targets in northern Iraq, in response to which security forces inside Turkey were attacked by Kurdish militants. Having lost their trust in the Turkish state to properly address Kurdish grievances concerning the right to speak and be educated in their mother tongue, to practice their own religion, to be represented politically and to protect the natural environment of their historical homelands, many Kurds instead turned to the ideology of democratic confederalism. Developed by the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, democratic confederalism promotes the autonomy of local communities and a decentralization of the state. When towns and neighborhoods across the Kurdish regions of Turkey started declaring their autonomy in the wake of the re-escalated conflict, the Turkish state under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by sending in the army and declaring dozens of so-called curfews that in practice amount to military sieges. Besides hundreds of casualties among the army and Kurdish militants, around two hundred civilians are believed to have been killed in the past six months. Bleak prospects for peace After the HDP became the first party with roots in the Kurdish freedom movement to pass the exceedingly high electoral threshold of 10 per cent at the parliamentary elections in June and again at the snap elections in November it has come under severe pressure from the political establishment. President Erdogan personally suggested that the HDP representatives ought to be stripped from their immunity so that they could be prosecuted for supporting terrorism. Nonetheless, the party refuses to succumb to the intimidation and has consistently called for a peaceful and democratic solution to the conflict. Despite all the oppression, a new democratic model is emerging, HDP co-chair Figen Yuksedag said in her speech at the congress. This model continues to gain support, even while under attack. The HDP has a historical responsibility to bring this project to a successful end. Her co-chair Demirtas added the warning that If we fail to produce a solution for the end of the violence, it is the end of politics in Turkey. Unfortunately, prospects for a political solution are bleak. Mayors and political representatives of the towns and districts where the population has called for autonomy are prosecuted and jailed. At the same time President Erdogan warned that, It should be known that we will bring the whole world down on those who seek to establish a state within a state under the name of autonomy and self-governance. Prime Minister Davutoglu recently vowed to continue the military operations until our mountains, plains and towns are cleansed of these killers. This type of uncompromising discourse from the countrys two most powerful political leaders instills little hope that the government is prepared to return to the negotiation table any time soon. The Kurds, both at home and across the border in Syria, are seen as the biggest threat to the territorial integrity of Turkey, and to stop this perceived threat no price is too high. In the same way that Turkey has refused to allow the Syrian Kurds a seat at the negotiation table in Geneva, it is refusing to enter into dialogue with the Kurds at home. The multiple references to Syria in this article are no coincidence; if the Turkish government continues to ignore all but a military solution to the current unrest, there is a very real threat that part of the country will soon resemble its southern neighbor. The HDPs invitation is there. In the words of co-chair Demirtas: Dialogue and negotiation should be the method when the public is under threat. Strengthening democracy is the only way to save Turkey from disaster. Licensed from Inter Press Service Reddit Email 0 Shares By Sam Pizzigati | (Inequality.org) | Our worlds billionaires dont merit either their billions, the Oxfam economist Didier Jacobs suggests, or the right to claim were all living in a meritocracy. Defenders of our deeply unequal global economic order had to put in a bit of overtime last month. They had to explain away the latest evidence from the global charity Oxfam on how concentrated our worlds wealth has become. A challenging task. Back in 2010, Oxfams new stats show, the worlds 62 richest billionaires collectively held $1.1 trillion in wealth, far less than the $2.6 trillion that then belonged to humanitys least affluent half. Now the numbers have reversed. The worlds top 62 billionaires last year held $1.76 trillion in wealth, the bottom half of the world only $1.75 trillion. Far from trickling down, Oxfam concludes, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate. Flacks for grand fortune have a justification for this top-heavy state of affairs. We live, they assure us, in a meritocracy. Those with great wealth have made great contributions. They merit their success. If we want to encourage talent and hard work, we simply have to accept the inequality that meritocracy will inevitably produce. Do our grandest fortunes really reflect merit? Oxfam economist Didier Jacobs last year set out to examine that question, and he has just published a paper that offers a fresh new take on meritocracy and the rhetoric and reality behind it. Too Much editor Sam Pizzigati last month asked the Boston-based Jacobs to share the thinking that underlies his innovative new research. Too Much: People who defend grand fortunes typically dont defend all grand fortunes. Theyll readily acknowledge that some rich people havent done anything that makes their riches merited. But then theyll argue that most of our wealthy do owe their wealth to personal talent and effort. What do modern philosophers like John Rawls have to say about this meritocracy defense of inequality? Why should the wealth that comes from inherited talent be considered merited? Didier Jacobs: Many philosophers see talent as genetically or socially inherited. Even effort, Rawls contends, stands largely if not completely out of an individuals control. Gifted people raised in supportive environments with access to great opportunities will find working hard to nurture their talents much easier than folks who lack a supportive environment. Proponents of meritocracy dont consider inherited wealth to be merited. So why should the wealth that comes from inherited talent be merited? TM: But your research doesnt rest on this philosophical critique of meritocracy. Your new paper essentially takes the notion of meritocracy at face value. You accept that some grand fortunes could reflect individual talent and effort and then you go on to examine how much true talent and effort specific sorts of fortunes involve. Why take this approach? Jacobs: Because meritocracy rates as the number one argument that defenders of inequality invoke. It is easy to make an ethical case against extreme concentrations of wealth, drawing from the perspectives of Marxism, utilitarianism, or the egalitarian liberalism of John Rawls. But going down that road requires people youre trying to persuade to change their value systems, and thats difficult. Debunk the meritocratic argument on its own terms, by contrast, and all the defenders of inequality have left is libertarianism, a value system that has much less appeal among the American public than meritocracy. TM: The concept of rent figures prominently in your analysis. But what economists mean by rent goes far beyond what the general public sees as rent. Can you explain what qualifies as rent-seeking behavior? Jacobs: Put simply, economists define rent as the difference between what people are paid and what they would have to be paid to do the work anyway. In other words, a rent is excess income, income that does not generate any effort. We can trace most of our worlds billionaire wealth to cronyism, inheritance, and monopoly. So if your farmland happens to be more fertile than surrounding farmland, you get more production out of it for the same effort, and that extra income you get is a rent. Rent-seeking entails getting hold of wealth produced by others. Lobbying government to obtain a subsidy is an example. TM: Your paper explores the varied sources of extreme wealth. A few of these like crime and cronyism obviously rate as rent-seeking. No one could call them meritocratic. But other sources like monopoly could have redeeming social value. High-tech CEOs like the late Steve Jobs, some argue, fully merit their wealth because their contributions have been so spectacular. But you see in technology rent-seeking dynamics in high tech that wildly overcompensate execs like Jobs. What sort of dynamics? Jacobs: Apples business model relies heavily on two types of rents: intellectual property and tying, obliging customers to buy Apple hardware and software bundled together. And Apple, like most large tech companies, also benefits from another major source of rent: network externalities. A network externality exists when consumers draw value from other consumers using the same product, such that the company that manages to get a critical mass of consumers tends to attract many more of them. A classic example would be Facebook. Most people use Facebook simply because all their friends use Facebook. A competing site might have a better user interface, but switching to that site would defeat the purpose of social networking. This same phenomenon plays to the advantage of most if not all large IT companies. People look for drivers on Uber because they know that most drivers use Uber to offer their services. Dont get me wrong, Steve Jobs deserved to be rich. I have no doubt he made a considerable contribution to humanity through talent and hard work. But I argue that he did not deserve to be extremely rich because his wealth derived in large part from rents. An individuals contribution to society depends on both the intrinsic usefulness of the contribution and the size of society. The IT industry essentially resembles the mining industry in one respect. Digging gold can be useful to society, and the mining company that wins a tender to dig a specific field will usually be better than its competitors. But that company did not create the gold, and thats why governments usually charge royalties for the privilege to dig it out. Similarly, IT companies create useful products, and the most proficient company will usually dominate the market of a specific product. But IT monopolies do not create network externalities. They take advantage of them. It is these network externalities that create the extreme wealth concentration. I would say that these externalities belong to society, just like underground gold, and so the wealth they generate ought to be shared. You dont have to be particularly radical to take this perspective. Even a business magazine as rooted in mainstream economics as the Economist suggests it. TM: How does your research go about quantifying how much of the wealth of todays billionaires can legitimately claim to be merited? Jacobs: I use the Forbes billionaire list. Forbes identifies the billionaires who have inherited their wealth and also notes the countries and industries where each billionaires wealth originated. This information lets us quantify the proportion of the worlds billionaire wealth by different categories. So we can calculate how much billionaire wealth comes from inheritance. We can also calculate how much may come from cronyism, which I define as wealth generated in both a corruption-prone country and a state-dependent industry. And we can calculate how much billionaire wealth may come from market failures such as monopoly, which I define as wealth derived from finance and IT. Gutenberg didnt get ultra rich because the 15th century economy was simply too small to support huge fortunes. Altogether, my research traces 65 percent of the worlds billionaire wealth to the rents of cronyism, inheritance, and monopoly. TM: Your analysis leaves about 35 percent of current billionaire wealth unaffected by cronyism, inheritance, or monopoly. But that, your new paper relates, doesnt make this 35 percent somehow merited, and you cite globalization as one key reason why. How does our globalized world economy impact on the matter of merit? Jacobs: An individuals contribution to society depends on both the intrinsic usefulness of the contribution and the size of society. Take Johannes Gutenberg, for instance. He invented the printing press in 1439. Most of us would agree, I think, that the printing press amounts to an invention as least as important as Google. Yet Gutenberg did not become a billionaire. Gutenberg didnt get extremely rich because the world economy in the fifteenth century was simply too small and too fragmented to support any billionaire fortunes. They didnt have a billion people all around the world back then with a dollar to spare toward printing equipment. Every billionaires wealth today depends on having access to a large population thats linked through a globalized economy. The more this global economy grows, the richer our billionaires get. This growth happens independently from any one individuals effort and talent, so we cant say that billionaires deserve the profits that go hand in hand with economic growth. Indeed, billionaires do not deserve the large population that makes their fortunes possible. They were just born into it and that raises the question of whether society should put a ceiling on wealth concentration. If current public policy remains unchanged, well almost certainly see a trillionaire one day, simply because the global population and economy is likely to continue growing. If current public policy remains unchanged, well almost certainly see a trillionaire one day. This issue the dependency of extreme wealth on the existence of a large, globalized society rarely gets discussed. Neither does its corollary, the question of whether we need a ceiling on wealth. These both strike me as important societal questions. TM: Where does luck fit into all this? Jacobs: Meritocracy is about contributing to society through talent and effort, but also through risk taking. Every billionaire has made several big calculated bets they knew they could lose it all. That brings us to my last critique of meritocracy: the inequity between the talented and hard-working people who take a bet and win and the equally talented and hard-working people who take a bet and lose. Both winners and losers here rank as equally deserving. Yet the one can be thousands of times wealthier than the other only because of luck. Our growing inequality reflects a society with more and more winner-takes-all markets, where many talented individuals compete for ever fewer top spots. In the end, the winners often owe their place to chance. TM: So can a reasonable person argue that our deeply unequal world in any way amounts to a meritocracy? Jacobs: The meritocracy notion may make sense for the middle of our income distribution: An outstanding nurse is likely to make more money than an average one and would deserve that extra income. But in no way can meritocracy justify extreme inequality. I would like to depersonalize the inequality debate. Extreme inequality is not driven by the merit or vices and virtues of particular individuals, but by social, economic, and political forces. At Oxfam, we have an intimate knowledge of the poverty traps that keep people in poverty. My new paper is about the wealth traps that concentrate wealth in ever fewer hands. - Related video added by Juan Cole: Democracy Now!: The 1% Economy: The Worlds Richest 62 People Now Have as Much as Poorest 3.6 Billion Dallas, Texas, USA, 02/06/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/ When youre looking to hire someone as an employee in the Lone Star State, it often makes sense to use a professionally prepared Texas employment contract in order to prevent misunderstandings while ensuring both employer and employee understand their respective rights and responsibilities. According to Dallas Employment Lawyer Mike Young, here are eight of the most common areas youll want to cover in the employment agreement. 1. Employment Term. How long will the employees initial term of employment be? One year? Is there a probationary period? Is the employment at-will? 2. Compensation. How much will the employee be paid? When? And by what method? Will there be overtime compensation? What about discretionary or performance bonuses? 3. Employees Duties. What days and hours of the week must the employee work? What are the employees responsibilities during those work hours? Can the employee work a second job for another employer or moonlight as an entrepreneur? 4. Paid Time Off. Will the employee receive paid personal leave during the term? If so, how many days and whats the methodology by which it accrues? Will there be holidays off? If so, which days? Will they be paid or unpaid? 5. Expense Reimbursement. Will the employer reimburse certain business-related expenses incurred by an employee? If so, what types of expenses and what are the procedures for submitting a claim for reimbursement? 6. Intellectual Property Rights To learn all 8 tips and more about Texas employment agreements, go to http://mikeyounglaw.com/texas-employment-contract-lawyer/ Follow Dallas Business Lawyer Mike Young on Google+ at http://google.com/+MikeYoungInternetLawyer #MikeYoungLaw #DallasBusinessLawyer By Mike Young Dallas Employment Attorney source: http://mikeyounglaw.com/texas-employment-contract-lawyer/ Social Media Tags:Dallas Employment Attorney, Mike Young, Texas employment contract. Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution SubmitMyPressRelease.com Like Us on Facebook It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print Over the past year and a half, Europe has been experiencing a growing threat of both radicalization and terrorism. Combined with the migration crisis, this threat has been growing to virtually existential dimensions for the European Union, which is scrambling to come up with ways to defend the safety of its citizens and tighten security at Europes borders. The attacks in Paris, twice in the course of 2015, and broader terror alerts inevitably open a debate over the use of intelligence at the European level, beyond the ineffective efforts of individual EU member states. It is urgently needed to re-examine the effectiveness of European counter-terrorism agencies and policies, the integration of Muslim populations and de-radicalization programs. In addition to France and Belgium, another EU country at the direct end of terror threats is Germany. It was warned of a possible terror plot on January 1st, 2016 during the citys New Years Eve festivities. In Munich, the train stations were evacuated by the police department, which urged the public to avoid large crowds, public transportation and to remain inside their homes over possible ISIS suicide threats. Some five hundred and fifty emergency personnel were spread out in strategic places to safeguard the streets. The Munich Police Department had received information passed from an unidentified foreign intelligence agency, which claimed that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was preparing the terror threats. During the New Years Eve celebrations in Brussels, Belgium police detained six people during house searches in Brussels on Thursday in an investigation into the supposed plot to carry out a suicide attack on the city. Earlier that same week, two other people were arrested on suspicion of preparing attacks on iconic sites in the Belgium capital. It is evident, from the foregoing discussion, that Europe is now being affected by an influx of immigrants from Syria and, to a certain extent, North Africa, which has now put the Schengen Agreement under threat as a result of a number of cases involving terrorists disguising as Syrian refugees. The Agreement came into effect in 1995 and phased out the practice of border checks among its members and allowed European and non-European citizens to cross them freely, with one consolidated visa for non-Europeans. The European continents passport-free zone is now being re-examined and border controls have been reinstated, pushing the Schengen emergency provisions to their limits. To clinch this point of view, a number of European countries, namely France, have already called for a full review of the Schengen Agreement. Other European countries should do the same. Trying to save the European Project, the EU institutions have decided to respond by accelerating the implementation of certain agreed-upon measures. The following four areas of agreed action are: ensuring the security of citizens, preventing radicalization, safeguarding values, and cooperating with international partners. A holistic counter-terrorism strategy has been developed, with measures such as combating terrorist financing and preventing access to explosives and to biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear materials. To implement this, a continued collective EU-level action by its member states is necessary. France has recently decided to launch military attacks on ISIS, urging the United Kingdom to support its decision by doing the same. Italys government has decided to raise funds to combat terrorism deport individuals who are suspected of being a threat to Italys national security. Hopefully all this does not mark the end of Europes open borders, but is instead a temporary response to an acute threat. Like a tsunami, Winter Storm Kayla projected several indicators that the astute student of the natural world should understand. I missed the memo. The first precursor: The shelves normally stuffed with bread at the grocery stores stood bare and empty, save for a few loaves of exotic Hawaiian bread that suggested elitism. Thankfully I avoided that temptation. On the eve of the storm, I visited the public library only to find the place swarming with last minute patrons checking out the best movies. I settled for a copy of the 1925 film, The Gold Rush, with Charlie Chaplin, considering the movie as a touch of education for its place in the scope of the history of cinema. As the blizzard bore down on our toehold on the plains, something strange happened. I noticed that my usual industrial and frenetic pace of life slowed to a point where the needle on the hypothetical Accomplishment Meter settled on the Sloth setting. Instead of using the extra time for productive purposes, I slowly found myself preparing comfort food and wasting my precious time with trivial pastimes. I almost, but not quite, broke out one of the hundreds of jigsaw puzzles we keep squirreled away for emergencies. I keep a list of creative projects handy for the spare moments of my day, trying to work them in between expectations. With a blizzard day in my path, I dreamed of hours spent on projects that normally get shoved to the back of my list. Instead, I slept late, puttered around the house, insulted our cat and folded some left over laundry. At one point my eyes focused and I realized that I just finished the third Sudoku puzzle of the day. The word sloth began running through my head. The lack of meaningful activity not the character voiced by actor John Leguizamo in the Ice Age movies defines the term, one of the seven deadly sins in Christian moral tradition. The other six sins seem to have more weight to them. Gluttony, lust, greed, pride, envy, wrath and vanity rank higher than the sin of relaxing on a snow day. Nonetheless, I beat up myself by repeating the term, sloth, sloth, sloth until I felt compelled to make some macaroni and cheese and tackle another Sudoku. Near the end of the day, with the blizzard still whipping the snow into bizarre drifts, I summoned enough strength and courage to do something meaningful. I suggested to my three children that we take a walk in the wind to see what the world looks like in the grip of Blizzard Kayla. I regretted the suggestion as soon at it left my lips. At 7 p.m., we stepped out of our warm cocoon and into the untamed world, struggling through the knee-deep snow. My children, wild with the challenge of the weather, fell, laughed and danced through the empty streets of Kearney, pausing to allow snow to enter places better kept dry and warm. While they made snow angels I found a relatively bare place and made an ice angel. I like naming blizzards. We can now talk about storms as if they are noisy neighbors who moved on to bother someone else. If the job of Senior Storm Namer ever comes up, I plan to apply. I would start by naming storms after common household appliances. Having experienced sloth, I know now that I need the threat of constant structure, for as it says in Proverbs, Lazy people consider themselves smarter than seven wise editors, which I decided to paraphrase due to copyright restrictions. As far as I know, that snarky attitude looks like another indicator of the state of sloth or perhaps a precursor to the next big one, Winter Storm Toaster Oven. Now on the to-do list: tweaking my naming skills on the next snow day. Rick Brown is a Hub staff writer who often freezes in the path of opportunity. "I was one day dealing with a case in which a poor woman was in great distress of mind because she had got some washing to do and ha... 23 Shares Share We physicians live in the shadow of rising health care costs. Hospitals want us to cut length of stays and somehow become more efficient. Insurance companies ask us to accept less money for patient visits, forcing us to see more people in fewer hours. The government wants us to check a slew of electronic boxes to prove that weve performed what they deem to be best practices, even though there is little evidence that any of this clicking and cajoling leads to better patient outcomes. There have been lots of changes, but little-improved quality of care. If anything, the new medicine has separated doctor from patient by subverting the very essence of healing: the therapeutic relationship that makes successful treatment possible. The current system asks us to do more with less, as if a sleeker business model will magically create wellness. Unfortunately, medicine conforms poorly to the kinds of efficiency strategies that succeed in the corporate world. As we move ever closer to a business model for medicine, we increasingly blind ourselves to the fact that medicine is actually an art. Modern practice asks doctors to paint a portrait in 10 minutes and use only the colors and shapes that others have deemed most effective. It is no wonder that the product is medical care that reminds us of bad hotel art. I am not naive enough to think that any of this will change. We will continue to focus on how we providers can somehow do medicine faster and cheaper. But a much larger issue is rarely discussed. How can we get people to rely on the health care system less? Here, there is one largely ignored intervention that could have enormous positive effect. A simple, central shift might occur if we would only commit to comprehensively educating young Americans about the workings of their own bodies. In a lecture I give to community groups, I show the audience a car and ask for a show of hands by those who know where the muffler, the pistons, and the hubcaps are located. Everyone knows where these basic auto parts are found. Next comes a slide of a human being. How many of the audience can locate the position of the liver, the spleen or the pancreas? Very few hands go up. Its quite incredible, but its a simple truth that we know a great deal more about our cars than about our own bodies. Why is this? In the past, people had fewer diagnoses and took less medication. They did not live as long nor have complex technologies available for treatment. In that simpler world, we essentially outsourced the care of our bodies and the knowledge of bodily processes to our physicians. These were doctors who knew us well, often for a lifetime, and who were our trusted allies. Care was generally provided by a single physician with occasional specialty consultation. In a very real sense, we looked at our bodies as vehicles and our doctors as skilled biological mechanics with our best interests at heart. We no longer have the luxury of maintaining that perspective. In todays complicated medical environment, an understanding of who we are and how we work completely underlies any ability to create a healthier population. The old paradigm was simple. Our doctor-mechanics would fix our problems with pills and surgery. But today, the number of possible tests, medicines and available interventions means we will likely find ourselves sucked into a chronic relationship with the health care system. Instead of being treated by trusted friends, we find that we ourselves have been outsourced; farmed out to a series of specialists, testing centers, and ancillary providers. In that maze, health costs rise. Worse, we are poorly known to anyone and are apt to become victims of poor, impersonal care. If we dont know enough to advocate for ourselves, there is simply no one else who will. Creating a society that values staying at peak health and views medical intervention as a rarity rather than a regularity is absolutely key to cutting health care spending. We have done a poor job of it. Our bodies are the conduits through which we see, understand, and navigate the world. We are literally nothing without them. Yet for most of us, these bodies remain a mystery, too difficult to comprehend and too easily and comfortably ignored. In order to begin changing the way Americans view doctors and medicine, we must start by changing the paradigm for our youngest citizens. This begins with full disclosure. We must commit to an education system that values teaching our children the details of how their bodies work and, perhaps most importantly, how disease develops, what it looks like, and what they can do to tip the odds in their favor. While some illness is obviously unavoidable, greater than 70 percent of the diseases that plague us are likely preventable. Indeed, teaching our young people what lies ahead if they fail to care for themselves may be the most valuable gift they can ever receive. Ongoing, grade-appropriate body education could affect the trajectory of health care spending itself. Medical and public health professionals should advocate the development of bodyworks curricula that begin in elementary school and continue through high school. This coursework should go far deeper than traditional health courses. We all remember those classes: extraneous, vaguely embarrassing hours that were never a serious part of our school day. It is too late for us, the older generation, to truly get to know our bodies, ourselves. But without buy-in from a new generation that wants to stay well and knows how to do it, we face continued expansion of our bloated health care system. Worse, there will be few forces to oppose an America which traffics in addictive foods, poorly regulated chemicals, toxins and pesticides, and other health hazards. We must understand our bodies in order to perceive that which threatens them. The benefits of teaching our children to truly know and lovingly care for the biological miracle that holds each life are endless and profound. The consequences of remaining clueless are very real and, sadly, all too obvious. Barbara Berkeley is an internal medicine physician and bariatrician who blogs at Refuse to Regain. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Story We, the Executives of King and Snohomish counties, give our unqualified support to Lynn Peterson, the Washington State Director of Transportation. She has been a strong leader both for the people of Washington State and for our counties. She has been a true partner for us as we work to improve our transportation systems. We believe it is a grave mistake for the State Senate to overturn the Washington State Governor's appointment for exclusively political reasons. We believe the Senate should reverse its decision. At a time of great need in Washington, we can't afford to have our transportation system derailed by politics. King County Last year, King County worked with Secretary Peterson to assemble and approve a bi-partisan transportation package benefiting communities across this state, and authorizing adequate funding for the Sound Transit ST3 ballot issue. Secretary Peterson and WSDOT were also actively working with King County to share operating facilities and increase efficiencies for the maintenance and operation of County bridges and roads. It is surprising and disappointing that Secretary Peterson was dismissed summarily on a straight party line vote with just hours of notice to her and her many supporters. "I want to thank Secretary Peterson for her service to the people of Washington state. Both WSDOT and the Sound Transit Board of Directors will greatly miss her analytical mind and collaborative spirit," said King County Executive Dow Constantine. Snohomish County After the SR 530 slide, Lynn worked very hard to ensure that Snohomish County was able to recover as quickly as possible, and she personally invested enormous time and energy to do everything possible to help those communities most affected by the slide. She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us in our time of need. "Lynn Peterson represents the best kind of public servant: selfless, smart, and ready to roll up her sleeves and get the job done. She has been a great partner for Snohomish County. When we were in greatest need, she was there to lend her expertise and support. Our state has been fortunate to have her at the helm," said Dave Somers, Snohomish County Executive. For more information Chad Lewis, King County Executive Office, 206-263-1250 Kent Patton, Snohomish County Executive Office, 425-388-3883 Even in the internet age, you may be asked to produce a hard copy of your birth certificate, Social Security card, marriage certificate or divorce papers. A digital version wont cut it. If your critical documents currently reside in a drawer, move them to a fireproof home safe or safe-deposit box, and give an attorney or trusted family member copies, along with instructions on where the originals are located. If any have been misplaced, stolen or destroyed, heres how to replace them. Birth certificate. Youll need your birth certificate to enroll in school, apply for a passport, qualify for government benefits, join the military, and claim pension and insurance payouts. Some states require you to show a birth certificate to obtain a drivers license. If you cant put your hands on your birth certificate and you were born in the U.S., contact the vital records office in the state where you were born. Use this CDC directory of state vital records offices (opens in new tab) to find the Web site, address and phone number of yours. Youll also find a list of fees and an estimate of how long it will take to process your request. (In California, for example, you can get a copy of your birth certificate in about 10 business days.) Youll be asked to provide your full name, your parents names (including your mothers maiden name), your date of birth, and the city or county in which you were born. If you know the name of the hospital, include that, too. Fees range from $9 to $30. Subscribe to Kiplingers Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. Save up to 74% Sign up for Kiplingers Free E-Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail. Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice - straight to your e-mail. Sign up Were your parents living outside the U.S. when you were born? They should have registered your birth with the U.S. embassy or consulate and received a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. You can get a copy of the report through the U.S. State Department Web site (opens in new tab) by searching for CRBA. If you were born abroad and adopted by a U.S. citizen, you might need a birth certificate from the country of your birth. Here's a list of foreign consular offices in the U.S. (opens in new tab) Marriage and divorce records. A marriage license is the document that authorizes you to get married. A marriage certificate is the document that proves you followed through. Its typically filed with the appropriate county office by the officiant at your wedding. You should have received a copy a few weeks after your wedding. If youve lost it, contact your states vital records office. Youll need to provide the full names of both spouses, the date of your wedding, and the city or town where the wedding was performed. Fees range from $10 to $30. You may need this document to add your spouse to your employers health insurance plan. Less suitable for framing but still important are documents you receive after youve divorced. To save time and money, make sure you understand the type of divorce-related document you need to replace. For example, a divorce certificate is sufficient if all you want to do is change your name on your drivers license. You can obtain a copy of this document from your states vital records office; fees range from $5 to $30. But if you apply for a mortgage, the lender may ask to see your final divorce decree issued by the courts to determine how much of your income is allocated to child support or alimony. Likewise, if you apply for Social Security benefits based on your ex-spouses earnings record, the Social Security Administration may ask you to provide your divorce decree. (The SSA may also ask you to provide your marriage certificate.) To get this document, you must contact the county clerks office for the city or county in which the divorce was granted. Passport. As soon as you realize your passport has been lost or stolen, contact the U.S. State Department. Otherwise, you risk becoming a victim of identity theft. You can fill out Form DS-64 online (opens in new tab) to report your lost or stolen passport. Youll receive an e-mail acknowledging that your report was received. Within a couple of days, youll receive another e-mail (or letter, if you request that option) confirming that your passport has been entered into the Consular Lost or Stolen Database. If you arent leaving the country for a while, you can apply for a replacement passport at a Passport Application Acceptance Facility. Many post offices, public libraries and local government offices serve as such facilities. You can search for the nearest authorized facility (opens in new tab). The fee for a replacement passport is $135 (a $110 application fee plus a $25 execution fee because you must apply in person). If you have plans to travel outside the country in two weeks or less, you will need to make an appointment to appear in person at a passport agency or center. You can find one near you at the State Departments Web site. You must provide proof, such as an airline reservation, that you will be traveling outside the country within two weeks. In addition to the regular passport fees, youll be charged $60 for expedited service, plus $14.85 if you want overnight delivery. [page break] Social Security and Medicare cards. In most cases, you dont need to show your Social Security card; you just need to give the number. However, some states may require you to show your Social Security card to get a drivers license. You can replace a lost or stolen Social Security card free, and if you live in the District of Columbia, Michigan, Nebraska, Washington or Wisconsin, you might be able to do it online. Go to the Social Security Web site (opens in new tab) to learn how. More states may be added in the future. If youre not eligible to apply for a replacement card online, fill out Form SS-5. Mail in the form along with a U.S.-issued drivers license, a state-issued non-driver ID card or a U.S. passport. Or, because the Social Security Administration wont accept photocopies of the required documents, it may be safer to apply in person at the nearest Social Security branch office. If you need a new Medicare card and you have an online Social Security account (opens in new tab), log in, click on the Replacement Documents tab and then on Mail my replacement Medicare card. Your card will arrive in the mail in about 30 days. You can set up an online account on the Social Security Web site. If you dont want to set up an online account, call 800-772-1213 or visit the nearest Social Security office to apply for a replacement card. College transcripts. Transcripts should be available from your alma mater no matter how long ago you attended. Depending on the school and when you graduated, you may be able to order them online. Otherwise, youll need to print out a transcript request form from your schools Web site and mail it in. Youll be asked to provide a student ID or Social Security number, the dates you attended and the degree (or degrees) you were awarded. Fees range from $6 to $10; some colleges will provide transcripts free. If you attended a private college or university that has closed its doors since you graduated, check with the state licensing agency (opens in new tab). Most schools that shut down make arrangements with these agencies to store their records. For transcripts from shuttered public schools, contact the state department of education. How to Find a Missing Will Your mother told you many times that she had a will. Unfortunately, she didnt tell you where she stored the document, and now shes gone. In the absence of a will, the laws of your state will determine who will get your mothers property. If you have combed through your mothers files unsuccessfully, its possible that she stored her will in a safe-deposit box. Be aware, though, that her bank may require you to obtain a court order to open it. Its worth contacting your mothers attorney, if she had one, because some lawyers keep wills on behalf of their clients. Another place to check is the county probate court (known as the surrogate court in some states). Although not common, some state courts allow individuals to file their wills with the court for safekeeping, says Leanna Hamill, an estate-planning lawyer in Hingham, Mass. If you find a copy of the will but not the original, youll have to prove to the probate court that the original wasnt revised or revoked. The court may accept a copy if you can demonstrate that the original was lost because of an intervening act, such as a house fire or burglary, says Chas Rampenthal, general counsel for LegalZoom, an online provider of legal documents and services. Some states will accept a copy if you testify that the original hasnt been found and provide evidence that no other versions exist, says Howard Krooks, a lawyer with Elder Law Associates in Boca Raton, Fla. How Much More Retirement Income Can You Get? Each investor is unique, so the answer to that isn't as simple as it sounds. Let's take a look at a few different scenarios to see the outcomes. Just because you don't have a 401(k) doesn't mean you can't retire in style. Some types of employer-provided retirement savings plans allow you to save even more than you can with a traditional 401(k). Here's a look at what's out there: 403(b) plans. These plans, typically offered to teachers, resemble 401(k) plans, with the same tax benefits, maximum contribution thresholds and catch-up contributions. Unfortunately, that's where the resemblance ends. While private-sector plans usually contain a suite of mutual funds selected by a management committee, the primary offerings in many 403(b) plans are high-cost investments, such as equity-indexed annuities. That's because many school districts have little desire to negotiate with financial-services firms. Rather, they turn the job over to sales agents who peddle investments that deliver the highest commissions, not necessarily the best results. But there have been some positive developments. Last year, the board of education in Montgomery County, Md., contracted with no-load mutual fund company Fidelity Investments to administer its 403(b) plans. In other parts of the country, educators are lobbying for better options. Subscribe to Kiplingers Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. Save up to 74% Sign up for Kiplingers Free E-Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail. Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplingers expert advice - straight to your e-mail. Sign up For advice on how to advocate for a better plan, go to www.403bwise.com (opens in new tab). In the meantime, teachers with a lackluster plan may be better off investing in a Roth IRA. In 2016, you can contribute up to $5,500, or $6,500 if you're 50 or older. 457 plans. These plans are typically offered to workers in the public sector. They're similar to 401(k) plans, with a couple of key differences that are particularly beneficial if you're approaching retirement. In 2016, the maximum contribution is $18,000, plus $6,000 in catch-up contributions for workers age 50 or older. But workers who are 50-plus have an alternative that allows them to supercharge their savings. Instead of making catch-up contributions, workers within three years of their "normal retirement age" -- typically the age at which they can collect unreduced benefits from their pensions -- can double the $18,000 basic maximum contribution for three years, as long as they haven't maxed out contributions in the past. Three years of $36,000 contributions would allow you to shovel up to $108,000 into your plan. Solo 401(k) plan. These retirement savings plans are designed for self-employed people who have no employees other than a spouse. They're more complicated than SEP-IRAs, another savings tool for the self-employed, but if you can afford it, you can put aside a lot more money because you can contribute as both an employer and an employee. In 2016, the maximum contribution is $53,000, or $59,000 if you're 50 or older. Another plus: You can borrow from your solo 401(k), as long as the provider allows it (not all do). In most cases, you can borrow up to 50% of the balance. In addition, you can invest some or all of the employee contribution (up to $18,000 plus catch-up contributions of up to $6,000) in a solo Roth 401(k), if your provider offers that option. Contributions to a solo Roth are after-tax, but once you retire, withdrawals will be tax-free. And unlike with regular Roths, there are no income restrictions on contributions to a Roth 401(k). In the past, solo 401(k) plans were often burdened with high fees, but that's no longer the case. Financial firms such as Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group offer solo 401(k) plans with low (or no) set-up costs and administrative fees. SHARE By Christopher Dunagan TACOMA When Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club eventually reopens its shooting range, the club will be subject to nearly the same restrictions imposed by a court in 2012, when a permanent injunction led to a legal appeal. It remains unclear when the shooting range on Seabeck Highway will be allowed to reopen, because of an injunction filed in a separate lawsuit involving an operating permit. On Friday, lawyers for the gun club and Kitsap County, which had sued the club for public-nuisance and land-use violations, were back in court before Superior Court Judge Susan Serko of Pierce County. The judge reviewed the same issues on which she had ruled four years ago this month. This time, she was called on to address a Washington State Court of Appeals ruling, which said she could not revoke the club's nonconforming-use rights the so-called "grandfathered" status of the gun club's property, as she did before. As a result, Serko was forced to allow the gun range to operate as it has historically, although she could prohibit any "expanded" uses. As she ruled in 2010, Serko listed activities at the range that she found to be expanded uses. Specifically, her permanent injunction prohibits the nonprofit club from using the range for commercial operations or for military training. The club also is prohibited from allowing exploding targets, weaponry greater than .30 caliber, and practical shooting, "including organized competitions and practice sessions." If the club wishes to be involved in any of those activities, it must go through public hearings and obtain a classified-use permit, which could spell out limitations. "The club is clearly not happy with the result," said Brooks Foster, attorney for Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club following the hearing. "The judge was very favorable to the county." Another appeal is likely, Foster said, but first he needs to review the judge's findings with club officials. Foster had tried to tighten up language in a written order proposed by the county, which club officials contend will prohibit many shooting activities that have been part of the club's operations for decades. Serko rejected Foster's approach, saying she wanted to keep the order simple, addressing only those issues dealing with the Court of Appeals ruling. Foster said the club is concerned that the order approved Friday could be interpreted to prohibit the shooting of nearly every handgun as well as the most commonly used rifle at the range. A limit of .30 caliber without additional language could rule out almost any pistol larger than .22-caliber and exclude the common .30-06 (pronounced "thirty-aught-six") rifle. Without defining the term "practical shooting," the county could effectively stop any activities except for shooting from a fixed location, Foster said. That could even prevent the club from offering self-defense courses that involve shooting at more than one target. Foster told Serko that he had anticipated that she would "fashion a remedy" that takes into account the full findings of the Court of Appeals, not just a few amendments to her original ruling. "The court of appeals ruling trumps everything," Serko said, adding that she never intended to "go back" and amend her original ruling except as ordered by the appeals court. Her original finding, based on evidence provided by the county, was that the club had not been involved historically in all the activities that club officials claimed. As a result, those activities would not be allowed as nonconforming uses and would need a new permit to continue. Serko's ruling also requires that the club apply for land-use permits within six months to address clearing, earth-moving and other construction performed without required permits. Meanwhile, shooting at the range remains prohibited under a separate court injunction issued after the club refused to apply for a five-year operating permit. The operating permit is required by a county ordinance approved in 2014. The temporary injunction by Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jay Roof remains in place pending a full hearing on a permanent injunction. Though Roof has since retired, he has retained jurisdiction in the case. A hearing has not been scheduled. SHARE By Chris Henry POULSBO They're back. Reports of gas odors and other industrial smells that plagued Poulsbo Elementary last fall have cropped up again. Poulsbo Fire Department and Cascade Natural Gas were called to the school Friday morning to investigate odors described as smelling like natural gas, kerosene or butane. The inside of the school and the rooftop HVAC units were checked. Fire and gas officials found the building safe to occupy. No evidence of natural gas or carbon dioxide was found inside the school, according to Superintendent Patty Page. "Yes, some gas was detected on the roof, but it did not put the school or students in harm's way. A plan for repair has been developed." There were complaints of nausea, burning eyes and dizziness from some of the staff and volunteers, said Michael Olsen, director of student support services. He did not have information on student complaints, but no children were seen in the health room or sent home ill. School remained open, although one classroom where the odor had been detected was temporarily vacated and students moved to another part of the building. Some parents opted to take their children home for the day. It's become a familiar drill for parents like Brooke Hammett. She noticed an odor inside the building early Friday as she dropped her third grader off. Hammett returned to school to check on her son after hearing via social media that the fire department was investigating. The odor was noticeable outside at that time, although the inside of the building smelled fine. Hammett said Poulsbo Elementary's odor problems seemed resolved in the latter part of 2015, after the district made multiple repairs to HVAC units on top of the building. "Lately it's been occurring again," she said. "We thought this issue had been taken care of, yet here we are again. When is this going to end?" The odors have been inconsistent and elusive, said assistant principal Mark Kluth. "The complaints have varied over time. People will describe it different ways," Kluth said. "That's been a topic of conversation all on its own, 'How do you describe this smell?' Everything from, 'Could there be a dead animal in the attic?'" District officials have monitored the problem closely, using natural gas and CO2 sensing equipment, and they believe there is no danger to students or staff. "We feel we have a safe environment. That doesn't mean turning a blind eye," Kluth said. "We understand the concerns. We share them, and we think we've got to do more to address these needs that keep coming up." District officials on Friday had a "cursory" discussion of what it would take to replace the school's aging HVAC system, Olsen said. The cost would be high, typically the kind of work covered by a bond. Yet the district doesn't plan to run a bond until 2018, when the current bond expires, Page has said. North Kitsap is the only district in Kitsap County that doesn't have some kind of capital measure on the Feb. 9 ballot. District maintenance personnel will fix a small gas leak detected at a fitting on one of the HVAC units, Olsen said. A second possible cause of odors is that "chimneys" on the units don't have anything to divert gusts of wind, meaning fumes could be getting blown back down the chimney. Maintenance staff will modify the chimneys to prevent wind from getting in and causing back pressure, Olsen said. Repairs should be complete on Monday. "Maintenance will maintain a presence in the building in order to provide more air testing," Alves said in an email Friday to parents. USA Today has some good lessons from Iowa: The numbers leave little doubt that Trump made a serious mistake in boycotting the Iowa debate. More than a third of Republican voters (35%) said they made up their minds about which candidate to support in the last few days. Among these late deciders, Rubio led the way with 30%, Cruz finished second with 25%, and Trump lagged badly with just 14%. By contrast, among those who had decided earlier than the last few days, Trump tied Cruz (both drawing 30%), while Rubio drew only 19%. The Rubio momentum in the final days of the campaign undoubtedly reflected his strong performance in the Iowa debate four days before the caucuses, while Trumps weakness among last-minute deciders (with less than half the support he got from those who made their choices previously) stemmed at least in part from the bone-headed strategy of failing to appear on that crucial Iowa stage. Trump thought the debate needed him more than he needed the debate. He was wrong. Hillary remains profoundly vulnerable on the issue of personal integrity. Among Democratic caucus participants, 24% said the quality that mattered most to them was that a candidate should be honest and trustworthy. Among these voters, Bernie Sanders slaughtered Clinton by a staggering 83% to 10%. If the Republicans choose a candidate who conveys a sense of ethics and authenticity, they should be able to peel away some of these Democratic voters as well as scoring big gains among the independents who care about the honesty issue. Clinton also has a huge problem with younger voters. Look at the age skew in the entrance polls for Iowa: Under 30s: Sanders +70%!!! 30 to 44: Sanders +21% 45 to 64: Clinton +23% 65+: Clinton +43% Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 44F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 44F. Winds light and variable. When pastors gaze out from their pulpits, they may want to imagine what would happen if they asked their flocks to respond to this statement: "As long as it's between consenting adults, any kind of sex is fine." If this were a conservative or nondenominational Protestant church, the active, "practicing" members would be sharply divided, according to a new Barna Group survey. Nearly half 46 percent would affirm this live-and-let-live approach to sex outside of marriage, while 40 percent would disagree "strongly" and 12 percent "somewhat." These are the active members, not the people who occasionally visit the pews. "What is surprising is the way that even practicing Christians are beginning to conform to the beliefs and behaviors that are now considered normal in our culture," said Roxanne Stone, editor-in-chief at Barna. "The big story here is that people no longer agree when it comes to the purpose and meaning of sex including in our churches. Many no longer connect sex and marriage the way they used to." When looking at broader trends, this study found the usual evidence that older Americans the "Elders" and "Boomers" have much more traditional views of sex and marriage than the younger "gen Xers" and "millennials." Rising numbers of young Americans view sex through the lens of self-expression and personal growth, with few ties that bind them to institutions and traditions. "What people are saying is that sex is about two people loving each other and experiencing intimacy, but you don't really need to have the word 'marriage' involved in this discussion," said Stone. "It's surprising how quickly some of these changes have become part of what is now considered normal. ... Normally, these kinds of radical changes in a culture evolve. But, sociologically speaking, Woodstock wasn't that long ago." In another question, Barna asked participants if they could affirm this statement: "Marriage is a covenant before God between a man and a woman." Among "Elders," 61 percent said "yes," along with 54 percent of "Boomers" and 52 percent of "gen Xers." Only 42 percent of younger millennials said "yes." Self-identified "practicing Christians" were 12 times more likely to affirm this belief than people claiming "no faith." Another question allowed adults to give multiple opinions of the belief that "sex should only be within a marriage between a man and a woman." Popular answers in all generations included "moral," "good," "healthy," "right" and "unrealistic." However, millennials were half as likely to say "moral" than Elders. Also, "anti-gay" was one of the top five opinions voiced by millennials. While these new numbers showing the shift away from marriage and traditional doctrines were not surprising since similar trends have appeared in similar polls of young and religiously unaffiliated Americans Stone said she was surprised by the degree to which these changes are now affecting people in pews. Take, for example, other results for that "consenting adults" question. The Barna team found that "practicing" Catholics were as divided as conservative Protestants, with 24 percent agreeing "strongly" and 23 percent agreeing "somewhat" that "any kind of sex is fine" between consenting adults of whatever gender. Meanwhile, 24 percent of these Catholics disagreed "somewhat" and 28 percent disagreed "strongly." A similar division close to 50-50 was seen among active members in liberal, or "mainline," Protestant denominations. It's crucial, said Stone, for religious leaders to understand that young Americans are growing more and more individualistic, which makes it harder for them to affirm traditional moral doctrines about what is right and wrong on sexuality questions. It's especially hard to render negative judgments on the decisions of others. Stone said that young Americans "are saying, 'This is my story. This is my life. This is how I choose to live it.' ... But it's not just that people's beliefs have changed. Lifestyles have changed. The details of people's lives have changed." When it comes to sex and marriage, she added, religious leaders will need "some very robust reasons to tell young adults why they are supposed to live a radically different, truly countercultural life why they should try to live a life that is completely different from their peers and from what the culture is now saying is normal." Terry Mattingly is the editor of GetReligion.org and Senior Fellow for Media and Religion at The King's College in New York City. He lives in Oak Ridge, Tenn. SHARE Nick Saunders/GBBC White-breasted nuthatches visit bird feeders all winter often in pairs. Attract them with suet and fatty food recipes along with large seeds like sunflower seeds. It's time for bird-watchers to make a contribution to science. You may not be a scientist, but you can still participate in scientific bird research. Just count and report all the birds in your yard, a local park or any other location of your choice and report the birds to the Great Backyard Bird Count. The 19th annual count takes place worldwide Feb. 12-15. Information gathered and reported online at birdcount.org will help scientists track changes in bird numbers and distribution. Possible changes in bird distribution this winter might be related to El Nino-caused storms and unusual weather patterns causing drought in some parts of the world and heavier than normal rainfall in others. El Nino years feature unusually warm water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator that interact with atmospheric conditions. This may lead to widespread changes in weather and climate in different parts of the world. This winter, the water is the warmest ever recorded. Scientists are wondering if these conditions, which might cause huge winter storms, could influence bird distribution. For more on El Nino visit oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina. El Nino (recognized by fisherman since the 1600s off the coast of South America) might affect land bird distribution but who knows? We do know it affects seabird distribution by altering the food supply. "This will be the first time we'll have tens of thousands of people doing the count during a whopper El Nino," says Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Marshall Iliff, a leader of the eBird program which collects worldwide bird counts year-round. The GBBC is now a global project. Last year birders around the world, counting in more than 100 countries, reported 5,090 bird species. That's about half of all bird species on earth. Researchers are curious to see what odd sightings might be recorded by volunteers during this year's count. Though finding rare birds and out-of-range species is exciting, it's far more important to keep track of our common birds like birds that visit your yard and feeders every day. Many species around the world are in steep decline. Tracking changes in distribution and numbers over time is vital to determine if conservation measures are needed for certain species. Every bird-watcher can help gather this information. "Citizen-science projects like the Great Backyard Bird Count are springing up all over the world," says Jon McCracken, national program manager at Bird Studies Canada. "More and more, scientists are relying on observations from the public to help them gather data at a scale they could never achieve before. The GBBC is a great way to get your feet wet." Learn more about how to take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count at birdcount.org. The GBBC is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society with partner Bird Studies Canada and is made possible in part by sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited. Freelance columnist Marcia Davis may be reached at tennwren@gmail.com or 865-518-BIRD (2473). SHARE By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel A Campbell County attorney who also serves as a municipal judge for LaFollette, Tenn., has been suspended after admitting he stole more than $220,000 from clients, records show. The Tennessee Supreme Court late last week ordered Wesley Hatmaker suspended from the practice of law amid an investigation of thefts from client trust accounts spanning years and a filing of disciplinary charges against him by the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. The BPR, which polices attorneys, asked for the immediate suspension of Hatmaker's license on Jan. 28. Disciplinary counsel William C. Moody wrote in the suspension petition Hatmaker "had misappropriated funds and poses a substantial harm to the public." In documents provided by the board to the News Sentinel on Friday, a series of thefts are outlined, including one in which Hatmaker repeatedly lied over a period of years to the executor of an estate he was supposed to represent. Hatmaker's attorney, Thomas S. Scott Jr., sent two separate letters to the board on Jan. 26 in which he said Hatmaker admitted the thefts alleged in a formal complaint filed by the estate executor, as well as lying to the executor, and disclosed two other thefts involving client estates. In the first incident in which a complaint was filed with the board on Jan. 21, Kelly L. Ray of Ohio said she discovered Hatmaker had received a check in 2009 totaling $20,731 that was supposed to have gone to the estate of which she had been appointed as executor. Hatmaker "informed me that the estate needed to remain open for a set amount of time to allow TennCare to file a claim against the estate, should they choose to do so," Ray wrote. He later told Ray that TennCare had filed a claim and, over the next five years, concocted various stories about why the hearing was delayed, including that a judge had died, another judge "didn't like" Hatmaker and a third judge had awarded TennCare half the money, records show. None of that was true, attorney Scott conceded in his letter on behalf of Hatmaker. In the two remaining thefts, Hatmaker admitted to the board he stole at least $163,000 from a dead man's estate to cover what Scott said was a $160,000 embezzlement by Hatmaker's wife, Thalia M. Hatmaker, from a Knoxville country club, and another $39,000 from the estate of another dead man. Both thefts occurred in 2009, the letter stated. Thalia Hatmaker is charged in Knox County with a tax-related financial conspiracy crime. The details were not provided in a Criminal Court file. Wesley Hatmaker has not been charged. Hatmaker has been licensed to practice law since 1991 and served as traffic court judge for Lafollette. SHARE Juan Munoz, 48, of Dallas, Tex., charged with felony possession of schedule II drug with the intent to sell and deliver after being caught with twenty-nine pounds of crystal meth on Interstate 40 in Knox County on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016. (KNOX COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE) By Mamie Kuykendall of the Knoxville News Sentinel A Monday afternoon traffic stop on Interstate 40 East led to the discovery of 29 pounds of crystal methamphetamine, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Juan Munoz, 48, of Dallas, Texas, was arrested after a trooper stopped his 2003 Chevy Suburban in Knox County for a traffic violation around 3:40 p.m., THP officials said Friday. Munoz gave the trooper several conflicting stories about where he was headed, and the trooper asked to search the vehicle after a dog indicated drugs might be present, according to the THP. Two members of the THP's interdiction team joined the search, and the three found 1.1 pounds of shrink-wrapped crystal meth inside one of the car seats, according to the THP. A further search of the vehicle turned up 23 additional packages of the drug, along with $378 in cash, according to the THP. The cash, drugs and SUV were seized. Munoz was charged with felony possession of a schedule II drug with the intent to sell and deliver, according to the THP. The case was handed to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for federal prosecution. "This interdiction stop is one more example of the importance of our drug interdiction efforts on our interstates," said Bill Gibbons, state Department of Safety and Homeland Security commissioner. "Because of its geographic location, Tennessee is a major drug trafficking corridor." More details as they develop online and in Saturday's News Sentinel. SHARE By News Sentinel Staff JEFFERSON CITY A tip that a registered sex offender was illegally living in a women's residence hall at Carson-Newman University led to two arrests this week. Dandridge police got the tip and passed it onto Jefferson City Police Department officers, who went with college security officers to the apartment-style building at noon Thursday and arrested Justin Lapale Shepard, 28, of Las Vegas, Nev. Police said Shepard, convicted in 2007 of sex with a child younger than 16, was living with a female Carson-Newman student in the apartment, which is within 1,000 feet of a public park and a child-care facility, violating the state Sex Offender Registry Act. Classified as a "violent" offender, Shepard had registered with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office as a sex offender, police said. On Friday afternoon, Jefferson City police arrested Keshia Nicole Galido San-Pedro, 24, of Nevada, the Carson-Newman student with whom Shepard was living, and charged her with criminal responsibility for facilitation of a felony. The warrant alleges San-Pedro knowingly allowed a registered sex offender to live in her assigned student housing, concealing him from Carson-Newman officials. The residence hall on West College Street houses up to 60 women in two- and four-person apartments, each with private bedrooms. Carson-Newman spokesman Charles Key would not say whether male guests are allowed to stay overnight in the apartments. Key released a statement saying the university assisted in the investigation. "The safety and security of our students and our campus is and has always been paramount at Carson-Newman," Key said. Knoxville mayor Madeline Rogero, center, greets guests during a press conference to announce events as Knoxville celebrates its 225th birthday in 2016 at the East Tennessee History Center Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. There will be events in June, when Tennessee celebrates Statehood Day, and in October, to mark Knoxvilleas founding. Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) SHARE Knoxville mayor Madeline Rogero, left, talks with former city event employees Sue Clancy and Caroline Jensen before a press conference to announce events as Knoxville celebrates its 225th birthday in 2016 at the East Tennessee History Center Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. There will be events in June, when Tennessee celebrates Statehood Day, and in October, to mark Knoxvilleas founding. Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) Left to right, Jack Neely, Knox County mayor Tim Burchett, Visit Knoxville president Kim Bumpas, Knoxville mayor Madeline Rogero, Calvin Chapelle and ETHC executive director Cherel Henderson, during a press conference to announce events as Knoxville celebrates its 225th birthday in 2016 at the East Tennessee History Center Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. There will be events in June, when Tennessee celebrates Statehood Day, and in October, to mark Knoxvilleas founding. Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) Left to right, Jack Neely, Knox County mayor Tim Burchett, Visit Knoxville president Kim Bumpas, Knoxville mayor Madeline Rogero, Calvin Chapelle and ETHC executive director Cherel Henderson, during a press conference to announce events as Knoxville celebrates its 225th birthday in 2016 at the East Tennessee History Center Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. There will be events in June, when Tennessee celebrates Statehood Day, and in October, to mark Knoxvilleas founding. Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) Mabry-Hazen House executive director Calvin Chapelle addresses attendees during a press conference to announce events as Knoxville celebrates its 225th birthday in 2016 at the East Tennessee History Center Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. There will be events in June, when Tennessee celebrates Statehood Day, and in October, to mark Knoxville's founding. Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) Related Coverage Knoxville's 225th anniversary: McGhee Tyson will carry that name forever By Amy McRary of the Knoxville News Sentinel Knoxville turns 225 years old in 2016, and the city will celebrate. Events focusing on Knoxville history plus programs highlighting area arts and cultural attractions will be held over 10 months, city and tourism officials said at a Friday news conference at the East Tennessee History Center. Knoxville's 225th birthday will be Oct. 3; the city was founded in 1791. At the time, there was no Knox County and no state of Tennessee. The new city was capital of the young United States' Southwest Territory. In 1796 Knoxville became the first capital of the new state of Tennessee. One of its leaders, John Sevier, was the first governor. "We've just got a tremendous amount of history here," James White's Fort Executive Director Sam Maynard said after the conference. "It began here; Tennessee began here." The 225th anniversary will "celebrate the city we are all fortunate to call home," Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero said. Visit Knoxville is coordinating events for the city, including three "signature" events in February, June and October. Those events start at 2 p.m. today at Blount Mansion, 200 W. Hill Ave., when spoken word artist Jack Rentfro will read parts of the Tennessee Constitution set to improvisational music. Feb. 6, 1796, is when delegates signed the state constitution at Col. David Henley's Gay Street office. Three Knoxville pioneer-era homes Blount Mansion, James White's Fort and Marble Springs State Historic Site will host free open houses today. Open houses at Blount Mansion and James White's Fort, 205 E. Hill Ave., are 10 a.m.-2 p.m. John Sevier's home of Marble Springs, 1220 W. Gov. John Sevier Highway, is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. During the weekend of June 4, events will be at the history center and at Blount Mansion, Marble Springs, James White's Fort and four other Knox County historic home museums. Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, officially becoming the 16th state. During the June weekend, the East Tennessee Historical Society will host a meeting of its First Families of Tennessee. That program began in 1993; members must prove they're descended from people who lived in Tennessee before or by 1796. Other events from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 will mark the city's birthday. A collaborative program being planned will involve arts and historic groups, said Calvin Chappelle, Visit Knoxville's heritage tourism coordinator. "The 225th anniversary is an opportunity for Knoxvillians and our visitors to learn more about what our city has to offer," he said. SHARE County Commission, 1st District Candidate Name: Michael Covington Party: Republican Address: Box 6312, Knoxville 37914 Campaign Phone: (865) 314-0441 Email: CovingtonForDistrict1@gmail.com Candidate Name: Tyrone Fine Party: Independent Address: 1306 Minnesota Ave., Knoxville 37921 Campaign Phone: (865) 200-6184 Email: Ty.Fine@yahoo.com Candidate Name: Evelyn Gill Party: Democrat Address: 2504 Linden Ave., Knoxville 37914 Campaign Phone: (865) 313-8666 Email: evelyngill1@icloud.com Candidate Name: Rick Staples Party: Democrat Address: P.O. Box 1122, Knoxville 37902 Campaign Phone: (865) 385-3589 Email: Teamrickstaples@gmail.com Q: 1. What are the most pressing issues you see coming before county commission? Michael Covington: Completion of the Midway development is vitally important to the county as a whole but reconciling issues with the school system is also a major concern. Midway will take some thoughtful planning that takes into account the desires of the community while facilitating the creation of jobs and economic development. Issues with the school system are sensitive and difficult but solvable. Redoubling our efforts to assist teachers in every way we can is an excellent place to start. Tyrone Fine: Getting every community aboard to build better relationships with each other. Evelyn Gill: Some of the most pressing issues before Commission: Midway project, school funding, road improvement, and taxes. Priorities for the 1st District: Lack of an integrated economic infrastructure plan for the 1st District; Inconsistent service regarding road improvement/signage, trash and beautification efforts; Large number of blighted properties which impact property values and development; Lack of technology infrastructure. Magnolia Avenue is an undervalued asset with limited connectivity to downtown. It also lacks quality pedestrian space, adequate bus shelters and sufficient retail activities. Rick Staples: Definitely education, economic investment and transparency with our local legislative body. Support for our youth. Getting something concrete, on the development of the safety center. Q: 2. Would you support changing the county sign ordinance to be consistent with the city sign ordinance? Michael Covington: Having closely followed the city's debate on the sign ordinance and hearing arguments from both sides, it's still not clear that there is satisfaction on either side. Absent a more solid consensus in the city, I would not favor adopting a county ordinance to mirror the city. Tyrone Fine: Yes. We all need to be on the same page. Evelyn Gill: If elected, I recognize that signs perform an important function in identifying businesses, properties, services and events and other matters of public interest. The size, numbers and characters, as well as location of signs affect the safety of traffic but also, help define the character of an area or business. My goal would be to promote and develop standards for the location, quantity and characteristics throughout the city. As a commissioner, the goal should be to promote business development, effective communication and minimize adverse impact on the city. Rick Staples: District 1 has already been directly affected by the sign ordinance. I had agreed with the findings of the subcommittee, appreciate the three years of hard work put into their research. Q: 3. How do you plan to engage with your constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote? Michael Covington: I will continue the East Knoxville community meeting started in December of 2014 in the wake of the crisis created by the closing of Walgreens at 2514 Magnolia Ave. The meeting initially addressed the loss of a vital East Knoxville business but has evolved into a speaker series that has featured City Councilmen Daniel Brown, Nick Della Volpe, George Wallace, Finbar Saunders & Marshall Stair; Becky Wade, Dir of Community Development; Gwyn Earl, Alzheimers/Purple Cities Initiative; Art Cate, KCDC; Anne Victoria, KAT; State Sen. Becky Duncan Massey; Susan Bradford & Nancy Welch, CAC; Ed Shouse, Knox County Trustee; County Commissioner Bob Thomas; Lance McCold, League of Women Voters; Sarah Bounse & Quana Washington, Knox County Health Dept; State Rep. Joe Armstrong; Renee Hoyos, TCWN; MPC Director Gerald Green and Knox County Law Director Bud Armstrong. As a part of my East Knoxville Leadership Succession Initiative I hope to have guest student moderators from Austin-East & Fulton this summer. Tyrone Fine: By being an advocate for the ones who don't think their voice can be heard and giving them the confidence to tespect the political process. Evelyn Gill: I propose a cross-section partnership center with PSTCC and UT to open a downtown development center. This goal of the center would be to allow constituents of the 1st District to develop their vision for the district based on funding dollars and priorities. This would be a visible, tangible way for residents to be engaged in the community. I also would actively be engaged in listening to the needs of the community and responding accordingly. As a commissioner, we can also have the most positive effect by making capital more accessible, facilitating business education, and promoting entrepreneurship, simplifying the regulatory process and supporting intellectual property innovation and technology infrastructure. Rick Staples: Being active in the community I strive to represent is part of my daily routine. I would continue being present, approachable and willing to listen. County Commission, 2nd District Candidate Name: Michele Carringer Party: Republican Address: 5024 Ivy Rose Drive, Knoxville Campaign Phone: (865) 247-5756 Web Site: http://electmichelecarringer.com Email: mwcarringer@yahoo.com Candidate Name: John Fugate Party: Republican Candidate Name: Laura Kildare Party: Democrat Address: 2632 Emoriland Blvd., Knoxville 37917 Campaign Phone: (865) 455-1004 Web Site: http://laurakildare.com Email: laurakk1@mac.com Q: 1. What are the most pressing issues you see coming before county commission? Michele Carringer: As a County Commissioner, I will focus on those issues that help to create a healthy business climate for both our existing businesses and those looking to relocate to Knox County. That means maintaining our status as a low tax community and providing our schools with the resources they need to continue to improve student achievement in our schools. I will also work for those things that contribute to our quality of life like improving our parks and greenways in our community. John Fugate: No response Laura Kildare: Education funding is always important and takes 60 percent of our budget. I am deeply concerned about committing the capital funds to build the new school in Gibbs, without waiting to see how the Federal Office of Civil Rights responds to the NAACP. I am also concerned about making sure there is adequate funding for the Sheriff's Office, especially when looking at the gang violence that is erupting in our city and county. We have infrastructure issues with our roads and a host of other issues that need to be addressed. Q: 2. Would you support changing the county sign ordinance to be consistent with the city sign ordinance? Michele Carringer: I am not prepared to support a change in the sign ordinance until I am convinced it will not have an adverse effect on our small businesses in our community. I would want to review any proposed changes independent of the city's ordinance. John Fugate: No response Laura Kildare: I would not, at this time, be in favor of the change without further study. Q: 3. How do you plan to engage with your constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote? Michele Carringer: I have been involved in our community all of my adult life and will continue to be involved and an active participant in community and civic projects. It is important for elected officials to be accessible. My phone number is listed and I will use my position as a county commissioner to encourage participation whether I'm speaking to a school civics class or community group. John Fugate: No response Laura Kildare: That is a difficult question and one that has plagued our democracy... I plan to engage my constituents by listening to them and finding out what is important to them. I will go to community meetings, neighborhood associations, or anywhere else I can find them. I have a listed phone number, email address, Twitter account, and Facebook. If someone wants to reach me, it will not be that difficult. As for encouraging them to take an active interest in the community and to vote, all I can do is ask people to become involved. As a high school teacher, I encourage my students to register to vote and try to show them how important it is to take an interest in their community. We work on real world problems, to empower them to improve their communities and the world around them. After that, it is really up to the individual. County Commission, 4th District Candidate Name: Marleen Davis Party: Democrat Candidate Name: Hugh Nystrom Party: Republican Address: 613 Scotswood Circle, Knoxville 37919 Campaign Phone: (865) 308-3565 Web Site: http://HughNystrom.com Email: Hugh@HughNystrom.com Candidate Name: Jeffrey Ownby Party: Republican Address: 7113 Rockingham Dr. Knoxville 37909 Campaign Phone: (865) 441-6162 Web Site: http://voteownby.com Email: commissionerownby@gmail.com Candidate Name: Janet Testerman Party: Republican Address: 5201 Kingston Pike, Ste. 6 #129 Campaign Phone: (865) 250-4860 Web Site: http://electtesterman.org Email: electtesterman@gmail.com Q: 1. What are the most pressing issues you see coming before county commission? Marleen Davis: No response Hugh Nystrom: In the short run, county commission is faced with the civil rights investigation over the building of new schools. Our current commission should work with the Department of Education to ensure Title VI compliance. In the long run, county commission is faced with the building and operation of a safety center that will accommodate persons with mental illness and substance addictions. A safety center will take mentally ill persons out of jail and into a treatment facility, which should be less expensive than housing them as inmates. A case management program should be established to provide support after discharge from the center. County commission should also consider an investment in Lakeshore Park, which is in the 4th District. While it is a city park, its transformation will make it one of the most iconic public parks in the state of Tennessee. Over the next 3 to 10 years, we will see the park grow dramatically in terms of amenities and use because of its lakeside location. Jeffrey Ownby: I feel the most pressing issues to our county right now is mental health and how we take care of our mentally ill residence. Since the closure of Lakeshore (which I fought to stop) our mentally ill are in our streets homeless or our jails. Twenty-five to 30 percent of our jail population are mentally ill, that is roughly 400 to 500 inmates. The ones that aren't in jail are on the streets homeless, they are not receiving the care that they so desperately need. I said this would happen when they closed Lakeshore and it did. We need to build a safety center that provides case managers that can make sure they have a place to live and are taking their meds and making their doctors appointments. The other thing is education and the lack of funding from the state. The B.E.P. 2.0 was passed several years ago but never has been implemented. We need to get our state Legislature to move this forward and implement it. This would make the fund a little more equal between big counties and small counties. Janet Testerman: In addition to the need for a long-term strategic plan for the county, I feel there are a number of issues that are top-of-mind for many constituents. We have a growing and pervasive issue with our inmates who suffer from mental illness, and the county is spending more than $1.2M just transporting and providing needed medication to that specific inmate population with no viable long-term plan in place to deal with this escalating issue. The proposed location of a new safety center next to Helen Ross McNabb is a good start, but we need to build out a sustainable plan given this would be the only mental health facility in East Tennessee since Lakeshore closed. The second issue would be to create better communication channels between our neighborhood associations, developers and the county. There are opportunities to break down some of the silos and generate a productive cross-pollination of ideas about where we want to see our county in five and 10 years. Q: 2. Would you support changing the county sign ordinance to be consistent with the city sign ordinance? Marleen Davis: No response Hugh Nystrom: I do not consider myself an expert on the deep details of the recently passed city sign ordinance. I have plans to meet with both the business community and Scenic Knoxville to gain a better understanding of the ordinance and its provisions to improve the long-term appearance of Knoxville. At first glance, I like the idea of having a process in place to remove abandoned signs; however, there is a lot more to that ordinance. There are many small businesses in the more rural parts of our county that would be impacted by this issue. I want to make sure that they have a voice on this matter and are not hit with overwhelming regulation or expenses. Jeffrey Ownby: I would take a look at what the city has passed and see if there are elements or its entirety that can be passed in the county. I want to make sure that any changes to the county sign ordinance doesn't harm businesses and the property rights of the property owners. I think a compromise can be reached that everyone can be happy with. Janet Testerman: I am certainly open to looking at how the city ordinance could be adapted to the county. I am sensitive to neighborhood residents and the impact brightly lit commercial signs have on the ambiance and environment. I am also sensitive to business owners and the need to be visible. I think it would behoove us to have a plot plan of the county and where the various sign heights would be imposed and evaluate the variables like surrounding communities, density, main arteries and visibility distance. Only then could we get an overarching view of what makes sense and create a plan that would be amenable to all vested parties. Q: 3. How do you plan to engage with your constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote? Marleen Davis: No response Hugh Nystrom: I have knocked on many doors in the 4th District. I have given each resident my personal cell number and have asked for advice and a deeper understanding of issues important to our district. My cell number is available on all my campaign collateral and website I am easily accessible to help with constituent and customer service issues facing our district. Our local races are on the same ballot as the presidential primary. This should result in the largest voter turnout in the history of Knox County. Most residents are engaged and have indicated that they intend to vote. I have reminded residents that, while we may be caught up in the frenzy of the presidential race, local issues impact our day-to-day lives. Many people appreciate the perspective that I would bring to county commission, having spent the last 10 years in development and administration of a social work agency combined with my extensive background in business and customer service with the Walt Disney Company. Jeffrey Ownby: I do and have done for the past 5-1/2 years attended anywhere from 10 to 15 community meetings a week. I let everyone know what is on our agenda and encourage citizens to either attend our meetings or watch on TV. We need to get our community engaged in our government and changes that effect their lives. I talk to people daily with issues and concerns they have and get them resolved mostly to their satisfaction. I engage people through social media as well to hear their concerns and inform them on issues that are facing Knox County and where they can go to get the information. I can be reached at (865) 441-6162 anytime; if I don't answer, leave a message and I will return your call. Janet Testerman: We have got to foster greater dialogue with constituents and educate them on how and why issues of the county impact them. My approach is to meet people where they are. at HOA meetings, community events and bring coalitions of the community together around issues versus party affiliation. I also think it's time to address election dates and the need, in my opinion, for them to be consolidated. With so many elections, the importance and sense of urgency gets diluted and residents lose track of who represents them and what districts they are in. With fewer elections there would be more emphasis on the issues, more media attention and more opportunities for the public to weigh in on their concerns from the local to the state level. County Commission, 5th district Candidate Name: Sheri Ridgeway Party: Democrat Address: 1400 N. 6th Ave, Suite B6, (mailing address) P.O. Box 30007, Knoxville 37930 Campaign Phone: (865) 406-5573 Email: votesheriridgeway@gmail.com Candidate Name: John Schoonmaker Party: Republican Address: 10044 Tan Rara Drive, Knoxville 37922 Campaign Phone: (865) 607-6625 Email: jschoonmaker@tds.net Q: 1. What are the most pressing issues you see coming before county commission? Sheri Ridgeway: One of the most pressing issues I see coming before the county commission is infrastructure and how that is going to be dealt with. This includes the paving of county roads and working with the state and other entities to make sure all the roads in Knox County are in a condition that will not cause damage to vehicles and met the needs of the citizens. Other areas of infrastructure can and will include communications and public transportation. Public transportation can be a huge part of a person's life. I have met several individuals who either no longer drive or have decided not to and have a real need for transportation that can accommodate their needs. In addition to infrastructure, the county commission is at some point going to have to address the issue of raising taxes. As our schools grow and county grows this is an issue that must be balanced to provide for the need and be agreeable for the citizens as a whole. John Schoonmaker: The Safety Center. I realize the need for this in our community. Let's stop discussing it and move forward with implementing it. We also need to make sure it is built to accommodate more individuals that what is currently projected. The Budget. Shortly we will be making decisions on how to spend the county's tax dollars. We need to make sure there are funds for repaving and repairing our county roads. We need to continue to make cost saving initiatives like our solar panel programs at our schools, the detention facility and county buildings. Q: 2. Would you support changing the county sign ordinance to be consistent with the city sign ordinance? Sheri Ridgeway: I do not think the county sign ordinance should be the same as the city ordinance. The demographics of county businesses is much different that those of businesses within the city limits. The ability of smaller businesses to be able to financially replace current signs may be difficult for small businesses and cause those smaller businesses a hardship. John Schoonmaker: Yes. I supported the efforts of Scenic Knoxville. Look at the accomplishments the community has made with the new businesses at Cedar Bluff and Kingston Pike. When the businesses were personally contacted, they all agreed to use monument signs. With the technology available on smart phones to locate a business, we don't need 50-foot-pole signs along our corridors. Q: 3. How do you plan to engage with your constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote? Sheri Ridgeway: I plan to engage with my constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote by first starting with door-to-door contact. Also, by being visible and setting an example for individuals. In addition to these, I will engage individuals in various settings and be a part of various activities in the community in order to engage more individuals. John Schoonmaker: I plan to hold regular community meetings to inform my constituents of what is happening in our community. I will continue to be available by phone and email. I was amazed at how may citizens of the 5th District were not aware of our recent 14th District House of Representatives race. Even with all the yard signs, people just didn't know what was going on. As a super-voter, I will continue to speak with friends and neighbors about the importance of voting and what a difference they can make. County Commission, 6th district Candidate Name: Brad Anders Party: Republican Address: 3428 Hackworth Road, Knoxville Campaign Phone: (865) 539-5348 Web Site: http://Bradanders.com Email: Brad@bradanders.com Candidate Name: John Ashley Party: Republican Address: 8805 Wakerly Place Lane, Knoxville 37931 Campaign Phone: (865) 621-1004 Web Site: http://www.allinforashley.com Email: allinforashley@gmail.com Candidate Name: Donna Lucas Party: Democrat Q: 1. What are the most pressing issues you see coming before county commission? Brad Anders: I think moving forward the most pressing issue will be the school budget and new infrastructure. There will be a strain on the schools budget in the next few years and working to make sure we are as efficient as possible while providing well for our students and teachers is critical. Our growing population will require significant investment in new roads and other infrastructure. We will need to expand our emergency services such as the Sheriff's office, fire and rescue squad. John Ashley: We have a major need for updated roads due to the rapid growth within District 6. I will work with the mayor and engineering department to come up with a plan as to how to fund these projects and as to what roads are the worst based on the studies that have been done. Mental health is a major concern as well in our county. There needs to be a plan in place to help get the mentally ill the help they need in order to get them back to the normalcy they once had. We have hundreds of mentally ill patients now homeless and in our jail system that with a little help could be working and giving back to Knoxville. To coincide with this a program could be implemented like a good effective anti-drug campaign that educated teachers and parents on the signs of either a mental health issue or drug addiction. Donna Lucas: No response Q: 2. Would you support changing the county sign ordinance to be consistent with the city sign ordinance? Brad Anders: I am not in favor of mirroring the city plan, but I would like to allow certain areas have better signage policy as the county grows and becomes more developed. I think the blanket approach by the city is not the best approach for the county. John Ashley: I feel that any signage issue within the county would have to be looked at separately. We can hinder businesses in some areas by putting limits or restrictions on the signs. Donna Lucas: No response Q: 3. How do you plan to engage with your constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote? Brad Anders: As always, you want an informed public and active voters. I feel that the county is as transparent and open as we have ever been. I think that allows more people to be involved and hopefully more people will exercise their right and privilege to vote. Placing the information in the hands of the voters is the best way to encourage voter participation. John Ashley: I plan to be very active with the community and hold forums to hear their concerns. I have already started and had the first of I hope many meetings regarding the current crime within the Karns community. We had a great turnout of around 40 members of the community and 5 KCSO Captains and Detectives attend and go over how they are approaching breakins and ways for us to be better prepared. Every door I knock on I make sure to encourage people to vote. We have a voice with our vote and I want to make sure by taking the steps with open forums and getting the community together we can start to gain the trust of the people back within our local government. Donna Lucas: No response County Commission, 8th district Candidate Name: Donald Wiser Party: Independent Address: 4524 York Road, Knoxville Campaign Phone: (865) 210-0402 Web Site: Email: donwiser1947@yahoo.com Candidate Name: Dave Wright Party: Republican Q: 1. What are the most pressing issues you see coming before county commission? Donald Wiser: Many issues are on the horizon such as roads, the waste of the taxpayers dollar by Knox County government, but the issue of most importance is public trust. As the current mayor has spent his energies on county time fighting his private battle with the school superintendent he has abandoned his role as the main steward of taxpayer dollars. The other officeholders are duplicating roles that are under the mayor's authority for their own self-seeking interest. The commission has rubber-stamped this process. County commission gave Knox County "Black Wednesday" where the chairman of this commission was taken out of office by the court. Appointments by this commissioners ended when the courts resented the same for violation of the open meeting law. Since this time Knox County has had three of four trusties committing alleged illegal acts while in office with two being prosecuted. A judge with a drug problem securing illegal drug found himself the subject of a T.B.I. investigation which was not made public. The court clerk neglecting her role caused innocent individuals jailed over faulty paperwork. Now rumors are abound of another investigation of county office by federal authority that is a possibility on the horizon. Organization such as the League of Women Voters is providing this vehicle for myself to make the great people of the 8th District aware of the shortcoming of Knox County government. With this knowledge they can make an educated decision on how they will vote. The Democrats are following term limits so what is the problem with the three Republicans? Dave Wright: No response Q: 2. Would you support changing the county sign ordinance to be consistent with the city sign ordinance? Donald Wiser: While the city of Knoxville sign ordinance is under legal scrutiny, it would be ill-advised to place into ordinance a law that could be struck down for violating the Rights of another. Dave Wright: No response Q: 3. How do you plan to engage with your constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote? Donald Wiser: When and if the voters become offended by the misdeeds and actions of Knox County government, they will naturally become engaged in the voting process. It is my duty to make the public aware of the unfaithful stewards of the Knox County's tax dollars. One office-holder has two political appointees with the three making well over $100,000 per year each and with benefits could easily be $500,000 of taxpayers' money. The abuse of the so-called drive home program with many political appointees, driving $50,000 new SUVs taking their kids to ball games, grocery shopping with these vehicles displaying regular license tags registered to fictitious persons throughout the county. Disregarding term limits started Knox County government to show its ugly face on Black Monday and it seems like certain commissioners have not learned a lesson from this history lesson. When the voting public becomes aware of all the warts on the face of Knox County government then I feel they will become engaged. With the help of the League of Women's Voters and other organizations as a vehicle to news media we can educate the voting public and maybe we won't have an elected official gaining office through only five percent of the voting public. The 8th District is the forgotten district but the most beautiful district. It is time we become engaged and with proper representation can bring the 8th out of darkness into the light. Dave Wright: No response County Commission, 9th District Candidate Name: Carson Dailey Party: Republican Address: 7508 Government Farm Road, Knoxville Campaign Phone: (865) 660-0019 Web Site: http://Carsondailey.com Email: Carsondaily77@gmail.com Candidate Name: James Hamilton Party: Democrat Candidate Name: Tom Pierce Party: Independent Address: 409 E. Hendron Chapel Road, Knoxville 37920 Campaign Phone: (865) 385-4855 Email: Tomp828@gmail.com Q: 1. What are the most pressing issues you see coming before county commission? Carson Dailey: Economic growth, job creation. Quality growth in residential and commercial properties will bring high-paying jobs. Strong neighborhood involvement for county government and Knox County schools. Knox county debt of nearly $600 million. Director of schools and school budget. James Hamilton: No response Tom Pierce: 1. Preserving our western identity and Christian traditions in an increasingly multicultural world, 2. Lowering taxes (ie eliminating the property tax and lowering the wheel tax) by hard cuts in our budget. Q: 2. Would you support changing the county sign ordinance to be consistent with the city sign ordinance? Carson Dailey: After review from Metropolitan planning commission public input and showing the need. Change needs to be warranted and must improve business and neighborhoods. Then, yes, I can support a clean version. James Hamilton: No response Tom Pierce: I am neutral on the issue but would take a populist stance from the majority of my constituents. Q: 3. How do you plan to engage with your constituents and encourage them to take a bigger interest in the community and vote? Carson Dailey: Monthly "meet the commissioner" at local businesses. Involvement with neighborhood associations. Involvement with area business associations. Encourage citizens to be a part of South Knoxville and vote your voice. Always have voter registration forms for citizens to register or get their information and follow up with them. James Hamilton: No response Tom Pierce: Encouraging community activism and altruistic behaviors among neighbors. By teaching local civic responsibility and talking with people on the importance of standing for their traditional values while we still have the numbers to do so. See also: Knox County Voter Guide EARLY VOTING SCHEDULE Dates Feb. 10-Feb. 23 Times Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Exceptions Hours at the City County Building will be noon-5 p.m. on weekdays; 4-7 p.m. on Feb. 23; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on Feb. 20 On Feb. 22 and 23, hours at all locations, including the City County Building, will be 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Locations SHARE Richard "Bud" Armstrong Nathan Rowell, 2016 candidate for Knox County Law Director. Knox County Law Director Candidate Name: Richard Armstrong Party: Republican Address: 400 Main Street Suite 612, Knoxville 37902 Campaign Phone: (865) 474-9593 Web Site: http://www.electbudarmstrong.com Email: budarmstrong@comcast.net Candidate Name: Nathan Rowell Party: Republican Address: 850 Volunteer Landing Lane, #105 Knoxville 37919 Web Site: http://www.nathanrowell.com Email: nathan@nathanrowell.com Q: 1. What are your qualifications to serve as law director? Richard Armstrong: I meet all legal qualifications for election as Knox County Law Director; I am a lifelong resident of Knox County and a licensed attorney in good standing. I have over 35 years experience managing legal professionals. During the last 4 years, I've significantly improved the law director's office and saved millions of dollars for the taxpayer. I've reduced Knox County's dependence on outside counsel, saving over $1 million. I've reduced settlement payouts, saving taxpayers over $2.5 million. In addition to these qualifications, I received my doctorate in education from Columbia University with a focus on policy analysis, institutional analysis, fiscal analysis, and management science. My broad experience and education provide the right perspective for leadership, advocacy, and counsel required in the law director's office. Nathan Rowell: I have represented cities and counties throughout East Tennessee for 20 years. My practice has involved almost every aspect of governmental law. I have the highest peer review rating attorneys can achieve. I have a bachelor's and law degree from the University of Tennessee. I also served as a law clerk for two judges on the Tennessee Court of Appeals. I am active in the profession, my church, and the community. Q: 2. Given that linguistic minorities are rapidly increasing in Knox County, what are your plans to make Knox County's services more accessible to those who have low English proficiency and meet federal Title VI requirements? Richard Armstrong: Knox County is proud to provide multi-lingual individuals to assist persons with limited English proficiency. I take my role as advisor to all other county offices regarding Title VI compliance very seriously. While I believe all offices are currently in compliance, I encourage improvements that make services more accessible all citizens. I look forward to working with members of our growing community to address any accessibility issues they may have. Nathan Rowell: As law director, I will ensure that all departments of the county meet all federal and state laws. Q: 3. What will you do when other elected officials disagree with your legal positions? Richard Armstrong: As law director my duty is to administer the legal affairs of the county and advise other elected officials concerning legal affairs of their offices. The law director does not create or adopt policy. Policy issues are a matter left solely to the elected official taking into account the advice given. When disagreements arise my responsibility is simply to advise and allow the official to make her own decision. Nathan Rowell: I will be impartial and provide sound advice and opinions. My decisions will not be based on politics, but on the law. I will not favor one branch of government over another, but will endeavor to be fair and neutral in conducting the legal affairs of the Knox County. See also: Knox County Voter Guide EARLY VOTING SCHEDULE Dates Feb. 10-Feb. 23 Times Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Exceptions Hours at the City County Building will be noon-5 p.m. on weekdays; 4-7 p.m. on Feb. 23; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on Feb. 20 On Feb. 22 and 23, hours at all locations, including the City County Building, will be 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Locations Professor Jeff Mellor, center, stands in protest along with students, other faculty, staff, and community members on Friday at the University of Tennessee. The protesters are drawing attention to ongoing campus diversity and sustainability issues, as well as Gov. Bill Haslams proposal to privatize the management and operations of the buildings and facilities. (CAITIE MCMEKIN/NEWS SENTINEL) SHARE United Campus Workers organizer Cassie Waters leads students, faculty, staff, and community members in a protest on Friday at the University of Tennessee. The protesters are drawing attention to ongoing campus diversity and sustainability issues, as well as Gov. Bill Haslams proposal to privatize the management and operations of the buildings and facilities. (CAITIE MCMEKIN/NEWS SENTINEL) Students, faculty, staff, and community members stand in protest on Friday at the University of Tennessee. The protesters are drawing attention to ongoing campus diversity and sustainability issues, as well as Gov. Bill Haslams proposal to privatize the management and operations of the buildings and facilities. (CAITIE MCMEKIN/NEWS SENTINEL) Retired professor John Bohstedt protests with students, faculty, staff, and community members on Humanities Plaza at the University of Tennessee on Friday. Recent bills filed by Tennessee legislators, Gov. Bill Haslams plan to privatize maintenance and management of state-owned buildings, and campus issues of diversity and sustainability led to the protest. (CAITIE MCMEKIN/NEWS SENTINEL) Related Photos Photos: Protest at University of Tennessee By Kristi L. Nelson of the Knoxville News Sentinel Some came to protest the privatization of university jobs. Some came to protest proposed legislation that would cut funds for diversity programs at the University of Tennessee. Some came solely in support of what they saw as fairness better wages, equal treatment, freedom to teach. Some simply wandered up to see what all the noise was about. Around 300 people attended a rally Friday afternoon, nearly filling UT's Humanities Amphitheater, to chant slogans, hold up signs and listen to a variety of speakers tell why UT is "under attack." "Our governor and our legislators show little respect for our public institutions, for the people of Tennessee and for the democracy that our state and our country promises us," said Melanie Barron, a graduate assistant in geography and member of the UT Diversity Matters coalition. "In the coming months, as these attacks on our university intensify, let us stand together." The coalition co-sponsored the rally, along with United Campus Workers, UT's Faculty Senate and the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Attendees' posters bore messages on privatization ("Tennessee is not for sale!" "Make us a Tennessee Promise: Keep Our Jobs Here"), living wages and racial and gender diversity ("Diversity Cuts Hurt Us All," "Martin's Dream is Forever"). But their chants, led by UCW representative Cassie Waters, were in unison: "When our university is under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!" Volunteers in a "phone zone" held up signs bearing contact information for legislators who have recently filed bills urging cuts to diversity and sustainability programs and funding at UT. Waters urged attendees to call the legislators and Gov. Bill Haslam, who has proposed to outsource maintenance and management of state-owned buildings, including at the university, that's now done by state employees. The plan would cost those workers their jobs and benefits, Waters said. Students and faculty also protested bills sponsored by state Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, and state Rep. Martin Daniel, R-Knoxville, that would cut funding for UT's Office of Diversity and Inclusion in half. Lawmakers have criticized the diversity programs as "political correctness" run amok. "These attacks are not individual, they are not separate, they are concerted and we need to respond to them united, together against the overlords in Nashville," said Tom Anderson, who works in Facilities Services. "They lose power when we stand together." Waters said the organizations hope to take two busloads of people to a March 8 rally at the State Capitol, where they will join other organizations. Freshman music major Anna Helms said she received a Facebook invitation to the rally, but what made her determined to come was a conversation with a custodian she's gotten to know while practicing long hours on campus. "He was really stressed" about possibly losing his job or benefits, Helms said. "They do a great job. The music building's always really clean." She said she hasn't "been as active as I should be" on the issue of protecting diversity, "but I've been thinking about it, for sure." UT Faculty Senate President Bruce MacLennan, an associate professor in electrical engineering and computer science, said many longtime employees remember a previous battle with privatization. "We have horror stories to tell," MacLennan said. "We don't want to go through that again." MacLennan decried what he called "the overreach by the Legislature for political purposes, taking miniscule issues, really, like gender pronouns, like office party policies, that if anyone had disagreed with, there could have been a discussion within the university. Instead, they were blown up into a national crisis." photos by AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL University of Tennessee senior Sydney Trentham rides her bike along the greenway near Volunteer Landing Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Trentham is training to ride along with 30 other college students with the 4K for Cancer organization, 4,000+ miles from Baltimore to San Francisco in order raise money and awareness for young adults with cancer. SHARE University of Tennessee senior Sydney Trentham rides her bike along the greenway near Volunteer Landing Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Trentham is training to ride along with 30 other college students with the 4K for Cancer organization, 4,000+ miles from Baltimore to San Francisco in order raise money and awareness for young adults with cancer. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) By MJ Slaby of the Knoxville News Sentinel Roughly a month after Sydney Trentham graduates from the University of Tennessee, she'll start a 10-week bike trip from Baltimore to San Francisco. The UT senior is one of 25 college-age riders who will bike about 70-80 miles a day this summer to raise funds and spread awareness about the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. During the ride, Trentham said the group will stop to award two college scholarships to young adults with cancer and deliver care packages to chemotherapy patients in hospitals. Before the ride starts, Trentham needs to raise $4,500 for the Ulman Fund. The fund helps pay for a variety of services for young adults battling cancer, including transportation to doctors' appointments, gas cards, support groups and scholarships. Those patients might not have the financial means to go to college after paying for treatment and should be worried about classes and romantic relationships instead of adding cancer to that list, Trentham said. Helping cancer patients has special meaning for her after the past year. The weekend before the start of the fall semester in August, Trentham learned her mother, who is now in recovery, had breast cancer. She said her family wasn't prepared for the news, as most families aren't, so she wants to help others as cancer drains their finances, time, and health. "Most importantly, I want to give hope," Trentham wrote on her fundraising website. "The one thing that got our family through my mom's diagnosis and treatment was hope that everything was going to be OK." During the more than 4,000-mile ride, Trentham said the group will come through Knoxville and her hometown of Lebanon, Tenn., on their way west. The riders finish by crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Trentham said the ride is a way for her to see the country, something she wanted to do after graduation. "This will be really my first time west of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon Line," she said, noting she's excited to see the Rocky Mountains. She said she's done other charity bike rides and participated in fundraisers to fight cancer before, but this ride will be the largest and most meaningful. "You don't think about what you're raising money for, unless you experience it like we did this year," she said. To help Trentham meet her fundraising goal for the Ulman Cancer Fund, donate at Cedar Bluff Cycles, 9282 Kingston Pike, or visit 4kforcancer.org/profiles/sydney-trentham/. SHARE Jim Weaver John Whitehead Andrew Graybeal, candidate for Knox County Property Assessor Knox County Assessor of Property Candidate Name: Andrew Graybeal Party: Republican Address: 3321 Whispering Oaks Drive, Knoxville, 37938 Campaign Phone: (865) 973-2214 Email: adidasland@aol.com Candidate Name: Jim Weaver Party: Republican Address: 617 East Grinnell Circle, Knoxville 37924 Campaign Phone: (865) 382-3185 Web Site: http://Electjimweaver.org Email: Jimweaver6@gmail.com Candidate Name: John Whitehead Party: Republican Address: 1424 Adair Drive, Knoxville 37918 Campaign Phone: (865) 247-4165 Web Site: http://whiteheadforpropertyassessor.com Email: jwhitehead01@comcast.net Q: 1. What factors are a part of your property reassessment process? And, in addition, what does NOT influence the property reassessment process? Andrew Graybeal: Verification of the records as to square footage, number of baths, overall condition of the structure, construction materials; ie: such as brick, vinyl, synthetic stucco, wood and frame are all key factors in determining the assessment value. Landscaping and interior features are not part of the assessment process. Whether or not your home has exotic hardwood flooring and stone countertops are not a factor to determine the assessment of your home or business. An additional structure such as a garage, a bath house, hot tub, swimming pool are factors which will affect the value of your assessment. Additions to the property such as building a room, adding a deck, adding a garage or carport will increase the overall value of the assessment. Removal of such items will decrease the value of the assessment. If an owner does remove a structure, the assessors office should be contacted to reflect the change to the assessment. The owner should never face over-assessment. Jim Weaver: Knox County reappraises property every four years per Tennessee code with the next reappraisal scheduled for 2017. All property components are reviewed for accuracy including the following: square footage for the main-level living and upper story and basement areas, decks, enclosed porches, open porches, exterior measurements of all buildings/structures, year of construction, heat and air system, bathrooms, fireplaces, interior and exterior component finishes, land characteristics including acreage, restrictions, zoning and use of the property, neighborhood and location. All of these components are utilized in building an appraisal model in valuing a universe of properties which number close to 200,000 in Knox County. All reappraisal valuations use market transactions from the preceding two years. The person or corporate ownership does NOT ever influence the property reassessment process. This office values only the property and not the person or ownership! John Whitehead: All physical characteristics, type of construction, location, recent sales age of improvement, color paint should not affect value, I am sure there are other items I haven't thought of Q: 2. What options should property owners have if they disagree with their reassessment? Andrew Graybeal: If a property owner disagrees with his or her assessment, I will have a dedicated staff member schedule an appointment for a field assessor and the elected official to visit with the property owner. Allow the owner to discuss their concerns. Listening to the concerns and why he or she believes the assessment is incorrect. If it is found that the assessment is inaccurate, the changes should be reported in writing and corrected within two business days. If the assessment is correct and the property owner disagrees, the owner would receive detailed information on how and where to appeal. The elected official should always accommodate the owner's schedule during normal business hours. Under extreme circumstances after-hour appointments would be available. Educating the public on what to bring for their appeal is a key factor in which will insure the appeal process is nurturing with the owner of record. Jim Weaver: Property owners have five options if they disagree with their reassessment: (1) A request for review which is informal and is accomplished by a phone call or an online request to review. (2) County Board of Equalization during the month of June. (3) Administrative Law Judge from the State Board of Equalization (4) Assessment Appeals Commission (5) Chancery Court. Most disagreements are settled with the first two steps. During the next four years our office will be improving the appeal process. We will be utilizing more online requests for reviews/appeals. These requests can be done from the convenience of your iPhone, iPad or computer while at home, on vacation or anywhere you choose. We will also go to different locations in the county to hear requests for review from the taxpayers. Both of these improvements will save the taxpayer money and time by not driving and parking downtown. John Whitehead: Taxpayers have an appeals process. Starting in June of every year the County Board of Equalization meets, you make an appointment and tell them why you disagree and show them your information to support you disagreement. If you are still not satisfied you can appeal to the State Board of Equalization. There are three levels of appeal at the state level. If after all this you still have not solved your disagreement, you can file in Chancery court. Q: 3. Property characteristics such as square footage, bed and bath count, etc. are notoriously incorrect. What measures would you take to remedy this? Andrew Graybeal: The basis to a mass appraisal begins with accuracy of the records in order for the mass appraisal to be successful. During my first year in office, if elected, I intend to be in the field, verifying the field process and correcting mistakes. Although it will be a painstaking process, the vital information such of square foot, number of bedrooms and bathroom counts will need to be verified, any discrepancies will be corrected and reported to the owner of record. Additional verification of the address and CLT number will be a part of the corrective measures, as those issues are systematic and widespread in the records of the office. Those records should be supplied to all entities of Knox County. If the property owner should have any questions, a field representative from the office would meet the owner of record and discuss his or her concerns within two business days. Field assessors will accompany the elected official and provide detailed answers to the property owner. Jim Weaver: Property characteristics are reviewed daily by our appraisers and since we went totally transparent in 2012 with all online appraisal data, taxpayers can always request a review of their appraisal data. However, we have had less than 2 percent of all parcels request a review or appeal inaccuracies. This low percentage speaks for itself. Property characteristics are gathered over the life of all properties visually. Most homeowners are away during normal business hours and the property characteristics are estimated using mass appraisal techniques as opposed to a fee-based appraisal. New technology over the next four years will improve accuracy. Pictometry gives an aerial view of all properties and also has measuring tools available. We will be using tablets in the field to sketch buildings and capture all characteristics while our appraisers are onsite. We will also be using MLS information to review our characteristics. These three tools will definitely improve accuracy. John Whitehead: I haven't found a problem with square feet of improvements. Some of the other information needs to be addressed. See also: Knox County Voter Guide EARLY VOTING SCHEDULE Dates Feb. 10-Feb. 23 Times Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Exceptions Hours at the City County Building will be noon-5 p.m. on weekdays; 4-7 p.m. on Feb. 23; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on Feb. 20 On Feb. 22 and 23, hours at all locations, including the City County Building, will be 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Locations SHARE Rep. Bill Dunn R-Knoxville District 16 Part of Knox County By Richard Locker NASHVILLE The state House of Representatives is set to vote Monday on a bill to make Tennessee the 14th state to create a school-voucher program, allowing parents to divert taxpayer funding from public schools to pay private school tuition, including faith-based schools. Lawmakers say despite the House's 73-26 Republican supermajority, the vote is too close to call. But pro-voucher groups who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2012 in campaign donations and lobbying are mounting a full-court press, and the bill is likely to pass. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, would allow students who attend public schools in the bottom 5 percent in overall achievement statewide to take the state and local funds required per pupil under the state's school funding formula to private schools. To qualify, the students' annual household income in the year prior to their first receipt of the vouchers must be low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches under federal law currently up to $37,167 for a three-person household, $44,863 for four and higher with additional household members. Legislative fiscal analysts say the vouchers would average from $6,800 to $7,000 but vary among school districts. Currently, low-income students in only five districts would qualify: Shelby County Schools, Knox County, Hamilton County, Metro Nashville, and Jackson-Madison County Schools. Vouchers would be available to any low-income students in those school districts if there are unused vouchers each year after the initial sign-up deadline. The bill caps the number of vouchers at 5,000 statewide in the 2016-17 school year, 7,500 the second year, 10,000 the third year and 20,000 the fourth and all subsequent years. Participation is voluntary on the part of private schools, but those that participate must agree to charge the students' families no more than the voucher amount, even if the school's tuition rates are higher. Schools may accept whichever students are chosen and limit the number of voucher students accepted. Opponents say the program will divert needed money from public schools, while supporters say it gives students in failing schools a choice they've never had before. Some voucher supporters say there should be no income limits and that the number of vouchers available per year should be higher. House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said in a House subcommittee he hopes vouchers can be expanded later if the bill becomes law. "The only complaint my constituents have is, the working poor and middle class who pay every dime they make every month for living expenses, there's no way they can ever afford private schools or to have any kind of options and they're not poor enough to get the vouchers," McCormick said. "Hopefully we can change that at some point." While most of the bill's supporters are Republicans, there is bipartisan opposition. When it won Senate approval last year 23-9, five of the nine "no" votes were Republicans. When the bill won its final House committee vote Tuesday, six of the nine committee members voting "no" were Republicans. House Democrats held a news conference Thursday to try to encourage voucher opponents to contact their legislators before the House's floor session opens at 5 p.m. Monday. Rep. Kevin Dunlap, D-Rock Island, a high school social-studies teacher and first-term lawmaker, said public schools need every dollar allotted because Tennessee is already a low-tax state. "Our public schools have improved. We're No. 1 in the nation as the fastest-improving schools in the country," he said. "With all the steps we've taken forward, why should we take three or four steps backward?" Legislative fiscal analysts estimate the program would divert $16.6 million from public to private schools the first year, $25.5 million the second, $34.8 million the third and a minimum of $69.6 million in the fourth and later years or $146.5 million in the first four years. The Tennessee Association of School Boards, representing the state's 141 school districts, the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents, the Tennessee Education Association and several county commissions have come out against the bill. On the other side are the state arms of the American Federation for Children, Students First and the conservative Beacon Center of Tennessee. Dunn argues children in failing schools are trapped and that after nearly seven years of debate in the Tennessee Legislature, the time has come for passage. "What the governor realized was that at some of these schools that we call failing schools and to be honest, most of these failing schools are so because they are in failing communities we recognize that it may be years to turn them around. And children don't have time," Dunn said. If the House passes the bill, it must return to the Senate for concurrence in House amendments including one required because the version the Senate approved last year would have begun the program with the current school year. But Senate concurrence would be expected. Tennessee would become the 14th state, plus the District of Columbia, with a traditional voucher program, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The NCSL includes Arkansas, which approved vouchers in 2015, but does not count Colorado, where a local voucher program was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court and is under appeal. Gov. Bill Haslam says the bill is similar to the limited voucher program he proposed in 2013 and that he will sign it into law if it does not change significantly before reaching his desk. SHARE A look at recent events in the news that pleased us ... Payday parameters: Knoxville City Council members have asked the Metropolitan Planning Commission to draft an ordinance regulating where payday lenders can set up shop. In August, MPC staff submitted a 24-page report that recommended spacing "alternative financial services" businesses which includes payday lenders, pawn brokers, title lenders and check cashing companies at least 1,000 feet from each other and residential zones. The study found 81 of these businesses across the city, another 16 in the county and two in Farragut. Most of the businesses are clustered along Clinton Highway, Broadway, Chapman Highway, Magnolia Avenue and Kingston Pike. Another good reason: Expanding Medicaid could help Tennessee halve its number of uninsured workers, a new report suggests. The study, released by advocacy group Families USA, looked at the decline in the percentage of uninsured workers in states that expanded Medicaid versus states that did not. States that expanded Medicaid in 2013 averaged a 25 percent reduction in 2014 in the rate of uninsured workers, compared with the 13 percent average decrease in non-expansion states. In Tennessee, one of 19 states that hasn't expanded Medicaid, the drop was 15 percent, the report said. The report provides more evidence Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee proposal should be revived. Unfortunately, legislative leaders have pronounced it dead this session. Mishandling documents: The National Nuclear Security Administration this week cited B&W Y-12 the government's former contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant for repeated mishandling and improper disposal of classified documents. The preliminary notice identified three violations based on the U.S. Department of Energy's investigation of a "security event" uncovered in 2014. The investigation, based on talks with some workers, indicated the problem with improper disposal of potentially classified information at unclassified burial sites had been going on for years. The report proposed fines totaling $240,000, but the NNSA waived the fines because of the contractor's timely response to concerns and because B&W was already penalized by having its management fee reduced for fiscal year 2014. SHARE Robert Gates served 26 years in the CIA and was director during the George H.W. Bush administration. He served five years as secretary of defense for parts of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. When interviewed a few weeks ago regarding his assessment of the Islamic State, al-Qaida, Iran, North Korea and Russia, he was asked what he considered poses the most danger to America. Without hesitation he replied, "Washington, D.C." We have learned during the current presidential election cycle that many Americans share Gates' concern for our country. A recent letter writer alerted us to the Convention of States Project at the website COSAction.com, urging us to sign a petition that will forward our support to our state representatives. State legislatures across the country are also considering resolutions for a constitutional convention to approve amendments to save our country from a runaway deficit (balanced budget amendment) and end the political class (mandatory term limits) in Washington that only represents special interests with big money. If you share these concerns, sign the petition, but also use social media to urge your friends, relatives and business associates in other states to sign the petition, and also to contact their acquaintances. Hopefully they won't be offended, as saving our country shouldn't be a partisan issue. Previous efforts to call for constitutional conventions have failed, but that was before we had the power of social media. Put this powerful tool to good use to save our country. Glenn Williams, Maryville By Choi Sung-jin The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement will produce such ill effects as reducing jobs in member countries and even pulling down their gross domestic product, a U.S. university forecasts in a report. After the TPP goes into effect, some 771,000 jobs will disappear in participating countries 625,000 in developed and 147,000 in developing nations according to the report released by Tufts University on Jan. 27, titled: "Trading Down: Unemployment, Inequality and other Risks of TPP agreement." By country, the United States will lose the most jobs (448,000), followed by Mexico (78,000), Japan (74,000), Canada (58,000), four Southeast Asian countries (55,000), Australia (39,000), two Latin American countries (14,000) and New Zealand (6,000), according to the report. The report also stated the GDP of advanced countries that have joined the TPP will drop by an average of 0.34 percent in the 10 years following the implementation of the agreement. The GDP of the U.S. and Japan will fall 0.54 percent and 0.12 percent, respectively, while those of other industrial countries will edge up, such as Australia (0.87 percent), New Zealand (0.77 percent), and Canada (0.28 percent). On the other hand, the GDP of developing nations will grow 2.03 percent on average, such as four Southeast Asian countries (2.18 percent) and two Latin American countries (2.84 percent) except for Mexico whose GDP is estimated to increase only 0.87 percent, it stated. Explaining the reasons for the reduction of jobs and GDP, the report forecasts that the TPP will increase the export of items assembled with significant amounts of imported items, which will reduce domestic production. The intensifying competition will also pull down labor costs, reduce compensation to employees and will adversely affect domestic demand. "TPP promotes competition on labor costs and interests on a global scale," it stated. "Most of the benefits for those participating in TPP will be made at the expense of non-member countries." The report estimated the TPP would also reduce 4.45 million jobs in non-member developing countries, and 879,000 jobs in non-member developed nations, while reducing their GDP by 5.24 percent and 3.77 percent, respectively. The university report is drawing a lot of attention as it is a rare analysis focusing on the negative effects of the mega-FTA. "The government, along with researchers and other experts, is examining the TPP," said an official at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "We will reflect the content of this report, too, in our final analysis." The ministry is scheduled to release its interim report analyzing the agreement next week. By Choi Sung-jin Toshiba of Japan and SanDisk of the United States have decided to cooperate to produce three-dimensional NAND flash memory chips, industry sources said Friday. The alliance of the world's Nos. 2 and 3 chipmakers is seen to chase market leader, Samsung Electronics, more closely, they added. Instead of trying to put more circuits on a narrow surface, the 3-D NAND flash technology, developed by Samsung in 2013, stacks one layer upon another, up to 48 layers. If the previous semiconductor chip is a single-story house with one person, a 3-D NAND flash chip is like a 48-story building allowing that many people on the same space. According to Digitimes and other sources, Toshiba will build a 3-D NAND flash chip factory at a total cost of about 500 billion yen ($4.29 billion), which will be shared 50-50 with SanDisk. It will start operation in 2017. To make up for the loss revealed by a major accounting scandal last year, the Japanese electronics company has begun a major restructuring process by selling off non-essential units, and instead will focus on the 3-D NAND chip sector as its new flagship business. As of last Sept. 30, Samsung took up 31.5 percent of the NAND flash memory market, followed by Toshiba (20.5 percent), SanDisk (15.4 percent), Micron (13.8 percent), and SK Hynix (10.9 percent), according to DRAMeXchange. Foreign competitors have made various business alliances to take the market leader's status away from Samsung, industry watchers here said. Micron, for instance, joined hands with Intel to develop its own 3-D NAND flash technology named "floating gate." Intel also plans to invest $5.5 billion in China to mass produce 3-D NAND flash chips. The 3-D NAND flash chips, when compared with the existing NAND flash memories, consume 40 percent less electricity, last 10 times longer and transmit data twice as fast. The output of 3-D NAND flash memories is also double that of the previous NAND flash chips using the same amount of materials (wafers). Demands for them are rapidly increasing in high-performance computers and servers. Market researchers estimate the 3-D NAND flash market will grow faster than that of the overall semiconductor market, which increases by 30 to 40 percent a year. Local analysts expect the alliance between the Japanese and U.S. makers to cut into the profitability of Korean producers, forcing them to undercut prices further. "Although Korean companies are ahead of their foreign competitors in technology, they will no longer be able to enjoy the high profit ratios if competition intensifies," said a semiconductor analyst at a local brokerage. By Choi Sung-jin The business community feels that corruption in the public sector has aggravated significantly since the inauguration of the Park Geun-hye administration, a report said Friday. Many people in business feel the level of corruption has become especially worse in judicial and legal circles, it said. The results defy general expectations that the public sector's transparency would considerably improve thanks to the extensive anti-corruption campaign led by President Park especially since the tragic sinking of the ferry Sewol in April 2014, which analysts attributed to collusion between business executives and bureaucrats. In other words, the recent series of the government's anticorruption measures have been less than effective, the report said. According to the study on public sector corruption, conducted by the state-run Korea Institute of Public Administration, 66.9 percent of business executives and the self-employed think the public sector's corruption is serious. The survey was conducted with 600 business officials and 400 self-employed people who deal with government employees and other public officials. In a similar survey conducted in 2013, a few months after the Park administration took office, the comparable ratio of negative response was 57.6 percent, indicating that corruption has deteriorated since then. By sector, 69 percent of the respondents said judicial corruption is serious, up from 68.4 percent in 2013, followed by the tax administration with 66.3 percent (up from 62.4 percent in 2013), police with 58.9 percent (down from 61.2 percent) and education with 56.5 percent (up from 54.3 percent). By types of officials, politicians topped the corruption list with 89.9 percent negative responses, closely followed by bureaucrats at the division director level or higher with 78.7 percent, judicial officials (75.2 percent), tax officials (69.2 percent) and police officers (58.9 percent). In 2013, some 36.6 percent of the respondents said the corruption of military officers was serious, but that percentage surged to 55.1 percent last year. Asked whether the government is working hard to crack down on corruption, 51.2 percent said "yes," meaning nearly half think it has to make greater efforts. Some 42.7 percent also said the new, toughened anticorruption law that will go into effect in September will not have much effect. "Every time the government announces across-the-board policies against corruption, the public only feels more keenly the seriousness of the deep-rooted corruption," said an analyst. To reduce corruption within officialdom, the government should first of all protect and reward whistleblowers far more effectively than now. "There are related laws but their implementation is in name only," an expert said. More than 60 percent of the businesspeople also replied that far better protection of whistleblowers would help put a damper on the rampant corruption. Also problematic is the lack of an administrative control tower for an anticorruption administration, the responsibilities of which are now spread out between the Ministry of Interior, the Office of the Prime Minister and Anticorruption and the Civil Rights Commission, with little connection and communication amidst them. Besides, the Public Officials' Ethics Act is now targeting only ranking officials, another expert said, but the government should revise the law to include lower-echelon officials and look more closely into the conflicts between their jobs and private interests. Defense Minister Han Min-koo / Yonhap Defense Minister Han Min-koo visited an Aegis-equipped destroyer on Saturday which can detect a launch of North Korea's long-range rockets, the ministry said. Han was aboard the 7600-ton KDX-III destroyer Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong and spoke with the sailors on the ship, telling them to maintain full combat posture with North Korea, the ministry said according to Yonhap news agency. North Korea claimed it would launch a space vehicle and informed the United Nations agency it would send the satellite into orbit between Feb.8 and 25. President Park Geun-hye called Friday for more visits to traditional markets, vowing government support to revitalize such small-vendor facilities, officials said. The remarks were made during Park's visit to a large traditional market in Incheon, just west of Seoul, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday which falls on Monday, according to the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae. Park said the government will create a series of support policy measures to help revitalize traditional markets. She also asked young merchants to make changes to the markets that have increasingly lost ground to large discount stores and chain supermarkets. In efforts to lure back customers, traditional markets in recent years have carried out renovations to offer better service. (Yonhap) South Korea's trade minister asked the heads of the country's large business groups Thursday to ramp up investment to prop up flagging exports and help the economy overcome challenges at home and abroad. Asia's fourth-largest economy is grappling with plummeting exports amid low oil prices and a Chinese slowdown. South Korea's exports plunged 18.5 percent in January from a year earlier, marking the largest on-year drop in more than six years. "We will mobilize all resources and means to revive exports and domestic demand," Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan said in a breakfast meeting with the heads of the top 30 conglomerates in Seoul, including Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group. "With your efforts, our economy will be able to get on the right track earlier than expected. We want you to invest to create world-leading industries and develop innovative technologies." Joo told the participating businessmen that the government is ready to remove all hurdles that have hindered their efforts to raise investments and create more jobs. The government will carry out structural reform in labor and financial sectors to steer South Korea's economy into a high value-added industry and find a new growth engine, the minister noted. He added that he will hold the minister-business meeting regularly to share their economic views. On top of plunging exports, South Korea's domestic consumption, which had shown tepid signs of recovery, seemed to lose steam in January, with the country's consumer price index growing less than 1 percent for the first time in three months. On Wednesday, the government came up with a set of pump-priming policies to rekindle consumer confidence and exports. It plans to pour a combined 21 trillion won into the economy in the first quarter and extend a consumption tax cut program on passenger cars, which was set to finish at the end of December, to June to bolster domestic demand. (Yonhap) South Korea's defense and chemical conglomerate Hanwha Group agreed with a Chinese online lender Thursday to establish a joint venture in an effort to tap deeper into the global financial technology. The group's IT arm, Hanwha S&C, said it will establish the 50-50 joint venture with Dianrong in Singapore by the end of the month. In November, Hanwha and Dianrong signed a memorandum of understanding. The venture will focus on the fintech industry, which refers to a new type of information technology businesses linked with financial services. Hanwha said the joint venture will open an affiliate in South Korea in March and kick off an online loan marketplace around August, which refers to a platform that connects lenders and borrowers. The company added it will hire 30 experts from the fintech industry for the new affiliate. The online loan platform for the South Korean company will focus on establishing a fintech ecosystem in which startups and financial firms can create a synergy effect, Hanwha added. "We aim to obtain know-how through strategic alliance with leading firms (in the fintech industry)," Hanwha said. Established in 2012, Shanghai-based Dianrong is one of the leading fintech firms in China, which operates peer-to-peer lending services. Dianrong currently has around 2,500 employees and 30 branches in China. Dianrong was established by Soul Htite, co-founder of the U.S.-based peer-to-peer lending firm Lending Club. The combined amount of loans processed through Dianrong and Lending Club is estimated at 15 trillion won (US$12.4 billion), Hanwha added. (Yonhap) U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants North Korea to call off its planned long-range rocket launch, his spokesman said Wednesday. "The secretary-general believes that it is important for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to refrain from using ballistic missile technology and to work for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. North Korea has informed international organizations it will launch an earth observation satellite between Feb. 8-25, confirming widespread concern it is readying for a banned long-range rocket launch just weeks after its fourth nuclear test. The North has long argued its rocket launches are aimed at putting satellites into orbit, claiming it has the right to the peaceful use of space. But Pyongyang is banned from such launches under U.N. Security Council resolutions as it has been accused of using them as a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. Experts say long-range rockets and ICBMs are basically the same with differences only in payloads. South Korea has urged North Korea to cancel the planned launch, warning that Pyongyang will "pay a harsh price" if it goes ahead with the plan. The U.S. also denounced the North's move, saying it shows the need for "real consequences" for such provocative acts. Even China, which has provided the North with economic aid and diplomatic protection, expressed "serious concern," saying that Pyongyang's right to the peaceful use of space is now restricted by U.N. Security Council resolutions, and urged the North to exercise restraint. (Yonhap) A U.N. panel of experts is expected to recommend fresh sanctions against North Korea to a Security Council committee next week, sources said Thursday. The recommendations will be included in the panel's annual report to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang, the sources said. The committee, in turn, is expected to propose sanctions to the council in early March, the sources said. The Security Council swiftly condemned the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test and has since been working on a new sanctions resolution. Adding to the international outrage, the North unveiled its plan this week to conduct a banned long-range rocket launch. The Radio Free Asia has reported the panel of experts plans to recommend sanctions against two main agencies responsible for the North's nuclear and missile programs -- the Munitions Industry Department of the North's ruling Workers' Party and the State Space Development Bureau. The panel is also expected to recommend sanctions against senior North Korean officials, such as Pak To-chun, a former secretary of the Munitions Industry Department; Ri Man-gon, director of the department; and Ri Pyong-chol, a deputy director of the department, the report said. So far, the Security Council has adopted six resolutions, six presidential statements and two press statements with regard to the North's nuclear and missile programs. Of the six resolutions, four included sanctions against the isolated nation. Chinese cooperation is key to putting together and implementing any meaningful sanctions resolution, as it is one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the main provider of food and fuel for the impoverished North. Beijing has condemned the North's nuclear test, but has been lukewarm about calls for stern responses. Analysts have long said Beijing fears that pushing Pyongyang too hard could lead to its collapse, instability on its border with China and the untimely emergence of a pro-U.S. nation. (Yonhap) Dedicated to (1) protecting the Charles River in Cambridge/Boston, MA, USA.(2) standing up to destructive governments.(3) protecting the Charles River White Geese & other wildlife. See: http://www.friendsofthewhitegeese.org. Viewed in 121 plus countries. Email: boblat@yahoo.com. Friend the Charles River White Geese on Facebook. 2005-22, Friends of the White Geese, a MA non-profit. The Office of Alumni Relations at Lee University has announced the winners of the second annual Young Alumni Professional Development Grant. The YAPD Grant program supports alumni participating in initiatives, events, trainings and projects related to professional development. The grant is open to all Lee University alumni, regardless of academic major or professional experience, so long as the individual is currently employed and within ten years of graduating from a Lee undergraduate program. In that short period after graduation when a little help goes a long way, we want to step in and support our alumni, said Dr. Jerome Hammond, vice president for University Relations. The 2016 YAPD recipients are Danielle Buteau, Eddie Christopher, Emily Fawcett, Michael Hewgley, Amanda Jones and Ashley Jones. Ms. Buteau graduated from Lee in 2009 with a degree in history. Now applying for her Georgia law license, she will be able to use the grant money to complete the final step to becoming an attorney. Mr. Christopher, a psychology major who graduated in 2013, is presenting his original research on memory and attention at the upcoming annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in Chicago. Its an opportunity provided to me in no small part by the Lee University YAPD Grant, said Mr. Christopher. The grant will allow him to travel to the meeting, as well as cover registration fees and lodging. Ms. Fawcett graduated in 2012 with a degree in music education. She is currently a member of the Organization of American Kodaly Educators and plans on attending a two-week intensive teacher training course. The grant funds will allow her registration for the course, housing during the course, as well as the annual professional membership fee for OAKE. Mr. Hewgley received his degree in pre-med biology from Lee in 2012. The funds he receives from this grant will be used to cover the tuition for Keller Williams Realtys BOLD course held this year in Wilmington, North Carolina. It will also cover the tuition for the Recruit Select Course. Amanda Jones graduated in 2014 with a degree in psychology. Funds from the grant will allow her to attend training for the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association. This association, according to their website, is the leading international nonprofit association for professionals incorporating horses to address mental health and personal development needs. Ashley Jones, an English writing major who graduated in 2012, currently resides in Cleveland. She recently gained a position as Career & Technology Coordinator for the youth at the Boys & Girls Club of Cleveland. This position requires her to create new means for youth to learn about science, technology, engineering and math. The YAPD Grant will offer the resources to purchase equipment and training for youth to practice STEM skills. I am so grateful and so excited about being awarded the YAPD Grant, Ms. Jones said. This tool allows me, as an employee of the club, to create a better classroom experience for our kids and challenge myself as an instructor. The overwhelming feedback weve received is surprising, said Patti Cawood, director of Alumni Relations at Lee. We are truly happy to know that this grant is meeting a real need. For more information or to apply for the YAPD Grant, contact Cawood at pcawood@leeuniversity.edu. The United States government would continue to assist Sri Lanka with their negotiations with the IMF and the debt restructuring Read more The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary Read more Here is the upcoming City Council agenda for Tuesday: I. Call to Order. II. Pledge of Allegiance/Invocation (Councilman Anderson). III. Minute Approval. IV. Special Presentation. V. Ordinances Final Reading: (None) VI. Ordinances First Reading: ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT a. An ordinance amending Chattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 11, by the addition of a new Article XVII entitled Small Business Construction Mitigation Grant Program and to amend Ordinance No. 12953, known asthe Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Budget Ordinance, Section 5(A) so as toreappropriate $25,000.00 from the Department of Economic andCommunity Development for use in the Small Business ConstructionMitigation Grant Program to the Industrial Development Board.PLANNINGb. 2015-150 MD Hospitality Group/Dhaval Patel (R-1 Residential Zone to O-1Office Zone). An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II,Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, so as to rezone property located at 6705Shallowford Road, more particularly described herein, from R-1Residential Zone to O-1 Office Zone, subject to certain conditions.(District 6) (Recommended for denial of R-4 Special Zone)(Recommended for approval by Planning and Staff)2015-150 MD Hospitality Group/Dhaval Patel (R-1 Residential Zone to O-1Office Zone). An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II,Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, so as to rezone property located at 6705Shallowford Road, more particularly described herein, from R-1Residential Zone to R-4 Special Zone. (Applicant Version)c. 2016-001 Young Life c/o David Haskins/Russell Wilson and Hsin YinWilson (R-1 Residential Zone to R-4 Special Zone). An ordinance to amendChattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, so as torezone property located at 912 East Martin Luther King Boulevard, moreparticularly described herein, from R-1 Residential Zone to R-4 SpecialZone. (District 8) (Recommended for denial by Planning and Staff)VII. Resolutions:HUMAN RESOURCESa) A resolution authorizing the Director of Human Resources to enter intoan agreement with I/O Solutions for the development and administrationof exams for promotional testing for the positions of Police Sergeant,Police Lieutenant, and Police Captain, with encumbrances to the HumanResources and Police Departments, for an amount not to exceed$99,000.00.POLICE DEPARTMENTb) A resolution authorizing the Chief of the Police Department to enter intoan annual renewal license and support for IBM i2 COPLINK from January1, 2016 to December 31, 2016, in the amount of $32,562.08. (Revised)PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSPORTATIONPublic Worksc) A resolution authorizing the approval of Change Order No. 1 (Final) forTalley Construction Company, Inc. relative to Contract No. W-15-004-201,MBWWTP Driveway Entrance Project, for an increased amount of$4,983.68, for a revised contract amount not to exceed $225,994.16, and torelease the remaining contingency of $20,016.32. (District 1)Transportationd) A resolution authorizing the Administrator for the Department ofTransportation to enter into a Partnership Agreement, Project No. T-15-025-809, with Ralph White Electric for Proposed Anchor No. 4671, WalMartExpress at Shallowford and North Moore Road and to accept acontribution of $12,750.84 towards the cost of nine (9) octagonal basepedestrian poles and luminaires. (District 5)e) A resolution authorizing the Administrator for the Department ofTransportation to enter into a Partnership Agreement, Project No. S-15-012, with Choo Choo Partners, LP for the East 14th Street ImprovementsProject, and to accept a contribution from Choo Choo Partners, LP, in theamount of $65,000.00; and to accept a grant from the BenwoodFoundation, in the amount of $190,000.00, for street lighting and otherstreet improvement costs, for a total amount of $255,000.00. (District 8)f) A resolution authorizing Artech Design Group c/o Rick Thompson, agentfor the property owner, Choo Choo Partners c/o Adam Kinsey, to usetemporarily the right-of-way located at East 14th Street adjacent to 1400Market Street to install outdoor patio areas, five (5) grease traps, two (2)egress stairs, one (1) ADA chair lift, and an existing secondary fire escapeto coordinate with forthcoming street enhancements to East 14th Street,as shown on the maps attached hereto and made a part hereof byreference, subject to certain conditions. (District 8)VIII. Departmental Reports:a) Police.b) Fire.c) Economic and Community Development.d) Youth and Family Development.e) Transportation.f) Public Works.g) Finance.h) IT.i) Human Resources.j) General Services.IX. Purchases.X. Other Business.XI. Committee Reports.XII. Agenda Session for Tuesday, February 16, 2016.XIII. Recognition of Persons Wishing to Address the Council on Non-AgendaMatters.XIV. Adjournment.TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016CITY COUNCIL AGENDA6:00 PM1. Call to Order.2. Pledge of Allegiance/Invocation (Vice-Chairman Freeman).3. Minute Approval.4. Special Presentation.5. Ordinances Final Reading:ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENTa. An ordinance amending Chattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 11, by theaddition of a new Article XVII entitled Small Business ConstructionMitigation Grant Program and to amend Ordinance No. 12953, known asthe Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Budget Ordinance, Section 5(A) so as toreappropriate $25,000.00 from the Department of Economic andCommunity Development for use in the Small Business ConstructionMitigation Grant Program to the Industrial Development Board.PLANNINGb. 2015-150 MD Hospitality Group/Dhaval Patel (R-1 Residential Zone to O-1Office Zone). An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II,Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, so as to rezone property located at 6705Shallowford Road, more particularly described herein, from R-1Residential Zone to O-1 Office Zone, subject to certain conditions.(District 6) (Recommended for denial of R-4 Special Zone)(Recommended for approval by Planning and Staff)2015-150 MD Hospitality Group/Dhaval Patel (R-1 Residential Zone to O-1Office Zone). An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II,Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, so as to rezone property located at 6705Shallowford Road, more particularly described herein, from R-1Residential Zone to R-4 Special Zone. (Applicant Version)c. 2016-001 Young Life c/o David Haskins/Russell Wilson and Hsin YinWilson (R-1 Residential Zone to R-4 Special Zone). An ordinance to amendChattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, so as torezone property located at 912 East Martin Luther King Boulevard, moreparticularly described herein, from R-1 Residential Zone to R-4 SpecialZone. (District 8) (Recommended for denial by Planning and Staff)6. Ordinances First Reading: (None)7. Resolutions:GENERAL SERVICESa. A resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute a Second Amendment toLease Agreement with OBC Properties Delaware, LLC for the extension ofthe current agreement to lease space for the Family Justice Center for anadditional nine (9) months at the same rent of $8,575.00 per month, for atotal amount not to exceed $77,175.00. (District 6)PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSPORTATIONPublic Worksb. A resolution authorizing the Administrator for the Department of PublicWorks to award Contract No. W-12-028-201 to Layne Inliner, LLC,Rehabilitation of Dobbs Branch 3 Sub-Basin, in the amount of$2,577,520.00, with a contingency amount of $250,000.00, for an amountnot to exceed $2,827,520.00, subject to SRF loan approval. (District 8)c. A resolution authorizing the Administrator for the Department of PublicWorks to award Contract No. W-09-011-201 to Layne Heavy Civil, Inc.,Orchard Knob Pump Station Improvements, in the amount of$3,319,000.00, with a contingency amount of $330,000.00, for an amountnot to exceed $3,649,000.00, subject to SRF loan approval. (District 8)8. Departmental Reports:a) Police.b) Fire.c) Economic and Community Development.d) Youth and Family Development.e) Transportation.f) Public Works.g) Finance.h) IT.i) Human Resources.j) General Services.9. Purchases.10. Other Business.11. Committee Reports.12. Agenda Session for Tuesday, February 23, 2016.13. Recognition of Persons Wishing to Address the Council on Non-AgendaMatters.14. Adjournment. This article appears in the February 5, 2016 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. Creating the Next Presidency by Robert Ingraham [PDF version of this article] Feb. 1As Lyndon LaRouche has made clear, the nomination of either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders by the Democratic Party for the office of U.S. President would be an unparalleled disaster for both the nation and the Democratic Party itself. In an article which accompanies this piece, overwhelming evidence is presented which fleshes out the particulars for Mr. LaRouches analysis. Whatever her intention might have been during her 2008 campaign for the Presidency, since 2009 Hillary Clinton has sold her soul to Barack Obama. She was personally complicit in many of the crimes of the Obama Administration and remains fiercely subservient to Obama to this day. Bernie Sanders has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a non-serious candidate, a person who is big on talk and short on courage, and whose convictions run a mile wide and an inch deep. He remains an untrustworthy opportunist. At the same time, both Clinton and Sanders are disliked and mistrusted by tens of millions of Americans, and the undeniable reality is that they are both unelectable in the nationwide general election. The nomination of either of them would almost guarantee a Republican Party victory in November, which given the current state of that Partys prospective list of candidates would be a calamity both for the nation and for the entire world. Both Clinton and Sanders must be exposed, discredited, and driven out of the Presidential race as rapidly as possible. As for Martin OMalley, Matthew Ogdens presentation in the Jan. 29, 2016 LaRouche PAC National Webcast demonstrated the irrefutable, critically important differences, and the huge moral gulf, which separates OMalley from both Clinton and Sanders. As Ogden reports, even before the official announcement of his campaign, Martin OMalley defined the intention behind his decision to run in a guest editorial in the Des Moines Register on March 19, 2015. In that article OMalley stated that It is time to put the national interest before the interests of Wall Street, and he called for the immediate re-enactment of Franklin Roosevelts Glass-Steagall legislation. He repeated these themes in the official announcement of his candidacy on May 30, 2015, and as Ogden points out, in the ensuing months OMalley earned the reputation of Wall Streets Public Enemy #1. The issue before the American people is not simply to compare OMalley, Clinton, and Sanders with each other. The more important truth to be grasped is that we are now facing a breakdown crisis, which threatens economic ruin, chaos, war, and the destruction of the population. As most Americans already sense, we are in a grave crisis, and there is no possibility of escaping this crisis under the current state of affairs. The creation of a new Constitutional Presidency, as the Office of the President was understood by Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt, is the uniquely required action necessary to overcome the current crisis and avoid a very bleak future. That potential for a better future exists as a possible future within the OMalley campaign and within Martin OMalley himself. But there are certain things which should be saidand certain lessons from American history which should be notedat this time. The Presidency The office of the U.S. President was created by Alexander Hamilton and his ally Gouverneur Morris at the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention. Against overwhelming opposition, particularly from the slave states of the South, Hamilton and Morris created a President-led government, one with strong executive powers. Eyewitness reports from that time, as well as statements from Hamilton and Morris themselves, reveal that, of all the issues fought over at the Convention, Hamilton judged the issue of a Presidential System to be the most critical, the most indispensable, upon which the viability of the new Republic absolutely rested. At the same time, Hamilton and Morris were also responsible for authoring the Constitutions Preamble and the inclusion of that Preamble in the final document. It is very clear that, in their creation of the Presidency, it was the intent of Hamilton and Morris to establish an office which would become the guardian of the principles defined in the Preamble, which would embody the historic mission of that Preamble within the person of the President. In other words, the Office of the Presidency was intended to personify the intent of the Constitution and to establish a sacred trust between the President and the people, whereby the President was duty-bound to defend the Constitution and the Republic, and to act on behalf of the people and the nation as a whole. That is exactly what was accomplished in the first Washington Administration from 1789 to 1793, including most critically the drafting of Alexander Hamiltons Four Reportscommissioned by President Washingtonwhich established an economic system based on the future-oriented physical economic development of the nation, that is, a national Credit System under the sovereign direction of the Nation, as opposed to control by Wall Street speculators such as Aaron Burr. The American Presidency is an Idea, a Principle, a Mission, oriented toward the future development of the people. The few truly great Presidents in American history have been those who have adopted that mission. Fighting to Win As this article goes to press, it is certain that many power brokers in the leadership of the Democratic Party and the news media are telling OMalley that he cant win. Perhaps some within the OMalley camp itself are crunching the numbers and concluding that neither the money nor the institutional support is there to successfully contest for the nomination. In truth, it is Clinton and Sanders who are unelectable, and any hesitation on the part of OMalley to go all out for the nomination, although perhaps understandable under the circumstances, would be a serious error. Here, again, let us turn to American history. Harpers Weekly/Mathew Brady In 1860 when Abraham Lincoln went into the national Republican Party convention, he was considered by all to be the weakest of the four contenders. No one in the Republican Party leadership expected him to be nominated. Republican Party leaders were lined up behind the two front-runners, William Seward and Salmon Chase. However, Lincoln had already defined a clear national mission for his campaign with his Cooper Union speech (more below), and at the convention his campaign workers labored tirelessly to convince the delegates that neither Seward nor Chase could win in the general election. They made the point that Lincoln was the one candidate who could win. What seemed impossible became a reality, and Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot. In January of 1932 Franklin Roosevelt, although he enjoyed a good deal of popular support, was considered a dark horse for the Democratic nomination. Political experts expected the nomination to go once again to Al Smith, the friend of Wall Street and the 1928 nominee. When the Democratic Party convention convened in June, the entirety of the Democratic Party leadership lined up against Roosevelt. Composed primarily of Wall Street allies, these Democratic Party power-brokers bitterly fought Roosevelts nomination. But earlier that year, with his Forgotten Man Speech (again, more below), Roosevelt had defined a singular mission against the pro-Wall Street Democratic Party leadership. After a fierce convention fight, he was nominated on the fourth ballot. Defining the Mission To return to Alexander Hamiltons intention for the Presidencyto embody a unified mission to defend the people, the Constitution, and the future development of the nationit is useful again to consider Lincoln and Roosevelt. On Feb 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Cooper Union Speech in New York City. It was that speech which placed Lincoln at center stage as a national leader. In his remarks, Lincoln was unflinching in his commitment to stop the spread of slavery, to defend the Union, and to save the Republic. This became the mission of his campaign and, as we know today, this mission defined his 1861-1865 Presidency. This was not about practical politics. Lincolns address inhabited the realm of moral understanding from which he never departed. On April 7, 1932, speaking from Albany, New York, Franklin Roosevelt delivered his famous speech, The Forgotten Man. It was this speech, and the personal commitment of Roosevelt to the Principle defined in the speech, which propelled him to become a leading contender for the nomination. FDR promised to take on Wall Street and to defend the people of the nation. He kept his promise, and he never betrayed the American people. It is worth noting that the principled approach taken by both Lincoln and Roosevelt, far from producing narrow or sectarian campaigns, succeeded in rallying and uniting large numbers of people, across party lines, in enthusiastic support for the candidates efforts to save the nation. Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and old Whigs enlisted in Lincolns cause. In Roosevelts case, droves of leading Republicans abandoned Herbert Hoover to join with FDR in his fight for the Forgotten Man against Wall Street. When, in 1933, Roosevelt announced his cabinet appointees, several of the leading members, including Henry Wallace and Harold Ickes, were registered Republicans who had joined with him in the fight against Wall Street. When Lyndon LaRouche advises Martin OMalley to stick to the subject, to concentrate on the demand to shut down Wall Street and re-enact Glass-Steagall, this is not simply practical political advice. What LaRouche is really urging OMalley to do is what Lincoln did at the Cooper Union in 1860 and what FDR did in Albany in 1932. The people of America are being destroyed. For 15 years, under Bush and Obama, a London/Wall Street financial dictatorship has brought us to the point of ruin. OMalley must commit himself, without hesitation, to rescuing the nation. Wall Street must be shut down. If OMalley sticks to that mission, and if he rallies the American people to that mission, the people will respond. This article appears in the Febuary 5, 2016 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. Genius Is in the Universe and Is Stronger than the Evil We Are Up Against By Kesha Rogers [PDF version of this article] Feb. 2The survival of our nation and that of civilization requires the immediate shutdown of Wall Street and removal of Obama now, to end the death policy of the collapsing and bankrupt trans-Atlantic system. To commit, once again, to the true progress of mankind, we must restore a national commitment to reviving our United States space program. That has been my continued fight, going back six years, when I launched a campaign for the U.S. Congress, calling for the impeachment of Obama for his shutdown of the Constellation program and the dismantling of the manned space program. President Obama has continued to act on behalf of Wall Street and the British Empire, as the chief opposition and as Public Enemy Number One, standing in the way of true scientific progress in this nation. As a result of that misguided and evil intention, our nation has lost its vision. The people of our nation have been left in grave hopelessness and despair. They have been left with no hope for a future, and have been given a culture that promotes drugs and death. An increased number of our citizens are taking their lives through drugs. People have been left with no real mission, no way of being truly productive. This course can and must be abolished and a new direction for the progress of mankind must be restored. That depends on you, the American people, understanding and acting upon the moral advantage which has now been represented through the actions of Russia and China, in particular China, representing a new future for the progress of mankind in space and through a win-win strategy of cooperation for all nations. The vision put forth by China and its space program, to explore the far side of the Moon, to be the first to land there, and to do what no nation has yet done, will not just be a great victory for China but for all mankind. This was the same intention represented by the United States, through the vision and leadership of President John F. Kennedy, when in 1961 he laid before the nation and the world the commitment to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth. That vision was only fulfilled six years after President Kennedy was assassinated, but Kennedys vision was not a one-shot goal. It was the expression of what our nation, and the aspirations of all of mankind, truly represents. It is the idea that all human beings have a common mission to be conquerors in space, to advance mankinds knowledge and understanding of the Universe and the galaxy in which we live. That is the mission that China has dedicated itself to today and one that we in the United States must fully commit ourselves to once again. Civilization is in danger of being totally obliterated through the unleashing of thermonuclear war, which is now the escalated intention and drive of the British Empire and its puppet Obama, against the nations of Russia and China, the only nations that are representing a leading positive factor throughout the planet, of what mankind can and must become. Genius is in the universe and is stronger than the evil we are up against. It was through President Kennedys vision that a national mission was restored. As Kennedy once declared, We go in to Space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share. That commitment to true freedom has been lost. It was lost with the death of President Kennedy and the capitulation to a degenerate culture. The loss of the obligation and dedication to a national science-driver mission, and the abolition of a national mission in space, has been the result of turning our space program over to the hands of the Wall Street monetarists, budget cutters, and the anti-human, anti-science, environmentalist agenda. In 2011 China laid out its mission for achievement in the exploration of both the moon and space. The preface or statement of principle that was put forth at that time states, Outer space is the common wealth of mankind. Exploration, development and utilization of outer space are an unremitting pursuit of mankind. As many know the old saying, Where there is no vision the people will perish, so today, we must no longer leave the people of our nation and the world to perish under the destructive hand of Obama and Wall Street. We have a choiceto join with China in fulfilling the truly creative intentions of mankind. Our space program must be fully restored and funded. We must inspire the people of this nation once again that they have something great to live for, and that they can, once again, take pride in being truly productive contributors to progress throughout this nation and throughout the world. This article appears in the February 5, 2016 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. Who Is Martin OMalley? by Matthew Ogden [PDF version of this article] Jan. 29Matthew Ogden opened up the LaRouche Political Action Committees regular weekly webcast of Friday, Jan. 29, with a report on Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Martin OMalley, as edited and excerpted below. Mr. LaRouche has taken the initiative over the past 48 hours to go on the record and urge Martin OMalley, one of the three official candidates for the Democratic Partys nominee for President, to become emboldened in his Presidential campaign, as a serious contender for the Presidency, by returning to the core theme of reinstating Glass-Steagall, a policy which remains the defining issue of this campaign, and a policy which OMalley asserted as his top priority from the very beginning of his campaign, which earned him the moniker Wall Streets Enemy No. 1 right off the bat. As Fox Business News reporter Charles Gasparino said in June of last year, Martin OMalley is now persona non grata, Public Enemy No. 1, in the halls of Goldman Sachs; in the halls of BlackRock, the big money-management firm; all throughout Wall Street right now. OMalley is the last person Wall Street would want to win. NBC News/Standard YouTube license This week, LaRouche urged OMalley to embrace that identity as Wall Streets Public Enemy No. 1, and to become much more aggressive and bold as a candidate on those terms. Mr. LaRouche stated, It is obvious to me that OMalleys views have a certain degree of convergence with my own views on this subject, on the necessity to shut down Wall Street before we are destroyed as a nation by it. So, for the sake of the American people, you who are viewing this webcast, and even perhaps for the sake of certain people within OMalleys campaign, we thought it important to begin our broadcast tonight by reviewing a bit of what Gov. OMalleys position has been on this question, especially on the critical issue of restoring Glass-Steagall, which was what originally earned him the ire of Wall Street and its fellow travellers. Called for Glass-Steagall Before Announcing Prior to even announcing his campaign for the Presidency, Martin OMalley telegraphed what the main focus of his candidacy would be, by writing a very prominent op-ed in the March 19 issue of the Des Moines Register, the newspaper of record in the state of Iowa. The op-ed was titled, Prevent Another Crash. Reform Wall Street. He began as follows: swiss-image.ch/Remy Steinegger Seven years after the Wall Street meltdown, Americans are still experiencing the fall-out. Although job creation rates and GDPalong with bank bonuses and corporate profitsare on the upswing, these statistics mask the lingering hardship of millions of families that traces itself back to Wall Streets reckless behavior. . . . We were forced to save our economy, by bailing out big banks. Now, we have a responsibility to correct the mistakes of our more recent past to prevent another crash. To do that, we must acknowledge that . . . the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act did not go nearly far enough. The most serious structural reform we can make is reinstating the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that kept commercial banks separate from investment banks. Under Glass-Steagall, our country did not see a major financial crisis for nearly 70 years. If that law hadnt been repealed, in 1999, the crash would have been contained. The largest banks on Wall Street should be broken up into more manageable institutions. Today, five banks control half of the financial industrys $15 trillion in assets. . . . Unfortunately, while many good people who work in finance and in Congress understand our vulnerability to another crash, further reform faces an uphill climb against very powerful special interests. . . . Its time to put the national interest before the interests of Wall Street. The future of our economy . . . depends on it. So that was the op-ed that Martin OMalley wrote in the Des Moines Register before he even announced his campaign. On May 30, 2015, OMalley made his official announcement as a candidate for the Presidency at a site overlooking Fort McHenry in Baltimore. He related the story of how, in the War of 1812, the British had just invaded Washington and had burnt down the White House and the other Federal buildings, and he said that the people of Maryland could see the glow of the fires in Washington, all the way from Baltimore. He said, We knew that they were coming for us. But, instead of digging graves, he said, we dug trenches, and we fought to save the American Republic that hung by a very slender thread. And that fighting spirit, he said, at that time, is whats needed now, especially as we face, today, the impoverishment and the destruction of our nations people, by a handful of very wealthy, nominally, Wall Street banks, which have literally taken our government over, taken our government hostage, and used it to turn our economic system upside down and against the very people whom its supposed to serve. What he said in his prepared remarks, was as follows: Our economic and political system is upside down and backwards; and it is time to turn it around. What happened to our economywhat happened to the American Dreamdid not happen by chance. Nor was it merely the result of global forces somehow beyond our control. Powerful, wealthy special interests here at home have used our government to createin our own countryan economy that is leaving a majority of our people behind. An economy that has so concentrated wealth in the hands of the very few, that it has taken opportunity from the homes of the many. An economy where a majority of our people are unheard, unseen, un-needed, and left to conclude that their lives and their labors are literally worth less today than they were yesterday, . . . and will be worth less still tomorrow. . . . We are allowing our land of opportunity to be turned into a land of inequality. Main Street struggles, while Wall Street soars. . . . Our economy isnt money, our economy is peopleall of our people. We measure success by the growing prosperity and security of our peopleall of our people. . . . We must put our national interest first. . . . But we cannot rebuild the American Dream here at home by catering to the voices of the privileged and the powerful. Lets be honest. They were the ones who turned our economy upside-down in the first place. And they are the only ones who are benefitting from it. . . . [Therefore] we need to restore Glass-Steagall, and if a bank is too big to fail without wrecking our nations economy . . . then it needs to be broken up before it breaks us . . . again. That was his campaign announcement. Obviously a central issue. Too Big to Failor Jail Then, in July 2015, OMalley issued a campaign White Paper, highlighting his policy of reinstating Glass-Steagall, in which he warned, explicitly, of the danger of another devastating meltdown of the Wall Street financial system, were Glass-Steagall not to be reinstated immediately. This ten-page White Paper from OMalleys campaign, is titled, Protecting the American Dream from Another Wall Street Crash. Very briefly, what it included was the following: Governor OMalley knows that the American Dream today remains out of reach for too many families. To attack this problem, it will take a multi-pronged and fearlessly progressive approach to addressing economic inequality. But the results of any steps we take as a nation to raise wages, ensure retirement security, and make the dream of home ownership a reality can be wiped out in an instant in another Wall Street crash. We need to protect Americas economy. And we can only do it by implementing strong accountability and structural reforms that build upon the Dodd-Frank Act and put an end to too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-manage, and too-big-to-jail financial firms. Under the heading, Breaking up the too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-manage, too-big-to-jail Firms Before They Break Us, OMalley says, . . .[A] handful of too-big-to-fail . . . megabanks continue to pose an enormous risk: to our financial system, the economy, and American families. As President, OMalley will work tirelessly to eliminate the unique danger posed by too-big-to-fail banks, by making the following structural reforms: Break up the biggest banks and separate risky investment banking from ordinary commercial banking. And then he says, For 70 years, the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act kept the U.S. economy safe from major financial crises by requiring commercial banks to be separate from investment banks, to prevent them from putting everyday Americans deposits at risk. If Glass-Steagall hadnt been repealed in 1999, the financial crisis would likely have been far less severe. So, as President, Martin OMalley will immediately reinstate Glass-Steagall. The Volcker Rule, sometimes referred to as Glass-Steagall Lite, is excessively complex; providing too many opportunities for banks to exploit loopholes and ambiguities. OMalley will introduce legislation to once again separate traditional banks from riskier financial services, while updating protections to account for new banking activities and prevent the new rules from being watered down. This will be one of his top priorities. In conjunction with this White Paper, OMalley issued an Open Letter on July 9 to the Wall Street megabanks, in which he reiterated his commitment to reinstating Glass-Steagall, and then, went through measures to send bank executives to jail, to identify their criminal complicity, not to let them off the hookmajor prosecution. What he said in this Open Letter, which was circulated very widely at the time and drew a lot of attention, was: As youve heard, Ive expressed grave concern about the state of our national economy, especially as it relates to the behavior of a select group of financial institutions on Wall Streetthe institutions that you work for and represent. I have called for significant structural and accountability reformslike reinstating Glass-Steagall and increasing enforcement at the SEC, DOJ, and other agencies and departmentsto prevent another economic crash and protect hard-working families from losing their jobs, homes, and life savings once again. And then he goes on to describe what has happened since 2008 because Glass-Steagall was not reinstated at that time. He says, The high-risk, reckless, and illegal activities of your megabanks were the primary cause of the 2008 crash, which caused the worst recession since the Great Depression, cost the American economy an estimated $14-22 trillion. Today, yourtoo-big-to-fail, too-big-to-manage, too-big-to-jailmegabanks pose an enormous risk to the financial system, the economy, and American families. They are so big and so interconnected with the entire financial system, that the failure of one or more of them could cause the collapse of the entire U.S. economy. He continues, After several misguided regulatory measures taken in the 1990s, including the repeal of Glass-Steagall, your handful of megabanks went from having assets of approximately 15% of our countrys GDP, to now having assets of nearly 65% of our GDP. As your megabanks grew in size, who gained from it? Credit card fees didnt get smaller. Mortgage rates didnt go down. The median wages of Americans certainly didnt increase. The only tangible gain weve seen from your institutions explosion in size is your ability to concentrate unprecedented power and wealth in the hands of your executives and to acquire the guarantee that all of your risky bets will be covered by taxpayers. . . . So heres the bad newsfor you: As President, I have no plans to let up on you. Ill work tirelessly to eliminate the unique danger posed by the handful of too-big-to-fail banks, including through the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. And, finally, as those of you who have watched the series of Democratic Party debates well know, Martin OMalley has consistently injected Glass-Steagall into the discussion, as a top priority, and called Hillary Clinton out on her lies in that regard, and has discussed this as a top priority for preventing another devastating crash of the financial system, and protecting the lives and the livelihoods of the American people in the event that such a crash occurs. What Mr. LaRouche had to say about this earlier today, is that this is not a matter of if; this is not a matter of when. That crash is happening now. So, as I said, Mr. LaRouche has made very clear public statements in the last 48 hours, including in his discussion with activists across the United States in his weekly Fireside Chat last night, urging Martin OMalley to embrace his identity as Wall Streets Enemy No. 1, by concentrating on this core issuethe reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, the shutting down of these Wall Street banks, and the revival of a very clear Franklin Roosevelt First 100 Days New Deal policy to save the United States. This editorial appears in the February 5, 2016 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. EDITORIAL Crushing of OMalley Marks Drive for War [PDF version of this editorial] Feb. 2On Thursday, Feb. 4, Lyndon LaRouche will be holding an emergency dialogue with activists in the LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) on the implications of the brutal termination of the Presidential campaign of Martin OMalley, and what this signals about the immediate danger of general war. In the days immediately preceding the Iowa caucus, LaRouche had made a pointed intervention to set out the policy preconditions for his support for an OMalley presidency, with the idea that this act on his part would force some of the leading enemies of the American Republic to play their hand, and reveal their intentions. LaRouches conclusion, following the abrupt termination of the OMalley presidential campaign, even before the final Iowa results were announced, was that leading British circles, controlling the Barack Obama Presidency, are desperately escalating their preparations for war against Russia and China. The actions against OMalley were, in effect, a red dye indication of the war preparations already well-underway. The fact that there were escalating British Crown provocations against Russian President Vladimir Putin, coincident with the actions against OMalley, sealed the case. The timing of these events was driven by the fact that the entire trans-Atlantic financial systemthe British Systemwas in an accelerating crash process, as indicated by the meltdown of the entire Italian banking system, at a more rapid rate than the earlier collapses of Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. These British Empire forces, including their Obama Presidency, are committed to the rapid depopulation of the planet, through warfare and other means. The coincidence of the breakdown crisis, the over-reaction to the LaRouche intervention on behalf of a viable OMalley candidacy, and the dramatic escalation in targeted provocations against both Russia and Chinacoming from London and the White Houseis the clearest evidence available that mankind is moving into a moment of grave crisis. The fact that top leaders in both Russia and China are aware, to a great extent, of the significance of these developments, means that there are counter-measures that can be taken, if the full implications of the recent days events are understood. On Thursday night, Feb. 4, at 9 p.m., Lyndon LaRouche will hold his weekly Fireside Chat (details can be obtained from local LPAC organizations) to discuss these extraordinary developments. On Saturday, Feb. 6, LaRouche will hold his weekly Manhattan dialogue, with a live audience, on the same emergency situation and what must be done. These two dialogues are must-attend events for all citizens serious about preventing a near-term plunge into a global war that will rapidly escalate into a thermonuclear confrontation, jeopardizing the very survival of humankind. Be prepared for an intense and frank discussion and for an extraordinary mobilization. PRESS RELEASE With Colombia Deal, Obama Moves from Legalizing Pot to Legalizing Cocaine Feb. 5, 2016 (EIRNS)Barack Obama yesterday gave his seal of approval, accompanied by promises of U.S. money and support, for a "peace plan" with the worlds largest cocaine cartel in Colombia, South America, which was cooked up by the British Empire as a giant step towards global legalization of every mind-destroying narcotic known and yet-to-be-concocted on the face of the earth. The facts are these: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos came to Washington, D.C., this week, to coordinate the final stage of his "peace" plan with the murderous FARC cartel, which he seeks to sign by March 23. In the White House reception which followed their Feb. 4 meeting, Santos thanked Obama for his "full and enthusiastic support" for the plan, reporting that Obama was one of the first persons to whom he had "confided" his intentions. Santos had made public beforehand, in a Jan. 28 interview with Associated Press, that he was coming to ask the Obama administration to suspend U.S. drug warrants against the commanders of the FARC cartel. In other words, the FARC deal hangs on withdrawing the 2006 indictment by U.S. prosecutors of 50 FARC commanders for supplying half of the worlds cocaine! Theres more. In 2014, the FARC leadership, which controls extensive marijuana, coca, and poppy plantations in the Colombian countryside, proposed at the negotiating table, that the government agree that the State identify possible industrial and artesanal uses of these narcotics, and then "regulate the production and market for coca leaf, poppy, and marijuana." Last December, Santos took the first steps towards that, signing a decree legalizing the cultivation, processing, R&D and export of "medical" marijuana. The plan is to turn marijuana exports into as big an "industry" as flowers or food, Colombias Health Minister told Bloomberg news in January. On Feb. 3, PharmaCieloa Canadian company run by former executives of Britains notorious Philip Morris company and speculator James Rogers, co-founder of George Soross Quantum Fundfiled their application to start farming and producing marijuana in Colombia. The operation, like Obama, who is the godfather of the whole deal, is 100% British. Santos is a protege of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, with whom Santos has consulted closely since he won the presidency in 2010. George Soros held a "very long meeting" with Santos in 2012 to coordinate the operation. The London School of Economics (LSE), Santoss alma mater, is advising Santos on his "new" drug policies; on January 28, the heads of its "International Drug Policy Project" presented "a new international strategic framework for drug policies" at a major forum organized by Santoss "Good Government Foundation." The LSE authors say they intend to use their plan for "new models of legal regulation," as being implemented now in Colombia, to shape the outcome of the U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in April 2016, which the British intend to have restore global free trade in the Empires mind-destroying narcotics. PRESS RELEASE French Banks Up to Their Ears in Bad Oil and Gas Loans Feb. 5, 2016 (EIRNS)As usual, France is hiding the big rats in their banking system. This time it is their exposure to the oil and gas markets that have faced a collapse in prices. Bloomberg's columnist Lionel Laurent has a post, lamenting on the "opaque" data the French banks have revealed so far. He writes, "France's banks, which have long used their profitable consumer banking operations to fund expansion in corporate lending, are among the most exposed to the oil and gas industry." He cites Jonathan Tyce of Bloomberg Intelligence, who puts the total exposure of the top French banks, including Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, and Natixis, at more than 100 billion, with these banks being among the top seven European lenders with exposure to energy companies, and in the top five for metals and mining companies, according to analysts at Nomura. The percentages of energy loans from these banks to total lending are as follows: Credit Agricole, 10%; Societe Generale, 6%; BNP Paribas, 5%; and Natixis, 7%. The other problem is that the banks have not set aside any extra capital to cover losses and are not exactly open about their exposure, the quality of their borrowers' collateral, or an any risks posed by the companies they are lending to. Another black hole on this issue of energy loans is in the Netherlands, which is the center of the oil spot market. Laurent reports that ING Bank alone has a 29 billion energy loan portfolio, accounting for about 14% of its total lending to companies. On Feb. 4 ING issued a statement claiming that it expected to make provisions on 3.8 billion of loans if oil prices remained at the current low levels. It said the other parts of the loan book are "somewhat exposed" to oil price risk. Laurent also laments that ING, too, is being "opaque" about the situation. Credit Suisse said yesterday that its net loans to the oil and gas industry totalled $9.1 billion but also signalled that there is nothing to worry about. As for Deutsche Bank, it refuses to disclose its exposure to the energy industry, saying only it was "underweight" relative to the sector. The 21st century is still young, but it may already have its era-defining patent fight. The contestants are the University of California and the Broad Institute, a Harvard- and MIT-affiliated research foundation endowed by Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad. At stake are the rights to a breakthrough gene-editing technology known as CRISPR and more precisely, to billions of dollars in royalties and license fees likely to flow to whichever claimant prevails before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (and in the almost inevitable appeals in court). This is a monumental event for patent attorneys, molecular biologists, the PTO, and the world, patent expert Jacob Sherkow wrote recently on Stanfords Law and Biosciences blog. Advertisement CRISPR an acronym for the pattern in DNA strands that forms the basis of the technique allows the cutting and splicing of DNA sequences with unprecedented precision and speed. Applied to animal and plant cells in the lab, researchers have spliced away mutations that cause blindness, made cells resistant to the HIV virus, cured muscular dystrophy in mice, and created wheat strains resistant to fungal diseases. But that work is just a prelude for potential applications in human biology. These could include cures for complex genetic-related conditions such as Alzheimers, diabetes and cancer, along with the more equivocal prospect of making heritable changes in the human genome, editing human embryos to eliminate genetic deficiencies or promote desirable traits, with unpredictable long-term ramifications for the species. The patent case turns on the question of which researchers at the two institutions conceived of the most important CRISPR applications first. UC says its a team at its Berkeley lab headed by Jennifer Doudna, with the collaboration of Emmanuelle Charpentier, now of Germanys Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research. The Broads claim is based on the work of its researcher Feng Zhang. The patent office will be judging the competing positions by an outdated legal standard, making the CRISPR fight not only one of the most consequential in biomedical history but also the last of its kind. In 2013, the patent office changed its rules to a first-to-file basis from the old first-to-invent, making the U.S. the last major country to do so. The idea was to end disputes that turned on minute interpretations of lab records or personal notes, with costs that arguably disadvantaged small inventors. Because the initial Doudna and Zhang patent filings predated the change, the old rules apply. But its still a complicated chronology. UC filed a broad patent for Doudna, Charpentier and two colleagues in 2013, and the Broad for a dozen patents on behalf of Zheng and several colleagues starting a few months later. But the Broad asked for fast-track examination, so its patents got issued before the examination of UCs more extensive claims was complete. Both research teams have indicated that they see the patent fight as a distraction. I remain focused on the science and the exciting applications of the CRISPR ... technology, Doudna emailed when I asked her about the case. Other scientists see the battle as a distasteful example of the influence of big money and the race for Nobel credit on basic research. Having prizes and patents involved has transformed what should be one of the greatest success stories for basic research into this nasty, catty fight in which people are behaving poorly, says Berkeley biologist Michael Eisen, a colleague of Doudnas and the head of a lab that stands to gain resources if UC wins the patent fight. He added on his blog: Neither Berkeley nor MIT should have patents on CRISPR, since it is a disservice to science and the public for academic scientists to ever claim intellectual property in their work. Indeed, neither the Doudna nor Zhang teams were the first to identify CRISPR or to use it; the history dates back as far as 1987 and involves researchers in Japan, Spain, Chicago, Quebec and other places. The gold rush underlying the patent battle arises from its potential for reducing the time, complexity and cost of research and development on remedies for genetic disease and on genetically modified plants and animals. Doudna and Zhang both have been part of that trend: Doudna co-founded one of the first CRISPR-related firms, Caribou Biosciences, which holds an exclusive license to the UC research and has raised $15 million in venture capital. She also is associated with Cambridge-based Intellia Therapeutics, which has raised $85 million in venture capital and also licenses her work. Cambridge-based Editas Medicine, which lists both Doudna and Zhang among its founders, raised about $94 million Feb. 3, in the first initial public offering of 2016. Thats on top of $120 million it raised last year from investors, including Bill Gates and Google, based on its access to the Broad Institutes patents. The stock gained nearly 14% on its first day of trading, closing at $18.20. Doudna is no longer associated with Editas. But the rush toward commercialization threatens to obscure more fundamental concerns about how scientists exploit CRISPR. Among the strongest voices urging caution is Doudna, who helped organize a meeting last year in Napa that urged a pause before CRISPR moves from the lab into clinical use. Some scientists have gone even further, urging a moratorium on clinical uses of CRISPR that wouldnt be lifted until the risks of unanticipated consequences are well understood if ever. We should be conscious of the power of the technology, and make responsible decisions about its use going forward, Doudna told me by email. This technology has the power to treat or even cure genetic diseases, but there is still much to learn before the technology becomes a viable tool for use in creating heritable genetic changes. She may well be correct. But the real question is whether the future of the technology will be guided by the need to learn more, or the opportunity to earn more. Michael Hiltziks column appears every Sunday. His new book is Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military-Industrial Complex. Read his blog every day at latimes.com/business/hiltzik, reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @hiltzikm on Twitter. American Apparel emerged from bankruptcy Friday, canceling shares of its publicly traded stock and becoming a private company. The Los Angeles clothing retailer and manufacturer is now owned by its former creditors under the name American Apparel LLC. The holdings of former American Apparel Inc. shareholders, including those of founder and former Chief Executive Dov Charney, were made worthless. The company exchanged about $230 million in outstanding debt into new, private shares under a reorganization plan approved by a federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware last week. Advertisement SIGN UP for the free California Inc. business newsletter >> American Apparel filed for bankruptcy protection in October after years of losses and a protracted battle with Charney, who was ousted in 2014 amid allegations of inappropriate behavior and misuse of company funds. He fought to regain control of the company, but failed in his last-ditch effort a $300-million takeover bid aimed at derailing the reorganization plan that was completed Friday. The plan wipes out much, though not all, of American Apparels debt, cutting the companys annual interest payments by an estimated $20 million. It also gives the company $40 million in new capital from investors and access to a $40-million loan. The company will need that money as it tries to refresh its product line and grow sales, which have declined as American Apparels once-hip offerings fell out of favor. With the enormous debt burden removed, we can now turn our full attention to our strategic turnaround, which will benefit our customers, vendors and employees, said Chief Executive Paula Schneider in a statement Friday. This is the start of a new day at American Apparel. The company, which had more than 250 shops at its height, has pared down its store count but has said it plans to open new ones in promising locations. james.koren@latimes.com Staff writer Shan Li contributed to this report. ALSO LinkedIn shares plunge a day after earnings report Stocks close lower, pulled down by disappointing jobs report Marinello Schools of Beauty abruptly shuts down after federal allegations John Foley felt a complicated set of emotions when he viewed the now infamous video of his son, the journalist James Wright Foley, being executed by Islamic State 18 months ago. Despite the world watching, I felt so bad he was alone and none of us were there, John said in an interview with his wife Diane at a restaurant here last week. I only pray that, even though he was physically alone, he died with the memories of all those who loved him. A tear then came to Johns eye. It was horrific, he said, his voice wavering. But seeing Jimmys lips like that in the video, I could see his courage. I could feel his courage. Advertisement See more of Entertainments top stories on Facebook >> To many Americans, James Foley is a piece of shorthand, a symbol, the orange-jumpsuited man in the grotesque footage that drove home the danger of ISIS at the dawn of its threat. To the Foleys, he represented something else: Jimmy, a brave and pure-hearted idealist, the son who made them proud, if more than a little anxious, with every new adventure he embarked upon. Their son--held prisoner for nearly two years before his death, in Syria, at age 40--was pursuing a task that was dangerous but important. They came to embrace his choice even as it led, with a kind of horrible slow-motion velocity, to the unthinkable. The rest of America might start to feel a little more like the Foleys upon watching Jim. Directed by Brian Oakes, a film-graphics veteran and the subjects childhood friend, the documentary is an intimate homage to a deeply likable man and a reminder that, for all its high-level policy wrangling, the war on terror is just as often about the confused and heartbroken family next door. After premiering last week at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won a major audience prize, Jim will debut on HBO Saturday night. The film paints the native of small-town New Hampshire as a rich human being, one innately driven to take risks in the name of truth. I remember as I became more aware of the dangers, asking him, Why are you doing this? You have two masters degrees why? Diane Foley, with her trademark mix of resolute and self-questioning tones, said as she sat near her husband. And he said, Mom, you have to understand my passion. He became more excited just talking about it. And thats when I began to understand. The Marquette- and Medill-educated Foley was a free spirit so caught up did he become in the moment that he often arrived hours late to appointments and rarely packed a toothbrush, the film recalls. Foley took some time in early adulthood figuring out his life purpose. He volunteered with Teach for America; he taught writing to prison inmates in the Chicago area. As the Iraq war progressed, however, Foley felt the need to be closer to, and communicate from, intense global conflicts. He embedded with the Indiana National Guard as a broadcast journalist, then shortly afterward, he traveled as a freelancer with a small group of international reporter friends to chronicle the 2011 revolution in Libya. Foley was captured there and survived more than 40 days as a hostage before being freed in a negotiated release. The journalist returned home to his tightknit family he is the eldest of five siblings and was especially close to his more pragmatic brother Michael, a key voice in the film but found himself bored with a desk-editing job. He soon returned to a combat zone. In late 2012, he was captured while working in war-torn northern Syria. The second half of Jim is devoted to showing what Foleys life was like in a harsh prison setting. More than a dozen European journalists were held captive with him at various points; apart from the British nationals, all were released. Their voices here offer an uncommonly detailed look at life as a Westerner behind ISIS lines. There were the board games the prisoners invented out of basic raw material. The oranges they coveted like candy. And, of course, there were the torture sessions. As one former captive says in the movie, it wasnt the physical pain as much as the psychological uncertainty. (If offered the choice between the relief of a stress-killer pill or a pain-killer pill, he says, he would unquestioningly take the former.) A perennial optimist, Foley was a steady presence throughout. At a time when a brute need for survival brought out the worst in prisoners, he was frequently helpful and supportive, even if it meant pushing down his own pain. The most poignant moment, and the one that drove home Jimmys spirit to me watching the film, was when some people werent certain about whether they would be released, and Jimmy put his arm around them and supported them even though he knew he would never be released, said John Foley, a soft-spoken doctor with a New Hampshire accent. That was the essence of Jim, he added, beginning to choke up once more. Oakes, who knew Jim Foley well from their New Hampshire town, said, He was just that guy you always wanted around. Whenever Jim entered that room, he didnt have to say anything. He just changed the environment. If the movie elides the question of whether there was a more traditional way for Foley to be practicing overseas journalism, it also makes clear the benefits that came from his fearlessness. Foley and his colleagues were among the first to transmit horrific images and stories, now conveyed via the likes of the Homs drone, from the dangerous region where few dared to travel. (One of the goals of the foundation that Diane and John formed after their sons death is to provide a better safety net for the growing number of freelance journalists in conflict areas.) Hovering above the movie are several what-ifs, particularly with regard to the strict hostage-negotiation policy of the U.S. Though John and Diane Foley decline to speak of it these days, there is a palpable sense of frustration in the film about the governments efforts. As Foleys editor notes with a bittersweet trace in his voice, the Europeans were all released. Some viewers might also ask why a civilian was in a hot zone like Syria, especially after cheating death in Libya just a short time before. But this was never a question for Foley, and the film argues it shouldnt be for us either. As a Foley friend, in an analogy befitting cinemas current Spotlight moment, says in the movie, you would never question a fireman who rushes into a burning building to do his job. Why would you do the same for a journalist? For Foleys parents, this is, understandably, a more delicate issue. It was so hard to have Jimmy home from Libya, John said. We didnt want to push him. But I still feel like sometimes maybe we should have laid more guilt, like that might have stopped him from going back overseas. We could have laid more guilt, Diane said quietly. At an HBO-backed screening of the film hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations and attended by top Time Warner executives earlier this week, the Foleys turned out, along with some of their children, to help keep Jim Foleys legacy alive. John and Diane bravely watched the movie once more and then, when it was over, stood in front of the cocktail-party set to explain how they were trying to carry on their sons mission. Some fatigue was evident on their faces. However impossible it is to conceive of what parents like the Foleys went through, imagining how it feels to re-live it in the name of a cause seems that much more difficult. The moment that will emotionally wreck even the most steely soul comes during the movies conclusion, when Jims brother Michael reads a letter--written just before Foley was executed and memorized by a captor about to be released--that serves as a kind of epilogue and farewell. In it, the journalist offers a heartfelt reminder to each of his close family members about what he loves and remembers about them the hug he gave one brother outside a comedy club, the foibles of his grandmother. You realize you dont know your children when they become adults, said Diane, taking a deep breath as she recounted some of the textured details in Jim. They go off and have their jobs and their friends, and a lot of that is a mystery to parents. We came to know Jimmy from the film, said John. steve.zeitchik@latimes.com As Hollywood continues the debate about its diversity issues, in front of and behind the camera, on Friday many looked to the NAACPs Image Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles as a strong example of what the industry needs. With this in mind, celebrities on the events red carpet weighed in on the importance of having an awards show that celebrates diversity along with artistry and achievement. See more of Entertainments top stories on Facebook >> Advertisement Below, check out some of their thoughts on why the NAACP Image awards matter: David Alan Grier, The Carmichael Show The NAACPs importance as a political and cultural institution cannot be understated. [Especially] at this time, at a point when I thought weve advanced, but it feels like two steps forward and three steps back. A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things havent. But tonight, we can celebrate our own and rejoice. 1 / 35 Will Smith and Jada-Pinkett Smith grace the affair. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 35 Gabrielle Union shines on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 35 Bryshere Y. Gray from Empire joins the festivities. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 35 Amber Riley works the camera. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 35 Oshea Jackson and father Ice Cube pause on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 35 Robin Givens gives Golden Brooks a big hug on the carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 35 Michael B. Jordan was among the A-listers at the party. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 35 Yara Shahidi, left, with Kerry Washington, center, pause for photographers. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 35 Teyonah Parris offers a warm smile on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 35 Chrissy Teigen and her husband John Legend join the festivities. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 35 Keke Palmer serves up a killer pose. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 35 Affion Crockett gets picture-perfect ready. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 35 Kerry Washington with Viola Davis pause on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 35 Host Anthony Anderson joins the party. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 35 Tracey Ellis Ross graced the affair. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 35 Cree Summer gets wacky on the carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 35 Jurnee Smollett-Bell offers a smile on the carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 35 Gugu Mbatha-Raw graces the affiar. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 35 Sheryl Lee Ralph works the camera. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 35 MAJOR serves up a dose of fashion on the carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 35 Laverne Cox pauses on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 35 The Rev. Howard-John Wesley arrives with a group in tow. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 35 Skai Jackson works the camera. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 35 Shonda Rimes joins the party. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 35 Trinity Stokes gets playful on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 35 Richard Roundtree and his guest join the festivities. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 35 Nature Naughton works the camera. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 35 Lee Daniels and his guest serve up a dose of dapper on the carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 35 Tichina Arnold pauses on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 35 Morri Chestnut and her guest were among the A-listers at the party. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 35 Gabby Sidibe joins the festivities. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 35 Wendy Raquel Robinson has a moment on the red carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 35 Aun Janue Ellis makes a statement on the carpet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 35 Jimmy Jean-Louis works the camera. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 35 A celebrity graces the affair. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) Adrienne C. Moore, Orange is the New Black Because the NAACP is diversity. A lot of time people think NAACP and automatically think black people. But the correct title is Assn. of Colored People -- thats any diverse human being who understands living in society as a minority. Amber Riley, Glee Its important because everyones art deserves to be recognized. As much as we do it for the love of it, and not for the attention, its nice to be told you did a really good job. Erica Ash, Survivors Remorse For a very long time, blacks were portrayed very homogeneously. When you have an event like this where so many black people come together from so many different walks of life and different kinds of shows, you get to see how much diversity there is in this one race. Its important for people to see that. 1 / 33 Actors Gabrielle Union, left, and Keegan-Michael Key ignite laughs onstage. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 2 / 33 Michael B. Jordan wins awards for outstanding actor in a motion picture award for Creed and Entertainer of the Year. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 3 / 33 Actress Viola Davis presents the award for outstanding actor in a motion picture. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 4 / 33 Actor Don Cheadle, from left, director Spike Lee, actors Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Laurence Fishburne and Terrence Howard are among the A-listers at the ceremony. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 5 / 33 Actress Taraji P. Henson accepts the award for outstanding actress in a drama series for Empire. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 6 / 33 Actors Morris Chestnut, left, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell announce the nominees in the actress in a drama series category. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 7 / 33 Director F. Gary Gray accepts award for outstanding motion picture for Straight Outta Compton with several cast members. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 8 / 33 Actors Darby Stanchfield, left, and Kerry Washington join the festivities. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 9 / 33 Actor Terrence Howard accepts the award for outstanding actor in a drama series for Empire. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 10 / 33 Actors Tika Sumpter, left, and Ken Jeong have fun onstage as Jeong pretends to receive an award himself. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 11 / 33 Recording artist John Legend performs onstage before receiving the Presidents Award. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 12 / 33 Singer-songwriter John Legend accepts the Presidents Award. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 13 / 33 Actresses LeToya Luckett, left, and Wendy Raquel Robinson pair up to announce a winning contender. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 14 / 33 The cast and crew of Black-ish accept the award for outstanding comedy series. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 15 / 33 Actor Sylvester Stallone introudces the film Creed. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 16 / 33 Actors (and spouses) Julius Tennon and Viola Davis strike a pose. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 17 / 33 David Ramsey, left, and Teyonah Parris present the award for outstanding drama series. (Phil McCarten/Invision/AP) 18 / 33 Actress Tracee Ellis Ross celebrates her win for outstanding actress in a comedy series for Black-ish. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 19 / 33 Rapper-actor-producer Ice Cube, left, and his son, actor OShea Jackson Jr., work the camera. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 20 / 33 Actresses Gabrielle Union, from left, Taraji P. Henson, Loretta Devine, Tika Sumpter and Jada Pinkett Smith shine for the camera. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 21 / 33 Director Spike Lee and actress Teyonah Parris from the film Chi-Raq graced the affair. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 22 / 33 Actor Anthony Anderson accepts the award for outstanding actor in a comedy series for Black-ish. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 23 / 33 Actresses Kerry Washington, left, and Gina Rodriguez take the stage. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 24 / 33 Model Chrissy Teigen, left, and her husband, singer-songwriter John Legend, graced the affair. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 25 / 33 Actor Jussie Smollett sings one of John Legends hit songs. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 26 / 33 Actors Will Smith, right, and Jada Pinkett Smith join the festivities. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 27 / 33 Alice Smith gives a rendition of Glory, a song for which John Legend and Common won an Academy Award. (Phil McCarten/Invision/AP) 28 / 33 Actresses Gabrielle Union, from left, Loretta Devine and Tika Sumpter share a laugh. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 29 / 33 Actress Sanaa Lathan accepts the award for outstanding actress in a motion picture for The Perfect Guy. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 30 / 33 Actor OShea Jackson Jr., left, and his father, rapper-actor-producer Ice Cube, present the award for oustanding actress in a motion picture. (Phil McCarten/Invision/AP) 31 / 33 Host Anthony Anderson raps onstage to boot. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 32 / 33 Roslyn Brock, NAACP chairman of the National Board of Directors, honors the nominees. (Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) 33 / 33 Actors Will Smith, left, and Terrence Howard catch up at the awards show. (Charley Gallay / Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards) Lena Waithe, Master of None I disagree with Stacey Dash. I think its important that we celebrate each other. I think its important that we shine a light on our achievements because we helped make this industry what it is. So, I dont think its cool to be ignored. Kimberly Elise, Hit the Floor Its nice to know someone is thinking of those who arent always thought of. Were celebrating and honoring the work that everyone does. Its also an opportunity for us to gather as a community and celebrate each other. Sheryl Lee Ralph, Moesha Never has being shut out of an award show done so much for an award show like the NAACP Image Awards, which was created so that no one was left out. And here you have a frenzy on the black red carpet! Look at God, or should I say Goddess because she must be a woman. ALSO: NAACP Image Awards highlight the power of diversity Theres talk about bringing back the Black Oscars Halle Berry on her barrier-breaking Oscar win: Maybe it wasnt bigger than me Good morning. I'm Paul Thornton, The Times' letters editor, and it is Saturday, Feb. 5. Eight years ago Friday, California's primary actually mattered. Here's a look back at the week in Opinion. You don't read this often in a Times editorial: Thank you, Ted Cruz, for your service to America. Donald Trump, the heretofore clear Republican frontrunner, heads into the New Hampshire primary still the favorite to win that contest, but now with the label he and his supporters detest: loser. His disappointing second-place finish in Iowa last Monday is a victory for Cruz and the country, says The Times editorial board: As much as he excites hard-right conservatives, Sen. Ted Cruz remains a problematic potential presidential nominee for many voters including Republicans who want to win the White House in November. But even some of Cruzs critics have reason to celebrate the Texas senators first-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. By denying Donald Trump a victory by turning him into what he most despises, a loser Cruz may have helped not only his party but also the country dodge a lethal bullet. Iowa may be just the first of many states to stage a pre-convention contest, but a victory for the boorish and bigoted real-estate mogul would have been a seismic and embarrassing event. In some respects, Cruz is just as extreme as Trump, and may even be more vulnerable in Novembers general election. And far from campaigning against partisan paralysis in Washington, Cruz has championed it. But by besting Trump, he has slowed what some in the party feared was a runaway train, creating space not only for himself but also for other, less divisive candidates, notably Sen. Marco Rubio. Click here to read more. Rand Paul's out, and that's a bad thing. Jon Healey, The Times' deputy editorial page editor, laments the Kentucky senator's departure from the GOP campaign, noting that Paul was that rare candidate who highlighted the substantive differences he had with the rest of the Republican field: "While other Republicans called for increasingly extreme military action against Islamic State (with Sen. Ted Cruz winning the prize with his promise to drop enough bombs to make the sand glow), Paul stuck to his position that American intervention in the Middle East had only made matters worse there. And when other Republicans pledged to spend a king's ransom "rebuilding the military," Paul chastised them (and especially Sen. Marco Rubio) for running up the national debt." L.A. Times Iowa shmiowa, say readers. And for all the usual reasons: It's a small, overwhelmingly white state; victory there rarely leads to victory in November; and we're Californians, so why should we care? Letter writer John Trask of Thousand Oaks sums up the broad reader sentiment nicely: "It boggles my mind that the media place so much importance on such a tiny victory in a small state known primarily for growing corn." L.A. Times Jeb Bush: great governor and administrator, terrible presidential candidate. He entered the Republican race with more money and connections than any other candidate, and will probably soon leave with nothing to show for it. Matt Latimer, a speechwriter during the presidential administration of Jeb Bush's older brother, says the former Florida governor simply doesn't understand that the race for president is as much a personality contest as it is about competence: "Does anyone other than Jeb Bush believe that Americans marvel at how efficiently the president cleans out his inbox? Or applaud him for successfully refereeing a dispute between the secretaries of commerce and agriculture? The voters aren't looking for an administrator-in-chief." L.A. Times Gerrik Thomas: a black life that you haven't heard about that ended but still mattered. The 21-year-old was killed on a South L.A. street last month, but there were no protests organized in his memory. That's probably because he wasn't killed by a cop, just like several other killings of young black men that didn't receive much attention L.A. Times It's raining (and snowing) in California, but don't stop conserving water. The editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune helpfully reminds its readers that although the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is deep and its local water agency has so much water that it's dumping off excess supply, "now is not the time to ease up on water conservation efforts, in San Diego or elsewhere." San Diego Union-Tribune Will L.A. finally make some progress on homelessness? The editorial board's series on the area's intractable problem and civic shame continues. Carla Hall shares the story of one man's move off a street corner and into a shared apartment, Robert Greene examines the complicated shifting of homeless individuals from incarceration to freedom and Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich defends his colleagues' efforts to address mental illness, drug addiction and other problems linked to homelessness. Click here to read more of The Times' series, "Is this the year L.A. finally takes homelessness seriously?" Tell me what you think about this newsletter. Email paul.thornton@latimes.com. February 3, 2016, a civil society conference with a focus on Syria was held in London ahead of the Supporting Syria & the Region Conference 2016. The conference brought together Syrian and international non-governmental organizations to discuss Syrian refugees' need for education, work, and safety. Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende addresses civil society conference. [Photo/China.org.cn] The Supporting Syria &the Region conference will bring together world leaders to make pledges of the billions of dollars needed to help the Syrian humanitarian disaster, a situation that has grown out of nearly six years of conflict. Ahead of the conference on Thursday, non-governmental organizations gathered in London to discuss what measures are needed to provide assistance to the Syrian people. The war in Syria has displaced 13.5 million people in Syria and has led to nearly 4.5 million people fleeing to neighbouring countries. During this time, most Syrians within and outside of the country face unemployment, and nearly half of the children are without access to education. There is widespread agreement that international governments need to make efforts to end the war in Syria through political and diplomatic dialogue; but there is an equally pressing need to avoid what many call a "lost generation." The "lost generation" are the millions of children who have no access to education. This could lead to problems in Syria's future with an unskilled work force as a result of the war. Speaking at the conference, Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs Borge Brende said "we have to secure that [Syrian] children will have an education so that, in the long term, they can go back and build their own country." Marcell Shehwaro from Syria Civil Defence, a Syrian aid organization, said that education is a priority. "We want education because it is the right of every child and because humanity would be better when we have a generation that knows more." Ms Shehwaro also went on to say that only 20 percent of the teachers working in Syria Civil Defence schools have teaching backgrounds because many professional teachers have left Syria. Speaking on wider issues of refugee employment in neighbouring countries Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt, UNHCR Regional Refugee Coordinator Amin Awad raised the matter of the increasing poverty of refugees. "Studies and surveys with some agencies like the World Bank show that 90 percent of the Syrian refugees in surrounding countries alone have exhausted their savings," Awad said. "They don't have access to jobs, they are accumulating debt, and livelihood is the only way to bring about dignity. But also, more importantly, [Syrians] use their own skills and training while they are in exile." The Supporting Syria conference on February 4, 2016, will hopefully provide some solutions to Syrians' civil and humanitarian needs if governments can provide the US$9 billion needed to provide the Syrian people and refugees with aid. Dozens of boxes of office documents that former Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge and his staffers sought to destroy were instead made available Friday by his successor. The records included planning files, letters and piles of travel receipts related to Sister Cities, a global cultural exchange program that pairs Los Angeles with other cities that had come under fire during a recent campaigns. Also among the salvaged documents were old lists of election donors, which drew scrutiny from some attorneys. L.A. city officials and employees are prohibited from campaigning, fundraising or doing campaign research during their work hours, or in city offices not available to the public for campaign activities. Advertisement LaBonge, who said he didnt have time to review the documents Friday, said he had absolutely not worked on his campaigns at his City Hall office. The papers had been bound for the shredder: LaBonge staffers sent off 113 boxes to be destroyed when he left office last year, according to city records. The former councilman said no one had told him to save anything and any important documents would be available elsewhere. Dozens of those boxes were recovered by a city attorney before they could be destroyed and later sent to Councilman David Ryu, whose staff deemed them to be public documents and made them available Friday. Ryu had complained that LaBonge left him no files when he took office. The documents included a printed table labeled LaBonge No Money So Far that listed people and dollar amounts for Re-elect07" and Officeholder06. It had a written note attached that read, Jeanne / Lets talk at lunch see me / Tom. Former LaBonge staffer Jeanne Min, who now works for another councilman, said in an email that she did not talk with LaBonge about campaigning in the office or during work hours and did not recall discussing the document. Another printed table was labeled Tom LaBonge Contributors 2001-2013" and listed thousands of people and the Amount Rcvd. And the documents also included a 2003 email from campaign consultant Sue Burnside, titled tom requested a list of the endorsers- here it is, sent to his wife and an aide on their personal email. Stephanie Scher, a retired attorney living in Los Feliz who has raised concerns about records being destroyed, said LaBonge needs to explain why the campaign documents were there, adding they should be at a campaign office. However, Burnside, who worked on several campaigns for LaBonge, said she had never seen the former councilman violate the city rules. The fact that such papers were trashed doesnt mean we can show anything other than he threw the papers away in a city garbage can, said Gary Winuk, former enforcement chief for the Fair Political Practices Commission. The boxes released Friday also included piles of old receipts for trips tied to the Sister Cities program, including hotel bills and airline tickets for LaBonge and some former staffers. Reporters had sought information about Sister Cities amid a campaign controversy: During the race last year between Ryu and LaBonges former chief of staff, Carolyn Ramsay, LaBonge frequently faced criticism for his spending, including money allocated to the Sister Cities nonprofit by his office. As a councilman, LaBonge had served as chairman of Sister Cities and traveled around the globe with the group. His aide Kamilla Blanche served as its executive director. Seventy-eight other boxes that LaBonge staff sent out for destruction were probably destroyed, said Todd Gaydowski, who oversees city records management. The missing files have raised questions about whether Los Angeles, which lacks city rules on what departing council members do with their files, is in line with state laws that limit when public records can be destroyed. California law generally allows city governments to destroy some records if lawmakers and the city attorney approve, but not unduplicated records less than 2 years old. emily.alpert@latimes.com Follow @LATimesEmily for breaking news for L.A. City Hall ALSO Open-air urinals in S.F. park disgusting, critics say Doctor convicted of murder for patients overdoses gets 30 years to life in prison Taiwan earthquake topples buildings, leaving at least 7 dead and hundreds injured Hours after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake destroyed buildings and took lives in Taiwan, four state lawmakers said they want California to help fund an earthquake early warning system that has been stalled by a lack of money. Theres no valid reason not to make this relatively small investment in an early warning system that has the potential to save the lives of Californians, state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) said in a statement. I urge my colleagues and the governor to join us in fulfilling our primary responsibility of protecting the public. Added state Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), a former speaker of the state Assembly, in the statement: Its crucial that we fund a statewide earthquake early warning system and get it in place right away. Advertisement The voices of support that emerged for the warning system Friday mark a change in tone at the state Capitol, where outspoken backers of the system have been few in recent years. On Tuesday, H.D. Palmer, deputy director for the Department of Finance, said that Californias policy is to not use money from the general fund for the early warning system. But it was becoming increasingly unclear when the public could expect to see the earthquake early warning system on their cellphones, computers and televisions, with no solution in sight for full funding. 1 / 11 A firefighter rests near a collapsed building in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan. (Anthony Wallace / AFP/Getty Images) 2 / 11 A rescue worker brings a victim down from the collapsed Wei Kuan complex in Tainan, southern Taiwan. (Sam Yeh / AFP/Getty Images) 3 / 11 People rest near the site of a building collapse in the southern city of Tainan, Taiwan, early Feb. 7 after a 6.4 earthquake. (Anthony Wallace / AFP/Getty Images) 4 / 11 A rescue worker crawls out of a collapsed building in Tainan. (Anthony Wallace / AFP/Getty Images) 5 / 11 A woman prays outside a room set up for families and friends of the missing at the site of a collapsed building in Tainan. (Anthony Wallace / AFP/Getty Images) 6 / 11 A woman is rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building after the Taiwan earthquake. (Wally Santana / Associated Press) 7 / 11 Rescue personnel search for survivors at the site of a collapsed building in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan. (Johnson Liu / AFP/Getty Images) 8 / 11 Rescue personnel search through debris at the site of a collapsed building in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan following a 6.4 magnitude quake early Feb. 6. (AFP/Getty Images) 9 / 11 Rescue personnel search through debris at the site of a collapsed building in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan following a 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the island early Feb. 6. (AFP/Getty Images) 10 / 11 Rescue personnel carry a survivor at the site of a collapsed building in Tainan, one of the islands oldest cities. (Johnson Liu / AFP/Getty Images) 11 / 11 In Tainan, rescue workers transport a person injured in the earthquake that struck at 3:57 a.m. local time Saturday. (Johnson Liu / AFP/Getty Images) The total cost of building the system across the West Coast has been esimated at $38 million, plus $16 million a year to operate it. For California alone, the cost is $23 million to construct the network, and $12 million annually thereafter. Congress and President Obama have already kicked in about half of the $16-million annual cost to operate the program, but federal elected officials have said California, Oregon and Washington should also help pay for the network. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) hailed the interest of state lawmakers in the system Friday. Im thrilled .... Im really encouraged by whats happening, Schiff said in a telephone interview Friday. It was all the more apparent this week that we need the full buy-in by the state of California, and now we have some very influential lawmakers who are making earthquake preparedness and the early warning system one of their real priorities. I think were really gaining traction now, and its great news for California. Schiff said he would work with state legislators to build support for the proposals, which he said were critical to completing a full earthquake early warning system. While the federal investment has been critical to our getting to this point, the federal government cannot, and will not, fund this system on its own, he said. The U.S. Geological Surveys earthquake early warning system was highlighted Tuesday at a summit held by the White Houses Office of Science and Technology Policy. The summit gave high-profile backing to the early warning system, and speakers urged policymakers to find a way for the system to be completed. The prototype early warning system has already shown promising results in its test phase 30 seconds of warning reached downtown Los Angeles before the ground shook from a magnitude-4.4 earthquake centered in Banning some 80 miles away last month. In 2014, researchers in San Francisco reported the system gave eight seconds of notice before the shaking arrived from a magnitude-6.0 earthquake that began in Napa. But the system doesnt have enough seismic sensor stations to adequately cover the state and West Coast. A thousand more need to be built or upgraded, adding to the existing network of 650 facilities, which have been largely focused on the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. The blind spots are important to fill. A lack of sensors in the northern reaches of California means that San Francisco could receive delayed warnings if an earthquake occurred near Cape Mendocino and its shockwaves barreled south to the Bay Area. Other countries have developed earthquake early warning systems after devastating quakes killed thousands of people. Mexico City has had a system since 1991, built after a 1985 earthquake killed at least 9,500 people. Japan built a nationwide early warning system after the 1995 Kobe earthquake killed more than 5,000 people. When the magnitude 9 earthquake hit east of Japan in 2011, many people in Tokyo, 200 miles from the epicenter, had 30 seconds of warning that the shaking was coming. The warnings would cause elevators to automatically open at the next floor, give surgeon time to halt surgery, and slow down trains to decrease the risk of derailments. In Japan, one factory has figured out a way to secure noxious chemicals between the time a quake warning is issued and when the actual shaking arrives. The early warning system works on a simple principle: The shaking from an earthquake travels at about the speed of sound through rock slower than the speed of todays telecommunications systems. That means it would take more than a minute for, say, a 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea to shake up Los Angeles, 150 miles away. The two senators, Hill and Hertzberg, and Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) said they wanted to repeal a current state law that prohibits the spending of state general fund dollars on an earthquake early warning system. Theyre also proposing $23 million to install earthquake sensor stations and upgrade telecommunications networks to get the system up and running in the state. The proposal, however, does not address ongoing operational costs. We will have conversations with project stakeholders about how to maintain the systems operability and long-term financing, Hill and Gray said in a statement. They added that the state legislative analyst recently predicted that California will end the next budget year with a reserve of $11.5 billion. We should use a small fraction of that money to make a smart, one-time investment in a system that can improve public safety and save lives, the lawmakers said. We share Gov. [Jerry] Browns commitment to fiscal restraint. However, to not invest a small fraction of the overall state budget to implement the earthquake early warning system would be fiscally irresponsible. Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Sherman Oaks) said he wanted to secure funding to both build the early warning system and operate it through the budget process. During budget negotiations, Nazarian also plans to re-introduce the idea that the state should give building owners a tax credit for earthquake retrofits; for instance, for every $100 spent on a qualified retrofit, a building owner would receive a $30 break on income or corporate taxes over a period of five years after the retrofit is completed. Nazarian introduced the idea as a bill in the last legislative session; it passed the Legislature and was vetoed by Brown. Every second matters in an earthquake, Nazarian said in a statement. Lets get this done. rosanna.xia@latimes.com | ron.lin@latimes.com Follow us for the latest news in earthquake safety, El Nino, and the drought: @RosannaXia and @ronlin ALSO Open-air urinals in S.F. park disgusting, critics say Doctor convicted of murder for patients overdoses gets 30 years to life in prison Taiwan earthquake topples buildings, leaving at least 13 dead and hundreds injured Federal prosecutors will retry two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies after jurors deadlocked earlier this week on whether the pair used excessive force against a handcuffed jail inmate. The eight-day trial of Joey Aguiar and Mariano Ramirez concluded Tuesday with a mixed verdict. Jurors acquitted the men of conspiring to violate the inmates civil rights and convicted them of writing false reports about the February 2009 incident. Jurors, however, failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether the force they used was justified. Ten of the 12 jurors were in favor of convicting the deputies on the charge. Prosecutors filed a letter late Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Beverly Reid OConnell alerting her to their plans to try Aguiar and Ramirez again on the undecided charge. They declined to comment Friday on the decision. Advertisement Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >> The retrial is tentatively scheduled to start Feb. 16, but a date is expected to be finalized at a court hearing on Monday. During the trial, defense lawyers argued the deputies had used necessary force to subdue the inmate, Bret Phillips, after he attempted to attack Aguiar. The deputies acknowledged in internal department reports they wrote at the time that they both repeatedly punched Phillips, and Ramirez struck him with a flashlight and pepper-sprayed him in the face. They said Phillips, now 44, had attempted to head-butt Aguiar and continued to struggle after being pinned on the ground. Prosecutors countered, saying Phillips did nothing to justify the assault. They portrayed the deputies as angry and bent on punishing Phillips for acting out and said Phillips posed no serious threat since his hands were shackled to a chain around his waist. In a brief interview after the verdicts, the jury forewoman said jurors quickly decided that the government failed to prove the deputies had conspired together to violate Phillips civil rights. They were also in strong agreement, she said, that the reports the two deputies wrote, which mirrored each other verbatim in places, could not have been truthful. The deputies each face as many as 20 years in prison on the false records convictions. Discrepancies between medical records that showed Phillips suffered minor injuries and dramatic accounts of a brutal beating from the prosecutions witnesses were stumbling blocks for the two jurors opposed to convicting the deputies of violating the inmates rights by using excessive force, said the forewoman, Janet Giampaoli. The trial centered on a morning nearly seven years ago when Phillips was being held in a special unit of Mens Central Jail used to separate violent and other high-risk inmates from the facilitys general population. Phillips, who testified that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was in custody after being arrested on a charge of domestic violence. He was housed in the high-security unit because he had been an informant while serving a previous prison sentence and was at risk of retaliation. Two prosecution witnesses -- a Catholic minister and a former gang member serving time for manslaughter -- testified that they watched the deputies ruthlessly punch and kick Phillips as he lay motionless on the floor. Phillips testified he was attacked after angering the deputies by throwing milk cartons from his cell in frustration. But Aguiars attorney, Evan Jenness, and Ramirezs attorney, Vicki Podberesky, sought to expose inconsistencies between the various accounts of the incident and to cast doubt on the witnesses credibility. The chaplain, for example, made repeated claims of seeing blood on the floor beneath Phillips head. In one statement to authorities shortly after the incident, he described a pool of blood about 2 feet wide. A deputy working alongside the men that day testified he saw Phillips try to head-butt Aguiar. The units supervisor took the stand to say he arrived on the scene to find Phillips on the floor trying to break free from the deputies. Twitter: @joelrubin ALSO Parole board gives ex-Mexican Mafia killer another chance at freedom Washington murder suspect who fled on skateboard is in L.A., officials say Doctor convicted of murder for patients drug overdoses gets 30 years to life in prison Dozens of boxes of office documents that former City Councilman Tom LaBonge and his staffers sought to destroy included old lists of election donors. LaBonge, in an interview Friday, said he had absolutely not worked on his campaign at his City Hall office. L.A. city officials and employees are prohibited from campaigning, fundraising or doing campaign research during their work hours, or in city offices not available to the public for campaign activities. Advertisement LaBonge said he did not have time Friday to review an electronic copy of the documents from his office because of a family matter. The salvaged documents also included budget plans and piles of travel receipts related to Sister Cities, a cultural exchange program that pairs Los Angeles with other cities around the world that had come under fire during a recent campaign, along with old planning files, letters from residents and reports. Those reams of papers had been bound for the shredder: LaBonge staffers sent 113 boxes off to be destroyed when he left office last year, according to city records. The former councilman said no one had told him to save anything and any important documents would be available elsewhere. Dozens of those boxes were recovered by a city attorney before they could be destroyed and later sent to Councilman David Ryu, whose staff made them available to reporters Friday. Ryu and his staff had complained that when he took office, no files from his predecessor had been left behind. The documents provided Friday included a printed table labeled LaBonge No Money So Far that listed people and dollar amounts for Re-elect07 and Officeholder06. It had a written note attached saying, Jeanne / Lets talk at lunch see me / Tom. Former LaBonge staffer Jeanne Min, who now works for another councilman, said in an email that she did not talk with LaBonge about campaigning in the office or during work hours and did not recall discussing the document. Min said she didnt know why it would have been in the office. Another printed table was labeled Tom LaBonge Contributors 2001-2013 and listed thousands of people with their city of residence, occupations and employers, along with Amount Rcvd. And the documents also included an email, sent in 2003 from campaign consultant Sue Burnside, titled tom requested a list of the endorsers- here it is, that was sent to his wife and an aide at their personal email addresses. Burnside, a consultant who worked on several campaigns for LaBonge, said she had never seen the former councilman violate those rules. And some experts said the presence of such records did not, by themselves, prove wrongdoing. The fact that such papers were trashed doesnt mean we can show anything other than he threw the papers away in a city garbage can, said Gary Winuk, former Fair Political Practices Commission enforcement chief. Other records tied into a campaign controversy: During the race last year between Ryu and LaBonges former chief of staff, Carolyn Ramsay, LaBonge frequently faced criticism for his spending, including money allocated to the Sister Cities nonprofit by his office. As a councilman, LaBonge had served as chairman of Sister Cities, and he and his staffers had traveled around the globe with the group. His office and the city department of cultural affairs repeatedly granted it funds for cultural programs. One of his aides, Kamilla Blanche, also served as its executive director. Reporters were unable to get precise details about such spending during the campaign: The Times, initially believing Sister Cities to be a city program, filed a public records request for budgets and spending details going back three years. But LaBonge staffers said they did not have those records. They referred The Times to the nonprofit, Sister Cities of Los Angeles Inc., which said it did not have to disclose such information because it wasnt a public agency. Its tax returns also yielded little information. The nonprofit did voluntarily provide a summary of public funding it had gotten and its purpose. And when a Los Feliz Ledger reporter started asking questions about Sister Cities budgets and accomplishments, a city analyst told Blanche not to respond until after the election, emails later obtained by The Times show. In an email, assistant chief legislative analyst Avak Keotahian advised Blanche to say you will be happy to assist AFTER the elections, later adding, again, in the interest of fairness no information should be provided until after the elections. When the Ledger reporter continued pressing Blanche for information about the program, Keotahian again advised the staffer just dont respond its clear what shes after. Keotahian later told The Times he advised the LaBonge staffer to not answer the questions yet because the request appeared to be related to the campaign. Because city employees cannot get involved in elections on the job, providing information after the elections would have eliminated any allegation that the information was provided for campaign purposes, Keotahian wrote in an email. Ethics experts consulted by The Times were skeptical, however, that handing over such information would have violated city rules against campaigning on the job. The boxes released Friday included piles of old receipts for trips tied to the Sister Cities program, including hotel bills and airline tickets for LaBonge and some former staffers. The Times was unable to immediately discern from the receipts Friday how the travel was funded. For instance, the documents included a city form for personal expenses that listed more than $1,600 in spending, including a hotel stay, restaurant bills and ATM withdrawals, for a trip LaBonge made to Paris. Another such form indicated that LaBonge had spent more than $2,900 in Vancouver on a 2010 trip. But both forms were unsigned, leaving it unclear if they were submitted to the city. The city clerks office said it found no travel reimbursements to either Paris or Vancouver for LaBonge. The released documents also included a budget breakdown for a celebration of the Sister Cities relationship between Los Angeles and the French city of Bordeaux, funded partly with city grants, that listed more than $15,000 in travel and lodging expenses for LaBonge and his staffers. However, Blanche said that appeared to be a working document that did not account for donated lodging. She said the city grants went toward cultural programming, not travel expenses. Seventy eight other boxes that LaBonge staff sent out for destruction have not been located and were probably destroyed, said Todd Gaydowski, who oversees city records management. The missing files have raised questions about whether L.A., which lacks city rules on what departing council members do with their files, is in line with state laws that limit when public records can be destroyed. California law generally allows city governments to destroy some records if lawmakers and the city attorney approve, but not if the documents are unduplicated and less than two years old. City Clerk Holly Wolcott initially told The Times that the council offices did not fall under municipal rules requiring city departments to set schedules for how long to retain records. Wolcott later said that after additional research, she believed that the council offices did fall under those rules and would work with them to make sure they had such schedules and understood state law. Peter Scheer, executive director of the nonprofit First Amendment Coalition, said L.A. needs such rules for both current and exiting lawmakers -- to ensure public documents arent improperly destroyed. You cant have any kind of freedom of information if its OK to destroy any public record any time, Scheer said. emily.alpert@latimes.com Follow @LATimesEmily for breaking news for L.A. City Hall When a magnitude-6.4 earthquake rocked southern Taiwan on Saturday, images of building collapses quickly surfaced on social media and in local media reports. The damage, structural engineers said, was a sober reminder that these collapses would also probably occur in California should a massive temblor strike. What youre seeing in Taiwan in this recent earthquake is a microcosm of what could happen in a large earthquake occurring in a city like Los Angeles, where there are thousands more older susceptible buildings, said Saif M. Hussain, who heads Seismic Structures International, a California-based structural engineering firm that specializes in earthquake resilience and safety. Hussain, examining an online image of a 8- or 9-story building that had pancaked onto the first floor, said the collapse appeared to be a textbook case of an older concrete building that had a weak ground floor and was too brittle or non-ductile. Sadly, he said, this is one of the most common seismic flaws in older, taller buildings around the world. Advertisement Taiwan generally has been following the same international building standards as California, Hussain said. In Los Angeles, non-ductile concrete buildings have collapsed in the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes. Today, in Los Angeles alone, more than 1,000 concrete structures built before 1980 including landmark buildings in downtown, Hollywood and Westwood require close scrutiny for seismic strengthening, according to a 2013 Times investigation. A recent city law, spearheaded by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, ordered property owners to retrofit older concrete buildings as well as wood-frame apartment complexes with weak first floors. The action will save lives, Garcetti said, when he signed the ordinance into law in October. See the most-read stories this hour >> The law capped decades of efforts to strengthen these buildings. Past efforts to require retrofitting or simply identify the most vulnerable buildings died at City Hall over the question of cost. Landlords have long been concerned with the financial burden of retrofitting, which could cost as much as $130,000 for a wooden apartment and millions for a larger concrete building. But some have questioned whether the laws deadlines should be accelerated, given the unpredictable nature of massive earthquakes. Under current law, property owners have seven years, upon notification, to fix wood apartments and 25 years to fix concrete buildings. To begin the notification process, building officials have been working on finalizing a list of roughly 13,500 soft-story wooden buildings that might need closer structural evaluation. It will take longer for city officials to identify which concrete buildings will be included in the new retrofit regulations, officials said. Hussain said he hopes the Taiwan earthquake might spur owners and officials to consider accelerating the retrofit deadlines. And other major cities in California have yet to pass retrofit laws on concrete buildings, which engineers say pose the greatest risk to loss of life in a major quake. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> The Taiwan earthquake, which hit at 3:57 a.m. Saturday local time, or 11:57 a.m. Pacific time Friday, was particularly severe because it was very shallow about 6 miles underground and the epicenter was on the island, instead of offshore, said U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Paul Caruso. People felt the earthquake as far away as mainland China. Taiwan sits in a collision zone between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates, and, like California, is in a highly seismic area. Earthquake scientists and structural engineers in California will be sending reconnaissance teams in the coming days and weeks. The type of ground shaking in Taiwan is going to be very similar to what we have experienced, and what we will experience in the future, Hussain said. The source of the earthquake, the type of faulting, the depth of the earthquake this is very similar to what we can expect in coastal California. Follow @RosannaXia and @ronlin for more news about seismic safety. ALSO Quake early warning system could save lives. But its stalled over money dispute Editorial: California is being a cheapskate with its earthquake early warning system California earthquake series in 2005 linked to oilfield wastewater injections, study finds Weve all had those cold-sweat airport moments: Running late, you cant find the departure gate. Youve missed your flight, and dont know where to turn. To the newcomer, Los Angeles International Airport can be daunting so sprawling, so crowded, everyone zigging and zagging. Last year, nearly 75 million visitors moved through its nine terminals, contending with endless traffic, jammed parking lots, constant construction and snaking lines. Not just for security, but also for burgers, bathrooms and caffeine. Friendly help can be found at the nations second-busiest airport, even though many may be too stressed to notice it: Volunteers sporting red blazers and vests staff information booths on the arrival level at each terminal. They are trained to know their surroundings, inside and out. Advertisement ------------ FOR THE RECORD Feb. 6, 10:17 a.m.: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that LAX is the nations fifth busiest airport. It is the second busiest in the nation and the fifth busiest in the world. ------------ Theyve memorized the location of the gates. They know how to use the citys complex public transit system. They can field questions: Wheres the bathroom? How do you get to Disneyland? They know where to send you when youre panicked about lost luggage or a missed connection or tracking down a relative whose flight has landed but who is nowhere to be seen. Potential volunteer information professionals visit LAX to learn about the program that helps travelers navigate the airport. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times) The 300 or so volunteers work three-hour shifts, serving a weary traveling public from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. An additional 200 volunteers would come in handy, said Heidi Huebner, who runs VIP which stands for Volunteer Information Professionals. To woo recruits one recent night, VIP advertised a meet-and-greet. Anyone interested in finding out more was advised to come wearing comfortable shoes. Sixteen people showed up at an office on the ground floor of the airports spider-legged Theme Building, where they were offered cookies and muffins before embarking on a brief tour. Most were retirees. Some were lifelong airplane junkies. One said hed traveled nearly every week for years and so was well-versed in the travelers experience. Harmony Harper, 26, recently came out west from Conneautville, Pa., and stumbled upon a mention of the program when applying for an LAX public relations internship. Shes not working right now and has some free time although she hopes to get a job at the airport or perhaps with the Federal Aviation Administration. The VIP social was in part an informal screening, because this volunteer job isnt suited for everyone. You have to have a thick skin and not take it personally when harried travelers are brusque. You cant be shy. You cant not like people, Huebner said. She and veteran volunteers shared some little-known but key facts with the potential recruits: Airport people dont say LAX, they say LAWA for Los Angeles World Airports. If you hear someone say tibbet, what they mean is Tom Bradley Terminal. You can check in 10 hours before a domestic flight and four hours early if youre flying overseas. Robin Cunningham of Westchester smiled brightly and nodded as she listened in the front row. Retired from a tech job in client support, she said shed heard about VIP from her hairdresser. I love people and I love to solve problems, she said. The 59-year-old is also a crossword and Sudoku buff. If doing such puzzles is supposed to be good for the brain, the LAX volunteer job no doubt is too. It requires mastery of a complex ecosystem and the volunteers never stop learning because the place is constantly evolving. Longtime flight routes are altered. New ones appear, along with expanded ground-transportation options such as Uber and Lyft. VIP sends its volunteers a weekly newsletter so they can keep up. Carl Blenkin, a volunteer for nine years now, can identify flights by their numbers and knows many schedules by heart. He can decipher any boarding pass or upside-down luggage tag at a glance. But its traveling the globe without leaving home that is the biggest draw for him, he said. When you work in the booth, you meet the world. The other day, he talked about the Middle East with a young Egyptian who spoke forcefully against the radicalization of religion. A stressed-out couple from Paris were rude to him at first, but they warmed up and we had a wonderful conversation about their city and what it was like living there. Blenkin, 64, whose career was in social services, said hes had many a man and woman arrive at the information booth, crying. First, he tells them that any problem is resolvable. Then he does whatever he can. Hes helped people whove landed in Los Angeles with no money in their pockets, people who have lived in the terminals for days. Hes soothed a woman with last-minute jitters about seeing a man shed met online, and stood by as chaperone when they came face-to-face to make sure everything was OK. Hes befriended many other people who work in his terminals, so he knows how to find someone in a flash who speaks Vietnamese or Korean or Farsi although volunteers do have access to a telephone translation service. He said he enjoys the challenges, and not knowing what will come next. And yes, he said, call him crazy, he loves being at the airport. Its all the energy, the movement, the excitement of going somewhere. nita.lelyveld@latimes.com Twitter: @LATimescitybeat Hillary Clinton is way behind in New Hampshire, and she is running there like a candidate prepared to cede the first-in-the-nation primary. As polls show Sen. Bernie Sanders continuing to hold a sizable lead here, Clinton strategists are positioning their campaign to weather a loss here, shifting their focus to holding Latino voters in Nevada, which votes Feb. 20, and then win in South Carolina, with its large black population, the following week. One of Clintons most valuable campaign assets with voters in New Hampshire her husband is thousands of miles away in Nevada instead of working the coffee shops and union halls where the primary takes place Tuesday. Daughter Chelsea, another key surrogate, is also elsewhere. And even Clintons hearty corps of volunteer door-knockers, who were out in force braving the wintry mix that hung over the region Friday, seemed less than sanguine about her New Hampshire prospects. Advertisement There is one thing about Hillary: She is realistic. So am I, said Irene Natividad, 67, a longtime Clinton loyalist who drove up from Washington, D.C., to volunteer. Natividad said she knew better than to predict victory in New Hampshire. What we can do here is narrow the gap, she said. Going from here, we are going to win. We are going to win anyway. Here, the goal is just to get as many people as possible to change their minds. While Clinton continued to express hope that a victory is possible in this state, where voters are prone to wild shifts in opinion up until election day, she isnt working the state the way she did in 2008 when she pulled off an upset victory. By Friday, former President Bill Clinton had already been dispatched to Las Vegas to headline events aimed at organizing voters to turn out for the Nevada caucuses, which are taking on increased importance as a must-win firewall for his wife. The campaign released its first Spanish-language ads Friday, which it will start airing in Nevada. As the focus shifts, senior strategists for the campaign were talking about New Hampshire in language Clinton operatives never would have used in 2008, when the candidate was in a do-or-die position. You know, theres a lot of states, said campaign manager Robby Mook. This is a delegate race. Were not looking to win every single contest, every single time. We have a strategy and a plan for the long term. The big event the Clinton campaign held on Friday, a rally of volunteers at which several prominent female senators showed up along with New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, appeared designed as much to motivate voters elsewhere as those here. Clinton seemed to suggest she might have had the option of skipping New Hampshire, although that was never in the cards in a state that not only resurrected her campaign in 2008, but her husbands, in 1992. People kind of opine: OK, you won Iowa, but you know youre running against a neighbor. In New Hampshire, neighbors seem to win, she said, deflating expectations for Tuesday. And I say, look thats neighborly; I have no problem with that, but Im going to make my case with the people of New Hampshire. But shell also be flying out of the state two days before the election, a rare move for such a prominent candidate behind in the polls here. Clinton will be visiting Flint, Mich., to meet with the mayor about the drinking-water crisis that continues to grip that largely African American city. The visit will likely impress Democratic voters in New Hampshire, but the message of racial justice Clinton is sending through the trip is sure to resonate even more in South Carolina, where African Americans dominate the Democratic primary vote and Clinton remains popular. The trip to Flint came together quickly. Campaign staff had been visiting the city earlier in the week, and the mayor extended an invitation for Clinton to visit this weekend. Weve got the schedule built so she can be here every day, Clintons communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, said after the candidate debate Thursday night in Durham, N.H. But the mayor asked her to come, and she wants to go and learn more, Palmieri said. Some veteran New Hampshire campaigners are not ready to count Clinton out. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H), who has been involved in campaigns in the state since Jimmy Carters presidential run, pointed to a University of New Hampshire pollsters analysis that voters may be deciding even later than normal this year. I think this race is going to close, she said. Now how much, only the voters can decide. But Hillary is working very hard, and shes going to keep working very hard. As the Clinton team moderated expectations, Sanders worked eagerly to seal the deal with voters in his neighboring state. As heavy snow fell, Sanders first spoke to a crowd turned away from his event in Exeter by the fire marshal. The Town Hall, where the event was being held, was already filled to capacity. He declared that the supporters commitment to turn out even in poor conditions was what momentum looks like. I hope very, very much that on Tuesday there will be a large voter turnout, he said to those inside the historic building. And I hope that in the first primary of this campaign season that the people of New Hampshire stand up loudly and proudly and say that, yes, we are going to take on powerful special interests; yes, we are going to move this country in a very new direction. evan.halper@latimes.com mike.memoli@latimes.com Times staff writer Cathleen Decker contributed to this report from Manchester, N.H. President Obama is proposing a $10-a-barrel oil tax meant to discourage oil consumption, just one example in his final budget proposal that describes a vision of government he likely will never be able to enact. Even before the proposals are rolled out Tuesday, Republicans who control Congress have pronounced the oil tax dead on arrival, a prognosis that applies not only to the rest of his 2017 budget plan, but to his legislative aspirations in general. The presidents annual budgets usually arrive with a thud on Capitol Hill dismissed by Republicans as far afield from their own fiscal priorities, and panned even by some Democrats as unworkable. Advertisement But this year, Obamas expected $4-trillion blueprint may not even arrive at all in Congress: GOP leaders have refused to invite administration officials for testimony, an annual rite of budget season that until now had survived the contentious relations between the Obama White House and Capitol Hill. In lieu of those hearings, White House officials are slowly rolling out the details of the budget proposal a piece at a time, in interviews and conference calls, despite the working assumption in Washington that the measures wont take effect. Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future, Obama said during his weekly Saturday address. Thats why the budget I will send to Congress this Tuesday will double funding for clean-energy research and development by 2020. And while Republicans in Congress are still considering their position on climate change, many of them realize that clean energy is an incredible source of good-paying jobs for their constituents. I hope they support my plan to double that kind of investment. Aides to Obama are forthright about the act of theater, acknowledging that in the past they have put together budgets based on numbers they thought were reasonable and Republican ideas they thought might fly. Those past budget proposals reflected a genuine effort to compromise, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, but they did not result in greater congressional action. So now, he told reporters, lawmakers can expect to see some pretty bold ideas. The oil tax qualifies as one of the bigger proposals, as it could translate into as much as an additional 25 cents on a gallon of gas. Others are smaller, though important to particular constituencies. The budget would infuse millions to advance a water innovation strategy for cutting the price and energy costs of new water-supply technology. Obamas budgets in past years have been viewed by Republicans who control Congress as statements of liberal priorities, and they see this years offering in the same way, even before it is introduced. Nothing in the presidents prior budgets none of which have ever balanced has shown that the Obama administration has any real interest in actually solving our fiscal challenges, said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, who added that rather than waste time receiving testimony on Obamas budget, Republicans in Congress should continue our work on building a budget. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Republicans, though, face their own internal problems in devising a budget that can pass the House and Senate. Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the architect of past GOP budgets that overhauled Medicare and cut other programs, must convince reluctant conservatives to approve higher spending levels agreed to in a compromise with Obama and Democrats last year. Many Republicans voted against that deal, and Ryan relied on Democrats for passage. Cooperation from Democrats, though, seems unlikely now. Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the chairmans refusal to invite the White Houses Office of Management and Budget director to the Hill was insulting and belies the corrosive radicalism that has gripped Congressional Republicans. For the latest from Washington follow @cparsons and @LisaMascaro For more, go to www.latimes.com/politics MORE FROM POLITICS We cant be bystanders to bigotry: Obama visits American mosque GOP candidates open New Hampshire debate, with Rubio expected to be target If Bernie Sanders loses, his backers may not be there for Hillary Clinton in November For Hillary Clinton, New Hampshire offers a chance to refine her message If the polls are even close to accurate in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton will almost certainly lose the nations first primary. Clintons team has acknowledged as much. But it seems her campaigning this week still has real value for the former secretary of State, as she hones the message she hopes will take her on to win the nomination and ultimately the White House. On Saturday, Clinton began her day with two rituals of the New Hampshire campaign, mingling with diners in Manchester and then going door to door, canvassing for votes. Later in Concord, after a fiery introduction from both New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Clinton delivered one of her sharpest stump speeches of the week, moving off some of the tit-for-tat with Bernie Sanders to a more direct case for her candidacy on the merits. I have no doubt in my mind that I have the best experience and the best ideas to take on the abuses of the financial sector and stand up to Wall Street why would they be running $6 million of ads against me right now if they didnt know the same thing? she said. But thats not enough. We have other work to do. Where Sanders delivers almost the identical speech at rally after rally, each day, you can hear Clinton refining her message, perhaps test-driving different points for the weeks and months ahead. Clinton said she wants to be president to not only take on the big issues that get the big rousing ovations, but to take on the issues that are really tugging at peoples lives, that are making it so difficult for so many to get on with their lives. She talked about some of the voters she met just hours earlier in Manchester, including one who was caring for his spouse suffering with Alzheimers. This is the kind of thing that a president should also be worried about, she said. Saturdays crowd was also one of the best for Clinton in days. She spoke to more than 1,100 at a middle school gymnasium and addressed an overflow crowd of the same size elsewhere, the campaign said. Clinton has two more rallies Saturday before she leaves the state for a day to travel to Flint, Mich. She returns Monday with a full day of events before voters head to the polls. These last days here in the first-in-the-nation primary are always, to me, the real soul of American democracy, she said. I am grateful for those of you who are already supporting me. And I hope to be able to persuade others as well. Because we have to win in November. When the California Medical Board puts doctors on probation for drug use, negligence, sexual harassment or other violations, it requires them to inform the hospitals where they practice and their malpractice insurers. Yet they are not required to inform the people most likely to be harmed if their misdeeds or mistakes continue patients. The state medical board seems intent on keeping it this way, leaving the burden on patients to find out for themselves the licensing status of their doctors. The board created a Patient Notification Task Force last year to study this issue in response to a petition from Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, which asked that doctors be required to inform patients if they are on probation, possibly at the time an appointment is made. But at the task forces first meeting last month, it didnt even discuss this idea. Nor did it take up an amended proposal by Consumers Union, which would apply the notification requirement only to the small number of doctors with serious violations such as sexual misconduct and drug abuse. Patients have a legal right to this information, so thats not at issue. The sticking point is whether physicians should have to reach out to patients or the other way around. So far, the board has favored the latter approach, focusing on improvements to its website that make it easier for people to research their physicians disciplinary records and keep track of their licensing status. Advertisement While this is certainly a benefit to consumers, its no substitute for active notification. No matter how snazzy and functional the website may be, its hard to imagine that even a significant fraction of Californians will head to www.mbc.ca.gov every time they have a doctors appointment especially elderly people, who are less likely to use a computer or have Internet access. Medical board officials insist that the task force hasnt finished its work and that patient notification is still on the table. But given the boards history of rejecting similar proposals, were skeptical that it will get a fair consideration at its next meeting in May. Board President David Serrano Sewell certainly seems to have his mind made up. We decided on balance not to pursue what was requested by Consumers Union, Sewell said in at the boards meeting in January. He cited concerns about how such notification would be a burden, clog up the administrative review process and impact the physician-patient relationship. That sounds an awful lot like a brush off. If the medical board is unwilling to force wrongdoing doctors to inform their patients, then the state Legislature ought to step in. The inconvenience and discomfort of a small percentage of physicians must not trump whats in the best interest of patients. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, a series of cultural, educational and digital events will be organized worldwide, including in Shanghai, where major actors like Sir Ian McKellen will host screenings. A scene from "Henry IV" by Royal Shakespeare Company Under the title "Shakespeare Lives in 2016" the program spans more than 140 countries and regions and also has an eventful plan for China. All plays and sonnets by the great British poet and playwright have been translated and published in Chinese since the early 20th century, and many Chinese are familiar with his work. Shakespeare Lives will bring both classic and new Shakespeare productions from England to China. British actor Sir Ian McKellen, known for his role as Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" series, will attend the Shanghai International Film Festival this summer to showcase a screening of Shakespeare adaptations curated by British Film Institute. McKellen played various Shakespearean roles, and most notably co-wrote and starred the critically acclaimed "Richard III"(1995), in which the story was moved to the 1930s England, with references to World War II. Other highlights of the celebration include "King and Country" tour of Royal Shakespeare Company featuring "Henry IV Parts 1 and 2" and "Henry V," "The Merchant of Venice" from Shakespeare's Globe, screenings of National Theater productions such as "Hamlet" starring Benedict Cumberbatch, among other performances throughout the year. "Shakespeare is one of the world's greatest cultural icons," Barbara Woodward, British ambassador to China, said at the launch event at the National Center for the Performing Arts earlier this week. "Even today, 400 years after his death, his works continue to thrill audiences not just here in China but all across the globe Shakespeare's works transcend time and cultures. I'm delighted that Shakespeare Lives will recognize one of our most celebrated icons." Later this month, "King and Country: Shakespeare's Great Cycle of Kings," produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company will start touring Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In consecutive nights, the audience can explore the royal lineage and complex struggle of the kings. Later in November, the company will also launch its collaboration with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center a Chinese production of "Henry V." The play will also spearhead a major 10-year cultural exchange collaboration of the Royal Shakespeare Company, devoted to translate Chinese classics into English. The year 2016 is not only the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, but also that of Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616). Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center has collaborated with the British Gecko Theater on a new work exploring the connections between the two masters who wrote plays around the same time period. Tang resigned from his post as a government official and devoted the rest of his life to writing poems and plays. Four of the plays involve a significant amount of dream sequences and are considered his most influential. The themes of lost dreams, the interruption of dreams and the discovering or reflection of dreams are consistent in many of his plays. The new collaboration, scheduled to premiere in October, seeks to connect and reinvent Tang's dream theme with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Shakespeare's Globe, the reconstruction of the original Globe Theater where Shakespeare staged his plays, will also bring its production "A Merchant of Venice" to China, where it is among the best-known and most-played stories by Shakespeare. "William Shakespeare epitomizes cultural impact and relations, with his works inspiring people around the world. Our exciting Shakespeare Lives program will enable audiences all across China to rediscover and celebrate Shakespeare's works," said Carma Elliot, director of the British Council China. To help introduce an initiative to encourage programs to prepare Burbanks workforce for the real-world demands of an increasingly technical and rapidly changing workplace then-Mayor David Gordon debuted a 13-minute video during his 2014 State of the City address highlighting training efforts in San Bernardino. Recently, the video produced by the citys public information office and narrated by Gordon earned a Golden Mike award for Best in Business and Consumer Reporting during the Radio & Television News Assn. of Southern Californias 66th annual awards ceremony in Universal City. NEWSLETTER: Get the latest headlines from the 818 straight to your inbox >> Gordon and members of the citys public information staff were on hand to accept the award. Last year, Burbanks government TV channel, the Burbank Channel, won three Golden Mikes. The former mayor and longtime councilman joked during a recent City Council meeting that there was no red carpet rolled out for me, but said it was an exceptional honor for the group effort. Its not just to me, but its to the citys public information office as well, Gordon said. I dont have a secret life in broadcasting. I come here on Tuesday nights, and I also take care of peoples eyes for a living. After a brief presentation that included photos of Gordon holding the award a statuette of a golden microphone his colleague Jess Talamantes congratulated him and the city staff. That was one of the biggest smiles that Ive ever seen you have, Talamantes said. The award-winning video proposed adapting the workforce development model used in San Bernardino, where government, education and industry cooperate through a nonprofit partnership to help students learn manufacturing skills that local employers are seeking. Through the video and his State of the City address, Gordon suggested a similar program in Burbank could address the needs of local employers in the media industry, such as Warner Bros., Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, in order to create a highly skilled talent pool for companies to draw from locally, rather than seek workers elsewhere. In an August 2014 memo to the City Council, City Manager Mark Scott cited the work of economist Richard Florida and argued that Southern California and Los Angeles County were not effectively competing for the state-of-the-art, technical and professional jobs of the future. Scotts memo and Gordons video both call for an economic development agenda aimed at putting Burbank on a more competitive footing for those types of jobs. The full video can be viewed online at bit.ly/GordonGoldenMike. Last week, Gordon said hes not sure if the workforce training program will be put in place during his tenure on the council, but hes hopeful the city can implement it in the near future. He also acknowledged Scotts role in the effort, which he said began not long after the city manager was hired about 30 months ago. The entire project ... began in an office meeting with Mark Scott when he was still newish, Gordon said. He was the one that saw that there was potential. Coincidentally, Scott departed his post in Burbank at the end of this week to take the top executive spot in San Bernardino, beginning next week. -- Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com Twitter: @chadgarland Elected officials in Sacramento and Los Angeles as well as environmental activists in Newport Beach are urging Gov. Jerry Brown to weigh in on the fate of the embattled executive director of the California Coastal Commission, saying his dismissal would jeopardize pending environmental protection efforts. A letter sent to Brown on Tuesday by 16 Democratic legislators warned that an attempt to fire Charles Lester, the commissions executive director, would be disruptive to achieving the states coastal protection and management goals. Lester, who has led the appointed panel since 2011, was notified last month that the commission was considering his removal. He then asked for the issue to be resolved in a public hearing, now scheduled for the commissions meeting Wednesday in Morro Bay. In an open memo to the commission Thursday, Lester offered a defense of the agencys work to help protect public access and the environment, prepare for climate change and sea-level rise and review development projects up and down the coast. I believe that my vision has been clear and incisive and that my performance and accomplishments in the administration of the coastal program have been exceptionally strong, Lester wrote in the 20-page document, which includes a detailed list of accomplishments during his tenure and a copy of his curriculum vitae. Supporters of Lester have contended that pro-development groups are pushing to remove him, while other observers have said the effort may be more about his ability to run the quasi-independent agency. Among the supporters are Newport Beach-area activists who oppose development of Banning Ranch. They have written letters to the Daily Pilot saying they are against any move to oust Lester. By firing Dr. Lester without cause, the Coastal Commission undermines its own mission and creates an unmistakable message to California that money and influence trump the public good, wrote Newport resident Dorothy Kraus. We can only hope that good sense prevails. Newport Banning Ranch LLC is looking to build homes, retail space and a boutique hotel on part of the 401-acre property next to the Santa Ana River and across Coast Highway from the ocean. Banning Ranch is one of the largest remaining undeveloped areas in Orange County. Lester has not publicly opposed developing Banning Ranch, but the Coastal Commission as a whole sent the project back to the developer and Lesters staff, saying it should be scaled down and brought back for approval. Praise for Lesters work leading the commission also came Tuesday from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which unanimously approved a resolution warning that an attempt to remove him would undermine the stability of the commission, while simultaneously further compromising its ability to effectively carry out its mission. In response to the letter from legislators, Brown spokesman Evan Westrup stated that this is a personnel matter initiated without any involvement from our office for the Coastal Commission to decide. The commission is made up of 12 voting members, four of whom are appointed by the governor. The remaining commissioners are selected by leaders of the state Senate and Assembly. Brown has no formal role in commission matters, though the panels website notes that gubernatorial appointees serve at the pleasure of the governor. The letter sent to Brown was written by Democrats largely from coastal parts of California, led by state Sens. Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara and Ben Allen of Santa Monica. We strongly support the value of an independent Coastal Commission staff, the legislators wrote, and we respect the commitment and the accomplishments of Dr. Lester during his tenure as executive director. On Monday, almost three dozen former commissioners weighed in to support Lester. And since the dispute became public, the commission has received thousands of letters. The move to oust the executive director was first considered during a closed session in December. A pair of Verizon cellphone towers will be installed at two local parks following City Council approval on Tuesday. A monopole will be set up at Fremont Park, while a monoshrub will be placed at Scholl Canyon Ballfield after council members voted 4-0. In return, Verizon would pay an annual lease of $36,000 for each site that will go toward maintaining the parks. NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in and around your neighborhood >> There are already eight cellphone towers at local open spaces including the Glendale Sports Complex and Verdugo Park. Both facilities are expected to boost cellphone service in areas surrounding them, but Councilmen Zareh Sinanyan and Vartan Gharpetian were previously reluctant to vote on them because there were unanswered health questions about how much radio-frequency waves they emitted. City staff came back with a series of reports from the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society that concluded such facilities dont have a negative effect on a persons well-being. I dont see any evidence that these cell towers are dangerous. Thats based on the information that Ive read over the last week, Sinanyan said. An American Cancer Society study found that there are higher exposure levels from cellphones, and the radio waves emitted from cell towers are 1,000 times less than the limits for safe exposure set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and other regulatory authorities. The commission sets the guidelines for cell towers and preempts local governments from prohibiting the facilities based on health concerns. The only power the council has is to say where a cell tower can be located. The monopole at Fremont Park will be installed in a storage area toward the back of the park, away from the playground. The monoshrub at Scholl Canyon Ballfield will be located just outside the southeast section of the property. Its a better alternative than putting it right on a city block when youre literally 10 feet away from someones house, said Councilwoman Laura Friedman. There are houses nearby, but theyre across the wash, and thats pretty wide. Gharpetian abstained from voting, saying if cellphone towers are not harmful, then at least one wireless provider should physically measure radio wave levels and show that they are below the federal threshold. I think we owe it to the residents to measure them, one cell tower, and see what the radiation is, he said. Resident Nonna Stepanian said since there are already cellphone towers on nearby San Fernando Road, the proposed one should be added to them. Why cant they just co-locate the tower? We have no problems with coverage at all, she said. Theres absolutely no place for a cell tower in a residential park, including Fremont Park. City Manager Scott Ochoa has said at a past council meeting that no one has complained about the existing cell tower sites. -- Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com Twitter: @ArinMikailian Thinh Nguyen remembers coming to America from the tiny Vietnamese village of Bao An in the early 1990s, when he was 11, and not fitting in. Back then, he was the only Asian student in his school and didnt speak any English. His feeling of separateness was almost indescribable. That he didnt look like any of the other students only increased his sense of isolation. Advertisement A decade later, he paid a visit to Bao An and was shocked to see that residents there were trying to look like the people he had been trying to socialize with at school in the U.S. as a child. I was walking around and saw a bunch of Vietnamese kids with blond hair running around, said the 31-year-old Hawthorne resident. I noticed many women were covered. Everything was protected. I asked why. They said white skin was beautiful. They didnt want to be tan. That meant they were poor because it meant they were working out on the fields. White skin was more beautiful than dark skin to them. I was so shocked. It just got me thinking what beauty means to certain people and how they are willing to change their looks to fit in. Nguyen translated those feelings into photographs of his face covered with different features clipped from magazines. In one, a picture of plump lips is taped over his mouth. Eyes with long lashes and well-defined eyelids replace his own. His melding of East and West aesthetics is on display in an art show at Golden West College in Huntington Beach. Constructions of Disquiet, which features other Vietnamese American and Vietnamese artists, runs through March 16. This explores what it means to be Vietnamese and what it means to be American and how people see beauty differently, he said. Its cultural ideology. The works of California-based Vietnamese American artists Ann Le and Dat Vu as well as two artists living in Vietnam, Quang Pham and Linh Phuong Nguyen, are also in the exhibit. Les artwork, which she calls wallpaper portraits, explores the struggles refugees faced as they were leaving Vietnam after the war. Her parents and sister, who was 2 at the time, were the only family members able to leave their home country for the U.S., said Le, who was born in this country years later. One of her portraits, created from a photo taken by Les father, shows her mother. Her facial features and arms are covered with digitalized wallpaper, created using Photoshop, of yellow lotus flowers and people on boats, symbolizing her journey to the United States in a boat with about a dozen other people. Its all about identity, and the wallpaper reminded me of this idea of home, Le said of her artwork. I was also thinking of this idea of separation. I was born in the States, and I wanted to talk about that divide in family and separation that happened during the war. Looking at this portrait, you would never know thats my mother. I just felt like these should be anonymous because this could have been anyone during the war. Le said her mother doesnt understand why her face is covered up, and her father doesnt understand why his photos have been changed. But Le said the symbolism is important, and she hopes the pieces start a dialogue between older Vietnamese people and their children, who may be more Americanized and not know much about their heritage. Like Thinh Nguyen, as a Vietnamese American, Le said she had trouble fitting in in her hometown of San Diego, where she lived until relocating to Los Angeles a few years ago. Growing up, I had no idea why Vietnamese people were so different from other families, she said. San Diego was a huge military place, and I didnt really understand our disconnect.... I felt like I was making human connections with my friends, but I was also very Americanized and didnt really understand my Vietnamese culture. It wasnt until college when I decided to work on this wallpaper project that I really began questioning things, like why the rest of our family was in Vietnam. Richard Turner, who is curating the exhibit with Brian Doan, said they didnt want to pigeonhole Vietnamese artists by virtue of their subject matter but saw a reoccurring theme in the work. We saw some artists had a sense of discomfort with identity or with the places that they were living physically or with family history, Turner said. There was this sense of being ill at ease with where they were, what they were and who they were, and that seemed to be the thing that held everything together. Thats not exclusively Vietnamese. Anyone can feel that. Doan said he knew the five artists personally, which made it easy to compile the theme. He said that because Vietnamese people arent traditionally artists, the community is small. There arent that many Vietnamese American artists, he said. Theyre all pharmacists or lawyers or things of that nature. Its a small, close-knit community. * IF YOU GO What: Constructions of Disquiet Where: Golden West Colleges art gallery, 15751 Gothard St. When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays through March 16 Cost: Free Info: goldenwestcollege.edu/finearts/galleryhttps://www.goldenwestcollege.edu/finearts/gallery The Lakers (11-41) have struggled for most of the season, but have been perfect through the early days of February with two straight wins. On Saturday, theyll visit the San Antonio Spurs (41-8), who have won all of their 27 homes games this season. Kobe Bryant is expected to make his final career appearance in San Antonio, but he wont get the chance to face longtime rival Tim Duncan, who is out with a knee injury. Spurs guard Manu Ginobili (groin) is also out. The Lakers will be without Larry Nance Jr. (knee). Advertisement Key matchup All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard came into the league as a capable defender, but now hes grown into the Spurs leading scorer at 20 points a game, while shooting 50.7% from the field, 47.8% from three-point range and 87.9% from the free-throw line. Hes the whole package, and one of the leagues best players at only 24 years old. Hell likely matchup against Bryant, who is averaging 16.7 points a game. Bryant is coming off three strong offensive performances with 23 points last Sunday against the Charlotte Hornets, followed by 38 and 27 points in wins over the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans. X-factor Veteran forward David West has filled in for Duncan at center. The Spurs will pair him alongside All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge. The Spurs have a number of other weapons offensively, including Tony Parker, Danny Green, Patty Mills and Boris Diaw. The Lakers have seen their young players -- Julius Randle, DAngelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson -- continue to grow, but the Spurs are a tough opponent. Outlook The Spurs are short-handed, and playing on the second night of back-to-back games after blowing out the Mavericks in Dallas on Friday. Still, San Antonio is perfect at home, and the Lakers are unlikely to get the win Saturday. Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus. Chinese authorities announced that three Hong Kong booksellers are under investigation for illegal activities, ratcheting up suspicion that theyve fallen victim to a Beijing-backed crackdown on the citys publishing industry. Lui Por, Cheung Chi Ping and Lam Wing Kee have been placed in criminal detention in mainland China, Hong Kong police announced Thursday night, citing a letter from the Interpol Guangdong liaison office of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department. They had been missing for 100 days. Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory of 7.3 million people, is geographically joined to southern Chinas Guangdong province, but maintains an independent judiciary and law enforcement apparatus. Advertisement In recent months, five Hong Kong booksellers have gone missing under mysterious circumstances; all are connected to the Mighty Current publishing house and its bookstore, Causeway Bay Books, which specializes in titles that irritate Chinas Communist Party leadership and are banned on the mainland. The booksellers disappearances have raised concern in Hong Kong, which has remained relatively insulated from a wave of political crackdowns on the mainland. Every morning, Hong Kong people wake up to another news headline of utter absurdity, said Jason Ng, a columnist and author of Umbrellas in Bloom, a book chronicling the Occupy movement, a massive pro-democracy protest that consumed the city in late 2014. There is one clumsy lie covering another clumsy lie every day. And the plot gets more and more farfetched. The sense of pessimism and despondency began after Occupy, he continued. We asked ourselves, if even doing that didnt work, what chance do we have? The bookseller story is another nail in the coffin, and a pretty long one at that. Before they went missing, Lui was an owner of the bookstore, Lam was a manager and Cheung oversaw warehouse inventory. According to the police announcement, the three are involved in a case related to a man with the surname Gui. This appears to be a reference to Gui Minhai, a China-born Swedish national and another Mighty Current owner, who disappeared from his Thailand home around mid-October. He was last seen in early January on state-run Chinese TV confessing to having fled the country while on parole for a 2003 drunk-driving conviction. The three men became Guis colleagues in 2012, and the nature of their involvement in the case remains unclear. A fifth associate, Lee Bo, vanished Dec. 30 in Hong Kong. Lee, another bookstore owner, is a British passport holder. The sale of politically outspoken books is legal in Hong Kong, the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a one country, two systems arrangement designed to protect many civil liberties nonexistent in the rest of China. Hong Kongs protection of free speech has birthed a cottage publishing industry that has churned out scores of explosive tomes on Chinas politics, both past and present. Some are deeply reported exposes, others salacious conjecture. Public outcry mounted over Lees disappearance, after it appeared he had been spirited into mainland China by extrajudicial means. Hong Kong police said Thursday that they received a letter from Lee stating he doesnt need to meet with the Hong Kong police. Observers suspect that it was written under duress. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Under a long-standing reciprocal mechanism, Hong Kong and mainland authorities are expected to notify each other if their residents have been detained across the border. Yet since the men began disappearing in October, Hong Kong police have repeatedly said that queries to mainland authorities about the mens whereabouts have gone unanswered. Even the nature of the booksellers detention remains unknown. The fact that [mainland authorities] are unwilling to specify is probably intentional, said Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based independent researcher specializing in human rights and criminal justice issues in China. Since it keeps the actual status mysterious, [that] makes it impossible to know what the relevant deadlines are. If theyre being held under residential surveillance in a designated location a type of enforced disappearance he added, then investigators can hold them for up to six months before going to the procuratorate for approval for formal arrest. So far, the cryptic response from mainland authorities has done little to satisfy the public. Even Hong Kongs normally pro-Beijing politicians have issued repeated calls for the truth behind the disappearances. Usually they keep mum on sensitive matters like this, said James To, a pro-democratic local lawmaker. It seems to me even they can tell how this has touched a nerve with Hong Kongers, and theyre concerned this wont get resolved and blow over quickly. It seems the longer the case drags on, the stronger the rallying cry against Chinas central government grows. After Occupy, Hong Kong society has remained divided. One mistake that Beijing made in this is that this has given a live issue for everyone to form a consensus on, said Fu Hualing, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in legal relations between Hong Kong and mainland China. There are certain core values personal freedom, limited police power, the rule of law that we all treasure in Hong Kong. Special correspondent Law reported from Hong Kong and Times staff writer Kaiman from Beijing. ALSO: In China, no Revenant, but mad Oscar buzz for Leonardo DiCaprio Magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes southern Taiwan; several buildings collapse How sweet it is, WikiLeaks Julian Assange declares after U.N. panel backs his freedom Hundreds of Taiwanese firefighters and military personnel raced throughout the night Saturday in frigid temperatures looking for survivors trapped in collapsed buildings after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan. At least 14 people, including a 10-day-old girl, were reported killed in the temblor, which hit hardest in the city of Tainan, authorities said. The powerful quake ripped a 10-foot chasm in a golf course, cut off water supplies to 400,000 people and halted high-speed rail service to the southern half of the island just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. Advertisement As of early Sunday, Tainan authorities said 153 people remained unaccounted for. At least 12 of those confirmed dead were residents of one collapsed 17-story building. Rescuers using backhoes and other heavy equipment have helped hundreds of people out of danger more than 260 of them from the ruins of the Wei Guan residential complex in Tainans Yongkang district. Authorities said at least 484 people had been injured in the quake, but many of them suffered only minor wounds. Three children, including the 10-day-old girl, were among the dozen residents killed when the building collapsed. At least 10 other buildings fell during the temblor. Another victim, a 56-year-old woman, was killed when a water tower toppled over. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Wu Ching-Chung, a Tainan firefighter, said the situation at the Wei Guan complex was complicated. Because the building collapsed so completely, there was no space left for the people inside no real pockets, he said. Nevertheless, firefighters believed there could still be people alive. A survivor was pulled from the wreckage around 5 p.m. local time. Shortly before 11 p.m., authorities said an unconscious man and a man showing no signs of life were found. Rescue work was hampered by smoke billowing from a section of the Wei Guan complex, perhaps from a fire at a ruptured natural gas line. Officials had brought cranes and other construction equipment to prop up the listing structure. Wu Cheng-Chang of Taiwan International Emergency Response, a nonprofit aid group, said conditions inside were difficult. We have to crawl in and use electric drills, he said. We are working in two-hour shifts. The quake cast a pall over the approach of Lunar New Year, a peak travel period on the island when many people return to their hometowns. Major political parties, including the Democratic Progressive Party, canceled their nationwide New Year events. The partys president-elect, Tsai Ing-wen, instructed authorities in regions affected by the earthquake to give all available resources and manpower to the rescue efforts. Outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou flew to Tainan, pledging all-out efforts to rescue those who remained trapped and assist others affected by the disaster. Ma said the military had prepared 1,200 beds in four shelters in the area to accommodate the displaced. The earthquake knocked out 69 power lines, affecting more than 121,000 households in the city, according to the Taiwan Power Co. Rail authorities said power cuts, not damage to tracks, was the reason for the suspension of train service. Water supply to about 400,000 households was interrupted. Structural engineers told local media that it appeared the building where most of the deaths occurred may not have met earthquake standards, noting that photos taken before the quake show a base too narrow for a structure of such height in an active seismic zone. The Interior Ministry and Tainans mayor announced they would begin investigations into the buildings design and construction. The quake, which hit at 3:57 a.m. Saturday local time, was particularly destructive because it was very shallow about six miles underground and the epicenter was on the island, not offshore, said U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Paul Caruso. People felt the earthquake as far away as mainland China, 100 miles to the west, across the Taiwan Strait. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Kate Chou, who runs a hostel in Tainan, said she was on her way to the bathroom when the shaking started. The ground was not only moving sideways, but up and down as well. It felt like the Sept. 21 earthquake had come back, she said, referring to Taiwans 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 that killed about 2,500 people, the deadliest natural disaster in the islands recent history. It was shorter than the Sept. 21 quake, Chou added, but for someone who had firsthand experience of the Sept. 21 quake, any trembling of the window or door could still seem ominous. Derek Hoerler, an elementary school teacher originally from California, said he woke up and felt violent shaking. It was not a rolling, gentle earthquake, but a violent, jerking motion. The walls were shaking, and you could hear the building and windows moving, said Hoerler, who lives in New Taipei City and was visiting family in Kaohsiung when the quake hit. It lasted at least a minute, with swaying afterward. I felt complete terror. Biggest earthquake Ive felt, and Im from California, said Hoerler, 37, who is originally from Santa Clara. Hoerler said he was in the Sacramento area when the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area in 1989, and he thought this temblor in Taiwan felt different. That was a rolling quake in 89, he said. I remember seeing the pavement actually roll like a wave. The one in Taiwan felt like [the earth moved] up and down, side to side violent jerking, like someone was shaking you hard. Lee Cheng-kuo, who lives in Kaohsiung, said the violent shaking woke him, his wife and their two sons. Our stereo fell and hit our table really hard. Bottles and other stuff also fell, he said. They immediately ran out of their house. Taiwan is in an earthquake zone, so we are all somehow experienced and alert to things of this kind, he said. Apartments are more damaged than houses. One-story houses like ours are better off, he added, though water service was knocked out, making pre-holiday cleaning chores difficult. Prashant Kumar, an engineering student at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, said the quake left huge cracks in the pillars of his dormitory. I am afraid of another earthquake like that, and I dont know what will happen to this building, said Kumar, who is from near Kolkata, India. Throughout the day Saturday, there were moments of elation as rescue efforts continued. Firefighters rescued a 7-year-old boy after following the cries of his cat, named Meow-meow, who stayed by his side after the quake struck, the Taiwan News said. Another woman was found after calling the fire department from her mobile phone and helping direct rescuers to her location. The epicenter of the earthquake was under the central mountain range of Taiwan about 27 miles southeast of Tainan and 24 miles northeast of Kaohsiung, the islands main port city. Taiwan sits in a collision zone between the Philippine Sea and the Eurasian plates and is seismically active. Special correspondent Chan reported from Taipei, Taiwan, and Times staff writers Makinen and Kaiman reported from Beijing and Tainan respectively. Rong-Gong Lin II in Los Angeles, Nicole Liu in The Times Beijing bureau and special correspondent Chuan Xu, also in Beijing, contributed to this report. ALSO: Missing Hong Kong booksellers detained in China for illegal activities Mob attack on Tanzanian woman renews concerns about racism in India How are Muslims around the world reacting to Obamas visit to a mosque? For the last three and half years, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lived in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault accusations. A United Nations panel is expected to announce Friday that his time there amounts to arbitrary detention because he has been unable to exercise his right to political asylum, which Ecuador has offered him. British authorities have said they have a legal obligation to arrest Assange if he steps out of the embassy. Advertisement The ruling by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which is not legally binding, appears to be primarily a public relations triumph for Assange. The decision was first reported Thursday by the BBC and later confirmed by Swedens foreign minister. Assange has been holed up in the embassy since 2012, when he claimed asylum after Sweden issued a warrant for his arrest based on testimony from two women there who say he sexually assaulted them. He has not been charged and denies the claims. Sweden has since dropped much of the case but still wants to question him about an alleged rape. For Assange, the case has always been about more than the sexual assault allegations. He fears that Sweden or Britain would turn him over to the U.S. for prosecution on espionage charges stemming from WikiLeaks massive release of classified documents in 2010. As the news broke Thursday, his supporters expressed hope that the standoff could finally be brought to an end. For me, Julian Assange is somebody who has challenged power and actually been detained by power, his friend Vaughan Smith told reporters. Im really pleased that there is a potential resolution and I hope that the British and Swedish authorities will respond accordingly. But neither Sweden nor Britain indicated any change in their positions on the case. The working groups view differs from that of the Swedish authorities, a spokeswoman for Swedens Foreign Ministry said. We have been consistently clear that Mr. Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the U.K. but is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean Embassy, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office said. Britains Metropolitan Police said in a statement that because a European arrest warrant was still in place and an allegation of rape was outstanding, it has a legal obligation to arrest Assange if he leaves the embassy. The U.N. panel took up the case after the Australian-born Assange filed a complaint against Sweden and Britain in 2014. He argued that being confined to the embassy was not his choice and that he was unable to get to Ecuador. He also claimed that being forced to live in roughly 320 square feet without sunlight or fresh air had taken a significant toll on his mental and physical health. The panel has previously ruled against countries with poor human rights records, which could make Fridays ruling awkward if Britain and Sweden decide to ignore it. The two governments were made aware of the decision in January. Assange released a statement Thursday on Twitter saying he would accept arrest by British police on Friday if the U.N. panel ruled against him. But if the panel ruled in his favor, he wrote, he expected the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me. Assanges legal team has said it will hold a news conference in London on Friday after the official report has been published. Boyle is a special correspondent. For the first time ever, a pope will meet with a patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Vatican has announced. The meeting is aimed at improving ties between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which broke away in the year 1054. The globe-trotting Pope Francis is scheduled to meet Patriarch Kirill in Havana on Feb. 12. Advertisement The importance of this event is this is the first time the pope meets the patriarch it is extremely important for ecumenism, Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said at a news conference Friday. The Orthodox Church split away nearly 1,000 years ago amid disagreements over liturgy and power-sharing. Over the centuries, the relationship has been full of rancor and distrust. The Vatican and the wider Orthodox Churchs spiritual leadership have moved to patch things up over the last century, and Francis has met its current spiritual head, Patriarch Bartholomew. But the relationship has remained troubled because the powerful Russian branch, whose 150 million members account for two-thirds of all Orthodox Christians, has kept its distance. In 1995, Pope John Paul II called the eastern and western churches the two lungs of Christianity and wanted to visit Moscow. But his plans to establish new Catholic dioceses in Russia only deepened the rift, with Russia accusing him of trying to convert Orthodox Christians to Catholicism. SIGN UP for the free Great Reads newsletter >> Lombardi said the historic meeting this month follows two years of diplomacy. This is not improvised, he said. The meeting will take place in the airport in Havana, a location that suits the longtime desire of both churches to meet on neutral ground as well as the schedules of Kirill and Francis. The Russian patriarch will be in Cuba as part of a tour of Latin America, while Francis will stop at the airport on his way to Mexico. Cuba also has significance because it was for many years an ideological front line between Catholicism and Russian communism, while in 2014, Francis helped reopen diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. The two leaders will meet for nearly two hours before signing a joint declaration at an event hosted by Cuban leader Raul Castro. The signing, Lombardi said, will signify a dialogue that can overcome previous obstacles. Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, said Friday there were still basic disagreements to resolve, including the role of Orthodox churches in western Ukraine. The killings of Catholics and Orthodox Christians in Middle East conflicts were a key motive for scheduling the meeting, he said. The situation in the Middle East, in northern and central Africa and in other regions where extremists are perpetrating a genocide of Christians requires immediate action and an even closer cooperation between Christian churches, Illarion said. In this tragic situation, we need to put aside internal disagreements and pool efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subject to most severe persecution. The rift between the churches goes far beyond a battle for converts in Russia. One Vatican expert said it is largely about who would come out on top if they ever reunited. There are 1.2 billion Catholics. Its about who has the bigger hat, said Robert Mickens, editor in chief of Global Pulse. The Russians are afraid of being swallowed up. Mickens said the Vatican has traditionally viewed itself as superior to the Russian Orthodox Church. But Francis has made friends in Moscow by behaving more like an equal. Mickens added that the Russians had decided to act while Francis was still in office. They fear a conservative backlash in Rome after Francis, he said. A key turn in church relations came in November 2014, when Francis bowed to Bartholomew during their meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, said Gerard OConnell of the news organization Vatican Insider. The rapprochement has a lot to do with the humility shown by Francis to the Orthodox Church, he said. Kington is a special correspondent. ALSO: Vatican panel kicks off meeting on sexual abuse by watching Spotlight How are Muslims around the world reacting to Obamas visit to a mosque? Syrian forces, aided by Russian airstrikes, move closer toward a siege on Aleppo Pyotr Pavlensky does not spare his body or his audience when it comes to his macabre artistic actions. The gaunt, 31-year-old artist nailed his scrotum to the pavement of Moscows iconic Red Square to protest ubiquitous police brutality in Russia. He had his naked body wrapped in barbed wire in front of a government building as a metaphor for persecution of Kremlin critics. He sewed his mouth shut to support the arrested Pussy Riot feminist rockers and cut his earlobe off with a knife while sitting on a wall outside the Serbsky psychiatric clinic in Moscow to protest the forced psychiatric treatment of dissenters. Advertisement Last week, he was forcibly transferred to Serbsky for a three-week evaluation after refusing to undergo a voluntary psychiatric examination, according to his partner, Oksana Shalygina. Pavlensky is the first Russian artist forcibly sent to a psychiatric clinic since the 1991 Soviet collapse, according to Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot, who now heads a human rights group that helps inmates in Russias notorious penitentiary system. They could hold him there indefinitely, she said. Shalygina said his evaluation was motivated by his latest performance, in November, in which he set fire to the doors of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the domestic successor agency to the Soviet KGB. Pavlensky doused the doors with gasoline, lighted them and posed for a photograph. He was immediately arrested. The burning doors were intended to symbolize the gates of hell in President Vladimir Putins Russia, Shalygina said. Putin is a former KGB agent who served for a time as head of the FSB. For Russian investigators, Pavlenskys evaluation and a possible forced treatment would be a very desirable and painless way to send him away, she said. She added that Pavlensky is being held incommunicado because of a flu quarantine and has no contact with her or his lawyer. The Serbsky clinic was the Soviet Unions most notorious center of punitive psychiatry, which allowed the communist government to silence thousands of dissidents and scare many more potential critics. Dissidents were committed to the clinic to be diagnosed and then sent to provincial or prison hospitals where many suffered irreparable damage to their mental and physical health. Among them was poet and human rights advocate Natalia Gorbanevskaya, whose ordeal was described by Joan Baez in a 1976 song, Natalia. The clinics psychiatrists, some of whom often doubled as high-ranking security officers, diagnosed the dissenters with vaguely defined sluggish schizophrenia that allowed indefinite confinement, often in isolated cells with no beds. Pavlensky was briefly evaluated in the Serbsky clinic in 2014 and pronounced sane which makes the current, longer evaluation more ominous, Shalygina said. The artist said the performance that landed him in the mental institution was meant to symbolize the threat of a communist-era Red Terror being resurrected by Putins security forces. The dark events and institutions from the past live on in todays security services. They have insinuated their way into the fabric of Russian society, he wrote in an op-ed published by the English-language Moscow Times in December. Pavlensky has been charged with vandalism motivated by ideological hatred and faces up to three years in jail, officials said. His attorney says he committed no crime. They consider what he did a punishable crime, Svetlana Ratnikova said. We think its a creative performance. One prominent Kremlin critic said that Pavlenskys case is a new step in the persecution of dissidents under Putin. Since the authorities decided that there would be no dialogue with political opponents, they will use other methods of retaining power, such as criminal cases, persecution, forced emigration, smear campaigns in the media, and then, of course, they will start declaring people mad, opposition leader and former lawmaker Gennady Gudkov said. There have been other recent cases of dissidents forcibly sent to mental institutions. Alyokhina and her Pussy Riot bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova underwent a four-hour psychiatric evaluation during the internationally condemned trial that followed the bands 2012 punk prayer at Russias largest Orthodox cathedral. They were sentenced to two years in jail. They consider what he did a punishable crime. We think its a creative performance. Svetlana Ratnikova, attorney for Pyotr Pavlensky Pavlensky has said he considers the official responses to his art, including his detention and negative coverage in the Kremlin-controlled media, to be part of the performance. Authorities start to build the event. They turn into characters. Everything is built around them. My action is minimal. I just sit, do nothing or stand, Pavlensky told writer Anastasiya Belyaeva, who published a book about him last year. The Russia-24 television network called Pavlensky socially dangerous. But some art critics have praised his work, saying it is an apt reflection of the time. A picture of Pavlensky standing in front of burning doors refers us to the image of the gates of hell, emphasizing where the root of evil in Russia is, renowned art critic Marat Guelman wrote in an op-ed published by the Slon newspaper in November. This is not elite art that is located in galleries and addresses connoisseurs and collectors, Guelman wrote. This is a very popular product, pre-calculated and aimed at mass media, the state machine and the public in general. Pavlenskys actions have been influenced by decades of Soviet and Russian performance art and political activism. Soviet youngsters burned rag dolls of top-hat-wearing Western capitalists, pro-Putin youth movements dumped the books of anti-Kremlin writers in a giant toilet seat installed at a Moscow square or tried to catch an opposition leader in a huge butterfly net because he was a political insect. Since the early 1990s, several performance artists have publicly destroyed Christian icons to protest the conservative policies of the countrys dominant Orthodox Church. They also have used laser tags to project skull-and-bones images on government buildings, and staged rallies with absurd slogans such as lentils are evil or a good president is a bad dancer. Pavlensky is not the only unorthodox artist to be persecuted in Russia in recent years. Several criminal investigations have been opened against artist Artyom Loskutov, who is accused of inciting religious hatred with his icons on T-shirts and billboards that portrayed Pussy Riot members as the Virgin Mary or as Orthodox saints. Activists with War, a radical artists group that once included the members of Pussy Riot, have been arrested and beaten. They eventually fled to Italy to avoid persecution. In 2010, two art curators in Moscow were convicted and fined for organizing an art exhibition that included images of Jesus Christ depicted as Mickey Mouse and Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin. The exhibition was closed after Orthodox activists stormed in, damaging some exhibits. Performance artist Oleg Mavromatti had himself publicly nailed to a wooden cross in Moscow in 2000 with the words I am not a son of God carved on his skin with a razor. He was charged with inciting religious hatred and left Russia for the United States. Some aspects of this art date to medieval Russian traditions of holy fools, or eccentric Orthodox monks or ascetic laymen who would often mortify their flesh and criticize officials or even czars with impunity. One of the so-called holy fools was St. Basil, or Basil the Blessed, who walked naked even during Russian winters, dared lambaste czar Ivan the Terrible and was buried just yards from where Pavlensky nailed his scrotum to the pavement of Red Square. Unlike Pavlensky, he was never punished and the magnificent, multicolored St. Basils Cathedral, one of Russias postcard symbols, was erected over his grave in honor of him. Mirovalev is a special correspondent. At 74, pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim is still as passionate as ever when it comes to performing. Conductor Daniel Barenboim (center) with Staatskapelle Berlin in Shanghai Born in argentina in 1942, Barenboim received his first piano lessons at 5, and gave his first public concert at 7. he later moved to israel, before going on to study conducting with igor Markevich, as well as harmony and composition with nadia Boulanger in Paris. Along with his decade-spanning career as a solo pianist, Barenboim has also been in high demand as a conductor since first raising the baton with the London Philharmonia Orchestra in 1967. Additionally, he has served as music director for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra de Paris, La Scala in Milan, and is currently the music director of Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berlin State Opera. he is also known for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra comprised of young arab and israeli musicians. He speaks fluent Spanish, hebrew, English, French, italian and german, and holds citizenship in argentina, israel, Palestine and Spain. "Is true that i don't have a sense of belonging geographically. am free from that. feel comfortable living in London, Paris, Chicago and Berlin," says Barenboim. "am happy to see the development in the Middle East and the Jewish dream has gone in the direction that it should. Jewish people were never meant to rule other people." The legendary musician was at Shanghai Symphony hall in late January, where he staged a concert with Staatskapelle Berlin. During his visit, he sat down for an interview with Shanghai Daily. Q: How is your visit to China going? A: Ihave always been impressed by how China has developed in the 20th century, especially in the past 30 years. it is a forward-looking country. It is amazing how China has achieved its look today, but hope that its culture and spiritual development will match what we have witnessed in science and engineering as well. So many Chinese politicians were engineers and scientists. Raising business and the economy are important, but it will be better if culture and human development are not left behind. I am not young. don't know if can come back again. But will be very interested to see how these things will develop in China. Q: What do you intend to bring to China this time? A: Staatskapelle Berlin is the third oldest orchestra in the world. it was born in 1570, and it has accompanied german life for so many centuries. This is exactly what talked about the culture. Regardless of all the changes that have happened to germany since 1570, the Staatskapelle Berlin was there throughout that time as part of germany. This is what they bring and what they represent. is one of the most important messages that the orchestra brings to the world and China. Q: Which qualities impress you most when recruiting orchestra members? A: Of course they have to play their instrument well, and they also need to have creativity. it is not right for a musician to just sit there and wait for the conductor. The conductor can inspire and educate, but it is the musicians who produce the sound. Every member of the orchestra should be creative and then the conductor can guide them to work together. Ithink that a big problem for many young people worldwide, including China, is that they consider music just playing the instrument. They play fast or loud without thinking about it. There is no good music education for the public in the world, and in most music schools the education is just about playing the instrument. We will start a new music school in Berlin next year. apart from normal music programs like instruments and theory, we will insist on philosophy lessons twice a week. You cannot be a great musician if you only learn how to play the violin and nothing else. To be a good musician, you should be able to think and absorb ideas from other fields. Q: Do you have any advice for young conductors? A: In fact, nobody can really talk about music. if anyone could talk about or explain music, there would be no need to play it. When talking about music, we are actually talking about our reaction to it... is very important for a musician to have general knowledge of literature, paintings and other cultural things, because in music, you cannot really explain things in words. But the richer your knowledge about culture is, the more interesting your music will be. It is not true to think that if you practice an instrument for eight hours every day starting at age 14, you will master music and be top at it. does not work like that. Music is not the cream that you put on a cake. Music is a comprehensive art... Music is not a profession; music is real life, though you have to do it professionally. It was a bomb that blew a hole in a jetliner, killing one person and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing on Tuesday in Somalias capital, Mogadishu, a Somali official said Saturday. Experts who were investigating the cause of the blast in the plane concluded that a bomb was the cause, said Ali Jama Jangali, Somalias transport minister at a press conference in Mogadishu. The bomb aimed to kill all onboard the plane. Al-Shabab was behind it, he said of the explosion on a Daallo Airlines Airbus 321. He said the findings are preliminary and the investigation is continuing. Advertisement Six people have been arrested in connection with the blast after examinations of CCTV images in the airport, a senior Somali intelligence official told the Associated Press. He insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press about the matter. Somalias Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, have not claimed responsibility for the incident, although the group is suspected. One passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, died, according to Somali officials who did not give any details. A mans body was found in the town of Balad, 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu, according to police who said he might have been blown from the plane. All other 74 passengers on the plane were safe after the pilot returned the plane safely to Mogadishu airport. The explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane took off and it was still ascending. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Capt. Vlatko Vodopivec, the pilot, said he and others were told the explosion was caused by a bomb. It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last, Vodopivec told AP by phone from Mogadishu. He said the blast happened when the plane was at around 11,000 feet (3,350 meters) and still climbing to its cruising altitude of 30,000 feet. It would have been much worse if we were higher, he added. Had the blast occurred at a higher altitude, it could have led to explosive decompression on the plane, which might have caused more severe structural damage, and would have forced a more rapid descent because of limited supplies of oxygen to the passengers. After the explosion, passengers put on oxygen masks and air could be heard rushing thought the hole in the fuselage, according to a video taken by a passenger. Somalias government said it will tighten security at the airport to prevent other threats. Somalia faces an insurgency from the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has carried out deadly attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries. Daallo Airlines, which is based in Dubai, has temporarily suspended its operations in Somalias capital following the incident but hopes to restart them soon, said Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, the airlines chief executive. He described security at Mogadishu airport as good and multilayered, and much better than it used to be. Daallo typically operates around 15 flights a week to Mogadishu from Somali and nearby international destinations. Its flight Tuesday was operated by Hermes Airlines, which is based in Athens, Greece, under a lease agreement. Hermes officials have not commented on the incident. Experts from Somalia and Greece are involved in the investigation into the blast. ALSO Five skiers killed in massive Alpine avalanche, say Austrian police Syrian forces, aided by Russian airstrikes, move closer toward a siege on Aleppo Taiwan earthquake topples buildings, leaving at least 14 dead and hundreds injured Pro-government forces backed by Russian airstrikes consolidated their grip Friday on strategic terrain in northwestern Syria, escalating an offensive that has pushed thousands of civilians toward Turkey and raised the prospect of a siege on the long-divided city of Aleppo. The Syrian army, backed by allied forces, had restored security and stability to the formerly opposition-held towns of Rityan and Mair, northwest of Aleppo, after ousting terrorists, reported Syrias official media, which refers to all rebel groups as terrorists. Opposition social media reported that rebel groups, including Al Qaedas Syrian affiliate, Al Nusra Front, were engaged in fierce clashes with government forces in the area. Advertisement Al Nusra and another Islamist group, Ahrar al Sham, are among the major rebel factions that hold sway in the Aleppo area, along with Western-backed units of the opposition Free Syrian Army. Propelling the ongoing offensive are Russian airstrikes and the presence of Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese militiamen bolstering the forces of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to various accounts. Thousands of civilians were reportedly fleeing toward Turkey, but many were stranded at the Bab al Salam crossing on the Turkish border. Images circulating on the Internet showed multitudes of Syrians trudging toward the border zone with suitcases and bundles. Turkey, which is home to more than 2 million Syrian refugees but has lately tightened its borders with Syria, was not allowing the latest group to enter the country, according to reports from the area. Moscow has lately ramped up its Syrian air campaign, which began in September and has helped turn the tide in the almost five-year war in favor of Assads forces. The Obama administration and its allies have called for a cease-fire in Syria and blamed the Russian escalation in part for the breakdown this week of peace negotiations in Geneva. But the Russian and Syrian governments blame the opposition and its backers for the talks suspension and contend that any cease-fire should be negotiated rather than made a precondition for resumed dialogue. The current offensive is the Syrian governments boldest move in years to reassert its control of Aleppo, a city divided into spheres of government and opposition control since July 2012. Reasserting full control of Aleppo, once home to more than 2 million people, would be a huge victory for the government in Damascus and its Russian partners and a momentous setback for Syrian rebels. The heavy Russian involvement has further soured relations between Russia and Turkey, which have been engaged in a war of words since Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane in November above the Syrian-Turkish border region. Turkey is a major supporter of rebels fighting to oust Assad. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking Thursday in London at a donor conference for Syria, estimated that 70,000 people were on their way to Turkey due to actions by pro-Assad and Russian forces in the region, according to a Turkish state news agency Anadolu. The Turkish premier also accused Damascus of wanting to create a siege of starvation in Aleppo, once Syrias economic hub. Years of fighting and bombardment have heavily damaged Aleppo, including its historic ancient quarter, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Syrian officials say they aim to shut down opposition supply routes from Turkey, long a key logistics and supply hub for rebel forces. Damascus says that retaking Aleppo would represent a defeat for Assads opponents and put an end to rebel mortar and rocket attacks into government-held western Aleppo, still home to more than 1 million people. For years, the opposition and human rights groups have accused the government of indiscriminate bombardment of rebel-held neighborhoods in the city. Aid agencies and the opposition say the intensified fighting has severed the main routes for humanitarian aid entering insurgent-held eastern Aleppo, where more than 200,000 people still reportedly reside. We are cut off from Aleppo city, David Evans, regional program director for the charity Mercy Corps, said in a statement. It feels like a siege of Aleppo is about to begin. Government forces have been making advances in the Aleppo region for weeks, but the thrust forward has intensified in recent days. On Wednesday, the Syrian army said its forces had ended sieges of a pair of pro-government towns, Nubul and Zahra, with majority Shiite Muslim populations. The towns, home to more than 30,000 people, had been encircled for more than three years by Sunni Muslim rebel groups, including Al Nusra Front. Government forces air-dropped food and other crucial supplies. Some Islamist groups among the opposition view Shiites, as well as members of the Alawite sect, whose adherents include Assad, as apostates to be killed. With their security situation deteriorating, extremist leaders issued public appeals for a call to arms among militants. Oh, youth of Aleppo; oh, sons of Aleppo; oh, civilians; take up weapons and set off; for it will be either the [Shiites] or us, exhorted Abdullah Muhaysini, a prominent Al Nusra Front cleric, in an audio address released on social media Wednesday. A photograph published in Kayhan News, an Iranian website, showed an image of smiling fighters identified as Iranian elite Quds Force members celebrating their entry this week into the formerly rebel-besieged Shiite town of Nubul. Shiite-led Iran says it has only dispatched advisors into Syria, not ground forces. Opposition activists said Russian warplanes had launched hundreds of attacks in recent days in the Aleppo area, contributing to a mass exodus of civilians. Every village entered is completely destroyed with the bombing, said Alaa Al-Din, an opposition activist based in Azaz, about 25 miles north of Aleppo city, close to the Turkish frontier. Turkeys IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation reported that more than 50,000 people had massed near the border. In addition, hundreds of families had escaped to the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, about 25 miles northwest of Aleppo, which is under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces. From the morning, we are trying to get tents for people. We have too few tents; most people are sleeping on the ground, Shyaar Mahmoud, administrator of the Robar refugee camp in Afrin, said in a phone interview Friday. They are still coming, and we have no space for them. Twitter: @mcdneville McDonnell is a Times staff writer and Bulos is a special correspondent. Special correspondents Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Kamiran Saadoun in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report. ALSO Missing Hong Kong booksellers detained in China for illegal activities Magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes southern Taiwan; several buildings collapse How sweet it is, WikiLeaks Julian Assange declares after U.N. panel backs his freedom For iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users planning to update their iOS, think again. Daily Mail reported that a so-called "Error 53" has been bugging these two iPhone models along with iOS 9 updates for a couple of weeks. It added that phones, whose home buttons have been repaired by third-party shops or technicians, could be completely destroyed with this error. According to The Guardian, users have been complaining that their iPhones have been rendered useless after the iOS system disabled permanently their handset. This means that the phone has lost data including photos that cannot anymore be retrieved. Photographer Antonio Olmos told The Guardian that his phone became a victim of this error a few weeks earlier. He claimed that he dropped his phone in the Balkans while covering the movement of refugees. "Because I desperately needed it for work I got it fixed at a local shop, as there are no Apple stores in Macedonia. They repaired the screen and home button, and it worked perfectly," he added. But after upgrading his iOS and seeing the Error 53 on his screen, it has since been unusable despite trips to various Apple stores and repair shops. This software update error, as per The Sydney Morning Herald, also happens when a phone is connected to a personal computer or a laptop for the update. It noted that, when Apple was asked for a comment on the problem, the company claimed that it was part of their security checks to make sure that their customers are protected. "iOS checks that the Touch ID sensor in your iPhone or iPad correctly matches your device's other components. If iOS finds a mismatch, the check fails and Touch ID, including for Apple Pay use, is disabled," the company explained in a text message to The Sydney Morning Herald. Apple also noted that this measure helps in preventing frauds access phones which are not theirs. It also advised users to contact Apple Support if this error prompts in their handsets. Meanwhile, ZDNet mentioned that there might be also instances that the said error will not be prompted by a replacement of the Touch ID sensor with a third-party technician. It said that The Daily Dot's Mike Wehner experienced the issue after having problems with the fingerprint reader. In his case, the phone was replaced by Apple. For people to avoid losing a big amount of money to a "dead iPhone," the help of an authorized Apple repair outlet should always be sought. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. With the spread of the Zika virus in Latin America, the United Nations was prompted to call on the government of these countries to allow women to have access on abortion and contraception. CBC News said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has appealed to make reproductive options available for women in these countries and give them the right to end pregnancy. "Laws and policies that restrict her access to these services must be urgently reviewed in line with human rights obligations in order to ensure the right to health for all in practice," Al Hussein said in a statement. All Hussein's spokesperson Cecile Pouilly also told CBC News that they have asked the countries, which are mostly Catholic-dominated, to change their laws on abortion and contraception. It was added in The Guardian report that the UN suggestion has started debate since the region is dominated by a Catholics who are not in favor of ending an unborn's life. Women in Latin America reportedly have limited options when it comes to birth control because of their laws on the use of contraception and abortion. The UN made special mention of El Salvador which openly denounced even the thought of considering abortion or using contraception as a means to stop the Zika virus. The Guardian said the country has one of the highest numbers of Zika cases but it still considers miscarriages as "murder." It was also noted in the same report that the UN initiative was favoured by the Center for Reproductive Rights, a non-government agency based in the United States. "Women cannot solely bear the burden of curbing the Zika virus. We agree with the OHCHR that these governments must fulfil their international human rights obligations and cannot shirk that responsibility or pass it off to women," said the group's legal adviser Charles Abbott. As of December last year, The New York Times said that the virus has been transmitted to about 45 countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Pacific Islands, based on a report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Other South American countries with reported Zika virus cases include Brazil, Colombia and Honduras. It was explained in a CBS News report said that the mosquito-borne disease has been associated with giving birth to babies with very small heads and undeveloped brains -- a condition dubbed as microcephaly. Last year, more than 3,5000 women in Brazil had babies born with the said condition. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Zika Virus Update: Microcephaly Victim Shares Life with Disease; Says 'I Am A Fulfilled, Happy Woman' media@latinoshealth.com By Rachel Cruz Feb 04, 2016 04:29 AM EST Ana Carolina Caceres is a 24-year-old Brazilian journalist born with microcephaly. The congenital brain malformation has links to Zika, but Caceres is proof that there shouldn't be a stigma against the victims of the virus. Caceres was encouraged to come out and speak up about her condition following the Zika scare. She has been reading comments about babies with microcephaly online and was dismayed by some of the misconceptions, BBC reported. Caceres said that doctors diagnosed that she will be living in a vegetative state for most of her life. However, she proved them wrong and even managed to finish a journalism course at a university. The 24-year-old also keeps a blog and has written a book about living with microcephaly "I chose journalism to give a voice to people like me, who do not feel represented," she told BBC. "I can say that today I am a fulfilled, happy woman." Cleveland Clinic cited that that at least 85 percent of microcephaly patients do end up with a brain disorder, while many will continually have episodes of convulsions. The young journalist would like make it known to the public that babies with microcephaly are not damaged. Not all end up with degenerative conditions. Microcephaly exists in a spectrum and the causes are different. The cases can be mild to severe, Latinos Health previously reported. "Microcephaly is a box of surprises," Caceres said. "You may suffer from serious problems or you may not." In her case, she admitted to suffering from seizures and breathing problems in her young life. She also underwent five serious medical interventions that included surgery. Her family, including extend families and other relatives, helped pay for the costs as not all medical procedures and tests are covered by insurance. She managed her condition with medication until she was 12-years-old, Stuff New Zealand reported. However, Caceres claims she doesn't need to medicate these days. The World Health Organization has declared Zika virus to be a global health emergency, with microcephaly as its main worry. As cases surge, the issue of abortion has become another concern with Brazilian activists pushing for government leaders to amend its strict abortion laws to give mothers the choice, New York Times reported. However, Caceres made a strong statement about this. "I survived, as do many others with microcephaly. Our mothers did not abort. That is why we exist," she said. She suggested that efforts should instead be channeled elsewhere, such as giving microcephaly patients better access to treatment and therapies. She also suggested pregnant mothers to get prenatal care and tests as soon as possible, and to seek the advise of a neurologist. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Blood Cancer Risk In Babies Due To IVF Should Not Be A Cause For Alarm media@latinoshealth.com By Staff Reporter Feb 06, 2016 04:53 AM EST IVF or in vitro fertilization is defined by the Mayo Clinic as a complex series of procedures that treat fertility or genetic problems in order to achieve conception. It involves extracting mature eggs from a mother's ovaries and fertilizing it with sperm in a lab, before implanting the embryo back in the mother's uterus. IVF is commonly used as primary treatment for infertility among women over the age of 40. However, some women opt for IVF if they are experiencing reproductive health issues such as Fallopian tube damage or blockage, ovulation disorders, etc. A new study published in the journal Pediatrics reveal how IVF may slightly increase a child's risk for developing blood cancer, Healthday reports. Researchers found that children who were conceived and born through IVF were 67% more at risk of leukemia and three times more at risk for Hodgkin's lymphoma compared to their counterparts who were conceived naturally. Researchers led by Dr. Marte Myhre Reigstad of the Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Women's Health at Oslo University Hospital analyzed data on 1.6 million children born in Norway from 1984 to 2011. Among these children, about 25,800 were conceived through various assisted reproductive technology procedures such as IVF, WebMD reports. Results showed no significant increase in the overall risk for cancer among children who were conceived via IVF besides leukemia and Hodgkin's lymphoma, which are cancers that attack blood cells. According to U.S. News & World Report, researchers claim that the results should not concern parents who are looking to conceive via IVF, as only 17 cases of leukemia and three cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma were reported among children who were conceived via IVF. Susan Amirian, an assistant professor with the Baylor College of Medicine's Duncan Cancer Center in Houston, wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal, citing that the results were "borderline statistically significant." "We need to be extra cautious interpreting that number, and we need a lot more studies that confirm that association before we can say there's a true relationship there," Amirian said. "In Norway, the risk of being diagnosed with leukemia within the first 10 years of life is 0.5 in 1,000," Reigstad further explained. "A risk increase of such magnitude as found in our study would amount to a risk of 0.8 in 1,000. So for children conceived by assisted reproductive technology, there is still only a very small chance of developing cancer." According to Amirian's editorial co-author Melissa Bondy of Baylor's Duncan Cancer Center, IVF kids may be at higher risk for some cancers because their mothers conceive later in life, which previous studies have already shown to increase risk for childhood cancers. Bondy recommends further studies to explain the reasons behind this link. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Zika Virus Outbreak in Venezuela Worsens With Lack of Medicine media@latinoshealth.com By R.Robles Feb 06, 2016 05:19 AM EST Lack of medicines may drive the Zika virus to cause more damage than it already has in Venezuela. Luisana Melo, Venezuela's Health Minister, said in a statement last week that the country had suspected cases of Zika estimated at 4,700. However, Professor of tropical epidemiology at the Central University of Venezuela Julio Castro calculates that around 250,000 to 400,000 Venezuelans are infected with the Zika Virus -- a high prediction as compared to the country's health minister. Castro came up with the numbers by feeding the government's limited data and other reports of unexplained fever cases, according to a report by PRI. Independent organizations like the Network to Defend National Epidemiology and other Venezuelan experts have also provided similar projections as to the number of infected people in the country. As such, if the numbers are accurate, it could mean that 33 million residents of Venezuela may have a worse "per capita rate" than Brazil which has 205 million people of which there are an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million infections. Castro believes that the forecast may be true as the Aedes aegypti, the carrier of the Zika virus, is found in 16 to 20 per cent of Venezuelan residences as compared to Brazil where it is detected in 4 to 5 percent of homes. "The first thing the government needs to do to start tackling Zika is provide the public with reliable, trustworthy information," Castro recommends, as per PRI. "That has not happened up to now," he adds. The health industry does not consider Zika as a serious condition; however, it becomes perilous when it leads to a severe neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. If the condition is not treated right, the patient may suffer from irreversible damage, or worse, die. Intravenous immunoglobulin and plasmapheresis are the two known treatments for Zika and both are currently unavailable in Venezuela due to lack of resources and supplies, according to a report by Fox News Latino. Venezuela's health secretary between 1997 and 1999 and physician Jose Felix Oletta warned that the situation in Venezuela may get worse in the weeks to come. "The government has announced the import of 3,000 doses of immunoglobulin-g for the first trimester of 2016, but we estimate the real need for that time period is 26,000 doses," Oletta told Fox News Latino. The 11 Zika patients who died in Caracas and other cities are reported to have not had the proper access to immunoglobulin-g or albumin. The Pharmaceutical Federation of Venezuela says, as told by Fox News Latino, that the government has more than $4 billion debt to pharma companies and doctors in the country are forced to treat with 20 percent of medicines usually available in developed countries. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Undocumented immigrants pay taxes at the grocery store, on monthly mortgages, and with every bi-weekly paycheck. The misconception some people have is that they skip out on Uncle Sam when tax season comes around; that programs like the Affordable Care Act and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) give immigrants undeserved refunds when they should be paying federal taxes. A study by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found undocumented immigrants paid $11.84 billion in state and federal taxes in 2012. Researchers suggested tax contributions would increase with President Obama's executive orders on immigrations, specifically program aimed at protecting students and their parents from deportation. They concluded by saying state and local tax revenues would increase by $845 million once the programs are fully implemented. "The fact is, undocumented immigrants already are paying billions in taxes to state and local governments," said Matthew Gardner, the organization's executive director, in an April 2015 press release. "And if they are allowed to work in the country legally, their state and local tax contributions will increase significantly." Obama announced the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) and expanded DACA programs in November 2014. While those who qualified would be eligible for Social Security numbers and government benefits, they would also be held accountable for filing annual tax returns. More importantly, it allowed some to claim refunds dating back three years - even if they didn't pay taxes or file returns in those periods - provided they meet income requirements. The Earned Income Tax Credit, in essence, gives undocumented immigrants with an SSN the same rights as U.S. citizens. One of the reasons Republicans in 26 states contested President Obama's immigration reform effort is because they believe immigrants would take advantage of these loopholes, along with tax a break afforded under the Additional Child Tax Credit. ACTC is a refundable credit available to working families with an earned income of at least $3,000. Tracking how many children a parent has, if any, is difficult for the IRS. ACTC recipients can easily take advantage of the system, but distinguishing whether one demographic abuses it more than another is near impossible. Since 2012, the Obama administration has granted over 600,000 Social Security numbers to undocumented youths. Under DACA, they don't pay penalties for not enrolling in Obamacare because they aren't allowed the health insurance, but they do have to file federal taxes. It not only meets the DACA's tax requirement, it set good precedent once the individual applies for citizenship. Residents with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) have the same obligation. The Department of Treasury estimates three million ITIN holders filed federal taxes in 2011, adding up to 2.3 million filers and $4.2 million in distributions. The Office of the Inspector General noted that the Affordable Child Tax Credit and the option to file years' worth of returns as a big reason for the influx of ITIN filers, some who may have filed fraudulent claims. The flip side is in a Social Security Administration report detailing how undocumented residents who have paid billions of dollars in Social Security payroll taxes over the last decade stand to get little in return. "While unauthorized immigrants worked and contributed as much as $13 billion in payroll taxes to the OASDI program in 2010, only about $1 billion benefit payments during 2010 are attributable to unauthorized work," the report read. "Thus, we estimate that earnings by unauthorized immigrants result in a net positive effect on Social Security financial status generally, and this effect contributed roughly $12 billion to the cash flow." Social Security benefits are only given to retirees with a Social Security number, yet undocumented individuals see the tax on each paycheck. This could change if the Supreme Court sides with Obama's executive action. Stephen Goss, chief actuary for the SSA, sent a letter to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson last February indicating immigrants could see benefits as soon as 2017. Goss indicated that the number of beneficiaries will grow for the next 40 years, reaching about 695,000 people by then. "For 2024, we estimate that the additional number of individuals receiving a benefit from Social Security as a result of the 2014 executive actions will be just 16,000, increasing the total number of beneficiaries by 0.02 percent," the letter read. "By 2050, we project the increase in beneficiaries due to the executive actions will rise to about 0.76 percent, and will decline thereafter as the affected populations age." All of this is dependent on what SCOTUS decides this summer. Immigrants already pay taxes and claim refunds. The difference then will be in how many more, or less, people are legally allowed to file returns. The Syrian war is doing more damage than displacing millions of innocent Syrians. The war has now caused aid agencies to cease help, unfortunately, and that includes food rations. According to The Star, the case of the Syrian refugees has been by far the worst since the Second World War and agencies couldn't help but feel the overpowering threat of the Syrian war. Last year, the World Food Program (WFP) suffered a decline in their funding, forcing the UN agency to reduce their support and supply of food for the Syrian refugees. The case has worsen as some refugees couldn't even acquire a single supply of food while others have been cut with at least 50 percent of what they used to get. A 28-year-old Syrian refugee in Northern Iraq named Perwin Shamsaddeen Ali told the news outlet, "I cook at 11 o'clock and we eat the leftovers in the evening. Why? Because we have no more food, that's why. Today I gave the kids some noodles, that's all. That's all we had today." The WFP vouchers were also criticized because of its inability to be used outside the refugee camp. Refugees can only use the said voucher in the store located within the camp, which is more expensive than buying outside. Refugees who were lucky enough to receive monthly cash assistance were also affected when the WFP reduced the amount to only $13.75 per person. Ali also added, "We are selling our stuff, our household items, to get along. Most of the time we sell the kerosene." Meanwhile, according to The Guardian, British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a plea to increase the funds for these refugees. He also implied that the international community must act to raise at least several billions more than what was consolidated last year in order to ease the food crisis among Syrian refugees. The London donor conference was attended by several world leaders, it was concluded that aid for Syrian refugees will double by 2020. The impact of the Syrian war has deliberately incapacitated some agencies reaching out to the refugees. The peace talk that was supposed to happen in Geneva regarding the possibility of ending the Syrian civil war was also affected. UN's special envoy to Syria Staffan De Mistura said, "I have concluded frankly that after the first week of preparatory talks there is more work to be done, not only by us but by the stakeholders." The relationship between faith and politics varies by which political party a voter identifies with, according to a Pew Research Center survey released last month. About two-thirds of Republicans said their president must have similar religious beliefs; only 40 percent of Democrats shared the sentiment. Most Americans saw the two Democratic front-runners - Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders - as less religious than their GOP rivals, and half of adults said they would be less likely to support an atheist candidate. Donald Trump, who leads Republicans in most national polls, was seen as less religious than his counterparts, garnering just five percent of participants who considered him "very religious." The separation of church and state is expressed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, yet most Americans believe the two must intertwine when it comes to the presidency. Candidates answer questions about their faith both on the campaign trail and during presidential debates. They pander to specific religious denominations, depending on which part of the country they're visiting. Come Election Day, faith may decide who unseats President Obama. Ted Cruz and the evangelical vote Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the Feb. 2 caucus over Trump in large part to some 33 percent of evangelicals who polled in his favor. "Let me first of all say, to God be the glory," Cruz declared last Tuesday night after being declared winner of the Iowa caucus. "Tonight is a victory for the grassroots. Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa, and all across this great nation. Tonight the state of Iowa has spoken." Cruz grew up attending evangelical schools. He identifies as a Zionist and repeatedly warns that religious liberties are under attacks. Instead of separating church and state, Cruz brings them together. "From the dawn of this country, at every stage, America has enjoyed God's providential blessing," Cruz told a Liberty University crowd last March. "Over and over again, when we face impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge." Southern voters, like many in Iowa, tend to lean towards very conservative candidates. Cruz may not win Tuesday's New Hampshire primary - where he's only expected to win between 15 and 17 of the evangelical vote - but his performance in the upcoming South Carolina primary may determine whether Catholics and Protestants are truly on his side. Donald Trump's grasp of the Bible On Jan. 18, Trump spoke to a crowd of about 13,000 evangelicals at Jerry Falwell-led Liberty University. After vowing to protect Christianity from "political correctness," the Republican front-runner mispronounced a Scripture verse. "Two Corinthians 3-17, that's the whole ball game ... Is that the one? Is that the one you like? I think that's the one you like." Laughter ripped through the staunchly religious crowd, most who have read and re-read the Bible since childhood. Trump's handling of the situation, and his aversion to talking about religion, has many believing his relationship with God is superficial, or that he isn't as learned in Biblical teaching as he's led on. Southern Baptists leader Russell Moore tweeted that Trump is "trading in the Gospel of Jesus for political power," and evangelical writer Matthew Lee Anderson likened him to a televangelist. Others cite Trump's vow to ban all Muslims as a sign that he's not devout. Still, the Pew survey found 52 percent of white evangelical Protestants support Trump, second only to former neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Seventy-three percent of right-leaning registered voters though he was "very/somewhat religious." Marco Rubio's experience with syncretism Of all the presidential candidates, Rubio may have the widest grasp on the country's predominate religions. A practicing Catholic, Rubio has explored Southern Baptist and Mormon faiths. He attends a Baptists church while in Florida and a Catholic one while working in Washington D.C. His views on creationism, same-sex marriage, and climate change helped the Cuban-American senator win over hardline conservatives, many who catapulted him to a third-place finish in Iowa. Like Cruz, Rubio campaigns on protecting religious rights, and said as much in defending Kentucky clerk Kim Davis last summer. "We should seek a balance between government's responsibility to abide by the laws of our republic and allowing people to stand by their religious convictions," Rubio said in a statement to The New York Times. "While the clerk's office has a governmental duty to carry out the law," he added, "there should be a way to protect the religious freedom and conscience rights of individuals working in the office." Rubio is the only candidate who can consider himself syncretistic; part of Catholic, Baptist, and Mormon faiths. While that may draw some to his corner, others may see this as a flip-flop of his religious views because each religion, while similar, taps into a different voter base. Rubio appealed to every affiliation during one the Iowa GOP debate, saying Judeo-Christian values are what make America special. "Why are we some of the most generous people in the world? Why do American contribute millions of dollars to charity? It is not because of the tax write off," Rubio said. "It is because in this nation we are influenced by Judeo-Christian values that teach us to care for the less fortunate, to reach out to the needy, to love our neighbor." Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and unaffiliated voters Neither of the two Democratic presidential candidates spends much time talking about their faith. Sanders, who went to Hebrew school like many young Jewish Americans, has gone on record as saying he is "not actively involved with organized religions." "To me, it means that all of us are connected, all of life is connected, and that we are all tied together," Sanders told The Washington Post. He added that he believes in God, just not in the traditional sense. Clinton, a self-described Methodist, told a New Hampshire crowd last Wednesday that she keeps a group of faith advisors closer by and fights to separate political ambitions from personal values. "I get a scripture lesson every morning from a minister that I have a really close personal relationship with," Clinton said. "And, you know, it just gets me grounded. He gets up really early to send it to me. So, you know, there it is in my in box at 5:00 a.m." "I have friends who are rabbis who send me notes, give me readings that are going to be discussed in services. So I really appreciate all that incoming." Only 40 percent of participants in the Pew survey though Sanders was at least "somewhat" religious; 48 percent though the same of Clinton. Sanders and Clinton appeal to atheists and less religious voters because they identify with a growing number of Americans who don't side with a single faith. Proof of religion's decreasing influence can be seen in the survey where 32 percent of unaffiliated people said it was a good thing. Seven-in-ten of these individuals said religious conservatives have too much control over the Republican Party. To some, a candidate not considering himself Catholic or Protestant for the sake of choosing a side is a sign of openness to millions of Americans who don't consider themselves with a single sect of Christianity. Foxconn is aiming to finalize a deal to acquire Japan's Sharp Corp by the end of the month, after the two firms reached a consensus on most points, Foxconn's Chief Executive Officer Terry Gou said yesterday. The Taiwan-based company, known formally as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, has been given preferred negotiating rights and most remaining issues to be resolved are legal and regulatory, Gou said after meeting executives of the struggling electronics maker. The Apple Inc supplier has offered to invest about 659 billion yen (US$5.6 billion) in Sharp, sources familiar with the matter have said, which would make it Foxconn's biggest deal to date and the largest acquisition by a foreign company in Japan's insulated tech sector. "We have a consensus," Gou said. "The rest is a process ... I don't see a problem completing this process." The meeting came a day after Sharp's board decided to focus on Foxconn's offer over a rival bid from a Japanese state-backed fund. While many investors have faith in Gou's business acumen, noting he has built up the world's biggest contract maker of electronic gadgets from scratch, buying Sharp is seen as carrying as many risks as potential benefits. A deal would give Foxconn access to the Japanese display maker's cutting-edge technology at a time when clients such as Apple are likely looking ahead to more advanced flexible screens. However, key concerns include slowing global sales for smartphones as well as fierce competition from South Korea and Chinese rivals that have hammered demand for Sharp's liquid crystal displays and hindered it from making a recovery despite two major bank-led bailouts in the last four years. "The macro environment is not so great," said Vincent Chen, head of regional research with Yuanta Research in Taipei. "Terry is very calculating. He has guts, but I think there is still a big risk." Foxconn is also seen by some as overpaying for a loss-making company with the acquisition likely to weigh heavily on its balance sheet. "Foxconn's offer is expensive, which shows how desperately the company wants Sharp's technology," said Takatoshi Itoshima, chief portfolio manager at Commons Asset Management. Japan-based sources familiar with the matter have also said there was still some wariness among Sharp and its creditors toward Gou after a 2012 deal to form a strategic alliance and capital ties broke down. Sharp CEO Kozo Takahashi, however, stressed on Thursday that Sharp and Foxconn had since forged a good relationship through the joint management of a plant in Japan. Shares in Sharp ended 10 percent up yesterday, giving the company a market value of US$2.6 billion. Android M, or Android 6.0 Marshmallow as it was later revealed, has rolled out to Google's Nexus family of devices and a few OEM smartphones like the Moto X 2015 Pure Edition, but Samsung has yet to begin a wide release of the OTA update. A few Samsung owners have been lucky enough to be part of the company's limited test pool, though, and now it appears even some carrier versions of 2015 Samsung flagships are getting Samsung's beta Android M upgrade. The latest "leak" showing details on what Samsung's version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow portends comes from an owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 on AT&T, according to Droid Life. Screenshots from the unnamed owner of an AT&T Galaxy Note 5 that was part of a small Android M beta test group shows a few changes coming to Samsung's custom TouchWiz UI layer. It's not a huge facelift, but a little can go a long way. If you own a Samsung smartphone running Android 5.0 Marshmallow, and are sick of that version's blue-dominated TouchWiz theme, for example, you're in for a nice change of pace. The screenshots show that most of the blue UI elements have been changed to grey, while Lollipop's secondary yellow accents are now blue. The leak looks pretty legitimate, as one screenshot includes the build number (N920AUCU2BPB1), version number (6.0.1), and file size of the firmware package, along with the AT&T demarcated device model number for the Galaxy Note 5. Of course, some person on AT&T with a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 getting an early preview version of Android M isn't as exciting as your Samsung device finally getting an update release date for Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Luckily, if another recent Android 6.0 Marshmallow leak -- purportedly Samsung's latest rollout roadmap for 2016 -- is to believed, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 should be getting an update release date this month. Other major 2015 and 2014 Samsung devices will get their due in the months following, if the leak is accurate. Nothing official has been confirmed or announced yet, so as always, take everything with a healthy grain of salt. Beijing will build more subway lines this year, as well as roads exclusively for public buses and lanes just for bicycles, providing lower-emission means for transportation, local officials said on Friday. The city will start constructing 16 subway lines with a total length of 300 kilometers, Rong Jun, spokesman for the Beijing Commission of Transport, told a news briefing on Friday. The length of subway lines will increase to about 1,000 km by 2020 from the current 554 km, Rong said in a previous interview. The city will also put another 10,000 public bicycles in use so that residents can rent them from bus or subway stations to ride home or to the office. Beijing already put 50,000 public bikes in use last year, five times the figure in 2012 when it introduced them. "This year, 71 percent of commuters in Beijing are expected to take buses, subways and public bikes. The number is expected to increase to 75 percent by 2020 and 80 percent in 2030," Rong said. The city's population increased by 45 percent from 2004 to 21.7 million at the end of last year. The number of vehicles rose by 143 percent to 5.61 million, making traffic a headache for drivers and transportation authorities. Buses carry 13 million passengers each day, but people are getting more reluctant to take buses because of traffic jams, according to the Beijing Public Transportation Group. Rong said the commission is to build 50 km of roads just for buses to make such travel faster. Yang Haiming, deputy director of the transportation commission of Dongcheng district, said public transportation is much better than private cars in lowering carbon emissions and other pollutants that have threatened the air quality in the capital. "We encourage residents to ride bikes, taking buses or subways if possible," he said. Bethlehem Area School District mom Nikki Testa believes eating should never be a privilege. That's why the Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, resident has become a one-woman hunger-fighting force. Testa launched the Backpack Pals Bethlehem program that provides students in the district with bags of nutritious food over long weekends. She began the program at East Hills Middle School in 2013 and it's now expanded to five schools. "No child should go hungry ever, anywhere," Testa said of her motivation. Many families struggle to provide nutritious food for their children. They rely on their school's free and reduced lunch program to fill the gaps. Raised by a hardworking single mom, Testa knows what it is like when finances get tight. Luckily, her mom had family to turn to for help. But not all parents have a support network and these children are victims of their circumstances, Testa said. "They didn't choose to be hungry," she said. "They didn't choose the circumstances that got them to be hungry." Fifty-three percent of Bethlehem Area students were eligible for free or reduced lunch in 2014-15. When schools are closed, some children miss out on their one healthy meal of the day. That's where Backpack Pals comes in. While it is not district sponsored, it has become a collaboration. Staff coordinate with Testa to identify needy children, schools run food drives and dining services transports the bags to schools. Monday night the school board recognized Testa for her efforts. She's hopeful the recognition boosts donations. "That's really the hardest problem, sustaining the donations," Testa said. "So we know we can fill these bags every month." District Supervisor of Health Services Kathy Halkins said Testa's work has influenced the nursing program. If a student comes in complaining about a headache, they're asked if they had any breakfast, she said. At first, Testa sent home 15 bags. On Friday, volunteers were helping her pack 80 bags for the Presidents Day holiday weekend. "Little by little, schools started reaching out to me," Testa said. "I just kept going to churches and knocking on doors. Now, several churches collect for me on a monthly basis and I do various food drives to make up the difference." Testa learned of Backpack Pals when Nancy Walters, founder of the Easton Hunger Coalition, spoke at her church about the Easton Area School District's Backpack Pals program. It inspired her to bring it to Bethlehem and she's modeled the program off Easton's. Walters founded the Easton program in 2012 and it now serves 135 families. The program's been so successful the district's family center has a grant to fund a part-time coordinator, Walters, who is now just a program volunteer, said. "There are over 4,000 kids in the Easton school district that are qualified to receive a reduced or free lunch," Walters said. "We are only reaching the highest risk kids. There are more kids that need it but we don't have the money to expand the program." Keeping up with the demand is a struggle. Every bag includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack to sustain a child for three to four days. "The goal is the that the children are able to be self-sufficient with the food," Testa said, noting some kids may be on their own for their meals. "It is all microwaveable and easy for the children to do on their own if they need to." A bag will include oatmeal or cereal, cans of ravioli, macaroni and cheese, rice, crackers, peanut butter, jelly, protein bars and a fruit cup or apple sauce. Testa stopped packing drinks because the bag became too heavy for kids to carry. She's starting to add packets of drink mixes that can be added to water. The bag also features a toiletry, book and pencils. "Pencils are a hot commodity," Testa said. "I didn't know this until I started this." In addition to East Hills, Broughal Middle School, Donegan, Marvine and Freemansburg elementary schools now participate. Second Harvest Food Bank operates a similar program at James Buchanan and Lincoln elementary schools, Halkins said. Teachers and guidance counselors identify students that may benefit and a form is sent home to parents, who opt in to the program. Ideally, Testa would like someone at each middle school to coordinate with the four feeder elementary schools. Currently, all of the bags are assembled at East Hills and Sodexo transports the bags to the other schools. Testa never gets to see who actually takes home the backpacks. But she's starting to hear stories of kids excited for their bag pick up. Those stories keep her going. "If I can touch the life of one kid, so when they're older and in a good situation like I am, they can pay it forward and help someone else, (it's worth it)," she said. HOW TO HELP Contact Nikki Testa at backpackpalspa@gmail.com Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision has a local organization pressuring the Easton Area School District to tighten its rules to prohibit the strip search of students. Ronnie DelBacco ran for Easton Area School Board in 2011. Ronnie DelBacco, chairman of the 9/12 Project of the Lehigh Valley, wants the board to heed the ruling in the case of 13-year-old Savana Redding of Arizona. Redding's school principal found pills on her, including ibuprofen, and suspected she had been distributing them to students in violation of school rules. The principal sent her to the school nurse, where she was ordered to strip. The nurse had her shake her bra and pull out her underpants to see whether pills were hidden there. The Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the teen's constitutional right against an illegal search was violated. But the administrators were not held liable because laws and policies on the topic were vague. DelBacco and his organization believe the Easton Area School District should make its rules explicit. "If there's something a teacher suspects is an immediate danger, then police need to be called. Parents need to be called," he said. Superintendent John Reinhart emailed DelBacco to say the school board will take up the issue this month. The board next meets on Tuesday. District solicitor John Freund said the district has policies in place governing searches, although he said, "I'd imagine that the policies could use some tweaking." An outright ban of strip searches might not be advisable if administrators suspect a student has a hidden gun, he said. Case law is clear that the danger has to be immediate and serious to warrant a search, Freund said. DelBacco has a 15-year-old daughter. He said a policy change shouldn't require much effort on the part of the administration. "We're not asking for anyone to resign. We would just like a tightened up policy before anything happens," DelBacco said. We want to make sure the policy is in place and it's very strict so that if (a strip search) ever happens and goes to court, a lawyer can't say the language is ambiguous." DelBacco, a former school board candidate, said he's been after the district for five months to implement the policy. "I can't believe after five months no board member has come out and raised the point that they're not OK with this," DelBacco said. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. An Upper Macungie Township man suffered severe injuries after being struck by a car Friday night. Jeffrey B. Thompson III, 18, was crossing Hamilton Boulevard about 10:30 p.m. Friday night when he was hit by a 2004 Hyundai Accent, according to township police. The area where Thompson was trying to cross is about 1,000 feet east on the intersection with Continental Way and not a designated crosswalk, police said. The car's driver has not been charged. Thompson was taken to Lehigh Valley Hopsital in Salisbury Township, where staff on Saturday said he was in critical condition. Police said the investigation is ongoing. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. St Fergals teacher Gerry Quinn has been appointed president elect for the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI). St Fergals teacher Gerry Quinn has been appointed president elect for the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI). He is set to become president on July 1. This is the first time that a Laois branch member has become national president of the 14,000 member union. Gerry has been a TUI member since he began teaching in St Fergals in Rathdowney about 20 years ago. Previous to teaching in Rathdowney, Gerry spent two years in England, teaching first in a school in London, and then in a school outside of the city. He has been active in the union for most of his time there, and has been the union vice president for the past two years. Gerry is taking on this position at a time of change for teachers across the country, but told the Leinster Express that he is looking forward to the opportunity. At the moment I am concerned with the deprofessionalism of teaching, teachers are not as empowered as they once were. There is an excessive amount of inspections, bureaucracy and paperwork. Gerry said that another issue high on the agenda is the casualisation of teaching. Now 30% of TUI members dont have a permanent job and they dont have full hours. The status of the job has been eroded and that has to stop. Gerry is also hoping that the TUI will create links with the ASTI. From my own point of view a big challenge is some form of united approach between the ASTI and the TUI. From the departments side, it is divide and conquer and the only way to counter that is some form of unity. Of course there are a number of other issues that the incoming president will be looking at closely, including schools based assessment for the junior cert cycle, the impact of Solas on further education, and working conditions for younger and newly qualified teachers. I will be travelling all over the country from Donegal to Kerry. It is very interesting work, the TUI is diverse, but most of our members are second level teachers. The coffers of local charities in Laois were swelled by thousands of euros following contributions to avoid criminal convictions from those detected with drugs at the Electric Picnic. The coffers of local charities in Laois were swelled by thousands of euros following contributions to avoid criminal convictions from those detected with drugs at the Electric Picnic. Over 200 defendants were before last weeks sitting of Portlaoise District Court charged with possession of drug(s) from small amount of cannabis, valued at 5, to assortments of drugs including cocaine, amphetamine and LSD etc. The vast majority of those before the court had their case struck out on condition they make a contribution of 300 to the court poor box. Some contributions went up to 500 in cases were there were aggravating factors, such as people being uncooperative with gardai, or having large quantities of a drug. Several of the people before the court explained to gardai that larger amounts found in their possession were to be shared amongst friends. Judge Catherine Staines had told the court that people were before the court after being found in possession of illegal substances. She reminded the defendants that an appearance in court is a serious matter. If you take these substances then you should be aware that you are supporting criminal gangs. These are the same criminal gangs who are involved in extortion, theft and murder, she said. People were risking a prison sentence by possessing drugs, she warned. However, she said she was willing to give offenders one chance. She said the officer overseeing the drug detection and prosecution operation will keep track of the prosecutions. Garda Pat Scully keeps a full record and if you come before the court again you will not get a second chance, Judge Staines said. Judge Staines said she had to balance the serious nature of the offences against the future prospects of many of the defendants, who are young, some of whom have recently completed their Leaving Cert while others were still in college or had embarked on their first job. These were the reasons for not imposing a criminal conviction, which would harm young peoples career prospects and also curtail their ability to travel abroad in the future. With over 200 defendants before the court, Judge Staines said it was not possible to talk to each individual person. She said the contributions from defendants would go to charities in the region who provide addiction treatment, amongst other things. Two charities which she named as beneficiaries were the local Simon Community and Laois Domestic Violence. Defendants came from across the country, with a large amount of those coming from nearby county Kildare, Defendants from north of the border were also detected in possession of illegal drugs, with some defendants travelling from the UK to meet the charges. A telling feature of many of the cases was the defendants have emigrated to find work, the majority of whom live in Canada while others are now working in the US, Australia and New Zealand. Several others plan to travel and work abroad in the future and so were anxious to take up the opportunity to make a financial contribution to the poor box, and avoid a criminal conviction and the resultant consequences. Another feature of many of the cases was that many graduates were in low paid jobs, and some were unable to make the financial contribution on the day and had their cases postponed. Judge Staines pointed out on several occasions that defendants were able to purchase tickets to the concert and also buy the illegal drugs, so could not expect to make any less of a contribution than 300. During the course of the day, the judge made comments in relation to some of the defendants. It was pointed out to one young man who plans to work in the health and fitness industry that he did not know what was in the ecstasy he purchased and did not know what long term effects taking such drugs could have on his health. She also pointed out to one female defendant that she should have been able to enjoy the festival without taking drugs. It is supposed to be about the music, she said. A man studying to be a social-worker was told that many of the people he might be caring for in the future could be individuals who had been damaged by drink and drug abuse in the family home. Electric picnic celebrated its tenth year in Stradbally last summer with the serving Cathaoirleach Cllr Mary Sweeney having the honour of cutting the anniversary cake on stage with Fatboy Slim and estate owner Tom Cosby. The Electric Picnic music and arts festival is due to run from August 29 to 31. The Muiriosa Foundation (Moore Abbey) based in Monasterevin is running a deficit approaching 1 million with urgent talks due to take place this Wednesday with the Irish Nurses and Midwifery Organisation (INMO), Impact and Siptu. The Muiriosa Foundation (Moore Abbey) based in Monasterevin is running a deficit approaching 1 million with urgent talks due to take place this Wednesday with the Irish Nurses and Midwifery Organisation (INMO), Impact and Siptu. The Muiriosa Foundation formerly known as the Sisters of Charity of Jesus & Mary provides a range of services and supports to persons with an intellectual disability and their families residential services, respite, day services, education, and multidisciplinary supports. It provides services to 300 adults in residental care, 200 adults in day services and up to 700 children across six midland counties - Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, Meath and Longford. It provides services on behalf of the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the HSE are its main funders. Correspondence seen by the Leader this week, from its CEO Brendan Broderick to senior managers, indicates the care centre in Monasterevin is rapidly approaching a point where it will have real difficulty in meeting its fortnightly payroll obligations. As you are no doubt aware, we have been beating the drum about the need to make very significant inroads on our levels of expenditure for many months, the letter reads. At our most recent local managers forum in May, it was underlined the very real danger that there might come a time when we would find that we did not have the wherewithal to cover the next payroll run...we might find ourselves at such a point four to six months hence, ie sometime between September and the year-end. In fact, we came perilously close to this point this week. The letter states the foundations fortnightly payroll bill comes to 900,000 and its overdraft facility is limited to 700,000. The letter further adds that its deficit as of the end of May was 955,000. We need to make some very big decisions within the next few days and implement them faithfully and rigorously...The elimination of any reliance on agency staff in all our residential and day services and the replacement of this reliance through back-filling by redeploying permanent staff members will be the central plank of our strategy, the letter concludes. Speaking to the Leader, CEO Mr Broderick confirmed the finanical concerns outlined in the internal correspondence. The Muiriosa Foundation, formerly the Sisters of Charity of Jesus & Mary (Moore Abbey), like every other disability service provider, are under severe pressure to put in place adjusted arrangements to maintain current service levels while at the same time coping with the 3.7 per cent cut in allocation which applies nationally in 2012 to all disability service providers, he said. The Foundation is operating with a 14 per cent cut in its core allocation benchmarked against 2008 levels, he explained. The letters to managers mention a near-miss which emerged last week which could have jeopardised our ability to meet a payroll run. This was a cashflow/liquidity issue driven in part by an expenditure over-run and by having had to pay out 650,000 cash in lump-sum payments associated with the grace period exit scheme. He further noted the leaking of an in-house communication to local managers advising them of the now-urgent imperative to identify and implement fail-safe expenditure control measures within the next week was unhelpful and dissappointing. Meanwhile, management is expected to meet with the staff unions this Wednesday. Speaking ahead of the meeting, Derek Reilly INMO industrial relations officer, said: Moore Abbey services are already working under severe constraints and the current level of service is totally dependent on maintaining the current staffing levels, including agency input. It is inevitable that any further reduction in staff will have significant negative consequences for the clients and their families. It is totally unacceptable that the Foundation have allowed the situation develop to such a point without having engaged with their unions and prepared staff and clients in advance. The INMO is committed to preserving services for clients and the jobs of the hard working staff at Moore Abbey. The Foundation which is party to the Croke Park Agreement has not made contact with unions representing staff as is a requirement under that agreement, he added. We are becoming increasingly concerned that the severity of the cutbacks proposed will pose a risk for the future of Moore Abbey and the important services provided to their vulnerable clients. More than 670 people are employed by the Foundation overall. In Monasterevin alone 120 nurses work with Moore Abbey. THE separated wife of convicted criminal John Gilligan told an appeal court today - Wednesday, February 6 - that she is surviving on a weekly allowance of 186. THE separated wife of convicted criminal John Gilligan told an appeal court today - Wednesday, February 6 - that she is surviving on a weekly allowance of 186. Geraldine Gilligan, who lives at the Jessbrook Equestrian Centre, near Johnstownbridge, Co. Kildare, was appealing a refusal to grant Jobseekers Allowance, worth 186 per week, before Judge James ODonohoe at Naas Circuit Court. An unidentified Criminal Assets Bureau officer told the court that it was her decision to refuse the applications on the basis of non-disclosure of information. I was unable to fully determine her means and because this is taxpayers money we require verification when a claim for a social welfare payment is made, she said. The officer also said it was unclear if Ms. Gilligan received any income from a pub in Alicante, operated by her daughter Tracey. Ms. Gilligan was also nominated on a Deed of Power of Attorney, which effectively gives her control of her daughters assets in the event of Traceys death. Since then, Ms. Gilligan has been receiving an emergency allowance of 186, granted by a HSE Community Welfare Officer, which is being paid until the outcome of the appeal is known. The court heard that up to 16 bank accounts in names of the Gilligan family existed in 1996 and ten of these related to the Jessbrook Centre. Some 15m went through these accounts and barrister Genevieve Coonan representing the CAB, said some 250,000 of this money was unaccounted for. Most of this money was withdrawn in July 1996. Ms. Gilligan told her barrister Mairead Carey, in court, that most of the money that went through the accounts was used to pay for building work and materials as Jessbrook was constructed. She added that while some of the accounts were in her name they were controlled by John Gilligan, who would ring her and instruct her to pay the money to various people. She told the court she did not receive money for working in the pub and that the business is struggling financially. She said some of the unaccounted money could be explained by withdrawals of 80,000 and 20,000 in July 1996 from an account at the Bank of Ireland in Lucan by Thomas Gilligan, brother of John Gilligan. Ms. Gilligan said she still owes money and one builder alone is owed 80,000 by her. Ms. Gilligan added she drives a 1997 car and any money she has saved pays for motor insurance cover. She added she did not have a copy of the DPOA and was not sure if her daughter has. Judge ODonohoe acknowledged that the State needs a satisfactory explanation about how the money was disposed. He adjourned the case asking for a Notary in Spain to be contacted to provide a a copy of the DOPA. He also asked for accounts relating to the Alicante pub, known as The Judges Chambers. - Paul OMeara Editor's Note:The Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, is the most important festival for people in China and other neighboring countries, comparable to Christmas in the West. Family members try every means to get together before the Spring Festival Eve for the celebrations. The festival starts on the first day of the first lunar month often one month later than the start of the year on the Gregorian calendar and ends with Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. China.org.cn gives you a list of activities to do during the Spring Festival. Temple fairs Beijing's Monkey Year temple fairs guide The tradition of a "temple fair" (Miao Hui) began as groups of vendors who did business near Buddhist and Taoist temples when many pilgrims came to pay tribute to the gods during traditional festivals. The practice grew, gradually turning into a regular event. Now temple fairs are an important and joyful destination for Chinese people during festivals, most especially the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year. Temple fairs in Beijing have a very long history, dating back to around 1000 AD, when they were called "Spring Outings," and saw a boom especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) as well as the Republic of China (1912-1949). Major temples all have their own festivals, some of which are held regularly. During the Spring Festival, the temple fair is one of the most important activities, and a traditional cultural event that features all kinds of Chinese folk art. So far, there have been more than 10 major temple fairs held each year in Beijing. In traditional temple fairs around Beijing, there are performances and booths demonstrating and selling traditional arts and crafts. The fairs have lots of games to play, food to eat, and performances to see, which attract lots of people. In the temple fairs you can taste numerous kinds of local snacks, court foods, and other dishes. Most temple fairs feature dragon and lion dances, waist drum dancing, lotus blossom fairy dances, ground and clam dancing, as well as other folk performances, and some even stage traditional wedding ceremonies. For foreigners, a temple fair is definitely a cultural experience, because it airs Chinese cultures from a very detailed perspective. While enjoying the samplings of Chinese delicacies, you can appreciate craftsmanship and artworks displayed by local artisans. Nowadays, going to temple fairs has become a Spring Festival routine for residents in Beijing. On Sunday, February 7 a commemorative plaque to Sean Mac Diarmada to mark the centenary of his death and the 1916 Rising will be unveiled in Kiltyclogher at 12:15pm. The plaque is co funded by the County Leitrim Society of Boston and the Sean Mac Diarmada Commemoration Committee. Derek Mawn the President of the County Leitrim Society of Boston told the Leitrim Observer that: On behalf of the County Leitrim Society of Boston, we are excited and honoured to be a part of the Sean Mac Diarmada Centenary plaque and its unveiling in Kiltyclogher. Sean Mac Diarmada was a true patriot, a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916 and a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, his spirit still resonates with Irish people around the world. The County Leitrim Society of Boston is an organisation for the local Leitrim committee as well the local Irish community as a whole to celebrate and keep close their birth land and heritage while also giving back to the places most dear to their heart, Boston and County Leitrim. "It is in this spirit that we are truly privileged to be part of this project to commemorate Leitrims most famous son. Of course, this could never have been accomplished if it wasnt for the tireless work of Seamus Shanley and the Sean Mac Diarmada Commemoration Committee and we thank them as well as the family of Sean Mac Diarmada for allowing us to be a part of this historic event. There will also be the launch of a song Sean Mac Diarmada the pride of Coranmore that was commissioned by Drumshanbo native and New York business man Joe MacManus after the unveiling. The song was written by well known song writer Mick Blake from Leitrim village. Chairperson of the Kiltyclogher Sean Mac Diarmada Commemoration Committee, Padraig McSharry, said: we are really looking forward to the unveiling of this plaque and the launch of the song and we hope to see a large crowd there on what will be an historic occasion. We are very grateful and honoured to have County Leitrim Society of Boston and Joe MacManus involved in these projects. It is a sign that the memory of Sean Mac Diarmada is held very dear to all Leitrim people no matter what part of the world they maybe in. We are looking forward to having members of the Mac Diarmada family there to mark this occasion, he said in conclusion this week. In Evelyn Waughs Handful of Dust, the fortunate owner of a fantastic Gothic English country pile, Tony Last, has an idyllic life which is gradually brought crashing down by a series of unfortunate events including betrayal by his wife. He ends the book trapped as a prisoner in the Brazilian jungle the plaything of an insane tribal chief having to continually read Charles Dickens Little Dorrit to the inhabitants. I thought of this in connection with Julian Assange. He was born in the wonderful town of Townsville in Queensland, Australia (above), a place of sun, sea and sugar beet. By an oddly circuitous route, he has ended up surrounded by Harrods hampers in a room in Knightsbridge. He may not enjoy walks in the park but he can eat hand cut piccalilli on demerera shortbreads. There is a great deal of the ridiculous and tragic in the whole episode. The similarity with Handful of Dust breaks down in that the books main character, Tony Last, did not do anything to bring about his ridiculous situation. That cannot be said for Julian Assange. The UN working group report issued yesterday was interesting. How can someone be described as being arbitrarily detained when they themselves flee bail and enter a building and are free to leave it? But thats just my laymans view. I turn to Joshua Rozenberg for a legal-minded opinion: it fell to the fifth member of the group, Vladimir Tochilovsky, to point out the flaw in the majoritys reasoning. They had assumed that Assange had been detained in the embassy of Ecuador by the authorities of the United Kingdom, the Ukrainian lawyer wrote. In fact, the Wikileaks founder had fled bail in June 2012 and used the embassy as a safe haven to evade arrest. Fugitives often do that, Tochilovsky pointed out. But premises of self-confinement cannot be considered places of detention for the purposes of the mandate of the working group. That is so self-evidently true that it seems hard to believe the majority could have been persuaded otherwise. Assange has always been free to leave the embassy at any time. Of course, he knew he would be arrested for breach of his bail conditions. Of course, he knew he would face extradition to Sweden. Of course, he knew that he might face extradition to the United States once proceedings in Sweden were at an end. But that does not mean he was detained, and still less that his detention was of an arbitrary character. Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael said: Liberal Democrats have always said Julian Assange should return to Sweden to face the allegations against him in a fair trial. The UK has a legal obligation to fulfil a European Arrest Warrant to extradite Mr Assange and it is vital that the Government sees this through. Liberal Democrat peer, Ken MacDonald QC, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, described the situation beyond parody and continued: Julian Assange is wanted in connection with a grave sexual offence in a country that has a fair-trial justice system consistent with the highest international standards. Instead of cooperating with the Swedish authorities, as he should have done, Mr Assange has chosen to hole up in a foreign embassy, deliberately frustrating a serious criminal investigation. To describe his situation as arbitrary detention is ludicrous. Assange is relying, rather overly and strangely, on the report of the UN working party because he has failed to get his case considered through the more obvious and legally robust avenue of the ECHR, as the Guardian reports: The European court of human rights was another option(for Assange)although the Strasbourg court confirmed on Friday that an application lodged by Assange in November against the UK and Sweden had been declared inadmissible the following month. In the light of all this, Assanges statements yesterday were bordering on farce. If Assange was likely to be extradited to a country with a poor justice and human rights record, then one could understand his reluctance to leave himself open to extradition. But Sweden? I can see no immediate resolution to this impasse. Perhaps an accomodation can be agreed for Swedish investigators to question Assange while sharing pink champagne and spoonfuls of Russian caviar from his Harrods hampers in the Equadorian embassy. One imagines that the saga may not end until 2020 when the Swedish statute of limitations runs out on Mr Assanges rape allegation. That is no justice for the alleged victim in Sweden. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is currently taking a break from his role as one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings. Kirsty will be making her keynote speech in an hour or so. She always speaks with such warmth and passion and sensitivity so Im really looking forward to it. Last night at the opening Conference rally, she was in great form. Heres her speech from that event in full: Before we begin, I just wanted to point something out to you. Every single one of the people whove spoken tonight are women. In fact, all the candidates in our most gainable seats are female Eluned Parrott in Cardiff Central Elizabeth Evans in Ceredigion Veronica German leading the regional list in South East Wales And Jane Dodds in Montgomeryshire too. All of them in seats we want to win. All of them chosen by local members on their own merits. All of them outstanding local champions, whose communities would be well served with them as Assembly Members. [pause] Now, youll get to hear much more from me tomorrow up in Cardiff Met about the fresh ideas Welsh Liberal Democrats have for Wales. But this rally is about winning for our communities. Yes, I love my party and Im incredibly proud to be your Leader, But I love my community too. Because the people of Brecon and Radnorshire care about their area, and they care about one another. They work together to make things happen. Whether its coming together to save Glasburys public toilets or saving the Crickhowell Corn Exchange from closure. Its that collective action to make their communities a better place to be. But it must be said, these characteristics arent unique to my part of the world. Every single community in Wales has that ability, local people have those instincts in them. But it is our role, as believers of localism, as local champions, as liberals, to enable communities to act in this way. To bring out the best of our neighbourhoods. Because a nation is only as good as the sum of its parts. And if we want Wales to be the best it can be, then we will only achieve it by enabling our communities to be the best they can be too. As Ive already said, I care about the people I represent so much. Which is why it disheartens me so much to say that Brecon and Radnorshire is worse off since we lost our Welsh Lib Dem MP. The dedication and hard work of Roger Williams over fifteen years stood our communities in good stead. He, and his team of able staff, were always there for his constituents, and willing to help anyone who needed it. Let me be clear: I dont blame local people for last May. The Tories message, drumming up the fear of an SNP tail wagging a Labour dog, was hard to resist. But Id be lying if I told you that there wasnt a sense of regret among many of the people Ive spoken to recently. And to be honest, I dont blame them for that either. Because our new Conservative MP hasnt even been in the job a year, but hes already letting local people down. He seems all too willing to say one thing, then do another. You could call him an EVEL Tory ..you know, English Votes for English Laws? Our Tory MP spoke in the Westminster debate about it. He raised the very valid issue of cross-border healthcare, pointing out that many of his constituents or refugees as David Davies calls them rely on NHS services in England. He admitted that he would, and I quote, in effect lose my voice on matters across the border. Yet what did he do? He voted in favour of it. He willingly allowed his ability to influence services that his constituents rely on day in, day out, to be restricted. Can you believe it? Having a Tory MP who willingly votes away his own influence, his own ability to stand up for local people, is not in the best interests of my constituents. And they certainly dont need another Tory yes man in the Assembly either. Brecon and Radnorshire needs an AM with proven experience. An AM whos not afraid to work with others to achieve for local people. An AM with a track record of getting things done. Thats exactly what Ive aspired to be over the sixteen years that Ive represented Brecon and Radnor. Over 24,000 problems and issues solved for local people. It isnt half hard work, but it isnt half rewarding too. When Powys council launch an attack on Brecon and Radnors schools, Closing them down come what may, It isnt right. Ive been fighting hard alongside local councillors and campaigners to keep schools like Gwernyfed, Nantmel, Llanbiste, and Dolau open. Welsh Liberal Democrats recognise the value of these rural schools. And its not like we havent got form on this. Back in those days of Partnership Government in Cardiff Bay, we secured extra cash to keep these smaller village schools open. Keeping these vital resources at the heart of our towns and villages. Ensuring children could get an education without travelling for miles on end every single day. And thats what Ill continue to fight for in Brecon and Radnorshire, and the heart of your communities is what you all should fight for too. The local school, the local pub, the local bank. Dont let them leave, because all too often, once theyre gone theyre gone. Then again, you dont need me to tell you all to do that, do you? Because youre Welsh Liberal Democrats. Its in your blood! Youre already practicing community champions. And Im very proud to be supported by perfect examples of community champion wherever I go as leader. Whether its any one of our excellent team of Assembly Members and candidates, or whether its people like Cllr Rob Walsh in Wrexham who sweep to victory in a by-election on a wave of local support. We are a proud party, proud of our record, proud of delivering for our communities. You know, Welsh Liberal Democrats have the deepest roots of any Welsh party, But we also have the deepest roots in our own communities. Not only are we the founders of proper pavement politics, But no other party does it like we do. No other party can combine that pure community activism with a true vision that will help local people. Not Plaid, whos ruthless centralising agenda will leave Welsh people with no say over their community. Not the Tories, who are too busy doing Westminsters bidding to stand up for local people. Not UKIP, whos divisive rhetoric will drive a wedge between our communities at the very time we should be standing together, united. And dont even get me started on Labours record Ill save that one for tomorrow. Only the Welsh Liberal Democrats have the fresh ideas needed to win for our communities. Revitalising our local high streets. Helping GP surgeries stay open for longer. Giving local people more power over their own lives. And its only the Welsh Liberal Democrats who have the team of strong community champions to deliver for local people. Not just Elizabeth, Veronica and Eluned here, but all our other candidates too. Their combined knowledge and experience is second to none, making them able to stand up for every single person in Wales. Doesnt matter if youre young or old, You live in an urban or rural community, Employed or not, Black or white, Male / female / straight / gay and everything in between. The Welsh Liberal Democrats will put you at the heart of our plan for Wales. Putting people first. And if thats what you want for your community, If thats what you want for your nation, I need you to go out there and work for it. Knock those doors Deliver those leaflets Pound those pavements Work until everyone in your community knows that the Welsh Liberal Democrats are standing up for them. If you do that, we truly will win for our communities, And deliver change for a better Wales. Thank you. Talking about sex can lead to internet filters having a bit of a hissy fit. A very sensible IR Cymru motion on sex education has meant that the Welsh Lib Dem website, where it appears on the Conference agenda. The Daily Post has the details: Just hours before the rally to kick start their annual conference the partys website has been barred by the buldings public wi-fi. It has been placed in the same category of proscribed sites along with hard core porn sites. But it has emerged the reason for the block is that the conference programme mentions the word sex or sexual 18 times. The policy motion named lets talk about sex includes calls for parents legal right to remove their child from any part of sex education classes to be binned. The Lib Dem who proposed the sex and relationships education motion, Cadan ap Tomos, said it seemed the Assembly found the Lib Dem conference too much to handle. Followers on twitter reacted to the image, with one man tweeting saucy lib dems! another put I dread to think. Last nights Conference rally was one of the highlights so far. As party members gathered in a hotel suite, four fantastic Welsh Lib Dem women, two current AMs, two target seat candidates helped set out the Liberal Democrat vision and values ahead of Mays election. Eluned Parrott proved to be a very funny chair of the event, with a little anecdote about each of the speakers. Veronica German used to work as a tester for Cadburys. Nice work if you can get it. Her great Uncle was an ice cream pioneer as the original Mr Whippy. Liz Evans is known as the Queen in some circles because of her love of corgis and has a great hat collection. And Kirsty, she told us, was named the 47th coolest woman in Wales. A massive theme of this whole conference has been about giving communities control over their own destiny and Liz Evans highlighted that this is instinctive to us. Strong, thriving communities are vital to Liberal Democrats. We get localism says Evans. #WLDConf Caron Lindsay (@caronmlindsay) February 5, 2016 Local people are best off when they have power and Lib Dems are in power says Evans. #wldconf Caron Lindsay (@caronmlindsay) February 5, 2016 Another big theme of the weekend has been public services and how they are being pretty atrociously run in Wales. Veronica German talked about the Royal Gwent Hospital in South Wales which has been promised a desperately needed critical care unit. How far have Labour got with delivering it? A fence. And a wee bit of grass. She also tackled UKIP head on. She said that Welsh people may not be too impressed that they are sending Neil Hamilton and Mark Reckless to stand in two UKIP targets. They are standing for the Assembly although their policy is to abolish it and have Welsh affairs decided by a Grand Committee of Welsh MPs. I saw quite a lot of parallels with Scottish politics failing public services, a nationalist party who will blame Westminster for everything and want to centralise everything that sits still for more than five seconds and the issue of the Severn Bridge takes me back 10 years to the Dunfermline by-election, almost exactly 10 years ago. Then, Willie Rennie fought on a platform of getting rid of the tolls on the Forth Road Bridge, which the Lib Dems helped to deliver. Listening to people talk abut the economic impact of keeping a 13 for commercial vehicles on a main route from England to Wales, you wonder how people ever thought it was a good idea. Its bound to inhibit opportunity and economic growth on both sides. The Liberal Democrats have long championed the removal of the tolls. When it was Kirstys turn to speak, she talked quite emotionally about what her community mean to her and how inspired she had been by the way they worked together to save local venues or public toilets or schools. She wants to see that community spirit renewed and inspired across Wales: Every single community in Wales has that ability, local people have those instincts in them. But it is our role, as believers of localism, as local champions, as liberals, to enable communities to act in this way. To bring out the best of our neighbourhoods. Because a nation is only as good as the sum of its parts. And if we want Wales to be the best it can be, then we will only achieve it by enabling our communities to be the best they can be too. The third theme that has been repeated over the weekend is a plea for all Welsh Liberal Democrats to get out there and work their backsides off for the election. If thats what you want for your community, if thats what you want for your nation, I need you to go out there and work for it. Knock those doors. Deliver those leaflets. Pound those pavements Work until everyone in your community knows that the Welsh Liberal Democrats are standing up for them. If you do that, we truly will win for our communities, and deliver change for a better Wales. Tim Farron continued with the same idea today. Where we work we win works again, he said. Lets make sure we put that to the test over the weeks and months to come. More nurses to save lives .@kirsty_williams talking about her nurses campaign, motivated by seeing an over-stretched admissions unit #wldconf pic.twitter.com/1hvuU95XCh Caron Lindsay (@caronmlindsay) February 5, 2016 Immediately after the rally, there was a pre-dinner drinks reception held by the Royal College of Nurses. Kirsty talked about her motivation for fighting for safe nurse staffing levels. She had taken a family member to an assessment unit and found the nurses under intense pressure, often working long beyond their shift end because they didnt want to leave their patients. Who, she said, would be responsible if one of those tired nurses made a mistake. It was unlikely to be the managers who had put them in that position. The speaker from the Royal College of Nursing said that there was clear evidence to show that safer staffing levels saved lives. One thing happened at that reception that amused me. I was talking with some friends, inadvertently in front of the banner where Kirsty was planning to make her speech. I have known leaders (none of the current incumbents, I hasten to add) who might have got their staff to move the plebs on. She didnt. She came up like a normal human being and asked us politely to move, which of course we did. It was an evening full of warmth and determination and clarity of purpose, setting out themes that would develop across the weekend. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings I shall just start by saying that I love this auditorium. Its a lecture theatre so I am sitting up the back with my laptop on an actual desk, not precariously balanced on my lap. I should also mention that this is a Conference which has smashed all its budget projections. There are a healthy complement of stalls from external exhibitors, 6 fringe meetings today and a healthy attendance of over 250 members. And this is why conferences in lecture theatres are such a good idea. #wldconf pic.twitter.com/KrvLOizbMV Caron Lindsay (@caronmlindsay) February 6, 2016 Eluned Parrott AM opened Conference with a speech outlining how the Liberal Democrats would strengthen communities and transform the economy by ditching the Thatcherite mantra and levelling the playing field, investing in infrastructure to maximise inclusion and minimise isolation. She said: 17 years since the Welsh Assembly was founded is the Welsh economy in a better place? No. Theres been 17 years of managed inertia. In the good years whilst the rest of the UK economy grew, Wales was left behind. In the bad years, Wales has been hit hardest by recession. It makes me furious to watch a government that has at times just scratched around for someone else to blame. On Steel I have watched the warning signs of this industry in trouble not for months but for years. I have stood up in the chamber and asked the minister to do something about it; to cut business rates on heavy machinery, to demand the highest standards in our procurement policy, to make sure that no grey market imports are ever used in our governments contracts. This isnt abstract this is to protect livelihoods and communities, and Ive heard back time after time is, well think about it. And no, I know that the Labour Government cant do everything. But since when was that an excuse to do nothing? To properly close that wealth gap, and close it for good, we need a plan. To build sustainable growth through resolving our structural problems. We need to end the kind of chocolate box politics which offers a shiny new name for the same hackneyed old ideas. The Welsh Liberal Democrats call for a new direction: a long term, internationalist, economic plan which fixes the foundations, brings balanced growth to our economy, and allows our deeply rooted industries and enterprises to grow and develop. There is only one party that is on the side of small businesses. One party on the side of entrepreneurs. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are the only party that have the policies which will build sustainable growth, across Wales. Our communities cannot afford 5 more years of Labour inertia. Policing Debate Richard Church, an old friend from the East Midlands who has now moved to Wales says hes the first man to speak at this Conference which, after the rally and Lynne speaking at the dinner, is very true. He is speaking in the debate on Policing in Wales. Richard is standing to be a Police and Crime Commissioner, a post he says he wants to see the end of because it concentrates power too much. Power, he says, is like much, better spread about as thinly as possible. Where is it all going to end, he asks, as Theresa May suggests PCCs could run schools and Labours Alun Michael wants to run the fire service too. Public involvement in police decision making is negligible as one person seeks to direct policing in a vast area with no respect for needs of individual communities. We know just locking people up doesnt work, nor does criminalising people for drug possession. We are fighting these PCC elections not because we want the power but because we want to break up the power of these offices and restore it to local communities. Jade Smith tells a very alarming tale of a postcode lottery in policing services. In her former home she was bullied and harassed by her neighbours because of her disability. However the Police did nothing to help her. In contrast, when she moved to Cardiff and suffered a break-in, the Police could not have done more for her. And now for a new experience for me. Aled Roberts AM speaks in Welsh and we can listen to a simultaneous translation. Mark Cole talks about the huge costs of running PCC offices and compares that with the cuts in front-line crime prevention strategies. This, by the way, is his 50th Conference, which is very disconcerting given that most of us think hes only 21. IR Cymrus Gurleen Kaur gives a short but very important speech highlighting the distrust between young people, particular in BAME communities and the police and how this needs to remedied. I shall continue coverage in the next open thread, covering the manifesto debate. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings You are here: Home Flash A fire at a hotel killed 17 people on Friday in the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region, including foreigners, the local governor said. "The fire broke out this evening inside a hotel in Arbil that has killed 17 people and wounded 10 others," Governor Nawzad Hadi said at a press conference held in Arbil city, adding that most of the victims are foreigners. The investigations are underway, he added, without saying the nationality of the victims. A security source told Xinhua that most of the victims are from the Philippines. Many foreigners worked in Iraq's Kurdistan region where security situation is relatively calm. However, Iraq is witnessing a massive wave of violence in the country, including the capital Baghdad since the Islamic State took over swaths of the country's northern and western regions in June 2014. About 10 Iraqi soldiers were killed on Friday morning in a suicide car bomb attack in Ramadi, the capital city of the western Anbar province, a security source told Xinhua. A TRIO of Limerick artists are seeking the publics help in creating a new citizens' anthem, which they intend to re-imagine as an ice cream van jingle for Eva International, which opens in April. The trio, Deirdre Power, Sean Taylor and Mikael Fernstrom, will present the Nice Screams project as part of the biennial, the pre-eminent exhibition of visual art in the country. The project is among those by 57 international artists selected by curator Koyo Kouoh for the 37th edition of Eva, titled Still (the) Barbarians, which opens on April 16 at the City Gallery, Cleeves Factory and other locations. Nice Screams, a socially engaged, collaborative project by Power and Softday Taylor and Fernstrom, who convert data into music has at its heart a competition, with a 200 prize, for the public to create a citizens anthem celebrating Ireland of 2016. The idea emerged from one Power - who has seen her work appear in a number of iterations of Eva - had for an ideas choir. Taking Ms Kouohs specific brief for the exhibition, which uses the post-colonial condition of Ireland as a jumping off point, coinciding as it does with the centenary of the Easter Rising, Power approached Softday about the project. The notion of the contentious national anthem emerged from their research, discovering as they did that the Dublin Evening Mail had run a competition to find an anthem in 1924, but that all of the submissions were deemed unsuitable by the judging panel, which included WB Yeats. We are not really questioning the anthem, we are more questioning the idea of who decides what it is. I think the premise of the prize is interesting - a simple one, open to the public, with a prize, so we are mimicking or appropriating that idea in a contemporary setting, explained Deirdre. I suppose it was questioning that idea of who decides on what represents what is Irish or nationalism. (This) is just a very fun, light hearted approach to making art. Submissions of music or lyrics can be made in printed form or online, and Taylor and Fernstrom will convert them into music and finally, in assocation with Shannon Ices, who have provided the ice cream trucks, a jingle will emerge. We are looking for something that is original and novel. We are also looking for a melody that is catchy, explained Sean, co-programme leader of the MA in Social Pratice and the Creative Environment in LSAD. There has always been a controversy around the anthem. Given that it is the centenary of 1916 and we are looking at everything to do with our national identity, the question we are posing is, who owns an anthem, what is an anthem, what is it supposed to represent? We are drawing - cheekily - an analogy between the anthem and my personal favourite, which is the ice cream van chime. Because you could be in the middle of Amhran na Bhfiann and if an ice cream truck went past playing O Sole Mio - youd be off. And the kids would be off. We are playing with that to address the more serious issues of the lyrics of our national anthem and how relevant they are. We are hoping the project will really kick start some conversations around what constitutes an anthem, what it is supposed to be about. The end result will be a public performance of the music, utilising the ice cream trucks, with free tricolour ice cream in cones, wrapped in the submitted lyrics. Entries can be dropped into the Limerick Leader, or see www.softday.ie/nicescreams. The various projects were selected through an open call for proposals and Eva will run until July 17. Ms Kouoh, from Cameroon, a founding artistic director of RAW Material Company, a centre for art in Dakar, told the Leader recently that her hope was that the biennial activates the city, very much, in a sense that the people of Limerick take ownership of that event and that they feel reflected in the exhibition - in that they consider it their own and participate. Minister for Education Jan OSullivan was the special guest at the launch of this year's school musical in Salesian Secondary College, Pallaskenry this week. This years production is Beauty and the Beast and it will be staged in the Lime Tree theatre in Mary I College on February 25 and 26. Principal Paddy ONeill said music had always been an integral part of school life. Our school hall was built in 1952 with a fantastic stage, two rooms off stage and 10 music rooms where students could learn and play music. In the 50s, 60s and 70s musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat, and school original productions were staged, he said. This is the first time the musical will be moving out of the school and all the crew and cast are excited about taking to the stage in the Lime Tree. During her visit, Minister OSullivan also presented the school with the National & European Quality Label Award for Language. This was in recognition of an e-twinning project which the fifth year Spanish class took park in. The project was designed to provide students with an opportunity to learn about and communicate with other language learners across Europe using their target language (in this case, Spanish) by completing tasks based on everyday situations. They did this by using a variety of ICT skills and their work was recorded and displayed on a shared blog. See page 22 of Leader 2 for more pictures If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option. Music, Movies & Entertainment, School & Education, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: February 06 2016 The Green Vale School welcomed noted jazz percussionist Richie Barshay to campus on Thursday, January 28. Barshay held percussion-based workshops with grades 4-8, giving students the opportunity to learn globally-inspired jazz elements. Old Brookville, NY - February 6th, 2016 - The Green Vale School welcomed noted jazz percussionist Richie Barshay to campus on Thursday, January 28. Barshay, who has played with Herbie Hancock, the Klezmatics, Chick Corea, Natalie Merchant, and Bobby McFerrin, held percussion-based workshops with grades 4-8, giving students the opportunity to learn globally-inspired jazz elements. Following the five musical workshops, Barshay and his bandmates the Richie Barshay Trio guitarist Yoshie Fruchter and bassist Moto Fukushima delighted the 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and faculty with a 45-minute performance showcasing their jazz, Afro-Caribbean, and Indian-inspired musical style. What was particularly special about this experience was that the students engaged actively with the material before seeing the performance, Green Vale Choral Director Jessica Chen said. Having the opportunity to learn various world rhythms through movement, singing, and drumming ahead of time meant that they were able to grasp the performance in a much deeper way. It was a rich experience which contributed not only to their musical education, but to their sense of global citizenship as well. About The Green Vale School The Green Vale School, located in Old Brookville, Long Island, is an ndependent school specializing in Early Childhood through Middle School situated on a 40-acre campus on the doorstep of New York City. Green Vale has been providing students with an uncommon core of academic excellence and character development since 1923 inspiring students to excel, to lead and to care. 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 This should be Marco Rubios moment. The Florida senator achieved an impressive third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, behind Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Third place may not sound like much, but Rubio outperformed his poll numbers handily and finished only a hair behind Trump. That was enough to allow him to indulge in a victory speech and proceed to New Hampshire as the presumed front-runner in the mini-field of candidates not named Cruz or Trump. Rubios challenge now is making that status permanent and becoming the only credible alternative to the two insurgent candidates, which wont be easy. There are other candidates in the establishment lane, and none of them is ready to give way to a first-term senator. By traditional measures, its an impressive lane: two successful big-state governors, John Kasich of Ohio and Jeb Bush, Floridas former executive; a less-successful, but still significant figure, Chris Christie of New Jersey; and Rubio himself, a rising star who is probably the most eloquent candidate in either party. Leading up to the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Rubio will argue that his showing in Iowa makes him the logical choice, and that hes the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton in November. If youre not with Marco, youre electing the Democrats, a new ad from Rubios super PAC warned. But electability is an argument that, historically, moves only a minority of Republicans, even in pragmatic New Hampshire. Rubio has a substantive problem, too. The senator is very smart, very smooth and very malleable. He started in politics as a protege of Jeb Bush; now hes running against Bush. He came to Washington as one of the original tea party insurgents, then morphed into an establishment conservative and now, in the heat of the campaign, hes trying to reverse his evolution. In his most dramatic moment in the Senate, Rubio co-sponsored bipartisan immigration reform only to discover that most Republican voters hated the idea, so he renounced it. (Hes still living that down; at nearly every debate, Cruz accuses him of the inexpiable sin of collaboration with President Obama and Chuck Schumer.) Lately, Rubio has become ever tougher on immigration. He once said terrorism shouldnt be a reason to restrict legal immigration, but in January, after fear of terrorism rose, he said the entire system of legal immigration must now be re-examined for security first. Hes changed his position on trade, as well; once a major proponent of Obamas Trans-Pacific Partnership, he now says he is reviewing the agreement and does not know whether he will vote for it. On a more stylistic note, Rubio began his campaign promising to be a candidate of optimism but when optimism didnt sell, he added a dose of pessimism. As I travel the country, he said last month, people say what I feel. This country is changing. It feels different. We feel like were being left behind and left out. Rubio argues that hes the only candidate who can unite the two wings of a party at war with itself. He has tried to be the GOPs Goldilocks candidate, conservative but not reactionary or angry. The danger is that he may have made himself too moderate for Cruz voters, too conciliatory for Trump voters and too conservative for Bush and Kasich voters. In an earlier, simpler era, Republicans might have turned to their partys establishment its officeholders and big donors to sort this out. But grandees cant shove lagging candidates toward the exit any more mostly because they have succeeded in eliminating almost any limit on campaign contributions. Bush raised more than $155 million up to the end of last year, and still has plenty left to spend. Even Kasich, an underdog moderate, raised almost $23 million, spent most of it in New Hampshire, and went back to donors for another $4 million last month. So theres no reason for them to withdraw. Instead, theyre staying the course and trying to knock Rubio out of his privileged spot. There seems to be a personal edge to the competition, too. Rubio says he sees no reason to wait in line behind his elders. The elders have responded combatively, suggesting he should get off their lawn. Christie, for instance, dismissed Rubio on Tuesday as the boy in the bubble, and someone whos never done anything in life telling everybody his canned speech. Ultimately, Rubios bronze medal as the establishment candidate who did best in Iowa may not count for much in New Hampshire. The other establishment candidates show no sign of lining up behind him. Thanks partly to their battle for the establishment lane, theyre still likely to hand first place in the nations first primary to the least traditional candidate of all: Donald Trump. An Al Nusrah Front convoy streams into Aleppo province in late January. Al Nusrah Front, al Qaedas official branch in Syria, sent a massive convoy of fighters to the Aleppo province in late January. The jihadists redeployment was promoted in a short video posted on Twitter. More than 100 vehicles filled with fighters streamed into the province. It was a harbinger of the heavy fighting to come. Bashar al Assads regime, backed by Russian airstrikes, Iranian-sponsored Shiite militias and Hezbollah, launched a major offensive in Aleppo earlier this month. The fight for the province is likely the most important battle in Syria since early last year, when the Jaysh al Fateh coalition, led by Al Nusrah and Ahrar al Sham (an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group) swept through the neighboring Idlib province. If Assad and his allies are successful it will not only allow them to lay siege to the city of Aleppo, parts of which have been controlled by the insurgents since 2012, but also to cut off Idlib. Assad wants to secure the northern part of the province, which borders Turkey and houses vital supply routes for the insurgency. The Syrian government claims to have made gains in pursuit of this objective in recent days. The Syrian Army, in cooperation with paramilitary groups, restored security and stability to Rityan and Mair towns in the northern countryside of Aleppo province, Assads propaganda arm, SANA, claimed yesterday. The purported gains came two days after SANA reported that the Syrian Army and its allies broke the siege imposed on Nubbul and al-Zahra towns by terrorist organizations. SANA claimed that [s]cores of terrorists were killed, most of them from [Al Nusrah Front] during the operations. Nubbul and al-Zahra are both Shiite-majority towns in the northern part of Aleppo. There is an ebb and flow to the fighting in Aleppo, as elsewhere, making it difficult to tell if the governments gains are lasting, or just temporary. For example, although SANA says Rityan has been retaken from the insurgents, Al Nusrah continues to post images from the fighting there. And although SANA says all of the opposition to the government in Aleppo comes from terrorist organizations, the reality is more complex. Jihadist groups such as Al Nusrah are partnering with other rebel organizations, including Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Islamist factions, in an attempt to thwart the Syrian governments advances. The opposition in Aleppo One of the strongest rebel groups in Aleppo is the Nur al-Din al-Zanki Movement. Members of Zanki and Al Nusrah clashed at a checkpoint in late September and early October, 2015. Zankis political bureau then denounced Al Nusrah in tweets that were published in both English and Arabic. However, the infighting did not lead to a permanent rift between the two. Instead, Zanki complied with Al Nusrahs demands and quickly apologized. In a statement written in Arabic and released on social media, Zanki said its criticism of Al Nusrah did not represent the [Zanki] movements official positionand we owe [an] exoneration of our brothers from what was attributed to them accusations, insinuations, and slander [libel] to God Almighty, and we only think properly of them. The relationship between us and our [Nusrah] brothers is proceeding on even better terms than what it was in the past, and this incident which occurred between us and our [Nusrah] brothers will not deter us from vigorously continuing to strengthen the bond of Islamic brotherhood between us and them, and which obligates us religiously to cooperate and combine efforts and fight off the aggressor enemy, Zankis apology continued. The statement ended with a call for both Zanki and Al Nusrah to [ensure] that the only judgment in any dispute between us should be based on religious law. Zanki is not al Qaeda. But as the skirmish with Al Nusrah demonstrated, Zanki does not want to offend al Qaedas men, cooperates with them on the battlefield and believes in a version of religious law (sharia) that is at least similar to Al Nusrahs. Despite its adherence to an Islamist ideology and alliance with Al Nusrah, Zanki has received American-made TOW missiles, which it has used against both the Assad regime and the Islamic State. Another Islamist organization in Aleppo is Faylaq al Sham (Sham Legion), which fought as part of the Jaysh al Fateh coalition in Idlib. In early January, however, Faylaq al Sham announced that it was leaving Jaysh al Fateh to concentrate on the fighting in Aleppo. The group subsequently merged with others to form the North Brigade in Aleppo. In late December, Sheikh Umar Huzaifa, a senior Faylaq al Sham official, was one of 38 ideologues who signed a statement proclaiming that jihad is an individual obligation for all Muslims in situations like this. The statements signatories, who belong to the Association of Scholars in Sham, portrayed the war in Syria as one pitting a Crusader-Zionist-Safawi [Shiites and Iranians] alliance against Sunni Muslims. The associations scholars claimed it is no longer hidden from our Beloved Ummah [community of worldwide Muslims] what has reached the land of Sham with the rushing forward of the entire nations of Kufr [disbelief] against it, because it has become manifest in the Crusader-Zionist-Safawi coalition rushing to eliminate the revolution of the people of Sham and their blessed jihad. The battle of Sham has become a decisive battle against the nations of Kufr, the statement continued, as the rebels enemies gather to establish the Rafidhi [rejectionist] Shia to fulfill their drawn up plans for their (Shia) crescent (on the map) and to eliminate Sunni belief in Syria and elsewhere. Other signatories on the statement issued by the Association of Scholars in Sham included Sheikh Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini (an al Qaeda-affiliated cleric and judge in Jaysh al Fateh), members of Al Nusrah Front and Ahrar al Sham, Sheikh Sirajuddin Zurayqat (emir of the al Qaeda-linked and Lebanon-based Abdullah Azzam Brigades), as well as a number of other officials. The battle for Aleppo is a complex, multi-sided affair. The organizations discussed above are just some of those fighting on the ground. The Islamic State, the Kurds, and the Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces all have a presence. Another group is Liwa Suqour al Jabal, which has reportedly received assistance from the CIA. Liwa Suqour al Jabal fights in Aleppo and has been targeted in Russian airstrikes. The Russian (air) cover continues night and day, there were more than 250 air strikes on this area in one day, Hassan Haj Ali, the leader of Liwa Suqour al Jabal, told Reuters in an interview. The regime is now trying to expand the area it has taken control of, Ali explained. Now the northern countryside (of Aleppo) is totally encircled, and the humanitarian situation is very difficult. The fight for Aleppo may very well shape the course of the war. And as the battle has raged on, jihadists have called for even more reinforcements. Sheikh Muhaysini, a popular jihadist cleric, has repeatedly urged Muslims to join the rebel ranks and for the existing insurgent organizations to unite under a common banner. It remains to be seen if the jihadists, Islamists and other rebels can thwart the Assad regimes advances. Note: David Daoud, an Arabic-Language Analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, contributed to this article. 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. Kassala, Sudan By AFP Sudanese security forces have arrested an Eritrean opposition leader in Khartoum without giving any reasons, a member of his party said on Tuesday."The Sudanese security forces arrested the head of the Eritrean Liberation Front and head of the Eritrean National Council Hussein Khalifa on Saturday without giving any reasons," the party member said on condition of anonymity.Agents from the National Intelligence and Security Service came to Khalifa's home and took him without giving any information.NISS also detained "a member of the front's executive office Abdullah Hamodai from his home in the town of Kassala" in eastern Sudan, the party member told AFP."We fear they will be handed over to the ruling regime in Eritrea," the source said.There was no way to immediately confirm Khalifa's detention as NISS does not normally comment to media about individual cases.The Eritrean National Council is an alliance of groups opposed to the authoritarian Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki.Eastern Sudan is home to thousands of Eritrean refugees.Sudan had accused Eritrea of backing rebel groups in its impoverished eastern region but since the end of that insurgency in 2006, relations between Khartoum and Asmara have improved. As of January 1 2016, Law 4335/2015 has come into force. This law was passed in the context of structural reforms imposed by Greece's creditors as a condition to the bailout with an objective to accelerate judicial proceedings and includes important amendments to the code of civil procedure. In accordance with these new provisions, the procedure for main action proceedings before the courts of first instance is amended from a partially oral procedure, which included an oral examination of witnesses, to a written procedure. In exceptional cases the court may consider that the case not been sufficiently clear in order to reach a decision and may summon witnesses to be examined orally. Moreover, in accordance with the new system, starting from the date of filing of the lawsuit, certain deadlines are set within which the foreseen procedures should have been concluded, contrary to the practice followed until now. In this context, the briefs are submitted within a term of 100 or 130 days (if the party is based abroad) from the filing of the lawsuit and the additional pleadings within the following 15 days from the expiry of the above deadline. With the lapse of this deadline the file of the case is technically considered completed, that is mature for a judgment to be delivered. Within a term of 15 days starting from the date that the file is closed, the judge rapporteur is appointed, while at the same time a hearing date for the discussion of the case is fixed within 30 days. It should be noted that at the hearing no witnesses are examined. The examination of witnesses takes place if this is considered absolutely necessary following the study of the file. In such a case, the repetition of the hearing is ordered and following the end of the testimonies, the repetition of the hearing is considered concluded. The evaluation of the testimonies shall be conducted within a term of eight working days As regards preliminary injunction proceedings, according to the new provisions, the judge has to decide within 48 hours following the hearing or following the expiry of the deadline granted to the parties for submitting a memorandum. Alternatively, the judge may deliver a judgment beyond the 48 hour deadline but in any case within 30 days of the hearing or memorandum submission deadline. The law provides that the court's reasoning be brief. While at present, in case of a preliminary injunction granted, the applicant has to follow up with a main action within 30 days of the judgment, according to the new law, the judge has full discretion in setting a deadline for filing a main action. Constantinos Kilimiris Patrinos & Kilimiris7, Hatziyianni Mexi Str.GR-11528 AthensGreeceTel: +30210 7222906, 7222050Fax: +30210 7222889info@patrinoskilimiris.comwww.patrinoskilimiris.com President Barack Obama wants some Vietnam-era bombs, which never exploded, to be cleared from Laos. These bombs were dropped as part of Operation Menu, a military program that ran from 1964 to 1973 in Laos as well as eastern Cambodia. This operation was carried out in a covert manner by the United States Strategic Air Command. The main aim of these attacks was to destroy the bases and shelters of Viet Cong forces and Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The aforementioned entities used these areas in order to refurbish their supplies, train, and catch a breath while fighting a war with the US at South Vietnam, which was then known as Republic of Vietnam and was located just across the border. In the end the US was unable to stop North Vietnamese forces from taking over and administering the country. How much bombing was done and how do these bombs persist till date? The said bombs are being called UXO or leftover unexplained ordinance. This implies that they are still there and have not exploded. Between 1964 and 1973 US dropped at least two million tons of bombs. In all, 580,000 bombing missions were carried out. This meant that almost one plane full of bombs was dropped at an interval of every eight minutes. This also makes Laos one of the countries to have faced the most massive amount of bombing on a per capita basis. In the nine year period the bombings left a trail of destruction ravaging scores of villages and displacing hundreds thousands of individuals. Present scenario and casualties At least 33% of the said bombs never exploded, which meant that vast areas of Laos were poisoned. The entire terrain has in many places been filled with craters. Till date more than 20,000 people have either lost their lives or been grievously injured because of the UXO explosions. This includes children as well. In fact, the situation after 1973 was so bad that many Laotians fled the country and went and sought refuge in the US itself. Laos presently accounts for more than 50% of casualties suffered from cluster ammunitions, the kind of which was dropped over there by the US. In spite of the US concerted efforts, not even 1% of the said bombs have been destroyed till date. How has Obama helped improve the situation? Barack Obama has played a significant role in improving the relations between the US and Laos. He has been actively pushing for greater efforts to remove the UXO from Laos, which is indeed a legacy that the US would like to correct. It is also expected following Kerrys visit to Vientiane that the US President will announce a major initiative in this regard. In 2013, Hilary Clinton became the first Secretary of State to visit Laos after a gap of 55 years. It is through such various initiatives that Obama has attempted to gain back the trust of the former rivals. Obama has also extended a helping hand to other countries in the region such as Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam by helping better their infrastructure, education, and health setups. How is the US planning to help Laos, improve ties, and compensate for damages? It is expected that the US might increase funding in Laos in order to clear the UXO. It started to clear the said payload more than five years back. Initially it used to spend $5 million each year. In 2014 it spent $15 million and in 2015 this amount went go up to $19.5 million. While it has not yet decided on the amount it is expected that it will indeed go up in 2016. Its efforts have made a significant contribution in the number of people who are killed or wounded because of the UXOs exploding. Traditionally, relations between both the countries have not always been the most cooperative but in the last few years both have worked towards improving relations with each other. The US has also announced several programs that are expected to address key issues in Laos like hunger and access to technology. It is expected to start a program of meals in schools of Laos with the budget fixed at US $6 million. One of the major problems in Laos is the stunted growth of children owing to malnutrition. One hopes that this program will address that deficit adequately. The US is also helping Laos with technology that could improve the potency of Lower Mekong. Also Read : Marie Claire newsletter Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Thank you for signing up to . You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions (opens in new tab) and Privacy Policy (opens in new tab) and are aged 16 or over. Cameron speaks out about father's death Cameron Diaz has spoken out about her distress at the sudden death of her father. The actress has confirmed that her father, Emilio Diaz, died on Tuesday from pneumonia at just 58 years old. In a statement to the press, the actress said: 'My mum, sister and I are deeply appreciative of the overwhelming outpouring of love and support during this difficult time for us and all of our family. My dad was loved by so many people and his humour and spirit will always live on in our hearts.' According to reports, Emilio - an oil company foreman who lived on Seal Beach in California - died after a bout of flu developed into pneumonia. Production on Diaz's new movie My Sister's Keeper has been halted following the news, and the star has cancelled an appearance at next Tuesday's Leicester Square premiere of new film What Happens in Vegas, which co-stars Ashton Kutcher. FOR MORE CAMERON DIAZ PHOTOS CLICK HERE Marie Claire newsletter Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Thank you for signing up to . You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions (opens in new tab) and Privacy Policy (opens in new tab) and are aged 16 or over. Jennifer Lawrence was snapped locking lips with a tall, dark and handsome star Jennifer Lawrence has been so busy focusing on her career recently that her love life has managed to stay relatively under the showbiz radar, that is until photos of her kissing an unidentified man on the set of her latest film emerged. JENNIFER LAWRENCE SENDS FASHION CAST OFFS TO ISLA FISHER Before the gossip mill can start turning, Jennifer Lawrence was actually in character for her latest project about the Abscam scandal. She was locking lips with a co-star although its not been confirmed who reports from the US suggest it is either Christian Bale or Twilight star, Jack Huston. Its been an eventful week on set for Jennifer who is currently on location in Boston filming the as yet un-named film directed by David ORussell. The Hunger Games actress was also seen sporting a neck brace this week as she filmed scenes. JENNIFER LAWRENCE GETS A 70S MAKEOVER ON SET OF NEW FILM Joining Jennifer in her suffering for art is Bradley Cooper whose hair had recently been permed into tight curls. The film follows the true story of a con artist who was forced to work with a federal agent to expose politicians and mobsters who were breaking the law. WATCH! Behind the scenes on Jennifer Lawrences Marie Claire photo shoot JENNIFER LAWRENCE ON HER SECRET ADDICTION JENNIFER LAWRENCES MARIE CLAIRE PHOTO SHOOT Got a tablet? You can now download Marie Claire magazine straight to your iPad (opens in new tab), Kindle (opens in new tab) (just search the store for 'Marie Claire magazine'), Nook or Google Nexus (opens in new tab). Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG 85) arrived Feb. 4 in India to participate in the nation's International Fleet Review (IFR) 2016. IFR 2016 is an international military exercise hosted by the Indian Navy to help enhance mutual trust and confidence with navies around the world. From Feb. 4 through 8, more than 50 countries will participate in the event, according to the Indian Navy's website. Some of the IFR 2016 events include: the fleet review and fly-by attended by the honorable president of India, and the International City Parade attended by the honorable prime minister of India. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson will also be present at IFR 2016 to help deepen maritime partnerships between India and the United States. Furthermore, the visit to India and interactions with other Navy leaders are reflections of CNO's recently released "A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority," which mentions "expand[ing] and strengthen[ing] our network of partners." "These critical relationships are enhanced by maintaining interoperable navy capabilities that deter regional aggression and build partner security capacity," said Cmdr. Ed Sundberg, McCampbell's commanding officer, "For some of my crew, this will be their second time visiting with the Indian Navy. They have a terrific navy and my crew looks forward to continuing and expanding our relationship with them." In addition to attending various events of IFR 2016, the CNO will meet with Sailors from Antietam and McCampbell. Capt. Michael McCartney, Antietam's commanding officer said, "We are excited to be part of the Indian International Fleet Review. Most of our shipmates have never visited India and look forward to experiencing Indian Culture first hand." The five-day exercise will provide a great opportunity for Sailors assigned to both ships to see and interact with sailors from all over the world. Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Malina Deru, from Taylorsville, Utah, said, "This is the type of experience that only happens maybe once or twice in your career. It's not every day that you get to represent the United States Navy amongst 50 other navies while getting to experience the culture of a foreign country." Antietam and McCampbell are forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, and are on patrol in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. Stock Trading HOTEL CALIFORNIA ? Which Straw Will Break this Camel's Back? DO you have to pick one? Pretty much it could be anyone. They take your stock out behind the barn and shoot in the head. Game over. OK so its only wounded, say 20% in a day. Did it put you under water? Where do we start ? Glencore is one tiny alphabet letter away from going to the lowest form of investment grade rating to JUNK. One letter. Hmmm. Not to dwell on that but is that the only piece of BAD news out there ? We know with so many Black Swans about, one of them is carrying in its bill, a straw to break this camel's back. Ukraine ? Syria ? Moldovia ? Yes, Moldovia ! Yes, Syria, oh yea. Turkey ? Kurdistan. The Saud's want to send troops to Syria, to fight whom. Anyway you get the idea, all the Monetary Authorities, and thus us, are in HOTEL CALIFORNIA. We can check out, but we can never leave. Either we NIRP or QE endlessly until the markets roll over and bring the masses out chasing them with pitchforks and torches. Or they STOP EVERYTHING ! OH, Guess what ? The music stops, and there are not enuf chairs. Now being good sports, the participants realize they are DONE !, and start breaking the chairs over one and others heads till the riot squad hauls them away in handcuffs. Of course when Joe and Mary 6PAK cant get cigs or beer, there is a fair probability they may storm the lockup, to get at the people they want to lynch. Well, no problem, right? PROBLEM. Did the markets remain liquid or did things go without bids and huge gaps open up ? Did you hear the term Liquidity Fractures ? Don't matter, that is what I came up with October 2 years ago when the Treas 10 Yr went without bid, and scared the feathers out of the secondary and primary govt security dealers. US Govt Securities WITHOUT A BID ? ? ? Flash forward to last month, when the London Silver Fix, undercut the Spot price by 84 cents and did the same thing another day. Without recounting them all, this is how the system is showing you its coming apart, because things are stopping working the way they were designed. Continious pricing full time auction markets, i.e. NYSE, will be not continious. You may have to fish for bids. Do you have say GM, or JPM, or other institutionally driven stocks, you may not notice. Having anyting less liquid subjects you to the danger of hunting for bids when you want to sell and maybe not finding them till 10-50% lower when the market are coming apart. Ugly prospect. Maybe the markets well be broken or closed when you want to sell, and everyone may want to be liquidating with or without bids, with serious consequences to your capital health. Looking at some stocks that exprienced that TODAY we see air gaps - GRA-19% 1 day loss; PPP -28% 1 day CS 13% 1 day loss. What happens the next trading week is anyone's guess. Looking at some stocks that exprienced that TODAY we see air gaps - GRA-19% 1 day loss; PPP -28% 1 day; CS 13% 1 day; RL 22% 1 day loss. What happens the next trading week is anyone's guess. It is the kind of thing that ends friendships, when you ask your broker Why didn't you tell me ? with a lot of anger cause you just lost a big chunk. Bottom LINE, SIGN up for the ALERT LIST in Feburary and you will get the newest copy of The RECAP Report, covering the latest from PEAK PICKS, with a specific Action Plan for your Capital Preservation. Get ahead of the Curve !! By Denali Guide http://denaliguidesummit.blogspot.ca To the the charts involved, go here, to my Public Stock Charts Portfolio, and go to the last section. All charts update automatically. http://stockcharts.com/public/1398475/tenpp/1 2016 Copyright Denali Guide - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. dining.jpg (AP) Soup and creative thinking are on the menu at Holyoke Soup, an event designed to promote community development. Those attending get soup, salad, and bread as well as a chance to hear cutting edge thinking about community development in the Paper City. Each session features four brief presentations; those in attendance get to question the presenters and vote for the idea they believe will best benefit Holyoke's future. The next Holyoke Soup event will be held at the Waterfront Tavern, 920 Main Street, Holyoke, on Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. For more details contact the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce at (413) 534-3376. *** The Munich Hops Club will hold its next meeting on Feb. 17. Featured beer will be Smuttynose Vunderbar Pilsner. The session will begin at 6 p.m. and will include a full buffet of oven roasted pig, house made sausages, meatballs, sauerkraut, and a number of other chef's specialties. Each attendee gets a stein of the featured beer; a Vienna-style pastry station will wrap up the event. Held at the Munich Haus Restaurant in Chicopee, the Hops Club evening is $15.95. Advance ticket purchases are required; they can be ordered on line at Munichhaus.com or by calling (413) 594-8788. *** Nancy Thomas, the proprietor of Mezze Bistro + Bar in Williamstown, is planning a series of events in 2016 to celebrate the restaurant's 20 years of operation. The restaurant, which Thomas opened in a small Water Street space back in 1996, originally focused on casual fare with a North African bent. A succession of talented chefs and two changes of address, a move up Water Street and then out onto Route 7, led to the Mezze of 2016, a farm-to-fork operation that now specializes in regional New England cuisine enlivened by a host of influences from around the globe. During the year ahead Thomas will be presenting celebratory evenings to include guest chef dinners, wine dinners and 90s-themed dance parties. Mezze will look back, reprising menu items from various periods in the operation's life. For additional information about Mezze's 20th anniversary year, follow Mezze Bistro on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or visit mezzebistro.com *** On Monday, Feb. 22, the Publick House Historic Inn in Sturbridge will be hosting another of its "Cooks for Community Organizations" events. This month's menu is an Italian feast featuring ziti with tomato sauce, meatballs, pasta primavera, and garlic bread. Salad, rolls, coffee, and dessert are also included in the $14 cash price. Two open seatings will be available, one at 4:30 p.m. and a second at 6:30 p.m. For more details contact the Publick House at (508) 347-3313. WHITE PINE, Tenn. (AP) -- An 11-year-old boy in Tennessee has been found guilty of murdering an 8-year-old girl after she and her sister refused to let him see their puppies. WATE-TV reports that Jefferson County Juvenile Court judge Dennis "Will" Roach II this week found the boy guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to state custody until he turns 19. The Associated Press does not generally identify juveniles accused of crimes. In his order, which WATE posted online, Roach said the state should use all reasonable resources to determine why the boy shot the girl, and he should be treated and rehabilitated so this never happens again. "A child who commits first-degree murder cannot be willy-nilly turned loose into society," Roach wrote. The boy is currently in detention and being evaluated as to where he should be placed, said Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Department of Children's Services. "Like any other child who comes into custody, he would need a thorough assessment and evaluation to determine the best placement," Johnson said. "At this time, it would likely be at an intensive treatment program at one of our private providers." The boy has five siblings -- three brothers and two sisters -- who have been placed with relatives and the state, Johnson said. The boy and 8-year-old McKayla Dyer lived in the same mobile home park in White Pine, Tennessee, about 40 miles outside of Knoxville. McKayla, her 11-year-old sister and another girl, also 11, were playing outside and talking to the boy while he was sitting at his bedroom window on Oct. 3, 2015. He asked the sisters to go get their puppies, the judge's order says, and when they refused he went and got a 12-gauge shotgun and a BB gun and told the girls he had guns. According to the judge's description of the events, McKayla laughed at him and responded that the guns weren't real. The boy "then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the hammer on the gun and shot the victim just above the heart at a downward trajectory," the judge wrote. "The mother of the child knelt on the ground and picked her up, placing her child in her arms as she passed away." The boy had been trained in firearm safety and had hunted with his father and grandfather, the judge noted. judge's gavel.jpg EAST HARTFORD, CONN. - John A. Barile pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Friday to arson, extortion and running an illegal gaming ring. (The Republican file) EAST HARTFORD, CONN. - A reputed mob bookmaker and associate of the Genovese crime family with Springfield ties pleaded guilty in federal court to burning down his own restaurant for $190,000 in insurance money. John A. Barile, 52, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Friday to arson, insurance fraud, gambling and extortion offenses. Prosecutors said that when Barile's Middleton eatery, Enzo's, fell on hard times, he hatched a plan to burn it to the ground. He and other began plotting to torch the restaurant in 2009, court records state. "Barile informed his (unnamed) co-owner of the plan and sought information from at least one individual on how to start the fire to make it look like an accident," according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut. On Jan. 9, 2010, Barile positioned greasy rags around a deep-fryer and greased up the walls, prosecutors said. Later that night after the restaurant was closed, he made sure multiple rags had caught fire and left the restaurant without calling the fire department. Barile waltzed out, but left his co-owner inside, according to prosecutors. "The Middletown Fire Department arrived a short time later, forced entry, rescued the co-owner and put out the fire," prosecutors said. After the fire, the defendant sought money from an insurance company, concealing his role in the fire from the insurance company and law enforcement. The insurance company ultimately paid $189,787.69 to Barile to settle the his claims. Also, from 2010 to 2014, Barile operated a $2000-per-day illegal sports-betting ring, prosecutors contend. On Nov. 8, 2011, he hit one perennial bettor who owed him $50,000 with a Taser in a Hartford parking lot. Barile was arrested on Jan. 5, and released on $350,000 bail. Prosecutors say he is staying with a family member in Enfield. Previous reports state Barile routinely carried a stun gun and a cattle prod "for protection." Barile has been on the FBI's radar since 1994 when he was arrested with members of the Genovese crime family's western New England branch during a gambling crack-down in Hartford. Arrested with Barile were the late Francesco "Skyball" Scibelli and Carmine "Carlo" Mastrototaro, the Genovese capos in Springfield and Worcester, Mass. Barile was charged with racketeering using threats of violence to collect street debts. FBI officials have said he worked for Tony Volpe, the Hartford lounge owner who ran Hartford for the Genovese family. Barile and an associate from Springfield, a 250-pound former pro wrestler known as "Big Pat" Poland, were given 30-month sentences after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy. In the current case, he faces up to 65 years in prison at his sentencing hearing, scheduled for May 6. BENNINGTON, Vt. Authorities in Vermont have charged a Bennington man in connection with a sexual abuse investigation involving a teenage minor. Joseph M. Galipeau, 49, is scheduled to be arraigned next week in Bennington Superior Court on charges of voyeurism, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, promoting a recording of a sexual act, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. On Thursday, the Bennington County Special Investigations Unit received a report involving Galipeau and a 15-year-old girl, said Vermont State Police Detective Robert Zink. Police met with the girl, who told investigators about "an ongoing issue" with Galipeau, according to Zink. Over the course of several months, the alleged victim claimed she was "coerced into giving illicit photographs to Galipeau in exchange for items," police said. The girl reported that Galipeau had watched her have sex without her knowledge, later telling her that he would keep it a secret between them, police said. The victim reported other incidents in which Galipeau allegedly asked her "to perform sexual acts on herself," police said. In some cases, he allegedly offered her sex toys, police said. During their investigation, authorities said they interviewed other people who corroborated the teen's allegations. Troopers arrested Galipeau without incident on Friday. He was later released and ordered to appear in Bennington Superior Court on Feb. 8 at 12:30 p.m. dave loomis.jpg Dave Loomis of Halifax, Vt. seen here in a YouTube video. Loomis was arrested on drug charges in Connecticut Nov. 18 along with Aaron Kater, owner of Hinge nightclub in Northampton. (YouTube) Eleven weeks after allegedly borrowing a car and driving to Connecticut with Aaron Kater, owner of the now-shuttered Hinge nightclub in downtown Northampton, Vermont musician David Loomis is still behind bars and the Subaru Outback remains impounded as evidence in connection with the pair's November drug bust. A judge in Manchester, Connecticut on Feb. 3 declined to lower a $200,000 bond requirement for Loomis, sending him back to the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, a high-security state prison. Judge Jason Lobo further declined to immediately release the Subaru to its owner, a Williamsburg woman identified in documents as Loomis' girlfriend. A lawyer for Loomis had filed a motion arguing that the woman did not give permission for her car to be used, and had no knowledge of any alleged drug-related activity. Loomis and Kater were arrested Nov. 18 in South Windsor after a traffic stop where the East Central Narcotics Task Force allegedly found 35 pounds of marijuana in the car, stuffed into large black speaker boxes. Each were ordered held on $200,000 bail. Kater paid a non-refundable fee to a bail bonding agency and secured his freedom, but Loomis, who did not pay a bonding agency, was sent to prison on pre-trial detention. Both men were charged with possession of marijuana, "sale of certain illegal drugs," and conspiracy to possess cannabis. Loomis was additionally charged with "traveling unreasonably fast" in South Windsor. Defense lawyer Aaron Romano said Friday that he believes the bail requirement is too high. "It is my hope that the judge will reconsider his decision," said Romano. "Mr. Loomis is not being charged with a violent crime, has no criminal record, comes from a supportive family, and does not pose a flight risk." He said Loomis' family can not afford to pay a non-refundable fee to a bail bondsman. Asked how his client is faring in prison, Romano, who maintains an office in Bloomfield, said that Loomis, 30, "is suffering" and that the state penitentiary is "not a good place for him." The court docket in Manchester contains around a dozen letters of support for Loomis from friends and family, most of whom described the 30-year-old a kind and helpful young man who is easily manipulated. He is "a big puppy, he is full of love and just wants to please and do right by those around him," wrote a cousin. "However, on the flip side of that coin is someone who doesn't always say no to helping someone who he thinks has his bast interests at heart." His mother, who lives in the Franklin County town of Leyden, said her son was "naive, eager to please, and easily influenced by others." A former employer described Loomis was "an honest worker on carpentry jobs." An aunt said her nephew suffered from "impulsivity, ADHD, and learning disabilities." Romano has petitioned the court for the release of additional evidence in the case. Loomis is due back in court March 2. Kater, 29, with a listed address in Pelham, is represented separately. The former nightclub owner is free on conditions that he wear an electronic monitoring device and stay away from drugs. Kater, who is due back in court Feb. 11, closed Hinge in late November following his drug bust. ________________________________________________________________ Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com. SPRINGFIELD Typically, sections of Franklin County along the Mohawk Trail and higher-elevation parts of the Berkshires are the regions snow hotspots, so to speak. But the storm that left Western Massachusetts with its first substantial snowfall this winter had a greater impact on urban-suburban Hampden County than the more rural counties of Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire. The little eastern Hampden County town of Wales hard by the Connecticut line and bordering Worcester County registered 9.5 inches of snow, making it the snowiest place in Western Massachusetts, according to both MEMA and the National Weather Service. Gauging snow depths can be rather subjective, of course, with figures varying from one reporting agency to another. According to Jacob Wycoff, meteorologist with Western Mass News, TV partner of MassLive / The Republican, the Springfield suburb of Hampden was the region's snowiest town, not Wales. Wycoff said Hampden received a total of 10 inches of snow, giving it a half-inch edge over Wales. Meanwhile, 22News reports that Wales actually received about 11 inches of snow, while Brimfield got hit with about 10.5 inches. If those numbers are to be trusted, that moves Hampden to third place on the highly unofficial, highly unscientific Snowiest Places Scale. Other significant Western Massachusetts snow totals were recorded in Northfield (6.5 inches) and Ludlow (6 inches), the National Weather Service reports. Springfield, the region's largest city, received only about 4.2 inches, according to the weather service. Temperatures were expected to dip into the teens overnight, warming into the high 30s by Saturday afternoon. SPRINGFIELD - Over a defense lawyer's objection, a judge granted a one month delay in the case of Long Dinh Duong, a Level 2 sex offender facing six new charges, including rape of a child by force. Duong, 46, of Springfield, appeared for a probable cause hearing in Springfield District Court Thursday, two months after his arrest for allegedly assaulting a girl, now 17, since she was in middle school. Assistant District Attorney Karen McCarthy asked to postpone the hearing, explaining that Duong is likely to be indicted soon by a Hampden County grand jury. An indictment would transfer the case to Superior Court, where defendants face potentially longer sentences if convicted. Defense lawyer Paul Rudof opposed the delay, saying his client has been held for two months at the Hampden County Correctional Center. He also asked Judge Robert Murphy for a reduction in Duong's $10,000 bail. Another judge sliced the figure from $100,000 to $10,000 last month after Rudof asserted that the accusations were fabricated and rooted in a feud between the alleged victim and her mother. The defendant has the support of his family and the local Vietnamese community, Rudof said. The victim's mother attended Thursday's hearing to show support for Duong, who also is facing a bail revocation hearing in Hampden Superior Court and possible deportation to his native Vietnam. Murphy refused to reduce the bail and rescheduled Thursday's hearing for March 4 to determine if there is probable cause to transfer Duong's case to Superior Court. According to the arrest report, Duong began sexually assaulting the victim in 2011, when she was in middle school, and continued after she entered high school. The girl's mother dismissed her claims of repeated sexual abuse and blamed her for causing trouble, the report said. In November, after a suicide attempt, the victim told Springfield school officials about the sexual assaults. Springfield police and the state Department of Children and Families investigated and supported the girl's claim, according to court documents. The defendant was on probation for an indecent assault conviction when the new charges were filed; state officials have since moved to revoke his release in the 2012 case, his second sex-related conviction. Montana State University and Wilcoxsons Ice Cream have partnered to create Bobcat Batter, a new Bobcat-branded ice cream flavor available in Montana stores. Bobcat Batter features a cake batter ice cream with a blue frosting wave. It is now available in half-gallon cartons at grocery stores across Montana, including at Rosauers, Heebs and Albertsons in Bozeman. Bobcat Batter first debuted last fall in MSUs renovated Miller Dining Hall as part of the universitys Montana Made Program http://www.montana.edu/ufs/mtmade.php , which seeks to increase access to local food products. At the time, the new ice cream flavor didnt yet have a name, so the university sponsored a community-wide naming contest. Full Story: http://www.montana.edu/news/15962/msu-wilcoxson-s-partner-to-create-new-bobcat-batter-ice-cream Apres ma musique cest le football francais qui est touchee par lannonce de la disparition dun de ses meilleurs entraineurs. Il sen est alle naturellement le 26 mars 2020 a lage de 87 ans avec un titre europeen en 1984. Il ne lui a manque que la couronne mondiale. Pour rappel cest en 1975 que Michel Hidalgo fut nomme selectionneur de lequipe de France de football. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, February 5, 2016 Last month, a group of Republican U.S. senators criticized the Federal Communications Commission's decision to redefine broadband service as speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. Now, two House Republicans are chiming in with their own complaints about the new standard, adopted in 2015. Before, the FCC defined broadband as 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. "This new definition of broadband gave Americans three different flavors of Internet access: dial-up, broadband over 25 Mbps, and other Internet access that is not broadband by the FCCs' definition," Reps. Fred Upton (Michigan), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Greg Walden (Oregon), chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, say today in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The gist of the lawmakers' complaint appears to be that the FCC is playing fast and loose with the concept of broadband in order to justify new regulations. advertisement advertisement "Instead of uniformity of definition, the Commission has instead made broadband speed a variable in the regulatory equation," the lawmakers write. "This represents the latest in [a] series of troubling actions that distort -- or outright ignore -- the FCC's requirements to produce honest, data-driven reports to inform policymakers and the public." Upton and Walden seem particularly critical of the FCC's 2016 report on broadband, adopted last month, which concludes that broadband isn't being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner. That determination relies on the FCC's finding that at least 34 million U.S. residents -- representing 10% of the population -- cannot currently obtain Web connections at speeds of at least 25 Mbps. The lawmakers are posing a series of questions to Wheeler, including why the agency decided last year that 4 Mbps was too slow to be considered broadband. The answer should be obvious: Speeds that were once considered fast are no longer adequate for people to be able to access the vast trove of content and services that are now available online. Streaming video in Ultra HD alone requires at least 15 Mbps, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in 2014, when the FCC was considering whether to change the definition of broadband. If different people in the same household want to simultaneously stream high-speed video, or participate in an online course or video conference, clearly they're going to need a faster connection than 4 Mbps. The lawmakers have asked Wheeler to respond by Feb. 19. However, Dr. Emmanuel Bujold, of the Universite Laval Quebec City, Canada, notes that the results of research assessing the link between chocolate intake during pregnancy and preeclampsia have been conflicting, spurring him and his colleagues to find out more. Previous studies have also suggested that moderate chocolate consumption during pregnancy may lower the risk of preeclampsia where the blood supply to the fetus is reduced due to the mothers high blood pressure . There are many benefits that may come with moderate chocolate consumption, however. Chocolate contains flavanols a type of flavonoid that have been linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular problems and lower cholesterol; the darker the chocolate, the more flavanols it contains. While chocolate itself is thankfully absent from this no-go list, expectant mothers are recommended against overindulging in the tasty treat due to its fat, sugar and caffeine content. The study results are likely to be warmly welcomed by moms-to-be, given the lengthy list of foods women are told to avoid during pregnancy. Good news for all you expectant mothers out there: eating 30 g of chocolate every day during pregnancy may benefit fetal growth and development. This is the conclusion of a new study recently presented at the 2016 Pregnancy Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Atlanta, GA. The researchers enrolled 129 expectant mothers with a singleton pregnancy who were between 11-14 weeks gestation. All women had double notching on the uterine artery Doppler pulsatility index at study baseline. The uterine artery Doppler pulsatility index is a test that measures uterine, placental and fetal blood flow, and notches are an indicator of the risk of preeclampsia, hypertension and other possible pregnancy outcomes. The expectant mothers were randomized to consume 30 g of either low- or high-flavanol chocolate daily for 12 weeks. Uterine artery Doppler pulsatility was measured again at the end of the 12 weeks, and the women were followed-up until they gave birth. The team found that there were no differences in preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, placental weight and birthweight between the low- and high-flavanol chocolate groups. However, the researchers identified a significant improvement in uterine artery Doppler pulsatility among both chocolate groups, suggesting that both low- and high-flavonol chocolate may benefit fetal growth and development. This improvement was much greater than what is normally expected among the general population, the team notes. This study indicates that chocolate could have a positive impact on placenta and fetal growth and development and that chocolates effects are not solely and directly due to flavanol content, says Dr. Bujold. Medical News Today asked Dr. Bujold whether they recommend that expectant mothers indulge in a daily dose of chocolate to improve fetal outcome. He replied: We cannot speculate on the overall effect of chocolate on the risk of preeclampsia from our study results because we did not have a group of women who were not taking chocolate. However, previous epidemiological studies along with our results suggest that consumption of dark chocolate during pregnancy could help in the improvement of placental function and the reduction of preeclampsia. He added that the next step for the team is to conduct a large randomized control trial in order to better determine whether chocolate intake among expectant mothers can lower the risk of preeclampsia and other pregnancy-related hypertensive disorders. Our Knowledge Center article Chocolate: health benefits, facts, research provides more information on how chocolate may be good for us, as well as the risks associated with its consumption. Last November, MNT reported on another study that is likely to have been welcomed by expectant mothers. Published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the study suggests that consuming moderate amounts of caffeine during pregnancy does not impact offsprings intelligence. Advertisement "How can they ask these women not to become pregnant, but not offer the possibility to stop their pregnancies?" spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told reporters. Many Latin American countries outlaw abortion or allow it only if the mother's life is in danger. In El Salvador, one of those warning against pregnancy, abortion is punishable by up to 40 years in prison.Brazil's top research institute meanwhile said Zika, which is typically transmitted by mosquitoes, had been detected in urine and saliva, and warned that even kissing could pose a risk. The scientists were careful to clarify that there is no proof the virus can be transmitted through those fluids, but said people should take precautions, especially expecting mothers."The measures are the classic ones used... for various other diseases that can be transmitted by saliva. Avoid sharing glasses, silverware, contact with someone who has symptoms of a possible infection. Don't kiss, obviously," said Paulo Gadelha, head of the Fiocruz institute in Rio de Janeiro.The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for their part urged people to use condoms or abstain from having sex if they live in or have traveled to Zika-infected areas -- currently 26 countries and territories in the Americas, according to the Pan American Health Organization.Earlier this week, US health officials confirmed the first case of sexually transmitted Zika -- a person who had traveled to Venezuela and infected a sexual partner in Texas upon return.In the US territory of Puerto Rico, officials declared a health emergency over Zika and confirmed a pregnant woman had been infected, bringing the number of cases on the island to 22. That followed a similar emergency declaration in the state of Florida.- 'The science isn't clear' -The World Health Organization, which has declared the rise in Zika-linked birth defects an international emergency, warns that Zika could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide. The WHO has advised countries against accepting blood donations from people who have traveled to affected regions.The new warnings on intimate contact highlight how little is known about Zika, a virus that was first identified in Africa in 1947 but had been considered relatively mild until the current eruption of apparent complications. "The science is not clear on how long the risk should be avoided," the CDC admitted in its warning on sexual activity."Research is now under way to answer this question as soon as possible." The Brazilian scientists were likewise candid about the unknowns, saying more research was needed to determine whether saliva and urine were possible vectors.Brazil has been the country hardest hit by the outbreak, with 1.5 million cases. Zika often goes unnoticed, and causes a relatively mild fever and rash in those who do develop symptoms.But Brazil sounded the alarm after recording a surge in babies born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads and brains. It has registered 404 cases since October and 3,670 suspected cases, up from 147 in all of 2014.The timing, and the fact that many of the mothers were diagnosed with Zika or reported symptoms, have caused alarm over an apparent link with the virus. Zika is also blamed for an increase in cases of a potentially deadly neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.Source: AFP Advertisement Pain is a significant health issue among the approximately 2.6 million service members who have served in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq since these conflicts began in 2001, according to the Veterans Health Administration. Musculoskeletal pain conditions are the most frequently diagnosed medical issue, exceeding any other medical and psychological concern. Chronic pain is also found in most combat veterans who sustained a traumatic brain injury.The form of mindfulness meditation administered in the study, Integrative Restoration Yoga Nidra, or iRest, is used at Veterans Health Administration medical centers and active-duty military facilities nationwide. The Army surgeon general's Pain Management Task Force has cited iRest as a Tier I intervention for managing pain in military and veteran populations.The pilot study consisted of four male veterans who received iRest meditation treatment, and five who did not. All study participants served in combat and returned to the U.S. with chronic pain and moderate TBI. The study participants attended meditation sessions twice weekly at the D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center and were given iRest recordings to engage in self-practice as well. By the end of eight weeks, the study participants had acquired useful mindfulness skills that empowered them to use meditation as a tool to help manage their pain, Nassif said."In many cases, primary care physicians are the ones expected to help individuals overcome their chronic pain," Nassif said. "One of the most commonly used tools we have in our toolbox is opioids. Veterans in this study, and many who come to meditation sessions, find that opioid medication is a short-term solution. Meditation could be a useful tool to help veterans manage their pain over the long term."The study calls on health care providers to promote self-management in patients by disseminating strategies and techniques to help patients prevent, cope with, and reduce pain, and concludes that iRest represents one promising self-management approach. More research should be conducted, Nassif said, and future studies should include quantitative measures and a greater number of participants.Source: Eurekalert Advertisement A Lancet study said that disadvantaged women are twice at risk of having stillbirths, a factor evident across India.Among the reasons that make many women shy away from organized healthcare is - the discrimination they feel at health clinics, both government and NGO. They are made to wait for hours, and physicians often refuse to touch them.For people without public transportation, traveling to a hospital is not easy. And to make the journey, they rely on husbands, who are often away at work.Over the last few years, NGOS, such as PHRII, and government workers have run health camps for pregnant and post-natal women and infants, handing out information on maternal and child health, and have encouraged tribal women to be regularly checked at primary health centers. They don't come though, and when they do, the discrimination does not help.Stillbirths are reducing across India, but there are still too many. States that pay attention to maternal health reduce chances of stillbirths.The 'Every Newborn Action Plan', explained in the Lancet study, aims to bring the global stillbirth rate to 12 or lower per 1,000 births by 2030 (India in 2014 adopted the India Newborn Action Plan with the aim to reach a single-digit stillbirth target). That will require empowered women, better healthcare and progress checks.Indian states that focused on maternal healthcare also had healthier children, IndiaSpend recently reported. Programs such as the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), launched in 2005 to ensure safe motherhood, successfully offer cash incentives to encourage institutional deliveries, the rate of which to all deliveries increased from 56.7% in 2006-07 to 78.5% in 2010-11, according to government data.Karnataka had 94% institutional deliveries according to data released recently by the National Family Health Survey. Uttarakhand and Meghalaya were the worst, with 61% and 58.4% respectively. The rest were home deliveries, most without trained-health-worker supervision and possibly in unhygienic conditions. The reported reasons for home delivery were convenience, fear of stitches, unavailability of transportation and the inability to afford hospitals.JSY beneficiaries, since it launched a decade ago, increased from 0.74 million to 10.4 million in 2014-15. But this government review revealed that only 15% of JSY institutions were equipped to deal with institutional deliveries.Source: IANS Advertisement "The bottom line here is we want to learn something from nature that could be useful in creating better batteries with renewable feedstock." Research findings are detailed in a paper that appeared on Feb. 5 in Nature's Scientific Reports. Whereas bee pollen is a mixture of different pollen types collected by honey bees, the cattail pollens all have the same shape."I started looking into pollens when my mom told me she had developed pollen allergy symptoms about two years ago," Tang said. "I was fascinated by the beauty and diversity of pollen microstructures. But the idea of using them as battery anodes did not really kick in until I started working on battery research and learned more about carbonization of biomass."The researchers processed the pollen under high temperatures in a chamber containing argon gas using a procedure called pyrolysis, yielding pure carbon in the original shape of the pollen particles. They were further processed, or "activated," by heating at lower temperature - about 300 degrees Celsius - in the presence of oxygen, forming pores in the carbon structures to increase their energy-storage capacity.The research showed the pollen anodes could be charged at various rates. While charging for 10 hours resulted in a full charge, charging them for only one hour resulted in more than half of a full charge, Pol said. "The theoretical capacity of graphite is 372 milliamp hours per gram, and we achieved 200 milliamp hours after one hour of charging," he said. The researchers tested the carbon at 25 degrees Celsius and 50 degrees Celsius to simulate a range of climates."This is because the weather-based degradation of batteries is totally different in New Mexico compared to Indiana," Pol said. Findings showed the cattail pollens performed better than bee pollen. The work is ongoing. Whereas the current work studied the pollen in only anodes, future research will include work to study them in a full-cell battery with a commercial cathode. "We are just introducing the fascinating concept here," Pol said. "Further work is needed to determine how practical it might be." Electron microscopy studies were performed at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park.Source: Eurekalert India lost 10 more soldiers in an avalanche in one of most inhospitable battlefields in the world. Here's a look at the 3-decade-old dispute and the inhuman conditions our soldiers brave to keep control of the Siachen Glacier. Weather Conditions Temperatures can dip to -50C in winter. The average winter snowfall is more than 1,000 cm. The glacier's melting waters are the main source of the Nubra River in Ladakh. In 2009, a study found that the Siachen glacier had been steadily melting and was down to half its size. Expenditure On Siachen India is estimated to be spending $1 million (Rs 6.8 crore) a day to keep Siachen supplied, which comes to Rs 18,000/sec. This amount would have built 4,000 senior secondary schools in a year or 1,72,000 schools in 30 years. A roti that costs Rs 2 to make reportedly costs India Rs 200 to transport to Siachen. History Behind The Glacier: Operation Meghdoot The 1949 Karachi pact and the 1972 Simla agreement presumed that it wasn't feasible for human habitation to survive north of NJ9842, the northernmost demarcated point of LoC. In April 1984, Indian Army moved in to Siachen to pre-empt a bid by the Pak army to occupy the glacier. The move came after Indian intelligence learned that Pak army was buying specialist mountain clothing in London. IAF choppers airlifted a platoon from the Kumaon Regiment onto the Saltoro Ridge and beat the Pakistanis to the glacier by a week. India occupies the full glacier, its tributaries and all key passes and heights of the Saltoro Ridge and therefore, Pak troops suffer a severe tactical disadvantage along the 109km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) What Soldiers Face A total of 879 Indian soldiers have died in Siachen since 1984, including 33 officers. The vast majority of troop deaths have not been due to combat but avalanches, exposure and altitude sickness caused by the thin, oxygen depleted air. The human body continuously deteriorates above 18,000 feet. Toothpaste freezes in its tube, speech can be blurred, and frostbite, chilblains are common. Many soldiers suffer from high-altitude pulmonary and cerebral edema, headaches and hypertension. Troops live in igloos clothed in high altitude gear and are supplied by helicopter (ALH Dhruv). Pakistan Also Suffers In 2012, Pakistan lost 140 men in an avalanche in the Gayari Sector near Siachen. Numerous attempts to demilitarize Siachen have failed and till it happens there are bound to be casualties on both sides of the border because of such inhabitable conditions. Yesterday, during the first day of the informal Gymnich meeting, my colleagues and I discussed the future of Europes security architecture, as well as our relations with Iran, in light of the lifting of the sanctions. Today we had a discussion of the refugee and migration crisis, initially between the candidate countries of the Western Balkans and the members of the European Union who are on the Western Balkan corridor. And this issue was the sole subject of the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the member states and their counterparts from candidate countries. We stressed, with emphasis, that complex problems need complex solutions, and to this end all of the decisions we have taken at a series of meetings decisions that have not been implemented, must be implemented. For our part, we made it clear to everyone that it isnt up to Greece alone to come up with responses. The other member states of the European Union and the European Commission also have to respond, because the necessary assistance has yet to be given to Greece; assistance provided for by all of the decisions that have been taken to date. HURON COUNTY The 2013-14 winter set record lows across the state. The 2014-15 season wasnt much warmer. But this year, winter felt more like spring, with rain, 50s and even 60 in December, sparse snow and above average January temperatures. The past two winters in southeast Michigan were some of the most harsh weve had in most of our lifetimes, said Rich Pollman, a National Weather Service meteorologist. But this year, weve had one of the least harshest winters to date. A lot of that is tied directly to El Nino. The El Nino weather system is warming ocean temperatures near Mexico and South America to near record highs, Pollman says, adding that El Nino is a driving force in weather patterns across the globe. Meteorologists say the average temperature was 26.7, more than four degrees above average. On Tuesday, the fabled Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and predicted an early spring. A National Weather Service analysis that compared U.S. national temperatures with Phils forecasts showed he was right about 40 percent of the time over the past decade. He may be right again. For February, were looking at still above average temperatures, Pollman said, adding that precipitation should be average. For March and April, he said theres a good chance temperatures will still be above average but with below average precipitation. For the Thumb area, average snowfall in February is 11 inches, seven inches in March and two in April. And the warming started early. Meteorologists say November was the warmest month in 135 years of record keeping. It marked the seventh consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken, NWS says. When December came around, rain replaced the usual snow. Average monthly temperatures approached 38 degrees in Bad Axe almost 11 degrees above average and the lowest it got was 18 degrees. Only three days had average temperatures below freezing, NWS records show. For January, the 24-degree average was above the normal 21.4 mark. Not one day had an average temperature in the single digits. Days before Christmas, meteorologists said it could take until the end of February or March for actual winter to arrive as El Nino weakens and colder weather gets a chance to move in. Its a long shot from the past two Januarys: the average temperature was 16.5 in 2015 for the month, with eight days of temperatures averaging below 10 degrees. January 2014 bit even colder, with a 14-degree average and 14 days with temperatures averaging below 10 degrees. Past Februarys were worse: in 2015, the average temperature barely hit 9 and there were 16 days of averages dipping in the single digits. Every one of the months 28 days had average temperatures below freezing, NWS records show. In 2014, there were only two days when the February average was above freezing, and only three in 2013. Snowfall is also off-key. Pollman says for southern Michigan, totals are 50 to 75 percent below average. Saginaw and Detroit have seen about 16 inches, while 28 inches fell in Flint. About 20 inches, give or take five, has fallen in Bad Axe this year, Pollman said. The average is almost 50 inches in areas away from Lake Huron and 60 to 75 near the lake, he said. A bit of respite for winter haters: Pollman says in the next five years, winters should be more typical. In Bad Axe, the city responded to at least 125 water line freeze-ups in 2014 and 2015. The majority of Thumb cities and villages called for residents to run a stream of water in their homes at all times to prevent more. Bad Axe City Manager Dale VanDeVusse says the city has not dealt with any freezing water lines or weather-related issues so far this winter. 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... A former Veterans Affairs Department scientist says he is willing and able to defend his reputation against lawmakers or others who suggest he invented a highly successful hepatitis C treatment using agency resources and later earned millions by selling it to a private company. The drug shown to cure hepatitis C is sold by Gilead Sciences of California under the brand name Sovaldi, but it was developed at Pharmasset, a private lab owned by Dr. Raymond Schinazi while he worked for the VA Medical Center in Atlanta and Emory University. Today, skeptical lawmakers question whether Schinazi got rich using VA resources and funding. He sold Pharmasset, and with it the drug, to Gilead in 2011 for $11 billion. "If, in fact, it is found that it was a [VA] employee that did, in fact, discover the drug ... I think it's important that this committee ... really try to get to the bottom of it," Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida and chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill. VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. David Shulkin, meanwhile, assured Miller's committee that internal and external department reviews will "get to the bottom of this." Noticeably absent from the hearing was the man at the center of VA and congressional scrutiny. Schinazi requested to retire on Jan. 21 -- the same day Miller informed the agency it was inviting him to attend the hearing. He left the department on Feb. 1, two days before the meeting. "It's quite obvious he was invited and decided to retire after he was invited," a committee source speaking on background told Military.com. But in the first of several emails to Military.com Schinazi, 65, made it clear he is ready to defend his reputation and his work. "I never received the letter or was asked by the VA to attend this meeting," he told Military.com in the first of several emails on Feb. 3. "I decided to retire from the VA well before all this. My labs are now based at Emory University and I am now 65 years old." He added, "If I was invited to DC I would have attended and participated even as a non-VA employee. I can always defend my reputation well. It seems there is a lot of jealousy about my success and hard work. If the drug had failed, no one would be talking to me and believe me I've had many failures. There is a cemetery full of drug failures for treating and curing HCV (hepatitis C virus)." The committee's letter was addressed to Shulkin, but included Schinazi and other officials. The VA would not say whether Shulkin or anyone else at the department was responsible for informing Schinazi of the invitation. "[Congress] invited Dr. Schinazi to the hearing, not VA," VA spokesman James Hutton told Military.com. Miracle Drug' Shulkin called Sovaldi, which has the generic name Sofosbuvir, a "miracle drug," for its high success rate. It cures as many as nine out of 10 patients with hepatitis C -- in many cases after only two months of treatment. It's also expensive in the U.S., where a standard course of treatment can cost more than $80,000. The VA gets a discount for veterans -- paying about half of that figure, or $40,000, for the eight-week course per veteran. Gilead is riding high after taking in billions of dollars in annual revenue from sales of the drug. The high price of the drug, however, has been a target of criticism. Nearly a year ago Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, cited research by Liverpool University indicating the Sovaldi's actual production costs for a 12-week course is between $68-$136. "In other words," Sachs wrote in Huffington Post, "the U.S. price-cost markup is roughly 1,000 to 1!" Lawmakers want to know why VA shouldn't be receiving a portion of the sales if one of its employees or its resources were used in Sovaldi's discovery. The agency has a longstanding interest in a cure for hepatitis C, with more than 300,000 veterans -- many of them Vietnam vets -- suffering from it. Taken in combination with other drugs such as Ribavirin and Peginterferon alfa, Sovaldi has a solid record of curing hepatitis C patients through a course lasting as briefly as eight weeks. The cure rate has generally been greater than 90 percent, according to Gilead. Previous treatments could take as long as a year and with a survival rate of about 60 percent, reports HEP magazine, an online and print publication about hepatitis. However, the cost to the VA to treat hepatitis C patients with the drug is significantly higher than the $900 for the same course of treatment in some other countries. Under its technology transfer program, the agency may assert an interest in products it helps to fund or for which it provides resources to develop. Depending on its level of involvement, the department can claim 100 percent of the rights, assert no rights, or enter into negotiations with the scientists and any partner universities to determine an interest, Shulkin told Congress. With a successful claim of interest, a portion from product sales returns to the VA to continue research programs. Schinazi is aware of the program -- pointing out that he once developed two drugs for HIV treatment with VA funding that the agency declined to assert any rights to. Declining to Assert Rights It was during the 1990s Schinazi helped develop two of the most widely-used drugs for combating HIV. According to Emory University, where Schinazi is the director of the Biochemical Pharmacology Laboratory, more than 90 percent of HIV-positive patients in the world use one of the two drugs. "We put them on the map with my work on antiviral agents, especially HIV," he said, "which, by the way, was funded by VA. "But they never claimed ownership for any of my HIV discoveries," he said. VA gave him back all the rights to the drugs, Schinazi said, and he in turn gave them over to Emory, "since I am an employee of Emory." He's emphatic that the department had zero claims on Sovaldi. Emory, meanwhile, has unsuccessfully sought a claim on the drug. The invention and development of the drug, whose scientific name is "2'-fluoro-2'-methyl nucleosides," took place at Pharmasset and was the work of a scientist who worked for him there, Schinazi said. "The VA never funded any HCV research for me or my group or, for that matter, anyone I know in research at the Atlanta VA," he said. "I founded Pharmasset and my family and I benefited from their discoveries and paid a huge amount in taxes from the windfall," Schinazi said. That windfall amounted to more than $440 million after the Gilead deal went through. But by the time of the sale, he said, he was not even involved in Pharmasset, having quit the board five years earlier. He also noted he had no role in prices set by Gilead. Over his career with Emory, in private practice and with VA, Schinazi said he has published more than 500 professional articles, seven books, and patented 90 drugs in the U.S. Until now, nobody at the agency seemed to have any issues with Schinazi or his work. A little more than six months ago, the VA awarded Schinazi the 2015 William S. Middleton Award for his pioneering work in discovering drug treatments for infectious diseases. It's the highest award given by the VA Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development. "Now this politician [Miller] claims I cheated or something to this effect -- amazing after 33 years of service to the VA and great work," he said. "With respect to the congressman, I think he should talk to me in three years' time, when all our veterans are cured of this devastating disease called hepatitis C," Schinazi said. "I think he will find that this [cost of treatment] was the best spent money ever at the VA." -- Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bryantjordan. WASHINGTON Throughout the month of February, the Navy joins our nation in celebrating the history and culture of African-American and Black Sailors during African-American/Black History Month. Established in 1926, President Gerald R. Ford expanded the celebration in 1976 to include the entire month of February. This year, Navy commands are encouraged to celebrate and reflect on the theme "Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories." "Our past is our history and our future is our destiny," said Victoria Bowens, Department of the Navy director for diversity and inclusion. "We must look at what worked, what did not work and how we can improve our efforts in promoting inclusion to optimize our results to achieve mission success." From port cities where Africans disembarked from slave ships to the battle fields where their descendants fought for freedom, from the colleges and universities where they pursued education to places where they created communities during centuries of migration, the imprint of Americans of African descent is deeply embedded in the narrative of the American past. USS Mason (DE 529), manned by a predominantly African American crew came under dire conditions during WWII in heavy weather when Mason's deck split, threatening the structural integrity of the ship. The crew made emergency repairs allowing the ship to continue its convoy operations. In 1994, President Clinton awarded commendations to the 67 surviving crew members. USS PC 1264 was a submarine chaser built during World War II. She was one of only two U.S. Navy ships to have a predominately African-American enlisted complement during the war, the other being the Evarts-class destroyer escort USS Mason (DE 529). PC 1264 was in service for less than two years, but the performance of her crewand of the USS Mason'scaused the U.S. Navy to reevaluate the role of African American Sailors. Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal and Navy Commendation Medal winner Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely served aboard the PC 1264 during the war, paving the way for future African American Navy leaders. The USNS Carl Brashear (T-AKE 7) was named for Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl M. Brashear (1931-2006). Brashear's career spanned more than four decades and exemplifies outstanding service and dedication. Brashear enlisted in the Navy in February 1948 and qualified as a First Class Diver in 1964. In 1965, while recovering atomic bombs off the coast of Spain, Brashear sustained injuries which eventually required the amputation of his leg. Despite his injuries, he became recertified in March 1968 as a diver, the first amputee to serve as such in the Navy, and in 1970, Brashear became the first African-American master diver in the Navy. In April 2009, Vice Adm. Michelle Howard commanded CTF-151, a multinational task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean when the U.S.-flagged M/V Maersk Alabama container ship was hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast. Howard and twelve U.S. naval forces coordinated the rescue of the ship and its crew including Captain Richard Phillips, who had been kidnapped and held hostage in a lifeboat. African-Americans continue to serve with distinction, now comprising almost 19 percent of our active duty enlisted force, 8 percent of our active duty officers and 5 percent of our flag officers. The Navy continues to do outreach toward African American youth in order to ensure a diverse pool of people and backgrounds comprises the best talent possible. Sailors and their commands are encouraged to use this month to celebrate and recognize the exceptional and distinctive contributions and the unique histories and cultures that our African-American shipmates bring to our Navy. More information on the many milestones achieved by black Sailors and the history of the African-American Navy experience can be found at the Naval History and Heritage Command at www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/diversity/african-americans.html. A complete educational presentation, including a downloadable educational poster on African American/Black History month, can be requested from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) by email at deomipa@us.af.mil. Sunni tribal fighters in Iraq backed by U.S. airstrikes have advanced against weakening Islamic State defenders in a string of towns but the progress was offset by rebel losses in Syria. In northeastern Syria, various groups backed by the U.S. and linked under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces were also making progress but Aleppo in the northwest was in danger of falling to Syrian government forces, Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Friday. In a video briefing from CentCom's Tampa headquarters to the Pentagon, Ryder said the advance by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad backed by a heavy Russian air assault on Aleppo city and province had sent thousands of refugees fleeing toward the Turkish border. Ryder said CentCom was aware of reports that the remaining Aleppo residents faced starvation but there were no immediate plans for U.S. relief airdrops to the city -- "Not at this time, that I'm aware," he said. In the tangled sectarian and political rifts of Syria, Ryder said that Aleppo essentially was not an immediate concern for the U.S. military, since the opposition group defenders were battling the Assad regime and not ISIS. Ryder denied reports that Aleppo had already fallen. "From where we sit, it's just not accurate," Ryder said. The regime and the rebels had held static positions splitting the city for months. The rebels in Aleppo were still holding out but the situation was "very fluid," Ryder said. The regime forces attacking in and around Aleppo were aided by Iranian advisers and Hezbollah fighters, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Mohsen Ghajarian and six Iranian volunteers had been killed in fighting in Aleppo province. With Russian support, the government forces have gone on the offensive north and south of Damascus for the first time in several months in attacks that scuttled the United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva this week. The UN said that an estimated 20,000 refugees from Aleppo province were being held up at the border while the Turkish government decides on whether to let them cross. In Iraq, Ryder said that Sunni tribal fighters who had been held out of previous offensives were now increasingly involved in actions against ISIS defenders. ISIS was "weakening operationally and tactically," Ryder said, as "several layers of pressure are being applied to them." On Feb. 1, tribal fighters in Nineweh province northeast of Baiji, backed by coalition airstrikes, liberated two villages, Ryder said. From Jan. 25-30 south of Kirkuk, elite Iraqi Counter-Terror Service troops joined with Turkomen tribal fighters to take three villages, Ryder said. Further north, "we're seeing local tribal resistance fighters combining with KSF (Kurdish Security Forces)" in actions against ISIS, Ryder said. Eighteen months of U.S. and coalition airstrikes and increasing offensives by the Iraqi Security Forces have winnowed ISIS ranks, according to a new intelligence estimate disclosed Thursday by the White House. The new intelligence "means they continue to be a substantial threat, but the potential numbers have declined," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "ISIS has sustained significant casualties," Earnest said. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. A new change to Marine Corps policy will require some Marines to wait longer before they are eligible for promotion. The new guidelines stipulate that, as of April 1, Marine lance corporals and corporals must spend 12 months in their current rank before they can be looked at for promotion to corporal or sergeant. The current rules require just eight months' time-in-grade for lance corporals, though corporals must already serve 12 months in their rank before promotion to sergeant. The change was announced Friday in a Marine administrative message. The message adds that composite scores, which determine eligibility for promotion, will still be calculated quarterly, as they are now, but Marines will become eligible for a promotion look as soon as they hit the 12-month time-in-grade mark. While this will result in longer promotion waits for many lance corporals, it could have a benefit for corporals looking to make sergeant: Previously, they needed to have reached the 12-month mark at the start of the quarter in which they want to be promoted. With the new rules, a corporal who hits 12 months' time-in-grade on the first of the month could be eligible for promotion that month. The new policy will also allow for a "not recommended for promotion" to be added to a Marine's personnel file in order to "reduce promotion oversight errors and page 11 entries," according to the message. Promotion eligibility will be reset each quarter, allowing a commander to more clearly see which Marines are ready for a promotion look. This change to promotion eligibility is part of a series of tweaks in the promotion process designed to reward high-performing Marines, according to a fragmentary order released by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller in January. In the document, Neller directed Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs to review the existing promotion process and implement a new promotion review process for lance corporals and corporals looking to make rank. In a recent interview with Marine Corps Times, the top enlisted Marine at M&RA, Sgt. Maj. Grant Van Oostrom, revealed that the Corps is creating a quality control board that will enable leaders to mentor junior Marines ahead of promotion to ensure they have the skills and education needed to succeed at the next rank. The paper reported that 92 percent of lance corporals who had spent a year at their current rate didn't have the composite, or cutting, score they needed to be promoted. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@milit ary.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. The American who committed the deadliest mass shooting on a US military base experienced personal setbacks before becoming an Islamic extremist with "a suicide wish," his cousin said. Nader Hasan, an attorney who lives with his family in Virginia, said he and Nidal Hasan, the former Army major and psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 42 others in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, grew up like brothers a few hours from Washington, D.C. Nader said he never saw any signs that his cousin would commit such violence. He said as a child, Nidal refused to break up fights involving the cousins and as an adult, his discomfort at the sight of blood was one of the reasons he went into psychiatry after medical school. "I never saw it coming," he said. Related Video: But in hindsight, Nader said, there were clues. Nidal lost both of his parents in a short period of time, he heard stories of possible war crimes from soldiers in his care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center -- confessions his bosses told him to ignore -- and he was so conflicted at the prospect of deploying to a combat zone that he offered to repay his commission and leave the service, Nader said. "You never really know why" someone commits such a crime, he said. "You just never do. You can speculate all day long. I just never want to sound like I am in any way trying to justify" what happened, he added. "That's the hardest thing. It's a hard thing just to talk about it." His comments came at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington, D.C., after a recent screening of a new HBO documentary, "Homegrown: The Counter-Terror Dilemma," which explores the threat posed by homegrown Islamic extremism. The film, set to premiere 9 p.m. Monday on the cable channel, is directed by Greg Barker and draws from a new book, "United States of Jihad," by Peter Bergen, a New York Times bestselling author, CNN national security analyst and professor at Arizona State University. The two previously collaborated on the 2013 documentary, "Manhunt: The Search for bin Laden," based on Berger's bestseller, "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden From 9/11 to Abbottabad," about the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden who was killed by Navy SEALs during a raid on his compound in Pakistan in 2011. "In many ways, this is a follow up to that," Barker said. Coincidentally, the documentary's release comes as President Barack Obama has sought to improve the relationship between American Muslims and their fellow citizens by making his first visit to a US mosque. "If you're ever wondering whether you fit in here, let me say it as clearly as I can, as president of the United States: You fit in here -- right here," he said on Wednesday at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. "You're right where you belong. You're part of America, too. You're not Muslim or American. You're Muslim and American." The HBO documentary features interviews with Nader Hasan and Phil Mudd, the former deputy director of the FBI's national security branch who investigated Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, then a 23-year-old from Roswell, Georgia, who in 2009 was sentenced to serve 17 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists plotting to strike targets in Washington, D.C. After the screening, Bergen moderated a panel that included Barker, Mudd and Hasan. When asked by a member of the audience on what leads an American citizen down the path of violent extremism, Barker said each case is different. "Why does someone join a gang?" he asked. "It's [because of] family pressures, family issues, adolescence ... it's very hard to speculate." Mudd, who in a dramatic moment in the film invites Sadequee's mother and sisters into his home to discuss the case, said the issue has more to do with cults than religions. "You might think of it as a cult culture instead of a religious phenomenon," he said. "The Columbine kids were part of their own personal cult culture and they committed an act of violence together that I'm not sure they would have committee alone without that socialization," he said, referring to the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in which two seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and a teacher. "When I talk to a terrorist in Saudi Arabia or this kid in Atlanta, there's a cult aspect to this," Mudd said. "We tend to cookie-cutter this in the US and say this is Islamic terrorism and I think that's way too simplistic. The characteristics that I witnessed are multi-dimensional. They're not somebody who reads the Koran and says, 'I'm going to go out and shoot someone.'" In the months leading up to the Fort Hood shooting, Nidal Hasan communicated with Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born radical Islamic cleric, according to a 2012 government investigation into the incident. (Al-Awlaki was killed in 2011 by a US MQ-1 Predator drone strike in Yemen.) On Nov. 5, 2009, the day of the shooting, Hasan entered the Fort Hood deployment center carrying two pistols, jumped on a desk and shouted "Allahu Akbar!" -- Arabic for "God is great" -- then opened fire, killing 12 US soldiers, one civilian employee and injuring 42 others, according to the report. Hasan was shot by an officer who responded to the scene, paralyzing him from the waist down. He's currently imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, awaiting a death sentence. He may never be executed, however, as the appeals process is long and the US military hasn't actually carried out an execution since 1961. It's unclear when exactly Hasan became radicalized. In one surreal moment in the documentary, Hasan is shown in a homemade video giving a presentation at Walter Reed in which he seems to suggest that Muslims in the military should be more closely scrutinized for extremist beliefs. His cousin said he hadn't seen that video until he watched the documentary. Nader said he hadn't seen or spoken to Nidal since 2007. They had a falling out after Nidal criticized him for bringing a female date to a family Thanksgiving gathering "who wasn't represented by a man," Nader said. In some Islamic cultures, women aren't permitted to leave the house without being accompanied by a male relative. Even so, after reading portions of the reported 18 emails Nidal exchanged with al-Awlaki, Nader said he would have had a tough time trying to decipher whether Nidal was actually an extremist preparing to commit violence. "If I were the agent, I couldn't have been able to ... say he is ready to do something at that time because he was smart -- he's a doctor, he's a psychiatrist -- he was able to weave his own sense of the right thing," Nader said. Soft-spoken and articulate, Nader described himself as a secular Muslim and patriotic American. Growing up in the 1980s, he recalled the Soviet Union being the enemy. "It was Rocky and Drago," he said, referring to Ivan Drago, the fictional character and nemesis from the 1985 film, "Rocky IV." "That was the big thing. That was the Evil Empire -- that and Darth Vader." Nader said he had a different childhood experience than Nidal in part because his parents were divorced. Nader said he and his siblings excelled academically despite living in a single-parent household -- a point of friction between the cousins. "There was a competition with him and his brother ... that his parents would put into them and say, 'Look at what these guys are doing and they don't have a father,'" he said. "So his brother became a lawyer and Nidal actually became a doctor." In college, Nidal would drop classes if he wasn't going to get an A to maintain a high GPA, which he knew was important to his parents, Nader said. "You start seeing how much making his parents happy was the focus of his life and he loses both of them within three years," he said. Nidal's mother died of cancer in May 2001, three years after his father passed away, Nader said. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Nidal experienced "his first challenge" as a Muslim in the military with a name that sounded like Saddam Hussein, Nader said. "We started hearing stories that when he would go on Reserve duty that there would be some form of harassment," he said. But the "precipitating event" for Nidal was probably the prospect of having to deploy to Afghanistan, Nader said. The shooting occurred just weeks before he was scheduled to ship out. "It was evident to us that he didn't want to go to war," Nader said. "He was starting to talk about conscientious objector status. How far it went I didn't know until after the fact. He actually hired a lawyer." Ultimately, Nidal was "selfish" and harbored "a suicide wish," Nader said. "In all extremism, there's a superiority complex at some point that's taken on where you know you're right and you have this exclusivity to this heaven or this afterlife." Since the shooting, Nader teamed with Kerry Cahill, the daughter of Michael Cahill, who was killed in the Fort Hood attack, to travel around the US and speak out against extremism. He also set up a foundation to create "a safe space" for young Muslim Americans to talk about religious and secular issues. "I think the platform of non-violence and patriotism -- that there's no conflict between being Muslim and American -- is the first step," he said. --Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry. The Cubs have agreed to a $10.7MM deal with righty Jake Arrieta to avoid arbitration, Jay Cohen of the Associated Press (Twitter link). There was plenty of incentive for both sides to get something done, as Arrieta filed at $13MM and the team countered at $7.5MM, setting the stage for what would have been quite a high-stakes hearing. Instead, Arrieta will land $450K above the midpoint. As MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz has explained in detail, Arrietas case provided a test for assessing arbitration raises. While the MLBTR arb model projected a $10.9MM salary after Arrietas monster 2015 season, Swartz revised that downward to $10.4MM as a limitation on the predicted record raise for a second-year-eligible player. Obviously, Arrieta landed right between those figures. Arrieta, who is nearing 30, somehow managed to improve upon his stellar 2014 campaign with the Cubs, taking home a Cy Young award in the face of stiff competition. Chicago successfully reclaimed him after a 2013 deadline trade with the Orioles that also landed Pedro Strop in exchange for a few months of Scott Feldman. Over his 229 innings in 2015, Arrieta worked to a 1.77 ERA with 9.3 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9. He also improved upon his groundball induction numbers, posting an excellent 56.2% grounder rate on balls in place. With the righty showing career-best average fastball velocity, a true five-pitch arsenal, and non-existent platoon issues, there werent many pitchers this side of Los Angeles that could even come close to Arrietas work last season. Of course, it remains to be seen whether there is any realistic hope of a longer-term pact. Arrieta is eligible for arbitration one final time next winter, and then stands to reach free agency. He wont exactly be a youthful entrant onto the market, but as Zack Greinke just proved, its possible to take home over $200MM at an even later point in ones career. Certainly, Chicago will have a tough decision as to how high it would be willing to go to keep Arrieta around. [February 05, 2016] LANDESK Executive Joshua J. Baxter Named Among Utah Business' Forty Under 40 LANDESK today announced Joshua J. Baxter, executive vice president of global services, has been named as one of Utah Business' Forty Under 40. Every year, Utah Business recognizes Utah's best and brightest professionals rising through the ranks at record speed in its Forty Under 40 list. This year's list of honorees includes a who's who of innovating tech wizards, visionary entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and executive captains who are guiding industry trends and shaping the future of their organizations and the state of Utah. As executive vice president of global services at LANDESK, Baxter leads an international team and is responsible for global leadership of software license renewals, education, professional consulting services and customer support to help customers maximize the value of their software solutions. "Josh epitomizes everything this list stands for - he's a natural leader who takes the time to understand what his groups need to accomplish and builds a strategic plan for success," said Steve Daly, LANDESK president and CEO. "He is constantly leading hs team and challenging his peers to think outside the box and has proven to be an invaluable part of LANDESK's success in recent years." Prior to joining LANDESK, Baxter earned a bachelor's degree from Utah Valley University in business management with emphasis in accounting and an MBA from Utah State University. He began his career as a product support engineer for Novell (News - Alert) in 1996. He was promoted to manager of worldwide services in 2002, where he built Novell's managed services business. Since joining LANDESK in 2004, Baxter has been responsible for running the highest-margin renewals and professional services teams of all the companies in the Thoma Bravo portfolio - and he still pushes to find ways to cut waste. In addition to his work responsibilities, Baxter is known for his devotion to his family and serving his community in numerous ways. Baxter will be recognized with all of this year's Forty Under 40 honorees at an awards ceremony and luncheon held today at The Grand America Hotel. He will also be featured in Utah Business magazine's February 2016 edition. About LANDESK: LANDESK, the global authority on user-centered IT, enables users to be their most productive while helping IT embrace the speed of change. Through the integration and automation of IT systems management, endpoint security management, service management, IT asset management, and mobile device management, LANDESK empowers IT to balance rapidly evolving user requirements with the need to secure critical assets and data. With offices located across the globe, LANDESK is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information, visit www.landesk.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160205005860/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 05.02.2016 LISTEN Murder Rap: Inside The Biggie & Tupac Murders says Puff Daddy hired a Crips gang member to kill Tupac for $1 million. 50 Cent mocked Puff Daddy for reportedly putting a hit on Tupac . The G-Unit rapper took to Instagram yesterday (February 4) to mock his rival. LMAO SO PUFFY WIT THE SHIT HUN ? ? SEE YOU GOTTA WATCH THESE PUNKS,? SCARY ASS NI66AS A TRY YOU, 50 Cent writes for the caption of a screenshot of a New York Daily News story. #nopuffyjuice he killed Your favorite Rapper. 50 Cent also posted a video to Instagram that has since been deleted, according to AllHipHop . I told you. You cant trust these niggas, the rapper says while talking on the phone. Puffy done killed Tupac, man. The documentary Murder Rap: Inside The Biggie & Tupac Murders has made headlines for claiming that Puff Daddy gave Crips gang member Duane Keith Keffe D Davis $1 million to kill Tupac and Suge Knight. The film follows the investigations of LAPD detective Greg Kading as he explains the murder cases of Tupac and Biggie Smalls. . We're not espousing a theory, Kading says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX published yesterday. We're espousing the truth based on empirical evidence. We're claiming this is the truth. We're not promoting a theory that could be true. That's the difference. We have a completely fact-based investigation, an evidence-based investigation Kadings investigations say that Knight then hired Bloods gang member Wardell Poochie Fouse to kill The Notorious B.I.G. as retaliation for Tupacs death. Michael Namikas reviewed the movie for HipHopDX in September prior to its public release. Murder Rap is a well-produced and provocative film that makes a disturbing case that both 2pac and The Notorious B.I.G. were killed because of the bitter rivalry between Death Row and Bad Boy Records, he wrote at the time. View 50 Cents Instagram post and video below: -hiphopdx shatta Wale 06.02.2016 LISTEN Africa1 Media CEO, Cynthia Quarcoo has weighed in on Shatta Wales ongoing drama with Ghana Music Awards organizers Charter House. Representing many music brands including Ghanas music governing body, Cynthia Quarcoo told Live FM; I think its a personal decision for the artist. I have artist who dont think winning awards are that important and there are the others that think winning awards is everything. I became aware of Shatta Wale through a controversy when he was moving from Bandana to be Shatta Wale and it was with Charter House. In my opinion, stepping back and looking at his brand, his strategy is to create controversy and it seems to be working for him. He is the king of the streets and whether he decided to go to the awards or not, hes still got his followers who are going to support him. That seems to be his strategy and it seems to be working for him. Mogadishu (AFP) - Somali government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers on Saturday recaptured the key port of Merka from Shebab insurgents, just one day after the Islamists swept into the city, the army and residents said. "The Somali forces and AMISOM peacekeepers secured control of Merka again and now the situation has returned to normal," a Somali military official, Abdirisak Mohamed, told AFP by telephone from Mogadishu. "There was brief exchange of gunfire, but the (Shebab) militants have fled." He said "several" Shebab fighters and one Somali soldier were killed in the clashes, and the security forces are now conducting clearing operations inside town." A resident reached by telephone said the AU force, known by its acronym AMISOM, used tanks to recapture the port, and four civilians were killed after they were caught in the fighting. "Four people died in our neighbourhood and two others were wounded, I can see AMISOM and Somali troops returned to the city now and they are conducting security operations", Muhidin Osman said. AU troops had fled the city, the state capital of Lower Shabelle, as heavily armed Shehab fighters swept in with black Islamist flags on Friday, residents and local authorities said, in one of the most dramatic reverses for the multi-national force in its nearly decade-long battle against the Shebab. - Falsehoods in the media' - However the head of AMISOM, Mozambican Francisco Madeira, on Saturday denied that the African Union force had ever lost control of the town. "It is.. a falsehood that Marka has either been captured or re-captured by Al Shebab," he said in an AMISOM statement. Speaking of "falsehoods in the media" he explained that the AMISOM troops in Marka were merely "undertaking a re-adjustment of their position," to Marka Ayub, about a kilometer from their previous position. The decision was taken due to "tactical considerations," Madeira said. Residents said earlier Saturday that the Shebab had begun imposing Sharia law on the city. The Al Qaeda-linked Shebab said on its website that one of its leaders, Sheikh Mohamed Abu-Abdallah, addressed hundreds of people gathered at the regional government headquarters in Merka after the seizure on Friday. The enemy has lost and running away, they are fleeing from the Islamic regions," it quoted him as saying. The historic port, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, was captured in August 2012 by African Union troops after four years under Islamist control. - Bomb brought down plane - Meanwhile the Somalian government said that a bomb caused a deadly explosion that ripped a hole in the fuselage of a passenger plane shortly after it took off from Somalia's main airport on Tuesday. The authorities had initially attributed the blast, which killed one passenger to sudden air decompression. There has been no claim of responsibility yet for the attack. The Shebab are fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, which is protected by 22,000 AU troops. The group has lost ground since being routed from Mogadishu in 2011, but continues to stage regular shooting and suicide attacks, and in recent months has staged a series of brazen raids on AU bases. Last month they stormed a Kenyan army base at El-Adde in southwest Somalia, in the latest incident of an AMISOM base being overrun, before retreating. In September, Shebab fighters stormed a Ugandan AMISOM base in Janale district, southwest of Mogadishu in the Lower Shabelle region. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking at an AU summit last month, called for more "resources for the forces in Somalia so that AMISOM can have robust power on land, air and the sea." AU troops have been hampered by a lack of air power -- including attack helicopters -- leaving their bases often isolated and supply lines vulnerable to attack by Shehab gunmen controlling surrounding rural areas. Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL. 05.02.2016 LISTEN Tongo (U/E), Feb. 5, GNA - Dr Edward Nasigre Mahama, the flagbearer of the People's National Convention (PNC) Party, has condemned the politics of deception often exhibited by some political parties in Ghana, saying it must cease. The flagbearer made the condemnation at rallies organised by the national executive of the party at Tongo, Binduri, and Bawku in the Upper East Region. Dr Mahama cited the two main political parties in the country, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the most offenders of deception. He accused both parties of failing to work on the Bolgatanga-Bawku Road, despite the promises they made to the electorate that they would fix road when should they be given the mandate. 'For more than twenty four years now the Bolgatanga -Bawku road has been the same and keeps on becoming more deplorable and deplorable. Government upon government, particularly, the NDC and the NPP governments .' he told the Chiefs and People in the area. He recounted instances where incumbent governments pretended to work on development projects during campaign periods with the view of influencing the electorate to vote for them and abandoned such projects after the elections. 'On the eve of the by election in Talensi, for instance, the incumbent government was seen grading the roads and soon after the election, they could not continue with the project,' he noted. 'This politics of deception in the country must stop.' Dr Mahama admonished the electorate to be more discerning in the 2016 election, and gave the assurance that the PNC party would implement all of its campaign promises should it win the election. He stated that among his topmost priorities would be to construct more dams and de-silt existing ones to empower more people, particularly, the youth, to go into dry season farming. He would as to stabilise the prize of crops such as maize, rice and millet, he said. On health, he promised the people that as a medical doctor, he would facilitate the construction of new District hospitals and the construction of market stalls with their auxiliary facilities such as public places of convenience and day care centres across the country. The National Chairman of the party, Mr Bernard Mornah, stated that the PNC was the only party that could bring salvation to Ghanaians, and mentioned the National Health Insurance Scheme, the School Feeding Programme, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) as some of the initiatives of the PNC flagbearer. He, however, expressed regret that such programmes were not properly implemented and gave the assurance that the party would implement them well to benefit all Ghanaians, particularly, the vulnerable should it win the elections. The flagbearer of the party, who was accompanied by the National and some Regional Executives, also paid courtesy calls on the Chiefs and their elders in the Upper East Region. GNA 05.02.2016 LISTEN Half-Assini (WR), Feb. 5, GNA - Very Reverend Justice Annan, Superintendent Minister of Half-Assini Circuit of the Methodist Church, has appealed to Ghanaians to do more to maintain the current peace the nation. He said anything that could spark off trouble and violence must be avoided. Reverend Annan said this during a social gathering Half Assini. He said 2016 election is test for the nation and urged Ghanaians to prove to the outside world that Ghana's democratic dispensation has come of age. Reverend Annan appealed to politicians to avoid personal attacks and character assignations. He urged supporters of political parties to avoid the use of provocative language and tolerate the views of their colleagues from the political divide. Reverend Annan urged political party leaders to accept the results of the election that would be declared by the Electoral Commission. GNA Accra, Feb. 05, GNA - The 1995 Year Group of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) has donated two projectors valued at GHa6,000.00 to the Institute as part of their contribution towards quality learning and teaching in the university. Presenting the items on behalf of the year group, the President of the 95 Alumni, Mrs Felicia Agyeman-Duah, said GIJ had contributed to their successes on the job market hence the donation to express their gratitude. 'Being in the month of love, it is in order that we show our love to the school,' she said. Dr Wilberforce Sefakor Dzisah, the Rector of the Institute, who received the items on behalf of the School, expressed gratitude to the group for the donation and pledged to use it judiciously to the benefit of the students. Dr Dzisah noted that all the citadels of learning, including Harvard, Oxford, the University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Technology, had their progressive development undertaken and sustained by their own products. According to the Rector, the four-storey lecture hall, theatre and office complex at the new site of the university had been roofed, therefore, after the furnishing, it would be used alongside the facilities on the old campus. He said one of the greatest constraints of student was the lack of hostel facilities, and explained that there were plans to build a hostel at the new site to house students towards promoting a conducive learning atmosphere. Dr Dzisah said the Institute would expand the undergraduate degree programmes by introducing new programmes, which would cover the Communication area and also complement Public Relations and Journalism, to equip students to become a global brand. He said the institute had introduced four Masters' programmes; in Development Communication, Public Relations, Journalism and Media Management; to train and build a core of communication practitioners locally to enable them to understand the national culture and its dynamics rather than relying on foreign culture to communicate effectively. He, therefore, encouraged Alumni to patronise the programmes instead of paying too much money to study abroad. He urged all the year groups to assist in imparting knowledge to the students with their industry experience as a way of helping the school to develop. GNA 05.02.2016 LISTEN Derma, (B/A), Feb. 5, GNA - Dr. Louisa Hannah Bisiw, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), has called on voters to reward the government with their votes on November 7, for the massive infrastructure development within the past seven years. She said they would be showing ungratefulness should they fail to return it to power in the coming general elections. The Deputy Minister was speaking when she performed the ceremony for construction works to start on the 26-kilometre Techiman-Derma-Asuoso road in the Tano South District. The GHE15.5 million project, is expected to be completed within 15 months and involves bitumen surfacing. The job has been awarded to PMC Construction Limited, an Accra-based construction company. Dr. Bisiw, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, gave high marks to the government for its achievements and warned that it would be a mistake to vote it down. She said she had had personally sunk 69 bore holes in the constituency to provide the people with access to potable water, adding that, work on additional 18 was steadily progressing. She also gave assurance that everything would be done to complete the GHE200,000.00 market project started at Techimantia. Mr. Eric Opoku, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, urged the contractors to make sure that they worked hard to meet the deadline. They should again see to it that there was value for money by doing quality job, he added. Alhaji Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Construction Company, pledged to finish the road within the contract period. GNA Wa, Feb. 05, GNA - No district from the Upper West Region made it to the top 20 districts of the 2015 Ghana's District League Table (DLT). The DLT is a simple ranking tool for measuring the level of development in each of Ghana's 216 districts. Although the Wa Municipality topped all the 11 districts in the region, it still placed 48th among the 216 districts nationwide, with a percentage score of 63.4 per cent. The five districts that topped the regional league table are the Wa Municipality (63.4%), Sissala East (61.1%), Nandom (58.1%), Lawra (57.3%) and Nadowli-Kaleo District (55.8%), respectively. Nationally, Sissala East placed 60th position, Nandom 96th position, Lawra 102nd position, and Nadowli-Kaleo 116th position. The region also placed 7th in the DLT regional rankings beating the Volta, Central and the Northern regions. The DLT is an initiative of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD - Ghana) and the United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF - Ghana) in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. Ms Mavis Zupork Dome, Research officer at CDD - Ghana, said generally, the country scored 56 per cent in terms of development services delivery. She noted that 98 districts had improved their performance in the DLT since the last assessment a year ago. The CDD research officer appealed to the districts to take the results seriously and try to work on them in order to improve on the areas that they performed poorly. Afua Gyapomaa, a Social Policy Assistant of UNICEF, said the DLT ranked the districts in terms of their delivery across six key public sectors: Health, Governance, Education, Security, Sanitation and Rural Water Coverage. She said the objective was to increase social accountability, support the Government of Ghana in local development, improve responsiveness, encourage dialogue and feedback and increase transparency of information. Mr Mutaru Mumin, the Programme officer at CDD - Ghana, explained that the purpose of the DLT results was not for anyone to pass judgment on any district but rather it was meant for people to know how the districts performed in terms of the indicators. He advised people against using the DLT results to attack the assemblies but to rather use it to either find support for the assembly or to offer help themselves to address the issues. Mr. Issahaku Nuhu Putiaha, Wa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), appealed to the originators of the DLT to endeavour to engage the assemblies in a dialogue to enable them to understand why they performed poorly in some of the indicators so they could work towards addressing those issues. GNA 05.02.2016 LISTEN Accra, Feb. 05, GNA - The Births and Deaths Registry has said that a huge number of Ghanaian children are not registered at birth, while a greater number of families fail to register their loved ones who die. 'About 35 to 45 per cent of children born every year are not registered, and because they enter unrecognised, provisions are not made for facilities and services for them, and they are invisible,' the Director of the Registry, Mr John Yao Agbeko noted. He also said 60 per cent to 65 per cent of people who die annually were unregistered because people left behind lacked interest to register them in spite of efforts by the Births and Deaths Registry to whip up public interest by the numerous initiatives launched. The Director, who made the revelation at CitiFM and World Bank roundtable on Thursday, said officers at the registry were worried about the phenomenon as it extremely impeded development planning and policies. He said the registry was 'strategically positioned' to provide clients information in order to enhance service delivery, however, insufficient logistics and the lack of capacity largely undermined efforts of officials to work. Mr Agbeko said that the absence of an integrated national data was a disturbing development, which needed urgent attention, and urged district assemblies to take control of cemeteries and insist on death certificates before allowing burial activities. The Director told the audience at the forum that the registry has rolled out a number of initiatives, including a pilot project where parents could register new born babies with their mobile phones at their own convenience. The project, which started with the backing of UNICEF, was being experimented in areas like Amasaman, Adentan, and the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, he said, and when it was scaled up it would benefit institutions like the Electoral Commission, the Driver, Vehicle and Licensing Authority and the Ghana Immigration Service. The former Executive Director of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ernest Dumor, expressed concern about the poor performance of the Authority, which he said, botched largely because of lack of national interest. 'We did not insist on an operational acceptance test, we did not insist on any technical report that will make us make a decision as to whether what was being supplied was okay or not,' he said. 'Mobile work stations were breaking down, the laptops on those machines were faulty and we requested that they be returned,' he added, He said their request to return the equipment did not receive attention. GNA Kantu (U/W), Feb. 5, GNA - Mr Adamu Dasaana, Wa West District Chief Executive (DCE), has rejected two out of four projects scheduled for handing over based on some glaring defects on them. Mr Dasaana, who also expressed worry over the delay in completing the projects, issued a two-week ultimatum to the contractors, namely; Tivoliyela company limited and Suntumo company limited to fix the defects and report back for the handing over. The two rejected projects are a community-based health planning services (CHPS) compound constructed at the cost of 87,000 Ghana cedis for Jenbob community and a 70,000 Ghana cedis 3-unit classroom block for Eggu Junior High School (JHS). The other projects that were handed over for use are four semi-detached teachers' quarters at the cost of over 200,000 Ghana cedis at Tindoma and a 3-unit classroom block at Kantu costing 87,000 Ghana cedis. Three of the projects, namely; the CHPS compound at Jenbob and the two 3-units classroom blocks at Kantu and Eggu were funded by the District Development Fund (DDF) while the four semi-detached teachers' quarters at Tindoma was constructed with funds from the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFund). Mr Dasaana said he rejected the projects based on personal observations when he was conducted round to have a look at the projects before handing over. Some members of the beneficiary communities had earlier raised concerns about the rejected projects. The DCE said he believed the projects consultant, A and Q consultancy firm shirked its responsibility along the line resulting in the poor delivery by the two contractors. He called on project consultants to play their supervisory role very well to ensure contractors do not compromise on quality. Earlier, the Mr Dasaana made a stopover at Lassia-Tuolu Senior High School (SHS) where he inspected a one mile square fence wall, a headmasters' bungalow, an administration block, a boys dormitory and a two semi-detached teachers' bungalow. Mr Emmanuel Banonwie, Assistant Headmaster in charge of Administration, commended government for the projects, adding that they would certainly boost the school's infrastructure needs when all were completed. He said the school, however, lacked a strong official vehicle for the headmasters' day-to-day running of the administration and appealed to government, benevolent individuals and institutions to come to the aid of the school. GNA Brazzaville (AFP) - Republic of Congo's government said Friday it had launched an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse involving peacekeepers serving with the UN in troubled Central African Republic. "Under a memorandum of understanding between the Congolese government and the office of the UN secretary general it has been decided that an administrative inquiry will be carried out," Communications Minister Thierry Moungalla said. The investigation, which would be led by the defence ministry, would attempt to "verify the veracity of the allegations" revealed by the UN's 10,000-strong stabilization mission in Central African Republic, MINUSCA, on Thursday. CAR is struggling to recover from a cycle of sectarian violence that exploded after a 2013 coup, pitting mainly Muslim rebels against Christian militias, but international peacekeeping efforts have been undermined by the string of sex abuse claims. MINUSCA said Thursday it had "identified seven new possible victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in Bambari", in the centre of the country, involving soldiers from the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A UN probe "found sufficient initial evidence that five of the victims were minors and had been sexually abused and that one adult had been sexually exploited", the MINUSCA statement said. Following on the claims, the United Nations said it would repatriate 120 peacekeepers from the Republic of Congo after last month asking DR Congo to send home its contingent. Moungalla said Brazzaville had a "zero tolerance" policy on rights abuses and would "roundly condemn" the abuse if proven by the investigation. The allegations are the latest in a barrage of claims of troops assaulting civilians they are supposed to protect in CAR. While most of the cases concern UN peacekeepers, France's Sangaris force and the EU's EUFOR mission have also been targeted by similar complaints. Among other claims, two teenagers said they were raped by EUFOR soldiers whom they believed to be from Georgia and a seven-year-old girl said she performed oral sex on French soldiers in exchange for a bottle of water and cookies. Last month, a hard-hitting report found the United Nations had grossly mishandled allegations of child sex abuse in CAR. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the head of the force last year, but the claims continue to surface. President John Mahama 06.02.2016 LISTEN An Islamic cleric, numerologist and philosopher has hinted who the loser will be in the upcoming November 7 election. Sheikh Ustaz Sham-una Jibril who is known globally for his accurate predictions on both local and international issues has noted that the incumbent president will lose his seat perhaps to the largest opposition party. If Almighty Allah makes election 2016 possible in Ghana, per my spiritual calculation and research, President Mahama and the NDC will lose the election half touch (thus halfway through collations before declaration) What I mean by half touch is that counting of votes will be ongoing and the collated results so far and the gap between the incumbent president and the leading opposition party will speak and announce itself. The incumbent president shall accept and concede defeat even before declaration, He emphatically said in an interview with Peacefmonline.com He further explained that In the later part of the collation, some constituencies in certain regions such as Volta Region, Brong Ahafo and some part of Northern will be collated last and will not make any difference as happened to candidate Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria in their last election. Sheikh Ustaz Sham-un Jibril . Sheikh Ustaz Sham-un Jibril however noted that, violence may emanate There will be some crises or casualties in a form of violence, beatings, severe injuries etc along the line. This is what will constitute the unfortunate aspect of the election. I humbly call on all Ghanaians to rise-up and call on to their creator to save mother Ghana. The acclaimed international soothsayer also pleaded with the various security services to be vigilant in the process I advise that they act neutral and apply the law without any fear or favour. The Police's attention should be focused on the following regions and places such as Tamale Central, Hohoe, Wa Central, Asawase, Madina, Ashaiman and Bawku Central during the election. ..I said these because my calculations foresee confusion and misunderstanding in these areas mentioned, he added. With regards to the media, he said I hope and believe they will work according to their ethics. They should report as they see during the election. I also foresee some media personnel suffering some attacks on the field. I foresee a Joy FM reporter being attacked in Upper West Region whiles a TV3 reporter attacked in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Sheikh Ustaz also cautioned that The EC must act with much professionalism in the execution of their duties because the whole world's attention will be on Ghana's election The EC and its fraternity must be honest with Ghanaians between now and November, 2016 because dishonesty and unprofessionalism with matters concerning elections can throw a country into a state of total confusion or disagreement. Besides, some EC Officials from Brong Ahafo, Northern, Ashanti and Volta Regions will also suffer attacks for a perceive mishandling of their office, he told Peacefmonline.com. Source: Peacefmonline 06.02.2016 LISTEN Two persons have been confirmed dead while several others were severely injured in a road accident that occurred at Avenor junction, Accra, early Friday morning. A male and a female passengers who were rushed to the Police and the Ridge Hospitals respectively after the accident, passed away while receiving treatment, according to the Tesano police Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service. Three other victims rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, are said to be receiving treatment but the police were yet to locate the victims sent to other hospitals for treatment. The bodies of the two deceased persons (yet to be identified) have all been deposited at the Police Hospital for autopsy and preservation. The condition of the three victims sent to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, according to police reports, was critical due to the impact. Superintendent Agnes Ceasar who confirmed the accident to DAILY GUIDE, said the police were yet to know the number of persons on board the three vehicles when the accident occurred. When the accident occurred, reports received indicated that several of the victims were rushed to different health centres for treatment by other drivers and so the police were visiting the various hospitals to collate the number of persons involved. . One of the victims, according to our investigations, was taken to the Ridge Hospital while one other was taken to the Police Hospital but both were later confirmed dead when police visited the two health facilities, the police officer posited. The vehicles involved have been towed to the police accident car park at Sowutuom. An eyewitness account at the scene told the paper that three vehicles were involved in the accident which occurred around 4:25am yesterday. He initially said five persons died on the spot but five others who were severely injured were rushed to the nearest health centres for treatment. The eyewitness said the accident occurred after a four-wheel drive (44) vehicle, which was over-speeding, crashed into two other vehicles including a commercial one. The 4X4 vehicle was from the Tesano area and descending towards the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and crashed into another vehicle which was crossing, and further dragged it to hit the commercial vehicle, the eyewitness reported. By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey ( [email protected] ) 06.02.2016 LISTEN Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has said he would put in the public domain naked photographs of Valentina Nana Agyeiwaa aka Afia Schwarzenegger, host of Accra-based Okay Fm's mid-morning show, 'Ye Wo Krom.' That girl (Valentina), I will bring you her naked pictures. I will put it on social media and everywhere. I will publish her naked photos. I will insult her and ensure it enters into her bones properly. She can insult everyone in this country but certainly not me. I will insult her properly; I am ready for her. Every studio you call me, every station, I will answer that girl, angry-sounding Kennedy Agyepong yelled on his radio station, Oman FM, Thursday dusk. The lawmaker did not allow himself to be restrained as he went all out making blatant vulgar utterances and insulting Afia Schwarzenegger with strong adjectives that could be libellous if repeated in print. The Assin Central parliamentarian said he was angered because he had received several calls that Afia Schwarzenegger, while hosting her 'Ye Wo Krom' show, had made uncomplimentary comments about him and insinuated that his station Oman Fm was not doing well economically. DAILY GUIDE did not listen to what exactly Afia Schwarzenegger said about Kennedy Agyapong on her programme, but a report by peacefmonline.com quoted her as saying, I'm not saying Mahama is the best or worst president ever in the country, but if you want to attack him attack his governance but don't accuse his mother and brother of selling drugs. Kennedy Agyapong, Ghanaians want me to ask you the kind of work you do. At times we are not able to tell people the truth straight in their faces. Kennedy Agyapong, what work do you do? That radio station which has collapsed? The station which I cannot tune in even though I stay around Madina? Anybody who will be arrested in connection with cocaine is your friend. Ghanaians want me to ask you the kind of work you do since you claim Mahama's brother and mother deal in drugs. . Kennedy Agyapong, apart from threatening to publish Schwarzenegger's naked photographs, made very offensive comments on her persona and said he would insult her until she runs out of town. Reports went viral especially on the social media that Schwarzenegger had been sacked from Okay Fm but management of the station told DAILY GUIDE that it is not true and that she remains host of 'Ye Wo Krom.' Both Kennedy Agyapong and Afia Schwarzenegger have a penchant for getting emotional and going overboard in their public comments. Indeed, Afia Schwarzenegger has also put out an audio recording in which she responded to Kennedy Agyapong's threats and vulgar attacks in equal measure. It is not certain how the unfolding drama between the two would end and whether it would be anytime soon. A DAILY GUIDE Report Tema, Feb.05, GNA - Mr Richard Fiadomor, the Presiding Member, of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, has said the assembly's debate and work are not characterised by partisanship but by objectivity and patriotism. He said: 'Although some residents perceive some assembly members as members or supporters of political parties no, one can tell this from the way they debate, vote, and work as assembly members.' In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he said the assembly members were devoted to the development of their areas because those who voted them into office would assess their performances by how well they addressed these. According to him, the non-partisan and development-oriented nature of local governance should be maintained in order to have a more unified approach to development at the local level. Mr Fiadomor, who used to be a special assistant to the Metropolitan Chief Executive, said after his election as the Presiding Member, he ceased to be at the beck and call of his former boss. 'Both of us appreciate our roles,' he said. 'We now have boundaries which should not be crossed. We consult each other on matters of importance having in mind the rules, expectations, and concerns of the Assembly.' He called for a peaceful campaign towards the general election, saying, 'Some of us came to Tema before the political parties. 'We made friends not based on political and ethnic considerations and we hope that we will still keep our friends and enjoy life in the Metropolis even when we disagree politically.' GNA 06.02.2016 LISTEN Accra, Feb. 5, GNA - A circuit court in Accra has ordered the arrest of Eugene Ashe, aka Wisa, a hip life artiste for failing to appear before it. Wisa is being held for allegedly exposing his penis while performing at the Accra International Conference Centre on December 24, last year. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest because when the matter was called, Wisa, the Ekiki Mi Hit maker was not in court, while his counsel or his representative was also not present. He has, however, denied a charge of gross indecent exposure and he is on an GHE8,000.00 bail with one surety. But minutes after the court had adjourned the matter to February 12, Wisa was seen in the company of his lawyer, Mr Jerry Avenorgbo heading towards the court in a bid to relinquish the warrant issued. However, on reaching the court room, the prosecutor, Detective Inspector Judith B. Asante and the case investigator had left the court premises. Today, the court was to watch the alleged video of Wisa's performance on December 24, last year, as Detective Chief Inspector Edward Agyei Odame gave evidence to the court. At the last sitting, Prosecuting Chief Inspector J. B. Asante told the Court that on December 25, the Accra Regional Police was alerted over a nude video posted on the internet from an unknown source in which a popular Ghanaian artiste identified as Eugene Ashe, aka Wisa Creg, intentionally exposed his penis to the audience while performing live on stage at AICC. According to the prosecutor, Wisa was seen dancing with a female dancer. Chief Inspector Asante said the Police contacted the managers of Ashe to produce him at the Regional Police headquarters for investigations and they did. Prosecution said investigations into the matter disclosed that on December 24, Airtel Communications Company and Citi FM, an Accra based radio station, organised an event dubbed: 'December to Remember,' with the accused as a guest artiste. During the course of the show, the accused while dancing with a female dancer identified as Monica Kumadeh, suddenly removed his penis out of his pair of jeans and began to caress the buttock of the dancer to the glare of the audience. GNA 06.02.2016 LISTEN Tafi-Abuife (V/R), Feb. 5, GNA - Kingdom Premium Fruits, a Free Zone company, producing Mango Pine Smoothies, could be taken out of production by the spiraling cost of utilities. Samuel Lefoney, General Manager of the company, said this when Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Trade and Industries, visited their facilities as part of his three -day Volta regional tour He said overheads of electricity, water and fuel take about 70 per cent of production costs, making the company's competitiveness a huge challenge. Kingdom Fruits, which farms on between 700 and 1,000 acres, has a pineapple population of 800,000, which is projected to rise to 2,000,000 this year. The company also grows mangoes which it blends with pineapple to get its brand of smoothies said to being doing well on the market. Mr Lefoneh said the company is developing markets in the sub-region and in China and the product is carving a niche for itself. Dr Spio-Garbrah said his Ministry appreciates the toll the hike of the utilities was having on production and competitiveness of Ghanaian industries and urged industry players to make a representation on the issue to government through the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI). The Minister also visited the Edwin Wood Processing, a plywood milling company at Jasikan, which employs 300 staff including 30 women, where he urged individuals and public institutions to patronize furniture made in Ghana. Dr Spio-Garbrah was also at Della Foundation, located at Hohoe, which produces clothing for export to the United States. GNA Accra, Feb. 5, GNA - The National Communications Authority (NCA) has organized a day's workshop for media personnel on the Digital Terrestrial Television campaign in Accra. The workshop was aimed at enhancing the understanding and sensitizing personnel on what would be expected of them and the industry as Ghana gradually moves from analogue to digital broadcast. Dr Chief P. A Crystal-Djirackor, Chairman of the Communications Publicity Sub-Committee of the Digital Migration Committee, said going digital would improve the country in educational development and information dissemination amongst others. He said the media is expected to specifically have the information prior to the launch of the educational campaign. He said Ghana is migrating to digital broadcasting to offer among other things efficiency in the use of spectrum, allowing the transmission of several programs with one single channel that previously was only able to carry one analogue channel. 'Improved picture and sound quality, giving pleasure to television viewers, better wireless broadband services, by freeing up spectrum to other communications operators who want to provide improved services', he said. Dr Crystal-Djirackor said the media is an important stakeholder in the telecommunications industry and it is through its effort that anyone could reach out to consumers, and media knowledge and understanding about the transition would help all stakeholders better engage in the process. He said the media's role as partners is to understand and communicate how the right equipment guarantees the consumer better experience with DTT, gain an indept knowledge of the conformation regime with regards to set-top boxes and TV sets to support and enhance end-user experience. The media would also be expected to address counterfeiting of consumer equipment and other concerns of the consumer; resolve possible issues that are likely to come up as they interact with the general public and have a manual to ensure that the right information is given to consumers. Mr William Tevie, Acting Director General of the NCA, said the media has a stake in the public education campaign and through the workshop it would be equipped with an overview of the DTT, adding that it would also help the NCA get closer to its goals. He said the NCA has developed minimum specifications for set-top boxes and television sets after Ghana, as a member of the International Telecommunications Union's Geneva 2006 Agreement, committed to migrate towards digital broadcasting which started in June 17, 2006 and expected to end by June 17, 2015. He said the NCA has been working with the digital broadcasting migration Committee and the Ghana Standards Authority to come up with acceptable canons for set-top boxes and television sets in the country. 'The minimum specifications have been developed because the free to air terrestrial television stations and all other stations with similar licenses will migrate their transmissions from analogue to a digital platform,' he said. Mr Tevie said the objective of the specification is to ensure that all DTT receivers receive good quality video and sound for the viewer and guarantee the lowest cost for the free-to-air receiver. He noted that in order to ensure that DTT receivers sold on the Ghanaian market conformed to acceptable standards; the NCA has published standards for the receivers. 'The set-top boxes and integrated digital television sets ought to pass a test to be certified to use a receiver logo, and the logo will confirm to consumers that the receiver was Ghana DTT compliant', he said. He said the NCA would continue to work with the media to support government's objective towards the Digital Terrestrial Migration project. GNA Accra, Feb. 5, GNA - The refurbished Accra Collection office of the Ghana Revenue Authority Customs Division has been inaugurated with an impressive ceremony at James Town in Accra. The refurbished facilities were funded by the Ghana Community Network Service Limited, (GCNet), an electronic solutions service provider. Mr Gabriel Katamani, Commissioner Support Services Division, said the refurbishment is an important one and expressed the hope that it would motivate staff to double their collection. He expressed gratitude to GCNet for recognizing the importance of the Jamestown Collection office, adding that efforts are underway to fence the office and build and embarkment to protect it from the sea. Mr Kuudamnuru John Vianney, Commissioner of Customs, lauded the collaboration between GCNet and the Ghana Revenue Authority, especially in the effort to create a congenial working environment through the provision of equipment and furniture and urged the management of GCNet to look at other collections. He tasked the officers to work hard to enhance the performance of the Accra Collection, adding that the Service would not permit any infractions. Mr Emmanuel Darko, Deputy General Manager, the inauguration of the refurbished facilities at the James town customs collection marked another milestone in the partnership between GCNet and the GRA in the last 15 years. He said within this period GCNet has undertaken some refurbishment work at various GRA sites, including the re-roofing of the Aflao and Elubo stations, provided air-conditioning, security grilles, among others. Mr Darko said the refurbishment process at James Town coincided with the deployment of an Enhanced Warehousing Module, within the Ghana Customs Management System, which GCNet had developed in collaboration of GRA. 'We wish to note that in doing this, we acknowledge the fact that James Town is no mean a collection,' he said. Madam Christina Akoto-Bamfo, Sector Commander Accra Collection, speaking at the commissioning, said the Accra Collection Office was commissioned in 1926. She said with the commissioning of the Tema Harbour in 1962 all import activities were directed from the James Town Port to the Tema Harbour and the James Town Office was designated as the customs office responsible for excise activities and also for the registration of all sales tax. Currently, the Accra Collection can boast of a staff strength of 187 and controls 215 bonded warehouses, 386 manufacturers and 55 free zones companies in the Greater Accra Region, and parts of the Eastern and Central Regions as well as the General Post Office and the Accra North Post Office. GNA The President John Dramani Mahama on Friday joined the Chiefs and people of Akuapong in the Eastern Region to mourn the late Okuapemhene, Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa. President, Mahama in his tribute to the late paramount chief intimated that the late Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa, was more than a father to him and he therefore has an obligation to mourn him appropriately, just like any of Nanas children. President Mahama said this when he visited Okuapeman to formally pay his tribute to the late Chief as part of the funeral rites for Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa. Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa acceded the throne in 1974 and ruled for nearly 41 years until his death in July last year. President Mahama donated a carton of schnapps, 20 crates of assorted drinks, 20 cartons of bottled water and a cash of a10,000 towards the funeral. He assured Okuapeman of governments full participation, promising a delegation led by the Vice President, Kwesi Amissah Arthur, will be present on Saturday for the burial rites. The Presidents visit followed similar visits by other dignitaries including former President Jerry John Rawlings, the flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party for the 2016 elections, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo and his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. 06.02.2016 LISTEN The elapsing week has been dominated by the menace if you like, the bloodletting of the Fulani in Agogo, Ashanti Akyem, in the Ashanti Region. It does look like the subject would continue in the opening week especially as the security agents appear to have been given the order to flush out the killer nomads; developments which would provide fresh fodder for the media to feed on. Ghanaians are all ears anticipating what the outcome of the exercise whose codename we are yet to hear will be. Perhaps it could be something like Operation Free Agogo or even Operation Muumuu. If the action of the nomads has caused so much anguish and apprehension, the response of the indigenes was one which made the most worrying headlines in the twilight of the week. When a group of people entrapped by unscrupulous foreigners decide to take the law into their hands for want of effective security from the authorities, government should be concerned. Firefight Imagine the indigenes in a firefight with the Fulani nomads, the frontline being the outskirts of Agogo with the asafo company firing rapidly from their defence positions as the invaders charge: no government would fold its arms when such a scenario unfolds anyway. The acting Inspector General of Police John Kudalor, the man responsible for internal security management and some top Army Generals descended upon the town to assess the situation further. But unfortunately this has not cleared the doubts of cynics who think such visits are not enough to flush out the nomads. I can see the military playing the most critical role in this operation: it is a typical operation involving attack procedures, the domain of soldiers. Under normal circumstances, though internal security operations are led by the Police with the military providing support, not this one which requires encampment in the field and therefore demanding sufficient knowledge of field-craft and other tactical movements. There are signs it would appear that the top hierarchy of the security system seeks to make an indelible mark in the war against the nomads and this dampens the position of cynics. Woes Of A Best Farmer The Ashanti Regional Best Farmer a couple of days ago presented a harrowing narration of what he suffered at the hands of the nomads and his resolve to engage the pasture seeker when they turn up again. His position, he said, was informed by the level of destruction by the cattle and how his earlier bravado when he engaged them paid off. More so he claimed the number of policemen in the town is not adequate to take on the Fulani herdsmen who would do anything to ensure that their cattle are unhindered in their quest for forage. The cattle, he explained, have eaten up plantain and cassava farms; the repercussion of which he said lies in, as he put it, the shortage of foodstuff that awaits the country, the Agogo being an important source of substantial quantity of farm produce. Edmund Asiedu is one man whose conviction that the security agencies are responding adequately would go a long way in calming nerves in Agogo and beyond. This is not forthcoming because losing some GH25m to the destructive cows has shaken him so much that it would take more than a visit by the top hierarchy of the security system in the country to give him hope. He knows so much about the Fulani that there is no gainsaying the fact that he can easily differentiate between the alien Fulani from those who are part of the Agogo community. According to him, the nomads come to Agogo during the dry season a period when the harmattan wind dries up vegetation in the Northern parts of West Africa. Sometimes, he said, farmers plead with them to keep their cattle away from their farms. While some of these entreaties are turned down any attempt at confronting them could lead to fatalities. Protection The nomadic Fulanis would do everything to protect their cattle if that demands turning to their firearms. Possessing firearms these days is something relished by most nomadic Fulanis. Recently a 16-year-old Fulani killed an Agogo man because it could be that the man sought to protect his farm from the destructive cattle. . It is also alleged that some Fulani occasionally rape women, another source of tension between the people of Agogo and their uninvited guests. Dozens of Agogo indigenes have lost their lives to Fulani herdsmen something which is now a source of worry to their counterparts who live in town and have long been assimilated. There are countless descendants of Fulani all over the country some of them finely assimilated into the local indigenous tribes, in especially the Zongo communities. Flushing the Fulani from Agogo cannot be described as a holistic measure potent enough to obviate a future recurrence. Would they not return in future? What about the other parts of the country they could move to and perpetuate similar atrocities? Flushing them into neighbouring countries would have been the most appropriate thing to do but the feasibility of this suggestion and the logistic challenges it would pose is another kettle of fish. The Fulani are the most ubiquitous ethnic grouping in West Africa. The nomadic ones can be differentiated from their kinsmen who are town dwellers and who do not move cattle around in search of pasture. Although they are in every country in West Africa, the Fulanis do not constitute the majority in any of the countries, safe in Guinea, where they dwarfed others in terms of numbers. Ubiquitous Fulani are found in Senegal, the Gambia, Togo, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone, their language being Fulfulde. The Hausa/Fulanis who constitute an important power-broking ethnic grouping in Nigeria, are the product of intermarriages between the Hausa and the Fulani. The Fulani especially the nomadic ones are masters of the bush for who West Africa is one large area and borderless. Their navigational skills are unsurpassed, a quality which enables them to traverse the sub-region at will and without hindrance. They would enter another country with the immigration authorities unable to track them down. After all they know the terrain better than such officials. Upon reaching rivers they are able to cross easily just holding the tails of their animals. Cows can cross rivers easily especially since they won't sink. The nomadic Fulani can move their herds of cattle from Sokoto in Nigeria to Agogo or Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region through the bush relying on their age-old natural navigational skills. Masters of The Bush They can countenance any carnivorous animal on their way with ease as they can with dangerous creepy reptiles. As masters of herbal medicine, they are confident when they embark on their journeys in search of pasture. Apart from the destruction caused by their cows, some Fulanis have found in armed robbery a profitable pastime. For a long time, the Northern Region had been spared the menace of these robbers. Their debuting into the dangerous underworld of armed robbery has changed the impression many people now have about them in this part of the country. For the nomadic Fulani today, they are not only associated with the destruction of farms but outright armed robbery. In the Kintampo area in the Brong Ahafo Region, Fulani armed robbers are so active that long distance buses must mandatorily wait to be escorted by armed soldiers when it is close to midnight. These escorts accompany these convoys until they reach the outskirts of Buipe in the Northern Region outside their active areas. They are able to quickly dash into the bush when they complete their criminal operations. In the Gushegu area last year, some market women were ambushed by a group of Fulani robbers who made them to lie on the highway. Unfortunately for them, another vehicle approaching the place drove into the women killing many of them instantly. Perhaps now that matters pertaining to the nomadic Fulani have reached a head, the authorities would be prompted to consider a long term response. But as pointed out earlier, flushing them from one part of the country just means they could move to another carrying along their trademark destruction of farmlands and armed robbery activities. By A.R. Gomda 06.02.2016 LISTEN The First Lady, Lordina Mahama, has urged the World Health Organisation and the International Community to speedily deal with the outbreak of the Zika Virus which started in Brazil - to prevent its spread to other parts of the world. Mrs Mahama, who is also the President of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), said in a statement that the virus has already infected thousands of pregnant women and their newborns in North and South America and continued to spread on a daily basis. The First Lady made a passionate appeal to world powers to help the women and their unborn babies now and avoid another Ebola-like virus attack, which was still fresh in the minds of the people. Mrs Mahama, was addressing the closing session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of OAFLA, in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The meeting, which brought together more than 12 first ladies and representatives, partners, donors, and technical advisors, was on the theme: Advancing Sustainable Partnerships to End Paediatric AIDS & Improve Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights. Held twice a year, in January and June, on the sidelines of the African Union Summit, the meeting enables the first ladies to come together to take stock, refocus their commitment and collectively seek ways to overcome the challenges, and identify sustainable and scalable action areas, the statement said. The First Lady expressed her appreciation to the other first ladies for their support throughout the meetings. I am confident that together, we can make monumental strides during my tenure of Office, she said. In furtherance of OAFLAs pledge in South Africa for an AIDS-free generation, members will embark on a year-long intensive intervention in their respective countries in collaboration with the National AIDS Councils and Commissions, Ministries of Health and UNAIDS of their respective countries. Mrs Mahama proposed that the focus should be specifically on the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2017, through raising awareness among populations for systematic HIV testing of all pregnant women, their partners, and babies born to HIV positive women. She said there was the need to succeed in extending efforts and commitment beyond EMRICH to end Paediatric AIDS by 2020 towards an AIDS-Free generation in Africa. She proposed that the first ladies should join efforts to organise a high-level advocacy meeting on Paediatric AIDS within the next few months with their ministers of health, gender and education, parliamentarians and other partners involved in HIV issues for a stronger political and donor engagement. She also asked them to mobilise resources within their countries, specifically from the private sector, to scale up treatment of children, according to the statement. She said only 75 per cent of pregnant women living with HIV received antiretroviral for PMTCT in 2014 and only 30 per cent of HIV positive children received treatment while the mother-to-child transmission was no longer an issue in developed countries. The President of OAFLA said Cuba had already eliminated it and other African countries were on a precipice, therefore, she believed that all OAFLA member countries could and should eliminate mother-to-child transmission by the end of 2017. Sharing the progress, successes and challenges of her country, the First Lady of Kenya, Mrs Margaret Kenyatta, said the journey had not been easy. Although Kenya had both the evidence and knowledge of the high returns on investment in health, and the positive impact on poverty reduction and stimulus to economic growth, there had not been tremendous progress in the prevention of new infections, among children in the country, she stated. The 16th Ordinary General Assembly of OAFLA offered the opportunity for the first ladies to galvanise political leadership to pay more attention to the unacceptable loss of lives of women and children on the continent. 06.02.2016 LISTEN Prof. Akua Kuenyehia, a retired judge of the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands, says the peace in Ghana will be transient if the people do not work hard to reduce the level of corruption in the country. According to the retired judge, Ghana needs to have low levels of corruption in order to attain sustainable peace. Speaking at the maiden annual peace lecture of the Rotary Club of Accra-West, which is in collaboration with the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) in Accra on Wednesday, Prof. Kuenyehia stated that corruption would destroy the nation if the citizenry fail to do something about it. Corruption is a canker that will destroy us as a nation if we don't do anything about it. You can talk all the peace you want but if you don't deal with corruption, you are not going to get any peace or the peace will only be transient. As a nation, are we prepared to face corruption? For sustainable peace in this country, we need to have very low levels of corruption. When you have low levels of corruption then you have a chance of making progress, she said. She added that corruption was a serious issue that Ghana and Africa as a whole must handle carefully. How do we correct some of these things? Unless we correct some of these nitty-gritty things, the peace that we are looking for sustainable development will elude us, and are we ready to sit in the same place marking time while other countries make progress around us? I believe that these are very serious issues that we need to look at, the President of MountCrest University College said. She however added that despite the corruption that has engulfed the country, Ghana was an oasis of peace in the mist of turmoil in the sub-region and the African continent as a whole. Prof. Kuenyehia also indicated that peace was one of the factors that attract investors into the country, adding that anything that would disturb the peace of a country would affect its economy as well. . Elections She urged Ghanaians to work hard to minimize factors that could inflame passions and spark violence in the upcoming elections slated for November 7. This is an election year and therefore the mantra is peace, we should avoid election violence or anything that will disturb the peace of this country. I believe with the current economic conditions and lack of transparency in most cases, we should be very careful touting how peaceful we are and as we move towards the election month of November, each of us has an obligation to make sure that we try and minimize some of these factors that heighten disagreements. If you don't do that, this is the kind of thing that could easier trigger violence, she stated. Meanwhile, Amos Amankwah, Rotarian President of the Accra-West Rotary Club, has said that the peace lecture would become a reference point on the Ghanaian calendar to serve as a reminder for individuals. The event brought together various personalities including former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, Eva Lokko, former PPP running mate, Prof Atukwei Okai, Vitus Azeem, Hackman Owusu Agyemang, La Mantse Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru III and Lt Col Eric Aggrey Quarshie, of Ghana Armed Forces PR Directorate, among others. [email protected] By Nii Ogbamey Tetteh 06.02.2016 LISTEN Eastern Regional Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), David Prah has thrown a challenge to President John Dramani Mahama to remove his photographs from Government funded projects or he will personally organise for their removal because these projects belong to the people of Ghana and not President John Dramani Mahama. According to him, such projects are funded by the state and sees it as uncivilised and achaic attitude that should not be entertained in our modern political lifestyle. This is communists inferior tactics and propaganda practiced during the communism era as a way of deceiving politically innocent people and need not be allowed in a civilised country like Ghana. "Mounting your pictures and images on Government projects is an outmoded and its shameful that the president sees nothing about it". You will not see this in any contemporary state not even our neighbouring countries. Mr. Prah added. In an exclusive interview with Brytfmonline reporter, Nyarko Abronoma, Mr. Prah said he is convinced the photographs are just to gain political favour from the public which he thinks it's cheap political strategy which should not be allowed in our modern day politics. "How can the President put his photographs on projects funded by taxes from the ordinary Ghanaian" ?He quizzed. He was suprised to see the President's image on Akwaboa Nyanoa Day senior school block which was commissioned yesterday by him amongst other dignitaries. Images of President John Dramani Mahama have been been put on the RLG free laptop project, exercise books distributed to basic schools and also with the latest branding of the buses with the images of President John Mahama and some former presidents. But the NPP Eastern Regional Communications Director David Prah thinks it is a means of campaigning ahead of the November, 7 elections which to him is uncalled for. My brother you remember in 2008, then Vice Presidential Candidate and now President John Dramani Mahama in response to NPP's massive infrastructural records said that it is an exercise of mediocrity for a government to say it has carried out infrastructure development because it is the responsibility for a government to build infrastructure? Mr. Prah asked the reporter. The Africa Centre for Energy Policy [ACEP] has had a stakeholder consultation on the proposal of a new Mineral Revenue Management Framework that seek to address the fiscal challenges in the allocation of mineral revenues in the country. This also follows the Finance Minister Seth Terkpers statement that the issue with mining is about fair and transparent sharing of the benefits and windfall gains from the exploitation of the countrys precious and irreplaceable natural resources. The Minister added that the government has therefore taken a bold step to critically review the fiscal regimes and mining agreements, with the view to ensuring that the country benefits adequately and fairly from the gains in the mining sector. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Executive Director of ACEP, said, Ghana has faced significant fiscal and development challenges over the years where for instance, cash fiscal deficits reached 14percent of GDP, unprecedented in Ghanas history and only reduced to 9.5percent of GDP in 2014 which is still very high. He added that the management of mineral revenue in Ghana is nothing to write home about because it has defied international best practices of oversight, accountability and development focus. Dr. Amin indicated that the weakness in our current fiscal arrangement [The Petroleum Revenue Management Act] for the collection, management and utilization of mineral revenues are not far-fetched. According to him, they are characterized by administrative, policy and governance challenges. Speaking at the forum, Dr. Amin noted that the forum will provide a platform to reflect as citizens, to prospect into the future and to build common grounds on the best way to manage our mineral revenues. He added that Ghana must consider the establishment of systems for assessing and collecting mineral revenues, establish stabilization mechanisms for insulating the economy from the effects of commodity price volatility. This, Dr. Amin, noted, must develop a comprehensive formula for the distribution of mineral revenues between the central government and communities affected by mining, develop principles for applying mineral revenues to high impact on public investment projects at the national and community level. A premiering of a video documentary at the forum exposes the challenges of mineral revenue management in Ghana and the great danger that are normally posed to the mining communities including the destruction of the environment, human rights abuses, displacement of communities and low compensations to affected communities. Considering the assessment of the existing structure, a panelist on the forum, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe, the Member of Parliament for Effia Constituency said, the administrative fiat lacks mechanisms to check and trace how mineral revenues are spent in the country. He noted that ACEPS new proposal, after an overview, will bring a mechanism for targeted investment in specific key sectors of the economy with the mineral revenue. The MP attention was drawn to the fact that there is a similar policy guide called the Mineral Development Fund Bill currently at a crucial stage before the Committee of Mines and Natural Resources in Parliament. Hon. Joseph Cudjoe said the Mineral Development Fund Bill and what ACEPs proposal seems to have the same composition and structure in terms of how monies should be allocated to government and the communities. He suggested that ACEPs proposal must find a way to fit into the Mineral Development Fund Bill since its sounds more progressive in terms of allocations of revenue to priority areas in the communities as well as the government. The MP said the mineral revenue should be directed more towards capital investments rather than consumption. According to him, these huge revenues from the mineral sector can be channeled into real estate development and many more viable ventures that will even create jobs for the teaming unemployed youth. Mrs. Hannah Tenkorang, said the existing structures do not compel the political actors to recognized the rights of citizens as owners of the mineral revenue. She calls for the full participation of the citizens at all levels in the decision making chain using the direct principle of Free Prior Inform Consent [FPIC] and their concerns should be incorporated. Suleman Koney, Chief Executive Officer, Chamber of Mines indicated that the current structure for managing mineral revenue in the country have several defects. He added that we must consider the utilization of these revenues as a country and identify specific sectors to invest into. ACEP is proposing for 30percent of the mineral revenue to be allotted to the Community Development Fund and the remaining 70percent to the governments Sovereign Mineral Fund. 06.02.2016 LISTEN Revolution transmutes in different forms; Religion, Science, technology, Industrialisation, etc. Unlike our Western 'Comrades' who can smell revolution an eon away, Africans especially Ghanaians can't see revolution just at their door steps. The best part of living is to be able to comprehend the words and actions not yet taken. Modifying the Principle of Uniformitarianism, the present is the key to the past and the present actions are in perfect syn with the future results. Most Ghanains talk because they want to be heard but not to educate; listen to political shows on radio stations. What am I even driving at? Kristo Asafo Mission of Ghana was established in Febraury 3, 1971 by Apostle Dr Ing Kwadwo Safo widely known as Kantanka. Yesterday marked the 45th anniversary of the Group. The "Church" has metamorphosed through farming, philantropism and Volunteering stages to the modern Science and Technology phase. The "Church" undertook so many transformational programs to better the lives of Ghanaians. Do you remember CONCERT PARTY that was broadcasted on GTV every saturday evening; the days where monochrome(black and white) television was the most celebrated 'Agyapade3'? Kantanka conceptualised this and it benefited people like Agya Koo, Bob Okala, Akrobeto, Mercy Asiedu to be movie stars. There are numerous programmes he implemented to see a transformed Ghana. The greatest misconception of all time is to think that the Kristo Asafo Mission of Ghana is just like any ordinary church. It is not a church! It is the 'New Africa Revolution Movement' of which I affectionately called the 'Africa Rennaissance Team'! This is a group of people with diverse professional background who know and believe Africa will transform to reclaim its title "Mother of Civilisation" again if we jointly believe in ourselves and work positively together. Dr Ing Kwadwo Safo is the leader, spiritual master, mentor and 'daredevil' of the 'Movement' just as General Washington, Benjamin Franklin,etc were the poineers of New America. Have you monitored all the speeches of Dr Ing Kwadwo Safo? It is all about Africa' Development and emancipation! Ignorant Africans criticise him unconstructively instead of supporting him. One secret is that you shouldn't have to be a member of the "Church" to be part of the Movement. Once you are an African who wants to impact and see a positive change is an automatic member of the movement. Great man like Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng and the likes have always been part of the Movement. It is the time to do away with our obnoxious religious, political and tribal segregations and rally with him to champion the Africa Redemption agenda. This is the 45th Month of the Movement and all African patriots must celebrate because we are part of the world but Africa is our blood, toil and heritage. Long live the African Star Long live Kristo Asafo Long live Ghana Long live Africa By Kwasi Boadu Ntiamoah Geological Engineer ( [email protected] )" Pastor Chris 06.02.2016 LISTEN Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Junior has criticised the Police Administration for treating popular Nigerian preacher, Pastor Chris like a visiting President. The South African based Nigerian pastor is in the country for the much- anticipated 'Night of Bliss' crusade at the Black Star Square (Independence Square) and as a result, the Greater Accra Regional police has blocked major roads to make way for the crusade, which is expected to be attended by thousands of Christians. The affected roads included the 28th February road at the CEPS Headquarters traffic light, Starlets '91' road, at the Ministries traffic light, Castle Road, at AU Circle towards the State House, Starlet '91' road from Osu Cemetery traffic light to the Black Star square and Labone Junction towards Osu. The situation compelled motorists to use alternative routes to areas like Osu, Labone, La, Tema, Teshie, Nungua among other areas from Accra Central. Mr Pratt condemned the action of the police yesterday on Peace FM, saying the blocking of major roads for the event was tantamount to treating Pastor Chris like a President. Why are we doing all this, as if it's a presidential visit, do all you want to, I'm not bothered but to use the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park is so wrong. I'm totally shocked about the way we are treating this visit, as if it's Obama coming to Ghana. We have no respect for our history I'm so so angry, the social commentator charged. . According to him, Fridays are very busy for Ghanaians, in terms of movement and that the event should have been moved to Saturday or Sunday, adding that the action of the police could affect businesses. 06.02.2016 LISTEN Head Pastor of the International Godsway Ministries, Bishop Daniel Obinim says he has supernatural powers which he can use to transform into any animal in the spiritual realm. Speaking on his own OBTV recently, he said I can transform into a snake and enter any room, bite my target and just disappear. He claimed his father is Jesus Christ who can also turn into any animal. He however added that even though he is not an animal, he can spiritually transform into a snake or a dog and as such does not want anyone to dare him. Boasting of his spiritual prowess the controversial pastor said he once transformed into a snake with Jesus by his side who also transformed into a lion. Security expert with the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre is calling for the dismissal of the Ashanti Regional Minister and the District Chief Executive of Agogo all of whom are part of the Regional Security Command (REGSEC). Dr Kwasi Aning said the heads of the REGSEC cannot keep their jobs when scores of people have lost their lives to a preventable conflict between herdsmen and farmers in Agogo. He challenged the outgoing regional minister Mr Peter Anarfi as well as the District Chief Executive to show what intelligence has been gathered on the recent violence between herdsmen and farmers in Agogo in the Ashanti Region which has led to scores of deaths and destruction of properties. "We have seen DISEC, REGSEC in the Ashanti Region fail horrendously and are trying to cover up with these xenophobic statements by these justificatory and xenophobic statements by officials. "I don't think Ghana incorporated has demonstrated the will to deal with this menace," he said. There was the escalation of violence in Agogo between indigenes and the herdsmen which has led to scores of deaths and destruction of property. The 25 acre plantain farm belonging to the 2015 Ashanti Region best farmer was burnt and reduced to ashes by persons he claimed were herdsmen. A 27-year-old man indigene was also shot and killed by persons alleged to be herdsmen. The herdsmen are also insisting they have suffered casualties as scores of their colleagues have been killed. Their cattle have been shot and stolen. Discussing the matter on Joy FM's Newsfile programme Dr Kwasi Aning said the deaths of the persons are needless and the security heads there must take responsibility for it. The expert said previous and current interventions in Agogo to fighting the scourge of the roaming herdsmen are adhoc and not based on any intelligence information. "What are the intelligence assessment upon which operation cowleg is now being based? When you have a district security council which under Act 526 that is intelligence and security services act should provide early warning and asses as to how to engage in proactive preventive measures and they consistently fail over close to 30 years..." "And I will challenge you to call the DCE of the Agogo area and call the Ashanti Regional Minister to read randomly any intelligence assessment produced by his DISEC and by the Kumasi REGSEC and call the National Security Coordinator to read randomly what intelligence he has gotten from the Ashanti Region minister. "If DISEC in the Agogo area failed to pick up intelligence that there was something brewing and ordinary people were arming themselves across the divide then somebody must be sacked . Several people must actually be sacked," he said. He said lives have been lost and somebody must take responsibility for it. Accra, Feb. 6, GNA - Mr James Agbedor, the acting Managing Director of Agricultural Development Bank, has commended customers of the Bank for their loyalty for the past fifty years. According to him, the loyalty exhibited by customers of the Bank has been the reason for the Bank's survival in business. Mr Agbedor who was speaking at a customer appreciation cocktail party in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region organised by the Retail Division of the Bank assured them of improved services. The Acting Managing Director pledged the commitment of management and staff to ensure that the customers received the best of customer care at all branches. 'We have customers who have been with us for the past 40 years, 30years, 20years and more and this we think is highly commendable. 'We have developed a four year strategic plan which is focused on ensuring that our customers enjoy the best products and service on the market' Mr Agbedor explained to the customers that the decision by the board and management of the Bank to embark on the Initial Public Offer (IPO) was to raise enough capital to engage in branch expansions, improve service quality and also a more reliable IT support and security system. 'Through the IPO we will raise enough funds to be able to satisfy you our customers through improved quality service and the introduction of new banking products and services,' he said. Mr Alfred Nene Akotiah, Executive Head of Retail Banking at adb said the event was part of the Bank's programme to appreciate customers who have been with the Bank for several years. 'We want to show appreciation to our customers especially our corporate customers who even in the midst of a highly competitive environment continue to see adb as the bank of choice,' he said. GNA 06.02.2016 LISTEN Accra, Feb. 6, GNA - Former President, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, on Thursday joined the chiefs and people of Akuapem Traditional Area to mourn the death of their paramount Chief, Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III. President Rawlings and Nana Konadu called on Nana Abena Dokua Agyeman Prempeh, Okuapehemaa before paying their final respects to the late chief and commiserated with the chiefs and people of Akuapem at the Akropong palace, a statement from the office of the former president said on Friday. During the call on the Okuapehemaa, it said Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings expressed the condolences of the Rawlings family and indicated that it was necessary to call on her because of the strong bond they have with her and Okuapeman. The statement quoted Nana Agyeman-Rawlings as saying it was only proper that they called on Nana Dokua first before paying their final respects to the departed Okuapehene. In a written tribute to Nana Dankwa's memory, it said, Flt Lt Rawlings extolled the departed royal for offering wise counsel to his government when he was Head of State and later as President, and described him as a unifier. He said: 'Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III was the Okuapenhene throughout my tenure as Head of State and President of the Republic. 'Nana had already carved a reputation for himself as a unifier who sought not only the unity of his people but also of the entire country. 'His record of touring the Ashanti, Northern and Upper Regions in 1978 to foster unity between the Northern and Southern parts of the country was remarkable. It was difficult travelling up North in those days, but that did not deter him. 'Oseadeeyo offered wise counsel to my government on several occasions and his advice, and that of some of his peers, was instrumental in the amendment of the Chieftaincy law in 1993, leading to the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Chieftaincy. 'Always a believer in the dynamism of the chieftaincy institution and the need for traditional leaders to pursue the education of their people as a catalyst for development, Nana ensured that his selection of sub-chiefs was drawn from personalities who had the requisite knowledge to adopt progressive strategies for local development. 'It was no surprise that he authored two books on the institution of chieftaincy, the latest in 2006 titled, 'The Institution of Chieftaincy in Ghana - The Future'. 'He thought it necessary to impart the wealth of knowledge he had garnered over time to future generations and also advise on what could be done to improve the institution.' Mr Rawlings lauded initiatives of the late chief like Akuapem Rural Foundation, Akuapem Special Awards, and Press Awards, which later became the annual Ghana Journalist Association Awards. He noted those creativities among others were Nana Dankwa's way of ensuring that personalities who achieved in all spheres of life were recognised and rewarded. 'Under his reign the Akuapem Presbyterian University College and the Akrofi Christeller Institute were established, both evidence that a favourable environment had been created for the attainment of quality education in Akuapem and beyond,' he said. 'Revered and respected by his people and his peers, Oseadeeyo Nana Addo Dankwa III has paid his dues.' 'He led an accomplished life and worked for several state and private institutions including the University of Ghana, SSNIT, SSB and the National House of Chiefs.' 'Today as he bids farewell we owe him a responsibility to ensure there is a smooth transition of leadership, devoid of acrimony and pettiness. We must sustain the unity and sense of development he bequeathed us in honour of his memory.' 'Fare thee well Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa. Da yie,Nana!!' Nana Dankwa III who passed at the age of 85 reigned as Okuapehene from 1974 to 2015. GNA 06.02.2016 LISTEN Tamale, Feb. 6, GNA - Girls Not Brides - Ghana (GNB -G), a network of non-governmental organizations, has advocated for a change in the law that allows girls of 16 years to consent to sex and marriage to that which allow girls of 18 years to consent to sex. Dr Ndonwie Peter, National Executive Secretary of GNB -G argued that the result of sex was pregnancy, adding allowing 16 year-old girls to consent to sex would truncate their education if they got pregnant since they were often forced to marry those who impregnated them. He was speaking at the first annual meeting of members of GNB -G dubbed: National Partnership Strategy Development Workshop, in Tamale to reflect on the growth and success of GNB -G in the country. GNB -G has been operating in the country since 2014 and some of its members that attended the workshop included Care Development Initiative, Centre For Initiative Against Human Trafficking, Ghana Association for Women's Welfare, Glims Foundation, Pan- African Organization for Research and Protection of Violence on Women and Children, and Safe Child Ghana Dr Ndonwie said the harmonization of such laws to peg the minimum age of girls consenting to sex at 18 years would go a long way to curb the increasing rate of child early and forced marriages (CEFM) in the country. The country's laws allow girls of 16 years to consent to sexual intercourse but peg the minimum age for a girl to get married at 18 years. Dr Ndonwie said GNB-G in collaboration with the Parliamentarians for Global Action would meet with Parliament next month to discuss issues about CEFM to curb the practice in the country. He said the meeting with the Parliamentarians was also to enable both GNB -G to impress on them (parliamentarians) to see CEFM as a serious issue and talk about it in their engagement with their constituents as well as join hands with civil society organizations to work to make the country free of CEFM. Mr Wumbei Dokurugu, Programme Facilitator in-charge of Education for Change Programme of IBIS in Ghana, attributed CEFM to social and cultural practices, saying the practice truncated the education of victims thereby affecting their potential to contribute to the development of society. A representative from the Christian Children Fund of Canada, an international non-governmental organization, said the organization had had some experience in implementing a project on CEFM and called for involvement of all actors to ensure success. GNA 06.02.2016 LISTEN Accra, Feb. 6, GNA - The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) on Friday handed over the keys and the pickup, which is the award of the third national best farmer of the 2015 Farmers' Day Awards to Mrs Charity Akortia, at a ceremony in Accra. Mr Benjamin Gyasi, Director of Finance and Administration, who presented the keys on behalf of the Minister expressed the hope that the vehicle will be used effectively to help achieve the purpose for which it has been awarded. He said it was the expectation of the Ministry that it would facilitate the expansion of the farming business and enable her to realised enough income from the business and also contribute to food security for the country's development. Ms Akortia, who has her farm located in Agona Swedru, expressed her gratitude to the government and the Ministry for the honour, adding that this is her first national award since the 22 years that she had been engaged in farming Mrs Akortia who is into animal husbandry, crops and fish farming as well as snail and bee keeping, noted that she has won district and regional awards in 2011 and 2013 respectively and also won the best vegetable seed producer awards in 1995, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015. She said the vehicle would be useful in the farming business. GNA Kwesi Pratt 06.02.2016 LISTEN Hes easily able to arouse your interest when you hear him speak anywhere. His analyses on major national and international issues are pure like a virgin, and poignant. Hes a master dramatist whos able to weave a story-like argument to arrest your interest. His sets of words are apprehensive and comprehensive. Everybody liked him. I do. Hes touched me in many ways, and I reckoned you too. However, could these attributes of him be able to stand the test of time? Comrade Kwesi Pratt, as hes called within the circles of the Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG), is a solid commentator in the fashion of Malik Kwaku Baako. For some years, Ghanas political landscape has been inundated with incisive, and instructive debates by these two persons that they have been tagged to the two dominating political parties. Comrade Kwesi Pratt is alleged to be in bed with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Kwaku Baako is said to be an ally of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP). Beyond this coloration, these two are phenomenal in their arguments and information peddling in the country. They have this kind of personality cult attached to their names. You would almost always want to hear from them. I remember the excitement of students on the Legon campus when news of Comrade Kwesi Pratt or Kwaku Baako coming to address a gathering gets to them. Everyone wants to hear them talk, however, that keen interest hear their voice is completely lost forever. The myth around them is broken, especially, that of Comrade Kwesi Pratt whos come under some attack in his own group Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG), and Convention Peoples Party (CCP) for his unbalanced discussions these days. I joined him when he started the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) while on campus. I saw this as an opportunity to help my country wean itself from selfish leaders. I attended meetings at the Freedom Center to discuss both national and international issues speaking in defense of the poor. CJA, later, out-doored personalities such as Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Dr. Omane Boamah who were unwavering in their support for the vulnerable in Ghana. Their time spent with the group was inspiring. These were former student leaders still resolute in what they stood for. However, this was soon to change when the then opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the mandate of Ghanaians and Professor John Atta-Mills won the nod to form the government of the day. The Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a giant then known for its outspoken voice in support of the weak in Ghana, went to sleep when some of its leading personalities were drafted into the Professor Mills government. So was its leading convener, Comrade Kwesi Pratt. He slept as deep as though there was nothing at stake. And yes there is nothing at stake since the whole CJA hullabaloo was to market the qualities of some of its hungry members. What sets my mind thinking, was when after joining the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) to picket parliament to reject the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone Plc, information got to us that now President John Dramani Mahama, who was a member of Parliament then, played a key role in the sale. My jaw dropped in shock. I wondered if anything could be done for free here in Ghana. The search for an answer led me to another discovery that the chief convener Comrade Kwesi Pratt receives pecks from President John Dramani Mahama and his cohorts. On the Peace FM Kokrokoo morning show of Friday 5 February, 2016 hosted by Kwame Sefa Kayi, Comrade Kwesi Pratt came under yet another attack for a good reason he denied ever attacking the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) a social policy intervention introduced by the erstwhile President Kufuors government for the poor and needy in Ghana. I saw the last feather of his integrity shred into pieces when John Boadu National Organizer and now Acting General Secretary of NPP read some of Kwesi Pratts publications expressing opposition to the program after having vehemently deny ever opposing it. Though I couldnt see his face in the studio, I felt the shame poured down on me as though an iced water. It was shameful. Today, Comrade Kwesi Pratt has been nominated by President John Dramani Mahama to be on the board of the National Media Commission (NMC) to streamline activities of the media. Could he have the temerity to chide his own colleagues who behave like he does? Its easy to lose ones conscience and integrity in Ghana, more especially, when your motivation is nothing but to get your share of the nations booty. Or to use neutral platforms to market your personality to some political parties for a token. Or when you try to influence others to behave in a way you dont believe in yet preach. Ghana is full of this type of people. They preach peace, and practice violence; they preach us to control our expenses while they blow the money in our coffers to secure luxuries for their girlfriends, and family members; they preach poverty should be eliminated, but push the citizens deeper into abject poverty through decisions meant to enrich themselves and their cohorts. We all have the right to guard our minds against influences from such personalities. Nobody can make you in this life than yourself. President Mahama can only make himself rich, and give opportunities to his cohorts to enrich themselves in the same fashion. Let us watch these people, and do our best to wean Ghana off them. The country will be better without them. For more on Kwabena Brako-Powers please visit his blog on: www.brakopowers.blogspot.com or www.brakopowers.com. Please do share your comments with me. I am interested in learning from you as you learn from. 06.02.2016 LISTEN A Christian, as he entered a barbershop, heard a man say, I was born a sinner. It was no responsibility of mine. It would, therefore, be unjust for God to judge or condemn me for that in which I had no responsibility whatever, no matter what the Bible or preachers say! The Christian pointed out that the Bible does not say God will condemn us because we are born sinners, but that He will do so if we remain sinners, rejecting the Savior, by whom He has opened the way of escape for us. He used this illustration: Suppose someone has occasion to pass your door at midnight, and notices that fire has broken out in your house. You are asleep, unaware of the danger you are in; the alarm is given and you are awakened. In this circumstance, what would your responsibility be? Well, the man answered, surely I would be responsible to heed the warning and escape as quickly as possible. But supposing you were to answer the one who warned you, I didnt set this building on fire, and have no responsibility for it, and so remain in the house. What then? In that case, he said, I would be a fool and responsible if I lost my life. We conclude our series on the breaking of the seven seals today. Today we are looking at the seventh seal. If you recall the sixth seal was broken in Revelation 6:12. Revelation 7 deals with the sealing of the 144,000 and the countless multitudes of believers from every tongue and every nation in the world. What the seventh chapter reveals is that before the judgment of God falls on the wicked people who rebelled against Him by rejecting His Son Jesus Christ, He seals those who belong to Him. The seal in this chapter is to protect the believing community from the wrath and judgment of God that is going to befall the wicked and lost people of the world. THE BREAKING OF THE SEVENTH SEAL V. 1 When the seventh seal is broken, there is an impressive silence in heaven, which we cannot help but to think that it portends (symbolizes) the end. To be precise John states that the silence in heaven was about half an hour or thirty minutes. Recall that the sixth seal was opened in Revelation 6:12 so there has been quite an interval. This was clearly a solemn and impressive moment. The silence in heaven represents an attitude of trembling suspense on the part of the heavenly hosts (angels) in view of the judgments of God which are about to fall upon the world. It is the silence of dreadful anticipation of the events that are about to happen, now that the time of the end has come. All along, we have witnessed the singing of songs in heaven by the four angels, hosts of angels, and the twenty-four elders. However, now there is no new song, no rumbling of thunder from the throne of God, and no roaring acclamation of the Lamb. Heaven is deadly silent. Awesomely, fearfully, and pregnantly silent! When people are living in sin and rebellion and heaven is silent, it does not mean that God does not care. Gods pause in judgment is like the eye of a hurricane, a lull that gives the world time to reflect on its rebellion, blasphemy, sin, and evil actions. God gives the human race time to think things over. Therefore, when you are living in sin and Gods discipline has not come upon you that is not an indication that there is no God as some insist or speculate. The silence of God may be His way of telling you to think about the way you are leading your life and repent before it is too late. Has God paused in your life? In the midst of all your health problems, do you find you are feeling better? In the midst of all your financial struggles, do you feel you can now make ends meet? After the cycle of difficulties, problems, and disasters has repeated itself in your life, are you able to cope today? What is your response to Gods pause in your life? Perhaps the pause also gives time to believers to read our Bibles and come to an understanding of what is taking place. Could it be the prayers of the saints that have caused silence in heaven? The Bible says, The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16). From the time of John and the Apostles, Christians appeared insignificant in the eyes of the world. Even today, Christians are ridiculed and often misunderstood, but in the sight of God, we matter. We are special in the sight of God. Our prayers move Him to act on our behalf and in the world. Even great cataclysms are held back while we pray. If it were not for the presence of Christians in the world, this sinful world certainly would have come to a cataclysmic end. Besides, God is also patiently waiting for some to be saved, who are now living in rebellion. Could it be that the heavens are silent because God wants you to turn away from sin and turn towards Him? It could also be that God wants Christians to pray before His judgment falls on the unrepentant people of the world, who persecute them. On the day of Pentecost, the fire of God fell when the believers had prayed. In the last day, the fire of God will also fall in answer to prayer. THE BUSINESS OF THE ANGELS VV. 2-3 In verse 2, it reads, And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. The definite article the that precedes the angels shows that a specific seven are in mind. When John says that these angels were standing before God, it means they were serving Him, who alone is worthy of service. These angels were given seven trumpets. Trumpets feature prominently in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. Trumpets were known as war horns. The trumpets were sounded during the time of war or when an enemy invaded the land of Israel. Trumpets are often associated with the end-time in apocalyptic writings (cf. Mt. 24:31; 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16). The angels are given the seven trumpets but they do not sound the trumpets immediately. The sounding of the trumpets will be the prelude to the coming judgments of God upon the unrepentant and wicked people of the world. The same John who witnessed the fire fall from heaven at the day of Pentecost is the same John who saw another angel, with a golden censer, [come] and stand at the altar. Many have speculated that this angel is Christ but the Bible does not specify. Therefore, I simply conclude that we do not know the identity of this angel. Even the seven angels are not named. This angel was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angels hand. Then the angel took the incense, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. The mixture of the golden incense and the prayers of all the saints are symbolic of the unity of worship of heaven and earth. I have said many times that if you are a Christian and you are not praying then you are missing so much from God. The reason is simple. Many of Gods blessings upon the people of God come in answer to our prayers. Therefore, it is safe to say that if you are not praying as a believer, you are not experiencing Gods blessings upon your life. Many Christians are impoverished because they have neglected prayer in their lives. Many Christians have become spiritually famished and anemic due to prayerlessness. Prayer is the believers spiritual breath. The use of the golden censer and of the altar of sacrifice points to the value of prayers. God values prayer that is why Jesus took time to teach the disciples to pray. When Jesus walked with His disciples, they did not ask Him to teach them to preach. They did not ask Him to teach them to perform miracles. They did not ask Jesus to teach them to heal people. But they asked Him to teach them to pray, because they saw the role prayer played in His life. They saw how effective His prayers were. Prayer is the most effective weapon in the universe. Prayer is more powerful than any nuclear weapon that our human technology has created. However, many Christians ignore this powerful arsenal instead of using it to bless and set the captives free. If Christians know the powerful effects of prayer, we would not be more afraid and worried about nuclear weapons or terrorist attacks. When we join our hearts in prayer, God neutralizes the enemies, confuses, and confounds them and releases His power in our lives. God did that in the lives of Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, Jehoshaphat, and many more in both the Old and New Testaments. The trumpet blasts have three purposes: (1) to warn that judgment is certain, (2) to call the forces of good and evil to battle, and (3) to announce the return of the King, the Messiah. These warnings urge us to make sure our faith is firmly fixed on Christ. THE BELIEVERS PRAYERS AND THEIR EFFECT VV. 4-5 The incense and the prayers of all the saints went up before God. Notice that they went up from the angels hand, which is probably a way of saying that heaven and earth are at one in this matter. Prayer is not the lonely venture it so often feels. There is heavenly assistance and our prayers do reach God. Prayer is not an exercise in futility. It is a believers conversation with his/her heavenly Father. God speaks to us primarily from His Word (the Bible). We as His children speak to Him in prayer. Do you find your time of conversation with your earthly father boring, or even useless? If children will give up everything to have a five minute of fellowship and conversation with their earthly fathers, why would they ignore their time with the heavenly Father? How effective is your prayer life? There is something sacrificial in true prayer as our service to Christ is also sacrificial. I hope after this message you are going to take your prayer life seriously, because James says, You do not have because you do not ask, (James 4:3). The Bible teaches that angels are Gods messengers sent on behalf of Gods children. Earlier the angel had the prayers of the saints for the purpose of intercession but in verse 5, he takes it for purposes of judgment. He filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth. When the angel threw it, the result was peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. The fire proceeded from the very altar on which the prayers of the saints have been offered. This surely means that the prayers of Gods people play a necessary part in ushering in the judgments of God. That is why Jesus told the disciples that He has given them the keys of the kingdom and whatever they bind on earth would be bound in heaven and whatever they loose on earth would be loose in heaven (Matt. 16:19). What are the real master-powers behind the world and what are the deeper secrets of our destiny? They are not the Domitians of the world who desire to be worshiped. They are not the Osama bin Ladens of the world who use terror to have their way. They are not the Hugo Shavis of the world, who use dictatorship to suppress freedom of speech and the press. They are not the Mahmoud Aminedjaads of the world who use intimidation and threats to have their way. On the contrary, the astonishing answer is the prayer of the saints and the fire of God. When Moses prayed the fire of God fell on Mount Sinai. When Elijah prayed on Mount Carmel the fire of God fell. When the disciples huddled together and prayed on the Day of Pentecost the fire of God in the person of the Holy Spirit fell (Acts 2). The prayers of the saints are more potent, more powerful, and more fearsome than all the dark and mighty powers let loose in the world. More powerful than anything else, is the power of prayer set ablaze by the fire of God and cast upon the earth. As the prayers rise to heaven from believers who are being persecuted unmercifully on earth, the heavenly silence and earthly stillness are broken by a terrifying, worldwide electrical storm. The storm is the all the more shocking in its suddenness, contrasted with the silence and stillness that had preceded it. It is as though God takes planet earth by the shirt collar, shakes it, and shouts, Wake up! Repent! If you do not turn from your evil ways you will experience My wrath! When we hear of the evil actions of others reported in the daily news or see wickedness on television, I wonder what the impact would be if we spent as much time praying as we do clucking our tongues, joining a demonstration, boycotting a product, or even writing a letter to the editor! On earth, we are distressed by the evil actions of others. When we get to heaven, will we be distressed over our own earthly prayerlessness? In response to the united prayer of believers, God supernaturally intervenes in the rebellion of planet earth. Do you know a family member, a friend, or a coworker who is hell bent for destruction? Do you know someone who is in rebellion against God? If God would move heaven and earth literally to warn planet earth, what will He do for your loved one if you just pray? This scene in heaven reveals that in response to the prayers of His people, God moves in powerful ways! This passage should encourage you that Christians are the most powerful people on planet earth. The sad thing is that many Christians do not know who they are and the authority Christ has given to us in the world. I hope this message would revolutionize your prayer life from today forth. you are here: Many traders convince themselves a losing trade cant get any worse. But it can. I know, from hard won experience. You never know when trouble will strike. And it can all happen at lighting pace. I had a lesson in this last weekand it was scary. A normal day became an emergency in the space of minutes. It reminded me how fortunate we are when things are good. But it was also a reminder of something else. Bad results can have good outcomes. Yes, I know this sounds odd. How can something bad be good? It all comes down to perspective. The key is weighing the result against other possibilities. Let me explain what I mean Last week, we had a family trip to the movies. Its always a fun experience. The kids get a kick out of the big screen and my wife and I enjoy hanging out with them. This time was no different. Everyone had a perfect morning. We all arrived home happy, and ready for the afternoon. But it didnt stay that way for long. About an hour later, my wife complained of feeling a bit off. Within 15 minutes she had a raging fever. A few minutes after that, she was throwing up and reeling in pain. The situation was spiralling out of control. There was only one thing to do go to the hospital. You may recognise the symptoms. About one in 20 people have a similar experience. The condition was acute appendicitis an inflammation of the appendix. My wife underwent an operation the next day. Shes recovering well and will be back to normal in a couple of weeks. This was a bad situation with a good outcome. First, the appendix didnt rupture that could have been dire. Second, we were close to a first class medical facility. We often happen to been in remote locations this time of year. Its easy to imagine a much worse outcome. Heres the thing. Bad things happen theres no getting around that. Its what happens next that often matters most. This can mean the difference between setback and disaster. Bad result, good outcome The stock market is no different. Unpleasant surprises are an unavoidable reality. But these can also have good outcomes. It all comes down to how you manage the situation. I want to talk about three of Quant Traders best trades. No, Im not going to showcase some of the stocks that are up more than 100%. Were going to be looking at trades most people try to forget. The first stock is the litigation funding firm IMF Bentham [ASX:IMF]. Heres the chart Source: Bloomberg Click to enlarge Quant Trader gave a buy signal at $2.20 on 28 November 2014. There was a second signal at $2.43 on 12 February 2015. The trades exit point was at $1.98. Have a read of what I said at the time I always find it interesting to study the chart at the end of a trade. It often reveals details that can help in the future. This trade took a couple of months to get going. Thats not unusual. The market operates on its own timetable not ours. Once the rally got going it was fast. The upward trend was strong. And this was the trigger for a second buy signal. Quant Trader works on the basis that a trend is likely to continue. But this doesnt always happen. IMFs advance began to stall soon after Quant Traders February entry. A routine correction quickly became a larger sell-off. Quant Traders strategy in this type of situation is to cut the position. No one knows how much longer this decline will last. And Quant Trader doesnt hang around to find out. Many traders put off the decision to sell. They tell themselves that the shares will eventually come back. Maybe IMF will quickly recover. But it could also keep falling. Quant Trader gives a stock room to move you cant ride a trend without doing this. But you need a line in the sanda point where you walk away. IMF is now at the walking point. Its time to preserve capital and move to the next trade. The third last paragraph notes a key factor to successful trading. Its why many traders fail they let a bad event turn into worse outcome. Here it is again: Many traders put off the decision to sell. They tell themselves that the shares will eventually come back. Maybe IMF will quickly recover. But it could also keep falling. IMF didnt recover. Anyone holding and hoping has lost a lot of money. Quant Trader took a loss on this trade (10% and 18.5% respectively). But it was a good outcome. Stubbornly holding would have seen the losses blow out to 49.8% and 54.5%, and counting. The next example is a resource company Independence Group [ASX:IGO]. Source: Bloomberg Click to enlarge IGOs buy signal was on 2 December 2014 at $5.27. The exit from this trade was at $3.75. Many traders convince themselves a losing trade cant get any worse. But it can. I know, from hard won experience. Hoping things will get better can lead to disaster. IGO resulted in a 28.8% loss. A strategic exit eliminated the possibility of staying on-board for a 60% decline. Again, this was a good outcome. I have one more trade to show you. This one is for Capital Health [ASX:CAJ]. Source: Bloomberg Click to enlarge CAJ first entered the portfolio on 23 December 2014. There were two signals in total. The respective levels were $0.74, and $1.00. Quant Traders exit was at $0.74. This trade follows a similar pattern to my family emergency. CAJ got off to a strong start. It was looking like a top trade in the making. But it didnt last. The stock took a sharp turn for the worse. There was only one thing to do cut the position. As I said earlier, bad things happen. Its what happens next that often matters most. Like my wifes condition, this trade could have been so much worse. Many people think trading is all about profitable results. But theres more to it. You also need good outcomes when things go wrong. Cutting losses is vital. Winning trades can also turn south without warning. We cant do anything to prevent that. But we can secure the best possible outcome. This separates a good trader from the pack. Until next week, Jason Editors note: Did any of your stocks hit multi-year highs this week? Chances are the answer is no. And thats understandablethe All Ordinaries is well off its peak. But some stocks are surging . They could make a big difference to your portfolio. Take Australian Pharmaceutical Industries [ASX:API] for instance. Youve probably never heard of this stock, but last week it hit a nine and a half year high. And thats good for Quant Traders members. You see, Quant Trader has signalled this stock three times since December 2014. The signals are now up 123%, 73%, and 42% respectively. Mob Wives star Angela 'Big Ang' Raiola is back in the hospital after being diagnosed with stage four lung and brain cancer. On Tuesday (Feb. 2), Raiola's sister, Janine Detore, revealed the VH1 reality star's chemotherapy was not working. After creating a GoFundMe account in an attempt to seek funding for alternative cures, the campaign raised over $35,000 in just two days. Despite undergoing treatment in early January, Raiola was later informed that her condition was not improving. To make matters worse, one of her tumors increased in size significantly, while her other tumor remained the same. Detore believed cannabis oil would serve as an alternative, which is why she started the GoFundMe account in the first place. Her initial goal was $25,000, but supporters exceeded her expectations. If it didn't help cure her cancer, Detore was hopeful it would at least shield her from the physical pain. Many of you know her as "Big Ang" of Mob Wives, but we know her as Angela our sister , mother, grandmother , aunt ,... Posted by Janine Detore on Tuesday, February 2, 2016 "My sister was diagnosed with stage 4 brain and lung cancer," Detore wrote on the GoFundMe page. "Chemotherapy was started January 5th. On January 26th the doctor reviewed her CT scan and informed us that the treatment was not working, and in fact one tumor grew larger and the other tumors had no change." The 55-year-old mother of two was diagnosed with throat cancer in March 2015, when doctors came across a lemon-size tumor. She underwent surgery in June. Raiola's journey has been documented on the popular reality show, even celebrating beating throat cancer with her cast-mates in a special episode. Raiola admitted to being an avid smoker for four decades. She caught throat cancer at stage two and opted to have multiple surgeries instead of undergoing treatment. According to Detore, her sister is no longer able to physically work due to her new diagnosis. "We were advised that she would start immunotherapy the following week," Detore wrote. "Well here we are at the emergency room waiting to see why her breathing is labored and the amount of pain she is having is by far more than she could handle." Mob Wives is currently in their sixth season. Viewers can catch Angela 'Big Ang' Raiola and the rest of the ladies on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on VH1. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Bob Marley is as synonymous with weed as Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson or Wiz Khalifa, if not far more so. Just walk around any college campus, or more likely find the stoners hidden away in their dorm rooms, and you'll see a litany of Marley shirts and flags marking the identity of ghanga lovers everywhere. With the proliferation of legalized pot in recent years, it only makes sense that Marley would finally get his own brand of weed. According to Billboard, it launched in states where cannabis is legal Friday on what would have been Marley's 71st birthday. The Marley Natural brand already has a pretty extensive catalog of body care products including hemp seed lip balm, body lotion, body wash, essential oil blend and body salve. There's also the Marley Beverage Company's line of teas designed to help you sleep, much like the herb it's emulating. All of those products were building up to this inevitable line of cannabis, which includes four strains of weed named for the Ethiopian flag, the birthplace of Rastafarianism: Marley Green, the suggested strain for novice herb users, Marley Gold, Marley Red and Marley Black, a THC-concentrated strand for avid users. The company also announced several paraphernalia products including pipes, bowls, bubblers, grinders and breakdown surfaces. "My dad would be so happy to see so many people appreciating the natural, healing power of the herb," said Cedella, Bob Marley's daughter. "We are thrilled to be sharing Marley Natural products with the world just in time for his 71st birthday." As the laws exist now, marijuana must be grown in the state where it is sold and the company is working with farmers in Northern California's Humboldt County and Emerald Triangle regions to supply the dispensaries. Marley's estate earned $21 million last year, making Bob the No. 4 top earning deceased celebrity according to Forbes. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Sarkodie should have been bigger than ... An animal hospital in Lakeland welcomed some historic new arrivals last Saturday: baby Australian black swans. Veterinarian Dr. Patricia Mattson, owner of the Animal Companion Hospital, could not be more thrilled. "I came in and they had popped out of their eggs, and I had two baby swans on Saturday morning. I screamed excitedly," Mattson said. According to Mattson, Australian black swans tend to leave their eggs, and the eggs can fail to stay warm. Lakeland's baby black swans were hatched from an incubator, something that's never been accomplished. The eggs were sealed in the incubator and rolled slowly throughout the day. Time, temperature and humidity inside the incubator were closely monitored. "This little machine makes a big difference," Mattson said. The hospital hopes to eventually release the black swans at Lake Morton for the entire community to enjoy. "The swans themselves are a big part of the City of Lakeland," said Parks and Recreation employee Steve Platt, who spends much of his time looking after the city's swans. "There's a lot of time and dedication put in to the care for the swans." For now, they're under the watchful care of Mattson and Animal Companion Hospital. "We're excited to have new swans for the environment, for us to have here," Mattson said. "We're very happy." Police have identified the person who was killed in a shooting at a Clermont shopping plaza. Andrew DaVon Jones, 21, of Clermont was shot and killed Friday night in the parking lot of the East Towne Center Plaza near East State Road 50, police said. Investigators are now looking for the vehicle he was last known to be driving. The vehicle is a white 2012 Volkswagen CC with Florida tag number N913QI. It may be missing part of the front bumper and may be in the Orange County area, Clermont Police said. Anyone who spots this vehicle is asked not to approach it but to call police immediately. A witness reported seeing a white car fleeing the area, but investigators arent sure whether its the same vehicle. No other information has been released at this time. Anyone with information that could help investigators is asked to call Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS. Detectives are trying to determine whether an escaped convict from Virginia they captured in Flagler County on Saturday morning was accompanied by another fugitive. James Kent Booth, 54, escaped from a work-release program in Virginia. "He cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet and fled to the state of Florida," said Jim Troiano with the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. According to deputies, Booth was in a crash on Interstate 95 near Palm Coast on Friday night. When witnesses tried to help him and other people in the car, the occupants took off running. The fugitive and the woman he was with came right off of I-95, trailed through water and ended up on Big Horn Drive, they said. Several law enforcement agencies searched the neighborhood with helicopters and the K-9 unit. "We put a lot of time and effort trying to find the individuals," Troiano said. But it was an off-duty deputy who found him hiding inside a shed behind his home and held him at gunpoint. "It's appropriate he goes to a deputy's home. He's in his shed. He was just in containment a little sooner than we knew," Troiano said. Deputies said a woman with Booth said there was someone else with them. But they're still working to determine whether that's true. Booth is now charged with burglary and resisting arrest. The woman could possibly face charges in Virginia, and investigators said Booth will be extradited. GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here. Exactly six decades ago, Plainview and the entire Texas Panhandle-South Plains region was just beginning to dig out of its worst blizzard ever after as much as 33 inches of snow fell over a four-day period, from Feb. 1-4, 1956. According to the National Weather Service, blizzard conditions continued for about 36 hours, from Feb. 2-4. A lonesome freight train chugged into Plainview at a snails pace, and a lone farmer fed a bunched herd of about 100 head of cattle - these two instances were the only signs of life, reported Associated Press reporter Cal Linde after flying over the South Plains following the storm. If he had flown future west he would have seen two trains trapped by deep drifts between Dimmitt and Plainview. A diesel engine pulling freight cars became trapped in the snow outside Dimmitt. The steam locomotive pulling a caboose, sent to its rescue, made it about four miles west of Plainview before it too become engulfed in snow. In a rescue operation that took four days, a special railway snowplow was finally able to reach the steam locomotive and tow it back to Childress where its boiler was refired. The plow then returned to rescue the diesel freight train, also towing it to safety. The crews of both trains, except for a conductor and engineer, were able to be transported to safety since the tracks run alongside the Dimmitt Highway. Those who remained with the marooned engines found warm lodging in each caboose. Herald reporter L.D. Brown, now decreased, offered a look back at the blizzard in an article dated Feb. 13, 1966. He recalled that on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 1956, most of the Plains was already coated in ice and at Plainview a light mist quickly froze as it fell throughout the day. Traffic slipped and slid helplessly. City employees spread sand at intersections and everybody held their breath anticipating serious traffic mishaps. An astounding thing about that week of violent weather, he noted, was the fact that no reports serious injury occurred in the immediate area due to inclement weather. That wasnt the case elsewhere, with the National Weather Service reporting that at least 20 fatalities were attributed to the blusterly conditions. On Feb. 2 -- a Thursday -- 6 to 8 inches of snow fell over the area. Weather forecasts predicted a low of zero with clearing skies. At one point late Thursday, the overcast thinned and it looked just like another light snow event. But the storm was just getting its second wind, and the wind was already strong. The drifting snow slowed traffic and disappointed farmers since they would not receive the maximum benefit from the moisture. This promised to be the first appreciable snow in Plainview since 1947. The moisture was important with the region in the midst of a multiyear drought. The high drifts marooned cars in driveways and along streets. Telephone connections between Plainview and Floydada were interrupted, businesses were running two hours or more behind schedule and the community was slowing to a crawl, Brown wrote. An ambulance brought a patient to Plainview from Dimmitt as highway crews and others stood by to lend a hand in case it stalled. Brown reported that Joel Culp, who lived 10 miles south of Plainview at the time, had 5 inches of snow, but not much in his fields. It was in the roads and fence rows in 2- and 3-foot drifts. After a day, the snow continued. In fact, as the sun set Feb. 2, the region hadnt seen the worst. Snow continued Thursday night and into Friday, Feb. 3. By noon Friday, traffic was at a standstill. The snow had slowly changed from light powder to heavy flakes, and it was beginning to pile up. Sleet and drizzle prevailed over North, Central and East Texas. Hereford had 24 inches of snow, Amarillo 16 and Lubbock 10 by Saturday, Feb. 4. When Plainview awoke Saturday, Feb. 4, residents were confronted with an ominous spectacle. Snow had drifted to the eaves of houses, shutting out light from windows and blocking driveways. Three-foot deep overhangs jutted from gables and eaves. Trees and shrubs were encased in ice and covered with snow. There was a dead stillness amid the bright glare of the sun. Plainview and the entire area was paralyzed. The official 24-hour snow measurement was a then state record 25 inches with unofficial measurements at 29 inches and above. It was the heaviest snow in Plainview since Nov. 6, 1906, when 24 inches fell. Plainviews total snowfall for the storm was 30 inches. Hale Center reported a depth of 33 inches of snow on the ground on Feb. 5, 1956, another state record. Some stores wouldnt open for days. Hospital personnel went to bed wherever they could find because many couldnt get home. Others were afraid if they did get home, they couldnt get back. Some residents were stuck at home for 72 hours before streets could be cleared. On Saturday morning, pilots flying over the area saw scores of abandoned automobiles along long stretches of highway. There were more than 30 cars abandoned between Plainview and Olton on U.S. 70. Farm families were trapped by 6- and 7-foot snowdrifts. A husband and his wife who was expecting a baby started to the hospital. A few miles from home their car stalled in a snowdrift. The husband walked to a farm house and called for help. Southwestern Public Service crews with trucks went to the rescue. The woman reached the hospital where the baby was born hours later. An ambulance on the way from Hale Center to Plainview was held up behind a stalled bus for four hours. The patient made the trip in good condition. Marooned motorists found lodging in local hotels and motels. Scores of others sat through Friday night in bus and railroad terminals. Les and Bill Weaks of Plainview with relatives started out late Friday to the country. Their car stalled on the Snyder community road, but the group made it to the Herman Meester residence, moving through drifts several feet deep. Their whereabouts were unknown until noon Saturday. Similar incidents were repeated countless times during the storm. No mail arrived or went out of Plainview from noon Friday until Monday. There was no city mail delivery and milk deliveries were suspended. Numerous families ran out of staple foods. Word went out for those with children who had to have milk to contact police or others lending public service for emergency deliveries. Near Hale Center, volunteer workers cleared five miles of country road with tractors to take an elderly man to relatives in order to reach medical aid. Farmers probably fared better than most people, for they used their tractors for transportation. People living on the impossibly blocked country roads stomped out messages in the snow and volunteer pilots responded to their wants: D meant they needed a doctor, X fuel and F food. Three Hale Center fliers donated their time and planes to the relief work, clearing a small landing field of snow. Some of the fliers with practice got pretty good with their drops. One hit a farmers front porch with the groceries. According to the National Weather Service, the National Guard was activated to help rescue motorists and deliver supplies. Some schools were closed for the entire week following the blizzard, with the snow remaining on the ground in Plainview until Feb. 15. In the days following the blizzard, U.S. Air Force cargo planes as part of Operation Haylift dropped hay bales from the Texas Panhandle south to the northern South Plains to give cattle a chance at survival. In the final analysis, the National Weather Service said the moisture from the blizzard did little to combat a long-term drought that had been under way since 1954. Thats because many fields had large stretches where the snowpack was reduced to only a few inches from the relentless winds blowing at 15 and 33 mph during the blizzard. Shane Kernell will be moving almost 250 miles closer to family members in Plainview later this month, when he moves from LaGrange to Graham. Kernell, nephew of Hale County Commissioner Precinct 3 Kenny Kernell and son of Bobby Kernell, is resigning as chief executive officer of St. Marks Medical Center in La Grange, to become CEO of Graham Regional Medical Center in Young County. According to the Fayette County Record in LaGrange, his resignation becomes effective Feb. 26. According to the LaGrange newspaper, Kernell has been CEO at St. Marys for the past years. During that time, he led the hospital from near-bankruptcy to a much more secure financial status. Coincidentally, St. Marks is also losing its chief financial officer, Jeff Casbeer, who will be leaving Feb. 12 to become CFO at Wilbarger General Hospital in Vernon. That move, according to the Fayette County Record, is to that Casbeer can be closer to his parents and his spouses parents. We will certainly miss both Shane and Jeff as each has been a significant contributor here at St. Marks Medical Center, said St. Marks board chairman Dudley Piland in a statement. Kernell told the LaGrange paper that the two departures were in no means coordinated. Kernell told that paper that he was recruited by the hospital in Graham and decided to take the job to be closer to family members at nearby on Possum Kingdom Lake. This is going home for me, Kernell said. When Kernell arrived at the hospital in 2012, he told the paper, St. Marks only had two days of cash on hand. During some of his first weeks on the job, Kernell said he worried whether the hospital had enough money to make payroll. We owed something like 50 days of cash to everyone and their dog, he said. It was hand-to-hand combat on a daily basis. Vendors were calling and saying Pay us, and youre trying to operate a hospital that needs supplies. Kernell and his team cut spending and shut down hospital operations that were losing money. He directed growth in financially sound areas such as orthopedics and cardiac care, which better benefit the areas rural, aging population. He oversaw a reorganization of the hospital administration. Employee satisfaction scores rose from the third percentile to the 46th percentile. Also under Kernells leadership, St. Marks entered a partnership with St. Davids and Austin Heart to bring a cutting-edge cardiovascular imaging center to La Grange. Had we not acted swiftly to make appropriate expense cuts and add growth lines, we would have been bankrupt in all likelihood, Kernell said. One of the hospitals greatest accomplishments under Kernells leadership has been to pay down $3.5 million in short-term debt for an electronic medical record system. The hospital took out a loan for the system prior to Kernells arrival - at 8.5 percent interest. In March St. Marks will make its final $145,000 monthly payment for the system. I can rest well knowing that Im leaving this place in much better shape, Kernell said. Its got a good team in place, a good board and doctors, and a good succession plan. It has a bright future. The sky is the limit. Prior to going to St. Marys, Kernell was CEO at Stephens Memorial Hospital in San Antonio for three years. Prior to that, he was CFO of Eastland Memorial Hospital for about 3 1/2 years. Another Texas brand issued an ice cream recall, this time on a much smaller scale. H-E-B issued a voluntary recall for one of its Creamy Creations flavors: Caramel Pecan Turtle. The San Antonio-based grocery said theres a possible presence of wood pieces in the product. For more information on the items under recall, click here or call 855-432-4438. It's the end of an era in Ukraine -- and I'm not just talking about the loss of Crimea. Antonov's flying barn -- the An-225 Mriya. Image source: Mike Freer via Wikimedia Commons. In June 2015, three subsidiaries of the state-owned Antonov Aviation Concern were transferred to the ownership of similarly state-owned UkrOboronProm. These subsidiaries included the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company, State Civil Aviation Enterprise Plant 410, and the Antonov Company itself -- which builds Ukraine's "An-" aircraft and operates "Antonov Airlines." In connection with last year's transfer, the Ukrainian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade announced last week that the subsidiaries' parent company, Antonov Aviation Concern, will be officially "liquidated," and cease to exist. (To avoid confusion, from now on we'll refer to the parent company-soon-to-be-liquidated as "AAC," and the Antonov Company subsidiary as just plain "Antonov." De factos on the ground Liquidating AAC was only logical. After all, as a TASS article on the development points out, Ukraine has really only "legally brought the situation into compliance with the real state of things." After its subsidiaries' exit, AAC was little more than an empty shell. All the valuable assets had already moved to UkrOboronProm. But what does AAC's liquidation mean for investors in the aerospace and defense industry, now that it's no more? So long, Antonov. We hardly flew ye Honestly, it doesn't mean much. As TASS noted, liquidating AAC was really more of a formality than an event. As it turns out, what's going on at AAC's subsidiary -- Antonov itself -- is much more interesting. Antonov is perhaps best known as the builder of the world's two largest transport aircraft, the An-225 Mriya and the An-124 Ruslan. Only one An-225 Mriya was ever built, and at last report it was still operating with Antonov Airlines. It has presumably been transferred to UkrOboronProm along with the rest of Antonov. Antonov's An-124 Ruslan, the world's biggest mass-produced air transport. Image source: Dtom via Wikimedia Commons. As for the An-124, no new Ruslans have been built since 1995. Ukraine hoped to resume production in cooperation with Russia in 2014, but the latter's invasion of the former made that politically impossible, and the resumption of production was called off. That means that, unless UkrOboronProm tries to restart the program on its own, the An-124, too, is probably history -- and that could be good news for America's own Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT). What it means to Lockheed You see, here at The Motley Fool, we're as interested in developments in the aerospace world -- as news -- as anyone else. But what we're most interested in is how these developments affect investors in the companies that make the news. Simply put, we aim to tell you what the news means for your portfolio. So here's the deal: The world will probably never see another An-225 Mriya built. But even Antonov's smaller An-124 Ruslan is a much bigger bird than anything Boeing (NYSE: BA) or Lockheed Martin produce, and as such, would be a formidable competitor for global military buyers seeking large-capacity airplanes. Boeing announced the shutdown of production on its C-17 Globemaster, its biggest military transport, back in 2013. The last C-17 rolled off the assembly lines last month. Boeing's C-17 boasted a maximum payload of 164,900 pounds. Antonov's An-124, in contrast, could airlift more than 330,000 pounds of cargo -- twice the C-17's payload. That leaves Lockheed Martin, with its C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy, as the builder of America's largest transport aircraft -- and both of these are still in production. According to Lockheed's latest earnings report, the company produced 21 C-130s and nine modernized C-5 Galaxies to various buyers in 2015. Of these, the C-5 is the bigger bird -- even bigger than Boeing's C-17. But even so, the C-5 can lift "only" 285,000 pounds of cargo. As for the C-130, while it's a very capable plane, and indeed the most popular military transport in the world, the C-130's 44,000-pound payload means it really doesn't rate against the An-124 at all. Simply put, for sheer brute-force lifting capacity, Antonov's An-124 outclasses anything built by either Boeing or Lockheed Martin. Accordingly, a resumption of An-124 production would pose a real threat to Boeing and Lockheed Martin's global sales of military transports. When you get right down to it, though, it never really mattered whether Antonov formed part of AAC, or moved to UkrOboronProm. What mattered was whether Antonov could find a Russian partner to help it restart An-124 production -- and that hope died when the first Russian tanks started rolling two years ago. Unless peace suddenly breaks out in Ukraine, Boeing and Lockheed probably have nothing to fear from Antonov. 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. Lockheed Martin's C-5 Galaxy swallows semis whole? Image source: Lockheed Martin. The article Ukraine's Biggest Plane Maker Shuts Down -- and Boeing and Lockheed Breathe a Sigh of Relief 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 Leave it to Jerry Seinfeld to find wonder in the birth of the Kellogg's Pop-Tart and have an audience of 2,300 drooling along. The comedy superstar brought his winning stand-up comedy act to the Majestic Theatre on Friday for two sold-out shows. Friday's shows marked the eighth time Seinfeld has played San Antonio since July 1998, all of them at the Majestic. Are the other three even going to be there? said Seinfeld, playing the role of a fan who might be hoping to see Seinfeld characters George, Elaine and Kramer. "What's the big deal?" The big deal is that after a year-long residency at the Beacon Theater in New York, the 61-year-old comic delivered as stellar a show as ever if not better. The same can be said for comic Mario Joyner, who opened the show. As always, Seinfeld's genius is balancing his offbeat observations, love of language and tried-and-true cadence with his deadly pet peeves. For example, his advice to haughty, self-anointed Yelp restaurant reviewers: Just kill yourself already. Seinfeld never pretends he's an ordinary mortal but only that he, too, can get bored. That's why he said he couldn't wait to get to San Antonio. What else is there to say about cell phones? Seinfeld manages to squeeze a dwindling battery charge into a breathless saga of life and death that ends with the dapper comic flat on his back on the stage in faux collapse. Much is made of his yada-yada style (and the more Seinfeld-esque, the better) but his physical comedy chops are right up there an expressive rubbery face, sputtering, wild-eyed exclamations, flailing arms and even a little ballet when it comes to operating an imaginary automatic towel dispenser. When needed, he will pull out the high-pitched voice of his "Seinfeld" character, but only rarely. And a couple of references from the old shows now pass practically unnoticed and seem downright subtle. A reference to the episode about neatly folded white panties barely registered. Seinfeld worked his three children and marriage into the act, depicting his life as a mashup of TV game show and befuddlement. He's given up on having any real answers, he'd have us believe. The laugh quotient was extraordinarily high. Again, with familiarity and screwy twists balancing out. In his hands, a Pop-Tart bit becomes an epic tale of the good old days, just shy of a choir of angels. He returned for a brief encore, summing up a comedy career that began at age 21 and ended up in pretty good shape. Seinfeld ended the night recounting an encounter with Australian fans two weeks ago in New York. He was in a coffee shop with them when actor Wayne Knight (Newman from "Seinfeld") walked in. The punch line may as well have been a sing-along: Hello, Newman. Hsaldana@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Super Bowl fever is in the air, meaning sports lovers across the country are gearing up for the biggest potluck of the year. But those looking to pick up some barbecue plates, Chinese takeout or fast food for Sundays feast may want to think twice about where to buy their spreads. This week, 30 eateries made the dirtiest restaurant list and each inspection makes for some very queasy reading. To make the Express-News' weekly list of dirtiest eateries, an establishment must have 14 or more demerits during a random city inspection. Four establishments were caught with insect and rodent activity in the kitchen, including roach eggs found at Feedback Catering. At the Homestyle Haven Cafe, a cook was seen "coughing and sniffling" near food, according to the eatery's report. At Grady's Texas Star Inn, better known as Grady's Bar-B-Q, the establishment was cited after an employee was caught pulling out a feather from a cooked chicken. Other notable names on this week include: Fox & Hound English Pub and Grille, Black Eyed Pea, Pavani Express Vegetarian Cafe, Jack in the Box and Martha's Mexican Restaurant. Get all the highlights of this week's dirtiest restaurant list in the slideshow above. RELATED: San Antonio restaurant inspections: Worst reports from 2015 The San Antonio Express-News examines hundreds of restaurant inspections each week conducted by the San Antonio Food and Environmental Health Services division to bring you the eateries with 14 or more demerits. The demerit system is based upon the number of violations found during a regular food establishment inspection. There are three categories of demerits and each are assigned a demerit score of 5, 4 or 3 points, according to the health division. Scores and demerits listed are only representative of the state of the restaurant at the time of inspection and are surveyed at random. rsalinas@mysa.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For some graphic designers, inspiration can come in a dream, a blog or a gallery. For Gerald Flores, inspiration comes wrapped in aluminum foil. Most days Flores grabs a breakfast taco on his way to work as a creative director and designer for a web development company. He sees tacos as the thread that ties all Texans together, which is why he puts them on every thread he produces for his own company, Taco Creative. "Tacos brought your family together around the breakfast, lunch or dinner table, sometimes all three in a day," the Corpus Christi designer said. "I have never met a person who did not like tacos which tells me a lot." Flores, 32, designed and launched a line of taco-inspired T-shirts, hats, mugs and pillows. And they're selling like ... well, tacos. Click the gallery above to see some of the Taco Gear merchandise. RELATED: Detox by eating tacos? What? "Never underestimate the amount of love you have for tacos," he said. "It's bigger than you think." But as delicious as they are (chorizo, egg and bacon from SouthSide Barbacoa in Corpus Christi are his favorite), tacos are more than just a food they're a tradition. "There is so much that can be said about why tacos are a staple in Texas culture," he said. "If you were born in or grew up near a Latino neighborhood like I and many others, they were a part of your upbringing." RELATED: Things you need if you played loteria as a kid After searching online for a taco shirt in 2014, and quickly becoming frustrated at the lack of personality behind them, Flores decided to make his own. And Taco Gear was created. According to a Corpus Christi Caller-Times story about his line, Flores has sold merchandise in 53 cities across 13 states. Noela Rukundo sat in a car outside her home, watching as the last few mourners filed out. They were leaving a funeral - her funeral. Finally, she spotted the man she'd been waiting for. She stepped out of her car, and her husband put his hands on his head in horror. "Is it my eyes?" she recalled him saying. "Is it a ghost?" "Surprise! I'm still alive!" she replied. Far from being elated, the man looked terrified. Five days ago, he had ordered a team of hit men to kill Rukundo, his partner of 10 years. And they did - well, they told him they did. They even got him to pay an extra few thousand dollars for carrying out the crime. Now here was his wife, standing before him. In an interview with the BBC Thursday, Rukundo recalled how he touched her shoulder to find it unnervingly solid. He jumped. Then he started screaming. "I'm sorry for everything," he wailed. But it was far too late for apologies; Rukundo called the police. The husband, Balenga Kalala, ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for incitement to murder, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC). The happy ending - or, as happy as can be expected to a saga in which a man tries to have his wife killed - was made possible by three unusually principled hit men, a helpful pastor and one incredibly gutsy woman: Rukundo herself. Here is how she pulled it off. Rukundo's ordeal began almost exactly a year ago, when she flew from her home in Melbourne with her husband, Kalala, to attend a funeral in her native Burundi. Her stepmother had died and the service left her saddened and stressed. She retreated to her hotel room in Bujumbura, the capital, early in the evening; despondent after the events of the day, she lay down in bed. Then her husband called. "He told me to go outside for fresh air," she told the BBC. But the minute Rukundo stepped out of her hotel, a man charged forward, pointing a gun right at her. "Don't scream," she recalled him saying. "If you start screaming, I will shoot you. They're going to catch me, but you? You will already be dead." Rukundo, terrified, did as she was told. She was ushered into a car and blindfolded so she couldn't see where she was being taken. After 30 or 40 minutes, the car came to a stop, and Rukundo was pushed into a building and tied to a chair. She could hear male voices, she told the ABC. One asked her, "You woman, what did you do for this man to pay us to kill you?" "What are you talking about?" Rukundo demanded. "Balenga sent us to kill you." They were lying. She told them so. And they laughed. "You're a fool," they told her. There was the sound of a dial tone, and a male voice coming through a speakerphone. It was her husband's voice. "Kill her," he said. And Rukundo fainted. Rukundo had met her husband 11 years earlier, right after she arrived in Australia from Burundi, according to the BBC. He was a recent refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and they had the same social worker at the resettlement agency that helped them get on their feet. Since Kalala already knew English, their social worker often recruited him to translate for Rukundo, who spoke Swahili. They fell in love, moved in together in the Melbourne suburb of Kings Park, and had three children (Rukundo also had five kids from a previous relationship). She learned more about her husband's past - he had fled a rebel army that had ransacked his village, killing his wife and young son. She also learned more about his character. "I knew he was a violent man," Rukundo told the BBC. "But I didn't believe he can kill me." But, it appeared, he could. Rukundo came to in the strange building somewhere near Bujumbura. The kidnappers were still there, she told the ABC. They weren't going to kill her, the men then explained - they didn't believe in killing women, and they knew her brother. But they would keep her husband's money and tell him that she was dead. After two days, they set her free on the side of a road, but not before giving her a mobile phone, recordings of their phone conversations with Kalala, and receipts for the $7,000 in Australian dollars they allegedly received in payment, according to Australia's The Age. "We just want you to go back, to tell other stupid women like you what happened," Rukundo said she was told before the gang members drove away. Shaken, but alive and doggedly determined, Rukundo began plotting her next move. She sought help from the Kenyan and Belgian embassies to return to Australia, according to The Age. Then she called the pastor of her church in Melbourne, she told the BBC, and explained to him what had happened. Without alerting Kalala, the pastor helped her get back home to her neighborhood near Melbourne. Meanwhile, her husband had told everyone she had died in a tragic accident and the entire community mourned her at her funeral at the family home. On the night of Feb. 22, 2015, just as the widower Kalala waved goodbye to neighbors who had come to comfort him, Rukundo approached him, the very man whose voice she'd heard over the phone five days earlier, ordering that she be killed. "I felt like somebody who had risen again," she told the BBC. Though Kalala initially denied all involvement, Rukundo got him to confess to the crime during a phone conversation that was secretly recorded by police, according to The Age. "Sometimes Devil can come into someone, to do something, but after they do it they start thinking, 'Why I did that thing?' later," he said, as he begged her to forgive him. Kalala eventually pleaded guilty to the scheme. He was sentenced to nine years in prison by a judge in Melbourne. "Had Ms Rukundo's kidnappers completed the job, eight children would have lost their mother," Chief Justice Marilyn Warren said, according to the ABC. "It was premeditated and motivated by unfounded jealousy, anger and a desire to punish Ms. Rukundo." Rukundo said that Kalala tried to kill her because he thought she was going to leave him for another man - an accusation she denies. But her trials are not yet over. Rukundo told the ABC she's gotten backlash from Melbourne's Congolese community for reporting Kalala to the police. Someone left threatening messages for her, and she returned home one day to find her back door broken. She now has eight children to raise alone, and has asked the Department of Human Services to help her find a new place to live. And lying in bed at night, Kalala's voice still comes to her: "Kill her, kill her," she told the BBC. "Every night, I see what was happening in those two days with the kidnappers." Despite all that, "I will stand up like a strong woman," she said. "My situation, my past life? That is gone. I'm starting a new life now." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Multiple fatalities were feared in a domestic incident that began Friday in a rural area southeast of town and led to a standoff with law enforcement that did not end until about noon Saturday after the intervention of a SWAT team backed with a large armored vehicle. The names of the deceased and the circumstances that lead to the standoff were the subject of avid speculation on social media in Uvalde, but no official account was available. Uvalde County Sheriff Charles Mendeke, who was on the scene overnight, could not be reached Saturday, and deputies said a statement might not be issued for a day or two. The Texas Rangers were also involved, but calls to the Department of Public Safety in Austin were referred back to Uvalde County. The incident began Friday afternoon about 10 miles south of Uvalde on County Road 369. Access to CR 369 remained closed late Saturday afternoon, even to residents. "It started yesterday. When I tried to go home last night, they made me go back to town," said Carolyn Scott, who lives on CR 369, a mile-long dead-end road off FM 140, which connects Uvalde with Pearsall. Scott said she was familiar with the house at end of CR 369 where the shooting occurred. She said it had not been the scene of problems before this. "I've not known of any law being called out to that house. I've lived out there 20 years, and they've lived out there as long as me," she said of the family apparently involved in the shooting. Another woman, who lives on CR 369 but asked not to be named, said a teenager whom she was related to was shot and killed Saturday, after he shot an older man on Friday. She said she did not know who the rumored third victim might be. "I can tell you it was my sister's grandson. I heard that he either witnessed what happened or that he was the shooter, and that he was shot and killed," she said. "It began yesterday afternoon when people saw all the law coming in here. It ended today about 12:30 p.m. This is the country. It's quiet out here," she added. After the shooting, a stream of law enforcement vehicles, including a large armored unit on a trailer, slowly filtered out on CR 369 and headed back to town past fields of onion, young hay and cabbage. The armored vehicle was part of the DPS SWAT team called to the scene, according to the Uvalde Leader-News. jmaccormack@express-news.net, twhite@mysa.com Twitter: @tylerlwhite The thoroughly negative campaign against Texas House Speaker Joe Straus would be laughable if it werent so downright ugly. Straus, whose integrity and resolve to provide steady leadership are fully intact, is being hammered by a wave of attacks as he seeks re-election to Bexar Countys District 121 seat in the state House. Day after day, Republican primary voters in District 121 are opening their mailboxes to find an avalanche of political hit pieces from Straus foes and an outside interest group, as well as Straus mail defending his record. Tea party activist and former Olmos Park City Councilman Jeff Judson, who was ousted by Olmos Park voters in 2014, and Sheila Bean, a first-time candidate who worked in unsuccessful campaigns against Straus in recent years, are seeking to unseat Straus. We strongly urge voters to re-elect Straus, who has proven to be a decent, effective leader. Straus calm maturity has greatly benefited the state of Texas as well as his hometown. The speaker has focused on solving major problems that face the state, such as successful efforts to make progress on transportation and water. Straus is a fair speaker who allows the will of the House to carry the day and that will is conservative. The system does work when you let the members represent their districts faithfully, Straus told the Express-News Editorial Board recently. As we have noted before the Straus-led House has approved tough abortion restrictions, defunded Planned Parenthood, passed a voter ID law and pushed conservative issues on many fronts. Straus has been a leader in ending budget gimmicks, such as diversions of dedicated funds, and played a role in cutting billions of dollars in taxes. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called last years legislative session the most conservative in the states history. Still, Straus opponents cling to the outrageous claim that he isnt conservative enough. Straus is not a scorched-earth bully as was his predecessor, Midland Rep. Tom Craddick, and as a result, a coalition of Republicans and Democrats has elected him speaker four times. In addition to being an effective method of leading the House, Straus approach exhibits a decency that is too often lacking in modern politics and is the style best suited to keep the Republican Party healthy in Texas over the long run. Contrary to the claim made in one of Judsons attack pieces, Straus is not a career politician. He spent most of his adult life pursuing a business career, and first entered the fray as a candidate in a 2005 special election. Four years later, he was elected speaker, and quickly became so adept in the role that even his supporters most likely were surprised. Straus remains a solid leader in his prime. District 121 voters should send him back to the House for another term. Re: Palin in a minor league of her own, Maureen Dowd, Other Views, Jan. 26: Maureen Dowd really hit the nail on the head with her commentary. It seems that Sarah Palin and many Republican conservatives pull out the morality card whenever it suits them, but totally ignore it when it suits them better. Palin, trying to blame President Barack Obama for her sons behavior, should take a look at her own parenting skills and compare them to Obamas. Obamas daughters display a much more Christian attitude than her abstinence-proclaiming daughter, who has had two babies out of wedlock, and her son, who was accused of assaulting his girlfriend. And now Palin has endorsed Donald Trump, giving the religious right the feeling that if Christian Palin thinks Trump is religious, he truly must be. These same people will totally ignore their previous claim to family values and moral majority when they support and vote for a man who has been married three times and runs casinos. Alice Chapel, Spring Branch Lax security Im concerned our border patrol hasnt announced any new Zika virus protocols for dealing with this new external threat via illegal immigration. Please investigate. Rick Reyes, Boerne Trump train wreck Everyone has a theory about why Donald Trump is driving the GOP primaries. Some have partial merit, some seem unlikely. My take is different. I have no data on my side, other than 60 years of observation, but it seems that 90 to 95 percent of voters select candidates based solely on name recognition and/or physical appearance. Winning candidates understand this, which is why there are a dozen yard signs on every street corner. A yard sign communicates a name and a head shot, nothing else. For example, over the years I have met at least 10 people who told me they voted for Bill Clinton just because he had nice eyes. In the simplest terms, because of media coverage, it is as if Trump has 50 times as many yard signs as everyone else. I recently spoke to a company executive who was going to vote for Trump. He did not even know who Marco Rubio was. Political junkies tend to forget how ignorant the average voter really is. An indisputable fact is that the media want Republicans to nominate Donald Trump. It is the only believable explanation for the show. However, the media and the public have very different interests. The public needs and wants to elect a patriot who will put the good of the country above his own quest for power and prestige. The media want to elect a train wreck so they will have fun stories to write. Republicans better get ready for another train wreck. Michael Cheuvront Enough on emails Re: Administration deems 22 Clinton emails top secret, Nation & World, Jan. 30: There are laws against mishandling classified information. If Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information, she should suffer the consequences under those laws. If not, drop it. Bernie Indianer Judson refreshing Re: Religious bigotry back in Straus race; Judson warns of a disconnect with Christian voters, Brian Chasnoff, Jan. 24: I have read Chasnoffs negative views on conservatives and Republicans in previous columns, so I was not surprised. The day the commentary came out, Jeff Judson held a question-and-answer session near where I live, and I decided to attend so I could form my own firsthand opinions. Just as I suspected, I found Judson and his ideas to be nothing at all like the picture painted by Chasnoff. In fact, I was extremely impressed with Judsons views on topics such as fiscal responsibility, public transportation, faith, immigration policies, etc. It was very refreshing. Thank you, Brian Chasnoff, for helping me get motivated to go to Judsons meeting. As a result, I have decided that Judson is definitely worthy of my vote. Rod Boatright Bigotry flourishing Re: Religious bigotry back in Straus race; Judson warns of a disconnect with Christian voters, Brian Chasnoff, Jan. 24: I was both shocked and saddened when I read this column, disgusted by the comments of Jeff Judson, a tea party activist, who is calling on voters to reject Joe Straus for Texas House speaker. Judson laments what he calls the disconnect between conservative Christians and Joe Straus, who is Jewish. All of this rhetoric is nothing but disguised anti-Semitism, and I thank Brian Chasnoff for bringing it to light. Mr. Judson needs to know that this country was founded on the separation of church and state. Judeo-Christian values, as Judson calls them, should not be injected into politics. Straus religion, or lack of it, should be irrelevant. The next article on the same page was about a really disturbing event (Swastika found on Reagan students car). I was sad and angry to read that a high school student drew a swastika on another students car at Reagan High School. Was this supposed to be a joke? If so, it wasnt funny. The swastika is a horrible symbol of hatred that led to the murder of millions of people in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and early 40s. The kid who drew it on the car needs a good history lesson, among other things. After last summers anti-Semitic attacks on two synagogues, I thought that would be all of it. I should have known better. Sadly, hatred and bigotry, against all races and religions, are alive and well, even in this 21st century. Judy Halfant Encore Re: In language, not all things correct, John Eubanks, Another View, Jan. 18: More, please. Francille Radmann By Gaius Publius, a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States and frequent contributor to DownWithTyranny, digby, Truthout, and Naked Capitalism. Follow him on Twitter @Gaius_Publius, Tumblr and Facebook. Originally published at at Down With Tyranny. GP article archive here. American Crossroads letting you know that Goldman Sachs Blankfein isnt letting you know that hes backing Hillary Clinton because I dont want to help or hurt anyone by giving an endorsement. Smiles all round the table. (American Crossroads should be careful what it wishes for.) There are several parts to a story thats just starting to be told, the tale of the pressure applied by prominent and establishment Democratic women to get Sen. Elizabeth Warren to support Hillary Clinton. Part of that story is taking place in the present the pressure is being applied now. And it now seems that part of that story may extend into the past as earlier pressure not to get in the way (my characterization) of a possible, as-yet-unannounced Clinton run. The first part of the story is certain, the other, less so, though indications are beginning to emerge. Lets look at these two parts briefly, the present story and the past one, to see if some dots connect, and to see what other dots might be connected later, pending more data. Keep in mind, this is an unusual primary for Democrats we can choose an anti-Money revolution, or a woman president, but we cant choose both, not this time. This complicates both the decision and the optics of endorsing Clinton, especially for women, and especially for women connected to the in-place Democratic establishment. If you havent figured out why, youll see in a moment. Read on. The Present Pressure on Elizabeth Warren to Endorse Hillary Clinton This present part of the story comes via a good story in The Hill. I encourage reading it all; I found all of it useful: Female senators urge Warren: Back Hillary Clinton Female Democratic senators are privately urging Sen. Elizabeth Warren to formally endorse Hillary Clinton for president. The lobbying campaign comes as the Democratic race between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is heating up going into the New Hampshire primary next week. A group of Democratic senators is taking a bus tour of New Hampshire this weekend to stump for Clinton, and they want the liberal Massachusetts powerhouse to get on board. Clinton narrowly defeated Sanders in the Iowa caucuses earlier this week, but the Vermont senator is a heavy favorite to win New Hampshire. A few of the senators have discussed with Warren the possibility of publicly backing Clinton. Im hopeful shell join us. Im hopeful shell join the revolution that will allow us to come together to elect the first female president, said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), one of Clintons staunchest supporters. Asked if she or other senators had approached Warren personally, Stabenow said, We all talk about it, but declined to reveal what Warren has said in response. And: A Democratic aide said the Senate women have been trying to do a little arm twisting in recent months. Her role in this campaign would be valuable, the staffer said. I think shes gotten more attention than most senators, and I think it would mean a lot. Other women in the Senate have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the campaign for Clinton, which they see as a historic opportunity to advance womens rights. Women named in the article as lobbying Warren to support Clinton include Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Barbara Mikulski (Md.). Others named in the article as campaigning actively for Clinton, though not named as lobbying Warren, include Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii). The question is, why would a senator who said this on the floor of the Senate (my emphasis) A new presidential election is upon us. The first votes will be cast in Iowa in just eleven days. Anyone who shrugs and claims that change is just too hard has crawled into bed with the billionaires who want to run this country like some private club. endorse Hillary Clinton? Thats a real question. And the answer is, Of course she would endorse Clinton unless she were speaking of Clinton. Which raises real questions, I think, about the reason many (but not all) establishment Democratic women are endorsing Clinton over Sanders. Its certainly true that many think it is time for the first woman president and that Clinton should be that woman, in spite of her ties to Money for example, ties to the Goldman Sachs executive in the video above. But it also has to be said that some (I have a few names in mind) think Clinton should be that woman because of her ties to Money and the mainstream establishment that feeds from (and feeds) the same troughs, the establishment from which they draw their own daily cup. For these women, endorsing Clinton achieves two goals with one stroke of the pen, both of which are desirable. Hillary-Only Feminism? I wonder if there were only a way we could test those commitments to first woman president and factor the ties to Money out of the choice. Perhaps if Warren were also running or thought to be thinking about running with Clinton not yet declared as as candidate would these women support Warren because first woman president? I wonder In 2014, Zephyr Teachout asked me [the writer of the piece] whether she should run against powerful incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo. I told her that the only reason not to do it would be fear fear that his machine would belittle her, discredit her, turn her into a joke. She stared at me, and said, Now I have to do it, because you just dared me to. Thats a bad ass lady, the kind of lady who is gonna take a hammer to the glass ceiling, smash it, and pull everybody up with her. We fought that race with almost zero institutional support. Hillary Clinton supported Cuomo. Imagine an alternate universe where Hillary was the champion of progressive women in her own state. She would have been on our rickety bus, sweating the broken air conditioning, letting people know that the era of three men in a room making all the decisions was over. We would have elected our first female governor in New York. After Zephyr lost her campaign, I teamed up with some other awesome ladies who wanted to see Elizabeth Warren run for president. We were inspired not just by her passion for financial reform, but also by her biography. Once again, institutional support was thin. And the supposedly feminist argument from a lot of Hillary fans was that it wasnt Elizabeths turn. Another woman would dilute Hillarys chances, which would be bad for the cause of electing Hillary as the first female president. Hillary-only Feminism. [my emphases] Four takeaways for later thought: Hillary Clinton supported Cuomo against a progressive woman with a real chance to win, Zephyr Teachout. [Warrens] institutional support [for a possible presidential run] was thin. A supposedly feminist argument from a lot of Hillary fans was that it wasnt Elizabeths turn. Hillary-only Feminism is a striking turn of phrase, and the most highlighted phrase from the article according to Medium. Why did Ms. Clinton not support Ms. Teachout, also a progressive, as first woman governor of New York? Seems appropriate for someone asking for support on the basis of first woman president. Perhaps Clinton thought Teachout was the wrong woman to be the first woman governor of NY. Much to think about. Id love to know if anyone made the not your turn argument to Warren herself, or whether these Hillary fans just said it to each other. Perhaps when Warren writes her page-turning memoirs, shell peel back that curtain as well. (Blue America has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president. If youd like to help out, go here; you can adjust the split any way you like at the link. If youd like to phone-bank for Bernie, go here. You can volunteer in other ways by going here. And thanks!) Matt Lane, Molly Lane, William Raveis, Thomas Campbell and Richard Prebish, left to right. (David Albers/Staff) SHARE William Raveis By June Fletcher of the Naples Daily News Moving to cement a luxury base, giant Connecticut real estate firm William Raveis Real Estate is joining forces with Campbell & Prebish, a boutique brokerage specializing in the highest stratosphere of the Naples real estate market. Campbell & Prebish will become part of Raveis on Feb. 12. Terms of the deal, which Tom Campbell characterized as not an asset sale but an affiliation, were not disclosed. The union will link a technology-driven titan with more than 4,200 agents and staff in 120 offices throughout the Northeast with a tiny firm with only seven agents and employees but plenty of multimillion-dollar listings in Naples' priciest neighborhoods. William Raveis opened its first two offices outside of the Northeast last month, at 720 Fifth Ave. S and at 5150 U.S. 41 N in North Naples. The company plans to open a total of 30 offices throughout Florida over the next decade, including another two or three in the Naples or Bonita Springs markets. Bill Raveis, chairman and chief executive officer of the Shelton, Connecticut-based firm and a Port Royal resident for a dozen years, said his research had shown that Naples, once a mostly a mecca for Midwesterners, was attracting an increasing number of wealthy residents from the Northeast, as well as international buyers. "The timing just seemed right to come here," he said. He expects his techno-centric approach to marketing, which includes drone photography, 3D house tours, virtual staging and deep-data analysis, will resonate with these far-flung home shoppers. "A lot of people here are smart and well-educated," he said. "They want this. And I think it will change the real estate game here." Raveis founded his privately held brokerage in 1974 over a Connecticut grocery store. Since then, he has opened offices in Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont as well. His company was ranked eighth in the country in terms of dollar volume in 2015 by REAL Trends, a consulting and communications company for the residential real estate industry. It had $9 billion in sales in 2015, according to Molly Lane. She and her husband Matt are both vice presidents and general managers of William Raveis-Florida. Raveis says he has known Thomas Campbell Jr. and Richard G. Prebish II for years and thinks they are "brilliant marketers." Although Campbell and Prebish opened their brokerage only six years ago, they have secured some of the most expensive listings and sales in Naples. One of its most publicized listings, 2500 Gordon Drive, was advertised in 2014 for a record-high price for Naples of $75 million ($80 million with furnishings). It sold in March 2015 for a near-record $45.6 million. Campbell and Prebish are longtime Naples denizens and are active in its social and philanthropic circles. For more than three decades, Campbell and his family lived in the first home that was built in the interior of Port Royal; Prebish' s family made Naples their vacation destination for three generations. Both will become part of the Raveis team and will remain at their current locale at 792 Broad St. S. They also will retain their three-year-old affiliation with Christie's International Real Estate and their laser focus on the upper end of the market. "This is just one more arrow we can put into our quiver to find high-end buyers," Campbell said. Daily News correspondent John Osborne contributed to this story. Students in the Marco Island Family YMCAs Aspire after-school program explore musical instruments under the guidance of United Arts Council teaching artist Patricia Sandick. (Photo Courtesy United Arts Council) SHARE United Arts Council teaching artist Leigh Herndon poses with her students after a Monday morning art class for seniors at Jewish Family and Community Services of Southwest Florida in Naples. (Photo Courtesy United Arts Council) Works by David Hammel are displayed at a recent Florida Gulf Coast University pottery sale event. (Photo Courtesy United Arts Council) Dance students at Immokalee Middle School, taught by United Arts Council instructor Isabel Castro, perform at a family night event. (Photo Courtesy United Arts Council) A student in the Miracle after-school program at Pinecrest Elementary in Immokalee shows the sculpted head on a stick he made in United Arts Council instructor Beth Crosleys art class in fall 2015. (Photo Courtesy United Arts Council) By Harriet Howard Heithaus of the Naples Daily News Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the artiest community of all? Oh, wait there's no mirror here. Naples has been collecting laurels as one of America's best small cities partly from a patina of arts and cultural ambience for the last 10 years. But the impact of arts on it and surrounding Collier County is largely anecdotal. The last study was done in 2004. That's 12 years, a recession and an 18 percent growth in population ago. The United Arts Council of Collier County determined last summer to change that, with the help of several grants and here's where the community comes in shoe leather. The council won two grants that will fund supervising and feeding local information to the advocacy organization Americans for the Arts for its 2016 survey of "The Arts and Prosperity." But the UAC will need a steady stream of volunteers to help survey some 800 Collier County arts attendees at all types of arts events during all seasons of the year. They also hope people who are approached will take the time to answer questions in their two-minute survey. The first dozen volunteers were set to be trained Saturday and appear at their first events Sunday. The UAC is hoping at least 30 more will volunteer to canvass the county in groups of three to five at some time during the year. (To volunteer, visit www.uaccollier.com or call 239-254.-8242. Basketful of hopes The survey helps measure arts spending and employment, both direct and indirect, in Collier County. It's information United Arts Council President J.R. Philps says he has been pushing for since he found himself empty-handed at a Greater Naples Leadership arts day. "I was in charge of the arts thing and part of that whole day ... was to explain the economic impact. But there's no data," he said. "It's just been a guess over the last 10 years. Now we'll be able to know the full-time-equivalent jobs, personal income to the residents of Collier County, revenue generated to local governments because there are taxes that are going to get paid. And there's some state government. So there are some cool things to be coming out of there." UAC leaders, including interim executive director, Marcia Clark, have a marketbasket of hopes for the Arts and Prosperity study: Leverage-wielding information on the influence of the arts here, helpful when legislative bodies approach issues that involve them. Increased potential for fundraising as more local businesses understand the importance of local arts. Help to the county in attracting new businesses. "It really gives data that says this is a flourishing community," pointed out Karen Coulter, volunteer manager for the project. Potentially, joint marketing with the Lee County Alliance for the Arts that would tout Southwest Florida as an arts destination. The two organizations have talked about some cooperation there. Collier County is joining the study after the Lee County Alliance for the Arts led the way, joining it in 2010 "arguably the worst year in the decade," as its executive director, Lydia Black observed and learning, to its delight, that it contributed $68 million to the county's economy. Lee will again be part of this study. It's thanks to Southwest Florida Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of Collier County, both of which gave the organization grants for this project, that Collier could join. Quantifying soft skills What the survey won't do is parse art's less quantifiable benefits, especially to the at-risk children the UAC sees as part of its service mandate. The UAC coordinates and funds a host of arts classes for children in low-income areas who may not have the opportunity to learn dance, music or art. So the organization dipped into the alphabet soup of potential sources and found NIOST (National Institute for Out-of-School Time). With a grant from the Naples Children & Education Foundation, the grant-making arm of the Naples Winter Wine Festival, program director Janice T. Paine coordinated a NIOST-developed evaluation process. Instructors for selected programs evaluate students at the beginning and conclusion of a class term, on what Paine called functional skills: Engagement with learning Communication skills Problem-solving ability "We're not looking at academic achievement, but skills that contribute to success in life and success in school," Paine said. "We got back our first one for a class of nine weeks. The schools all increased their scores in each domain. "We don't expect we will necessarily see that kind of success with every class," she continued, but said that the information coming back is empowering. "This gives us the ability to go back to an individual instructor and say 'Your kids scored high over here, but maybe not so high in another area. What are you doing in this part that is helping them score higher and what might you use from it to increase the other?' I've never had this kind of specific information before, so I'm very excited by that." Filmmaker Steven Spielberg greets holocaust survivor Rena Finder in the General Assembly hall of the United Nations headquarters on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust in the Manhattan borough of New York January 27, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES Tags: ANNIVERSARY POLITICS ENTERTAINMENT) RTX17X8A SHARE By Dave Osborn She remembered vividly the long trip in the boxcar. A 13-year-old girl, Rena Finder stood with 150 other women. There was no water, no window, no bathroom. And the train ride that began in Krakow, Poland, took six to eight hours, but it felt much longer than that, she said. "It seemed like forever. We were packed like sardines," she said in telephone interview from her winter home in Delray Beach. "We couldn't move." Finder, who turns 87 later this month, will tell her story Thursday at an event in Naples. She is one of the few remaining Schindler's List survivors, those rescued by Oskar Schindler from the horrors of Nazi persecution. Finder and others thought they were traveling as part of a relocation to a factory to work. Instead, when the boxcar doors opened, she and others realized they had arrived at another place. "I'm afraid I remember everything," she said. "I remember seeing the mile and miles of barbed wire. And there was a sign, AuschwitzBirkenau. We had heard rumors of Auschwitz and Birkenau but we couldn't believe it. There's no words to describe how people could become such murderers, such killers, and go home to their families like nothing happened." Auschwitz IIBirkenau was a combination concentration/extermination camp in Poland, at the time annexed by Nazi Germany. It was considered a major site for the killing of Jewish people. "The survivors have very selective memories," said Finder, "but I do remember a lot." "There was a terrible smell in Auschwitz and we wondered what it was. But not for long. We were very thirsty and it was late at night. And it looked like it was snowing. We tried to grab a few snowflakes, but we realized that was not snow. That was ashes." Finder recalled the camp - home to crematoriums to burn corpses - being infested with lice, diphtheria and typhoid fever. "We said we would never get out," she recalled. "There was no food and people were getting sick. "When I talk about it, I feel like I'm right back there. I can smell the chimney. The smells of Auschwitz, I don't think none of us will ever forget. But it's an important lesson for the world to learn." Finder was among 300 women at Auschwitz in imminent danger of being sent to gas chambers. Schindler received word of them, and he convinced Nazi commanders that he needed workers for his factory in Brunnlitz, in Czechoslovakia. But his usual bribes (mainly alcohol) did not work. So, Finder said, he sent his secretary, Hilde Albrecht, with everything from food and diamonds to black-market goods to allow Finder and the 299 other women to leave Auschwitz in 1944. Finder said she was there for 3 weeks, but "3 weeks in Auschwitz was a very long time." Her father was killed there, but she and her mother escaped, with Schindler's help. Schindler whom she described as an outgoing, friendly and handsome man with a great smile a few weeks earlier had help save 700 men from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where they had spent a week. "He had papers that these workers were to come to Czechoslovakia," Finder said of Schindler. "We left the way we came, on a train. This time they didn't pack us as much. This time I remember we were able to sit on the floor." Movie director Steven Spielberg made Schindler's compassion known internationally in the 1993 film "Schindler's List," based on the 1982 book "Schindler's Ark" by Thomas Keneally. "Schinder's List" received 12 Academy Award nominations and won seven, including Best Picture and Best Director for Spielberg. Finder two years ago met with Spielberg when they attended International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. "He talked about how making the movie had changed his life," she said of Spielberg. Finder arrived in the U.S. in 1948 and was married to Mark Finder, eventually settling in Massachusetts. Her husband had survived Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria. They were married for 65 years. He died four years ago, at age 90. "We started to build a new life. We wanted to live a normal life," she said. "We wanted to work and be able to pay rent and save money to buy a house and a car and have children." Finder said she initially worked in a shoe factory but eventually became a stay-at-home mom. She and her husband raised three daughters, the oldest of whom died of cancer 25 years ago at age 39; one granddaughter and five grandsons; and three great-grandchildren. Finder said she lives in Delray Beach four months a year, with the other eight spent in Framingham, Massachusetts, her home since 1958. She continues to speak at grade, high and middle schools, universities, churches, synagogues and elsewhere about the Holocaust. "The kids are so wonderful and they do get it that they have the power to make a difference in life," Finder said. "There is always something someone can do. I tell them about bullies in school, but bullies are cowards. Don't just walk away and say 'It's not me, I don't have to do anything.' I told them, 'You do have to do something. Tell the teachers. And extend a welcome hand to new students in school.' " Rabbi Fishel Zaklos with Chabad Naples, where Finder will speak, said Finder and other survivors perpetuate the memory of those who have perished. He said 25 Golden Gate High School students also plan to attend the Thursday night event to hear Finders story. Its important to people to hear and to know her powerful story, Zaklos said, especially in light of the events going on in the world today. Sometimes in darkness we can see the ugliest part of human nature and the beauty of human nature, the courage that people have, people like Oskar Schindler." Finder said she will continue to discuss her ordeal with the Nazis, as painful as that may be for her. "We pass the torch of my memory to the second and third generations," she said. "There are fewer and fewer of us left to show the world that, in the darkest time in the history of the world, when horrible murders, tortures, hate were reigning, and everybody said there's nothing I can do, there was one man, Oskar Schindler, who said I can't stand by and do nothing." IF YOU GO ON SCHINDLER'S LIST: A HISTORIC EVENING OF INSPIRATION AND SURVIVAL When: 7 p.m. Thursday Where: Chadbad Naples, 1789 Mandarin Road, Naples Cost: $20 adults, $8 for students; $180 for two preferred seats and VIP private cocktail reception with Rena Finder Information: chabadnaples.com or 239-262-4474 Before getting it, Terry Brennen had never heard of 'flesh-eating' Vibrio By Melhor Leonor of the Naples Daily News Collier County public school officials are expected on Tuesday to discuss their approval of a new academic calendar that triggered protests from some parents opposed to students returning from their summer break on Aug. 10. The school board approved the calendar nearly four weeks ago, but agreed to discus it again after parents and teachers asked them to go back to the drawing board. In revisiting the calendar, board members will have to sort through a mixed bag of requests and acknowledge that no calendar can oblige them all. The loudest and most visible group took to a Change.org petition last month that protests Aug. 10 as too early of a start and asks that Aug. 15 be set as the first day of school next academic year. The petition was first posted Jan. 13 and has since garnered 1,300 online signatures as of Friday afternoon. Related story: Collier school board approves new school year calendar, with classes starting on Aug. 10 "We wanted to get enough attraction to the petition to have the school board take notice," said Linda Sonders, a Collier County parent of two. Sonders said starting classes on Aug. 10 cuts into students' summer break and affects families with relatives in northern states, where classes typically start after Labor Day. Board member Roy Terry said the board must consider how conflicting preferences among parents works best for students. "The thing that I've gotten out of all those comments is that there is no consensus. There are people on one side and some people on another. Whatever day we pick [as the start date] some people won't be happy with it," Terry said. Board member Erika Donalds said she plans to read through as many of the 840 comments submitted to the district to come up with an opinion. "All board members have a lot more information now as far as feedback than we had when we originally voted," she said. "I wish the district would have reached out for parent feedback before and not after the fact." For officials to change the calendar, board members will have to rescind their support for the existing calendar and vote for a new one. A possible calendar created by the district and obtained by the Daily News sets the start date at Aug. 15, and compensates for the earlier days by taking away the weeklong break ahead of Thanksgiving that the current calendar offers. The draft calendar also delays the start of winter break by a day to Dec. 22. A sampling of more than 800 comments submitted to the school district on the issue shows parents, teachers and students with mixed responses and individual preferences. The school district sent out an email last week asking for input on the calendar. Among the responses obtained by the Naples Daily News, many support the Aug. 15 start date. "My son does band and cross country, which officially starts two weeks before the start of school. So effectively these kids go back to school end of July," wrote one parent. Some, though, expressed support for the earlier start. "[The] vacation schedules of the few should not penalize the 50 percent of disadvantaged students that benefit from an earlier start date," wrote one commenter, citing research that says that students perform better when there is more time ahead of spring exams. Many said their preference is to keep the calendar as previously approved, because they've already started making plans based on it. "Having the school schedule up in the air like this wreaks havoc on families and our ability to plan," wrote one mom. Others resented that the calendars proposed by the calendar committee, which proposed school start Aug. 15 at the earliest, weren't presented to the school board in January. "This, at best, speaks to sloppiness ... and at worst speaks to unethical behavior," wrote one parent. Many teachers also submitted their thoughts, showing there is little agreement among instructors. One teacher writes that students are "wilder" after getting a week off ahead of Thanksgiving. Another supports the early start date because it gives her more time in the classroom with her students ahead of standardized exams. Another protested starting school Aug. 10 teachers would start Aug. 3 because his summer would be cut short. To sign up to speak before the board, click here. To see the calendar approved by the district Jan. 12, click here. For a copy of a draft calendar created by district staff that would set the start date to Aug. 15, click here. Corey Perrine/Staff (2) Vincent Ferrie kisses his wife, Katelyn, as her aunt, Karen Gilmore, all of Boston, snaps a photo Friday at Corkscrew Sanctuary Swamp in northern Collier County. World Wetlands Day will be celebrated Saturday in the swamp, where visitors can explore some of its 17 square miles of land. SHARE Richard Wombwell of Wokingham, England looks at birds through his binoculars Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 at Corkscrew Sanctuary Swamp in Collier County, Fla. Saturday, the non-profit hosts World Wetlands Day. A day of festivities for families to learn and explore about the 17-square-miles of land through hands-on learning, crafts, tours and more.(Corey Perrine/Staff) Debbie Lotter, Education Coordinator for Youth Programs, holds up a 6-month-old alligator, "Annie," that will be shown, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 at Corkscrew Sanctuary Swamp in Collier County, Fla. Saturday, the non-profit hosts World Wetlands Day. A day of festivities for families to learn and explore about the 17-square-miles of land through hands-on learning, crafts, tours and more.(Corey Perrine/Staff) Related Photos World Wetlands Day Preview at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary By Eric Staats of the Naples Daily News Missed World Wetlands Day? There's still time to celebrate, and in one of the world's most celebrated wetlands at that. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in northern Collier County is opening up its outdoors from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday for a World Wetlands Day Festival. World Wetlands Day actually falls on Feb. 2 every year, marking the adoption of an intergovernmental treaty for wetlands protection in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. Under the auspices of the Ramsar Convention, Corkscrew was added to the U.S. list of Wetlands of International Importance in 2010 one of only 38 U.S. sites and one of three places in Florida with Everglades National Park and Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. Around the world, the theme of this year's World Wetlands Day was "Sustainable Livelihoods" to acknowledge the 1 billion people who rely on wetlands for fishing, rice farming, travel, tourism and water. Wetlands also are biologically diverse, protect coastlines, soak up floodwaters and store carbon to help regulate climate change. The Ramsar Convention has estimated more than 64 percent of the world's wetlands have been dug up or filled since 1900. Corkscrew, which Audubon of Florida purchased in 1954 to protect from loggers and plume hunters, has the largest old-growth forest of bald cypress trees in North America. More than 100,000 people each year visit Corkscrew's Blair Audubon Center and walk the sanctuary's 2-mile boardwalk, many hoping to catch a glimpse of its famous ghost orchid or its nesting colony of wood storks. Boardwalk tours, classroom presentations, a farmers market, swamp meditation and live music are planned for Saturday at Corkscrew. For admission fees and a schedule of events, see www.CorkscrewWetlandsDay.com. The Naples Reserve development in East Naples is being built within Collier County's Rural Fringe program guidelines with preserved areas of nature and denser housing. (David Albers/Staff) SHARE Construction workers build a house in the Naples Reserve development in East Naples on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The development is being built within Collier County's Rural Fringe program guidelines. (David Albers/Staff) An area with sporadic residential housing and agricultural use between Interstate 75 and U.S. 41 East is designated by Collier County as being included in a Rural Fringe program for development. (David Albers/Staff) Construction workers build a house in the Naples Reserve development in East Naples on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The development is being built within Collier County's Rural Fringe program guidelines. (David Albers/Staff) A fence and signage indicates a nature preserve area within the Naples Reserve development in East Naples on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The development is being built within Collier County's Rural Fringe program guidelines. (David Albers/Staff) Related Photos Rural Fringe plan looks to plan development in rural Collier County By Greg Stanley of the Naples Daily News There's a corner of Collier County where land deeds date back to the 1960s, when parts of Florida were sold piecemeal an acre at a time sight unseen to buyers across the country looking to cash in on a building boom in paradise. What the buyers didn't know was their land would sit undeveloped, with no electricity or roads coming to nearly 100,000 acres east of Collier Boulevard called the Rural Fringe. For years, county officials have been trying to change this. They want to take those parcels held by several thousand property owners and make them part of Collier's plan to grow. The idea is to bring property owners, many with small lots only accessible by foot or off-road vehicle, together with large developers and conservationists to make that happen. But after 15 years, it's clear to all involved the development plan for the area isn't working and needs a fix. The current plan was hatched in the late 1990s after environmental groups and the state of Florida sued the county for not doing enough to regulate sprawl. It was modeled after successful programs in the Midwest, where conservationists bought up farmland and reverted it back to wetlands. Collier's plan allows developers to build more with smaller lots and more units on land closest to existing developments in eastern portions of the county, like acreage east of Collier Boulevard along a portion of Tamiami Trail East. In exchange, developers would need to buy up and preserve wetlands and other wildlife habitat south of Alligator Alley and near the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, protecting them from being consumed by sprawling ranchette subdivisions. The voluntary plan has done little to spur development at all. "This plan was set up in a way that didn't work even when times were good," said Commissioner Tim Nance. "It certainly doesn't work now. Part of the problem is there are just not enough uses allowed on the land to drive the program. So we're looking at maybe adding some uses in a way that will help the program work and at the same time possibly provide good services and jobs for folks in the eastern part of the county." Developers say even if they were to buy up and set aside the preserve land, the county rules for what they could actually build are too limited to make it worthwhile. Environmentalists are concerned that without enough incentives for developers to build, there will be no reason for the environmentally sensitive lands to ever be set aside. County commissioners and planners want to give developers more flexibility to build business parks, industrial centers and larger grocery stores, which aren't allowed now under zoning rules but likely would be needed to support a growing population east of Collier Boulevard. County planners are hosting public workshops as part of a yearslong process of revising plans to accommodate a booming population east of Collier Boulevard. About 300,000 people are expected to move into the mostly undeveloped eastern region, nearly doubling the county's current population of 339,000 over the next two decades, according to county growth projections. And with that surge will come more houses, roads, businesses, schools and everything else new communities need to thrive. The county has two master plans for dealing with much of that growth. The first covers the vast swaths of land surrounding Immokalee. That plan helped guide Ave Maria's creation. It also will govern the development known as Rural Lands West, planned for 10,000 homes east of Everglades Boulevard along Oil Well Road. The other plan and the first up for revision by county officials focuses on the Rural Fringe. It's a development density bonus program that allows landowners to swap undeveloped land for more building rights. The plan covers two large areas totaling 98,600 acres sandwiched north and south of Golden Gate Estates. The boundaries of the southern half of the program run from one mile east of Collier Boulevard to the Picayune Strand State Forest in the west, and from U.S. 41 on the south to just north of Interstate 75 where the Estates begin. The northern half covers the undeveloped land on both sides of Immokalee Road between Collier and Everglades boulevards, bleeding up into protected CREW lands and the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Ideally, the county would have owners set aside more than 20,000 acres as preserve land, while focusing most of the development on about 18,000 acres abutting existing roads and neighborhoods. The rest would be more lightly developed. The program, as it stands now, only allows developers that buy up and create the preserve land to build what the county calls rural villages, which are mostly residential developments that allow only enough commercial space to directly meet the needs of that particular community. No rural villages have been built through the life of the program. More traditional gated communities, like Naples Reserve off Tamiami Trail East, have used the program to add density. But, for the most part, the program hasn't sparked new development or permanently set aside swaths of land for preserves. The process is tedious and full of red tape, said Don Mears, vice president of iStar Land Co., one of the only developers who has gone through the program. To build Naples Reserve, Mears needed to buy 400 credits, which essentially set aside 400 acres of environmentally sensitive land. The county had set a minimum price on those credits, not allowing any to be sold for less than $25,000. Rules also only allowed the developer to buy credits from land within a mile of the planned development, not from the most environmentally sensitive land in the program where there were willing sellers. Naples Reserve needed to get exceptions from both those rules to make the development work, Mears said. "There's only so much you can pay until you get to a certain price where the numbers don't work," he said. "What we found was that the (credits) were going to cost around $12,000 to $15,000. So we finally got everyone at the table and said this is what we found out. We said we needed to go outside of a mile to get these. The county said, 'Yeah, that makes sense.'" "It has to be market driven and the program needs to be flexible to that supply and demand," Mears said. If developers are going to join the program, they need to be more free to build what the market demands, said Bruce Anderson, a lawyer who represents a coalition of eight landowners within the program boundaries. "We want to be able to make the program market driven with regard to number of development rights that can be generated and the number of homes that can be put on an acre of land," Anderson said. To make it more desirable, the county could offer higher density bonuses to landowners who set aside the most vital and sensitive environmental lands. And since there are thousands of small landowners in the area holding scattered lots, the county could award additional building bonuses to groups that go out and acquire tracts of smaller properties to set aside large chunks of contiguous environmental land, Anderson said. "It would be an incentive to award more development rights if a person goes out and aggregates all these smaller properties so it's not so checkered," he said. More than 3,800 individuals and groups own parcels scattered within the boundaries, some of them less than an acre. The sheer number of property owners complicates the program, said Kris Van Lengen, county community planning manager. To help make the buying and selling easier, landowners have called on the county to establish a credit bank, to essentially act as a mediator between buyers and sellers. Small lot owners could sell their development rights for a fixed price to the county. The county, then, would sell those rights to larger developers, who would be able to buy from one source, rather than having to negotiate with dozens or even hundreds of different sellers, Anderson said. "Anything that can help the program work," he said. The county will consider a bank and all available options as it revises the master plan, Van Lengen said. "An issue we're looking at is the economic balance, supply and demand for development rights," he said. "We know developers are concerned that the cost for rights are too high and sellers are concerned that they're not going to get enough compensation. So something we need to look at is how many development rights are out there." The bones of the Rural Fringe program are solid, Van Lengen said. The heart of how it works won't change. "The program is very much in place, we just need to color inside the lines and increase efficiencies," he said. Local conservationists, such as Florida Wildlife Federation field representative Nancy Payton, said developers need more incentives to set aside preserve land. "As the program is revised, we're supportive of revisiting incentives and being creative so they can use those lands where they build as intensely as they can, so it takes pressure off the rest of the land," Payton said. "We wouldn't be upset if boundaries (for preserve land) were enlarged. So we're happy to look at opportunities to increase or expand incentives for preserving habitat." The Conservancy of Southwest Florida said it could also support giving more uses or density bonuses to landowners who join the program. But the group wants to make sure new roads aren't extended through the most vital parts of the habitat to meet the needs of the developments, said Nicole Johnson, director of governmental relations for the Conservancy. "We want the county to reexamine some of the road networks that might go through the Rural Fringe," Johnson said. "But the very fact that this revision is being done through a workshop process out in the public is tremendous. The county is doing a great job of maximizing public participation." The county will host a workshop on ways to improve the program at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 16 at the University of Florida's IFAS extension at 14700 Immokalee Road. Former Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at a luncheon during the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law at the Naples Grande Beach Resort on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) SHARE Former Attorney General Eric Holder, right, speaks at a luncheon during the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law at the Naples Grande Beach Resort on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Former Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at a luncheon during the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law at the Naples Grande Beach Resort on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Louis Scimecca of Kansas City, Mo. and Betsy Koch of Washington D.C. laugh together while Former Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at a luncheon during the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law at the Naples Grande Beach Resort on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Former Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at a luncheon during the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law at the Naples Grande Beach Resort on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) By Greg Stanley of the Naples Daily News Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder defended his legacy and the Obama administration's record on transparency and freedom of the press Friday at the American Bar Association's annual forum on communication law. Speaking primarily before media lawyers and advocates, the former head of the Justice Department said his office strove to find a balance between freedom of the press and national security. "We did strike that balance," said Holder, who joined the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington & Burling after stepping down as attorney general. "I remember there was some breathless reporting about Obama being the worst president for the press since Nixon and I was compared to John Mitchell, which, I think is a little overblown. I will say that I thought we lost a bit of that balance so we put together a learning group and we tried to update regulations that hadn't been examined in about 30 years." During much of his six years as attorney general, Holder came under fire from government watchdog groups, journalists and media lawyers for involving reporters in his department's aggressive pursuit of leakers of government information. Holder authorized a subpoena against author and New York Times reporter James Risen, wanting him to testify against a former C.I.A. officer charged with leaking Risen information. In 2013, The Associated Press learned that the Justice Department secretly obtained the phone records of 20 of its journalists as part of an investigation into leaked details about a failed al-Qaida plot. Justice Department investigators also sought a warrant for the personal emails of James Rosen, a Fox News journalist, calling him a "co-conspirator" to a State Department employee accused of leaking classified information. Holder has said one of his great regrets was labeling Rosen co-conspirator. There is always going to be tension between the press and federal officials, Holder said. "As the chief law enforcement officer, there are certain things in government that have to be kept secret," he said. He pointed to efforts made near the end of his tenure to rewrite Justice Department guidelines to offer more protections to journalists and said it would be hard for him to imagine any situation in which a journalist should be jailed. "Unless they're stealing material," he said. When the Obama administration took office, it promised a new era of open government. But in March, The Associated Press reported the federal government denied or censored a record number of requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act in each of the last two years. The AP noted there also were a record number of requests during the period, but it did not indicate how the percentage of denials compared to past years. Holder said it would be wrong to judge the transparency of the administration by the number of requests denied. "It'd be interesting to see what percentage of requests were denied compared to other administrations," Holder said. "I know the president and I were serious about the presumption of disclosure. Part of the problem is too much has been classified that shouldn't be. I think we were well intentioned and wanted to leave transparency as a hallmark of the administration." Holder also touched on the public's right to see video of arrests and incidents involving police. He stopped short of saying police body-camera footage and smartphone videos shot bystanders and impounded by police should be public record. "If an officer is involved in some kind of misconduct, the public should be able to petition for it," Holder said. "But to say, 'I want to see what officer Jones did on this day just to see what he did,' I would be very wary of that because of some privacy concerns. It's one thing to see a police report on paper and another thing to look at it on a video depiction." SHARE Andy Wood, Naples Democrats and Flint Here is another recent amazing Naples Daily News headline from the Associated Press: "Democrats propose $400 million to fix lead pipes in Flint, Michigan." Not surprisingly, the two Democratic U.S. senators from Michigan, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, want Washington to give Flint our tax dollars to cover up the mismanagement and incompetent financial governance provided by the Democrat administrations in Flint for decades. If you look closely at which states, cities and school systems are in deep financial and management trouble, they've been run by the Democrats for a very long time. Please call or write your senators and ask them to stop supporting incompetence with your money. Let Flint fix the mess they made themselves. SHARE Stan Chrzanowski, Lakeside Separate, equal? I'm fascinated at the International Olympic Committee's new approach to transgender athletes in the Olympics. According to news outlets, "Under the new rules, a man transitioning to a woman must undergo hormone therapy and demonstrate that the total level of male testosterone in the athlete's blood has been below 10 nanomols per liter for at least a year prior to competing." I can remember the good old days when the criteria was male genitalia or lack thereof. This is getting awfully complicated. According to scientists, the idea of two genders is simplistic (you can look it up). There's a whole spectrum between male and female. No clear division. When it comes to sports, like education, we need to do away with "separate but equal." Separate is never equal. No more "ladies" tournaments. No more "ladies" tees. Title IX has been around for well over 40 years. Two whole generations have grown up under it and we're worrying about testosterone levels. I'm all for total equality. Make everyone compete on a level playing field in the NFL, the Marine Corps, Ranger School, the Olympics whatever. No more separate but equal. Or not. Your call. I don't care, as long as you make everyone register for the draft. SHARE Robert Simpson, Fort Myers president and CEO of LeeSar By Robert Simpson Guest commentary SW Florida patriotism making a difference for fallen heroes' families As a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War and strong supporter of all branches of the military, the importance of patriotism and honoring the service and sacrifice of our soldiers will forever hold a special place in my heart. There are countless families in Southwest Florida with loved ones who have or are currently serving our country, and some have experienced the heartbreak of losing a loved one in the line of duty. Very recently, the Southwest Florida community lost a young Marine, Cpl. Thomas Jardas from Fort Myers, who was among 12 Marines killed when their helicopters crashed over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. I believe that as a community, we have an opportunity to rally and show our support for local military and to honor our fallen military heroes and I invite you to take part in a very special service, honoring another local fallen soldier, the late Capt. Daniel William Eggers of Cape Coral. On Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., our LeeSar community will host The American Fallen Soldiers Project luncheon, honoring Eggers who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2004 during his second tour of duty with the U.S. Army when his Humvee struck a land mine. Hailing from a family with a long line of military service, his accomplishments during his time of service are remarkable. In addition to earning his Green Beret and becoming fluent in Arabic, he also was awarded two Bronze Star medals, one adorned with a "V" device to designate valor, the Purple Heart, and a U.S. military base in Kabul, Afghanistan, was renamed Camp Eggers in his honor after his passing. We are of good fortune to live in a country of freedom, and we owe this to those who have dedicated their lives to providing us with this liberty. We are indebted not only to the members of the military, but also the families on the home front that continue to share and support their loved ones and mourn for those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. The American Fallen Soldiers Project honors fallen military by presenting grieving families with a portrait to memorialize their loved ones. This organization has presented approximately 200 portraits since its inception in 2007, capturing the spirit and memory of fallen soldiers and bringing joy to families across the country. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a previous portrait presentation by The American Fallen Soldiers Project, and I witnessed the impact this event has on grieving families of soldiers. When I learned about Eggers, I immediately felt compelled to take action to commemorate his memory, celebrate his life and support the family that grieves the loss of this special man. My thoughts were drawn to our wonderful Southwest Florida community, and the compassion that our people exude for servicemen and women. What better way to recognize the service of our fallen soldiers than by comforting their families and loved ones? The American Fallen Soldiers Project luncheon on Thursday at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers will celebrate Eggers, and pay tribute to the members of our U.S. military. With many of his family members in attendance at the event, Eggers' parents, Bill and Margaret Eggers, will receive an original portrait of their soldier, created by artist and founder of The American Fallen Soldiers Project, Phil Taylor. We encourage you to join us to commemorate a young man who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and to honor all those who have served, and fallen. We have the unique opportunity to make a positive difference in the life of a Southwest Florida family, and we look forward to seeing the many ways that our community will come together to show support for past, present and future members of the military. Those interested in learning more or registering for the event are invited to visit www.AmericanFallenSoldiersProjectSWFL.org. Polio vaccine may be contributing to rise in cases of non-polio related paralysis Bishops in Kenya call for boycott of polio vaccine (NaturalNews) Panic over the potential side-effects caused by the polio vaccine continue to mount in various parts of the world, with the latest drama unfolding in India, after authorities arrested an 18-year-old man accused of spreading false rumors regarding the polio vaccine.Parvez Ahmad Sheikh, a student from Pampore, allegedly wrote on Facebook that the administration of a polio vaccine caused the death of a child, sparking chaos among frightened parents, reports theIndian officials say the claim is baseless and urged people to ignore it. "These are just rumours. I request people to have faith in this 20-year-old vaccination programme," said Yangthan Dolma, the state's immunization officer.The student's claims, which officials say were made up "for fun," spurred a swarm of worried parents to rush their vaccinated children to the nearest hospital. Doctors and other medical workers were reportedly beaten by the mob, which also destroyed furniture and attacked security guards, reports , China's official press agency.It's quite curious how one Facebook post by an irrelevant teenager caused such a ruckus. Clearly, past events, such as vaccine-related injuries , have shaped the country's views about immunizations. Despite India's massive push to eliminate polio, it's experiencing a sharp increase in a deadly polio-mimicking disease.India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported that it had detected about 18,000 cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) last year, all of which tested negative for the polio virus, reports . An estimated 50,000 cases of AFP are now being diagnosed annually in India leading some to point the finger at India's two-decade long vaccine program."Clinically indistinguishable from polio paralysis but twice as deadly, the incidence of NPAFP [non-polio Acute Flaccid Paralysis] was directly proportional to doses of oral polio received," doctors wrote in a 2012 report published in a medical ethics journal."Two pediatricians in India compiled data from the polio surveillance program and discovered a link between the increase in OPV use among children during stepped-up polio eradication campaigns and the increasing cases of NPAFP among children."The number of cases of NPAFP has risen from 12,000 in 2004, to over 53,500 in 2012, impacting 12 in 100,000 children a phenomenon that's likely contributing to people's growing criticism of the polio vaccine, which may explain parent's chaotic reaction to the Facebook post.The disorder in India is not the first caused by the polio vaccine in recent times. Last summer, bishops from Kenya's Roman Catholic Church called for a boycott of a mass polio vaccination program, voicing concerns about the drug's safety.The vaccine manufacturer refused to provide information about its safety , said the bishops, adding that the government had also dismissed requests for testing."We are not fighting anybody, but we are saying let us determine our destiny," said Cardinal John Njue, bishop of Nairobi. "The moment things (vaccines) are formulated from outside and there are problems, it is our people who suffer. That's why we are voicing this issue."The concern was fueled in part by "an alleged government sterilization campaign last year," after tests reportedly discovered a miscarriage-causing antigen hidden in an anti-tetanus vaccine,Kenya's Ministry of Health criticized the bishops, accusing them of "mobilizing the public" against vaccines."We are not in conflict with the Ministry of Health, but we have an apostolic and moral duty to ensure Kenyans are getting safe vaccines," said Bishop Philip Anyolo at a Nairobi news conference. Public health concern over food chain Ecosystem health issue (NaturalNews) The fog along the coast of California is depositing a neurotoxin called monomethyl mercury in San Franciso at a concentration about 20 times that of rain thought to come from burning coal and other fossil fuels, according to SFGate.com."Understanding the mechanism a process that reaches into the ocean, pulls out a neurotoxin, then shuttles it ashore in fog is very important," said Kenneth Coale of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. "This is a completely new pathway.""We're seeing that there's mercury along the coast at every level in the plants, in the herbivores, in the carnivores," Peter Weiss-Penzias, an atmospheric chemist at UC Santa Cruz, told theThereports that, "Mercury poisoning can damage the brain and nervous system and impair reproductive functions."According to, Coale and Weiss-Penzias found that levels of mercury "were 19 times higher in fog than in rain, even in the same area.""It is a public health concern because it tends to build up in the food chain, as animals with low levels of mercury in their bodies are eaten by carnivores,"reports. "The carnivores, which may eat many mercury-contaminated prey, end up with a lot of mercury in their bodies."Carnivores that people eat include salmon and sharks but can also include pets such as cats and dogs.A study on wolf spiders found mercury levels exceeded FDA limits on mercury consumption. "The spiders probably aren't feeling toxic effects, but the birds that eat the spiders could since the concentration of mercury acuminates," Weiss-Penzias said."Picture fog sweeping over the ocean's surface at night, absorbing all these neurotoxins," Coale explained in the. "Then the mop is rung out over the redwood forests and maritime chaparral landscapes and the organisms who live there."The scientists found mercury in the whiskers and fur of mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains, blanketed by redwoods and chaparral, which receive 90% of their water from fog."While it might not be a human health issue at this point, it looks like it is an ecosystem health issue in the long run," Coale said. "And it's coming from human sources that is coal-fired plants."As this mechanism continues, the scientists told SFGate.com, regulators may want to consider action to restrict human sources of mercury , although much of the pollution comes from industries across the Pacific, such as Chinese factories. "I am hopeful that when all the exposure routes are added up, we will see that we are receiving quite a burden," Coale said, "and that perhaps we should be considering limiting (mercury) emissions, particularly from coal-fired power plants not just from a climate change perspective, but from an ecosystem health perspective as well."that Coales and Weiss-Penzias plan to continue "looking into how mercury from fog affects the food web on land, and hope to eventually be able to use drones to monitor the fog as it comes in." Chiang Mai Day 2 & Tachilek, Myanmar. Weather on this particular day lemme tell was killer heat. Really really hot. Literally unbearable and the dust simply flying at its whims and fancy made it even worst. Pretty much an effortless crossing over to Myanmar from the border of Mae Sai. Thanks to our adorable tour guide, we paid her I think RM200.00 and she did the rest. Pass for crossing over and where and where we should head to for the next few hours, all of it sorted out by this lady. While she got moving to getting the pass, we waited, and within the next less than 1/2 an hour, we walked from the arch that separates Chiang Mai and Myanmar ( Chiang Rai Chiang Mai Day 1 ). My-my, what a interesting travelling moment. Crossing over to another country by walking. Hundreds of others were also walking from and across the border, I hardly noticed any tourists though, subsequently, we hopped into our van and there we were already on the busy and quite a messy any way is your traffic way in First stop, was walking at our leisure into the small Myanmar Village. Basically, its a going with the flow of seeing the daily life of this particular group of people. Their houses made with palm leaves and bamboo, water well, their home based money earning industry, kiddos running around and adults doing what they doing without being effected by the line of tourists. Actually, come to think of it, this is the sort of the scenario how my grandparents used to live those days in a secluded village in Ipoh back then 60 years ago. Their houses however were wooden planking but pretty much the same livelihood and we, my siblings and cousins were the kids who visited our grandparents during our school holidays. Speak about memories punching on your mind when you are travelling? All of it did return while I was doing the walk in this village. Half an hour in Myanmar Village, off we left prior to stepping foot in Temple of Enrobed Elephant, aka Union of Myanmar in the township of Dhammayon, or call it as well as Tachileik/Community Hall. Into the temple for viewing the walls painted with murals depicting the different scenes of Buddha and also the golden Buddha statues, of course we must be grateful to god no matter whichever religion it is, so, a prayer is must be said and on our way out, we glimpsed through the souvenirs at the entrance. Our next stop took place in Shwedagon Pagoda. Officially named Shwedagon Zedi Daw, aka Great Dragon Pagoda/Golden Pagoda, 2,500 years old Shwedagon Pagoda which enshrines strands of Buddha hair, and other holy relics, for your information is the oldest pagoda in the world. Additionally it is one of the most famous and main attractions in Yangon. In fact a must do, not to be missed out please. Sitting atop a 99 meters high hill and holding the breathtaking view of the surrounding region, all the way back to Doi Tung, Shwedagon Pagoda indeed dominates the the Yangon skyline. Utterly stunning mind you. Especially the Golden Pagoda itself. Known as The Crown of Burma, its main gold-plated dome is topped by a stupa adorned with over 7,000 diamonds, rubies, topaz and sapphires, and for reflecting the last rays of the setting sun, stupa is by a massive emerald. G marble-floored main terrace containing Buddha images and two giant cast-iron bells for prayers. I, literally ran instead of walking towards the altar to avoid my feet from being blistered. We prayed and just as we sat back, the young guide returned with a basket of Myanmar made stuffs. We knew it. We had to buy. We did. Nothing much interesting or luring anyway in the basket, sense and sensibly, I was drawn to Thanaka. The sandalwood paste smeared/applied mainly on the cheeks for preventing sunburn. Did I bother applying? Not really. I did though use is as body scrub when I returned home. Out of Shwedagon Pagoda , I tried Myanmar street food at the stalls outside. A mix of shredded vegetables and various types of sauces. Tasted quite nice but my friends just wouldn't try. From Shwedagon Pagoda and to the streets for shopping. Seriously, such a waste of time because I didn't find anything worth buying between the fake goods, clothes and handcrafts. In fact, one and a half hours at the rows and rows of street shops was a massive nightmare. All sorts of people walking up and down, one even offered my male friend girls for fun, others wouldn't stop staring at us, whereas another two or three were full of smiles when they found out we are Indians. Glad I was thereafter we started walking back towards the bridge, before departing for the "Golden Triangle" ride which will the finale for our tour. off-setuided by the young Myanmar guide who actually took me by surprise, he spoke like a Westerner, fluent English, honestly, I was really carried away, he specifically told me how to paid homage to Buddha. Washing my legs a few times, followed by heading to the Albert and Michelle Delao noticed some bizarre changes to their 2002 GMC Yukon after the couple hired an auto shop in San Jose to make a few repairs to the SUV. "When you turn the wheel [there were] cracking noises." Michelle Delao said. "Squeaking noises." The family would later discover that employees at their auto repair shop went to considerable lengths to hide serious damage that was done to the vehicle more than $11,000 worth, according to repair estimates collected by the Delao family. "I couldn't believe it," Michelle Delao said. "I just couldn't believe that they could do something like this and cover it up." For the 25 million licensed motorists in California, finding an honest mechanic is essential. Fraudulent repairs can create both financial hardships and serious safety hazards. As the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit uncovered, howevever, the state agency responsible for protecting consumers, may be hiding critical information that protects disreputable shops from public scrutiny. The California Bureau of Automotive Repairs (BAR) was created to keep repair shops in line with state regulations. But Albert and Michelle Delao believe that lax oversight by the agency put them and other drivers at risk. They are among the majority of customers who receive little justice, from this state agency. The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit reviewed state data for the past three years and discovered that fewer than 3 percent of the complaints pertaining to auto repairs result in any kind of enforcement action. Thats because under state law the bureau has limited authority to issue penalties for violations. "It just makes me feel that they're not doing their job," Albert Delao told NBC Bay Area. He and his wife said their problems began last November when they their family SUV needed repairs. The couple took the vehicle to a Midas shop on Monterey Highway in San Jose. After a short drive, Michelle immediately noticed something amiss. "We called [Midas] and they said nothing happened," Michelle said. "I knew something happened, but they just weren't saying what happened," Michelle recounted. Albert dismissed his wifes conspiracy theory and bought four new tires from a nearby wheel shop. However, the nearly $300 purchase didnt seem to have any effect on the strange noises coming from their vehicle. That very same day, the Delaos received a strange call from a former employee at the Midas shop. "He said, well, the rattling you hear, it is glass," Albert told NBC Bay Area. The mechanic, turned whistleblower, revealed that the eight-passenger SUV fell from a mechanical lift, crashing onto its side from several feet in the air. The lift pierced the bottom of the vehicle and shattered the front passenger window. Former employee Adam Wicklander provided the family with photos to corroborate his story. Wicklander claimed that after the crash, he and his coworkers were ordered by their district manager to fix the car as best they could, without telling the Delaos. Their makeshift repairs left dents, scratches, and uneven paint across the vehicle. In addition, shards of glass from the broken window remained scattered inside the passenger door. A pair of other repair shops assessed the damage the estimates totaled $11,568.28. The Midas shops District Manager Jawad Khan confirmed "the lift malfunctioned" and in a memo to the Delao family admitted, there was a "cover-up," but he denied any involvement and blamed it all on his employees. Angered by the deception, the Delaos filed a complaint with the Bureau of Automotive Repair. But the couple says a bureau investigator told them there was little the agency could do. "These people are put there so they can be the authority, so they can put a stop to this," Albert said. "But if people are just getting put on the back burner, it's always going to happen." Bureau Chief Patrick Dorais explained to NBC Bay Area that current law only allows his agency to issue fines and citations to unlicensed repair shops, or to those that violate the state's smog check program. For all other violations, like deceptive repairs and fraudulent billing, investigators can only recommend cases go to court. However, those recommendations rarely occur since cases often require a chain of similar consumer complaints before investigators can proceed. NBC Bay Area asked Dorais what happens to drivers who might be the first to complain about questionable business practices. "Well try to mediate the complaint with the shop, sometimes there is rework or adjustments to the bill, or a direct refund thats given to that consumer," Dorais said. While BAR cant penalize auto shops for most violations, the bureaus mediation process nets consumers nearly $5 million each year in voluntary repairs and refunds. However, since citations are not issued for violations, those consumer complaints are kept secret from the public even in cases where the state believes a repair shop took advantage of customers. "The potential harm is that youre going to end up at a shop that rips you off or puts you in an unsafe car," said Rosemary Shahan, an auto industry watchdog who has sparked nationwide changes in auto safety. Shahan heads Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, and believes California should be more forthcoming with drivers about which repair shops have a history of alleged violations. In recent years, the bureau has removed information about consumer complaints from its website. The Investigative Unit filed a request under the California Public Records Act to see those complaints, however, the request was denied. "If we posted information where we felt [a repair shop] violated the law, and they didnt get a chance to defend themselves, we would be in trouble as a government agency for doing just that," Dorais said. After NBC Bay Area contacted BAR about the Delao familys SUV, the case was reassigned to a new investigator. The bureau issued an inspection report to the Midas shop, citing several potential violations including performing work without authorization, and failure to properly invoice repairs. Still, no actual citations or fines were issued, and the Midas shops discipline record remains unblemished. NBC Bay Area also reached out to Midas corporate headquarters for this report, however, the company only provided a brief statement. "Midas locations are independently owned and operated," the statement read. "Since inception, 60 years ago, Midas has taken great pride in building trusted customer relationships based on reliability and professional service." The Bureau of Automotive Repair can refer cases for prosecution to the California attorney general or local district attorneys throughout the state, however, it is unclear if investigators will take such action in the situation involving the Delao family. In the meantime, Albert and Michelle are considering suing the Midas repair shop for damages. ______________________________________ Watch the entire series in this NBC Bay Area investigation: A Vermont tattoo shop is giving away free tattoos of Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose White House ambitions have energized many across the country, especially in his home state. Aartistic Inc of Winooski and Montpelier is providing the small, simple line-drawing tattoos free of charge to Sanders supporters who want to "feel the Bern" permanently. The tattoos show a likeness of the glasses and sometimes-mussed hair many associate with the candidate seeking the Democratic partys nomination. "If he wins, I'll have all the compensation I need," said tattoo artist Tyre DuVernay, the owner of Aartistic Inc. "He's the only candidate we have who'll give us a chance of getting what we the people actually want out of a president." Sam Green, an employee of the media services department of Castleton University, traveled to Winooski Friday to get a free Sanders tattoo on her calf. "It's part of Vermont pride," Green told necn. "Bernie's one of the proudest things. Maple syrup is great and everything, but Bernie is a pretty excellent part of Vermont. I might put him a little bit above [maple syrup]. I don't know about Ben & Jerry's, though. No comment on that!" Green was one of several dozen Vermonters this week alone who have come to Aartistic Inc for a free Sanders tattoo. DuVernay said he has many more bookings still to schedule. On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Bob Holmes of Seabrook, New Hampshire, told necn's Alison King last month that he, too, would give away free political tattoos, as long as they displayed Donald Trump's name, face, or "make America great again" slogan. Holmes said he is eager to cast a vote in the New Hampshire primary February 9 for the billionaire business mogul to receive the GOP nomination for president. "He's not a politician," Holmes said, describing one reason he admires Trump. "He says every single thing that every person is thinking, but doesn't have the guts to say it. As a business owner, I like the fact that he's a business owner and that this country has to start to run like that." DuVernay said many takers of his Bernie Sanders freebies are drawn to Sanders for his passion in decrying income and wealth inequality. "Bernie's our man," DuVernay said. "There's a lot of money behind the other candidates. And as soon as the money starts to flow into their pockets, they're already compromised." As for Sam Green, her support of Bernie Sanders is now indelible. "I had a good time," Green beamed, leaving the tattoo parlor with a bandage on her calf. Twitter announced Friday it will shut down more than 125,000 accounts as part of an effort to crack down on extremist content. In a news release, the company said it was committed to weeding out content that advocates for terrorism and violence. It said there is no "magic algorithm" for targeting such content, but it will continue to "engage with authorities and other relevant organizations to find solutions to this critical issue." Since late last year, Twitter has been using "proprietary spam fighting tools" in order to identify accounts that violate their terms of service policy. It also has assigned a dedicated team to examine the accounts. The moves come as the White House has been putting more pressure on social media companies to proactively identify potentially dangerous accounts and content. The Obama administration has sent high-level personnel including F.B.I Director James Comey to California to discuss how the tech giants and government can work together more effectively. Twitter said the nature of its product, which it called "an open forum for expression," makes it vulnerable to becoming a communications tool for social media savvy terrorist organizations like ISIS, as NBC News reported. Last month, a woman whose husband was killed in Jordan in a terrorist attack sued Twitter in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit claimed Twitter was partially responsible because the ISIS attack was coordinated via the social media platform. The suit is not expected to get far, as Twitter is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, but it does raise questions about the level of responsibility that social media companies should have regarding the content on their platforms. Connecticut has 144 families living in federally-funded public housing with salaries higher than the income limit for government-assisted living. Twelve of those families make more than $100,000 a year. The top earner, a New Haven resident, brings home $161,000. These families live in the same housing Abnisha Merritt and her four children have waited 11 years for. Ive lived in garages. Ive lost count after 17 different places, said Merritt, who now lives in a New Haven homeless shelter. All of this while youre waiting for housing. Merritt has always considered New Haven home, even though home itself has always been temporary. Violence and poverty crippled her childhood in the Newhallville neighborhood. Today, she and her family live across town. She wants their story to be different. What Ive been dealt in life period Ive always tried my best, said Merritt. Always. She is one of thousands of people in Connecticut waiting for an affordable place to live. Meanwhile, Troubleshooters found an Inspector Generals audit indicating there are 25,226 over-income tenants nationwide. The OIG says that translates to more than $104 million of misused funds in the next year. Each family has to meet the income limit upon application, but both state and federal law prevents landlords from evicting people simply for going over that limit. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro says his agency is working with housing authorities to drive down the number of over income families. But really focusing on those who are egregiously over income, said Castro. Because we also dont want to penalize some families who are just getting on their feet and have been working up towards self-sufficiency. In New Haven, housing director Karen DuBois-Walton told the Troubleshooters she does not know the specifics of any one familys income, even those seemingly self-sufficient. She believes some over income families add a good balance. It helps stabilize a community because you have folks still needing some assistance, but who are working, [living] next door to people who are out of work temporarily, next door to people who are elderly and disabled and not expected to go back to work, said DuBois-Walton. HUD had a similar response in the OIG report saying, Families working towards self-sufficiency serve as good role models for other tenants. For those egregiously over income, the Housing Authority of New Haven says it promotes home ownership by charging more for rent. However, rent makes up less than five percent of HANHs $92 million budget. Most of its funding, or $85 million, comes from taxpayers. Something has to give, said Merritt. They need to shake something up in there because its not right. Merritt might get her wish. The US House just passed bipartisan legislation that would require public housing authorities to report household incomes annually. Families defined as far over income with incomes 120 percent higher than the municipal median for two consecutive years would not receive taxpayer assistance. That bill now sits in the Senate. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott supports Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodsons decision to allow his officers to display a cross with a thin blue line on their patrol vehicles. Abbott sent a brief to Attorney General Ken Paxton Friday saying that he supported Dodson on his decision. Abbott, the state's former attorney general, said in his brief that the U.S. Supreme Court doesnt prohibit public officials from recognizing their religion. To the contrary, the U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized the demographic and historical reality that Americans are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. Abbott released his statement about the Brewster County crosses when a district attorney serving Brewster County asked Paxton for his opinion on whether the blue cross was allowed. The Governors Office agreed with the district attorney that the blue cross was legal and consistent with the First Amendment. The Brewster County deputies crosses neither establish a religion nor threaten any persons ability to worship God, or decline to worship God, in his own way, Abbott wrote. The symbol of the cross appropriately conveys the solemn respect all Texans should have for the courage and sacrifice of our peace officers. To view Abbotts brief visit http://gov.texas.gov/. Police are searching for the person they say is responsible for a deadly shooting early Friday in North Oak Cliff.[[367896801, C]] Officers were called at about 12:30 a.m. to the 500 block of South Willomet Avenue, where witnesses said a shooting victim had just been rushed by family members to Methodist Dallas Medical Center. The officers learned that the shooting victim had observed his mother being assaulted by a man, identified by witnesses as 26-year-old Jesus Anthony Rodriguez, so he and other witnesses pulled Rodriguez off and began assaulting him, police said. Rodriguez then pulled out a handgun and reportedly fired in the air, causing the group to scatter in several directions. Rodriguez followed, firing and striking 16-year-old Jesus Ricardo Hernandez, police said. Hernandez was pronounced deceased at Methodist Hospital. Rodriguez has not been located since, and police are asking anyone who knows his whereabouts to call the homicide unit at 214-671-3661. Anonymous calls may be placed to Crime Stoppers at 214-373-TIPS (8477). A Virginia mother of three has been diagnosed with the first known case of the Zika virus in the state after traveling to Guatemala on a mission trip. Longtime missionary Heather Baker, who lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was confirmed last week to have contracted the virus. She told News4 she knew something was wrong starting in late November, when she returned from a trip to Guatemala, her fourth such trip in the past year and a half. "It began with just a swollen lymph node, which definitely tipped me off that something was coming, and then progressed to some body aches and a really weird rash and joint pain," Baker said. She initially was tested for another illness, but those results came back negative. After talking with friends in Guatemala, she decided to get tested for Zika. State Department of Health officials told her last week she has the virus. [NATL] Global Health Officials Scramble to Fight Zika Virus Zika is transmitted from infected mosquitoes to people, from infected pregnant mothers to babies and possibly through sexual activity, according to ongoing research. Babies born to mothers with the virus can have microcephaly, a condition associated with small, undeveloped brains. Although Zika is not airborne or easily spread, Baker said she's being extra cautious. She said she stopped sharing drinks or food with her children, and canceled a massage and nail salon appointments. "We're just being very careful because there are so many unknowns," she said. Baker advised women who are pregnant or hope to get pregnant to avoid travel to affected regions, echoing experts' advice. "If you have a trip planned to one of these area, just postpone it," she said. "Find something to do local." The Centers for Disease Control plans to release guidance soon on how to prevent sexual transmission of Zika. "We have to have a healthy respect for this virus, but I don't think we have to be unduly alarmed just yet," Georgetown University infectious disease expert Paul Rope said. Baker likely contracted Zika in Central America, but she said when she is fully recovered, she plans to return there to continue her missionary work. WASHINGTON Police arrested and charged two Fort Washington, Maryland, residents in a human trafficking case involving a 15-year-old girl. Related Stories Police rescue 2 teen girls from Md. human trafficking ring Howard County, MD News Virginia AG, feds teaming up to fight human trafficking Virginia Authorities arrest 9 in prostitution, human trafficking bust Maryland News Dierra Victoria Lee Thomas,... An English teacher at a Southern California high school was arrested Thursday for allegedly engaging in sex acts with a 15-year-old boy from San Diego whom he met online. Lucas Michael Drake, 36, was taken into custody by police detectives in Yucaipa, California, on child molestation charges, including contacting a juvenile for sex. Since Jan. 20, the Yucaipa Police Department and Chula Vista Police Department had been working together to investigate Drake a teacher at Yucaipas Colton High School, a campus of about 3,300 students located six miles away from San Bernardino. During the investigation, the Yucaipa Police Department says detectives discovered Drake had been communicating with a teenager online. He later met that teen in San Diego County and took the teen to his home in Yucaipa, where he allegedly engaged in sex acts with the minor. On Thursday, detectives executed a search warrant at Drakes home. There, authorities found more evidence of molestation. Drake was booked into the West Valley Detention Center on $100,000 bail. He is set to be arraigned on Monday in San Bernardino Superior Court. There may be more victims in this case. Detectives are asking anyone with information involving similar incidents to call the Yucaipa Police Department Detective Bureau at (909) 918-2325 or the anonymous tip line 1-800-78-CRIME. The call has gone out to those who are preparing to transition to college after serving their country in the armed services: The Warrior-Scholar Project Wants You! Its aim is to immerse enlisted veterans in the university experience, to give them confidence and tools to undertake a bachelor's degree program. "I tell people even though it sounds cheesy it changed my life. It really did," said Sarah Serrano, who participated in the weeklong Warrior-Scholar program last summer at the University of Southern California. For enlisted veterans who remember the basic training required for military service, it's akin to returning to boot camp, but one designed to prepare them for the rigors of university level academic work. "The more we can do for our heroes who serve all of us, the better for everyone," said Mark Todd, USC Vice-Provost who oversees the university's programs for veterans. Serrano had taken some community college classes prior to enlisting in the Marine Corps, assigned to admin and making sergeant before returning to civilian life four years ago. She found some acting work, and took a position with the nonprofit networking organization Veterans in Film and Television. She also squeezed in more community college classes, and began realizing that her goal since childhood of attending USC was slipping away. Then she heard about the Warrior-Scholar Project, and was accepted with 13 others. Serrano remembers them meeting with John Mork, the chairman of USC's board of trustees, and hearing him encourage all of them to apply to USC for undergraduate admission. She took it to heart and hopes to be accepted for the fall semester. "Just the idea of accomplishing this a goal I had dropped a long time ago was so exciting," Serrano said. Launched at Yale University in 2012, the Warrior-Scholar Project spread to other Ivy League schools and across the nation. Twelve campuses will be offering programs this summer, including USC and the University of Arizona in the west. The Project covers all costs of the program, including room and board at the university. Those accepted are responsible for making their own arrangements to get to campus at the beginning. At most campuses, the program focuses on a humanities program. Serrano and her USC classmates studied a course on liberty and democracy, which included analyzing the 19th Century classic, "Democracy in America," by Alexis de Tocqueville. This summer, Yale and the University of Oklahoma will offer two week programs, including a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) component. The participating universities benefit as well, said Todd, by attracting students who bring skills and perspective honed by their service. Last summer, "the top professors were chomping at the bit" to be part of the program and work with the warrior scholars, Todd said. Deadline for applications to be considered for this summer's Warrior Scholar Programs is April 15. Latorria Westbrook was 26 years old when she was gunned down on the streets in South LA on July 19, 2013. Los Angeles police detectives in South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Division say they have had a very hard time getting anyone to come forward with information leading to her killer. I just want people to know Latorrias story, says Ottavia Smith, a simple plea from a grieving mother whos also had to become mother to her orphaned granddaughter. Her mom was her best friend, she says of then 5-year-old Nacion. They did everything together. But its hard to protect someone who understands so much. It was a Friday night and Ottavia says she gave her daughter movie tickets to go out with friends. But late that night, Latorria didnt come home. Within hours, Ottavia got a call shes received before. Just like with my son, I couldnt move. Ottavias 22-year-old son Lorenzo was also killed, just two years before Latorria, at a club in Hollywood. She says while she mourns them both, her daughters murder doesnt make sense. And I think thats what hurts the most, she says. To know that she did not deserve what she got. She did not deserve that. Not her. As African-Americans we worry about our sons. A lot. But you never think about it getting your daughter. Never think about that part. The night of the murder, witnesses claimed they heard around six gunshots. Shell casings littered the ground around a white utility van where LAPD detectives say Latorria was standing with her friends around 95th and Figueroa. We really dont have any problems on this street ever, says Det. Melvin Hernandez, lead detective on the case. He says they have reason to believe the suspect vehicle was a white car and that there was no interaction with those in the car and those standing on grass just gunfire. When the echoing gunshots calmed, in the silence was Latorria, pronounced dead on the scene. I just remember going to 95th and Figueroa, seeing the tape again, her mother says. Nothing can take that type of pain away, to lose a person like that, to see my daughter there with the sheet over her. These are images she cannot shake. The tape. The paramedics. The white sheet. It has not gone away. Yellow tape in South LA is nothing new. Only now, Ottavia says she knows the deep, personal meaning behind it twice over. When you see that yellow tape, you know that thats somebody elses loved one. That somebody is going to feel exactly the way you felt, Ottavia says, thinking about the person who pulled the trigger. He destroyed a great family, a great person. Destroyed it. My daughters daughter was 5 years old. Five! Nacion is 8 now. Her grandmother says she understands that her mother is gone and knows why. I ran into my room and I started crying a really, really long time because I didnt really know it was going to happen like that and her life was gonna end so young, Nacion says with the innocence of her years, and some maturity beyond them, I dont understand why people are so cruel in the world. I just dont. But it is for Nacion and for other grieving mothers that Ottavia says she wanted to come forward. I dont know whats happening in South LA but I sure as hell wish it would stop, she says. I dont want her to be forgotten and I want whoever did it to be brought to justice. But Ottavia says she knows its not easy for detectives trying to pry information from those who may have all the answers. Those parts of the neighborhood and where we come from, people just dont talk and I get it, she says. But if you just understand the pain that has been imposed on our family. Again! Nobody deserves to ever have to go through what weve gone through. Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Division at 323-786-5100. Callers can remain anonymous. Ethan Couch, the Texas teenager who used an "affluenza" defense in a fatal drunken-driving crash, was moved Friday afternoon from a juvenile detention center to the Tarrant County Correction Center in Downtown Fort Worth. Couch, 19, is currently being held for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, pending a hearing Feb. 19 to determine whether his case will be moved from juvenile court to adult court. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said during a news conference Friday afternoon that a juvenile court judge signed a revised order of detention that allowed for Couch's housing change. Anderson said the sheriff's department was notified of the housing change once Couch was under way Friday afternoon and that he arrived at the downtown corrections center at about 1:30 p.m. Couch is still under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and his case is still continuing under the original judge's order, Anderson said. The move to the adult jail doesn't change his juvenile standing. A continuation hearing related to Friday's housing move will be held on Feb. 12, Anderson said. Anderson added Couch is considered a high-profile inmate and is being held in a single cell, away from the general population, for his safety and not because he's considered a threat. Couch, Anderson said, has been soft-spoken, very respectful and has asked for no special treatment or accommodations. Before the move Friday, Couch had been detained at the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Center in North Fort Worth since he was extradited back to the U.S. last month. Couch had fled to Mexico, along with his mother Tonya Couch, after missing a meeting with his probation officer. Authorities believe Couch and his mother fled Texas in her pickup truck after an online video appeared to show Ethan Couch at a party where people were drinking. Couch had been sentenced to 10 years' probation in juvenile court for the 2013 drunken-driving crash, and the terms prohibit him from drinking or leaving Tarrant County, Texas. If Couch's case is transferred to the adult system and if he violates his probation again, he could face up to 10 years in prison for each person killed in the 2013 crash, a total of 40 years. A Florida man was sentenced to life in prison Friday for fatally shooting his wife eight times during an argument, a slaying that gained international notoriety after he posted a photo of her bloody body on Facebook. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny imposed the maximum possible sentence on Derek Medina, 33, for the August 2013 killing of 27-year-old Jennifer Alfonso at their South Miami home. According to trial testimony, Medina told police he shot his wife during an altercation in which she threatened him with a knife, but jurors didn't buy his self-defense claim. In a recorded statement to police, Medina admitted to taking a cellphone photo of his dead wife's body and uploading it on Facebook. He wrote in a posting that said he expected to go to prison but was forced to kill Alfonso following years of physical abuse. Colodny told Medina that in the posting "you foretold your future. You wrote on Facebook that 'I am going to prison.' And that is where you will be going.'' Prosecution evidence showed that Medina had vowed to kill Alfonso if she tried to leave him, which she told friends she planned to do. Prosecutors said that at 6 feet and about 200 pounds, Medina could have easily overpowered his 5-foot-6 wife without shooting her. Assistant State Attorney Scott Dunn said evidence showed that Alfonso tried to defend herself but was "cornered like an animal'' in their small kitchen by Medina. Adding to the brutality of the crime, he said, was the callousness Medina showed in posting the Facebook photo. "It wasn't enough that he had to take an innocent person's life. He had to make a spectacle out of it,'' Dunn said. "She wasn't just a body on the floor to be discovered. She was a wonderful, amazing person. She had so much to give, and now that's gone,'' said the victim's mother, Carolyn Knox. Medina spoke briefly, in a rambling statement that in part urged President Barack Obama to fight corruption. He also vowed to fight his conviction through appeals. "I didn't get a fair trial,'' he told the judge. "God knows the truth, and nothing further.'' Trial testimony showed that the couple began fighting in their upstairs bedroom because Medina had failed to wake up his wife early that morning to watch a movie, as he had promised. Investigators testified that Alfonso threw mascara containers and towels at Medina, who pointed a gun at her in the bedroom but did not fire. Later, the altercation continued in the downstairs kitchen, with some of it captured on one of the home's interior surveillance cameras. Medina told police Alfonso pulled a large kitchen knife on him and that he was able to disarm her, then went back upstairs for the gun and shot his wife when she kept fighting with her fists. A medical examiner, however, testified that the eight shots were all fired downward toward Alfonso and that the position of her body on the kitchen floor indicated she had been cowering on her knees when killed. Medina also was convicted of illegally firing a weapon inside a dwelling and with child neglect because Alfonso's 10-year-old daughter was in the home at the time. The girl was in an upstairs bedroom and did not witness the slaying or find her mother's body. But she was left alone for several hours while Medina went to turn himself in to police. Medina was sentenced to life in prison and will not be eligible for parole. Tiny sea lion, party of one. A 20-pound sea lion pup was found sleeping in a booth at a popular seaside restaurant in San Diego, likely searching for a cozy nook and, fittingly, a bite to eat. SeaWorld San Diegos Rescue Team was called to The Marine Room restaurant on Spindrift Drive in La Jolla Thursday after staffers found the young sea lion curled up in a booth in the dining room, sleeping. Somehow, the pup got into the dining hotspot and made his way into a booth with a scenic view of the beach below. Management wasnt sure how the sea lion snuck in, but it appears he spent the night inside the restaurant. The Marine Room's executive chef, Bernard Guillas, shared some photos of the whiskered patron on his Facebook page. In one of the images, also seen in the gallery below, the sea lion looks as if she's longingly staring at the sea below the restaurant. [[367827361,C]] As of Friday morning, Guillas' post had been shared more than 1,600 times on Facebook and had nearly 3,700 "likes." SeaWorld rescuers were able to safely corral the 8-month-old California sea lion and take her to their Animal Rescue Center. There, caregivers determined the pup was extremely malnourished and dehydrated. Jody Westberg, a SeaWorld Rescue Team member, said her team considers the sea lion a micropup due to her small size and low weight. She weighs 20 pounds, but should be about 40 to 50 pounds out in the wild, Westberg explained. She said SeaWorld San Diego has been handling many unusual sea lion rescues lately in part due to recent El Nino weather conditions. Southern California, and specifically San Diego County, has been having very high tides and very low tides, and also a lot of stormy weather. These pups are looking for high ground and warm areas for the night, she said. [[367827921,C]] Westberg said the El Nino event also appears to be impacting food sources for some sea lions in California. Not only are they looking for high ground theyre also searching for food, she added. She said an ongoing unusual mortality event is also heavily affecting the California sea lion population throughout the state. Because sea lions are having a hard time finding food sources, many wind up emaciated. The fish they typically eat in the wild keep the animals hydrated but without fish to eat, dehydration is common. At SeaWorld San Diegos Animal Rescue Center, the tiny pup was given fluids to rehydrate. Animal experts were also keeping a close watch on the pups left eye, which remained shut and had some drainage coming out of it. With proper care and nutrition, Westberg said the rescue team is cautiously optimistic the pup will be nursed back to health and eventually returned to the wild. Over the past 52 years, SeaWorld San Diego has rescued more than 16,000 sea lions. So far in 2016, SeaWorld San Diego has rescued 47 marine mammals, including 40 sea lions, six harbor seals and one Guadalupe fur seal. In 2015, SeaWorld rescued a total of 990 California sea lions. If you spot a sea lion or other animal that appears to be ill, injured or abandoned, you can call SeaWorlds Rescue Hotline at (800) 541-SEAL. On Jan. 21, another sea lion was rescued in La Jolla. That pup had climbed 145 steps to get inside The Cave Store, a shop that acts as the entrance to a manmade tunnel which delves down the cliffside and into the Sunny Jim Sea Cave. A Jersey City, N.J. man has been accused of shooting two men to death before beheading them, removing their hands and burying their body parts in a wooded area in south Jersey. State Police say the investigation began last Thursday with a report of suspicious activity in at an address in Buena Vista. Detectives arrived to search the premises, and in a wooded area behind that home, cadaver dogs found recently disturbed soil. The bodies of the two men, also from Jersey City, were found buried there, and the heads and four hands were found at another burial site. Police say Yusuf Ibrahim, 28, shot both the men, 25 and 27, in the chest and then removed their heads and hands. Police say earlier in the week he had been driving a white Mercedes Benz that belonged to one of the victims. That car was found abandoned and set on fire in Philadelphia. Ibrahim was found at a home in Bayonne on Sunday and was arrested. Friends told NBC10 in Philadelphia that the two victims were roommates, and that one of the men moved to America from Egypt four years ago. Police did not explain their connection to Ibrahim, other than to say they all lived near each other in Jersey City. Lawyer information for Ibrahim was not immediately available. He is being held at the Atlantic County jail. "Kill her," he said. Those were the words that Noela Rukundo heard come through the speakerphone. The voice on the other end of the line was her de facto husband, the BBC reported. Rukundo's partner, Balenga Kalala, had allegedly paid a group of professionals to kill Rukundo after she attended the funeral of her stepmother in her native Burundi, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company. Kalala was back at their home in Melbourne, Australia. But the would be killers, some of whom knew Rukundo's brother, didn't do their job. She was released 7,500 miles from her home. "We give you 80 hours to leave this country," Rukundo recalled the gang told her, according to the BBC. She did. Getting assistance from both the Belgian and Kenyan embassies as well as a local pastor in Melbourne, Rukundo was able to get back just in time to surprise Kalala at her own funeral. Is it my eyes? she recalled him saying after he had just finished speaking. Is it a ghost? Surprise! Im still alive! she replied, the BBC reported. During the interview with the BBC, Rukundo said that Kalala actually reached out to touch her shoulder for confirmation. "I'm sorry for everything," he cried. That wasn't quite enough for Rukundo. She called the police, and Kalala will now serve nine years in prison for incitement to murder, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company. The saga started almost a year ago, when Rukundo had flown from Melbourne to Burundi to attend her stepmother's funeral. Shortly after, she was blindfolded, shoved into a car, and eventually tied to a chair in a building near Bujumbura, according to the BBC. After her release, she made her way back to Melbourne, and her husband. Kalala told the community in Melbourne that Rukundo was killed in a tragic accident, the BBC reported. Her funeral was well attended, including, of course, one very special guest. For more details on Rukundo's journey, click here. An elderly woman was killed and her husband seriously hurt when a tree toppled onto the bedroom of their Delaware County home, trapping them for hours, fire officials said. The tree crushed the back portion of the home along the 200 block of James Road in Broomall, Pennsylvania, early Friday. Broomall Fire Dept. incident commander Carl Drake said neighbors heard a crash around 6 a.m., but no one realized the tree fell until a man leaving for work saw the aftermath and heard screams for help. He called 911.[[367821351, C]] The tree landed perpendicular onto the couple's bed, crushing them. The husband was awake and talking when firefighters arrived, Drake said. The wife was pronounced dead at the scene. "Get me the hell out of here," Drake said the man told him when he first walked into the second floor bedroom. A crane was brought in to lift the tree and firefighters used chainsaws to cut it apart. It took 70 minutes to free them.[[238427591, C]] "When we picked up the tree with the crane, we had a sigh of relief from the guy," Drake said. Officials did not immediately identify the couple. The husband was taken by medical helicopter to Penn Presbyterian Trauma Center for treatment. It's not clear whether the weather played a factor in bringing the tree down. While waiting for Donald Trump to take the stage this week at a campaign rally in Exeter, New Hampshire, fans listened to a few hit songs by Adele, "Skyfall" and "Rolling in the Deep." That has apparently hit all the wrong notes with the British superstar: She has said she'd like Trump to quit playing her songs at political rallies. "Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning," said Benny Tarantini, an Adele spokesman. But mega-best-selling Adele may not be able to stop The Donald here. Legally, the Republican presidential candidate has paid for the right to blast pretty much any music he wishes, as long as he does it correctly. "Mr. Trump's campaign paid for and obtained the legal right to use these recordings," said Hope Hicks, a Trump spokeswoman. Copyright experts say campaigns don't need an artist's permission to play their songs at rallies as long as the political organization or the venue has gotten what's known as a blanket license from the performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI. The license isn't for a single artist but for all the music in the licensing group's repertoire, which is staggering. ASCAP represents over 10 million musical works from over 525,000 songwriters and composers. BMI represents 10.5 million musical works created by more than 700,000 songwriters. The license is for the right to perform the song publicly. "When the campaign bus pulls into a town square in Iowa and starts blaring music, most times they've learned to get a license for that so they're not violating a copyright," said Lawrence Y. Iser, a partner and expert in copyright law at the Santa Monica, California-based firm Kinsella, Weitzman, Iser, Kump & Aldisert. The campaign then must pay a small fee to the performing rights organizations. BMI, for example, charges 6 cents for every campaign rally attendee at an event where the music is played. A portion of the 6 cents goes to the artist. But the use of the music can't escalate much past the rally without more permissions. A political campaign, even with a blanket license, couldn't use Adele's music in a campaign commercial for TV or YouTube without permission and a separate license. A long list of musicians, including Jackson Browne, Don Henley and David Byrne, have sued political campaigns for using copyrighted songs without permission in commercials or videos but not for playing their music at rallies. Even so, artists have some recourse when it comes to blanket permission. "We built into the license agreement a provision which allows a BMI songwriter or publisher to object to the use of their songs and, if so, we have the ability to exclude it from the license," said Mike Steinberg, senior vice president for licensing at BMI. That's how Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler last year got Trump to stop using the power ballad "Dream On" at campaign events. He sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Republican presidential candidate and BMI told the campaign that it would yank the tune. (Trump tweeted that he wouldn't be playing the Aerosmith song anymore since he found a "better one to take its place.") Iser, who has represented Jackson Browne and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne when their songs were used in campaign ads, has been called in again this political cycle to represent songwriter Sean Altman in a dispute with the Rand Paul campaign over the use of Altman's "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" in a campaign ad. Iser said the issue for artists isn't about politics or how artists personally feel about candidates but about constitutional rights. "The Founding Fathers decided they get protection," he said. Iser also said there is a bigger legal argument to be made that campaigns that use songs also tap into the artists' persona, voice and personality. "It becomes an endorsement," he said. But so far, that argument is a gray area in the law. "Nobody has gone after a campaign for using a song at a live rally." Iser said one long-term solution to the fight over music played every election cycle would be to have ASCAP or BMI offer artists the chance to let them avoid having their music used at rallies entirely. "It seems to me that there should be an opt-out ability where an artist coming into an election cycle who does not want BMI to license her music for any political campaign, should have that right," he said. Steinberg of BMI said that idea might be feasible down the road. "It's possible that may happen in the future. I think up until this point it's been more reactive in terms of an after-the-fact questioning of the usage," he said. "Perhaps it's something that we might evaluate in the future as a way to avoid circumstances like this." Fears over the Zika virus are reopening the debate over abortion in Brazil, where the procedure is illegal under most cases, NBC News reported. Brazilian bishops opposed a petition seeking to expand abortion laws to cover women infected with Zika. In a statement, the bishops said the situation doesnt advocate abortion for cases of microcephaly. Groups that want to change the laws say advising women to avoid pregnancy is not enough. Activists want the government to provide pregnant women with Zika virus testing, and the option to choose whether they wish to continue with their pregnancy. Abortion is legal in Brazil in cases of rape or incest, if it endangers the womans life of if the fetus is developing anencephaly a rare condition where the baby is missing parts of its brain and skull. With tears in their eyes, friends, family and musicians held a memorial service Saturday for a San Diego artist killed by a falling tree in Pacific Beach during a strong El Nino storm. She was beautiful. She was fun; amazing. She was very, very talented at everything she did," said Deborah Deroscher-Gil, referring to her beloved friend, Nicki Carano. "She was always fun to be with. She was always laughing. I will miss her laugh. I will hear it for a long time. On Jan. 31, at around 3 p.m., as heavy rain and strong winds plowed San Diego County, Carano -- a professional drummer, vocalist and dance -- was on her way to a live music gig, set to perform with her bands. As Carano drove on Ingraham Street near Crown Point, a huge tree at least eight feet in diameter came crashing down on the street, falling across the entire roadway. The tree toppled on Caranos car, crushing the vehicle and killing her. Images: Giant Tree Crushes Woman on Pacific Beach Street Emergency responders said there was likely not much Carano couldve done as the massive tree came barreling down. Her death and life left an indelible mark on her loved ones, who are struggling with the sudden and painful loss. NBC 7 spoke to fellow musician and friend, Stellita Porter, who said she was always taken aback by Caranos determination and talent. Its been a while since Nicki and I worked together but when we did, it was just amazing, Porter said. There was nothing she couldnt do. She was always, I can do it. I can do it. And she just had so many talents. She could sing, she could dance, she could just do it all. NBC 7s Liz Bryant reports on the death of professional drummed Nicki Carano who was on her way to play with her bands when she was struck by a falling tree. On Saturday, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., loved ones gathered at Kate Sessions Park in Pacific Beach to share stories and memories of Carano. Veronica Guzman, a friend of Carano's brother, said she'll never forget Carano's "mesmerizing" eyes and demeanor and memorable musical abilities. "She will be surely missed by everybody," said Guzman. Some of Carano's young drumming students also attended the memorial. They were saddened by their instructor's untimely passing and said they would always remember her as a nice, fun, caring person. Carano had been their instructor for the past four years. "Nicki Carano wasn't only a drum teacher, she was also a friend," one boy said. "She taught me everything I needed to know to be a good drummer." "Nicki was the best drummer I've ever met," another boy added. All of Carano's students promised they would continue to pursue drumming with the skills she had taught them. Earlier this week, Caranos brother, David, told NBC 7 his older sister as the glue that held their family together. He described her as a compassionate, funny firecracker. A 48-year-old woman in a passing car died after a giant tree fell onto the car and three others in Pacific Beach Sunday. NBC 7s Matt Rascon reports. Her bandmate, Matt Silvia, of the Christopher Dale Trio said Carano was one of the best musicians he had ever seen and a very sweet, kind person. Silvia said he didnt know how he and his bandmate, Christopher Dale, would move on without her. On Thursday, Dale posted information about Caranos memorial service on his Facebook page, along with a video clip showing the band including Carano rocking the drums during a performance last December. Thank you all for your love and support during this very difficult time, Dale wrote. See the clip below: There will be a Celebration of Life for Nicki Carano this Sat (2/6) at Kate Sessions Park - 2pm to 4pm. Thank you all... Posted by Christopher Dale on Thursday, February 4, 2016 (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); The beloved teacher shot and killed this week along with her 2-year-old daughter was remembered Friday at a heartbreaking ceremony, where her second-graders sang "Lean on Me" and her sister called for an end to domestic violence. Loved ones, students, parents and total strangers mourned the deaths of NeShante Davis and Chloe Davis-Green at a vigil held Friday evening outside Bradbury Heights Elementary School in Capitol Heights, Maryland. The mother and daughter were shot outside their townhouse about 7 a.m. Tuesday in Fort Washington, Maryland, Prince George's County police said. Little Chloe's father, Daron Boswell-Johnson, 25, confessed to waiting for Davis and Chloe outside their home and then shooting them each multiple times, court documents show. He was angry over being ordered to pay $600 per month in child support, sources told News4. Boswell-Johnson, of Forestville, Maryland, faces two counts of both first- and second-degree murder and is being held without bond. Davis was in the middle of her first year teaching after she recently graduated from Bowie State University. On Friday, members of the Bradbury Heights Elementary community wore pink to honor the teacher and her daughter. Davis' class sang, and members of the community paid tribute to her. "Your life was taken, but your legacy of patience, love and kindness has profoundly touched all who have been blessed to know you," one mourner said. One of Davis' sisters spoke about domestic violence and the need to get help if you're being abused. "In honor of NeShante and Chloe's memory, let's not allow something like this to happen to anyone else," she said. Davis was a natural teacher who doted on her students, teacher Alisha Rowden said. "Because she was a mother, she has that mothering spirit, so her students are under her wings just like baby birds," she said. "She treated them as if they were her own children." She and other staff members said they will never forget Tuesday. "It was the most difficult day of my professional career, and I've been doing this over 20 years," Walker said. Before Davis' fellow second-grade teachers knew Davis and her daughter had been killed, they knew something was wrong when she didn't show up for work. "I felt like my heart was in my stomach," Rowden said. "We hadn't heard from her." The school system and principal, Dr. Lynnette Walker, quickly developed a plan for informing staff and students. It was especially difficult for Walker, who hired her, she said. "When her resume came across my desk, I contacted a colleague at Bowie State and said 'Tell me about NeShante Davis.' And she said, 'If you can get her, get her. She's good," she said. Davis' students, just 7 and 8 years old, are dealing with the loss of their teacher. "They're getting there. Each day I think is a struggle," second-grade teacher Hannah Greene said. "It hits them more and more that this is the way things are going to be now." Services for Davis and Chloe will be held Saturday, Feb. 13 at Ark of Safety Christian Church in Upper Marlboro. Frustrations ran high with some Massachusetts parents who believed their children's classes should have been cancelled Friday. Cars lined up at the Happy Hollow School in Wayland, when parents were asked to pick up students 90 minutes early. Even though most public schools in the area gave kids the day off, Wayland School District still had class. "Wayland's always been a hearty town," said one mother, Anna. "So I sort of expected it. I was surprised that they let us pick them up early." The wet, heavy snow proved to be too much for the district. As the flakes piled up, students say their school lost power. While kids found it funny, parents weren't excited about dealing with the snow. Some even voiced their frustrations with not cancelling school. "It's kind of a little ridiculous right now," said Duane Viazanko. "The weather is out of control. Some of the roads are actually blocked. I had to go around the back way to get into Wayland." Vianzanko's wife was supposed to pick up their child, but a tree limb fell on her car. Students told necn they even saw some branches falling outside their classroom window. One kid began to cry because she had to walk home in the weather. A 48-year-old Massachusetts man has died after a tree limb fell on him in Canton late Friday night, police and hospital officials confirm. The man was struck around 11 p.m. while he was cleaning off a makeshift hockey rink on Longmeadow Drive. A limb fell from 40-50 feet and hit him. The victim is the second in Canton to be killed by a snow-laden tree limb after Friday's storm - 6-year-old Kaleigh Kenyon passed away that night in a similar tragedy. "She would never let you leave without giving you a hug and a kiss, and she'd grab your legs," said Laurie Moore, Kenyon's aunt. "I remember leaving last night, and I cried and I said, 'She's never going to do that again.'" Moore is trying to cherish memories of the young niece after her life was tragically cut short when a limb fell off a pine tree in her backyard, hitting her and pinning her underneath as it came crashing down. "We know she's in a better place," Moore said. "But it doesn't help because we want her with us." "My brain isn't even grasping that I'm not going to see her again," said Kenyon's cousin, Gabriella Garber. Then, tragedy struck again across town. The 48-year-old victim was transported to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead Saturday. "I grew up in Canton and I knew him," Moore explained. "Very fluky and very strange. And my heart goes out to the family, because he's got children." "It's so random and coincidental," said Canton Fire Chief Charles Doody. "It's hard to figure out, and I don't know that we will." Saturday, police are still warning people to stay clear of trees, asking residents to stay inside until the snow clears from branches. The snowstorm that hit New England harder than almost anyone had anticipated on Friday even caught some presidential candidates off guard. Donald Trump, who is leading the Republican field in New Hampshire, held several events in New Hampshire on Thursday. But he apparently left the state on Thursday night and was unable to make it back for a scheduled Town Hall on Friday morning at the Londonderry Lions Club. "Due to weather and the airports being closed Mr. Trump is unable to attend today's Town Hall at the Londonderry Lions Club," read an email from his campaign. "This event will be rescheduled and additional details will follow." Jeb Bush, one of Trump's Republcian opponents, couldn't let the moment pass without getting a jab in at the frontrunner. He replied to Trump's tweet about the postponement by noting that his 90-year-old mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, was able to make it to New Hampshire to campaign with him despite the snow. .@realDonaldTrump My 90 year old mother made it out to campaign. She met Destiny, age 5. pic.twitter.com/Xue8HwpTS3 Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 5, 2016 Trump is scheduled to be back in New Hampshire on Saturday, and also has events scheduled on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, which is New Hampshire primary day. Another candidate whose schedule was impacted by the storm was Democrat Bernie Sanders, the leading Democratic candidate in New Hampshire polls. Sanders held events in Manchester and Exeter on Friday, and is scheduled to attend the New Hampshire Democratic Party's McIntyre Shaheen 100 Club Celebration on Friday night in New Hampshire. But he was also scheduled to hold a 2:45 p.m. press conference in Exeter to annnounce a new endorsement from "a prominent civil rights leader." But due to the weather, the featured guest was delayed. Instead, the press conference was changed to a press call at 4 p.m. At least one candidate seemed to be enjoying the snow. Republican John Kasich engaged in a snowball fight Friday with members of the press, caught on video by CNN's Teddy Schleifer. Kasich also tackled a supporter in the snow after the impromptu snowball fight. All the new X-Men comics and collections from Marvel in 2022 Feature The full list of new X-Men comics arriving in the next few months that you need to get excited about Carnival pioneer Cupid honoured at Canboulay Canboulay as you will agree is turning out to be one of the more powerful shows on the Carnival calendar, he said. He thanked Cupid, and noted that he was the pioneer and one of the live-wires behind traditional mas and regional Carnival for a number of years. He described him as a stalwart, pioneer, researcher and historian. He noted that special tribute would be paid to him for his contribution during the traditional Carnival characters parade later that day. Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, presented a plaque to the 80-something Cupid. In her brief remarks said it is a great thing to be here in the wee hours of the morning to celebrate our heritage. This is it - we are the cusp of Carnival 2016, and we are kicking off in grand style in this Canboulay festival this morning, she added. Gadsby-Dolly said the presence of the patrons showed commitment to our culture and heritage and I just want to salute you and thank for keeping this part of our Carnival alive, she said. The re-enactment was written and directed by poet and storyteller, Eintou Pearl Springer. Springer thanked the NCC, Yuille-Williams, under whose administration Canboulay began, and the cast and crew. We have to celebrate our mas if we talking about diversifying the economy, she said. She stressed that we have to look into our culture for diversification. She also made a brief commented that moko jumbie is mas, likely referring to criticisms of Peter Minshalls Carnival king costume The Dying Swan. Springer was also part of the cast and played the wise Edna the Elder. Scores of people attended the reenactment, and one man grew impatient when it had not begun at 4 am. Mother of one shot dead in Moruga Samaroo recalled that the shooting occurred at about 2.40 am at their home located at LAnse Mitan Road, Moruga. He added that loud, continued barking of several dogs in the yard awakened them and Ali went to enquire and also to go to a nearby bathroom. He was about to exit the bedroom where he heard her utter her last words: Oh God, ah dead! I was coming out the bedroom when she screamed out. Same time I felt a pain in my leg. Only one shot was fired and that was it. I jumped through the window in the back and ran in the bush. While there I heard a car speeding off, Samaroo said. He alerted a neighbour who contacted police. When officers arrived, they discovered Alis body outside her home. Samaroo was taken to the Princes Town Area Hospital and transferred to the San Fernando General Hos- pital, where he was treated and discharged. Ali, who was originally from Preysal, lived with Samaroo at the ground floor of the two-storey house. Samaroos father Dennis Charles, lives upstairs. Ali had a 12-year-old son from a previous relationship. Samaroo described her as a good woman and a good wife adding he does not know why anyone would want to shoot her. On Wednesday night, Anisa Murray was found shot to death inside her car in Penn Trace, Cunupia. Her killers remain at large. Changes to Red House restoration A statement issued yesterday by the Office of the Prime Minister, indicated that the Committee met for the first time on Wednesday, and received a status report on the Red House restoration. At that meeting decisions were made with respect to the scope of works for that project, and a time frame for acceleration of completion of those works. The statement said the Committee decided that the original scope of works which involved construction of additional parliamentary space at the Red House,will not be pursued. The restoration will be confined to the Red House for housing of the Parliament. The additional space, which would have been catered for in any new construction, would instead be accommodated at Cabildo Building, situated just west of the Red House. This building currently houses the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs which will be moving shortly into the Legal Affairs Towers of the Government Campus on Richmond Street, freeing up space which can satisfy the Parliaments needs. The statement said, In light of these decisions, it was also concluded that the existing tender exercise be aborted and that the architectural designs be reviewed to take into account the effect of these decisions. The Urban Development Corporation of TT (Udecott), which has been overseeing the restoration of the Red House, is to consult with Parliament and report back to the Committee by the first week in March on these decisions. The Office of the Prime Minister indicated, Thereafter, new tenders will be invited for the restoration of the Red House, with a completion date for the works to be established after full consideration of the exercise. Under the former Peoples Partnership (PP) government, there were plans to relocate the National Security Ministry from Temple Court (which is located north of the Red House) and use that building to house additional offices for the Parliament. Former prime minister Patrick Manning had plans to relocate the Office of the Prime Minister to the Red House, and to have a museum there as well. The Parliament is currently being housed at Tower D of the Portof- Spain International Waterfront Centre. Former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had promised to return Parliament to the Red House. Udecott has also been instructed, along with the restoration experts, to complete the work at Stollmeyers Castle, and to prepare to commence work at Whitehall. Cabinet will decide upon the future use to which Stollmeyers Castle is to be put. Finance Minister Colm Imbert, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis are the other members of the committee. Rowley led the restoration team and other officials from the Office of the Prime Minister, Udecott and others on a tour of Stollmeyers Castle, White Hall, Mille Fleurs and Presidents House yesterday Judiciary to save $ with Nigerian technology The Nigerian-developed case management information system (CMIS) will also enable the local Judiciary to save money. Chief Justice Ivor Archie signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Supreme Court of Nigeria and National Center for State Courts of the United States of America (NCSC) for the new automated CMIS in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Tuesday last. The MOU is for technical assistance to design, develop, and implement a new CMIS modelled after the indigenously developed Nigerian Judiciarys CMIS for implementation in Trinidad and Tobago. Two other Caribbean CJs, Marston Gibson of Barbados, and Dame Janice Pereira of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), also signed the agreement at the headquarters of the National Judicial Council of Nigeria for implementation in their respective jurisdictions. Speaking with the Nigerian Press after the signing, Archie said that shared common law systems and development goals meant that the challenges faced by Nigerian and CARICOM jurisdictions in the administration of justice are similar, and so the partnership seems quite a natural fit. Calling the occasion a signal moment for the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago since the initiative directly supports one of its key initiatives a Juvenile Court Archie noted, The Judiciarys capacity to provide speedy and effective access to justice can be greatly facilitated by the use of an automated case management information system tailored to the needs of the children in our courts. Archie added that any good CMIS should allow for efficient tracking of cases and timely access to relevant information to support both short and longer term decision making. Such a system, he said, will also provide the platform for better case flow management and facilitate sharing of information between the court and its stakeholders in the Criminal Justice System. Todays signing brings us closer to the realisation of that vision, Archie said also indicating that the initiative with the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the NCSC will also allow Trinidad and Tobago to meaningfully tackle another of its key strategic goals especially in the light of the current revenue realities of the country that is, lowering the cost of its operations. Archie spoke about the costs associated with its current system which he said was costing the Judiciary approximately $US176,000 annually, noting that it was a system that the Judiciary did not own nor could fully customize to suit its needs. For twenty years or so, we have utilised an offthe- shelf Case Management Information System solution, he revealed. He added, In recent years, growth in the volume of matters before the courts, in addition, the complexity of some of those cases has presented us with some limitations with regard to the softwares capability and more so suitability. The TT Chief Justice said This MOU with Nigeria represents a major shift in the Judiciarys approach in the search for ICT solutions for its Courts. Once we have ironed out the terms of our cooperation, Archie said, No longer will Trinidad and Tobago be at the mercy of vendors with proprietary programs, certainly not for a CMIS. This strategic partnership presents us an opportunity to design and develop an ICT solution specific to our needs using the existing Nigerian Case Management Information System as the base. The implication for us is the realisation of significant savings in operational costs along with greater process efficiencies. The Nigerian Chief Justice, Mahmud Mohammed, said the his countrys initiative to develop its own CMIS began in 2011, arising out of a discussion by distinguished jurists at the 24th World Jurist Association Congress held in Prague, Czech Republic. The Nigerian Judiciary partnered with NCSC and Microsoft International to develop a solution specific to the Nigerian case management needs. No doubt I am delighted to see that it is indeed worthy of adaptation in your Lordships Judiciaries, Mohammed said, And we look forward to working in partnership with your respective jurisdictions in this regard. While in the Nigerian capital, Archie and his Caribbean counterparts toured the High Court, Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and received demonstrations of how the Nigerian CMIS functioned and improved the work flow, administrative and procedural operations in the Nigerian Judiciary. Believe It or Not, Some World Leaders Lasted Just Minutes (Newser) What do Queen Elizabeth, Kanye West, and Kristen Stewart have in common? They all have Resting Bitch Faceor, as New York puts it, a "face combining disgust, better-than-you snobbery, and boredom." Actress Anna Kendrick even once tweeted, "Is there a filter on Instagram that fixes Bitchy Resting Face? Asking for a friend." The not-so-formal condition came to prominence in 2013 with a "Bitchy Resting Face" PSA by Funny or Die. Now, behavioral researchers Jason Rogers and Abbe Macbeth with Noldus Information Technology have used science to uncover why some people's resting faces are expressionless while those of others are considered angry and judgmental, the Washington Post reports. The pair used software called FaceReader, which maps 500 points on the human face and assigns expressions based on the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt, and "neutral." When the researchers plugged in faces of famous RBF faces, the software lit up. "Something in the person's face is relaying greater-than-trace amounts of contempt, but they don't intend that to be the case," Macbeth tells CBS News. That includes signals, Rogers tells the Post, such as "one side of the lip pulled back slightly, the eyes squinting a little." One key point: The researchers found that the condition afflicts men and women equally. "This means that classifying RBF as a female-dominant expression of bitchiness is actually quite wrong, and probably a reflection of societal expectations of women," observes the post at New York. (The Stir amplifies the point that men are affected, too, with a gallery of Kanye West RBF photos.) Can anything be done about RBF? "We can't 'fix' anyone's face," Macbeth, also a sufferer tells CBS. But, she adds, "I don't think it's worth getting stressed out over." (Here's one woman talking about her RBF.) (Newser) France is in uproar over reports that the official spellings of 2,400 words are being changed to make them less confusing for schoolchildren just learning the language, the Guardian reports. For example, "ognon" is now a fine way to spell onion in addition to the more familiar "oignon." And the circumflexthe hat-like accentwill be removed from some words where it doesn't affect meaning or pronunciation. But what advocates call a "clean-up" of the language, others accuse of being a "dumbing down" on the part of the government. "Absurd," say some. "The French language is our soul," say others. One French headline even went so far as to proclaim the changes "the death of the circumflex," according to NPR. What's strange is that the new spellings have been the "official standard" since they were adopted by the High Council of the French Language back in 1990, only no one paid attention, the Local reports. The changes only started garnering responses like the hashtag #JeSuisCirconflexe after a TV news story this week. The president of the Higher Council of School Programmes says the story was a "political smear," trying to blame the current government for changes made decades ago. Regardless, schoolbooks will start using the new spellings in September (though schools will still accept the old spellings as correct). And as long as we're changing languages to make them easier for schoolchildren, we'd like to request the US government immediately recognize "wierd," "concious," and "embarass" as fine and good spellings. (Read more language stories.) (Newser) Noela Rukundo had been with her husband, Balenga Kalala, for 11 years when, last year, she flew from their home in Melbourne, Australia, to her native Burundi for her stepmother's funeral. While there, Kalala ordered gang members to have her killed. They abducted her and told her what they had been hired to do; Rukundo even heard her husband's voice on speakerphone telling them to kill her, the Australian Broadcasting Company reports. The gang members decided not to murder her because they knew her brother and they didn't believe in killing women, but they kept Kalala's money and told him the job was done. She was able to get back home, where, on Feb. 22, 2015, she walked up to Kalala after her own funeral; he'd told everyone she died while in Burundi. "Is it a ghost?" the scared man, who has since been sentenced to nine years for incitement to murder, per the ABC, asked. Rukundo tells the BBC her husband touched her shoulder to make sure she was real, then began screaming. He apologized, but she called policeand, though Kalala first denied he'd had anything to do with Rukundo's ordeal, she ultimately got him to confess while police secretly recorded one of their phone calls, the Age reports. His explanation to her? He thought she was going to leave him for someone else. "Sometimes Devil can come into someone, to do something, but after they do it they start thinking, Why I did that thing? later," he reportedly said. The couple has three children together, and Rukundo also has five from a previous relationship. Since her ordeal, she says, some members of Melbourne's Congolese community have threatened her for reporting Kalala, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Read more Australia stories.) (Newser) A 90-foot tree fell on a home in suburban Philadelphia early Friday, killing a woman in her bed and trapping her husband beside her for hours before he could be rescued, authorities said. The tree apparently came down on the split-level home at about 6am local time, but rescue units were not called until about 8:15am after a neighbor heard screams, officials said. It then took more than an hour after that call to free the husband. Marjay Cooper was pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband Alan's injuries did not appear to be serious. A tree service was called to lift the tree with a crane, and then fire crews used chainsaws and crow bars to clear roofing, tree limbs, and other debris to free Alan, officials said. When rescuers got to the bedroom on the upper floor, Alan knew his wife had died and told them: "Get me the hell out of here," a township safety officer said. Alan spoke calmly to the crews as they worked to free him, Marple Township Police Chief Thomas Murray said. Snow did not appear to play a role in the tree falling. "It was a freak accident," Murray said. (Read more falling tree stories.) (Newser) A new study finds that more than 50 million "quite healthy" Americans have been mislabeled as obese or overweight thanks to an over-reliance on BMI as a measurement of health, the Los Angeles Times reports. This should be a final nail in the coffin for BMI, says A. Janet Tomiyama, lead author of a study published Thursday in the Journal of Obesity. Tomiyama and her team looked at the blood pressure, glucose levels, cholesterol, and more of 40,420 people. They found 47.4% of people with an "overweight" BMI and 29% of "obese" people were actually healthy. Conversely, more than 30% of people with a healthy BMI were surprisingly unhealthy. "Obesity is just a number based on BMI, and we think BMI is just a really crude and terrible indicator of someones health, Tomiyama says. A recent proposal from the federal government would allow employers to charge employees who don't meet health criteriaincluding BMImore for health insurance. Tomiyama says this would unfairly punish "overweight" individuals who are actually healthy, according to a press release. For example, NPR reports that not a single member of the Denver Broncos, who are obviously fit enough to play in the Super Bowl, has a "healthy" BMI. A coauthor of the study recommends people focus more on eating well and exercising regularly than strictly on weight. One expert argues BMI is still useful as a quick test to indicate health but should be followed with additional tests to determine a person's true health. (Your father's sperm might be making you obese.) (Newser) After fighting an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for more than a decade, the Pentagon has finally released photos of Bush-era detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. But only 198 photos were released on Friday, mainly showing bruises and scrapes, and the military is still blocking the release of around 1,800 other photos believed to show more serious abuse by Americans, the New York Times reports. The Pentagon says the photos come from criminal investigations that led to punishment for 65 service members ranging from life in prison to warning letters, reports CNN. Last year, a judge ordered the release of the photos, some of which were taken at Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison. The Obama administration originally planned to release the cache of photos in 2009, but changed course amid a backlash and warnings that they could inspire attacks on American troops overseas. The ACLU says it plans to fight for the release of the rest of the photos, including some believed to show an Iraqi farmer executed with his hands tied behind his back. "It's most likely the case that these are the most innocuous of the photos, and if that's true, it's a shadow of meaningful transparency," ACLU attorney Alex Abdo tells the Guardian. He says the ACLU believes the photos can create change and accountability the way photos of police abuse have doneand "the Pentagon knows it, too." (Read more Pentagon stories.) (Newser) Police in Austria say five people were killed Saturday when a "massive" avalanche in the Austrian Alps struck skiers from the Czech Republic taking part in a freeriding camp, the AP reports. Two other skiers were injured and 10 were rescued unharmed, Tirol police spokesperson Helmut Schuetz said. He said the skiers were moving in two separate groups of 12 and five when the avalanche hit them around noon local time in the Wattener Lizum region. "It was one massive avalanche, several hundred meters wide and long," Schuetz said, adding that the tear point, where the slab of snow broke off from the mountain, was 3 feet deep. "It was many tons of snow." Authorities had warned that the risk of avalanches in the region was "considerable," the third highest on a five-point scale. (Read more avalanche stories.) (Newser) A hospital in Tennessee accidentally performed minor surgery on the wrong baby, and now the mother is left to wonder about the future of her newborn, CBS News reports. Jennifer Melton thought her healthy newborn was being taken for a routine physical by doctors at University Medical Center in Lebanon. Then he came back hours later. "At that point the nurse started to mention the procedure they had done," Melton tells WTVF. What they had done was a frenulectomycutting a flap of skin under the tongue to improve the tongue's range of motion in babies born with a specific condition. But Nate didn't have that condition. "Essentially they took our child, who was healthy, from the room and cut his mouth," Melton tells WTVF. "At that point, I began to cry hysterically." Now Melton is worried Nate could have problems speaking or eating in the future. "It's recklessness," the family's attorney says. "There's no excuse for cutting on a healthy child. There's no excuse for mixing up babies at a hospital." A report from the hospital is little consolation to Melton. "I had asked for the wrong infant. I had likely performed the procedure on an infant different than the one I intended to," CBS quotes a doctor as saying in the University Medical Center's progress report. "I admitted my mistake and apologized." (This hospital had to pay big after switching two babies at birth in 1994.) Controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange felt vindicated after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNGWAD) ruling declared his self-confinement at the Ecuadorian Embassy as a form of "arbitrary detention" blaming Sweden and the United Kingdom for the deprivation of his democratic rights and liberties. In a nutshell, Assange has been trying to evade arrest by British authorities after running afoul with Sweden on rape allegations. He feared that if the UK police hands him over to the Swedes, the latter would likely extradite him to the United States for illegally facilitating the disclosure of state secrets to the public through WikiLeaks forcing him to ask Ecuador for a safe haven in its London embassy. Since then, British authorities have set their eyes on Assange 24/7 to arrest him the moment he leaves the embassy. For Assange, the ruling came as a much needed boost to get the pressure off him but Sweden and the UK remained undeterred. Nevertheless, he called the UN decision as "legally binding". Assange also warned that non-adherence by would violate "the U.N. system, and there are consequences of doing that" as mentioned in a report by CNN. Branding the UN panel's ruling as "ridiculous", UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond maintained that Assange remains a "fugitive from justice" and that he should take the courage of facing justice in Sweden where serious cases of rape were filed against him according to a BBC report. Writing for The Guardian, Joshua Rozenberg also challenged UNGWAD's ruling with its "absurd" and "fatally flawed" logic. "The three-and-a-half years he has spent as a fugitive from justice cannot affect the lawfulness of his original imprisonment," wrote Rozenberg as quoted in his article featured in The Guardian. After nearly a thousand years of being drifted apart, the Catholic Church and the Russian branch of the Orthodox Church will finally have a historic chance of mending broken ties since the Great Schism of 1054. "This event has extraordinary importance in the path of ecumenical relations and dialogue among Christian confessions," remarked Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi as quoted saying by ABC News. On 12 February, the Catholic pope and the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill are scheduled to meet for a rare 2-hour private discussion in Havana, Cuba which will be followed by a signing of declaration by both parties. "[The meeting] will mark an important stage in relations between the two Churches. The Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate hope that it will also be a sign of hope for all people of good will. They invite all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits," the joint statement of the Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate as quoted by NPR. What will the two leaders talk about? Despite the non-closure of the deep rifts that continue to divide Christendom, both leaders have agreed, at least in principle, to set aside doctrinal differences and primarily discuss issues concerning the persecution and apparent genocide of Christians in the war-torn regions of the Middle East and North and Central Africa by radical jihadists. "The situation shaping up today in the Middle East, in North and Central Africa, and in some other regions where extremists are carrying out a genuine genocide of the Christian population, demands urgent measures and an even closer cooperation between the Christian churches," said Senior Orthodox cleric Metropolitan Hilarion as mentioned in a report by Yahoo News. New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has once again framed BJP responsible behind no end to MCD strike. Kejriwal took it to social networking site and mentioned how BJP leaders are forcing MCD officials to continue their protests. Some MCD union leaders have confided that they are being pressurised by BJP not to call off strike. This is shameful Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 5, 2016 A section of municipal corporation doctors called off their strike called to press for payment of salaries, urging authorities to refrain from taking "punitive action" and cutting salaries for participating in the strike. "The executive body of Municipal Corporation Doctors Association today decided to call off the strike," President of the Association Dr R R Gautam said. A delegation of the Association earlier met Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisdia and Health Minister Satyendar Jain who assured them that the "official process" has been started to meet their demand of taking over of municipal corporation health services by the government. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Jammu: Hardening her stance, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti made it clear that she will not form the government with BJP in Jammu and Kashmir if the Narendra Modi dispensation does not create a conducive atmosphere by committing confidence building measures (CBMs) for the state. There are problems within problems. To face these difficulties, we need to have support and to have that conducive atmosphere (for forming government). If we get that, it is fine but if that does not happen, we will continue to move as we are moving today, Mehbooba told party leaders at a meeting here today. Flanked by her brother Tassaduq Mufti and senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, she indicated that she was not looking for any financial package but the CBMs sought by her should focus on political aspect of the problem. It is not the matter of money. How much money has come and how much we have spent? When and how it came? But the issue is how will we create a conducive atmosphere so that the new government gets a new path and fillip to go ahead and create a goodwill among the people, she said. Her remarks reflect hardening of stance over forming coalition government with BJP in the state which is under Governors Rule since January 8, a day after the demise of her father and the then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. PDP, with 27 MLAs in the 87-member Assembly and BJP with 25 legislators, ran a coalition government headed by Sayeed for 10 months before his death. Contending that she was not resorting to blackmail or bargaining (with Centre), the PDP chief said, The decision of Mufti sahib is acceptable to us... Mufti sahib had taken this decision (of formation government with BJP) for the welfare of the people. His commitment is my commitment. But it is a tough trial for me in the wake of void created by his demise. Arguing that Jammu and Kashmir is not like any other state of the country, she said, It is not Punjab, Rajasthan or Assam. We face a lot difficulties here. There are problems within problems. To face these difficulties, we need to have strength and to have that conducive atmosphere. ( We cannot form government in the air. The point is how to create a conducive atmosphere so that if a new government is formed, there is a way forward for creating goodwill among the people, she said. Asking PDP cadres to work to strengthen the party, she said, whether the government is formed or not, we should not depend on that. Suggesting that she was willing to remain out of power, the PDP chief said her father and party patron had done commendable job even while being out of the government as well. He remained out of the government for 40-50 years. He remained in the power for 10-12 years. Those who have remained in power for 20-30 years have not achieved that much as Mufti sahib have achieved. Asserting that there cant be any compromise with the principles of her late father, Mehbooba said, I will not allow harm to be done to his respect, hard-work and conviction, whatever may happen. Referring to the criticism faced by her father within the party, she said, Some people were unhappy against the decision of Mufti sahib to have alliance with BJP. May be people will have complaints. But Mufti sahib had a goodwill and people would trust him. She said, several people on the two sides in Kashmir and Jammu may have not liked BJP-PDP tie up but even after taken such a major decision, Mufti sahib went to downtown (old) area of Srinagar and was welcomed there. This was his goodwill. The old areas of Srinagar are considered to be pro-separatists. Citing Mufti, Mehbooba said if peace is to be restored in Jammu and Kashmir, then India and Pakistan have to come together. We need to work towards this, she said. Describing her father as her role model, Mehbooba said We cannot think like Mufti sahib, but we are carrying forward the vision of Mufti sahib. We were promised in 1947 that it (J&K) will be a showcase window to the world... but unfortunately it has not happened. She said The people of Jammu and Kashmir were caught in quagmire of uncertainty, she said, adding Despite his ailment, Mufti strongly worked at the grassroot level because he wanted to do something good for the people of this state. He worked very hard for past ten months. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Berlin: Scientists have uncovered an unknown chapter of human history - a major population turnover in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age about 14,500 years ago, during a period of severe climatic instability. Researchers used DNA evidence from the ancient bones and teeth of people who lived in Europe from the Late Pleistocene to the early Holocene - spanning almost 30,000 years of European prehistory. They pieced the missing history together by reconstructing the mitochondrial genomes of 35 hunter-gatherer individuals who lived in Italy, Germany, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, and Romania from 35,000 to 7,000 years ago. Mitochondria are organelles within cells that carry their own DNA and can be used to infer patterns of maternal ancestry. We uncovered a completely unknown chapter of human history - a major population turnover in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age, said lead author Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. There has been a real lack of genetic data from this time period, so consequently we knew very little about the population structure or dynamics of the first modern humans in Europe, Krause said. The new data show that the mitochondrial DNA of three individuals who lived in present-day Belgium and France before the coldest period in the last Ice Age - the Last Glacial Maximum - belonged to haplogroup M. This is remarkable because the M haplogroup is effectively absent in modern Europeans but is extremely common in modern Asian, Australasian, and Native American populations. The absence of the M haplogroup and its presence in other parts of the world had previously led to the argument that non-African people dispersed on multiple occasions to spread across Eurasia and Australasia. The researchers said the discovery of this maternal lineage in Europe in the ancient past now suggests instead that all non-Africans dispersed rapidly from a single population, at a time they place around 50,000 years ago. Then, at some later stage, the M haplogroup was apparently lost from Europe. When the Last Glacial Maximum began around 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherer populations retreated south to a number of putative refugia, and the consequent genetic bottleneck probably resulted in the loss of this haplogroup, said first author Cosimo Posth of Germanys University of Tubingen. The researchers say their biggest surprise, however, was evidence of a major turnover of the population in Europe around 14,500 years ago, as the climate began to warm. Our model suggests that during this period of climatic upheaval, the descendants of the hunter-gatherers who survived through the Last Glacial Maximum were largely replaced by a population from another source, said senior author Adam Powell, of the Max Planck Institute. Kolkata: The condition of veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh has improved a little though he continued to remain on ventilator, a party leader said today. Ghosh, 94, was admitted to a private hospital on Monday after he complained of respiratory problems. He is still on ventilator. But his condition is better than the last few days. Yesterday dialysis was conducted on him and he responded positively, AIFB leader Naren Chatterjee said. Ghosh is serving the longest term as state secretary of any political party in the state. He took over as the state secretary of Forward Bloc in the late forties and has been holding the post for over six decades. New Delhi: Lucknow, the parliamentary constituency of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, is the new base for a special team of NDRF, the central force tasked with undertaking relief and rescue operations during disasters. The special team consisting of 45 men was recently stationed in the capital of Uttar Pradesh. It is at present operating out of a facility belonging to state Home Guards. We were looking for a base to station a team somewhere in the central part of the country to cater to quick deployment requirements of the force in events of disasters or any other such emergencies in these areas. We are in touch with the state government and it is expected we will get a permanent location for the team in Lucknow soon, NDRF Director General O P Singh told PTI. NDRF, which is celebrating its 11th Raising Day today, has 12 battalions and over a dozen such special teams stationed in various parts of the country. Officials said the idea is to deploy such small teams in select areas and the team in Lucknow will be equipped to tackle chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear (CBRN) emergencies in their area of responsibility in the entire central region. The smallest team of the force has 45 members, including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and paramedics, and it acts as a self-contained quick reaction unit for search and rescue tasks. In order to effectively cover all parts of the country, NDRF units in north are based in Bathinda (Punjab) and Greater Noida (UP) near Delhi and in the eastern flank of the country in Guwahati (Assam), Patna (Bihar), Mundali (Odisha), Kolkata (West Bengal) and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. Similarly, in the western part of the country, NDRF battalions are based in Vadodara (Gujarat) and Pune (Maharashtra) and in south, they are located in Vijaywada (Andhra Pradesh) and Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu. The only battalion in the central region is based in Varanasi, the Parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. NDRF is a central force tasked to respond swiftly during disasters and has 1,149 personnel in each battalion. It has been raised after inducting the manpower of various paramilitary forces of the country. It functions under the Union Home Ministry and was raised in 2006. Bamako: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Saturday said they carried out Fridays attack on a UN military camp in Timbuktu in Malis restive north. At least four suspected jihadists and a Malian soldier were killed in the attack which the group said was designed to send a clear message of its intention and capacity to target the UNs peacekeeping MINUSMA mission. The group said in a statement that three fighters from the al-Quds Brigade of its Sahara division stormed the former hotel serving as the mission base, one detonating a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at the entrance and the two others entering inside. The attack came three months after a similar strike on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako and one month after a raid on a top hotel in Burkina Faso. The militant group has vowed to continue with a series of operations to cleanse the land of Islam and Muslims from the dens of the Crusader occupiers and their mercenaries. A Malian police source indicated two suspects, who army sources said had been arrested in the aftermath of the attack, were Saturday released. The people arrested Friday on suspicion of being terrorists or their accomplices have been freed for lack of evidence, the Timbuktu gendarmerie source told AFP without giving further details. Defence Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly had Friday spoken of half a dozen fighters carrying out the attack, with three gunned down and one blowing himself up. Three Malian soldiers were also wounded. The assault came just a day after the fabled city celebrated the restoration of its greatest treasures earthen mausoleums dating to mediaeval times and destroyed during an Islamist takeover in 2012. In a statement via Mauritanian news agency Al-Akhbar, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said three fighters whose nationalities were not immediately clear carried out the raid and were all killed. The group added that several soldiers had also died with others injured. Army sources reported the situation Saturday afternoon as calm in Timbuktu as Coulibaly attended the funeral of the slain soldier, named as commander Karim Niang. The sources added they had carried out patrols through the night across the city. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. I was an atheist until I learned about Christian Science. There were many versions of God I could not accept. For instance, not only was the whole patriarch-in-the-clouds concept unacceptable to me, but I also rejected a theology that says innocent babies are sinners in need of saving. Why would a God create us able to do something and then condemn us for it? Capriciousness was not a quality of an exalted being that I could worship. It was early February many years ago when I had a change of heart. I was challenged by friends not to focus just on what I didnt believe, but instead to dig deep and try to see what I actually could accept as God. So I started probing, and asking myself questions: What was supreme? What was the creator of the universe? What was there before all this? Since this seemed to be material, I reasoned that what came before had to be nonmaterial. And in order to be ultimate, it had to be infinite or we would have to define what came before that. From physics, I knew that something cant come from nothing. So what did I know that was infinite and nonmaterial? Thinking about it, I realized that love is nonmaterial, and I could imagine a love that was bigger and purer than a limited Valentines Day variety of human love. I started cherishing the idea of divine love as a concept of God that might actually be right and true. I decided to peruse the works of comparative religions, gleaning bits that resonated with me, like threads of a tapestry that I could eventually weave into a whole. I read the Quran, the Bible, Buddhist teachings, and everything else I could get my hands on. I found wonderfully helpful threads everywhere. It was a very different experience, humbly looking for what I could love and resonate with in these texts, instead of identifying things to disagree with and be condescending about. But it was Christian Science that blew me away. I was gob-smacked, really. Instead of beautiful threads, I had found what seemed to me like whole cloth. Christian Science explains God through seven synonyms or names for God (signified in the Christian Science tradition by capital letters): Life, Truth, Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle. Further, God is described as intelligent, infinite, all-powerful, ever-present, and good. This expanded my feeble perception of an infinite and nonmaterial God. This I could accept. I was thrilled and wanted to learn more. I gobbled up the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, pondering as I went, playing with interchanging those synonyms for God. I loved thinking of God as my actual Life, as close as my next breath. Or of God as the all-powerfully intelligent divine Mind that was the creator of the universe, sustaining and maintaining all good. And who doesnt value truth? As much as the word God had made me want to run from it based on all the baggage it carried, I could definitely embrace Truth, Life and Love, as my ultimate hope. I was in Love. Literally. I lived, moved, and had my being in divine Love. I couldnt get away from it. It was always there for me and everyone. I realized divine Love had not only made me, but approved of me. I was supported and upheld, provided for and adored. More than that, divine Love triumphs over hate, and ever-present Truth overcomes every error. Just as light banishes darkness, and darkness is just a claim of the absence of light, God infinite good can eliminate every contrary supposition. I can trust this God, who safeguards all good. I learned to start my thought process with God instead of myself. Otherwise, its all too easy to end up with fallible, manlike concepts of God. And I was learning that the best idea of God leads to a much better view of myself. I have found this very liberating and encouraging. Im so glad I asked myself those hard questions, and started looking for what I could accept instead of defending against what I didnt believe. Im so glad I became a seeker, for I found the God who is Love itself. Polly Castor is a Christian Science practitioner and member of First Church of Christ, Scientist in Ridgefield. She can be reached at PollyCastor@gmail.com. / contributed photo NEWTOWN - Eman Beshtawii, the director of community services and outreach programs at the Al Hedaya Islamic Center in Newtown, was the guest of U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty at the 64th annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Im very privileged to be invited to this prayer breakfast by Congresswoman Esty, Beshtawii said in a prepared statement.I accepted the invitation to highlight all of the good that has come to our Muslim community at the Hedaya Center. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEWTOWN What started as a boycott of grocery stores in the region that allow customers to carry guns in the aisles has turned into a local crusade to ban guns in all businesses in a town still recovering from the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings. The Newtown Action Alliance, one of the nonprofits formed after the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings, is calling for a townwide ban on weapons in businesses. I would think it would be easy for the businesses to side with our community members who are going through challenging times, said Po Murray, chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance. It has only been three years. The towns merchants have been hearing more talk about openly carrying guns while shopping, a business leader said Thursday. While merchants are willing to hear more about concerns, they are wary of getting mixed up in a controversy that could drive customers away. Its important that our businesses try to remain neutral because we serve a broad constituency of clients, and we have to be careful about the position we take, said Tim Haas, president of the Newtown Chamber of Commerce. In Newtown, we went through a lot with the tragedy that happened, Haas said. It affected a lot of businesses. We dont need another challenge that could impact business. After the 2012 killings of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Starbucks, Whole Foods and a few other big-name companies in Connecticut announced firearms policies to restrict carrying guns in their businesses. But most businesses continued to follow Connecticut law, which allows anyone with a permit to openly carry a gun in public. That had been enough to keep the peace until January, when a woman noticed a man with a gun on his belt while the two were shopping at Caraluzzis Food Market in Bethel. The online boycott that grew from the womans correspondence with Caraluzzis owner spread to Big-Y and then reached the statewide Connecticut Food Association. The CFA pledged to craft a policy to help stores avoid the divisive gun debate. That didnt stop leading members of Connecticuts Washington delegation from urging the Connecticut Food Association president to promote a ban on openly carrying guns while shopping. The Newtown Action Alliance said this week the town was uniquely positioned to make a statement. I think Newtown can send a message to the county we dont need guns in stores, Murray said. It is proven that more guns equal more gun deaths. A leading gun-rights advocate disagreed. People are safer where law-abiding people carry firearms, said Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League. My question is if guns are banned from stores will the Newtown Action Alliance personally guarantee the safety of individuals who are shopping? Wilson suggested while the two sides were far apart philosophically, a compromise for stores was still possible. He said the wording of any policy to reduce in-store confrontations about openly carrying guns needed to be polite, reasonable and respectful of permit holders right to carry. If the store had a policy requiring patrons to please keep their arms concealed, that is certainly a lot more palatable to gun owners, Wilson said. rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342 The Supreme Court, yesterday, explained why it has not accorded any probative value on reports from Card Reader Machines that were deplo... The Supreme Court, yesterday, explained why it has not accorded any probative value on reports from Card Reader Machines that were deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the 2015 general elections. The apex court, yesterday, maintained that though the use of the Electronic Card Reader Machine for accreditation of voters was provided for in the Approved Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of the 2015 general elections, it said the device was never intended to supplant, displace or supersede the Voters Register.It observed that the issue had resulted to various Divisions of the Court of Appeal, giving divergent interpretations on election disputes that were brought before them by appellants. True, indeed, the Card Reader Machine traces its paternity to the above Guidelines and Regulations. Regrettably, its probative pedestal in the vocabulary of electoral jurisprudence has generated conflicting interpretations from Their Lordships of the different Divisions of the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court noted.A seven-man panel of Justices of the apex court, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, made the position of the court on the matter known, while adducing reasons why the election of Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State was upheld. According to Justice Chima Centus Nweze who delivered the lead judgment, With the intervention of this court, in its recent decision in Shinkafi v Yari (supra), it is hoped that practitioners and all other courts will begin to appreciate the position of the said Card Reader Machine, and the Reports generated therefrom, in election litigation.Prior to the authorisation of its use by the Guidelines and Manual (supra), the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended), in sections 49 (1) and (2), had ordained an analogue procedure for the accreditation process. As a corollary to the procedure outline above, section 53(2) of the said Act (that is, the Electoral Act) enshrined the consequences for the breach, negation or violation of the sanctity of the actual poll sequel to the consummation of the accreditation procedure in section 49 (supra).With the advantage of hindsight, INEC, pursuant to its powers under the said Electoral Act, authorised the deployment of the said Card Readers. Even with the introduction of the said device, that is the Card Reader Machine, the National Assembly, in its wisdom, did not deem it necessary to bowdlerise the said analogue procedure in section 49 from the Act so that the Card Reader procedure would be the sole determinant of a valid accreditation process.Contrariwise, from the Corrigendum No 2, made on March 28, 2015, amending paragraph 13(b) of the Approved Guidelines, it stands to reason that the Card Reader was meant to supplement the Voter Register and was never designed or intended to supplant, displace or supersede it.Indeed, since the Guidelines and Manual, which authorised the use and deployment of the electronic Card Reader Machine, were made in exercise of the powers conferred by the Electoral Act, the said Card Reader cannot, logically, depose or dethrone the Voters Register whose judicial roots are, firmly, embedded or entrenched in the selfsame Electoral Act from which it )the Voters Register). Directly, derives its sustenance and currency.Thus, any attempt to invest it (the Card Reader Machine procedure) with such overreaching pre-eminence or superiority over the Voters Register is like converting an auxiliary procedure- into the dominant procedure- of proof, that is, proof of accreditation.This is a logical impossibility. Indeed, only recently, this court in Shinkafi vs Yari, confirmed the position that the Card Reader Machine has not supplanted the statement of results in appropriate forms; hence, the appellant still had the obligation to prove petition relating to accreditation of voters and over-voting as enunciated in several decisions of this court, Justice Nweze added.More so, using the Ebonyi state gubernatorial dispute as an instance, the apex court panel noted that the Head of Unit, ICT Data Management at INEC headquarters, who testified as the PW-8 before the tribunal, explained that the Card Reader performed two roles, namely, the verification of the Permanent Voters Card, PVC, and the authentication of fingerprint. It observed that the witness, who generated a Card Reader Machines Report for Ebonyi State Governorship Election, had admitted that it was not a complete report covering all the details of Polling Units in the state as some Polling Units were not uploaded and thus not included in the report.The witness said the report she tendered before the tribunal represented data that were successfully uploaded before the chairman of INEC gave an instruction for the server to be shut down. According to the Supreme Court, Her trenchant responses, clearly, demonstrate that the Card Reader Machine Reports were neither inviolable nor sacrosanct as a host of intervening mischievous human variables could impinge on their reliability.Against the background of the testimonies of PW8, it is, actually, surprising, that learned counsel to the appellant chose not to utilise the Voter Register, to show the entire gamut of the voters, but rather built his case on what, in the unanswerable words of the lower court was an exhibit that was not accurate, sufficient and comprehensive enough to be relied upon in proof of the allegation of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended.That is to say that the appellant (as Petitioner) failed to weave his case on the Voters Registers and a fortiori did not produce such registers because if he had produced them, their contents would have been unfavourable to the allegations he made in the petition and hence his decision to withhold them.Thus, the appellant laboured in vain in the spirited attempt he made before this court to have the findings of the lower court vacated. He was, indeed, attempting the impossible given the anaemic evidence he adduced. In my view, the lower court, rightly, affirmed the findings of the trial tribunal in this regard. Besides, the apex court held that the appellant, Edward Nkwegu Okereke, who was the candidate of the Labour Party during the April 11, 2015, governorship election in Ebonyi state, could not lay credible evidence to support his case against governor Umahi of the Peoples Democratic Party.The court said the case of the petitioner failed owing to irreparable damage of the testimony of witnesses that testified for him at the lower tribunal, who it said were thoroughly discredited in cross-examination. It will be recalled that though the Supreme Court dismissed Okerekes appeal on January 27, it however reserved its reasons for doing so till yesterday.Aside the CJN, other members of the apex court panel that also agreed with the lead judgment were Justices Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, Kumai Bayang Akaahs, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, John Inyang Okoro and Amiru Sanusi. A former President of the Nigerian Senate, Ken Nnamani, has announced his departure from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, a poli... A former President of the Nigerian Senate, Ken Nnamani, has announced his departure from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, a political platform to which be belonged since 1999, and which, in 2005, made him the third most powerful man in Nigeria.In a statement on Saturday, Mr. Nnamani said he was quitting the party because the platform had abandoned the path of its noble vision and values.Mr. Nnamani was elected to the Senate President in 2003, and was senate president between 2005 and 2007.In his statement Saturday, entitled, PDP, the Burden and My Conscience, the politician said he was fed up with the current status and direction of the PDP, and was therefore quitting without any iota of bitterness in his heart.I do not believe I should continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today, Mr. Nnamani said, This is certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country. I do not also believe that the PDP as it is managed today will provide an opportunity for me to continue to play the politics of principles and values which I set for myself as a young man on leaving graduate school and working for a large multinational in the United States in the 70s and 80s.Therefore, today I resign my membership of the PDP. In stepping out of partisan politics for the meantime, I will continue to be politically engaged. I will also continue to support the government and all the elected officers in Nigeria to repositioning the nation.I will also constructively criticize them when by commission or omission they take actions that could damage the prospects of transforming Nigeria into a productive, merit-based and honestly governed country.Mr. Nnamani later revealed that he was leaving because it had become crystal clear to him that nothing would change in the party in the foreseeable future.He recalled that on November 10, 2015, he led a delegation of concerned party leaders to the Wadata Plaza national secretariat of the party to push for change.We were simply dismissed, Mr. Nnamani said. They simply said they would get back to us. We havent heard from them since then.He said even after the party was defeated in the 2015 general election, and other like-minded party members believed that that defeat could be transformed to victory.We were hopeful and continued to push for reform, Mr. Nnamani said. But as you can see, that hasnt work. Those who led us to defeat have continued to hold the party down.In the circumstance, I have to move on and get on with my life.Read Mr. Nnamanis full statement below.'Without any iota of bitterness in my heart, I have decided to disengage from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and consequently step aside from partisan politics in the interim. I wish to express my profound gratitude to the party that gave me the platform with which I attained the height I did in the politics of our country.How I wish the efforts I mounted with some of my colleagues (many of whom have left the party) to keep the PDP on the path of its noble vision and values had been supported by those who were privileged to be at the helm of affairs of the party, it would have been a different day for the PDP. It would have been a day of victory and pride not of defeat and shame.I recall that the virus of corruption of values and mission was what those my colleagues and I set out to cure through the formation of the PDP Reform Forum in 2010/11. We worked hard to draw up a new direction for the Party.This was to help steer the party away from illegality and impropriety so that PDP can fulfill its promise of being a vanguard of Nigerias political and economic development. A direction defined by strict adherence to basic rules and morality in the management of party affairs. Chief of these values is respect for choice of party members in electing party candidates for elections.With more than half a decade of championing such a fundamental but simple idea, I regret that the PDP leadership continues to rebuff internal democracy. The party allowed itself to be blinded by hubris to believe that it will remain in power and influence for 60 years in spite of several gross missteps and grievous misnomer. We foresaw this ditch and prescribed how to avert falling into it. But we were dismissed as idealistic. Today the idealists have become realists.Recently, even after our avoidable abysmal electoral defeat, I continued to believe that we can still chart a new course and retrieve victory from the jaw of defeat. I continued to urge the leadership of the party to believe that the time of defeat could be the time of renewal, and that renewal requires strategic thinking and bold actions.I urged that this is a time to reembrace internal democracy and principled leadership to reposition the party for new politics. We are living in different times and we need new tools, ethos and codes of conduct. We need to become a party of technocrats and professionals and not a party of mercenaries and rent seekers.We need to become the party of young men and women with new ideas and not a party of political dinosaurs. It is clear now that these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Every day the crisis of confidence and the contradictions in our party deepen. We continue to lose members and morale. The rebuilding some of us had urged on the leadership is not happening. Those who led us to defeat are determined to continue to lead the party as undertakers.I do not believe I should continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today. This is certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country. I do not also believe that the PDP as it is managed today will provide an opportunity for me to continue to play the politics of principles and values which I set for myself as a young man on leaving graduate school and working for a large multinational in the United States in the 70s and 80s.Therefore, today I resign my membership of the PDP. In stepping out of partisan politics for the meantime, I will continue to be politically engaged. I will also continue to support the government and all the elected officers in Nigeria to repositioning the nation. I will also constructively criticize them when by commission or omission they take actions that could damage the prospects of transforming Nigeria into a productive, merit-based and honestly governed country.As I leave PDP, I wish the leaders a new awakening and ethical revival. I cherish all the friends I made while in PDP and hope the friendship will continue to flourish.God bless Nigeria.Senator Ken Nnamani, GCON The people of the Niger Delta have condemned the non-trial of an American citizen who allegedly murdered his Nigerian wife, Mrs. Doris ... The people of the Niger Delta have condemned the non-trial of an American citizen who allegedly murdered his Nigerian wife, Mrs. Doris Anasesia Lambert (nee Oaikhena), in Houston, Texas.A statement by Comrade Joseph Evah of the Ijaw Monitoring Group, demanded the trial of the suspect. We are worried that the American embassy in Nigeria ignored the father and mother of the dead who suffered depression now resulting to hypertension because of the gruesome killing of their daughter in the US, the statement said.We are aware that Americans are ready to defend the rights of their citizens anywhere in the world with all their strength, the same way Niger Deltans are prepared to defend the rights of their citizens. Therefore, the attitude of the US towards our Uromi, Edo State-born daughter is unacceptable to our people.The gruesome manner Doris was killed with her body found inside the kitchen freezer in their home after two weeks is inhuman and we demand justice for the crime. A Nigerian and an Egyptian student were killed while another was injured in an accident at Jalan Mahameru, Malaysia yesterday. The t... A Nigerian and an Egyptian student were killed while another was injured in an accident at Jalan Mahameru, Malaysia yesterday.The trio was travelling by road when the driver was believed to have lost control of the vehicle at about 3:00 a.m. local time.City Traffic Investigation and Legal staff officer, Deputy Superintendent S. Markandan, said the vehicle had steered to the left and crashed into a divider.The driver of the vehicle, Ahmadu Bello Danbatta from Nigeria, and a passenger identified as Islam Deeb from Egypt were pronounced dead at the scene.Another passenger identified as Ahlam Shuib sustained injuries on his lips, he said, adding that all three victims were students at a private college.The bodies were sent to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for post-mortem.The victim who was injured in the incident was also sent to the same hospital for treatment. President Muhammadu Buhari believes that Nigerians seeking asylum in Europe are doing so mainly for economic reasons and not because th... President Muhammadu Buhari believes that Nigerians seeking asylum in Europe are doing so mainly for economic reasons and not because they are in danger as they often claim.He therefore asked those keen on joining the migrant exodus to desist as some Nigerians have already damaged the countrys reputation through their criminal acts in their host countries.Buhari spoke to The Telegraph of London during his visit to England as one of the worlds leaders to take part in the international conference on the Syrian crisis and the ongoing war on terror..Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking, he was quoted as saying.He added:I dont think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home, where their services are required to rebuild the country.The paper said that only around one in ten of the 13,000 asylum claims lodged by Nigerians in Britain in the last 15 years have been accepted.He was of the view that some Nigerians needed to improve their behaviour and said: We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way to salvage that.Buhari hoped Britain would not relent in assisting Nigeria to apprehend Nigerians being sought by government for stealing public funds.The legal process in this country is slow, sometimes a little too slow for my liking, he said of the process of nabbing those being sought for corruption and trying them . But we still respect the system because we know it is thorough and fair. MANCHESTER -- A man was shot to death by police early Saturday morning after he barricaded himself in his home in a Manchester mobile home park. The death of the man, who has not been identified, at Pine Acres Manor is under investigation by the New Jersey State Police and the state Attorney General's Office, said Manchester police Capt. Todd Malland. Malland said the investigation is under state jurisdiction because it is an officer-involved shooting. He did not provide details of the incident, which he said occurred early Saturday morning. A law enforcement source briefed on the investigation said the man was killed and that he was known in the neighborhood to be troublesome at times. Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office would not comment on the case other than to say it was a member of his office who was involved in the shooting. He referred all other inquiries to the state Attorney General's Office. The Attorney General's Office has not yet responded to a message placed by NJ Advance Media on Saturday morning requesting more information. MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook. ATKINSON, N.H. -- Gov. Chris Christie's last shred of hope in New Hampshire is that he can beat the other governors in the race, the guys he says really know how to run things, and not just talk. It's not much, but that consolation prize could justify his staying in the race a while longer. So I drove through the snow Friday morning to check out his toughest competition in that mini-race, Ohio Gov. John Kasich. And here's my prediction: Kasich is going to thump Christie soundly and drive him out of the race. Kasich is nerdy guy who lacks the polish of other candidates. He doesn't tell moving personal stories like Christie does. He doesn't attack his opponents. He doesn't invoke God's will on the campaign trail much because, he says, "That cheapens God." In a day of celebrity politicians, he's the nerdy friend next door who helps you fix your lawnmower. "He sounds like a gentleman," said Perry Johnson, a local who was considering Christie until Kasich won him over at this meeting. "I don't like the arrogant rude stuff." What struck me, after years of listening to Christie, was Kasich's quiet confidence, his complete lack of calculation. He doesn't seem to care whether he is checking off each box to satisfy orthodox conservatives. So, when one man asked why he didn't push for a "Right to Work" law in Ohio to make union organizing more difficult, he said it would start a futile political fight, and that he has instead enlisted the private sector unions to help him lure business to the state. "If organized labor wants to cooperate with business, I have no problem at all," he said. "I will fight with anybody, but I'm going to fight when it's meaningful and when we can get something accomplished. "Besides, you know what the unions are? They are middle-class. And I like to have middle-class." Kasich is a conservative guy, but he's secure enough in his convictions that he won't dress up and dance for the Tea Party crowd, as Christie has. He has stuck with his support for bipartisan immigration reform, and Common Core education standards. He kicked off the town hall by saying America is in good shape, and that we can solve our problems by talking to one another in good faith. We need to use our brains, he said, but we also need to use our hearts. "You can't fake that," he said. "It's the way you're made." A while back I called a bunch of people in Ohio who fight with Kasich regularly, like a political columnist for the state's largest newspaper and the president of the teachers' union. They all said he treats everyone with respect. "He's allowed us to have conversations," said Mellissa Cropper, head of the Ohio Federation of Teachers. "If I had to choose a Republican, I'd choose Kasich." I hung up the phone and tried to imagine a world like that. To get there from Jersey, I'm pretty sure you have to go somewhere over the rainbow. Kasich may sound like a Democrat in disguise at times, but he's not. He is a nightmare on abortion rights, and has signed one obnoxious restriction after another. He opposes gay marriage, and even same-sex adoptions, something that New Jersey approved back in Christie Whitman's day. He favors a military build-up, and a Constitutional amendment to balance the budget. He is really his own brand. And it starts and ends with a focus on results. Which brings me to the final contrast with Christie. Ohio is thriving, its credit rating has improved, and its pensions are mostly funded. And Kasich is wildly popular, with an approval rating of 62 percent, roughly twice Christie's. Maybe my prediction reflects some wishful thinking. I do like this guy's style. But so did the crowd here in Atkinson. So if anyone wants to bet $1 on this, make me an offer. More: Tom Moran columns Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. By Gary C. Woodward You probably already know that we're four times more likely to be struck by lightning than from a terrorist attack. You wouldn't know that by watching or reading the news, though. It's a problem I call a "news inversion" -- when a story about a limited number of usual events seems to signal a cataclysm of huge proportions. The more media coverage a crime story gets, the less likely that its crime category represents a serious threat to other citizens. This is generally true for New Jersey. Take murder, for example. Any unnecessary death is one too many, of course. And yet, the state was somewhat below the national average with 337 homicides in 2014. Even so, murder as a subject was mentioned over 6,400 times in an 11 month period in just one source: NJ.Com. That holds true for suicides, as well. The state experienced 757 last year -- among the lowest per capita rates in the nation -- but it got nearly 4,000 mentions in the same database, and extended air time from area broadcasters focused on particular cases, many involving New Jersey residents. This isn't an entirely new phenomenon. Political communication scholar Doris Graber published a study of crime news, using stories found in The Chicago Tribune ("Mass Media and American Politics," 1993). In her study, the most reported category was murder, which in 1991 was 0.3 percent (925) of all the crimes documented in the city's Uniform Crime Report. But in the Tribune murders got 64 percent of the coverage. More common crimes, such as theft, got comparatively little coverage. Think of CNN's current preoccupation with global terrorism. It is both a serious problem and seriously over-covered, at least in relation of other pressing world concerns. News inversions tend to convert a single example into a rule. Our brains are hardwired to want to generalize to the whole from a few specific cases. In communication terms, this is the function of a synecdoche, a fancy word for the straightforward idea that we like to use a single case to stand for the whole. It's one of the most efficient rhetorical tropes a news organization can employ. Using it one might conclude that the 1999 actions of mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High School in Colorado points to what is wrong with children raised in affluent suburbs. But perhaps there is no link at all. As with this case, there is always an abundance of experts ready to take the bait of television notoriety to speculate on what an event like this "means" to the nation. Most commentators cannot resist the synecdoche. It makes the world simpler. It makes for good television. And it saves the expert from the potentially embarrassing but intellectually honest assessment that a given case, even a mass murder, is perhaps significant of nothing. The truth is that seriously deviant individuals engage in acts with unknowable causes, following a vague string of logic known only to them. But to actually say that is to leave the third act of a traumatic episode unwritten. And so we write social significance scripts based on mostly unrepresentative cases. This explains the endless panic mode of the 24/7 "Breaking news" cycle. Everything covered is urgent. Everything represents an early warning of a bigger and ominous trend. How do we counteract this compulsion to find meaning and at the same time maintain our own sense of equilibrium? Step back. Tune out. The world is not ending. The awful events documented and reported on a given day are often only going to make true sense as single aberrations, mostly useless in making generalizations about long-term trends in American life or the global culture. More specifically, limit you time and your children spend in the presence of television news reporting. This is especially important for seniors, who typically gorge themselves on video and TV news. We have good evidence that, like most of us, older Americans generally over-estimate how dangerous their community and the world really is. Gary C. Woodward is a Professor of Communication Studies at The College of New Jersey and most recently the author of "The Rhetoric of Intention in Human Affairs." He blogs at theperfectresponse.com. Follow NJ.com Opinion on Twitter @NJ_Opinion. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. CLIFTON -- Federal authorities have arrested at least six people and confiscated $10 million worth of heroin in Clifton, according to a Northjersey.com report. The report said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in New Jersey made the busts on Friday, but have not yet released identities of the suspects or details of the investigation. The 20 kilograms of heroin seized would have been worth $10 million when repackaged for street sales of between $5 and $10 per dose of heroin, DEA spokesman Timothy McMahon told the news organization. He said 1 kilogram can yield as much as 50,000 doses of the drug. MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook. TRENTON -- One in four Donald Trump supporters in Iowa failed to show up to the state's presidential caucuses last week to cast ballots for him, a new Montclair University poll has found. Every election will have some voters who don't go to the polls for one reason or another. But Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said the fall-off in support for Trump was especially noteworthy because it was enough to give U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas a victory in the Republican caucus, the first nominating contest in the presidential race. A pre-Iowa caucus poll had Trump with a 7-point lead from Jan. 23 through Jan. 26, with with 30 percent support for the real estate tycoon, and 23 percent backing Cruz. Monmouth found that among those who initially supported Trump, 24 percent decided to stay home on caucus night -- far more than the number of initial Cruz and Rubio (both 13 percent) supporters who did not participate. More murky is why Trump's supporters bailed out. "One issue is that they are not regular caucus voters," Murray said. "We knew that the Trump voters were disproportionately drawn from people who don't participate in these kind of events. It's not something ingrained into them as their civic duty." But Murray said there were several other reasons given by the panelists interviewed. "For some of them, the initial thrill had gone," Murray said, while others pointed to the fact that Trump "didn't show up in Iowa" for the seventh GOP debate, opting to hold his own event instead. And the narrow window of time during which Iowans can caucus -- 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. , could have been a factor, too. In all cases, the sub-sample was just "way too small to put a percentage on it with any statistical reliability." Regardless of what caused them to vanish, Murray says he thinks the differential to be large enough such that "we may see a falloff in people who say they are for Trump right now but wind up staying home" when the New Hampshire primary is held on Feb. 9. Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. TRENTON -- Atlantic City may run out of money within three weeks after the Borgata casino announced Friday it will stop paying taxes until the city hands over $62.5 million in court-ordered tax refunds. It's the latest in a long stretch of bad news for the financially ailing Jersey Shore gambling resort town, which has spent more than year reeling from the closure of four casinos -- a scenario that has decimated its tax base and led top New Jersey officials to announce a proposal last month for the state assume greater control of the city's finances to stave off municipal bankruptcy. It was previously expected the city would not run out of cash until April, but city attorneys Friday said the Borgata's announcement means that could happen as soon as Feb 24, according to a report by the Press of Atlantic City. What happens next is uncertain. The state takeover legislation -- championed by Gov. Chris Christie and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) -- has not even been introduced yet. Mayor Don Guardian said Friday that Borgata skipping tax payments "would be devastating to Atlantic City." But he added that the state can immediately seek mediation to come to a settlement with the casino. "Today's ruling emphasizes the state's role and partnership in helping Atlantic City to come to an acceptable solution with Borgata," Guardian said. Atlantic City owes more than $170 million to the Borgata in tax appeals that the gambling hall won from tax courts by challenging its assessed value. The Borgata remains the city's most successful casino -- and one of the most successful in the world -- though ever-growing competition from neighboring states has caused Atlantic City's gaming market to shrink. Courts have ordered Atlantic City to pay the Borgata $62.5 million for the tax years 2009 to 2010, but the cash-strapped city has not been able to make the payments. On Friday, though, state Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez declared that the city must pay the casino that amount. The judge also barred the Borgata from trying to seize city assets to collect the judgement for at least 45 days so that the parties can discuss a settlement. But Mendez did allow the casino to stop making its current tax payments while the case is unresolved -- something it is legally allowed to do. Joe Corbo, an attorney for the Borgata, said the casino did not decide to cease those payments "lightly." "We have been tremendously patient, giving city officials every opportunity to pay the amounts we are owed, or to engage us in good-faith negotiations," Corbo said in a statement. "But after years of delays and unsuccessful appeals by the city, we can wait no longer." Spokesmen for the city, Christie, and Sweeney did not answer whether this means the idea of declaring bankruptcy is back on the table. The plan for the state to take greater control of the city's finances was designed to avoid that. Sweeney has yet to introduce the legislation, though it's expected it will drop as early as next week. Then, both houses of the state Legislature would have to pass it and Christie would have to sign it into law before it takes effect. Richard McGrath, a Sweeney spokesman, said Friday's news "should send a clear message to everyone who has a role and responsibility in helping to restore the city's fiscal health that they should support" the upcoming legislation. "This plan would help provide the resources, the reforms, and the ability to bring stability to city finances," McGrath said. The city's budget has been severely crippled by the ongoing saturation of gaming in the northeast. But state officials have also accused the local government of not doing enough to reel in its spending and make enough needed cuts. Guardian has argued that the city has worked closely with a state monitor and emergency manager. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. NASHUA, N.H. -- A notorious Chris Christie administration foe who tried for years to get the governor on her show came face-to-face with him in New Hampshire, and, well, it was a pleasant exchange. Rachel Maddow, of MSNBC, who Christie has accused of trying to sink his political career, had the New Jersey governor in her sights on Friday. But no battle ensued. "Rachel, Rachel, how are you?" Christie, a Republican presidential contender, asked Maddow at the end of one of his campaign events. "We had to come all the way here to get you," Maddow responded. "Rachel, you've been beating the crap out of me for years, you expect me to voluntarily come on your program? Come on," Christie said with a smile. Maddow pressed Christie on the differences between his New Jersey and New Hampshire town halls, and the two talked businessman Donald Trump and what it's like for an "ethnic" politician from the northeast to run a national campaign. "See governor? We can have an interesting conversation, you and I," Maddow concluded on her show. "I come to cover you as a politician, not to burry you as some sort of cartoonish villain. We could do this again sometime -- be not afraid, that went fine. Even if I had asked you hard questions, it still would have been fine, you know it would have been." The MSNBC host is notorious within the Christie administration for driving what they consider unfair media treatment in the aftermath of the George Washington Bridge scandal. Christie has publicly attacked the network in the wake of the controversy of trying to sink his presidential campaign and political career. Privately, Christie and his supporters accused Maddow of being the biggest offender on driving Bridgegate coverage. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Follow NJ.com Politics on Facebook. TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie accused "Fox & Friends" co-host Steve Doocy of being biased in favor of Republican presidential rival Donald Trump's campaign on Friday night. Appearing on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," Christie was asked by host Bill O'Reilly if he really believed that "the 'Fox & Friends' guys are rooting for Trump?" Christie responded: "I think that Doocy gets me on the air and asks me, you know, four questions on Donald Trump. You know, 'Should Donald Trump have a do-over in Iowa?' You know, once you ask it the third time, you should get it off it." O'Reilly then pressed the governor, asking again, more directly: "Do you think they're rooting for Trump in the mornings here?" "I think Doocy might be rooting for Trump, yeah," Christie finally answered. O'Reilly didn't deny that Doocy might prefer Trump, but added that overall, his conservative news network offered a blend of opinions. "I don't think that there's any surge for any one candidate on this network," O'Reilly said. "I think it's all over the place. I mean, we got people rooting for you, got people rooting for Trump, people rooting for Cruz, Rubio, whatever it may be." But for Christie, it was an unusual complaint, particularly since the governor has sought to make light of Trump's decision not to participate in the seventh GOP debate over what the tycoon alleged was bias against him by Fox News host Megyn Kelly. After Trump failed to get Kelly removed as a debate moderator and pulled out of the Fox-sponsored debate, Christie went on the offensive, saying that the tycoon had made "a big mistake" that "makes people call into question his judgment." "I got knocked down from the main debate stage to the undercard debate by Fox Business News," Christie observed last month during an interview on Boston Herald Radio. "I thought it was unfair, but I didn't whine. I didn't complain." Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie's chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association in 2014 is still paying dividends in 2016, with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday endorsing Christie's bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Baker will also campaign with Christie at a rally Saturday in Bedford, N.H. The Massachusetts governor was elected in 2014 with the help of some $11.4 million in RGA campaign funds supplied by Christie, and when he was inaugurated in 2015, Christie attended. The two men had appeared a Bruce Springsteen concert together in Boston on Thursday night, capping months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, a source told NJ Advance Media. In a statement released to media, Baker called Christie "the leader our nation needs in Washington" adding that "creating over 230,000 private-sector jobs shows that he is ready to take on the serious challenges our next President will face." New Jersey's jobless rate is currently 5.1 percent, close to the national 5 percent unemployment rate after lagging badly for most of this decade. Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. It was the kind of controversy only a presidential campaign could create. In November 2014, Gov. Chris Christie rejected a bill to ban the use of pig-gestation crates in New Jersey. And critics blamed it on the fact that Christie didn't want to upset voters in Iowa as he eyed the Republican nomination for the White House. Even celebrities like Cher, Danny DeVito, Martha Stewart, and Bill Maher jabbed at him about it. But now that Christie finished near the bottom of this week's Iowa caucuses, does that mean the bill has a shot at revival? Don't bet on it, said the measure's sponsor, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak. "I would reintroduce it if I had enough votes to override or if I had the governor's support," Lesniak (D-Union) said. Both of those things, however, appear to be long shots, the veteran state lawmaker said. Lesniak has already tried to override Christie's veto twice and failed, and he doesn't expect Republicans -- or the governor -- to change their minds suddenly. The crates keep pregnant pigs in place during the birthing process, but activists say it doesn't allow the animals to move much or lay down. Christie said he vetoed the measure because "partisan politicians" were driving the issue, considering there is no proof of pig crates being used in New Jersey. For comparison's sake, Iowa has 20 million pigs compared to New Jersey's 9,000, according to date from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "This bill is a solution in search of a problem," the governor said in his veto message. "It is a political movement masquerading as substantive policy." Lesniak, a likely Democratic candidate for governor next year, stresses that he didn't introduce the measure out of politics. "This is a nation-wide movement to end this cruelty," he said. "We just wanted to make a general statement: Animals shouldn't be treated cruelly." "I don't think, unfortunately, that's a concern of Gov. Christie." The pig farmer vote apparently didn't do much for Christie, who finished 10th out of 12 candidates, with 1.8 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. Christie's office declined to comment, referring to the governor's veto message. TRENTON -- When Gov. Chris Christie and six other Republican presidential candidates gather Saturday night in New Hampshire for the eighth GOP debate, the tension is likely to be high. Not only is it the final debate before New Hampshire voters head to the polls Tuesday in the nation's first presidential primary -- but Donald Trump will be back on stage. And political experts say the billionaire businessman may be pelted with more attacks than ever now that his status as the GOP front-runner appears to have weakened over the last 10 days. "He has now made himself such an easy target," said Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University. The reason? Trump, a former Atlantic City casino magnate, skipped last week's seventh debate in Iowa amid a dispute with host Fox News. And a few days later, the real estate mogul finished second to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the Republican race at the Iowa caucuses -- the first nominating contest of the battle for the White House -- even though polls predicted him to win. Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said Trump's decision to boycott the last debate drove some of his Iowa supporters away because it "suggested to them that he was not taking this seriously." That, Murray said, makes Saturday's debate important for Trump, even though he heads into the New Hampshire primary with a double-digit lead in the polls. "He doesn't need to win any of the issues on points," Murray said. "He simply needs to show he is engaged and committed to this presidential run to keep his base from deserting him -- mainly by staying home." Trump's absence in the previous debate allowed two of his closest competitors, Cruz and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, to attract more attention. And that, experts say, may have helped Cruz to a victory in Iowa and Rubio to a surprisingly strong third-place showing. Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, said the Iowa loss "punctured (Trump's) aura of invincibility." And that, he said, gives his rivals -- especially Cruz and Rubio -- a chance in Saturday's debate to deal a significant blow to a candidate who has upended the GOP race and gobbled most of the media attention for months. "The scent of blood has the dogs barking loudly," Sabato said. Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, offered a similar metaphor. "Like all sharks, the other hopefuls have a keen sense when there is blood in the water," Baker said. "And while Trump is not a big bleeder, there is enough of it to draw the great whites. Getting back in and throwing punches is Trump's best shark repellent." Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, said Trump "either needs to show he knows something about real policy or absolutely eviscerate Rubio and Cruz to show he is the big dog not tamed by his Iowa loss." Harrison added that Rubio's sudden rise means he, too, "will be wearing a bulls-eye." And as for Christie? The New Jersey governor has pinned his presidential hopes on New Hampshire, but recent polls show him in the middle of the pack there. On Saturday night, Hale said, the governor "may have to stop being nice and attack the people on the stage, and not just Hillary." It's uncertain if Christie will go after Trump. But Murray said he expects Christie to "come out with all guns ablaze, with Rubio as the primary target." Trump's campaign, of course, is hardly dead. He is the favorite to win in New Hampshire, and he holds a strong lead in both the national polls and in South Carolina, the host of the country's second primary Feb. 20. But experts stress that a win in New Hampshire is critical -- and that makes Saturday's debate critical, too. "Trump needs to make a strong case for himself," Sabato said. "New Hampshire voters can turn on a dime in the last 72 hours." Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. LINDEN -- A Roselle man who was at large after he allegedly shot a gun during a fight at a family picnic has turned himself in to police. Linden Police Capt. James Sarnicki said that on July 25, 2015 Marco E. Zguro, 36, of Roselle, was attending a family barbecue in Linden, when he pulled out a handgun during a dispute and fired it, but the intended victim quickly ducked out of the way. Zguro then fled the scene before police arrived, Sarnicki said. In a follow-up investigation, Linden Detective Kenneth Mikolajczyk obtained arrest warrants for Zguro charging him with aggravated assault and weapons offenses. Bail for Zguro was set at $100,000. Police circulated his photo and warrants to other law enforcement agencies and the media, but Zguro eluded capture, Sarnicki said. He said on Thursday, Zguro turned himself in to local authorities. Zguro was booked on the charges and posted a surety bond, according to Sarnicki. However, Sarnicki said, police also found that Zguro was wanted on a fugitive warrant out of New York City for a DUI charge, and so he was remanded to the Union County jail pending an extradition hearing. Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The barber shop where the shooting took place is on the second floor of this building. Photo by Wilborn P. Nobles III) 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. Scott Root was supposed to walk his daughter down the aisle. He was supposed to be there when she had children. He supposed to watch her continue to grow into adulthood. But I wont be able to, Scott Root said. Sarah Root, 21, died from injuries suffered Sunday in a vehicle wreck in Omaha. The driver of the other vehicle has been accused of street racing while drunk. Its a mind blower, Scott Root said. Im in shock. Family and friends are among the devastated as they deal with the loss of a woman described as giving, sweet, a fantastic person and hard-working, among heaps of praise. Very outgoing. She loved to be around her family and friends, said Cori Shaw, a friend of Sarah and the girlfriend of Sarahs brother Scott. (He and his father have different middle names, so hes not Scott Jr.) She was super smart and talented at every thing she did. She had the most beautiful laugh and smile. It was contagious, Shaw said of Root, who was a 2012 Abraham Lincoln High School graduate. Shed do anything for anyone. On the morning of Jan. 30, Root graduated from Bellevue University with a 4.0 grade-point average, earning a bachelors degree in investigations. She planned to pursue a career in law enforcement as a crime lab technician, according to the younger Scott Root. That night, in the early morning hours on Sunday, Jan. 31, Root was driving a 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada east on L Street when her vehicle was struck from behind by an 2000 Chevrolet 2500 pickup truck driven by Eswin G. Mejia, according to the Omaha Police Department. Roots SUV was stopped or slowing down when it was rear-ended, police said. Mejia, who doesnt have a valid drivers license, was treated at the Nebraska Medical Center for a leg injury before being booked into Douglas County Jail on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. Douglas County Judge Jeffrey Marcuzzo ordered Eswin G. Mejia, 19, held on 10 percent of $50,000 bail during a court appearance Thursday. Mejia is accused of felony motor vehicle homicide while driving under the influence and faces 20 years in prison if convicted. David Wear, a deputy prosecutor with the Douglas County Attorneys Office, said that Mejia was racing east on L Street near 33rd Street and had a blood-alcohol content of .241, over three times the legal driving limit. Mejia must pay $5,000 to be released from jail. Defense attorney Thomas L. Niklitschek, who spoke with Mejia through a Spanish interpreter, said it was his understanding that Omaha police officers are looking for the other vehicle involved in the race. He declined to comment on the allegations against his client other than to lament the loss of life involved. My investigation is just getting started, Niklitschek said. After the wreck, doctors at the Nebraska Medical Center told the family that Sarah Root wouldnt make it, her brother said. She was an organ donor, so the family and hospital kept her on life support until Wednesday. Six patients received Roots organs. She was able to save six lives, her brother said. With tissue and bone as well, the hospital said she could improve the lives of 62 more. Even though she passed, she was able to still give to others. She always gave to others. Along with her father and brother, Sarah Root is survived by her mother, Michelle; stepmother Marilyn; grandparents Sharon Wilson and Jim and Joyce Wilson; and other family members and friends. A celebration of her life is planned a 3 p.m. at Hoy-Kilnoski Funeral Home, with a 2 p.m. visitation beforehand. A vigil for Sarah Root is planned at 7:30 p.m. Sunday night at Bayliss Park. Additionally, her friend Nicole Jensen has spearheaded a GoFundMe page to raise money for the family. As of Friday afternoon, the page had raised $4,425 toward a $5,000 goal. To donate, go to goo.gl/XzuRpb. Jensen said Roots passing doesnt seem real. Shaw and her mother, Carolyn, organized a T-shirt fundraiser to help the family. The shirt features an acronym of Sarahs first name, with adjectives strong, adorable, remarkable, amazing and heavenly. The back reads #Believe, with the L replaced by the blue drunken-driving awareness ribbon. The right sleeve features #StrongRoots. So far organizers have raised $1,000 through the fundraiser, and the popularity spurred a second order. Orders will be accepted at Anytime Tees by calling (712) 256-1151 through next Thursday, Feb. 11. Sarah was a sweet, sweet girl. The accident is just quite a tragedy. Were all doing whatever we can to help cope and help support Sarah and her family, Carolyn Shaw said. The outpouring from the community has been outstanding. Its just a testament to what a fantastic person Sarah was. Her memory will certainly live on. A benefit event is tentatively planned for March as well. Scott Root, the father, said he couldnt believe the amount of support. There are a lot of good people out there, he said. His son agreed. Its crazy how much the community bands together, the younger Scott Root said. You dont even realize it until something like this happens. Kevin Cole and Andrew Nelson of the BH Media News Service contributed to this story. A 26-year-old former Chicago-area resident has been found guilty of murder and child endangerment in the death of his daughter at his southwest Iowa home. Charles Halls trial took place last week. A jury returned two guilty verdicts Friday in the May death of 3-year-old Janyiah King at Halls home in Bedford in Taylor County. Hall will be sentenced later this month, as will April Clair, 26, who was Halls live-in girlfriend on May 22 when she found Janyiahs body. Clair has pleaded guilty to child endangerment resulting in bodily injury, a lesser charge than the initial endangerment charge, in return for truthful testimony in Halls trial. Janyiah had been staying with Clair and Hall for several weeks leading up to her death. Janyiah normally lived in the Chicago area with her mother, but Clair and Hall had recently had a baby girl together, and Hall and Janyiahs mother wanted to give Janyiah a chance to get to know her little sister, said Clint Spurrier, the Taylor County attorney. At the trial, Clair testified that on May 22 she left their home at 9 a.m. to help a cousin with groceries. Hall was alone with the child. She returned about 11:30 a.m. to find Hall outside their home, smoking a cigarillo. As he finished smoking, he said he needed to go get a tire fixed and left. Clair found Janyiah lying on the bathroom floor, unresponsive. She called 911. The first deputy on the scene found Janyiahs body cold to the touch. The childs body had several recent injuries, including skin on her buttocks and face that had sloughed off from either burning or being struck. She had suffered blunt-force trauma to the backs of her legs and to the right side of her face, and had suffered burns, Spurrier said. Hall and Clair told investigators they did not seek medical help after the child knocked a pot of boiling water onto herself about two weeks before, according to court documents. Both were charged with child endangerment causing serious injury. An autopsy found that the child had died of asphyxiation, most likely by drowning, Spurrier said. The bathtub had standing water in it. The death was ruled a homicide, and prosecutors charged Hall with first-degree murder. Clair continued to face a charge because she did not seek medical help for the child after she suffered the injuries, Spurrier said. Danny Spracklin could find himself staying a lot longer in prison. Spracklin, already serving 25 years in prison on theft and drug charges, is back in Pottawattamie County Jail after he has allegedly been tied to another vehicle theft and police chase. While serving time at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville, the State of Iowa charged Spracklin with stealing a 2008 red Ford F-350 in November 2014. Additionally, Spracklin reportedly eluded Council Bluffs police by driving the truck from the 23,000 block of Highway 6 onto Interstate 80 and then into Nebraska. An arrest warrant was approved in June, while Spracklin was in custody in Coralville. He was brought to Pottawattamie County to face these felony charges on Tuesday. Spracklin remains in Pottawattamie County Jail. His next court date on the new charges is a preliminary hearing on Friday, Feb. 12. If convicted on both charges, Spracklin could face up to 15 additional years in prison. According to prison records, currently, the earliest he could be released in 2026 after his guilty plea last April. Nine months ago, Spracklin pleaded guilty to second-degree theft, two counts of possession of a methamphetamine, trafficking in stolen weapons, first-degree theft and one count of escape from custody. The combined sentences led to Fourth Judicial Court Judge James Heckerman sentencing Spracklin to up to 25 years in prison. While serving time in Iowa, Spracklin is also concurrently serving a Nebraska sentence. In September 2015, Spracklin was sentenced was sentenced to up to seven years in prison for theft by receiving after pleading no contest and being found guilty. Nineteen hours after being badly burned in a furnace explosion at Gunn School, custodian Gerald Dixon died at Mercy Hospital on May 16, 1967. The Council Bluffs Community School District employee was found by Gunns principal, Doris Woodling, after the 9:10 a.m. explosion with his clothes on fire, according to The Daily Nonpareils archives. A teacher at the school was helping him extinguish the flames. Dixon, 67, urged them to stay away from the furnace room, and Superintendent Robert Benton ordered the evacuation of the school. Students returned to Gunn the next day, and the roughly 300 children were told of the passing of the kindhearted man who was known as everybodys grandpa at the school. Two former Gunn fifth-graders, who vividly remember that day in May nearly five decades ago, want to do something to remember Dixon. They have proposed a memorial be placed in Kimball Park on North Broadway, as the school has since been sold for redevelopment, and dedicated for the 50th anniversary of the incident in 2017. Thats the local place for it, said David Van Houten, adding that initial talks with the city have taken place. Julie Foote, who with Van Houten has organized the memorial effort, said they have sought the school boards support for the idea. Board members approved a resolution on Jan. 26 supporting the seeking of private donations for a memorial bench near the former Gunn School grounds. The organizers, who also graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School and the former Kirn Middle School, said they will now begin work in earnest to organize funds, including planning community events, so they can bring in a consultant to plan the project and seek the necessary approvals. Van Houten said they hope to create a place for area residents to sit and reflect along with a narrative of what happened that day, especially those who remember attending Gunn School and who knew Dixon, who was a Council Bluffs resident and native of Papillion, Nebraska. We talked about bricks in front of it, Foote said. Whatever they would allow, and whatever our funds will allow. Both Foote and Van Houten were in music class that day back in 1967 when they heard loud crashing sounds, the galvanized steel garbage cans at the foot of the stairway to the basement being blown into the ceiling and then falling when the gas explosion happened in the utility room. We were all escorted outside, Foote said. We didnt know at this point. We actually knew very little. They scooted us outside. ... I remember just standing around, and no one was saying anything. Van Houten said students were eventually dismissed after being told Dixon was injured. They saw the ambulance and fire trucks arriving, and the next day school was able to resume safely. He died at 4 a.m., Van Houten said. They told us at school, and that was it. If something like that happened today, youd have the grief counselors and everything there, but there was nothing at that time. Added Foote: It was devastating to us. There was not a kid in the school that didnt think of him as a grandpa or an uncle. Dixon always took time to talk to the children, she said. Her reaction to learning he was hurt was wanting to go to the hospital to touch him. We were so young, Foote said. It was just devastating to us, and then it was over. There was no, Do you want to go to the funeral? The funeral is going to be such-and-such. Everything was kind of different back in the day. Van Houten had the idea of a memorial, with the 50 year marker coming up, and they decided they should do something. Foote said it just seemed sad that nothing happened to honor him because the blast was ruled an accident. It is just something that has been neglected, Van Houten said. The organizers havent approached surviving family members yet, although they believe some relatives remain in southwest Iowa. They plan to involve them when the times right, Van Houten said, and the next step will be reaching out to community groups and classmates for donations and volunteers for a committee to work on the memorial project. There are a couple of other folks that were in our grade that are still in town here that would probably be interested in helping out, Van Houten said. Anyone interested in helping with the project can email Van Houten at dlvhdiver@cox.net or Foote at juliekf55@gmail.com. Donations can be made at U.S. Bank branches to the Gerald Dixon Memorial Fund. An owner of O Face Bar, made notorious on Spike TVs Bar Rescue in 2014, has been accused of sexual assault. Matthew Overmyer, 35, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree sexual abuse and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse by the Pottawattamie County Sheriffs Office around 5:20 p.m. on Thursday evening. The alleged abuse took place at a home in the 2300 block of Old Lincoln Highway in Crescent. Overmyer allegedly attacked an adult woman, who works at O Face Bar, at midnight on Tuesday. According to the arrest affidavit, Overmyer reportedly used physical force, including strangulation, to have sex with the victim twice. The victim called several people after the alleged attack, and one source reportedly told Pottawattamie County criminal investigators that Overmyer tried to re-enter the room after the victim locked him out. The assault allegedly took place while Overmyers wife was out of town. Overmyer and his wife own the bar, according to Pottawattamie County property records and Iowa Secretary of State corporation records. According to the arrest affidavit, Overmyer did not speak with investigators. Michael Hooper, Overmyers attorney, told The Daily Nonpareil on Friday afternoon that his client will plead not guilty. Hooper said he expects the case to be dismissed. And, if not, were definitely taking this to trial, Hooper said. Overmyer faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of second-degree sexual abuse, which is a Class B felony. Assault with intent to commit sexual abuse is a Class D felony. Overmyer is free after posting a $50,000 bail Thursday evening a few hours after he was arrested. Overmyer appeared on Bar Rescue on March 23, 2014. The episode of the show, in which the host attempts to turn around failing bars, was titled Punch-Drunk and Trailer-Trashed. The O Face Bar episode featured multiple fights, an employee smoking in a back office, a rundown of police involvement at the bar and profanity-laced tirades. For the first time in the three years of the show, now in its fifth season, host Jon Taffer walked out and refused to rehabilitate the bar. Council Bluffs reaction to the episode was swift, as local residents were largely appalled at how they felt their city was represented on national TV. On May 7, 2014, the Council Bluffs City Council voted 3-2 against renewing O Faces liquor license, citing the actions seen on the episode, although the license was renewed four months later by the state. Overmyers next court date is a preliminary hearing on Friday, Feb. 12. OMAHA Two metro area women are infected with Zika virus, and Douglas County health officials released more information Friday while urging people with symptoms who have visited Zika-affected countries to visit their health-care providers. The Zika virus, declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization on Monday, is primarily spread through mosquito bites. One in five affected adults show symptoms, and it can lead to birth defects in pregnant women. Dr. Adi Pour, director of the Douglas County Health Department, said pregnant woman in particular who have traveled or plan to travel to Zika-affected countries, as well as women who have sexual relationships with men who have visited those countries should take caution. Pour said she could not disclose whether either of the two affected Nebraska women are pregnant. The women, both in their 20s, are believed to have contracted the virus by mosquito bite while traveling. Both showed symptoms, visited their health-care providers and tested positive for the virus. The blood tests were sent to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab in Fort Collins, Colorado. Pour said the testing process at this time takes up to two weeks easily. Neither of the Nebraska women were hospitalized. Pour said both were advised to rest, drink plenty of fluids and take anti-fever medication while symptoms are present. The virus generally leave the blood stream within two weeks, Pour said. The two women, from Sarpy and Douglas counties, were not traveling together. One visited the Caribbean and the other traveled to South America. Anyone developing symptoms within two weeks of returning to Nebraska from a Zika-affected area should notify his or her physician, said Shavonna Lausterer, director of the Sarpy/Cass Department of Health and Wellness. Zika virus usually causes only mild illness in those it affects, but there have been reports of birth defects and other severe health consequences. The World Health Organization on Monday officially called the Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern. Seeing a travel-related case of Zika in Nebraska is new but not unexpected. We were aware of confirmed cases among travelers returning to America from affected areas, said Dr. Tom Safranek, state epidemiologist for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Its very possible that we could see more travel-related cases here. The Zika virus is transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has never been identified in Nebraska. Aedes albopictus might also transmit the virus. This species of mosquito is found in Nebraska but isnt one of the most prevalent. Both bite mostly in the daytime. Pour said mosquitoes in Nebraska will be tested in the spring and summer to see if there are carriers of the virus in the state. Four out of five people infected with Zika virus will never have symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those who do get sick, the most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis or red eyes. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting up to a week. But reports of a birth defect called microcephaly in babies of mothers who were infected with the Zika virus while pregnant have raised alarm. Microcephaly is a rare condition where a babys head is smaller than expected. Health officials are still investigating the potential link. A virus stirring worry globally reached the Omaha area Thursday, with a case of the Zika virus reported in both Douglas and Sarpy counties. Health authorities confirmed the virus in two women in their 20s who had recently traveled to Zika-affected nations. Additionally, a person in Texas was found to have contracted the disease sexually this week, a revelation that has organizations responding with changes in protocols and advice. The American Red Cross, for instance, sent a recommendation this week on blood transfusions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to change its recommendations soon. The World Health Organization on Monday officially called Zika a public health emergency of international concern. The primarily mosquito-borne virus has infected hundreds of thousands of people in South America. And in Brazil, unusually large numbers of cases of microcephaly babies born with small heads and brain damage are suspected of being linked to the virus. Q: What is the Zika virus? A: Its a disease spread mainly by two kinds of mosquitoes. It typically causes mild fever, rash, red eyes and muscle or joint pain. Q: Is it deadly? A: Only about one in five infected people develops symptoms, which are usually mild. It appears that rare victims can suffer serious neurological and autoimmune problems. Q: So why the alarm? A: Last fall Brazilian authorities established a tie between the Zika virus and increasing cases of microcephaly in newborns. Health officials are still investigating the link. Microcephaly is a serious birth defect of the brain in which the babys head is much smaller than normal and there is brain damage. Q: This situation, then, isnt overblown? A: The World Health Organization, or WHO, called the level of alarm extremely high. It cited four reasons: the possible association with birth defects and neurological problems; the potential for further global spread; the lack of immunity in newly affected areas; and the absence of vaccines, treatments and rapid tests. Do I believe we should be concerned? Damned right I do, said Beth Conover, genetic counselor at the University of Nebraska Medical Centers Munroe-Meyer Institute. National Institutes of Health leadership said a major outbreak in the United States is unlikely, though, because of the limited range of the mosquito species that transmit the virus and U.S. housing conditions. Q: How has the picture changed this week? A: Texas health officials said a person there had been infected after having sex with a sick person who had returned from Venezuela. The case intensified concerns and highlighted the unknowns about Zika. Brazilian health authorities on Thursday confirmed a Zika case contracted through a blood transfusion from a donor who had been infected, Reuters reported. On Thursday, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services reported two cases in the Omaha area, the first cases in Nebraska. The American Red Cross this week advised blood donors who have traveled to the Caribbean, Mexico or Central or South America to defer blood donations for 28 days after returning. British health officials already had recommended that men wear condoms for 28 days after returning from an affected area if they are sexually active. Dr. Renuga Vivekanandan, an infectious disease physician at Creighton University Medical Center, said in an email: I think with the new information coming out about possible link to sexual transmission, condoms should be used to prevent transmission. The CDC this week added Jamaica in the Caribbean and Tonga in the South Pacific to the growing list of affected places. Q: Where is this virus? A: For years it was found in African and Asian areas near the equator, but countries and territories with Zika virus transmission now include Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Puerto Rico and many other nations in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Q: Have there been U.S. cases? A: Nebraska has reported two cases, which did not originate in the state. Texas health officials said this week that a person had been infected after having sex with a sick person who had returned from South America. Also, in mid-January, a baby born in Hawaii with microcephaly had been infected with the Zika virus. The babys mother had lived for a time in Brazil last year. There also have been more than 30 people infected with the virus in at least 12 states and Washington, D.C. The cases, confirmed by lab tests, involved patients who had returned to the United States after traveling to an affected region. Q: How did the Zika virus reach the metro area? A: Both women diagnosed, neither one of whom was hospitalized, had recently traveled to Zika-affected countries. Seeing a travel-related case of Zika in Nebraska is new but not unexpected. We were aware of confirmed cases among travelers returning to America from affected areas, said Dr. Tom Safranek, state epidemiologist for DHHS. Its very possible that we could see more travel-related cases here. Q: Can the Zika virus be transmitted in ways besides mosquito bites, such as sexually or through blood transfusions? A. Although officials have said its not clear, the Texas case involved a person who had been infected with the Zika virus after having sex with an ill person who had returned from Venezuela. Concern also has grown that it can be transmitted through blood transfusions. Q: Do all mosquitoes carry the Zika virus? A: It appears that two species carry it. One, Aedes aegypti, is a tropical or subtropical mosquito and appears to be the main culprit. The other, Aedes albopictus, can survive in cooler regions and has been found occasionally in Nebraska and Iowa. Aedes, the WHO says, is a weak flyer but conceivably could be accidentally transported by humans in a car or plane and, perhaps, reproduce in a new area. Q: Whats the cure for the Zika virus? A: There is no cure, and there is no vaccine. A patient with the Zika virus would be treated with supportive care, such as fluids, rest and pain-killing medications. Q: Should people travel to Mexico, Central America and South America? What about the Caribbean? A: The CDC recommends that pregnant women avoid traveling to areas affected by the virus. And women of childbearing ages should visit an affected country only if they diligently use birth control. Among the affected areas in the Caribbean, according to the CDC, are Barbados, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Martin and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Q: What if a pregnant woman recently visited an affected region? A: Those women should consult a doctor. They may well be asked to take a blood test or get an ultrasound scan. Q: If you plan to go to an affected area, what precautions should you take? A: It would be wise to go to a travel clinic, of which the metro area has many, including Dr. Rudolf Kotulas clinic at Methodist Physicians Clinic-Regency, 10060 Regency Circle. Travel clinics have vaccinations (there isnt one for the Zika virus, unfortunately) and information about travel to other nations. A complete list of travel clinics may be acquired from the Douglas County Health Department at douglascountyhealth.com/services-a-clinics or by calling (402) 444-7214, but make it clear that you want the list and not just a recommendation. Q: What other precautions should be taken when going to an affected nation? A: Use mosquito repellents containing DEET, wear clothing with the chemical permethrin on it, wear long sleeves and long pants, sleep in a place with good screens on windows and doors and with mosquito netting over you when you sleep. Q: Is there anything else people should know? A: I think they should stay tuned, Kotula said. They should definitely watch the news, watch for CDC updates. The CDCs watching this very carefully. Sources: Beth Conover, genetic counselor, UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute; Dr. Rudolf Kotula, infectious disease physician, Methodist Physicians Clinic; Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, medical director of the Iowa Department of Public Health; Dr. Renuga Vivekanandan, infectious disease physician at Creighton University Medical Center; National Institutes of Heath; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization; the New York Times; National Public Radio; the Scientist. 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. LU working to improve Ivory Coast's mining education Laurentian University has signed an agreement to help improve mining and French-language education in the west African country of Ivory Coast. Mining industry veterans from Vale Canada, Fuller Supply and Stantec shared some of their knowledge and experience with mining students from Sudburys three post-secondary institutions during the annual Mining Day event at Laurentian University on Thursday evening. File photo Laurentian University has signed an agreement to help improve mining and French-language education in the west African country of Ivory Coast. At the Mine and Agriculture Symposium organized jointly by the Canadian Embassy in Ivory Coast and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), Laurentian Universitys Goodman School of Mines signed a Memorandum of Collaboration with the Groupement des professionnels des mines de Cote dIvoire (GPMCI) and Institute National Polytechnique Felix HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY (INP-HB). The memorandum aims to develop a qualified local workforce able to respond to the growing needs of the mining industry on the Ivory Coast. On the heels of the unveiling of three new bilingual engineering programs in November 2015, Laurentian University illustrates, through this new collaboration, the strong added value of its Francophone component and the significant impact of mining training in both English and French, which is already becoming evident on a global scale, a press release said. The collaboration also aligns with commitments made in its Strategic Plan 2012-2017 for international recognition of its expertise in environment, innovation and mining, and to offer students enriched learning experiences abroad. The signing of this agreement in Ivory Coast the result of a fruitful partnership with our Goodman School of Mines and Office of Francophone Affairs - is a testament to our teams commitment to offer students our bilingual mining engineering program, to provide opportunities to access enriched learning experiences abroad in both languages, and to strive for organizational excellence, allowing us to keep this promise, said Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux. The Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University is happy to exercise its leadership and promote the abilities of its network of experts, to develop and offer programs adapted to the needs of the mining industry in Ivory Coast, said Bruce Jago, executive director of the Goodman School of Mines. This collaboration like the one weve maintained for more than a year with South Africa confirms the value of our human capital, and the prime position that Laurentian is carving out for itself globally. Panthers Bryce Cartwright and Waqa Blake turned on the style to help their side thrash Wests Tigers 23-7 at the Downer NRL Auckland Nines. The scoring started with a perfect right-arm offload from Cartwright which sent Dallin Watene-Zelezniak racing down the sideline to score. With Tigers skipper Chris Lawrence off early to get his hip iced the Panthers forced a drop out and more beautiful work from Cartwright with an over-the-shoulder pass put Blake over for his first. Josh Mansour then steamrolled over for to give Penrith a 12-0 half-time lead. Tigers youngster Tyler Cassel joined his skipper on the sidelines when he went low in a tackle and was concussed early in the second half before Blake cashed in on a simple overlap for his second. A stunning solo effort from Tim Simona, who chipped ahead for himself twice, finally got Wests on the board with a seven-point try under the posts. But the red-hot Cartwright jinked down the right touch line then kicked ahead for Blake to bring up his hat-trick on full-time with a seven-point try of his own and seal a 23-7 win. Cartwright said his strong performance came after his first full NRL pre-season. "I'm just happy to be back throwing the ball around. I've never played at the Nines, and I've watched it both years prior, and I wanted to be out there so much so it's definitely paid off," Cartwright told NRL.com. "[The pre-season has] helped out so much already even at the start of the year, I feel so much better." Lawrence allayed any fears over his long term health after leaving the field early with a hip complaint, although he was ruled out of the Tigers' second game of the day. "I just got kneed in the hip when I was diving for the ball. I went off to get some heat on it but they told me to ice it up and stay off," he said. "I've just corked the hip pointer so it's nothing serious." Penrith Panthers 23 (Blake 3, Watene-Zelezniak, Mansour tries) def Wests Tigers 7 (Simona try) Missing out on being part of last year's victorious effort is driving the majority of the Rabbitohs to taste success again at the 2016 Downer NRL Auckland Nines. Of the 18 players who guided South Sydney to the 2015 Nines title with an 18-14 victory over the Sharks in extra time, only four Bryson Goodwin, Cameron McInnes, Kyle Turner and Jason Clark remain in the squad to defend the title. And for those who watched on from the outside the chance to experience lifting the trophy at Eden Park has them champing at the bit. "Last year I was sitting at home watching the boys lapping it up after winning, so this year I want to be part of that," winger Alex Johnston told NRL.com. "And that's what we are here for again. It's not just a pre-season tournament, they came here to win last year and doing it created a real buzz around camp when they returned. "For me I played at the very first one in 2014, but that was sort of my first taste of first-grade footy so I was a bit nervous. "But this time around I think I will give it a go and try some different things." For veteran John Sutton it's also an opportunity to build some early momentum before the Telstra Premiership kicks off next month. "Last year it definitely had a positive impact on morale, they had a great time in Auckland and they came back and gave the club a real lift," Sutton said. "We will do our best and hopefully come back with that tournament victory again. "Only a few played in the team last year so it's a totally new side. But we are just looking forward to having a good crack at it." The Rabbitohs play the very first game of the 2016 tournament, taking on arch-rivals the Roosters. Nine rookies to set the Nines alight Cronulla all but booked their passage into the Auckland Nines quarter finals with a 17-8 win over the Dragons. Chad Townsend showed surprising pace to open the scoring from a Sam Tagataese offload. Dragons centre Euan Aitken, who proved a handful in both Dragons games on Saturday, finished off a long-range St George Illawarra try down the right edge to get his side on the board. A show-and-go from Ben Barba, running wide inside his own half, saw him slice through the line and it looked very much the 2012 version of the former Bulldogs fullback who raced away to score to put the Sharks up 10-4. Aitken then bagged his double when he chased down a Kurt Mann kick to get back to 10-8 at half-time. There were dramas midway through the second half a strong Tyrone McCarthy offload ended with Kalifa Faifai Loa running in to score but the winger was almost bundled dead as he tried to earn a bonus point. The referees denied the try although replays suggested he had still grounded it safely. It was a key decision a likely five-point lead for the Dragons turning into a two-point deficit. The Sharks rubbed salt in the wound as Gerard Beale finished off a long-range movement in the bonus zone in the final minute to cap a 17-8 win, effectively ending the Dragons' chances of progressing to the knockout stages. Faifai Loa was philosophical about the referees' decision to deny what had appeared to be a fair try. "I know what happened. But it's alright they called it how they saw it. I knew what I was doing though but it didn't pay off I suppose," Faifai Loa told NRL.com. "We'll just look forward to tomorrow now where I can get to play my ex-team (the Titans). "We made mistakes too so if we didn't do that then we would've come up with two decent wins." The result means the Sharks remain on track for another strong Nines campaign, having reached the final in 2015. "We have had a bit of success so far and the boys are having a bit of fun so we're looking to go one better than last year," Chad Townsend told NRL.com. "The support when I was playing for the Warriors is unbelievable, they really get behind the team. Being on the opposite side of the fence is different but it's something I'm still able to enjoy." Cronulla Sharks 17 (Townsend, Barba, Beale tries) def St George Illawarra Dragons 8 (Aitken 2 tries). A second-half fightback from the Titans through their new playmaking pair of Tyrone Roberts and Ash Taylor wasn't enough to stop a convincing Cronulla win in the final first-round pool match of the weekend. A beautiful solo try from Ben Barba opened the scoring next to the posts and former Ipswich playmaker Josh Cleeland bagged Cronulla's second when he finished off a fine team try initiated by Chad Townsend just before half-time to make it 12-0 at the break. The Titans were first to score in the second half when a long ball from new recruit Tyrone Roberts created some space for David Mead and things got awkward from Cronulla when they allowed the restart to go dead. Another new playmaker in Ash Taylor then put Greg Bird over and level up at 12-all. A 50-metre try from Mitch Brown put the Sharks back in front with a seven-point try and with the clock winding down Jack Bird iced the win with a powerful solo try. It was the first taste of Nines rugby league for Sharks co-captain Luke Lewis. "It was good to have a hit out there with the young guys that I haven't played with before. It was a little bit different, it was quick around the ruck but you just had to shut the gate," he told NRL.com. "It was a good experience, I was supposed to come last year and I had a bit of a hiccup so I'm just glad to be here. It's been a fun couple of days, real upbeat, and it's been enjoyable." Roberts said there were some positive signs for his halves combination with Taylor. "He started on the bench so when he came on it was good to link together and we still have a couple of games to go to build on it," Roberts told NRL.com. "Coming to the Gold Coast has been easy going though, all the boys are good, but now it's just a matter of building on our connections now." Cronulla Sharks 23 (Barba, Cleeland, Brown, Bird tries) def Gold Coast Titans 12 (Mead, Bird tries) Summer Moore Deputy Editor - Digital/Audience Engagement Summer is Digital and Audience Engagement Editor at The Times. Her blog documents The Times and Gary Chamber of Commerces Community Civility Counts campaign. The idea is simple: Treat everyone with respect and dignity, even those you disagree with. Follow Summer Moore 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. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today This week I found a definition of civility I think encompasses what we are trying to do with the Civility in the Classroom program. Civility is disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past ones preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreements. It is a necessary prerequisite for civic action. It is also about negotiating interpersonal power such that everyones voice is heard, and nobodys is ignored. This is not my definition. This is taken right from the Institute for Civility in Government. It's absolutely wonderful. This is what we mean when we talk about working towards civility. I am calling this our "working definition," it can be adjusted as needed as we move through our first year. But, this is a terrific start. And it made this week's class much easier. Monday was my turn to stand up in front of the two ninth-grade classes at Lighthouse College Prep Academy in Gary who are participating in our pilot program. This was the week in our plan to help the students understand the big questions: What is this program and why are we taking it? It made the most sense for this information to come from me, as I'm new element in the class. Essentially, why am I here? The class opened with what's called a "do now." The students are given a worksheet with questions and are asked to write their answers on their own. This gets their minds ready to talk about the program. Our questions were: What do you remember from the first two Civility classes? We gave them our working definition of civility and asked, how do you think this relates to the first two Civility classes? I am looking forward to seeing those answers this weekend. We had them share their answers with each other and then with the class as a whole. Then it was my turn. At the beginning of the semester, we surveyed the students. We asked them 10 questions related to what we are hoping to achieve with this program. The survey questions and results are attached to this blog. I went through each of the three parts we are concentrating on, Civility with Self, Civility with Others, and Civility as a Leader. Those definitions are also attached. With each one, I pulled up the questions we had tied to those sections. For example, we asked the students what they would do if they saw one of their friends get in a fight. Almost 40 percent of them answered that they would jump in fight as well. I explained our hope is that by learning the skills to label and control their own emotions (civility with self), and understanding what someone else might be going through (civility with others), the next time their friends get in a fist-fight, they would be more likely to try and break it up, or get help (civility as a leader). We have a great starting point. Data is king when trying something new, so it will be very interesting to see how the answers change after the course. The classes both went well. The students asked questions and I answered as best I could. Our biggest issue is just the clock at this point, each class is only 26 minutes. But luckily, both class teachers were willing to finish the next day. Thank you Erica and Martin. Next week we dive into Civility with Self. Susie will be leading those. I'll update you after. Thanks for reading. GARY Majestic Star Casino is moving forward with plans to replace its aging casino boats with a land-based gaming facility at its Buffington Harbor property. A state law passed last year allows for operation of a casino on land already owned by the casino contiguous to its dock. Barry Cregan, Majestic Star's senior vice president and general manager, said engineers are studying the Majestic Star property. "We will determine which of the potential sites within our campus footprint can physically support the future construction, deliver the best guest experience and provide the greatest return on investment," Cregan said. Majestic Star was one of three casinos in Indiana that lobbied for land-based gaming in recent legislative sessions. Operators of Tropicana Casino in Evansville and Rising Star Casino in Rising Sun also expressed a desire to move on land. Majestic Star executives argued that the move onshore was necessary to compete with land-based casinos in other states. They also argued that a single-floor, land-based casino would offer a shorter, easier walk from parking lots or the 300-room hotel to the casino. The company also said it loses business when severe weather causes it to have to close its casino boats, something that wouldn't happen on land. Majestic Star's two boats are nearing the end of their useful life, the company said in its written testimony to the legislature in 2014. The boats opened in 1996 and 1997. Not all casinos favored allowing land-based casinos. The parent company of Majestic Star's East Chicago neighbor, Ameristar Casino and Hotel, expressed opposition to them in testimony before a legislative study committee in 2014, arguing it would upset an already unstable market. While the size and construction cost of a new building depend in part on its location, Majestic Star said a new casino and event center would be in the range of $95 million to $135 million. Tropicana has also begun the process of moving onshore. It plans to build a $50 million, 75,000 square-foot casino on land between the two hotels it owns along the Ohio River. The City of Evansville agreed to a new lease arrangement with Tropicana early this year, and plans call for construction to be completed in mid-2017. Tropicana Evansville's existing riverboat casino has just over 38,000 square feet of gaming space. It had nearly 1.2 million admissions in fiscal year 2015, with about $120 million in gaming revenue, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission's annual report. The two Majestic Star boats have 78,020 square feet of gaming space, and had almost 2 million visitors in fiscal 2015, with $160 million in gaming revenue. Your smartphone or tablet is most likely pretty secure not perfect, maybe, but generally unlikely to be hacked or to store, say, your email where other people could read it. The same can't be said for any Internet-connected toys you may have purchased for your kids. Recently discovered security flaws in a pair of such toys highlight just how badly the toy industry has neglected such problems, theoretically exposing kids to online threats. While major crimes teeming from the hack of a connected toy haven't yet surfaced, some experts argue that it's only a matter of time. Kids "aren't expected to be Internet security experts and neither are their parents," said Tod Beardsley, security research manager for Rapid7 Inc., the Boston-based cybersecurity firm that published the toy-security research on Tuesday. Rapid7 researchers examined the Fisher Price Smart Toy, an interactive stuffed animal for children aged 3 to 8 that connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi. They also took a look at HereO, a GPS smartwatch that allows parents to track their child's location. In both cases, they found that the toys failed to safeguard children's information such as their names and in the case of the watch, their location, storing it on remote servers in such a way that unauthorized people could access it by masquerading as legitimate users. After researchers informed the manufacturers of the flaws, the companies quickly fixed the problems. Mattel Inc., which owns the Fisher Price brand, released a statement Monday emphasizing that it has no evidence that anyone actually stole any customer information because of the flaw. Eli Shemesh, chief technology officer for Cyprus-based hereO, released a statement saying that security remains paramount for his company, adding that the security flaw was fixed quickly and before the watches started shipping to customers. Those security problems are far from unique, said Mark Stanislav, Rapid7's manager of global services and the researcher who discovered the flaws. Reports of connected-toy vulnerabilities have been rife in recent months, a trend he expects to continue to worsen as more connected toys hit the market. Toy makers need to be "building security in at the development phase," Stanislav said in a statement. Like many connected devices, the Fisher Price toy runs a version of Google's Android operating system, the same software that powers many smartphones and tablets. Beardsley, however, said toy makers don't have the same commitment to security that a major tech company would have. "I would be shocked if any Android-based toy didn't have any problems," he said. Apple, whose iPhones and iPads are the biggest rivals to Android devices, doesn't license its mobile software for use in toys. Toy-related security problems began to grab headlines late last year, when kid's tech maker VTech announced that one of its databases had been hacked, exposing the names, ages and genders of more than 6 million children who used the company's toys. As the number of connected toys continues to grow, so will the number of hackings, says Bridget Karlin, managing director of Intel Corp.'s Internet of things group. Intel's chips power a slew of connected devices, including a GPS smartwatch for kids, similar to the HereO, that's set to go on sale later this year. Karlin says that while the odds of any particular toy being hacked may be very low, most of the attacks are random. That means building in security from the ground up, starting at the silicon level. In the case of the Fisher Price toy which is sold as a stuffed bear, panda or monkey and retails for about $100 the researchers found that the toy's software and applications weren't appropriately verifying who was trying to access its information. That could theoretically expose a child's name, birthday, spoken language and gender. Of course, those tidbits of information aren't necessarily secret. But hackers could theoretically amass enough of them to create a phishing scheme aimed at financial fraud or identity theft down the road. In theory, the information could also be used to pull off the abduction of a child, though experts say the chance of that remains slim. The same flaw also could allow an attacker to effectively take control of the device to do things such as change the account information, or monitor whether a child is playing with it or if an adult is using the related mobile app, the researchers said. The HereO smartwatch is marketed as a safety device for children aged three to 12 and creates a kind of social network that's restricted to invited family and friends. The brightly colored watch has both a cellular and GPS connection, allowing parents to monitor a child's location through a mobile app. Features include messaging, location alerts and a panic button. The watch, which costs $179 in the U.S. plus a $4.95 per month monitoring fee, recently started shipping to customers around the world. Rapid7 says its researchers found a way attackers could trick the watch into adding them onto a given family's account. That would give them access to the entire family's location history and profile details and even the ability to message parents or their kids. INDIANAPOLIS | A House-approved proposal mandating that Indiana environmental requirements "may not be more stringent" than federal law faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where it has died numerous times in years past. State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, chairman of the Senate's Environmental Affairs Committee, said he'll likely decide by Thursday whether to hold a hearing on House Bill 1143. "I have not decided that yet," Charbonneau said. "If I hear it if, that's a big if it will be a week from Monday." The measure cannot advance to the full Senate for a final vote without committee approval. Charbonneau's predecessor as committee chair, former state Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, routinely disposed of it without a hearing. A coalition of 14 environmental groups, including the Hoosier Environmental Council, Sierra Club and Save the Dunes, already is organizing to oppose the legislation. "If it becomes law it will have huge ramifications for Northwest Indiana," said Marianne Holland, of the environmental council. "There are a disproportionate number of environmental problems that have received very minimal and weak standards from the federal government." The sponsor of the measure, state Rep. David Wolkins, R-Winona Lake, said he believes federal environmental law is sufficiently stringent and wants to prevent state agencies from imposing costly new rules on Hoosier companies. Charbonneau hinted he's not inclined to cede control of the state's environmental policies to the federal government. "It would be a huge policy shift for the state of Indiana, so it's something I'm not taking lightly," Charbonneau said. "I want to give it considerable thought." Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a similar measure approved by that state's Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011. He said the proposal would have impeded the state's ability to craft environmental law best suited for Michigan's unique needs. INDIANAPOLIS | Sixteen Hoosier environmental and social justice organizations called Wednesday for state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, to kill a proposal that could significantly reshape Indiana's environmental laws. Charbonneau, chairman of the Senate's Environmental Affairs Committee, is set Monday to hear House Bill 1143, mandating that Indiana environmental requirements "may not be more stringent than" federal law. Rosemary Spalding, chairwoman of Earth Charter-Indiana and former lead counsel to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said if the House-approved measure becomes law, Hoosier businesses and residents face significant risks. "Despite its simple and straightforward language and intent, if this bill is enacted it will result in uncertainty, disagreement and yes, litigation," Spalding said. "The procedures we have in place right now make certain that (state environmental law) is what's in the best interest of Indiana citizens." Dennis Shock, a United Methodist minister formerly of Crown Point and board member of Hoosier Interfaith Power and Light, said people of faith have a special obligation "to take the lead in caring for the earth, and not just doing the bare minimum." Charbonneau was coy but seemed unlikely to permit a committee vote on the proposal, which has advanced out of the Republican-controlled House numerous times but repeatedly died in the Republican-controlled Senate under his predecessor as chairman, former state Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield. "I haven't made the ultimate decision yet on that. It would be a stretch, I think, to leap to that step in a short session on a bill of this magnitude," Charbonneau said. "It is not a small change to our policies in this state. I just want to get a debate going, to get a discussion going." If the committee does not vote on the proposal, it cannot advance to the full Senate for final action. INDIANAPOLIS | Representatives and senators from 29 states met Thursday in the Indiana Statehouse to begin planning for the first state-led revisions to the U.S. Constitution since the nation's fundamental governing document was enacted in 1789. The significance of the work undertaken by The Mount Vernon Assembly to prepare for a future Convention of the States was not lost on the 94 official and participating delegates, mostly Republicans, who filled the House chamber. "Nothing like this has occurred in over two centuries, though certainly the founders of this nation assumed it would have happened long ago," said Indiana Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, an organizer of the meeting. Article V of the U.S. Constitution requires Congress call a Convention of the States for proposing constitutional amendments if legislatures in two-thirds of the states (34 states) request one. If the convention approves an amendment, it then can be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 states) and added to the Constitution without additional congressional approval. However, because an Article V convention never has been called, there are no clear procedures on how it would begin, what rules the convention would follow or whether it could be limited in scope. The Mount Vernon Assembly, which organized last December at George Washington's Virginia estate and is planning to change its name to the Assembly of State Legislatures, has taken it upon itself to start answering those questions to ensure a future Convention of the States gets off on the right foot. "It has been a failure on the part of state legislatures for not stepping up for the past 200 years and saying, here's how we're going to do it, so that's what we're doing," said state Rep. Chris Kapenga, a Wisconsin Republican. "It's time we accept the responsibility given us because there's little debate in state legislatures, or in the public, that something's not right in Washington." Throughout the morning, delegates discussed their organizing principles and whether they were being too deliberate in their planning. Kapenga pushed back on the few lawmakers who wanted to jump ahead to debating amendment proposals that someday could be considered by a Convention of the States. "This is the Constitution of the United States we have to be very cautious and go through this process where we make sure anything that we put down is debated and discussed, and debated and discussed, and the final product is solid," Kapenga said. In the afternoon, delegates organized into four committees to begin tackling detailed planning questions for a Convention of the States, including how many delegates each state should have, whether states must send Congress an identical request and whether past state calls for Article V conventions, such as those submitted by Indiana in 1861 and 1979, are still valid. State Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, was appointed co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He will help shape answers to those questions and others ahead of the assembly's December meeting, where its proposed rules for a Convention of the States will be approved. Ultimately, the Convention of the States, if one ever is called, must decide whether to accept the rules and procedures proposed by the Assembly of State Legislatures. Long said regardless of that decision, the work of planning and preparing for a convention has reminded states of their rights under America's federalist system of government and their role in the constitutional amendment process. "States' rights has never been, nor should it ever be, a partisan issue," Long said. "It is instead a constitutionally based concept that has made us the great country that we are today 50 independent states, governed separately but united together." ST. JOHN Voting regularly used to be about the only political activity Gerald Swets engaged in. That changed when he learned the town's comprehensive plan showed his home being demolished as part of a proposed town center. Now, Swets is a member of the St. John Home Owners PAC, one of two groups, along with the St. John Home Owners Group, attending the meetings of the Town Council and other boards to protest the direction the town is going. The groups have promised they aren't going to go away any time soon. "It seems like the expansion of the town isn't being managed very well," Swets said. "Until it starts going the right way, we are going to keep coming. We are not against everything. We just want to make sure things are done in good order." At Thursday's council meeting, Swets again asked if Council President Michael Forbes planned to put Town Manager Stephen Kil on administrative leave or fire him for taking political signs, which called for the firing of Kil, Forbes and Councilman Mark Barenie, a couple of days before the election. At that time, Kil said the signs were illegally placed on public property, and he acted after getting an opinion from the town's attorney David Austgen. Kil has been charged with conversion. When Forbes said he could not comment because it was a matter in litigation, Swets asked if the town is seeking Kil's replacement. When that too was met with the same response, Swets repeated his request that Forbes resign as president "so the town can move forward under new leadership." Several members of the audience brought signs to the previous council meeting urging the council not to re-elect Forbes as president. Newly elected Councilman Christian Jorgensen nominated Barenie, but Jorgensen was the only one to vote for Barenie. That hasn't deterred the homeowners' groups from their goal of removing Forbes. "He's had his chance, and it's not working out very well," Swets said. "We've got a lot of unhappy residents from all sides of town. If those signs weren't taken, it could have switched a few votes and made a difference in the election. "They've had a lot of meetings canceled or rescheduled at the last minute, and I don't think that's good business. They are just trying to do things so the residents don't realize what's being done until it's done and it's too late to complain or provide any type of input." Tom Parada is chairman of the homeowners PAC. He called himself kind of the poster boy for the resident revolt that has risen in the last few months. His home was to be demolished to build a roundabout at the entrance to a new commercial development off of Joliet Street, but the town only offered him $31,000 for the property because it had deteriorated in recent years. Parada has become the unofficial videographer for the PAC during the last few meetings, taping the sessions and placing them on the group's website. "We're just trying to keep everybody honest," Parada said. "No matter who speaks, it will go on the website. We want to make people aware of the stuff that's bad that's happening in town and the stuff that is good. We are really looking to get more transparency. There was so little attendance at the meetings in the past that a lot of things slipped through. We bring up issues that are important." Mary Therese Robert works with the homeowners' group but has been coming to the meetings for more than a year. She began demanding that Kil and former Police Chief Fred Frego last March, before the sign incident, because of allegations of sexual harassment in the Police Department and other problems. "I have been a concerned citizen going at this alone, and finally other people are getting disgusted," Robert said. "Too many people keep their head in the sand and don't complain until it's too late. We can't be late now. I think we can do better than we have done. "Illinois has beautiful parks and preserves, and we have nothing," she said. "Gary is getting a community center, and we can't get one here in St. John? There are so many things that could be done. This could be such a great town, but it's not going in the right direction. All they think about is build, build, build." "We're just homeowners," Swets said. "We're not politicians. We just want to be treated fairly and honestly. During the election, when Forbes talked about transparency in government, we'd like to see that. That's not the way they've been operating." INDIANAPOLIS A recent vote in the Indiana Senate could put the United States on track for its first constitutional convention since 1787. Senate Joint Resolution 14, which passed the Republican-controlled chamber 34-16, requests Congress call a convention for proposing amendments to the nation's primary governing document. The resolution specifically asks potential amendments be limited to restricting federal spending and federal power generally, as well as imposing congressional term limits. If the convention call also is endorsed by the Republican-controlled House, Indiana would join four states that already have approved identical convention requests. The idea is under consideration this year in 38 states. "We just passed $19 trillion in debt at the federal government level," said state Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, the sponsor. "It's time for us to get control of our federal government." Article V of the U.S. Constitution requires Congress call a convention for proposing constitutional amendments if 34 states request one. Any amendments recommended by the convention and ratified by 38 states then become part of the Constitution without additional congressional approval. However, because an Article V convention never has been called, there are no clear understandings of what it could and could not do. In fact, the current Constitution was devised at a convention called for revising the nation's original charter, the Articles of Confederation. Indiana has taken steps to prevent a "runaway convention" by providing for the recall and jailing of a Hoosier delegate who fails to follow the instructions of the General Assembly. Senate Democratic Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said he questions whether the state actually can restrict an individual's political speech at a constitutional convention. INDIANAPOLIS | Participants from at least 34 states will join Indiana Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, at George Washington's Mount Vernon home in Virginia Saturday to discuss the state-led process for amending the U.S. Constitution. Long is among the leaders of a nationwide effort encouraging state legislatures to ask Congress to call a Convention of the States that would permit states to propose and approve constitutional amendments without congressional interference. "I'm hopeful that our meeting at Mount Vernon will lay important groundwork for the effort to restore a proper balance between the states and Washington, D.C.," Long said. "I'm looking forward to meeting with colleagues from around the country to discuss the constitutional path available to states to correct an overreaching federal government." This initial meeting won't consider potential amendment topics. Instead, it's intended to set up the rules to be followed if and when a constitutional convention is called. There are two authorized methods for changing the nation's fundamental governing document. The only one that has been used is when two-thirds of Congress proposes an amendment and three-fourths of the states (38 states) ratify it. However, the Constitution also permits what has come to be known as an "Article V convention," named for its placement in the fifth section of the Constitution. Under that scenario, two-thirds of state legislatures (34 states) ask Congress to call a Convention of the States for proposing constitutional amendments. If the convention approves an amendment, it then can be ratified by three-fourths of the states and added to the Constitution without congressional approval. Because an Article V convention has never been called, there are no clear rules on how it would begin, the convention's operating procedures or whether it could be limited in scope. GARY A Gary man was stabbed in the chest early Monday in a domestic dispute, police said. Officers were dispatched to Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary about 4:30 a.m. for a report of a stabbing victim, Lt. Dawn Westerfield said. The man told police he had been stabbed in the chest in the 1200 block of West 19th Avenue and drove himself to the hospital. The man's wounds were serious, but he was expected to recover, Westerfield said. Detective Sgt. Michael Barnes is investigating, she said. ST. JOHN And the honors just keep coming for St. John. Just a couple of weeks after being designated as the second safest community in Indiana by the website RoadSnacks, the same organization has proclaimed St. John the second most boring community in the state. Yorktown earned the top spot, and Munster made No. 10 on the list. "I chuckled when I saw we were the second most boring," St. John Town Manager Stephen Kil said. "I guess being the second safest equates to being boring. That's what it tells me. If that's what it takes to be safe, I'm proud to be boring." What does it take to be a really boring town, at least according to RoadSnacks? "To figure out how boring a place is, we rely on a complex algorithm that factors in things we generally think make people exciting and then we figure out which cities have the least number of those exciting people," the website states. "We used U.S. Census data to gather the information." Or, as Nick James of RoadSnacks described it, "We try to use unbiased data based on biased input." For the purposes of this very unscientific report, James said they used each community's percent of the population over 35, the percent of married households, the average age of the population, the percent of households with children, the percent of households with people over 65 and population density. For the first five categories, the higher the percentage, the more boring the community is. For the density category, lower is more boring. As with the list of safest communities, this looks at communities with a population of at least 5,000. "I lived in Indiana for a while, and most of it is boring," James, who is 39 and, therefore, in at least one boring category, said. "I'm not saying that I'm not boring. We're just trying to have fun. We've found that people like these kind of stories. We do upset some people with some of the categories, like 'worst' or 'dumbest,' though." Munster Town Manager Dustin Anderson said he wasn't upset to be ranked the 10th most boring community in the state. "It looks to me like we're a pretty stable community, and, if that means we're boring, I'll take it," Anderson said. "I'm over 35, have kids and I'm married, so I'm happy to be boring." That doesn't mean Munster will rest on its laurels. "I know the town manager of Yorktown, and I told him we are coming for him," Anderson said. GARY Family, friends and schoolmates of Kasreeyal Hester gathered outside his home Saturday night to mourn his death and to pledge not to let such a tragedy happen again. Hester was shot to death on his 17th birthday Friday night along with one of his best friends, Mark Skipper, 15, of the 6600 block of Kennedy Ave., Hammond. Both teenagers, who had played football together on the Morton High School team, were found shot to death in a car parked in the 800 block of Burr Street, just down from Hester's home, police said. A patrol officer discovered the bodies around 8:30 p.m. The officer saw the parked car with the driver side door open and went to investigate, said police. Both teens were dead at the scene and ruled homicides by the Lake County coroner's office. "He wasn't in the streets. He was trying to get good grades. He was athletic. He was trying to get out of Gary," said Ronald Williams, 17, who played football with Hester at Gary's Roosevelt High School. Williams said Hester had recently transferred to the school. "Things like this make it hard for us to make it out of Gary," Williams said. Williams stood outside the small ranch-style home with nearly 70 others. Many cried, holding candles. Others had brought teddy bears and heart-shaped balloons to place at a memorial near the street where the two young men died. Skipper was also a football player for Morton High School, where he was a sophomore, having played quarterback and linebacker positions, according to the school's roster. Williams' father, Ronald Sr., said he's lived in the neighborhood all his life. It is usually peaceful and quiet and neighbors know each other. But said Williams Sr., there is a lack of police patrol in the area as well as a lack of activities for young people. "He was a good kid. He was just somebody trying to find his way in life," said Hester's uncle, Timothy Keith. Neighbors and family members took turns speaking through a bullhorn. His mother, Nakita, told the young people gathered around her "to keep an open relationship with your parents." "We are trying to get through this. We are trying to be strong for him," she said. Leneire Locket, a Gary Police Department chaplain and local pastor, led the crowd in prayer. "We need to get back and get on our knees and pray. We need to start with a purpose," Locket said. Others took turns speaking, some saying someone had to see something Friday night and needed to tell police. Others told parents to keep their children close. Still others told the children to go to their parents for help and support. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Detective James Bond of the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit at (219) 755-3852 or the Crime Tip Line at (866) CRIME-GP. ST. JOHN The election of a new clerk-treasurer apparently has ended the legal clash between the clerk-treasurer and the council. At the request of the Town Attorney David Austgen and Joseph Svetanoff, lawyer for newly elected Clerk-Treasurer Bethany Hernandez, Lake Superior Court Judge John Pera dismissed the suit Friday that was filed by former Clerk-Treasurer Sherry Sury in November 2013. Sury declined comment on the action. Council President Michael Forbes said he was very pleased by the action, which was initiated by Hernandez after she took office Jan. 1. "Having spent a considerable amount of time at lengthy and costly mediation sessions that were completely useless in compromise or settlement of the accusations raised by the former clerk, I am very pleased that this matter is now dismissed," Forbes said. "My excitement is based more on the fact this lawsuit was baseless and a personal attack on members of the town staff and council," he said. "It is now an opportunity for the newly elected clerk-treasurer and the Town Council to work together to improve service levels for the residents of St. John. I look forward to the possibilities that exist having an educated, hard-working and forward-thinking individual like Beth Hernandez as the town's fiscal officer." The relationship between Sury, a Democrat, and the council, four of whom were Republicans (all five current councilmen are Republicans), soured in July 2012 when she questioned what she considered improper discussions and actions at an executive session. The differences escalated with the council saying Sury no longer needed to attend executive sessions. The council later hired its own person to do the minutes of public meetings and refused to pay the typist Sury hired to transcribe the minutes she recorded. The issues came to a head when Sury filed a nine-count suit against the council dealing with several issues, including who should do the minutes, whether she could attend executive sessions and the town's failure to provide her with proper storage space for public records. Efforts to resolve the suit through mediation were hampered when Sury was hospitalized with pneumonia in the fall of 2014. She was only able to return to work part-time in March and did not file for re-election until after the primary, when she filed as an independent. According to the actions filed this week, Hernandez filed to replace Sury in the suit because Sury was no longer the clerk-treasurer. She and the council then agreed to have the suit dismissed. The suit was dismissed "without prejudice," which means it could be refiled at a future date. This is not about need, Ms. Jorgenson Wendt told The New York Times in January 1997. I can get along on $10 million, but why should he get $90 million? I entered into this marriage as a partner. I dont know when he decided that it was not a partnership. Mr. Wendt countered that he was worth only $20 million and therefore had indeed offered her 50 percent. Because divorce laws vary from state to state, Wendt v. Wendt was not expected to set a national legal precedent, whatever its outcome. But it did set something of a social precedent, raising the question of whether it is appropriate, or even possible, to put a price on traditional spousal fealty. Ms. Jorgenson Wendt argued that she been a crucial associate in her husbands climb up the corporate ladder supporting him through business school, maintaining their home, raising their children and serving for years as an indefatigable hostess. I ran his family very smoothly, she said in court. I ran his household. He never had to question what was going on in the household with his family. He came home. He was taken care of. Now, if a man had to do this if he had to buy his groceries, do all the things that a wife does, plus raise a family, plus keep the home he couldnt be where he is today if there wasnt someone at home allowing him to do those things. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defended a recommendation that sexually active women refrain from drinking alcohol if they are not using birth control after it spurred a strong backlash, with many women saying they considered the suggestion insulting, severe and impractical. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the C.D.C., said in an interview Friday, We werent as clear as we had hoped to be. The C.D.C. report released on Tuesday focused on the possibility that children may develop fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, estimating that 3.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 who drink alcohol while not using birth control risked exposing their infants to the disorders. The report suggested that women who intend to get pregnant or could get pregnant should not drink alcohol, as about half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned and most women do not know they are pregnant until four to six weeks into the pregnancy. Before the jury entered a courtroom in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Friday, prosecutors and defense lawyers at the trial of Peter Liang, a police officer whose gunshot killed an unarmed man in the stairwell of a housing project, approached the judge. At issue were events that had taken place in another part of New York City: The night before, two officers, Diara E. Cruz and Patrick Espeut, were shot in a housing project in the Bronx. They were performing the same type of stairwell patrol Officer Liang was conducting in Brooklyn on Nov. 20, 2014, when he fired his gun and a bullet bounced off a wall and killed Akai Gurley, 28, who was walking down the stairs with his girlfriend. Like Officer Liang and his partner, Shaun Landau, the officers shot on Thursday were still relatively new to the job. We had one primary concern: Its that the defense not be allowed to refer to last nights shooting in any way in any question during the trial, Joe Alexis, an assistant Brooklyn district attorney, told Justice Danny K. Chun. Officer Liang, charged with manslaughter and other offenses, entered the stairwell of the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York with his 9-millimeter Glock pistol drawn. Prosecutors have spent much of the two-week trial arguing that unholstering his weapon was unwarranted and reckless in a place filled with residents going about their lives. The City Council voted on Friday to give its members a raise of nearly a third over their current base salaries, the first pay bump for elected officials in New York City since 2006, while enacting a series of reforms some of which would apply only to future city lawmakers. Each measure including bills to ban most forms of outside income, require online financial disclosures and end paid allowances for committee work passed by wide margins. The closest vote came on the bill to raise the Council salary to $148,500 from a base of $112,500, which passed 40 to 7. Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Democrat who is the Council speaker, said that the reforms would increase transparency and fairness and that the limits on outside income which came in exchange for the Councils awarding itself $10,185 over the recommendation of a city commission on pay increases are groundbreaking. Councilman Ben Kallos, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored two of the reform bills, said the Council was voting on proposed legislation that had been long sought after. Government watchdog groups agreed, even if some objected to the speed of the vote two days after their first and only public hearing and the lack of public input before the laws took final shape. The life of David Wichs, the 38-year-old trading firm employee who was killed Friday morning when an enormous construction crane crashed onto a street in Lower Manhattan, was distinguished by the kinds of achievements that figure in many immigrant dreams. But those who knew Mr. Wichs, who immigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, remembered a fundamentally humble and warmhearted man. David was the nicest, most trustworthy person that I have known, said Mark Gorton, the founder and managing director of Tower Research Capital, the trading firm where he worked. I have worked with him for over 15 years, and in that whole time, he treated every person he dealt with in a nice and decent way. Image David Wichs was killed in the crane collapse on Friday. Mr. Wichss abilities surfaced early. He was a 1995 semifinalist in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search while a student at the Yeshiva of Flatbush, then went on to earn a degree in mathematics from Harvard University. A career in finance followed. But lawyers for Ms. Freedman and Knoedler challenged his conclusion, suggesting, among other things, that if the gallery had not spent its time selling the Rosales works it would have focused on selling other works that could have made up any deficit. Ms. Rosales, who has pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from the scheme but has not yet been sentenced, earned about $26 million from the sale of the paintings, said Gregory Clarick, a lawyer for the De Soles. All of the works were created in a garage in Queens by an immigrant artist named Pei-Shen Qian, who has said he was typically paid only several thousand dollars for each painting. Mr. Siefert said that Ms. Freedman had arranged a profit-sharing arrangement with Knoedler and that her commissions had risen over the years, from 10 percent in the 1990s to 30 percent by 2008. He said she had earned $10.3 million in total from the sale of the Rosales works. (Because he was focusing on art sales, he said, he was omitting the fact that in 2011 the gallery earned $18.7 million from the sale of its headquarters, an Upper East Side townhouse.) Mr. Siefert said his calculations showed that if income from the sale of the Rosales works were removed, the gallery would have operated at a loss in 10 out of the 18 years that he had examined. But when questioned by Mark Robertson, a lawyer for Knoedler, Mr. Siefert acknowledged that if he omitted from his calculations the years from 2009 to 2011, a period when no fakes were sold and Knoedler ran annual deficits from $1.6 million to $2.3 million, the gallery would have made a cumulative profit of about $3 million, even without the sale of any Rosales works, from 1994 to 2008. Mr. Siefert also agreed, in response to questions from Mr. Robertson and Luke Nikas, a lawyer for Ms. Freedman, that there was no way to tell what sort of profits the gallery might have generated if it had been involved with selling art works other than the forgeries from Ms. Rosales. Malik Chavis made himself at home in the red brick apartment building in the South Bronx, even though it was his girlfriend who lived on the seventh floor. He would often hang out in the stairwell, a can of beer or cigarette in hand, neighbors said. But if the stairwell was Mr. Chaviss place of comfort, it was a known hazard to New York City police officers who conducted up-and-down sweeps known as vertical patrols of the building in the Melrose Houses, a public housing project. Step by step, they would navigate its narrow turns on the lookout for drug deals and other illegal activities. It was in this stairwell that four police officers found Mr. Chavis and another man drinking beer on Thursday night. The officers asked the men for identification. Mr. Chavis, 23, said he did not have his, and started to lead the officers to his girlfriends apartment when he spun around in the hallway and fired on them with an semiautomatic pistol, wounding two police officers before fleeing into her apartment and fatally shooting himself in the head, the police said. The shooting served as a blunt counterpoint to a trial unfolding in Brooklyn, in which a police officer who seemed perhaps overly cognizant of the dangers of a stairwell fired his gun and killed an unarmed black man, Akai Gurley, as he walked down the stairs in 2014. Police officers have testified at the trial of Peter Liang, who faces charges that include manslaughter and official misconduct, that patrolling stairwells is among the most perilous assignments in the citys housing projects. President Obama hosted President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia in the White House this week to celebrate the imminent signing of a peace agreement that could end one of the longest-running conflicts in history. Having spent $10 billion over the past 15 years training and supporting Colombias security forces, Washington officials are understandably feeling proud of Americas contribution to the countrys turnaround. After nearly three and a half years of peace talks, the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist-inspired insurgency, expect to sign an armistice in March. We all know that its easier to start wars than to end them, Mr. Obama said at an East Room ceremony. But after half a century of wrenching conflict, the time has come for peace. As Mr. Obamas phrasing suggests, the administration knows that even a formal peace accord cannot by itself heal the wounds of a long and painful conflict. The next phase will require a well-managed transitional justice process, a concerted effort to address the countrys entrenched inequality and new approach to counternarcotics. Mr. Obama hopes to contribute $450 million to the peace effort to build up legal institutions, improve education and promote economic growth. The water crisis in Flint, Mich., has elicited a lot more hand-wringing and apologies than concrete actions to provide for the needs of children and adults whose health may be damaged by water from pipes that are leaching lead into taps all over the city. The state government, whose officials caused this crisis, has been loath to commit substantial funds to long-term needs, and Congress, under the control of Republicans, is finding excuses not to rescue this poverty-stricken, majority-black city of nearly 100,000 people. The evasions were on prominent display on both sides of Congress this week. A House oversight committee held a hearing on Wednesday whose purpose was purportedly to identify those responsible for the Flint crisis and determine what could be done to alleviate it. But the committee failed to summon Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan, whose environmental officials and emergency managers were the ones who made monumental blunders that led the city to draw water from the polluted Flint River without treating it properly. Instead, Republicans heaped blame on the Environmental Protection Agency, which made mistakes but was a bit player in this drama. Then on Thursday, in the Senate, negotiations between Republicans and Democrats on a financial aid package for Flint, to be attached to a bipartisan energy bill awaiting passage, broke down, and Democrats refused to approve the bill without the aid package, pushing any hope of assistance into next week. The Democrats have already yielded a lot of ground, cutting their original $600 million aid package to less than half of that, only to meet Republican objections that the costs were not fully offset by other cuts in federal spending and that no money should be provided until Michigan had a more thorough plan on how the money would be spent. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal, T. S. Eliot said, meaning that the best poets seek to improve on lasting ideas. It would seem that the Democratic presidential primarys mature poet is Hillary Clinton, who has been adopting the progressive words, and style, of her rival Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senators longstanding call for revolution against a system rigged against the poor and middle class resonates with young Democrats who jam convention halls to hear his booming, Brooklyn-accented voice. Some Democrats say its great that Mr. Sanders is nudging Mrs. Clinton to the left. Others say shes merely parroting the races true progressive. In April, leading Mr. Sanders by more than 50 points nationally, Mrs. Clinton traversed Iowa in her Scooby bus, speaking to handfuls of people at highly orchestrated round tables, favoring everybody-wins subjects like help for small business. In July, she opened up on Republicans, without mentioning her Democratic opponents. In September, Mrs. Clinton told a gathering in Ohio that she was kind of moderate and center. A month later, after poll numbers showed that Mr. Sanders was gaining on her in Iowa, she drew criticism for newly portraying herself as a progressive. Now locked in a tighter race, Mrs. Clinton is holding big rallies too, and she increasingly channels the Bern. As both Democratic candidates made closing arguments at rallies in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before the caucuses, it was remarkable how Mrs. Clintons talking points, style, even hand gestures resembled Mr. Sanderss. In a fiery speech in a high school gym, she used clipped-cadence flourishes like, Heres what I want ya to know, guys, to raise topics her rival holds dear: income inequality, poverty, the Koch brothers, taxing millionaires. Were going where the money is, the money is where the wealthy are, were gonna change the tax code and make them pay for all of the benefits theyve got here in America! she shouted. A high-ranking Michigan regulator was fired Friday for her role in the drinking water crisis in Flint, broadening the fallout from a situation that has endangered the health of children, prompted criminal investigations and become an issue in the presidential campaign. Liane Shekter Smith, who led the Michigan Department of Environmental Qualitys Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance unit, was fired after a disciplinary conference. Her firing followed the resignations in December of the departments director, Dan Wyant, and chief spokesman, Brad Wurfel, both of whom were criticized for failing to recognize the scope of Flints water problems and for belittling those who attempted to raise alarms. A fourth employee, who worked under Ms. Shekter Smith, has been suspended. Putting the well-being of Michiganders first needs to be the top priority for all state employees, Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement about the firing. Anything less than that is unacceptable. The D.E.Q. is working to change this culture and ensure mistakes that endanger our residents dont occur again. Though a number of government agencies have been faulted for their response in Flint, the Environmental Quality Department has been held up by critics as particularly egregious. That agency failed to require corrosion controls mandated under federal law when Flint changed its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River in April 2014. The lack of anti-corrosion chemicals caused pipes to disintegrate and leach lead into the water. Lead, which is especially harmful to children, is toxic and can have irreversible health effects. After initially dismissing outsiders who warned of the lead risk, Environmental Quality officials admitted in October that they had erred in not requiring corrosion controls. A judge cleared the way Friday for a former Salvadoran colonel to face charges in Spain that he helped plan the 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests during El Salvadors civil war. The approval of extradition for the former colonel, Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, is a significant step in efforts to prosecute Salvadoran military officials on charges of murdering the priests, most of whom were natives of Spain. Mr. Montano has been the only one within reach of the Spanish authorities because of legal issues in El Salvador, where most of them still live. A federal magistrate judge, Kimberly Swank, ordered that federal marshals take custody of Mr. Montano, 73, so he can be turned over to Spain, pending final approval by State Department. The step is seen as a formality because lawyers already reviewed the case before turning it over to federal prosecutors. Mr. Montano served as the countrys vice minister of public security and was part of an inner circle of powerful military officers. The extradition fight began in 2011. WASHINGTON Some of the nations intelligence agencies raised alarms last spring as the State Department began releasing emails from Hillary Clintons private server, saying that a number of the messages contained information that should be classified top secret. The diplomats saw things differently and pushed back at the spies. In the months since, a battle has played out between the State Department and the intelligence agencies as well as Congress over what information on Mrs. Clintons private server was classified and what was the routine business of American diplomacy, according to government officials and letters obtained by The New York Times. At the center of that argument, the officials said, is a top secret program of the Central Intelligence Agency that is anything but secret. It is the agencys long effort to track and kill suspected terrorists overseas with armed drones, which has been the subject of international debates, numerous newspaper articles, television programs and entire books. The Obama administrations decision to keep most internal discussions about that program including all information about C.I.A. drone strikes in Pakistan classified at the top secret level has now become a political liability for Mrs. Clintons presidential campaign. One former senior administration official, however, said that if Mrs. Clinton was deeply interested in the health care law, she did not show it during cabinet meetings and other gatherings in the White House. I saw no evidence that she was interested or following, actually to the contrary, said the former official, who requested anonymity in discussing events that were not public. But Ms. Tanden, who started working for Mrs. Clinton in the White House in the 1990s and is now president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, said the continuing interest in health care was hardly a surprise. The thing that I think the emails show you is shes secretary of state and super-focused on health care, Ms. Tanden said. I worked for Hillary for a really long time, at the beginning of when I worked for her, in the middle of the time I worked for her and at the end of when I worked for her, in her mind, health care is a right. During her campaign this year, Mrs. Clinton has shown similar resolve. Now, before it was called Obamacare, it was called Hillarycare, she told an audience last month in Clinton, Iowa. Congressional officials who worked on the Affordable Care Act said that Mrs. Clinton was an important and effective advocate. She was helpful when we needed votes, having served in the Senate and still having friends and colleagues there, said one former Senate adviser, who asked not to be identified in discussing internal deliberations. She did have credibility. She was considered an expert. The polls suggest that Mr. Sanders has the edge with likely Democratic primary voters who graduated from college or earn higher incomes. But Clinton advisers believe that her policies especially on paid family leave, equal pay, and student debt will appeal to more voters than Mr. Sanderss plans, as long as her campaign has time to present them. Weve got to focus on middle-income, middle-aged, working parents, from about 35 and up, said Joel Benenson, Mrs. Clintons chief strategist, at a breakfast here on Friday. Two Key Counties Mrs. Clinton won Hillsborough and Rockingham counties in 2008 with about 42 percent of the vote. The counties are on the border with Massachusetts and tend to favor candidates from that state; some political experts think that any hometown advantage for Mr. Sanders is likely to surface in the western and northern counties that share newspaper and television markets with Vermont. According to one recent poll, Mrs. Clinton is running roughly even with Mr. Sanders in Rockingham County, which includes Portsmouth and Exeter, but trailing him in Hillsborough County, which encompasses the vote-rich cities of Nashua and Manchester. Message Discipline Clinton advisers think that Mrs. Clinton has found her political groove by denouncing injustices like shooting massacres across the nation and the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich. She is visiting Flint on Sunday in a campaign trip that is likely to receive heavy media coverage back in New Hampshire. Her passion for the less fortunate is appealing to some in her New Hampshire target audiences, particularly women and parents, according to interviews. And her advisers say she will not be thrown off message by issues that are not her main concern, such as whether she will release the transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street banks, corporations and nonprofit groups. I dont think voters are interested in the transcripts of her speeches theyre interested in, will she take on the powerful forces of Wall Street? Mr. Benenson said. Time In the final days before the 1992 New Hampshire primary, Mr. Clinton made a strong comeback in the polls after weeks of reports about his extramarital behavior and his Vietnam War draft record. Some advisers believe that if Mr. Clinton had had a few more days, he might have won the primary, instead of finishing eight points behind former Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts. In 2008, Mr. Obama had a double-digit lead in New Hampshire after his win in the Iowa caucuses; five days later, Mrs. Clinton came back and beat Mr. Obama here by almost three points. Like her husbands former aides, some advisers to Mrs. Clinton believe that if she had more time to make her case in New Hampshire, the better her odds of closing strong and perhaps winning would be. William Shaheen, a longtime New Hampshire friend and supporter of the Clintons, said no one on the Clinton team was leaving or giving up the state to Mr. Sanders. But is it winnable for her? It could be, he said, but its a long, long shot. We know what we need to do, though. Marlow W. Cook, a moderate one-term Republican senator from Kentucky who gave Mitch McConnell his start in Washington politics but later criticized him for moving sharply to the right, died on Thursday at his home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 89. The cause was complications of a heart attack, his daughter Caroline Ely said. In the 1960s, Mr. Cook led a Republican resurgence in Jefferson County, which includes Louisville, ending a generation of Democratic dominance in a state where registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans two to one. He served two terms as an enormously popular county judge an executive position analogous to mayor before winning election as senator in 1968, succeeding Thruston B. Morton, also a moderate Republican, who had decided not to seek re-election. Mr. Cook enlisted Mr. McConnell to attract younger voters. A former state president of the Young Ripon Society, a moderate Republican organization, Mr. McConnell was just a year out of law school at the University of Kentucky. BEIJING A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan early Saturday, killing at least seven people, trapping dozens more inside a toppled residential building and casting a somber mood across the country as families gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Residents in the city of Tainan, along Taiwans western coast, were jolted awake at about 4 a.m. as the ground shook for nearly two minutes. Some thought a bomb had gone off and rushed to find shelter; others climbed from their windows, desperate for an escape. In one neighborhood, a 17-story apartment building with at least 150 housing units collapsed, trapping more than 30 people inside. In another area, office buildings slanted sideways, teetering above busy streets. The Taiwanese authorities said they had mobilized the national army to search through the rubble, and as of Saturday morning, 221 people had been rescued. A 10-day-old girl, a 56-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man were among the dead and more than 400 people were injured, officials said. Several people were in comas, but cuts and fractured limbs were the most common injuries, medical officials said. Not everyone is so thrilled. On his talk radio program Friday morning, Oscar Giannino, teasingly mocked the whole event while his guest, Massimo Fini, a writer and self-described honest pagan, questioned why more than 1,000 Italian police officers were handling security (rather than Vatican security such as the Swiss Guards) at cost to ordinary citizens. The Swiss Guards should protect him, or he should protect himself, given that he is a saint, Mr. Fini joked. Robert Mickens, a longtime Vatican analyst, said venerating saints or praying at the tombs of martyrs is a time-honored Catholic practice, but he questioned the decision to display the remains of the two saints. What I find so distasteful, wrongheaded and sort of bizarre is parading these things under glass boxes, said Mr. Mickens, the editor of Global Pulse magazine. This is like Lenins Tomb, for Gods sake. The Vatican did not always embrace Padre Pio, either. It initiated numerous investigations against him, beginning in the 1920s, after his devotees said he had supernatural powers and carried the stigmata, the markings of the crucifixion wounds of Christ. But the Vatican later reversed course, and Pope John Paul II named him a saint in 2002. A major part of Padre Pios wide appeal and perhaps one reason Pope Francis is using him as the symbol of his year of mercy is his reputation for listening to confessions day in and day out during his lifetime, including from John Paul ll, before he became pope. Lore has it that Padre Pio heard two million confessions. Today, Padre Pios image is still widely displayed across Italy, and millions of pilgrims have visited his sanctuary in the hilltop town of San Giovanni Rotondo, in the southern Italian region of Puglia. In 2008, his body was exhumed, treated with chemicals, adorned with a silicone replica of his face and placed inside an oxygen-free glass box so that pilgrims could see him. For this weeks trip north to the Vatican, the glass box was placed in a second, protective glass box, loaded into a windowed hearse and driven up the highway in a caravan of Capuchin friars. At one point, the entourage pulled into one of Italys familiar highway rest stops, the Autogrill, which are usually teeming with travelers queuing for espressos and sandwiches. Out popped a dozen or so brown-robed friars, an archbishop and a coterie of police officers. WASHINGTON Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister of Ukraine who now leads a minority party in Parliament, said on Friday that she and her allies would staunchly oppose constitutional changes that the United States and European powers view as crucial to carrying out a peace agreement with Russia. Her remarks underscored the enormous obstacles still facing the nearly year-old peace accord, known as Minsk II. A shaky cease-fire has sharply reduced the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels launched a separatist insurgency in 2014, but the accord has never been enacted, largely because of acute disagreements over how voting in the region would be organized. Ms. Tymoshenkos comments, though not new, were particularly notable given that she made them in Washington. The United States has been one of the new Ukrainian governments strongest allies and one of its main supporters in securing help to prevent an economic collapse, including billions in credit from the International Monetary Fund. Wrapping up a weeklong visit in which she met with top administration officials and members of Congress, Ms. Tymoshenko, 55, also said that she would push for early parliamentary elections the sooner, the better which are opposed by the United States because the parties of President Petro O. Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk are virtually certain to lose seats. Whats the difference between originality and creativity? Creativity is generating ideas that are novel and useful. I define originals as people who go beyond dreaming up the ideas and take initiative to make their visions a reality. This book is like the sequel to creativity its about how to champion new ideas. Not everyone is in a role where creativity is encouraged, or even possible. Is this book only for graphic designers and astrophysicists? Geniuses dont have better ideas than the rest of us. They just have more of them. A mistake that a lot of us make is that our first few ideas are our most conventional, and we stop there. And yet the moment when you say, Im out of ideas, is the moment when youre most free to think in original ways, because youve already ruled out some of the most obvious possibilities. How can someone be original in a job where originality isnt expected? There are allies lurking everywhere. If your organization is larger than six people, theres a good chance not everyone will hate your idea equally. Finding that coalition of support is really useful. And there are a bunch of practices to promote originality. Running an innovation tournament is an easy step. Another one of the most powerful things you can do is bring examples of organizations that failed to embrace originality and died because of it. Look at Polaroid. Look at BlackBerry. There are these examples of organizations that got stuck in the status quo and got used to groupthink. You see that, and it scares the hell out of people. Cover crops are coming back in other areas of the country, too. The practice of seeding fields between harvests not only keeps topsoil in place, it also adds carbon to the soil and helps the beneficial microbes, fungus, bacteria and worms in it thrive. These properties have led philanthropies like the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation to underwrite research on cover crops, while Monsanto, together with the Walton Family Foundation, recently put up the money to support the Soil Health Partnership, a five-year project of the National Corn Growers Association to identify, test and measure the impact of cover cropping and other practices to improve soil health. Cover cropping is still used only by a small minority of farmers. When the Agriculture Department asked for the first time about cover cropping for its 2012 Census of Agriculture report, just 10.3 million acres out of about 390 million total acres of farmland sown in crops on 133,124 farms were planted with cover crops. The next census wont be done until 2017, but experts say that the practice has spread. In an annual survey of about 1,200 farmers, the mean acreage reported as being sown in cover crops was 259 in 2014. That was double the mean reported by respondents in 2010, though results are not directly comparable because different farmers may have been involved in the surveys, said a spokesman for the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, a federal government program, which conducted the survey. Weve never seen anything taken up as rapidly as using cover crops, said Barry Fisher, a soil health specialist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency within the Agriculture Department. Interest in cover crops is coming from buyers, too. Dan Barber, a prominent chef who uses locally grown foods, has championed incorporating cover crops like clover and millet into cuisine as a way of encouraging farmers to grow them. The Blue Ox Malthouse in Maine was established to coax farmers there to grow barley as a cover crop, which the company then turns into malt that is sold to the states craft beer industry. Half a dozen farmers are producing good-quality barley as a cover crop, and others are interested in turning the grains theyve been growing as cover crops into something theres a value-added market for, said Joel Alex, Blue Oxs founder and maltster. Mr. Dombret is a regulator who knows banking from the inside, having held executive positions at J.P. Morgan and Bank of America. Most companies have codes of ethics, Mr. Dombret said, but they often exist only on paper. Regulators could help encourage a more ethical approach by routinely monitoring how a bank cooperates with its overseers, Mr. Dombret said. How often is the bank the whistle-blower? he asked. Not only to get a lesser penalty but also to show that it wont accept that kind of behavior. We are seeing more of that. Regulators may have other tools to curb dubious activities, he said. One idea is to increase the capital requirements of banks that are found to have violated rules and laws repeatedly. That not only enhances the safety of its operations but also imposes a real cost on future profits. If there was a series of misconduct, would that require increasing capital or asking for more equity? Mr. Dombret asked. We have to think through how you would penalize misconduct. A different proposal comes in a new book by Claire A. Hill and Richard W. Painter, professors at the University of Minnesota Law School. In Better Bankers, Better Banks, they argue for making financial executives personally liable for a portion of any fines and fraud-based judgments a bank enters into, including legal settlements. The professors call this covenant banking. And it looks a lot like the kind of personal liability that was a fact of life among the top Wall Street firms when they were private partnerships. On Friday, a bright red 1957 Ferrari rolled onto a stage in Paris and sold for 32 million euros, or about $35.8 million, making it, by some measures, the most expensive car ever sold at auction. The celebrated racing car captured the attention of wealthy car collectors around the world as well as the interest of the French tax authorities. The Ferrari was sold by the Bardinons, a prominent French family whose members are feuding with one another and the French government over their famous Ferrari collection. For tax purposes, some members of the family initially valued its stable of over a dozen Ferraris at around 70 million euros, or $78 million. And yet experts say the collection could be worth over $200 million. Especially after Fridays sale, the French tax authorities are likely to take a closer look at the familys math. While her self-appointed rescuers deployed their troops around the Camp Johnson Road area near the Bombchel Factory (a name that will become clear shortly), Ms. Bernard plowed ahead, putting the new team in place that she hopes will turn her intimate Mango Rags boutique into a broader purveyor of Liberian fashion for women, and men, who want to push the boundaries of what they wear. Image One of Ms. Bernards clothing labels. Credit... Conor Beary for The New York Times Those new sewing machines had to be set up, and techniques in how to cut indigenous Fanti cloth had to be taught. None of Ms. Bernards new employees had ever sewn a stitch before, unless you count hemming a lapa, the wraparound skirts Liberian women wear daily. But Ms. Bernard, 27, a Georgia Tech graduate who moved back to her parents native Liberia in 2011 after deciding that postwar Liberia may be an easier place to find a job than the post-recession United States, is determined to change all of that. Its a difficult task, because Ms. Bernard is using indigenous fabrics with their gorgeous hues of big, bold primary colors for her designs, and she is not adhering to the traditional West African gowns and lapas for her styles. Instead of the modest two-piece lapa and fitted shirts that Liberian women wear, Bombchel pieces are haltered, braless tops. (In Liberian-English, the description is dig my back or admire how nice my exposed backside looks with no bra.) There are blouses with one side artfully cut out, the better, of course, to expose a shoulder. As for the demure body-covering long tunics with pants underneath that are de rigueur across West Africa? Forget it. Bombchel offers a resort pant with slits up each side that go to the top of the thigh. Take the residential loft aesthetic: open space, clean lines, flat surfaces, an impersonal industrial voice. Apply it to the great urban outdoors. Now you have the borough of Queens, as seen through the lens of the landscape photographer Bryan Formhals, 39, who has been shooting the borough since he moved to Astoria from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2012. The landscape reminded me of when I was living in Los Angeles, said Mr. Formhals, a Minnesota native who lived on the West Coast before moving to Brooklyn in 2009. With the elevated trains and the two airports, you have the sense of people traveling through the air over Queens, and even on the ground theres an element of people on the move. It felt very contemporary, even more so than Brooklyn. It felt like a city on the verge. As he began taking his camera on long walks under the No. 7 subway line, or between La Guardia and Kennedy Airports, he became aware that there was no pre-existing visual vocabulary for conveying a sense of Queensness, as there is in Manhattan or Brooklyn. It is still an outside borough, a little bit unexplored, he said. There isnt that evocative shot where you say, Oh, I know thats Queens. In his work, the people tend to be secondary, dwarfed by the architecture or the landscape. They are as temporary as the trains and planes slicing overhead. I get the vibe that there is this true mix of people there for different reasons, Mr. Formhals said. You dont feel like youre in gentrified parts of Brooklyn, where it feels more homogenized. A bonus in Queens is the availability of good, cheap food from almost anywhere. Im not a foodie, he said. But its tough when youre in Queens not to get sucked in a little. On any given weekend, NoLItas tastefully curated boutiques are brimming with avid shoppers. Over on the Bowery, the New Museum draws contemporary art lovers. Seekers of spiritual atonement or the merely curious slip into the Basilica of St. Patricks Old Cathedral, a historic sanctuary on the corner of Mott and Prince Streets. Cradled amid fashionable cafes, old walk-up apartment buildings and new, multimillion-dollar dwellings, the soaring, softly lit cathedral was completed in 1815. Its stone edifice, however, dates to 1868, rebuilt after a fire engulfed the original frescoed structure in 1866. Another extensive restoration is currently taking place, with work being done to the bell tower, stained-glass windows, catacombs and brick-walled graveyard. Despite the detritus of construction, pilgrims from all walks of life and their dogs are invited to poke around on Saturdays and Sundays. Sometimes dogs are better behaved than people, said Msgr. Donald Sakano, who has served as the churchs pastor for seven years. Attending Mass is not required. Martin Scorsese, who grew up nearby in Little Italy and was an altar boy at the church, filmed part of Mean Streets in the cemetery. Barely legible tombstones date back 200 years and include the names of veterans from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Many of the citys early politicians, merchants and bishops were buried on the property, though none of them are particularly famous. Relaxing over lunch recently at a restaurant near her Dutchess County home, where she lives when not at her longtime Westchester residence, Ms. Upshaw said that in the years since those early performances of the work, she had felt less pressure to draw a connection onstage among its three parts. Rather, she had been luxuriating in their idiosyncrasies. Image Dawn Upshaw, the soloist. Credit... Ruby Washington/The New York Times They all have their own lives outside of this piece, she said. The first song, Night of the Flying Horses, began as part of the score for the 2000 film The Man Who Cried, which explores the travails of a girl in wartime Europe. The symphonic version which sets a poignant poem by the films director, Sally Potter, to music opens with an a cappella lullaby, in Yiddish, before moving to animated orchestral passages that draw on Klezmer and Gypsy idioms. In executing the piece, Ms. Upshaw assumes the role of participant-observer. Its an invitation to dream, she said. When Im performing it, Im the performer whos speaking a lullaby. At the same time, Im taking myself on that journey, so I can get wrapped up in the instrumental section. Ms. Upshaw is likewise drawn to the second song, Lua Descolorida, which she said is among the pieces she has performed most. The music evokes the despair of its lyric a poem written by Rosalia de Castro in Gallego, the language of Spains Galicia region in which a woman confesses her suicidal feelings to a pale moon. But Mr. Golijov tempers the gloom, using a bright key to illuminate the dark text and achieve what he termed a sad but luminous sound. Though he embraces the use of local sources, Geoff Lazlo, managing partner and the executive chef of Mill Street Bar & Table in Greenwich, likes to keep things simple. So he doesnt overwhelm diners with information, a la the waitress in Portlandia, about the provenance of each and every item on his menu. Im tired of the farm-to-table cliche, he said, saying the term had become overused by people who were trying to ride a trend and not adopting the idea. I dont want to be dogmatic, but I am dedicated to local sources and change my menu almost daily, he said. The restaurant, he said, is walking the walk, instead of talking the talk. Image Oysters with beet vinegar and pickled mustard seeds. Credit... Wendy Carlson for The New York Times Chef Lazlo, and Bill and Lesley King, are co-owners of Mill Street; the Kings also own the Back Forty, an 85-acre farm in Washington Depot, which supplies organic produce for the restaurant. The chef has an impressive resume, having worked at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif.; Blue Hill Stone Barn, in Pocantico Hills, N.Y; Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan, as well as Le Farm and the Whelk in Westport. ALBANY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York on Saturday announced a series of measures intended to eliminate so-called conversion therapy, a practice that claims the ability to reverse same-sex attraction in some people but that has been widely discredited by scientists and criticized by gay-rights groups. Mr. Cuomos plan relies on economic incentives meant to discourage conversion therapys use on young people. Insurers in New York, for instance, will now be prohibited from covering the cost of such therapy for anyone under 18. That action issued through the State Financial Services Department would be combined with a new regulation from the State Health Department that would prohibit the use of Medicaid to pay for conversion therapy. Centers overseen by the State Office of Mental Health would also be barred from providing conversion therapy to minors, according to the governors office. Taken as a whole, the new regulations would severely restrict conversion therapy, which Mr. Cuomo called a hateful and fundamentally flawed practice in a statement. BAY BREAK My son gets up about 9 and we go out for a walk, usually about 9:30 or 10. We walk on a long road down by the water. Its about two and a half to three miles by the time we get back. There arent a lot of places in New York City where you feel you have access to grass and water at the same time. Its beautiful and its quiet, and you can smell the water. MAKE A PLAN We come home and have breakfast. Sometimes we go to a club that we belong to, the Douglaston Club, for brunch or lunch. Well think about what we want to do for the day. Either we think about going to a museum we like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum or are we going to visit Grandma, who lives in the Bronx, or visit someone else in the family, or have people here? Thats generally when we make a plan. Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, a federal judge in Manhattan who presided over the trial that sent the domesticity expert Martha Stewart to prison for lying to the government about her sale of stock in a friends company, died on Friday at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. She was 86. Her son Daniel confirmed her death. Judge Cedarbaum, who was appointed to her position by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, handled thousands of cases in a quarter-century on the federal bench, from a terrorists attempt to explode a car bomb in Times Square to a battle over ownership of works created by the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. It was the 2004 trial of Ms. Stewart, however, that brought the judge her widest public attention. Judge Cedarbaums sentencing of Ms. Stewart, the chief executive of a billion-dollar empire of publishing, television and merchandising businesses, to five months in prison plus five months of home confinement spurred a public debate over whether the punishment was too lenient or too harsh. Ms. Stewart was convicted of lying to federal investigators about why she had sold nearly 4,000 shares in a biotechnology company the day before the company announced in 2001 that the government had rejected its application for approval of a promising cancer drug. Ms. Stewart reaped $227,000 from the sale; after the announcement, the share price of the company, ImClone Systems, plummeted. The long metal necks dotting the New York skyline have become familiar symbols of the citys development rush in recent years. But as one of those cranes lay crumpled on a narrow Lower Manhattan street, toppled after a deadly collapse on Friday, the image of the machine took on a jarringly different meaning. On Saturday, beyond a line of fire trucks and caution tape, 565 feet of cherry-red steel was sprawled across Worth Street in mangled disarray. The day before, the crane being used to install generators and air-conditioners tipped over as its crew worked to secure it amid high winds. The collapse and the downpour of debris that followed killed a 38-year-old man, David Wichs, who was walking to work, and injured three other people, two of them seriously. Investigators continued to examine the wreckage, and crews began cutting the tangle of metal into almost three dozen smaller chunks to be carted away. You could say Im having a bad day, said Mr. LaRoche, who is studying for the New York State bar exam mostly during his commute to court from his home in Rutherford, N.J., where he lives with his wife and young son. Doing these 30-second pitches, hundreds of times a day, is very tiring youre completely wiped out at the end of the day, said Mr. LaRoche, who headed back to the commercial adjudication department on the third floor and slipped into a small room where an administrative law judge sat at a computer terminal. Mr. LaRoche sat next to the 90-pound suitcase that serves as his file cabinet for reams of documents, and that he lugs on his extensive commute. It helps that he is 6 feet, 5 inches and 290 pounds and a former high school wrestler and shot-putter. He placed a foot-high stack of papers in front of him the summonses and related documents and worked his way rapidly through them, making his case to the judge. For each ticket, he quickly ticked off some claims of defects regarding address, type of vehicle, fines and the like all the while lightening the jargon-laced tedium with jokes and stories. Periodically, the judge flipped the tape in the cassette player recording the proceedings, or unwrapped another Maxell cassette to replace it. If we stopped doing this, would Maxell go out of business? Mr. LaRoche said. As the judge considered Mr. LaRoches argument regarding a refrigerated truck that had been ticketed, Mr. LaRoche illustrated his point. United States Representative Chris Gibson, a Republican from upstate New York who has become a sharp critic of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, said he plans to create a committee to prepare for a potential run for governor in 2018. Mr. Gibson, a retired Army colonel, has toured the state over the last year as he weighed a bid for higher office. He said in an interview that paperwork would be filed on Monday to form Gibson for New York, an entity that Mr. Gibson described as an exploratory committee that would allow him to begin raising money for a potential campaign. While Mr. Gibson, 51, said in the interview he had not made a final decision on the race, he said the challenge of winning the governorship, and Mr. Cuomos fund-raising prowess, made it essential to accelerate his own efforts now. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, has reported having $16 million in reserve for a campaign. Austin Shafran, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, declined to comment on Mr. Gibsons plans but said the governor intends to seek a third term. Congress could soon vote on a bill that would require law enforcement agencies to get a search warrant from a judge to obtain emails, photographs and other documents Americans have stored online. This important legislation would update the law to reflect how people use the Internet today. Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, government agents need a warrant if they want access to email stored on the servers of companies like Google and Yahoo, but only if the messages are less than 180 days old. For older messages and other digital files, law enforcement officials can issue subpoenas to technology companies without going to a judge. A bill introduced in the House by Kevin Yoder, Republican of Kansas, would require a warrant for all information stored online, regardless of how old it is and what kind of file it is. The legislation includes a sensible exception that would allow civil enforcement agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission to subpoena messages sent by employees on a corporate computer system. The bill has more than 300 co-sponsors, a good sign that it would pass easily in the House. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, said last week that his committee would consider the bill in March. In the Senate, Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, have introduced a similar bill that has bipartisan support from 24 other senators. WE have been rightfully outraged by the lead poisoning of children in Flint, Mich. an outrage that one health expert called state-sponsored child abuse. But lead poisoning goes far beyond Flint, and in many parts of America seems to be even worse. Lead in Flint is the tip of the iceberg, notes Dr. Richard J. Jackson, former director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flint is a teachable moment for America. In Flint, 4.9 percent of children tested for lead turned out to have elevated levels. Thats inexcusable. But in 2014 in New York State outside of New York City, the figure was 6.7 percent. In Pennsylvania, 8.5 percent. On the west side of Detroit, one-fifth of the children tested in 2014 had lead poisoning. In Iowa for 2012, the most recent year available, an astonishing 32 percent of children tested had elevated lead levels. (I calculated most of these numbers from C.D.C. data.) Across America, 535,000 children ages 1 through 5 suffer lead poisoning, by C.D.C. estimates. We are indeed all Flint, says Dr. Philip Landrigan, a professor of preventive medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Lead poisoning continues to be a silent epidemic in the United States. The Nixon administration subscribed to this logic. In ending the draft, it hoped to soften opposition to the Vietnam War. For the opposite reason, Representative Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, has repeatedly sponsored legislation to reinstate a wartime draft for men and women. Those making the decision to fight need to feel the burden, he said last year. But the evidence is at best murky. Military service throughout American history has been borne disproportionately by those at the lower end of the economic ladder, who lack the resources to avoid it. The financial cost of a volunteer army, conversely, falls disproportionately on those who pay the most taxes, and some scholars see evidence that this price tag effect is a more significant deterrent. Voters may be more upset about the cost of war than the remote chance that their own children will be drafted. In 1968, James C. Miller III organized a group of graduate students at the University of Virginia to write an influential collection of essays arguing for the end of the draft. He said recently that time had validated their arguments. I believe that when you have a draft youre more likely to go to war than if you have to pay for a volunteer army, said Mr. Miller, an economist who went on to lead the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration. A draft lowers the cost for the wealthy because the people who are important dont have their children going off and theyre also not paying as much in taxes. President Jimmy Carter revived the registration system in 1980 as a kind of emergency backup plan. And some economists say drafts can make sense when a nation needs to expand enlistment substantially. It falls under the heading of planning for a bad day, said Beth J. Asch, an economist at the RAND Corporation. This conclusion came from simple data mining, and confirmed earlier research conducted in 2013 and published in the journal Circulation indicating that P.P.I.s could potentially lead to long-term cardiovascular disease by changing the lining of blood vessels. Patients who were prescribed another type of heartburn drug, however, had no increased likelihood of heart attack. I get that patients are nervous about releasing their health records. Studies have shown that even anonymous strings of DNA data can be linked to individuals. Patients understandably dont want their acquaintances and employers to know all their private health information. But we cannot let these fears suppress the powerful insights medical data can offer us. When I explain to my own patients what can be done with their information for the greater good in research, nobody has ever said to me, Dont use my data. We all go to a machine on the street where we insert a plastic card and cash comes out; we log into our online accounts to check our balances and pay bills; and we give credit card numbers that contain a key to our financial information to retailers without a second thought. But if I asked you to put your de-identified personal health information online, or share it and perhaps some bio-specimens with people other than your own doctors, you might panic. Health data is not the same as financial data, you might say. We need to move past that. For one thing, more debate over data sharing is already leading to more data security. Last month a bill was signed into law calling for the Department of Health and Human Services to create a health care industry cybersecurity task force, whose members would hammer out new voluntary standards. New technologies and opportunities come with unprecedented risks and the need for new policies and strategies. We must continue to improve our encryption capabilities and other methods of data security and, most important, mandate that they are used. The hack of the Anthem database last year, for instance, which allowed 80 million personal records to be accessed, was shocking not only for the break-in, but for the lack of encryption. We also must block attempts to discriminate based on health information for work or other pursuits with continued legislation, and portray those who participate in the sharing of health data as heroes. In fact, they are heroes: They are part of tomorrows cures for themselves and their children. We also need to revisit the cumbersome and obsolete privacy rules enacted by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to make it easier for patients to participate. One idea is to establish a trusted middle broker, such as a dedicated nongovernmental agency, that can ensure that every effort is made to keep records anonymous before their release for research studies. Medical research is making progress every day, but the next step depends less on scientists and doctors than it does on the public. Each of us has the potential to be part of tomorrows cures. Gordon Ballard is executive director of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, whose members produce more than half of the worlds oil and more than a third of its gas. READING My reading has focused lately on heroic exploration. Most recently it was The Martian by Andy Weir, which I liked because of the believable way it described surviving in that extreme environment. Before that I read a biography of Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer, by Michael Smith, which I picked up after reading Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff about an Arctic exploration looking for survivors of three U.S. military planes that crashed in Greenland during World War II. I got onto that because back in the 1980s when I was working in Africa as a field engineer, we used to come across old parts of planes that had crashed in the Libyan Desert during World War II. It was not until oil exploration that these planes were found. LISTENING I continue my devotion to the vinyl LPs of my teenage years. Ive kept them all hundreds of them and several retro systems to play them. One is a 1970s Danish teak Bush model with a Garrard deck. Nostalgia is the smell of warm valves and analog sound. Most recently I put on Pink Floyds The Dark Side of the Moon. I also like listening to 80s bands from Glasgow, where Im from. Bands like Lloyd Cole & the Commotions and Hipsway. WATCHING Deutschland 83. Its a German version of The Americans and just as gripping. The Americans is Soviets in America this one is East German spies in West Germany. Its full of espionage and deceit and a kind of sleazy, nostalgic Communist glamour. The music, clothes and locations are spot on. You can imagine watching it in 1983. I dont know, maybe I have a fixation on the 80s. But she is establishment. So is Nancy Pelosi. So was Eleanor Roosevelt. Hillary must learn to embrace that and make it work for her, not deny it. As a woman, as a former first lady, senator and secretary of state, shes uniquely equipped to deliver a big, inspiring message with a showstopping speech that goes beyond income inequality, that sweeps up broader themes of intolerance, fusing the economic, cultural and international issues at stake. She could, as one talented political speechwriter riffed, say something like this: Were a stronger country when more people have higher incomes; when women get paid the same as men; when we draw on the diverse talents of immigrants; when we show the world that America is a place that embraces all religions, that offers refuge to the persecuted and the terrorized. When a few old rich white men are the only ones who succeed, thats not just unfair, its untenable. Hillarys most poignant moment came during the CNN town hall on Wednesday night when she said that, as a young woman, she had never expected to run for president herself, given that her husband was a natural. It was her misfortune in 2008 to run into another natural. She was not likable enough that year. But it was at least fathomable. She was running against the Tulip Craze Barack Obama. Now shes running against a grumpy gramps, a stooped socialist with a narrow message, brusque manner and shaky grasp of world affairs. But the Clintons are still leveling the same charges, that her opponents stances are fairy tales and that his idealism masks tough tactics. And shes still not likable enough for the young women who were supposed to carry her forward as a Joan of Arc. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll, Sanders won among young men and women in Iowa by 70 points. And in New Hampshire, going into the weekend, polls showed him leading with women, racking up yawning margins with women under 45 and with both sexes under 30. Lyndon Johnson said that the two things that make politicians more stupid than anything else are sex and envy. With Hillary, there are three things: sex, money and the need for secrecy. She was in on sliming her husbands ex-girlfriends who told the truth about liaisons. She has long been driven by a fear of being dead broke, as she put it and a conviction that she deserved the life and perks she would have had if she had gone into the private sector. That led her to do her suspiciously lucrative commodity trades while Bill was Arkansas attorney general and to make Wall Street speeches on the cusp of her 2016 campaign, even though she and Bill had already made more than $139 million between 2007 and 2014. An opportunity to pass the most significant federal criminal justice reform in a generation may be slipping away despite the tireless efforts of many top Republicans and Democrats in Congress, as well as a rare exhortation from President Obama during last months State of the Union address. The bill, known as the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, is the product of years of negotiation over how best to roll back the imprisonment spree of the past four decades, a period in which the federal prison population grew from just under 25,000 to more than 195,000. Among other features, the act would reduce absurdly long mandatory minimum sentences for many nonviolent drug crimes, give judges more control over the terms of punishment and provide inmates with more opportunities to get out early by participating in rehabilitation programs. It has even won over Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has long been among the biggest skeptics of sentencing reform but who is a key sponsor of the legislation. STUART GOTTLIEB New York The writer teaches public policy at Columbia University. We live in the midst of difficult times, and pessimism about our institutions seems natural. But generations far less educated than the present one elected Lincoln, the two Roosevelts and other highly qualified presidents. We descend from people who won a revolution against great odds, survived a brutal civil war, defied an oligarchy to free millions of slaves, and helped to save the world from the twin threats of Nazism and Communism. Those generations also harbored skeptics who doubted the intelligence and capacity of their fellow citizens. Their views did not prevail, however, and neither should those of our own Cassandras. JAMES H. LEE Arlington, Tex. Professor Millies laments that reason is no longer enough to win in American politics. But it never has been. Candidates have shamelessly played on peoples fears for as far back as I can recall. Remember the Lyndon B. Johnson 1964 campaign ad Daisy, showing an innocent little girl, and then an atomic bomb blast? Remember George H. W. Bushs 1988 ad about Willie Horton, who committed crimes while on furlough? The whole campaign process is profoundly irrational, and emotion and symbolism are crucial to it. Edmund Muskie may have lost the race for the 1972 Democratic nomination because he wept in public. Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential race partly because he looked silly riding around in a tank. In short, while a good summary of this year is God help us, that pretty much sums up every election year. MARGARET F. NICHOLS Ithaca, N.Y. The apparent decline in the effectiveness of evidence and reason in American politics is a direct result of the rise in political participation by evangelical Christians. Their adherence to uncompromising sectarian dogma is clearly the origin of their opposition to L.G.B.T. rights, abortion and the scientific fact of global warming. Their influence is evidenced by the inability of Republicans to compromise, leading to the current gridlock in Washington. DON SHIPP Homestead, Fla. Mr. Millies dismisses the anxieties of working-class and uneducated white voters as irrational. Whether or not this is accurate, it is important to recognize that the rhetoric of the far left has done a great deal to fuel the perception among white voters and men that their perspectives are unwelcome in our political discourse. Those who oppose affirmative action are presumed to be bigots who want to prevent women and minorities from advancing socially and economically. Those who propose that men accused of rape on college campuses should be presumed innocent until proven guilty are accused of apologizing for rapists. One of the great challenges of 21st-century politics will be to continue the progress that has been made for women and minorities without leaving others feeling that they are being left behind. So far, neither party has risen to it. The Democrats would be perfect to take this on, as many of their economic proposals would advance the interests of Americans of all races and genders. Yet as long as they cling to the rhetoric of privilege checking and safe spaces and refuse to hear the voices of all Americans, many will continue to feel alienated by the party and vote against their own economic self-interest. GEORGE H. W. BUSH was the first politician I ever disliked. I was 12, my parents were loyal Democrats, and every night wed watch the news, cheer for whatever Bill Clinton was saying on the trail, and then glower at the screen when Peter Jennings went to Brit Hume, then the White House correspondent, for an update on what the incumbent president was up to. For a kid new to politics, in a family that regarded Republicans as stuffed shirts and black hats, the fact that the elder Bush had been elected president was simply baffling. His voice, his affect, his malapropisms, his endless forehead they reminded me of a stiff in one of the black-and-white films my parents watched, or the Token Clueless Grown-up in a kids adventure movie. Watching him nightly, I kept thinking: How could anyone like this guy? One answer, I learned later, was that relatively few people really did. Not that Bush hadnt earned his share of admirers across his distinguished career. But by the standards of modern presidents he lacked a truly passionate fan base. The conservative movement was perpetually disappointed in him; liberals gave him no credit for his moderation; the press never swooned for him; and few voters bonded with him the way they did with the beloved Reagan, the charismatic Clinton or even, eventually, with a more populist and swaggering President Bush. So my 12-year-old selfs political instincts werent all wrong. The elder Bush had many gifts, but he was not a particularly appealing politician. Paying for a Contractors Damage A subcontractor who was working on the renovation of my apartment scratched an elevator door. The condominium building is demanding $600 for the repair. The subcontractor admitted responsibility for the scratch, but thinks that the charge should be only $300. The building manager, however, told the subcontractor not to pay the building anything, saying the building would deduct $600 from my damage deposit. What are my options to resolve this, given that I have already paid the subcontractor in full? Can the building legally withhold my deposit if its the buildings fault that the subcontractor isnt paying? And if I do pay some or all of the charge, am I entitled to recover that amount from the subcontractor? Union Square, Manhattan Your condo has a relationship with you, not with the contractors or subcontractors that you hire. So if any damage is done under your watch, the building will turn to you for compensation. Most buildings require residents to sign an agreement before any work is done in the building. These agreements makes crystal clear that the condominium owner and not the contractor is liable for any damage to building property, which includes elevators, said Adam Leitman Bailey, a Manhattan real estate lawyer. Most buildings also require contractors to take out an insurance policy that names the condominium and the unit owner as additional insured. Look to your contract with the contractor to see how to file a claim under that insurance policy. You will likely need to show proof of damages, like date-stamped photographs. You could also file a claim against the contractor of up to $5,000 in small claims court. For that, you would not need a lawyer. Except I hardly ever take cabs anymore. I take the subway everywhere and at all hours, and its a different scene than it was in the 1990s, especially at night. Back in the days before changes in policing, among other various factors, made the streets exponentially safer than before (at least for some), and daily subway ridership was about half of what it is now, people pretty much assumed they would be mugged eventually. Platforms were often desolate. Riders knew to hide their jewelry, keep a tight grip on their bags, and try to get in the conductors car so as not to wind up the lone passenger. So many nights, I remember traveling alone and white-knuckling it all the way home, hoping at least a handful of other passengers would be riding with me, praying that some strung-out dude strutting between moving cars (this didnt become illegal until 2005) wouldnt decide to linger in mine. I know better than to romanticize the citys more dangerous eras and, believe me, I appreciate not feeling nervous on the subway. But I find myself longing for the sense of wildness that permeated the city back then. There was a real magic to walking along streets that were crowded not just with masters of the universe but also punk-rock youths with mohawks (real ones, not fauxhawks) and cross-dressing hookers outside the Port Authority and Rastafarian guys whispering, Smoke, smoke, all over the village. To a person who had come from some far away place or even just the nearby suburbs, that smoke, smoke solicitation was more than just an offer to buy marijuana. It was proof that youd arrived not only geographically but also existentially. Today, the person who comes from the suburbs is likely to feel right at home in many parts of New York City. I am well aware of the unoriginality of this lament, especially given how common it is in certain circles now to romanticize the citys grittier, graffiti-covered past. But New York has always been a city whose dominant emotional chord is nostalgia. Its a place where people come when theyre young, usually end up leaving, and then spend the rest of their lives reminiscing about in ways that probably bear little resemblance to how things were. Some version of the same pattern also plays out for those who stay. No matter how good the present is working out, the past was always better. And in New York, that means rougher, dirtier, scarier at night. But in the past, we were always younger, which means the present cant win. Since being back, Ive wondered countless times if the fundamental blandness the city seems to exude (though of course its an energetic blandness) is a function of its safety and cleanness, or if Ive simply become bland and boring. Honestly, how could I not have? Im 45, not 25. I rarely stay out late. My friends have children and jobs and co-op board meetings. We tend to meet for drinks at 6 p.m., and then only after the requisite rounds of rescheduling. Mostly I walk around my neighborhood with my dog. I dont remember there being this many dogs back in the 90s. Maybe theyve driven the rents up, too. BLACKSBURG, Va. The young scientists, mostly in their 20s and counting the semesters until their next degree, had drawn an audience so large that it spilled from the auditorium on the Virginia Tech campus into two overflow rooms. They were explaining to students, members of the faculty and guests how they were at first laughed off by government regulators about 550 miles northwest of here in Flint, Mich., when they detected alarming amounts of lead coming from residents taps. Siddhartha Roy, a doctoral student from India, held up a bottle of yellow-tinted Flint water. The teams role, he told the crowd, was essentially validating what citizens had been saying for months. That validation was so important to the increasingly desperate people of Flint that one resident hugged him when he heard that the Virginia Tech scientists had indeed confirmed that the water was contaminated. He just wouldnt let go, Mr. Roy, 27, said in an interview. Its surreal, because when its happening, your mind is blank. But when you go back home and you reflect on it, you feel happy and grateful that you can be part of something big. It has been seven years since he dominated the American political stage, but his approachable Texas drawl remains instantly recognizable. And former President George W. Bushs testimonial for his brother Jebs campaign, in an ad now running in South Carolina, begins with a phrase he made familiar: The first job of the president is to protect America. The Message Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting Jeb Bushs campaign, has been deploying well-respected surrogates to make the case for his national-security credentials. First, four military officers praised Mr. Bushs guts. Now, it is the former president, who says Mr. Bushs good heart and strong backbone will unite the country and the world in the fight against terrorism. It is a positive message for the former Florida governor, who has been aggressively attacking his rivals. The Response His famous family is stepping up to aid Mr. Bush, who continues to struggle in the polls: His mother, Barbara, hit the campaign trail this past week in New Hampshire, and the ad featuring the former president drew immediate notice there, though the South Carolina Republican primary is not until Feb. 20. The Impact I am my own man, Mr. Bush insisted last year when, trying to play down his lineage, he even left his surname off his logo. Now he is turning to his family for help. And it may be a canny move: Right to Rise says Republicans opinions of George W. Bush remain very positive. And one of Jeb Bushs most memorable debate moments, which was widely shared on social media, came when he defended his older brother, saying he kept America safe. Now, the former president is assuring voters that Mr. Bush would do the same. Heres how we analyzed the Republican debate, and our live fact checks. ____ _ The Republican presidential candidates face off Saturday night at 8, just days before the New Hampshire primary, which could further narrow the field. We asked New York Times political reporters what they would be looking for in the debate (and heres how to watch). _______ Having lost the Iowa caucuses after months of predicting a win there, Donald J. Trump could be the story of the night. Will he look and sound tense, cautious, maybe even a little scared as he faces the possibility of back-to-back defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire that would really make him a loser? Or, win or lose, will he keep swinging like the same old outrageous Trump his supporters love? Patrick Healy _______ How will Marco Rubio hold up as he bears the brunt of his rivals attacks? First Mr. Trump was the primary focus of his rivals. Then it was Ted Cruz. Now it seems inevitable that Mr. Rubio will serve as the preferred debate punching bag. His ability to weather the onslaught will offer insights about his strengths as a candidate and whether he has the mettle to survive once the field narrows. Jonathan Martin _______ Mr. Bushs top surrogates, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, have said he needs a stronger showing in New Hampshire than his fellow Floridian, Mr. Rubio, or Jeb is toast, in Mr. Grahams words. Ill be looking for Mr. Bush to go on the offensive against Mr. Rubio instead of his usual target, Mr. Trump, early and often. Nick Corasaniti China is home to a wide range of monkeys and other primates, but with the wild ones largely in remote or mountainous areas, zoos offer the best chance for many Chinese to see some up close in this Chinese Year of the Monkey. In anticipation of especially large crowds in coming days, the Nanjing Hongshang Forest Zoo, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, is celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year on Monday with a week of educational events about their primates, some of which are endangered and under special protection. Several of the animals are being shown to the public for the first time. Two zookeepers, Zhang Hui and Bu Haixia, discussed in interviews their charges, what is different about the Year of the Monkey and whether monkeys care. Zhang Hui, handler of three golden snub-nosed monkeys, native to central and southwest China: Q. Tell us about the monkeys. A. We have Wei Wei, a 3-year-old male, and Si Si and Lao Dou, both female. I dont have the ages of the females, but theyre both adults. Wei Wei and Si Si were just transferred here from a nursery facility of the zoo to join Lao Dou, so shed have some company, but also to celebrate the Year of the Monkey. Q. So the coming Lunar New Year is going to be special? A. They have no idea what that means. The best treat I hope theyll get for the year thats being celebrated in their name is that theyll get to live in a more enriched environment, where they can display their natural behavior and not be tempted by the food visitors throw at them. But the United States and its allies consider the program a pretext for developing technologies that can also be used to build an intercontinental ballistic missile. The Norths launch of a three-stage rocket on Sunday, after a similar test in 2012, showed that the country was determined to acquire them despite sanctions imposed by the Security Council. With the launch, North Korea was also defying China, which had issued strong appeals not to proceed. In flouting China, the Norths only treaty ally, Mr. Kim was showing the ultimate disrespect to the government that has continued to trade with him, including sending oil that keeps the military and the rudimentary economy working. A senior Chinese diplomat, Wu Dawei, traveled to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, early last week with the specific message that the launch should not go ahead. Chinese analysts conceded that Mr. Wu had an impossible assignment, and he returned to Beijing on Thursday night unsuccessful. Mr. Kim appears confident that he can continue to show contempt for his ally, believing, it seems, that China fears his ability to turn on it. Beijing has resisted Washingtons effort to place tough sanctions on the North since a nuclear test last month, concerned that the move might destabilize its neighbor. In a statement released on Sunday after Japan, South Korea and the United States pressed for firmer action, China called for calm and said the major powers should act cautiously. The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said, China expresses regret over the launch with ballistic missile technology carried out by North Korea despite wide opposition from the international community. KABUL, Afghanistan Two radio journalists were hospitalized, one of them in a coma, after being attacked by gunmen in northern Afghanistan, the police and one of the victims said Saturday. It was the latest in a series of attacks on members of the Afghan news media. Mohammad Ibrahim Hashemi, 22, and his brother Mohammad Musa Hashemi, 20, were attacked on Thursday evening outside their home in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan Province, said Zabiullah Shujah, a spokesman for the provincial police. Mr. Shujah said one of the attackers, a man named Qayum, had been detained, and that he appeared to have a family connection with the victims, but that the motive was still unknown. The attack left Mohammad Ibrahim Hashemi, a news editor who runs political and cultural programs, in a coma and his brother, a station operator, badly beaten. The brothers both work for Adib Radio in Pul-e-Khumri. There was no claim of responsibility, but attention immediately focused on the Taliban. The insurgents have begun increasingly to target the media, including a January car bomb attack in Kabul that killed seven employees of a production company working for the countrys largest television network, Tolo TV. ROME A high-profile Vatican commission on the prevention of child sexual abuse voted on Saturday to temporarily suspend one of its members, an outspoken victim of clerical abuse who accused the church of failing to deliver on its promises of reform and accountability. But the suspended member, Peter Saunders, said at a news conference in Rome on Saturday that he would stand his ground. I have not left, and am not leaving my position on the commission, Mr. Saunders said. I was appointed by His Holiness Pope Francis, and I will talk only with him about my position. The public blowup could undermine confidence in the popes efforts to rebuild the Roman Catholic Churchs credibility on the child abuse issue. When the 17-member commission was created by Francis in his first year as pope, many victims and their advocates hoped that the presence on the panel of Mr. Saunders and another victim would spur the commission to act forcefully. But Mr. Saunders, who founded the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, in England, has complained that the commission has failed to produce tangible results. The commission succeeded in urging Francis to create a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who are accused of failing to act to prevent sexual abuse of children. But Mr. Saunders and abuse victims say there has been no progress since the pope approved it last June. TEHRAN An Iranian vetting committee on Saturday reversed a decision to disqualify more than 1,500 candidates who had registered to run in parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 26. It is unclear how many of the newly approved candidates are considered to be reformists, who are opposed by Iranian hard-liners. An election official told the state news media that the decisions were reversed after a new review of the candidates qualifications and backgrounds. In Iran, all candidates must prove they fully support the Islamic republic and are devout Muslims. Irans beleaguered reformist faction has tried to flood the vetting committee, known as the Guardian Council, with candidates, hoping that enough would slip through for their faction to win a majority in Parliament. But that remains a stiff challenge, even if many reformists were reinstated on Saturday. During a first round of vetting in December, reformist leaders said that out of the 3,000 candidates they put forth, the Guardian Council, which is made up of Shiite Muslim clerics and jurists, approved only 30. TEHRAN A top Iranian commander reacted with ridicule to Saudi Arabias suggestion that it was prepared to take part in ground operations in Syria, saying Saturday that the kingdom would not dare send troops there. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Irans powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Saudi forces were not capable of operating in an environment as complex as Syria, where a multifaceted civil war has been raging for nearly five years. Saudi Arabia backs some of the rebel factions there, while Iran supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad and has been sending military advisers for years. More than 400 Iranians have been killed in the conflict. On technical grounds, the I.R.S. could surely win in court if it applied transfer-pricing rules in the Vanguard case, Professor Avi-Yonah said. Not everyone is sure of that, though. David M. Schizer, a professor and dean emeritus at Columbia Law School, put the matter succinctly. The transfer-pricing rules are intended to capture economic reality and not distort it, he said, adding that they werent intended to apply in a situation like this and result in taxes when no profit existed. I think it would be absurd to force Vanguard to pay taxes in this case, he said. And John D. Morley, a Yale law professor who is an expert on mutual fund structure, said, I consider this litigation a little silly. Transfer-pricing rules are meant for situations in which a company controls a subsidiary and can use that control to set artificially low prices, thus concealing profits. Thats not true here, Professor Morley said. As a practical matter, he said, all mutual funds are completely dominated by their manager. While Vanguard shareholders ultimately own the Vanguard Group, they dont really control it, he said. Vanguard charges low fees simply because thats the culture of Vanguard, as Jack Bogle created it, he said. Its a completely unique situation. Even Professor Avi-Yonah acknowledged in an interview that applying transfer-pricing rules in the case of Vanguard seems startling. In fact, he said he wasnt sure that the I.R.S. should enforce the rules in this fashion. Luckily, I dont have to make this decision, he said. God knows the I.R.S. has enormous discretion in these cases. The agency could accept the taxpayers argument that it was an innocent mistake, he continued, even if it involves an enormous amount of tax revenue. Mr. Danon asserts that Vanguard could owe billions of dollars in taxes on the putative, uncollected revenue. I know that this is a very unpopular position, and that many, many people are shareholders of Vanguard funds, he said in an interview. But the law is the law. Like everybody else, Vanguard should pay the taxes it owes. If it doesnt, somebody else has to make up the difference, and thats just not fair. Others have looked closely at the possible amounts involved. Ill return to the numbers shortly. But first, some conflict-of-interest disclosures: Professor Avi-Yonah has an obvious conflict. He says he received $10,000 to $50,000 from Mr. Danon for his research and legal opinion. But he also says that the money has not influenced his views and notes that he will collect nothing further if Mr. Danons position prevails. Mr. Danon has a conflict: Now unemployed, he could receive a whistle-blowers bonus of up to 30 percent of any funds collected by the I.R.S. in the claim. But he says he is fighting for a principle: I felt I had to become a whistle-blower because I believe Im right, and the law is the law, and I couldnt convince anyone at Vanguard about it. On Friday, The New York Times reported that officials examining whether Nicole Madison Lovell, 13, was killed by a Virginia Tech student she connected with using Kik, a free messaging app. Of course, worries over the power of technology are not new many worried about the dangers of MySpace and AOL in earlier web eras. And lets face it, apps are usually harmless and pretty fun. But law enforcement officials warn that a new class of smartphone apps, particularly those that offer users a new degree of anonymity, pose significant risks for teenagers. These types of apps make it easier for users to conceal their identities or spread racy images or, in many cases, threats. Below is a selection of scandals involving some of the most popular apps. EDUCATED Americans consider themselves a cosmopolitan bunch. We follow the conflict in Ukraine between Donetsk and Kiev, and can probably point to them on a map. We enjoy bibimbap and paella, which we try to pronounce with an appropriate accent. Some of us can identify the work of Igor Stravinsky, Youssou NDour and Ai Weiwei. The rest of us are going to go look them up on Wikipedia now. But we are more parochial than our grandparents generation, according to one indicator: the New York Times crossword puzzle. With the permission of Will Shortz, the Timess crossword puzzle editor, I recently downloaded all of the newspapers crosswords from February 1942, when the puzzle began, through the end of 2015. I created an algorithm to search all 2,092,375 pairs of clues and answers for foreign language words and place names outside the United States. The results are imperfect, since the puzzles can be tricky and there is a lot of overlap between English and foreign words. But the broad trend is clear. The puzzle today uses one-third fewer non-English clues and answers than it did at its peak in 1966, and makes two-thirds fewer international references than its peak in 1943. For many years, the puzzle expected educated Americans to know the German word for with (mit) and the Latin word for man (vir), for example. These words have all but disappeared from the puzzle. Solvers were expected to know details about Americas military operations, such as Mountain battlefield in 1943 (etna) and (misleadingly, since the answer is actually Japanese) Forever!: Korean battle shout in 1951 (banzai). Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, by contrast, appear in the puzzle barely more often than before the United States sent troops to each country. Since the 1990s, puzzlers were occasionally asked to recognize Burkina ____ but over the last few years, they were given additional help, Burkina ____ (African land) and Burkina ____ (Niger neighbor) (the answer is Faso). Over the generations, some foreign words have grown in frequency. For example, ethnic food in the Times crossword tracks well with broader cultural trends. Tacos were first mentioned in the puzzle in 1963 (Mexican sandwich). Sushi appeared in 1982 (Sauce for sushi: soy), dim sum in 1985 (Chinese pasta appetizer) and Thai food in 1993 (Popular cuisine: Thai). Churros were first included in the puzzle in 2011 (Spanish pastry). Other words have also tracked shifts between languages. Dit used to be clued as French for said; since 1974 it refers almost exclusively to telegraphy. Hora shifted from Latin (hour) to Spanish (hour) to Hebrew (dance). Uber (a car service) is no longer clued as a German preposition (over or above). Meaning of uber in the New York Times Crossword I asked Mr. Shortz about how he chooses which foreign-language words to include. I try not to be too obscure, he said. Sometimes less common foreign words are allowed if there are English-language cognates. For example, I had zoologico in a clue the answer was oso, which is Spanish for bear, and the clue was One in a zoologico. I suggested the words madar and pedar, which are cognates for mother and father in Persian. Could those words appear in the puzzle? No, he said. On the crossword blogs, those would be sharply criticized as obscurities. Besides, solvers would hate them. Some obscure words do get included, though. Mr. Shortz gave the example of ucalegon, which is Greek for a neighbor whose house is on fire. It appeared twice in the Times puzzle in the early 1960s. Youre never going to use that word, but its interesting. Meaning of lipo in the New York Times Crossword When Margaret Farrar was hired to start the Times crossword, two months after Pearl Harbor, the puzzle was envisioned as a sort of weekly news quiz, with a flavor of current events and general information, as the first puzzle page announced. The very first clue in the crossword Famous one-eyed general aligned with this mandate, referring to a British commander who fought in North Africa (Wavell). In the puzzles first four years, more than 15 percent of the clues included international geographic references. Ms. Farrar chafed against the puzzles focus on current events, Mr. Shortz said, and reduced these references to 8 percent by the 1960s. Small but distinct shifts in the proportion can be detected with the coming of each new puzzle editor: a slight increase under Will Weng in 1969, a slight decrease with Eugene T. Maleska in 1977, and another drop when Mr. Shortz took over in 1993. International references now appear in about 5 percent of clues. Western Europe accounts for a third of these international references, a bit lower than in earlier decades. In Ms. Farrars day, French was still the primary language of international diplomacy. German was the most common mother tongue in the United States after English. More Americans had studied Latin in school than any other language. Today, by contrast, six times more Americans speak Spanish than French, and nine times more speak Spanish than German by my analysis. Almost nobody knows Latin. Since 1995, enrollment in college Spanish courses has been greater than enrollment for all other languages combined. Meaning of nada in the New York Times Crossword In the Times crossword, however, Spanish surpassed Latin only in the early 2000s. Mr. Shortz told me that he never learned Spanish his knowledge of the language, beyond everyday words that are common among English speakers, comes entirely from years of crosswords. My mom insisted that French was the international language, and that I should take it, he told me. Perhaps not coincidentally, French remains the most common foreign language in the puzzle, though its prevalence has dropped. Waves of immigration have brought many other languages to the United States as well. According to data from the Census Bureaus American Community Survey, the third most widespread language spoken in homes in Texas, after English and Spanish, is Vietnamese. In Virginia, it is Korean. Across the 50 states, about 14 different languages hold the second- or third-place position. So are we going to see Vietnamese or Korean in The New York Times crossword? I want the puzzle to reflect our common culture, Mr. Shortz notes, meaning that the answers and clues should have at least entered the general conversation before they appear. After a moments reflection, Mr. Shortz noted that the puzzle did include a Vietnamese word last year. The clue was Vietnamese soup (pho). This is a word I did not know a few years ago, but it has now become embedded enough in American culture that I can expect American readers to know it. With Vietnamese restaurants in many cities, it has become mainstreamed, he said. Recently, the puzzle added Vietnamese sandwich (banh mi). Meaning of ito in the New York Times Crossword One clever puzzle in 1999 made foreign words its theme: tchu tzih, ghiaccio, leumi, wai huaai, qoli, masern, akkulroalit, kottbullar (Mandarin orange, Italian ice, Hebrew National, Hawaiian Punch, Persian rug, German measles, Eskimo pies, Swedish meatballs). A puzzle last year included the clue Language in which the first six counting numbers are tasi, lua, tolu, fa, lima and ono (Samoan). A puzzle last year asked, Bula : Fiji :: ___ : Hawaii (Aloha). But such clues are rare. Foreign language clues and answers peaked in the 1960s and now make up less than 4 percent. Since The Times introduced its crossword, many other aspects of American life have globalized dramatically. The international proportion of the United States economy has doubled over the past half-century. So has the percentage of foreign-born Americans. International voice calls have increased tenfold in 25 years. Sixteen million Americans use Google Translate each day. We follow world news in real-time, as it happens. But we are more likely to encounter Uma as an actress (117 answers since 1990), and not as a Hindu goddess (five answers, none since 1953). When we turn from the New York Times news pages to the puzzle page, the rest of the world fades away. A Huntington Beach man suspected of running what authorities described as a builder bailout real estate scheme was convicted Feb. 5 of fraudulently buying more than 100 condominium units across the country. A federal jury found Momoud Aref Abaji, 34, guilty of multiple felony counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion in connection to a scheme that resulted in a string of foreclosures and an estimated $9 million in losses for lenders, according to a United States Attorneys Office statement. Authorities allege that Abaji and a group of other men tied to Excel Investments and related companies in Santa Ana and Irvine targeted struggling condominium developments, negotiating with developers to buy units in return for hefty commissions. The deals allowed the developers to show that the condominiums were selling and maintain their market value, federal prosecutors said. For their part, Abaji and his colleagues were able to keep the commissions, which they allegedly concealed from their lenders. To pay for the mortgages, authorities say Abaji and the other defendants used straw buyers and false information such as fake employment and income and fabricated documents, such as altered W2 forms, pay stubs and bank statements. They ultimately received more than $21 million in loans, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. The lenders were left with millions in losses after many of the loans went into default and they were forced to take the properties into foreclosure. Dozens of the loans were purchased on the secondary mortgage market by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation and the Federal National Mortgage Association, which lost at least $2.37 million to to delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures, authorities said. On May 23, Abaji is scheduled to return to the Santa Ana courtroom of U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford for sentencing. Naghmeh Abedini rapidly rose to religious freedom superstardom in Christian circles in recent years. The Boise, Idaho, resident toured the country relentlessly, advocating for release of her husband, Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American pastor imprisoned in an Iranian jail cell. Along the way, she became the face of the burgeoning religious freedom movement. Among her high-profile allies: the American Center for Law and Justice, a prominent Christian legal firm; Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio; and the Rev. Franklin Graham. President Barack Obama even visited with Naghmeh last year, promising to work for her husbands release. Now that her husband has returned the United States, the mother of two may be facing an even bigger challenge. Shes trying to rebuild her life after suffering from years of what she says was abuse in her marriage to Saeed. And Naghmeh will likely have to do so without the help of her high-profile friends, some of whom have distanced themselves from her. She also may face of suspicion from many of her former faith-based supporters, domestic abuse experts say. Naghmeh filed for a legal separation in Boise, Idaho, on Jan. 26, five days after her husband was freed in a prisoner deal that included The Washington Posts Jason Rezaian. A legal separation agreement would govern custody of the couples children while the Abedinis live apart. Naghmeh also filed for a temporary restraining order to keep her children in Idaho while she and her husband work on their future. At issue are allegations of physical, emotional and spiritual abuse, which Naghmeh says she endured for most of her married life. I want us to go through counseling, which must first deal with the abuse, she told followers on her Facebook page. Then we can deal with the changes my husband and I must both make moving forward in the process of healing our marriage. Charges of abuse against Saeed date back to at least 2007, according to the Idaho Statesman. That year, Saeed was sentenced to a year of probation for misdemeanor domestic assault, along with a suspended sentence of 90 days in jail. A spokesman for the ACLJ said the Christian legal nonprofit is no longer representing the Abedinis, now that Saeed has been released. The family is no longer working with the DeMoss Group, a prominent Christian public relations firm based in Atlanta, which does media relations for the ACLJ and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. DeMoss handled media relations for the Abedinis when Saeed returned from Iran and stayed at the Cove, a retreat center run by the BGEA. Now that Saeed has left the Cove and returned to Boise, we are not in a position to navigate his or Naghmehs movements, statements or wishes relative to interviews, a DeMoss spokesman wrote in an email. In a statement to the Statesman, Saeed thanked his wife for advocating on his behalf. He said that his marriage is troubled and that he is not perfect, but he downplayed the allegations of abuse. Much of what I have read in Naghmehs posts and subsequent media reports is not true, he said in the statement. But I believe we should work on our relationship in private and not on social media or other media. Naghmeh revealed the troubles in her marriage, which began in 2004, in a pair of emails to supporters in November, which were later made public. She recently apologized for keeping the abuse secret for years. I do deeply regret that I hid from the public the abuse that I have lived with for most of our marriage and I ask your forgiveness, she told supporters on Facebook. I sincerely had hoped that this horrible situation Saeed has had to go through would bring about the spiritual change needed in both of us to bring healing to our marriage. As the wife of a pastor, Naghmeh likely was under tremendous pressure to keep quiet about any abuse, says Marie Fortune, founder of the Faith Trust Institute, which trains clergy and faith groups on how to deal with domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is a taboo subject in most churches, said Fortune. The faith community doesnt necessarily want to talk about domestic abuse because they dont want people to think that it is happening within their community she said. Thats especially true when the abuser is a pastor. People dont want to believe that a pastor could abuse their spouse. So a pastors spouse like Naghmeh often has no one to turn to for help, Fortune said. Add the high-profile nature of Saeeds imprisonment in Iran and Naghmehs advocacy for his release and its not surprising she didnt speak earlier, she said. Who is she going to tell? said Fortune. Who is going to believe her? At least one high-profile supporter of the Abedini family seemed skeptical about Naghmehs claims of abuse. Franklin Graham, who hosted Saeed at a North Carolina retreat after the pastors release from prison, said he is trying to help the couple reconcile. In a post on his Facebook page, he seemed unconvinced about some of Naghmehs reported claims. Other than God, no one knows the details and the truth of what has happened between Saeed and Naghmeh except them, he wrote. Theres an old saying that there are at least two sides to every story. I can tell one thing for sure not everything that has been reported in the media is true. Ross Peterson of Midwest Ministry Development, a nonprofit that often works with troubled pastors, said that most denominations take abuse seriously if it is reported. A pastor accused of abuse would be removed from ministry and referred to a counselor who specialized in this issue. In general, Peterson said, a couple is not sent to marriage counseling in cases of abuse. This is for several reasons to protect the safety of the spouse, to avoid having the abuser manipulate the abused spouse into rationalizing or justifying the abuse, and to make it clear that spousal abuse, unlike most marital problems, is not seen as a situation where each partner is equally responsible, he said in an email. Fortune also advised against couples therapy for cases of alleged abuse. She said that some pastors will meet with both spouses in cases of abuse. Thats not safe for the victim, she said. Fortune said that at times, faith can be a roadblock to getting assistance for victims of abuse. Victims are sometimes pressured to forgive their abuser early on in the process as a kind of shortcut to healing a marriage. But forgiveness, if given too early, can do more harm than good. When we talk about the problem of forgiveness is what a church expects as the first step of dealing with a case of abuse, said Fortune. I always tell people it is the last step there are a lot of things that need to happen before that step can happen. Saeed told the Statesman that he has no plans to take his children out of state. He also said that his familys struggles are best dealt with in private. Our marriage is under great stress and I am hoping and praying for healing and restoration, he said. A national Native American church that courts have allowed to possess and distribute peyote soon will open branches in three former Orange County pot shops where they plan to use and dispense marijuana and other illegal drugs as part of religious ceremonies. Whats more, church members say almost anyone can join the religion and partake in its hallucinogenic sacraments, regardless of whether they have Native American heritage. Representatives from the Oklevueha Native American Church, which claims over 200 branches nationwide, said they recently signed leases in Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Westminster, targeting former marijuana dispensary storefronts where landlords dont mind having pot on the premises. And as much as those cities have fought to boot the churchs pot shop predecessors conducting a police raid on one last week in Costa Mesa and receiving a court order Wednesday for another to shut down in Huntington Beach several federal court rulings might make the cities powerless in preventing the church from storing and distributing drugs at those same locations. Matthew Pappas, the churchs attorney and a Long Beach-based medical marijuana lawyer, said his clients legal grounds to keep and dispense drugs derive from a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing another Native American church to use hallucinogenic tea and a 2000 federal law banning local zoning from burdening religious practices. It is not up to other people to determine the subjective legitimacy of any religion, Pappas said. This religion at its very core is that it is the earth that gives us sacraments and everything that we need to heal. In 2005, after the church had been raided by authorities, the Utah Supreme Court ruled church members who used peyote were exempt from prosecution because they used it in bona fide religious ceremonies. I want to bring these healing medicines to the masses, church founder James Mooney said. We dont knock on doors and tell everyone we have the answers. We come from a society that derives from Christian-Judeo beliefs. So its hard to get beyond that religion is what they say it is. But Orange County cities said they might not let the church operate freely, especially if it plans to sell the sacramental drugs. Whatever they call themselves, thats a violation of our ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries, Costa Mesa spokesman Tony Dodero said. Were going to enforce our ordinance regardless. Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said the citys response might depend on how the church operates once in town. Although the state and federal governments give different treatment to this issue, the citys ability to regulate these businesses based on land use has not changed, Gates said. If it is a normal medical marijuana dispensary, as retail and distribution, claiming to be a church, that would be problematic, Gates said. If those cities take legal action against the church, Pappas said his client would not hesitate to sue them. In November, Pappas and the church filed a federal lawsuit against Sonoma County after sheriffs deputies raided a church branch there and destroyed marijuana plants. The three Orange County locations are transitioning from pot shops to churches, and Mooney said hell be visiting the new branches within the month to bless them and make them holy so the sacramental healing can begin in Orange County. Contact the writer: 714-796-7960 or jgraham@ocregister.com Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently called for a constitutional convention to consider nine amendments, with Sen. Marco Rubio seconding his proposal. Critics have pointed out two procedural issues as reasons not to call for such a convention. The first is that a convention might not stick to the subject matters for which it was called. The critics say, once the constitutional convention starts, it could adopt totally unrelated proposals. They are right. Article V of the Constitution allows two-thirds of the state legislatures (34) to bring about a constitutional convention, but no amendments are valid unless three-quarters of the state legislatures (38) ratify them. Suppose the convention Gov. Abbott proposes adopts a provision to restrict gun ownership (not one of his proposals), and sends its proposal to the states for ratification. No amendment will take effect unless 38 states are in favor of it, but if there were 38 in favor, they could call for a new constitutional convention Monday, explicitly to consider gun control. The new convention would meet Tuesday to vote for it, and the 38 legislatures would ratify the amendment Wednesday. The second procedural argument is quite arcane, yet it was raised last month in an USA Today editorial. Once having called for a convention, the editorial argued, no state could withdraw its request upon further reflection. This would create the weird potential for a constitutional convention to be resurrected many years in the future, even when the original idea had long lost its luster, and even if some states had withdrawn their call for one. The fear is unfounded. Following settled principles from proxy voting in corporate law, a court would most likely hold that 34 state requests would have to be valid at any one time to result in a convention. Further, the previous argument applies here as well: There can be no amendment without 38 states approval, regardless of when the convention is called into being. In raising these two procedural objections to a constitutional convention, critics claim to prefer the other route to amending the Constitution set out in Article V: for Congress to vote by two-thirds of each house, and then send the proposals to the states for ratification. Yet both procedural objections would apply to this route as well: Congress can consider any constitutional amendment it wants, at any time, and Congress need not set a time limit for the states to ratify an amendment. (Indeed, USA Today itself noted that the most recent constitutional amendment, requiring an election to intervene before a congressional pay increase becomes effective, took over 200 years to be ratified.) Since the procedural arguments are pretense, what is the real source of the criticism of a constitutional convention? I believe it is that the type of amendment that would emerge from a constitutional convention is different from what would emerge from Congress. Looking at the nine amendments proposed by Gov. Abbott, one can see why. Seven of his nine amendments would directly curb federal power over the states. By contrast, amendments emerging from the federal Congress are unlikely to limit federal power. Further, the likelihood of seeing constitutional amendments presented to the states for ratification is much greater coming from a convention whose sole purpose is to propose amendments, than from the Congress, which has many other functions to perform. So, the opposition to the constitutional convention has everything to do with preferring federal to state authority, and really nothing to do with the structural arguments that have been asserted. A convention would be more likely to offer amendments, and those amendments would reallocate power to the states. Why is that intrinsically bad? The Constitutions force and legitimacy come from the people, and state governments are closest to them. That should be a sufficient answer, if the reallocation of power from the federal to state governments represented the will of a large majority of Americans. But it might not. The smallest 38 states account for just 40 percent of Americas population. A majority of each such state would constitute 20 percent of our nations population. That risk of unrepresentative action does not exist in the congressional route to amending the Constitution because the House is proportional to population. That a constitutional convention could lead to amending our constitution by the will of only 20 percent of Americans is the best reason for opposing it. Tom Campbell is dean of the Fowler School of Law at Chapman University. He has taught seminars in constitutional law at Chapman and Stanford and served five terms in Congress and two years as a California state senator. These views are his own. When officials shut down I-405 in Los Angeles in what was dubbed Carmageddon a few years back, there were plenty of options for getting around that area. Corona, site of a similar all-weekend closure later this month? Not so much. L.A. has an extensive street grid. Corona, boxed in by mountains, hills and a canyon, has some major streets that crisscross. But they squeeze into a funnel at the west end of town. So your options will be limited the weekend of Feb. 19-22, when the Riverside County Transportation Commission and Caltrans close 6 miles of the 91 from I-15 to the 71 for 55 consecutive hours. The busy 91, a vital link between Inland Southern California communities and Orange County, is scheduled to close in both directions at 9 on a Friday night and reopen 4 a.m. Monday to accommodate the morning rush hour. Local leaders are promoting a steer clear of the 91 campaign, hoping to replicate Los Angeles success and convince most motorists to stay away from Corona. Should you choose to travel to Corona anyway that particular weekend, will there be a way to get across town without driving the 91? In a word, yes. ROUNDABOUT Nelson Nelson, Coronas public works director, said there are no plans to close Sixth Street, for example, which runs parallel to the freeway. Nor does the city intend to shut Magnolia Avenue, Ontario Avenue, Paseo Grande, Green River Road or other routes motorists gravitate to when the 91 backs up. But that doesnt mean its going to be pleasant navigating around the closure zone and getting back on the 91 at the other end. Transportation officials are warning of three- and four-hour delays approaching either side of the closure. And coming through Corona streets isnt going to make it any better, Nelson said. There arent many options for those determined to pass through the area, but the one officials are touting involves crossing well to the north via the 60, then selecting a north-south artery such as the 57 to head into Orange County. Those seeking to cross over to the coast on a route a little closer to Corona could take surface streets through Eastvale and Chino and maneuver over to Chino Hills Parkway. That ties into Carbon Canyon Road, which turns into Lambert Road in Brea. Louie Solomon, a truck driver from Moreno Valley who makes deliveries throughout Southern California, said he has driven Carbon Canyon many times. He said the winding, two-lane road is not a bad choice to reach Orange County from the Inland Empire, or vice versa. But if there is an accident or much traffic, that route can be a slow grind, Solomon said. NIGHTMARE Nelson recommended against taking Carbon Canyon. When that becomes congested, its a nightmare, too, Nelson said. So youre better off staying on the (60) freeway. Those hoping for another way to cross into Orange County much closer to the 91 are plain out of luck. There are mountains and hills in the way. And Green River Road, which runs along the 91, dead ends, Nelson said. Said Solomon: Youre not going to be able to hug the freeway, lets put it that way. If neither Carbon Canyon Road nor the 60 are attractive, drivers choices are drastic: driving far to the north and getting on the 10 or 210 or far to the south and embarking on the adventure that is Ortega Highway, a mountainous stretch of Highway 74 between Lake Elsinore and San Juan Capistrano. Or just stay home. GIGAGEDDON Transportation officials say they are shutting down the 91 to complete three construction tasks all at once. Workers are going to tear down the west half of Maple Street bridge, turning it into a two-lane thoroughfare for the time being; erect a temporary structure over the freeway, to support construction of a sweeping new ramp leading from Maple to westbound 91; and pave new eastbound 91 lanes in the vicinity of I-15. Its all part of a $1.4 billion makeover that is adding toll lanes, all-purpose lanes, auxiliary lanes and connector ramps on the 91. Officials maintain the project is on schedule and could be completed by the end of 2017. Like the 405 closures of 2011 and 2012, nicknames are popping up for the closure. Wes Speake, who sits on the 17-member 91 Corona Community Task Force, coined the name Coronageddon. Matt Olsen of Corona referred to it as Gigageddon because, he said, many residents will spend the weekend at home surfing the Internet, posting items on Facebook and watching movies. Much Netflix will be consumed, Olsen said. Should that occur, perhaps the feared strangulation of the transportation network wont materialize. You watch, Solomon said. Its not going to be near as bad as people think. People are going to stay away. Contact the writer: 951-368-9699 or ddowney@pressenterprise.com LONDON In France, the land of Moliere, questions of language are so sacred that every Thursday the immortals, the guardians of the French language at the Academie Francaise, meet to discuss among other things proposed changes to the institutions vaunted dictionary. The last complete edition of the dictionary was published in 1935, according to the academy, and changes evolve over centuries. The newest complete edition is not finished the authors have reached the letter R. So it was perhaps not surprising that tempers flared this week after a news report from the broadcaster TF1 that changes were afoot to cut back the circumflex accent, known as the hat, from French-language textbooks. Adding to the horror, the report said that as of September, when the new school year began, teachers would also have to make changes affecting about 2,400 French words, including spelling oignon or onion as ognon. Among the words appropriated from English, news reports noted, the hyphen in week-end would be eliminated, along with the hyphen in tictac (now tic-tac, or ticking, like a clock), while leader would be given a French makeover and be spelled leadeur. Nenuphar, or water lily, would be spelled nenufar. The reaction on social media was harsh and swift, as intellectuals, teachers and traditionalists took to Twitter to vent their anger at what many saw as an attack on centuries of culture and history. In a sign of the frenzy inspired by the changes, Je suis circumflex became a popular hashtag on Twitter an allusion to Je suis Charlie, the rallying cry used to show solidarity after the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was attacked by terrorists early last year. One Twitter user called Guillaume C. reacted to the spelling changes, including the pruning of the circumflex, as a personal affront. I started the day with a bit of vomit in my mouth, he wrote on Twitter. Others were quick to warn of the linguistic perils of losing the circumflex to distinguish between sur, or sure, an adjective, and, sur, or on, a preposition. I am sure your sister is well and I am on top of your sister she is well are not the same thing, wrote another Twitter user, using a colloquial form of French. In fact, the circumflex is becoming optional on is and us, and only on those words that do not need it. It will remain mandatory in several French verb tenses and when there is a clear distinction in meaning. Joining the revolt, the National Inter-University Union, a right-leaning student group published a petition accusing the education minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, of abusing her authority to overturn the rules for spelling in French. Unfortunately for them, Le Monde noted, the students incorrectly conjugated the verb to authorize, misspelling the word. But for all the outrage, the Education Ministry said the changes were nothing new and that, in fact, they had been approved by the Academie Francaise in 1990 as optional recommendations that many textbooks and schools had chosen to ignore. This latest debate appears to have been reignited when education officials again this year reiterated their plea. Only this time, publishers of textbooks in France have finally decided to embrace them. Patrick Vannier, who works in the elite dictionary service of the Academie Francaise, said by phone from Paris that the backlash appeared to be overwrought. But he said he was heartened that in the age of the iPhone, the French remained so wedded to their dictionaries. I am happy that this shows the extent to which the French are still attached to their language, he said. He added, It also shows that there is a lack of historical perspective and that people think that changes of language are fixed for all eternity, when, in, fact, they evolve over time. Indeed, it is a sign of the times that attitudes toward language in France are shifting. Three years ago, when a proposed law was introduced to allow French universities to teach more courses in quelle horreur! English, one leading intellectual called it a suicide project. But last year, Frances minister of culture, Fleur Pellerin, said French was not in need of protection from foreign influences, including English. Her words were welcomed by modernizers. After all, she is the leadeur of the ministry. Who, and/or what, is intimidating who, I dont know, but Mark Landsbaums column [X-Files returns, as does distrust of government, Opinion, Jan. 31] does get to something so key. Guys like Donald Trump have connected with voters, not because he can be rude or embarrassingly call people names; it is because people are so sick of government leaders, like Hillary Clinton, unflinchingly lying in our faces. It is because the severity of our problems is so serious that good citizens are willing to forego some civility if only someone, for a change, would stand up and at least address what we are facing. Trump, though not my first pick, in his brazen style at least has the courage to speak without euphemisms about what really drives Islamic terrorists, that demanding legal and vetted immigration is not being racist, and people who hold an ideology embedded in their beliefs that demand hurting or oppressing their neighbors should never be allowed entrance into America, even if they call themselves refugees. Trump has said it, and I think hes right, that had he not boldly brought these issues up the way he did, most of the candidates would have stayed obediently on the politically correct path of fearing criticism of the tone of what they say rather than caring about the truth and solving our serious problems. Terry Gooch Whittier Two columns not to miss To think I nearly missed Joel Kotkins Serfs up and James Pouloss Resisting ideologues, demagogues in Sundays Opinion section [Jan. 31]. These are two of the most thoughtful columns Ive read anywhere. We are lucky to have these two staff columnists, who thoughtfully and accurately lay out historical backgrounds for issues facing us both statewide and nationally. For those of you who didnt or havent yet read them, dont miss these columns. M.A. Hannaman Laguna Woods Joel Kotkins opinions are puzzling because he mixes his concerns and addresses them indirectly [Serfs up, Opinion, Jan. 31]. He lumps the pope in with his state gentry class and reduces Francis encyclical to an attack on air-conditioning and creature comforts. At the same time, he writes about his concern for the poor. Clearly, Kotkin doesnt understand the threat of climate change or acknowledge the need to do something about it. Our cap-and-trade policy is extreme. Believers in climate science are followers of a religion. Perhaps Kotkin puts climate science aside because it is too painful to accept. All of us have the ability to ignore things and be unaware that we are doing it. We see what we want to see and ignore what we dont want to know. Angie Vazirian Newport Beach Re: Serfs up [Opinion, Jan. 31]: Joel Kotkins attempt to redefine conservatism as Californias Democratic serfdom is wrong. If only California had a Republican governor is a myth. Look at Nevada, where a Republican is in charge: nearly last in education. High-tech jobs at Tesla go to imported workers, forcing rents higher on speculation. Dont forget Michigans Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. In Flint, the water caused corrosion and couldnt be used in the car parts industry but was good enough for the peasants to drink. Detroit? It may never come back to what it was. It used to be One man, one vote, and All people are equal. What happened? Carl Coling Reno Modicum of relief Thank you for the weekly columns written by the nationally highly regarded constitutional scholar, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of UC Irvine School of Law. He provides a small modicum of relief and perspective from the daily diatribes by your op-ed and letter-writers opposing policy positions of progressives and President Obama. Robert Belloli Placentia Wasted investments There is nothing new under the sun, and this is soundly demonstrated in state Sen. Janet Nguyens column about ending poverty by funding early child education programs with taxpayer dollars [Early investments in our children pay off, Opinion, Jan. 31]. Head Start was the first of many such programs, begun in 1965 and still existing today, though study after study proves that it makes no difference for children by as early as the end of first grade. What does work to end poverty, research consistently shows, is delayed sexual activity, complete education, smart dating/mating selection, using the head and the heart, marriage and then children brought into the formed family unit. Poverty is all but avoided, no matter the race, creed or color. Intact families raise children who do better overall than kids from never-formed, broken or remarried families. Stability matters, and a good marriage is the best stabilizer and buffer against poverty, better than any taxpayer-funded, big-government program. The war on poverty has failed miserably. Lawmakers, no matter the party, see government, funded by us, as the solution. Nothing new. The programs never end. Nothing new. There is no accountability. Nothing new. News flash: Lawmakers, you were not put in your position to reinvent the wheel. Just get out of the wheels way, and we will roll along much better. This is why voters are looking outside the establishment. Government, stop thinking that our checkbook is for your feel good projects. If individuals really want to make a difference in a childs life, marry a dependable person, and keep your promises, till death do you part. Government cannot replace what Mommy and Daddy never commit to. Cheryl LaBarre Laguna Niguel When a group of U.S. marines celebrate their last night before they are deployed to Vietnam in 1963, they experience a series of life lessons in the new musical Dogfight, which opens in previews at Chance Theater in Anaheim this weekend. Written by Peter Duchan and created by the same creative team that produced Broadways A Christmas Story and the NBC television show Smash, the adaptation of the award-winning musical will run on the Cripe Stage of Chance Theaters Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center. Previews will run through Feb. 12, with regular performances beginning Feb. 13 for a three-week run. Dogfight takes place in San Francisco during the early 1960s, following Eddie Birdlace (Chance Theater veteran Andrew Puente) and his fellow marine comrades who are off to a pre-deployment party. Before the party, the men decide to play dogfight, a cruel game in which the guys go out and find the ugliest date they can. Birdlace encounters shy waitress Rose, played by Chance Theater returner Ashley Arlene Nelson, whom he invites to the party and the musical unravels their journey through song and dance. The original musical premiered off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in 2012. Director Matthew McCray said he was fascinated that this storyline could be a musical. Youd expect a storyline of this nature would be a play, and putting it in a musical theater context brings out an almost incongruent situation, said McCray. Its actually quite beautiful though. McCray describes the play as a traditional contemporary musical that is not a stylized farce, but also not a heavy drama just perfectly in the middle. The story takes place in several locations, including bars, diners, bus stations, arcade rooms and bedrooms. The set is a single unit with walls and props that manipulated by the ensemble throughout to show the different sceneries. Because theres so many timelines and locations, theres almost a theatrical language you have to be open to and interpret, and I think this musical requires the audience to embrace that kind of theatrical storytelling, said McCray. The songs performed include Some Kinda Time, We Three Bees, Nothing Short of Wonderful, and Come to a Party. The music is deceptively difficult. There are sometimes five or six-part harmonies for the men, much like barber shop singing as Marines, which makes for a unique sound, said McCray, Marines usually sound rough and rugged but this cast sounds rough with beautiful harmonies. The music keeps you tapping your toe and keeps you on edge. It never stops, it never settles down. On Jan. 19, Vietnam Army veteran Tom Sandoval, who performed in the Chance Theaters Veterans Initiative production in November, visited the rehearsal and offered his experience to make the Marine drills and procedures more authentic. The story is about a particular night that made each of the characters become who they are, McCray said. This is their crossroads moment, The audience will be reminded of the importance of growth and being open to others, because they can really surprise you. Contact the writer: jmoe@ocregister.com Two small planes with three people believed to be aboard collided over the ocean just outside Los Angeles Harbor and plunged into the water Friday, authorities said, prompting a massive search by dozens of boats and divers. The Coast Guard said the collision occurred at about 3:30 p.m. on a dazzlingly sunny day. Investigators had no immediate word on what might have caused the accident. A small debris field was located near the Point Fermin Lighthouse, according to Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department, which was assisting in a multi-agency search effort. At a nighttime press conference, Coast Guard spokeswoman Capt. Jennifer Williams said preliminary information showed that both planes had flown out of the Torrance Airport and that those on board were South Bay residents and experienced pilots. Two men, 61 and 81, were in one plane and a 72-year-old woman was in the other, Williams said. The planes were a Beechcraft and a Super Decathlon acrobatic craft, she added. Searchers found wreckage, including a pilots logbook, from the Beechcraft plane that was carrying the two men. The plane flown by the woman is missing, and air traffic controllers saw two aircraft apparently run into each other on radar, leading authorities to conclude they must have collided. A Coast Guard helicopter equipped with night vision and two vessels planned to search about 200 square miles of ocean for any survivors through the night, with a more extensive search resuming at daybreak Saturday, Lt. Jonathan McCormick said. We dont want to give up until we really feel that theres no chance, Williams said, that we havent scanned the area, searched the whole area and looked for survivors. L.A. County lifeguard Capt. Ken Haskett says divers have found a plane tail number and a partial number from a second plane in the water. The nearest harbor entrance was closed to traffic while the search continued. The crash site was a quarter-mile south of the Angels Gate light, a lighthouse at the San Pedro Breakwater that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The area is popular for flight students and there were many planes in the crystal clear skies at the time of the accident. Pilots communicate at two different radio frequencies one for above 2,000 feet and the other below, said Reed Novisoff, chief pilot at Pacific Air Flight School. People are very diligent about reporting their positions, Novisoff said. Its very safe out there. Nonetheless, Fridays midair collision was not the first. In 2001, four people died when two Cessna airplanes carrying instructors and students collided 1,000 feet above the harbor. In 1986, two small planes flown by students collided, but the aircraft managed to return to their airports and the four people on board escaped injury. Richard Garnett, chief flight instructor with the Long Beach Flying Club, said the pilots practice in an area that is 10 to 20 square miles and at altitudes ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 feet. On a typical day, there will be three or four planes in the air at the same time. So with the amount of activity, actually, I think weve been fortunate, he said. We are really diligent. I dont know why, what happened in this situation. Staff Writer Louis Casiano Jr. and The Associated Press contributed to this report. SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco police officers dealing with a report of a stolen car ran the victims name for warrants, prompting the man to end up in the custody of federal immigration agents in what is being investigated as a possible breach of local sanctuary-city laws. After Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, 31, was released from jail Wednesday after two months, and after he spoke at a news conference Friday, Police Chief Greg Suhr acknowledged that the longtime city resident never should have been in the hands of immigration agents. Police officials did not specifically admit to calling those agents, but federal officials said police had done just that. We are happy and relieved that Mr. Figueroa-Zarceno has been restored to his family, said Sgt. Michael Andraychak, a city police spokesman, in a written statement. It is the policy of the San Francisco Police Department to foster trust and cooperation with all people of the city and to encourage them to communicate with SFPD officers without fear of inquiry regarding their immigration status, Andraychak said. We are aware of concerns this incident has raised with some members of our community. He said the police force had opened an internal affairs investigation todetermine whether any officers should be disciplined. The incident raised questions about how San Francisco authorities interact with immigration agents. The controversy flared last year after the Pier 14 killing of Kathryn Steinle by a Mexican national who was facing deportation but had been freed from San Francisco jail under the sanctuary-city laws. Federal officials said Figueroa-Zarceno was the subject of a deportation order arising from his failure to appear at an immigration hearing in San Antonio, Texas, in December 2005, and from a 2012 conviction for drunken driving. But Figueroa-Zarcenos attorney and San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos said the police cooperation with immigration authorities violated the citys sanctuary-city laws that bar any use of money or resources to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law laws designed in part to make potential crime victims and witnesses feel comfortable working with authorities regardless of their immigration status. As San Francisco officials work to clarify policies in the wake of the Pier 14 case, immigration advocates say Figueroa-Zarcenos detention is an example of a broken immigration system and yet another reason why San Francisco needs to strengthen its policies. We want to make sure that as the sanctuary policy is politicized by whats happening on a national level, that we can protect it and make it stronger and make sure that people like Pedro do not get impacted, Avalos said. Figueroa-Zarceno, a Mission District resident, had reported his car stolen in November. Then, on Dec. 2, he received word from the police that they had found it. But when he went to the Southern Police Station on Third Street to get the police report, he said he found himself in handcuffs. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, San Francisco police ran a routine background check on Figueroa-Zarceno and discovered that he had an outstanding warrant out for his deportation from more than 10 years ago. Eileen Hirst, chief of staff for the San Francisco Sheriffs Department, said police officers contacted her departments central warrant bureau, whose job it is to confirm warrants. She said deputies contacted the service center at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and confirmed the warrant. The deputies told police, who had authority to decide whether to honor the warrant, Hirst said. The Homeland Security report said an ICE duty officer was informed of Figueroa-Zarcenos whereabouts by both the service center and San Francisco police. Back at the station, I was handcuffed because they told me there were questions they needed to ask me, but there were no questions asked I was simply handcuffed for about 15 minutes, Figueroa-Zarceno said Friday. I was happy that they told me they were going to release me, he said, but once I got out of the Police Department, there was ICE outside. As his 8-year-old daughter screamed, Papi! Papi! and begged federal agents not to take him, Figueroa-Zarceno was shackled, put in a van and driven to a Contra Costa County jail where ICE houses inmates. He was released Wednesday on bail. ICE officials said Friday that Figueroa-Zarceno is one of the at-large foreign nationals who meet the agencys enforcement priorities, including convicted criminals and other individuals who pose a potential threat to public safety. Mr. Zarceno-Figueroas case is now being reviewed by the immigration courts to determine whether he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S., said James Schwab, an ICE spokesman, in a written statement. Figueroa-Zarceno says he never defied immigration authorities. He came into contact with ICE shortly after he entered the country and explained he planned to file for asylum from the violence in El Salvador, said his attorney, Zachary Nightingale. He explained to the agents he planned to go to San Francisco, where his aunt lived, but still intended to go through the hearing process, Nightingale said. He said his client provided his aunts address in San Francisco, and never heard from authorities. That is not uncommon in my practice to see people whose cases go off the rails for reasons that are not their fault, Nightingale said. To me, this clearly indicates why San Francisco should not just be turning people over blindly to ICE. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti A group of former soldiers clashed with a far larger gathering of anti-government demonstrators in Haitis capital, resulting in the death of an ex-member of the military. About 100 veterans of Haitis abolished military and some younger supporters paraded through streets of Port-au-Prince on Friday. Many wore faded green uniforms and few carried rifles and pistols. When the ex-soldiers passed near anti-government protesters the two sides shouted insults. Some protesters hurled rocks and a few ex-soldiers fired their weapons. Associated Press journalists witnessed a group of protesters rushing the ex-soldiers. One veteran was caught and smashed repeatedly with cinderblocks and rocks. A protester stole his boots and as he lay battered on the street. Haitis military was abolished in 1995 because of its history of toppling governments and crushing dissent. BEIRUT Turkey came under mounting pressure to open its border Saturday as tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing a government onslaught sought entry and the European Union called on Ankara to grant them refuge. As many as 35,000 Syrians have massed along the closed border, according to Suleyman Tapsiz, governor of the Turkish border province of Kilis. He said Turkey would provide aid to the displaced within Syria, but would only open the gates in the event of an extraordinary crisis. The Norwegian Refugee Council said thousands of Syrians have arrived at seven of the main informal camps close to the Turkish border. The group said the camps were already at capacity before the latest influx, and that aid groups are working around the clock to deliver tents and essential items to the displaced. Filip Lozinski, an NRC supervisor in the area, told The Associated Press that many refugee families were forced to sleep out in the open, some under trees, because they could not find shelter. At a meeting in Amsterdam between EU foreign ministers and their Turkish counterpart, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged Turkey to open its borders to Syrians in need for international protection, and said the EU is providing aid to Ankara for that purpose. EU nations have committed 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to Turkey for helping refugees as part of incentives aimed at persuading it to do more to stop thousands of migrants from leaving for Greece. Turkey already hosts some 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday that his country maintains an open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression of the (Syrian) regime as well as airstrikes of Russia. He said Turkey had already allowed in more than 5,000 recently displaced Syrians, but did not address the restrictions along the border. Some of the refugees found shelter in Afrin, a Kurdish enclave to Aleppos north controlled by a militia known as the YPG, said a Kurdish official, Idris Naasan. The militia hoped to prevent a humanitarian disaster and help those stuck at the border, he said. Syrian President Bashar Assads forces have been advancing across the north in recent days behind a curtain of heavy Russian airstrikes, and could soon encircle rebel strongholds in Aleppo, once the countrys largest city and commercial hub. This week alone, Russian warplanes hit close to 900 targets across Syria, including near Aleppo. Those living in parts of the city held by the rebels since 2012 fear they could be the next victims of siege tactics used across Syria by all sides in the war, which have caused widespread malnourishment and starvation. There is a big wave of people leaving Aleppo City because they are scared Al-Castello Highway the only way out will be cut off, said Osaid Pasha, an Aleppo-based activist who recently fled to Turkey. There are still a large number of civilians inside the city, he said. Syrias Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem meanwhile said government forces were on track to end the conflict following the recent gains around Aleppo. Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed toward the end of the crisis, he told a press conference in Damascus. He called on rebel fighters to come to their senses and lay down their weapons. The advance of Syrian troops and the blistering Russian airstrikes in Aleppo and elsewhere led to the breakdown of indirect peace talks launched earlier this week in Geneva, with the opposition saying there was no point in negotiating under fire. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to resume the talks by Feb. 25, but its unclear if either delegation will return. Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the opposition, meanwhile said it is ready, in principle, to send ground troops to Syria, albeit in the context of the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State group. But al-Moallem warned that Saudi or other foreign troops entering his country would return home in wooden coffins, a line he repeated three times during the one-hour press conference. Russias Defense Ministry has said it has reasonable grounds to suspect that Turkey, another opposition ally, is preparing for a military invasion of Syria. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking during a visit to Senegal on Friday, dismissed the Russian claim as laughable and blamed Moscow for the deaths of civilians in Syria. Iran, another military ally of Syria, ridiculed Saudi Arabia. The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Irans Revolutionary Guards, as saying he didnt think the Saudis were brave enough to send ground troops. They talk big, Jafari said. But even if it happens, it wont be bad because they would be definitely defeated. Iran on Saturday held funerals for six soldiers, including a senior Guard commander, Gen. Mohsen Ghajarian, who were killed in northern Syria while fighting alongside government troops. Iran has said it has dispatched military advisers to Syria, but denies sending combat troops. A number of Iranians have been killed in recent months, including several high-ranking commanders. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Syria, has also sent reinforcements to Syria. The Syrian state news agency SANA reported Saturday that a member of Hezbollahs war media department, which films military battles for the group, was among those killed in fighting north of Aleppo. Since the preparation for Star Wars land started at Disneyland, the sound of chainsaws can be heard around the northern end of Disneylands Rivers of America, and when they are silent, the sounds of workers digging with shovels take over. The chainsaws are removing trees in the way of the new land where the work started in January. The shovels are digging up trees Imagineers want to transplant into the new land trees that are 20, 30 and even 60 years old with heights of 40-feet or more. Soon after Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, announced the new land last year, Rhonda Wood, an urban forester with the Horticulture Department at the Disneyland Resort, walked through the forests of Frontierland to identify what trees should be saved. Size was not an issue. We were looking for large specimen trees that would look good in the realm, either screening off a view of the land, or had a 360-degree aesthetic look of that would fit in with the landscape, Wood said. That new land will look like a fictional planet from the Star Wars universe, but will not be a desert setting like that of Tatooine, according to artist renderings. Instead, it will have an abundance of plant life, including some fully grown trees as Disney Imagineers want it to appear as if the planet has been there a while. Wood said there will be nearly 1,000 trees, old and new, used for the project. While many of the trees will come from other nurseries local and as far away as Oregon some will come from Frontierland. They will be dug up, boxed, and later transplanted into the new land. But those older, tall trees cannot be simply pulled from the ground and moved, so crews started doing some prep work. For large trees, we start off by pre-watering the tree and getting that root system healthy and vibrant from where were going to box it, because we cant box the entire root system, she said. They also add nutrients, then its time to dig. According to Wood, roots for the taller trees typically only go down to a depth of about 24 inches. Crews will hand dig with shovels down to a depth of three feet. Then, a wooden box will be built around the perimeter of the tree. Any roots extending beyond that point are cut off. They will also dig underneath the tree and install more wood planks for the base. At the same time, guide wires will be installed to hold the tree in place. Eventually, a large crane will pull the tree, wooden box and all, out of the ground. For the 40-foot tall trees, the total weight, with all the soil around the roots, is approximately 50,000 pounds. The saved trees, numbering 18 so far, will be moved to a backstage area and cared for until it is time for them to be planted back into the ground of the new land. The park is also planning to salvage lumber from other trees that are cut down during construction. Some will provide logs for planters. At the same time, Disney is preserving some of its history. One of the trees being saved has been growing on the north end of Tom Sawyer Island since 1955. It is a holly oak tree, and stands 45 feet tall. It was originally planted there by Bill Evans, who was hired by Walt Disney to provide the landscaping for his then new theme park in 1954. Another tree being preserved is a cottonwood in the Indian Village at the northernmost area of Frontierland. Called the Dreaming Tree, it was a gift from the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in the town of Marceline, Mo., where Walt Disney grew up on a farm. The tree was given to Disneyland in 2005 as a sapling from the original Dreaming Tree, said Wood. The original Dreaming Tree was given that name as, according to interviews with Walt Disney, he and his sister Ruth would play underneath the tree when he was a child, and he would spend time under the tree daydreaming. Disney said that whenever he visited his old hometown, he would always make time to sit underneath that tree to reflect on his accomplishments and seek inspiration for his theme park and other ventures. Contact the writer: meades@ocregister.com LONDON A Brazilian health official on Friday warned pregnant women to think twice before giving a kiss as concern grows over the Zika virus suspected of a link to birth defects, and the U.N. office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said women in countries hit by the Zika virus should have access to birth control methods, dropping laws against abortion in some cases. Paulo Gadelha, president of the Fiocruz research institute, said at a news conference that scientists have found live samples of the virus in saliva and urine samples, and the possibility it could be spread by the two body fluids requires further study. He said that calls for special precaution to be taken with pregnant women. Gadelha suggested pregnant women avoid kissing people other than a regular partner or sharing cutlery, glasses and plates with people who have symptoms of the virus. This is not a generalized public health measure, for the love of God, he added. Scientists at the Fiocruz institute say theyre trying to determine if the body fluids can spread Zika to new patients. Meanwhile in Geneva, spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly said the OHCHR was asking governments in Zika-affected countries in Latin and South America to repeal any policies that break with international standards and restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion. We are asking those governments to go back and change those laws, she said. Because how can they ask those women to become pregnant but also not offer them first information that is available, but the possibility to stop their pregnancies if they wish? Pouilly said that about a quarter of women had experienced physical or sexual violence in El Salvador in the past year. So that also shows that many of these pregnancies are out of their control and countries obviously have to take that into account, she said. Pouilly said that safe abortion services should be provided to the full extent of the law. The key point is that women should have the choice and (make) informed decisions, she said. Women should be able to have an abortion if they want. To date, the mosquito-borne virus has spread to more than 20 countries in the Americas, including some where sexual violence is rampant, Al Hussein said. He called for laws restricting access to sexual and reproductive health services to be urgently reviewed. On Monday, the World Health Organization declared the explosive spread of Zika virus to be a global emergency, as it is suspected of being responsible for an increase in congenital defects, even though definitive scientific proof has not been obtained. The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress. Since November 1962, the OECDs experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions. Each edition of the OECD Observer reports on a core theme of the OECDs on-going work, from economics and society through governance, finance, and the environment, and articles are bolstered by tables and graphs. THE McPadden twins transfer from Clonmore Harps to Rhode was passed at the second attempt at the March meeting of the Offaly County Board by just two votes. THE McPadden twins transfer from Clonmore Harps to Rhode was passed at the second attempt at the March meeting of the Offaly County Board by just two votes. The transfer had been voted down at the February meeting despite the recommendation of the Management Committee to allow it. However the players appealed to the Leinster Council on the basis that the Management Committee had not voted in February. The appeal was successful and the matter returned to the full County Board meeting in March where it was again voted on by secret ballot. County Board Chairman Pat Teehan had not allowed the Management Committee to vote at the February meeting and he said that this had been a genuine mistake based on the fact that the Management Committee had made the original recommendation and hence it was thought that they were not to vote. Rhode delegate Joe Masterson remarked that he had no doubt that Mr Teehan had been doing what he thought was right. Before the re-vote, Clonmore Harps John Foy pleaded with delegates to vote against the transfer as Clonmore Harps existence was at stake. Mr Foy re-iterated his belief that the McPaddens address in Rhode was one of convenience only and he warned that voting for the transfer would set a precedent that would be followed. Rhodes Joe Masterson stated that the McPadden brothers had sought the transfer stating that the club never did and never will be in the business of poaching players. The result of the secret ballot was 26 to 24 to allow the transfer. Tazanian attacked in Bengaluru: Condemn it but don't jump the gun Feature oi-Vicky Thank you John H W Kijazi for clearing out that the attack on the Tanzanian student was not a racist attack but an isolated incident. Kijazi the high commissioner of Tanzania declined to say that the attack on the Tanzanian girl was a racist attack. Let us first start off by first condemning this deplorable incident in which a woman was assaulted by a bunch of goons who were protesting an accident. The Bengaluru police have been stating since day one that it was a reaction to an accident. Tanzanian attacked in Bengaluru: 9 arrested, 3 cops suspended The same was seconded by Kijazi and Partha Sathpathy the MEA joint secretary who visited Bengaluru on Friday. Both said that the attack was not racist and it was an isolated incident which also lauding the efforts of the Karnataka government in probing the case. Politicising and communalising the incident When the incident took place and was first reported, the social media went wild. There was every effort made to communalise the incident. Then came the government bashing. What needs to be taken into account that such an incident would have taken place irrespective of any government in power. The worst that one got to witness was that it was a racial attack. Now to call it racial is taking matters a bit too far. While it was Kigazi himself who first called it a racial attack, he was quick to change his stance after he visited Bengaluru yesterday. Let us accept this fact that Bengaluru is one of the better cities in the country to live in. Before hurling allegations of racism, one needs to bear in mind that It has a bad impact on the country. Those residing outside the country do not treat Bengaluru as a Congress or BJP ruled city. They look at it as being part of India. Hence such allegations were really not the need of the hour. Rahul assures strict action in Tanzanian student assault case The real culprits The real culprits in this incident are those police personnel who were at the spot that night. There was a night patrol vehicle which ought to have ensured that the girl was protected. As per the investigations the mob first attacked the driver of the car in which the girl was present. The police who were at the spot decided to take the driver of the car to the hospital. They left behind one constable at the spot. It is quite surprising that they decided to leave behind only one constable at the spot especially when they knew the girl was present and not to forget the unruly mob. That one constable was clearly in no position to control the mob and save the girl. The government has suspended two cops for dereliction of duty and let us hope the strongest of action is taken against them. This was clearly no way of handling the situation. On the investigation front the arrests have been quick. So far nine persons have been arrested and the police say that they are looking for six more. 7th Pay Commission: Good News! PMO orders to speed up review process; notification soon India oi-Mukul New Delhi, Feb 6: This will definitely cheer up all the central government employees who are disappointed at the moment as government is delaying the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission. Sources say that after One Rank One Pension, notification for 7th CPC could be released in coming months. 7th Pay Commission: Good news for govt employees! Panel may double minimum basic pay Reportedly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered officials to speed up review process so that it could be implemented soon. Modi has asked Committee of Secretaries to provide maximum benefits to central staff. Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha headed empowered committee which was appointed to overview whole process has been told to accept pay commission's recommendations without diluting them. PMO wants committee to review all the recommendations as soon as possible, so that Cabinet could take final decision over the same. 7th Pay Commission decoded: All you need to know about salary increment; past pay commissions One of the officials was quoted by the Express News as saying, "The committee has been told to address the genuine concerns raised by stakeholders and accommodate their demands as much as possible. Although, there is indication that the committee may suggest some changes keeping in mind representations from middle and junior level, the decision will be taken after consultations with all the stakeholders. The entire process will take a couple of months". Meanwhile, reports also say that in coming months, notification for 7th pay commission could be issue. A Finance Ministry source was quoted by news reports as saying, "One Rank One Pension (OROP) is now going to be implemented after notification. Hence Finance Ministry will issue the notification of Pay Commission award' in forthcoming months". OneIndia News Delhi air quality projected to cross 301 by Sat; GRAP stage II comes into effect ahead of Diwali Australian national deported from India for ISIS link India oi-Vicky New Delhi, Feb 6: An Australian national was deported from the Delhi airport after it was found that he had links with the ISIS. The person to be deported is Ahmad Bin Hamad was deported after the security found that he had ISIS related literature on him. The youth originally of Malay origin is an Australian national. He claimed that he had come to Delhi to take part in a meeting. He was however unclear about the meeting and also the reason why it was being conducted. The security personnel at the airport checked his laptop and there was plenty of material relating to the ISIS and he was declared dangerous. He had landed in Delhi late on Thursday night from Perth. He had a valid visa and was holding a passport numbered N2149807. It was a routine check that was being carried out by the security agencies. However the manner in which spoke, the suspicion on him was raised. On his laptop there were photographs of him posing with a gun. Sources say that he had no explanation for the material on his laptop. Moreover he was extremely unclear about the purpose of his visit. He was deported to Perth after questioning. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, February 6, 2016, 8:29 [IST] 'Is this the respect for women?': Mallikarjun Kharge asks PM Modi over release of Bilkis case convict Azam Khan at it again; says PM Modi met Dawood in Sharif's Lahore house India oi-PTI Lucknow, Feb 6: Known for making controversial remarks, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Mohd Azam Khan today plumbed new depths when he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. While BJP attacked him, even a Congress spokesperson said attached no importance to it saying it cannot be believed. "Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan said. He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Minister's residence when he went there on December 25 last. BJP's Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to "immediately" dismiss the minister. "If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and brining shame to the nation. I am shocked," he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. "We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said," he said adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. PTI 'Is this the respect for women?': Mallikarjun Kharge asks PM Modi over release of Bilkis case convict Defence Procurement Procedures new avatar inspiring; some players seek more tweaking India oi-Oneindia By OneIndia Defence Bureau Bengaluru, Feb 06: The much-awaited changes to India's Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) were announced last month. This was in line with the promise made by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, after he took over the reins of Ministry of Defence in November 2014. The new look DPP, set to take shape in the next two months, gives major impetus to the Narendra Modi government's flagship Make in India mission. It has some inspiring elements to boost Indian private companies to undertake research and development in the aerospace and defence (A&D) sector. OneIndia elicited the views of some of the private A&D players to capture the mood of the industry, which has always felt that enough is not being done to win their hearts. Here are the excerpts from a series of interviews we did recently. Offset mechanism not working in interest of country G Raj Narayan, Managing Director of Radel Advanced Technology (P) Ltd, has been a visible voice in the last couple of years in various A&D forums. He says it was clear from the beginning that the offsets mechanism wasn't working to the interests of India. "The insistence of the foreign OEMs to dilute the same on the pretext of 'not finding capable Indian partners' was only an indirect method of preventing any exposure to Indian companies on related technologies. The only way to improve our state of self-sufficiency is to develop R&D in-house and design from whatever technologies we are presently exposed to (LCA, Jaguar & Mirage), and then move upwards to higher levels indigenously," says Raj. According to him, the raising of the offset applicability to acquisitions of Rs 2000 crore and above is irrelevant. "The higher preference to 'indigenously designed, developed and manufactured' items certainly makes more meaning than the vague 'Make' and 'Make & Buy' categories. This is a confirmation of the preference for Indian products which needs to be applauded. Further, the focus on enabling and empowering R&D as well as supporting MSMEs through funding is a huge step forward. Though this could still throw up problems in distinguishing between 'mature and capable' MSMEs and 'raw' MSMEs, proper processes could certainly be set up to ensure that the right company get the right amount of funding appropriate with its track record and status," Raj added. Radel's ongoing projects for various military programmes include, auto-selector bomb release system, speed switch, anti-collision lights, cockpit control unit and ground test rigs of various aircraft and helicopters. Introduction of IDDM a good move Puneet Kaura, MD and CEO, Samtel Avionics, says that the introduction of a new category -- Indigenous Design Development Manufacturing (IDDM) - is a welcome move. "We welcome the move to introduce the IDDM category in the DPP as it will back companies like us who have proven competencies in indigenous design, development and manufacturing. Furthermore, the announcement of funding by the government for R&D purposes will help build a technology base in the country," says Puneet, among the early players in the A&D sector. He said the growth of the Indian defence industry has been marred by delays. "The new DPP addresses this through a definitive step to cut down the delays in procurement by reducing the time lag between AoN (acceptance of necessity) and the tender or request for proposal (RFP)," says Puneet. Samtel through its joint venture with HAL, has been developing MFDs for Su-30 MKI within its facility in Greater Noida. The Samtel-HAL JV has already delivered 125 sets of MFDs for Su-30 MKIs. Will boost investments and better quality of products According to Rajeev Kaul, MD & Group CFO, Aequs, told OneIndia that that take on LI policy in the new-look DPP is a positive step. "L1 policy is a bold move and it credits the capability of the bidder. This would encourage quality consciousness and boost investments in better quality products," says Rajeev. Aequs has been supplying main landing gear shackle for the B787 programme. Aequs manufacturing facilities are located in Belagavi, Bengaluru, and Houston. Offset limit should be brought back to Rs 300 crore Col H.S. Shankar (Retd), CMD, Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, feels that increasing the offset applicability limit is a retrograde step and will deny Indian industry, particularly MSMEs, large chunk of their work content. "It is our view that offsets (with Rs 300 00 crore and above limit) was working satisfactorily (except for few glitches at MoD) and benefiting Indian Industries enormously. This will be a big blow to Indian industries. The limit should be reviewed and brought back to Rs 300 crore. He said the MSMEs/FICCI had listed many suggestions to the the DPP Review Committee, but they were not accepted. "We wanted the Make' category to be split into two categories: Make' large industries with higher limits and Make' MSMEs with a limit of funding up to Rs 500 crore per project," says Col Shankar. Commenting on the strategic partners,' the veteran A&D expert felt that it was a retrograde move of brining in public sector mentality' into private sector by reserving few big players in private sector. "This is a back door entry for big private sectors - something which Kelkar Committee had recommended as Udyog Ratnas' in 2016 and rejected and not implemented by successive governments," says Col Shankar. MSME categorisation limits for A&D products must go up Naresh Palta, CEO (Aerospace), Maini Group, said the government funding of 90 per cent for indigenous R&D will spur domestic products and technologies. He also felt that accepting offers in single tender cases' would remove major hurdles for industries developing niche products. However, Palta felt that the DPP's new avatar is silent on measures for SME segment. "We want the new policy to increase MSME categorisation limits up to Rs 150 crore for A&D projects specifically. Further taxation relief to Indian products vis-a-vis imports, for level playing. We are still unable to compete our products in the domestic requirements with imported ones due to higher duties and taxation incident," says Palta. OneIndia News Italian court partly blames victims for their death in earthquake International news brief: Series of earthquakes rattle Hawaii and more News flash: Encounter between security forces and terrorists in J&K ends, 1 terrorist killed India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Bengaluru, Feb 6: Auction for IPL to take place today at Bengaluru, total 351 cricketers are to be auctioned. Meanwhile, a strong 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit southern Taiwan today. Get all the latest news updates of the day: 11.47 pm: Indian Medical Association (IMA) supports Maneka Gandhi's suggestion to make pre-natal sex determination compulsory. 10.48 pm: TanzanianGirl assault case: Total of 11 accused have been arrested so far. 10.32 pm: Our jawans are being killed at the borders & UP Govt is setting stage for Ghulam Ali's concert here, says Anil Singh, UP unit chief of Shiv Sena. 9.00 pm: Allegations totally unfounded, baseless & false: GoI Spokesman Frank Noronha to ANI on Azam Khan's allegation -PM Modi met Dawood in Lahore. 8.43 pm: PM of largest democracy went to his enemy nation without telling anyone. Breaking Intelligence laws he went to Pak & met Dawood there, says Azam Khan. 8.42 pm: UP unit chief of Shiv Sena, Anil Singh put under house arrest ahead of Ghulam Ali's concert, scheduled to take place in Lucknow tomorrow. 8.18 pm: We have got eye witnesses, it appears to be a suicide case, police investigation underway- B S Gurjar. 7.37 pm: Team combination is good, we're expecting to win the cup this year- Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab owner) on IPL Auction. 7.10 pm: 8 killed, 35 injured as blast targets security forces' vehicle in Quetta: Pak Media 6.50 pm: Encounter between security forces and terrorists in Gundipora area of Pulwama (J&K) ends, one terrorist killed. 6.35 pm: At least 10 people killed, 20 injured in a collision between a State run bus and a truck in Tamil Nadu's Madurai district. 6.25 pm: Meeting of Punjab BJP leaders with Amit Shah underway at Arun Jaitley's residence in Delhi. 6.15 pm: Hamare PM ne garibi ko saha hai aur unhone ne photo khichwaye hain gareebi ke sath jhuggi aur jhopdiyo me jake (Our PM had lived in poverty, while he has been busy in photo-ops with poor) :Mahesh Sharma on Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi ke baare me pure desh ki janata jaan chuki hai isliye 40 seats pe aa gaye hain: Mahesh Sharma, BJP pic.twitter.com/bjKDidjwjb ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 6.00 pm: One woman, 2 children dead in a cylinder blast at a shop in Mumbai's Vikhroli. 5.50 pm: One terrorist killed in an an ongoing encounter between security forces and terrorists in Gundipora area of Pulwama (J&K). Encounter underway between security forces and terrorists in Pulwama (J&K). (Visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/qNOI4eBERy ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 5.45 pm: Tanzanian Girl assault case: World Organisation of Students & Youth (WOSY) hold 'peace demonstration' in Bengaluru. 5.35 pm: Couple allegedly commits suicide in Delhi's Mayur Vihar. Police investigation underway. 5.25 pm: Encounter underway between security forces and terrorists in Gundipora area of Pulwama (J&K). 5.15 pm: Sheena Bora murder case: A special CBI court in Mumbai to pronounce order on Peter Mukerjea's bail plea on February 12. 5.00 pm: The Karnataka government has suspended the assistant commissioner of police, Yeshwanthpur to inaction in connection while dealing with the case involving an assault on a Tanzanian student at Bengaluru. 4.45 pm: Delhi: MCD teachers call off their strike. 4.35 pm: Police use water cannons on BJP workers protesting against Solar Scam in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). 4.25 pm: Media reported a UP Cong leader passed hateful remark against chairman of its SC cell in Ghaziabad for his lower caste background: Sambit Patra, BJP. Shows how Cong can do 'drama' by visiting Hyderabad but their ideology is how can Dalit sit along with us- S Patra pic.twitter.com/spacquLuTT ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 4.15 pm: EAM Sushma Swaraj meets Tamil Progressive Alliance leaders in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 4.00 pm: Delhi Govt has always supported GST bill: Manish Sisodia, Delhi Deputy CM after pre-Budget meeting. 3.55 pm: Several states including Bihar,Punjab,Telangana, Andhra Pradesh & North East states have demanded special package: Jayant Sinha, MoS Finance. We discussed on how we could increase our Infrastructure spending: Jayant Sinha,MoS Finance after pre-budget meeting pic.twitter.com/rNCZMHF6JQ ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 3.45 pm: Haryana CM ML Khattar inaugurates Vintage Car Show at Red Fort, Delhi, earlier today 3.38 pm: Odisha: Many school children taken ill after consuming mid-day meal at a school in Subarnapur district. Parents lock teachers in a classroom. 3.20 pm: Tamil Progressive Alliance leaders meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. 3.07 pm: An explosion at an engineering college at Vellore in Tamil Nadu has killed one. 2.45 pm: Cartoonist Sudhir Tailang passes away: Reports 2.30 pm: A SPO posted at Rainawari Police station (J&K), identified as Riyaz Ahmed ran away today with AK-47. FIR & departmental enquiry launched. 2.25 pm: 10 Naxalites surrender before the police in Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh. 2.15 pm: It was a positive interaction. Soon women will be allowed inside the temple is what we believe: Trupti Desai on Shani Shingnapur issue. Whatever CM of Maharashtra decides we will go with us, other parties in the issue also agreed to this: Trupti Desai pic.twitter.com/KYORE5V74k ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 2.07 pm: Congress accepts Sanjay Nirupam's apology on malicious article in party journal, asks him to be careful in the future. 1.48 pm: Suspicious person caught & handed over to Airforce officials outside Jaisalmer Airport gate (Rajasthan). Interrogation underway. 1.30 pm: DCP Sanjay Shintre's 18-year old son Sourabh Sanjay Shintre who went missing yesterday, comes back. 1.25 pm: There was deliberate conscious promotion of vested interests at the cost of state exchequer: Anand Sharma, Cong on Gujarat land allotment. No govt agency can be trusted to conduct fair probe in this matter: Anand Sharma, Cong on Gujarat land allotment pic.twitter.com/7IyzfMhiQv ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 1.20 pm: EAM Sushma Swaraj meets former President Chandrika Kumaratunga at her residence. 1.10 pm: Only option left with us is President's rule because this govt is a complete failure at every step: Chirag Paswan, LJP on Law and Order in Bihar. 1.05 pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, MoS Finance Jayant Sinha attend Pre-Budget meeting in Delhi. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, MoS Finance Jayant Sinha at Pre-Budget meeting in Delhi pic.twitter.com/a0a670Nq0E ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 12.55 pm: NIA Court sends terror suspect Abdus Sami Qasmi, arrested by NIA yesterday from Hardoi (UP), to 10-day police custody. 12.33 pm: Pakistani Singer Ghulam Ali reaches Lucknow. He is scheduled to perform in the city on Sunday evening. 11.28 am: ISIS suspect Mohsin Ibrahim Sayed arrested from Delhi revealed that he and 3 of his friends wanted to go to Syria to fight for ISIS. 10.35 am: Delhi Police Sub Inspector (Badalpur, Greater Noida) Yashpal Singh shot himself last night, died as medical aid was being provided. 9.52 am: Vizag: Presidential ship INS Sumitra proceeds for fleet review (picture source: PMO) pic.twitter.com/fqANUjB4BE ANI (@ANI_news) February 6, 2016 9.25 am: President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Modi at International Naval Fleet Review. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar also present. 9.20 am: Bengaluru: African Students' Union protests against Tanzanian student attack case 8.35 am: Taiwan authorities say 3 dead, 154 hospitalized from 6.4-magnitude earthquake in south Taiwan. 8.15 am: Indian President Pranab Mukherjee will attend International Naval Fleet Review. PM Modi and Defence Minister will also attend the event. 8.00 am: Strong 6.7-magnitude earthquake hits southern Taiwan. OneIndia News J&K: CBM can't include talking to separatists says BJP India oi-Vicky New Delhi, Feb 6: The PDP in Jammu and Kashmir had made it clear if the government has to be formed then there needs to be confidence building measures. While there are many demands, one of them are to have talks with the separatists. The BJP is clearly in no mood for this as it feels that talking with the separatists will do no good and moreover the image of the party can take a beating. The BJP had sought from the governor of Jammu and Kashmir 10 days time to take a final call on the formation of the government. The PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had said that the centre needs to announce confidence building measures if the government in Jammu and Kashmir has to be formed. She reiterated the same thing at a meeting with party workers yesterday and said that the centre has to ensure that a positive atmosphere is created in the state. Will not talk to separatists: The BJP is very clear that some of the demands can be adhered to. This would include the financial package. However if the PDP wants us to talk with separatists then it is not possible. The BJP is not in favour of that. Sources say that the BJP is not in any hurry to form the government. In fact the governor went ahead and appointed two advisers for the state. This is being seen as a message the centre wants to give to the PDP that it has no problems in prolonging Governor's rule in the state. The BJP however made it clear that the appointment of the advisers were to assist the governor who needs to run the state. The BJP which had sought ten days time is weighing in the options before it. The Confidence Building Measures which Mehbooba spoke about are both political and economic. While on the economic front the BJP is willing to work out the modalities, questions still remain on the political aspect to it. The political aspect to the CBM could involve speaking with separatists and also not raising the issue of special status. The BJP leadership has made it clear that it will not speak with the separatists and would rather throw the ball back into Mehbooba's court instead. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, February 6, 2016, 9:11 [IST] They stay among you to kill you: Ansarul Bangla Team could be Indias biggest threat Madrasa owner held for planning terror attacks: NIA India oi-PTI New Delhi, Feb 6: A self-proclaimed cleric has been arrested by NIA officials for allegedly planning terror attacks in the country. Abdus Sami Qasmi, a resident of Seelampur here, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district. He has been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into the conspiracy to form a terror organisation and to launch terror attacks in the country, NIA officials said. Adbus Sami has been delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches in the support of 'Caliphate', they said. He has launched a few websites wherein his speeches have been uploaded. Abdus Sami has been allegedly instigating and motivating youth for anti-national activities and has visited various parts of the country in order to deliver his 'Takreer and Bayaan' (speech and statement), the NIA officials said. He runs a trust and madrassas and some of his financial transactions in this connection have allegedly been found to be of suspicious nature and the same are under investigation, they said. Abdus Sami was arrested yesterday by the NIA with the active support of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad yesterday. A Non-Bailable Warrant against him had earlier been issued by the Special NIA court here. PTI On camera: Youth tied to scooter, dragged for 2 km because he couldn't repay loan Cyclone likely over Bay of Bengal by weekend, predicts IMD PM Modi to inaugurate Paradip refinery, NISER in Odisha on Feb 7 India oi-PTI Bhubaneswar, Feb 6: Odisha is all set to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to arrive here later today as part of his two-day visit to the state. "The Prime Minister will arrive here late evening today. Tomorrow he will attend two programmes, besides visiting the Lord Jagannath temple at Puri," said home secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy. Modi would stay overnight at the Raj Bhavan and will inaugurate the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) at Jatni on the outskirts of the state capital at 9 AM tomorrow. The Prime Minister is scheduled to interact with students and faculty members of NISER and will leave for Puri to pay his obeisance to Lord Jagannath at around 11 AM. "Will offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple in Puri during my Odisha visit on the 7th," Modi had tweeted. Later, the Prime Minister will leave for Paradip to inaugurate IOCL's refinery project at around 1 PM and will address a public meeting there. "In Odisha, I will dedicate the National Institute of Science Education and Research and Indian Oil Refinery, Paradip to the nation," Modi said in his tweet. DGP KB Singh reviewed security arrangements at Paradip, while other senior officers are camping at Puri and NISER to ensure full security of the Prime Minister. "All arrangements are made as per the rule book," Singh said, adding about one lakh people are expected at Paradip. For the PM's visit, the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration has decided to keep the temple doors closed for one hour. The Archaeological Survey of India, which is repairing the temple complex, will suspend the work to facilitate entry of Modi into the sanctum sanctorum. The Special Protection Group (SPG) also reviewed the security arrangements at Paradip, Puri and NISER ahead of Modi's visit. PTI No point in speculating about Netaji's fate: Shyam Benegal India oi-PTI Kolkata, Feb 5: Twelve years after making the biopic 'Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero', film maker Shyam Benegal tonight said people should celebrate Netaji's life and works instead of merely conjecturing what happened to him on that fateful day in 1945. "As keen to know as everybody in the audience about the not released files. The research for our film was till he boarded the plane in August, 1945 and there was no public information about him afterwards. My only problem is whatever is conjecture is not of consequence to me," Benegal said at the Kolkata Literature Festival discussion of the 40th International Kolkata Book Fair here. "What is of consequence to me is that, here is somebody fighting for India's freedom. How come he (would) end up as a holy man. He was certainly not that kind of that person, why would he do that," Benegal said in an obvious reference to claims in certain quarters about Netaji returning back in the guise of a sadhu in the 50s and later. Pointing out that British actually realised they could not hold on to India in the late 40s, Benegal said apart from the movement in different parts of the country, the battle of INA and Netaji surely played its part in the freedom and gave the final push. "Another assumption I am opposed to is to portray Jawaharlal Nehru as the villain. Instead he had defended the INA officers facing trial at Red Fort before being court-martialed. Why did he need to do that?," the Padmabhusan and Dada Saheb Phalke awardee said. Pointing out the first bunch of declassified files of Netaji by West Bengal government and Centre so far have not revealed anything, the 'Ankur' and 'Mandi' director said, "hopefully they will reveal something in future." Referring to the research work for his film, he said "Whatever research I had done based on books and documents including known scholar Purabi Roy's books, I find his life and vision fascinating. And perhaps there was certain kind of destiny involved in this man." The only way to know reality is, "Lets see if other documentations exist and will come and if these reveal something at all. If not we will continue to have wonderful imagination speculating what happened to Netaji." "In my film he takes the aircraft and flies off and after August 18 1945 no general public at large had seen Netaji," Benegal said. PTI Tripura LoP rules out Cong-Left Front alliance in WB India oi-PTI Agartala, Feb 6: The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly and senior Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman today ruled out possibility of alliance with the Left Front in West Bengal for the coming Assembly elections. "There is no chance of forging an alliance between CPI(M) and Congress in West Bengal. A section of Congress leaders in West Bengal are spreading rumours. "We have already sent a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi requesting her to take action against those leaders. We hope AICC will reject the proposal of alliance because it will destroy the party's prospects in Tripura and West Bengal forever," Barman said. He said the the CPI(M) and the BJP are the main rivals of Congress both in the state and at the Centre. "In fact, Sonia Gandhi asked us to strengthen movement against the misrule of Left Front here. Congress is a national political party and we don't believe it can have separate polices for separate states," he said. Barman said the Congress leaders who were enthusiastic about a tie-up with the CPI(M) were doing so for their personal and not party's benefit and they could leave the party. Senior Congress leader and former MLA Tapas Dey said the president of Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee, Birajit Sinha, is now camping in Delhi and has taken up the matter with the AICC leadership. Sinha has told the leadership an alliance with CPI(M) in any state would be disastrous for the party, Dey said. PTI At UNSC, US calls on world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats American firms asked to take advantage of Digital India initiative International oi-IANS By Ians English Washington, Feb 6: India's future as a technology powerhouse and its plans to connect India's 600,000 villages to the Internet through the Digital India programme were the focus of a roundtable of top American and Indian companies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Startup India initiative also came up at the roundtable with Indian Minister for Communications & IT Ravi Shankar Prasad hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday. The roundtable was attended by USIBC President Mukesh Aghi and senior executives of American and Indian companies that included Google, AT&T, MasterCard, Facebook, American Tower Corporation, UST Global and iTech. USIBC comprises 350 top-tier US and Indian companies advancing US-India commercial ties. "Digital India provides an enormous investment opportunity for both global technology companies and startups from tech hubs like Boston and Silicon Valley," Prasad said. "India is sitting on the cusp of a digital revolution," he said. "Whether it is big metropolitan cities or small towns, a well-connected India has the potential to not only usher in economic and welfare opportunities for its citizens, but also the global economic order." The Indian "government is taking every policy decision in a transparent, predictable and reasonable manner," Prasad said encouraging "American businesses to take advantage of the Digital India programme, and the growth opportunities in India." Prasad also outlined the progress that has already been made to implement Digital India programme and his priorities for the future. Aghi said, "Prime Minister Modi's directive to connect Indians across the country is a tremendous opportunity for both Indian and US companies alike." Noting that 85 percent of Indians still do not have access to the Internet, he said "the government could make it easier to obtain clearances to install cell phone towers." "IT infrastructure can be further expanded by lifting the ban on foreign satellite operators so they can provide spectrum in hard-to-reach areas." Dan Gupta of UST Global commented on the economic growth that can be spurred by the Digital India initiative and adoption of key technologies across sectors. "By some estimations, the Digital India initiative could help boost India's gross domestic product (GDP) by around $550 billion - upping its GDP by $1 trillion by 2025," he said. Sonny Khurana, CEO of iTech, praised the rapid strides in connectivity and the startup ecosystem under the current government. IANS How did British colonise hot countries? Netizens ask as Britain faces extreme heat France and Britain brace for storms after weeks of drought Britain rejects UN working group ruling on WikiLeaks founder International oi-IANS By Ians English London, Feb 6: Britain on Friday rejected a UN working group's ruling which calls for an end to the "arbitrary detention" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) announced on Friday that Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain since his arrest in London in 2010, and he should be afforded the right to compensation, Xinhua reported. Speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been taking refuge, Assange said: "How sweet it is. This is a victory that cannot be denied." "It is a victory of historical importance, not just for me, for my family, for my children, but for the independence of the UN system," he added. Holding a copy of the UN ruling, he continued: "What right do the governments of the US, UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years?" However, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described the ruling as "a ridiculous finding" by the working group, and accused Assange of "hiding from justice." "Assange is a fugitive from justice, voluntarily hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy. I reject the report from UNWGAD," Hammond tweeted. Hitting back at Hammond, Assange accused the foreign secretary' s comments of "insulting the UN." "I found those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign secretary should express in this situation," The 44-year-old Australian said. Edward Snowden, a US intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower who has fled the US and taken refugee in Russia, criticised Britain's rejection to abide by the UN ruling. "This writes a pass for every dictatorship to reject UN rulings. Dangerous precedent for UK and Sweden to set," he said on his twitter account. British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) denied that Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Britain, and threatened to formally contest the opinion of the UN Working Group. "This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group's opinion," an FCO spokesperson said. The spokesperson noted that an allegation of rape against Assange is still outstanding with a European Arrest Warrant in place, and Britain "continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden." Assange has infuriated several governments, including the US authorities, by disclosing hundreds of thousands of secret files concerning Iraq, Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world. In June, 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and was granted political asylum by Ecuador two months later. 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 meets ex-Sri Lankan president, leader of opposition International oi-IANS By Ians English Colombo, Feb 6: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday called on former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga and Leader of Opposition R. Sampathan of the Tamil National Alliance here. "Renewing ties with an old friend. EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets former president Chandrika Kumaratunga at her residence," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup, who is accompanying the minister, tweeted. Renewing ties with an old friend. EAM @sushmaswaraj meets former President Chandrika Kumaratunga at her residence pic.twitter.com/uv1ePPjdZp Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) February 6, 2016 "Engaging across the political spectrum. Leader of the Opposition, TNA's R. Sampathan calls on EAM @SushmaSwaraj," he stated in another tweet. Earlier on Saturday, the second and final day of her visit to this island nation, Sushma Swaraj called on President Maithripala Sirisena and briefed him on the India -Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting held here on Friday. She also inaugurated a "Rise of Digital India" exhibition here as part of the ongoing "Sangam", a festival of India in Sri Lanka. On Friday, after her arrival here, she called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and co-chaired the ninth session of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera following which two memorandums of understanding - one in the health sector and another on renovation of schools - were signed by both the sides. IANS 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. Magnet Gaming Slots Coming to Microgamings Quickfire Casinos Published February 6, 2016 by Mike P Microgamings Quickfire casino partners will soon add 12 new video slots following a distribution deal with Danish software provider Magnet Gaming. Microgaming casino sites will soon have access to more online slot games than ever before. This news comes after the confirmation that Microgaming has struck a distribution deal with slot developer Magnet Gaming as of February 2016. All of Magnet Gamings slot content will soon be made available via Microgamings Quickfire distribution platform. Magnet Gaming on the Rise Magnet Gaming is an emerging igaming developer from Denmark, and has exhibited a flair for creating quality-driven video slots. Thus far, Magnet Gaming has created 12 games, all of which are going to be launched on Quickfire. A broad range of slot themes have been covered by Magnet Gaming so far. This wide selection includes slot games like Candy Kingdom, Deep Blue, Diamond Express, Golden Pyramid, Pie Rats, Safari, and the Vikings. Quickfire Casino Sites Quickfire is a software platform that allows for Microgaming to quickly deploy content to its igaming partners. The modern design of the platform allows for Microgaming to integrate software from other software providers. One previous example is Rabcat, which is the developer behind Castle Builder and Forsaken Kingdom Magnet Gaming can expect a similar arrangement whereby its best video slots will soon appear at Microgaming casinos. Current examples of Microgamings Quickfire casino partners include BitCasino, Casino Adrenaline, and LimoPlay Casino. Magnet Targeting Growth Microgamings head of Quickfire, Tom Chamberlain, praised Magnet Gaming for the developers ability to create high-quality slot games that function within HTML5 browsers. Quite simply, what this means is that Magnet Gamings content has been optimised to perform seamlessly on compatible desktop and mobile devices. From Magnet, head of game licensing Thomas Nielsen stated that the deal was of major strategic importance for 2016. After opening for business in 2014, Magnet has grown to this point by securing deals with Danish casino sites. Now the intention is for Magnet to step up to the world stage. President Muhammadu Buhari has emerged the winner in 15 of the 23 local governments in Kaduna State. Mr Buhari is seeking re-election as Nigerias president under the All Progressives Congress (APC). His main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, won in the remaining eight local governments. The margin surfaced after results from the 23 local governments were received Monday evening. Mr Buhari polled a total of 993,482 votes to defeat Mr Abubakar, who had 613,318 votes. While Mr Abubakar may have lost in Kaduna, he performed better than the PDP presidential candidate in 2015, Goodluck Jonathan. Mr Buhari also scored less votes than he did in 2015 in Kaduna. In 2015, Mr Buhari of APC scored 1,127,760 votes in Kaduna while Mr Jonathan scored 484,085 votes. See the full result of the presidential election in Kaduna in 2019 below. Grand total APC:993,482 PDP:613,318 1. KUBAU LG APC: 67,140 PDP: 13,296 2. MAKARFI LG APC: 36,625 PDP: 14,494 3. IKARA LG APC: 44,021 PDP: 14,464 4. KAURA LG APC: 6,907 PDP: 33,647 5. JABA LG APC: 6,400 PDP: 22,758 6. KUDAN APC: 30,577 PDP: 11,692 7. ZANGO KATAF APC: 10,411 PDP: 62,622 8. SABON GARI APC: 58,467 PDP: 22,644 9. KAURU APC 33, 578 PDP 27, 041 10. SOBA APC 51, 548 PDP 10, 646 11. KAGARKO APC 16, 668 PDP 21, 605 12. KAJURU APC 7, 888 PDP 31, 446 13. GIWA APC 45, 574 PDP 9, 838 14. IGABI APC 97308 PDP 20281 15. JEMAA APC= 19, 412 PDP = 61, 763 16. KADUNA SOUTH APC= 92, 637 PDP = 41, 004 17. BIRNIN GWARI APC 33,786 PDP 8,206 18. ZARIA APC 111, 082 PDP 23,882 19. CHIKUN APC 21, 930 PDP 82,909 20. SANGA APC 14,860 PDP 17,411 21. KACHIA APC 24,905 PDP 40,337 22. LERE APC 64,299 PDP 32,426 23. KADUNA NORTH APC 97, 514 PDP 27, 185 Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121 "Stressed? Oppressed? Isolated? Kall's Bottom-Up offers a lifeline for connecting with yourself, with others, and with your whole community or organization so that everyone thrives. He offers compelling science, stories, and insights from business, government, the arts, and more to make visible an unabashedly hopeful bottom-up revolution towards cooperation, compassion, and meaning. Join him." Peggy Holman, author of Engagement Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity and coauthor of The Change Handbook Reprinted from Smirking Chimp The big question right now is whether to call Hillary Clinton a progressive, or a "moderate." And then there's the question of who is more electable in a general election: an unabashedly progressive democrat, like Bernie Sanders, or a "centrist" democrat, like Hillary Clinton. Jonathan Capehart weighed in on the matter on Thursday morning's edition of MSNBC Live with the claim that it will be important for Democrats to move to the center to win the general election -- and he added that it will be easier for Hillary Clinton to do that. It may be conventional wisdom that a candidate has to swing to the center to win in a general election. And that conventional wisdom has been central to the Democratic platform ever since Al From's 1992 "bloodless coup" transformed the FDR/LBJ Democratic Party into the Clinton party of "centrist" corporatism. But that conventional wisdom just doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of history. The truth is, Democrats win when voter turnout is high. And voter turnout is high when voters have real progressive candidates to support. Back in 2014, Democrats were devastated by the midterm election results -- Republicans easily won control of the Senate and strengthened their majority in the House. In Arkansas, Republican Tom Cotton beat Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor by seven points to win a House seat; in Kentucky, Allison Lundergan Grimes lost to Mitch McConnell by more than 15 points. In West Virginia, Wall Street darling and state GOP legacy Shelley Moore-Capito won the Senate seat that Democrat Jay Rockefeller had held for 30 years. Moore-Capito easily trounced West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who ran as a so-called "centrist" democrat and campaigned against many of Obama's policies -- just like Grimes had run away from Obama on guns. Perhaps most shockingly to the Democratic establishment in 2014, three-term Louisiana Democratic senator and friend of the oil industry Mary Landrieu lost her bid for re-election by 11 points in a runoff election against Republican Bill Cassidy, because she campaigned as a "centrist" Democrat. Beyond that, Democrats lost their majorities in state legislatures across nine states, AND they lost 24 of the 36 gubernatorial contests that year. But while some so-called "centrist" Democratic politicians were losing big on being Republican-lite, the voters were going full-on progressive. Bernie Sanders Three questions in the wake of whatever it was that just happened in Iowa: Can anyone -- preferably a Democrat -- tell me what Hillary Clinton stands for? In other words, what is her message? Why do mainstream media assume there's no way Bernie Sanders can win the Democratic nomination, never mind the presidency? Since when does winning an election, or caucus or whatever else you may call it depend on the flip of a coin? Let's start with Hillary. As far as I can tell, after 16 years (at least) of running for president, the only message I still hear is that Hillary should be president because she's been around, she wants it and it's her turn. She's been patient through Bill's years in the White House and she's been running ever since they had to vacate (penniless, I believe she initially claimed). Yes, she took time to serve as senator from New York, but that really was necessary to fill out the resume for a presidential run. Being secretary of state was a bittersweet consolation prize for losing the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, who apparently never got the memo that it was Hillary's turn to run. It certainly topped off her resume. Yet all I hear is that she's really smart, has a lot of experience, knows a lot of stuff and will do a good job of running things. Now, that's clearly more than can be said of pretty much all of the Republican presidential candidates, but she's not running against any of them yet. What is she going to do as president? What is she going to change about a system with which Americans of all political persuasions are disenchanted, to say the least? Maybe it's me, but all I hear is that she'll do a good job, even a better job, of managing what Obama leaves behind. A lot of the major media seem to have bought into this message. That was pretty much the essence of the New York Times editorial endorsing Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the Iowa primary. Hillary has the experience to carry on the way we have been carrying on. Unfortunately for Clinton, the New York Times, and other establishment media that support her candidacy, a lot of Americans don't seem to want to carry on the way we've been carrying on. That's undoubtedly why a lot of young people, not thrilled with the future being crafted for them, have flocked to the Sanders candidacy. In fact, it seems to be why a lot of people have flocked to a host of Republican candidates who are anything but establishment figures. The fact that virtually all of them aren't qualified to be president is another matter. For what it's worth, I think Obama has done a pretty good job cleaning up the mess left by Bush/Cheney. He's done this in the face of non-stop resistance from Republicans from his first day in office. There's no reason to believe that Clinton, no favorite of congressional Republicans, will have any easier time of it in that regard. Furthermore, her ties to the banking industry and corporate America (through Bill and the Clinton Foundation), cast serious doubt on any claim she might make that she is different from Republicans. (Her claim the other night that she is not part of the Democratic Establishment is laughable.) And, as I recall, she couldn't get her healthcare plan through a Democratic Congress in Bill's first term. How does that make her a manager who "gets things done"? It's a claim that much of major media have apparently accepted as fact because she and her supporters keep saying it: Why Hillary? Because she's a manager. Sanders, by contrast, is an "eccentric" senator with "unruly" hair, as he was characterized in an Associated Press story the morning after the Iowa caucus. This was supposedly a straight news story reporting on the outcome of the caucus. There were no adjectives attached to Clinton's name implying some not-so-subtle judgment. Where were the editors? Again, maybe it's just me, but when someone writing in Iowa describes Sanders, with a lifetime in public service, as "eccentric," I can't help but wonder if it's code for 74-year-old Jew who still speaks with the accent of his native Brooklyn. New Yorkers are pretty good at cracking codes. As for that Iowa vote, what a joke. Clinton claimed victory after edging Sanders by less than three-tenths of a point. Democrats don't even vote privately in Iowa. They stand in opposite corners and try to convince others to join them. The biggest group gets the delegates from that district. When there's a tie, they split the delegates -- two for you, two for you. But when there's an odd number of delegate at stake, the odd vote is awarded by flipping a coin. Clinton won six out of six flips -- go figure -- so she got a couple more delegates than Sanders. That is no mashing victory! Even here, major media (NPR even) felt it necessary to weigh in after the fact to educate us that Clinton didn't win Iowa on coin flips. Rather, they spelled out the entire ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated system by which Iowa Democrats award convention delegates. Seems there's county delegates and state delegates and who-the-heck cares delegates and formulas for calculating percentage of delegates. It's a system set up by the establishment to try to control the votes, so that candidates like Bernie Sanders, from Brooklyn via Vermont, can't win. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). In 2008 Barack Obama was leading Hillary Clinton by 13 points before the New Hampshire primary, when miraculously Hillary came from behind to pull a "comeback kid" routine for the media. Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was so concerned at disparities in the voting results between Clinton and Obama that he formally requested a recount, which, with no secure chain of custody of the ballots, told voters little more about the veracity of the results. Kucinich noticed that an interesting pattern had emerged. Clinton did markedly better in districts where the votes were counted by New Hampshire's Diebold optical scan machines, which are used to count 80% of the votes in the New Hampshire primary. The computer security trade journal SC Magazine wrote that: "According to the watchdog Election Defense Alliance, Clinton received 52 percent of the vote from the state's 236 optical-scan machines, and Obama garnered 47 percent. Those results were reversed in the districts that used hand-counted ballots." The primary voting system in NH does not allow the public or the campaigns to inspect ballots as they are counted, or to confirm the totals from any particular box of ballots after they are counted. All observers of the count are required to stand "behind the rail," in election parlance, too far away from the ballots to see what they say. The ease of hacking a Diebold machine is the subject of numerous documentaries. Democratic Party officialdom is overwhelmingly packed with Hillary supporters. Now, Boston's WHDH Channel 7 is floating a possible "re-run of the comeback kid," after taking its own poll which shows results different from almost every other poll taken. The WHDH poll claims Sanders has suddenly lost 3 points of his 20 point lead, three days before the primary, while Clinton has gained 4 points. In the words of the WHDH reporter, this places Clinton "just fifteen points behind Sanders." (italics mine.) Based on its poll WHDH announces that "Hillary Clinton is surging, and Bernie Sanders is flirting with free-fall." A 2012 report by the nonprofit Verified Voting Foundation rates New Hampshire's vote totals verification procedure as "inadequate." The report "Counting Votes 2012" states that: New Hampshire is rated inadequate because it has no state requirement for conducting post election audits, despite having auditable systems in all jurisdictions statewide. What is little-noted by the major media is that, for all the significance attached to the New Hampshire primary, it is nearly impossible to determine who actually won. A campaign can only request a recount if he or she comes within a 1.5% margin of winning, in other words, a virtual tie. A paper trial exists which preserves all the ballots, but these can be viewed only by securing a NH Superior Court order. A saying often attributed to Josef Stalin runs: "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." Given past history and WHDH's markedly unprofessional and unwarranted boosterism for the Clinton candidacy, the Sanders campaign should already be sitting on the steps of Superior Court. Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts Website The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled that Wikileaks' Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained by the "democratic" governments of Sweden and the UK and is entitled to his freedom and compensation for detention by the two "democratic" governments. At the beginning of Assange's arbitrary detention, I said that the detention was in violation of the rights of asylum and is akin to the Soviet Government's refusal to allow Cardinal Mindszenty free passage from the US Embassy in Hungary when he was granted political asylum by the US government. I pointed out that in our time Washington now behaves like the Soviet dictatorship half a century ago. The illegal actions of the Swedish and UK governments were on the orders of Washington, the corrupt government of which is determined to get Assange for publishing leaked documents revealing the criminality and mendacity of the US government. Washington and its UK vassal claim to be defenders of the rule of law, but, of course, both governments are lawless. We will see if the ruling has any effect on the behavior of "the two great champions of liberty." My prediction is that the gang of criminals in Washington will not allow its vassal governments to abide by the UN decision. I hope that I am wrong. Read about the ruling in depth here. Hillary Clinton and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein (Image by mpeake) Details DMCA I'm not saying that Bernie and Hillary should name names, though that would be nice. But how would they change the criteria for investigation and prosecution? Would they change the too big to jail approach? Would they go after the Wall Street executives who headed the companies that have paid billions in fines? Would they go after police departments and police with repeat histories of killing unarmed blacks? Would they go after towns, mayors, city council members and judges that set up arrest programs to pay bills? How about Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and General Petraeus? Three released information for peace and principles, one did it for a piece of ass. Those are pretty obvious ones. How about war criminals? Would they go after George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, the people who have engaged in torture? How about Obama and his designation of people to be killed with drones? How about instituting some new laws? Make it a crime to become a lobbyist after holding federal office-- like member of the house of representatives-- or after two years or more working as an employee for a member of congress or house or senate committee. These people should not be allowed to be lobbyists. How about pardons? I'm no expert here but is there a limit? Could a president pardon a few hundred thousand people who plead guilty-- because they couldn't afford an attorney-- to possession of Marijuana. Could it be done retroactively for people already out of jail? Many of those people live in states where they can't vote for the rest of their lives. Could they be pardoned and then allowed to vote? And even if that's not possible, could they be pardoned so the US can reduce the number of prisoners in our jails by hundreds of thousands? Who else should be prosecuted? Who else should be investigated? Who else should be pardoned? This is a conversation that should be a part of the election process Progressive Content Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing. To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here. University of Oregon campus University of Oregon leads the way in bringing in out of state residents. (Terry Richard/The Oregonian/File) Out-of-state residents accounted for nearly one-third of the degrees and certificates awarded at Oregon's seven public universities during the 2014-15 school year, according to new figures released by a state agency Friday. The total number of non-Oregonians completing four-year degrees or advanced programs increased by 7.5 percent from the 2013-14 year while the number of Oregon residents finishing programs fell by about 1.4 percent, according to the first annual completion report produced by the state's Higher Education Coordinating Commission. Overall, Oregon colleges and universities awarded 3 percent more certificates and degrees during during the 2014-15 school year than in the year before. More people, in a sense, are getting their degrees, than ever before. The data are a reflection of one of the key strategies for Oregon's largest schools in the face of a paucity of state funding (despite the $700 million injection of money during the 2015-17 biennium): pull in more money from out-of-state residents' higher-priced tuition. Ben Cannon, HECC's executive director, said the grand total of more than 45,151 completed programs at community colleges and four-year schools is exciting news for Oregon. "It indicates pretty clearly the progress that we're making toward our state goals for higher ed," Cannon said. "Are we making enough progress quickly enough? Probably not, but we're certainly trending in the right direction." Related: Check out the state's PDF comparing the two school years Cannon's office compiled figures from Oregon's seven public universities and 17 community colleges, including the number of bachelor's, associate's, master's, certificate and other professional degrees awarded to both Oregonians and non-resident students during the 2013-14 and 14-15 school years. The data show more Oregonians are completing community college programs - 19,783 Oregon residents finished associate's degrees or certificate programs in 2014-15 - a 4.4 percent jump. Cannon said the figures are, to some extent, a product of the ongoing effect of the Great Recession, which led to marked increases in community college enrollment. While Cannon said it was exciting to see more students' complete programs, he would not be surprised to see the figures decline somewhat in the coming years as more people find jobs. Community colleges play a big role in preparing the workforce, and Cannon said the completion growth could have wider economic ramifications. He described in-state student completion rates as "basically flat." "Our commission would be concerned if it appeared that nonresident students were crowding out resident students," Cannon said of the two-year comparison. "There really isn't evidence of that." Here are some key takeaways from the 2014-15 data set: Most out-of-state bachelor's degrees awarded: 1) University of Oregon: 1,982 2) Oregon State University: 1,282 3) Portland State University: 588 Most in-state bachelor's degrees awarded: 1) Portland State University: 3,528 2) Oregon State University: 3,520 3) University of Oregon: 2,733 Most out-of-state master's/doctoral/professional degrees awarded 1) University of Oregon: 747 2) Oregon State University: 687 3) Portland State University: 551 Most in-state master's/doctoral/professional degrees awarded 1) Portland State University: 1,204 2) Oregon State University: 534 3) University of Oregon: 470 Most certificates/associate's degrees awarded: 1) Portland Community College: 5,729 2) Chemeketa Community College: 2,358 3) Mt. Hood Community College: 2,168 4) Lane Community College: 1,720 5) Clackamas Community College: 1,408 *** -- Andrew Theen atheen@oregonian.com 503-294-4026 @andrewtheen State environmental regulators said this week they believe a SE Portland glass manufacturer was responsible for unsafe levels of cadmium and arsenic found in air testing nearby. The company has since announced it voluntarily suspended use of the metals. Here are answers to 12 questions we've been hearing about the situation. If you have other questions, leave them in the comments below. 1. When did the state learn about the problem? The Department of Environmental Quality monitored the air next to Bullseye Glass at 3722 SE 21st Ave. in Portland throughout October and got the results Jan. 20. The state said the three-month turnaround is standard. The state has known for a decade that Portland's air had unexpectedly high levels of cadmium and arsenic. It hasn't been clear why. 2. How did the state think to put an air monitor next to the glass company? U.S. Forest Service researchers, studying the concentrations of metals in tree moss, found two hotspots in Portland. The highest levels were in Southeast Portland. Sarah Armitage, a Department of Environmental Quality air toxics specialist, said her agency mapped the businesses near the two hotspots and found glassmakers were present in areas where mosses showed higher metals. The Forest Service notified the department in May 2015 about the hotspots. It took five months for the state agency to act. 3. Where else in Portland were concentrations of metals found? The area between the Fremont Bridge and Interstate 5, Armitage said. It isn't clear exactly what the levels of metals were there, but Armitage said Southeast Portland's pollution levels were higher. Two glassmakers operate in the area between the bridge and interstate, though it isn't clear that they're the sources, Armitage said. The state hasn't conducted any air monitoring there yet and doesn't have a timeframe for when it will. "That will be the next area for this rapidly evolving investigation," Armitage said. 4. What are the risks of exposure to cadmium and arsenic? Both metals are carcinogens. If breathed at the levels set as the state's safety goals, called benchmarks, each pollutant would be expected to cause one additional case of cancer in every one million people. Exposure to the levels found in the October testing heighten that risk to one additional cancer case in every 4,807 people. That presumes a lifetime of exposure to the same levels. 5. I'm worried about my health, what can I do? Your body flushes arsenic out quickly - within about five days, said David Farrer, an Oregon Health Authority toxicologist. Cadmium is different. Cadmium accumulates in the kidney, which is the primary organ impacted. Getting your urine tested (not your blood or hair) is the preferred method for determining levels of the two metals in your body, Farrer said. The Oregon Health Authority isn't recommending those tests, though. Expected results based on the pollution levels found in the air monitoring wouldn't alter someone's medical treatment, Farrer said. "It's not like the physician would do something different based on it," he said. Scientists have connected specific health effects for people with varying levels of lead in their blood. But they haven't for cadmium. Knowing how much cadmium is in your body wouldn't help predict what will happen to you, Farrer said. 6. How far does the risk spread? That's still unclear. The state released a map Friday showing the two hotspots. 7. I live nearby. Should I test my soil? Testing soil could give residents peace of mind, said Linda George, an atmospheric chemist at Portland State. Normally, George said, she wouldn't recommend soil tests. "But I don't think we know enough about the sources to understand what has been going on over time," she said. George encouraged anyone who tests their soil to share the results with her and the Department of Environmental Quality. "That way not everyone needs to test," she said. "We would learn a lot from a few tests." 8. Bullseye announced it had suspended using arsenic and cadmium. Does it use other metals? Yes. The company's air permit says it also uses lead, chromium and selenium. The state doesn't have safety goals set for chromium or selenium, but its monitoring station took readings for those metals as well. The station didn't detect lead levels above its safety goal during October except on one day. Arsenic and cadmium levels were consistently higher. 9. How long has the company been operating in Southeast Portland? The facility was built in 1974, state records show. 10. Has the facility been inspected recently? State regulators looked at Bullseye this week and said they found nothing amiss. A 2005 inspection found the company wasn't monitoring its use of arsenic, state records show. But the company got a warning letter and began complying with monitoring requirements, and a 2010 inspection found no problems. 11. Is the glass manufacturer the only suspected contributor to the air pollution that the state found? No. The state said the nearby railroad yard was likely a minor source as well. 12. What's happening next? The state is trying to figure out whether the emissions levels in October were typical. A community open house has also been scheduled by the Multnomah County Health Department and Portland Public Schools, Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Cleveland High School cafeteria, 3400 S.E. 26th Avenue, Portland, OR 97202. More information is here. -- Rob Davis rdavis@oregonian.com 503.294.7657 The U.S. Forest Service researchers had a plan: Collect moss from trees around Portland, study whether it was a living air pollution indicator, then publish their results in a scientific journal. But after completing their analysis of moss samples from nearly 350 spots citywide, they found something alarming - so alarming they felt compelled to notify environmental regulators right away. Robert Mangold, station director of the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station, said the agency contacted the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in May 2015 with the results. They'd found two hotspots where cadmium and arsenic concentrations were unusually high. One was in Southeast Portland; the other sat between Interstate 5 and the Fremont Bridge. "There was a good level of concern," Mangold said. "We usually don't share these kinds of results until a journal article is out in print. But we had a feeling - not having done a lot of this work - that this was important to get out." But it would take five months for the Department of Environmental Quality to act. It isn't clear why. The agency said on Thursday it deployed an air monitor to confirm a suspected source in October. Another three months passed before the results came back and confirmed that cadmium and arsenic were present in volumes that far exceeded state safety targets at a site adjacent to Bullseye Glass, a Southeast Portland manufacturer. It wasn't until Wednesday that Oregon officials told the public about the problem, drawing a public outcry and concern from nearby residents and parents. Portland Public Schools said it was launching tests of air in five nearby schools in response. In all, eight months elapsed between the hotspots' discovery and public notification this week, raising questions about why it took the Department of Environmental Quality so long to deploy an air monitor given the alarms sounded by the U.S. Forest Service. A spokeswoman for the state agency didn't respond to a request for comment. The spokeswoman and two other agency employees had been unable to tell The Oregonian/OregonLive when the Forest Service delivered its findings. As soon as the findings became public, Bullseye announced it was immediately suspending use of the two metals, used to create colored glass. Advocates and neighbors have asked whether faster notification could've made that happen sooner. Regulators and advocates have known for a decade that Portland had unexpectedly elevated levels of the two heavy metals, both carcinogens. But it wasn't clear where the pollution was coming from or where it was the worst. Since the discovery years ago that Portland's air was unexpectedly dirty, the Department of Environmental Quality has been complacent in its investigation of the cause, said Mary Peveto, president of Neighbors for Clean Air, a Northwest Portland nonprofit. "There's been no urgency that kids are being exposed to a neurological toxic that could affect them for generations," Peveto said. "It's been an academic exercise." At the levels found, the metals would be expected to cause cancer in one person in every 4,807 people - if they were exposed to the same amount throughout their entire life. The state's goal is for that risk to be one in a million. Mangold, the Forest Service research director, said he hopes the research's breakthroughs will be applied in other cities including Seattle. Traditional air monitors are expensive and aren't mobile. But moss is easy to get. "It's omniscient in a wet climate like Portland - we had 350 little vegetation monitors," Mangold said. "The granularity of the information will be much greater. We hope it starts a discussion in different places." -- Rob Davis rdavis@oregonian.com 503.294.7657 Miss Piggy Goes to Market Miss Piggy, with New York Stock Exchange Chief of Staff John Tuttle, rings the NYSE opening bell recently. You would do well to turn off any news about the markets and watch any form of The Muppets instead. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) I know you know what to do in a market downturn. You've been with me for seven years now. You know the drill. You, wise reader, could write this particular column yourself. True, we haven't been through many of these together. But we started our journey in the midst of the Great Recession. We endured some stock-market dips in 2010 and 2011. If we can survive those, we can survive a drop of about 10% in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index since mid May. No, I'm certain you will do - or have done - the right things. But just in case, let's review: Get out your investment policy statement and review it. This is where you've listed your investing goals, your time frame and your chosen mix between stocks and bonds. You compare that so-called asset allocation to the current mix of stocks and bonds/cash in your portfolio. If the mix is off target -- which often happens over time -- you rebalance. These days, with stock prices down by double-digit percentages, you'll probably be selling some bonds and buying stocks to balance things back out. It might not seem like what your gut wants to do -- buying the stuff that's falling in price. But you know it's what will make money in the long term. "Investors need to remember that a stock market that is hitting its peaks is riskier than one that's seen a lot of sell-off," said Ann Garcia, certified financial planner with Beacon Rock Partners in Portland. "A drop in equity prices is a drop in risk. It's counterintuitive, I know. But the way you buy low and sell high is by buying, not selling, when equity prices drop. And, of course, investing in risky asset classes is for the long term, not the short term." Don't chase the hot fund. Last year, researchers at Research Affiliates, Texas Tech and Utah State reported on their study of money flows into and out of 18,665 mutual funds. They found that "over the last 20 years, the average investor in mutual funds appears to have given up almost 2 percent per year because of the timing of their trades." Investors seem to plow money into funds before they begin performing poorly, they said, and withdraw money before they turn around. They'd have been better off merely buying and holding onto their mutual fund shares. "The average mutual fund investor's (return) is always meaningfully lower than the buy-and-hold return and always worse than a strategy that naively buys and holds the S&P 500 Index," they said. That's why you don't trade in and out of funds. You buy a low-cost fund and hold at least the bulk of those shares, until either a lower-cost option comes along or you need to sell for retirement or spending purposes. "The problem with timing the market is not getting out - it's getting back in," said Paul Vermilya, owner of Compass Investment Advisers in Portland, in an email to clients. "I've seen plenty of people exit - and they inevitably never get back in or go back in so late that they would have been better off never exiting at all." Stay diversified. You'll recall that stocks from emerging-market economies such as China and Brazil outperformed domestic stocks throughout the first decade of the 2000s. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index returned 10.11 percent a year, including dividends, from 2000 to 2009. The Standard & Poor's 500 U.S. stock index lost an annualized 0.19 percent. Since 2010, the returns have flipped. The emerging markets index has lost 0.88 percent per year while the domestic index has returned 12.98 percent annualized. You know that one day soon, the reverse could be true again. You don't know when. So you keep a slice of your investments in emerging markets. I know you know this because between 1994 and 2010, the share of stock investments that Americans allocated to foreign stocks increased from 17 to 28 percent, according to Matthew Wynter, University of Illinois-Chicago assistant finance professor. Talk it over before you act. As I suggested in 2011, speaking your fears or concerns aloud can remove the power behind them. So, you talk with friends, family or advisers before you make large-scale changes. "As we tell our clients, I don't have some secret investment I can use," Garcia said, "just the discipline and lack of emotion to keep you doing the things you should and not doing the things you shouldn't." Several academic studies show that so-called experts, including professional traders, are more overconfident about their judgments regarding stock returns than nonprofessionals. But you know that nonprofessionals can be overconfident, too. So you seek out others to diffuse any chutzpah you might have. Turn off CNBC. And Marketwatch, recent purveyor of this headline: "Is the stock market headed for a repeat of 2008? Live video chat with experts." No, you didn't fall for the click bait. You know that scary headlines and charts pointing downward can have an effect on your judgment. Consider this: Researchers at The Federal Reserve Board of Cleveland gathered data on daily cloud cover from 2,000 counties across the nation and compared it to the Fed's database on loan approvals from banks and mortgage firms in those areas between 2001 and 2010. They found that more loans were approved on sunny days; fewer got approved on cloudy ones, according to findings released in January. The approval rate swing amounted to a difference of about $156 million worth of additional credit, researchers estimated. Might've led to some bad loans, too. You don't need to know what the market did Friday, or last week, or even last month. Your investment horizon is years. This downturn is a blip along the way. Control what you can. You'll keep your fees low and your asset allocation on target. Fund companies are trimming costs to near $0. In November, BlackRock cut the expense ratio on its iShares Core S&P Total Stock Market ETF from .07 percent to .03 percent (Ticker: ITOT). That means it now costs $3 per year for every $10,000 invested in an ETF that grants exposure to the vast majority of U.S. stock returns. Charles Schwab matched that price cut on its U.S. Broad Market ETF (SCHB). What a deal. The average exchange-traded fund charges $57 per $10,000 invested, according to fund research publication Morningstar. The average open-ended mutual fund charges $119 per $10,000. "Investors can manage risk but can't control it," said Phyllis Carlton, a financial planner with Carlton Financial Advisors in West Linn. "They can control how much they pay in taxes and investment management costs." Carlton and others worry that returns will be lower than they've been in the past. You know that we can't predict the future. But if returns are lower in the future, Carlton said, "every penny spent on management fees and taxes matter." -- Brent Hunsberger is an Investment Adviser Representative in Portland. For important disclosures and information about Brent, visit ORne.ws/aboutbrent. Reach him at itsonlymoneyblog@gmail.com or leave a message about his columns at 503-683-3098. Those running for public office at the state level were required to file Annual Campaign Statements on Monday. The report covers the period of Oct. 21, 2015, through Dec. 31, 2015. State House Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, raised $76,100 during the period. However, $55,000 of that is money Glenn loaned his campaign. During the 2014 campaign, he also loaned his campaign $25,000. Of that amount, he has paid back $12,314.78, leaving a balance on that loan of $12,685.22. The total amount of loans to his campaign is $67,685.22. Beyond that, he received just $1,400 from four different PACs. Blue Cross/Blue Shield PAC and Michigan Values Leadership Fund both donated $500 while General Motors PAC and Friends of CMU gave $250 and $150, respectively. He had total expenditures during the period of $10,083.95 and an ending balance of $106,274.91. His opponent, Geoff Malicoat, has claimed the reporting waiver. While the waiver is in effect, Malicoat is not required to file any campaign statements. The waiver remains in effect as long as the committee does not spend or receive more than $1,000 for an election. It is automatically revoked if the committee exceeds the $1,000 threshold. Then all required campaign statements must be filed. In the 99th District to replace Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, Republican Roger Hauck recently filed a statement of organization on Jan. 19, 2016. So, during the reporting period, he did not have any contributions or expenditures. Democrat Bryan Mielke, who is attempting a second run for the 99th District, received $16,801.46 in contributions during the period against $697.29 in expenditures. He has no loans and his ending balance is $21,405.23. Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, who is serving his first term in the senate, raised $8250 during the period and accumulated $7,034.83 in expenditures, leaving him a balance of $24,459.08. Stamas is not up for reelection this year, since the term for a state senator is four years. If he chooses to run again, he would seek reelection for his second and final term in 2018. The Bill Schuette for Attorney General committee, received $230,623.21 during the period. Schuette, who will be term limited in 2016 as attorney general, is expected to run for governor in 2018, had $16,910.76 in expenditures, leaving him with a balance of $404,217.03. For complete campaign finance report information for state candidates, visit http://bit.ly/1USbHnm. At the national level, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, was required to file his year-end statement for the period of Oct. 1, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2015. The first term representative garnered $210,998.38 in net contributions against $74,421.31 in expenditures giving him a cash on hand of $226,711.67. To view Moolenaars complete year end report, visit http://1.usa.gov/1T46bAi. To the editor: This is the clothing we would like to purchase for our children but cant afford, shared a mother. Many other positive comments were heard from the parents selecting clothing for their school children at the 2015 Community Christmas Closet in December. A total of 1,510 school children from 755 families living in or attending school in Midland County received clothing. In addition, more than 50 sets of clothing were packaged for emergencies in the foster care program. Ninety-three volunteers assisted. An Aldersgate United Methodist Church Group helped with the mailing of the appointment cards. Ten members of the Midland High Key Club and their advisor set up the store. Members of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Churchs Adult Outreach and Aldersgate United Methodist Church participated as shopping assistants. Local knitters including Hands of Hope from Homer United Methodist Church, Material Mart Quilters and Auburn Baptist Church donated items. Dr. Kay Gable, DDS, provided toothbrushes. In addition to financial support from individuals, service clubs and churches, grants were received from: Alden and Vada Dow Family Foundation, George Rockwell Memorial Endowment Fund at the Midland Area Community Foundation, Charles J. Strosacker Foundation, Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Midland Rotary Community Needs, Blessed Sacrament Christian Service Funding Committee and St. Johns Episcopal Church Endowment Fund. Special thanks to the Great Lakes Bay Area retailers, especially Midland JC Penney, K-Mart, Kohls and Walmart stores. Walmart donated bags. On behalf of all of our families, we thank the Midland community for making the festive experience possible. LORI JACKSON ANN OCONNELL Co-Chairs 2015 Community Christmas Closet Midland County and sheriffs office deputies named in a wrongful death suit have filed an answer in the case, citing affirmative defenses including the reasonable use of force. The answer, filed Jan. 28, is in response to the suit alleging the use of extreme excessive force filed in the U.S. District Court in Bay City by Sharyl Marden, representing the estate of her deceased husband, Jack Brian Marden. Her attorneys are Jules B. Olsman and Randy J. Wallace of Berkley. Listed as defendants in the suit are Midland County, and various Midland County Sheriffs Office deputies Lt. Jeffery Derocher, Brian Keidel, Richard Speich, Joshua Michael Saylor, Capt. Rich Harnois and Bryan Kryzanowicz. They are being represented by attorney Patrick A. Aseltyne of Lansing. The suit states Marden, 56, was arrested on a warrant on Feb. 4, 2015 and taken to the Midland County Jail. The warrant was for an incident that occurred on Jan. 19, 2015 at the Mardens home, when Marden claimed to have overdosed on Valium, and was walking with a knife and asked the responding officers to shoot him. He was Tased and taken to MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland for a psychiatric evaluation after he was taken into custody that day. Upon his admission to the jail on Feb. 4, 2015, deputies obtained a medical history from Marden, including information about cardiac stents, coronary artery disease, and that he had suffered a cerebral aneurysm four years prior to his incarceration. The suit details events that occurred at the Midland County Jail on Feb. 11, 2015 after Marden was removed from his cell to be interviewed by representatives of Community Mental Health. Shortly after the interview began, a CMH staffer informed a deputy that Marden was agitated and requested to be returned to his cell. Marden refused to enter his cell, and was placed inside by deputies, as CMH staff made arrangements for him to be taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. Once he was inside his cell, Mardens behavior escalated including taking off his jail jumpsuit and wiping soiled toilet paper on his shoulders and back and the jails CERT team was dispatched. The team entered the cell, along with Derocher, and Marden was forced to the ground to allow a nurse to administer an injection to calm him down for transportation to a hospital, the answer states. When Derocher attempted to hold Mardens head, kneeling over him, Marden grabbed his testicles. Derocher struck Marden when Marden refused Derochers order to cease squeezing, pulling and twisting his testicles, the answer states. Marden then moved his mouth as though he planned to spit on Derocher, so a spit mask was placed on Marden and he was put into a restraint chair, the answer states. During the incident, Derocher heard Mardens breathing become labored and summoned medical assistance. Marden lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, where he was found to be in acute cardiac pulmonary arrest. He died on Feb. 13, 2015. Sharyl Marden filed under the Michigan Wrongful Death Act, as well as claims the defendants violated various Constitutional rights including the right to be free from the use of excessive force, and cruel and unusual punishment, as well as state law claims. She asks for an award of damages in excess of $75,000 for each of two counts listed in the suit. The answer denies the actions of the deputies led to Mardens death, or that his Constitutional rights were violated. Also denied is a state claim for assault and battery. It goes on to list affirmative defenses including the plaintiffs damages were caused by the actions of the decedent, immunity granted by law, and the force used by the officers in subduing Marden was reasonable under the circumstances. JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - More than 100 Airmen and four aircraft assigned to the 168th Air Refueling Wing returned to the frozen tundra on Feb. 2 after a one-month deployment to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in support of the Pacific Command Theater mission. The unit was assigned to the 506th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron to provide aerial refueling to aircraft flying over the Western Pacific as part of the continuing U.S. air power mission in the region. This was an excellent deployment for the 168th as it specifically exercised the unit for its mission, said Lt. Col. Buck Smith, 168th Air Refueling Squadron commander. The entire operation was executed flawlessly and validated our ability to deploy and operate as an air mobility unit. The support package included four Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling aircraft, six aircrews, support staff, medical, supply and communications specialists, as well as aircraft maintainers who kept the Truman-era aircraft performing the mission with a 100 percent reliability rate. In recent years, we have annually deployed in support of this particular mission on Andersen Air Force Base; however, this is the first year where weve had a lead role versus support role, explained Smith. We were able to support several high profile missions in-country while seamlessly maintaining our commitment and duty in Alaska. Alaska Air Guardsmen led the way with this Air Expeditionary Force cycle deployment, receiving support from a handful of Guard members from Maine, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee. This deployment was accomplished with 100 percent volunteerism, concluded Smith. Im very proud of what our Guardsmen were able to achieve in Guam. VISAKHAPATNAM (NNS) -- Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, along with senior representatives from more than 50 navies around the world, joined Adm. RK Dhowan, Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, in opening the International Fleet Review Feb. 5 in Visakhapatnam, India. The event is the Indian Navy's premier international engagement for 2016, allowing the host nation an occasion to display its maritime capabilities and the "bridges of friendship" it has built with other maritime nations. During an opening press conference Dhowan told the audience navies and coast guards of the world must work together to keep the world sea lanes safe and secure. "Security stability and safety in the global commons is the responsibility of coastal states and navies of the world," said Dhowan. No one navy can do it by themselves--it is the responsibility of all of us in "white uniforms" to do it together. CNO is on a five-day visit to India, his first since taking office in September. During a stop in New Delhi, he met with key national security officials from across the government of India to discuss strategic relations between the two countries, as well as opportunities for greater security cooperation. "Today, U.S.-India defense ties are strong and continue to grow stronger with each passing engagement. We are two countries with similar values--democratic governments, civilian control of the military, all volunteer forces. There is much that binds our nations and navies together." At a press conference on Tuesday, CNO told reporters that the U.S. has a vested interest in seeing a stable, secure, and peaceful maritime domain to support the global economy, but it cannot do it alone. "We value partners of like-minded countries, such as India," said Richardson. "A close, continuing, and expanding partnership is important for security and stability in Asia and for effectively managing Indian Ocean security in the twenty-first century." In addition to participating in Fleet Review events, while in Visakhapatnam, CNO will meet with Sailors from USS Antietam (CG 54) and USS McCampbell (DDG 85). The two ships are representing the U.S. Navy in the "President's Fleet Review" Saturday. Richardson and other heads of Navy will join Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on the Presidential Yacht as he reviews the International Fleet and observes a 45-aircraft flyover. A central Line of Effort for CNO is to expand and strengthen our network of partners. The visit to India and interactions with Indian and other Navy leaders help to deepen relationships and expand shared maritime interests. When the Kingdom of God comes, Jesus told his 12 disciples, you will sit on thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel (Luke 22:30b). Did Jesus really say those words? Some scholars doubt it: How is it possible, they argue, that Jesus could teach his disciples that they should be humble and never be judgmental -- and then turn around and tell them they would sit on thrones, judging Israel? How could he have said anything so politically incorrect? Apparently he did, however, and also told the 12 that even the least in the Kingdom of God would be greater than anyone who had ever been born (Luke 7:28) -- words that must have delighted them, for soon they were arguing with one another about which of them would be the greatest when Gods Kingdom came to earth (Mark 9:34)! Indeed, two of them, the fishermen brothers James and John, even went so far as to take Jesus aside and ask him whether, when he came into his glory, they could have the seats of honor at his right and at his left (10:37). Can we blame them? If Jesus had said those words to us, wouldnt we too have become self-interested in greatness? But as soon as the other 10 found out what the two brothers had tried to do -- get the best enthronements for themselves -- severe anger and jealousy broke out among the 12. So Jesus called them to him and spoke solemn words: You know that among the nations, people try to get the best of one another and rule over one another. But it is not to be like that among you. Among you, whoever would be great must be your servant, and whoever would be first must be slave of all. (Mark 10:43,44) Why? his followers must have asked. Why should we have to become servants, even slaves, to one another? Because, Jesus said, even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (10:45) A question: Once Jesus said those words, how could the dictatorial rule of kings and politicians have continued to exist on earth? Or the legalized subordination of women? Or institutional slavery? Or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, age? Shouldnt the enthronement on the cross have ended all such wrongs? BLOOMINGTON A national used car retailer has opened its Bloomington store with donations to The Baby Fold and the Childrens Discovery Museum. CarMax company spokeswoman Beth Singer said CarMax donated $5,000 to the museum in celebration of the store's opening at 1219 Holiday Drive. The grant will go toward a program to educate 1,000 low-income youth by partnering with after-school programs to offer free science, technology, engineering, art and math programming. CarMax also donated $2,500 to The Baby Fold, a Normal-based child care agency that provides residential treatment and therapy to children and families in 22 Illinois counties. We are thrilled to celebrate the grand opening of the Bloomington CarMax by giving back to the community where we live and work, said Gabriel Kohn, general manager of the Bloomington store. We look forward to developing relationships with community partners and providing our customers with the unique CarMax experience. Both donations were recommendations of Bloomington CarMax associates, Singer said. A spokeswoman earlier said the local store would employ about 20 people. The 7,000-square-foot store is in a new $2.5 million facility at the site of the former Clarion Hotel. Showroom hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. The service department is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The phone number is 309-661-1350. CHARLESTON The "Fund EIU" rally in support of state funding for higher education drew hundreds of people to the Library Quad this afternoon. Eastern Illinois University President David Glassman has said some 200 layoffs soon will be issued, and furlough time is in the offing for other EIU employees, due to the failure of State of Illinois lawmakers to pass a budget. That has kept universities across the state from receiving funding. The state has been stalled on the budget that was supposed to be in place last July. Before the rally, one local lawmaker said he was stopped from speaking at the event. State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, issued the following statement in response to being barred from publicly speaking at the event on campus: I am deeply disappointed in the decision made by the organizer of this rally to not allow me to address the rally. I am Eastern Illinois Universitys representative in the Illinois Senate and a proud alum, as well. I am also the sponsor of legislation that would fund universities, community colleges, and MAP grants for students. "Despite the organizers' decision, I will nevertheless attend the rally, and continue to work for and support any meaningful efforts to fund all of higher education. The rally began at 4 p.m. on campus in the Library Quad. Organizer Kate Klipp told the JG-TC at 2:45 p.m. the event was focused on the university's students. She said only one politician was to speak at the rally, and that person was to address MAP grant funding. "It's not designed to be a campaign stomping ground," Klipp said. She also said Righter's proposed legislation to fund higher education in Illinois "unreasonable." Contacted by the JG-TC on Friday, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner blamed the budget impasse on Democrats. The governor cares deeply about the fiscal health of all of state universities," Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement issued Friday afternoon. "The fact remains that EIU could be funded tomorrow if the Democrats in the legislature supported HB 4539/SB 2349. "That bill would fund MAP grants, community colleges and all of Illinois public universities while giving the governor the authority to respond to an unbalanced budget by reallocating funds and reducing spending in a number of ways," Kelly said. In turn, a leading Democrat put the blame on Rauner's doorstep. The Senate approved state support for Eastern Illinois University and other state schools," said Cullerton spokesman John Patterson, referring to a spring budget that Democrats passed and Rauner nixed. "It was Governor Rauner who eliminated that support with his veto and caused this impasse. We would hope he would reconsider his opposition to funding these state schools and make education a priority. BLOOMINGTON It can be hard to keep track of the constant tweeting, posting, snapping, liking and pinning done by teens. There is a multitude of social media apps teens can access now. It seems they are using something new every five minutes, said Andrea Parker, assistant principal at Bloomington High School. The key for parents and schools is to stay educated on the new and popular apps. Concern over teen access to social media has risen after a 13-year-old Virginia girl, Nicole Lovell, left her home in the middle of the night and was killed last week. Lovell supposedly used multiple social media apps as a distraction from being bullied in school. Her alleged killer is 18-year-old Virginia Tech freshman, David Eisenhauer, whom she met through the instant messaging app, Kik. Text messaging is no longer the only form of communication by smartphone users. Pew Research Center has found that 33 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 use instant messaging apps like Kik and WhatsApp. There are many social media sites out there. Some are used for positive activities like connecting with friends. Unfortunately, some of those same sites can be used inappropriately, said Cindy Helmers, assistant superintendent at District 87. The Pew study also found 71 percent of teens use more than one social media site, with the most popular being Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Vine. With so many apps at their fingertips, teen safety can be hard for schools and parents to monitor. Most schools have rules when it comes to social media platforms; the technology departments at Unit 5 and District 87 buildings block certain social media websites to limit use in school. Were making changes to our policies due to a state law regarding student privacy on social media accounts," said Curt Richardson, Unit 5 director of human resources and district attorney. "The law says we cannot require students to give school officials their account passwords, but we can require the student give access if we are investigating a case of misconduct. Social media is just as popular in junior high school as it is in high school, said Trevor Chapman, principal at Evans Junior High School. We have sent notices to families updating them on new, popular sites and apps, as well as what to look for on these sites," said Chapman. "We have to partner with parents to keep kids safe. Erin Everly is a licensed clinical social worker at Elliott Counseling in Normal. She said many teens hide their social media accounts from parents because they may be trying to hide a part of their life. They could be hiding feelings about a romantic break up, a fight, experimenting with drugs, sexual activity or sharing suggestive pictures, said Everly. Using social media apps like Kik provides users complete anonymity. Teens are more aggressive with what they say when there is a screen between the victim and themselves, said Everly. To ensure online safety, Everly says parents can set up parental controls on electronics, ask teens to charge all electronics in the kitchen at night and not allow teens to set passwords on devices. PEORIA A Chatsworth man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for distributing child pornography. Daniel Craver, 56, also was ordered on Thursday to remain on supervised release for 10 years following his release from prison; he will be required to register as a sex offender at that time. Craver pleaded guilty on Oct. 14 in U.S. District Court in Peoria. According to court documents, he was identified after the FBI learned a computer located at his residence was used to download and share files containing child pornography. The FBI executed a search warrant in April, when Craver admitted he accessed child pornography with the computer in his living room and traded and distributed the images and videos using a peer-to-peer file sharing program, according to a news release Friday from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois. A forensic examination of the seized items revealed the presence of 665 images and 103 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, said the office. Craver has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest a year ago. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Hanna prosecuted the case; the East Peoria Police Department also was involved in the investigation. EUREKA Ronald Reagan's former campaign manager expects a donnybrook all the way in this year's presidential primaries, with Illinois likely to be a very critical part of this with its March 15 primary election. Fox News political analyst Ed Rollins, a former Reagan aide and national campaign director in 1984, spoke with reporters Friday at Reagan's alma mater, Eureka College. Rollins was the scheduled speaker Friday night at the Reagan Birthday Dinner sponsored by The Ronald W. Reagan Society of Eureka College. Ronald Reagan would be appalled at the tone of this campaign, said Rollins, noting the 11th commandment coined by another California politician: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. He never said a derogatory word about another another candidate, Rollins said of Reagan. It was never personal. That's one of the things lacking in today's politics, he said: the ability to differ on issues but remain civil and work with the other side. No one's ever called names like they have in this campaign, Rollins said. Although "the herd is going to get thinned out very quick after the New Hampshire primary, he expects the battle for the nomination to remain hotly contested. I don't think there's any sure winner on either side, Rollins said. He expects Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to remain for the long haul, noting, They all have money. Others, such as John Kasich, may also remain, he said. He described Trump as a phenomenon and likened his candidacy to that of Ross Perot, for whom Rollins worked for several months in 1992 campaign. It's riding a bucking bronco, Rollins said of running such a campaign. You just hang on. ...You're not going to control Donald Trump. On the Democratic side, Rollins said Hillary Clinton has plenty of knowledge and experience and she knows how the White House functions the good, the bad and the ugly. But to win, she needs to overcome a credibility gap and regain the young voters who have flocked to Bernie Sanders, according to Rollins. Cable television's 24/7 coverage and the rise of social media also have changed out campaigns are run, he said. Comments that might not have been seen in the past now are picked up by 6 million people on Twitter, he noted. But there is still a need to do grassroots campaigning finding out who your voters are, communicating with them and getting them to the polls on election day. One reason non-traditional candidates such as Trump are gaining traction is because there are a lot of angry voters out there, Rollins said. We're now in an environment where people don't want the experienced people, Rollins said. People want someone who's not part of the system. BLOOMINGTON A recommendation to suspend a Bloomington lawyer for 90 days for professional misconduct has been extended to a one-year recommendation in a decision by a state review board. In its August recommendation, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission said Mark D. Johnson should be sanctioned in connection with a 2009 Warren County incident in which he allegedly assisted a client in criminal acts. The ARC recommended Johnson be suspended from serving as a lawyer for 90 days and he complete a professional seminar. Admitted to practice law in 1993, Johnson is managing director of Johnson Law Group. He can continue to practice law until a ruling is entered by the Illinois Supreme Court, the final decision-maker in disciplinary matters. Johnson and the ARDC administrator both filed exceptions to the recommendation, with Johnson seeking a shorter suspension, and the ARDC administrator asking for a one-year suspension. In its Jan. 26, recommendation, the ARDC Review Board found that Johnson did not recognize his misconduct and "did not show any remorse for his conduct or for the adverse effects it had upon others and the legal profession." In its August decision, the ARDC found that Johnson went with a group of men into private property without permission to remove property as part of Johnson's representation of a man involved in a dispute with a former business partner. The Bloomington lawyer deceived law enforcement officials in Warren County into believing he had legal authority for his actions, according to the ARDC. The Review Board agreed with the ARDC that mitigating factors should be considered in determining the appropriate sanction for Johnson, including his military service and pro bono work with Prairie State Legal Services. Johnson and the ARDC administrator can ask the Illinois Supreme Court to review the one-year suspension recommendation. The court may hear arguments from both sides before making a ruling that could include acceptance of the Review Board's recommendation or its own determination. The case could also be sent back to the ARDC for further consideration. Johnson's attorney Brendan Bukalski said Friday that "we are confident the Supreme Court will make the just decision in our case, and, no matter what that decision is, whether that be no suspension at all or something else, we will continue to always represent our clients in an aggressive manner to get them the best results." Rapper Meek Mill was sentenced to at minimum 90 days of house arrest where he will be required to wear an ankle bracelet following violating his probation, TMZ reports. During the 90 days, Mill will not be allowed to work unless it is is charitable work for the community. Note, this does not include dissing Drake. Mills girlfriend Nicki Minaj was in court. During that hearing, Meek told the judge, Im not a gangsta. Im not a criminal. I have my queen, Nicki now. Im trying to do better and feel like I can be the best rapper out there. Mill has been on probation since 2009 following a drug and gun conviction. He violated his probation when he left Philadelphia for the AMAs in November without getting written permission from his probation officer. After 90 days, the judge will decide how much longer he will be under house arrest. Prior to sentencing, Mill donated to Flint, handed out hoagies to the homeless and did arts and crafts with veterans, according to NPRs Bobby Allyn. The Choice marks the 11th film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, a prolific filmography that began with the Kevin Costner/Robin Wright weeper Message in a Bottle (1999) and peaked with The Notebook (2004; Noah and Allie forever!). As far as non-Sparksian movies go, his latest offering is melodramatic, corny and wholly predictable. But if we were to measure The Choice on a scale which is only used to measure other Sparks films, The Choice is par for the course, pandering as ever to a built-in audience. A more-than-gushy romance, it remains watchable only because, like any other piece of Sparks-ian fare, it features two leads who project a believable, committed chemistry. Although the films directed by Ross Katz (Adult Beginners) and written by Bryan Sipe, who also wrote the upcoming Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal, its Sparks imprint thats most palpable. The author, also one of the films producers, is at this point just a crowd-pleasing, maudlin mill, churning out any number of stories with any number of similarities between entries. As such, The Choice begins with an antiseptic world thats mostly populated by Abercrombie & Fitch models who live in a picturesque town where white picket fences and Instagrammable sunsets abound. Rain only serves to help usher in romantic plot points. Sparks sets the decade-long love story in his home state of North Carolina, where Travis (Benjamin Walker) is a veterinarian working in practice with his widower dad (Tom Wilkinson). Travis seems happy playing the field, riding around in his boat and barbecuing with friendsuntil he meets his plucky next-door neighbor, Gabby (Teresa Palmer). Theyre opposites, and if you didnt get that immediately through the verbal sparring, the music cues at the meet-cute reinforce their personalities as he blasts Guster and she plays Bachs Cello Suites while studying for her med school boards. Also, theyre forced to deal with each other because of the impending birth of puppies by Gabbys dog, Molly. (Nopethats what happens.) As in The Notebook, the female lead has a serious boyfriend Ryan (Tom Welling), a rich doctor from the other side of town, and Travis has Monica, an on/off girlfriend, but neither of those relationships refer to the choice in the films title. Both Ryan and Monica step aside rather easily, and theres no real or messy ramifications to cheating in Sparks worldbecause LOVE. Without spoiling the plot, Gabbys and Traviss decade-long relationship is tested in ways that only God or some higher power can fix. Its a head scratching decision by the filmmakers, however, to give away the choice within the first five minutes, as one of the characters arrives at the hospital with flowers for a recurring visit. Katz does an adequate job with the films direction, including a fair amount of pristine beach shots and sunsets/sunrises over the Carolina coast. Meanwhile, Walker, who oozes Traviss good ol Southern boy charm, and Palmer, who plays a smart and feisty Gabby, keep The Choice grounded despite the startlingly soap opera-ish twists the couple faces. Other characters, especially Traviss friends, are one-dimensional and inconsequential, existing only to show that Travis can be loyal to the core and to comment on his prowess with the ladies (although we really only see Monica before Gabby). Other characters fare a little better, especially Maggie Grace as Traviss omniscient sister. Grace has an easy-going charm in front of the camera, though her character mainly serves as Traviss foil. The reliable Wilkinson manages to rise above the pabulum, too, though hes miscast here as a full-time vet and part-time Southern preacher. And yet, none of this matters. There are ten films to come before, and there will most likely be ten films to come. Nothing will stop the Sparks. Director: Ross Katz Writers: Bryan Sipe, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks Starring: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Maggie Grace, Alexandra Daddario, Tom Welling, Brett Rice, and Tom Wilkinson Release Date: February 5, 2016 Christine N. Ziemba is a Los Angeles-based freelance pop culture writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow her on Twitter. Two equally obnoxious caricatures squabble and sulk until they finally see the lovey-dovey light in Tumbledown, a contrived indie rom-com that has the distinction of making the charming Rebecca Hall and amusing Jason Sudeikis thoroughly unlikable. Sean Mewshaws film concerns a New York City professor and writer named Andrew (Sudeikis) who travels to Maine to work with Hannah (Hall) on a joint biography about her deceased husband, who released a classic album of stripped-down Nick Drake-ish folk ballads before his untimely death. What follows is little more than a series of cliches, from the tales dreary urban-vs.-rural dynamics, to its collection of kooky friends and relatives, to one characters climactic race to stop another character from leaving because they finally realize that true love cant be denied, and that you have to seize precious opportunities for happiness. Also, a dog farts in Sudeikis face. Theres isnt an original or authentic moment to be found in Mewshaws film, which operates from the initially repellent characterization of Hannah as a hermit-like widow clinging so tightly to the past that she spends her days hanging out by her spouses tombstone; she rejects the obvious fact that he committed suicide (she contends he just slipped while hiking on a favorite mountain trail in the middle of the night), and opts for casual sex with a hunky hunter (Joe Manganiello) instead of seeking a serious relationship. Hannahs obstinate refusal to move on is supposed to be both endearingly cute and poignant, but it comes across as merely off-putting, marking her as a pathetic, emotionally recalcitrant shut-in whose only goal in life is to lay sole, permanent claim to her husbands memory. On the evidence of his tunes, Hannahs spouse was a generic coffee shop-grade crooner, and thus undeserving of the musical-genius adulation he receives from both Hannah and Andrew. That unavoidable fact goes a long way toward undercutting Tumbledowns central conceit, in which Andrewwho teaches pop culture classes at Hofstra about Biggie Smalls and what it means to hinge your street cred on your own mortal evanescencedecides to abandon his NYC girlfriend (Dianna Agron) to stay with Hannah to write about the artist. Everyone in the film seems to be making much ado out of not-very-much, which is almost as intolerable as the culture-clash comedic scenarios devised for Andrew by director Mewshaw and writer Desiree Van Til. A big word-flaunting academic who arrives in this backwater enclave on a motorcycle, Andrew gets to spar with Manganiellos nature boy, pal around with Hannahs colorful book store owner friend (Griffin Dunne), make an ass of himself in front of Hannahs mother (a gratingly flustered Blythe Danner) and father (Richard Masur), and be mocked by cartoonish country folk for being what he is: a smug urban know-it-all. Tumbledown spends an inordinate amount of time having Hannah and Andrew engage in odd-couple bickering, as well as fawn over anecdotes, journals and long-lost recordings of Hannahs husband. Consequently, the protagonists are forced to follow a formulaic pathin which antagonism slowly gives way to amour, then romance-threatening complications, then happily-ever-after reconciliationwhile simultaneously prattling on about the greatness of Hannahs dead spouse. The effect is both unseemly and preposterous, and made all the more ridiculous by the idea that the best way for Hannah to get on with her life is to shack up with a smarmy egotistical intellectual who worshipped her hubby as much as she did. Sudeikis works overtime trying to make Andrews sarcastic haughtiness and wink-wink self-deprecation amusing, but the character is insufferable from the start. Hall, meanwhile, is stuck embodying such a tired typea woman whos messy, damaged, essentially good-hearted, and lacking any self-awarenessthat theres no verve to the performance, just a series of mannered tics and poses borrowed from superior rom-coms. The same can be said about Tumbledown as a whole, especially during a conclusion that so diligently embraces its genres stalest trope that its not clear if the filmmakers mean for it to play as parodyor if they simply ran out of ideas. Director: Sean Mewshaw Writer: Desiree Van Til Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Rebecca Hall, Joe Manganiello, Griffin Dunne, Blythe Danner, Richard Masur, Dianna Agron Release Date: February 5, 2016 According to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service, the smartphone shipments in India grew a healthy 15% annually in Q4 2015. During CY 2015, Indian smartphone shipments grew 23% Year-over-Year to cross the 100 Million unit milestone. India's Smartphone user base grew to 220 Million users by end of 2015 surpassing USA for the first time ever. Apple's CEO Tim Cook noted during the Q&A session of their latest financial conference call that Apple would be opening more stores in China going from 28 to 40 by the end of this summer. While Apple has been focusing on China for growth wisely, they're now beginning to look to India as their next mass market target. Applauding the economic reforms unveiled by India, CEO Tim Cook also noted during their conference call that the world's third largest smartphone market presents a "very good business environment" going forward and that India was "quickly becoming the fastest growing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) country." More importantly, Cook noted: "I think of the China age being young, at 36, 37 and so 27 (median age in India) is unbelievable. Almost half the people in India are below 25. And so I see the demographics there also being incredibly great for a consumer brand and for people who really want the best products." While we posted a report late last month titled "Apple Breaks iPhone Sales Record in India in Q4,"Apple's total iPhone shipments in 2015 only hit 1.7 million units in a country that just crossed the 100 million mark. Apple was simply lost in the "Others" category in the top smartphone vendors list presented above. In 2014 we reported that the Indian Government denied Apple's application to build Apple Stores in their country due to unbending outdated regulations. Through a series of direct talks ending with Cook meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last September, Apple is now on the fast track to building new Apple Stores in India this year. Cook specifically mentioned that they would be building in India during his opening statement of Apple's financial conference call Apple has a hard battle ahead in India where smartphone prices are extremely low. Yet with Apple Stores on the way, Apple will finally be able to show Indian consumers what their brand is really all about with top service, training sessions and a phenomenal retail experience bar none. Apple will also be adding a new iPhone model to their line-up as early as next month that could help them in all markets, but especially in BRIC countries like India. If Apple is able to open a series of new flagship stores in India's most populated cities (Mumbai 16, 368,000; Kolkata 13,217,000; Delhi 12,791,000; and Chennai 6,425,000) by sometime this summer, then Apple's new iPhone 7 line-up is bound to sell in volumes never seen before and finally get them on India's top five smartphone vendor chart for the first time. It'll most definitely be interesting to see the top vendors list for 2016 and 2017 as Apple focuses on its next mass market, India. 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. France and Iran Are Back to Business 02/06/16 By Emma Scott (source: LobeLog) After a decade of wrangling over the nuclear program, President Rouhani found himself in Italy and France last week in search of business in the automotive, transportation, hydrocarbon, and industrial sectors. That Rouhani choose to visit Paris over any other European capital underlines the fact that Franco-Iranian relations go much deeper than the past decade of haggling over Irans uranium enrichment levels. French President Francois Hollande shakes hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Elysee Palace in Paris, Jan. 28, 2016 (photo by Islamic Republic News Agency) France was often portrayed as adopting the hardest line on Irans nuclear program. But when it came to the July 2015 deadline for reaching a final agreement, France was the country that had most shifted its negotiating position: from a position of zero enrichment to 3.67 percent, as the July accord allowed. More than just adopting a hard-line stance on non-proliferation, France was perhaps more perturbed that Iran wanted an industrial-sized program because that would make Iran an industrial middle-sized power equivalent to France. If Iran did ever opt for the bomb, it would then become another contender for a prestigious seat on the UN Security Council. Yet, France was also the country among the P5+1 (France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Russia, and China) with at least some historical familiarity with Irans nuclear ambitions. In 1974, France committed to selling Iran two Westinghouse civilian nuclear power stations. It also promised to help Iran supply the fuel for its reactors via the construction of a uranium enrichment plant, to be managed by the European consortium Eurodif, on the site of the Tricastin nuclear power plant in the south of France. Irans Shah had loaned $1 billion to France in exchange for a 10% share of Eurodif, which would permit Iran to buy enriched uranium once the Tricastin factory came into operation in 1981. But on coming to power in Iran, the new government of the Islamic Republic denounced the nuclear cooperation with France, suspended payments in process, and claimed reimbursement of the Eurodif loan. That was the start of a decades long dispute in Franco-Iranian relations. Although the dispute was resolved in 1991, Irans capital gains from the deal were later frozen under UN Security Council Resolution 1727 (2006). Eurodif was closed indefinitely in 2012, which would seemingly bring closure to the dispute. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), specifically Annex III, now allows for cooperation between the P5+1 and Iran in different areas of civil nuclear cooperation. Thus, on January 28, French President Francois Hollande and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani discussed the prospect of cooperation in the field of nuclear security. As outlined in the JCPOA, this cooperation could include the implementation of nuclear security guidelines and best practices and training courses and workshops to strengthen Irans ability to prevent, protect, and respond to nuclear security threats, including sabotage to nuclear facilities and systems. That tone certainly differs from the days of CIA attempts to feed Iran falsified nuclear documents as well as Israeli espionage and assassinations. Why the French Shift? Before the deal, France sided with its long-time ally Israel, but there was little either country could do to stop Irans nuclear program without assistance from the Americans. That said, having opposed the Iraq war and in view of the current chaos across the Middle East region, France did not favor going to war with Iran. In 2003, Frances minister of foreign affairs, having made the gamble to negotiate with Iran, led the E3 (France, the United Kingdom, and Germany) to Tehran. The French objective, as stated in Le Monde, was to show that it was possible to address the issue of weapons of massive destruction, the pretext for intervention in Iraq, by means other than war. Thus, the only option under these conditions seemed to be to accept Irans nuclear ambitions and welcome its return to the international community. That was certainly the message that Rouhanis honorable reception in the French capital communicated last week. Beyond that, French industry was strongly opposed to the sanctions against Iran, which had shrunk Frances share of the Iranian market from 7 percent in 2004 to just 1 percent in 2014. French oil company Total, operating under Irans buy-back contracts, pulled out in 2010 under tightening US sanctions. French auto manufacturer Peugeot, in an alliance with General Motors, could not accept being excluded from the US market. It subsequently suffered plant shutdowns. Additionally, French carmaker Renault, in a joint venture with Irans two main auto manufacturers, suffered profit and job losses. BNP Paribas is perhaps the most well-known case. Prior to agreeing to an $8.9 billion settlement with the U.S. justice system for sanctions violations, and describing the fine as unreasonable, both Francois Hollande and Laurent Fabius intervened with an unsuccessful attempt to defend French interests-since business, after all, is business! Undoubtedly, France was glad to see the lifting of sanctions come Implementation Day in January. As Gerard Araud said in a sitting at the Atlantic Councils Iran Task Force before the historic July deal: We made the sacrifice of the sanctions, we lost a lot of money because of the sanctions, not the Americans because they were not anymore on the Iranian market. French and Iranian political leaders attempted to return to a business-as-usual agenda last week. But French banks remain wary, and the two countries have their political differences as well. Moving on after the Iraq War Speaking during a joint press conference with President Rouhani, on the occasion of the January visit, French President Hollande said he had asked the two countries foreign ministers to prepare a memorandum on the conflicts in the Middle East. For the better part of three decades, France and Iran have been on opposite ends of conflicts in the Middle East. Although Paris maintained good relations with Iran during the Shahs reign, come the establishment of the Islamic Republic, relations quickly became strained. Part of the problem was due to the fallout over nuclear cooperation, but there was also Frances ongoing arms support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. In the 1970s, France had maintained a close commercial and arms relationship with Saddam Hussein. When the Iran-Iraq war broke out in 1980, and under pressure from Frances industrial lobby, France under the socialist government of Francois Mitterand sided with Saddam. In 1984, with Saddams regime no longer capable of honoring its debt and under criticism of the international community for using chemical weapons, France began seeing Iraq as a troublesome ally. France subsequently announced a rebalancing of its foreign policy toward the two belligerents and refused to conclude any new arms contracts with Saddam. Although France was glad to see the end of the war, and subsequently participated in the 1991 coalition to liberate Kuwait from Saddams forces, his eventual removal in 2003 led to the current situation in which both France and Iran are effectively fighting on the same side against the Islamic State in Iraq today. Both France and Iran view terrorism as a threat to their national security, and that was the message underlined in the January roadmap to reinforce bilateral cooperation. The first negotiations under the premiership of Laurent Fabius with an eye toward normalizing relations between France and Iran began in 1984 when the IRGC took 60 hostages on an Air France Airbus in Tehran and threatened to kill them if Anis Naccache and his accomplishes were not freed from French prison. Anis Naccache was a Lebanese militant who, under the supposed direction of Ayatollah Khomeini, attempted to assassinate Shapour Bakhtiar, the Shahs prime minister living in exile in France, but in the process killed a policeman and a civilian. With the Iran-Iraq war ended, Anis Naccache was eventually granted a presidential pardon by Mitterand and liberated in 1990. Trouble in Lebanon and Syria In response to Irans support for Saddam, Iran through Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad had also begun targeting French interests in Lebanon, a former French mandate. Notably, the Beirut Barracks bombings of 1983 killed 58 French marines and 242 Americans, the principal symbols of the Western presence in Lebanon. In addition, between 1985 and 1986, some 13 French journalists, diplomats and civilians were taken hostage in what became known as the Lebanese hostage crisis. Tehran was also accused of carrying out a campaign of terrorist attacks on French soil, which left 13 dead and 300 injured. Its no surprise therefore that during the Hollande-Rouhani joint press conference, Hollande referred to Lebanon. He said that France and Iran have a role there to preserve Lebanons integrity and stop the institutional vacuum. This discourse differs from the direct confrontations that took place during the 1980s, but it also underlines the current differences between the two. Holland was of course referring to the presidential vacuum ongoing in Beirut since May 25, 2014 because Lebanons various political factions have failed to reach the parliamentary majority needed to elect a leader. Lebanon is divided along sectarian lines between two main political blocs. The Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition is close to Tehran, while the rival March 14 camp-a Sunni majority bloc led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri-is close to Riyadh. Saudi Arabia for its part recently gave a grant of $3 billion to Lebanon to purchase French weapons with the aim of strengthening the Lebanese armed forces. Iran, however, provides military and financial support to Hezbollah, which the EU has classified since 2011 as a terrorist organization. France and Iran also have opposing views on Syrias civil war. Where France had adamantly maintained that Bashar al-Assad should be removed from power during a political transition and has supported the development of a Syrian opposition, both Iran and Hezbollah have supported Assad militarily and financially. Iran further maintains that it is the decision of the Syrian people not of outside powers to decide the fate of Assad. Thus, Frances position is often linked to that of Saudi Arabia and its NATO ally Turkey in the Syrian conflict because they also want Assad removed. But for France, in contrast to Iran, fighting terrorism does not seem as much of a priority, although the French government wants to stem the flow of jihadi fighters from Syrian to French soil. Reorienting French Gulf Policy? During the press conference, Hollande also underlined Frances friendly relations with Saudi Arabia. Last year, France signed $12 billion of deals with the Saudis, including contracts for 23 Airbus helicopters used for emergency services and border controls. But Irans deal with Airbus last month for 118 planes was valued at $25 billion alone. We may yet see a reorientation of French foreign policy as France today is first and foremost concerned with fighting the war on terror at home, and then with resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is having repercussions in French society due its large Arab population. The French do not, meanwhile, view Iran as a threat domestically. But France has also voiced its support for Saudi Arabias intervention in Yemen. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that France was naturally on the side of its regional partners. In view of Frances traditional alliances, therefore, it remains to be seen how France and Iran will find common interests in conflicts across the wider Middle East. Like the US, after the nuclear deal, France may be concerned with maintaining some semblance of a balance of power between the Gulfs two regional rivals, Iran and Saudi Arabia. About the author: Emma Scott is a former assessor and peer reviewer for Transparency Internationals Defense and Security program. She has also written for the Jamestown Foundation. She previously worked as a defense and security analyst on the Middle East and North Africa region with Business Monitor International Research in London, and interned on Iran at the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris. She is also an alumnus of the EU-Middle East Forum of the German Council of Foreign Relations in Berlin. Emma has two research Masters and two post-graduate certificates in geopolitics, conflict, international relations, and similar topics from universities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, and France. UN urges Iran to adopt legal protections for children 02/06/16 Source: Radio Zamaneh The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has called on Iran to reform its laws affecting children, including the execution of minors and discrimination against girls. The committee calls on the Islamic Republic government to address discrimination against girls manifested in "family relations, the criminal justice system, property rights, compensation for physical injury, among others." cartoon by Mohammadreza Saghafi, Iranian daily Shahrvand A UN report issued on January 29 says the committee calls on the Iranian government to engage in "awareness-raising activities with a view to changing patriarchal values and gender stereotypes, which undermine girls' rights." The committee also called for an official end to "the execution of children and persons who committed a crime under the age of 18", rather than merely leaving it to the discretion of a judge not to issue such sentences. It goes on to express grave concern about the provisions of the Islamic Republic Penal Code that deal with "punishment if a murder is committed by a father or a paternal grandfather of the victim" ("crimes committed in the name of so-called honour") and goes on to add that: "In such cases, judges have a full discretion and can even decide to release the perpetrator without any punishment, paving the way for total impunity for killing one's child." The committee also calls on the government to clear the entire territory of all landmines, which continue to maim many children and claim their lives in the war zones of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Iranian Couples Increasingly Living Together Outside of Marriage 02/06/16 Source: Radio Zamaneh First they called it white marriage, now its black coupling. But no matter how Iranian officials choose to denigrate the upward trend of young unmarried couples living together, its bound to grow. Thats because the phenomenon is directly related to socioeconomic disparities between Iranian men and women, a sociologist speaking on the condition of anonymity told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Related Article: Iranian women's magazine shut down for reporting on 'White Marriage' For example, more women are choosing to live with their male partners outside of wedlock because men and women do not have equal status under Iranian law. Most of the conditions contained in marriage contracts are in favor of men, said the sociologist, who specializes in womens studies. Men have more rights regarding divorce, or determining the place of residence, and controlling their wifes travels, education and employment. Iranian men and women are also not exposed to many opportunities to interact with each other during their development due to gender segregation-imposed at the state and familial levels-so white marriages are seen as a way for couples to be together without bureaucratic entanglements. This type of lifestyle allows women and men to enjoy living under one roof together without any complications, especially when official statistics show many marriages end up in divorce, explained the expert. Read related coverage by Iranian daily Shahrvand But the sociologist warned that the governments growing opposition to so-called white marriages could endanger women in Iran, who already have less rights than men under the Islamic Republics constitution. If a woman is attacked by her male partner, she would have no legal protection, the sociologist told the Campaign. Instead she would be asked by the police and judicial authorities about her marital status and if she is not legally married, she will be in a lot of trouble. Since co-habitation outside of wedlock is often kept secret from traditional Iranian parents, women could also become less willing to seek familial support even if they were being subjected to mental and physical abuse by their partners. Under Iranian Sharia law, men and women are required to register their marital union. Those who choose not to do so are considered by the state as living in sin and committing adultery, an offense punishable by death. But more and more young Iranians are choosing to take the risk. Read related coverage by Iranian daily Ghanoon Perceiving the growing trend as a threat to revolutionary ideals, state officials are condemning the lifestyle choice through words and actions.The decline of marriage statistics is a serious threat, and unfortunately, many young people have turned to white marriages, which is a new malady and a serious blow to the family, Seyed Reza Salehi Amir, an advisor to President Rouhani, said on February 1. He added that compared to last year, marriages have declined by 6.5% and divorces have increased by 4.5%. The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the few societies in which the pace of change is very fast and the fast-paced changes are worrisome, he said. The Young Journalists Club, affiliated with the state broadcasting organization, has attributed the rise of unmarried couples to the infiltration of Western freedoms and modernity in Iranian society. The Judiciarys cultural affairs deputy has also urged the media to stop referring to this inauspicious phenomenon as a white marriage and instead call it black coupling. During the summer of 2015 the government announced the implementation of the Stable Family Promotion project in Tehran Province, aimed at combating white marriages that were described as an imported concept incompatible with the harmony and happiness of the Iranian family. Some Iranian academics are meanwhile publicly insulting and shaming women who choose to cohabitate with their partners. Women entering white marriages only last as long as they are young and beautiful, sociologist Amanollah Gharaee Moghaddam told the conservative Entekhab newspaper. After that they will turn into prostitutes, he said. Canada lifts Iran sanctions, to restore ties 02/06/16 Source: Press TV Canada announced on Friday that it is lifting some sanctions against Iran and is also working over the restoration of diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic. The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in a statement that it had amended its "broad-reaching autonomous sanctions against Iran to allow for a controlled economic re-engagement, including lifting the broad ban on financial services, imports and exports." The statement, issued by Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, says the changes announced Friday mean "Canadian companies will now be better positioned to compete with other companies globally." All applications for export permits will be considered on a case-by-case basis, read part of the statement. This is seen by the media as a key step to make Canadian companies more competitive against rivals doing business in Iran. Nevertheless, the country has emphasized that it will continue to maintain tight restrictions on exports to Iran of goods, services and technologies considered sensitive from a security perspective. Foreign Minister Dion has been quoted by the Canadian media as saying on Friday that the country is considering the restoration of diplomatic contacts with Iran, as well. He had said last week that if Airbus is allowed to sell to Iran, then Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier Inc should be allowed to export there as well. The Canadian foreign minister had also said in late January that it will move to quickly normalize relations with Iran and lift the sanctions it has imposed against Tehran in order not to miss the business opportunities that have arisen following the recent implementation of Tehran's landmark nuclear agreement with six world powers. He had emphasized that Ottawa would act "in a speedy fashion" to normalize ties and remove economic sanctions against Iran. Saudi defeat in Syria definite: Iran's IRGC chief 02/06/16 Source: Press TV A top Iranian military commander says a "definite" defeat awaits Saudi Arabia if it sends troops to Syria. Sending troops by Saudi Arabia means a coup de grace for its regime which, of course, is not bad, chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jaafari said on Saturday. IRGC Chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jaafari speaking on Saturday at the funeral of 6 IRGC personnel, including Brigadier-General Mohsen Ghajarian, killed in Syria. (source: (source: Islamic Republic News Agency In a surprise statement broadcast on the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news network on Thursday, a spokesman for the Saudi defense ministry suggested that the kingdom could send troops to Syria. Gen. Jaafari dismissed it as a bluff, saying he didnt think the Saudis would dare to do that because their army is a classical army and history has shown they are incapable of confronting Islams fighters. Such an action will amount to a coup de grace for them which, of course, they apparently see no other choice to avoid but their defeat is definite, he told reporters in Tehran. They are bluffing. But if that happens, we think its not bad from our point of view, Jaafari added. The commander said the decision has been prompted by extensive and repeated defeats of those fighting against the resistance front which has disrupted all their calculations. They thought they could make a score in Syria through supporting and funding (militants) but recent victories of the resistance front disrupted all their plans, Jaafari added. The IRGC chief described recent military achievements in the Syrian province of Aleppo as big which had also made Israel worried. One of the results of these victories was that Turkey and Saudi Arabia abandoned peace negotiations and claimed sending troops to Syria. Coffins of 6 IRGC personnel killed in Syria. (photo by Islamic Republic News Agency) Secretary of Irans Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei warned any Saudi ground troops in Syria would set the entire Middle East, including the kingdom itself, on fire. If the Saudi government, which has a habit of taking insane actions, makes such a move, the whole region, including Saudi Arabia, will burn in fire. However, Iran would be far off from it, he wrote on his Instagram page on Saturday. After Daesh and al-Nusra Front suffered defeat in Iraqs Ramadi and Syrias Aleppo in particular, Saudi Arabia and the United States decided to deploy Saudi soldiers to Syria to save the remaining Takfiris and clash with the Syrian army, Rezaei stated. Rezaei said such a deployment would set the stage for a confrontation between Russia and Syria on one side, and Saudi Arabia and Turkey on the other, a situation which could also drag the US into the conflict and trigger an all-out regional war. On Friday, Pavel Krasheninnikov, the head of the Russian State Duma committee, warned Riyadh that any military ground operation in Syria without the Damascus governments consent would amount to a declaration of war. Saudi Arabia is a member of the so-called US-led coalition that has been conducting air raids against what are claimed to be the Daesh terrorists inside Syria since September 2014. Riyadh, Washington and their allies are staunchly opposed to the Syrian government, providing Takfiri militants with arms and funds to topple President Bashar al-Assad. Here come the Twitter tweaks. Some unnamed sources are telling BuzzFeed(Opens in a new window) that Twitter will introduce a new algorithmic timeline, perhaps as early as next week. Currently, Twitter dumps all the tweets you and your friends post in reverse chronological order. So, you see everythingwhether it's interesting, silly, dumb, spam, whatever. While that's great for those who want every bit of content they can get, it becomes much less useful once your "following" count reaches a certain point. Simply put, there's just too much content for you to really be able to see the things that matter among everything else that's less important. Thus, Twitter's firehose becomes less effective, and you probably feel a little overwhelmed using the service. Twitter fiddled with this formula a bit last year when it added a "While you were away" section to the top of timelines, which highlighted a few of the best tweets that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. An algorithmic timeline, though, would allow Twitter to better police "noise" on people's news feeds, but it could also mean that your friends who post insightful content that's simply not as socially interesting might get buried in the mix. That said, it's unclear how Twitter is going to evaluate content and float the more compelling bits to the top. Will it be based on hearts? Retweets? Your interactions with specific Twitter users, which might suggest that you'd rather see their content more than others? We also don't know if Twitter's switch to an algorithmic timeline will be a permanent replacement to its normal timeline for all users, or whether the companysort of like rival Facebookwill allow its users to pick from either a curated or chronological timeline. As you might expect, some Twitter users don't like the potential change, especially if a algorithmic timeline becomes the default for everyone. "I check Twitter frequently because it is chronological and it's fun/informative during live events - this ruins it," wrote on user. Others followed suit using the #RIPTwitter hashtag. The backlash prompted CEO Jack Dorsey to address the controversy. Hello Twitter! Regarding #RIPTwitter(Opens in a new window): I want you all to know we're always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week. Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016 (Opens in a new window) In a series of other tweets, Dorsey pointed to the "while you were away" feature, which lets you "pull to refresh to go back to real-time." "I *love* real-time. We love the live stream. It's us. And we're going to continue to refine it to make Twitter feel more, not less, live!" he continued. "Twitter can help make connections in real-time based on dynamic interests and topics, rather than a static social/friend graph. We get it." Brandon Carpenter(Opens in a new window), a senior software engineer at the company, was a little more direct. "Seriously people. We aren't idiots. Quit speculating about how we're going to 'ruin Twitter.'" "Wow people on Twitter are mean," he later added. Two days after a Corona police officer shot at an armed man Wednesday, Feb. 3, the incident remains under investigation, authorities said. Keith Bernard Winn, 39, remained in custody Friday on suspicion of three counts of felony child endangerment and one count of misdemeanor possession of an open container of alcohol in a vehicle. His bond is set at $250,000. Riverside County court records show that the Corona man had not been formally charged in relation to the incident by 4 p.m. Friday. The day after Winn was arrested, a request for a temporary restraining order against him was filed. The order would protect an adult and two children. Corona police Sgt. Brett Nelson said the investigation into the alleged child endangerment has been handed to the Riverside County District Attorneys Office, but the investigation into the shooting that followed remains ongoing. The shooting occurred about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday in the 1700 block of Greenview Avenue after a 15-year-old girl called 911 to report domestic violence happening at the house, authorities said. When an officer arrived, Winn was in the garage and armed with a handgun, Corona police Sgt. Paul Mercado said. Police wouldnt release any details about the encounter, other than that it ended with the officer firing at Winn. No one was injured in the shooting, and Winn was arrested. Police have not released the name of the officer, who is a 17-year veteran. Contact the writer: 951-368-9284 or atadayon@pressenterprise.com Twitter: @PE_alitadayon Attorneys for corporate and individual defendants are trying to convince a Riverside County Superior Court judge that there is not enough evidence to show that their conduct individually or collectively led to the July 2010 death of a client at a Murrieta rehabilitation house. In a 4 1/2-hour hearing before Judge Elaine Kiefer on Friday, the defense attorneys raised issues about whether the California Attorney Generals Office in its presentation to a grand jury met the legal requirements to warrant murder and dependent adult abuse charges against the defendants. Both sides agreed that if the prosecution proves its case to a jury, it would be the first time in state history a corporation is held liable for a murder. A Riverside County grand jury in July indicted five current and former employees on allegations of murder and dependent adult abuse in the death of Gary Benefield, 53, of Springerville, Ariz., who arrived at an American Addiction Center-operated Murrieta rehab house and was found dead the next morning. Three corporate entities also were charged: ABTTC, doing business as A Better Tomorrow Treatment Centers; Forterus Inc.; and Forterus Health Care Services Inc. Benefield checked in for alcohol detox, was diagnosed with a heart condition, and chronic obstructive lung disease and was dependent on oxygen, according to court documents. He also was a chain smoker, attorneys said in court. A Riverside County coroners report blamed Benefields death on heart disease, with lung disease a contributing factor. But in testimony before the grand jury, the Attorney Generals Office called witnesses, including a former county coroner administrator, who suggested two drugs administered to Benefield related to the detox effects may have contributed to his death, and possibly a lack of supplemental oxygen. Kristofer Michael McCausland, 33; James Andrew Fent, 52; Mignon Hernandez Dean, 57; and Jerrod Nathan Menz, 43, each have been charged with one count of murder and one count of dependent adult abuse, according to court records. Tami Dawn Scarcella, 43, was charged with abuse of a dependent adult, records showed. The indictment alleges the defendants admitted Benefield under circumstances and conditions likely to produce great bodily harm and death and knowingly allowed him to suffer. The case is being prosecuted by California Deputy Attorney General Joel Samuels, who is with the states Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse in Sacramento. At the Southwest Justice Center hearing in French Valley, Kiefer made reference to the 1,700 pages of grand jury transcripts, and the 1,100 objections defense attorneys have made to the proceedings that the judge must rule on. The motions to throw out the charges, other motions about subpoenas and lack of response in some cases add more than 400 pages she indicated she must review before making a ruling. She gave no indication when she will make a ruling. The case is scheduled to go to trial April 4. Menz, the companys president and a member of the board of directors, voluntarily stepped down in July to address the charges, according to a company statement. Dean is operations director of the companys residential treatment facility in San Diego. The three others named in the case no longer work there. Contact the writer: 951-368-9075 or gwesson@pressenterprise.com Heres how area members of Congress voted on major issues in the week ending Feb. 5. HOUSE UPHOLDING VETO OF HEALTH-LAW REPEAL: Voting 241 for and 186 against, the House on Feb. 2 failed to reach a two-thirds majority needed to override President Obamas veto of a Republican bill (HR 3762) to repeal key parts of the Affordable Care Act while defunding the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for one year. The bill sought to effectively kill the 2010 health law by eliminating tax penalties necessary to enforce its individual and employer mandates and repealing taxes on medical-device manufacturers and high-priced health plans that yield revenue to fund the law. A yes vote was to overturn the presidential veto. Voting yes: Ken Calvert, R-Corona, Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine. Voting no: Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands, Norma Torres, D-Pomona, Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, Mark Takano, D- Riverside. ROLLBACK OF IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: Voting 246 for and 181 against, the House on Feb. 2 passed a bill (HR 3662) that would require President Obama to receive detailed congressional approval of his steps to lift U.S. economic and trade sanctions on Iran as part of a six-nation nuclear deal with Iran now in effect. Under that deal, Iran has agreed to dismantle its nuclear-arms program in return for the international community freeing up an estimated $100 billion in Iranian assets frozen abroad. Backers said this bill would deny a funding windfall for terrorist groups, while critics said its purpose was to collapse the deal. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, where it is likely to die. Voting yes: Calvert, Cook, Hunter. Voting no: Aguilar, Torres, Ruiz, Takano. UPDATE OF HOUSING PROGRAMS: By a unanimous vote of 427-0, the House on Feb. 2 passed a bipartisan bill (HR 3700) that is the first broad update of federal housing programs in at least 10 years. The bill is designed to improve dozens of programs in areas such as public and rural housing, rental assistance and housing for the homeless, while extending Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance to condominiums and allowing public housing authorities to reallocate some capital funds to operating expenses. The bills streamlining of Department of Housing and Urban Development programs would reduce federal spending by $311 million through fiscal 2021. HUDs overall budget is about $50 billion annually. In a tightening of public-housing rules, the bill would require occupants with incomes exceeding the areas median income for two consecutive years to either vacate the unit or give up their government subsidy. The bill also would expand means-testing of public-housing residents to include a measurement of their assets as well as income. No member spoke against the bill. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, where it is likely to advance. Voting yes: Calvert, Cook, Aguilar, Torres, Ruiz, Takano, Hunter. FEDERAL PROSECUTION OF BANK FRAUD: Voting 250 for and 169 against, the House on Feb. 4 passed a bill (HR 766) curbing federal authority to police suspicious banking activity under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA). Backers said the bill is a narrowly targeted measure that would protect legitimate businesses from prosecutorial and regulatory abuse, including due-process violations. Foes called it a broad assault on the Department of Justices main statute for combating financial fraud, including money laundering and terrorist financing. In part, the bill limits federal power to issue subpoenas under FIRREA, narrows the window for filing legal actions, bars arbitrary orders that bank-customer relationships be terminated and requires authorities to establish paper trails to justify their disciplinary actions. The bill takes special aim at Operation Choke Point, a federal crackdown on money laundering that critics say has abused lawful small businesses such as payday lenders and gun dealers. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. Voting yes: Calvert, Cook, Hunter. Voting no: Aguilar, Torres, Ruiz, Takano. FINANCIAL DEREGULATION: Voting 265 for and 159 against, the House on Feb. 3 passed a financial-deregulation bill (HR 1675) that would raise from $5 million to $10 million the threshold value of stock that companies can issue to employees without having to make certain public disclosures. These disclosures, showing the companys worth, would enable employees to independently judge the value of the stock they are receiving, often in lieu of pay raises. In addition, the bill eases rules governing mergers and acquisitions brokers and requires the SEC to review and revise all of its rules dating to its founding in 1934. The bill also exempts a majority of public companies from having to submit Securities and Exchange Commission filings in a computer-readable format that could be easily cross-checked with other companies filings. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. Voting yes: Calvert, Cook, Hunter. Voting no: Aguilar, Torres, Ruiz, Takano. SENATE DISCLOSURE OF POLITICAL SPENDING: Voting 43 for and 52 against, the Senate on Feb. 2 defeated a Democratic-sponsored amendment that sought to require public disclosure of federal political spending over $10,000 that oil and gas firms and their top executives have made secretly since January 2014 in keeping with the Supreme Courts Citizens United ruling on campaign finance. The amendment was offered to an energy bill (S 2012) that remained in debate. Under Citizens United, it is legal for businesses, unions and interest groups to make anonymous donations of unlimited sums to advocate the election or defeat of federal candidates. A yes vote was to adopt the disclosure amendment. Voting yes: Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. WEAKENING OF ANTIQUITIES ACT: Voting 47 for and 48 against, the Senate on Feb. 2 defeated a GOP-sponsored amendment to S 2012 (above) that sought to make it difficult or impossible for presidents to use the Antiquities Act of 1906 for preserving certain fragile federal lands in the West. The law was enacted to give presidents a quick means of preventing the looting of archeological and historical resources such as Indian relics on federal acreage. But critics say modern-era presidents have been overly aggressive in giving national monument protection to large areas of federal land in the West. This amendment would give Congress and state governments power to roll back presidential designations under the act. A yes vote was to weaken presidential power under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Voting no: Feinstein, Boxer Copyright 2016, Thomas Voting Reports, Inc. For people who exercise their constitutional rights to address elected representatives in public meetings, it may come as a surprise that the comments they make can vanish into thin air. Unless the comments are submitted in writing, no official record of the spoken word is required to be kept. Tom Paulek and Susan Nash learned that the hard way recently when they asked the Eastern Municipal Water District for the recording of Pauleks comments during a board meeting last fall. No such recording exists, they were told. District meetings used to be recorded. But the practice was ceased in 2015. The only record of Pauleks comments at EMWDs Nov. 18 meeting is the written minutes. They say only this: Mr. Paulek addressed the board and provided comments on this item. The item was a vote on funding for a recycled-water pipeline. Unless you were at the meeting, what Paulek said will remain a mystery for all time. Its not hard to imagine a scenario where a recording would come in handy. What if you were a board member who missed the meeting? Wouldnt it be helpful to be able to listen to a recording so you could hear what was discussed? What if youre a water customer interested in the EMWD boards decisions but unable to take time off work to attend the boards 9 a.m. Wednesday meetings? Wouldnt it be nice to be able to listen to a recording of the discussion so you could understand the pros and cons that were considered before the board acted? Californias open-meetings law does not require elected bodies to make audio or video recordings of their sessions. But many do. In fact, with technology increasingly cheap, many elected panels live-stream their meetings online, and for those whose schedules dont permit them to watch live, the video can be watched later online. For Paulek, former manager of the San Jacinto Wildlife Area, and Nash, a retired lawyer, the issues they raise to decision-making bodies like the water board dictate what issues they can raise if they file a lawsuit over the panels actions. A court is unlikely to accept minutes noting only that one of them spoke, without an audio or video recording to prove what was said, Nash told me. The Eastern Municipal Water District is big. It serves 795,000 residents in a broad area from Hemet to Moreno Valley to Temecula and points in between. Its annual budget tops $350 million. I wanted to understand why the district stopped recording its meetings and why the meeting minutes dont include a summary of what members of the public say. Spokesman Kevin Pearson told me the recordings were never a public record. They were used by the board secretary only to produce accurate minutes, then destroyed within 30 days, he said. After the previous secretary left at the end of 2014, the new secretary who took the job in March 2015 discontinued the practice of using recordings to create the minutes, Pearson said. He couldnt produce a record that the board took part in that decision. EMWD is a member of the giant Metropolitan Water District. So is the East Valley Water District. A quick review of East Valleys minutes online revealed that it summarizes public comments, as well as describing in detail the discussion on agenda items. MWD itself in its minutes briefly summarizes public comments. I looked for guidance on best practices in public-meeting record-keeping from the City Clerks Association of California (water districts are governed by the same public-meetings laws that cities are). While the groups handbook notes that the form of the record-keeping is up to each panel, A sufficient record must be kept to furnish evidence that the (panel) has complied with the law or rules by which it is governed. The handbook also notes that the minutes are also treated as evidence in a court of law. That tells you how important they are. (It also makes me wonder why some panels choose not to keep such records.) The handbook offers three types of record-keeping: action minutes that include very little, if any, narrative, only noting motions and votes; sense minutes that provide limited summaries of comments by board members, public and staff; and verbatim or semi-verbatim minutes that detail the discussion of each agenda item. Apparently, East Valley chose the third method, EMWD the first. Eastern hasnt broken any laws. But I asked Board President Randy Record whether it might be a good idea to record the meetings, in case a board member is absent, for example, or a member of the public wants to hear the discussion but is unable to attend. Record called it an interesting question and said hed like to take a look at it as a board. I will ask Pearson to let me know if and when the panel does that. Meanwhile, EMWDs board chambers and lobbies are undergoing a $1.6 million renovation. It would be nice to include adding recording equipment or video streaming capability in that budget. (Microphones are already provided on the board dais and the public podium.) Its a small price to pay for being open and transparent, as Pearson said the district wishes to be. Until that happens, the public has a right to make its own recordings of public meetings, said Peter Scheer of the California First Amendment Coalition. The only other defense against having ones verbal comments vaporized is to submit them in writing. That way, what you said has a prayer of being preserved. Contact the writer: 951-368-9470 or cmacduff@pressenterprise.com When Riverside police Officer Michael Crain was gunned down by a rogue ex-cop on Feb 7, 2013, Crain left behind a wife, a daughter and from his first marriage, a son but no will. That complicated matters for his widow, Regina Crain, and prompted the Riverside Police Department to remind its officers to update their wills and list of beneficiaries. Crains estate, which consists mainly of a Beaumont home that is in his name only, is not large. But it is tied up in probate proceedings that will divide the estate among Regina Crain, her daughter, Kaitlyn, 7, and Michael Crains son, Ian, 13. He left us with a lot of loose ends, Regina Crain said. Every time I get an email from my attorney, I get emotional. A will would have streamlined the process of distributing Michael Crains estate. Regina Crain said she wished that he had created a living trust, which does not have to go through probate and therefore shortens the process. Living trusts are also not public records, as are probate records such as the Crains. Crain discussed the probate in hopes that her situation would prompt police officers and firefighters to write or update their wills and review their lists of beneficiaries. She believes that she can pay Ians share of the estate without having to sell the house. And it doesnt appear Crain is alone in this situation. Few emergency responders across the country appear to have formalized their final wishes. I know its not fun to talk about that stuff, Crain said. All my friends who are law enforcement and fire wives, I encouraged them to take care of these things. You do have to think about it. On Feb. 12, 2013, five days after Christopher Dorner killed Crain and wounded partner Andrew Tachias, Dorner killed San Bernardino County sheriffs Detective Jeremiah MacKay and wounded Deputy Alex Collins. MacKay also died without a will, Superior Court records show, and like Michael Crain, MacKays house was in his name only. A probate judge transferred ownership of the Redlands house to MacKays widow, Lynette. WILLS FOR HEROES Wills for Heroes, a nonprofit foundation that draws up such documents for police officers and firefighters, was formed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States when it was discovered that few of the emergency workers who died at the World Trade Center had wills, co-founder John Jacobson said. The organizations lawyers have since written about 40,000 wills in 22 states. Officials of Wills for Heroes, when they meet with police or fire departments, find that few workers have wills. More than 1,000 police officers and firefighters died in the line of duty from 2010 to 2014, the most recent year for which statistics are available. No one wants to talk about death, but especially first responders, and theyre the ones running into the burning building and running into the gunfire, Jacobson said. In order to do that job, you have to have a healthy dose of (a feeling of) invincibility. If they think about it, they may not do what they have to do and what they are so good at doing. Wills for Heroes assists with wills for simple estates under a certain value. The organization has waiting lists in Arizona, its more than a year long of first responders seeking its services. Jacobson recalled a case in which an emergency worker died, and because he hadnt updated his will, an ex-wife from three marriages earlier was inadvertently named as a beneficiary. If you dont have a will, nobody knows or can prove your last intentions. You could have the family fighting over possessions, money, custody issues, Jacobson said. The last thing you want to do is make things more difficult for the people you love and leave behind. READ THE FINE PRINT Eric Hibbard is a Riverside police K-9 officer. He doesnt have a will, but he expects his estate would easily transfer to his wife upon his death. Hibbard said after the department learned Michael Crain had died without a will, officers were encouraged to update their wills and list of beneficiaries, especially if they have remarried. Its not something you like to think about, but its a reality you should think about, Hibbard said. Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said, Things happened that caused us to remind our people that they have to update all their insurance and beneficiaries, but he also said he believes that much of the general population lacks wills. Regina Crain said it is important to pay attention to the myriad payroll deductions and who is listed as the beneficiary. Michael Crain changed the beneficiary from his first wife, Jennifer Crain, to Regina Crain on many benefits after they married. But he left Jennifer Crain as the person who would receive his final paycheck. Regina Crain suggested that police departments hold workshops on the subject for officers. Guys need to walk into (human resources) and be proactive. You cant put things off, she said. Sgt. Jim Auck, president of the Corona Police Officers Association, said officers are encouraged to keep their list of beneficiaries updated, especially if they have remarried or had a child. Were not very good at that, theres no doubt about it, he said. A few years ago, the officers union negotiated a deal with a local attorney who would write wills or living trusts. There were few takers, Auck said. I think it has something to do with a Its not going to be me attitude. Perhaps some guys feel that making those arrangements is a surrender of some sort, he said. San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said he was unaware of any rush among his officers to write wills after the Dec. 2 terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of 14 and the subsequent gun battle with the suspects. Burguan said his officers are encouraged to review whom they list as beneficiaries every year. Some police and fire departments keep on file a list of their workers final wishes. Those directions include where (or if) someone wants to be buried, their ideas for a funeral procession, what sort of service they would like, what they want to wear in an open-casket funeral and who they want and dont want speaking at their funeral. Riverside fire Capt. Tim Odebralski said the firefighters union strongly, but informally, encourages its members to keep their final wishes updated. More and more, firefighters are training to enter active-shooter situations to treat victims more quickly, thereby increasing their risk of injury or death. Its definitely something thats in the back of our minds, Odebralski said. Were risking our lives on structure fires and vehicle accidents and now we have to add this active-shooter to this mixed bag, and you need to be more aware of the potential dangers. It could be your last alarm, Odebralski said. Most guys know that. Contact the writer: brokos@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9569 Re: Police field drug test kits unreliable [Editorial, Jan. 29]: I absolutely agree with the P-E in law enforcement eliminating drug field tests that have proven to be highly inaccurate and led to false incrimination. I believe and trust that law enforcement does its duties to protect society from crime, danger and illegal activity. If studies have shown that these field tests are highly inaccurate, why are they still being used to incriminate innocent citizens? As in the case of the man whose mints tested positive for crack cocaine, causing him to lose his job, place of residence and his car (auctioned off by the police, no less). This is a disservice to the community and a great injustice to those who have been impacted by the consequences of a false positive. Innocent peoples images, lives and trust in law enforcement are being affected in profound ways. Being negligent and ignoring these studies will cost the state millions in lawsuits that could have been avoided through elimination of an inaccurate field test. Lets not ignore the legal and personal consequences this faulty test can bring to an individual. To avoid innocent individuals being impacted by this flawed test, lets ensure that only accurate procedures and testing are used. Erika Montoya Rialto Keep driverless cars away Re: Cities urged to plan for driverless vehicles [Business, Feb. 1]: I have no problem with driverless cars, as long as you keep them off public streets and freeways. Here is one reason why: A driverless car rear ends a vehicle with a human driver. As it is now, the driver who rear ended you is guilty. So here come the lawyers and insurance companies in a hearing. The lawyers and insurance companies want the driverless car to explain why it was not paying attention oh wait, what driver? Just how are you going to force a computer to explain that question? Keep them off taxpayer roadways, period. Jon Fleischer Hemet On Saturday, Jan. 30, Rachel Cuevas and her family received the keys for a new home in a neighborhood where she and her family can be safe. The house was one of eight built in Moreno Valley by Habitat for Humanity Riverside. Its just such a blessing to have the peace of mind, Cuevas said. Her family and six others received gift baskets featuring food, drink and bibles to welcome them into their new houses, built on the new street Roberts Way, named after the non-profit organizations former executive director Karin Roberts. The presentation of the homes was the culmination of a two-year project, said Kathy Michalak, the groups executive director. Michalak said the project cost about $2 million and the homes are valued at $245,000. Habitat for Humanity owns the homes and resells them to the families, whose monthly payment is set at 30 percent of their adjusted gross income. To qualify for a Habitat for Humanity home families have to make between 30 to 50 percent of the medium income, which is about $31,000 for a family of four. Families are also required to help in the construction of the homes. The new homes also are Energy Star-certified and feature energy-saving features such as tankless water heaters, solar tubes for lighting and drought-tolerant landscaping. Michalak said a member of one of the family scheduled to get the eighth home got a new job. This increased their income, so they no longer qualified for a house. The Habitat for Humanity Riverside project was supported by the City of Moreno Valley, Bank of America, GRID Alternatives and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Moreno Valley Mayor Yxstian Gutierrez, Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside and members of the Moreno Valley City Council attended the dedication ceremony. Gutierrez praised the work of Habitat for Humanity. He said the organizations work eliminates blight, reduces crime and boosts property values. I am grateful for organizations like Habitat for Humanity that improve families standard of living, he said. Michalak said the new homes will change families lives. The families will share great memories in this community, she said. Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com A house in Eastvale designed and owned by entertainer Desi Arnaz a.k.a. Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy has been purchased by the Jurupa Community Services District, which is now trying to decide what the structures newest incarnation will be. The Jurupa district provides water, sewers and graffiti abatement to Eastvale and its Parks and Recreation Department develops and maintains the citys parks and oversees its recreation programs. Richard Ric Welch, the districts parks and community affairs director said the agency paid $2.5 million for the 3,500-square-foot house and an estimated 14 acres of land, including a multipurpose trail at the southern end of the property that will connect Eastvale to the Coast to Crest Santa Ana River Trail. The agency is now working with a consultant, Irvine-based Project Dimensions Inc., which has experience with public projects, remodeling historic homes and construction management, to come up with possible uses for the Spanish-style hacienda. The house was once the centerpiece of Arnazs Corona thoroughbred ranch where he lived after his marriage to Lucille Ball ended in 1960. Welch said the district has held several meetings with residents of the Lennar Corp.s new Estancia community which wraps around the Arnaz house on the west, north and east sides. Lennar is building three neighborhoods including one called The Desi Collection which, according to the companys web site, has already sold out. Sherise Libertone and her husband Pat Libertone, who has since passed away, purchased one of the homes in the coveted Desi Collection. The home incorporates many of the design elements in the original Arnaz house including the use of wrought iron, transom windows and floor to ceiling windows facing out onto the yard. Libertone said she did not even know she would be living across the street from the Arnaz house until after she purchased her home. Libertone has toured the Arnaz ranch and has attended the community meetings. She said her hope is that whatever the Jurupa district decides will do it justice. Its a beautiful property, she said. Because of the neighborhoods proximity to the Santa Ana River bottom, Libertone said a nature center would be appropriate. Another suggestion was to turn the home into a wine-tasting room with a cigar bar. The house was saved from demolition in 1984 by the Altfillisch family when Arnazs Corona Breeding Farm property was sold to make way for a cheese factory. Bert Altfillisch, who owned a thoroughbred farm in what was then the unincorporated community of Eastvale, was hired to grade the property and demolish the buildings, including the Arnaz ranch house, his family has said. Bert Altfillisch loved to save things, his family has said, and the Arnaz hacienda was no exception. He cut it into three pieces and hauled it across the Santa Ana River to his Eastvale property. The house was extensively renovated but the architectural integrity of the original house was preserved. Welch said the Jurupa district is now negotiating with the Altfillisch family for some photos of celebrities that visited the ranch during its heyday. Theres very little of historic value that remains in Eastvale, Welch said. To not attempt to preserve this house would be a disservice. Contact the writer: 951-368-9647 or sstokley@pressenterprise.com Even as melting snow ran down slopes and sidewalks, traffic backed up for miles coming into Big Bear Lake, children huddled around an inviting fire pit near the center of town and a young girl climbed atop a life-sized wooden statute of a bear. With El Nino seemingly sputtering at the moment, Southern Californias favorite mountain playground was teeming with activity on a recent Friday afternoon. This winter probably tops all winters for decades, said Pam Scannell, executive director for the Big Bear Chamber of Commerce, in an interview that afternoon. Weve been fully booked since Christmas, every day of the week. Big Bear has 7,000 available beds in various types of lodging, Scannell said. Its too soon to predict what tourist visits will add up to at this point, she said. But the Big Bear area tends to draw 6 million visitors a year, with close to 4 million of them coming during winter. And 2016 may soar past those numbers. DREAMING UP NEW IDEAS Scannell attributes the spike to the buzz surrounding El Nino, that mysterious, much-hyped climate phenomenon that superheats the equatorial Pacific Ocean and tends to bring more snow and rain than normal. While many visitors are staying overnight, others coming up for the day, Scannell said. The day trippers are huge, she said. And they are sledding all over the place. However, there is much more to do than ride a sled down a slick hill. Big Bear entrepreneurs are constantly dreaming up new ideas for playing in the snow and expanding the array of available winter activities. In some cases, popular summer activities like zipline rides and helicopter tours are being offered in winter, too. Were always thinking of what else we can do, Scannell said. If we have more than one thing going on, it appeals to different audiences. GLOWING IN THE DARK New this winter is a thing called glow in the dark snow tubing. No, the giant inner tubes dont glow. But around Thanksgiving, a local tubing area, Big Bear Snow Play, began opening Friday and Saturday nights. Its eight, 300-foot-long runs glow in the dark with the aid of 11 industrial-style strobe lights that change color, from red to purple and green to blue. And you cant miss the colorful tunnel that shelters a conveyor-belt lift system. Named the Magic Carpet Ride, the system transports tubing enthusiasts back uphill under the blue and green glow of 1,500 fluorescent LED lights. So far its been a big hit, said Shawn Fowler, Big Bear Snow Play supervisor. Like the nearby resorts, the tubing area has snowmaking equipment. And as of last week, it was maintaining a 25-foot base. Fowler said slopes are groomed twice daily. Sometimes they turn the snow blowers on while customers are sliding and spinning down the hill. They tend to love that, Fowler said. It gives them the feeling that its snowing when its not, he said. CYCLING IN THE SNOW Gaining traction over the last few winters is an emerging sport that features cycling on snow. No, thats not a typo. Cycling in this area has grown exponentially in all forms, Scannell said. And, of course, to accommodate the snow, there are fat bikes. Not surprisingly, those are bicycles sporting massive, oversized tires three to four times the size of mountain bike tires and deep tread that grips snow. They will be on full display during a first-ever Big Bear Winter Festival the last weekend of February, said Dan McKernan, director of marketing and public relations for the Big Bear Visitors Bureau. On Saturday, Feb. 27, the festival will host what is being billed as the only organized fat bike ride in California. McKernan said people may participate in rides of varying length 6, 10, 14 and 18 miles. Each route will follow groomed courses that begin and end at Snow Summit and connect with forest roads, he said. Participants tires must be a minimum of 4 inches wide. Each of those routes have some uphill (sections) and some really good downhill as well, McKernan said. Its not a competition; its what we call a ride. REDISCOVERING SNOWSHOEING On the other hand, the festival will feature a competition. That same day, Snow Summit will play host to 5k, 10k and 22K snowshoe races during the festival on groomed trails that weave through the forest, he said. Unlike fat biking and glow tubing, snowshoeing is hardly new. Its been around a long time. But, McKernan said, a lot of people are rediscovering snowshoeing because of El Nino. The festival is scheduled to continue through Sunday, Feb. 28. Besides the groundbreaking snow events, there will be live music, vendor booths, hot drinks and lots of food, he said. And one will still be able to engage in the traditional sports of skiing and snowboarding at local resorts. But after a string of disappointing winters, organizers felt it was time to celebrate El Ninos promise of the best season in years. Basically, were celebrating snow, McKernan said. Contact the writer: 951-368-9699 or ddowney@pressenterprise.com The hardy mountain residents of Idyllwild are preparing for another round of the Imperfect Storm but without worrying about drifting snow. Their disaster preparation during a break in the El Nino-fueled storms is for another onslaught of snow-playing flatlanders who, on two snowy weekends in January, jammed the 74 and the 243, turned 20-minute drives into 90-minute ordeals, clogged residential lanes through the woods, spun out in two-wheel drive cars, littered everywhere, congregated in peoples yards and sent kids sledding across private property. The unprecedented weekend crowding was so overwhelming that Riverside County Supervisor Chuck Washington convened a meeting with multiple government agencies to discuss managing the tourist crush the next time it snows. Options that may be used include electric reader boards on highways leading into the mountains to warn visitors when Idyllwild is overrun. It was that bad. But for a tourist-dependent town, it was also that good. Larry Donahoo, owner of Village Hardware in Idyllwild, said he hadnt seen such massive winter crowds since moving to the San Jacinto Mountains town in 1983. He sold his entire supply of sleds and snow gloves on Jan. 9, the first Saturday of the snow crowds. The storm blanketed Idyllwild Jan. 5-6 and still is on the ground in hard, icy patches. Donahoo voiced the theory that after two winters of only light dustings of snow and several years of not many storms residents of communities on all sides of the San Jacinto Mountains finally could go play in the snow. It was a mixed blessing. On one hand, groups of tourists were brazenly strolling through traffic on slick roads. On the other, restaurant and shop operators were ecstatic to see a long-awaited return of winter tourism. You get a taste of it and want more, Donahoo said. Like Donahoo, fine arts photographer Gina Genis was astonished by the volume of visitors. She said that with snow berms piled along roads by plows, cars were parked in traffic lanes on both sides of the 243 that runs through Idyllwild. Driving into the community from her Pine Cove cabin was like running a one-lane gauntlet through cars, trucks and SUVs. She mostly remained at home and waited for the weekends to end. Feeling a tinge of cabin fever, she drove into the village. Cars were haphazardly parked everywhere, without a space to be found. At popular Higher Grounds Coffee Shop, a line extended out the door and across its big deck all day long. Rather than fight crowds for a latte, Genis returned home, content to know that friends like Higher Grounds owner Mimi Lamp profited from the bedlam. Lamp hadnt seen anything like the big crowds since moving to Idyllwild eight years ago. She sold as much coffee and hot chocolate at her shop over two weekends as she normally did in the entire month of January. She went through her entire 20-gallon supply of milk on the first snowy Saturday, stocked up and used 30 gallons the next day. Everyone wants to have a hot chocolate when they come up to the snow, she said. Driving up the 74 from Hemet at night during a milk run, she counted 412 vehicles headed down from the snow. I usually might meet two or three, she said. Lamp, not surprisingly, wishes for more snow in the future. I hope we get some real good storms, people come, have a wonderful experience and come back in the summer, she said. Contact the writer: bpratte@pressenterprise.com Southern California university students and professors have discovered an obscure provision in U.S. immigration law that allows undocumented students to leave the country to study abroad and return legally. Theyre testing the process, known as advance parole by sending dozens of students to Mexico, Vietnam, and other countries through their university study abroad programs. And even though none of the students had U.S. passports, theyve successfully returned to the United States. Advance parole can be granted for educational, work, or humanitarian purposes. For study abroad purposes, it applies to students who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the United States illegally as children. Also, at least one immigration attorney says once they return under advance parole, they have entered the U.S. legally and this could allow some to apply for legal U.S. residency. The provision is attracting interest both on college campuses and from anti-illegal immigration activists, who view the use of advance parole as an attempt by President Barack Obamas administration to circumvent U.S. immigration law. Some 6,400 DACA recipients have requested advance parole. And, more than 85 percent have been approved. RECONNECTING Some Southern California students have used the program to reconnect with their native Mexico and to see relatives they havent seen since their parents brought them to the U.S. when they were children. Others are leaving the U.S. to experience and learn new cultures. To Armando Vazquez-Ramos, a professor of Chicano Studies at Cal State Long Beach, this is a legal way to use what the government has to offer and allow young immigrants to reconnect with their native country. He discovered the Advance Parole provision in 2014 and used it to take two students to Mexico that spring. I dont think its so much the study abroad or visiting their country, its about reconnecting to their roots and also as adults now, not as kids, Vazquez-Ramos said. In December 2015, Vazquez-Ramos used advance parole to take 30 undocumented students from across Southern California to study and visit family in Mexico. He plans to take another round of students this summer. Either way, for undocumented students who have largely lived in the shadows in their own communities, being able to leave the country and come back is a milestone, said Ana Coria, a program coordinator who assists undocumented students at UC Riverside. For a lot of students, its like a very new experience. To be undocumented, before DACA, they lived a very constricted life, both physically and psychologically, Coria said. I think theyre excited to take that opportunity and experience something new and get a different perspective on life, Coria added. STUDYING ABROAD For Angel Quintero, 21, studying abroad for a summer program was a way to fulfill a requirement in her Global Studies major. Quintero is an undocumented student at UC Riverside and figured her status would pose obstacles to traveling abroad. She attended an information session at the universitys Study Abroad Programs and asked a coordinator there if studying in another country would be possible. Unsure, the coordinator directed her to the universitys undocumented student resources. There, Quintero learned she could, but it would be a detailed process. Advance parole is a travel document that gives advance authorization to enter into the U.S. after traveling abroad. Students must file an application for travel documents with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The filing fee costs $360. For Quintero, the first in her family to attend college, meeting those requirements wasnt an issue. But, she did encounter a few stressful setbacks. Quintero didnt formally disclose her undocumented status to the universitys study abroad program. So by the time the study abroad application was processed, she only had one month to file her advance parole application, which needed to be turned in at least three months before her departure. Luckily for Quintero, her professor is friends with Inland Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, who helped expedite the application. She was approved three days before her trip. Quintero left for Vietnam in mid-June 2015 and was there for about a month. She experienced the countrys humidity and immersed herself in the culture and food. She said at times she couldnt even process being in a different country. At one point she found herself inside Vietnams Phong Nha, described as one of the longest caves. Its just so crazy because as an undocumented not that I didnt think I would have a good life, its just that I knew it would be very hard and very restrictive, Quintero said. To just know that Ive broken that and to think about the undocumented people in my family and how theyre older so they cant even apply for DACA, thats just where that ends, and theres this new generation getting all these other opportunities, she added. RETURNING LEGALLY The risks surrounding advance parole are high as are the implications on immigration policy. Students can be denied re-entry into the U.S. For example, if students overstay a trip, they risk not being admitted back into the U.S. However, if they successfully come back, it opens up the possibility for some to become permanent residents. Despite the risks, several state public universities such as Cal State Long Beach, UC Davis and UC Riverside are taking their chances. Many public universities in California now have undocumented student resource centers or immigration attorneys that can facilitate the process, and mitigate the risks involved. UC Riverside, for example, now has a student assistant focusing on helping students with advance parole. Other campuses, folks are a little too scared because they hear the risks, Coria said. Theyre a little more hesitant. Rather than being like, OK, lets learn lets try to see how we can make this work best for students, she added. Jose Magana-Salgado, an immigration policy attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said advance parole can help some undocumented immigrants gain permanent resident status, but only under specific circumstances. For example, advance parole is key to gaining residency if a student is an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen and legally enters the U.S. The relative can sponsor the student once the student has legally entered the country. To Magana-Salgado, the fact that California public universities are being proactive in facilitating this process shows California is positively taking the lead on immigration issues. We are encouraging other states to follow in Californias lead and enact state laws that are pro-immigrant, he said. MISLEADING AMERICAN PEOPLE Inland Republican leaders such as Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, have taken a strong stance against undocumented immigrants. Calvert, who created E-Verify a system allowing employers to check the immigration status of would-be hires wouldnt specifically comment on advance parole. However, Calvert has accused Obama of circumventing Congress to unilaterally impose DACA. Ultimately, decisions regarding our broken immigration system and the status of all undocumented immigrants need to be made by Congress, not by a President overreaching his executive authority, Calvert said. At least one top Republican leader has called on the Obama administration to put an end to the advance parole provision. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., sent a letter February 2015 asking the Department of Homeland Security to direct the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to stop accepting applications for advance parole from DACA recipients. Goodlatte particularly took offense with Obamas comment that DACA is not a path to citizenship because he said advance parole helps those here illegally adjust their immigration status. No agency should take action in direct conflict with that statement. To do so is misleading the American people, Goodlatte said. Contact the writer: amolina@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9462 Two car theft suspects were chased by Rialto police through a residential neighborhood and arrested Saturday, Feb. 6. The men, both less than 40 years old, were spotted at about 7:40 a.m. in a stolen 2011 Honda car that police had been looking for since it was reported missing Friday, Sgt. Kevin Balleweg said. Police made a traffic stop near the intersection of Chaparral Street and Sycamore Avenue, but the suspects fled on foot to the surrounding streets. After a brief pursuit, both suspects were arrested. They are being held on suspicion of carjacking, Balleweg said. No injuries were reported. This story is developing. Check back for updates. WHITE PINE, Tenn. (AP) An 11-year-old boy in Tennessee has been found guilty of murder in the slaying of an 8-year-old girl after she and her sister refused to let him see their puppies. Jefferson County Juvenile Court judge Dennis Will Roach II this week found the boy guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to state custody until he turns 19. The Associated Press does not generally identify juveniles accused of crimes. In his order, which WATE posted online, Roach said the state should use all reasonable resources to determine why the boy shot the girl, and he should be treated and rehabilitated so this never happens again. A child who commits first-degree murder cannot be willy-nilly turned loose into society, Roach wrote. The boy is currently in detention and being evaluated as to where he should be placed, said Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Department of Childrens Services. Like any other child who comes into custody, he would need a thorough assessment and evaluation to determine the best placement, Johnson said. At this time, it would likely be at an intensive treatment program at one of our private providers. The boy has five siblings three brothers and two sisters who have been placed with relatives and the state, Johnson said. The boy and 8-year-old McKayla Dyer lived in the same mobile home park in White Pine, Tennessee, about 40 miles outside of Knoxville. McKayla, her 11-year-old sister and another girl, also 11, were playing outside and talking to the boy while he was sitting at his bedroom window on Oct. 3, 2015. He asked the sisters to go get their puppies, the judges order says, and when they refused he went and got a 12-gauge shotgun and a BB gun and told the girls he had guns. According to the judges description of the events, McKayla laughed at him and responded that the guns werent real. The boy then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the hammer on the gun and shot the victim just above the heart at a downward trajectory, the judge wrote. The girl fell backward, quickly lost consciousness, and was later confirmed dead, the judge wrote, adding that three witnesses saw McKayla within one minute after she was shot. The mother of the child knelt on the ground and picked her up, placing her child in her arms as she passed away. The boy had been trained in firearm safety and had hunted with his father and grandfather, the judge noted. Following rallies and mass awareness campaigns, the plea to let babies, children and their families sent from Nauru to Australia for medical treatment stay within our borders has been heard by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Today, he had something to say about it himself, writing a concise but impassioned letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, urging him to let them stay. I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister today. #LetThemStay pic.twitter.com/AtekuC1GYh Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) February 6, 2016 The full letter reads as follows: Dear Prime Minister I write to inform you that Victoria stands ready to assist and care for the children and their families who were brought to Australia from Nauru. Following the recent High Court decision, this group faces the prospect of return to Nauru. But they should stay in Australia and you can make this decision. A sense of compassion is not only in the best interests of these children and their families. It is also in the best interests of our status as a fair and decent nation. There are infants among this group who were born in our country. Sending them to Nauru will needlessly expose them to a life of physical and emotional trauma. Its wrong. Medical professionals tell us this. Humanitarian agencies tell us this. Our values tell us this, too. Sending these children and their families to Nauru is not the Australian way. While I believe that in such clearly exceptional circumstances as these, you have a clear obligation to support these children and their families, a political argument is of no benefit to them. Instead, I write to inform you that Victoria will accept full responsibility for all of these children and their families including the provision of housing, health, education and welfare services. I want these children and their families to call Victoria home. Given we stand ready to provide a safe, secure and welcoming environment for these children and their families, there is no justification for their removal. Sending these children to a life of trauma on a sparse Pacific island is not a fair solution. We look forward to working with your Government to find a better one. Yours sincerely, The Hon Daniel Andrews MP Premier While the Prime Minister is yet to respond, the letter has already drawn significant praise. This call by Premier @DanielAndrewsMP is the kind of powerful moral leadership both possible & needed in our country https://t.co/reHSKF1Wbc David Manne (@david_manne) February 6, 2016 @DanielAndrewsMP This is a moment you should be truly proud of. Thank you for this basic act of humanity. Many of us deplore detention. Felicity Ward (@felicityward) February 6, 2016 @DanielAndrewsMP This is so wonderful and makes me proud youre representing our state. So refreshing to see some compassion. Thank you. Elyce Phillips (@ElycePhillips) February 6, 2016 As it stands, the Federal Government remains legally able to place the refugees, including 37 children, back in detention on Nauru. That decision may be harder for them to make with an offer like Premier Andrews on the table, though. Source: Twitter. Photo: Robert Prezioso / Getty / Twitter. Two Trains Running Ronnie Banks, Daniel Fordham and Aaron Bomar.jpg From left, Ronnie Banks, Daniel Fordham and Aaron Bomar in "Two Trains Running" at Open Stage of Harrisburg. (Provided photo) As Viola Davis said in her Emmy Award acceptance speech last year, "You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there." Acclaim, then, is directly tied to opportunity. And for the cast of Open Stage of Harrisburg's "Two Trains Running," the opportunity to tell the story of a black neighborhood, as written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning Pennsylvanian playwright, is not being squandered. The play opened Feb. 5 and continues through Feb. 21. "For a long time, I didn't feel like there was much opportunity, particularly as a black woman," said Jennette Harrison, who plays Risa in "Two Trains Running." "And I think that's an issue in the industry as a whole." "Apparently what forces drive the Oscars are out of touch with what's really out there." Neither Harrison nor Aaron Bomar, her cast mate who plays Memphis in "Two Trains Running," were surprised at the Academy Award nominations this year. "I saw 'Creed,'" Harrison said. "Michael B. Jordan was really great. And it's just a shame sometimes that actors of color, for whatever reason, get overlooked." For playwright August Wilson, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, presenting the opportunity for the African-American experience to be told was an important part of his career. Wilson wrote 10 plays, known as the Pittsburgh Cycle, which tell the stories of 10 different groups of black people. Each is set in a different decade in the 20th century, and all but one is set in Pittsburgh. Over the past several years, Open Stage of Harrisburg has presented five of the 10. "Two Trains Running" is the sixth. Bomar has appeared in all of them so far. "When we went through the first one, I've seen how important his work was to be presented, and what kind of opportunities it offers actors of color in the area," Bomar said. Memphis, Bomar said, owns a diner in the Hill Street District in Pittsburgh in 1969. It is a time of heavy urban development, and Memphis' diner is the only remaining business that has yet to be purchased by the city so that they can be demolished. "Memphis is somewhat of a holdout," Bomar said. "He has a price he wants for his property and he won't settle for anything less." While he clearly has principles, Memphis is no saint. His treatment of his only employee, Risa, bears some scrutiny. While Risa does most of the work, Harrison said, Memphis sits and talks with friends or reads the newspaper. "She tries to be strong and hold on to her beliefs and convictions against a room full of men who have different points of view, and may not treat her the way she prefers to be treated," Harrison said. Neither Harrison nor Bomar were familiar with August Wilson's plays before working with Open Stage. Both agreed that the opportunities to present the stories were fantastic. "He's a great writer and should be studied more," Harrison said. "Without [Open Stage] being committed to doing shows featuring minority casts, I'm not sure there would be much of that around here. I don't know too many other companies if I'd be able to work as an actor in these types of shows." "I am impressed by the talent that is here, both black and white." Bomar responded to the Oscar controversy by looking to the SAG Awards as vindication. "The SAG is actors awarding actors," Bomar said. "I felt that was more true. Apparently what forces drive the Oscars are out of touch with what's really out there." "I've been fortunate enough to have been in three productions at Gamut Theatre, and other productions at Open Stage other than just the Wilson shows," Bomar said. Both companies have "absolutely" been progressive with their choices for their seasons and casting, he said. "I feel that the actors here haven't been aware of Gamut or Open Stage," Bomar said. And now that more have become aware of it, there will be other opportunities to present more ... I'm hesitating, here because I want to say that there will be more opportunities to present black plays, which would be a plus. But also it would open up the acting arena." Louis Riley III and Jennette Harrison in "Two Trains Running" at Open Stage of Harrisburg Simply presenting the August Wilson cycle by itself, Bomar said, is not enough. He would like to see more black playwrights works be considered, including those from local talents. "What I hope would happen is that it creates not just a black actors' field, but an actors' field," he said. "That all the actors in the area are able to collaborate and act together, and present things that really brings the talent that is here out. I am impressed by the talent that is here, both black and white." Progress, Harrison agreed, did not mean that the work was done. "I would like to see more opportunity," she said. "And not just black actors and writers, any type of minority, including women. Shows that feature women. Roles for minority women are very limited, particularly for domestic roles or characters that aren't fully developed. I would like to see so much more of that around here." Harrison's first acting role in the area was in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." Considering the play is set in the upper-class social circles of Victorian England, casting a black actor wasn't a traditional choice. While more roles for minorities are important, Harrison said, non-traditional casting has a part to play as well. "Minds need to be open," she said. "The character can be the exact same person, have the exact same characteristics, have the same personality traits, but can be a different color on the outside. We're all human beings, we all have similar experiences. Why not have people of color just being people?" "One of the things I love about this play in particular is that I can relate to it so much." Harrison lived in Pittsburgh for a time, and saw some of the gentrification and urban renewal happening there, just as it does in Wilson's play. "The descriptions [of the Hill Street District] they talk about in the play are very much true as of recent years," she said. "It's run down. It's part of the city that really there isn't much attention paid to it. A lot of business have moved downtown." The social issues in "Two Trains Running" aren't new to Harrison or Open Stage. Their recent production of "Clyborne Park," in which Harrison was a cast member, handled the same issues. Then, as now, the cast discussed the same trends as they found them in Harrisburg. "You have these restaurants and the museum in [the Midtown] area now," Harrison said. "And it kind of pushes people out. A lot of housing is being redeveloped. And then you have the influx of people who have money - it's not just white people - who move back in. And from what I understand that's been the cycle of Harrisburg for awhile." Bomar, who has seen the same cycle in previous homes of Cincinnati and Atlantic City, agreed. His own current neighborhood in Harrisburg used to be a "ghost town when I walked up the street." Black business and mixed-race neighborhoods are more common now in Harrisburg, he said. But it was the displacement of current residents, be it here or in other cities, that he most connected with in "Two Trains Running." The story, according to Harrison, boils down to people trying to get what they want with the tools available to them. And for some, that achievement isn't possible, sometimes thanks in part to the system being rigged against them from the beginning. "I want people to think about what it takes for people who aren't them," she said, "And about what other people go through in life to feel like they matter." "One guy who is recurring, Hambone, just the words that he says - he wants his ham," Bomar said. And while the mentally handicapped character's mantra is a point of ridicule for some, Bomar said the metaphor applies to all of the characters. They all want to be heard. "I want audiences to leave out of there thinking about relationships," he said. "About how people are judged, how you can change your view of people. The main thing I want people to do is to leave entertained, and having a lot to talk about when they leave the theatre." Restaurant Inspections.jpg (PennLive) Many midstate restaurants are inspected each week and come through with no problems. But some restaurants in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York counties had violations during inspections conducted from Jan. 10 to Jan. 16. At a York County diner, inspectors found "cockroach-like insects" too numerous to count in various locations in the establishment. Not surprisingly, they also noted "gross" grease accumulation, old food debris and grime. At a Cumberland County restaurant, liquor bottles had to be discarded because of insect contamination. In Dauphin County, an establishment was missing the sneeze guard in a customer self-serve area. And while the 2016 Farm Show is over, you can read inspections reports for the vendors who operated there. At a Lancaster County facility, deodorant was stored with cappuccino in the food prep area. And more than one food business lacked a current food employee certificate. In Lebanon County, inspectors checked out a pizza shop where food handlers weren't washing their hands properly, lacked required hair restraints and were touching food with their bare hands. In Perry County, three establishments were inspected with little to no problems. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture oversees restaurant inspections in the state. Inspection reports are "snapshots" of the day and time the inspections took place. In many cases, violations are corrected on site prior to the inspector leaving. Click on the links below to see how restaurants in the region fared: potluck A bill passed several years ago in Arizona accidentally made all potlucks held outside of a workplace illegal. (Shutterstock) If you live in Arizona and you're throwing a Super Bowl potluck outside of work, you might not want to advertise it on Facebook in case you have persnickety, potluck-hating neighbors. Apparently in the Grand Canyon State, throwing a potluck outside of work is illegal. A bill passed several years ago outlined food-handling regulations and food inspections, with an exception made to food or drink "served at a noncommercial social event that takes place at a workplace, such as a potluck." Because of the specific way the bill was worded, it means that all other potlucks are illegal. In Apache Junction, Ariz., this led to complaints at a mobile home park from statute-aware neighbors regarding potlucks being held at the park. Pinal County wound up shutting down a potluck as a result. By and large, people just don't care that potlucks outside of work are illegal. They're going to host them anyhow. "Who cares? So is marijuana," Roger Farris told Tucson News Now. He handles most of the cooking for the potlucks hosted at his mobile home park. "I've never lost one person in here on a potluck." A bill making all potlucks legal is making its way through the Arizona legislature. Here in Pennsylvania, we have our own share of weird laws. Like our liquor laws. Or you can't discharge a gun, cannon or revolver at a wedding. And don't even try to sing in a bathtub. Screen Shot 2016-02-06 at 7.21.06 AM.JPG (PennDOT traffic camera) UPDATE: The roadway was reopened at about 10 a.m A crash involving multiple vehicles has shut down a portion of the northbound lanes of Interstate 81 in Dauphin County, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The crash was first reported at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday near mile marker 73, just north of Exit 72, the exit for Linglestown in Lower Paxton Township, PennDOT said. The northbound lanes of the interstate are closed between Exit 72 and Exit 77, the exit for Route 39 and Hershey in West Hanover Township. Further information about the crash was not immediately available. For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources. Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here. Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com. jordan snoke.png Jordan John Snoke, 22, of Lower Allen Township, is accused of armed robberies on Feb. 2 at a CVS Pharmacy in Upper Allen Township and on Feb. 4 at a the 601 Pizzeria in Fairview township. (Upper Allen Twp. police) A Cumberland County man is in police custody after a witness to an armed robbery reported the getaway vehicle's license plate to authorities. Jordan John Snoke, 22, of Lower Allen Township, is accused of armed robberies on Feb. 2 at a CVS Pharmacy in Upper Allen Township and on Feb. 4 at a the 601 Pizzeria in Fairview township. The business owner of the pizza shop reported the registration plate on the suspect's gray Honda Accord following the Feb. 4 robbery, which led police to Snoke's home. Fairview Township police searched Snoke's home and found stolen cash and clothing used in the CVS armed robbery. Police said Snoke confessed to both robberies before he was arrested on Feb. 4. Upper Allen police obtained an arrest warrant and arrested Snoke Feb. 5, as he was being released on bail from the York County Prison. Snoke was taken to the Cumberland County Prison where he was arraigned and has since been released on $50,000 bail. Snoke is charged with four felony counts of robbery and misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats, theft by unlawful taking and simple assault for the CVS robbery. He is also charged with two felony counts of robbery and misdemeanor counts of simple assault and theft by unlawful taking stemming from the 601 Pizzeria robbery. No court hearings have been scheduled for Snoke, according to online court documents. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- A few observations following the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where James Hahn leads by one over Rickie Fowler and Danny Lee. For more on all the action, click here to read the Daily Wrap-Up. 1. FOWLERS CONFIDENCE SOARING: A few weeks ago, Rickie Fowler won in Abu Dhabi against a field that included Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. For Fowler, the confidence boost has been tangible. It has also helped with taking another step in his progression. Friday, Fowler shot 68 to put himself in contention again. To go around and not feel like I was playing my best but to get the most out of it and continue to move forward that week, that was big, Fowler said of his victory last month in the desert. That was my first win being out front. To go out and feel as comfortable as I did and kind of control my destiny definitely made me feel more comfortable coming into here this week. In the second round, Fowler hit 14 greens. Hes also sixth in the field in strokes gained putting and though he bogeyed 17 he bounced back with a birdie on 18, hitting his approach to 2 feet. It's one of my favorite events having the loud crowd out there, he said. Hopefully we'll give them a reason to get loud. More and more, he has been. Traveling thirty-six hours is an arduous task even when things go as planned. When we boarded our flight in Denver, I was prepared for the long haul. What I didnt know was our flight would be delayed in Denver for over an hour, causing a cascade of missed connections and reroutes in its wake Nepal isnt easy to get to and thats part of the adventure. Fortunately, I would be met on the other end by the crew from H&I Adventures all Yeti freaks and the worlds best mountain bike travel company. I would also be greeted by twenty-five Yeti riders, affectionately called the tribe", who had traveled from the US, UK, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Indonesia. It was truly humbling to spend our 30th Anniversary in Nepal with this diverse group of Yeti owners I was incredibly stoked.Landing in Kathmandu, I was amazed at how small the airport was, especially for a city of over one million people. Even more surprising were the stacks of luggage that came off the planes ridiculously unorganized piles that spilled out across the baggage claim area. It seemed impossible that anyone ever found their luggage. Not surprisingly, my baggage wasnt found and I later found out, never arrived. Our guide, Mandil Pradhan, was nonplussed by the baggage situation. I didnt share his confidence but was more interested in finding a beer and meeting the rest of the tribe.While Kathmandu is the gateway to the Himalayas, its relatively low (1400m) and the riding is more rainforest than high-alpine. The trails were a combination of fire roads and tight singletrack that weaved through the forest and small villages. We were warned that chickens and ducks would be littered throughout the villages and if we mistakenly hit one, we would need to settle up with the locals $25 for a chicken, $90 for a duck. Seemed like a pretty easy task dont run over the fowl, but even our slow approach seemed to startle them into making a suicide lung into our wheels. There were countless close calls with chickens, ducks and even goats, but we managed to get through without incident.After a few days riding around Kathmandu, we ventured into the high mountains to a region known as Lower Mustang. Taking off from a small airport in Pokhara, we flew into the deepest valley in the world, the Kali Gandaki Valley. Sitting on the right side of the plane, I was able to see everything. The majestic views numbed us to the fact we were flying near the top of the world in a questionable dual-prop plane, with just 12 seats. I had heard from a few people, the landing in Jomsom was sketchy. Id met an American mountaineering guide on my flight to Nepal who told me he had been in the region several times. When I told him we were flying into Jomsom, he raised his eyebrows and chuckled. Back when I used to go, the runway was littered with parts from crashed planes. They just pushed them out of the way, he mused. I couldnt tell if he was serious or messing with me. As we banked hard into Jomsom and dropped quickly to the valley floor, I anxiously waited to feel our tires touch the ground. When they did, very hard, a cheer erupted on the plane and high-fives flew all around.In Jomsom, we were met by the H+I crew and Yeti ambassador and professional photographer, Dan Milner. Dan had been in the region for weeks on vacation and agreed to join us for four days in the Mustang region. This was where the real high-alpine part of our trip started. While the town of Jomsom sits at 2700m high, the height of most ski areas in Colorado, its the surrounding mountains that give it scale. Eight of the twenty highest peaks in the world tower above the valley, flanked on one side by the Annapurna range and the other by Dhaulagiri. Riding out of Jomsom, the road was rough but the terrain wasnt too challenging. Just as well, we were all stopping for pictures and looking for an appropriate place to tie the prayer scarves we were given upon our landing in Jomsom.Our first bridge crossing was trial by fire a long suspension bridge, the first of many, adorned with prayer flags and looked easy enough. As I rolled in, I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I gained speed, but as I reached the middle of the bridge a gust of wind turned my fun into a temporarily terrifying experience. I quickly regained control of my bike and the wide-eyed, holy shit look dissipated as I rolled up the other side of the bridge to terra firma. As the rest of the tribe rolled across, I saw the smiles turn to terror and then back to smiles. Everyone made it across the bridge unscathed, but on our return back across the bridge, one Brit, who will remain nameless, walked his bike across. The group was ruthless, nicknaming him fainting goat for the rest of the trip.After crossing the bridge, we climbed for forty-five minutes to a small mountain town that looked like it hadn't changed in hundreds of years. We made our way through the narrow streets and finally into the house of a local Nepali family. Our guide, Mandil, had arranged for us have tea on the rooftop of the locals house. I looked around at the assembled group, our host smiled broadly as he served us tea. I felt incredibly grateful for his hospitality and the solid crew that surrounded me as we sit cross-legged on the top of the world.Each new day brought another adventure a great ride, epic vista, or chance meetings with the locals as we rode through town or sipped tea at a local teahouse. Ill treasure those memories. But Ill treasure them most because of the crew that surrounded me every day. Its pretty rare when you can assemble 25+ people from around the world, put them in unfamiliar circumstances and have them all get along. We not only got along, we had a ton of fun and lifetime friendships were formed high in the Himalayas.When I returned, everyone kept asking about my favorite rides. Not surprisingly, they were both descents. The first was off Lubra Pass (4100m), the highest point of our trip and maybe the most picturesque with Daulighiri (8176m) looming in the background. I was wrecked with an intestinal bug of some sort, so the climb up was brutal, but the descent was 1400m of pure joy. Steep and loose at the top of the descent, we picked our way down the twisted singletrack. As the trail opened up, we let off the brakes and let gravity pull us to the river bottom below and ultimately to the town of Marpha, an apple growing region down valley.My second favorite descent was bittersweet because it was the final ride of the trip. Four of us took a detour from the group to shoot some top-secret goods that Dan had scoped out years earlier. Unable to find the secret location, we made our way back to the road and bombed the road back down to our next village. Sounds boring, a 'road' descent, but roads in Nepal are notoriously sketchy it was incredibly rocky, steep and fast. There was little room for error -- on our left was an exposed cliff, to our right a tangle of humanity and machines weaving their way through the chaos. We moved quickly, hitting jumps, over-cooking turns and laughing our way to the bottom. Tons of near misses and big smiles as we recounted the day over beers at the end of our ride.A huge thanks to everyone who made this possible. Im humbled and honored that Yeti freaks from around the world came to ride with us. A huge shout out to H+I Adventures Euan, Mandil and the entire crew who took care of us on the trip. Thanks for Berne showing the boys how to ride and the great editorial that followed. And of course, thanks to Dan Milner for all the amazing shots.Photos By: Dan MilnerWords By: Chris ConroyGuides: H&I Adventures Fugitive Blake Fitzgerald died in a shootout with police. (Photo: U.S. Marshals) The Missouri couple dubbed a modern-day "Bonnie and Clyde" were tracked down to Florida Thursday before a car chase and shootout that left Blake Fitzgerald dead and Brittany Harper wounded, law enforcement officials said, reports WTVD-TV. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan detailed at a news conference today how the couple was first spotted by police Thursday night after authorities tied them to an armed robbery at a Famous Footwear store in Pensacola, FL. They were allegedly able to get away from the scene. Police spotted the couple three hours later in the same car they allegedly used at the Famous Footwear, but they evaded authorities by fleeing the car on foot, Morgan said. Two hours later, Morgan said, police received a call from a couple saying they had been held hostage by Fitzgerald and Harper for "a couple of hours" before the pair allegedly fled with the residents' red truck. Police spotted the truck and a shootout ensued, leaving Fitzgerald dead at the scene and Harper injured, police say. Harper is at a Florida hospital and will face charges of home invasion and grand theft auto, among others, Morgan said. Before this morning's shootout, Fitzgerald and Harper, both in their 30s, had faced charges after allegedly carrying out a bevy of armed robberies across the southeast over the past week. The couple had taken to Facebook to seemingly mock police in recent days, despite pleas from their friends to turn themselves in. Harper apparently posted on Facebook, "I wasn't planning on going for a run today but those cops came out of nowhere." Photo: Revision Revision Military, known for its integrated, purpose-built soldier solutions, aided a sting operation to arrest owners and representatives of a Chinese company illegally manufacturing and selling counterfeit eyewear. Revision worked in conjunction with the Dearborn and Ohio County Prosecutor's Office in Indiana to execute this action. The operation was carried out on January 28 at the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Snow Show in Denver, Colorado. Guangzhou Botai Optical Visor Co., Ltd. ("Guangzhou Botai") U.S. representative and part owner, Gong Peiwen, also known as Daniel Gong, was arrested on the showroom floor. Arrest warrants have also been issued for brothers Jiang Xingde and Jiang Xinglin, co-owners of Guangzhou Botai, and Ding Xiaoxia, also known as Crystal Ding, Sales Associate for Guangzhou Botai, which is based in Guangzhou, China. The four are facing six felony charges: counterfeiting, theft, corrupt business practices, conspiracy to commit counterfeiting, conspiracy to commit theft, and conspiracy to commit corrupt business practices. These charges are being brought in Indiana. Guangzhou Botai has been producing unauthorized counterfeit versions of Revision Military's Desert Locust goggle. Additionally, these fake products have been distributed under the pretense of providing military-grade ballistic protection which presents a hazard to the safety of users expecting the high level eye protection of authentic Revision products. After extensive investigation of the company and testing of the counterfeit products it produces, conclusions showed none of the established industry standards for optical or ballistic quality were met by these unauthorized product knockoffs. "We were alarmed to learn of these counterfeit products," said Jonathan Blanshay, CEO of Revision Military, "our customers expect only the best quality and performance from our products. We take pride in exceeding the highest specifications for optics and ballistic impact protection and have invested huge amounts of money to create the best possible protective products. We have built our name and reputation on exceeding standards and will not tolerate inferior, non-authorized knockoff products in the marketplace." Mr. Blanshay reiterated that, when it comes to customers being victimized by inferior forgeries, Revision has a zero tolerance approach, stating, "The Revision brand signifies integrity and elite performance. Fraudulent products undermine our core mission to protect the troops who protect all of us. We are taking this matter very seriously and will do everything in our power to ensure that any individuals or corporate entities involved in an illicit enterprise that threatens Revision's customers and the Revision reputation are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Our mission is to provide the very best protection to soldiers and we will fight to prevent any undermining of that promise to global warfighters." Revision Military maintains all intellectual property rights on all Revision products - rights that are total and international. This includes the distinctive Desert Locust goggle, Revision's flagship goggle line first launched in 2006 that has proven immensely popular and highly regarded for its superior ballistic protection, craft, and comfort. Revision's products are designed, manufactured, and tested in-house at state-of-the-art, certified facilities. All of Revision's protective eyewear has consistently and unequivocally exceeded global military-grade testing requirements and has been proven in action around the world. The fact that the defendants have been charged with crimes are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. About Revision Revision develops and delivers purpose-built protective soldier equipment for military use worldwide. The company, which began with eyewear, has expanded to face, head, and torso protection as well as energy storage and power management products, continues to develop innovative capabilities for integrated, performance-enhancing soldier systems. Privately owned and ISO 9001:2008 certified, Revision's operational headquarters is located in Essex Junction, Vermont, USA, with additional offices in Montreal, Canada, The UK, and Luxembourg. For more information, visit www.revisionmilitary.com. Dallas Police say a growing number of predators who use social media and dating apps such as Tinder, Kik, PlentyOfFish, MocoSpace and MeetMe to prey on unsuspecting women, reports the Dallas Morning News. Many people increasingly are turning to social media to find love 1 in 3 newly married couples met online, according to a study by a University of Chicago psychologist of couples who married between 2005 and 2012 that was published in 2013 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Criminals are exploiting that willingness to meet up, police say, often lying about their appearance and identity. "Its our human nature to want to trust people, said Dallas police Lt. Israel Herrera, who oversees sexual assault investigations. Were starting to see a lot of these, and we didnt see a lot before. Dallas police havent tracked exactly how many of the 782 rapes in 2015 started with an online introduction. Commanders say they want to start counting them this year. At least seven men in Dallas were arrested in recent years on these types of cases. The department used to see just a few cases, but last year they spiked. Herrera believes its a trend that will only continue to grow as people live more of their lives online. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling for a federal criminal investigation into Gov. Rick Snyder and his administration after it was revealed that the Snyder administration knew of a potential link between a Legionnaires disease outbreak and the water in Flint, Michigan. In a statement, Sanders responded to a report that state officials knew about a link between Legionnaires and Flint water. The Democratic presidential candidate said: The latest revelation about the public health crisis in Flint is horrifying. It is unacceptable that anyone on Gov. Snyders team would not act swiftly at even the slightest chance that residents were becoming seriously ill from the drinking water in Flint. Because of the conduct by Gov. Snyders administration and his refusal to take responsibility, families will suffer from lead poisoning for the rest of their lives. Children in Flint will be plagued with brain damage and other health problems. Not only should Gov. Snyder resign immediately, the Justice Department must hold everyone accountable who knew about this crisis and did nothing. The federal government needs to take every possible measure to ensure that the people of Flint get clean drinking water as soon as possible. The story of how the people of Flint were poisoned is not one of an unfortunate but unavoidable public health disaster. Contrary to the Republican spin, the true story of Flint is one of criminal negligence by a Republican governor and his administration who collectively turned a blind eye while people were poisoned. Sanders is right. There must be a federal criminal probe into the administration and the governor himself. Rick Snyder has refused to take responsibility. The governors response to the crisis has been inadequate. Nationally, Republicans have been trying to devise mechanisms to make the victims pay for access to clean water. What happened to children of Flint was a crime, and federal authorities must investigate and prosecute every member of the Snyder administration for the intentional mass poisoning of an American city. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print By Melissa Fares (Reuters) Stumping for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Tinder is getting some women banned from the online dating app after sending campaign messages to prospective matches. Two women one from Iowa and the other from New Jersey confirmed to Reuters on Friday that they received notices from Tinder in the previous 24 hours that their accounts were locked because they had been reported too many times for peppering men on the site with messages promoting Sanders candidacy. Robyn Gedrich, 23, said she sent messages to 60 people a day for the past two weeks trying to convince them to support the U.S. senator from Vermont in his race for the Democratic nomination against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Do you feel the bern? her message to other Tinder users read, parroting a Sanders campaign slogan. Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks. Gedrich, an assistant store manager at retailer Elie Tahari who lives in Brick, New Jersey, said a text would prompt people to start receiving updates from the Sanders campaign, as well as a link where they could sign up and volunteer. She has been unable to sign back into Tinder since logging off on Thursday. Haley Lent, 22, a photographer from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, told Reuters in a Twitter message that she also got locked out of the app on Thursday night after sending messages trying to convince people to vote for Sanders the previous night. Lent, who is married, said she talked to 50 to 100 people on the app. She had even bought a Tinder premium membership, which allows users to change their location, for a month so that she could reach people in New Hampshire and promote Sanders. I would ask them if they were going to vote in their upcoming primaries, she said. If they said no or were on the fence, I would try to talk to them and persuade them to vote. A spokeswoman for Tinder, which is part of Match Group Inc, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp , said in an email on Friday afternoon, We whole-heartedly support people sharing their political views on Tinder, but we dont allow spamming. So feel free to spread the Bern, just dont spam. SWIPE RIGHT FOR BERNIE? The two women are not the only ones making unusual use of Tinder, better known as a hook-up app, as a campaign tool. A Facebook Inc group Bernie Sanders Dank Tinder Convos has 782 members. On Yahoo Incs Tumblr microblogging site, a thread titled Tinder Campaigning, The adventures of a perpetual right-swiper in the efforts of electing Bernie Sanders has dozens of conversations referencing Sanders pulled from Tinder. Swiping right is a colloquial reference to approving of a potential match on Tinder. Gedrich said she got mixed responses from the 300 Tinder users who replied. Some people would ask what is this for, and I would kind of explain, she said. Some of them would unmatch me or report me as a bot. A bot (or robot) account is a scam profile used to send spam messages. Some responses simply read, Trump2016, expressing support for Republican candidate Donald Trump, the real estate tycoon. It was really alarming to see that a lot of people dont know whats going on in the world, she said. None of her matches resulted in an actual date, she said. (Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Dan Burns and Lisa Shumaker) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Noted bigot and former star of Duck Dynasty, Phil Robertson, was in Iowa last Sunday showing that Ted Cruz takes a back seat to one when it comes to appalling. Speaking of the depravity and perversion of marriage equality, he said, It is evil, its wicked, its sinful and they want us to swallow it. Well, actually, we dont want you to swallow anything, though you can. Its your right. Direct from God, so you would say. What we do want you to do is to accept that other people have the same rights you do. Nobody is forcing you to marry another man, Phil, though Ive got to say, at this point, methinks thou doth protest too much. Knowing the Cruz crowd loves this sort of talk, Robertson opined that, We have to run this bunch out of Washington D.C. We have to rid the earth of them. Get them out of there. Well, this is a democracy, Phil. They were elected. If you want them out of there, vote them out. Though there is no way for you to vote them off the face of the earth. Im afraid youre going to have to put on your big boy britches and learn how to be a man and suck it up. We have to do the same thing, tolerating the existence of people like you. Its not like Ted Cruz didnt know what Phil was saying. Cruz, who has since moved on to New Hampshire, where he is in third place behind Trump and Rubio, was next on stage. His reaction to this perfectly horrid behavior? Phil Robertson, said Cruz, is a joyful, cheerful, unapologetic voice of truth. Joyful. Thats not the word the rest of us are looking for. Its no wonder so many of his former Princeton classmates are horrified at the thought of Cruz being president. Watch courtesy of CNN: The two really do make a pair. Cruz is obviously a big fan of David Barton as well, based on what Robertson told Fox News last Sunday, that his Canadian BFF loves James Madison. Thats right. James Madison. Author of the Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments of 1785. This document means exactly what it sounds like it means: that folks shouldnt have to pay for religious teachers, an act which Madison calls a dangerous abuse of power. Yes, thats right. A dangerous abuse of power. Madison goes on to say that Phil Robertson and Ted Cruz are full of excrement: The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men. In other words, the rest of us are not in any way compelled to share the beliefs of ignorant bigots like Phil Robertson and Ted Cruz. It is as if Madison were on stage with Robertson telling him nobody was forcing him to approve of Marriage Equality, that he can exercise his beliefs as these may dictate. You can bet your bottom dollar neither man knows Madison wrote the Memorial and Remonstrance. In fact, the two men are under the mistaken belief that Madison said the U.S. is based on the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves based on the Ten Commandments of God. Madison, of course, never said any such thing. And the quote didnt crop up anywhere until 1958. You know, back when conservative Christians were adding one nation under God to the Pledge of Allegiance (1954) and making In God we Trust the national motto (1956). As you can see, the 50s were a very bad time for America. Were paying for it still. In fact, this is what Madison had to say in the Memorial and Remonstrance about nations making the Ten Commandments the law of the land: Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. It is as if Madison predicted 2016, because certainly nothing says the modern GOP like superstition, bigotry and persecution. The truth is, Madison was a keen student of history. This is what always happens, he is saying, and the GOP is proving him right. From the grave then, we have an epic smackdown of Phil Robertson and Ted Cruz by James Madison, who reveals exactly what America can expect from a Cruz presidency. And Madison gave a final warning in the Memorial and Remonstrance that religious bigots like Robertson and Cruz might want to heed, rather than hiding behind fake quotes: Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever? I have the answer: Ignorant yokels like Ted Cruz and Phil Robertson. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Any American who has ever had the misfortune of attending a city council or county board meeting is aware they are going to be forced to sit through a mini-sermon or religious testimonial prior to the meeting start. It is a prevalent practice in nearly every city and berg in the nation and a tortuous reminder that there is no-place, not even government meetings, safe from primarily evangelical religious imposition; unless one lives in or around Phoenix Arizona. Thanks to the heroic actions of the Satanic Temple, Phoenix city council will cease and desist, immediately, from opening their government meetings with an evangelical supplication to god. It is not that the Arizonans really wanted to ban opening prayers at their meetings, they just do not want any member of the community offering an invocation unless they are Christians. In order to prevent a member of the Satanic Temple from offering an opening invocation, the city council members voted to ban all prayers. In typical religious conservative fashion, it is going to be Christian prayers or none at all. Two years ago the Vatican-5 on the Supreme Court were on a tear dismantling major parts of the Religious Clauses in the 1st Amendment, and in a blow to the Constitutions Separation of Church and State, the Court ruled that the government-sponsored Christian prayers were protected free speech. However, written into the ruling was a proviso that So long as the town maintains a policy of nondiscrimination, the Constitution does not require it to search beyond its borders for non-Christian prayer givers in an effort to achieve religious balancing. It was that maintaining a policy of nondiscrimination that the Satanic Temple seized on to effectively shut down government-sponsored Christian-only prayers at Phoenix city council meetings. The gist of the Supreme Court ruling is that lawmakers cannot discriminate against non-Christians when they invite speakers to deliver opening prayers; obviously that means they are forbidden from discriminating against Satanists who wish to subject meeting attendees to a Satanic invocation. A member of the Satanic Temple, Stu de Haan, duly signed up to deliver the opening prayer on February 17 to provide the Phoenix city council with what they demand; an official city government endorsement of religion. It was just the wrong religion. So instead of complying with the Supreme Court ruling, council members banned all invocations and provided a moment of silence. True, a moment of silence is a moment of wasted government time and assets, but it is a moment meeting attendees will not be subjected to being inculcated into the evangelical faith. It is noteworthy that the Satanic Temple, although a real religion, does not worship the biblical Satan, the Devil, or evil incarnate. Instead, the Temple teaches its adherents high principles such as strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason, and that their beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. The secular victory was not the first for the Satanic Temple by insisting that state and local governments honor the constitutional ban on religious discrimination. The Temple successfully forced Florida officials to allow the temple to erect a display that celebrated the fallen angel Lucifer as one of five displays honoring the December holiday season. The Temple also prevailed in Arkansas after a successful battle to display a statue of children fawning over goat-headed deity Baphomet according to the High Courts non-discrimination ruling. The Satanic Temple used the ruling to stop an evangelical effort to distribute Christian bibles to Florida public school children simply by insisting the school district adhere to the law and allow the Temple to distribute Satanic literature to the children along with the bibles. Although this was a victory for preserving the Founding Fathers intent in building a wall of separation between church and state, it was a small one. However, it was also revealing to Phoenix residents that if confronted with a choice between adhering to the Constitution and a favorable to Christians Supreme Court ruling, or banning prayers completely, the Phoenix city council members opted to ban all invocations if they cannot use government to impose their religion on the people. By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani Almost a year after she was rescued from Boko Haram captivity by the Nigerian army, 16-year-old Zara John is still in love with one of the Islamic militants who abducted her. She was delighted to discover that she was pregnant with his child following a urine and blood test carried out by a doctor in the refugee camp to which she was taken after her rescue. I wanted to give birth to my child so that I can have someone to replace his father since I cannot reconnect with him again, said Zara, one of hundreds of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants during a seven-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria. But any decision over the baby was taken out of her hands. Her father drowned during flooding in 2010 so her uncles intervened. Some were adamant they did not want a Boko Haram offspring in their family and insisted on an abortion. Others felt the child should not be blamed for its fathers crimes. In the end, the majority carried the vote and Zara was allowed to keep her child, a son she named Usman who is now about seven months old. Everybody in the family has embraced the child, Zara told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview, asking that her location remain undisclosed. My uncle just bought him tins of Cerelac (instant cereal) and milk. Zara was aged 14 when Boko Haram militants fighting to establish an Islamist state raided her village of Izge, in northeast Nigeria, in February 2014. They razed homes in the village, slaughtered men, and loaded women, girls and children into trucks. Two of Zaras brothers were out of town when the militants struck in one of a wave of hit-and-run attacks on villages as well as suicide bombings on places of worship or markets. Zaras mother fell off one of the overloaded trucks but tried to chase after the vehicle that was ferrying away her only daughter and her four-year-old son but was unable to keep up as the truck headed 22 km (14 miles) road journey to Bita. ENSLAVED BY MILITANTS At the time, Bita and other surrounding towns close to the Sambisa forest, were in Boko Haram control. As soon as we arrived, they told us that we were now their slaves, Zara recalled. Her days were spent doing chores and learning the tenets of her new religion, Islam, until, two months later, she was given away in marriage to Ali, a Boko Haram commander, and moved into from a shared house to his accommodation. After I became a commanders wife, I had freedom. I slept anytime I wanted, I woke up anytime I wanted, she said. He bought me food and clothes and gave me everything that a woman needs from a man, adding that he also gave her a mobile phone with his number plugged in and tattooed his name on her stomach to mark her as a Boko Haram wife. Ali assured her that the fight would soon be over and they would return to his home town of Baga where he intended his new wife to join his fishing business. He told her that he had abandoned his fisherman trade and joined the militant group after his father and elder brother, both fishermen like himself, were killed by Nigerian soldiers. In a June 2015 report based on years on research and analysis of evidence, Amnesty International said the Nigerian army was guilty of gross human rights abuse and extra judicial killing of civilians in parts of northeast Nigeria, calling for an investigation into war crimes. Ali was not at home when the Nigerian army stormed Bita in March 2015 and rescued Zara and scores of other women, taking them to a refugee camp in Yola in northeast Nigeria. The raid came as international scrutiny on Nigeria increased after the high profile abduction of 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in northern Nigeria in April 2014 which caused outrage internationally and sparked the global campaign #bringbackourgirls. The girls are yet to be found. But Zara and Ali stayed in touch by phone until Nigerian soldiers realised some of the girls in the camp were still in touch with their abductors, seized their phones and moved them to another camp until they were reunited with their families. Zara now lives with her extended family and son in a town far away from Izge. Back with her family, Zaras male relatives took over control of her life again, with requests for interviews fielded by them and all of her movements monitored by her family. But asked her opinion, she said she would rather be with her Boko Haram husband. If I had my way, I would retrieve the phone number he gave me, she said, regretting not committing his number to memory. But Zara is realistic and knows the possibility of being reunited with Ali is very slim. Instead she wants to return to school when Usman stops breastfeeding and maybe then run her own business. I want to do a business that is suitable for a woman, something that will not take me out of the house, she said. Editing by Belinda Goldsmith. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is the author of the novel I Do Not Come to You by Chance, and the co-author of Ragazze Rubate, a childrens nonfiction book about the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, to be published in Italy on March 15. Article first published by Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shooting in Guinea today of El-Hadj Mohamed Diallo, a reporter for the news websitesGuinee7and Afrik, and calls on authorities to ensure justice is served. Mr Diallo died on the way to the hospital after being shot during clashes outside a meeting of Guineas main opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces, in the capital, Conakry,according to reports . The party has been divided after its vice-president, Oury Bah, was expelled from its leadership. When Bah was denied entry to the partys headquarters today, his supporters and those of the current leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, clashed, according to reports . The publishing director of Guinee7 , Ibrahima Sory Traore, told Reuters he had viewed the reporters body and said, He was shot at point-blank range. The government announced that it has opened an investigation into the murder. We strongly condemn the shooting of El-Hadj Mohamed Diallo and call on Guineas authorities to hold those responsible to account, said CPJ Africa Research Associate Kerry Paterson. We welcome the governments commitment to investigate his murder and call on it to ensure a thorough and transparent process. It was not immediately clear who shot Mr Diallo, according to Reuters. Attempts by CPJ to call police in Conakry for comment went unanswered. Mr Diallos paper, Afrik, said the 30-year-old reporter had been killed in the line of duty, and condemned the violence that led to his death. SOURCE: Committee to Protect Journalistswww.cpj.org This is the concluding part of PREMIUM TIMES interview with Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State. Here, he speaks about his relationship with former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo; the Halliburton bribery scandal, and other issues. PT: You seem to have some disdain for former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Is it because of his hand in your impeachment in 2006? Fayose: No sir. I say it as it is. The military in Nigeria should subject themselves to democratic rules. When Obasanjo was there he was behaving the same way Buhari is behaving today. It was under Obasanjo that the EFCC would lock people up because the president has power to order arrest, because the president appoints the IGP, the DG of SSS and others. He has power of coercion. The fact remains that the constitution allows me the right even in the face of accusation to enjoy my liberty. Obasanjo is not a democrat. Today, former Governor (Bola) Tinubu of Lagos would recall what Obasanjo did. It doesnt matter what our political alignments are today, history cannot be taken away. So my position has not changed and it will never change. PT: So you mean you dont have any personal problem with Obasanjo? Fayose: No, but let me ask you a question. When Obasanjo was there for eight years, Buhari didnt go there? Everyday Obasanjo goes to kiss the ground in Aso Rock. Everyday Obasanjo has something to go and tell him there. There are some places elders would have a bit of shame. They would know that sometimes we should not go to this place. Even if you look at the pictures taken of his visit you see him bending down. When he was in government he was busy abusing this Buhari. Obasanjo was busy insulting Awolowo. One of the things Obasanjo wants to lay claim to in life is that he is the longest serving Nigerian president. When you add his military rule to his civilian regime, you understand. So, Obasanjo doesnt like anybody to excel or exceed his record. Thats the truth. Obasanjo, who now seems to be the father of gangsterism or whatever he seems to be today, is the same man that we used to talk about every other day. Today he is there. The most painful aspect of it is for Obasanjo to be coming out and be claiming he is a very honest man. Where did he get the money that was given to the National Assembly that time? Where did he get the money? Each senator and member of the House of Representatives collected N50 million each. How about that $2billion Halliburton money? They jailed some people in America because of Halliburton. Obasanjo knows everything about Halliburton. Let us put Halliburton to trial and see what happens. That is why I told you that this fight must not be selective. If truly we want to fight corruption, let us fight corruption head on. And the fact remains that men will judge, God will judge again. PT: Are you suggesting that the president should look back and probe past presidents? Fayose: I am not suggesting, I am saying it. What is the meaning of suggesting? Excuse me sir, let Obasanjo declare his assets. Let us go to Obasanjos declaration when he came in 1999 and his declaration in 2007. Who is fooling who? Buhari now declared mud house and herds of cattle. When he is going now he will go and build one house in Daura with salary. That time the mud house will now become ancient mud houses. The cattle will now become limo Mercedes bullet proof. I beg my brother! Those people who are stealing cow, should stop fighting people stealing rats. PT: PDP appears to be in disarray. It seems unprepared. Do you see the party remaining intact to fight the 2019 elections? Fayose: Let me explain something to you. When you have an accident, God forbid, you dont gather momentum immediately. Life is physical, it is normal. What the PDP is going through now is a deliberate effort to destabilize the opposition by the APC and we know that. These are issues for time. Not even more of what the opposition is doing, but the implosion of the party that is the problem. The PDP is a situation that calls for major repairs and correction, but the fact remains that it is just about seven months ago and from all indications the federal government-led APC is muzzling the PDP. I want to tell you that it is not enough; time will tell. If you told somebody that APC would come and take power in Nigeria so soon, you would say it is a lie. So let us keep our fingers crossed and watch Nigeria. PT: The PDP is likely to pick its national chairman and other members of the executive this year. What is your thinking on this? Where should the party zone the office to considering the 2019 elections? Fayose: You see, the South-west deserves to produce the chairman of the party. But it is not the South-west per se that matters. But the character that will be the chairman must be a man that is reasonably blameless and courageous and realizes he would lead us out of the present predicament we have found ourselves. You cannot say a man cannot fall, but the failure of a man to rise is the issue. The PDP has fallen, and we believe by the grace of God that it will rise again. PT: Do you agree with the Ekweremadu Committee that the party should zone the presidency to the North? Fayose: You see, time will take care of that. In the first place, we lost the election because we did not pick our candidate from the north, not because Jonathan as a person was bad. It was just a political miscalculation. The fact is that my former president, I chose my word, my former president, Goodluck Jonathan, tried his best. But if I were him, I would not have contested at all, you understand. Because it is two ways: if he did not contest and the PDP lost out, he will still be an honourable man, and if he had given that opportunity to the north, those who defected from the PDP would not have defected. But that is story. Jonathan did his best and I will still continue to support him. You know I was not there when they took the decision about him becoming the flag-bearer, but it doesnt matter. We cant all put our mouth inside the soil. Somebody must remain with somebody. I will remain with Jonathan even if I am the only man standing. A man is not measured by the amount of food you have and the amount of properties you own. Sometimes sickness is good, it reshapes your life. Sometimes poverty is good, it helps your life. Sometimes failure makes you to reorder your life. It is not the end of your life. PT: Politicians are known to have their eyes on the apex of their political career. Do you have a presidential ambition come 2019? Fayose: For which country? Nigeria. Well, I dont have such an ambition but I know I am going higher. Mark my words, I have said 20 things that will happen in Nigeria and more than seven have come to pass. Check the records. PT: Lets talk about the stomach infrastructure. Isnt it taking a toll on the provision of real infrastructure such as road, power, etc? Because it appears that monies are just doled out to people in the name of stomach infrastructure? Fayose: So all those things that governors are enjoying, what is it, is it not doled? All those things wives of governors are enjoying what do you call them? All those things political office holders are enjoyingwhen the president travels out and spends $1million a day, what is he doling? Paper? When doling out money to the people, mint is for the benefit of the people. Let me tell you something, one thing you must appreciate no matter what number of promises you make, the stomach has to be filled. For me, stomach infrastructure is welfare. If somebody comes to me and says my father had an accident, he is in the hospital and he had fracture and he doesnt have enough money that is what we are talking about. Somebody wants blood and they need to buy blood that is what we are calling stomach infrastructure, body infrastructure, health infrastructure etc. You see, when your enemies want to talk about your good works, they will go and take the negative end of it and start fanning the ember. My own concept about stomach infrastructure goes beyond food and water. We are talking about paying school fees. Somebody comes to say sir, my fee is N50, 000 but I have N20, 000, can you help me with N30, 000? That is infrastructure. The father of that person who cannot raise that money, who is under pressure or whatever, would now find a relief. It might be temporary. You may tar all the roads but people are dying. What is the essence? A man has been ill and somebody drew my attention to it. I went to pick him and took him to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, the man had all sorts of problems but he needed four pints of blood urgently. We later realized he had ulcer, diabetes, and all that. I spent about N600, 000. I am telling you now the man is recovering. The doctor says if not for my intervention, the man would have become history 48 hours after. But you have tarred the road in front of the house of that man now. My opponents should wait for their time. If they have the best answer, why were they rejected by the people? See Buhari now, they say they are going to be paying N5000 each to the people. Why would they not channel that money to another thing? Most of the people talking now have no answer to governance issues. They ran their states aground. PT: Comment on the allegations by the APC that you stashed money away in Dubai and paid yourself N720m arrears during your unfinished first term? Fayose: I will not comment. I cannot be talking to fools. When you say Fayose took N720million you must be able to say to which account. If it is by Ghana must go bag, you must show the picture of how that Ghana must go bag is being carried. If you say I am building a house in Dubai, you must show papers of ownership. Ekiti earns about the least in Nigeria, there is no money to steal here. If you tell me that I am enjoying, yes I enjoy o, I eat correct pepper soup, sometimes, once in a while, I need to drink cold Gulder, I drink Gulder. I cannot tell you lies, all those small, small enjoyment, you cannot take it from me. Because when you are feeding others, you have to feed yourself. Whatever little, little benefit that is supposed to come to me, my brother it is my own. But for me to take N10 or N20million from what cannot pay salaries you see they run their mouth, they just want to say something because I am an issue for them. What is N720million? They said I took N220million to Dubai. Is it by the boot of the plane or we carried it in our luggage? What was their security doing, that they did not see us? They should be able to align because when you launder money there must be a source and there must be a head. They have alleged I took money from the country. They should tell me where the money was taken to PT: Your explanation is vital because the allegations are there and people believe you actually took the money? Fayose: Goodluck to them! I say Goodluck to them! They believed it but I came back and defeated them. What else do you want? They say Fayose is a thief, Fayose is a thief, Fayose is fighting, Fayose is mad but each time I come I defeat them. You see, an allegation is meaningless. You must prove. Every allegation I raised against president Buhari, I raised them with facts and figures. When I was talking about fuel regulation, you cannot take the subsidy and be regulating again. Those are issues. When I say you are infringing on human rights, I give instances of people who are incarcerated and people who are involved against our constitution. When you accuse me you must bring the proofs. As I am today, they will be monitoring me. They will be checking all my accounts. If they had found something now they will put it on the table. Me too, I know that they are watching me. I know that they are very wicked people. I know the kind of character they are made of. Today I am their headache. I am careful. The wealth I dont need I dont ask for it. What a man has does not necessarily translate to a good end for him. PT: You had issues with the bailout especially from NLNG funds, what were you trying to achieve? Fayose: What I told them was that, when they first of all gave us this NLNG tax money that is not bailout. They claimed it was bailout, I told them it is not bailout. Even the bailout they gave us, I told them it was only a Pyrrhic victory for us. Because our problem is not even the payment, our problem is our financial base and debts. We cant service our debts and our earnings are diminished. So we have to get all these things right. When you say bailout now, we are owing until 2036 as a state. But if you dont take it they will say you are fighting. PT: How much did you get and would you say have judiciously spent the bailout funds you got? Fayose: They have not even paid enough, because what we asked for, they are yet to pay the local governments. For me, I am not an accountant. The books are there. There is Freedom of Information Act. Anybody who needs information should go to the office of the Accountant General. You cant hide the books any more. The system is very transparent. If after looking through the books and if you are not satisfied, they are the owners of EFCC, they should approach them. PT: When you came into office you complained about what your predecessor spent on the Government House and furniture, especially the beds Fayose: (Cuts in) I dont want to dwell on that. Nigerians want to hear something new, things that would impact immediately on their lives. That has come and gone. If we are not careful, you will look like someone is just ranting. Fayemi is gone, I cannot be celebrating him on the pages of newspapers, I cannot be talking about him anymore, he has done what he had to do, thank God for him. He has done his best. Now when Buhari starts talking about Jonathan, persistently, Nigerians will ask we have heard, now what have you for us, you promised that you are going to change our lives. PT: What have you to say about the report of the military inquest into the role of soldiers in the Ekiti and Osun elections? Fayose: (Cuts in again) Let me explain to you. My own is that I have gone through an election. I have won an election. There is a place the law says you can ventilate your displeasure. They have gone to the lower court, the appeal court and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has given judgment in my favour. They have become functus officio. They cannot approbate and reprobate on the matter anymore. The election matters are Suris Generics. They operate within the ambit of time. The military was represented by a lawyer and the police was represented by a lawyer. This one is an afterthought. They said during my election the militaryduring Jonathans election, how did I win? During the National Assembly election, how did I win all the seats? Two weeks after house of assembly election, I won everything, 26-26. Is it the military again? When the concubine of your mother is more powerful than your father, you call him daddy. You welcome him and take his bag. Let them take my bag and accept this Ekiti matter. This Bayelsa election we just finished, 14 people died, how many people died in Ekiti? If you see my prediction about Nigeria under Buhari, I said every effort to forcefully take the south-south states will result to a huge loss of lives. My brother, they should leave me alone. They should face governance. God has given me this place. No amount of powers that will take this place from me because the gift of God is without repentance. How can only me defeat three governors, Segun Oni, Adebayo and Fayemi. I defeated them and they are still complaining. PT: What about the recommendations of the report of the committee? Fayose: I have commented. It goes to no issue. And all the hidden agenda, we will keep our fingers crossed. We are watching. You see, since I became governor, I have not lost any battle. When God is with you, no man can be against you. They are only fooling themselves. During the last election, they said military was supporting Jonathan by asking for Buharis certificate. The same thing they did that time is what they are doing now. He who pays the piper dictates the tune. I am not surprised. I am not among those people who are afraid of death. All those whom the Lord has not delivered us into their hands will never overcome us. PT: What is your suggested way out for states of the present economic hardship and inability to pay salaries? Fayose: Let us be realistic, over time this economy ought to have been diversified over 20-30 years ago. The economy was not diversified. There is no miracle but we need prayers, even in 2016. Even the president says its going to be tough. In my state for instance, if you dont pay salaries as you ought to pay, where will you get taxes that you want to raise? And when people dont make money, you cannot squeeze water out of a dry cloth. You can only try your best while it lasts. It is a time of recession. I am not going to sit here and paint the picture that everything will be fine, but everything will be fine in the long run. PT: Some have suggested a cut in the workforce? Fayose: I cant cut anybodys job. Me, Ayo Fayose, I cant sack any worker. Immediately they started the story of retrenchment, I told them count me out. You see, when you are owing me as a worker, it is different from taking my means of livelihood. When you are owing the worker at the bad times, he will have the hope that when money comes he would be paid. But if you had sacked him, you have killed him, you have taken away his life. PT: If the economy continues this way and cant cope anymore, wont you eventually sack workers? Fayose: I will continue to dialogue with them. PT: Are you contemplating cutting salaries? Fayose: I wont cut anything. I will continue to dialogue with them. You see, you cant make decisions for the people alone. This governance we are talking about, government is not the only factor. There are other variables. When things are not going the way you expect, you must engage the people. PT: What is your relationship with Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, who is chairman of PDP Governors Forum? Fayose: We are brothers. He is a leader in our party and by the grace of God, he is governor in Ondo, I am governor in Ekiti. Every member of the Governors Forum remains our brother. PT: What about reports about a frosty relationship over the leadership of the PDP Governors forum? Fayose: If I know your source, I will be able to answer you but I am not aware of any frosty relationship with Governor Mimiko. The fact remains that if Governor Mimiko wants to become the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, how does that affect my voice? In this country today, everybody knows that I am talking, whether I am chairman of PDP Governors Forum or not. So, when God has appointed somebody you take him as Gods appointed. PT: Are you saying that your relationship with him is cordial? Fayose: It is explicit. Mimiko remains the chairman of PDP Governors Forum and I remain a member of that forum. PT: Thank you for your time Fayose: Thank God. The ancient city of Iwo came alive Friday as former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited the newly-crowned monarch, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi. The ex-president was received by a tumultuous crowd of residents who were surprised by Mr. Obasanjos unscheduled visit. The major streets where the ex-presidents convoy snaked through went agog as residents took to dancing in appreciation of the august visitor. It was a hectic time for security agents before they could create way for Mr. Obasanjos convoy to gain entry into the palace due to the heavy presence of residents who besieged the main gate welcome the former president. Speaking at the palace, Mr. Obasanjo, who described his visit to the town as a necessity said, his coming was aimed at paying homage to the new monarch and strengthening the existing peace among the Yoruba. Mr. Obasanjo, who also attributed the existing peace, unity, progress and tranquility in Yoruba land to what he regarded as continuous efforts being exhibited by the peace-loving people in the West, said the time had come for all to be united. He commended Yoruba monarchs for maintaining the peaceful coexistence and mutual relationship among the people, saying the main virtues that can make a nation great are peace and love. Mr. Obasanjo, who described the new Oluwo as an experienced man, a distinguished technocrat, said his emergence as Oluwo was a clear manifestation of his sincerity and passion for development. He therefore commended the people of the town for brilliantly and painstakingly choosing a man whose antecedents can key into the desired development of his people. He implored the monarch to use his exalted position to reposition the town and foster togetherness among his subjects, Yoruba land and Nigeria as a whole. He said, My visit to Iwo is to pay a due homage to the new monarch and as well strengthen the existing peace among we Yorubas. I am here today to show that we Yorubas are one and as far as we are concerned we shall continue to be more united and mutually fostered. To me, I believe that nothing is as good as living in peace and I also believe that the existing peace in Yoruba land can only be continually enjoyed if we see the need to be our brothers keepers and extend love to one another. To me, Iwo has chosen a right man as king and I am optimistic that his reign will usher in development, peace, unity, progress and tranquility. In view of this, I want the new Oluwo to prioritize peace, unity and togetherness as veritable instruments to culminate all-round success and transformation. He therefore prayed for continuous peace and tranquility in all parts of Yoruba land, Nigeria, Africa and the entire world. In his remarks, the Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Akanbi, extolled the virtues of the ex-President in keeping peace among the Yoruba nation. Oba Akanbi, who described Mr. Obasanjo as an agent of peace, promised to continuously maintain the existing peace and place Yorubas image on global pages. The monarch, who expressed delight on the visit, said the visit depicted the high sense of love, peace and unity reigning among the Yorubas. He therefore reassured his subjects of his total commitment to turning around the economy of the ancient town for the greater benefit of all and well-being of the entire indigenes. The Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory has said that former President Goodluck Jonathan and 29 others were allocated plots of land in violation of Abuja Masterplan. The chairman of the committee, Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi State), made the claim during a budget defence by the FCT ministry led by its Minister, Muhammed Bello, on Friday. The committee threatened to order immediate revocation of the affected plots of land located in the Maitama District of the federal capital territory. Mr. Melaye said the plots of land allocated to Jonathan and others in the Maitama District fell within a reserved area planned to host tourist centres for foreign visitors. He listed other beneficiaries of similar plots to include late National Security Adviser, Andrew Okoye Azazi; former Justice Minister and Attorney-General of the Federation, Muhammed Bello Adoke; former Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda; and the acting National Chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus. Mr. Melaye said the committee on FCT visited the area and saw workers erecting structures on the plots. He said that the committee had directed that work should stop on construction of buildings in the area. Suspected Boko Haram terrorists on Friday raided two villages, Mairi and Malari in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno, killing four persons and razing houses in the communities. The attacks came barely one week after the Dalori incident in which some 100 persons were killed. Some residents in Mairi told journalists that the attackers arrived the village on bicycles at about 8.30 p.m. The attackers came on bicycles and started shooting sporadically. The community was taken unaware as many people were relaxing after the late night Muslim prayers, Baana Bukar, a resident said. Bukar said the attackers set ablaze buildings as they ransacked the community. He said, We took to our heels to escape the attack. When we returned in the morning we discovered that four persons (three women and one man) had died. The women were roasted after their houses were set ablaze by the attackers but the man was shot dead with a gun during the attack. Ahmed Tijjani, the Vice Chairman of the local vigilante-civilian JTF in charge of the Konduga local government confirmed the report. He said the attackers also raided an adjourning village, Malari. They attacked Malari village after leaving Mairi but the people had escaped before their arrival when they heard gun shots, he said. Tijjani said the terrorists set ablaze all private and public buildings in the village. Babakaka Garbai, the Senator representing Borno Central at the National Assembly, who also confirmed the incident, expressed shock at the development. Yes, they killed four persons here and burnt all the houses, Mr. Garbai said when he paid a sympathy visit to the communities. He said that the surrounding villages had been deserted as the villagers had fled enmasse for fear of attacks by the insurgents. (NAN) Small business owners in Rivers State are to benefit from a N2billion micro-credit scheme without necessarily providing collateral, Governor Nyesom Wike has said. The governor said the state government will serve as a collateral for the small business owners so they can play more positive roles in the economic recovery of the state. Mr. Wike assured the less privileged in the state that his administration will take concrete steps to empower them through micro-credit schemes that will grow small and medium scale businesses across the state. Flagging off the N2billion Rivers State Micro,Small, and Medium Scale Entreprises Development Fund in Port Harcourt on Saturday, Governor Wike said the project, being funded through a facility from the Central Bank of Nigeria, would assist small businesses with capital. According to him, his administration would ensure that the conditions for issuing the loans by the Rivers State Micro Finance Agency, RIMA, was friendly enough for small and medium sized businesses to have access to funds. He said: The aim of this empowerment programme is to reach the mama-put operator, the onion seller, the barber, the table water manufacturer and owners of medium sized businesses for them to expand, employ more people and grow the state economy. With the present reality, it is no longer feasible to rely solely on oil revenue. Therefore, my administration will ensure that these businesses have access to funds without stringent conditions. This is the first batch. Those not accommodated in this batch will be accommodated in the second batch. The governor added that his administration would also extend credit facilities to farmers in the state to enable them expand production and empower a greater percentage of the people. Governor Wike said the N2billion fund would be administered judiciously, pointing out that it would not be handled the way the Rotimi Amaechi administration treated a similar facility. In his remarks, the chairman of RIMA, Austin Opara, said the Wike administration sourced the N2billion for the purpose of empowering the less privileged. He said the fund would be disbursed through three micro-finance banks. He appealed to beneficiaries to repay their loans so that the revolving scheme would be sustained. TherRepresentative of the CBN, Chinedu Zephaniah, assured the Rivers State government of the support and cooperation of the bank to ensure the success of the scheme. The state government later organised a seminar for beneficiaries of the scheme from the 23 Local Government Areas of the State. The seminar was titled Actualizing the New Vision on Food Security, Entrepreneurship development, poverty reduction and job creation in Rivers State. An Iyaganku Chief Magistrates Court sitting in Ibadan on Friday ordered that a 28-year-old female lawyer, Yewande Oyediran, accused of killing her husband be kept in prison. The accused, a member of staff of Ministry of Justice, Oyo state, was alleged to have stabbed her husband, Oyelowo Oyediran, to death. The Chief Magistrate, Kehinde Durosaro-Tijani, remanded Yewande at Agodi Prison, pending the advice of the director of public prosecution in the state. Police prosecutor, Adewale Amos, had told the court that the accused caused the death of Oyelowo, 38, by stabbing him on the neck with a knife. Amos said the attack on the man resulted to his death. He said that the offence was committed on Feb. 2, at about 6.10 a.m. at 30, Abidi Odan Street, Akobo, Ibadan, residence of the couple, who got married in February, 2013. The prosecutor told the court that the offence contravened section 316 and punishable under section 319 of the Criminal Code, Cap 38, Vol .II, Laws of Oyo State 2000. The court did not take the plea of the accused. Her counsel, Seun Abimbola, who led eight other lawyers to the court, applied to the court that the accused be kept in police custody. But, the magistrate disallowed the application and ordered that the woman should be taken to prison. The magistrate, Mrs. Durosaro-Tijani, thereafter, adjourned the case till Feb. 16. (NAN) Gehlot rejects and condemns Modis allegations against Gandhi family ( Read 3344 Times) 06 Feb 16 Share | Print This Page Jaipur,The former Chief Minister of Rajasthan Shri Ashok Gehlot has outrightly rejected and condemned Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modis statement in which Mr. Modi had accused Gandhi Family of disrupting parliament and not letting it function. Ex. Chief Minister said, Right from the Lok Sabha election campaign, Mr. Modi has been feeling panicky and is scared of Smt. Sonia Gandhi and Shri Rahul Gandhi. He therefore launched continuous attacks against them which are still going on. It exhibits Mr. Modis personal dread of the Gandhis as also his mindset of envy. Shri Gehlot further said, Mr. Modi should not talk about the contribution of Gandhi family before and after the Independence. The entire country knows that Pandit Nehru remained in various jails for several years before the Independence. Post Independence, our great leaders Smt. Indira Gandhi, while she was the Prime Minister,and shri Rajiv Gandhi the former Prime Minister had fallen victim to terrorism and sacrificed their lives for the country. Shri Gehlot said that it is indeed very unfortunate and regrettable that the Prime Minister of the country harbours such negative thoughts and ill-will about such a great family which has a long history of sacrifices for the country. Ex. Chief Minister observed, it would be better for the Prime minister to take corrective for the prevailing atmosphere of fear, disbelief, terror and intolerance in the country. Such an atmosphere is not in the interest of the country and that the PM should take initiative to change it, otherwise any talk of development will be meaningless. This Article/News is also avaliable in following categories : National News Your Comments ! Share Your Openion ATLANTIC CITY The local Municipal Utilities Authority has a situation that is new to it but not unique in the city. A peregrine falcon has made a nest on top of one of the water tanks atop the MUA building, according to Executive Director Bruce Ward. The authority has a scheduled disinfection of the tank planned, so it needs to have the nest moved to proceed. The authority, at 401 N. Virginia Ave., does not typically deal with falcons, so people there were unaware what to do about the nest without disrupting the birds natural habitat. Ward said they reached out to the state Department of Environmental Protection to ask what they should do. Caryn Shinske, a spokeswoman for the department, said they and the MUA had an open discussion and formulated a plan that would best serve both parties. The DEP insisted that workers from the authority build another nest but include a portion of the empty old nest for the falcons to live in when they return in the spring. Ward said the authority has done that. The new nest is about 40 yards from the old location. The hope is that the birds can use the scent from the old nest to find the new one. Peregrine falcons on Atlantic City rooftops are not unusual. According to Shinske, the bird loves high altitudes that are near water, so the buildings in Atlantic City make perfect homes for them. Falcons have been recorded having a home on top of the building most recently known as the Atlantic Club since at least 1988. Workers at the now-closed casino would monitor the birds when they arrived in the spring and the mother would lay eggs. A new bird arrived in 2001 and stayed until at least 2014. Ward believes the falcon on top of the MUA building has been there for quite a while, and they are taking steps to ensure that it can call the MUA its home for the foreseeable future. Contact: 609-272-7275 Watch Sweeney discuss meeting in video It was early December and Frank Formica was working at his familys Ducktown bakery in Atlantic City when he got a call from Gov. Chris Christies chief of staff, inviting him to a meeting at the governors mansion, Drumthwacket. What for? the Atlantic County freeholder director asked. An Atlantic City intervention meeting, Formica recalls Regina Egea saying. You mean you want to take over the government of Atlantic City? he countered. Egea said they didnt want to use the word takeover, but rather a hollowing of city functions, according to Formica. But to Formica, the third generation of his family to run the bakery that opened in 1919, the meaning was clear. A few days later, on Dec. 10, he and Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson drove together to Drumthwacket, outside Princeton. There, they met with state Senate President Steve Sweeney and the 2nd District legislative team, Sen. Jim Whelan and Assemblymen Chris Brown and Vince Mazzeo. Egea and Christie Chief Counsel Tom Scrivo were also there, along with Camden County insurance executive George Norcross and Morris County real estate developer Jon Hanson. Christie wasnt there. Neither was Atlantic City mayor Don Guardian, or anyone else representing Atlantic City government. For three hours, the group discussed Atlantic Citys issues, its problems, possible solutions and assets. Its quite possible the word takeover was never used that day. And Whelan and Mazzeo have since said they were surprised when, a month later, a draft takeover bill was circulated in Trenton. But Sweeney, who ran the Dec. 10 meeting, scoffed at the suggestion that everyone didnt know what was being discussed, and what would happen next. Think about who was in the room. How dramatic and how serious we were about the problem, Sweeney said. So anybody thinking this was a surprise as everyone acted, everyone knew about this. They might not have seen the bill. But we all had a conversation about it. Parsing the guest list A lot has happened in the nearly two months since the meeting at Drumthwacket. Sweeney introduced legislation to take over Atlantic Citys governmental functions. Emergency Manager Kevin Lavin issued his final report on the citys fiscal crisis and identified what he said would be a $303 million budget shortfall over the next five years if no state rescue occurs. Angry at being excluded from discussions about the citys future, Guardian and City Council threatened to take the city into bankruptcy. Eventually, after the fingerpointing and posturing, city officials and state lawmakers started talking about what needs to be done. But resentment and distrust linger over how the citys fate is being decided. How the hell is it that all white folks can go to Drumthwacket to decide what is good and bad for Atlantic City? asked Atlantic County Freeholder Ernest Coursey, who is black. Coursey, a lifelong city resident and former councilman, said he found most galling the fact that power brokers and businessmen such as Norcross and Hanson were there at the table. To tell us what they cant do? Sweeney said when asked whether Atlantic City officials should have been at the meeting. To tell us, Just give us more money? Ive already heard their grievances. Norcross was invited by Democrats and Republicans to talk about what has succeeded in Camden, where the state, county and city are working on redevelopment and public safety, his spokesman said. Norcross is the chairman of Cooper University Hospital, a major Camden employer. Hanson declined to comment. Its common for elected officials of both parties and representatives from the executive branch to meet when developing policy for complex issues, said Montclair State University political science and law professor Brigid Harrison, of Longport. Such meetings can be healthy and productive. But she sees problems with the Drumthwacket meeting. The invitation of Norcross, a non-elected official with no relationship to the resort, and the exclusion of the citys elected officials were bound to raise suspicions, she said. I think that when you look at how this takeover is occurring and how there are vested interests participating in the meeting in which this is planned, we know were in for another dose of the kind of corrupt and patronage-oriented development that tends to benefit a few vested interests but in the long term doesnt bring broad economic rewards, Harrison said. Sweeney noted that Hanson was already involved in helping Atlantic City as part of the governors advisory commission on gaming, sports and entertainment. Norcross has helped in turning around Camden, which has similar issues as Atlantic City, Sweeney said. Its not anything else but adding expertise and having someone that can help create a plan, Sweeney said. The Governors Office wouldnt comment on the meeting, other than to say it was not a secret discussion, as Christie and Sweeney had announced they would meet with stakeholders about Atlantic City. Its awfully smelly to me, like a dead cat on the lawn, said Coursey, who said Atlantic City residents fear that a state takeover will mean the loss of their water utility, sold for cash to some politically connected operator to plug a budget deficit. On the table, at the table On the drive to Drumthwacket, Formica and Levinson talked about what might happen and agreed not to commit the county to anything before seeing all the details. They were the last to arrive, going through a State Police checkpoint at the gate and parking in front on the long horseshoe driveway. It was about 1 p.m., but despite the setting in the mansions dining room, no food was served other than almonds and cashews. Formica had with him a package of cannolis he brought as a gift to Christie, who campaigned at his bakeries in past gubernatorial elections. But when they got there, they learned Christie wouldnt attend, and that Egea and Scrivo would be representing the states interests. Why are you here? Youre not an elected official, Levinson asked Norcross. It was a tongue-in-cheek question. Levinson and Norcross recently had two get-acquainted lunches in Atlantic City, and Levinson had already said he welcomes Norcross business acumen and hopes hell get involved in the resort. People remembered different details about those three hours, but most agreed Sweeney started the meeting saying outlining Atlantic Citys crushing debt and the $303 million deficit Lavin described in his report if no action was taken. On the table was everything from the municipal utilities authority to police and public works, and selling assets to bankruptcy, Formica said. He argued for bankruptcy to restructure debt and lower the tax rate to attract residents and businesses, he said, but got pushback from Sweeney and Norcross. Sweeney said more New Jersey cities would then move to file as well, Formica recalled. We went around and around and around, talking about taking over parts of Atlantic City for hours, said Formica. The citys recent decision to buy two trash trucks rather than hire the Atlantic County Utilities Authority to collect its trash and recyclables irked some, he said. Formica said Lavin, who was not at the meeting, had told him the city would only save about $5 million a year if the county took over administering its police department. Im going, Thats like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic to stop it from sinking, Formica said. The citys annual budget is about $262 million. Formica also recommended getting more aid for the citys school district and was told by others the timing was good. Formica said his read on the room was that North Jersey legislators were so anxious to get a posting for the North Jersey casino bill that they would be open to giving something to Atlantic City in return. Whelan said a broad range of topics pertaining to Atlantic City and County were covered, but nothing was decided at that meeting. My sense was there were going to be further, broader discussions with more people. Whelan declined to specify what was discussed but said the meeting did not lead him to expect a takeover bill to be thrust on the Legislature in the last days of its 2015-16 session. What I can say is that the two bills it was not just the takeover but the amended version of the PILOT bills when they were presented to the caucus at 6 oclock at night in what was supposed to be the last session, it was a total surprise to me, said Whelan, particularly in context of, We have to vote on these tonight. Mazzeo said he doesnt recall any idea or any talk about a state takeover, just about a lot of Atlantic Citys problems. Levinson and Formica said that if the word wasnt used, it was clearly understood. Brown said he was asked to hold hands with Whelan and Mazzeo in making the takeover a reality but said he could not commit to anything until he saw how the numbers worked for Atlantic Countys residents. Formica, like Whelan, said he believed there was going to be more discussion on the issues, perhaps another meeting. That was one reason officials didnt actively go around talking about what happened, he said. There have been more closed-door meetings when someone has complained about being left out. After the takeover bill was introduced and after Guardian threatened bankruptcy, he met with Sweeney and Christie to work out plans for a new combination of state intervention in the citys finances and a new PILOT bill package. Absent from that meeting was Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Hudson, Bergen, who pointedly referred to the exclusion in a press release. The fact is that no one speaks for the Assembly except for the Assembly, Prieto said in a recent statement. If the Assembly is not involved, then there is no agreement. More recently, Atlantic City Council went into a two-hour executive session during a special council meeting called to discuss bankruptcy. As residents, reporters and others waited in a packed meeting room, Guardian and council members disappeared briefly from the room to talk to Sweeney about a new bill for intervening in city finances. Few details have been released about how the new plan differs from the old. But when council members emerged from the elevator, they said they were happy to finally have a seat at the table. That table, however, was still behind closed doors. And a seat at the table still required an invitation. Contact: 609-272-7215 Twitter @_Hetrick Contact: 609-272-7219 Twitter @MichelleBPost 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. Junior Inquisitor Excerpt: *** Buy links: Lincoln S. FarishBrother Sebastian is halfway up a mountain in Vermont, hell-bent on interrogating an old woman in ashack, when he gets the order to abandon his quest for personal vengeance. He has to find a missing Inquisitor, or, more likely, his remains. Hes reluctant, to say the least. Not only will he have to stop chasing the best potential lead hes had in years, this jobhis first solo missionwill mean setting foot in the grubby black hole of Providence, Rhode Island. And, somehow, it only gets worseIf hed known he would end up ass deep in witches, werewolves, and ogres, and that this mission would jeopardize not only his sanity but also his immortal soul, he never wouldve answered the damn phone.With deliberate movements, I again went from shadow to shadow, creeping away from my car and the shop. Even moving with care, I was sweating from fear and excitement, my heart still pumping rapidly. My brain was screaming, Run away, and I really wanted to listen to it. I wanted to just start running as fast as I could down the street. It would feel good for a few minutes, until I was caught.I wiped my face before the stinging sweat blinded me. Last thing I needed was to twist my ankle on a pothole or unseen brick. I made it several more blocks in a generally south and east direction before I heard a car coming down the street toward me. I could just make it outa panel van, the kind the cable company uses. This late at night, a vehicle like that was not going to be good for me. I ducked into a little stand of trees growing between two twelve-foot industrial fences and started running.Maybe they didnt see me, or maybe it was just some burglars looking for a house to rob.The vans engine revved, headed to where Id been before my dash into the trees. Brakes, old and tired, squealed behind me. I tried to go faster, but the trees were thick, the light bad, and there was a lot of undergrowth and litter on the ground. At a full run, I would faceplant into a tree or step in a hole. The best I could manage was a slow trot. The hollow metallic bang of a vehicle door being thrown open crashed into the night. The howling came next.Online contact:Twitter @lincolnfarish 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 New Delhi, Feb 3 : Actress Deepika Padukone, who has left for Canada to shoot for Hollywood film "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage", says she is looking forward to shooting with action hero Vin Diesel. Bollywood's 'Mastani' Deepika says he is a "very generous" person and hopes to have fun during the shooting schedule. "In the few two or three interactions that I have had with him (Vin Diesel), he is just a very warm person. He is very generous among most of my co-stars that I have worked with. I think it will be a fun experience working with him," Deepika said of her maiden foreign project at an event here. She was in the national capital on Tuesday to attend NDTV Indian of the Year 2015 awards ceremony, in which she was named Actor Of The Year. Deepika left for Canada on Tuesday night after the event. Her "Bajirao Mastani" co-star and rumoured beau Ranveer Singh shared the news about the actress flying off to shoot for her maiden Hollywood project. In the third instalment of the film, Diesel is back as Cage who returns to the National Security Agency after an eight-year absence in the movie, which also stars Nina Dobrev, Samuel L. Jackson, Ruby Rose, Jet Li and Tony Jaa. "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" is expected to release in 2017. New Delhi, Feb 3 : India has agreed to allot a site for a second Russian-built nuclear power plant in the country after Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, according to a senior official of Russia's atomic energy corporation. Evgeni Griva, director general of Rosatom (South Asia), who has just taken charge of his post in Mumbai, told IANS in an interview during a visit here that India has agreed on allocating a site for a second nuclear power project in India by Rosatom. "An agreement has been reached on the allocation by the Indian party of one more site for the construction of six new nuclear reactors of Russian design," Griva said. "We hope to get more detailed information about the site as soon as possible," he said. The Russian official said this was as per the agreement between both countries on nuclear cooperation reached in December 2014, which provides for Rosatom setting up nuclear plants at various locations in the country in the future. Four reactors are envisaged for Kudankulam, the first of which is already operaional, while the second is to be commissioned later this year. The construction units 3 and 4 has been delayed owing to doubts amonng foreign suppliers about India's nuclear damage liability laws. Griva said the contract for delivering equipment for units 3 and 4 had been signed and initial permits obtained. "On September 7, 2015, Atomenergomash Holding, the power plant division of Rosatom, signed the comprehensive delivery contract for reactor equipment for power units 3 and 4," Griva said. "The permit for excavation works and foundation pit preparation has now been obtained from the Indian regulatory body," he said. "The first and most important contract has also been signed - the delivery contract of long-lead equipment and priority delivery equipment from the Russian Federation. Besides, the top priority design is practically completed," he added. The Indian government last year launched an insurance pool of Rs.1,500 crore ($220 million) which is mandatory under the country's Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLND). Clauses in the CLND Act, which give the operator the right to recourse against suppliers in case of accident, provoked concern among industry and led to the creation of the insurance pool. Under the pool, set up by state-run General Insurance Corp and other non-life state-run insurers including New India, Oriental Insurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance, as well as private insurers, policies offered will be a nuclear operators liability insurance policy and a nuclear suppliers' special contingency (against right to recourse) insurance policy. On the second unit at Kudankulam, Griva said its assembly had been compkleted. "The hot-run stage is completed. The physical launch is scheduled by the Indian party (Nuclear Power Corporation of India) for mid-2016," he said. Noting that the operational first unit at Kudankulam had already generated close to 7,000 million units of electricity, Griva said: "This is the world's first nuclear power plant which has implemented and successfully operated the tightened security measures post-Fukushima." The Kudankulam nuclear power plant is equipped with state-of-the-art safety mechanisms with unique features that make them foolproof. In an interview to IANS earlier, Denis Kolchinskiy, chief project engineer of SPbAEP, the developers of the AES 92 nuclear reactor installed at Kudankulam, had said modern Russian designs - developed over a decade - have an optimised balance of active and passive safety systems to provide two layers of protection. The key to preventing an apocalypse in the event of a core meltdown, said Kolchinskiy, is the "molten-core catcher" - a mandatory safety system included in the Kudankulam project's basic supply package. (Biswajit Choudhury can be reached at biswajit.c@ians.in) Seoul, Feb 4 : North Korea is preparing to launch a long-range missile, the South Korean defence ministry announced on Thursday, warning of an imminent missile test by Pyongyang in the coming weeks. North Korea has recently informed international maritime, aviation and telecommunication agencies that it will launch a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, taking a preparatory step for what the outside world believes will be a defiant test of a ballistic missile, The Korea Herald reported. "In line with North Korea's warning of a missile launch sometime between February 8-25, it is preparing for the launch at Dongchang-ri," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said in a regular briefing. Moon, however, did not provide any details of the intelligence, saying he cannot confirm or deny a Japanese report that a mobile launcher loaded with a ballistic missile was seen moving along North Korea's east coast. The spokesman said South Korea will intercept any North Korean missile and debris if it falls in South Korea's land, sea or air territory. "The military is ramping up its air defence readiness so it can intercept a missile or any debris that lands in our territory or waters," Moon added. South Korea and the US have also deployed military assets to detect and track a North Korean missile if it is fired, he also added. New Delhi, Feb 5 : The Congress on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of allowing nepotism, conflict of interest and plunder of public land for commercial and business purposes as the chief minister of Gujarat. The party also demanded the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and a time-bound probe monitored by the Supreme Court into the whole matter. "Shocking revelations in public domain make it abundantly clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as chief minister of Gujarat, allowed nepotism, conflict of interest and brazen plundering of public land to promote commercial and business interests of entities closely connected to the kin of the then revenue minister and present Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel," senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma told the media here. "Allotment of 250 acres of government land next to the Gir lion sanctuary without any valuation or price determination for a pittance was in gross violation of all known procedures and regulations governing allocation of public land in eco-sensitive zones, allowing purchase of agricultural land by non-agriculturists as also change of land use of agricultural land for profiteering and commercial exploitation," he added. Sharma said: "In the light of the prime minister's assurance to the nation of 'zero tolerance for corruption' and firm action against all acts of omission and commission, it becomes imperative that he come clean on this matter to uphold the dignity of the Prime Minister's Office." Putting a question to Modi, the Congress leader said: "Was the allocation of 250 acres of public land next to the Gir lion sanctuary in public interest as also in conformity with laws, regulations and established procedure for alienation of government assets?" "Was proper valuation or price determination for this government land done?" He asked what the criteria were laid down for allotment of land to a company with no experience or knowledge of setting up resorts. "Was Narendra Modi aware of the loss caused to the state exchequer?" "Was Modi aware of clear conflict of interest of the then revenue minister Anandiben Patel while allocating the said land? Was this allocation based on a cabinet decision and endorsed by the then chief Minister and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed?" The Congress leader said that the party, therefore, demanded setting up of a special investigation team monitored by the Supreme Court for a time-bound probe into the entire matter. "For a fair probe, the Gujarat chief minister must also resign," Sharma added. Madrid, Feb 6 : The Spanish Ministry for Health and Equality has announced that it is to publish weekly updates informing of the number of cases of the Zika virus in Spain. The Ministry made the decision in the wake of Thursday's revelations that seven cases, including a pregnant woman, of the virus have been detected in Spain, all in people who had visited countries where the virus is prevalent, Xinhua reported. All of those affected are "responding within expectations and do not suppose a risk of the propagation of the virus within Spain," according to the Ministry. Experts said it is unlikely that the Zika virus can spread from person to person in Spain, as only one of the two kinds of mosquitoes known to spread the virus exists in the country. This is the Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) which lives in regions of the south and east coast, the Basque region and Aragon, but is largely inactive over the winter due to the cold. The Zika virus reproduces more slowly in Tiger mosquitoes than in the Aedes aegipty, which is spreading the virus in Latin America. In order for the virus to spread from person to person, a carrier with a sufficient charge of the virus would have to be bitten by a Tiger mosquito, which itself would then have to develop a large enough charge of the virus before biting another victim and thus transmitting the disease. This process has been described as "possible, but highly improbable" by the Spanish Society for Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, especially given the current inactivity of Tiger mosquitoes. Any new cases in Spain are likely to be imported, it said. London, Feb 6 : Britain on Friday rejected a UN working group's ruling which calls for an end to the "arbitrary detention" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) announced on Friday that Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain since his arrest in London in 2010, and he should be afforded the right to compensation, Xinhua reported. Speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been taking refuge, Assange said: "How sweet it is. This is a victory that cannot be denied." "It is a victory of historical importance, not just for me, for my family, for my children, but for the independence of the UN system," he added. Holding a copy of the UN ruling, he continued: "What right do the governments of the US, UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years?" However, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described the ruling as "a ridiculous finding" by the working group, and accused Assange of "hiding from justice." "Assange is a fugitive from justice, voluntarily hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy. I reject the report from UNWGAD," Hammond tweeted. Hitting back at Hammond, Assange accused the foreign secretary' s comments of "insulting the UN." "I found those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign secretary should express in this situation," The 44-year-old Australian said. Edward Snowden, a US intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower who has fled the US and taken refugee in Russia, criticised Britain's rejection to abide by the UN ruling. "This writes a pass for every dictatorship to reject UN rulings. Dangerous precedent for UK and Sweden to set," he said on his twitter account. British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) denied that Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Britain, and threatened to formally contest the opinion of the UN Working Group. "This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group's opinion," an FCO spokesperson said. The spokesperson noted that an allegation of rape against Assange is still outstanding with a European Arrest Warrant in place, and Britain "continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden." Assange has infuriated several governments, including the US authorities, by disclosing hundreds of thousands of secret files concerning Iraq, Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world. In June, 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and was granted political asylum by Ecuador two months later. Islamabad, Feb 6 : Pakistan and Afghanistan have reported the first cases of polio for the year 2016, a media report said on Saturday. In Pakistan, the case was confirmed by Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, Dawn online reported. An official of the ministry of National Health Services said the sample collected from a 34-month-old in January confirmed that the child had the onset of polio. Resident of Gadap town in Karachi, he had received two doses during routine immunisation and seven during different polio campaigns. "Malnutrition was the major reason of the disease because immunity level of the child was very low," the official said. A total of 54 cases of polio were reported in Pakistan in 2015. The official said the affected child in Afghanistan was 60 months old. He had received only two polio vaccines. "The child belongs to Kandahar. According to reports at least 80,000 children in Afghanistan were missed during last few campaigns," he said. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world which have been transferring the polio virus to each other. The main reason is that the two countries share a 2,500km long border. Children are vaccinated at legal entry points of the border but since Pakistan is hosting 1.6 million Afghan refugees, a large number of people cross the border illegally from different routes and it is not possible to vaccinate them at the border. Welcome to C & G ORGANIZATION INCORPORATION COMPANY that Promote, Blog, Advertise, Educate, Broadcast, Publish your services or product to the wide world in a bit of seconds we Edit video, Produce Music, Design and host Website, Graphic Design, Online Radio Hype, we bring all kind of news to your update, fashion and entertainment, sports and many lot more. This the only site and company you can get your services or product and goods been promoted Around the Globe, watch us on TV Washington, Feb 6 : Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, a module pilot on Apollo 14 mission that touched down the lunar surface on February 5, 1971, died in Florida this week on the eve of the 45th anniversary of his lunar landing. Mitchell joined Apollo 14 commander Alan Shephard, Jr., the first American in space, in the lunar module Antares which touched down in the Fra Mauro highlands on the Moon. Shepard and Mitchell were assigned to traverse the lunar surface to deploy scientific instruments and perform a communications test on the surface as well as photograph the lunar surface and any deep space phenomena. It was Mitchell's only spaceflight. Mitchell and Shephard set mission records for the time of the longest distance traversed on the lunar surface, the largest payload returned from lunar surface and the longest lunar stay time (33 hours). They were also the first to transmit colour TV from the lunar surface. Mitchell helped collect 94 pounds of lunar rock and soil samples that were distributed across 187 scientific teams in the US and 14 other countries for analysis. "As a member of the Apollo 14 crew, Edgar is one of only 12 men to walk on the moon and he helped to change how we view our place in the universe," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden in a statement. Mitchell was drawn to the spaceflight by President John F Kennedy's call to send astronauts to the moon. "After Kennedy announced the moon programme, that's what I wanted because it was the bear going over the mountain to see what he could see, and what could you learn, and I've been devoted to that - to exploration, education, and discovery since my earliest years, and that's what kept me going," Mitchell said in 1997 interview for NASA's oral history programme. In his book titled "The Way of the Explorer", Mitchell wrote: "There was a sense that our presence as space travelers, and the existence of the universe itself, was not accidental but that there was an intelligent process at work." Mitchell retired from NASA and the US Navy and founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973 to sponsor research in the nature of consciousness. In 1984, he co-founded the Association of Space Explorers, and international organisation for all who "share experience of space travel". Guwahati, Feb 6 : Butterflies in my stomach and a great thrill - exactly what I felt when I buckled up to take a paramotor ride here. It wasn't that someone who is scared of adventurous activities chose to indulge in an air sport that surprised people. But the fact that I did it in Guwahati - considered to be the gateway to the relatively less explored northeast India - raised many eyebrows. A city full of top fashion brands with high-rise residential and commercial buildings, Guwahati has changed a lot since the last time I set foot here two decades ago. So, it comes as no surprise that it is the only city from the northeast region that has found a place in the list of first 20 cities which will be developed into Smart Cities in 2016. In spite of all the new developments, two things haven't changed - its people's simplicity and the pride in speaking in Assamese. Since I hail from Imphal, which is about 40 minutes away from here by air, they assumed that I was one of them and that I was fluent in their language. But only I know how lost I was in translation especially while watching plays and listening to radio jockeys. Not that they don't converse in other languages. The moment the localites noticed my inability to understand Assamese, they quickly spoke in Hindi or English. Assigned to cover the second edition of Rongali - Destination, Culture, Harmony, a festival of Assam, I was eagerly looking forward to my return to Guwahati after 20 years. It's a place where my father bought our first car, I got my first Barbie and I started my first school year after kindergarten. Little did I know that the list of 'firsts' won't end here. Be it attending concerts of sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and the home-grown talent Zubeen Garg, who is idolised by many in Assam, to digging into the Assamese delicacy called chicken khoika to taking a flight over the mighty Brahmaputra river on a paramotor, the three-day fest gave me more 'first' experiences during my second visit. Though I showed interest in paramotoring, it seemed like they were doubtful about it because of my weight. I was told that for balance purpose, one needs to weigh at least 50 kg, and bingo! I felt so glad to have gained weight for the first time. With the helmet on and seat belt in place, I was geared up for my first paramotor ride, thankfully with a professional. Flying 500 ft above ground, it was like chasing the wind and the Brahmaputra staring right back at me. As long as the motor made a roaring sound and we moved straight, it felt fine. But there were times when the loud sound stopped, making my heart skip a few beats. The twists and turns, controlled by the pilot, further made me scream at the top of my lungs. No wonder why the paramotor pilot said that I was the first person to scare him to death. After that daring act and conclusion of the festival, I made sure to take a stroll down memory lane. So I, accompanied by a localite, made the Army School, Narangi - now Army Public School - my first stop. It's not just the name that has changed but also the whole look. The old buildings with metal roofing have given way to new ones in green and white hues. Nevertheless, I got emotional while taking a tour of the school, located away from the hustle and bustle of the city. While crossing our previous army accommodation here, I got into flashback mode. To cheer me up, my new friend took me to one of the city's popular sweet shops called Mishti Mukh, where she suggested to me to try patishapta - thin crepes mostly made with rice flour with a coconut filling. The other Bengali sweet she swore by was the soft and round kacha golla, made of uncooked cottage cheese and sugar. Heading home without a souvenir was not happening. So I added shopping, something that I loathe, to my itinerary. Yes, so products like bags made out of water hyacinth, eri silk jackets and Gamucha were responsible for excess baggage charges at the airport. Pressed for time and a traffic jam discouraged me from exploring the city more. So my last stop was the Purva Tirupati Sri Balaji Temple. With its strong lights, the white temple complex looked magnificent at night. Guwahati is one of the cities that I am emotionally connected to, and this trip made the bond even stronger. (The writer's visit was sponsored by the festival's organisers. Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in) Kochi, Feb 6 : The Oommen Chandy government in Kerala will retain power in the assembly elections scheduled later this year, former defence minister A.K. Antony said on Saturday -- a hope contrary to the state's history so far. "There has been no government that has done so much for the state, like the present one and hence there will be continuity of governance and Chandy government will retain power," Antony told reporters here. The Congress leader's confidence runs contrary to Kerala's electoral history. No government in the state has been able to retain power in the assembly elections. It has always alternated between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). "Yes, there might have been some issues now, but people of Kerala know what is happening and when they decide to finally cast their vote, they will vote for the Chandy government," added Antony, alluding to the solar scam and the bar bribery scam that have bruised the UDF government in the last few weeks. Antony has been a three time chief minister of Kerala, but has not got a full five year term. Chandy, despite having a tough ride, is all set to become the second Congress chief minister after K. Karunakaran to have a full five year term. The elections to the 140-member Kerala Assembly are expected to take place in April/May. Srinagar, Feb 6 : A special police officer (SPO) on Saturday decamped with the service rifle of a constable from a police station here. "SPO Riyaz Ahmad today (Saturday) morning decamped with the service rifle (AK-47) of constable Showkat Ahmad from Rainawari police station, a senior police officer told IANS in Srinagar. "Riyaz Ahmad originally belongs to Khansahib area in Badgam district. An FIR was registered in addition to the departmental inquiry," he added. This was the second incident in 2016, earlier on January 16, a cop decamped with four rifles from the residence of a top-ranking police officer in south Kashmir. Shakoor Ahmad, who was posted as Personal Security Officer (PSO) to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and SDPO Bijbehara Irshad Ahmad Bhat in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district, decamped with the rifles. Sources believe that Ahmad might have joined militants like his predecessor Naseer Pandith who decamped with his service rifle while he was posted on guard at then Works Minister Altaf Bukhari's residence in Sheikhbagh area of Srinagar in March 2015. New Delhi, Feb 6 : The auto components sector has been betting on the new automobile policy resolving many of the issues it now faces, a top industry official said here. "A major chunk of the problem would be resolved once the new automobile policy would be cleared by the Parliament and would come into force, meanwhile we are carrying out awareness campaigns at major auto component markets," Vinnie Mehta, director general of Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), said here at the Auto Expo. He said there were strict specification norms for each component produced by the sector. "Accordingly that specification has to be printed or embossed on the product but that guidelines are not followed in a stringent manner but once the new automobile policy comes into effect these problems would be taken care off," Mehta said in a statement on Saturday. Asked how discontinuation of registration of diesel vehicles has affected the industry, Mehta said: "Any kneejerk policy is not good for the development and growth of any industrial sector in the country. All industries want to maintain a clear environment and require long term policy planning while taking views of all the stake-holders." At the Auto Expo Innovation pavilion, Sona Steering Company has displayed its all weather concept electric cars which it plans to market in another two years' time and is expected to price it at about Rs.4 lakh. Islamabad, Feb 6 : At least four people were reportedly killed and dozens injured in a blast targeting security forces' vehicle in Quetta, provincial capital of Balochistan, on Saturday, Dawn reported. Provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani said six people were also injured in the blast. "We can not ascertain right now whether it was an Improvised Explosive Device or a suicide attack," said Akbar Durrani. Television footage showed several wounded Frontier Corps personnel being shifted from the scene. Srinagar, Feb 6 : A separatist guerrilla was killed on Saturday in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, police said. Exchange of fire was still on in the area. "Security forces surrounded Gundipora village of Pulwama district earlier today following information about presence of a group of militants there. When the hiding militants were challenged, they fired at the security forces, triggering a gun battle," a senior police officer told IANS here. "A local militant identified as Raqib Bashir of Zadoora village of the same district has been killed so far," he said, adding the operation "is still going on". Shimla, Feb 6 : Himachal Pradesh Police on Saturday seized about Rs.30 lakh in unaccounted foreign and Indian currency and detained two people who were on the way to McLeodganj, the abode of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, police said. "We seized the cash from a luxury car bearing a registration number of Delhi and two occupants of the car, who are Tibetans, have been detained," a police official told IANS. He said the foreign currency included Chinese yuan and US dollar. "The Indian rupees amounted to Rs.26 lakh," he added. The vehicle was intercepted in Mehatpur in Una district, bordering Punjab. Police believe the money was meant for a monastery in McLeodganj on the outskirts of Dharamsala town, some 250 km from here. In 2011, police arrested two people from the same spot and seized unaccounted Rs.1 crore from them. On the basis of their interrogation, police a day later raided the monastery of Tibetan religious head and 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the third most important Tibetan spiritual leader, on the outskirts of Dharamsala and seized about Rs.6 crore in unaccounted foreign and Indian currency. Islamabad, Feb 6 : At least eight people were killed and 35 others injured in a blast targeting a security forces' vehicle in Quetta, provincial capital of Balochistan, on Saturday, Dawn reported. A top provincial police official, Imtiaz Shah, confirmed it was a suicide attack and said the attacker blew himself up near a vehicle belonging to the Balochistan Frontier Corps. The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to journalists, however,the claim could not be verified. Earlier, provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani said said: "We can not ascertain right now whether it was an Improvised Explosive Device or a suicide attack." Television footage showed several wounded Frontier Corps personnel being shifted from the scene. Quetta is the provincial capital of Balochistan. The province has been experiencing incident violence and targeted killings since more than a decade. The largest province of the country by area, is home to a low-level insurgency by ethnic Baloch separatists. Al Qaeda-linked and sectarian militants also operate in the region. The province shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran. Kolkata, Feb 6 : A man in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri has landed up behind bars after his rant against a local political leader on Facebook went viral. Without taking any names, Rohit Pashi, a resident of Mal in the district, in his Facebook page accused a local leader of "sweating in the court to get out on bail a murder accused". Taking strong offence to the post, Mal municipal councillor Pulin Goldar filed a police complaint against Pashi alleging that his post was defamatory and aimed at inciting violence. "Pashi has not taken my name but he has mentioned about a leader who sings well, who can play the flute and who was in a court on Friday. I am the only political leader in Mal who sings, plays flute and was in the court yesterday (Friday)," said Goldar. "I went to the court to take bail for myself in an old case of road blockade, but his post projects me as if I have been running from pillar to post to get bail for the murder accused. His comments are defamatory, so I have asked police to take action," he said. While Pashi was Friday taken into custody and had to execute a personal bond during the day, police claimed he was not arrested. "He was not arrested. We had information that Rohit and some of his friends might create trouble so we ordered him to execute a bond under section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which deals with security for breach of peace or public tranquillity," Jalpaiguri Superintendent of Police Akash Magharia said. Pashi, however, said he was dragged out from his home by police like a dreaded criminal and had to spend over an hour inside the police lock-up. "I am being targeted only because I tried to unmask the politician. Allegations of inciting violence are baseless, I am being framed. "This is not the first time he (Goldar) accompanied the murder accused. He has done it several times," said Pashi, whose neighbour Gurdeep Singh was murdered last year. "When we are fighting for justice for Gurdeep, this man is trying to shield and save those who killed him," alleged Pashi. The incident attracted widespread criticism including from Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was arrested in 2012 for circulating a photo spoof on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. "This incident is yet another example of the dictatorial attitude of the state government," said Mahapatra. Mumbai, Feb 6 : Disappointment over the status-quoist stance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), coupled with a weak rupee and volatile crude oil prices, depressed the Indian equity markets during the just concluded weekly trade. The Indian equity markets ended the week under review marginally in the red, as heavy losses at the start of the week offset the gains made during the last two sessions. Investors during the first three sessions were cautious largely on account of global headwinds. The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (S&P Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed lower by 253.72 points or 1.02 percent to 24,616.97 points. Similarly, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 74.45 points or 0.98 percent to 7,489.10 points. "Continued slump in crude oil prices, worries of further slowdown of the Chinese economy and dismal earnings of key corporate dragged indices lower by about one percent in the week gone by," Gaurav Jain, director with Hem Securities told IANS. "However, buying interest from lower levels, bounce back in crude oil prices and hopes of passing GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill in the upcoming budget session of parliament supported the indices cut the losses to some extent." Besides, investors were seen disappointed after the RBI decided to keep key lending rates unchanged during its bi-monthly monetary policy review held on February 2. "Disappointment from the RBI's monetary policy review, a weak rupee and concerns over the government's ability to perk-up investments subdued markets in the initial sessions of last week," Anand James, co-head, technical research desk with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS. "Global markets were rattled by weak oil prices, earlier in the week, this provoked central banks' monetary policy measures to ease volatility." Vaibhav Agarwal, vice president and research head at Angel Broking, said: "Energy and realty index took a beating this week, while telecom and FMCG stocks witnessed some buying." "BSE metal recouped its losses after reports that the government is considering a minimum import price for steel products." Nitasha Shankar, vice president for research with YES Securities, specifically cited that banking index came under severe pressure as PSU banks continued to slide southwards. "IT indices were gainers for the week, while pharma, metal, media and auto indices ended with deep cuts." Sector-wise, investors were unnerved by pharma industry which reacted negatively to rumours on US curbs on Indian pharma companies. "But, Lupin results and smart recovery in the stock was one of the key highlights of the week as such," pointed-out Pankaj Sharma, head of equities for Equirus Securities. Metal and mining stocks pared their losses as copper prices rose in global commodities markets. In addition, volatile crude oil prices flared volatility through-out the week under review. "Crude prices continued to see extremely volatile -- ups and downs -- which influenced the market sentiment," Sharma told IANS. Dhruv Desai, director and chief operating officer at Tradebulls, noted that crude oil's re-conquering of the $30 mark on short covering later in the week gave a boost to the domestic market sentiments. Furthermore, the rupee's continuous slide prompted by foreign investors' selling frenzy kept investors cautious. "Global events from China, US, and the Middle-East have affected our domestic equities and rupee," Hiren Sharma, senior vice president, currency advisory at Anand Rathi Financial Services, told IANS. "FPI (Foreign Portfolio Investors) outflows especially from January 2016 has led to equity corrections in which we witnessed a new low at 68.25 (lowest since Aug 2013)." On a weekly basis, the rupee strengthened by 14 paise at 67.64-65 (February 5) to a US dollar from its previous close of 67.78-79 to a greenback (January 29). Nevertheless, the Indian rupee remained weak through-out the period under review. The weakness in the India rupee's value indicates the massive outflow of foreign funds from the equity and debt markets. The National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) figures showed that the FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) bought Rs.2,568.58 crore or $379.87 million in the equity and debt markets from February 1-5. In contrast, data with stock exchanges disclosed that the FPIs sold stocks worth Rs.940.71 crore in the week under review. Conversely, the data showed that DIIs bought stocks worth Rs.232.75 crore. However, markets made some gains at the fag-end of the week on account of short-covering and value buying. Reversal in crude oil and rupee's downward trajectory supported the relief rally. (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in) New Delhi, Feb 6 : The strike by municipal workers continued for the 11th day on Saturday as employees of Delhi's civic bodies burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over non-payment of salaries. The protestors, in north Delhi's Burari area, said the city and central governments were not taking their demands seriously. Hundreds of employees of the municipal corporations staged a noisy demonstration and dumped garbage at various place,s including the camp office of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in Khichripur and Shyam Lal College in Burari. The protestors staged a march and also burnt an effigy of Transport Minister Gopal Rai near his office at Babarpur in east Delhi. "We will continue to dump garbage on the streets of Delhi till our demands are met," Sanjay Gehlot, president of the Mazdoor Vikas Sanyukta Morcha, told IANS. Gahlot said workers will visit Delhi High Court on Monday and apprise it of the whole issue. United Front of MCD Employees president Rajesh Mishra said a section of doctors and engineers called off their strike but it will not affect their ongoing protest. "The strike is on," he maintained. "We will not call off our strike till our demands of reaching a permanent solution to the crisis and merger of municipal corporations are considered," he added. Employees of Delhi's civic bodies have been protesting over the non-payment of salaries for the past few months, and directing their ire at both the Delhi and central governments for the last 11 days. Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday announced a loan of Rs.300 crore to two municipal corporations for payment of salaries to striking workers, but they refused to heed to his appeal to return to work. Earlier this week, the Kejriwal government had also announced Rs.551 crore to the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations for paying salaries. Patna, Feb 6 : Bihar's ruling party JD-U decided on Saturday to go for a major image makeover, including a vigorous effort to take the message of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's 'sushasan' (good governance) model to the grassroots. Party leaders and workers from district, block and panchayat-levels would reinforce Nitish Kumar's public image as a guarantor of good governance and repel the attacks by the BJP-led opposition which has been portraying his return to power in November 2015 elections as a "return to jungle raj" for the state. The JD-U meeting on Saturday, chaired by state party president Vashshist Narain Singh, had major inputs from Nitish Kumar's new advisor Prashant Kishor, an image building specialist credited with great electoral successes from Narendra Modi's campaign for the 2012 Gujarat assembly election to Mahagathbandhan's (Grand Alliance's) landslide in last year's Bihar polls. "Prashant Kishor is not a politician but was prominent in defining the role of JD-U's leaders and workers at the party meeting attended by all district presidents and state party office-bearers, a party leader said. Breaking from the conventional politics, he gave several tips to party leaders on how to work for image building of Nitish Kumar and to counter opposition BJP and its allies, the party leader said. Kishor also presented a blueprint for transforming JD-U into a tech savvy party. Kishor was made an advisor to Nitish Kumar last month after playing a successful innings as a poll strategist during the last year's Bihar assembly polls. He will advise the chief minister on policy and implementation of his seven resolves. New Delhi, Feb 6 : It was shopping time for Aditya Roy Kapur and Katrina Kaif. The actors, who are in the national capital to promote their forthcoming film "Fitoor", went on a shopping spree here. The actors went to the street shopping hub Janpath market in the capital on Saturday afternoon, and picked up some knick-knacks for each other. According to a source, the actors got a window from their busy schedule, and they made sure they made the most of it. It is a well-known fact that Katrina splashed colours of red to her tresses for the role as Firdaus in the film. And it seems that she was channelling her character during the shopping sojourn with her clothes. The actress looked ravishing in a printed red jumpsuit, while Aditya sported a casual look. Aditya helped Katrina select earrings and bangles. They even gifted each other. Katrina bought a smart stole for Aditya, while he picked up earrings for her. The on-screen couple will be seen romancing in the Abhishek Kapoor-directorial, which will hit the screens on February 12. New Delhi, Feb 6 : The Congress on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking potshots at the party leadership, saying the "Gandhi family" was an integral part of the Congress and Modi cannot separate the party and its leadership. "We want to tell the prime minister one thing categorically that when he talks of our leadership or the family, we are proud of that and they are integral to the Congress party. You cannot separate the Indian National Congress and its leadership," Congress leader Anand Sharma told reporters here. "And, if you try to do so, we will be giving a befitting reply to the best of our ability and the prime minister and the BJP must never be in doubt about that," he added. Modi on Friday said in Assam's Dibrugarh district that while the Opposition wanted parliament to function, one family holding a grudge for its electoral defeat was not allowing the Rajya Sabha to function. Sharma also said provoking the Opposition and seeking cooperation cannot go together at the same time. "He (Modi) is the prime minister of the country. He should not provoke and insult the principal opposition party and then they say that he seeks cooperation. It is a funny way of seeking cooperation by attacking the leadership of the Congress," he said. Bhubaneswar, Feb 6 : India would export diesel from Assam-based Numaligarh refinery to Bangladesh, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday. "India will export diesel from Numaligarh Refinery in Assam to Parbatipur in north Bangladesh. First we will export diesel by train on experimental basis before connecting through pipelines," said Pradhan after discussions on bilateral cooperation in the energy sector with Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, energy adviser to the Bangladesh prime minister. Eyeing the Bangladesh market in a big way for exporting petroleum products, he said a 200-km-long pipeline would be laid to export the products to the neighbouring country. The minister said Chennai and Paradip ports of India would be interconnected with Chittagong and Mongla ports of Bangladesh for export of the petroleum products. He said petroleum products can also be exported to Bangladesh from Paradip oil refinery scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday. "There is also preliminary discussion over to lay gas pipeline to Bangladesh from Odisha as LNG terminal is being set up here," said Pradhan. Informing that Bangladesh has allocated to oil blocks for oil exploration, he said there had been discussions on carrying out a preliminary survey soon and initiate drilling in the blocks after the rainy season. With the commissioning of the Paradip refinery, Pradhan said that India would be once again in a position to export petroleum products to Bangladesh. In this regard, he expressed keenness of India in setting up of marketing infrastructure in Bangladesh. He said the officials of oil corporations had recently visited Bangladesh to discuss various energy sector projects of mutual interest to both nations. Chowdhury said both the countries discussed to fix a timeline over oil exportation from Numaligarh refinery and other emerging issues including laying gas pipeline from Dhamra in Odisha. Visakhapatnam, Feb 6 : Though the mightiest of ships were on display at the International Fleet Review (IFR) off Visakhapatnam coast on Saturday, one small boat in the flotilla could not be ignored. INSV Mhadei, the Indian Navy's sail vessel that has several feats in its list of achievements, stood out with an all-women crew who will soon be going on an expedition on the boat. On this sailor-made boat, Commander Dilip Donde became the first Indian national to complete a single-handed circumnavigation under sail in an Indian-built boat. It was later used by Commander Abhilash Tomy for his own single-handed, unassisted, non-stop circumnavigation under sail. The all-women crew that will go globe-sailing next has naval architect Lt. Cdr. Vartika Joshi, Lt. Pratibha Jamwal and Lt. P. Swathi in the core group, besides Lt. Vijaya Devi and Sub Lt. Payal Gupta. Women may be less in number in the Indian navy, but its women's power nonetheless impressed a naval officer from France, one of the few women officers who are part of the various delegations from international navies. Lt. Tina of the French Navy said she was impressed with the women officers of India. "I am happy to see the women officers in Indian Navy, its impressive," Lt. Tina, who did not want to reveal her second name, told IANS. Tina is based currently in Abu Dhabi. Talking about women in the French Navy, the officer said: "You can do pretty much any thing, but we do not have women in commando forces." French Navy does have women on warships, something Indian Navy has said it plans to do in future. Tina said women comprise around 13 percent of the French Navy. Women form a very minor section in the armed forces, with the IAF having the highest number at 1,350 followed by the army with 1,300 and the navy with 450 women officers, according to official information. The 1.3 million-strong armed forces have 59,400 officers. A glass ceiling was broken recently when the Indian Air Force announced it will soon be inducting women fighter pilots. The Indian Navy is now planning to induct women as pilots for reconnaissance aircraft. Ahmedabad, Feb 6 : The toll in Friday's bus accident in Gujarat rose to 42, as five more bodies were pulled out from the wreckage on Saturday. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel paid a visit to the injured people in hospitals and families of the deceased and offered all help from the state government. The government has declared a compensation of Rs.4 lakh each to the kin of those killed. The chief minister personally handed over compensation cheques to the families. The bus from Navsari to Ukai, carrying more than 60 passengers, fell into the Purna river some 40 feet below, after breaking the sidewalls of a bridge on the Navsari-Bardoli highway on Friday evening. The driver and conductor of the state-run Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation bus were among those killed. Many schools and colleges in Navsari town remained closed for the day after paying condolences to the students killed in the accident. Among the deceased were eight students of three schools and colleges in the town who were returning home after attending classes in the evening. At least four other students are undergoing treatment in hospitals. Meanwhile, a large number of students on Saturday turned up at various hospitals to donate blood to the injured. Even as the exact reason for the driver losing control over the bus was still not known on Saturday, Anandiben Patel said she would order an inquiry into the incident to enable the authorities to take necessary preventive measures to avoid such accidents in future. Bhubaneswar, Feb 6 : India on Saturday held discussions with Sri Lanka to strengthen bilateral relations in the petroleum sector. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan held a meeting here with Anoma Gamage, deputy minister of petroleum resources development of Sri Lanka. Pradhan discussed issues like expansion of activities of Lanka IOC, including in the retail business, bunkering and marketing of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and cooking gas. Lanka IOC is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. and one of the major retail players in the Sri Lankan market and has been highly active there for several years. He reiterated the commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work with Sri Lanka to make Trincomalee a regional energy hub. He expressed India's interest in establishing refinery and bunkering operations in Sri Lanka. "We assure you that India is committed to help Sri Lanka emerge as petroleum hub," Pradhan told the visiting minister. He expressed confidence that both Sri Lanka and India will work in a spirit of partnership in the hydrocarbon sector. "We hope this visit will benefit our bilateral relationship and economy of Sri Lanka and benefit Lanka IOC," Gamange said. Officials from Sri Lanka's oil and gas sector as well as from India's petroleum ministry were also present at the meeting. New Delhi, Feb 6 : Former students of St. Stephen's College, including historian Ramchandra Guha, on Saturday alleged that they were stopped from entering the college premises to attend a prayer meeting for a man identified for generations with the iconic dhaba on the campus. Principal Valson Thampu, however, denied the charge, saying no request was made to attend the prayer meeting and, therefore, no one could have been denied access. Rohit Bansal, a former trustee of the St. Stephen's College Alumni Foundation Trust who was among those who had gone to pay their tributes to Rohtas, said they were not allowed to go for the prayer meeting and were told to state a different purpose for the visit. Rohtas's dhaba sold samosas and gulab jamuns that generations of college alumni relished during their stay on the campus. The 65-year-old died on Tuesday due to TB and pneumonia. Bansal said they went inside stating different reasons and a prayer meeting was finally held near the dhaba. Bansal later tweeted: "Chief Economic Advisor of India @arvindsubraman, scholar @Ram_Guha among 100 prevented from attending #Rohtas prayer meeting at @cafessc." Guha said at the prayer meeting that they were not allowed to enter the college. "It is extraordinary that Arvind Subramanian, who is the chief economic advisor, I am a well-known critic of Narendra Modi and Rinki (Rukmini Banerji), who heads Pratham... we have all come to pay tribute to Rohtas and we were not allowed to enter because there is a fascist who is scared that Rohtas is more popular than him," Guha said. Bansal said Rohtas had taken over the work at the dhaba from his father and generations of St. Stephen's students had eaten out of their hands over the years, leading to a strong emotional connect. "Rohtas was at the dhaba since he was a child," Bansal said. Thampu slammed those targeting him. "No such request was made by anyone. Therefore, no one could have been denied access. Surely, if the aggrieved are the alumni of the college, they would know that the campus is not a no man's land or public park," Thampu told IANS. Lucknow/New Delhi, Feb 6 : Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Saturday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore in December last year. The government termed it as baseless, unfounded and totally false. "If the prime minister asks, I can show photographs as proof," Azam Khan told reporters in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. The senior leader of the state's ruling Samajwadi Party said Modi also met Sharif's mother at the Pakistani prime minister's residence in Lahore. He claimed that Sharif sent seekh kabab for Modi. "Our prime minister sends pashmina shawl and Malihabadi mangoes for the Pakistani prime minister and in return, seekh kabab comes here from Pakistan. I have proof of this also...," he said. The government denied the claims. "There are reports in a section of the press that the prime accused of the serial Mumbai blasts Dawood Ibrahim was also present during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on 25th December 2015. These statements are baseless, unfounded and totally false," an official statement said. In December last year, Modi made a brief stopover in Lahore, while returning to Delhi from a visit to Kabul. New Delhi, Feb 6 : A court here on Saturday set March 16 as the new date of hearing in the AIIMS corruption case as the investigation officer failed to turn up for the hearing. The case is related to corruption in purchase of disinfectants and surgical equipments at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) "Today (on Saturday), the court was to ask important questions to police over the corruption case and the investigation by them in it, but the investigation officer did not turn up due to which the new date has been given," the advocate appearing for AIIMS told IANS. Earlier, the court had sought an action taken report from Delhi Police following a complaint by NGO Janhit Abhiyan in the case. In the order, the court asked the Hauz Khas police station whether any action has been taken based on the complaint and whether any investigation has been conducted into the case. In the meanwhile, the AIIMS administration has also issued no entry notice against Rajnarayan, the main complainant in the corruption case. Mumbai, Feb 6 : Actor Ranveer Singh loves the Canadian city of Toronto for his experience at the IIFA Awards in his first year in the industry and also because "big films" such as Deepika Padukone's "XXX" are being shot there. "Toronto was the most memorable experience, my first IIFA, one of my first debut awards (For 'Band Baaja Baaraat'). And one of my first live performances in front of so many people, I think there were about 50,000 people that night. "To see the kind of love that diaspora has for our films and there's just an outpouring, and it can be very overwhelming," said Ranveer at an event to announce the MOU between the Maharashtra Film Stage and Cultural Development Corporation and the city of Toronto to collaborate in the creative screen industries. "I'm a very proud member of the Hindi film fraternity, and I would love for one of my films to open at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival)... I'm working on it," he said. "We're all lovers of films and I'm really happy that this association is happening, fostering positive growth for both and everybody all around. There are so many Indian people in Toronto and Hindi films are their one big cultural connect. This is pretty amazing," said Ranveer. His "Bajirao Mastani" co-star Deepika Padukone is currently shooting with Vin Diesel in the next part of the successful franchise "XXX". The event also marks a collaboration between the TIFF and the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI). Ranveer said: "I'm a very proud Mumbaikar. I've always believed that a city like this with the heart and the home of the most prolific film industry in the world, should have a rich film festival and we're working on it. And we're growing by leaps and bounds and at an unprecedented rate. " He also praised director Kiran Rao and film critic Anupama Chopra for their work on the MAMI film festival. London, Feb 7 : Kazunori Kunizuka, who worked as an interpreter with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from 1943 to 1945, is still alive and has recorded in graphic detail in his diary the last days of Bose and his death as a result of a plane crash at Taipei on 18 August 1945, claims a website. The London-based site www.bosefiles.info, which has been coming out with serialised "revelations" backing the theory that the Indian revolutionary leader died in a plane crash, said it received information about the diary from the London correspondent of the Japanese Daily Sankei Shimbun. The correspondent Noburu Okabe also handed over a copy of the diary to the website created by London-based journalist and Netaji's grand nephew Ashish Ray. "The diary is in Japanese. We will get it translated and post relevant portions from it in due course," Ray said. The site claimed that according to Okabe, Kanizuka is 98-years-old and lives in an old people's home in Kobe city in Japan. Okabe met Kanizuka and testified the diary unequivocally confirms Bose's demise in a Japanese military hospital in Taipei after the air tragedy, according to the site. It said Ray had met in Taipei Yukichi Arai, son of Captain Keikichi Arai, a Japanese army officer who was one of seven survivors of the crash. An estimated total 14 passengers and crew, including Bose, were on the flight. Captain Arai died in 1971. However, he, too, recorded in his diary that Bose succumbed to injuries suffered in the crash. As per his description, soon after take-off from Taipei the Japanese bomber carrying Bose "immediately lost speed, crashed and went up in flames". Of the seven survivors, six deposed before either the 1956 Netaji Inquiry Committee or the 1974 Justice G.D. Khosla Commission or both, including Bose's most trusted aide de camp Colonel Habibur Rehman and Captain Arai. All six independently submitted Bose died consequent to the crash, said www.bosefiles.info. 3,500 Investors descend on Houston Investors from all over Texas and the nation will be gathering at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston to learn from the nations leading experts. On 2/6/16 Lifestyles Unlimited, an international real estate education company, will be hosting The Wealth and Passive Income Expo which is expected to have over 3,500 people from all over the world in attendance. This is the 4th year for the event and it has grown in attendance and popularity each year. There will be many expert speakers such as Del Walmsley, Jack Canfield and Ron Legrand, as well as the industrys top educators. Also there will be over 100 national and local vendors for the guests to meet on the convention floor. The event will be one day filled with mainstage presentations and over 60 educational breakout sessions allowing each attendee the opportunity to learn all facets of real estate investing including how to gain more deals and more money for investing. This years registration numbers have far exceeded last years numbers and we are expecting a record breaking event as the nations top investors descend on Houston. To add to the festivities Del Walmsley will be hosting The Multi-Family Masters Tour, a bus trip through Houston to see multi-family properties and to meet their expert operators. This will include over 200 Lifestyles Unlimited members, from all over the U.S., Del and his Top Team, 4 buses, National Award Winning Investors, and 4 property stops in the Houston area. For press related questions or interviews please contact Eddie Wilson at (219) 945-6475. Also there will be a reception room at the Expo for all press. Please let us know when you will arrive and we will accommodate you. THINK Together, in collaboration with The Children's Center at Caltech, will host the 4th annual Early Childhood Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (ECSTEM) Conference on February 4-6, 2016 at the Pasadena Hilton. The conference will promote and increase awareness of the importance of introducing STEM education in early childhood, birth through eight years. Russell Shilling, PhD, the Executive Director of STEM at the U.S. Department of Education, will offer the opening conference address. Dr. Shilling oversees the Department's policies to drive innovation in STEM education and enhance interagency coordination. Dr. Shilling will also participate in a panel discussion with Dr. Susan Hackwood, PhD, the Executive Director of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), Sacramento, CA; Dr. Chip Donohue, Ph.D., Dean of Distance Learning and Continuing Education and Director of the Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center at Erikson Institute in Chicago; Peggy Ashbrook, an early childhood science teacher, and author of Science is Simple (2003, Gryphon House); Kafi D. Blumenfield, first executive director of the Discovery Cube Los Angeles; Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, PhD, the co-coordinator of the MA in Early Childhood Education and Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at California State University Northridge. The objective of the conference is to focus on the challenges facing early childhood educators regarding STEM curriculum and instruction; to address the implication for early childhood pedagogy; and ultimately, to initiate a national movement focusing on STEM education for children, ages birth to eight. The conference will gather early childhood practitioners, researchers, business leaders, policymakers, and trusted educators to collectively develop a plan to train early childhood educators to provide the highest quality STEM opportunities for our children, spreading awareness of the importance of STEM skills to families and involving them in the process. For more information on the 4th Annual Early Childhood STEM Conference, visit http://www.ecstem.org About THINK Together THINK Together is a nonprofit organization collaborating with communities, parents, teachers, administrators and other stakeholders to help transform and galvanize the K-12 educational system, creating excellence and equity for all kids. THINK Together is Californias largest provider of Expanded Learning Time programs. Through its affiliate, Principals Exchange, THINK Together also provides research, professional development and consulting to underserved schools. Combined, THINK Together and Principals Exchange serve over 150,000 students at more than 400 locations across more than 45 school districts from Silicon Valley to San Diego. Partnering with school administrators and teachers, THINK Togethers dedicated team of more than 2,500 employees are helping students statewide reach their full potential. THINK is an acronym: Teaching, Helping, Inspiring & Nurturing Kids. For more information, call (888) 485-THINK or visit http://www.THINKtogether.org. Theres still a tendency to consider horror fiction as less than literary, even though acclaimed authors such as Henry James and Edith Wharton ventured into its dark terrain. That dismissive pigeonholing has been compellingly rebuffed by the career of Peter Straub, winner of 10 Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association and a World Fantasy Convention Lifetime Achievement Award. Straubs latest, Interior Darkness, a collection of 16 stories, including three not previously collected, as well as perhaps the only horror story inspired by Melvilles Bartleby, the Scrivener, is being published by Doubleday this month. Neil Gaiman wrote, If you care about the short story, you should read this book, and watch a master at work. Straub learned early on that the world is a dangerous place: he lost a year of school after being hit by a car in first grade, a trauma that he later inflicted on one of his protagonists, Mysterys Tom Pasmore. That near-fatal accident plagued him with nightmares, until he succeeded in exorcising them by writing stories with horror elements. At the Union Square Barnes & Noble Cafe in New York City last month, Straub shared with PW what appeals to him about horror fiction:I like its acknowledgement that life is a dodgy and uncertain business, and a monster with a smiling face may live or work right next door to you. Dislocation is central, and so is loss. Loss befalls us all; loss is half the human story. Mostly, we experience moments of joy and transcendence a couple of seconds after they have already begun to fade, and our knowledge of such exalted states consists largely of their existence being held in memory. Adult human beings live with the certainty of grief, which deepens us and opens us to other people, who have been there, too. That emphasis on exploring his characters responses to grief and loss has elevated Straubs fictions above those that place a premium at evoking shrieks of terror, or repulsion. His approach is a powerful counter to the position an editor once shared with him: that horror fiction is only ever about good versus evil. When Straub began writing in the 1970s, he quickly demonstrated an aptitude for subtle, sunlit horror. He wanted to keep pulling the rug out from under the readers feet, over and over, to induce profound destabilization. Straub did so, in part, he says, by introducing inexplicable changes in the landscape or topography, so that the familiar road from the railway station leads the returning commuter not to his Fairfield County house, but to a section of town he had never seen before. Yet why did the names of the little winding streets seem so familiar? That artful approach is the opposite of popular impressions of the genre, replete with gore, monstrous beings, Gothic mansions, and dark and stormy nights. Straub was born in Milwaukee in 1943 and lived there until he was 18. After college and grad school, he returned to teach English at his high school alma mater. He then enrolled in University College, Dublin, to earn a doctorate. But instead of writing his Ph.D. dissertation (It was supposed to be about D.H. Lawrence, then mutated into being about the Brontes and Trollope, and after that it was given a merciful execution, he recalls), he wrote his first novel, Marriages (1973), over a summer, and was lucky to have it accepted by the first publisher he sent it to, Andre Deutsch. After his agent suggested a change to horror, he produced Julia in 1975, followed by 1977s If You Can See Me Now, both published in the U.S. by Coward, McCann and Geoghegan. Straubs breakout novel was 1979s Ghost Story (Coward, McCann and Geoghegan). The novel tells of the Chowder Society, four men who gathered regularly to share ghost stories, but eventually find themselves threatened by a vengeful spirit. Stephen King called it one of the 20th-centurys finest works of horror. In 1984, Straub collaborated with King on The Talisman (Viking), an epic dark fantasy that describes 12-year-old Jack Sawyers quest to save his mothers life, which takes him into a parallel realm populated by doppelgangers. Straub had been a fan of King for several years and greatly admired his revitalization of the vampire novel in Salems Lot. King proposed that the two write a novel together after their families had dinner at Straubs home in London. Seventeen years after The Talisman appeared, the pair teamed up for a sequel, Black House (Random House). PWs starred review noted that page by page, the novel reads as equal parts King and Straub, with the Maine masters exuberance and penchant for excess restrained by Straubs generally more elegant approach. Although no publication date has been announced, a third book in this series is planned. Straub is more than a master of horror and dark fantasy: his Blue Rose trilogy (Koko, 1988; Mystery, 1990; and The Throat, 1993; all published by Dutton), which rank among his personal favorites, are superior whodunits without any supernatural elements. Each book works both as a standalone and as a chapter in an increasingly complex story of murder and madness. It opens with a typically Straubian attention grabber: An alcoholic detective in my hometown of Millhaven, Illinois, William Damrosch, died to ensure, you might say, that this book would never be written. Straub was taken aback when the Blue Rose books were classified as horror novels: Reviews began with sentences like, Horror novelist Peter Straubs latest novel of horror gives us... Eventually, he came to regard this as a huge favor, by redrawing and enlarging how horror was defined, so that it took in great tracts of fictional territory previously closed to it. He notes, As a genre, it was fully grown-up and defined mainly by the authors point of view. Editor Robert Bloom is enthusiastic about Interior Darkness. The selections, he says, offer a powerful display of what has made his work stand out for over 40 years. Bloom adds: At times shocking, transgressive, and satirical, [Straubs] work makes you aware of holes or tears in our reality through which we catch glimpses of something dark and unknowable and, once seen, unforgettable. Hes also absolutely terrifying, which, like making readers howl with laughter, is incredibly entertaining and probably the most difficult emotional connection to master on the page. Although Straubs oeuvre encompasses hauntings, serial killers, cosmic Lovecraftian horror, and dark fantasy, it is possible to identify a unifying theme. Virtually all of his work is concerned with how the past never really disappears; it haunts and informs the present. Straub notes that no matter what we do, at every moment the past stares into our faces. He adds: It is true of our civic lives, too: the polity was way better off if it never forgot what had happened to it and what it had done. We have done atrocious things, starting with our treatment of indigenous peoples. Despite his serious approach to his craft, Straub has some unexpected guilty pleasures. His Twitter account doesnt just feature wry takes on fiction (So Kazuo Ishiguro writes a fantasy novel and worries that people will say it is fantasy. God knows, that would be so unfair). Theres also a slew of comments on the latest season of the reality show The Bachelorette (Or maybe... Kaits self-protectiveness is so great that she will pick neither guy and go weeping but secretly happy home). That hardly seems the product of the same mind that penned Ghost Story. So why the obsessive interest in the showapart from the importance of roses (albeit not blue ones)? While Straub considers The Bachelorette perfectly hollow and stupid, it appeals to him because it absolutely foregrounds American hypocrisy, narcissism, exhibitionism, and our utter willingness to deceive ourselves. He adds: The program is a riot of lies, subterfuge, male hysteria, and moral obliteration. Of course, it is wonderful to behold. Proof, perhaps, of the ubiquity of human interior darkness? Soap operas turn out to be another of Straubs surprising addictions. His daughter, Emma, herself a novelist (The Vacationers), was devoted to All My Children as a teenager but faced a dilemma when she went to summer camphow could she keep up with the myriad story lines? Straub agreed to watch the show for her, and after a few weeks, he was hooked, producing for Emma a detailed analysis of the episodes shed missed. Once, he fell asleep while watching AMC and awoke during One Life to Live, which he realized was a better show. For his 60th birthday, his wife, Susan, surprised him with a behind-the-scenes tour of the set of OLTL, an experience that led to the addition of a character to the show: Peter Braust, a blind retired cop portrayed by an amateur actor with a remarkably similar name. Straub has mused on the irony that his few moments on screen reached millions more than he has through his books. Straub is as difficult to reduce to a label as his fiction. As his editor said, He goes further into the darkness than most anyone, and he is always surprising. You never know where he will take you, but it is always worth the ride. Lenny Picker is a freelance writer in New York City. Platzers Brooklyn Starts Burning at Atria Sarah Cantin at Atria Book preempted world rights to Brian Platzers debut novel, Bed-Stuy Is Burning. Platzer, who has an M.F.A. from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars program, was represented by Trena Keating at Union Literary. The novel is told from various perspectives and set over the course of a single day as race riots break out in the rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Cantin said the book tackles race, religion, police brutality, and professional ambition. S&S Kids Goes to Zero for Prendergast In a six-figure acquisition at auction, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Zareen Jaffrey bought Gabrielle Prendergasts teen fantasy series, Zero Repeat Forever. The two-book U.S.-rights deal was brokered by Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. Prendergast is Canadianshe published two YA novels with Orca Books, based in Vancouverand rights to the series have also sold to S&S U.K. and S&S Canada. Zero Repeat Forever, S&S explained, is part Terminator and part Beauty and the Beast. It has two central characters: a teenager in Northern Canada named Raven who is one of only a few surviving humans after an attack by creatures called Nyx; and a Nyx warrior named Eighth. When the two cross paths, they find themselves united in their grief and decide to get Raven and her friends out of the occupied zone, even though for Eighth, the journey means almost certain death. Book one in the series is set for 2017. Morrow Storms Shattucks Castle At William Morrow, Jessica Williams took North American rights to The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck. The historical novel, which William Morris Endeavor agent Eric Simonoff sold, is about three German women who form a surrogate family in the aftermath of World War II. Morrow said that each woman carries her own secrets while discovering what it means to survive, love, and forgive in the aftermath of war. Shattuck has written for publications including the New Yorker, and her 2003 debut, The Hazards of Good Breeding (Norton), was named a New York Times Notable Book. NBA Finalist Takes Girl to Algonquin Kids Adele Griffin closed a six-figure, two-book deal with Algonquin Young Readers for her YA novel Your Only Girl. Elise Howard took North American rights in the transaction from Emily van Beek at Folio Literary Management. Griffin (Where I Want to Be) is a two-time National Book Award finalist. Only Girl is set in a wealthy section of Fire Island circa 1976 and follows a love triangle in which, van Beek said, a complete insider and a girl from outside the gilded gates vie for the love of a mysterious newcomer. The novel is slated for a 2017 release. Wind Takes Queer History to Aladdin Lindsay Brown at Aladdins Beyond Words imprint nabbed world English rights to Lee Winds nonfiction middle grade book, The Queer History Project: No Way, They Were Gay? Wind is a writer and LGBTQ activisthes behind the popular blog Im Here. Im Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?and was represented in the deal by Danielle Smith at Red Fox Literary. Smith said the book will explore surprising LGBTQ loves and lives across time and around our world. The Queer History Project is set for a September 2017 publication. Briefs In a five-figure world-rights deal, Miras Nicole Brebner took world rights to Meghann Foyes debut, Meternity. The novel, which will be published in May as a paperback original and edited by Kathy Sagan, is, Mira said, a brilliant millennial spin on the vanishing love/life/work balance and the hot-button issue of female office politics. Foye, who was represented by Emma Parry at Janklow & Nesbit, is the senior Web editor at Redbook. M. William Phelps sold a currently untitled true crime memoir to Michaela Hamilton at Kensington. Phelps, an investigative journalist and prolific true crime author who hosts the Discovery (ID) television series Dark Minds, writes about his friendship with a famous serial killer in the book. Kensington said the killer is someone Phelps used as a secret source on the series and, in the book, he reveals who [the killer is], what happened behind the scenes, the potential identity of a Jane Doe, and the revelation of a new murder victim, buried somewhere on the West Coast. Phelps was represented in the deal by his manager, Matthew Valentinas. NOTE: This article has been updated to reflect that M. William Phelps was represented in his book deal by his manager, Matthew Valentinas. Its likely that many people over age 25 were confused to see debut authors named AmazingPhil and Danisnotonfire sell out an event at Andersons Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., in November 2015, and even more perplexed to see fans desperate for a meet and greet offering $100 for a ticket that originally cost $25. But these two British vloggers, otherwise known as Phil Lester and Dan Howell, had already amassed millions of YouTube subscribers, and their comedic memoir, The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire (Random House, 2015, ages 12 and up), has gone on to sell more than 200,000 print copies, according to Nielsen BookScan. The pairs obscurity to the world of grown-ups is part of their appeal. They, and others whose platforms include YouTube, Instagram, and Vine, have created a world separate from traditional adult-oriented media, and they speak to fans as friends sharing an inside joke. Kids may want some direction or help with the issues theyre facing, but they dont want to hear from their parentsthey want peers or their slightly older brother or sister, says Judith Curr, president and publisher at Atria, who launched Keywords Press, a partnership with United Talent Agency, in 2013 in order to showcase what she calls digital influencers. Curr gives the example of Keywords author Joey Graceffa, whom she calls Dr. Oz for a new generation. Hes amassed more than 5.6 million YouTube subscribers by talking fans through emotionally charged issues such as learning difficulties and questions of sexuality and abusive friends; his 2015 memoir, In Real Life, has sold more than 115,000 print copies, according to BookScan. The imprints numerous forthcoming titles include It Gets Worse, a book of essays by Shane Dawson (July), a YouTube vlogger with 7.2 millions subscribers whose 2015 memoir, I Hate Myselfie, has sold more than 101,000 print units, per BookScan. Also on the docket are the YA novels Dream House by Marzia Bisognin (Apr.), better known as vlogger CutiePieMarzia, and How to Be Famous in Six Seconds by Rudy Mancuso (Aug.), who, as hinted at by the title, made his name on Vine, the six-second video platform, amassing a following some 10 million strong. Social media personalities gain online fans through their telegenic charm and savvy self-marketing skillsattributes that also make them a publishers dream. But editors caution that online viewers dont translate directly into book sales. Much-heralded debuts by some of the biggest digital celebrities have sold well compared to those of most first-time authors, but modestly compared with their online followings. (For more on this phenomenon, click here.) Still, editors continue to look for digital stars whose wattage will translate to the printed page. Next year, Flatiron Books is publishing the memoir And We Were Like by Caroline Calloway, an American student who has been chronicling her time at Cambridge University for 586,000 Instagram followers. People only tell their friends to buy a book if they like the book, says executive editor Whitney Frick. You can follow anyone online without shelling out 20 bucks. Quantity and Quality The size of a social media celebs following is just one attribute a publisher assesses when considering an acquisition. Decisions are made based on the quality of the work, whether the book fits the catalogue, the authors credentials, the potential for a smooth working relationship with clear expectationsand then the social media profile of the author, says Thierry Bogliolo, publisher at Findhorn, which is releasing Courtney A. Walshs Dear Human in March. The book is based on Walshs poem of the same name, which she posted on Facebook at the end of 2014. It went viral, drawing the attention of everyday Facebook users as well as public figures such as Elizabeth Gilbert and Khloe Kardashian (Kardashian shared it with her 40-million-plus Instagram followers). Libby Burton, an editor at Grand Central, agrees that developing a successful book from a social media star requires looking for the same things one would seek in a book by any other author: great stories well told. She is editing the upcoming Esther the Wonder Pig by Steve Jenkins and Derek Walter (May), based on the story of the porcine Instagram celeb of the same name. Esthers owner thought he was adopting a mini-pig, only to have her grow into a 600-pound commercial porker. Photogenic pigs are something of a mini-trend, with HarperCollins scheduled to release the Instagram-topicture books Libby and Pearl: The Best of Friends by Lindsey Bonnice (Sept., ages 48), about a girl and her piglet, and Prissy & Pop: Big Day Out by Melissa Nicholson, about a pair of mini-pigs (July, ages 48; see sidebar). Serious Business The books that succeed, editors and publishers say, are those that are approached as something more complex than a typical online post or promotional tool. The book isnt just a piece of merchandise to the authors, says Jennifer Bergstrom, publisher at Simon & Schusters Gallery Books imprint, which has cultivated a stable of digital stars, including Tyler Oakley, author of Binge (2015; 155,000 print copies sold) and Miranda Sings, author of Selp-Helf (2015; 190,000 print copies sold). Its a meaningful endeavor and they take it seriously. Forthcoming social mediacentric Gallery titles include books by four Viners, among them Lele Pons (10.3 million followers), whose novel Surviving High School (June) was written with powerhouse YA author Melissa de la Cruz. Also in June, Plume is publishing How to Ruin Everything, a book of essays by slam poet George Watsky, whose YouTube channel has 767,000 subscribers. He was invested in making sure that this book wouldnt be viewed as content from someone who achieved Internet fame, says senior editor Kate Napolitano. For the collection, she and Watsky worked closely to select the right anecdotes, fleshing out some pieces and going through several drafts before reaching the final manuscriptmuch more effort than a typical YouTube entry would involve. Given the often-ephemeral quality of Internet fame, publishers must strike a balance between getting a book out while theres still interest and publishing a title thats up to fans expectations. Speed and quality are a challenging pair, but you cant really sacrifice either if you want a book that will sell now and have some kind of sticking power, says Mallory Loehr, v-p and publisher at Random House Books for Young Readers, which published The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire. In January, Random House BYR released Stampys Lovely Book (ages 710) by Joseph Garrett, whose family-friendly character Stampy Cat plays games in the Minecraft universe for a following of almost seven million YouTube subscribers. Its sold almost 20,000 print units, per BookScan. Getting Personal Gallerys Bergstrom says that fans see books as a more intimate means of connecting with their favorite online stars than watching and commenting on a video. Retailers have found success by offering signed copies of the books online, and by referring to author appearances not as signings but as meet and greets. The inherent connectedness of the social media world can also present challenges. When a retailer broke an embargo and sent out preorder copies of vlogger Rosanna Pansinos The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook (Atria, 2015) ahead of the holiday season last year, all of her fans knew about it. When a 16-year-old girl gets her copy a week before the rest of the world, she instantly puts it on YouTube, saying, Look what I got, so the author and the whole world knew there was an issue before even we did, Curr says. Despite the hiccup, the book has sold more than 71,000 copies in hardcover. That puts it among the 15 highest-selling cookbooks of 2015 and in the company of Ree Drummond, aka the Pioneer Woman, who had the #1 cookbook last year and who also got her start on social mediain the comparatively quaint-seeming sphere of blogging. Alex Palmer is a freelance writer and the author of The Santa Claus Man: The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York (Globe Pequot/Lyons, 2015). Below, more on the subject of social media stars. GENESEO -- Ryan Fords interest in this years presidential campaign has led him to political rallies for eight presidential candidates -- but no favorite. "I havent chosen a candidate yet," he said, "but I do know candidates I would not support. The Geneseo High School senior will be 18 by Nov. 8, allowing him to vote in the presidential election, as well as in the March 15 primaries in Illinois. Mr. Ford said he has attended two rallies for Republicans Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, as well as rallies for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and Republicans Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio. Each candidate stands out from one another, he said. "They all have their own personality," he said. "Hillary Clinton seems to be very calculated, while her opponent -- Bernie Sanders -- appears to say whats on his mind and doesnt seem to care how it may affect his chances of becoming president. "Donald Trump spoke exactly what was on his mind and had no prepared statements. Ted Cruz comes across, at times, very robotic; he struggles to show emotion, but he is good at getting a point across. "Marco Rubio tries to inspire his supporters to vote for him, and I believe has been successful in doing so," he said. "Chris Christie, much like Donald Trump, seems to say exactly whats on his mind, and doesnt try to please everyone in his audience. Ben Carson is certainly not going to excite you to vote for him based upon his demeanor, but he is good at explaining his vision. Carly Fiorina is a very smart individual. Mr. Ford said he also attended a rally where former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton spoke on behalf of Mrs. Clinton. His campaign travels have won him notice. When he and his school friends attended Donald Trump's rally at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport, they were able to be photographed with him. Our goal was to meet Mr. Trump," he said. "So we decided to have shirts made spelling out his name in order to gain attention. Mr. Trump acknowledged us throughout his address and, when he ended, he waved us backstage where we met him, got autographs and had our picture taken with him. The photo gained national attention, he said, when it was ran in a December issue of the New York magazine and appeared online. The photo, at one point, was on the front page of the New York Times website, the Wall Street Journal and on Yahoo News, Mr. Ford said. The story in the New York magazine referred to the loyalty of Trump supporters." A wall in his home showcases the presidential candidates he has met. Mr. Ford said he was able to have his photo taken with all he met. He wasn't able to meet Republicans Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and John Kasich or Democrat Martin OMalley. Mr. Huckabee and Mr. O'Malley both withdrew from the campaign after Monday's Iowa caucus. Mr. Ford said he was able to see most of the candidates during their visits to the Quad-Cities area. He did travel to Ames, Iowa, to see Mr. Christie and went to Des Moines for the Republican debate on Jan. 28. "The debate was a really neat experience," he said. "Watching the candidates react during commercial breaks was very interesting. "Unfortunately, Donald Trump did not attend -- which was disappointing, considering he is the front-runner and most likely nominee," he said. "My opinion of each candidate did not really change after the debate. He said attending the rallies and hearing the candidates has made him a more educated voter. I think kids my age should try to, at least, go see some candidates," he said. "Many first-time voters base their decisions off of either their parents beliefs or their friends' beliefs. "But I think in order to be an educated voter, you have to understand your own beliefs, then find out which candidate best aligns with those beliefs. He said seeing candidates in person lets a voter ask candidates question, hear their plans for the country, and hear how they communicate their visions. "I believe in order to be a good president, you must be a good communicator," he said. "So going to the rallies has helped me see if they can communicate with the citizens in an effective manner. "Unfortunately, I did not see other kids my age at the rallies," he said. "But there were a few kids from my generation." He said his interest in politics stems from the Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., which he attended with his parents, Curt and Teri Ford, and his brother, Tyler. As I look back on that experience, Im not sure that I will ever experience more hope and passion around a single person," he said. "It really made me thankful for growing up in a place like America. Not many other countries have such a peaceful shift of power like the U.S. does. This fall he plans to attend Mississippi State University and enter its business program. "If the opportunity ever presented itself for me to get into politics," he said, "I think I would struggle not to take it. DAVENPORT -- Bacon and beer festivals are popping up everywhere from San Francisco, California to New York City. Friday evening marked the second time such an event was held here. The self-described mission of the Bacon and Beer Festival Pigskin Classic is to provide education, recognition and "downright gluttony" of America's other past time. There was plenty of the latter as five contestants sat front and center to down a three-pound pile of bacon in three minutes. Emmalee Hilburn, of East Moline, said she bought VIP tickets for the event as a birthday present for her husband, Andy. Little did they know Mr. Hilburn would be walking out of the River Center's Great River Hall with a large trophy for winning the bacon eating contest. During the VIP session, Mr. Hilburn was chosen by the event organizers to participate in the contest. Pointing to his tall-boy Bud Light given to contestants pre-gorge, Mr. Hilburn remarked, "I'm glad I got this beer." More than 25 local, regional and national breweries and restaurants provided beer samples and food creations featuring bacon. The River Music Experience provided music from the Ellis Kell Band. Guests were invited to vote for the Squealer Award, given to the vendor who had Davenport's best bacon dish. Many interesting and odd food creations were available for sampling. There was a long line to try a blue cheese, bacon-stuffed fig from Front Street Brewery, 208 River Drive. On the other side of the room, guests were being served a chocolate bacon and beef slider with caramelized onions from the Lionstone Brewing Company, 1225 S. Oakwood St., Geneseo Those looking for a dessert could try a chocolate stout cupcake with maple frosting and bacon from the Eastern Iowa Baking Co., 300 N. 2nd St., Eldridge, Iowa. The staff working the booth said they used Uncommon Stout from the Bent River Brewing Company in their creation. A game called Hammer-Schlagen was on-site, with the winner getting a free cowbell. The object of the multiplayer game was to hit a nail into a large tree trunk, using the skinny side of a hammer, one swing at a time. Anyone who was needing some extra energy to keep the party going, or looking for a hangover cure for the next day was able to find that, too, at the festival. Samples of a new energy drink from Larry the Cable Guy, Git-R-Done Energy, and information on the Hangover Joe Recovery Shot were being passed out. Kyle Salisbury, of Davenport, said this was his second time at the event. He said this year's event was better because the timing was right, being on a Friday night and right before the Super Bowl. Heather Brummel, assistant general manager for the River Center, said there was over 850 people there already with hopes of adding 200 more to the total that evening. She said the event was something they plan on holding again next year. Today is Saturday, Feb. 6, the 37th day of 2016. There are 329 days left in the year. 1866 -- 150 years ago: The new blacksmith building recently erected near the gas works, is ringing with the sound of hammers, and glowing with the heat of forges. They soon will get in an engine, lathes, etc., and do machine work. 1891 -- 125 years ago: The Tri City Bricklayers union has been perfected. Harry Garstang is president. 1916 -- 100 years ago: The airmen on the western front have been busy, a German air squadron attacking an English camp in Belguim, and although attacked by allied airmen, returned without losses. 1941 -- 75 years ago: Donald Lord of Galva, a clerk in the office of August Horberg, has been elevated to the rank of deputy circuit clerk. 1966 -- 50 years ago: William Joern, chief meteorologist at the Quad City Weather Bureau, has issued the following flood warning for all residents along Rock River: All residents along Rock River are warned to be on the alert for ice jams. High water levels at this time of year make the jams likely when ice begins to move down river. 1991 -- 25 years ago: The National Weather Service today moved into new quarters in the old FAA building on the south building on the south side of the airport. The weather service and other tenants are moving out of the old airport passenger terminal building, which is scheduled to be torn down this spring. Perhaps, because I spent 26 years on the bench, I have never had an iota of use for political correctness or lies. I believe they stand in the way of finding facts -- of determining the truth. For a verdict to be just, it must be based on the truth. On a larger scale, for a democracy to function, the voters must also have the truth. Do not misunderstand. I have no use for liars. But in silencing a speaker as a liar, bigot, fear-monger, or war-monger, the politically correct, true-believer may well be squelching truth and imperiling the nation. Our Supreme Court has said our judicial system assumes that adversarial testing [of evidence] will ultimately advance the public interest in truth and fairness. Our belief [is] that debate between adversaries is ... essential to the truth-seeking function of trials. An English Judge, Lord Eldon, perhaps put it best: Truth is best discovered by powerful statements on both sides of the question. Our Supreme Court summed it up: The very premise of our adversary system ... is that partisan advocacy on both sides of a case will best promote the ultimate objective. Nearly 100 years ago, in his great dissenting opinion in Abrams v. U.S. (1919) Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power, and want a certain result with all your heart, you naturally express your wishes in law, and sweep away all opposition. ... But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe ... that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas -- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That, at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment ... While that experiment is part of our system, I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country. In 2012, in U.S. v. Alvarez, our Supreme Court once again, in a case involving a man prosecuted for lying about having received the Congressional Medal of Honor, followed the lead of Justice Holmes. Content-based restrictions on speech have been permitted, as a general matter, only when confined to the few historic and traditional categories [of expression] long familiar to the bar, ... Among these categories are advocacy intended, and likely, to incite imminent lawless action, ... obscenity, ... defamation, ... speech integral to criminal conduct, ... so-called fighting words, ... child pornography ... fraud, ... and speech presenting some grave and imminent threat the government has the power to prevent ... Absent ... is any general exception to the First Amendment for false statements. This comports with the common understanding that some false statements are inevitable if there is to be an open and vigorous expression of views in public and private conversation, expression the First Amendment seeks to guarantee. The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. ... Freedom of speech and thought flows not from the beneficence of the state but from the inalienable rights of the person. The danger of political correctness is best illustrated by the case of Winston Churchill. During the 1930s, Churchill was a voice crying in the wilderness. For his incessant attempts to warn the British people against Adolf Hitlers intentions, Churchill was labeled a war-monger, a militarist, a fear-monger. In the first volume of his history of WWII, Churchill writes, The multitudes remained plunged in ignorance of the simplest ... facts, and their leaders seeking there votes, did not dare to undeceive them. The newspapers, after their fashion, reflected and emphasized the prevailing opinions. ... No one in great authority had the wit, ascendancy or detachment from public folly to declare these fundamental brutal facts to the electorate; nor would anyone have been believed if they had. In reference to Britains utter unpreparedness to oppose Hitler, Churchill writes with bitterness of what we now call political correctness: We must regard as deeply blameworthy before history the conduct [of all parties], both in and out of office. Delight in smooth-sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts, desire for popularity and electoral success irrespective of the vital interests of the State, genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation. When Hitler struck in 1939, Churchill was vindicated. His warning came true. Those who sought to silence him, had been wrong. And in being wrong, they enabled Hitler to ravage Europe, murder 6 million Jews and nearly win the war. Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. OK Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) was invited to the Women in Black Gathering held in Bangalore, India from November 15th to 19th. Heela Faryal attended the conference organized by Women in Black India, led by Dr. Corrinne Kumar who is also the founding member of Vamochena. The main event was the World Court of Women against War, for Peace, held on Nov. 16th in Mount Carmel College. Women from all parts of the world Bosnia, Iraq, different parts of India, USA, different parts of Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, UK, Armenia, Hawaii, Iran, Philippines, Kosovo spoke at length about issues such as war crimes and the role of NATO, genocide, womens rights violations, militarization, use of nuclear weapons, racism, apartheid, refugee crisis, poverty and homelessness, rights of minorities (nationals, tribes, transgender, caste etc.). Following the painful testimonies offered by the victims to the 8-member jury, powerful stories of resistance were shared from all parts of the world (through videos and individuals themselves). In the end, the Court called for an end to occupation, war, and human rights and womens rights violations, encouraging unending resistance for a hopeful tomorrow. There were a number of traditional Indian dance and music performances in the event, with a powerful performance by an Indian artist depicting the high rates of rape and low rates of convictions of rapists in India. The next two days were spent in workshops and plenary sessions, again covering the issues mentioned above in more detail. RAWA spoke on the issue of Injustice, inequality and violence against women in Afghanistan, talking about the bogus war waged by the US and its allies, its backing of Islamic fundamentalism (Jehadi government, Taliban and ISIS) and how this has ultimately devastated our country and drowned it in war crimes, human and womens rights violations, insecurity, poverty, a mafia economy, corruption, and drug production. The lies told by the Western media were exposed with facts and figures which was particularly important for most people who came from the US and other European countries. A two-hour vigil was held on November 18th in Bangalore city to renounce issues ranging from wars and occupation to violence against women and poverty. Participants from all countries held their banners of powerful messages. The evening was ended with a candlelight vigil. During the four-day event, Faryal met with some prominent activists and figures. Kamla Bhasin, well-known feminist activist and coordinator of One Billion Rising in South Asia, Ananthi Sasitharan, activist from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from Sri Lanka whose main work revolves around finding the disappeared Tamil activists who were captured and detained by the Sri Lankan government and never seen again, Luisa Morgantini, former Italian Member of the European Parliament and founding member of Women in Black, and Elahe Amani, an Iranian activist involved in Afghanistan. The events ended on November 19th with a conclusion plenary session which summed up all the issues discussed in the days before, and also the next WIB international conference suggestions were gathered. The women from all parts of the world pledged their solidarity and unity in the face of the war and oppression in the world. The Revolutionary Association of the women of Afghanistan (RAWA) commemorated the 29th martyrdom anniversary of its leader, Meena, in a function in Kabul today. The function was attended by a small number of members and supporters. The monologue was started with a poem by the revolutionary Afghan poet, Daud Sarmad, who was buried alive by the Khalq and Parcham murderers. After that a member of RAWA gave a speech about Meenas struggle for the emancipation of women and the disastrous situation of our women and country. She said, Meena found RAWA at a hard and oppressive time in our country and worked very hard to organize and mobilize girls and women. She had bid farewell to her personal life and family problems and had given her only daughter to another family to take care of, so that she would not be a hindrance to her struggle. She continued, The condition of the women in Afghanistan is worse than that of any other country. Afghan women are oppressed in the same way today under the national terror government as they were under the rule of Karzai. Violence against women is rampant in this land. Our women started their new year with a tragedy of unbelievable proportions when Farkhunda was killed two days before the new year by Khadi-Jehadi thugs in Kabul. Then throughout the year, Rukhshana was stoned in Ghor province by the savage Taliban, Tabasum was beheaded, tens of women and even small girls were raped in different parts of the country, and womens ears and nose were cut off. In this situation, female officials and MPs are busy planning on ways to fill their pockets. They have not done the slightest for the women of Afghanistan. We should not have any positive expectations in regards to the situation of women from these puppets of the US and its puppet Afghan regime. Patriotic songs of RAWA in Farsi and Pashto were sung by a group of young girls. Messages sent by RAWA supporters from Germany and Italy for Meenas martyrdom anniversary were read in the function. At the end, RAWA member Mariam Rawi, spoke about RAWAs achievements around the world and briefed everyone about some important trips taken by RAWA members in the past year. "...king of the hate left..."-- "As my friend Capper -- the best Wisconsin blogger ever -- says, there will be more. There's always more." - karoli "...the psychiatrically attuned Capper..."-- "This is really great of you! I'm so proud to know someone like you"-- "Capper, a reasonable (and maybe even likeable) Lefty..."-- "capper, the Sidney Freedman of the hate left..."-- "I love capper because, well, what's not to love. But I also hate capper for alerting me to nonsense like this."--- "Capper, you really have a knack for this kind of writing. Really."-- "Crap. I agree with capper. Can Armageddon be far behind?"-- "capper is right. OMG, did I actually say that?"-- The global war against mafias has a new number one enemy: the Calabrian Ndrangheta. At the centre of drug busts and manhunts throughout Europe and around the world, this mafia group from the deepest south of Italy seems to be everywhere. The Ndrangheta dominates the drug trade and shares business with El Chapo, all the while maintaining a constant presence in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada and the United States. Although it was only recently categorised as a mafia in Italian law in 2010, the Ndrangheta has been around for as long as its well-known sister group, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. The name first entered the public consciousness during the 1980s and 90s, when the Ndrangheta carried out a series of kidnappings across Italy, in what was one of the bloodiest chapters of Calabrian history. In August 2007, it stepped onto the global stage, when an internal feud led to the public murder of six Italians in Duisburg, Germany. By the end of the 2000s, the Ndrangheta was notorious around the world for operating a major trans-Atlantic cocaine ring. The groups singular name has Greek origins: the word andranghateia refers to a society of men of honour, and andrangath? means to do military actions. Like any other mafia, the Ndrangheta is highly secretive and operates within strict honour codes, which are deeply embedded in the societal values of Calabria. It has built a reputation on the violence of its feuds, the reliability of its business affiliates, its political influence and its global presence. The Ndrangheta can move and settle in areas beyond the Calabrian region, and has a flexible, family-based, web-like structure, made up of various clans much like Al-Qaeda. In this society, local roots count for as much as global reach. A secret identity Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters Much of what we know about the Ndrangheta came to light in 2010, when Operation Crimine resulted in the arrest of 305 of its members. In the subsequent court trial, anti-mafia prosecutors proved that clans in the province of the Calabrian capital, Reggio Calabria, were coordinating with chambers of control in Canada, Australia and the north of Italy. The family clans, known as ndrine, formed strategical alliances with each other, through blood or marriage ties, across villages in the area. Each ndrina then shared business with affiliates and family members, outside of the region or internationally, while simultaneously responding to local coordination structures (such as the crimine the figure who is in charge of resolving issues and hostilities across the clans). Communication was mostly conducted in code over the phone but also online when necessary. realclearworld Newsletters: Europe Memo The European Council's presidency, which rotates among the Union's member states every six months, is not in any capacity an executive post. Nor, however, is it a merely ceremonial office. One of those strange administrative beasts that the European Union oversees, the presidency sits somewhere between a technocratic team-building exercise -- administrations and their staffs get a chance to put their hands on the inner irons of the Union machinery -- and a gentleman's handshake among the rotating member states, who use the office to make their priorities known and exchange insights during the handover process about the relative state of supranational affairs. One thing it does give its directors is a slightly larger megaphone for six months. In steady times, the presiding state may use that megaphone to emphasise the important -- maybe Europe's putative energy union, or perhaps its digital market. Leading at a time of urgency, the Netherlands, which has held the office since January, has turned up the volume. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, addressing the refugee crisis, warned that Europe has until late winter to solve it, or a Plan B will be necessary. (As our analyst Kaj Leers cogently warns, it's hard to see what that Plan B could be.) Addressing a core priority for the rule-driven Dutch, Foreign Minister Bert Koenders last month issued a challenge to Poland, at the outset of a debate in the European Parliament on that country's controversial changes to its judiciary and public media, letting it be known that Warsaw will not join Budapest in undermining the rule of law across Europe without a challenge from its partner states. Koenders: "It is no secret that my country the Netherlands, home to Grotius and host to many international tribunals, feels it must embed fundamental rights and the Rule of Law in its foreign and European policies. "In 2013, together with Germany, Finland, and Denmark, we sent a letter to our partners arguing the need for a platform to debate the Rule of Law. If we can talk about fish and finance, why not also talk about fundamental rights and the Rule of Law?" Koenders then introduced a Rule of Law Seminar, organized by the Dutch presidency and held in Strasbourg on Feb. 2. The message was clear: In the Netherlands' view, there is a rule-of-law crisis on the Continent that merits urgent attention, even amid the afflictions of the eurozone and the problems dealing with refugees. On all counts, then, the Dutch have been more vocal than previous presidencies in trying to guide the European agenda. There is more urgency to the office in Amsterdam; what there is not, however, is any more decision-making power. Volatility in the eurolab The above sketch helps illustrate a broader dynamic: Amid crisis, the nature of leadership across Europe is changing; it has become too elusive to grasp, and that elusiveness affects every office. The European Union was always a laboratory in governance. With the ingredient of crisis thrown in, the volatility of the experiment has undermined the emergence of clear leaders. Relationships are no longer linear, with electorates relating in a known way to the elected, with national leaders bearing a clear relationship to supranational structures, and with the main struggles existing in a battle for spheres of sovereignty, or in the simplicity of an electoral contest. Author and political analyst Jay Ogilvy this week identifies the emergence of what he calls heterarchy in the system of global politics in an excellent essay for Stratfor. A few excerpts capture the core of what heterarchy means: "While the flesh and blood realities of brains are a lot messier, the essential logical core could be captured in the ideal case of just six neurons arranged in a circular configuration such that A would stimulate B and inhibit C. B would stimulate C and inhibit A. C would stimulate A and inhibit B. [...] "Interestingly enough -- and here's where both problems and possibilities start popping up -- this circular logic is identical to what Nobel economist Kenneth Arrow described as the Voter's Paradox.' The problem goes all the way back to the late 18th century when it was identified by Marquis de Condorcet. Consider the case in which one faction prefers candidate A over B and candidate B over C; a second, equal faction prefers B over C and C over A; and a third faction prefers, you guessed it, C over A and A over B. [...] "The problem with heterarchy, and the challenge to making it work, is not the lack of hierarchy, but too many competing hierarchies. And that's the reality we live in." To the extent that Ogilvy's thesis represents an emerging reality, it is in no place more visible than Europe, nor in any place are the competing vectors -- take A to be the power of traditional mainstream national governments, B to be the supranational element, and C to be national electorates -- a bit more obvious, if still somewhat inscrutable. Examples abound of how the interplay impedes the rise of strong leadership, and they start at the very top, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's struggles to contain opposition to Germany's reception of refugees. Her power erodes due to German domestic opposition, just as Germany was assuming its role as Continental leader -- a role crucial to the German national interest, which requires an integral European trade bloc to absorb German exports. It can be seen in Poland, where the electorate rewarded the populist Law and Justice party with what would appear to be a firm mandate to enforce an inward-looking, confrontational agenda. At the same time, the Polish population is heavily pro-EU, and Poland more than most states benefits from European largesse, placing considerable long-term constraints on what the administration can do. This is sure to undermine its clarity of action. Similar electoral constraints check the rise of France's Front National, as was seen in recent regional elections, where an increasingly euroskeptic electorate was nevertheless loath to reward a movement of political outsiders with a clear path to power. Then there is the case of Italy's Matteo Renzi. Perhaps no European official has done more to triangulate between EU governance structures and domestic politics than the Italian prime minister. We expected the onetime Florentine mayor to make a politically motivated pivot to confrontation with Europe, after a period of introducing broad political and economic reforms and following the EU mandate for austerity. Renzi has done just that. He has touted his credentials as an emerging European leader, pointing to the votes his Democratic Party received at the last European election -- at 11.2 million, the most of any European party. Renzi benefits at home from a divided opposition characterized by cranks, has-beens, and secessionists, and through his willingness to cut deals with pliable center-right politicians, he is improvising a political corpus in some ways reminiscent of the defunct Christian Democrats -- a dominant party that oscillated across the mainstream political spectrum for five decades before falling apart, torn by scandal, in the early 1990s. There are a couple of big problems for Renzi though: First, he has never won a national election, and in a country as politically erratic as Italy, the aforementioned domestic maneuvers, which are made necessary at least in part by European demands, continue to risk alienating elements of the left, which is Renzi's base. Second, as Geopolitical Futures points out here, Italy risks being ground zero of a potential banking crisis in the not-too-distant future. Considering the volatile elements already introduced into the European laboratory, that should provoke shudders across the Continent. More on this: Heterarchy: An Idea Finally Ripe for Its Time (), Jay Ogilvy The World in 2016 (), Geopolitical Futures Feedback Questions, comments, contributions? Feel free to send us an email, or reach out on Twitter @JoelWeickgenant. And be sure to check for all of the latest news and analysis on Europe at RealClearWorld.com. American populism has a European streak - or perhaps it is the other way around. The way Donald Trump and his supporters operate is very much like on The Old Continent, right down to the seemingly incomprehensible contradictions. What may unite them is that many of their own supporters don't actually want them to have real power. Like in Europe, many followers of Trump-like populists have not been seen in voting booths for years, sometimes decades. Like in Europe, after polls suggest that these followers will turn up to vote, many on Election Day don't, leading to surprise losses when results come in. In the Netherlands one politician is once again riding high in the polls, outrunning all others by wide margins. Geert Wilders of the Freedom Party has for months outpaced all other figures with his tough talk on immigrants, Muslims, the European Union, and the establishment elite. Like Trump, Wilders is a loner with an authoritarian streak. He doesn't have a party organization. He has a name for his movement, and by law he's been forced to set up a legal infrastructure, a foundation, in order to be allowed to take part in elections. But he is the only real member. He doesn't want the hassle of having to listen to, and deal with, other members. In-depth reporting by journalists with sources close to Wilders -- sources who have revealed hundreds of internal emails, Whatsapp and SMS conversations between them and Wilders -- show that he does not want, and does not like, a democratic party process. Like Trump's boosters, Wilders' voters don't seem to care what he says. The more extreme, the better. In recent years he proposed cutting up the Quran and "trimming it down to the size of a Donald Duck comic." He also proposed to levy something literally translated as "a towelhead tax" (kopvoddentaks), an extra tax to be paid by Muslim women wearing a headscarf. Recently Wilders called to effectively deport Dutch of Moroccan descent, and he called the Dutch Parliament "a fake parliament" as, considering his support in the polls, it no longer reflects the will of the people. Like Trump, Wilders' supporters are disgusted by the establishment elite, even though he and Trump are in every sense and for all purposes very much a part of it. Wilders has been in Parliament for most of his career. He used to work as an assistant to the leader of one of the biggest center-right parties, and he was even a mentor to the current prime minister, who was at that time a backbencher. Wilders then became an Member of Parliament. In all, he had been part of the establishment for 12 years before he walked out of his party, the Liberals, known by the Dutch acronym VVD, taking his parliamentary seat with him and establishing his own party. Platform-wise, he followed in the footsteps of the harbinger of modern Dutch populism, Pim Fortuyn, someone who probably resembles Donald Trump still more than does Wilders. Fortuyn shot to fame in 2001 and 2002, railing against immigration, the "fifth column of Islam," and what he termed "the bankruptcy of multiculturalism." Fortuyn attracted the same crowd Wilders does. The similarities between Fortuyn and Trump voters are also striking. But where Fortuyn also viciously attacked the establishment elite, he, like Trump, was very much a part of it. Fortuyn was a professor and civil servant in the late 1980s and the 1990s, working for various government ministries. He also shopped parties. Before he decided to head up his own party, he had been a member of almost every party represented in Parliament, but left each one due to his brawling nature. His political convictions seemed fluid; he changed left-wing, centrist, and hard-right parties as if they were undergarments. Like Trump, he had done quite well for himself, mostly thanks to projects won from the establishment he would later despise. So successful he was, that in the early 2000s he lived in a spacious villa he named the Palazzo di Pietro, in one of the most expensive quarters of the Hague, the government capital. He had his own butler and was driven around in his Bentley by a chauffeur. He loved dining in expensive restaurants, and even though he professed to be an unabashed nationalist, Fortuyn was buried in Italy per his will after an extremist animal-rights activist killed him. What unites populists like Donald Trump, Geert Wilders, and Pim Fortuyn -- as well as Marine Le Pen of France's Front National -- is that they seem to defy Marshall McLuhan's truism that "the medium is the message," when applied to persons. It is not the elitist, establishment backgrounds that determine them, but the content of their message. Perhaps this is another feature that unites them: Like Geert Wilders, Donald Trump's political communication strategy is dependent on his message being distributed by mass media, and then hoping that enough voters will turn out. But that's not enough. It hasn't worked for Wilders. Compared to the polls, Wilders underperformed in every recent election. Trump, too, looked destined to win the Iowa Republican caucus, according to polls, but lost to another candidate who had invested in a ground game. The populists' authoritarian, go-it-alone streak has thus far proven to be their weak spot. They activate a long-dormant, turned-off electorate, but they fail to realize that it takes more to get people to the voting booth. The question is, why? Thorough Dutch post-election focus group research performed over the years may provide a hint. It turns out that even at the height of Fortuyn's popularity, relatively few of his supporters wanted to see him actually become prime minister. The same goes for Geert Wilders. Their voters liked the messages, but when it came to the content of their character, judged by questions about their perceived leadership abilities, other politicians scored better. So populists seem to be carriers of messages, and not much else. Does this mean that those messages will fade, like their bearers inevitably do? No. It appears that, in the longer term, they do make a difference, exactly as their voters intended. Many Dutch established parties have over the years copied the principles put forward by Fortuyn and Wilders on immigration and integration. Most parties have taken on tough positions on those matters, either out of pure expediency or because of leadership changes. Fortuyn and Wilders have managed to change the conversation much as right-wing conservative Republicans did in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, and more recently as the Tea Party did. The question this raises is whether the United States will in the long term actually build a huge wall along the Mexican border and stop Muslim immigration. (AP photo) Is Saudi Arabia an ally of the United States? Is Iran an enemy? This is not your grandfather's Middle East. In days past the Cold War, an aggressive Saddam Hussein, and al-Qaeda provided a comfortable set of common enemies; you didn't need a score card to keep track of who was on the field, or for the most part, who was on your side. In the wake of the Arab Spring, the rise of Iran, the meltdown of Arab state authority, and the rise of the self-labeled Islamic State, the Middle East is changing, and nowhere are the differences more apparent than in how Washington has come to regard its so-called friends and adversaries. It's still easy to identify bad guys and to recognize their very bad behavior: among those categories fall the Islamic state, the affiliates of al-Qaeda, and Iran's imprisonment of U.S. citizens, as well as its support of terror and of the regime of Bashar al Assad. But these days it's a lot harder to look at U.S. allies and adversaries in the region and place them in airtight boxes. In fact, the categorizing is getting downright complicated. The United States is moving in a new direction, and Washington finds it now has significant differences with its traditional friends and is developing newfound common interests with its old adversaries. This confusion isn't going away any time soon. It's driven in part by a rising Iran and the deal reached on Tehran's nuclear program, but also by a changing Middle East in which the United States is having trouble finding its footing. Indeed, the old designations of ally and enemy may no longer strictly apply. Let's take a short trip around the region and find out why. Saudi Arabia: Can an authoritarian state that beheads people, discriminates against women, exports Wahhabist fundamentalist ideology, and even funds al-Qaeda affiliates, really be a U.S. ally? Long considered an alliance, the Saudi-U.S. relationship has come under considerable strain. The effects of the so-called Arab Spring, and the perception that Washington wanted to encourage authoritarian regimes to step down (see Egypt and Bahrain), put uncertainty in the relationship. Washington's failure to act boldly against the Assad regime in Syria, and its willingness to cut a nuclear deal with Iran, have persuaded Riyadh that Washington is prepared to accept and even cooperate with a Tehran that is strengthening in the region. So the Saudis have struck out on their own, pursuing a disastrous war in Yemen and funding al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria that are opposed by the United States -- even while Riyadh remains central to the U.S. effort to arm and finance other elements of the Syrian opposition. Saudi Arabia remains a key oil producer that the United States cannot afford to see destabilized. But Washington now finds itself cooperating with a Saudi Arabia whose interests overlap on some issues but diverge sharply on others. Where the interests split, there is little chance of bridging the gap. Egypt: With Egypt, things are even more complicated because of that country's size and its centrality in the Arab world. Largely driven by the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Washington for years saw Cairo as its key strategic partner in the region. I remember trips, with a half a dozen secretaries of state, when we stopped first in Cairo to coordinate. No more. The United States and Egypt are no longer closely coordinating their regional strategies and are at odds over human rights and political reform. The memory of what the Egyptian military perceived to be the Obama administration's flirtation with the Muslim Brotherhood has broken trust. And the Egyptians, even while they maintain their military relationship with Washington, have branched out to the Europeans and Russians for arms sales. As the Arab world's most powerful country and as peace-treaty partner with Israel, Cairo is a player whose support Washington must keep. But gone are the days of the late 1980s and 1990s, when Egypt was America's closest Arab partner in matters relating to peace and war. Israel: As the one democracy in the region, Israel is the only state in the Middle East that shares values and some interests with the United States. For years, no matter what else divided Washington and Jerusalem, the partners shared an unequaled cooperation in matters relating to peace and war that made America's relationship with Israel quite unique. In the past several years, however, U.S. and Israeli interests have begun to diverge greatly, both on the issue of how to handle Iran, and on what to do about the Palestinians. These differences are not merely tactical. They flow from deep and divergent perceptions of threats and opportunities, and emerge from differing assessments of risk, particularly as the Middle East continues to melt down. They have been made worse still by a dysfunctional relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama. Paradoxically, the worse the region becomes, the more Washington may look to the Israelis as an island of stability and increase the U.S.-Israeli security cooperation. Indeed, unlike Lehman Brothers, the U.S.-Israeli relationship may be too big to fail. At the same time, the unresolved Palestinian issue and different perceptions of Iran will inject continued tension into the relationship. Symptomatic of that new reality is Israel's growing closeness to Egypt and some backdoor cooperation with Saudi Arabia out of common concern over a rising Iran. Iran: Perhaps the main stress point of the fraying relationships between the United States and its old allies is the Iran nuclear deal, and the broader perception that Washington is ending 40 years of tension with Iran in favor of finding a new modus vivendi with Tehran. This is indeed more than a perception. While relations remain contentious, there is little doubt that there now exist both a channel to communicate, and an incentive to do so. The Iranian nuclear deal is the administration's signature foreign policy legacy, and the administration is eager to see it implemented. Washington is looking to Tehran for help in sorting out the mess in Syria; in the struggle against the Islamic State; and in the effort to stabilize Iraq. Whether Iran will cooperate in these matters is unclear. But this U.S. administration has accepted something its predecessors never did: the centrality of Iran's role in the region. Driven by the nuclear deal, this acceptance has unsettled traditional allies who worry about a newfound dependency. Managing a rising Iran may well be the single greatest challenge not just to maintaining relations with Washington's friends, but to protecting U.S. interests as well. The administration argues that the nuclear deal was not aimed at moderating the Islamic Republic. But it will not be easy for the United States to maintain a close relationship with an authoritarian regime that is a leading executioner of juveniles, that imprisons U.S. citizens, denies the Holocaust, and represses its own citizens. The problem of who is an ally and who an adversary is not going away, nor will it get any easier. If Washington wants to sort out the situation in Syria, it will need the help of its old adversaries, Iran and Russia. If it wants to see the nuclear deal last, it will need to work with Tehran even as it tries to contain it. And this newfound dependency and cooperation will have the effect of sowing mistrust among old friends who may well go their own way to secure what they see as their interests, regardless of U.S. preferences. If it wants a solution to the Palestinian issue, and to pursue serious political reform and a human rights agenda, Washington is likely to clash with Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Indeed the United States is stuck in a region it cannot transform and it cannot leave. And sadly, America is trapped there with old friends that don't trust it and have their own agendas, and emerging frenemies to whom it looks for solutions to problems it alone cannot resolve. Putting this round peg in a square hole will be no easy matter. (AP photo) Property details: This listing is for the Pine Meadows Range Lot 465 and 466 Unit 4 - FIVE ACRES of undeveloped land, no structures or utilities. It is located along a dirt road named Apache Drive and is accessible by car without four wheel drive. The property is a 20 minute drive from the El Morro National Monument, a stable water source used for centuries by travelers through the region on their way west, and the art community of Ramah, New Mexico (87321), home of the famous Ancient Way Cafe and outpost. A lit... Price: $ 7,500 Seller State of Residence: Nevada Property Address: Lot 465 and 466 Pine Meadows Ranches State/Province: NM City: Ramah Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Zip/Postal Code: 87321 Location: 870**, Grants, New Mexico You will be redirected to eBay Nearby 87321 First travel-related cases in state Lincoln The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services received reports of two cases of travel-related Zika virus. These are the first cases in the state. One is in Douglas County and the other is in Sarpy County. Both people are females in their 20s who recently traveled to Zika-affected countries. Neither one was hospitalized. Zika virus is spread to people primarily through the bite of a mosquito. Although the virus usually causes mild illness according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have also been reports of birth defects and other severe health consequences. Seeing a travel-related case of Zika in Nebraska is new but not unexpected. We were aware of confirmed cases among travelers returning to America from affected areas, said Dr. Tom Safranek, State Epidemiologist for DHHS. Its very possible that we could see more travel-related cases here. This is a rapidly evolving situation, in the geographical distribution of Zika virus and what we know about its impact on human health. This is an important reminder for travelers to countries with the Zika virus, especially pregnant travelers and those of childbearing age and planning a pregnancy to take all precautions to prevent mosquito bites," said Dr. Adi Pour, Director of the Douglas County Health Department. Anyone developing symptoms within two weeks of returning to Nebraska from a Zika-affected area should notify his or her physician, said Shavonna Lausterer, Director of the Sarpy/Cass Department of Health and Wellness. DHHS and its partners will continue to monitor the Zika virus outbreaks occurring in many countries including Brazil. Nebraska health care providers have received information on recognizing, managing and reporting Zika virus infections. Fast facts about Zika virus according to the CDC: * The Zika virus is transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which has never been identified in Nebraska. Aedes albopictus might also transmit the virus. This species of mosquito is found in Nebraska but isnt one of the most prevalent. Both bite mostly in the daytime. * Transmission through blood transfusion and sexual contact have also been reported. * Four out of five people infected with Zika virus will never have symptoms. Those who do get sick, the most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis or red eyes. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting up to a week. * There are reports of a birth defect called microcephaly in babies of mothers who were infected with the Zika virus while pregnant. Microcephaly is a rare condition where a babys head is smaller than expected. Health officials are still investigating the potential link. More about microcephaly - http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/microcephaly.html * The CDC recommends that pregnant women in any trimester consider postponing travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. The latest travel health notices and information - http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-travel-information * Public health officials are looking into reports of Zika virus-associated cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from previous outbreaks. GBS is a rare disorder causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. These symptoms can last a few weeks or several months. * There is still a lot experts dont know about this virus. Theyre studying the science to learn more. * There is no vaccine or specific medicine to treat Zika virus. The best way to prevent Zika or other diseases spread by mosquitoes is to prevent mosquito bites: o Use a mosquito repellent containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or IR3535. o Dress in long-sleeved shirts, pants and socks when youre outside. o Stay in places with air conditioning or that use window and door screens to keep mosquitoes outside. * Zika virus was first recognized in 1947. The first outbreaks occurred in 2007 and 2013 in the Pacific Islands. In 2015, outbreaks occurred in Brazil and other countries. Mosquitoes continue to spread the virus. Map of countries currently affected - http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/index.html For more information, visit: www.cdc.gov/zika For advice to travelers, visit www.cdc.gov/travel Rachel Schwartz, director of programing for Dawgs For Israel, didnt know what to expect when around 17 members of Athens Justice for Palestine entered the room in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where her organization was hosting two Israeli soldiers to speak about their experiences in the Israel Defense Forces Feb. 22.

Image courtesy of PenAir PenAir is considering providing service from Redding to Portland, Oregon.

SHARE By David Benda of the Redding Record Searchlight The skies above Redding will get a bit busier come April. PenAir will start service from Redding to Portland, Oregon, on April 21, the airline announced Friday afternoon. The news culminates nearly a year of talks between Redding officials and the Alaska-based regional airline. It marks the first time service to the Pacific Northwest will be offered here since Horizon Air stopped flying to Seattle in 2010. "We looked at the market and we looked at some statistics and we do believe" Redding can support flights to Portland, PenAir spokeswoman Melissa Roberts said. "We are excited." Former Redding Airports Director Rod Dinger took the lead in the city's recruitment of PenAir. Dinger retired in December but has stayed on a limited basis to help Redding expand service at the airport. "It's been really close to my heart, trying to enhance air service here at Redding," Dinger said. "It's been a top priority for me. So this announcement, I am just real excited with it." Also in April, SkyWest will add a third flight to San Francisco out of Redding. The service starts April 5. Right now, SkyWest, doing business as United Express, offers two daily flights to SFO on 50-seat regional jets. PenAir will fly a 34-seat, twin-engine Saab 340 turbo prop out of Redding. The first flight will depart at 4:50 a.m. and a make stop in Arcata-Eureka before arriving in Portland at 7:20 a.m. "So you will have plenty of time to make a lot of good connections," Roberts said. The afternoon flight will leave Redding at 3:40 and fly nonstop, arriving in Portland at 5:15. Flights from Portland would arrive in Redding at 3:10 p.m. and 9 p.m. The late flight will stop in Arcata-Eureka before continuing on to Redding. On March 1, the Redding City Council is expected to vote on a $75,000 incentive package for PenAir that would include waiving landing fees and facility rental fees for a year. The city also would manage a marketing program to help PenAir sell the service. PenAir also announced on Friday it will start Portland service from North Bend-Coos Bay, Oregon, on March 21. The carrier in September started Portland service from Crescent City through a U.S. Department of Transportation Essential Service contract. PenAir's next target for service to Portland was Klamath Falls, Oregon. But the Transportation Security Administration has told Klamath Falls it will not re-establish a passenger-screening base there. So PenAir turned to Redding and the other communities. "It is all out of our hands, out of our control at this point," Roberts said of PenAir's efforts to serve Klamath Falls. "We are still hoping and we have not quite put it aside, but saying that, we are moving forward." Meanwhile, passenger traffic at Redding Municipal Airport was up about 30 percent in 2015 compared with 2014, Airports Manager Bryant Garrett said. Garrett, too, was elated with PenAir's announcement. "I don't think words can describe how happy I am," he said. The Great Recession took its toll on the Redding airport. But Garrett believes this is another sign that the economy is improving. "You don't recognize what you had until you lost it," Garrett said. "We feel very confident the community will support this (Portland service) and not to the detriment of our current service." This Jan. 14, 2016 image released by CBS News/60 Minutes shows Charlie Rose, left, with actor Sean Penn during an interview in Santa Monica, Calif., about Penn's meeting with Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The interview will air Sunday on "60 Minutes." (CBS News/60 Minutes via AP) ARCHIVE OUT, NO SALES, NORTH AMERICA USE ONLY. SHARE By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) Sean Penn says his article on Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman "failed" in its mission. Speaking to CBS' "60 Minutes," the actor said his intention in tracking down the escaped drug kingpin and writing about him for "Rolling Stone" was to kick-start a discussion of the U.S. government's policy on the War on Drugs. But the public's attention has instead been focused on the fact that Penn found and met with Guzman for seven hours in a mountain hideout last October while he was still evading Mexican officials. He was apprehended only last week after six months on the run. Excerpts from the interview with Penn were released Friday. The interview airs on "60 Minutes" Sunday. Penn has been drawn into a controversy over whether he may have assisted in the recapture effort, or, conversely, may have prolonged the search by keeping silent until the article was published last week. Penn said the Mexican government was "clearly very humiliated" but insisted he had played no role in Guzman's eventual recapture. "We had met with him many weeks earlier," he says. "On October 2nd, in a place nowhere near where he was captured." Guzman's reason for agreeing to meet with the Hollywood star was first explained as resulting from his interest in having a movie made about him. Then it seemed his interest was in a face-to-face encounter not with Penn, but with the contact who was bringing them together: Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, with whom Guzman openly flirted in recently published text messages. For his part, Penn said he had only one true mission. Guzman, he said, was someone through whom "I could begin a conversation about the policy of the war on drugs. That was my simple idea." The Rolling Stone article set off a bombshell, including criticism over the magazine's willingness to give Guzman approval of the article before it was published. There was also suspicion about Penn's qualifications as a Hollywood star, not an established journalist, to report such a big story. "When you get the story that every journalist in the world wanted, there's a lot of green-eyed monsters who gonna come give you a kiss," said Penn, who believes Guzman gave him access because he's not a professional journalist. In an email exchange with the Associated Press Monday about his meeting with Guzman, Penn said, "I've got nothin' to hide." But he told "60 Minutes" he has "a terrible regret." "I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the War on Drugs," Penn said. "Let's go to the big picture of what we all want: We all want this drug problem to stop," he said, but added that the market for these illicit drugs includes many Americans. "There is a complicity there." But what percentage of the discussion that resulted from the article has been focused on these larger issues? "One percent I think that'd be generous," Penn said. "Let me be clear. My article failed." _____ EDITOR'S NOTE Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore _____ Online: http://www.cbs.com This Dec. 29, 2015 photo provided by the Logan, Utah, Police Department shows baby formula seized as evidence in a police department storage room in Logan. Police say they've arrested two women and a man they believe stole more than $5,200 worth of baby formula and a few other items from northern Utah stores. Logan Police Capt. Curtis Hooley says the three were arrested Monday, Dec. 28, 2015 and are being held in the Cache County jail on suspicion of theft and other charges.(Logan Police Department via AP) SHARE By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) The recent arrests in Utah of three people accused of stealing thousands of dollars' worth of baby formula is the latest example of a problem that officials say is vexing stores and police nationwide as thieves systematically swipe the mixture from shelves and resell it to unsuspecting parents. Baby formula is a major expense for many new parents, with small canisters starting around $20 and special or prescription blends costing two or three times that. It's also widely used. More than a third of infants receive formula in addition to breastmilk in their first six months, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Often, babies who are weaned off breastmilk will continue to drink formula into their toddler years. The high price and broad demand make it an enticing target for thieves, who typically sell the stolen formula at flea markets or list it on websites like Craigslist and eBay. In late December, police in Logan, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, confiscated 422 cans of stolen formula worth $8,000 to $10,000. It came from stores in Logan and three other northern Utah cities, and officers are looking for ties to similar recent thefts in Idaho cities about 150 miles away, Police Capt. Curtis Hooley said. In Pleasanton, California, thefts of large amounts of formula are reported at least once a month, with thieves frequently hitting multiple stores around the San Francisco Bay Area, according to police Lt. Kurt Schlehuber. He doesn't think the culprits are parents trying to feed their kids. "There are people that are making money off of selling the stuff," Schlehuber said. In April, Pleasanton police arrested two people suspected of stealing dozens of containers of the product. Officers happened to see the pair running from the store with shopping baskets full of formula. But arrests can be rare when police often have only an anonymous face captured by a surveillance camera, Schlehuber said. Around the country, law enforcement agencies in recent years have reported heists ranging from thousands to several million dollars' worth of baby formula. In 2009, Florida authorities arrested 21 people accused in an elaborate theft ring that officials say pilfered more than $2 million in formula annually. Investigators working on that sting called "Operation Hot Milk" said thieves were paid between $100 and $300 a day and used multiple lookouts while filling bags with formula. They hit 15 or more stores a day and later repackaged the formula and sold it in other states, authorities said. The Infant Nutrition Council of America, an association of baby formula manufacturers, does not keep statistics on the thefts but said it's a continuing problem nationwide. "We're not talking about petty shoplifting," said Jennifer Hatcher, a senior vice president for government and public affairs at the Food Marketing Institute, which represents supermarket chains, small grocery stores, pharmacies and other food retailers. Large thefts can be a particularly costly problem for many such stores, which are required to keep a minimum amount of formula on their shelves to accept customers spending money dispersed through the federal Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, known as WIC. Hatcher said the industry has been working to combat the thefts for about 15 years. For parents, stolen formula can be a safety concern. They can't be sure that what they're buying has been stored at proper temperatures or isn't past its expiration date. Some sophisticated theft rings even print counterfeit formula labels to make a cow's-milk-based product appear to be a more expensive soy or rice formula designed for children with milk allergies, Hatcher said. Mardi Mountford, the nutrition council's executive director, recommends that formula be bought only from a trustworthy retailer, either in-store or online. New mother Erica Otten of Tabernacle, New Jersey, said she understands a parent's temptation to try and save on the expensive product by shopping for a discounted version online. Her 5-month-old daughter has a protein allergy requiring a specific formula that costs $32 for a 1-pound can that lasts four days at most. Still, Otten sticks to the major retailers. "It sounds scary because you're feeding it to your infant," she said. "I inspect everything like crazy the expiration date, the fact that it's sealed." To help with the cost, Otten signed up to receive regular coupons from formula manufacturers while pregnant. She now swaps the coupons she doesn't need with other mothers around the country. Some retailers take extra steps to combat thefts, keeping their baby formula under lock and key. Others stamp their store names and locations on containers to alert consumers or police if the stolen product turns up for sale somewhere else, Hatcher said. When large amounts of formula are stolen, lot numbers are provided to websites like eBay that can monitor sale listings for the products. To chip away at the black market demand, federal officials have started requiring grocery stores and retailers that participate in the WIC program to buy formula only from approved wholesalers. "Each one of these tactics, it seems to have helped alleviate some of the ability for them to resell this product quickly," Hatcher said. "That doesn't mean it's still not an incredibly attractive product to try to steal." An Ampy charging device is displayed by an Ampy representative at CES International Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, in Las Vegas. The device can charge phones by movement. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) SHARE By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) It's enough to make you want to drop everything and race for the nearest power outlet: Your workday isn't even done, and your smartphone or laptop battery is already in the red zone. If you're hoping that techno-progress will dispel that depleted feeling, you may be in for a long wait. Battery life is constrained by limitations in chemistry, and improvements aren't keeping pace with demands from modern gadgets. We're still dependent on the venerable lithium-ion cell, first commercialized by Sony in 1991; it's light, safe and holds a lot of charge relative to most alternatives, but it isn't getting better fast enough to keep up with our growing electronic demands. So instead, manufacturers are doing their best to "cheat" their way around lithium-ion's limitations. The CES gadget show in Las Vegas this week featured plenty of workarounds that aim to keep your screen lit longer. Proceed with caution, though: Manufacturer claims of battery life improvement can fall short of real-world experience. ___ NEW CHIPS Not that long ago, computer-chip makers competed to make their chips ever faster and more capable, with power consumption a secondary consideration. But the boom in energy hungry smartphones and laptops means that companies like Intel need to put much more emphasis on power efficiency these days. Intel says its sixth-generation Core chips, known as Skylake, add a little more than an hour to battery life to laptops compared with the previous generation, according to spokesman Scott Massey. The chips utilize a more compact design, hard-wired functions that used to be run via software and fine-tuning how they ramp power use up and down. ___ BETTER-DESIGNED LAPTOPS Laptop manufacturers are smartly sipping power, too. HP says the Spectre x360 notebook it introduced in March gains up to 72 minutes of battery life, for a total of up to 13 hours, thanks in part to Intel's new chip. Among other tricks, the PC doesn't refresh the screen as often if the image isn't moving. "If we can solve a bunch of small problems, they can add up," HP vice president Mike Nash said. Similarly, Lenovo's new ThinkPad X1 Yoga tablet turns off its touch screen and keyboard backlight if it senses its owner is walking and has the screen folded back like an open book. Vaio, the computer maker formerly owned by Sony, says its Z Canvas launched in the U.S. in October benefits from shrinking components and efficiently distributing heat to make more room for a bigger battery. And Dell says it has worked with manufacturers to squeeze more battery capacity into the same space. It says its efforts recently boosted the energy storage of its XPS 13 laptop by 7.7 percent compared to an earlier version of the same model . ___ NEW CHARGERS Maybe it's your phone that's not keeping up. If so, you might check out new accessories designed to make it easier and faster to charge back up. Kickstarter-funded Ampy uses your body's kinetic energy to charge up a pager-sized device. Strap it to your arm or a belt and it can recharge a smartphone in real time; an hour of jogging or similar exercise yields about an hour of use. You could also just throw it in your bag and get the same extra hour of gadget life after a week of walking around not an awesome trade off, maybe, but possibly better than nothing. The wireless-charging technology Qi makes it possible to charge a phone without plugging it in. Instead, you lay it down on a special pad and let electromagnetic field coupling do the work. Wireless charging has always been much slower than wired, although Qi's backers say it's speeding up. But wired charging is getting faster, too, at least for phones with the latest hardware and with Qi, you still have to line up your device just right on the sometimes fussy pads. ___ AP Technology Writer Brandon Bailey in San Francisco contributed to this report. SHARE Q. Does your tradition teach that being gay is wrong or sinful? If it is wrong/sinful, how do you treat the gay person? This is a question on which the Bible is very clear. Homosexuality is a sin. To say anything different requires the most blatant misinterpretation and distortion of the clear teaching of the Bible. But listen. Yes, homosexuality is sinful, and so is gossip, theft, hatred, lying and more. All sin is an abomination to a holy God. Before him homosexuals and adulterers, drunkards and gossips, liars and the prideful, all share a common status and a common condemnation. The gospel also gives a common hope: "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." Our question asks how my tradition "treats the gay person." The answer is exactly the same as it treats any other member of Adam's fallen race who comes within our walls with truth, compassion and with the good news of the gospel. We do not cover or approve any sin, but we offer the one remedy for every sin. The Rev. Gene Crow, pastor Redding Reformed Fellowship The biblical injunction, "Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is an abomination" from Leviticus 18:22 (1917 Jewish translation) is widely misunderstood. The biblical prohibition does not use the words "wrong" or "sinful." Our sages included this prohibition to dissuade such homosexual practices, which were common in Canaan, Greece and Rome. The ancient sages considered sexual impurity, when allied with or elevated into a form of worship, dehumanizing because it leads to the deadening of the holiest human instincts. With the advent of modern Judaism's core values of tolerance and inclusivity, more synagogues welcome gays. Reform Judaism has ordained gay men since 1990. Conservative Judaism approved of gay rabbis and same-sex marriages in 2006. Temple Beth Israel treats such individuals as they would any other person who walks through our doors. All are equally welcome. George Wandrocke, chaplain Temple Beth Israel of Redding The Bible is very clear on all sexual sin. Venture into the Old Testament in Leviticus chapter 18. There you will find that God allows the sexual act between a man and a woman, i.e. a husband and wife, only. If God can't differentiate between divorce, infidelity and a gay life style then neither can I. Let's understand that Christians do not hate professed gay people. Rather we encourage those involved with same sex partners to seek God and come to a truth that is life changing. This reaching out is for all sexual misconduct. Satan has a powerful message that contradicts Gods loving commandments, unfortunately we listen. Jim White, lay leader Weaverville Church of the Nazarene Sexuality in the Sikh religion relates to the marriage of a man and woman and the sacredness of their singular physical relationship. It is a means to creating a future of children that can live in elevation and mastery. When speaking of homosexuality and even bisexuality, the implication is that the relationship is based on sex. The Sikh way of life is a system of living for achieving harmony of the mind, body and spirit and living in God consciousness. If you are focusing heavily on the physical aspects of your relationships, then you are already out of balance. Whenever marriage is mentioned, it is always in reference to a man and a woman. Those who have an issue with sexuality preference should be encouraged to direct their mind to meditate on Waheguroo. People should be encouraged to develop their capacity as a godly person rather than a gay person. Amarjit Singh The Sikh Centre, Anderson Unity World Wide Ministries first principle begins with the words, "There is One Presence and One Power in the Universe." Two of Unity in Redding's core values are unconditional love and acceptance. It's clear in our faith tradition that God is in all beings. We believe that each of us is an individual and unique expression of God. Gay or straight, Caucasian or of color does not make a difference in how people reveal their spirit within. When they live and walk in the world with joy, share love, are kind and respectful, and live to their highest and best, they reflect a consciousness of spiritual understanding. In Unity we hold the space for the spiritual growth of all, see the Christ spirit in all, and accept all people for who they are. Carolyn Warnemuende, Spiritual co-director Unity in Redding We have a dismal history in our treatment of gays. Under Pope John Paul II, gay orientation was termed "intrinsically disordered" and treated as a condition that needed to be opposed or "cured." Prophetically, the bishops of the United States authored a pastoral letter: "All Our Children," which significantly softened that previous statement and seemed to recognize that sexual orientation was not the fault of parents nor a lack of faith from the individual. It at last recognized the person who is gay as a valued member of our faith communities and individual families. But recent struggles and condemnations over the term "gay marriage" definitely clouded the gay issue and made attempts to accommodate our brothers, sisters, children, uncles and aunts who are gay much more difficult as well as hardened some who still believe it is a "disordered condition." At least Pope Francis says: "Who am I to judge?" Deacon Mike Evans Sacred Heart Church, Anderson Rather than wrong or sinful, Buddhist teachings define behavior as harmful, unskillful or likely to lead to suffering. No group of people is singled out as having a special superior or inferior status based on identity. All sentient beings, without exception, have Buddhanature the capacity to become enlightened. From the beginning, the Buddha's community accepted aspirants from groups typically disparaged by his society: Women, lower caste individuals, repentant criminals and outcasts of all types. Buddhist teachings regarding sexuality apply regardless of whether one is gay or non-gay. Wise sexual behavior consists of celibacy for monastics and for lay people occurs in the context of a committed relationship. Non-harming sexuality respects the physical and emotional integrity of individuals, honors relationships and does not break families or harm children through divorce or abuse. Not judging the behavior or spiritual merit of others, we take responsibility for our own sexual behavior. Chris Carrigan, Buddhist River Oak Sangha, Redding Islam, as well as the other two major religions, disapprove of homosexuality. To them, homosexuality is a vile form of fornication. God says in the Quran "... for ye practice your lust on men in preference to women, ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." In another place, the Quran says "... of all the creatures in the world, will you approach males, and leave those whom God has created for you to be your mates? Nay, ye are a people transgressing." In Islam, we do, however, respect homosexuals as human beings, outside of their homosexual behavior. Homosexuality is also condemned in the Bible. God says "... for a man to lie with another man, like he lays with a woman, is an abomination in the site of God." So the question is, as believer in God, do we obey what God says or do we obey the desires of man? The answer is simple: We obey God. Gays may be some of best people a person may know. It's not the person, it's their acts of homosexuality that are condemned. Imam Abu Bakr H. Salahuddin Islamic Center of Redding Our tradition does not teach that being gay is wrong or sinful. We view all beings as perfect creations of the divine. We have, over the years, taken a clear stance to support marriage equality as a human rights issue, not a political issue. We, as a species, have set up barriers to love, while teaching "God is love." Over millennia, we have said, members of this tribe can't love that tribe. Members of this caste can't love that caste. Members of this socio-economic/political class can't love those not of that class. Members of this religion can't love members of that religion. Members of this race can't love members of that race. Love can't be limited. Wherever we place our own limitations, from our own limited perspective, love must break through those limitations until we finally realize that love is all there is. Be love and we are being godly. The Rev. David Robinson, senior minister Center for Spiritual Living, Redding Humanism is informed by science, which tells us that sexuality covers a wide range of expression from heterosexuality to homosexuality and everything in between. It would be preposterous to think that someone who is expressing their innate sexual nature is somehow evil or sinful. To me, what is truly evil is teaching that homosexuality and alternative expressions of love are wrong. The harm that has been done to LGBTQ people in the name of so-called righteousness has been immeasurable, but thanks to science and reason such hatefulness seems to be waning. Elisabeth Steadman Humanist celebrant, American Humanist Association Next week's question: Does your faith tradition have a position on marrying outside of the faith? Alayna Shulman/Record Searchlight Reddings Marinello School of Beauty was among 56 nationwide shut suddenly amid an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. SHARE By Alayna Shulman of the Redding Record Searchlight In September, 42-year-old Nicole Martin's lifelong dream of going to beauty school finally became reality. Martin said she was finally to the point where she could cut back her hours working in health care, so the Redding resident signed up for hair and nail classes at Marinello School of Beauty downtown. But Martin and her fellow Marinello students and teachers are now without a school. The company abruptly shut down all of its campuses several days after the U.S. Department of Education announced it was de-certifying several of them over "serious violations." "I don't know what my plans are now," Martin said in a message. "Everyone is sad." The campuses under investigation were in Sacramento, Las Vegas, Moreno Valley, Los Angeles and Burbank. It wasn't clear how many students attended the Redding campus or how many people it employed. Complaints from the Department of Education included: the company allegedly provided false job-placement rates to students, the department and its accreditor; requested federal aid for students with invalid high school diplomas; underawarded Title IV aid to students; charged them for "excessive overtime;" and "other acts of misrepresentation." In a complaint to the Sacramento campus, for example, the department outlines how the school allegedly "callously disregarded students' financial needs," and "routinely lied" about how much they stood to receive, with most students owing the school around $1,000 that would have been covered by financial aid. The Beverly Hills company called the accusations "unfounded," and noted that it is "working hard, and are well into the process of arranging partnerships with other schools that would enable you to complete your coursework." While not specified, it appears the closure of all 56 campuses nationwide was a choice the company made and not a condition of the investigation. "We want you to know that we did everything in our power to avoid this unfortunate conclusion and keep your school open. Unfortunately, the Department of Education's unprecedented and unfounded actions left us with no other option except to close our schools," a statement posted on the company's website reads. Meanwhile, a Los Angeles Times article said the company decided to shut down its schools rather than dispute the allegations by Feb. 16. Martin said it's frustrating and she's heartbroken that her dream was so short-lived and it's unclear whether she'll be able to resume it somewhere else. She said she got an email from the school saying her credits were transferable, but she doesn't know to what extent. But Martin said her biggest concern is the staff members unlike her, now they're out of a job. "I loved my teachers," she said. "They all went into work to find out they no longer have jobs, so I guess at the end of the day I should feel blessed at least I still have a job." The closures happened Thursday and Friday. Apart from the statement, the company seems intent on staying tight-lipped. Employees at the Redding campus could be seen loading material into a car Friday afternoon but declined to comment. Other employees contacted via Facebook did not respond to messages seeking comment. The campus phone number wasn't picked up, and the company's toll-free number immediately goes to an unavailable message. Meanwhile, the school's "media center" page is now defunct. A meeting will be held next week for students who need to collect their paperwork and get help moving forward. The meeting is Wednesday from 10 a.m .to 6 p.m. at the Market Street Promenade campus. Shasta School of Cosmetology did not respond to a message seeking comment, but appears to be aware of the Marinello situation, issuing a statement to "displaced students" saying it is working with national agencies "to assist with displaced students." Employees evacuate from the Blue Shield of California office on Friday after a bomb threat, which proved unfounded. SHARE Police investigate a bomb scare in Redding on Friday. A bomb threat reported Friday at the Blue Shield of California office on Bechelli Lane turned out to be unfounded, Redding police said. The threat, called in at 12:57 p.m. to the medical insurance corporate office in Sacramento, prompted the evacuation of employees from its office at the Bechelli Lane location near South Bonnyview Road for about three hours. Details about the incident were still incomplete Friday evening. Redding police Sgt. Mark Montgomery said information passed on to him from the day-watch sergeant indicated there had been no substantiation of any kind to the report. It sounded like it all was unfounded, he said. The day-watch sergeant said it appeared there had been a disgruntled employee and a suspicious-looking box but the two were never put together, Montgomery said. Authorities searched the building, while employees waited in the parking lot for clearance. They were instructed not to talk to the media. Tweets by @JSzydlowski_RS SHARE UPDATED at 2:11 p.m.: One person suffered burns from the fire, according to scanner reports. ORIGINAL STORY: Firefighters are battling a blaze that has engulfed a travel trailer that sits next to a home this afternoon. The fire, reported just before 2 p.m., has spurred firefighters to call additional units to the home near the intersection of Smokey Road and Ericka Lane in Happy Valley. That area is near the Shasta Pizza Company. Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight Joy Garcia is leaving her position as the executive director of First 5 Shasta to work at an international school in Lima, Peru. SHARE By Amber Sandhu of the Redding Record Searchlight For Joy Garcia, leaving Shasta County feels a bit bittersweet. The First 5 Executive Director is moving on to the next chapter in her life and will head to Lima, Peru, in May to work with her husband at an international school. After spending 12 years in Shasta County, she said she feels grateful to have worked with a community as "phenomenal" as Shasta County. Garcia said some of the work she's most proud of during her five years as the executive director were identifying partners in the community to ensure that grant money goes back to community organizations that directly serve children under age 5 and pregnant women. Garcia said she assessed and researched other First 5 models and other philanthropic organizations to find best practices to serve the children of Shasta County. She said every year, First 5 Shasta receives $1 million or more from cigarette taxes to distribute within the community, with grants from $250 to $300,000 going toward organizations that support their cause. "In reality, this has been my baby to nurture," she said about her job. First 5 Shasta was created in 1998 after California voters passed "The Children and Families Act," also known as Proposition 10, which supports "the healthy development of children" up to age 5. Services include health and parenting education as well as school readiness programs. Garcia graduated from New Mexico State University with a bachelor's degree in biology and health, and spent a few years working as a field biologist. She went on to attain her master's degree in education and worked as a science teacher before making the move to Shasta County with her husband. Having a diverse background prepared her to work for the Shasta County Public Health Department, where she served as a community education specialist, and then moved on to work with the Health and Human Services Agency as a prevention and early intervention coordinator. So, when the executive director position at First 5 Shasta opened up, she didn't want to pass up the opportunity. Garcia said she hopes to have someone take her position by the end of April. And despite five years, she said she doesn't feel like her work is done. "There's never going to be a time that we're done," she said. "By far, it's been the most rewarding job I've ever had." SHARE A 35-year-old man reported missing earlier this week was found drowned in pond in Red Bluff on Friday morning. Stefan Dekker was reported missing Wednesday. Tehama County authorities found his dog and truck near a pond on private property in the 1800 block of Red Bank Road. They also found an overturned boat on the pond. California Highway Patrol officers searched the area by helicopter and Tehama County sheriffs deputies searched the ground until it got too dark. Searches on Thursday also failed to find Dekker. On Friday, authorities returned to the pond with a remote operated vehicle submersible. They found Dekkers body in the pond. Agencies that assisted in Fridays search included the Butte County Sheriffs Office boating unit, Siskiyou County Search and Rescue dog team, Tehama County Search and Rescue squad and divers from the Tehama County Sheriffs Office. There was no sign of foul play and the death is being investigated as an accidental drowning, the Tehama County Sheriffs Office said. Jim Fortier, 75, (left, center) speaks with Tom Mohler, 77, at a rally Friday to honor Robert LaVoy Finicum, who was shot and killed in a confrontation with authorities Jan. 26 near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. SHARE Around 65 people turned out at a vigil at the U.S. District Court building on Bechelli Lane on Friday afternoon to honor the memory of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum. Finicum was one of the leaders of an Oregon armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon who protested federal control of much of the western United States' lands. Authorities said Finicum was shot and killed in a confrontation last month with FBI agents and Oregon state troopers as he tried to pull a gun. Protester Chaylen Scrivner, 33, said he found the official story suspect from the start. Like many at the Redding gathering, Doyle Whittaker, 63, said he turned out because he thinks authorities "murdered" Finicum. Similar rallies were planned in other cities on Friday when Finicum's funeral took place inside a Mormon church in Kanab, Utah. SHARE This should be Marco Rubio's moment. The Florida senator achieved an impressive third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, behind Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Third place may not sound like much, but Rubio outperformed his poll numbers handily and finished only a hair behind Trump. That was enough to allow him to indulge in a victory speech and proceed to New Hampshire as the presumed front-runner in the mini-field of candidates not named Cruz or Trump. Rubio's challenge now is making that status permanent and becoming the only credible alternative to the two insurgent candidates, which won't be easy. There are other candidates in the "establishment" lane, and none of them is ready to give way to a first-term senator. By traditional measures, it's an impressive lane: two successful big-state governors, John Kasich of Ohio and Jeb Bush, Florida's former executive; a less-successful, but still significant figure, Chris Christie of New Jersey; and Rubio himself, a rising star who is probably the most eloquent candidate in either party. Leading up to the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, Rubio will argue that his showing in Iowa makes him the logical choice, and that he's the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton in November. "If you're not with Marco, you're electing the Democrats," a new ad from Rubio's super PAC warned on Tuesday. But "electability" is an argument that, historically, moves only a minority of Republicans, even in pragmatic New Hampshire. Rubio has a substantive problem, too. The senator is very smart, very smooth and very malleable. He started in politics as a protege of Jeb Bush; now he's running against Bush. He came to Washington as one of the original tea party insurgents, then morphed into an establishment conservative and now, in the heat of the campaign, he's trying to reverse his evolution. In his most dramatic moment in the Senate, Rubio co-sponsored bipartisan immigration reform only to discover that most Republican voters hated the idea, so he renounced it. (He's still living that down; at nearly every debate, Cruz accuses him of the inexpiable sin of "collaboration with President Obama and Chuck Schumer.") Lately, Rubio has become ever tougher on immigration. He once said terrorism shouldn't be a reason to restrict legal immigration, but in January, after fear of terrorism rose, he said "the entire system of legal immigration must now be re-examined for security first." He's changed his position on trade, as well; once a major proponent of Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership, he now says he is reviewing the agreement and does not know whether he will vote for it. On a more stylistic note, Rubio began his campaign promising to be a candidate of optimism but when optimism didn't sell, he added a dose of pessimism. "As I travel the country," he said last month, "people say what I feel. This country is changing. It feels different. We feel like we're being left behind and left out." There seems to be a personal edge to the competition, too. Rubio says he sees no reason to wait in line behind his elders. The elders have responded combatively, suggesting he should get off their lawn. Christie, for instance, dismissed Rubio on Tuesday as "the boy in the bubble." Ultimately, Rubio's bronze medal as the establishment candidate who did best in Iowa may not count for much in New Hampshire. The other establishment candidates show no sign of lining up behind him. They're still likely to hand first place in the nation's first primary to the least traditional candidate of all: Donald Trump. Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Readers may send him email at doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com. Known for making controversial remarks, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan outdid himself when he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif last December. Sharat Pradhan/ Rediff.com reports from Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister Azam Khan, who is also the most prominent Muslim face of the ruling Samajwadi Party, on Saturday accused Prime Minster Narendra Modi of having a secret meeting with India's most wanted fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim, during his visit to Pakistan in December 2015. Referring to Modi as the badshah (king), Khan claimed, I have photographs to prove that Modi did have a meeting with Indias most-wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim during his visit to Pakistan where he went to meet Pakstan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Khan was addressing a gathering at the annual function of a college in Ghazipur. When Modi went to call on Prime Minister Sharifs mother, he was accompanied by two prominent Indian business magnets, (Gautam) Adani and (Sajjan) Jindal, Khan added. "Prime Minister Modi visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny, I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan said. He said besides Dawood, Sharifs mother, his wife and daughters were also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan prime minister's residence when he went there on December 25 last year. Azam Khan, who is widely known for his acerbic and sharp comments, further charged Modi with giving away expensive pashmina shawls to Nawaz Sharif and getting seekh kebabs in return. Mind you, the kebabs were not made of lauki (gourd), Khan quipped making a curt reference to Modis famously vegetarian food habits. Khan also referred to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abes visit to Varanasi as a fruitless one which only served the interests of Japan. While Varanasi could not become a Kyoto, the Japanese prime minister managed to get deals struck worth thousands of crores, Khan alleged. He further blamed the Narendra Modi government of deliberately excluding Lucknow from the list of smart cities, since UP is not a BJP-ruled state. While the Bharatiya Janata Party attacked him, even a Congress spokesperson said the party attached no importance to it, saying it cannot be believed. BJP's Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to "immediately" dismiss the minister. "If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and bringing shame to the nation. I am shocked," he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. "We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said," he said, adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. With inputs from PTI In a boost to Make in India, the HTT-40 rolled out of the hangar with all its lights flashing and its cockpit powered on, reports Ajai Shukla. If all goes according to plan, the HTT-40 will complete its flight test programme in two years, and be inducted into the IAF from 2018. Photograph: @MoD/Twitter In an important milestone for Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, its new basic trainer aircraft, the Hindustan Turbo Trainer -- 40 (HTT-40) rolled out for the first time from the hangar where it was built and began preparations for its first flight, later this month. For years, the Indian Air Force flatly opposed the HTT-40 project, demanding the defence ministry scrap it. In its place, the IAF wanted to import over a hundred new trainers from Swiss company, Pilatus, to supplement the 75 Pilatus PC-7 Mark II trainers it had already bought. The IAF repeatedly told the ministry the HTT-40 would be overweight, over-priced and under-performing. But HAL doggedly continued development, committing more than Rs 350 crore of company funds. Given this history, there was jubilation amongst the HTT-40 design team as their first prototype, fully designed in India, rolled out of the hangar with all its lights flashing and its cockpit powered on. The project has managed to steer through the initial headwinds and now is going full throttle, said T Suvarna Raju, the HAL chief. An HAL media release on Tuesday noted: The team composition of HTT-40 is the youngest ever on any prototype program in HAL. The IAF, now convinced about the HTT-40s viability, wants to take charge of the project. However HAL, in a demonstration of confidence, insists on funding and controlling the project until the trainer takes to the skies. After that, the HTT-40 will be overseen by an integrated project management team, headed by Air Marshal Rajesh Kumar, who attended the rollout. Before actually flying, the HTT-40 will undergo a series of ground tests. First, US firm Honeywell, which has supplied the TPE-331-12B engine, will verify it is properly integrated with the airframe. After that, the HTT-40 will do low-speed taxi runs, and then high-speed taxi runs. In the latter, it will speed down the runway, coming close to lift-off, but remaining on the ground. Only after all systems are proven on the ground, will inspectors allow the aircraft to actually lift off. If all goes according to plan, the HTT-40 will complete its flight test programme in two years, and be inducted into the IAF from 2018. HAL says that the HTT-40 production line will build two trainers in 2018, eight in 2019, and reach its capacity of 20 per year from 2020 onwards. Some 70 HTT-40 trainers will join the fleet, supplementing the 75 Pilatus PC-7 Mark II already in service; and another 38, whose purchase is currently being negotiated. HAL is looking beyond the IAF, at exporting the HTT-40 to air forces across the region. The designers say it can be developed into a capable ground attack aircraft that would be ideal for countries like Afghanistan, which need to provide air support to their ground troops, but cannot afford full-fledged fighters. There are plans to weaponise and optimise HTT-40 aircraft, said Suvarna Raju. HAL says: Its role includes basic flying training, aerobatics, instrument flying, navigation, night flying, close formation etc. The PC-7 Mark II and HTT-40, both propeller-driven turbo-prop aircraft, will be used for Stage-1 training of rookie IAF pilots. While Stage-2 training is currently being done on the HAL-built Kiran Mark II, it could shift to the new Sitara intermediate jet trainer, which HAL is now completing after long delays. Finally, budding fighter pilots will do their Stage-3 training on the Hawk advanced jet trainer, which HAL builds under licence from BAE Systems. Area producers have mixed feelings on the Legislature's decision to remove a 1999 ban that prevented meatpackers from owning hogs. Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus, who was among 34 state lawmakers voting in favor of LB176 on Friday, said he listened carefully to the highly emotional debate and ultimately decided that, In the end, we will likely have a stronger hog industry with the changes implemented in (this bill). Supporters of the measure pointed to Nebraskas declining hog population and farm numbers and argued the ban hurt the hog industry. Schumacher said lifting the ban will allow new producers to enter the industry a contract with a meatpacker would increase a new farmers ability to access loans for land and facilities. LB176 will produce more pork, more jobs and more grain consumption than we have now, said Schumacher. Local pork producer Bill Luckey dont see the bill having a major impact. Basically, do I like packers owning pigs? No. I would rather see farmers owning them, said Luckey, who runs a family operation outside Columbus. But I dont see it making much of a difference in this state. Hog farmer David Wilke said he also doesnt see the bill making a big difference because producers were able to contract their hogs with meatpackers before LB176 passed, though packers didnt technically own the hogs. He also prefers for producers to own hogs, but said the bill may help the overall industry. I think the producer can do a better job raising the pigs, said Wilke. (Producer ownership) works better for local economies, but in this world maybe that isnt always possible. Luckey, a past president of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, isnt convinced the ban hurt the industry in Nebraska, at least around Columbus. In our area, seems like there were lot of opportunities with the ban, he said. There were barns being put up and pigs being shipped out. Creston-area producer Stan Rosendahl, also a former president of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, said he could see how lifting the ban would open opportunities to enter the industry by contracting with packers. But while these contracts diminish risk, they also diminish reward. If you contract with a packer, the packer will determine you should only have this much for taking care of hogs, said Rosendahl. Whereas if you own the hogs you can decide when you want to ship the hogs or you dont, for when you see a profit. He said the clear winner with this legislation is the meatpacking industry. Theyll know how many hogs are coming and theyll know how many hogs are out there because they own them, said Rosendahl. Theres no price discovery. For producers who choose to remain independent of the packers, its hard to say how this legislation will affect their business. During debate in Lincoln, supporters of the bill sponsored by Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala said opening up the hog market to companies like Smithfield and Tyson Foods will make Nebraska more competitive with neighboring states and lessen the risk for new pig farmers. Opponents warned the change could have a devastating effect on the state's local pork producers and harm the environment by resulting in more big hog confinement facilities. They also accused lawmakers of buckling under influence from lobbyists backed by corporate agriculture. "Money wins over the will of the people. Money won this," John Hansen of the Nebraska Farmers Union said after the 34-14 vote. When it takes effect, the change will undo the pig portion of the 1999 law which makes it illegal for packers to own swine or cattle in Nebraska for more than five days before slaughter. Other Midwestern states had adopted similar measures but have since repealed them. Nebraska will now join those states in allowing meat processors like Chinese-owned Smithfield to contract with farmers to raise pigs in large concentrated operations. That helps the packers control product consistency, minimize costs and squeeze out more profit. "I'm glad it passed; it's the right thing to have happen," Schilz said. The Lincoln Journal Star contributed to this story. The International Fleet Review of the Indian Navy was held in Vishakhapatnam on Saturday morning. President Pranab Mukherjee was given a 21-gun salute and the ceremonial Guard of Honour by 150 navy personnel. Close to 75 Indian warships and 24 from Navies across the globe sailed past the Presidential yacht- INS Sumitra, that, besides Mukherjee hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defence minister Manohar Parrikar, three service chiefs besides others. Rediff.com's Vipin Vijayan reporting from Vishakhapatnam presents some fascinating moments from the show. Crew of the INS Tarangini salute the Commander in Chief of the Indian Armed Forces. INS Tarangini is a three-masted barque, commissioned in 1997 as a sail training ship for the Indian Navy. Photograph: Vipin Vijayan The four fleet review yatch; President Pranab Mukherjee was onboard the INS Sumitra (1st ship in the formation) followed by the other three Saryu-class patrol vessels -- INS Saryu, INS Sumedha (both of which had VIPs on board) and INS Sunaina (the media yatch). Photograph: Vipin Vijayan INS Viraat, which saw action in the Falklands War and remained for well over a decade the sole aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean region following the decommissioning of the first Indian carrier INS Vikrant in 1997 -- entered service on May 12, 1987. Besides more than 1, 200 officers and sailors onboard, Viraat's complement includes six Sea Harrier fighter jets, Chetak and Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters. Photograph: Vipin Vijayan Marine Commados execute an operational display. MARCOS is the special forces unit of the Navy, created for conducting special operations such as amphibious warfare, counter-terrorism, Direct action, special reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, hostage rescue, personnel recovery, combat search and rescue, asymmetric warfare, foreign internal defence, counterproliferation and amphibious reconnaissance. ? Photograph: Vipin Vijayan Led by Flag Officer Naval Aviation Rear Admiral Puneet Bahl, the Chetak helicopters of the Indian Navy proudly displaying the Indian Flag, the Navy ensign and the Fleet review logo. Photograph: Vipin Vijayan Led by Commandant A K Yadav, the Chetak helicopters of the Rakshak squadron of the Coast Guard. Photograph: Vipin Vijayan The Sea King 42B helicopters, considered as among the most potent weapon platforms in the Naval inventory, fly in formation. Photograph: Vipin Vijayan One of the three Sindhughosh class submarine that sailed past the presidential yatch. Photograph: Vipin Vijayan President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday embarked on Presidential Yacht INS Sumitra and reviewed the imposing international parade of fleet at IFR-2016 where 50 countries across the globe have come together to participate in this show of prowess and preparedness by the Indian Navy. President Pranab along with other VVIPs aboard the INS Sumitra reviewing the fleet review. Photograph: @PIBIndia/Twitter Mukherjee, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, was accompanied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, among others at the International Fleet Review. This is the 11th fleet review after independence and the second international one being conducted in India. The President was onboard INS Sumitra which sailed through a display of 70 ships at anchorage off Visakhapatnam. President Pranab inspects the guard of honour before the fleet review. Photograph: @CaptDKS/Twitter Speaking after reviewing the fleet, Mukherjee said 50 friendly navies have sailed across oceans and sent naval ships and/or delegations to participate in the first IFR on the east coast of India at Visakhapatnam. Navies world over have conducted fleet reviews to symbolise their loyalty, allegiance to the nation and strengthening bonds between the sailors and the state. IFR 2016 does that much and much more, the President said. IFR 2016, while focusing on the prowess of Indian Navy, has brought together Navies from across the globe here on Indian shores, signifying our common desire to use the seas to promote peace, cooperation and friendship as also develop partnership for a secure maritime future, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the fleet review. Photograph: @CaptDKS/Twitter The review had a combination of ships from Indian Navy as well as frontline navies from across the globe. The ships from Indian Coast Guard and Mercantile Marine also participated. In this most formal of naval ceremonies, each ship dressed in full regalia saluted the President as he passed. The President also reviewed the Indian Naval air arm in a display of spectacular fly-past by several fixed wing and rotary aircraft comprising 15 formations. In the final stage of the review, a mobile column of warships and submarines streamed past the Presidential Yacht. This display showcased the latest acquisitions of the Indian Navy. Further, several enthralling waterfront activities, a display of Marine Commandos and helicopter demonstrations were conducted to mesmerise the viewers. President Pranab inspects the guard of honour before the fleet review. Photograph: @CaptDKS/Twitter The President said Indias geographical location, astride the major shipping routes of the Indian Ocean, gives it a pivotal maritime role. Considering the globalised nature of todays political and economic environment, it is our belief that the present day maritime domain requires navies across the world to re-focus their efforts to counter the rising tide of non-traditional maritime challenges in the brown, green and blue waters across all oceans, he said. Mukherjee said the Indian Navy, accordingly, has re-aligned its maritime strategy, to reflect the changes in the evolving global environment, and has established a credible record of cooperative initiatives to promote stability of the oceans, and played a central role in ensuring safety of the vital sea lines of communication, across the Indian Ocean. The navies of the world have a unique role in promoting goodwill, nurturing peace and tranquillity in the oceans, he said. Your ships and all personnel participating at this momentous fleet review are ambassadors of great nations that you represent. The message of friendship and goodwill of your people strengthens our belief in promoting peace, prosperity and stability for mutual co-existence and ensuring secure seas. Your presence in such large numbers has made this international event spectacular and truly reflects the spirit of this IFR, we are indeed United through Oceans. The waters that lap our coast also wash your shores, these great blue 'COMMONS' indeed link us to each other. IFR 2016 has enabled us to join hands and work together to secure our seas for the greater good of humanity and the world, the President added. Mukherjee complimented the Indian Navy, especially the Eastern Naval Command, for meticulous planning and flawless conduct of Saturdays splendid fleet review. A decision by Gujarat government to allot land five years ago to a company which allegedly has close business links with Anar Patel, daughter of Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, left, kicked up a political storm on Friday with the Congress using it to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2010, Gujarat government is believed to have allotted 250 acres of land next to Gir Lion Sanctuary to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Pvt Ltd for setting up a resort which was allotted at a price of Rs 15 per square metre or Rs 60,000 per acre. Latching on to the controversy, Congress targeted the prime minister and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored special investigation team probe and resignation of the Gujarat CM. Asking Modi to come clean on the issue, the party sought to know from him whether he was aware of clear conflict of interest of the then revenue minister Anandiben while allocating government land near Gir Lion Sanctuary to the company which allegedly has close business links with Anar. Was this allocation based on a Cabinet decision and endorsed by (then) chief minister (Modi) and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed? asked senior Congress leader Anand Sharma at the All India Congress Committee briefing. In a Facebook post, Anar said, I strongly believe that to do ethical business with social morality is everyones right. So far, whatever I did, I did it in righteous manner. I get hur when people have assumptions and judgments for ones morality, she wrote. Sharma said the issue would definitely be raised in the budget session of Parliament as it pertained directly to the prime minister who has claimed that he has zero tolerance towards corruption. Sharma said the truth will emerge only through an independent probe by a Supreme Court-monitored SIT as agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate cannot be trusted. We demand that an SIT monitored by the Supreme Court be established for a time-bound probe in the entire matter. For a fair probe, the Gujarat CM must resign, he said. Sharma said the total price of the land added up to only Rs 1.5 crore whereas the estimated market price of this land was to the tune of Rs 50 lakh per acre -- a total of Rs 125 crore for 250 acres. The company then purchased adjoining agricultural land measuring 172 acres taking the total of land owned by it to 422 acres, Sharma alleged. As non-farmers are not permitted to purchase agricultural land, the company was granted permission to purchase private agricultural land. In March, 2011, the state government permitted conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural as purchased by the company. He said one of the partners of the company transferred Wildwoods to another company. He alleged that two promoters of two companies are said to be business partners of Anar Patel. Meanwhile, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat came out in support of the chief minister and said the charges levelled by the Congress against her were false and fabricated. Anandibens kin was not in the picture when the land was allotted, it said. The BJP said the main opposition party does not have any proof to prove alleged irregularities in land allotment. In a statement issued in Ahmedabad, state BJP spokesperson I K Jadeja said the allegations are a heinous attempt by the Congress to unnecessarily drag the CM and her daughter into the issue and malign their public image. These are baseless allegations by Congress as they have failed to provide any proof to back their claims. All procedures were followed in allotting that land. Cabinet approved the allocation only after valuation was done through a foolproof three-tier system, said Jadeja. In her Facebook post, Anar said she is a qualified businesswoman and has dedicated more than two decades to social service. My husband and I dedicated more than 22 years in social service. My husband devoted his life for the cause of sanitation. To take care of family needs, in 2008 I did masters in business administration and entered business. I strongly believe that to do ethical business with social morality is everyones right, she wrote. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday India will surely teach a lesson to the masterminds of the Pathankot airbase attack and admitted that the terrorists were probably inside the airbase even before intelligence about an impending strike was received. Noting that India is losing much of its patience, Parrikar said the country will give tit-for-tat. Eent ka jawaab patthar se denge (we will reply to bricks with stones), he said. Parrikar said the pushers of the attacks were in Pakistan, refusing to disclose further details. You have to plan. Here I have named individual and organisation, and has not named any country, because if its against a country, then it means war. We want to teach a lesson to the individual. Where and when, that will be our choice, Parrikar said to a TV channel. Asked why India has not launched a counter-attack against terror camps in Pakistan after the Pathankot incident, Parrikar was quoted in a press release as saying that the time will be chosen by India. How do you know where we should strike and where we should not? Such things are not disclosed in public. We must have the capability. And, Pakistan... I will not name any country... They take sort of fights with us by sending terrorists. Such people need to be taught a lesson. There is no question mark in it. But when, how and at what time, should be decided based on our convenience, he said. Parrikar said there has been fresh information that some of the Pathankot attackers were inside the airbase even before the intelligence was received. Some people have inferred wrongly about the gaps that I had mentioned. The airbase has a 25-kilometre periphery, and they should not have entered, but we got advance information only 10-12 hours earlier. Now more information has come, saying probably they (the attackers) were in before the intelligence was received by us. Anyway that will be investigated by agencies. That is the gap which I was saying, he said. Told that the terrorists got trained at a Pakistani air base, Parrikar said he cant reveal the details because as we say, no one tells the world what you do and what happens inside a bedroom. So in such operations, nothing is revealed to the world, but we will do it surely. Asked why India was not carrying out cross-border strike against terror camps as it did against the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang rebels inside Myanmar, Parrikar said he would not disclose much in such matters, otherwise the surprise element will be gone. Once it happens, you will come to know about it. In the Northeast, those who attacked our 6 Dogra (regiment)...we didnt tell them what we were going to do, he was quoted as saying. Talking about the Myanmar incident, the defence minister said he cant say the exact spot where the Army did the operation. Asked why the army was not carrying out cross-border strike as the United States did to kill Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan, Parrikar said the US took four to five years to locate Osama and to clear their doubts about his location. It took another one and a half years to plan the operation. When the US planned an operation inside Iran, their helicopter crashed in the desert and they faced humiliation. I am only saying that the operation that we plan, or whatever we are doing, I am not saying against Pakistan or any camp, there should be perfect planning, and it has to take care of everything. Your information should be perfect. Everybody has general information, and specific information plays a more important role, he said. Parrikar said that the counter-terror operation in Pathankot was a success as the soldiers were able to corner the attackers and kill all of them. It was not easy. Six people, who had come with very clear intention that they will lose their lives, can do actually many damaging things which we did not allow, that is the success part of it. But this will not stop here. Why should we be defensive? People who sent them here have to be taught a lesson, he said. Because they will not understand unless pain is inflicted on them... But here I am adding a clause, I will not disclose where, when and how... Its our choice, he said. He said this has already been achieved at a different level. He said the terrorists came to Punjab because in Jammu and Kashmir the army has neutralised them to a large extent. The ratio of our losses compared to killing of terrorists is widening quite big now. Earlier, it was 1:1, now it is 1:4, and even that should not happen. It should come lower than that. So, we have initiated many counter measures there, he said. Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patels daughter Anar on Saturday rubbished Congresss allegations of taking undue favours from the state government after reports claiming dubious land dealings involving her business associates emerged. The state Bharatiya Janata Party unit also came out in support of Anar accusing the Congress of trying to malign the chief minister and her daughter by levelling allegations against them. I, Anar Patel, am neither a director nor a share holder in WWRRPL (Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Private Limited), Anil Infraplus and Parshvatexchem. I dont have anything with WWRRPL, anybody can check with government authority, she wrote in a fresh Facebook post. Indeed, Daksheshbhai (Dakshesh Shah, who owns WWRRPL along with Amol Shripal Seth of Anil Infraplus) is my business partner but that doesnt mean that I am there in all his companies. He is a self-made businessman and is in business for the last 22 years, she wrote. We started a company named Anar Projects seven years back with business interest in retails and services. We never took any favour from any government organisation, we strictly followed all rules and regulations in all manners. Its disheartening that my individuality is attacked based on sheer assumptions. I believe in my moral strength not in anyones favour, she wrote in her latest post. This is her second Facebook post in as many days on the issue amidst demand from Gujarat Congress for the resignation of Anandiben Patel for alleged favour done to her daughter and her business partners over allotting a piece of land worth Rs 122 crore to a private firm at a throw away price of just Rs 1.49 crore in 2010. The Congress alleged that norms were flouted to extend undue benefit to firms owned by CMs daughter Anar Patel and her business partners. In her Facebook post on Friday also, Anar claimed that whatever she did was in righteous manner. I get hurt when people have assumptions and judgments for ones morality. Truth always prevails and I abide by it with humanity, she had stated. My husband and I dedicated more than 22 years in social service. My husband surrendered his life for sanitation. To take care of family needs, in 2008 I did MBA..and entered in business. I strongly believe that to do ethical business with social morality is everyones right, her previous post had stated. State BJP spokesperson I K Jadeja said that such allegations are a heinous attempt by the Congress to unnecessarily drag the CM and her daughter into the issue and malign their public image. Former state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia had on Saturday alleged that, 245.62 acres of government-own land worth Rs 122 crore in Patla village in Dhari taluka of Amreli district (near Gir sanctuary) was allotted to one Wildwoods Resort and Realities Pvt Ltd in 2010 when Narendra Modi was CM and Patel the revenue minister in Gujarat. In 2010, that piece of land was worth around Rs 122 crore, as the rate of one acre of land in that area was Rs 50 lakh. However, that was given at a throwaway price of just Rs 1.49 crore to the owner of that firm Sanjay Dhanak, who told the government that he wanted to build a resort there, said Modhwadia. Then, Dhanak sold all the shares of his company -- 49.5 per cent to Anil Infra Plus, 49.5 per cent to Parshwa TexChem and 1 per cent to Dakshesh Shah, owner of Parshwa TexChem -- in 2011. Shah is a friend and business partner of Anandibens daughter Anar Patel, he alleged. The Congress leader alleged that the entire deal was aimed at giving undue benefits to Anar, who entered into the picture from back door to take the ownership of the precious land. This land falls in the Eco-Sensitive Zone, as it is near the lion sanctuary. All kinds of construction is prohibited in the two-kilometre periphery of this zone. However, the state government implemented this law only after the dealing completed in 2011, alleged Modhwadia. Image: Anandiben Patel's daughter Anar Patel has been accused of dubious land dealings. Photograph: Anar Patel/Facebook Eminent cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, who chronicled contemporary Indian politics with wit and humour, died in New Delhi on Saturday after battling brain cancer for over two years. Tailang was under treatment for brain cancer since 2014 and breathed his last at his East Delhi residence in Mayur Vihar. He would have turned 56 on February 26 and is survived by his daughter and wife. The cartoonist, who had worked in a number of newspapers including Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and Times of India, was admitted to Medanta Medicity hospital in Gurgaon in December but was brought home around a month ago. Tailang was awarded Padma Shri in 2004. As a cartoonist, many politicians including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Behari Vajpayee, P V Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi bore the brunt of his brush. He was fighting brain cancer since 2014 very bravely. However, after last Diwali, he started keeping unwell and was admitted to MedantaHospital. We brought him home in mid-January when the doctors said there is nothing more they could do. He passed away at 1 pm today, said Aditi, Tailangs daughter. Tailang, who was born in Rajasthans Bikaner on February 26, 1960 had his first cartoon published in a newspaper at the age of 10 in 1970. It was in 1982, when he got his first major break in Illustrated Weekly of India, Mumbai. As a child, Tailang was fascinated by comics such as Tintin Phantom and Blondie which is known to have encouraged him to go for drawing cartoon. In 1983, he joined the Navbharat Times in Delhi. For several years he was with the Hindustan Times and also worked for the Indian Express and The Times of India. Later, he worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, he had come out with a book of cartoons titled No, Prime Minister, which carried cartoons on Manmohan Singh drawn during first stint of his prime ministership. Congress President Sonia Gandhi condoled the passing away of noted political cartoonist. Saddened at his untimely death, Gandhi said that his depiction of contemporary events through cartoons and fearless commitment to the right to artistic expression will be forever remembered. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also expressed grief over the passing away of Tailang. Very sorry to hear about cartoonist Sudhir Tailang. Was a big fan of his tongue in cheek humour. May he rest in peace, Omar tweeted. Experts say it could make divorces amicable and help reduce court cases, reports Tinesh Bhasin Prenuptial agreements in India might not be legally tenable but, increasingly, families are going for these contracts which state the assets of the bride and groom, and the compensation the woman will receive if the marriage turns sour and the couple legally part ways. Families are opting for prenuptial agreements to see the intentions of the parties involved, even though the contract is not legally binding, says senior advocate Mrunalini Deshmukh, who handled divorce cases of many Bollywood celebrities including Aamir and Reena Khan and Karisma Kapoor. She adds that the document is used to tell the court the conditions that the couple had agreed upon when they got married. And its not only the wealthy that are drawing up these agreements. Advocate Vandana Shah recently got a couple who asked her to help them draft one such contract. They were both part of corporate world, working in middle management. When she told them it would not have any standing in a court, they said they were making it so that both were clear on the settlement terms if they part ways. Prenuptials are popular in developed countries such as the United States, Australia, France and Germany. But in India, there are Supreme Court rulings which say any contract which has marriage as an object is null and void. Recently, Maneka Gandhi, minister for women and child development, recommended to D V Sadananda Gowda, minister for law and justice, to make prenuptial agreements mandatory before marriage. The recommendation was made as many women from lower socio-economic backgrounds have to fight endless battles over alimony, marital ownership of property and assets during divorce. Deshmukh says, on an average, divorce cases take four to five years to conclude; but many also drag on for over 15 years. She has a client, who is still fighting a legal battle since 1999. The idea of legalising prenuptial agreements has many takers. Lawyers say it will help reduce the burden of courts. It will also end husbands and wives taking undue advantage of each other and will keep their expectations in check. Deshmukh feels it will also help solve common reasons for fights or disputes, such as division of property. Financial planners say it will be a good starting point in a marriage. When drawing a prenuptial agreement, the entire assets, liabilities, business ownerships, among other things, are listed out. This can make both parties aware of each others finances before tying the knot. Even if a prenuptial agreement does not become legal in India, there are a few things every couple should follow while managing their family finances to ensure that things dont go awry in case they part ways. Suresh Sadagopan, a certified financial planner, says couples should keep their finances separate and contribute towards expenses in equal proportion. If the husbands salary is Rs 1 lakh and wifes is Rs 50,000. They can equally contribute 30 per cent of their income to family expenses. Shah says couples should keep their bank accounts separate and all investments should be done through individual accounts. This will not only create a trail, but also make calculation of taxes easy. When buying property, couples should also take the ownership in the asset in proportion to their contribution, Sadagopan says. If the husband is paying 70 per cent of the equated monthly instalment, he should list his share in that proportion. Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam has got a reprieve with the party accepting his apology over the publication of controversial articles slamming Jawaharlal Nehru and terming Sonia Gandhis father a fascist soldier and asking him to be careful in the future. Sanjay Nirupam accepted the responsibility for the publication of grossly inaccurate, baseless and malicious articles against the Congress leadership in the party magazine -- Congress Darshan -- and submitted his unconditional apology for the same. The Central Disciplinary Action Committee, while accepting his apology, cautioned him to be careful in the future while editing, printing and publishing materials in Congress Darshan so that this type of grave mistake is not repeated, sources in the party said. Left embarrassed by the articles criticising Nehrus policies on Kashmir and China, Congress had last month issued a show-cause notice to the magazines editor Nirupam. The Congress Disciplinary Action Committee, headed by A K Antony, had issued the notice to Nirupam, a former Lok Sabha member from Mumbai and one of the partys popular faces, in the second week of January. Nirupam, a former Shiv Sena man, had been given a few days to respond. Days after the Nirupam responded, the party on Saturday cleared the air. The show-cause notice had come despite an apology from Nirupam, and Congress already having distanced itself from its defunct mouthpiece. The show-cause notice to Nirupam was issued just days ahead of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi visited Mumbai on January 15 and 16. Congress had then said the party had appointed Nirupam as Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chief and not editor of any magazine. One of the party spokespersons, Tom Vadakkan, had gone to the extent of even disowning Congress Darshan, saying we have nothing to do with this publication. This magazine has not been associated with Congress. Sudhir Joshi, the editorial content in-charge of the magazine, was sacked soon after the articles became public. The party was left red-faced on December 28, the day Congress was celebrating its 131st Foundation Day, when unsigned articles appeared in its mouthpiece blaming Nehru for the state of affairs in Kashmir, China and Tibet. Another write-up in Congress Darshan had said party president Sonia Gandhis father Stephano Maino was a former fascist soldier. Soon after the controversy broke, there had been murmurs questioning Nirupams intention. A former Shiv Sainik, Nirupam rose fast through Congress ranks after joining the party. Some Mumbai Congress leaders, including Gurudas Kamat, had met Sonia after the controversy and complained about the matter. Twitter has suspended over 1,25,000 accounts, most of them linked to the Islamic State militant group, for threatening or promoting terrorist acts even as handles of India-centric terrorist organisations and individuals on the micro-blogging site remain untouched. In a blog, the US-based firm said, As the nature of the terrorist threat has changed, so has our ongoing work in this area. Since the middle of 2015 alone, weve suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to IS. Twitter, however, did not respond to questions about the accounts of terrorist organisations operating from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Notably, Hafeez Saeed, the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attack, has been openly calling for carrying out brazen attack against India in his latest tweet on February 3. Twitter condemned the use of its platform to promote terrorism and said the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behaviour, or any violent threat, is not permitted on its service. The company said it has increased its report reviewing teams to react faster. We also look into other accounts similar to those reported and leverage proprietary spam-fighting tools to surface other potentially violating accounts for review by our agents. We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter, it said. The White House, which for the past several months has been working to deny cyber safe havens to terrorist organisations in particular to IS, has welcomed the move. Wed refer you to Twitter for the details of their announcement, which we very much welcome, a senior administration official said. As the President has said, countering the vile ideology of IS and similar groups in the digital sphere is a priority for both government and the private sector. That is part of why a group of senior administration officials and technology sector leaders met last month in Silicon Valley to ensure we are bringing our best private and public sector thinking to combating terrorism, the official said. According to state law, fines, penalties, and license money shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of the common schools ... . An exception is fines for overloaded vehicles. Seventy-five percent of those funds go to state highways; 25 percent go to the county general fund where the fine or penalty is paid. Fifty percent of money forfeited or seized in enforcing drug laws goes to counties for drug enforcement. Vehicles seized in drug law cases may be used by law enforcement agencies or sold with the proceeds going to schools. County Court Traffic Sentences Juan Marcano, 58, Homestead, Florida, traffic signal violation, $75 fine and 448 court costs. Alexandria Jacob-Dominguez, 21, Lincoln, speeding, 93 mph in a 60 mph zone, $200 fine and $48 court costs. Jase Vail, 23, Norfolk, speeding, 80 mph in a 65 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Jesse Reag, 34, 3029 20th St., stop sign violation, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Jose Torres, 40, Norfolk, speeding, 75 mph in a 60 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Mildred Rief, 70, 3164 30th Ave., failure to yield right of way, $25 fine and $48 court costs. Steven Lund, 57, Genoa, speeding, 74 mph in a 60 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Enrique Topete, 43, 3483 Linden Drive, speeding, 60 mph in a 45 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Julio Solis-Tino, 37, Schuyler, no operator's license, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Asad Gargar, 19, Schuyler, speeding, 46 mph in a 35 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Junior Coto-Rodriguez, 39, 2209 31st St., no operator's license, $75 fine and $48 court costs. James Kemp, 30, 254 21st Ave., failure to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle, $100 fine and $48 court costs. Taylor Gray, 20, Shelby, no valid registration and no seat belt, $50 fines and $48 court costs. Savier Garcia Sarduy, 20, 2723 14th St., B-4, no operator's license and failure to use a child passenger restraint, $100 fines and $48 court costs. Jerry Jantz, 66, McCouth, Kansas, traffic signal violation, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Brent Paseka, 28, Prague, stop sign violation, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Calle Aune, 34, Volin, South Dakota, speeding, 80 mph in a 65 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs. Criminal Sentences Hailey Brummer, 18, 3051 Linden Drive, minor in possession of alcohol-under 19, $250 fine and $49 court costs. Frank Davis, 27, 1909 12th St., procure/sell alcohol to a minor, $500 fine and $49 court costs. Toni Marker, 18, Monroe, driving under suspension, $50 fine and $49 court costs. Mariana Olivas, 20, Fremont, minor in possession of alcohol-under 19, $500 fine and $49 court costs. Ismael Ruiz, 25, 3011 22nd St., attempt of a Class 3A/4 felony and theft-unlawful taking $0-$500, 30 days in jail, $54.83 restitution and $49 court costs. Hanna Carnagey, 19, 4500 63rd St., theft-shoplifting $0-$500, $150 fine, $26.24 restitution and $49 court costs. Kenneth Cranmer, 26, Grand Island, driving under the influence-.15+, two days in jail, six months probation, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for one year and $49 court costs. Raquel Lopez, 20, 322 27th St., driving under the influence, six months probation, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for 60 days and $49 court costs. Jordan Micek, 20, 3515 26th St., driving under the influence, six months probation, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for 60 days and $49 court costs. The Senator from Vermont, who ran as an Independent for mayor of Burlington, for the U.S. House of Representatives, and for the U.S. Senate, is now as candidate for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination inflicting great harm on the Democratic Party and its chances in this years presidential elections. It is only in the peculiar American electoral system that a member of the legislature elected as an Independent can run for the nomination of one of the two major parties of his choice. But because here in the U.S. he and his agenda are to the extreme left, the self-proclaimed democratic socialist will not become the next presidenteven if he were to win the Democratic Partys nomination. By Brigitte L. Nacos If Bernie Sanders lived in Europe, he and his positions would place him left of center and in a mainstream political party, say, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Germany, which is now in a coalition government with the right of center Christian Democratic Union (CDU). As the former governor of Vermont, Madeleine May Kunin recalled the other day in an op-ed in the Boston Globe, He ran against me in 1986 when I was running for my second term as governor of Vermont. At that time he had little affinity for the Democratic Party. When advised that his third-party candidacy might result in a Republican victory, he saw no difference between Democrats and Republicans. Obviously, Sanders did not change. But he certainly wants to change the Democratic Party into a far more leftist version. The same way the Tea Party pushed the Republican Party much further to the right. Sanders is a single issue candidate. His class analysis brought into the public conscience by the Occupy Wall Street movement, is admittedly a powerful message in a society aware of the scandalous wealth and income gap. A persuasive position on one admittedly very important issue is not enough to become president--and should not be. As the last Sanders-Clinton debate once again showed, apart from his passionate class analysis, the Independent from Vermont has little to say. But Bernie Sanders has already forced Hillary Clinton to highlight her progressive credentials and thereby provided the future Republican nominee with gun fodder against the former Secretary of State. If not Sanders himself, certainly his minions of fanatics are vilifying Clinton by booing whenever Sanders refers directly or indirectly to her and by chanting she is a liar. What a gift to the Republicans! If Clinton wins the nomination, it is unlikely that she will get the votes of Sanders hardcore followers. Many, perhaps most, seem to hate her. They will not vote for the Republican candidate. But not for Clinton either. Bernie Sanders tends to raise his voice and shout his condemnations of Wall Street during his campaign appearances. This is seen as underlining his indignation and passion. But, as Ex-Governor Kunin writes, Sanders can shout his message and wave his arms for emphasis. Clinton cant. If she appeared on stage as angry at the system as he is, she would be dismissed as an angry, even hysterical, woman; a sight that makes voters squirm. An angry female voice works against women but is a plus for men. It demonstrates passion, outrage and power. Sanders bristled when he was accused of sexism after he implied that Clinton was among the shouters. Ironically, it is he who has, according to his doctor, suffered from laryngitis. Finally, most of the news media are soft on Bernie and tough on Hillary. Originally, when Hillary was seen as the favorite and Bernie the underdog, that was hardly surprising. But nothing changed when Bernie rose in the polls; nothing changed after the head-to-head competition in Iowa and the healthy lead in New Hampshire. The mainstream media continue to go after Hillary but do not lay a glove on Bernie. That would certainly change if Sanders were to win the nomination. Last year, a story in the National Review gave a preview of what would come Sanders way: During Bernies mayoral tenure, Burlington formed an alliance with the Soviet city of Yaroslavl, 160 miles northeast of Moscow. When in 1988 he married his wife, Jane, the mayor decided it would be a perfect place for his honeymoon. Bernie Sanders is now running only ten points behind Hillary Clinton among New Hampshire Democrats. No one believes he will beat her for the Democratic nomination, but heres hoping his growing strength encourages reporters to quiz him about his Soviet honeymoon and other loony-Left trips to countries that were sworn enemies of the U.S. Indeed, Bernie Sanders will not become president. But he may well prevent Hillary Clinton from winning the White House by handing the Republicans fodder for victory. COLUMBUS A 68-year-old Columbus man pleaded not guilty Friday to six counts of possession of child pornography in connection with the seizure of computer equipment during a police raid of his home last fall. Platte County District Court Judge Robert Steinke scheduled Michael Kruse for an April 4 jury trial on the charges stemming from the seizure of computers, external hard drives and digital storage devices found at the home by law enforcement serving a search warrant. Kruse pleaded not guilty to the six Class IIA felonies, each punishable by up to 20 imprisonment, during a brief arraignment hearing Friday. The judge continued Kruses bond at $75,000, 10 percent allowed for release. The defendant has been free on bond since shortly after his Oct. 29 arrest. Court records describe Columbus Police arriving at Kruses home in the Wagner Lakes area just after noon on Oct. 29 and finding no one was at home. Sgt. Bret Strecker said he was able to enter the home through an unlocked door after knocking and announcing his presence. I went to a computer on the second floor of the residence and observed that it was on. I moved the mouse to see what was on the screen, and observed a file that appeared to be child pornography was downloading onto the hard drive of the computer, Strecker wrote in his statement. At the time of Kruses arrest, police said the data found on the electronic devices would be evaluated by authorities. The defendant admitted he downloaded child porn for about a week and said he had just started viewing it, Strecker said. The Platte County Attorneys Office filed charges against Kruse on Jan. 12. One of the most sought-after Christian speakers in the United States and abroad will be at Hardin-Simmons University on Feb. 22-23 for the annual T.B. Maston Lectures. William Willimon, a professor at Duke Divinity School, will present two lectures and will be a guest at a luncheon honoring him Feb. 23. The lectures and the luncheon are open to the public free of charge. Luncheon reservations are required by Friday, Feb. 12. Willimon's two lectures carry intriguing titles. He will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 22 on "The Challenge of Being an American and a Christian at the Same Time." His talk at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 23 will be on "Christians as Resident Aliens." The second lecture will be based on a book written 25 years ago by Willimon and fellow Duke professor Stanley Hauer was titled, "Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony." According to HSU's website, Willimon's lecture will focus on the question, "How does construing Christians as 'resident aliens' continue to be a fruitful way of thinking about the church and the practice of the Christian faith?" Willimon served as dean of the Duke Chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke University for 20 years. He returned to the campus after serving as bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church from 2004 to 2012. Willimon is the author of 60 books as well as numerous articles in a wide range of publications. He speaks and lectures internationally in various seminaries and serves as pastor at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, Durham, North Carolina. For nearly a century, Latino life centered on McCulloch County dancehall La Plataforma Jimenez, a former gathering place popular with the region's Latino community is being restored as a nonprofit. Contributed Photo Students from East Elementary in Brownwood Christian Suarez, Khalid Al-Hussain, Abby Brasher, Macie Smith, Alondra Luna and Bryleigh Tibbetts dress up like 100-year-olds for the 100th school day earlier this week. Tim Chipp Columnist SHARE Contributed Photo Students from Northwest Elementary in Brownwood show off their costumes for the 100th day of school. They dressed like 100-year-olds for fun. Seriously, they dressed in costume as if they were 100 years old, a fun endeavor even the teachers participated in, though they're significantly closer to that milestone than their little tykes. It's interesting to ponder, though, if the fashions they're wearing will be what is worn when they reach 100 for real. I think, kind of like how when we grow older, we mostly listen to the same music we listened to in our formative years, so too will our clothing choices stay the same. An exception to that hopefully will be the bell bottoms and leisure suits of the '70s. Recently, I had the opportunity to portray a young twenty-something on stage for the Abilene Community Theatre's production of "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play," taking on the role of a voice actor in 1947. The clothes I wore were of a style associated today with those of that generation, with the pleated pants and the high waistline, button-down shirts and old-style blazer suit coats. My point is that when these teachers or these children turn 100, they'll be more likely to be wearing the styles of their 20s and 30s, not what their grandparents and great-grandparents call fashionable. Though, who knows, we always seem to go retro for a specific decade with our clothing choices each year. Maybe the 1940s will make a comeback and the kids will wind up enjoying that. Holland Medical Early College High School to hold open houses Current eighth- to 10th-grade students in Abilene ISD schools interested in taking courses in health sciences at Holland Medical Early College High School are invited to a trio of open houses scheduled for the middle of February. With campus tours, and demonstrations of the learning environment the Hardin-Simmons University building offers the students, parents and children can visit from 6 to 7 p.m. either Feb. 15, 16 or 18. Meanwhile, current high school freshmen, sophomores and juniors interested in attending the school next year can pick up applications in their school's counseling offices. Applications are due Feb. 24. For more information, call the school at 794-4120. ACU Dallas names executive in residence Dr. Carl Couch, vice president of innovation for Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance, has been named executive in residence for the School of Health and Human Services in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies on the Abilene Christian University Dallas Campus. In this role, Couch will provide consultation to program directors, special topic webinars for students and develop media assets for use in online courses. Twitter: @TimothyChippARN The city of Abilene has dropped the idea of a teen curfew as a tool to curb crime more than two years after initially considering it based on community feedback, City Manager Robert Hanna said Friday. The City Council directed staff in November to take the community's pulse on the issue and found that most residents were not in favor of a curfew, Hanna said. He said he did not anticipate bringing the issue before the council again until the community is ready for that dialogue. Although some had the perception that a curfew would unintentionally marginalize minorities, others were concerned it would infringe on teens' civil rights, said Anthony Williams, mayor pro tem and the council member who suggested the curfew. "The more I study (the idea of a curfew), I'm not sure how effective it would be to mitigate crime," Williams said Friday. The genesis behind Williams' proposal was a surge in crime. He said he was looking for proactive ways to reduce crime and knew cities of similar size to Abilene already had curfews in place that were successful. The city intended for the curfew to be a tool for the Police Department to reduce crime rates across the city, Hanna said, but if residents are not ready to have a discussion about it, the city will not force the issue. Violent crime in Abilene increased 43 percent from 2011 to 2015, according to the Police Department. Violent crimes include murder, robbery, rape/sexual assault and aggravated assault. Williams said it is important for the city and its residents to have that conversation, but he does not want to focus too much on the curfew when the city has other problems. "It is never OK for us not to do anything," he said. "But as my mother would say, we have bigger fish to fry." Williams said he would rather focus his efforts on the Abilene Neighborhood Initiative, a partnership among the city, police, churches and the nonprofit Connecting Caring Communities that concentrates on improving the quality of life for residents in five neighborhoods: the Alameda Addition, Butternut/Chestnut, Carver, Holiday Hills and Stevenson/Sancudo, according to ANI's website. Crime has dropped significantly in the Holiday Hills area, Williams said, an indication that the collaboration is working because it listens to the needs of the residents of these neighborhoods. Twitter: BrookeCrum_ARN Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This just in... Representatives from four nations involved in talks aimed at ending the violence in Afghanistan have agreed to continue to push for direct peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government by the end of the month. Officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, and China made the announcement on February 6 at the end of their third round of talks in Islamabad. They said the countries "agreed to continue joint efforts for setting a date for direct peace talks between the representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban groups expected to take place by the end of February 2016." "The group stressed that the outcome of the reconciliation process should be a political settlement that results in the cessation of violence, and durable peace in Afghanistan," the statement added. The statement also said that the group would hold its next meeting in Kabul on February 23. Pakistan has called for an "actionable road map" for the peace process between the Taliban and the Afghan government. "In our view, a clear, well-defined, and actionable road map for the peace process between the Afghan government and Taliban groups is important," Pakistan's adviser for foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, said at the start of the talks. Islamabad is expected to have a key role in bringing the Taliban, which is based in Pakistan, to the table eventually. Kabul, too, expressed its eagerness for results. "We are desperately waiting to see the immediate effects and results of our quadrilateral meetings and the progress we have made in the two previous meetings," Javed Faisal, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, told AP. Aziz said the road map should be "aimed at persuading the maximum number of Taliban groups to join the peace talks." "This will contribute to imparting a momentum to the process offering the incentive of political mainstreaming to the insurgent groups, and gradually shrink the space for the irreconcilables," he added. Aziz said a joint effort by the quartet would help persuade the Taliban to join the process and lead to a "significant" reduction in violence. The first round of talks was held in Islamabad last month and a second round was held in Kabul on January 18. The talks urged the Taliban groups to enter into early talks with the Afghan government without preconditions. The Taliban has not participated in any of the talks yet. With reporting by Reuters and AFP Canada lifted most economic sanctions against Tehran on February 5 to allow Canadian firms to start competing for Iran's business. Ottawa, which was not a party to Iran's nuclear deal with world powers but has praised the deal, said it would maintain restrictions only on nuclear technology exports and sales related to ballistic-missile development. "Canadian companies will now be able to position themselves for new trade opportunities, but we will also maintain rigorous controls on any exports that raise serious proliferation concerns," Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said. Ottawa has also offered to restore diplomatic relations with Tehran, which were severed in 2012. At the time, the previous conservative government criticized 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 also strained by Tehran's jailing of Iranian-born Canadians. In 2013, Ottawa imposed a near-total trade embargo on Iran that included economic sanctions and travel restrictions. Canada's exports to Iran fell to $48 million in 2014 from a peak of $556 million in 1997. Based on reporting by AFP and AP The next private pesticide applicator training session is set for 1 p.m. Feb. 22 at Pinnacle Bank, 210 East 23rd St., next to Applebees along Highway 30 in Columbus. The private pesticide applicator training is for farmers whose pesticide applicators certificate is expiring April 15. In Nebraska, pesticide applicators certificates are valid for three years, so the training needs to be attended once every three years. Training is conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educators across the state in every county. Persons recertifying at the training are reminded to bring along the letter sent to them by the Department of Agriculture in December. Although not required, the letter will ease the registration process held at the end of the meeting. Cost to attend the training is $30. Persons are also reminded that there is no provision for late entry. Please be on time! The private pesticide training in Platte County for 2016, will be held at 6:30 p.m., March 3, also at Pinnacle Bank in Columbus. Other area trainings that will be held are Feb. 16 in Leigh and Feb. 18 in Fullerton. Call the office for exact times and locations for those meetings, if needed. For pesticide applicators that require a commercial certificate, initial and recertification training is available in Columbus. Upcoming dates include Thursday for initial training and testing. Recertification training will be held Feb. 23. Contact the Extension office (402-563-4901) for categories covered during these trainings. All of the commercial trainings start at 8:30 a.m. and will be held at the Community Room (basement) of the Platte County Courthouse. Advance registration is necessary; register at www.pested.unl.edu or registration information is available by contacting the office. Since we have started pesticide training, the new UNL 2016 Guide for Weed Management is now available. We have a few for sale at $10 each if you come to the office to pick them up. The re-designed guide includes sections for disease and insect control recommendations. The publication ends up being a very good compilation of the latest information to manage ag land. Also know that the Farm Record Keeping Book is on hand and for sale. The 2016 price is $7.50 plus tax and can be picked up from the office. Reminder: The Beef Marketing and Livestock Risk Program educational meeting is Feb. 24. Please register by calling the office by Feb. 22. A bomb blast has rocked southwestern Pakistan, killing at least seven people and wounding 35. Pakistani officials told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal on February 6 that a convoy of Frontier Corp troops was targeted in the attack in Quetta, the provincial capital of restive Balochistan Province. Muhammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials said the dead and injured included both security personnel and civilians. Security forces have cordoned off the area and the injured have been taken to a nearby hospital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Similar attacks in the past have been blamed on Baloch separatists who have been waging a low-intensity insurgency for years, demanding autonomy or outright independence for the mineral and gas-rich province. Based on reporting by Express Tribune and Dunya News Left with few options to legally highlight state repression in Iran, former Tehran University chancellor Mohammad Maleki and former hard-line columnist Mohammad Nurizad settled on a seemingly innocuous form of public protest -- collecting garbage from the streets of Tehran. [Collecting garbage] isnt a crime," Nurizad wrote on Facebook on January 26. "Or is it?" The two well-known dissidents' first street-cleaning action went off without incident last week. But when Maleki and Nurizad met early on the morning of February 5 for another round, they were met by security agents, who drove them outside the capital and left them by the side of a road. Yet they remained defiant, continuing their protest along a desolate strip of highway and posting the photos of their good work on social media. One shows the the 82-year-old Maleki, draped in a shawl that reads "Let's Sweep Garbage," flashing the victory sign while posing for a roadside photo. In the background looms a huge billboard with a picture showing the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, upon his return to Tehran from exile. Speaking to RFE/RL's Radio Farda afterward, Maleki said that, despite the detour thrown their way, he and Nurizad will press on. We will not stop our protest," Maleki said in a telephone interview from Tehran. "We will engage in symbolic acts of protests." In recent months, the two have held a number of actions to highlight human rights violations in the Islamic republic, including the imprisonment of rights activists. Both men are outspoken critics of the Iranian establishment who have in the past served time in jail. The two say they decided to collect garbage because it is not considered a crime in Iran, where criticism of the establishment and attempts at public gatherings and protests often result in charges including acting against Irans national security. In announcing the protest in late January, Nurizad said they were specifically protesting a travel ban they both face without any reason and without a judicial order and also against the confiscation of some of their belongings by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Nurizad, a former regime supporter turned dissident, shared photos of himself, Maleki, and a few other men and a woman with plastic bags filled with trash collected from the streets of the capital during the initial protest, held on February 2. The commander of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says Saudi Arabia lacks the courage to send ground troops to Syria. "They claim they will send troops [to Syria], but I dont think they will dare do so, IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying on February 6 by the hard-line Fars news agency. Jafari made the comments in reaction to a statement by Irans regional rival Saudi Arabia that it was ready to join ground operations in Syria to fight the extremist group Islamic State (IS) if the U.S.-led military alliance decides to start them. This will be like a coup de grace for them. Apparently, they see no other way but this, and if this is the case, then their fate is sealed," Jafari said. A number of Iranian fighters are already deployed in Syria, where dozens of them have been killed in recent months. Iranian media say the fighters are volunteers. Tehran claims it has only sent military advisers to support its regional ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Based on reporting by Fars and Reuters U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia and Syria have been violating a UN resolution calling for a cease-fire in the civil war, but talks are under way to resolve the problem and revive peace negotiations. "Russia has indicated to me very directly they are prepared to do a cease-fire," Kerry told reporters in Washington on February 5. "The Iranians confirmed in London just a day and a half ago they will support a cease-fire now." "The modalities of a cease-fire itself are also being discussed and the Russians have made some constructive ideas about how a cease-fire in fact could be implemented," Kerry said. "But if it's just talks for the sake of talks in order to continue the bombing, nobody is going to accept that, and we will know that in the course of the next days." Peace talks sponsored by the United Nations in Geneva were halted on February 3 after the Syrian Army, backed by Russian air strikes, advanced against rebel forces north of Aleppo, choking off humanitarian supply lines to civilians. The Syrian government's offensive continued through February 6 with no evidence of any let-up in the fighting, which has forced more than 35,000 civilians who have fled Aleppo to congregate on the Turkish border. The Geneva talks were the first attempt to negotiate an end to the Syrian war in two years. Syrian opposition groups were unwilling to negotiate as long as the government kept bombarding civilian areas. Kerry said Russia and Assad are not in compliance with a UN Security Council resolution approved in December, which calls for immediate humanitarian access to civilians and an end to aerial and artillery bombardment of civilians. Moreover, he said there was evidence that Russia was using "dumb" bombs, resulting in mass civilian deaths around Aleppo. "They are not precision bombs, and there are civilians, including women and children, being killed in large numbers as a consequence," he said. He also accused Russia of targeting hospitals and returning to bomb people rescuing those wounded in earlier air strikes. "This has to stop," Kerry said, "Nobody has any question about that. But it's not going to stop just by whining about it. It's not going to stop by walking away from the table or not engaging," he said. "The next days will tell the story of whether or not people are serious or people are not serious" about carrying out a cease-fire and allowing humanitarian access to civilians, he said. Kerry travels to Munich next week for talks with Russia, Iran, and other parties involved in the Syrian conflict. Vitaly Churkin, Russian ambassador to the UN, said Moscow plans to "bring some new ideas to the table" at the Munich meeting to try to move the peace process forward. Speaking to reporters in New York after a tense, closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on the breakdown in the peace talks, Churkin said Russia will not stop bombing unilaterally. He noted that the United States and its anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition also have been bombing in Syria. "What about this American-led coalition? Are they going to stop, too?" he asked. Russia has insisted its air strikes are aimed at IS and Al-Nusra, Syria's Al-Qaeda affliliate, and says the peace talks should proceed even while such fighting continues on the ground. But France's UN ambassador, Francois Delatte, said the peace negotiations "cannot be a smoke screen allowing the regime to continue quietly its massacres." With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa The lead defense lawyer for Ukrainian pilot and Verkhovna Rada deputy Nadia Savchenko says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to the conditions of her return to Ukraine. Lawyer Mark Feigin told Ukraine's Channel 5 television on February 5 that Savchenko, 34, will be convicted "toward the end of February" on charges that she directed artillery fire in a 2014 incident in which two Russian journalists were killed. Savchenko says she was kidnapped in Ukraine before being taken for trial in Russia's Rostov region. Feigin said that after she is convicted, it has been agreed that she will be turned over to Ukraine. He said her trial in Russia was "political and propagandistic." Savchenko has been on a hunger strike since December 17 and is reportedly suffering health complications. Based on reporting by Channel 5 EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says she is preparing an important visit to Iran following the implementation of the landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers. Under the deal that was implemented last month, Iran has significantly limited its sensitive nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Speaking on February 6, Mogherini said there was no set date for the visit, but she said preparations are under way with the Iranian side. She added that all 28 EU nations were backing the opening with Iran. Speaking after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Amsterdam, she said: "It was very important to see the unity of the member states in the direction, intentions, and preparations of this work we are doing with Iran." Mogherini also said that she will hold talks with Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on February 15 in Brussels. Based on reporting by AP and Kuna An agreement between Russia and Iran to simplify procedures for issuing travel visas went into effect on February 6. The agreement was signed in November between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rohani and was finalized on February 4 by a top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a trip to Moscow. The agreement simplifies and relaxes visa rules for Russian and Iranian businessmen, people participating in scientific, cultural, and creative activities, students, teachers, tourists, and other categories of travelers, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Khamenei adviser Ali Akbar Velayati announced the introduction of the rules while visiting Moscow and said the two nations were considering going a step further and authorizing visa-free travel between the two countries. More than 5 million tourists from Russia visited Iran in 2015 while Iran has been eager to increase its business and governmental ties with Moscow. Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax Tajik authorities have accused Kyrgyzstan of violating cease-fire agreements near disputed segments of their shared border after dozens of people were killed from both sides during clashes last month. Tajikistan's Border Guard Service stated on October 19 that Kyrgyz authorities are implementing "premeditated actions aimed at escalating the situation in districts close to the state border." "The provocative actions of some Kyrgyz citizens to destabilize the situation, preparation of assault points, digging of trenches, continuation of concentration of military equipment, and regular violations of the air space of the Republic of Tajikistan clearly confirm the Kyrgyz side's malign plans," the statement said. Kyrgyz authorities rejected the Tajik statement, saying it "absolutely does not correspond to the real situation." In a statement, the Kyrgyz State Border Guard Service accused the Tajiks of using a photo of Kyrgyz military trucks taken last month as they were withdrawing from the border area, and falsely portraying it as a new photo to make it look as though Kyrgyzstan was concentrating its military equipment in the border area. The statement said it was the Tajik authorities who are violating cease-fire agreements by leaving deadly mines on the disputed territories and digging trenches there. Earlier in the day, Kyrgyz Defense Minister Baktybek Bekbolotov told reporters that Bishkek had asked the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to provide a limited contingent of troops at disputed segments of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. "An independent mediator must stay between us, such as a limited group of CSTO troops, with the goal of maintaining a cease-fire and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the border. If they solve these two issues, then the political goals on the delimitation and demarcation of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border can start being discussed," Bekbolotov said. Both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, along with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia, are CSTO members. Bekbolotov's statement comes two days after Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Marat Imankulov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to provide Bishkek with archived Soviet-era maps to help solve the ongoing border dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Putin has said that there is more "true" information about borders between the former Soviet republics available in the archives in Moscow than in the republics themselves. Putin and the Kyrgyz and Tajik presidents, Sadyr Japarov and Emomali Rahmon, discussed border problems between the two Central Asian nations on October 13 in the Kazakh capital, Astana. In September, Kyrgyz and Tajik authorities accused each other of aggression after the two sides used heavy artillery and mortars in clashes near a disputed part of border. Kyrgyz officials said 63 of its citizens died in the violence, and more than 200 others were injured. Tajikistan has put its death toll at 41, but correspondents from RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported a higher number after talking to relatives and friends of the people killed during the clashes. They concluded that 81 people, about half of whom were civilians, lost their lives. Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet. Almost half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border has yet to be demarcated, leading to repeated tensions since the two countries gained independence more than three decades ago. Iranian media reported on February 5 that Revolutionary Guard Corps Brigadier-General Mohsen Ghajarian was killed in fighting in Syria, along with six Basij militia volunteers. The news agencies said the deaths occurred in the northern province of Aleppo, where the Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes, has been staging a major offensive this week to encircle the rebel-held city and cut off its supply route from Turkey. "Six volunteer Basij members were martyred in Syria while fighting against takfiris near Aleppo while defending Shi'ite holy shrines," Tasnim news agency said, using a derogatory term for ultraradical Sunni Muslim militants, in a likely reference to Islamic State. Tehran has claimed it sends military advisers and volunteers to help Assad's forces, but denies sending its own troops. Even so, Iranian media have reported the deaths of more than 100 Iranian "volunteers" in Syria since October. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, became famous for one quip about George H.W. Bush by saying, "He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." Ann's daughter Cecile, president of Planned Parenthood, has carried on the tradition of joking about body parts. Well, not Cecile herself, but some of the people who work for her. There is no one with a pulse who hasn't seen or heard of the undercover videos filmed by David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress, in which Planned Parenthood employees are seen munching on salad and chuckling about how they could perform abortions in such a way as to preserve the choicest organs. After the videos were released last year, abortion supporters tried to do some damage control by saying they were heavily edited and taken out of context. Methinks they did protest too much, because the unedited versions were made available online for anyone who had the stomach to view them. It's also very hard to find a proper context for a doctor who says, while sipping merlot, "If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, then we can make it part of the budget, that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this, I mean that's, it's all just a matter of line items." "Intact fetal cadavers" are, after all, so much better for research purposes than a mass of smashed organs. Many of us were convinced that this was the moment that Planned Parenthood would be called to answer for some of its more shady practices, the ones that had nothing to do with providing birth control or mammogram referrals. But even the most sophisticated and savvy of us could not have anticipated the turn of events last week, when a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, handed down an indictment against the filmmaker and his assistant. According to District Attorney Devin Anderson, "As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us." The evidence did not lead the DA, a registered Republican, to indict Richards and her friends. Apparently, Anderson agreed with the abortion rights supporters and the FOC (Friends of Cecile) that the videos did not show Planned Parenthood employees doing anything illegal, since there wasn't enough evidence that the organs and tissues harvested by its employees were being sold for a profit. If things had ended there, I might be annoyed, but I'd chalk it up to the powerful FOC and their ability to protect their fair-haired girl from any real trouble. But things didn't end there. That grand jury, which was intent on indicting much more than the DA's ham sandwich, found a way to stick it to the fellow who made their sweet Cecile sweat. Improbably, they dug up some esoteric Texas law that makes it a crime to tamper with a governmental record, a felony punishable by up to 20 years. In this case, the tampering involved playing around with a driver's license. And as if the driver's license count wasn't enough, the grand jury charged Daleiden and his assistant with the misdemeanor count of purchasing (or attempting to purchase) human organs. At this point you must be laughing hysterically, right? I mean, you cannot make this stuff up. When the grand jury turned around and handed down its indictment against Daleiden, it was clear that its members were no longer engaged in a search for the truth. They were out for blood. At least Daleiden didn't pervert the legal system to do his work. He engaged in exactly the type of activities that investigative journalists have used for over a century. So I'm thinking there will be some First Amendment rumblings in defense of these charges. And I know the defendants won't have to worry about legal fees, because a lot of pro-life attorneys out here are willing to lend them a body part, or two. After all, Cecile isn't the only one with friends. 2016 Christine Flowers. Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com. A Virginia Senate committee on Friday advanced legislation that would establish a voluntary, two-year pilot program in which establishments that have mixed beverage licenses issued by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board would use a different method of calculating the required ratio of food to alcohol that is consumed. Senate Bill 488, sponsored by Sen. William R. DeSteph Jr., R-Virginia Beach, passed the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services unanimously and now heads to the full Senate for consideration. Currently, the law requires any establishment licensed by Virginia ABC to have at least 45 percent of its gross receipts come from the sale of food and nonalcoholic beverages. Several bills introduced this year sought to revise that ratio to 25 percent, but revisions to the legislation scrapped the percentage reduction in favor of a different way of calculating it. Like DeStephs bill, House Bill 219, sponsored by Del. Scott W. Taylor, R-Virginia Beach, which will be heard in the General Laws Committee next week, would calculate the 45 percent ratio based on what the establishment pays for the food, nonalcoholic beverages, or mixed beverages sold, rather than the retail price at which they are sold to customers. Our luck ran out. This storm didn't miss us. Haven't seen so much snow in a long time. Swear it all drifted in front of my apartment. Since I never go out, being snowed in wasn't a big deal. Was disappointed that I couldn't watch the storm's progress. The wind must have been variable as it plastered snow on all the window screens. Now that was a whiteout! We did make the world news, but I think it was because the interstate was closed. (You know it's pretty pathetic when you're down to watching a blizzard for something to do.) Thankfully, the Iowa caucus is behind us. Only took three days of reporting for the commentators to break that down so we could understand it. New Hampshire is coming up, so that should take up another three days. I'm wondering how long it is going to take to explain Super Tuesday when it comes up. Hopefully, The Donald will lose in New Hampshire, too. Maybe he'll get mad and take his money and go home. Just know we won't be that lucky. My hospital bill arrived the other day. Just about gave me a heart attack. For some reason, no one paid anything on my pharmacy bill. The part that really gets me is that they charged me more for my meds for three days than I pay the pharmacy for the whole month! Need to call them, but I keep procrastinating. A while back another pharmacy company was wanting to move their head quarters to Ireland or somewhere over there. A lot of my meds come from Germany and England. They must charge by the mile as I can't believe what they cost. I swear they don't want to cure us. There's more money in treating us. A new commercial for the Ford company is high lighting this little knob on the dash which will make it so easy for you to back a boat into the water. Bet I could blow that idea clear out of the water. Bob drove a semi. Even with a set of pups he could back up for a block and turn to back into the dock with a semi on each side of him using just his mirrors. I, on the other hand, can hardly back away from the curb when parked between two cars. Or pull a camping trailer down the road without crossing the line or being on the shoulder. He informed me that I overcorrected. I informed him to sit back and shut up or drive himself. It was his idea for me to drive so I could learn. And I had no desire to learn. Ah, memories of the old days. Thought for the day: I'm not lazy. I just really enjoy doing nothing. It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search? Search for: Search A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. 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. RICHMOND A bill shoring up protections for war monuments and memorials unanimously passed out of a House of Delegates committee Friday. HB 587, sponsored by Del. Charles Poindexter, updates a state law to ensure it protects monuments regardless of when they were built. The bill is a response to part of a court ruling issued last year in the row over Danvilles decision to remove a Confederate flag from the grounds of the historic Sutherlin Mansion. In that case, a judge concluded the 1998 monuments law didnt apply because the law wasnt specifically made retroactive to cover memorials created before 1998. The ruling sparked concerns that many Virginia monuments could be unprotected. Poindexters bill would close that gap. It is not an attempt to reverse the Danville decision already made, he said. That case is settled, said Poindexter, R-Franklin County. Im not trying to undo the case. But I wanted to make it clear that the law covers monuments and memorials from the beginning, from the first one in Virginia to today. The state law makes it illegal to disturb or remove local monuments and memorials for war veterans. Poindexters bill adds a single line specifying that structures are protected regardless of when they were erected. The bill heads to the full House next week. If seat opens, Lynchburg attorney will run One candidate has announced for a race that may not occur, but if it does could sway the will of the General Assembly. Mark Peake, a Lynchburg attorney, announced Wednesday he would seek the Senate District 22 seat currently held by Sen. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham, if Garrett wins the 5th District Congressional race to replace Rep. Robert Hurt who will not seek a fourth term. The 5th District GOP is scheduled to pick its primary method today. If Garrett wins in November, the state would hold a special election. It could be a very important special election with a lot at stake. I do not want to wait. We certainly cant wait until November and then try to get a solid credible campaign together, Peake said. The Senate is split 21 to 19 in Republicans favor. If Republicans lose Garretts seat in the heavily conservative district, firm control over the legislature would go with it because Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam holds the tie-breaking vote. The House maintains a strong majority. Peake is a general practice trial lawyer with Caskie & Frost who took a run at the 22nd in 2011 but lost to Garrett in a five-way primary. He also is a former Lynchburg Republican City Committee chairman. Peake said he is a fiscal and social conservative. Other than the general party platforms of constitutional protections, Second Amendment rights, low taxes and limited government, he would like to see something done about term limits. I think we need to make sure theres a turnover in the legislature to make sure youre going up there to get something done, you get it done, and then you move out, he said. He announced this week in part because he filed campaign finance reports for $25,000, required within 10 days of receiving it. The decision came a little earlier than planned, though, after he updated his old campaign Facebook page and notifications went out to followers. After that, he said, it was time to put out a news release. Bathroom gender bill clears House panel A legislative panel has approved a bill that would require students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex. The Daily Press reported the bill would mandate that school systems and state agencies adopt policies designed to keep transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. The House General Laws subcommittee endorsed the bill Thursday. Opponents said transgender people should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice. Supporters called it a common sense measure that would address parents concerns. A transgender student in Gloucester who was born female sued after his school board barred him from using the boys restrooms. A federal judge ruled against him in September and his case is being considered by a federal appeals court. Dominion prevails on coal ash bill Dominion Virginia Power plans to drain its 11 coal ash ponds, then cover the remaining material on site at four power plants. Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, was among hundreds who argued unsuccessfully to state regulators last month that the utility shouldnt be allowed to drain the ponds into the Potomac and James rivers. And on Thursday, Surovells SB 537 to require Dominion Virginia Power to move the dried ash into landfills died on a vote of 7-7-1 in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources. Trainloads of coal ash from North Carolina are heading to a landfill in Amelia as its cleared from ponds next to power plants there. Dominion should follow the same requirements to ensure that the heavy metals present in coal ash dont spread into groundwater during the next few decades, he said. The problem with coal ash is when it touches water, stuff leaches out of it, Surovell said. Once heavy metals get in the water, they never, ever, ever, ever come out. Thats why we have to be so careful. But Surovells argument, supported by environmental groups, didnt sway enough of the committees lawmakers to move forward. Richmond Times-Dispatch THE Governments proposed Trades Union Bill was labelled a charter for bad bosses as councillors backed a motion to oppose it. The Labour groups submission called the bill an ideologically-driven attack on the freedom of workers to take strike action. It would increase the threshold for unions calling strikes and remove a ban on agency staff covering striking workers. Cllr Richard Price (pictured), who tabled the motion at Wednesdays council meeting, said: Trade unions are a force for good. Theyve brought us two-day weekends, eight-hour days, retirement ages, occupational health and safety and equality laws. The Government is clearly intent on attacking our right to strike. Its extremely worrying in a free and democratic society. It is, in essence, a bad bosses charter. The Government are changing the rules and its an attack on our hard-earned liberties. Councillors were given special dispensation to discuss the motion because so many would have to declare an interest because of union connections that a debate would not have been practical. Cllr Robert Taylor, who seconded the motion, said: The bill is just another thing in the Governments ongoing crusade to eradicate unions. They want to send us back to the days of master and servant. Cllr Emma Hoddinott, Labour, pointed out that many of those affected would be low-paid workers looking after children and the elderly. Deputy leader Cllr Gordon Watson pointed out that the bill would not allow ballots over the internet because of security concerns yet that was how the Tories picked their Mayor of London candidate. Cllr Greg Reynolds, UKIP, said: Ive always supported trade unions. If they behave responsibly, its a win-win situation for employers and the unions themselves. The councils sole Conservative, Cllr Chris Middleton, was the sole member to vote against the motion. The Government says the bill will improve union transparency and ensure strikes are based on stronger mandates. Another motion opposing the Housing and Planning Bill was also passed at the meeting. Nine Saudi soldiers killed in Midi, Jizan JIZAN, Feb. 06 (Saba) The army and popular committees killed nine Saudi soldiers in Midi district and other military sites in Jizan region, a military official said on Saturday. The official explained that the snipers of the army and committees shot dead seven Saudi soldiers in the desert and coast of Midi district and one soldier in the west of Matha'an area and another in Ma'naq area in Jizan. He pointed out that the sniper operations caused big human losses to the enemy and created a state of fear among the enemy soldiers stationing in the military sites. BA Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [06/February/2016] 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. 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. 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 How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can? But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death. - Pope Benedict XVI "This past Wednesday I was in part of the hospital that was devoted to people who have memory problems like my father. The people here may have no idea who I am but they light up at the sight of a collar. People who cannot carry on a conversation click on and join in prayer as if there were little wrong with them, their faces relaxing in this moment of peace amidst the chaos of illness." - Fr. Valencheck "The priest's life is not his own. He does not live it for himself and his personal fulfillment, but for the salvation of souls." - Fr. Richtsteig "I am convinced that if we simply follow the liturgical books, say the texts and carry out the gestures properly, in a style continuous with our tradition, the Churchs liturgy has power the capture minds and hearts and transform them. I starting forming this conviction before I became a Catholic through my experience of Novus Ordo Masses done in an entirely Roman traditional style, closely following the books. The late Msgr. Richard Schuler would eventually articulate to me in words what I was experiencing in the church. "Just do what the Council asked do what the Church asks." Why is worship well executed according to the mind of the Church so effective? Christ is the true Actor in the sacred action of the Churchs worship. He makes our hands and voices His own as He raises our petitions and offerings to the Father for His glory and our salvation. Christs Holy Church has determined the way by which we may have this encounter with mystery in the liturgy, be taken up in the sacred action. Pope Benedict addresses this in his highly ignored Sacramentum caritatis. He teaches sacred ministers about ars celebrandi, our purpose and comportment. We must learn to get out of His way. Although we have the right to our Rite celebrated as the Church desires, liturgy is not about me or us or even you in the pews." - Fr. Zuhlsdorf The First Folio! exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art has engendered a plethora of presentations that promise to keep Shakespeare aficionados very busy indeed. Here is your Shakespearean date book. > CLICK FOR SCHEDULE RELATED STORIES Power of the press: "The Book's The Thing" Even though I fully acknowledge and appreciate that Shakespeare is best on stage, without printing, chances are those plays wouldnt have survived, said Tom Leech, curator of the print shop and the exhibit at the Palace of the Governors. > READ STORY Wild, wild Will: Shakespeare in the Old West In the southwest corner of New Mexico, three miles below the sleepy little city of Lordsburg, sits what remains of the town of Shakespeare. The place had previously been named Ralston or Ralston City, in honor of the California banker who established a silver mine there. > READ STORY Dueling Macbeths: The Shakespeare Riot and its effects I was recently asked by a producer to offer free tickets to middle- and high-school students for a stage production involving Shakespeare. There were no takers. The teachers I approached thanked me, but as one said, I dont think our kids are ready for Shakespeare. > READ STORY Sincerest flattery: Contemporary writers re-create Shakespeare The list of what Jeanette Winterson termed Shakespeare covers grows every day. Wintersons cover The Gap of Time, a retelling of The Winters Tale is the first novel in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which well-known contemporary authors take on their favorite Shakespeare plays. The series launched in 2015 and will be complete in 2021 with Gillian Flynns adaptation of Hamlet. > READ STORY Slings and arrows: Shakespeare's detractors It sometimes seems as though Shakespeare is treated with almost universal reverence and scholarly adulation, but that is not entirely true. There are dissenters, and it may come as a surprise to learn that Tolstoy is among them. > READ STORY Williamstown, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/05/2016 -- In various cultures across the globe, the jadeite stone has stood for good fortune, happiness and peace, which is why it was often used in jewelry making. But, the gemstone carries a much more significant meaning as a ring because it represents eternal love. Thousands of years ago, the Ancient Egyptians wore jade rings as wedding bands, but today, jade rings are worn for various reasons. Oriental Jade Jewelry, the authentic jeweler of fine quality jade jewelry, offers an assortment of jade rings set in gold with cubic zirconia. The rings vary in design and they feature valuable jade stones that are exported directly from China. The rings are all listed on the jewelry store's website and can be ordered conveniently online. Jade collectors and fashion enthusiasts can shop the online retailer for genuine jade jewelry rings available at discount prices. The jade gemstones are shaped by third generation master carvers and display an intense green color with clarity and transparency. As a fashion statement, collector's item or gift, the jade rings emit an appealing presence that derives from the high-quality precious stone. Every jade ring piece comes with an attractive ring box for safe keeping and storage. Oriental Jade Jewelry regularly updates their jade ring selection as pieces are sold and replaced with new items in stock. On the company website, buyers will find the heart-shaped jade stone ring set in gold for $69, which is ideal for emitting a romantic vibe. The oval shaped jade stone ring set in gold accompanied by six cubic zirconia stones for $59 has a classic appeal that would pair well with a formal outfit. To view the jade ring inventory available at Oriental Jade Jewelry, visit http://www.orientaljadejewelry.com. About Oriental Jade Jewelry Oriental Jade Jewelry is a jewelry company that retails fine quality jade pieces online. The company is a family-owned business and has been in the jewelry market for over 26 years. Aside from selling jade items, the company also manufactures their products, as well as imports them. The Jade is handpicked in China and Burma to be used for jewelry making. The professionals of Oriental Jade Jewelry maintain a personal relationship with their factories in China and Burma, which allows them to offer the best products. The company operates with topnotch customer service and produces their jade jewelry with quality workmanship. Jewelry items that can be bought from the company include earrings, rings, bracelets, pendants and more. For more information about the company, please visit http://www.orientaljadejewelry.com. A warming climate is likely to drive species to higher, cooler altitudes. A new study highlights a less obvious, yet crucial way in which their new habitat could differ from the one they leave behind. Mountains are home to many living species, with biodiversity typically peaking at mid-altitudes. Scientists have long struggled to explain why this is the case, invoking factors such as low temperatures at high elevations or human disturbance further down. According to new research, mid-altitudes host the largest number of species because the size and the connectedness of similar habitats are greatest there. One implication of their findings, presented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that moving to higher elevations to adapt to a warming climate could drive species into habitats with a whole different set of spatial properties. Many factors determine the number species that can co-exist on a patch of land. Large areas with similar properties typically host more species than small ones. And their biodiversity can be increased further if many similar habitats are connected. In mountainous terrain, other factors come into play, such as temperature, biological productivity, and exposition. By transposing the findings from flat land to mountainous terrain, a team of researchers from across Switzerland has found a new way to explain the observation that biodiversity in mountainous terrain tends to peak at mid-altitudes. "In mountainous terrain, peaks and valleys are isolated habitats, like islands in the ocean, whereas mid-elevation sites form well-connected patches," explains Enrico Bertuzzo, a researcher at the Ecohydrology Lab at EPFL and first author of the study. "Given that habitat area and connectivity foster biodiversity, whereas isolation favors the dominance of few species, we hypothesized that topography itself could be playing a key role in regulating how biodiversity varies with elevation." Biodiversity is often studied on idealized cone-shaped mountains, where similar habitats are assumed to be found at similar altitudes. In this case, habitats get smaller with increasing altitude, and their species richness is predicted to decrease, leading biodiversity to peak at foot of the cone and steadily decrease with elevation. Instead, Bertuzzo and his coauthors took a more laborious approach. "Rather than simplifying mountainous terrain to perfect cones or regular hills, our starting point was to consider it in all of its complexity," explains Florian Altermatt from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich. To test their intuition that the very structure a landscape can shape biodiversity patterns, Bertuzzo and his coauthors let loose a large number of virtual species on a mountainous terrain in a computer simulation. Each virtual species was assigned an optimal altitude at which it could thrive, and these altitudes were distributed uniformly across all the elevations considered. When the researchers let the virtual species compete for habitats on landscapes modeled on real-life ones, their simulations confirmed their intuition: topography alone was enough to explain biodiversity patterns observed in nature. "Other factors, like temperature, productivity, etc., are obviously also important, but they inevitably act on top of the unavoidable effect provided by the landscape structure," says Altermatt. These findings are of particular relevance in a warming world. "Understanding the relation between elevation and biodiversity is crucial to predict how the distribution of species will change in response to climate change," says Bertuzzo. "Warmer temperatures will cause species' niches to shift upwards. The same ecological community will therefore move up the mountain, where it will find a different spatial composition, both in terms of available area and connectivity. Our findings underscore the importance of considering these factors to predict future changes." A 15-year study carried out in Kilifi, Kenya and funded by the Wellcome Trust and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has shown that there is no need to give a Hib booster to toddlers to extend immunity into later childhood. The study provides the evidence public health officials need to be confident that Hib spread and infection in Kenya is under control. Hib bacteria can cause meningitis, pneumonia and other potentially lethal infections, with children under five most at risk. The vaccination programme introduced in Kenya in 2001 is designed to build immunity to the bacteria in infancy and prevent spread between young children. Doses are administered to babies at six, ten and 14 weeks. An additional booster dose of Hib vaccine is used in most high-income countries, including in the UK where it was introduced after immunity in children was found to wane. Kenya, like most low-income countries, has followed a World Health Organization (WHO) vaccination regime with no booster dose. Professor Anthony Scott, who is based at the KEMRI-Wellcome Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, and who lead the study, said: "We had expected that over time population immunity would subside, but we have waited 15 years and it still hasn't happened." He added: "Despite our fears, which were influenced by the UK experience, we can clearly say that a fourth dose of the Hib vaccine is not needed to control this invasive bacterium in Kenya," he said. Dr Laura Hammitt, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the first author of the study, said: "Our findings suggest that the current Hib vaccine programme in Kenya is highly effective and no booster dose is currently required. It is important to continue surveillance to determine if effective control persists." The research team in Kenya believe that similar bacteria to Hib in the environment may provide a natural boost to the immune system keeping antibody levels high even though the Hib bacterium has stopped circulating in the community. In addition, a stronger antibody response to the vaccine course has given Kenyan infants longer protection than children in developed countries such as the UK. advertisement The same may occur in other tropical regions of Africa, although eastern Gambia experienced an unexplained resurgence of the disease last year after more than ten years of control using a programme without a booster. The Kenyan team analysed blood samples from more than 38,000 children under 13 years old admitted to hospital in Kilifi between 2000 and 2014 to monitor trends in invasive Hib disease. The team found that the vaccine reduced the chance of Hib disease by 93 percent over this period. They also repeatedly tested samples from healthy children in the community to find out how well Hib immunity lasts into later childhood. Eight years after the introduction of the vaccine they found that 79% of children in the disease risk group, aged 4-35 months, had antibodies at levels indicating long-lasting protection. The team also tracked Hib bacteria in the general population by looking in nose swabs. Once a year, between 2009 and 2012, random residents of all ages were invited to undergo a nose swab sample. Although Hib was commonly transmitted between the noses of children before the introduction of Hib vaccine, 8-11 years after the vaccine was introduced they found Hib in the nose of only one child out of 600 Dr Charlie Weller, Vaccine Strategy Lead at the Wellcome Trust, said: "The Hib vaccine is a public health success story for Kenya and a powerful example of the positive impact that long term vaccination programmes can have on the health of a population." She added: "By evaluating the vaccine over a long period, the researchers have highlighted that children can have slightly different levels of response to the same vaccine in different countries. We can now use this data to inform the most appropriate vaccine schedule for each country." "It is very rare to be able to track the success of a vaccine consistently over such a sustained period, but this is the only way to provide answers to important public health questions in vaccine programmes," said Professor Scott. "It was a relief to find that children are successfully protected from this invasive disease using the WHO approved vaccine schedule and this also means that the residents and government won't have to take on the logistical and financial challenge of bringing children back for an extra dose in their second year of life." Gavi provides funding the five-in-one pentavalent vaccine, which includes Hib, in the world's 73 poorest countries. Kenya was one of the first African countries to benefit. In the coastal community of Kilifi, a monitoring system has been in place since 2000 closely recording births, deaths, migrations and episodes of disease in a population of 280,000. The data provide unique insights to inform policy in East Africa. At the end of December 2015, a huge storm named "Goliath" dumped 9-10 inches of rain in a belt across the central United States, centered just southwest of St. Louis, most of it in a three-day downpour. The rain blanketed the Meramec Basin, an area of 4,000 square miles drained by the Meramec River, which enters the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. The Meramec's response was dramatic. Gauging stations recorded a pulse of water that grew as it traveled down the main stem of the Meramec River, setting all-time record highs in the lower basin in the Missouri cities of Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold. While extraordinary rain drenched the entire Meramec Basin, only 5 percent of the Mississippi River's giant watershed above St. Louis was so affected. Yet only a day after the flood on the lower Meramec peaked, water levels on the Mississippi at St. Louis were the third-highest ever recorded. A few days later, record flood stages were recorded downstream at Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Thebes, Ill. Why was the flooding so bad? Most news reports blamed it on the heavy rain, but Robert Criss, PhD, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, said there was more to the flood than the rain. "I think there was significant magnification of the flood levels on the Meramec by recent developments near the river," he said. "Sure it rained a lot, but what happened here cannot be explained by the rainfall alone." The flood on the middle Mississippi River, in turn, was remarkable for its short duration and the time of year. "It was essentially a winter flash flood on a continental-scale river," Criss said. "The Mississippi has been so channelized and leveed close to St. Louis that it now responds like a much smaller river." advertisement In the February issue of the Journal of Earth Science, Criss and visiting scholar Mingming Luo of the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, China, take a close look at data for the New Year's flood, treating it as a giant natural experiment that allowed them to test their understanding of changing river dynamics. "Flooding is becoming more chaotic and unpredictable, more frequent and more severe," Criss said. "Additional changes to this overbuilt river system will only aggravate flooding. "In the meantime," he said, "inaccurate Federal Emergency Management Agency flood frequencies based on the assumption that today's river will behave as it has in the past greatly underestimate our real flood risk and lead to inappropriate development in floodways and floodplains." What happened at Valley Park and why? The prior flood of record in most of the lower Meramec Basin occurred on Dec. 6, 1982, Criss said. Given that the 1982 flood, like the 2015 flood, was a winter flood during an El Nino event, they should have been similar. Criss thought it would be revealing to compare them. advertisement When he did this, he discovered that the peak flood stage at Valley Park in 2015 was three-feet higher than it would have been had the river responded as it had in 1982, and more than a foot higher upstream from Valley Park at Eureka in 2015 than in 1982. What had happened at Valley Park between 1982 and 2015? A three-mile-long levee had been built next to the river; a landfill partly in the river's floodway (as defined in 1995) had expanded; parts of the floodplain had been built up with construction fill; and development along three small tributaries of the Meramec had destroyed riparian borders, so that they became torrents after a rain but no longer flowed continuously. The record high water levels on the Meramec were associated with these developments, Criss said. "The biggest jump in the flood stage was next to the landfill in the floodway and to the new levee, which restricted the effective width of the floodway and '100-year' floodplain by as much as 65 percent." He drives home the point by breaking the flood data into two chunks and looking at the earlier half separately from the later half. When he does this, it becomes apparent the river is becoming more chaotic and unpredictable and that floods are more frequent, higher and more damaging than they once were. As the New Year's flood demonstrates, when we assume an unchanging river, we greatly underestimate our flood risk, he said. "The St. Louis levees protected us from the 1993 flood, considered a 330-year event," he said. "But if a real '200-year' flood occurred on today's river, the structures protecting St. Louis would be overtopped. "The heavy rainfall was probably related to El Nino, and possibly intensified by global warming. But new records were set only in areas that have undergone intense development, which is known to magnify floods and shorten their timescales. "People want to blame the rain, but this is mostly us," Criss said. "It's a manmade disaster." During the New Year's flood, roughly 7,000 buildings near St. Louis were damaged, two interstate highways were closed for several days, the community of Valley Park was evacuated, and two Metropolitan Sewer District plants were swamped so that sewage was dumped directly into the water. The flood killed more than 20 people in Missouri and Illinois, caused several hundred million dollars of damage, and left millions of tons of debris in its wake. Via The Guardian, an AAP report: Woman and child in Queensland confirmed as having Zika virus. Excerpt: Two people including a child have tested positive for Zika in Queensland as authorities around the world scramble to deal with the threat posed by the virus. The child was diagnosed after presenting to a Brisbane hospital with symptoms following a family trip to Samoa. It was the second case confirmed within 24 hours, with a woman diagnosed with Zika on the Gold Coast after returning from El Salvador in Central America where the virus is spreading. The woman first saw a GP in mid-December and was told she had a Flavivirus, which includes dengue, yellow fever and Zika. However she became ill again and recently presented to a Gold Coast Hospital, which ran further tests that confirmed she had Zika. Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said southeast Queensland was not at risk of Zika, despite two cases being confirmed in the region. This is because the virus is predominantly transmitted to humans through the bites of infectious Aedes mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti, the same species that transmits dengue in north Queensland. The two people infected have not travelled to north Queensland. Im very confident that the two people weve just confirmed ... are no risk to anyone, Young said. Via O Sul: Colombiano de 49 anos e diagnosticado com dengue, zika e chikungunya.[Colombian, 49, diagnosed with dengue, Zika, and chikungunya] The Google translation, edited: A group of Colombian infectious disease specialists report the first simultaneous occurrence of dengue, chikungunya and zika in the same person. It is the first reported case of coinfection with three of the viruses transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The patient, a 49-year-old man, constantly traveled to different regions of the country and was probably exposed to different viruses in different areas, doctors say. The case was registered in Sincelejo, in the north, and has been discussed by experts since the beginning of the month, after publication of a study group in the Journal of Infection and Public Health. According to the article, whose lead author is Wilmer Villamil-Gomez of the University of Cartagena, despite the concern, the man was medicated to control symptoms and is now well. The patient sought help in hospital after spending four days with a fever of 38C, conjunctivitis and red spots on the back and arms. After antibody tests to detect the three viruses, all were positive. In addition to these symptoms, doctors still noticed redness and swelling of the lymph nodes in the legs. No specific symptom was detected as result of interaction between the two viruses, however. The researchers say that one must be attentive to such co-infections in areas such as Brazil and Colombia, where the three viruses are circulating. Sorry... ..An error has occured: If you have any queries about this error, try emailing feedback@mirror.co.uk and we'll do what we can to help you. ZID:308457493 Via The Guardian, an AFP report: Lassa fever has killed more than 100 in Nigeria, latest figures show. Excerpt: A growing Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 101 people, as west Africa battles to contain a flare-up of the virus, according to data from the nations health authorities released on Saturday. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) statistics show that reported cases of the haemorrhagic disease both confirmed and suspected stood at 175 with a total of 101 deaths since August. Deaths from the virus were recorded in the nations political capital, Abuja, Lagos, and 14 other states, the NCDC said. As of today, 19 [including Abuja] states are currently following up contacts, or have suspected cases with laboratory results pending or laboratory confirmed cases, the NCDC said in a statement. While health authorities in Africas most populous country say they have the virus under control, there are fears the actual scale of the outbreak is under-reported. The outbreak of Lassa fever was only announced in January months after the first case of the disease happened in August with subsequent deaths reported in 10 states, including Abuja. Last year, 12 people died in Nigeria out of 375 infected, while in 2012 there were 1,723 cases and 112 deaths, according to the NCDC. In neighbouring Benin at least nine people have died in a Lassa outbreak, with a total of 20 suspected cases, health authorities said on Tuesday. Benin was last hit by a Lassa fever outbreak in October 2014, when nine people suspected of having the virus died. Via The China Post: Tremor rattles southern Taiwan, at least 3 dead, dozens injured. Excerpt: Most of Taiwan was rudely awaken this morning at 3:57 by a Central Weather Bureau (CWB) reported 6.4 magnitude earthquake centered in the island's southern region, collapsing buildings, killing at least one while injuring dozens more. The epicenter of the quake was located in Meinong District of Kaohsiung City (with a depth of 16.7km) giving off energy equivalent to two atom bombs. It was the strongest earthquake jolting the island since March 2010. Fallen buildings In Tainan City, extensive damage including at least eight toppled high-rise apartments had rescue crews scrambling to free residents trapped within; two including a ten-day-old infant showed no life signs after being freed from the rubble. In the city's Yongkang District, a 17-story apartment complex lay horizontally on Yongda Road, section two. According to the local Apple Daily, rescuers had safely evacuated 220, sending 29 to hospital for treatment. More than 250 people are registered residents in the building. In Guiren District's Daren Street and Xinyi North Road intersection, a seven story crumbled into a 4 level building. Ground crews safely rescued all 34 person trapped on apartments located in the third floor. Fallen buildings were also reported Zhongxi, Shanshang and Rende Districts. Mayor William Lai () has set up the city's emergency response minutes following the quake, with rescue teams from other cities and counties including New Taipei City, Chiayi County converging toward southern Tainan. The Ministry of National Defense also confirmed that army units were being dispatched to help with rescue efforts. President Ma Ying-jeou has entered the Central Emergency Operation Center () in Taipei and is expected to head to Tainan at 8AM aboard Air Force One to inspect damage. Premier Sean Chang has canceled previously scheduled itineraries and will also head to the rattled city. The embattled head of the California Coastal Commission mounted a vigorous defense of his record Friday, touting great success under his exceptionally strong leadership, while a growing number of supporters stepped up their efforts to thwart a plot to fire him. The 20-page memorandum was the first attempt by Charles Lester, the executive director of the powerful conservation and land-use agency, to counter criticism of his management style and record by some of the 12 commissioners who oversee his work. The commissioners will hold a public hearing Wednesday to consider the possible dismissal of Lester, who has held the job since 2011 when he was handpicked by the outgoing director, Peter Douglas, who died of lung cancer in 2012. It is clear to me that our agency, meaning commissioners and staff together, has achieved great success, Lester wrote in the memorandum, which included a long list of accomplishments, suggested actions and his resume. Management style cited None of the commissioners would talk about the proposed firing, but insiders have cited Lester's management style, including complaints that he has been unresponsive to commissioners. Some critics also claim the Coastal Commission staff, which Lester oversees, lacks diversity. The commission staff has also been criticized recently by those seeking coastal permits for being slow, inefficient and too fussy and meticulous about small details. The job of the Coastal Commission is to uphold the California Coastal Act of 1976, which regulates development and protects coastal resources, habitat and wildlife. Lester listed among his successes the completion of 81 percent of the commissions strategic plan goals; the recent release of a sea-level rise guidance document; and procurement of a $3 million grant to permanently hire 25 staff members, now on temporary status, for coastal programs. He also said he has increased public engagement and communication and increased diversity. Our record is a testament to the strong legacy of coastal management and citizen engagement in California, Lester wrote in the memo. I believe that my vision has been clear and incisive, and that my performance and accomplishments in the administration of the coastal program have been exceptionally strong. The push to fire Lester infuriated environmental groups and coastal advocates who rushed to his side, accusing four commissioners appointed by the governor of trying to appease developers and fast-track pet projects along the 1,100-mile California coast. Some 14,000 comments have been received on the commission website since the termination hearing was announced, many of them supporting Lester. Letters urging the commission to retain the executive director have been sent by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Ventura, former Resources Secretary Huey Johnson and 33 former commissioners. Political backdrop In his memo, Lester did not bring up accusations by several conservation organizations that the most development-friendly commissioners Wendy Mitchell, Martha McClure, Effie Turnbull-Sanders and Erik Howell are behind the effort because they want to seize control of the coast for the governor. Mitchell, the apparent leader of the coup attempt, was appointed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The others were appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who has declined to weigh in on the dispute. Lester said he was aware of the political implications when he accepted the position in 2011. He watched as Douglas, a tough, politically savvy operator, fought at least two attempts to oust him during his 26 years as executive director, including one in the 1990s led by then-Gov. Pete Wilson. I was well familiar with the controversy that often surrounds the commissions work, Lester wrote, but my hope was that I could help to depoliticize the position of executive director. He acknowledged that there are things his management team could be doing better. He urged the commissioners to appoint a two-person subcommittee to work with senior staff to improve work-flow and efficiency, communications, workplace diversity and trust between staff and the commission. Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite Herbert Leroy Abrams, a distinguished Stanford radiologist and co-founder of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, has died at his home in Palo Alto. He was 95. During his long career, Dr. Abrams combined an expertise in his medical specialty with an abiding concern for the social responsibility of all physicians and a talent for clear and expressive writing that was manifest in his classic volume, Angiography, his 200 published scientific papers and his evocative political book on the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. Born in New York, Dr. Abrams earned his medical degree from the Long Island College of Medicine in 1946, and completed his residency in radiology at Stanford before joining the faculty there as an assistant professor in 1954. He later became Stanfords director of diagnostic radiology. In 1967, Dr. Abrams and his family moved to Harvard, where, as professor and chairman of radiology, he became deeply interested in the disastrous effects of ionizing radiation and blast from the explosions of nuclear weapons. Cold War opposition Dr. Abrams and his colleagues led a group called Physicians for Social Responsibility, and in the midst of the Cold War they met with a group of Soviet physicians to found the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Dr. Abrams served as its founding vice president. The organization won the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education 1984, and the Nobel Peace Prize a year later. The forces maintaining nuclear weapons and the danger that we might use them are very powerful and very hard to stop, and Herb and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War were an early voice of sanity in this field, said former Defense Secretary William Perry, a Stanford colleague. Dr. Abrams returned to Stanford as professor of radiology in 1985, and spent much of his time in research at Stanfords Center for International Security and Arms Control now the Center for International Security and Cooperation. He was also a senior fellow at the universitys Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. For many years Dr. Abrams also served on the national board of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which has chapters throughout the U.S. and is an affiliate of the international group for the prevention of nuclear war. As one of Americas leading experts on the effects of ionizing radiation, Dr. Abrams had called the proliferation of nuclear weapons the central health issue of the 20th century. On March 30, 1981, Reagan barely survived an assassination attempt by John Hinckley, who fired six bullets into into the presidents body. Shooting aftermath Years later, Dr. Abrams, with access to an extraordinary range of official documents and personal accounts, wrote The President Has Been Shot: Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment in the Aftermath of the Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan. The 25th Amendment on succession when the president becomes incapacitated is clear, but Dr. Abrams concluded from his research that the White House was in total confusion after the assassination attempt. He wrote that instead of looking to the Constitution for order, Reagans top officials had jockeyed for control with ignorance, caution, concern and guile. The book was widely read and praised. Dr. Abrams is survived by his wife of 73 years, Marilyn; a daughter Nancy of Lincoln, Mass.; a son John of West Tisbury, Mass.; and three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Contributions in Dr. Abrams memory may be made to Physicians for Social Responsibility, 1111 14th street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005 or through the organizations website at www.psr.org. A memorial service on the Stanford campus is being planned for March 19. David Perlman is The San Francisco Chronicles science editor. E-mail: dperlman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @daveperlman This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate San Francisco police officers handcuffed a car-theft victim, ran his name for warrants and then released him into the waiting arms of federal immigration agents, records show, in what is being investigated as a possible breach of local sanctuary-city laws. Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, 31, was released from jail Wednesday after two months and spoke at a news conference Friday. Afterward, Police Chief Greg Suhr acknowledged that the longtime city resident never should have ended up in the custody of immigration agents. Police officials did not specifically admit to calling those agents, but federal officials said police had done just that. We are happy and relieved that Mr. Figueroa-Zarceno has been restored to his family, said Sgt. Michael Andraychak, a police spokesman, in a statement. It is the policy of the San Francisco Police Department to foster trust and cooperation with all people of the city and to encourage them to communicate with SFPD officers without fear of inquiry regarding their immigration status, Andraychak said. We are aware of concerns this incident has raised with some members of our community. He said the police force had opened an internal affairs investigation to determine whether any officers should be disciplined. Deportation order The incident raised questions about how San Francisco authorities interact with immigration agents. The controversy flared last year after the Pier 14 killing of Kathryn Steinle by a Mexican national who was facing deportation but had been freed from San Francisco jail under the sanctuary-city laws. Federal officials said Figueroa-Zarceno was the subject of a deportation order arising from his failure to appear at an immigration hearing in San Antonio in December 2005, and from a 2012 conviction for drunken driving. But Figueroa-Zarcenos attorney and San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos said the police cooperation with immigration authorities violated the citys sanctuary-city ordinance that bars any use of money or resources to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law an ordinance designed in part to make potential crime victims and witnesses feel comfortable working with authorities regardless of their immigration status. As San Francisco officials work to clarify policies in the wake of the Pier 14 case, immigration advocates say Figueroa-Zarcenos detention is an example of a broken immigration system and yet another reason why San Francisco needs to strengthen its policies. Make policy stronger We want to make sure that as the sanctuary policy is politicized by whats happening on a national level, that we can protect it and make it stronger and make sure that people like Pedro do not get impacted, Avalos said. Figueroa-Zarceno, a Mission District resident, had reported his car stolen in November. Then, on Dec. 2, he received word from the police that they had found it. But when he went to the Southern Police Station on Third Street to get the police report, he said he found himself in handcuffs. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, San Francisco police ran a routine background check on Figueroa-Zarceno and discovered that he had an outstanding warrant out for his deportation from more than 10 years ago. Eileen Hirst, chief of staff for the San Francisco Sheriffs Department, said police officers contacted her departments central warrant bureau, whose job it is to confirm warrants. She said deputies contacted the service center at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and confirmed the warrant. The deputies relayed the information to police, who had authority to decide whether to honor the warrant, Hirst said. The Homeland Security report said an ICE duty officer was informed of Figueroa-Zarcenos whereabouts by both the service center and San Francisco police. Back at the station, I was handcuffed because they told me there were questions they needed to ask me, but there were no questions asked I was simply handcuffed for about 15 minutes, Figueroa-Zarceno said Friday. ICE was waiting I was happy that they told me they were going to release me, he said, but once I got out of the Police Department, there was ICE outside. As his 8-year-old daughter screamed, Papi! Papi! and begged federal agents not to take him, Figueroa-Zarceno was shackled, put in a van and driven to a Contra Costa County jail where ICE houses inmates. He was released Wednesday on bail. ICE officials said Friday that Figueroa-Zarceno is one of the at-large foreign nationals who meet the agencys enforcement priorities, including convicted criminals and other individuals who pose a potential threat to public safety. Mr. Zarceno-Figueroas case is now being reviewed by the immigration courts to determine whether he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S., said James Schwab, an ICE spokesman, in a written statement. Figueroa-Zarceno says he never defied immigration authorities. He came into contact with ICE shortly after he entered the country and explained he planned to file for asylum from the violence in El Salvador, said his attorney, Zachary Nightingale. Aunt in San Francisco He told the agents he planned to go to San Francisco, where his aunt lived, but still intended to go through the hearing process, Nightingale said. He said his client provided his aunts address in San Francisco, but never heard from authorities. That is not uncommon in my practice to see people whose cases go off the rails for reasons that are not their fault, Nightingale said. To me, this clearly indicates why San Francisco should not just be turning people over blindly to ICE. The question of whether notifying ICE of a persons immigration status constitutes a violation of sanctuary-city laws was fiercely debated following the Pier 14 killing. A month before the suspect in that case was released, then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi issued a memo banning all communication with immigration agents seeking to deport jailed suspects, absent a warrant or court order. New sheriff, new view Newly elected Sheriff Vicki Hennessy is working to reverse that order to allow for some cooperation with federal agents in the most serious criminal cases, a move that has been criticized by advocates for immigrants. Christine Falvey, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee, said Friday that the mayor remains a firm supporter of the sanctuary-city policies. After Suhr alerted him of Figueroa-Zarcenos case, the mayor reached out to the Homeland Security secretary, she said. He expects the chief to fully review this case to make sure this doesnt happen again, and the chief has assured a thorough review will happen as soon as possible, Falvey said. Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Jeffrey P. Pino, who led Sikorsky Aircraft during the Stratford-based manufacturers wartime expansion and development of a revolutionary high-speed helicopter, died Friday after a World War II-era fighter plane he was piloting crashed near Maricopa, Ariz. Pino was 61. Nick Tramontano, known to some as the mayor of Oxford Airport, was also killed. Pino led Sikorsky between 2006 and 2012, a period in which the company bid successfully for multiple contracts totaling billions of dollars, including a new helicopter to replace the aging Sikorsky fleet used by the White House. Sikorskys Stratford plant is the single largest manufacturing plant in Connecticut; under former owner United Technologies, the company has long been Fairfield Countys largest employer, with new parent Lockheed Martin having committed to maintaining the Stratford plant following its acquisition of Sikorsky last year. More for you Ex-Sikorsky chief joins rival developer The cause of the crash had yet to be determined as of Saturday; Pino owned a P-51D Mustang fighter named Big Beautiful Doll, with the Associated Press citing a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman saying the aircraft that crashed appeared to be a Mustang and the Arizona Republic reporting that Pino was the registered owner of the plane that crashed. Sikorsky released a statement on its website from Dan Schultz, whom Lockheed Martin named in November as president of the manufacturer. During his six years as (president) of Sikorsky, Jeff brought personal energy and passion for aviation innovation to our industry, Schultz said. We remember Jeff as a leader, pioneer, innovator and advocate. David Faile, president of the Friends of Sikorski Airport, identified Tramontano as the second man killed in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media. Nick, known as the mayor of Oxford Airport ... was a key member of the aviation community known and befriended by many, wrote Faile. He will be sorely missed. On Saturday, employees and others reflected on Pino on Sikorskys Facebook page, including Charles Romano Jr. The coolest president we ever had, Romano wrote. The only president that would actually stop in the hallway or the shop and say hello and ask how you were doing. After retiring from Sikorsky in 2012, Pino moved to Chandler, Ariz., where in 2013 he became CEO of Macquarie Rotorcraft Leasing. Later, Pino became vice chairman of Colorado-based XTI Aircraft, which is planning an experimental aircraft called the TriFan 600, designed with ducted fan engines to take off and land vertically, reminiscent of the aircraft in the movie Avatar. In a statement on XTIs website, the companys founder called Pino a brilliant strategist, visionary and expert in all things aviation. Jeff loved flying and he was genuinely excited about what the TriFan 600 will mean to the future of flight, stated David Brody, founder and chairman of XTI. As a man with big ideas, and even bigger dreams, Jeff was committed to bringing the TriFan 600 to market, and now, more than ever, so are we. Pino joined Sikorsky in 2002 from Textron subsidiary and rival Bell Helicopter, and in March 2006 was promoted to president even as Sikorsky was in the throes of a strike that would last six weeks. Major Sikorsky milestones during his tenure included the acquisition of PZL Mielec in Poland to serve as a secondary manufacturing plant for international variants of Sikorskys Black Hawk helicopter; a huge expansion driven by Pentagon demands for helicopters and parts for combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq; and competitions for massive contracts, including a new helicopter for White House use as Marine One, combat search-and-rescue helicopters for the U.S. Air Force, and the heavy-lift helicopter CH-53K King Stallion for the U.S. Marine Corps. Pino also oversaw the final development of the Sikorsky X2, a high-speed helicopter designed with stacked rotor sets that rotate in opposite directions and a rear-mounted pusher prop to help the aircraft achieve speeds a third faster than the Black Hawk and other traditional helicopter designs. Sikorskys successful design and flight of the X2 would win it the 2010 Robert J. Collier Trophy from the U.S. National Aeronautic Association, the top prize in U.S. aviation awarded annually. Sikorsky hopes to sell the Pentagon on the design as the base platform for a new generation of fast scout helicopters. During Pinos years, Sikorsky also saw its share of challenges as well, the worst being the crash of a Sikorsky-built S-92 helicopter off the coast of Newfoundland that killed 17 people, the cause later determined to be a gearbox failure that resulted in the loss of oil. Sikorsky saw other setbacks as well, including a Department of Defense reprimand for quality issues in the months after the 2006 strike that prompted UTC to dispatch future CEO Louis Chenevert to Stratford to get production back on track; and technical problems that resulted in delays delivering new maritime helicopters to Canada, sparking criticism in Ottawa and losses that hit UTCs bottom line. If Mick Maurer, the man who succeeded Pino as president in 2012, won wide respect at Sikorsky for his engineering acumen, in Pino the company had a leader who had spent plenty of time in the cockpit, dating back to his days as a U.S. Army pilot after graduating in 1976 from the University of Arizona with a bachelors degree in psychology. While serving in the Army, he would obtain an MBA through a distance learning program offered by Webster University. Pino often appeared animated when talking about flight, including at a 2012 ceremony commemorating the installation of the Black Hawk fuselage outside the companys plant in Stratford, when he jocularly referenced his own skills. I want to dispel a myth that our chief test pilot landed it on the pedestal, Pino said at the time. He didnt. ... I could have. One individual eulogizing Pino on Sikorskys Facebook page noted an entry on Pinos own page from October, in which he posted a video taken while aloft, catching an expanse of clouds below and blue sky above, while quoting from the poem High Flight penned by aviator John McGee just a few months before his death during World War II. I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, Pino wrote. Staff writer Alex Gecan contributed to this report. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-964-2236; www.twitter.com/casoulman This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DENVER In a former bakery south of downtown Denver, Matthew Fuerst makes beer flavored with ingredients like Hatch green chiles that he chops by hand. He saves money on heating bills by pushing up space heaters against his fermenting tanks and covering the tops with blankets. Hes invited homebrewers who want to break into the industry to use his expensive brewing system to try making larger batches. Fuerst is one of many transplants lured to Colorado by the states reputation as a place where beer drinkers spend hours on breweries sunny patios trying every imaginable twist on beer, often with dogs and kids in tow, a state whose governor is a former craft beer magnate who had an array of taps installed at the governors mansion. But Fuerst fears that idyllic lifestyle is in danger now that the worlds largest beer maker, Anheuser-Busch InBev, has staked a claim to Colorados craft beer paradise. Fuerst worries that InBev could use its distribution leverage and buying power to squeeze other craft beers out of liquor store shelves, discount its own craft beer line and buy up raw materials after its purchase last month of Breckenridge Brewery, which was part of the first wave of craft breweries to open in Colorado in the 1990s. The purchase sent tremors through Colorados thriving community of homebrewers and beer purists, who join beer lovers around the country dreading increasing corporate consolidation in the industry. I think all of us know that if they could put us out of business they would and the actions that theyre taking right now are a threat to us, said Fuerst, whose brewery is called Grandmas House. Terms of the Breckenridge deal werent released. It follows InBevs acquisition of craft brewers Goose Island in Chicago and 10 Barrel Brewing Co. in Oregon in recent years and comes as the maker of Budweiser is trying to become even bigger by buying the worlds second-largest beer maker, SABMiller, to create a company that would make nearly 30 percent of the worlds beer. The makers of Corona and Heineken as well as equity firms have also been acquiring and investing in craft beer, the only part of the United States market thats still growing. Craft beer has captured more than 10 percent of beer sales in recent years and, according to the Brewers Association trade group, the country now has over 4,100 breweries, the highest number since 1873. More than two breweries open every day across the country. InBev says its not trying to push any brewers out of business and frames the real battle as between beer and the growing wine and liquor market. Everyone thats putting great beers out there and has a story to tell is going to thrive, said Felipe Szpigel, president of the High End, InBevs craft beer line. Eric Wallace, the co-founder of Left Hand Brewing, which, like Breckenridge, has spread far beyond Colorado since it opened 22 years ago, said he cant understand how a brewery that worked to bring back flavorful beer to the scorched earth left by mega brewers can turn around and join one. The fact that beer was being dumbed down over time, over decades, is the reason that craft brewing was created and was born, he said. There are also rumors that another of Colorados original craft brewers, employee-owned New Belgium, could also be looking for a buyer. In a statement, founder Kim Jordan said its board has an obligation to have on-going dialogue with capital markets and that there is no pending deal. Sitting in the tasting room of Breckenridges new $36 million riverside brewery complex in Denver, which includes a farmhouse-style restaurant and a large patio where customers sometimes arrive by inner tube or bike, Breckenridge president Todd Usry said he once shared worries about corporate craft brewing. But InBev has assuaged them. I found out they wanted to participate in craft, not take craft over, Usry said. The reaction from beer drinkers has been mixed. Andy Romero, 36, of Denver, who traveled across town recently to pick up some more of Renegade Brewing Co.s limited supply of imperial milk stout made with peanut butter cups in refillable glass containers, said he likes to support mom-and-pop operations, but hes not too worried about the Breckenridge sale. As long as the beer is good, Im fine with it, Romero said. But Michelle Massure, 31, a former Colorado resident who likes to visit her favorite breweries on trips from Houston, was horrified at the thought of a big brewer taking over the Strange Craft Beer Co., where she enjoyed a tulip glass of a cherry wheat ale that she said tasted just like cherry pie filling. Ten small sampler glasses of beer were lined up between her and some friends on a wooden table at the tiny brewery tucked into an industrial strip mall next to Interstate 25. I dont want the big guy to have everything, she said. A selling point for certain Netgear routers is the promise of convenience: An owner can plug in a flash drive or a hard drive into a home router and access the data remotely. Turning a USB stick into a private cloud is an enticing perk and one thats becoming expected as people grow accustomed to accessing their information from anywhere. But if not set up securely, coupling Netgear routers with storage devices presents a serious risk, The Chronicle has learned. If users do not change the default log-in settings to Netgears personal file-sharing feature, data held on storage devices connected to those routers is visible to outsiders. More than 6,000 vulnerable IP addresses were spotted during a recent search. Records as sensitive as tax documents made accessible in that way can be seen by anyone with the technical expertise to find them, researchers investigating the issue with The Chronicle determined. Its a potentially dangerous issue and one that Netgear says its users are responsible for preventing. The problem stems from a lax authentication process. When people attempt to remotely access their data, they are prompted to enter a user name and password. If customers have not established their own unique log-ins, Netgear routers grant access without requiring a password at all. With a connection, we can steal accounts, private photos, videos, chats, said Kelvin Parra, a Venezuelan security researcher who first noticed the issue. This is a problem they believed that hackers could not find. Parra alerted The Chronicle of the issue and demonstrated its scope on Shodan, a search engine that catalogs servers and other Internet-connected devices. (The Chronicle will not publish details that could identify affected users.) Netgear, a publicly traded San Jose Internet router maker, acknowledges the risk. But the company said customers must take steps to guarantee the security of their devices. A simple change of the password will protect against this potential vulnerability, Netgear said in a statement. Netgear advises to change the default password in the user manual in the section on Personal FTP (file transfer protocol) servers. The password intended to protect personal file sharing isnt the same as the one used for WiFi access. Users can connect their computers to their routers to change the routers password. Further details are in their routers manual, available on Netgears website. The company did not respond to questions about the specific devices affected or the number of at-risk users. Rob Graham, the chief executive of Errata Security, worries people arent aware that hackers are mass-scanning the Internet in search of vulnerable devices. It should be in the manual: Hey, there are (people who are looking) for this thing, he said. So access to whatever you put on this FTP server, they will find it, and they will download those files. Others in the security industry questioned Netgears response. The company, they say, should immediately move to protect users whose data is currently exposed, rather than simply telling them to change their passwords. Suggesting that users change a password to protect themselves says nothing to the fact that any user account tested during our validation of the issue ... would allow for full access to the files associated with the device, said Andrew Hay, chief information security officer of data management and storage startup DataGravity, who helped confirm the problem. Netgear says it is constantly monitoring for both known and unknown threats. Being proactive rather than reactive to emerging security issues is a fundamental of product support at Netgear, the company said. Sean Sposito is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: ssposito@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @seansposito Twitter is now using spam-fighting technology to seek out accounts that might be promoting terrorist activity and is examining other accounts related to those flagged for possible removal, the company announced Friday. The effort signaled efforts by Twitter to automatically identify tweets supporting terrorism, reflecting increased pressure placed by the U.S. government for social media companies to respond to abuse more proactively. Child pornography has previously been the only abuse that was automatically flagged for human review on social media, using a different kind of technology that sources a database of known images. Twitter also said Friday that it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, mainly related to Islamic State militants, in the last eight months. Social media has increasingly become a tool for recruitment and radicalization thats used by the Islamic State group and its supporters, who by some reports have sent tens of thousands of tweets per day. Tech companies are dedicating increasingly more resources to tracking reports of violent threats. Twitter said Friday that it has increased the size of its team reviewing reports to reduce their response time significantly. The San Francisco company also changed its policy in April, adding language to make clear that threatening or promoting terrorism specifically counted as abusive behavior and violated its terms of use. In January, the White House made good on President Obamas promise to reach out to Silicon Valley to tackle the use of social media by violent extremist groups. Those particularly include the Islamic State group, which inspired attackers who killed 14 in San Bernardino in December. A post on one of the killers Facebook pages that appeared around the time of the attack included a pledge of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group. Facebook found the post under an alias the day after the attack. The company removed the profile from public view and informed law enforcement. But such a proactive effort is fairly uncommon. The Obama administration sent several top officials to San Jose, including FBI Director James Comey, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. Among issues discussed was how to use technology to help speed the identification of terrorist content, according to a copy of the White House briefing memo obtained by the Associated Press. We recognize that identifying terrorist content that violates terms of service is far more difficult than identifying images of child pornography, but is there a way to use technology to quickly identify terrorist content? For example, are there technologies used for the prevention of spam that could be useful? the memo said. Since late 2015, Twitter began using proprietary spam-fighting tools to find accounts that might be violating their terms of service by promoting terrorism, sending them to be reviewed by a team at Twitter. That group also now looks into other accounts similar to those reported to them by other users. Twitter said it has already had seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter. But it also noted that there is no magic algorithm for identifying terrorist content, which is why even humans reviewing the material are ultimately making judgment calls based on very limited information and guidance. Free speech and local law in an area can also complicate matters. Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism, Twitter said released Friday. It said it would continue to engage with authorities and other relevant organizations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives. Spencer Platt / Getty Image/Getty Image South San Francisco Police shot and wounded a masked man on Friday after he tried to rob a bank at gunpoint, authorities said. The department heard reports that a robbery was taking place around 10:10 a.m. in a San Mateo Credit Union branch at 150 El Camino Real, police said. An Alameda County judge has ordered state health officials to stop allowing doctors at nursing homes to administer psychiatric drugs or make end-of-life decisions for patients the doctors consider mentally incompetent. Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo issued the order Jan. 27 after ruling that a 1992 state law, which authorized nursing home physicians to make those decisions on their own, violates patients constitutional rights. Those rights, Grillo said in a decision in June, include deciding their own course of treatment if possible either personally or through a surrogate, if they have one and seeking court review of the nursing homes decisions. Patients at risk Grillo suspended enforcement of his Jan. 27 order for two months to give the state Department of Public Health time to implement the decision or to appeal it. The department declined to comment, but a lawyer for the California Association of Health Facilities, which represents nursing homes, said Friday it would appeal. We believe that the judgment in this case puts patients without a decision-maker at risk for receiving the care and treatment that they need, said attorney Mark Reagan. As many as 10,000 nursing home patients in California have been declared incompetent, with no family members or others designated to represent them, and could be affected by the ruling, said Mort Cohen, a Golden Gate University law professor who argued the lawsuit on behalf of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. The ruling ensures that health care decisions will be made by residents themselves unless a court is convinced they cant, Cohen said, adding that the ruling was the first of its kind in the nation and could be a model for other states with similar laws. But he said the advocacy group may appeal another part of Grillos ruling. While striking down sections of the 1992 law that allowed nursing home physicians to make certain decisions for patients they had found incompetent, the judge preserved the doctors authority under the law to make the initial finding that a patient lacked competence and had not authorized a surrogate decision-maker. Competent or not? Cohen said doctors sometimes ignore evidence that a patient is competent or has a designated surrogate. He noted that the doctor who makes the competency decision can also be a member of the nursing homes interdisciplinary team that reviews the decision. But Grillo said a state appeals court had upheld that provision of the law in 1995 on the grounds that the competency decision could be challenged in court. The suit, filed in 2013, cited the case of a Placer County man who was judged incompetent by his doctor and was fed through a tube at the doctors direction. When nursing home staff members asked him if he wanted to live or die and he did not answer, they disconnected the tube, revoked an order for life-sustaining care and sent him to a hospice, where he died two months later, the suit said. The law has allowed nursing home doctors and staffs to make such end-of-life decisions for the patients, irrespective of the patients instructions, Grillo said. Patients not consulted Likewise, he said, doctors are allowed to administer antipsychotic drugs to nursing home patients without determining their wishes or notifying them that they have been found incompetent. The ruling will likely create problems for many nursing homes, the judge said, but the rights of their patients are more compelling. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko Ballston Spa A Wilton woman charged with stealing credit card numbers from customers at two different jobs five months apart pleaded guilty to identify theft in one of the cases and was sent to county jail. Molly L. Dutrow, 21, who also goes by the name Catherine Dutrow, pleaded guilty Thursday in Saratoga County Court to second-degree identity theft, a felony, according to District Attorney Karen Heggen. Sentencing is scheduled for March 24, Heggen said. Police last summer accused Dutrow of stealing credit card numbers while working as a food server at Lillian's Restaurant in Saratoga Springs, and using the information to buy goods for herself. Authorities didn't place a value on the losses, but one officer said Dutrow made 12 unauthorized transactions costing more than $600 on one customer's card. Five months after that, Dutrow was arrested and charged with second-degree identity theft and second-degree criminal impersonation, a misdemeanor, according to police. In that case, Dutrow illegally obtained a customer's credit card number while working in a shipping and packaging supply company in Saratoga Springs and used that card's numbers to purchase more than $650 worth of items online, according to police. Dutrow's attorney, Jake Hogan III, could not be reached for comment. Due to the latest charges, county Judge James A. Murphy III on Thursday revoked Dutrow's bail for violating the terms of her release and sent her to county jail pending her next court appearance for the December arrest, Heggen said. dyusko@timesunion.com 518-454-5353 @DAYusko WASHINGTON A police groups proposal that law enforcement officers be required to do more than whats minimally required by law in violent encounters has spurred anger and pushback from leading national groups representing chiefs and rank-and-file sworn officers. The Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based think tank, last week unveiled its 30 new principles that re-envision how officers use force after national outrage over questionable shootings and violent arrests initially sparked by the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, police in 2014. Since then, incidents from New York to Texas often caught on bystander or police camera have resulted in soul-searching among officers as a wary public recoils from the violence thats sometimes inherent in policing and frequently permitted by law. A federal judge in San Francisco has dealt another blow to antiabortion activists who infiltrated national meetings of abortion providers, saying they used fraud to gain access, failed to uncover any illegal activity and are prohibited from making public any of the recordings or other information they obtained. David Daleiden and his colleagues at the Center for Medical Progress, posing as executives of a fetal research company, repeatedly tried to trap members of the National Abortion Federation into expressing interest in illegally selling fetal tissue, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said late Friday in an injunction against Daleidens group. Orrick said members of the group, in conversations they secretly recorded, used words like profit and top dollar and quoted abortion providers as expressing interest but never found a single instance of anyone agreeing to sell fetal tissue for profit. Despite Daleidens claims that he uncovered lawbreaking, the judge said, there is no such evidence in (the) recordings, but considerable evidence of deception by the antiabortion group. Judge cites rising threats The activists created a fake company and lied to gain access to NAFs annual meetings, where they signed promises to keep everything they learned confidential, Orrick said. Since Daleidens organization released its first group of edited videos in July of its meetings with Planned Parenthood members some of whom they had initially contacted at the National Abortion Federation meetings there has been a dramatic increase in the volume and extent of threats to and harassment of NAF and its members, Orrick said. A grand jury in Texas has charged Daleiden and another antiabortion activist, Sandra Merritt, with falsifying government documents, the fake California drivers licenses they used to pose as researchers and gain access to Planned Parenthood offices. Daleiden is also charged with trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood. Merritt accompanied him to the National Abortion Federation meetings and is a defendant in the San Francisco case. Orricks ruling shows what a fraud this was from the very beginning, said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation. The judge draws a direct line between their fraudulent campaign and the subsequent unprecedented escalation in hate speech and threats against abortion providers. The Center for Medical Progress will appeal Orricks ruling, said attorney Catherine Short of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. She said Daleidens group has never publicly released any recordings from the NAF meetings, although, with Orricks permission, it has provided some information to members of Congress. Extending restraining order The injunction extends a restraining order Orrick issued last July barring disclosure of recordings and other information Daleiden and his colleagues obtained at the abortion federations meetings in San Francisco in 2014 and Baltimore in 2015. Injunctions, unlike restraining orders, can be appealed to higher courts. Daleiden has argued that the activists were acting as investigative journalists and had the right, under the First Amendment, to gain access to the meetings and expose the wrongdoing they uncovered. Orrick acknowledged the importance of the First Amendment, a keystone of our Constitution and our democracy, but said any free-speech rights Daleidens group could assert in this case were outweighed by the abortion providers rights to safety and privacy. So far, Orrick said, the products of the Center for Medical Progresss project have not been pieces of journalistic integrity, but misleadingly edited videos and unfounded assertions (at least with respect to the NAF materials) of criminal conduct. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko Hancock Fabrics was scheduled to liquidate 70 stores including its Carlisle Crossing location beginning Feb. 8, as part of bankruptcy filings started earlier this month. The national fabric and sewing supply retailer made its initial Chapter 11 submissions Feb. 2 in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, with Judge Brendan Shannon presiding. Hancock currently operates 263 stores in 37 states, with an average of 13,000 square feet per store, according to written testimony from the companys Chief Administrative Officer, Dennis Lyons. Hancock has 4,522 employees, the vast majority of which are involved in in-store retail operations. The company also owns a warehouse, manufacturing facility, and corporate headquarters in Baldwyn, Mississippi. The loss of Hancock will be the third recent departure for the Carlisle Crossing shopping center, following last years closing of Old Navy and the ongoing liquidation of Pier 1 Imports. The strip mall, located on Westminster Drive near Interstate 81, is owned by real estate capital firm Vereit and is leased by Bennett Williams. Representatives from either company were unavailable as of press time. The Carlisle location was open for less than a year, having debuted in the spring of 2015. However, the boom-bust cycle of retail since 2008 is not an unexpected trend. Not that long ago, Carlisle had two malls that were almost dead, said Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Michelle Crowley. All of the sudden, we went from nothing to having a lot, and now I think were going to see some equalization. According to Lyons filing, Hancocks revenue for 2015 is estimated to come out to $269 million, down five percent from the $283 million posted in 2014. Critically, holiday sales which make up half of Hancocks annuals sales have seen an ongoing slide and came in this past year at $8 million below forecasts, Lyons wrote. The dismal performance, Lyons wrote, was due to a very challenging retail environment as well as significantly increasing costs related to the companys pension obligations for its retirees. The company filed for bankruptcy and successfully reorganized once before, in 2007, citing similar circumstances. Although the company shifted current employees to 401(k) plans in 2008, Hancock still has defined-benefit pension obligations for previous retirees. According to Lyons, pension costs rose $4 million in 2014 alone to roughly $107 million, while anticipated under-funding grew from $28.4 million to $43.8 million. Hancock has secured bridge financing from a group of creditors led by Wells Fargo. However, the company said it was necessary to immediately liquidate 70 stores a list that included Carlisle both to generate cash flows and to get under-performing assets off Hancocks balance sheet in anticipation of marketing the company for a full-scale buyout. Management ultimately determined that 70 stores should be immediately closed and GOB [going out of business] sales conducted with the assistance of a national liquidation firm in order to reduce outstanding debt and focus the company on a smaller but higher margin store base, Lyons testified. The Great American Group will serve as Hancocks liquidator, with operations to right size the companys footprint to begin Monday, according to court documents. The liquidations are expected to generate $30 million in cash to help pay outstanding obligations, including roughly $88 million in secured debt and liens, as well as over $21 million in outstanding vendor invoices. Beginning in October 2015, Hancock solicited 69 potential buyers for the failing company, Lyons wrote. But no formal interest was garnered, with the need to rationalize costs and the store base to create smaller, more profitable core group of stores and the legacy liabilities and leveraged capital structure encumbering the company cited as reasons for not making an offer. Still, the company is actively engaged in trying to cultivate interest in a going concern sale of substantially all of the companys assets, which would include the 193 stores not slated for immediate liquidation. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Luisa Buada remembers arriving at the Natividad County Hospital in Salinas with a farmworker who was about to give birth. Buada often cared for such women those who lacked health insurance and spoke little English in the hospital parking lot until their babies crowned and the medical staff couldnt turn them away. This time Buada took her inside immediately because the woman sensed something was wrong. But they were sent back out. The baby died, Buada said. Its been 40 years, but she tells the story because, even though hospitals can no longer dump patients without insurance, countless people still lack access to health care. And the potential consequences of untreated conditions are the same: If not death, then job loss or failure at school, which in turn harm families and the broader economy. Ending cycle of poverty Buada is changing that equation. And her success is changing the lives of tens of thousands of people. On the surface, the solution is simple: Put a high-quality clinic with comprehensive medical services in low-income communities where they are needed. Its about community health. Raising people out of poverty, Buada said. People not having what they need that leads to cycles of poverty. And if you can change that, you can change the trajectory of peoples lives. How Buada has brought clinics to life not once, but four times is why she is a finalist for the 2016 Visionary of the Year Award sponsored by The Chronicle and the School of Economics and Business Administration at St. Marys College. Beautys healing power The Ravenswood Family Health Clinic in East Palo Alto is nothing short of beautiful, with soaring ceilings, framed art and tapestries on the walls, and a full palette of colors that suggest youre at a museum, not at the doctor. Beauty can be healing, said Buada, the clinics chief executive, who chose much of the art for the recently renovated clinic at a white elephant sale in Oakland. Many pieces reflect ethnic motifs of the people the clinic serves: Pacific Islanders. Latinos. African Americans. Health is not only about medicine and pills, she said. Its about well-being. More than 14,300 people are signed up for care at Ravenswood. Some are homeless. Most are poor. With an operating budget of $26 million, the clinic offers a kaleidoscope of services, including general medicine, pediatrics, womens health, dentistry, eye care and mental health therapy. Patients pay what they can afford. Before Ravenswood, Buada founded or developed clinics in the Salinas Valley, Watsonville and Berkeley. She didnt come from wealth. But she came from determination. In 1942, California still had laws against biracial marriages. So Laurine Perrott, a white nurse from Arkansas, and John Buada, a Filipino immigrant working in the Naval shipyards, married in another state. They returned to San Franciscos Bayview neighborhood, where they lived separately lest either lose their job. My parents were great examples of resourceful people who had gone through the Depression and never let anything get in their way, said Buada, 62, one of five siblings. Obstacles were there to be overcome. Influenced by her Catholic upbringing to live a principled life and do unto others, Buada joined the farmworkers movement in the Central Valley and helped organize food and clothing drives during the grape boycott started by Cesar Chavez. She came of age as anti-Vietnam War sentiment swelled alongside the Civil Rights movement, prompting an era of hope for social justice. Support for rural care I felt very compelled to make the world a better place, said Buada, who counts Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., the Kennedy brothers and several teachers among those who influenced her thinking. By 1978, when the United Farm Workers closed its clinic in Salinas, Buada had a nursing degree from UCSF and brought her sterile gloves to the county hospital parking lot to help those who were being turned away. Shed already been inspired by the idea of universal health care. Shed seen it in Cuba, where shed traveled with state health experts. Buada began pushing for funding for rural clinics. And she organized supporters, raised $3,600, and in 1980 resuscitated the shuttered farmworkers clinic which today is a network of eight clinics serving thousands. But her idea was bigger. If good health could fight poverty, she wanted more clinics. Shed received her masters in public health policy and administration from UC Berkeley. Yet today she says her most valuable tool is a simple list of whats needed. You make a list, and you cross each thing off your list, Buada said. And if I cant do it, I can find someone who has the resources who can. Transforming lives Its worked. Buadas accomplishments over 36 years include rescuing a failing Watsonville clinic, Salud Para la Gente, which thrives today; creating the Berkeley Primary Care Access Clinic; and, since arriving at Ravenswood in 2002, a year after the tiny East Palo Alto clinic opened with 13 employees, helping transform it into the modern medical center it is today complete with a library branch and a weekly farmers market. Her vision is about providing affordable, accessible health care to people in at-risk communities, said Zhan Li, dean of the business school at St. Marys. Her work and leadership have impacted the health and well-being of many people. Her work really exemplifies the spirit of the Visionary of the Year award. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov Visionary of the Year award This is one of eight profiles of nominees for The Chronicles second annual Visionary of the Year award, which is presented in collaboration with St. Marys Colleges School of Economics and Business Administration. The honor salutes leaders who strive to make the world a better place and drive social and economic change by employing new, innovative business models and practices. The eight finalists were nominated by a distinguished committee that included Evan Marwell, CEO and co-founder of the nonprofit group Education SuperHighway; Pam Baer, founder and CEO of For Goodness Sake, a nonprofit foundation that created an e-commerce site to connect consumers with curated brands and nonprofits; Ron Conway, an angel investor and philanthropist; Ben Fong-Torres, a noted rock journalist, author and broadcaster; Pamela Joyner, founder of the strategic marketing consulting company Avid Partners LLC; Zhan Li, dean of St. Marys School of Economics and Business Administration; and John Diaz, The Chronicles editorial page editor. Chronicle Publisher Jeff Johnson, Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper and Diaz will select the winner, which will be announced during a March 29 ceremony. To read more, go to www.sfgate.com/visionsf. A man was shot and killed in Vallejo Saturday morning after what police are calling a confrontation in front of a fast food restaurant. According to Vallejo Police Lt. Kevin Bartlett, the drivers of two vehicles near the intersection of Springs Rd. and Heartwood Ave. in Vallejo had a "confrontation" and shots were fired into one of the vehicles shortly before noon. When it comes to purchasing a car, consumers can research what is important to them, whether that be safety standards, miles per gallon or price. The same could be, and for a number of area officials, should be the same when it comes to shopping for health care. Almost all officials agree that the more health care-literate the consumer, the better the results could be for them to find the right hospital for the right procedure. How people become more literate in health care, however, is a matter of discussion. An increasing number of websites boast their own hospital rankings that compare hospitals across the state and nation based on varying methodologies. A review of websites shows there is no shortage of organizations with their own lists: Leapfrog has letter ratings for hospitals with a focus on safety. U.S. News & World Report has hospital rankings by region and nation. Truven Health Analytics has a 100 Top Hospitals list. Axial Engagement and Beckers Hospital Review has patient engagement hospital rankings. The Joint Commission grants Top Performer on key quality measures. HealthInsight ranks area hospitals. the Pennsylvania Healthcare Cost Containment Council offers updates on hospitals based on costs sand safety. Delta Groups CareChex has a hospital rating database. American Nurse Credentialing Centers Magnet Recognition Program recognizes hospitals for nursing. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offers Hospital Compare data and the results of its Hospital Consumer Assessment Healthcare Providers Hospital Survey, which many of the above mentioned websites use in their own rankings. We would say in the past 5 to 10 years, theres definitely been a growth in nationally based hospital comparison websites, said Michael Consuelos, senior vice president of clinical integration at The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. They range from federal like CMS Hospital Compare to other organizations with a good penetration, like Leapfrog. Other organizations were not so sure that their methodologies are. We warn people that some comparisons are almost pay-to-play sites, where if they buy ads, theyll get a good rating. We do spend a lot of time tracking the various ratings, said Amy Helmuth, director of performance improvement at PinnacleHealth. A lot of them are tied to using the same data sources but use different time frames and have their own methodologies. Its all a reflection of quality. The number of sites is also a benefit in the trend of health care data available at the fingertips of consumers. Its important for people in our community caregivers and patients to be more health literate, Consuelos said. And I think this is a way for us to engage the community in a discussion. Consuelos noted that before the existence of some of these sites, health care data were not readily or easily available to the public. The websites have become more and more consumer friendly, he said. The federal website, Hospital Compare, when it started was a little difficult to understand and make sense of what the different ratings meant. Now its a star rating that is easy to interpret. Previously it was more aligned for raw data. Consuelos also added that when U.S. News & World Report first started its reports, the information was not based on data but rather based on reputation. You only knew information in certain areas or certain specialties. You didnt know much about what local hospitals are doing with certain things. Also, early on, a large part of their score was not necessarily based on outcomes or patient safety records. It was based on reputation, he added, noting that those rankings have since changed to reflect data. Erica Mobley, director of communications and development with Leapfrog, said the organizations ranking is different from others out there, and the more websites there are with public information, the better. There are some people who say there are too many out there, but the more information you can get, the better it is, she said. I dont think people shouldnt underestimate the intelligence of consumers. People should be able to access all of the information they want, she added. More information is better than no information. Confusion The websites, however, are not without their drawbacks. Consuelos emphasized that consumers should go to a site, or multiple sites that are trustworthy. He admits, however, that it can be confusing. One of the issues at hand with many websites is the sometimes contradictory information they show. A hospital can have an excellent overall ranking on one website, but be labeled as deficient in safety or for certain procedures. Sometimes one sites overall rating or ranking does not reflect what another site shows. HealthInsight has Carlisle Regional Medical Center has having the highest overall ranking with a weighted grade for how often hospitals give recommended treatments known for best results, but U.S. News & World Report does not even rank CRMC, whereas Holy Spirit Hospital, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, PinnacleHealth and Chambersburg are all regionally ranked. When other organizations use different combinations, weights and timeframes of (CMS) data, it can lead to variations in scores for the same hospital, according to a written statement from CRMC officials. Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council Executive Director Joseph Martin noted that these changes can also be due to what data is being used for the rating. For example, many only measure patients over 65 because the Medicare data is all thats available to them. But we use all cases, he said. In the case of discrepancies, its a matter of being vigilant with knowing what information is used and how it is used to get the rankings. We warn consumers about sites where you dont completely understand what the differences really are, Consuelos said of star ratings on sites. There are definitely nuances, and I wouldnt say its easy to figure out, but its important and people are committed to finding information, Mobley said. I cant think of anything more serious than finding a good hospital. Many health officials also took issue with the one problem of almost all hospital ranking sites the data used is old. All of this information is historical, Consuelos said. The analysis I usually give is its like youre driving using your rearview mirror. Its only retrospective, and you can be dealing with information thats as old as two years in some cases. Youre making decisions today for your health care based on old data. We hate to disparage one report over another, but almost all of them are dated, said Dr. Joseph Torchia, chief medical officer of Holy Spirit Hospital. The Department of Health puts out a very nice report, but thats also with old data. We mine this data internally and we mine it almost concurrently. Some of this data we can get weekly or monthly. Consuelos noted that the data is also limited in what it can show. Websites rarely go to the physician level unless they are only patient feedback on sites like Yelp where it can be anonymous and not necessarily truthful. The data, while sometimes risk-adjusted on trustworthy sites, also often does not consider the socio-economic background of the patients visiting certain hospitals. You have people coming from an unhealthy environment and going back to an unhealthy environment, Consuelos said, adding that this tends to reflect poorly in readmission ratings for hospitals and medical centers without an explanation as to why on the ratings. In the end, health officials suggested that health ratings be used as a first step in a discussion about treatment options. Its all relevant in some way, but not to a particular person, Helmuth said. Its difficult for ratings to capture the complexity of health care. We recommend patients talk to their provider to get a good understanding. There are several organizations that provide online data measures about hospitals. In addition to these resources, we recommend patients consider all available tools at their disposal when making decisions about care, such as talking with friends and family, and consulting with doctors, nurses and other health care providers, CRMC said in its release. Its helpful to have a conversation with your physician, Consuelos said. Sometimes your choice is limited to what the insurance covers, what is in-network or out-of-network. In general, patients should have conversations about outcomes with their physicians. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON Federal and state officials in California and Oregon said Tuesday that they had reached an agreement to bypass Congress to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River to solve a chronic water dispute among farmers, fishermen and American Indian tribes. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, an ardent environmentalist who represents parts of the river basin, said the demolitions of the four dams combined would constitute the largest such dam removal project yet. Its a big deal, but its also something they have to do, Huffman said, referring to state and federal officials and PacifiCorp, the utility that owns the dams. The dams have wrecked a really significant salmon and steelhead river that sustains communities and tribes that I represent. The dam removals had been part of a major settlement among water users in the Klamath Basin in Northern California and southern Oregon that was reached after more than eight years of complex and contentious negotiations. The pact was widely considered a model for resolving water disputes. Congress needed to sign off on the deal last year, but the GOP-led House failed to act because Republicans widely oppose dam removals. Now, California, Oregon, PacifiCorp, federal agencies and Klamath tribes will ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to decommission the dams. If the commission, which oversees hydropower, acts, farmers, a key GOP constituency on water issues, may not get the same assurances of water and power deliveries they had secured under the original settlement. The parties to the new agreement said they hoped to find ways to accommodate irrigators. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell called the new plan an important initial step as we work toward a comprehensive set of actions to advance the long-term progress and sustainability for tribes, fisheries and water users across the Klamath Basin. The Klamath conflict drew national attention when federal agencies in a 2001 drought cut water deliveries to farmers, who then threatened to use force to restore them. The George W. Bush administration reversed course the following year, leading to a massive fish die-off. The cost of the dam removals could be as high as $500 million. Gov. Jerry Browns administration has already set aside $250 million for Californias share. Oregon, PacifiCorp and the federal agencies would chip in. The four dams are used mainly to generate electricity rather than store water. The oldest was built in 1918. Dams were built throughout the West in the past century to provide power and store water for farmers and cities, but they create immense environmental damage, particularly to fish. PacifiCorp faced a daunting relicensing process that would have required constructing fish ladders and other alterations that could have cost nearly as much as removing the dams. Local tribes that saw the water guarantees under the original deal as too generous to farmers have united behind the new plan, Huffman said. Huffman said removal is not going to be cheap but opponents face an uphill fight. When you have the owner of the dams and the two states where dams exist and the key federal agencies all going shoulder to shoulder and requesting decommissioning, thats pretty good news for those who want dam removal and river restoration, Huffman said. And I think its a pretty tall order for those who want to find a way to stop it. The new plan is an agreement-in-principle among the two states, the Interior Department and PacifiCorp that will be made final by Feb. 29, proponents said in a statement. The plan would then be submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for public comment. If approved, PacifiCorp would transfer ownership of the dams to a non-federal agency that would remove the dams in 2020. Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. E-mail: clochhead@sfchronicle.com Vatican City Pope Francis will make a surprise trip to Cuba on Feb. 12 for a historic meeting with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first meeting between a pope and the Russian patriarch since the eastern and western branches of Christianity split nearly 1,000 years ago, the Vatican announced Friday. For Francis, the meeting is the result of delicate and sustained diplomacy, some of which began decades ago under Pope John Paul II, and it is another important milestone in his efforts to reconcile the Roman Catholic Church with Eastern Orthodox churches. The breakthrough also highlights Francis' ties to Cuba, as President Raul Castro "was involved in organizing the meeting," said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, at a news conference. "The encounter has been under preparation for a long time it wasn't improvised," Lombardi said. He said discussions had been underway "for at least two years," and the fact that both leaders planned to be in Latin America created the possibility of a "neutral place" for a meeting. Francis was already planning to travel to Mexico next Friday for a six-day visit. Now, his plane will stop at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, where the pope and Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, are expected to hold a private, two-hour meeting. The two men will then release a joint declaration before Francis continues to Mexico City. Kirill was already scheduled to be in Cuba for an official visit. The pace of reconciliation between Russia, the largest country in the world, and the Vatican, the smallest, has been swift. The two agreed to establish formal diplomatic relations only at the end of 2009, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia met Francis in June 2015 in what was seen as a break of Russia's isolation from the West over the crisis in Ukraine. Since the beginning of his papacy in 2013, Francis has worked to reconcile divisions in Christianity that trace to the Great Schism of 1054, which formally divided the Eastern and Western churches. Francis already has ties to other Orthodox leaders, especially with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, considered the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians. But the Russian Orthodox Church has long resisted overtures from the Vatican. John Paul II tried but failed to arrange a meeting with its leaders, and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, also did not meet the patriarch. Much of the friction seems to have been the product of a territorial dispute, as Russian Orthodox leaders have accused the Roman Catholic Church of proselytizing in Russia and Ukraine, effectively encroaching on Orthodox turf. Even in announcing the meeting, the Russian Patriarchate said in a statement on its website that differences over church policy in Ukraine remained a "bleeding wound." In a separate statement, issued jointly by the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy See A joint statement expressed delight over the meeting, calling it "an important stage in relations between the two churches." Both parties hoped the event will be seen as "a sign of hope for all people," the statement said. The Russian church also cited in its statement the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa as an incentive to try to heal past divisions. "It is necessary to put aside internal disagreements and unite efforts for saving Christianity in the regions where it is subjected to the most severe persecution," the statement read. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY When Chief Al Baker retires from the Danbury Police Department in June, he will leave behind an agency much different than when he was hired in 2005. Back then, the police station on the corner of Boughton and Main streets was deteriorating and increasingly undersized. The 1970 building, designed to accommodate about 75 officers, already had nearly 150 cops. But the departments state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2009 on the corner of Main and East Franklin streets was one of many changes during Bakers tenure. Among them was a civilian dispatch center that opened at the police headquarters last year, a restructuring of the departments command staff and several technology-based projects that he spearheaded. Its a completely different department today than when I walked in in 2005, Baker said. And I think thats good. Its much better... When I got here, we were still using black-and-white film cameras to do mug shots. Under Bakers leadership, every officer received a stun gun, cruisers got new laptops, some now have built-in cameras and at least 10 officers got body cameras. Baker, 61, came to Danbury from Wisconsin, where he worked for 30 years. He will retire June 10, just two days before his wifes birthday. Throughout these 41 years, my wife and my family have been incredibly supportive of my career, he said. And were facing some personal changes in our lives and I want to return the favor by being incredibly supportive of my family. Baker and his wife recently became grandparents and they plan to move back to Wisconsin to spend more time with their grandchildren. Mayor Mark Boughton credited Baker with launching programs that he said helped Danbury become one of the safest cities in the state. The chief has been a strong partner with my office and has really done a great job in bringing the department into the 21st century, Boughton said. Shortly after Baker came to Danbury, he restructured the agencys command staff, which he said was one of several mandates he had to implement. Through attrition, he cut the number of captains in half, from six to three; reduced the number of lieutenants and increased the number of sergeants. Boughton expects to interview candidates in March and make a recommendation to the City Council in April. The goal is for the new chief to spend a few weeks working alongside Baker. The mayor said officers from Danbury and other departments who are qualified should apply for the job. Were walking into this with an open mind, he said. Sgt. David Cooney, president of the local police union, said the union hopes the next chief wont be an outsider. As a union, were hoping the promotion comes from within our ranks, Cooney said. This way, it would make the transition easier and help the department move forward. Some of the challenges the new chief will face include a potential requirement that every officer wear a body camera and an ongoing staff shortage caused by what Baker described as a generational shift, since several members of the department are due to retire. In 2015, there were 13 retirements and about 35 others are eligible for retirement this year. Applications for the chiefs position are due by March 3. Candidates must have a bachelors degree in criminal justice, public administration, criminology or a related discipline; at least 10 years of experience in law enforcement and five years in a leadership or management role. The annual salary ranges from $120,000 to $130,000, plus benefits. Baker also chose to retire in June so he can march at Danburys Memorial Day parade in May one last time. I always enjoyed that, he said. Its a nice show of community. Its a nice show of patriotism, a show of support for veterans. I wanted to be sure I had that opportunity one more time just because the mayor, the City Council and the entire community have been so supportive of my tenure, Baker added. I truly feel blessed. Ive had a very good run and its largely because of that support. noliveira@newstimes.com, 203-731-3411, @olivnelson While hospital ratings are meant for public consumption, whether that be consumers or employers, they can also be used by hospitals themselves. Erica Mobley, director of communications and development with Leapfrog, which ranks hospitals nationally with lettered Safety Scores, said an organizations score has become important to a number of health systems. The score has gotten a lot of media attention, she said. We know of a lot of hospitals that are very, very concerned with the Safety Score. There is a very large health system where the Safety Score is tied to executive compensation. Amy Helmuth, director of performance improvement at PinnacleHealth, said the health system tracks all of the various ratings. Though there is still a debate as to how each rating system gets its results, Helmuth noted that its all a reflection of quality. Its a lot of effort for us to keep up with the various ratings and requirements, and we do our best to learn from each one of them and make it meaningful for us, she said. We do submit (Leapfrogs survey). Were one of the few in our area who do fill out the length survey about 82 pages long of questions. We started doing it years ago. It shows us what they are recommending as best practices. We do feel that filling it out has been helpful to us. Helmuth said PinnacleHealth can look at those ratings and see if there is any room for improvement, but she and Dr. Joseph Torchia, chief medical officer for Holy Spirit Hospital, noted that the health systems complete their own internal reviews. Torchia criticized rating sites for their reliance on historical data and almost all public sites only have access to older data due to the availability and process time involved with analyzing data provided from hospitals. However, health systems can do their own reviews and investigations more quickly and be more up-to-date on their own performance measures. Whats important for reports is that we look at dates that is as timely as it can be, Torchia said. We can get the data, almost a couple days after something happens. We do use this as an opportunity to do our own internal DAP analysis, Helmuth explained. While the health systems find the ratings useful for reflection and potentially useful for consumers, they did note that there are better options than others when it comes to reliable information. Carlisle Regional Medical Center does not participate in the Leapfrog survey and opts instead to submit public data to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for its Hospital Compare website, whose data is widely used among many of the rating websites. Many of these measures track practices which support the best possible patient outcomes, CRMC spokeswoman Carolyn Moore said of CMS data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), from which many other organizations pull data, is the national standard for measuring quality of care and patient safety along with performance improvement. Torchia said Holy Spirit uses the National Quality Forum to set standards for health care, and it focuses on The Joint Commission as a valuable resource for information. The Joint Commission has information on what each hospital is certified to do, as well as label some Top Performers on certain key measures, such as care for stroke or heart attack patients. The end came violently Monday night into Tuesday morning when the center part of the stone wall at Camp Michaux collapsed into a heap of rubble. The freezing and thawing of melting snow from Winter Storm Jonas destroyed much of what remains of the 200-plus-year-old barn that once stood on the Bunker Hill Farm. As sad as it is, it is not a surprise, said Andre Weltman, chairman of the Friends of Pine Grove Furnace State Park. The wall has been leaning and curving badly for a number of years. Its very sad to lose that piece of our heritage, he added. Many generations of visitors have seen that structure. Some were here involuntarily. It was a beloved piece of history on this corner of the mountain. Now its gone. For years, local historian David Smith has led walking tours of this part of South Mountain that once hosted farms in support of the early iron industry, a Civilian Conservation Corps site, a prisoner-of-war interrogation center and a local church camp. Bunker Hill was one of three farms that operated close together and provided food for iron industry workers during the early years of post-Revolutionary War America, Smith said. He added the barn wall was probably built between 1800 and 1805. It was just one more feature in the historical landscape that gave evidence of what was going on in the history of South Mountain, Smith said. The wall has been in really bad shape for a very long time. The cracks were getting deeper and the bowing of the wall was getting more extreme. It was just a matter of time. Nobody was hurt when the wall collapsed. In 2011, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources installed a split-rail fence around the wall to keep the public from getting too close, Weltman said. The problem with masonry structures is once they start to deteriorate, they can fall suddenly with no warning. The violence of the collapse is clearly evident in the pattern of the rubble. Weltman noticed how the topmost stones came within a few inches of hitting the fence. I credit DCNR Bureau of Forestry for trying to protect the public. Not only did the agency put up a fence as a barrier, it removed three large spruce trees growing near the wall. Some believe the tree roots may have helped to destabilize the foundation and add to the risk of a collapse, Smith said. He added the remains of the wall and the rubble pile will continue to be a stop in his walking tour. Just because it is down doesnt mean we cant talk about it, Smith said. Both men would prefer that the Bureau of Forestry leave the rubble pile alone because, in their opinion, there really is no reason to remove it. The split rail fence survived the collapse and continues to serve as a barrier warning the public not to get too close to the remaining corner columns of the stone wall. Smith believes the two columns remain intact because the corners of buildings tend to be of stronger construction. The presence of a first floor window helps to identify what remains as a barn. Both men agree the time had come and gone to do anything to preserve or restore the wall without putting workers at risk. It came to the point where it was too late, Weltman said. We were there by 2011. While local lore maintains the barn that was built by Hessian prisoners, there is no evidence in the historical record supporting that theory, Weltman said. The barn was part of what was called the Bunker Hill Farm and later known as the Gardner farm, according to records kept at the Cumberland County Historical Society. It was later one of the buildings of what became CCC Camp Michaux that opened under President Roosevelts New Deal initiative. About 200 young men occupied the camp at any given time and were employed to do road projects, plant trees and make general improvements to the area. The area served as POW interrogation center during World War II housing mostly German and Italian military personnel. Smith said the area behind the wall once had a metal Quonset hut the guards used to stable horses. The camp came under control of the state in the early 1970s and most of the buildings were demolished. There are no records to explain what happened to the rest of the barn or how or when it was removed. The barn and former Camp Michaux are now entirely on state forest land. The state Bureau of Forestry plans to bring in a structural engineer as soon as possible to evaluate the condition of the remaining corner columns of the barn, District Forester Roy Brubaker said Wednesday. The goal would be to determine if the columns are stable enough to remain standing or if it is better to knock them down. Based on his preliminary review of photographs from the scene, the fence did its job of containing debris from the wall collapse though the split rail may have been damaged by some of the rubble, Brubaker said. He added it is unlikely the state agency would order the removal of the rubble from the site. That area of South Mountain has the remnants of other building foundations that tell a story about local history and how nature can reclaim the landscape, Brubaker said. Aside from keeping the public away from an unstable wall, the fence also served as a barrier preventing visitors from getting too close to copperhead snakes who were nesting in the stone structure. It is likely the rubble will continue to serve as a habitat for these reptiles which will sun themselves on the debris and hunt rodents nesting in the rocks, Brubaker said. One goal of the Bureau of Forestry is to encourage the development of habitat for snakes that are an important part of the ecosystem of South Mountain. The Iowa caucus brings out the evangelical in all Republican candidates. After all, previous winners include Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, two candidates who exclusively appealed to evangelical voters (and pretty much no one else). In Iowa, the most devout and outwardly preachy Republicans get the nod. Donald Trump mistakenly thought making up bible verses and quoting two Corinthians at Liberty University would be a sufficient religious test for the Hawkeye State. It clearly wasnthe came in two. Marco Rubio, who won the night by coming in third, has been offering on the stump, America was founded on this powerful principle that our rights dont come from government our rights come from God. Ted Cruz, the official winner of the Iowa caucus this election cycle, repeated this idea in his victory speech Monday. That our rights do not come from the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or even from the tea party. Our rights come from our creator, the first-term Texas Senator said. Its like saying our roads dont come from our tax dollars but from God, or that bridges arent because of engineers theyre from Jehovahor space travel isnt made possible by science and math but by a higher power. Sure, if you believe God is everything, then yes, those statements can be technically true for you. But when it comes to rights, its not some magical mystical nebulous force which gifted us liberty. Rights are something for which humans have fought, struggled and died. Rights are liberties people have demanded and governments have acquiesced. Saying rights are just given to us because an omnipotent force wills it, robs all the notables whove laid down their lives to ensure the rest of us can enjoy personal freedoms. Over 50,000 people posthumously dubbed Americans died in the Revolutionary War. Those men fought for our right to self-rule. This isnt a biblical principle. The governments in the bible are composed of kings and subjectsnot democracies! Obedience is a biblical principle; America was founded by rebels who rejected an indifferent monarch. There were 620,000 Americans who died in the Civil War a war about human rights one side killing and dying to keep their fellow humans as property, the other side killing and dying to liberate them. Telling a crowd of Iowa caucus-goers god just amended our Constitution so that African Americans were no longer three-fifths a person giving them amnesty and full citizenship mocks the blood-soaked struggle our ancestors waged. It sanitizes the brutality of American history with pithy pandering. Suffragettes were arrested and tortured in a battle for the vote that spanned a century. That right was not just bestowed upon the gender the bible views as servants to men. Civil Rights were not just passively given to people in the segregated South. There were activists champions and casualties. There were brave men and women subjected to fire hoses, German Shepherds and batons (or worse). They were kicked down yet they stood back up and demanded their rights again. And again. And again. (And still.) But the worst part of Rubio and Cruz offering this boilerplate baloney is theyre saying God gave us our rights while hoping to take away rights from their fellow (at least in the case of Rubio) Americans. They both want to take away the right to marry whomever you choose a right fought for by courageous regular people ostracized by their government and fellow citizens because of their sexuality. They both want to make women into public incubators, making health-care decisions for them infantilizing a huge swath of the American electorate. Both oppose equal pay for women. They each want to repeal Obamacare which has in it the right to not be turned down by your health insurance for a pre-existing condition. And before you tell yourself these men are really just for, as they claim, religious liberty, they are not. They both have expressed contempt for religions that are not their own, specifically Islam. Rubio wants to shutter mosques and any facility thats being used to radicalize and inspire attacks against the United States, should be a place that we look at, he said on The Kelly File. Cruz wants to deny Muslim refugees sanctuary because their faith. So if youre for your freedom but not for someone elses youre not for freedom. Youre for subordination. Full stop. Dont take the credit away from those whove died for our rights. All of our liberties are stained with blood. And all of our liberties have been opposed by men like Rubio and Cruz men who use faith for obfuscation, camouflaging a backwards agenda. Tina Dupuy is a nationally syndicated columnist and host of the podcast, Cultish. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com. In January, I had the privilege of addressing audiences in observance of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and offered reflections of the civil rights movement based on my military experience. In researching for the talks, I looked for connections with our Carlisle and U.S. Army War College communities. I found that after President Harry Trumans Executive Order 9981 directed the integration of the U.S. Armed Forces in 1948, 15 years later the first African-American officers graduated from the U.S. Army War College in 1963. Coincidentally, that was the same year of the March on Washington that propelled Dr. King to international prominence with his I Have a Dream speech. Given on an Aug. 28 afternoon from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Kings words were inspiration to many and the catalyst for change in the U.S. One can imagine the pride and anticipation of those two officers at their War College graduation in June, and perhaps later, upon seeing the demonstration and hearing Dr. Kings words for equal rights and justice in our nations capital. The story of one of those lesser-known soldiers follows. Otho van Exel was an officer of the New York Army National Guard (NYARNG). Born in the Bahamas, British West Indies, this citizen-soldier served in segregated units during the Second World War. As a guardsman, he served in a series of staff assignments within the 369th Coastal Artillery Regiment (Antiaircraft) (Colored), which deployed to the Asia-Pacific Theater of Operation. After the war, President Trumans Executive Order 9981 declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin. In September 1951, Lt. Col. van Exel began the first of four successive battalion and higher-level commands in the NYARNG. Promoted to colonel in July 1962, he commanded the 187th Artillery Group, headquartered at New Yorks 8th Avenue Brooklyn Armory, immediately before and after his War College attendance. Following his graduation, his fame did not come from combat in Vietnam, but from a battle on American soil. In April 1963, Col. van Exel was a member of the NY Guard delegation to the annual convention of The Adjutants General Association of the United States in New Orleans, Louisiana. When he attempted to register for a room at the Roosevelt Hotel convention site, he was denied lodging because it was a segregated hotel and he was a Negro. National Guard leaders negotiated that van Exel could attend the business and social events, but he would not be allowed to stay overnight in the hotel. This compromise was unacceptable to the New York Gov. Nelson D. Rockefeller, who ordered the withdrawal of the 17-member NY delegation as did, in solidarity, the Adjutant General of Puerto Rico for its 10-member delegation. Appropriately, the Department of Defense directed that the 30 to 35 Army and Air Force active duty officers leave without participating in the convention. The Pentagon also directed the relocation of the convention to nearby Camp Leroy Johnson. Interviewed back in his home state, van Exel shrugged off the affair as normal and said he felt more sorry for the people down South than I do for myself. He would continue to serve in the NY National Guard; he headed a detachment assigned to recruit minorities into its Army National Guard units. Van Exels last entry in the Official Army National Guard Register lists his rank as colonel. His Army War College Alumni record reflects the brevetted promotion to brigadier general upon his 1971 retirement from NYARNG and that he died in 1975. Service in the U.S. military provided great opportunities for van Exel, one of which was attendance at the Army War College here in Carlisle. His experiences affirm that the Army has been ahead of practices in American society and in the vanguard of the civil rights movement. In response to the April 1964 situation in New Orleans, the Adjutant General of New York, Maj. Gen. A.C. OHara declared, Discrimination at its best is a bad thing. But it certainly is even more undesirable when the discrimination is against an officer in uniform who is ready to fight for his country and for the people who are discriminating against him. Fittingly a year after van Exels War College graduation, the new President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, affirming the civil rights of all Americans in and out of uniform. Charles D. Allen, Col., U.S. Army Retired is a Professor, Leadership and Cultural Studies U.S. Army War College. HARRISBURG Attorney General Kathleen Kanes law license will remain suspended after the states highest court on Friday denied her request to have it reinstated while she fights criminal charges of leaking secret grand jury material and lying about it. The courts unanimous rejection could pave the way to an unprecedented vote in the state Senate on whether to remove her from office. A Kane spokesman said the first-term Democrat was disappointed, but not surprised. A Senate vote could happen in the coming weeks after a special committee spent about three months exploring the question of whether Kane could run the 800-employee law enforcement office without a law license. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said senators will discuss the matter when they reconvene in the Capitol next week. Its an important issue, Corman said. Its really unprecedented, so I think it deserves to be addressed. In seeking to have her license reinstated, Kane argued that Justice Michael Eakin should not have participated in the suspension vote because of his involvement in a salacious email scandal. In its one-page order, the Democrat-controlled court said Kane did not seek the recusal of Eakin at the earliest possible time. As a result, the justices said, Kane gave up her ability to object on that basis to the courts unanimous decision in September to suspend her license. Kane has released hundreds of emails, including some that Eakin sent and received through a private email account in the name of John Smith. Eakin, a Republican, has been suspended with pay by his fellow justices while he awaits trial before an ethics court that could result in his being kicked off the bench. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel had argued against lifting Kanes license suspension, telling the justices in a filing last month that she waited too long, and that Eakin did not cast the deciding vote in the 5-0 decision in September. Kane faces perjury and other charges in Montgomery County, with trial currently scheduled for August. The Special Committee on Senate Address voted along party lines last month to hold a floor vote on whether to remove Kane from office if the court denied her request. All four Republicans were in favor and all three Democrats voted no. Kane has argued that the Senates process is not legal, saying the chamber cant kick her out of the elected job unless the House first acts to impeach her. The House also has begun exploring whether to begin an impeachment process. Leaders said that may be taken up in the coming week. Sen. Jay Costa of Allegheny County, the Democratic floor leader, said the impeachment process under consideration in the House was probably the more appropriate route to go, but said his members would talk over the Senate removal proposal next week. Kane, 49, has said she wants to seek re-election this year, but she will face stiff opposition from at least three other Democratic candidates in the primary. The San Francisco Unified School Districts board is poised to expand its Condom Availability Program for high school students into middle schools. The school district no longer offers Algebra I as an eighth-grade course Algebra I has been folded into a two-year, eighth-grade and ninth-grade class that is supposed to be more comprehensive. But the board is ready to bring higher level learning to middle school by handing out condoms to sixth-graders. What could possibly go wrong? Superintendent Richard Carranza backs the proposal to distribute condoms to middle-schoolers in conjunction with a session with a school nurse or social worker to identify risk factors and provide referrals or resources as necessary. The idea, supporters say, is not to encourage pre-teens to have sex, but to make sure that the estimated 5 percent of Ess Eff middle-schoolers who are sexually active protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies. Its not going to be like Mardi Gras, school district Director of Safety and Wellness Kevin Gogin told me. (There will be no floats with school nurses tossing out condoms.) The idea is to allow students to visit a social worker or nurse, who can ascertain if he or she is already sexually active and taking precautions. Everything is confidential unless a social worker sees a problem an adult sexual predator and sees a need to contact Child Protective Services. Reinforcing parents distrust When a middle-schooler is having sexual intercourse presumably not with an adult a nurse or social worker could give the student condoms and useful information. The program has been successful in city high schools, Gogin said. Problem: If 95 percent of middle-schoolers are not having sexual intercourse, why would adults want to establish a social norm of middle-schoolers having sex? (A handout from the district asserts only 5.2 percent of middle-schoolers have had sexual intercourse.) The district points to a study that found that comprehensive sex education delayed the initiation of sex, reduced the number of sexual partners, and increased condom or contraceptive use. OK, I asked: What research is there on middle-school condom distribution programs? There is none. Gogin named another district that might be looking at implementing the same program in its middle schools. That tells me San Francisco is about to conduct a social experiment on other peoples children. I phoned a couple of education reformers to get their take on the program. Men they wanted nothing to do with the controversy. They are concentrating on what they see as the dumbing down of school curricula. I understand. Its not as if I want to write this column, but somebodys gotta do it. I reached Lisa Snell, director of education and child welfare at the libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation. She deftly questioned the age appropriateness of condoms at middle schools. Many parents already distrust public schools, Snell observed, and this program simply reinforces their suspicions. Snell asked, Why even go there? Answer: Because they cant help themselves. Carranza and the school board want parents to trust them on academics, but they dont trust parents whats wrong for their own kids. Snell sees an unnecessary foray from public schools core mission. Parents send their children to public school to learn to read, to compute, and to discover the science behind the world around them. According to SFUSDs own measure, about half of San Francisco students are proficient in math and reading, while half are not. With that mediocre record in an affluent enclave, the district ought to focus on raising student achievement. No trigger event Gogin told me that the condom program would not take away from instructional time. If educators cant teach half of their students math, what makes them think they can teach seventh-graders sexual responsibility? I asked Gogin if something happened to propose condom giveaways at middle school. The answer is no. The district was aware that some middle-school students are sexually active. Sadly, there have been pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in middle schools, but no one event triggered the policy change. Thats the problem with San Francisco elected officials are always pushing the envelope, when nobody asked them to. Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DebraJSaunders What parental rights? Parents have no right to opt their children out of any condom program, according to San Francisco Unified District Director of Safety and Wellness Kevin Gogin, who cites state law. He sent me a link to information from the Adolescent Health Working Group. Heres the gist: A minor may receive birth control without parental consent. (California Family Code 6925.) A minor may consent to medical care related to the prevention or treatment of pregnancy except sterilization. California Family Code 6925.) Mortgage adviser: Carlos Rivera. Property: Single-family home in Stockton. Price: $230,000. First loan amount: $221,950. First loan terms: FHA 30-year fixed rate, 5.125 percent in order to cover closing costs. Backstory: Five years later, the Great Recessions lingering hangover continues. Referrals after a series of rejections led a Stockton couple to First California loan officer Carlos Rivera. The pairs woes date back to 2005, when they helped a relative buy a home. The housing market continued degrading until it buckled under its own weight. Stockton arguably suffered worse than any other city in the nation during the financial collapse, which only squeezed the family harder. A foreclosure on the home they helped buy for family crippled the couples credit. By the time they reached Rivera, they expressed little to no hope of getting help. Rivera went over their credit, income and assets to weigh their options. The couple could once again own a home, but theyd need to tackle a mountain of paperwork. They agreed to the plan and three days later received a packet with the relevant loan documents, as well as detailed letters about their circumstances and current employment. The letters also indicated that they were in a much better position and ready to purchase a home for their kids. Riveras team of underwriters was able to understand the couples complex credit and income situation. Shortly afterward, a conditional approval for financing was in place and the couple could search for their new home. Rivera referred them to an agent in the Stockton area named Isabel Posada of Century 21 Realty. Posada went to work and within a week they were in contract on a home. Thirty days later, their future home was appraised, inspections were completed and the final documents were signed and ready for funding. On the day the couple received the keys to their new home, they were very relieved and thankful that their kids have a backyard playground. Carlos Rivera, FirstCal Mortgage, (510) 710-7432, crivera@firstcal.com. Just Approved yourself? Send your story to real estate@sfchronicle.com. LONDON It started more than five years ago as what appeared to be a fairly simple sex crime case: two women in Sweden came forward to accuse Julian Assange of sexual misconduct. Now the case has mutated into a complicated international drama involving Britain, Sweden, the United States, Ecuador, a host of human rights lawyers and the United Nations. But when the dust settles from an unexpected U.N. working groups finding Friday that Assange has been unlawfully detained, the painful stalemate is expected to continue, and Assange though claiming full vindication will most likely remain cooped up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. The panel said his stay at the embassy which he entered voluntarily in 2012 constitutes arbitrary detention and that he should be set free and compensated for lost time. Lawyer and legal blogger Carl Gardner said the finding beggars belief and pointed out it isnt legally binding. Nobody will have to do anything, as a result of this finding, he said. The sex crime allegations came at the height of Assanges fame as the founder of WikiLeaks, an organization that had made a name for itself by releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of classified government documents. He had challenged, and embarrassed, U.S. officials with his disclosures, and feared a secret indictment in U.S. courts that could lead to prosecution there. One woman said Assange intentionally damaged a condom and pinned her down while having sex. A second woman said Assange had sex with her without a condom while she was asleep. In Sweden, having sex with an unconscious, drunk or sleeping person can lead to a rape conviction punishable by up to six years in prison. A Swedish investigation into the crimes was launched, then dropped for lack of evidence, and then started again as prosecutors sought to question Assange about possible molestation and rape. The computer hacker facing no criminal charges left Sweden for Britain, and the legal palaver begun. Once he left, it became much more complicated for Swedish prosecutors to determine if the evidence against him was convincing enough to merit a criminal charge. When prosecutors decided they needed to question him about the womens allegations, they sought an international arrest warrant for him that was issued in November, 2010. By then, Assange was in London, where he was seen by many as a hero in a David versus Goliath struggle pitting scrappy WikiLeaks against the mighty U.S. government. He was the toast of the town at least among a group of wealthy friends from the film and media worlds who enjoyed the discomfort he brought to the high and mighty. On June 19, he calmly walked into the Embassy of Ecuador in central London to seek asylum. Hes been there ever since, in a prolonged state of legal limbo, unable even to stroll to a corner store. The case seemed to be going nowhere until this week when a legal maneuver that had largely gone unnoticed paid big public relations dividends for Assange and his team. They had filed a complaint with the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention against Sweden and Britain more than a year earlier charging that he had been unfairly detained. The five-person board, operating under the auspices of the U.N. human rights chief, investigated, took evidence from both sides, and came out backing Assanges position by a 3-1 vote, with one member deciding not to vote because she, like Assange, is Australian. Cut to Assange emerging triumphant on the embassy balcony, like Winston Churchill and the royal family at the conclusion of World War II, claiming total victory. A supporter shouted, We love you Julian as he went back inside the embassy for what might be a very long time. British and Swedish officials said Friday they wont be swayed by the working groups opinion, and it is five more years before the statute of limitations on rape expires. Amid the numerous wine-tasting rooms in downtown Sutter Creek, Amador Distillery has opened the Brandy Saloon, which pours quarter-ounce samples of the companys six distinct brandies, none available in stores. Among them are Botanica, a botanical-infused neutral brandy thats similar to gin; an aged cherry brandy, known as wisniak; a brandy made from Muscat grapes, aged in a Hungarian oak barrel for two years; a regular brandy, made from Thompson grapes and aged in an American whiskey barrel; and applejack, an aged apple brandy. Applejack is one of the oldest liquors in the United States, explained Adam Stratton, founder of the distillery, which has relocated to neighboring El Dorado County. We make it from apple cider that comes from local cideries, or we just get the apples here, and we crush it, then age it in whiskey barrels. There's a dental crisis in Santa Fe, according to Kyra Ochoa, a health care assistance program manager for Santa Fe County's Community Services, and La Familia Medical Services, long a mainstay for Santa Fe's poor, is apparently bearing the brunt of it. Already, the nonprofit has spent all $394,000 of its county-allocated money, with 60 percent of the dough going to filling cavities, pulling teeth, rooting out root canals and deep cleanings. In January, the Santa Fe County Commission agreed to appropriate an additional $250,000 to help tide the nonprofit over until June 30, when the fiscal year ends and another one begins. How much next year's allocation will be, Ochoa doesn't rightly know, but she tells SFR on Friday that the county's Health Care Assistance Program's budget will be submitted in March, and that future financial support, which depends largely on gross receipts tax, is uncertain for the legion of uninsured, underinsured and undocumented. "There's a huge need for dental care in Santa Fe for low-income people, and La Familia serves that segment of population," Ochoa says, adding that the El Centro clinic in Espanola and Pecos Valley Medical Center in Pecos are also recipients of county money. While prenatal care and diabetes treatment have long been provided for thousands of patients treated yearly by the clinics, the news flash is that more than half of the total monies these days are being spent on bad teeth, a malady that is not uncommon among the impoverished, where inexpensive sugar and corn-fructose-based products have long taken their toll. Because Medicare doesn't cover dental needs, and Medicaid is hit-and-miss in the sort of coverage it provides, the county often steps in as the savior, so much so, in fact, that it was instrumental in setting up a free dental clinic on April 7, 8 and 9, and anybody whose income level qualifies is welcome to join what is expected to be a long line outside the Community Convention Center, with registration starting at 4 pm on April 7. April 8 and 9 will be the all-day events, which will feature dozens of dentists throughout the day, providing their services for free for the betterment of the whole of the community. New Mexico Dental Association Foundation, in conjunction with the New Mexico Mission of Mercy, are in charge of the clinic. "Oral health," says Ochoa, "is largely tied to physical health and mental health, not to mention economic well-being." No income requirements are needed. Just show up at the doors. For more information, call 992-9849. Santa Fe Reporter No one in this newsroom became a journalist to do math, so when the question came up for the Feb. 3 cover story, "Something's Gotta Give" about just what a possible property tax increase could do to homeowner's tax bills, we took the question to someone for whom math is more important. As part of the reporting, SFR picked a round number for a home that was near what US Census figures say is the median value for homes, $278,000 in the city and $160,000 in the county. Then, we emailed City Finance Director Oscar Rodriguez the question, For a home valued at $200,000, what's the difference in annual taxes at a rate of 2.817 mills [the current imposed rate] versus 7.65 mills [the maximum rate]? Nobodys seriously considering raising the tax rate to the maximum, he replied, but he ran the calculations using the numbers provided. It broke down like this: So that's what we ranabout $10. Former city councilor Karen Heldmeyer, who we also quoted in the story, quickly wrote in questioning that math, and connected us with Neva Van Peski, a former economist with the Federal Reserve. For a little insight into her eagle eyes for taxes, Van Peski spotted an error in her own tax bill that led to unearthing a mistake in Santa Fe Community College's calculation of property tax mill rates that cost the college $1.6 million over four years. People make mistakes, she says. Heres Van Peski: No, taxes wouldn't increase by $10 on that house, but by more than $300. That's a big difference. So we went back to Rodriguez, whose first response was: "It's not good math. It's not good math, I'm sorry." He advised using a property tax revenue estimate form from the New Mexico Department of Finance & Administration. "Don't take it from me, take it from this tax calculation engine that the DFA has," he says. The numbers there did, indeed, match Van Peski's math. For some even deeper diving, Van Peski also points out that the percentage increase in revenue from an increase in the tax rate has to acknowledge that the rate imposed and the rate that appears on a residential tax bill differ. The City of Santa Fe Operations rate on residential tax bills for 2015 is 1.327 mills, reduced over the years from 2.817 by yield control, a state-dictated amount by which the property tax rate the city collects is ratcheted down to counteract increased house prices. Effectively, the citys portion of the tax on a $200,000 home is $88.46 (without that head of household exemption). So were the city to increase to 7.65 mills, the percentage increase in revenue would actually by 364 percentnot the 272 percent suggested by comparing 7.65 and 2.817. That comes out, according to the DFA calculator, as a jump to $510 (again, no head of household exemption). Theres a chasm of difference between the citys existing rate and its highest allowable, but it comes into perspective when you consider that the county, which built its budget on property tax instead of gross receipts, collects taxes at a rate of 6.064 mills. An increase of 3 mills, Van Peski added, would not quadruple the city portion of taxes, as Mayor Javier Gonzales suggested when we met in the fall. It would take an increase of almost 3.981 mills for residential properties, and still more for commercial properties, which would only see payments double at an increase of 3 mills. Rodriguez clarifies that there are multiple property tax rates the city works with, and on top of the city-issued property tax, there are taxes for general obligation bonds (GO bonds), and police and fire property tax rates. "Were we to raise all of the property tax rates, potentially, we could almost quadruple the income that would come inpotentially," he says. But that's not really on the table for city councilors or the city manager, he says, "I'm not recommending it, and I don't think anybody's even considering it." The problem with leaning on property taxes to fix the $15 million shortfall is that it, relatively speaking, doesn't amount to much money. "It only brings in $3.5 million and so therefore to double that would only bring in another $3.5 million," he says. "You can imagine the headlines, 'City increases property taxes by 100 percent,' which brings another $3.5 million, and that's something like 9 percent of our total budget, so that's not much of a solution." The proposed budget to start closing the gap is likely to include a bevy of tools, the most critical of which would be a new gross receipts tax, which the city will have to settle on and submit to the state by the end of March to see it take effect July 1. Santa Fe Reporter The news started to travel around downtown Santa Fe on Friday night, the way that news travels in our town. Word of mouth. Friend to friend. Text messages. Facebook posts. Whispers in the corner. Raised voices over the music. At the High Note, inside Skylight, on the sidewalk of San Francisco Street. By midnight, it seemed like everyone had heard. Chef Eric DiStefano died in his sleep at about 9 pm Eastern time in Hilton Head, SC, where he had recently checked into a weight-loss program, according to longtime friend and former business partner Sara Chapman. He was 52. Hailing from Hershey, Pa., DiStefano made a deep mark on the city's culinary scene as the executive chef and co-owner at both Coyote Cafe and Geronimo, fine dining establishments where he had worked for 11 and 18 years, respectively. Chapman tells SFR in an interview this morning that the chef had been experiencing health problems related to obesity, including difficulty with mobility and two bum knees. She dropped him off at the facility last Saturday. "He was going to live there for two months and work with a trainer. ... He just wanted to get healthy, and that's it," she said. DiStefano was a father figure to her daughter Page, now 14 and pictured above, and the two were planning a trip to Italy. He had been living in their home for the last two years as his health failed, Chapman says. "He just he had such a vibrant personality. He was probably the most generous person I have ever known. It's just freaking heart breaking," she says. "I talked to him every day [from Hilton Head], and he was like, 'I'm going to do this.'" Champan says she's been inundated with calls and messages. "He would want everyone to celebrate his life and not necessarily mourn, even though that's hard to comprehend," she says, noting later that the restaurants "are going to go on." Louis Moskow, chef and owner at 315 Restaurant, also knew DiStefano well. Moskow tells SFR the community won't be able to fill those big shoes, but his legacy is far reaching. "What Eric will leave behind is an army of well-trained chefs," says Moskow. "He brought his A-game all the time, despite his limited ability to maneuver. Imagine what he would have been like without that physical challenge. ... There was no amount of pain greater than what he was experiencing, and still every day, he had the discipline to get in that kitchen and stand in the line and do a pre-meal with his staff and then stand there all night long and cook for people." Moskow, Chapman and other friends who were like family are planning a memorial. SFR will update this story as those details are available. DiStefano is survived by his parents, who still live in Hershey, Chapman says. Santa Fe Reporter Joe Blevins Dead 2 Rights is the official online presence of, darkener of doorsteps.Follow him onif you care to. He's on, andtoo.Joe is a freelance writer for hire. He has written for, and, plus he has contributed material to the booksandIn addition, Joe is the co-author of Dad Made Dirty Movies: The Erotic World of Stephen C. Apostolof , which is available in paperback now! Or get the Kindle editionHe'll be happy to write for you, too. Just e-mail him! josephablevins@gmail.com Joe co-hosts a weekly podcast about the classic sitcom. The podcast is called These Days Are Ours , and you should definitely listen to it, bucko.Oh, and he has an entire novel you can read for freeBut that's nothing compared to the musings on the mainstream "press corps" and the american discourse NYPD asks for help identifying white truck involved in burglary from 123 Precinct area The New York City Police Department is asking the public's assistance identifying the vehicle depicted in this surveillance photo in regards to a burglary that occurred within the confines of the 123 Precinct. (Photo courtesy of NYPD) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police are asking the public's help identifying a vehicle in connection with a burglary that occurred within the confines of the 123 Precinct Friday morning. Around 10:00 a.m., on Feb. 5, an unidentified suspect entered a garage on Carol Court in Tottenville and removed a safe -- which contained an undetermined amount of cash, gold, bonds and jewelry, according to a written statement distributed by the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner, Public Information. The suspect then fled in a white Dodge Ram 1500 pick-up truck, police said. Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. Obama.jpg President Obama has just announced he will ask Congress to approve $1.1 billion in new spending to help fight the heroin epidemic. Not only does Staten Island face a worsening crisis over the relentless abuse of prescription painkilling pills and heroin. So does the rest of America. To fight rising addiction to these opioid drugs, President Obama has just announced he will ask Congress to approve $1.1 billion in new spending. We hope that the politicians on Capitol Hill agree to allocate this money fairly for fiscal 2017 without undue battling over where it is to be spent. As our congressman, Rep. Dan Donovan (R-Staten Island-Brooklyn) has said the life-and-death war on drug abuse must not turn into a political dispute. "The mothers and fathers of children suffering from heroin and opioid addiction don't care about partisan politics," Mr. Donovan said about providing more federal help. "They want to see their government achieve results in combating this epidemic." He said a good example was set when Congress ultimately extended health programs and spending under the Zadroga Act, which benefits ill first responders and other survivors of the 9/11 attacks. "Just like the Zadroga fight, I intend to partner with Republicans and Democrats to push comprehensive abuse legislation through the Congress," said Mr. Donovan, who hopes to avoid political squabbles. 'The attention it deserves' He said: "The president's proposal is a good starting point; I'm glad to see the scourge Staten Island and South Brooklyn have been fighting for years get the attention it deserves." So are we, of course. Unfortunately, our borough remains Ground Zero in the campaign to reduce drug addiction. During the past five years, the combined annual number of arrests in this borough that included either prescription pills or heroin has spiked tenfold, from roughly 100 to more than 1,000. One fifth of the narcotics arrests on Staten Island in 2015 were linked to heroin, the highest rate in all five boroughs, according to the NYPD. Heroin addiction proliferated after a state database was created to allow physicians and pharmacies to track the over-prescribing of pain medicine and "doctor-shopping," which had been commonplace. The successful on-line program was advocated in Albany by Staten Islanders Andrew Lanza in the state Senate and Michael Cusick in the Assembly. It led authorities to crack down on heroin in a comprehensive and highly effective way. In 2015, agents for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's New York City division confiscated about 1,951 pounds of heroin, a roughly 70-percent increase from the previous year. In 2009, the DEA seized just 189 pounds of heroin in the city. We need all the help we can get The fact is, we need all the help we can get from federal, state and city anti-drug initiatives, as well as from private programs. It remains to be determined how much New York City -- and more to the point, Staten Island -- will benefit if Mr. Obama's sweeping anti-opioid plan becomes law. It's designed to save lives. Prescription painkillers and heroin were involved in 28,648 deaths in the United States in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drugs were a bigger killer than motor vehicle crashes. $1.1-billion allocation In December, the president signed a budget agreement to spend $400 million to deal with the opioid crisis. It was an increase of $100 million over 2014. Now Mr. Obama wants Congress to do much more. Under his anti-opioid proposal, about $500 million would be distributed to expand treatment facilities. Another $500 million would go toward a crack down on illegal drug sales and toward the prevention of prescription pill overdoses. "The funds would support tough and smart strategies to combat this plague," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. "I will do everything in power to make sure Congress provides the resources necessary to support these programs in the future." A big chunk of the $1.1 billion sought by Mr. Obama would be given to states to expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid abuse. This funding would go to those states with the most severe epidemic, and it would be based on their ability to respond to the crisis. To a part of the country that has been beset by the opioid crisis and suffered more than its share of casualties, that's truly promising news. After William Rudolph, the so-called "Missouri Kid," was arrested in February 1904 for robbing a bank at Union, Missouri, and killing a Pinkerton detective sent out in search of him, the New York Times said Rudolph came from a family of crackers living at the edge of the Ozarks in one of the wildest sections of Missouri, suggesting that Rudolphs upbringing might have helped shape his criminal path. The local Franklin County Tribune, however, pointed out that his mothers family, the Armisteads, although poor, were considered honest, and that his stepfather, Frank Rudolph, was also considered upstanding, despite his taste for liquor. What everyone seemed to agree on, even his mother, was that Willie Rudolph was always a bad boy. He was born in 1883 to Nancy Jane Armistead and John Anderson when Nancy was eighteen and unwed. About three years later, Nancy married Frank Rudolph, and Willie adopted his stepfathers name, although he was still sometimes called William Anderson or William Armistead. The boy grew up in Franklin County, mostly along the Bourbeuse River near Stanton. When he was about sixteen, he helped some older boys rob an elderly couple living near Stanton. Implicated in the crime, he hightailed it out of the area rather than face charges and spent a year or so working in the lead mines around Joplin, where he learned to use dynamite. In December of 1902, Rudolph came back home with a companion he introduced as Fred Lewis but whose real name was George Collins. On the late night of December 26, the pair robbed the Bank of Union. Shortly after midnight, Rudolph broke in and blew the vault and the safe with dynamite while Collins stayed outside firing his gun into the air as if in celebration in order to disguise the noise. The duo made off with about $12,000 in gold, silver, and paper money, as well as some bonds and securities. The desperadoes fled to Arkansas but turned back up in Franklin County about the middle of January 1903. On January 23, a four-man posse that included Pinkerton agent Charles Schumacher went out to arrest the fugitives at the Rudolph home, a ramshackle affair about four miles north of Stanton. Collins and young Rudolph immediately opened fire, killing Schumacher. The other deputies returned fire wounding Collins slightly, but they quickly retreated. Collins and Rudolph managed to escape and made their way to Hartford, Connecticut, Collinss hometown. They were surprised and arrested there in March 1903. Brought back to Union to answer a murder indictment, they were then transferred to St. Louis for safekeeping. They were greeted in St. Louis by a sizeable crowd that included several admiring women, and a sensationalist newspaperman dubbed the handsome Rudolph the Missouri Kid. In early July, Rudolph escaped from the supposedly secure St. Louis facility and went on the lam. He was apprehended again in January of '04 after he and another man attempted to rob a bank at Cleveland, Missouri, near the Kansas line, and then blew up a railroad safe at nearby Louisburg, Kansas. Rudolph, giving his name as Gorney, pled guilty to attempted robbery and was sent to the state prison in Lansing. He was discovered there in February by a Pinkerton agent and brought back to Missouri to stand trial in March for first-degree murder. While Rudolphs trial was going on at Union, Collins, who had already been convicted of killing Schumacher, was hanged on March 26 from a scaffold in the courtyard next to where Rudolph's trial was proceeding. Two hours later, Rudolph was also convicted of the same crime. Its all right, Rudolph reportedly said upon hearing the verdict. George is gone. Id just as soon follow suit. Despite several appeals, Rudolph was launched into eternity a little over a year later, May 8, 1905, using the same rope that had been used to hang Collins. 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 WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Donald Trump's supporters showed up at the Sheraton Monday night fully expecting their man to win the Iowa caucuses. And why shouldn't they? Trump had held a lead of varying sizes in 13 of the last 13 polls listed in the RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls. How could that not win? Months ago, before Trump took the lead in Iowa, a number of analysts argued that he wasn't a "good fit" for the state's Republican electorate, made up heavily of voters who describe themselves as born-again evangelical Christians. Then Trump took the lead and -- in the polls at least -- fought off challenges from Ben Carson and eventual winner Ted Cruz. So analysts thought Trump might not be so bad a fit after all. But on caucus night, some of Trump's supporters returned to the old "bad fit" theory to explain Trump's surprise loss. "It was the evangelicals," said Dick Stoffer of West Des Moines. "They've done it before -- they did it four years before with Santorum, they did it with Huckabee before that." "The evangelicals," said Carol Anne Tracy of West Des Moines. "We've got a lot of evangelicals, and I just don't think they felt that (Trump) praised God enough." "It's happened before -- the guy with the biggest Bible wins Iowa," said Ken Crow, a Tea Party activist from Winterset. The caucus results -- Trump soundly beaten by Cruz, finishing barely ahead of Marco Rubio -- seemed to confirm another nagging suspicion about the Trump campaign: that it had not paid sufficient attention to turning out its voters. Most of the people at the Trump event had attended caucuses earlier in the evening. At those caucuses, the presiding officer asked whether there was a representative from each campaign present to speak, and, if not, whether anyone attending would like to speak on a particular candidate's behalf. At the caucus I attended, in Pleasant Hill, a suburb just east of Des Moines, there was no one to speak for Trump -- no representative of the campaign -- and no voter willing to stand up and speak on his behalf. (The precinct ended in a Cruz landslide: 110 votes for the Texas senator, versus 36 for Trump and 34 for Rubio.) At the Sheraton, some Trump supporters had similar stories. "We were at a caucus and Trump didn't even have anyone there to speak for him," one man told me. "That's insane," added a man nearby. "I was at a caucus, and no one spoke for him there, either," added someone else. I asked everyone I talked to at the Sheraton whether they felt Trump had made any mistakes in the campaign, like deciding not to attend last Thursday's Republican debate. Most felt Trump had made the right call; they weren't in the mood to second-guess their candidate. But in light of the caucus results, the debate decision looms as a critical error in judgment for Trump. In the days leading up to the voting, when I talked to voters on the fence between candidates -- people who could possibly be persuaded to support Trump -- one thing became clear: everybody watched the debate. It was the only debate held in Iowa, and it took place in the final days of the campaign, when voters who had been reluctant to pay attention months earlier had finally become interested and involved. They all tuned in. And Trump wasn't there. "That was the one thing that I thought was a clear mistake," Republican blogger Craig Robinson, a former political director of the state GOP, said in a phone conversation Monday afternoon. With that one decision, Trump undermined a lot of the work he had done in the previous months. The debate decision showed that Trump's political instincts could be wrong. But the caucus loss could point to even more serious problems ahead for Trump. A lot of people like Trump and agree with what he has to say. They cheer him on. But as the time to vote approaches, they apply a seriousness test, a test of whether they would trust him in a position of grave responsibility. The difference between Trump's high pre-caucus polls and his underwhelming support in the actual caucus could indicate that voters who had supported him for months beforehand began to develop doubts as the time neared to actually cast a ballot. Would it be safe and smart to vote for this guy? Just as fundamentally, Trump's Iowa loss could cast doubt on his unconventional tactics in other states. Trump's strategy is based on a big bet: that because voters are tired of conventional politicians, then they will also be resistant to conventional political appeals. Iowa proved just the opposite. Ted Cruz won a smashing victory by doing things the old-fashioned way, visiting all of Iowa's 99 counties, pressing the flesh in gatherings of 100, 150 people, and tailoring his pitch to appeal to concerned evangelicals. That -- plus a highly sophisticated data operation -- won the day for Cruz. Trump tried something different, and it didn't work. So Trump now heads to New Hampshire, where, unlike Iowa, his lead in the polls is enormous -- more than 20 points. Will that lead go away on election day, too? Trump's first encounter with the voters should probably teach him several things. One, never suggest that you've got their support in the bag. Two, show up at the biggest events. And three, do everything you can to turn out your voters. All that will be important. But even more critical will be questions about Trump's judgment and temperament. If Iowans who once supported him did in fact retreat when it came time to enter the voting booth -- if they did in fact worry that he is just not serious enough to become president -- Trump has a problem that might not be possible to solve. 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(0x5612f02824e0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f049d558)', '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(0x5612f02824e0)') 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(0x5612f049d558)') 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(0x5612efe4dbd0)') 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(0x5612f049d558)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f049d558)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e2574910)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f04442e0)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f04442e0)') 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(0x5612f0249f60)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0108a80)', '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(0x5612f0249f60)') 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(0x5612f0108a80)') 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(0x5612f0237838)') 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(0x5612f0108a80)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0108a80)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e2572e98)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f01e7650)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f01e7650)') 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(0x5612f01dd4b0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02f4878)', '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(0x5612f01dd4b0)') 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(0x5612f02f4878)') 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(0x5612f0198c38)') 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(0x5612f02f4878)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02f4878)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e2573ee0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612eab57308)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612eab57308)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Vatican City: Pope Francis will make a surprise trip to Cuba on February 12 for a historic meeting with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first meeting between a pope and the Russian patriarch since the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split nearly 1000 years ago, the Vatican announced Friday. For Pope Francis, the meeting is the result of delicate and sustained diplomacy, some of which began decades ago under Pope John Paul II, and it is another important milestone in his efforts to reconcile the Roman Catholic Church with Eastern Orthodox churches. Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, who are to meet in Cuba. Credit:AP The breakthrough also highlights Pope Francis' ties to Cuba, as President Raul Castro "was involved in organising the meeting", said the Reverend Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, at a news conference. "The encounter has been under preparation for a long time - it wasn't improvised," Reverend Lombardi said. Industry leaders have defended the ACT's childcare sector after figures said staff were the nation's least qualified, but acknowledged employee retention remained challenging. Association of Community-Based Child Care Directors ACT treasurer Lisa Syrette said the introduction of the National Quality Standard in 2012 had created a positive impact and increased the number of childcare workers studying for relevant qualifications. Communities@Work's Lee Maiden said childcare workers had to demonstrate monthly progress when they were studying for the industry's minimum qualifications. "The sector's biggest challenge is the retention of qualified staff, as a lot of services find they recruit, they train, and those people move on to other possibilities," she said. "As long as we continue to call for improved conditions and salaries and better access to training, we will hopefully see an improvement in the number of qualified staff and the qualified ratio." Only the most generous, conflicted -- or both -- person would suggest that the financial services sector is working properly. Oh, it might be working 'efficiently' and exactly as you would expect a 'market' to behave -- but only the most extreme of free-market ideologues would suggest that the industry is a net positive for our country in its current shape. There are two questions everyone should ask their financial adviser. An unregulated financial services market would lead straight to shysterism, dishonesty and the triumph of the white shoe brigade. It would happily make its fortune on the back of uninformed, misinformed and trusting consumers; ripping them off blind in the process. That's the free market at work, people. The security of the ACT's public school system was put to the test this week as a number of schools faced phoned-in threats of harm. While the eight calls to primary and high schools were largely deemed to be part of an international hoax, the incident showed the success of the territory's emergency planning procedures. The schools Lanyon High School, Kingsford Smith School, Forrest Primary, Calwell High School, Canberra High School and Curtin Primary School all passed the unsavory start-of-year trial with flying colours. They, and the education directorate and ACT Policing, should be commended for dealing with the incidents in the calm and professional way they did this should provide some confidence if in future such a threat turns out not to be a hoax. The radical idealists and hard-core wishful thinkers are wrong. Australia's policy of imprisoning refugees in the Pacific gulags of Nauru and Manus Island is not "cruel, inhuman and unsustainable", it's totally sustainable. As long as a big, honking majority of Australians are cool with state-sponsored child abuse, rape and brutality, all the major political parties will more or less happily offer their wares as the most competent and trustworthy facilitator of child abuse, rape and brutality on the ballot paper. It's trustworthy in this instance if in no other because when a politician promises to do something truly appalling, they've calculated that the electoral pay-off far exceeds any pain they or their victims might feel. They will deliver. And now they can do so legally. Illustration: Glen Le Lievre The High Court's decision this week that the "federal government has the power under the constitution to detain people in other countries" will soon lead to the forcible rendition of hundreds of women and children, including 37 babies born in Australia, back to those island hellholes we have so carefully made for them. Once those babies would have been Australian citizens as soon as they drew breath, with all of the privileges and protections of law we so enjoy. Luckily, we did away with that rubbish over a decade ago. The babies of Australia's gulag are unpersons. The legal free pass doesn't mean the jailers get to sleep well at night though. Liberal backbencher Russell Broadbent was so discomfited by the High Court's endorsement of cruelty as a government service that he urged the PM to only "gradually transfer" the victims of our crude ugliness back to their perdition, while ensuring of course that there can never be any escape from that fate for them or any who come after them. Julian Assange's portentous announcement on Thursday that he would walk out of the Ecuadorian embassy and into the arms of the wallopers if the United Nations ruled against him achieved two things. First, it reminded us that four years after Mr Assange sought and obtained asylum with the Ecuadorians in their pleasantly located mission near Harrods, he's still there, maintaining his role as the world's most awkward house guest. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's announcement that he would walk out of the Ecuadorian embassy achieved two things. Credit:Getty Images Second, it established a perfect observation platform from which to marvel afresh at the rich impotence of the United Nations. The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which has been investigating for some time Mr Assange's complaint that the Swedish and British governments' treatment of him amounts to an unfair deprivation of liberty, in fact ruled in his favour on Friday. Australians love stories in which Australians look bad. I don't know why. It must appeal to a deep melancholy in the national character. Most of our primary school education consists of explorers marching out into the desert and dying. Walking into history class is like turning on an episode of Poirot. Within the first five minutes, you just know someone's going to die. Then, once we reach secondary school, we begin a detailed study of Australian military campaigns, but only those in which something went terribly wrong. On Australian Story, Willy Hall, son of Sydney Opera House architect Peter Hall, described how the efforts of his father and other Australians were minimised in favour of the tale of Danish architect Jorn Utzon. Credit:ABC This week we had another example: the ABC's Australian Story told the heartbreaking tale of the Sydney Opera House and the Australian architect who completed the building. The tale has been told before, but only in the usual mordant, self-critical way that Australians enjoy telling their national story. To summarise the orthodox version, in the late 1950s, a handsome Danish architect called Jorn Utzon came to a provincial backwater called Australia. He lent us his brilliance. He gave us one of the world's greatest buildings, but the Australian philistines blocked him at every turn, and he was forced out of the country. The project was taken over by Australian mediocrities, who then wrecked the building's interiors, as if on purpose. The Turnbull government's leaked plan to take over control of vocational training should come as no surprise to the Baird government. Last July, at Tony Abbott's "leaders retreat" with the premiers, Mike Baird signed an agreement to consider such a plan. The only caveat was that TAFE would remain the responsibility of the states. If this loan scheme is extended across basic TAFE qualifications, it will effectively shift a large cost from the states to the Commonwealth. Credit:Rob Homer The idea for a single level of government taking responsibility for both funding and regulating vocational training had come from the federation reform white paper, which was concerned about training quality. The oddity was it was the Commonwealth, which only provided 30 per cent of funding, compared to 70 per cent from the states, that was elected to take over. All senate seats are up for grabs in a double-D, meaning the quota to get elected is halved. That makes it exactly half as difficult for Madigan, the slow-talking former blacksmith, to get re-elected in that scenario. In any case, Glen Lazarus, Jacquie Lambie, Ricky Muir and Nick Xenophon the other critical missing votes for the government on the building watchdog all called the PM's bluff on an early poll, inviting him to "bring it on". Turnbull's backfiring popgun on the ABCC was emblematic of a week in which the sunshine and "agility" agenda of 2015 was mugged by the much larger issues that will dominate election year 2016. Turnbull was still talking up the "frontiers of change" and "brilliant young men and women coming up with new applications" in response to his first question time Dorothy Dixers. But when pushed sideways on to the more dangerous terrain of tax reform and education funding, Mr Agility appeared to have a bit of concrete in the boots. It must be tough for Turnbull to dismiss the landmark work into educational equity of his best mate and neighbour, David Gonski, to side with Tony Abbott. But that's exactly where Turnbull found himself in responding to Labor's election promise to fully fund the Gonski reforms, aping Abbott's past lines in question time that the Coalition is actually increasing schools funding. In case anyone was taking him seriously, Labor's Ed Husic noted from across the chamber: "You just plagiarised Abbott". Tony Burke later asked Turnbull to "table Tony Abbott's speaking notes he was reading from". All polling shows Bill Shorten is not even in the race in the head-to-head leader's battle and Labor MPs expect another term in opposition, but the education debate of last week delivered a rare glimmer of hope to them that Turnbull has vulnerabilities on election-deciding issues like education where the rebadged Coalition has little else to offer than the Abbott government's position. This was reinforced in a mood-boosting speech to the ALP caucus by Kim Beazley on Wednesday night at a private dinner function held at Canberra's National Press Club. In an off-the-record address, the former Labor leader and Australia's returning Washington Ambassador spoke of the gloomy view average Americans have of their futures due to the threadbare social safety net available to them in the US if they stumble in life. Beazley urged the caucus to ignore the popularity and salesmanship of Turnbull and concentrate on the core issues like education and the GST. The tax debate is another area where Turnbull, under increasing pressure from his own backbench, looks increasingly unlikely to be able to deliver on expectations a significant reform package like a higher GST and income tax cuts. On Friday, the PM was still insisting that having "everything on the table" was positive for the nation but he and Treasurer Scott Morrison appear to have already gone round and round the table and could land back at the start without any change to the GST and income tax cuts. If backbench pressure results in a much less spectacular tax policy likely with superannuation tax changes at its heart as Turnbull's big election centrepiece, he could be left fighting a perception his action did not match the grand talk he arrived with as leader. "I'm hoping each of these encounters or interactions with objects and people find their way onto the work on the wall," he says. "It could be through colour. It could be through text. It could be an expression on a face in a portrait I see in the gallery." The Fool Faces Sideways, by Tom Polo, at Station gallery. Credit:Zan Wimberley The work is also ephemeral Polo will be painting directly onto the walls of the gallery's Central Court. "It will be live for the two weeks of its creation then yeah, it will disappear," he says. Support Structures (Head Lean), by Tom Polo. Site-specific, performative art involving strangers is also a way of attracting new audiences. "Art that involves as many people as possible is certainly a valid and fantastic way of making work that connects to people," he says. "Because often that's what artists want to do." He adds: "I believe art is for everybody and it affects people in different ways depending on whether it's a purely visual reaction or a political or emotional response." The winner of last year's Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Polo is one of Sydney's most promising young artists. Archibald Prize winner Fiona Lowry, who was a judge of the scholarship, said Polo's work "illuminates anxieties and failures in a most beautiful way. "His practice is well developed and he has a deep knowledge of what he wants to talk about as an artist." In 2014, Polo's All I Know, inspired by overheard conversations on trains, was exhibited as part of Campbelltown Arts Centre's The List show. "Tom uses the world around him within his practice," says the centre's director, Michael Dagostino. "It starts with larger conversation, text or social interactions, then he distils it down to its essence where he reveals meaning through a succinct parable. Tom removes the noise of everyday life." Polo, who hails from Smithfield in Sydney's West, is currently creating works for an upcoming solo show at Melbourne's Station gallery as well as a temporary public artwork for the Parramatta CBD. He will also embark on a grand tour of Europe later this year, including a three-month residency in Paris, as part of the $30,000 Whiteley scholarship. The Painting Live project is not Polo's first foray into creating site-specific works. He won the emerging art prize section in the 2014 Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize for Heads Are Turning/Swimming in the Muck/The Future of Honesty created during the installation of the exhibition. Polo, who usually works at the Parramatta Artists Studio, says the project will tell viewers about the gallery as well as his artistic process. "I think it will ask questions about how does our understanding of an artwork change when we are privy to its process," Polo says. "Do we read the final work differently when we see its creation in increments?" But he is not afraid of revealing what is normally done behind closed doors. "I think it is a daunting process and allowing yourself to be vulnerable in that state is actually quite nice too," he says. "Perhaps someone who comes up and asks a question might influence what's on the wall that day or they might help me create the next piece of puzzle." Watching Polo at work might prompt some viewers to believe art is child's play. "I like that people might think they can create something or a child could have done that," he says. But he adds: "Art is so much more than being able to paint in a representational way. It's about ideas and getting us thinking. It's fantastic if someone thinks they can do it." Painting Live: Tom Polo is at the Art Gallery of NSW from March 2 to 13. Spectrum Now art highlights: Stiller hammed it up in Sydney last month. Credit:Brendon Thorne/Getty Images It's something that has influenced the longevity of Zoolander, Stiller says. "It's a strange thing because that selfie culture that has evolved is such a Derek thing. The self-obsession and narcissism that Derek has really relates now to all of us, and it's hard not to if you have this mirror [he holds up his phone] in front of you all the time, or now with social media, this sort of need to have to say, 'OK, this is happening and I'm filming it and showing myself here, and this happened and I'm telling everybody.' The trio at the core of the story, from left: Owen Wilson as Hansel, Ben Stiller is Derek Zoolander and Penelope Cruz plays Interpol agent Valentina Valencia in Zoolander 2. Credit:Wilson Webb "Look, I mean, I do it. I get it. It's exciting sometimes to say, 'Hey, look what's happening right now and where I am'. But then I look at my kids' generation and it's just part of their being." Zoolander No.2 updates Derek's world with many aspects, including selfie sticks and social media. Derek and his "so hot" friend and fellow model Hansel (Owen Wilson) are drawn to Rome to help tackle a plot to "kill the world's most beautiful people", victims of which include Justin Bieber, who meets a grisly end, but not before posting a "blue steel" selfie. The Zoolander walk-off scene job applicants had to re-enact. What people enjoy seeing is these people who are very serious figures in the fashion world, who have to take themselves seriously to be taken seriously, but they get that it's all kind of a game, too. Ben Stiller Elsewhere, Penelope Cruz steps up as a Bond girl-esque Interpol agent and Will Ferrell reprises his role as campy villain Mugatu.. In common with the original is a long line of celebrity cameos (no Kardashians, however). US Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour not only features (and has her fearsome reputation mocked), she also put Stiller and Cruz on her February cover, in a shoot by Annie Leibovitz recreating some of fashion's most iconic images of all time. "Anna was always supportive of the first movie and kept on asking me over the years whenever we crossed paths, 'When are you going to make a second one'," Stiller says. "So when we finally decided to do it, I reached out to her and said, 'Hey, I'm going to do this', and she was just really an incredible partner and really helped us get a lot of people to be in the movie, and then she was kind enough to do the cameo." The fashion world, it appears, is now in on the joke. "I think they are," he says. "I think they all have a sense of humour about themselves and that's what's really fun to see. What people enjoy seeing is, like, wow, these people who are very serious figures in that world who have to take themselves seriously to be taken seriously in the fashion world, but yet they also get that it's all kind of a game, too." The framework of fashion is aThe selfie lmost incidental to the charms of Zoolander No.2, however. Stiller, who in person is warm and engaging, says when writing the sequel and remembering what is at the heart of the original's popularity, it was down to one thing. "I kept coming back to the characters, rather than the actual satire of the fashion world and the parody of that, because I felt that's what people connect with in a movie, really, is the people. "So as we were thinking, 'We've got to do something that has to do with social media and who's the new designer and all those things', those were all important but ultimately it was what's going on with Derek and Hansel and their relationship. And it always felt to me like Derek's son would be part of the story, and then Mugatu, the idea of him coming back and what happened to him after the first movie and his revenge plot was always something I felt was a good thing to hinge it on." Derek Zoolander was created by TV writer and comedian Drake Sather, a friend and collaborator of Stiller's, as a couple of skits for the VH1 fashion awards in the late 1990s, with Stiller playing the model. Sather also co-wrote the screenplay for Zoolander, but sadly took his own life in 2004. It's one of the reasons a sequel was so long in the making. "As time went by, I think that's when it started to feel like, 'OK, there's a way to approach this', but almost out of respect I felt like I couldn't just jump back into it." Zoolander No.2 is dedicated to Sather, marked by a tribute in the credits. "When we finally did get around to making the movie, I felt like there just had to be a sense of acknowledgement that the character in the movie wouldn't exist without his talent," he says. Stiller's company Red Hour Productions, in addition to both Zoolanders, has been behind a number of comic favourites, such as Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Starsky & Hutch, Tropic Thunder and quirkier offerings such as Submarine and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Late last year, Red Hour struck a deal with independent company Bold Films to finance its films, effectively shifting it outside the mainstream studio system and opening up new pathways for Stiller. "It's a chance to do a lot of types of movies and for us just to work with people that we really want to work with," he says. "[It's] a big difference than having to, say, take something to a studio and go, 'Hey, do you want to make this?', especially in this day and age, where studios really are not interested in making interesting, different kinds of movies for the most part. "They want to make genre films, they want to make franchises, they want to make sequels, and it's become very corporate. So to be able to work in this type of situation for us is really exciting." Zoolander No.2 is a welcome sequel, however. "I was really just trying to think about people who were fans of the first movie," Stiller says of bringing it to fruition, "to try to make it with them in mind, because it's hard to think about how to make it for anybody else really, because it's such a unique reality." Zoolander No.2 is out on February 11. Best in satirical show Parody is not just for ridiculously good-looking people. We delve into the alternate realities of some of comedy's best spoof movies. Flying High! (1980) Still consistently ranked as one of the funniest films of all time, this disaster movie parody is overloaded with iconic quotes, visual gags and memorable moments. I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. This Is Spinal Tap (1984) The alpha-spoof. When this parody of over-inflated rock documentaries came out, many thought it was real, including Ozzy Osbourne, no less. Director Rob Reiner stars as director Marty DiBergi, following David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel, played respectively by Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean, and their glorious rock anthems, including Lick My Love Pump, Big Bottom and the magical Stonehenge. If you've been on an interstellar mission the past couple of weeks you may have missed the news that Seven's two-part biopic of Ian Meldrum goes to air from Sunday night. If you've been earthbound, however, you've probably caught something Molly-related. Maybe you heard that the real Meldrum had a fall in Thailand, that his health was worse than initially thought, that he had vetoed a scene in Molly that showed him kissing a man, that he approved of the show or, alternatively, that he didn't. The one thing missing from all this coverage was the show itself. Seven has kept Molly under wraps, which is often not a good sign. On Saturday, though, the network finally made the first episode available for preview and what it reveals is strangely enlightening. Here, then, is what we have learnt about Molly from Molly. But please note that we make no claims whatsoever for the veracity of any of it. They might be several decades out of school, but passions are still sky high among Sydney's legal fraternity when it comes to their beloved Sydney University. A much-maligned plan to slash the number of alumni representatives on the institution's governing board has become the talk of the town up on Phillip Street, where several Sydney silks are furious about the changes made by their alma mater. Jeffrey Phillips, SC, a former patron of St John's College, labelled the move "a slap in the face" to alumni, many of whom were among the university's most generous donors. "It's a silly thing to do to upset a key group," he told PS. Former High Court Justice Michael Kirby no stranger to speaking his mind, both on and off the bench accused the university's leadership of "untransparent, even secretive" conduct in passing the motion just before Christmas, without consulting the alumni community. "This is the University of Sydney, established 1850 it is not Tammany Hall!" Kirby said, referring to the corrupt and nepotistic political organisation that sprung up in 18th century New York. Artist Sarah Staunton knows the power of words. She has made a career from them. In Staunton's world, they can uplift, motivate and soothe as evidenced by the typographic prints she creates in her business, Penheartspaper. Artist Sarah Staunton, who contributed to the Mimco x Our Watch pouches to raise awareness and funds for domestic violence. Credit:Michelle Smith But words have also been used to hurt, control and torment her. As a child, she recalled hearing some of the hallmarks of gender inequality phrases such as "bloody woman", or assumptions that all bad drivers were female. Four Tripod Farmer salads have been recalled. "Victorian health authorities had reported 54 cases of Salmonella anatum infection linked to the consumption of mixed salad products. This figure has, of today, increased to 62 cases." "Food histories" were yet to be conducted to establish any links to the mixed salad products. One of the Coles salads included in the recall. "Other states and territories are examining up to 30 possible cases of Salmonella anatum infection." But it is yet to be determined if these cases were linked to the outbreak strain in Victoria. One of the Coles salads included in the recall. The salads were sold at Coles, Woolworths, Bi-Lo and other grocers as Coles 4 Leaf Mix, Woolworths salad mix, SupaSalad Supamix and Wash N Toss salad mix. Woolworths Gourmet mix 100g, Supa Salad ALH, 1kg, Clear Film Blend, Clear Film Spinach and Clear Film Cos were also added to the list on Friday. Tripod Farmer's SupaSalad Supamix has been recalled. The contaminated products had best-before dates up to and including February 14 and were sold in all mainland Australian states and territories except Western Australia, though Victoria was worst affected. Lite n' Easy, Aussie Farmers Direct, Mentone Girls' Grammar and 7-Eleven were some of the other outlets who had sold food containing the infected products. Earlier, Tripod Farmers managing director Frank Ruffo said authorities had inspected its Bacchus Marsh processing plant and no further contamination had been detected. Consumers are advised not to eat the recalled product, and to return it to the place of purchase for a full cash refund. If concerned, they should also seek medical advice from their doctor. Paul Brockhoff said his entire family had been sick after consuming Coles baby spinach leaves. He contracted food poisoning on January 21 and was unwell for four days. On Wednesday, his two children, aged six and four, also came down with the illness, and his wife soon followed. "We haven't been able to isolate it to any of the identified products, though we have a bag of Coles baby spinach leaves in the fridge that we are eyeing with growing suspicion," Mr Brockhoff said. "The children had some of that and some salami, so we initially thought it might have been down to the cold meat." Vicki Norman said she had to be rushed to the hospital after having eaten a baby spinach and salad mix from Woolworths. "I have a spinach omelette nearly every day," Ms Norman said. "Last Friday night, I started to feel unwell, really bad headache, vomiting the whole time, went to the doctors on Monday ... I am still unwell. "I feel like I am dying." Ms Norman said she was yet to get a conclusive stool test, but her doctor had said the symptoms indicated food poisoning and could take up to 21 days to clear. "It is horrific," she said. "The chest pain makes you feel as if you are having a heart attack." Tripod Farmers managing director Frank Ruffo said the company had suspended some "farming and processing" operations while investigations were continuing. "Tripod Farmers is expecting further test results early next week in its search to determine and fix the cause of salmonella contamination," Mr Ruffo said. "The detections of salmonella were part of routine testing on product as part of the company's standard food safety and quality program. "In the interests of public safety, we have recalled the entire production batches from which the positive samples were detected." Mr Ruffo said they were working closely with health authorities to determine the cause and extent of the problem, and with their customers to manage an effective recall. but NOBODY vetted Barack Obama after Barack Obama politicized his own mother's cancer for his own political gain during the 2008 democratic race, and then again in the presidential debates. Did Barack Obama tend to his own mother in any personal way during her last couple of years of life, when she was dying of cancer in Hawaii? If I am wrong, or can be proven wrong about my concern, then I will stand corrected. But until then, the timeline I have been able to put together shows that Barack Obama chose to finish writing his book instead of being with his mother. With apologizes to the filmmaker for politicizing his film,Or, did Barack Obama CHOOSE to fly over Hawaii, where his mother was dying of cancer,so he could go to Bali to finish writing his book about his sperm donor father? The Baird Government will pay consultants almost $1 million in an attempt to stop IT projects blowing department budgets. The NSW Government was repeatedly attacked in parliament last year over the huge $573 million cost of a failing software project that has caused chaos for TAFE enrolments and in public schools. NSW Minister for Skills John Barilaro said he had apologised to TAFE staff who "had to endure" the controversial IT system. Credit:Louise Kennerley A Fairfax analysis of department contracts shows other big IT spenders are Transport NSW and Sydney Trains, which have spent $90 million in the past six months, and Family and Community Services, which has spent $55 million. The Baird government has been hit with a massive $400 million compensation claim by millionaire businessman Ian Malouf's Dial a Dump group of companies over the compulsory acquisition of properties in Alexandria for the WestConnex project. Legal action in the Land and Environment Court by Mr Malouf's company has revealed it is asking for compensation totalling $413,690,760 for two sites acquired by the government in December 2014 to make way for the motorway interchange. The land at the centre of the case had been used for waste collection, landfill, resource recovery and recycling as part of the large Dial a Dump empire, which Mr Malouf has said he built himself from scratch. It was planned, according to the company's chief operating officer Christopher Biggs, to be redeveloped into a waste transfer station. The head of China's organ-transplant program cautioned the University of Sydney that controversy over his appointment to an honorary position could damage reforms to end China's horrific practice of removing organs from executed prisoners. The university has been forced to release internal emails about its reappointment of Dr Huang Jiefu, then China's vice-minister of health, as an honorary professor between 2008 and 2014, despite protests from some staff the university shouldn't be associated with China's organ-transplant program. Then Chinese vice-minister of health, Huang Jiefu, right, during the opening of a Sino-US collaborative office at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control in 2006. Credit:Pool China officially ended the use of prisoner organs in transplant surgery in January 2015, a reform led by Dr Huang. NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge claims the emails show the university was more interested in protecting its business interests in China than investigating the concerns of Dr Maria Fiatarone Singh, who in 2013 called for Dr Huang to be stripped of the title. The teenage wife of Sydney terror suspect Sameh Bayda has been refused bail after she was charged with 31 counts of failure to answer questions. Alo-Bridget Nomoa from Auburn in Sydney's west was arrested after her husband Sameh Bayda was charged with three counts of collecting documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts in January. A man and woman are on trial over an alleged kidnapping. Credit:Louie Douvis Namoa allegedly failed to answer questions in a crime commission hearing. She was asked about her husband's alleged plans to sacrifice himself, ISIS propaganda, a knife allegedly found in her handbag wrapped in a Shahada flag and plans of a terrorist act. The 18-year-old married Bayda on December 31 and converted from Catholicism to the Islamic faith. Liz Walker was only six years old when an older girl from up the street squashed in next to her on the school bus and excitedly whispered "Hey do you want to see something?" It was a magazine she found under her brother's bed and full of graphic pornography. "I felt this sense of disgust, but also arousal," Ms Walker remembers. "I was catapulted into an awareness of my sexuality I wasn't ready for. In my six-year-old brain I though that's what you had to do to get noticed." She started looking at porn every afternoon after school, and trying out the scenarios she saw on other children. Her early sexualisation saw her lose her virginity at 12 and have multiple sexual partners during her teens. "I was seeking out those sexual interactions wherever I could because I had been conditioned to think that's what women did," Ms Walker recalls. "I had a reputation as a slut from a very young age." Oh the shame. Sydney's Irish community does not want to be known for not paying its debts. "If we do not pay the debt off we cannot hold our head up as an Irish community," Mary Doherty, vice-president of the Sydney St Patrick's Day Committee, said. The Sydney Irish's big day of the year, the 2016 St Patrick's Day parade, had to be cancelled after the volunteer committee running the celebration had run up debts of $170,000. The cancellation of the March 17 parade was a double blow to the Irish. April 24 is the centenary of the Easter Rising when republicans led by Padraic Pearse seized Dublin's General Post Office in 1916, and proclaimed an Irish Republic. Would you eat a steak from a cloned beef cow? In two years' time you may be able to do exactly that. Meet Le Martres Celest, the Limousin Stud beef cow happily feeding her foster calf in the NSW sunshine. The calf doesn't have a name, just a number until she's weaned. Celest the Limousin beef cow with owner Leon Martin. Credit:Elenor Tedenborg In two months, 17 surrogate cows will be implanted with seven-day embryos called blastocysts, made from DNA from the ear of Celest, which was placed inside an egg from which the existing DNA had been removed. For the moment they remain frozen in liquid nitrogen. More than half of the surrogates are likely to produce calves just like Celest. In fact, exactly like Celest. A 52-year-old man was pinned under a vehicle in a road rage attack in a small Queensland community west of Bundaberg, on Friday night. The man was involved in a fight between two groups from separate vehicles travelling on Haylocks Road, Pine Creek, about 10 pm. Police said the man became pinned under a car after a road rage incident on Friday night. The incident began with a verbal dispute between the drivers that led to the fight. Police said one of the drivers, a 31-year-old man from Pine Creek, returned to his car and drove his vehicle into the other vehicle a number of times. Three people missing from Brisbane's south have made no use of mobile phones or bank accounts in almost a fortnight. A Queensland Police spokesman confirmed Sunday evening that they had still found no trace of Lelan Harrington, Cory Breton or Iuliana Triscaru, who were all reported missing between January 25 and February 1. The bodies of Cory Breton and Iuliana Triscaru were retrieved from the submerged box. Credit:QPS Mr Harrington, 23, was last seen on January 25 at his sister's house in Logan, south of Brisbane, and has not made contact with family and friends since. Police believe he may be with Cory Breton, 28, reported missing on January 29 from the Logan area and Iuliana Triscaru, 31, reported missing on February 1 from Marsden. Queensland has confirmed its first case of Zika for the year as the globe deals with the new threat posed by the virus. A woman is recovering from Zika on the Gold Coast after returning from El Salvador in Central America where the mosquito-borne virus is spreading quickly. "She has been discharged from hospital and there is no risk to her, her family or the general public from the virus," a Queensland Health spokesman said. As I look over the course of my life, its unmistakable how Ive been blessed by the example and presence of people I can only describe as h... Indian-born chef Jessi Singh, his Brooklyn-born wife Jennifer, and their two small daughters moved from Melbourne to New York in December 2014. They opened Babu Ji NYC in May, designing, painting and furnishing the small East Village shop themselves, cramming in 50 seats and a help-yourself beer fridge, hoping that the style of fresh, freewheeling Indian cuisine they developed in Melbourne would find an audience in New York. Indian-born chef Jessi Singh, and his Brooklyn-born wife Jennifer, opened Babu Ji NYC in May and it is taking the city by storm. "We had three quiet days," says Jessi Singh. Then Adam Platt, the critic from New York Magazine, arrived. He enjoyed Singh's goat curry with blackberries, the hung yoghurt kebab and the potato croquettes in pineapple sauce. "He tweeted about it and that was it," says Singh. "We had a line down the street the next night and no quiet days since." A thick cloud carrying the sweet scent of barbecued pork belly smacks you in the face on arrival. Hundreds of pork and chicken skewers smeared with banana ketchup glaze, are sizzling on two four-metre-long charcoal barbecue grills, at the popular food stall, Hoy Pinoy. People flock to Chinese-themed festivities at Docklands. Credit:Pat Scala One hungry attendee stops behind a long line for the Filipino skewers, but a friend challenges the decision. "It's the first stall there's a whooole market down there." Agitated, the man hungry for skewers responds: "Oh, fine," dragging his feet towards the next vendor. Quetta, Pakistan: At least eight people were killed and more than 40 wounded in a bomb blast on Saturday in Pakistan's western city of Quetta, hospital officials said, the latest attack in a region that will be home to the planned route of the $46 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor. The blast occurred as a convoy of the Frontier Corps, part of Pakistan's paramilitary forces, was passing through the centre of the city near the district courts, said provincial home secretary Akbar Durrani. It was not immediately clear how many of the casualties were military or civilian. Rich in resources, Baluchistan is at the heart of the multi-billion-dollar energy and infrastructure projects China and Pakistan are planning along a corridor stretching from the Arabian Sea to China's Xinjiang region. St. Maarten owed NAF 165M to both entities --- Parties agree to reduce the amount --- Building sold for NAF45M while another NAF15M have to spent on finishing it. PHILIPSBURG:---Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr. told members of the media on Friday afternoon that he managed to reach an agreement with both APS and SZV on the outstanding debts the country owes both institutions. Minister Gibson said that St. Maarten owed the two institutions some NAF165M and he managed to get both entities to reduce their claims in order for the country to come to agreement on paying off its debts based on is required by the CFT prior to them approving the countrys budget. Minister Gibson said St. Maarten was able to comply with that specific requirement and gain control over the amount of monies owed to the two organizations. The Minister of Finance made clear a number of times that the negotiations did not go without growing pains that government had to end up selling the Government Building on Pond Island along with the land. The agreement signed on Friday was to transfer the building to SZV in order to decrease the debt. He said part of the monies will be paid to APS in order to reduce their claim from government. Minister Gibson said part of the agreement allows government to buy back the building when the government of St. Maarten gets its finances in order. Gibson he had to pledge that the monies St. Maarten will get from the assets of the former Netherlands Antilles will go towards both institutions to further pay off the debts owed by government. The Minister of Finance felt government have reached a milestone, because just weeks ago it seemed as though it was impossible task to resolve this major issue which was an impediment in getting the CFT to approve the countrys budget. Minister Gibson said with the agreement signed on Friday the CFT can no longer disapprove of the countrys budget after parliament passed it. He said in his view government now has its debt with SZV and APS under control and in three years-time the debt will be completely paid off to both institutions. The Finance Minister further explained that government will rent the building back from SZV at a 6% rate on the value of the building, while SZV will complete the construction of the building, furnish it at an additional amount which would be added to the current debt. He said that the 6% will give government a substantial reduction in the amount of rent they are currently paying for the other buildings they are renting outside of the government building. He said that all the departments will not be able to move into the building when its completed. However, he made clear that government is paying NAF1.2M monthly in rent but when the building is completed government will only be paying between NAF 3 to 4 hundred thousand monthly. Prime Minister William Marlin, thanked the Minister of Finance for a job well done with the negotiation while he thanked the Minister of Public Health Emil Lee who was not present at the signing ceremony who gave the interim director of SZV the green light to go ahead with the signing. Marlin said now that the signing is completed he is now in charge of ensuring that the building is completed, therefore he will be working with SZV in order to ensure that the building is prepared and furnished according to government likeness. He said when the building is ready his Ministry will then prepare the moving in plan. He said that he is hopeful that the building will be ready for occupancy by end of August or September, even though he would have liked to have it ready by July. Marlin also admitted for giving the government building several names such as the white elephant and the most expensive chicken coop. But soon enough the government building will be the most beautiful building in Philipsburg. Calian Reports on the Election of Directors Voting Results OTTAWA, ONTARIO (Marketwired) 02/05/16 The following matter was voted upon at the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders of Calian Technologies Ltd. (TSX: CTY) (Calian or the Corporation) held on February 5, 2016 in Ottawa, Ontario. This and other matters voted upon are described in greater detail in the Notice of Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders and Management Proxy Circular dated December 3, 2015. Detailed results of the vote for the election of directors are set out below. About Calian Calian employs over 2,500 people with offices and projects that span Canada, U.S. and international markets. The companys capabilities are diverse and include the provision of business and technology services to industry and government in the health, training, engineering and IT services domains as well as the design, manufacturing and maintenance of complex systems to the communications and defence sectors. Calians services are delivered through two divisions. The Business and Technology Services (BTS) Division is located in Ottawa. This division delivers outsourcing services for a variety of technical and professional functions and provides health services to numerous domestic customers. Our strength lies in understanding clients needs, recruiting highly qualified personnel who understand and meet those needs, and then effectively managing those personnel within our customers framework. Calians Systems Engineering Division (SED) located in Saskatoon plans, designs and implements complex communication systems for many of the worlds space agencies and leading satellite manufacturers and operators. SED also provides contract manufacturing services for both private sector and military customers in North America. For further information, please visit our website at , or contact us at Contacts: Kevin Ford President and Chief Executive Officer 613-599-8600 Jacqueline Gauthier Chief Financial Officer 613-599-8600 Year of Lexie A couple years ago one of my co-workers turned 50. We started joking about its being the "Year of John" because he had all these special things happening all year long--Hawaii vacation, fun things with his friends, etc. Well, this is the year I hit the big Six-Oh (not until August). I had my fantastic trip to Morocco last year, and I have another cool vacation to Southeast Asia I'm considering, but probably not until next year (a bit pricy, though totally doable). So I've been trying to think what I could do THIS year that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg but would still be kind of special. And I finally hit on it. I am going to take four days in NYC in April to attend a couple of Robert McKee's seminars on screenwriting. There is the three-day Story seminar, and a one-day seminar on writing for TV series--and the focus will be on my all-time favorite show, Breaking Bad. I booked a room with a very nice lady on AirBnB, something that will make this affordable. I've been wanting to try to learn screenwriting for a while but never have the time to focus on it. I've got a ton of ideas floating around but never took a class and I wind up going in circles when I've tried. So having planned that, I thought I then need some quiet time to try to write. So I booked a week on Hatteras for Labor Day at a house across the street from the beach. I can relax, walk on the beach, and write. Not think about work or anything else. In between the course in April and the trip in September I can start jotting notes and ideas. Maybe I won't get anywhere with it but I won't know unless I try. Of course, every band in the world is announcing their summer tour schedule, so I've already bought tickets for a few of those, which will be little treats scattered over the course of the summer. Makes turning 60 seem positively exciting! The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating. Rain and snow give way to sunny skies over weekend in Michiana Parts of Michiana saw very early snowfalls earlier this week, but temperatures should rise into the 70s this weekend. Oak Creek to host outdoor 2022 World Cup watch party A partnership between Morans Pub in South Milwaukee and the city of Oak Creek will offer residents food, drinks, music and games on Nov. 25. Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Elon Musk is an entrepreneur who is best known in space circles for launching SpaceX (opens in new tab), a private aerospace design and manufacturing company. His company became the first private one to ship cargo to the International Space Station (opens in new tab) (ISS) in 2012. Among SpaceX's many accomplishments is its development of a self-landing version of their Falcon 9 (opens in new tab) rocket, a heavy-lift rocket called the Falcon Heavy, and the Crew Dragon, a crewed spaceship that became the first private, crewed spacecraft to reach the ISS in 2020. A long-time advocate of Mars exploration, Musk has publicly talked about ventures such as building a greenhouse on the Red Planet and, more ambitiously, establishing a Mars colony. He also is rethinking transportation concepts through ideas such as the Hyperloop (opens in new tab), a proposed high-speed system that would run between major cities. The South African-born businessman describes himself as "an engineer and entrepreneur who builds and operates companies to solve environmental, social and economic challenges." Musk is also the founder of electric car company Tesla Motors, after he contributed $30 million to start the company. Teslas main goal was to produce sustainable, electric cars. Musk helped to develop the companys first car in 2006, called the Roadster. Later, in 2018, the Tesla Roadster was sent to space with a mannequin driver named 'Starman'. Since, Tesla has branched out from cars and started focusing on clean energy solutions such as solar panels. How did Musk become a billionaire? Musk grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, and earned degrees in physics and business from the University of Pennsylvania. His first venture after school was co-founding Zip2 Corp., an Internet company that provided software and services for businesses. "Things were pretty tough in the early going. I didn't have any money in fact I had negative money [because] I had huge student debts," Musk recalled in a 2003 Stanford lecture (opens in new tab). He showered at a local YMCA and lived in his office, managing to keep expenses very low despite his low revenue stream. "So when we went to VCs [venture capitalists], we could say we had positive cash flow," he said. Elon Musk saved Tesla from bankruptcy before becoming CEO (Image credit: Getty) After Compaq bought Zip2 for more than $300 million in 1999, Musk turned his attention to online bill payments. That company, later known as PayPal, was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk now had a fortune in hand, and at the tender age of 30 was looking to put his energies into something new. He began SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies) in 2002 with ambitious plans to launch a viable, privately funded space company. In the face of naysayers, he doubled down and worked on a business plan. Launching SpaceX Musk has repeatedly said that humans must be an interplanetary species to combat the threat of asteroids and potential human catastrophes, such as nuclear war and engineered viruses. What is blocking us from doing that, Musk wrote in a 2008 Esquire piece (opens in new tab), is "the ridiculously recalcitrant problem of big, reusable, reliable rockets." "Somehow we have to ... reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 100," he added. "That's why I started SpaceX. By no means did I think victory was certain. On the contrary, I thought the chances of success were tiny, but that the goal was important enough to try anyway." The first successful rocket SpaceX flew, the Falcon 1, took four tries to get off the ground before a successful test flight in September 2008. The SpaceX building at Cape Canaveral, FL. SpaceX has operations at Cape Canaveral but the company's headquarters are in Hawthorne, CA. (Image credit: Getty) Musk funded SpaceX through his own money at first, and then gained enough experience to attract millions of dollars from NASA (opens in new tab) to develop his rockets and spacecraft, and to bring cargo to the ISS. The company's track record was a factor in NASA awarding it money to develop the Dragon spacecraft (opens in new tab) for cargo runs to the ISS. Dragon won multiple rounds of funding under NASA's Commercial Crew program and is now sending regular shipments of cargo to the station. Related: Every SpaceX Starship explosion and what Elon Musk and team learned from them (video) SpaceXs human-rated version of Dragon, called Crew Dragon (opens in new tab), carried astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS on May 30, 2020. At the same time that Musk was working on the Crew Dragon capsule, Boeing were also in the final stages of testing for carrying humans into space. In completing the mission before Boeing, the Crew Dragon became the first crewed vehicle to fly from the U.S. since the space shuttle in 2011. Dragon is hefted using a rocket called the Falcon 9 (opens in new tab). In March 2018, SpaceX successfully flew a heavier rocket, the Falcon Heavy (opens in new tab), which carried the Roadster car on its maiden flight. The rocket blasted its cargo to low Earth (opens in new tab) orbit, and then an upper stage fired to carry the car somewhere toward Mars (opens in new tab) and the asteroid belt (opens in new tab). Although its two side boosters landed successfully on twin pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, its center rocket core crashed and burned (opens in new tab). All three rockets returned to Earth successfully after Falcon Heavy's second launch, on April 11, 2019, although the central core stage did not survive the journey back to shore (opens in new tab) from its ocean drone-ship landing pad, due to high sea swells. Falcon Heavy successfully completed its first night launch (opens in new tab) about two months later, on June 25, landing both side boosters successfully but narrowly missing a soft touchdown with the center rocket core. Elon Musk celebrates the launch of the Crew Dragon capsule. (Image credit: Getty) Musk believes in making space travel accessible to everyone. On September 15, 2021, SpaceX's first all-civilian spaceflight was launched. Inspiration4 (opens in new tab) was the first mission with no professional astronauts on board the Crew Dragon. Instead, the mission was privately funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who was accompanied by three other crewmembers. In a teleconference announcing Inspiration4 (opens in new tab), Musk said "at first, things are very expensive, and it's only through missions like this that we're able to bring the costs down over time" SpaceX is also building a large Internet constellation of satellites called Starlink (opens in new tab); the first 60 of these vehicles launched successfully into space (opens in new tab) on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, naturally in May 2019. Earlier that month, Musk told reporters that if everything goes well with the constellation, Starlink will generate $30 billion to $50 billion each year for SpaceX. Musk is busy with projects in several other companies, and has even ventured into artificial intelligence. In July 2019, Microsoft funnelled $1 billion into an artificial intelligence project (opens in new tab) co-founded by Elon Musk, called OpenAI. This technology has led to products such as DALL-E, a computer which can generate images from text. Elon Musk on Twitter Musk is a frequent user of social media and received the Stephen Hawking Communication Prize in 2019 (opens in new tab) for his work. Sometimes Musk discusses ideas that are early design thoughts, or philosophical musings (such as the time he said we may all be trapped in a simulation (opens in new tab)). Occasionally, however, Musk has attracted negative attention for his remarks. In 2018, Musk made critical comments about a rescuer trying to help Thai boys trapped in a cave. He later apologized for the comments about the rescuer amid worldwide criticism. That same year, NASA carried out a safety review of SpaceX (as well as Boeing) after Musk appeared to smoke weed (opens in new tab) on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast in September. Also, Musk paid a fine after the Security and Exchange Commission examined tweets (opens in new tab) about another of his companies, Tesla. The tweet was deemed misleading, as he claimed that Tesla would produce 500,000 cars in 2019. In 2020, the company nearly reached this target. Will Musk go to Mars? Musk has said that around 2002, he looked up the schedule for when NASA was supposed to send astronauts to Mars, and was shocked to see there was no timeline. (Today, NASA says it hopes to land astronauts on the Red Planet in the 2030s). That's when he says he came up with an idea to do a simple Mars mission "to spur the national will," Wired (opens in new tab) reported. Musk envisioned a revolutionary greenhouse on Mars, but he eventually scratched the idea because of financial concerns. Musk has said repeatedly that his goal is to make humanity become a two-planet species. (Image credit: SpaceX) In 2012, he sketched out plans to establish a Mars colony (opens in new tab), with 80,000 people living on the Red Planet. Musk later tweeted that he meant to say 80,000 people would make the journey per year. Musk has continued to discuss and revise his plans several times over the years. He unveiled an Interplanetary Transport System (opens in new tab) (ITS) in 2016 that is intended to take humans to Mars with SpaceX technology. At the time, the ITS booster (a huge rocket not yet built) was expected to carry up to 100 people at a time to low Earth orbit and then send people to Mars in as little as 80 days, as long as Earth and Mars remain close to each other, Musk said. He also warned that some of the first Mars settlers would likely die during the journey (opens in new tab). Since then, he's revised the ITS concept to say that the colonists would use a rocket called the BFR (opens in new tab) also known as the Big Falcon Rocket. Then in November 2018, Musk rebranded BFR (opens in new tab) and announced new names for the spaceship or upper stage (now known as Starship) and the rocket booster (now known as Super Heavy). SpaceX's latest prototype of the Starship spaceship called SN20 has not yet gone into orbit but performed its first static fire test on October 22, 2021. The main purpose of Musk's Starship is to carry people and cargo to the moon, Mars and potentially other distant destinations. The fully reusable spacecraft will eventually be launched with the Super Heavy rocket booster. This is the world's most powerful rocket (opens in new tab), which Musk said in a tweet, "is needed to escape Earth's deep gravity well (not needed for other planets or moons)." While Musk is focused on Mars, he has said that he would also willingly participate in a moon base (opens in new tab); He even unveiled conceptual designs of a "Moon Base Alpha (opens in new tab)(along with a Mars base, of course). In 2018, Musk suggested that the first SpaceX Mars base could be on the Red Planet by 2028 (opens in new tab). Additional resources On Oct. 7, 2013, SpaceX's Grasshopper rocket climbed 2,441 feet (744 meters) into the air before safely landing back on its launch pad in McGregor, Texas. Grasshopper was a reusable vertical-takeoff-and-landing rocket prototype tested by the company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in preparation for more ambitious launches. After progressively higher hops and pinpoint landings in two years, SpaceX wrapped up the program in 2013 to move resources into the Falcon 9 rocket. The first stage of several versions of the Falcon 9 rocket have splashed down successfully, and SpaceX is now aiming to land the rocket on an automated barge. Several barge-landing attempts have been made since 2015, but the rocket has not survived any of them yet. SpaceX, however, says that it is getting close to success and that the technology is possible to make the pinpoint landing happen. Grasshopper was the first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9, which the company still uses today for the Dragon cargo spacecraft flights to the station. Test flights ran between 2012 and 2013 and were successful, according to SpaceX. First announced in September 2011, Grasshopper was one piece of SpaceX's desire to make a fully reusable system that will fly cargo and people to and from space. Traditionally, rockets have been considered "throwaway" items, with few exceptions (such as the space shuttle's external solid rocket boosters.) SpaceX's vision then included fly-back first and second stages on the rocket as well as a spacecraft that can land on land. The Dragon spacecraft currently lands on the water, similar to how the Apollo spacecraft used to do. The human-rated version of the spacecraft will also initially land on water, but later versions are expected to reach solid ground with the stabilizing help of Dragon's SuperDraco engines. "We will see if this works," SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk said when announcing Grasshopper. "And if it does work, it'll be pretty huge." SpaceX's reusable Grasshopper rocket prototype rises skyward from its McGregor, Texas launch pad during a June 14, 2013 test flight that reached 1,066 feet (325 meters) before descending back to Earth. This still was taken from a video recorded by a small unmanned hexacopter. (Image credit: SpaceX) The first test flight of the rocket took place Sept. 21, 2012, when Grasshopper made a quick six-foot (1.8-meter) jump up and down at SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas. With each subsequent flight, the company then tried to shoot a bit higher or do something different. The next test in November saw the rocket go about 18 feet (5.5 m) in the air, and then a big test in December saw the rocket soar more than 130 feet (39.6 m) high. Over several test flights in 2013, Grasshopper demonstrated an ability to fight back against wind gusts, as well as to move sideways in the air to its target. It also flew several hundred feet high on a few occasions. The company filmed the rocket flights from the air using autonomous aircraft, providing high-definition views that it uploaded to the Web for sharing. Among Grasshopper's notable flights was a jump in April 2013 that saw the 10-story vehicle fly 820 feet (250 m) high. In June 2013, Grasshopper leaped 1,066 feet (325 m) and made a near-perfect landing. A subsequent flight test in August included a 100-foot lateral or sideways maneuver before the rocket touched down safely on the ground. The program capped off Oct. 7, 2013, when the rocket flew 2,441 feet (744 m) into the air, making a flawless takeoff and landing in a flight that lasted about 79 seconds. SpaceX then decided to retire the prototype in favor of using the personnel and money for other programs, notably the Falcon 9 rocket. Falcon landing attempts On April 18, 2014, SpaceX made a world-first controlled splashdown of the first stage of a Falcon 9, during a Dragon spacecraft resupply run to the International Space Station. After several water landings, SpaceX tried to make a world-first attempt for a barge landing in January 2015 during a cargo flight to the International Space Station. The first landing made it on target, but the rocket landed hard enough to damage some of the support equipment on the ship, according to Musk. Another attempt was called off in February 2015 when on landing day, the barge was facing 3-meter waves (almost 10 feet) and also had a malfunction in one of its four thrusters, making it tough to stabilize the ship. SpaceX instead elected for a water landing, which it pulled off successfully. SpaceX also made hard landings on the ship in rocket flights in April 2015 and January 2016. The first malfunction was partly traced to a problem with the control system, while the second failed because one of the landing legs did not latch. SpaceX did, however, land the rocket's first stage safely on land (near its launch site at the Kennedy Space Center) in a December 2015 flight. Musk's ultimate goal is to establish a colony on Mars by bringing the cost of spaceflight down as much as he can. Launch costs are considered one of the toughest things to overcome, since it takes a lot of fuel and velocity for a rocket to fight against Earth's gravity to bring items into space. The crew module for NASA's Orion capsule, as seen at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 3, 2016. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA's Orion crew capsule is one step closer to its next flight. The crew module of Orion, which is scheduled to fly around the moon on a 2018 test flight, arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida this week. Engineers at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana finished welding the 2,700-lb. (1,225 kilograms) crew module the backbone of the Orion capsule on Jan. 13. A few weeks later, the olive-green module was loaded onto NASA's famous, heavy-duty "Super Guppy" cargo airplane, which has been transporting large components since the Apollo era. [Orion Space Capsule: NASA's Next Spaceship (Photos)] The Super Guppy touched down at KSC's space shuttle landing facility on Monday (Feb. 1). The Orion crew module was then unloaded and transported to a high bay inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building, where it was secured onto an upgraded version of a test stand known as the birdcage. Further construction activities and a variety of tests will be performed at KSC and NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio before Orion blasts off in late 2018 on an uncrewed, three-week test flight to the moon and back, called Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1). NASA's "Super Guppy" airplane transported NASA's Orion crew module from the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana to Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 1, 2016. (Image credit: Lockheed Martin) EM-1 will be the first joint flight of Orion and NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is also in development, and will mark the first time since the Apollo era that a human-rated spacecraft has traveled to deep space, NASA officials have said. "This mission is pretty exciting to us," Scott Wilson, NASA's Orion production manager, said here at a media event on Wednesday (Feb. 3). "It is the first time we will have the operational human-rated version of Orion on top of the SLS rocket. It's a lot of work, but a very exciting time for us." Engineers improved the design of the crew module using lessons learned from Orion's first flight, the uncrewed, 4.5-hour Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) in December 2014. For example, the new module features just seven welds compared to the original's 33, significantly reducing the weight of the vehicle, said representatives of Lockheed Martin, which is building Orion for NASA. "EFT-1 was a learning experience in a lot of ways learning how to design, process and build the spacecraft," said Mike Hawes, Orion program manager for Lockheed Martin. "The next mission is pretty demanding," Hawes added. "We will fly further into space than ever before and will be in space for much longer, about 21 days. Demonstrating what this spacecraft can do will be huge." Over the next 19 months or so, engineers will outfit Orion with the systems and subsystems necessary for flight, including its heat-shielding thermal protection system, and subject the capsule to a number of tests, to ensure that it's ready for flight. "Coming up, we have a pressure test of this vehicle in a couple of months, then integration of propulsion systems over this summer," Hawes said. "In about a year from now, we will be powering on the spacecraft.""It's a multicenter and an international process to build Orion," said Mark Geyer, deputy director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The European Space Agency is building the service module for this mission. It's at [NASA Glenn's] Plum Brook facility right now, being integrated with the components from Lockheed Martin." Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Chad Michael Murray and Francesca Eastwood star in Outlaws and Angels, described as a Western thriller. When a gang of cold-blooded outlaws narrowly escapes a blood-soaked bank robbery, they need a place to hide before night falls. Fate brings them to the home of a seemingly innocent frontier family with two feisty daughters. As the men settle in, an impetuous game of cat and mouse ensues, leading to seduction, role reversal and, ultimately, bloody revenge. By morning, nothing will ever be the same. The film is writer/director JT Mollners first feature. He shot the movie on 35mm film, giving it a grainy look reminiscent of the European westerns of decades past. But he also wanted it to be a modern take on the genre, revealing gritty, depraved, brutal truths of the American West. Mollner told SpoilerTV it took him three years to make the film after writing the script because the risky content initially made it difficult to woo actors. But Chad Michael Murrays interest and attachment to the film (as the forceful and charismatic antihero) helped secure a memorable cast, including Eastwood, Teri Polo and Luke Wilson. Mollner said over time, his frustrations with getting the film made filtered into the script, translating into a more violent movie than hed originally intended. Outlaws and Angels marks the first leading feature role for Francesca Eastwood. The daughter of Clint Eastwood and Frances Fisher says her parents gave her lots of acting advice. Fisher also appears in the film, though she and her daughter dont share scenes together. Continuing the family theme, Mollners father plays a sheriff in the movie.Momentum Pictures acquired distribution rights to Outlaws and Angels in November. They have not yet announced a movie release date.SpoilerTVs Tonya Papanikolas was excited to attend the films press line at the Sundance premiere, interviewing stars Chad Michael Murray and Francesca Eastwood, director JT Mollner and numerous other members of the cast (including Ben Browder, Madisen Beaty and Frances Fisher). Check out her interviews below. When you do, youll find out why Mollner originally thought Murray wasnt right for the part and what advice Mollner gave to his actor father on set. (Murray also tells us about his role in Agent Carter, what its like working for Marvel and whats ahead this season for his character, Jack Thompson.) If you've made travel plans to South America, Mexico, or another nearby region, you've probably been keeping an eye on the spread of the Zika virus in those areas. You might also be contemplating whether or not you should cancel your upcoming trip. But can you do so without incurring a fee? A Public Health Emergency Called a "public health emergency of international concern" by the World Health Organization and categorized as an Alert Level 2 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, active transmissions of the Zika virus have been reported in more than two dozen countries. While the virus isn't deadly, its symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis, and sometimes muscle pain and headaches. It is of more concern for pregnant women, however, as it has been shown to cause microcephaly and other birth defects once the child is born. How to Cancel Your Flight or Cruise Spread by mosquitoes, the Zika virus is something you definitely want to avoid, especially since there isn't a vaccine or medication to prevent catching it. Fortunately if you have a flight booked to one of the infected areas listed on the Center for Disease Control's website, most airlines are offering refunds or the opportunity to rebook. United Airlines is allowing all customers to change their destination or travel date without being charged a fee, or to receive a refund by contacting their customer contact center by February 29. Delta and Alaska Airlines are doing the same, while American is only offering refunds for travel parties with pregnant women when they show a doctor's note confirming their pregnancies. Southwest Airlines' regular policy applies, which allows travelers to use their non-refundable fare towards a future flight when they cancel at least 10 minutes prior to departure. United and Delta are also allowing flight attendants and pilots to swap out scheduled flights to the infected areas for other itineraries. Cruise lines aren't being quite so flexible. Like American, both Carnvial and Norwegian are only allowing parties with pregnant women to switch their itineraries to an unaffected area or a later date (no refunds). Similarly, all companies offering itinerary changes or refunds require that the destination be on the CPC's list. So even if you're heading to somewhere nearby, like the Cayman Islands, if it's unaffected, you won't be eligible for these provisions. What do you think? Are you worried about the Zika virus, and if so, will you be changing your travel plans? Let us know in the comments. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Jeffrey P. Pino, who led Sikorsky Aircraft during the Stratford-based manufacturers wartime expansion and development of a revolutionary high-speed helicopter, died Friday after a World War II-era fighter plane he was piloting crashed near Maricopa, Ariz. Pino was 61. Nick Tramontano, known to some as the mayor of Oxford Airport, was also killed. Pino led Sikorsky between 2006 and 2012, a period in which the company bid successfully for multiple contracts totaling billions of dollars, including a new helicopter to replace the aging Sikorsky fleet used by the White House. Sikorskys Stratford plant is the single largest manufacturing plant in Connecticut; under former owner United Technologies, the company has long been Fairfield Countys largest employer, with new parent Lockheed Martin having committed to maintaining the Stratford plant following its acquisition of Sikorsky last year. More News Ex-Sikorsky chief joins rival developer The cause of the crash had yet to be determined as of Saturday; Pino owned a P-51D Mustang fighter named Big Beautiful Doll, with the Associated Press citing a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman saying the aircraft that crashed appeared to be a Mustang and the Arizona Republic reporting that Pino was the registered owner of the plane that crashed. Sikorsky released a statement on its website from Dan Schultz, whom Lockheed Martin named in November as president of the manufacturer. During his six years as (president) of Sikorsky, Jeff brought personal energy and passion for aviation innovation to our industry, Schultz said. We remember Jeff as a leader, pioneer, innovator and advocate. David Faile, president of the Friends of Sikorski Airport, identified Tramontano as the second man killed in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media. Nick, known as the mayor of Oxford Airport ... was a key member of the aviation community known and befriended by many, wrote Faile. He will be sorely missed. On Saturday, employees and others reflected on Pino on Sikorskys Facebook page, including Charles Romano Jr. The coolest president we ever had, Romano wrote. The only president that would actually stop in the hallway or the shop and say hello and ask how you were doing. After retiring from Sikorsky in 2012, Pino moved to Chandler, Ariz., where in 2013 he became CEO of Macquarie Rotorcraft Leasing. Later, Pino became vice chairman of Colorado-based XTI Aircraft, which is planning an experimental aircraft called the TriFan 600, designed with ducted fan engines to take off and land vertically, reminiscent of the aircraft in the movie Avatar. In a statement on XTIs website, the companys founder called Pino a brilliant strategist, visionary and expert in all things aviation. Jeff loved flying and he was genuinely excited about what the TriFan 600 will mean to the future of flight, stated David Brody, founder and chairman of XTI. As a man with big ideas, and even bigger dreams, Jeff was committed to bringing the TriFan 600 to market, and now, more than ever, so are we. Pino joined Sikorsky in 2002 from Textron subsidiary and rival Bell Helicopter, and in March 2006 was promoted to president even as Sikorsky was in the throes of a strike that would last six weeks. Major Sikorsky milestones during his tenure included the acquisition of PZL Mielec in Poland to serve as a secondary manufacturing plant for international variants of Sikorskys Black Hawk helicopter; a huge expansion driven by Pentagon demands for helicopters and parts for combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq; and competitions for massive contracts, including a new helicopter for White House use as Marine One, combat search-and-rescue helicopters for the U.S. Air Force, and the heavy-lift helicopter CH-53K King Stallion for the U.S. Marine Corps. Pino also oversaw the final development of the Sikorsky X2, a high-speed helicopter designed with stacked rotor sets that rotate in opposite directions and a rear-mounted pusher prop to help the aircraft achieve speeds a third faster than the Black Hawk and other traditional helicopter designs. Sikorskys successful design and flight of the X2 would win it the 2010 Robert J. Collier Trophy from the U.S. National Aeronautic Association, the top prize in U.S. aviation awarded annually. Sikorsky hopes to sell the Pentagon on the design as the base platform for a new generation of fast scout helicopters. During Pinos years, Sikorsky also saw its share of challenges as well, the worst being the crash of a Sikorsky-built S-92 helicopter off the coast of Newfoundland that killed 17 people, the cause later determined to be a gearbox failure that resulted in the loss of oil. Sikorsky saw other setbacks as well, including a Department of Defense reprimand for quality issues in the months after the 2006 strike that prompted UTC to dispatch future CEO Louis Chenevert to Stratford to get production back on track; and technical problems that resulted in delays delivering new maritime helicopters to Canada, sparking criticism in Ottawa and losses that hit UTCs bottom line. If Mick Maurer, the man who succeeded Pino as president in 2012, won wide respect at Sikorsky for his engineering acumen, in Pino the company had a leader who had spent plenty of time in the cockpit, dating back to his days as a U.S. Army pilot after graduating in 1976 from the University of Arizona with a bachelors degree in psychology. While serving in the Army, he would obtain an MBA through a distance learning program offered by Webster University. Pino often appeared animated when talking about flight, including at a 2012 ceremony commemorating the installation of the Black Hawk fuselage outside the companys plant in Stratford, when he jocularly referenced his own skills. I want to dispel a myth that our chief test pilot landed it on the pedestal, Pino said at the time. He didnt. ... I could have. One individual eulogizing Pino on Sikorskys Facebook page noted an entry on Pinos own page from October, in which he posted a video taken while aloft, catching an expanse of clouds below and blue sky above, while quoting from the poem High Flight penned by aviator John McGee just a few months before his death during World War II. I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, Pino wrote. Staff writer Alex Gecan contributed to this report. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-964-2236; www.twitter.com/casoulman Its almost unheard of in Connecticut. School districts dont usually replace Shipman & Goodwin, the states go-to firm for education law. The Hartford firm represents 123 of the 198 districts in Connecticut, and one of its partners, Tom Mooney, wrote A Practical Guide to Connecticut School Law, a bible for educators. Mooneys first large client, back in the mid-1980s, was Stamford. But now the relationship is winding down, another casualty of the Stamford High School sexual misconduct scandal. The city has chosen a different law firm to represent the school district in special education matters, which was a large portion of Shipman & Goodwins case load. Legal Affairs Director Kathryn Emmett, whose office hires outside counsel for the schools, said this week that Marsha Moses of the Milford firm Berchem, Moses & Devlin has the job now. Marsha Moses is an expert in special education, Emmett said. A Hartford firm, Kainen, Escalara & McHale, represents the Stamford school district and Board of Education in general matters and union grievances, Emmett said. Shipman & Goodwin will continue in some existing capacities, including handling collective bargaining, she said, and the city law department will continue to represent the school system to the extent that we have the expertise. She did not explain why Shipman & Goodwin will no longer handle special education. The transition is under way and the expectation is that there will be no effect on ongoing matters, Emmett said. A spokesperson for Shipman & Goodwin could not be reached Friday. The law firms problems began in December 2014, when Emmetts office chose still another Hartford law firm, Pullman & Comley, to investigate the districts handling of the case of Danielle Watkins, a Stamford High English teacher now in prison for having a year-long sexual relationship with a student. Among Pullman & Comleys findings were that, along with school administrators, Shipman & Goodwin failed to report the sexual misconduct to police and the state Department of Children and Families. Investigators found that Shipman & Goodwin attorneys had advised school administrators that they didnt need to report it because of the students age. As it turns out, its a felony for a teacher to have sex with a student in the same school, regardless of age, and the student in the Watkins case was a DCF client, requiring that the matter be reported immediately. Changing relationship Last May, when school administrators began to discipline those involved in the case, Emmett recommended that Shipman & Goodwin not take part in the discussions. There certainly is a concern that the law firms involvement was itself one of the factors that contributed to the problems that occurred, Emmett said at the time. Her office then hired Kainen, Escalera & McHale to represent the district in the Stamford High case. In July schools spokeswoman Sharon Beadle said that, though Shipman & Goodwin has represented Stamford schools for 30 years, there is no contractual obligation and the relationship could be terminated at any time. The same month, Emmetts office published a notice in the Connecticut Law Tribune seeking law firms that would be interested in representing Stamford schools in labor negotiations, union grievances, special education cases, and training in education law. In September Emmett would not say whether her office was looking to replace Shipman & Goodwin. Shes still not saying. I dont want to comment on the decision making, Emmett said this week. Besides the Stamford High case, there may be another reason for Stamfords scale-back of Shipman & Goodwins services. Pass the trash law In 2012 former Superintendent Winifred Hamilton signed an agreement that allowed a male teacher suspected of inappropriate behavior with female students to quietly leave the district with his salary and a letter of recommendation to help him get a teaching job elsewhere. The agreement included the names of all nine people then serving on the Board of Education. After The Advocate brought it to light last year, members said they did not know their names were on it. Former board member Jerry Pia said Mooney and Hamilton told him the agreement was a standard form, suggesting that other such cases have been handled by allowing suspect teachers to move on. A new federal law prohibits the practice, known as passing the trash, and the Stamford school board reportedly is drafting a policy against it. Still, Shipman & Goodwins long-held reputation remains, said Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. He has heard of no other school district replacing Shipman & Goodwin because of the headlines in Stamford, Rader said. They are an excellent firm, he said. We love to work with them because they are very caring and understanding and do a wonderful job representing school districts. Mooney continues to write a column for the CABE Journal in which he uses the fictitious Nutmeg Board of Education to raise legal problems and explain solutions, Rader said. Mooney compiled the columns into a book, See You in Court. The columns are used for learning at our conferences and are highly respected by school board members and superintendents across the state, Rader said. -- angela.carella@scni.com; 203-964-2296; stamfordadvocate.com/angelacarella. University officials say they want to enroll economically diverse students. But when looking at the nations best colleges schools that have a five-year graduation rate at 75 percent or greater only a handful of schools make good on that pledge. And the best ones are on in California. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been gathering information regarding the nation's crime statistics since 1930. Data such as homicides, property crimes, and weapons seized are just a small part of the collection that is compiled and published for use by researchers, politicians, and city leaders. But the figures can also be a tool for everyday citizens. Every year, the FBI produces the Uniform Crime Report that includes data on the nation's hundreds of colleges and universities. The numbers are based on the previous year. Ahead of the 2015 data release later in the spring of 2016, but just as students are receiving acceptance letters or gearing up for college visits, Chron looks at the 2014 numbers from institutions of higher education across the country. Bengaluru: Invest Karnataka 2016 may have ended with promises of job creation and bringing in investment of Rs 1.33 lakh core in some 147 projects, but for the citys upcoming entrepreneurs this is simply not enough. They want more commitment from the government and also transparency in making all the deals a reality. However, being around business bigwigs and hearing the likes of industries minister, R.V. Deshpande, and Mohandas Pai speak was clearly inspirational for 34-year-old Vivek Gupta, founder of Licious, a successful meat delivery start-up. He gushes that Karnataka has always been an entrepreneur- friendly state providing a conducive environment for young people looking to do business. These mega meets come through for small start-ups as the entrepreneurs feel encouraged, he says, as co-founder of Licious, Abhay Hanjura, nods in agreement. "We went there and experienced what goes on behind the curtains. It was great understanding how things work at a deeper level and were impressed with the ideas flowing there. The beauty is that people like Mohandas Pai and Narayana Murthy see a future in the young generation. They see us as a promise for the future and have so much of confidence in us. That kind of encouragement is needed for small start- ups which are trying to jostle their way through the competitive market," he says . Both agree that bureaucracy and red tape in the state is an issue that needs to be addressed. "We entrepreneurs are never in the limelight and we need help with the licensing and other initial support that is required by start-ups and so if the government helps us with certain issues then a lot of innovation can take place in the country given the kind of brains we have," adds Vivek. The young entrepreneurs also make it clear that transparency is another issue that needs to be worked on. Anil Shetty, social entrepreneur and Time Investor, who is also involved in start-ups like Fly with VIP, Licious and App Guide, points out that the state government now has a window of only two years and needs to get cracking. May be the results will be seen after five years. That is acceptable but they should not sit on things and should be open about their commitment to creating jobs and setting up industries. That would be win-win for all the stakeholders involved," he stresses. T his was the dramatic scene in north London this morning after a vehicle careered off the road, flipped and came to rest on its roof in the middle of a pavement. One man was taken to hospital - and later arrested on suspicion of drink driving - after the crash shortly before 5am on Fore Street, Edmonton, Scotland Yard said. He miraculously escaped serious injury. A Met spokesman said the man, in his 20s, remained in police custody. Debris can be seen strewn across the road in pictures of the incident outside a pharmacy and a newsagent. Carnage: The crashed vehicle left a trail of destruction in its wake / Tony Hardiman Waste from a rubbish bin taken out by the crashed vehicle lies among the mangled wreckage of fencing separating pedestrians from the road. Police shut the road for more than six hours while the mess was cleared and the car was recovered. A refugee who fled war-torn Somalia as a child was stabbed 30 times in an abhorrent attack in Kensington as he desperately tried to protect himself by wrapping a flimsy duvet around his body. The man and a friend miraculously survived after they were both knifed in the horrific and gratuitous attack in Kensington Church Street. The second victim was stabbed 10 times in the head and also bottled, police said. He was also a refugee, who came to London after fleeing Eritrea as a child. Two young brothers and a friend, who were all teenagers at the time, were jailed on Friday over the horrendous attack in January last year. They had targeted their victims, both 24, for low value property after hatching a robbery plan when a drinking session turned sour, police said. In a heart-breaking victim statement, the man who was stabbed 30 times said: In terms of what happened to me it was the most terrifying thing I had experienced, including things I had seen as a child in Somalia. "At times I wished I had died because I felt like so much of my life had gone." His friend, who witnessed his father being killed in front of him as a young boy, said: I still have the scars and have to look at myself every day in the mirror and be reminded of what they did to me. I used to be confident but now I always wear a hat, or sunglasses to hide my face and create a barrier. The images of what happened are so vivid that I get nightmares where the incident replays in my head. I don't think that experience will ever leave me." The violence was so severe the victims both passed out before the attackers fled with their belongings. Thankfully, one of them regained consciousness a short while later and managed to call for help, as his friend lay with life-threatening wounds. Blood-stained clothes and stolen property linked the attackers to their crimes. Ahmed Hajila, now 20, of Notting Hill, received a life sentence at Isleworth Crown Court for attempted murder, GBH with intent, conspiracy to rob and intent to supply heroin. His brother Aymen Hajila, 18, of Dagenham, was jailed for five years for GBH with intent, while Rehan Ullah, also 18, of Shepherds Bush, received eight years for GBH with intent and conspiracy to rob. Detective Superintendent Raffaele D'Orsi said: The judge described this attack as gratuitous, excessive and planned and we are pleased that these three men have been imprisoned for this terrible attack of senseless violence on two innocent victims, the only motive being the theft of low value property. Nothing can justify such an abhorrent act. T racey Emin is embroiled in a planning row after asking the government to rule on whether she can build a new home in Spitalfields. The Turner Prize nominee submitted plans to Tower Hamlets council last July to tear down a listed building in Bell Lane and replace it with a five-floor house connected to her studio in Tenter Ground. The application is designed to bring the artist's home and work life under one roof. But heritage groups described the plans as "destructive", adding historic buildings in the area were under threat. The council is expected to reject the scheme on Wednesday after officers recommended it should be refused on heritage grounds. Controversial: Heritage campaigners say the listed building in Bell Lane should be protected / Google Maps But an appeal has already been lodged by experts on behalf of Ms Emin for a government planning inspector to have the final say. The move comes after the council claimed "complex heritage issues and local interest" meant it was unable to determine the application within in the standard six-month timeframe. Ms Emins request has angered opponents who called on her to scrap the scheme in order to protect "treasured" buildings in the area. SAVE Britain's Heritage director Clem Cecil said: "This is an extremely aggressive move on the part of applicant Tracey Emin and suggests that she wishes to force this through the planning process, whatever the opinion of the councillors, local people or preservation groups. "However, this does not change the fact that 66-68 Bell Lane is a locally listed building in a conservation area." A Tower Hamlets spokesman confirmed the authority no longer has decision making powers over the application but said it will still be presented to the planning committee next week. He said: "The council received notification of the appeal from the Planning Inspectorate. The council is still considering its position on whether to contest the appellants request for an inquiry. The application was not included on the agenda for December Development Committee and therefore it was not subsequently withdrawn. The complex heritage issues and local interest in this planning application were such that the determination period extended beyond normal timeframes to allow the applicants team and council officers to engage positively and proactively to address concerns raised with the application. The application has received 58 letters of objection and 11 in support. In 2008, Ms Emin spent a reported 4 million to buy a large part of Tenter Ground to use as a studio and said she wanted to maintain the area's unique heritage. Notable works by the artist include Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, a tent with all the names of people she has shared a bed with, and My Bed, an installation of her own unmade bed which contained used condoms and blood-stained underwear. Ms Emin has been approached for comment. A t least seven people have been killed by a powerful earthquake that brought down buildings in the major Taiwanese city of Tainan. Many of the confirmed fatalities, including a 10-day-old baby girl, happened when a 17-storey apartment block collapsed because of the 6.4 magnitude tremor. The quake hit on Saturday on the first day of the Chinese New Year holiday celebration. Some 35 people are still feared to be trapped in the rubble hours into the rescue effort. Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the ruins, plucking more than 220 survivors to safety, with dozens taken to hospital, a fire brigade official said. Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles, a government emergency centre said. Rescue: Fire crew pull a baby from the rubble / EPA But firefighters said rescue efforts were focused on the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building apartment block. A 71-year-old neighbour who gave his name as Chang said: "I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down. The plumber said he user tools and a ladder to prise window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help. "She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in, he added. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them." Deadly quake: Residents study the devastation wrought by the tremor / Getty The quakes epicentre was 27 miles south-east of Tainan at the shallow depth of 14 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A major earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed about 2,400 people and caused damage across the island, which lies in the seismically active "Pacific Ring of Fire". Ajay and his team will battle harsh weather conditions as they shoot in the Bulgarian mountains. Ajay Devgn has finally begun shooting the last leg of his directorial venture Shivaay in Bulgaria. The actor turned director set out to the Nordic country mid-January for a recce. We had learnt that the shoot required extremely cold weather and a lot of snowfall and hence the team scheduled the shoot for February. Ajay took to his social networking handle today, to give his fans a sneak peek of the films sets. A part of Shivaay will be shot in the snow clad Bulgarian mountains, which received a fresh cover of snow this week. The actor had gone to Canada last year around the same time to find a suitable location for the film, but after that didnt work out, he zeroed in on Bulgaria. Ajay had also met the Tourism minister of Bulgaria, who welcomed him to the country and gave him permission to shoot it some beautiful scenic locations. This schedule is expected to go on for two-months, where the team will battle harsh weather conditions. An online post states that a special stunt team will also accompany the crew to the shoot. The stuntmen have been going through multiple days practice sessions before they head out to the mountains. A portion of the film has been shot in Hyderabad and some parts of it will be shot in Mumbai too, after the crew returns in April. When you're as big as Shah Rukh Khan, you never know when a pack of anxious, eager fans is waiting just around the corner. The actor, who is currently shooting for his upcoming film 'Raees' in Bhuj, is accompanied by his son AbRam. Read: Shah Rukh Khans Raees falls into trouble, faces objection from VHP in Gujarat It so happened that Shah Rukh took some time off from his shooting and stepped out with his little one to a toy store in the city. But things took an interesting turn when the crowd got a whiff of SRK-AbRam's outing, and a huge gathering was formed outside the toy shop. The fans were eager to get a glimpse of the superstar as soon as he made an appearance. However, Shah Rukh made a quick dash to his car and protectively held AbRam in his arms. Watch the video here. SRK and AbRam in Bhuj. @iamsrk He must be the youngest Indian to be mobbed like this haha pic.twitter.com/sEDDmjpGaB SHAH RUKH KHAN FAN (@AjayeSrkian) February 4, 2016 Recently, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members protested against the ongoing shooting of 'Raees', for his earlier remarks on "intolerance". Around 20-30 VHP activists had handed over a memorandum to district officers and demanded withdrawal of the permission given for the shooting of the film. They protested outside the district Collectors office pressing for the same demand. They shouted slogans against Shah Rukh and also burnt and tore his posters. However, soon the situation was brought under control and producer Ritesh Sidhwani posted, "No disruption on Raees set in Bhuj shooting on schedule with full cooperation from government & police force..." Remya Krishna, a native of Kochi, is an actor, television host, and an emcee. She started off as a fashion stylist in Dubai and later moved to television and cinema out of her passion towards it. Like any beginner who tries luck in the world of glitz and glamour, her first attempt was in television through the popular show Gulumal. Later, she ventured into movies and so far done four movies - Akkaldamayile Pennu, Utopyayile Rajavu, Aana Mayil Ottakam and Rock Star. And there is one in the offing. I cannot disclose details of the new Malayalam movie as it is under discussion, says Remya, who played the role of Anjali in Rockstar.The movie was centred on a rock music band that consists of five members. I played the role of the lady band member in the movie, she adds. Akkaldamyile Pennu was Remyas first movie. I did the role of a nun. The movie was completed over almost a year ago; however, its release got delayed. I was so fortunate that my three movies Akkaldamayile Pennu, Aana Mayil Ottakam and Rockstar hit the theatres the same month, she says. However, Remya got the much-needed attention through Mammootty-starrer Utopyayile Rajavu. And she believes that her career would get a leap with her new movies. Currently, she presents the show Super Chef in Asianet, does celebrity interviews and hosts award shows in and outside the country. I focus mainly on celebrity interviews, which have taught me many things in life. It taught me to present myself before others and the need to be a good communicator to survive in this field, she says. Does she regret quitting her job to pursue her passion? No. It is true that those days were good. In Dubai, I worked for a boutique that specialises in wedding attires of the Arabs. I had the opportunity to visit palaces and meet the royal families. When I felt that it was time for me to follow my hearts calling, I quit the job, explains Remya. She had a tough time in the beginning. There were situations she even thought about leaving the film industry. I was offered a role and was even asked to mentally prepare for it. Then, they denied me the role and I was devastated. But, slowly I came out of it, says Remya who wants to don the role of an anti-hero, sometime in future. I went to the organizational meeting of the local Trout Unlimited chapter Thursday because I know a few of the guys involved and it seemed like a good fit for my interests in fishing and wildlife photography. By the end of the meeting I was a member of the board and recruited to be chapter secretary. Not quite what I expected, but it sounds as if its going to be a worthwhile effort, and happening at an opportune time. More than 30 people attended the meeting, and with help and encouragement from the eastern Nebraska TU chapter we took the first steps toward becoming an independent organization. With a board and officers in place, well begin meeting regularly and planning some activities and projects. If you enjoy trout fishing, itll also be an opportunity to make new like-minded friends. It costs $17.50 for inaugural annual dues, and $15 of that will come back to the chapter. After the first year its $35 or $20 for senior citizens or more, if you want, depending on your level of interest. The sponsoring club chipped in $2,000 toward our first projects. Those are likely to include rechanneling Dry Spotted Tail Creek west of Mitchell to create about a mile of new publicly accessible trout water and working with streamside property owners willing to host hatchery boxes, which provide protection to hatching fish eggs, as part of an effort to restore and expand a migratory strain of rainbow trout that used to mature in Lake McConaughy decades ago and return to Nine Mile Creek to spawn. Mike Grubb, whos been working with landowner Lee Dick to hatch eggs on Nine Mile Creek, also joined the board. The club took its name from that project and will be called the Chasing Rainbows Chapter. In addition, Hod Kosman, who did most of the initial work to get the ball rolling, said the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has developed an increased interest in enhancing coldwater trout fisheries. Most of those in Nebraska are in the Panhandle. Thats good news for fly anglers and others who enjoy catching trout. In time, the commission will be more likely to work with landowners to provide more public access, and the club will undertake educational programs to bring more women and kids into the sport. A few other tidbits from the outdoor world: You may have noticed a lot more eagles soaring over local skies recently. Last year, according to Nebraska Game and Parks, a record 118 active bald eagle nests were documented in Nebraska. The bird was considered endangered as recently as 2008. In fact, 25 years ago there were no breeding pairs, according to Joel Jorgensen, Nebraska Game and Parks nongame bird program manager. It takes about three months for a bald eagle mating pair to hatch a few eggs and raise their eaglets into independent young predators. If a bald eagle pair is experienced and lucky, they will raise two and sometimes even three eagles a year, Jorgensen said. Our data shows that Nebraska bald eagle pairs have produced, on average, 1.7 eagles per year. Its an encouraging success story at a time when many other species are in decline. On New Years Day my daughter and I got up early and went to Ash Hollow State Park to take a First Day Walk with a few dozen friendly supporters of the historical park. Recently, Game and Parks awarded the park a grant to enhance watchable wildlife and nature-based opportunities. The funding will go to Friends of Ash Hollow State Historical Park for a wildlife trail and other park enhancement. To learn more about watching Nebraskas wildlife or this grant opportunity, visit OutdoorNebraska.gov/wildlifeviewing/ or contact the Nebraska Game and Parks Commissions watchable wildlife biologist at adam.jones@nebraska.gov The watchable wildlife grant program gets additional support from the Nebraska Wildlife Conservation Fund. To support programs like the Ash Hollow project, as well as many other conservation efforts, fans of the great outdoors can consider donating all or a portion of a tax refund to the Nebraska Wildlife Conservation Fund. Line 42 on 2015 state income tax Form 1040N allows individuals to donate all or a part of their tax refund to the fund, which focuses on saving Nebraskas wildlife and wild places. Just look for the peregrine falcon on your tax form, or donate directly at www.NebraskaWildlifeFund.org. For more information on the Nebraska Wildlife Conservation Fund, visit nebraskawildlifefund.org. The tax check-off is an important funding source for implementation of Nebraskas Natural Legacy Project, developed to conserve wildlife before they become rare and more costly to protect. The check-off is one of the principal sources of state funding used to conserve more than 95 percent of fish and wildlife species that are considered nongame, said Kristal Stoner, wildlife diversity program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. This page may have been moved, deleted, or is otherwise unavailable. To help you find what you are looking for: Enter Search Term(s): Still cant find what youre looking for? Send us a message using our contact us form. To report a broken link or other problems with the website, please include the URL. Thank you for visiting state.gov. SteelOrbis has learned from a market source that Mexican CRC import prices from China rose by $20-30/mt to $370-$380/mt CFR LO, from $350-360/mt CFR LO in mid-January. Certain Chinese imports, such as slab, CRC, HRC , heavy plate and wire rod, pay a provisional 15 percent imports tariff, plus any other existing AD duty, be it a provisional or a definite one, depending on the country and on the product. Romania's Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) announced on Friday that the lift of Republic of Moldova's ban of Romanian citizen George Simion has been repealed; Moldova's Migration and Asylum Bureau won an appeal to this effect at the Court of Appeals of Chisinau. "MAE acted on its own motion following media reports and was also directly informed by Mr. George Simion on the interdiction for him to enter the Republic of Moldova, on 5 February 2016. Consequently, the Romanian embassy, in accordance with diplomatic procedures, requested clarifications on the situation from the authorities of the Republic of Moldova. Following these demarches, the management of the Migration and Asylum Bureau of the Republic of Moldova mentioned it has appealed the 18 September 2015 decision of the Court of Appeals of Chisinau, which had lifted the earlier denial of entry to the Republic of Moldova. Eventually, the Court of Appeals of the Republic of Moldova upheld the appeal filed by the Migration and Asylum Bureau," the MAE answered an inquiry of AGERPRES.According to this source, the Bureau management mentioned that Simion's legal representative in Moldova has been informed about these topics."The Foreign Affairs Ministry, through Romania's Embassy to the Republic of Moldova, asked the relevant institutions of the Republic of Moldova to explain the legal procedures the Romanian citizen has to go through, in accordance with the relevant laws," the MAE added.Romanian citizen George Simion is again denied entry to the Republic of Moldova, as the Unionist Platform Action 2021, chaired by Simion, informed on Friday in a release to AGERPRES. The interdiction enforced against Romanian citizen George Simion, expelled from the Republic of Moldova on 13 May 2015 and declared undesirable in this country for five years, had been lifted on 18 September 2015 following the ruling of the Court of Appeals of Chisinau. On the occasion, the court ruled there were no reasons to pronounce George Simion persona non-grata. AGERPRES Rating: Cast: Dinesh, Samuthirakani, Kishore, Murugadass Director: Vetri Maaran Vetri Maaran, the national award winning filmmaker known for his intense films is back after a hiatus with an arresting subject, a story inspired from a novel Lock Up, a true life horrific experiences written by a Kovai based auto driver Chandra Kumar. Premiered at last years Venice Film Festival, Visaaranai (Interrogation) is a power-packed work, which is gloomy, disturbing where violence begets violence. The movie about police high-handedness on four guys from Tamil Nadu including Pandi (Dinesh, Aadukalam Murugadoss among others) who are daily-wage earning laborers at Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. They havent learnt Telugu and do not have a shelter of their own. They together sleep in a park nearby. On a fateful wee hour, they are picked up by local police and taken to the station and brutally beaten black and blue for a crime, which they did not commit. The cops resort to several degrees of torture as they are under pressure to close a robbery case file and the foursome is made to admit the crime so that they can produce them in the court the next day. Meanwhile, a special police force from Tamil Nadu, led by Murugavel (Samuthirakani), arrives at the Andhra court to arrest a high profile auditor (Kishore). Incidentally, he comes to the rescue of the four innocent boys. He also offers them a free ride to Chennai. On the way, one of them gets down and the rest three reaches the destination. Murugavel asks a small favor to clean up the police station since the next day happens to be a festival and the three oblige. Just when you think all is well with the boys, the visaaranai once again begins at the TN police station. Stuck at wrong place at wrong time, they get trapped in a web of conspiracy woven by the corrupt, scheming policemen and powerful politicians. Attakatthi Dinesh and Murugadass have given a realistic portrayal and Samuthirakani simply excels especially in the climax scenes when he is caught between his duty and guilt. Ajay Ghosh as the Telugu inspector frightens with his menacing act. Kishore steals the show in a small yet powerful role. Anandhi appears in a blink- n- miss role. GV Prakashs BGM, Rama Lingams cinematography and late editor Kishores crisp editing literally elevate the script to a new level. Vetri Maaran has made an emotional saga, which depicts the harsh realities of life with a no-holds barred stark approach, which may not go well with the feeble hearted, but will be something to ponder over our corrupt and greedy system in which we are living. And the boy who gets down early from Samuthirakanis jeep in the film is the only survivor in the whole drama who we are shown is Chandra Kumar who wrote the novel. Back in 2010, New Yorker writer Janet Mayer wrote a magazine profile of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, the Kansas industrialists with a libertarian bent. Now, she has expanded that profile into Dark Money, a microscopic study subtitled The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Radical Right. In her view, the radical right challenged the widely accepted post-World War II consensus that an active government was a force for public good. Instead, they argued for limited government, drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry, particularly in the environmental arena. Well, you might ask, isnt that what all principled libertarians stand for? Mayers answer: They said they were driven by principle, but their positions dovetailed seamlessly with their personal financial interests. Libertarians like the plutocratic Koch brothers knew their stance would be a loser at the polls. So they took some more subtle steps, such as: Setting up think tanks to spread their message. Handing out endowments to libertarian professors. Giving their money not to politicians but to private foundations that stressed libertarian principles. Pumping money into seemingly grass-roots civic groups, which cynics now call Astroturf groups. Starting with North Carolina in 2010, funding candidates for the legislature that would remap the states congressional districts a plus for deeply conservative Republicans. Backing legal challenges to limits on political donations and succeeding in 2010 with the Supreme Courts Citizens United ruling. Mayer calls that ruling in many respects a return to the Gilded Age, when money ruled Washington. Indeed, she quotes an employee of one libertarian foundation as saying that in any dispute between foundation staff and their groups financial backers, the end result is the Golden Rule whoever has the gold rules. Like many a political pundit, Mayer says that the libertarian Republicans elected to the U.S. House have made governing tough and even, as the shutdown of October 2013 showed impossible. Barack Obama managed to win re-election in 2012, thanks in large part to Republican Mitt Romneys plutocratic 47 percent gaffe. But Mayer writes that in 2014, libertarian money turned the tide in Congress. As for this years presidential race, she says the Koch brothers and their followers have invested heavily in a supremely high-tech computerized approach. Its all here, from the Tea Party upswing to the fossil fuel industrys expressions of doubt about global warming. For some readers staggering under the load of Mayers listings of names, dates, places and obscure foundations, the message may seem unworthy of the effort required to read it. Curiously, none of the many libertarians quoted at length in this book cite the words of Revolutionary-era thinker Thomas Paine: That government is best which governs least. Which spared Mayer from having to respond with another quote from Paine: Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it. Harry Levins of Manchester retired in 2007 as senior writer of the Post-Dispatch. Dark Money By Jane Mayer Had Chris Offutt titled his memoir My Father, the Science Fiction Writer, surely it would not attract so much attention. This cleverly marketed reminiscence of a writers coming of age in eastern Kentucky could have carried that title, too. The authors father was Andrew Offutt, a prolific author of pulp porn and well-regarded science fiction books and stories. The senior Offutt was also a self-centered, compulsive man who verbally abused his children and left psychological scars on his oldest son and probably his other son and two daughters. In 1990, when Chris Offutt called his father to tell him about publishing his first book, Kentucky Straight, his father said: Im sorry. I didnt know Id given you a childhood terrible enough to make you a writer. He had. A troubled home life is often the raw material skilled writers mine to tell their own stories. In My Father, the Pornographer, Chris Offutt shows he has much to work with. Telling one vignette after another in short, easy-to-read chapters, Offutt pulls us along with deft descriptions of his fathers idiosyncrasies and his own struggles to survive within his fathers world: A long argument between my father and me ended with us in separate parts of the house. Dad stomped into the room where I stood and handed me a note. I saved it for years, committing it to memory: Your need to have the last word makes it impossible to talk with you. Here, then, is mine. The senior Offutt wrote under pseudonyms (John Cleve, Turk Winter, etc.) and published hundreds of books about sex, perversion, aliens and other worlds. In a fascinating chapter about separate porn and science fiction writers conventions, the author tells how his parents were sometimes the adored subjects of camp followers and admirers. And how at the porn conventions they had a hotel room with access to adjoining rooms, in case swinging was on the menu. Yet, Offutts Roman Catholic parents remained married for 56 years and, in their perhaps peculiar fashion, loved each other, their family and found a way to survive in the world no mean task. When Chris was young, his father stopped selling insurance: At age thirty-five hed achieved his goals social status, big house, nice car, his own business. He also felt snared by his values. He didnt like children. He made it clear to the family that hed fathered kids due to Catholicism and resented the Church for the burden. When he turned to writing full time, Andy Offutt wrote longhand in the house where he demanded absolute silence. His subservient wife typed the manuscripts and ran the family business pulp fiction from their large home. At the outset of this quite funny, engaging book, Offutt quotes his father from 1986: If not for writing pornography, Id have been a serial killer. The idea that porn prevented him from killing was a self-serving delusion that justified his impulse to depict women in torment, Offutt writes about his fathers shocking statement. Thinking of himself as a serial killer if not for making porn was another fantasy on his part, one that allowed him to surrender completely to his obsessions. He needed to believe in a great purpose in order to continue his work. Yet when Mary Joe Offutt says she is ashamed of how she helped her husband create his worlds of sex, bondage and perversion, her son tells her the public no longer regards porn the way that it had when his father was flooding the dark corners of Americas cheap bookstores with lurid books. A painful home life gave Chris Offutt a seasoned view of the human experience. Hes done well himself as an author, editor of anthologies of contemporary writing and screenwriter. TV series hes worked on include True Blood and Weeds. Although, as a youth, Offutt didnt see his fathers ways as a gift, he has realized that the porn and science fiction genius left him a rich legacy a childhood that shaped the son into a writer. Repps Hudson is a St. Louis writer and college instructor. My Father, the Pornographer A memoir by Chris Offutt Published by Atria Books, 261 pages, $26 One of the largest events of its kind, Big Bird Day, is all set to kick off on Sunday. And city teams are excited. In fact, it was a team from Hyderabad that won the event, last year. So, whats Big Bird Day? Started in 2004, in Delhi, BBD is a day-long search by photographers to both shoot and catalogue various species of birds in and around their cities. Over 100 teams across the country are expected to participate in this years event and Hyderabad Birding Pals 2015 winners are confident of winning again, and are hoping to spot and catalogue over 250 species this time around. variety: Last year, close to 700 new species of birds were spotted across India during Big Bird Day, including these which were spotted in Hyderabad The data collected goes into the India chapter of open-for-all portal ebird.org ebirdindia. Last year, over 700 birds from across the country were added to the online catalogue. Rajeev Khandelwal, a member of the group says, We have a checklist in place and wish to identify more species this year. We have added another team and have a total of six teams now each named after a bird who will be scouting and scanning for birds at six different hotspots across the city, the entire day. variety: Last year, close to 700 new species of birds were spotted across India during Big Bird Day, including these which were spotted in Hyderabad The areas we will be scouting will include Osmansagar, Himayatsagar, Icrisat campus, Narsapur forest, Ameenpur Lake and Ananthagiri Hills. Although its great to win this competition, the fact that it helps document the migrating patterns of birds as well as help identify new species in the city is a major driving force. He adds, If all teams from all over the subcontinent watch birds at multiple locations on the same day, the data becomes very valuable for measuring actual bird diversity of the region. It can form a rich database, especially if accumulated over several seasons or years. Long-time bird lover and member of the group Mulagala Srinivas feels they might be in for some surprises this time. variety: Last year, close to 700 new species of birds were spotted across India during Big Bird Day, including these which were spotted in Hyderabad He says, With the climatic conditions changing so drastically owing to global warming, the migrating patterns of these birds have also changed. So, we wouldnt be surprised if we see new species. "Stories of Honor" coordinated by H.E.R.O.E.S. Care on behalf of St. Louis Regional Alliance for the Troops. Select stories are chosen by a board of appointees. Each selectee is recognized with a plaque, a prize pack and night of honor at Ballpark Village. CLICK HERE to make a nomination. William Gilbert Ledbetter has seen and experienced a lot in his 102 years, but serving his country in World War II is No. 1 on the list. "When I look back on it, it's the highest watermark of my life," Ledbetter said. Ledbetter served as a cook in the Merchant Marines from 1942 to 1946. "I was working in a defense plant and the draft board sent for me," Ledbetter said. "I got down there and they wanted to put me in the infantry and I didn't like that and one of them sided with me and told me about the Merchant Marines. They said join the Merchant Marines that way you'd be home every month or two. And I liked that." What the draft board didn't tell Ledbetter was the danger. The Merchant Marines suffered the highest casualty rate in WWII, with one in 26 dying according to www.usmm.org. The next closest branch is the Marines at one in 34, followed by the Army at one in 48. The average casualty rate for WWII was one in 56. Ledbetter remembers one harrowing trip through the Strait of Gibraltar. "We were coming home on the last trip and we were convoying six following each other," Ledbetter said. "We got about two miles out and the ship next to us got hit by a torpedo. He didn't sink, he just turned back around." The danger was constant, but the sailors didn't dwell on it. "We never knew it," Ledbetter said. "You might not know. They'd shoot a torpedo at you and it'd miss you and you'd never know. "We didn't even discuss it. We just knew it was there." The United States' success in WWII hinged on merchant shipping. The Merchant Marines delivered troops, ammunition, food, tanks, winter supplies, bombs, airplanes, fuel, raw materials anything needed for the war effort. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other military leaders praised the Merchant Marines, calling them "The Fourth Arm of Defense." Despite that praise, and the bravery displayed by the sailors, the Merchant Marines have never gotten the official recognition they deserved. Since the Merchant Marines are the civilian-run cargo arm of the U.S. war machine, there were no welcome home parades or medals for the soldiers. It wasn't until a chance phone conversation with a fellow Merchant Marine in California that Ledbetter found out he was eligible to receive the medals he earned. Last year, after petitioning the Department of Defense, Ledbetter received the Victory Medal, the European Campaign Medal, the Mediterranean Campaign Medal, the Pacific Campaign Medal and the Maritime Honor Medal. "It was a mixed bag of emotions," said Ledbetter's son Stephen. "I was very proud that he got them, but my other thought was if that guy in California had never asked if he got his medals, then he might not have ever received them." Though the recognition was delayed, Ledbetter wouldn't change his experiences for anything. "There's an old saying, an army travels on its stomach," Ledbetter said. "All the years I was a cook and baker and I never got any criticism." Ledbetter still proudly wears his Merchant Marines cap every day. That hat has gotten him plenty of attention from the ladies. "Women when they saw that hat would grab me and kiss me and tell me they were thankful I was serving the country," Ledbetter said. After the war, Ledbetter had a farm in the St. Charles, Mo., area. He worked the land until hurting his leg in a farming accident. Ledbetter then began working for the U.S. Postal Service, mainly as a mail sorter downtown. He lived in Webster Groves until he retired in 1979. He then returned to his native southern Illinois and lives in Harrisburg. He is one of the oldest veterans in southern Illinois and is the oldest alumnus of Harrisburg High School. Ledbetter is still very active. He goes to Golden Circle, a senior day care, everyday where he eats lunch and talks and sings with friends many of whom also served in the military. "I was in Korea and somehow I got acquainted with an American soldier over there and I was eating at Golden Circle one day and he came by my table and we did some diddy like, "When the Saints Came Marching In," or something like that," Ledbetter said. He got a special surprise thanks to his granddaughter for his 102th birthday last November. "His granddaughter got on Facebook and told her Facebook friends that her grandpa was getting ready to turn 102 and to pass it on," Cindy Ledbetter said. "And somebody knew somebody who knew somebody and he got four cards from the other side of the world. He got 103 cards total." "Everyone thanked me for being in the war," Ledbetter said. "I appreciated that." Ledbetter is a history buff and a huge Cardinals fan. He watches almost every game on television. "When we lived in St. Louis, we lived right on a bus line," Ledbetter said. "I could get on and that bus would be down at the ballpark in 10 minutes and I went a lot of times." Ledbetter is also known as a Bible expert and he reads it daily. His favorite verse is Hebrews 4:15, which reads, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we areyet he did not sin." (NIV) Ledbetter continues to be an inspiration to everyone he touches. "If I could grow up to be half the man my father is, I'd consider myself a success," Stephen Ledbetter said. "My dad talked the talk and walked the walk all my life. He's the epitome of what being a man is all about." ST. LOUIS Three suspects, one of whom was wanted in the December shooting of a pregnant woman, were charged Friday with firing shots at undercover officers and leading them on a chase a day before. Jordan D. Brown, 22, of the 4500 block of Clarence Avenue, Nathan L. Tilson, 22, of the 5000 block of Geraldine Avenue, both in St. Louis, and Marquise R. Henderson, 26, of the 900 block of Raford Court in Bellefontaine Neighbors, were charged with multiple counts including assault, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. St. Louis County police say Brown on Dec. 22 shot a pregnant woman he had met with at a Family Dollar store in the 11000 block of Benham Road to make an unspecified transaction. Police said the woman left the store with two others in a vehicle after she and Brown failed to make a deal, and Brown followed her and shot her with a 9mm about a block from the store as she rode in the back seat of the car. Police said the shooting victim was able to identify Brown as the shooter. Undercover officers were watching Brown, Tilson and Henderson about 1:30 p.m Thursday near Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis when the Acura MDX the suspects were in made a sudden U-turn at West Florissant and Partidge avenues. Brown was driving. Shots were fired from Acura at the officers' unmarked car, but no officers were hurt. Police chased the vehicle north to Interstate 270 near Lilac Avenue but it was able elude them. About an hour later, however, the vehicle, along with three men, were found in the 4500 block of Minnesota Avenue in St. Louis. The footage shows a stark naked man entering the cafe and immediately heading towards a row of tables by the window and lying down. (Screen grab) A naked intruder scared the living daylights out of a waitress after he broke into a cafe in Russia late at night. The incident, which has been caught on CCTV, occurred in the central Russian city of Saratov. The footage shows a stark naked man entering the cafe and immediately heading towards a row of tables by the window and lying down. He shouts at the waitress and begs her to kill him. He even tells her to push the panic button, so that the Special Forces squad would be able to finish him off. The man, who looked mentally disturbed, was soon captured by the officers who managed to sedate him with an injection from a medic. It is believed that he was taken to a psychiatric institute for a check-up, reports Daily Mail. Click on the link below to view the video: Updated at 6:54 a.m. WASHINGTON President Barack Obama said Saturday that he will ask the Republican-led Congress to double spending on research and development into clean energy by 2020. But the request is unlikely to be fulfilled. GOP lawmakers scoff at the science behind climate change and dismiss Obama's pleas for the issue to be dealt with urgently. In an unusual twist in Obama's final year in office, the Republican leaders of the House and Senate budget committees have said they will not hold a customary hearing on the president's budget proposal the day after they receive it. Obama on Tuesday plans to send to Congress the spending blueprint for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. The release will come on the day when New Hampshire voters get their say in the first presidential primary of the 2016 race to succeed him. "Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, outlining his wish for the increased spending. Federal spending on research and development of clean energy would jump from $6.4 billion this year to $12.8 billion by 2020 under Obama's proposal, administration officials said. Spending would increase by about 15 percent in each of the five years of the pledge. If approved, the budget that takes effect Oct. 1 would provide $7.7 billion for clean energy research and development across 12 federal departments and agencies for the 2017 fiscal year. Obama's proposal is part of an initiative he announced at last year's U.N. climate conference in Paris. Some 20 countries, including the U.S., China, India and Brazil, have committed to double their respective budgets for this type of research over five years. The White House said this past week that Obama wants oil companies to pay a $10 fee on every barrel of oil to help raise money for spending on clean transportation to combat climate change. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., immediately declared the president's proposed oil tax "dead on arrival." WASHINGTON The Pentagon on Friday released nearly 200 photographs of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, taken mostly between 2004 and 2006, involving 56 cases of alleged abuse by U.S. forces. The often dark, blurry and grainy pictures are mainly of detainees' arms and legs, revealing bruises and cuts, and they appear far less dramatic than those released more than a decade ago during allegations of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Those now-infamous Abu Ghraib photos included images of naked detainees stacked in a human pyramid or of a soldier holding a naked detainee by a dog collar and leash. The Pentagon said that criminal investigations substantiated abuse in 14 of the cases linked to the 198 newly released photos, and determined that 42 allegations were not valid. Sixty-five service members were disciplined in connection with the cases. The photos were released in response to a Freedom of Information request from the American Civil Liberties Union. The Pentagon said that Defense Secretary Ash Carter and other military leaders reviewed a number of unreleased photos and determined that 198 could be made public. The reviews are required every three years. According to the ACLU there are as many as 2,000 photographs that the government has not released. "The disclosure of these photos is long overdue, but more important than the disclosure is the fact that hundreds of photographs are still being withheld," said ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer. "The still-secret pictures are the best evidence of the serious abuses that took place in military detention centers. The government's selective disclosure risks misleading the public about the true extent of the abuse." Allegations of physical and sexual abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad erupted in 2003, spawning a series of investigations and studies to determine the extent of the problem. Pentagon officials said that the photos released Friday do not involve incidents at Abu Ghraib or at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Noela Rukondo (left) was tied up by her captors and had even heard the familiar voice of her husband (right) over the lead abductors phone: Kill her. (Screen grab) After her husbands scheme of getting her murdered did not work, one woman gave him the shock of his life by arriving at her own funeral. Noela Rukondo from Australia had gone to visit her native Burundi to mourn her mothers death when her husband hatched a plan to do away with her. In an interview with the BBC, Rukondo recounted her bone-chilling experience of being abducted and held captive by a group of masked gunmen. She said that she was tied up by her captors and had even heard the familiar voice of her husband over the lead abductors phone: Kill her. Fortunately, her abductors spared her and she returned to Australia. Whats more, she actually landed up at home just as the last guests left her funeral. Her husband is now serving a nine year prison sentence for incitement to murder. The wild monkey was caged after locals said it had been causing a nuisance for over six months. (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav) Mumbai: The captured monkey, its arms tied tightly behind its back, sits crouched over in a Mumbai residential colony trying with its teeth to untie the cord bound around its ankles. But this primate - caught just moments ago by a professional monkey catcher - isn't going anywhere for a while, other than straight into a cage. A monkey after it was captured by a professional from a residential colony in Mumbai (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav) The wild monkey was caged after locals said it had been causing a nuisance for over six months, including stealing food and tearing up pillows that were on sale in one of the colony's shops. It was one of three or four monkeys to have been tearing around the community in the city's Sion area and residents recently complained to a local municipal councillor about the unwelcome guests. The monkey was tied up with medical bandage after he was captured by forest department officials (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav) When locals spotted one of the primates on Friday morning, they called a monkey-catcher who hot-footed it to the housing block and laid a trap with fruit. Local residents gathered round and cheered as bandages were tied around the monkey's wrists and elbows and a rope was put around its neck. It was one of three or four monkeys to have been tearing around the community (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav) At one point a passerby patted it on the forehead, only for the monkey to hiss aggressively before showing him a full set of sharp teeth. Later the shackles were removed from the monkey and it was placed in the cage, where it ate grapes and looked forlornly at the crowd of staring onlookers. Residents watch the monkey as it is being removed from the area (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav) The monkey is now set for a new life in the countryside north of Mumbai. "We will make sure it's fit and when it is we will release him on the outskirts of Thane," an official in the Maharashtra state forest department said. Wellesbourne Airfield It would take traffic off the road and would be a clean, reliable form of public transport. The battery-operated, zero-emission tram was trialed for three months on a circular route through Stratford in 2003. It ran on rubber wheels and, if introduced, would have been guided by underground cables. At the time it was described as revolutionary and the future of public transport, and was said to have been one of the most successful trials in public transport ever conducted by Warwickshire County Council with 98 per cent of the people who used it giving it the thumbs up. At the time, council officials from all over the country visited Stratford to see how it worked. The idea remained on the table for several years and county council documents from 2007 show a full feasibility study was still being talked about. However, in 2010 the 200,000 the council had set aside for that purpose was used to help fill a massive overspend on the Rugby Western Relief Road. Mr Pemberton said the prototype Minitram was in storage and could be updated and reconsidered if the county council, the countys transport authority, expressed a new interest. We would be happy to update and reintroduce it if someone came to talk to me, he said. We invested a great deal of time and money in Minitram and it was way ahead if its time. It never continued beyond the original three months because nobody really seemed to know how to pay for it. But its still an option. Battery technology has moved on and, overall, its still a relatively cheap idea. More importantly, following the new Paris Agreement, its very eco-friendly and produces no tail-pipe emissions whatsoever. The tram itself cost around 100,000 and it wouldnt be too expensive to lay the guidance cables along the route. It would take traffic off the road and would be a clean, reliable form of public transport. Mr Pemberton first approached Stratford District and Warwickshire County Councils back in 1998 and suggested a parkway station was built on the edge of town with a tram terminus from where people could be ferried to various stops around town, which he envisaged to have more part-pedestrianisation. The parkway was built, but the Minitram was forgotten. TDI continued to work on the idea of low-cost, sustainable public transport and is now involved in various research projects including an ultra-light railcar, recently developed in conjunction with manufacturers Severn Lamb in Alcester. The first production vehicle was tested in Long Marston last month and is now on its way to a private customer in Turkey. TDI has also won a Government competition last year to develop advanced, very light rail (VLR) technology with the rail industry and Warwick Manufacturing Group at Warwick University. Mr Pemberton added: Instead of driving big buses right through the heart of Stratford, we could semi-pedestrianise more of the main streets and introduce a Minitram guideway to link the shops and amenities to outlying car parks, a bus terminus and the railway station. Thats the reason why I proposed the parkway in the first place. We would then have an integrated transport system. Politicians talk about it but theyve no idea really what it means. People are fed up with the traffic. Trams are everywhere in Europe, so why not here the tourists would love it too. All we need is someone with vision and a little investment to make it happen. Nadhim Zahawi MP, who has been spearheading the traffic summits, told the Herald he was happy to look at any proposals that deal with the problem of traffic congestion in a strategic and well thought through manner. A spokesperson for Warwickshire County Council said: If Mr Pemberton wishes to operate and fund a Minitram trial then we will be happy to speak to him about how best this could be moved forward, however, under the current financial constraints at the county council there is no budget available to subsidise trials such as this. More news, no ads Wellesbourne Airfield Members of the public may attend the inquiry and express their views, at the discretion of the inspector. The Planning Inspectorate references are APP/J3720/W/15/3017900 and APP/J3720/W/15/3132950. ISTANBUL, Feb. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2016 World Tourism Forum Global Meeting and Awards Ceremony is being held at the International Convention and Exhibition Center in Istanbul, Turkey from February 4-6, 2016. HNA Tourism Group (HNA Tourism) is the first Chinese group to be invited to attend the World Tourism Forum Global Meeting and in its first appearance has been honored with the award for "Best Tourism Investment Group". Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso, Former President of the European Commission, Mr. Recep Tayyop Erdogan, President of Turkey and senior representatives from European governments, leading tourism firms and leading international media outlets attended this meeting. The World Tourism Forum is known as the "Davos for Tourism" and is one of the most influential global tourism forums in the world. It is a non-profit organization initiated by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism, dedicated to providing a platform for global communication about global tourism development strategies and trends, innovation and sustainability knowledge sharing between industry insiders, as well as cross-sector cooperation. A specially formed international jury board was tasked with selecting award winners and the "Best Tourism Investment Group" category aims to select a winner based on the value, volume and impact on their investments. Receiving this prestigious award is an affirmation of HNA Tourism's diversified global investment strategy and comprehensive management system. Li Tie, Vice Chairman and CEO of HNA Tourism Group, said "HNA Tourism is a modern Chinese tourism group. Since our founding, we have earned recognition in multiple areas, and this award from the World Tourism Forum is a first for a Chinese tourism company, and gives credence to the comprehensive development strengths of HNA Tourism, displaying the global recognition and appreciation we have received as a Chinese tourism group. In 2016 we will continue to consolidate our group's resources, deploying globally, creating a world-class Chinese tourism brand, and a convenient and high-quality travel experience for global tourists." HNA Tourism Investment Portfolio in 2015 Made a strategic cooperation with the government of French Polynesia; building Tahiti into a tourism hub in the South Pacific. Completed investment in the US hotel chain, Red Lion Hotel Group. Signed a memorandum of cooperation with Kuoni Group in Switzerland, one of the three largest tourism groups in Europe. The luxury five-star hotel, Tangla is opening its first international location in Brussels in March 2016. It's also the first Chinese owned hotel brand to open in Europe. Created a JV company with NH Hotel group for development of high-end hotels in China, while at the same time setting its sights on the European and global markets. Signed strategic partnership with Pierre et Vacances-Center Parcs Group to bring the center park concept to China. Invested USD 500 million in Tuniu.com to become the largest single stock holder. Made a strategic investment of RMB 200 million in the overseas short-term rental O2O platform Zhubaijia.com Linked up with Uber China and Uber Global to create a seamless transportation platform. HNA Tourism's subsidiary company, E-Life Financial and Mastercard joined together to promote digital payment and innovation in the consumer tourism sector. The group also joined forces with Guangda Securities and Chang'An Bank, promoting the "Fund+Listed Company" model, a brand new platform for tourism finance. About HNA Tourism Group Co., Ltd. Founded in Beijing in March 2007, HNA Tourism Group is one of three strategic business of HNA Group, which specializes in tourism investment and assets management. It owns and operates airlines, hotels, travel operators, online services, and tourism investment among other businesses. In 2014, HNA Tourism had total assets valued at about US$18 billion and an annual turnover of more than USD$ 5 billion. One of the top 5 largest tourism groups in China, it has full ownership and majority stakes in more than 20 brands such as Capital Airlines, Deer Jet, Caissa Touristic and Tangla Hotels. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160206/330400 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hna-tourism-named-best-tourism-investment-group-at-2016-world-tourism-forum-300216318.html SOURCE HNA Tourism Group U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands during a bilateral meeting with Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Friday that Republican members of the U.S. Congress had indicated their continuing support for Colombia's effort to achieve peace with leftist rebels and recover from years of civil war. His comments, at the State Department, came a day after President Barack Obama said he planned to ask Congress for more than $450 million in aid to help Colombia implement a peace accord to end Latin America's longest war. Asked whether Republicans had backed the administration plan, Santos told reporters at the State Department he "did not hear one single voice" doubting the success of the current U.S. aid effort, Plan Colombia, and he had received "expressions of continuing support." He said he did not receive any formal commitments but hoped Congress would support the new proposal. (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech) By Phil Stewart, Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies are probably many weeks or even months away from launching a new military campaign against Islamic State in Libya, despite mounting concern about the group's spread there and its attacks on oil infrastructure, U.S. officials say. The Pentagon has warned in recent weeks of the dangers posed by Islamic State's growth in Libya. The U.S. is developing military options, which were discussed at an inconclusive meeting last week of President Barack Obama and his top security aides, officials said. Those options include increased air strikes, deploying U.S. special operations forces and training Libyan security forces, officials say. But the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said enormous hurdles stand in the way of increased American military involvement. The largest is the formation of a unified Libyan government strong enough to call for and accommodate foreign military assistance. Getting some allies on board could also require a new mandate from the United Nations, they said. "We're not there yet," said one U.S. official. He and other officials with knowledge of internal deliberations cautioned that it is too soon to estimate when military action might begin, but cautioned it could take many weeks or even months. "As far as Im aware, there is no clear intention to go ahead with the military-style action. There is a lot of thinking, a lot of thinking, a lot of planning," said a Western diplomat. U.S. and European officials describe Islamic State's presence in Libya as increasingly worrisome, although not on the scale of its rule over swaths of Iraq and Syria. Islamic State forces have attacked Libya's oil infrastructure and taken control of the city of Sirte, exploiting a power vacuum in the North African country where two rival governments have been battling for supremacy. Estimates of Islamic State fighters in Libya range from 3,000 to 5,000-6,000. Officials openly worry that the group could use its Libya haven to relieve the pressure from U.S. air strikes and local forces against its home base in Iraq and Syria. POLITICAL FOCUS FOR NOW Under a U.N.-backed plan for a political transition, Libya's two warring administrations are expected to form a unity government, but more than a month after the deal was agreed in Morocco, its implementation has been dogged by infighting. Ben Fishman, a former White House aide under Obama who dealt with Libya policy, said there is concern in the Obama administration that military action now could disrupt the government formation process. It might, he said, prompt moderate forces in Libya to back away. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chief of Staff, appeared to reference those concerns last month. "You want to take decisive military action to check ISILs expansion and at the same time you want to do it such a way that's supportive of a long-term political process," he said. Still, Fishman said, "I think we have to do something on the ground soon, because they (Islamic State) are pretty much acting with impunity." Forming a unified Libyan government could pave the way toward Tripoli formally requesting greater international assistance. But with Libya in chaos, it would likely take a new government some time to get on its feet, officials said, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said this week that the focus of the international community on Libya is political, not military. Once a government is in place, "we have indicated a willingness, along with a number of other countries, to help them secure the country," Carter said. He noted that "the Italians have indicated that they would take the lead in that, rather than the United States, which is fine with us." The U.S. military has been laying the groundwork for greater action, sending U.S. special forces into Libya to establish contact with local armed groups to get a better picture of who the international community might be able to work with. U.S. officials also say the amount of intelligence collection about Islamic State's activities in Libya has also increased in recent weeks. They also have not ruled out more precision strikes against top Islamic State leaders like one in November in which American F-15 aircraft killed Islamic State's senior leader in Libya, known as Abu Nabil. (Editing by Clive McKeef) CONAKRY (Reuters) - A journalist was shot and killed in Guinea on Friday during clashes between rival factions of the West African nation's main opposition party, witnesses and the government said. El Hadj Mohamed Diallo was killed at the headquarters of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG) in the capital Conakry. "He was shot at point-blank range. I'm here next to the body at the morgue right now," said Ibrahima Sory Traore, publishing director of Guinee7.com for which Diallo worked. Violence broke out when Mamadou Oury Bah, a founding member of the UFDG who was excluded from the party earlier in the day, attempted to enter the party headquarters accompanied by his supporters to participate in a leadership meeting. It was not immediately clear who killed Diallo, though some witnesses said the shot was fired by a UFDG member involved in the clashes. In a statement later, the government of Africa's largest bauxite producer confirmed it was opening an investigation for voluntary homicide. Bah, commonly know as Bah Oury, spent four years in exile in France, during which time he was convicted in absentia for a 2011 assassination attempt against President Alpha Conde. Conde pardoned him recently and the UFDG vice president returned to Guinea last month. Since his arrival, he has been a vocal critic of the UFDG's management under party leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who finished second to Conde in the last two presidential elections in 2010 and 2015. (Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by James Dalgleish) By Parisa Hafezi ANKARA (Reuters) - Many Iranian women and young people are disillusioned about the upcoming elections, desperate for reform but losing hope in their pragmatic president and his promise of a freer society. The Feb. 26 parliamentary poll will see pro-reform candidates, who broadly back President Hassan Rouhani, attempt to overturn the majority held by conservative hardliners in the 290-seat assembly. It will be a test of public support for Rouhani himself ahead of presidential elections next year. While the vote might not have an influence on foreign policy, which is determined by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the election of a reformist parliament could strengthen Rouhani's hand to push through economic reforms to open up the country to foreign trade and investment. Rouhani won the presidency in 2013, bolstered by the support of many women and young people who were encouraged by his comments that Iranians deserved to live in free country and have the rights enjoyed by other people around the world. "I am not going to make the same mistake twice. I have decided not to vote," said Setareh, a university graduate in the northern city of Rasht. "I voted for Rouhani - was he able to improve my situation? No." Rouhani's supporters hoped that his election victory would lead to social change in country where women have lesser rights than men in areas including inheritance, divorce and child custody and are subject to travel and dress restrictions, and strict Islamic law is enforced by a "morality police". But rights campaigners say there has been little, if any, moves to bring about greater political and cultural freedoms as the president has focused on striking the nuclear accord wit world powers to end the international sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy. Iran rejects any allegations it is discriminating against women, saying it follows Sharia law. Now Rouhani and his moderate allies are struggling to mobilize two of their main support bases - women and young people. The president's promises to loosen Internet restrictions have not been met. Access to social media remains officially blocked, though Rouhani and Khamenei have their own Twitter accounts. This has been a particular grievance among those under 30, who represent more than two-thirds of the 78 million population and were born after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah. "I am not going to vote. What is the use of voting? My hopes are shattered," said a 27-year-old engineer in Tehran, who refused to give his name. HIGHLY EDUCATED The president's constitutional powers are limited, with ultimate authority in the hands of Khamenei, who has lambasted the West for using women as a tool to advertise products and satisfy "disorderly and unlawful sexual needs". The Feb. 26 elections will also see the public vote for members of the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that could play a pivotal part in determining Iran's future path in both domestic and foreign policies - as at some point it will have the job of selecting a successor to 76-year-old Khamenei. Iranian women, who make up more than half of the population, are among the most highly educated in the Middle East; they have a literacy rate of over 80 percent and account for over 50 percent of university entrees. But under Iranian law, men can divorce their spouses far more easily than women, while custody of children over seven automatically goes to the father. Women have to get permission from their husbands to travel abroad. They are obliged to cover their hair and the shape of their bodies, their testimony as a legal witness is worth half that of a man, and daughters inherit half of what sons do. While they cannot run for president, they are however able to hold most jobs including other government positions, and can vote and drive. "What will change if I vote?" said Miriam, 26, who could not win custody of her eight-year-old son after getting divorced in the central city of Isfahan. "Can reformist candidates give me equal rights?" A report by the U.N. special rapporteur on Iran last year said human rights in the country "remained dire" under Rouhani, while separately a U.N. child rights watchdog said this month that girls faced discriminatory treatment "in family relations, criminal justice system, property rights". Iran denies any infringement of human rights. Retired government employee Fariba Khamesi, from Tehran, said that even if there had been little evidence of social change, she would not give up her hopes for a freer Iran. "Of course I will vote in the elections. There are many problems like the economic pressure, discriminatory laws against women, but if we don't cast our vote, conservatives will gain more power," the 58-year-old said. 'PAIN AND PROBLEMS' Rouhani's hardline rivals accuse him of having encouraged moral corruption in the society by advocating social tolerance. Moderate politicians remain faithful to Iran's theocratic system, but they advocate improved relations with the West, more freedom of expression and a loosening of strict Islamic rules governing dress and mingling between the sexes. "As an Iranian female candidate it is my duty to fight for their rights," said Soheila Jelodarzadeh, a pro-reform female candidate. "Women are determined to build Iran. And by casting our votes, we can reach that goal." International sanctions were lifted last month under a deal reached with six major powers in 2015 in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear program, but it will take time to bring down high unemployment and raise living standards. Student Hosseini, 17, whose father is a construction worker in the city of Mashhad, said moderate politicians had neglected the poor. "I will vote for those candidates who believe in pillars of the revolution. They will never forget people like my father and will understand our pain and problems," he said. Rouhani has called for curbs on the state's involvement in business and a push to end corruption and increase competition to end Iran's international isolation and help rescue the economy. He has invited foreign investment - including from U.S. companies - risking a confrontation with powerful conservative factions in the country's multi-tiered political system oppose his plans to open the Iranian economy to the world, fearing an infiltration of Western values and influence. Some pro-reform politicians have told Reuters that by securing Khamenei's consent to the nuclear deal, Rouhani depleted his political capital with the supreme leader, leaving nothing for domestic reforms. "Rouhani may want to create some changes but he is by no means a political opposition figure to the clerical establishment," said a senior Western diplomat in Tehran. "No matter which political faction wins the majority in the parliament. The ultimate power will remain in the hands of Mr. Khamenei." (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Pravin Char) Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo meets with her British counterpart David Cameron (L) at the Prime Minister's Chancellery in Warsaw, Poland February 5, 2016. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo reiterated on Friday that Poland wanted Britain to stay in the European Union and said her cabinet supported some of its demands on reforming the block. "We fully support the prime minister's proposals regarding solutions that are aimed at improving competitiveness, removing red tape and granting proper significance to national parliaments," Szydlo said in a joint statement with her British counterpart David Cameron in Warsaw. Szydlo also said she saw a need to discuss the question of welfare benefits for Polish citizens living in Britain. Cameron said Britain wanted to see a "full strategic partnership between Poland and the United Kingdom". (Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Writing by Marcin Goclowski and Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Kevin Liffey) A Union Jack flag flutters next to European Union flags ahead of a visit from Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir By Adrian Krajewski and William James WARSAW/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron secured the support of Poland's most powerful man on Friday for a proposed deal to keep Britain in the European Union, though an opinion poll suggested voters may still reject continued membership in a planned referendum. To win a vote expected in June on staying in the EU, Cameron says he needs a pact to curb benefits for new migrant workers from EU countries, an opt-out from moves towards political union, more powers for national parliaments and safeguards to ensure Britain is not put at a disadvantage by being one of nine EU members outside the euro currency zone. He achieved an important step towards that goal when Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party and the country's top decision maker, gave his blessing to the proposed arrangements for new migrant workers. Negotiators from all 28 EU countries meanwhile held a first discussion in Brussels of the package put forward by European Council President Donald Tusk. Diplomats said the day-long meeting was broadly supportive and threw up no roadblocks. The so-called sherpas will meet again on Feb. 11 with the aim of reaching a deal at a Feb. 18-19 EU summit. "There is a lot of positive energy and dedication from all sides to arrive at an agreement. That also goes for the Brits who have been very professional about how they handle these negotiations," one participant said. Another said there were still differences on details of the proposals on welfare rights and on the relationship between euro zone and non-euro countries, but there was a strong desire to find a quick solution to keep Britain in the bloc. But a third diplomat said Kaczynski's timely endorsement of the most controversial item in the package had disarmed any strong opposition around the EU table. "Everything seemed very well pre-cooked... What kind of fierce debate do you expect re free movement if during the meeting Cameron successfully courted Kaczynski?" the envoy said. Proposals to allow British authorities to withhold in-work benefits for up to four years from EU citizens moving to work in Britain are under intense scrutiny, especially from Poland, the biggest source of Britain's migrant labour force. After meeting with Cameron in Warsaw, Kaczynski said he was satisfied because the rights of some 600,000 Poles already working in the UK would be fully preserved. "We have gained really very, very much," said Kaczynski, who is also a former prime minister and the twin brother of late president Lech Kaczynski. "Poland has ... gained here really very much, full safety, above all, for all those who are in Britain right now, but also that those who have children in Poland will continue to receive benefits, they may be adjusted, but they will get them anyway." Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said she fully endorsed Cameron's proposals on improving competitiveness, removing red tape and granting proper significance to national parliaments but wanted to discuss the question of welfare benefits. One detail yet to be finalised is whether curbs on child benefit for migrants whose children stay in their home country will apply only to newcomers or also to existing EU workers in Britain, diplomats said. Cameron said later during a visit to Denmark that any agreement with the EU would be irreversible. "There's no way we're going to agree to reverse it," Cameron said at a news conference with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who said the proposed deal was "a solid answer". TROUBLE AT HOME Cameron's sought-after accord may be taking shape in Brussels but he still faces a deeply sceptical electorate. A new poll showed the campaign for Britain to leave the EU has taken a nine-point lead over the rival "remain" campaign. Nineteen percent said they did not know or would not vote. British polls, however, have faced questions about their methodology since they failed to predict Cameron's victory in the 2015 national election, and they have varied widely on the EU issue in recent months. A ComRes poll last week showed the "in" campaign held an 18-point lead over those who wanted out. A British exit would shake the European Union to its core, ripping away its second largest economy and one of its top two military powers. Britain's pound sterling could weaken as much as 15-20 percent against other major currencies if there is a vote to leave, according to Goldman Sachs and Citi. Pro-Europeans say an exit would damage Britain's economy by excluding it from the vast EU single market, and could trigger the break-up of the United Kingdom by prompting another independence vote by pro-EU Scotland. Opponents of EU membership say Britain would prosper outside. The survey for The Times newspaper, taken in the two days after Cameron set out a proposed deal, showed the biggest lead for the "out" campaign since the referendum wording was agreed last September. The poll showed 45 percent of Britons would vote to leave the EU against 36 percent who want to remain, well up on the four-point edge the "leave" campaign held last week. Eurosceptic members of his Conservative Party said the proposals in the outline deal were far too weak and the British press dubbed them a "farce", a "joke" or a "delusion". "The negative press has pushed 'Leave' significantly ahead," YouGov said. "It's too early to say if the lead will persist or subside after David Cameron's crunch talks in Brussels." German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly said she wants Britain to remain a member but has cautioned that Cameron must not overplay his hand. Tusk's plan to keep Britain in the EU goes "right up to the pain threshold" of what is acceptable in Germany, said Gunther Krichbaum, a member of Merkel's conservative party and chairman of the European affairs committee in parliament. (Additional reporting by Justyna Pawlak, Marcin Goettig, Marcin Goclowski and Agnieszka Barteczko in Warsaw, Kate Holton in London, Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Paul Taylor; Editing by Ralph Boulton) The deceased was tense for not receiving a hall ticket. In her suicide note written in Marathi, she has apologised to her parents for the humiliation that they would have had to face from the college in order to seek the hall ticket for her. Mumbai: A 17-year-old girl in Navi Mumbai committed suicide on Friday fearing that her college may not give her a hall ticket required for appearing in the HSC examinations, slated to begin on February 18. The girl left behind a suicide note explaining why she decided to take her life. Her parents said they have no complaints against anyone. The police has also ruled out the possibility of anyone abetting the suicide. According to Kalamboli police, the incident occurred somewhere between 7 am and 9 am at the flat of the deceased in Kalamboli area of Navi Mumbai. The girl had planned the suicide and hung herself in the hall of the flat at a time when her parents had left for work at 7 am and elder sister was asleep. The sister woke up at 9 am and was the first one to find the minor dead. The deceaseds father is a rickshaw driver and mother is a teacher. A police official from Kalamboli said that the girls attendance at college was not good but it was sufficient to get her a hall ticket. The deceased was an Arts student. On February 3, she had not received the hall ticket while the rest of her friends had received it. The police official said that some verification work of her ticket, along with those of some other students, was underway and hence the work had got delayed. However, the girl felt that she would not be given a hall ticket. But the college authorities had assured her that she would get the hall ticket on February 1 when she and her father had gone to the college. Apparently, the deceased was tense for not receiving a hall ticket. In her suicide note written in Marathi, she has apologised to her parents for the humiliation that they would have had to face from the college in order to seek the hall ticket for her. GENEVA (Reuters) - Red Cross said on Thursday it had delivered food for more than 12,000 people to the besieged Syrian town of Mouadamiya near Damascus, enough for only three weeks and that regular access was needed. Medical supplies for 10,000 people were also brought into the town of 50,000 on Wednesday on convoys of the the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Syrian Arab Red Crescent, it said in a statement. The agency is seeking access to bring more aid to the besieged town of Madaya in Rural Damascus and the villages of Foua and Kafraya in Idlib. "What we have seen on our way into town only shows how desperate the people are in Mouadamiya. They are hungry and they need us. Unconditional aid must be allowed to reach people in all the besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria," said Marianne Gasser, head of the ICRC delegation in Syria. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) Make-a-wish helped Patrick combine his love for pirates and planes, taking him on a helicopter tour of Auckland, and a pirate sail. A five-year-old cancer battler spent the day as a pirate, sailing Auckland's harbour as part of a wish he had granted by charity. Patrick Roberts was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma - a type of cancer - when he was only four, and had been in and out of hospital since learning the bad news. On Wednesday afternoon the Huntly boy and his family were taken on a pirate-themed adventure by the Auckland Maritime Museum, as part of a wish granted by charity Make-A-Wish. Bayleys Patrick Roberts playing with pirate entertainer Captain Flintoff. Patrick was accompanied on the Ted Ashby ship by pirate entertainer Captain Flintock, who made him balloon swords, and helped him find a treasure chest full of goodies. Patrick said his favourite part of the voyage was fighting and shooting Captain Flintock. Auckland Airline Club flying instructor Daniel Wiskar then took Patrick and his family on a helicopter ride over Auckland city. Bayleys Patrick with his parents Amy and Aaron Roberts. Patrick' father, Aaron Roberts, said it was amazing for the family to be able to have a break. "The last 15 months have been really hard, Patrick's been stuck at home, and not allowed any friends over or anything because he's had no immunity," he said. "It has been great to be able to relax for the first time in a long time the Make-A-Wish team has been awesome, the people have done so much." Roberts said the family had also recently received some good news for Patrick, as his cancer had gone into remission. The children's charity Make-A-Wish, which is sponsored by Bayleys, combined Patrick's love for pirates and planes in their planning of the day. The wish coordinator, Charis MacDonald, said the wish was helped along by generous locals. "Patrick and his family are staying on Waiheke for five nights in a beautiful bach donated by Iain Cox through book-a-bach. Fullers 360 had also donated a 360 tour of Waiheke, he said. On Sunday Patrick will get a personal ski lesson and a day on the snow, and return to Huntly on Friday. Make-A-Wish New Zealand officially opened in 1986 in Auckland, and since then around 2000 wishes have been granted all over New Zealand. A worried father is pulling his 5-year-old daughter from a West Auckland primary school after she wandered off the school grounds. A parent has pulled his child from an Auckland primary school after the 5-year-old went missing while in staff care. According to Daniel Pillai as he arrived at Henderson Primary School at 2.45pm, his daughter was already boarding a bus with a stranger. While her teacher says she didn't let the children out before the 2.45pm bell, Pillai said he checked the classroom shortly after that time and found it locked and empty. LAWRENCE SMITH/FAIRFAX NZ Daniel Pillai: "I put my foot down. I yelled until they called the police." The school says she was told to stay in an area being watched by staff and other parents. "Normally the kids would be in the classroom, but the teacher had asked them to move outside so she could get to duty," Pillai said. After searching the school grounds for his daughter, he drove around nearby streets. After that proved fruitless, he returned to the school office where his wife joined him. He said he then told the staff to call the police. "They didn't want to call the police. They said they had to wait four hours before doing that. "I put my foot down. I yelled until they called the police." The school, bordered by Edsel Street, Montel Ave, and major thoroughfare Great North Rd, has five ungated entry and exit points. Staff on crossing duty monitor one of those. Pillai said it was later revealed his daughter had cried her way from the classroom, past the front of the office, and down Montel Ave. From there, she headed down Great North Road until she reached a bus stop. She grabbed a stranger's hand, and said: "I want my mummy. I'm lost." The woman, running late for work, took the girl on the bus to her office where she called the police. "[She] was on Lincoln Road, about 5 kilometres away," Pillai said. "I told the principal: 'She's not coming back to this school.' "[The principal] later called me and tried to preach to me about how to tell my daughter not to go off. I don't know why they can't put gates up or get teachers to stand at the exit points after school. "I've taken my child out but there are other kids there who could be vulnerable." Principal at Henderson Primary School Keith Tetzlaff denies the staff were reluctant to call the police. "We had about eight staff looking around the school grounds, going to the local shopping centre, going up and down the road looking for her," Tetzlaff said. He said it was "normal procedure" for children to be told to wait for their caregivers in the courtyard area near the office. "We don't have a teacher looking after each individual child, no. But we have staff that are in the area. It's an area which is observable to a number of staff." However no one observed the child leaving the grounds. "We have children who are walking home, leaving the school grounds at the time of the day. Some with parents, some on their own. "I've been at this school for 18 years, and this is the process we've been following." As a result of the incident, he said staff would continually remind the pupils "what it is to make good choices and to act safely". "Our huge concern is that a child went with a stranger, when we do everything we can to let them know about the dangers of doing that. "We run a police programme every two years and that was already planned for this year and will be happening in the third term." When asked if the school planned to install gates or monitor other entry and exit points, he said: "There hasn't been a need. Schools in New Zealand don't tend to be cages, where pupils are locked in. "We had a very successful outcome here. Our procedures worked very efficiently and effectively to ensure the quick return of the child." Principal at Burnside Primary School in Christchurch Matt Bateman said his school has also experienced runaway students, and decided to take action. Over the last year, as well as bringing in a five-step response plan, the school has installed security gates at two entry and exit points, and implemented a monitoring system for the younger students before and after school. "All of the Year 1, 2, and 3 children after school sit outside their classroom and parents or an older sibling or other caregiver must come to the classroom to pick up the child," he said. "The children have to be checked off." "They used to wait in the carpark... and if parents were late, one or two of the children would start to walk home. "By 3.15pm, any children who haven't been claimed are taken to the office and we call their parents." The system is working well, he said. "We're getting much more careful about checking them in and out. "There's always some risk... but we've done as much as we can." New Zealand Principals' Federation Iain Taylor said he believed most schools would have systems and procedures in place to protest students' safety. "Obviously it is important that all schools have systems and procedures in place to protect the safety of students at all times, and especially so at the end of a school day, and I believe most, if not all schools indeed would have," he said. "This is even more of an imperative around younger students. But the reality is there will be times, no matter how vigilant a school is or how effective their systems are where a child could just bypass that system." Head of sector enablement and support at the Ministry of Education Katrina Casey said she had spoken to Henderson Primary School about the incident. "The school has communicated with parents asking them to remind students to stay on school grounds until they are collected," she said. "They have also asked caregivers to discuss with children the need to remain safe with strangers. "During school hours, and within the notified times before and after school, staff do everything they can to take care of students. Parents and caregivers are responsible for the safety of their children getting to and from school." The New Zealand School Trustees Association suggests schools be responsible for pupils from 30 minutes before school starts and up to 15 minutes after school finishes. Nelson Tigers Shane Harwoods car caught fire during the qualifying rounds of the Superstocks Teams Champs in Palmerston North. Wayne Hemi of the Manawatu Mustangs blasted into Harwood at full speed. Great Britain Lions captain Frankie Wainman is under no illusions what his team faces when they take on the favourite Gisborne Giants in one semifinal at the Teams Champs at Arena Manawatu on Sunday night. Led by crowd favourite Wainman, who instead of making his usual summer jaunt to New Zealand, only came for the teams champs. Wainman arrived late last week, stepping into the impressive new Phil Ogle Superstock just yesterday. KENLEY BROWN/SQUARE PHOTOGRAPHY Shane Harwood of the Nelson Tigers had his car catch fire at the Teams Champs after a fuel cell split. "It's definitely going to be tough but we drove really well tonight," Wainman said. "We've come though the qualifying with not too much damage and will be ready to give them a battle." "I know they've got something to prove, but we want that title." Wainman said it's always an issue sorting out who to put into the team for a style of racing most in the United Kingdom have never seen. Brendon Learmonth/SQUARE PHOTOGRAPHY Gisborne Giants blockman Gavin Taniwha, top, comes to a sudden halt as Wellington Wildcats' Paul Fairbrother fires him up the wall at the first night of the Teams Champs at Arena Manawatu on Saturday night. "We don't hit anything like here, so we need to sort out drivers who not only like giving a hit, but can take one as well and keep going. "It's not an easy thing to be smashed into or up the wall then keep going and attacking an opponent; it's so foreign to us." Wainman, who has raced seven of the eight times the Lions have come to the ENZED Teams Champs, said he's got one of the best teams they've put together this year with Lee Fairhurst a top driver, while Ben Hurdman, Chris Cowley and Chris Brocksopp may not be as known, but are all hard chargers who enjoy the contact side of stockcars. Great Britain beat the Wanganui Warriors and Stratford Scrappers in their group races, while Stratford rookie Clint Hill got out of his and carried the chequered flag down the straight after he won a ferocious race with Wanganui where there were three rolls and just three cars finished the race. Gisborne were clinical in winning both their races against the Wellington Wildcats and the Baypark Busters, with Peter Rees winning the first race and Karl Ross the second. Block driver Gavin Taniwha as on the receiving end of a massive hit, as he was fired up the wall coming to a sudden stop as he smashed into a post. The Palmerston North Panthers were poor, losing both their races. They were well beaten by the Hawke's Bay Hawkeyes first up, then were incredibly beaten by the Canterbury Glen Eagles when Palmerston North's Simon Joblin was held up metres from the finish line, allowing Jason fletcher to take a shock win. Hawke's Bay will meet the Manawatu Mustangs in an eagerly-anticipated match up, though Hawke's Bay captain Steve Jude wasn't so forthright in his prediction of a title win if they as happened beat Palmerston North. "I'm confident we're going well, but I know the Mustangs have a good team and will be tough," Jude said. "We've been coming here 36 years and been close before, but we've got the team to win this time." "We have fantastic fans so it would be good to do it for them and all the drivers and crews who have raced for Hawke's Bay in the past." The Mustangs put themselves in the box seat in the opening race of the night when they thumped the Nelson Tigers and then were equally as good beating the Rotorua Rebels. There was one horrible moment when Nelson's Shane Harwood was tussling with Manawatu's Kerry Humphrey. Wayne Hemi blasted into him at full speed firing Harwood onto the infield. Harwood's car erupted in flames as Harwood hastily emerged from his car, but what was left was a blackened mess at the back after a fuel cell split. In a night where the capacity crowd of around 15,000 were kept on the edge of their seats there were six roll-overs, while Baypark Busters Kerry Remnant's car also caught fire, but from an engine oil leak. Sunday night's semifinal draw: Hawke's Bay Hawkeyes v Manawatu Mustangs. Gisborne Giants v Great Britain Lions. A serious crash has closed State Highway 2 through the Karangahake Gorge. Three patients were critically injured in a head-on crash on State Highway 2 through the Karangahake Gorge. The gorge was closed following a crash between two cars about 2.15pm on Saturday. It reopened on Saturday evening with a 50kmh speed limit in place, the New Zealand Transport Agency tweeted. TRUSTPOWER TECT RESCUE HELICOPTE A 17-year-old woman was taken to Tauranga Hospital in critical condition after the crash, by the Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter. A 17-year-old Auckland woman was in a critical condition and the Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter took her to Tauranga Hospital, a statement from the crew said. "Two patients were airlifted to Waikato hospital by the Auckland and Waikato Westpac helicopters," it said. Firefighters had to cut some of the victims from the wreckage. Waikato Police District Command Centre Senior Sergeant Andrew O'Reilly said details of the crash were sketchy and rescue helicopters had been dispatched to the site in the middle of the gorge. "Police ask that drivers take all due care and attention when driving. The roads are busy and patience is needed." This accident was one of two in Karangahake Gorge today. One was at lunch time and this second in the mid afternoon was more serious. Shoaib lodged a complaint with the police stating that he had been attacked. (Representational image) Hyderabad: The police on Friday arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly attacking a Nigerian national in Shaikpet on Thursday midnight. Police said that Nigerian national Ibi Dola, 27, an MBA student at Osmania University, was riding on his bike. He had to make way for another two-wheeler. In the process, he rode close to a pedestrian who abused him. This lead to an argument among them. A group of other Nigerians and some locals gathered at the spot and a scuffle ensued, said Banjara Hills inspector C. Murali Krishna. Police rushed to the spot, and the two groups dispersed. Based on a complaint from the Nigerian national, a case for wrongful restraint and voluntarily causing hurt was registered and Shoaib was arrested. Shoaib lodged a complaint with the police stating that he had been attacked. Lucknow: Known for making controversial remarks, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Mohammad Azam Khan on Saturday plumbed new depths when he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. While BJP attacked him, even a Congress spokesperson said attached no importance to it saying it cannot be believed. "Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan said. He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Minister's residence when he went there on December 25 last. BJP's Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to "immediately" dismiss the minister. "If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and brining shame to the nation. I am shocked," he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. "We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said," he said adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. Meanwhile, government dismissed as "false and baseless," the allegation of Azam Khan. "There are some statements alleging that the Prime Minister met Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of PM Nawaz Sharif. It is unfounded, baseless and false," an official spokesman said reacting to Khan's statement. There arent too many similarities between trucks and helicopters but for Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter pilot and base manager Liam Brettkelly its turned out to be a positive combination. Thanks to the generosity of Salters Cartage and all the truckies who took part in the recent Classics of the Sky Tauranga Air Show the rescue helicopter has received $7163.73. Kochi: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was fully aware of my past history, Saritha Nair, prime accused in the solar scam told the Justice G Sivarajan Commission on Friday. Mr. Chandy was aware that my original name was not Lakshmi, she told the commission during the cross examination by lawyers of the commission. Mr. Chandy has always maintained that he came to know of the real of name of Ms. Saritha only after she was arrested on June 4, 2013. Meanwhile, the commission has decided to seek an explanation from the Adv Sivan Madathil, counsel for minister Baby John for making disparaging remarks against the commission. Silin.JPG Casey L. Silin (Onondaga County Sheriff's Office) MANLIUS, N.Y. -- An accused member of a Florida-based gang has been charged with cashing stolen checks taken from cars outside of the Skaneateles YMCA. Casey L. Silin, 33, was charged Friday with identify theft and forging checks, said Detective Jon Seeber, of the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office. Silin, of Miramar, Florida, was already in custody for stealing purses last month from cars parked in a gym parking lot. The charges stem from a crime spree that started in Skaneateles and ended with a short pursuit in Manlius. Seeber, along with Skaneateles and Manlius police, gave the following account of the check-cashing scheme: Silin and co-defendant Angela M. Postell stole 10 purses from 10 cars parked in the Skaneateles YMCA & Community Center's parking lot on Jan. 15. -- smashing nine of the vehicles' windows. Postell, 43, is from Pompano Beach, Florida. Although the purses were tossed soon after in a dumpster outside of Cayuga Community College in Auburn, some IDs and checkbooks taken from the purses remained missing. After the break-ins, the pair spent Jan. 16 driving around Onondaga County and cashing stolen checks. Silin used the stolen IDs, posing as her victims while cashing the forged checks. Seeber said Silin and Postell are members of the Felony Lane Gang. Angela Postell, left, and Casey Silin, right, after they were charged in January with possessing checks taken from purses stolen from the Skaneateles YMCA. The Felony Lane Gang is a Florida-based group of thieves who travel around the country pilfering unoccupied cars, according the FBI. Gang members later pose as the victims they steal from, using the drive-thru lane at banks to cash stolen checks. The thieves' use of the drive-thru lane gave the Felony Lane Gang its name. "The farthest lane from video cameras and tellers have been dubbed the 'felony lane' because of the ease with which false identities can be used to cash checks," said the FBI. Silin successfully cashed two stolen checks at the M&T Bank branch at 3701 W. Genesee St. in Camillus, Seeber said. She also tried to cash a forged check at M&T Bank branch at 3945 Route 31 in Clay, he said. Silin and Postell were caught after trying to cash another check in Manlius. Officers responded the Chase Bank on the 300 block of Fayette Street after the bank reported the pair had tried to cash a forged check, Manlius police said. Silin and Postell were arrested after a short chase. In her most recent arrest, multiple charges were filed against Silin: two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument three counts of first-degree identity theft third-degree grand larceny first-degree falsifying business records fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument attempted fourth-degree grand larceny Silin and Postell are both in the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Two women have been charged with failing to care for a dog that has been hospitalized, Syracuse police said. Mary Paro, 47, and Ali Hemingway, 22, were each charged with animal cruelty- failure to provide proper sustenance, a misdemeanor under the New York State Agriculture and Markets Law. At 12:38 p.m. on Tuesday the police department's animal cruelty investigator responded to the DeWitt Animal Hospital. A severely emaciated dog had been brought to the hospital by the city's animal control officer. Police said an investigation revealed that the dog was owned by a person at 2023 Lodi St. The officer interviewed several people, received some tips in the case and identified the people responsible for caring for the dog as Paro and Hemingway, police said. They were issued appearance tickets and released. Police said the dog that was severely emaciated is being treated at DeWitt Animal Hospital. The dog was not fed enough, but it recovering and gaining weight, police said. Police asked anyone with information about the case to contact 315-442-5200. Tips can also be submitted using the "SPD Tips" App. 2015-04-30-tsk-NiMo.JPG National Grid has proposed freezing electric and gas rates for another two years if it can spend $150 million that it would otherwise use to offset future rate increases. (Tim Knauss) SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Instead of seeking electric and gas rate hikes, National Grid has asked state regulators for permission to spend $151 million that it owes to its 1.5 million customers. If the Public Service Commission approves the request, National Grid officials say they can freeze the current electric and gas delivery rates through March 2018. Customers would see no impact on their monthly bills. If the spending request is denied, the utility says it would have to cut back on planned improvements to the electric and gas systems or seek rate hikes totaling more than $233 million over two years. Those increases would show up as higher delivery rates on utility bills. National Grid told regulators that it does not plan to seek a full-blown reevaluation of its rates but it needs to increase spending on electric and gas infrastructure. The proposal "allows us to invest more in improving our networks but hold the line on delivery rates for the next two years,'' said Stephen Brady, speaking for the company. The Public Service Commission is expected to rule on the request by March. All told, National Grid proposes to spend $695 million next year on capital expenses such as replacing old electric lines and transformers, replacing leaking gas mains, and building new electric and gas infrastructure in areas where customer demand is growing. Most of that money is already collected from ratepayers, but the utility is asking to increase spending by $50 million in 2017. The utility forecasts capital expenditures of $719 million in 2018, which includes an increase of $101 million. The extra money that National Grid proposes to spend comes from so-called "deferral accounts,'' which are basically multi-million-dollar IOUs for money the utility owes to customers for various reasons. (Some deferral accounts also track money that ratepayers owe the utility.) Why does Grid owe customers money? According to its petition to the PSC, National Grid has collected more in rates than it actually spent on transmission costs, pollution control bonds, stray voltage repairs, and other items. The company also owes customers money from a federal tax refund, and for failing certain service-quality tests. All told, Upstate customers are holding a $310 million IOU from the utility. In a normal rate case, that balance would be used to offset any proposed rate hike. If National Grid gets permission to spend some of the money now, there will be less available to offset future rate increases. National Grid's last rate proceeding, in 2013, resulted in a 3-year deal from the PSC that expires in March. The utility is not obligated to ask for new rates when that agreement ends, but company officials say the cost of maintaining a reliable network has increased. In its natural gas service territory covering New York City and Long Island, National Grid last week asked the PSC for rate hikes that are expected to increase customer bills by 12 percent to 14 percent. National Grid earns its profit from delivery rates set by the PSC, which are one portion of a utility bill. The other portion is the supply charge, which covers the cost of gas or electricity that can be supplied by either National Grid or another company. Contact Tim Knauss anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023 Seven remaining Republican presidential candidates will face off in ABC News' live primary debate on Saturday February 6 at 8 p.m. ET in Manchester, New Hampshire. The debate will air on ABC, in Syracuse WSYR-TV, channel 9. It's also available on Channel 1200 for Time Warner Cable customers and in HD on channel 509 for Verizon FiOS customers. It will also be available to stream live at ABCnews.go.com. There will be no undercard debate for lower performing candidates on Saturday. Who's in? Billionaire businessman Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Former HP executive Carly Fiorina and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore are still in the race, but did not meet ABC News' criteria for an invitation to the debate. In order to qualify for the debate, candidates had to either finish in the top three Republican contenders in this week's Iowa caucuses, place among the top six in an average of national polls or place among the top six in an average of New Hampshire polls. ABC's David Muir, a Syracuse native, and Martha Raddatz will moderate the debate along with WMUR-TV political director Josh McElveen and conservative journalist Mary Katharine Ham. It is being sponsored by ABC News, WMUR-TV and the Independent Journal Review. The debate will be followed by primary voting in New Hampshire on Tuesday February 9. Cruz defeated longtime frontrunner Trump in the Iowa caucuses, but Trump is heavily favored to win in New Hampshire, according to the latest poll results from the state collected by Real Clear Politics. Trump will return to the debate stage after boycotting last week's Fox News debate due to his ongoing feud with Fox anchor Megyn Kelly. He will have his sights set on on Cruz, who he has accused of fraudulent campaigning during the Iowa primary. New Delhi: Delhi Police has sent notices to two top officials of Ryan Group, querying them on the underground reservoir in its school where Divyansh's body was found and guidelines for handling any emergency, even as it ruled out the possibility of sexual assault on the boy. "Notices have been sent under relevant CrPC provisions. We have sought information on the charter of duty and construction of the underground water reservoir where the boy was found dead," DCP (South) Prem Nath said on Saturday. Read: Delhi govt accuses school of criminal negligence as parents allege sodomy The notices were sent yesterday to Ryan International Group's Chief Administrative Officer Ryan Pinto and northern zone head Francis Thomas, a senior officer said. He also ruled out the possibility of sexual assault on the basis of the initial post-mortem report and investigation so far. Earlier in the day, Divyansh's father alleged that there were injury marks on his body including private parts. Read: Divyansh had injury marks in private parts, claims father "The case was registered based on the statement of the child's father. The matter is being probed from all possible angles. Negligence has come to fore, on the basis of which we have arrested five persons so far. Further investigation is underway," Prem Nath said, adding the final post-mortem report is still awaited. On Thursday, the police had arrested the principal, a class teacher and three non-teaching staff of Ryan International School in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj under charges of negligence causing the death of Class 1 student Divyansh Kakrora at a water reservoir under the school's amphitheatre on January 30. An official privy to the investigation said the questions on the "charter of duty" are related to responsibilities of the staff members employed by the school's management and the protocol to be followed at times of emergency. Looking for fun things to do this weekend? Here are our Top 5 events events MARTIN COUNTY Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Judge F. Shields McManus confirmed Friday he will not seek re-election this year, though he would like to. 'While being a circuit judge has been the best job I ever had, I cannot serve for another term due to an age limit for judges in the Florida Constitution,' the 68-year-old McManus said. 'Otherwise, I would run for re-election.' Mandatory retirement age for Florida judges is 70, although they are allowed to complete a six-year term if they turn 70 after they are more than halfway through that term. McManus, who practiced civil trial law with a firm in Martin County before becoming a judge in 2007, plans to return to the practice of law in Martin County. 'I have acquired a lot of experience and knowledge,' he said. 'My health allows me to continue using my skills to help people with legal needs. I'll be doing that on the bench for the rest of this year, and then in private practice.' However, he said judicial ethics preclude him from discussing future jobs while he remains on the bench. 'I have already advised the legal community that I had no intention of running for re-election so that others could plan on running for an open seat,' McManus said. Already, a crowded field has formed to run for McManus' seat. Port St. Lucie attorney Chet Elliot Weinbaum, who filed his paperwork Wednesday, is the latest to join attorneys Michael McNicholas, of Palm City; Leonard Villafranco, of Port St. Lucie; and Robert Meadows, of Vero Beach. McManus currently is assigned to the Civil Division in Martin County, presiding over civil jury trials and residential foreclosures. He is also the administrative judge for the 19th Circuit Civil Division. McManus has been active in many community organizations, including serving as chairman of the Martin County Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Martin County Bar Association, and a founding member and past president of Stuart Mainstreet. He also served as the chair of the Martin County Planning and Zoning Board/Local Planning Agency. He is currently chairman of the board of The Chapman School of Seamanship, a nonprofit school in Port Salerno, and serves on the Martin County Law Library Committee. He received his bachelor's degree and law degree from Florida State University. More Treasure Coast lawmakers have endorsed Jeb Bush's bid for the White House over his political rivals, but whether they are backing a winner is still up for grabs. As Bush woos New Hampshire voters with a boost last week from his 90-year-old mother Barbara Bush ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary, he's backed locally by two state senators and three state House members who say he's the "policy wonk" the country needs. MORE | New Hampshire second stop in primary, caucus season GOP state Sens. Joe Negron, of Stuart, and Thad Altman, of Rockledge, support the former two-term Florida governor, along with state Reps. Gayle Harrell, of Stuart; Marylynn Magar, of Tequesta; and Cary Pigman, of Sebring. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio Bush's former political protege and one-time Florida House speaker is backed by state Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, who's donated $1,500 to his race, and is in New Hampshire this weekend working on his behalf. State Sen. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, didn't reply to an email asking who she endorsed for president, and U.S. Rep. Bill Posey's office said he doesn't issue endorsements before Florida's March 15 presidential primary. No local state lawmakers back Republicans Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz or Donald Trump, who appeared to get a nod from Gov. Rick Scott in a widely published editorial that touted the boisterous billionaire without explicitly endorsing him. CRUNCHTIME Bush is under pressure to place well in New Hampshire or re-evaluate his campaign, after placing sixth in the Iowa caucus and struggling to outpoll Rubio, Trump and Cruz. Negron spent two days and his own money canvassing for Bush in New Hampshire before the Florida Legislature convened Jan. 12. He said the Bush campaign, which paid for his air travel to New Hampshire, knows what's at stake, and will deliver the votes needed to keep him on top. "It's very important for Gov. Bush to do well in New Hampshire and to be in the top tier of candidates and I expect that to happen," said Negron, who is Florida's incoming Senate president. "I could sense a strong momentum for Gov. Bush in New Hampshire from phone calls we made and from attending rallies." Negron had two jobs in New Hampshire: contact about 400 members of that state's Legislature, and talk to voters. "I attended three or four town hall meetings," he said. Bush is getting more help this weekend in New Hampshire from GOP veteran Indian River County Tax Collector Carole Jean Jordan, who also stumped for him in Iowa. Harrell meanwhile, called Bush a "true leader" who understands the issues. "He's a policy wonk not very flashy, but absolutely brilliant and I think he would be a great leader for this country," Harrell said. "I've served with him and he's just phenomenal." In 2012, Harrell backed Newt Gingrich for president and served on a steering committee to elect the former Speaker of the House. And she said while she stands with Bush, she's also got a backup. "Of course, having served with Marco (Rubio)," she said, "he's my No. 2 guy." State Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, who will face Mayfield in a state Senate race for the new District 17 that covers Indian River and half of Brevard, said he wants to see Bush elected, but acknowledged the threat Rubio represents. "Jeb has to do a top-three finish in New Hampshire and will have to do a top-two in South Carolina, otherwise he missed the momentum train," Workman noted. "So the Marco scenario in New Hampshire would be a lot better for Bush to come out ahead of Marco. I don't think (Bush) is dead in the water, as long as he's in the top three." CLINTON OVER SANDERS State Rep. Larry Lee, D-Fort Pierce, who declined to elaborate, joined fellow Democrats U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy in supporting Hillary Clinton over her rival U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Murphy called Clinton a "fighter." "Hillary Clinton is fighting tirelessly to strengthen our middle class, by making college affordable, protecting women's access to health care and keeping America safe from threats at home and abroad," Murphy said in a prepared statement. "Americans need a president with the experience and heart to get things done, and that's why Hillary will get my vote in Florida's presidential primary and on Election Day." With the exception of Indian River County Commissioner Tim Zorc, who backs Cruz, county and city elected officials in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River declined to endorse a presidential candidate or were undecided. Staff writer Lucas Daprile contributed to this report. The Martin County Commission on Tuesday will consider allocating up to an additional $1.37 million to continue the fight against All Aboard Florida. The county already has spent nearly $1.4 million of the $1.56 million dedicated in 2014 and 2015 to fighting the Miami-to-Orlando passenger railroad. If commissioners approve the funding, Martin County's allocation would surpass Indian River's $2.7 million, previously the largest on the Treasure Coast. Together, the counties will have spent or allocated more than $6.6 million to fight the railroad, which by late 2017 would have 16 daily round trips running through the Treasure Coast. Though Martin County has lost legal challenges in federal and state courts, now is the time to strike harder, according to County Commissioner Anne Scott, who said she would "enthusiastically" spend another $1.35 million on the fight. All Aboard Florida "is on its back foot," Scott said of the company's apparent struggle to sell $1.75 billion of tax-exempt bonds, the company's first-line financing plan. "Cutting back is what they want us to do. It's time to double down." The $3.1 billion railroad is not a done deal, and it's essential the county show its strength while All Aboard is vulnerable, according to Scott. "They've tried to litigate us to our tolerance, but we've dedicated an impressive amount," she said. "They must be surprised at the determination and resources we're willing to commit." All Aboard Florida on Friday said it does not view Treasure Coast communities as adversaries. "Our focus on public safety is our obligation, and quite simply a requirement for the success of our business. Our needs and the interests of the community are actually in full alignment," a spokeswoman said. "AAF has repeatedly stated that we will both fund and construct a comprehensive set of safety and operating improvements that will exceed all of the most stringent requirements and regulations set by the Federal Railroad Administration." Commissioner John Haddox said he would need to review the proposal, but would be inclined to commit additional funds to stopping the train, which, he said, threatens residents' quality of life. Martin County over the last several years has been vocal in it complaints about its own mounting infrastructure-maintenance costs, and in 2014 the commission asked, and failed to convince, voters to approve a sales tax to pay for that maintenance. But putting funding toward the All Aboard battle, rather than the estimated $258 million of deferred infrastructure work, makes long-term financial sense, according to Haddox. "It sounds like a lot of money and it is but it will save taxpayers money in the future," he said of potential detrimental effects on local property values. All Aboard Florida on Friday said that, in fact, the company is "committed to working with all communities along the rail to preserve quality of life," as evidenced by its offer to help local communities construct quiet zones, or stretches of track that meet a high safety standard and engineers are not required to sound their horns. Follow the tracks | All Aboard Florida timeline County staff on Tuesday will update the commission on the county's ongoing battle it has at least three active lawsuits and will suggest the commission spend $675,000 on immediate and ongoing projects and set aside $700,000 for potential projects. Indian River County, meanwhile, has spent just over half its allocated $2.7 million, according to county data. The remaining $1.3 million should cover costs in the coming year, according to Dylan Reingold, county attorney. Nearly half of the money already spent by Martin County went to its outside counsel, Washington attorney Stephen Ryan. That trend could intensify in 2016; up to $1 million could go to Ryan, based on the new staff proposal. A litigation and lobbying specialist, Ryan previously helped the Rochester Coalition a group comprising the Mayo Clinic and local governments fight a plan to run 34 coal trains a day through the middle of Rochester, Minnesota, where the clinic is based. That project has been delayed "indefinitely," according to Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., the company behind the proposed freight-line expansion. Ryan also represents the citizen activist group CARE FL, which also opposes All Aboard Florida. Construction of All Aboard Florida already has begun between Miami and West Palm Beach, and Brightline passenger service there is to begin in early 2017, with full service beginning in late 2017. This story has been updated manually. Linda Cox is the Fort Pierce city clerk. FORT PIERCE No one wants to live near it. But the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority wastewater treatment plant on Hutchinson Island has to go somewhere. On Monday morning, the City Commission is to revisit the issue of moving the 57-year-old plant off 36 acres of waterfront property. City staff wants the commission to create a seven-member committee to study the cost of a move, how to pay for it and probably most important where the plant should go. The committee would consist of one member appointed by each of the four commissioners; and one each by the mayor, FPUA and St. Lucie County government, according to city records. Moving the FPUA plant came out of a 2012 community workshop about how to best develop the property on the western peninsula of Fort Pierce beach. Residents suggested building a hotel, marina, housing and stores. "The lands on the western tip of Hutchinson Island ... present an opportunity to strengthen the city as a destination and an economically prosper (sic) hub for its residents and the region as a whole," according to city records. FPUA estimates it will cost $108 million to relocate the plant to the western end of the city, said Jason Hoffman, FPUA spokesman. The city has not determined how it would pay for the move, City Clerk Linda Cox said. If FPUA has to pay for relocation without state or federal assistance, water rates would increase by 40 percent to 50 percent, Hoffman said. "We do not want to pass this cost on to our customers," Hoffman said. The plant, which was built in 1959, serves the entire city. It processes 6 million gallons of waste water daily, about 40 percent of the plant's capacity, Hoffman said. The plant borders the western end of the proposed Causeway Cove Marina & RV park. The 18-acre site would house a $2.9 million marina with almost 200 dock slips and 14 offshore mooring spaces. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. New Delhi: An Australian national, suspected to be a supporter of ISIS, has been deported back home from IGI Airport here soon after his arrival. Ahmad Fahim Bin Hamad Awang, a Malay-origin Australian youth, was first detained by security agencies when he landed at the Indira Gandhi International airport Thursday night. After sustained questioning for a few hours at the airport, Awang was deported to Perth, official sources said. Some jihadi literature, including ISIS propaganda materials, were allegedly recovered on his laptop, the sources said, adding photographs of him posing with firearms were also allegedly found on the laptop. Among the photos found by security agencies was one of a bare-chested Awang brandishing an assault rifle. Another showed him sitting with a pistol on his lap, the sources claimed. During questioning, Awang said he had come to attend a meeting in Delhi's Nizamuddin area but his replies were suspicious, the sources said. After questioning for a few hours and scouring through the contents of Awang's laptop, security agencies decided against allowing him to enter the country and deported him to Australia in the next available flight. The threat of 'lone wolf' attacks by ISIS supporters has been a matter of concern for security agencies in India. 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. Awang's deportation comes amid a nationwide crackdown on ISIS supporters. 15 youths have been held from various cities for allegedly forming an ISIS-affiliate, called the Junood-Al-Khilafa-e-Hind, and planning terror attacks. Windows 10 last month had more user share than Windows XP and Windows 8, according to data released byNetMarketShare. It held 11.85 percent of the global OS market, though Windows 7 was still No. 1 with 52.47 percent. Though adoption has slowed, the NetMarketShare numbers helped validate Microsofts claim last month that Windows 10 was active on200 million devices. Hot Start Windows 10 dashed out to a 4.8 percent gain in user share in August, after launching the previous month. For January, the OS gained about 1.9 percent of global user share. That gain was the biggest the OS has seen since August, and a holiday bump in PC sales may have boosted Januarys jump. Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in Windows history, Microsoft said in comments provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Carmen Vasilatos. It is already running on more than 200 million devices, with unprecedented early demand from consumers and enterprise customers. Microsoft attributed much of that momentum to its free upgrade offer. The upgrade was available to users running legitimate installations of Windows 7 and higher. With 300 million new PCs expected to ship in 2016 alone, were looking forward to a great year ahead, along with our partners, Microsoft said. The Surface: Windows 10s Interface Microsoft hasnt explained the jump from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, skipping over what would have been Windows 9. Windows 8, and the Metro tiles it brought with it, turned a lot of people off, but people seem to appreciate the Windows 10 interface, according to Joe Silverman, owner ofNew York Computer Help. Windows 10 was well-reviewed by our technicians and customers in regard to its interface, especially from Windows 8, he told the E-Commerce Times. Really Getting to Know Windows 10 Two separate tales have been playing out among Windows 10 migrants, according to Silverman. Customers who bought new computers with Windows 10 preinstalled have been relatively happy, but the story often is different for those upgrading to the OS, which he described as a potential memory hog after system updates slowed it down. At first, customers gladly upgraded to Windows 10 as it is a free upgrade, Silverman said. Soon after, they complained about the slowness, and we have seen the aftereffects by customers requesting us to downgrade their computers to Windows 7 or 8. It may be time for another major marketing push: The message of frustrated Windows 10 users has spread inside the tech community, according to Silverman. As such, other computer users are leery of performing the upgrade and shied away from installing Windows 10, he said. It is likely the slow adoption of upgrading Windows 10 will continue due to the negative reviews it is getting. With too little money, no roadmap, and a looming change of administration, will NASA be able to deliver its promise of a human mission to Mars by 2030s? These were the concerns of a Wednesday hearing hosted by the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, where committee members and experts probed NASAs direction and urged a solid plan for sending humans to the Red Planet. Moreover, the space agency is rather pressed for time, given the possibility of a space mission-unfriendly administration taking over the White House in 2017. Without a roadmap to guide the agency, NASA will continue to be subject to indirection and proposed budget cuts by the White House, warned the Committee Chair, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who criticized that NASA is focusing on too many projects. NASA dropped plans to explore the Moon in 2010 to focus on asteroid exploration, a precursor to a Mars mission. Last year, it announced a $1.25 billion project to send a solar robot to an asteroid in 2020, which will collect a boulder off the surface, drop its orbit around the Moon, and send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft to the space rock. Smith dubbed the project uninspiring and said it has no connection to a bigger exploration roadmap among other complaints surfacing in the space subcommittee hearing. The Mars mission therefore is not yet fully defined, although NASA is building Orion and a rocket at present to bring astronauts to the planet. More equipment is necessary for the trip and there isnt any final inventory yet on what these are, said former Goddard Space Flight Center director Tom Young during the committee hearing. We do not have a planned strategy or architecture with sufficient detail, Young said. Based on estimates, it could take over $1 trillion to make the manned Mars mission possible. Of particular concern, according to the National Research Council Committee on Human Spaceflight technical panel chair John Sommerer, is protecting astronauts from space radiation a likely costly aspect of the planned trip. But whether NASA does it or not, private efforts for exploring Mars are in the works. Elon Musk of SpaceX said he will disclose his mission to colonize Mars this year, with human missions projected to start by 2025. On the other hand, Mars One launched by a Dutch non-profit in 2012 targets establishing the first human colony on Mars beginning in 2020. Over 200,000 individuals answered the groups call for volunteers for a one-way travel to start the colony. Europe, China, India, and Russia are also looking to explore Mars explore. Here is the full video of the committee hearing. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Apple's mobile payment and digital wallet service - Apple Pay - can be used in more than 2 million locations. Mobile payment system has changed the way people make payments for their purchases. Apple Pay allows people to make payments via their compatible iPhones, Apple Watch and iPads. "Paying in stores or within apps has never been easier or safer. Gone are the days of searching for your wallet. The wasted moments finding the right card. Now you can use your credit cards, store credit cards, and rewards cards with just a touch," says Apple. "Apple Pay is simple to use and works with the cards you already have on the devices you use every day." Apple Pay was initially released in October 2014 in the U.S. The service is now available in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and more. In December 2015, the company announced that Apple Pay will be available in China starting February 2016. "China is an extremely important market for Apple and with China UnionPay and support from 15 of China's leading banks, users will soon have a convenient, private and secure payment experience," said Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services at Apple. The growing popularity of mobile payment has led to the increased usage of services such as Apple Pay. According to a report, Apple Pay is now accepted in more than 2 million retailers, surpassing Apple's own target of 1.5 million retailers at the end of 2015. At launch, Apple Pay was available only at a limited number of popular retailers. However, more and more partners are now accepting Apple Pay. Currently, customers can make payments via Apple Pay in McDonalds, Whole Foods, Disney theme parks, Best Buy, Kohl's, Macy's, Office Depot, Subway, Staples and more. Online retailer Zappos.com has enabled Apple Pay on its mobile app and other merchants such as Crate & Barrel, Au Bon Pain and Chick-fil-A are estimated to roll Apple Pay support in their stores soon. Aki Iida, the head of mobile at Zappos, says that the company added support for Apple Pay after receiving requests from customers. Although, the popularity of mobile payment is growing, many people are still reluctant to use the service. In October 2015, 16.6 percent of people who owned Apple Pay compatible iPhones used the service, which is an increase from 9 percent in November 2014. Expansion of the services in more countries and getting more merchants on board may help Apple to attract more iPhone owners to use Apple Pay as a mode of payment. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Apple recently filed a request to the Supreme Court, asking it to reject Samsung's appeal in a patent dispute that the company says is dragging for too long. In December, Samsung filed the case to the Supreme Court in the hope that the highest American law institution could shed light on design patents' issues. With its December action, Samsung particularly targeted the way in which the law computes compensations. In a solidarity move, fellow tech names Dell, HP, Facebook and Google filed arguments that back Samsung's appeal in front of the Supreme Court. Apple already received $548 million from Samsung in the case of patent infringement. However, Samsung claims that due to legal principles, it is determined to fight the verdict. The jury found Samsung guilty of infringing both utility and design patents of iPhone. Samsung still claims that its design patent is legitimate. In retort, Apple is satisfied with the legislation that impacts awarding damages in design patents is a closed deal, which the iPhone manufacturer thinks is unworthy of the Supreme Court's attention. "Samsung had its day in court [...] and the jury was well-justified in finding that Samsung copied Apple's designs and should pay the damages," Apple says. In Apple's opinion, the litigation is "legally unexceptional," and the Supreme Court has no strong ground to feed it. Samsung is obviously not happy with the fact that it paid Apple the sum of $548 million, and the Supreme Court is the last line of defense that could bring the hefty sum back into Samsung's accounts. Even if it might seem like a desperate last resort, the company's efforts have a broader scope than just recuperating the money from the patent lawsuit. Samsung thinks that the rejection of the appeal would set a dangerous precedent for the tech industry as a whole. "Innovation could be diminished [and] competition could be stifled," the company says. Samsung goes on to say that this type of precedent, which it calls "opportunistic lawsuits," could cause grief throughout the American economy. In the eventuality that the Supreme Court denies to hear Samsung's case, this could mean the end of a legal war that was set in motion as far back as 2012. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google is launching anti-radicalization campaigns through its search engine aimed at countering the online influence of extremist groups such as ISIS. The company noted how these groups use the Internet in their propaganda and how they also use social media to recruit new members. The anti-extremism initiative will utilize the AdWords program of Google. As a pilot program, select non-profits will help in producing narrative advertising that counters extremism whenever a user enters keywords in the search box that have ISIS or Islamic radicalization themes. While these ads will be displayed prominently, users will not in any way have their searches be redirected. "We should get the bad stuff down, but it's also extremely important that people are able to find good information, that when people are feeling isolated, that when they go online, they find a community of hope, not a community of harm," said Anthony House, senior manager for public policy and communications at Google. House added that there are actually two pilot programs that are being launched. The first is aimed at ensuring that media content with extremist themes will be easier to detect on YouTube. The second makes sure that users find counter narratives whenever they enter search terms that are potentially damaging. The two pilot programs are scheduled to run this year. Committee chairman Keith Vaz expressed his concern on how tech companies will be able to monitor the online activities of their users. It was revealed that Twitter, which now has 320 million users around the globe, has more than 100 staff. Google and Facebook did not provide a number. Apart from monitoring the users, executives from the three companies are also asked to provide details on the thresholds they are using in order to come up with a decision on whether it is apt to notify authorities when a staff or a user has identified terrorist-based content. "What is the threshold beyond which you decide ... that you must proactively notify the law enforcement agencies," said Labor MP Chuka Umunna. The company did not, however, reveal which search terms would have terrorist connotations and it doesn't seem like they ever will, for obvious reasons. A potential terrorist may never be able to figure it out himself since Google will not entirely redirect his search. Instead, it will use AdWords to come up with a counter narrative. Tech companies have also been working extensively with the Obama administration in its fight against the threat of ISIS. Last month, major companies from the Silicon Valley sat down with the U.S. president and discussed several ways they could use their platforms in cutting the growing media presence of ISIS on the Internet. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Edgar Mitchell became the sixth man to walk on the moon when Apollo 14 touched down on the lunar surface on Feb. 5, 1971. The NASA astronaut passed away on Feb. 4, 2016, just one day before the 45th anniversary of his historic mission. Accompanying Mitchell during his two moon walks was the first American in space, Alan Shepard. "Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth ... home," said Edgar Mitchell, quoted by NASA administrator Charles Bolden. The Apollo 14 crew were the first to ever transmit full-color television images from the surface of the moon. They also broke previous records for the greatest distances traversed on the lunar surface, as well as the greatest time spent on our planetary companion - 33 hours. They returned to our home planet carrying 94 pounds of moon rocks, which were analyzed by 187 scientific teams around the world. Apollo 14 was the only time Mitchell ventured into space. His lunar module, named Antares, set down in the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. In addition to his trip to the moon, Mitchell is also known for several other accomplishments for the American space program. He was a member of the support crew for Apollo 9, and was the scheduled backup pilot for Apollo 10. When the astronauts on Apollo 13 ran into trouble following a mid-flight explosion, Mitchell assisted in devising ways to bring the threatened crew safely back to Earth. He later co-founded the Association of Space Explorers, a group of space travelers from around the world, in an effort to better understand how the experience affects human beings. The space traveler, who was drawn to the idea of space travel by John F. Kennedy's famous speech outlining the program, passed away in West Palm Beach, Florida. "After Kennedy announced the moon program, that's what I wanted, because it was the bear going over the mountain to see what he could see, and what could you learn, and I've been devoted to that, to exploration, education, and discovery since my earliest years, and that's what kept me going," Mitchell said. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. We've been taught all our lives that one of the best ways to mitigate the effects of climate change is by planting more trees that could absorb and reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Turns out, this doesn't always lead to the desired effect, a new study revealed. Some Trees Worsen Warming Switching to dark conifer trees from broad-leafed ones may have contributed to the rise of average temperatures in Europe. Researchers from France noted that changes in forest management have pushed summer temperatures in the continent to increase by 0.12 degree Celsius (0.2 degree Fahrenheit) since 1750. Many European nations had decided to plant conifer trees such as spruce and pines. These trees' dark colors trap the sun's heat and allow more sunlight to be absorbed, scientists said. Aside from that, conifers are more conservative with water. Kim Naudts, lead author of the study, said this leads to less evapotranspiration - the process in which water is transferred from land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and transpiration by plants - and drier air, which had also contributed to warming. On the other hand, broad-leafed trees with light colors and flat leaves -- including birch and oak trees -- reflect more sunlight back into space. As Europe expanded its forests to conifers, however, it had to give up its broad-leafed trees. Fast-growing conifers dominated forests and everything else since then. Conifers stretched to additional 633,000 square kilometers (244,000 miles) of land, while broad-leafed cover was reduced by 436,000 square kilometers (168,000 miles). Thus, the effect took place. 'Carbon Debt' While increasing conifer cover should have had a positive effect on the climate, researchers found that forests in Europe accumulated a "carbon debt." This meant that European forests have released 3.1 billion metric tons of carbon into the planet's atmosphere since the switch to conifers occurred. How so? Naudts said humans had extracted wood from unmanaged forests, removing their capacity to store carbon. "Even a well-managed forest today stores less carbon than its natural counterparts in 1750," said Naudts. "If the point is to store carbon, then afforestation is presumably good, but losing carbon to wood extraction is bad," added Richard Houghton, an ecologist from the Woods Hole Research Center. But it's not all about carbon. Naudts said government policies regarding forest management should be re-considered to take into account other factors such as the color of trees and their changes to moistures and soils. In Conclusion Researchers concluded that European forests have not resulted to the climate benefit that some might have hoped for. "Two and a half centuries of forest management in Europe have not cooled the climate," the authors of the study wrote. It may not even be an isolated case, although the study is restricted to Europe. Experts say similar effects are likely to be occurring in other parts of the world with big forest planting programs, including the United States, Russia and China. Another study conducted by the European Commission provides evidence that could support Naudts' and her team's findings. The report, which is featured in the journal Science, found that the loss of forests all over the world has led to an increase in maximum and average global temperatures, particularly in tropical and arid regions. Photo: Kathrin Rieger | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A volcano in Japan one of the countrys most active has erupted with a spectacular display, shooting ash a mile into the night sky and sending thick lava down its slopes. Sakurajima, situated in southern Japan and about 30 miles from a nuclear plant, violently erupted and spewed fountains of lava in the previous week. Despite what Japans Meteorological Agency called an explosive eruption, there has not been any report so far of damage and disrupted operations at the nearby power station, as well as any immediate report of injuries elsewhere. The agency said that Sakurajima erupted at around 7 p.m. local time, with public station NHK broadcasting the lightning and dark gray smoke emerging from the volcano into the dark sky. Authorities have banned entry to the area, with the current no-go zone expanded to a 1.2-mile radius around the volcanic crater. Volcanologist Kazuhiro Ishihara of Kyoto University predicted no serious impact from the explosion. But of course we must keep monitoring the volcanic activity, he told NHK. Sakurajimas most recent major eruption was back in September. While dramatic with red lava streams bursting from the mountain sides this eruption is average compared to previous ones, added Ishihara. The Sendai nuclear power station, situated on the same island, resumed its operations in 2015 after a shutdown period following the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown. A spokesperson for Kyushu Electric Power, which runs the power station, said the eruption made no impact to their plant operations and that they are not implementing any special measure. Japan sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire and has over 100 active volcanoes on the archipelago. This section of the ocean is renowned for its string of volcanic belts and arcs, oceanic trenches, and plate movements. In September last year, Mount Aso in the island of Kyushu suddenly erupted and blasted black-and-white smoke over 6,500 feet in the sky. It has also had a number of minor eruptions the same year and in 2014, temporarily disrupting local tourism. The 2014 eruption of central Japans Mount Ontake, on the other hand, killed 57 individuals. Photo: Tanaka Juuyoh | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The 4-inch iPhone 5se will come in hot pink, unlike the rose gold version from the iPhone 6s line. Apple reportedly opted for a brighter shade of pink this time. The small-screened smartphone is expected to roll out in silver and space gray too. Japanese website Mac Otakara (translated) got ahold of the news, saying that the information comes from third-party accessory vendors that showcased some products at the Tokyo International Gift Show. Now, the site didn't exactly get its hands on the device to get a close look at the color, but it did say that it's similar to the bright pink hue from the seventh-generation iPod nano and the sixth-generation iPod touch. As usual, take this with a grain of salt, as it is just a rumor after all. Meanwhile, reports say that the upcoming Apple smartphone will have hardware specifications comparable to the iPhone 6s. It could house either an A8 or A9 processor, an 8 MP camera that supports Live Photos and a version of Siri that's always active, to name a few. Interestingly, there's a pretty good chance that it'll be powered by an A9 processor instead of an A8. Some speculations say that Apple will opt for the later version so that the iPhone 5se won't be two generations behind the purported A10 that'll be under the hood of the highly anticipated iPhone 7. It's also worth mentioning that the Cupertino brand could be going for a 4-inch iPhone this time around because some users prefer having a smaller screen. According to Mixpanel, a website that yields mobile and web analytics, 32.23 percent of iPhone users own an iPhone 5, iPhone 5C or iPhone 5s, which all sport 4-inch displays. Since older iPhone models are falling behind in terms of features and specs and gradually going out of date, it could be argued that the iPhone 5se could be the smartphone maker's answer to give this demographic an option to upgrade. Apple is believed to unveil the iPhone 5se at a special event on March 15 and officially launch the handset sometime in early April 2016. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASAs solar-powered Juno spacecraft is fast heading to Jupiter. The first of the two planned maneuvers has been executed to adjust its flight plan, setting the stage for its arrival in the solar systems largest planet in five months. The first of the two planned maneuvers took place Feb. 3. "This [will] fine tune Juno's orbit around the sun, perfecting our rendezvous with Jupiter on July 4th at 8:18 p.m. PDT," reported principal investigator Scott Bolton in an official release. During the burn, Junos thrusters ate about 1.3 pounds of fuel to change the spacecraft speed by about 0.7 mph. Juno was around 51 million miles from Jupiter as well as roughly 425 million miles from Earth during the maneuver, according to NASA. The next maneuver to correct its trajectory is scheduled on May 31. Taking off on Aug. 5 in 2011, the Juno spacecraft is poised to orbit Jupiter 33 times and skim within 3,100 miles above its cloud tops every 14 days. The flyby will offer a peek beneath the planets cloud cover and probe its aurorae to know the gas giants structure, origins, evolution, and atmosphere. Jupiters northern and southern lights will particularly show how its magnetic force field influences its atmosphere. Junos name is derived from classic Roman mythology. The god Jupiter formed a curtain of clouds around himself to hide mischief. His wife Juno peered through the cloudy veil, revealing his real nature. Planet Jupiter is surrounded by a thick layer of clouds. The spacecraft carries three solar panels that measure 30 feet long and collectively hold over 18,600 individual solar cells. The expansive light-amassing gear is needed for powering the spacecraft in the dark setting around Jupiter. In January, Juno became spaceflight historys farthest moving solar-powered mission. It was a record previously held by the comet-probing Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency, which reached 492 million miles away from Earth in 2012. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The summer is months away but the water situation in Maharashtra, particularly in Marathwada, is already a cause of concern. (Representational Image, Photo: PTI) Mumbai: Replicating actor Dharmendra's famous way of protesting on a tank top in the iconic film 'Sholay', some villagers in Aurangabad district of Marathwada adopted the same route to demand release of water from Jaikwadi Dam. Several residents of villages in Paithan tehsil climbed atop a water tank to press for their demand of water supply to their village that has been facing water crisis for a long time. They demanded that water supply to the villages, which was shut due to non availability of water stock on the dam, be restored. The summer is months away but the water situation in Maharashtra, particularly in Marathwada, is already a cause of concern. The demand for tankers has shot up and the state is staring at an acute water shortage for the third consecutive year, worse than even 2015. In Marathwada, the water level in dams has dropped to 8 per cent. The Water Supply and Sanitation Department has recorded a five-fold rise compared to 2015 in the number of water tankers supplied to provide water in villages and hamlets. The water situation in other parts of the state such as North Maharashtra, Amaravati and Nagpur division is also bad. The current storage level in dams in these divisions is 31, 35 and 37 per cent respectively. Lantica Media announced on Sept. 2015 that it has partnered with Sobini Films to produce a reboot of the much-beloved masked hero, "Zorro," but it wasn't until Feb 4, 2016 that the two companies finally announced that they have signed on the perfect writer and director for the reboot in Jonas Cuaron. Cuaron is co-writer for the 2013 Academy Award winning film Science Fiction Thriller, "Gravity," directed by his father Alfonso Cuaron. Jonas is acting as both writer and director for the film and both Lantica and Sobini fully support his vision for the re-imagined "Zorro" to the point that they allowed him to scrap their original idea for a post-apocalyptic setting and focus instead on a futuristic plot. "His love of cinema is evident in his work and he is very talented in his ability to tell a compelling story. We look forward to seeing where his vision will take us," Lantica Media's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Antonio Gennari said. Principal photography for the futuristic "Zorro" film, currently titled "Z," will begin in Summer in the Dominican Republic and, while there is no target release date yet, Sobini Films CEO Mark Amin already projects a budget of between $30 million and $100 million. "We hope to use the studio's water tank but are open to shooting in other locations outside of the Dominican Republic if the script calls for it," he said. That's a lot of room for Jonas to let his imagination run a little wild considering his last written and directed film "Desierto," which starred Gael Garcia Bernal and won the National Critics Award at the Toronto Film Festival, was made for just around $3 million. Then again, it's no surprise that Sobini Films is willing to give Jonas the financing he needs, its CEO was greatly impressed with Jonas' $3 million film, after all. "When I saw Desierto, I was impressed with Jonas' command of action and suspense, his great visual eye, and the strong performances he elicited from his actors," Amin said. Pantelion Films will handle international sales for "Z." 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck in southern Taiwan early Saturday toppling several buildings and killing at least seven people including an infant. The powerful earthquake struck about 30 miles east of Tainan, the oldest city in Taiwan and home to more than 1.8 million, just before 4 a.m. (3 p.m. Friday E.T.) waking up residents because of the violent shaking that moved buildings. Some immediately ran out of their houses. The tremor hurt at least 403. It also fell nine buildings and caused five more to tilt at dangerous angles. One of the toppled structures was the 16-story Wei Guan residential building. The collapse set off a search effort involving firefighters and volunteers who managed to pull out 245 people from the rubble. Of those rescued, 68 were hospitalized. Five Wei Guan building residents were killed and at least 11 remained missing, the National Fire Agency said. Included in the fatalities is a 10-day old baby. Two others died in Tainan's Gueiren District. One was a woman who was hit by a fallen water tower. The other fatality was in one of the titled buildings. Residents extended help to rescue those who were trapped but many people remained stuck in the wreckage. A 71-year-old plumber who goes by the name Chang used a ladder and some tools to pry open window bars and rescue a woman. "She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in," Chang said. "At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them." The powerful tremor occurred a day before Lunar New Year's eve, a period when many people go home to their hometowns. The earthquake shut down 69 power lines, affecting more than 121,000 households, and water service, affecting about 400,000 households preparing for the holiday. Outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou pledged an all-out effort to rescue those who remained trapped and provide assistance to those affected by the disaster. Ma said that 1,200 beds have been prepared in four shelters in the area to accommodate those who were displaced. The U.S. Geological Survey said that the earthquake occurred at a depth of around 14 miles with Tainan being the hardest hit. The earthquake was also felt in the capital of Taipei, which is located on the other side of the island, waking up many in the city. "It was not a rolling gentle earthquake, but a violent jerking motion. The walls were shaking and you could hear the building and windows moving," related elementary school teacher Derek Hoerler. "It lasted at least a minute with swaying afterwards. I felt complete terror." Taiwan lies on the seismically active "Ring of Fire," a region where large number of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. Although earthquakes often occur in the island, most are minor and do not cause much damage. The strongest tremor that hit Taiwan in recent years was the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck in 1999. The quake killed about 2,500. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Hacktivists Anonymous turn their ire against legal rape group Return of Kings The online hacktivist group is involved in many cases of carrying out Internet vigilante justice against pedophiles, racists, whaling industry etc. This time the hacktivist group has turned its vengeance against the legal rape blogger Daryush Valizadeh aka Roosh V. Roosh V has been a proponent of legalising rape. He is the founder of a group called Return of Kings and a self confessed anti-feminist crusader. For years, Return of Kings has been called the worst blog on the Internet and a vile troll site. They were even dubbed misogynistic garbage by the Ottawa mayor on Wednesday. With its fat shaming, racist commentary and degrading write-ups about women, the sites aggressive reputation preceded its meet-up announcement, prompting the hashtag #TurnAwayReturnofKings. Recently Valizadeh invited his group members to an international meetup day, the announcement caught the eye of Anonymous. Valizadeh told members, known as tribesmen, to be careful after the meetup announcement caught the eyes of hacktivist group Anonymous. Heads up to all forum members: change your emails immediately, Valizadeh tweeted to his nearly 19,000 Twitter followers on Wednesday. Hacking group that works for media is incoming. The tweet has since been deleted. This did not deter Anonymous who went on to post the address of Valizadehs family to Facebook, along with other exposing information. Anonymous doxxed by familys address. Whatever Ive done in life, they dont deserve to be harassed or harmed, he tweeted. For some reason Facebook has deleted the doxxing info however the doxxed info is still available on Ghostbin. Massive Police Surveillance Dragnet Uncovered By Hacker While Serving Time In Prison Truth & Power Shows How Citizens Are Fighting Back Against Government Surveillance Dragnet Referred internally by the Federal investigators as the Hacker (even though he was never accused of hacking-related crimes), Daniel Rigmaiden, a 27-year-old thief who was arrested by the federal agents in March 2008 and finally ended up in police custody, decided to find out how did the feds found his location. For those who do not know, Rigmaiden had made a half-million dollars by filing fraudulent tax returns by using the identities of dead people before getting arrested. To his surprise, he found out that police secretly used controversial cell phone spyware called StingRays, or cell site simulators to track his (and many others) location and not just those accused of terror-related crimes. The briefcase-sized device basically mimics a cell tower, letting authorities to track down a suspect by intercepting their cell phone and collecting phone numbers of those they communicate with. They can be placed on squad cars, into backpacks or even mounted on a fixed structure like a control tower. In some cases, the actual content of calls can also be collected. Whats most concerning, activists say, is potential dragnet surveillance of areas where the device is being used, because Stingrays also eat up information from phones in the targets vicinity. Its existenceand what its being used foris so secret that even judges have objected to its use without court authorization. Rigmaidens discovery now is also the subject of a 10-part series television documentary, Truth and Power, airing Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Pivot. Truth and Power is executive produced by award-winning filmmaker Brian Knappenberger (The Internets Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz) and narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. This series will highlight stories of ordinary people going to extraordinary lengths to expose large-scale injustice: from corporations getting profitable government contracts for dangerous private prisons, to governments using data-gathering technology to scoop up huge amounts of information about their citizens. The series unpacks the timely issues of security, surveillance, and profiteering in the digital age, using probing interviews, original footage, and newly unearthed documents. Prompted by Rigmaidens discovery, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is hoping to find out how many police agencies have such stingray devices placed in America. In 2014, the ACLU launched a nationwide search for police departments that own StingRays. So far, the ACLU has identified the device in 59 agencies across 23 states and the District of Columbia, including New York State Police have been using these devices to snoop on citizens. That number could be much higher, as the researchers say they are limited by the fact that many agencies continue to shroud their purchase and use of StingRays in secrecy. However, all their efforts started because of Rigmaiden, a convicted felon serving time in an Arizona prison. Daniel clearly was a criminal. Nobody disputes that. But when he makes this discovery, he meets this broader community thats fighting for [privacy] rights, and by the time hes actually [out of jail], hes still completely obsessed with it. And he believes the technology is wrong. And that its wrong for the public, says Knappenberger. Confounded by how the authorities were able to uncover his whereabouts, Rigmaiden sifted through hundreds of court documents of his case sitting in his jail cell, and later exposed the use of Stingray by police. His research led him to understand that the devices spoof nearby cell phone towers, and basically trick a cell phone into feeding data to whoever owns the StingRay. He later learned that the tool that was primarily developed by the military had increasingly found its way into the hands of local law enforcement agencies and the FBI for routine investigations. Once he made this discovery, Rigmaiden began reaching out to well-known privacy experts, trying to persuade them to get interested in his case. Rigmaiden felt there was a serious privacy breach happening while most people he contacted figured he was a lunatic. You have this guy claiming that the government used a secret surveillance technology to send signals through the wall of his house to track him, Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, says in the film. This is straight-up paranoid conspiracy theory stuff. Even then, Soghoian decided to look into Rigmaidens claims, as StingRays cannot be used to target just one individual, because they often pick up lots of peoples cell phone data. As a privacy advocate, Soghoian was shocked. Theres no way to use it like a scalpel, he says. Its like a huge trawler net. This is a technology that scoops up information about mostly innocent people. In spite of Rigmaidens discovery, it was not enough to influence a judge to the fact that the police had encroached on his rights. In 2014, after 68 months in custody, Rigmaiden pleaded guilty and was released on time served. He became a passionate privacy advocate after his release. In 2015, he assisted the ACLU in making a tutorial on how defense lawyers can contest StingRay use. He even assisted Washington state legislators craft a privacy bill related to StingRay use, which was signed into law on May 11. In the end, Knappenberger says the film is about an unlikely hero for privacy rights a hacker-criminal-turned-whistleblower. The guy is on a mission, says Knappenberger. Hes on a crusade to end this technology. And the direct benefit to him has long since passed. Hes clearly emerged from this kind of bad situation as a whistleblower someone who is taking on the system for the best of reasons. Knappenberger added, When you think about these incredibly invasive surveillance tools getting in the hands of local cops who may not even know how to use them, or may not understand the broader constitutional protections, its really something to be concerned about. The first episode of the 10-part series premiered on January 22. The series will air each Friday until its finale on March 25. New Jersey Man Arrested For Crashing A Drone Into Empire State Building Sean Nivin Riddle, a resident of New Jersey was arrested by the authorities after the drone that he was using to take photos of the Empire State building stuck on the 40th floor, ultimately landing on the 35th. Police said that the 27-year-old Riddle lost apparently lost control of the aircraft in an attempt to take pictures of the iconic building on Thursday night. Investigators said Riddle was arrested at the scene and is expected to face criminal charges, which can come with a punishment of up to seven years in prison. He was being questioned by officers at the Midtown South police zone. Riddle tweeted that he was speaking with security after the drone got stuck on the Empire State Building. This is what he wrote on his own Twitter feed: filming w/ drone, now its stuck on the empire state building.w/security. https://twitter.com/SeanRiddle12/status/695392728964681728/photo/1 Investigators said that they do not believe the crash was intentional. No one was hurt and no property was damaged. There are no specific regulations for flying drones in New York City, as long as they are registered in a national database. However, operators can be charged if cops they think public safety is at risk. Chennai: Neethi R. was on her way to Katpadi from Chennai Central by the Lal Bagh Express when a young beggar girl approached her cubicle with a baby monkey on her shoulder. A man sitting opposite Neethi asked the girl why she was carrying a monkey around. The girl shoved the monkey in the mans face to scare him and fled. Though keeping a monkey as a pet is considered illegal, there are many who use monkeys for begging and performances, thereby violating various laws. There have been many cases in the recent past wherein monkeys were rescued from Narikuravars and others who had trained the animals to beg at stations, in trains and at the beaches. Though many societies and groups exist that work towards animal welfare, people continue to parade the streets boldly with their monkey pets. There have been many cases of monkey rescues in the past one year including one rescue by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty at Kottivakkam on Wednesday. We rescued a mature monkey and fined the culprit, said the honorary secretary of the society, Thyagarajan. The monkey is a wild animal and the Forest Department is responsible to ensure the safety of all wild animals, said Jerold, animal welfare officer of Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). No one has the permission to keep monkeys as pets in any capacity. Officials of the Forest or Wildlife Departments should ensure that they crackdown the culprits and get them arrested as it is a punishable offence, said the assistant secretary, AWBI, Vinod Kumaar. The law gives the authority only to the Forest and Wildlife Departments to take action. The culprits must be punished irrespective of whether they are Narikuravars or not, he added. People who get hold of baby monkeys manage to do so by killing the mothers, by either poisoning them or hitting them with a rod. Poaching is a crime and the culprits should be arrested, said Arun Prasanna, founder and secretary, People for Cattle in India. Cases of Narikuravars walking around the stations have reduced over the years, said RPF inspector S. Mohan. A senior police officer at Marina too said he was not aware of any cases in the past one year. There have been many instances wherein we rescued monkeys and fined the beggars keeping them, said a a forest range officer. The disclosure of her past will add to fears by centrist Labour MPs that Momentum is organising to pack local parties with new members in order to deselect them. Ms Thompson has been closely involved with Momentums Democracy SOS voter registration drive, the first campaign that the group launched, weeks after it was created. New Delhi: Twelve years after making the biopic 'Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero', film maker Shyam Benegal on Friday night said people should celebrate Netaji's life and works instead of merely conjecturing what happened to him on that fateful day in 1945. "As keen to know as everybody in the audience about the not released files. The research for our film was till he boarded the plane in August, 1945 and there was no public information about him afterwards. My only problem is whatever is conjecture is not of consequence to me," Benegal said at the Kolkata Literature Festival discussion of the 40th International Kolkata Book Fair here. "What is of consequence to me is that, here is somebody fighting for India's freedom. How come he (would) end up as a holy man. He was certainly not that kind of that person, why would he do that," Benegal said in an obvious reference to claims in certain quarters about Netaji returning back in the guise of a sadhu in the 50s and later. Pointing out that British actually realised they could not hold on to India in the late 40s, Benegal said apart from the movement in different parts of the country, the battle of INA and Netaji surely played its part in the freedom and gave the final push. "Another assumption I am opposed to is to portray Jawaharlal Nehru as the villain. Instead he had defended the INA officers facing trial at Red Fort before being court-martialed. Why did he need to do that?," the Padmabhusan and Dada Saheb Phalke awardee said. Pointing out the first bunch of declassified files of Netaji by West Bengal government and Centre so far have not revealed anything, the 'Ankur' and 'Mandi' director said, "hopefully they will reveal something in future." Referring to the research work for his film, he said "Whatever research I had done based on books and documents including known scholar Purabi Roy's books, I find his life and vision fascinating. And perhaps there was certain kind of destiny involved in this man." The only way to know reality is, "Lets see if other documentations exist and will come and if these reveal something at all. If not we will continue to have wonderful imagination speculating what happened to Netaji." "In my film he takes the aircraft and flies off and after August 18 1945 no general public at large had seen Netaji," Benegal said. He was referring to reports of the August 18 aircrash in Taihoku, Formosa (now Taipei, Taiwan). Benegal also talked about his uncle, Ramesh, who was based in Rangoon (now Myanmar) who was inducted into INA. Ramesh, who was 14-15 years old, started living in Rangoon and a visit by Netaji to Rangoon seeking volunteers to start an air force changed the course of Ramesh's life. "He was among 35 people who had volunteered and was sent to Japan for training," Benegal recalled referring to another association of him and the 'Forgotten Hero.' Historian and Netaji scholar Purabi Roy said she was 100 per cent sure he (Netaji) did not die in air crash. "As per archives from Moscow, Japan, German, Romania - these papers showing he did not die in air crash," she said. To a question about claims for DNA tests of Netaji's ashes in Tokyo's Renkoji temple, Benegal said "Let the truth come out." New Delhi: The probe report by Delhi government on the death of 6-year-old student Divyansh Kakora at Ryan International has blamed the school authorities of glaring lapses and a deliberate attempt to malign the childs image. The report which is now with the government, claimed that the school authorities allegedly attempted to malign the child's image by insinuating he was a special child. It also revealed how the school authorities, including the swimming teacher, stood by and watched as mute spectators when a class XI student risked his life and jumped into the pit to try and rescue the child. Divyansh was found dead last Saturday, in the reservoir under the amphitheatre of the school located in South Delhi. The initial postmortem report of Divyansh suggested he died of drowning and no external injuries were found, police had said. Read: Delhi boy's death: Cops send notices to top officials of Ryan Group Calling for a CBI probe, into the incident, the childs father said I have 24 questions, neither police nor the authorities answer me. I want CBI to investigate. Divyanshs father also pointed out that the CCTV footage regarding the event was not available. I have the entire map of the area, there are cameras, where were they that day? he asked. The lid was 20kg, how could he have lifted it? Why did he take off shoes before 'falling'? he added. Meanwhile, Sisodia, speaking to reporters also alleged that a possible sodomy angle was being ignored. "The observation of the parents are being ignored that the private parts of the child had bits of cotton on them. The report is indicating towards a heinous crime. And saying that he had a disorder amounts to running away from responsibilities," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters. The "deliberate" inaction of Ryan International School authorities that amounts to "gross criminal negligence" led to the death of the child, the report produced by SDM Sonal Swaroop has said. It slammed the authorities for "insinuating" him to be special kid. Sisodia said the foundings of the report raises a "lot of questions" as to how the school could be so "careless". The government is studying its contents and would take appropriate action, he said. "The time that elapsed due to deliberate inaction by the school staff in rescuing Divyansh amounts to gross criminal negligence. Had the time essentially wasted in discussion, calling for a particular person and denial, been utilised in rescuing the drowned child it would have been pivotal in saving his life," the report observed. The joint team intensified their search and also fired few warning shots near the spot where the terrorist is believed to be holed up (Photo: PTI) Srinagar: A terrorist has been neutralised as a fierce gun-battle between security forces and terrorists is underway in Gundipora area of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. The area has been cordoned off as another terrorist is holed up in a house and efforts are being made to smoke him out. According to sources, a joint team of the Indian Army's 55 Rashtriya Rifles, 182 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 183 CRPF and Special Operations Group are engaged with the terrorist acting on specific information about their presence. The joint team intensified their search and also fired few warning shots near the spot where the terrorist is believed to be holed up. The whole area including all the entry and exit points have been sealed to prevent the remaining terrorist from escaping. Arturo Murillo swindled the Bolivian state in 2019, when the U.S.-backed regime was trying to repress workers, farmers, and students. | Read More Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party leader and UP minister Mohd Azam Khan, on Saturday, stirred a fresh controversy when he claimed that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was present during the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore last year. Mr Khan claimed that he had proof of Dawood Ibrahims presence at the meeting. I will give the proof and let Mr Narendra Modi deny it, he said in Ghazipur where he had gone to attend a private function. He said that the meeting between the two Prime Ministers and the underworld don took place in a closed room. When Mr Modi met the Pakistan Prime Ministers mother, two Indian industrialists were also present, he said. He further said that mangoes from Malihabad and Pashmina shawls were gifted to Mr Nawaz Sharif, apart from seekh kebebs packed ina silver box. Nagender quits as Greater Hyderabad Congress chief Hyderabad, Feb 6 (INN): Congress senior leader and former minister Danam Nagender resigned from the post of President of Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee here on Saturday. Addressing a press conference at his residence, Nagender said he was resigning from his post owing moral responsibility for Congress party's humiliating defeat in the GHMC elections. He alleged that the Congress party did not assign him the responsibility of all wards in the GHMC. He admitted that internal differences among Congress leaders were causing heavy damage to the party. He said that the party had lost elections primarily due to infighting among Congress leaders. Stating that he would hand over his resignation letter to TPCC President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday, Nagender said he had no intentions of leaving the Congress party. He said he would continue to serve the party as an ordinary worker. He said the TRS promise of providing 2BKH housing attracted voters which led to ruling party's thunderous victory. News Posted: 6 February, 2016 The State Securities Commission Thursday fined three individuals VND300 million (US$14,000) each for manipulating stock prices. According to the securities watchdog, besides their own stock accounts, Thai Thuy Tuyet Ngan, Nguyen Van Vinh, and Do Thi Thanh Thuy used accounts of many other people and coordinated with each other to create false demand by purchasing a large number of shares in Cai Lay Veterinary Pharmaceutical JSC between April 1 and December 24 last year. Their scheme boosted Cai Lay shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange to a record VND76,000 in late August, significantly higher than the price of VND12,000 on April 1. Members of World Organisation of Students and Youth (WOSY) stage a protest against the attack on the Tanzanian student recently, at Freedom park in Bengaluru on Saturday (Photo: R. Samuel) Bengaluru: Hundreds of African students staged a demonstration in Bengaluru demanding safety and security from the government, in the wake of attack on a Tanzanian girl student, who was stripped and mobbed on Sunday. The incident happened shortly after a car, driven by a Sudanese student, fatally ran over a local woman. The demonstrations were held in the morning and evening at Town Hall and Freedom Park respectively. Many Indian students too joined the protest to express their solidarity. Later at Freedom Park in the evening, a candle vigil was observed to condole the death of Shabana Taj, the 35-year-old victim of Hesaraghatta road accident. There are bad elements in all communities, and just because one Africans mistake, it is unfair to attack other innocent Africans and branding all of them as one. The government should provide us safety and security. We are ready to cooperate with the local community members, said Sougar Hassan, student. 43 Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activists held Around 43 Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) activists were arrested from Hesaraghatta, when they carried out a protest march without seeking prior police permission from 8th Mile to the Saibaba Temple near Sapthagiri College junction, where the accident happened. The protesters wanted revocation of the suspension of the five police officials and release of arrested villagers. They also criticised African students for creating nuisance and drunk driving, leading to accidents. Seven of those arrested were released, as they were minors and students, but the remaining 36 were formally arrested and produced before a court. They were granted bail after each activist paid Rs 5,000 as surety. Locals who are born and brought up here have no value anymore and the government is keen on protecting the law-breaking foreigners, said Praveen Shetty, President, KRV Vietnamese police have charged the former chairman of a local pharmaceutical firm with manipulating stock prices of his own company as well as another drug maker last year. If found guilty, Le Van Dung, former chairman and general director of Vien Dong Pharma JSC, will be the first person in Vietnam to be punished for stock manipulation. This also means that the 39-year-old tycoon could face up to seven years in prison. He was arrested last November. The case is now being studied by the Supreme People's Procuracy, the highest prosecutor's office of Vietnam. According to investigators of the Ministry of Public Security, Dung listed his company on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in December, 2009. Soon after the Vien Dong (DVD) stock made its debut, Dung opened 12 different trading accounts, including six at Sacombank Securities under his name and the names of his relatives and friends. Dung then conducted 1,725 transactions of buying and selling DVD shares among these accounts from January, 2010 to September, 2010, Lao Dong newspaper reported Tuesday, citing the police investigators. It meant that Dung was the only one to buy back the shares he sold on the same day. The aim of this activity was to create false demand and supply so that he could boost liquidity of the DVD stock and make it more appealing to investors. Under the current rules, investors are allowed to only have one trading account. They are also banned from buying and selling the same shares the same day. Investors will have to wait until August 1 this year to be allowed to open multiple accounts at brokerages as well as to buy and sell a stock within the same trading session. Apart from "artificially" creating demand and supply for DVD shares to attract investors to pour money into the stock, Dung also manipulated the share price of another drug maker, the Ha Tay Pharmaceutical JSC, aiming to acquire a major holding in Ha Tay and merge it with Vien Dong, investigators said. They said Dung opened five more accounts to have a total of 11 accounts at Sacombank Securities alone to buy 84.4 percent of Ha Tay (DHT) shares traded on the market and sell 64.2 percent as of September, 2010, according to a report in the Lao Dong newspaper. Investigations also showed that Le Minh Truyen, his broker at Sacombank Securities, knew about the scheme and actually helped Dung trade a large amount of DHT shares at his request, the paper said. Truyen, in charge of transactions at the brokerage, also helped the internal scheme by choosing the best times and selling DHT shares when the trading activities were slow. The goal was to make sure that Dung was the only one to buy back the shares that he'd sold earlier in the same session. The State Securities Commission said Dung's stock manipulation scheme caused "serious consequences." Thirteen investors reportedly suffered a total loss of nearly VND2 billion (US$97,250) due to the scam. Apart from Dung, the Ministry of Public Securities also asked the Supreme People's Procuracy, Vietnam's highest office of prosecutors, to press charges against Nguyen Van Viet, 35, a member of Vien Dong's management board, Le Van Manh, 34, chairman of the Vien Dong International JSC, and Le Minh Truyen, 27 for their involvement in the manipulation scheme. Karen Bojar explores the rewards and challenges of retirement. Reclaim Australia protesters held their largest rally yet on Saturday in Canberra kicking of a wave of Anti-Islam demonstrations in cities across the world. Canberra organiser Daniel Evans labelled it "preservation of Australia Day" and at the podium congratulated 250 "fellow patriots" for making the journey to the capital. Reclaim Australia national rally on Parliament House Lawns was the first in a series of globally coordinated Anti-Islam protests Credit:Graham Tidy Saturday's protest was the first in a series of global rallies against the Islamisation of the West co-ordinated by German anti-immigration movement the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA). As the crowd marched up Federation Mall and flooded onto a Parliament House Lawn, split in two by barricades, a dubbed version of John Lennon's track Imagine came over the PA featuring the lyrics "Imagine there's no Islam". EDITORIAL In deposing Tony Abbott from the office of prime minister five months ago, Malcolm Turnbull said Australia needed a different style of leadership, one that would explain the challenges and opportunities confronting the nation, "a style of leadership that respects the intelligence of the Australian people". He said he wanted to lead an open government that promoted genuinely consultative engagement with members of parliament and with voters, one that engaged in advocacy, not sloganeering. It all sounded so warm and fuzzy, so flattering and alluring, and a world away from the confused, aimless and contradictory manner of the Abbott government. It would have been warmer and fuzzier, though, if Mr Turnbull had made good on his fine rhetoric about consultation by allowing the bureaucrats in several departments to continue their methodical preparatory work to formulate economic reform proposals. Two areas where the Abbott government had commenced extensive reviews were tax and federal-state relations. In both cases, options papers were due by the end of 2015. Nothing has emerged, and it looks now like nothing will. Why is this important? Because the comprehensive analyses traditionally presented in white papers provide the public with a landscape view of potential strategies for policy development. They tend to have weight in their own right and act as starting points for conversation. While they might articulate a government's intended policy, they usually also describe what the nation as a whole should pursue for years, irrespective of the political persuasion of the government of the day. The Greens have chosen a female native title lawyer to contest Tanya Plibersek's federal electorate of Sydney as the party prepares to target what it believes are five winnable lower house seats in NSW and Victoria this year. Sylvie Ellsmore, a lawyer and Marrickville councillor, won preselection for the Greens on Thursday night. Tanya Plibersek's stance on a binding vote for Labor MPs on same-sex marriage did her untold damage. Credit:Andrew Meares Ms Ellsmore is a former NSW Greens campaign co-ordinator who worked for a decade as an Indigenous rights advocate. She prevailed over Bruce Knobloch who had originally set his sights on contesting Anthony Albanese's seat of Grayndler before the Greens chose former fire brigade union boss Jim Casey as its candidate. An 80-year-old farmer and his horse have died mustering cattle to higher ground away from floodwaters on a north-west Queensland property, Lagoona Station, at Monto on Friday. The body of the farmer was found Saturday morning. Police, SES volunteers and neighbours started searching the property, west of Bundaberg, on Friday when he was reported missing. Police requested the RACQ CareFlight Bundaberg helicopter start an aerial search at daybreak. A CareFlight spokesman said the helicopter crew informed police shortly after that they had found the body of the man's horse about 1km away from the homestead and soon after the ground party found the man's body. Police did not release his name. Queensland Health is boosting its Zika monitoring and management program by $1.4 million, including a $400,000 expansion of Townsville testing facilities where the risk of infection is greatest. The expanded, more rapid testing program, to begin on March 1, was announced as health authorities confirmed a second positive test for the virus in Queensland. Health Minister Cameron Dick and chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young. Credit:Jorge Branco A Brisbane child admitted to hospital for testing on Thursday was confirmed on Saturday as Queensland's second case of Zika infection this year. Visakhapatnam: The IFR-2016 which has elements of pomp, pageantry, action, drill and spectacle, will also have a unique intellectual dimension to it, with the two-day Maritime Conference providing a platform for discussion on contemporary maritime issues. Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar will inaugurate the conference on Sunday. The conference will see a gathering of some of the best and brightest minds in the business of maritime and security studies confabulate on issues of maritime salience to the world. Premised on the theme Partnering Together for a Secure Maritime Future, the conference will be conducted on Sunday and Monday. Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral R.K. Dhowan will deliver the theme address setting the tone for the proceedings that follow. The previous Navy Chief and presently the chairman of the National Maritime Foundation, Admiral D.K. Joshi (Retd), will also be among the speakers at the inaugural session. ENC commander in chief Vice Admiral Satish Soni will deliver the valedictory address on Monday. The gathering will witness nine eminent speakers from abroad and two from India taking part in it. And addressing different aspects of the theme. The conference is also likely to be attended by a glittering galaxy of high government officials including the union minister of state for defence, Rao Inderjit Singh, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Kumar Doval, Deputy NSA Dr Arvind Gupta, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha Chief of Air Staff, General Dalbir Singh Suhag Chief of the Army Staff, Chiefs of Navies and Senior Officials from among the 53 participating nations, serving and retired Naval, Army and Air Force officers and also the academia from the city. President releases commemorative postal stamp President of India Pranab Mukherjee released the commemorative postal stamp of IFR, First Day Cover and Information Brochure prepared by the postal department on Saturday evening. These stamps, First Day Covers and Brochures were available at IFR Village. He also released a booklet in commemoration of past Presidents Fleet Reviews titled Aikya. This booklet contains write ups, charts, photographs and printouts of stamps brought out on the occasion of past President Fleet Reviews. This is a very limited collection available for sale from Feb 7at AU grounds and at Philatelic Bureau, Visakhapatnam Head Post office, Vellampet. The Palaszczuk government outspent the Newman government on overseas ministerial travel by nearly two-to-one in its first nine months in power. Information available through the Queensland government's open data shows the Newman Liberal National Party government spent $124,857 on overseas ministerial travel in its first six months. Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt was the Palaszczuk government's most expensive overseas traveller in its first nine months in power. Credit:Chris Hyde In comparison, the Palaszczuk Labor government spent $222,773. The most expensive trip was by Treasurer Curtis Pitt, whose two-week trip through Singapore, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Britain and the United States set taxpayers back $79,687 last August. Premier Daniel Andrews faces a backlash over plans to ban smoking in outdoor dining areas but not extend the policy to drinking spaces, despite new research suggesting businesses would not be hurt if a wider prohibition was introduced. After years of lagging behind other states, the government announced last year that smokers would soon be prevented from lighting up in outdoor eateries, with on-the-spot fines for people who breach the new rules. Smoking bans may prove a headache for the Andrews government. But the government faces growing angst from councils, unions and health groups after admitting that it was likely to adopt the same type of smoking bans applied in NSW, which critics claim have been confusing, unworkable, and a nightmare to enforce. Under the NSW model, smoking is not permitted in an outdoor "seated dining area", which is defined under health guidelines as an area where food is not only purchasable but also "served or packaged to be eaten straight away". Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has written to the Prime Minister offering to "accept full responsibility" for the asylum seekers who face being sent back to the remote island of Nauru in the wake of this week's High Court decision. In a letter to Malcolm Turnbull posted on Mr Andrews' Facebook page and Twitter account on Saturday the Labor premier told the Prime Minister that Victoria would gladly take on the families and children rather than have them return to "a life of physical and emotional trauma" in immigration detention. Federation flub: the Prime Minister and the premiers at Friday's COAG meeting. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Andrews' letter comes after the High Court upheld the legality of detaining asylum seekers indefinitely on foreign shores, clearing the way for the return of 267 asylum seekers to Nauru, including 37 babies born in Australia. "While I believe that in such clearly exceptional circumstances as these, you have a clear obligation to support these children and their families, a political argument is no benefit to them," Mr Andrews told Mr Turnbull. A man has been seriously injured after two jet-skis collided at Sandridge Beach at Port Melbourne. A 50-year-old rider was injured after his jet-ski was hit by the second jet-ski, a Victoria Police spokeswoman told Fairfax Media. A man who crashed into a house near Geelong is being flown to The Alfred hospital in a critical condition. The 19-year-old man riding the other jet-ski was being interviewed by water police, but no charges have been laid. Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said they were called to help the man just after 1pm. Sultan Abdullah, Iraq: Khamad's war is one of terrain - the Kurdish commander holds the high ground here and the Islamic State controls the villages that hug the Tigris river below. The fighting is sporadic along a frontline where men sit in lawn chairs, helmets askew. Lunch is made, tea is served. And Khamad, who will only give his nom de guerre, says the IS militants are beyond his reach, their black flag only visible through ageing binoculars. Peshmerga vehicles in Mount Sinjar, Iraq, late last year. Credit:New York Times If his men are shot at, it is by tanks that fire from the western banks of the river, or by heavy weapons that have the range to hit his fortified positions. Just in case, however, his outposts are ringed with moats - a last ditch effort to stop any potential raiding parties that might come in the night. PM Narendra Modi, accompanied by AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu, goes around the stalls at the IFR Village, set up as part of IFR-16, in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.(Photo DC) Visakhapatnam: Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the demonstrations at Maritime Exhibition and the IFR Village at AU Engineering College Ground here on Saturday. The expo was restricted to the public and even media for nearly three hours, in view of the PMs visit. He spent more than an hour going around the stalls and witnessing demonstrations at the IFR Village. Firstly, he visited the thematic light and sound show depicting the roles of Indian Navy, both in war and peace time, and then went through the handicraft and handloom stalls at the IFR Village, according to sources. He also visited the Maritime Exhibition, which is based on indigenisation and innovation concept, and which exhibited the self-reliance of the Indian Navy. The people showcasing their products said the PM was happy over the arrangements at the expo. Acchese banao or bechte jao (make your products properly and keep selling). Though he did not speak much with anyone, he was happy seeing our products, said an ecstatic handloom stall owner from Uttar Pradesh, Radhey Shyam. An artist, Satish Mahanti, presented an egg sculpture to the prime minister featuring the latters image. A large number of people gathered at the AU Engineering College Road to catch a glimpse of the PM. The police found it tough to manage the crowd. There was tight security around the venue and all the roads leading to it.as per the security protocol. Many people were ready with their cameras and mobile phones to ensure a photo of the prime minister. The crowd shouted waving their hands at Mr Modi when he left the venue in a Range Rover. Modi sips Araku coffee at IFR village Prime Minister Narendra Modi sipped Araku coffee at a stall set up by the Girijan Cooperative Corpora-tion at the IFR Village. Appreciating its taste, he also enquired about the projects taken up by the corporation. He liked the rich aroma of the organic coffee grown by tribals in the Araku valley and wanted to know more about the coffee from Chief Minister N. Chan-drababu Naidu, who accompanied him to the stalls at Maritime Exhibition. Minister for tribal welfare Ravela Kishore Babu handed over the cup of coffee to the PM. The coffee is grown by over 1 lakh tribal families. Soon as the news spread, many visitors also wanted to sip the Araku coffee. NBC's 2015 live broadcast of The Wiz scored big at the 2016 NAACP Image Awards, taking home the trophy for Outstanding Television Movie, Limited Series or Dramatic Special, as well as statue in the Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie category for cast member David Alan Grier. "It's incredibly gratifying and emotional," producer Neil Meron said in an interview with TheaterMania. "We all felt a big sense of responsibility taking on something so iconic and beloved, and to have had it turn out the way we all wanted it to is just great. We really met the goal of what we set out to do." Craig Zadan and Neil Meron serve as producers of NBC's live musical broadcasts. ( Tristan Fuge) The production, which aired December 3, was led by newcomer Shanice Williams as Dorothy, alongside a starry supporting cast including Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Ne-Yo, Common, and Grier. Each had a personal connection to the work. "When we started talking to actors," says Meron's producing partner Craig Zadan, "we didn't realize the impact it had on the black community. Common just kind of freaked out [when they told him their selection]. At that moment, we realized how deep the movie went in terms of the community, and how we better get it right." With their NAACP Awards in hand, they realize that they did. "It was an incredible team that worked very, very hard," Meron concludes. "In this time of racial diversity and shootings and just really relooking at how the different races function in society, to have a moment where everybody stopped and celebrated a positive message and great talent was this beacon for all of us. We're reveling in that achievement." Watch Williams and costar Elijah Kelly react to the show's win below. if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi... A year ago, even most American history professors probably had never heard of Hercules Mulligan, the American patriot whose name sounds like a punchline. Thanks to the musical blockbuster Hamilton, Mulligan finally is famous, 190 years after his death. Of course, the real Mulligan was not quite what Lin Manuel Mirandas casting director sought: Ethnically Ambiguous / Mixed Race, African Descent able to sing and rap well the life of the party, dripping with swagger, streetwise and hilarious. Joins the revolution to get out of being a tailors apprentice. Hercules Mulligan was a discrete but silver-tongued Irish immigrant in New York City, who prospered as a haberdasher, tailoring garments for colonial aristocrats and British officers. He was also a member of the Sons of Liberty, and his passion helped recruit Alexander Hamilton to the Revolutionary cause. His work also happened to make him a great, meaning oft-overlooked, spy. Orson Welless centennial year has come and gone, but debate rages on, as it has raged for decades, over whether or not he peaked at 26 with Citizen Kane and coasted on its glory for the rest of a mercurial career. His defenders seem to have gained the upper hand recently, revising the image of a self-indulgent impresario and sorry TV pitchman to that of a visionary filmmaker whose gifts were impaired by the myopia of lesser mortals. What both sides seem to accept tacitly, however, is that Welles should be judged on his record as a director. Diminished in this discussion is the fact that he was also an actor, and an extraordinary one. More to the point, he was an actor who often directed himself. Therefore, his performances are critical to any assessment of his place in the pantheon of film. The case against Welles is that not only was he a spent force after Kane, but that even this film wasnt really his. The argument advanced by Pauline Kael and other criticsthat the movie neophyte Welles rode on the backs of his writer, Herman J. Mankiewicz, and cinematographer Greg Tolandhas been pretty well put to rest. But were there even some truth to this, it is the performance of Welles, directing himself, as Charles Foster Kane, that is emblazoned in our memories. Welles is Citizen Kane. The two cannot be separated. Imagine any other contemporary actor in that role: Henry Fonda, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March. Impossible. The direction and the performance are one, an act of inspiration. The converse of this is that Welles was a triple threat: He could write, direct, and act. None of the other directors of his generationWilliam Wyler, Frank Capra, Billy Wilderwent on screen. Welles could do it all, and continued doing so. His defenders trot out the arcane WellesThe Other Side of the Wind (1970), F For Fake (1973)which is supposed to confirm his stature as a great director. But this is an argument among film buffs. For the rest of usmoviegoers who paid to view Welless films in theaterswhat is it that we saw and how does it hold up? Far from being burnt out after Kane, Welles directed more than a dozen films over the next 25 years, at least four in which he starred, The Stranger (1946), Othello (1952), Touch of Evil (1958), and the masterpiece of his later years, Chimes at Midnight (1967) each of which would have been considered an achievement for any director. In The Stranger, Welles gives a sinister performance as an ex-Nazi hiding in a small American town after World War II. The movie is a tight, well-directed film, and a prescient one in that, as it was being made, thousands of Nazi war criminals were slipping into the U.S. Although Welless malevolent Nazi is hunted down in a chilling finale, most of the real ones went undetected. Taut, spare and riveting, this film gives the lie to the myth that Welles couldnt make a Hollywood movie. Othello, cobbled together over three years as the director scrambled for financing, still has some of the most haunting imagery of any Shakespearean film and Welles gives a compelling performance in the title role. Touch of Evil is one of the hallmark movies of the 50s and Welless corrupt border sheriff is a memorable role as well as an indictment of justice compromised in an America of the McCarthy era. But Welless great achievement is his Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight, his celebrated adaptation of Shakespeares Henry plays. Welless sure directorial hand and innovative personal touch is manifest in all of these, as is his skill in obtaining stirring performances from his players, among whom were members of the Mercury Theater repertory that remained loyal to him through the years. In the more than two decades after Kane, Welles played a constellation of notable parts on which he stamped his particular genius. His Rochester in Jane Eyre (1943) opposite Joan Fontaine is still the gold standard. His fiery sermon as Father Mapple in John Hustons Moby Dick (1956) captures the essence of Calvinist fatalismand all but steals the movie. As does his Cardinal Wolsey in A Man for All Seasons, no easy task when paired against Paul Scofields Thomas More. And, of course, his Harry Lime in Carol Reeds The Third Man (1949) is one of the screens iconic performances. But the true mark of Welles talent is that he even managed to redeem clinkershe made quite a fewsuch as Prince of Foxes (1948), featuring his astute rendering of the formidable Cesare Borgia. Welles was a perfectionist who came at his craft full tilt. There was nothing too lightGeneral Dreedle in Catch-22or too little for him to treat with less than full purpose. In this latter category I would include The Finest Hours (1963), a documentary he narrated about the Battle of Britain. It is not among his best known work but Welless majestic tones are mesmerizing as he describes Englands valiant struggle against the Nazi onslaught. This is the same voice that in later years made tawdry commercials for a winery. Welles had a penchant for self-destructive behavior that led him through a lifetime of wrong turns and blind alleys. His detractors can easily demonstrate that too often he wasted his talent. Their case against him is that he was a boy genius who never lived up to his billing. The term is already disparaging, assuming expectations unfulfilled. In fact, Welles was a great cinematic innovator who, cut loose from his moorings in Hollywood, improvised his way as director and actor and wound up making some of our best movies. Could he have done better if he stayed in Hollywood and worked within the studio system? Such speculation is an exercise in counter-factual history. Welles needs no apologies for his personal failings, or apologies for what he might have done. His body of work speaks eloquently for what he accomplished. Jack Schwartz is a former editor on the culture desk of The New York Times. New Delhi: The NIA has arrested a self-proclaimed cleric for allegedly planning terror attacks in the country. Abdus Sami Qasmi, a resident of Seelampur in the national capital, was arrested from Uttar Pradeshs Hardoi district. He has been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into the conspiracy to form a terror organisation and to launch terror attacks in the country, NIA officials said. Sami has been delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches in support of the Caliphate, the NIA said. According to the agency, Sami has launched a few websites where his speeches have been uploaded and he had allegedly been instigating and motivating youth for anti-national activities. He had visited various parts of the country to deliver his takreer (speech) and bayaan (statement), NIA officials said. Agency officials said Sami also ran a trust and madrasas and some of his financial transactions in this connection have allegedly been found to be of a suspicious nature and the same are under investigation, they said. Abdus Sami was arrested by the NIA with the active support of Uttar Pradesh ATS on Friday. A Non-Bailable Warrant against him had earlier been issued by the Special NIA court here. Bengaluru: Two more police officers, including an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), was suspended on Saturday after preliminary inquiries indicated dereliction of duty. With this, the number of suspended police officers has risen to six. On Friday, four police officers including a police inspector were suspended over mishandling of the case involving stripping and mobbing of a Tanzanian girl student on Sunday night. Read: Bengaluru: Mob strips Tanzanian girl, torches her car as police watch The Assistant Commissioner of Police, Yeshwanthapura subdivision, Ashok Narayan Pise, has been suspended. Department sources said that the Mr Pise did not visit the spot after the incident and ignored the Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs), including securing the victim, medical examinations and her statements, following the arrest of the Sudanese student who caused the road accident. Mr Pise also reportedly misled his senior officers by trivializing the incident and telling them that the situation was under control, the sources said. Read: She asked cops for help, they threw her to the mob: Tanzanian girls friend A constable attached to Jalahalli traffic police station, Prakash, too was suspended on Saturday after it was found that when he was dispatched to the spot, he did not apprise his seniors on the seriousness of the mob fury that set cars ablaze and assaulted the African students. Read: Release the arrested first: Deceased womans husband The others who were suspended on Friday were G. Praveen Babu, police inspector Soladevanahalli police station, Manjunath, police constable, Peenya police station, V. Jagadish, police constable, Soladevanahalli police station, and C.K. Honnesh, police constable attached to Soladevanahalli police station. Two more local residents from Ganapathinagar were arrested on Saturday bringing the total number of arrests in the stripping, mobbing and arson case to 11. Read: Not here to discuss racism: Tanzanian High Commissioner in India The police identified them as Chand Pasha, 31, and Mounesh, 20 years. Adequate security and bandobust arrangements have been made in the surrounding area and the police patrolling has been arranged to prevent untoward incidents and to instill confidence among foreigners staying in Bengaluru, stated a press release from the commissioners office. Election letter deadline All letters pertaining to the March 1 Super Tuesday Texas primaries must reach The Eagle no later than 5 p.m. on Feb. 19. All such letters will be printed by Feb. 25. The Eagle no longer restricts letters from close relatives of candidates. No more than one letter per writer on any subject will be printed each 30 days. Letters should be no more than 300 words and are subject to editing for length, clarity, libel and good taste. Publication is discretionary. All letters must contain the writer's name, city of residence and a daytime phone number for verification. Anonymous letters will not be published. Form letters and letters associated with organized efforts involving candidates or causes will not knowingly be published. Email to letters@theeagle.com or mail to The Eagle, P.O. Box 3000, Bryan, TX 77805-3000. Texas A&M doesn't need more attacks on its reputation As a university faculty member and administrator during the recent tumultuous times in higher education, I feel compelled to express a real concern in the upcoming election for state representative for District 14. I saw first-hand the reputational damage that Texas A&M University received when forces in the state tried to implement the so-called "Seven Breakthrough Solutions" and the "Red and Black" reports. These debunked ideas made Texas A&M a laughingstock throughout the country when some tried to force their implementation. Over time, reasonable minds prevailed and the reports are forgotten now. In 2013 and 2014, Jess Fields chose to leave our community and go to work in Austin for the organization that tried to force these poorly conceived ideas on Texas A&M University. Had it been successful, it would have severely crippled the teaching, research and public service contributions that Texas A&M makes to Texas and the nation. Now Jess Fields has returned to Brazos County and states that he wants to represent us. Texas A&M University survived the assault on its important missions that make a positive difference in the lives of all Texans. I am concerned that if Jess Fields is elected, that we will go back to those rocky days of the past where the university's missions and operations once more are under attack. John Raney has a record of support for Texas A&M University, Blinn College, and this community. John's re-election to the Texas House is critical to keep Texas A&M and this community moving forward. Please join me in supporting John Raney, an individual who has demonstrated legislative leadership in ensuring support for higher education and economic growth in the Brazos Valley and the entire state of Texas. JIM KRACHT Bryan Can we all agree on some commonsense gun laws? As an avid hunter and gun enthusiast I definitely believe in the Second Amendment. I do, however, believe there should be some restrictions to the type of weapons and who should be allowed to carry or even have them. Out of all my friends who come out to my ranch to shoot with, me there are three in particular who have their concealed handgun license and want no restrictions and couldn't wait for open carry. Unfortunately these three are the angriest among us and have a hard time hitting the target with any consistency. I wonder as a civilized society if we are prepared to entrust the lives of our loved ones with a complete stranger with little or no training and a itchy trigger finger? I would hope not. In addition, I and a few of my vet buddies practice disarming each other and have become very good at it. If we can do that, don't you think terrorists are training to do the same? A terrorist wouldn't need to buy a weapon -- he can just take it from some under trained goober walking around the street with his gun. My friends and I cover the political spectrum but we all agree on background checks, waiting period, and at least 90 hours of weapons training before you are allowed to carry in public. Until this happens I will not shop at any business that allows open carry in its establishment. My child wouldn't attend a college that allows open carry. When a loved one does get killed (unfortunately, this will happen), as a result of this under trained individual, the city, state, federal government, and gun lobby should be prosecuted for negligence and complicity in allowing this person to carry in public CHUCK ANDERSON Cooks Point And if Mats Andenas, the Norwegian chair of the Working Group for much of its investigation, is to be believed, they are brave too. He says the panel has come under intense pressure from the US and UK to arrive at a decision contrary to the one they actually reached, as Murray reports: "Norwegian Professor Mats Andenas, the chair of the Working Group who started the work, has today stated that the UK and US put enormous political pressure on the members of the UN working group, which they had resisted courageously. Can anybody think of a reason why the dissenting Ukrainian member might have been less able to resist enormous pressure from the UK and US governments?" What is this case really about? We know why the US wanted the panel's decision to go against Assange - after all, he is in the Ecuadorean embassy precisely because he fears extradition to the US, where a secret Grand Jury is awaiting him. But one has to wonder why the UK was so keen to overturn the Working Group's ruling. Doesn't the UK claim it is simply a "bobby on the beat", trying to uphold the letter of the law as it spends millions on policing Assange's detention? If the UN group says Assange should go free, that's a nice little saving for the British taxpayer, isn't it? Hammond's lie has not been challenged in the British media, even though a quick Google search would prove it is a falsehood. And now Murray informs us, the Foreign Office's official spokesman has said the government department stands by the lie. In short, Hammond's lie is no longer simply one politician's foolish spin, but the official view of the diplomatic service. The readiness of all sections of the British media to spread this lie and even expand on it is illustrated by a truly despicable piece of journalism from the Guardian's columnist Marina Hyde. She is not some freelance blogger; she's one of the most senior staff writers at the newspaper. Her voice can be considered to reflect the prevailing view of the paper's editors. Hyde not only echoes Hammond but uses her well-known cutting wit to deride the UN panel. Apparently, these leading experts on international law are really know-nothings: "I don't want to go out on too much of a limb here, but my sense is that the finest legal minds are not drawn to UN panels as a career path. ... Perhaps UN panellists are like UN goodwill ambassadors, and even Geri Halliwell could be one. ... "As for their almost-amusing diagnosis of 'house arrest', the only possible rejoinder, if you'll forgive the legalese, is: Do. Me. A. Favour. Assange's bail conditions - I'm sorry if the term is confusing to the panel - saw him placed with an electronic tag in a stately home from which he was free to come and go all day long." And so on. This degraded discourse threatens dissidents everywhere Similar ridicule has already been heaped on the UN decision by a popular BBC comedy show, slowly settling in the British public's mind that Assange is a rapist refusing to face the music (even though he has not yet been charged); that the UN's legal experts are buffoons who cannot hold a candle to our own resolutely independent judges; and that Britain is a disinterested party simply honouring the letter of the law. The degraded discourse about the UN group's decision does not just threaten Assange, but endangers vulnerable political dissidents around the world. The very fact that Hyde and her ilk are so ready to sacrifice these people's rights in their bid to tar and feather Assange should be warning enough that there is even more at stake here than meets the eye. Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, since 2001. A former Guardian reporter, he now writes for Middle East Eye, CounterPunch and other media. In 2011 Jonathan was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. This article was originally published on Jonathan Cook's website. SHARE By Gleaner Staff The following events take place at Henderson County Schools this week: Monday Cairo Elementary: Site-based decision-making council meeting at 3 p.m. Brain Bus: The Henderson County Schools brain bus will be located at New Jerusalem Baptist Church, 450 Fagan St., from 5 to 7 p.m. Mondays. The bus is equipped with computers and is designed to serve as a tutoring opportunity for students. A Henderson County Schools staff member will be aboard to assist students in various subject areas. Tuesday Iceman Night: For Cairo Elementary families at the Ford Center at 6:15 p.m. Niagara Elementary: Literacy Night event Spottsville Elementary: Site-based decision-making council meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday Brain Bus: The Henderson County Schools brain bus will be located at Seventh Street Baptist Church, 627 Short Seventh St., from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays. The bus is equipped with computers and is designed to serve as a tutoring opportunity for students. A Henderson County Schools staff member will be aboard to assist students in various subject areas. Thursday Central Academy: Family Fun Night. Spottsville Elementary: Parent/teacher conferences. Thelma B. Johnson Early Learning Center: Valentine's meal. Friday A.B. Chandler: Site-based decision-making council meeting at 3 p.m. Most Iowans disapprove of Biden, believe US is on the wrong track The advocacy group started an online petition in a bid to reach out to the global audience on the issue. (Photo: Change.org) Mumbai: A group of 50 female genital mutilation (FGM) survivors of a particular community on Saturday launched a month-long campaign here to sensitise the people about the gruesome practice. The advocacy group known as 'Speak Out on FGM' launched the campaign 'Each One Reach One' on the occasion of International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, in tandem with an online petition they had initiated on website Change.org in a bid to reach out to the global audience on the issue. Till this morning, the group claimed to have received over 45,000 signatures in support of the online petition. Sahiyo, an NGO that brings together survivors of FGM and other supporters, is partnering with 'Speak Out on FGM' in this awareness campaign. Preethi Herman, Country Lead, Change.org said, "This hushed up cultural practice is no longer hidden because these brave women decided to open up about their experiences and have already got almost 50,000 people supporting them." Explaining the regressive ritual that she underwent at a tender age, a survivor from Mumbai said, "At seven, I was subjected to FGM in Mumbai in an unhygienic condition and in a clandestine manner. The shock, the physical and psychological trauma of that day is still fresh in my mind." She said that the motto of the campaign is to wipe out this custom from the community. "I am happy that thousands of survivors are joining this campaign not only from India, but also from Canada, Australia, South Africa, Britain etc," she said. Another survivor from Delhi said, "There are over 50 women in our group who have survived FGM. Each one of us will reach out to a member of the community to share stories about this ancient practice. This month-long awareness campaign can be done in person or digitally." 'Each One, Reach One' campaign will reach out to men and women alike and share experiences openly and expects to engage more people to break their silence on FGM, she said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NORWALK In spite of a messy morning commute, several downed wires and school closings, it appears that the eastern part of the state took the brunt of Fridays snowstorm. "The schools are closed mainly because they (Department of Public Works) couldn't get the parking lots open and cleared. It's (snow) still coming down pretty good," Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling told The Hour on Friday morning. "There haven't been any other reports of anything out of the ordinary. City Hall will be open." According to the Norwalk Police Department Twitter account Friday morning, residents were cautioned to stay home due to slick roadways. The NPD also reported at around 11 a.m. that Meadow Street was closed between Lawrence Street and Woodward Avenues due to downed wires. Eversource employees were called to the area of Couch Street and Fairfield Avenue to free an electrical wire from Norwalk Transit District Wheels Bus at around 11 a.m., and a motorist slid off the Route 7 connector roadway onto the road shoulder on Friday morning. By midday, however, rising temperatures and sunshine had melted a fair amount of the 3-plus inches that reportedly fell in Norwalk. Governor Dannel P. Malloy released the following update regarding Fridays winter weather: After closely monitoring and responding to the weather over the past 24 hours and partially activating our Emergency Operations Center at midnight, we are looking closely at and remain concerned by power outages in eastern Connecticut. I have been briefed directly from the utility companies on the issue and continue to receive updates. They are working to restore power to those who have lost it and continue to deploy crews to alleviate the situation. However, we urge patience the situation may take time to resolve. I remain in continuous contact with emergency management officials and relevant state agencies as we work to resolve the situation. Coupled with partial activation of the state Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Hartford, additional coordination is being conducted through the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Securitys regional offices in order to help those who need it. In addition, the Severe Weather Protocol has been activated. Residents who need shelter are encouraged to call 2-1-1. We will continue to monitor the weather and the power situation closely and will provide updates as needed. Its hard for me to believe that this year marks the 50th Super Bowl. And food has become such an essential part of this event, I cant help but wonder what was on the menu back when it all got started! So as I was thinking about what to serve at this years bash, I decided to draw my inspiration from an appetizer that was hot stuff back around the time the Super Bowl got started. Ever hear of rumaki? Back in the day, it was all the rage to serve these bacon-wrapped chicken livers seasoned with sort of trans-Asian flavors. I wasnt willing to go quite that far (Liver? For a Super Bowl party? Probably not...), but the rumaki sparked an idea. I love dates because they are meaty and sweet. I also love how delicious it is to play their flavor off of savory ingredients. And thats why I decided to remake rumaki as dates stuffed with chunks of Parmesan cheese and wrapped with bacon. And because Im a total grill girl at heart, I popped them over hot coals to get them warm, crisp and delicious (though I include an oven alternative for those unwilling to brave the cold to grill). The dates are easy to make, and even easier to eat! So be warned that your guests will eat them like candy! I would plan on a minimum of four per person. And if your crowd has a voracious appetite, double or triple this recipe. If the dates arent large enough to sit comfortably on your grill grates without falling through, arrange them on a wire rack and set the entire rack on the grill. Or you can just do them inside in the oven. But whichever way you cook them, let them cool a bit before serving; they get very hot. The toasted cumin seeds are a great contrast to the sweet dates, but if you dont care for those you can leave them out or substitute a chunk of walnut. Or if you like things on the spicy side, you could substitute a couple red pepper flakes. Bacon-Wrapped Parmesan-Stuffed Dates Start to finish: 45 minutes (30 minutes active) 24 whole, plump dates 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted 1/4 pound Parmesan cheese, cut into 24 chunks (about 1/2 inch each) 12 slices bacon, halved crosswise (to make 24 strips) 24 wooden toothpicks, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes Prepare a grill for medium-low heat, indirect cooking. For a charcoal grill, this means banking the hot coals to one side of the grill and cooking on the other side. For a gas grill, this means turning off one or more burners to create a cooler side, then cooking on that side. Alternatively, for indoor cooking heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cut a slit down the side of each date, slicing up to the pit, but not cutting the date in half. Carefully remove the pit from each date. The tip of a paring knife can be handy for prying out the pit. Sprinkle a few cumin seeds into the center of each date, then add a chunk of Parmesan. Press the date closed around the cheese (or as much as possible). Wrap 1 piece of bacon around the center of each date, securing it with a toothpick. Set the stuffed dates on the cooler side of the grill, directly on the grates. Alternatively, set a wire rack over a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and arrange the dates on the rack for cooking in the oven. Either way, cook for 15 minutes, turning the dates halfway through. Serve hot or at room temperature. Makes 24 dates. Nutrition information per date: 130 calories; 60 calories from fat (46 percent of total calories); 7 g fat (2.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 15 mg cholesterol; 180 mg sodium; 16 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 14 g sugar; 4 g protein. The American Table is an Associated Press column by Elizabeth Karmel that celebrates the delicious diversity of simple home cooking. Karmel is a grilling and Southern foods expert and executive chef at Hill Country Barbecue Market restaurants in New York and Washington, as well as Hill Country Chicken in New York. She is the author of three cookbooks, including Soaked, Slathered and Seasoned. New Delhi: Congress on Friday latched on to a controversy surrounding Anar Patel, daughter of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, to put some questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demand a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe and resignation of the Gujarat CM. Asking Modi to "come clean" on the issue, the party sought to know from him whether he was aware of "clear conflict of interest" of the then Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel while allocating government land near Gir Lion Sanctuary to a company which allegedly has close business links with Anar Patel. "Was this allocation based on a Cabinet decision and endorsed by (then) Chief Minister (Modi) and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed?" said senior Congress leader Anand Sharma at the AICC briefing. He said the issue would "definitely" be raised in the budget session of Parliament as it pertained directly to the Prime Minister "who has claimed that he has zero tolerance towards corruption". Sharma said the truth will emerge only through an independent probe by a Supreme Court-monitored SIT as agencies like CBI and ED cannot be trusted. "We demand that a SIT monitored by the Supreme Court be established for a time-bound probe in the entire matter. For a fair probe, the Gujarat CM must resign," he said. Quoting information available in public domain, he claimed that in 2010, Gujarat government allotted 250 acres of land next to Gir Lion Sanctuary to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Pvt Ltd for setting up a resort which was allotted at a price of Rs 15 per square metre or Rs 60,000 per acre. "Total price of the land, thus, came to only Rs 1.5 crore whereas the estimated market price of this land was to the tune of Rs 50 lakh per acre -- a total of Rs 125 crore for 250 acres. The company then purchased adjoining agricultural land measuring 172 acres taking the total of land owned by it to 422 acres, Sharma alleged. As non-farmers are not permitted to purchase agricultural land, the company was granted permission to purchase private agricultural land. In March, 2011, the state government permitted conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural as purchased by the company. He said one of the partners of the company transferred Wildwoods to another company. He alleged that two promoters of the two companies are said to be business partners of Anar Patel. The week between Iowa and New Hampshire is a traditional period where American families gather to feast on political prognostication, pontification and panic. It can be great, but, like holidays, it can foster quarrels, indigestion and, in extreme cases, spite-voting. To help enjoy this pregnant pause, here are seven tips for the seven days between Iowa and New Hampshire. - Tip 1: Iowa is not America. Iowas population is far whiter than the rest of America. Iowa is 92 percent white, America is 77 percent. Iowa has far fewer people born in other countries. In America, 21 percent of the population speaks a language that isnt English, but only 7 percent in Iowa. Iowa has no cities with a population over 210,000. Caucus-goers are themselves a very small slice of the population and a whiter slice, especially on the Republican side. The Iowa caucus results simply do not represent of the rest of America. Partly because of that, the outcomes in Iowa rarely predict what voters in the rest of the country will do. - Tip 2: New Hampshire is not America. New Hampshire is even whiter than Iowa. Its largest city has 110,000 people in it. Its population is slightly more educated and well off than the rest of the country. Together, Iowa and New Hampshire tell us something about the voting behavior of white people who dont live in or near large cities. Blacks, Asians and Hispanics are basically excluded from the first two elections in the presidential nomination process. This distorts results for both parties, but it especially affects Democrats because minorities vote in Republican primaries far less. Hillary Clinton, for example, does far better than Bernie Sanders with minority voters in all the polling so far, so Sanders is lucky that Iowa and New Hampshire come first. The big contest after the first two is South Carolina, which has a large minority population. If Clinton wins big there, the Democratic race will suddenly look very different than it does today. - Tip 3: America is not the same, old America, either. The U.S. is growing more diverse very quickly. For example, in 2012 there were 23.3 million Hispanic eligible voters; there are 27.3 million this year, making Hispanics the largest block of minority voters. In 2014, there were four states where minorities make up the majority; by 2044, the U.S. will be majority-minority. Demographic changes are usually written about more in post-mortems than predictions. But the current of demographic change works against the Republicans and the nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric of Donald Trump and the other Republican candidates will exacerbate that. - Tip 4: Bernie is not Barry. In 2008, the unknown Barack Obama creamed Hillary Clinton and a slick campaigner named John Edwards in Iowa. Obama lost to Clinton in New Hampshire and then mega-creamed Clinton in South Carolina. That is what you call a wave. Sanders is riding a pond ripple by comparison. He did well in Iowa, sure, and hell probably win in New Hampshire he lives next door. Obama quickly showed he could appeal to every kind of Democratic voter eventually to a healthy majority of American voters and that hasnt been true for Bernie. A wave might carry Sanders to the nomination, but it doesnt exist yet. - Tip 5: Hillary is Hillary, period. There will be lots of stories, just as there have been most weeks since 2007, sagely advising Hillary to be softer, meaner, more genuine or more phony. Please, hold your fire. Hillary is not changing. More precisely, the public persona of someone who has been in the spotlight for as long as she has doesnt change short of some epic event, good or bad. Hillary is a wholly known quantity and the quantity is not going to vary. She is not a good campaigner, she doesnt have good political pitch and she is not a ham. That doesnt mean she cant win. Just ask Richard Nixon. - Tip 6: Ted Cruz is not Rick Santorum or Mike Huckabee. Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 on the wings of the evangelical vote and Santorum did the same in 2012. They both flamed out soon after. That is not going to happen to Cruz, for many reasons. He is running second in New Hampshire and in many other states; he has cash-on-hand and a cadre of huge bankrollers; he is a champion debater; he is disciplined and so is his campaign; conservative media love him; he gets some of the anti-Trump vote. The Republicans havent nominated a candidate so extreme since Barry Goldwater. Cruz remains a long shot but his candidacy is likely to last awhile. - Tip 7: February is not June. Sorry, but this years nomination campaigns are likely to be Napoleonic long and bloody. There is no incumbent. The schedule was rejiggered to make fast victories harder. The flow of funds to campaigns has never been freer. Nothing about Trumps campaign has been predicted. Neither party has a dominant front-runner. I truly hope Im wrong on this last tip, but lets talk in the summer. Dick Meyer is chief Washington correspondent for the Scripps Washington Bureau and DecodeDC (www.newsnet5.com/decodedc). Looking for the big games to watch in Week 9? We have them right here. football Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will host approximately 450 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) -motivated students, grades 6-12, at the annual Science Olympiad regional tournament being held from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13 on campus. Students from 21 different schools across the region will compete in the days interactive, hands-on events. Teams of 15 students will investigate events ranging from concepts in life, earth and physical science to engineering devices. New events this year will encompass computer game design, alternative energy, food chemistry and the science of groundwater. Events are held throughout the SIUE campus, in the Engineering Building, Science West Building and Peck Hall, with teams based in the Morris University Center. No other program immerses students across all STEM fields on the same level, said Mike Avara, regional director of Science Olympiad. Not only are science background and skills emphasized, but also the concept of teamwork and collaboration in research and problem-solving. SIUE is proud to host this event, because it is an excellent way to generate interest in STEM subjects, said Colin Wilson, manager of SIUEs STEM Resource Center. The competition and team atmosphere provide a new angle for engaging youth in the essential areas of science, technology, engineering and math. The students interested in Science Olympiad are an enthusiastic population who can see the opportunities that institutions like SIUE provide. Illinois is a leading state in the Science Olympiad national program. SIUEs event is one of nine regional competitions in the state. Leading teams from each regional tournament will advance to the State Tournament held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Saturday, April 16. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi Rivers rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of more than 14,000. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ahmad Junaidi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Women and children of the Ahmadiyah religious sect in a district in Bangka regency, Bangka Belitung province, were evacuated on Friday evening to save them from the wrath of local residents. The evacuation was made after negotiations between Ahmadiyah leaders, local ulemas, the military, the police and the local administration failed to reach an agreement. 'Under police and military escort, they were moved to another place in the regency due to security concerns,' Jamaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) congregation spokesman Yendra Budiana said. Yendra said some male members remained at JAI's office in Srimenanti village, Sungailiat district. Six Ahmadiyah families live in the district and 17 Ahmadiyah families live in the regency. At noon, hundreds of residents stood outside the office of the Ahmadiyah, which was used as a meeting place for a mediated discussion led by Bangka Military Command chief Let. Col. Utten Simbolon. Utten said the local ulemas and administration leaders had offered the Ahmadiyah four options, two of which included leaving their faith or moving to another area. 'They asked for the options to be written out so they could also reply in written form,' he said. In response to the demands, Ahmadiyah legal advisor Fitria Sumarni said the Ahmadiyah was a legal religious organization listed in Indonesia and one that upheld the principle of peace. The Jakarta-based Setara Institute has asked the central government to intervene to prevent the eviction of the Ahmadiyah in Bangka regency, accusing Bangka Regent Tarmizi as one of the main instigators of the expulsion. Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the institute's deputy chairman, said the planned eviction had been objected to by Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo but Tjahjo's objections were ignored by Tarmizi. 'Tarmizi's opposition to the home ministry is essentially opposition to the President,' said Bonar in statement on Friday. Earlier, the New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement urging the Indonesian government to immediately intervene to protect members of the Ahmadiyah from intimidation and threats of expulsion. The 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Andi Hajramurni, Ganug Nugroho Adi and Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Makassar/Surakarta/Bandung Sat, February 6, 2016 An increase in the number of dengue hemorrhagic fever cases in cities across the country is sucking dry blood supplies at Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) offices. In South Sulawesi, a spokesperson for the Makassar PMI's blood transfusion unit, Sultan, said that the unit had been receiving requests for between 100 and 150 bags of blood every day. 'Since January, demand has risen continually. Today alone, by 2 p.m. we had received requests for 28 bags for seven dengue patients,' Sultan said on Friday. As of Friday, Sultan said, the unit had left only around 400 bags of blood, which were predicted to last for just two more days. He added that in January, the unit had supplied 66 dengue patients in need of platelet. To help increase the supply, the unit has been calling for blood donations. 'Ideally we should have enough for at least four days. So at present we need between 600 and 800 bags of blood,' he said. The South Sulawesi Health Agency has recorded 575 cases of dengue since January, leading to 11 deaths. The PMI in Surakarta, Central Java, has also seen its blood stocks vanish alarmingly as dengue cases increase in the city. Surakarta PMI secretary Sumartono Hadinoto said on Friday that the stock was now at the 'yellow-light' level. 'Today we have 553 bags of blood. That's relatively safe, but it's at yellow-light level. To be completely safe we need between 1,000 and 1,500 bags,' Sumartono said. He added that with demand for blood for dengue patients shooting up by 10 percent, his office was actively searching for more blood. Separately, the head of the Surakarta Health Agency's disease control section, Arif Dwi, said that dengue cases tended to increase year after year in the city. In 2015, the office recorded 462 cases, a sharp increase from 256 cases in 2014. 'This year we recorded 24 patients in January, two of whom died. This month we currently have six patients in treatment,' Arif said. In Bandung, West Java, the city PMI's blood transfusion unit has also seen greater demand for blood. Bandung PMI's blood transfusion unit director Uke Muktimanah said her office had supplied some 500 bags of blood to at least 40 hospitals and individuals in the city. 'In Bandung the demand is relatively secure but we have also been receiving blood requests from outside the region,' Uke said on Friday. The requests, she said, mostly came from Jakarta, with requests for up to 450 bags at a time. Other regions include Majalengka, Sukabumi and Tasikmalaya, which asked for up to 300 bags of blood per shipment. According to Uke, the increase could be detected from the office's blood supply data. On Feb. 2, the blood stock was 1,422 bags, while by Feb. 4, just two days later, there remained only 389 bags. She expressed hope that blood donors would increase to 200 from the usual 100 given the special circumstances and pressing need. In Central Sulawesi, the provincial health agency meanwhile reported that seven dengue patients had received treatment at Undata Hospital in Palu over the previous four days, with one patient dying. The agency also recorded that the mosquito-borne disease had claimed a total of 11 lives since the beginning of January. In East Kalimantan, Balikpapan Health Agency head Balerina said that in most cases of deaths related to dengue, the patients were already in critical condition by the time they were admitted to hospital. 'They were already experiencing dengue shock syndrome, which leaves them with a chance of survival of only around 10 percent,' Balerina said. ________________ Ruslan Sangadji in Palu, Suherdjoko in Semarang, Novi Budi in Balikpapan and Djemi Amnifu in Kupang contributed to this article. ------------------- 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 Mario Rustan (The Jakarta Post) Bandung Sat, February 6, 2016 I used to joke that the month leading up to the Chinese New Year is the 'Chinese appreciation month', because it was the only time Chinese-Indonesian people and culture were exposed in Indonesian media and Chinese-Indonesian issues were discussed. For the rest of the year, with the small exception of mid-May, Chinese-Indonesians would again be invisible to the public eye. This is not the case anymore. When you go to a mall or store you will still see Chinese decorations, Chinese-related items (some of them perpetuating old-fashioned stereotypes) and a promise of lucky angpao (gift) for the minimum purchase of Rp 500,000 (US$36.8). You have seen restaurants and hotels advertising Chinese New Year dinner sets. But as the media don't run features on Chinese culture anymore, you might not be aware that the New Year is around the corner. On the other hand, it is easy to find Chinese people in the media. There are actors and actresses, hosts and masters of ceremony, newsreaders and reporters, comedians and internet stars, political commentators and politicians. Some of them are comfortable using the controversial 'Cina' word in casual conversation and sharing jokes about growing up in a Chinese family or going to China for the first time. It has been 13 years since the Chinese New Year became an official holiday in Indonesia on religious ' instead of cultural ' grounds. The way Chinese New Year is officially treated shows political gymnastics at work. The word Imlek removes the inconvenience of putting the 'Chinese' label ('Lunar New Year' is preferred for non-Chinese who celebrate the same holiday, such as Koreans and Vietnamese). The year 2560, counting from the supposed birth date of Confucius, is not used elsewhere. In short, the inclusion of Chinese New Year as a national holiday, and consequently the acceptance of Chinese culture in Indonesia, had and still have to be justified for the general public and even for some worried Chinese-Indonesians. The reason for the complication is easy. Like elsewhere in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, ethnic Chinese live awkwardly with other ethnic groups, mainly because of the economic disparity between the Chinese and the rest. Of course, many ethnic Chinese struggle economically, but the richest men of every Southeast Asian country are ethnic Chinese who maintain close relations with their respective governments. Chinese-Indonesians have tried to address the gap between Chinese and non-Chinese ways of life with different solutions. Some are active in social work to aid poor communities. Some believe that religious and nationalist ethics will fight the perception that Chinese people don't care about Indonesia. Some find more common ground with the non-Chinese whether in hobbies, political views or professional fields. Others embrace their Chinese identity and believe that China is a good role model for Indonesia. My involvement in feminism over the last two years has changed my perception of being Chinese in Indonesia dramatically. I have learned to accept my biracial identity. I have learned that Chinese-Indonesian activists can be critical of the popular Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, whose development plans might damage the lives of poor Jakartans. It is very hard to find other ethnic Chinese in the field of feminism, just like in other social activism. This is not only in Indonesia, but in most countries, except perhaps in the US. After all, various Chinese political philosophies respect order and hierarchy over change and justice. Many Asian countries put activists and dissidents under arrest and argue that human rights are harmful. It is difficult for me to conclude if Chinese-Indonesians are comfortable with their so-called hyphen identity. On the one hand, we see more Chinese public figures than ever. On the other hand, it seems that urban Chinese-Indonesians live even further apart from other Indonesians ' shopping in different malls, joining different social organizations and using different social media platforms. The ugly racism is still there. On the internet, you still can find people who spew vicious racist messages against the president and the governor of Jakarta, along with the conspiracy theory that China will take over Indonesia. On the other hand, some younger Chinese-Indonesians are uncomfortable with the everyday racism against Indonesians spoken by their family members and friends. Maybe things are relatively calm because the two parties don't hear each other. I hope in 2016, after a peaceful and joyful celebration of the coming of the Year of the Monkey, more Chinese-Indonesians would be more comfortable being Chinese and being Indonesian. On the other hand, I hope more non-Chinese would have the opportunity to get to know Chinese people and appreciate their background and experience. So many Indonesians enjoyed the Chinese-Indonesian biographical comedy Ngenest, even perhaps more than the Chinese-Indonesian audience did. Political analysts expect Asian-Americans to be a considerable voting group in this year's US presidential election, and Chinese-Indonesians have proven their importance during the 2014 presidential election in Indonesia. Hopefully, we will see more political and social participation among Chinese-Indonesians from now on. A few hundred or thousand good men and women would be good for a start. ______________ The writer is a columnist for feminist website Magdalene.co. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Textile factory worker Ayu Lestari may have reached boiling point at work over bad relations with a colleague, as she stands accused of lacing colleague Noviana Wulandari's beverage with textile thinner. It has been reported that relations between the two 21-year-old textile factory workers in the Cilincing industrial bonded zone, North Jakarta, soured around two months ago after Novi, who works in quality control, and Ayu, who works in production, got into an argument over products. 'She slapped me in the face because my work did not meet her standards. I slapped her back,' said Ayu during police questioning, as quoted by kompas.com on Friday. She added that Novi often threw clothes at her face when she found imperfections. Ayu said that she had grown furious on Wednesday after Novi once again scolded her over an imperfect seam on an item clothing she had worked on. The suspect is alleged to have poured textile thinner she saw under Novi's desk while the victim was on her lunch break. 'I didn't think she would drink the water considering the strong smell of the thinner. Apparently she drank quite a lot,' Ayu said. Novi was said to have drunk the water despite the smell as the factory smelled the same. After drinking the tainted water, Novi got a headache, felt nauseous and vomited. She was rushed to Koja Regional Hospital, also in North Jakarta, by her colleagues. Novi was hospitalized overnight but was able to undergo outpatient treatment the following day. After talking to several witnesses, police named Ayu a suspect, claiming that she had admitted to the crime. 'Ayu did not want to kill Novi. She just wanted to teach her a lesson and remind her that as coworkers they were equals. She wanted Novi to stop being so bossy,' Cilincing Police chief Comr. M. Supriyanto told The Jakarta Post on Friday. Supriyanto said that the police would charge Ayu under Article 351 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on assault, which carries a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment. Novi visited Ayu, who is detained at the Cilincing Police, on Friday. The workers were said to have burst into tears upon meeting and hugged. 'I have apologized to her. I'm really sorry. I hope she withdraws her report,' Ayu said. -------------------- 'She slapped me in the face because my work did not meet her standards. I slapped her back.' Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nelly Martin (The Jakarta Post) Madison, US Sat, February 6, 2016 An Indonesian friend of mine recently posted a popular meme featuring Lee Min-ho, a rising South Korean star who advertises an Indonesian coffee brand juxtaposing Korean, English and Indonesian. The post has received a few comments highlighting Lee's English pronunciation. What struck me the most is the nitpicking over one word regarded as mispronounced. Apparently, Lee's inability to pronounce the words 'white' perfectly is enough to suggest he take an English course to improve his pronunciation. It's a light joke, but similar to the stigma doled out by certain of my compatriots regarding other Indonesians' English. Don't we all still remember how netizens laid into President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo for his perceived poor English? As an Indonesian studying and using English as a second language, I am only too familiar with this criticism. My Indonesian-English pronunciation is often a topic of conversation, and I constantly strive to speak like a Hollywood star. But the more I try, the more I realize that I never will. I was left without any explanation, until I encountered Kachru's 'World Englishes' concept from a 1991 book of the same name. I eventually came to understand why variable pronunciation was the target of such stigma, even from fellow second-language users. Most Indonesians, like all others who learn English as a second language, are trained to speak like native speakers, be it American or British English. Our English teachers seem to undervalue our social and cultural backgrounds as second-language speakers. The emphasis to speak like those born in New York or in London sets regularity of pronunciation as a standard, relegating second-language speakers to an inferior or peripheral class. Additionally, many underestimate the fact that English is now widely spoken by people outside the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, plus the other main English-speaking countries. With more and more people across the world learning and speaking English, the language no longer belongs solely to the inhabitants of those countries. English is now spoken in multifarious ways, depending on the geographical area of the individuals, with social and cultural aspects playing essential roles in shaping and influencing the form English takes. People from all over the world are speaking their own distinctive English: Singaporean English, Indian English, Nigerian English and many others. They have appropriated English into their own tongues. Who dares to say their English is not 'correct'? Those who still maintain their native-speaker bias must become more socially and culturally observant and aware. English is not the sole possession of those born in the English-speaking countries; it is open to anyone willing to learn it. Foreign language teachers in Indonesia should start applying a pluricentric approach to measure their students' English ability. It is time to fully view our students, as second-language learners and speakers, as individuals with their own social, cultural and historical characters. It is unrealistic to keep forcing them to speak like either the British or the Americans. It is downgrading the students' social and cultural identity and entity as Indonesians and as second-language speakers. Like Lee, who may have learned English later in life, we also need to remember that most of our students were not exposed to English at early ages. It is not necessary to dwell on the pronunciation of certain words by Jokowi, or any other individuals who actually can speak fluent English, just with idiosyncratic pronunciation. In fact, their English may reveal their identity as Korean, Javanese or Indonesian. I have listened to both Jokowi's speech and Lee's ads multiple times and their variable pronunciation of certain words does not interfere with the message. Language is not only a means of communication, but also a tool to construct and project our social, historical and cultural values. In their particular cases, both Jokowi and Lee managed to do just that. Don't make fun of a second language speaker's way of speaking ' at least they speak their first language perfectly. Don't you agree? To top it off, we habitually perceive native speakers' different pronunciations as acceptable variations, while we instantly identify the non-natives' as an inaccuracy, undervaluing their many years of effort to communicate in fluent English. ________________ The writer is finishing her study at the University of Wisconsin in the US. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anggi M. Lubis and Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Half of girls under 11 years old in Indonesia are circumcised, according to the latest finding by UNICEF, raising awareness and calls for bans on female genital mutilation (FGM) practices in the world's most populous Muslim majority country. It is the first time the global report has included Indonesia on the list, but the country ' combined with Egypt and Ethiopia ' accounts for half of 200 million girls and women in 30 countries that have undergone FGM, the study reveals. The inclusion of Indonesia on the list, published on Friday, has raised the tally from 130 million circumcised girls and women in 29 countries estimated in 2014, albeit the study claimed that the prevalence of FGM has fallen significantly. According to the data, 14-year-old girls and below represent 44 million of those who have been cut, and Indonesia is among the three countries with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age group, along with Gambia and Mauritania. UNICEF Indonesia spokeswoman Kinanti Pinta Karana said the survey indicated that 13.4 million Indonesian girls aged 11 and below might have undergone FGM. She said the government's involvement in the global report was a good sign of increasing awareness of the practice, which is illegal and deemed a violation of human rights in several countries. 'This is a significant step toward eradicating the practice because data collection is critical to increase understanding of FGM and what leads to its decline or vice versa,' she said. UNICEF data said prevalence of FGM in Indonesia was generally high in every province, with only Papua, East Nusa Tenggara and Bali recording one-digit percentages of circumcised girls in their respective populations. The practice is common in Jakarta, which is among the 10 provinces with the highest percentage of circumcised girls aged 11 and below, at 68.1 percent. FGM in Indonesia is strongly related to culture and religion. In Gorontalo, girls are circumcised before their third birthday in a traditional ceremony called mongubingu, as proof of their compliance to Islam. Indonesian authorities tried to ban FGM 10 years ago, but the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued a fatwa saying that female circumcision was part of religious practice. In response, the Health Ministry softened its stance, issuing regulations that said the practice should only be done by medical professionals in a noninvasive way that did not injure girls and women. However, in 2013, the ministry revoked its regulations on female circumcision. The ministry's director general of mother and child health and nutrition supervision, Anung Sugihantono, said the government did not acknowledge female genital mutilation as a medical practice. The reasoning behind it is that the government acknowledges female circumcision only as a part of Indonesian culture, according to him. The government's definition of female circumcision was 'an act of scratching the skin that covers the front of the clitoris without injuring the clitoris'. National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) vice chairwoman Budi Wahyuni said her commission saw the practice as sexual violence toward children and called on the government to be more consistent in regulating FGM. Budi said they could limit the ability to orgasm, thus it was vital for individuals to gain a thorough understanding of genital cutting before undergoing a procedure. 'With no sanctions and no visible harms, parents will opt to circumcise their daughters so that they can grow up as a sholihah [pious woman],' she explained. -------------------- 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 Bram Janssen (The Jakarta Post) Irbil Sat, February 6, 2016 A fire in a hotel and adjacent massage parlor has killed 19 people and wounded ten others Friday in Irbil, capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Nawzad Hadi, the governor of Irbil, said the fire broke out in the sauna of the Hotel Capitol at 4pm on Friday afternoon. He said that 15 of the victims were identified as from the Philippines, three were Iraqis and one was Palestinian. The victims died after becoming trapped in a room in the massage center, which firefighters on the scene said had taken them around an hour to enter because of the strength of blaze. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't allowed to speak to the press. The cause of the fire is still unknown. There were no early indications that the incident was a terrorist attack. (ags) New Delhi: The government is not going to bring the GST bill for consideration and passage during the Budget Session of Parliament. This is the feedback that the Opposition is getting from government managers and the ruling BJP. The government will not be bringing the GST bill due to division in the BJP and stiff opposition from the RSS, a top Opposition leader claimed here, saying that the controversial bill could affect the political constituency of the BJP and also the GDP. Among the non-NDA parties, the Left has been consistent in its opposition while the main Opposition Congress is ready to support the bill if its three suggestions are incorporated. While the Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, JD(U), BJD and the NCP have no opposition to the bill per se, the AIADMK has not diluted its opposition so far. The government has been blaming the Congress for blocking the bill but the revelation of the RSS opposition, as claimed by a top non-NDA leader, would be a significant development and a possible setback to the government. The Congress will be aggressive in Parliament in raising the Pathankot airbase attack, growing atrocities against dalits, corruption in BJP-ruled states and developments in Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The Trinamool Congress, Left and Dravidian parties too will be aggressive as they cannot be perceived as being friendly with the government due to the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, while the role of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP will be interesting to watch on the floor. Meanwhile, rebel Congress leaders in Arunachal Pradesh met party vice-president Rahul Gandhi here the other day. The meeting has opened a channel with them and if the Congress manages their support by assuring them appropriate steps at the appropriate time, then the current stalemate could end, sources said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 JAKARTA: The Jakarta administration is planning to build two more subsidence-monitoring stations in order to accurately evaluate the level of land subsidence in various locations in the capital city. The head of the Industry and Energy Agency's geology and mineral resources Department, Agus Saryanto, said on Friday that the city currently had three subsidence-monitoring stations that used extensometers. The three existing stations are located on Jl. Tongkol, North Jakarta; Jl. Jatibaru, Central Jakarta; and Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, East Jakarta. The devices were installed in eight different land levels to a depth of 300 meters. 'Jakarta should have at least five stations. Therefore, we will build two more this year,' he said, as quoted by beritajakarta.com. He added that they would be built in Rawa Buaya in West Jakarta and the western part of Jakarta Bay. Agus said the two stations would use the global positioning system (GPS) to measure any subsidence. The technology would monitor the coordinates of certain spots that would be changed periodically. 'We have been measuring 68 spots out of 200 planned in Jakarta,' he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 JAKARTA: Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo has accepted an offer to act alongside actress Laudya Cynthia Bella in a movie. 'I was asked to play the father of Bella's character. I gladly said yes to the offer,' the 47-year-old governor told tribunnews.com recently. 'The offer came from the crew of director Hanung Bramantyo, and filming will take place in Turkey and Indonesia,' he revealed. Ganjar hoped that some of the filming would take place in Central Java. 'Central Java was the set of Java Heat, which features a Hollywood actor. But the film failed to be a hit,' said Ganjar, referring to the 2013 action starring Mickey Rourke. 'I will support Central Java's tourist destinations being used as a location.' Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Given the multitude of cheaper and environmentally friendlier rail links that could be built between Jakarta and Bandung, experts have criticized the government's decision to build a Chinese-sponsored high-speed railway, saying it is too expensive and risks destroying natural water reserves. The cost of the project stands at around Rp 78 trillion, with passenger projection of only 29,000 people per day, according to Gadjah Mada University transportation researcher Danang Parikesit. 'Let's say we built a medium-speed rail link there, with improvements such as a straighter line and signal upgrades. The average speed could be increased from the current 60 kilometers per hour to 120. The cost would be only around Rp 7 trillion,' Danang told thejakartapost.com on Friday. The mass rapid transit (MRT) system currently underway, he pointed out, was also overpriced at Rp 16 trillion, with a capacity of 100,000 to 120,000 passengers per day. At a length of 16 km, the cost per km is one trillion rupiah. 'But with Rp 16 trillion, we could build 300 km of bus lines. The high-speed rail and MRT projects are both too expensive,' Danang said. Meanwhile, Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) executive director Abetnego Tarigan said the Jakarta-Bandung rail project had the potential to degrade the environment, as it would reduce water absorption along the lengths of its track. 'The [project] is likely to violate the spatial law. Railway projects should help rather than degrade the environment,' he said on Friday as quoted by Antara news agency. The watershed area, he continued, could be narrowed in the area of the project, thus disrupting the water supply for tea plantations in the nearby Walini area. As such, the project would benefit only the wealthy. Besides environment degradation, the high-speed rail project would lead to land being converted from vegetative to industrial and residential land, as had happened on the north coast of Java, especially in areas around Karawang district and western Bandung, Abetnego said. (cal/ags) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Batam Sat, February 6, 2016 BATAM: A Hong Kong-flagged Iranian MV Ocean carrier, sailing from Iran, hit a coral reef off Sambu Island, Batam, Riau Islands, early on Wednesday. The vessel, carrying a huge volume of iron ore, remains stranded as it awaits salvage. The local port authority and the Indonesian Navy are monitoring the vessel's condition in anticipation of ship fuel or cargo pollution. Sambu Island Port Authority head Rudi Widjanarko told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the evacuation of the ship could take up to a week. However, the agent handling the ship evacuation has not begun work as yet. 'The evacuation needs a week. It has yet to commence. We dive in order to look for damage that could cause an oil or cargo spill. It is currently being inspected,' said Rudi. According to Rudi, reports of the incident had reached Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan in Jakarta and he had ordered maximum handling to prevent potentially disastrous sea pollution. 'The ship, sailing from Iran to China, reached half way. The ship is laden with iron ore, not uranium. We have inspected the documents and data submitted to us,' said Rudi. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Sat, February 6, 2016 Jan. 3, 2016 Indonesia has strongly protested France's plan to issue a biodiversity law that will triple import taxes on palm oil products, one of the country's main export commodities. The Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister said the proposed law was rife with protectionism, although the French senate has claimed that environmental protection was the reason for the law. 'This doesn't have anything to do with the ecosystem, as it will be imposed on both crude and processed palm oil products, including Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil [ISPO] products,' Arif Havas Oegroseno, an assistant to the coordinating maritime affairs minister, said in Jakarta on Monday. Your comments: I think it should be based on how many fires there will be in 2016. If there is just one fire, maybe the tax should be 1,000 percent? Abdul Malik Luckily, France is not too serious about deterring the use of palm oil, or else they might have slapped a 170 percent tax on it, just like their wines and spirits are taxed here. Bohongbohong Do you fail to see the connection between global warming and heat waves, or between global warming and palm oil? Benam They are busy trying to improve the health of French people. Meanwhile here in Indonesia, the government supports the tobacco industry and fails to act against the pollution that is killing us by the thousands. Mrpig96 Let's first see whether the Peatland Restoration Agency is able to do things properly or not. I strongly doubt it, though. Creating such an agency in Jakarta to please foreign investors and to make people believe that the Indonesian government is committed to protecting peatland, does not mean that peatland forests will be restored anytime soon. It is just a first step. It may take decades before peatland forests show signs of recovery. Silvio Bari Please don't tell me that you expect us to believe that these protests are for the benefit of Indonesian farmers. It may benefit big pockets and small minds. L. Millar Don't we know that over 45 percent of all oil palm growers are smallholders and poor farmers? These are hardest hit, simply because they have lower yields and can't afford superfluous certification scams like POIG & RSPO. Wong Jowo We should stop exporting palm oil and at the same time stop importing crude oil, since palm oil can be turned into biofuel to replace oil for our domestic consumption. We should export palm oil only if we have a surplus. Jalasveva Palm oil is the most sustainable oil crop, since it needs 10 times less land than to harvest the same amount of oil from other perennial crops. The fact that France already grows 11 millions hectares of perennial seed oil and still cannot compete with Indonesian's palm oil quantity, proves this fact. The fact that you only plant the tree once and you can harvest the oil for over 20 years is also more eco-friendly than other oil crops that need to be replanted each year because this destroys the topsoil and creates erosion and decrease soil fertility. As for orangutan (and other macaques), it is the government and Indonesians who must change their bloody behavior in hunting these animals. Most of the macaques are dead due to being slaughtered. Sumatran elephants were already endangered more than 60 years ago (before oil palm plantation began), because they were being slaughtered by Indonesians and the Europeans colonials. You can still have biodiversity by growing palm oil on the side if you don't murder the endangered animals. There is also no scientific evidence that palm oil is not healthy. The published articles that say so are mostly junk science based on 'observation' without placebo controls. It's too easy these days saying this and that food is unhealthy. Sadly, many Indonesian celebrities also jump on the 'unhealthy palm oil' bandwagon campaign. India and Australia have cut funding for Greenpeace, we need to do the same. SW Indonesians should open their eyes ' Westerners and Europeans including many foreign commentators here, operate freely in Indonesia, then take photos and write smear articles for the international audience and their lawmakers. This is the exact end result 'boycott and discriminatory levies against Indonesian exports. Greenpeace & Co's so-called industrial espionage causes an estimated US$716 billion in economic losses to Indonesia in a decade. Palm Parmer Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has urged Muslim leaders to help the government in cracking down on radical sermons by preaching a peaceful interpretation of Islam, a move aimed at preventing the spread of fundamentalism and terrorism in the country. President Jokowi made the call on Friday morning when he met with Said Aqil Siradj, the chairman of the country's largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and representatives from the Indonesian Islamic Preaching Institution (LDII). Jokowi held two separate meetings with the leaders of the organizations at the State Palace to discuss efforts to root out religious extremism in the country, which for years has battled against terrorism. 'I think we have an emergency and we must improve our efforts [to promote a peaceful interpretation] of Islam,' Said Aqil told reporters on Friday after the meeting. Jokowi has repeatedly underlined that a soft approach is essential to address the root causes of radicalism and that adopting a hard approach could be counterproductive in the country ' which is home to various Muslim groups. Following the recent deadly terrorist attack in Central Jakarta and amid the looming threat from the Islamic State (IS) movement, the government is currently seeking to amend the Terrorism Law to strengthen the country's counterterrorism measures. In the meeting with Said Aqil, Jokowi also said that he had instructed Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan and Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin to regulate sermons, particularly in government offices, which in the past few years had become more incendiary compared with those delivered in mosques and prayer houses in rural areas. 'Sermons at government offices, particularly at the offices of state-owned enterprises, are frightening,' Said Aqil said. Said Aqil said that the regulation would not be take the form of censorship or surveillance, but only a form of recommendation. Responding to Jokowi's call, Said Aqil also said that NU clerics would continue preaching a moderate version of Islam and educating Muslims on the danger of radicalism through state-owned television channel TVRI, and national broadcaster RRI. Luhut, meanwhile, said the President wanted all mass organizations to join hands in raising awareness on deradicalization efforts, as well as drug issues. With regard to sermons, Luhut said the government would not impose surveillance. 'It is not about controlling [the sermons], but a call for the sermons to channel the peaceful side of Islam, instead of issues which, to some extent, can be provocative,' Luhut said. He said the government would work with the community in addressing the problems of terrorism and drug abuse. 'The government cannot work alone in addressing terrorism and drugs,' Luhut said. Luhut said Jokowi would turn Friday's meetings into a regular forum through which Islamic-based organizations could discuss a number of current problems with him. Earlier the government expressed concern over the volume of religious sermons broadcast by mosques. Last year, the government set up a new team to reduce noise from mosques, as places of worship go into overdrive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan. There are approximately 800,000 mosques in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation but residents living nearby have long complained that their speakers are too loud. ------------------ 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 Grace D. Amianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Large banks are offering lower mortgage rates in a bid to boost consumer and overall loans amid the lending rate decline. The large lenders, which have significant mortgage portfolios, are offering rate cuts across several sectors following Bank Indonesia's (BI) decision to slash its benchmark rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 7.25 percent in January. Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) consumer banking director Anggoro Eko Cahyo said the lender would offer a fixed five-year lending rate for mortgages until June 30. The offer, published on the bank's website, comprises a gradual increase in fixed lending rates, 8.7 percent annual for the first two years and 10.7 percent annual for the following three years. 'This offer is certainly aimed at attracting prospective mortgage customers to choose BNI among other banks,' Anggoro said Friday, adding that the bank was aiming to see growth of 10 to 12 percent for mortgages and 16 percent in overall consumer loans. BNI booked Rp 34.6 trillion in mortgages by the end of 2015, a slight increase of 4 percent from Rp 33.3 trillion a year earlier due to weak consumption. Mortgages contributed 60.2 percent to BNI's total consumer portfolio and 10.6 percent to the bank's overall loans of Rp 326.1 trillion as of Dec. 31. According to BI data, property loans as of Dec. 2015 grew 11.8 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 620.4 trillion, from 11.5 percent yoy in November last year, mainly boosted by construction loans and mortgages. Bank Mandiri corporate secretary Rohan Hafas said the state-owned lender was offering a deal from Feb. 1 to March 31, including fixed mortgage rates of 9.25 percent and 9.75 percent for three and five years, respectively. 'Aside of celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year, the offer is also intended to push our penetration in the retail segment, especially in mortgages,' he said in a statement, adding that the offer could be applied for first and second homes nationwide. Rohan said the bank expected the promotional offer to help it achieve its mortgage growth target of around 5 to 6 percent this year, which was higher than its Rp 30.6 trillion in mortgages booked last year, an increase of 2.1 percent yoy. Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), the country's largest mortgage lender with 30.6 percent market share, will also offer a lower mortgage rate of 6.6 percent during a property expo it is set to hold on Feb. 13. BTN president director Maryono said the bank lowered its lending rate for new mortgage applications to 9.6 percent, starting on Feb. 1, adding that 'we are optimistic about maintaining our loan growth at around 18 to 20 percent this year'. Private lenders Bank Central Asia (BCA) and CIMB Niaga, also the country's largest mortgage players, joined the competition to offer lower lending rates. BCA consumer banking director Henry Koenaifi said the lender was currently offering a rate discount of 0.5 percent for its mortgage customers who had funds worth three times the monthly installments in their saving accounts. Meanwhile, CIMB Niaga is offering a fixed rate at 9.28 percent for five years until March 31, with a down payment starting at 10 percent, as well as free provision and administration fees. -------------------- 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 Nani Afrida (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Maritime authorities have reported a rise in the number of accidents in Indonesian waters and have taken steps to mitigate the incidents. On Wednesday, one cargo ship flying the flag of Hong Kong found itself stranded near the waters off Riau before being assisted by the Navy's Western Fleet (Armabar) and towed to nearby Sambu Island. The cargo ship, MV Ocean Carrier, was transporting iron ore and was headed to Yang Jian, China, from Fujairah, Iran. Chief of Batam Naval Base Col. Eko Suyatno said that the cargo ship had found itself stranded after trying to avoid the busy traffic between Indonesia to Singapore. 'The cargo ship was stranded in the Batu Berhenti area,' Eko said. The ship suffered no serious damage when two warships, the KRI Surik and the KRI Siwar, arrived to start the rescue effort. The Malacca Strait is a busy maritime route for ships, cargo vessels and tankers, and collisions sometimes take place. In December last year, a Danish-cargo ship, MT Thorco Cloud, sank off the coast of Batam after it collided with a tanker. Based on data from the Maritime Security Board (Bakamla), in January 2016 alone, there were 29 maritime accidents, including eight sinking cases, five cases of stranded ships and three cases of leaking ships. The latest incident took place on Jan. 26 when a ship transporting 71 domestic tourists sank off Bokori Island, Southeast Sulawesi, after colliding with a rock and taking on water. No casualties were reported. Two days after the incident, a fishing boat, the KM Hikmah Rizki, sank in the waters off east Aceh due to high seas. One fisherman was reported missing. The causes of maritime accidents range from bad weather to overloaded and poorly maintained vessels. It is often the case that boats capsize and sink because they are overcrowded. Armabar said maritime accidents were mostly due to bad weather and overcapacity. 'However, we rarely see boats crash into one another because all ships have their own paths,' Zainuddin said. He said that the waters near the South China Sea could be quite treacherous, especially during the monsoon season. 'The areas near the South China Sea are quite dangerous with more than 2-meter high waves,' he said. --------------------- 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 The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 JAKARTA: After a seven-hour questioning session on Friday, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) decided not to detain the former president director of state-owned port operator Pelindo II, RJ Lino. Lino walked out of the KPK headquarters after the questioning session without giving a statement regarding the progress of the investigation into his case. 'Just ask Pak Maqdir,' Lino said, referring to his lawyer Maqdir Ismail. Maqdir said that during the seven hours of questioning, Lino was asked 15 questions by KPK investigators. 'He was asked to give a detailed explanation regarding the procurement of quay container cranes by Pelindo,' Maqdir told reporters. Having declined to turn up to two previous questioning sessions, Lino, who has been named a suspect, went to KPK headquarters on Friday, and appeared resigned to subsequent detention. On Dec.18, the KPK named Lino a suspect in a corruption case relating to the procurement of three quay container cranes in 2010. The cranes are located in Pontianak Port in West Kalimantan, Panjang Port in Lampung and Palembang Port in South Sumatra. The KPK was able to take a step forward in its investigation after the South Jakarta District Court, in a hearing on Jan. 26, rejected Lino's pretrial motion against the antigraft body's decision to name him a suspect. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tama Salim and Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 The traditionally inclusive National Awakening Party (PKB), the political party of the country's largest moderate Muslim organization, is debating whether it will issue a tough stance against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, following a recent controversy sparked by a statement from Research and Technology and Higher Education Minister Mohammad Nasir. PKB deputy secretary-general Daniel Johan said that during a three-day national meeting, party executives would decide the party's political stance toward contemporary issues, including a plan to reject the rights of the LGBT community. Daniel, however, maintained the party would continue to champion the rights of minority groups, in spite of a consensus among party members to reject any attempt to amend the 1945 Constitution to recognize same-sex marriage. 'We have agreed to reject same-sex marriage, although we'll continue to honor the rights of individuals from the group, who can keep their rights as citizens protected by the Constitution,' Daniel told The Jakarta Post on Friday. Daniel said that the party would continue to espouse the values of pluralism and multiculturalism, which were well-promoted during the party's early period, when founding member Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid was an influential figure in the party. 'We haven't changed in that sense; there's no reason to doubt PKB's commitment to pluralism,' he said. Jazilul Fawaid, secretary of the party's House of Representatives faction, argued that the rejection of the rights of the LGBT community was based on what he called 'eastern' and religious values. 'We reject their rights to be granted the same constitutional rights. That is also the case if they campaign for such rights and actively seek out followers for their cause,' said Jazilul. As for those who self-identified as being members of the LGBT community, he said the PKB would treat them with respect by providing guidance and help. 'But, they don't need to be isolated,' he said. He said the party would continue to be defenders of minority groups. 'PKB promotes diversity and pluralism, but even such liberties require limits; it must not violate the rules of law, ethics or religion,' he said. Meanwhile, although supporting the call to ban members of the LGBT community from university campuses, chairman of country's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Said Aqil Siradj, said that the community should not be subjected to hate. 'Well, [as humans] everything should be done in a civilized manner; we must not spark hatred,' he said. '[However] I support the [previous] call of research, technology and higher education minister [Muhammad Nasir] that it [LGBT practices] should not be allowed on campuses because it is not only against religious teachings but also human nature.' Said later deemed the LGBT phenomenon in the country as 'quite dangerous'. LGBT activities on campus came into the spotlight recently when conservative media coverage attacked the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) at the University of Indonesia (UI), highlighting its LGBT Peer Support Network, a counseling service in cooperation with melela.org, an online platform for LGBT people and their supporters to share their experiences. The group also encourages discussion and studies on topics surrounding gender and sexuality. Messages have been circulating online calling on the public to establish anti-LGBT groups on campus and several lawmakers have slammed the SGRC UI. --------------------- 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 New Delhi: Seeking to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Gujarat land deal issue, Congress on Saturday scaled up its demand for an SIT probe monitored by the Supreme Court, saying it should go into all allotments of government land when he was the state Chief Minister. "The Special Investigative Team monitored by the Supreme Court should cover all the allotments and grants of public land when Anandiben Patel was the Revenue Minister and Modi was the Chief Minister," party's senior spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters. He alleged that there was 'plunder' of public land and forest land during Modi's tenure as Chief Minister as they were given for a 'pittance' to 'corporate cronies' and others without following due procedure. Modi was Chief Minister for some 12 years after succeeding Keshubhai Patel in October 2001. Anandiben Patel became the Chief Minister when he became Prime Minister in May 2014. Asking Modi to "come clean" on the issue, Sharma sought to know from him whether he was aware of "clear conflict of interest" of the then Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel while allocating government land near Gir Lion Sanctuary to the company which allegedly has close business links with her daughter Anar Patel. "Was this allocation based on a Cabinet decision and endorsed by (then) Chief Minister (Modi) and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed?" asked Sharma. He also sought to know whether proper evaluation or price determination for this government land was done. Besides, he asked the Prime Minister whether the allocation of 250 acres of public land next to Gir lion sanctuary was in public interest as also in conformity with laws, regulations and established procedure for alienation of government assets. In 2010, Gujarat government is believed to have allotted 250 acres of land next to Gir Lion Sanctuary to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Pvt Ltd for setting up a resort which was allotted at a price of Rs 15 per square metre or Rs 60,000 per acre. Replying to questions, Sharma said the issue would definitely be raised in the Budget session of Parliament as it pertained directly to the Prime Minister "who has claimed that he has zero tolerance towards corruption". "It is necessary that the Prime Minister breaks his silence and answers questions on the issue. It is in the interest of the institution of Prime Minister that he should come clean", he said. Besides, he insisted that only an SIT monitored by the Supreme Court could probe the matter as it involved a former Chief Minister who is at present the Prime Minister. "We are very fair and correct in our demand". Congress has already demanded resignation of Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, besides setting up of a SIT. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan Sat, February 6, 2016 The demolition of heritage buildings in Medan, North Sumatra, continues as the Pension Wilhelmina building on Jl. Veteran, built during the Dutch colonial era, becomes the latest victim. The historical building, heritage of the Dutch queen in 1929, that was once used as the headquarters of the Netherlands Indies Civil Administratie (NICA) and its allies has been leveled to the ground with just its plaque left as a reminder at the site. 'Too many historical buildings in Medan have been torn down. Eventually, the historical city will no longer have historical buildings that residents can look to and be proud of. If the government does not pay attention to them or intentionally neglects them, this is inevitable,' Medan State University historian Eron Damanik told The Jakarta Post on Friday. Eron said Pension Wilhelmina, Hotel Wilhelmina in English, was transformed into a hotel by Queen Wilhelmina who had used it as a retreat whenever she visited Medan. An inscription at the building explains that the Pension Wilhelmina building had been the headquarters of NICA from Oct. 10, 1945. But three days later, the NICA headquarters had been battered by Medan youth freedom fighters after a NICA soldier had removed the red-and-white badge of a teenager passing in front of the headquarters and stomped on it. Seven young men were killed in the attack, while seven NICA soldiers were killed and 96 staff members injured. 'The attack was later known as the Battle of Medan. So, Pension Wilhelmina is a heritage building that has a part in the memory of the independence war,' Eron said. He said that after the Battle of Medan in 1949, Pension Wilhelmina was neglected. Then, in the 1950s, it was purchased by an individual. 'In 1974, the owner of Pension Wilhelmina converted it into the Hotel Belinun and now it has been demolished,' said Eron, adding that, lately, Hotel Belinun had developed a negative image as a brothel. Eron learned that Pension Wilhelmina ownership had changed hands to a third party and has been demolished to make way for a luxury hotel. Medan Tourism Office acting head Hasan Basri acknowledged that he had yet to receive a report on the demolition of Pension Wilhelmina. However, he said his office had formed an integrated team to make an inventory list of the historical buildings in Medan to be designated as heritage sites. The team, Hasan added, consists of several agencies, such as the Spatial Planning and Building Agency and the Medan Development Planning Board. He said the team would hold a meeting on Feb. 20. 'At the meeting, everything thing will be discussed, including the presence of Pension Wilhelmina,' said Hasan, claiming his office wished to maintain heritage sites in a sustainable manner. Earlier, historians and activists have deplored the demolition of eight historical buildings in Medan. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Khoirul Amin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 The government's plan to join the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in the next two or three years may face a bumpy road ahead because in order to do so, the government must first obtain approval from the House of Representatives to revise at least 12 laws related to the partnership's ambitious demands. House Commission VI chairman Achmad Hafisz Tohir said on Thursday that there would need to be at least 12 laws synchronized with TPP articles if Indonesia were to join the trade pact. Among the laws were those on investment, state finances, state-owned enterprises, business competition and cooperatives, he said. 'We want the government to tell us first what they have prepared and what their targets are. Only then can we decide if we will agree or not,' he said. Hafisz said that one particular clause in the TPP text that his commission would scrutinize was related to fair competition between state-owned enterprises and private companies. 'Commission VI is an advisor and supervisor of state-owned companies. Will state firms that are tasked with securing the public interest have to be privatized and all their tenders opened up?' he asked, adding that his commission would oppose such a clause. Under the 'competition policy and state-owned enterprises' article in the TPP text, the member states have to give equal treatment to state enterprises and private companies, especially when state firms receive significant government backing to engage in commercial activities. In a separate development, Industry Ministry director general for international industrial security and access development Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono said that his ministry was particularly concerned about issues related to local content requirements, locally known as TKDN, in the TPP. 'The TPP doesn't want TKDN, but we want it. We need to find a way out for the matter,' he said. In the first half of this year alone, House Commission VI will work on revising laws on business competition and state enterprises in a bid to provide clear guidance for business and to boost the country's competitiveness in the region. Discussions on revisions to law in the House usually take months or even years before eventually being approved. Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said that Indonesia would be ready to join the partnership in the next two or three years after concluding its Indonesia-EU comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA). He said that Indonesia still had time to review the TPP internally as the current 12 TPP member countries were still in the ratification process in their respective states. The TPP's 12 member countries, namely Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, US, Vietnam, effectively signed the treaty in New Zealand on Thursday. The TPP has been both praised and criticized by the public and analysts, with some arguing that it will boost the members' economies and others arguing that it will only benefit certain developed nations. Thomas said previously that joining the TPP was inevitable for Indonesia because some of its direct competitors like Vietnam and Malaysia had already joined the partnership. Quoting consulting firm O'Rourke Group Partners, LLC, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Vietnam has stated that Vietnam's share of the US apparel import market could go from 10 to 35 percent once the TPP was implemented. -------------------- 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 The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 In addition to the annual prayer ritual and Chinese art performances, Semarang's Chinese community will celebrate Chinese New Year with the aptly titled 'Pork Festival'. Pork has long been known as a popular food ingredient of the Chinese community in Semarang. The culinary festival, arranged by the Semarang Culinary Community, will be held from Feb. 4 to Feb. 8 at the Sri Ratu Mall indoor parking lot on JL Pemuda in Semarang, Central Java. A total of 20 booths, with tables and chairs that can accommodate 100 visitors, will sell an array of pork-based foods. 'Aside from celebrating Chinese New Year, the festival is also held to introduce the public to various kinds of local Semarang dishes because many are still unknown among the general public,' said Semarang Culinary Community Co-Founder Firdaus Adinegoro on Thursday as quoted by tempo.co. A wide variety of more widely known pork-based dishes will be available at the festival including pork noodles, meatballs, porridge, fried rice, satay (char-grilled pork skewers), rarely found dishes such as bakmoy, pihie (bamboo sprout mixed with pork lungs), sop kaki babi (pork leg soup) and sio bak will also be available to try. One rare pork-based delicacy that will be sold at the festival is the Nyukpiang salty vegetable steamed pork rice. The dish features pork meat with salty vegetables steam cooked in an aluminum foil molding plate. According to Firdaus, many of the dishes that will be sold at the festival are rarely found nowadays because they are only cooked at home or by request. 'We have long been living side by side with people of Chinese descent. I think it's time for us to begin to learn about their cuisine,' said Firdaus as quoted by tempo.co. One Pork Festival visitor, Monic, said that she found the event interesting. 'It turns out that there are various different pork-based cuisines which are unique, delicious and cheap too,' said Monic. The festival's organizers recorded 1,500 visitors on the first day of the festival, from morning until 9 p.m. (nov/bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Erika Anindita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 One faction of the internally riven United Development Party conveyed its intention to reach an islah or reconciliation in a national meeting on Friday. PPP secretary-general Muhammad Romahurmuzy said on Friday that the Islamic-based party aimed for "a complete reconciliation" that would unify the two opposing factions. Romahurmuzy's camp, which claims its authority from a PPP national congress in Bandung, West Java, in Oct. 2011, opened a two-day national meeting at Pondok Gede Hajj Dormitory in East Jakarta on Friday. The national meeting, attended by at least 1,000 members, will on Saturday collect and consider input from each provincial executive board in an attempt to find a solution to the party's civil war. "Disagreements aside, let us return to our founding principles," Romahurmuziy said in his opening speech. Opposed to Romahurmuzy's camp is the faction led by Djan Faridz, who was elected chairman at the party's national congress in Jakarta in November 2014. In early January the Law and Human Rights Ministry revoked a decree it had issued in March the previous year that recognized Romahurmuzy as PPP chairman. However, minister Yasonna H. Laoly has yet to issue a decree recognizing one leadership or the other, despite a Supreme Court ruling recognizing Djan's leadership in November last year. Djian's camp was entirely absent from Friday's meeting, having on Wednesday reported Romahurmuzy to the National Police, insisting that the legal PPP structure was that set up at the Jakarta congress. Djan's camp declared its support for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration in late January, jumping ship from the Gerindra Party-led opposition coalition. (rin) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 While public monitoring application Qlue is generally considered an effective medium for handling complaints, the app's ability to resolve complicated issues remains questionable. The head of Pondok Pinang subdistrict in South Jakarta, Hendi Nopriadi, said recently that Qlue did help him to receive residents' complaints, but that he still preferred to communicate directly via phone or in person. 'Qlue is helpful as it helps people to complain and I can easily look into the complaints. However, I cannot recognize the complainants if they use fake names or initials,' he said. Hendi, who has led his subdistrict for seven months, said that he received two to four reports through Qlue every day. 'The reports are mainly about congestion, broken sidewalks, street lamps and garbage,' he said. Communication with those who issued the reports, however, could be tricky, he said. 'I once received 30 reports of the same problem in one day, from the same user,' he said; he had been unable to do anything to stop this particular user from harassing him. Qlue is for use solely by residents or complainants, while public officials use the separate CROP app to respond. Reports are marked red, yellow or green to indicate whether they are awaiting response, in progress or completed, respectively. However, in cases where issues are not resolved, reasons are rarely given. The subdistrict head said that he had once received a report of a damaged road outside of his subdistrict. 'The complainant tagged the area as my subdistrict, but I couldn't do anything about it, as it wasn't in my jurisdiction,' he said. Hendi said he had shared his phone numbers and address with residents, allowing them to report issues via phone, text message or even letter. 'I sometimes get 30 reports per day,' he said, adding that he regularly went into neighborhoods to observe and discuss problems. Noor Machyudi, the head of Gunung subdistrict in South Jakarta, had a similar experience. 'Some complaints, such as violations of building permits, fall outside my remit, and should be handled by the spatial planning agency. All I can do is forward the problem to the agency,' he said. He added that as he could not solve the problem, the complaint would remain red or yellow. Unresolved complaints reflect badly on the performance of subdistrict heads, with the rankings used by Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama to promote or demote heads. Noor said that besides Qlue, he visited one community unit (RW) every week to discuss issues in person in a program he called Forum RW. 'We usually discuss important and complicated matters like river normalization during the discussions,' he said, adding that each RW usually raised eight to 10 ideas or problems relating to the area. Qlue marketing vice president Ivan Tigana said that in cases of spam reports, the Qlue crew could help the subdistrict heads and coordinate with the Jakarta Smart City unit to delete the reports. He added that his team was working to iron out Qlue's technical problems. Urban politics expert Amalinda Savirani from Gadjah Mada University said that she appreciated the introduction of Qlue, but warned the city against using it as the sole channel of communication. 'Meeting directly with residents allows more fluent communication, and also gives a voice to those divorced from technology,' she said. ------------------ 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 Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, central java Sat, February 6, 2016 The Surakarta municipality plans to evict about 1,400 residents in order to turn a river into a recreational site. Acting Surakarta mayor Budi Yulistyanto said on Friday that the city administration would soon relocate the 340 families that reside along the banks of Pepe River and move them to low-cost apartments. 'We will also provide them with compensation. We are still calculating the value. We want to move them in a polite manner and not just simply evict them,' Budi said. Residents reportedly accepted the city's plan to remove them to nearby low cost apartments. In preparation for the Chinese New Year, or Imlek as it is popularly known, the city, which was once led by Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo from 2005 until 2012, has cleaned the river and decorated it with thousands of lamps along its banks, making it a colorful sight at night. Many domestic and foreign visitors flock to the site to enjoy the sensation of cruising down the river for some 300 meters on a decorative boat. Some 100 people have enjoyed the trip every night, paying just Rp 10,000 per person for a single trip. 'This will be on offer only during the Imlek celebration until February 15, 2016. We want to offer something new for the Imlek celebration here in Surakarta,' Didik Kushendratmo of the celebration's organizing committee said. Elected Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi 'Rudy' Rudyatmo said that the decorative boat was also part of the riverbank spatial arrangement program in the city that aimed at creating clean and healthy rivers. 'This is actually an old program. We want to make people aware that rivers are not trash cans,' said Rudy, who was recently reelected for his second term of office. Meanwhile, historian Mufti Raharjo said that Pepe River was an integral part of the city's history. He said the river had been mentioned in texts since the Pajang Kingdom era in the mid 16th century. 'During that time, Bengawan Solo River had 44 piers that acted as the veins of trade. One of the piers was on Pepe River,' he said. Over time, however, the small river became dirty and messy as more and more houses were erected along its banks. In 2014, the Surakarta administration started to improve the river by dredging it for 300 meters. The river has a total length of 7.8 kilometers. Every month the city administration conducts community service by cleaning rivers. To help maintain water depth and enable a boat to pass along, while at the same time preventing the river from overflowing during the rainy season, the administration controls the upper part of the Anyar River dam and the Demangan water gate. Pepe River is getting cleaner and cleaner and is now relatively free from waste and garbage. 'I never thought before that I could enjoy going down the river on a boat. The river was very dirty in the past,' Hanindyah, a visitor, said. Irawan, another visitor, said he experienced a special sensation cruising along the river. He said it reminded him of the Hoi An River in Vietnam. 'This is not yet as good as Vietnam, but we can make it like Vietnam,' he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ina Parlina and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Undertaking its commitment to seek a peaceful solution to the Palestinian conflict, Indonesia is set to host the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit, with Palestine at the top of the agenda. The world's most populous Muslim-majority country has been chosen as the host for the extraordinary summit to rally support from the entire OIC community for resolving the Palestinian issue. President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo called on the country to take the summit as an opportunity to show the world that Islam in Indonesia 'is tolerant and rahmatan lil alamin [a blessing for the universe]'. His statement implied the need for this majority-Muslim nation to actively take part in creating a world order based on freedom, everlasting peace and social justice, as written in the Constitution. During his presidential campaign, Jokowi made support for Palestinians a cornerstone of his foreign policy, promising that Indonesia would set up an embassy in Ramallah as a show of support for the Palestinian cause. Palestine is meanwhile a main concern of the OIC, which is determined to find an effective solution to decades of conflict. The OIC, which comprises 57 states, attempts to mobilize global support for the people of Palestine. Attention to the occupation of Palestine has of late been distracted by other global problems, such as the Syrian civil war. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi underlined that the aim of the conference was to gather support from the entire OIC community to develop efforts to resolve the Palestinian conflict and create a breakthrough in the Middle Eastern political landscape. Retno said that Indonesia sought several specific outcomes from the conference, including a collective political statement and action-oriented follow-up steps such as planned tripartite meetings. 'This conference is particularly important, considering how ongoing talks since [last] May have yet to alleviate the situation in al-Quds,' Retno said after the meeting on Wednesday. According to Retno, there are concerns that the Palestinian issue will be swept under the rug in subsequent meetings among the Islamic community, which is why Indonesia was appointed to host the upcoming conference. 'We hope this conference will be able to strengthen the OIC's commitment to supporting the Palestinian agenda,' she said. 'We also need an action-oriented declaration to ensure that [any] political support produced by the summit can be followed up.' The Palestinian conflict covers the issue of nationhood and the plight of five million refugees scattered across the Middle East and living in dire conditions. The situation is getting worse, as they are increasingly trapped in other wars, particularly since the Syrian war broke out. By hosting an international forum, Jokowi also wanted the world to see Indonesia as a safe country, following a recent bombing and shooting attack in the capital. Security is critical, as leaders of the 56 OIC member countries and their entourages, as well as four observers and representatives from Russia, the US, the EU and the UN, are expected to attend the summit, which is set to be held in Jakarta on March 6 and 7. State Secretary Pratikno urged the nation's people and the Jakarta administration to support the central government in organizing the summit, while Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said the government was not expecting any security disruptions during the summit. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Yuliasri Perdani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Get ready to celebrate the Chinese New Year with the adrenaline-pumping theatrical show Shaolin Warriors. The show, dubbed the first live on-stage kung fu spectacular, will make its Indonesian debut at Ciputra Artpreneur in South Jakarta on Feb. 19-21. Shaolin Warriors, created by the China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) in 2000, has entertained millions of people around the globe. The Jakarta show is presented by Bank Mayapada in cooperation with Ciputra Artpreneur. Set in 1620, Shaolin Warriors invites the audience to follow the journey of a boy studying Shaolin martial arts and philosophy at a monastery. A group of 24 martial arts performers will demonstrate their kung fu prowess using daggers, spears, swords and 15 other weapons of Shaolin. The show is clearly not for the faint-hearted. Video footage of Shaolin Warriors shows the performers, clad in Shaolin signature saffron robes, displaying daring kung fu feats and acrobatic movements. From using a machete to chop cabbage on their chests and smashing a block of concrete on a performer lying on a bed of nails, to using dozens of spears to lift a performer into the air. There are also two boys, aged 10 and 12, who demonstrate their fighting and acrobatic skills. Bank Mayapada director Suwandy said that Shaolin Warriors was both entertaining and educational as the story shared good moral messages. 'Aside from its martial arts techniques, kung fu teaches valuable moral lessons, which I believe should be introduced to young generations and to the public in general,' he said in a press conference on Wednesday. 'This is what encouraged us, Bank Mayapada, to present the show,' Suwandy added. CPAA Productions director Xing Ronghu expressed his excitement to finally be bringing the show to a Jakarta audience. 'With 15 years of worldwide tours and continuously upgrading and polishing the artistic aspects of the production, the show has toured the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and so on,' he said in a written statement. 'It's CPAA's top choice to work together with Ciputra Artpreneur to bring our Chinese kung fu show to the diverse, active Jakarta community in line with Chinese New Year celebrations,' he added. The Chinese New Year 2567 will fall on Feb. 8. Ciputra Artpreneur director Rina Ciputra Sastrawinata said that Shaolin Warriors would deliver five shows ' one on Feb. 19 and two shows on each of Feb. 20 and 21. Tickets range from Rp 650,000 (US$48) for Bronze class to Rp 1.5 million for Platinum class. Tickets are available at kiostix.com. Suwandy said that Bank Mayapada would reward free tickets to selected customers as a token of appreciation for their support to the bank. ------------------- 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 Tassia Sipahutar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Sluggish household consumption dragged down last year's economy and the full-year figure fell below expectations. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at a rate of just 4.79 percent last year, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) published on Friday. The result was lower than the 4.9 percent forecast by many, including the government, and lower compared to the 5.02 percent growth rate achieved in 2014. Household consumption, which is the country's main engine for growth, contributing to more than half of the nation's GDP, suffered a setback last year as it rose by an annual rate of 4.96 percent in 2015, down from 5.14 percent in 2014. Bank Central Asia (BCA) chief economist David Sumual said that several policies had disrupted household consumption, impacting growth in a negative way. 'At the beginning, the government banned officials from holding meetings in hotels. It scrapped the policy later on, but it affected consumption,' he said. Other policies on rice and corn imports also affected consumption as they led to soaring prices that weakened people's purchasing power, David added. Falling commodity prices played a role as well in slowing down household spending. In the past, commodity rich regions like Kalimantan were significant contributors to growth. Kalimantan was once listed as Indonesia's third-largest contributor to growth. After the collapse in coal and crude palm oil (CPO) prices in 2015, however, resource-rich Kalimantan fell below Sulawesi, Bali Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua. Glenn Maguire, ANZ Bank's chief economist for South Asia, ASEAN and the Pacific, said that 'at 55 percent of GDP, the inability of private consumption to muster any momentum will remain a principal anchor on the Indonesian recovery.' He also warned that the renewed drop in commodity prices would present additional headwinds to growth momentum in 2016. Meanwhile, higher budget disbursement in the last quarter of 2015 had apparently delivered positive changes in investment and government consumption. Unlike household spending, investment and government consumption posted higher growth rates last year compared to previous years. According to BPS data, investment surged 5.07 percent year-on-year (yoy) in 2015 from 4.12 percent yoy in 2014 and government consumption jumped to 5.38 percent yoy in 2015 from 1.98 percent yoy in 2014. BPS head Suryamin attributed more robust state budget spending in the last quarter, particular on infrastructure projects, as the central reason behind the positive performance of investment and government consumption. As earlier reported, the government allocated as much as Rp 290.3 trillion (US$21.26 billion) in the state budget for infrastructure-related projects in 2015. In turn, construction was listed as one of three economic sectors to record the highest growth rate throughout last year. However, HSBC economist Su Sian Lim wrote in a research note that it remained to be seen whether the pickup in investment was all to do with infrastructure. 'While it is likely that some of this investment acceleration did reflect faster infrastructure outlays, we would still caution against taking the view that this necessarily implies a surge in infrastructure outlays for 2016.' Lim added that some of the strength in investment in the last quarter probably 'reflects last-ditch efforts by the government to try to attain disbursement targets before the year's end'. -------------------- 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 Jamey Keaten (The Jakarta Post) Geneva Sat, February 6, 2016 The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is a little-known piece of a sprawling human rights organization. Neither a court nor a tribunal, the five-member body can call countries and their leaders to account, but has no power of enforcement. Here's a look at the group, its mandate, and the challenges it faces. ___ What is it? The working group is composed of five experts selected by the leadership of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council for three-year terms, renewable only once. Members are unpaid. The group is among 55 "special procedures" authorized under the council, which are mostly special rapporteurs on issues ranging from the rights of albinos to those of indigenous peoples. The panel was set up in 1991 by the former Commission on Human Rights "to investigate instances of alleged arbitrary deprivation of liberty," according to U.N. human rights office. Panel member Roland Adjovi said it meets three times a year in Geneva for a total of no more than 20 days ' limited because of U.N. budgetary reasons. ___ Who are its members? The chair is international law professor Seong-Phil Hong of Korea; Mexico's Jose Guevara is a human rights specialist at Carlos III University in Madrid and Setondji Roland Adjovi of Benin is an assistant professor of African affairs and international law at Arcadia University near Philadelphia in the United States. Vladimir Tochilovsky, an expert in international criminal justice who has worked with the International Criminal Court, was the lone dissenting voice. Human rights expert Leigh Toomey, who was appointed last year, recused herself because she, like Assange, is Australian. ___ What is its caseload? Anyone who claims to be deprived of liberty can submit a case to the panel, and its workload has been growing. Since it was founded, the working group has produced more than 1,000 opinions involving more than 130 countries. Last year, it delivered 56 opinions ' one fewer than in 2014. Christophe Pechoux, a section chief for special procedures of the Human Rights Council, said at least 12 people were freed from arbitrary detention last year, but it could be more because sometimes those who are freed don't inform the panel. ___ Are its decisions binding, and if so, how are they enforced? That's a matter of some dispute. Britain's government and Swedish prosecutors insist the panel's decision changes nothing. But the U.N. body counters that the two countries have ratified the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and as such are bound to apply the opinion of the panel, and international conflict-resolution and dispute-resolution mechanisms. "When you combine all these elements, you have a binding decision," said Peschoux. "Who is going to enforce it? Nobody." (ags) Though the victory march of the Bharatiya Janata Party that began in 2014 was brought to a halt in 2015 with major setbacks in the Delhi and Bihar Assembly elections, there seems to be a reversal of that trend for the party in Assam. In the politically most significant Northeast state, the contest is going to be mainly between the two national parties, a strong BJP versus a weak Congress, with the regional political players in the state the All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF, now in alliance with the BJP) playing marginal roles. The BJP has had a successful start. It has taken over the political space vacated by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), once the states ruling party, and with its alliance with the BPF there is a strong possibility of it winning the forthcoming Assembly elections. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won seven of the 14 Lok Sabha seats with 36 per cent votes, the Congress won three seats with 29.5 per cent votes, AIUDF won three seats with 14.8 per cent votes, while the Kokrajhar seat was won by an Independent candidate. The AGP was completely marginalised, polling 3.7 per cent votes, only marginally higher than the 2.1 per cent votes of the BPF. Simple electoral arithmetic suggests that if the BJP manages to repeat its 2014 performance, it can win 70 of the 126 Assembly seats, well beyond the number required for forming the government. There is hardly any indication of the states political scenario having changed significantly in any way since 2014, and the BJP still remains much more popular than other political parties. That said, there has been some decline in the BJPs popularity on account of the Narendra Modi governments failure to act on its poll promises. For instance, the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh, which saw several acres of land in Assam being given to Bangladesh, went against Mr Modis election promise of not giving an inch of Assams land to Bangladesh. Moreover, the governments decision to grant citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis residing in Assam and elsewhere in India is seen as the BJPs attempt to shelter illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. But does this dissatisfaction with the Central government mean that the BJP may not be in a position to perform well in the forthcoming elections? Highly unlikely, even though it may result in some drop in the partys vote share as has been witnessed in other recent elections. The announcement of Sarbananda Sonowal as the partys chief ministerial candidate well in advance means that the BJP has learnt from the mistakes it made in Bihar and Delhi. Moreover, the BJP can hope to make up for its slight decline in popularity by its alliance with the BPF, which will help it consolidate the adivasi votes in the state. The BJP, in fact, has already played its card to woo the adivasi voters by supporting the proposal to include communities like Motok, Moran, Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbonshi, Sootea and Tea Tribes into the Schedule Tribe category, which at the moment are classified as Other Backward Classes. The BJP also has the advantage of contesting against a divided Opposition with most parties busy tackling their own difficulties. The Congress is facing a 15-year anti-incumbency. Its vote share declined by nearly 10 percentage points between the 2011 Assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Its support base has been eroded significantly. The strong 34 per cent Muslim voters spread across the three regions of the state but concentrated mainly in the Barak Valley (37 per cent) and Lower Assam bordering Bangladesh (46 per cent) have moved significantly towards the AIUDF. It is mainly due to the division of the Muslim vote between the Congress and the AIUDF that the former performed badly in this region, polling only 23 per cent votes. Post-poll study by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) suggests that 40 per cent of Muslims voted for the Congress and 39 for AIUDF. The young urban voters, who once voted for the AGP in large numbers, also moved towards the BJP in a big way in 2014 35 per cent voted for the BJP, while only 29 per cent voted for the Congress. Among urban voters, 45 per cent voted for the BJP while 18 per cent voted for the Congress. What is bound to add to the Congress woes is the recent defection of a large number of sitting MLAs all have joined the BJP. The negative image of the Congress at the national level makes it difficult to attract new, popular politicians. If the non-BJP parties decide to contest the election separately without any alliance, it is likely to pave the way for a BJP government in the state. Even if the BJPs vote share declines by a few points from what it was in 2014, it may still be comfortably placed to win due to a divided Opposition. In fact, the BJP has managed to win three (Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir) Assembly elections post 2014 Lok Sabha mainly due to the division of the non-BJP votes. United Opposition, like it was in Bihar, has been able to block the BJPs march to victory. Hence, the only roadblock for the BJP in Assam could be a Bihar-like alliance between the Congress and the AIUDF, which may consolidate the Muslim vote. If that happens, the BJP will try counter mobilisation by raising the issue of illegal Bangladesh migrants (mainly Muslims) more aggressively. This but may not be enough to counter the consolidation of the Muslim votes. Which party manages to form the government may only be known once the votes are counted, but one thing is clear the BJPs knock at the doors of the Assam Assembly is loud and clear. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Amanda Lee Myers (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 A Los Angeles-area doctor convicted of murder for prescribing exorbitant amounts of painkillers that left a dozen patients dead was sentenced Friday to 30 years to life in prison. The conviction of Dr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng and her long prison sentence are rare for a doctor in the U.S. Minutes before she was sentenced, Tseng apologized in court to the families of her dead patients and others who became addicted to prescription drugs under her care. "I suffer every day from the impact and I will do everything I can to take responsibility," she said. "I have learned a very hard lesson on this that will stay with me forever." In handing down the harsh sentence, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli said he found it egregious that Tseng continued to write reckless prescriptions even after learning her patients were dying. "(She's) a person who seemingly did not care about the lives of her patients in this case but rather appeared more concerned about distributing dangerous controlled substances in an assembly line fashion so as to collect payments which amounted to her amassing several million dollars," Lomeli said. The mother of two children will be over 70 before she has a chance at release. Tseng had asked Lomeli for a 15-year prison term. Tseng prescribed "crazy, outrageous amounts of medication" to patients who didn't need the pills, Deputy District Attorney John Niedermann told jurors during her trial. "Something is wrong with what you're doing if your patients are dying," Niedermann said. Twelve of Tseng's patients died but she was charged with just three murders because other factors were involved in the other deaths, including drugs prescribed by other doctors and a possible suicide. Tseng's lawyer, Tracy Green, has said the 46-year-old doctor had been naive to prescribe so many medications and didn't think her patients would abuse them. Tseng's patients often hid addictions to painkillers and Tseng she thought she was helping ease their pain, she said. The powerful painkillers Tseng prescribed included oxycodone, sold as Percocet and other brand names, and hydrocodone, popularly known under the brand name Vicodin. The first of her patients to die had received prescriptions from Tseng two days earlier for oxycodone, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the muscle-relaxer Soma, prosecutors said. Tseng was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder and all but one of 21 drug-related counts. She was also charged with illegally writing prescriptions for two of the deceased patients and 16 other people, three of them undercover agents. Vu Nguyen, 29, of Lake Forest, Steven Ogle, 25, of Palm Desert, and Joseph Rovero, 21, an Arizona State University student from San Ramon, died of overdoses between March and December 2009. Ogle's mother, Desiree Ogle, said after the sentencing that her son died in April 2009 eight hours after getting a methadone prescription from Tseng. "She actually stopped his heart," Ogle said, adding that she thought Tseng's lengthy prison term was appropriate. "She froze time for us that day." (ags) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 The government plans to develop waste-based power plants as part of an effort to resolve acute garbage problems within seven cities -- Jakarta, Bandung, Tangerang, Semarang, Surabaya, Surakarta and Makassar. The decision was made in a limited Cabinet meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday. The use of technology in waste management is to effectively and efficiently reduce waste problems and increase electricity supply in big cities, said President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo during the cabinet meeting. "But, most importantly, to clean the garbage so it can both produce energy and disappear from the city," Jokowi added. As a legal basis for the policy, the government has drafted a presidential regulation (Perpres) on this matter, said cabinet secretary Pramono Anung. He said that nearly all the host cities, with the exception of Surakarta, produce more than 1,000 tons of garbage per day. Surakarta produces about 200 -250 tons per day but has been included in the project as a pilot for medium-sized cities, Pramono added. "This draft presidential regulation has been submitted to the President. Hopefully with the appointment of the seven cities, waste that has been a serious problem for big cities throughout Indonesia will be handled," he said. Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said that in this regulation, the government had assigned state-owned company PT PLN to purchase the electricity from waste-based power plants. "Discussion has been ongoing due to an expensive tariff. PLN did not want to buy. Now we have made clear the mechanism and the tariff. It is still too expensive, the government will assist," Darmin said. Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil welcomed the government decision on waste management, adding that his city had already implemented technology-based waste management. The weakness of the current technology, he added, is that it only process half of Bandung's waste production, an amount that currently stands at around 1,500 tons per day. "So I still have to send half of the waste to landfill, it is less attractive. We are currently reviewing zero waste technology," Ridwan said. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Sat, February 6, 2016 Culture and Education Minister Anies Baswedan inaugurated in January historian and social activist Hilmar Farid as the new culture director general, replacing Kacung Marijan and becoming the first non-civil servant appointed to the position. Many have applauded his appointment, saying that he would bring new ideas to the ministry, which have been deemed too bureaucratic to be effective. The Jakarta Post's Fedina S. Sundaryani met with the former supporter of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo in the 2014 presidential election last week. Below are excerpts from the interview. Question: How does it feel to be in this position? Answer: The work itself is something that I am familiar with. However, there is much more in terms of volume and authority. What programs are you currently working on? There really hasn't been much room for innovation as the programs and budget were decided last year. I will have much more room to design [programs] in the 2017 budget, but this doesn't mean that we will create something completely different. The only difference will probably be in terms of the quality and focus [...] For example, there are many programs that have been designed to help communities develop their arts in various regions and also many programs to help revitalize customary villages. I'm not changing any of that and the directorate general has already established many programs to help. However, I am trying to increase the strategic quality of it [...] What exactly does your directorate general do? The government wants to make culture an important element and it has shown this through the establishment of the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister. Culture must become the headwaters of development, whereas it is currently just a sector for those who have the money. [...] The directorate general's authority is limited to the cultural field, which is abstract. And as you can see we work mostly on preservation and promotion. This directorate general has already done a good job in preservation because [Indonesia] is now a UNESCO state party at their international conference of the World Heritage Center. But we're still lacking in the promotion department. Do we want to take care of all our heritage sites just for the sake of it or do we have another objective? We need to introduce the public to our history and that's my focus right now. There are a lot of things we can do but I don't want to increase our burdens. We talked about cultural preservation, but what is the directorate general doing to develop youth culture? There are actually a lot of programs and to be honest, there are probably too many. We have five directorates and each hold their own festivals, which is fine because they're pretty busy planning and implementing those activities. However, I want to emphasize that facilitating [cultural development] does not mean creating it. You facilitate, not create, and the right step is for us to have a group of competent people, whether from inside or outside the government, who can judge what [pieces] should be performed. This way we have a curatorial board. The government should just step back when it comes to content; just let the people initiate it since there is already a slot within each festival [...] Speaking about the arts scene and the film industry, Falcon Pictures has started production on a movie based on Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind). Do you and the ministry support this production despite the novel's controversial past? Of course. This should really be the concern of the arts and film guidance directorate. Personally though, I feel like the issue is not about Bumi Manusia itself but that there will be a movie about it. Let's put it this way; film industries all over the world always plant their feet in the literature world. However, our film industry doesn't have that. It's a good sign for us to have more literature-based movies because it means that it will be based on something rooted and the public does not have to constantly look for new ideas [for films]. Bumi Manusia is a novel that has been read by at least 100,000 people, which means there's a market out there for it. People who have read it are probably curious to see what it looks like on screen. Going beyond your specific question, I had a recent discussion at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) about how disappointing it is that we don't have a collective list of literature that we can use as a reference. We probably don't even read the same novels; the younger generations probably read more contemporary work that is much more cosmopolitan while older generations might have read books about their rustic past. Different themes and different types of expressions that have directly weakened our collective identity. What makes you Indonesian, other than language? That's a major question right now and for some [language] is the only tie that binds. We have different dreams and references. So, we have this idea that has already worked in other parts of the world where some literary works are used as canon and used as a collective reference. This can also be applied to music or film [...] Up to a certain generation all Americans read or watched Gone with the Wind. It's outdated now but there are references in films that followed. So does the ministry have plans to establish these canons? I talked about that with the minister [Anies Baswedan] the first few days I started working there. The minister has already issued a policy, making it compulsory for all students to read for 15 minutes at the beginning of every school day but teachers have been asking, what kind of books? They don't know what to read because [the books] are not available and also because they doubt their choices. There has been discussion on how to go about this systematically. In my opinion, though, government officials shouldn't be in charge because they'll be too busy and they'll only refer to books they can remember. Leave it to the literary community, to the literature experts who have an understanding of what is suitable for children and what kind of literature they are able to absorb. Let them do it; let them establish a committee and they will probably end up with a list in two to three months. They don't have to be too ambitious and immediately create a list of books for all 12 years of schooling. What will you do on the issue of radicalism? Not in the conventional way where we try to teach them tolerance and pluralism. It's not that easy. The problem is much more serious than that. If you think that pluralism is the antithesis of radicalism then you are wrong, they aren't even on the same level. Radicalism stems from a lack of welfare so as long as there is a social gap, it will be difficult to introduce ideas of tolerance and pluralism. Unless you address that, don't think that it'll just go away, there has to be something more strategic than that. Yes, promoting diversity and freedom of expression is good but unless there is a move to level everyone's welfare then it will be for nought. What did you think about the ban on discussions about the 1965 communist purge at last year's Ubud Writers Festival? I do have plans to talk with the National Police on how to handle situations like that. The police may still be unfamiliar with the issue, whether they have to side with the festival's committee or those demonstrating against it. I suspect that one of the problems is a lack of information. So, I might as well start a conversation with them. I didn't really follow the situation too closely but freedom of expression is clearly protected by the Constitution. However, what is also important is to nurture civic courage. Sure, you have something you think is good but you can't make everyone happy; that's the way the world works. So, we have to all be determined to fight for what we feel is right and there are risks to that. I always hear people asking [the government or law enforcement] to guarantee [that their events run without issue] but we could not guarantee that even if we wanted to. The point is, I will do everything in my power but instead of talking to the police force about the legality of it all, it's better to tell them that poetry will not blow anyone up, police officers won't become busy because of poems and that everyone is going to stay safe. If we can tell them that then hopefully our law enforcement officials will be better informed in the future and gain a strong understanding of [cultural] activities, which I think [the police force] lacks. --------------------- 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 The Jakarta Post Jakarta Sat, February 6, 2016 Thousands of Indonesian labor union members flooded into Jakarta for a massive rally on Saturday, urging the government to stop layoffs at multinational corporations. Simultaneous rallies were held in Jakarta, Bogor, Batam, Bekasi, Depok, Medan, Surabaya, Semarang and Tangerang. In total, 30,000 workers joined in the action, said Said Iqbal, the chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI). "Today, 30,000 workers demanded two things: stop the layoff of Indonesian laborers and revoke the 2015 government regulation that has led to low wages," he said at the rally as quoted by Antara news agency on Saturday. The rally started from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and continued up to the State Palace before finally gathering in Kelapa Gading, a commercial district in North Jakarta, to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the Indonesian Metal Labor Union Federation (FSPMI). As previously reported, some Japanese and South Korean factories have announced plans to cut jobs in Indonesia. The KSPI has claimed that thousands of workers will lose their jobs if the plans were to be implemented. Calling the claims exaggerated, Vice President Jusuf Kalla pledged to boost economic growth to minimize layoffs in 2016. "We will try to keep the economy running to reduce the magnitude of layoffs,' he said as quoted by Antara. (ags) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Sat, February 6, 2016 Australian politicians like to talk the talk in saying that relations between Australia and Indonesia are at last back on track. But are they? What is the evidence? Australia, along with India, celebrated its 'national' day on Jan. 26. As an expat, on that day I took various angkot (public minivans) around Jakarta searching for an Aussie or two with whom to celebrate the occasion. But to no avail. But I did meet any number of South Korean and a lesser yet surprising number of Scottish businesspeople. Aussies were conspicuous by their absence. Obviously there must be some Aussies still here, but without hesitation, I was informed that Australians without a family connection in Indonesia had packed up and gone home. What's going wrong in the relations between the two countries? These days, government policies, perhaps on both sides, seem to be counterproductive to developing sound, sensible, sustainable and good-neighborly relations. The severe cuts to Australia's foreign aid program to Indonesia over the last two years or so have been well documented. Sadly, Indonesians who are close to the aid sector tell me that Australia's decision on foreign aid has had a devastating effect on their country. Not to be denied though, Indonesia has been actively pursuing other countries to fill the void. It's no wonder that just yesterday, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo announced Indonesia's plan to diversify its imports of live cattle, no longer focusing primarily on Australia. Two negatives can't be stretched into a positive. All sectors and types of people seem to be under the thumb. To take another example, Indonesia can be applauded for making it easier for Australians and others to spend some of their retirement years in Indonesia. What did Australia do in response? It said (or the last Tony Abbott government decided, and apparently will continue under the new Malcolm Turnbull government) that, as of Jan. 1, 2017, it will pay Australian aged pensions to those travelling abroad for six weeks only. Unless Malcolm Turnbull has another look at this policy ' and we pray that he does ' Indonesia could be in for a rude shock when it sees the ultimate impact on the Indonesian economy. In the light of the new policy, senior Australians will only come to Indonesia for a short period or not at all. It is no secret that spending by foreign tourists in Indonesia (part of the all-too-easily forgotten services sector) is an important contributor to Indonesian gross domestic product (GDP). There are many inequities in this policy. When it was first framed the exchange rate was a lot better than parity with the American dollar. Since then the value of the Australian dollar has plummeted. Don Wilkey Cinere, Depok (lead article) FBI, state troopers kill Oregon occupier Oregon State Police, backed by FBI cops including sharpshooters, shot and killed Arizona rancher Robert LaVoy Finicum Jan. 26. Finicum was a spokesperson for Ammon Bundy and others who had occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon over demands for greater access to federal lands. The FBI released a grainy aerial video that shows Finicum with his hands in the air. According to the FBI he reaches his right hand toward a pocket where they say he had a gun. Despite earlier reports that Finicum was charging at police, both the video and eyewitness accounts by two women who were in the truck with him, on their way to a community meeting, tell a different story. Shawna Cox, who was part of the occupation, and 18-year-old Victoria Sharp, who was going to sing at the meeting, both said Finicum left the vehicle seeking to draw police bullets away from it, yelling shoot me and telling officers he was on his way to meet with the sheriff in Grant County. Both say the cops kept firing after Finicum hit the ground, and they then opened fire on the pickup, while the women and another passenger huddled on the floor. He was cornered like a helpless animal, with nowhere else to turn, and executed in cold blood, Finicums family said in a statement Feb. 2. According to the family he was shot multiple times in the back. FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing admitted no one provided Finicum medical assistance for about 10 minutes after he was shot. Authorities so far have refused to disclose any further information, video or audio recordings including one on Coxs phone until their investigation is concluded, which they say could take six weeks. Finicum, Bundy and other participants in the occupation of the Malheur refuge in Harney County were on their way to a meeting in John Day with ranchers, Grant County sheriff Glenn Palmer and others when they were intercepted. They were invited to speak on what many ranchers call the overreach of federal agencies that control more than half the land in the state, as well as the governments frame-up of area ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. The father and son cattle ranchers were sent back to prison Jan. 4 after having served their original sentences on trumped-up charges of arson. An appeals court ruled that the sentences violated federal minimums established under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and ordered them back to prison to complete five years. The occupation of the refuge came on the heels of a Jan. 2 protest in Burns demanding freedom for the Hammonds. While most area ranchers and workers are sympathetic to issues the occupiers raised, many wanted them to leave, fearing the FBI would respond with a murderous assault like the 1993 FBI attack on the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas, that killed 86 people. The U.S. government arrested Bundy and 10 others connected to the occupation, charging them with conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats. Lisa Hay, a lawyer defending Ryan Payne, who was shot in the wrist when the cops first stopped Finicums truck, told the court Jan. 27, The evidence against him is political speech and presence. After the arrests, Bundy called on his supporters to end the occupation of the Malheur refuge. When four stayed behind, Bundy taped messages from jail asking them to leave. This was never meant to be an armed standoff, he said Jan. 30. Please do not make this something it was never meant to be. Ranchers lives matter! Competing demonstrations one to denounce the killing of Finicum and one urging occupiers and others who have come from out of state to support them to go home took place Feb. 1 in Burns. Harney County residents and ranchers joined on both sides. Many took inspiration from Black Lives Matter protests against police killings nationwide, chanting Hands up, dont shoot, and Ranchers lives matter and holding signs that said All lives matter. While some in the anti-occupation demonstration carried signs backing the sheriff and FBI, others crossed the street to express sympathy with those denouncing the killing of Finicum. The Harney County Committee of Safety, made up of some local ranchers and other residents, said that it will continue to host public events and re-focus on that which brought us to form this committee, the Hammonds: the case of Dwight and Steve, support to [their wives] Susie and Earlynna and pursuing legal processes to bring them justice. In Harney County the capitalist economic crisis that has engulfed the United States and much of the world has been greatly exacerbated by federal rules and aggressive environmental regulations that played a role in destroying the lumber industry there and in hemming in or pushing ranchers off the land. The last lumber mill closed in 2008. In 2012 well over 10 percent of the countys 7,100 people worked on ranches and farms. But federal government agencies, from the Bureau of Land Management to the Fish and Wildlife Service, often treat ranchers, especially smaller ranchers, as a hostile enemy. Alan Schroeder, a lawyer for the Hammonds, told the Militant Feb. 1 that the family, with 600 mother cows, is dependent on federal land for about 50 to 60 percent of their grazing. Maybe you could call them a medium size operation, Schroeder said. They have one permanent employee and hire more help when they harvest hay. After they were framed up, the Bureau of Land Management vindictively revoked their grazing rights. Two of their four grazing allotments have a significant amount of intermingling with private land, Schroeder said. Its not economical to fence it off. So with the denial of the permits, they cant graze the cattle on their own land. Bob Skinner, a cattle rancher in east Oregons Jordan Valley, told the Militant he is involved in negotiations with the Bureau of Land Management to try to get the Hammonds grazing allotment back. The occupation of the Malheur refuge set back efforts to reach a possible agreement on that, he said. But, Skinner said, If the Bundys hadnt done that, do you think anybody would even have heard about the Hammonds? Related articles: Protest govt killing of Robert Finicum! Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home (front page) Capitalist crisis fuels demand for change, turn to Sanders, Trump The growing support for Bernie Sanders as the presidential primary voting begins is an indication of the depth of the social crisis of capitalism and the disarray it is causing within the main parties of U.S. imperialism. Sanders, who campaigns on the platform of the Occupy Wall Street movement, scored a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party caucuses in Iowa Feb. 1. At the same time Donald Trumps campaign for the Republican nomination is not going away, despite coming in a close second to Ted Cruz, part of the Tea Party wing of the Republicans, in Iowa. What gives wind to Trump and Sanders is the broad discontent and anger among workers and others fueled by years of smoldering depression conditions, in which jobs, wages and conditions of life have stagnated or worsened. Clinton, once considered a shoo-in for the Democratic Party nomination, is now scrambling to counter Sanders by presenting herself as the practical way to carry out his platform. In her victory speech in Iowa, where she beat Sanders by a hair, Clinton declared, I am a progressive, who gets things done. The editors of the New York Times and Washington Post came out in support of Clinton in the days leading up to the Iowa vote. Bernie Sanderss Fiction-Filled Campaign, was the headline on the Post editorial Jan. 27, which accused him of promoting fantastical claims while playing the role of uncorrupted anti-establishment crusader. Its the establishment view, responded Jane Sanders, political adviser and wife of Bernie Sanders, in an interview on MSNBC Jan. 29. They say anything that is bold is not doable. We just disagree. Jane Sanders also took issue with a commentator who compared her husbands campaign to 1972, when George McGovern, riding the crest of anti-Vietnam War sentiment, secured the Democratic Party nomination but lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon. The better analogy is to 1932, she said, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency during the Great Depression. People were looking for bold leadership and thats happening now. Roosevelts New Deal was a package of reforms to rescue capitalism from collapse and thwart rising labor militancy from growing into independent working-class political action. Under the impact of depression conditions facing workers, Trump has been gaining support within both the Republican and Democratic parties. A recent study by AFL-CIO affiliate Working America of households in working-class neighborhoods outside Cleveland and Pittsburgh said that while a little over half of voters were undecided, 38 percent who had made up their minds backed Trump. The next highest share was 22 percent for Clinton. Officials from the 2 million member Service Employees International Union endorsed Clinton in November. But Trump is gaining a hearing among some of its members. There is deep economic anxiety among our members and the people were trying to organize that I believe Donald Trumps message is tapping into, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry told the Times Jan. 29. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considering throwing his hat into the ring as a so-called independent. If it looks like Trump or Cruz will win the Republican primary and Sanders is the Democratic nominee, Bloomberg has told allies he would be likely to run, reported the New York Times. He has set a deadline for early March to decide after results from some of the primaries are in. Bloomberg, who served as New York mayor from 2002 to 2013, was in the forefront of leading the bosses drive against workers rights and living conditions in the city. He ran as a liberal Republican in 2001 and 2005 and four years later as an independent, but was on the ballot line of the Republican party. During this time he toyed with the idea of running for president. (front page) Build a party to lead revolutionary struggle Paper showcases UK Communist candidate Eleonore de Bonneval My objective isnt to push capitalism to the left or the right, my objective is to overthrow it, Jonathan Silberman, Communist League candidate in the May 5 elections for London mayor, toldJan. 23. What is the point of the Communist League? said Silberman in response to reporter Orlando Crowcroft. It is to build a party that will lead a revolutionary struggle in this country. It exists to join the worldwide fight for socialism. There is no other reason. The lengthy interview, titled Viva! Jonathan Silberman Communist London Mayor Hopeful Dreams of Cuban Revolution in Britain, features a photo of him holding up a copy of the Militant while addressing a candidates meeting. Crowcroft contrasts the long-time communist to followers of new Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn, saying, Silberman has no interest in making capitalism fairer he wants to demolish it. Crowcroft notes that as a factory worker Silberman actually comes into contact with workers on a daily basis unlike the massed ranks of the radical London left, content to cheer the revolution from posh North London cafes. The article traces Silbermans political life. The son of Jews who fled Germany under Hitler, he became active in the fight against Washingtons imperialist war against the workers and peasants of Vietnam. Silberman says, That was when I realized I was a revolutionary. The author notes Silbermans decades-long work in defense of the Cuban Revolution and his regular participation in the annual Havana International Book Fair, promoting Pathfinder Press books on revolutionary, working-class politics. He points to Cubas example for workers in the U.K. and worldwide, Crowcroft says, a sharp contrast to the bloody authoritarian nightmare that the Soviet Union had become after Stalin. He hates that the mainstream and radical left who apologise for the anti-Semitism of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas in their attempt to promote the Palestinian cause (which he believes in), the article says. He despises the reluctance of the British left to support the Maidan protests [in Ukraine] or the anti-Assad movement in its efforts to oppose British intervention (which he also opposes). Silberman spends the bulk of his Saturdays knocking on doors in working class housing estates, the article says, and finds the respondents receptive. It doesnt matter if someone is Labour, Tory or Ukip, Silberman says. It makes no difference to their interest in our politics. Supporting Ukip doesnt signify some big right wing ideology. I dont think that there is a massive anti-immigrant sentiment in the working class. The communist candidate says workers are attracted to the campaigns proposals for the unions to unite native-born and immigrant workers in a common fight for better pay and working conditions. Why dont we fight for massive rise in the minimum wage that would benefit all workers? Silberman says. He wants to build houses, schools and hospitals and put people to work, Crowcroft says. He wants to fight anti-Semitism and Islamophobia at the same time. The article ends with a reproduction of the front page of the Jan. 25 issue of the Militant. (front page) Putin invokes czars, Stalin to justify Moscows intervention in near abroad In recent remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin staked his claim to the legacy of both the czarist empire the most reactionary in Europe until it was overthrown in 1917 and the counterrevolutionary regime of Joseph Stalin. He denounced the revolutionary course led by communist leader V.I. Lenin of supporting the rights of oppressed nations to self-determination. Putins statements are not a historical question. They aim to promote national chauvinism and justify Moscows territorial and political claims to its near abroad today. Lenin planted an atomic bomb under the building that is called Russia, which later exploded, Putin declared at a Jan. 21 meeting of the Presidential Council for Science and Education. He expanded on this point at a Jan. 25 conference in southern Russia, saying he was referring to the debate between Stalin and Lenin regarding the creation of the new state, the Soviet Union. Putin blamed Lenins insistence on a voluntary federation formed on the basis of full equality with the possibility of seceding for the 1991 coming apart of the USSR. He said the borders of the Soviet republics were established arbitrarily, without much reason, leading to nonsense such as including the industrial, proletarian Donbass region in Ukraine, not Russia. This is the region where Moscows forces have backed a separatist war against the government in Kiev for nearly two years now. These remarks were given to a Russian Popular Front forum of pro-regime civil society activists in Stavropol. According to a transcript released by the Kremlin, Putin complimented the efficient work of officials in nearby Chechnya putting down nationalist struggles by the majority Muslim population there. Ukrainian officials complained to the United Nations Security Council Jan. 27, saying that Putins statements publicly questioning the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Ukraine were unacceptable. When the workers and farmers came to power in Russia in the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution, the old czarist empire was what Lenin aptly called a prison house of nations. In September 1922, Stalin proposed absorbing the independent republics of Ukraine, Belorussia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia into the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. Lenins final fight We consider ourselves, the Ukrainian SSR, and others equal, Lenin argued, and must enter with them on an equal basis into a new union, a new federation, the Union of the Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia. The record of this debate, in which Stalin derided the national liberalism of Comrade Lenin, can be found in Lenins Final Fight, published by Pathfinder Press. The Socialist Workers Party traces its political continuity to Lenin and the early years of the Russian Revolution and stands on Lenins legacy in this fight. It is the only road to unite working people in struggle. Writing a couple months later about the necessity of combating Great Russian chauvinism inherited from the czars, Lenin said, Internationalism on the part of oppressors or great nations, as they are called (though they are great only in their violence ), must consist not only in the observance of the formal equality of nations but even in an inequality, through which the oppressor nation, the great nation, would compensate for the inequality which obtains in real life. The political course led by Lenin was crushed as part of the counterrevolution against the working class carried out in 1920s and 30s by the bureaucratic caste that consolidated under Stalin. The USSR became not a voluntary union, but an oppressive Soviet superstate in which patriotism was used to justify the resurgence of Great Russian chauvinism. Whole peoples like the Crimean Tatars in 1944 were deported from their homelands at gunpoint. It was this course that made it inevitable the re-imposed prison house of nations would break apart. Speaking in Stavropol, Putin also sought to smear Lenin and the revolution as brutal, unpatriotic and a disaster for Mother Russia. Bemoaning the fall of the czarist empire, he complains that the Bolsheviks lost World War I to a losing nation, saying it caused colossal losses for Moscow in territories surrendered. This refers to the Bolsheviks decision to sign the onerous 1918 Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Berlin to defend the revolution from being overthrown. Among other contributions to the working class worldwide, the Bolshevik leadership exposed the secret treaties that had been drawn up between the imperialist rulers in London and Paris and the czarist regime in Moscow to carve up the world among themselves, the real aim of the war. Everyone accused the tsarist regime of repressions, Putin added. However what did Soviet power begin with? With mass repressions. As evidence he cited the killing in 1918 of the former czar and his family. He accused the Bolsheviks of murdering Russian Orthodox priests, as he seeks today to bolster the churchs hierarchy as a cornerstone of his regimes rule. Putin praised the concentration of national resources under Stalin, a euphemism for the forced collectivization, murder of political opponents and consolidation of a massive police apparatus in the 1930s. Without this, he said, Moscow would have risked catastrophic consequences for our statehood in World War II. Putins goal is to justify his course today as he seeks to stabilize Russian capitalism, win working-class subservience and sacrifice in the name of greater Russia, and extend its grip over the near abroad. Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home (front page) Washington-Moscow bloc in Syria hits hurdles with Assads advances Reuters/Khalil Ashawi Indirect negotiations on a Syrian cease-fire, with United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura shuttling between Syrian government representatives and delegates from the Higher Negotiation Committee of opposition forces, began in Geneva Jan. 29 and were abruptly put on a three-week pause Feb. 3. Government troops, backed by hundreds of Russian bombing raids, made major advances against opposition forces north of Aleppo, the largest city in the country prior to the outbreak of the five-year civil war there. De Mistura said he needed immediate help from international backers led by the United States and Russia, Reuters reported. The developments reflect the challenges before Washington, Moscow and Tehran as they work together in an effort to stop the fighting and introduce some stability in the area hoping to defend their national interests. Washington is willing to let the Bashar al-Assad regime stand, including with Assad in place, at least for a while, to accomplish the goal. Then they hope to collaborate on pushing back the Islamic State forces in both Syria and Iraq. Forging this bloc was the goal of the Barack Obama administrations drive to implement its nuclear deal with Tehran. The problem they face is the conflicting interests of capitalist regimes in the region, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East majority Sunni monarchies, Iraq and the varying forces in Syria itself. As a price for attending the talks, the Higher Negotiation Committee, representing 17 opposition groups, demanded the regime stop bombarding civilian areas, lift blockades on 22 besieged cities where starvation is rampant and release political prisoners. The senior opposition negotiator is Riyad Hijab, a longtime member of Assads Baathist Party and former prime minister who joined the opposition in 2012. Meanwhile, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a triple bombing near Syrias holiest Shia shrine in Damascus Jan. 31 that killed more than 45 people. Syrian Kurds excluded The Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) was excluded from negotiations at the insistence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, although de Mistura reportedly invited some Kurdish allies to advise him in Geneva. Ankara fears the growing confidence of 30 million Kurds in the region demanding autonomy, and has led a bloody military assault in the countrys majority-Kurdish southeast, a stronghold of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Turkish government labels both the PKK and the PYD terrorists. The PYDs military wing, the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) has shown themselves a force to reckon with. Theyve driven Islamic State forces out of northern Syria and control two-thirds of the border with Turkey. When mass, popular demonstrations rocked the country in 2011 calling for the end to Assads repressive rule, the Syrian government responded with poison gas, killings and bombed cities into rubble where the opposition had support. Decades of collaboration with capitalist forces by Stalinist parties in the region have left a situation where no independent revolutionary working-class movement exists capable of leading the toilers to power. In the context of the growing war, Islamic State stepped into the vacuum and seized a wide swath of territory in Syria and Iraq. In return for Putins help in establishing stability in the region and curtailing Islamic State, Washington and its allies are easing punishing sanctions and backing off from criticizing Moscows intervention in Ukraine. The goal of Putin and the Russian capitalist class he represents is for a free hand in Moscows near abroad, a place in Mideast politics, access to a Mediterranean port in Syria and the weakening of Islamist forces that could threaten Moscows control over Chechnya. Refugee crisis in Europe grows The war makes life for workers and farmers in Syria intolerable, with destruction everywhere, the economy ruined and millions displaced, living in refugee camps in neighboring countries or heading for Europe. In Germany, where more than a million refugees arrived last year, Chancellor Angela Merkels government announced it will tighten asylum policies. The Swedish and Finnish governments said they will gradually deport tens of thousands of asylum seekers there. European Union officials, assailing the Greek government for not enforcing stringent border controls, threaten to ringfence the country to prevent migrants from leaving. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned that this would turn near-bankrupt Greece into a black box of homeless refugees. Thirty Syrian refugees have been rejected by Washington recently, Leon Rodriguez, an Obama administration official, told the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Feb. 3. Hundreds of other applications have been put on hold, as the government tightens scrutiny. Imperialist rulers from Paris to Washington have used sporadic terror attacks by local supporters of Islamic State to scapegoat Muslims, encouraging threats and attacks against Arabs and mosques. Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home On the night of January 31 in Hesaraghatta, 35-year-old Shabana Taj was mowed down by a car containing four African students, leaving the woman dead and her husband injured. An angry mob descended on the perpetrators, setting their car ablaze and thrashing the people responsible for the accident. A little while later, a 21-year-old Tanzanian student driving through the same area with her friends was attacked too, on the grounds of a supposed mistaken identity, according the police. The student told the media that she was stripped by the angry mob and that the cops present at the spot didnt come to their rescue either. As the week progressed, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj promised that action would be taken, the Tanzanian High Commissioner John Kijazi avoided the buzz created around the possibility of this being a racist attack, simply saying that harmony should be promoted between the communities. Political vitriol has been prominent, with Home Minister G. Parameshwar denying that the attack was racist and Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda saying that unruly foreign students need to be brought under control. Arguments have flown back and forth from every side, the police force has found itself facing severe flack from across the country and allegations have transformed drastically, thanks largely to the efforts of the media. Civil society has found itself divided, with one half showing complete solidarity for the girl who was beaten up and others standing by the actions of the mob, even clamouring for the release of those taken into custody. This is one incident and while it must not be taken lightly, one does wonder if the accident, unfortunate though it was, simply triggered off deep, underlying tensions between the two communities. The pulselines of civil society have been exposed again, bringing to the fore certain prejudices that undoubtedly exist in the minds of the people. All this is despite the fact that there has been tremendous progress in the development of socio-cultural relations between India and the countries of the African continent. India is a natural habitat, so to speak, to many African students, who find their way here not only for education but also to fulfill a host of other ambitions. Bengaluru is the most suitable place for them because it offers them across-the-board facilities. The government of India has always encouraged students of Africa to study in India, an opportunity that has been seized by a large number of African students. This is our way of reaching out to the African nations and on their part, Africans do have a certain affection for India and her people. This is all the more reason why the recent aberrations simply cannot be condoned. The responsibility rests not only on the police force, who act when an incident takes place, but also on the local corporators, MLAs and parliamentarians, none of whom have said a word. Why take only the cops to task, when those who constitute the very framework of our civil society stand forgotten? The police erred by not taking immediate action, but then again, there might have been certain compulsions that needed to be overcome. Still, it is their duty to take action when there is a breakdown in law and order. The Central and the state governments have stepped up to the plates, but our civic representatives remain conspicuously absent from the scene. It simply isnt enough, after all, for those who are far-removed from the controversy itself to sit around and pontificate, like Sadananda Gowda has been doing. It is upto those who understand the actual ground realities corporators and MLAs to ensure that prejudices are understood and dealt with. Long-term, sustainable solutions are the need of the hour, instead of which the police department has been the sole recipient of brickbats from across the country. Is it too late for our civic heroes to come to the fore and create conditions in which different communities can live in some kind of harmony? Bengaluru will continue to remain a tinderbox if arrangements to prevent these catastrophes are not put into place at once. A few years ago, for instance, social media caused an exodus of people from the North East who fled back to their homes in fear of being attacked. Clearly, the pot boils over every time the lid is lifted. So what are the issues we need to address? The evident antipathy and resentment that exists toward outside communities living in the city, for starters. We need to understand this a cogent, dispassionate manner, or we will only create a platform for people to regress. Everyone who holds responsibility should do his job of ensuring harmony; what is the point, really, of being proactive only after a mishap has taken place, when we should be making sure they don't happen at all? I must add that I am not trying to beat down the government either, but the bottom line is that all four corners of society need to work together. At the same time, foreigners who come to India should take the trouble to understand local mores. People from the North East are attacked as well, simply because their socio-cultural parameters are so vastly different from ours. I have worked in the North East and I know that the people there are far more progressive-thinking than all of us here, in this corner of the country. The same holds for Europeans and Africans. They all need to understand that Bengaluru enjoys a certain number of cultural traditions and like all cities, has a certain degree of faith, trust and solidarity toward its own people. These lines must be respected, not crossed. People coming in from Africa, or anywhere abroad, for that matter, bring a certain personal style to their lives. They might drink, or go out dancing - these things are not taboo in their part of the world. India is different, though, this is all very new and alien to us. This is something foreigners need to understand. Similarly, Indians are not popular in some parts of Africa because they live there in affluence, unlike so many of the locals. Likewise, how did a student who comes to India on a government scholarship have the wherewithal to buy a car? Did he have a drivers' license? If so, how did he manage to procure it? These are gaps that need examination. One simple way to tackle this problem can take place within the colleges and universities that host foreign students. They should organise a programme or an orientation course that acquaints students with the local environment and helps them understand the socio-cultural scenario in which they will now live. It all boils down to the issue of tolerance. The attack on the Tanzanian girl should not be treated lightly, but at the same time, we cannot fault the locals for their own cultural beliefs either. That's the thing with tolerance, though it can never be a one-way street! (Socialist Workers Party statement) Protest govt killing of Robert Finicum! The Socialist Workers Party condemns the Jan. 26 killing of Robert LaVoy Finicum by Oregon State Police and the FBI in what can only be described as an assassination. We demand that the cops involved be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Finicum was one of the ranchers and others occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, over the last month. He, occupation leader Ammon Bundy and a few others were on their way to a community meeting in John Day. The FBI claims that following a traffic stop Finicum fled and was reaching for a gun. Cops and government police agencies often use this charge to justify cold-blooded killings, including finding a weapon when the victim doesnt have one. This was no traffic stop, it was a premeditated assault. The FBI and state police closed off more than 50 miles of highway, set up roadblocks, and deployed snipers and a surveillance plane. After shooting Finicum, the cops shot up his vehicle, with three passengers still inside, including with flash grenades and pepper spray. They ignored Finicums need for medical attention for at least 10 minutes as he lay dying in the snow. This echoes the callous disregard for cattle rancher Jack Yantis Nov. 1 when sheriffs deputies in Adams County, Idaho, refused him medical aid when they shot him after calling him to come put down one of his bulls when it was hit by a car. They handcuffed Yantis wife and nephew to prevent them from coming to his aid as he lay bleeding on the ground. Protests have demanded the cops be charged in both killings. At recent actions in Oregon participants chanted, Ranchers lives matter and All lives matter. This shows the widespread impact of the explosive fight against police killings of Blacks and others, including Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Mario Martinez, Zachary Hammond, which has forced the rulers to place some restraints on their cops. In the wake of the killing of Finicum, ranchers and working people in Harney County, Oregon, are redoubling their efforts to fight for freedom for Dwight and Steven Hammond, two local cattle ranchers framed up and imprisoned twice on the same arson charges, for controlled burns to protect their ranch from invasive plants and wildfires, a common practice in the region. After serving their original sentences in full, the government used the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act to send them back to jail for more time. Washington and cops at every level across the country are the greatest perpetrators of terror from Waco, Texas, to the deadly assault on MOVE in Philadelphia, to Vietnam, Iraq and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We urge the labor movement and all those who have been fighting for justice for working people killed by the cops to join in demanding, Free the Hammonds! Jail the cops who killed Robert Finicum! Related articles: FBI, state troopers kill Oregon occupier Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home Its always so sad and also unbelievable when an old colleague passes on. Sudhir Tailang was someone I had known for a very long time, from about the time he began drawing for the NavBharat Times. From there Sudhir moved on to a number of publications which were rather well-known and catered to English readers. Among them I worked with him at Hindustan Times and The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle (Here and Now). This itself show the range he had travelled in his thinking and in his work. Its not every day that we see journalists and cartoonists switch from not-so-well-known Hindi publications to extremely well-known English ones because there is both a sociology and a class gap here. Sudhir made that transition without effort and without consciously thinking that he was moving from one kind of pasture to another. January 1, 2014 It was evident from the nature of his art and drawing that Sudhir was at ease in quite disparate worlds. And perhaps this comes through most clearly in his choice of subjects. January 2, 2014 He did not necessarily choose the big talking points of the political spectrum on a given day but would surprise with subjects that concern ordinary people as they negotiate the turns of life. February 4, 2014 At a major English newspaper I knew him quite closely as a member of the editorial team. Our edit meetings were usually focused as all kinds of topics that fill newspapers were discussed in order to find edit-worthy subjects. June 10, 2011 Sudhirs observations were inevitably serious but conveyed in a light manner and even if we did not choose to write editorials on some of his ideas, we knew that his contributions to the discussions could not be easily brushed aside. Sometimes he would choose to draw those things and the cartoons would play back to us the seriousness of the points he was making in the edit meetings. Typically those in the business of writing editorials have advanced degrees or great interest in reading and sometimes acute journalists come through to this side of newspapering on the strength of their observations and experience. September 4, 2013 In our country this is usually taken up a great deal with looking at those who direct politics and policies and forms the staple of news reports, editorials and also cartooning. Sudhir was a little bit different. He seemed to bring to his everyday work his observations of everyday people and their everyday lives. He was, of course, not unaware of politics or policy. October 1, 2013 But perhaps he gave these aspects secondary importance. Maybe it is this which was the reason for his great admiration for R.K. Laxman among the cartoonists of our generation grew up with. Sudhir was a deadly serious fellow who worked hard through the day on his drawings, but he liked to meet people and he liked parties. November 18, 2012 He had numerous friends and acquaintances among the movers and shakers it is hard to say whether he necessarily saw them as friends. Perhaps they were more objects of reflection, especially when they were their non-official selves. He was a very sober and a very accessible senior journalist. He was extremely well-known. I remember when he was given a Padma Shri. So when we met we congratulated him and just laughed about the award and that was that. He carried these things lightly on his shoulders. He spoke with all manner of people easily and he was unfazed in most situations. Cancer caught him a few years ago and took him in the end. It was certainly a very premature death. He had enough in him to go on for much longer. Personally, on hearing of his demise I felt sad. We had not been in touch for some time. This was possibly also for the reason that Id have liked to hear his take on the arrival and progress of this government, which is distinctly different in its style and flavour from any of its predecessors. Out of curiosity I want to ask him whats going on today. His replies may not be reassuring but Im sure they would be balanced. Rest in peace, old friend. Sudhir Tailang was the link between the legendary cartoonists of Indira-Rajiv era and the emerging cartoonists of PVN-Lalu-Manmohan Singh era. He represented the best of both eras. He was traditional but not orthodox, subtle yet never afraid to land a strong punch. His fascination for the art of political cartooning inspired him to make documentaries on cartoonists. He held cartoon shows, gave talks on cartooning and helped spread this art beyond the newsroom. He was indeed the superstar of the Indian cartooning world. Theres a huge shortage of political cartoonists in India. With Sudhirs demise, were poorer today. Satish Acharya, cartoonist Sudhir Tailang created a cartooning genre of his own which remained completely uninfluenced by anyone from within or outside the country. He is a textbook for all budding aspirants of the craft who wish to take lessons in irreverence, originality and humour. Sandeep Adhwaryu, cartoonist It all started when Jai and Veeru went to a temple for prayers. It was a normal day at the temple, says Jai, We were all just chilling at the temple, on our way back from a Goa trip. Suddenly, some dude gets out of the line and walks towards the idol. At first, I thought, wow, whattay bhakt! And then I realised, it was a female. It was a female! whispers Veeru. As the woman perpetrated her malicious crime of offering prayers to the idol, shockwaves radiated through the crowd. The skies darkened, thunder resounded, lightning cracked across the sky and the temple bells started clanging wildly. What happened next would change their lives. Jai and Veeru saw the all-male crew of priests trying to handle the situation as best they could. Because the woman was of menstruating age, the shrine had become ritually impure. As the priests explained, womens menstruation presents big problems not for women, but for others. The world is under constant threat from the potent, toxic energy of menstrual blood. Of course, weve all experienced this in our own homes. If a woman during her periods eats pickle from the jar, the pickles turn instantly into frozen oats. Chutneys turn to cheese, rotis deflate, and Marie biscuits mysteriously keep drowning themselves in cups of chai. But, most importantly, men and boys fall sick. The problem, the priests said, is that womens periods unleash a kind of self-replicating virus. All religions around the world have noted this effect and no, it is not because religions were designed by men. Luckily for the world, our (male) ancestors had developed an antidote. Our ancestors were scientific geniuses, says Veeru, They treat one bodily-fluid with another bodily-fluid, and the effect cancelled out. Cow urine or gaumutra to the rescue! The temple had an emergency van full of the stuff on standby. The temple priests washed down the shrine, performed some rituals, and soon, everything was back to normal. Jai and Veeru soon headed back to Bengaluru, their heads full of the days events. It was when they stopped by the roadside to relieve themselves that the big idea came to them. We have a good nose for business; we immediately smelt the business opportunity, says Jai. The timing was perfect. It was a divine call of nature, says Veeru. After months of hard work, they are now one of Bengalurus hottest startups, and their device, CowPi, is ready for launch. The device can be installed in a house, a temple or any male-dominated arena. It will scan constantly for dangerous threats (that is, women). Simultaneously (and this is where their product really kicks ass) it will release periodic sprays of cow urine on all potential male victims. It will form a pro-active, protective germi-shield around them. Future versions will sync with smartphones and smartwatches, so that men can get periodic status reports about their levels. Social Media is big now, so you can even share your updates, says Veeru, We want to tap into the whole herd mentality. Initial market testing predicts that this will be a cash cow, but Jai and Veeru are keen to emphasise their ethics. They even went back to the temple to help the priests. Many were still in trauma. One of them said he felt he had failed in his divine duty of perpetuating oppressive traditions. Another confessed to having nightmares about women. I see menstruating women, he whispered, I see them everywhere. Walking around like regular humans. They all showed remarkable improvement after trying CowPi. CowPi comes with add-on emergency packs that can neutralise threats within a 1,000 square-feet radius. Within an hour, the entire ecosystem will revert to the default patriarchy settings. It is clear that CowPi will soon become No 1 in the market. We live in a time when women and other minorities are asking for extreme things like equal rights, the founders say, We have a beef with such unreasonable demands. By all indicators, CowPi will hark back to the golden ages when everyone was happy so long as they were straight men. Men will finally feel safe again. UN panel backs Assange UNITED KINGDOM: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange yesterday (Feb 5) urged Britain and Sweden to let him walk free from the embassy of Ecuador in London after a UN panel found that the anti-secrecy campaigner had been arbitrarily detained. politics By AFP Saturday 6 February 2016, 09:17AM WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media holding a printed report of the judgement of the UNs Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his case from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in central London yesterday (Feb 5). Photo: Niklas Hallen/AFP Addressing a news conference via video link from the embassy, where he sought refuge in June 2012 and was later granted asylum, Assange hailed a significant victory which has brought a smile to my face. It is now the task of the states of Sweden and the United Kingdom as a whole to implement the verdict, the 44-year-old Australian computer hacker turned transparency advocate told a packed room of journalists in the British capital. His comments came after a UN panel said Assanges detention should end and that he should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden, where he faces questioning over a rape allegation. But both countries quickly dismissed the non-binding legal opinion, with Britains Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond calling it ridiculous and Swedens foreign ministry saying the panel had no right to interfere. Assange walked into the embassy in June 2012 to avoid the threat of arrest and extradition to Sweden. He has lived there in self-imposed confinement ever since in a small office room with a bed, computer, sun lamp, treadmill, and access only to a small balcony. In a statement, the UN panel said it had adopted an opinion in which it considered that Mr Julian Assange was arbitrarily detained by the Governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It added: The working group also considered that the detention should be brought to an end and that Mr Assange should be afforded the right to compensation. The British government said the UN ruling changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working groups opinion, it said in a statement. Swedens government does not agree with the assessment made by the majority of the Working Group, the foreign ministry in Stockholm said in a letter to the UN panel, adding that the body did not have the right to interfere in an ongoing case handled by a Swedish public authority. Assanges lawyer in Stockholm, Thomas Olsson, said, If Sweden expects other countries to abide by UN recommendations, then they must also respect those decisions. We can ask the prosecutor for a review of the arrest warrant but we will first let the prosecutor have a chance to show that they respect the UN report, he said. In a statement on Thursday (Feb 4), Assange said that a ruling in his favour should lead to the immediate return [of] my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me. Swedish authorities want to speak to Assange about a rape allegation for which the statute of limitations does not expire until 2020. But he fears that he could then be sent to the US and face prison there if he gave himself up for questioning. WikiLeaks activities including the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables have infuriated the US. The main source of the leaks, US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for breaches of the Espionage Act. A hero to some and a dangerous, paranoid egomaniac to detractors, the computer programmer and hacker, whose celebrity supporters include the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and artist Yoko Ono, founded the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in 2006. Ecuador granted Assange asylum in 2012, and on Thursday President Rafael Correa told a news conference the expected UN decision shows we were right, after so many years. Britain has spent millions of pounds maintaining a 24-hour guard outside the embassy to immediately arrest Assange if he set foot on British soil. The guard was withdrawn last year, but police said they would strengthen a covert plan to prevent Assange from slipping away. The decision by the UN panel was made in December but has only now been published. It follows a complaint by WikiLeaks against Sweden and Britain in September 2014 in which they claimed Assanges confinement in the embassy was unlawful and that he was a political refugee. Though the panels rulings are not legally binding, the Justice for Assange support group said it had influenced the release of prominent figures including Myanmars Aung San Suu Kyi and former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed. Prurient curiosity shoots up like anything every time a new entrant joins the jungle of dating apps anywhere in the globe. Offering paid dates, Ohlala, the German dating app is rolled out into la la land New York. Interestingly, the arrival has raised goosebumps and eyebrows simultaneously. The app, already been dubbed as Uber for Escorts in online parlance has kicked up enough sparks in mere three days of the US edition launch, but the company denies the charge and demands not to call it an escort service. Further explaining, in the new ground, the focus is laid on instant on-demand dates. It works out thus: Initially only men are able to pay and find a partner. Male users create their profiles, feed in data of paid date requests, duration and price range. Placing the request means the person is on the lookout for a date in the next four hours. The active female users, on seeing the request have 21 minutes to respond; either accept or deny. If only the woman accepts, her profile turns visible and initiating a private chat turns possible. After both agree on terms, the date is locked in. And then you go out. Really, Ohlala details its execution pattern. And here the Ohlala CEO Pia Poppenreiter plays from the safer side saying: But what happens on the date is actually a private matter. The paid part is called a mechanism to work. The companys early stint with Peppr that connected clients to sex workers is making the new move appear more dubious. The 2014 app with a huge user base later got scrapped as it wasnt ready for customers leading to the opening of Ohlala. To sign up with Ohlala, it is mandatory that the user has attained 21 years to the least. Difference in legal aspects is Germany and New York is sure to put to the test the futuristic prospects of the app, if the current element of suspicion turns true. Prostitution is technically legal in Germany but in New York, it is defined on terms of misdemeanour. In its six months of babyhood, the oh-so-hot app has proven its mettle of arranging 25,000 paid dates in the cities of Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg. What started off in Berlin soon got expanded to Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Cologne and Dusseldorf. If buzz mills are to be believed, in Germany a one-hour dating could range anywhere between 100 to 200 Euros. New Yorkers have to wait and see if they need to break a bank for companionship. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. While health authorities assure Africa's most populous country of more than 170 million they have the virus under control, there are fears the actual scale of the outbreak is under-reported. (Photo: AFP) Lagos: A growing Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 101 people, as West Africa battles to contain a flare up of the virus, according to data from the nation's health authorities released on Saturday. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) statistics show that reported cases of the haemorrhagic disease both confirmed and suspected stood at 175 with a total of 101 deaths since August. "As at today, 19 (including Abuja) states are currently following up contacts, or have suspected cases with laboratory results pending or laboratory confirmed cases," the NCDC said in a statement. Deaths from the virus were recorded in the nation's political capital, Abuja, Lagos, and 14 other states, the NCDC said. While health authorities assure Africa's most populous country of more than 170 million they have the virus under control, there are fears the actual scale of the outbreak is under-reported. The outbreak of Lassa fever was only announced in January months after the first case of the disease happened in August with subsequent deaths reported in 10 states, including Abuja. Last year, 12 people died in Nigeria out of 375 infected, while in 2012 there were 1,723 cases and 112 deaths, according to the NCDC. In neighbouring Benin at least nine people have died in a Lassa outbreak, with a total of 20 suspected cases, health authorities said Tuesday. Benin was last hit by a Lassa fever outbreak in October 2014, when nine people suspected of having the virus died. The number of Lassa fever infections in West Africa every year is between 100,000 to 300,000, with about 5,000 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lassa fever belongs to the same family as Marburg and Ebola, two deadly viruses that lead to infections with fever, vomiting and, in worse case scenarios, haemorrhagic bleeding. Its name is from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969. Endemic to the region, Lassa fever is asymptomatic in 80 percent of cases but for others it can cause internal bleeding, especially when diagnosed late. The virus is spread through contact with food or household items contaminated with rats' urine or faeces or after coming in direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Tripoli, Libya: Two days of clashes in southeastern Libya between a local armed faction and Sudanese fighters have left more than 30 people dead, a local mayor said on Friday. The commander of the Libyan Subul Assalam faction, Abdurrahman Hashim, said the Sudanese fighters were rebels from Sudan's Darfur region who had moved into the area around the town of Kufra following the uprising that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. He said his group was retaliating for armed robberies and attempted attacks on Kufra, in Libya's desert south-east which shares a border with northwestern Sudan. Kufra Mayor Miftah Bou Khalil said that Subul Assalam fighters attacked an oasis 150 km north-west of Kufra on Friday, killing 10 Sudanese fighters and capturing four. He said at least 20 Sudanese fighters were killed in an attack on a checkpoint 200 km north of Kufra and further clashes to the south of the town on Thursday. Hashim said on Thursday that his men had destroyed and captured a number of vehicles. At least one of his men had been killed and six wounded in the fighting, he said. Libya has been riven by instability since Gaddafi's fall, with competing factions and loose alliances of armed groups fighting for political power and the country's oil wealth. There are two rival parliaments and governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east. The conflict has spread to the country's impoverished south, where there have been frequent outbreaks of fighting, often between the Tebu and Tuareg tribal groups. Kufra mayor Bou Khalil said the Subul Assalam faction included rebels who fought against Gaddafi and backed Libya's eastern government and armed forces. However, it was not clear whether the latest clashes were directly linked to Libya's wider conflict. Carter is meeting with defense officials from Saudi Arabia and at least two dozen other coalition members next week in Brussels, where he is expected to outline the next steps in the anti-IS campaign. (Photo: AP) Washington: Pentagon on Saturday welcomed Saudi Arabia's pledge to commit ground forces to fight Islamic State jihadists in Syria, should the US-led coalition ever send in combat troops. The United States has for weeks been calling on partners in the 65-member coalition bombing the IS group in Iraq and Syria to contribute more, and last month Defense Secretary Ashton Carter chastised some countries for doing "nothing at all." Saudi Arabia has been part of the coalition since late 2014. Though it carried out high-profile initial air strikes against the jihadists in Syria, its participation and that of other Gulf members dropped as they shifted focus to striking conflict-torn Yemen. "We welcome the announcement by Saudi Arabia that they are looking into ways to enhance their counter-ISIL efforts," US Central Command spokesman Pat Ryder said, using an alternative acronym for the IS group. "There will be continued discussions with the Saudis and our other partners on the best ways we can continue to intensify coalition efforts." Carter is meeting with defense officials from Saudi Arabia and at least two dozen other coalition members next week in Brussels, where he is expected to outline the next steps in the anti-IS campaign. The Pentagon chief said Saudi Arabia had offered to help encourage other "Muslim-majority" countries to play more of a role as well. "You see others stepping up, and the reason why I'm going to Brussels next week is to bring the full weight of the coalition behind accelerating the defeat of ISIL," Carter said yesterday. VATICAN CITYPope Francis and the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet in Cuba next week in a historic step to heal the 1,000-year-old schism that divided Christianity between East and West, both churches announced Friday. The Feb. 12 meeting between Francis and Patriarch Kirill will be the first between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Churches, which is the largest in Orthodoxy. Francis is due to travel to Mexico from Feb. 12-18. He will stop in Cuba on the way and meet with Kirill on Feb. 12 at the Havana airport, where they will speak privately for about two hours and then sign a joint declaration, the Vatican said. This event has extraordinary importance in the path of ecumenical relations and dialogue among Christian confessions, said the Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi. The two churches split during the Great Schism of 1054 and have remained estranged over a host of issues, including the primacy of the pope and Russian Orthodox accusations that the Catholic Church is poaching converts in former Soviet lands. Those tensions have prevented previous popes from ever meeting with the Russian patriarch, even though the Vatican has long insisted that it was merely ministering to tiny Catholic communities in largely Orthodox lands. The persecution of Christians Catholic and Orthodox in the Middle East and Africa, however, has had the effect of bringing the two churches closer together. Both the Vatican and the Orthodox Church have been outspoken in denouncing attacks on Christians and the destruction of Christian monuments, particularly in Syria. In November 2014, Francis had said he had told Kirill: Ill go wherever you want. You call me and Ill go. Kirill will be in Cuba on an official visit, his first to Latin America as patriarch. The meeting, which was announced jointly at the Vatican and in Moscow, marks a major development in the Vaticans long effort to bridge the divisions in Christianity. In the joint statement, the two churches said the meeting will mark an important stage in relations between the two churches. The Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate hope that it will also be a sign of hope for all people of good will. They invite all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits. Metropolitan Hilarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters on Friday that there are still core disagreements between the Holy See and the Russian Church, in particular on various Orthodox churches in western Ukraine. The conflict centres on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the countrys second-largest church, which follows eastern church rites, but answers to the Holy See. The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its traditional territory and has resented papal influence there. Despite the existing ecclesiastical obstacles, a decision has been taken to hold a meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis, he said. The situation in the Middle East, in northern and central Africa and in other regions where extremists are perpetrating a genocide of Christians requires immediate action and an even closer co-operation between Christian churches, Hilarion said. In this tragic situation, we need to put aside internal disagreements and pool efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subject to most severe persecution. The Vatican has long nurtured ties with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, who is considered first among equals within the Orthodox Church. Starting with Pope Paul VI, various popes have called upon the ecumenical patriarch in hopes of bridging closer ties with the Orthodox faithful. But the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest church in Orthodoxy and the most powerful, has always kept its distance from Rome. Joint theological commissions have met over the years and the Russian churchs foreign minister has made periodic visits to Rome, but a pope-patriarch meeting has never been possible until now. The location of the meeting is significant. It has long been assumed a neutral third country would be selected for any pope-patriarch encounter, but it had always been assumed it would be somewhere in Europe. Francis, however, played a crucial role in ending the half-century Cold War estrangement between the United States and Cuba. That the one time Soviet outpost in the Caribbean will now play a role in helping heal the 1,000-year schism between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches is a remarkable feat of geopolitical and ecumenical choreography that may have the dual effect of thrusting President Raul Castro into the spotlight, given that he will greet the pope upon his arrival and preside over the signing of the joint declaration. Lombardi noted that Cuba is both well-known to the Russian Church as well as the Catholic Church, given that three different popes have travelled to the island in the span of 20 years. Its a place that positioned itself well for the circumstances, Lombardi said. About two-thirds of the worlds Orthodox Christians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, or about 200 million, Lombardi said. The Catholic Church claims about 1.2 billion faithful. About 75 per cent of Russias 144 million people call themselves Russian Orthodox, according to the latest polls, although only a fraction of them say they are observant. Under Francis, the Vatican has encouraged continuing ecumenical ties with the Orthodox as well as other Christian denominations. And it has gone out of its way to be solicitous to Russia, especially in shying away from directly criticizing Moscow over its role in the Ukraine conflict. Ever since Kirill took the helm of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009, the church has enjoyed increasingly close ties with the Kremlin that critics have dismissed as the de facto merging of the state and the church. SHARE: Re: , Oakville From the inner streets of Baltimore, Md., to the suburban sprawl of Ferguson, Mo., to the bustling streets of Torontos downtown core, there is a renaissance in policing, albeit a reluctant one for some. Greater accountability, due to technological advances, have unearthed the sometimes ugly head of street level enforcement. It has also revealed the dynamic and sometimes heroic situations officers encounter. The latter, however, receive far less notoriety amongst the policed populations. For better or for worse, this is our new reality. As Sir Robert Peel, the founder of modern policing, described, the police are the public and the public are the police. Let us as a society remember that a dependable and accountable police service is essential to the efficient and just functioning of that society. It is the perception of lacking accountability that has led the public to question policing as an institution. The institution of policing must strive for perfection, and hold officers to account when they stray. But what part does the citizenry play in this integral relationship? We as a society cannot demand that a police officer be everything to everyone. We cannot expect them to be social workers, mental health professionals, and medical experts in every scenario. If this were the reality, there would be no need for such areas of expertise. A police officer can also not be expected to be perfect at all times, just as it is impossible to expect that every citizen be perfect at all times. Think of yourself for a moment. Relive the times you have made a poor decision, or made a rash choice, which later led to regret or embarrassment. These actions may have led to a diminished relationship with a family member or a friend. Often these choices do not come from a place of depraved morality; instead it is a by-product of the inherent imperfections that all human beings wrestle with. Police officers wrestle with these same imperfections. We as a citizenry must see a police officer as a human being. And as a human being they can be emotional, scared, courageous, stubborn, and also imperfect. The difference between an officer and a citizen however, is that when an officer makes a decision, right or wrong, perfect or imperfect, often someones freedom is taken or in the case of Sammy Yatim and Micheal Brown, a life is lost. This is not a request for all officers to be placed on a pedestal above other citizens. In fact, I believe that if you were to ask an officer, they would undoubtedly explain that they have no desire for such a pedestal. What I am proposing is that we see officers as human beings rife with all the imperfections that accompany any human being. If one is to see an officer through this lens, then maybe you will also find empathy for the complex positions that an officer can find herself or himself in. Empathy from the citizenry is not the only antidote for the broken relationship. We, as an institution, must realize that officers across our municipalities, provinces and country are responsible for societys distrust in our practices. Like all relationships, officers must meet the citizenry half way. We must recognize that business as usual is no longer appropriate or acceptable. We as individuals within our profession must remember the reason why we take to the streets and offices everyday. We must remember that at some point, being an officer meant making our cities, countries and world a better place for our families and neighbors. And we must fight, at all costs, the apt insight by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Be careful when you fight monsters, lest you become one yourself. Only when we realize that we are in fact fallible, can society begin to empathize with the successes and failures in todays policing environment. C.Mathew Tanel, Toronto Much ink has been spilled about the few bad apples in Torontos police, but Toronto police have been behaving badly, as an integral part of their culture, for some time. Look at their behaviour during the G20: not only those officers removing their identification to legitimize their behaviour as a violent mob, attacking civilians, but the unconscionable kettling of law-abiding citizens at Queen and Spadina. Const. Forcillo repeatedly cited his training as justification for shooting Sammy Yatim, an argument eerily similar to Nazi Germanys military just following orders. Now a police officer is cited for pumping 14 bullets into a stationary vehicle, and four officers charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. I believe that the police see themselves as a highly weaponized para-military organization, and in their interaction with the public, their responsibility is apprehending bad guys. If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. What the public needs is a cultural shift: these highly paid professionals must see themselves as part of the community they serve, their training must become more customer-focused, nuanced and skilled. They must learn to serve, not to rule. In that model, I dont think there is room for a foul-mouthed bully like Forcillo, but I suspect he is not as much of an exception as we would like to believe. And, by the way, in this revised scenario, there should be no room for the police to use hollow-point bullets, whose only feature is that they are more likely to maim and kill than regular bullets, nor for the assault weapons now on order. If we are going to pay these people more than $100,000 a year (on average), we should expect a commensurate level of professionalism. Brigitte Nowak, Toronto Its hard to be a cop in Toronto at the moment. A bloody handful of brutality, deceit and allegations of perjury have raised questions about the integrity of the Toronto Police Service. The blue code of silence that prevents honest officers from reporting wrongdoing in their departments prevails. The public has learned the only way to snag cops is to catch them on camera. They are using their cellphones almost on impulse looking for some impropriety. Toronto police are having body cams slapped on them. However will the public really want to see what cops see? The police were hired to help people. Some bad things have happened and suddenly they are the bad guys. Vincent Last, Brampton The all-to-frequent troubling incidents somewhat extend from some peace officers limited understanding of their authority and responsibilities. The Star has for years had periods of themed-reporting when unsupported-in-law police practices focused on select communities. I remember my disappointment when the steam ran out of the Stars reporting on the number of invisible offences for which some drivers were solely charged. The whole carding issue, though not yet dead, has not yet been properly addressed by the press. Too often, news reporting fails to bring a story to proper conclusion. The commercial media claims the right to inform the public, yet passes on the responsibility to educate. In todays Wheels section, a representative of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation is quoted as saying, in Ontario, police have Highway Traffic Act authority to ask for drivers licence, vehicle permit and insurance, if there are reasonable and probable grounds for a traffic stop. Although the law isnt explicitly written like that, the implication, when taking all relevant laws into account, is that police have to operate within the bounds of all laws, and it is those laws that define what is, and what is not, the lawful performance of a peace officers duty; which includes the requirement to have reasonable and probable grounds that an offence has been committed. This is the foundation upon which a peace officers training should focus know the boundaries and how to operate within them. Too many wear the uniform or otherwise carry the badge but do not understand the limitations of the authority with which they have been entrusted. Brian Williams, Belleville Police misconduct and their getting away with only a slap on the wrist doesnt seem anomalous to me. There are daily reports of some form of police bullying. man-handling, using excessive force, escalating situations rather than calming them and finally of police wounding and killing citizens. Whether they are black or mentally ill seems to me to be besides the basic point of unnecessary and excessive reactions by police that end up killing unarmed (or armed with scissors or a small blade) citizens. I have been trying to get figures for the number of deaths caused by police in a year in Canada, in Ontario, inToronto with no success. Are these tallies being kept? Can they be accessed? As the crime rate has declined, police violence has increased. I think that the training police receive has them use their bodies and voice to intimidate citizens (even ones like me: white, 70 years female). It seems we have a lot of police still standing around doing nothing at every construction site, other police grabbing speeders as a money grab rather than service and when a robbery is called in one is told they cant do anything. Yes, change is needed. But its not a question of image. Barbara Sternberg, Toronto Your piece on the eroding confidence in our police forces gives passing mention to the role police culture plays in this dynamic. This factor cant be overstated. The growth in the power of police unions has led to a police officers first allegiance being to the brotherhood rather than to the community he or she is sworn to protect. This is further reinforced by the regular fawning over our men/women in blue by political leaders and the right-or-wrong-my-guys-are-right approach by union leaders when an officer commits a misdeed. Every cop is not automatically a hero and some balance must be restored to the role of our police forces in our society. Michael Farrell, Oakville Torontos population needs to be vigilant when it comes to cops; our police have have a serious, serious problem on their hands. Its not just the big crimes they (allegedly) commit or the ones they have been convicted for; its the every day dishonesty and entitlements exhibited by the rank and file that should really unnerve and enrage our citizens. Rogue cops? Nonsense. This stuff is systemic. I turn on my phones camera the instant I spot a cruiser, just in case. Our uniformed, non-informed and reckless police constables are capable of anything. Thats the rule, not the exception. Martina Gail, Toronto Never in our nations history had Canadians seen such lawlessness on the part of our once-proud TPS until the G20. And how was it handled? The TPSs command, from the chief on down, downplayed the evidence and retreated to bureaucratic paralysis while the rank and file circled the wagons, claiming to not recognize any of their fellow officers. Meanwhile, the Police Services Board cowered and shamefully left the force to sort itself out. As we all know, the vast majority of offending front-line police and their commanding officers were never meaningfully held to account for their brutal and illegal actions. Now, five years later, theres increasing incidents of cops going Rambo with their firearms, lying, planting evidence and assisting the cover-up of wrongful policing by fellow officers. Public trust of the TPS took a traumatizing blow during the G20. But obfuscation by those bodies that could have brought justice and restored public confidence has simply opened the door to further corruption and a downward spiral of public trust. Ken Ferguson, Toronto During surgery it is mandatory that any team member declares a contamination issue even if it involves an error by a trusted colleague or someone higher in the pecking order. It is not always welcome given the emergent situation. But it must be done for the sake of the patient. Thus I state the following: When the 90 police officers removed their ID during the G20 protests, said officers should have been immediately arrested by their colleagues for impersonating a cop. The fact is that in the Nobody situation it took six months to identify the offending officer, then one assumes a generalized cover-up was at work among the rank and file police service (including the present chief). Consequently, it is absurd to exclude any member of the force from culpability in diminishing public confidence in police practices, save for those officers not yet on the force at the time of the G20. Whether its in an operating room or a police takedown, integrity has a price that professionals must pay. Douglas L. Martin, Hamilton The best thing members of the Toronto Police Association could do is to elect a different president. Mike McCormack disrespects the justice system he is meant to serve and dishonours the police officers he is meant to represent. In a democracy, the police are public servants and subject to the law just like other citizens. McCormack, however, operates within the mentality of a police state, where officers are a law unto themselves and immune from decisions of the court system. This is a dangerous mentality. Joell Ann Vanderwagen, Toronto Toronto police could make a start on their shoot-to-kill mindset by watching a video aired on CBC showing British police subduing a man wielding a machete not a three inch knife without force or violence or guns. Edward Barber, Markham In the aftermath of the Forcillo trial, it seems there are myriad voices, belonging to citizens and the media, asking if the verdict finding Forcillo not guilty of murder was a correct one? I would like to put forth a slightly altered version of events to see if it might help bring clarity to why the jury decided as it did. Let us assume that the scenario was exactly the same, except for one factor: It is a civilian standing outside the streetcar with a pistol, ready to defend himself and his neighbours from a potential attack by Sammy Yatim. The civilian utters the same dare. Take one more step and Ill shoot . . . . He then decides its time to shoot Yatim and fires three times, hitting him with every shot and knocking him down. Now, after a five second pause, he claims he thinks Yatim is trying to stand and he fires another volley. Later, evidence in the form of a video tape shows Yatim did not try to get up. In fact, based on the severity of his wounds, he was most likely dead. Lets not even get into the tasering since that belongs in a Monty Python film. Can anyone believe that the jury would have found the civilian not guilty of murder, even though he claimed that he feared for his life? Would the jury buy that story? Would the fact that there was no immediate and imminent threat at the time affect how the civilian would be judged? Would the fact that the shooter was surrounded by a group of other armed police officers who seemed to feel no urgent need to resolve the situation immediately be a factor? Can anyone believe that the police would not have slapped the cuffs on the civilian and charged him with murder despite his heroism in resolving the conflict? I find that when I remove the uniform from the equation, and look only at the facts of the matter, everything looks very different. J. Richard Wright, Niagara-on-the-Lake Columnist Ed Keenan is right to challenge the TPAs attitude to carding. The Toronto and York Region Labour Council, the voice of labour in Canadas largest urban centre, has taken a strong stand on this issue. We have gone on record with both the Toronto Police Services and through an open letter to Yasir Naqvi, minister of community safety and correctional services, calling for an end to all forms of race-based policing that disproportionately targets members of our communities based on their race, creed or ethnic origin. We oppose policing practices such as carding, racial profiling and other such tactics as they often repeatedly single out young people of colour for extra scrutiny. Many black union members have seen the effect of these practices on their own family members and neighbours. We cannot build a just and caring society when those in uniform are seen to treat whole communities in a manner that is fundamentally unfair. John Cartwright, president, Toronto & York Region Labour Council Where I come from (Israel), it is not a surprise to see a headline on a local newspaper about the four police officers who misuse the justice system and law. But how does this happen in Canada? As a resident of Toronto, I am astonished and surprised that over 100 former cases of perjury and obstruction come up to the courts attention after the investigation has been concluded. To police chief Mark Saunders credit, he hasnt stopped just with the recent charges. He made the right move by assembling a team of top investigators on the four police officers cases, preventing cases like this in the future. Thank you, chief Saunders, for having those cases brought up to the public attention and in keeping Toronto streets safe and sound. Rod Shwartz, Toronto First of all, a grateful big thank you to the Star for their coverage of the Forcillo trial and their series on Breaking badge. Rosie DiManno deserves special mention for her courage in speaking out against police who feel that they are entitled to be above the law. Wouldnt it be wonderful if our politicians have a bit of that courage and change the law to rein in rogue cops and hold them accountable? Officer Forcillo got off lightly for what he did. I sincerely hope that the judge will have the guts to slap Forcillo with at least the minimum sentence. Wang B. Chow, Toronto Its good to read there will be some changes as far as the way police are hired and also having a crisis intervention team on board. The force still has a long way to go to get the publics trust back on track. As far as Forcillo is concerned, if he has any empathy at all, he will personally apologize to Sammys family for causing the death of their son and then hand in his resignation. It is glaringly apparent, he should never have been hired in the first place. He seems to have had an itchy trigger finger for some time. In a perfect world, the streetcar driver would have locked the doors once everyone was safely off, and then had someone call Sammys dad as he had asked for. Roberta Obelnycki, Fonthill Canadas population is aging rapidly. By 2036, those over 65 will number 1 in 4, and for the first time will outnumber children. Toronto will mirror this growth of seniors. In Ontario, there are presently 200,000 seniors with dementia. Within 15 years, this number is estimated to double. This is a cause for major concern, not just for the well-being of our senior loved ones but also for their safety. Some 90 per cent of persons with dementia exhibit psychosis, depression, agitation and aggression. The tragic recent conclusion to the Yatim case highlights much needed training, education and support to front-line police officers. Lets make sure that police officers are included in the formation of policies and legislation for safe aging alongside social workers, mental health professionals and doctors on mastering safe and sane de-escalation techniques and strategies for individuals who might present as aggressive. Sarah Houghton, Toronto I was disturbed by Mike Krawfords Jan. 30 letter in which he facetiously suggests that police who are facing a dangerous individual perform roadside therapy with them or walk away lest they be accused of murder if things turn ugly. Theres little time to think in situations like these and the police may be in a unique position as judge, jury and executioner in the blink of an eye. The fight-or-flight impulse is deeply ingrained in our DNA and in some cases de-escalation training may be the only thing standing between a troubled, desparate person and a bullet to the brain. No one expects a policeman to sit a murderous madman down on the curb and share a cup of tea but a policemans duty to protect the public may go as far as protecting the madman from himself. The demons in Sammy Yatims head were the real menace that night, not the young, scared, drug-addled kid holding the knife. The more we understand this truth and adapt police training to deal with it then normally quiet people with mental health challenges who turn to violence in desperation have a chance to get the help they need. John Fraser, Toronto Regarding culture at Toronto Police force. 1. Bad culture and acting above the law have existed in Toronto police for years. 2. Not all members of this force act that way. A majority of police men and women who try to fulfil their duties with professional ethics and respect to society. 3. At the same time there is a large group of the force led by police union boss Mike McCormick and his supporters, which stands in defense of cops impunity, not matter how stupid or criminal are the acts of the cop involved. 4. No chief was and is able to change the culture of Toronto police, while the basket of bad apples is tolerated in the force. Unfortunately parts of the police training, which allows the police members to use lethal or physical force at their discretion (if you feel in danger shoot right in the chest of the person,for ex. boy with little knife in hand). Thanks to that excuse many hothead policemen use the gun or taser without proper warning, they do not even bother to use pepper spray any more... 5. In recent years the criminal courts are very lenient (or possibly afraid) to abusers of the law in uniforms and that impunity creates the culture of immunity and continuation of acting aggressively and brutally by cops with such tendencies. Example it is known fact, that Mr. Forcillo has a history of pulling his gun too often. Such police members shouldnt work in police force. The other ones used simply their fist or other methods of brutality. This kind of police culture has to end. I do not see that any police chief or police board is able to fix that problem. There are too many connections between those bodies, including SIU, which includes mostly former cops. The problem has to taken on by the provincial government. Matthew Odziemkowski, Mississauga Reader Gary Krawford suggests that Toronto police in light of the Forcillo verdict should in the future ignore criminals, because if you shoot him before you hold a therapy session with him, youre liable to be charged with murder. Better advice would be patience, empathy and simple common sense. These require greater effort but are likely to result in a much better outcome. As for the sneering therapy session, it sounds superior to bleeding out on a streetcar. Geoff Rytell, Toronto Changing police culture from the macho, heroic approaches lionized in nightly fictionalized drama series like NCIS, Flashpoint and Shades of Blue and given a grim reality in the Sammy Yatim shooting requires much more than screening new recruits for more sensitivity to mental health issues or training existing officers in dealing with the mentally ill and disabled in less confrontational and authoritarian ways. It requires a tectonic shift in our patriarchal male socio-cultural attitudes, values and beliefs that determine the socialization process of males and females in our society and the reality that we experience daily. Our entire global ecosystem of society and history is a dysfunctional expression of the patriarchal mythology of aggressive male exploits involving the domination, subordination and control of others through physical violence, intimidation and threats. In one form or another, these three tactics still evince the male approach to leadership problem solving and decision making. The ethos of policing is emblematic of the broader problems for modern civilized society of this continuing slavish adoration of an authoritarian male worldview of social function and dysfunction that saturates every aspect of our daily life from domestic violence to international terrorism. The deaths of numerous mentally ill or disabled people at the hands of police has shone a spotlight on the problems of the inherently aggressive male approach to policing and to leadership in general which continues to dominate all police and security forces as it has most other lines of work including firefighters, the military, sports, media and business. The increasing presence of women in these fields has not had an appreciable impact on the dominance of patriarchal values. The answer to changing police culture is to change our entire social culture at a much deeper systemic level by beginning to view the invasive nature of patriarchy in society as a core problem and focussing on the resocialization of our children through more actively gender-balanced parenting and education that places the focus on boys and girls as true equals and as individuals who seek problem resolution in non-confrontational ways. It also means changing our economic, religious, political and social culture away from competitive adversarialism ruled by men towards more collective cooperation and shared benefits governed by men and women as equals. This means rethinking our entire global approach to parenting, sports, media, politics, education, religion and competition that currently are skewed to over-value male exploits. We need to orient the psychological evolution of young people away from violence and towards more humanitarian and peaceful approaches to life and living. The solution actually lies in a return to the cultural values embodied in matriarchal societies that existed prior to the inception of patriarchy some 5 to 7 thousand years ago and are virtually unknown in modern society. These cultures operated on values of egalitarianism and equalitarianism amongst females and males but not the dominance of females over males. They functioned on principles of economic mutuality, respect, non-hierarchical consensual decision making and shared prosperity. Notably, they were characterized by the absence of violence and conflict. As a modern, supposedly civilized society we need to abandon destructive, testosterone-laden patriarchal values for those of matriarchy and stop putting Band-Aids on a worldwide pandemic of male aggression and dominance in all its forms. Fixing policing may be a small gesture towards change but it is not even close to the real answer fixing society is. Robert Bahlieda, Newmarket Its clear now to most of us that the police cant be fired. So they should at least be psychologically competent for the job. Clearly some are not, and were all paying the price of it. Time to reboot the recruit. Richard Kadziewicz, Scarborough The Toronto Police Force, indeed any police force, would do well to remember the old adage: With great power comes great responsibility. Louis MacPherson, Bowmanville Thanks to Rosie DiManno for her excellent, well-reasoned columns on the Sammy Yatim killing and the Forcillo trial. Lord Acton wrote power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. And William Pitt the Elder stated unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it. That, it seems, is what is at the root of the police crisis in Toronto (and abroad): unlimited power has corrupted their minds. Change is definitely needed in the Toronto Police Service; if the police are policing us, then just who are policing them? Mike McCormack, the president of the Toronto Police Association, said the guilty verdict of the lesser charge attempted murder in the Forcillo trial sends a chilling message to police officers. I think, rather, the chilling message being sent to Torontonians is that the president of the Toronto Police Association and numerous officers within the Toronto Police Service think that Forcillos words and actions on that tragic night were reasonable and justified. I would think that any officer who believes that Forcillo was justified in escalating the situation verbally, then quickly firing three bullets at a young man who was hanging out at the front of an empty streetcar, albeit with a small knife, and then shooting six more bullets into that young man as he lay dying on the streetcar should have their employment with the TPS terminated immediately. The shooting death of Sammy Yatim by a Toronto police officer has united the citizens of Toronto in their outrage at the police officers excessive use of lethal force. Sammy Yatim, after all, was holding a small knife, not a gun; and he was standing alone on an empty streetcar. The unjust killing of Sammy Yatim has also galvanized this city because, at the end of the day, we can all say Je Suis Sammy for no one is immune to the vicissitudes of life, which can render one mentally or emotionally distressed. Sammy Yatim was a young man in distress and he deserved better yet he received life. Karen Radeczy, Mississauga Probably very few people in the general public know that police hand guns are loaded with a .41 calibre cartridge that is banned by the Geneva Convention for warfare. The hollow point bullet employed by Canadas police forces is particularly lethal because it mushrooms when penetrating the body causing a large exit wound, and does significantly more damage to the victim than the old jacketed bullet previously employed. It always seemed strange to me that this change was made without ever properly informing the public of its implications, and why a bullet prohibited in civilized warfare, is seemed good enough to use on the citizenry of this country in lethal confrontations. Maybe while we are in the process of considering changing basic police training as regards to the use of lethal force, we couldnt address this issue as well, and remove these lethal cartridges from the police armoury. Chris Brownhill, Toronto SHARE: Re: Moving beyond the pipeline economy, Opinion Feb. 1 Moving beyond the pipeline economy, Opinion Feb. 1 Its been only five weeks since the Paris climate change conference and the oil companies and Western politicians are in full voice trying to ram through yet another pipeline. Its as if nothing happened at COP21 or that we are going to kick that problem down the road for the next generation to handle. Whats the rush? Turning the Energy East gas line into a high pressure pipeline for dirty oil has serious consequences for both the environment and the climate. The proposed Energy East line will carry 1.1 million barrels of oil a day (400 million barrels a year). This will be new oil; the existing production is already being shipped to the U.S. and Canada through existing facilities. Apparently theyre talking about increasing the production of tar sand oil by 30 to 40 per cent in Alberta and Saskatchewan They claim their motive is to replace foreign oil at a couple of eastern refineries. The eastern refineries cannot refine this low quality oil without major modifications. Eighty per cent of this oil will be shipped around the world and move the emission problems there. If we really want these refiners to process Canadian crude, Newfoundland has lots of it. We have already been warned by the gas distributors in Ontario that price for natural gas will double or triple for homeowners and businesses if the gas line is converted to oil. The supply of gas is critical as it is the cleanest of the dirty hydrocarbons and it is the transition fuel as we move to renewable energy, conservation and low emission technology. Who is going to speak for the gas consumers in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec? Converting the Energy East line will in fact increase our greenhouse gas emissions when we pledged, with great fanfare, we were going to lower them. Its irresponsible to approve this without open access public hearings to detail the consequences. There are other options. Jim Purdie, Toronto With Western politicians, newspaper editorial boards, and columnists cheerleading for pipelines in full force, the voice of opponents remains woefully underrepresented. Where is the space for debate? No one is talking about the industrys safety record. Why do communities reject pipelines? Look no further than the behaviour of oil and pipeline companies. Many have a long history of spills and violations despite state of the art technology. Some leaks continue for days undetected and unreported. Over and over again, the regulator reports failures to inspect, follow procedures, train staff, detect, respond, report, communicate and remediate. There is nothing sustainable about the oil sands industry. Alberta has turned the oil sands region into an ecological sacrifice zone. Government and oil companies are complicit in the extirpation of caribou and the slaughter of wolves. Under Albertas new climate change plan, oil sands emissions will go up, not down. Reckless oil and pipeline companies operate without regard for the environment and public health. Penalties amount to a slap on the wrist. Who would want them operating in their backyard? Geoffrey Pounder, Rocky Mountain House AB I was saddened to see the Quebec mayors trying to stand up against the east-west pipeline. The sad fact is that oil is going to move and from the point of benefit to the country it is much more beneficial for us to process Canadian oil in Canada than to purchase oil stocks from foreign sources. To not build the pipeline is to force oil producers to ship by rail. The railroads are ready and willing and can ship it anywhere in North America without environmental approvals. They have the capacity now. Quebec mayors who dont seem to remember Lac-Megantic and an Ontario premier who cant remember the derailments in northern Ontario are courting disaster. There was once a vehicle that was dubbed unsafe at any speed. Oil in rail cars is unsafe at any speed. Bill Paterson, Emsdale Your editorial Calling a truce seems to miss the point. Certainly politicians who want to save the environment face difficulties. But the overriding fact is that, if we export oil, no matter by what route, and with what safeguards, it is going to be burnt and thus add to climate change. We are facing imminent, irreversible, climate disaster. We have to recognize that there is an emergency, and act decisively, and fast. People cant do this individually. Government has to take urgent action, just as the British government did when war broke out in 1939. Justin Trudeau does appear to have a clue. Lets back him up. Lets ignore the political cowards, the prevaricators, the people who think they can dismiss scientific fact, and the billionaires who cant see that even their own future is in jeopardy, and go for the renewable alternatives, which are ready and waiting and will provide more and better jobs, as well as a future. Please, everybody. Jenny Carter, Peterborough Given the relatively recent explosion of a massive train carrying oil in Lac-Megantic that killed over 47 people, along with a string of other related accidents involving oil-bearing trains in the U.S. and Canada, it seems very odd that the Energy East (as well as the Keystone) pipelines would be so vehemently opposed by U.S. and Canadian lawmakers. Whether for better or for worse, oil is a major source of energy that drives our economies. I dont know of any more efficient or safer alternative to reliably transport large quantities of hydrocarbons other than shipping via pipeline. By encouraging domestic production and distribution of North American oil, we wean our economies away from the need to purchase oil peddled by fanatical Middle Eastern dictatorships. At least in todays era of cheap electronic surveillance, pipelines can be continuously monitored for leaks and the flow can be more rapidly stopped in the case of accidents. Lawmakers cant have their cake and eat it too. Oil is a necessary lifeblood of our economies. Shipping it via well constructed, monitored, and maintained pipelines is the best and safest way to circulate it. Dr. Michael Pravica, Henderson, NV Lets be clear; the goal of Environmental Defence is to shut down the oil sands. Not approving pipelines is just one way of achieving that goal. Pitting regions of Canada against each other should therefore not be surprising. Its time for Environmental Defence to come clear about how jobs and standard of living will be protected, while we embark on the road to their vision of a green economy. Lars Nordgren, Scarborough Some 50 years ago, it was established that inhaling the smoke from cigarettes causes deadly cancer. Difficult as it is to break the deadly smoking habit, we dont keep investing in cigarette factories to create jobs. Why would we tolerate investing in a pipeline to transport killer fossil fuels across Canada? Given the rising cost of food, wouldnt investing $12 billion building thousands of greenhouses across Canada to produce our food in Canada be more useful? Robert G. Sheehan-Gauthier, Ottawa Weather by pipeline or rail, its not the point how bitumen gets to tidewater. The reality of climate change demands that oil extraction from the Alberta tar sands (and everywhere else) be phased out. Frank de Jong, Faro, Yukon We have all seen the devastation that occurs when an oil pipeline bursts. I cant believe that with the wealth of brilliant scientists and engineers in Canada we havent come up with a much safer pipeline. Why not have the oil pipeline inside a safety pipeline with considerable air space in between the two pipes (pipe within a pipe). In addition have electronic devices to detect immediately if there is a breach. Jim Callaghan, Toronto Because of recent expressions of opposition to Energy East, such as by the Montreal mayors, it may be necessary to look at alternatives. One that would require a feasibility/engineering/ecological study is to detour the proposed Energy East pipeline to a port on Hudsons Bay using at least some of VIA Rails existing railway right-of-way from Winnipeg to Churchill to minimize land and water disruption. Such a detour would reduce the cost of an export pipeline for western Canadas vast oil resources while avoiding built-up areas entirely. Canada needs a greater presence in the north and more ice-breakers anyway. And there are many reports of less ice in Arctic waters recently. Ice-class LNG carriers arent new. The first were ordered in 2004 and they now account for around 5 per cent of the 380-plus global LNG fleet. Currently the Russians have ordered an ice-rated LNG tanker to be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering for the Russia/China Yamal LNG development. Yamal intends to commission a total of 16 carriers. The tankers ice-class Arc7 (according to RS classification) will be allow it to move in 2.1 meter thick field ice. Why not ice-rated oil tankers? But would Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also ask for a moratorium on tankers in Canadas Arctic and northern east coast waters as he did for Canadas northern waters off the west coast? Mike Priaro, Calgary According to the National Energy Board, Canada extracts an estimated average of about 3.8 million barrels of oil per day. When I compare this production with Canadas needs as expressed by Trans Canada Pipeline/Energy East web page I find the following: Every year, Canada spends tens of billions of dollars buying foreign oil . . . our countrys production could theoretically largely cover a local demand that averages 2.7 million barrels per day . . . every single day Canada is forced to import some 634,000 barrels of crude oil, a majority of which supplies refineries in eastern Canada and Quebec . . . The application will now focus on connections to three refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick, and to marine terminal in New Brunswick. The obvious but unwritten conclusion of the above shows that Trans Canada Pipeline intends to be in the export business. This surplus 1.145 million barrels planned for export will be shared by TCPL and the Trans Mountain pipeline through BC, currently with a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day but hoping to expand to 890,000. TCPL reckons the life of the pipeline to be 20 years. Construction will begin in late 2017 and be in service by 2020. The construction phase of the pipeline will certainly bring many jobs but will not come on line before we must start to cut back. How can we reconcile this when we know that in order to meet the target of global warming of 1.5 degrees we must be on the path of reducing fossil fuel use by 2020. As an avid but practical environmentalist I would suggest that it is a good idea to move the oil by pipeline but we should not increase production. And just as British Columbia balked at Norther Gateway because Alberta refused to share revenue I think that Ontario and Quebec and any others should insist on a share of monies gained through export. The unfortunate downside to this is that because Alberta jobs depended on an ever expanding rate of extraction we must be prepared to help that province as it learns to adjust. I am sympathetic to the resistance of Quebec municipalities in accepting this pipeline. It would probably be a lot more palatable to the rest of us if the oil was refined. When Rachel Notley broached this idea last year it was turned down by the oil industry. If Canadians are willing to pay over a dollar for gasoline refined from oil costing less than $30 per barrel I would suggest that the government of Alberta go it alone and build the refineries while TCPL is building the pipe to carry it. Harry Coupland, Rexdale Another dimension to Canadas great pipeline debate (shades of 1956 and Clarence Decatur Howe) is the issue of personal choice in the fossil fuel we use. Thats because the tar sands producers have a goal beyond merely getting their product to market. They also want it anonymously mixed with conventional oil in the feedstock of distant refineries so that it becomes an indistinguishable component of Canadian oil, and consumers have no choice but to buy it. Environmentally responsible Canadians who want to shun dirty, planet-killing tar oil have no option in such a take-it-or-leave-it setup, but presumably other governments and consumers will decide to leave it. In the coming cutthroat calculus of each countrys carbon performance, the upstream carbon footprint of the type of oil it uses will inevitably be factored into its score. This stealth-marketing strategy of the tar diggers should be an overriding concern for the operators of conventional Canadian wells, both on land and offshore. Why would they meekly accept being tarred with the same brush? They should not countenance the environmental argument being framed simplistically as Renewables good/oil bad. Given current technological realities, its much more nuanced Renewables best/ oil unavoidable for now/ tar oil unconscionable. Newfoundlanders in particular, with an eye to future markets for their high-quality crude, should be screaming against this guilt by association. The tar interests chosen course was also, naturally, the cheapest: steam the bitumen to remove the sand, dilute it with toxic chemicals so it can be pumped through pipelines or into railway tankers, and send it off to be someone elses worry. This is a hazardous product that is unsafe to ship by pipe, by rail or by ship. The producers should instead be forced by regulation to upgrade it in the provinces where it is extracted (creating pollution but also jobs there), keep the resulting product separate, and openly label it for what it is. Then we can decide whether we want to buy it. J.A. McFarlane, Toronto SHARE: Damascus: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has warned that any foreign ground troops entering his country would "return home in wooden coffins." Al-Moallem spoke Saturday at his ministry in Damascus, responding to questions by reporters. Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia's army spokesman had said his country was willing to send ground troops to Syria as part of a US led military campaign against Islamic State extremists. The group controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. Al-Moallem says that any attack on Syrian territory without the consent of his government will be considered an act of aggression and will be dealt with accordingly. He said conventional wisdom and logic would suggest the idea of Saudi troops in Syria is hard to imagine, but that "with the crazy Saudi leadership nothing is far-fetched. Kathmandu: Residents and traders in southern Nepal on Friday dismantled tents and roadblocks set up by protesters at a key border crossing, allowing trucks to cross freely from neighbouring India for the first time in four months. More than 50 people have died in an agitation against Nepal's first republican constitution led by minority Madhesis, who say the charter ignores their demands for a united homeland and greater say in the running of the Himalayan nation. A prolonged blockade mounted by southern lowlanders on the "Friendship Bridge" linking the Nepali town of Birgunj with Raxaul in India had caused acute fuel shortages and spurred smuggling along the porous border. "Trucks are moving smoothly," Nepali police official Habendra Bahadur Bogati told Reuters. "We hope that it will be normal. But we can't say if this will continue." People in Birgunj and Raxaul, in India's eastern state of Bihar, had cleared tents pitched on the bridge by protesters from the Madhesi minority, added Raju Babu Shrestha, a second police official. Twenty container trucks rolled into Nepal for the first time since the blockade started in September, said customs official Mitralal Regmi. In November, police forcibly removed protesters from the bridge, leading to clashes with protesters that killed one Indian citizen. On Friday, one protest leader said residents on the Indian side of the border removed the barriers and sent trucks into Nepal at a time when there were no protesters on the bridge. "We have asked our supporters to stop the flow of traffic without resorting to violence," said Sarbendra Nath Shukla of the Tarai Madesh Loktantrik Party, a part of the Madhesi Front that is leading the protests. "Confrontation will not solve the problem. We want to resolve it peacefully." Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Oli has appeared increasingly isolated by the protests and faced criticism from India over the tough line taken by the authorities against them . The lifting of the blockade may signal the stand-off is easing. Nepal's finance minister is due to visit India this weekend, paving the way for a possible trip by Oli, who has said he will visit New Delhi only after an end to the blockade, which Kathmandu has blamed on India. Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has come under attack from Islamist parties and groups supporting militancy in Kashmir that accused him of being soft on India and advocating peace. The groups led by Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed held a conference outside National Press Club here to mark 'Solidarity Day' with Kashmiris on Friday. It was Saeed's first major public appearance in the capital after three years, showing defiance towards government. While taking to task the government, Saeed praised army chief General Raheel Sharif. "The Prime Minister is bound to follow the path of Quaid-i-Azam (Mohammad Ali Jinnah), Liaquat Ali Khan and the founding fathers. He should not betray the Kashmir cause," Saeed said. He asked Sharif to own the "Kashmir cause" and praised the United Jihad Council (UJC) which had claimed the Pathankot attack. "They (UJC) came to the rescue of Pakistan after the Pathankot attack and it is time that we too own the Kashmiris," Saeed said. He also stated that the army chief was right when he said "Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition". Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil of Ansarul Ummah, Mian Aslam of Jamaat-i-Islami, Senate Deputy Chairman and central leader of JUI-F Abdul Ghafoor Haidary and a former legal aide of former president general Parvez Musharraf -- Ahmad Raza Kasuri -- also participated in the conference. Haidary said there could be no peace in the region without resolution of the Kashmir issue. "Both India and Pakistan are pitching their resources in defence while hundreds and thousands of citizens do not have food and shelter," he said. Criticising Pakistan, Kasuri said the country had confined the Kashmir cause to a ceremonial day only. "We need to look ahead and after developing a consensus among political parties there should be a full-fledged assault by Foreign Office against India," he said. Dawn reported that not only was the conference heavily attended by workers and followers of JuD, it also showcased the high degree of technical advancements made by the group. JuD security personnel stationed at various positions wore jackets of different colours -- clearly defining their duties. Last year, only a few rallies were organised to mark the Kashmir Day and JuD held a rally from Zero Point to Aabpara chowk led by its leader Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki who criticised the UN and the US for their indifferent attitude towards alleged Indian human rights violations in Kashmir. Now why has this FBI investigation taken so long ???...could it be thatwe have a situation in which (a) Obama knowingly communicated with Clinton over a non-government, non-secure e-mail system; (b) Obama and Clinton almost certainly discussed matters that are automatically deemed classified under the presidents own guidelines; and (c) at least one high-ranking government official (Petraeus) has been prosecuted because he failed to maintain the security of highly sensitive intelligence that included policy-related conversations with Obama. From these facts and circumstances, we must deduce that it is possible, if not highly likely, that President Obama himself has been grossly negligent in handling classified information. He discussed sensitive matters on a non-government, non-secure e-mail system that could easily be penetrated by foreign governments (among other rogue actors). By doing so, he left an electronic- and paper-trail that was outside the governments tightly secured repositories for classified information. He also personally indulged, and thus implicitly endorsed, Clintons use of private e-mail to do government business.Read more at: Obama?s Hillary Clinton E-mail Problem If we can make 51 percent of Americas population dependent upon an Obama, welfare, food stamp, section 8 housing, college loan check, and now free Obamacare along with FREE BACON , we can blackmail them for their vote, keep ourselves in power and keep the remaining portion of Americas productive population enslaved to pay the bills ____ Our Washington Establishments Free Cheese Democracy, designed to establish a federal plantation which confiscates and then redistributes wealth that wage earners, business and investors have worked to create. ____ Our Washington Establishments Free Cheese Democracy, designed to establish a federal plantation which confiscates and then redistributes wealth that wage earners, business and investors have worked to create. Dealing with illegal entrants and illegal immigration is, without question, a priority this coming election if America is to survive as a freedom loving nation. The simple truth is, allowing the 10 - 20 million illegal entrants who are in our country to remain here, will, without question, fundamentally transform America into a "free cheese democracy", while American citizens will have been made into tax slaves to support the economic needs of those who have invaded our borders and who will gladly sell their vote to politicians who promise to increase their free government cheese.Do American Citizens, regardless of their political party affiliation or skin color, not realize our system of government cannot survive politically or financially if we allow the poverty stricken, poorly educated and unskilled populations of other countries to invade our borders and remain here?Our country has reached a dangerous cross road in which this election will determine if a majority of our nation's population will be on the public dole, and the tipping point most assuredly will rest with who we elect to be our next president. Every freedom loving American Citizen must make their choice with the following question in mind: Will the millions upon millions of poverty stricken, poorly educated and unskilled migrants from Mexico and Central America be allowed to stay or encouraged to leave on their own?JWK In what could be the most important election of 2016, TheStreet is looking for the Worst Stock in the World and we need your help. In these times of market turbulence, it's our job to watch out for the worst investments that can sink your portfolio. Our search is not merely limited to the worst stock in the Dow or S&P. We are going global and accepting nominations from our readers for the absolute worst stock in the world. This article is part of an ongoing series talking about these stocks and why they're the worst. If you have an idea as to what the worst stock in the world is, email us at worststock@thestreet.com. The first week of TheStreet's "Worst Stock in the World" report went fast, with a handful of companies garnering nomination for the dubious distinction. We were thrilled with the reader response we received and welcome more nominations. As a reminder, TheStreet will only include companies with a market cap of at least $500 million in its review. Without further ado, the list of current nominees: Petrolea Brasileiro S.A. (PBR) : The first nomination came from Jim Cramer who said that a share of the Brazilian-based oil company could be had for less than a $6 pack of warm PBR beer. Shares of the company are down 50% over the last year amid low energy prices. While Petrobras is not the only energy-related company facing tough times, Petrobras' problems are made worse by its hefty debt burden, which is rated "junk" across the three ratings' agencies. And, even worse, Brazil's sovereign debt rating is also below investment grade. On Thursday, J.P. Morgan Securitiesdowngraded its rating on the company to "underweight." "Like the former champion Mr. Duran in the eighth round when he quit the fight and the ring, we're saying, 'No Mas,'" Marcos Severine of J.P. Morgan wrote. Sears Holding Corporation (SHLD) : Of the current nominations for "Worst Stock in the World" Sears garnered the most reader interest. In his 20-point take-down of the Chicago-based department store chain, TheStreet's Brian Sozzi offered the following peak into the company's financials: "Losses have become the only constant at Sears and, as a result, so has the company's cash burn. According to a review of Sears' last three annual reports and its year-to-date cash flow statement, it has not produced cash flow from its operations in over four years," Sozzi wrote. TheStreet received several emails from readers who supported the Sears nomination. Among the reader complaints was the company's poor online experience, its loss of market share against rivals such as Home Depot and Lowe's, and weak store traffic. "You can only imagine the boredom that sets in when your shifts are spent waiting for the one customer to come onto your department so you have someone new to talk too and maybe even make a sale, there's only so much cleaning and straightening to be done in a day," one reader, who is a Sears employee, wrote. Fastenal Company (FAST) : Another company that is being squeezed by competition from Home Depot and Lowe's is Fastenal. The Minnesota-based company has a nearly 50-year history selling fasteners and other industrial and construction supplies. Despite its history, Real Money contributor Doug Kass believes its growth prospects are declining amid headwinds in manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, and construction. The company's recent sales trend has been declining, according to data provided on the company's 10-Q and Kass doesn't believe it is likely to pick up as the company's five-year earnings-per-share growth guidance is in the range of 5%-to-7%, down from being in excess of 10% in the previous five years. Tesla Motors (TSLA) : While Real Money's Ed Ponsi says Tesla has "tremendous potential," he notes that it will take a miracle for the stock to grow into its present valuation. Shares of the company are down 38% from its highs from September 2014 as shares now trade in the $160s. Even with the steep decrease in price, Ponsi notes that the stock is still overpriced and it would need to fall to $90 in order to post a "more reasonable" forward price-to-earnings ratio of 50. Real Money columnist Jim Collins also weighed in on Tesla's troubles, specifically worries about its sales. "The majority of Tesla's "sales" are subject to its Resale Value Guarantee; that includes retail sales and leases that are held by Tesla's banking partners. So they are accounted for as operating leases -- meaning that Tesla bears significant liabilities on a balance sheet that is far from a fortress." Although Ponsi recommended the company for the Worst Stock in the World, he is still optimistic: "Changing the world is neither easy nor cheap. I'm rooting for Tesla to change the world, but we can't value a company based on the sentiments it inspires." Rackspace Hosting (RAX) : TheStreet's tech columnist, Chris Ciaccia nominated this San Antonio-based cloud computing and hosting company as the "Worst Stock in the World" due in part to the steep competition the company faces from tech heavyweights such as Amazon, IBM, Alphabet, and Microsoft. Shares of the company have fallen just over 45% over the last two years, even as the company has tried to reinvent itself as more of a hosting company. When the company reports earnings on Feb. 16, investors will be looking for strong 2016 guidance to give them some hope, but don't expect it, says Goldman Sach's Heather Bellini. Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) : In addition to being nominated as the Worst Stock in the World, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan is also on Real Money's "Stressed Out" index due in part to its hefty debt load, which is trading well below par. Freeport's debt is also acknowledged TheStreet contributor Eric Ervin who nominated the company. Specifically, Ervin calls out the company's decision to enter the oil and gas business just near the market top. The company, which deals primarily in mining metals, is considering its plans for its oil and gas business as it attempts to rebuild its balance sheet and shave $5 billion to $10 billion from its $20 billion debt load. "Freeport-McMoRan is not a company investors should own at this time. In fact it represents what can happen to a century-old company and leader in its field when the macroeconomics of its sector goes against its interests," Erving wrote. Costco Wholesale (COST) : Ken Goldberg, a contributor to TheStreet and a technical analyst, nominated Costco, as the company has fallen 17% to $143 from its December highs. Goldberg predicts that the stock could fall to $116 by mid-year, but that it could briefly touch $155 before then. On Thursday, the company reported net sales of $8.32 billion for January, representing a modest 2% increase from January 2015. You tell us, are there more companies that belong on our "Worst Stock in the World" list? Email us at worststock@thestreet.com. I recently returned from an eight-day guided tour of Cuba, or what is commonly called in the tourist literature a people-to-people exchange. Like many other visitors to Cuba since U.S./Cuban relations have thawed, I wanted to see the country before the expected influx of Americans changed it for the worse. A story in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 29 did a good job of highlighting some of the cultural shifts. This isn't a "36 Hours in Havana" article, but rather my impressions of the investment opportunities in this gem of the Caribbean. While anything I say about Cuba could be considered a generalization by an untrained observer, I feel my thoughts would not change with a longer trip or by quoting so-called trade experts. It would be easy to suggest that companies involved with the tourist industry -- hotels, cruise lines, airlines, and so forth -- would benefit from the opening up this new market. It would be easy to suggest that engineering and construction firms would stand to gain when the crumbling infrastructure is addressed. These will be big decisions and will need big budgets. It would be easy to suggest that a paint company would stand to gain by free trade with Cuba. But disposable household income will need to rise significantly before paint makes it to the top of the shopping list. The best growth story, in my opinion, will be in agriculture. The Cuban farmer has become the rising middle class. In the beautiful countryside outside Havana, I saw that the best looking houses and the newest cars belonged to the farmers. Why? While they may only have 170 acres to cultivate, the farm is organic and they can sell their excess in the farmer's markets at prices that makes them look like bandits to their neighbors. These farmers are not unlike farmers in the U.S. -- competitive and looking to adopt the latest techniques and newest equipment. Families and individuals who find that their government ration cards only get them to the middle of the month are buyers of this extra produce. The new paladares (private restaurants) that are rapidly popping up are buyers of this produce too. The tips from the tourist industry will fund these purchases. These vegetable and tobacco farmers will have the money to buy equipment from companies like Kubota (KUBTY) . Frustrated with broken down 25-year-old Russian tractors or worse, still using oxen -- these farmers will want to leverage their efforts with a small "country" tractor. Want to see more charts from Bruce Kamich? His exclusive chart analysis is free on Real Money for a limited time during TheStreet's Super Bowl Open House weekend. Click here for a free trial. Twisted Sister said: Funny, at first I thought it was an oriental scops owl that I kept as a pet. Pygmy owl but then saw a nose instead of a beak. Click to expand... I would be proud to have this man as my dictator. Can't we elect this man President of the USA? Have to teach him some English and change a few Constitutional Amendments, but why not? Southern states like South Carolina, where Hillary Clinton has held as much as a 30-point lead over Bernie Sanders, are thought to be crucial in securing the Democratic nomination for the former secretary of state. These states have large African American populations, among whom Clinton is far more popular than Sanders. But, with the Vermont senator gaining momentum with his surprisingly energetic campaign, there is a path for him to win the south -- and it goes through African American union leaders. "I always like when they underestimate the African American community because on this one we are gonna rise to the occasion," Charles Vance tells me over the phone while on break from his job on the docks in Charleston, South Carolina. Polling shows that Clinton has a 74% to 14% lead among African American voters over Sanders in South Carolina. Vance says that while organized labor represents only 3% of the workforce in South Carolina, that many key labor leaders, particularly in the African American community, could play crucial roles in organizing on Sanders' behalf. The support of key African American union leaders played an important role in Clinton's narrow victory in Iowa, where union households made up 21% of the electorate and voted for Hillary by 52%-to-43% margin. Lee Saunders, the first African American elected to head the nation's largest public sector union, the 1.4 million member American Federation of State, County, and Municipal employees (AFSCME), was quick to claim credit for his role in the victory, pointing out that his union knocked on more than 8,000 doors and conducted 11,000 member-to-member meetings on Clinton's behalf. "AFSCME's boots on the ground make a difference for candidates who stand with working people," Saunders said in a statement. Activists say that in order for Sanders to win African American voters that he will need to mobilize an army of door-knockers who can do what AFSCME did for Clinton in Iowa for Sanders in the south. Many African American union leaders have key connections within the civil rights and faith community that they are attempting to leverage to help build this army of door-knockers. And while the labor movement is small in places like South Carolina, in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 of the 13 States categorized as "Southern" gained union members, adding a total of 200,000. Clinton has received endorsement from over 24 different unions representing 10 million of the nearly 15 million union members in the United States. However, the endorsement process has been heavily criticized as not a single one of the unions that endorsed Clinton have allowed their members to vote on the endorsement. In contrast, many of the international and local unions that have endorsed Sanders have done so through a vote. For example, in October, Vance was outraged when Ken Riley, the president of his local union, the International Longshore Association 1422, decided to endorse Clinton at their union hall in Charleston without any of the members of his union voting on the issue. Riley's endorsement of Clinton came as a shock to labor leaders not just in South Carolina, but longshoremen on both coasts. Riley had long been critical of endorsements of Democrats and had helped found the Labor Party in South Carolina. "They are calling me a senior citizen, but I am a realist. I like winning," says Riley. "In order to get things done, you know you are gonna have to have realistic positions and know you have enough support to get things done." His words echo Clinton's, who has repeatedly said, ""I am a progressive who gets things done." The lack of internal union democracy has lead many disgruntled union members to form the independent organization Labor for Bernie. The group's spokesperson Rand Wilson, who is white, boasts that the organization has "more than 10,000 union members who publicly support Bernie Sanders, and three national unions, and more than 65 local and regional labor organizations, representing nearly two million members that have endorsed the Sanders campaign for president." The organization serves as an informal network of rank and file union members who are working together to form alternative union committees to get out the vote for Sanders. The union has also worked successfully with members to get regional federations to pass resolutions bucking their national unions and endorsing Sanders. The South Carolina AFL-CIO was formally rebuked for doing so by the international AFL-CIO last year in an effort to stop the pro-Sanders union mutinies from spreading. Bill Fletcher, the first African American education director of the AFL-CIO, who is serving as an advisor to Labor for Bernie, says that many of the African American regional leaders that he speaks to on a regular basis are "feeling the Bern," but don't want to get burned by picking a loser "The people I speak with are in general in favor of Sanders but they don't know whether he is likely to win so they don't whether it's...worth taking the risk," says Fletcher. "If he gets more serious, if there is a major black upsurge in South Carolina...things would shift very quickly in Sanders' favor among African American labor leaders." But that's an uphill battle for the Democratic socialist, who is better known in New England than in the south. "I have known Bernie's politics for years -- I am just a political junkie," says Jerome Favor, an African American electrician with the IBEW Local 776 in Charleston. "He is well known up north, but not nearly as well as the Clintons are in the South." According to a recent Reuters/IPSOS poll, approximately 25% of Democrats say that they are not familiar with Sanders compared to Clinton, who has near-universal name recognition nationally. However, polling shows that as more voters get to know Sanders that his support increases. A July 2015, Washington Post ABC-News poll showed that only 28% of voters of color approved of Bernie Sanders, but a poll taken last month showed that 51% of voters of color now approve of Bernie Sanders. As the primary migrates to South Carolina on February 20 and then to much of the rest of the south on Super Tuesday, March 1, Sanders will likely spend time and effort increasing his profile there. And the key to winning, many labor activists for Sanders feel, is just getting African Americans in the south to know who he is. "I talked to a lot of people and they said 'I didn't know Sanders was back with Dr. King back in the day,'" says Sandy Squirewell, a member of the ITPEU, the Industrial Technical Professional Employees Union. Sanders marched with King and his campaign has made wide use of African American surrogates such as Cornel West, Killer Mike, and former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner to tell that story, but it perhaps hasn't yet spread far enough in the south. But increasing his name-recognition among potential supporters isn't enough; Sanders needs to "talk more about specific policies and communicate clearly to folks exactly what he is going to do for them," says Favor. One problem, perhaps, is that he hasn't spent enough time asking them. Bridget Todd, the former MSNBC social media editor and a veteran campaign strategist, says that the Sanders campaign needs to hold town hall meetings and engage on social media to figure out what type of policies that the African American community wants him to enact. Todd says that the campaign seeming responsive to social media pressure is vital for African American voters to feel like they have a real voice in Sanders' candidacy. "Black folks are having real conversations about our political futures in some pretty interesting online spaces," says Todd. "A lot of these conversations are inherently political and can give you a sense of what black folks online care about, worry about, are suspicious of. This information should be used to drive policy -- not just outreach." The key, Todd says, is to have African American supporters who can go out, listen to people, and be seen as effective representatives who have a real stake in shaping the policy of the Sanders campaign. So far, the Sanders campaign has enlisted the support of local clergy and elected officials to campaign. Last week, former NAACP President Ben Jealous was asked if he would tour South Carolina for Sanders. South Carolina State Representative Justin Bamburg, who represented the family of Walter Scott who was shot in the back by North Charleston policy, recently switched his endorsement from Clinton to Sanders and has begun touring the state with Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by police in Staten Island in July 2014. So far, the efforts seem to be working, as recent polls showing the race beginning to tighten. While Sanders has trailed Clinton by more than 30 points throughout the campaign in South Carolina, a Washington Post/ ABC News poll released last week showed that Sanders had narrowed that gap by 15 points to a more manageable 19-point lead. If Sanders can figure out a strategy to pick up African American support in South Carolina, it could be the formula to win not just in South Carolina but in the many Super Tuesday primaries that follow, where African Americans constitute a huge block of Democratic primary voters. Given its roll in Iowa, labor could be the key. Mike Elk is an outside contributor. A couple kisses during the "Carmelitas" block party, during Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Top Brazilian Health officials said this Friday that the active Zika virus has been found in urine and saliva samples, cautioning that further study is needed to determine whether the mosquito-borne virus in those body fluids is capable of infecting people. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) But the tribe has a long way to go Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality. This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape. All the posts here were published in the electronic media main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts. During these fractious times it can seem as if the only point of politicians is to put them in the stocks and pelt them with rotten eggs. But we shouldnt entirely forget that some of them are still doing excellent work on behalf of the public, often without fanfare. One politician every small investor should be thankful to have in the Commons is the Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, who chairs the Treasury Select Committee. Like a dog with a bone: Those who had shares in HBOS owe Andrew Tyrie a debt of gratitude Those who had shares in HBOS owe him and his fellow committee members a particular debt of gratitude for their dogged pursuit of the truth behind the collapse of the High Street lender. Mr Tyrie is like a dog with a bone in a good way as accounting regulator the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is now discovering. To recap, the FRC in 2013 decided there were no grounds for an investigation into the conduct of auditor KPMG, who did not ring a very loud alarm about the coming collapse of the benighted lender. Late last year, after a long-awaited report into HBOS was finally published by City watchdogs, the FRC decided it would, after all, look again at whether there are grounds to pursue KPMG for misconduct. It will, however, be examining only two areas. First, whether KPMG was right to sign off on the lender as a going concern in the 2007 accounts and second, whether HBOS should have disclosed any qualms about its viability in its financial statements. As Tyrie points out, this is highly unsatisfactory. The FRC will give no explanation as to why it has narrowed down its inquiries. Nor does it see the need to have independent oversight of its procedures, by, for instance, a senior QC, as happened with the main HBOS report. If it does think there is a basis for a misconduct case, the FRC will haul KPMG before an independent tribunal. If it does not, it will publish its reasoning. But this all means further delay and it is not clear whether there would be any effective means of challenging the FRC if it once again claims KPMG has no case to answer. The FRC should bring in an independent figure now to oversee its investigation and let him or her decide whether or not to hold a tribunal. This discredited organisation should not be allowed to act as judge and jury over whether KPMG is called to account or let off the hook again. The FRC has given every appearance of reluctance to pursue KPMG and of hiding behind rules and sophistry. If a regulator wants to mount a vigorous investigation, there is always a way to bulldoze through the red tape. Tyrie says the FRC needs to act quickly to maintain its public and professional credibility but without a major mindshift, that is a lost cause. Charity balls I havean element of sympathy with Age UK in this weeks row about it plugging energy deals from E.on that turned out not to be the cheapest: that ding-dong is as much an indictment of the ridiculous complexity of tariffs as anything else. But the idea that charities operate on a higher plane, run by saintly individuals and with every penny going straight to good causes has always been a convenient myth. The UKs large charities are big businesses: depending on what exactly they do, they may have multi-million pound investment portfolios, sizeable commercial arms, large numbers of volunteers and staff, and major logistical challenges such as delivering help in difficult countries. Recent scandals from Kids Company to the alleged hounding of elderly people for donations to Age UKs promotion of energy deals, insurance and funeral plans to pensioners have a common thread, which is lack of proper governance. Grim: George Osborne claimed in June that the Treasurys original stakes in RBS, Lloyds, Northern Rock and others would yield a 14 billion profit The Governments profit from its bailout of the banks has been slashed by 12 billion in just seven months, thanks to the global stock market slump and a slew of fresh bad news at Royal Bank of Scotland. Chancellor George Osborne claimed in June that the Treasurys original stakes in RBS, Lloyds, Northern Rock and others were set to yield a 14 billion profit, according to an analysis carried out for it by investment bank Rothschild. Calculations based on those figures show that the profit has crashed to less than 2 billion after a collapse in the share prices of RBS and Lloyds. Rothschilds estimate was heavily criticised at the time because it failed to take into account the 17 billion cost of financing the Governments 107 billion injection of capital into the financial sector. Since June, UK Financial Investments, the body that manages the Governments stakes, has sold 6.5 billion-worth of Lloyds and RBS shares. But the Governments remaining stakes in the two 72 per cent of RBS and 11 per cent of Lloyds have slumped in value and are now worth just 25.5 billion. The banks have been hit by a wider collapse in equities, but RBS has been particularly badly affected after announcing extra costs that will wipe about 3.6 billion from 2015 profits. The Treasury put 46 billion into RBS at 502p per share at the height of the financial crisis. The shares were changing hands for just 230p last week, the lowest level they have been since the end of 2012. The Chancellor pulled a retail listing of the Governments remaining stake in Lloyds last month, as predicted by The Mail on Sunday, blaming turbulence in the markets. The Treasury said: As the Chancellor has consistently said, if we want to maximize the ability of our banks to support the economy, then we should return Lloyds and RBS to the private sector. The Government has made significant progress towards this goal, and has done so in a way that has delivered value for money for taxpayers, ensuring they can expect to get back more than they were forced to put into the banks. State profit has crashed to less than 2 billion after a collapse in the share prices of RBS and Lloyds Separately, Treasury Select Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie has called on the Chancellor to make sure banks cannot offset fines and other costs for past misconduct against their tax bills. Tyrie said: Banks should pay for the full cost of their misconduct. It would be wholly unacceptable if taxpayers, having bailed out the banks in 2008, were to find themselves partly responsible for paying the banks fines. It is important to ensure that, when a UK bank reaches a settlement with a foreign regulator, any fines cannot be structured to permit UK tax deductibility. LEBANON Citizens expressed what they would like to see the city of Lebanon become in the year 2040 at a community meeting at the Boulder Falls Conference Center on Thursday evening. About 100 citizens voted on how the city should move forward with its vision for the Lebanon 2040 strategic action plan at the meeting. The vision statement for Lebanon, known as Lebanon 2040, was created through community input. From that vision, a citizens task force came up with 20 strategies and several action items, and those 20 strategies were presented at the meeting for citizens to vote on using remotes. The goal of the meeting is to determine if the task force is on track, said Erik Jensen, founder of Jensen Strategies, who led the meeting. Jensen Strategies was hired by the city of Lebanon for the second phase of the visioning process Is (the task forces plan) still in sync, or is there something missing, Jensen said. The task force is going to revise it on the input. Jensen said its easy for a city to come up with a vision, but it needs a plan to put that vision in place. Out of the 20 strategies and action items most had overwhelming support from attendees. The strategy that had the most agreement on was education. The strategy for education is Provide pathways that connect youth to training and education preparing them with globally competitive skills. Sample actions for that strategy included supporting an expansion of the Training Teens For Tomorrow Program, expand career and technical education opportunities. The most mixed issue was in the strategy for small-town values. The strategy was Promote an inclusive and diverse community that welcomes and is compassionate to the needs of its members. Twenty-three percent of the attendees responded that they strongly agree; 18 percent agreed; 20 percent were neutral; 14 percent disagreed and 24 percent strongly disagreed. Two of the sample actions for that strategy included creating a community-wide annual event to promote Lebanons values and integrate diversity education into Lebanons schools. Some of the participants said they thought diversity education should have been placed under education instead of small town values. Different entities will be responsible for implementing the vision, Jensen said. Those entities could include Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital or the Chamber of Commerce, Jensen said. He emphasized that its not just up to the city government to implement these strategies. Mayor Paul Aziz said seeing the vision plan come into focus is fulfilling a goal he had when he first ran for mayor. This is where the rubber meets the road, Aziz said. This is how we make projects go forward. Citizens will soon be able to vote on what was discussed at the meeting by visiting http://www.lebanon2040.org. The women from the Defence Ministry remained lying on the ground for about five seconds as per Venda culture when greeting a traditional leader. NGWENYA King Mphephu Tony Ramabulana of the Venda Kingdom is in the country on a courtesy visit to His Majesty King Mswati III. The Venda king arrived through the Oshoek Border Gate at about 5pm. The King was in the company of two senior traditional leaders (chiefs); Lavhelesani Mukuya and Mmbangiseni Joseph Masia. His brother, Calvin Sikhawu, who is also Head of Security and Protocol, said the main purpose of the visit was to meet with the Swazi King and also to visit cultural and heritage sites. He is here with a 24-man delegation and this is the first time he visits Swaziland since his reign. Operations Executive at the Venda Kings Office Nqobile Dube, who was accompanying the king from Venda, said the king will attend the annual church service to be held at the Lozitha Royal Palace today. Dube spent time teaching Swazi women who had convened at the border from as early as 1pm on how to greet the king in Venda. The Venda greeting lessons and the rehearsals that took place during the three-hour wait for the king proved worthwhile as the women, clad in Swazi traditional regalia, performed very well in shouting aaaaaaaaa in unison while they lay on the ground for about five seconds, much to the amusement of the king. King Ramabulana is presently in the process of transforming the institution of traditional leadership to enable it to be more responsive to todays socio-economic challenges that continue to confront the Venda people. This is being done by facilitating and ensuring good relationships between the headmen, civic organisations and the people. He also encourages NGOs and other investors to invest within his area of jurisdiction. This endeavour will assist in ensuring that employment opportunities are created. On this all important task he is assisted by his Deputy King Mbulaheni Mphephu and other members of the royal council, particularly Vhavenda David Mphephu. MBABANE Mbabane Ward Four Councillor Sikhatsi Dlamini was yesterday stopped in his tracks by the Law Society of Swaziland (LSS) when he stood up in court to represent a client before Judge Titus Mlangeni. Through lawyer Lucky Howe the Law Society applied that Dlamini should not be allowed to make any appearance on behalf of the client as he was not an admitted attorney. Howe told the court that according to the Legal Practitioners Act, a person who is supposed to appear in court and represent a client was an admitted attorney. In his defence, Dlamini cited Section 84(1) of the Constitution of Swaziland. Section 84(1) states: Subject to the provision of Constitution, the people of Swaziland have a right to be heard through and represented by their own freely chosen representative in the government of the country. Judge Mlangeni dismissed Dlaminis application on the basis that it was not properly before court. The judge said he was not going to issue an order as to costs as Dlamini was not an attorney. Its a pity that most people want to play part of being lawyers when they are not qualified. What I have noticed, nobody plays part of being a medical practitioner. The last time I heard of a person who played a part of being a medical practitioner was in the 70s, said Judge Mlangeni. Dlamini, who is a well known businessman and active in the local sporting fraternity, made several appearances at the High Court representing his clients and the Law Society had previously raised concerns about that. According to the court roll that was issued yesterday, Dlaminis company is operating under the style name JCM Services and is situated at Independent Centre Building, Dzeliwe Street, Mbabane. In the matter Dlamini stated that he was practising as a representative in the estate of the late Vusi Oupa Lokotfwako. He was representing Phumlile Lokotfwako, who is locked in a court battle with Phindile Zikalala over a motor vehicle. Dlamini has filed an application at the High Court seeking an order that Zikalala be ordered to release the motor vehicle forthwith. In the same matter, Principal Judge Stanley Maphalala once issued an interim order in favour of Dlaminis client. During the recent official opening of the High Court of Swaziland, the President of the Law Society of Swaziland, Jose Rodrigues said some lawyers were lending their signatures to legal court documents prepared by shylocks, money lenders and consultants. LOBAMBA What was supposed to be a swearing ceremony for the new Parliamentary Services Board (PSB) did not happen as the Speaker and Senate President were a no show. The event was scheduled for 11am at the Parliament boardroom, but it had to be postponed indefinitely because the presiding officers did not attend. It took the board one and a half hours to decide in a caucus whether or not to go ahead with the ceremony. The board comprises Senate President Gelane Zwane, Speaker Themba Msibi, Senator Chief Kusa Dlamini, MP Mjuluko Dlamini, former MP Trusty Gina and Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini who is secretary and ex officio member. Only four members were present in the meeting yesterday and they were joined by Deputy Speaker Esther Dlamini and Deputy Senate President Ngomunyayona Gamedze. Ndvuna Dlamini, the Clerk to Parliament, said if they carried on with the swearing in ceremony in the absence of the two, it would mean they would not qualify to contest for the chairmanship as the next move after swearing in was to conduct the elections. The election of the new board was announced through a government gazette, Legal Notice NO. 7 of 2016. When called about her absenteeism, Senate President Gelane Zwane said there was a lot of discussion that needed to be done regarding the matter. I can only talk about it at length after the deliberations that I hope would take place when Parliament operations resume, she said. Zwane said things would fall into place once the deliberations start and added that as of now, things were better left the way they are, she said. Kukhona lokungahambi kahle (something is not right) and it will be sorted when business resumes, she said. Speaker Themba Msibi could not be reached for comment as his phone rang unanswered. When he was called shortly after the postponement, he promised to return the reporters call, saying he was at the bank and could not carry on with the interview from there. The board was elected after the Parliament Services Act was enacted in November 2015. The Act states in Section Four (2) that The Members of the Board shall be appointed, suspended and removed by the Presiding Officers on the advice of the Joint House Committee. (3) The Joint House Committee shall, before giving advice under this section, consult the King through the Minister on the appointment or removal of any member. (7) The Minister shall publish in the Gazette the names of the Board and a member of the Board shall not assume office unless the member has taken or subscribed the oath or affirmation of allegiance and due execution of office. Inyanga Ntombikayise Dlamini during an interview. ENGWENYAMENI Neighbours came out of their homes in disbelief after hearing an inyanga making a shocking prophecy in relation to the royal family and the country while supposedly in high spirits. The interviewed neighbours, who requested that their identities be withheld as they were of afraid of what may befall them said they have never heard of such happening, especially during broad daylight. They said the inyanga, Ntombikayise Dlamini, who confirmed as much in a later interview, was shouting at the top of her voice saying there would be war in the country while dancing to the beat of a drum. She said this would happen if certain things were not done by His Majesty King Mswati III, according to the residents while explaining that this was the reason they had contacted this publication. I know her as an inyanga. Now and again we see cars driving to her parental homestead in search of muti. What else would they want there if its not muti because we know that woman to be an inyanga, said one elderly woman when asked how they knew that the visitors had come for muti. The things she said about the elders of the country were very shocking. She said more trouble, like a war would start if her message was not delivered to the King. I was so shocked that I rushed home immediately after hearing her say that. She is known to be a great inyanga in the area. Other residents were reluctant to discuss what transpired on the day and opted to give a brief background about Dlamini who they said was initiated in South Africa. Dlamini, when approached on her utterances, more especially in relation to the royal family, said all she wanted at this point was to meet the King so that the coming civil war would be stopped. She refused to share the message saying it was strictly for the King and if it was not delivered to him, then there would be trouble. To show that I am serious about what I am saying, in my attempt to meet with the King, I have sent two messengers on different occasions over the five years that I have been trying to meet him and now they are both dead. The message I had conveyed through the messengers was that the King should meet me and further recognise the presence of my ancestor, said Dlamini. She would not reveal what the message had to do with the two messengers deaths. The families of 334 Albany students are being reminded to get their childrens vaccines up to date or risk having them sent home from school. State law requires all children in public and private schools, preschools, Head Start and certified child care facilities to have up-to-date immunizations, unless they have a legal exemption. Feb. 17 is exclusion day for anyone with an incomplete record. As of Feb. 3, Greater Albany Public Schools had 334 students listed as potential exclusions, said Carlene Vey, the school districts nurse clerical assistant. Vey said she expects that number to shrink drastically by the time the actual day rolls around, especially because reminder letters have now gone out from health departments in Linn and Benton counties. Typically, we see parents beginning to respond to the schools requests for immunization records once those official letters arrive at their homes, she said. Last year, Albany sent home 48 students, about half as many as the year before. Exclusion day is in February because schools and health departments say it takes that long to receive and analyze each students immunization record once fall enrollment totals are known. Districts calculate official enrollment in October, after the first rounds of transfers and latecomers have settled. The first round of reminder notices usually go out in November, with official reports to health departments by January. Health departments then need time to go over records and send out their own notices, and additional time is given for families to make arrangements for the necessary vaccines. Parents who dont want their children vaccinated may seek a nonmedical exemption. To get one, they must turn in a Vaccine Education Certificate showing theyve either talked with their health care provider about vaccines or participated in an online vaccine education module. They must also sign a new Certificate of Immunization Status. The education certificate requirement became law in 2014 in response to a report that year showing Oregon led the nation in the percentage of kindergartners who had been exempted from one or more vaccines. Since the law passed, the Oregon Public Health Division found the number of families claiming a nonmedical exemption dropped from 7 percent to 5.8 percent. Families seeking immunizations can contact their local health care providers, or county public health offices if they do not have private care. Pharmacists can immunize children 11 and older. More information about exemptions can be found at the divisions vaccine exemption website at www.healthoregon.org/vaccineexemption. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Tom Momberg State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has announced plans to introduce legislation that would create special architectural districts throughout the state. The move was prompted by the Broadway Flushing neighborhoods losing battle for city landmark status. The bill, still in draft form but to be introduced in the new legislative session, would create a process allowing residents to petition for their neighborhood to be protected by their local zoning authority from non-contextual architectural styles, Avella said. Residents of Broadway Flushing have been trying to do just that by applying for historic landmark status several times over the last decade from the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, which has denied the requests, citing a range of architectural styles throughout the neighborhood. Avella said under his bill, petitions for architectural district designation would require residents to detail a plan with the special design characteristics reflected in their neighborhood, which would have to be approved through a public hearing process. When it comes to protecting the aesthetic integrity of these beautiful neighborhoods throughout New York, every day that passes threatens the existence of these valued communities, Avella said in a statement. There needs to be another way through which residents can protect the character of their neighborhoods outside of being granted historical status, which in New York City the LPC has been reluctant to do. Under the concept, the city Department of Buildings or any equivalent agency in other municipalities would be made to enforce the design limits set by the architectural district designation. ~ Tom Momberg Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Philip Newman Nearly 90 percent of New Yorkers say corruption in state government is a serious problem and two-thirds of those polled say the job of legislator should be full time and without outside income. The Siena College poll also said that by an 84 percent to 14 percent margin, those polled believe lawmakers convicted of a crime having to do with their legislative duties should lose their pensions. New Yorkers confidence in state government in Albany hovers at historic levels, said Sienna pollster Steven Greenberg. Nearly nine out of 10 voters say corruption is a serious problem in Albany with more than half saying its a very serious problem. Greenberg said the state Senate and Assembly are each viewed favorably by fewer than 40 percent of voters. By nearly two-to-one margins60 percent to 34 percentvoters support making legislators full time and banning outside employment, Greenberg said. Voters from every party and region support making the Legislature full time and banning outside income, with the greatest support in New York City. Even if the Legislature was full time and all outside income banned by a 55 percent to 42 percent margin voters give a thumbs-down to a raise for legislators from their current $79,500 base pay, Greenberg said. As to a number of proposals by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a $3 billion renovation of Penn Station and the Dream Act, which would allow children of undocumented immigrants to receive financial aid for higher education, got a thumbs-down from voters, with 52 percent opposing it and 45 percent supporting it, Mayor Bill de Basio got a 38 percent to 46 percent rating statewide, but in New York City he is ahead 51 percent to 45 percent. More than 60 percent of voters support gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Cuomos proposal to enact paid family leave through an employee-funded program that provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to allow workers to bond with a new child or care for a sick relative is supported by voters 80 percent to 18 percent. The news tells us Israelis are being killed by Palestinians, but we rarely hear of the more common opposite truth: Israelis are killing Palestinians at a ratio of nearly 7 to 1. Beyond that, Israel keeps demolishing Palestinian homes in Area C, which is totally controlled by Israeli military and the settler-run "Civil Administration." Israel recently performed the largest demolition in their history, demolishing 22 homes, five toilets and confiscating five solar panel installations donated by internationals all in the arbitrarily-created "Firing Zone 918" in the South Hebron Hills. This displaces 110 people, 70 of them children; it continues Israel's displacement of Palestinian families that, in 2015, totaled 521 homes in Area C & East Jerusalem, according to OCHA. Israel's goal is to "Judaize" these areas, especially Jerusalem, which it wants as its "eternal capitol." Many demolition actions claim Palestinians have no building permits, yet only 1.5% of their applications are ever approved. Most are denied because, as one soldier put it, "You are Palestinian; you have to apply again and again!" Israel ordered evacuation of this particular area, Massafer Yatta, in 1999, but residents appealed and received an injunction conditioned on their entering arbitration. In 2012, Israel reduced the firing zone size, allowing 4 villages to remain. Now Israel has abruptly cancelled the arbitration unilaterally, starting demolitions instead. Eight other villages are to be demolished, making 1,000 people homeless, according to Israeli human rights group BTselem. This never-ending oppression infuriates Palestinian youth, who have never known peace and security. June Forsyth Kenagy Albany (Feb. 4) Airport development adding to economy, jobs in the region Pittsburgh may always be known as the Steel City, but a wave of new industries are popping up near its airport to redefine business in the region. Fighting flu starts with a shot, and it's time for Texans to get one The buzz about this year's presidential election is that we have a multibillionaire running for the office. If Donald Trump were to win, he would be our richest president by far. But very few of the people in the running for the top job are strapped for cash and few of the men who have held the office have had to worry about where their next meal was coming from. If Hillary Clinton were to win, her bank account couldn't hold a candle to Trump, but in my books, $45 million isn't chump change. In fact, Forbes' ranking of the wealth of presidential hopefuls shows most are rich by us working folks' standards. Carly Fiorina is worth $58 million, or roughly 1/80th the wealth of Trump. Forbes says the poor kid in the race is Marco Rubio, whose personal wealth is estimated at $100,000 and he carries a bunch of debt. Ted Cruz, whose wife can go back to a high-paying gig, is worth $3.5 million and Bernie Sanders, with $700,000 in the bank, isn't entirely one of the downtrodden he appeals to. Some of the candidates have made at least part of their money through media. Ben Carson and Rand Paul wrote successful books. Part of the Clintons' fortune can be attributed to the $15 million advance Bill got on a book he wrote after he left office. Mike Huckabee ($9 million) and John Kasich ($10 million) got money from their gigs on Fox News. USA Today did an interesting study of the wealth of former presidents as they would rank in 2015 dollars. From it we learn that Abraham Lincoln, who made a comfortable living for his family as a railroad lawyer, never broke the equivalent of $1 million. If Teddy Roosevelt were running today, he'd be second only to Donald Trump with $125 million. His cousin, Franklin, would barely top Fiorina with $60 million. Thomas Jefferson ended his life mired in debt but at one time was worth a whopping $212 million. Andrew Jackson, who ran as a man of the common people, married quite well and weighs in at $119 million. John Kennedy shared in a family trust with an estimated total value of $1 billion. Born to humble circumstances in the Texas Hill Country, Lyndon Johnson amassed $98 million from radio and TV holdings. So, up to this date, who has been the richest president? The answer might surprise you. Marrying into vast lands held by his once-widowed wife and earning 2 percent of the national budget as salary George Washington succeeded in business as well as politics. His estimated worth was the equivalent of $525 million. And that's enough to turn even Donald Trump's head. Lynn Walker, whose column appears here on Saturdays, may be reached at walkerl@timesrecordnews.com or 940-763-7528. CHRISTOPHER WALKER/TIMES RECORD NEWS A Wichita Falls police officer detains a woman Thursday afternoon at the Wayfarer motel located in the 600 block of Central Freeway. The woman was one of two people detained in connection with a police investigation into stolen vehicles and credit cards. SHARE Bilyeu Grover King By Patrick Johnston New details have emerged as Wichita Falls police sort through the chaotic incidents involving stolen vehicles and credit cards. According to probably cause affidavits: Around 7:39 a.m. Thursday, a woman reported her Hyundai Elantra had been stolen from outside her apartment in the 1700 block of Midwestern Parkway. She told officers she left the vehicle running in the parking lot. She observed a Nissan Altima pull up behind her car and that a man jumped out, got into her car and drove off. Around 8:30 a.m., officers tracked the vehicle to the Clinics of North Texas parking lot. Security footage showed the suspects removing property from the Elantra and leaving in the Altima. When the woman came to identify the Elantra, she said her wallet with credit cards were stolen from the vehicle. The woman looked at her bank account online and saw her credit cards being used at several businesses. Video from those locations showed the suspects driving a Ford F-150. Around 11:40 a.m., an officer drove past the Wayfarer Motel, 600 Central E Fwy., and noticed an Altima matching the stolen vehicle. Witnesses at the scene said they saw the occupants of a particular room driving the Altima and a Ford F-150. A records check of the VIN revealed the truck had been reported stolen on Jan. 27 and the license plates had been switched. Officers entered that room when they heard an occupant in the room cry for help, saying he'd been severely assaulted. They located Ashley Lynn Bilyeu, 28, and Larry Earnest Grover, 25, inside the room. They also found Luke King, 33, inside a storage room next to the bedroom, which he'd gained entry to by busting a hole through the connected wall. The keys for the Altima and F-150 were found in the room, as well as property belonging to all three vehicles. They also found property from the Elantra in the Altima. While on the scene, King told police that he and Grover had stolen the vehicles and used the credit cards at the businesses. WFPD Public Information Officer Tim Johnson said police believe King swallowed a bag of methamphetamine before being found in the storage room. King began to have a reaction to the digestion of the bag and was taken to United Regional Health Care System, Johnson said. Bilyeu and Grover were arrested and charged with engaging in organized criminal activity theft more than $30,000 and less than $150,000. Their bail was set at $100,000 each and they remained in Wichita County Jail Friday afternoon. King was taken to Wichita County Jail Friday afternoon and is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity theft more than $30,000 and less than $150,000, forgery and several other charges. His bail had not been set. Johnson said charges related to the stolen debit or credit cards are pending investigation at this time. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Albany Correctional officers in state prisons may soon be using pepper spray to quell potential fights with and among inmates. They're deploying portable metal detectors to better ferret out homemade knives. And they plan to cut the use of canned goods in prison commissaries, thus denying troublemakers the use of sharp metal lids that can be turned into weapons. Another move: showing correctional officers a video dubbed "Games Inmates Play'' alerting them to efforts that prisoners may use to manipulate guards. Despite these increased security efforts, lawmakers had plenty of questions during a budget hearing Thursday for Acting Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Anthony Annucci. Several asked about the cost (an estimated $25 million, mostly for police and prison guard overtime) of June's prison break at the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. That was when Richard Matt and David Sweat tunneled their way out of the prison, setting off a weeks-long manhunt. Matt was eventually shot and killed while Sweat was shot and recaptured. Investigations found evidence of laxity in the prison. Prison guard Gene Palmer was charged with two felonies for inadvertently helping the pair and a civilian employee, Joyce Mitchell, was convicted of helping Matt and Sweat. Then came a series of newspaper reports in The New York Times about mistreatment and beatings of prisoners, followed by a Times Union expose of corruption and mismanagement in the prison system's own internal affairs or Inspector General's office. Annucci told lawmakers that he has since revamped the inspector general's office, replacing it with a new Office of Special Investigations with a chief reporting to him directly. Not everyone was impressed. Manhattan Democratic Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell quipped that "I went out and bought some skinny jeans but that doesn't mean I'm skinny.'' O'Donnell, who earlier in the year led hearings on allegations of prisoner abuse, has called for an independent outside oversight agency. Critiques came from those like O'Donnell, who was concerned with the treatment of inmates, as well as from GOP lawmakers who wanted more protections for guards as well as better information on and watchfulness of parolees. "I've seen way too many assaults on correctional officers,'' said Republican Assemblywoman Janet Duprey of Plattsurgh. Finger Lakes Republican Sen. Mike Nozzolio got cheers from the audience when he called for more parole officers. "If the parole system is not broken, it is severely cracked," said Rochester-area GOP Sen. Richard Funke, who recited three cases in which parolees killed people in the area. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Beirut Thousands of Syrians rushed toward the Turkish border Friday, fleeing a fierce government offensive and intense Russian airstrikes near Syria's largest city of Aleppo. Turkey, an ally of the Syrian opposition, promised humanitarian help for the displaced civilians, including food and shelter, but it did not say whether it would let them cross into the country, already burdened with hundreds of thousands of refugees. "The attacks and bombings by the Russian planes and the Syrian regime have left our brothers with nowhere else to go," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said in a televised speech. The U.N. estimated that nearly 40,000 newly displaced people have massed in recent days in several border areas of northern Syria, including about 20,000 near the Bab al-Salam border crossing. Turkish authorities increased security at the crossing and the pro-government A Haber news channel said all police and military leaves were canceled. The international aid group Mercy Corps said that among those fleeing toward Turkey were residents of rebel-held areas of Aleppo who feared they would soon be besieged by government forces, while others were running from troops advancing in rural areas. The Syrian government offensive began earlier this week in rural areas north of Aleppo, the provincial capital, and appears aimed at eventually encircling the city. Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad captured several towns and villages, driving a wedge into rebel-held areas and cutting off a supply road to Turkey. Once Syria's thriving commercial center, Aleppo has been divided since 2012 between government- and rebel-controlled districts. A government siege of rebel strongholds could isolate tens of thousands of civilians and would deal a devastating blow to the morale of groups fighting to topple Assad for the last five years. THE ISSUE: The city of Albany tries to cope with a persistent budget deficit and too little state aid. THE STAKES: Will the mayor's gambit finally persuade the state to treat the capital city fairly? More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion See More Collapse It's always nice to hear about a new and interesting state initiative in the city of Albany. Quite often it means more jobs and prestige for New York's capital city. It also typically means two things that aren't so nice: more demand for city services, and zero new revenue from the state to help pay for them. Such will no doubt be the case with the planned $184 million Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex at the Gov. W. Averell Harriman State Office Campus. The 12-acre E-TEC project will house a new College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, and serve as the hub of Mesonet, a state-of-the-art weather monitoring system designed to better track storms. Space will also be devoted to bringing real-world applications of high-tech research to market. All that stuff is certainly welcome, as are the estimated 1,600 construction jobs and the 1,000 people expected to occupy the facility daily. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office can no doubt crunch that $184 million number through its multiplier machine and come up with even bigger estimates for the impact the state investment would have on the city's and region's economy. Not to sound ungrateful, but none of that will balance the city budget. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. It won't pave the city streets around Harriman or fill the potholes. It won't pay for city EMTs or paramedics to show up when some of those 1,600 construction workers or 1,000 permanent employees and students get hurt. It won't pay for the police who will be called to handle accidents and thefts and arguments that get out of control. It won't pay a dime in property tax in a city where homeowners and businesses have to cover much of the cost of the honor of hosting state government and its billions of dollars worth of tax-exempt property. The city has rightfully been complaining for years that it's shortchanged on state aid. Albany receives the least aid of all the state's larger cities (excluding New York City) about $129 per capita compared with an average of $520 per capita among its peers. The state's answer is that Albany benefits from the presence of state government in many other ways, offsetting the costs of hosting state government and an influx of tens of thousands of state workers daily. What's different this year is Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan's rather audacious move to leave a gap in the city budget of $12.5 million a hole she is challenging the state to fill, or, one might say, daring it not to. Imagine a capital city forced to slash services mid-year and making it a point to say this is because the state won't pay its fair share. Mayor Sheehan wants the state to cover that deficit for five years. Even better would be an aid increase that isn't just a short-term favor like all the past ones the city has had to beg for, but one with the permanence Albany truly is owed. Closing that gap, incidentally, works out to about $139 per capita a little more than a third of the $391 difference between Albany's current aid and the average aid among larger New York cities. It's not often you get to do the right thing at a deep discount. Mr. Cuomo and the Legislature should take advantage of the offer. It's been a rough couple weeks for New Yorkers and our values. We were insulted by Ted Cruz and then defended by Donald Trump. Happily, news gets old quickly these days. But in all the excitement, did anyone ever clarify what "New York values" actually were? Not Cruz. He just claimed that Americans knew exactly what "New York values" meant, kind of like "no one can define pornography, but everyone knows it when they see it." As for Trump, he only defended New Yorkers by reminding everyone of our indisputably courageous response to 9/11. In 2001, of course, everyone loved New York and perceived it as that most quintessential of American places. No one questioned our values. Only now, in this election year, do things seem different. Values don't change on a politician's whim, however. They take shape over time. New York's did, certainly, when they evolved along with the nation's. And over the course of several centuries, New York, arguably, influenced the country's development more and reflected its history and values more fully than any other state. Take Colonial America, for example. New Amsterdam (later New York) was founded by the commercially-minded Dutch. Other colonies trace their origins to religious or political refugees who tended to discriminate against non-conformers. But according to historian Russell Shorto, the Dutch instilled within their colony a unique appreciation for those who spoke other languages and practiced different religions. Why? Because welcoming people from other cultures was simply good business. Even today, New York remains one of the freest and most welcoming and ethnically diverse places in the United States. Is there any greater symbol of New York and American values than the Statue of Liberty? As for the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay (along with Virginia's James Madison) drafted it, more or less, when they authored the Federalist Papers. And other New Yorkers concerned that the federal government would become too powerful laid the groundwork for the Bill of Rights at the state's ratifying convention in Poughkeepsie. Right from the start, New Yorkers knew it was in the public interest for their government to promote economic development and that's why New York state financed the Erie Canal. The canal would open the American West to trade and transform New York into the center of American business and the country's wealthiest state. Even though New York was divided over slavery before the Civil War, meanwhile, both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman established themselves as two of the greatest champions of human rights in American history. And when the fighting broke out, no other state would provide more men, money, and materiel to a U.S. war effort that would, in the end, enable four million Americans to gain their freedom. Douglass was also a delegate to the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and an activist for women's rights a cause led by his fellow New Yorkers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. New York would grant women the right to vote in 1917, three years before passage of the 19th Amendment. Of course, there is also a downside to New York's history. Consider, for example, the 1863 Draft Riots, Boss Tweed, the Triangle Fire, Attica, Love Canal, Bernie Madoff, and the continuing saga of corruption in Albany. New Yorkers, however, fix problems. They don't sweep them under the rug or assume that some magical natural force will make them go away. Take Theodore Roosevelt, for example. As governor, he saved public lands from exploitation and, as president, busted trusts, regulated railroads, and ensured food and drug safety. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. In New York, as in America, government doesn't threaten freedom. It guarantees it. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." Indeed. Under FDR's New York-styled leadership, Americans fought their way out of the Great Depression and, during World War II, overcame the greatest challenge to freedom that Americans ever faced. There are, of course, many other ways in which New York has both reflected and influenced American history and values. New York's history makers include John Peter Zenger, Nathan Hale, Cornelius Vanderbilt, P.T. Barnum, Walt Whitman, Samuel Gompers, J.P. Morgan, Frances Perkins, Jackie Robinson, Leonard Bernstein, Pete Seeger, William F. Buckley, Shirley Chisholm, Lenny Bruce, Tim Russert, Sonia Sotomayor, and many more. New York is the site of Woodstock, West Point, and Stonewall. And it's where both the National Rifle Association and Planned Parenthood were founded. New Yorkers are diverse, obviously, but also democratic, gregarious, tolerant, opinionated, cosmopolitan, folksy, creative, talented, entrepreneurial, patriotic, proud, tough, and don't let anyone tell you differently very American. Robert Weible of Albany served as New York's state historian from 2008 to 2015 and is a past president of the National Council on Public History. He co-wrote, "An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War," with Jennifer Lemak and Aaron Noble. Now that Ted Cruz has won Iowa's Republican presidential caucus, he may want to listen more closely to those evangelicals who supported him on the subject of climate change. Just last month, the Texas senator, who chairs the Senate's Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, proudly claimed, "According to the satellite data, there has been no significant global warming for the past 18 years." The evidence clearly shows that 14 of the 15 warmest years ever recorded all happened since 2000. And 2015 was the hottest on record in human history. The relationship between the burning of fossil fuels and the rise in Earth's temperature is no longer a matter of correlation. According to 97 percent of climate scientists, it's a matter of causation. More Information Aaron Daniel Taylor is the producer of "We Know Not What We Do," a spiritual and artistic documentary examining climate change from a moral perspective. See More Collapse Yet, too often in the American political landscape the question is asked, "Do you believe in human-caused climate change?" as if the issue were a matter of personal preference that bends to the will of politicians, not the laws of chemistry and physics. Fortunately, many evangelicals are ahead of Cruz on this issue. And here's to hoping they can convince Cruz and other climate change skeptics of the scientific consensus. One key strategy is to stress values. Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric research scientist at Texas Tech University and a contributor to the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, knows that when appealing to climate-change skeptics "facts are not enough." She should know. Hayhoe is also a pastor's wife, and because of her role as a climate scientist and born-again Christian, she often gives talks to evangelical Christians. Hayhoe's approach is to connect with shared values, before laying out the specifics of climate science. All people of goodwill care about the relationship between pollution and the health of their children, but evangelicals in particular are under a strong mandate to care for the least of these, as Jesus commanded. By connecting to universally shared values and appealing to the authority of Scripture, Hayhoe repudiates arguments against climate action. Brian Webb, who has studied the effectiveness of her talks, says her approach appears to be working. Webb is the founder of Climate Caretakers, a Christian campaign aimed at mobilizing U.S. evangelicals to pray and act on climate change as part of a faithful Christian lifestyle. American evangelicals play a critical role in the fight against climate change. "The United States is the only industrialized country in the world where denial of climate change has become inextricably linked to a dominant political party. And evangelicals form the most solid foundation for this party," Webb says. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. Webb believes that responding to climate change is inherently a Christian act, just as caring for God's creation and loving our neighbors. He also believes that mobilizing American evangelicals for climate action can be a game-changer for the world. Thankfully, people like Hayhoe and Webb are starting to get some help from the top. Not only is the World Evangelical Alliance under the leadership of Bishop Efraim M. Tendero passionately on board; the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 local churches from nearly 40 different denominations and serves a constituency of millions, has also signed on. In October, the NAE officially passed a resolution affirming the Lausanne Cape Town Commitment of 2010. This global evangelical statement affirms, among other things, the need for Christians to adopt lifestyles that renounce habits of consumption that are destructive or polluting and to recognize the calling of Christians who engage in the protection and restoration of the Earth's habitats and species through conservation and advocacy. As the heat-record-shattering year 2015 came to a close, the world came together in Paris to hash out an agreement to signal the end of the fossil fuel era. It was a good start, but now the real work begins. It's heartening to see my evangelical brothers and sisters embracing climate action. Faith in Jesus and caring for the environment should go hand in hand. As a candidate for president whose base rests with evangelical voters, Cruz may want to listen to the heartfelt pleas of his most devoted constituency. When it comes to climate change, they have something to tell him. There is still hope for all of us who have yet to achieve our New Year's resolutions, or even to embark upon them. Now, five weeks into 2016, we have a second chance, because it's a new year all over again, and, besides, that's just the way we do things in America. Monday is the beginning of the Chinese New Year, starting the Year of the Monkey, 4714. Tradition holds that you should clean house literally, that is, in order to sweep away bad luck. You're also supposed to give money to children in red paper envelopes, which those of us now paying our kids' college tuition by the bucketload now look back upon with fondness. Anyway, if 2016 has been disappointing so far, take heart. Not that the Year of the Monkey will be easy. One Chinese zodiac site I consulted suggested that it will take special intelligence to make money this year, because the monkey is a smart and naughty creature. "Think twice," this site cautioned, "before you leap when making changes for your finance, career, business relationship and people relationship." That syntax suggests authenticity, I'd say, so I'm going to pay attention. Having a new New Year is in keeping with America's great tradition of second chances. To our credit, we tend to turn the other cheek to friends who betray a confidence, to adolescents who misbehave and to addicts who have lost their willpower. More Information Rex Smith is editor of the Times Union. Share your thoughts at http://blog.timesunion.com/editors. See More Collapse That line famously attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald, "There are no second acts in American life," actually isn't true. (Fitzgerald didn't think so, either; more on that in a moment.) We're all about giving a sucker a break, or giving a loser another shot at winning. Take Donald Trump, whose experience in losing didn't begin with this week's Iowa caucuses. He claims a net worth of $8.7 billion, but bristles when people point out that one of the reasons he has that much wealth is because he or companies bearing his name have gotten second chances when they failed actually, four second chances, counting bankruptcies Trump declared in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. Some bondholders got burned, but not Trump. The bigger you are, apparently, the softer you fall, at least if your cushion is held by a big bank. Now Trump has moved into a realm where second chances are similarly abundant. In politics, there's seldom shame in losing, even if your losing is ugly. Consider Richard Nixon's bitter "last press conference," as he called it, when he lost a race for governor of California two years after he had lost the 1960 presidential race. He came back six years later to win the White House. Despite felonious behavior there, some people now recall his tenure warmly. Or think of Andrew Cuomo, who failed miserably when he ran for governor in 2002, but had a remarkable political resurrection four years later, becoming the state's attorney general. That put him in place to win the governorship in 2010. Voters even gave a second shot to Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor who disappeared for almost a week in 2009 not to hike the Appalachian Trail, as his staff at first claimed, but to hie himself to Argentina to be with a mistress. Two years after leaving the governorship in shame, he was elected to Congress. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. The second chance voters gave Sanford like that they gave U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican who was re-elected even after Hustler magazine revealed that he was a client of a notorious prostitution service seems less like reconsideration than forgiveness. Voters are usually more willing to forgive than professional politicians, as you may conclude from a favorite political maxim of Ed Koch, who won three terms as mayor of New York City: "Seldom forgive. Never forget." Yet if they can set aside politicians' personal transgressions, voters aren't as flexible in overlooking their issue stances. The flexibility to adjust to new understanding or circumstances that is considered thoughtful and mature behavior in other venues is viewed as irredeemable flip-flopping when it appears in public officials. Hillary Clinton can't 's escape the health care reform plan she championed 23 years ago though few recall what it actually would have done. Yet Clinton is still pushing on, as is Trump, of course, and Cuomo. Perhaps the lesson is that you can't be shy about asking for that second chance. Fitzgerald actually liked the idea. That "no second acts" line shows up in the novel "The Last Tycoon," published in 1941, after his death, but he had written it first in a 1932 essay, adding, "but there was certainly to be a second act to New York's boom days." As there can be for us all. There's never a bad time to start over, to try again. Maybe start by sweeping up. Happy New Year. 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. Joe Fink, left, of Pittsburgh, won the biggest payout in the Canadohta Lake Ice Fishing Tournament last year, with a 28 3/4-inch northern pike that tipped the scales at 5 1/2 pounds. The annual tournament is organized by Jerry Van Tassel Jr., owner of Timberland Bait Shop. Here's how much your natural gas bill will go up this winter Provides well-researched analytical, often humourous takes on political, economic, social, cultural, technological and ideological issues and struggles that have to do with Kenya, Africa and the world from a progressive world outlook....Anything goes in terms of topics- from literature to comedy to relationships... When an upcoming book The Man Who Dared To Think Beyond, is the showcasing of Mithila at the global level. Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: It was in the year 2009-... Introduction Last year, we asked Tom's Hardware readers to rate their Internet service providers (ISP). After receiving feedback from more than 3,100 audience members from across the United States, we chose the four most-voted companies for the Tom's Hardware ISP Review Survey. Participants were asked to rate their ISP's price, performance, reliability and support on a scale of one to five stars, with one being the lowest possible score and five being the highest. We also averaged each category's total score and rounded each result to the nearest one-quarter star. Then, we provided the mathematical average of each score, allowing us to compare the companies later on. Verizon is the only company in our series offering mainstream availability of fiber-optic Internet services (in addition to DSL options). After reviewing the ratings from 234 customers of Verizon's Internet services, it's time to determine how it stacks up in Tom's Hardware's ISP Review. History In 1984, there was a break-up of the massive Bell Operating Co. that previously monopolized the communications industry. Seven "Baby Bell" companies were created, five of which were eventually reacquired by AT&T. The only two remaining Baby Bells were Bell Atlantic and NYNEX. In 1995, Bell Atlantic formed a joint partnership with NYNEX, and by 1997, the two companies merged in a $24 billion deal to become the second-largest telephone company in the U.S, serving more than 35 million customers from Maine to Virginia. This company was venturing into the expanding wireless communications segment, and was poised to obtain a healthy market share in the Northeastern regions. In 2000, Bell Atlantic NYNEX merged with GTE Corp. and changed its name to Verizon Communications Inc. The $52 billion merger took almost two years to complete, with 27 state regulatory commissions, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission and various international agencies evaluating and providing clearance for the deal. Up until that point, the company was mostly focused on wireless communications, launching its 3G network in 2002. It wasn't until 2005 that Verizon launched its FiOS all-fiber broadband Internet and TV service. FiOS is a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) telecommunications service, first introduced in Keller, Texas and Herndon, Virginia in late 2005. Coverage later expanded to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Florida, California, Oregon and Washington; even today, the coverage area continues to grow. Verizon spent the remainder of the decade acquiring communications companies to expand its customer base. These purchases included companies like MCI in 2006, CyberTrust in 2007 and Rural Cellular in 2008. In 2010, Verizon deployed its 4G LTE network, starting in 39 major markets and covering more than 110 million people on the first day. This expansion tightened the company's grip on the wireless communications industry. After Superstorm Sandy, which affected many parts of the Atlantic Coast, Verizon rewired the entire networking grid of Lower Manhattan with 100 percent fiber-optic lines, expanding its FiOS home Internet service to the largest city in the country. The past two years were impressive for Verizon. The company bought out Vodafone's 45 percent stake in 2014 for an astounding $130 billion. As a wholly owned entity, Verizon was able to take advantage of the changing market dynamics and, in May 2015, announced the acquisition of AOL, one of the early pioneers of the Internet service industry. As of Q3 2015, Verizon reported 6.9 million home Internet service customers (opens in new tab), more than two-thirds of whom are subscribing to FiOS Quantum Internet (fiber-optic) plans. With strong growth projected for its FiOS offerings, Verizon continues to expand its reach and appeal with incredibly fast fiber-optic Internet access. Technology Verizon's home Internet services are based on two different technologies: DSL and fiber-optics. These services are available in many of the same regions, with the exception being Rhode Island, which does not appear to offer fiber-optic Internet plans. Fiber-optic connections transport data at extremely high speeds with low latency using light, providing industry-leading download and upload speeds. This is an incredible advantage over cable- and DSL-based Internet services; upload speeds for those older technologies peak at a fraction of advertised download speeds for fiber-optics networks. Verizon high-speed (DSL) Internet service is available to an estimated 62 million homes, and FiOS fiber-optic services are available to an estimated 41 million people. Here's a table of Verizon's Internet service plans, speeds, prices and primary service regions: Speeds (In Mb/s) Prices (Per Month, Non Promotional) Primary Service Regions Technology 1, 3, 7, 15, $15, $30, $30, $30 CA, CT, DE, DC, FL, IN, MA, MD, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, TX, VA DSL 50, 100, 150, 300, 500 $55, $65, $75, $175, $275 CA, CT, DE, DC, FL, IN, MA, MD, NJ, NY, PA, RI, TX, VA Fiber-Optic Internet Although DSL pricing falls in the middle of the road, Verizon no longer sells individual DSL service packages; they can only be purchased along with a landline phone service. In addition, the company no longer sells fixed-speed DSL plans above 1 Mb/s. The $30-per-month plans (up to 3, 7 and 15 Mb/s) are not guaranteed to be available, and your top speed depends on the strength and condition of the local network. Performance and top speeds naturally vary by region, and it's more or less the luck of the draw for DSL connections from Verizon. JACKSON COUNTY LEGISLATOR CRYSTAL WILLIAMS MIGHT HAVE STARTED A FULL SCALE WAR WITH LABOR IN SUPPORT OF HER GIRL POWER BUDDIES!!! Fallout from the power shift in Jackson County continues to have implications throughout the local political landscape on one fight raging behind the scenes has piqued the interest of our blog community.To wit . . .Previously, organized labor leaders in Kansas City seemed to allow the local Democratic "girl power" contingent a great deal of leeway in their political posturing. Like it or not, the unions still have most of the money when it comes to getting out of the vote but the good vibes are important to ignite the party base and help to add to the otherwise pathetic dating pool among local political scene. (Ewww)What's the beef?JaxCo legislator Crystal Williams' support of her gal pal Angela Malone for a seat on the county over Sherwood Smith has called Crystal's union support into question.Even worse . . .Jackson County Insiders say that local labor leaders suspect Crystal was the key vote in thwarting the efforts of Sherwood Smith for the appointment to the legislator.This is bad news given that money for Democrats has become scarce in Missouri and some party officials are growing increasingly annoyed with Crystal Williams supporting primary "girl power" challengers that serve mostly to waste cash with costly Democratic infighting.Meanwhile, the response to Crystal's continued divisive political tactics might include not only rougher union campaigning against girl power friends during primary slapfights but also a labor supported challenger for Crystal's next election.The fact is . . . Local "girl power" ladies like Crystal talk a great game about labor but when the time came to support a labor leader getting a spot on the County Legislature . . . Crystal picked her girl power friend rather than organizers who had previously supported her campaign efforts.Developing . . . CHECK THIS EPIC LIST OF KANSAS CITY DENIZENS WHO HAVE ESCAPED THE COST OF THE EARNINGS TAX!!! - A KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTER REMINDS US THAT THE SUPER RICH CAN ESCAPE THE KANSAS CITY E-TAX . . . "Exemptions from earnings tax include disability, social security, retirement, pension, workers compensation, and unemployment compensation. Also exempted are contributions to and distributions from deferred tax plans, interest, dividends and investment income. My thought is the folks that supported the e-tax last time around don't pay the e-tax - you know the 1% . . ." - Kansas City Super Lawyers Polsinelli get their E-tax handed right back to them in STL according to the RiverFront times expose. - Also, STL is now offering a tax exemption credit for those working out of state whilst Kansas City lingers behind in abiding by a recent ruling from the Supreme Court. LIKE IT OR NOT . . . ONLY SUCKERS AND WORKING STIFFS ARE PAYING THE KANSAS CITY E-TAX!!! The fight to renew the Kansas City earnings tax argues for ongoing support of city services and first responders but fails to mention all of rich, lucky and connected denizens who have found a way to escape the cost of doing biz in this cowtown.To wit . . .Turns out, a great many local power players supporting the tax push aren't paying . . . Take a peek:In the final analysis . . .Turns out that a great deal of income the power players at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce take down doesn't fund this controversial levy at all despite desperate pleas to renew the regressive tax.You decide . . . THANKS TO KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTERS WE'VE GOT A LOOK THE LATEST MISSIVE FROM TEAM TAMIKA ATTACKING WYCO COURTS!!! WyCo Kangaroo Court of Kansas "The release of this document is dedicated to all of those who are falsely incarcerated, convicted or currently facing charges at the hands of WyCo Kangaroo Court of Kansas. Do not take the picture above personal for it is not targeted towards any individual nor is it connected to anyone connected to the case. It is an image of how I am treated and how I feel during the judicial process." What is Kangaroo Court? "Kangaroo Court is an unfair, biased, or hasty judicial proceeding that ends in a harsh punishment; an unauthorized trial conducted by individuals who have taken the law into their own hands; a proceeding and its leaders who are considered sham, corrupt, and without regard for the law." is accused of running down the four teenagers in her car. In the aftermath of a tragic crash, 16-year-old Tierra Smith died as a result of her injuries.Since last yearto deny the court's authority against her.And now . . .Local news has previously reported on the attempts to dismiss the case but nobody mentioned theHere's a quote from. . .Here'sand sent to a pretty impressive mailing list . . .. . . The European Commissions winter estimates show the first signs of stabilisation of the Greek economy, according to EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. He underlined that despite the fact that Greece will record recession in 2016, it will be smaller than expected in the autumn forecast, which, as he said, is a "positive development." Despite the difficult last year, these are the first signs of recovery, said the French Commissioner and added that "the improved forecasts should not stop the efforts or lose the last months momentum." "The implementation of reforms is the key," he noted. Moscovici did not hide, however, his concern over the negative impact of a possible new resurgence of the Greek crisis on the world economy. Referring to the negotiations held in Athens between Greek authorities and the representatives of institutions, he said that the Commission will continue "its pressure to quickly complete the first program review", stressing, however, that "both sides share the responsibility." 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. Gulf Industry Fair, the Northern Gulf region's biggest showcase for the industrial sector, will host the inaugural 'Innovation for Industry Forum' on February 10 in Bahrain. The forum will add an important dimension to a show format that is already renowned as a valuable showcase for Northern Gulf industries - from world-scale manufacturing plants to specialist equipment suppliers, distributors and agencies representing the key segments of aluminium, energy and environmental protection, steel and alloys, industrial processes and manufacturing, ports, industrial facilities and logistics, training for industry; and industrial security and safety. The regions premier industry fair will take place at Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre from February 9 to 11 under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain, said the event organiser Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE). The invitation-only forum is being held under the patronage of Zayed Al Zayani, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, on the second day of the show. It will see experts sharing their professional knowledge on topics such as incubating innovations in industry, cyber security and the eco-industrial development. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce considers events such as Gulf Industry Fair to be important platforms to showcase the achievements of the private sector and build their business strategy for the present and the future. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism regards high innovation performance as a contributor to economic growth and job creation, said the event organiser. Alzayani will also be presenting the iTech Awards which recognise innovation and best practices within the information and communications technology (ICT) sector as it serves businesses. The instruments for growth and renewal are vital in this period of difficult economic and societal challenges. The Innovation Forum will highlight two global products "made in Bahrain". Taha International will promote the innovative use of scrap aluminium (dross) for fertiliser that is used in the farms of New Zealand, said the statement from HCE. Ahmed Hussain of IPIFI will preview a unique IP identification and security system, developed by his company and implemented at leading financial institutions and industrial companies in the GCC and globally. On the inaugural forum, Jubran Abdulrahman, the managing director of HCE, said: "The forum is committed to starting a discussion by the industrial leaders of the region about innovative approaches to increase to the added value products of business and companies." Gulf Industry Fair is supported by some of Bahrains most high profile industrial organisations, including the National Oil & Gas Authority (Noga) in association with Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), and Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), who will, respectively, sponsor the energy and aluminium sectors.-TradeArabia News Service Bahrain is ready to commit ground troops to Syria as part of a US-led coalition against Islamic State, the Gulf kingdom said on Friday, a day after its larger neighbour and close ally Saudi Arabia announced a similar pledge. Bahraini ambassador to Britain Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Khalifa said in a statement that Bahrain would commit troops to operate "in concert with the Saudis" under what he called the international coalition against terrorism. He added that the United Arab Emirates, a fellow member of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), was also ready to commit troops, echoing an assertion made late last year by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash. Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the US-led alliance decides to start such operations, an adviser to the Saudi defence minister said. The Bahraini ambassador said the Saudi initiative in Syria was meant to combat both Islamic State and "the brutal Assad regime", a reference to President Bashar al-Assad, a bitter foe of Saudi Arabia. Shaikh Fawaz also announced the GCC had decided to base a new unified GCC naval operations centre in Bahrain. "The establishment of a joint (Gulf Arab) force shows clearly and unequivocally that under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states are determined to take positive action within the region and globally to combat terrorism and extremism, from whatever quarter they emanate," he said. Reuters A fire at a hotel in the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region killed 17 people on Friday, the governor of Erbil told a local media network, and the hotel manager said they included foreigners. Governor Nawzad Hadi told Rudaw TV that 14 of the victims were not from the autonomous region, but that their nationality was not yet known. The cause of the fire was not clear, but Hadi said an electrical fault was suspected. The manager of the Capitol Hotel told Rudaw the fire had started in a massage parlour next door and that some of those killed were from the Philippines. Many foreign workers came to Kurdistan after 2003, when the region experienced an oil fuelled economic boom, inviting comparisons with the Gulf emirate of Dubai.-Reuters Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday that Iran's crude oil sales to Europe after the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran had already reached above 300,000 barrels, according to the ministry's news agency. Iran's oil exports, which had peaked at more than 3 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2011, fell to a little more than 1 million bpd after tougher sanctions were imposed in 2012 because of its nuclear programme. After the rubber-stamping of the nuclear deal with world powers last year, however, Tehran has ordered a 500,000 bpd increase in oil output. "Based on the contract signed between the National Iranian Oil Co and France's Total, it was agreed that Total will buy 160,000 bpd of crude oil from Iran to be delivered in Europe," Zanganeh was quoted as saying by news agency Shana, adding that the contract would be finalised on February 16. Zanganeh also said Italy's Eni was interested in buying 100,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran and its representatives would visit Tehran in near future to discuss the contract. "Eni has voiced its interest in one of Iran's fields which will be treated like the agreement reached with Total," he said. Iran's oil minister said Italian refiner Saras was interested in buying 60,000 to 70,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran. Tehran is sweetening the terms it offers on oil development contracts to draw the interest of foreign investors deterred by sanctions and low crude prices, as its pragmatic president seeks to deliver on his promise of economic recovery. The new contracts, which include those in the upstream exploration and development sectors are expected to attract more than $40 billion in foreign investment. Iran has postponed a planned oil conference in London, which was due to have taken place in February to reveal its new contracts, until November. An Iranian official said "the U.S. urged Tehran to hold off" until a final nuclear deal was penned.-Reuters The U.N. body charged with protecting the rights of children has told the government of Iran that its laws allowing sex with girls as young as 9-years-old and capital punishment of minors must be changed. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child announced its condemnation of Irans practices Thursday after 18 experts completed a review of 14 countries, including Iran. Irans current law allows the state to execute minors for capital crimes, a violation of international agreements as well as the forced marriage of young girls. The age of criminal responsibility in Iran is discriminatory, it is lower and lower for girls, that is to say nine lunar years (8 years & 9 months in standard years) while for boys it is 15. At nine a girl can marry, even if the law sets the age at 13, said Hynd Ayoubi Idrissi, one of the panelists on the investigative group. Idrissi expressed the committees concern that girls aged 10 and younger were being forced to marry men of significantly older age The chairman of the panel, Benyam Mezmur, rebuked Irans death penalty laws, saying: the age of criminal responsibility is very low and there are instances where the death penalty can apply for persons below the age of 18 or for offences they committed while below the age of 18. Irans child sex abuse problem goes beyond the legal statutes concerning the U.N., the country also is notorious for the sex trafficking of children. According to a 2015 report on human trafficking by the U.S. state department, Iran is considered one of the worst offenders. Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor, says the report, from 2009-2015, there was a reported increase in the transport of girls from and through Iran en route to the Gulf where organized groups sexually exploited or forced them into marriages. Iran has consistently ranked among the worst countries for sex trafficking for the past seven years. Many things fascinate me and many others irritate me! Just venting my inner flames here. Peeping from ivory tower. :) Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: "What does his voice sound like?" "What games does he like best?" "Does he collect butterflies?". They ask: "How old is he?" "How many brothers does he have?" "How much does he weigh?" "How much money does his father make?" Only then do they think they know him. ---Antoine de Saint-Exupery Boston Globe had proves it they're peddling to show that the sweaty little high-heeled man-boy is moving up. The Kochs, Adelson, et all, are petrified that Herr or Cruz will win the nomination and trigger a gigantic landslide -- up and down the ticket-- away from the GOP. The Globe insists the race in New Hampshire "is tightening." The RealClearPolitics average among New Hampshire GOP voters has Herr at 31.1%, and Rubio at around half that with 15.1%. But... The corporate media is desperately pushing the establishment line that insider Marco Rubio can beat Herr Trumpf. And thehad a poll thatthey're peddling to show that the sweaty little high-heeled man-boy is moving up. The Kochs, Adelson, et all, are petrified that Herr or Cruz will win the nomination and trigger a gigantic landslide -- up and down the ticket-- away from the GOP. Pressure is mounting on Jeb and the other establishment candidates to stop attacking Rubio.insists the race in New Hampshire "is tightening." The RealClearPolitics average among New Hampshire GOP voters has Herr at 31.1%, and Rubio at around half that with 15.1%. But... With four days until New Hampshires first-in-the-nation presidential primary, the Republican contest is tightening at the top and churning in the middle as one third of likely Republican voters say they could still change their mind, according to a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released Friday. New York businessman Donald Trump has a nearly 10 percentage-point lead over the field-- but the gap between him and the rest of the field has shrunk since his disappointing second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. Trump received 29 percent in the survey, while US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida took second place with 19 percent. ...What a difference a caucus makes, said David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk University. By exceeding expectations in Iowa, Marco Rubio is converting likability to electability even more so than Ted Cruz, who, like many conservative Iowa winners of the past like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, cant seem to convert an Iowa win into a major showing in New Hampshire. Politico Steven Shepard, writing for warns readers to ignore New Hampshire's volatile polls , which, he asserts, "may" be even less predictive than Iowa's. And this, the establishment narrative goes, is helping Rubio. New York Observer, unload all the crap and sleaze on Rubio they could dig up, a warning that if Rubio attacks him personally, Trumpf will uses his big megaphone to end the bubble boy's slimy career. Friday, without much fanfare, colossally unpopular former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, one of the big jokes of the 2106 Republican race, endorsed Rubio, excited about Rubio's neocon foreign policy agenda. Meanwhile, Herr Trumpf fired a shot over the bow of Rubio's S.S. Pinafore by having his son-in-law's paper, the, unload all the crap and sleaze on Rubio they could dig up, a warning that if Rubio attacks him personally, Trumpf will uses his big megaphone to end the bubble boy's slimy career. And yesterday Erik Erickson reprised the Cruz v Rubio battle for the soul of the soulless GOP . He writes off Herr and declares the race comes down to a battle between the two right-wing Cubans. "Both," he wrote, "have substantial war chests and heavily funded super PACs to run ads and build ground game operations. Rubio continues to get endorsements from political leaders, but Cruz continues to pick up sizable support from people mad at political leaders." He explains their differences in the eyes of potential voters: If voters feel like the 2016 election is the last election to save the American experiment, Ted Cruz really is their only option. If voters feel like things are coming to an end in this country without drastic action, they really do not have a choice between Rubio and Cruz. They have only Cruz. Cruz is the disruptive candidate. A voter who feels like the end is near without drastic action has to take the gamble on Cruz, who still has a good chance to win. Rubio, on the other hand, is the candidate for voters who think the best days are still ahead of us regardless of what happens in 2016. Democrats may fear Rubio as a candidate, but the base of the Democratic Party does not fear him like Ted Cruz. They think they could wait out Marco Rubio, even after eight years in power, and see few of their advances surrendered. Washington's lobbyists think that Marco Rubio will not be a disruptive force to them. They know Washington will still be mostly the center of people's lives to a greater degree with Marco Rubio than with Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz will burn Washington to the ground and throw lobbyists on the street. Marco Rubio will strategically raze parts of Washington, putting fewer lobbyists in danger than Cruz. At least that is the thinking, and it is the thinking that is reflected in the attacks on both men. For critics of Cruz, he cannot win. The reality is that Cruz can win, but if he wins those lobbyists and politicians attacking him will be out of a job. The Washington elite have every incentive to stop Cruz because he absolutely would be transformational, though his path to victory may be harder than Rubio's. For critics of Rubio, he will not go far enough. The reality is that Rubio may have an easier time winning, but his critics do not believe he will go far enough and do as much to fix the problems in Washington. Cruz and Rubio would both be conservative to varying degrees. What is at stake between the two is how easy their election would be and how transformational their presidency would be. Rubio backers are looking at the path to the White House. Cruz backers are willing to take a gamble on the slog of a general election campaign so they can see Washington rent asunder. Sheldon Adelson had his newspaper endorse Rubio yesterday. It's a completely silly endorsement that Adelson appears to have dictated while he was taking a dump, even touting Adelson's approval of Rubio's plan to slash Social Security and Medicare to ribbons: n Feb. 1, a German teenager admitted fabricating the story that she was kidnapped and gang raped by men of Arab or North African appearance in early January. Prosecutors said the 13-year-old confessed lying about the rape claim three days later when experts questioned her. She reportedly made it up to hide an incident at school from her parents. Rafia Zakaria has written an article in the Al Jazeera, which discusses the recent allegations against the refugees migrating to Germany. As some of you may know, o Her allegations came less than two weeks after nearly 100 women in Cologne, Germany, reported mass sexual assaults by gangs of Middle Eastern men during a New Years Eve celebration. Stories of the Cologne assaults garnered international attention and aggravated German paranoia against refugees. It also triggered protests by Russian-German community and far-right groups. Unsurprisingly, the teens retraction of her rape allegation received less media attention than the initial story. She writes, " But the construction of the refugee as rapist will expand and endure as a political tool for a European far-right eager to exclude foreign others and opportunistic politicians couching its misgivings about the immigration crisis in the language of feminism. The frames of political rhetoric create unfortunate choices everywhere, but in Germany the fight against misogyny is now being transformed into the exclusion and possible expulsion of desperate war refugees." Sau khi tham Indonesia, Bo truong Quoc phong My se en Viet Nam e thao luan voi cac nha lanh ao chu nha ve tu do hang hai tren Bien ... Everybody is welcome, this blog is highly political, it represents my views, wishes and dreams. It will contain topics about culture, politics, E.U. issues, social comments and everything else that I find the need to share and pass on, from the country I come from originally (Greece) to the country I found my home (Ireland),Europe and the world. Ananya Panda Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 5 In view of the Delhi High Court's censure of the ongoing municipal strike, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung today offered Rs 300-crore loan to the two cash-strapped municipal corporations and appealed to the strikers to call off their agitation. However, the sanitation workers refused to settle with anything less than a permanent solution to the problem of salaries, bailout package and unification of the three corporations even as Jung is understood to have assured them of pursuing the matter with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday. While garbage crisis deepened in the national Capital, there was some respite as other striking MCD employees, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, engineers, civic centre staff today called off the strike in the light of the High Court's observations earlier during the day. "Most of our demands of salaries have been taken care of with the Delhi Government acting proactively by initiating the process of taking over the MCD health services. So we have called called off the strike subject to ratification tomorrow in the General Body Meeting," said Dr Maruti Sinha, secretary of the Municipal Corporation Doctor Association (MCDA). "We belong to the essential services and we can't continue the strike as demands have almost been met," said Dr KP Rewani, MCDA joint secretary. HC pulls up MCD over failure to end agitation The court today pulled up the MCD over its failure in ending the strike by its employees for ten days over their pending dues and irregular salaries and also issued notices to various unions participating in the agitation for the next hearing on February 8. Later, Jung separately met the three Mayors of the BJP-ruled municipal corporations as also the representatives of the MCD employee unions at Raj Niwas. The LG office said that money will be given to the East and North Delhi municipal corporations as loan from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). On Wednesday, the government had announced Rs 693 crore to the civic bodies out of which Rs 551 crore was loan. Stating that government had released an amount of Rs 693 crore, Jung's office said that with the additional Rs 300 crore, it will take care of the salaries of all employees and officials of three MCDs till March 31. "The LG assured us, but we want a permanent solution and unification of MCD will solve 80 per cent of the MCD crisis. He has told us that he would arrange a meeting with the Home Minister Rajnath Singh for us on Monday on two of our demands of grants and unification of civic bodies. Our arrears have been pending for five years and the LG has sought data of the exact requirement to meet pending dues of all civic employees," said Rajinder Mewati, general Secretary of United Front of MCD Employees. LG appeals to workers to end strike In view of this, the Lt Governor has appealed to the MCD Employee Unions to call off their strike and resume work in the interest of the city and the people of Delhi. The Lt Governor has also assured that he will speak to the government regarding the implementation of the Fourth Finance Commission Report to find a long-term solution," said a statement released by Jung's office. Tribune News Service Srinagar/Anantnag, Feb 6 A former Special Police Officer-turned-militant was killed in a gunfight in south Kashmirs Pulwama district today. The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant, Raqib Bashir, was killed in a brief gunfight this afternoon. Elsewhere in the Valley, a policeman decamped with the service rifle of a colleague in Srinagar. He is suspected to have joined militant ranks. Pulwama Senior Superintendent of Police Tejinder Singh said an operation was launched after receiving inputs that a militant was hiding in Gundpora village. As a search was launched, the militant opened fire, to which our men retaliated, triggering a brief gunfight. The militant was gunned down after brief exchange of fire, he said. Tejinder Singh said the slain militant had worked as an ATM security guard before joining the police for a day in November last year. He had not decamped with a weapon. Clashes took place between residents and security forces after the killing. In Srinagar, a policeman decamped with the service rifle of a colleague. He is suspected to have joined militant ranks. The police sounded an alert after the policeman went missing this morning. Sources said police follower Riyaz Ahmed, a resident of central Kashmirs Budgam district, fled from the Rainawari police station in Srinagars old city along with the rifle of constable Showkat Ahmed. They said Ahmed had been working as office boy at the police station. After Ahmed went missing with the rifle of his colleague, we filed a case and started investigation, said a police official. Initial investigation hinted that Ahmed might have joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, he added. The police raided Ahmeds house at Khan Sahib in Budgam to locate the absconding police follower, but failed to find him. A few members of his family and friends were questioned by the police. This was the second incident in Kashmir this year wherein a cop decamped with a rifle. On January 17, Shakoor Ahmed, personal security officer of the Bijbehara Deputy Superintendent of Police, decamped with four AK-47 rifles from the residence of the officer. Shakoor is believed to have joined militant ranks and is still at large. The police had later recovered two of the rifles that he had taken from Shopian in south Kashmir. A senior police officer in Srinagar said the trend of policemen escaping with rifles and joining militancy was alarming. Last year, police constable Naseer Pandit, who was posted as security guard to senior PDP leader and then minister Altaf Bukhari had decamped with two AK-47 rifles and joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Pandit is associated with the militant outfit and is active in south Kashmir. Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 6 The NIA, with the active support of the Uttar Pradesh ATS, has arrested Abdus Sami Qasmi, a cleric from Seelampur in Delhi, for allegedly planning terror attacks in the country. Qasmi was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district yesterday. He has been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into the conspiracy to form a terror organisation and to launch terror attacks in the country. He has been brought to Delhi and is being produced before the NIA special Court today. Adbus Sami has been delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches in the support of 'Caliphate'. A non-bailable warrant had earlier been issued against him by the Special NIA court here. He has been arrested in the case of ongoing investigation into the conspiracy to form a terror organisation and to launch terror attacks in the country. He has launched a few websites wherein his speeches have been uploaded. He has been instigating and motivating youth for anti-national activities and has visited various parts of the country in order to deliver his Takreer and Bayaan. He runs a trust and madrassas and some of his financial transactions in this connection have been found to be of suspicious nature and the same are under investigation. With inputs from PTI Aakash Mehrotra Off in the distance some figures in bright green coats and crumpled safari hats were calling out names in high, shrilling tone: Kitirua, Alamaya, Reo Lasayen and slowly one by one, baby elephants come out of the bushes in a single line, trolling and trumpeting, following their keepers a procession of brown-faced eager elephant orphans, flapping their ears, wearing a hypnotic grace and fiddling with their curious long trunks, while visitors line on both sides of the route, ready with smiles and cameras to greet the wild orphans. This is the Nairobi nursery of David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, worlds most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation centre. This nursery is home to orphan baby elephants from all over Kenya, many of them are victims of poaching, who are then raised here until they are no longer milk dependent. They are then moved over a hundred miles away to another nursery in the Tsavo National Park. There, at their own pace, usually taking six to eight years, these elephants make a gradual transition to the wild. The rampant poaching and wildlife conflicts have claimed many lives and left many wild orphans. It sounds ironical that elephants greatest enemies have turned their only hope. This tricky reality of the wild moved a lady Daphne Sheldrick to establish this nursery back in 1987. Daphne Sheldrick is the wife of great naturalist and wildlife warden of the Tsavo National Park Sir David Sheldrick. After his death in 1977, Daphne took the charge of extending services to wildlife, she has reared wild buffalos, dik-diks, impalas, and zebras but elephants have beguiled her the most. The centre opens for an hour (11:00 am to 12 noon) daily for visitors during when the calves are brought for their mud-bath, a talk is also organised in this hour. Raising an orphan elephant isnt easy. In the wild, calves depend on mothers for milk for two years. Finding a correct formula that can match the nutritional qualities of elephants milk is difficult. Over years, the trust has learnt important lessons in raising an orphan elephant and preparing it for a smooth transition into the wild. This could take up to 10 years and requires a lot of caution as elephants, being social animals, develop emotional bonds with their keepers. To overcome this, shifts of keepers, who nurse babies keeps changing and babies are allowed more to mix up with each other. The success of the trust is exemplified in the fact that many of the babies raised in the nursery, are now a part of herds in wild and are raising their own kids. Standing amid a group of orphans, I was struck by their distinctive personality. The talk was on, and the keeper was talking about the elaborate social fabric in which elephants live. They have a very good memory and are extremely social animals. They know to be submissive before the elders and are instinctively social and caring. When we get a new child here, others will come and lovingly put around their trunks on its back. Acceptance in a group is necessary for the baby to tide over that difficult phase of life, he told the audience as the orphan babies busied themselves in mud-bath. Some look curiously at the visitors. The experience is like standing with some precocious schoolchildren, who are trying to find out the standing of the newcomers, they have seen. Often the babies would come close to the visitors, lift their trunks, sniff visitors, with curious, intense gaze and at times, even touch the onlookers with their trunks as if trying to establish a relationship. Like human beings, elephants too have social and emotional traits. Scientists have seen herds visit the grounds where some member of the group had died, for days, and at times, for months. The calves, who have seen their family getting slaughtered, often suffer from sleeplessness and nightmares and demand great care and love to get settled emotionally. Often they develop erratic behavioural swings, which need to be treated with utmost care. The orphanage also encourages the adoption of baby elephants by human parents at a yearly cost of at least $50. Foster parents are allowed to visit the babies at 5 pm when they return from the park and get ready for their evening meal of the milk formula in their individual bottles. While the older elephants are given a picket wood fenced enclosure with generous space, the younger ones live in more enclosed enclosures, often with their keepers. Foster parents are even allowed to feed milk to their adopted babies. These are sad and perilous days for the largest land animals. The growing demand of ivory in the South Asian, especially the Chinese markets, is spelling a doom on these giants. Unlike the Asian elephants, both female and male African elephants have tusks and since males lead a solitary life, it is always easier to poach a female. Standing among these orphans, feeding them leaves and watching them struggle handling their bottle in their trunk or rolling over mud or just flapping their ears; makes you come closer to the biggest force of nature that binds us all the carbon based life compassion. The writer is a proud foster parent of a baby found struggling for life in a ditch prepared to trap elephants Kabul, February 6 At least 12 militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) were killed in a clash with security personnel in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province on Saturday, the media reported. The clash flared up in Kot district, leaving 10 militants injured, Xinhua reported. There were no casualties on security personnel, Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government, said. The IS fighters from the mountainous districts of Achin and Kot in the province, have been challenging Afghan security forces over the past several months. IANS Islamabad The third round of four-country talks aimed at ending Afghanistans nearly 15-year war on Saturday concluded here with a call for direct talks between the Afghan government and the warring Taliban by the end of this month. A statement issued at the end of the meeting, attended by delegates from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US, said a roadmap for peace had been agreed upon but provided no further details. PTI Islamabad Hafiz Saeed targets Sharif Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has come under attack from the Islamist parties and groups supporting militancy in Kashmir that accused him of being soft on India and advocating peace. The groups led by Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed held a conference outside National Press Club here to mark Solidarity Daywith Kashmiris on Friday. PTI Kathmandu, February 6 At least 13 persons, including 4 women and a child, were killed and 14 others were injured on Saturday in separate road mishaps in Nepal. The first accident took place on the Pasang Lhamu highway in Madanpur in Nuwakot district, when a passenger bus carrying Army personnel veered off a highway and fell into a ravine. Five men and four women were killed in the accident. The microbus carrying Army personnel undergoing training at the Trishuli Army Training Centre, Maithali fell around 500 feet off the road, DSP Siddhi Bikram Shah was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post. The deceased are yet to be identified and the injured have been rushed to capital Kathmandu for further treatment. Three others were killed in separate incidents of road accident on Saturday. A ten-year-old boy died when he was hit by a bus in Chitawan district in southern Nepal. A motorcycle rider was killed when he was hit by a tractor in jhapa district. A 35-year-old man was killed when he was hit by a vehicle in saptari district in eastern Nepal. In Siraha, another 50 year-old person died when a pick-up van hit a hand pulling cart. Poor road infrastructure and reckless driving are the leading causes of accidents in Nepal. According to the WHO, road accidents are the worlds eighth leading cause of death. About 70 per cent of the deaths from road accidents occur in developing countries. As per the Nepals traffic police data, on an average five to seven people are killed in road accidents every day in the country. PTI Mogadishu, February 6 The Somali government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers today recaptured the key port of Merka from Shebab insurgents, just one day after the Islamists swept into the city, the army and residents said. "The Somali forces and AMISOM peacekeepers secured control of Merka again and now the situation has returned to normal," a Somali military official, Abdirisak Mohamed, told AFP by telephone from Mogadishu. "There was brief exchange of gunfire, but the (Shebab) militants have fled." He said "several" Shebab fighters and one Somali soldier were killed in the clashes, and "the security forces are now conducting clearing operations inside town." A resident reached by telephone said the AU force, known by its acronym AMISOM, used tanks to recapture the port, and four civilians were killed after they were caught in the fighting. "Four people died in our neighbourhood and two others were wounded, I can see AMISOM and Somali troops returned to the city now and they are conducting security operations", Muhidin Osman said. Another resident, Shamso Moalim, said "Shebab fighters pulled out of the town after putting up slight resistance, the Somali forces and AMISOM are back". "There are civilian casualties but I don't know the number", she added. AU troops had fled the city, the state capital of Lower Shabelle, as heavily armed Shehab fighters swept in with black Islamist flags yesterday, residents and local authorities said, in one of the most dramatic reverses for the multi-national force in its nearly decade-long battle against the Shebab. The Al Qaeda-linked Shebab said on its website that one of its leaders, Sheikh Mohamed Abu-Abdallah, addressed hundreds of people gathered at the regional government headquarters in Merka after the seizure yesterday. "The enemy has lost and running away, they are fleeing from the Islamic regions," it quoted him as saying. Residents said earlier today that the Shebab had begun imposing Sharia law on the city. The historic port, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, was captured in August 2012 by African Union troops after four years under Islamist control. The Shebab are fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, which is protected by 22,000 AU troops. The group has lost ground since being routed from Mogadishu in 2011, but continues to stage regular shooting and suicide attacks, and in recent months has staged a series of brazen raids on AU bases. Last month they stormed a Kenyan army base at El-Adde in southwest Somalia, in the latest incident of an AMISOM base being overrun, before retreating. AFP Karachi, February 6 Nine persons, including four security personnel and an eight-year-old girl, were killed and about 40 others injured today in a Taliban suicide attack that targeted a Frontier Corps vehicle in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province. A powerful blast rocked the congested Kachari area of Quetta near the premises of the heavily guarded city district courts. Nine persons were killed and about 40 others injured when the Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle was targeted, officials said. DIG Imtiaz Shah was quoted by Dawn News as saying that it was a suicide attack and the attacker blew himself up near a vehicle belonging to the FC. Anwar-ul-Haq, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, said the injured were shifted to hospitals and among them the condition of eight was critical. The Kachari area that houses the district and sessions courts, a market and a hospital, is usually packed with people and Haq said it was congested as usual when the blast took place near Liaquat park. Those killed included an eight-year-old girl, FC personnel and women, he said. Haq said around 8 kg explosives were used in the attack and the blast shattered and damaged nearby buildings and the security vehicle. Four members of the FC have been killed in the blast, while the remaining five are locals, Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told The Express Tribune. The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack, reports said. PTI Bogota, February 6 The mosquito-borne Zika virus sweeping through Latin America has claimed three lives in Colombia, as the United Nations urged increased access to abortion because of fears of severe birth defects. In the first direct statements from government health officials blaming Zika for causing deaths, Colombias National Health Institute (INS) said yesterday that the patients died after contracting the virus and developing a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. Cases of the syndromein which the immune system attacks the nervous system, causing weakness and sometimes paralysishave increased in tandem with the Zika outbreak, fueling suspicions that it is a complication of the otherwise mild tropical fever, which is also blamed for causing brain damage in babies born to infected mothers. Other cases (of deaths linked to Zika) are going to emerge, said epidemiologist Martha Lucia Ospina, director of the INS. The world is realizing that Zika can be deadly. The mortality rate is not very high, but it can be deadly. Most Guillain-Barre patients recover, but the syndrome sometimes causes paralysis or even death. Citing the rise in babies born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads and brains, the UN human rights office urged countries hit by Zika to give women access to contraception and abortion. Womens reproductive rights are a touchy subject in largely Catholic Latin America, but the UN human rights office said countries urging women to avoid pregnancya list that comprises Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Panamahad to give them ways to control their fertility. How can they ask these women not to become pregnant, but not offer... the possibility to stop their pregnancies? spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told reporters. Many Latin American countries outlaw abortion or allow it only if the mothers life is in danger. In El Salvador, one of those warning against pregnancy, abortion is punishable by up to 40 years in prison. Honduras, which earlier this week declared a state of emergency after tallying some 3,700 cases of Zika since mid-December, said it is planning a full day dedicated to eradicating the mosquitoes that carry the virus. President Juan Orlando Hernandez has allocated an initial tranche of USD 10 million in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. AFP The United States condemns the Boko Haram terrorist attacks on January 29-30 in northeast Nigeria. On January 30, in the village of Dalori, the terrorists bombed a market, attacked a village, and fire-bombed huts. Boko Haram militants set fire to as many as 300 homes in the village, burning alive some people who were inside, including children. According to Nigerias National Emergency Management Agency, at least 65 people were killed and 136 injured. Boko Haram, which in March 2015 pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State, has been attacking northern Nigeria for years. According to press reports, Boko Harams insurgency has killed 20,000 people in the last six years and driven at least 2.3 million from their homes. Boko Haram continues to commit vicious attacks against the innocent, including children. This terrorist organization repeatedly has shown no regard for human life. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the latest victims of Boko Haram. The United States will continue to support those affected by Boko Harams violence through ongoing humanitarian aid and support services. In response to the threat posed by Boko Haram, President Barack Obama announced in October 2015 that the United States would send 300 U.S. troops, along with surveillance drones, to Cameroon to bolster a West African effort to counter the militant Islamist group. U.S. troops were tasked with conducting airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the region. In a statement issued on February 2, State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said the United States remain[s] committed to supporting Nigeria and its Lake Chad Basin partners in the fight against terrorism. OKLAHOMA CITY Gross receipts to the state treasury continued to fall far short of the previous years in January, increasing the possibility that spending will have to be trimmed further in the five months remaining in this budget year and in the one that begins July 1. State Treasurer Ken Miller said January collections brought in $985.4 million, down by almost $150 million more than 13 percent from the same month a year ago. It was the first double-digit percentage reduction drop in year-over-year monthly gross receipts since the Treasurers Office began tracking them in March 2010. The surplus-driven energy contraction continues to spill over into all of Oklahomas main revenue sources, Miller said. Every major revenue stream in January is smaller than a year ago. Collections from oil and natural gas gross production are off by more than 50 percent, and the downturn is suppressing income, sales and motor vehicle tax collections. Gross receipts include all tax revenue collected by the state, including local sales and use taxes remitted back to local governments and personal and corporate income taxes returned to taxpayers as refunds and rebates. It also includes money apportioned directly to specific purposes, mostly education and transportation. The remaining revenue goes to the general revenue fund for appropriation by the Legislature. In January, officials declared a general revenue failure, meaning general revenue for the current budget year is expected to fall at least 5 percent short of the amount projected when the budget was written last spring. That resulted in immediate 3 percent across-the-board cuts to appropriated state agencies. Now officials are worried that that might not be enough. There has been talk of a second revenue failure, although Miller said technically there is no such thing. A second declaration of revenue failure would not be necessary, but deeper across-the-board cuts remain a possibility as the trend in gross receipts collections is less than positive, he said. Also a possibility is that the Education Reform Revolving Fund, also known as the 1017 Fund, will fail to meet projections, causing further cutbacks to common ed. The 1017 Fund receives money from a variety of taxes earmarked for that specific purpose. The rolling 12-month gross revenue total maintained by the treasurer has been falling steadily since last February, when it peaked at $12.1 billion. At the current rate, it would sink below the Great Recession low of $9.4 billion, in February 2010, before the end of this calendar year. In January, gross income-tax collections a combination of personal and corporate income taxes generated $377.07 million, a drop of 16.2 percent from the previous January. Personal income-tax collections brought in $341.47 million, down 8.7 percent, while corporate collections were down 53.1 percent, bringing in $35.6 million. Sales-tax collections, including remittances on behalf of cities and counties, total $374.62 million, a drop of 7.7 percent. Gross production taxes on oil and natural gas generated $25.24 million, or a drop of 54.8 percent from last January. Motor vehicle taxes produced $67.24 million, down 1.9 percent. Other collections, consisting of about 60 different sources including taxes on fuel, tobacco, horse race gambling and alcoholic beverages, produced $141.22 million, or 8.2 percent less than last January. A Tulsa Public Schools board seat is up for grabs, and residents in four Tulsa County school districts will vote on more than $180 million worth of bond issues in balloting Tuesday. Residents in TPS District 5 will be deciding between Cindy Decker and Stan Minor for the Edison board seat. The district is roughly bounded by 11th Street, Yale Avenue, Interstate 44 and the Arkansas River. It includes Mayo, Lanier, Eliot and Wright elementary schools, Edison Middle School and Edison Preparatory High School. Decker, 44, is currently on the TPS board after being appointed in May to serve the remainder of TCC President Leigh Goodsons term. She is running for her first full term on the board. She is an education researcher and has a doctorate in economics. Minor, 56, has been involved with the district through serving on the Nathan Hale Alumni Association for many years. This is his first run for the school board. He has a degree in journalism and has practiced petroleum land management for 33 years. Both candidates are Tulsa natives and TPS graduates. As for the bond issue elections, Bixby Public Schools leads with a $142.4 million bond package, the largest in the districts history. If approved, projects would be completed in phases over the course of 10 years. Superintendent Kyle Wood said the package addresses current and future needs for the district. The largest project in the package is renovations at the high school, along with the replacement of the main academic building at the campus. The $34 million project would be one of the last completed in the 10-year span. Bixby has about 6,000 students, and officials estimate the district will have more than 8,400 students by 2026. To keep pace with the growth, the bond package includes building three new sites, including schools they are referring to as West Elementary and West Intermediate, as well as a 7th-grade center on the middle school campus. The West Elementary and Intermediate schools would either replace Central Elementary and Intermediate, or serve in addition to them if growth is higher than expected, Wood said. If approved, the Bixby bond issue would cause tax rates to go up. Property taxes for a $100,000 home would rise by about $7 a month, or $84 a year, officials said. Union Public Schools is asking voters to approve a $27 million bond package that includes building the first phase of a new elementary school. The new elementary accounts for about $15 million of the bond package. It would be at 31st Street east of Garnett Road and would be the districts 14th elementary site. Union hopes to open the school with approximately 500 students in the fall of 2017. A future bond issue would ask for additional funding that would allow an expansion of the school in 2019 that would almost double its capacity. The Union bond issue would not raise taxes. Jenks Public Schools has an $11 million bond issue on the ballot, which includes money for districtwide equipment, safety improvements, technology, textbooks, transportation and high school classroom and stadium improvements. Money also would go toward phase I of the middle school athletic fields and the middle school cafeteria expansion. The bond issue would not raise taxes. Melissa Abdo, Jenks board member, said, With state funding for public schools declining, it is imperative for all of us who take pride in our schools to do what we can to provide opportunities for our kids to grow. Berryhill Public Schools is asking for $300,000 for technology purchases and improvements, as well as transportation equipment. A super-majority of 60 percent is required for school bond issues to pass. PAWNEE An area district attorney has been disqualified from prosecuting a judge against whom he spearheaded criminal charges over the establishment of a drug court in Pawnee County. District Judge James Bland made his ruling last week on motions filed by attorneys representing Associate District Judge Patrick M. Pickerill and secretary-bailiff Jamie Box, both of whom were indicted last year by the states multicounty grand jury. The defense sought to disqualify District Attorney Rex Duncan and his office, which serves Pawnee and Osage counties. Pickerill works in Judicial District 14, which serves Pawnee and Tulsa counties. This situation is truly unique, Bland, a judge assigned to the case, said before making his decision Jan. 28 via teleconference from McAlester, according to a court transcript. I dont use that word lightly. Unique is an absolute, means theres just one, but I think that its appropriate to say that this case is unique. Attorneys representing the defendants said that allowing Duncan and First Assistant Kyle Alderson to prosecute them would amount to a conflict of interest. I believe that there is a substantial risk that the defendants would be prejudiced by not being allowed to call the prosecutors as witnesses in trial, and with that being the case, in light of constitutional considerations, the motions are granted, Bland said in rendering his decision. Pickerill, 49, was charged in September in Pawnee County on nine counts, including falsifying judicial records and conspiracy to commit a felony. The multicounty grand jury alleges that he had a court clerk backdate two administrative orders, one that appointed Box as secretary-bailiff and another that established the drug court on Oct. 30, 2014. Pickerills other charges in Pawnee County include offering false or forged instruments for recordation and perjury by subornation. He was charged in Oklahoma County with acceptance of public office without oath or security, a misdemeanor. The grand jurys indictment against Box in Pawnee County includes charges that include conspiracy to commit a felony, computer crimes and pretending to be an executive officer. She also was charged in Oklahoma County with three counts of perjury on allegations that she lied to the multicounty grand jury. Duncans vindictive crusade against Pickerill, Box and the Pawnee County drug court will be a major defense theme at trial, Boxs attorney, Paul DeMuro, has written in court documents. The district attorney perceived defendants efforts to establish a drug court as an encroachment on his power and authority in Pawnee County, DeMuro wrote. Duncan has maintained that Pickerill overstepped legal bounds by creating the drug court and efforts to characterize this investigation as a civil matter, or in the alternative as a vindictive political dispute is a a[sic] compilation of misdirection and misstatements of the facts and applicable law , the DA wrote in documents responding to the motion to disqualify. In documents filed about a year ago, Duncan said an investigation into the drug court matter was brought to his attention by an elected official and centers on a conspiracy to commit one or more felonies and subsequent effort to cover up said conspiracy, records show. In late March, Creek County District Judge Joe Sam Vassar, who was appointed to the case by the state, denied several of Duncans motions, including requests to vacate the administrative orders and to have Pickerill recused from all matters handled by the prosecutors office. The orders in question were file-stamped Oct. 30 instead of the December date they were received by Pawnee County Court Clerk Janet Dallas. Any backdating in reference to the administrative orders involved here were done to memorialize action which had already been taken, Vassar wrote in his March order. There was no illegitimate purpose involved. The orders are not sham process. On Mondays Australian Story is Sea Of Doubt a story on the disappearance of a NSW yachtsman and what really happened at sea. When Coffs Harbour handyman Andrew Witton sailed out of Sydneys Pittwater in 2006 it was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. Instead he was dead just a few months later, vanishing inexplicably from the deck of his beloved yacht Kaileia in a remote and inhospitable part of the Pacific Ocean. According to the last entry in Andrew Wittons boat log, the day he disappeared was calm and clear with very little wind. By coincidence, a few weeks later friend and experienced sailor Hamish Dickson arrived in the Galapagos Islands to find Andrews boat deserted and stripped. Hamish reviewed Andrews final log entry: Someone thats been at sea for 40-plus years falls off the side of his own yacht in flat, calm conditions. Its pretty unheard of. In saying that, it is possible, he told Australian Story. There was only one witness on the day Andrew Witton disappeared: his crew mate, Simon Golding. The men had been friends and fellow residents in Coffs Harbour. Simon Goldings account of what happened has remained to date the only testimony of Andrews disappearance. But Andrews family, led by older sister Louise, unearthed compelling information, questioning Simon Goldings version of events. Since Andrews disappearance, Simon Golding has been involved in a separate matter in relation to drug running across the Pacific. In one of Australias biggest cocaine hauls, along with others he was convicted of importing nearly 400 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of at least $160 million. The program includes an exclusive interview with Simon Golding, recorded before his imprisonment, in which he maintains his innocence and bewilderment over Andrew Wittons disappearance: I did not push Andrew overboard, he says. I never liked Andys boat. I could quite easily go to any marina and pick out a boat of my choice and take it. Monday, February 8 at 8pm on ABC. Salah Farah, a Muslim teacher in Kenya who defied the sectarian divisions sought by extremists, died recently in a hospital in Nairobi. Mr. Farah was shot in December when the bus he and others were riding on in northeastern Kenya was attacked by al-Shabaab terrorists. After firing on and then boarding the bus, the terrorists demanded the passengers separate into groups Muslims on one side, Christians on the other. Similar demands by al-Shabaab gunmen during other attacks have resulted in the deaths of scores of Christians. But instead of obeying the terrorists, the Muslim passengers on the bus, among them Mr. Farah, refused. Instead, they tried to hide the Christians, reportedly giving them some pieces of their clothing so that they could not be easily identified. The passengers also told the terrorists to kill every one of them or, to leave them all alone. The gunmen took off, but not before firing shots that killed two people and injured three others, including Mr. Farah. Mr. Farah spent weeks in the hospital before succumbing to his injuries. He gave interviews calling for peace and unity. In an interview with the Voice of America, Mr. Farah said: "We are brothers. It's only the religion that is the difference, so I ask my brother Muslims to take care of the Christians, so that the Christians also take care of us... And let us help one another and let us live together peacefully." Salah Farah is a hero. Not only did he risk his life to protect others, his actions throw into stark contrast the difference in values between a devout Muslim like Farah, and the terrorists who distort Islam, using religious differences as a weapon to gain power and control. In his recent visit to an American mosque in Baltimore, President Barack Obama noted that the vast majority of Muslims embrace their religion as a source of peace; it is a small fraction which propagates a perverted interpretation of Islam. What must be done in the face of this perversion? President Obama asked. His answer is one that Salah Farah would recognize, because he lived it: When others are trying to divide us along lines of religion or sect, said President Obama, we have to reaffirm that most fundamental of truths we are all Gods children. Were all born with inherent dignity. . . Our faith summon[s] us to embrace our common humanity. Postcards (Vic) returns for its 18th season today with host Rebecca Judd and presenters Lauren Phillips, Brodie Harper, Shane Crawford, Glen Moriarty and celebrity chef Shane Delia. Postcards will also be moving to a prime-time slot in March (presumably 7:30pm Fridays) and expanding with travel spots in South Australia and Western Australia. It will also include two new presenters: retired Port Adelaide champion and Nine News Adelaide sport reporter, Warren Tredrea, and ex-Miss Universe Australia and weather presenter for Nine News Perth, Scherri-Lee Biggs. The first episode of 2016 takes in the sights and sounds of the colourful seaside suburb of St Kilda. Glen Moriarty sets tastebuds alight, visiting the local restaurants Radio Mexico, Babu Ji and Luxembourg Bar & Bistro. Brodie Harper explores the Esplanade market, St Kildas pop-up shopping strip, for some delicious food and homemade products. She then swaps shopping for watersports at St Kilda Beach, trying stand-up paddle boarding courtesy of The Zu Boardsports. We find Lauren Phillips on vibrant Acland Street at Lona Pintxos Bar, a stylish restaurant that offers Spanish-inspired cuisine. She then heads to Scout House, a boutique homewares store selling an eclectic mix of local and international products at the top of Fitzroy Street. Bustling Barkly Street is Laurens final stop, visiting Itali.co for some authentic Italian cuisine. To close the show, Rebecca Judd checks out the stunning George Ballroom and whats on offer at The Prince Hotel and its signature restaurant, Circa, for delicious cocktails. Sunday, February 7, at 5.30pm on Nine. Udaku Special It appears the intensified efforts to hunt down Al Shabaab terrorists deep into Boni Forest by the gallant Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) is taking a toll on the militants and could starve them to death.This was revealed by a senior police officer in Lamu, who said that the Al Shabaab have resorted to doing desperate things just to survive.According to the officer who declined to be named for obvious reasons, the Al Shabaab have been raiding some villages near the forest in Lamu and forcing women to cook for them.He said the terrorists have run out of food supply and often come to the villages to beg for food and water just to survive.The militants have no place to get food and have resorted to get it from residents or attacking new areas within Lamu (that are not in KDF zones), said the officer.He added that some of them have even resorted to living among locals so as to camouflage and shield themselves from the ongoing KDF operation dubbed Linda Boni.Some of the militiamen are also believed to be living among locals or disguising as herdsmen. Locals have a lot of information about these people. If they share it with us, we shall flush the extremists from the area in a very short time, he said. No Ukrainian servicemen were killed but eleven soldiers were wounded in the ATO area in eastern Ukraine over past 24 hours. Spokesman for the Presidential Administration on the anti-terrorist operation, Colonel Andriy Lysenko said this at the briefing in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Another record of 84 enemy attacks was set in Donbas over the past day. Every fourth attack was launched from heavy weapons (82mm and 120mm mortars). The sniper war continues. The ATO troops return fire on the key centers of resistance," Lysenko said. The Spokesman said that no Ukrainian servicemen had been killed but eleven soldiers had been wounded as a result of military operations in the ATO area over past 24 hours. ol U.S. Secretary of State John Kerrys January 24 and 25 visit to Vientiane emphasized the deepening ties between the United States and Laos. Secretary Kerry met with Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong to discuss preparations for the U.S.- ASEAN Sunnylands Summit, which will be jointly hosted by the United States and Laos in California in February. This unprecedented gathering the first hosted by the United States with ASEAN leaders -- builds on the deep partnership that the United States has forged with ASEAN since 2009. The Secretary also highlighted the importance the United States places on human rights and basic freedoms and thanked Prime Minister Thongsing for cooperation on a number of issues, including accounting for American personnel missing in Laos and addressing other longstanding impacts of the Indochina War. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secretary Kerry met with Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith, Deputy Prime Minister of Laos, to discuss the full range of bilateral and multilateral issues, including the Laos ASEAN chairmanship year. They talked about the expanding U.S.-Laos engagement in areas including health care, nutrition, education, justice sector reform, and environmental protection, as well as ongoing cooperation to clear unexploded ordnance remaining from the conflicts in Indochina. Secretary Kerry highlighted the U.S. commitment to partnering with the Laos to improve nutrition across the country, including through the recently announced construction of the Lao-American Nutrition Institute in Vientiane.Following the official meetings, Secretary Kerry visited Pha That Luang, the national symbol of Laos, where he learned about Lao history and culture. Secretary Kerry is the first of many high-level visitors from the United States expected to travel to Laos this year, including President Barack Obama, who is planning to visit in September. These historic visits demonstrate a deepening relationship between the United States and the Laos. If Ukraine does not conduct reforms, the European Union may reduce the level of its support for sanctions against Russia. Foreign Minister of Denmark Kristian Jensen said this to Reuters. "If Ukraine doesn't come through with the reforms linked to the Minsk peace process, it will be very difficult for Europe to continue united in support for sanctions against Russia," he noted. "They [Ukraine] need to push those reforms now, they can't wait," the Foreign Minister of Denmark said. Jensen said Aivaras Abromavicius decision to step down was also a warning that Europe needed to help more. The European Union and other Western governments are pouring money into Ukraine to reform the police, customs and the energy sector in one of the world's most corrupt countries. ol United States Postal ServiceExternal Publication for Job Posting 10003056 If this job requires qualification on an examination, the number of applicants who will be invited to take or retake the examination may be limited. Branch Greater Indiana District Job Posting Period 02/05/2016 02/17/2016 This job has an exam requirement. Currently, applicants for this posting who do not yet have an exam score are being invited to take the exam. Examining will continue until capacity has been reached. Job Title CITY CARRIER ASSISTANT 1 Facility Location 804 MAIN ST CLAY CITY, IN 47841-9998 CONTACT INFORMATION: Timothy.J.Williams@usps.gov Position Information Title: CITY CARRIER ASSISTANT 1 FLSA Designation: Non-Exempt Occupation Code: 2310-0045 Non-Scheduled Days: Varies Hours: Varies CCAs may be required to work any day of the week, including weekends and holidays as scheduled. CCAs hold temporary appointments for periods not-to-exceed 360 days. Subsequent appointments after a 5 day break in service may be offered but are not guaranteed and should not be expected because the use of CCAs is discretionary and subject to business needs. DRIVING REQUIRED: Applicants must have a valid state drivers license, a safe driving record, and at least two years of unsupervised experience driving passenger cars or larger. The driving must have taken place in the U.S. or its possessions or territories or in U.S. military installations worldwide. SALARY RANGE: $16.06 per hour paid bi-weekly FINANCE NUMBER: 171584 BENEFIT INFORMATION: This is a non-career position, which may lead to a career position depending on organizational needs. Limited benefits include paid time off at the rate of 1 hour for every 20 paid hours, and pay raises. When you are hired, you are immediately eligible to enroll in the USPS Health Benefits Plan with a Postal Service premium contribution. After one year of service, CCAs may also be eligible for health insurance under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, dental and vision insurance through the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, and long term care insurance through the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program. Persons Eligible to Apply All U.S. Citizens, permanent resident aliens, citizens of American Samoa or any other territory owing allegiance to the United States. Applicants must be available for screening activities, including an interview. Applicants entitled to veterans preference and/or covered by the Veterans Employment Opportunity Act may apply for any posted position. Applicants must apply online at www.usps.com/employment to be considered for this employment opportunity. You must have a valid email address to apply as communication regarding employment opportunities, examinations, interviews and background checks will be conveyed by email. Please add the following email domain addresses to your contact list to allow all correspondences to be received. @usps.gov @psionline.com @geninfo.com EXAM REQUIRED: If you are invited to take this test, instructions regarding the exam process will be sent to you via email. Please ensure you can receive email messages from our test vendor and follow instructions carefully so you can be considered for this employment opportunity. NOTICE SCREENINGS REQUESTED: You may receive multiple requests for background checks in regards to this employment opportunity. Respond to all requests quickly as we anticipate filling our vacancies quickly and nonresponses may result in disqualification for this opportunity. Current non-career Postal Service employees who wish to apply for this vacancy must go to usps.com/employment and use your existing eCareer Profile to apply. Do not log into LiteBlue; if you logged into LiteBlue, log out and close your browser before going to usps.com/employment. Functional Purpose Delivers and collects mail on foot or by vehicle under varying road and weather conditions in a prescribed area; maintains professional and effective public relations with customers and others, requiring a general familiarity with postal laws, regulations, products and procedures commonly used, and geography of the area. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 1. Routes or cases all classes of mail in sequence of delivery along an established route. Rearranges and relabels cases as required. 2. Withdraws mail from the distribution case and prepares it in sequence for efficient delivery independently or by another carrier along an established route. Prepares and separates all classes of mail to be carried by truck to relay boxes along route for subsequent delivery. 3. Handles undeliverable mail in accordance with established procedures. 4. Delivers mail along a prescribed route, on foot or by vehicle, on a regular schedule, picking up additional mail from relay boxes as needed. Collects mail from street letter boxes and accepts letters from mailing from customers; on certain routes may deliver mail that consists exclusively of parcel post, or the collection of mail. 5. Uses portable electronic scanner as instructed. 6. Delivers and collects charges on customs, postage-due, and C.O.D. mail matter. Delivers and obtains receipts for registered and certain insured mail. Signs for such matter, except insured mail, at the post office before beginning route and accounts for it upon return by payments of the amounts collected and delivery of of receipts taken. 7. Deposits in the post office mail collected on the route upon returning from the route. 8. Checks, and corrects if necessary, mailing cards from advertisers bearing names and addresses of customers or former customers on the route. 9. Furnishes customers with postal information and provides change of address cards and other postal forms as needed. 10. Reports to supervisor all unusual incidents or conditions relating to mail delivery, including condition of street letter boxes and centralized delivery equipment. 11. Becomes proficient, when assigned to a route, in the casing of mail on other routes as assigned. 12. Works professionally with other employees in the office. 13. May as a CCA, perform clerical duties and be required to pass examinations on scheme of city primary distribution. 14. In addition, may perform any of the following duties: check hotels and other establishments to ensure that mail for residents undeliverable as addressed is not improperly held; deliver stamps or other paper supplies to contract or classified stations and other designated delivery points; serves at carriers delivery window; receive and register where practical, all letters and packages of first-class matter properly offered for registration; case mail and make deliveries on other routes as assigned. SUPERVISION Supervisor, Customer Services, or other designated supervisor. The United States Postal Service has the following excellent and challenging employment opportunity for highly motivated and innovative individuals. Successful candidates must demonstrate through a combination of education, training, and experience the following requirements: Requirements 1. REQUIREMENTS: EXAMINATION REQUIREMENTS Applicants must successfully complete Postal Service Test 473, which includes the following measures of job-related knowledge, skills, and abilities: A. Address Checking B. Forms Completion C. Coding & Memory D. Personal Characteristics and Experience Inventory PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS Applicants must be physically able to efficiently perform the duties of the position with or without reasonable accommodation. CCA duties require arduous exertion involving prolonged standing, walking, bending and reaching, and may involve handling heavy containers of mail weighing up to the allowable maximum mailing weight. ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS CCAs must work their assigned tour and days of work. CCAs must follow Postal Service policies and procedures for personal conduct at work, including adhering to rules and regulations. CCAs are required to provide service to the public. They must maintain a neat and professional appearance and demeanor in such interactions, including wearing an approved uniform. Applicants must have a valid state drivers license, and demonstrate and maintain a safe driving record. Qualified applicants must successfully pass a pre-employment drug screening to meet the U.S. Postal Services requirement to be drug free. Applicants must also be a U.S. citizen or have permanent resident alien status. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., Central Time, of the postings closing date. Applicants claiming veterans preference must attach a copy of member copy 4 (only) of Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) or other proof of eligibility if claiming 10-point veterans preference. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an equal opportunity employer. The USPS provides reasonable accommodation for any part of the application, interview, and/or selection process, please make your request to the examiner, selecting official or local manager of Human Resources. This request can also be made by someone on your behalf. Explain the nature of your limitations and the accommodation needed. The decision on granting reasonable accommodation will be on a case-by-case basis. SPECIAL NOTE: Current career Postal Service employees are ineligible to apply to this posting. President Barack Obama announced that he will propose a plan to the congress to help Colombia to achieve peace with the FARC rebel group. He told reporters immediately after the meeting with the Colombian president that he will ask the congress to release $450 million worth of fund to help the country. The announcement made is one of the assurances given by Obama to his counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos. According to Reuters, Obama told the press that "After half a century of wrenching conflict, the time has come for peace," he also added that the United States "will be your partner in waging peace." The fund given is expected to be utilized by Colombian for its counterterrorism, drugs trafficking prevention and also for education purposes. According to the plan, the education given aim at providing the ex-FARC rebel group with a proper education to help them work and interact better with the society. Besides funding, Obama also told that the current 'Plan Colombia' policy adopted by the United States towards Colombia will be replaced with a new policy known as 'Peace Colombia' as reported by Yahoo News. The current 'Plan Colombia' policy has been adopted by the United States since the end of the cold war. The latest move is part of Obama's plan to help improves the United States policy towards countries in Latin America before he steps down from the office. The Inquirer reported current policy known as 'Plan Colombia' had started since the end of cold war and has been criticized by many Colombian because the plan is actually causing more damage than advantage. Besides funding for the peace talks, the United States will also commit another $33 million for Colombia to help the government clean up its forest from land mines. Based on the data collected by Reuters, the new plan committed by the United States means that the country is increasing its funding by 25 percent compared to the previous one. Obama is expected to table the new plan by next week to be discussed and voted by the congress members. The war between the FARC rebel and Colombian government have been going on since 1964 and has killed more than 220,000 people. The parties had held three peace talks previously but none of them produce a good result. However, after 4 years of intense negotiation, both parties are on the verge of reaching a solid agreement. The announcement regarding the peace talks is expected to be announced on March 23rd this year. The scandal centering 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)'s state investment fund has reportedly been swirling around Malaysia and its prime minister. The situation has further worsened after international investigators' have expressed suspicion over commitment of serious crimes. 1MDB has been accused of using the state fund as a vehicle to pilfer large sum of money. Swiss authorities have started probe last week into suspicious bribery involving former 1MDB officials and other unknown people that caused misappropriation of $4 billion, reports Financial Times. The advisory board for state investment fund in 1MDB is chaired by the Prime Minister Nazib Razak. The corruption scandal has triggered investigations in Switzerland, Singapore, the US and Hong Kong, reports CNBC. Notably mentioning, 1MDB's internal investigations have found no evidence of corruption. 1MDB, the second largest bank in Malaysia, has however, refuted the corruption allegations. Meanwhile, the Office of Attorney General (OAG) in Switzerland has denied conduction of any investigation against Prime Minister Nazib Razak, according to a report published in International Business Times. Continental Automotive Systems has detected major flaws in their systems controlling air-bag deployment. The problem has been traced back to five years, for which the company plans to recall more than 5 million affected vehicles all over the world under major automotive brand names. Continental Automotive, a German-based unit of Continental AG, informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about this issue, as per Automotive News. It mentioned that the electronic systems for air bags built during 2006-2010 and covering almost 5 million vehicles world-wide may fail to deploy during a crash or may inadvertently function without any reason. This is likely because the flaw allows moisture to enter the air-bag control systems resulting in corrosion and failure of power supplies. All major brands like Honda, Fiat Chrysler, and Mercedes-Benz have been alerted of this defect and they are currently in the process of recalling the models sold within the stipulated timing. Continental spokeswoman, Mary Arraf, said that between 1.5 million and 2 million of such models are running in the US alone. According to Reuters, Honda Motor Co. has found two reported cases of injury due to this problem and is recalling 341,000 Accord models from 2008-2010. The automaker has received 1,575 warranty claims and 83 field reports along with the news of injuries. Another 74 cases of air-bag-related damages have surfaced but they are yet to be confirmed. At the same time, Fiat Chrysler is recalling 112,000 in the US. It has already received complaints around 25 cases of air-bag malfunctioning. The models include 2009 Dodge Journey, 2008-2009 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country as well as 2009-assembled Volkswagen Routan. Additionally, last year because of the same issue, Mercedes had recalled around 126,260 C-Series cars from 2008-2009 and GLK350 models from 2010. The supplier mentioned in its papers to the US regulators that after a minor complaint regarding air-bag warning light illumination, it received control unit from Daimler in 2008 that led to a design change in semiconductors. This was followed by another change in 2010 which was completed in 2011, whereafter the makers did not receive any complaints. This had affected almost 3 million units that were already manufactured before the design change. However, NHTSA opened the investigation files in August 2015 after almost 19 complaints were filed for Honda Accords where the airbags failed to deploy. According to Fox News, an agitated customer wrote, "This also means that the safety of the vehicle passengers and operators are in jeopardy and potentially face serious injury or death." Continental, as a supplier, can recall its defective units, but the actual recall needs to be made by the automakers. Arraf defended the company by saying, "All potentially affected customers were notified immediately and we are in close contact them." However, a complete recall list including the nameplates is not available yet nor is it very clear which manufacturers have already done the needful. Ethiopia is leading the group of fastest growing economies not only across the African continent, but also in the world. Ethiopian economy is growing over 8 percent annually. The encouraging growth of Ethiopia assumes significance in the wake of sluggish global economy amid drop in commodity revenues and currencies. Ethiopia, the East African country, registered 8.7 percent economy growth for 2015 and is poised to grow at 8.1 percent for 2016, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF). Only Papua New Guinea grew 12.3 percent in 2015 among the world economies. Several African nations are suffering from falling revenues in commodities and weaker currencies. Bloomberg reports that the main driver of the economy is the government. Ethiopia's exports are in limited range when compared with its African peers. Ethiopia's currency Birr is able to retain its value despite sluggish global economy. Ethiopian government is spending heavily on infrastructure projects and this is the key driver of the economy. When everything is going well, environmental issues pose a major challenge. El Nino dried up the rainfall. The country is facing very bad drought as it was in 1984. The farmers are suffering from crop loss and livestock death. The Ministry of Agriculture is distributing food to rural people. The government already spent over $380 mln (260mln). According to a report by BBC, Ethiopia has been doing well for 15 years and it's the world's fastest growing economy. Why it needs international funding when drought conditions are hitting hard. Millions of Ethiopians have come out of the poverty clutches as economy is flourishing. This is propelling business investments as well. The State-owned companies are playing a vital role in economy growth. The public sector companies such as the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Ethio Telecom and Ethiopia Electric Power contributed 70 percent to the capital investment during the past three years. The total investment was recorded at Birr155.2 ($7.3 billion). Ethiopian economy is attracting investments from the US and other African nations. The latest initiative 'Doing Business in Ethiopia' is giving more insights into economy for foreign investors. Industry experts advised Ethiopia to develop human resources and focus on education, as per a report in All Africa. Getachew Teklemariam, an independent economist based in the capital, Addis Ababa, said: "The fact is that much of the spending is on capital projects. It is unimaginable to think of Ethiopia as one of the fast-growing countries in the world without government spending." Ethiopian government is keen on infrastructure development including industrial parks, sugar factories and power lines. Since the collapse of military rule in 1991, the Ethiopian government is leading the economy development continuously. The ruling coalition won entire 547 federal Parliament seats in the elections held in 2015. Reorient Group Ltd., a Hong Kong based versatile boutique investment firm, controlled by private equity fund, is going to form a joint venture in Shanghai, China. The joint ventured enterprise; Yunfeng Securities Co. aims to provide brokerage, investment-banking and asset management services in China. The 3 billion yuan ($457 million) joint venture also includes Giant Investment Co. and Jiangsu YuWell Technology Development Co. Yunfeng Securities Co. will be based in Shanghai with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan. 43% stake in the joint venture firm will be owned by Reorient, 56% of which is owned by a unit of private equity fund Yunfeng Financial Holdings Ltd., reports Bloomberg. The Joint Venture Agreement is scheduled to become effective upon the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Reorient Group will control majority of the board of directors of the JV company and it will be represented as a subsidiary of Reorient, reports AAStocks. Registered capital of the JV company will be in shared by the entrepreneurs as Reorient- RMB 43,00,000,000, Giant- RMB 300,000,000 Jiangsu Co. RMB 270,000,000. Besides Reorient's 43%, 30% stake will beheld by Giant and rest 27% by Jiangsu Co., according to the Reorient statement preserved in AAStocks. Yunfeng Financial, has reportedly been backed by Jack Ma, the Chinese business tycoon. He along with partners has bought control of Reorient in May. Jack Ma is the chairman and founder of the $26.5 billion net worth enriched ecommerce company Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. He controls Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group Co. However, Giant Investment Co. is controlled by Shanghai-based billionaire Shi Yuzhu. Giant has businesses ranging from computer networks to investment and asset management firms. According to the proposed Memorandum and Articles of Association, the board of directors of the JV company will consist of 7 directors. Reorient, as the major stakeholder will nominate 5 directors while two directors from the two other partners. Reorient nominated director will act as the chairman of the board of directors for the JV firm. The venturing partners will apply together to the China Securities Regulatory Commission for the establishment and regulatory licenses of the JV Company. Submission of the application will be followed by execution of the Joint Venture Agreement. The application will be supported by the articles of association of the JV entity. A Shanghai based JV firm with 3 billion yuan fund is going into operations subject to receipt of approval from the regulatory authorities. Yunfeng Securities Co., the proposed joint venture entity aims to invest in brokerage, investment-banking and asset management services in China. Jack Ma, the Chinese business tycoon will hold the controlling responsibility for Yunfeng. African coffee producers are facing rough weather amid falling prices and rising competition from Brazil. The coffee prices are poised to fall further this year as increased production from Brazil is putting more pressure. The world's biggest coffee producer and exporter Brazil is witnessing rising production. The coffee production in Brazil may increase to 52 million of bags with 60-kilogram each from 43.2 million bags in 2015, according to nation's supply agency Conab. The current crop is on higher note on a two-year cycle. Bloomberg reports that Africa Fine Coffees Association predicts the coffee prices may fall further considering the high output in Brazil. From early 2015, the average price in New York market fell 40 percent to US 120 cents per pound. However, El Nino weather condition is affecting some coffee growing countries. Abdullah Bagersh, Chairman of the Africa Fine Coffees Association, said: "Brazilian production is quite high for the coming season. So there is no shortage of coffee and therefore the market can't support high prices. Could prices go lower? Yes, of course because we have seen lower prices than where we are now. So we cannot discount that the market cannot go lower." Low quality beans are reducing coffee prices at Nairobi auction. It's estimated that coffee prices fell about nine percent. The 50-kilogram bag was sold at Sh22,644 on Tuesday from Sh24,644 in last week. Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NEC) said that despite price drop, the demand for good quality coffee was high, as reported by Business Daily. Though El Nino is impacting some nations, it's not that big to impact the overall coffee prices. Some countries such as Colombia suffered coffee crop losses upto 90 percent due to El Nino. Africa accounts for 10 percent of global coffee production. It was 20-30 percent during 1970-90s, according to World Coffee Research. Africa's largest coffee growing nation Ethiopia is expecting 45 percent rise coffee exports in 2016. The government is providing incentives and support to coffee growers. The coffee exports of Ethiopia are expected to reach 260,000 tons for 2016. The government's incentives help farmers achieve the export target, according to East African Business Week. Ethiopia recorded $780 million revenues from 184,000 tons of exports. The domestic market is also very strong for coffee consumption. According to World Bank's report, the coffee segment contributed almost half of Ethiopia's gross domestic product (GDP). African farmers are focusing on specialty beans to hedge against price fluctuation and keep up their market share in the global coffee market. The commodity market is more mature in the US and Europe. Specialty is the growing on in the global market. In matured markets also, specialty is still growing. ArcelorMittal announced its plans to raise $3 billion from issue of shares and an additional $1 billion by selling its minority stake in Spanish auto-parts maker, Gestamp. The decision was made to reduce the huge debts as well as survive the slump in steel market brought on by Chinese exports. The CEO of the company, Lakshmi Mittal, who holds 37% stake in the business has said in a statement on Friday that he will maintain his stake while his family will be committed to take up about $1.1 billion, according to Reuters. "This capital raise, combined with the sale of our minority shareholding in Gestamp, will accelerate the company's debt-reduction plan and enable us to reduce net debt to less than $12 billion," he said. "This will help ensure that the business is resilient in any market environment and puts ArcelorMittal in a position of strength from which to further improve performance." The world's largest steel company has confirmed that they have sold their 28% stake in Gestamp Automacion for $979 million, which ended the 1998-esablished joint venture. As per CNBC, Mittal revealed plans of rolling out five-year action 2020 plan, which focuses on improving each of its five segments and reinstating core profit (EBITDA) to above $85 per ton, from last year's $62 per ton. Mittal said, "2015 was a very difficult year for the steel and mining industries," as its core profit last year declined by 32%, to $5.2 billion. However, it expects the same to be "in excess of" $4.5 billion in 2016, which is still not good news. In the meanwhile, the company took drastic measures by way of eliminating dividends, scrapping expansion plans, and shutting down plants, to pay off the debts. Its net loss snowballed into a whopping $7.95 billion after taking on write-downs worth $4.8 billion. Along with cost cuts, ArcelorMittal's capital expenditure and interest payments would see severe reductions by $300 million and $200 million respectively. The Luxembourg-based company reduced its profit forecast for 2016 as Chinese exports took a huge bite out of its largest markets that is Europe and the US. Exports from China were reportedly 112 million tons in 2015, leading to a 40% drop in the US steel prices - lowest since the last 10 years - and an all-time low for the European hot-rolled coil, a yardstick for steel prices, since 2007. Mittal had spoken about this market situation in a separate statement, according to Bloomberg. "Although demand in our core markets remained strong, prices deteriorated significantly during the year as a result of excess capacity in China," he had explained. For 2016, the company, which meets 6% of world demand, is steeling itself for a flat to slightly higher market for consumption. The increase in demand in the US and Europe are likely to be offset by the declining state of affairs in China, Brazil, and former Soviet states. The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB)'s offshore wind fund and asset manager BlackRock team have reached an agreement to acquire GLID Wind Farms. The 423 million ($615 million) deal involves transfer of 220 MW Glens of Foudland (26 MW), Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms (194 MW) or GLID from 'Big Six' utility Centrica and EIG Global Energy Partners. Under the agreement, GIB will acquire 61% while BlackRock managed fund own the remaining 39% stake in the GLID farms. The latter will also assume ownership of GILD's other operating asset and the 26MW Glens of Foudland onshore wind farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, reports Business Green. However, a power purchase agreement with Centrica has been reported to remain effective as earlier. The utility will purchase all of the electricity produced by both assets and enjoy 50% of the renewable obligation certificates until 2024. The Windsor based British multinational company will also continue to provide operations and maintenance services until March 2017, according to a report published in Bloomberg. German factory orders dropped more than anticipated in December. It was not only the export market that grew slow and only showed insignificant return, the local orders had also been weak with minor demand at home. According to the Economy Ministry on Friday as stated in ABC News, after strong revenues in the previous two months, experts had estimated that there would 0.5 percent orders drop at the end of last year. However, it turned out to be worse with 0.7 percent down, more than the forecast. The local demand from inside Germany dropped for 2.5 percent, as well as the orders from the other countries in Europe that were down 6.9 percent. Yet, there was a 5.5 percent increase in the orders coming from countries outside the euro region. Last year, the German economy, which is the largest in Europe, grew by 1.7 percent. While this year, the government has just decreased its growth estimation to 1.7 percent from 1.8 percent in the midst of worries over the global slowdown and political pressures. RTT News mentioned that the December orders drop was the first one during three months. In December, there was a 0.5 percent drop of capital goods orders, while the intermediate goods demand fell for 2 percent. But the consumer goods gained better with 4.3 percent growth in that month. On an annual premise, new orders decreased 2.7 percent in December, more than the 1.4 percent drop estimation. Carsten Brzeski, a financial expert at ING-DiBa, said that While the business had possessed the capacity to tolerate the Chinese economy slowdown, the lower growth of potential markets, the euro crisis and geopolitical conditions, it now appears as though "extremely low oil prices and the slowdown of the US economy are simply two risks too much." Jens Kramer, a market analyst at NordLB in Hanover, as stated in Bloomberg said, "We had extremely solid figures in November, and this arrangement has a tendency to have an opposite development after you had solid information in the previous month. Residential interest in the German economy is exceptionally steady, and we have expanding limit use, so ostensibly everything is ideal for a pickup in venture." Information from the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg suggested that unemployment in the country slid to 6.2 percent in December, the least level since reunification and will reinforce household spending. However, German companies are worried about the declining confidence in the abroad market for a second month. The Chinese sluggish economy, which is Germany's fourth-biggest trading partner, has caused chaos in the global market and influenced the worldwide confidence for a stronger economy. The December dropped orders, which was worse than expected, has shown the weaker ability from the local buyers as well as the slow growth of the overseas market. Twitter, the San Francisco based social media site has announced on Friday suspending more than 125,000 accounts over the past six months. The suspension move removes the accounts on the allegation of threatening or promoting terrorism mainly related to the Islamic States, also known as ISIL or ISIS. This is the first time; Twitter has disclosed the number of accounts deleted. Twitter and other social sites have been criticized heavily for not effectively policing against the extremist groups. Pressure has been mounted up from Obama administration and other president hopefuls in the verge of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino County, reports USA Today. The IS use popular Internet services, such as Twitter and Facebook, as platforms to spread propaganda and to attract new potential recruits. The terrorist group has been using Twitter as a mean to celebrate terrorist attacks and publicize executions. However, cracking down on users promoting violence online has been a tough challenge for social media companies since it coincides with free speech and privacy. Furthermore, several new accounts are popped up back following pulling down one account, reports SiliconBeat. Twitter has used "proprietary spam-fighting tools" to detect accounts connected to terrorism. The company has also beefed up the size of its team reviewing accounts for suspension. However, detail on size of the team or their working pace hasn't been shared yet, reports The Hill. Q: I have an HP that's running Service Pack 2 Vista. From what I can gather from the Microsoft website extended support for Vista will end April 11, 2017. Do you think this means I will receive updates until that date? Also I installed Google Chrome as a backup in case Internet Explorer "freaks-out." Now I am getting the message from Google that Chrome will not be supported because I'm using Windows Vista. Do you have any knowledge about that? William Slavinsky A: Let's start with your question about Vista itself and the planned April 11, 2017 end of extended support. Microsoft does make it confusing. Here's what that means. You'll get support for security flaws (nothing else) until then. In other words, if a new way for hackers to get into the system is discovered Microsoft will issue an update to fix it until April 11, 2017. It won't update anything else. But in truth the security flaws are the main thing anyway. Now let's look at the message you are getting about the Google Chrome browser. Yes, the updates will stop but the browser will still work. It's a lot like what we were talking about with Microsoft. In this case all support including security updates will stop. The browser will still work but won't be as safe as when it was supported. Here's a long article about it (it starts out mentioning Windows XP but if you keep reading you'll see the mention of Vista as well). http://betanews.com/2015/11/10/no-more-chrome-updates-for-windows-xp-from-april-2016/ You didn't ask for advice but if you had here's what I'd say. You don't need to be in a rush but you need to start getting in the mindset of moving to Windows 10. The good thing is that if you are using something as old as Vista you probably could profit from a new machine. If you buy a new one then 10 will already be installed and the hardware will be proven to work with 10. You don't need to rush at all even next year is fine, but I suggest that before the security support from Microsoft ends you either install 10 on your existing computer or buy a new computer that comes with 10. Bill Husted writes about technology. Contact him at tecbud@bellsouth.net. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/TIFFANY BUCHANAN FreezerMonkey Gourmet Frozen Treats of Ventura County is gearing up for Valentine's Day by bringing back a popular (and pretty) flavor: Raspberry-Port with Vanilla Cream Hearts. The gourmet frozen treats will be available this weekend at the Ojai Certified Farmers' Market. SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/TODD PORTER In February, sales of the Wild Alaska "Lite" Burrito at Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill will benefit the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign. By Lisa McKinnon No, we didn't miscount. We just added an extra day to the weekend, the better to include Chinese New Year on Monday. Read on for details. 1). HAVE A HEART February is American Heart Month, a fact that Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill locations in Ventura County and beyond are celebrating by taking part in the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign. Here's where you come in: Now through Feb. 29, $1 from the sale of every Wild Alaska Salmon "Lite" burrito will go to efforts to raise awareness and funds for women's heart health. The burrito features grilled salmon with nori seaweed, organic poblano brown rice, avocado and more. In Ventura County, Sharky's has locations in Camarillo, Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Westlake Village. For information, go to http://www.sharkys.com. 2). LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL If you know what it means to miss New Orleans, you'll want to check out the (admittedly non traditional) Fat Friday event at Rabalais Bistro in Santa Paula. From 6:30 to 9 p.m., diners will find Mardi Gras-inspired dinner and dessert specials along with live gospel and blues music by the band Sunday Mornin'. Rabalais also is taking reservations for its annual Mardi Gras party, which from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Feb. 9 will feature The Barrelhouse Wailers (861 E. Main St., 805-525-2109, http://rabalaisbistro.com). 3). GO RED That's not a hidden message about the Super Bowl. Rather, it's a reminder about the open-to-the-public Ojai Red release party happening from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at The Ojai Vineyard tasting room in you guessed it Ojai. The vineyard's usual by-the-flight pours will be suspended for the evening, when the focus will be on by the glass ($7) and bottle ($19.95) sales of Ojai Red, described in tasting notes as offering "prodigious fruit and perfume ... accented by syrah and smoothed by pinot noir's natural silkiness. The wine finishes with a dash of acidity tempered by salty tannins and a wonderful texture that is an Ojai Vineyard hallmark." Ojai Red library selections will also be available at $10 per glass. UPDATE: The Middle Feast food truck will be on site from 4 p.m. The truck and its owners were season-5 champs of the Food Network show "The Great Food Truck Race." (109 S. Montgomery St., 805-798-3947, http://www.ojaivineyard.com). 4). FARMERS MARKET AND CHILL Known for the gourmet frozen pops she makes with local, seasonal fruits, pastry chef Tiffany Buchanan is gearing up for Valentine's Day by bringing back a popular holiday flavor: Raspberry-Port with Creamy Hearts. Foodies take note: This flavor will not be available as one of the packaged FreezerMonkey Gourmet Frozen Treats Buchanan makes for Whole Foods Market and other select stores. (For a list of locations, go to http://freezermonkeys.com.) To find the bright red frozen treats decorated with "floating" vanilla-cream hearts, visit the Ojai Certified Farmers' Market, where Buchanan will be selling them out of her FreezerMonkey pushcart from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday (300 E. Main St., http://www.ojaicertifiedfarmersmarket.com). 5). DO MONKEY AROUND P.F. Chang's in Thousand Oaks will join locations throughout the country in celebrating Chinese New Year with a wishing-tree event on Monday. On that date, trees outside the chain's restaurants nationwide will be decorated with traditional red envelopes containing loyalty points good for free menu items. Five winners spread across the country will receive envelopes containing enough points for free P.F. Chang's for a year. Now through Feb. 29, each item ordered from the P.F. Chang's Chinese New Year menu will generate a $1 donation by the chain to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Dishes include butternut squash dumplings, Sichuan chili garlic chicken and long life noodles and prawns. Another way to trigger a $1 donation: post a Chinese New Year wish to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hash tag #PFChangsWish (2250 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., 805-277-5915, https://www.pfchangs.com). Lisa McKinnon is a staff writer for The Star. Her Cafe Society column appears in the Sunday Life section and Fridays in the Time Out section. For between-column updates, follow 805foodie on Twitter and Instagram and "like" the Facebook page VCS Eats. Please send email to lisa.mckinnon@vcstar.com.

Associated Press

At left is the exterior of the new lethal injection facility at San Quentin State Prison.

SHARE By From Staff And Wire Reports A federal judges decision that Californias death penalty is unconstitutional drew differing reactions Wednesday from prosecution and defense lawyers in Ventura County. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote that lengthy and unpredictable delays have resulted in an arbitrary and unfair capital punishment system. The decision represents a legal victory for those who want to abolish the death penalty in California and follows a similar ruling that has suspended executions in the state for eight years. Carney, in a case brought by a death row inmate against the warden of San Quentin state prison, called the death penalty an empty promise that violates the Eighth Amendments protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Inordinate and unpredictable delay has resulted in a death penalty system in which very few of the hundreds of individuals sentenced to death have been, or even will be, executed by the State, wrote Carney, a George W. Bush appointee. He noted that death penalty appeals can last decades and, as a result, most condemned inmates are likely to die of natural causes before their executions are carried out. Carney also wrote that since the current death penalty system was adopted by California voters 35 years ago, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death, but only 13 have been executed. 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, the judge stated. The ruling drew mixed reactions from Ventura County and elsewhere in the state. Michael McMahon, chief deputy public defender for Ventura County, agreed that Californias current system is unworkable, noting the fraction of individuals sentenced to death in California since 1978 who have been executed. There are tremendous expenditures on death penalty cases in California, McMahon said, adding that it is very hard for anyone to make the case that taxpayers are getting a good return on the amount of money being spent. A huge amount of resources are diverted to a small number of cases in which county prosecutors elect to seek the death penalty. The current system is unsustainable and just doesnt work. Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten took a different view, saying the decision essentially tells those who have been sentenced to death to file every appeal possible, something that will take years to do. And after all of the delays, you can then claim the sentence is unfair because of all the time consumed by the appeals, Totten said. Totten said he served with a group of prosecutors that looked at ways to make the states system more effective, including expanding the pool of appellate judges who would consider appeals made by death penalty defendants. But the groups recommendations did not lead to any meaningful change in California, he said, in part because of a lack of political will by the state Legislature to implement the recommendations. Totten also noted that the judge was silent on the facts behind the horrific murder that the defendant committed in the case that spurred the ruling. Legal experts said the ruling could echo elsewhere as the issues it addresses are in no way unique. Every state with a significant death row has the problem of cases taking a long time, said Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at UC Davis. Chin said he sees a long appeals process ahead and expects the case will reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling could be appealed by either the governor or the state attorney general. Gil Garcetti, a former Los Angeles County district attorney who has become an anti-death-penalty activist, called the ruling truly historic. It further proves that the death penalty is broken beyond repair, he said. Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen, former chairman of the California Board of Prison Terms, issued a statement saying, The current system needs improvement, but to completely get rid of the death penalty is unconscionable for victims and their families and society. Victims and their families need and deserve justice. This ruling denies them and society justice. He said Californians have long supported the death penalty, and he urged Attorney General Kamala Harris to uphold the will of the people and appeal. Another federal judge put Californias death penalty on hold in 2006 when he ruled the states lethal injection procedures needed overhaul. The judge found that the states procedures created too much risk that an inmate would suffer extreme pain while being executed. At that time, lethal injections were carried out in San Quentins old gas chamber, which the judge found too cramped, too dark and too old for prison staff to properly administer execution drugs. Since then, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has built a new execution chamber on the grounds of San Quentin in Northern California and made changes to its procedures. A new federal judge has taken over the case and has not ruled on whether those changes are enough for the state to restart executions. Additionally, the corrections department is drafting a new set of regulations for administering lethal injections. No executions can take place until the new rules are formally adopted. Carneys ruling came in a legal petition brought by Ernest Dewayne Jones, sentenced to die in 1994 after being convicted of murdering and raping his girlfriends mother. Jones remains on death row with complete uncertainty as to when, or even whether, his execution will come, the judge wrote. Carney noted that arbitrary factors such as the manner in which paperwork is handled are what determine whether an individual will actually be executed. VENTURA COUNTY DEATH ROW CASES Heres a look at inmates who are on death row in cases with Ventura County ties: Jeffrey Aguilar Convicted in August 2013 for the Aug. 16, 2008, fatal shooting of Gurmohinder Singh as the 55-year-old businessman left a US Bank branch in Oxnard with $100,000. Ricardo Villa Convicted in April 2011 for the 1993 slaying and rape of an 87-year-old Port Hueneme woman, Beatrice Bellis. Randolph Randy Kling Sentenced in February 2010 for the 2003 murder of Michael Budfuloski, 31, of Simi Valley, five months after Kling murdered the victims father, businessman William Bill Budfuloski, 53, of Simi Valley. Douglas Dworak Convicted in April 2005 of murdering and raping Crystal Hamilton, 18, of Oxnard. Hamiltons naked body was found floating along the shore of Mussel Shoals in 2001. Vincent Sanchez Convicted in 2003 of shooting Moorpark College student Megan Barroso, 20, kidnapping her from her car, attempting to rape her, then leaving her to die in 2001. Michael Schultz Raped and strangled Cynthia Burger, 44, in 1993 in her Port Hueneme condo. Schultz was convicted in 2003. Cora Caro Shot and killed her three Santa Rosa Valley sons in 1999. She was convicted in 2001. Justin Merriman Raped and slit the throat of Katrina Montgomery, 20, of Los Angeles in his Ventura bedroom in 1992 and convicted in 2001. Kenneth McKinzie Beat and strangled Ruth Avril, 73, of Oxnard in 1996, then stole her Christmas presents and gave them to his children. He was convicted in 1999. Spencer Brasure Convicted in 1998 of the 1996 torture killing of Anthony Guest of Redondo Beach. Guest was tortured with electricity, then burned to death in a remote Ventura County campground near Gorman. Michael Raymond Johnson Shot and killed Ventura County Sheriffs Deputy Peter Aguirre in 1996 and convicted in 1998. Deputies had responded to a domestic abuse call at the Meiners Oaks home of Johnsons common-law wife. Mark Scott Thornton Convicted in 1994 of the 1993 kidnapping and slaying of Westlake Village nurse Kellie OSullivan. Christopher Sattiewhite Raped, kidnapped and murdered Genoveva Gonzales of Oxnard in 1992 and convicted in 1994. Gregory Scott Smith Kidnapped, sexually assaulted and strangled Paul Bailly, 8, of Northridge in 1990 and convicted in 1992. Tracy Dearl Cain Convicted in 1988 of beating William Galloway, 63, of Oxnard to death with a rocking chair and Galloways wife, Modena, 55, with his bare fists in 1986. Curtis Lynn Fauber Broke into the home of Thomas Urell, 52, of Oxnard and robbed and murdered him in 1986. He was convicted that same year. Michael Morales A Stockton man convicted in 1983 of raping and killing a 17-year-old Lodi girl in 1981. He was tried in Ventura County because of extensive pretrial publicity in Stockton. SHARE By Jean Moore of the Ventura County Star Community colleges are getting another chance to improve how they teach remedial English and math classes. Students who take those classes are far less likely to earn a degree or transfer to a four-year university than students who aren't placed into remedial classes. Now colleges can apply for $60 million in one-time grants to change that. "We need to make sure their first experience is not a discouraging one," said Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, who wrote the legislation for the grants, which will go to 30 to 60 colleges. Irwin was among about a dozen state leaders and community college experts who spoke at a budget hearing Friday morning at Oxnard College. The hearing was designed to highlight issues associated with remedial education and strategies that have helped. Those strategies include changing how students are placed in remedial classes and streamlining the classes themselves so students can get into college-level courses as quickly as possible. When they start community college, most students take a test that determines what level of math and English classes they can take and whether they will be placed in remedial classes. But the assessments often put students into remedial classes when they don't need to be there, said Janet Fulks, who serves on the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. Students may simply be rusty on a few key concepts. Or they may not have prepared for the test, speakers said. So a better measure might be their high school GPAs, Fulks said. "We need to look at our placement," she said. "It's shocking. There are things we've done that rise to the level of academic malpractice." Colleges also need to give faculty the training they need to teach remedial classes, speakers said. "Perhaps we've been underprepared to serve our students," said Deborah Harrington, with the California Community College Success Network. This is not the first time community colleges have tried to improve their remedial classes. The Basic Skills Initiative, introduced in 2006, had the same goal. But the resulting initiatives didn't boost graduation and transfer rates much. "We do have a history of basic skills initiatives not providing the payoff that was hoped for," said Judy Heiman, principal fiscal and policy analyst for the Legislative Analyst's Office. That doesn't mean, though, that the colleges shouldn't keep trying, said Michele Siqueiros, president of The Campaign for College Opportunity. "I'm pretty sure if I passed out that assessment test right now, very few of you would pass it," Siqueiros said. "We have to feel the urgency as if it were our own child walking through that door." ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Hayley McLean, who survived a cardiac arrest at age 12, and her mother tell Hayleys story at the Ventura County Go Red for Women luncheon on Friday. SHARE ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Justin Schneider (from left), of Pepperdine University, tests his knowledge at a trivia station where Simi Valley Hospitals Jennie Hoffman, Kathryn Stiles and Laura Magness hand out prizes to participants during the Ventura County Go Red for Women luncheon and health expo on Friday. ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Janice Koehler (left), of Thousand Oaks, takes part in a CPR demonstration with Erica Rosa, of Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center, during the health expo portion of the Ventura County Go Red for Women luncheon on Friday. ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Panelists including (from left) Drs. Ravi Dave, Janki Shah, Farheen Shirazi and Tracy Huynh discuss cardiovascular health during the Ventura County Go Red for Women luncheon on Friday. ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Jan Harris, of Westlake Village, looks over items in the silent auction at Fridays Ventura County Go Red for Women luncheon. By Robyn Flans Hayley McLean, of Newbury Park, was just 12 years old when she suffered a cardiac arrest after tripping and falling while running to her P.E. class at Sequoia Middle School. Now 17, Hayley came to the 12th annual Go Red for Women Luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village on Friday to tell guests how lucky she was that her teacher discovered her and knew what to do. "She did CPR on me," Hayley told those at the annual luncheon put on by the American Heart Association as a way to raise awareness of women's heart disease the No. 1 killer of women in the United States and raise money to fight it. Hayley was rushed to Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center, then taken by helicopter to UCLA, where she was diagnosed with an abnormal heart rhythm called CPVT catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. Gaye McLean, Hayley's mother, explained that the condition's existence was only discovered in 1975. "Fifty percent of all people could have an event like Hayley and possibly die and the others can never have a symptom their entire life," she told the audience. Hayley said she's thankful she can live a fairly normal life. She takes medications, and she can't go on roller-coasters, watch scary movies or engage in strenuous physical activity. What she's chosen to do instead is raise money for the American Heart Association about $1,200 over the past two years at her school, her mother said. "She is also an advocate of learning CPR," McLean added. Friday's event included a health expo, where registered nurses from Los Robles demonstrated hands-only CPR and allowed guests to try it on mannequins. Suzin Norris, of Thousand Oaks, took the exercise seriously. "My husband had a heart attack this year," Norris said. "It reminds you that you haven't taken a CPR class since high school. I'm thinking I need a refresher to have the confidence to be able to get into action like that if I needed to. Even if I came across someone on the street, I'd like to think I'm the kind of person that would jump into action and help save a life." Shawn Willson's life was saved last April when he walked into Simi Valley Hospital as one of the first patients in the catheterization laboratory. The 44-year-old felt some pressure in his chest after his morning shower and told his wife to take him to the emergency room. Just as they were prepping him for a stent, he went into cardiac arrest. Willson said he was shocked 16 times. "I was coded for 52 minutes," he said. "These people did not give up. They were doing compressions for 52 minutes straight." The cath lab had opened three weeks earlier. "If they hadn't opened the lab, I wouldn't be here," Willson said. Dr. Janki Shah and Dr. Farheen Shirazi, assistant clinical professors of medicine cardiology at the UCLA System, provided a presentation highlighting women's heart disease and raising awareness of symptoms, including being tired. "It can be a sign of a heart attack," Shah said. "If there is something out of the usual, it needs to be addressed immediately." Farheen said another symptom can be elbow pain. "I had a patient with left elbow pain and who was very fatigued," Farheen said. "We discovered she had some blockages. Screenings are important for early detection of disease so we can treat it early." SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Ventura County Sheriff's Office Department. By Staff Reports A San Diego man was arrested this week after threatening in a phone call to shoot people at a Moorpark-based loan company, officials said. Deputies began investigating the man about 1 p.m. Tuesday after he called PennyMac Loan Services, 6101 Condor Drive, to discuss an issue with his account and ongoing litigation, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office said. In a recorded conversation, the man, identified as Todd Alan Duell, became upset and made specific and direct threats to come to the Moorpark office and shoot people to get their attention, authorities said. A search warrant was issued for the 46-year-old man's San Diego home, officials said. The search was conducted Wednesday and investigators recovered three handguns, an assault rifle and about 5,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said. Duell was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats and booked into Ventura County jail, officials said. The San Diego Police Department assisted in the investigation. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Aaron Dadacays Memories of Overdevelopment Religion is among the works on display as part of a new exhibit in a half-vacant building in downtown Oxnard. SHARE By Claudia Boyd-Barrett Aaron Dadacay's life straddles two cultures, but he feels he doesn't belong to either of them. The 31-year-old Oxnard artist grew up in the Philippines and moved to the United States at age 18. He speaks perfect English, thanks in part to a childhood spent watching American television shows. He also speaks the Filipino language Tagalog, eats Filipino food and listens to Filipino music. Yet his identity is neither American nor Filipino, he said. It's somewhere in between. "Whatever's available here, you assimilate and you make it your own," said Dadacay, noting also the prevalence of Hispanic culture and foods in Oxnard. "It's kind of like this hybrid identity, or hybrid culture, a third culture that creates your new identity." IF YOU GO What: "Territorial Nomads: Tales of Diaspora" Where: 519 South C St., Oxnard. Reception: 6-9 p.m. Saturday Exhibit: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends, through Feb. 26 Cost: Free This idea of a blended cultural identity arising from the immigrant experience is the focus of a 20-piece multimedia art exhibit organized by Dadacay and three longtime artist friends that opens Saturday in downtown Oxnard. Titled "Territorial Nomads: Tales of Diaspora," the exhibit is housed in an office building that is home to the Oxnard Downtown Improvement District. Dadacay said he chose the venue because of a lack of gallery space in Oxnard and because he's trying to bring art to an audience beyond the typical gallery-goer. All of the artists participating in the exhibit are first-generation immigrants who, like Dadacay, arrived in the United States as children or teenagers. Maria Villote, 31, was also born in the Philippines and moved to Oxnard at age 9. Olguin Tapia, 28, moved from Mexico to the United States at about age 7. Gladys Rodriguez, 28, arrived in Oxnard from Panama at age 14. The four friends met while studying at Oxnard College about a decade ago. Each artist said their native culture continues to inform their view of the world, even though they have assimilated to life in the United States. Their artwork explores aspects of their own cultural and personal experiences. Rodriguez, a graduate of CSU Los Angeles, is exhibiting a sculpture, a video installation and two collages that draw on colors and traditions of her homeland. Her genealogy is Spanish, native Panamanian and African, a mixture she said is unremarkable in Panama, but generates confusion here. "A lot of times when people look at me, they think I'm African-American, then I start speaking Spanish and they don't really know," she said. In the United States, "everything has a label: Oh, you are African-American, you are white American, you're Latino-American or you're Asian-American. "For a long time, I felt like an outsider." Villote, a graduate of UC Berkeley, explores a feeling of rootlessness through her installation of empty cargo boxes traditionally sent home by Filipino immigrants living abroad. The boxes are addressed to the places she lived in the Philippines, from the various homes she's lived in while in the United States. Her family has moved many times and still doesn't own a home, she said. "When you move to the United States, you have this notion of the American dream, but when you get here, it's nothing at all like you expected," she said. For his part, Dadacay's work examines the influence of western culture on the Philippines and on his own upbringing. Tapia, also a graduate of CSU Los Angeles, crafts sculptures of ramshackle homes and paintings reminiscent of his childhood in Mexico. If the exhibit goes well, Dadacay said he hopes to organize similar exhibits in other nontraditional venues in Oxnard. "We're pretty excited," he said. "We're hoping it's going to be the first of many." 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 By Cindy Von Quednow of the Ventura County Star Bishop Broderick Huggins was reviewing his mail last week after returning from preaching trips in South Carolina and Connecticut when he opened something disturbing. Postmarked in Santa Barbara, the envelope contained a defaced copy of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day story in The Star about the African-American community in Ventura County. Someone had clipped the story out of the newspaper and written racist and threatening remarks over a photo of Huggins and elsewhere. Huggins is pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Oxnard, the largest African-American church in Ventura County. The envelope had no return address, and Huggins said he has no idea who might have sent it. "I was shocked that someone would be that cowardly, that sinister ... to tear the article out, actually write such hateful remarks, put it in an envelope, seal it and mail it; to actually put that kind of energy to express that kind of hatred and animosity toward someone because of the color of their skin," Huggins said Friday. "I received some hate mail years ago, but nothing that explicit." Oxnard Police Chief Jeri Williams said Huggins called her about the incident and she encouraged him to file a report. The scribbles on the news story included a death threat. She said the Police Department's hate crime detective was assigned to the case and the matter is being investigated. "We are taking this very seriously," Williams said. "The challenge with this case is we don't know who the suspect is." She said it's the first hate crime reported in the city this year. Nine such crimes were investigated last year, three of which involved other crimes. Two arrests were made in those cases. In a third, a suspect was identified, but the victim did not press charges, Williams said. Huggins said he is no stranger to the consequences of hate. He said his grandfather was lynched in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Huggins was beaten and left for dead in Stockton in the 1970s. "(Racism) is just something you learn to live with. You don't stop living because you have this dynamic," he said. "I'm not going to crawl up in a fetal position and let the world pass me by. I'll never give anyone that kind of power over me, to alter my movements nor affect what I say." Huggins said he is more aware of his surroundings now, and the church has hired security guards to monitor who comes in and out. "After what happened in South Carolina, I'm a little more cognizant of security, of where I go and who is around me," said Huggins, referring to a mass shooting at a historic Methodist church in Charleston last summer. SHARE Heading into New Hampshire, the race for the nomination of the once-genteel Republican Party seems to have entered a kind of Mad Max phase. It is no surprise that Donald Trump is doing his best to create political mayhem. Trump was uncharacteristically subdued Monday night when he underperformed in Iowa, getting beaten by Ted Cruz and barely holding on to second place. But within 24 hours he was back in form, slashing and burning with abandon. Trump seized on Ben Carson's complaint that Cruz's representatives at the Iowa caucuses had cheated, falsely leading Carson supporters to believe that their candidate was pulling out of the race; the message was that if they wanted their votes to count, they should cast them for Cruz. Trump thundered on Twitter that the "state of Iowa" should nullify the results and order a do-over never mind that it is the Iowa Republican Party, not the state government, that runs the caucuses. "Oh that voter fraud, you know, these politicians are brutal," Trump said at a rally. "They are a bunch of dishonest cookies, I want to tell you." Cruz accused his rival of throwing a "Trumper-tantrum" Cruz's wordplay is never quite as sparkling as he seems to think and his campaign maintained it was guilty of nothing except the practice of big-league politics. The dispute doesn't amount to much, except in this one sense: Trump played it safe in the days before Iowa, even skipping a debate, but now he seems back to the hot-mess flamboyance that brought him this far. Polls show him with a 20-point lead in New Hampshire over all comers, according to the Real Clear Politics average. He needs to win big to remain the favorite for the nomination. Cruz is riding high, of course, and can even dream of sneaking into second place in Tuesday's primary. But New Hampshire is unfriendly turf for him. Besides being the place where Trump hopes to get his mojo back, it is the state where the lagging establishment candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich have to do well. If they don't, donors and endorsers may begin to coalesce around Marco Rubio, the only establishment hopeful who performed better in Iowa than the polls had predicted. Indeed, such movement began Thursday when Rick Santorum, who didn't survive Iowa, gave Rubio his endorsement. Unhappily, however, Santorum struggled mightily when pressed by "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough to name one thing Rubio has accomplished in the Senate. After much hemming and hawing, Santorum acknowledged that "there isn't a whole lot" but protested that the question was unfair, since no one has accomplished much of anything in the Senate in recent years. It is Christie, though, who has been sharpest some would say "most vicious" -- in attacking Rubio since the Iowa vote. Christie's campaign is running out of money and time, and he seems to have decided to leave it all on the field in New Hampshire. "This isn't a student council election, everybody. This is an election for president of the United States," Christie said Tuesday, in an attack aimed at Rubio. "Let's get the boy out of the bubble, and let's see if he's ready to play next week in New Hampshire, I'm ready to play." The boy-in-the-bubble charge was only the beginning. Christie later said that Rubio "acts like the king of England," called him "the master of the drive-by town hall," accused him of being overly scripted and claimed he "just doesn't have any experience." Bush is taking a more indirect approach. As we have seen in the debates, he is not exactly a master of the frontal assault. But he has been cheering Christie on, calling him "a great campaigner ... a good friend ... an effective governor." And the Bush campaign bought a full-page ad in the Union Leader, New Hampshire's biggest-circulation newspaper, in which eight leading Florida Republicans charged that Rubio "is not the best choice to serve as commander in chief." With all the slashing and bashing on the Republican side, the Democratic race in New Hampshire almost seems reduced to undercard status unless, of course, there is a surprise. If Bernie Sanders from next-door Vermont wins the primary handily, as polls predict, nothing much changes. He and Hillary Clinton seem likely to wage a long battle of attrition. For Republicans, however, New Hampshire is political life or death. Ronald Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment" not speaking ill of a fellow Republican is being honored more in the breach than in the observance. Eugene Robinson writes for The Washington Post. Email him at eugenerobinson@washpost.com. SHARE "The coast is never saved. It's always being saved!" These are the oft-repeated words of Peter Douglas, the longtime executive director of the California Coastal Commission, who died in 2012. Douglas was right and we're seeing it again now. The threat to the coast this year (in addition to El Nino storms) comes as Charles Lester, who succeeded Douglas as the executive director of the powerful agency, is faced with a personnel hearing at the Feb. 10 commission meeting in Morro Bay to discuss his dismissal. He was informed by letter. No reason was given. Lester requested a public hearing and has made no public comment. Coastal advocates feel the disciplinary hearing is a thinly disguised attempt to remove Lester, replace him with a more "malleable" executive director and induce a more favorable climate for energy and real estate development. The opposition to Lester is said to be led by Gov. Jerry Brown's three appointees to the commission, one of whom, Wendy Mitchell, represents PG&E, the infamous operator of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, the relicensing of which will soon be before the commission. As a private citizen, she does not answer to the public. The irony here is that the Coastal Act of 1976 was passed and signed into law by Gov. Brown during his first administration. It would not have passed the California Senate without last-minute lobbying by Brown himself. Numerous insiders have told me there is little affection for the Coastal Commission from Gov. Brown, who is primarily responsible for its existence, since the Coastal Act's passage was required to reaffirm Prop. 20, passed by voters in 1972. Lester has demonstrated his ability to lead the agency, particularly with the recent release of the Sea Level Rise Guidance Document, a document two-and-a-half years in the making, and a starting point for the state to deal with the immense challenges that sea level rise will pose to the coast. The document was highly praised by commissioners, and is a solid indicator that the man with the difficult job of administering the Coastal Act is doing it well. Douglas himself faced many attempts to dislodge him as chief of the commission, which regulates development along the 1,100 mile coastline. With the governor, the speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Rules Committee each appointing four commissioners, it has so far evaded capture by the interests it regulates. Additionally, this separation of power in the selection of the commissioners gives it an independence that has grated on more than one governor. Gov. George Deukemejian campaigned against it, and cut its funding once elected. Gov. Pete Wilson took a shot at ousting Douglas when the Republicans took over the Assembly, but that attempt failed in the face of overwhelming public support. A similar outpouring is what is needed now to support Charles Lester and it appears to be developing. As of this writing, almost 100 environmental groups have signed on in opposition (www.actcoastal.org), as well as 33 former commissioners and 16 California legislators. Commission staff reports receiving over 11,000 letters opposing Lester's ouster and only two supporting it. The beauty and accessibility of the California coast is the foundation for 367,952 jobs (75.2 percent) of the state's ocean economy employment in coastal tourism and recreation. Tourism and recreation contributed $17.6 billion (39.3 percent) to the state's ocean GDP, according to the Center for the Blue Economy's 2012 figures. As a place of recreation and renewal to the state's entire population, as well as visitors from throughout the U.S. and the world, the Coastal Act supports public access to beaches, coastal water quality, wildlife, coastal agriculture and scenic views. If people wish to see its strength continue, and if they can possibly make it to the Morro Bay hearing on Feb. 10, please do so. If not, email your support for Lester's retention to the Coastal Commission at StatusOfExecutiveDirector@coastal.ca.gov; access a legislator your support via the Act Coastal website (www.actcoastal.org); or call Gov. Jerry Brown's office at 916-445-2841. Janet Bridgers, of Oxnard, is founder and president of Earth Alert. With Chinese New Year, Valentines Day and Presidents Day right around the corner, Las Vegas North Premium Outlets and Las Vegas South Premium Outlets are gearing up for a month full of celebration, including festive decorations, traditional performances and a new program to share the love with local shoppers. In the spirit of spreading love before the Valentines Day holiday, Las Vegas North Premium Outlets is kicking off February by launching a Locals Night at Las Vegas North every Wednesday starting February 10. From 4 p.m. until closing, locals (with proof of residency) will receive complimentary valet parking, free Locals Discounts from center retailers, and a free gift just for shopping with Las Vegas North Premium Outlets. On February 10, for example, locals can enjoy 20 percent off at David Yurman, light refreshments and a complimentary muliti-strand bracelet with a $150 purchase at Pandora, $25 off a purchase of $150 at Chicos, and more. Local shoppers should park at the Las Vegas North Premium Outlets valet near the Cheesecake Factory to receive their free valet and then head to Guest Services across from The Cheesecake Factory to pick up their gift and Local Discounts guide. The Locals Night will be held every Wednesday, so community members are encouraged to join in on a weekly basis for new deals and giveaways. Were showing some love to our local shoppers because we want our community to come discover everything that Las Vegas North Premium Outlets has to offer exceptional brands at extraordinary prices! said Vicki Rousseau, Director of Marketing and Business Development for Las Vegas North and Las Vegas South Premium Outlets. We are a part of the Las Vegas community and want to give something special back to our local residents. Continuing the February fun, on Sunday, February 14, shoppers can celebrate Chinese New Year and the Year of the Monkey with a traditional dragon dance performed by School of Lohan at Las Vegas North Premium Outlets, starting at 1:00 p.m. Shoppers can follow the celebration from Guest Services at Las Vegas North Premium Outlets into the Food Court to enjoy the traditional dragon dance performance. The dragon will then parade throughout the Center for all shoppers to enjoy. As legend has it, ancient Buddha gathered with the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac on Chinese New Year, and people born in each animals year display some of the animals characteristics. The Monkey, for example, is said to be clever and agile. To commemorate this years animal of honor, both Information Centers at Las Vegas North and South Premium Outlets will be decked out with lanterns and scrolls, and will be giving out fortune cookies and lucky candy to guests. Las Vegas South Premium Outlets will also host a series of arts and crafts sessions for kids at Guest Services by Entry B from noon to 5 p.m., while supplies last. On February 6 and 13, children will be able to make their own Chinese bookmark, and on February 14, kids can create a personalized Valentine. On top of the Chinese New Year celebrations, shoppers can celebrate Presidents Day Weekend from Friday, February 12, to Monday, February 15 with special sales and retailer deals. In addition, members of the military, veterans and their families can show their IDs at Guest Services all year long to receive a free Savings Passport. Plus, join the VIP Shopper Club for free access to exclusive online coupons. Consumers buy their garment and textile products in a Vinatexmart in HCM City. - File photo As part of its commitment to join the World Trade Organisation, Viet Nam has allowed the establishment of 100 per cent foreign retail companies since 2015. Viet Nam's membership of the ASEAN Economic Community, signed last month, will connect the country's market with a single regional market of 600 million consumers, while the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement will bring more than 10,000 kinds of goods from 12 member countries at zero tariffs. In this context, the current modern retail channel of supermarkets and stores account for only 25 per cent of the market share in Viet Nam, where the traditional market is still the most popular shopping channel. Compared with the region, the coverage of modern retail sector in the country is much lower than in the regional countries, such as 33 per cent in the Philippines, 34 per cent in Thailand, 51 per cent in China, and 60 per cent in Malaysia, besides 90 per cent in Singapore. Viet Nam, which plans to increase the rate of modern retail channels to 45 per cent, therefore, attracts a lot attention from foreign retailers. The local retailers that run modern shopping channels are Co-opmart with 77 supermarkets, Fivimart with 20 supermarkets in Ha Noi, Citimart with 27 supermarkets, and Hapro with more than 20 stores. After the acquisition of the Retail Ocean Ocean Group, Vingroup joined the retail market, but its network of Vinmart supermarkets and Vinmart+ convenient stores were now more than 200 across the country. Meanwhile, foreign retail enterprises account for more than 40 per cent of the more than 800 supermarkets in Viet Nam. Foreign retailers in Viet Nam include supermarket chains of Big C, Lotte Mart, Metro Cash & Carry and Aeon, besides convenience store chains such as Circle K from the US, Singapore's Shop & Go and Thailand's B's mart. According to experts, the local conditions make Viet Nam one of the best places to invest in the modern shopping channel. Besides making wholly new investments, several investors have chosen M&A. Thai retailer Berli Jucker, which acquired Metro Cash & Carry in Viet Nam, has announced plans to buy French retail casino group Casino Viet Nam, which owns more than 30 Big C supermarkets across the country. According to a source familiar with the industry, Singapore's Dairy Farm Group, Korea's Lotte Group and Japanese retail group Aeon Co Ltd also want to buy the Big C supermarket network in Viet Nam. The Dairy Farm Group is the second-largest retailer in Singapore and Hong Kong, with a series of retail brands such as 7-Eleven, Cold Storage, Guardian, and Wellcome Giant, besides Hero. It earned $13 billion in revenue in 2014. Meanwhile, Lotte Shopping is a Korean mall chain with a turnover of $23 billion in 2014. Not only did foreign retail giants use M&A to enter the local retail market, local firms such as real estate developer Vingroup did the same. Vingroup has made consecutive M&A deals in the retail sector so far. It bought the Ocean Mart in 2014, renamed it Vinmart and expanded the chain. Then it bought all shares of Vinatextmart from the Viet Nam Textile and Garment Group, ending up with 39 Vinatextmarts in the country. The group has also bought an 80 per cent stake in Hop Nhat Company, renaming it Vinlinks, and using it as the delivery for Vingroup's retail segment. Most recently, the group acquired all shares of Maximark from An Phong Investment JSC. The group's Vice chairman Le Khac Hiep told local media that they would open 100 supermarkets and 1,000 marts by 2017 by building new facilities or through M&A. Providence has favored me, with a very unexpected Visit to Spain, wrote John Adams to his friend, James Lovell, on December 16, 1779. Over the next month, this landing on Spanish soil would test Adams like few journeys in his life, and yet afford him a surprise glimpse of the Basque, a people with such a High and independent spirit, so essentially different from the other Provinces that he would recall them years later during Americas struggle for a new constitution. Weeks earlier, as battles raged along Americas eastern seaboard, Adams had left Boston harbor for Paris to begin dialogue for a peace accord. His ship, the Sensible, had run into a noreaster two days out and sprung a terrible leak that forced all aboard to man the pumps day and night. After three thousand miles of winter weather on the Atlantic, the water-logged and rotting Sensible, manned by a desperate and exhausted crew had put into port at El Ferrol off the northern tip of Spain. With peace possible and the fate of American, English, and French lives resting on his shoulders, Adams could not spare several months for ship repairs, so he decided to travel the nearly 900 miles over land to reach Paris. All the Spanish officials at El Ferrol assured him that his plan was a prudent course. The hospitality on the way was the finest in the world, they told him, the journey an easy excursion through lush countryside, even in December. It sounded very much like a vacation. Determined and confident, Adams gathered his sons, John Quincy and Charles, and a few escorts, and headed out a day after Christmas 1779 in a caravan of thirteen mules like Don Quixotes from the New World. Much of Spain at the time resembled what Adams had spent a lifetime fighting in Boston and then Philadelphia. Nearly all of the country fell under a trident of power. First, a monarchy levied taxes, drafted fathers and sons into Spains never-ending wars, and ruled by royal decree without election or the consent of the people. A second prong was the clergy who had erected in town after town massive cathedrals, and then collected heavy tithing for their upkeep. Failure to tithe, warned the clergy, condemned a commoner to perditions flame. Most paid, and had paid for centuries, keeping peasants as peasants, destitute and powerless. Though a devout man, Adams saw through this ruse commenting, Nothing appears rich but the Churches, nobody fat, but the Clergy. The noblemen comprised the third prong. They commanded vast lands and ships that kings and queens of the past had bestowed on their ancestral lines in exchange for political loyalty and obedience. The nobles imposed fees for the privilege of using their lands or ships to grow bread, catch cod, or build homes for families. This trident of king, clergy, and nobles acted like a devils fork to draw life and blood from the people much like King George of England and the noblemen under his reign plagued the American colonies. I see nothing but Signs of Poverty and Misery, Adams wrote. A fertile Country, not half cultivated, People ragged and dirty, and the Houses universally nothing but Mire, Smoke, Fleas and Lice....No Simptoms of Commerce, or even of internal Trafic, no Appearance of manufactures or Industry. Along the path, mile after mile, this gloom did not let up, not for a moment. From El Ferrol through Galicia, Leon, and Castille, the scarcity of terrain and the poverty of people weighed on Adams, his sons, and his party. The taverns offered little accommodation, so each man carried his own blankets and sheets, food and water, flint and steel. In the December chill, he hoped only for a comforting fire at night, but even that simple luxury eluded him. I have not seen a Chimney in Spain, he wrote. Whenever a fire was lit, the room filled with smoke and soot, causing everyone around the small flame to cough and wheeze. With watery eyes, they turned gray as shadows and then black as coal, their faces looking like Chimney Sweepers. The grime and filth wore down the whole party and by the new year, every one of them had come down with some kind of respiratory illness. The humid chill froze them to the bone. Adams admitted in a letter home to Abigail that reaching Paris by land may have been a grave error in judgment. The Church, State, and Nobility, exhaust the People to such a degree, he wrote, I have no idea of the Possibility of deaper wretchedness. This glumness felt uncharacteristic for a revolutionary such as Adams. He was renowned for optimism, an undaunted fighting spirit, and intellectual vigor that had infused Americas revolutionary cause with philosophical underpinnings and legal reason. His was a character that would serve as Vice President to George Washington, and later the second President of the United States. Dejection felt ill-suited for someone cut of his sturdy cloth. Yet by the time the mule train reached Burgos, his heavy feelings had turned to dark despair. In short, I am in a deplorable situation indeed, he wrote on January 11, 1780. I know not what to do. I know not where to go. With heavy heart, he climbed into his mule-drawn carriage the next morning, and plodded through Bribiesca, Pancourbo, and Ezpexo. Sitting across from him were his children, John Quincy and Charles, listlessly rocking back and forth, each shivering, coughing, and sneezing. He worried for their safety, health, and proper schooling. The carriage descended from a mountain peak, round and round, as if riding the back of a coiled snake, before it finally came into the valley of Biscay where the party would overnight in the town of Orduna. No signs or landmarks delineated the boundary between the Spanish lands and the Basque territory, but Adams knew he had crossed an important line that stretched from craggy cliffs across a valley and north to the sea. His diary and the writings of others grew cheerful and upbeat almost immediately, like sunshine burning off the gray and cold of suffocating clouds. In this new land, everyone rose before the dawn. The air had warmed, the chill had broken. It is a beautifull, a fertile and a well cultivated Spot, almost the only one We have yet seen, wrote Adams. Riding north, they met merchants on the path with salted fish, sardines, cod, and horse shoes, an assortment greater than any they had seen since Boston Harbor, and the Mule and their Drivers look very well, in comparison of those We have seen before. On January 15, the mule train entered Bilbao, a city half the size of Boston, smelling of sea air and gutted cod, and buzzing with trade. Burly men, some in black berets, loaded and unloaded goods, dealt in the street and shook hands, dangled trinkets for trade, and marketed fruits and vegetables. Women sold yards of cloth and linen and hand-made scarves. Shops lined the road selling books, glass, china, toys, and cutlery. Most impressive of all, Adams beheld a splendid sight a chimney! The hustle and bustle, all vibrant and freewheeling, felt so familiar to him. In riding through this little territory, he wrote, you would fancy yourself in Connecticut. He and his party settled at a respectable inn where they could warm fingers and toes without breathing in ash. Hardly an hour had passed when a knock came, and there at the door stood a Basque merchant, Joseph Gardoqui, with an invitation to dinner. With a courteous bow, Adams happily accepted. Gardoqui and his sons had built a thriving business that traded between Bilbao and the American colonies. He had sympathy for these revolutionary fighters, calling them patriots, and doing his small part, he believed, for their cause. Funneled through Basque territory and ports, his secret cargoes would include 30,000 muskets; 30,000 bayonets; 51,314 musket balls; 300,000 pounds of powder; 12,868 grenades; 30,000 uniforms; and 4,000 field tents. At dinner, Gardoqui recounted with wild swings of arms and hands several Basque achievements. He spoke of the academy at Bergara, unlike any in Spain, where children of Biscay, Gipuzkoa, and Alava learned trade and the customs and cultures of Europe and America. He spoke of townships electing councils for decentralized governance and described how the Basque collected revenues in a common formula transparent to all. Adams listened with rapt attention, drinking wine of Gardoquis own vintage. The two walked the streets of Bilbao after dinner to see the Board of Trade, a Basque institution that had been 150 years in the making. Merchants by lot and election chose members of the Board to settle all disputes of trade on land or at sea. Neither foreigners nor appointees of the King could serve. Adams marveled how this Board had blossomed outside the Kings reach, writing of it in letters home and in his diary. Its origin mirrored events in Adams colony of Massachusetts that had sparked the American Revolution. In 1632, the King of Spain levied a tax on salt. The citizens of Bilbao refused to pay and then killed the officers who tried to collect it. The King dispatched three thousand troops to put down the rebellion, but the Basque organized, fought back, and killed or drove out the soldiers. Consequently, the King lost much of his authority over the Basque to collect duties or confer lordship over lands and ships. That night Adams wrote in his diary, The Lands in Biscay are chiefly in the Hands of the People few Lordships. He also dispatched a letter to Samuel Huntington, President of Congress in Philadelphia, saying, It may seem surprising, to hear of free Provinces in Spain, but such is the Fact,...that a Traveller perceives it even in their Countenances, their Dress, their Air, and ordinary manner of Speech, has induced the Spanish Nation and their Kings to respect the Ancient Liberties of these People, so far that each Monarch, at his Accession to the Throne, has taken an Oath, to observe the Laws of Biscay. Adams might have stayed in Bilbao weeks longer to satisfy his profound curiosity, but he was eager to reach Paris. The next morning, he bundled John Quincy and Charles into the mule-drawn carriage, and assembled the rest of his party to leave Bilbao. They crossed into Bayonne three days later, and then Bordeaux two days after that. Paris came into view on February 9. A year later in America, a defeat at Yorktown ended any hope England had of retaining her thirteen colonies. The Treaty of Paris brought the American Revolution officially to a close in 1783, due in no small part to Adams brilliance. The founding fathers then turned their attention to the long, painstaking challenge of forging a new constitution. They asked Adams to research and study the best political philosophies, the best models of history, and the best examples of the day, if he could find any, to illuminate their debate after so much sacrifice and miserable bloodshed. In May 1787, he published his findings. Even though more than seven years had passed, and he had spent only eight days among the Basque, he remembered the people fondly and wrote of them with eloquence. While their neighbors have long since resigned all their pretensions into the hands of kings and priests, he wrote, this extraordinary people have preserved their ancient language, genius, laws, government, and manners, without innovation, longer than any other nation of Europe. Syrians walk towards the frontier post of Bab al-Salama bordering with Turkey as they flee from the northern embattled city of Aleppo on Feb 5, 2016. (Photo: AFP/STRINGER) BEIRUT: Up to 20,000 Syrians were stranded on the Turkish border on Friday (Feb 5) after fleeing a major Russian-backed government offensive near Aleppo where a new humanitarian disaster appeared to be unfolding. Tens of thousands of civilians have joined an exodus to escape fierce fighting involving government forces who severed the rebels' main supply route into Syria's second city. On Friday, clashes between the two sides in and around Ratyan, a town near Aleppo, cost 120 lives, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it estimated "up to 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salama border crossing and another 5,000 to 10,000 people have been displaced to Azaz city" nearby. Western nations have accused the Syrian government of sabotaging peace talks that collapsed this week with its military offensive, and Washington has demanded Moscow halt its campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad. The UN Security Council met later Friday to discuss the faltering peace process, as NATO head Jens Stoltenberg warned Russian air strikes were "undermining the efforts to find a political solution", a charge dismissed by Moscow. The Syrian Observatory, a Britain-based monitor that relies on a network of sources on the ground, estimates that 40,000 people have fled the regime offensive near Aleppo. "Thousands of people, mainly families with women and children, are waiting to enter Turkey," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. OCHA spokeswoman Linda Tom said that in addition to the thousands at the border, another 10,000 people were estimated to have been displaced to the Kurdish town of Afrin, elsewhere in northern Aleppo. 'REBELS ON THE RETREAT' "The fighting has also disrupted major aid and supply routes from the Turkish border," she said. Aleppo province is one of the main strongholds of Syria's opposition, which is facing possibly its worst moment since the country's brutal conflict began in 2011. "The trajectory for the rebels is downwards, and the downward slope is increasingly steep," said Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "The rebels are on the retreat everywhere." Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday up to 70,000 people were heading to his country, which already hosts about 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Early on Friday, the main border crossing in northern Aleppo was closed and quiet on the Turkish side near the town of Kilis, with no sign of arriving refugees. But footage released on Thursday by activists showed hundreds of people, including many children, heading towards the frontier, some carrying their belongings in plastic bags on their backs. More than 260,000 people have died in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced. Aleppo city, Syria's former economic powerhouse, has been divided between opposition control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012. Syria's army has been on the offensive since staunch government ally Russia began an aerial campaign in support of regime forces on Sep 30. REGIME RETAKES KEY TOWNS Since then, the government has recaptured several key rebel towns in Latakia province - Assad's coastal heartland - and advanced in Aleppo province and in Daraa in the south. On Friday, the army seized the town of Ratyan and village of Mayer, north of Aleppo, with support from dozens of Russian air strikes. But a rebel counter-offensive saw opposition fighters regain half of Ratyan in heavy fighting that killed some 60 rebels and the same number of government forces, the Observatory said. Pro-government troops backed by Russian warplanes also retook a rebel bastion in Daraa used as to launch attacks on the provincial capital, the monitor said. The losses have angered and demoralised Syria's opposition. "What frustrates the rebels the most is that the countries that claim to be their friends are happy with empty words and sitting on the fence," said activist Maamoun al-Khatib. "Meanwhile (regime allies) Russia and Iran are occupying and violating Syrian territory." Top diplomats from countries trying to resolve the conflict are set to meet again on Feb 11 after UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva collapsed this week. But tensions between them remain, with Moscow accusing key opposition backer Ankara of actively preparing to invade Syria, a claim Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed as "laughable". The Pentagon, meanwhile, welcomed a Saudi pledge to commit ground forces to fight Islamic State militants in Syria, should the US-led coalition ever send in combat troops. In New York, the Security Council met for closed-door consultations with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura who suspended the floundering Geneva negotiations on Wednesday until Feb 25. Russia curtly rejected Western accusations that it had sabotaged the peace talks by backing the government's Aleppo offensive. "It's in bad taste. This is not a good time for recriminations," Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters. A diplomat said the United States, France and Russia had "animated exchanges" on the topic at the meeting. Photo by Associated Press Military guards exit an area known as Camp Delta at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, in Cuba, on Tuesday. Every innovative product that comes out has a time frame of popularity, a heyday so to speak. Take radio for example, bursting upon the world scene in the early 1920s radio lasted until the advent of television in 1950, racking up 30 years of living room prominence. Nowadays you would be hard pressed to find a store even offering radios for sale. The filament incandescent lamp, patented by Thomas Edison in 1878, is another product with a fixed lifetime. In 2007 the U.S. Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, effectively banning the manufacturing and importing of most current incandescent light bulbs used within the United States by 2015. The lawyers in Washington obviously objected to the terrible inefficiency of the tungsten bulb, which as most people know converts only 5 percent of their energy to visible light, the rest being thrown off as wasted heat. By saving this energy we can be both independent and secure. In the mid-1990s CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) made their debut based on a spiral design invented in 1976 by Edward E. Hammer, electrical engineer at General Electric in response to the 1973 oil shortage. GE shelved the design after they announced that it would cost over $25 million to build new factories to produce the lamps and besides, the screw-in fluorescent lamp would cost many times the price of the simple Edison bulb. In 1995 spiral CFLs, manufactured in China, began their ingress onto American markets. They were very pricy at first but offered the promise of extended lifetimes. Some claimed up to 10,000 hours of operation, a fair bargain when compared to the paltry 750 hours of use listed in small print on a typical 100-watt filament lamp. The idea of not having to climb a ladder in the kitchen to replace bulbs in a ceiling fixture has its appeal, and the sales of CFLs increased steadily throughout the last 20 years. Many households abandoned the hot filament bulbs with CFL replacements and countless articles touted savings of between $440 to $1,500 over the five-year life of the new bulbs, depending of course on your price of electricity. Almost all CFLs during that time frame were manufactured in China. Somewhere along the line GE began manufacturing CFLs at its Lighting Division plant headquartered in Nela Park, East Cleveland, Ohio, in direct competition with offshore producers, who by 2005 realized there was an open-ended market for the spiral bulbs within the United States, especially with the government mandated phase-out. Many companies had gotten on the bandwagon to produce CFLs and the GE plant was no piker. This Buckeye State location, tracing its origins directly back to Edison, employs 17,000 people in hundreds of buildings making all types CFLs as listed on their website. The chances are good that the CFL lamps in your home were manufactured there. Up until last week, that is. On Monday General Electric announced it will phase out the sale of compact fluorescent light bulbs and instead switch to the manufacture of LED, or light-emitting diode type bulbs. The reasons are many and this is the right time to transition from CFL to LED, said John Strainic, chief operating officer at GE Lighting, in an interview with The New York Times. I must say, with no pun intended, perhaps he saw the light. Over the last year retailers such as Walmart and HomeDepot have been moving away from CFLs. Because of newer Energy Star ratings proposed for next year of 80 lumens per watt many CFLs have to drop out of the race they just cannot compete with the overwhelming efficiency of LED designs. There are other problems, too. Many users over the last decade have found that CFLs are not as rugged as purported to be. Turning them on and off many times a day can actually stress their electronic ballast, reducing their vaunted longevity. In addition, CFLs take a long time to turn on in cold environments. You cannot use them as a security light that suddenly switches on when someone approaches it takes about two minutes for the bulb to reach full brilliance from a dead start in freezing weather. And then there is the problem of mercury. All CFLs contain mercury in vapor form. It is the gas that produces the UV illumination that makes the phosphor glow white. None of this is present in a gallium nitride LED. According to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the sale of LED bulbs in the last year has increased by 237 percent, making up 15 percent of all bulb shipments in the third quarter of 2015. Elko Students looking to stay local to get a bachelors degree may soon have more options for degrees at Great Basin College. GBC is looking to change its designation from a community college to a state college, a move that would allow the school to offer more bachelor degree programs. Currently, GBC is able to offer 10 such programs but college President Mark Curtis said the institutions current status makes it difficult for them to offer more to their students. Within the Great Basin College handbook it is allowed to offer select baccalaureate degrees, he said. Select, to some people, means niche baccalaureate degrees. These would be things that are very work force development oriented, like nursing or something along those lines. Curtis explained that when the college tried to offer more traditional bachelor degree programs such as English and biology the Board of Regents took almost two years to get those degree programs approved, in part because of the schools status as a community college. The other issue that Curtis thinks switching to a state college would help address is the low number of Nevada residents who have bachelor degrees. According to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau statistics cited in Curtis proposal to the Board of Regents, Nevada was ranked 45th in bachelors degrees attained by the states population over 25. Nevada has much less in the way of opportunities per capita for higher education, Curtis said. In New York theres about one institution for every 130,000 people. If you take the three million people in Nevada and divide it by the seven teaching institutions its over 400,000 people per institution. Curtis explained that even though he is cautiously optimistic about his colleges chances to expand its curriculum there is one other college in Nevada that is concerned about GBC turning into a state college. Nevada State College, which is the only state college in the system right now, they have some concerns about another state college being created, he said. But our research shows that from the rural part of the state that we cover they only have 11 students. Curtis also pointed out that Nevada State College, which is located in Henderson, is in a heavily populated area and more likely to get the majority of its students from Clark County and the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Board of Regents member Kevin Melcher used to work for the Elko County School District and said the expansion of GBCs role in giving bachelor degrees has been developing for a while. Great Basin College became one of the leaders in the country in becoming a community college offering four year degrees, he said. Theyve always led that initiative to offer programs that were needed in the GBC service area. Melcher also mentioned that he noticed the need for GBC to offer its first four-year degree, a bachelors in elementary education, when he was struggling to recruit teachers. At the time I was working for the school district and worked on a lot of recruiting for teachers and we had a hard time, he said. Wed have to go out of state and to a lot of recruiting fairs. So it was very clear that we had people in the area that were interested in getting their four-year degrees and the program [at GBC] worked out really well. Melcher said Curtis recently made a presentation to the Board of Regents making his argument for GBC to become a state college. However, since the request will affect all higher learning institutions in the state, the board will have a lot to consider this summer. It might happen but the timing has to be right, he said. Coming into June we should be coming into the decision making part of that request from GBC and the other institutions. GBC will need a majority decision by the 13-member board and Curtis said the members hes talked to have expressed some support of his proposal. But whether it gets approved or not Curtis expects the vote to be close to unanimous. Usually its a very good idea and ultimately everybody, or 12 out of 13, vote for it, he said. They talk it out, they kind of work through the issue and when they finally get to a point of wanting to vote on something theyre pretty convinced its the right thing to do. Somali security officials say they have identified a person they believe planned the bomb attack that was intended to bring down a Daallo Airlines flight last week. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior intelligence official told VOA's Somali service the suspect was known to the security agencies and is linked to at least another attack carried out by the al-Shabab militants. The intelligence official says the person, said to be 40 years old, runs a business that sells mobile phones, eye glasses and clothing, and uses it as a cover for his covert al-Shabab operations. He is not in jail, he escaped, we have been told that he was last seen in Afgoye town last week, says the official. The mid-air blast blew a hole in the aircraft and forced the pilot of Flight 159, bound for Djibouti with 74 passengers on board, to make an emergency landing about 15 minutes after take-off from Mogadishu. Officials have announced that the man ejected from the plane, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, was carrying the laptop that contained the bomb. CCTV cameras released by the Somali government shows Borleh, who was limping, heading for the exit of the departure hall when two men, apparent airport staffers handed him what is believed to be a laptop as they walked past him. WATCH: Somali government video of men with suspected bomb The airport has three security screens run jointly by African Union troops, Somali security agents, and a Turkish company that runs operations at Mogadishu airport. Somali President Hassan Sheikh spoke during an extraordinary session of parliament Sunday. Although the president did not go into the specifics of the investigation, he warned government officials against bailing out or helping the release terrorism suspects from government jails. As government officials we have to stop going to detentions and seeking the release of who are being suspected. Whether you are a minster, deputy minister, someone from the Palace, the elders, those of us who are being accorded a courtesy after they visit an office, that courtesy should not be exploited in order to get Al-Shabab detainees released. The president also defended the security of the airport saying it has the most up to date security screening like any other airport in the world. The Somali leader said the government will fully publish the result of the investigation into the Daallo Airlines attack although he did not give a timeline. Officials said at least 11 people have been detained during the investigation. A senior Somali security official told VOA the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is helping Somalia with the probe. Germany's anti-Islamic organization Pegida held rallies in several European cities Saturday to protest against mass immigration and what it calls the Islamization of Europe. Several thousand supporters of Pegida, which is the German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident, demonstrated in Dresden, Germany, the movement's birthplace. Riot police clashed with demonstrators in Amsterdam, where about 200 Pegida supporters held their first protest in the Dutch capital. The riot police, who outnumbered both the Pegida supporters and those protesting against it, intervened to separate the opposing sides and detained several people from both groups. In Birmingham, Pegida held its first official march in Britain, although it involved fewer than 200 participants. Its coordinator, Tommy Robinson, said that the last years influx of 1 million immigrants should not be repeated. "The more Islam, the less freedom. That is the reality," he said. "I don't believe that we should be bringing in last year 1 million young, fighting age, Muslim men into Germany. Six hundred thousand of them have gone missing, 150,000 from Sweden. We don't know who they are, what their motives are in Europe. We have already seen 130 people killed by so-called refugees in France. We have a big problem." Some Pegida supporters, like Bill Weir, expressed concerns about the inability of a number of Muslims to integrate in Western societies. "Weve got a really, truly multicultural society and we all benefit from it, but it's being distorted by one particular ideology, who will not under any circumstances integrate with us," Weir said. "That's the truth, people don't like it and because of that I get called a racist, a fascist, a Nazi. I'm neither of those things." Other demonstrations for and against immigration took place Saturday in the Czech Republic cities of Prague and Brno; Warsaw, Poland; Bratislava, Slovakia; the French cities of Calais and Montpellier; and Graz in southern Austria. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland have taken a tough stance on migration and opposed European Union calls to take in significant numbers of refugees. Pegida began in mid-2014 and has since spread to other countries, as Europe struggles to cope with its worst refugee crisis since World War II. The refugees, most fleeing war-torn Syria, sought asylum in the EU counties in 2015, almost three-quarters of them in Germany. U.S. presidential candidates traipsed through fresh-fallen snow in New Hampshire on Friday, trading barbs with each other four days ahead of the country's first-in-the-nation Republican and Democratic party primary elections. New surveys in the small Northeastern state showed the two parties' contests tightening. But the polls indicated that billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump still held a substantial lead over a large field of Republican rivals, while Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist senator from the neighboring state of Vermont, maintained a large lead over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. With some flights grounded, the snowstorm kept Trump from returning to New Hampshire from an out-of-state campaign rally. That gave one of his underdog challengers, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two former U.S. presidents, an opening to make fun of him, noting that even his 90-year-old mother, onetime first lady Barbara Bush, was out campaigning for him in the bad weather. Bush sat with his mother on the "CBS This Morning" show, attacking the flamboyant Trump as misogynistic for his slurs against a debate moderator and occasional four-letter language at campaign appearances. "I don't think a president would have ever shouted profanities in a speech in front of thousands of people with kids in the crowd," Jeb Bush said. "He does it all the time." Kasich: 'More credibility' Ohio Governor John Kasich, seeking to break into the top ranks of Republican contenders in Tuesday's contest, told one voter that as president he could replicate the success he'd achieved as both a governor and congressman. "I think I have more credibility than someone who's never done squat," Kasich said of his rivals, without naming any of them. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has campaigned for months in the state and told voters they should be wary of Trump and two other candidates who trail the New York developer in the New Hampshire surveys, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, because they had not visited the state as often. Christie contended that "if you reward those folks who don't show up here, there is no reason" the state should retain its tradition of holding the country's first presidential primary every four years. The latest day-to-day tracking poll, done by the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and a local television station, showed Trump with 34 percent support, Rubio with 15 percent and Cruz, the winner of the Iowa party caucuses earlier this week, at 14 percent. Kasich and Bush both had 8 percent and Christie was at 5 percent. Among Democrats, the survey showed Sanders with a 55 percent-to-40 percent lead over Clinton, the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013. WATCH: What issues do New Hampshire voters care about? A virtual tie Nationally, another survey, by Quinnipiac University, showed the Clinton-Sanders contest in a virtual dead heat, with Clinton barely ahead at 44-42. That is a marked shift from poll results over the last several months that showed Clinton with substantial leads. Quinnipiac said Trump, who came in second in the Iowa voting, was ahead nationally with 31 percent, compared with Cruz, a vocal conservative, at 22 percent, and Rubio at 19 percent. The Republican candidates are set to debate Saturday night for the eighth time in the lengthy campaign, while Clinton and Sanders staged a spirited debate Thursday, their first one-on-one encounter since former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley dropped out of the race after a poor showing in Iowa. Clinton and Sanders bickered over who was the true progressive in the race and who was beholden to big-money interests. Clinton called herself a "progressive who gets things done," saying the senator's proposals for free college and health care were promises that could not be kept. "The numbers just don't add up," she said, adding that such ideas would raise taxes and make it hard for Americans to get ahead and stay ahead. Done in other nations Sanders said these were not radical ideas. He said just about every other developed nation has free public college and single-payer health care for its citizens. He added that his proposal for free tuition would be paid for with a tax on Wall Street speculation, saying: "The middle class bailed out Wall Street in their time of need. Now, it is Wall Street's time to help the middle class." The senator said Clinton once called herself a moderate. Sanders said no one can be a moderate and a progressive at the same time. Clinton took offense when Sanders pointed out that she had received large speaking fees from large Wall Street financial firms. He said big money in politics and Congress was one major reason for high drug prices and energy policies that rely on fossil fuels and big oil. Clinton called it an "artful smear" and rejected accusations that anyone getting big money was being "bought." Clinton said she had never changed a view or a vote because of any donation. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Friday said he had fired the Andean country's top military brass for allegedly overcharging the Environment Ministry by $41 million in a sale of land in 2010. The Armed Forces apparently sold 66 lots to the Environment Ministry for $48 million, but a report from the Attorney General's office this week said they were worth only $7 million. "With great pain I had to prematurely end the High Command. We will not allow anyone to manipulate soldiers or the country," Correa said on Twitter, adding he would discount $41 million from the state's annual social security contributions to the military. The military says the sale's terms were clear and has requested the government review its decision. It is unclear how many members of the military have been laid off. European Union officials are urging Turkey to open a border crossing where tens of thousands of Syrian civilians arrived this week fleeing a massive government offensive in Aleppo province. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Saturday at a meeting with European foreign ministers and their Turkish counterpart that EU support for Turkey is aimed exactly at guaranteeing'' that the country can handle the influx of refugees. "It's unquestionable... that the people coming from inside Syria are Syrians in need of international protection, Mogherini said at the meeting in Amsterdam. Crossing remains closed Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a Syria donors' conference in London two days earlier that Ankara would allow the refugees into the country. But tens of thousands of displaced civilians who arrived on the Syrian side of the Turkish border this week are stuck waiting, camped out in the desperate hope that Turkish officials will allow them to cross to safety. Turkey is providing humanitarian aid but has not opened the crossing, despite Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's comment Saturday that his government has an open border policy for people escaping military violence and Russian airstrikes. Media reports note that Turkey did let more than a dozen Syrians injured in bombings near Aleppo cross the border. Syria's official news agency SANA reported Friday that it had regained control of several towns in Aleppo, once the country's commercial hub and now a flashpoint for violence between government forces and opposition fighters. Turkey is host to an estimated 2 million Syrian refugees already, as Syria approaches the five-year anniversary of the start of its civil war. European pressure is on Turkey as the gateway for refugee access to Europe. In a $3.35 billion deal announced in November, the EU agreed to accelerate talks about Turkeys long-sought accession to the bloc, in exchange for Ankara's help in managing the historic tide of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe in the past several years. Anti-migrant protests In Amsterdam on Saturday, police detained several people as groups of anti-migrant, anti-Muslim protesters faced off with left-wing opponents in a square near the capitals city hall. Thousands of Czechs gathered for a similar rally in Prague, with protesters representing both support for and opposition to recent refugee arrivals. Frightened after a terror attack at a university and threats against schools, teachers in some parts of Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are taking up arms and carrying them in classrooms. The surge in gun sales in parts of the northwestern province began after a terrorist attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda last month that killed at least 21 people, mostly students. Thousands of schools closed in January for more than a week after the government warned of more possible attacks. The Bacha Khan assault came a year after Taliban insurgents stormed a military-run school in Peshawar and killed 132 students and nine staff members. Home department authorities in Peshawar, the capital of the province, said over 50,000 people and educational institutions had applied for gun permits in the last two weeks. Those who had applied, we issued them licenses, Ismail Khan, the arms license section officer, told VOAs Deewa service. According to the deputy commissioners office in Peshawar, the number of gun permits issued per month has soared from the previous 100 to 200 per month. After the Charsadda university incident, many people, mostly teachers and educated people, come to buy weapons for self-protection, Ashiq Khan Khalil, a gun shop owner in Peshawar, told VOA. Schools in Pakistan are on high alert. When we send them [children] to school in the morning, we do not know what will happen to them, Malek Azmat, a parent in Peshawar, told VOA. We do not know if they will make it back to home. ... But we have to send our children to school. We have no other option as we want them to be educated. 'Always worried' Salim Khan, an assistant professor in the Kurram tribal region, told VOA that he feared for his life because of the increased terror attacks. I am always worried. Khan told VOA. Somebody may target me or my children. Khan said his 8-year-old son told him that he could not focus on his studies in class because he feared terrorists might storm his school. Shokat, a teacher in the Momand tribal region, told VOA that educators try to conceal their guns from students. Still, he said, I carry a loaded pistol to school. The provincial government has asked school administrations to step up security measures, including hiring armed guards and constructing walls around schools. School officials, however, say the government should offer funding, training and resources to enhance school safety. I can keep up to three security guards, but the government is asking me to keep 10 guards, which I cannot afford, Anas Karim, a private school owner, told VOA. They [government officials] say we should keep automatic weapons but do not provide us permits, nor do they provide us with guns, Karim said. If I cannot obtain permits, you do not give me arms, then how could I keep automatic weapons? Safety violations Instead of getting government help, school administrators say they are being targeted by police for failing to comply with a myriad of government safety regulations. So far over 700 [criminal reports] have been filed against different schools, principals and teachers in the province by the government, Zakir Shah, provincial president of the Pakistan Private Schools Association, told VOA. The provincial chief minister, Pervez Khattak, told Pakistani media that the government had given out nearly $1 million for school improvement programs. But administrators say much of that money will not go to make schools safer. Analysts fear that the surge in arms sales and the carrying of guns in school will only contribute to lawlessness in an already restive part of the country. Pakistan has some 60 groups that are banned for their terror activities. This is not a solution to the problem, Pakistan-based security analyst Mehmoud Shah told VOA. Guns should not be given to teachers, students and ordinary citizens, as this will take the society toward another direction, including an increase in crimes. There are no computers, TVs or smartphones in many schools in rural Ghana. In the classroom, teachers talk while students listen. There's very little engagement and virtually no interaction, because many teachers themselves were not formally trained. The private, nonprofit Varkey Foundation together with co-donor Dubai Cares and the Ghanaian Ministry of Education wants to change that. "What we're trying to do is leapfrog what they should have received when they first became teachers by providing the latest and most cutting-edge classroom pedagogy that is available," Varkey CEO Vikas Pota told VOA via Skype. With the help of a $2 million grant from Dubai Cares, 40 schools have been equipped with a satellite dish, a solar-powered computer, a projector and a modern electronic blackboard as well as a trained instructor called a facilitator. How it works During a two-hour interactive training session conducted live every other week from a TV studio in Accra two instructional leaders, together with facilitators at each site, engage head teachers and deputy head teachers in two-way training. It is a trickle-down program in which head teachers pass the instructions to other teachers on how to teach the students. "The teachers then come back every two weeks into our classrooms which have the satellite hubs with questions that are being raised by their teachers, and that peer-to-peer learning that happens is a fairly powerful way of improving your understanding and your skills base," Pota said. In 17 sessions with three to five schools at a time, the instructional leaders will train approximately 5,000 teachers over a two-year period. Classroom benefits Educators say the students are already seeing benefits from their teachers' training. "They have gained interest more in going to school because now teaching has become interesting, said coordinator Angela Obeng. It has become activity-based, unlike [at] first, when the teacher would rattle [off] and then leave." Students agree that they are now enjoying classes. "The teachers will give you a marker to go to the board, said student Abidi Solomon, explaining one writing assignment. After the writing you will see many funny things. It makes us laugh." The Varkey Foundation says that at the end of the pilot program, an independent agency will evaluate the outcome and suggest ways to improve the process. The number of people living with mental illness worldwide is underestimated by more than a third, according to researchers at Harvard University and King's College London, who say mental illness accounts for 32 percent of all disability worldwide. Previously, mental illness was thought to be responsible for 21 percent of global disability. Researchers say people with other health problems such as heart disease, pain syndromes, neurological problems and HIV often suffer from psychiatric disorders that go unrecognized by the medical profession. Clinical depression often goes along with chronic illness but is rarely reported and treated, according to the authors, whose work is published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry. Cost of stigma Those psychiatric disorders exact a high human cost, said Daniel Vigo, a psychiatrist and fellow at Harvard's School of Public Health in Boston. People with mental illness die before a heavy smoker, just to have a perspective on how serious this is," Vigo said. Part of the problem, he said, is the stigma that accompanies mental illness. People with psychiatric disorders are more likely to avoid doctors and treatment than people who are physically ill. He said the percentage of people who are being treated for mental disorders, about 8 percent of the U.S. population, is only the beginning. Next steps Vigo and his colleagues are calling for greater recognition of the problem by the global community, and for treatment for psychiatric conditions to be offered at the primary care level where many people with other health problems are seen. "Mental health services need to evolve and not be considered a separate issue anymore, he said. And there are a number of evidence-based interventions that are being piloted or applied on a much larger scale in both developed and developing countries that show the way this can be done." Treatments that can be offered through primary care include medication and therapy, but recognizing a problem exists is the first step, according to Vigo. In April, a mental health summit will take place in Washington in conjunction with the annual meeting of the World Bank. ELKO Rep. Joe Heck spoke as the keynote speaker at the Lincoln Day Dinner Friday night, but before that he sat down with the Elko Daily Free Press to discuss local issues. Heck is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Harry Reid. He said it was important to him to make the trip to Elko for the Elko County Republican Partys Lincoln Day Dinner. As the third-largest population center in the state running for U.S. Senate Elkos going to be a critical place, not just for the Senate race, but when you think about it, even whoever the presidential nominee will be from Nevada. Elko plays a critical role in that selection process, he said. Heck said it also was important for him to get to know the people in the northern half of the state since he has represented the south half for five years in Congress. He was a Nevada state senator from 2005 to 2009 and then was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. You have the opportunity to help about 750,000 people, thats about how many people are in a Congressional district, and I think in large part to the great staff that I have, that weve done a really great job at helping people out in the 3rd Congressional District, he said. This is kind of the natural extension of saying look, you know what weve done for 750,000, we can do for 2.8 million if were in the Senate. Heck said he wants to leverage the experience he has from his time in the House and use it in the Senate. While youre one of 435 in the House, you can probably get a little more accomplished if youre one of 100, he said. Heck said he has travelled the state to talk to residents about the issues they are concerned about and nine times out of 10, one of the same four issues comes up national security, education, healthcare, jobs and the economy are their top concerns. Healthcare When asked about getting more doctors in rural areas to accept Medicare, Heck said there are multiple layers to the problem. He said fewer doctors are willing to participate with Medicare because of reimbursement issues, and the state in general lacks doctors. He said Congress passed legislation to help fix the underlying reimbursement issue. Heck said Nevada needs more residency training programs to keep doctors in the state. He said 60 percent of doctors who leave the state for a residency program do not come back. Weve got to grow our residency training programs, he said. I have a bill currently under consideration that would help do that, especially for underserved states like Nevada. Heck also said the state is lacking in mental health doctors for veterans and other residents. He said tele-behavioral health is a good stop-gap measure. He said more individuals community counselor, LPC or a licensed clinical social worker should be used to help people needing mental health care. Public Lands When asked about public lands issues, Heck said he is a co-sponsor of Rep. Mark Amodeis bill that would transfer some federal land in Nevada to the state. The bill is in committee. Heck said he and Amodei talked with the state before introducing the bill to make sure Nevada wanted responsibility for the land. Public lands issues have become a larger national topic after the incident in Oregon, where protestors took over a wildlife refuge. Heck said we have the right to peaceably assemble and protest under the First Amendment, but taking over a federal facility is probably going just a bridge too far. He said he gave credit to the federal and Oregonian officials for not storming the refuge. Now the video that shows the encounter with the individual who was shot obviously needs to be further explored, he said. Its tough to judge without audio and just watching the video. Heck said he has worked with law enforcement for 15 years and everyone needs all the facts before they second-guess what happened. He said the public needs the full story on the shooting and the full story on why the ranchers were incarcerated to begin with. However, he did not agree with how the ranchers were prosecuted for setting a fire. I would not consider that an act of terrorism, he said. Its almost like, if you set a fire on your property here, and for some reason the back burn got outside your property and burned some federal land, does that require five years in prison? I really dont think so. He said a fine would have been a more logical response. Heck said the government needs to wait until the entire investigation is done before changing any laws. I do personally believe that prosecuting [the Hammonds] under a terrorism statute was not the right course of action, he said. As part of VOA's ongoing reporting on Iraq, correspondent Sharon Behn interviewed Air Vice Marshal Tim Innes, national theater commander for all Australian forces deployed to the Middle East region, including Afghanistan. Innes assumed command of Australia's Joint Task Group 633 on January 25, 2016. The following article is based in part on that interview. Islamic State extremists fighting in Iraq and Syria have proven themselves experts in modern warfare. They create diversionary fronts, use suicide bombers with devastating effect, and constantly change their offensive and defensive tactics. Countering and defeating those tactics is one of the main objectives of thousands of U.S. and coalition soldiers currently training Iraqi forces not only in bases, but walking alongside them as they enter the battleground. RAAF Air Vice-Marshal Tim Innes "[IS militants] are definitely changing tactics," Air Vice Marshal Tim Innes, the national theater commander for all Australian forces deployed to the Middle East region, told VOA, using an acronym for Islamic State. "We try to stay inside their adaptation loop." Despite those efforts, Iraqi and coalition forces have been caught off guard. Training challenges In the recent battle for Ramadi, for example, "we had been training the Iraqi Security Forces to deal with insurgent threats, but then because of the way IS had prepared its defenses, the counterinsurgency tactics needed to change more to mine-clearing and regular infantry tactics," said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst for the Institute for the Study of War. "It can be a short time sometimes between the differences in tactics and training," Innes acknowledged. But, he said, "We also have advise-and-assist embedded Australian soldiers that can help closer to the front once we have trained those troops." The training effort, led by a number of coalition nations including Australia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and France, has its own challenges. "I think there are two major obstacles to training. The first one would be language, and the second one would be culture," Innes said. "We get around the language challenge by the extensive use of interpreters, and the cultural one is one that we are aware of and learn and adapt as we go along." Cultural differences reach into unexpected areas, like educating Iraqi forces on dealing with IS militants' use of social media across the battle space. "It becomes quite difficult," Innes said. "The basic principles of security, personal security and operational information, et cetera, is a common theme we can teach." Complex battleground Operating parallel to U.S. and coalition forces who train Iraqi Security Forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga is Iran, which has thrown its considerable military expertise behind the predominantly Shi'ite militias operating in Iraq. Iran, in the opinion of Jonathan Schanzer, VP for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is the country "most effective in training, fighting and intelligence collection operation." "When people talk about what's going on, it is the positive influence exerted by Western countries, [yet] Iran is by far the most effective, but not in a positive way," Schanzer told VOA. "It may be helping fight IS with Shia militia, but the deployment of the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] and others to help secure Iraq is effectively turning Iraq into an Iranian proxy," he said. Many fear that Iran's presence is aggravating the already deep sectarian divide in Iraq that the mainly Sunni-based Islamic State has traded on. Repeated bloodletting between Shi'ite and Sunni communities in Iraq has seeped deep into the roots of the country, poisoning everything from intelligence gathering to attempts at reconciliation. "It's a complex space, as you know, Innes said. A myriad of interest groups across Iraq still proliferate. It's a complex battle space that we have got to work through." Global battle Even as coalition forces battle IS in Iraq and Syria, the extremists, also known as Daesh, have spread their tentacles into Libya, setting up a third stronghold in Sirte in eastern Libya. "They are a global threat, and that is one of the main reasons why Australia has us in Iraq with the coalition, to try to reduce that threat from its source, but undoubtedly it is a wider organization and a threat to the globe," Innes said. "To say that you will totally wipe it out as an ideal, I think most people realize is not possible, he added. So if you are asking me do I think defeating Daesh would kill off the ideal or the notion of it globally, I think that would be a brave statement." Created in World War I, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, known as Anzac, has served alongside U.S. and allied forces in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the First Gulf War, the Iraq War, Afghanistan and now again in Iraq, where it is training and advising Iraqi troops in the fight against Islamic State extremists. NASA is monitoring a 100-foot (30-meter) wide asteroid that could make a close pass by Earth next month but has no chance of hitting it, the U.S. space agency said on Friday. First spotted in 2013, the asteroid could fly as close as 11,000 miles (17,700 km) from Earth on March 5, according to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. That is roughly 1/20th the distance from Earth to the moon and about half as far as many communications satellites that ring the planet. But given uncertainty about the precise path of the asteroid, known as 2013 TX68, it also could end up as far as 9 million miles (14 million km) from Earth during its flyby. The asteroid was visible for just three days during its last approach to Earth in 2013 before it passed into daytime skies and could no longer be tracked. "It will be hard to predict where to look for it," NASA's Paul Chodas, who manages the agency's Near-Earth Objects Studies office, said in a statement. NASA said there is a one-in-250 million chance of an impact during the asteroid's next pass on Sept. 28, 2017, though future observances are likely to reduce that probability even further. "The possibilities of collision on any of the three future flyby dates are far too small to be of any real concern," Chodas said. The asteroid is about twice the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. That blast shattered glass and destroyed buildings, leaving more than 1,000 injured. If an asteroid the size of 2013 TX68 passed into Earth's atmosphere and exploded, NASA estimates it would likewise be about twice as powerful as the Chelyabinsk blast. The next few days will tell the story on whether parties are serious about implementing a cease-fire in Syria and moving forward with talks on a political transition, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday. His comments came two days after a U.N. envoy suspended fragile proximity talks between the Syrian regime and opposition, following opposition protests against a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive in Aleppo. We will know in the next few days who is serious and who is not, Kerry said during a news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. He added that a number of modalities for a cease-fire and for providing humanitarian aid to besieged areas of Syria were being discussed. The Russians have made some constructive ideas about how a cease-fire, in fact, could be implemented, said Kerry. However, he added that no one would accept just talk for the sake of talk. Thursday meeting Russia and the United States are among the countries and world bodies that make up the International Syria Support Group, which has been a catalyst for launching the latest effort to resolve Syrias crisis. The group will focus on efforts to secure a cease-fire in Syria when it meets Thursday in Munich. The group will also discuss the political talks between the government and the opposition, which are set to resume by February 25. Russia has rejected Western claims that its support of President Bashar al-Assad and his military resulted in the breakdown of the talks. We think that this opinion is incorrect. We cannot agree with it, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Russias Interfax news agency. Peskov said Russia had consistently tried to promote a peaceful settlement in Syria, while extending support to the legitimate leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic as part of the fight against terrorism. Who are the 'terrorists'? A sticking point between Assad regime backer Russia and the other members of the International Syria Support Group has been who should be labeled "terrorists." A U.S.-led coalition campaign has targeted Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra militants in Syria. Russia has backed the Syrian government's targeting of moderate rebel groups. Russias current stance in the Syrian conflict could make progress on the political front difficult. You cant prop up the Assad regime and make it easier for him to kill his own people, said State Department spokesman John Kirby, and say out of the other side of your mouth that you want to pursue this political transition and peace process. Ultimately, Russia may be focusing on its own interests and stability as it continues to back the Assad regime with assaults on rebels, said David Schenker, a regional analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. They have a port in Syria. They have religious connections in Syria, said Schenker, and they hope to preserve this regime. He said that when Russia talks about supporting Syria, it means keeping the Assad regime, or at least a facsimile thereof, in power indefinitely. Humanitarian crisis As the two sides mull their next moves, Syrias humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. Russias intensified bombing campaign has forced tens of thousands of Aleppo residents to flee from their homes in recent days. Kerry said there is evidence that is clear that Russia had been using nonprecision free-fall bombs in Syria, which have struck such sites such as hospitals and resulted in large numbers of civilian deaths. This has to stop, he said. North Korea appears to be moving quickly on its preparations for a long-range rocket launch, South Koreas Defense Ministry said Friday. The communist country notified the International Maritime Organization and the International Telecommunication Union of its plan to launch an "Earth observation satellite" between February 8 and February 25, prompting neighboring countries to go on alert. On Saturday, Pyongyang changed the dates to between Sunday, February 7, and the following Sunday, February 14. Pyongyang provided the coordinates of the rocket trajectory as a warning to aircraft and ships at sea that debris from the launch would most likely fall back to Earth in the Yellow Sea off the Korean west coast and Pacific waters east of the Philippines. The ITU said Friday that it had asked North Korea to provide additional information regarding the launch, noting that some mandatory information was missing. Nevertheless, Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesperson for South Koreas Defense Ministry, told reporters that with the announced launch window approaching, it was highly possible that North Korea had made considerable progress in the preparations. We believe preparations are underway at its launch site in Tongchang-ri, Moon said without providing details. A Japanese newspaper reported that North Korea might have started fueling a rocket, citing a U.S. defense official, an indication that the launch could come within several days. Citing recent satellite imagery, the 38 North website, which focuses on North Korean issues, said Wednesday that increased vehicle activity had been detected at the launch sites Horizontal Processing Building, a facility used to receive various rocket stages during previous launches. The activity is suggestive of preparations for a space launch and supports North Koreas announced launch window, according to the website. Political considerations Analysts in Seoul said Pyongyangs political interests would play a role in choosing the launch date. North Koreans clearly know the U.N. sanctions are coming in response to their nuclear test [in January]. They may fire the rocket to protest the U.N. action, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies. Kim Jin-moo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a South Korean state-run institute, tied the launch date to the birth anniversary of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Kims birthday is February 16, which falls within the launch window. In April 2012, Pyongyang fired a long-range rocket to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung. South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo presided over an emergency meeting Friday, in which he ordered military officials to maintain tight readiness against the North Korean move. South Korean military officials said they would work with the U.S. and Japanese militaries to track the rocket that North Korea plans to fire. South Koreas Unification Ministry said the government would be on alert during a three-day Lunar New Years holiday that starts Monday. Obama, Xi Say North Korean Actions 'Provocative' The White House said President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday about North Koreas nuclear test last month and the planned launch. They agreed that the planned launch would contravene multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and represent another provocative and destabilizing action, the White House in a statement. The two leaders also emphasized the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocation, including through an impactful U.N. Security Council resolution, according to the statement. The White House said Obama and Xi reaffirmed during their phone call that they were committed to the "complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." North Korea is believed to have over 1,000 Soviet-model missiles that can reach targets in South Korea and Japan. Last year, U.S. military authorities said they thought North Korea had the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to fit on a KN-08 long-range missile, although North Korea has not yet demonstrated this capability. As the days count down to primary election day in New Hampshire on Tuesday, some Republican voters here seem to be flocking to the contender they believe now has momentum Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Rubio has moved into second place in several recent surveys and appears to be gaining ground on longtime frontrunner Donald Trump. But there is a crowded field right behind Rubio, including the winner of the Iowa caucuses, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Ohio Governor John Kasich and former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Looking to be inspired Rubio's appeal was on display at a rally in Derry Friday night. The rally had to be moved from a middle school cafeteria to the gymnasium because of a larger than expected crowd eager to give Rubio a listen. Rubio said he was the Republican candidate best able to not only unify the conservative movement and the Republican Party, but the country as well. WATCH: Rubio Looks to Surge in New Hampshire When I am president I will be the president of the United States of America. I will be a president for all Americans and even if you don't like me, even if you don't like me, even if you didn't vote for me, even if you say nasty things about me on Facebook, I am going to cut your taxes too, Rubio said to cheers from the crowd. In the final days of the primary race, Rubio is trying to seize the moment by building on the momentum he generated coming out of Iowa where he finished a strong third just behind second-place finisher Trump. Rubio believes a good finish here in New Hampshire could move him into the final group of three or four top contenders who would go on to compete in upcoming elections in states like Nevada and South Carolina. Campaigning New Hampshire-style Rubio has embraced the New Hampshire style of interacting with voters and his one-on-one political skills were on full display after the rally as he took time to briefly shake hands with voters, answer a few questions and pose for numerous 'selfies.' After hearing Rubio speak, retirees John and Christine Perez of Londonderry said they intend to cast their votes for him in Tuesday's primary. I was won over tonight. I was right there but I got pushed over the edge, said Christine Perez. Her husband, John, said he believes he and Rubio share the same values. Another voter, Evan Marks, said he liked what he heard but remains undecided. He speaks from the heart, you know, and I think that is what a lot of us are looking for, somebody who can say something that is very honest and you believe him. He's very believable and I think that's what we need. That is a good place to start. Marks is one of a number of New Hampshire voters encountered who said they attend several different candidate events before making a choice. Rubio appears to have an opening in New Hampshire, said analyst Chris Galdieri of St. Anselm College near Manchester. He's young. He is Cuban-American. He is from a major swing state. So if you are a Republican who doesn't like the rap against your party that it is a party of old white men, then at least you've got a young Hispanic man who is potentially going to lead your party and I think that is appealing for a lot of people. A battle among establishment contenders Rubio is vying to become the top choice of so-called 'establishment voters' in New Hampshire, a crowded lane that includes Kasich, Bush and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie is well back in the latest polls and risks falling out of the field with a poor showing in New Hampshire. Christie has called Rubio bubble boy for giving the same speech everywhere he goes without answering any questions. Christie has held numerous town meetings in New Hampshire that feature voters asking questions that sometimes go on for two hours. Jeb Bush has also criticized Rubio, calling him a great guy but adding he's not a leader. Bush is also in danger of slipping from the race unless he can demonstrate a good showing in New Hampshire and he's enlisted the help of his mom, former first lady Barbara Bush, to win some voters over to his campaign. Christie looks for momentum Christie made a quick stop by a pizzeria in Sandown and made yet another appeal for support on Tuesday. There is a lot of hard work to do between now and Tuesday. We hope you will all be part of it by talking to your friends and your family and your colleagues and get them out to vote for us on Tuesday. It was a small crowd and several said they remain undecided. But one unidentified voter did speak up on Christie's behalf. I just don't want to see Trump or [Democratic presidential candidate] Hillary [Clinton] get it and Christie seems like a very good next president. Both Christie and Rubio have become skilled at connecting with New Hampshire voters. What we don't know now and won't until primary day is which of the candidates have succeeded in capturing not only voter minds, but their hearts. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem warned Saudi Arabia not to send troops to his country, threatening, during a press conference Saturday, that troops would be sent back home in coffins. The audience of journalists, top government officials and other invitees applauded politely as veteran Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem spoke defiantly about U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva and about continuing military operations until terrorists are defeated. Muallem insisted that the Syrian government would not agree to any cease-fire on the ground, despite U.N. efforts, so long as Islamic State, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups continued to fight in the country. He also warned Saudi Arabia not to send forces to fight in Syria. He says that logic would preclude any (Saudi) ground intervention in Syria, but that the folly of the Saudi regime means that nothing can be excluded. He warned Saudi Arabia that any aggression on Syrian soil would result in the aggressors being sent home in wooden (coffins). Saudi ready to send ground troops Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman General Ahmed al-Assiri told Arab media Friday that his country was ready to send ground forces to fight in Syria. He says that the Saudi Kingdom is prepared to participate in any ground operation in Syria that is agreed upon by the (U.S.-led) anti-Islamic State coalition. U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed the Saudi offer to send troops, during a press conference in Washington, Friday. Geneva talks Foreign Minister al-Muallem went on to criticize U.N. envoy Steffan de Mistura for conducting talks with Syrian opposition leaders whom he claimed don't represent the Syrian people. He also blasted armed groups fighting the government and thanked Russia for its military help: He says that Russia's role won't end until the defeat of the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups tied to al-Qaida, which is in accordance with U.N. resolutions. Worsening situation Nadim Shehadi, who heads the Issam Fares' Center at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Diplomacy, argues that the situation in Syria will continue to get worse, so long as the Syrian government and its allies are not met with an adequate counter-response. "There is now increasing recognition that Russia, Iran and the [Assad] regime are pursuing a military solution in Syria and that this is not being confronted by the U.S. and its allies and that this will lead to more frustration and radicalism in the region, he said. Dubai-based Middle East analyst Theodore Karasik contended, however, that interventions by U.S. allies and Syrian government foes Saudi Arabia and Turkey would be madness given the the highly charged atmosphere, but nothing should surprise us anymore. Veteran U.S. Mideast envoy Richard Murphy, a former ambassador to both Syria and Saudi Arabia, told VOA that "the hostility of the Saudi regime for the Syrian regime is public knowledge" and that "Riyadh [has the] conviction that the Syrian regime has become a puppet of Tehran," its regional nemesis. But, he argued, the U.S. has nevertheless "been urging Arab states to concentrate on fighting Islamic State [rather than the Syrian regime]." Turkeys complicated and controversial fight against Kurdish factions at home and in Syria is making its battle against the Islamic State group more difficult. It also leaves Ankara in a weakened stance to combat terror, analysts say. "That position leaves Turkey less able to devote resources to fighting IS and halting the flow of fighters across its border, even if it is inclined to do so," said Alan Makovsky, a former U.S. State Department official and Turkish affairs expert at the Center for American Progress. Turkey is reeling from recent terror attacks blamed on IS militants. In all, more than 150 people have died in IS-related terror incidents in the last six months. Turkey has tightened its borders against IS infiltration and has stepped up arrests of IS suspects. At the same time, Turkey has been fighting against Kurdish militants known as the PKK in eastern Turkey, where battles reignited last July. Across the border, Turkey sees Syrian Kurdish forces associated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), as enemies, even though these forces are helping a Western coalition fight IS in Syria. Human rights issues Ankara is facing international criticism from human rights groups over its harsh crackdown on Kurds in eastern Turkey. And Turkeys leaders are facing strong internal pressures from opposition groups who claim they have not done enough to combat IS. In some instances, opponents claim, Ankaras policies have supported IS aims and left Turkey vulnerable to IS terror. Makovsky told VOA that Turkey's first priority is fighting the PKK and, to the best of its ability, limiting the expansion in Syria of the PYD, which it considers largely an extension of the PKK. And that leaves Turkey with a diminishing capability to combat IS, said Ali Akel, a journalist and commentator in Turkey. "The Turkish government seems to think that it has to fight the PKK. So the IS issue gets moved aside," he told VOA. Strategic US ally Still, Turkey is an important ally in the Western coalitions fight against IS in Syria and Iraq. Ankara allows coalition warplanes to conduct bombing missions from a Turkish airbase. And coalition forces have been working with Turkey to tighten its borders. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Istanbul last month to urge Turkish officials to continue their fight against IS despite Turkey's political and military dilemma. IS fighters are not the only existential threat to the people of Turkey," said Biden. "The PKK is equally a threat and we are aware of that. The PKK, branded a terrorist organization by Ankara and Washington, has been fighting for Kurdish political and cultural rights in Turkey since 1984. But the U.S. supports Kurdish forces fighting IS in Syria. There is a terrible gap and differences of opinion between the U.S. and Turkey regarding what should be the priority with respect to Syria and IS, said Bulent Aliriza, the Turkey program director at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington. For Turkey the priority is the PKK and the PYD. For the U.S., the priority is IS. Discrepancies underscored That difference is affecting Turkeys ability to help the U.S.-led Western coalition fight IS, analysts say. If Turkey does not solve the Kurdish issue peacefully and keeps attacking the Kurds, the U.S.s Syria policy in general and the IS policy in particular will be more difficult to implement, Gonol Tul, the founding director of the Middle East Institutes Center for Turkish Studies, told VOA. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said recently that Turkey needs to change its aims. "They have to shift their priority from considering the Kurds as their problem to IS as their major problem," he said, according to the Kurdish Rudaw website. Ankara has long been criticized for "looking the other way" with respect to IS activities and networks in Turkey. But as IS terror has increased, so has the need for Turkey to fight IS, he said. IS is the first enemy of Turkey in Syria, Yasin Aktay, a member of the Turkish parliament from the governing AKP party, said this week in Washington. Turkey's fight The U.S. says Turkey is a willing and cooperative partner in the coalition's fight against IS. And Ankara says the U.S. must understand the Turkish dilemma. "We will always listen to the opinions of our allies and friends," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after meeting with Biden. "But no ally, no friendly nation, should expect us to tolerate any armed forces other than the legitimate armed forces of the government, on Turkish territory. United Nations and human rights organizations are calling for a complete stop to the harmful practice of female genital mutilation, which affects millions of women and girls worldwide. The call for a global ban comes as the world commemorates Saturday the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Women and girls have been subjected to female genital mutilation for millennia, with the earliest recorded excisions having been performed on Egyptian girls in 25 BC. Indeed, Egypt in the 21st century remains one of the countries where FGM is most frequently performed. A recent report by the U.N. Childrens Fund, UNICEF, finds at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation in 30 countries. The study notes half of these so-called "cuttings" have occurred in three countries Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. Human rights issue FGM is widely practiced in countries in Africa and the Middle East. Tarek Jasarevic, spokesman for the World Health Organization, says the procedure involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs. He says there is no medical reason for this intervention. It is a violation of the human rights of girls and women and has no health benefits. It harms girls and women in many ways FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometimes between infancy and age 15, Jasarevic said. FGM can cause severe bleeding, problems urinating, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths. Some women and girls subjected to this procedure die. Many of those who survive suffer severe psychological consequences. Limited progress There are cultural and social factors for performing FGM. A commonly cited reason is the need to prepare girls for adulthood and marriage by reducing their sexual desire to maintain their virginity before marriage and fidelity during marriage. There is no religious basis for this practice. Human rights expert Benyam Mezmur tells VOA a growing number of countries are passing laws criminalizing FGM, but their impact is limited. Even though in the presence of laws, in some instance they are not explicit, in some instance even when they are explicit, they are not enforced and again, traditional leaders, religious leaders also have a role to play, he said. U.N. agencies warn the overall rate of progress toward ending FGM is not enough to keep up with population growth. They say the number of girls and women subjected to this barbaric practice will increase significantly over the next 15 years if current trends continue. Some supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have been kicked off the popular dating app Tinder for spamming other users with pro-Sanders messages. According to Reuters, one woman, Robyn Gedrich, 23, from New Jersey, sent messages to 60 people a day over a two-week span. The messages included information on how to volunteer for the campaign and where to get information about Sanders. "Do you feel the bern?" read her messages, using a popular slogan from the Sanders campaign. "Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks." Another woman, Haley Lent, 22, from Iowa, paid for the app's "passport" feature, which allowed her to send messages to people in New Hampshire, the site of next week's primary. She said she talked to between 50 and 100 people a day using Tinder. Both women have had their accounts suspended. Tinder did not respond to a query from Reuters. ELKO Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt paid a visit to Elko Friday to endorse Ted Cruz. Laxalt, who officially announced his endorsement of Cruz on Jan. 13, stopped by the Northeastern Nevada Museum to talk to the crowd about the importance of the upcoming caucus and why Elko County should vote for Cruz. Laxalt said the campaigning hes done on Cruzs behalf will continue as he plans to visit a few more counties in Nevada before its time for Nevadans to cast their votes. When I campaigned for attorney general I campaigned all over the state, he said. I need to go out and speak to the voters in every single county and Elko is a very important county for this race and one that I think should support Ted Cruz. Laxalt also mentioned that he was unsure if Cruz himself would be able to visit Elko. Were working on a tour but we dont know yet, he said. Laxalt said he wanted the voters in Nevada to get the message that Cruz was concerned about the issues that affect their state. Hes pledged to work to get our public lands back, he pledged to overturn Obamas illegal executive orders and hes pledged to overturn ObamaCare, he said. These are all important things that I think our citizens are going to care about. The United States government has lifted sanctions imposed on two Zimbabwean banks which were on the list of business entities barred from doing business with Washington. In a statement, the U.S Treasury said, Following todays removal of Agribank and IDBZ from the list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons, a license is no longer required to engage in transactions with those entities. US Treasury said following the removal of Agribank and IDBZ from the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, a license is no longer required to engage in transactions with those entities. Agribank and the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe were among more than 200 entities and individuals barred from doing business with American companies or holding assets in the worlds largest economy as part of sanctions imposed against President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle in 2003 for alleged human rights abuses. But Harare says the sanctions were imposed when it sought to address the land question by redistributing it to the majority blacks. Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo told Studio 7 that the easing of sanctions is a non-event. Responding, Washington-based human rights activist Jeff Smith said the sanctions are justified as Zanu-PF does not respect human rights. Meanwhile, the World Bank says it will continue to offer Zimbabwe technical support only until the country clears its arrears to international creditors totaling $1.86 billion. Harare started defaulting on its debt to the IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank and several Western lenders in 1999 and is struggling to emerge from a catastrophic recession that ran for a decade until 2008. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, working with the creditors last year, tabled a plan that he claimed will see Zimbabwe clearing its arrears by April. Economists though see this as a mission impossible. World Bank Zimbabwe senior economist Johannes Hederschee told VOA Studio 7 that the bank is working with Harare to help the countrys economy to recover. More than a week after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe delivered his hard-charging speech before delegates attending the 26th African Union Summit, in Ethiopia last week, U.S. based intellectuals from the continent are still gnawing at his demand for reform of the United Nations Security Council. In an hour-long speech as he ended his tenure as chair of the continental body, President Mugabe argued that Africas exclusion from the powerful five-member body of decision makers with veto power, was unjust and acceptable, despite years of pushing. We come to the United Nations ceremonial every September, we are there, we pay a lot of money to go there, general assembly we make speeches, we go home, year in year out, but the bosses in the Security Council say you shall never have the powers that we have as permanent members, President Mugabe said to a loud applause. And we have asked and asked and asked, and asked and asked, reform, reform the Security Council, he pursued, to a standing ovation. President Mugabe and many African leaders have been pushing for at least two countries to be included in the Security Council. President Mugabe suggested that Africa countries could pull out of the 193-member body, if reform is not undertaken, and Africa given more recognition. If we decide as we shall certainly do so one of these days, that down with the United Nations, we are not members of it, others are real members of it, we are artificial members of it, and we, we cant continue to be artificial members of it. Many who heard the speech, applauded Mr. Mugabe, saying that reform of the crucial body was long overdue and necessary. Associate Fellow Emira Woods of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies applauded Mr. Mugabes persistence on the matter, however she said a mass pull out was unlikely. Its difficult to see 54 of the 193-countries, pulling out. But, Woods continued, I do think creating political will around this question of reforming the Security Council to more accurately reflect the world of today is right on point. In agreement, analyst Nii Akuetteh of the African Immigrant Caucus, said Africas dependency on the world body, is one likely reason for a lack of consensus on such a call by Mr. Mugabe. Yes we have 54-countries and we make a big chunk of the (UN) General Assembly but a lot of our countries depend on these external donors for their money, said Akuetteh. Frankly, I would be very surprised if Africa takes a united front. I expect some African leaders to be bought behind the scenes by being told if you go along with this we will cut off all your aid. The more crucial question of reform, however, said Akuetteh and Woods who participated on a panel discussion, was the political will of the Security Council to open up the body to other countries, including those from Africa. Quoting African-American civil rights activist, Frederick Douglas who said that power concedes nothing without a demand, both analysts concurred that reform of the Security Council would be hard won, if achieved, due to resistance from the members of the crucial body, namely the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia. Akuetteh said, they (members of the UN Security Council) wouldnt want to do it unless they are forced, to the point where they cant resist anymore, and theyll try to compromise, he said. I mean much the same way I look at South Africa, you know the apartheid government did not want to give up power when they realized that they had to give up some of it in order not to lose everything. Forcing reform said the two, would require a heavy push from all stakeholders from Africa, and a willingness to form strong coalitions and alliances where possible, to ensure enough pressure and representation. African countries, both leaders and civil society have to be there to demand the changes that are needed to further reflect the world of the 21st Century and beyond, said Woods. While both agreed that reform of the Security Council was a long stretch, both also entertained the question of what would happen if reform did happen. I think the question is how many countries, and which countries, said Woods of the 54-African countries to choose from, presenting a new debate possibility when the time comes. You have countries, Algeria and Egypt that were there at the founding of the UN, and so you know are demanding a rightful role now in the Security Council. You have South Africa and Nigeria because of their economic dominance, and you could also Nigeria with its involvement in the UN Peacekeeping and to the extent that it. Akuetteh too wondered how much unity Africa, which is divided into four regions including North Africa, would show, when the opportunity to sit among the most powerful emerges. I think coming up with a candidate everybody can rally behind, is going to be a challenge in itself, said Akuetteh. Its not impossible. But we do have regional rivalries, we do have rivalries between countries even if it is not polite to admit if outside of our continent. With the possibility of reform still on the discussion table, Woods and Akuetteh said for now, the best Africa can do is continue to show solidarity and consensus when pitted against the west, as they did during the recent climate change discussions in Paris, France. A senior Zimbabwean Muslim leader, Sheik Ishmael Duwa, has commended President Barack Obama for visiting a mosque in Baltimore, USA, on Wednesday saying the American president needs to ensure that members of his religion are not discriminated on religious grounds. Sheik Duwa said Mr. Obama should walk the talk following his remarks that Muslims are part of one American family. Sheik Duwa was quick to say that the United States should stop accusing Muslims of allegedly promoting terrorism. President Obama knows that problems that are caused in the Islamic society are caused by the Western countries, especially America. If I cite Libya, (Maummar Gaddaffi was killed Who caused that? If we go to Iraq Iraq was said to possess weapons (of mass destruction) whatever there is no solution there. So, he (Mr. Obama) is an interested person who goes to our Muslims and says Moslems are like this and he goes on the other side he says something else. He said Muslims role in society is to bring peace and tranquility as per the dictates of the Quran. The Quran says Muslims should co-exist with other people, to bring peace and tranquility. During remarks Wednesday at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, President Obama thanked Muslim Americans for helping to build the U.S. and make it strong. He also acknowledged the "hugely distorted" negative view Muslim Americans have had to endure with the rise of terrorism-related violence by Islamist extremists. Responding to these remarks, Shiek Duwa commended Mr. Obama for noting that Muslims are not trouble makers. It they are some terrorists said to be Muslims, they are not Muslims. They are just individuals. They may be Muslims but doing that act it does not mean that its Islam. Its like I am a Zimbabwean and if I go and commit a crime in South Africa they cannot say Zimbabweans are not good. No. In Zimbabwe, he said, Muslims are helping local people in getting scholarships and some are looking after orphans, among other projects. President Obama criticized remarks by Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and others in recent months. Trump called for all Muslims to be barred from entering the country for a period of time, and Cruz suggested that the United States resettle only Christian Syrian refugees. Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Bruce Dern in The Hateful Eight. Photo: The Weinstein Company When C.F. Martin & Co. lent a priceless, 140-year-old guitar to Quentin Tarantinos Hateful Eight, it was on the understanding that it would be returned unharmed. Seeing that the films script involved Kurt Russell smashing the instrument in a fit of rage, the production came up with a skillful workaround: Between shots, they would swap the guitar out with one of six replicas made precisely for that purpose. Except that isnt quite what happened. As the films sound mixer Mark Ulano recalled this week, Somehow that didnt get communicated to Kurt Kurt shattered the antique guitar and everyone was pretty freaked out, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose authentic look of shock apparently delighted Tarantino. Though those involved with the production swore Martin took the loss in stride, that was apparently because the company didnt quite understand just how the guitar got destroyed. After reading about Ulanos remarks on blogs like anyone else, Martin Guitar Museum director Dick Boak gave a stern statement to Reverb, explaining how distressed the company was by the news: We were informed that it was an accident on set. We assumed that a scaffolding or something fell on it. We understand that things happen, but at the same time we cant take this lightly. All this about the guitar being smashed being written into the script and that somebody just didnt tell the actor, this is all new information to us. We didnt know anything about the script or Kurt Russell not being told that it was a priceless, irreplaceable artifact from the Martin Museum I dont think anything can really remedy this. Weve been remunerated for the insurance value, but its not about the money. Its about the preservation of American musical history and heritage. As a result, Boak says the company wont loan out instruments to any more film productions yes, even Wes Andersons forthcoming documentary, The Splendid Guitar That Sat on a Shelf and Nobody Ever Went Near. Yes, we will raise taxes. Yes we will. When Sen. Bernie Sanders made that statement at a town hall in Iowa last week, Republicans all over the country leapt out of their chairs, cheering. If Sanders somehow wins the Democratic nomination, he has already handed his opponents a weapon of mass destruction to use against him next fall. That quote will be plastered on every billboard, TV and tablet in every swing state that might affect the election. As Republicans plunge wildly toward suicidal self-delusion in their own nominating process, the possibility of a Sanders victory gives them a flicker of hope. If Democrats veer to the extreme left as the GOP careens to the extreme right, then Republicans still have a chance in November. All is not lost! The favorite slogan in Republican ranks these days is not Make America Great Again. Its Go, Bernie, Go. Yes, we know. Sanders qualifies his call for new taxes to underwrite universal health care by saying Americans wont have to pay expensive premiums for private insurance anymore. But that argument runs into three huge problems. The first is simply the word taxes. Its toxic. Even if revenues are raised to pay for good programs, anti-tax orthodoxy has dominated American politics since the days of Ronald Reagan. Just ask Walter Mondale, a fine public servant who said during his campaign against Reagan in 1984: Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He wont tell you. I just did. He was right, of course Reagan raised taxes 11 times during his eight years in office. But Mondale was rewarded for his candor by winning exactly one state: his home base of Minnesota. And Medicare for all is not the only Sanders proposal requiring new revenues. Theres free college tuition, higher Social Security benefits and a lot more. Free is a great rallying cry until the bills come due. Which brings up the second problem: lack of faith in government. Sanders favorite solution for every problem involves a greater role for Washington. But in a Pew survey last fall, only 19 percent of Americans said they could trust the government always or most of the time. Thats among the lowest levels in the past half-century, Pew adds. And yet when Sanders was asked directly in Iowa if he agreed with Bill Clinton that the era of big government is over, he pointedly dodged the question. Sanders ideas are deeply felt, but at the same time he has really overreached, Drew Westen, an Emory professor who advises Democrats, told The New York Times. The average American is not going to buy into a vision of the federal government running one big health care program. Many people are actually afraid of that idea. Which brings up the third problem. Sanders admits that the current Congress would never enact his most ambitious ideas. So he calls for a political revolution to change the legislature and make it more receptive to his agenda. Heres the reality: Sanders describes himself as a democratic socialist and the most progressive member of the Senate. But at its core, this is a center-right country. The chance for the revolution hes instigating is just about zero. So Sanders is doing exactly what Republican conservatives have done for years: stirring up his base with wildly unrealistic expectations, a sure recipe for the kind of frustration and disillusionment that drove GOP leaders like former Speaker John Boehner into premature retirement. President Obama was dead-on when he explained the Sanders surge to Politicos Glenn Thrush. He called him the bright, shiny object that people havent seen before and Obama has credibility here, since he was clearly that kind of glittering novelty when he ran against Hillary Clinton in 2008. But the analogy ends there. When Thrush asked Obama if Sanders reminded him of himself eight years ago, the president snapped, I dont think thats true. Obama was more like Reagan, a candidate whose inspiring story and charismatic personality transcended ideology. Hope and change is a lot better slogan than We will raise taxes. Many sensible Democrats agree with former Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, a shrewd political mind, when he told the Times: The early enthusiasm for Sanders reminds me of the (George) McGovern and Mondale races, where two good men were only able to win one state each in their presidential campaigns. Democratic voters dont want that to happen again. Breauxs right. But bright, shiny objects are popular in both parties this year. A constable has filed a complaint against a McLennan County commissioner, reporting that a phone call from the commissioner about the upcoming election was hostile, threatening and an attempt at intimidation. Precinct 1 Constable Walt Strickland submitted a letter to County Judge Scott Felton on Dec. 7 saying Commissioner Kelly Snells statements bordered on official oppression during the conversation, according to the complaint obtained through an open records request by the Tribune-Herald. Strickland says he has a right to his own opinion and to support who he chooses while off the clock, and Snell says the constable should stay out of his business. The incident began after Strickland had lunch with Cory Priest, Snells challenger in the March 1 primary election. Strickland, who took office in 2013, said he decided to support Snells opponent after accepting Priests invitation to lunch and hearing his campaign platform. Before that lunch, Strickland said, the duo didnt know each other. A few days later, Snell called Strickland. He told me to stay out of his business and that one elected official should not be messing around in another elected officials business, according to Stricklands letter. Commissioner Snell then told me, If I kept it up he would make sure I had an opponent and would regret working against him, implying that he would use his position on the court against me. I dont believe this is appropriate and borders on an attempt at official oppression, the letter continues. Strickland said Friday hes never filed something officially with the county negatively regarding a commissioner. But, he said, he wanted documentation on record about the phone call in case there are future issues. Potential abuse Theres always potential for abuse of power, Strickland said, when asked if he has concerns about repercussions. I feel like with the judge being aware of the situation, that minimizes that risk. Snell, who was first elected to the seat in 2009, said he only learned of the complaint this past week and hadnt fully reviewed the document. He said he remembers calling Strickland because the constable was taking Priest to meet law enforcement agencies in his precinct. I called Mr. Strickland and told him you need to keep out of my business, Snell said Friday. He was dancing my opponent around introducing him to my police and law enforcement agencies. Snell said he learned about the visits when officials started calling him with a tone that they didnt want to meet my opponent. He said some of the departments were hesitant to tell Strickland no to a visit, because they often need his help on official business. Snell said Strickland is using his position to leverage Priests campaign support. Strickland said he and Snell have had a professional working relationship before this. Strickland said he has not done any campaigning or introduced Priest to anyone on county time or used a county vehicle to make the trips. He said because of the nature of his job, hes constantly on call and therefore often in uniform. Snell said while he cant know for sure Strickland is using the countys vehicle, gas or time to campaign for Priest, hes never seen him in any other vehicle. Really irks me I think really and truly what really irks me about the whole deal youre paid to be a constable, you have a county vehicle, using county gas, why are you spending those resources to campaign against another elected official, Snell said. Snell said he couldnt recall whether he told Strickland hed find an opponent to run against him. County Judge Scott Felton said complaints are handled differently based on who files the letter and the contents message. Felton said he sent Snell a copy of the complaint but they have not discussed the topic. Only a voter can determine if that elected official is doing what they want them to do, he said, adding commissioners are not like employees who answer to human resources. Felton said if the complaint contains a matter that is illegal it would be turned over to authorities. If Strickland thinks the act was criminal, or official oppression, its up to him to take the matter further, Felton said. Its their duty to enforce the law or refer it to the proper authorities, Felton said. Strickland said he does not plan on filing anything with the district attorney. Felton said hopefully the two elected officials will reconcile the matter. Communication is important between individuals who have a difference of opinions, so they should get together and work them out, Felton said. Denton attorney Richard Gladden plans to sue the city of West within the month on behalf of an advocacy group, claiming the council violated state law by enacting a city ordinance restricting where sex offenders may live within city limits. West is one of 46 general-law cities that received letters of intent from Gladden in November on behalf of the Texas Voices for Reason and Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for better legislation regarding the sex offender registry and restrictive ordinances. Wests sex offender ordinance prohibits any individual who is required to register with a local law enforcement agency for a violation involving a child 17 or younger from living within 2,000 feet of locations where children normally gather. Gladdens letter states that the ordinance is a violation of state law because general-law cities only have the ability to enact ordinances strictly dictated by the state. Along with a letter of intent, Gladden sent a 2007 letter from the Attorney Generals office to the chair of the Committee on Health and Human Services that elaborates on the stance. We have found no law authorizing a general-law municipality to adopt this type of residence restriction. Thus, unless the Legislature expressly authorizes it, a general-law municipality may not adopt an ordinance restricting where a registered sex offender may live, the letter states. Mayor Tommy Muska said the city will get advice from the Texas Municipal League, along with the citys attorney, Charley Buenger, before taking any action. At this point, were not doing anything, Muska said. Buenger said the ordinance doesnt violate state law because general-law cities are given the authority to enact ordinances that protect the well-being of the citys population, which extends to the sex offender ordinance. The municipality may adopt an ordinance, act, law, or regulation, not inconsistent with state law, that is necessary for the government, interest, welfare, or good order of the municipality as a body politic, the law states. Most general-law cities in Texas have fewer than 5,000 residents, and state law lays out requirements that must be followed for their municipal laws and functions, according to information published by the Texas Municipal League. Any city with more than 5,000 residents can adopt a city charter to become a home-rule city, allowing broad leeway in enacting local laws. The West City Council asked for another month to deliberate about whether it would repeal its sex offender ordinance, Gladden said. But the three months it has had is enough time to repeal a law, he said. I cant understand how a functioning city government could take three months, Gladden said. Half of the cities that received letters have already repealed their ordinances, he said. Whitney repealed its ordinance in a 3-2 city council vote in January. Gladden said these ordinances victimize more than just the people who committed the crime. If a family is trying to live in a small town, but a parent must register as a sex offender, it divides the family, he said. Often, these ordinances make much of a small town off-limits. It kind of fouls things up as far as the family goes, he said. High school juniors and seniors across the country are spending long Saturday mornings answering multiple-choice questions across a variety of areas. The goal? An SAT score that is competitive enough to get into the school or program of their choice. We all know that along with the ACT, the SAT is designed as a college admissions exam. But many dont know that the value of standardized tests rests upon several key things such as the extent to which a students high school experience is aligned with the test content; the extent to which scores on the test predict future success; and the extent to which the score is weighed in combination with other information such as the student essay, grades and letters of recommendation. All of these things vary, and not necessarily in a way that test score users realize. For example, scores on standardized tests tend to under-predict future success for students from diverse backgrounds. This is not new. What is new is that the language of the Common Core state assessments has now spread into the standardized tests. The new SAT is designed to be aligned to what are called college and career readiness standards. These standards are more rigorous than previous versions of the SAT. But an even bigger shift is coming. In the past, the SAT and ACT were only required for students who wanted to apply to college programs that used those scores for admissions decisions. But Congress recently passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which includes many changes to what states can propose for assessments to measure student progress. Specifically, states now have the option to use the SAT as a graduation requirement within their assessment plans. Several states have already incorporated the SAT into their requirements as an end-of-course exam for high school students. Texas should look before it leaps. One advantage to using the SAT as part of graduation requirements is that it raises the likelihood that a student who might be qualified for college has taken the prerequisite exam to apply. Giving widespread college admissions tests could encourage students who otherwise would not be thinking about college to pursue it as an option. There are, of course, some concerns. Using one test in all states, each state with its own set of academic standards, means that some states will be more closely aligned to the SAT than others. Students who learn a state curriculum that is less aligned to the SAT than peers from other states will be at a disadvantage. Also, at a time when most states are working within the Common Core curriculum standards, Texas has resolutely focused on its own standards. Using the SAT as a graduation requirement would go against the states decision to define what Texas students learn and what they need to know when they finish high school. What it takes to be college and career ready is still an evolving concept, and so are the tests to measure them. We do not know whether scores on these tests predict success in college and the workplace. There already has been significant pushback from parents, with many parents opting out of these tests. Till evidence surfaces that these tests are measuring what we want to know about college and career readiness, Texas should continue with caution. For Texas and the SAT as a required test, the jury is still out. Stephanie Cawthon is an associate professor of educational psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. ELKO The City Council is looking to increase the land around the airport and study the discrepancy between parade fees and the costs incurred by City departments. The City is looking to acquire 60.19 acres of private land adjacent to the airport, known as the Jennings Family Property, for airport compatible development. Assistant City Manager Scott Wilkinson said the property neighbors Interstate 80 and the airport. The intent of the City is to acquire the land and have it become leased and developed over time. The additional acreage is to help maintain a source of revenue, with long-term leases lasting approximately 50 years, he said. He called the endeavor very long-range planning. Before the final stages, the property needs to be appraised in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration, Wilkinson said. It would be bought at Fair Market Value, based on the appraisal, and all eligible costs would be used toward future local grant matches under the FAA Airport Improvement Grant program, stated the City. The Council is being asked to authorize the airport to proceed with the acquisition using FAA grant program criteria this includes finding competitive bids for property appraisal services. The Council would direct the staff to relay the appraisal price to it before entering into formal negotiations with the property owner. The City believes parades are important for the community, said Wilkinson. However, they are costly to entities such as the police and sheriffs department. We have costs substantially higher than parade fees, he said. The Elko Police Department has been tracking the cost of each parade for the past two years. In doing so, the department has ascertained the costs collected from parade organizers does not cover the cost of staffing. According to a provided chart, these costs affect the street and police departments, City staff, Nevada Highway Patrol and the sheriffs department. Wilkinson said the report estimates the total cost for the 2015 parades is $22,273. Only $1,800 in fees were collected by the City. Last years parade fee was $150 per parade. There are 12 annual parades, with the possible addition of two more. Complaints include traffic control issues dealing with safety, barricades and staff; the five differing parade routes, the length of closures and low attendance. The police department is proposing the Council reorganize the parade schedule so they are less weighty to the residents and the City. Additionally, a report by Lt. Ty Trouten recommends altering parade routes, increasing permit fees and decreasing the number of parades. The City is going into the budget cycle, said Wilkinson. He explained this is the time for staff to look at budgets and fee schedules for the Councils consideration. The City Council meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall at 1751 College Avenue. Also on Tuesday, the Council may: Award the bid for the Sewer Slip Line Project. Award the bid for the Exit 298 Waterline Project. Accept a Deed of Dedication for the realignment of Errecart Boulevard across a portion of land owned by the City. Accept the 2015 Annual Report of Planning Commission Activities. Change the Tuesday, Feb. 23 City Council meeting to Wednesday, Feb. 24. Approval of a new airport aeronautical lease for Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Organization, Tech Operations Building at 813 Murray Way. Approval of a contract amendment of the Jviation Inc. Professional Services Agreement, authorizing the company to proceed with FAA environmental, surveying, and property acquisition support services on the Jennings Family Property. Approval of a resolution authorizing the augmentation of the 2015/2016 Fiscal Year Budget of the Recreation Fund transferring of $50,000 to the Youth Recreation Fund. First reading of an ordinance amending the Elko City Code titled Traffic, Access, Parking and Loading Requirements, adding requirements related to traffic counts and park and ride facilities, and adjusting the traffic visibility, access, civil improvements, parking requirements table and parking lot design requirements; also, to direct staff to set the matter for public hearing, second reading and possible adoption. First reading of an ordinance adding a definition for park and ride facilities and adding them facilities as a principal permitted use within the Light Industrial Zoning District, and to direct staff to set the matter for public hearing, second reading and possible adoption. Approve the issuance of a Wholesale Liquor License to Scott Blazek, doing business as Breakthru Beverage Nevada Reno LLC, located at 100 Distribution Drive in Sparks. Could the United States be on the verge of repeating a mistake of such significance? Jim Igleheart Ignoring history at our peril Constant political squabbling has become the norm for leaders at all levels, backroom deals have become routine, elected leaders refuse to make decisions and mediate on issues that are affecting everyone, citizens are killing each other in the streets. In this political season, growing numbers are turning to one man who has promised a better future. He is inspiring the people using promises void of details. He uses simple catch phrases and repeats them over and over. His political propaganda has turned him into an idol for many. He is skillfully playing on the emotions of people, offering something to everyone and promising to make the country strong again. He has blamed the status quo and masterfully exploited the peoples misery; he is denying free speech at public events, he is criticizing the media, his agenda allows for no concessions and he has no intentions of cooperating with the democratic process. He, like another man, is very vague, judgmental of others and in many ways over the top! He doesnt seem to care what he says, how he says it or to whom he says it. Its a campaign that defies logic and common sense. The more bizarre his comments, the more people seem to be joining his camp. The above commentary was written about Germany in the early 1930s, when that country was plagued with serious economic/political issues and uncertainty. The country turned to one man who promised a better future. America, are you sure you want to go back in time and repeat history? Could the United States be on the verge of repeating a mistake of such significance? Jim Igleheart, Waco Pro-life vs. pro-choice In her letter vowing to tear up the Trib whenever she comes upon a letter by Pro-Life director John Pisciotta, I can see that Ms. Myers has never met John, myself or any other member of Pro-Life Waco. We are not what she describes. Her ad hominem, visceral attack on John and our organization are unfounded. Mr. Pisciotta in person is a kind and warm-souled gentleman. Out of many years of knowing him and serving with him, I have never heard him use abusive, degrading or foul language. The chuckle she speaks of is of his demeanor in public. I can say that his behavior when not in public is just the same. When he hears of personal attacks, he does not get mad or angry hence the chuckle. We wear abusive language, shouts and obscene hand gestures as badges of honor. We do keep track of the other issues involved here. Lets take the issue of Christianity. Consider Exodus 20-12: Honor your father and mother. What greater dishonor to parents who kill their baby? Michael Tusa, Elm Mott n n n Im concerned for Doel Garcias powers of perception. His letter of Jan 28 attacking Trib opinion editor Bill Whitakers column, Truth loses out as rhetoric heats up in abortion war, indicates an altered state of reality. The videos he alleges are solid proof of Planned Parenthoods guilt have been found by countless Republican-based inquiries to be fraudulent and not actionable. But in Mr. Garcias world, they are good enough for him facts and context have no meaning for him or the group he supports. His sources produce only half-truths and deception. See his letter of Nov. 21 referencing freeclinics.com. No, Mr. Garcia, we have not lost all sense of decency and morality. Our system works on facts and rule of law thats why the perpetrators of your precious video were indicted by a grand jury. Yes, Mr. Garcia, organ donation is a gruesome business. But if you insist on targeting Planned Parenthood, then you have to also go after the Texas Donor Registry and the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance along with countless other hospital and medical research facilities. Better yet, please find an issue to spend your time and resources on that doesnt hurt women. Cheryl Foster, Waco n n n Editorial pages tend to present issues in black-and-white terms so as to foster strong opinions on both sides of a discussion. The printing of a letter by Donna Myers, twice by the way, excoriating Pro-Life Waco leader John Pisciotta is a good example of the black side. Now heres the white side by me. I have personally known John Pisciotta for almost three years and have taken part in almost every pro-life affair since, both here and in Austin. I have never heard him say a single thing hurtful to women, nor anything venomous. He surely is not a snake, Donna, toward Planned Parenthood personnel nor anybody else. Oh, sorry, I used to hear him ask the girls walking into work at Planned Parenthood, What would your mother say if she knew you were working here? Does that appear venomous? So to say or imply that John Pisciotta is a public menace spouting hatred is a downright gross exaggeration and an example of someone trying to take down the leader of a group winning the battle of ideas. I invite anybody to participate in any Pro-Life demonstration and judge for yourself. Dont go by the rhetoric here, including my own. Come evaluate for yourself. John Ecker, Waco Outrageous behavior I find it arrogant of the courts here in McLennan County that they choose to make a statement by fining individuals for not showing up for jury duty. Why cant citizens who two or three times a year are sent jury summons and yet are never selected file claims against the county court system to make up what they lose in that half-day? Then our court system wants you to donate your jury pay to a charity of their liking. I am paid by the hour and a $15 check doesnt come close to how much I make in four hours. And now the court has the audacity to tell citizens they are going to be fined and/or put in jail? Justice should work both ways. James Cooper, Robinson Whose religious freedom? I am so glad President Obama visited a Muslim church and assured them of their religious freedom here in America. I wish he would do the same at my church because I feel my religious freedom is quickly slipping away, courtesy of Obama. It is very commendable, too, that the Baylor University students would gather round and pray for the Muslims to be accepted, but they would be better served if we prayed for them to accept Jesus as there personal savior. Problem solved. Ronnie Adams, Waco 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 The four AFL clubs with banned former Essendon players have been refused the right to replace them this year. The AFL has ruled that Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs and Melbourne will not be permitted - as Essendon have been - to contract replacements to cover for their losses. Essendon were permitted to sign up to 10 top-up players to cover for the 12 who had been banned for the year by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The AFL canvassed the remaining AFL clubs for their view of the bid by the four clubs to be given access to replacements. The clubs varied from the stridently opposed to those who didn't care. Vesey, who was unhappy when Fairfax Media revealed the secret meetings in August, was not available for comment. He declared in May that AGL Australia's biggest greenhouse gas emitter by far will shut all existing coal-fired power by 2050. Drilling equipment at AGL's now defunct Waukivory CSG project. Credit:Ryan Osland Lyford likens the fight with AGL and its unswerving allies in the O'Farrell and Baird governments to a David and Goliath struggle: "Truth, research, science and a grave sense of injustice were in our sling." As with the biblical allegory, the giant's ultimate failure owned much to arrogance. Scenery along Buckets Way, near Gloucester. Credit:Jonathan Carroll A standout event in what Lyford calls "a comedy of errors" was AGL's comic attempt to conceal how it would dispose of its waste, particularly flowback water. Flowback is the fluid that reaches the surface during and after hydraulic fracturing - or fracking. Fracking is the process used to inject a mixture of water and chemicals into the rock under pressure to fracture it and free up gas so it can flow to the well. Vesey said 'You need to build a golden bridge for your enemy to retreat over' John Watts, Groundswell Gloucester To discover what AGL was doing with the waste water - since the company and government agencies refused to say - the dogged local residents resorted to high-speed pursuits of tanker trucks down narrow country roads. "I had my ears pinned back keeping up as they were doing over 100km/h in places," Katrina Pearson told Fairfax in January 2015. The tankers were bound for Transpacific's waste-treatment site at Kooragang Island, near Newcastle. Intrigued, the activists informed Hunter Water, a state utility, which not only had no idea of the disposal activities but had warned the companies in letters and phone calls to take their waste elsewhere. Hunter Water's worry was Transpacific did not have appropriate facilities to treat the waste a hunch that proved accurate. After initially refusing to co-operate, Transpacific handed over data on what it had discharged into Hunter Water's sewage network. The company had released BTEX chemicals benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes elements that can kill bacteria sewage works rely on to break down human and other waste. AGL's response to Hunter Water's inquiries included legal threats to sue Hunter Water and even a Freedom of Information demand for emails sent to the Sydney Morning Herald to determine if utility officials harboured an "ideological" position against CSG, Fairfax has learned. By the time AGL and Transpacific's ruse was exposed in December 2014, the two had disposed of 600,000 litres of the flowback water. Blocked at Hunter, AGL then trucked its waste all the way south to Windsor, on the Hawkesbury River before local opposition cut off that avenue. Brisbane ended up as plan C, a 1300 km round trip for the tankers. "They'd be very slow learners if they every tried to discharge something to our sewer networks without approval again," Jeremy Bath, interim chief executive at Hunter Water, says. The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) investigated and cleared AGL of any offence without consulting Hunter Water - just one of many instances Groundswell Gloucester say pointed to weak or even collusive oversight by regulators. "The government at every stage was prepared to approve this project," Watts says. "[They] always looked for how to get AGL off the hook if there was a problem." A prime example was the government rushing through an amendment to the State Environmental Planning Policy so that AGL could proceed with its drilling program without requiring a full environmental impact study (EIS). AGL's decision to target Gloucester itself made little sense even to some senior government members aware of the region's unusual and complex geology. Philip Pells, an independent hydrogeologist who briefed Vesey at the two secret meetings, had long called for AGL to divulge its groundwater modelling for Gloucester. Unlike Pilliga where Santos is trying to develop a gasfield, the Gloucester coal seams are at angles to the surface. "They would have had to drill wells down through 10-15 [seams], hydraulically fracturing at each coal seam level," he says. The seams are "fractured as all hell" with consequent risk of connectivity between them and aquifers. By contrast, the single seam under the proposed Narrabri Gas Project by Santos runs horizontally, making it better suited to horizontal fracking to extract the gas. However, a layer of Pilliga sandstone sits several hundred metres above the coal seam, making the region a recharge site for the Great Artesian Basin that accounts for more than one-fifth of Australia's land. The nearby Namoi valley is also one of NSW's biggest irrigation areas, and farmers could have "significant impacts" if water levels in the region were affected, he says. "[Santos says] they have done a lot of modelling but no one has seen it because the EIS has never come out," Pells says. Santos says it is determined to press on with its Narrabri Gas Project - which will be the state's only CSG venture now that AGL is abandoning Gloucester and winding up its Camden field by 2023. Lyford, though, predicts the anti-CSG campaign will now shift its focus to Santos, not least because of the lessons learned from Gloucester. NSW Labor's left faction is pushing for a broad-based land tax to be considered at its annual conference as an alternative to calls by Premier Mike Baird and others for GST increase. Left faction delegates to next weekend's state conference have agreed to push for a resolution to be placed on the agenda, with the specific wording to be thrashed out inside the party this week. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with media adviser John Garnaut. Credit:Andrew Meares An article in the left's Challenge magazine, due to be published next Saturday, argues a broad-based land tax is "a natural replacement for the hated stamp duty on conveyancing". The article says land tax is "inherently progressive", as opposed to taxes like the GST which "disproportionately punish low- and middle-income earners". The state government has decided to extend for another year a ban on all new pub and club licences in Kings Cross and Sydney's centre. The NSW Deputy Premier and Justice Minister, Troy Grant, said the government had decided to extend the ban while it reviews the O'Farrell government's sweeping 2014 changes to trading hours for pubs and clubs. NSW Deputy Premier Troy Grant says the freeze will allow a state government review to run consistently. Credit:Dallas Kilponen. "We want [] to have certainty and confidence that nothing will change while we conduct this major review," Mr Grant said. The Baird government begins this month its review of the lockout laws which forbade licensed venues from accepting new patrons after 1.30am and serving alcohol at 3am. A Safety Bay woman is lucky to be alive after she survived a deadly snake bite that caused massive internal bleeding. Janice Taylor told Nine News she remembered feeling a sharp sting on her toe as she walked outside the Safety Bay Bowling Club last week. Janice Taylor survived a deadly snake bite. Credit:Nine News Perth At the time she thought she may have been bitten by an insect. "It felt like a sharp prick. I actually thought that a spider had got me, or a bee," she said. by Adrian Gibson The Free National Movement (FNM) must get its act together. When I read Saturdays Nassau Guardian, I was most impressed that Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner had decided that she would take the high road and exemplify political maturity. Imagine my surprise when I was told on Sunday that Mrs Butler-Turner was among a group of MPs who wrote a letter demanding that Senator Lanisha Rolle publicly apologise to the Long Island MP for comments she had previously privately apologised for. Mrs Butler-Turners comments on Saturday were far different from her actions on Sunday and, quite honestly, appear to be disingenuous and unbecoming. The FNM needs to get its house in order. Noticeably, Mrs Butler-Turner has not yet come out and expressed support for Dr Minnis nor has the doctor publicly sought to embrace her. I call upon former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to intervene and settle the party like only he could. If not, the FNM will lose the next election. _________________________________________________________ First published in the The Tribune under the byline, Young Man's View, here View Adrian Gibson's archive here Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 05, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 05, 2016 | 04:54 PM | PADUCAH, KY The leader of a large drug trafficking organization in McCracken County has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Western Kentucky office of the U.S. Attorney's office says Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell sentenced 40-year-old Gary Owen Jackson, Jr., on Friday. He had been indicted in June 2014 for conspiracy to traffic in large amounts of crack cocaine, cocaine powder, and marijuana from June 1999 until June 2011. He pled guilty to the charges on September 15, 2015. United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr., said in a press release that over the twelve-year period, Jackson conspired with others to distribute over 280 grams of cocaine base, 5 kilograms of cocaine powder, and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, mainly in the Paducah area. Court papers say Jackson would sometimes have narcotics brought to Paducah, but other times he would send someone or pick-up the narcotics himself. Police said Jackson would rarely conduct drug transactions with customers or personally take payment, but would take orders for drugs, or coordinate with others to take orders, and then have the drugs delivered and get payment by using friends and associates. Investigators made multiple drug buys using confidential informants, and Jackson was involved in them by being present, communicating over the phone during the deal, or giving approval for the sale and setting the price. Jackson also would take cocaine powder and transform it into crack cocaine with associates, since more money could be made selling crack. Jackson has been in prison since 2012 on a gun charge, and is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. Paducah Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives investigated the case. By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 06, 2016 | 01:04 PM | PADUCAH, KY Recognizing that her only child had artistic talents, Louise Babalou Ellen Ford sought to nurture those talents any way she could. In the late 1940s, she hired students from what was then Mississippi State College for Women in Columbus, Miss., to teach her 7-year-old son about art.Those young college students inspired interior designer and artist Bill Ford. The Paducah resident has spent a lifetime working to inspire others to appreciate the arts as much as he does.Art enriches our lives. I love working with children and showing them the wonder that is art, Ford recently said. I just cant imagine life without the arts.The main gallery in Paducah School of Art and Design (PSAD)s new 2D and Graphic Design Building has been named in Fords honor, officials announced during a private reception at the building Thursday. The gallery is one of several named areas in the new building as a result of the successful campaign to fund PSAD.The Carson-Myre Charitable Foundation's significant donation brought the campaign to closure last year. During Thursdays reception, Judge J. William Howerton, chair of the Carson-Myre Charitable Foundation Board of Trustees, praised Fords charitable work and commitment to the arts and to the community. Howerton said the foundations board felt strongly about naming the gallery in honor of Ford. If anybody had anything they wanted to do, raise some money or promote something, he was always the first one to step up and participate, Howerton said. Who in the world could be more deserving to have some kind of recognition in an art school, especially one of art and design, than Bill Ford.Ford said he was overwhelmed and deeply humbled to have the gallery named in his honor. Im still living and somethings named after me, Ford announced to laughter from the crowd.Ford has been a leading residential and commercial interior designer and artist in Paducah for more than 25 years. As an artist, he does calligraphy, watercolors and pen and ink renderings. He has been a vital part of the arts having served on the boards of Paducah Chamber of Commerce, Child Watch, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah Day Nursery, Paducah Symphony Orchestra, and Market House Theatre. He has exhibited his work in the member shows at the Yeiser Center and had his first one-man show at Ruth Baggett Gallery in 2013.Fords signature always includes a B at the end of his name in memory of his mothers nickname, Babalou. Everything I paint and draw is dedicated to my mom, he said.A Memphis, TN native, Ford said he loves working in peoples homes and seeing others as well as his own artwork hanging on their walls. We have such a wide array of artists in Paducah, he said. I have a lot of respect for the many artists we have here.Known for his signature bowties, Ford has a strong passion for his adopted home. In May, he will release a collection of original pen and ink drawings that accompany articles from the community about memories of Paducah titled, From Paducah With Love.The citizens of Paducah radiate a lot of love. Everyone is so progressive, Ford said. The people really inspire me, and I love Paducah.PSAD will host a public open house for the 2D and Graphic Design Building at 5 pm March 31. For more information about the art school, call 270-408-4281 or at paul.aho@kctcs.edu Article submitted by Janett Blythe. WKCTC. By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 05, 2016 | 01:05 PM | PADUCAH, KY A man sought for his part in a January 27 robbery in Paducah has been taken into custody. 28-year-old Zackery Henley was located and arrested without incident Friday afternoon in Cairo, IL. Paducah police officers responded Jan. 27 to a report of a robbery in the 2900 block of Clay Street. The victim told police that he had been robbed at gunpoint while at a friends apartment, and was taken to a hospital for treatment of a minor head wound. The investigation led detectives to arrest 24-year-old James Streit and 23-year-old Richard Dodd, who were both charged with first degree robbery. Henley remained at large until his arrest in Cairo. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Feb. 05, 2016 | METROPOLIS, IL By West Kentucky Star Feb. 05, 2016 | 12:32 PM | METROPOLIS, IL A southern Illinois man and a St. Louis man were indicted Tuesday on methamphetamine offenses, according to the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. James L. Porter announced Thursday that 28-year-old Brandon L. Watson of Metropolis, a/k/a Dubb, and 61-year-old Gary M. Skinner of St. Louis, were each indicted on a charge of conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine. The indictment alleges that the crime occurred between May and October 2015, in Williamson and Massac Counties. Both Watson and Skinner are being held without bond until a jury trial on March 28. If convicted, both men could receive a sentence of as many as 5 - 40 years imprisonment, which would be followed by 4 years supervised release, and a $5,000,000 fine. The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Southern Illinois Enforcement Group, Illinois State Police, and the DEA. The Massac County States Attorneys Office also assisted in the investigation. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 05, 2016 | WICKLIFFE, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 05, 2016 | 01:31 PM | WICKLIFFE, KY Signet Federal Credit Union in Paducah has announced a merger with the Wickliffe Paper Mill Federal Credit Union, which began February 1. The Wickliffe Credit Union has served the employees and family members of Verso Corporation paper mill and Westrock Carbon Plant since 1970. Their former office at 451 Court Street in Wickliffe is now the sixth branch of Signet. Current staff at the location have kept their jobs. Carlene Scillian, President/CEO of Signet FCU said, We are incredibly grateful for the reception we have received from the Wickliffe Paper Mill FCU members and we are excited to continue to earn that goodwill every day. All the Wickliffe Paper Mill FCU employees joined our staff and we are honored to work with them as partners going forward. Adding the Wickliffe office to our network of branches will enable us to better serve the financial needs of those in Ballard and Carlisle counties. Paula Beardsley, President of Wickliffe Paper Mill FCU, said, "We are very excited about becoming a part of Signet Federal Credit Union because of our shared commitment of supporting the communities we serve and the ability to expand the services we offer our members. We thank the Wickliffe members for being open to merging with Signet and being very cooperative during this process. We always felt like our Wickliffe Paper Mill FCU was a family. Our members will benefit from that same exceptional customer service with Signet. We also look forward to serving new members in our surrounding communities. Verso Corporation announced on August 30, 2015 that they would be idling the former NewPage mill and laying off more than 300 workers. Local leaders have expressed hope that Verso would re-open the mill or sell it to someone who would, but so far that hasn't happened. Signet was chartered in 1939 as Paducah Illinois Central Railroad Credit Union, and is the oldest financial institution established in Paducah. Signet is a member-owned, full service credit union that provides financial services to over 18,500 individuals, businesses, not-for-profit organizations and government agencies in Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Crittenden, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Livingston, Lyon, Marshall, and McCracken Counties. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 06/02/2016 (2448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. When stories of historical figures are presented in theatrical form, there is always a risk of two-dimensional presentation, especially in theatre intended for kids. One has good reason to fear that complex human individuals will be translated into stiffly representational icons along the lines of the Abraham Lincoln robot in Disneyland. Canadian playwright Michael Millers treatment of anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman dodges the possibility of flat, declamatory biography in an interesting way. The heroine of the Underground Railroad is played by two actors, Winnipegger Reanna Joseph and Ontarios Gabrielle Graham. Through the hour-long, intermission-free drama, the two trade off playing the character. One will play Harriet while the other plays a host of other characters, such as Harriets mother, her father, her husband and her owner. Occasionally, as in a scene in which Harriet must cross a river in the dead of night, both actors play two aspects of the character, the brave future freedom-fighter bolstering the nerve of the frightened escaped slave. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Actors Reanna Joseph (left) and Gabrielle Graham in a scene from The Power of Harriet T. Its a risky move for a play targeted at elementary-age children. But during a school performance, the kids seemed pretty focused on the action, which includes scenes of violence. (While still a child, Harriet is hit on the head by a lead missile while trying to help a fellow slave escape. In another scene, Harriet uses a gun to perform a little self-administered dentistry on herself. Its portrayed stylistically on stage, but still puts one in awe of Tubmans toughness.) Director Cherissa Richards (who played Harriet in an earlier MTYP production of the show) pulls off a delicate balancing act. It is a grim necessity to show the evils of slavery to put Harriets reality in historic context, but she doesnt make the going too tough (although preschool children may be too young for the material). And the performances help. Joseph and Graham each bring different strengths to this multi-faceted character. Joseph moves with a dancers grace, the result of many years of Royal Winnipeg Ballet dance classes. In the plays lighter scenes, such as those depicting Tubmans girlhood (making a game of going on the auction block), Josephs charm comes to the fore. Graham, by contrast, brings deep gravitas to the character, but not so much that shes not able to participate in the lightning-quick character transitions. Graham and Joseph share the stage with musician-performers Tom Keenan and Isaac Gutwilik, who gamely supply the play with roots-music touches and Foley sound effects. The main feature of set/costume designer Julia Tribes contribution is a vast background mural that suggests an American pastoral setting with African colours. randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter:@FreepKing If you value coverage of Manitobas arts scene, help us do more. Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 06/02/2016 (2448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In 2013-14, Levison Wood spent nine months walking the 6,400-kilometre length of the Nile River, from its trickling-spring origins in Rwanda to its flowing exit on Egypts Mediterranean coast. Wood, a London-based writer and photographer, has rendered a superb account of that expedition. His trek, which saw him trudge through rainforest, swamp and savannah and traverse desert,was inspired by the grail quest of 19th-century British explorers Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke and Stanley Baker. However, where they travelled north-south into the heart of Africa to find the Niles source, he elected to recreate their collective discoveries in reverse. Tom McShane Levison Wood Along the way he provides recent histories of the six countries he passes through and their hellish human-rights abuses: Rwanda (the Hutu-perpetrated genocide against the Tutsis); Tanzania (Julius Nyereres oppressive post-independence African Socialism); Uganda (Idi Amins maniacally murderous rule); Sudan (a 22-year civil war between the Muslim north and Christian and Animist south that ended with the creation of the new state of South Sudan); South Sudan (which, having achieved independence, descended into its own civil war); and Egypt (2011s Arab Spring, the election of Mohammed Morsis autocratic Muslim Brotherhood government and the militarys 2013 coup and equally repressive regime). Its a grim record thats left a legacy of police states and left Wood weary for London,where people didnt stop you for your papers, and you didnt have to fear that the ground beneath your feet was littered with explosives. His narrative is often a study in contrasts. Locals in villages and backwater towns were mostly supportive of his raggedy-ass pilgrimage, while in larger towns and cities, government officials, the military and police were mostly venal or obstructionist. The dangers were many and varied. In South Sudan he was detained by the secret police, and later got caught in the crossfire of a firefight between government and rebel forces. In Sudan he came within a day of perishing in the Bayuda Desert. His partys serendipitous stumbling on a Bedouin well saved him and his companions from death by dehydration. In Uganda, death struck near and fast. His travel companion on part of the route, American journalist and National Geographic contributor Matthew Power, died of hyperthermia caused by a combination of oppressive heat (45-50 C) and the pace of their march. The book is dedicated to Power and the people of the Nile. The book features 46 terrific black-and-white photographs, most taken by Wood, of landscapes, villages and villagers, the indispensable local guides he hired en route, and wildlife he encountered (and, in the case of a baby vervet monkey, rescued and later delivered to a Ugandan wildlife centre). Woods narrative has a nice momentum, and he deftly grounds his story in the physical and political landscapes he encounters. When the pace needs quickening, as in the frantic, futile attempt to save Powers life, theres an intensity as the tragedy unfolds. Woods account of his journey is in many ways a literary throwback. At its core, its an old-fashioned adventure story, both inspiring and well told. Douglas J. Johnston is a Winnipeg lawyer and writer. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 06/02/2016 (2448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Can you imagine a world without the state of Israel? I cant, but Ron Rosenbaum can even if the American Jewish journalist and author hates to even think about the possibility. In his Dec. 14 essay in Tablet magazine, titled Thinking the Unthinkable: A Lamentation for the State Of Israel, Rosenbaum writes, I believe the state of Israel may not survive. That its days are numbered. This is an idea, he says, that nobody wants to say it aloud. Not even whisper it. Yet, he fears it is a real possibility. The entire world has essentially turned on the Jewish state, he says. For proof, he cites the sewer of anti-Semitism that runs beneath the surface of social media, the rise of Islamic State (also known by the acronym ISIS), increasing anti-Semitism in Europe, calls from North America for a boycott of Israeli-produced products and those who accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza while ignoring the explicit call for genocide in the Hamas charter. For many, this is no big deal, he says its been this way for 2,000 years. But things feel different for Rosenbaum now, for two main reasons. The first one is last Septembers declaration by Irans Ayatollah Khameini that Israel will not exist in 25 years. Id say (to Israel) that they will not see (the end) of these 25 years, Khameini said in a report carried by CNN and other media, referencing the length of some of the restrictions on his country in its new nuclear deal with western nations. God willing, there will be no such thing as a Zionist regime in 25 years, he added. Until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists. That was bad enough, but the other reason Rosenbaum is alarmed is the so-called stabbing intifada, where Israelis are being wounded and killed by knife-wielding Palestinian attackers. What makes the stabbing intifada so particularly horrific, he says, is that it not warfare or insurgency, but the ritual murder of Jews, which is an entirely new form of anti-Semitic horror show. He went on to cite a news story that reported that 80 per cent of Israeli children are afraid for their lives, and 64 per cent are afraid to leave their homes. Talk about feeling precarious the possibility will haunt every walk in the street, every trip to the market, every stroll in a public place, he wrote. All of Israels nuclear weapons cannot deter these attacks, cannot wipe out the memories, restore the losses. There is no Iron Dome for internal defence of the soul. Does this all portend the end of the state of Israel? I dont know, he says. I do think it portends the end of optimism. After reading Rosenbaums essay, I asked Alan Green, rabbi at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue in Winnipeg, for his opinion. What did he think of what Rosenbaum had written? This is an article I could have written myself, said Green, a passionate supporter of Israel. The dark picture he paints is completely accurate. And I would agree that the demise of Israel is a distinct possibility, but not necessarily a probability. Where he differs with the author is that Green is a person of faith, while Rosenbaum describes himself as non-religious. Green believes the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 is the fulfilment of divine promises dating back to the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and intimately tied up with the redemption of all humanity. He hopes the worst doesnt come true, but the fact that Israel is facing off against the mullahs of Iran, Hezbollah, ISIS, Hamas, the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and a whole host of other evil-doers makes for an apocalyptic situation. While Green fears for the future of Israel, he isnt worried about being a Jew in Winnipeg. I think its highly unlikely that anyone is going to attack a Jew simply for being Jewish in Winnipeg, or anywhere else in Canada, he says. While he thinks Jews in Canada will continue to be safe into foreseeable future, Israel and Europe are an entirely different story. jdl562000@yahoo.com The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/02/2016 (2449 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA The housing crisis on First Nations is well-documented: people are crammed into homes that are unsanitary firetraps, some riddled with mould or so overcrowded that people take turns sleeping. Nowhere is the problem more acute than in Manitoba, where one in three indigenous people lives in unsuitable housing, according to federal documents recently obtained by an access-to-information request. Alberta is the only other province with a similar rate. Ottawa has several programs designed to help, including direct funding of $133 million to Manitoba First Nations in the last five years. But federal officials dont know how that money has been spent. First Nations are not required to report the number of new units built or existing units repaired via INAC funding, wrote a spokesperson for the now-named Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Another initiative its ministerial loan guarantee program is intended to help band governments secure loans worth $98 million to build 566 homes. Again, federal officials dont know how many got built. Then there is a market housing fund for First Nations, which is designed to help more indigenous people own their homes. When it was launched in 2008, with $300 million in startup money, it was to build 25,000 homes in a decade. As of Dec. 31, it had built 153. Frustrating isnt a strong enough word, said Todd MacKay, prairie director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The (housing) problems are terrible, but the federal government has dropped the ball and is kicking it all over the field. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press suggest the housing problem on reserves is made worse because cash-strapped reserves siphon off money intended for housing to help cover bills for health care, education or child welfare. Again, there are no records Ottawa can track to see where that money went. There are no records to see where bands are short of cash for other programs. The lack of accountability is unacceptable, said Manitoba NDP MP Niki Ashton, whose northern riding has many First Nations. She asked how the problem could be addressed if nobody knows if the programs are working. Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press Housing for the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (formerly the Nelson House First Nation) at Nelson House in 2009. Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said this week she has visited northern reserves in Manitoba and knows there is a housing crisis. But she said she was unable to say what her government can or will do about it. Ashton, whose Churchill-Keewatinook Aski riding has a population that is more than two-thirds First Nations, said when she visits communities, housing is the first priority. When I go door-knocking in remote First Nations, this is the issue I hear about at almost every house, she said. In less remote places, its maybe every second house. 350 homes for 2,600 people in Colomb Cree Nation The regional health survey of First Nations done from 2008 to 2010 found 37 per cent of on-reserve homes needed major repairs, and more than half had mould and mildew. Many residents wait an average of four to six years to get housing. Statistics Canada data suggest almost one in three band-owned homes in Manitoba are too small for the number of people living in them. Off-reserve, less than one in 10 private homes, and fewer than one in 20 rental units, is considered too small. Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett. Chief Arlen Dumas of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation said there are 350 homes for 2,600 people in his community. That is about one house for every seven people. Nationally, the average household has 2.5 people. With 60 to 70 babies being born in Mathias Colomb each year, the need for housing increases faster than the number of homes being built. About 70 new units have been built since 2008, but Dumas estimates when population growth and the need to replace or repair dilapidated homes are taken into account, Mathias Colomb needs another 400 homes right now. Building a new home on a reserve generally costs $150,000 in southern reserves that are accessible year-round by a road. Remote, northern communities pay about $250,000. There are several different federal programs that can help First Nations add to their housing stock, but many dont work in Manitoba because bands cant be managed by a third party. Almost 70 per cent of Manitobas 63 First Nations are either in third-party management or involved in some sort of remedial financial arrangement with INAC. It means only 20 First Nations currently qualify for a ministerial loan guarantee in which First Nations secure housing loans from private banks or the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp., using the financial backing of the federal government. Because of the unique land-ownership arrangement between the federal government and First Nations, bands rarely have the collateral needed to guarantee loans. Dumas said even those that would qualify have to battle it out with each other for the money provided. From 2010-11 to 2014-15, Ottawa put up $98 million to help secure loans for 566 new homes on Manitoba reserves. Among the 20 First Nations that would likely qualify for those loans, that averages out to five or six new houses a year. Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press files Chief Arlen Dumas, Mathias Colomb Cree Nation. High targets missed The First Nations market housing fund, first envisioned as part of the 2005 Kelowna accord, was created by the Conservative government. It aims to increase the number of individual First Nation residents who own their own homes. It helps First Nations governments and individuals achieve the financial training and planning needed to apply for, receive and pay for mortgages, and it provides the collateral to secure those loans. To date, only two First Nations in Manitoba have qualified for the certification required to apply for mortgages. John Beaucage, the chairman of the fund, told the Free Press it has taken a lot longer than expected to get things moving. We know now the target was set a little high, he said. Beaucage said his staff is working with 12 other First Nations in Manitoba, but the economic situation on many First Nations, as well as a cultural belief in community rather than individual ownership, has hindered progress. Ashton said this kind of fund really only helps reserves that are close to urban areas, where employment is higher and individuals have money to pay a mortgage. Some First Nations are doing a little better. Mathias Colomb set up a number of programs to improve housing, including training people in construction and building trades such as electrical work and plumbing. The reserve has its own construction company, so any money spent on housing stays within the reserve instead of going to off-reserve tradespeople who are flown in at great expense. Mathias Colomb got into dire housing straits in part because of a diesel spill from a Manitoba Hydro generating station, which left many buildings and homes uninhabitable. The community is holding its own financially so it qualifies for loan programs. But it first had to expand its water-and-sewage treatment capacity. This summer, it expects to build 30 new homes. That will barely make a dent in the 400 new homes needed but its a start, Dumas said. He said Mathias Colomb currently spends about $500,000 a month on mortgage payments for its homes. It also pays for insurance, which is sky-high because of the fire risk for on-reserve homes in remote communities. Sometimes, its better off to simply build a new house rather than insure it, he said. mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/02/2016 (2449 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Do First Nations have a veto over development on Crown land in their traditional territory? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said as much, while vying for aboriginal support on the campaign trail last year. Now, he is hedging. It is time our prime minister explains his plan to set new rules for how resource extraction, and the laying of pipelines, will happen in Canada. Uncertainty is bad for a country in need of investment. Low commodity prices already are making resource companies skittish. But the uncertainty is also toxic to the hope of repairing relations with First Nations people. Aboriginal people have good, historical reasons to distrust governments of all stripes. JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS Justin Trudeau with Alberta Premier Rachel Notley Wednesday. Mr. Trudeau made a lot of noise last fall that a Liberal government would be different and would treat First Nations people as partners in economic development. Treaties would be respected, self-government in areas such as governance and education would be confirmed with bands writing their own rules. And in October, appearing on APTN, the wannabe prime minister overstepped constitutional law in pledging under a Liberal government, oil or natural gas pipelines would need permission of First Nations to cross traditional territory. Some dont want pipelines regardless of how safe they might be, the TV host noted, adding: Would no mean no under your government? Absolutely, he responded. But Wednesday, APTN reported, Mr. Trudeau was asked at a news conference in Alberta to recommit to his no-means-no policy on pipelines. He balked. Instead, he said simply aboriginal people are partners in all that we do in this land, and his government respects the inherent and treaty rights of First Nations. Hmmm. Veto or no? This is about more than a pipeline, getting oil to markets. The right to determine use of Crown land is about more than exploiting natural resources (although clear rules over how development occurs are central to investment decisions). This is about the broad framework for how Canada, in a larger sense, conducts business how it manages its national lands and resources, as a public trust and in the public interest. It touches, for example, upon the use of waterways, the founding of new or management of current national or provincial parks and reserves. Mr. Trudeau has said he fully ascribes to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, implying he would reframe the Harper governments support for it in 2010, which called it an aspirational document that did not change Canadian law. The UNDRIP goes on at length about the right of indigenous people to give free, prior and informed consent to use of their lands and territories. In 2014, the Supreme Court declared the Tsilhqotin band had aboriginal title over vast tracts of land in British Columbia, affirming the rights of First Nations without treaty over traditional territory. But, it stressed, they did not hold a veto over development. All parties had to negotiate willingly and meaningfully on any development proposal, the court said. Many argue that is a de facto veto for such bands, given protracted battles can derail development. (Bands with treaty must be meaningfully consulted prior to development within their traditional lands.) Mr. Trudeau last October seemed to agree bands have a veto. Now that is in doubt. Muddying these waters is not good for building trust with indigenous people. Its bad for business. The prime minister should explain himself: does Canada operate on constitutional interpretation of rights, laid down in successive decisions of the countrys highest court, or does the Liberal government intend to rewrite those, too? Time for clarity, Mr. Trudeau. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/02/2016 (2449 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A group of concerned citizens are holding a rally on Feb. 10 to bring awareness to development occurring in the Parker Wetlands. Cal Dueck, of the Parker Wetlands Conservation Committee, said the Parker lands located east of Waverley, south of the CN mainline and north of Parker Avenue are used regularly by the public, contain an aspen forest and valuable wetlands. The land is currently owned by Andrew Marquess of Gem Equities and initial plans call for a planned community featuring transit-oriented development. The land is adjacent to the eventual bus rapid transit line. (JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Cal Dueck, a member of the Parker Wetlands Conservation committee, walks through the Parker Land forest. The committee will hold a rally on Feb. 10 during an open house for the lands proposed development at the Holiday Inn. The developer is now looking at developing the area and we are hoping to appeal to all levels of government to do what it takes to get it back and put into public hands once again, Dueck told The Souwester. Dueck hopes those wanting to keep the wetlands will come out to support the peaceful protest which will happen at the Holiday Inn Winnipeg South (1330 Pembina Hwy.) between 5 and 8 p.m. The rally will coincide with an open house at the hotel for the proposed development. We really want to protect the existing greenspace. Its a completely unique area with the wetland and aspen forest and I think it would be a great loss to the city if we were to lose that area, Dueck said. Dueck emphasized that the demonstration isnt in opposition to the developer but is an opportunity to rally government officials to look at reclaiming the land, and to remind the government and public that greenspace is important. Its very well used and the neighbourhood here knows the value it has for the city; its not just something for ourselves its something that the whole city should value as a natural wetland that has been there for maybe hundreds of years, Dueck said. We would like to see that we could save as much as possible, maybe all of it. River Heights-Fort Garry city councillor John Orlikow commended the Parker Wetlands Conservation Committee on taking action. I think its fantastic. Theyve been a very positive group and I totally understand what theyre saying I support it 100 per cent, Orlikow said. Marquess acquired the land in question in a controversial land swap with the city in 2009. The city since expropriated a part of the land for a retention pond, hydro lines, and the transit corridor. Orlikow noted that the land should not have been provided to the developer and it was unfortunate that the decision was made. However, he also noted that through the secondary planning process, which was a condition of the land exchange, there will be some opportunity for community input to influence future development and potential collaboration. Of course Im quite concerned, but the developer hasnt taken down the trees, he has maintained them, which I have to say thank-you very much, Orlikow said. He has allowed the Brenda Leipsic dog park people to use the forest part now he has been quite willing to work together. Both Dueck and Orlikow say they are optimistic that parts of the wetland and parts of the Grade 1A heritage forest can be saved. Its a very important project for me and I think its an incredible asset that we cant lose, Orlikow said. I think with the right type of development it could work, so I remain optimistic. I have a couple of options that I still hold to work with the developer. Facebook.com/TheSouwesterWPG Twitter: @SouwesterWPG GRAND PORTAGE, Minn. Curtis Gagnon still holds the summons from 1984, a small piece of paper ordering him to court for shooting a moose off reservation land a mistake, he said, that triggered "four years of living hell." He'd shot the animal but it ran. He followed its bloody trail for miles but never found it. That night, Gagnon told the Grand Portage band's game warden where he'd shot the moose. "He said, 'Curt, you weren't on the reservation.' I said, 'What? No!'" Gagnon knew hunting off reservation land, outside the state's sanctioned hunting seasons, was illegal. He also knew that when his ancestors sold the federal government 5 million acres of what's now northeast Minnesota, the 1854 treaty included language stipulating that Ojibwe people would have the right to hunt and fish on that land. He decided to force the question. "It has to be taken to court. It has to be made public," he recalled. "The word has to get out that we're going to stand up for our rights." Gagnon's stand decades ago echoes what's happening today in Minnesota. Four Ojibwe protesters were charged in January for illegally harvesting wild rice and netting fish. Today, they appeared in Crow Wing County District Court. Like Gagnon, the protesters wanted to be arrested to force a judge to rule definitively if an 1855 treaty gives Native Americans here the right to hunt and fish outside state law. Gagnon's story, though, also shows that getting a final answer won't be easy. He sued the state, and was eventually joined by his band, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, as well as the Bois Forte and Fond du Lac bands. They wanted a federal court to affirm the rights spelled out in their 1854 treaty with the U.S. government. But before the courts ruled on those rights, the bands and the state compromised. Grand Portage and Bois Forte bands each receive around $1.6 million a year. In return, the bands agreed, with a few exceptions, not to fish commercially, and not to spear or use gillnets during the spawning season practices that have generated controversy at Minnesota's Lake Mille Lacs and in Wisconsin. Despite the money band members get about $1,800 a year from the agreement and can still exercise many of their off-reservation treaty rights the settlement deeply divided the Grand Portage band. Curtis Gagnon and others opposed it. They argued their treaty rights were not for sale. "I thought rights were sacred," he said. But band members eventually approved the settlement overwhelmingly in a referendum. The deal, though, kept the peace and provided band members many benefits, said Grand Portage Chair Norman Deschampe. Deschampe, who served on the Grand Portage tribal council at the time of the deal, said the band did not want to see the conflict over fishing that had erupted in Wisconsin. "Our band members have longer seasons, more liberal bag limits, that kind of thing," he said. "If we want out of it, the agreement is written such that we have to give a year's notice and we can withdraw." That's what the Fond du Lac Band did. A year after agreeing to the settlement, the band backed out, and sued the state, with a federal court eventually upholding their treaty rights. That means the Fond du Lac band doesn't get cash from the state, but members are also not subject to the same restrictions as the other two bands. So far that hasn't led to too much friction with the state. But last year, for the first time, the Fond du Lac band did authorize limited spearing for its members on some lakes in the 1854 ceded territory. The band consulted with the state to determine a safe harvest limit, said Ed Boggess, who directs the DNR's fish and wildlife division. But "it's more than what is allowed to the other two bands that are under an agreement. And so that could create some concerns. So far it's been relatively quiet," he said. Fond du Lac band leaders did not agree to an interview for this story. But in 2014, Council Member Ferdinand Martineau told MPR News he didn't expect any anti-Indian activity. "We've proven over the years that we can do things the way they're supposed to be done, that the resource issue is the most important issue," he said. "Providing band members with an opportunity for subsistence fishing is important to us." Martineau said at the time the Fond du Lac band just wanted to finalize its 1854 treaty rights. Twenty years after prevailing in court, the band and the state still haven't reached an agreement spelling out exactly how those rights can be exercised. "It's getting close to being finalized," said the DNR's Boggess, who declined to offer more specifics. In the interim, the band has operated under its own fish and wildlife code, with its own biologists, conservation officers and other staff. The Grand Portage and Bois Forte bands regulate off-reservation fishing, hunting and gathering for their members through a group known as the 1854 Treaty Authority. "If a band member wants to go deer hunting, he comes to us and gets a permit, and abides by our regulations," said Sonny Myers, the authority's executive director, who describes the organization as kind of a DNR for band members. "We have a conservation code that regulates all our activities. It's not a free-for-all, as some people think." The authority and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources even cross-deputize their conservation officers. That means 1854 Treaty Authority personnel can arrest non-Indians on the ceded territory; and DNR officers can cite band members. Myers and DNR legal counsel Sherry Enzler say the 1854 settlement has been a success. "For the most part, we have not had major issues with either Bois Forte or Grand Portage," Enzler said, citing as an example the bands' recent decision to go along with the state and cancel their moose hunts. The decision came amid broader state concerns about northeast Minnesota's declining moose population. The Grand Portage band, though, disagrees with the DNR's decision to suspend the moose hunt, because band officials don't think it would have an impact on the animal's population. "We still contend that we don't think the tribal harvest is going to affect it," said Deschampe, the band's chairman, adding the agreement with the state has an arbitration process in the event the band "wants to push the process." The 1854 Treaty settlement reached with the Bois Forte and Grand Portage bands does give the state more certainty, said the DNR'S Boggess. "Once you go through litigation, you end up with whatever the federal courts decide," he said. "It's much less defined in terms of what's allowable and what's not, so it does make it more challenging." Boggess said it's premature to say whether the state should seek a settlement over the 1855 Treaty rights. The courts first need to decide whether those off-reservation rights exist, he added. Now 66 years old, Curtis Gagnon is proud of the treaty rights battle he helped ignite more than 30 years ago, he said as he held a cone-shaped moose call crafted from birch bark his son made for him to commemorate the actions he took back in 1984. But he doesn't think the battle he started his over, in the 1855 treaty area, or close to home in the 1854 ceded territory. Even today, he said he'd support the Grand Portage band backing out of its agreement with the state and going back to court, to force a federal judge to rule that the band "has full rights in the ceded territory, that Minnesota can't take away our rights." "Shooting that moose," he added, "might just be the stepping stone for continuing to get more treaty rights." A Wisconsin Dells man faces criminal charges after authorities say he dangled a woman over a balcony railing Monday to threaten her. Steven P. Becker, 41, has been charged with felony false imprisonment and misdemeanor disorderly conduct in relation to an incident that prosecutors say occurred at Beckers duplex in the town of Delton. According to the criminal complaint, a deputy was dispatched to the duplex shortly after 3 a.m. A woman at the scene reported that she had been out drinking with Becker, and had slipped on some ice when they returned to his place. The woman told authorities she became upset because Becker had not put salt on the sidewalk, and an argument ensued. When the woman tried to leave, Becker allegedly pinned her down on a couch and would not let her go. Another woman entered the duplex after she heard screaming inside, the complaint states. The alleged victim said she tried to leave with the other woman, but that Becker grabbed her and pulled her back through a doorway and onto the duplexs balcony. Once there, he allegedly grabbed the woman around her rib cage, lifted her up and dangled her over the railing of the balcony. (The woman) stated that at one point Becker told her he was going to drop her, the complaint says. Another person then came to the scene, grabbed Becker, and pulled him back from the railing, in turn pulling the woman back onto the balcony as well, according to the complaint. Becker has been released on a $1,500 signature bond. He is due back in court March 8. Beaver Dam, Mayville, Waupun, Fox Lake, Juneau and Horicon all passed the same resolution in the last month in a public attempt to show the Dodge County Board of Supervisors that it wants some form of collaboration in how county sales tax money is spent. Dodge County and 61 other counties in Wisconsin impose a sales tax on local retailers, which is on top of a 5 percent sales tax that the state collects. Over the course of the Dodge County sales tax programs 21 years, it has brought in more than $94 million. Last year the county collected $5.7 million and it has been steadily growing each year. Its this annual stream of revenue that, according to Dodge County Board Chair Russell Kottke, allows the residents and businesses of Dodge County to reap the benefits of lower property taxes and substantial capital projects such as the criminal justice facility and Clearview Nursing Home. Another example is county roads. If we didnt have sales tax we could bond for debt service and that would make the taxpayers pay more, Kottke said. In 2014, the county used $2.1 million for highway reconstruction. This includes reconstruction of Highway S ($300,000) and Highway C ($1.8 million). Good roads bring people to Dodge County, Kottke said. Since 2010, the county has budgeted $8.9 million for road-related projects. He added that good roads benefits Dodge County tourism. In the last five years the county has spent more than $200,000 on various county park enhancements such as Astico Park reconfiguration ($79,509) and rehabilitation efforts to Wild Goose Trail ($53,000). According to James Mielke, Dodge County administrator, if the sales tax didnt exist the county would have to bond for the money to fix failing roads and as a result taxes could rise. He added that many counties in Wisconsin do this to pay for road repairs and projects. Sales tax funds are not used for day-to-day operations, according to Kottke. According to a county board resolution adopted Sept. 30, 1993, funds withdrawn would be used for retiring debt related to building programs. In 1994 the sales tax program was put into action to offset the debt for renovations to the Administration Building and Law Enforcement Center ($15.54 million), which has been paid for. Soon after, construction of the justice facility was approved costing close to $36 million this debt is also paid off. Constructing Clearview cost the county more than $40 million. From 2009 to 2016, more than $17 million in sales tax money has been used to pay debt service for construction and renovations at Clearview. However, some are starting to wonder if the sales tax dollars are being used to their potential and if there is somewhere else Dodge County could funnel some of these millions of dollars. Beaver Dam Mayor Tom Kennedy is dubious about how Dodge Countys sales tax dollars are being used and hes not alone. Kennedy is the facilitator of an informal group comprised of mayors and city administrators called Dodge County City Leaders Consortium. Is the sales tax dollar in the best interest to the taxpayers to Dodge County and why cant we have a say in that? he said. That question has been discussed by the nine mayors and various city administrators in the consortium. The group formed in 2009 and is comprised of representatives from Beaver Dam, Juneau, Columbus, Mayville, Fox Lake, Watertown, Hartford, Waupun and Horicon. Kennedy said the meetings are not public, Because youll never get anything done, and it serves as a means for the mayors to discuss everyday issues in each others city. The consortium meets quarterly in Beaver Dam and he said the collaboration has been tremendous. We want to gain on everyone elses knowledge, he said. In the last month, a resolution created by Kennedy with the help of Beaver Dam city attorney Maryann Schacht and council president Jon Litscher was passed and approved by at least six of the nine municipalities with representation in the city leaders consortium. Kennedy said the meaning behind the resolution is simple; he wants the Dodge County staff, supervisors and members of the consortium to sit down and, over the course of a year, to discuss if some of the sales tax dollars can go to the communities instead of it all going toward county capital projects. All we are asking is for collaboration, Kennedy said. Dont turn your head and not listen to the community. Thats not right. Kennedy said that in order to enhance communities in Dodge County, he and the consortium want to encourage a younger audience to stay here and to have that conversation now. Kottke sees it differently. Every city wants the industry for themselves, he said. Dodge County is willing to work with the cities, but the county is aiding the communities in a number of ways with the sales tax funds, according to Kottke. Mielke said that retaining young talent is an ongoing issue. Its not a Dodge County phenomenon, he said. How much money it would take to address this growing concern is vague. According to Mielke, the sales tax program, in its current form, is designed to fund capital projects in the county and is not up for distribution to county communities. He said the county is very conservative when it comes to budgeting the sales tax money. Any money not used in the budgeted year is carried over to the next year to cover costs in the following year. Those funds vary from year-to-year. The county is living with the same restrictions that the municipalities are, he said, regarding revenue and expenditures. Mielke said the base budget for sales tax is increased by 1 percent each year. This year, the base budget is $4.3 million. He said the county has always worked within the budget constraints. The money carried over is money Kennedy would like the county to consider dividing up for communities in the area. We want it and were not going to stop with this resolution, Kennedy said. As of now, the county has not addressed the resolution from a portion of the communities in Dodge County. Kennedy believes other communities will approve the resolution and that members affiliated with the county will open up to discussing the sales tax. They have to respond and we havent gotten a good response, Kennedy said. We always have to go to them. If the county ignores the resolution, the sales tax program will continue to collect money for the foreseeable future for county capital projects. According to Kottke, the sales tax has no sunset date. Wilmer Bill G. Kamrath, 89, Tomahawk, passed away Feb. 4, 2016, at Friendly Village Nursing and Rehabilitation in Rhinelander. Bill was born Aug. 10, 1926, in a farmhouse near Juneau, to Arthur and Mathilda (Gentz) Kamrath. Bill attended school in Juneau and Beaver Dam, graduating from Beaver Dam High School in 1944. He served honorably in the U.S. Army with the 45th Infantry Division in Japan and Korea from 1950 to 1953. Bill was married to Donna Extrom on Dec. 29, 1956, in Tomahawk. Together they had two children. Bill owned and operated Valley Video & Electronics in Rhinelander for 30 years. He was a musician and played rhythm guitar with a local band in Beaver Dam in his earlier years. Bill was also a private pilot; he flew many trips to Tomahawk while courting Donna. In retirement he kept up to date with technology, surrounding himself with the latest electronic devices and gadgets. He even had a quadcopter drone at the nursing home that he took out occasionally for test flights. He loved being on the computer, even staying in touch with family and friends on Facebook. He enjoyed classical music and had recently become interested in German and Swiss folk music. Bill is survived by his son, Tom Kamrath, and daughter, Sandy (Brad) Bishop, Tomahawk; sister, Bernice Petrusha, and brother, Art Kamrath, Beaver Dam; six grandchildren, Tom TJ Kamrath, Erin Kamrath, Kaila Kamrath, Sean Kamrath, Cody Kamrath and Bryce Bishop; and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Donna; five brothers and three sisters. A funeral service with military honors will be held at noon on Monday, Feb. 8, at Krueger Family Funeral Home in Tomahawk. The Rev. Mark Ziemer will officiate. Visitation will take place from 10 a.m. to the time of the service at noon. Burial will take place at Calvary Cemetery in Tomahawk in the spring. Memorial contributions may be made to Friendly Village Nursing and Rehabilitation or Ministry Home Hospice. Krueger Family Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements. Leave online condolences at www.kruegerfamilyfuneral.com. WAUPUN | Back in 1940, when four county agents and various breeders began efforts to create what was then called East Central Breeders Association Cooperative, not much was known about artificial insemination. A few more than 5,800 cows were bred in the first year of East Centrals existence. Last year, in 2015, East Central/Select Sires recorded 348,000 A.I. services in its southern-Wisconsin territory. The four county agents at the first meeting were A.D. Carew, Green Lake County; George Massey, Fond du Lac County; Earl Stallard, Dodge County; and Earl Skalitsky, Washington County. Comments from Stallard, left behind in a notebook he maintained, read, In our preliminary meetings, there was some opposition from some of the registered herd owners in the area. They thought it would hurt the sale of young bulls from their herds, that it would increase the danger of spreading disease, that it might not be conducive to developing uniformly good type in the offspring, and some other uncertainties. It did not take long for everyone to realize these concerns were not founded on science, and the decisions made by this group were in the best interest of dairy producers in the counties they served, said Al Deming, current East Central general manager. The very first East Central board members were Erwin Fehling, Dodge County; Martin Knickel and George Landaal, Fond du Lac County; Arthur Lichtenwalner and Louis Opgenorth, Washington County. V.S. Kutchin. Carl Deaken and Victor Mayer are also mentioned as possible board members in early notes. Landaal was the first president and Kutchin was the first secretary. In the early days of A.I., inseminators had to be veterinarians, but soon after lay technicians were authorized. Home base for East Central was a rented barn near Waupun. The day of the first semen collection was quite an event. It took place in the barnyard of the bull stud with the use of a dummy cow. The news had gotten around downtown, and the barnyard fence was lined with quite a few doubting spectators. After the successful collection, some went away still doubting. In 1951 East Central built a new bull barn and office building in a different rural-Waupun location. Today, average production in Wisconsin is near 22,000 pounds per cow, noted Deming. There are several herds over 30,000 pounds, and production continues to climb each year due to advancements in genetics, nutrition, management, and cow comfort. In 1976, the general manager of East Central announced his resignation, causing leaders within the cooperative to explore options for the cooperatives future. At the time they needed new leadership and more avenues for finding additional bull power. A lot of the membership kept discussing 7H58 ELEVATION, the breed-leading bull available from Select Sires. President of the East Central board at the time, Clarence Boyke, Fond du Lac, made it clear ELEVATION was the biggest driver in East Centrals desire to join the Select Sires family. An invitation from Select Sires president Dick Chichester to East Centrals leadership to come to Ohio in early 1977 led to what eventually became East Centrals membership in Select Sires as a member cooperative. May 1, 1977, was the day East Central joined Select Sires. East Centrals bulls left for Ohio while the Waupun facilities were converted to homes for young bulls in waiting. In 1984 East Central Breeders Association Cooperative voted to change its name to East Central/Select Sires. During the late 1980s, all remaining bulls at East Central were moved to Ohio. In 1991, East Centrals 50th year, the board of directors named Alan Deming as the new general manager, and shortly after that a warehouse was created at the Waupun facilities to hold an inventory of various cow-management products. In 2000, when Select Sires and Sire Power joined forces to form the largest A.I. organization in the United States, East Central was able to hire five new Sire Power employees and grow annual unit sales by 50,000. Today, East Central/Select Sires covers the southern 28 counties in Wisconsin with headquarters on the same property we built facilities in 1951. Since we have the smallest geographic area compared to the other eight members of Select Sires, we can operate our cooperative in a way unique to other Select Sires federation members. The high-density cow population in our southern-Wisconsin area allows us to pursue innovations quickly and prove ground for new technologies and techniques that can benefit the rest of the Select Sires federation, Demming said. After almost 75 years of business, total unit sales in 2015 at East Central was 537,369 units, and its A.I. technician group had 347,802 services. Operating revenue was documented at $14.8 million. Construction is under way to add warehouse and office space to their existing facilities in Waupun. As in the past, the future of the A.I. industry will see plenty of change and growth, Deming said. New methods may change some practices we use now. The one thing that will remain constant is the need for professional people willing to work hard, and with a strong desire to do what is in the best interest of the dairy and beef producers in southern Wisconsin. East Central/Select Sires is blessed with these employees now, and they will be what grows this organization in the years ahead. Barbara F. Lamson, 76, Oshkosh Barbara F. Bobbie Lamson, 76, of Oshkosh, died Wednesday morning, Feb. 3, 2016, at Evergreen under the care of Affinity Hospice. She was born Oct. 13, 1939, in Franklin Park, Illinois, the daughter of Samuel and Josephine (Lucas) Durec. She grew up in New Lisbon where she met and married the late Donald W. Lamson. Bobbie was an office manager for Internal Medicine Associates of Oshkosh which later joined with Aurora Medical Center, where she worked prior to her retirement. In her younger years she was active in various community organizations. She enjoyed boating and was a past member of the Oshkosh Boat Club. During her later years her special joy was time spent with her grandchildren, Audrey and Hunter, dinners with the grannies, and shopping and movies with the girls. She was a generous woman who enjoyed life to the fullest. Survivors include son, Donald (Cynthia) Lamson of Oshkosh; grandchildren, Audrey and Hunter Lamson both of Oshkosh; siblings, Kathy (Richard) Haske of New Lisbon, Darlene (Tom) Lein of Appleton, Robert Durec of New Lisbon and Dennis (Betty) Durec of Tomah; aunt, Lorraine Krawicki; several close cousins; nieces and nephews; and her loving golden retriever, Bailey. Preceding Bobbie in death are her parents; and brother, Richard Durec. The family would like to thank the 1st floor medical staff at Mercy Medical Center, the staff at Evergreen Creekview North and Affinity Hospice for their care. A time of sharing memories and short service will be held at 3 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 13, in Seefeld Funeral Chapels, 1025 Oregon Street, Oshkosh. Family and friends may gather for visitation at the funeral chapel Saturday from noon until 3 p.m. Burial will take place at Brewster Cemetery in New Lisbon at a later date. Her family would appreciate memorials in her name to the Oshkosh Area Humane Society. Online condolences to the family may be given at www.seefeldfuneral.com. Ray Easley is an artist with an MFA from an elite university, a southerner whos lived in big cities most of his life and a painter who acknowledges that his work abstract exaggerations of the human form can be a bit abrasive to some. Hes also a member of a quilting club at Nancys Notions in Beaver Dam, a new resident of Fall River and the guy who teaches the Introduction to Drawing class to beginners at The Workshop in Columbus. All of which is to say Easley is not only comfortable in both the professional art world and small town Wisconsin life, but in a lot of ways, hes trying to build a bridge between the two. He is currently the artist in residence at The Workshop, where some of his paintings are on display and he maintains a small studio space. Hes also teaching a few classes and hanging around to meet people during open studio times. Im pretty happy, blessed, all of the above to have a chance to work with The Workshop because its something that every community, I think, needs, Easley said. And for a small rural Wisconsin town to have a public outreach, its pretty progressive. A native of Fayetteville, Ark., Easley studied painting as an undergrad at the University of Houston and moved north in 2012 when he was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which has one of the top-ranked art schools in the nation. I applied thinking there was no way I was going to get in, Easley said. But I thought Id learn what I did wrong and then use that information to apply the next go round. Much to his delight, he didnt have to worry about a next go round. He lived in Middleton while he was in school and moved to Columbus after he earned his Masters in Fine Art in 2014 and his wife got a job teaching in the Sun Prairie School District. They just recently moved to Fall River. Easley met Becky Weidner of The Workshop at the Arts and Ales Festival last year. Weidner soon signed him up to teach a painting class for her, and from there offered him the residency. Easley described his painting style as a high-fructose, kind of candy-colored hodgepodge of different application methods. My subject matter always pertains to the human form, but I do that somewhat abstractly, not completely to where you cant recognize the object, because I want the viewer to recognize just enough to where the rest of it is like theyre piecing it together, he said. He loves being able to show his work in Columbus, where people might not expect to see his style of paintings and where kids especially might see his art and be inspired to create something of their own. I think that as artists we have a responsibility to take our work and put it in the not-so-norm spaces, he said. Hes thrilled with the small studio space he has in The Workshops old stone basement, which is where hes been painting lately. Its nothing fancy, but its pretty awesome because I can get a little messy, Easley said. He has another studio at his home, where he draws, builds frames and works on quilt squares. I got a sewing machine for Christmas, so Ive been sewing like crazy, he said. Quilting is a whole new medium for Easley and something hes mostly been teaching himself. Hes not a traditional quilter by any means. He sees his quilts as a type of collage. Hes sewing the squares and then plans to ship them and a Photoshop diagram of how he wants the finished quilt to look off to his grandma in Arkansas and let her handle the assembly. Ive always been somebody that wants to learn new mediums, so my shows are kind of a Mod Podge of a bunch of different things, Easley said. Easleys paintings are currently part of a group show at the Madison Central Public Library called Luck of the Draw, curated by Trent Miller. He will have his first solo show at the Underground Gallery in Fayetteville, Arkansas, opening March 3, where he will have ceramics, paintings, drawings and quilts on display. Then he will have two more solo shows in Wisconsin: one on the second floor of the Madison Central Public Library opening March 7, which will be part of Madison Gallery Night, and another at the Marie Moore Gallery in Three Lakes in the summer. In between, hell be a guest lecturer for a graduate critique course at the University of Arkansas and spend time teaching classes at The Workshop and getting involved in the community. He plans to join Root for Columbus and hopes to bring an idea for an art project to the next action potluck, when the group meets to generate ideas. Im just trying to jump in and find out what the towns going for and help out as much as I can, he said. While hes only been here for a short time, Easley already feels at home. Hes met a lot of other artists, just being out and about at garage sales and bars and coffee shops. Its a really cool town, Easley said. To be involved with it in this way is pretty nice. Its gratifying. The sponsor of a bill to repeal Wisconsins Unfair Sales Act, which bars retailers from selling products for less than their cost, said lawmakers are not prepared to pass the measure in 2016. State Sen. Leah Vukmir, speaking to radio host Charlie Sykes on Friday, said shes a realist about the bills near-term prospects as lawmakers enter the closing weeks of the 2015-2016 session. Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, said shes shifting to educational mode to foster support for the bill in future sessions. There isnt enough support in the caucus to repeal the law, Vukmir said Friday. The act, also known as the minimum markup law, prevents Wisconsin wholesalers and retailers from selling products at less than cost. It also requires retailers to impose a minimum profit markup on certain products, such as fuel, tobacco and alcoholic beverages. Critics of the law, which include big-box retailer Wal-Mart, say its a Depression-era relic that unnecessarily hinders competition among retailers. The result of that, they say, is inflated prices for consumers. The push to repeal the law comes as mega-retailer Meijer Stores, which recently opened several Wisconsin stores, has faced complaints for allegedly violating the law. Supporters of the law, which include industry groups representing grocers, agricultural producers and liquor and fuel retailers, say repealing it could lead to a short-term price war among retailers. In the long term, many stores would close and consumers would see less competition, especially in rural areas, they say. The issue has exposed a fissure within Republicans controlling the Legislature, pitting southeast Wisconsin Republicans, many of whom favor repealing the law, against their out-state colleagues, some of whom are reluctant to do so. Vukmir acknowledged Friday that some lawmakers who havent embraced her bill have heard concerns from mom and pop retailers about the impact of repeal. Not every legislator is convinced that there will be savings, Vukmir said. I dont think that the case has been made, especially when were looking at legislators who are in rural areas who hear from their small-town stores and other operations. That, I think, is where the concern is coming from. Its time for reform. The federal government is correct to take a closer look at its coal leasing process to address climate change and ensure taxpayers are receiving all the benefits they should. Under the recently announced moratorium, the Interior Department will have three years to assess the impact of coal production from federal leases on climate, wildlife and water. The feds also plan to come up with an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions that result from energy production on federal land. The last review of this type was done in 1984, so it truly is time for a change. We hope the result is worth waiting for. A 2013 report from the federal inspector general said that leases sold at less than market value had shortchanged taxpayers $60 million since 2000. The American people deserve a rigorous process that will ensure them a fair return one that also considers the nations environmental and energy future. This is not easy news to hear, especially for families and households that depend on the industry, which employs about 23,000 people and brings $1 billion in tax revenue to Wyoming each year. Its no secret that the states coal producers already were struggling. Arch Coal recently became the states second miner in several months to declare bankruptcy; Alpha Natural Resources took that step last year. This is a risky time to be in the extraction business. But its important, as much as possible, to see the moratorium as an opportunity. What can we do better? What new techniques can we develop and nurture here in the Cowboy State? What other industries should we welcome to the state? We must remember that Alpha and Arch found themselves in dire straits before the moratorium was announced. No new lease applications have been filed here in years, which has muddied the question of how the state will pay for school construction. The Interior Departments decision didnt kill coal. Many tough factors have piled up, and this is just one of them. Fortunately, the three-year pause isnt likely to immediately affect current mining operations, as companies generally operate with two decades of leased reserves. Thats welcome news as Wyoming continues to soldier through this bust. Gov. Matt Mead, no friend of environmental regulations, also reinforced the states commitment to innovation in extraction. We already have some exciting projects in the works. At the Dry Fork Station near Gillette, teams of scientists hope to discover economic uses for the plants carbon emissions starting in 2017. At the University of Wyoming, researchers are looking for ways to create a coal refinery that can produce carbon fiber. What else can we do? If we take a step back and look at the wider economic picture, we find promise there, too. The state has welcomed high-tech and manufacturing companies and should continue to encourage other businesses to make Wyoming their home. Our economic future hinges on our ability to innovate and diversify. Now is the time to prove Wyoming can do both of those things on a world-class level. Wisconsins workforce is aging and, often, young people seem to be moving away. Employers are struggling to find qualified workers. Consider a news report about the large Georgia Pacific paper mill in Green Bay. Each year, about 100 workers, or about 5 percent of the workforce, retire. Unemployment rates in the northeast area around Green Bay are running a half percent below the national average, according to state employment officials. Job openings appear plentiful, but many of the vacancies call for different abilities than they did 20 years ago. More of the jobs require skills and training beyond high school, according to job experts. The Milwaukee metropolitan area often hears about the difficulty in recruiting and retaining highly skilled college graduates. The problem is often described as a brain drain. Regional income levels and community crime statistics have been cited as concerns of those being recruited from elsewhere for jobs in Milwaukee. The worker pinch has also been acute in smaller Wisconsin communities. Duane Ford, retired president of the Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, cited the issue in a speech. One of the biggest challenges for rural communities is the out-migration of our children, he said while questioning whether communities are doing enough to promote themselves. How often do we say or imply that the lights are brighter or the grass is greener somewhere else? he asked, noting that local employers often complain they cannot find enough talented applicants. We need to talk early and often to young people about the education, job, entrepreneurial and career opportunities in our hometowns. We need to realize that the local retention of young people is not and cannot be the sole responsibility of schools, colleges and universities. Parents, family members, employers and all community members need to be part of the solution, he said. We must stop or at least question explicit or implied judgments about the value of work or where the grass might be greener. Its OK to praise those who go on and get college educations, he suggested, but lets also give three cheers for those in blue-collar trades. Smaller rural school districts have struggled with the combination of declining enrollments and reduced state aid. That might convince young families there are better places to educate their families. Gov. Scott Walker has been urging families and high schools to have young people consider training for technical jobs that dont require full four-year liberal arts educations. A package of bills to help pay for technical and job-related training is expected to reach the governors desk this month. Wisconsin has lagged other states in earnings. Pay is higher in neighboring Minnesota and Illinois. Do these statistics play a role in young people taking jobs in other states? Wisconsin has balked at increasing its minimum wage something that tends eventually to boost salaries across the board. Wisconsin also has weakened the union movement by banning new contracts that require workers to join unions and pay dues. Employers championed the minimum-wage stand and union changes. Now, their problem is finding workers. Strike continues at Racine Case tractor factory with no clear end in sight 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 Rose McGowan and Davey Detail split due to irreconcilable differences. Less than 3 years after marrying Davey Detail, Rose McGowan is ready to call it quits. The 42-year-old TV and movie actress cited irreconcilable differences as the main reason for the divorce, according to paperwork the couple had filed on Monday. Furthermore, McGowan asked the judge to uphold any potential spousal support coming from her soon-to-be ex-husband. According to the documents, the separation date took place on May 1, 2015. This effectively means the two were together for roughly 1 year and a half prior to this news. I had the experience of being married and decided it wasnt for me, McGowan stated. Information from the documents also revealed that McGowan and Detail have seemingly divided their assets outside of court. The couple had married back in October 2013, accompanied by family and close friends. The marriage ceremony took place on the lawn of the Paramour Mansion in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Detail put a ring on her finger underneath a chuppah as McGowan wore a Monique Lhuillier gown with a pair of Neil Lane earrings. At the time, a source told E! News that the event was enchanting and magical, as the couple enjoyed their special night in front of about 60 people. This was the first time McGowan had tied the knot, having been engaged to Marilyn Manson over 15 years ago but never going through with a wedding. Several years later, the actress dated director Robert Rodriguez until the two called it quits in 2009. They had become close partly due to her work on films such as Grindhouse and Machete, although appearing only through deleted scenes on the latter. The romance film is expected to shoot in Paris as soon as its crew are given the green light. Fifty Shades Darker, the sequel to 2015s Fifty Shades of Grey, is set to shoot in Paris over the next several months. Starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, the film is expected to begin within the first half of the year, officials told the Hollywood Reporter. Executives are currently waiting as the city rebuilds following the terrorist attacks that took place this past November. This is one of several movies to be shot in Paris once the city is back to its former glory. Ile-de-France Film Commission deputy director, Stephane Martinet, stated that no films or other artistic projects were canceled due to the previous attacks. He believes this is also the film industrys way of supporting Paris and its popular offerings. It seems there is some sort of resilience among the film industry. Producers, in particular from the U.S., voiced their support to us after the attacks and reinforced their willingness to pursue their projects, stated Mr. Martinet. They want to send a message. Melanie Chebance, producers liason forFilm France, also backed up his words by confirming several major projects resumed shooting only a week after the devastating attacks. The first week after the terror attack, shooting froze, but one week later it started up again, she said. There is an increased security level for everyone, but film shoots are proceeding as usual For example, at the moment there are 10 crews on the streets of Paris. Various government offices and agencies have also invited companies to film within or around their buildings, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Fifty Shades Darker is slated for a 2017 release date. Normal standards of rain and snow today in the Southwest is actually one-quarter more arid. Data gathered from a study analyzing weather patterns over the last 35 years in the southwestern United States reveals that the region is becoming increasingly drier, according to a report published in USA Today. Normal standards of rain and snow today in the Southwest is actually one-quarter more arid than it was before the 1970s detailed in a federally sponsored study published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters. Essentially, the areas rain and snowfall accumulation will slowly diminish. Study lea, Andreas Prein of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said, This is something we expect from global warming, and added, We see that in observations. Its happening already, and that Droughts are occurring there more easily. However, Prein advises that new findings dont conclusively prove that climate change is the primary culprit because researchers havent yet focused their research on a connection but will conduct one subsequently. Evidence supports earlier climate models that have projected a belt of drier high-pressure air originating near the equator will migrate northward covering San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Researchers identified numerous weather cycles from 1979-2014 that are normal and looked for any inconsistencies. Three particular patterns that result in the wettest weather in the Southwest include low-pressure zones in the North Pacific off the coast of Washington, mostly during the winter season. Katharine Hayhoe, a non-participant climate scientist at Texas Tech, observed,This study is important as it connects the dots between long-term trends and changes in specific weather patterns that appear to be driving those trends. On Friday, the United Nations issued a public statement finding that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been subjected to arbitrary detention through the collusion of the British and Swedish governments. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) is an expert group, founded in 1991 with a mandate to investigate allegations of individuals being deprived of their liberty in an arbitrary way or inconsistently with international human rights standards, and to recommend remedies such as release from detention and compensation, when appropriate. Following the release of the UNs opinion, Assange made a statement to the media via a video feed from the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he has sought sanctuary for more than three and a half years. He said that in total he had now been detained for five and a half years: Today that detention without charge has been found to be unlawful. I consider the outcome a vindication. The issue was now a matter of settled law, he added. Releasing its findings, UNWGAD explained that they are legally-binding to the extent that they are based on binding international human rights law, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It added, The Opinions of the UNWGAD are also considered as authoritative by prominent international and regional judicial institutions, including the European Court of Human Rights. In a manner that has characterised their actions from the very beginning of their witch-hunt of Assange, the UK and Swedish governments refused to abide by international law and rejected the UNs verdict. The UK Foreign Office said, This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The opinion of the five-person UNWGAD panel consists of just five paragraphs, but is a devastating indictment of Assanges illegal detention, carried out by the UK and Sweden, in alliance with the United States government. Assange has been subjected to different forms of deprivation of liberty: initial detention in Wandsworth prison which was followed by house arrest and his confinement at the Ecuadorian Embassy, UNWGAD said. Having concluded that there was a continuous deprivation of liberty, the Working Group also found that the detention was arbitrary because he was held in isolation during the first stage of detention and because of the lack of diligence by the Swedish Prosecutor in its investigations, which resulted in the lengthy detention of Mr. Assange. Assange has been detained in violation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). UNWGAD states that it found Assanges detention is in violation of Articles 9 and 10 of the UDHR and Articles 7, 9(1), 9(3), 9(4), 10 and 14 of the ICCPR... The Working Group calls on Sweden and the UK to ensure Assanges safety and physical integrity and to facilitate the exercise of his right to freedom of movement in an expedient manner, and to ensure the full enjoyment of his rights guaranteed by the international norms on detention. The statement is based on the Working Groups Opinion on Julian Assanges case, adopted December 4, 2015. The 18-page document represents the findings on the application submitted to them in September 2014 by Assanges legal team. The UK and Swedish governments also presented their case to UNWGAD. The conclusions of the Working Group are a crushing rebuttal of every claim made by the UK and Swedish authorities that Assanges arrest and detention was in any way conducted according to international law. The December opinion states, Assange has not been guaranteed the international norms of due process and the guarantees to a fair trial during these three different moments: the detention in isolation in Wandsworth Prison, the 550 days under house arrest, and the continuation of the deprivation of liberty in the Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in London, United Kingdom. It notes, The Working Group is concerned that the only basis of the deprivation of liberty of Mr. Assange appears to be the European Arrest Warrant issued by the Swedish prosecution based on a criminal allegation. Until the date of the adoption of this Opinion, Mr. Assange has never been formally indicted in Sweden . [emphasis added] The opinion concludes: Assange has been denied the opportunity to provide a statement, which is a fundamental aspect of the audi alteram partem principle, the access to exculpatory evidence, and thus the opportunity to defend himself against the allegations; (2) the duration of such detention is ipso facto incompatible with the presumption of innocence. Fridays UNWGAD statement declares, In that [December] opinion, the Working Group recognized that Mr. Assange is entitled to his freedom of movement and to compensation. The UNWGAD reached its verdict by a 3-1 majority. It noted, Given that Mr. Assange is an Australian citizen, one of the members [Ms. Leigh Toomey] of the Working Group who shares his nationality recused herself from participating in the deliberations. This was in accordance with rule 5 of its Methods of Work, the UNWGAD said. The lone dissenting opinion was made by Vladimir Tochilovsky, a Ukrainian prosecutor. Tochilovsky claimed that Assange was not being detained, so the UNWGAD had no mandate to even hear his case. The Swedish government supported Tochilovskys spurious opinion. There is no doubt that the Working Groups verdict was made in the teeth of bitter opposition from the, US, UK and Swedish governments. The former UNWGAD panel chair, the Norwegian lawyer Professor Mads Andenas, told the Guardian Friday, Im absolutely convinced that [the panel] has been put under very strong political pressure. Andenas completed his term in office last summer and was involved in earlier stages of compiling the report on Assanges detention. Andenas supported the panels findings in favour of Assange, adding, This is a courageous decision which is important for the international rule of law. The hypocrisy of the imperialist powers, which have often used the findings of the UN panel on arbitrary detentions for their own predatory purposes, is staggering. Andenas correctly observed, If this finding had been made against any other country with a human rights record that one does not wish to compare oneself with, then these states [Sweden and UK] would have made it clear that the [offending] country should comply with the ruling of the working group. The bitter hostility of the UK and Swedish governments, in collaboration with the Obama administration, to the rule of international law is at one with their assault on the fundamental social and democratic rights of the working class, made necessary by their pursuit of savage austerity at home and imperialist war abroad. The UNWGAD report demolishes the pretence that the legal vendetta against Assange had anything to do with the pursuit of justice for his Swedish accusers. Swedens prosecutors could have easily, with Assanges full compliance, have interviewed him at any point since his December 2010 arrest in London. That they didnt was because they wanted to ensure that he was extradited to Sweden, in order to ship him to the US where he would pay, perhaps even with his life, for what they view as his real crimeWikiLeaks exposure of the heinous acts committed by the US and its allies in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and throughout the world. Workers and young people in the UK, US, Sweden and internationally must work for the defeat of the efforts to silence Assange and demand his immediate freedom. The author also recommends: Stop the persecution of Julian Assange! [5 February 2016] Thousands of people attended demonstrations across Australia on Thursday, opposing Wednesdays High Court ruling sanctioning the bipartisan government-Labor Party regime of indefinitely detaining refugees in virtual concentration camps on Nauru and Papua New Guineas Manus Island. The supreme courts decision clears the way for the removal back to Nauru of 267 people, including 72 children, who have been in Australia for medical treatment, and opens the door legally for Australian governments to make wider use of offshore detention. Around 5,000 people attended the demonstration in Melbourne, while some 400 rallied in Sydney. Protests were also held in Adelaide and Canberra, as well as regional centres including Newcastle and Bendigo. Further rallies are planned around the country in the coming days. The attendance at the events expresses the mass revulsion among ordinary people toward the brutal treatment of asylum seekers fleeing war and persecution, who are subjected to detention that doctors and other medical personnel have said amounts to torture. At the Sydney and Melbourne protests, former detainees delivered impassioned denunciations of the court ruling. However the political perspective advanced by the protest organisers, including various pseudo-left groups, was to appeal to the very forces responsible for the persecution of the refugeesthe Liberal-National government of prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Labor Party. The Sydney rally was chaired by Ian Rintoul, a Refugee Action Coalition spokesman and leading member of the pseudo-left Solidarity organisation. He said the task was to push Turnbull back on this issue, i.e., apply pressure to the conservative Coalition government to change its policy. Rintoul claimed there were voices in the Labor Party opposing offshore detention, adding: We need Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese. In reality, Plibersek and Albanese were senior ministers in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments that reintroduced offshore detention, reopening the Manus Island and Nauru camps in 2012. They were instrumental in imposing the brutal regime that the High Court approved, which was specifically designed to punish refugees for trying to reach Australia by boat. Labors current posturing, hypocritically proposing better treatment of detainees, is aimed at deflecting attention from its establishment of the traumatising conditions in the detention facilities, including the abuse of women and children, that have resulted in widespread public anger. In both Sydney and Melbourne, the Greens were provided with a platform to posture as defenders of refugees. Mehreen Faruqi, a Greens MP in the New South Wales Legislative Council, denounced offshore detention as cruel and inhumane. She noted that Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition came together last year, amending the Migration Act to seek to strip refugees of legal rights to challenge their treatment. Faruqi, however, did not mention the role of the Greens in propping up the minority Labor government from 2010 to 2013 as it carried out a host of anti-refugee policies, including the reopening of the Nauru and Manus hellholes. Nor did Alex Bhathal, the Greens candidate for federal seat of Batman, who spoke in Melbourne. The Greens, like Labor and the Coalitions, support the entire nationalist framework of border protection, visas and passports that underlies the measures to block young people and workers from seeking asylum. Their differences are purely tacticalreflected in the comments of a number of the speakers in Sydney that the brutality of offshore detention is bad for Australias image overseas. None of the speakers at either rally opposed Australias direct participation in 15 years of US-led wars in the Middle East, including the current bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq. Their silence on these military adventureswhich have created millions of refugeesunderscores their essential agreement with the predatory wars conducted by successive Australian governments. Above all, the aim of the main speakers was to prevent the oppression of refugees becoming a focal point for a broader movement of workers, students and young people in opposition to the entire political establishment, and to channel their disgust back into the parliamentary apparatus. In Sydney, Julie Macken, a former Greens Communications Coordinator and longtime journalist at the Australian Financial Review, said the way to end the persecution of asylum seekers was to vote for the Greens at this years federal election. Organisers also promoted futile stunts, with the same basic political perspective. In Melbourne, protesters were urged to stage a sit-in outside the Liberal Partys state headquarters. Reporters from the WSWS spoke to a number of participants in the Melbourne rally. Rocel, an aged-care worker, commented: This is like history repeating itself. The refugees now are like what happened with the Jewish people. Other countries pretended they would help the Jews escape from the Nazis, but the Jewish people were fooled. The other countries wouldnt help them. I am from the Philippines. They are trying to put American soldiers all over the place there. They are the reason why terrorism is happeningthey instigated it. They use the war on terror so people will hate each other. It creates oppression, poverty, war and refugees. Uzma, who came to Australia from Pakistan, said: This is not humanistic. The governments all around the world dont care about refugees. It is happening globally. All the powerful countries have a hand in creating the chaos in these countries where the refugees come from. They created it. The most unfortunate part is that there is not a single institution internationally on which you can rely for an honest opinion. Look at NATO forces in Pakistan, in Asia. They create chaos. They say it is the people and refugees who are dangerous. No, it is the governments and the profit-based policies that are dangerous. It is not just refugees. For the common person in Melbourne, Australia, it is surely not as easy to live as it was two years ago. The worlds most liveable city! It sounds funny to me. John, a public sector worker, said: My father was a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, because of the war. He had to go to Greece for two or three years, then to Italy, and finally to come to Australia as a refugee. Look at Europe today. Firstly, war is creating a whole lot of refugees. Europe is capitalising on war. We are the intelligent human race, we should be able to find a resolution for some of these societies. It is insane. For the last 10-15 years there have been a number of wars exploding all over the globe. According to a January 27 report by the Center on Budget Policy Priorities (CBPP), the 2016 appropriations legislation enacted by Congress in December includes funding increases for non-defense programs, but the increases for social programs that benefit low or moderate income households are substantially smaller than in other areas. Eleven subcommittees are in charge of allocating funding to non-defense programs. Two subcommittees handle the appropriations: (1) the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education; and (2) the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These two subcommittees handle more than 80 percent of the appropriations for programs that benefit low-income groups, but saw a mere 3.6 percent growth in funding, less than seven of the other subcommittees. By contrast, the nine other subcommittees saw increases averaging 6.9 percent. As a result, social programs benefiting low-income households continue to lack adequate funding in the midst of growing economic inequality, high rates of unemployment and stagnant or declining wages. For example, due to cuts to HUD funding, only about 25 percent of eligible families receive low-income rental assistance. As a result of the sequestration budgetary measures implemented in 2011, state and local housing agencies cut the number of families receiving housing vouchers by about 100,000. While roughly a third of these were restored between 2014 and 2015, the final appropriations package only managed to restore a further 8,000 vouchers (earmarked for homeless veterans). And while the president requested $295 million to fund 25,000 new housing units for people with disabilities, the final bill only included $38 million aimed at reducing youth homelessness. The low levels of funding appropriated to the Departments of Labor, Education and HHS means that funding for education for disadvantaged students was increased by only 3.1 percent (leaving the program at 10 percent below its funding level in 2010), while grants for job training grew by a mere 3.3 percent (18 percent below the 2010 figure). Dramatic budget cuts were imposed by the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011, which has governed appropriations for the past five years and placed caps on funding through 2021. It also imposed a sequestration mechanism that substantially lowered caps in the event that legislators failed to agree on deficit-reduction measures. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, enacted by Congress in December, raised the appropriation caps set by the BCA for 2016 and 2017. The 2015 Act also increased appropriations for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), which is used to pay for the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and is funded outside of the BCA caps. The structure and priorities of the latest budget reflect the irrationality of the capitalist system. While social infrastructure crumbles in the USseen most vividly in the widespread lead toxicity in the drinking water of Flint and other American citiesand vast sections of the population face poverty, homelessness and unemployment, the ruling class spends astounding sums on weapons and other means of destruction to support its endless wars abroad, maintain the unchallenged superiority of its armed forces, and conduct military provocations that threaten the outbreak of nuclear war. As Detroit teachers are joined by those in Chicago in the fight against layoffs, cuts in benefits, intolerable working conditions and the attack on public education, Democratic and Republican politicians, along with union officials, are going into high gear to try to block independent action by angry educators. While this weeks announcement that Detroit Public Schools (DPS) emergency manager Darnell Earley has submitted his resignation, effective February 29, was welcomed by teachers, a sober assessment of the political challenges ahead is necessary. Republican Governor Rick Snyder, facing the twin crises of lead poisoning in Flint and protests of teachers in Detroit, evidently opted to throw Earley overboard. This is an attempt to mollify growing public outrage directed at his increasingly discredited administration. In no way, however, did it signal a retreat in his efforts to ram through a bipartisan reorganization of Detroit schools that opens wide the floodgates for charters and education privatizers. To that end, a whole series of reactionary political initiatives have been taken this week aimed at diverting, convincing, or coercing teachers who are fighting to defend public education and their own livelihoods. Snyders first order of business was to line up two well-known political operatives as candidates for interim head of DPS. Both are Democrats with substantial track records in the service of big business politics, but who are considered more palatable to the unions and Democratic Party establishment. They are Charlie Beckhamwho went to jail for his 1984 conviction in bribe-taking as the citys water and sewerage department director, and has worked for just about every Detroit mayor since Coleman Youngand Tonya Allen, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, a major corporate player involved in the education privatization business. As co-chair of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, Allens general agreement with the plans to dissolve the district along the lines recommended by the governor and his bipartisan collaborators is well known. At the same time, the Michigan legislature is moving quickly against teachers. A series of measures have been put forward alongside the Earley resignation to criminalize teacher protests and suppress the independent initiative of rank-and-file educators. On Wednesday, February 3, a vicious package of anti-strike legislation passed the Michigan Education Committee. The bills had been amended into an even more draconian version than originally proposed. These nationally-unprecedented measures would subject teachers involved in strike activity to fines of $5,000 a day and possible loss of pay, along with a possible two-year suspension of state teaching certification. They define strike action as at least one school employee found to be engaging in the activity. School districts that fail to enforce sanctions would be fined 5 percent of their total state school aid. Finally, in efforts to make absolutely sure the unions police the membership, the bill calls for the dissolution of a schools bargaining unit and the unions ineligibility to represent teachers for five years whether or not it agreed to the strike. Michigan law already prohibits teacher strikes. On Thursday, hearings began in the state legislatures Senate Committee on Government Operations on Governor Snyders restructuring plan, which would dissolve the DPS as an educational entity and set up a new Detroit Community Schools (DCS). The complete reconstitution of the district has long been the goal of privatizers. While the exact scope and nature of the DCS will still be negotiated over the next few weeks, disputes between Michigan state Democrats and Republicans over the timing of school board elections and local control have nothing to do with improving schools and restoring democracy. On the contrary, they are essentially a question of which party will control which positions of power and how the profits from the dismantling of public education will be divvied up. Meanwhile, no matter who makes up the immediate school administration, a state-selected Financial Review Commission (FRC) will have dictatorial powers over spending, including all new contracts and collective bargaining agreements approved by the school board. The mission of the FRC will be to impose further cost-cutting measures to satisfy bondholders and usher in additional for-profit education companies and charters. As the bills presently stand, the responsibility for $1.5 billion of unfunded pension liabilities lies with the new district, which inevitably means that massive cuts and attacks on teachers pensions will follow. Additionally, the FRC is to have jurisdiction until the Detroit schools have at least three consecutive years of deficit-free budgets and the ability to borrow independently in the municipal securities marketan impossible condition given diminishing state funding for education, the unfunded pension liabilities and countless other objective factors like antiquated buildings and infrastructure. However, as educators and students face this frontal assault on the right to public education and basic rights, they face another enemy no less consciously opposed to their interests. At the very center of the conspiracy by the politicians to convince and divert teachers away from struggle is the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) and its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). After teachers conducted their independent campaign of sickoutsindependent of the DFTin January, interim president Ivy Bailey suddenly claimed that the situation in the Detroit Public Schools is far worse than we ever imagined. Bailey is a longtime union official and crony of former DFT president Keith Johnson, who worked for years to impose massive concessions upon the membership. She shares responsibility for overseeing the deterioration of learning conditions. Unable to stop the escalating protests on her own, Bailey called in AFT operative Ann Mitchell to oversee the local, and AFT President Randi Weingarten to address the membership and work behind the scenes with the Obama administration to undermine the protests. As a result of more sophisticated advice, the DFT has now launched a lawsuit over school conditions, brought in their own building inspectors and organized a series of public relations stunts. These events are attempts at winning back teacher loyalty with a pretense of concern. Last weekend, the union organized a Labor to Neighbor series of walks near schools, which will be further embellished next week into a Tuesday Day of Action including a walk-in (teachers and parents are to walk to their schools next Tuesday and garner support for teachers), topped off with an Interfaith Candlelight Vigil and Unity Rally. None of these impotent actions cannor are they designed tostop the very advanced plans in the state of Michigan to criminalize teachers protests and utilize the DPS debt to impose a reorganization of the district favorable to the charters and privatizers at the expense of teachers and students. Far from representing teachers, the DFT/AFT has worked every step of the way with the Democratslike Earley, former emergency managers (all Democrats), Arne Duncan and the Obama administrationin imposing pro-corporate education reform, only seeking to ensure that they have a seat at the table and a portion of the spoils. The unions have sought at all costs to keep teachers politically shackled to the Democratic Party, which under Obama has overseen the destruction of more than 300,000 teaching jobs, has cut federal aid to education under Title I and has used the full power of the Education Department to promote charter schools and private education businesses. As it did during the Detroit bankruptcy, the role of the Democratic Party, no less than the Republicans, is to enforce the dictates of the hedge fund managers and bondholders. To defend public education, it is necessary for teachers to continue their independent initiatives, break from the unions and the two big business political parties, form rank-and-file committees in every school and link the struggle to defend education with the struggles of workers throughout the country. The following is being circulated at hospitals prior to the February 10 strike. The problem with the NHS is not one of resources. Rather, it is that the system remains a centrally run, state monopoly, from Direct Democracy (2005), co-authored by Jeremy Hunt, health secretary. Junior doctors working for the National Health Service (NHS) throughout England will participate in the second one-day strike on February 10, starting at 8 a.m. The strike is against the new contract the government aims to introduce, which is regressive from the standpoint of the pay and shift patterns of junior doctors and detrimental to patient care. The British Medical Association (BMA) has reluctantly proceeded with the strike but has scaled the action down from a complete withdrawal of labour to another one-day strike with emergency care provided. This follows the earlier decision by the BMA to call off the two-day stoppage in late January in favour of continued talks with the government via the arbitration service, ACAS. From the outset, the talks have been a fraud. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has repeatedly threatened to impose the contract unilaterally, and the Conservative government has demanded that the working week be reclassified to remove unsocial payments for evening and Saturday work. The BMA has only lent credibility to proceedings in the hope that the government will rein back some of its demands so it can overcome opposition from its members. The BMA called off the two-day strike citing its intention to build on earlier progress made in the talks, and portrayed the introduction of Sir David Dalton, the governments chief negotiator, as an honest broker. Dalton is chief executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and is hailed for having implemented a seven-day service. Johann Malawana, BMA junior doctors committee chair, stated in reference to Dalton, His understanding of the realities of a health service buckling under mounting pressures and commitment to reaching a fair agreement has resulted in good progress on a number of issues. It is, therefore, particularly frustrating that the government is still digging in its heels. The only reality to be understood about Dalton himself is that he has come down firmly on the side of the government. He has issued an ultimatum to the BMA that talks cannot restart unless they accept as a precondition sweeping changes to evening and Saturday working to radically reduce payment of unsocial hours. He has effectively set a deadline of mid-February. The BMA has tried to deny what is self-evident to junior doctors: that the contract is a fundamental attack on the NHS and must be decisively defeated. This was the reason for the huge mandate for strike action by 98 percent on a 76 percent turnout. Junior doctors account for one in three of all medical staff, and without them the NHS would be unable to function. The government also announced last November that it will abolish NHS bursaries for training nurses, midwives and NHS Allied Health Professionals by 2017. A survey conducted by Unison of 2,000 nurses showed that 91 percent would not have applied for a nursing degree without the bursary. The changes will mean nurses will be in debt of at least 51,600. Through these combined actions, the pillars of the NHS are being undermined. Malawanas references to a fair and affordable recognition of unsocial hours with the government amounts to an acceptance of the continued budget restraints and its commitment to shift the burden onto junior doctors. The BMA referred to progress on other issues but has remained tight lipped on the details. This includes the removal of incremental pay increases based on years of service to one measured by responsibilitiesa euphemism for productivityand the removal of present safeguards against working excessive hours. The junior doctors strike commands overwhelming public support. However, this finds no organised form or political articulation. The government is relying on the isolation of the strike by the trade unions and the Labour Party to defeat the junior doctors. Unison has a membership of half a million in the NHS. The junior doctors walkout next Wednesday takes place during Unisons official week of action over the elimination of NHS bursaries, but this has been limited to a PR campaign and lobbying of MPs. Unison has not mobilised any support for junior doctors and is attempting to limit any spontaneous acts of solidarity, urging students to liaise with local student unions to plan and ensure effective and safe participation. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), with a membership of 435,000, advises that it is aware of members anger over proposed cuts to student funding in England and that some are considering walking out over the issue alongside junior doctors next month. While the RCN wants to support members in meaningfully campaigning against plans to scrap the bursary, it believes there are other effective ways of influencing decision making. The instinctive response of the unions to the first signs of renewed militancy reflected in the junior doctors strike is one of barely concealed antipathy. It testifies to their role in suppressing all opposition to endless rounds of pay restraint, job losses and the privatisation of the NHS through the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Aside from rhetoric, there is no constituency within the unions or the Labour Party for the defence of universal health care as a social right. The election of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party was a mandate to oppose the growth of social inequality, austerity and war. However, just as Corbyn has refused to conduct any fight against the right wing of the Labour Party for its support for the bombing of Syria, his statements on the junior doctors have not gone beyond expressing sympathy in a personal capacity for their cause, while Labour has officially refused even to endorse the strike action. Corbyns essential message was for the government to get back around the negotiating table. In other words, the fate of the NHS must be left in the hands of a government committed to its dismantling and the manoeuvres of the union officials to name their price. This is why the Royal College of Nursing, which has not lifted a finger to defend its members, can happily promote Corbyn. Rather than sermons from Corbyn et al about reconciliation, the working class needs a perspective and a leadership independent of the trade unions to assert its interests against the entrenched interests of the financial and corporate elite and their monopoly over politics. Such a socialist strategy is fought for by the Socialist Equality Party and NHS Fightback. A just-released series of emails sent to a staff member of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder in early March demonstrate that his administration knew about the relation of Flint River water to the spread of the deadly Legionnaires bacteria at least 10 months before the governor publically announced it. The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Progress Michigan, a liberal nonprofit, and made public on Thursday. When an official from the Genesee County Health Department (GCHD), Jim Henry, warned in a March 10, 2015 email that the dramatic increase in the occurrence of cases of Legionnaires disease, the deadly waterborne sickness, closely corresponds with the timeframe of the switch to Flint River water, Brad Wurfel, now-resigned Communications Director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), responded by describing Henry to a governors office staffer as beyond irresponsible. Wurfels March 13 email was marked high importance and addressed to Harvey Hollins, at the Governors staff office and copied to now-resigned MDEQ Director Dan Wyant. Hollins, a close advisor to Snyder, was appointed in August 2011 to head the Michigan Office of Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives. In December he was appointed to lead the governors task force on the Flint water crisis. At the time, Snyder said of Hollins, Harvey is well-versed in the issues and the challenges faced by our cities and will be effective in this role. In relation to Snyders claims of ignorance of the matter, Progress Michigan asked the question, Are we to believe that a top staffer with years of experience would not inform Governor Snyder of a possibly deadly situation? If Snyder indeed was aware of the information in the March 13 email, and it seems likely he was, he hid this information from the public while the cases of Legionnaires disease grew from 40 to 87, with ten deaths resulting by the time he finally made the announcement on January 13. In any case, the email exchange sheds new light on the depth of the criminal indifference by state quality officials to the dangers posed by Flint River water. Henrys email from March 10 referred to previous GCHD verbal and written requests for specific information since October, 2014, including a Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] request on January 27, 2015. Henry goes on to note, The information still has not been received and the citys lack of cooperation continues to prevent my office from performing our responsibilities. It is highly unusual that Henry would resort to the FOIA to obtain information from an agency that is supposedly collaborating in the interest of protecting public health. Dr. Marc Edwards notes on his website that The fact that GCHD felt obligated to use FOIA to get information, normally shared freely between health agencies, speaks to a new level of dysfunction beyond anything previously exposed. In that same March 10 email, Henry warns, I want to make sure in writing, that there are no misunderstandings regarding this significant and urgent public health issue. The Trihalomethanes issues pale in comparison to the public health risks of Legionella. (From January to May Flint was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act due to the high levels of trihalomethanes, a product of overtreatment against waterborne bacteria with chlorines.) An MDEQ response signed by Stephen Busch on March 12 did not express the concern one would expect from water quality officials over questions of public health. Instead it obfuscated in the face of urgent health dangers, then followed up with vile accusations against Henry. After claiming that the MDEQ had no knowledge of Henrys January 27 FOIA request and saying it would be the citys job to address such ambiguities, Busch went on to say that the DEQ fully recognizes the public health threat posed to individuals that contract Legionnaires Disease with the understanding that the disease is not caused by ingestion of potable water and therefore not regulated under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. In the middle of an outbreak of a deadly disease the agency responsible to protect the public says NOT OUR PROBLEM. (!) Busch goes on, Further, conclusions that legionella is coming from the public water system without the presentation of any substantiating evidence from your epidemiologic investigation appears premature and prejudice (sic) toward that end. The GCHD request for information was to facilitate epidemiological research into the cases that had emerged. But, the official word from the MDEQ was such research requests should be directed to the Michigan Department of Community Health. At no point did the MDEQ inform Henry and the GCHD that, since the switch to Flint River water, no corrosion control was ever put in placea factor that would have directly contributed to the growth of the legionella bacteria. After being sent a copy of this damning email, Wurfel wrote to Hollins, copying Wyant: Essentially, Jim Henry with Genesee County Health is putting up the flare. Hes made the leap formally in his email that the uptick in cases is directly attributable to the river as a drinking water source this is beyond irresponsible [emphasis added], given that is his department that has failed to do the necessary traceback work to provide any conclusive evidence of where the outbreak is sourced These emails have added fuel to the political firestorm around the crimes carried out in Flint. The chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, Brandon Dillon, called for Snyders resignation on Thursday. The Democrats have been demanding that Snyder remove the exemption of the governors office to FOIA requests, which protect against the release of pertinent emails. Snyder had previous released only a selection of redacted emails. Both the state MDEQ head and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head for Region 5 have been forced to resign because of their roles in the Flint tragedy. The recent performance of their replacementsKeith Creagh of the MDEQ and Joel Beauvais of the EPAshow them to be bureaucratic flunkeys who will continue in the style of their predecessors. The Iowa Democratic Party has rejected calls by the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and the states leading newspaper, the Des Moines Register, for an audit of the vote in Monday nights dead-heat contest between Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton, in a highly unusual move, went on television late Monday night to effectively declare victory over Sanders, despite the fact that vote counters had her ahead by a razor-thin margin of only 0.2 percent, with a number of key precincts still unaccounted for. Preempting the victory speech of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, she thanked Iowans for allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief, a reference to her loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 Iowa caucuses and the collapse of her lead over Sanders in the state, which just months before had been polled at more than 50 percent. At 2:30 AM Tuesday, the chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, Dr. Andy McGuire, declared Clinton the winner based on results from 1,682 of 1,683 precincts. The Iowa Democratic Party said the final tally of delegate equivalents for all the precincts statewide was 700.59 for Clinton and 696.82 for Sandersa margin of just 3.77 delegate equivalents. At 2:35 AM, Clintons Iowa campaign director, Matt Paul, issued a statement saying, Hillary Clinton has won the Iowa caucus. Campaigning the following day in New Hampshire, the scene of the first primary election, to be held February 9, Clinton made much of her victory in Iowa. With Sanders poised to score a decisive victory in New Hampshire, the Clinton campaign had feared a possible meltdown in the event of a loss in Iowa. Under the Democratic caucus process, a head count is taken at each precinct of the supporters assembled there for each presidential candidate, which is then translated into delegates to a county convention, which, in turn, selects delegates to a statewide convention. That convention then selects national delegates for the competing candidates to the Democratic National Convention, to be held in July of this year in Philadelphia. Amid complaints of disorganization at many of the caucus sites, including long lines, delays of up to two hours, and a lack of trained staff and designated chairpersons, the Sanders campaign initially asked to sit down with state party officials to review the paperwork submitted by precinct chairs. Sanders aides told the Des Moines Register that they had found discrepancies between tallies at the precinct level and numbers that were reported to the state party. McGuire, whose state organization, like the national party apparatus, is solidly behind Clinton, rejected the request, telling the Register in an interview Tuesday, These are the final results. Democrats have never released actual head counts in Iowa caucuses, and McGuire flatly said they would not be released this time either. On Thursday, the Register published an editorial headlined, Something smells in the Democratic Party, denouncing state party officials for refusing to agree to an audit or release details of the voting. What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period, the Register wrote. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy. The newspaper argued that the results, with two tenths of 1 percent [separating] Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, were too close not to do a complete audit of results. It continued: Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems. The editorial alluded to the fact that ties for six county delegates were decided, in accordance with party caucus rules, by coin flips. Clinton won all six. State party Chairwoman McGuire issued a reply to the Register editorial, which the newspaper posted on its web site Thursday night. Headlined Caucuses show partys strength, the statement dismissed calls for an audit or release of raw vote totals as the result of confusion and a lack of understanding of the [caucus] process, both of which were represented in the Des Moines Register s editorial. The Sanders campaign appears to be downplaying the controversy. On Thursday, campaign spokesman Mike Briggs said, Were not contemplating a lawsuit. In the Thursday night televised debate with Clinton, Sanders indicated he did not intend to press the matter. For Josef Joffe, the editor of the weekly liberal magazine Die Zeit , the multi-billion-euro rearmament plans of the German government do not go far enough. In his weekly column zeitgeist, Joffe complains, on behalf of a substantial lobby of war-mongering scribblers in the editorial offices of the bourgeois press, that the rearmament of the German army is not taking place more quickly. Under the headline Warriors in the Lists, Joffe writes with barely concealed cynicism, The stepchild of the nation is now to be jazzed up again, but only from featherweight to lightweight. The shopping list of the defence minister is cryptic, a work of art for vagueness, and is composed of elastic numbers right and left. The additional 130 billion in spending planned by the German government over the next 15 years provokes merely a tired yawn from Joffe. 80 billion had already been planned, and in addition, Prior to reunification, the state spent 3 percent of GDP on defence and weaponry. Today it is less than 1.2 percent. Further, regarding what for? the answer from the minister was scanty. A strategy was missing and an answer to where, how and why. Instead of a lightweight, Joffe wants a heavyweight military. Gripped by war fever, he rattles off his wish list: 225 Leopard 2 [tanks] are to become 320. Prior to reunification, it was 5,000 fighting tanks. Also absent were combat helicopters to transport soldiers to the battlefield and provide them support. A correct increase had only been ensured with armoured vehicles. But Joffe asked, How will they get to the front beyond the German border, when the air and sea transport is missing? What will give them firepower, when the bomber fleet has been halved since the Cold War and is suffering under a lack of flying activity? And where are the soldiers who will put this war machinery into action and die on the battlefield? Taken together, West and East Germany had 600,000 men in uniform. Today it is not even 180,000, Joffe complained. How is an interventionist army to grow from this base? Joffe is disturbed most of all by the mass opposition to rearmament and war. Germany is a nation where pacifism, in common parlance: without me is the core belief. Then he let rip, Six out of ten Germans reject more foreign interventions. Air attacks on IS are supported by just a third, ground deployments by only one fifth. The (almost without risk) reconnaissance missions and refuelling of others are ok. He goes on, What is the use of the best-equipped army, which cannot be achieved by an extra 5 billion per year, if the people in the democratic state, flanked by the commentariat, do not want to deploy it? Joffe urges the German government to impose the war drive on the population as quickly as possible. The government does not have the 15 years in the defence ministers timetable to conduct the bone-crunching task of convincing, he stated, and added threateningly, The peaceful years (approximately 1990 to 2010) are over, the threat is growing far more rapidly than the arms budget. [] if the peoples minds cannot be changed, the finest arsenal will be worth nothing. Joffe comes from a Jewish background and he is no supporter of the Nazi dictatorship. But comments like his recall the crazed militarism of the German ruling elite during the Third Reich. In his first statements as German Chancellor, Hitler called for the German people to be made fighting ready again. In 1933, Hitler set up a Reich defence committee, whose task it was to bring the mobilisation of the people and state into line with the mobilisation of the army. Joffes commentary must be taken seriously by working people and youth and understood as a warning. With his numerous connections to the highest levels of politics and his membership in Transatlantic think tanks, he speaks on behalf of a ruling class, which, despite horrific crimes in two world wars, has once again lost its senses and is preparing to defend the interests of German imperialism and the capitalist elite by all means necessary. Asia India: Strike by Delhi municipal workers in second week Thousands of municipal corporation employees in Delhi have been on strike since January 27 demanding immediate payment of three months of outstanding wages. Other demands include salary increases, permanency for contract-based employees and unification of the three corporations in the city. New Delhi, East Delhi and South Delhi municipal corporations have 150,000 employees including teachers, para-medical staff, administrative staff, engineers and sanitation workers. Sanitation workers walked out three times last year, including a 12-day strike in June, over the same issues. All municipal services, including medical facilities and schools, are affected. A union official from the Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh threatened that the strike would intensify in the coming days if the government and municipal authorities fail to meet workers demands. Tamil Nadu government school teachers arrested during protests[\subhead] On February 1, over 1,000 state government school teachers were arrested when they tried to demonstrate on roads in Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli with a 15-point charter of demands. The protest was coordinated by the Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisation. Teachers main demands are for equal salaries with teachers at central government institutions and the scrapping of the existing contributory pension scheme and reinstatement of the old pension scheme as promised by the State government in 2011. Tamil Nadu power loom owners shut down production Owners of over 5,000 power looms in the textile town of Komarapalayam in Namakkal district shut down their looms for an indefinite period on Monday to protest against the textile companies decision to cut wages. The companies pay 45 rupees as wages to the power loom owners for manufacturing four towels. Without prior announcement, the textile companies reduced the payment to 35 rupees. Over 35,000 workers are directly involved in the production activities and will be hit by the sudden wage cut. Loom owners demanded that the companies restore the wage to 45 rupees. Our indefinite strike will continue until our demands are met, they said. Tamil Nadu Revenue Department workers strike More than 10,000 officers and staff in Revenue Department offices across Tamil Nadu walked out for two days on Tuesday with a charter of demands that included a wage increase, payment of allowances, the filling of 6,000 vacant positions and permanency for several hundred temporary workers in the election section. The Tamil Nadu Revenue Officials Association said they want the chief minister to intervene and facilitate talks between the association representatives and the finance secretary. Pakistan: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa teachers threaten to close schools Employees of 40 state-run Working Folks Grammar Schools (WFGS) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have threatened to stop students from taking examinations and closing down the schools if they are not given two months unpaid salaries. Around 40,000 children attend the schools. As well as payment of salaries, teachers are demanding that adequate funds be released to ensure proper functioning of the schools. They complained that transporters are not being paid and had threatened to stop providing services to the schools. A representative from the Mehnat Kash Union said teachers would first hold meetings with government officials before taking action. Pakistan power utility workers protest against privatisation Workers at Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and its power distribution companies walked out in a nationwide protest against the planned privatisation of state-owned power utilities. Demonstrations were held in 16 cities. Their action followed a nationwide stoppage on January 19 over the issue. The government agreed to implement the demands of the International Monetary Fund and plans to privatise power distribution facilities along with other state enterprises, including aviation and airports, health and education. An anti-privatisation demonstration in Karachi by Pakistan International Airline workers on Tuesday was viciously attacked by police using firearms (see: Two workers killed as government seeks to crush Pakistan airline strike). Lahore teachers oppose privatisation and demand pay rise Government school teachers in Punjab province districts demonstrated in Lahore on January 28 to oppose the placing of schools under non-governmental organisations. A representative from the Punjab Teachers Union accused the government of planning to hand over up to 6,000 government schools to private management. The teachers also demanded pay-scale upgrade. Cambodian garment workers attacked by hired goons and security guards Eight garment factory workers were seriously injured on Monday at a special economic zone (SEZ) in Kandal province, 20km south of Phnom Penh, after being attacked by ten SEZ security guards supported by 30 hired goons wielding steel pipes and meat cleavers. One worker was hospitalised with a knife wound to the neck. The attack occurred as 600 employees of the Star Light Apparel Manufacturing factory inside the 7NG SEZ were attempting to board trucks to Phnom Penh for a protest against the firing of a union representative. Workers have been in dispute with the factory since early January when management refused to renew the contract of their delegate from the Cambodian Labor Solidarity Union. Seven more workers were sacked after the factory accused them of inciting workers to strike in retaliation. Cambodian tour bus drivers end protest Some 45 sacked drivers of the Capitol Tours bus company ended their 30-day demonstration outside the companys office in Phnom Penh after city hall officials intervened demanding that the company begin talks with the workers. The dispute was triggered when five drivers were fired in July after workers attempted to form a union. Drivers walked out on strike after the company ignored a court ruling ordering their reinstatement. In November, more drivers were sacked over continued attempts to establish a union. City hall officials issued a non-binding request that protests be called off, that the company consider rehiring the drivers and that if the drivers were to be rehired, unions be able to fight for their working conditions. A company official said that management would not rehire the drivers. Vietnamese garment workers strike for bonus Close to 900 employees at a South Korean-owned garment factory in Quang Nam Province walked off the job on Monday after the company announced plans to withhold 70 percent of their Lunar New Year bonus until after the holiday. The bonus was equivalent to one-months salary up to $US121. The company said it would only pay them 30 percent of the bonus before the holiday on February 8 and slowly distribute the rest between now and April. Workers complained that they needed the entire bonus to pay for their holiday travel. Many are from rural areas and they travel there to spend the holiday with their families. Chinese hospital nurses strike over low pay Nurses in at least eight hospitals across China have gone on strike in the last six months over low pay and benefits, and demands for equal pay for equal work. On January 19 several dozen nurses in Chongping, Hubei province in central China walked off the job demanding pay increases. Their action followed a strike of more than 100 nurses in Huaibei, Anhui province on January 8, demanding a pay increase and equal employment status. A key issue for nurses in nearly all of Chinas public hospitals is the very wide gap in pay and conditions between formal staff and contract workers. Health care workers claim that hospital managers resort to no end of dirty tricks to prevent nurses and other healthcare workers from gaining formal employment status, something which should entitle them to the same benefits as civil servants. According to CN Healthcare.com , low pay and unfair work practices mean that administrators can often rely on nursing staff quitting before they can obtain formal employment status, and then replacing them with young, inexperienced staff on short-term contracts. Australia and the Pacific Aluminium seafarers in New South Wales occupy ship Sixteen crew members on board the bulk carrier ship CSL Melbourne moored in Newcastle port are on strike and refusing to disembark after being ordered to sail the ship to Singapore where it will be replaced by a foreign-flagged vessel with an alternative crew. The entire crew will be sacked. The Fair Work Commission on Wednesday ruled the industrial action illegal and ordered the crew members to leave the ship. The case will go to the Federal Court if they do not comply. CSL Melbourne was engaged to carry alumina from Gladstone in Queensland to the Tomago Smelter in Newcastle, which is operated by Pacific Aluminium, a wholly owned subsidiary of global multi-billion dollar miner, Rio Tinto. It is the sixth Australian-crewed ship to be decommissioned with the axing of over 100 jobs in the past 20 months. Australias domestic merchant fleet numbering more than 130 ships a few decades ago has been reduced to only 13 vessels. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has opposed unified national industrial action to defend these jobs. Although workers have taken illegal industrial action by occupying the ships and refusing to sail, the MUA has consistently isolated the protesting workers and deflected seafarers concerns into nationalist appeals to the government and encouraged animosity against foreigner seafarers. In a recent stand-off at Portland in Victorias south-west, the sacked crew on Alcoas aluminium cargo ship MV Portland occupied the vessel for two months and refused to sail it to Singapore to be replaced. The company hired 30 security officers to forcibly remove them in a midnight raid last month. The MUA divert members anger into a harmless rally outside the office of the minister for employment and minister for women. In November 2014, 36 crew members of a Teekay-owned petrol tanker Tandara Spirit struck for 20 days and occupied the ship in Melbourne in a failed attempt to save their jobs. The Tandara Spirit crew ended their action after they were threatened with individual legal action. The union told the media at the time that it had no intention of organising any broader industrial action over the dispute. Australian regional airline pilots end strike Close to 200 unionised pilots, one third of Australias domestic airline workforce of Regional Express Airlines (REX) ended a 24-hour strike on Tuesday after walking out to protest over staff shortages that were forcing them into interstate trips of up to five nights. They feared their work-home balance would only be further disrupted when REX expanded and opened its new base in Perth. The Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) ended the strike after REX agreed to enter negotiations. The AFAP, which referred their dispute to the Fair Work Commission, has been in negotiations with REX for a new enterprise bargaining agreement for more than two years. The pilots are demanding a guaranteed maximum number of overnight trips they can be asked to perform under a new agreement. New Zealand: Auckland bus drivers strike Auckland bus drivers stopped work on Thursday in a long-running dispute with NZ Bus over pay and conditions. The stoppage was called over the drivers claim that NZ Bus has been increasing working hours without providing toilet breaks. More than 100 drivers have signed a petition calling for better working conditions. The strike caused disruptions to Metrolink, North Star, Go West, Waka Pacific, City Link and Outer Link bus services in Auckland between 9 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. NZ Bus is currently in wage negotiations with Tramways and First Union but no agreement has been reached. The company offered drivers a 1.7 percent wage increase. At least 240 jobs are at risk after the company lost its contract to operate in south Auckland. Papua New Guinea school teachers strike Hundreds of government schools teachers in Papua New Guineas Western Highlands province of Jiwaka have refused to take up this years postings until they are paid their 2015 leave fare entitlements. The entitlement is paid to teachers in regional schools across the nation to allow them to travel home at the end of the school year to spend time with their family. Most travel from the remote areas is by aeroplane or boat and is expensive. According to the PNG Teachers Association (PNGTA), 72 teachers from Jiwaka were not paid their leave fare entitlements in 2014 and in 2015 most teachers received just 70 percent of their leave entitlement. While there has been an ongoing annual dispute over this issue for more than a decade, the PNGTA has refused to mobilise teachers in national industrial action. All previous strikes have been organised by the teachers themselves on a regional or school basis and then shut down by the PNGTA falsely promising that it will take up teachers demands. PNG nickel mine workers end strike Workers at Ramu Nickels Kurumbukari Mine in Madang province ended their six-day strike and mine occupation on January 28 following a commitment from the Department of Industrial Relations, and the mines management, that an 11-point petition presented by the workers will be considered. Mining and smelter workers represented by the Ramu Nickel Workers Union presented the company with their grievances three weeks ago and demanded it adhere to Australian and New Zealand safety standards. The petition set out the workers concerns about safety requirements and security measures. It follows the death of a night-shift worker at the mine site in December. A meeting scheduled for January 27 was postponed to February 1. After closing down the strike on a vague promise, the union president threatened that workers would stop work again if their petition is not addressed by the next set date. After the resignation of Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who was functioning as a symbolic internal opposition to the police-state policies of the Socialist Party (PS) government, the Left Front leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is peddling illusions that forces in and around the PS will suddenly turn to the left. In an interview in the Journal du Dimanche, Melenchon criticised the replacement of Taubira, who had publicly stated her disagreement with President Francois Hollandes deprivation of nationality policy, with Jean-Jacques Urvoas. He said, Christiane Taubiras departure is a spectacular step in the process of sectarian isolation of Francois Hollande. He divides everything and everyone: the social movement, the left, his own government. Now, he has named as justice minister someone who has proposed to merge the justice and interior ministries, and who said the PS rebel opposition to Hollande were jihadists. Taubira left, disgusted. Now that everyone who was disgusted has left, only the disgusting ones remain. This is simply an attempt to promote the minority of forces in and around the PS who, since the November 13 terror attacks, have cynically postured as critics of Hollandes authoritarian policies. However, no fundamental difference separates Taubira from the reactionary policy of the PS government, which aims to create a police state in France. Taubira opposed Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls on the question of the revision of the French constitution in order to make the current state of emergency permanent, and to allow the state to strip a French citizen of his nationality. This latter was another key step towards the formation of an authoritarian state in France, as the deprivation of nationality policy is taken from the program of the neo-fascist National Front (FN). Nonetheless, they all agree on the wars waged by France and its allies in the Middle East, where the Islamist fighters that carried out the attacks were trained, and on the state of emergency. Taubira herself stressed in an interview with Le Monde that she does not oppose Hollande: I am not seeking to establish myself as an opposition. I left the government because of a serious political disagreement. But I want to be clear: I deeply respect the presidential office. When a society is in doubt and feels fragile, the institutions must be strong and powerful. Melenchons attempt to present forces like Taubira or the Left Front itself as an opposition to Hollande is deeply cynical. He has worked with the people he called the disgusting ones for decades and helped elect them in 2012, as he admits: We helped elect Francois Hollande to get rid of [conservative President Nicolas] Sarkozys policies. A year before the end of Hollandes term in office, on all countsabove all unemploymentare worse than under Sarkozy. Indeed, Melenchon helped elect Hollande knowing full well what policies he would carry out. During the 2012 election campaign, he called Hollande Hollandreou, that is, a supporter of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreous austerity policies, making clear that he knew Hollandes promises to attack the world of finance were lies. Melenchon is a highly experienced bourgeois politician, a former student radical in Pierre Lamberts petty-bourgeois Organisation Communiste Internationaliste, who then worked inside the PS from 1976 to 2009. If was during the PS austerity turn under the presidency of Francois Mitterrand that he became senator, working with Mitterrand to help coordinate the partys strategy. In 1997, he became a minister under the unpopular Plural Left government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. His attempts to distance himself from the PS current far-right turn are political smoke and mirrors. He is an admirer of Mitterrand, a former official of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime, who kept his ties with pro-Vichy business circles and top Vichy officials like its chief of police, Rene Bousquet. Before the Hollande campaign, Melenchon also developed friendships with right-wing figures known for their nostalgia for the pre-World War II fascist Action francaise, such as Eric Zemmour, Patrick Buisson, and Henri Guaino. While he associated with these forces, Melenchon was calling for a Hollande vote, fully conscious that, once in power, he would disappoint the workers and create the conditions for a rise of the FN. Once Hollande was in office, Melenchon served as a left cover to block opposition to Hollande from the left, in the working class. After the November 13 attacks, his Left Front voted for the state of emergency at the National Assembly. Melenchon called the measure fully justified in the initial hours after the November massacre, because it allowed for rapid police interventions. Melenchon was thus supporting the state of emergency and helping legitimise the installation of a police state in which intelligence and law enforcement have virtually unlimited powers to search and detain individuals without judicial approval, and basic democratic rights are suspended. The state of emergency permitted mass deployments of police and soldiers in the streets of France, the banning of demonstrations, and the jailing of Goodyear workers for striking in defence of their jobs. Melenchons unparalleled cynicism expresses the profound corruption of an entire layer of the affluent middle class, influenced by the post-1968 student movement and terrified by the rising disillusionment of the masses with the PS. Fearing the emergence of an opposition movement on their left in the working class, they feel quite convinced when they hear Valls declare that there is no alternative on the left to the PS. Thus Melenchon tells the Journal du Dimanche, Hollande has managed to discredit the very idea of the left itself. Today, people have lost their political bearings, they see right and left as two blocs with the same politics. The rupture is more between the people and the caste of the powerful. In France, poverty has become silent, no one speaks in its name. In fact, the central question is building an alternative on the left of the PS, because all the parties currently claiming to be left are consciously hostile to the principle of equality that historically is at the heart of all left-wing politics. In 2014, in his book The era of the people, Melenchon declared the end of socialism, the working class, and the left, and advanced a nationalist populism. The PS evolution shows that what this reactionary form of politics has accomplished is to create an atmosphere in which the PS can rehabilitate the policies of the Vichy regime. Hundreds of students, faculty and community members gathered into a lecture hall at the University of Michigans School of Public Health in Ann Arbor on Wednesday to hear Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha deliver a talk on the roots and the devastating social impact of the Flint water crisis. Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, was instrumental in helping expose the scope of the crisis. In September she held a press conference in which she revealed that the blood lead levels of Flint children had spiked dramatically since the city switched its water source from the Detroit water system to Flint River water. She was immediately made an object of official scorn, as state officials attempted to minimize and discredit her findings. The governors office claimed that she had spliced and diced the data. As public outrage mounted over the crisis, however, government officials changed their line. Hanna-Attisha has since been named to Governor Rick Snyders Interagency Coordinating Committee for Flint, and she has been brought in to assist with the EPAs Flint Task Force. The event on Wednesday drew wide interest from students across the university, with the large lecture hall filled to capacity and two overflow rooms needed to hold all those who showed up. There was a widespread desire to understand how, in the wealthiest nation on earth, a public health catastrophe of this magnitude could occur. Attendees listened intently as Hanna-Attisha described the conditions that precipitated the crisis. Describing a perfect storm of government abuse and neglect, she pointed to the aging, predominantly lead-based infrastructure of the city; the decades of population decline and the exorbitant water rates, both of which caused reduced water usage and created more stasis in the infrastructure, which allowed more lead to leach into the water supply; the criminal, in her words, decision to not add phosphates to the water treatment for corrosion control; and the callous negligence of state officials who turned a deaf ear on residents complaints. Regarding the official disregard of residents objections, she noted, If you talk to people who grew up in Flint, they said, You know, when we were kids, we could light a match on the Flint River. She added, Right away the water was brown. It tasted gross, it looked gross, it smelled gross. People complained instantly, complaints of rashes and hair loss and all these different things. But it fell on deaf ears. Hanna-Attisha further discussed the deleterious effects of lead, especially on children and infants: If you were to put something in the population to keep them down, now and for generations to come, it would be lead. It is a well-known, potent, irreversible neurotoxin. There is no safe level of lead for the CDC, for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Lead should never be in a child, and if it is in a child, youve messed up. Its too late. Lead exposure, she continued, causes a significant drop in IQ, damages every vital organ, leads to a whole host of cognitive and behavioral problems, causes impulse disorders, severely impairs a childs ability to focus and concentrate, and has been linked to an increase in criminality. Whats more, she pointed out that her data, which showed a staggering twofold increase in the number of Flint children with elevated blood lead levels, actually significantly underestimated the number of children exposed to lead. Lead screening tests are only conducted for children between the ages of one and two years, when they are most likely to be exposed to lead-based paint. With lead-tainted water, however, children are likely to be exposed much earlier, and many infants in the city had been drinking lead-laced formula for the first six months of their lives. After noting that lead-based abortion pills were used in 19th century England, she said Flint residents likely have suffered miscarriages from lead exposure as well. What have we done to an entire population? she asked. Attendees responded with audible shock and disgust as she described a population that has been severely traumatized, not only by lead, but by the whole host of social ills that have plagued the city of Flint for decades, including a 40 percent poverty rate (and the attendant high levels of crime and violence), a school system with only a single nurse for 6,500 students, severe housing instability, and a lack of access to quality food and health care. Our kids have every obstacle to success, she said, and then they got lead. After first attempting to stonewall and discredit her, government officials at both the state and federal levels are seeking to co-opt Hanna-Attishas work in an attempt to save face and contain popular anger over the crisis. The day before the University of Michigan event, she appeared at a press conference with EPA head administrator Gina McCarthy that was largely geared toward political damage control. When asked by a World Socialist Web Site reporter about how she would account for the change in the governments line toward her, Dr. Hanna-Attisha said, I think there was a period of deny, deny, deny, deny. If you read the governors task force report, it says that the state was spending more time fighting people than actually listening to people. ... Im gladly working with this governor, and I dont care about apologies, whatever happened, happened. But I have to work with this governor, and I probably have to work with the next five governors on this issue, when you consider the consequences of lead. These kids did absolutely nothing wrong, Dr. Hanna-Attisha said in her closing remarks. Their only fault was that they lived in a poor city that was almost bankrupt and didnt treat their water. North Korea announced on Tuesday that it intends to launch an observation satellite between February 8 and 25. The announcement drew immediate condemnations from the US and its allies, as well as expressions of concern from Beijing. The proposed launch has already further raised tensions following Pyongyangs nuclear test on January 6 and, if conducted, will undoubtedly be seized upon by Washington to justify its continuing military buildup in the region. The proposed trajectory of the rocket will take it from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, located on northwestern coast of the country, south across the Yellow Sea. Pyongyang said the satellite will be used to collect weather information and other data. A previous launch in 2012 used a three-stage rocket to place into orbit a satellite that is reportedly not operating The US issued a sharp rebuke, demanding new and tougher sanctions against North Korea if it carries out the launch, which Washington claims is a disguised ballistic missile test. State Department spokesman John Kirby stated: This latest announcement further underscores the need for the international community to send the North Koreans a swift, firm message that its disregard for UN Security Council resolutions will not be tolerated. Japan is using the foreshadowed launch as the pretext to flex its military might in the region. It deployed Aegis destroyers at sea equipped with SM-3 missiles and has Patriot PAC-3 missiles standing by on land. On Wednesday, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani instructed the military to shoot down any part of the missile should it come into Japanese territory. Citing anonymous government sources, Japans NHK public broadcaster claimed on Thursday that North Korea was preparing for a separate ballistic missile test from a mobile launch pad on its east coast. South Korea also issued a statement saying its military would shoot down any rocket parts that entered its territory, while also threatening Pyongyang with searing consequences. In another statement, the presidential office declared: We strongly warn that the North will pay a severe price if it goes ahead with the long-range missile launch plan. These statements point to the danger that the launch could be used to stage a provocation by shooting down the rocket, supposedly in self-defense. Such an action would enormously intensify the already acute tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The US military is also on high alert. We will, as we always do, watch carefully if theres a launch, [and] have our missile defense assets positioned and ready, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said. A US navy spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the missile tracking ship USNS Howard O. Lorenzen arrived in Japan this week. Washington is already exploiting North Koreas announcement to intensify the pressure on Beijing to take tougher action to rein in Pyongyang following last months nuclear test. President Barack Obama spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday to emphasize the importance of a strong and united international response to North Koreas provocationsin other words, insisting that China accept the US demands to move against North Korea. Last week in Beijing, US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly pressed Chinese officials on what China on a unilateral basis, as North Koreas lifeline, as North Koreas patron, will choose to do. The US is demanding that China block North Koreas only access to oil and other supplies, as well as its already limited access to the international financial systemmoves that could provoke a severe economic and political crisis in Pyongyang. The sharp differences between Washington and Beijing were evident in Kerrys joint press conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. While condemning North Koreas nuclear test, Wang declared that sanctions are not an end in themselves and urged a return to the path of negotiation and consultation. Beijing is fearful that a collapse in Pyongyang will be exploited by Washington to install a pro-US regime on Chinas northern borders. As a result, China also expressed concern over the upcoming satellite launch and called for restraint from all sides. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang stated: North Korea of course has rights to use space, but it is currently under sanctions of the UN Security Council. After a senior Beijing envoy visited Pyongyang this week, Foreign Minister Wang said China had told North Korea it did not want anything to happen that would further raise tension. Like its fourth nuclear test last month, there is nothing progressive about Pyongyangs proposed rocket launch. It is designed as an occasion for nationalist grandstanding and to deflect mounting political tensions within the regime. Far from preventing an imperialist intervention, the nuclear tests and rocket launches simply provide the US and its allies with a pretext for accelerating their military build-up against China as part of Washingtons pivot to Asia. Following the fourth nuclear test, Washington immediately stepped up its push for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to be stationed in South Korea. As a Center for Strategic and International Studies report released last month made clear, the stationing of THAAD and other anti-missile systems in the region is ultimately aimed at China. According to a Wall Street Journal article on January 28, the US and South Korea are nearing agreement on the system. Behind the scenes it looks like THAAD is close to a done deal, stated a former US official who has been in talks with senior South Korean officials. THAAD consists not only of missiles to shoot down an incoming ballistic missile but also a radar system known as the AN/TPY-2 X-band. China is concerned that the AN/TPY-2 radar will be used to monitor Chinese territory. The purpose of such an anti-ballistic missile system is not defensive, as the US argues. It is an integral component of the Pentagons war plans, involving a nuclear first strike on China. Whatever missiles Beijing could launch in a counterattack could be knocked out by THAAD or other systems. The strike of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) workers continued for a fourth day on Friday, grounding the entire fleet of the state-owned airline. The workers defiance in the face of Tuesdays bloody crackdown against the strike and threats of mass firings and jailings marks a significant intensification of the class struggle in Pakistan. Following a long-running campaign against privatisation of the airline, PIA workers struck Tuesday, defying a ban Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) government had imposed the day before on all industrial action. When the ban failed to pre-empt the strike, the government ordered a brutal attack on workers at Karachis Jinnah International Airport, where the strike was most strongly supported. The attack left two workers dead, PIA communications manager Inayat Raza and aircraft engineer Saleem Akbar, and a dozen more injured. The police and paramilitary Rangers, armed with the sweeping powers given them by Sharifs anti-terrorism laws, deployed water cannons, tear gas, baton charges and rubber bullets against the workers, then ultimately fired live bullets. At a court hearing yesterday on the death of the workers, it was revealed that the shooting started after an unidentified bearded manpresumably a high government official or intelligence officerwas overheard telling security forces to open fire. With anger seething across the country over the murder of the workers, Malir District and Sessions Court Judge Khalid Hussain Shahani criticized the police for refusing to register a legal case over the killings and for washing the crime scene with the intention to destroy forensic evidence. All indications are that the attack on Tuesdays protest was approved at the highest levels of the federal and Sind provincial governments, the latter led by the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Following the bloodshed, Sharif threatened to terminate the strikers jobs and jail them for a year. But by this time the strike was spreading to airports across the country, quickly leading to the grounding of PIAs entire fleet for the first time ever and throwing the government into crisis. Yesterday, after a high-level meeting at Sharifs office, a close aide told Dawn, There will be no going back, come what may. The government is determined to crush the strike, which is challenging the massive privatization program Sharif vowed to implement in 2013 so as to secure a US $6.64 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. At issue for the government is not just the $1.1 billion that still remains to be released to Pakistan, however critical that money may be to the crisis-ridden economy. The reputation of Pakistan as a market for local and, more importantly, desperately sought foreign investment depends heavily on the scorecard issued by the IMF. In recent months, the Sharif government has come under increasing pressure from the US-dominated IMF to make good on its commitment to privatize 68 state-owned enterprises branded as loss-making. Last month it pushed legislation through parliament to set the stage for PIAs privatization, but because of mass worker opposition announced it was postponing the sell-off for 6 months. This, according to a Reuters report, led to angry exchanges at a meeting between Pakistan government and IMF officials held in Dubai from January 26 to February 4 to decide whether the next loan tranche should be released. According to Reuters, which spoke to Pakistani officials with direct knowledge of the situation, the IMF officials hectored Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and other government officials at the meeting for equivocating on implementation of the privatization program for fears that it would lead to mass social unrest. It was embarrassing and brutal, a senior government official told Reuters. It was nothing less than a dressing down. If the IMF still doesnt penalize us, then all I can say is, Were very lucky. Another senior Finance Ministry official confirmed this account with Reuters. According to a report in the Express Tribune, the IMFs review panel was extremely critical of the governments failure to move ahead with privatisation deadlines, but has agreed, under the circumstances, to a six-month delay in the PIAs privatization and will recommend to the IMFs board of directors that the next tranche of the loan, $497 million, be released. In its statement on Thursday, the IMF noted that measures pertaining to the energy sector reform and restructuring of loss-making public enterprises are yet to be implemented. These measures, which will mean huge increases in electricity charges, a massive assault on workers jobs and wages, and the dismantling of public services, were termed by the IMF as critical for long-term resilience of the economy in the face of a weak cotton harvest, declining exports, and a more challenging external environment. In other words, a further assault on the social position of the working class is necessary as a new economic crisis is looming. Both the government and IMF have made clear the privatisation program will not be shelved. Addressing a press conference Thursday alongside the IMF Mission Chief, Finance Minister Dar reaffirmed the governments resolve to convert loss-making state-owned enterprises into profitable enterprises. But to move forward the government and Pakistani ruling elite must defeat the opposition from the PIA workers and the working class as a whole. With the governments attempts to crush the strike having thus far backfired, sections of the corporate media, such as Dawn, are counselling Sharif to take up the unions offer of talks and collaboration in making the airline profitable. They are also urging the opposition parties not to exploit the governments predicament. The strike is being organized by a Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprised of representatives of the various PIA unions, which are themselves affiliated to the establishment parties, from the PPP to the Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami. As the government moved forward with its plans to privatize PIA over the last two months, the unions repeatedly delayed any job action directed at grounding PIA flights. While calling for the privatisation to be stopped, the JACs four-point program stipulates that employees be provided a chance to reform the airline, i.e., to make it into a profitable enterprise. If the employees fail to do so, it continues, the government will have the freedom to do whatever it finds suitable. This is a disastrous formula for the workers. Similar union collaboration with management allowed Sharif to slash PIAs workforce from 17,000 to 14,000 in past years. In keeping with their acceptance of the fundamental premise of the privatization programthat state-owned enterprises must be profitable concerns, not providers of public servicesthe unions have issued no appeal to workers at the other companies targeted for privatization, let alone the working class as a whole, to join them in a working-class political offensive against the big business Sharif government and the IMF. Such an offensive would be aimed at making big business, not the workers and toilers, pay for the capitalist crisis, by bringing to power a workers government. Four days before the first presidential primary election, self-styled democratic socialist Bernie Sanders holds a double-digit lead in New Hampshire over the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The first national poll taken in the wake of Sanderss virtual tie with Clinton in the Iowa caucuses showed that the senator from Vermont had surged nationally, trailing Clinton by only a narrow margin, 44 percent to 42 percent. If confirmed in subsequent polling, this would signal a remarkable shift in political sentiment compared to three months ago, when Clinton led Sanders by 61 percent to 30 percent. The growing support for Sanders signals a dramatic change in the political environment in the United States, and hence, the world. It is all the more remarkable in a country where socialist ideas have been suppressed and excluded from official political discourse for three-quarters of a century. The past three decades, in particular, have seen an extraordinary lowering of political culture, even by the standards of American politics. The political environment has been utterly stagnant, dominated by a relentless glorification of wealth and the exclusion of anything that smacks of genuine opposition. Every State of the Union address, including President Obamas last month, has carried the obligatory assurance of how good things are in America. The corporate media have perfected the art of creating a synthetic public opinion that bears no relation to the real sentiments of the vast bulk of the population, and then using that supposed public consensus to justify the reactionary policies of the ruling class. The broad support for Sanders and the crisis of the supposedly unbeatable Clinton campaign, which have taken the entire political and media establishment by surprise, have exposed the fraudulent character of what has passed for public opinion. Particularly noteworthy is the radicalization among young people, who sided with Sanders over Clinton in the Iowa caucuses by 84 percent to 14 percent. Sanders leads Clinton by similar margins among likely Democratic primary voters 30 and under in New Hampshire, according to the most recent polls. As Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell grudgingly admitted in the Friday edition of the newspaper, the current generation of youth, to which she belongs, love Sanders not despite his socialism, but because of it Many of us also entered the job market just as unbridled capitalism appeared to blow up the world economy. Perhaps for this reason, millennials actually seem to prefer socialism to capitalism. The support for Sanders is inextricably linked to his professions of intransigent hostility to the financial aristocracy that dominates American society. In Thursday nights debate in New Hampshire, Sanders declared again that the business model of Wall Street is fraud, while reiterating his criticisms of Clinton for accepting millions in campaign contributions and speakers fees from Goldman Sachs and other major financial institutions. The entire first hour of the debate was devoted to a discussion of the pernicious role of big business and whether the major banks should be broken up to prevent a recurrence of the 2008 Wall Street crash. The rise of Sanders is a response to decades of war and reaction, culminating in the financial collapse of 2008, with its devastating impact on social conditions in the United States. As the consequences of the global crisis of capitalism have unfoldedthe destruction of decent-paying jobs, the austerity policies of capitalist governments throughout the world, the buildup of the forces of a police state to suppress working class opposition, and the unending series of wars by American imperialismtens of millions of workers and youth have begun to draw increasingly radical conclusions. There are signs of panic setting in within the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party establishment as a whole. This is not because they view Sanders himself as a threat to capitalism or the political domination of the corporate-financial elite. The ruling class has a long experience with the independent socialist from Vermont. For decades, first in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate, he has caucused with the Democratic Party and supported every Democratic presidential candidate and every Democratic administration. Always treated respectfully, he has been seen as a valuable political asset, providing a left cover for the Democratic Party and promoting the illusion that this right-wing capitalist party is somehow a progressive party of the people. However, the popular credibility of the Democrats has been massively undermined by seven years of the Obama administration. In this situation, the grave danger confronting the American capitalist class is the emergence of a political movement outside the two-party system that challenges the domination of the super-rich over every aspect of US society. Bernie Sanders is not the herald of such a movement, but a false prophet who is neither genuinely socialist nor genuinely independent. The Socialist Equality Party evaluates the significance of the Sanders campaign not by its campaign promises, or the illusions of those who now support him, but on the basis of a Marxist analysis of objective class relations and a historically grounded international perspective. The rise of the Vermont socialist is not purely an American phenomenon, but the American expression of an international process. In country after country, under the impact of the global economic crisis of capitalism, the ruling class has brought forward left bourgeois parties to divert mass opposition into harmless channels. This is the role of figures like Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected leader of the Labour Party in Britain, and Podemos in Spain, now maneuvering to form a coalition government with the discredited social democrats. In the most extreme cases, as in Greece, the left has been brought directly into power, in the form of the Syriza government, and charged with the responsibility of imposing capitalist austerity policies on the masses. Leon Trotsky, the co-leader of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, explained how the ruling class manipulates the political system within the framework of bourgeois democracy. The capitalist bourgeois calculates, he wrote, At the right moment I will bring into existence opposition parties, which will disappear tomorrow, but which today accomplish their mission by affording the possibility of the lower middle class expressing their indignation without hurt therefrom for capitalism (Terrorism and Communism, p. 58). If the American financial aristocracy thought Sanders represented a genuine threat to its interests, it would not be putting him on national television to deliver his jeremiads before a mass audience. The ruling elite has more than a century of experience in the use of such figures to manipulate mass sentiment and safeguard the profit system from challenges from below. These include third-party efforts like the Populist Party of the 1890s, the Progressive movement of the early 20th century, the Farmer-Labor Party of Robert La Follette in Wisconsin in the 1920s (and related groups in Minnesota and the Dakotas) and the Progressive Party of Henry Wallace in 1948. All these campaigns dissolved, sooner or later, back into the Democratic Party. In the past half-century, the ruling elite has sought to avoid any significant left third-party efforts, using the Democratic Party itself as the principal vehicle for containing and dissipating mass popular opposition to the US ruling elite, whether over the Vietnam War, the violent attacks on labor struggles in the 1980s, or the endless wars in the Middle East and the staggering growth of social inequality. Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy in 1968 and George McGovern in 1972 were followed by Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988, Howard Dean in 2004, and now Bernie Sanders. Considered in this historical framework, what is remarkable about Sanders is how vacuous his supposed radicalism really is. He is far less radical in his domestic policy than the Populists, the anti-Wall Street presidential campaigns of William Jennings Bryan, and the Farmer-Laborites. In the crucial area of foreign policy, he is virtually indistinguishable from Obama and Hillary Clinton, even attacking them from the right on issues like trade with China. When asked directly last year about his attitude to US military intervention abroad, he declared he was for drones, all that and more. If Sanders goes on to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency, he will betray the aspirations of his supporters flagrantly and with extraordinary speed. A thousand excuses will be brought forward to explain why the wars must continue abroad and nothing can be done to rein in Wall Street at home. Sanders is not the representative of a working class movement. He is rather the temporary beneficiary of a rising tide of popular opposition that is passing through only its initial stages of social and class differentiation. The Socialist Equality Party welcomes every sign of a leftward movement and radicalization among workers and youth. The objective conditions of capitalist crisis and imperialist war are the driving forces of a profound leftward shift in the consciousness of tens of millions. But there is nothing more contemptible than to patronize and adapt to the illusions that characterize the present, initial stage in the development of class consciousness and popular opposition. That is the specialty of the various pseudo-left appendages of the ruling class and the Democratic Party. It is legitimate for genuine socialists to adopt a sympathetic and patient attitude to the growth of popular opposition, but it is politically impermissible to politically adapt to the movements prevailing level of understanding. It is necessary to expose the contradiction between Sanders social demagogy and his bourgeois program, without suggesting that he can be pushed to the left by popular pressure from below. The task taken up by the Socialist Equality Party is to open up a new path for the movement of the working class and lay the foundations for a broadening and deepening of the radicalization, breaking irrevocably from the Democratic Party and all forms of bourgeois politics and establishing the political independence of the working class. This is the essential basis for transforming the growing opposition into a conscious political and revolutionary movement for international socialism. The prerequisite for this task is to tell the working class the truth. Art is the cognition of life in the form of sensual, imaginative contemplation. Like science, art give s objective truths; genuine art demands precision because it deals with the object, it is empirical. A.K. Voronsky The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film, at the Jewish Museum in New York City through February 7, examines some of the remarkable photography, magazines, film posters and innovative films produced in the years that followed the October Revolution of 1917. The Revolution ushered in a period of extraordinary artistic experimentation and achievement, a period conclusively brought to an endafter years of intensifying repressionwhen the Stalinist bureaucracy dismantled independent artist organizations, suppressed the avant garde and officially declared for Socialist Realism, crude propaganda and adulation of the Soviet leaders, in 1934. The important exhibition at the Jewish Museum explores early avant-garde film and photography, including the work of world-renowned artists such as Alexander Rodchenko, Boris Ignatovich and El Lissitzky, who inventively turned to the camera as a method of documenting and helping to build the new Soviet reality, along with filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. Initially, the Communist government encouraged the avant-garde: radical style was seen as the expression of radical politics, the Jewish Museum curators explain, adding that for a time, artistic invention operated in potent and fruitful synergy with activism. Photographers and filmmakers were urged to try unusual techniques: collage, montage, darkroom manipulation, unconventional camera angles, fast-paced editing, and shifts in depth of field, techniques that would encourage the Soviet citizen to view the emerging new society from a distinct and insightful viewpoint. To their credit, the museum curators explain how the avant garde that flourished in the earlier years was shut down. They are unable, however, to offer any explanation for the crackdown, other than to simply assert the truism that Stalin ultimately consolidated his power. Inevitably such a perspective leaves open the door to the conception that the Stalinist dictatorship was an inevitable or logical product of the October Revolution. No truly serious discussion of the period can fail to take into account the role and struggle of Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition. In any event, the exhibition is organized into several sections that attempt to outline different stages in the development of Soviet society and its relationship to and implications for photography, magazine publication, poster art and cinema in the decade and a half or so after the October Revolution. The different sections, including New Perspectives, Metropolis, Constructing Socialism, Military, Staging Happiness, Physical Culture and finally, Film and Posters, trace in a non-chronological fashion the work of photographers, artists and filmmakers as their efforts evolved into an increasingly complex symbiosis with the rapidly changing demands of the Soviet state. The Soviet Union inherited the poverty and backwardness of tsarist Russia. That heritage, combined with the isolation of the first workers state following the failure of the social revolution to extend to Italy, Hungary and especially Germany in 1923, brought to the fore a privileged caste personified and led by Stalin. By 1924 the Stalin faction openly embraced nationalism and the program of socialism in one country, rejecting the fundamental program of socialist internationalism and world revolution that led the Bolsheviks to power under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. This would have deep and ongoing consequences for every layer of Soviet society, as well as the global working class. The section New Perspectives showcases some of the more imaginative and experimental photographic works of a number of noted artists, painters and sculptors who emerged from Russian Constructivism such as Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Georgy Zimin. These artists embraced the camera in addition to darkroom manipulation techniques to create a series of photograms (a non-camera method of exposing objects on top of light sensitive photographic paper in the darkroom), photo-montage (combining both in-camera multiple exposure techniques along with the overlapping of multiple negatives in the darkroom to create a final composite image) and photo-collage. These methods offered a formal radicalism that focused on graphic effects, as the exhibition caption explains, and demonstrated that the formal considerations of the Constructivist movement were not dispensed with outright when the camera became engaged in social documentation. Georgi Petrusovs Caricature of Alexander Rodchenko, is a compelling example of montage that offers the viewer a simple study of the back of the artists head and then transforms the image into a dreamlike exploration of his thought processes and powers of observation. Similarly, El Lissitzky in his 1924 self-portrait, known commonly as The Constructor, makes use of six different exposures in the darkroom that collectively create an image of the artist engaged in the process of production, or construction. The theme is somewhat obvious, but the end result is an exquisite, forceful image. Other parts of the exhibition chart the increasing role that photography and, to a lesser extent, cinema were expected to play in documenting and exalting industrialization, militarization and other processes as the Soviet economy expanded and, thanks in large measure to the disasters and betrayals produced by Stalinism, the threat of war grew throughout the course of the 1930s. One of the exhibition rooms has been transformed into a small theatre where numerous Soviet films are screened in rotation, including works by Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin and October, or Ten Days That Shook the World), Dziga Vertov (Man with a Movie Camera), Yakov Protazanov (Aelita: Queen of Mars), Grigori Kozinstev (The Overcoat) and Vsevolod Pudovkin (Mother). The exhibition devotes a section to film posters created by Rodchenko, Anton Lavinsky and Georgy and Vladimir Stenberg and others. Many of these posters were masterpieces of design, as the exhibition notes, which incorporated the techniques of collage and montage popular with the Constructivist artists of the time. The October Group and ROPF Two prominent artist organizations, the more experimental October group under the leadership of Rodchenko and Ignatovich, and the photojournalist-oriented Russian Association of Proletarian Photographers (ROPF), which included photographers Arkady Shaikhet and Georgi Zelma, were both significantly influenced by avant-garde esthetics and by film in particular, as the exhibitions curators note. The show emphasizes the fact that many members of ROPF were Jews, who had welcomed the Bolshevik Revolution as emancipation from the vicious anti-Semitism and pogroms that characterized tsarist Russia. The October group emerged to a considerable extent from the Constructivist movement. It came under left criticism from critics and leading figures among the Proletarian Photographers. The October group regarded its more avant-garde style and methodology, including the use of unorthodox cropping, vertiginous angles, multiple-negative darkroom montage and fragmentation (photographing a subject in a series of parts), as means of breaking with the art of the past and creating imagery to develop the consciousness and cultural education of the Soviet citizen. In fact, the October group, like the ROPF, was quite dedicated to the development of photojournalism, and publication of their images in the growing number of Soviet magazinessuch as Fotograf (Photographer), LEF (Left Front of the Arts, and later Novy LEF) and Daesh! (Lets Produce!)was their central focus. In an address Rodchenko delivered at the October groups 1930 conference in Moscow, he emphasized the importance of magazine photography. Eighty to ninety percent of any magazine is built on factual material, and neither painting nor drawing can give the sensation of today, the actuality of events and thus we put our trust in photography, since it shows what happened at a place and factually convinces us of it. He further argued that the best examples of his own and his colleagues photographs were often published in popular magazines. However, the1930 conference also brought out differences between October and the ROPF. This aesthetic and ideological rift became the means by which Rodchenko in particular came under fierce criticism for his supposed formalism. Rodchenko argued that the principal problem did not lie in deciding what should be photographed, but rather how. His goal, he explained, was to photograph not a factory but the work itself from the most effective point of view, and that in the approach to a particular subject, such as the grandness of a machine, one should photograph not all of it but give a series of snapshots. Rodchenko distinguished between what he called photo-stills, which he favored, and photo-pictures. The former represented an attempt to break up empirical reality into fragments, enabling the viewer to view and conquer the process: while the latter, in Rodchenkos conception, rendered a more conventional or organic experience. In Girl with a Leica, 1933, for example, Rodchenko creates a destabilizing effect by placing his subject, his longtime protege Evgeniya Lemberg, in a dramatic grid of shadow and highlights with an almost dizzying tilt of his camera frame. His positioning of Lemberg in the background left corner of the image detaches the viewer from his subject, forcing a more lingering and challenging viewing. The photograph evokes Rodchenkos earlier investigations in his paintings. It should be noted that Shaikhets Automobiles from the Gorky Factory, 1930 and Petrusovs New Building from Above, 1930, both works by Proletarian Association members, reveal similar formal considerations. There is clearly a shared avant-garde influence at work here, as well as perhaps the direct influence of Rodchenko himself. Radical aesthetic approaches to photography steadily came into conflict with the needs and outlook of the Soviet bureaucracy, which viewed with intense suspicion anything it could not understand or that hinted ator encouragedcritical thinking. The exhibition notes, The period of innovation was brief. By 1932 Stalin consolidated power, independent styles were no longer tolerated; the avant-garde itself became suspect. Artistic organizations were dissolved [A]rt was subject to strict state control, and required to promote an approved, idealized socialist agenda. As Trotsky noted in an obituary for Vladimir Mayakovsky after the famed poets suicide in 1930, Stalins officially sanctioned cultural regime had become simply a system of bureaucratic command over art and a way of impoverishing it. Rodchenko would ultimately be accused of practicing bourgeois formalism in his photographs and forced to recant his errors. Both his Pioneer Playing Trumpet and Pioneer Girl (1931), in which he chose to photograph his subjects from a severe low angle, isolating them in a disquieting manner against the background sky, drew harsh criticism. Typically, one critic snapped, The pioneer girl has no right to look upward. That has no ideological content. Pioneer girls and Komsomol [Young Communist] girls should look forward. By 1933 it became illegal to take photographs on the streets of Soviet cities without a special permit, at which point Rodchenko became resigned to taking photos of sporting events and official gatherings; by 1934 all independent artistic activity was officially terminated. Most of the photographers and filmmakers represented in the Jewish Museum were spared the worst punishments meted out by the Stalinist regime, in its genocidal campaign against revolutionary socialist culture and its practitioners in the late 1930s. Many simply continued taking photographs for one institution or another, keeping their mouths shut, like wide layers of the Soviet population. The list of prominent writers, theater directors, critics and others who were murdered in the monstrous purges is extensive. It includes poets Osip Mandelstam, Nikolai Klyuev, Pavel Vasiliev and Titian Tabidze, novelists Isaac Babel and Boris Pilnyak, theater figures Vsevolod Meyerhold and Sergei Tretyakov, art scholar and writer Nikolay Punin, leading literary critic and Left Oppositionist Alexander Voronsky, German actress and Brecht collaborator Carola Neher and countless others. Poets Vladimir Mayakovsky and Sergei Yesenin both committed suicide. According to one source, 1500 writers and artists died in the forced labor camps. Rodchenko himself, who is rumored to have attempted suicide at one point, lived the remainder of his life in isolation, poverty and ill-health. All this was the contribution of counterrevolutionary Stalinism, the gravedigger of the Revolution and its extraordinary artistic life. Despite its limitations and its inability to explain some of the more complex historical issues, The Power of Pictures at the Jewish Museum points unmistakably to what every bourgeois historian and commentator is at great pains to deny: that the October Revolution, the greatest event in modern history, gave rise to one of the broadest and deepest cultural outpourings in history. The Berlin-based refugee support organisation Moabit Hilft (Moabit Helps) has recently come under strong media criticism. In the course of the past 10 days the organisation has received threats of murder in hate mail and by telephone. An online group calling itself Moabit Lies has become active, backed by the well-known Berlin neo-Nazi Gregor Stein. It has accused Moabit Helps of dishonestly using donations. On Monday, the door of its office on the grounds of the Berlin state office for health and social care (Lageso) was kicked down. The media has also joined in the attacks on Moabit Helps. The immediate pretext was an incident last week. A volunteer assisting refugees who was part of the circle around Moabit Helps claimed on Facebook that he had assisted a young Syrian who had been forced to wait in line at Lageso for days. The volunteer alleged the Syrian had caught a high fever and frostbite, and died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. But later that day, the author of the message, Dirk V., admitted to police he had made the story up. Diana Henniges, a Moabit Helps spokeswoman, said they had made a mistake in not reviewing the Facebook message more closely. However, every volunteer, every politician and every press representative had been able to imagine the death of a refugee. This is the real tragedy, she said. It could have been possible. Dirk V. stated he had been pushed to the breaking point by the back-breaking work of providing assistance and wanted to use the story to shake things up and change something. In fact, Dirk V. had just been released from a long stay in hospital due to burnout, according to Reyna B., another volunteer who chatted with him during the night. Reyna B. also did not initially doubt the veracity of the report of a fatality. For six months, we residents have watched what has happened, she wrote in shock after Dirks final message. For six months we have assisted, rushed around cared, fed, provided, healed and we have repeatedly said, there will be deaths if this continues. And it is downplayed, sugar coated and dismissed. It is being presented as if this is normal, just a minor administrative crisis She referred to miscarriages, the case of the young refugee boy who was kidnapped in the chaos at Lageso last summer and murdered, several resuscitations on the Lageso grounds following heart attacks, diabetes shocks, all-night ambulance deployments to assist collapsed individuals, and the hunger endured by refugees when Lageso refused to pay out pocket money. She wrote, Last Friday, I cried on the way home for the first time. Until then, the hope that this city, this country, would hear the humanitarian call had not been broken. Politicians and the media have used the incident to launch a cynical propaganda campaign against Moabit Helps. It is aimed not only at intimidating this organisation, but all volunteers assisting refugees. It also opens the door for right-wing hate mail, as Henniges told the WSWS. Cologne was the starting gun. But the report of a dead refugee has released the genie from the bottle. Media representatives, who went to Lageso in the morning after the report with large camera teams to sensationalise the death of a refugee, are now targeting Moabit Helps. They are accusing an organisation of volunteers, most of whom work for free and without whose efforts the provision of care to refugees would have long since collapsed, of being unprofessional, haughty and starry-eyed. A report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from January 29 was especially repugnant. Under the headline The haughtiness of the helpers, it stated, Many still feel the exhilaration of the summer days, when anyone who brought a case of mineral water to the Lageso felt they were better than the Berlin administration, leading to haughtiness. Several helpers have been cultivating an exaggerated image of themselves ever since, which they would never concede to a professional politician. The FAZ based itself on the statement of a Berlin Green Party politician, Bettina Jarasch, who described the work of the volunteers as basically self-fulfillment. In a piece headlined How to make propaganda with a lie, N-TV wrote that the problem was not the author of the false report, but rather an association like Moabit Helps, which did not even check the story before using it as a pretext to score points. The Berlin Senate exploited the incident for its own ends. On the following day, it quickly signed off on a plan to create a refugee ghetto on the grounds of the former Tempelhof airport. Interior Senator Frank Henkl (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) called for legal consequences for Dirk V., fully aware that simply posting a false message online is not a criminal offence. He threatened the spokespeople at Moabit Helps, stating, Whoever triggers and spreads such rumours without checking them is deliberately trying to poison the atmosphere in our city. Green Party and Left Party representatives complained about a lack of professionalism among refugee support groups. Left Party deputy Klaus Lederer declared that the matter was unacceptable. The Left Party paper Neues Deutschland described Dirk V. as a worn-out and self-centred volunteer. Responding to the call for professionalisation, Diana Henniges said, Only because we neglected a trifle and did not check the message? We were forced out of bed in the early hours of the morning and press representatives demanded statements by telephone. Where were these parties and media representatives six months ago, when the people at Lageso were starving, having to stand in line day and night and sleep on the ground? Nobody was talking about professionalism then. Without us, without the many people who assisted without pay in their free time, we would have a worse situation today, the probability of deaths would be much higher. The Green Party and Left Party have participated in governments which have ensured the destruction of professional positions at Lageso, in schools, kindergartens and social services. Now, with their calls for professionalism, they are trying to co-opt the spontaneous organizations like Moabit Helps that have emerged in the population and bring them to an end. This is also a fear for them, Henniges said. Moabit Helps was formed by residents in the longstanding Berlin working class district of Moabit at the beginning of the refugee crisis and became a role model for many other volunteer initiatives across the city. It plays a leading part in the strong solidarity towards refugees in the Berlin population, which has not diminished in the wake of the New Years Eve events in Cologne. They have repeatedly criticised the terrible conditions at Lageso and in the mass accommodation centres, and organised protests against them. Based on their information, 40 lawyers filed charges against those responsible in the Senate for violations of law at Lageso. The Berlin Senate had recently come under criticism from the establishment. The pictures of people lined up at Lageso and overcrowded accommodation centres are inopportune for the capital city. If the report of the fatality of the Syrian refugee had been true, some journalists speculate, the Senate and Social Affairs Senator Mario Czaja could well have been brought down. It is no wonder that Moabit Helps has long been a thorn in the side of the citys political elite. For workers and young people in the city and beyond, the attack on the organisation is a warning sign. The stepped-up attacks on refugees are increasingly also directed against the general population that has spontaneously come to the aid of refugees and who, like them, oppose war and poverty. The Saudi Arabian monarchy Thursday declared that it is prepared to send ground troops into Syria under the pretext of prosecuting the US-declared war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The proposal from Riyadh follows the breakdown of Geneva III, the UN-mediated peace talks between the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and a Saudi-sponsored rebel negotiating committee consisting of Islamist militia leaders and exile politicians aligned with Western intelligence agencies. The talks were suspended Wednesday after the opposition refused to negotiate under conditions in which Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, have registered major gains on the battlefield, threatening to reverse the territorial gains won by the Western-backed militias in recent years. Syrian government forces, supported by pro-government militias, including elements of the Lebanese Hezbollah, have succeeded in breaking a siege of two predominantly Shia villages, Nubl and Zahra, which for nearly four years had held out against the threat of a sectarian massacre at the hands of Al Qaeda-linked forces backed by Washington and its regional allies. The advance has succeeded in reversing the tide of battle around Aleppo, Syrias largest city, breaking the siege of the government-held western part of the city at the hands of the opposition, while imposing a siege on the eastern part, which has been under its control. The victories in the northern countryside have effectively cut off the supply line that has brought arms and ammunition to the Western-backed militias from Turkey. Syrian government forces have also registered significant advances in Latakia Province in the northwest as well as in Daraa in the south. These developments have led to calls by Washington and its allies for an immediate halt to the Russian bombing campaign initiated at the end of last September, which US and allied officials have blamed for the breakdown of the talks in Geneva. We have seen that the intense Russian air strikes mainly targeting opposition groups in Syria are undermining the efforts to find a political solution to the conflict, Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the US-led NATO military alliance said Friday. Like his counterparts in Washington, Stoltenberg fails to name the opposition groups about which he is concerned, because the leading one is the Al Nusra Front, Al Qaedas Syrian affiliate. The fear of the rebels and their Western patrons is that the Russian-backed advances of Syrian government forces will make it impossible to achieve by means of negotiations what they are unable to procure on the battlefield: the toppling of Assad and the imposition of a more pliant US puppet regime. The stepped-up military operations in and around Aleppo have sent a stream of refugees heading toward the Turkish border, less than 40 miles to the north. The Turkish government, however, has closed the border crossings. At the Oncupinar border crossing near the Turkish city of Kilis, one Syrian woman was reportedly shot and killed by Turkish security forces. Ankaras evident aim is to create a humanitarian crisis on the border, providing a pretext for military intervention. Moscow has charged that Turkey is engaged in active preparations for an invasion of Syria. We have serious grounds to suspect Turkey is in intensive preparations for an armed invasion of the territory of a sovereign statethe Syrian Arab Republic, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement. Thursday. The defense ministry reported that Turkey had denied permission for a Russian reconnaissance plane to fly over the Turkish-Syrian border, but that it had already detected more and more signs of covert preparations by the Turkish armed forces for active action on Syrian territory. These included the deployment of troops and military equipment and the paving of parking lots on both sides of the border for heavy trucks and equipment. The Saudi offer to send ground troops into Syria has undoubtedly been made in conjunction with the Turkish buildup. The Saudi monarchy and Turkeys government recently set up a military coordination body. The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition [against ISIS] may agree to carry out in Syria, Saudi military spokesman brigadier general Ahmed al-Asiri said on Thursday, touting the Saudi armys experience in Yemen, which has consisted largely of the slaughter of Yemeni civilians in airstrikes. For its part, the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is determined to prevent the consolidation of an autonomous Syrian Kurdish zone on its border. The inseparable connection between military aggression abroad and police state repression at home found expression in Turkey Friday with the presentation of a criminal indictment against two journalists, Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, on charges of espionage, attempting to topple the government and support for terrorism. The two are being prosecuted for the publication by their newspaper, Cumhuriyet, of an article exposing the use of trucks of the National Intelligence Agency to ship arms across the border to ISIS. Turkish police officers who intercepted some of the trucks have been similarly charged. The defendants could face life sentences. That kind of news is very welcome, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in response to the Saudi offer, adding that he intended to discuss it with his Saudi counterpart in Brussels next week. An intervention by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two of the principal patrons of the Islamist militias in Syria, would signal a major escalation of the crisis and a desperate bid by US imperialism itself to salvage the nearly five-year-old war for regime change in Syria. It would dramatically increase the dangers of the Syrian conflict spiraling out of control into a full-scale regional war, pitting Saudi Arabia and Turkey against Iran. Any such intervention would be carried out in collaboration with Washington, which is Turkeys NATO ally, posing the threat of a direct confrontation between the US and Russia, the worlds two major nuclear powers. Automaker Honda said it is expanding its recall of vehicles equipped with defective Takata airbags. The decision comes in the wake of another fatal crash in which an airbag exploded, killing the driver. Joel Knight of South Carolina was killed in December after his vehicle, a 2006 Ford Ranger, struck a stray cow. The airbag ruptured, sending metal debris into his throat. According to the familys attorney, if not for the rupture the crash would have only been moderate, and Knight likely would have survived. The drivers side airbag on his vehicle had not been subject to recall until last month. So far 14 carmakers have recalled 28 million airbag inflators in 24 million vehicles. However, millions of additional vehicles with potentially defective inflators are still being driven. About 54 million airbag inflators in total have been shipped to the US. Takata controls some 30 percent of the worldwide airbag market. The explosive, ammonium nitrate, contained in the airbag inflator may break down over time when exposed to moisture and pose a danger. When a vehicle is recalled it receives a new inflator, a metal casing enclosing explosives that help the airbag expand in the event of a collision. At least 10 deaths, nine of those in the United States, are tied to the defect. Honda recently expanded its recall of vehicles equipped with the defective airbags by more than one-third in North America. The latest action involved 2.23 million vehicles in the US. Honda alone has now recalled 8.5 million Honda and Acura vehicles. At the time of Knights death his Ranger vehicle had not been the subject of a recall. Ford has since recalled 400,000 Rangers built between 2004 and 2006 to replace defective airbags. A New York Times report in September 2014 reported 139 injuries related to the defect across all automakers. Recalls of Takata airbags have proceeded in piecemeal fashion ever since 2008 when Honda first alerted regulators to the problem. A general pattern has emerged: the issue subsides for a time, then another widely reported death linked to the airbags occurs and more recalls are ordered. Repairs have taken place at a tortoise pace due to shortages of replacement parts. As of late December only 27 percent of recalled vehicles had the problem corrected. The death of Knight prompted calls by Democratic Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut for the Obama administration to expand the recall of Takata airbags. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency that oversees vehicle safety, has given Takata another three years to prove that ammonium nitrate inflators are safe. This continues a pattern of extreme indulgence shown by the agency to carmakers. NHTSA imposed a token $70 million fine on Takata in November for providing incomplete or misleading data about defective airbags to the agency since 2009. The company could face another $170 million in additional penalties if it violates terms of the settlement. The company has yet to provide a root cause for the airbag ruptures. Takata reported profits of $69 million in the quarter ending in December 2015. That represented a nearly 300 percent increase over the same period last year. Sales for the quarter totaled some $1.5 billion. The company recorded $89 million in recall-related costs in the preceding nine-month period. The companys fiscal year ends in March. In 2004, Honda first alerted Takata about the airbag problem, but it did not issue a recall or notify NHTSA. In 2008 Honda issued a recall for just 4,205 vehicles, and six months later expanded it to 510,000 cars. At the time, NHTSA belatedly opened an investigation, but did not take any action. In 2014, NHTSA issued a recall for 7.8 million vehicles, but in a bizarre twist limited it to a few states in areas of high humidity. Owners of defective vehicles in non-recall states were not notified and not eligible for repairs. A review panel commissioned by Takata released a report Tuesday on the exploding airbag issue. The panel, composed of engineers and former government regulators, issued a toothless report calling for better quality-control systems. Highlighting the revolving door between the auto industry and the US Department of Transportation, the panel included Samuel Skinner, transportation secretary in the administration of President George HW Bush. Takata has also hired new public relations personnel and reshuffled management in response to the continued revelations. In a related development, another airbag manufacturer, Continental Automotive Systems, said it is recalling 5 million airbag control units. The devices are fitted to vehicles manufactured by Honda, Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and a Chrysler-based Volkswagen. It follows a recall by Mercedes-Benz in October last year of certain 2008 and 2009 models because the Continental-manufactured control units could corrode. The defect would cause the airbag to expand unexpectedly or not at all in the event of a crash. NHTSA began a safety investigation in August after 19 complaints from drivers that airbags failed to inflate in older model Honda Accords. Meanwhile, General Motors will face at least 16 death and injury lawsuits this year for defective ignition switches linked to a minimum of 169 deaths. Last year GM agreed to pay 124 death and 275 injury claims related to defective ignition switches on lower end vehicles, a defect it had known about since 2001, but covered up until 2014. The victim compensation fund received a total of 474 death claims and another 289 claims for category one injuries, including quadriplegia, paraplegia, double amputation, permanent brain damage or pervasive burns. In addition, GM agreed to pay civil damages in cases involving another 45 deaths. GM officials avoided all criminal charges in relation to its more than decade-long cover-up of the ignition defect, receiving a $900 million fine instead. This continues the record of the Obama administration of shielding corporate criminals, from the BP oil disaster to the bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crash. Ben Tenney, a Kanab, Utah, resident, gives his condolences to the daughter of Arizona rancher Robert "LaVoy" Finicum outside the church where services were being held in Kanab Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Tenney is related to Finicum's daughter by marriage. Hundreds of people packed a Mormon church in rural Utah for the viewing ceremony for the fallen spokesman of the Oregon armed standoff. Police shot and killed Finicum during a Jan. 26 traffic stop after they say he reached for a gun. His supporters called it an ambush.(AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) Three weeks ago, I met with an ultra-Orthodox journalist of the same age as me in Beit Shemesh. By the grace of god, we ended up meeting on a day of rage. Demonstrators were walking the streets and setting fire to garbage cans, protesting the decision to perform an autopsy on the mayors deceased grandson. They think its wrong. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The protesters are part of a fringe group in ultra-Orthodox society, and my partner in conversation is a member of a well-known Hassidic group. Hes a smart man, educated, and most of all very surprising. I expected to meet a person with attributes familiar to me from my usual contact with ultra-Orthodox people, but what I was faced with was someone who knows my world. We spoke about books by Haim Beer, Zionism, and modernization. Ultra-orthodox protesters in Beit Shemesh. (Photo: Matzav Bitchoni Globali) Do you know why our people fear the internet? He asked, and I said it was because of decency concerns a euphemism referring to the webs easily accessible pornography. No, he answered immediately, porn isnt scary. Everyone has urges, with or without the internet. Whats frightening to us is the knowledge on the net. Wikipedia. How do you preserve the ultra-Orthodox separation from the rest of society when you can read what scientists write about the creation of the world? How do you explain what Jewish law said two thousand years ago and how Jews used to act and look? We sat there for an hour and then said our goodbyes, but the conversation stayed with me. Channel 10 recently began airing a series of excellent reports by Avishai Ben-Chaim. Ultra-Orthodox society is slowly dissolving, he claimed, receiving widesporead criticism from his subjects. One of the reasons he gave for this change is knowledge. It simply cannot be stopped. Ultra-orthodox schoolchildren. The secular public also has its own brand of ignorance. (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) The most important battle going on in modern Israeli society is the battle for the right to knowledge. It seems that, as in the Middle Ages, knowledge is also reserved for a small few in Israel today. Large parts of ultra-orthodox society are purposefully ignorant on general knowledge matters, and large parts of secular society know almost nothing of Judaism due to blatant negligence. The secular ignorance is more severe than the ultra-Orthodox kind, if for no other reason than that it leaves the meaning of Israels Jewish nature up for interpretation by ultra-Orthodox people and ignoramuses. We have a state that demands everyone acknowledge it as Jewish, but still hasnt decided what that means. Two days after that same meeting in Beit Shemesh, I met Ram Fruman, the theoretical founder of an independent branch of secular education. Fruman told me he wants a curriculum with less of an emphasis on Jewish studies. He doesnt trust public schools, which includes too much of that. Hes not asking for changes in the form of teaching pluralistic Judaism, or bringing up different opinions. He wants people to know less. Ben-Gurions misstep with public education, the ignorance that has been manufactured when Zionist education began has become an ideology. Those who dont know enough about Jewish history, who have never read a page of the Gemara or studied the Halakha, cant seriously argue about prayers at the Western Wall, the Sabbath, or Jewish sects. At the end of the day, theyll always have to bow their heads to those who claim a monopoly on Judaism. The Western Wall. Tough to argue about it you're ignorant on Jewish matters. I see it all the time around me. Most Israelis cant tell the difference between Reform Jews and Religious Conservative Jews, who make up the majority of the Jewish public abroad, where only about 10 percent are ultra-Orthodox. Most dont know how converting one into Judaism took place historically, and thus they accept the current ultra-Orthodox decisions on the matter. Most of them dont know what Kosher laws really mean, and thus they avoid confronting one of the countrys biggest economic monopolies. The Chazon Ishs proverb of the empty cart and the full one is true by choice these days. Thats how the arguments about the new Western Wall section (which will allow both men and women to pray together) sounds an important step for the Jewish public abroad, which will be represented. But in order to have the discussion about what kind of Jewish state we want to be, secular people need much more than a side-section of knowledge. Following a few dry, warm days, rain began in the north of Israel during the early Saturday hours. Most of the rainfall was in the northern Golan Heights and the Upper Galilee area, but some hit the Sea of Galilee as well assisting the rise of Israel's biggest natural fresh water source after a fairly lackluster season so far. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Winds are expected to strengthen further during Saturday, and temperatures will be markedly lower. Rainfall is expected from the north to the northern regions of the Negev in southern Israel, and Mount Hermon is expected to experience snowfall starting in the afternoon. There is a danger of floods in coastal towns and other risk areas during Saturday night. Big waves are expected to hit the Mediterranean coast. (Photo: Motti Kimchi) The Mediterranean Sea is expected to experience 30-50 KPH winds, with stronger gusts of up to 80 KPH coming later. Wave height is expected to fluctuate between three and eight meters. Sunday is expected to have intermediate rain showers, accompanied by thunderstorms from the north to the upper Negev. Temperatures will be colder than usual for this time of year, but winds are expected to calm, and the rain will begin to abate during nighttime. Waves are expected to be about seven meters high. Monday is predicted to be partly cloudy with a slight rise in temperatures. Israel's Tax Authority says it wants a cut of gratuities traditionally offered to Jewish ritual circumcisors and a slice of the payments that private kosher inspectors usually pocket. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter A recent state comptroller's report said unreported payments for such religious services could account for tens of millions of dollars of income kept off the books while the Israeli state struggles with a large budget deficit and high debt. In a message warning rabbis and others in the so-called religious services industry, the Authority said it would seek out this hidden revenue in assessing their tax bills. "You can't come later and say you didn't know about it," an Authority spokeswoman said. There is no compulsory fee for circumcision in Israel when performed by a state-certified "mohel" or circumcisor. But it is customary for parents of newborn Jewish boys to offer a gratuity up to 1,000 shekels ($255), an amount recommended by the chief rabbinic council. Rabbis who officiate at weddings are customerily tipped. (Photo: Eliyahu Yanai) Tipping is also the norm for rabbis who officiate at weddings as part of a free service underwritten by the state. The Authority spokeswoman said they too will be targeted as part of the new enforcement campaign. Israel has a national authority to certify that food products are kosher, but some communities - mostly among the ultra-Orthodox - ask their own rabbis to confirm privately that food meets their stricter religious standards. A gratuity would also be in order there. There are also Kabbalah mystics around the country whom devotees seek out for blessings, personal guidance and even financial advice. A session with them usually ends with a private donation as well. Egyptian officials were outraged when they found out that a book by Army Radio Arab Affairs analyst Jacky Hugi was on display at the Cairo book fair. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The book, Arabian Nights.com, analyzes Egyptian society and politics. After its Arabic-language version came out around two weeks ago, Hugi and the translator gave an interview to Yedioth Ahronoth in which they explained the complex relationship between Israel and Egypt, even in peacetime, as well as the fear in Egypt regarding Israeli books. The translator explained that there is a concern by literary institutions in Egypt of being labeled as someone who supports normalization of relations with Israel, and thus there's a fear of handling Hebrew-language books. The hebrew-language cover of Arabian Nights.com. Stirred an uproar in Egypt. "If I get a phone call from Israel and I'm on public transport, I don't answer. I don't carry Hebrew books on public transportation either," the translator said. When the interview was published, it was immediately translated by the Egyptian media, sparking a lively debate. The public discussion even reached the country's parliament, with one member, Mohamed Al-Masoud, demanding that the Culture Minister examine the publications. Al-Masoud said that the visitors at the book fair were enraged, claiming that "the presence of this Israeli book constitutes normalization with the Zionist enemy." He demanded that the Culture Minister say how the book was given entry to the fair, "especially since its author workd as an Arab affairs analyst for the Israeli military." Al-Masoud added that anyone who brought that book into the Cairo International Book Fair should be indicted. Cairo. Publishing a Hebrew book is seen as "normalization with the Zionist enemy." (Photo: AP) Arabian Nights.com's translator said in response: "If we don't translate Hebrew-language books, how will we know what's written about us? How long will we keep burying our heads in the sand?" The Cairo International Book Fair takes place annually, and lasts for about ten days. This year, it features about 850 publishers and institutions from 34 countries. Rinal Seif has worn only black for 13 months, during which she mourned the death of her husband the police officer, Master Sergeant Zidan Nahad Seif , who was killed while attempting to stop the terrorist attack at the synagogue in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "I didn't go to parties, I didn't wear makeup. I mourned. I went back to live with my parents and they're helping me raise our baby daughter," Rinal says, sitting at the Shabbat table at the Nissim family home, in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood. Rinal Seif (center) with younger brother Kinan and her baby. At left: Shabbat host Tova Both pain and light radiate from Rinal's face, an impossible contradiction - as impossible as calling a young, beautiful 23-year-old woman, whose deep blue eyes burn with noble determination, a "widow." "The Druze customs allow each person to determine how long they want to mourn. There are those that after 40 days end the mourning period. It took me a long time, but after a year and one month, I realized I wanted to get back to living life, for him, for Zidan, and for our daughter. Zidan gave his life for other people's lives, and I want to continue this life. I do everything in honor of Zidan." "At our Shabbat table, it is custom to read from the Torah," says Yonatan Nissim, who is hosting Rinal, her brother and her daughter in his home. "Today we don't need to say anything. The things you're saying, Rinal, are stronger than any quote from the Torah. There's no need for words." Zidan Seif (Photo: Sahar Ali) But the Nissim family is not the only one hosting this Shabbat, in dozens of other Jerusalemite homes, Druze and Jews are sitting side by side at the Shabbat table. Three buses brought some 160 people from four Druze villages in the Galilee to the Shai Agnon synagogue in Arnona on Saturday afternoon. Sheikhs with elegant mustaches and tarbooshes, elderly women whose heads are covered by thin white shawls, young people, teenage girls, and children, all get off the bus one after the other, shaking the hands of their hosts with embarrassed hesitation. Their hosts were waiting for them outside the synagogue with flags combining the Israeli and Druze flags, made by the meeting's organizer, Rabbi Yaakov Kermaier. Zidan Seif's funeral "When the terror attack at the Har Nof synagogue happened, I was in Israel. It wasn't a regular visit to Israel, it was a visit to prepare for our aliyah," says Kermaier, 46, who at the time served as the rabbi of the Ateret Tzvi community at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan. "Since I knew the family of one of those murdered in the attack, I went to offer my condolences at the shiva in Har Nof. It was there, of all places, that I suddenly asked myself why I wasnt going to offer my condolences to the Seif family as well. I made inquiries on whether the family was okay with that and whether it was receiving Jewish visitors, and when I was told it was appropriate, I went. I got there, to Yanuh-Jat, at a particularly stormy day. One person was passing by on the street and when I asked him for directions, he accompanied me all the way to the house. As soon as I walked in, everyone got up as a sign of respect. That's how the Druze welcome guests. When I was there, there were no other Jewish visitors. I stayed there for over two hours. It's interesting that both there and in Har Nof, the men and women sat separately. At a certain point I was allowed into the women's room to offer my condolences to Rinal as well. I blessed the cute baby with a blessing I give my own children on Shabbat, that the Lord blesses her and keeps her. I promised them I would keep in touch." Victims Master Sergeant Zidan Seif, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, Rabbi Kalman Levine, Rabbi Moshe Twersky and Kupinsky Aryeh, all murdered in the Har Nof attack Chaim Yechiel Rothman, who died from his wounds a year after being injured during the Har Nof massacre L'chaim with a glass of Cola Kermaier did keep in touch. Last winter, Rinal and her family went to New York. Kermaier invited her to speak in front of his community. Rinal accepted the inivation and made everyone at the synagogue emotional when she told of the heroism of her husband Zidan, a traffic policeman who rushed to the scene of the attack and managed to stop the massacre of the worshipers at the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue, located at the heart of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof. At an early morning hour in November 2014, two terrorists from Jabel Mukaber in East Jerusalem infiltrated the synagogue, armed with a gun and a butcher knife. The sounds of gunfire and the screams of the worshipers horrified the neighbors, who quickly called the police. Zidan, who was nearby, driving a traffic police car, heard about the attack on the police scanner and rushed to the scene. He didn't wait for Special Forces, instead he started exchanging fire with the terrorists, without any protective gear, and wounded one of them. By this point, the terrorists have already managed to murder five worshipers, but thanks to Zidan's actions, the life of the other worshipers, and all who live in the area, was saved. The wounded terrorist left the synagogue and advanced on Zidan, firing a bullet that hit the policeman in his forehead. Seif was rushed to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Karem, where doctors fought for his life, but by evening time they had to declare him dead. Aftermath of Har Nof attack Following a police investigation of the incident, which determined it was Seif's determination and bravery that helped save lives, Zidan's family received a Medal of Distinguished Service. Rinal's talk in front of Rabbi Kermaier's community made the rabbi realize that Zidan's self-sacrifice to save the lives of Jewish worshipers was an opportunity to forge deeper ties between Jews and Druze. President Reuven Rivlin with Seif's coffin at the funeral (Photo: Reuters) Last summer, Yaakov, Ilana and their four children said goodbye to the skyscrapers of Manhattan and moved to a home on the outskirts of the Arnona neighborhood, where the view from their window is of the soft slopes of the Judean desert and the Dead Sea, gleaming in the distance. It was during that summer that Kermaier thought of organizing an inter-faith meeting in Israel between Jews and Druze. His neighbors may have raised an eyebrow at the American rabbi, who just arrived and is already seeking to lead a revolution, but Kermaier bounded over the Israeli cynicism with ease. The meeting was scheduled for Saturday, January 30, when Parashat Yitro (Jethro) was being read at the synagogue. Jethro, a priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, helped Moses and advised him on how to lead the Hebrews in the desert, and even joined the Hebrews' journey to Canaan. According to Druze tradition, the Druze are Jethro's descendants and his successors and Jethro, who the Druze call Nabi Shu'ayb, is considered the spiritual founder and chief prophet in the Druze religion. "When Yaakov suggested the idea of hosting the Druze on Jethro's Shabbat, I told him it was a nice idea, but that I think it'll be hard to convince families with children to come for Shabbat like that," Rinal says. "Rinal told me about the idea," says her brother, Kinan, 24, who served in IDF Intelligence. "I suggested we tell our parents and hear what they thought. The parents were enthusiastic about it. From there, we started rolling with it, and the one who really took to the idea and drew everyone in was Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif. So we put him in touch with Rabbi Yaakov." Interfaith gathering in memory of Zidan Kermaier and his family went to Julis to visit Sheikh Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze in Israel. "The sheikh hosted us in a very moving and dignified way, as the Druze tradition dictates, just like Jethro hosted Moses," Kermaier says. "He was very enthusiastic with the idea of Jews hosting Druze on Jethro's Shabbat. I feel that there are so many common values between us and the Druze. They are our partners in founding and protecting the State of Israel, and it's important that the relationship between us is one of life, and of a true connection." "I don't think it's right that between the State of Israel and the Druze community there will only be a 'blood covenant.' We need to make a covenant of life," Rinal says. Her hosts agree and raise their glasses in a toast l'chaim. The glasses coming together in friendship are not filled with wine, God forbid, but Cola. Kermaier made sure all hosts knew that the Druze religion forbids the drinking of alcohol. "It's better that there's no wine on the table at all. For religious Druze, wine on the table is like a religious Jew sitting down to eat and there's pork and lobster on the table." Rabbi Yaakov Kermaier and Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif at the event 'I felt like something happened' After the "l'chaim," everyone feels closer, and Rinal opens up, telling her hosts how she met her sweetheart Zidan, and how her life changed completely one horrible morning a year and a half ago. "We were introduced by my high school teacher, who is Zidan's uncle. He drove me mad for a few months, telling me I had to meet Zidan, because he's just the one for me. I didn't think so. I was still a student at the time, I wanted to graduate from high school and move on to academic studies. And I didn't like Zidan's age either. He was 26 at the time, it seemed way too old for me. But the teacher wouldn't give up. In the end, I agreed to meet with Zidan, just so my teacher stops bugging me." The two met at school, with the teacher and another friend supervising, but despite the fact both of them agreed they weren't right for each other, the two started talking on the phone a lot after the meeting. For a year they spoke on the phone, as Zidan was trying to convince Rinal's parents to meet with him. Because of the Druze custom to only marry within the village, Rinal's parents preferred finding her a husband from their village, Kisra-Sumei, which is why they unequivocally refused to meet with Zidan, who lived in the village of Yanuh-Jat. It was only after the school headmaster intervened, and Rinal refused to meet with other guys, that her father agreed, and Zidan was invited to visit the family for Eid al-Adha. "My father said it was just one visit and that's it, and that I shouldn't live under the illusions of marriage. But when he saw Zidan, and heard how he was talking with such intelligence, he was very impressed with him and immediately agreed for us to marry. Zidan had a very significant presence about him. He was a real manly man, but very gentle and considerate. Anyone who met him was instantly impressed." The two were married in 2013, before Rinal even turned 20. Zidan, who signed a contract with the Israel Police, kept working in Jerusalem. Because of the long distance, he stayed in Jerusalem for most of the week and returned to their home in Yanuh-Jat on Wednesday or Thursday for a long weekend. "We took advantage of every minute to be together. Within a year we managed to go abroad twice and twice to Eilat. I told Zidan we still had our whole life ahead of us, but he insisted we went on vacation and spent time together." That morning, Rinal was on the bus on her way to college in Haifa, where she's studying to become a teacher for preschoolers. At six in the morning, just like every morning, Zidan sent her a text message. At 6:30 she called him and they spoke on the phone. As he always did, Zidan showered her with loving words. "My dear, Rinal, I love you," he told her. "At 7:02 I felt like something bad was happening to Zidan," Rinal says, as she holds her baby daughter in her arms. "I called him and he didn't answer. I called again and again. Meanwhile, I heard there was a terror attack in Jerusalem. I intentionally didn't go online. I called again and again. I even sent him a message, saying there was a terror attack, so I was asking him to call and tell me he was okay. Usually, Zidan would always answer immediately. But he didnt this time. I called to remind him that he has a family, that he has a baby he was longing to hear call him 'dad,' but he wasn't thinking about himself or his family, and fought like a lion to save other people's lives." At that moment, the strong woman breaks, and is no longer giving those around her strong and confident looks. She chokes on her tears as they fall, and the pain bruises. "After Zidan was killed, we were surrounded with a lot of support - all of our community, and also Jews from Israel and all over the world. My daughter and I were showered with love. Sometimes I felt like it was too much, that I was uncomfortable with receiving so much. I really appreciate you having us here, and this Shabbat. I think it's very nice that the connection was made particularly with religious Jews." 'Feeling at home' After the personal meetings by the Shabbat table, the hosts and the guests head out for guided tours of the neighborhood, and listen to a lecture from Riad Hamza, one of the senior sheikhs, about Jethro and the customs of the Druze religion. On Saturday night, after a festive Havdalah ceremony over alcohol-free grape juice, a ceremony is held in honor of Zidan at the girls' Beit Midrash (Jewish study hall) at the Lindenbaum Midrasha. A silver Torah is brought in to the Beit Midrash, and a young boy reads out the relevant quotes from Parashat Yitro. "Between the Druze and the Jewish people there have been partnership and brotherhood for thousands of years, from the days of Nabi Shu'ayb, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, as the quotes we just read show," Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif tells the audience. "I am praying that all of the nations in the world can learn from this brave and loving partnership. We were very moved by this Shabbat event and the bond created here. We're already beginning to organize an event to host you. Everything will be kosher, we know how to do that." At the conclusion of his speech, the sheikh gives Rabbi Kermaier a gift - a beautiful handmade Menorah, carefully crafted from heavy wood. "There are those in the world pushing towards religious extremism," says Deputy Minister Ayoob Kara, himself a member of the Druze community. "And it is precisely at this time that the moderate religious people should come together and fight together against the haters of peace. The Druze and the Jewish people have special cooperation, which I cannot talk about here, even outside the borders of Israel. This week, the prime minister called me to his office for an urgent consultation about these very issues. Early in the conversation I asked him whether he intentionally called me over for consultation so close to Parashat Yitro, and we both laughed." "We felt at home in your homes. Thank you for hosting us. You owe us to this very day for the advice Jethro gave Moses on how to lead the people of Israel. After 3,000 years, the interest has grown a lot," joked Sheikh Hassan Gharbawi. After that, the mood once again becomes serious, as the audience, in tears, watches a video about Zidan Seif. The room falls completely quiet as Rinal makes her way between shawls and tarbooshes, between kippahs and head covers. She speaks in memory of her husband, showing a lot of strength. It's not easy for Rinal, but despite the difficulties, she makes sure to attend every event in honor of her husband. "Zidan is the first Druze to have a Torah book written in his memory. I attended the unveiling ceremony in Haifa and they even let me write a letter in the book," she whispers to me with pride. "This Shabbat was a special event, and so befitting of Zidan, who brought people together, and gave his life to save others." A young Arab man on Saturday afternoon stabbed and wounded a 65-year-old woman at the street market in Rahat, a Bedouin-majority city in southern Israel. The attacker quickly fled. Police announced that the stabbing was apparently a terror attack and that the victim was a resident of a kibbutz in southern Israel. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The scene of the attack in Rahat Rahat Mayor Talal al-Kirnawi said a masked Palestinian who was in Israel illegally committed the terror attack. The mayor condemned the attack and said he believed there were about 7,000 people in Rahat illegally at any given time. "We are appalled by this incident," said the mayor. "The young man apparently does not live in Rahat. It appears that this youth took the law into his hands and stabbed our neighbor, to whom we wish a speedy recovery. We demand that security forces apprehend this attacker and punish him. Coexistence here in the city and cooperation between residents of Rahat and their neighbors will continue. We must be strong and maintain the ties we have with our neighbors." Witnesses gave police a description to assist in their search for the suspect. Initial reports during the minutes following the attack suggested that the suspect was a woman, but police soon announced that it was in fact searching for a male suspect. Police at the market in Rahat after the attack The victim was taken by paramedics for emergency medical treatment at Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. She told paramedics that she had been shopping in the market when she was attacked. The hospital indicated that she had been stabbed in the neck area. MDA said she was moderately wounded after the attack. After treatment in the trauma room and improvement the hospital said she was lightly wounded. Also Saturday, IDF troops located seven backpacks at the location where two Israelis reported gunfire at their car on the previous night. No one was hurt and there was no damage in that attack. The Shin Bet and IDF are investigating. Protesters rallied against Islam and immigration in several European cities Saturday, sometimes clashing with police or counter-demonstrators amid growing tensions over the massive influx of asylum-seekers to the continent. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Riot police clashed with demonstrators in Amsterdam as supporters of the anti-Islam group PEGIDA tried to hold their first protest meeting in the Dutch capital. Only about 200 PEGIDA supporters were present, outnumbered by police and left-wing demonstrators who shouted, "Refugees are welcome, fascists are not!" PEGIDA members scuffle with counter-protesters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on Saturday (Photo: EPA) Dutch riot police detained several people as officers on horseback intervened to separate the two groups of demonstrators. It was not immediately clear how many people were detained. In Germany, up to 8,000 people took part in a PEGIDA rally in Dresden, according to the independent group Durchgezaehlt, which monitors attendance figures. Up to 3,500 people took part in a counter-demonstration on the other side of the Elbe River that divides the city, it said. No incidents were reported at the event. PEGIDA rally in Dresden, Germany on Saturday (Photo: AP) In the northern French city of Calais, police dispersed a rowdy anti-migrant protest with tear gas after clashes with protesters and detained several far-right demonstrators. PEGIDA supporters at a banned rally in Calais, France on Saturday (Photo: AFP) Around 150 militants from the anti-Islam, anti-immigration group PEDIGA gathered Saturday chanting slogans like: "We must not let Calais die!" PEGIDA rally in Prague, Czech Republic on Saturday (Photo: AP) In the Czech Republic's capital Prague, thousands rallied against Muslims and immigration. Czech police later said that unknown attackers set a refugee center on fire in Prague, injuring one person. Spokeswoman Iveta Martinkova saidabout 20 people attacked the Klinika center in Prague's No. 3 district with Molotov cocktails Saturday about 7:30 p.m. She said it was not clear who was behind the attack and police are investigating. Calais has been a focal point for migrants who want to slip into Britain via the Channel Tunnel. Several thousand have been living there in slums for months. PEGIDA supporter in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday (Photo: AFP) PEGIDA, whose German acronym stands for 'Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West,' has become a magnet for far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment since it was founded in Dresden two years ago. After a drop in attendance last spring, the group saw a rise in support from people angered by the unprecedented influx into Europe of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Aside from its nationalist and anti-Islam stance, the group has also sided strongly with Russia. Several Russian flags were flown at Saturday's rally in Dresden, along with banners including "Peace with Russia" and "Stop war against Syria." Smaller PEGIDA-style protests were also taking place in France, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and Estonia. 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 Anonymous individuals on Saturday night set fire to a tent containing Torah books next to the settlement of Karmei Tzur in Gush Etzion. No one was hurt, but the books were heavily damaged. Judea and Samaria District Police opened an investigation and said footsteps believed to belong to suspects led to the adjacent Palestinian town of Halhul. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter According to locals, the tent serves as a place of prayer and other activities for the area's children. Karmei Tzur residents said arsonists had put the books in a pile and let them on fire. The tent overlooks the spot where the bodies of the three teenagers who were kidnapped and murdered in 2014 were found. Burnt Torah book (Photo: Karmei Tzur Security) Karmei Tzur residents said they were deeply shocked by the incident and that they felt a red line had been crossed. "It's difficult to accept the fact that in the heart of the country, an incident has occurred that is reminiscent of the darkest history, and we must not forget that less than 100 meters separate the hill and the residents' houses," said a resident. "Reaching there is a dangerous precedent for the future. We must and can put an end to this." Burnt books, which residents say appear to have been put in a pile (Photo: Karmei Tzur Security) Davidi Perl, head of Gush Etzion Regional Council said images of the fire's aftermath were chilling. "I am certain that Holocaust survivors who went through Kristallnacht and founded Gush Etzion never dreamed this sight of burnt holy books would occur here in Israel under Israeli rule," he said. "The Israeli government must defeat the Arab rampaging that is hurting human life and Israel's holiness." Education Minister Naftali Bennett said that images of the burnt books "come directly from the darkest days of our people's history. The defense establishment needs to investigate this incident rigorously and bring to justice the terrorists who committed it in the most serious way. This is crossing a red line and we cannot accept it, and we will not ignore it." MONDAY 2/8 >> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Monday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. >> Alcoholics Anonymous - How It Works meets Monday at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. TUESDAY 2/9 >> Alcoholics Anonymous - Womans Meeting meets Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. >> Sexaholics Anonymous, a 12 Step recovery group for those dealing with addiction to pornography, sex, and other forms of lust, meets Tuesday nights at 5:45 p.m. For more information please call our toll free number 1-877-889-8071 or visit sanebraska.org. >> Alzheimers/Dementia Support Group will meet on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 4 p.m. in the Hearthstone Great Room. For more information call the Hearthstone Social Work Department at 402.363.0239. >> Cancer Support Group will meet Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at Willow Brook Assisted Living. For more information call 402.362.4662. WEDNESDAY 2/10 >> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Wednesday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. >> Alcoholics Anonymous - How It Works meets Wednesday at 8 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. THURSDAY 2/11 >> Weight Watchers meets in the basement of the York Towne House, 5th & Grant Ave., each Thursday. Weigh in 5:15 - 5:45 p.m.; Member meeting 5:45 - 6:15 p.m. >> AL-ANON meets Thursday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. >> Narcotics Anonymous meets Thursday at 8 p.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in the Annex building. FRIDAY 2/12 >> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Friday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. >> Alcoholics Anonymous - AWOL Group meets Friday at 8 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. SATURDAY 2/13 >> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Saturday at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. >> Time To Heal - A holistic program designed to help women regain their physical, emotional and spiritual health after breast cancer treatment. Mondays at 8 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. For more information, call Karrie at 402.362.0446 or Barb at 402.362.0411. >> CENTENNIAL Monday, Feb. 8: Beef tips and noodles, corn, peas, whole grain roll Tuesday, Feb. 9: Chicken fajitas, Spanish rice, refried beans Wednesday, Feb. 10: Fish sticks, French fries, coleslaw Thursday, Feb. 11: Homemade Swedish meatballs, mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, whole grain roll Friday, Feb. 12: No school * Milk served daily. A fruit and vegetable bar is available every day. Alternative of chef salad offered daily >> CROSS COUNTY Monday, Feb. 8: Chicken tenders, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, dinner roll Tuesday, Feb. 9: Chili, cinnamon roll, green beans Wednesday, Feb. 10: Breaded cheese ravioli, winterblend vegetables, breadstick Thursday, Feb. 11: Chicken quesadilla, lettuce, fresh vegetables Friday, Feb. 12: No school * Milk served daily. >> EMMANUEL-FAITH LUTHERAN Monday, Feb. 8: Cheese pizza Tuesday, Feb. 9: Minestrone soup Wednesday, Feb. 10: French toast casserole Thursday, Feb. 11: Tuna noodle casserole Friday, Feb. 12: Mucho nachos * Fruit and veggie bar, bread and milk served daily >> EXETER-MILLIGAN Monday, Feb. 8: Whole grain corndog (Exeter), whole grain mini corndog (Milligan), potato, baked bens, whole grain cookie Tuesday, Feb. 9: Whole grain southwest chicken wrap, topping choices, nacho chips and cheese Wednesday, Feb. 10: Whole grain cheese pizza, romaine salad, whole grain blonde brownie Thursday, Feb. 11: Hamburger gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, whole grain dinner roll Friday, Feb. 12: Macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, peas * White, strawberry and chocolate milk, and fruit and veggie bar, served daily. >> FILLMORE CENTRAL Monday, Feb. 8: Chicken leg, mashed potatoes, green beans, peaches, dinner roll Tuesday, Feb. 9: Ham, scalloped potatoes, mixed vegetables, grapes, dinner roll Wednesday, Feb. 10: Fish, fries, baked beans, mandarin oranges Thursday, Feb. 11: Pork rib sandwich, tri taters, pineapple, cookie Friday, Feb. 12: Cheese pizza, lettuce, pears, cookie * Salad bar, fruit, vegetables, milk served daily. >> HEARTLAND Monday, Feb. 8: Barbecued pork sandwich with fries, slushies Tuesday, Feb. 9: Hot dogs, baked beans, steamed broccoli Wednesday, Feb. 10: Pizza, corn, slushies Thursday, Feb. 11: Chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner roll Friday, Feb. 12: No school * Milk and fruit/veggie bar served daily. >> MCCOOL Monday, Feb. 8: Hot dog on a bun, baked beans Tuesday, Feb. 9: Tater tot casserole, green beans, fruit, bread slice Wednesday, Feb. 10: Tuna salad on a bun, fresh carrots, fruit Thursday, Feb. 11: Corndog on a stick, mini corndogs (K-5), corn, cookie, fruit Friday, Feb. 12: Fish sticks (K-5), fish portions (6-12), peas, fruit, bread slice * Milk and salad bar choices offered daily. >> NEBRASKA LUTHERAN Lunch menu Monday, Feb. 8: Tacos, rice, refried beans, corn, peaches Tuesday, Feb. 9: Scalloped potatoes and ham, bread, peas, mandarin oranges Wednesday, Feb. 10: Beef stroganoff, bread, California blend vegetables, pears Thursday, Feb. 11: Pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread, applesauce, carrots Friday, Feb. 12: Chicken casserole, bread, green beans, assorted fruit Supper menu Monday, Feb. 8: Hot dog, French fries, apple crisp Tuesday, Feb. 9: Spaghetti, bread stick, fruit Wednesday, Feb. 10: Popcorn chicken, green beans, cake Thursday, Feb. 11: Shepherds pie, fruit, pudding Friday, Feb. 12: Cooks choice * Salad bar is served with all lunches. Milk and bread are served with all meals. >> ST. JOSEPHS CATHOLIC SCHOOL Monday, Feb. 8: No school Tuesday, Feb. 9: Chili, cinnamon roll Wednesday, Feb. 10: Pizza, ice cream Thursday, Feb. 11: Chicken burrito bar Friday, Feb. 12: Cheese max sticks, marinara sauce * Students in grades 1-8 have choices daily of the entree, yogurt and a side, or chef salad. Fruits and vegetables are offered daily. White, chocolate and strawberry milk are offered daily. Breakfast is also being offered each morning. >> ST. PAUL LUTHERAN Monday, Feb. 8: Pulled pork on whole grain buns Tuesday, Feb. 9: Oriental buffet Wednesday, Feb. 10: Chicken nuggets, whole grain rolls Thursday, Feb. 11: Whole grain pizza Friday, Feb. 12: No school * Fruit and vegetable bar, along with milk, served daily >> YORK ELEMENTARY Monday, Feb. 8: Homestyle cheese quesadilla with chicken enchilada soup or corndog, golden corn Tuesday, Feb. 9: Chicken fajitas or pork fritter sandwich, black beans, gelatin dessert Wednesday, Feb. 10: Baked and breaded fish sandwich or crispy chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and gravy Thursday, Feb. 11: Homestyle spaghetti with meat sauce or crispy chicken sandwich, green beans Friday, Feb. 12: Pizza or taco burger, peas, decorated holiday cookie * Unlimited fruit/vegetable choices, milk offered daily >> YORK MIDDLE SCHOOL Monday, Feb. 8: Homestyle cheese quesadilla and chicken enchilada soup or corndog, golden corn Tuesday, Feb. 9: Pizza or taco burgers, peas, gelatin dessert Wednesday, Feb. 10: Baked breaded fish sandwich or crispy chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and gravy Thursday, Feb. 11: Homestyle spaghetti with meat sauce or crispy chicken sandwich, green beans Friday, Feb. 12: Chicken fajitas or pork fritter sandwich, black beans, decorated holiday cookie * Unlimited fruits, vegetables, and milk offered daily. >> YORK HIGH SCHOOL Monday, Feb. 8: Homestyle cheese quesadillas with chicken enchilada soup or corndog, golden corn Tuesday, Feb. 9: Pizza or taco burger, peas, gelatin dessert Wednesday, Feb. 10: Baked fish and cheese sandwich or crispy chicken nuggets with dinner roll, mashed potatoes with gravy Thursday, Feb. 11: Homestyle spaghetti with meat sauce and bread stick or crispy/spicy chicken sandwich, green beans Friday, Feb. 12: Chicken fajitas or pork fritter sandwich, black beans, decorated holiday cookie * Unlimited fruits, vegetables, and milk offered daily. >> YORK HIGH SCHOOL CRUISIN CAFE Monday, Feb. 8: Italian meatball sub or chicken nuggets, potato salad, Baked Eagle Crisps Tuesday, Feb. 9: Popcorn chicken or pizza, Baked Eagle Crisps Wednesday, Feb. 10: Golden crispy chicken sandwich or bacon cheeseburger, baked beans, Baked Lays chips Thursday, Feb. 11: Buffalo chicken flatbread or bosco sticks with marinara, Baked Lays chips Friday, Feb. 12: Meat and cheese burrito or pizzaburger, Baked Lays chips * This menu is offered in addition/as an alternative to the menu shared with the middle school, for students to grab and go. Meals include fruit choices, fresh vegetables with dips, milk choices and Sunny Delight Group flies final C-130H mission, preps for J-model The 913th Airlift Group flew its final C-130H mission Jan. 28, as the wing prepared to transition to the J-model of the venerable Hercules transporter. This flight means the mission for the 913th has officially changed from the H to the J model, said Lt. Col. Keith Jasmin, chief of current operations for the 913th Operations Support Squadron. Weve been balancing both, but now, we transition to the J.From its modest beginnings in October 2010, as 22nd Air Force Detachment One, the 913 AG has grown from two Airmen to more than 800. The groups personnel flew, maintained and supported the Air Force mission in 14 C-130H Hercules. But no more. Many active and Reserve C-130H aircraft are being replaced by the C-130J Super Hercules, a comprehensive updated version with new engines, flight deck and other systems, all designed to improve performance and save money. Theres a big difference between the H and the J models, said Master Sgt. Josh Burton, 327th Airlift Squadron loadmaster, . The J is mostly computers, and almost all automated, where the legacy, or H, is all hands-on. The 913 AG still has two C-130H aircraft that are being prepared for transfer to other locations. Meanwhile, J-model training for 913th AG personnel continues here -- the only formal training school for the J model. The transition to the J model requires maintainers, pilots, and loadmasters to complete conversion training. The formal schooling process should be completed by September 2016, but aircrews will continue to gain experience and proficiency for about another 18 months. The 913th AG will become a classic associate unit, meaning it will fly and maintain aircraft owed by the active duty. Approximately 55 maintainers from the 50th Maintenance Squadron, who supported the active association, have already been moved back to the 19th Maintenance Group. The 913th AG will be the first C-130J classic association in the Air Force. Once in a similar realm as markets such as Sydney, Canberras real estate has not enjoyed the same trajectory as seen in other areas of Australia recently, but 2016 could be there year that changes as the city begins to evolve. Last year was the year we moved out of neutral, and this is the year I think the market will really begin to kick into gear, Claire Corby, director of Capital Buyers Agency, said. In the past weve tended to follow the Sydney market, but unfortunately that hasnt happened recently. I think the issues we had with the Mr Fluffy asbestos situation probably triggered some of the problems we had, but now were starting to move past that, Corby said. In her opinion, Corby said current buyer confidence on display in Canberra is perhaps the biggest positive for the city. Already this year were starting to see things pick up. At all of the auctions were seeing bids from everybody who has registered, which is different form the last little while, she said. There just seems to be a lot more confidence in the market this time round. We havent seen that recently and its a really big thing. Though she has a differing opinion on the impact Sydneys market performance has on Canberra, Penny Hyde, licensee of Penny Hyde Buyers Agent, agreed that confidence levels in Canberra are higher than they have been in the recent past. I think weve always had our own market in Canberra. There might have been some overspill from Sydney in the past, but I dont think it was what pushed us along, Hyde said. The confidence does seem to be back in the market now though. I think we had a period there where things were put on hold for a little while, but now I think well return to a much more positive period, she said. For Corby, population growth in Canberra and a resulting change in how the city is perceived are behind some of the recent improvements. The population is growing, Canberras almost up to a population of 400,000 and people are starting to realise that its a city that can stand on its own two feet and isnt completely reliant on the government and public service. Right now weve got a new hospital being built and a lot of investment into our road infrastructure and were starting to get more international flights direct to Canberra. With all that happening I think were at the beginning of a new cycle and starting to see the smart money come in. Corby said she is receiving interest from local and interstate clients, many of whom are looking for properties they can add value too. Were still probably a fairly expensive city, for a while our prices were right around Sydneys, but there are pockets where affordability can be found. A lot of the people Im working with want to add something like a granny flat to increase the value. Thats making average family homes, especially originals from the 1970 that have plenty of space pretty popular. Hyde too said she is working with locals and savvy investors from outside Canberra and agreed houses are the popular target. The family style homes are really popular. New build homes and the financial benefit they offer are proving popular, she said. The apartment market, like a lot of places, is terribly flooded. At the moment the only real positive it has is price, and from an investors point of view thats relay not that attractive. Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week! Two cases of Zika virus have been diagnosed in Queensland, Australia. However, health authorities there will intensify testing for the virus because it is carried by Aedes mosquitoes, which are found in that state. Both cases of the virus, which has been linked to serious birth defects, occurred in travelers and were not contracted in Australia. Two residents of Sydney were diagnosed with Zika virus after returning from Haiti and became the first confirmed cases of the disease in Australia this year. A West Australian resident has also tested positive after travel to Central America. Queensland has set aside A$400,000 ($283,000 in US dollars) to increase laboratories. Testing will begin in Townsville, in the northeast of Queensland, on March 1. Money has also been earmarked for a public education campaign in Queensland Advertisement The state is on alert for any entry of Zika virus because the disease is present in Australia's Asian and Pacific neighbors. Ten cases of Zika have been reported in Queensland in the past two years. The state must be prepared for more cases of Zika, said Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick. "At this stage, Zika is not in any mosquitoes in Queensland that we're aware of," Dick said at a news conference. Aedes mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti, are present in north Queensland. This is also the species that can transmit dengue fever. Zika virus has been present in Asia and the Pacific area for some time. It has only been diagnosed in South and Central American for the past several months. Zika has been linked in Brazil to thousands of cases of a birth defect called microcephaly, where the skull and brain are underdeveloped. The link has not been proven, but is considered to be strong enough that countries in Central and South America are warning women to delay pregnancies. The World Health Organization has declared Zika an international public health emergency. There is no vaccine available to combat the virus. New Delhi: Condemning the murder of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Brijnath Singh, Chirag Paswan on Saturday said President's rule is the only option left for Bihar, considering its deteriorating law and order situation. "The grand alliance of the Government of Bihar has been a failure at every step. If the chief minister and the Deputy chief minister are unable to provide a sense of security, then what about the rest of the state? The only option left with us right now is President's rule, because this government is a complete failure at every step," Paswan toldANI. "Brijnath ji was shot dead within 10-15 km of the chief minister's house. He was shot dead only because he and his family fought elections against Lalu ji in the Vidhan Sabha election. I would definitely want to ask the chief minister of Bihar, who also happens to be the Home Minister ofBihar, if this is not political rivalry, then what is?"he added. Paswan further stated that he would raise this issue of the murder in the upcoming session of parliament. Brijnath Singh was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Patna.AK-47 shells were recovered from the spot. Police are investigating the matter. New Delhi: The parents of six-year-old Divyansh on Saturday wrote to HRD Minister Smriti Irani seeking a CBI probe into the death of their child at a school campus in Delhi. "Divyansh's death is too suspicious and the reasons behind his death are still unclear. School authorities have not given us proper information. I am sure of a criminal conspiracy against my child, that has led to his death in the school. I have written a letter to HRD Minister Smriti Irani and have asked for a CBI probe into the matter, " Divyansh's father said. While hinting a possible sodomy in the case, Divyansh's father claimed that injuries were found on the body of his child and accused the school authorities of shielding the accused in the case. "I saw injuries on the private parts of Divyansh which clearly indicates that someone tried to do something wrong with my son. Also, why no CCTV cameras were switched on the day when the incident happened. How did a six-year-old child manage to open a 20-kg lid of the water tank? Why did Divyansh take off his shoes before entering into the reservoir? It clearly points a conspiracy against my child", Divyansh's father said. Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today supported the demand of CBI probe into the death of Divyansh Kakrora and said, "To say that the child was mentally unstable and had the tendency of running away from the classroom, is an irresponsible attitude from the school. Observation made by Divyansh's parents of possible sodomy in the case was completely ignored by the Delhi Police," Sisodia said. Divyansh, a class I student of Ryan International School in Vasant Kunj area, was found dead in a water tank under the school's amphitheatre on January 30, 2016. The Delhi government has already ordered a magisterial probe into the case. Lucknow: Known for making controversial remarks, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Mohd Azam Khan Saturday plumbed new depths when he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. While BJP attacked him, even a Congress spokesperson said attached no importance to it saying it cannot be believed. "Prime Minister visited Pakistan by breaking international laws. He also met Dawood there. Let him (Modi) deny. I will give evidence. Who all did he meet behind closed doors?" Khan said. He said besides Sharif, his mother, his wife and daughters, Dawood Ibrahim was also present when Modi met them at the Pakistan Prime Minister's residence when he went there on December 25 last. BJP's Sudhanshu Mittal asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to "immediately" dismiss the minister. "If Akhilesh means business, he should immediately dismiss him for disturbing communal harmony and brining shame to the nation. I am shocked," he said. Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Khan has been in public life for a long time and he should not have made the statement without substantiating it. "We may have differences with a lot of personalities but that does not mean we believe in whatever is said," he said adding that Khan is the same person who asked UP policemen to trace his buffalo. New Delhi: Almost 23 years after the demolition of Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in December 1992, Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha has decided to file a case against BJP senior leader LK Advani for demolishing the structure. According the news reports, the Hindu right wing organisation is also likely to sue BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, who were present in Ayodhya during the Babri demolition incident. A Hindu Mahasabha leader told that since the demolished structure also had an idol of Lord Rama under the dome, so the BJP leader are also accused of demolishing a temple. While speaking to the Times Of India, Swami Chakrapani, the national president of the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha said, "It was widely accepted that the area under the dome was blessed by Ram Lalla. Yet, BJP leaders incited the mob to break the structure down. The part of the mosque where Muslims used to offer namaaz was not under the dome. But they broke down the entire structure. This would mean that they have broken both a temple and a mosque. They need to be punished for this. They have been claiming to represent the interests of Hindus, but they razed a temple to the ground." However, the Hindu Mahasabha leader also said that the construction of temple at the disputed site was not possible without the cooperation from Muslim brothers. He said that government should provide a separate land for Muslims to build a mosque there. Ahmednagar: In a bid to end the deadlock over allowing women to enter Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra, the District Administration of Ahmednagar called for a meeting on Saturday between protestors and the temple management. The Ahmednagar District Collectorate has reportedly written a letter to Bhumata Brigade, inviting them to discuss the centuries-old ban on female devotees entering the sacred platform, with the shrine authorities. Bhumata Brigade's Trupti Desai, who is leading the protests, told ANI that temple authorities are dominating in name of old traditions. "Temple authorities are dominating in name of old traditions but there is no such tradition that keeps women out of the temple...I am sure Maharashtra Chief Minister will allow women to enter temple again," said Desai. Women members and supporters of the Bhumata Brigade arrived from Pune on January 29 in six buses with an aim to enter the temple's sanctorum where the idol of Lord Shani is placed on an open-air platform. However, the group led by Trupti was stopped from marching towards the temple by police near Supa. They were also detained by police for some time, but released later. After being stopped by the police, Trupti said it was a black day for women as they were being stopped from exercising their rights. The temple drew attention in November 2015 after a woman had offered prayers at the popular shrine in "breach" of age-old practice that prohibits entry of women, after which the temple committee had to suspend seven security men and the villagers to perform purification rituals. The temple attracts millions of tourists and devotees from across the country and abroad. New Delhi: The ongoing row over the entry of women in the Shani Shingnapur Temple at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra is likely to come to an end after both the parties on Saturday agreed to accept the decision of Mahasrashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the issue. Following the meeting with Ahmednagar district administration, activist Trupti Desai , who has been spearheading the protest demanding entry of women inside the temple premises, expressed hope of a positive decision from the Mahasrashtra CM on the issue. "Whatever CM of Maharashtra decides we will go with that, other parties in the issue also agreed to this. It was a positive interaction. Soon women will be allowed inside the temple is what we believe,"said Desai. Earlier on Saturday, the district administration has called a meeting between the protesting women's rights activists from Bhumata Brigade and temple authorities to end the deadlock on the issue. On January 29, members of the Bhumata Brigade tried to forcefully enter the Shani Shingnapur Temple's sanctorum where the idol of Lord Shani is placed on an open-air platform. However, the group led by Desai was stopped from marching towards the temple by police near Supa. They were also detained by police for some time, but released later. The temple drew attention in November 2015 after a woman had offered prayers at the popular shrine in "breach" of age-old practice that prohibits entry of women, after which the temple committee had to suspend seven security men and the villagers to perform purification rituals. The temple attracts millions of tourists and devotees from across the country and abroad. Colombo: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and discussed a host of regional and international issues. Swaraj, who arrived here yesterday on a two-day official visit, had an "excellent meeting" with President Sirisena, Indian High Commissioner to Colombo YK Sinha said. "The President recalled the very warm ties that exist between the two countries build on civilisational links of thousands of years," he said. During an hour-long meeting, the two leaders discussed various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and decisions taken during the previous high-level visits. "They expressed satisfaction at the progress in various projects undertaken by India in Sri Lanka and the President thanked India for its assistance," Sinha said. "President Sirisena briefed the minister on development on regional and international issues. They discussed a host of issues," he said. The two leaders also reviewed the progress made the 9th Joint commission meeting which has held here yesterday. The joint commission was set up in 1992 as a mechanism to address issues of bilateral cooperation. Sirisena recalled with happiness his visit to India in February last year and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip here in March. Swaraj later met former president Chandrika Bhandaranaike Kumaratunga and they discussed the state of bilateral ties. Malerkotla: A 27-year-old mobile shopowner was on Saturday arrested for allegedly selling a SIM card to the suspected spy who was held from Mamoon Cantonment in Pathankot, which was stormed by Pakistani militants. Deepak, the owner of the shop in Ghah Mandi in Malerkotla of Sangrur district, was arrested for selling the SIM card to Irshad on forged documents in December 2014, police said. The documents submitted were in the name of some other person who had not applied for the SIM card which was sold by Deepak for extra money, they said. He has been arrested under the relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, a police official said. Punjab Police had on February 2 arrested Irshad, who was working as a labourer at Mamoon Cantonment area which was stormed by suspected Pakistani militants a month before. Police had recovered a smart phone from him which was containing pictures of vital installations and sensitive equipment in the cantonment area. Irshad, a resident of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, was caught making calls to Pakistan which was traced by intelligence agencies. He was booked under the Official Secrets Act and a case was registered at Shahpur Kandi in Pathankot. According to the police, Irshad was being handled by a person called Sajjad who was earlier stated to have been arrested by J-K police. Sajjad used to collect sensitive information from Irshad and then passed on to his Pakistani handlers. Irshad is currently in police remand till February 10. Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has come under attack from Islamist parties and groups supporting militancy in Kashmir that accused him of being soft on India and advocating peace. The groups led by Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed held a conference outside National Press Club here to mark 'Solidarity Day' with Kashmiris yesterday. It was Saeed's first major public appearance in the capital after three years, showing defiance towards government. While taking to task the government, Saeed praised army chief General Raheel Sharif. "The Prime Minister is bound to follow the path of Quaid-i-Azam (Mohammad Ali Jinnah), Liaquat Ali Khan and the founding fathers. He should not betray the Kashmir cause," Saeed said. He asked Sharif to own the "Kashmir cause" and praised the United Jihad Council (UJC) which had claimed the Pathankot attack. "They (UJC) came to the rescue of Pakistan after the Pathankot attack and it is time that we too own the Kashmiris," Saeed said. He also stated that the army chief was right when he said "Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition". Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil of Ansarul Ummah, Mian Aslam of Jamaat-i-Islami, Senate Deputy Chairman and central leader of JUI-F Abdul Ghafoor Haidary and a former legal aide of former president general Parvez Musharraf -- Ahmad Raza Kasuri -- also participated in the conference. Haidary said there could be no peace in the region without resolution of the Kashmir issue. "Both India and Pakistan are pitching their resources in defence while hundreds and thousands of citizens do not have food and shelter," he said. Criticising Pakistan, Kasuri said the country had confined the Kashmir cause to a ceremonial day only. "We need to look ahead and after developing a consensus among political parties there should be a full-fledged assault by Foreign Office against India," he said. Dawn reported that not only was the conference heavily attended by workers and followers of JuD, it also showcased the high degree of technical advancements made by the group. JuD security personnel stationed at various positions wore jackets of different colours -- clearly defining their duties. Last year, only a few rallies were organised to mark the Kashmir Day and JuD held a rally from Zero Point to Aabpara chowk led by its leader Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki who criticised the UN and the US for their indifferent attitude towards alleged Indian human rights violations in Kashmir. Islamabad: Pakistan said as many Taliban groups as possible must be persuaded to join any upcoming peace discussions with the Afghan government, as a third round of four-country talks aimed at reviving negotiations with the insurgent group began Saturday. Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States convened in the Pakistani capital Islamabad over the weekend even as the insurgents wage an unprecedented winter campaign of violence across Afghanistan. Pakistan`s advisor for foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said a joint effort would help persuade the Taliban to join the process and lead to a "significant" reduction in violence. "We believe our collective efforts at this stage, including through supportive CBMs (Confidence Building Measures), have to be aimed at persuading the maximum number of Taliban groups to join the peace talks," Aziz said during his opening statement at the third-round of talks on Saturday. "In our view, a clear, well-defined and actionable roadmap for the peace process between the Afghan Government and Taliban groups is important." The first round of the roadmap talks was held in Islamabad last month, where delegates began laying the groundwork for direct dialogue between Kabul and the Islamist group. A second round was held in Kabul on January 18 which urged the Taliban groups to enter into early talks with the Afghan government without preconditions. Taliban representatives have been notably absent during the process and analysts caution that any substantive talks are still a long way off. The Taliban has stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets in Afghanistan this winter, when fighting usually abates, underscoring a worsening security situation. Observers say the intensifying insurgency highlights a push by the militants to seize more territory in an attempt to wrangle greater concessions during talks. Pakistan -- the Taliban`s historic backers -- hosted a milestone first round of talks directly with the Taliban in July last year. But the negotiations stalled when the insurgents belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar, sparking infighting within the group. Afghanistan sees the support of Pakistan as vital to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Wellington: Dildo throwing is not a good look for New Zealand and an "appalling way" to behave on the country`s national day, Prime Minister John Key said Saturday, angered by an attack on a senior government minister. Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce was hit in the face by a pink dildo thrown at him by a protester during national day celebrations in the northern town of Waitangi on Friday. "It`s appalling because that image has gone around the world and there are now people in countries all over the world saying the way New Zealanders theoretically commemorate or celebrate their national day is with a senior politician having a sex toy thrown at them," Key said. "That`s the way now that people from overseas are viewing how we have a celebration on our national day. It just isn`t the right image for New Zealand." Key added that the protest was "crude and basic" on what should be a family occasion. Waitangi is traditionally the centre of New Zealand`s national day as the town where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British Crown and indigenous Maori in 1840, paving the way for European colonisation. However, celebrations are often marred by protests with Key refusing to attend this year because of fears of violence. cf/mfc/jom In a state whose motto is "Live Free or Die," New Hampshire, `s primary Tuesday is do or die for Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush. "I don`t really follow the pundits because it`s not good for my health," joked the former Florida governor in a question and answer session with voters in a school cafeteria Friday. "I know I`ve been written off," said Bush, who must beat his establishment rivals next week or consider giving up. "You know what gives me confidence? New Hampshire," he added to huge applause. Bush`s campaign sees the state as critical to his path to the nomination. Finishing strong after the Iowa caucuses, where he placed a disappointing sixth with 2.8 percent of the vote, is imperative. The son and brother of two US presidents, Bush cracked jokes at the expense of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and delighted a friendly crowd drawn by his pedigree, moderate conservatism and experience. He admitted he may not be the best debater, but said he has the best temperament, experience and knowledge to be commander-in-chief. If he falters, experts warn, Bush would confirm the narrative painted by critics: that he is a tarnished candidate unable to generate enthusiasm for yet another Bush presidency amid the current appetite for outsiders like Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. To bounce back after stumbles in the first two states would be a herculean task for the 62-year-old. "This is a big deal folks. New Hampshire has a chance to reset this race," Lindsey Graham, Republican former senator for South Carolina, told the standing-room-only crowd in the Concord school. "I hope you will take the chance to give Jeb some momentum because we need it." Senator and Florida rival Marco Rubio, has tagged Bush "desperate," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called him "fake" and Trump infamously labeled Bush a "low-energy" loser whose supporters are spending mountains of money to no avail. "I wouldn`t say desperation, but there`s serious concern" in the Bush camp, professor Linda Fowler of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, an expert on US elections, told AFP. Mired in single-digit support, squeezed into a crowded establishment lane with two governors including Christie and Ohio`s John Kasich, and his measured tone overwhelmed by the loud rhetoric of the 2016 presidential race, Bush faces a steep climb out of irrelevance. He is running fifth in New Hampshire, at 9.7 percent, but polls at just half that nationally, according to the latest RealClearPolitics poll averages. "I think the press in a way have almost killed Jeb`s campaign," said David Stotler, a teacher from Sutton, New Hampshire. "I think on the news he plays well to these small audiences," he said. "But for the debate stage and the television audience, I don`t think he has the killer instinct." Bush steps back onto the stage Saturday for the last Republican debate before the primary -- potentially crucial when the latest Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll says a third of likely Republican voters could still change their mind. Deep-pocketed supporters have poured $100 million into the Bush machinery, but their investment is under severe threat. Rumors have swirled of donors bailing on Bush and switching to the more telegenic Rubio, who beat expectations in Iowa and finished third, one point behind Trump. At least one Bush backer, Nevada assemblyman David Gardner, has publicly switched his endorsement to Rubio. Eager to stop the bleeding, the popular family matriarch Barbara Bush, 90, campaigned Friday with her second son in New Hampshire. In an interview on CBS News with Jeb at her side, she said her son was "almost too polite," suggesting he needed to toughen up. "I don`t advise him, but if I gave him advise, I would say: `Why don`t you interrupt like the other people do`" during the debates, she said. "I`ve gotten better at interrupting, mom. Come on," Jeb responded. It was a telling moment for Bush, who has been singled out for appearing awkward on the campaign trail. Bush is under intense pressure to up his game, but the immediate challenge is to outperform establishment rivals Christie and Kasich in New Hampshire -- in which case his campaign has every chance of remaining viable heading into the next contest, in South Carolina. "I think I might vote for Jeb," Kevin Malvey, a radio DJ, told AFP after attending Concord`s town hall. "I think for Jeb Bush to move on he has to be in the top three in New Hampshire," he said. "I think he can. I sense some momentum." Beirut: Syria `s mainstream rebels risk total collapse after a Russian-backed regime advance that severed their main supply line to Aleppo city and threatens to leave them completely besieged there. Analysts said rebels and their international backers were left with few options to prevent fresh government advances, which came as fresh peace talks backed by the United Nations fell apart. "The trajectory for the rebels is downwards, and the downward slope is increasingly steep," said Emile Hokayem, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Aleppo province was once a rebel stronghold, providing easy access to neighbouring Turkey, a key opposition backer. The city itself has been divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012. But government forces have steadily chipped away at rebel-held territory around the city, and their advances this week leave the opposition there virtually surrounded. "It is a turning point in the war," said Fabrice Balanche, a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute think tank. "The opposition wanted to make Aleppo and (neighbouring) Idlib province the base of a `free Syria`. That`s over." The advance is the most significant outcome yet of the Russian intervention that began on September 30, ostensibly targeting the Islamic State group and other "terrorists". Analysts and activists say Russia`s strikes have always disproportionately targeted non-jihadist rebels in an attempt to bolster President Bashar al-Assad`s government."Aleppo is simply the first dramatic display of how the combination of Russian air power and advisers has been able to make up for the regime`s relatively low capabilities and manpower shortage," said Faysal Itani, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council`s Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East. Opposition forces and some 350,000 civilians inside rebel-held Aleppo city now face the prospect of a government siege, a tactic that has been employed to devastating effect against other former rebel strongholds such as Homs. "A good deal of both (rebels and civilians) will die from bombardment, starvation and the general deprivations of siege," said Itani. "The fighters inside will be killed or forced to surrender," he added, predicting fresh waves of refugees. There was already evidence of a new unfolding humanitarian disaster, with tens of thousands of people reportedly fleeing the government advance and massing on the border with Turkey seeking entry. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria`s conflict since March 2011, with half the country`s population displaced internally or abroad. Activists said the opposition felt betrayed, reporting that weapon supplies from international backers had dried up in advance of the Geneva peace talks, despite stepped-up Russia military action. "What frustrates the rebels the most is that the countries that claim to be their friends are happy with empty words and sitting on the fence," said activist Maamoun al-Khatib, head of the Shabha press agency in Aleppo. "Meanwhile Russia and Iran are occupying and violating Syrian territory."Experts said the rebels had few options left. "There is not much manpower to spare as other rebel areas are also under pressure and this would not address the issue of enemy air power," said Itani. Syria`s rebels have long sought anti-aircraft weaponry from international backers, but Washington has held back for fear they would end up in the hands of jihadists such as Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front or even the Islamic State group. Some rebels, feeling betrayed by their international backers, may now throw their lot in with jihadist groups, Hokayem warned. Syria`s regime, meanwhile, bolstered by Russia and Shiite fighters from Lebanon`s Hezbollah movement and elsewhere, is likely to consolidate its hold over "useful Syria" -- the densely populated west and coast of the country. "What the Russians and Assad are doing is they want to control western Syria and leave the Americans to deal with the jihadist monster in eastern Syria," where IS is most powerful, Hokayem said. "And it`s working." The rebel losses came as peace talks in Geneva collapsed, but analysts said they had always been doomed to fail. They said Russia`s intervention and the latest advances had emboldened the regime to resist any concessions, and made it impossible for the opposition to negotiate. "Those who wanted to negotiate at Geneva would be accused of treachery, even more so given the results," said Balanche. The UN`s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura insisted this week that the talks had not failed, and were only on hold until a new session scheduled for February 25. Hokayem said the process was little more than "a show", but would limp on without achieving results. "The US is happy having a process and is happy hiding behind that." sah/srm Damascus: Russian and Syrian government forces on Saturday intensified an assault on rebel-held areas around the Syrian city of Aleppo that has prompted tens of thousands to flee to the Turkish border to seek refuge. The assault around Aleppo, which aid workers have said could soon fall to government forces, helped to torpedo Syrian peace talks in Geneva this week. Russia`s intervention has tipped the balance of the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad, reversing gains the rebels made last year. Any hopes of a ceasefire were dampened by Assad`s foreign minister, who said it would be all but impossible to stop the fighting while rebels were able to pass freely across the borders with Turkey and Jordan. Taking full control of Aleppo, Syria`s largest city before the civil war erupted five years ago, would be a huge strategic prize for Assad`s government in a conflict that has killed at least 250,000 people across the country and driven 11 million from their homes. Advances by the Syrian army and allied militias, including Iranian fighters, are threatening to cut off rebel-held zones of the city, still home to around 350,000 people, while more than a million live in government-controlled areas. Mevlut Cavusoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, which has already taken in 2.5 million Syrians, said up to 55,000 were now fleeing to the frontier. CAMPS ON SYRIAN SIDE Cavusoglu said the border was open, but at the Oncupinar crossing near the Turkish city of Kilis, which has been largely shut for nearly a year, refugees were being shepherded into camps on the Syrian side. The local governor on the Turkish side of the border, Suleyman Tapsiz, said around 35,000 Syrians had reached Oncupinar in the space of 48 hours. "Our doors are not closed, but at the moment there is no need to host such people inside our borders," he said. A Turkish aid official said the refugees on the Syrian side were safe and being given food. One camp was teeming with women and small children, some of whom carried bottles of water or played in the mud. Some of the tents were ripped and dirty while others, provided by a Turkish aid organisation, appeared new. One refugee, Muhammed Idris, said he had fled from the nearby Syrian town of Azaz, counting on the open-door policy touted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. After four days, he was still waiting to get in. "Before, Tayyip Erdogan was saying on TV that Syria and Turkey are brothers, but now he is not opening the doors," he told Reuters. "Our houses are destroyed and we came to his house. Where else should we go?" A Reuters reporter at Oncupinar could hear occasional shelling and saw several Turkish ambulances cross the border. On the Turkish side, dozens of refugees who had already made it in queued up to beg the authorities to allow their relatives in, or to cross the border in the hope of bringing them back. "THOUSANDS WAITING" Sitting in his car with his four children just inside Turkey, Ahmet Sadul, 43, was hoping to get back into Syria to look for relatives from Azaz. "Now there are thousands of people from Azaz all waiting on the other side. They escaped from the Russians. I want to go and get my relatives. They are bombing Syrians all the time." "Many people have left Aleppo. But still there are many civilians there. If Russia is successful, we are all dead." Russia denies targeting civilians and says its actions are aimed at shoring up Syria`s legitimate government and combating terrorism. The West and Turkey, which want Assad to step down, accuse Moscow of using indiscriminate force. Syria has been emboldened by Russia`s intervention. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told a news conference on Saturday that Damascus would resist anyone who launched a ground incursion into its territory. "Those (who do so) will return to their countries in coffins," he said, adding that no ceasefire would be possible unless borders were sealed. The comments appeared to be aimed at Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which said this week they were ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria that the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq decided to mount. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collates witness reports, said fighting continued in areas north of Aleppo, and that government and allied forces were also attacking villages to the east of the city and to the southwest, around the main highway to Damascus. Chip Wilson says Vancouver-based company is now 'back on track.' Entrepreneur wants to spend time on a new apparel venture Chip Wilson, the Lululemon founder who has a chronic case of foot-in-mouth disease, had another flare up this week. In an interview with a New York Times reporter, the 60-year old Vancouver-based billionaire shamed her in front of his staff for being 15 minutes late to a breakfast meeting, inferring that it was an example of Jewish Standard Time. He would go on to remark about the company around the table - all young women, most of them employees - highlighting the beautiful girl I get to sit beside. Sigh. Okay, Chip. This isnt the first time hes said something inappropriate. He resigned from his own company in 2013 after stock prices tanked when he suggested that Lululemons yoga pants dont work for some womens bodies. The company later recalled about 17 per cent of its pants because they were too transparent. Wilsons misadventures had us looking back at other blunders CEOs have made in public. Dov Charney is the Montreal-born founder and former CEO of clothing chain American Apparel, notable for making its clothing in the U.S., offering fair wages healthcare to workers and and avoided outsourcing production to sweatshops. Laudable achievements, but Charney is also famous for a series of sexual harassment lawsuits that eventually let to him leaving the company in 2014. He is known for walking around only in skimpy underwear in front of employees and even masturbating as many as eight times in front of a Jane reporter interviewing him in 2004, and there are claims he referred to women as whores and sluts. I frequently drop my pants to show people my new product, said Charney. There are almost endless accounts of his bad behaviour. Here are nine examples in GQ magazine of things he has allegedly said to employees that wed prefer not to repeat. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, came under fire in 2014 for suggesting at an event for women in computing that for women, not asking for a raise was good karma. Its not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along, he said. Story continues He later wrote a message to Microsoft staff saying that he was wrong, and that If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask. Peter Nygard, the Finnish-Canadian founder of Canadian womens clothing manufacturer Nygard International, has been a controversial figure for many years. In the late 1990s he paid to settle three sexual harassment complaints filed by former employees with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and he has faced a decades-long trail of legal controversies. He has sued people who have accused him of abusive labor practices, tax evasion, sexual harassment and rape, as explained by Forbes. The magazine reports that a former business partner claims he said No one has ever disobeyed my orders and gotten away with it! Tony Hayward was replaced in 2010 as CEO of BP, the oil company responsible for discharging the equivalence of 4.9 million barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, a spill which continued for 87 days. "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume, Hayward said, attempting to explain the significance of the spill. He would go on to acknowledge that "we made a few little mistakes early on and that Theres no one who wants this thing over more than I do, Id like my life back. For Hayward, having his life back meant racing on his yacht, pictured above, while he proceeded to do anyway while workers were still scrambling to curtail the the spill. Gay rights groups were outraged by the anti-gay statements of Guido Barilla, CEO of his eponymously named pasta company Barilla. Grocery shoppers were encouraged to boycott the products after he told an Italian radio station that he would never use a gay family in his companys advertising campaigns. I would never do (a commercial) with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we dont agree with them. Ours is a classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role, Barilla said. In an interview with National Public Radio, Volkswagen AG CEO Matthias Muller said It was an ethical problem? I cannot understand why you say that. Turns out it was an ethical problem, the company was found to have cheated on emissions tests to make the cars appear more environmentally friendly than they are. Evan Spiegel, Snapchat co-founder and CEO, likely regrets some emails he sent as a frat brother at Stanford. The emails, talking about getting girls drunk to have sex, were outed by a Gawker blog. However gay rights group protested loudly, and Lisa Henson, CEO of the the Jim Henson Company, said that her company would no longer partner with the company on licensing deals for kids meal toys. Chairman Ed Burkhardt, Chairman of Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, said when youre exhausted youll always sleep, when asked how do you sleep at night? by a reporter. His company was the focus of intense scrutiny in the face of the 2013 Lac-Megantic tragedy, in which 47 people were killed when one of the companys trains plowed into the centre of the Quebec town. Burkhardt says the comments were taken out of context. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina's Finance Secretary Luis Caputo said he was returning to Buenos Aires from New York where he held groundbreaking talks this week with creditors suing the South American country over unpaid debt. Caputo made a proposal earlier on Friday to creditors that, if accepted, could end their decade-long battle in U.S. courts with Argentina and enable the country to re-enter global credit markets. The Finance Secretary spoke to reporters after leaving the offices of the U.S. courted-appointed mediator Daniel Pollack. (Reporting by Daniel Bases; Writing by Sarah Marsh) Rumble This video shows the incredible behaviour of a caring mother elephant on high alert, quickly stopping her adorable baby which was curiously straying away from her towards a vehicle full of safari tourists. Going on safari in the Kruger National Park is a life changing experience. Driving around multiple tarred roads, slowly scanning a massive area of wilderness is all part of the thrill. You never know what will be around the next corner or what animal will suddenly appear from the bush onto the road. Its an exciting experience and one of the must-see animals for most tourists are elephants. Not only are they the largest land mammals on our planet and fairly intimidating, elephants are also one of the most intelligent and emotionally intelligent animals that roam this planet. Seeing these giants in the wild is always a sight to remember. The video shows an incredible moment filmed in the Kruger National Park when a safari vehicle full of tourists found a large elephant cow and her adorable calf next to the road. The safari vehicle stopped and it looked like the mother elephant and her baby wanted to cross the road. The baby elephant was the cutest thing alive in the wild right at that moment. While the elephant cow remained focussed on crossing the road, her baby took notice of the safari vehicle and curiously started straying away from its mother towards the vehicle. The caring mother elephant immediately went into high alert and quickly took her trunk and stopped her baby from going any closer to the safari vehicle. The mother elephant gently used her trunk to guide her baby back and into the right direction. It was incredible to see how quickly the elephant cow became protective over her baby. The elephant calf listened to its mother and in a well-behaved manner, walking on the opposite side of its mother, continued to focus and follow its mother as it should. This is crucial for the survival of the calf in the wild. The gestation period of an elephant is twenty-two months, so it is very understandable that an elephant calf is seen as a huge investment and there will always be a mother around, ready to protect her calf from any potential danger. Even though the tourists were not a direct threat, the mother elephant knows all to well that there are humans that still pose a danger for them in the wild. The mother of such a small calf is definitely not something to mess with at all and its best never to get too close to a mother and her calf. By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain's European partners voiced reservations but no outright rejection of a draft deal to meet its demands for reformed EU membership terms on Friday when negotiators from the 28-nation bloc met for the first time to discuss the text, diplomats said. London's bid to win exemption from the European Union goal of "ever closer union", preserve its financial sector from regulation by the euro zone and curb access to in-work benefits for EU migrant workers won backing from Poland as the meeting of national negotiators - or sherpas - began in Brussels. The powerful leader of Warsaw's new ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said after meeting British Prime Minister David Cameron that he was satisfied that the proposals would protect the rights of some 600,000 Polish workers already in Britain. Brussels set out a plan this week to deliver on changes requested by Cameron to enable him to campaign for continued EU membership when Britons vote in a referendum, possibly as soon as June. The British leader faces an uphill struggle according to an opinion poll on Friday that gave campaigners for a British exit from the bloc a nine-point lead, and he is under pressure at home to secure stronger assurances. FAIR, BUT A TOUGH ASK? As negotiators crunched details of the proposal laid out by European Council President Donald Tusk, other countries were keen to spell out the limits of what they could accept. "Initial reactions from capitals to Tusk's proposal showed that nobody is happy, which is a sign that the proposal is fair and balanced, but could also be a sign that it could be hard to agree," one EU diplomat said. Another said France wanted guarantees that arrangements to reassure non-euro member Britain that the 19-nation zone would not impose rules on countries that keep their national currency would not give such states the right to block decisions taken within the single currency bloc. The second source said Tusk had secured French President Francois Hollande's agreement to the formulation on the euro zone before issuing the draft document. But the negotiators would now have to examine the text "comma by comma". The proposal would allow Britain to have different bank capital rules, a fact that caused the European Banking Authority watchdog to warn on Friday that the deal risked distorting competition. London also would be allowed to freeze in-work benefits for new migrants, a move seen as discriminatory and initially causing uproar in several eastern EU members from which many people have emigrated to Britain since 2004 in search of better jobs and lives. But Poland, by far the biggest source of migrant labor, has reoriented its foreign policy after a eurosceptic government took power in November. Its foreign minister last week named Britain, rather than Germany, as Warsaw's top ally in Europe. The negotiations have focused on finding technical formulas to meet London's demands without explicitly violating EU law in order to prevent a "Brexit", which would be an unprecedented setback after decades of European integration. But some diplomats are concerned that the draft undermines the founding principles of the bloc. "We won't pick a fight but really if this goes through, this is the end of the EU as we know it," said one diplomat involved in the process. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels, Yves Clarisse in Paris, Paul Carrel and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Editing by Paul Taylor and John Stonestreet) By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it stands ready to help sub-Saharan Africa's oil exporters cope with plunging crude prices and growing fiscal pressures but has not received any new funding requests from the region. Nigeria and Angola instead have turned to the World Bank for assistance, even though the IMF is typically viewed as the world's go-to crisis lender. Facing an estimated $15 billion budget deficit in 2016, Nigeria's finance ministry has said it is looking to borrow as much as $5 billion. It has held discussions with the World Bank, African Development Bank and China's Export-Import Bank due to their "concessionary rates of interest." The World Bank is discussing potential financing for Nigeria and Angola through a program to support structural changes in an emerging market country's economy and government institutions. The two sub-saharan African countries are the latest in what may become a long line of oil-exporting countries to seek financial assistance to help stem growing deficits as falling crude prices crush revenues. The IMF and World Bank are already talking to Azerbaijan about a $4 billion financing package. On Tuesday, U.S. crude fell back below $30 a barrel, half its price in June 2015 and down from about $100 two years ago. "The sharp decline in oil prices represents a formidable shock on the oil exporting countries of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in view of their strong reliance on oil receipts for fiscal and external revenues," an IMF spokeswoman said in a statement. The IMF noted that despite rising deficits, several of these countries still have adequate foreign exchange reserves and low levels of overall debt. This would suggest that a balance-of-payments crisis is not imminent. When IMF managing director Christine Lagarde visited Nigeria in January to meet new President Muhammadu Buhari, she insisted that she was not there to negotiate a loan program.. "With the exception of Chad, which already had a program in place with the IMF prior to the oil price shock, we have not received any new request for financial assistance from sub-Saharan African oil exporters," the IMF spokeswoman added. "We indeed stand ready to assist the authorities, should such a request materialize." Although wealthier Gulf oil producers are expected to fare better due to deeper reserves, the IMF issued a warning last week to Bahrain that it, too should cut deficits now reaching 15 percent of economic output, which have weakened investor sentiment. (Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) The families of six Quebecers killed in a terrorist attack last month in Burkina Faso were joined by hundreds of people including the prime minister at funerals in Quebec City on Saturday. So many people had gathered at the Tres-Saint-Sacrement Church in Ste-Foy that mourners were left standing at the back, with dozens more spilling out onto the street. Seven doves one for each victim and one as a symbol of peace were released following the ceremony. The afternoon service was held for five of the victims. They included four members of the same family Yves Carrier, 65, Gladys Chamberland, 54, their son Charles-Elie Carrier, 21, and Yves' daughter Maude, 37 as well as a close family friend Louis Chabot, 53. A private funeral was held in the morning for Suzanne Bernier, 66, at the Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin Church. That funeral also drew several hundred mourners. The families of the victims were visibly moved by the number of people who turned out to pay their respects. "It gives us courage," said Louise Carrier, Yves's sister. "It allows us to continue." Trudeau attends funerals Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended both ceremonies. He was joined by a number of other Quebec politicians, including federal Families Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and the local member of Parliament, Joel Lightbound. Quebec's minister of international relations, Christine St-Pierre, also took part in the ceremonies. She told reporters the Quebec government was helping the families by serving as a go-between with federal authorities. All six victims were dining together in Burkina Faso's capital city of Ouagadougou last month when jihadist attackers linked to al-Qaeda stormed the Splendid Hotel and nearby Cappuccino Cafe. They were among 30 people killed during a siege that lasted 12 hours. From Burkina Faso to Quebec City Some of those who attended Saturday afternoon's joint funeral flew all the way from Burkina Faso. Story continues Sister Ines Kolesnore met Yves Carrier on his first trip to the African nation almost a decade ago. "We cared for each other and for me, accompanying them to their final resting place shows how much we loved each other," Kolesnore said. Kolesnore and a bishop from Burkina Faso both spoke during the funeral this afternoon. The Carrier family said that anyone who wishes to make a donation can give to Casira, a non-profit organization that does humanitarian work in developing nations, including Burkina Faso. Potential controversy Some observers had speculated that Trudeau's presence at the funerals had the potential to be controversial. About one week after the attacks, the husband of Maude Carrier hung up on Trudeau when the prime minister phoned him. Yves Richard, the husband of Maude Carrier, told Montreal radio station 98.5 FM on Jan. 21 he was frustrated in the hours after the tragedy with what he called Global Affairs Canada's lack of tact and empathy. "My prime minister called me and began speaking in such a canned manner, wishing me good luck, offering me his condolences and talking about them as a source of Canadian pride," he said. "That's when I told him to stop his political blabbing. If he's going to call me, then at least he should know who the Carriers are. It wasn't out of Canadian pride that they were doing what they were doing, but rather because they were basically good people ... I hung up on him and it felt good." Correction : An earlier version of this article said Joel Lightbound was a member of the National Assembly. In fact, he is a Member of Parliament.(Feb 06, 2016 11:27 AM) Correction : An earlier version of this article said Jean-Yves Duclos was the Quebec family minister. In fact, he is the federal minister of families, children and social development.(Feb 06, 2016 10:40 AM) By David Ingram and Jilian Mincer (Reuters) - An aggressive legal strategy pursued by U.S. women's healthcare provider Planned Parenthood may have been critical in turning the tables on opponents who were seeking to prosecute it in Texas for allegedly profiting from sales of aborted fetal tissue. In a surprise move disclosed on Monday, a grand jury in Harris County not only cleared Planned Parenthood's Gulf Coast affiliate but also indicted the two anti-abortion activists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, who had prompted the probe in the first place. They have both been charged with using fake driver's licenses and Daleiden for violating Texas' prohibition on the purchase and sale of human organs - the same law he accused Planned Parenthood of breaking - when he sent an email to Planned Parenthood seeking to buy fetal tissue. Their lawyers say they have done nothing wrong. Planned Parenthood's legal strategy was in some ways similar to how corporations facing major white-collar criminal investigations often cooperate closely with prosecutors to try to influence the outcome. From the start, Planned Parenthood and its Houston lawyer Josh Schaffer settled on a strategy of cooperating with investigators, said Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for the affiliate. It included volunteering documents and encouraging prosecutors to interview employees, as well as giving prosecutors tours of the Houston facility, according to Schaffer. "We certainly began the process as suspects of a crime, and the tables got turned and we ended up victims of a crime," Schaffer told Reuters in an interview. Schaffer was retained by Planned Parenthood last summer when Texas officials demanded it face a criminal investigation after the anti-abortion activists posted videos online purporting to show the organization's employees discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue, which is illegal in the United States if done for a profit. The videos produced by Daleiden's Center for Medical Progress were secretly filmed at Planned Parenthood clinics, such as its Houston facility, and including at least one conversation in a restaurant. Planned Parenthood said it has done nothing wrong and commissioned an outside study that said the videos had been deceptively edited. According to Planned Parenthood, officials have cleared it of wrongdoing in 12 U.S. states in the wake of the allegations. STARTED A DIALOGUE Schaffer said very soon after he was hired he began a dialogue with prosecutors in Harris County, which includes much of Houston, about the details of the case, and kept that going throughout. The office of Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson declined an interview request. Anderson said in a statement on Monday: "All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case." A Republican who has been the Houston area's prosecutor since 2013, Anderson last summer pledged a "thorough investigation" and a prosecution to the full extent of the law "should we find that laws were broken." Campaign material from her 2014 race for district attorney described her as a "proud, pro-life Texan mother of two." Although what happened during the grand jury's secret deliberations may never be known, Schaffer said it did not vote on whether to indict Planned Parenthood. That is because the grand jurys focus shifted to a case against the anti-abortion campaigners, Schaffer said on a conference call with reporters, citing information he said he received from a prosecutor. Planned Parenthood said that Daleiden and Merritt used fake driver's licenses in April 2015 when they posed as executives from a fictitious company to secretly film conversations at the Houston facility. That led to the charges they used fake government documents with the intent to defraud. One critical juncture in the case may have occurred when Planned Parenthood gave law enforcement an important tip: Merritt's true name, according to Schaffer. Her identity remained unknown from the time she visited Planned Parenthood with a fake California driver's license until about December when Daleiden revealed it during a deposition as part of a separate civil lawsuit in state court in Los Angeles, Schaffer said. As part of his strategy, Schaffer said he explicitly pushed prosecutors to charge Daleiden and Merritt. "I made the argument regarding the charges that the grand jury returned," Schaffer said in the interview, "but I did not have to make them very forcefully because it was self-evident to the prosecutors that they engaged in this conduct." PROTECTING SOURCES Peter Breen, a lawyer on Daleiden's defense team, said the grand jury misapplied Texas law, indicting the two under an anti-fraud statute meant to be used against identity thieves, not against people trying to uncover wrongdoing. Terry Yates, a Houston lawyer representing Merritt and Daleiden, told reporters the grand jurys indictments are legally and factually insufficient and are not going to hold up under the weight of the law. Daleiden, who says he uses journalistic techniques, could not have cooperated with Texas authorities as extensively as Planned Parenthood without surrendering his rights as an investigator, Breen said. He needed to protect his sources and methods, including Merritts name, and he posted what relevant information he had online, the attorney said. "Numerous law enforcement and legislative bodies across the country have reached out to David," Breen said. "He has done everything he can to cooperate with their investigations." Breen said he did not want to speculate as to why an investigation that began focused on Planned Parenthood suddenly turned on its accusers instead, but he said the district attorney should use her authority to drop the charges. (Reporting by David Ingram and Jilian Mincer in New York; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin; and Ruthy Munoz in Houston; Editing by Amy Stevens and Martin Howell) Members of a Regina family say their dream vacation in Cuba "turned into a nightmare". Kelly Morrison, her husband Steve, and their two children, stayed at the Memories Resort in Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2. "Everything was great for the first few days," Kelly Morrison said in a news release. "That all changed, however, last Saturday." On the morning of Jan. 30, Morrison opened their hotel room safe and found her wedding rings and money were nowhere to be found. She said about $170 Cdn and 130 Cuban convertible pesos (worth slightly less than $200 Cdn.) was missing. When Morrison reported it as a theft to the hotel staff, they were told to fill out a report. That's when Morrison said she was interviewed by the resort's staff. "Rather than an interview, it became an interrogation," she said. "It was clear they didn't believe our story. They thought we made up the whole thing." Morrison said security staff at the resort then went to their hotel room to search the family's belongings. The missing items were not found. According to Morrison, they were then told by the resort staff to leave everything in their rooms, including their passports. The family was moved to another part of the resort. After a few hours of waiting, Morrison said the resort told the family they could move back to their room and get their belongings, but only if they withdrew their statement alleging a theft from their safe. "Obviously, they were only interested in keeping this incident quiet, rather than helping us," Morrison said. "They refused to believe anyone else was in our room. They even threatened to kick us out of the hotel if we 'made a scene' and told other guests about what happened." When Morrison reached the Canadian embassy in Varadero, Cuba, they were told it would be best to retract their statement. After the less-than-relaxing winter getaway, Morrison said it's not the missing money that bothers her the most. Story continues "I'm more upset about the loss of my three rings, including my wedding and engagement bands," she said. "But worst of all, by far, is the way we were treated. Obviously, I would advise everyone to stay as far away as possible from Memories Santa Maria. I guarantee we'll be choosing another destination for our next family vacation." On their next family vacation, Morrison said the family will also be leaving their valuable belongings at home. CBC contacted the resort for comment, and the company said it will be issuing a statement later today. Resort and Sunwing Vacations respond Sunwing Vacations, which Morrison travelled with, replied to CBC in an email. It said a destination representative assisted Morrison from the time it was reported, to the time of her departure. "Unfortunately Sunwing cannot assume responsibility for items which are lost or stolen in destination, but our destination services team acts as an advocate on behalf of the customer to work towards the best possible outcome for any matter which is reported to us," the email reads. A spokesperson with Blue Diamond Resorts also emailed CBC, saying there is a protocol to be followed every time a customer reports a theft. This includes "clearing and documenting the scene, pulling and reviewing the relevant activity logs on the door and/or safety deposit box, filling out an incident report, contacting the destination representative from their tour operator, and involving the local authorities." "We are very apologetic for the situation," the email reads. "But the matter was turned over to the local authorities, with whom we've fully cooperated." Correction : An earlier version of this story said 130 Cuban pesos (approximately $7 Cdn.) was missing. CBC was told Kelly Morrison was using the Cuban peso. In fact it was the Cuban convertible peso, which would convert to slightly less than $200 Cdn. (Feb 05, 2016 8:25 PM) Ground crew members escort a Boeing 737 MAX as it returns from a flight test at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Redmond (Reuters) By Alwyn Scott SEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state lawmakers voted down a bill on Friday that would have linked billions of dollars in state tax breaks to Boeing Co employment levels. The 7-8 vote in the House Finance committee means the measure will not advance to a floor vote. The credits, which the state estimated to be worth nearly $9 billion over 16 years, are expected to generate an estimated $21 billion in state tax revenue from increased economic activity. Boeing said it was pleased with the decision, calling it "a crucial victory for Washington's aerospace workers and economy." "This revenue will allow Washington to invest in critical needs like education, infrastructure and human services," Boeing said in a statement following the vote. (Reporting by Alwyn Scott; editing by Leslie Adler, G Crosse) By Jack Kim and Tim Kelly SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States has deployed missile defense systems that will work with the Japanese and South Korean militaries to track a rocket North Korea says it will launch some time over an 18-day period beginning Monday. China, the North's sole major ally but opposed to Pyongyang's nuclear program, appealed for calm. North Korea has notified U.N. agencies it will launch a rocket carrying what it called an earth observation satellite some time between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25, triggering international opposition from governments that see it as a long-range missile test. North Korea says it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program. But it is barred under U.N. Security Council resolutions from using ballistic missile technology. Coming so soon after North Korea's fourth nuclear test, on Jan. 6, also barred by Security Council resolutions, a rocket launch would raise concern that it plans to fit nuclear warheads on its missiles, giving it the capability to strike South Korea, Japan and possibly the U.S. West Coast. China has told North Korea that it does not want to see anything happen that could further raise tension, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, describing "a serious situation", after a special envoy from China visited North Korea this week. The United States has urged China to use its influence to rein in its neighbor. Speaking to President Park Geun-hye, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he hoped all parties could bear in mind the broader picture of maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula, and "calmly deal with the present situation", China's Foreign Ministry said. "The peninsula cannot be nuclearized, and cannot have war or chaos," Xi said, also repeating a call for dialogue. Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted Pentagon officials as saying that fuelling of the rocket appeared to have begun. It cited satellite footage showing increased activity around the missile launch and fuel storage areas, suggesting preparations for a launch could be completed within "a number of days" at the earliest. A launch would draw fresh U.S. calls for tougher U.N. sanctions that are already under discussion in response to the nuclear test. What would likely be an indigenous three-stage rocket will be tracked closely. South Korea and Japan have put their militaries on standby to shoot down the rocket, or its parts, if they go off course and threaten to crash on their territory. "We will, as we always do, watch carefully if there's a launch, track the launch, (and) have our missile defense assets positioned and ready," U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Thursday. "We plan a lot about it. We and our close allies the Japanese and the South Koreans - are ready for it." South Korea has said its Aegis destroyers, its Green Pine anti-ballistic missile radar and early warning and control aircraft Peace Eye are ready. A U.S. Navy spokesman confirmed the missile tracking ship USNS Howard O. Lorenzen arrived in Japan this week but declined to say if it was in response to the North's planned launch. SEARCH FOR CLUES Boosters and other parts will also be tracked as they splash into the sea, in the hope they can be retrieved and analyzed for clues on Pyongyang's rocket program. "Retrieving parts or objects from the launch vehicle are the most important part of the rocket analysis," said Markus Schiller, a rocketry expert based in Germany. North Korea said the launch would be during the morning and gave coordinates of where the boosters and payload cover would drop in the Yellow Sea off the Korean Peninsula's west coast and the Pacific to the east of the Philippines. The U.S. Navy has sonar equipment and unmanned vehicles that could be used to help recover parts, according to Navy officials. It was not clear if that equipment is in the region. North Korea last launched a long-range rocket in December 2012, sending what it described as a communications satellite into orbit. South Korea's navy retrieved the section of the first stage booster that was part of the fuel tank and one of the four steering engines that confirmed the presence of technology and materials that North Korea had not been known to possess. Analysis pointed to a launch vehicle capable of carrying a payload of about 500 kg (1,100 lb) more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles), according to South Korea. A typical nuclear warhead weighs about 300 kg, although North Korea is not believed to have been able to miniaturize a nuclear weapon to that size. Recovered parts allowed experts to conclude that the second stage booster likely used Soviet-era Scud missile technology and did not use advanced propellant, indicating the rocket was suited for satellite launch but unfit to deliver a warhead. "My guess is that if you took the rocket they used last time and put a warhead on it you probably would not be able to reach the United States," said David Wright, co-director and senior scientist at the Global Security Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists. The search for information on the North's rocket program will not be easy. "Some of the more interesting parts, high-efficiency engines and guidance systems, are in the upper stages, and those usually fall far out to sea, at high speed into deep water," said John Schilling, an aerospace engineer. "Harder to find than that Malaysian airliner everybody has been looking for all last year." (Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, David Brunnstrom, Ben Blanchard and Elaine Lies; Editing by Tony Munroe, Robert Birsel and Ralph Boulton) By Alwyn Scott SEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state lawmakers voted down a bill on Friday that would have forced Boeing to keep a minimum number of jobs in the state in exchange for receiving billions of dollars in tax breaks. The 7-8 vote in the state's House Finance committee means the measure will not advance to a floor vote. "The timing is not right, right now," for restricting Boeing, said state Rep. Cary Condotta, a Republican who voted against the measure, citing the state's economic weakness. The bill would have linked the tax breaks to Boeing's employment of at least 83,295 people in Washington, the number when the breaks were granted. The tax benefits would have been cut in half if Boeing employment fell by 4,000, and would have been eliminated if it fell by more than 5,000. Other aerospace companies would still have had access to the credits if the bill passed, regardless of Boeing's employment level. Boeing called the decision "a crucial victory," noting the tax breaks, worth nearly $9 billion, would spur the economy and generate an estimated $21 billion in state tax revenue over 16 years. The plane maker's two largest unions said lawmakers had "bowed to Boeing" by failing to the pass a measure that sought to ensure Boeing would "maintain and grow" employment in the state, as the 2013 legislation granting the tax breaks specified. The vote "demonstrates the power of corporate influence to overcome what is clearly the will of the people and the intent of the legislation, Jon Holden, president of the International Association of Machinists District 751, which represents about 31,000 Boeing workers. Lawmakers approved the original incentives in 2013 with support from labor, as part of a deal to ensure Boeing built its new 777X jetliner, and its carbon-fiber wings, in the state. Shortly after securing the tax credits, Boeing began moving jobs out of Washington. Boeing data show it employed 79,238 workers in Washington at the end of 2015, down from 83,295 when the credits were approved. Story continues "How many more jobs must be lost before something is done?" said Ryan Rule, president of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). Past Boeing job cuts followed industry slumps, the unions said, but this time, Boeing is building more jetliners than ever. Boeing's commercial plane operations have fewer workers now than in other boom since World War Two. Washington state Representative June Robinson, a Democrat and bill sponsor whose district holds Boeing's largest factory, said her constituents wanted Boeing to be accountable in exchange for tax breaks. (Reporting by Alwyn Scott; editing by Leslie Adler, G Crosse, Diane Craft) By Pedro Fonseca RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Authorities in Brazil said on Friday Zika has been detected in patients' saliva and urine, adding to the concern over the spread of the virus, while U.S. officials offered new guidance on sex for people returning from Zika-hit regions. Zika, linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil, is primarily transmitted through mosquito bites, but word surfaced this week of infections through sex and blood transfusions, and news of the presence of the virus in the saliva and urine of two patients prompted new worries. The possibility of infection via body fluids could complicate efforts to contain the outbreak. In fact, the president of the Brazilian federal biomedical research institution that made the announcement urged pregnant women not to kiss strangers during the country's free-wheeling Carnival celebrations. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended more stringent measures for monitoring pregnant women for Zika and for preventing sexual transmission of the virus. "I wish we knew more about Zika today," CDC Director Tom Frieden told reporters. The CDC said men with a pregnant partner who live in or have traveled to an area of active Zika transmission should use condoms during sex with their partner or abstain from sex for the duration of the pregnancy. "The science is not clear on how long the risk should be avoided," the CDC said. Zika has spread rapidly through the Americas, prompting the World Health Organization to declare an international public health emergency due to its link to microcephaly, a condition in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and can suffer developmental problems. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika. The Carnival celebrations are a raucous, five-day bacchanalia known for street parties and lots of alcohol and kissing. Some revelers even keep track of the number of complete strangers they kiss. Because Zika has been linked to microcephaly, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation scientists recommended that pregnant women take special precautions and avoid crowds during Carnival. "In light of the possibility of being in contact with someone who is infected, do not kiss, obviously," Dr. Paulo Gadelha, the foundation's president, told reporters. "We cannot say today that there is no possibility of transmission," Gadelha added. The scientists said they used genetic testing to identify the virus in saliva and urine samples from the two patients, who had symptoms caused by Zika infection, and determined that the virus was active, meaning it had the potential to cause infection. They said more research was needed to determine whether Zika could be transmitted by either fluid. They said this marked the first time the virus had been detected in either fluid. Brazil, the country hardest hit by Zika, is grappling with the virus even as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August. The WHO said that between January 2014 and Feb. 5, 2016, a total of 33 countries have reported indigenous circulation of Zika virus. The U.N. agency also said there was evidence of indirect local transmission in six other countries. CDC TESTING GUIDELINES Reflecting concern over potential harm to fetuses, the CDC updated its guidelines on Friday for testing pregnant women who have traveled to affected areas, saying even those without symptoms should be tested after returning home. The guidelines recommend pregnant women be offered testing two to 12 weeks after returning home. The agency had earlier suggested tests only for those with symptoms of the illness, which causes a fever, rash and red eyes. The CDC already earlier urged pregnant women not to travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. The agency has not issued guidance regarding kissing, Frieden said. At the center of the concern over Zika, until recently viewed as a mild illness, is the possibility that infection with Zika during pregnancy may cause microcephaly. CDC chief Frieden said the suspected link appears "stronger and stronger" as researchers study whether there is a causal connection. He added that his agency is working with researchers in Brazil to study a potential link between Zika and a wider array of developmental disorders in babies. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly. Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly. Researchers have identified evidence of Zika infection in 17 of these cases, either in the baby or in the mother, but have not confirmed that Zika can cause microcephaly. Frieden and other U.S. health officials are due to testify before Congress next Wednesday on the Zika threat. Brazilians have been rushing to buy repellant, creating a shortage of some brands on pharmacy shelves and boosting sales for the industry - a trend some producers are preparing for elsewhere as the outbreak spreads. (Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Natalie Grover in Bengaluru, Paulo Prada and Caroline Stauffer in Sao Paulo; Writing by Frances Kerry and Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool and Lisa Shumaker) Three people have died in Colombia after contracting the Zika virus, which is spreading across South America and has emerged in Europe and the US. It is believed to be the first time health officials have directly blamed the mosquito-borne disease for causing fatalities. The victims in Colombia died of complications after being infected with Zika and then developing a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. The condition sees the immune system attack the nervous system, causing weakness and sometimes paralysis or even death, but most Guillain-Barre patients recover. Cases of the disorder have increased along with the spread of Zika, which is being blamed for causing brain defects in thousands of babies. Many have been born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads and brains, and the UN has urged increased access to abortion because of fears of severe birth defects. Director of Colombia's national health institute Martha Lucia Ospina said: "Other cases (of deaths linked to Zika) are going to emerge. "The world is realising that Zika can be deadly. The mortality rate is not very high, but it can be deadly." Brazil, where the virus is most prevalent, said Zika had been detected in urine and saliva, and officials there and in the US warned even kissing could potentially spread the disease. Scientists pointed out there was no proof the virus could be transmitted through the fluids, but said people should take precautions, especially expectant mothers. Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff has urged pregnant women not to kiss strangers as carnival season gets under way. The World Health Organisation has declared an international emergency and warned Zika could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide. This week, it was announced a pregnant woman in Spain who had travelled to Colombia has the virus - in what is thought to be the first such case in Europe. Colombia is one of around 30 countries and territories which have been affected so far, with the hardest hit nation being Brazil. Story continues Puerto Rico has become the latest country to declare a public health emergency. The disease was previously thought to have been passed only by the Aedes mosquito, and not from human-to-human. But this week came the news in Dallas that a patient had caught the virus after having sexual contact with someone who had returned from Venezuela, where Zika is circulating. US health officials have issued guidelines to prevent the sexual transmission of the virus, telling men who have been to outbreak areas to use condoms during sex with pregnant women. More than 3,100 pregnant women are infected with the Zika virus in Colombia, the country's president has said. They are among the 25,645 cases reported nationwide so far, as the mosquito-borne disease continues to spread rapidly across the Americas. President Juan Manuel Santos also projected there could be up to 600,000 infections in 2016. At present, there is no known treatment or vaccine for the Zika virus, which has been linked to microcephaly - a birth defect which can prevent the brains of foetuses developing properly. However, Mr Santos stressed there had been no Zika-linked microcephaly reported in Colombia so far, which can cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads and brains. During a televised news conference with health officials, the president warned there may be up to 1,000 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome as a result of the crisis. That rare condition - in which the body's immune system attacks the nerves - can cause paralysis, and some South American nations have linked it to the Zika virus. On Friday, it was confirmed that three people had died in Colombia after contracting the Zika virus - in what was believed to be the first time health officials had directly blamed the disease for causing fatalities. Another six deaths are currently being investigated. Martha Lucia Ospina, the director of Colombia's national health institute, has warned the number of deaths will rise. Colombia has begun to wage a battle against mosquitoes - and families in rural communities are receiving help to fumigate their homes and get rid of stagnant water. An estimated 80% of those who develop the Zika virus do not have symptoms - which means the true number of people currently infected in Colombia could actually number between 80,000 and 100,000. Those who are symptomatic usually develop a fever, red eyes and rashes. The UN has called for women to receive increased access to abortion over fears of severe birth defects. Brazil, where the virus is most prevalent, said Zika had been detected in urine and saliva, and officials there and in the US warned even kissing could potentially spread the disease. The World Health Organisation has declared an international emergency and warned Zika could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide. Micro-Credentialing Udacity Students Come to Silicon Valley Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun touted the company's new program announced in January called Nanodegree Plus, which guarantees that students enrolled in four of Udacity's online programs Senior Web Developer, Android Developer, iOS Developer and Machine Learning will find employment in the United States within six months of graduation or receive a full tuition refund. For-profit online educational services provider Udacity held its first-ever user conference last week. The Intersect 2016 Career Summit brought together 75 students and graduates from its Nanodegree programs to Silicon Valley for keynote speeches, workshops, and job-related networking. Conference organizers limited attendance but streamed the event live over the Internet. The attendees were chosen based on their progress in one or more of the dozen Nanodegree programs currently offered by Udacity, and their participation in the Nanodegree community, said Kathleen Mullaney, vice president of Udacity's Careers group, and host of the event. Attendees came from all over the United States, as well as Europe, India, Korea, Brazil, Panama and New Zealand. Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun was on hand to kick off the event. He talked about his decision to abandon his pioneering work on self-driving cars when he was a research professor at Stanford University and, later, a Google vice president and fellow. "All of my colleagues laugh at me and say, 'He had this great thing called self-driving cars. Why did he give it up to become educator?'" Thrun said. "But I think the opposite is true.... Once it's known that you can get a bleeding-edge education from top-notch companies like Google and Facebook for what ends up to be a small price tag.... Stanford right next door charges 60 times as much as we charge.... It's going to force everybody to follow suit." Thrun also talked about a new program announced in January called Nanodegree Plus, which guarantees that students enrolled in four of Udacity's online programs Senior Web Developer, Android Developer, iOS Developer and Machine Learning will find employment in the United States within six months of graduation or receive a full tuition refund. The company currently offers a total of 12 credentials through its Nanodegree program. "Based on the data we have so far, we believe that we can pretty much place anybody in the United States who is looking for a job into a job," he said. Thrun focused much of his talk on opportunities in Silicon Valley. "There are so many open jobs here, it's crazy," he said. "We'd love to make this connection, where the value of education isn't just that you enlighten yourself, but it can get you onto a very different career path, where you can actually participate in Silicon Valley." He talked about the potential of the conference attendees to innovate and invited them to use at least part of their time at the conference to explore a mission that they love and to develop a "50-year vision," during which they might solve a problem "that really bugs you." And he talked about the character of the region, which cheers success, but also forgives failure, resulting in a mixture of extreme arrogance and extreme humility. "Silicon Valley is often seen as the story of successes, like the Googles and Facebooks," he said. "What is often less discussed is the many failures. Almost all startup companies die. And this is a good thing, and it's much better that a startup company die fast, than slow. The worst outcome is a company that creeps along for a long time. But this means that we get to experiment here, whether it's on a new education model or a self-driving car." Thrun estimated that 350 Udacity graduates have found jobs since the company began offering Nanodegrees about four years ago. The company claims a current enrollment of 11,000 students and 2,000 graduates to date from 195 countries earning credentials from all 12 programs. Thrun and Udacity co-founders David Stavens and Mike Sokolsky pioneered the commercialization of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Thrun famously abandoned the MOOC in 2013, declaring that his company had "a lousy product," and announcing plans to shift focus from higher ed to corporate training. Udacity has trademarked "Nanodegree," but the concept of an institution-agnostic micro-credential isn't new, and the company isn't the only provider. Coursera, for example, has partnered with Google, Instagram and others to provide a series of "microdegrees." "I actually believe what we are doing here will impact all the universities," he said. "Within 10 years' time, what we are doing here right now is going to be the talk of the town among all the colleges. And the ones that don't adapt will just go away." The event's speaker lineup also included Laura Gomez, founder and CEO at Atipica, Makinde Adeago, founder of /dev/color and Engineering Manager at Pinterest, and Bret Taylor, CEO of Quip. Distance Ed Where Can You Find the Most Affordable Online Schools? (Clue: Not in the Major Cities) You may never have heard of them, and they're based in little-known Google Map locations like McAllen, TX; Pahrump and Winnemucca, NV; and Albany, GA. But these three institutions have taken the top spots in a survey by OnlineU ranking the most affordable online colleges and degrees in the country. To be considered for the list, the schools have to fit these criteria: They must be non-profit colleges; They must offer at least 10 programs that can be completed entirely online; and At least one of those programs must be at the bachelor's level. South Texas College came in first in the ranking, with an annual tuition of $3,450 for out-of-state students. This public college offers four online baccalaureate degrees, including programs for computer and information technologies, technology management and organizational leadership. Spring 2016 enrollment at South Texas rose by 13 percent, with 6,315 students pursuing its 30 online programs. Number 2 was Great Basin College with five campuses around the state of Nevada, as well as a healthy online program. There, out-of-state tuition runs $5,013. The public college system offers five online bachelor degrees, including digital information technology and management in technology. Third place was claimed by Darton State College in Georgia, where non-resident tuition is $5,625. That school delivers two "emajors," as they're called at Darton, including one in organizational leadership. None of the 25 schools referenced in the ranking charges more than $8,400 in tuition for their online programs. "There has been a lot of talk about how expensive attending college has become, but no one is taking the time to recognize colleges that are making a concerted effort to keep tuition costs low," said Sung Rhee, CEO of SR Education Group, the Kirkland, WA company that owns OnlineU, in a prepared statement. "The colleges represented on our '2016 Most Affordable Online Colleges' lists are revolutionizing the education industry by offering quality degrees at palatable prices." "Our support from the state has been cut drastically six years in a row, yet we still find ways to add new degrees (both live and online) and support our students to provide rigorous and engaging education," noted Lisa Frazier, associate vice president for distance education at Great Basin, in an e-mail to CampusTechnology.com. Being recognized as one of the most affordable online colleges in the country "was reason to celebrate," she said. "This, in conjunction with awesome instructors, small courses, amazing student support and great retention rates, reminds me why I work 12 hours a day. At the end of the long days, it's all about the students' success." El CHapo capture When Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was recaptured in January not far from where he was born in northwest Mexico, it was the culmination of an intense manhunt that ranged from northern Mexico to Patagonia. But taking the Sinaloa chief off the streets is unlikely to affect crime in Mexico in the near future, because the vast majority of criminals in the country simply go unpunished. In Mexico, only seven of every 100 crimes is reported, according to the 2016 Global Impunity Index released this month by the Center for Impunity and Justice Studies (CESIJ) at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico. That report defines impunity as as "crime without punishment. This rate of impunity for crimes is a widespread problem in Mexico, the reports states, and just 4.46% of the crimes that do get reported actually result in convictions. Considering that so few crimes even get reported, the CESIJ estimated that "less than 1% of crimes in Mexico are punished. mexico crime rats are here The report graded countries on 19 factors, including crime-reporting rates and the functioning of security systems and judicial institutions. Mexico, with a score of 75.7, was 58th, ahead of only the Philippines, which had a score of 80. The US's score of 56.4 earned it a "high-level of impunity," according to the report; Croatia had the lowest level of impunity, with a score of 27.5. The systems of justice come to a standstill Police action is limited because traffickers like Guzman can often buy off the authorities, or because traffickers can intimidate the authorities into not doing their jobs. Story continues Many ordinary Mexicans, however, may let crime go unreported because they dont think anything will come from an investigation. Global crime rates and impunity in Mexico Mexican citizens have said they don't report crimes because of the amount of time it takes to do so and because they dont trust the authorities, according to responses gathered by Mexicos national statistical agencys victimization survey (Envipe). Some fear retaliation from the criminals they turn in. This reluctance to report crime exists despite both an increase in the number of Mexicans saying they were victims of crime and in the number of total crimes committed, according to Envipes 2014 survey. This lack of trust seems justified, as more than 18,000 of 135,511 municipal police evaluated by Mexicos Secretary General of National Public Safety in late 2014 failed to pass evaluations of their competence or suitability to work in the public-security service. It was also found that more than 65% of the municipal police in Sinaloa, Baja California Sur, and Veracruz all hotbeds of organized-crime activity failed the evaluation. This trend was mirrored at the state level. More than 20,500 state police officers evaluated by civil-society organization Causa en Comun failed to pass vetting tests, according to Insight Crime. When federal police were included, the number of police deemed unfit for duty rose to 42,214. While ineffective police likely allow many criminals to go uncaptured, an overburdened justice system also contributes to Mexicos high levels of impunity. mexico At the federal level, a lack of judges has, in many instances, let the criminal-justice process grind to a halt. The national average of magistrates and judges, at the local level, for each 100,000 inhabitants is only 3.5, according to the CESIJ report. The national average for countries surveyed by the report was 16; for the countries of Latin America the average was 8.8. CESIJ gathered data from the past few years, but deficiencies in the legal system are long-standing. In 2010, according to Mexicos attorney general, just 28% of federal arrests went to trial. Most of the rest of those arrested went free. The systems of justice come to a standstill because there arent judges to attend to pending cases, added Mexican news site Animal Politico. 'Getting away with murder' Guzman capture has been hailed as a victory for the Mexican government, and his likely extradition to the US will no doubt be seen as a victory in the drug war. But its entirely likely Guzmans cartel will keep operating, and, in any case, the wave of crime that affects the day-to-day lives of most Mexicans will almost certainly continue unabated in the near term. Mexico protest kidnapping crime Mexicos fight against crime in recent years has seen mixed results. In 2014 there was a nearly 50% rise in total crimes committed, based on Envipe results. However, in the first eight months of 2015, there was a 38% decline in kidnapping and a 19% drop in extortion, according to El Daily Post security editor Alejandro Hope. Despite those improvements, Mexicos homicide numbers in 2015 lodged their first yearly increase since 2011, rising to 18,650. Some 215,000 people were killed intentionally throughout Mexico between 2000 and 2013, Hope noted last year. Yet just 30,800 people were jailed for murder or manslaughter during that period. 'Getting away with murder' is a meaningless phrase in this country, Hope wrote last year from Mexico. Most everyone that tries it literally gets away with murder. NOW WATCH: Forget 'El Chapo' this is Mexico's most powerful drug lord More From Business Insider 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 Laila Kearney and Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - The deadly collapse of a construction crane in lower Manhattan on Friday highlights New York's failure to adequately address a safety "crisis" at hundreds of worksites across the city, an official watchdog said. The sharp criticism of the New York City Department of Buildings was made by the office of Comptroller Scott Stringer, who released the results of an updated audit just hours after the accident. Stringer painted a picture of crane safety that appeared to be at odds with the more sanguine view offered by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said the company that operated the collapsed crane appeared to be following the rules to the letter. "Crane safety is a crisis, but the city has not treated it like one," Stringer said in a statement. The audit, completed in 2014 and updated in November, found that the buildings department has been too slow in implementing reforms recommended in a study commissioned by the city to improve safety at construction sites. The update's findings were announced by Stringer within hours of the crane collapse in the Tribeca neighborhood of downtown Manhattan during the morning rush hour. The accident killed one person and injured three. Investigations by the police and the buildings department are under way. The "crawler crane" involved in Friday's collapse is among 376 used in construction in New York City. Another 53 taller "tower cranes" are also being operated in the city. After Friday's collapse, the city ordered all cranes to be shut down and secured due to the wind. CONTESTED FINDINGS Stringer said the initial audit in 2014 found only eight of 65 safety recommendations had been implemented fully. The update found persistent weaknesses in the department's management of the recommendations. His office would not say whether the report had been due on Friday or whether it was released early because of the collapse. A spokesman for the Department of Buildings fired back on Friday, accusing Stringer in an email of "clouding the facts." The department had fully implemented 30 of the recommendations and was working on adopting 23 more, according to spokesman Joseph Soldevere. "There is more oversight of cranes in place than ever before," he added. The recommendations included requiring the use of black boxes to record data from crane operations, tighter rules on inspection of bolted connections on cranes, putting technical advisers on site during crane assembly and other measures. In making his case, Stringer cited "at least four significant crane collapses" in the last 2-1/2 years. But de Blasio said at a press conference that the collapse on Friday marked the first such accident since 2008, when nine people died in two separate collapses, leading to stiffer regulations. He made no reference to other crane accidents that have occurred since then. A City Hall spokesman later clarified that de Blasio was referring to fatal crane collapses involving sites under the jurisdiction of the buildings department. The instances cited by Stringer either involved a site overseen by a non-city agency or did not result in any fatalities. The mayor also defended the company that operated the crane for following regulations by seeking to secure the crane in high winds. But he conceded he was worried about several recent construction accidents, which he characterized as avoidable, and said the city was taking steps to deal with them, including bolstering the number of inspectors at work sites. Part of the city's construction safety plan will involve a $120 million "modernization" of the buildings department that will include the hiring of 100 new inspectors to inspect high-risk construction sites with greater frequency, a mayor's spokesman said. "But that's a different issue than what we have here," the mayor said. Tom Barth, a crane and construction expert often hired to analyze accidents, said in a phone interview that the city's laws were not the problem. "The people going out to inspect the cranes are incompetent," said Barth, who is based in South Carolina. "You have some of the stiffest regulations on cranes that there are. Why are there so many accidents?" Meanwhile, other city officials joined Stringer in connecting Friday's crane incident with the city's broader construction site safety problems. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer called for heightened safety at work sites and said she would introduce a package of proposed actions in the coming days. One such measure Brewer supports is a bill proposal to require additional safety training for construction workers who work on sites higher than 10 stories. "City enforcement must do more than levy fines and increase the cost of doing business, it must actually make dangerous work sites into safe ones," Brewer said in a statement. (Editing by Frank McGurty, Leslie Adler and G Crosse) By Gina Cherelus NEW YORK (Reuters) - A construction crane collapsed in lower Manhattan during a swirling snowstorm on Friday, killing one person, injuring three others and crushing cars parked in the street. Hundreds of emergency workers responded after the 565-foot-tall crane toppled at about 8:30 a.m. EST and flipped upside down, leaving the metal boom stretched along nearly two city blocks. At the time, workers were lowering the crane to secure it as winds approached 25 miles per hour, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference. It was not yet known if wind played a role in the collapse. An investigation was underway and the crane operator was being interviewed, de Blasio said. Manhattan resident David Wichs, 38, was killed in the collapse, police said. Three others had non-life-threatening injuries, including two with head lacerations, officials said. De Blasio said pedestrians has been cleared from the street before workers began lowering the crane, averting a potentially greater calamity during the morning rush to work. "Thank God it was not worse," he said. The crane was owned by Bay Crane, based in the New York City borough of Queens, and operated by Queens-based GTI, or Galasso Trucking. A person who answered the phone at Bay Crane declined to comment. A Galasso representative could not be reached. The crane had been used since Jan. 30 at 60 Hudson Street, a landmark once known as the Western Union building. Workers were replacing generators and air conditioning equipment on the roof, officials said. The building is a major hub for telecommunications companies. De Blasio said inspectors had visited the site on Thursday and recorded no safety concerns. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer issued a statement on Friday criticizing the buildings department for not implementing certain safety improvements. "Crane safety is a crisis, but the city has not treated it like one," Stringer said. A buildings department spokesman disputed Stringer's assertions and said there is "more oversight of cranes in place than ever before." The "crawler crane" that fell is among 376 used in construction in New York City. Another 53 taller "tower cranes" are also being operated in the city. After Friday's collapse, the city ordered all cranes to be shut down and secured due to the wind. Witnesses described a deafening boom as the crane crashed to the street a few blocks from City Hall and a half-mile from the World Trade Center site. Nicholi White, 20, who works for online grocer Fresh Direct, said he was waiting to deliver boxes when he saw it fall. "When the crane hit the ground, I heard a loud bang, it sounded like a bomb," he said. "One of the loudest sounds I heard in my life." A woman who was having her hair done at a nearby salon in preparation for her wedding at City Hall was escorted to the ceremony after the collapse by a fire department chaplain. Four buildings were damaged, city officials said. They said they were also monitoring multiple gas leaks, none of which had risen to dangerous levels. Wichs worked at financial trading firm Tower Research Capital in New York. A woman who answered the phone there declined to give her name but said the office staff was "deeply saddened." She called Wichs a wonderful person. Officials said Friday's incident was the first fatal crane collapse involving a city-inspected crane since 2008. That year, nine people were killed in two separate collapses, prompting officials to impose stricter regulations on the industry. In 2012, a construction crane partially collapsed on top of a nearly completed, 90-story apartment building during high winds brought by Superstorm Sandy. In 2013, a crane collapsed in Queens, injuring seven. Last May, a cable on a construction crane also owned by Bay Crane snapped at a high-rise office building in Midtown Manhattan as it lifted an air conditioning unit. The unit plunged nearly 30 stories, injuring 10 people. (Additional reporting by Herb Lash, Frank McGurty, Scott Malone, Suzannah Gonzales, Brendan McDermid and Dan Burns; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Toni Reinhold) Beirut (AFP) - Up to 20,000 Syrians were stranded on the Turkish border Friday after fleeing a major Russian-backed regime offensive near Aleppo, where a new humanitarian disaster appeared to be unfolding. Tens of thousands of civilians have joined an exodus to escape fierce fighting involving government forces who severed the rebels' main supply route into Syria's second city. On Friday, clashes between the two sides in and around Ratyan, a town near Aleppo, cost 120 lives, said Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it estimated "up to 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salama border crossing and another 5,000 to 10,000 people have been displaced to Azaz city" nearby. Western nations have accused the Syrian government of sabotaging peace talks that collapsed this week with its military offensive, and Washington has demanded Moscow halt its campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday told reporters Russia had said it was prepared to stop the bombings, which he blamed for killing women and children "in large numbers". "Russia has indicated to me very directly they are prepared to do a ceasefire," he said, adding that another key Assad ally, Iran, had also pledged to support a halt to the violence. "We will have a much better sense in the next few days of how serious each party is." The UN Security Council met earlier in the day to discuss the faltering peace process, as NATO head Jens Stoltenberg warned Russian air strikes were "undermining the efforts to find a political solution" -- a charge dismissed by Moscow. - 'Rebels on the retreat' - The Observatory estimates 40,000 people have fled the regime offensive near Aleppo. "Thousands of people, mainly families with women and children, are waiting to enter Turkey," director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Story continues OCHA spokeswoman Linda Tom said another 10,000 people were thought to have been displaced to the Kurdish town of Afrin, elsewhere in northern Aleppo. "The fighting has also disrupted major aid and supply routes from the Turkish border," she said. Aleppo province is one of the main strongholds of Syria's opposition, which is facing possibly its worst moment since the country's brutal conflict began in 2011. "The trajectory for the rebels is downwards, and the downward slope is increasingly steep," said Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "The rebels are on the retreat everywhere." Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday up to 70,000 people were heading to his country, which already hosts about 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Early Friday, the main border crossing in northern Aleppo was closed and quiet on the Turkish side near the town of Kilis, with no sign of arriving refugees. But footage released Thursday by activists showed hundreds of people, including many children, heading towards the frontier, some carrying their belongings in plastic bags on their backs. More than 260,000 people have died in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced. - 'Empty words' - Aleppo city, Syria's former economic powerhouse, has been divided between opposition control in the east and regime control in the west since mid-2012. Syria's army has recaptured several key rebel towns in Latakia province and advanced in Aleppo province and in Daraa in the south since Russia began its aerial campaign on September 30. On Friday, the army seized the village of Mayer, north of Aleppo, and half the town of Ratyan with support from dozens of Russian air strikes. Pro-government troops backed by Russian warplanes also retook a rebel bastion in Daraa used as to launch attacks on the provincial capital, the monitor said. "What frustrates the rebels the most is that the countries that claim to be their friends are happy with empty words and sitting on the fence," said activist Maamoun al-Khatib. "Meanwhile Russia and Iran are occupying and violating Syrian territory." Top diplomats from countries trying to resolve the conflict are set to meet again on February 11 after UN-brokered peace talks collapsed this week. In New York, the UN Security Council met for closed-door consultations with envoy Staffan de Mistura, who has suspended the floundering Geneva negotiations until February 25. But tensions remain, with Moscow accusing key opposition backer Ankara of actively preparing to invade Syria, a claim Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed as "laughable". By Yasmeen Abutaleb WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twitter Inc has shut down more than 125,000 terrorism-related accounts since the middle of 2015, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, the company said in a blog post on Friday. Twitter has said it only takes down accounts when they are reported by other users, but said that it has increased the size of teams monitoring and responding to reports and has decreased its response time "significantly." (http://bit.ly/1KvrmZ5) Twitter's announcement comes as many tech companies led by Facebook have taken stronger steps to police controversial content online in the face of threats from legislators to force the companies to report "terrorist activity" on their sites to law enforcement. Silicon Valley has been wary of engaging with government officials, concerned about endless demands for similar action from countries around the world as well as fears about being perceived by consumers as tools of government. The announcement was also notable because Twitter has said little about its efforts to combat Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and similar groups even though it has been criticized for not doing enough. Islamic State, which controls last swathes of Iraq and Syria, has heavily relied on the 300 million-person site, as well as others, to recruit fighters and propagate violent messages. Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University's program on extremism, said Friday's report showcased an "impressive number" of takedowns, but said that Twitter still appears to police extremist content in a mostly "episodic" way. Many extremists have migrated toward smaller, less monitored platforms in recent months in response to major Silicon Valley firms stepping up their content policing, Hughes added. In January, a delegation of top national security officials met tech industry leaders from Twitter, Facebook Inc , Apple Inc , and Google parent Alphabet Inc , but most companies, including Twitter, did not send their chief executive officers. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, called Twitter's announcement a "very positive development," but said more was needed. "Addressing the use of social media by terrorists will require a sustained and cooperative effort between the technology sector, the Intelligence Community, and law enforcement," he said. Still, Twitter said in a blog post that it has cooperated with law enforcement when appropriate. It said that it tries to strike a balance between enforcing its rules on prohibited behaviors, the needs of law enforcement and the desire by users to share their views - including offensive ones. (Additional reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru and Dustin Volz in Washington,; Editing by Kirti Pandey, Stephen R. Trousdale, Chris Reese and Alistair Bell) By Morag MacKinnon PERTH - Australia will intensify testing for the Zika virus in Queensland state where Aedes mosquitoes are found, authorities said on Saturday, adding that two new cases among local residents were the result of travel to affected countries. Queensland's government has earmarked A$400,000 ($283,000) to boost laboratory capacity, particularly in the northeastern city of Townsville, where testing will begin on March 1. A A$1 million public education campaign will also be rolled out in the state, which is on high alert for any entry of the disease from Australia's Asian and Pacific neighbours. Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick said the state had to be prepared for more cases of Zika, linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil. Ten cases of the virus have been reported in the state in the past two years. The mosquitoes that transmit Zika are Aedes mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti, which are present in north Queensland and also transmit Dengue fever. "At this stage, Zika is not in any mosquitoes in Queensland that we're aware of," Dick told a news conference. A woman and a child in Queensland, who separately tested positive for Zika after returning to Australia from El Salvador and Samoa respectively, are recovering well, Queensland's chief medical officer Jeanette Young said. She said they had not travelled to northern Queensland, where a mosquito could bite them and transmit the virus, meaning their infection represented no public health threat. Earlier this week, two Sydney residents who had been diagnosed with the virus after returning from Haiti became the first confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease in Australia this year. A West Australian resident also tested positive after returning from Central America. The World Health Organisation has declared Zika an international public health emergency. There is no vaccine available to combat the virus. Young said it was not surprising that a Queensland child had contracted the virus in Samoa because it had existed in the Pacific region "for decades." "This isn't new to the Pacific. This is new to Brazil," she said. (Editing by Helen Popper) By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Two cases of Zika being transmitted through blood transfusions were reported in Brazil on Thursday, adding to concerns over the virus that has been linked to severe birth defects and is typically spread through mosquito bites. The disclosure of the blood transfusion cases in the industrial city of Campinas near Sao Paulo came two days after Texas authorities said a person became infected through sex. Concern over the virus is mounting as Brazil prepares to host the Olympic Games in August, with tens of thousands of athletes and tourists anticipated. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which has caused outbreaks in at least 26 countries in the Americas. Brazil researchers hope to develop a treatment that could be tested in humans in a year. Dr. Marcelo Addas Carvalho, director of the blood center at the University of Campinas, said genetic testing confirmed that a man who received a blood transfusion from a Zika-infected man in March 2015 became infected with the virus, although he did not develop symptoms. Another man, who had suffered gunshot wounds, became infected with Zika after receiving multiple blood transfusions that included blood donated by an infected person in April 2015, Carvalho said. Carvalho said that infection probably was caused by the transfusion but genetic tests have not yet been conducted to confirm it. He said it was very unlikely the infection was caused by a mosquito bite because the patient was in a hospital intensive care unit for three months. The patient later died from his gunshot wounds and not the Zika infection, health officials and Carvalho said. Carvalho sought to downplay the Zika threat arising from blood transfusions, saying such transmission of the virus is very rare and not an important factor in the outbreak. "Governments and society in general should focus on eliminating the mosquito, which is the main form of transmission," Carvalho added. Brazil estimates that up to 1.5 million people have been infected in the country. Brazil is investigating more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, a condition in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and can suffer developmental problems, that may be linked to Zika. Researchers have identified evidence of Zika infection in 17 of these cases, either in the baby or in the mother, but have not confirmed that Zika can cause microcephaly. The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency related to Zika on Monday, citing the microcephaly threat. FLORIDA EXPANDS EMERGENCY DECLARATION Florida Governor Rick Scott on Thursday expanded a Zika public health emergency in the state, adding a fifth locale, Broward County, to the four counties he announced on Wednesday. "With over 20 million residents and 100 million tourists, we must stay ahead of the possible spread of the Zika virus and take immediate action to ensure Florida is prepared," Scott said. Florida Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, called for President Barack Obama to appoint a Zika "czar" to coordinate the federal government's response as Obama did during the Ebola outbreak last year. Sexual contact and blood transfusions as modes of transmission have been matters of concern for experts since the Zika outbreak's outset, said infectious diseases expert Dr. William Schaffner of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. But Schaffner questioned whether either will lead to widespread Zika transmission. "A little bit of transmission? Sure," Schaffner said. "But the main engine of transmission that has led this virus to be spread widely throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean is, of course, the mosquito." Procedures for blood donations have been tightened in countries including Brazil to protect blood supplies from Zika. U.S. health officials are still working on national guidelines. Following word of the Texas case on Tuesday, U.S. health officials urged the use of condoms to prevent spreading sexually transmitted infections. Brazil said it was reinforcing instructions to blood banks that people infected with Zika or dengue not be permitted to donate blood for 30 days after full recovery from the active stage of Zika infection. The American Red Cross has urged prospective donors who have visited Zika outbreak zones to wait at least 28 days before giving blood, but called the risk of transmitting it through blood donations "extremely" low in the continental United States. In the Texas case, authorities said a person in Dallas became infected with Zika after having sex with another person who had traveled in Venezuela, where the virus is circulating. Local health officials said on Thursday both those people have fully recovered from the virus. Schaffner said uncertainties remain about sexual transmission of the virus, including how long a person might be able to transmit it or whether an infected person must have had symptomatic Zika in order to be able to transmit Zika through sex. Most infected people do not develop any symptoms. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo expanded his state's free Zika testing to include all pregnant women who have traveled to countries where people have been infected. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas and Letitia Stein in Tampa; Writing by Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Grant McCool and Bernard Orr) (Reuters) - Two days of clashes in southeastern Libya between a local armed faction and Sudanese fighters have left more than 30 people dead, a local mayor said on Friday. The commander of the Libyan Subul Assalam faction, Abdurrahman Hashim, said the Sudanese fighters were rebels from Sudan's Darfur region who had moved into the area around the town of Kufra following the uprising that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. He said his group was retaliating for armed robberies and attempted attacks on Kufra, in Libya's desert south-east which shares a border with northwestern Sudan. Kufra Mayor Miftah Bou Khalil told Reuters that Subul Assalam fighters attacked an oasis 150 km north-west of Kufra on Friday, killing 10 Sudanese fighters and capturing four. He said at least 20 Sudanese fighters were killed in an attack on a checkpoint 200 km north of Kufra and further clashes to the south of the town on Thursday. Hashim said on Thursday that his men had destroyed and captured a number of vehicles. At least one of his men had been killed and six wounded in the fighting, he said. Libya has been riven by instability since Gaddafi's fall, with competing factions and loose alliances of armed groups fighting for political power and the country's oil wealth. There are two rival parliaments and governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east. The conflict has spread to the country's impoverished south, where there have been frequent outbreaks of fighting, often between the Tebu and Tuareg tribal groups. Kufra mayor Bou Khalil said the Subul Assalam faction included rebels who fought against Gaddafi and backed Libya's eastern government and armed forces. However, it was not clear whether the latest clashes were directly linked to Libya's wider conflict. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Dominic Evans) Malaysians still harbour hope that the country will bounce back from the controversies and difficulties faced by the nation of late, said former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. In his latest Facebook message last night, the Umno deputy president acknowledged that with all his experience in politics, he had never thought that Malaysia would be caught up in such a complex situation. Disappointment, anger, despair and fear were among the emotions many Malaysians had at the moment, he said, and some had even lost confidence in the countrys leadership. "Even though there is a clear feeling of grief and despair among the people I have met, including friends and those I don't personally know, deep down they are still hopeful. "The hope is for Malaysia to be saved. For Malaysia to recover and not become a failed nation," he said. "This is the beginning of a struggle. The struggle to reclaim Malaysia. The struggle to make Malaysia a better country because we all deserve to enjoy every benefit that God bestows upon our country," he said, urging Malaysians to stand together in facing the difficulties. "Alone, we will have no strength. But, if we are united, prepare to open our hearts and soul to seek the truth, fight evil and take action to make our society and nation better than today, surely we will eventually succeed." Muhyiddin also raised concern over the attorney-generals decision to close investigations on the RM2.6 billion in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's accounts and that no individual was punished in the financial scandals involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and SRC International. "What has happened to our country? Everyone knows that before this, there were civil servants, businessmen and politicians being investigated, charged and even punished for misusing of public funds and graft. "But when it comes to the biggest national scandal involving 1MDB and SRC, nobody was charged," he said. Muhyiddin also highlighted the importance of having principles in life. "To me, in life we must have principles. The most important principle in life is to uphold the truth. Don't ever side with those who are do wrongs," he said. February 6, 2016. Oil producing countries are scrambling to fill gaping holes in their budgets torn by crashing petroleum prices, with some turning to international lenders for help and others slashing spending. Austerity measures, loan negotiations and state asset sales are all on the menu of moves deployed to counter the brutal nosedive in the oil price, with West Texas Intermediate currently below $30 a barrel and Brent just above -- a drop of about 70 percent since June 2014. "These are bad times for oil producers and their creditors," Gabriel Sterne, head of global macro research at Oxford Economics, said in a note. National budgets need to adjust further, financial buffers are inadequate and proper adjustment to the new situation may be delayed by weak governance, he warned, calling the assessment "bleak". In Russia, which depends on oil and gas sales for half of government revenues, Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on Tuesday warned that his country's budgetary situation was "critical" and that it was now urgent to implement a privatisation programme that is expected to feature sales of stakes in state-owned companies such as oil giant Rosneft. "It is no longer possible to wait," he said, just as Russia -- a top global producer -- was pumping oil at record levels to offset falling prices with increased volumes. The government in Moscow has already admitted that tumbling oil prices will push it to slash spending as it struggles to keep the deficit to under three percent of gross domestic product. - 'A source of risk' - "Government deficits are growing strongly. And to maintain social peace and military spending, producer countries are in no position to cut public spending," said Olivier Garnier, chief economist at Societe Generale. Trying to reduce spending regardless would be "a source of risk", he told AFP. Last month, the International Monetary Fund warned that the sharp collapse in the price of oil is proving more of a drag on the global economy than a stimulus, pointing to the dire budgetary situation that oil exporting countries now find themselves in. There are big differences between the various oil-exporting countries, many of whom had accumulated vast dollar reserves while the going was good in the commodities markets. But even the world's biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia, is feeling the pain. The kingdom reported this week that its fiscal reserves dropped to a four-year low of $611.9 billion last year, from $732 billion in 2014, as the government sought to finance a budget deficit caused by plunging oil revenues. In December, Saudi Arabia had reported a record deficit and announced austerity measures, including cuts to fuel subsidies. African producer Nigeria, meanwhile, boasting no such reserves, is seeking loans from the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other lenders to help cover this year's massive budget deficit, the government and bank officials said on Tuesday. The budget plan, which includes sharply increased spending to stimulate the economy, calls for 1.8 trillion naira ($9 billion) to be covered by borrowing from multilateral organisations -- which the government believes is the cheapest funding option. The possibility for cash-strapped nations like Nigeria to get a friendly hearing from global lenders means that situation is perhaps not yet dramatic, according to Ludovic Subran, chief economist at Euler Hermes. "Today, exporters in Africa have enough foreign reserves for at least another year. The others are being helped by international institutions," he told AFP. - Limited room for manoeuvre - Maybe so. But while some countries may obtain "soft loans" to tide them over, other credit lines come with strings attached, notably austerity measures or forced asset sales -- and therefore the danger of social trouble from already impoverished populations. "The room for manoeuvre is very limited. Growth is slowing and adjustment is very costly because of austerity and the recession," Christine Rifflart, an economist with French think tank OFCE said in a recent report. Venezuela, which is sitting on the biggest known oil reserves from which it derives 96 percent of its foreign revenues, has been devastated by the drop in prices. "The economic crisis in Venezuela will deepen," analysts from research group Capital Economics wrote in a recent note. "In the absence of a renewed rebound in oil prices a government debt default looks increasingly likely." Increasingly desperate, the South American country's oil minister, Eulogio del Pino, last week started a whistle stop tour of Russia, Qatar, Iran and Saudi Arabia to lobby in favour of measures to stop the price decline. But several OPEC countries, lead by Saudi Arabia, have resisted calls to cut production, preferring to defend their market share rather than prices. Up to 20,000 Syrians were stranded on the Turkish border Friday after fleeing a major Russian-backed regime offensive near Aleppo, where a new humanitarian disaster appeared to be unfolding. Tens of thousands of civilians have joined an exodus to escape fierce fighting involving government forces who severed the rebels' main supply route into Syria's second city. On Friday, clashes between the two sides in and around Ratyan, a town near Aleppo, cost 120 lives, said Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it estimated "up to 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salama border crossing and another 5,000 to 10,000 people have been displaced to Azaz city" nearby. Western nations have accused the Syrian government of sabotaging peace talks that collapsed this week with its military offensive, and Washington has demanded Moscow halt its campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday told reporters Russia had said it was prepared to stop the bombings, which he blamed for killing women and children "in large numbers". "Russia has indicated to me very directly they are prepared to do a ceasefire," he said, adding that another key Assad ally, Iran, had also pledged to support a halt to the violence. "We will have a much better sense in the next few days of how serious each party is." The UN Security Council met earlier in the day to discuss the faltering peace process, as NATO head Jens Stoltenberg warned Russian air strikes were "undermining the efforts to find a political solution" -- a charge dismissed by Moscow. - 'Rebels on the retreat' - The Observatory estimates 40,000 people have fled the regime offensive near Aleppo. "Thousands of people, mainly families with women and children, are waiting to enter Turkey," director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. OCHA spokeswoman Linda Tom said another 10,000 people were thought to have been displaced to the Kurdish town of Afrin, elsewhere in northern Aleppo. "The fighting has also disrupted major aid and supply routes from the Turkish border," she said. Aleppo province is one of the main strongholds of Syria's opposition, which is facing possibly its worst moment since the country's brutal conflict began in 2011. "The trajectory for the rebels is downwards, and the downward slope is increasingly steep," said Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "The rebels are on the retreat everywhere." Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday up to 70,000 people were heading to his country, which already hosts about 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Early Friday, the main border crossing in northern Aleppo was closed and quiet on the Turkish side near the town of Kilis, with no sign of arriving refugees. But footage released Thursday by activists showed hundreds of people, including many children, heading towards the frontier, some carrying their belongings in plastic bags on their backs. More than 260,000 people have died in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced. - 'Empty words' - Aleppo city, Syria's former economic powerhouse, has been divided between opposition control in the east and regime control in the west since mid-2012. Syria's army has recaptured several key rebel towns in Latakia province and advanced in Aleppo province and in Daraa in the south since Russia began its aerial campaign on September 30. On Friday, the army seized the village of Mayer, north of Aleppo, and half the town of Ratyan with support from dozens of Russian air strikes. Pro-government troops backed by Russian warplanes also retook a rebel bastion in Daraa used as to launch attacks on the provincial capital, the monitor said. "What frustrates the rebels the most is that the countries that claim to be their friends are happy with empty words and sitting on the fence," said activist Maamoun al-Khatib. "Meanwhile Russia and Iran are occupying and violating Syrian territory." Top diplomats from countries trying to resolve the conflict are set to meet again on February 11 after UN-brokered peace talks collapsed this week. In New York, the UN Security Council met for closed-door consultations with envoy Staffan de Mistura, who has suspended the floundering Geneva negotiations until February 25. But tensions remain, with Moscow accusing key opposition backer Ankara of actively preparing to invade Syria, a claim Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed as "laughable". An Australian woman kidnapped with her husband by al Qaeda fighters in Burkina Faso has been freed. Jocelyn and Ken Elliott, both in their 80s, were abducted in the north of the West African country, near the border with Mali, last month. Mrs Elliott stood with Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou at a news conference in Dosso, southwestern Niger, as officials said they were intensifying efforts to secure the release of her surgeon husband. On Friday, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said they had kidnapped the couple and would release Mrs Elliott due to public pressure and guidance from its leaders "not to involve women in war". The circumstances of her release and how she arrived in Niger were not immediately clear. Friends said the couple dedicated their lives to improving medical services in the country. For over 40 years, they ran a 120-bed clinic in the northern town of Djibo, where Dr Elliott was the only surgeon and was supported by local staff. They were abducted from the town on 15 January - the same day al Qaeda fighters raided a restaurant and hotel in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, killing 30 people. Six Canadians, two French people, two Swiss nationals and an American were among those killed. The Elliotts, originally from Perth in Western Australia, have two sons, a daughter and three grandchildren. By Joseph Ax NEW YORK - Bill Cosby's lawyers may face difficulty in convincing a Pennsylvania judge this week to throw out sexual assault charges in light of what the disgraced comedian's defense team characterizes as a decade-old non-prosecution deal, legal experts said. Cosby is due back in court in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, after the 78-year-old entertainer was charged last month with sex assault in 2004. The alleged victim says Cosby had plied with alcohol and drugs. It is the only criminal prosecution that Cosby has ever faced, even though dozens of women have accused him of assault, in some cases decades ago. The hearing outside Philadelphia will center on the defense's argument that the charges violate an agreement struck in 2005 with then-Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor. Cosby's lawyers say Castor promised not to prosecute the comedian if he agreed to testify in a civil case brought by his accuser, Andrea Constand. Castor has backed that account in an email sent in September to his successor as district attorney. In that email, Castor said he had reached a binding deal with Cosby's lawyers. The defense has not produced any written agreement, a point made by prosecutors in seeking to undermine Castor's story. "Cosby had good attorneys," said Anne Poulin, a law professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. "If they had negotiated something, I think they would have gotten something in writing." But in court papers filed on Thursday, Cosby's lawyers said prosecutors had waited so long to bring charges that evidence verifying the agreement had disappeared. Cosby's former lawyer has since died, and documents that might have corroborated the deal have been lost, they said. Wesley Oliver, a law professor at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania, said it was highly unlikely that a document as critical as a non-prosecution agreement would go missing. "This is not like some receipt for his taxes in 1953," he said. "This is a get-out-of-jail free card. This is something you keep in a safety deposit box in a temperature-controlled room." Castor may appear at the hearing to testify that he promised not to prosecute in exchange for Cosby's civil testimony. Castor's lawyer, Robert Pugh, said he had advised Castor not to comment publicly on the case. Kevin Steele, who was elected last year as Montgomery County's district attorney after vowing during the campaign to work on charging Cosby, cited Cosby's recently unsealed testimony as crucial evidence in filing criminal charges last month. Cosby has portrayed the encounter as consensual but acknowledged giving Constand Benadryl and wine, which she claims incapacitated her. Cosby's lawyers did not return a call for further comment. Even if Castor's claim is taken at face value, prosecutors have argued the deal did not carry formal immunity without a judge's approval under state law. In addition, they have said Castor did not have the authority to make such an arrangement. Poulin, the Villanova professor, said she would be "shocked" if a judge found Castor had the power to "bind his office in perpetuity." She also said that if a non-prosecution agreement really existed, Cosby could have sought a formal order of immunity from the judge overseeing the civil case. That said, some experts said a judge could find that if Cosby relied on Castor's promise, it would be unfair for him to suffer the consequences. Judy Ritter, a law professor at Widener University in Delaware, said the judge was unlikely to dismiss the entire case but could theoretically bar prosecutors from using Cosby's civil testimony. "That depends on the finding of the facts," she said. "Who promised what, and what was said?" When a commodity costs more to produce than the current market price, producers usually stop producing it. When it comes to U.S. crude oil, that's not happening, according to an analysis of global oil production by Wood Mackenzie, a commodities market research firm. The oil glut continues to weigh on crude prices, but the decision to stop pumping when prices fall is not as simple as it may seem. For starters, the cost of producing a barrel of oil varies widely from one well to another, based on the initial cost of finding and developing the oilfield, along with such costs as borrowing, current operations and maintenance. Some of the recent expansion of U.S. crude production, for example, has come from so-called "stripper" wells once abandoned finds that are seeing new life thanks to advanced production techniques. Many of these are profitable even at current market prices. HARRISBURG, PA National events about lead exposure have generated new concerns for Pennsylvanians related to the safety of their homes and water. The Wolf Administration takes the issue of lead exposure very seriously and state agencies will continue to work together on their coordinated response to address lead exposure in communities across the commonwealth. The Departments of Health (DOH) and Environmental Protection (DEP) both work diligently to protect children from lead exposure and have many resources available for residents to learn more and take action on lead. According to Department of Health, the primary source of childhood lead poisoning in Pennsylvania continues to be exposure to aging, deteriorating lead-based paint (chips and dust), and not drinking water. The age of Pennsylvanias housing stock contributes to this problem. While lead was banned from paint in 1978, many older dwellings still contain layers of pre-1978 paint. According to 2010 Census data, Pennsylvania ranks third in the nation for having the most housing units identified as having been built before 1950 (when lead was more prevalent) and fourth in the nation for housing units identified as having been built before 1978, according to a 2014 Department of Health report. The Department of Health is very concerned about elevated lead levels in children wherever they may occur. Our community health nurses work closely with health care providers and families every day to provide education about lead exposure and facilitate home inspections if needed to identify the source of the exposure, said Health Secretary Dr. Karen Murphy. Protecting the states water and the health and safety of our citizens is DEPs mission, said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley. Ensuring the safety of our drinking water is essential. We have policies and programs in place already to protect Pennsylvanians. Department of Health The Department of Health provides a toll-free Lead Information Line (1-800-440-LEAD) to respond to caller questions and provide electronic materials about lead poisoning and other environmental hazards. For more information, please also visit the Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention FAQ. Residents should be proactive and follow steps to ensure the health and the safety of children in their residences and can find all the resources DOH provides here. DOHs Lead Surveillance Program tracks and monitors childhood lead activity through the Pennsylvania National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA-NEDSS). PA-NEDSS is a web-based application system that receives all lead reports on Pennsylvanias children. Through PA-NEDSS, the Division of Child and Adult Health Services can identify possible high-risk areas, locate areas of under-testing, and identify other potential service gaps. DOHs Community Health Nurses (CHN) monitor elevated lead levels in children ages seven and under living in Pennsylvania. The CHNs contact the family to provide education on laboratory results, sources of lead exposure, actions to take to prevent/decrease the risk of exposure and help facilitate follow-up testing between clients and their pediatricians. In cases where there is significant lead exposure, CHNs will work with the pediatrician and facilitate referrals to obtain home inspections which can identify the source of exposure as well as provide hands-on education to parents. Department of Environment Protection Federal and state regulations require that public drinking water suppliers regularly test for contaminants including lead. DEP monitors water suppliers to ensure that they are complying with testing requirements to safeguard our public drinking water supplies. DEP also provides information to private well water users on how to properly maintain their systems to reduce their exposure to lead. DEP has created a new section of their website for information on lead in drinking water for consumers here. Since lead exposure in drinking water typically comes from your plumbing fixtures and not the source of your water supply, its important for both public drinking water customers as well as private well water users to follow these tips to reduce your exposure to lead: Run your water to flush out lead. If water hasnt been used for several hours, run water for 15-30 seconds or until it becomes cold or reaches a steady temperature before using it for drinking or cooking. This flushes out any stagnant water in your home plumbing and replaces it with fresh water from the water main in your street. Run your water to flush out lead. If water hasnt been used for several hours, run water for 15-30 seconds or until it becomes cold or reaches a steady temperature before using it for drinking or cooking. This flushes out any stagnant water in your home plumbing and replaces it with fresh water from the water main in your street. Use cold water for cooking and preparing baby formula. Do not cook with or drink water from the hot water tap; lead dissolves more easily into hot water. Do not use water from the hot water tap to make baby formula. Do not boil water to remove lead. Boiling water will not reduce lead. In fact, lead concentrations will be higher in water that is boiled since some of the water is removed as steam. Test your water for lead. Contact your water system for more information about getting your water tested. Some water systems may offer to test your water free of charge. Your water system can also provide information about local laboratories that conduct lead testing. If youre a private well water user, you should contact a DEP-accredited lab for information about water testing. Here is the link to a listing of DEP-accredited labs. Identify whether your houses plumbing fixtures contain lead. There are lead check swabs that can detect lead on plumbing surfaces such as solder and pipes. These swabs can be purchased at plumbing and home improvement stores. Monitoring frequencies for lead and copper vary based on previous sample results. A new water system is tested every 6 months until they have 2 consecutive periods of compliance (so it could be the first 2 tests); after that they go to annual monitoring, and if, after 3 years of clean annual tests, they can go to a once-every-three year monitoring schedule. All large water systems (serving more than 50,000) and those small/medium water systems that have installed corrosion control treatment are also required to monitor for water quality parameters to ensure that corrosion control treatment is being properly operated and maintained. If lead concentrations exceed the legally acceptable level in more than 10% of customer taps sampled, the system must undertake a number of additional actions to control corrosion. These actions include completion of a corrosion control treatment feasibility study, submission of a permit application, and construction or modification of corrosion control treatment facilities. If the action level for lead is exceeded, the system must also inform the public about steps they should take to protect their health and may have to replace lead service lines under their control. If lead action level is exceeded, public water systems are required to implement a public education program within 60 days. Printed materials must be delivered to all customers, the local or state health department, and other organizations. In addition, water suppliers must provide the results of all lead testing performed on individual homes to the homeowner within 30 days, along with an explanation of the health effects of lead, a list of steps consumers can take to reduce exposure to lead, and contact info for the water system. The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board has strongly urged the Court to postpone the proposed reorganization plan that would consolidate eviction cases in Hayward that would result in more homelessness, until more options have been considered with all parties concerned. Consolidation of eviction cases may cause more homelessnessBy Lynda Carson - February 5, 2016Oakland - It appears that the low-income communities of Oakland and Berkeley have been placed at further risk of homelessness if a proposal to consolidate eviction cases in Hayward takes effect.The Alameda County Superior Court reorganization proposal by Assistant Presiding Judge Morris Jacobson, http://tinyurl.com/hps7pgv , which includes the proposal to consolidate eviction cases in Hayward, will severely restrict poor, elderly, and disabled tenants access to justice, according to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board.According to public documents from the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, http://tinyurl.com/zgab8mw , Oakland and Berkeley are at the epicenter of the housing crisis in Alameda County. With roughly 46% of the countys tenants and home to over half the countys individuals in poverty, there are more evictions in Berkeley and Oakland than anywhere else in Alameda County.In a proposed December 14, 2015, letter from the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board to Judge Jacobson, the board points out that the Hayward Courthouse is not easy to reach by way of public transportation for tenants residing in Oakland and Berkeley, and will have a disparate impact on our countys most vulnerable population.With such tight deadlines to meet, the consequence of being an hour late to a court date in an unlawful detainer action can make the difference between being housed or losing ones home by default judgement, according to the board.The proposal to move the self-help center to Hayward will also make it much more difficult for the poor, disabled, and low-income communities of color in Oakland and Berkeley to fight against evictions, if they try to represent themselves.Margot Bushel, a professor of medicine at the University of California, in San Francisco, has conducted a study of 350 homeless persons in Oakland since July 2013, http://tinyurl.com/j9e9d5x , and claims that California has the highest housing costs. She also says that it should not be a surprise that Oakland has a large homeless population, and that many of them are elderly, who became homeless late at life.Rent hikes in California have also outpaced the national average during every month of 2015, according to ApartmentList.com, http://tinyurl.com/zccoulx . Of the ten most expensive cities in California, San Francisco is at the top of the list followed by Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Palo Alto, West Hollywood, Berkeley, Pacifica, San Mateo, San Rafael, and Foster City.Another recent survey that was reported on by the East Bay Express, also reveals that the fair market rents in Oakland have almost doubled since 2011. Additionally, in the top ten cities throughout the nation with the greatest rent increases during recent years, Oakland tops the list according to Smartasset.com, http://tinyurl.com/z2m7roh , surpassing San Francisco, New York City, San Jose, Houston, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Chicago.The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board has strongly urged the Court to postpone the proposed reorganization plan that would consolidate eviction cases in Hayward that would result in more homelessness, until more options have been considered with all parties concerned.Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com >>>>> This week six Palestinian were killed by Israeli gunfire in separate attacks in the West Bank. Meanwhile Palestinian hunger striking journalist held by Israeli Mohamed Al-Qeeq enters his 73 day without food. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.The Nonviolence ReportLets begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. five were injured, two Israeli activists kidnapped when Israeli troops attacked nonviolent protests organized in West Bank villages. IMEMCs Majd Batjali with the details:Two youth were injured by live gunfire in Kufer Kadum in northern West Bank and many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest there. Troops later stormed the village and fired tear gas into residents homesMeanwhile in the villages of Bilin and Nilin, in central West Bank, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters as soon as they reached the gate in the wall that separates local farmers from their lands. In Nilin , three youth were injured when they were hit directly with rubber-coated steel bullets fired by Israeli troops at protesters. Many protesters suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation and were treated by field medics at both locations.At the nearby al Nabi Saleh village, troops attacked protesters at the village entrance. Israeli soldiers fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at protesters and nearby homes. Many residents suffered effects of tear gas inhalation as a result.In the meantime two Israeli peace activists were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers tried to stop a nonviolent protest organized at settlers road 60, near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. At least 350 Israeli, Palestinian and international activists joined a nonviolent protest on Friday that was organized by Combatants for Peace Movement, in collaboration with a number of Palestinian and Israeli NGOs.For IMEMC News this Majd Batjali.The Political ReportIsraeli court freezes administrative detention of Mohammad Al-Qeeq and the latter decided to continue with his hunger strike until full release. IMEMCs George Rishmawi has more:Israel's supreme court, suspended this week the administrative detention of Palestinian prisoner Mohammad al-Qeeq citing medical concerns after nearly 70 days of a life-threatening hunger strike.Qadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, told media that Israel's Supreme Court was freezing al-Qeeq's six-month administrative detention order until his health improved. He said he believed al-Qeeq might use the opportunity to accept medical treatment while seeking a more acceptable solution.33-year old Al-Qeeq refused to end his strike an insisted that the administrative detention should be canceled not frozen. Al-Qeeq, a journalist from the occupied West Bank, initially went on hunger strike in late November, in protest of the torture and ill-treatment he said he faced while in Israeli custody. However, his protest quickly developed into another bid to challenge Israel's use of administrative detention.Numerous Palestinian prisoners have undertaken hunger strikes to protest the controversial and archaic practice, including Khader Adnan and Mohammad Allan, as of last year, who were both close to death by the time Israel agreed to their release In recent days, a number of international bodies, including the UN and the European Union, have expressed concern over al-Qeeq's situation, as well as Israel's use of administrative detention against some 660 Palestinian prisoners.This week, UN official Robert Piper condemned the arbitrary nature of his detention, saying: "I reiterate the United Nations' long-standing position that all administrative detainees -- Palestinian or Israeli -- should be charged or released without delay."The Palestinian Prisoners Society has said that Israel's security establishment has, so far, shown little willingness to negotiate al-Qeeq's release.During previous hunger strikes, Israel authorities feared that prisoner deaths might spark unrest in the occupied territory, however, unrest has already shaken the territory since October of last year, thus, the Israeli security establishment is not worried anymore on this issue.Thursday's court ruling mirrors a decision taken last year to temporarily freeze the administrative detention of Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan. Allan continued his hunger strike following that decision, and he only agreed to end the protest when Israel promised not to renew his administrative detention.For IMEMC News, this is George Rishmawi.The West Bank and Gaza ReportThis week six Palestinians including a child were killed by Israeli gunfire in deferent parts of the West Bank. Meanwhile in Gaza two fighters died as a siege-busting tunnel collapsed on them. IMEMCs Ghassan Bannoura Reports:At the start of the week, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian police officer at Beit Eil military checkpoint located at the northern entrance of Ramallah city. Amjad Sokari, 35, from Jamain village, south of Nablus, was killed after he opened fire at the Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoint and wounded 3 of them.On Monday, Israeli forces killed Ahmed Touba, 18, from Kufor Jamal village, northern West Bank, while attempting to sneak through the annexation wall into Israel in pursuit of work.Three Palestinians were shot dead on Wednesday, after they killed an Israeli police officer and wounded another during an armed attack near Damascus Gate, in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police said.The Palestinians have been identified as Ahmad Abu al-Rob, 21, Muhammad Abu Kamil, 20, both from Qabatia town, and Ahmad Ismael, 22, from Jenin city.On Friday, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian child at a military checkpoint near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. 14 year-old Haytham Al Bou, from Haloul town near Hebron was short dead at a military checkpoint separating his village from the settlers road number 60.Moreover, on Friday, Israeli forces used live rounds and rubber coated steel bullets against Palestinian protesters all over the West Bank. according to the Palestinian ministry of health at least 20 Palestinians were injured on Friday by Israeli gunfire including a journalist in Bethlehem city.Also this week, Israeli forces conducted at least 81 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank in occupied East Jerusalem. During these invasions Israeli troops kidnapped more than 100 Palestinian civilians, including 24 children.In the Gaza Strip this week, Two Hamas fighters were killed in a tunnel collapse in the southern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday. Meanwhile Israeli forces, Wednesday morning, reportedly crossed the Gazan border east of Khan Younis, advancing 100 meters into the blockaded coastal enclave where a bulldozers "leveled" farm land.Later on Wednesday midday, The Israeli navy kidnapped four Palestinian fishermen off the Gaza coast and seized their boats. Local sources said that Israeli soldiers opened fire towards two Palestinian boats and, then, detained four fishermen who were aboard.For IMEMC News this is Ghassan Bannoura.ConclusionAnd thats all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for January 30, to February 5, 2016. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at http://www.imemc.org , This weeks report has been brought to you by Maher Qasiess and me Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura. Press Advisory: AG/US Senate Candidate Kamala Harris, CA Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Dolores Huerta, and others will attend Fresno February 18th Dinner. Early SELL OUT On February 18th, Dorothy 'Dottie' Smith, President, will welcome Democrats across the State to Fresno, CA., as they join The Fresno County Democratic Women's Club to honor Central Valley 'Democratic Trailblazer' SHeroes and Grassroots Activists for their amazing work on behalf of Working Families, Women, Youth, Immigrants, Minorities, LGBT, Social and Environmental Justice Issues that promotes our Democratic values. Please join us. Press Advisory: AG/US Senate Candidate Kamala Harris, CA Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Dolores Huerta, and others will attend Fresno February 18th Dinner. Early SELL OUTREF: FCDWC, established in 1932, is the oldest, continuously operating Democratic Club in CaliforniaFeb 18th Fresno County Democratic Women's Club 'Democrats in Action' Dinner'Salute to Democratic Trailblazers - Catalysts for Change' - Pardini's - 2257 West Shaw Ave Fresno, CA 93711Press: 5:00pm ~ 5:30 - 6:20 Social No Host Bar ~ 6:30-9:00pm Dinner ~ Event Night: Cash/Check only and Silent AuctionNote: AG/US Senate Candidate Kamala Harris will attend our DinnerAlthough invited, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is unable to attend due to a prior commitmentCNN Heroes-type Program format ~ Event/Press Inquiries: FCDWC Office: 559-486-5422PRESS/MEDIA: Please send Representative's Name and contact information if you wish to be updated on Press Arrangements or have other questions.BIOs on Honorees and Presenters will be available through 'live links' after Feb 10th.Additional VIP Women Democratic Leaders added to Program (see below)Sponsorships/Tables/Ads/Tickets Information:at this link. http://democracy.com/fresnocountydemocraticwomensclub/event-detail.aspx?eventId=3541 Deadline for Sponsorship Ads / All Ads: Feb. 10th. Color for Social / Digital Media and Black and White for the ProgramDinner Sponsorships for Members and Students who cannot otherwise attend always appreciatedFeb 18th, 2016 'Democrats in Action' Annual Dinner 5:30 pm Fresno, CA"We congratulate our Democratic Trailblazers, who live among us, and whose efforts continue to create changeand positively impact the lives of others every day, promoting our Democratic Values."Will be early Sell Out; purchase your Sponsorships/Group Table, Tickets EARLY. "Mistress of Ceremonies: Ms. Gurdeep Hebert: Dir. of Student Success, Equity & Outreach, and Clovis Community College'Celebrity Democratic Power Women Presenters' includesCalifornia State Assembly Speaker, Toni Atkins CA Democratic Party Vice Chair, Alexandra Alex Gallardo-RookerDolores Huerta, Co-Founder, United Farm Workers SEIU 1000 State President, Yvonne R. WalkerKimberly Ellis, Executive Director Emerge CA Dezie Woods-Jones: CA State President BWOPAMartha Gamez, California Democratic Party Regional DirectorEmily Gatfield, President California Democratic Council RL Miller, Chair CDP Environmental Caucus and Founder, ClimateHawksPatsy Montgomery - Planned Parenthood CA-NV AVP Legislative Affairs and former FCDWC President (our Lifetime Achievement Honoree)Suzanna Aguilera-Marrero, President, Tulare-Kings Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Pres- Visalia Latino Rotary Club of Tulare CountySandra Bustos, President, Fresno Hispanic Rotary; Former Pres- Nat'l Assoc of Prof. Women; Former Board Member Fresno Hispanic Chamber of Commerce2016 'Democratic Trailblazer Honorees' Announced: Sandra Celedon-Castro: Leading Community Activist and Social Justice - HUB Manager, co-wrote a winning $10Billion grant for Building Healthy Communities; instrumental in building and leading Coalitions for Healthcare, Environmental, Education; Community Activist for healthy communities, parks for disenfranchised; a CaDEM Delegate, and more; Simone Cranston-Rhodes: Leading Grassroots, Social Justice and Community Activist - former Central Valley Dir. TenantsTogether, current Fresno Teachers Assoc. Political Organizer, Social, Healthcare, Environmental, Homeless Issues, Community Activist, Top Ten Honoree for National Berger-Marks Foundation Award 2015; Erin Garner-Ford: Exec. Director Act for Women and Girls, Women's Issues, Women's Healthcare, training/supporting young Women for future success, numerous State and National Awards Magdalena Gomez: Union, Leading Grassroots and Political Activist - former TenantsTogether Regional Director, CTA Political Consultant/Legislative Adviser, Social, Healthcare, Environmental, Community Activist, Homeless Issues/Legislation/Legal Cases, Grassroots Activist working on Local/Regional/State/Federal Campaigns and Ballot measures, Vice Chair Fresno County Democratic Central Committee, and more; Sabrina R. Kelley - Leading Community Organizer for Disenfranchised Neighborhoods - currently Community Development Director Housing Authority of the City of Fresno, Habitat for Humanity, and more. Key neighborhood development priorities -Community organizer and former journalist, is a passionate advocate for affordable housing and equitable community development. Career includes work in nonprofit management as well as the broadcast news industry at NBC/CBS affiliates in Fresno and Sacramento. Robin McGehee: State and National LGBT Civil Rights Activist - recognized and honored LGBT/Same Sex Marriage/DADT and Civil Rights activist whose grassroots activism took her to Sacramento and Washington., DC, Supreme Court Demonstrations, arrested for chaining herself to the White House fence, and a personal invitation to the White House for signing of legislation to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' legislation, co-Founder GetEQUAL. Aileen Rizo-Acosta: Equal Pay Champion, lobbying of State Legislators to pass groundbreaking Equal Pay legislation, current court case will be equal to or surpass impact of Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Law; Teacher of Teachers, community activist and volunteer. Mai Summer Vue: Teacher, Union and Community Grassroots Activist, five-time National Educator Association (NEA) Representative Assembly Delegate, a member of the State Council for the California Teachers Association (CTA) and a member of the Executive Board for the Fresno Teachers Association (FTA). She was also the President and two-time founder of the Central Valley Hmong Democrats. Grassroots Activist working on Local/Regional/State/Federal Campaigns and Ballot measures, and more Ashley Werner: Attorney, Leading Social Justice Activist - Environmental - Attorney Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, Social, Healthcare, Environmental, Community Activist, Immigrant Issues/Legislation/Legal Cases, Grassroots Activist working on Local/Regional/State/Federal Campaigns and Ballot measures, a CaDEM Delegate who has authored Environmental Resolutions for the CaDEM Environmental Caucus, and more Carey Wilson: - Union Leader, Grassroots, Social and Political Activist - Union Women, SEIU President 1000 DLC 772, Boards: CLC, CLUW, C.O.O.L, Raise the Minimum Wage campaigns, Healthcare, Environmental, Community and Women's Issues Activist, CaDEM Delegate and eBoard Member, Grassroots Activist working on Local/Regional/State/Federal Campaigns and Ballot measures, and moreYoungest Democrats Rising: Ashley and Tamara Franco sisters: 12/10 yrs old Community Activists, Political Intern Volunteers (2014 Democratic phone banking, etc), food/clothing drives for homeless Families, Kids, Vets, Seniors, works serving at local food banks; Ashley Franco is in 7th Grade at Computech Middle School. Tamara Franco is 4th Grade in Yokomi Elementary School. Both Volunteer at Valley Animal Shelter. Zackeria Lovick: 8 yr old Community Activist, Kids Social Justice, (The Boy with the Backpack) fund raises for backpacks and school supplies for Kids in Need, recognized by the CA Association of School Administrators, Fresno City Council, more. California Rosa Parks Day keynote speaker is Alice Huffman, California NAACP blackagriculture [at] yahoo.com) by Khubaka, Michael Harris On Friday, February 4, 2000, California Rosa Parks Day was established by the California State Legislature and today the celebration of Rosa Louise McCauley Parks is expanding throughout the Pan African Diaspora. Expanding Equity and Equal Opportunity throughout Global Intermodal Transportation Systems remains the objective. Alice Huffman, President of the California NAACP to deliver 2016 California Rosa Parks Day Keynote Address On Friday, February 4, 2000, California Rosa Parks Day was established by the California State Legislature and today the celebration of Rosa Louise McCauley Parks is expanding throughout the Pan African Diaspora. Preparations for the 2016 California Rosa Parks Day, Equity and Equal Opportunity in Global Intermodal Transportation Systems continue during this amazing Super Bowl Weekend. Immortalized for her Dec. 1, 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus to a white male passenger after the whites-only section was filled, Parks became known as the mother of the Civil Rights Movement because of her courage, dedication and service. Rosa Parks, was a civil rights activist before, during and after the bus boycott, later moved to Detroit where she continued her activism and worked for Rep. John Conyers in his District Office. Alice Huffman, is no stranger to the California State Capitol, she needs no introduction. Alice is a global political mover and shaker, while maintaining a special hidden gentle touch for the least among us An American political and civil rights icon, Alice Huffman, continues to serve as the President of the California Conference of NAACP and much, much more. Stay tuned for more information expanding Rosa Parks Day throughout the Pan African Diaspora Hackensack, NJ Most consumers conversant with adverse reaction reports associated with pharmaceutical drugs are nonetheless surprised upon learning of a particular aspect of Most consumers conversant with adverse reaction reports associated with pharmaceutical drugs are nonetheless surprised upon learning of a particular aspect of Abilify side effects that allegedly can leave an Abilify patient in financial ruin. The problem with Abilify (aripiprazole) and similar drugs that impact dopamine in the brain is the potential for compulsive behavior - and specifically, gambling. To this end, a New Jersey man recently filed an Abilify lawsuit alleging that his use of the antidepressant left him with a $75,000 gambling debt.According to court documents, plaintiff Jonathan Yun notes that his compulsive gambling emerged not long after he was prescribed Abilify in December 2010. During his compulsive gambling, Yun burned through about $75,000 before he stopped taking aripiprazole.Once he stopped taking Abilify, in August 2013, the Abilify side effects related to his compulsive gambling simply vanished, or so it is alleged.Yun asserts in his Abilify lawsuit that there was no indication on the Abilify label in the United States that suggested adverse reactions with regard to compulsive behavior. The labeling for Abilify in the United States contains no mention that pathological gambling has been reported in patients prescribed Abilify, the lawsuit states.And yet, Yun asserts that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received various reports suggesting aripiprazole side effects over an eight-year period ending in 2013. An FDA report showed that Abilify accounted for at least fifty-four reports of compulsive or impulsive behavior problems, including thirty reports of compulsive gambling, twelve reports of impulsive behavior, nine reports of hypersexuality, and three reports of compulsive shopping.An analysis of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System shows an escalating number of reports suggesting compulsive gambling: Twenty-nine reports of gambling behavior were made to the FDA in 2014 about Abilify, according to the complaint.And yet, Yun alleges there remained no useful warning on US product labels. In contrast, the European Medicines Agency required proper warnings, beginning in 2012, against the risk for what it deemed pathological gambling. More recently, this past November (2015), Canadian regulators concluded that there is a link between the use of aripiprazole [Abilify] and a possible risk of pathological gambling or hypersexuality, and found an increased risk of pathological (uncontrollable) gambling and hypersexuality with the use of Abilify.In his Abilify litigation, Yun asserts that defendants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. had, or should have had knowledge that Abilify can cause compulsive behaviors like gambling, and that despite their significant collective resources, and signals that Abilify is associated with compulsive behaviors such as gambling, [they] have failed to fully and adequately test or research Abilify and its association with compulsive behaviors.Yun filed his Abilify lawsuit January 12 in Bergen County Court. - The Zika disease is said to be without a cure nor a vaccine, but an Indian pharmaceutical firm has noted otherwise - Biotech International Limited has said it has developed a vaccine against the dreaded virus Emerging reports suggests that a vaccine might have been developed to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that an Indian pharmaceutical firm claims that it has developed the worlds first vaccine against the Zika disease. According to the Head of the Biotech International Limited, Dr Krishna Ella, Indian firm is probably the first to produce such vaccine. Speaking at a news conference, Dr Ella said Biotecht had already filed for a patent for the Zika vaccine. On Zika, we are probably the first vaccine company in the world to file a vaccine candidate patent about nine months ago, he said. Ella said the firm, which is based in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradeshs capital Hyderabad, had sought the Indian governments help for carrying out human and animal trials for the two candidate vaccines, which have been developed by its scientists, using a live Zika virus. The claims came a day after the World Health Organisation said that the Zika virus poses a global public health emergency requiring a united response. The virus has been linked to cases of microcephaly, in which babies are born with underdeveloped brains. There have been around 4,000 reported cases of microcephaly in Brazil alone since October. However, till date, there has been not a single reported case of Zika virus attack in India, though the government was said to have tested a number of samples. Up until this claim, there has not been any known vaccine nor cure for the Zika virus. Source: Legit.ng - President Buhari insists that Boko Haram has been technically defeated - Boko Haram recently carried out an attack on Dalori, a village in Borno state, where about 86 people were killed - The president says the insurgents can not mobilise enough forces to attack File photo of suspected Boko Haram members Nigeria's president, Muhammadu Buhari has insisted that the Islamic terror group, Boko Haram has been technically defeated, despite recent attacks by the insurgents, The Punch reports. The recent attack of the terrorists was carried out on Dalori, a village in Borno state, where about 86 people were killed. READ ALSO: Buhari overstated his ability to stop terrorism British media President Buhari had recently said the group had been technically defeated. Speaking to BBC on Friday, February 5, he maintained that the terrorists had indeed been technically defeated. He said: "Well, all I know is that out of the 14 Local Government Areas in Borno State where they (Boko Haram) used to hold and hoist their flag, they are nowhere in charge of any of them again. But they can still regroup and go after attacking soft targets." When asked if it was fair to say a group which killed over 65 people in a single attack had been technically defeated, the Buhari said: "Well, thats your own description of it. My own description is that they can no longer mobilise enough forces to attack police and army barracks and destroy aircraft like they used to do. They can no longer do that." READ ALSO: Revealed: 5 achievements of President Buhari in just 7 months President Buhari during his election campaigns had promised to defeat the group if elected. In a related development, Alistair Dawber, a reporter of the British national newspaper The Independent, claims that Buhari overstated his ability to stop the Islamists and a deadly attack in Dalori village clearly shows that the fight with Boko Haram insurgency is far from its end. Source: Legit.ng - Chief Olusegun Obasanjo paid a visit to the Ooni of Ife - The former president prostrated to greet the monarch in what was considered a dramatic move - He applauded the monarch for his interest in uniting the Yoruba race Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in what might be considered a surprising move prostrated to Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife. Vanguard reports that this happened during a visit by the former president to the palace of the monarch in Ife on Friday, February 5. Obasanjo who was accompanied by eminent personalities was well received by the king and prominent traditional rulers. In what drew gasps of surprise and applause, the former president prostrated to greet the ooni in what is although a cultural gesture but notable. READ ALSO: Ooni visits Tinubu in Lagos Obasanjo applauded the ooni for his move to unite the Yoruba race and urged him not to relent in his interest in developing the Yoruba race. Olusegun Obasanjo prostrating for Oba Adeyeye I commend the role of Ooni in ensuring peace in Yorubaland. Continue what you are doing, especially your unity course. I am happy with the move taken so far. It is only a sign of honour for the Ooni to visit anyone. That does not stop Ile-Ife from its position in the history of Yorubaland. The former president apologised for not being at the coronation of the ooni but prayed for the Yoruba race. Oba Adeyeye expressed delight in the visit and described Obasanjo as someone who loves Yoruba culture and had been promoting it. READ ALSO: Ooni promises to employ 40, 000 youths The ooni has been at the forefront of promoting the unity of the Yoruba people as he said it was Gods order to him to fulfil. It would be recalled that the Ooni rewrote history on Sunday, January 17, when he became the first Ooni to visit Oyo town since 1937, a move that was applauded by most Nigerians. Source: Legit.ng - President Muhammadu Buhari says he wonders why he came to power at this economic -challenging period - The president said with God's help, the country will experience better days -The president addressed Nigerians in London on the state of the economy President Muhammadu Buhari has wondered why he came into government at this period of economic challenges but expressed optimism in the success of the administration with Gods help. The Punch reports that the president said this on Friday, February 5 when he was addressing the members of the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom in London. President Buhari said he always wondered why oil, which used to sell for over $140 per barrel, would reduce to $30 per barrel during his time as president and why he wasnt in charge when the country was financially buoyant. He said he however continue to pray to God to be merciful to the over 170 million Nigerians. READ ALSO: Government to boost made-in-Nigeria products With the problems we have in this government, I sometimes wonder. At least, this time around, I asked for it, I prayed for it, I went round the country and I asked for it. But the first time under the military, I allowed the military to take decision. But I say why me? Why is it that it is when they have spent all the money, when they made the country insecure that I returned? Why didnt I come when the treasury was full? Oil price was over $140 per barrel and when I came, it slipped down to $30. Why me? I keep on praying to God to pity Nigeria and its over 170 million people who are exposed to climate change, illiteracy and poverty. Buhari said his administration had succeeded in mopping up over N2.2trn as of January through the Treasury Single Account arrangement. He explained that although it was introduced by former president, Goodluck Jonathan, he didnt know why it was not implemented. You know the condition we are in now. I am sure with demands from home, in spite of what your effort is, you know we are really in trouble. We have tried to impose what we call Treasury Single Account. The reason is simple. This government did not initiate it; it was initiated by the previous government. But it was so unpopular to the bureaucracy, so the previous government for its own reasons, could not impose it. But when we came and we found out that we were broke, we said this is the way to do it. I will tell you two examples to convince you. Firstly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had more than 45 accounts. Ministry of Defence had more than 70 accounts. Tell me which Accountant-General can trace all these accounts? So, we imposed TSA. By the end of December, coming to January 2016, we mopped up more than N2.2trn which would have been used through bureaucratic system to raise vouchers and sign cheques so that they dont go into the next budget. The president applauded the United States and Britain for preventing the previous administration from rigging the election. He recalled that Samdo Dasuki, the national security adviser had urged the service chiefs to tell the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that they could not guarantee safety during the polls. He said Professor Attahiru Jega, the chairman of INEC had guarantee 60 percent free and fair election at a point when the country had only managed 45 per cent. Then we insisted that election must be done according to the constitution. READ ALSO: War against corruption has not started yet - Buhari At this point again, I must hasten to thank the United States for sending the Secretary of State, Kerry, to go and read the riot act to the previous government and speak to Prof. Jega, the Chairman of INEC and speak to us as opposition that the US would not tolerate any election outside the Nigerian constitution. They maintained the pressure from that date until after the election and the formation of the new government. I think Nigerians honestly should thank the US for this. The same thing with Britain, they used all their experience and their powers to make sure that the Federal Government did not rig the last election. We thank God, we thank these super powers and we thank technology. Why we thank technology is because of the permanent voter cards and the card readers. Meanwhile, the president has handed over power to Yemi Osinbajo, the vice president while he is on a short vacation, a move that has generated reactions from Nigerians. Source: Legit.ng - President Buhari says he can't prosecute the former minister of petroleum over lack of evidence - The president threatens to prosecute all those who dipped their hand into the nations wealth - Buhari is unwilling to give up on his search for evidence Former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was arrested in London on suspicion of bribery and money laundering President Muhammadu Buhari, has said that he is unable to prosecute the former minister of petroleum resources, Deizani Alison-Madueke and other petroleum workers over what he called lack of evidence, Break Times reports. The president stated this in an exclusive interview with Peter Okwoche of the BBC, after attending a conference on the ongoing Syrian crisis. Okwoche in a series of tweets quoted the president to have said: "To prosecute corruption successfully we need evidence. Thats not easy especially in petroleum sector." President Buhari had earlier threatened to prosecute all those who dipped their hand into the nations wealth for private use and among those brandished and suspected to be prosecuted is Alison-Madueke. READ ALSO: Alison-Madueke secretly obtained foreign citizenship The president unwilling to give up on his search for evidence has unwittingly admitted that there was no form of evidence privy to his government against the former minister and as such vindicated her from diverse alleged corrupt malpractices leveled against her by Nigerians. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit has denied that Nigerias former petroleum minister was ever offered or encouraged by his government to take Dominican citizenship. Skerrits denial comes as Alison-Madueke faces serious corruption investigations in both Nigeria and the UK. Source: Legit.ng - Boko Haram victim warned the government not to bring back Chibok girls - Bringing back the missing girls may cause doom in Nigeria The parents of the missing Chibok girls Hajiya Aishatu, one of the victims of the deadly Boko Haram sect, has issued a stern warning to the Federal government concerning the missing Chibok girls. The woman, who is now taking refuge in Jos, Plateau state, said that bringing back Chibok girls into the country might spell doom for Nigeria's anti-terrorism stance. Aishatu giving the warning in an interview said: Bringing back Chibok girls would amount to importing vampires into the country, the campaign for Chibok girls is not in the interest of this country. READ ALSO: Alleged B'Haram commander on Chibok girls location Chibok girls are not existing anywhere in the world, most of them had been used as suicide bombers by those who abducted them. Young girls involved in suicide attacks in the last two years till date were the Chibok girls, it will be a waste of time for anyone to be talking of rescuing Chibok girls, she added. The Boko Haram survivor, who comes from Bama village, was lucky to fled to Jos during the heat of the terror war in the north-east. Aishatu saw the killing of her husband and two children before her narrow escape urged the government to watch the activities of those engaged in the Bring Back our Girls Campaign base in Abuja because those involved are acting on absolute ignorance or they are not sincere to the nation. If at all Chibok girls exist anywhere, bringing them back to Nigeria will even spell doom for this country because they have been trained to see the country as the land of evil men, she continued. The woman appealed to National Emergency Management Agency to devise a means of identify those victims who are not staying in the camps now due to the kindness of their relations who gave them shelter by including them in the rehabilitation program of the federal government. READ ALSO: President Buhari orders new investigation into Chibok kirls' kidnap Boko Haram members stormed the government secondary school in the remote town of Chibok in Borno state on the evening of April 14, 2014, abducting 276 girls who were preparing for end-of-year exams. Fifty-seven escaped but nothing has been heard of the more than 200 others since their appearance in a Boko Haram video. One the commanders of the sect recently said that the terrorists didn't know the location of the girls. Source: Legit.ng - EFCC waits Buhari's approval to declare some officials of the previous government wanted - Former VP Sambo denies hiding from the anti-graft agency Namadi Sambo Former vice president Namadi Sambo may soon be declared wanted by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). The Telegraph reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to seek the cooperation of the international police Sambo alongside with some other officials of Goodluck Jonathan's government in bringing them back into Nigeria. Others are former special adviser to Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs and the then Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, as well as the immediate past chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde. READ ALSO: EFCC commences investigation into Sambo's office The anti-graft agency began considering the idea after series of opportunities given to the ex-officials to return home did not yield any result, a report that Sambo and Kuku rejected. A very top official in the Ministry of Justice said that if the EFCC receives the blessing of the presidency to that effect, the letters to the Interpol will go out not later than Tuesday. He said: The letters would be sent to Interpol by Tuesday, we are only waiting for the president to give approval. You know we cant do such without getting the presidency involved. They are the people that will still facilitate the extradition of these people. Some of them are not just anybody, and it will look as if we are treating them as common criminals. Our former oga is also among them and these people have some international connections, so we have to thread cautiously. We gave them a lot of opportunity to come back home and defend themselves, but they have not been forthcoming. We have spoken with some of them, but they are just giving excuses. Once the president gives the approval, we will have no choice than to move against them through the Interpol. They will surely bring them back home and that will even be more disastrous for them, because no court will grant them bail, after seeing that they are trying to evade justice. READ ALSO: Arms deal: EFCC raids former VP Namadi Sambo's office In a swift reaction, a close associate of the former Vice President denied any involvement of Sambo in the arms scandal. According to the man, who is one of the trusted allies of Sambo, the former vice president just left Nigeria on January 25 for a further therapy on a knee operation that he recently had in the US. How can they be looking for him when he has been around all these while. He is not running, the VP is much around; he just left Nigeria last week, on January 25. "He has been in the country since November, nobody came looking for him." The EFCC had last week raided the office of former VP, where a supposed sum of $50, 000 and important documents were reportedly confiscated. One of Sambos assistants, known as Abba Daboh, is also now serving as a witness in the current trial against the spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh. Source: Legit.ng - Governor Fayose has spoken on his relationship with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo - Fayose believes that the PDP made a wrong choice in fielding Goodluck Jonathan as their 2015 candidate - The governor reveals that he is not interested in ruling Nigeria Following rumours of deep-rooted rifts between them, Governor Ayodele Fayose has revealed that he holds no personal grudges against former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The Ekiti state governor explained that whatsoever friction tends to exist, only stems from having different points of view on diverse issues. Governor Fayose has asked Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to declare his assests. According to Fayose, he only says things as he sees them and that sometimes may not go down well in certain quarters. In enunciating further the alleged tussle between himself and OBJ, Fayose said he holds nothing against the former General over his reported role in his (Fayose's) 2006 impeachment. He said: "The military in Nigeria should subject themselves to democratic rules. When Obasanjo was there he was behaving the same way Buhari is behaving today. It was under Obasanjo that the EFCC would lock people up because the president has power to order arrest, because the president appoints the IGP, the DG of SSS and others. He has power of coercion. The fact remains that the constitution allows me the right even in the face of accusation to enjoy my liberty. Obasanjo is not a democrat. Today, former Governor (Bola) Tinubu of Lagos would recall what Obasanjo did. It doesnt matter what our political alignments are today, history cannot be taken away. So my position has not changed and it will never change." READ ALSO: Biafra Agitation: Group attacks Obasanjo over utterance According to Premium Times, Fayose further noted that: "When Obasanjo was there for eight years, Buhari didnt go there? Everyday Obasanjo goes to kiss the ground in Aso Rock. Everyday Obasanjo has something to go and tell him there. There are some places elders would have a bit of shame. "They would know that sometimes we should not go to this place. Even if you look at the pictures taken of his visit you see him bending down. When he was in government he was busy abusing this Buhari. Obasanjo was busy insulting Awolowo. One of the things Obasanjo wants to lay claim to in life is that he is the longest serving Nigerian president. When you add his military rule to his civilian regime, you understand. "So, Obasanjo doesnt like anybody to excel or exceed his record. Thats the truth. Obasanjo, who now seems to be the father of gangsterism or whatever he seems to be today, is the same man that we used to talk about every other day. Today he is there. The most painful aspect of it is for Obasanjo to be coming out and be claiming he is a very honest man. Where did he get the money that was given to the National Assembly that time? Where did he get the money? Each senator and member of the House of Representatives collected N50 million each. How about that $2billion Halliburton money? They jailed some people in America because of Halliburton. Obasanjo knows everything about Halliburton. Let us put Halliburton to trial and see what happens. That is why I told you that this fight must not be selective. If truly we want to fight corruption, let us fight corruption head on. And the fact remains that men will judge, God will judge again." While entertaining questions from newsmen, Fayose vehemently said that past presidents must be probed, demanding that Obasanjo must declare his assets from before he came in 1999 till his 2007 declaration. He said: "Who is fooling who? Buhari now declared mud house and herds of cattle. When he is going now he will go and build one house in Daura with salary. That time the mud house will now become ancient mud houses. The cattle will now become limo Mercedes bullet proof. I beg my brother! Those people who are stealing cow, should stop fighting people stealing rats." In his interview, Fayose also revealed that making Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party's flag bearer in the 2016 general elections, was a terrible move by the the PDP. He said it was a gross political miscalculation. According to him: "The fact is that my former president, I chose my word, my former president, Goodluck Jonathan, tried his best. But if I were him, I would not have contested at all, you understand. Because it is two ways: if he did not contest and the PDP lost out, he will still be an honourable man, and if he had given that opportunity to the north, those who defected from the PDP would not have defected. But that is story. "Jonathan did his best and I will still continue to support him. You know I was not there when they took the decision about him becoming the flag-bearer, but it doesnt matter. We cant all put our mouth inside the soil. Somebody must remain with somebody. I will remain with Jonathan even if I am the only man standing. A man is not measured by the amount of food you have and the amount of properties you own. Sometimes sickness is good, it reshapes your life. Sometimes poverty is good, it helps your life. Sometimes failure makes you to reorder your life. It is not the end of your life." The Ekiti state governor, however, was optimistic that the PDP will get stronger, though the party is undergoing a deliberate effort to destabilize the opposition by the APC While speaking on the challenges besetting Ekiti state, Fayose who said he had no interest in being the president of Nigeria, noted that his government will not cut down its workforce nor make any reduction in the payment of workers. "I cant cut anybodys job. Me, Ayo Fayose, I cant sack any worker. Immediately they started the story of retrenchment, I told them count me out. You see, when you are owing me as a worker, it is different from taking my means of livelihood. When you are owing the worker at the bad times, he will have the hope that when money comes he would be paid. But if you had sacked him, you have killed him, you have taken away his life. "I wont cut anything. I will continue to dialogue with them. You see, you cant make decisions for the people alone. This governance we are talking about, government is not the only factor. There are other variables. When things are not going the way you expect, you must engage the people," Fayose noted. Source: Legit.ng Total sales dipped 79 percent in March 2020 with 3,697 units sold, down from 17,201 units sold in March 2019 Honda Cars finished 6th among automakers in India in terms of sales in March 2020. It noted domestic sales of 3,697 units in the past month, down 79 percent as against 17,201 units sold in the same month of the previous year. Even as every model noted de-growth in the past month, Honda Amaze was the best selling model in the company lineup. Total sales stood at 2,744 units, down 63 percent as against 7,419 units sold in March 2019. Honda Amaze, in the sub 4 meter sedan segment, competes with Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Hyundai Aura, Tata Tigor, and Ford Aspire. It has consistently been in second position on the monthly sales charts. Also Read Honda Launches Online Car Booking Honda Jazz failed to see any sales in the past month even as sales in March 2019 has stood at 1,078 units. The Jazz facelift has been teased ahead of launch and gets several sportier updates as compared to its earlier counterpart. It could be powered by the same set of petrol and diesel engines in BS6 format and could see its price hiked by Rs.50,000 as compared to BS4 Jazz which falls within the range of Rs 7.45 lakhs to Rs 9.4 lakhs. Honda Car Sales March 2020 No Honda Mar-20 Mar-19 Diff % 1 Amaze 2,744 7,419 -4,675 -63.01 2 City 786 3,432 -2,646 -77.10 3 WRV 86 2,552 -2,466 -96.63 4 Civic 67 2,291 -2,224 -97.08 5 CRV 14 104 -90 -86.54 6 Jazz 0 1,078 -1,078 -100.00 7 BRV 0 325 -325 -100.00 Total 3,697 17,201 -13,504 -78.51 The 10th Gen Honda Civic which was launched in March 2019 noted sales of 2,291 units in that month which dipped to just 67 units in March 2020. Sales of the Honda WR-V stood at just 86 units, down from 2,552 units sold in March 2019, a dip of 97 percent. Bookings have opened for the 2020 WR-V which comes in with BS6 compliant petrol and diesel engine options and design upgrades. Also Read Car Buyers Will Not Get Test Drives Post Lockdown Honda City has also noted de-growth of 77 percent to 786 units sold in March 2020 as compared to 3,432 units sold in the same month of the previous year. The new 2020 Honda City will be launched soon in India. It will be offered in three variants: V, VX and ZX. It will be presented with two engine options of a 1.5 liter petrol and 1.5 liter diesel. Launch date will be finalized once the nationwide lockdown has been lifted. Honda BR-V failed to note any sales in the past month while sales of the CR-V clocked 14 units, down 87 percent as against 104 units sold in March 2019. The entire auto industry has been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as has been every other industry in the country. Recovery remains a point of concern especially considering the extended lock down period and no announcements being made by the Government of India regarding opening up of industries in the immediate future. Scania India has launched their premium G310 haulage tractor for the Indian market along with Indias first bio fuel powered commercial bus. Set to demonstrate high performance and elevated level of fuel efficiency, the G310 haulage tractor enters a new segment in India and is fitted with Scania OptiCruise fully automated gear change system allowing drivers to select gears as per situation while transferring load to the drive axle resulting in enhanced traction. The new bio fuel commercial bus has a low floor and low entry while it promises better on board comforts. The buses will comply with Bharat Stage (BS) 4, Euro 5, and Euro 6 considerably reducing CO2 emission and resulting in cleaner air. Apart from this, Scania R580 road truck, which is considered as one of the most powerful road trucks and has been certified by ARAI, is also on display. R580 is powered by Scanias new V8 engine which promises outstanding performance. The Scania range of vehicles in India besides the R580 puller also includes G 460 64, G410 62 and P 410 84 Mining and Coal Tipper. The company is in a joint venture with Larsen & Toubro for a range of Mining vehicles while Scania Metro Link bus segment consists of 12, 13.7 and 14.5 m. Scania has also launched the first ethanol powered Green Bus in India which was handed over to Nagpur in 2014. Its engine complies with Bharat Stage V and is a part of the companys mobility solutions endeavour. Buoyed by this success, Scania India is in discussion with other state transport undertakings for introduction of more such environmentally-friendly buses across the country. Increased momentum in this segment has see Scania India hold a 35 percent market share in the premium commercial vehicle segment. Scania India is actively involved in Swach Bharat, Smart Cities and Make in India which is evident in all their products on display at the 2016 Auto Expo with regard to fuel efficiency, increased vehicle uptime and augmented productivity and profitability. Stay tuned to Rushlane as we cover the 2016 Auto Expo LIVE. Photos News Release

YouTube/Barcroft TV

These breathtaking photos show a whole new side to polar bears. Wildlife photographer Amos Nachoum was finally able to complete his goal of capturing polar bears underwater, and the photos are out of this world. Nachoum told Barcroft TV he aimed to show the gentle side of polar bears, which could dispel the stereotype that they are terrifying or aggressive. YouTube/Barcroft TV Nachoum also wanted to show, through his photos, humans and wildlife are capable of coexisting without strife. "When humans use their intelligence ... we can interact peacefully with animals," he told The Dodo. "No wild animal wants to attack human beings, unless we cross their comfort zone." With an Inuit team for guidance and award-winning wildlife filmmaker Adam Ravetch as a partner, the results of Nachoum's grand undertaking are nothing short of stunning. He spent five days off the coasts of Canada swimming with the bears this past August. YouTube/Barcroft TV Dodo Shows Soulmates Dog Goes Everywhere In His Dad's Kangaroo Pouch Nachoum spent 45 minutes with the polar bear family, slowly gaining their trust and understanding their movements before taking the big plunge with them into the water. He was able to capture the heartening moment when a mother bear taught her baby cubs how to swim as they searched for food together. Nachoum and his team spent about three to four hours with the bears as they swam from island to island. The polar bears mostly went about their business without paying much attention to Nachoum and his crew. Nachoum said the secret behind successfully photographing the bears was staying in the mother's line of vision at all times. "We weren't making any aggressive moves or moving toward her," Nachoum said. "She always knew where we were and that meant to her that she's safe, that we're not crossing the line. One of the babies actually went down to look at me, came close as three feet away, and then went back to the surface." YouTube/Barcroft TV In Nachoum's world, polar bears are just your friendly neighborhood swimmers of the deep. YouTube/Barcroft TV From the looks of these photos, these baby polar bears still have a long way to go before they perfect the art of swimming as gracefully as their mother. We're rooting for them! YouTube/Barcroft TV Three lions who were left to die at a "horrific" abandoned zoo are still trapped there - but hopefully not for long. The lions, along with two bears, spent years living in tiny cages at the Gyumri Zoo in Armenia after the facility's owner - by some accounts a lavish oligarch, by others an unlucky businessman - ran into financial trouble and abandoned them. It's unclear how many animals were originally at the facility, but it's believed that many of them died. Roger Allen Roger Allen For months they were cared for by a limited-income elderly couple who found the animals frothing at the mouth and crying out from lack of water. But after their story went public last month, an international team of rescue groups led by the Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) came together to save them. The bears were quickly relocated to a temporary enclosure at the Yerevan Zoo, where they'll be quarantined before moving to the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Romania. But the team has run into trouble trying to help the lions, as there's nowhere to hold them while their move is being arranged. Roger Allen Dodo Shows Little But Fierce Pocket-Sized Kitten Grows Up To Be A Wild Woman Roger Allen "The lions need to be quarantined in their own country before being sent to a permanent home," James Holden, a representative with WVS, told The Dodo. "There is no suitable facility for this in Armenia, so we must build one." And it's clear the lions can't stay where they are. Mery, the mother, and Zita and Gita, her grown daughters, have spent years trapped in the tiny metal cells, reportedly built into the side of a truck. Previous reports said the animals were being "driven mad" by the confinement and hunger. One of the lions, Zita, has wounds on her head from repeatedly banging it into the metal bars of her cage. A recent video released by WVS shows the lions pacing relentlessly inside their tiny cages, nearly frantic from the stress of their close quarters. To add to the problem, it's the middle of winter. "The lions are kept in awfully cold conditions now, 3 small, deteriorated, outdoor cages, concrete floor, no heating and -15 [degrees Celsius, 5 degrees Fahrenheit] in Gyumri," a representative with the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), one of the groups helping with the rescue efforts, said in an email provided to The Dodo. But WVS and the rescue coalition need public help to speed along the shelter, which will cost an estimated $67,000 - and to complicate matters, a number of potentially fraudulent fundraising requests have been circulating on the internet, pulling thousands of dollars away from the official efforts. But time is of the essence, and the facility would be a much-needed respite from the cold cells where the neglected lions have spent their lives - and a place where they can begin to heal while their permits and new homes are being arranged. Once the lions are safe, the team hopes to use the shelter as a base for ongoing rescue efforts, including addressing Armenia's captive bear problem. Worldwide Veterinary Service Worldwide Veterinary Service

Oscar's Law

In the middle of the night in late January, 2016, two women snuck into a puppy mill in a remote area of New South Wales, Australia. Debra Tranter and her co-investigator had visited this same puppy farm in 2015 to find dogs living in squalor. Mother dogs at the site were in poor health as they were forced to pump out endless litters. Tranter, founder of the Australian anti-puppy mill group Oscar's Law, documented these horrible conditions and handed the evidence to the RSPCA. The footage prompted authorities to seize 16 dogs in urgent need of veterinary care, and to issue the puppy mill operators a notice to comply with animal welfare standards. But when Tranter and her colleague arrived at the puppy mill for the second time, they found that things had actually gotten worse. Inside a dilapidated shed, dogs were crammed into rat-infested pens with dirt floors and no bedding, Tranter said. She could see that the dogs had been chewing on the wood and wires of their cages out of boredom and frustration. The only water available was filthy and covered in green slime, and the entire place stank of urine and feces. When one dog barked, the others joined in, creating a deafening cacophony of sound. Oscar's Law Oscar's Law One dog in particular caught Tranter's attention. A female beagle cowered in the corner of her filthy enclosure and stared at Tranter with wide, suspicious eyes. Tranter stooped down to film the female dog, then turned to leave the area. That's when Tranter heard a puppy cry. "I immediately spun around and thought, where could puppies be?" she told The Dodo. "There was nothing in the pen except for a big wooden box. I knelt down and looked underneath that box, thinking it was the only place where dogs could be. But there was nothing." Tranter turned her video camera light off and sat on the ground to listen. When she heard the cry again, she started crawling around the pen until she noticed a piece of plaster loose on the wall. Tranter turned her camera light back on and shined it through the gap. There, inside the wall cavity, she discovered four wriggling beagle puppies squashed into the tiny space. Oscar's Law Dodo Shows Wild Hearts Orphaned Deer Runs Back To The Wild With Her Best Friend Oscar's Law "It was incredibly sad," Tranter said. "This poor mother dog had to give birth on this filthy dirt floor, and had nowhere safe to put her puppies. She was surrounded by all these other barking dogs, so the mother had hidden her babies within the wall cavity because it was the only safe place." Oscar's Law Oscar's Law Unfortunately, puppy mills are legal in the state of New South Wales in Australia - as they are in the U.S. and many other places in the world. While the New South Wales government has outlined animal welfare regulations, there is little or no enforcement. Not only that, but many puppy mills - like the one Tranter investigated - operate without a license. "They start up in these remote, rural areas," she explained. "No one knows that they're there until someone hears some noise and makes a complaint." Tranter estimates that there are approximately 200 puppy farms in New South Wales, which produce thousands of animals each year. Puppies are sold in pet stores and online shops for prices up to $2,000 per dog. Buyers are often told the dogs have been hand-raised in family homes, but nothing could be further from the truth. Dogs from puppy mills are riddled with health problems and tend to be psychologically traumatized after living in miserable conditions. In some cases, puppies die shortly after being purchased by their new owners, which is what happened to an English staffy named "Torro" in Western Australia, who died from bronchopneumonia nine days after being bought from a pet store. The puppy mill situation in the U.S. isn't much different. According to Last Chance for Animals, puppy mills need to be licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but the industry is poorly regulated. When puppy mill operators are found to be violating the animal cruelty laws, they can still remain open while they "remedy" their issues. Right now, there are thousands of puppy mills in the U.S., producing over two million puppies each year. This is a scary thought when you think about the nearly three million animals euthanized each year, according to the ASPCA. Oscar's Law Oscar's Law Yet Tranter is optimistic that things will change. In the Australian state of Victoria, profit-driven puppy mills are soon to be outlawed, and laws are expected to pass that will ban the sale of animals in pet shops. Tranter hopes the New South Wales government will pass similar legislation. After discovering the beagle puppies in the wall cavity, Tranter had to make the heartbreaking decision to leave both the puppies and their mother behind so she wouldn't be charged with theft. Yet Tranter is confident her photographs and videos will save these dogs' lives. "In my opinion, conditions were so bad, there were grounds to close the place down and get these dogs out," Tranter said. "That's what I was pinning my hopes on." If the dogs can be legally rescued by the authorities, Oscar's Law has offered to pay for all veterinary bills and help find foster homes for the animals. Still, the dogs will have a long road to recovery. When Tranter rescued her miniature poodle, Oscar, from a puppy mill in Victoria, she said it took him many years to adjust to his new life. Oscar's Law Oscar's Law "At first, he was terrified of everything, like the phone ringing, or the TV or the toilet flushing," Tranter said. "He had never been picked up or patted or walked or anything. He was a trembling little ball of mess." Tranter spent many months carrying Oscar in her arms, where he felt safe and secure. Then, little by little, she started introducing Oscar to people and taking him for short walks outside. "As of today, he still has separation anxiety from me," Tranter said. "If he can't see me, he panics. But as long as he can see me, and he's with me, he's very confident." Oscar's Law Oscar's Law Oscar's Law Oscar's Law Air traffic between Kharkiv and Vienna could be resumed this year The leadership of Kharkiv International Airport is in talks Austrian Airlines to resume direct regular flights on the Kharkiv-Vienna route. "We urge them to return the flights, which have been operated for over 12 years... They reassured us that this is possible from autumn 2016," Kharkiv Airport CEO Volodymyr Vasylchenko said at a press conference. According to him, the airport is also negotiating with Fly Dubai to resume flights to Saudi Arabia. Kharkiv airport has a 2,220 meters long and 50 meters wide runway. It has two passenger terminals with a capacity of 100 and 650 persons per hour. The airport is operated by DCH through New Systems AM. This lip-smackin good sauce has held my love literally since before I can remember. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Allow me to introduce my first food love, the thing I will put on, figuratively speaking, everything: Longhorn Bar-B-Q Sauce, from my home state of Washington. This condiment is not housed in a fancy glass jar; it did not make an appearance in the Americas Test Kitchen Season 14 evaluation of high-end barbecue sauces; it contains high-fructose corn syrup. And I pour it most frequently sorry, not sorry on tacos. Wait, no, dont go! I can explain. The sauce is made by Longhorn Barbecue, a restaurant born in Houston in 1946. (Its no relation to the LongHorn Steakhouse restaurant chain, founded in 1981 in Atlanta, nor to the Longhorns of the University of Texas at Austin.) In 1956, the restaurants five founding brothers, Gene, David, Chic, Don and Claude Lehnertz, along with their cousin Duke Fette moved their self-proclaimed Southern Pit Style barbecue to Spokane, Wash. With them went their sauce, made from a recipe whose base originated with Agnes Lehnertz, the Lehnertz brothers mother. She used to do the catering for baptisms and weddings and stuff like that, David Allen, the son of David Lehnertz, told me over the phone from Auburn, Wash., where he owns a Longhorn restaurant. [More things we love: Stylish stemware, beans, Grandmas CorningWare,Baltimore bars, an immersion blender, a home coffee bar, food shopping, oysters, girly drinks] The original sauce was a little spicier and didnt appeal to the palate of the northwest people, says Allen. After some sweetening, the sauces formula has remained the same since about 1958; it was made and sold in the restaurants until 1984, when a production center opened in Spokane Valley. (Allen is also chief executive of the center.) Today it can be found on grocery store shelves in more than 20 states and is sold from Longhorns website. Ive been using Longhorn (my pet name for the sauce) for so long, I dont even remember my first taste of the sticky, sweet stuff. Ive poured it on scrambled eggs, baked potatoes, pizza and, as already admitted, tacos. In college, after evenings of legally consuming adult beverages, I would return to my apartment and pour Longhorn onto tortilla chips (the scoop kind, obviously). I feel vindicated in announcing this because my roommate deemed it delicious, too. Not even a move across the globe (from Washington to Germany) at age 13 could tear us apart: I dutifully packed my bag with bottles, and when those ran out, my grandmother sent reinforcements. Whenever I returned to Washington, I was sure to save room in my suitcase. Eventually the Internet intervened and reduced the strain of our long-distance relationship. (I am compelled to note, with a smile of smug satisfaction, that the sauce is not so mainstream as to be purchased on Amazon.) Truly, nothing can compare to finding the one you love in the place you first met, so trips back west come with a requirement of at least five bottles returning east. I refuse to throw away an empty Longhorn bottle until there is one to replace it; I must always be able to open the refrigerator and see its bright red cap smiling back at me. Since Im telling all, Ill admit that, yes, there have been others. Who am I to resist trying a dab of a mustardy sauce, a dip of a tangy vinegar base? And you cant blame me for thinking sweet thoughts about Sweet Baby Rays. I am, after all, only human. But at the end of the day,I always return to my faithful lip smackin good Longhorn. Recommendations Exceptional Excellent Very Good Availability information is based on distributor records. Wines might not be in stock at every listed store and might be sold at additional stores. Prices are approximate. Check Winesearcher.com to verify availability, or ask a favorite wine store to order through a distributor. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) Choosing the right wine shouldnt create stress, especially on Valentines Day. Here are five wines to help make any meal special, including a sweethearts dinner. They include a champagne for when the stakes are high and two fizzy roses to help set a more relaxed but still romantic vibe. For good measure, theres a serious red from Australia for the main course and an exotic and seductive Riesling to end the evening on a sweet note. Champagne Moutard Cuvee des 6 Cepages Brut 2007 Champagne, France, $50 Most champagne is made with three grape varieties: chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. But regulations allow seven varieties in the blend. This one uses six, the extras being arbane, petit meslier and pinot blanc. They give the wine complexity, and the age in the bottle adds roundness and body. This wine tastes more expensive than it is. Alcohol by volume: 12 percent. Distributed by M. Touton: Available in the District at Ace Beverage, Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits, Wide World of Wines. Available in Maryland at Old Farm Liquors and Viniferous in Frederick, Silesia Liquors in Fort Washington. Available in Virginia at Chain Bridge Cellars and the Vineyard in McLean. Schloss Saarstein Serrig Schloss Saarsteiner Riesling Spatlese 2013 Mosel, Germany, $18 Spatlese means late harvest, which in Germany describes the ripeness of the grapes when picked. This wine is sweet but not unctuously so, nicely balanced by acidity. Riesling fans will revel in its creamy texture and rich coconut flavors. Serve this with spicy dishes, semi-soft cheese or a simple dessert. The distributor recently switched to the 2014 vintage, but the 2013 I tasted recently is still available in stores. ABV: 8.5 percent. Distributed by Elite: Available in the District at Arrowine and Spirits, Bloomingdale Liquor, Rodmans, Virginia Market, Wagshals Deli; on the list at 701, Ankara, Prego Again, Slate Wine Bar & Bistro. Available in Maryland at Beer, Wine & Co., Georgetown Square Wine and Beer, and Geste Beer & Wine in Bethesda; Happy Grape in Baltimore; Silesia Liquors (2014 vintage) in Fort Washington; Mayo Liquors in Edgewater; Midway Discount Liquors in Joppa; Wine Bin in Ellicott City. On the list at Crush Wine House in Annapolis, Water for Chocolate in Baltimore, Mussel Bar and Grille in Bethesda, Vini Culture Wine Bar & Cafe in Frederick. Available in Virginia at Altura Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria, Locke Modern Country Store in Millwood; on the list at Vasos Kitchen and Vasos Mediterranean Bistro in Alexandria. Shaw + Smith Shiraz 2013 1/2 Adelaide Hills, Australia, $35 This is a savory shiraz, not the overtly fruity, jammy style that came to characterize Australian wine a decade ago. Serve it with rich, hearty stews or roasts. ABV: 14 percent. Distributed by Country Vintner: Available in the District at Ace Beverage, Cork & Fork, DVines, S&R Liquors. Available in Maryland at Wine Cellars of Annapolis, Wine Harvest (Gaithersburg, Potomac). Available in Virginia at Cork & Fork in Gainesville, Unwined (Alexandria, Belleview). Royal Provence Rivarose Brut Provence, France, $15 The elegant bottle, the pale pink color and, well, just the thought of Provence suggest romance. ABV: 12 percent. Distributed by M. Touton: Available in the District at Bacchus Wine Cellar, Bell Wine & Spirits, Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits, Cork & Fork, Eye Street Cellars, Harrys Reserve Fine Wine & Spirits, Tenley Wine & Liquor; on the list at B Too. Available in Maryland at Old Farm Liquors in Frederick, Total Discount Liquors in Eldersburg. Available in Virginia at Crystal City Wine Shop, the Vineyard in McLean, Wegmans (various locations). Shindig Fizzi Pink 2014 Finger Lakes, N.Y., $20 This fun, bubbly rose is made from cabernet franc, then carbonated rather than undergoing a second fermentation in the champagne style. I was skeptical at first, because it seemed gimmicky, but it won me over with its charm. Think of this as a date wine without the added pressure of an expensive champagne. ABV: 12.5 percent. Distributed by Siema: Available in the District at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits; on the list at Eno Wine Bar. Available in Maryland at Fenwick Beer & Wine in Silver Spring, Pinky & Pepes Grape Escape in Gaithersburg. Available in Virginia at Planet Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria. Wines are lined up for assessment as a judge fills out a score sheet during final round of the 2016 Virginia Governors Cup wine competition, held in Richmond. (Dayna Smith/For The Washington Post) Swirl, sniff, sip, spit, score. Repeat 129 more times. That was the routine over three days recently for 15 wine professionals judging the final round of this years Virginia Governors Cup wine competition at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. Tasting 130 wines over 48 hours from early Sunday afternoon to lunchtime on Tuesday makes it difficult to suss out nuances among a flight of six cabernet francs or a series of Bordeaux-style red blends. Is a floral viognier improved by aging in oak barrels? Does petit manseng perform better as a dry white or a sweet dessert wine? Sponsored by the Virginia Wineries Association, the Virginia Wine Board and the Virginia Vineyards Association (a coalition that should pretty much cover everyone), the competition is designed to highlight the strength of winemaking in Virginia today. Ive been judging Virginia and eastern U.S. wine competitions for 20 years; in the early days, choosing a winner was relatively easy. Today, the quality and consistency of winemaking have improved so much that even the most qualified judge can struggle to identify the best, and winners can be determined by a fraction of a point once scores have been averaged. Wine competitions are controversial. Judges spend only a few minutes, if that much, assessing each sample, whereas consumers have the benefit of enjoying a single bottle over the course of a meal or during a romantic afternoon overlooking the vineyards at a winery. Some of the wineries considered among Virginias best, such as Linden and RdV, typically dont enter wines in competitions, arguing that such snapshot assessments dont do their products justice. Of the 252 wineries in the state, 98 sent entries for the Governors Cup. George Davis, center, and Bill Curtis were among the 15 judges who sampled the 130 contenders that made it to the Virginia Governors Cup competitions final round. (Dayna Smith/For The Washington Post) My goal is to produce wines that are restrained, subtle and complex, says Jim Law, owner and winegrower at Linden Vineyards. They should evolve and change with time in the glass at the dinner table. Competitions are quick speed dating snapshots where loud, assertive wines get the glory. I want an intellectual conversation, not a campaign debate. So what should it mean to you when you visit a winery and see a bottle draped with a ribbon and a medal from a wine competition? Youll know, at least, that people who taste a lot of wines thought the quality was high. Winning a competition can have an impact on sales. When Barboursvilles 2009 Octagon won the Governors Cup in 2013, Id say there was a 20 percent bump in sales, says Doug Zerbst, vice president for sales at RNDC Virginia, a major wine distributor based in Richmond. Zerbst, a judge for the final round of this years competition, said theres a halo effect for other wines from wineries that win competitions. Of course, prices tend to rise as well. Barboursvilles Octagon averaged $40 a bottle before winning the Governors Cup; now it costs $50 to $60 retail. The Governors Cup was inaugurated in 1982. In 2012 it switched to its current format, which includes several preliminary rounds to whittle entries down to the final 12 highest-scoring wines that will become the Governors Case. The top scorer among that dozen wins the Governors Cup trophy. The winners will be announced later this month in Richmond by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Competing this year were 432 wines made using all-Virginia-grown fruit, according to Jay Youmans, a master of wine and owner of the Capital Wine School in the District, who has organized the competition since 2011. The top 130 wines were evaluated in the final round by 15 judges who had not participated in the preliminaries. Judges in all rounds were people who taste wines on a professional basis, either writers, importers, distributors or retailers, Youmans said. The winners get good marketing, which is, of course, why the organizers hold competitions. Each winery that gets into the Governors Case sells 10 cases, or 120 bottles, of the winning wine to the competition. The organizers then send 120 Governors Cases to wine and travel writers most in the United States, but also to prominent wine writers in the United Kingdom and even France. Virginia wine has been touted in travel and food magazines around the world in recent years, in large part because the Governors Case has exposed writers to the Old Dominions increasing quality. If you get in the case, you get all the marketing benefits as if you had won the cup itself, says Mark Fedor, co-owner with his wife, Vicki, of North Gate Vineyard in Purcellville. North Gates 2011 and 2012 Meritage wines were included in the Governors Case in successive years. Wineries also benefit from feedback from the judges as an assessment of their winemaking, he adds. It has helped our business and given us a sense of legitmacy in the market. To get in the case, you have to average 90 points a gold-medal score out of 100 from 21 judges, Youmans said in an interview after the judging concluded. And the highest-scoring of those wins the Governors Cup. So why does a wine win? Because a lot of professionals like it. Gift Article Share EVERY YEAR, eager children, panicked parents, frustrated commuters and exasperated employers ask the Capital Weather Gang the same thing: Why is it so difficult to forecast snow in the D.C. region? Although forecasts were outstandingly accurate days in advance of the historic January 2016 blizzard, that is not always the case. In fact it almost never is. Each storm is unique, and the slightest variations in storm track, surface temperature and atmospheric moisture can lead to dramatically different outcomes. To make forecasting even more difficult, Washington is between two regional climate zones: the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream to the east, and the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains to the west. This creates a special transition zone, with warm air on one side and cold air on the other. Advertisement The elevation change between the low-lying areas east of Washington and the high elevations to the west also plays a critical role in snowfall forecasts. It is more likely to snow in higher elevations simply because it is colder. Sometimes, just this slight deviation in temperature can make or break a forecast. Below, we use a variety of winter storm types to illustrate four common scenarios: a big snow, a few inches, an ice storm and rain. As for the dreaded wintry mix? It can show up in any of the scenarios. Wintry mix is a catchall term meteorologists use. It means at least two types of precipitation will fall, and it will not be pretty. THE BIG SNOW The biggest snows and most ruthless blizzards are almost always caused by the kind of storm people know best: the noreaster, named for the direction from which the wind blows onto the East Coast. A noreaster feeds on moisture and heat from the warm Gulf Stream. If the storm tracks north very close to the Mid-Atlantic coast, a noreaster can dump a boatload of snow along the Interstate 95 corridor. Advertisement Notable storms Jan. 22-23, 2016, Snowzilla, 17 to 30 inches Feb. 5-6, 2010,Snowmaggedon, 18 to 32 inches Jan. 6-8, 1996, Blizzard of 1996, 17 to 25 inches Feb. 18-19, 1979, Presidents Day snowstorm, 16 to 26 inches A FEW INCHES The vast majority of the regions snowstorms consist of a glancing blow just a few inches but enough to wreak havoc. We see it play out every winter, often in the form of an Alberta clipper, which gets its name from the Canadian province where the storm tend s to originate. Clippers are cold enough to deliver snow if they track south of Washington, but they tend to be moisture-starved, so we dont often see big snow totals from them. THE ICE STORM The D.C. region is particularly prone to ice because of its proximity to the mountains, which act as a dam for the cold air drifting in from the north. Subfreezing air pools near the ground so precipitation that might have otherwise fallen as rain becomes supercooled and freezes instantly when it makes contact with the ground. Advertisement Notable storms Feb. 10-11, 1994, up to 3 inches of ice Feb. 14, 2007, Valentines Day storm, 4 to 8 inches of snow and sleet; up to 3/4 inch of ice A COLD RAIN All winter storms have the potential to wind up as a cold rain, given the right track. One type that stands out, though, is the Appalachian runner. This storm tracks north along the Appalachian Mountains, well west of Washington, which puts most of the Mid-Atlantic in the warm sector of the storm. Cut off from the cold air, precipitation may begin as snow or a wintry mix but quickly turns to rain. Notable forecast busts Dec. 26, 2010, up to 12 inches forecast, not one inch fell March 6, 2013, Snowquester, 5-10 inches forecast, not one inch fell THE REVERSE FORECAST BUST The slightest variation in storm track can lead to another interesting type of bust: one where little or no snow is expected, yet as much as a foot ends up falling. Notable reverse forecast busts Jan. 25, 2000, forecast was rain, 9 to 18 inches of snow fell March 9, 1999, forecast was rain, 8 to 12 inches of snow fell Angela Fritz is a meteorologist with the Capital Weather Gang. GiftOutline Gift Article The body of a man found last week in the Chesapeake Bay was identified Friday as that of Stephen Reynolds, 48, of Baltimore, who disappeared on New Years Eve, the Maryland Natural Resources Police said. After the accident, a search was conducted, but it was not successful.He had not been wearing a life jacket, the police said. His death was the last boating fatality of 2015, the police said. They said the body was found Jan. 30 by hunters in the evening along the shoreline of Cook Point. It was outside Cambridge, and about 30 miles south of Sandy Point Light, the police said. According to police, that was where a witness said he fell overboard from a 30-foot sailboat. The body was identified by the state medical examiners office, from dental records, the police said. According to police, Reynolds and a companion had left Baltimore on Dec. 31 in the afternoon. They decided to anchor for the night near the lighthouse, which is north of the Chsesapeake Bay Bridge, the police said. They said he apparently had trouble trying to secure the sails, and fell into the water. According to the police, the companion told investigators that Reynolds, lost his grip on the boat and drifted away until he could not be seen. A vacant but used apartment sits trashed in a mostly vacant apartment building on 13th Street SE in the District in September. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) Rodent and bedbug infestations. Raw sewage in the basement. Ovens used for warmth in lieu of heat. It is all part of the outrageous saga of a slumlord in one of the Districts poorest neighborhoods, lawyers and tenants testified before the D.C. Council on Thursday night. But more troubling, council members said during the three-hour hearing, is that while the tenants of four rent-controlled apartments in Southeast may be experiencing one of the most egregious or at least the most publicized housing debacles in recent city history, they are hardly alone. Rather, a hearing meant partly to determine a solution for a small group of tenants in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast cracked open a larger chasm of flaws and missing pieces in the city governments stated mission to protect poor D.C. residents from displacement amid the rapid redevelopment and gentrification of District neighborhoods. Among them are a flawed Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which, while designed to protect tenants from displacement amid redevelopment, is actually extremely hard to execute, council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) said. And then there are the ways in which lawyers and tenant advocates alleged that the city has facilitated the actions of bad actor landlords and developers; approving the development plans of companies that have racked up code violations, or even handing such actors government funding to house the homeless and other vulnerable residents. The Congress Heights tenants have long alleged that their landlord, Bethesda-based Sanford Capital, is trying to push them out to make way for a more lucrative development plan involving office buildings, apartments and retail shops. Their complaints, court filings and public testimony over the past two years led to an investigation and subsequent lawsuit filed last month by D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine an event that Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said he could not recall seeing in more than 15 years on the council. [Mice, bedbugs, broken heaters: what it takes for D.C. to sue a landlord for neglect] On Monday, tenants, government officials and a representative from Sanford Capital are expected to testify at D.C. Superior Court, where Racine will ask the court to assign a new temporary owner to manage the properties and make needed repairs. What this case more broadly illustrates is how development is done in Washington, D.C., testified Will Merrifield, a lawyer at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless who has represented the tenants association. It is a rough and dirty process that benefits a lot of people at the top of the food chain and is devouring people below. A. Carter Nowell, a principal at Sanford Capital, did not respond to questions about the case on Friday. [Poorer tenants fear being pushed out by planned Congress Heights complex] But as the Congress Heights tenants detailed the year-long creep of a building-wide bedbug infestation, their battles against mice and, more recently, a collapsed ceiling, council members posed a broader question: How do we fix this? We need to understand that this kind of situation looms in many buildings, and we really need to get on that, council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large), who chairs the councils Committee on Housing and Community Development, said Friday. Tenants and their advocates testified that they want to see changes to the citys TOPA law and they want the government to stop partnering with companies that have a known record of abuses. Under District law, building owners are required to provide tenants with TOPA notices the opportunity to purchase their housing units before the company is allowed to evict them to make way for a demolition or redevelopment. The problem, witnesses and council members said Thursday, is that there is no clear timetable for the notices, which means that a property owner can maintain poor living conditions for months, potentially compelling tenants to move out, after winning city approval for a development plan. The fewer tenants left at the time that TOPA notices arrive, the less likely it is that a move to purchase will be successful, they said. Caroline Hennessy, who testified on behalf of Housing Counseling Services, which has also worked with Congress Heights tenants, suggested that the approval of a development by the citys Zoning Commission should be a trigger to issue TOPA notices. That would have meant that Congress Heights tenants would have received TOPA notices in early 2015, after the plan for their buildings demolition won city approval. Geoffrey Griffis of CityPartners, Sanford Capitals development partner, said in an email Friday that tenants TOPA rights have been preserved and that no resident will be permanently displaced, or driven out of Congress Heights because of this project. But developers, Hennessy said, should not have the ability to just wait out the tenants and make their lives miserable. The city has also functioned as an enabler, advocates argued. Many of Sanford Capitals tenants receive Section 8 housing vouchers and other government subsidies that cover the cost of rent. That includes 170 tenants who are also homeless services clients, the Districts Department of Human Services told Merrifield last month. Three households are homeless families who live in buildings that are the subject of Racines lawsuit. The fact that a company that has racked up dozens of code violations and is being sued by the city also receives government funds just shows how ridiculous housing policy is in D.C., Merrifield said Friday. Instead of creating quality affordable housing, they are funneling the most vulnerable families to slumlords. Several advocates proposed a bad actor law. Landlords with an excessive number of code violations . . . should be banned from receiving any public monies, said Jeremiah Lowery, a public witness at the hearing. Council member Bonds said her takeaway from the hearing on Thursday was its really clear that the bad actors should not be a part of any subsidy whatsoever. While Sanford Capital receives government funds to house poor District residents, other city agencies have also facilitated its development plan. That includes the Districts Zoning Commission, which last year approved a Congress Heights development plan submitted by Sanford Capital and CityPartners, despite existing code violations at properties that would be subject for demolition and despite testimony from the tenants about hazardous living conditions. The regions Metro transit agency also appears to be on the cusp of selling an acre of land to the developers, even as Sanford is being sued by the city. Metro recently sought an appraisal for the tract of land above the Congress Heights Metro station, which sits adjacent to the four buildings and which it had agreed in 2012 to sell to the developers as part of the development plan. The Metro board will probably vote on the purchase price in March, a board members spokesman said. MARYLAND Man who vanished in bay identified Friday The body of a man found Jan. 30 in the Chesapeake Bay was identified Friday as that of Stephen Reynolds, 48, of Baltimore, who disappeared New Years Eve, the Maryland Natural Resources Police said. Reynoldss death was the last boating fatality of 2015, police said. A companion had told investigators that Reynolds fell off a sailboat and drifted away. Man charged in fatal shooting A man was fatally shot Friday and a suspect arrested, Prince Georges County police said. Tyon Darnell Garner, 27, of Temple Hills was charged with murder in the death of Randy Edward Franklin Jr., 18, on Southern Avenue, police said. THE DISTRICT Three residents have contracted Zika virus Three people in the District, including a pregnant woman, have become infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus while traveling in Latin America, authorities said. The virus is suspected of causing a serious birth defect. One case was confirmed here in 2015, and the two others, including that of the pregnant woman, this year. VIRGINIA Police: College-tuition money stolen at shop Fairfax County police said a large sum of money meant for a teenagers college tuition was stolen from a purse at a doughnut shop in Falls Church. The theft occurred about 11:50 a.m. Jan. 10 at a Dunkin Donuts in the 6100 block of Arlington Boulevard. Police said a woman, 51, and her daughter, 18, were having breakfast before heading to the daughters university out of state. After they left the shop, one realized they had left a purse with cash on the back of a chair. When they returned, it was gone. A photo from the stores surveillance video shows a woman removing the purse, police said. Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko has made a number of demands of the government in the sphere of reform, including in legislative administration. "We all came to build the country together a year ago, but we are feeling resistance and counteraction. It can't happen. It's not normal. We are ready to continue working, but we need real support from the coalition," the minister said. Jaresko said there is a need for: "unconditional support of the reform program; the program of cooperation with the IMF, including the need to urgently pass laws that will ensure transparent privatization; no political interference in the change of the management of the top 60 state-run enterprises on the basis of an independent nomination committee, and de-politicization of the State Fiscal Service." "I am calling on politicians to maintain the state, leave political interests aside and fight together for our future," Jaresko told an extraordinary meeting of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv on Thursday evening. Maryland Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County) on Friday proposed four bills that would radically change the states approach to dealing with drug problems, in part by removing criminal penalties for low-level possession and adding emphasis on addiction treatment. One measure would create safe spaces for drug use, with facilities that provide sterile injection equipment, medical care and connections to social services. Another bill would establish a pilot program to test the effectiveness of treating addicts with the supervised use of free, pharmaceutical-grade opioids such as heroin and hydromorphone, with the goal of weaning users off their addiction. Morhaim, an emergency-room physician and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Maryland Medical School, also proposed legislation to require hospitals to make addiction counselors available to patients at all times and have arrangements for transferring drug users to appropriate detoxification and rehabilitation centers. The bill to decriminalize low-level drug possession would expand on a 2014 law that made the possession of small amounts of marijuana subject to a civil fine, not a criminal charge. Similar rules would apply to all narcotics under the legislation Morhaim proposed Friday. Morhaim, who plans to introduce the bills in the House of Delegates next week, said his legislative package would push Maryland out of what he calls the failing war on drugs and closer to addiction treatment. He said his proposals are likely to be highly controversial but noted that various studies of similar programs in Europe and other foreign jurisdictions suggest that his strategies could lower the costs of health-care, criminal-justice and insurance programs while reducing damage to communities and the education system. Frankly, I didnt buy into these approaches either when I first heard about them, but my thinking has evolved, he said. I think people will come to see these bills as I do positive, rational and cost-effective steps forward. Morhaims plans arise as the state grapples with a fast-growing heroin epidemic. In Maryland, 578 people died of heroin overdoses in 2014, a 25 percent increase over 2013 and more than twice the number who died from the drug in 2010. Nationwide, the incidence of fatal heroin overdoses nearly quadrupled from 0.7 deaths per 100,000 of population in 2000 to 2.7 deaths per 100,000 in 2013, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morhaims announcement came less than two weeks after Gov. Larry Hogan (R) proposed legislation to combat the opioid epidemic with stricter drug-trafficking penalties and expansion of a database that helps health professionals and law-enforcement officials detect when prescription pain medications are being abused. Morhaims proposals also dovetail with recent work by Marylands Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council, which recommended in December that the legislature consider drastically changing sentencing guidelines for drug offenders, in part by focusing more on treatment than incarceration for those charged with possession. [ Md. panel recommends less prison for drug offenders ] Marylands law-enforcement community has generally resisted efforts to loosen drug laws, saying the changes could encourage more abuse and increase instances of driving while impaired. However, Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and a retired 33-year veteran of the Maryland state and Baltimore police forces, said those objections stem from a lack of education and perspective, adding that the state should provide opportunities for police to hear from colleagues in other states and countries that have adopted policies similar to what Morhaim has proposed. Morhaim acknowledged that he has a long way to go to win his colleagues support, but he said Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) has allowed him to address the chambers leadership about his ideas. Additionally, Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam (D-Baltimore) has backed the bills. I think its fair to allow people time, but when people look at it carefully . . . I think more will come around, he said. Ive seen a whole range of issues that people have come around on. There is going to be, as they say, a new marshal in town. Or, strictly speaking, there will be a new one provided his nomination is confirmed by the Senate. On Thursday, President Obama nominated Patrick A. Burke, an assistant D.C. police chief to be the U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia. Obama praised Burkes stellar track record in public safety. A member of the force for more than 26 years, Burke is in the strategic services bureau. He has a bachelors and two masters degrees. He had served in the police homeland security bureau and was credited with helping coordinate security for such major events as the 2008 papal visit and Obamas January 2009 inauguration. In a statement, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), the Districts nonvoting representative in Congress, said she had recommended Burke. She said Obama had granted her senatorial courtesy to recommend candidates for key federal law enforcement posts. She said the Burke and others who applied were screened by her nominating commission, which includes residents of all eight political wards. The photo of the shirtless teenage boy appeared on Nicole Lovells Instagram account around the beginning of December. Next to it, a message was posted under the 13-year-olds username: I love this baby hes so hot. HES MINE. On Facebook, Nicole posted a selfie with her lips pursed and hair swept to one side. A man from India posted a reply that read, I love you. Less than a month later, prosecutors said, Nicole was killed by 18-year-old Virginia Tech student David Eisenhauer, whom she met online. Like many teens, the small ups and downs of young adulthood played out across Nicoles Facebook, Kik and Instagram pages, but her online life also highlighted some of the dangers of social media for teens a world many parents know little about. [Friend said she told school Nicole Lovell was dating older teen] Friends said, and her social media accounts show, that she corresponded with more than one man online and she hung out in an explicit teen dating forum. Now, the high-profile case has some parents and young people alike reconsidering how they use social media. Mourners leave a funeral home after attending the funeral for 13-year-old Nicole Lovell in Blacksburg. (Skip Foreman/AP) Marissa Cook, 17, is a high school junior whose younger sister Kari attended middle school with Nicole. She said Nicoles death has frightened some girls into getting offline altogether, wiping Snapchat and Kik from their phones. I think its really opened some eyes, Cook said. Both Cook and her sister said they were on Kik but deleted it after getting lewd photos from strangers. Tammy Weeks, Nicoles mother, said her daughter was bullied in school and often cried, asking to stay home. She seemed to seek solace online. Nicole posted typical photos of herself posing with stuffed pandas, her siblings and hugging her father, but she also poured her heart out. In many social-media posts, Nicole projected a girl who was heartbroken, suicidal and deeply vulnerable. She posted a self-portrait to Instagram eight weeks ago, her face covered by her hand save one blue eye. Forget about me please I dont need no help or friends they will just stab me in the back anyway, she wrote. With another forlorn-looking self-portrait, she posted, I want him back so bad, though its unclear whom she is referring to. And 12 weeks ago, she posted to Instagram an image of the text Im going to kill myself and crying emojis. Nicole seemed unafraid to put herself out there; as one friend put it, she wanted to be wanted a lot. Two Virginia Tech students are charged in the death of a seventh grade girl. Here is what you need to know about the investigation. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) In January, Nicole posted a short message to a Facebook group called Teen Dating and Flirting. It featured a close-up selfie and the message: Cute or nah. The message received hundreds of replies. Many were ugly, and the messages were likely little different from the bullying she encountered at school. Youre very round, one person wrote. Teen Dating and Flirting had more than 18,000 members before Facebook shut it down after Nicoles death and complaints from child advocates. Members had openly solicited sex and asked for nude pictures, and the page was littered with spam for Sugar Daddy sites. In a post on Instagram, Nicole made a plea to a teen who appeared older than she: You are the first guy I have ever cared about please just come back to me. Kari Cook, 13, has said that several weeks ago she alerted a school resource officer at Blacksburg Middle School after Nicole posted on Facebook a photo of an older teen she seemed to be dating. Cook said the man did not appear to be Eisenhauer. Blacksburg police said they never received such a complaint. A second friend said he also became alarmed at Nicoles interactions with men on social media. In heaven dont hang out with random guys, a friend wrote in a memorial to Nicole on Instagram. I gave you this advice when you were standing and sitting right in front of me but you never listened. [A 13-year-olds online fantasies turn fatal] Nicole disappeared from her home on Jan. 27. A neighbor told the Associated Press that earlier that day Nicole told the neighbors daughters that she had a boyfriend named David and showed messages between the two on the instant-messaging app Kik. Nicoles body was discovered in a remote stretch along the Virginia-North Carolina border last weekend. A prosecutor said at a bond hearing Thursday that Eisenhauer, of Columbia, Md., and another Virginia Tech freshman, Natalie Keepers, 19, of Laurel, Md., conspired to kill Nicole over the month of January, buying a shovel and picking a remote spot to slit her throat. The prosecutor did not offer a motive for the killing, but two law enforcement officials have told The Post that Eisenhauer had sexual contact with Nicole and that he used their relationship to lure her out of her home. Nicoles death has heightened scrutiny around certain social-media apps, where adults with inappropriate intentions can have ready access to children online. Terri Lovell, Nicoles stepmother, created a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses and for promoting online safety for our children. One 14-year-old girl at Blacksburg Middle School did not know Nicole well but said she and her friends have been leery of social media ever since a stranger messaged her friend on Instagram asking for nude pictures. She said that some middle-schoolers invent online personas making themselves appear older than they really are. They want to date older boys, I guess, so they pretend to be older, the girl said. Tiffany Moeltners two daughters attended Blacksburg Middle School with Nicole. For many reasons, she restricts their access to social media, even reviewing their followers on Instagram and limiting their phone time to 30 minutes on weeknights. One reason, though, is the prospect that strangers could reach out to her daughters on social media. The social dangers of people phishing and connecting with the kids is bad enough, Moeltner said. Its really scary. Natalie Keepers, shown in a photo provided by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Virginia, is one of two Virginia Tech students charged in connection with the slaying of Nicole Lovell, 13. (Montgomery County Sheriffs Office/Via Reuters) A target of bullying, Natalie Keepers cut her arms and harbored suicidal thoughts in middle school. She learned to cope through therapy and medication in high school. But moving to Virginia Tech for college triggered new emotional distress. She sought counseling, help that ended just four months into her freshman year, she said. It is common for students to have challenges in transitioning to college, and many among the millions of students at the nations schools seek counseling help as they move to adulthood and life on their own. But what happened next for Keepers is not: She allegedly helped a friend, also a freshman at Virginia Tech, plan the killing of a 13-year-old Blacksburg, Va., girl whom she had never met, according to prosecutors. Keeperss emotional travails and her claim in court Thursday that a Virginia Tech counselor told her that she no longer needed therapy in December, less than two months before the slaying have once again put the universitys mental health services at the center of a grisly criminal case. The case also highlights the harrowing transition to college that has served as a backdrop for other acts of violence by troubled students. [Prosecutor: Va. Tech freshman said she was excited to be part of something secretive] It is not clear whether Keepers showed signs that might have forewarned university counselors of any trouble, let alone the alleged plot to kill Nicole Lovell. But her only public statements thus far have forced Virginia Tech to again confront questions about its counseling center, which has expanded its services and revamped its procedures since 2007, when the campus was the site of the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history. In this 2015 photo provided by Tammy Weeks, her daughter, Nicole Lovell, flashes a peace sign in Blacksburg, Va. The 13-year-old girl was found dead just across the state line in Surry County, N.C., and two Virginia Tech students are charged in the case. (Tammy Weeks/AP) Virginia Techs Cook Counseling Center, where Keepers said she was treated and deemed no longer in need of therapy, was faulted for missing the dire warning signs before student Seung-Hui Cho massacred 32 people and killed himself nine years ago. Cho had an extensive history of mental health problems, and his writings in class had turned dark and violent, providing glaring signals that counselors and university staff missed or failed to act upon. Tracy Vosburgh, a Virginia Tech spokeswoman, declined to address specifics about Keeperss treatment at the universitys counseling center, as did other officials at the school. But she said that it is common practice to have an ongoing dialogue between a doctor and a patient to determine a course of action. And it is a practice to provide service when asked, she said. Attorneys for Keepers declined to comment, and her family did not respond to requests for comment. Tim Keepers, Natalies father, spoke in court about his daughters emotional frailty, saying that she would have panic attacks when she had too much homework. But he said she had never been in trouble and was part of a pretty close, very strong Christian family. Prosecutors said Keepers, 19, helped David Eisenhauer, 18, plan the slaying of Nicole, a middle school student who was bullied and survived cancer and a liver transplant. Nicole had met Eisenhauer online; authorities have said the two had an inappropriate relationship and that he lured her out of her home to kill her. [A 13-year-olds online fantasies turn fatal] Keepers admitted to being part of the plot, helping to pick a spot in the North Carolina woods to dump the body and telling investigators she was excited to be part of something secretive. She is charged with accessory before the fact to first-degree murder, accessory after the fact and concealing a body. At a hearing in Montgomery County, Va., on Thursday, neither prosecutors nor Keepers hinted at a possible motive for the killing, nor whether Keeperss mental state played any role in it. Instead, Keepers gave a detailed account of her mental health history in a bid to be released on bail so that she could get appropriate treatment at home with her family in Laurel, Md. She said she had been bullied in middle school and suffered depression and panic attacks. A judge denied the request. Keepers said she was taking an antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications and was working with a psychiatrist and a counselor at Virginia Tech as recently as December. Neither could be reached for comment Friday. She testified that the counselor decided the counseling was no longer needed. Keepers originally sought treatment at the center in August because she was having problems with the transition to college, she said. [Friend says she warned school about Nicole Lovells relationship with adult] Aradhana Bela Sood, a professor of child mental health policy at Virginia Commonwealth University and an author of a report on Virginia Techs response to the 2007 massacre, said a critical question is whether the therapy was discontinued because of a lack of symptoms or a lack of resources at the center. There is no guarantee that a counselor would have seen the warning signs if therapy had continued, she said. Any honest individual who works in this field can safely say that we try to predict things, but we often cant, she said. But its unforgivable if you have red flags coming up and you dont do anything about it. A review commissioned by then-Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) after the 2007 killings found that Cook had failed to provide the needed support and services to Cho in the two years before the attack. The system failed for lack of resources, incorrect interpretation of privacy laws, and passivity, it found. [Read the complete coverage of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings] Since then, Cook has doubled in size and is now the largest university counseling center in Virginia, said Chris Flynn, the centers director. The center has 20 counselors, two psychiatrists, two nurse practitioners and four pre- doctoral interns. The school also has seen an increase in students requests for help. In the 2015 fall semester, student appointments spiked 10 percent compared with the previous year; student appointments have grown by 24 percent during the past five years, Flynn said. This does not mean students are more distressed or disturbed, but rather that they have had services previously and are more likely to have been in counseling or on medication in high school, he said. The societal stigma about seeking counseling has dissipated, he said, creating more awareness among parents, more willingness to seek help and more services. Students who go to Cook generally meet with a counselor for an individual assessment, Flynn said. Each student is screened for distress, including depression, anxiety and hostility; during intake interviews, staff members assess students for the risk of suicide and potential for violence against others. Students can choose to continue in individual or group counseling or may request a medication evaluation, he said. Schools nationwide are straining to provide mental health services to students who need them. Many have expanded counseling centers and outreach in recent years, but questions remain about whether staffing is robust enough to meet demand. A 2014 survey of nearly 500 counseling center directors found that 150 used waiting lists for clients to receive ongoing treatment. At some large schools, those lists grew to have dozens of students, according to the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors. The survey found that small colleges typically had fewer than 1,000 students for each counseling professional on staff. At large colleges, the ratio ballooned to 2,300 to 1. All of this comes to funding and the cost of higher education, said Gregory Eells, director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University and a former president of the association. Those are questions. Nothing is for free. There are costs to adding therapists to do this work. The demand is still clearly beyond the capacity of centers. Even when schools have adequate staff, it is a challenge to connect services to students. Often, those who need them dont seek help. To overcome that obstacle, Marney White, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University, said schools should consider mandatory mental health screening for all students, to ensure early intervention. The problems with the mental health systems on college campuses parallel those of the mental health system in general: insufficient resources to provide affordable, effective, and immediate services, White wrote in December on The Washington Posts Grade Point blog. Instead of providing care only in the case of crises, we should flip the emphasis we need to provide mental health services early, before the onset of serious disorder, and we need to devote attention to mental health wellness campaigns. Daniel Eisenberg, an associate professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan, said many colleges are training faculty advisers, residential assistants and others known as gatekeepers on how to spot students who might need help and provide them with referrals. Early and effective treatment can prevent tragedies such as suicide or simply make the difference between whether a student stays in school or drops out. Its a key point in their lives, Eells said. Their life trajectory is being set. You reach people now, and you can make a huge impact. Its like a moon launch. If theyre off target now and they dont get a course correction, theyre headed to Mars instead of the moon. Thats part of why college mental health is so important. Balingit reported from Blacksburg. Justin Jouvenal contributed to this report. Gov. Terry McAuliffe ran for office, in part, as a master dealmaker. But since his election, he rarely has gotten Republicans to the table. With no movement on his marquee promise to expand Medicaid in his freshman year, he made a failed attempt to get around the legislature. He has used executive orders to expand abortion access and ban guns from state offices. With his authority in doubt, but GOP opposition only too clear, he plowed ahead with a Supreme Court re-appointment that seems doomed. Now halfway through his term, McAuliffe has finally struck his first big compromise with traditional foes. The Democrat long proud of his F rating from the National Rifle Association found common ground with that organization with help from a Republican state senator who lets supporters fire submachine guns at his barbecue fundraisers. McAuliffe is trumpeting the deal as one of the most consequential of his governorship: a historic compromise that expands gun rights in some areas in exchange for pulling them back in others. Some longtime Richmond political analysts praised it as an example of the Third Way, the middle-of-the-road politics that the long-time Clinton fundraiser has always preached but rarely has been able to practice in an increasingly partisan Richmond. Yet at this moment of unlikely unity with Republicans, McAuliffe has also alienated some of his closest allies. Thats partly because he continued to operate as the go-it-alone governor in one sense: While collaborating with the gun rights camp, the governor kept most, if not all, gun-control players in the dark. Now, activists think the former entrepreneur, who prides himself as a savvy negotiator, gave away far more than he got. The gun rights negotiations offer a window on McAuliffes governing style, say Richmond political operatives, who see a midterm politician itching for a big win and willing to buck friend or foe who stands in his way. McAuliffe has worn the backlash as a badge of honor, a sign that he has resisted both extremes to reach a sensible, centrist agreement. But all of the outcry has come from the left. When the first piece of the package passed the Senate on Thursday, 13 of the 19 Democrats voted against it. This is a guy who loves a good deal, said Bob Holsworth, a former Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist. And the political reality of his term has compelled him to do more things sort of administratively or by fiat than is actually his natural tendency. [Five things that (kind of) explain McAuliffes gun deal with the GOP] But the challenge of the dealmaker is that they sometimes love the deal more than the purity of the process. I think this is what happened here: He kind of saw a better bargain and decided to take it, even while leaving out some of the people that he had been most closely connected to. The deal, comprising separate bills still working their way through the legislature, would ban gun possession by domestic abusers and promote more voluntary background checks at gun shows. But it also expands the right to carry concealed weapons in Virginia reversing a gun-control victory that Attorney General Mark Herring (D) had pulled off with great fanfare in December. McAuliffe seemed to have underestimated the lefts outcry, a miscalculation similar to one he made last summer, when he doubted the GOPs willingness to unseat his temporary appointee to the Supreme Court. (The fight over Justice Jane Marum Roush is not over, but she appears likely to lose her seat when her appointment expires next week.) Much of the upset over the gun deal stems from the change on Herrings move. Just 10 days before news of the agreement leaked, McAuliffe had stood with Herring and hundreds of activists at a Capitol Square rally, cheering the attorney generals decision to revoke reciprocity rights for 25 states with concealed-carry standards looser than Virginias. Were just warming up! McAuliffe said to cheers. But the deal, which the attorney general played no role in crafting, not only restores reciprocity to those 25 states, but also extends it to every state except Vermont, which does not have a permitting process. Hes doing this because he truly believes its the right thing to do, said McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy. Were taking political heat for it, obviously. But this entire gun-safety agenda is about what steps will save the most lives and keep communities the safest. And on that criteria, this deal was a no-brainer. McAuliffe contends the concessions he got in other areas on domestic abusers and gun shows are more meaningful than the concealed-carry aspect. On this point, he has repeated an NRA talking point: People who take the time to get a government permit to carry a concealed weapon are not the ones society has to worry about. Whatever the merits of that calculation, gun-control activists such as Andy Parker, the father of Alison Parker, the Roanoke television reporter shot on live TV in August, feel that McAuliffe is giving the store away. Its a criticism that Republicans have sometimes made with regard to McAuliffes approach to economic development. He has made expanding and diversifying Virginias economy his central focus after his freshman-year Medicaid defeat suggested he could expect little help from the legislature. Republicans have been on board with the goal, but have been pressing since last year for more oversight of his economic- incentive spending. McAuliffe is known for hashing out deals and forging relationships over drinks and easy banter. Richmond Republicans proved immune to that approach in McAuliffes first year, when he invited legislators over for a string of cocktail receptions. Emerging with news of the gun deal was an anecdote showing the administration had not abandoned that personal approach. At a critical moment in the negotiations, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran and Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar Stoney hashed things out over an oyster dinner with two NRA lobbyists and Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spotsylvania). Reeves, a former Army Ranger and one of the legislatures strongest gun rights voices, has built entire fundraisers around the Second Amendment. The oyster dinner was a detail that only fueled the anger of gun-control activists, who now had a perfect visual of the table at which they had not been offered a seat. If youre not at the table, youre part of the menu, said one activist, who, wary of offending the administration, spoke on the condition of anonymity. For all of McAuliffes personal approach to politics and governing, he also has shown a willingness to stand up to allies, even lash out at them at times. Even before taking office, he rankled his base by making a few moderate cabinet picks. His health secretary is a holdover from McAuliffes anti-abortion predecessor, upsetting abortion rights groups that poured $1.8 million into his campaign. He resisted pressure from environmental groups that gave $3.8 million to his bid and appointed a pragmatic mayor to oversee natural resources instead of more well-known environmentalists. On Friday, Coy spoke dismissively of Everytown for Gun Safety. Bankrolled by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg (I), Everytown answered McAuliffes call for help in the fall Senate races with a $2 million TV blitz. The group, upset with the gun deal, launched a biting social-media campaign against McAuliffe, complete with side-by-side pictures of McAuliffe and NRA chief Wayne LaPierre. [Bloomberg gun-control group has new target: Terry McAuliffe] Coy also pushed back on the notion that gun-control advocates were caught completely off guard. He said Lori Haas, whose daughter was shot and injured in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, was made aware that the deal was in the works more than a week in advance of its announcement. She was aware, she was fully briefed and apprised of the discussion, he said. She provided input. Haas, perhaps Richmonds most prominent gun-control advocate and a critic of the deal, said Moran gave her a heads-up before news leaked about mid-day on Jan. 28. I was told about the deal less than 48 hours before The Washington Post broke the story, she said. I was not brought in. I was told about the deal. Coy also confirmed that McAuliffe and Moran waited until the night before it was announced to call another key activist, Parker, the father of the slain TV reporter. I was getting pitched on the deal after the deal was done, said Parker, who starred in Everytowns ads. I appreciate the fact that he [McAuliffe] called and Brian Moran called, but . . . why wasnt somebody on our side involved in the negotiations? McAuliffe personally took a jab at Haas and Parker by noting that they are paid advocates for gun-control groups, suggesting they were more focused on pursuing a national agenda than solutions for Virginia. A bipartisan group of Virginia leaders from all across the ideological spectrum support this deal, Coy said. One group from New York and its affiliates are upset, but that does not represent Virginia views on this. They do not speak for all the other individuals who were at the table. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) at a gun control rally on Capitol Hill in September. Andy Parker, father of slain TV reporter Alison Parker, is at right. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Gov. Terry McAuliffes spokesman lashed out this week at a national gun-control group, which answered McAuliffes call for help in fall Senate races with a $2 million TV blitz but more recently blasted the governors gun deal with Republicans and the National Rifle Association. Brian Coy spoke dismissively of Everytown for Gun Safety, which is associated with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, as a group from New York that does not have the interests of Virginians at heart. One group from New York and its affiliates are upset, but that does not represent Virginia views on this, Coy said. We had no interaction with Everytown, the national folks, until after this deal became public. We wouldnt have even known who to call. McAuliffe told reporters in the fall that he had personally called Bloombergs people to arrange for the ad buy. Reminded of that, Coy did not back down. He talked to Howard Wolfson. Wolfsons a political adviser to Bloomberg, Coy said. I dont think hes a policy advocate from this group. Weve never heard from anybody at the staff level until now, after the deal has been finalized. McAuliffe in September with John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, and Lori Haas, a gun-control advocate. (Courtesy of Everytown for Gun Safety) Coys comments, made in an interview with The Washington Post, were meant to suggest that vocal backlash against the deal was coming from outside the state. They came two days after Everytown unleashed a biting ad campaign against McAuliffe on Facebook and Twitter, pairing his photo side-by-side with that of the NRA chief Wayne LaPierre. [Bloomberg gun-control group has new target: Terry McAuliffe] In response to Coys comments, Everytown on Friday issued a statement from Andy Parker, the father of Alison Parker, the Roanoke television reporter killed on live TV in August along with cameraman Adam Ward. Governor McAuliffe cant have it both ways, Parker said. He stood side-by-side with me and other Virginia survivors from the Everytown Survivor Network and worked closely with Everytown on the Whatever It Takes rally at the U.S. Capitol in September. I am his constituent and friend I would have happily taken his call and pointed him to the right policy experts before he struck this dangerous deal with the gun lobby. On Saturday, Everytown released a copy of an email showing that the group and the administration had been in contact forat least 18 months. The August 2014 email, which concerned a letter McAuliffe wrote praising Everytown for its advocacy, was between Everytowns communications director, Erika Soto Lamb, and three members of the McAuliffe administration, including Coy. The others were Jamie Radice, then McAuliffes communications chief, and Ryan OToole, a special assistant in constituent service. Everytown also released a photo of McAuliffe with John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, taken at September rally organized by the group. McAuliffe had been a featured speaker at the event. The gun deal would expand the rights of concealed-carry handgun permit holders in Virginia and across the country in exchange for tighter restrictions on domestic abusers and voluntary background checks at gun shows. While McAuliffes administration hammered out the deal with the NRA and Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spotsylvania), gun-control activists have complained that they were caught off-guard. Coy also pushed back on the notion. He said Lori Haas, whose daughter was shot and injured in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, was made aware that the deal was in the works more than a week in advance of its announcement. One of Richmonds best-known gun-control advocates, Haas is Virginia state director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. It is a falsehood to say the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence was not in on this on this, he said. Thats abjectly false. . . . She was aware, she was fully briefed and apprised of the discussion. She provided input. Haas, a critic of the deal, disputed that account. I was told about the deal less than 48 hours before The Washington Post broke the story, she said. I was not brought in. I was told about the deal. Brittny Giles of Flint, Mich., pours bottled water into a plastic tub as her 9-month-old- daughter, Joel, watches the stream fall. Like many residents, she no longer trusts or uses the city water supply. (Brittany Greeson/For The Washington Post) It kills him to say it, but Darren Bentley is thinking about leaving town. He was born here, went to Kearsley High School and rents a place near a couple of college campuses. He has never lived anywhere else. His father worked at the old Fisher Body plant. So did an uncle and both grandfathers. His grandmother worked on the line at Flint Metal Fabricating. But the only way that Bentley, 33, and his wife, Laura, can provide safe water for their four boys is by driving every day to the local firehouse, where Army National Guardsmen plop a case or two of bottled water into the back of their SUV. The unending hassle of making sure the children can drink and bathe without being exposed to poisonous lead has worn the couple down. I never intended to leave, Bentley said. This is my home. This is my family. This is everything I know. [Flint water crisis reveals government failures at every level] The water emergency in Flint, Mich., is two years in the making. Here are the people whove played a key role in the crisis. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) The residents of this battered city have lived for years under some of the worst conditions in urban America: soaring levels of violent crime, poverty, unemployment and blight. Now, for many, the catastrophe of a water supply that may be poisoned indefinitely appears to be the final insult. Many are desperate to escape the city, but some dont have the means to do so. The old and poor, especially, are stuck. Meanwhile, a small band of civic and political leaders is trying to chart a way forward amid the wreckage of a disaster often compared to Hurricane Katrina which at least eventually led to some redevelopment in New Orleans. Im going to give the city maybe six months, said Brittny Giles, a 25-year-old single mother who is raising three young children next door to the home where she grew up. She bathes her 9-month-old daughter in bottled water and can recite her childrens blood lead levels from memory. Relatives in Georgia are begging her to move there. I dont want to leave, she said. But if there is no water or schools for my children, I have to give them a better future. Less than a month after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) declared a state of emergency, only one thing is clear: Resolving the crisis will be very expensive. Mayor Karen Weaver has estimated the cost of removing lead service lines from 15,000 homes at about $45 million. Combating the potential impact of lead poisoning in the 9,000 children exposed to tainted water starts at $100 million, according to Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who is proposing the multifaceted program. Overhauling Flints waterdistribution system, if necessary, could cost more than $1 billion, a tab only the federal government could pay. [Flint could have saved money without using corrosive river water] Beyond the $28 million provided by the state and some private donations, its not clear where the money will come from. And everyone here acknowledges that there will be little progress until safe water begins flowing through the taps and people are persuaded to drink it. No one is even willing to guess when either will happen. The crisis stems from an April 2014 decision by then-emergency manager Darnell Earley to save money by temporarily switching the citys water supply to the Flint River. Earley was appointed by Snyder and given authority that superseded that of the mayor and the city council. The state then failed to ensure that the city added anti- corrosion chemicals to the new water supply, which leached lead from aging pipes into tap water. Almost immediately, users began to complain of foul-smelling, discolored water, and some residents broke out in strange rashes. Eighty-seven people developed Legionnaires Disease, resulting in 10 deaths. Some suspect that the water is at least partly to blame, although that has not yet been proved. Flint switched back to Detroit water in October, and experts are trying to re-coat the pipes with chemicals. So far, that hasnt worked. Water filters are being distributed for free throughout the city. But they dont fit some sinks, and some people say that they are still finding high levels of lead even in filtered water. Among Flint residents, the worst off may be the citys disproportionate share of older people. Largely poor and African American, they are stuck with homes that would have been difficult to sell even before the water crisis. At my age, Id hate to start all over again and give my house away, because thats what it would require, said 72-year-old Delmont Jackson as he played eight-ball pool at the Hasselbring Senior Center last week. He doubts that he could get $15,000 for his home and thinks the state should relocate him, but he is resigned to living on bottled water indefinitely. What are we going to do? asked Kala Green, 72, as a bingo game broke up in a large social hall a few steps away. Aint nobody gonna buy our homes. And I dont have no money. Virtually everyone here says that they follow the admonition not to drink unfiltered tap water, but beyond that, many of the citys 95,000 residents make their own rules. People bathe less often and limit their time in the shower. Others refuse to let contaminated city water touch their skin and have found places to clean up outside Flint. Some cook with city water; others keep large jugs of bottled water to clean and prepare their food. Yakima Givens said that she boils water before washing her dishes a common practice that unfortunately concentrates any lead that may be coming through the faucet. I dont even know if its safe to wash my clothes in it, she said as she watched her three children get tested for lead exposure at a festive event last week that featured free food and toys. Even those blood tests are controversial. Many people who attended the event said that they wanted to know if their children had been affected in 2014 and 2015, when authorities repeatedly assured them that the water was safe to drink. But the tests only reveal lead ingested in the past two to four weeks. They are useless for long-term retrospective diagnosis. Meanwhile, some people are still paying their water bills which were among the most expensive in this region afraid that service will be turned off or they will lose their homes if they dont. Others now refuse to pay for water that they cant consume. Weaver and other officials support that sentiment, and the mayor said that she is working on a plan to relieve residents of at least some of that financial burden. Lawsuits are seeking refunds for the entire city. Snyder has proposed a $30 million credit in the upcoming state budget to help repay Flint residents for a portion of their water costs, retroactive to April 2014. Outsiders think they understand the confusion and anxiety Flint is experiencing, but that just isnt possible, said State Sen. Jim Ananich (D), who lives in the city and has a 6-month-old son, part of the citys most vulnerable population. You dont know what its like to have something right in the kitchen that you are afraid to death to turn on, he said. I cant really use it for anything. Flint has been emptying out for decades, as General Motors shipped jobs south or overseas. From 196,000 in 1960, the citys population has fallen to about 95,000 today. Vehicle City once had 82,000 jobs at GM plants and its suppliers. Today, there are about 6,000, according to Douglas Weiland, executive director of the Genesee County Land Bank. Even a brief look around reveals the inevitable result. More than 11,000 vacant lots and 10,000 abandoned homes pock the citys streets, often side-by-side with the remaining 30,000 occupied dwellings. On Giless street, for example, where nine occupied homes once stood, there are now three. Three others are abandoned, and three more have been razed, she said. About 40 percent of the people here live below the poverty line; the median household income of about $25,000 is less than half the amount a typical U.S. family earns. In 2013, the average home sold for $15,000. Some people have been trying to return donated water filters and cases of water at local chain stores for a few dollars, forcing guardsmen to alter the bar codes on the free items. For years, Flint has jockeyed with Detroit and a handful of other places for the dubious distinction of Americas most violent city. There have been stirrings of progress along a few blocks downtown, where a handful of bars and restaurants stand near the campus of the University of Michigan at Flint. But now the water is poisoned, and the world knows it. Every two steps forward, theres always five steps back, said Rodney Ott, owner of the Loft, a bar and nightclub on Saginaw Street, the citys main thoroughfare. Thats the history of Flint. . . . Were a wreck, man, he said. We made the Time [magazine] cover. It looked like Sudan. Signs everywhere assure customers that businesses, especially those that serve food and drink, are not hooked up to Flint water or have installed sophisticated filtering systems. But in a statement, Tim Herman, chief executive of the Flint and Genesee Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged that restaurants have seen a small decline, universities are having trouble recruiting students and efforts to attract businesses have been hampered. Even when safe water begins to flow again, trust in government may lag far behind. During a fiery rally at First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church last week, an overflow crowd of African Americans cheered wildly as leaders called for Snyder to be jailed and others to be held accountable. This is a crime against the people of Flint, a crime against humanity, shouted attorney Benjamin L. Crump, who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and has filed one of the class-action lawsuits on behalf of city residents. If ISIS were to poison 100,000 Americans, we would call it an act of terrorism! Why are the rules different when people commit crimes against us? We want equal justice and nothing more than that! A delegation of prosecutors led by Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Prosecutor of Odesa Region Davit Sakvarelidze has participated in high-level consultations in Strasbourg concerning the reform of the prosecutor's office in Ukraine. The Ukrainian delegation visited the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on February 2-4, the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office reported on Friday. "The European participants in the consultations [...] have emphasized the importance of the implementation by Ukraine of its commitments on this matter (the reform of the Ukrainian prosecutor's office), and confirmed their readiness to provide both political and financial, and practical support for the reform process in order to ensure the functioning of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of leading international norms and standards," the PGO press service reported. This visit was organized in the framework of the Council of Europe project "Continued Support to the Criminal Justice Reform in Ukraine," which is being implemented with the financial support from the government of Denmark. THE NATIONAL Registry of Exonerations declared Wednesday that by any reasonable accounting, there are tens of thousands of false convictions each year across the country, and many more that have accumulated over the decades. In truth, the registry, based at the University of Michigan Law School, cannot tell for sure how many. Yet the figures and trends its researchers have fully documented are chilling enough. In a new analysis, the registry reports that at least 149 people were exonerated last year, a record that represents a large increase from just a few years ago. Certainly there must be many other innocents behind bars who cannot provide proof. Twenty-seven of last years exonerated convicts gave false confessions, mostly in homicide cases. Most were mentally ill or were minors at the time of confession. Meanwhile, 65 people were exonerated despite having pleaded guilty. Most of these pleas came in drug cases in some of which no crime even occurred. The researchers found that only 17 percent of last years exonerations were due to DNA evidence, and they documented only 65 instances of official misconduct, mostly in homicide cases. These figures imply another sort of unacceptable error: of honest police, prosecutors and juries failing to give defendants the presumption of innocence, as the law requires. Observers tend to focus on exonerations from death row, and there were five last year. But a long prison sentence or having a criminal record after release can shatter peoples lives, too. The adversarial justice system, in which one lawyer throws everything at the other and lets a judge or jury sort it out, encourages each side to take maximalist positions and bargain from there. This can lead prosecutors, who hold tremendous power, to cross the line between determined and zealous. Plea bargaining helps keep the machinery of the criminal-justice system moving, but the system can put far too much pressure on defendants to forgo their day in court. One relatively easy reform is for law enforcement to test confiscated substances to ensure they are bona fide illegal drugs before prosecutors offer a plea bargain on a drug charge. In some places, conviction integrity units are becoming important tools for encouraging professionalism or exposing its absence. The integrity unit in Harris County, Tex. the home of Houston exposed 43 of Texass 54 exonerations last year. There are 24 such units across the country, four times as many as there were in 2011, but still only about 15 percent of Americans live in places that have such units. Moreover, these watchdogs need to feel free to challenge prosecutors work, but that can be hard when they are housed within local prosecutors offices. North Carolina pursued another option: an independent, state-level commission that examines convictions and reports to a review board. Other state legislatures should consider establishing similar oversight bodies. Weve made a start, the registrys report says, but thats all. The role of money in politics is neither as crude as Bernie Sanders suggests, nor as benign at least when it comes to herself as Hillary Clinton would have you think. Sanders presents a mechanistic view of the impact of campaign donors: contributions in, results out. Thus, in Sanderss view, Hillary Clinton, and the money she scoops up, offers a disturbing illustration of a larger problem. What being part of the establishment is, is in the last quarter having a super PAC that raised $15 million from Wall Street, that throughout ones life raised a whole lot of money from the drug companies and other special interests, Sanders said in Thursdays debate. To my mind, if we do not get a handle on money in politics and the degree to which big money controls the political process in this country, nobody is going to bring about the changes that [are] needed in this country for the middle class and working families. Clinton bristled at what she called his artful smear. Sanderss attack, she said, comes down to . . . anybody who ever took donations or speaking fees from any interest group has to be bought. And I just absolutely reject that. . . . You will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation that I ever received. Ive written about money in politics for years now, and I would suggest: Both candidates have it wrong. Campaign contributions dont have the automatic, all-but-guaranteed results of Sanderss depiction. People write checks for many reasons beyond economic self-interest, even people who work for Goldman Sachs, and even big checks. The process operates in a subtler way, which is not to say it is an attractive one or healthy for democracy. Campaign checks grease the way for access; they help focus the recipients mind on the donors cause. And sometimes, sure, they have the desired result. But other forces including public opinion and ideological inclinations play a role in the eventual outcome. If the Koch brothers didnt exist, conservative Republicans would still question the wisdom of emission regulations they view as damaging to economic growth. The power of the National Rifle Association comes not from the groups campaign spending but from its capacity to mobilize supporters. At the same time, Clintons air of huffy injury how dare you criticize all the cash Ive collected because you cant show any direct impact on the outcome? mischaracterizes the nature of the monetary transaction and airbrushes the avidity with which both Clintons have stroked big givers for decades. Of course contributions have some influence if not on the ultimate result on who obtains a meeting to make sure their concerns are aired, on who gets hired for a key administration job. Indeed, if this cash didnt matter, there would be no reason for Clinton to call so passionately for overturning the Supreme Courts decision in Citizens United, which opened the door to the era of the super PAC, with its unlimited donations from corporations and wealthy individuals. An all-but-forgotten episode from her husbands time in office offers an ugly real-world illustration of what money can buy, and the Clintons role in peddling cash for favors. It involves a California businessman, Johnny Chung, who, back when big soft money checks could flow straight to parties, gave $366,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Chung, who eventually pleaded guilty to tax evasion and election law violations, used the donations to arrange visits to the White House, at least 49 times in two years. As a Senate investigation found, Chung was granted extraordinary access to the White House, and especially the first ladys office. Although a National Security Council staffer considered Chung a hustler, Hillary Clintons chief of staff, Maggie Williams, accepted his $50,000 check in her White House office immediately after which Chung brought a delegation of Chinese clients for lunch at the White House mess, a tour of the White House and a photo with Hillary Clinton in the Map Room. This welcoming embrace did not simply reflect the first ladys raising money for the team; as the Senate report relates, a Hillary Clinton aide told Chung that the first lady had some debts with the DNC to pay for holiday parties. I see the White House is like a subway, Chung told the Los Angeles Times in 1997. You have to put in coins to open the gates. Its fair to recall: Hillary Clinton stood on the other side of the turnstile. Read more from Ruth Marcuss archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook. The Hillary Clinton email issue is developing into a real whodunit, complete with Clintonesque legal semantics. I never sent or received any material marked classified, she said with respect to the discovery of classified information on her private, unclassified email server. That surface denial nearly rivals Bill Clintons classic: I did not have sexual relations with that woman. But this is no laughing matter. There is nothing trivial about a secretary of state having top-secret information on an unsecured computer in her home. That appears to have been the case, based on the State Departments announcement last week that 22 emails, across seven email chains, containing top-secret information were on Hillary Clintons private email server. At issue is whether the information in the emails was classified when it was sent to her unsecured server. It was, after all, the State Department, upon review of the content by intelligence agencies, that upgraded the emails to top-secret and ordered them withheld from the public. Now, it may well be that some of Clintons political opponents are out to derail her presidential campaign and are using the email controversy to do so. Or it could be the case, as Clintons supporters claim, that intergovernmental infighting over what is and isnt classified is driving this investigation. CNN host Chris Cuomo questioned Hillary Clinton on the email server she used during her time as Secretary of State during the Jan. 25 town hall in Des Moines, Iowa. (CNN) The important nonpolitical question: Did the nations top diplomat or her State Department staff improperly handle extremely sensitive, top-secret information and do so in a manner in which the information could be compromised? State Department rules are quite clear. Top-secret information must not be placed on any unclassified systems. It must be accounted for and controlled. And no copy of a top-secret document can be made without the permission of the office or agency in which it originated. In addition, any State Department employee who causes the compromise of top-secret information or makes a copy of a top-secret document or any portion of it without the originators permission is subject to administrative action. There are also limited ways in which top-secret information can be transmitted. Sending top-secret information via a private, unsecured email server is not one of them. Transmitting top-secret information with the classification removed is also forbidden. That makes it critical to establish whether Clintons private server contained information that was classified at the time it was sent or received. Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said , She was at worst a passive recipient of unwitting information that subsequently became deemed as classified. In other words, Clinton is an innocent victim of bureaucratic infighting. If so, how did it happen? Thats what makes this a Washington whodunit. Someone inside the State Department transmitted the information to Clintons personal email account through a private server. That employee or employees, as the case may be knows or should know whether the material was drawn from, was based on or included top-secret information. Given that the information on the server has been upgraded to top-secret, another fear arises: Have unauthorized individuals, even foreign governments, gained access to highly classified information, to the detriment of the United States? Its not as though clandestine attempts to penetrate government agencies have not been made. In fall 2014, the State Department shut down and shored up its unclassified email system after detecting a possible hacker attack. A hacker also attacked the White Houses unclassified computer system around the same time. Last year, Iranian hackers broke into the email and social media accounts of State Department officials who focused on Iran and the Middle East, according to the New York Times. In July, The Post reported that hackers who attacked the Office of Personnel Management got the personnel and security files of at least 22 million people, including federal employees and contractors, as well as their families and friends. The U.S. Postal Service was hacked in 2014. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations computer system was compromised the same year. The nongovernment personal accounts of CIA Director John Brennan and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson reportedly have been hacked. Its chilling to think of what a breach of Clintons email account might mean to national security. Presidential election year or not, the Clinton email issue must be resolved. Just a thought: As a precaution, the manager in the White House dugout might consider telling the bullpen to start warming up Joe Biden. Read more from Colbert Kings archive. To return to this state for another primary with a Clinton on the ballot is to be reminded about how much has changed in Democratic politics over the past two-plus decades and how much remains the same. The change reflects the partys evolution or maybe its reversion to type since Bill Clinton ran here in 1992. The sameness involves the Groundhog Day nature of Hillary Clintons challenge, selling pragmatic experience over alluring hope, against Bernie Sanders now as against Barack Obama in 2008. Bill Clintons pitch, after Democrats long exile from the White House, was that he represented a third-way Democrat championing streamlined government and individual responsibility. We offer our people a new choice based on old values. We offer opportunity. We demand responsibility, Clinton said in his 1992 convention speech. The choice we offer is not conservative or liberal; in many ways its not even Republican or Democratic. How quaintly post-partisan that sounds in the hindsight of 24 years, when the different kind of Democrat running in 2016 is not, technically, a Democrat at all, but a self-described democratic socialist. Indeed, the raging argument last week between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton reflected the opposite impulse of Clinton 1992 not who is the different-est Democrat but who is the most traditionally progressive one. Clinton bristled at what she described as the Vermont senators low blow, questioning whether she was merely a part-time progressive; the Clinton campaign scrambled to explain away her September self-assessment as a moderate. Pause to consider the irony. Clinton has spent much of the past few decades trying to refute suggestions that she is a shade to the right of Madame Mao; recall Pat Buchanans 1992 GOP convention speech railing against her as a radical feminist who wanted to let children sue parents and compared the institution of marriage to slavery. This is a tempting and dangerous moment for Democrats. The party has clearly become more liberal, reflecting the increasing polarization of both sides. According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of Democrats described themselves as liberal in 2015, compared with 27 percent in 2000. The share of Democrats identifying themselves as moderate fell from 43 percent in 2000 to 35 percent in 2015. The success of Sanderss full-throated progressivism among the party faithful is no surprise, especially in liberal-leaning Iowa and New Hampshire. But, notwithstanding the current head-to-head polls that he likes to cite, Sanders at the top of the Democratic ticket threatens a general-election disaster, and not just for the top spot. True, more Americans overall identify themselves as liberal up from 17 percent in 1992 to 24 percent in 2014, according to Gallup. But that leaves the vast majority with a different outlook, 34 percent who describe themselves as moderate, 38 percent conservative. How, exactly, are they going to respond to a democratic socialists call for a political revolution? Sanderss answer is that he could inspire a grass-roots revolution, producing a flood of new voters, as he said in Thursdays MSNBC debate. Im all for new voters, but I worry and, more to the point, Democratic officeholders worry about what happens when the Republican onslaught is unleashed against the essentially unknown, unvetted Sanders. Revolution is easy to promise but hard to achieve in the current political environment and in the short space of a single campaign. Which brings me to the striking way in which the 2016 argument echoes that of eight years ago. At the final pre-primary debate back then, Clinton was making precisely the same case: Change is hard. Achieving it requires more than impassioned rhetoric. She has proved her capacity to do so. Consider this Clinton quote from the final debate before the 2008 New Hampshire primary: What weve got to do is translate talk into action and feeling into reality. I have a long record of doing that, of taking on the very interests that you have just rightly excoriated because of the overdue influence that they have in our government. And, you know, probably nobody up here has been the subject of more incoming fire from the Republicans and the special interests. So I think I know exactly what Im walking into. And I am prepared to take them on. No one could blame Clinton for feeling nostalgic for the party her husband led, or a sense of frustrated deja vu about the argument she seems endlessly condemned to make. Read more from Ruth Marcuss archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook. CONGRESS WISELY acted last year to keep faith with thousands of Afghans who worked side by side with U.S. and international forces in the war of the past decade and a half. The defense authorization bill, which President Obama signed in November, provided for 3,000 more visas for these courageous translators, interpreters and others to enter the United States and avoid potentially deadly reprisals, after they complete a 14-step, four-stage application process. This benevolent act has now been complicated by ambiguity in the legislative language and a State Department decision on how to interpret it. The new law requires that people qualifying for Special Immigrant Visas must have completed two years of service, compared with one year in the past. Congress said the changed requirement should come into force for any person submitting a petition after Sept. 30, 2015. The problem is the ambiguity around the word petition. The first stage in the process is approval by the chief of mission. Only after passing that does an applicant go to the second stage, known as Form I-360, and then onward to the last two stages, a visa interview and issuance. The State Department has decided to interpret the word petition to mean those who have reached the second stage by the deadline. Unfortunately, this could leave in the lurch a large number of people whose applications have been pending in the first stage for some time and who now will not meet the new two-year eligibility requirements. We asked State Department officials why they did this, and their answer was that they consulted with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and decided that Congress meant the second stage in the process as the point of petition. The International Refugee Assistance Project protested that hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Afghans will lose out as a result of this decision, through no fault of their own. The Special Immigrant Visa programs for Afghans and Iraqis who worked alongside U.S. forces have a noble goal, but implementation has been slow and incomplete. This latest confusion seems to cry out for a simple revision of the departments interpretation of the law. With the understandable need for a rigorous checking process, it should be U.S. policy not to leave behind anyone who qualifies among the thousands of Afghans and Iraqis who provided support to the troops. IN THE summer of 2014, headlines were dominated by a crisis of unaccompanied migrant children fleeing to the United States, seeking shelter from poverty and violence in Central America. However, many of these migrant children left desperate conditions in their home countries only to be caught in the grip of human traffickers here in the United States, delivered to criminal captors by the federal agencies mandated to help protect them. Since 2011, more than 125,000 minors have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border; October and November of last year alone saw more than 10,500 unaccompanied minors apprehended by Customs and Border Protection. Since 2014, the majority of unaccompanied children have come from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras; almost 40 percent of them are 15 or 16 years old. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for placing unaccompanied children in the custody of adult sponsors who are expected to care for them while their immigration cases are being processed. But according to whistleblower claims, many of these children were released into the hands of sponsors with criminal records, including homicide, child molestation and trafficking. A recently released Senate report confirmed that HHS in 2014 placed at least six children with a ring of human traffickers, who then forced them to work at Trillium egg farm in Ohio for as little as $2 a day. According to a 2015 criminal indictment, the children were subjected to inhumane treatment forced to work six or seven days a week, 12 hours a day, and the traffickers repeatedly threatened the victims and their families with physical harm, and even death, if they did not work or surrender their entire paychecks. The children were housed in trailers with no bed, no heat, no hot water, no working toilets, and vermin. The Trillium trafficking case is symptom of a wider problem with monitoring unaccompanied minors once they enter the United States. The Senate report noted 13 other cases of post-placement trafficking of minors, with 15 more cases indicating signs of possible trafficking. Inexcusable gaps in HHS policies and procedures led to unaccompanied minors being placed with sponsors or relevant adults in a household without background checks. The administration says that it has strengthened its background-check procedures and that adults with serious criminal offenses are now disqualified from becoming sponsors. But HHS accepts no responsibility for the care and safety of minors once they are placed with sponsors, insisting that state and local child protection agencies are responsible for their welfare. HHS and the Department of Homeland Security urgently need to establish a clear agreement as to which federal agency is responsible for monitoring the welfare of unaccompanied minors from the time they are placed with a sponsor until the time of their immigration hearings. Vulnerable, lonely children fleeing violence and abuse in Central America shouldnt be subjected to more of the same once they arrive in the United States. Leonid Kuchma, a former Ukrainian president and currently Ukraine's representative in the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the conflict in Donbas, believes the group should meet next time in Minsk following a meeting between the Normandy Quartet foreign ministers (France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine) in Munich. "Considering that the representatives of the certain districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions are not complying with the ceasefire agreements and there is no progress in freeing hostages and implementing other provisions of the Minsk Agreements, I believe the Trilateral Contact Group's next meeting should be held following a meeting of the Normandy Quartet foreign ministers," Kuchma's press secretary Darka Olifer quoted him as saying on Facebook. Kuchma made this proposal to the OSCE chairperson-in-office's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group, Martin Sajdik, Olifer said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin had said on Friday that the organization of a Normandy Quartet ministerial meeting in Munich on February 13 was under consideration. "There are plans to arrange this meeting on February 13. We are currently discussing the timeframe and agenda. If we agree on this, we'll hold it in Munich," Klimkin told Interfax-Ukraine. A source with knowledge of the situation had told Interfax-Ukraine earlier that the Normandy Quartet foreign ministers could meet on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. He, however, did not mention any exact dates. David Ignatius defended former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in his Jan. 29 op-ed, Clinton got the Egyptian uprising right. But Ms. Clinton stood by President Obamas side when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office. At the time, Ms. Clinton said it was time for an orderly transition in the Egyptian government. When Ms. Clinton published her memoir in 2014, the people of Egypt had already suffered under President Mohamed Morsi , who subsequently was overthrown by the armed forces. If Ms. Clinton did not agree with the president, she could have resigned when Mr. Mubarak was forced out of office. Anyone who visited Egypt in 1980 and again in 2010 would appreciate what Mr. Mubarak had done for the country. Ms. Clinton should explain the fiasco in Libya in which leader Moammar Gaddafi was forced out. Libya has since become a base for the Islamic State. Mr. Gaddafi was on the path of correcting his mistakes, including pointing to his sources for nuclear technology. But all that gets forgotten. So with such a record as secretary of state, she now wants a bigger role as president. Kirit Parikh, Rockville David Ignatiuss op-ed did not fully reflect the chaotic nature of Egyptian politics or U.S. decision-making at the time of the 2011 revolution. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons arguments were surely a very important part of the debate, but I doubt they were framed as starkly as she wrote in her memoir. Just days before the Tunisian uprising, she delivered a speech in the Persian Gulf region that many interpreted as a call to arms against authoritarians. While Ms. Clinton and many of us were nervous about stability in Egypt, she and others were also intrigued by the possibility that the people had become or could become a third force in Egyptian politics. The Egyptian revolution is far from over; we are in perhaps round 10 of a 15-round heavyweight bout. After meeting President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi last February, I have doubts about whether he is fully in charge. I wonder whether the Islamists, now forced underground, and the pent-up anger of the internal security forces who are frustrated that they had to do the dirty work while the army has tried to stay above the fray may yet manifest themselves in the next rounds of the revolution. If so, then a more accurate reflection of what happened in 2011, especially a more accurate picture of the fog of policy, politics and diplomacy, will become critical in navigating the uncharted waters ahead. Daniel Kurtzer, Princeton, N.J. The writer was U.S. ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001. THERES BEEN much speculation in diplomatic circles that Vladimir Putin is ready to strike a deal ending the conflict he initiated in Ukraine, so as to free the stricken Russian economy from Western sanctions. Mr. Putin raised eyebrows last month by appointing two close associates to negotiate the implementation of a stalled peace settlement, including one dedicated to a new U.S.-Russia channel. However, it is not clear whether the Kremlin is genuinely ready to compromise or merely trying to split Western governments and shift blame for the diplomatic impasse to Ukraine. Mr. Putin needs to be tested, but, so far, European governments and the Obama administration are not doing what is needed to put him on the spot. Mr. Putins foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, certainly gives the impression that Moscows diplomatic moves are disingenuous. In a recent news conference, he claimed that the European Union had been pushed into a trap by the United States when it agreed that lifting the sanctions be linked to the implementation of the peace deal, known as Minsk 2. Ukraine sits back and does nothing, forcing the sanctions to remain in place, he charged. Europe, he confidently asserted, no longer wants to be held hostage to this situation. In fact, Russia and the military force it controls in Ukraines eastern Donbass region have never respected the first step of the Minsk accord a cease-fire. Daily skirmishes continue along the front line. Still, some European governments and business interests are ready to embrace Moscows narrative. They blame the government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for failing to win parliamentary approval for a constitutional amendment allowing greater autonomy for the Russian-occupied areas, and for the absence of an agreement on how to hold elections in those territories. Mr. Poroshenko has been unable to muster the votes for the constitutional reform in the democratically elected parliament in part because of the cease-fire violations and a steady stream of Ukrainian casualties. Meanwhile, Russian-backed authorities in the occupied areas want the elections to be held on terms that would make them a sham that ratified their rule. In negotiations with State Department official Victoria Nuland, Putin aide Vladislav Surkov has shown some flexibility, prompting some U.S. officials to conclude that a deal to implement the Minsk accord is conceivable. However, it would require the assembly of a package in which Ukraines constitutional reform was paired with workable plans for holding elections and restoring government control over the border with Russia. The necessary first step is an end to the shooting and other measures to ensure security, such as the deployment of international monitors to all parts of the Russian-controlled territories. Mr. Putin has shown that he could enforce a cease-fire if he chose to do so; he did so briefly in September, while Russian forces were pivoting to Syria. Rather than pressure Ukraine, the Obama administration should enlist the European Union in insisting that Mr. Putin demonstrate with acts that he is ready to end the war. If he does, the climate for a political deal could be set. If not, all will know who is to blame for a frozen conflict. Dan Balzs Feb. 2 The Take column, No clear favorites going into New Hampshire, mentioned that some voters are seeking a presidential nominee from outside the political establishment. Rhetoric aside, the media are dumbing down the definition of establishment (and anti-establishment). Hillary Clinton spent 12 years as first lady of Arkansas and eight years as first lady of the United States and served eight years as a U.S. senator and four years as secretary of state. Bernie Sanders served eight years as mayor of Burlington, Vt., 16 years as a U.S. representative and nine years as a U.S. senator. Jeb Bushs father and brother were presidents. He was governor of Florida for eight years. Donald Trump is a billionaire real estate developer, former star of a reality show on NBC and head of a financial empire founded from inheritance. Ted Cruz went to Harvard Law School, worked for the George W. Bush administration, was solicitor general of Texas for five years and is a three-year U.S. senator whose wife works for Goldman Sachs. Chris Christie was a Morris County, N.J., freeholder (i.e., supervisor) for four years and a U.S. attorney for seven years, and has served as governor of New Jersey for six years. Marco Rubio spent eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, including two as speaker, and has served five years as a U.S. senator. He went to the University of Miami Law School. Who is anti-establishment in this? I am not picking sides in the race, just pointing out facts. Tom Polgar, Springfield A hole in a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Feb. 2. (Str/Associated Press) The Feb. 4 news article Hole in jet may be result of bomb blast described the cabin rupture of a Daallo Airlines Airbus 321 plane. The survival of the more than 70 passengers (one remains unaccounted for) and additional crew may be attributable to more than pilot skill and good fortune. From the photographs Ive seen, it appears that meeting or exceeding a Federal Aviation Administration aircraft structural design standard on pressurized compartment loads may have kept the fuselage together long enough for the safe landing. This hole size rule requires that a transport category aircraft be designed to withstand a 20-square-foot hole in a pressurized compartment. This is the perfect counterpoint to politicians who thoughtlessly decry over-regulation and promise to cut federal red tape. Regulations save lives. Gary A. Michel, North Potomac The writer is retired from the Federal Aviation Administration as an airworthiness attorney. THE QUESTION of whether women should like men be required to register for the military draft was thrust into the national conversation last week by Army and Marine Corps leaders who favor the idea. Now that women are eligible for all combat roles, it is a natural question. But is the Selective Service system needed at all, for men or women? Wouldnt it make more sense, as presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton suggested during Wednesdays CNN town hall, to put the effort instead into registering all Americans to vote when they turn 18? Gen. Mark A. Milley, Army chief of staff, and Gen. Robert B. Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps, Tuesday told the Senate Armed Services Committee that they favor having all Americans who are physically qualified register for the draft, which applies to those ages 18 through 25. The comments favoring the inclusion of women in Selective Service registration constitute a first in the Defense Department. Other military leaders including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Army acting secretary Patrick Murphy did not endorse the idea, pushing instead for a national debate on the issue. Congress should take up that suggestion and start with a clear-eyed assessment of what purpose is served by the Selective Service system and the millions of dollars devoted to it. The draft hasnt been used since 1973. The all-volunteer military has proved successful and is favored by military leaders over forcing people into service for relatively short terms. Given the 402-to-2 vote in the House against a draft in 2004, its clear there is no political support for its comeback. The strongest argument for maintaining the registration system is in the remote possibility of a major calamity confronting the country, but other government databases, nonexistent when the Selective Service Act was enacted in 1917, are available to assist in a mobilization. A far more urgent need for the country is getting people registered to vote. It is estimated that 24 percent of eligible Americans, or 51 million people, are not registered to vote, and studies show the percentage is even higher for those between the ages of 18 and 24. One big reason is an outmoded and mistake-prone system of registration that needlessly frustrates access to the ballot. When U.S. citizens reach the age of 18, they should automatically be registered.Once they are signed up to vote, they should stay registered. Its what Ms. Clinton talked about last week in New Hampshire, and a similar plan has been backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). States have the means to do this, as Oregon is showing with a system in which anyone who has or obtains a drivers license is automatically registered to vote unless they opt out. California plans to follow suit. Voting is a civic duty. Government should make it easier, not harder, to do. Gordon England was deputy U.S. secretary of defense from 2006 to 2009. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter faces a profound dilemma. He leads the department that has jurisdiction over the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that detains Islamic militants . At the same time, his boss, President Obama, is determined to close Guantanamo to fulfill a campaign promise he made eight years ago. In fact, the presidents single-minded focus on closing Guantanamo in the waning months of his administration as illustrated by the recent release of 10 dangerous detainees, with the promise of more releases to come is endangering American lives as well as those of our friends and allies. This I believe and know firsthand based on my experience during my last five years with the George W. Bush administration while serving as the senior government official responsible for the decision to transfer or release enemy combatants from Guantanamo. Contrary to what some may believe, Bush had no desire to hold any person at Guantanamo who did not absolutely need to be there. The guidance I received was to first determine through careful vetting which detainees posed less risk and then decide whether transfer or even release was appropriate the opposite of the Obama White Houses approach. The process involved input from many federal agencies and defense organizations, military and civilian. I personally read the dossiers and each organizations recommendation many of which were in conflict before making a final decision. Obviously, a recidivism rate of zero is unattainable. Seeking the right balance was an agonizing task that often had to be conducted on the basis of incomplete information. Early in the process, low-level and less-threatening detainees were returned to their home countries as it was decided that they would not likely return to the fight. In time, the cases became more complex. Those remaining at Guantanamo had a record of participating in terrorism, financing terrorism or outright leadership of terrorist activity. After being assured by host countries that returned detainees would be reformed, held in local detention or otherwise monitored, I transferred some higher-risk detainees from Guantanamo. Over time, it was learned that some of those assurances had not been honored and that detainees were returning to the fight. Some were recaptured or killed fighting U.S. and allied troops. Some engaged in terrorist attacks on civilians. Despite this record and risk, we expended great effort including extensive intelligence collection to be certain that the continued holding of any detainee was absolutely justified by the threat he posed. In retrospect, by trying to be as fair as possible, I approved the transfer of too many higher-risk detainees who went on to kill again. That weighs on my conscience. When I left office at the end of the Bush administration, there were more than 200 detainees at Guantanamo. Based on what I knew then I had studied each file many times none would have been approved for release. Under Obama, more than half have been released none of them low risk according to the vigorous vetting we had conducted during the Bush administration. Statements to the contrary by the White House are misleading at best. Some will argue that circumstances change over eight years, allowing for prudent transfers. But, if anything, the terrorist threat has grown significantly worse with the rise of the Islamic State. If weve learned anything, its that hardened jihadists rarely go soft over time. Being uncomfortable with the existence of Guantanamo doesnt change that inconvenient fact. Importantly, under the law of war, a nation at war has the legal right to detain the enemy for the duration of hostilities. The global campaign against violent Islamist ideology and terrorist groups is unlikely to see a definitive or officially pronounced end. However, our national leadership has the legal right, and the moral obligation, to continue to detain enemy fighters as long as they pose a significant risk of rejoining hostilities. So where does this leave Carter, who now carries the same responsibility and heavy moral burden that I carried in the previous administration? I know and respect Ash Carter. Some years ago, we served together on the Defense Science Board. He demonstrates good judgment, is highly intelligent and is a man of integrity. I greatly respect his willingness to serve the United States as defense secretary. The president, as the nations chief executive, has full authority over all matters of the executive branch. But to release more detainees, other than ones such as the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks who are hopefully detained forever, he still must go through the Defense Department, which has jurisdiction over Guantanamo. From my perspective, Carters choice, though wrenching, is very clear. He should resist intense White House pressure and refuse to approve any further transfers of detainees. And if given no choice by the president, he must be willing to give up his job as defense secretary. Perhaps such a dramatic decision by the secretary would force the president to recognize the truth of his actions: Transferring high-risk detainees who will almost certainly rejoin the fight poses a clear and present danger to our country and to our allies security. The Feb. 2 main news section contained 20 pages, of which more than seven were devoted to coverage of the Iowa caucuses. According to my research, 1,237 delegates are needed to secure the Republican nomination. The Iowa caucuses contribute 27 to that delegate count. On the Democratic side, the corresponding numbers are 2,382 and 44. Thus, the Iowa caucuses provide 2.2 percent of the delegates needed for the Republican nomination and 1.8 percent of the delegates for the Democratic nomination very minor contributions considering the number of delegates needed in either party. The approximately 37.5 percent of the main section devoted to the coverage of the caucuses seemed wildly disproportionate. While reporters may enjoy writing about the horse race, readers would appreciate a more balanced view of the significance of such events. Naomi Miller, Bethesda Patricia LaBorde is president of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers and senior vice president and structured settlement division counsel at Stone Street Capital. The National Association of Settlement Purchasers supports proposed legislation in Maryland and Virginia that would supplement existing measures in order to prevent future misconduct in the secondary-settlement market. This year, legislators can enact laws that bolster consumer protections in the secondary market for structured settlements. This is an opportunity that industry leaders and NASP encourages and we applaud the Virginia House of Delegates unanimous passage of House Bill 52 last month. Structured-settlement recipients are those who opt to receive payments from the settlement of court cases in a series of installments rather than a single, upfront sum. The secondary market for structured settlements provides these recipients, also called payees, with the option to make a settlement transfer. Transfers allow payees to sell payments due in the future in exchange for an immediate payment. This option is beneficial to those experiencing financial stresses, including medical bills, eviction or home foreclosure. It also provides a liquidity option to those who need or want to address an upcoming significant expense, such as financing their own or a family members education, pursuing a business venture or relocating for personal or employment reasons. As with 49 other states, Maryland and Virginia have structured-settlement protection acts (SSPAs), which ensure that proposed settlement payment transfers are approved in a court-review process that mandates high standards of transparency, written direction to seek professional advice and detailed disclosures to payees. The bills in Maryland and Virginia propose three amendments that would further safeguard sellers and aid state courts in reviewing these transactions. The amendments would mandate that payees appear in person at the hearing when judges consider their proposed structured-settlement transfer. The procedures under other states SSPAs include this requirement with few exceptions, and it has proved to enhance thorough judicial reviews of these transactions. When payees appear in court, judges can address the transaction with the payees directly, get answers about the payees personal and financial circumstances and evaluate them in person. Requiring personal appearance of the payee further ensures that judges can assess the potential impact of a settlement transfer on the payee and promotes a well-informed decision. The amendments include provisions that require court proceedings to be conducted and approved in the payees county of residence. This makes it easier for payees to appear at court hearings and strengthens judges ability to determine whether the transaction is in a payees best interest. By requiring approval in the county where a payee lives, judges are more likely to be familiar with a particular payees background and court history and likely better able to understand and appreciate local economic conditions and other factors. This context helps judges make better-informed approval decisions. Finally, the amendments mandate payees disclosure of prior structured-settlement transactions and attempted transactions within a designated number of years. The details of such prior transactions are set forth and can be discussed with payees at the hearing and typically include the payments previously sold, the payees use of the proceeds and reasons for the prior transactions. Such information helps judges in thoroughly considering whether a proposed transfer is appropriate in light of such prior transactions, the remaining payments and other payee circumstances. The media are right to criticize the conduct of some companies that crossed the line in isolated transactions. But it is important to note that industry leaders and legislators are working together to improve statutory protections for consumers. NASP and its state legislative partners support these pending proposals in both Maryland and Virginia, along with comparable legislation proposed in Florida. With these changes in Virginia and Maryland, payees and courts will be better equipped and positioned to evaluate these transactions. Moreover, those payees who need or want liquidity relative to their financial situation can access their financial assets to protect and improve their lives and those of their families. A pedestrian walks down the middle of the street because the sidewalks have not been shoveled on Jan. 26 in Takoma Park. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) If you try to walk around in many parts of our region, particularly in the suburbs, its easy to get the feeling that youre an afterthought, at best. Governments actions in the recent Snowzilla blizzard show even more clearly how being multimodal is more lip service than reality. In Fairfax County, sidewalks in neighborhoods and along major arterial roads were impassable a week or more after the storm. Schools in Fairfax, Arlington and other jurisdictions closed for seven consecutive weekdays, putting many parents in a bind. Children lacked safe routes to school and safe places to wait for buses. This was no simple issue of having to prioritize; as Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova told residents, the Virginia Department of Transportation, which plows all of Fairfaxs public roads, was not going to do anything about the sidewalks, and the county had no plan to either. Only the recent burst of unseasonably warm weather saved many Fairfax sidewalks from being impassable all winter long. Fairfax isnt alone. Arlington County and other jurisdictions likewise had no plan to clear sidewalks. The fact that Montgomery County lacks a plan to keep its sidewalks clear has spurred one resident, Richard Hoye, to spend $40,000 of his own money to buy machinery to clear snow. In Prince Georges County, a man was hit by a driver because he had to walk in the road to get around an impassable sidewalk. Area residents who use wheelchairs found themselves unable to leave their homes as piles of snow blocked the curb ramps that connect sidewalks to crosswalks. The District eventually started clearing curb ramps and corners. By law, the nearby property owner is responsible for clearing them, but thats a tall order for residents of corner houses. And then theres the National Park Service, which just outright doesnt clear snow from any of its trails, including the heavily used Mount Vernon Trail, which connects southern Fairfax and Alexandria to Arlington and the District. Certainly, governments have to prioritize their snow-clearing efforts. Plowing major roads should be the top priority, if for nothing other than emergency vehicles. People trying to walk werent the only ones frustrated with plowing; many residents of dead-end streets, especially, waited a very long time to be able to drive out of their neighborhoods (another example of the folly of building neighborhoods full of cul-de-sacs). And indeed, in mostly suburban counties, driving makes up the vast majority of trips. But just because one use of the roads is a minority doesnt mean it deserves to be ignored. The majority of people arent walking. The majority of people also arent driving in Annandale at any given time, but that doesnt mean VDOT and Fairfax would dream of telling the people of Annandale that they were just not going to get any plowing this time around. While safe places to walk arent the only priority, they do need to be a priority. Its too common for VDOT and other transportation agencies to propose a project thats all about widening roads but call it multimodal because it has a sidewalk. When VDOT widened the corner of Route 29 and Gallows Road in Merrifield to nine lanes by nine lanes, it made the walkable Mosaic District much harder to walk to from the Dunn Loring Metro station but said the project would enhance bicycle and pedestrian access. Fairfax leaders are making it a priority to create walkable places around the countys Metro stations, such as at Tysons Corner. Its been a high priority in Arlington for decades. Montgomery is working to do the same, and Prince Georges at least talks about doing it. Thats the right direction for all of these counties. It allows them to add jobs and residents without making traffic even worse (following Arlingtons example), but a commitment to giving people a choice among modes of travel should extend to all parts of the year. Sadly, when state governments buy into multimodalism in name only, the result is what we saw after the blizzard. Jurisdictions had an understandably tough job during the storm and many handled it quite well. (Metro got pretty good marks for handling a tough situation.) Its understandable that a once-every-five-years storm will stress the regions snow-clearing capacity, and not every neighborhood will get plowed as fast as residents would like, but governments cant write off anyone or any travel mode altogether. They need plans that ensure sidewalks on state or county roads, urban intersections, routes to school and other walking routes arent left in the cold. The writer is founder and editor of Greater Greater Washington. Ive been an emergency room physician for more than 30 years. Every shift, I see broken legs, lacerations, cases of pneumonia and more. On the surface, none appears related to the rising rates of drug addiction and crime plaguing our society. But they are. Recently, I treated a man with an abscess on his inner thigh about the size of cantaloupe. We had complications trying to give him an IV with pain medicine because years of drug abuse had scarred his veins. He was clearly a drug user with an addiction problem, but his medical record will read only abscess. An elderly woman came to the ER with a dislocated shoulder after her purse was stolen. Her chart will read simply dislocated shoulder, but I know after speaking with her that this was caused by someone desperately seeking to sustain a $50-per-day drug habit. I treated a gunshot wound that left a man quadriplegic, leading to painful and costly complications throughout his life for himself and his family and contributing to rising health-insurance premiums. This, too, was a drug-related episode. These incidents happen every day in every hospital in Maryland. And I see with my own eyes that the root of the majority of these problems is drug addiction. Overdose rates are rising, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C are spreading, and homicide rates are up. Worst of all, after 45 years, the colossal war on drugs hasnt curbed the rate of drug use one bit. The status quo isnt working. That is why, with support from former Baltimore mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and retired Maryland State Police officer S. Neill Franklin, I am introducing four bills that would fundamentally transform drug policy in our state. Each is based on proven practices from around the world. And each treats the drug problem as what it is a health issue. If we get to the root causes of drug addiction, we can lower health-insurance costs for everyone, reduce violent crime, improve public safety and enable recovery for many. Its a win-win. My proposals aim to reduce the harms associated with drug use, including rates of addiction, deadly overdoses, the spread of infectious disease and the incarceration of people who use drugs. One bill would require addiction treatment in ERs. Thats where addiction treatment should begin, and its more effective than jail. Another bill would keep drug users who use minimal amounts out of the criminal-justice system, saving critical resources and avoiding the costs of saddling more Maryland citizens with criminal records and the related adverse consequences. The other two bills require a shift in how we think about and treat addicts. One would allow for the administering of pharmaceutical-grade drugs to a small and unresponsive group of heroin abusers, with medical supervision. Such programs operate successfully in Europe with positive results. A trial program is underway in Canada. The final bill calls for the creation of a safe-consumption program that would create supervised spaces for individuals to consume controlled substances, reducing rates of overdose death and the spread of infectious disease and connecting them with rehabilitation programs. Of course, not all people with substance-abuse disorders respond positively to treatment. And others will respond but relapse. Its not a perfect fix. But if 5,000 of Baltimores 19,000 heroin addicts went into treatment today, the rate of violent crime and the cost of health care would drop. The payback is immediate. And, for some, the recovery will be long-term. These bills require a new way of thinking, but if they pass, our harm-reduction approach could become mainstream. After witnessing for years how our policies have failed individuals, families and society, Ive had enough. This is a crisis of epic proportions that requires a radical shift. My proposals aim to reduce the terrible consequences of the war on drugs and initiate scientifically proven models based on compassion and public health. The writer, a Democrat, represents Baltimore County in the Maryland House of Delegates and is a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak and Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin on Friday reported to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that they discovered and partially identified guns, which were used to shoot at Maidan mass protest participants. The SBU chief reported to the president that in the course of the investigation into the events of the Revolution of Dignity of 2013-2014, the Security Service of Ukraine undertook a number of search operations, as the result of which fragments of 23 firearms used against Maidan activists were found, the president's press service reported. The weapons were mechanically damaged, ID numbers were filed off. Following the examination, the Security Service identified 12 out of 23 weapons. "With a high degree of probability we can say that these are the fragments of 22 Kalashnikov rifles, one Kalashnikov machine gun and a 12th caliber gauge smooth bore hunting gun," Hrytsak said. These data were submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Interior Ministry. In turn, Prosecutor General Shokin said: "The investigation have proven completely and unquestioningly that Maidan activists were killed with the use of these weapons." He promised to announce soon the specific case, in which these weapons were used. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (D-N.H.) testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the U.S. epidemic of opioid abuse, on Jan. 27 in Washington. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press) As a middle-age white man of comfortable means and right-of-center views on many issues, I may have been oblivious to certain things longer than others. Recent headlines make it impossible to ignore disparities, however. An armed man in open revolt against the law of the land is killed by law enforcement officials [Bundy patriarch shows no regrets, Politics & The Nation, Feb. 1]. There is hand-wringing and second-guessing, even though his death occurs only after a month of confrontation and not-very-veiled threats. Contrast this with the deaths of unarmed African American males whose fates are decided by police officers in a matter of seconds. Presidential candidates campaigning in the rural Northeast express sympathy for the plight of drug addicts and profess an eagerness to provide treatment [Congress jumping on opioid-abuse crisis , The Fed Page, Feb. 1]. Drug abuse among white Americans in small towns is a public-health emergency. But drug abuse among minority populations was a crime addressed by filling the prisons with hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders. It is a terrible thing that anyone dies needlessly. It is a terrible thing that lives are ruined by drugs. Its an even more terrible thing, though, that we seem to decide how terrible these things are based on whom theyre happening to. David Simpson, Vienna For the Democratic presidential candidates, there are two urgent campaigns underway in New Hampshire. The first is over the size of what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders agree is a likely Sanders victory here: Clinton is pulling out every stop to shrink what the latest polls show is a gap of 20 percentage points or more, while Sanders is striving for a win that would give his long-shot candidacy fresh momentum. But the more consequential battle playing out on the ground here this week may be about what happens after New Hampshire and which themes and issues will shape a potentially prolonged battle for the Democratic nomination. At her appearances here this week, Clinton has tried to build a foundation to frame the choice before Democratic voters in the weeks ahead. Im a progressive who gets results, she has said again and again. It is not that Clinton is giving up on New Hampshire, a state where she in 2008 and her husband, Bill Clinton, in 1992 mounted comebacks. But however unlikely a victory in Tuesdays primary may seem, Clinton is using the closing days of the New Hampshire campaign to set the tone for the contests in Nevada and South Carolina, as well as the dozens of big-state primaries and caucuses that follow in March and beyond. Teacher and writer Andrea Ardito of Portsmouth, N.H., came to Exeter on Friday with her children to support Bernie Sanders in the final days before the primary there. (Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post) Clinton plans to leave New Hampshire briefly on Sunday for a hastily arranged visit to Flint, Mich. She has regularly cited the lead-poisoned water crisis in the economically depressed and majority-African American city as an example of racial and economic inequality. Hillary is looking across a much broader and more diverse Democratic Party than the New Hampshire electorate, said strategist Paul Begala, a Clinton loyalist. An old professor of mine said there are parachutists and truffle hunters. Truffle hunters dig down real deep and focus on one thing, and parachutists look at the entire landscape. This is whats going on here. The same could be said for Sanders. On Friday, the senator from Vermont accepted the endorsement of Benjamin Jealous, the former head of the NAACP. (Jealous was scheduled to join Sanders at a news conference at the historic town hall in Exeter, N.H., but a snowstorm snarled his travel plans, and the two men addressed reporters by phone.) Sanderss move was aimed at a much wider audience than predominantly white New Hampshire. It also comes as he is trying to boost his recognition and support among black voters, who account for more than half of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina, which holds its primary on Feb. 27. But Sanders is hardly taking his eye off New Hampshire. Though his aides are trying to tamp down expectations, Sanders is doing everything he can to grind out a big win. His campaign is trying to frame the primary here as a test of general-election strength, considering the states large numbers of independent voters. If he beats Clinton by a large margin, his advisers said, it would be a crucial springboard that gives immediate credibility to his insurgent bid. We want to build our vote as big as possible, Sanders strategist Tad Devine said. New Hampshire could be a huge momentum event. Thats what were shooting for. Children cheer as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks with former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords during a rally Tuesday in Hampton, N.H. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) Referencing Clintons hairs-breadth win Monday night in the Iowa caucuses, Devine said, The American voters didnt understand until Iowa that he could beat her. Part of the message his campaign is trying to convey in New Hampshire and beyond: This guy is a national candidate who can take on Hillary Clinton. Sanders intends to use his victory speech here Tuesday night to lay out broader themes for the campaign going forward. Its a precious opportunity to speak to the nation, Devine said. He said it provides a new audience thats just beginning to be available to him. It means talking about some of this stuff in a little bit of a different language. Sanders will have another opportunity for national exposure this weekend when he heads to New York to appeal on NBCs Saturday Night Live, aides said. Comedian Larry David, who has played Sanders with uncanny precision this season, is hosting this weeks show, and Sanders is expected to make a cameo. Sanders faces several challenges when the race moves on from New Hampshire. The primary electorate in the first two states has been overwhelmingly white and liberal. Democratic voters in South Carolina and a slew of states voting in March are more diverse and centrist overall. Sanders has benefited from spending large stretches of time in Iowa and New Hampshire, and voters over time have become better acquainted with the quirks of his politics, including his self-imposed label of democratic socialist. He is a more unfamiliar quantity in the other 48 states. Clinton, by contrast, is universally known and has deep support among black and Latino voters nationwide. Her advisers argue that she is positioned well in later states to withstand whatever momentum Sanders has coming out of New Hampshire. They may give him a fresh look; I dont think theyre going to move to him, Joel Benenson, her chief strategist and pollster, said Friday at a Wall Street Journal breakfast. I think shes got a stronger argument about their struggles, their lives, their human experiences. Clinton has been arguing here that she is prepared for all aspects of the presidency and implicitly, that Sanders is not and would lead with her heart and her head. Hillarys building a case that is much more likely to be durable over the course of the campaign than the one Senator Sanders is making, said pollster Geoff Garin, who advises the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action. Realism starts to kick in as voters think more about the consequences of their decision. But some Democrats say her message is insufficient. Its not clear to me that realism is a rallying cry, veteran strategist Robert Shrum said. All those signs they hold up at her rallies, Fighting for us that needs to become a central, thematic womb for everything shes saying, Shrum added. She needs to project a sense of vision. . . . She needs to put human clothes on the policy plans that she has. The Clinton team freely concedes the difficulty of defeating Sanders here. We have a lot of work to do here, campaign chairman John Podesta said. But Clinton has vowed to slug it out in the Granite State. This state has been so good to my husband and me, and my family, Clinton said Friday as she urged campaign staff and volunteers to brave heavy snow for a day of knocking on doors. I am fighting for us, and I am not going to stop fighting for New Hampshire. John Ficklin, who retired last month just shy of his 60th birthday, is the 10th member of his family and perhaps the last to work at the White House. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) The public and private rhythms of the White House have shaped John Wrory Ficklins daily life from the day he was born. On Nov. 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Ficklin was 7 and playing at a neighbors house when his friends mother told him he needed to hurry home. At the time, his father, also named John, was the White House maitre d and very close to the center of the unfolding national tragedy. The next time Ficklin actually saw his father was on television three days later, in a rented morning suit, as the slain presidents coffin was carried into the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington for the funeral Mass. The White House is a place defined by transients presidents and political appointees who come and go after a term or two. But Ficklin is a different, more enduring sort: He is the 10th member of his family all children and grandchildren of a Virginia slave born in 1857 to have worked in the White House, a long line that stretches back to Franklin Delano Roosevelts administration. Ficklins uncle Charles got a job as a White House butler in 1939. His father, John Woodson Ficklin, born in 1919, joined the staff in 1940 and stayed for 43 years. The long family streak may end with Ficklin, who retired last month just shy of his 60th birthday. But he was also the first whose work would range beyond the kitchens, pantries and dining rooms of the executive mansion and into the West Wing. Ficklin retired as a special assistant to the president and senior director for records and access management at the National Security Council. 1 of 12 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad The White Houses longest-serving family View Photos John Ficklins family started working at the White House during the FDR administration, and the streak has been unbroken since then. Caption John Ficklins family started working at the White House during the FDR administration, and the streak has been unbroken since then. John Wrory Ficklin, special assistant to the president and the National Security Councils senior director for records and access management at the White House, just retired from federal service. He is one of 10 family members to have worked at the White House in the past century. Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. His personal family and professional trajectory, from part-time pantry staffer to managing access to some of the nations most sensitive information, traces some of the profound cultural and societal shifts that have occurred in recent American history. The fact that in two generations you can go from slavery to special assistant to the president is indicative of the progress weve made as a country, he said. And Im proud of it. Of course, it is an even greater indicator of progress when the president in question is also black. As a career employee of the White House, and also African American, Ficklin said, the president is what we had always hoped for but thought we would never see. Much of the Ficklin family lore at the White House centers on Ficklins father, who died in 1984, a year and a half after he retired. He developed the eggnog recipe that is still served at annual holiday parties. (The secret, he confided to The Washington Post in 1982, is to save a bit each year, dubbed the mother of nog, and incorporate it into the new batch the following winter.) In some sense, Ficklin embodies this mixology, as if his father and siblings were able to flavor the institutions current operations by installing a new generation of Ficklins in the place. John Woodson Ficklin became a confidant to members of several first families during his long White House tenure. Bess Truman gave him the day off when his oldest son was born; Jacqueline Kennedy gave him a handwritten thank-you note for staying by her side in the assassinations aftermath. Over time, the family received plenty of presidential hand-me-downs, including Dwight D. Eisenhowers monogrammed towels and a hat from Lyndon B. Johnson. Although the movie Lee Daniels The Butler portrayed Eugene Allen as the first member of the residence staff to attend a state dinner, that honor actually belongs to John Woodson Ficklin and his wife, Nancy, who attended one for the emir of Bahrain in July 1983. In that generation, five Ficklin siblings ended up working at the residence while Charles and John were on the permanent staff. Their brother Samuel and sisters Mary and Flossie worked there intermittently. John Woodson Ficklin brought his wife and two children to work events on occasion, and two other relatives, James Jeffries and his son, James Jeffries Jr., continue to occasionally work as butlers to this day. Flossie Malachi John Woodsons sister and John Wrorys aunt is now 90 and still lives in the District. She recalled that during one social event during the Truman administration, a butler at the time, John Pye, looked around the pantry and observed: Theres a Ficklin here, and a Ficklin there. Everywhere I look, theres a Ficklin. John Wrory Ficklins first White House job was as a messenger, and it plunged him into a presidency deep in crisis, although he was unaware of it at the time. During the summer of 1974, while he was in high school, he was the primary courier between the Nixon White House and the Watergate special prosecutors office. The significance of the sealed envelopes he carried back and forth didnt really sink in until much later, he recalled. Back then, he was much more concerned about music, he said. Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield and Led Zeppelin loomed large in his consciousness. But it was hard to avoid the politics of the times: When he and his brother, J Woodson Ficklin, mocked President Richard M. Nixon as Tricky Dick and questioned his abuse of power, Ficklin remembers, their father would stick up for the embattled commander in chief. He would defend him somewhat and then disengage from us. . . . We had roofs over our heads and food on the table because he worked for Nixon, he said. Ficklin said he later adopted his fathers approach as a model: My personal opinions about political matters, I expressed those in the voting booth, and my supervisors didnt need to know. Ficklin went to work at the NSC almost by chance, but in a very Washington way. He ran into someone who knew his father, who mentioned an opening in the mail room. He slowly worked his way through the ranks, carrying memos from the State Department to the White House each evening and monitoring events overseas outside the Situation Room as a West Wing desk officer. He handled paper that chronicled tumultuous events: He was on the desk when the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed in 1983, killing 299 U.S. and French forces, and when American F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan jets in 1981. That desk officer job also allowed Ficklin to meet his wife, when an analyst on his team set him up with a Georgetown University classmate, Patrice Alexander. On one of their first dates, Ficklin invited Alexander to celebrate her birthday by attending the arrival ceremony for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on the South Lawn in December 1987. While she was at the White House, he had a flower arrangement delivered to her desk. It was just the coolest thing to be standing there. I was thinking, Who is this man? she said. Alexander headed off to attend Harvard Law School the following fall, and there she met Barack Obama, another member of the Class of 1991 and a future Oval Office occupant. A few years later, with his wife working long hours at a D.C. law firm, Ficklin answered the home phone and found himself talking to Obama, who asked for a campaign contribution. Although his wife was an enthusiastic donor, Ficklin rebuffed him. Id say, Hey, Barack, Im covered under the Hatch Act. I cant talk to you about political contributions. Over time, Ficklin made his mark by modernizing the White Houses creaky technology infrastructure. National security adviser Susan E. Rice first met Ficklin during Bill Clintons administration, when staffers in the Old Executive Office Building, she recalled, would take the records, literally roll it up in a tube, and shoot it over to the West Wing. Ficklins demeanor is elegant and his speech precise, and his job has been about managing sensitive information amid enormous change. The NSC handles a deluge of sensitive information each day; its staff generates more than 400,000 emails daily. Last year, Ficklins office declassified more than 100,000 pages of documents. It expects to transfer about 12 terabytes of data close to 5.3 billion pages to the National Archives at the end of Obamas term, along with about 3,000 boxes of hard-copy documents. Ficklin deserves a lot of credit for making that digital transition, said his predecessor, Bill Leary. [In the White House, traditions give way to digital advances] A large part of his job has been to keep secrets, but Ficklin also handled the unprecedented release of roughly 2,500 previously classified Presidents Daily Briefs from the Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. The documents information that top U.S. intelligence officials thought was critical for the president to know each day analyze current and future national security issues. Although officials at a couple of agencies initially resisted the idea of making them public, because they reveal what U.S. officials thought was important enough to reach the president, Ficklin pressed the cause by citing Obamas own executive order from Dec. 29, 2009, which dictated, No information may remain classified indefinitely. Unlike his father, Ficklin had minimal interaction with presidents over the years including the man who attended law school with his wife. Although he wanted to give Obama a personal tour once he took office in 2009, it never happened. One of my biggest disappointments, he said of not being able to introduce the nations first African American president to the White House the Ficklins knew so well. But in the end, Ficklins departure gave him a few opportunities to meet the president. Rice made sure he was invited to the state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, and Ficklins farewell photo allowed him to introduce his two sons, ages 22 and 19, to Obama. He asked me why I was retiring when he still had a year left in office, Ficklin said. I said I wanted to introduce my sons to him, and I had exhausted all of the possibilities to make this happen, except retirement and a family farewell photo. Neither of Ficklins sons have plans to work in the White House, but they are aware of the legacy. Patrice Ficklin said their oldest son, John Alexander, who aspires to be a research scientist, sometimes thinks about it out loud. He kind of wistfully says, I feel like I should get a job at the White House, she said, coming up with her own answer about where his skills might fit: Well, I suppose there is OSTP. That is Washington acronym-speak for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. James Jeffries Jr. just worked a White House reception for the nations mayors last month. But Flossie Malachi who recalls regularly seeing Bess Truman in a hairnet, with her pink slip showing as the pantry staff prepared afternoon teas said she has accepted that the familys White House run is nearing its end. I can say we had our time there, she said. In a sense, Ficklin whose in-laws call him The Honorable, the formal title for someone who has reached the rank of special assistant to the president isnt leaving, after all. Rice, who persuaded him to stay on for 2 1 / 2 years longer than he had intended, has also persuaded him to help the administration manage the transition by consulting during the last six months of the Obama administration. We wanted to have the benefit of his knowledge as long as possible, she said. [White House is the ultimate on-call job for workers with families] Ficklin said that deep within, I have always been an artist and musician, not a bureaucrat. But he is willing to help, within limits. He says he now spends more time on his jazz drums, photography and on the South River in the Chesapeake Bay. It will be on a part-time basis, he said of his continued work at the White House. Im going to spend most of my time on our boat. Hillary Clinton is seen aboard the campaign bus in Cleveland on the third day of a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio. July 31, 2016 Hillary Clinton is seen aboard the campaign bus in Cleveland on the third day of a bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Melina Mara/The Washington Post The former secretary of state, senator and first lady is the Democratic nominee for president. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton campaigns in key states in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton campaigns in key states in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president. The question at the most recent Democratic presidential debate was this: Which of your many policy proposals would be Job One if you were elected? Hillary Clintons 293-word answer to that straightforward query was anything but. Im for a lot of things, she told moderator Chuck Todd. If Im so fortunate to get the nomination, I will begin to work immediately on putting together an agenda, beginning to talk with members of Congress and others about how we can push forward. She proceeded to tick off a familiar litany of Democratic priorities: clean energy, universal health coverage, lower prescription drug costs, paid family leave, early childhood education, assistance for small business, immigration reform, revitalizing manufacturing, infrastructure spending. Asked the same, her rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders zeroed in on a single priority: unrigging the system. So long as big money interests control the United States Congress, it is gonna be very hard to do what has to be done for working families, he said. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters after speaking in Manchester, N.H., this week. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) That exchange summed up why so many Clinton supporters are publicly and privately urging her to sharpen her message in the face of a growing challenge from Sanders. So far, she has no 21st-century version of the its the economy, stupid mantra that famously drove her husband Bill Clintons 1992 bid. When the atmosphere changes from hope and change to rage and revolt, you need to powerfully, succinctly articulate what you want to do, said former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), a Clinton supporter. Meanwhile, voters say they have no doubt what Sanderss candidacy is all about. Hes narrow in a way that I like, said Nick Pangaro, 64, a management consultant. He is leaning toward Sanders but still interested enough in Clinton to attend her appearance at a Boys and Girls Club in Derry, which was her first stop in New Hampshire after the Iowa caucuses. I like the millionaires and billionaires message, Pangaro said. I like the fact that hes talking about what I regard as a true problem in this country, which is the wealth disparity and the fact that so few people are controlling so much wealth. After battling her to a virtual tie in Iowa, Sanders is heavily favored to win Tuesdays New Hampshire primary, and has significantly reduced the gap with her in national polls. [Clinton, Sanders use N.H. primary to frame long battle to come] 1 of 51 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad What it looks like on the ground in New Hampshire leading up to the primary View Photos Following the Iowa caucuses, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates flocked to New Hampshire in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. Caption Following the Iowa caucuses, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates flocked to New Hampshire in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. Feb. 8, 2016 A Scottish Highland steer wears a Bernie Sanders campaign sticker in Manchester. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Clintons decision to take a campaign trail detour to Flint, Mich., on Sunday was welcomed by her allies as a bold move putting a focus on her values perhaps more than a mountain of policy papers could. Clinton takes credit for goading Michigans Republican governor into accepting federal help to remedy the crisis in the city, where a cost-cutting decision led to poisonous levels of lead in the water in the poor, heavily African-American city. She cares about this, and shes meeting people there to try to get more done, her pollster Joel Benenson said. In addition, Clintons campaign argues that her emphasis on a range of issues is a strength, not a weakness. Sanders has a direct message because hes a single-issue candidate. Our point is that details matter and you need to be able to do all parts of the job, said her spokesman Brian Fallon. More importantly, her advisers say, her approach is a reflection of who she is and how she would approach the often-prosaic business of governing. Most of her positions represent incremental steps on the achievements of President Obamas two terms, or a promise to protect what he has done. MSNBC host Mika Brzyznski invited Clinton to give a simple rationale for her candidacy last month. She got a two-and-a-half-minute speech that began with Clinton saying she wanted to build on President Obamas successes and wandered through biography, policy and partisanship. I dont offer easy answers, Clinton said on the Jan. 15 broadcast. She meant that as a none-too-subtle dig at Sanders, but it also summed up the frustration that some of her own supporters are feeling. Clinton needs something edgier and interesting and more of a value statement than a plan, said one adviser who has been consulted by the campaign on policy, and who did not want to be quoted publicly disparaging its message. On health care, for instance, Sanders proposes a single-payer, government-centered program that would put the private medical insurance system out of business. Such a system is a long-held dream of liberals, but it is hard to see how it could be achieved with Republicans holding control of one and possibly both houses of Congress, as is expected after the 2016 election. In her stump speech, Clinton takes voters through a long and sometimes discursive list of her plans to fix the Affordable Care Act rather than scrap it. However, some of Clintons proposals also appear politically unrealistic. For instance, she pledges to lower prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug makers en masse, President Obama also sought that power but conceded it in the negotiations to pass the health care law. At Thursdays debate in Durham, Sanders had short, punchy answers for why hes running and what he wants to do. He called for a political revolution and said of big banks, break them up! Clinton rebuked Sanders for an artful smear on her character by suggesting she is beholden to big financial interests, but the meat of her argument was example after example of what she called a practical to-do list. I wont make promises I cant keep, Clinton said at a campaign stop Friday. What I will tell you is what I know we can do. She is also striving to bring more focus to an area where her fluency is greater than Sanders: international affairs. I know that sometimes foreign policy might seem a little remote, Clinton said Friday night at a Democratic dinner Manchester. Russia, Iran, ISIS, these are not issues we can put off to the side. They cannot be an afterthought. karen.tumulty@washpost.com anne.gearan@washpost.com Abby Phillip in Derry contributed to this report. Seven minutes. Four questions. One plum chance for Marco Rubio to lay into his top competition in the Republican presidential race. But Rubio held his fire. I like John Kasich, he told a group of reporters here. He said he will only hit Donald Trump hard when the time comes. Chris Christies insults earned only a three-second rebuttal. He declined to say whether he expected to finish off Jeb Bush. Im not running against any of the other candidates in this race, Rubio said. I am running for president. Hes only in second or third place in the polls, but Rubio is campaigning like a front-runner. As his rivals sling mud at him and each other, Rubio who finished a solid third in Iowa and is climbing here in the Granite State is mostly content talking about himself and avoiding combat with the other Republicans. The strategy reflects the Rubio teams belief that the New Hampshire primary could be the moment when he begins consolidating mainstream Republican support. It also highlights his aversion to taking on Trump before the field narrows. Slamming the other mainstream candidates could alienate their backers and give the underdogs the attention they are craving. PITTSFIELD, NH- FEBRUARY 3: Senator Marco Rubio spoke to employees at the Globe Manufacturing business in Pittsfield, New Hampshire on Wednesday, February 3, 2016.(Photo by John Tully/For The Washington Post) (John Tully/For the Washington Post) His campaign says Rubio is not running any New Hampshire TV ads attacking his opponents. But a pro-Rubio super PAC has been doing the dirty work for the senator from Florida, hitting them with well-funded commercials and freeing him to stay positive. In town halls, rallies and meet-and-greets this week, Rubio attracted bigger and more assorted crowds than earlier in the contest. He is auditioning as the strongest Republican for the general election and the one most capable of stitching together the different parts of the GOP. If you nominate me, I will unite us, Rubio said in Exeter on Tuesday night. I will grow this movement. We will win this election. [His rivals say the same thing in different ways: Marco Rubio is weak.] Polls show that Trump holds a wide lead in New Hampshire, with the rest of the field bunched together. Yet Rubio is avoiding a direct confrontation with the brash mogul. Asked during a Wednesday town hall in Bow about Trumps mocking a disabled New York Times reporter, Rubio said, I think we all obviously not just disagree with it but find it distasteful. Then he quickly moved on. His most direct shot of the day at Trump came when he was inspecting his tie during a stop at a company that manufactures gear for firefighters. But even then it was playful. 1 of 51 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad What it looks like on the ground in New Hampshire leading up to the primary View Photos Following the Iowa caucuses, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates flocked to New Hampshire in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. Caption Following the Iowa caucuses, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates flocked to New Hampshire in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. Feb. 8, 2016 A Scottish Highland steer wears a Bernie Sanders campaign sticker in Manchester. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Its not a Trump tie they make those in China, Rubio said. Rubios strategists see nothing to be gained by engaging in a war of words with Trump until the field narrows, since no candidate has so far been able to claim lasting success fighting him. When the time comes and its appropriate, well do so, Rubio told reporters when asked about taking on Trump more forcefully. For now, Rubios anti-Trump messaging has been more passive, saying that anger is not a plan. Rubio has been more willing to engage Christie, Kasich and Bush, who must do well in New Hampshire to stand a realistic chance of competing for the nomination. Recent polls show Rubio leading them in the state, but not by a wide margin. The candidate Rubio has hit hardest is Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), whom his advisers see as a competitor for many of the same voters. Cruz and his campaign have shown a willingness to say or do anything to win, Rubio said. [Rubios summer of 90: An arrest, then newfound purpose] Rubios growing crowds have been welcome news for his campaign, but there have been some awkward moments. A big and boisterous audience cheered Rubio as he entered an Exeter rally only to have to wait for him to do a TV interview there before he would address them, frustrating some attendees. A day later, he abruptly paused meeting supporters waiting in a long line so he could do another television appearance. Rubios unity pitch is attracting a more diverse slate of Republicans to his events and sometimes their views are at odds with one another. At a town hall here in Laconia on Wednesday, Rubio was asked two questions about immigration from opposing perspectives. One man explained that he employs an undocumented immigrant named Fernando who otherwise obeys the laws. The man said he wanted to figure out a way to legitimize people like Fernando. Rubio said he sympathized with Fernandos story, but I also sympathize with the American people, who have to bear the burden of people coming into this country illegally. Vince Merola, 77, of Wolfeboro, asked Rubio why he joined the bipartisan Gang of Eight that pushed comprehensive immigration reform after running for the Senate opposing amnesty. Rubio denied that he ever went back on his word to oppose blanket amnesty. But Merola wasnt swayed. I think he means what hes saying right now. But will he cave when the party tells him We cant do that, well lose votes, wondered Merola, who is leaning toward supporting Cruz. As Rubios support grows, his team will also confront the challenge of preparing a large roster of surrogates to give him crisp support. In a painful Thursday interview with MSNBC, new backer Rick Santorum struggled to point to any major accomplishments Rubio achieved in the Senate. Saturdays debate, which will effectively be the last chance to reach a wide audience before Tuesdays vote, is expected to be nasty. For Christie, Kasich and Bush, in particular, it could be the last real chance to prevent their supporters from straying to Rubio. Rubio is bracing for a ferocious give and take. He will not be able to avoid a confrontation the way he has on the campaign trail. In Pittsfield, he tried on a firefighter's jacket after a town hall, aware of the looming clash. I may have to wear this at the debate, he said. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush at a town hall in Derry, N.H. The former Florida governor is ramping up his rhetoric ahead of the New Hampshire Primary. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post) Jeb Bush insists this is not the final weekend of his presidential campaign. But it has the makings of a last stand. I dont give a you-know-what about whether Im popular or not. That is fleeting, he told 700 people in a middle school gymnasium here Saturday, his largest New Hampshire crowd to date. A year since he began traveling the country in pursuit of the presidency, Bush is no longer always campaigning joyfully, as he originally pledged. He has grappled with a long, slow fall from front-runner to also-ran status, enduring relentless insults from Donald Trump and suffering a sixth-place showing in the Iowa caucuses last week. In New Hampshire, Bush and his team want to top Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a result that would jump-start his campaign and help him emerge as a leading alternative to Trump. Christie is fading, but Kasich is tied or ahead of Bush in recent polls. And Rubio has surged after placing third in Iowa, so Bush is lobbing fresh attacks at his Miami neighbor. Bush has now fully embraced his family name in an attempt to rescue his chances after spending the past year struggling with how to talk about and appear with his relatives. His brother George W. Bush is preparing to play a bigger role. His wife and grown sons joined him here on the campaign trail in recent days, as did his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is joined by his mother, Barbara, in this campaign video. (Jeb Bush) The Bush thing, people are just going to have to get over it, he said Saturday. I am who I am. Im in the establishment because my brother was a president and my dad was a president, and when I woke up in Midland, Texas, there she was. I woke up my little eyes and there she was, Barbara Bush. [For the third time, Barbara Bush campaigns for a presidential candidate named Bush] As he traipses across New Hampshire, Jeb Bush dismisses talk of an exit as just ridiculous. He told voters that on primary night, Were going to surprise the world. Hes also talking more about President Obama. Eight years ago, his life was organized around his own ambition and he won, Bush said Thursday at a school in Derry. And that the top Republican contenders are equally inexperienced as they run for president. Donald Trump? he asked the crowd. Ill leave it at that, he said as they cheered. There are also two great freshmen senators that can deliver a great speech, he said, referring to Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). Very talented people dont get me wrong. One of them is a close friend that I admire greatly. But what in their background would suggest that they could make a tough decision? 1 of 51 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad What it looks like on the ground in New Hampshire leading up to the primary View Photos Following the Iowa caucuses, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates flocked to New Hampshire in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. Caption Following the Iowa caucuses, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates flocked to New Hampshire in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday. Feb. 8, 2016 A Scottish Highland steer wears a Bernie Sanders campaign sticker in Manchester. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. The Bush campaign amplified the point in a television ad released Friday. The spot shows former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, a Rubio supporter, struggling in an MSNBC interview to name one of Rubios legislative accomplishments. Al Cardenas, a longtime Bush friend and donor, dismissed talk of Bush leaving the race soon and said it was fueled by Rubio supporters. At some point in time, we think that people are going to start judging you not by your political skills but by your competence and capabilities, he said. And when that happens, Jebs going to win. As for the Rubio campaign, One thing I have to do is compliment them, Cardenas said. They have been the campaign that by far has been most successful on selling the pundits a bill of goods. The victory speech in Iowa was just mind-boggling. I couldnt believe it Ive never seen a third-place finisher giving a victory speech anywhere. When Bush started traveling the country last year, he said he wanted to campaign by showing my heart. Most of the time, that has meant giving hugs to supporters or long, nuanced answers to town-hall questions as a way to demonstrate his deep command of issues. But in recent days, he has been much more emotional. Moved on Thursday by the presence of his 90-year-old mother, Jeb Bush started addressing the crowd but choked up and turned away from cameras as he called his father, former president George H.W. Bush, the greatest man alive. On Saturday, he caught himself again as he started discussing his daughters struggles with drug addiction, telling the crowd that he had never done so in public before with his wife, Columba, watching. Meanwhile, George W. Bush is expected to campaign with Jeb Bush next week in South Carolina, according to campaign aides. The candidate marks his 63rd birthday on Thursday and is expected to spend the day on the trail with his wife, children and grandchildren. Bush supporters and friends in New Hampshire this weekend are making plans to meet again in South Carolina and canvass in the days leading up to its Feb. 20 primary. [Why do so many Republicans dislike Jeb Bush?] Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Bush supporter, is confident that the campaign will continue in his home state because of what he has been seeing in New Hampshire. Well be talking about Jeb Bushs ground game next Wednesday. Ive seen it with McCain; its better than McCains, he said, referring to his close friend Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who won the New Hampshire Primary in 2000 and 2008. The Bush team has called or sent volunteers to visit more than 60,000 New Hampshire households, according to Graham. Door-knockers this week included Bushs senior strategist Sally Bradshaw, as well as a coterie of former aides from his governorship. A group of younger volunteers who are friends of Jeb Bush Jr. are focused on smaller northern towns such as Laconia. Floridians who came north to help Jeb Bush were greeted Wednesday by a full-page ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper co-signed by seven current and former speakers of the Florida House a job Rubio once held. Take it from people who know Marco and Jeb best, they wrote. Governor Bush is the leader we need to make America safer, stronger and better. Jason Rosenberg, a reconstructive surgeon from Gainesville, Fla., traveled this week to New Hampshire with his two teenage daughters to knock on doors. He has no personal connection to Bush other than college friends who worked for the former governor. That guy should be president of the United States. Ive just got to convince everyone else of that, he said. I know we can get through to that when people start paying serious attention. Ukraine will insist on placing international missions for monitoring the observation of human rights in the Russian-occupied Crimea on a permanent basis, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said. "Under the aegis of the Council of Europe, we will consistently press for the continuous monitoring by international organizations of human rights violations in Crimea," Klimkin said at a meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in Kyiv on Friday. The minister recalled that the CoE secretary general was able to arrange for the sending of his special representative to Crimea. During the visit, the latter is expected to compile a preliminary report on the situation with the observance of human rights on the peninsula. The Islamic States recent defeats on the battlefield signal that its once-vaunted militia army has been hobbled by worsening money problems, desertions and a dwindling pool of fighters, analysts and monitoring groups say. U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab forces have seized significant amounts of territory from the extremist group in the parts of Iraq and Syria where it declared a caliphate in 2014. Those losses are linked to the groups struggles to pay fighters and recruit new ones to replace those who have deserted, defected to other militant groups or died on the battlefield, the analysts say. These issues suggest that as an entity that is determined to hold onto territory, the Islamic State is not sustainable, said Jacob Shapiro, an expert on the Islamic State who teaches politics at Princeton University. [Islamic State strikes back in Syria after losing ground] Only a year ago, the Islamic State was seen as a juggernaut rich, organized and fielding thousands of motivated fighters that overran rival forces in Iraq and Syria with astonishing speed and brutality. But in recent months, its momentum has been reversed. U.S. military officials estimate that the group has lost as much as 40 percent of the territory it held in Iraq and as much as 20 percent in Syria. Kurdish and Arab forces, including Iraqs increasingly competent military, have advanced against the group with the help of airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition. The air raids have damaged the Islamic States oil infrastructure, a key revenue source, and the territorial setbacks have stripped the group of populations to tax and assets to seize, analysts say. All of this, they say, appears to have forced the group to reduce salaries and benefits for fighters. Few expect a sudden defeat of the conservative Sunni group, known for its resilience and ability to surprise its opponents. It also will probably continue exploiting sectarian grievances that have helped it gain loyalty, albeit sometimes tenuous, from the largely Sunni populations under its control, an issue that has made it difficult to defeat the group. Moreover, the suspension on Wednesday of U.N.-backed peace talks in Geneva to end the Syrian war may complicate international efforts to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL. The United States and Russia back opposing sides in the conflict but have nevertheless supported the talks because of concern that the fighting, which has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions, is empowering the Islamic State. Yet there appears to be a rise in the number of Islamic State fighters who have deserted or, in the case of the Syrian conflict, defected to other militant groups, said Vera Mironova, an expert on armed groups in Syria and Iraq at Harvard Universitys Belfer Center. The salary and benefit cuts have caused for-profit militants in Syria to increasingly look for better deals with other armed factions, she said. The group, she added, also is struggling to replenish ranks of its foreign fighters, who tend to be more ideologically driven but also die in relatively large numbers on the battlefield. Tighter border restrictions imposed by Turkey have slowed the flow of fighters into neighboring Syria, said Mironova, whose research has involved hundreds of interviews with militants who are fighting in Syria and Iraq. Theyre in big trouble, Mironova said, referring to the Islamic States ability to fight. [Iraqis think the U.S. is in cahoots with the Islamic State] Members of the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently group, which monitors the Islamic State, say a rising number of foreign members of the militant group have requested help to flee Syria. The requests have been made secretly because the Islamic State regularly executes foreigners who attempt to escape, said a co-founder of the Syrian monitoring group, Mohammed Saleh, who like other members uses a nom de guerre because of threats from the militants. There are lots of these people who are desperately trying to flee, and not just from Raqqa, he said, referring to the city in eastern Syria that is the Islamic States self-declared capital. Part of this is that these people are moving from vibrant cities like London or Paris. After a year of living in a place like Raqqa, they get tired of living without electricity and getting bombed all the time. They get bored, or they realize that the so-called caliphate is not what they were told it was. Analysts speculate that the problems have compelled the group to adopt new tactics, such as carrying out attacks abroad. That includes the Paris assaults in November that killed 130 people. Attacks abroad may be an attempt to sustain the groups narrative as always on the offense which has been key for attracting potential militants. Even so, the Islamic States media narrative has shifted from a triumphant one to having to explain why it is losing so much, said Nelly Lahoud, an expert on political Islam at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who studies the groups media. They overplayed their card at the beginning by describing their victories as a sign from God, a reward for their faith, she said. In October, the Islamic State announced a month-long amnesty for deserters, according to documents obtained and translated by Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert on the Islamic State. He called the amnesty the clearest sign of the Islamic States troubles waging war. According to activists with Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, the Islamic State is also forcibly recruiting more teenage boys in Syria to fight for the group. Analysts and monitoring groups say they have observed more reports of the Islamic State executing fighters who deserted during recent battles against Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Iraqs north and Iraqi forces in the city of Ramadi. Reliance on such extreme measures is a sure sign of low cohesion and a burned-out military force, said Shapiro of Princeton. Read more: U.S. envoy goes to Syria to press the fight against the Islamic State Inside the surreal world of the Islamic States propaganda machine Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world A model space shuttle in the lobby of the Mangyongdae Children's Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Alexander F. Yuan/AP) North Korea has warned it could launch a satellite widely seen as cover for a long-range ballistic missile test as soon as Sunday, moving up the date range for its planned launch. With tensions still running high after last months nuclear test, Pyongyang is defying international exhortations to desist from further provocations, and last week warned it would launch a rocket between Feb. 8 and 25. But Saturday, Jon Ki Chol, director general of North Koreas Maritime Administration, advised that the launch could take place as soon as Sunday. On the launch schedule of earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong, I have the honour to inform you that the reserved launch date has changed to 7-14 February 2016, Jon wrote in a letter to the International Maritime Organization, the body responsible for safety at sea. North Korea also updated its notice to airmen with the new date range. Japan and South Korea have warned airlines of potential hazards along flight paths in the area, with the rocket expected to be fired from the Sohae satellite launching station on North Koreas west coast, not far from the border with South Korea, then projected to fly over the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa and falling into the sea east of the Philippines. Japan has three Patriot surface-to-air missile systems ready in Tokyo and four in Okinawa, poised to shoot down the rocket. [North Korea announces plan to launch rocket carrying observation satellite] North Korea last fired a long-range missile in December 2012, sending what it said was a communications satellite into orbit for scientific purposes. That launch coincided with the first anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, the current leaders father. This months planned launch is also expected to see a Kwangmyongsong-3 (lode star) satellite fired on an Unha-3 (galaxy) missile, although North Korean state media reports have mentioned other models of rockets all the way up to the Unha-9. It also coincides with another key date: North Koreas celebration of Kim Jong Ils birthday on Feb. 16. Commercial satellite imagery of the Sohae launch station shows the arrival of tanker trucks at the launchpad, according to an analysis published on 38 North, a website dedicated to North Korea. This was consistent with North Koreas announced launch window, it said. There were also signs of activity around the horizontal processing building, which in the past has been used to receive the rocket stages and assemble them in a horizontal position, 38 North said. [China backs U.N. move to denounce North Korea over nuclear test] The leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan all urging North Korea not to go ahead with the launch and urging China to put pressure on its errant neighbor to stop. After President Obama spoke to Chinas president, Xi Jinping, on the phone Friday, the White House said that both leaders conveyed that they will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. They also agreed that North Koreas planned ballistic missile test would contravene multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and represent another provocative and destabilizing action, the White House said in a statement. U.N. resolutions prohibit North Korea from carrying out nuclear or ballistic missile tests, but Kim Jong Uns regime has shown little regard for the orders. Last month it tested its fourth nuclear device, although analysts dismissed North Koreas claims that the device was a hydrogen bomb. Analysts have said its recent claims to have launched a missile from a submarine were also exaggerated. But China has said that the situation with North Korea is complicated and sensitive. In a commentary carried by Xinhua, the state news agency, Zhu Dongyang wrote that since last months nuclear test, China had spared no efforts to promote dialogue with the countries concerned so as to lower the simmering tension. But he said Beijing strongly disapproved of the United States planned sanctions, and he urged Washington to do more to create a better atmosphere. A good gain takes long pain, Zhu wrote. The fundamental solution to the current standoff depends on the West tossing aside its animosity toward the isolated nation. Read more North Korea: Virginia student arrested for hostile acts while on tour The slow death of the nuclear deal with North Korea The U.S. and China have to resolve their impasse on North Korea Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world Firefighters and military personnel raced throughout the night Saturday in a search for survivors trapped in buildings collapsed by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck southern Taiwan early that morning. The quake hit hardest in the city of Tainan, ripping a 10-foot chasm in the ground, cutting off water to 400,000 people and halting high-speed rail service to the southern half of the island. By 10 p.m. local time, Tainan officials said at least 14 people had been killed; 12 were residents of a 17-story building that collapsed. Three children, including a 10-day-old girl, were among those killed in the collapse. At least 10 other buildings fell. Rescuers using backhoes and other heavy equipment helped 348 people out of danger 260 from the ruins of the Wei Guan residential complex in Tainans Yongkang district. Authorities said 443 people had been hospitalized in the city, many with minor injuries; 345 were later discharged. Wu Ching-Chung, a Tainan firefighter, said the situation at the Wei Guan complex was complicated. Because the building collapsed so completely, there was no space left for the people inside no real pockets, he said. Nevertheless, firefighters thought there could still be survivors. Rescue work was complicated by smoke billowing from a section of the Wei Guan complex, possibly from a fire at a ruptured natural gas line. Officials sent cranes and other construction equipment to prop up the weakened structure. The quake, which hit at 3:57 a.m. Saturday, was particularly destructive because it was shallow about six miles underground and the epicenter was on land, not offshore, said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. People felt the earthquake in mainland China, 100 miles to the west across the Taiwan Strait. The epicenter was in Taiwans central mountain range, about 27 miles southeast of Tainan and 24 miles northeast of Kaohsiung, the islands main port city. Kate Chou, who runs a hostel in Tainan, described the experience. The ground was not only moving sideways, but up and down as well. It felt like the Sept. 21 earthquake had come back, she said, referring to the 7.6-magnitude temblor that struck Taiwan in 1999, killing about 2,500 people. It was the deadliest natural disaster in the islands recent history. It was shorter than the Sept. 21 quake, Chou said, but for someone who had firsthand experience of the Sept. 21 quake, any trembling of the window or door could still seem ominous. Derek Hoerler, an elementary school teacher originally from California, said he woke up to violent shaking.It was not a rolling, gentle earthquake, but a violent, jerking motion. The walls were shaking, and you could hear the building and windows moving, said Hoerler, who lives in New Taipei City and was visiting relatives in Kaohsiung when the quake hit. It lasted at least a minute, with swaying afterward. I felt complete terror. Libya 30 dead in clashes with Sudanese fighters Two days of clashes in southeastern Libya between a local armed faction and Sudanese fighters have left more than 30 people dead, a mayor said Friday. The leader of the Libyan Subul Assalam faction, Abdurrahman Hashim, said the Sudanese fighters were rebels from Sudans Darfur region who had moved to the area around the town of Kufra after Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011. He said his group was retaliating for armed robberies and attempted attacks on Kufra. Kufra Mayor Miftah Bou Khalil said Subul Assalam fighters attacked an oasis northwest of Kufra on Friday, killing 10 Sudanese fighters. He said at least 20 Sudanese fighters were killed in an attack on a checkpoint 124 miles north of Kufra and in clashes to the south of town on Thursday. Hashim said at least one of his men had been killed. Reuters Germany Police: Suspect in plot registered as refugee German police say one of four Algerian men suspected of plotting an attack in Berlin had registered in Germany as a Syrian refugee and another had contacts in Belgium. Police, who suspect that the four had ties to the Islamic State, conducted raids Thursday in Berlin and western Germany. One of the Algerians and his wife were arrested at a refugee home because they were being sought by Algerian authorities for belonging to the extremist group. Berlin police said Friday that the man arrived in Germany at the end of last year and sought asylum under a Syrian identity. They said they had established that another of the Algerians, who wasnt arrested, had contacts with Belgium. Associated Press Italy Actor declared dead after hanging scene An Italian actor has been declared brain dead after being strangled on stage when a hanging scene went wrong in the central region of Tuscany, a judicial source said Friday. The Teatro Lux in Pisa said in a statement that it was closing for 10 days following the unthinkable tragedy. Raphael Schumacher, 27, had been performing a monologue that ended with a scene of simulated suicide by hanging, local media reported. The incident occurred during a private performance Jan. 30, the judicial source said. Schumacher clinically died Thursday at the University Hospital of Pisa, where he had been in a coma, a hospital spokeswoman said. Police are investigating four people with the theater company for possible manslaughter, the source said. The Corriere della Sera daily said the actor had chosen at the last moment to use a rope for the scene rather than a pistol. Reuters Pope to approve indigenous languages in Mass: Pope Francis will authorize the use of indigenous languages in Mass when he travels to Mexico next week. The Vatican said Francis will present the decree during a Mass dedicated to the indigenous people of Chiapas on Feb. 15. Church authorities had long bristled at the inclusion of indigenous elements in Masses. But the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said Francis would celebrate a Mass with readings and songs in three indigenous languages. Belgium to hire 1,000 more police officers: The Belgian government approved a plan to combat Islamic radicalism and the threat of extremist violence by hiring 1,000 new police officers over the next four years. The plan, presented by Interior Minister Jan Jambon, calls for adding 300 officers this year and more than 500 by 2017. Belgium has been one of the prime European recruiting grounds for fighters enlisted by the Islamic State. New sex-crime complaints in Cologne: Police in Cologne say they have received more than twice the usual number of criminal complaints alleging crimes of a sexual nature during the first day of this years street carnival. A spokeswoman for Cologne police attributes the rise to greater awareness after the public uproar over sexual assaults in the city on New Years Eve. Twenty-two allegations, ranging from insults to one case of rape, were filed with police Thursday and overnight Friday. From news services The Annual National Program of Ukraine-NATO cooperation will help prepare Ukraine for the membership in the Alliance, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Lytvynenko has said. "When people talk about joining NATO, very often they mean only the armed forces. But it is important to understand that it is the state, which joins the Alliance," Lytvynenko said during a joint meeting of the Verkhovna Rada committees on foreign affairs and the European integration with the participation of the permanent parliamentary delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. The Annual National Program is comprised of five sections: military, political, economic, information and security sections, the press service of the National Security Council reported on Friday. Lytvynenko stressed that the implementation of NATO standards "is a road map for the development of our structures, because NATO standards are the best standards in the military field, and we take them up for the implementation of internal reforms." In this context, the NSDC deputy secretary noted that the achievement of interoperability, making possible the conduct of joint operations of the armed forces of Ukrainian and the allies is the task of the National Security Strategy. Lytvynenko added that the state program of development of the Armed Forces and the state program of development of weaponry are being worked out on the basis of the military security strategy. The joint meeting of the parliamentary committees on foreign affairs and European integration was attended by Ukrainian MPs, representatives of the Defense Ministry, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the SBU, the NATO Liaison Office in Ukraine, and the foreign embassies in Ukraine. LONDON WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he will accept arrest by British police if a U.N. working group investigating his claims decides that the three years he has spent inside the Ecuadorean Embassy doesn't amount to illegal detention. Writing on WikiLeaks' Twitter account, Assange said if the U.N. panel finds he has lost his case against the United Kingdom and Sweden then he will turn himself in to police at noon on Friday. "However, should I prevail and the state parties be found to have acted unlawfully, I expect the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me," Assange added. British police said Thursday that nothing has changed regarding Assange's situation and that police will still seek to arrest him if he leaves the Ecuadorean Embassy. The U.N. panel based in Geneva doesn't have any binding authority to impose its findings on the British or Swedish judicial authorities, which have been involved in years of legal wrangling involving Assange. Its decision could, however, influence how aggressively Swedish prosecutors pursue Assange for questioning about allegations of sexual misconduct. Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for Swedish prosecutors, told The Associated Press on Thursday that "we have no comment now. We are waiting for the report." Assange voluntarily took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where two women have accused him of sexual assault. He has said his main legal concern is a possible indictment against him in the U.S. on charges related to WikiLeaks' release of government cables. He has expressed the fear that British and Swedish authorities plan to send him to the U.S. to face charges against him there. British police guarded the Ecuadorean Embassy for several years but removed the round-the-clock security cordon in October. Police said they would still seek to arrest Assange if he leaves the embassy because of a valid arrest warrant. Police said both overt and covert means would be used to keep track of Assange. Read More: Julian Assange Says He is to Leave London's Ecuadorian Embassy "Soon" Nothing can strike fear into the hearts of millions like news of a mysterious virus outbreak that has no treatment or vaccine and is especially threatening to unborn babies. The Zika virus is an infection that can cause the microcephaly birth defect in infants, resulting in the head and brain not fully developing. More: New drinking rules for women treat us like nothing more than baby makers It popped up on experts radars after thousands of babies in Brazil were born with microcephaly, and is causing such distress in South and Central America that health officials in both El Salvador and Colombia have advised women to not get pregnant until they can get this matter under control, while the CDC is warning American women to be wary if theyre traveling to certain parts of the world. It certainly seems like we should take the Zika virus very seriously but how much do we really know about it so far? Zika virus is a virus carried by the Aedes mosquito and is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infected mosquito, says Dr. Gerardo Bustillo, OB-GYN at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California. First discovered in Ugandan rhesus monkeys in 1947, it has been associated with outbreaks in different parts of the world. Zika virus is related to other mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue virus and West Nile virus. Zika first appeared in the Western Hemisphere in early 2014, in an island off the coast of Chile. Since then, it has been detected in several countries in Central and South America. Cases have been recently diagnosed in the United States, but these individuals were infected during a recent trip to Central or South America. More: Popular author tells moms to 'meditate their postpartum depression away Dr. Sherry Ross, OB-GYN and womens health expert at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, California, says experts are still learning the effects of this virus on children and non-pregnant adults. Only 1 in 5 infected people will show any kind of symptoms, and the majority will only have mild flu-like symptoms, she says, referring to the fever, conjunctivitis, rash and joint pain. However, I would still encourage prevention of being exposed to this virus to all age groups. Story continues Other common symptoms of the virus, which appear two to 12 days after a mosquito bite, include muscle aches, headache, pain behind the eyes and generalized weakness, Bustillo says. The good news is that severe disease is uncommon: The illness is usually mild, and symptoms resolve after two to seven days. These facts dont, of course, take away from a terrifying one: Zika can seriously affect pregnant women, regardless of what trimester theyre in, Ross says. If you become infected with this virus during pregnancy, it has been associated with birth defects including a small, shrunken brain and malformed head known as microcephaly, she says. This virus can be transmitted to the fetus as well. But what exactly is microcephaly, and what causes this rare condition? Microcephaly is a head circumference (measured in a fetus or infant) that is significantly below the mean for a given age (or gestational age in fetuses) and sex, Bustillo explains. "It can be the result of a multitude of causes, including genetic abnormalities, brain injury from exposure to toxins or infections during gestation (such as Zika infection) and birth complications. In at least 40 percent of cases, there is no known cause. The severity of neurologic impairment is generally related to the severity of microcephaly, and may be significant. The exact mechanism by which Zika causes microcephaly, and the magnitude of the resulting damage, is still being investigated. More: Mom shares scary photo to warn parents of common car seat mistake Pregnant women who have recently traveled to an area with Zika virus transmission and have symptoms of the infection (fever, rash, joint pains and/or pinkeye) should have blood testing for Zika virus infection, Bustillo says. "All pregnant women with a relevant travel history, [regardless] of the presence of symptoms, should have fetal evaluation, with serial ultrasounds looking for microcephaly, he says. If the ultrasound suggests the presence of microcephaly, amniocentesis may be performed for Zika virus testing. Zika has been found in breast milk, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the virus can be transmitted during labor, sexual contact, blood transfusion or lab exposure, but we dont yet know if Zika can be passed on through nursing. Because data on pregnant women infected with Zika is limited, Bustillo says its also unknown whether every pregnant woman who contracts Zika will pass the virus on to her fetus. Without a vaccine or treatment yet, Ross says the best prevention method is to avoid traveling to areas where Zika outbreaks are occurring. The CDC regularly updates its website, and there are currently 22 countries on the list, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Barbados. If you are traveling to these areas, its crucial that you wear protective clothing and mosquito repellent. More: If toddlers wrote self-help books, heres what theyd look like There is an incubation period for the Zika virus of three to 12 days. If you experience symptoms associated with the virus, visit your doctor, and treat the symptoms as you normally would. Infected persons should get plenty of rest, drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration and treat fever with common medications, Bustillo says. The best way to prevent infection is to avoid mosquito bites. Personal protective measures include applying mosquito repellent, wearing long sleeves and long pants and staying indoors. Window and door screens and mosquito nets help to minimize contact between mosquitoes and people. Since mosquito larvae breed in standing water, every effort should be made to avoid allowing standing water to collect outdoors, as in buckets, bottles and flowerpots. Lisa Fogarty (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) Contact group meting in Minsk may be cancelled due to absence of Russian representative A meeting of the trilateral contact group on the settlement of the situation in Donbas region in Minsk next week may be cancelled because there has been no confirmation regarding the participation of Russia's representative Boris Gryzlov, a source close to the negotiations told Interfax-Ukraine. "As we know, Gryzlov has not confirmed his participation. Thus, today we can say that it is Russia that drags out the Minsk process," the source said. Earlier, Darka Olifer, a spokesperson for Ukraine's representative in the trilateral contact group Leonid Kuchma, reported quoting Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Envoy Martin Sajdik that Gryzlov will not take part in the meeting. A ministerial meeting in the "Normandy Four" format (Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia) may take place at the end of next week. The Security Service of Ukraine has said that the weapons of the Berkut riot police officers which were used against activists of the Revolution of Dignity 2013-2014 were found in Holosiyivsky district in Kyiv. In August 12, 2015, it was reported that firearms were found in Holosiyivsky district of Kyiv, Head of the Main Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Hryhoriy Ostafiychuk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday. "Fragments of firearms were found in a body of water and the coastal zone," he said. He added that at that time they did not know what kind of weapons these were and where they came from. A number of examinations of the weapons were scheduled. "These examinations were very long... you can see the condition of the weapon, criminals filed off the numbers on these weapons," he explained. Ostafiychuk said the examinations allowed to identify twelve unique weapons, while the identification numbers on the rest of the guns were impossible to establish. He said they asked they handed these numbers to the Prosecutor General's Office to establish if these weapons had anything to do with the events on Maidan, and the PGO confirmed that these firearms were directly connected with those events. Ostafiychuk also said that they needed to hold more examinations to be absolutely certain that these are the guns which were used for killing the protesters. For his part, Head of the Special Investigations Directorate of the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Serhiy Horbatiuk has explained that they were talking about the weapons of officers of the Berkut riot police. "Fragments of 23 Kalashnikov guns were found. 24 guns had disappeared from the unit. So far, twelve firearms have been clearly identified. This are the weapons that we were looking for," he stressed. Additional examinations are needed to establish with dead certainly that the protesters on the Independence Square in Kyiv were killed by the weapons found in Holosiyivsky district in Kyiv. "At the moment, we have established that these weapons have relation to those events and consequently, taking into account the case materials, which are at the Prosecutor General's Office, a series of expert examination will be held with these weapons and I do not rule out that this will give us more details," Head of the Main Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Hryhoriy Ostafiychuk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday, when asked whether it is currently possible to say that these weapons were used for shooting Maidan activists. Head of the Special Investigations Directorate of the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Serhiy Horbatiuk for his part added that this will be a difficult examination. Leader of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Association Yulia Tymoshenko and Coordinator of the U.S. State Department for Sanctions Policy Ambassador Daniel Fried have discussed the policy of sanctions against Russia. The meeting took place as part of Tymoshenko's working visit to the United States, the Batkivschyna press service reported on Saturday. The Ukrainian politician stressed that the revision of the sanctions should only take place after the cessation of the military conflict in Donbas, the recovery of the Ukrainian authorities control over the borders and the occupied territories, and the return of Crimea to Ukraine. In turn, Fried pledged the U.S. support to Ukraine and its territorial integrity and independence. As reported, during her visit to the U.S. Tymoshenko held a number of meetings with U.S. politicians and experts. In particular, the Batkivschyna party leader met with U.S. Deputy State Secretary Victoria Nuland, Senate Committee on Armed Forces Chairman John McCain, U.S. Congress Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy. Journalism Ethics Commission complains about film on Ukraine's revolution aired by French Canal+ KYIV. Feb 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) The NGO Commission on Journalism Ethics will file a complaint to their French counterparts from the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe regarding the Canal+ channel actions, which broadcast the film 'Ukraine: The Masks of the Revolution' and its director Paul Moreiro. The complaint will concern the video film that was aired by the Canal+ entitled 'Ukraine: The Masks of the Revolution' and will contain a request to consider and evaluate the work of the journalist and the editor, who made and aired this film, as regards whether it complies with the norms of professional ethics. "The French press association has expressed its readiness to consider the complaint as a part of the cooperation of the self-regulatory agencies of the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe, where Commission on Journalistic Ethics is a member. The complaint will be based on the materials of Ukrainian and foreign journalists, who are outraged by the one-sided visuals, sound bites, comments that distort the meaning, and are in fact attempts by the author of the video film to create the 'body of evidence', supporting their own preconceptions," secretary of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics NGO Tetiana Kotiuzhynska was quoted as saying. The NGO said it had experience in lodging complaints against journalists from other countries and also of cases where these were successfully considered. Canal+, a channel of the paid TV broadcasting service of the Group Canal Plus, aired the mentioned video film on February 1, presenting it as a documentary, despite requests of the Ukrainian Embassy to France to take it off the air. Experts said the film contained anti-Ukrainian and propagandistic cliches, manipulations and false facts, and was overall a product of the Russian propaganda, in particular, it portrayed the Revolution of Dignity as staged by the U.S. and bringing neo-Nazi groups in control of the country. With no savings and no girlfriend, Tang Shijie said going back to his hometown in Hunan during Spring Festival put a lot of pressure on him. "But when I got home, my parents didn't ask me about income or relationship. They only cared about whether I was happy and healthy living alone in Guangzhou," said the 30-year-old salesman. "It is nice to have a place that you can always go back to and have people who always love you." Since 2013, he has been selling razors in Guangzhou, earning about 2,000 yuan ($300) a month. Another reason he wanted to go home is that almost all of his friends in Guangzhou were returning home, Tang said. "Buses are empty. Stores are closed. It would be too lonely staying in an empty city," he said. "Spending the holiday at home, on the other hand, gives me a feeling of happiness and comfort." Record-high travel is expected during the holiday rush ahead of the Year of the Monkey, which begins on Monday. Between Jan 24 and Feb 2, more than 740 million trips were made in China, an increase of 2.5 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Transport. On Saturday and Sunday, two days before Spring Festival begins, 82 million trips are expected each day. Beijing West Railway Station has received more than 200,000 passengers daily in the past week, which is twice the flow of regular days. Song Jianguo, the station's spokesperson, said the number set a record. The intense human traffic comes from the floating population of big cities. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 38 percent of more than 21.7 million Beijing residents had their household registration in other cities last year. In Guangzhou, 7.8 million residents don't have a local registration. Big data released by search engine Baidu revealed that during the Spring Festival migration, people are flowing from big cities to smaller ones, and from coastal areas to inland regions. Beijing and Shanghai have the largest number of people leaving during this period. The Ministry of Transport surveyed more than 100,000 travelers during this year's rush and found that 80 percent of trips were made to visit family and friends, and 10 percent were for tourism. Zhang Enyu, a 28-year-old computer programmer in Shanghai, said he could find a career only in big cities. His hometown, a village in Heilongjiang province, doesn't have any high-tech industry. The trip home takes him nearly two full days: 42 hours by train and three hours by bus. "The train was so crowded that three or four people would be lying on the floor by my seat," he said. "But I always go home during the festival. For me, the point of Spring Festival is getting together with family." Pang Wenjing, a 51-year-old migrant worker from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, said he had no money to buy a train ticket but was still eager to go home. "I am waiting to see if I can find people from my hometown and figure out a way to buy a ticket," he said while looking around at the train station in Guangzhou. "My wife and children are waiting for me." In early February, the couple Li Zuohe and Xu Xiuming, from Dazhou city, southwestern China's Sichuan province, prepared goods for Chinese Lunar New Year. They decided to accompany their 80-year-old mother to spend the Spring Festival holiday at their hometown along with their brothers and sisters. This is the first time that the two have returned home for the New Year since they came to Shenzhen to work in 1988. Back in the spring of 28 years ago, the young couple left home for Shenzhen to seek jobs. They opened a noodle shop eight years later. In 2013, their business declined, the wife Xu Mingxiu went back to working in a local electronics factory and the husband continued to run the shop while looking after their granddaughter. In 2015, Li Zuohes father passed away. "My father was attacked by a disease one morning and died that very afternoon, but no one returned home at that moment. When seeing my sad mother later, I felt very depressed and made the decision that I must spend the new year with my mother whatever happens", said Li. For many of Chinas lunar holidays, people northern China like to eat jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). Why are jiaozi so popular? Why do people always choose to eat jiaozi during the holidays? Writer and lecturer of studies of Chinese ancient civilization, Wang Fengchen, explains that the earliest jiaozi were eaten in the Three Kingdoms Period when there were wonton in the shape of a crescent moon. Moving on to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people ate jiaozi, back then called wonton, together with noodle soup. Only in the Tang Dynasty did people start to eat jiaozi without the soup. During the Song Dynasty, the name jiaozi began to evolve. Apart from their rich history, jiaozi have been popular for many other reasons. Wang thinks jiaozi are the favorite food for the northern Chinese. Theyre not only delicious, but also very simple to make. Different places have their different ways of making and eating jiaozi. For example, in some of the southern cities in China, jiaozi are made in the shape of ear of wheat, while people from the north tend to make jiaozi like crescent moons. People from some places like to eat jiaozi together with noodles, implying a wish for great fortune. Based on the auspicious shape of jiaozi, it usually has implications for wealth or a good harvest, which is why people like to eat jiaozi for luck. At the beginning of the hottest part of the summer, the beginning of autumn, the beginning of winter, the winter solstice, as well as the lunar New Year eve, people will eat jiaozi, rewarding past successes and hoping for good fortune in the following days. Chinese people have the tradition of being thrifty in managing a household, and as jiaozi are a delicious delicacy, people like to save them for important occasions. After being passed down for a thousand years, eating jiaozi has become an important part of Chinese culture. (File photo) It's not possible for any country alone to determine the agenda and rules of global trade for the 21st century, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in response to a US-led trade arrangement at a daily news conference on Friday. Lu also asked Washington not to politicize economic and trade issues. Lu was speaking after Washington pointed a finger at China as 12 countries signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) on Thursday. "TPP allows America and not countries like China to write the rules of the road in the 21st century", statement by US President Barack Obama said as the US, Japan and another ten countries signed the agreement in Auckland, New Zealand on Thursday. Lu said such comments were "interesting". "We never believe that China alone determines the formulation of the agenda and rules of global trade of the 21st century, neither do we believe it's possible for any other country alone to do so," Lu said. "We have always been advocating and maintaining the World Trade Organization's leading role in formulating global trade rules. We hope major trade countries and major economies can commit themselves to maintaining the WTO's status in this regard," he said. He urged relevant countries and governments "not to politicize economic and trade issues", and avoid leading people to the conclusion that the United States has been promoting the TPP "out of certain political consideration". Chinese Navy soldiers observe from China's amphibious landing ship Changbaishan during an escort mission in the Gulf of Aden, Aug 26, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua] Work to start soon on facility in the Horn of Africa to aid peacekeeping China's first overseas naval logistics support outpostexpected to be built in Djiboutiis needed to handle difficulties encountered by Chinese peacekeeping fleets, the Foreign Ministry told China Daily on Thursday. The ministry's remarks came after senior Djibouti officials and Chinese experts said some media reports about the outpost had been unnecessarily hostile. Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh was quoted by Reuters on Wednesday as saying that China was expected to start work on the facility soon. The Foreign Ministry said China had sent escort fleets to the Gulf of Aden and Somalia in recent years, and these fleets had experienced difficulties that affected the "rest and reorganization of servicemen and the supply of oil". "It (the outpost) is essential to implement highly efficient logistical support," the ministry said. In December, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed that China and Djibouti had reached agreement on the outpost. Military bases and support facilities for countries including the United States and France have long been based in Djibouti. Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf told Reuters, "We understand that some Western countries have worries about China's willingness to have military outposts outside of China." He said that Western countries should not be concerned. Djibouti is a pivotal country in the Horn of Africa standing between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It is a key transfer stop for international humanitarian missions, including those of the United Nations. Yin Zhuo, director of the People's Liberation Army Navy's Expert Consultation Committee, estimated that a Chinese fleet patrolling waters in the region has to feed about 800 staff members every day. A single mission, which lasts on average for 120 days, places a huge demand on food and water supplies. Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said Djibouti is one of the closest major ports to Somalia. Its peaceful environment makes it an ideal place to host China's support facility. Zhang said the outpost that China is expected to build there is designed to provide food, water and oil. It would be totally different from US military bases, which supply weaponry, Zhang added. Djibouti's strategic importance and logistical convenience were highlighted last year when Chinese citizens evacuated from Yemen transited there. While meeting with Djibouti's President Guelleh in Johannesburg in December, President Xi Jinping said China appreciated Djibouti's help in supporting Chinese peacekeeping fleets and in evacuating Chinese citizens from Yemen. Fu Yaobo Zhang Qingzhao BEIJING, Feb. 6 -- Two of China's most wanted fugitives, who fled abroad a year and half ago under suspicion of jointly embezzling public funds of 29.96 million yuan (4.56 million U.S. dollars), have been repatriated, the country's anti-corruption agency announced on Saturday. Fu Yaobo and Zhang Qingzhao, who both featured on an official list of China's 100 most wanted fugitives released in April, were repatriated from the Caribbean state of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said. Fu, 50, was an employee in charge of case hearing in the labor and social security detachment in Benxi City in northeast China's Liaoning Province, while Zhang, 44, was a cashier for the same detachment. Since September 2014, Fu and Zhang have been on the run in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. After a 51-day joint operation between Chinese police and their counterparts in Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the two were captured in a mountainous area in the suburbs of the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the CCDI said. Baby rescued from collapsed building after quake in Taiwan, 2 dead A powerful quake struck southern Taiwan before dawn on Saturday near the city of Tainan, toppling a 17-story apartment building where more than 100 people are feared trapped. A 10-day baby girl and a 40-year-old man lost signs of life, according to local media report. Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the wreckage and pluck more than 120 survivors to safety, with at least 26 taken to hospital, a fire brigade official said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: The depositors of Bank of Azerbaijan JSC have been paid compensations worth 16 million Azerbaijani manats, or over 66 percent of compensations, during the past seven days, said Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF). The insured deposits of the Bank of Azerbaijan amount to 24.2 million Azerbaijani manats. ADIF returns up to 30,000 manats for each insured deposit. The compensation payments are carried out by the branches of Muganbank and Rabitabank, designated as the agent banks. The payments started Jan. 29. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 5 By Aygun Badalova - Trend: While the possible OPEC-Russia collaboration on oil output cuts is anything but certain, the move will trigger other oil producers to react, an energy market analyst believes. "Although unlikely, if OPEC would collaborate with Russia on production cuts to stabilize prices, it would give other non-OPEC producers, such as the US, more incentive to produce," Anthony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging LLC told Trend. Reportedly, six members of OPEC have agreed to hold an urgent meeting to discuss the possible oil production cuts to push oil prices up. According to Eulogio del Pino, the oil minister of Venezuela, initiator of holding such a meeting, Iran, Oman and Iraq are among those who agreed on it. Russia, he said, also support the idea to hold urgent meeting. Alexander Novak, Russian energy minister, said Jan. 28 that the planned OPEC meeting in February with representatives of other oil-producing countries could discuss reduction of oil production by each producer country by five percent, but a general agreement is needed for that. Headrick believes, that even if there is an agreement, it is unlikely that Iran and Iraq will comply with a coordinated production cut. Currently Iraq is the only country that doesn't fall under OPEC production quota. The country produced 4.3 million barrels of oil per day by end 2015, according to OPEC. Free of sanctions, Iran plans to increase its oil export by 500,000 barrels per day, and then raise the figure by another 500,000 to two million barrels per day within a six month period. "Iran is determined to return lost production, which will help keep global oil values pressured," Headrick said. Speaking about the current oil prices, Headrick said that volatility near $30 can be expected to continue, in part on short covering rallies. "However, the fundamental outlook remains weak due to a supply overhang that should continue to keep crude oil values under pressure in the medium term," he said. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 6 By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend: Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov instructed the relevant authorities of the country to conduct an inventory of all residential buildings in Ashgabat, said the Turkmen government Feb. 6. The president discussed the issue at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. "Due to a significant increase in the welfare of the country's citizens in recent years, some of them buy several apartments and lease them. However, there are still no specific provisions on this point," Berdimuhamedov said. The president made serious remarks about the leadership of the interior ministry and local authorities for an irresponsible attitude to the issue, and demanded to streamline the system of apartment leasing registration. He also said those who rent apartments should get permits for temporary residence in them. "Those who lease apartments, and those who live in them, must comply with the current legislation, and cooperate with the State Tax Service in line with statutory obligations," said Berdimuhamedov. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6 By Umid Niayesh - Trend: The oil deal between French oil and gas company Total and Iran will come into force on Feb. 16, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said. Total will purchase 160,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude oil under the signed contract, Zanganeh said, Iran's Mehr news agency reported Feb. 6. Before sanctions were imposed in 2012 on Iran, EU was importing about 800,000 barrels of Iranian oil and condensate. On Jan. 16, the US and the EU announced that they lifted their nuclear-related sanctions against Iran as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal) came into force. The removal of the sanctions allows Iranian oil and gas enter the global markets. Zanganeh further said that Iran and Total have reached a preliminary agreement on participation of the company in Iranian oil and gas projects. The French company has expressed readiness to participate in the development of Iran's South Azadegan oil field, as well as the "Iran LNG" project, Zanganeh said, adding Iran will provide the needed information for the company to study the projects and submit its proposals. The Iranian minister further said that in the coming days Tehran will also sign a contract with Italian Eni to sell its crude oil. The company's representatives will visit Tehran in the near future to sign the contract, Zanganeh said, adding Eni has requested to purchase 100,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude oil. He further said that Italy's Saras SpA refinery wants to buy 60,000-70,000 barrels per day of crude from Iran as well. The refinery was one of Iran's crude costumers before toughening of the international sanctions against Iran in 2012. Zanganeh underlined that Iran's crude oil sales to Europe will surpass 300,000 barrels per day once the aforementioned contracts come into force. Last month, Greece's biggest oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum also agreed to buy crude oil from Iran. Hellenic Petroleum was a major buyer of Iranian crude, which accounted for about 20 percent of the southeast European country's annual crude oil imports before the sanctions were imposed in 2011. Tehran, Iran, February 6 By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend: Iran World Trade Center (IWTC) is going to open export centers in 44 countries, the organization's president Mohammad Reza Sabzalipur said. The target markets have been under study in the past year and now the executive measures for launching the centers are about to begin, he told Trend February 6. According to Sabzalipur, IWTC has signed MoUs with World Trade Centers in 19 countries, which concern the launch of trade centers in the countries of respective signatories. Accordingly, Iran is going to launch trade centers in Russia, Canada, France, Turkey, Qatar, Algeria, Brazil, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Malaysia, Iraq, and Afghanistan for now, after which they will also launch similar centers in Iran, he further noted. Iran's global trade was hampered for over one decade under strict international sanctions. On July 16, Iran and the group 5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) announced the implementation of a comprehensive deal that would lift the sanctions. Following the announcement, Iranian banks and companies are getting free of the sanctions and finding new hopes of doing international trade. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6 By Fatih Karimov- Trend: Iran wants to receive its oil money in euro rather than US dollar, Safar Ali Keramati, deputy head of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for crude oil marketing, said. Recovering oil debts as well as new crude sales money in euro is Tehran's priority, Keramati said, the oil ministry's SHANA news agency reported Feb. 6. The European consumers will not face any problem for euro payments, he added. Earlier Reuters quoted a source in NIOC that Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief. Iran was allowed to recover some of the funds frozen under US-led sanctions in currencies other than dollars, such as the Omani rial and UAE dhiram. The US officials estimate about $100 billion of Iranian assets were frozen abroad, around half of which Tehran could access as a result of sanctions relief. It is not clear how much of those funds are oil dues that Iran would want back in euros. Last month, NIOC's director general for international affairs told Reuters that Iran "would prefer to receive (oil money owed) in some foreign currency, which for the time being is going to be euro." Indian government sources confirmed Iran is looking to be paid in euros. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6 By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has no plan on deploying massive military forces in Syria, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced, Feb. 6. "Our policy is not dispatching massive forces to Syria, though there is an enthusiasm and very much willingness among IRGC members to take part in battles in Syria," Fars news agency quoted Jafari as saying during the funeral of top IRGC general Mohsen Gajarian, who was killed in Syria on Feb. 4. Jafari also said "defending Syria means defending the Islamic resistance." Iran calls the enmity with Israel the Islamic resistance. Jafari's statement came a day after Saudi Arabia announced that it is ready to deploy ground troops to Syria to fight the "Islamic State" terrorist group (IS, aka ISIL or ISIS), if US-led coalition leaders agree to the offer. Ashton Carter, the US defense secretary, welcomed the Saudi offer to participate in the ground operations in Syria. "That kind of news is very welcome," he told reporters Feb. 4. Jafari further said the major threats are far away from Iranian borders, because the Islamic resistance has spread. "Palestine and Lebanon's wars [with Israel] have indicated that the advanced armies are deficient against the Islamic resistance," he said. He went on to claim that after the failures in war with the Islamic resistance, "the enemies created Salafi groups like the IS, getting help from Saudi Arabia." Major General Jafari also quoted Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as saying that if Iran doesn't fight the enemies far away from its borders, the threats would come close to its own territory and it would have to fight against the enemies inside the country. Tehran, Iran, February 6 By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend: The countries which have claimed to be considering on-ground military intervention in Syria should be warned that the "resistance movement" will not stand idle and will give them a harsh response, member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Saleh Jokar said. Tehran has always expressed support for the Syrian government since it views President Bashar Assad as its main strategic ally in the region and as part of an "axis of resistance" against Israel. Even if they do employ forces, which will most likely be a US-backed proxy war, they will face great problems because they are already having many harsh situations to deal with, the MP told Trend February 6. Bahrain has announced it is ready to deploy ground forces to Syria under the Saudi leadership as ant-Assad militants are losing ground in the face of the Syrian army advances. The announcement by Bahraini Ambassador to Britain Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa on Friday came after Saudi Arabia said it was ready to send troops to Syria. The Bahraini diplomat said the Saudi initiative was meant to combat both the IS terrorist group (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei, himself formerly commander of the IRGC, said Friday in an Instagram post that a regional war is likely to flare up if Saudi forces are dispatched to Syria. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are members of the US coalition that has been conducting air raids inside Syria since September 2014. Jokar also raised the possibility that rather than to aim real action, the announcement is meant to act as a morale-booster to the "terrorist" fighters who have recently lost much ground to Assad forces. Iran itself has officially announced it is backing the Syrian Army with military consultation against terrorists which have been waging war in the Arab country for over five years. Jokar noted that military intervention in another country is against international regulations, not to mention that tension will lay negative impacts on all regional countries. Tehran, Iran, February 6 By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend: Iran's elections monitoring team has qualified 1,500 more hopefuls of the upcoming parliamentary elections. The 1,500 comprised 15 percent of the total hopefuls who had pled against their first-round disqualification. They had been disqualified by the Guardian Council which conducted a preliminary qualification of all the hopefuls. Siamak Rahpeykar, spokesman of the elections monitoring team, said with the new results, 55 percent of all who had signed up for candidacy are now qualified, Tasnim news agency reported February 6. He added that now 6,300 candidates are going to run for the parliament, a record in the history of elections in the Islamic Republic. "Now 20 people are running for every seat in the Parliament," Rahpeykar said. He also commented on the Assembly of Experts qualifications and said the final list of qualified hopefuls for the assembly will be published in four days. The Parliament and Assembly of Experts elections are going to be held simultaneously on February 26. The Assembly of Experts is responsible for monitoring the qualification of the Islamic Republic's leader as well as appointing a new one after a previous has died or ceases to qualify. Tehran, Iran, February 6 By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend: Iran is going to intensify watch on foreign embassies in the time leading up to the upcoming elections, Alaeiddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission tacitly said. "I do not think any country would want to try something wrong in elections time," he said, adding, "As for intelligence issues we are not worried, because related officials will act their duties within established frameworks," the YJC news agency reported February 6. A week earlier, Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar, head of the Parliament's Article 90 Commission had called for closer watch on embassies in the time leading to the February 26 elections of the Parliament and Assembly of Experts. The Article 90 Commission is a body in the Parliament that deals with petitions filed against the Islamic Republic's three legislative, executive, and judiciary branches. Pourmokhtar had told of reports indicating that some embassies in Iran are holding special meetings related to the upcoming elections. "Certainly there are political and security concerns as well as intensions of intervention behind such moves," he had said. Iran's security organizations grew increasingly sensitive toward foreign activities in the country in election times following the disturbances that ensued 2009 presidential elections. The Islamic Republic at that time blamed a major part of the events on foreign countries. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini confirmed Saturday that she was preparing a historic visit to Iran in the near future, Sputnik reported. "I can also confirm that I debriefed the ministers on the plans for my visit [to Iran], it's going to be an important visit for sure, that we are preparing already with the Iranians," Mogherini said at a press conference in Amsterdam after a two-day informal meeting of EU foreign ministers. The high-level politician could not confirm the specific dates of the upcoming visit, as well as members of the European Commission included in the delegation. According to Mogherini, she will also receive Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Brussels on February 15. The Kuwaiti Co-Chairman of Iran-Kuwait Friendship Association Abdurahman Al-Ewazi said relations between the two countries are impregnable considering their deep cultural and human relations, IRNA reported. In a meeting with Iran's Cultural Attache to Kuwait Reza Shahrivar, he said that bilateral ties between Tehran and Kuwait are based on mutual respect and trust. 'Culture is the best bridge to strengthen the neighboring countries' bonds which is manifested in Persian words in the local dialects of Kuwaiti people,' said al Ewazi. He also said that recent regional tensions are temporary and hoped that they will be settled by prudence. The Serbian National Assembly voted at an extraordinary session on Friday for the dismissal of Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic for his offensive remarks. A total of 195 lawmakers out of 250 supported the minister's dismissal after a seven-hour discussion. In early December, Gasic told a reporter from B92 TV that he loves female journalists who "kneel easily." In late January, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic sent a letter to the parliament with a request to dismiss Gasic. Vucic thanked the minister for good results in increasing the country's combat readiness, but added that his public remarks were unacceptable. After the dismissal, the prime minister has 15 days to propose a new candidate for the post of defense minister. Turkey will maintain goodwill and a constructive approach to Russia despite Moscow ignoring its efforts to de-escalate tensions, Turkey's presidential spokesperson said on Friday, Anadolu Agency reported. Ibrahim Kalin said Russia had ignored Turkey's efforts to solve the issues and had left phone calls from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unanswered. Kalin said that Erdogan asked for a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin following the latest violation of Turkish airspace by a Russian warplane on Jan. 29. "But the Russian side again failed to reveal an affirmative attitude," Kalin said in a statement Friday. He said it was "telling" that Russia -- which had previously admonished Turkey for calling NATO allies before Moscow -- was now avoiding talking to Erdogan. Diplomatic relations between Ankara and Moscow soured after a Russian SU-24 violating Turkish airspace was intercepted and shot down on Nov. 24 by Turkish F-16 fighters. Kalin said it was Russian airstrikes that led to the suspension of the Geneva peace talks. "Hundreds of innocent Syrians, women and children, lost their lives in these attacks that have been indiscriminately going on for months," Kalin added. Stressing that the aim of the Russian attacks was not to halt the terrorist Daesh group, Kalin said 90 percent of the attacks had targeted civilians and moderate opposition fighters. "Russia's aim is not to fight Daesh, but to sustain the [Bashar] al-Assad regime that lost its legitimacy and committed war crimes," the spokesperson added. Since Sept. 30 last year, Russia -- a close ally of the Assad regime -- has targeted a number of civilian areas in Syria, according to U.S. officials. Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkey changed the procedure of visa issuance for Iraqi citizens, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Feb. 6. This decision was taken in order to fight illegal migration, said the ministry. Starting from Feb. 8, Iraqi citizens will not be able to obtain visas at checkpoints in Turkey, and electronic visas will be needed to enter the country. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu China is the world's second largest pharmaceutical market. (Photo : Getty Images) The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's anti-monopoly regulator, recently fined five local drug firms a total of nearly 4 million yuan for fixing the price of allopurinol, a treatment for gout and kidney disease, Reuters reported. Advertisement According to theNDRC, the drug firms colluded to increase the price of the allopurinol tablets from April 2014 to Sept. 2015. "[The firms] created monopolies by agreeing to raise sales prices and artificially carve up the market," the NDRC said in its official statement. Allopurinol is on China's essential drug list. The NDRC emphasized that the involved firms have held several meetings where their officials negotiated to have a fixed price for the said tablet, hence violating the anti-monopoly law. Among those who were fined were Chongqing Datong, Chongqing Qingyang, Shangqiu Huajie Pharmaceutical, The Place Pharmaceutical, and Shanghai SINE Pharmaceutical Co. Shanghai SINE is a subsidiary of Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co. According to Shanghai Pharma, it respects the decision of the commission. However, it stressed that the increase in price was prompted by the steep raw material costs, which translated to a supply squeeze. Shanghai Pharma insisted that the price rises did not result from any collusion or illegal coordination among the players in the local health market. Though relatively small, the fine levied on the local firms shows that the country's anti-trust authorities are now turning their attention to medicines. The report noted that this could be "a potential headache for domestic and international firms" planning to make a foray into China's medical market. Currently, China is the world's second largest pharmaceutical market. "This eliminated or restricted market competition, raising the cost of allopurinol tablets for the end user, and so harmed the interests of consumers," the NDRC statement further pointed out. Data shows that China has around 1.4 billion potential patients, luring drug firms to aim for growth fueled by the country's fast-aging population and rising income. Taking this into account, the authorities have been adamant in clamping down on quality and cutting prices down. China Asks the Vatican to Be Flexible and Pragmatic Regarding Bishop Selection Pope Francis smiles as he leads his Wednesday general audience in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Jan. 28, 2015. (Photo : Facebook) Following Pope Francis's greeting to the Chinese people for the Lunar New Year, the Chinese government on Wednesday expressed its wish for the Vatican to be more flexible and pragmatic regarding their bilateral ties, as reported by the Global Times. Advertisement "China is sincere about improving relations with the Vatican and has made consistent efforts. . . . We also hope the Vatican takes a flexible and pragmatic attitude and create conditions to improve bilateral relations," said Lu Kang, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, at a Wednesday press briefing. Pope Francis expressed his wishes and greetings to President Xi Jinping and all Chinese people in anticipation of the Chinese New Year (Feb. 8) during a Tuesday interview with Hong Kong-based Asia Times. According to a report by The Huffington Post, the interview was recorded in the Vatican last week, while a Chinese delegation was on a visit to the Holy See. The report also said that China would accept the pontiff's choice of new bishops if they were from a list approved by the Chinese government, as part of a deal "reached between the two sides," citing an article by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The public has been speculating about a China-Vatican deal regarding bishop consecration ever since Aug. 2015, when Coadjutor Bishop Zhang Yinlin was consecrated at a Catholic church in Anyang, Henen Province. Zhang was reportedly the first bishop to be recognized by both the Holy See and the Chinese government since 2012, before which the government consecrated some bishops without the Vatican's approval, effectively damaging ties. "It could become a 'Chinese model' for both sides to explore ways to appoint bishops in China," said Yan Keijia, director of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Religious Studies. The "Chinese model" will likely be different from the "Vietnamese model," wherein bishops nominated by both Vatican and Vietnam are selected and approved by the Pope. China would probably opt for more say in a bilateral cooperation with the Vatican when it comes to bishop ordination, according to Liu Guopeng, an associate research fellow at the Institute of World Religion Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. (Photo : Reuters) Chinese netizens are up in arms over the Nobel Peace Prize nomination of U.S. businessman and Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump because of his statements on Muslims, immigrants and China, as reported by the Global Times. Advertisement The nomination has revived the negative outlook that Chinese people have toward the prize and its authority. According to a copy of the letter of nomination that was received by Nobel watcher Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Trump deserves the prize for "his vigorous peace through strength ideology used as a deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China," said a Monday report by the AFP. Trump has attracted a lot of international condemnation in recent months for controversial proposals like a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Harpviken said an anonymous U.S. nominator had proposed Trump as a candidate of the prize. However, he did not list Trump among those who were in the running to win, according to a report by Reuters. According to a report by the AFP, thousands of people are allowed to nominate for the prize, including members of parliament, government ministers, former laureates and selected university professors. Chinese netizens have expressed their doubts regarding the significance of the prize due to Trump's nomination. "The Nobel Peace Prize is increasingly like the Golden Raspberry Awards," wrote a netizen named cointek on Sina Weibo on Thursday. The Golden Raspberry Award or Razzies is given to the worst film and cinematic performances in the U.S., countering the Oscars. "The peace prize is the least significant among all the Nobel prizes," said a netizen that goes by the username MessiBeans. This marks the latest round of criticism from the Chinese against the Nobel Peace Prize. Previously, Chinese citizens opposed the awarding of the prize to Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for trying to overthrow the government. According to a 2010 poll, six out of 10 Chinese people believed the Nobel Committee should withdraw the prize and apologize for the decision. In 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This was met with opposition from China, where the Tibetan spiritual leader is seen as a separatist. A North Korean national flag in North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong is seen from Daeseong-dong, South Korea, on Feb. 4, 2016. (Photo : Getty Images) Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said the country will "by no means allow war on the Korean peninsula" and emphasized Beijings concern over Pyongyangs announced plan to launch a satellite later this month, only weeks after it tested a hydrogen bomb in defiance of international sanctions. Advertisement "The DPRK has the right to make peaceful use of space, but this right is subject to restrictions of the Security Council resolutions," Lu Kang, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said in a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, in response to reports that North Korea is planning to launch an "earth observation satellite" sometime between Feb. 8 and 25. Lu advised North Korea to exercise restraint but warned other countries against taking any action to escalate tensions in the region. "We will by no means allow any country to pursue its selfish gains while the international community is working for the target of denuclearization," Lu said. North Korea's satellite launch plans, revealed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Tuesday, came on the same day as Chinese special envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs, Wu Dawei, flew to Pyongyang for the first time following the North's detonation of a hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6. Wu remains in Pyongyang, "exchanging views with the DPRK on the current situation of the Korean Peninsula," Lu said without further elaboration. The foreign ministry spokesman also responded strongly after a journalist asked for a comment on U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel's remarks that North Korea's latest move is a "slap in the face" to those arguing for more sanctions. "As the chair of the Six-Party Talks, the Chinese side has made strenuous efforts to make genuine progress in denuclearization and encourage all parties concerned to reach aforementioned consensus," Lu said. "During the stalemate in the Six-Party Talks, in response to relevant countries' constant outcry for pressure and sanctions, the DPRK started nuclear testing and conducted them over and over again. In this sense, the DPRK did slap the relevant country across the face. As to whose face the DPRK slapped, the country itself knows well," he added. The Six-Party Talks have been suspensed following North Korea's withdrawal in April 2009 in protest against the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of North Korea's satellite launch 10 days earlier. Any satellite launch by North Korea would be viewed as "another destabilizing provocation" and "argues even more strongly for tougher U.N. sanctions," Russel told the press on Tuesday. Japan placed its military on alert on Wednesday, while South Korea warned the North will pay a "severe price" if it goes ahead with the satellite launch that Seoul considers a ballistic missile test. If the North does launch a satellite, Lu said that the corresponding sanctions will be catastrophic and depress the country's economy even further. Analysts, however, dismissed fears that the launch could lead to direct conflict. The present tensions are unlikely to evolve into direct confrontations by the U.S. or Japan other than making tough statements, given that South Korea will be caught in the aftermath, Gao Fei, a professor of Russian studies at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times. China has been an active donor of humanitarian aid to the refugees in Syria. (Photo : Getty Images) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced on Thursday that the country will be donating 10,000 tonnes of food to Syrian refugees, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Wang made the remarks during the Supporting Syria and the Region conference held in London. Advertisement For the Chinese envoy, such conference is instrumental in making new efforts "to realize peace and stability in Syria and help ease the humanitarian situation," the article noted. Wang further emphasized that in order to solve Syria's humanitarian problems, their root causes must first be eliminated. He cited that as of the moment, the most urgent task is to secure the refugees' basic living conditions. The foreign minister also urged different parties in Syria to put into action relevant U.N. resolutions apart from providing humanitarian access to those in need. Wang also suggested that the U.N. should establish a comprehensive roadmap and tap all the necessary resources worldwide to cope with the situation. He further remarked that the global community must intensify its efforts to seek a political solution to the Syrian crisis. According to Wang, China has been giving humanitarian aid to Syria via different channels. During the G20 summit in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to donate an additional $100 million worth of humanitarian assistance to help improve the situation and condition of the refugees. During his trip to the Middle East earlier in January, Xi also announced that the Chinese government will donate 230 million yuan more to the people of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Yemen this 2016. In the said London conference, Wang stated that China will be relentless in lending its hand to the Syrian people and to the refugees. He promised that the country will "play a constructive role in facilitating a political solution to the Syrian crisis." Supporting Syria and the Region was co-hosted by Britain, Germany, Kuwait, Norway and the United Nations. The conference aims to raise a new funding that will provide financial resources to the immediate and long-term needs of those affected by the crisis. Chinese President Xi Jinping traditionally visits Chinese nationals in urban and rural areas days ahead of the Spring Festival. (Photo : Getty Images) During his three-day tour to revolutionary bases, President Xi Jinping received a calligraphy work from a local girl with the Chinese character "fu," which means blessings, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Advertisement Xi accepted the gift while visiting a community activity room in Nanchang City's Donghu District. The city, which is the capital of Jiangxi Province, is included in the president's itinerary. He also visited the cities of Ji'an and Jinggangshan. The tour was scheduled prior to the Spring Festival of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It has become a tradition for Chinese leaders to visit nationals in urban and rural areas days before the said revelry. Back in 2013, Xi toured Beijing and Gansu Province. Last year the Chinese leader visited the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and northwest China's Shaanxi Province During the three-day tour, the president urged local officials to support the newly identified development concepts by upholding and implementing them. These concepts include innovation, coordination, green development, liberalization, the delivery of structural reform on the supply side, and industrial upgrades. The Chinese president also urged authorities to prioritize environmental protection, noting that in the governments' efforts to promote economic growth, environmental conservation must not be compromised. While on his trip, Xi paid a visit to businesses, schools, villages and community groups. He joined local activities and indulged in China's culture with the local citizens. In one instance, he helped make the dough for ciba, a Chinese rice delicacy and a local Spring Festival favorite. Xi also toured in revolutionary base museums and memorials for revolutionary martyrs, laying baskets of flowers commemorating the gallantry of the Chinese heroes. He further met with the province's senior military officers. Before ending his tour, President Xi extended his holiday greetings to all Chinese citizens. The Chinese Lunar New Year is set to take place on Feb. 8. According to a China Daily article, more than 2,000 events will be simultaneously held across 140 nations around the world to celebrate the occasion. Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama pose for photographers on the North Portico ahead of a state dinner at the White House, Sept. 25, 2015. (Photo : Getty Images) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held a telephone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama at the latters invitation, during which the two leaders exchanged Lunar New Year greetings, according to China Daily. Advertisement As a result of joint efforts by both sides, major achievements have been made in Sino-U.S. relations in 2015, Xi said. Xi also expressed China's willingness to join hands with the U.S. in deepening practical cooperation in all fields and strengthening communication and coordination on international, regional and global issues for a sustainable, healthy and steady development of bilateral ties. For his part, Obama said he was very glad to talk with Xi, and expressed hope that bilateral ties will lead to new progress and that the two sides will continue working together in promoting peace, security and prosperity in both countries as well as the international community. With grave concerns over the recent nuclear test in North Korea and Pyongyang's announcement of the plan for a new satellite launch, Obama said that the U.S. hopes the international community will strengthen coordination and compel the U.N. Security Council to adopt measures to address the situation effectively. The U.S. side is willing to cooperate with the Chinese side on the issue, he added. Xi stressed that the current situation on the Korean peninsula is a complicated and sensitive one. China is committed to the goal of denuclearization of the Peninsula, Xi said, insisting that the solution is through dialogue and consultation. The Chinese president also reaffirmed the government's commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the region. Xi said the Chinese side supports safeguarding the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and the international nonproliferation system, and is willing to maintain communication and coordination will all the parties involved, including the United States. Workers install a high-voltage pylon in Anhui Province as China plans to build a "global energy Internet" through a massive electricity grid sharing renewables from all over the world. (Photo : REUTERS) State Grid Corp., one of the world's biggest utility companies, is striving to build a global energy network through a new unit, which is expected to attract $50 trillion worth of investment by 2050, sources said on Tuesday, Feb. 2. A report published by china.org.cn said that State Grid, also the largest electric power transmission and distribution company in China, had established a company last year to develop what its President Liu Zhenya called a "global energy Internet" through a massive electricity grid sharing renewables from all over the world. Advertisement Liu was quoted as saying at a recent forum on energy investment and funding in Hong Kong that the Beijing-based company will have offices in New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg. "To create a global energy Internet is to build an energy-related infrastructure covering different countries, including power generation facilities, transmission networks and energy transportation assets," Liu said. According to the report, the state company is studying the feasibility of a pilot program on power transmission not only among Asian countries but also between Asia and Europe as well as between Africa and Europe. A global energy Internet is a huge capital-intensive project, and Li Ronghua, its deputy chief engineer, said that the project is expected to attract $50 trillion of investment by 2050. "Investment opportunities will come from major projects such as power development, power grid construction, and research and innovation," Li said. Experts said that State Grid, with its plan to build a vast ultra-high voltage transmission network in the world's largest energy-consuming market, could leverage its domestic experience to export its technology and equipment abroad. Liu said that ultra-high voltage transmission lines would enable the effective use of clean energy and reduce emission from fossil fuels. He said that through these connections clean energy can be distributed, while smart grids, connecting billions of households to the Internet, are the key in the process. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., a Chinese tech giant, has expressed support for the global Internet of energy, which will provide the technology for State Grid's smart grid. "State Grid has utility assets in many countries but its ultimate goal is to export both grid transmission technology and equipment," Lu Jinyong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said, adding that the Chinese company can also provide more stable and price-competitive technologies than other countries. The report said that the global expansion of State Grid started in 2010, after it acquired a major stake in Brazil's electricity grid. Tianjin Explosion (Photo : YouTube) Results of the investigation report on the Aug. 12 blast at a warehouse in Tianjin Province, released on Friday, blamed more than 120 people as responsible for the explosion that killed 165 people. With the report out, authorities arrested 49 people and continue with criminal investigation of 24 employees of companies related to Tianjin International Ruihai Logistics Co. (TIRL), owner of the warehouse. There are 13 also from TIRL included in the probe, reported China Daily. Advertisement Outside TIRL, the investigation also includes 25 port, custom, work safety and transportation sector officials. The investigation tea of the State Council recommended disciplinary sanctions on 74 people, five of whom are ministerial level for causing the man-made disaster, reported CCTV America. The Tianjin Binhai New Area explosion injured 798 people, while eight people remain missing. The estimate of economic losses is over 6.8 billion yuan ($1.03 billion). According to the team, hazardous materials improperly or illegally stored in the warehouse caused the auto-ignition of nitro-cotton when the wetting agent, because of the summer heat, vaporized and caused fire which spread and lit other chemicals, including 800 tons of ammonium nitrate. For Du Lanping, head of the teams technical group, it was illegal of TIRL to store a large amount of chemicals on its warehouse because of the high risks involved. Li Wanchun, who heads the management group of the probe team, agreed with Dus assessment. He also blamed the Tianjin Transportation Commission which has oversight powers over TIRL for not conducting safety checks on top of lapses in inspections. We found some people in the citys Planning Bureau and Land Department allegedly helped the company illegally get the planning permits and made fake certificates in safety and environmental assessments, Li said as he accused of government officials of accepting bribes and abusing their authority. Taiwan February 2016 Earthquake (Photo : Reuters) The death toll of the 6.4 magnitude tremor that shook Taiwan at 4 a.m. on Saturday rose to seven people. Most of the victims were residents of the collapsed 17-storey Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building in Yongkang District of Tainan. However, it was just one of 13 buildings damaged by the temblor, reported China Daily. Eight buildings totally collapsed and five edifices, also in Tainan City, partially collapsed. Advertisement According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter of the earthquake was 43 kilometers southeast of Tainan. The quake had a depth of 23 kilometers. Among the seven victims is a 10-year-old girl, one of the five dead people who were residents of the ill-fated Wei-guan, prompting questions to arise over the buildings construction. A total of 318 were hospitalized because of injuries, while 246 residents of Wei-gan Golden Dragon were evacuated. But 10 people from over 90 households in the residential building are still missing. To save the residents, rescuers used hydraulic ladders and a crane to search the wreckage. The rescue operations plucked more than 120 residents of Wei-gan to safety. While five other buildings tilted at alarming angles, the focus of rescue efforts for now is on the Yongkang apartment block. Not all rescue work was done by firefighters. Residents also extended help if they could, such as a plumber who used his tools to remove window bars to rescue a woman who was crying for help. However, he could no longer help the womans husband, who was also trapped inside the building, because of his fear of a gas explosion as the smell of leaking gas hung in the air. The plumber added that his ladder was not long enough to reach other residents crying for help. 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. Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Friday said he would no longer deliver regular weekly sermons about political affairs, which for years have been a source of guidance for his followers. Sistani's aide Ahmed al-Safi, who delivered the message, did not give a reason for suspending the sermons, which have lately focused on the government's battle against ISIS militants and anti-corruption efforts. "It has been decided not to continue this on a weekly basis at the present time, but only as demanded by events", Safi said in a televised speech from the southern shrine city of Kerbala before reciting a prayer. Sistani, a reclusive octogenarian, enjoys almost mythical status among millions of Shia followers and wields authority that few Iraqi politicians would openly challenge. His political sermons have ranged over issues such as security, elections and the economy. Search Keywords: Short link: The army also found and destroyed an underground tunnel north of the Rafah border crossing, used in smuggling Egypts army killed ten "terrorists" and injured 13 others in fresh raids on militant hideouts in the troubled North Sinai, the army spokesman said on his Facebook page Friday. Ground forces carried out raids in Al-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, aided by an army helicopter cover. Forces also arrested six on suspicion of carrying out attacks against security forces. The army was able to find and destroy an underground tunnel north of the Rafah border crossing replete with cement walls, electricity and light. It was used in smuggling, the statement added. Egypt has been long working to quell a decade-long Islamist insurgency that spiked in the past three years. Terrorist attacks in Egypt have killed hundreds of security forces in recent years. Authorities have reported that hundreds of militants have been killed in army campaigns in the North Sinai governorate. Search Keywords: Short link: The body of a 28-year-old Italian student who had disappeared in Cairo last week and was found dead was repatriated on Saturday to Italy. Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student, had gone missing on January 25 while on his way to meet a friend before his body was found on Wednesday. Friends, family and diplomats held a memorial ceremony Friday at a Cairo church for Regeni, nine days after he disappeared from the streets of the Egyptian capital. The circumstances of the killing of Regeni remain murky. He disappeared on 25 January, the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were on high alert and out on the streets in force to prevent any demonstrations by activists to commemorate the occasion. Regeni was found this week with multiple stab wounds, cigarette burns and other signs of torture on a roadside in the outskirts of Cairo, Egyptian officials said. Regeni's parents, who came to Egypt to search for him, and his friends attended the memorial held Friday inside an Italian church, which was heavily guarded by security forces, with plainclothes intelligence officers and police patrolling the area. The priest presiding over the service emphasised that Regeni had been "seeking truth." The Italian foreign minister told reporters in Amsterdam that Regeni's body would arrive tomorrow in Italy. The Italian news agency ANSA said that the body will be transported for an autopsy ordered by Rome prosecutors who are investigating his death. Egyptian authorities have already conducted an autopsy and prosecutors investigating the case said they are waiting for a full report. Meanwhile, an Italian security delegation arrived in Cairo late Friday, to follow ongoing investigations into the killing of Regeni, Egypts state news agency MENA reported. The delegation, who will stay for a few days, will also meet with a number of Egyptian officials to look into the incident. Regeni had been in Egypt since September conducting research on workers and labour rights. He also wrote several articles under a pseudonym about labour issues in Egypt for the left-wing Italian newspaper Il Manifesto. After his death, the paper ran his last piece under his name, detailing difficulties facing independent labour unions, including the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services. The centre's general coordinator, Kamal Abbas, told AP that he met with Regeni twice most recently in December to talk about unions' role in advocating worker rights. "I remember him as a very decent and very shy, bright man," Abbas said. "He was very interested in researching workers' role in the uprising." "What happened is very worrying," he said. *This story was edited by Ahram Online Search Keywords: Short link: The case goes back to 2010, when 27 people were charged with planning attacks on the Suez Canal but were released due to lack of evidence. They were referred to court in November 2013 Cairo Criminal Court reduced Saturday death sentences on eight convicted of terrorist charges to 10 years in prison in the retrial of the Suez terrorist cell case. In March 2014, the court sentenced 26 people to death and one to 15 years in prison on charges that include planning attacks on ships passing through the Suez Canal, manufacturing missiles and explosives to carry out attacks, monitoring and planning to attack security targets, and illegal possession of guns, automatic rifles, explosives and ammunition. The case goes back to 2010 when 27 people were charged with planning attacks on the Suez Canal. They were released due to lack of evidence. They were referred back to court in November 2013. Since the March 2014 verdict, six defendants appealed and two others, tried in absentia, were arrested. The verdict can be further appealed. Most of the convicted were tried in absentia, and thus given the maximum penalty for their crime the death sentence. If the rest of the defendants hand themselves in to the authorities, they can also appeal their initial death sentences. Search Keywords: Short link: Both Cairo and Alexandria will witness highs of 14 degrees Celsius and lows of 9 Temperatures are expected to decrease in Egypt on Sunday, with rain expected along the north coast and drizzle in Cairo, Egypts Meteorological Authority told state news agency MENA. Both Cairo and the coastal city of Alexandria will witness highs of 14 degrees Celsius and lows of 9 on Sunday. Sharm El-Sheikh on the Red Sea will reach highs of 20 degrees and lows of 15. Hurghada, also a touristic hotspot of the Red Sea, will witness highs of 22 degrees and lows of 14. The Mediterranean will witness very high tides, with waves ranging from 5.5 to 6 metres high, while waves in the Red Sea will be between 2.5 and 3 metres tall. The high waves could affect navigation. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's prosecutor-general imposed a gag order on Saturday that bars the media from reporting on investigations being carried out into the Dabaa nuclear power project. A legal source said that the gag order has been imposed to ensure the integrity of investigations being carried out by the public funds prosecution; details about the charges or cases the prosecution are investigating are unclear. In November, the Egyptian government signed an agreement with Russia to build Egypt's first nuclear power plant at Dabaa in Marsa Matrouh governorate. The plant, expected to be constructed at the site on the Mediterranean coast within 12 years, will consist of four nuclear power units which produce 1,200 megawatts each. Last December, a gag order was imposed, banning reporting on the project. According to the December order, nothing may be published about the Dabaa nuclear project in the Egyptian media without prior permission from security authorities or the office of the minister of electricity. The December order came shortly after a meeting between President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker to discuss latest developments regarding the project, after the latter met local officials during a visit to Russia. In 2009, the now-dissolved National Democratic Party planned to build a nuclear power plant on the Dabaa site, but the project was halted due to political turmoil. It was revived in 2013 under interim president Adly Mansour. Search Keywords: Short link: The president declared that 'we can't allow informal housing ever again' Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered on Saturday that EGP 1 billion from the Long Live Egypt Fund be assigned to build 100,000 affordable housing units. The presidents announcement came while inaugurating a number of housing and services projects in the satellite city of 6 October on the outskirts of Cairo. El-Sisi said that the current rate of building new housing projects is not enough to combat the phenomenon of informal and unregulated housing, adding that we can't allow informal housing ever again. El-Sisi also said that over the past 20 years, sewage systems were only built in 15 percent of Egyptian villages. He added that in the next two and a half years, 2,300 villages will be provided with sewage systems. Ministers have also presented a number of projects to the president, including a youth village in Sharm El-Sheikh, to increase tourism by young people to the Red Sea resort. The Long Live Egypt Fund was created by President El-Sisi in 2014 to solicit donations in support of Egypt's development. Search Keywords: Short link: In its new round of sessions scheduled for Sunday, Egypt's parliament will endorse the minutes of last month's vote to reject the controversial law Following a two-week holiday, Egypt's parliament the House of Representatives will begin grappling with a host of controversial issues on Sunday. The ongoing dispute between the government and parliament over the new civil service law (Law 18/2015) is expected to be on top of the list of Sunday's agenda. On 20 January, the parliament voted down the law, only to be asked by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to reconsider its position "as the law was a step in the direction of reforming the bureaucracy-laden administrative sector." Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdi El-Agati also told parliamentary reporters that a report detailing the reasons why MPs had rejected the law would be forwarded to the government and the president's office. Ahead of debating the law in a plenary session on 20 January, leftist MPs, led by independent Alexandrian MP Haitham El-Hariri, gathered support among MPs for a rejection of the law. El-Hariri, the son of the late leftist MP Abul-Ezz El-Hariri, affiliated with four other MPs and with the Egyptian Social Democratic Party to distribute leaflets among parliamentarians which urged them to reject the law, on the grounds that it would negatively affect the lives of millions of state employees. The credibility of this new parliament would be seriously compromised among a big sector of Egyptian society if we fail to pass the first test by approving the law, the leaflet said. El-Hariris distribution of leaflets was heavily criticised by the speaker, Ali Abdel-Aal, and the flamboyant independent MP, Mortada Mansour. The final vote on the law, however, showed that Abdel-Aal and Mansour had failed to influence MPs; 332 out of a total of 468 voted against the law. El-Hariri told Ahram Online that he fully understood President El-Sisis dissatisfaction with the law being voted down. We stand in support of reform of the civil service but this should not come at the expense of social justice and the interests of limited-income state employees, he said. The president has the right to express his views about parliamentary performance but he should not be allowed to interfere in parliamentary affairs, because this could push us back to the Mubarak-style parliaments. Ahmed Saadeddin, the head of the parliament's secretariat, told reporters on Saturday that the house should first endorse "the minutes" of its debates related to the rejection of the law on 20 January. "According to parliamentary rules, the endorsement of the minutes is a necessary step for the law to be officially declared rejected, and published as such in the official gazette," said Saadeddin, adding that "once this official rejection is referred to the president and the government, parliament will prepare a report detailing why it voted down the law on 20 January." The law, which was ratified in March 2015 by El-Sisi in the absence of a parliament, aims to reform Egypt's administrative sector in order to lessen the wage burden on state finances and encourage private investment. MPs, however, insisted that the law would create do an injustice t to the estimated 6.4 million state employees and should be amended before it is approved. According to Saadeddin, Sunday's sitting will be confined to endorsing the minutes of parliament's rejection of the civil service law, and endorsing another 342 presidential decrees that have been passed since the promulgation of a new constitution on 18 January 2014. "I expect tomorrow's sitting to be short, after which the house will adjourn to meet again two or three days later to discuss a report aimed at upgrading the house's internal by-laws and code of conduct," said Saadeddin, "indicating that in order for parliament to fully exercise its legislative and watchdog roles, its internal by-laws should be first amended to be in-line with the new constitution." Bahaeddin Abu Shukka, the secretary-general of the Wafd Party and chairman of a 25-member committee in charge of amending the by-laws, told reporters that parliament's internal regulations should be radically modified to democratise the performance of Egypt's new parliament and enhance its supervisory powers. "While the number of parliamentary committees will increase from 19 to 28, independent and party-based MPs will have a greater say in decision-making inside parliament," said Abu Shukka. Sunday's debates will also review three requests submitted to lift the parliamentary immunity of three MPs: Abdel-Rehim Ali, Mohamed Badawi Dessouqi, both representing constituencies in Giza, and Hussein Eissa, who was appointed by El-Sisi. The requests were rejected by parliament's internal steering bureau for constitutional reasons. Saadeddin said the requests were filed by a number of lawyers, asking parliament to strip the three MPs of their parliamentary immunity for different reasons. "But the requests were rejected because lawyers did not follow the correct constitutional procedures in this respect, not to mention that most the requests were based on malicious grounds," said Saadeddin. Saadeddin also indicated that the house had asked all MPs to submit statements detailing their financial wealth, ahead of being elected or appointed to committees in parliament. "The statements should also oblige MPs to specify the jobs and the professions they used to perform before joining parliament and all the assets in their possession, and whether they stopped running these assets in accordance with articles of the House of Representatives law," said Saadeddin. Search Keywords: Short link: Syria's mainstream rebels risk total collapse after a Russian-backed regime advance that severed their main supply line to Aleppo city and threatens to leave them completely besieged there. Analysts said rebels and their international backers were left with few options to prevent fresh government advances, which came as fresh peace talks backed by the United Nations fell apart. "The trajectory for the rebels is downwards, and the downward slope is increasingly steep," said Emile Hokayem, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Aleppo province was once a rebel stronghold, providing easy access to neighbouring Turkey, a key opposition backer. The city itself has been divided between rebel control in the east and government control in the west since mid-2012. But government forces have steadily chipped away at rebel-held territory around the city, and their advances this week leave the opposition there virtually surrounded. "It is a turning point in the war," said Fabrice Balanche, a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute think tank. "The opposition wanted to make Aleppo and (neighbouring) Idlib province the base of a 'free Syria'. That's over." The advance is the most significant outcome yet of the Russian intervention that began on September 30, ostensibly targeting the Islamic State group and other "terrorists". Analysts and activists say Russia's strikes have always disproportionately targeted non-Islamist militant rebels in an attempt to bolster President Bashar al-Assad's government. "Aleppo is simply the first dramatic display of how the combination of Russian air power and advisers has been able to make up for the regime's relatively low capabilities and manpower shortage," said Faysal Itani, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East. Opposition forces and some 350,000 civilians inside rebel-held Aleppo city now face the prospect of a government siege, a tactic that has been employed to devastating effect against other former rebel strongholds such as Homs. "A good deal of both (rebels and civilians) will die from bombardment, starvation and the general deprivations of siege," said Itani. "The fighters inside will be killed or forced to surrender," he added, predicting fresh waves of refugees. There was already evidence of a new unfolding humanitarian disaster, with tens of thousands of people reportedly fleeing the government advance and massing on the border with Turkey seeking entry. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict since March 2011, with half the country's population displaced internally or abroad. Activists said the opposition felt betrayed, reporting that weapon supplies from international backers had dried up in advance of the Geneva peace talks, despite stepped-up Russia military action. "What frustrates the rebels the most is that the countries that claim to be their friends are happy with empty words and sitting on the fence," said activist Maamoun al-Khatib, head of the Shabha press agency in Aleppo. "Meanwhile Russia and Iran are occupying and violating Syrian territory." Experts said the rebels had few options left. "There is not much manpower to spare as other rebel areas are also under pressure and this would not address the issue of enemy air power," said Itani. Syria's rebels have long sought anti-aircraft weaponry from international backers, but Washington has held back for fear they would end up in the hands of Islamist militans such as Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front or even the Islamic State group. Some rebels, feeling betrayed by their international backers, may now throw their lot in with jihadist groups, Hokayem warned. Syria's regime, meanwhile, bolstered by Russia and Shiite fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and elsewhere, is likely to consolidate its hold over "useful Syria" -- the densely populated west and coast of the country. "What the Russians and Assad are doing is they want to control western Syria and leave the Americans to deal with the jihadist monster in eastern Syria," where IS group is most powerful, Hokayem said. "And it's working." The rebel losses came as peace talks in Geneva collapsed, but analysts said they had always been doomed to fail. They said Russia's intervention and the latest advances had emboldened the regime to resist any concessions, and made it impossible for the opposition to negotiate. "Those who wanted to negotiate at Geneva would be accused of treachery, even more so given the results," said Balanche. The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura insisted this week that the talks had not failed, and were only on hold until a new session scheduled for February 25. Hokayem said the process was little more than "a show", but would limp on without achieving results. "The US is happy having a process and is happy hiding behind that." Search Keywords: Short link: Al Qaeda's branch in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) mourned the killing of a senior commander in southern Yemen, a statement distributed on social media showed, after he was reported dead in a suspected US drone strike last week. Jalal Baleedi was killed by a drone strike as he was travelling in a car with two others in coastal Abyan province, residents said on Thursday. He had run al Qaeda's combat operations and had a $5 million US bounty on his head. "We extend condolences to our Muslim community and specifically our people in Yemen...regarding the killing of the heroic commander Jalal Baleedi al-Marqishi...who was killed in a crusader strike that targeted him while he was among the sons of his tribe in Abyan province," the statement said. During nine months of civil war and a Gulf military intervention in Yemen, the United States has kept up drone strikes against Islamist militants groups. Search Keywords: Short link: The European Union on Saturday called on Israel to halt the demolition of Palestinian housing, some of which was EU-funded, and reiterated its opposition to expanding the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. "In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EU diplomatic service said in a statement. It referred to Israel's decision on January 25 to declare 154 hectares (380 acres) of land near Jericho in the occupied West Bank as state land, with reported plans to build around 150 new residences for settlers. This was followed by the demolition of several Palestinian residences in the south Hebron hills on Wednesday. "This is particularly concerning both because of the extent of the demolitions and also the number of vulnerable individuals affected, including children who need support," the EU said, adding that "demolitions included EU-funded structures." "We call on the Israeli authorities to reverse the decisions taken and to halt further demolitions," it said. Foreign ministers from the 28 EU nations had confirmed the EU's firm opposition to Israel's settlement policy and criticised the actions including demolitions, confiscation and forced transfers. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday he was ashamed at a lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been deadlocked since a US peace mission collapsed in April 2014. *The story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: Thousands of Syrians braved the freezing cold at Turkey's border Saturday after fleeing a regime assault that threatens a new humanitarian disaster, as Damascus warned Riyadh and Ankara not to send in troops. The government said any uninvited foreign soldiers who enter Syria would go home "in a wooden coffin", following reports that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which support rebel forces, could deploy troops. Tens of thousands of people have fled fierce fighting as government forces backed by Russian air strikes advanced this week against rebels, severing the opposition's main supply route into the northern metropolis of Aleppo. Turkey's Oncupinar border crossing, which faces Bab al-Salama inside Syria, remained closed Saturday, an AFP correspondent said. The United Nations said some 20,000 people had gathered at Bab al-Salama but the governor of Turkey's Kilis border province, Suleyman Tapsiz, said at least 70,000 may head for the frontier. Tapsiz said the displaced were being accommodated in eight camps on the Syrian side and that Turkey -- already home to between 2-2.5 million Syrians -- is also able to take care of 30-35,000 refugees inside Syria. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country would keep its "open border policy" for Syrian refugees. "We still keep this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression, from the regime as well as air strikes of Russia," he said. "We have received already 5,000 of them; another 50,000 to 55,000 are on their way and we cannot leave them there." According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 40,000 Syrian civilians have fled the regime offensive. "Thousands have been sleeping in the open, in fields and on roads," on the border and in the nearby Syrian city of Azaz, said Mamun al-Khatib, director of the Aleppo-based pro-rebel Shahba Press news agency. "And because the main rebel supply route between Aleppo and Turkey has been cut, the price of oil, foodstuffs and baby milk has shot up in the north of Aleppo province," he added. The Observatory said 435 people have been killed since the regime offensive began on Monday, including 71 civilians, most of whom had died in Russian air strikes. Also killed were 124 regime forces, 90 jihadists from Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front and 150 other rebels, it said. Riyadh on Thursday said it would "contribute positively" if the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria decides on ground action. Russia, key ally of the Damascus government, accused Turkey of "preparations for an armed invasion" of Syria, a claim that Ankara dismissed. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem issued a stiff warning against any such move. "Any ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorisation would amount to an aggression that must be resisted," he said. "Let no one think they can attack Syria or violate its sovereignty because I assure you any aggressor will return to their country in a wooden coffin, whether they be Saudis or Turks," he added. Muallem also warned that fighting could only end "if IS, Al-Nusra and (other) Al-Qaeda-linked groups are defeated". The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards of Iran, another key Syrian regime ally, mockingly said Saudi Arabia wouldn't dare send in ground forces. "I don't think they would dare do that... If they do, they will inflict a coup de grace on themselves," said Major General Ali Jafari said. Turkey last faced such an influx in 2014 when 200,000 refugees fled the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane over three days as IS and Kurdish fighters battled to control it. Trucks were seen on Friday carrying tent parts to the refugee camp near the border gate on the Turkish side, and at least four more were seen returning to Turkey after delivering food in Syria. A Red Cross spokesman told AFP that efforts were under way to deliver aid to northern Aleppo but warned that "access is difficult". Aleppo city, Syria's former economic powerhouse, has been divided between opposition control in the east and regime control in the west since mid-2012. Syria's army has recaptured several key rebel towns in Latakia province and advanced in Aleppo and Daraa since Russia began air strikes on September 30 in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Western nations have accused Damascus of sabotaging UN-backed peace talks that collapsed this week with its military offensive, and Washington has demanded Moscow halt its air war. On Saturday, the powerful Ahrar al-Sham rebel group said it was pulling out of the Geneva talks in protest at the regime's Aleppo offensive. Top diplomats from countries trying to resolve the conflict are set to meet again next week after UN envoy Staffan de Mistura suspended the floundering Geneva negotiations until February 25. More than 260,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced. Search Keywords: Short link: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday lashed out at the "appalling" conditions for children in two migrant camps that have sprung up around the northern French port of Calais. UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said the agency was deeply worried, especially for children who were living there alone or had become separated from their families. Conditions in the camps are "appalling" and "very unsanitary," Spindler said. "Children are very vulnerable to any exploitation. We know that people smugglers are present in these sites," he said. Nearly 4,000 migrants live in a makeshift camp dubbed "The Jungle" on the outskirts of Calais, hoping to smuggle themselves across to Britain on trains or lorries. Almost 2,000 others live in a second squalid camp, the Grande-Synthe, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) away. The French authorities are providing lodging for particularly vulnerable migrants and setting up containers in "The Jungle" able to house 1,500 people. Shelters are also being built, to international standards, at the Grande-Synthe site. The UNHCR said it "would welcome" the creation of additional reception places for children, and called on authorities to urgently look at ways of beefing up protection, "particularly for those children with relatives in another EU state." Search Keywords: Short link: Suspected Boko Haram Islamists have killed four people following raids on villages in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state, a local official and residents said on Saturday. The motorcycle-riding Islamists late Friday raided two communities, setting homes ablaze, and killing three women and a man in the village of Mairi, they said. The raids came barely a week after the attack on the village of Dalori, just outside Maiduguri, capital of the restive state, which left at least 85 people dead. The senator representing the area, Babakaka Garbai, confirmed the killings. "They killed four persons... and burnt all the houses," he said during a condolence visit to the two affected communities. One Mairi resident, Baana Bukar, said the attackers rode into the community "and started shooting sporadically." Residents were "taken unawares as many people were relaxing after the late night Muslim prayers," he said. "We took to our heels to escape the attack. When we returned in the morning we discovered four persons died," he said. The women died when their homes were set on fire, "but the man was shot dead with a gun," he added. Ahmed Tijjani, a senior local vigilante, said in the second raided village of Malari "the people had escaped after hearing gun shots before their arrival." The attackers also set ablaze all private and public buildings in Malari, he added. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had in December claimed that Nigeria had largely won the fight against Boko Haram. Boko Haram which seeks a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed some 17,000 people and forced more than 2.6 million others to flee their homes since the start of its insurgency in 2009. Search Keywords: Short link: This year's festival ran between 30 January and 5 February with the participation of 50 films in the festival's official competition and sub-sections The closing ceremony of the 4th Luxor Egyptian and European Film Festival took place yesterday, 5 February. Winners in the feature film competition were announced by jury president, cinematographer Ramsis Marzouq. Moroccan director Said Khallaf received the Gold DJED Pillar for his film 'A Mile.' The Silver DJED Pillar, which is the special jury award, went to Italian director Adriano Valero for his film 'The Journey.' The Bronze DJED Pillar award, which goes to a director for his first work, was awarded to Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid for her film 'As I Open My Eyes.' The film also received the best long feature film award, which is presented by the Artists Syndicate in Egypt and the General Union of Arab Artists. Director Mohamed Abdelaziz proceeded to announce the winners of the short films competition. 'Ghasra,' by Tunisian director Gamal Al-Naggar, received the golden award. 'A Grimace,' by Italian director Emmauelle Palmara received the bronze award. The jury also gave out a certificate of appreciation to 'Black and White' by Greek director Socrates Alafouzos. In the Arab films competition, 'With Thy Spirit' by Lebanese director Karim Rahbani won the best short film award. A special certificate of appreciation went to the short films 'Ave Maria' by Palestinian director Basil Khalil, and 'Ghasra' by Tunisian director Gamil Al-Naggar. This years edition opened 30 January and saw the participation of 50 films from 30 countries in the official competition as well as the festivals various sub-sections. An array of filmmakers and artists were honoured at this years edition, including Lobna Abdel Aziz, who was chosen as the honourary president of the festival and who expressed her happiness at the festival's opening ceremony, saying Im especially happy because Luxor is the mother of Egypt, and I consider it to be my home, country and land. Egyptian actress Poussy was also honoured for lifetime achievement, in addition to Mahmoud Hemida, Dalia Elbehiry, Salwa Khattab, Naglaa Badr, and Nada Basiouny, who were all honoured for their work. This years edition also celebrated the cinemas of Kuwait and Italy. Kuwaiti director Amer Al-Zuhair was honoured for his film career, which comprises an array of important documentary films and TV drama series. Helmy Halim (1916-1971) and Elias Moadab (1916-1952), two Egyptian filmmakers who belong to the golden age of Egyptian cinema, were also commemorated during the festival's 4th edition. This years opening film was the Palestinian 3000 Nights by director Mai Masri. The film centres on a young newly-wed Palestinian school teacher who is jailed in a high-security Israeli prison where she eventually gives birth. 3000 Nights premiered in September 2015 at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The Luxor Egyptian and European Film Festival is supported by the ministries of culture and tourism, the European Union, the Arab Maritime Academy, and the Film Mehan Syndicate, under the supervision of the Noon Foundation for Culture and Arts (NOONCA) whose board of trustees includes the foundation's president, Mohamed Kamal El-Qaliouby, famed Egyptian director Daoud Abd El-Sayed, film critic Youssef Sherif Rizkallah, critics Magda Wassef and Magda Moris, journalist Gamal Zayda (who is also the foundation's secretary general) and cinematographer Wadid Shoukry. An annual event since its first edition in 2012, the festival started with the intention of promoting Egyptian and European cultural cooperation, in addition to reaching out to and including remote areas of Egypt in the cultural sphere mostly dominated by Cairo and 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: The Egyptian independent puppet theatre troupe Kayan Marionette are in New Delhi to participate in the 14th Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival. This year's round opened 5 February and runs until 14 February, with troupes from India, Iran, the US, Afghanistan, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland also scheduled to deliver puppet theatre performances. Kamilya Sobhy, head of foreign cultural relations at Egypt's Ministry of Culture, said that Kayans participation came in response to an invitation the ministry received from the Ishara festival, in the context of cultural exchange between the two countries. At the festival, Kayan Marionette will present a puppet theatre performance titled Khayalat (Imaginations), directed by Mohamed Fawzy with the participation of artists Sayed Rostom, Mohamed Shabrawy, Ahmed Yehia and Mohamed Mabrouk. According to the festival's official website, the Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival "is the most popular festival of puppetry in India, bringing puppeteers, artists and performers from all corners of the world together to celebrate storytelling through the puppetry arts." 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: Egypt's antiquities ministry denies that the rectangular leg statue of god Amun-Re at Karnak Temple has been restored recently, saying an image circulating showing it with cement legs is 50 years old Social media and Twitter users have been making jokes about a limestone statue of god Amun-Re in Karnak Temple on Luxors east bank. The statue was shown with cement legs. Mostafa Waziri, director of Luxor's antiquities, told Ahram Online that the photo of the statue, while real, was from when the statue was restored more than 50 years ago, when using cement in restoration was not prohibited. Waziri told Ahram Online that the antiquities ministry is now only using safe materials in restoration that never negatively affects monuments. Waziri asserted that the statue was unearthed inside the temple by a French mission more than a 50 years ago and was restored at that time. Abdel Naser Ahmed, director of restoration at Karnak Temple, said that three years ago some of the black cement used in the original restored cracked, and that the ministry in collaboration with a French mission filled the cracks, in order to protect the statue. Search Keywords: Short link: An Asian American will appear on a U.S. coin for the first time next Monday. Featuring the first Chinese American Hollywood star Anna May Wong, the quarters are part of a program to highlight the countrys famous women. Wong was born into a Chinese immigrant family in Los Angeles in 1905. Her career included radio, silent film and television, and the often stereotypical characters she played in the 1930s gained her fame and criticism. The star died at home in Santa Monica at 56 in 1961 Oct 20, 2022 08:33 PM Lorne Thomson/RedfernsYou won't miss the misery of your children refusing to go to sleep when you play them Lullaby Versions of Halestorm, the latest edition of baby-proofed rock songs from Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star. Lullaby Versions of Halestorm features soothing, tinkly instrumentals of eight Halestorm songs, including "Apocalyptic," "Love Bites (So Do I)" and "I Miss the Misery," the latter of which you can listen to now on YouTube. Halestorm will be playing the original, much louder versions of their songs on a North American headlining tour this spring, which begins April 1 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Lullaby Versions of Halestorm is available now on iTunes. Here is the track list: "Amen" "I Get Off" "I Miss the Misery" "Apocalyptic" "Heres to Us" "Mz. Hyde" "Love Bites (So Do I)" "Freak Like Me" Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. A hanok village in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province is expected to hit the 5-million mark in terms of its annual number of visitors this year. The soaring popularity of the cluster of over 700 traditional Korean homes is also helping to revitalize the neighboring area, which is rich in historical assets from the Chosun period including Confucian shrines and ancient buildings. When it was first developed as a tourist site in 2002, the village received just 310,000 visitors. But the figure has since grown from 1 million in 2006 to 4.93 million last year. It is expected to surpass 5.1 million this year. Missing man found dead on mountain From:Shanghai Daily | 2016-02-06 02:10 A Shanghai student who went missing last month during a trip to Huashan Mountain in Shaanxi Province has been found dead, a relative told Shanghai Daily yesterday. Zhu Xianfengs body was found on a hillside about 150 meters beneath a place known as Yingzui Peak, where he was spotted by a surveillance camera at 2:49pm on January 25, said Zhus elder cousin Wang Wei. He added: Police told us he might have fallen from the peak to his death. Local police confirmed Zhus death but refused to give more details. Wang said Zhus body was found by five local residents around 2pm on February 3, several hours after the family hired them to launch a search. The 24-year-old student at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics traveled alone to Xian, capital of Shaanxi, on January 20 and had booked a flight back to Shanghai for January 25. But when he failed to arrive home, his relatives became worried and called the police on January 27. The family assembled a team of about 200 people to look for him, but the search effort was halted by heavy snow three days later. Wang said staff at the scenic spot advised the family to resume the search in April after the snow melts, but they decided to hire five locals to find him on February 3. The three accused filed a petition challenging their 12-day custody and said they were being subjected to third-degree torture. #stocks-summary Seoul shares down for 2nd day on rate hike woes South Korean stocks retreated for a second straight session Thursday, as investor sentiment worsened on concerns about aggressive rate hikes. The Korean won fell against the U.S. d... Until late 2019 "Envoy in The Med" has been about our experiences cruising the Med aboard our Nordhavn 46, "Envoy". Our intention was to share experiences and impressions, not to be a diarised account or a travelogue. There is a heavy practical and technical content. Since then our focus has been on cruising in general and aboard our Salthouse 52 "Rapport" based in Auckland. 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. Cai Xiyou gestures before attending an investor presentation for the global offering in Hong Kong May 6, 2013. REUTERS/Bobby Yip BEIJING (Reuters) - Cai Xiyou, president of Sinochem Group, the Chinese energy and chemicals conglomerates, has been put under investigation for serious discipline violations, China's main anti-corruption agency said on Saturday, using the usual euphemism for graft. The ruling Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) published a one-line statement on its website on Saturday, providing no other details about Cai's suspected wrongdoing. Cai, a 30-year oil industry veteran, was named to lead Sinochem in 2014, after a long career at China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) where he was previously a Communist Party committee member, senior vice president, and Sinopec Corp's general consul. In October, Cai also was named chairman and non-exeuctive director of Hong Kong-listed China Jinmao Holdings Group Limited , a Sinochem Group real estate subsidiary. Sinochem Group, formerly China's monopoly oil trader until 1993, has diversified businesses in oil refining, chemicals trading, oil and gas explorations and real estate development. Cai is the latest state-owned enteprise executive to be caught in ruling the Communist Party's investigations into corruption. In December, CCDI said it was investigating the chairman of state-run China Telecom Corp Ltd was under investigation for alleged disciplinary violations. He later resigned. (Reporting by Matthew Miller; Editing by Andrew Heavens)